Pros and Cons of Working for a Technology based Small Business

Michael made a post on his blog recently about pros and cons of working for a small business.

I am not sure about other industries, but for the IT industry, I personally think it boils down to what you intend to achieve with your career and your appetite for risks. A job acts as a spring board and transition phase to your future plans. Its always good to start a little career planning early and adapting as and when the opportunities arises ... especially if you are still below the age of 30.

A mistake many people make when deciding on this question is that they see it as a final choice, instead of a just a transition. A good counter question to ask is 'Do the pros or cons matter as long as it lets you get to your goals faster?'.

Tackling a Technology problem

During the recent D5 conference where Bill Gates and Steve Job were interviewed, this came up.

I think in terms of intuitive taste, both for people and products, you know, we sat in Mac product reviews where there were questions about software choices, how things would be done that I viewed as an engineering question, you know, and that’s just how my mind works. And I’d see Steve make the decision based on a sense of people and product that, you know, is even hard for me to explain. The way he does things is just different and, you know, I think it’s magical. And in that case, wow.

- Bill Gates

This reminded me of a Ted Talk by David Pogue I had seen some time back. As I am working late tonight using office 2007, it struck me how Microsoft has tackled technology problems once again. Anyone using the office 2007 will be familiar with the Ribbon toolbar.

It is seriously an amazing engineering feat and attempt to manage complexity.... Is this the best possible solution? Technology problems is always best solved with a people aspect in it, after all technology is created for people and technology problems are caused by them too. And as per the title's of David's Talk, "Simplicity Sells". Guess he forgot to mention the punchline, "except to engineers".....

Understanding an individual, technology takes a leap

For technology, there is always a point when its utility value takes a huge upturn. Like for the Internet, it was the intervention of WWW, for mobile devices, it was when your local Telco providers started providing affordable prices and plans. Just seen an article in New York Times.

JAMES D. WATS ON, who helped crack the DNA code half a century ago, last week became the first person handed the full text of his own DNA on a small computer disk. But he won’t be the last.

Having such information about our DNA at an affordable cost will signal a new era on how medical treatment and services will work. General practitioners role in medical treatment will evolve to studying an individual's DNA and understanding what specific hybrid of medication works best. The demand for technology that provides manageable access to this wealth of data will skyrocket and whole industries will be spun round using/abusing this data.

But until then, this milestone in genetic studies, will be as how Amy Harmon reported it

Until then, even Dr. Watson, who posted his genome on the Internet last week, has to wait. At a ceremony marking the occasion, he stared at the disk containing his genome for a few seconds, then stuck it in his pocket.

Reactee, be your own walking advertisment

Just saw this on TechCrunch about Reactee.

Reactee allows users to create t-shirts that include a personalized message such “Stop Global Whaling” or “Andrew Keen is a Luddite” that is then complimented by a unique keyword such as SUSHI or MORON on the shirt. People who see the shirt can then respond to it by sending the keyword via SMS to 41411. In return senders receive a custom text message response created by the T-Shirt creator.

Interesting idea, and I would say that theres a good market for this in Singapore. You know about the annoying flyers that chug the dustbins and litter the floor as you walk around the crowded city places? Well I would certainly think that this will go along way to helping clear them up.

Business will also benefit greatly from this. That day as I was walking out of the MRT (Singapore's Subway) entrance, a girl stuffed a whole set of broaches into my face..... well first off any business that employs such aggressive tactics to get my attention will get a thumbs down from me.... secondly, haha guess what? They were for doing nails pedicure ..... surely I am not in their target market. Guess this is a case of part time job holder trying to get rid of their allocated flyers to dispatch.

With a service like Reactee, we can get rid of the huge waste on paper and have that information actually be stored electronically on a personal device of an individual who is seriously interested. I am no marketing guru, but certainly this will be a better marketing case in my opinion.

Having said that, anyone interested in such a service for SG? We have an SMS server sitting in our office and we can certainly whip something up like this if theres a demand for it :P

Technology.... works best standing on the shoulders of giants

I have recently taken onto listening to podcasts from educators corner as I transit to and from office. The session by Shai Agassi hit many notes that I felt was very true with respect to technology. These podcasts are a definite must listen for anyone who intends to do something in technology with business.

Programming... what is it?

Having read a recent BBC news article about scratch I cannot help but take a step back and look at what the term programming actually means.

These days with 4GL programming languages, tools like workflow(WF), languages like ruby etc, how do you actually define the job title of a programmer? What are the skills that a good or decent programmer should have?

Computer programming has been traditionally seen as something that is beyond most people - it's only for a special group with technical expertise and experience -Professor Mitchel Resnick

Heres my take on what are the basic technical expertise required (not in any order of importance):

• Structured thinking and knowledge of data structures/design patterns
  
• Understanding of different programming paradigms (i.e. OO, functional, structured etc)
• Problem analysis
  
• Ability to read code and documentation

Its actually amazing to see how some job seekers (role of senior programmer) that I have interviewed lack the above mentioned skills while continuously proclaiming their skills and proficiency in C# or html.....

HP Compaq 2710P ultralight Tablet PC

My current work machine is a HP tc4400 machine. Personally, besides for a few software issues I faced using it, I think its a great machine in terms of the feel, casing and mobility it offers. Used to work on a Toshiba Portege M400 Machine and all I have to say is that HP's tablet designs are much better.(Yes rounded edges do matter when u are someone who uses it on the move)

Naturally, when I saw HP's new model review on Engadget, I paused to take a closer look.

Performance specs aside (Hey if I wanted performance instead of portability I will be looking at a laptop anyway), I think this model is really cool. The imprints are just the little bit that makes it cooler and at 3.6 pounds (about 1.65kg) This is a device that I would actually enjoy carrying around and work/read on as I transit around in Singapore, accessing the internet via one of the new broadband plans.

New live hotmail

Been using it since beta..... Actually my only complain about it is that 1/4 of the screen's top real estate is taken up by an ad.... anyone whos using Hotmail will know what I mean.

But besides for that, I would say its really a good effort by Hotmail to be relevant again..... while theres definitely no serious motivation for someone to drop Gmail for it (Esp. with the grease monkey firefox plugin for Gmail aka better Gmail), its features will definitely be something existing users will find useful.