Siu Lun

I was working on a proposal today, thinking about web 2.0, social networking, collaboration everything that’s coming out of the internet the past few years. It suddenly dawned upon me that all these efficiencies improvement, particularly on the internet, people connecting with other people.

It all seems very familiar.

My other half watches a lot of David Attenborough, with her born in the year of the tiger. It is ‘inevitable’ that I too had to watch what she watches as I’m a mere ox. What dawned upon me was episodic memories of David talking about ants. How ants work by touching their antennas using chemical signals, and all but the one that produces them, have to collaborate and work.

Putting that into the context of our world. The queen ant, would be our society. Whomever controls our society, controls the subjects below (to a degree), and we, as people who do not control the society, we collaborate, we network, we share. In order to better ourselves, better equip ourselves, forming ‘groups’ to become stronger, sharing information to make us wiser, smarter.

I have had this ugly image in my head as I thought to this point of a hive. A swarm of bees, ants, those weird creatures in those sci-fi movies.

I’m not complaining, for I’m in the benefit of such a system. What I’m afraid of I suppose, is our lost of ‘emotions’, ‘characteristics’ and we may even lose our unpredictability one day, when everyone knows what you are, how you think.

Of course, taking a look at the world now. There is no chance that would happen. Though I guess “Tech” people be warned, I think we’re the most likely bunch to convert first.

WARNING to all entrepreneurs and small business owners and in general, the people of Hong Kong who needs broadband and phone services.

Do not EVER get broadband or phone line from PCCW.

They’re an evil company that is out to only cheat you out of as much money as possible.

Story:
I’m closing down my office after a few months of operations as I’m joining a multi-national company. I phoned to ask for my contract to be terminated.

THEN they informed me that those ‘free gifts’ they give out they’ll charge me for it.

There is a whole lot of wrongs with that.

1) I’ve never signed anything to agree to that term.
2) Their terms specifically states that any ‘outstanding’ free gifts would be forfeited in case of early termination. But does not mention you have to pay for any free gifts already sent.
3) One of the free gift they’ve given to me was due to the fact that they’ve messed up my plans and my installation date had to be rearranged so I had no business broadband in the office (which is critical to the running of my company) at a later date.

Now they want me to pay for it? I feel utterly cheated and it is absolutely wrong to force free gifts to others but then charge for it later. Reminds me of some those ‘beauty centre’ scam that was on the news a few months ago.

I’ve got no issues with paying for the rest of the contract to terminate (though I’m very unhappy with that as it is) but they charge ‘on-top’ of that for early termination? WTF. How much free money are they getting with people doing that?

I will _NEVER_ use PCCW or netvigator again. They’re dishonest, untrustworthy and overall crooked.

I’ve been quiet lately. Life is revolving, I even had a job offer from a Hong Kong based web 2.0 startup, but as usual for the past 6 months, I’ve had a lot of opportunities which I’ve missed. Well, what can you do. When you’re a 1-man-band trying to create something big.

At the moment I’m creating a CMS/framework/development platform for my company. Once that is done, I will be more ready to move to the next stage. This platform is currently in its 7th official day of development. I do wonder what I have been doing during the past 6 months.

If I calculate it. 3 months was used to get myself and the company on the ground. 1 month was taken up as a tour guide/slacking/holiday month. That leaves me an actual running time of 2 months. I ashamedly have to say, I haven’t been doing much though in terms of progress. All I’ve been doing is some server migration, development environment setup, and R&D on Python and Django.

Well, I’m happy to say I’m back on the ball. It was a tough few months the last few months. I started questioning what I am doing. I started doubting my abilities. I started doubting whether I would succeed in my vision. But I come to realise my passion for the web is still there. My abilities will only grow stronger. And most importantly, success will only come if I put my head down and charge.

I regret that I have somewhat wasted my own time the past few months, but this experience is a step towards maturing and a step towards becoming a good businessman / entreprenuer and developer.

More updates soon. Later.