May 2012
1 post
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Happy Mother's Day, MOM. You are my STRENGTH.
Someone recently asked me if I became an entrepreneur because my parents were entrepreneurs themselves? Were they the source of my determination because they nurtured me to be an entrepreneur from young? It’s pretty shocking to tell people my parents never had the chance to go to school. They grew up in a time when Singapore was still a third world country and don’t even have easy...
July 2011
1 post
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10 Best Usability Takeaways from Don't Make Me...
As a web developer, I can easily write code and whip up new features. But are they usable? Would my users understand how to use them? I’ve built features that none of my users like or use and I have to painfully demolish my code to remove them! Yes, I have separation issues! I’ve been coding less now and reading more about design and usability. I’ve come to realize that I can...
May 2011
1 post
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View of an Overseas Voter - Singapore is no...
In less than 24 hours, I’ll be casting my first vote. I’ll be voting to elect the future leaders of Singapore in the Singapore election 2011. I’ve never voted in any election. It’s a sad fact that many of my American friends find it hard to believe. Being an overseas Singaporean, I’m not allowed to vote until recently. I’m glad to see the change, but it took 12...
December 2010
2 posts
Rebecca's Blog: Why Engineers Make the Best... →
rebeccalynnmvp:
Engineers make the best marketers because, contrary to conventional wisdom, marketing is not a “soft science.” As a VC, I’ve done due diligence on hundreds of startups and am most impressed with those that run their marketing departments like engineering shops.
Taking an engineering…
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10 Facts About Hunger in America
(Source: Love With Food)
October 2010
1 post
1 tag
Celebrating 35 Years as a Free Woman
I recently turned 35. It’s probably safe to say I’ve reached my mid-life. Given how much I love fried chicken, living past 70 would be a bonus :) Why a free woman? Because not every woman in this world is free to live their lives. Everyday I’m thankful that I don’t have to hide behind a burqa, I can drive, I can work and I can fall in love. Simple pleasures that enrich our...
August 2010
1 post
1 tag
Tax Datelines for a Corporation
Part of bootstrapping a startup is to learn every aspect of running a business, from paying taxes to SEO, from social media to server setup! In a nutshell, do it all yourself! One of the most confusing things is paying taxes and there are so many datelines. It’s SO important not to miss a dateline because IRS is seizing every moment to fine you a penalty. These are important datelines for...
July 2010
1 post
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Rails has_and_belongs_to_many VS has_many :through
It’s really easy to setup a many-to-many relationships in Rails. There are 2 ways of doing this: 1) has_and_belongs_to_many association 2) has_many :through
I’m not going to touch on the details of each because there’s great documentation provided in the above links. However, I do want to point out the flaws and limitations of has_and_belongs_to_many association. Like in this...
June 2010
3 posts
1 tag
State of the Online Porn Industry!
Here are some interesting stats on the online porn industry, shared by the folks at OnlineMBA.com. The industry is worth $5 BILLION and surprising enough, UTAH leads the WAY!
Via: Online MBA
1 tag
“Life is full of adventure,
it’s just not a bed of roses!”
– ~ aihui
3 tags
Ruby Version Manager - Project Pledge of the Month
Soon-to-be released Rails 3.0 only works on Ruby 1.8.7 and above. Can’t wait but I still have other projects on Ruby 1.8.6. How can I install 2 or more versions of ruby on one machine? No biggy, Ruby Version Manager (RVM) is here to the rescue. With RVM installed, I’m now allowed to install multiple ruby environments with it’s own sets of gems. Life prior to RVM, I used to create...
May 2010
1 post
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Ruby Array vs Trie - Which Performed Better?
Recently I took a Ruby class, taught by Sarah Allen and one of the most fun things I learned was profiling. Performance testing is such a crucial part of software development. Prior to Sarah’s class, the most common way to store and retrieve data is via an array. For example in a dictionary example, I would normally do this:
To add a word to a dictionary def add(word) @words...
March 2010
4 posts
2 tags
Google Voice, I'm Officially Breaking Up with You
I was thrilled to get a special invite to get a google voice number. I was really looking forward to this because with google voice, you are able to keep the same number even when you switch phone carriers. Also, I don’t have to give out my real cell number to marketers and spammers. After 3 months of experimenting with Google Voice, I’m seriously not impressed at all. In fact,...
2 tags
Google Analytics and Rails in 3 Steps and Less...
Installing Google Analytics into a Ruby on Rails app is pretty straight forward, however, the key is to only execute the analytics script in PRODUCTION environment. Without doing this, you’ll end up counting page views and visits on all your environments, e.g. development and test. Step (1) Go to Google Analytics to create an account and get the tracking script. After creating an account,...
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Why do Women Always get Short Changed?
Today I read about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Her bravery to share her story and courage to stand up for justice is making history, especially for women. For 20 years, Lilly Ledbetter made 40 percent less than her male counterparts at Goodyear Tire. She sued Goodyear for unfair labor, won $3 million in damages but U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision. You can read more about her story...
February 2010
10 posts
2 tags
Why I Support Startup Visa
I live in Silicon Valley and I’m an immigrant. My journey to the U.S. began 11 years ago. Unlike my other immigrant friends, I didn’t have to depend on H1B visa. It took 4.5 years of endless paper work, finger prints, immunizations and a lot of patience to finally get my greencard. In that 4.5 years, I had to reapply because immigration lost my case file, and I wasn’t allowed to...
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I Love to Eat
Wherever you go, wherever you are, food is the common denominator between religion, races and cultures, it’s the one thing we all share in common. Food brings joy to people, regardless of nationality. I have an adventurous palette and that’s why I love the Bay Area. Pick a country, I’m darn sure you can find a restaurant serving that country’s cuisine. My friends all...
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Enterprise vs Consumer Web
I spent the first 8 years of my career in enterprise software, mainly in finance and payroll systems. The extensive travel was adventurous, but it was also highly stressful. Being accountable for every penny that goes from the system to pay checks, banks and irs, it’s definitely THE way to die young of a heart attack. 3 years ago, I said goodbye to the enterprise world and ventured into...
1 tag
What's in a name?
Coming up with a company name can be an exasperating experience. Firstly, creating a name that is short and hip that reflects the nature of the business isn’t easy. Then it has to pass the crucial test of getting the domain name!
So, I came up with this Naming Test. If a name can go through all the following stages, it should be good to go :)
1) Name should be short, hip, easy to spell...
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Women...
“Whatever you give a woman, she will make it greater.
If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.
So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.”
~unknown
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“We make a living by what we earn,
we make a life by what we give.”
– ~ Winston Churchill
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Posterous, Wordpress, Weebly, Tumblr. The winner...
My criteria for a blogging tool is pretty straight forward:
1) I don’t want to host it on my own server
2) I need to have some control over the template, html, css
3) I don’t mind paying some sort of fee for flexibility
Posterous - I heard lots of good things about posterous.com and decided to give it a try. To my disappointment, there were only 5 templates to choose from.
...
2 tags
Barbie an Engineer?!? →
Barbie with a laptop to attract more girls to science. high-tech industries? Seriously?!?
As an engineer, I’ve never had a pink laptop, never worn pink glasses or pink head band! Someone gave me a barbie when I was 6, I cut her hair real short and chopped off her long princess gown! In the end, my barbie looks more like Tina Turner!
I had coffee with a friend and she complained how much...
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Hello World
New year, new blog. My notes, ramblings and thoughts were all scattered among my laptop, desktop, iphone and scribblings on notebook. It’s rather disorganized.
It’s time to be organized, and pen all my thoughts here. New year, new resolution!