An inspiration from Facebook...
Create a widget that shows your love! Whether it's sports, fashion, or anything else. The important thing is to limit space, and use it more as a self-expression. For example, a person who loves A&F can just display a fancy A&F logo, or some recognizable A&F merchandise.
business opportunity? Advertisement: Merchandisers can provide coupons or discounts through the particular widget. If they complete the purchase through the widget, then the coupon/discount is redeemed. Also, if others wants to use the discount, they need to install the widget for a few days and then use it.
problems: typical egg/chicken problem: merchandisers want users, and users want merchandisers. a good way is to create the widget without advertisement first. Attract enough users to join the network. Even without advertisements, the user data can be used as a marketing/data mining tools. Then once there is user base, merchandisers will be interested in tapping into the potential pool
2007-07-31
2007-07-25
Fooooood
ひつまぶし, you are now No. 2 on my best food list...
Spent the weekend in Nagoya. We basically just went around trying to find the best food there (or maybe that's all I remembered)
Saturday was Miso Katsu at Yaba-ton. Miso-based fried pork originates from Nagoya, and the taste is great: strong flavors but not in an overwhelming manner. There are also spices and sesames that you can put on the pork. They change the miso flavor to the supporting taste to bring out the different taste...
Sunday was hitsumabushi at Hourai-ken. Hitsumabushi is a type of unagi(eel) rice, but what's unique about it is that it has 3 ways to taste it: by the usual way (unagi with sauce), with green onion, wasabi, and nori (dried seaweed), and then mixed with tea. It is, honestly, the 2nd best thing I have ever had (previous ranking: 1. あぶりトロ 2. Porterhouse steak). It's hard to describe how the different tastes are... the first one brings out the unagi taste, the second one brings out the rice taste, and the 3rd one just mesh everything together...... if you are in Nagoya, you NEED to try hitsumabushi.
みそかつ
ひつまぶし
Spent the weekend in Nagoya. We basically just went around trying to find the best food there (or maybe that's all I remembered)
Saturday was Miso Katsu at Yaba-ton. Miso-based fried pork originates from Nagoya, and the taste is great: strong flavors but not in an overwhelming manner. There are also spices and sesames that you can put on the pork. They change the miso flavor to the supporting taste to bring out the different taste...
Sunday was hitsumabushi at Hourai-ken. Hitsumabushi is a type of unagi(eel) rice, but what's unique about it is that it has 3 ways to taste it: by the usual way (unagi with sauce), with green onion, wasabi, and nori (dried seaweed), and then mixed with tea. It is, honestly, the 2nd best thing I have ever had (previous ranking: 1. あぶりトロ 2. Porterhouse steak). It's hard to describe how the different tastes are... the first one brings out the unagi taste, the second one brings out the rice taste, and the 3rd one just mesh everything together...... if you are in Nagoya, you NEED to try hitsumabushi.
みそかつ
ひつまぶし
2007-07-19
IT Trends
Came across a good website/blog yesterday:
digital wall
It's a Taiwanese IT enthusiast commenting on various aspects of IT business. I particularly like the ones where he defines the characteristics of Web 2.0. His concepts are very clear and insightful. I believe he also has some of his articles in English.
digital wall
It's a Taiwanese IT enthusiast commenting on various aspects of IT business. I particularly like the ones where he defines the characteristics of Web 2.0. His concepts are very clear and insightful. I believe he also has some of his articles in English.
2007-07-17
What a weekend
If every long weekend in Japan is as eventful as last weekend, then I am definitely going to reconsider working here...
The weekend started with Typhoon No. 4, the first one to hit Japan this summer. It wrecked havoc in Okinawa and Kyushuu areas on Friday and Saturday. It was supposed to have the strongest influence on Tokyo by Sunday, so I didn't plan anything on Sunday, just was going to sit at home and watch tv. What happened was that most of the rainfall was over by Saturday night, and there was just gushes of strong wind on Sunday. Some of the JR lines were closed though, so I still couldn't get anywhere even if I wanted to.
Then of course on Monday morning, the earthquake hit Japan. I was sound asleep at the time, but I think I would have feel it if I was slightly conscious. Tokyo wasn't affected at all. We ended up going to Ikebukuro to do some shopping and arcade gaming. The final measurement was 6.8 I think. What caught my attention was that the nuclear plant nearby had to shut down and release some slightly irradiated water into ocean, and the magnitude of this earthquake is 2.5 times more than its designed resistance. It may look like the nuclear power plant is way under-designed, but since Richter's scale is exponential, 2.5 multiple is about 0.4 on Richter's scale. that means the plant should have a designed resistance of around 6.5. That isn't that bad. It's all about perspectives.
The weekend started with Typhoon No. 4, the first one to hit Japan this summer. It wrecked havoc in Okinawa and Kyushuu areas on Friday and Saturday. It was supposed to have the strongest influence on Tokyo by Sunday, so I didn't plan anything on Sunday, just was going to sit at home and watch tv. What happened was that most of the rainfall was over by Saturday night, and there was just gushes of strong wind on Sunday. Some of the JR lines were closed though, so I still couldn't get anywhere even if I wanted to.
Then of course on Monday morning, the earthquake hit Japan. I was sound asleep at the time, but I think I would have feel it if I was slightly conscious. Tokyo wasn't affected at all. We ended up going to Ikebukuro to do some shopping and arcade gaming. The final measurement was 6.8 I think. What caught my attention was that the nuclear plant nearby had to shut down and release some slightly irradiated water into ocean, and the magnitude of this earthquake is 2.5 times more than its designed resistance. It may look like the nuclear power plant is way under-designed, but since Richter's scale is exponential, 2.5 multiple is about 0.4 on Richter's scale. that means the plant should have a designed resistance of around 6.5. That isn't that bad. It's all about perspectives.
2007-07-09
2007-07-05
Steroids
For those who don't know, I recently started to take steroids to build up my muscle mass for the 2008 Mr. Olympics competition....
Of course that's a lie, but I actually received my first steroid yesterday...
for my eye infection. Turned out my first trip to a Japanese clinic was for eye infection... I had no idea where I got it. All I know is that when I woke up Tuesday, I suddenly realized that I couldn't open up my left eye.... coz it's been glued shut with tons of eye boogers = =. It wasn't only a little red then, so I thought I ate too much fried stuff or whatever, but by the afternoon it's bloodshot. I went to an eye clinic last night after work and got some eye drops for the infection. Costed me 8000 yen.... It is much better today already, but still a bit itchy sometimes. Hopefully it will go away by this weekend....
Of course that's a lie, but I actually received my first steroid yesterday...
for my eye infection. Turned out my first trip to a Japanese clinic was for eye infection... I had no idea where I got it. All I know is that when I woke up Tuesday, I suddenly realized that I couldn't open up my left eye.... coz it's been glued shut with tons of eye boogers = =. It wasn't only a little red then, so I thought I ate too much fried stuff or whatever, but by the afternoon it's bloodshot. I went to an eye clinic last night after work and got some eye drops for the infection. Costed me 8000 yen.... It is much better today already, but still a bit itchy sometimes. Hopefully it will go away by this weekend....
2007-07-04
Market Research
For the first two weeks, I was mostly sitting in meetings and trying to read as much stuff about Felica as I can. Last week, a manager from US flew over to discuss about Sony's strategy in US. Since I am probably the person in the office with the most free time, and reasonable knowledge with US market, I was naturally assigned to do some market research on the potential market
It wasn't the first time for me to research a market, but it was the first time that it has meanings other than my raising GPA (which isn't that high). A couple observations:
1. K.I.S.S. method applies: I might have collected a lot of information and have a lot of my personal observation, but to condense them into 1 or 2 powerpoint slides are nearly impossible. The best thing is to stick to your task, fill in the numbers, and comment when necessary in the meeting.
2. California is a BIG market. If California is an independent country, it's GDP is equivalent to that of Canada. As an aside, I guess that's why most Americans don't know about anything outside of US, coz they don't have the need to.
The US manager flew back today. I still have a few slides to do, but it's pretty much done. On to the next project...
It wasn't the first time for me to research a market, but it was the first time that it has meanings other than my raising GPA (which isn't that high). A couple observations:
1. K.I.S.S. method applies: I might have collected a lot of information and have a lot of my personal observation, but to condense them into 1 or 2 powerpoint slides are nearly impossible. The best thing is to stick to your task, fill in the numbers, and comment when necessary in the meeting.
2. California is a BIG market. If California is an independent country, it's GDP is equivalent to that of Canada. As an aside, I guess that's why most Americans don't know about anything outside of US, coz they don't have the need to.
The US manager flew back today. I still have a few slides to do, but it's pretty much done. On to the next project...
2007-07-01
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