Nguyen Huu Thong

Working backward

Điều mình thích ở cuốn sách này [https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595] là nó validate (kiểm chứng) nhiều thứ mà Tiki đã hoặc hướng đến để làm, trong đó có nhiều ý tưởng đã được chia sẻ bởi những bạn đã ... từng làm ở Amazon. Cuốn sách này

Scale & risk

Cách đây 2 năm mình có viết về những cơ hội thử thách mới [https://work.plonely.com/2018/11/05/scale-and-what-next/] mà hệ thống cần giải quyết khi scale lớn hơn, điều rất vui là khi đọc lại đa phần đều rất relevant, những dự án sản phẩm mới

Good management

We recently have many expat joining us and a team member once asked me "what did they actually bring to the table ?" I was unhappy with the question at first (because I can clearly see their impact and didn't know why he couldn't). Then I realized it was actually a

The making of Amazon Prime

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/3/18511544/amazon-prime-oral-history-jeff-bezos-one-day-shipping?utm_source=onfleet-weekly-email-digest very interesting article with many insights and also some are quite similar to what we (at Tiki) are doing or aiming for on customer retention > The thing I remember very distinctly is this phrase: “I want to

Thẳng thắn và quyết liệt

Tạm dịch từ tựa sách "Radical Candor" [https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kick-Ass-Without-Humanity/dp/1427283125], đây là tựa sách khá hay viết về làm sao để "quản lí team tốt". 1 trong những công việc người quản lí hay phải làm nhất là đánh giá kết quả công việc của các

Thế nào là 1 engineer giỏi

Đây là cái sẽ không có 1 câu trả lời chuẩn mực hoàn toàn mà sẽ là góc nhìn từ mỗi người. Đối với mình, 1 engineer giỏi khi có những tố chất sau -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trong suy nghĩ 1. Luôn muốn đơn giản hóa vấn đề Làm sao để giải

Làm gì khác đi để scale tốt hơn

Bài viết trước [https://work.plonely.com/2018/11/06/scale-and-what-next/] của mình có tiêu đề về scale nhưng giống review kể chuyện hơn, bài viết này mình muốn chia sẻ thêm về những vấn đề có thể cần làm khác đi khi 1 team, 1 tổ chức muốn phát

Scale, and what's next

Để bắt đầu bài viết, mình muốn chia sẻ 1 dữ liệu dễ hiểu thể hiện sự tăng trưởng của Tiki trong vài năm vừa qua. Đó là hiện tại, doanh số mỗi ngày của Tiki còn cao hơn doanh số ... cả tháng tại thời điểm mình mới tham gia

On staying relevant

We all know about Nokia, once the king of mobile phone and then, became nothing. Thing we might not know is if our company, our team, ourself is the next Nokia :) I always think that a little pressure here and there will help us grow, and thinking about that question

P&G

Hôm nay có dịp ngồi Highlands ở Diamond, gió thổi lồng lộng, tự nhiên nhớ ra đã từng làm P&G cũng gần 10 năm trước rồi. Đây là công việc đầu tiên khi vừa về Việt Nam, ban đầu mình apply vì ... là MNC tương đối lớn và đọc

The hard thing

1. Truly understand the "why" Why should we adopt this new shiny language/framework/database other than that being ... well new & shiny ? Why should we adopt Scrum other than that being recommended by ... so many gurus ? 2. Care to ask "what else ?" Is this the best option we have, is

The “why”

“Tại sao mình phải làm cái này ?”, chắc hẳn ai cũng có lúc suy nghĩ về điều này khi nhận 1 task cần hoàn thành, nhưng không phải lúc nào thắc mắc ấy cũng được giải đáp hợp lí. Bài viết này nhằm chia sẻ góc nhìn của mình về

Open mind

Qua nay trên mạng đang khá hot phần gọi vốn của 1 công ty trên Shark Tank có vẻ hơi "chém", có 1 số bạn hỏi mình thấy sao vì trong phần trình bày có đề cập đến công ty đang làm (và hiển nhiên là chê :D). Mới đầu

Kể chuyện viết tool cho kho

Kho bãi - vận hành nếu như người ngoài nhìn vào chắc sẽ thấy khá khô khan, nhàm chán, tuy nhiên khi làm về mảng này mình cũng có 1 vài thứ thấy khá thú vị, áp dụng được vài công nghệ mà theo mình là hay ho và đúc

Performance review

Đánh giá kết quả của 1 nhân viên kinh doanh tương đối dễ dàng, do kết quả hầu hết đều ở dạng số, target (mục tiêu) của bạn là bao nhiêu và actual (phần thực đạt) của bạn là bao nhiêu đều rõ ràng. Đối với nhân viên mảng công

Lên kế hoạch và follow-through

Đây là 1 trong những cái mình thấy quan trọng và khó nhằn nhất khi quản lí 1 team nói riêng hay 1 tổ chức nói chung. Lên kế hoạch để làm thì khá dễ hiểu, tuy nhiên lên kế hoạch sao cho hợp lí, tạo ra giá trị và

Làm sản phẩm

1 team nói chung (không chỉ team làm sản phẩm) sẽ bao gồm đối ngoại và đối nội * Đối ngoại là làm sao cho những team khác, những phòng ban khác hiểu được giá trị công việc của team mình, thấy team mình ngon (looks good), từ đó hỗ trợ

Universal ideas learned from Netflix culture (draft)

Different book authors tend to have different ideas about how things should be done and it's perfectly normal (no one-size-fits-all thing). Hence it's really nice to read some "universal idea" (similar to what we read and agreed or already worked on). I recently read a book about culture at Netflix

What does a product guy do

I like to look at and structure things from different angle. In term of the product life cycle, a product guy needs to involve * before the product is made: he needs to evaluate thing such as * is this product/feature actually needed ? * how it will work ? * when it will be

Tùy

Có 1 bạn trong team đề nghị viết lại module "tính toán gợi ý đặt hàng" bằng event sourcing, mình chia sẻ một số suy nghĩ cụ thể về bài toán này nói riêng và cách mình tiếp cận việc "viết lại module" như thế nào Các vấn đề cần

Planning

Planning the right way is hard. The right way - to me - is to come out with a plan that * has a right balance between achievable and almost-achievable (stretch goal) * has data and reasoning for people to understand, buy-in and execute * has defined success metrics (if applicable) * has compelling

Điều thử thách

Điều thử thách (vietsub từ "the hard thing" trong tựa sách "The hard thing about hard thing" [https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205]) * Điều thử thách chưa hẳn là làm quen được với 1 ngôn ngữ mới, mà hiểu nó khác gì so với ngôn ngữ hiện tại mình

Instant gratification vs deep work

Ever realize that you spend more time in updating the applications/tools or customizing/tweaking the tool than in actually using it ? Ever realize that you prefer to read a Facebook post than a long form article in the newspaper ? Ever think about why you like to buy stuffs -

Keep getting better

People recently ask me about the product roadmap and while this is not a complete list, they're what I see as must-have in an e-commerce company Product/Tech must enable the company to do the following stuffs 1. Business as usual This means customer can use our website to buy

How you can contribute as a Product Owner

1. Prioritize product roadmap * When a customer says something is critical, be able to verify how much critical it actually is based on your domain knowledge of that team’s function and the related team’s function * Be able to differentiate between “noises” and “valid request” (customers will always make

Feel young

I happened to write a mobile app using Exponent [https://work.plonely.com/2016/09/02/mobile-app-for-a-web-programmer-with-exponentjs/] few days ago. It was a great framework. During the course, I joined their official Slack channel and asked a few questions, talked to several Exponent devs who are very friendly and supportive

Mobile app for a web programmer with ExponentJS

I guess everyone once in their life wants to write “a mobile app” (thanks to the seems-simple-to-create-yet-insanely-profitable app like … Flappy Bird). There are ways to write one now, from the obvious native approach to hybrid one. There are also countless books, online courses about mobile programming. So why do I

Form over substance

This is something that we're easy to fall into. "Form" is how it looks and substance is what it really brings to the table at the end of the day. If you don't care about "form", your idea/project will have less chance for people to notice. It's bad because

Attitude

Both got the same ending but their attitudes are much different Everpix (US) http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/5/5039216/everpix-life-and-death-inside-the-worlds-best-photo-startup https://github.com/everpix/Everpix-Intelligence Deca (VN) > Nếu các bạn hỏi tại sao DECA.vn đóng cửa trong khi phát triển vũ bão, có đội ngũ vận hành

Managing Product in a company-that-grew-up

If it's just your personal project, your team, your startup then product management might be figuring out what customers love and iterate your product accordingly. However, in a company that grew up, these are the questions that I have to answer daily * How should I get people to understand that

On learning tool

> There is a fairly important point that is missed by this article. You do not need build tools to write JavaScript and depending on which tools you use there are significant drawbacks to using any them. > Before you dive into the world of build tools and process management I urge

Note on A/B testing

source [http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/07/11/roadmap-to-becoming-an-a-b-testing-expert/] > A/B testing is not a silver bullet. Optimizing the conversion rate will make a good landing page better, but it won’t fix a product or company that has fundamental problems. > Narrowly focusing on A/B testing will turn your

Quote from "How will you measure your life"

interesting book [www.amazon.com/How-Will-Measure-Your-Life/dp/0062102419] > The trap many people fall into is to allocate their time to whoever screams loudest, and their talent to whatever offers them the fastest reward. That’s a dangerous way to build a strategy. my note: > Only after you understand the relative

On mid-level management

> Any company that has been around for as long as Microsoft, has a huge amount of dead weight in its mid-level management. I mean people whose main skill is mastery of the internal political process. > Lest people think I'm singling out Microsoft specifically, this same problem is present at Google

Form over substance

is a no, for me > These motivational accessories, as they are called (including slogan coffee mugs, plaques, pins, key chains, and awards), are a triumph of form over substance. They seem to extol the importance of Quality, Leadership, Creativity, Teamwork, Loyalty, and a host of other organizational virtues. But they

IT và hông IT

Có bữa ngồi cafe, mình nghe 2 bạn nói chuyện với nhau. 1 bạn nói tiếng Anh như gió, trang điểm rất dịu dàng, giọng ngọt ngào và sắc sảo. Còn anh kia thì luống tuổi, nói tiếng Anh sơ sơ, bận đồ đóng thùng nghiêm chỉnh. Bạn sắc sảo

Low cost Heroku with Dokku

Heroku is great and while I always recommend my clients to use it and bear the cost, I sometimes need to have an alternative that is cheaper and - more importantly - has the same ease of use as Heroku (read: git push to deploy) Here comes Dokku (based on

It was fun, it is fun and it shall be fun

Actually by it I meant "IT" :) I was recently back to professional programming (read: code for food) and the experience was memorable. I joined this team [http://www.jupo.com] partly because they are in Hanoi (the place I don't really want to live but love to explore). The first

On choosing tools

> But also whatever language partisanship I had is gone, and won’t come back in the guise of a new favorite language. This sentence is worth pointing out as a good attitude. I think the healthiest place to be is using tools you like, but able to appreciate the good

Quan trọng là ca sĩ chứ không phải micro

Mình vừa đọc 1 topic hỏi về "công cụ để phân việc cho nhân viên", trong đó mọi người giới thiệu khoảng vài chục cái tool, từ tool công ty mình vừa làm, đến các tool dùng để quản lí dự án như Redmine, ActiveCollab hoặc ngay cả Outlook, Sharepoint

On the shiny new things

On HackerNews, someone asked why the news release of Django receives less fanfare than say Rails and this is my favorite comment > I'm probably going to offend some people with my phrasing, but the Django community is a little less culty/fanboyish than Node's. It's old enough where most of

Make it work

> Make it work, then make it beautiful, then if you really, really have to, make it fast. source: Joe Armstrong [http://www.manning.com/logan/]

On Bootstrap

> Bootstrap raised the lowest common denominator from a 2 to about 35. You can still put together a horrid UI with bad spacing and mismatched fonts, but you have to go out of your way to get UI quality below 20. If you have the skills to write 90+ UIs

Can-Do vs. Can’t-Do Culture

> The economist who helped Walt Disney's theme park dream become what it is today[1] said that the most important thing he learned through it all was the profound difference between a "no, because" person and a "yes, if" person.If you ask many people an audacious "Can we do

Opensource != secured

> Open source doesn't imply trustworthiness and it's a very dangerous assumption to make. Any open source system can be screwed with in a variety of ways. The simplest and most effective option is to publish both the source and the binaries, but built latter from the an altered source. This

XP

Chapter 10, which begins on page 53, lays out the 12 practices that caused our industry to erupt into controversy; and spawned a revolution that has changed everything about the way we write software. Those practices are: > The Planning Game: Nowadays known as SCRUM. The idea that software is produced

Feature versus requirement

> One of the most common mistakes made on a project is to seize on a feature and call it a requirement without first understanding the problem and the expectations around a solution source [http://www.amazon.com/Project-Guide-Design-experience-designers/dp/0321815386/ref=dp_ob_title_bk]

Pitfalls of startup

People don't share the same vision and passion In a normal company, even if people don't share the same vision, they still can execute the plan and contribute value. For a startup (with limited resources) to proceed (or for a normal company that wants to be more efficient), people need

On comparing tools

source [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6643182] > Why do people put so much effort in comparing tool A to tool B when either of those tools only cover 5% of all the work that goes into any serious application, and the time saved by any advantage tool A has

On being a manager

from Remote [http://37signals.com/remote/] (by 37signals) [https://work.plonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/book-quotes-1.png]

Working with engineers

It's been a while since I last work with engineers and this is to note several interesting things * It's exciting to talk with them because most of them are really into their gigs. They like the stuffs they build and want to make you feel that * They usually think of

Scrape (trích xuất) dữ liệu tự động với Scrapy

Trong 1 bài trước đây [https://work.plonely.com/2010/06/04/how-i-automatically-grabbed-songs-from-zing-mp3-and-upload-to-listenme/] , mình đã nói qua về scrape dữ liệu bằng PHP và regular expression. Vừa rồi mình có thực hiện scrape data từ VNExpress giùm 1 người bạn, xài thử Scrapy [http://scrapy.org/] và thấy cũng khá

Interesting way to land consultant gig

source [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4655212] > I don't look for jobs that have been posted — my feeling is that jobs that make it to Reddit / GitHub / Craigslist / Monthly Hiring Threads, are all jobs that have been picked over by people working at (or close with) the company.I

Choosing

[https://work.plonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/3592960452_16bbf96918_o.png] I just said "no more"

You're only limited to what you *think* so

How much it would cost you to travel around the world ? Even though I did quite a lot of travel [http://wandering.plonely.com], I didn't really think 'bout "travel around the world", yet. It seems so far away and expensive. Until I saw this [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?

On the differences between running a business and just producing something

source [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4060229] > I think the danger is that engineers might come to the mistaken conclusion that making pizzas is the primary limiting reagent to running a successful pizzeria. Running a successful pizzeria is more about * schlepping to local hotels and leaving them 50 copies

On impact of Google

source [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4009099] > Google builds a search engine, forces the competition to start improving.Google buys a webmail service, forces rapid improvements in the competition. Google builds a browser, forces rapid improvements in the competition (Firefox). Google buys a smartphone OS, competition already doing ok

Key summaries from the book "Good to Great"

source [http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996] (reviewed by Donald Mitchell) > The key conclusions as to "how" included the following:(1) a series of CEOs (promoted from within) who combined "personal humility and professional will" focused on making a great company; (2) an initial focus on eliminating weak people,

Linh tinh về Lean

Hôm qua đi hội thảo về Lean Startup nhưng đại khái là cảm thấy chưa thỏa mãn với cách giải thích của các speaker nên mình ghi lại 1 vài suy nghĩ của mình về Lean, bao gồm các điểm chính sau #1: Tóm tắt Mình thấy các bạn ủng

On ending war between sales and marketing

This is a very true issue and I found this excellent article "Ending the war between sales and marketing" by Philip Kotler He offered 2 key advice: * Disciplined communication between Sales and Marketing * Shared goal & metrics While the 2nd one is hard to implement due to the complex organization structure,

some random stuffs ’bout meeting [part 2]

I never like meeting, I just hate it. So if I talk ’bout what I like from there, I really mean it. [part 1] [https://work.plonely.com/2011/05/23/some-random-stuffs-about-meeting/] Currently got in some chaotic meeting and got some interesting observations... There are usually 2 kind of feedback

how to get things done (e.g. giảm 5 kí trong 3 tuần)

I recently lose 5kg in 'bout 3 weeks, and there are some tips I want to share (it's not just 'bout diet) * Start small: don't think that you need to lose 5kg after the 1st try. Think 'bout it as "I should eat more healthy food in order to become

Leadership versus management

Leadership is more 'bout doing the right things, management is more 'bout doing things right Leadership is more 'bout taking risk, management is more 'bout mitigate them

People's attention are limited. Grab it quickly and wisely

* Be focus (use the right medium to deliver your message to the right people, at the right time). Try to pick the time that they firstthink 'bout the needs of your products and tap into it (married woman might not want to buy children clothes but if you talk 'bout

Maintain your cool and sense of humor

... especially during a crisis source [http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/10-things-great-managers-do/8189?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bnet%2Fceo+%28BNETCorner+Office%29] quote > #1. Maintain your cool and sense of humor, especially during a crisis2. Tell subordinates when they’re shooting themselves in the

dám làm

hôm nay đi Barcamp Saigon, có 1 cái topic là "entrepreneur & innovative", mới nghe thì tưởng đâu là chia sẻ kinh nghiệp của startup founder hay investor, nhưng cuối cùng là của 1 team chuẩn bị làm startup và cần hỏi kinh nghiệm của mọi người phần presentation thì còn

Sustainability

First time I heard it, it's just some buzz-word to me. And for 'bout 2 years when I worked in some environment that talk a lot 'bout it, I still haven't really believed in such concept. Just recently, I realized a little bit of it People: * Some company chose to

Predictibility

Some good advice I got: make sure that our partners feel that doing business with our company is predictable for them. It means * They know the way we treat them will remain consistent * The supports we give them is there and delivered * The quota we give them is not increased

My non-corporate namecard

Kể chuyện đi làm công ti nước ngoài [part 2]

tiếp theo[part 1] [https://work.plonely.com/2011/02/13/ke-chuyen-di-lam-cong-ti-nuoc-ngoai-part-1/] 4. Ổn định: Làm việc văn phòng có nghĩa là chưa tới cuối tháng sẽ biết tới đó mình được nhận tối đa bao nhiêu tiền, chưa tới cuối năm sẽ biết cuối năm được thưởng bao nhiêu

some random stuffs 'bout meeting

I never like meeting, I just hate it. So if I talk 'bout what I like from there, I really mean it. We sometimes have the so-called business review with some regional team, and I notice something worthy to write 'bout. 1. Sharp It's easy to look at the slide

Structure of innovative organizations

source [http://www.the-innovation-machine.com/?p=83] > The organizational structure of many large innovative companies (Toyota, Procter & Gamble, GE, 3M, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, DuPont, Honeywell and Whirlpool) , followed certain rules: [1] 1. Delegation of Decisions to Innovation Teams 2. Integration of R&D into the Business Units 3.

Challenges of managing IT system in an MNC environment

Standardization versus customization Regional IT tends to focus more on standardization (e.g. deploy the same system across all the markets), this will help them to manage the whole system easier (manage = maintenance + upgrade), save the cost (by leveraging the scale) However, there are many cases where local market has

Just a little bit geeky thing

I tried but didn't figure out how to do this in the last company, now I can [https://work.plonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/HP_Mail_on_iPhone.jpg] A lillte bit nice thing 'bout working for a tech company, erh

Kể chuyện đi làm công ti nước ngoài [part 1]

1. Ai cũng là Manager (-) Thông thường 1 cái văn phòng, thì sẽ có chừng vài ba chục người có chức danh là "manager". Nghe riết thì thấy quen, nhưng thỉnh thoảng cần phải dịch ra tiếng Việt thì lại phân vân: "giám đốc" thì to quá, "trưởng nhóm"

(Mis)read data

As I already said, it's not easy to really read the data [https://work.plonely.com/2010/10/03/read-data/]. I received some email from my current colleague 'bout this "Best companies for Leadership" [http://www.haygroup.com/BestCompaniesForLeadership/research-and-findings/global-top-20.aspx] study. I also saw this on some Facebook

Excellent call to arms from Nokia's new CEO

source [http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-rallies-troops-in-brutally-honest-burnin/] > Hello there,There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere

How to give your best apology ?

Groupon CEO Apologizes For Poorly Executed Offer In Japan [http://info.groupon.jp/topics/20110117-515.html] remark from HackerNews [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2111618] > perfect for execution of an apology (both by Japanese standards and for companies generally). * Heartfelt apology * Total acceptance of responsibility * Comes straight from the

Competitive Advantage

Company can gain competitive advantage by differentiation or by cost, either on a broad or focused basis Example in value chain [https://work.plonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/00_Overview.png] In-bound logistics (Plant) [https://work.plonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/01_Inbound_Logistics1.png] Operations [https://work.

Effective meeting

Before meeting: * Clear agenda with pre-work if needed, make sure attendee will at least read through the pre-work * It's best if the decision maker is there In the meeting: * Time-keeper & minute-taker * Don't spend too much time on 1 topic (again, time-keeper) * No personal attack * Clear next-steps and time of next

HR1101

1. Recruit talent a. Know the right sources (e.g. newspaper, online, referral, campus) * Should always maintain candidate database * Should not look for over-qualified (besides under-qualified, of course) candidates * Have backup for important roles. Have the list of potential employee (to be promoted) as well, potential doesn't mean "best performance"

What to do if your server was hacked ?

very helpful answer from ServerFault [http://serverfault.com/questions/218005/my-servers-been-hacked-emergency/218011#218011]

Marketing tips #1

source [http://irrefutablelaws.weebly.com/] > The Truths of Marketing 1. Ethos (your perceived character) is the most important. 2. People make judgments by comparison/anchoring. 3. People process information best from stories. 4. People are foremost interested in things that effect them. 5. Breaking patterns gets attention. 6. People look

A bit of selling commodities

I told my friend: "Since I managed to persuade some people to use our IT solution, I think I'm kinda good at selling". He asked : "Show me how u would sell some commodities (read: not so kool stuffs) ?" I told him some points about point of difference, pricing, customer service

Role of IT in corporate

it's always interesting to read something [http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/cio/ciostudy/] and be able to link it to your work : ) What an IT executive might do to increase his influence and contribution to the business ? Make innovation real * The keyword is "real". It's easy to talk 'bout

Simple tips for those doing IT in a non-IT company

I just completed the 3rd annual IT audit for some distributor. In term of the capability to keep the daily operation smooth, their IT manager got it quite right. However, whenever I talk to the people there, I usually got these complains * How come our IT system always got issues

Project Management survival tips

Project Management survival tips [http://www.scribd.com/doc/39233301/Project-Management-survival-tips] some of my tips on how to be a lil bit more effective with Project Management {http://work.plonely.com [https://work.plonely.com/]}

Read data

There is a saying : "Lies, damned lies and statistics". It told us how easy to read the number and how difficult to really derive something useful from it. Just want to share some simple tips about this 1. Have a right context * For example, you might read : "We sold this

It's not always 'bout the technology

During my work as an IT manager, there are 2 kinds of customer * 1 who doesn't realize the benefit of IT * 1 who over-confident 'bout the benefit of IT For the 1st group, we need to give them some real demo, some data, some endorsement from other people to convince

job, career or calling

quote from Internet Most people approach their work in one of three ways: as a job, a career, or a calling. If you see your work as a job, you do it only for the money, you look at the clock frequently while dreaming about the weekend ahead, and you

Those who can't, just blame

it's non-sense to just talk 'bout "leaving the company". either you leave or you stop giving the signal that "I might leave" it's non-sense to make joke 'bout "who owns the majority share". the point is people dare to leave their comfort zone and try the new thing. those who

Choosing audio player for ListenMe

The first "audio player" component I used for ListenMe is Windows Media embed object. It simply just works. I later switched to Flash-based player since it will be supported on more browsers (e.g. those on *nix). The first one is DewPlayer [http://www.alsacreations.fr/dewplayer-en], which is a

[Tutorial]How I *automatically* grabbed songs from Zing MP3 and upload to ListenMe ?

Background * Zing Mp3 [http://mp3.zing.vn] is huge, damn huge in term of song database and song submitters * ListenMe.net [http://www.listenme.net] (my hobby music sharing website) is (slightly) less huge and I'm more or less the only song submitter * I usually upload the song I like

Simple Business Intelligence (BI) solution

This is a follow-up post for this one [https://work.plonely.com/2010/02/25/its-not-always-bout-cutting-edge-part-1/]. I want to share a simple approach to implement BI in your company. What is BI ? It helps the company to aggregate data, clean-up data, and present data (provide a way for end-user to

Some useful and free web-application for enterprise

I'm drafting up some training slide for IT, it's about how to utilize some free web-application for enterprise Basic * Tracking issues using Redmine [http://www.redmine.org/] * Doing survey using Google Docs (Form [http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87809] function) * Corporate email using Google

read and forget what you read

That is what I keep reminding myself whenever I read some books. I grabbed this idea from some kungfu movie and it makes sense : when you forget what you read, it becomes your knowledge. Another reason is that the knowledge you gain will make you realize the gap between what

Notes from "Business of software" [part 1]

Notes taken while reading this interesting book [http://www.amazon.com/dp/074321580X] What to think 'bout strategies for software companies ? * To be a product company (high margin during good time - high risk during bad time. For example Microsoft in their early days) orservice company (low margin during good

radical or incremental ?

Have you ever wondered * if you like to make radical changes or incremental changes ? * if you prefer scorecard/360 degree feedback or just something more simple like "you're sux" and "it's kool man" ? * if you prefer stable and friendly or free and wild ? * if you prefer to be someone in

ownership

yesterday, some distributor head called me and asked for help since there were some issues in her site and the IT head wasn't there. I called the IT staffs and got this "hey Thong, thanks for asking, but we still can handle it, will ask for help if needed". I

there're things that you shouldn't cut cost

and one of them is IT investment Why ? Because its benefit is intangible and people tend not to invest in something that they can't really see how it can help them. For example * You can send and receive emails everyday, you take it for granted. You don't see it as

another cool way to display your Flickr set

get bored with the default Flickr interface or even Flickriver ? how 'bout this KOOL way [http://pix.plonely.com/index.php?setid=72157623397968047] ? (see below for the screenshot) there are 2 ways to have it 1. Just use this URL http://pix.plonely.com/index.php?setid=72157623397968047 and replace

don't be evil motto

nice article from TechCrunch [http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/15/twitteruh-oh-not-another-do-no-evil-company/], this reminds me of Jack Neo case [http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_499084.html]. He likes to explicitly insert moral lessons into his movies, and he gradually violated some. Those who create the line tend to

working with vendor

I currently got some problem working with the vendors * They tend to not proactively update us on the status of technical issues * They tend to not go the extra mile * We can't change the vendor as it's the regional vendor and it seems like just their local branch doesn't meet

to help is different than to actually help

I occasionally think 'bout this and recently found a veryinteresting article [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703429304575095423719500154.html?mod=WSJ_hp_editorsPicks] . Basically, to help people make you feel happy, but it doesn't always mean that what you did madethem happy. Currently I'm not  into community services so occasionally doing

Discover lost space on your HDD

You'd never know how much space you lost on your HDD for some created-once-and-forgot-to-delete kind of folders. Or you can just right click and choose "Properties" to check the size of each folders on your HDD. It is a damn tedious work. Or maybe you can just try this [http:

what you like versus what they like

you can't just do what you like. you just can't. because you're with them (family, friends, colleagues etc). and you don't want to just do what they like. because it's your damn life, right ? so, what's next ? do what they like selectively (meaning focus on the most relevant things that

It's not always 'bout "cutting-edge" [part 1]

We recently need to solve this very interesting problem: how to effectively aggregate all the sales data across the country. * Sales data: basically, we want to know something likewho buy what on when and from which sellers * Effectively: we need to get those data as fast as possible and as

Keep your crises small

This is a quick note I took for this talk, a very insightful one on how you might lead your org/your team/your life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc The speaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Catmull] was one of Pixar founders. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He got a

new design for my blog

I've always been a fan of minimalistic, be it in web design, in work or in life. However, I'm not the type of designer but more of commenter. I can't design something new but I can tell whether this design looks good or not and where it needs to improve.

random note

Some random practical things I noted during some random training, applicable for both work, life and even drinking 1. Forget that you work for big MNC, embrace changes. Don't start with process Không nhất thiết phải uống bia bằng ly, có thể uống bằng xô 2. We are biz, not

Just show people how important they are

and how important their work is, they would do it better. That's what I always believe. Because it works for me. There were times when I felt so boring doing something, then I asked myself: " if, I need to put what I'm doing and feel boring in my resume', how

Foobar2000

there're software that we install, we use and either we uninstall it or we just forget it. there're software that we install, we use and we long for every new version of it. new version sometimes means new features or bug fix and for some cases, we just long for

đi bán thiệp

mình chưa làm sales, nhưng có nói chiện với các pạng làm sales và đi quan sát 1 tẹo thì nghĩ đến 1 số cái sau đây 1. muốn bán thiệp thì phải nói chiện, làm người ta thoải mái và nói chiện hông phải chỉ là "mời anh/chị

What's the biggest risk in an (IT) project ?

I found this very true, especially when * I used to focus more on the deployment, but not success (or failure ?) measure and to realize/leverage its value creation * Even when I were to track some measures, the criteria somehow seem a bit blur and not convincing (me) enough Just read

listen

we just finished the implementation part in a well overdue project, and I want to write 'bout "listening" * there were some problems that were raised even before the testing phase but then de-prioritized (hence forgotten). they did come up later and bit us * there were some good suggestion that were

làm sao để Tibo thành lớp trưởng

nhân 1 ngày suy nghĩ nhiều và không ra được bao nhiêu, buồn ăn nhiều và viết cho tiêu cơm Tibo là cháu mình, sắp được đi mẫu giáo. và vì hồi nhỏ lớn giờ chú của Tibo chẳng bao giờ là lớp trưởng, nên cũng có chút mong muốn

"have fun" is nothing but a hint

Several people included "have fun" in their list of tips during my last 4-5 training days. Same goes for those "every time you wake up in the morning, you should still be able to enjoy your work". I previously took it this way: "well, they can say it because they're

a crowd must share something in common

a few days ago, I happened to watch an interesting movie scene. The teacher of some "special class" (with all those naughty and stubborn gang-related students) organizes this game: the students were divided by 2 lines facing each other and they should move forward if it's a "yes" and backward

look ahead

we talked 'bout the short-staffing at some customer and the question was how to help them recruit enough people I found it interesting and spent quite some time to think 'bout it, until big boss asked this "well, say we manage to staff enough people, how do you plan to

make your messy desktop less messy

well, the below screenshots are pretty self-explanatory, if you want it, checkout this free software from Stardock (Fences) [http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/] { http://blog.plonely.com } [http://blog.plonely.com]

The 10 Essential Rules for Slowing Down and Enjoying Life More

Posted: 11 Jun 2009 04:00 PM PDT Post written by Leo Babauta [http://zenhabits.net/about/]. Follow me on Twitter [http://twitter.com/zen_habits]. It’s an irony of our modern lives that while technology is continually invented that saves us time, we use that time to do

A damn good article

source : http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/15/how-to-figure-out-what-you-should-be-doing-with-your-life/ There is no other way to figure out where you belong than to make time to do it and give yourself space to fail, give yourself time to be lost [http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/15/2007/11/15/stop-worrying-that-your-twentysomething-is-lost/