Wilson Ng started helping the family business since 9 years old. Since then, he had dreamt to be a successful entrepreneur, one who starts great businesses  ( he has started 7) from scratch with insight, guts and initiative. He keeps his focus on growing the business by creating value-- not on politics, or wasteful distractions. He brings the same focus to community service, teaching, life and family.

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	Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Big Outsourcers, Small Outsourcers  (tidbits) Its not only the big companies that are outsourcing.  Mom and Pop shops are also. More and more western companies are turning to places like Sri Lanka, China,  Philippines and Eastern Europe to make clothes, jewelry, trinkets and even software programs. Computers, the Internet and modern telecommunications are making it possible for start-ups to market their goods to customers anywhere in the country and the same infrastructure also enables them to find workers and plants tens of thousands of miles away in countries they will never visit and in factories they will never inspect... <more>     1:09:14 PM     comment []   trackback []

Longhorn Update  (techdrivenlife) Here is the latest update on Longhorn as per interview with Microsoft's Chris Jones.   By the way, there is a lot of talk on Longhorn, and many of them served to give the impression that this version of Windows is going to be very complex, yet powerful.  That is not true at all.  As per this post by a senior executive from Microsoft, Longhorn's goal is to be  simpler, sexier, and safer.     12:42:37 PM     comment []   trackback []

The Price of Staying Connected     ( techdrivenlife) One of the great technology wonders I am thankful in the last 10 years is the development of the mobile phone, the PDA and the internet.  Combine this together into the pocket PC  phone, and you can virtually go anywhere and still be connected.  Today's selection, from the BlackBerry , to the Treo, to the Ipaq Windows Mobile phone sports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GSM phone.  You can check your email either through  HotSpots or through the cellullar network.  You can roam most cities  ( in my case, except those without GSM networks)  and you would instantly be connected seamlessly through a network of partnerships between the cellullar providers. Of course, the price of getting connected goes beyond not only never having a totally interrupt-free trip.  Sometimes, you get sticker shock.  A few years ago, I learned that telecom networks will provide you roaming at a price.  If you don't know ( and it is difficult to get from your cell provider what roaming charges each potential roaming partner charges), you could be in for a shock.  In this day and age, it is still shocking that there are phone networks that charges over a dollar per minute for international calls .  You can pay that or more if you go roaming, and is indiscriminate in using. After a few months, I thought I was an expert-- just minimize calls, and use HotSpots when you can. If you cannot, use GPRS to check email. The other week I was in Australia, and I log into Telstra as roaming partner.   Instantly, I was using my pocket PC phone to check my email.  Imagine  when a few days ago, the telco company called me.  My phone bill was now well over a thousand dollars.  I asked for details.  There was something wrong with the roaming.  I was being charged over 900 US dollars for 2 days of roaming charge for checking my email.  I checked the price. Their prices were not only about 5 to 6 times per KB compared to most Asian cities, but I was billed for downloading over 40 megabytes of email over a 5 hour period.  Ha???  With the rated data rate of GPRS of about 9.6 kbps ( lower in actual) , I could not even download 15 megabytes in 5 hours even if I wanted to.   Moreover, I had my email settings to download only email no more than 20 kilobytes, and I only had a handful of them. There was something wrong with the bill.... and I am waiting what my provider says. There is a price for being connected, and sometimes, it comes with the ocassional shock that indeed, our quest of being constantly connected does not pay -- either in tense hours, or in ocassional price shocks . Do we want to go back to yesteryears when a vacation  or being out of the office really meant being out of reach?   12:05:47 PM     comment []   trackback []

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