|
Written by Jason Loo
|
|
Thursday, 28 January 2010 |
|
2010/01/28 - Hi everyone, it has been 2 months plus since my last blog post. A lot of happenings have come and gone in my life. Details of events past are arranged below (by chronological order). Today marks the 2nd month I am married. It's a wonderful feeling to be a husband to a wife that you love and care about deeply. Here's the chronicle of my journey into wedding bliss so far ...
Wedding, new status
For those who don't know, I have officially stepped into the next journey of my life. Yes, married life :) Hard to believe that my wedding dinner was just 2 months ago, seems like it happened just yesterday. I would like to take this opportunity to present my thanks to everyone who attended my wedding dinner. It was a joyous (and absolutely tiring occasion). Once in a lifetime, they say .. I positively agree with that statement coz the planning, emotions and effort put into making the final day a success makes it rewarding to see it coming into fruition.
New Year, new beginnings
2010 has begun and it's been a great week so far. Lots of work and lots of planning for the year. Got my key to my duplex condo (will post photos soon) and it's great to own a house in the sky. Currently undergoing defect rectification works by the developer. So far, found less than 100 defects and few major ones.New year resolutions haven't been made yet .. or more precisely I haven't had time to do anything personal much except work. This few weeks have seen me going to and from customer data centre due to issues with the production servers. Technology
On the tech front, I upgraded my mobile phone (Samsung Omnia 2) to Windows Mobile 6.5. Been playing with it so far and there doesn't seem to be much difference from 6.1 other than the nice honeycomb menu. Not really recommended to install unless your internal storage has 1 GB or more memory. The reason is that WM 6.5 takes up a lot of memory space and leaves only a measly 30 MB (60 MB available with 6.1). This has been the main concern highlighted by other users in all Omnia 2 forums. By the way, here's a list of forum sites I visit for Omnia 2 resources :
1. http://i8000.modaco.com
2. http://www.mobinauts.com (search for Omnia 2)
3. http://www.persian-forums.com (games)
4. http://wvga.pda4you.org On the global technology front, the start of the year has seen a few companies bouncing back such as Intel and Apple. Have been keeping an eye out for new smartphones but there doesn't seem to be any new ones till Sept / Oct at least. HTC HD2 is the best Windows Mobile phone out there but I am waiting for new ones that are not so bulky such as HTC Obsession. WM 7.0 is touted to be introduced during the Mobile World Congress in Feb by Microsoft, supposedly rewritten from scratch to appeal to users. Personally, it's a lot of hype and as usual there will be delays :)
Entertainment
Movies movies movies .. watched Tooth Fairy last week starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. A so-so movie, watchable on DVD. Other movies include :
- 2012 (mediocre fare on end of world destruction and farcical ending on humoungous submarine).
- Avatar (blue aliens ? come on seriously .. the storyline needs to be polished more, hard to believe it has grossed more than Titanic and making JC Lord of the Universe)
- Alvin & the Chipmunks (squeaky chipmunks who can dance and sing, this time meeting their competition in the form of curvy n pretty Chippettes)
Yet to watch :
- Ninja assassin (starrring Rain showing off his bare chest as usual)
- The Spy Next Door (Jackie Chan's latest comedic adventure)
- Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr won Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical / Comedy .. I was wondering if this movie is am musical :P)
Well, that's all for this new year 2010. Best wishes to all in this year of the Tiger.
|
|
|
Written by Jason Loo
|
|
Friday, 06 November 2009 |
|
Nov 1st - the year long preparation has culminated in this final month that will climax in my wedding celebration and customary proceedings on 28th Nov 2009.
1st of November passed and so it was the day of Chinese customary proceedings to exchange dowries. On this day I prepared a no. of items namely oranges, fatt kou (pinkish soft muffins), liquor, 'kah lui' biscuits, customary 'sweeteners' and pork trotters. Not forgetting of course, the ang pows for my in-laws. I went to her house with my best friend and best man to honour my in-laws and pass the dowry to them. In exchange, I received a return of gifts (F&N Orange, ang pows, etc) from in-laws. That concluded the customary proceedings. We had fun taking pictures, talking to each other, having lunch and planning for what comes next.
Click on read more (or the Title) of this post to view the photo gallery of the day. Stay tuned for more events happening soon :)
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 06 November 2009 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Jason Loo
|
|
Monday, 24 August 2009 |
During the days of my MBA, I was enraptured with the workings of the Toyota Production System (TPS) which incorporated lean manufacturing and Just-In-Time (JIT) Production. Basically TPS is all about efficiency and effectiveness in the automobile manufacturing. A lot of companies have tried to emulate Toyota's success. The fundamental criteria that lies in the success of the TPS implementation lies in the Japanese culture and the discipline as well as thoroughness required to scrutinize every single part of the operations.
Taking this further, from the website Endless Innovation, here's an interesting twist to lean manufacturing : Lean Retailing
Example : Starbucks
http://endlessinnovation.typepad.com/endless_innovation/2009/08/starbucks-and-lean-retailing-innovation.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124933474023402611.html#project%3DSTARBUCKS0908%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive
Conceptual highlight :
Similar to lean manufacturing, lean retailing involves innovating existing business practices by utilizing new information technologies in order to reduce unnecessary waste and thus result in a 'leaner' operation that will yield more profit. Lean retailing was concept pioneered by WalMart. Lean retailing in the retailer sense relies on the use of Barcodes (and perhaps RFIDs) to manage every step of the product value chain, from raw material sourcing through manufacturing through final delivery to the shop floor.
Major attention is given to "just in time" delivery to cut inventory costs, and to investments in IT infrastructures to allow stores to share sales data in Real Time with their suppliers. In many cases, Lean Retailing software systems will automatically place new orders for a given product froim the manufacturer as soon as an item is scanned at the check-out counter, and in some cases even the invoicing for that automatic order is automatized as well. Lean retailing aims to "cut out the fat" (waste) from the retail sourcing process to maximize profits for the retailer.
Article highlight :
- 'Motion studies' conducted to analyze analyze how baristas move and where ingredients are located, to see if they can save a few seconds here and there, in order to make their coffee-making process more efficient
- Analyzing the total time spent at Starbucks drive-in windows, to get that number down as much as possible. This is done by utilizing timers, to make sure that fresh coffee gets brewed every eight minutes
Now, I wonder how this can be applied to IT and computer systems. One particular useful implementation of this is on a background application built to justify multiple factors that includes among others memory handling, network utilization, CPU utilization, I/O throughput, etc. It will analyze and scrutinize every aspect of the system and alert or suggest to the user best practices or ways to trim the corresponding aspect analyzed. I would call it "The Lean Application" :P
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 24 August 2009 )
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1 - 4 of 61 |
