Happy New Year

2015 is comming. I wish to say happy new year to every one. I wish your guys having a wonderful 2015!!!

Fuel price is dropped

I went to Hong Kong. A few days ago, I went back Brisbane. I found the fuel price is more reasonable. Today is only 136 cents per L. I think that is because of the dropping crude oil price.

IT support service is essential for you

A lot of people don't feel your IT infrastructure is essential for your job. That is not worth to spend on IT support service. They may say the business was running as usual in the time without computers.
However, imagine one day, your computer is out of order. You cannot use words and email. Maybe, your financial data is lost. Yes, you may get all important data from your paper based archive. You can use typewriters for writing letters to your clients. You can call your clients via phone lines instead of emails. You can go back to use paper and pen for tasks which used to be done by computers.
Well, in this scenario, you need to spend months for converting everything back paper based system. In addition, the paper based system is running less efficiency than computerized system.  This can cost hundreds times more than IT support service!

Beware the cheapest option

I am happy to choose the lowest cost solution, if it can fulfil my requirements.  That is no points to waste my money. 

However, I found the most of time the cheapest option cannot delivery a good enough quality. If it cannot do the jobs, that is useless to have that, even it cost less.

For example, I can use Voice on IP software on my mobile, if I use it, that is cheaper than a mobile phone call. But voice quality is not very good.Thus, I never use it to make some important phone calls. I need other side to heard every word I say clearly, I need to heard every word he/she say clearly. No misunderstanding between us! That is more valuable than the cost of a mobile call!

 I think you find out what you need to do, then finding which options cost the lowest and can do the job!

Does it look good?

This is my new work for Faithful Dental. Does it look good? I like it  a lot, that is very simple and clean! I can do creative tasks too, just about programming.

Lower Cost Option can cost you more

A lot of people believe the cheapest option is always able to delivery the best value.  This option can always save money! I cannot agree with them. The vendors can mark their price tags higher with grounds! They costed more, because they can delivery some extra values.
For example, I used a low cost internet provider before, the service is not very reliable. It could be out of services for a few hours. To end up, I need to find a 4G modem as a backup connection. Moreover, during the period of "internet back out", I cannot work from home. I went to an internet cafe for checking and replying emails. I wasted at least 3 man hours for that each times. That is not fun.
I believe lower cost options did not cost you money in their price tags, however, you need to pay the cost in other ways!

Tablet is a helpful tool for salesperson

Recently, I did some sales work for my company. I found Tablet is very useful. It is very handy. I can easily bring it to my client's office without a large carry bag. Although it has a keyboard, I cannot show some complex operations to my client, that is enough to show some website layouts and presentations to my client. I think nowadays tablet is a essential tool for a salesperson.

Fuel Price, 134.9 cents per L, that is very cheap

I just fueled up my car this afternoon. That was 134.9 cents per L and I chose to use E10 , that is 132.9 cents per L. The whole tank is about $49. That is so cheap! We have not used the fuel for this price for a few months!

Alliance of technology partners

Some one asked myself whether we can provide computer hardware. Yes, we can. However, that is not our core business. We will get the hardware from our trustworthy partners.
We are not big enough to have everything. We prefer to put our efforts on the areas we already are serving in. On other hand,
We have other technologies partners are very good at those areas.  Moreover we have some long term relationship with them. We can still ensure the quality.  Finally we have a win win solution. They can get the business from us and we can get the services or products.

We still cannot get away from Search Engines

"Social Media" has became a hot topic during these recent years. A lot of people believe that is the way for online market. I believe that is very useful too. However, search engines is still the most helpful way to search for the information. We need to submit the websites to the search engines

Learning from the failures

I cannot do everythings right, even I tried my best to recover my fault. That may not work every times.
The most important part is learning from those failures. I know there may be some environment factor which we cannot control. However, there are still parts we could do better next times. Thus, we need to sit down and review our failures every times!

Multi income streams

I think that is important to have multi income streams as a startup business. That is too high risk to generate the income from a single area. We have diversity of client base. In case, one industry is going a tough time. We can get enough income from other businesses. That is the reason my company builds mobile apps, custom applications and websites  for clients. Even we do technical support for clients  too! That is hard to do time management for doing well in those areas. But that is the way to have a stable business .

Corporate Culture

Recently, I met some graduates. I had some discussions with them about their first job. I found they are very focus on profession training, salary and the size of companies. I think they should think about Corporate Culture. They should think about whether they can fit in the team and whether their work style is similar with the company they are going to apply. I really wish them can enjoy their first job!

Social Network is not very helpful for internet marketing

We, AdvGen, are managing a lot of local and IT news portals. I found the most of traffic are coming from the search engines, the traditional way. Yes, the segment of Social Network traffic is getting more comparing 3 years ago. That is not as powerful as some internet marketing said. They said the social network can get your website to be well known.
If you ask me, whether that is a good idea to use Social Networks for internet marketing. I must say "Yes". That is a good tool to bring some traffic and get other people to know your website. But you need to do SEO. You cannot only rely on Social Networks.

Going Social

During these recent years, a lot of companies paid a lot of attentions at social media. They setup twitter account, facebook pages and google+ page. Recently, some companies, even some of them are small business, are making some video clips to youtube. They are building their own video channels to promote their own products and services.  That is impressive!

A success story of Australia Software Company - Atlassian

This monday night, I was watching The Business on ABC. During the program, there was a section about A success story of Australia Software Company ,Atlassian. I have been their product JIRA for years, but I never know they are an australian company. I am surprised that is a local startup in Sydney. That was an interesting story. Thus, I paid attention to listen their story. I found they faced a problem which a lot australian companies are facing, Australia is a relative small country. Our local market is not big enough to reach a critical mass. They pointed out Internet is an opportunity for Australian companies to reach the global easily. They are selling their software solutions. I believe that will be a model for every software company in Australia to consider!

Tasty ramen and dumplings

This afternoon , I and my wife had a tasty lunch at garden city. We went to hakataya for lunch.

We ordered a ramen with a free bowl  of  noodles. That was lovely.

Moreover, we had a dish of half priced japanese dumplings.

That was so full. After that, i spent an hour to do exercise. I wish to burn the weight gained by this lunch .
Address:
Shop 2072 Westfield Garden City Shopping Center
Cnr. Logan & Kessels Road Upper Mount Gravatt
Trading Hours:
Mon-Fri 9:00-21:00
Sat, 9:00-17:00
Sun 9:00-18:00

Nitrogen Ice Cream - Nitrogenie

Yesterday, after ANZAC Parade, I had a walk in southbank parkland. I found there is a Nitrogen Ice Cream shop, Nitrogenie. They used Liquid Nitrogen to make ice cream. Well, they are still ice cream, I cannot think they are not much different from normal ice cream, just because Nitrogen is in a super low temperature, it can make ice cream instantly! However, watching the staff making Nitrogen Ice Cream is a kind of fun!

Easter Monday Tour

Yesterday, that was a super nice weather. I and a group of church brothers and sisters went to glass mountains and maleny for some walks. That was fun!

Brisbane Software Development Company have to go Globally

Recently, my Company,AdvanGeneration, setup an online store to sell our software, moreover, we have our account in Google Player to sell our paid app long time ago. The reason to setup them is we wish to go Globally. Brisbane is not big enough, that is too small! We have to sell our software to everyone, not just about Brisbane!

Selling products online is not free of charge!

Some people believe selling products is very low cost, even free of charge. In our example, I have a C# library, AdvGen SQL Backup, which can trigger a SQL backup via C# code. Some of friends believe, I just put the details of online and hooked up PayPal. Then my job is done, I can sit back and relax, lastly, waiting the payments.
My friends, that is not that easy. I need to do the marketing. I have to invest a lot of money for online advertisements. I even talked with a lot of people offline for the product promotion. In this case, our product is only a small project. If we put some major products online, even I need to put advertisements on some local papers, put leaflets into the local people mail box. All of them requires "$$$"(money). You can say comparing the rental cost of a physical shopfront. Running my online shop  is much lower! But that is not cheap!

I am not well

Brisbane Autumn has arrived, out weather got cooler. Yesterday, that was a sunny day, I felt warm around 3pm. That was the time I was about to go out for Brisbane .Net User group at Microsoft Brisbane City Office. Brisbane.Net User Group meeting was good, I know more about Telerik Platform. Their Online IDE is great. You can run a lot of emulators via their web interface, such as IOS, Android and Windows Phone. 

However, after the meeting, that was about 8pm, the weather was very cold. That is the reason I got a cold today. I cannot work today.

Running I.T. Company is not easy.

Some people think that is very easy to setup an information technology company. You just need to do a business registration and buy a laptop. Then you can be the CEO of your own I.T. Firm. Yes, we don't need to a big office and even you can use a home office.  But, I wish to ask where we cam get customers. You may say the customers can find us from our company website. There are  thousands companies doing similar things with us. We still need to do marketing same as other companies. We posted advertisements online and local papers. They required to invest some money. Moreover , we needed to deal with accounting and legal matters. These requires other professionals to help us. Some fees are involved. These are not as simple as you thought

Kessels Road back to normal

Last night, around 6.15pm, I was driving on Kessels Road, near the intersection of Mains Road and Kessels Road. I found the traffic has improved a lot.  Few months, there was a long queue of cars in there around that hours.  I can say the traffic in there are better than "normal".

Facebook has a new interface

This morning, when I got up and turned on the PC, I found Facebook has a new interface. It looks more "Metro"!  Do you like it?

Sunny week

Last week, there was a lot of raining. This week, the sunny Brisbane came back. That is good. I go out for jogging. Just only one side effect. The weather is too hot. That wasn't very nice to work at afternoon without air conditioning.

Raining again!

Most of the time during this week, that is raining. Until now, that is still raining. Moreover, it is getting cool. Well, it sounds we are in autumn. But I don't like this kind of cool and wet weather! 

My first IOS application are still pending

I have spent around a year to build my first IOS application. That took too long. Well, that is because I need to learn a complete new language, Objective C. It took a few months to learn. Moreover, at the mean time, there were a lot of higher priority projects needed to be complete. Those slowed my first IOS application development. I wish I can finish it within a month, recently, I got some "free" time to do that.

I need to keep receipts

This week, our food streamer is out of order. That is around 9 months old and still under warranty. However, I lost the receipt as the proof of purchase date. At the end up, I can't get it fixed and have to buy a new old. This times, I stored the receipt safely and scanned it into my computer!

Busy Weeks

During these few weeks, I am very busy. I have a few projects will be closing off soon and I got a church training. These two Sunday, I got a fellowship after church. Moreover, I got some personal stuff need to sort out! That's why, I have not written any blogs for a few days. Well, I have not done a proper house cleaning during these three weeks too! That is too bad!

Qantas job cuts

I just heard the news about Qantas job cuts. The company did not went very well last year. I love to fly with cathay if that is an international travel. For domestic flights, I must choose Qantas. Thus, that news is a bit sad for me.

Time is going so fast

I am in Brisbane for around 14 years. I cannot image I have lived in this city for that long!  Time is going so fast. Brisbane sounds more like home than Hong Kong for me. 

I need Coffee

I am so tired now. During these two weeks, I worked around 10 hours per day(according to the standard in Hong Kong , that is very normal). I need coffee!

Most of my websites went normal

During last two weeks, some of our blogs went not very stable. I did some fixes. I upgraded them into the last version of blog software. I enabled all caching of pages where I can and enable cloudfare on all websites. Even I moved some blogs into a new web host. In addition, I asked more memory allowance from the web host too! I did a lot of work!
Finally, they are stable!

Performance Gain

Last two weeks, I have spent fair amount of time to update the content management system of my websites. Moreover, I enabled the cloudfare to all of them. In addition, I have some tuning on the cache level too.
Lastly, I moved a website to a more advanced performance web host. This morning, I ran some testes, those website loaded much, much faster!!!!

I did a lot of things during this weekend

On last Friday, I was sick. I did not completed many tasks. However, during this Saturday and Sunday,  I did a lot. Firstly I did around 12 to 14 hours training at church. Secondly, I did a deployment for a client. Lastly, I moved one of my own websites into a new hosting. I reached a big milestone!

Running out of energy

I got a busy week again. These two nights , I need to work after dinner. Busy is good, that means we have some businesses. But that is too tired. Moreover, the rest of this week I need to have training at my church. On sat, the training is from 9am to 8.30pm. That is very challenging. Please pray for me.

A hot day

That is another hot day. I wish to have afternoon sleep

Hakataya Ramen Dinner

I am still not feeling very well. That is still too tried to cook. Moreover, i want to have something tasty. Thus we went to Hakataya for dinner. That was great and we had a enjoyable dinner.

Hakataya Ramen

Sunnybank Plaza Shop

Shop 27B Sunnybank Plaza,

Cnr. Mains Road & McCullough Street. Sunnybank

QLD 4109

TEL:07-33441313

I think I got a flu

I feel headache, tired and muscle pain. I think I got a flu again! I took a cup of chinese herbal drink and I will go to bed earlier. Tomorrow, I will be fine again!

Still in a recovery mode

Last week, I worked very very very late night last Monday, actually, I went to sleep at 5.30am Tuesday. I had some catch up sleeping hours afterward. However, after a week time, I am still feeling very tired. maybe, I am getting old.

Finally friday

I got a big week this week. I worked from 8.00pm Monday to 5.30am tuesday. Now, finally ,that is friday. I am off from work and having some exercises at gym.

Big chinese new year dinner

Today is chinese new year. We went out to have something good. End up , we are having buffet in casino.

Hong Kong Style Milk Tea

I love coffee. I drink at least two cups of coffee every day! However, I love Hong Kong Style Milk Tea more. When I was in Hong Kong, I must have one for my lunch! Even I back to Brisbane, I need to have one every week! That was so tasty! I felt this kind of tea is as smooth as silk! Moreover, when I have this kind of tea, feel like going back home!

Dinner at Morrison Hotel

Last Saturday is a family member's Birthday, so we went to Morrison Hotel for our dinner as a celebration. I had a lot of friends said that is the best steak house in Brisbane.

Well, that was not a bad dinner. The Birthday girl ordered a 400g Black Angus Rump with pepper sauce. Because of, Angus is one of famous Australia Beef. the birthday girl was happy about her dinner

I ordered a Beer Battered Barramundi. That was very good! The fish sounded very fresh! Moreover, the chips and side dishes were tasty!

 That was a enjoyable dinner. The restaurant was very comfortable , not noisy at all! The service was good. Moreover, this dinner for two was only around $53. That was value for money.

Address
640 Stanley St
Woolloongabba, QLD, 4102

Tel:07 3391 1413

Training Time

Today is a public holiday for Australia day. That is not a 100% day off for myself, I need to do some training sessions. Finally, I can have time to watch Google I/O and some IOS tutorial videos!

A big feast at sunny seoul

Yesterday, we had a gathering / birthday party at Sunny Seoul in mains road. That was a big feast. We ordered two sets of $99 barbecue and hot pot combo dinner. We had a big plate of combination of meats, including beef, pork and chicken. 

Moreover, we had a big beef and vegetable hot pot too!

 So huge!

Somethings more, we had a lot of Korean Side dishes, including Kim-chi  and salad.

We felt very very full for a whole night. I worked very hard in gym this afternoon too, I wish to burn the fat from this dinner! Moreover, our group had ten people, and just spent $198. That is a good deal!

Address:

Shop 3A, 95 Main Roads.

Sunnybank , QLD 4109
Tel: 0733447589

Internet Literary Review

In my time at university, we already had internet. The most of sources were from internet. However, they were still some conference papers, just rather than getting them from library. We got them from a electronic database. Moreover, we had to check about the background of authors and conference, whether that is relevant to our research. That was very rare to use any internet websites. If we use them, we must have a very very excuse!
Nowadays, we have "google". That sounds everyone can be a professional researcher! I have a lot friends who claimed they are some kinds of experts on a specialized field. They can talk a lot and sounds know a lot too! After I asked "how do you know about that?", they started to show some websites, in some cases, they even showed me some video blogs from youtube. How can I trust those sources? Who is the author? How do they do the research? Even the authors have a "Dr." in front of their name, where they got their Ph.d and what is their research area. We completely don't know these information. I cannot treat any sources to be reliable with them, or even putting them into my "literary review".

Going to know more about bootstrap

I am going to microsoft office for .net user group. Today topic is about bootstrap. The latest responsive design framework. I wish to know about that. But i am so hungry now!!!

Finally, I got a break.

Today, that is Saturday.  I can get up at 10am, enough sleep.  I can find some time at gym and reading. That is great to have a day off.

I am thinking to buy roses

That is the first valentine's day after we got married. I am thinking whether I should some roses from our friend, Blooms, Baskets and gifts.

Using Mac

I got a Mac Book Pro about a year, but I only use OSX to build iphone app. Until recently, I got Android Studio installed in Mac Book Pro and my laptop. I found Android Studio working better in OSX. That is more easier to install and it got a better performance in OSX. I started to OSX more!

Home Office

I worked in my house most of time,even I got a part-time staff worked in my home too. Some of my friends from Hong Kong heard about this, they found that is very strange.Actually, in Queensland, that is not something unusual at all. I know a lot of people running their own business in their home. That is because we are not overcrowded as Hong Kong, that is no problem to put a office in our home. Moreover, home office can save a lot of money. Of course, this can save the rent for office space. In addition, that can save the travel cost and time between home and office. Thus, this is a great option for a small business, such as ourselves.