Geeks ...

How true ...
I just found an article on the web about geeks and I have to admit some of it really mirror what I think and drives my motivation:

1. Geeks are curious. Let them feed their desire to learn things

I don?t know how much emphasis I can place on this point. You can take the ultimate geek?give them a rockin? compensation package?and give them ?rubber-stamped? projects (same tasks over and over) for two years and they?ll probably quit anyway. This point is based on the notion that if a geek feels his ability to gain knowledge is hindered he?ll try to find it somewhere else. Let them satisfy their curiosities with the task of picking up the latest technologies and applying them as they see fit. (Even if it?s just for a prototype.)

2. Geeks like to be self-sustaining. Let them figure things out on their own.

I haven?t met a true geek yet that wants you to hold their hand through every step of an implementation. In fact I?ve seen quite the opposite. They want to do things their way. If you suggest something, odds are the solution is wrong in their mind because it?s not what they would have come up with first. There?s many ways to complete a task in the technical arena, why cram your solution down their throats? Don?t hinder their creativity, just let them figure it out. The exception to this is probably in design. You obviously have to define your interfaces between components and have your requirements for the implementation. Let the details get figured out by whoever?s doing the dirty work. You can optimize things later if they aren?t up to par.

...

More can be found here: http://www.retrospector.com/2006/06/21/top-10-ways-to-motivate-geeks/

*g*

Wikipedia - Government

Recently one of my tasks at work, was to write a proposal about Wiki enabled systems in an enterprise. This was actually quite interesting, as a system based on the principles of open-source not often gets along with enterprise requirements.

Referring to WikiPedia - the online encyclopedia - a huuuge success. People are getting more and more familiar with this new technology and the fact of not having any trade limitations of proprietary software - Intellectual property or any other kind of rubbish - and the removal of social limitations of a hierarchy is in a bundled form - building one large internet community.

People are treated the same way - doctors / science professors, teachers, taxi drivers and/or kids can contribute to a fast growing system and instead of having only a definition of one instance, you get a more widely spread (accepted may be the better word) explanation of things.

Real life:
I do like elections - It is always the time when politicans run around in the city and offering everything to the people. This enthusiasm - this positive thinking - 'we can reach whatever we want - because we have the best politicans sitting in our government'.
Come on ... what a rubbish ... The government is driven by certain key people, making decisions based on their own understanding - and in the hope to improve something (or at least to get a good publicity for the votes!!) - in the end, it is only an act of self-enriching.

Don't get me wrong - I am aware that government / laws & politics have a reason and are therefore necessary, but there is almost no influence from the public.
Instead of having the 'I know - you do' approach, I think it is important to know what the people are thinking. Such wiki systems (blogs / rss feeds ...) are a start of a new era (for all geeks out there: you might refer to it as WEB2.0 - which is in my eyes another useless abbreviation) - people offering their knowledge to the outside world. The common thought becomes more visible and I think especially the government could profit from that methodology.

On the contrary, I spoke to my girlfriend about all that and she also agreed that it is a good approach. Nevertheless she made a critical comment about that whole new education: "You have the freedom of speech - just not freedom after speech!" ... She was cross-referencing to asian countries, limiting their people in the usage of new media, like internet and further on also the blog-sphere. Limiting google's search power to block certain pages ... people getting locked up in jail for using their freedom of speech ...

"Rules & processes have been there for ages and they have to be correct & true - otherwise my parents / grandparents wouldn't have established them. Follow these rules and never enter the evil path of trying something new!"

I asked some of my team members to tell me how they think about wiki / government & freedom of speech ... Believe me ... there are huge cultural gaps!

Nevertheless I was pretty surprised about an article I recently stumbled across, explaining the scholarship scheme of my new home country/town Singapore. I was fascinated, that the Singapore government is actually sponsoring local students to go to abroad universities like Harvard / Yale etc. To do so, they agree that once they've finished studying, they will work for the government for a certain amount of time. Having the best people working for the government! That is pretty smart. (*evil_eyes* ... compared to the snoring, air-wasting and f***ing time consuming bureaucrats I am used to from back home!!!!)

Anyway ... I held a presentation of one wiki enabled tools last week, called Confluence (the software is pretty neat and tailored for geeks to play around!!) and from my feeling it went pretty well. Wiki - Here we go ;) ...

Work in HongKong ...

As mentioned in my previous blog, I flew to HongKong last week to work on a project there. So finally arrived pretty relaxed at the airport and a nice limousine was already waiting for me, to take me to the hotel .. *ahhhhh* ... what a service ... why can't I have that every day?!

I checked into my hotel room and fell down on my bed ... what a good feeling - finally getting some more sleep after a long party weekend. I was honestly very impressed of the view from the hotel room across the HK harbour. It is an amazing feeling in the morning to wake up and having the sun shining straight into ur face, to open the eyes and to see such an impressive sight. It kind of reminded me to Sydney ...

Another shot from the harbour @ night! Especially the Bank of China is world famous in the skyline. Just in front of it, the building with the red light wrapped around it, is my office. Pretty much walking distance ...

That is for sure something you can't find in Singapore.
I had a pretty interesting week there. Nathan, a colleague, who's currently living there showed me around and introduced me to a lot of interesting people. On the weekend, the party crew from SIN flew into HK and we were facing another big weekend.

OMG ... what a time ... It is Thursday (the week after) already and I still haven't fully recovered. Friday night - Some drinks @ Lang Kwai Fong ... bit of clubbing, but nothing too serious - I had to work on Saturday. The next night, we went to a house party at the other end of the island and afterwards hit the night life of HK. Wow wow wow ... We left the party at around 2 am and went to the first night club ... dancing dancing dancing ... went to another club ... again dancing ... we left the club to go to an 'After-Party' and I think that was the first time, I realized, it was 10 am in the morning. Went to that party, but just for 1 - 2 drinks and then went back to the hotel room to pack my stuff and get ready for the airport. A weekend to remember!! (In the picture: Jonny, Ben, Charles & me)

Nevertheless I am also quite sad now, as Charlie has left Singapore last night to go back to UK. I think I've mentioned it in an earlier blog, but the people come and go very frequent here. People stay most of the time around 6 months and then head back ...
Anyway ... Charlie - take care ... and I'll see you again in Manchester or Germany!! Say hello to Anna and good luck for the job!

*g* ...

That's it for now!
Step

Kuala Lumpur - lets party ;)

[location: Singapore]
[mood: tired]

*sad* ... *cry* ...
The world cup is over and in the end Germany did not win the cup ... *sad* ...
*kidding*
I am still impressed with the german team and officially congratulate them to their success. The way they played was strong and smart. Very impressive games! I haven't seen such games in a long time. The fact that they lost against Italy was unfortunate, but I think all-in-all fair.
I watched the first game (Germany - Argentina) in KL with friends. For the Italy game, I stood up to watch it in my hotel room. (3am!!) Still ... good game - bad finish :D

As mentioned above, we (10 people from Singapore) went for a party weekend to Kuala Lumpur. Arrived at the airport and took a cab to the city ... Checked into the hotel and watched the rest of the game. In the end, it was already 2:30 until we left the hotel to go clubbing. I was a bit disapointed to realize that the clubs all close at around 3 - 3:30 ... I am not kidding!! We lived straight across from the 'Zouk' - prolly the best known night club in KL - and we got kicked out at 3:30 ...
Even in Singapore the clubs are open longer hours!! Nevertheless, had a relaxing saturday and went shopping. Watched the England game on sat night and was shocked to see them losing! What a pity! On the other hand, the penalties were really bad!

Sunday was close and I had to leave for my next trip to HongKong. I packed my stuff in a hurry and went to the airport. Arrived there and had a nice chat with the lady at the check in counter. I went inside, to discover another bright spot of human intelligence ... I was quite hungover, so I bought myself a coffee & orange juice at a cafe inside the airport, just to realize that they don't accept credit cards and ONLY local currency. Isn't everybody always trying to get rid of all the foreign currency, in order NOT to take it with you back home?? An international location (an AIRPORT!!) should allow credit card payments.
In the end, I had to withdraw money (as u can imagine, the minimum amount was way higher than the actual prize for the coffee plus a huge transaction fee on top.) It was propably the most expensive coffee ever ;)

So quite unhappy about that, I went to the flight counter and hey ... life is beautiful. Upgrade waiting for me *yippie* ... In my new company all flights below 5 hrs are always Economy class, so I happily surprised to see an airline employee waiting for me handing me the new ticket over. *g* ...

This again shows me that I can't be that wrong with my following theory:

HOW-TO get upgrades on a flight: (Assuming there is a need to perform upgrades due to overbooking etc)
- Be sensible with ur choice of clothes: It is a tough statement, but I'd say that wearing a suit will double ur chances of getting upgraded. For the simple reason, that people around you would think you are flying business class anyway. Sitting in the plane with shorts and flip flops would be bad for the other 'paying' guests - as they'd question why they paid for that extra.
- Be nice at the check-in counter: People working there hate the 'wanna-be important' people. Don't ask about upgrades etc. Especially never mention 'Hey i am super gold diamond ultra member - i neeeed to get upgrades' - or 'all other airlines upgrade me as well!' ... won't work! I'll promise!!
Just being nice at the counter and to make her smile - will increase your chances of her adding the 'Recommended for upgrade' comment to ur booking. (The ladies at the boarding gate will use these information if there is a need for upgrades)
- Don't expect to get upgrades to first or business, if you've bought the super-cheap-saver flight ticket for 90$. Every ticket belongs to a certain class and only some of them allow upgrades.
- In general, upgrades only work for one category. It has to be a verrrrry special case, to get upgraded to first class from economy. Don't expect that.
- Upgrades obviously depend on availablity. If there are no seats - there are no upgrades! Easy!
- Frequent flyer miles & status will help! The lady at the ticket counter will see immediately that you are a FF and make ur life easier ;)

Just a short list of things I've experienced so far. And at least for me (I don't really care about flying eco) it worked quite often. At least 65% of my past flights (within 6 months) have been upgraded. I figured, that especially the ladies at the check-in are amazingly powerful. Don't ask them out on a date, but flirting a bit will for sure make her day.

That's it ... Ste