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	<title>The Iron Sea &#187; 2008 &#187; April</title>
	<atom:link href="http://theironsea.com/2008/04/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://theironsea.com</link>
	<description>inside the never settle mind of Houston Ng</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 04:15:01 +0000</pubDate>
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	<language>en</language>
			<item>
		<title>Just like cooking Italian for the locals</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/26/18/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/26/18/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:40:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=18</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Generating ideas for non-English speaking areas is a much simpler thing. One can almost copy what&#8217;s out there and as long as keep the idea straight it will work. But there is one catch, make sure it suits their tastes. Don&#8217;t make it authentic Italian food , make it &#8220;you-think-it&#8217;s-authentic-but-it&#8217;s-modified-to-suit-your-taste&#8221; authentic Italian food
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Generating ideas for non-English speaking areas is a much simpler thing. One can almost copy what&#8217;s out there and as long as keep the idea straight it will work. But there is one catch, make sure it suits their tastes. Don&#8217;t make it authentic Italian food , make it &#8220;you-think-it&#8217;s-authentic-but-it&#8217;s-modified-to-suit-your-taste&#8221; authentic Italian food</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/26/18/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Bad Site Design: KFC Hong Kong</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/23/12/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/23/12/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:50:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Ramblings]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Site Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=12</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Websites in Hong Kong are littered with Flash only. That, well, only flash enabled computers can read&#8230; Sadly my iPhone&#8217;s Safari is not one of them.
So the story was that I got this KFC craving today. When I go to this KFC (or, was) in Central, I was bumped to found out that it&#8217;s been [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Websites in Hong Kong are littered with Flash only. That, well, only flash enabled computers can read&#8230; Sadly my iPhone&#8217;s Safari is not one of them.</p>
<p>So the story was that I got this <a href="http://www.kfchk.com/eng/index.htm" target="_blank">KFC</a> craving today. When I go to this <a href="http://http//www.kfchk.com/eng/index.htm" target="_blank">KFC</a> (or, was) in Central, I was bumped to found out that it&#8217;s been replaced by a cosmetics shop. I then took out my trusty iPhone and wanna look for an alternative location.  Got on to <a href="http://www.kfchk.com/eng/index.htm" target="_blank">KFC</a> HK site and what happened? This&#8230;</p>
<p><img src="http://theironsea.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/iphone_kfc.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="214" /></p>
<p>Fancy flash is definitely old, slow and not for people on the go. Where is the accessiblity!?</p>
<p>But I stil want my<a href="http://www.kfchk.com/eng/index.htm" target="_blank"> KFC</a>!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/23/12/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Testing CSS accessiblity on a Mac</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/23/10/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/23/10/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:57:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Code]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=10</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well Mac has been a great friend from a developer point of view. I don&#8217;t think there are too many objections to that. The problem a web designer face is the pain in butt issue in IE both 6 &#38; 7 (probably 8 too, haven&#8217;t tried the beta yet tho). And yes I know this [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well Mac has been a great friend from a developer point of view. I don&#8217;t think there are too many objections to that. The problem a web designer face is the pain in butt issue in IE both 6 &amp; 7 (probably 8 too, haven&#8217;t tried the beta yet tho). And yes I know this page&#8217;s header is not working too well on IE but I haven&#8217;t got a chance to work on it yet</p>
<p>Well, Thanks to Apple switching to Intel. We have parallels, which leads to IE6 or IE7&#8230; depending which one which one you&#8217;ve installed and there can only be one installed at the same time humm&#8230;</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the solution.</p>
<p>I just found out how you can install all the IE from 3.3 to 6 all in a nice package HA!</p>
<p><a href="http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE" target="_self">Multiple IE from Tredo Soft </a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/23/10/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Code Versioning for startup</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/22/9/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/22/9/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:35:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Code]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Startup]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=9</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Code management is probably the top priority of any software development startup. So this is going to be an ongoing post to keep track of what&#8217;s out there

SVN. Used to use it back at my old aero company. It&#8217;s great but the code pretty much sits in the companies&#8217; server. That was the old day.. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Code management is probably the top priority of any software development startup. So this is going to be an ongoing post to keep track of what&#8217;s out there</p>
<ol>
<li>SVN. Used to use it back at my old aero company. It&#8217;s great but the code pretty much sits in the companies&#8217; server. That was the old day.. Anyway, There are tons of these online hosting too! There are, <a href="http://unfuddle.com/">Unfuddle</a> and <a href="http://www.assembla.com/">Assembla</a></li>
<li>GIT. New &#8220;IT&#8221; thing for the Web2.0 community. And now it&#8217;s much cleaner and simpler with the new <a href="http://github.com" target="_self">GitHub</a> repository service. Now code can stay online and shared anywhere! Great! Pricing is not too bad for a startup too like $7-12/month. Umm&#8230; sound like I need to get an account there&#8230; wait I don&#8217;t have any code nor collaborators&#8230;. well versioning is still a good habit</li>
</ol>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/22/9/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Money saving guide for startup</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/5/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/5/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Startup]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=5</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More useful tips on startup from industry veterans. original post
Here&#8217;s a quick recap of THE list with a little Hong Kong/Chinese flair:

Buy Macs. Genius Bar &#38; Applecare is your IT department
2nd monitor for everyone. Time-saver= money-saver. A $300 Dell monitor rotated vertical is a programmer&#8217;s best friend
Buy everyone lunch four days a week and have a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>More useful tips on startup from industry veterans. <a title="Original post" href="http://www.calacanis.com/2008/03/07/how-to-save-money-running-a-startup-17-really-good-tips/" target="_blank">original post</a></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a quick recap of THE list with a little Hong Kong/Chinese flair:</p>
<ol>
<li>Buy Macs. Genius Bar &amp; Applecare is your IT department</li>
<li>2nd monitor for everyone. Time-saver= money-saver. A $300 Dell monitor rotated vertical is a programmer&#8217;s best friend</li>
<li>Buy everyone lunch four days a week and have a no-meeting policy. Lunch meetings save time. (Comment: )</li>
<li>Get cheap tables but expensive $500 chairs . Workstations are over-rated but comfy chairs make workers happy.</li>
<li>No phone system except admin staff. IM is the thing</li>
<li>Rent out all the extra office space. (Comment: Probably irrelevant in HK because of tiny offices )</li>
<li>Outsource HR and account dept.</li>
<li>Microsoft Office is expensive so install only on a few and use Google Doc for the rest</li>
<li>GMail is your email server. It&#8217;s free </li>
<li> Give a home computer to workaholics so that they can work from home. (Comment: What about MacBook pro for them?)</li>
<li>&#8220;Fire people who <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">are not workaholics</span> don&#8217;t love their work&#8221; (Comment: Can&#8217;t phrase it better that. But he is right. People are expensive so you need the most passionate people)</li>
<li>Get expensive espresso machine. Starbucks at the office saves valuable resource time</li>
<li>Stock sodas for everybody. Again, make them happy and you save time</li>
<li>Flexible work hours. Commute is energy wasting and time consuming.</li>
<li>Go to your vendor every 6-9 months and ask for discount. </li>
<li>HR with linkedin and Facebook</li>
<li>Get PR consultant based on projects instead of contract-based</li>
<li>Outsource to middle America (Comment: for HK, Outsource to China, we have 11 billion talented people that cost half as much up North. Use them!)</li>
</ol>
<div>More HK specific Ideas</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Cheap locations are everywhere. Tons of old aging industrial areas are cheap and huge</li>
<li>Use Mainland staff. Just to make sure they are actually helpful. Talents in China can be sketchy sometimes and work culture is very different.</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/5/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Book Review - 25% Cash Machine by Bryan Perry</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/4/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/4/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:57:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Book]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Investment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=4</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Title: The 25% Cash Machine : Double Digit Income Investing
Author: Bryan Perry
Publisher: John Wiley &#38; Sons
Just finished another book on investment. I picked this one from the book store because I am pretty much tired of all the rest out there. there are only 2 types, either Buy-and-Hold Mutual Fund or Day-trade stock picking. Not [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Title: <strong>The 25% Cash Machine : Double Digit Income Investing</strong></p>
<p>Author: <strong>Bryan Perry</strong></p>
<p>Publisher: John Wiley &amp; Sons</p>
<p>Just finished another book on investment. I picked this one from the book store because I am pretty much tired of all the rest out there. there are only 2 types, either Buy-and-Hold Mutual Fund or Day-trade stock picking. Not that I am against them, it&#8217;s just that they are boring! They are all the same and all derived from books that are 100 yrs old!</p>
<p>Here comes 25% Cash Machine. This book is all about finding high-dividend stocks with potential growth value. It&#8217;s not completely a buy-and-hold. You need to constantly on a lookout for market trends and changes. Be prepared to move out and ride on another one. The strategy is to ride on the best growth potential stock while maintaining &gt;10% dividend. That is all it is about. It goes on explaining the whole high-dividend stock categories out there. Man, there are truly a whole boat load of these stocks out there and they are all 10% per year! To name a few super stars:</p>
<ul>
<li>Penn West Energy (PWE) - 13.20%</li>
<li>Pengrowth Energy (PGH) - 13.20%</li>
<li>Harvest Energy Trust (HTE) - 14.70%</li>
<li>Frontline Ltd (FRO) - 15.00%</li>
<li>Terra Nitrogen (TNH) - 11.90%</li>
</ul>
<p>These stocks are not only giving out large divs. They are also growing and appreciating. So here&#8217;s the plan, I am going to try build a portfolio again this year based on this strategy. Let&#8217;s see how I perform next year!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>36 Startup Tips</title>
		<link>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/3/</link>
		<comments>http://theironsea.com/2008/04/21/3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:34:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Houston</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Startup]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theironsea.com/?p=3</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Such a great resource with tips for tech startup. Man, I need this badly!
Almost want to print it out and nail it on the wall
Link Here
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Such a great resource with tips for tech startup. Man, I need this badly!</p>
<p>Almost want to print it out and nail it on the wall</p>
<p><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/36_startup_tips.php" target="_blank">Link Here</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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