Work
Oct 20 2008
A few weeks ago Dr. Ted, the former Chief Scientist at my previous work, Veoh, contacted me and asked whether I would be interested in working for a new company he just joined at their Shanghai office. The company concerned was Infovell. They were one of the 77 companies at this year’s DEMO. I was interested but didn’t really expected the opportunity to go anywhere. However, after a dozen emails and a few conference calls later, I found myself on a flight to Shanghai for 4 days to check out the office and meet the guys I’ll be working with in a near future. I was there since Thursday and came back just last night. Ted was there as well for a couple of weeks. Qianjin, the company founder, was really hospitable; treating us to nice dinner every night and providing great accommodations. It was my first time going to Shanghai and it was a pretty impressive city, certainly catching up quick to Hong Kong.
I accepted the offer mainly for the opportunity to see more of the world while I’m still young and for the work experience I will get working with a group of smart people. I will be leaving my current position at aNobii and joining Infovell sometime near the end of next month. I always say, life is so unpredictable. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow and see where it takes you.
Jul 30 2008
This past weeks were hectic with work. (OMG, this has become my opening line for so many entries already. I have really turned into a workaholic.) Right after we got done with the new shelf view, we immediately started working on an iPhone web-app for the 2008 Hong Kong Book Fair. The deadline wouldn’t have been as tight as it was if we weren’t trying to get it out by the iPhone Hong Kong launch party on the 17th. aNobii was one of the few presenters to demo our web-app at the party. We had this whole Mac-vs-PC skit planned, but we got cut short since we went over our 8 mins allowed. Oh well, we were almost done anyway.
Then we were at the book fair on Monday for an interview with Next Magazine. That journalist certainly asked a lot of questions, but I doubt it will get published anytime soon. The same journalist has already come up to our office once a couple months ago to interview Greg (my boss + aNobii founder), and that ended up going nowhere.
I had worked for more than 2 weeks straight on the interface and interactions of the app. I was so proud of myself since I have always wanted to make a functional web-app for the iPhone since it first came out, so this was a great opportunity for me. All the interface effects were built with the Mootools framework, with AJAX for data retrieval. I know the book fair is over already, but you can still check out the app on your iPhone at hkbf.anobii.com/iphone. I guess you can also load it up on Safari if you don’t have an iPhone. For those who don’t have either, a video demo is available on our press kit page. :D
Jun 29 2008
I really wish I could be blogging more than I have been, but work has been hectic. I’m often pulling 10-11 hour days on a regular basis, and that’s not counting freelance projects that are keeping me up at night and taking over my weekends. I’m also trying to go home more often over weekends to see my family. My dad was telling me the other day that I have many more years of work ahead of me, and there is no need to take on so much now. He said I should really strive for a balanced life and enjoy it while I’m still young, which I took to heart dearly.
Anyway, after months of developing and fine-tuning, we have finally launched the updated shelf pages on aNobii. I’m really proud of the new look and interactions. Personally I think they are far more user-friendly and intuitive than the previous version. However, the increase use of AJAX in various spots has me worried about its impact on page-views and Alexa ranking. I guess we’ll let things play out and see how it goes.
I finally got my MacBook Pro fixed. That poor thing’s built-in keyboard and trackpad have been broken since the beginning of this year, but the geek in me couldn’t go for a day without a computer so I waited until after I bought my iMac before bringing it in to get it fixed. The service I got from the Apple authorized service center in Hong Kong was not as bad as I thought it would be. I got the baby back spotting a brand new keyboard and top panel a little under 2 weeks. I sure hope nothing else is ever going to happen to it as its Apple Care will be up in a month’s time or so.
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