Why?
- The blog works in China
- Tumblr is connected to Instagram
- Tumblr has an iPhone app
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Moved to http://blog.erikchan.com
One month in transition moving my thousands of posts. I have officially moved to tumblr at http://blog.erikchan.com
Why?
Why?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Cook Me Crepes by Helene Ponty
Happy to announce Cook Me Crepes is finally on the iTunes store! Click Me
Been working with Miss Ponty on this app for a while, and it definitely took some motivation to learn iOS programming and finish up the picture/video editing. We made a lot of crepes throughout the process :)
Happy to say that until we decide on "in-app purchases", this is a done and done project. As always, starting a project is 30% of the work, finishing it is the final 70%. Please support us and our inspirations, making crepes are easier than one may think.
Cheers!
Thursday, January 05, 2012
2012
Working in China is hard. Every three steps forward is two steps back. Learn to have the patience to nurture. Don't cut corners, they bite back. Focus on the bigger picture.
2. Be Demanding yet Flexible.
Focus on quality and culture. Companies with momentum have strong cultures. Make yours with purpose.
3. Build a machine.
Great machines are well geared, well lubed, and stable. You know it's still continuing to hum along during your sleep, during your dreams, and during a storm. Manage to not have to manage.
Friday, December 23, 2011
The Chinese Internet
I've probably rambled about this before, but it wouldn't hurt to share my insight about the Chinese internet again...
Do you know why Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Wordpress and many more silicon valley sites are blocked in China? If you think it had nearly anything to do with censorship, you got it wrong. The journalists of the world make a big fuss over the great firewall of China, how all data on the web is censored by the country, but they don't understand it's the Chinese way of diverting attention to nurture their own industry. It's sneaky!
What China does not want are American silicon valley companies to own the IT industry on its own turf. By blocking websites from abroad, they've created opportunities for Chinese IT companies to grow and evolve (even at the small cost of lagging behind for a good few years). They want to build a similar competitive IT ecosystem in China (well underway!) and they don't want SV companies to own information passing thru the Chinese internet -we're talking high level jobs and services as the country becomes more developed.
The red Qzone area in the map below says it all. I find it hard pressed to acknowledge that the current scenario is by chance and not a well thought out scheme. These choices the country makes today will be significant in the future.
Do you know why Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Wordpress and many more silicon valley sites are blocked in China? If you think it had nearly anything to do with censorship, you got it wrong. The journalists of the world make a big fuss over the great firewall of China, how all data on the web is censored by the country, but they don't understand it's the Chinese way of diverting attention to nurture their own industry. It's sneaky!
What China does not want are American silicon valley companies to own the IT industry on its own turf. By blocking websites from abroad, they've created opportunities for Chinese IT companies to grow and evolve (even at the small cost of lagging behind for a good few years). They want to build a similar competitive IT ecosystem in China (well underway!) and they don't want SV companies to own information passing thru the Chinese internet -we're talking high level jobs and services as the country becomes more developed.
The red Qzone area in the map below says it all. I find it hard pressed to acknowledge that the current scenario is by chance and not a well thought out scheme. These choices the country makes today will be significant in the future.
A lot on my mind. I don't really know how to start without revealing more than I ought to.
I saw the Black Keys live at Webster Hall earlier this month, let's just say that totally rocked. My favorite band of 2011.
Been working on a new venture in Beijing lately: payments for mobile & online games. Exciting? Sort of, but maybe more so when we pick up speed next year. I've been getting my hands pretty dirty lately, execution execution execution. Hopefully something interesting to talk about next year.
I saw the Black Keys live at Webster Hall earlier this month, let's just say that totally rocked. My favorite band of 2011.
Been working on a new venture in Beijing lately: payments for mobile & online games. Exciting? Sort of, but maybe more so when we pick up speed next year. I've been getting my hands pretty dirty lately, execution execution execution. Hopefully something interesting to talk about next year.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, September 09, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Madeon - Pop Culture (live mashup)
Tracklist
Alphabeat - Boyfriend
Alphabeat - Fascination
Bag Raiders - Shooting Stars
Black Eyed Peas - Gotta Feeling
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
Capsule - Can I Have A Word
Chromeo - Momma's Boy
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Daft Punk - Around The World
Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon (Madeon Remix)
Deadmau5 - Right This Second
Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed
ELO - Mr. Blue Sky
Girls Aloud - Biology
Gorillaz - Dare
Gossip - Heavy Cross (Fred Falke Remix)
Gwen Stefani - What You Waitin For (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
Housse de Racket - Oh Yeah
Justice - DVNO
Justice - Phantom Part II
Katy Perry - One Of The Boys
Ke$ha - Take It Off
Kylie Minogue - Wow
Lady Gaga - Alejandro
Linkin Park - Crawling
Madonna - Hung Up
Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Boys and Girls
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Nero - Me and You
One Republic - All The Right Moves (Danger Remix)
One-T - Magic Key
Ratatat - Shempi
Solange - I Decided (Freemasons Remix)
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You
The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
The Killers - Losing Touch
The Who - Baba O'Riley (SebastiAn Remix)
Yelle - Que Veux Tu (Madeon Remix)
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Gameday Tycoon in the deadpool
Top 5 Misses
1. Market Timing. If I had ran at full speed the way I did when the project initiated (12/2008), the ending of the story would be entirely different. But I didn't do that until 6/2010, and the market had already evolved then. More importantly, I didn't have the foresight to see that coming because I was so focused on getting a product developed. Most internet entrepreneurs are ahead of their time, for me I was too late.
2. Didn't fail fast enough. Was it necessary to take a year to call quits? Glad to have the strength to say I'm done, but if this were to happen again, it should happen in 8 months. No excuses.
3. Didn't focus on validating a business model. More or less the same as 2), except this is about validating a business model. REPEAT: validating a MODEL. Not making money, not working on the perfect product, not optimizing conversion rate, but VALIDATING A MODEL. Start ups are supposed to be VALIDATING A MODEL. Cash will come with a validated model.
4. Games = Resources. Games are a resource business. You can't bootstrap them. Games cannot compromise on quality, and quality should not be compromised by resources. Conclusion: Games != Start ups.
Top 5 Hits
1. Customer Development. Feels great to know we talked to customers all the time. It gave us the confidence to spend time working on things that mattered. It gave us the confidence to quit. An incredible business is in the works if I continue to do this.
2. Execution. We were lean. Everything you can ask for from a start up team. Passion, confidence, savvy, ethics (the gray type), we did what we set out to do and we executed really well given our constraints and resources.
3. Mentorship. Severely lacking in my last start up, I made sure I surrounded myself with trusting, successful mentors. These were guys that helped me make this a learning experience even if the project is now in the deadpool. They changed how I would think about an internet business.
4. Analytics. From the get go, I pushed for an analytics driven culture. No maybes, no circular discussions, no personal opinions. Analytics was how discussions were supported and it worked. And we tracked the living hell out of everything. I wouldn't change that if I were to start any new business.
Not painful. I'm optimistic.
1. Market Timing. If I had ran at full speed the way I did when the project initiated (12/2008), the ending of the story would be entirely different. But I didn't do that until 6/2010, and the market had already evolved then. More importantly, I didn't have the foresight to see that coming because I was so focused on getting a product developed. Most internet entrepreneurs are ahead of their time, for me I was too late.
2. Didn't fail fast enough. Was it necessary to take a year to call quits? Glad to have the strength to say I'm done, but if this were to happen again, it should happen in 8 months. No excuses.
3. Didn't focus on validating a business model. More or less the same as 2), except this is about validating a business model. REPEAT: validating a MODEL. Not making money, not working on the perfect product, not optimizing conversion rate, but VALIDATING A MODEL. Start ups are supposed to be VALIDATING A MODEL. Cash will come with a validated model.
4. Games = Resources. Games are a resource business. You can't bootstrap them. Games cannot compromise on quality, and quality should not be compromised by resources. Conclusion: Games != Start ups.
Top 5 Hits
1. Customer Development. Feels great to know we talked to customers all the time. It gave us the confidence to spend time working on things that mattered. It gave us the confidence to quit. An incredible business is in the works if I continue to do this.
2. Execution. We were lean. Everything you can ask for from a start up team. Passion, confidence, savvy, ethics (the gray type), we did what we set out to do and we executed really well given our constraints and resources.
3. Mentorship. Severely lacking in my last start up, I made sure I surrounded myself with trusting, successful mentors. These were guys that helped me make this a learning experience even if the project is now in the deadpool. They changed how I would think about an internet business.
4. Analytics. From the get go, I pushed for an analytics driven culture. No maybes, no circular discussions, no personal opinions. Analytics was how discussions were supported and it worked. And we tracked the living hell out of everything. I wouldn't change that if I were to start any new business.
Not painful. I'm optimistic.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Beer Labelsss
Helene took me beer brewing :)
We brewed 5 gallons of Trappist Triple Ale over memorial weekend. Chimay style -golden with mild sweet orange citrus aroma and flavor.
It will be 3 more weeks of fermentation before we bottle our beers, but I've already designed our beer bottle label.
I love the idea of giving them out as gifts.
We brewed 5 gallons of Trappist Triple Ale over memorial weekend. Chimay style -golden with mild sweet orange citrus aroma and flavor.
It will be 3 more weeks of fermentation before we bottle our beers, but I've already designed our beer bottle label.
I love the idea of giving them out as gifts.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Peggy2 Project 1.3
Here it is finally, after bug after bug after bug.
The video below is my Peggy2 (a matrix of 625 white LEDs) visualizing audio. Same as my previous post, this is serial data running from my Mac to an Arduino and then to my Peggy via I2C. The audio equalizer code was written in processing.
I also sped up framerate issues with the webcam feed and made a new video.
I really want to call it a wrap on this project and start on something new. But a bluetooth extension would allow this thing to detach from my computer. That would be kind of nice.
The video below is my Peggy2 (a matrix of 625 white LEDs) visualizing audio. Same as my previous post, this is serial data running from my Mac to an Arduino and then to my Peggy via I2C. The audio equalizer code was written in processing.
I also sped up framerate issues with the webcam feed and made a new video.
I really want to call it a wrap on this project and start on something new. But a bluetooth extension would allow this thing to detach from my computer. That would be kind of nice.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Gorillaz iElectribe
Gorillaz teamed up with Korg to take on the iElectribe. The result is an awesome iPad app to mix and remix their new album 'The Fall'.
This is a collaboration worth digging about.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
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