Braggin' Time

Hey guys, there's another article about me in the NUS Enterprise Zone mag, same as last time, except in this one the photo is bigger, and I look better. Click here to check it out!

Ramblings about love

DC:	make money first lah
	The women will follow
Me:	i know... but liddat it won't be love lor
DC:	money won't buy you love
	but it will sure get you noticed
Me:	but I could live with lots of money and lots of girls
DC	of course
	yeah, if you like women, you can't settle for just one
	if not then you just like 'woman'
Me:	yeah. but then there's like and there's love
	u can like women but love 1 woman
DC:	roight
	you're the idealist lah
Me:	50-50
	dun tell me you've given up hope meh? of finding 1 love?
DC:	i never gave up because i already found it
	but that is as far as i can go
Me:	as far as u can go as in? you don't want to say more?
DC:	no as in i found her but i cannot pursue
	so like that lor
Me:	to me, its has to be 2 ways... I can't love a person who doesn't love me...
DC:	then i ask you, can you NOT love a person who loves you?
	if love is two ways, how is it unconditional?
Me:	yes... it is possible to not love a person who loves me...
	but cannot have a r/s with someone who doesn't love me right?
DC:	thats true
Me:	unconditional love exists... but I believe its not bwt a couple
DC:	marriage perhaps?
	go watch Corpse Bride then
Me:	like parent-children
DC:	yeah
	that goes without saying
Me:	you more idealistic than me lor
DC:	but the question i want answered is if its possible to have unconditional love between two people not of relation?
	i believe its possible if you meet that one true love
	so keep searching dude
Me:	I have a different philosophy
DC:	lets hear it
Me:	I believe that there isn't just 1 person in the world you can be compatible with
	which means.. that if you love someone and the person doesn't love u back... you can find someone else
DC:	thats a good one to follow too
	but i tend to lean on the more tragic and martyr like ones...
	ahhaha
Me:	dui lah....
	well, I'm not saying that you should be like philanderous*, but if you are too set on one you might be closing your heart to better ones
	* The word 'philanderous' doesn't exist. but I meant it to philandering
DC:	true
	oh well, we'll see how it plays out
Me:	yeah... in the meantime, enjoy being single

One list to rule them all

They say good ideas meet a particular need or problem. Well, this one arose while I was trying to organize my business cards. I have about 200+ business cards, and I'm pretty sure that its a problem a lot of businessmen face - compiling their business cards (digitally), so that contacts can be retrieved easily. And as the saying goes, "It's not what you know, but who you know". So keep tracking of who you know is extremely important, and there are 3 problems relating to this:

1) A standard contact details format. I have my addressbook in my phone, email lists on google, business contacts on Microsoft Outlook, contact lists on MSN.... there ought to be a standard where I type in 1 person's contact details, and this person's details are portable across platforms and devices. Admittedly, there is a widely used format right now - .vcf format from AddressBook and this format can be exported from Microsoft Outlook, and can be used on Windows CE enabled PDAs. But I wouldn't call it a standard until it is used across devices, and various email clients.

2) Having tons of business cards and having to manually input them into Outlook. In this day and age, we should really do away with this outmoded exchange of information. Waste paper, take up space, hard to manage...

3) Updating of contact details. Whenever someone changes their number, they have to inform everyone of their phone list. You can't do that in business, because you don't know who you've given your cards too, and you never know when someone might call. That's why most businessmen "die die" stick to having the same number.

The solution? Digital business cards, and a central database to store to the information. Instead of carrying cards around (and having to replenish everytime), the digital card would be stored in your handphone. You could have different versions of it, one for business, one for friends, one for strangers etc. To exchange cards, you do it via bluetooth or IR (which most phones have). And then you sync the phone with your desktop or computer, to update your contact list. And since it is in standardized format, your email addressbook is updated, your messaging contacts are updated etc. This list is also kept online, so everytime someone on your list changes their details, your list gets updated, and your phone gets updated too whenever you sync with your computer. I envision a day where I no longer have to fill up another customer registration form - I will just have to submit my electronic business card.

How to make money? This is the tough question. The way I see it, a top-down approach would be the best way to implement this idea. Microsoft would collaborate with handphone makers to have the "business card exchange" software installed, thus setting the standard for everyone else. But the problem with a top-down approach is that everyone wants theirs to be the standard, so I can envision a Microsoft vs (Palm & Apple& the rest) standards.

So a bottom-up approach? Well, I'm sure that the software on the handphone is easy to write, as well as the software for uploading and sync-ing contact lists. The tough part is getting handphone manufacturers to use the software. After that, the usage of the software has to be free, so that everyone will adopt it. So how to make money? There will probably be a premium services option, which will allow users to "advertise" to people on their list. Having a central database of user information is itself a huge goldmine for advertisers, customer research analysts. And now that people are using 1 way to share personal details, you could have something like Froogle lists, where people start sharing what they would like to buy etc. Then you could have music lists, movie lists, book lists.... and very soon you'll have another Friendster or Yahoo Groups, except this is better because the information will be sync-ed with your mobile devices.

Wow, I think this is a pretty good idea. Too bad my hands are tied with DecisionWare right now. But hey, if you see Microsoft or any other company implementing this idea, remember: You read it here first.