Archive for April, 2007
30 Apr, 2007
Dear God
Dear God,
Give me someone to love.
I’m talking romantic, butterflies-in-stomach,
Sleep-losing, appetite-destroying love.
Conditionally Loving Always,
Donn
PS: Otherwise, I’m never going to Church again.
27 Apr, 2007
He Dreams (Cho’s Parents)
It is evening. The setting sun gives off a soft, warm glow.
Holding hands, they take a slow walk down a stretch of deserted beach. They say nothing, but walk, listening to the sounds of the waves making their way onshore.
He looks at her, and starts thinking about how wonderful she is, and how lucky he is to be with her. He starts thinking about the future, their future. He imagines them living in their dream home. Oh! how wonderful it will all be!
He imagines their children running about in the house, knocking into things, getting hurt; and how he would come to their rescue, comforting them.
He imagines them growing up, graduating from high school, and doing well enough to go to University, something he had never done, and probably never will. And he imagines one of them shooting other kids.
26 Apr, 2007
In the Woods
I drew a couple of pictures recently. Just felt so proud of them I couldn’t help but post it here. :)
Here’s one of an old man with a child. This was inspired by a photo I saw which accompanied a poem (Rudyard Kipling’s If).
Here’s one of a girl. I had actually tried to sketch a girl I knew. But after the sketch was more or less done, I realised it didn’t really look like her.
UPDATE: Then again, it does.
25 Apr, 2007
Does IT Matter?
I’m currently reading a book called Does IT Matter?, by author Nicholas G. Carr. It basically talks about how IT’s competitive advantage has been corroded through the commodatisation of IT.
IT as a Commodity
I had never thought of IT in this way consciously, of IT as a commodity. When we talk of IT as a commodity, we are comparing IT to things like the railway system, telephones, and the electric grid. IT has become ubiquitous: it is everywhere.
No longer can a company say that because they make use of IT, they have an advantage over competitors: that would be akin to saying that by having electricity they have an advantage over competitors.
The reasons behind the commoditisation of IT has been said to come from the homogenising of IT, of the creation of standards, of how all IT hardware and software have evolved to become so similar they cease to possess inherent compeitive advantages.
And with the advent of the Internet, the commoditisation process has been sped up, with standardisation becoming all the more important as we seek to share more and more information with increasingly larger numbers of people.
While reading the chapter on the homogenising of IT, and IT software in particular, Windows Vista vs. Mac OS X came to mind. The similarities between Microsoft’s latest OS and Mac OS X is uncanny.
So, Does IT Matter?
I think that IT does still matter, though no more can have a competitive advantage over others just by possessing it.
The focus is no longer whether one should or should not use IT, but rather, how one can use IT creatively.
20 Apr, 2007
Marketing Text
I was reading through my Marketing text when I came across this:
… as when Johnson & Johnson targeted the adult market with its baby powder and shampoo, or Baileys Irish Cream targeted the 19-25 singles segment with its positioning as a ’sexy’ drink.
Johnson & Johnson’s marketing campaign included the use of videos of scantily clad women showering with their shampoo, and drying off with their baby powder.
Naw, I’m just kidding. But judging from that quoted passage it’s difficult to tell, no?