Web 2.0 Entrepreneur

The Computer Programmer

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on September 5th, 2007 filed in Ramblings


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I’m pretty much a programmer, and jokes like this never fails to make me chuckle :

Found at OffBeatEnough

A man was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess.” He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero.” The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will be your loving companion for an entire week.” The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want.” Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess, that I’ll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?”

The man said, “Look, I’m a computer programmer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool.”

Programming is kind of an addictive activity (much like playing games) especially when you’re working on a cool function and you know you’re already half-way there. By the time you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, nothing can stop you and take your hands away from the keyboard. Not your girlfriend’s call, not your mom calling out for dinner from downstairs, not even the clock that already strikes 2AM. Your main mission: finish that code and make it dance!

Time management is very important for being a mentally and physically healthy programmer, because as a programmer, you’ll need to balance your social life and your non-social little hobby - programming. If you can’t manage this well, you will be left with no option but to choose either one. I believe every programmers will face this kind of dilemma every now and then in some part of their lives. Programmers who have a lover and who socialize around a lot kinda have this tiny wish that everyone will one day just vanish and leave him alone with their laptop so that they can have all the time to work on their projects without anyone making it such a big deal. On the other hand, programmers who have very little social life and who doesn’t have a romantic partner - although happy for being able to do what they love - do have that tiny wish to be loved by someone and “having a life” and being well accepted in the community.

Just some thoughts..

Talk about being a busy entrepreneur…

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on August 2nd, 2007 filed in Ramblings, Entrepreneurship


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This was me at 8PM yesterday, happily playing squash at the Cyberjaya’s Community Club with an unknown guy from MMU who dared to challenge me for a match when suddenly I received an SMS message from one of my users who’s complaining about my site being inaccessible. I wasn’t playing happily anymore the rest of the game because I knew I have hundreds of users unable to access the site at that moment and I’m in the middle of a match! (no, I’m not talking about this website. This is just a blog.. come on.. )

So because my mood have been sapped, 20 minutes later I had to cut the match short, went looking around for a wi-fi enabled hotspot area around Cyberjaya and ended up squatting on the stairs of TMNet’s front door (a Malaysian broadband provider) to get access to their office’s wireless Internet to solve the problem. I just had to get online quickly!

Apparently my whole dedicated server was down. And it took more than 4 hours for my provider to actually get the server back up and running. That was the third time in a row my server went unaccessible and when you had to pay RM840 (USD250) every month for the server, you’ll expect a much better service than that. It was found out later that they had problem with the network cables and switches which were unfortunately connected to my server. So they sent some men all the way down to the datacenter (which was funnily at the same place I was squatting at) to fix the problem.

This is just one of the challenges you had to face of being an entrepreneur. Your sweet time can suddenly be interrupted by unexpected (and unwelcomed) circumstances. It can happen anytime and anywhere; while you’re having your dinner, while you’re in the cinema enjoying your long-awaited movie, even while doing your “business” in the toilet. Suddenly a problem creeps in and you had to immediately change your mindset from whatever-ur-doing-at-the-moment to having the problem fixed, unless if its not an urgent one.

And I haven’t yet talked about how I had to deal with users’ complaints afterwards.

Sometimes it can be tiring… but that’s what keeps entrepreneurship interesting…

Coffee houses are becoming my part-time office

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on May 26th, 2007 filed in Ramblings


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Starbucks One Utama

Secret Recipe (can’t remember where tho)

I’m not sure when it started, but it is becoming a habit of mine recently to do my part-time work (ie building my web application) while sipping lattes or hot chocolates in coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean. Doing work at home makes me feel very lazy - it’s hard to be productive when your bed and TV are just a few steps away. But whenever I’m at a cafe, I find myself feeling more focused, relaxed, mentally conscious, creative and productive. So far I always leave knowing that I have done a lot of stuffs. At home, I find myself to be doing more readings and surfing around compared to doing the actual work that produces something. Even at this moment, I’m writing this very post in some cafe called The Black Canyon.

I’m not very sure what makes these places very comfortable to do work. Maybe its because of the people walking around and chatting which makes me feel energized and alive. It keeps me going. Or maybe because of the music they played which are relaxing and heightens up the mood. Maybe because of the caffeine from the lattes themselves which stops me from feeling sleepy. Or probably it’s the combination of all of them that keeps me coming back. I know, I know. These places are not cheap. A latte can cost you around 10 bucks each; and that’s only the small sized one, mind you. But in my opinion, if it can make me be productive, then it’s probably worth it anyway. Afterall, it beats paying for an actual office But of course it’s even better to bring along a companion or a teammate to boost up the productivity.

However, not everyone is comfortable doing work at cafes. In fact, some do the exact opposite -> reading and learning at cafes, getting their hands dirty at home. It doesn’t matter where you feel most productive both in development or learning, be it in a cafe, at home, in the library, in the office, at your friend’s aparment, it’s good to know where that place is and use it to your advantage. So go ahead and travel around, see which place gets you more work done.

Below are some the places I like to stick around:

- Starbucks KLCC, third floor, above Coffee Bean
- Starbucks One Utama, next to Nandos
- Coffee Bean in LCCT (It’s one of the places I liked most. Too bad it’s very far away)
- Starbucks Alamanda, Putrajaya
- Starbucks Jusco Cheras Selatan
- Craven Cafe, Ampang Petronas Superstation
- Starbucks Berjaya Timesquare, in front of the cinema (strategic while waiting for a show to start) and the one at ground floor (very cozy for discussions at the upper level)
- Burger King KLCC (they have a nice booth specifically for Internet surfers. Plus, since they allow refilling ur drinks as many times as you wish, you can be sure you won’t be thirsty hanging out over there for hours)