Kevin Ho

too long to tweet: DLD13 Keynote

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:34:49 -0500

This is the approximate text of the keynote I gave at DLD13 today in Munich. I felt my delivery of this (admittedly, relatively dense) material was not the best, but the content is crucially important. To that end, I am posting the notes here. They were edited for grammar beyond the basics, so…

Blake Masters: Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 2 Notes Essay

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:45:08 -0400

Blake Masters: Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 2 Notes Essay:

blakemasters:

Here are my class notes, typed in essay form, from Class 2 of CS183: Startup. Errors, omissions, and/or poor phrasing are my own. Credit for good substance and wording is Peter’s entirely.

CS183: Startup—Notes Essay—April 4—Party Like It’s 1999?

I. Late to the Party

History is driven…

Kanye West - Runaway

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:07:00 -0400

Watch Kanye tries to rebuild his reputation by directing 30 minutes music video. I wouldn’t say it’s “one of the best videos of all time”, but it’s actually pretty solid. Even if you don’t like the video, the music is good enough to just leave your browser open and listen.

Chrome Experiments

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:38:00 -0400

It’s been almost 2 years since Chrome was first released and a little over 5 months for the Mac. But if you don’t have it by now, I strongly recommend it. You might say I’m just being bias because I work for Google now. But I am honestly excited about Chrome after seeing some new stuff people are doing on the Chrome Experiments site. If you don’t believe me, check out some of the experiments like: Keylight and Sketchpad

Short supply of designers

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 06:37:00 -0400

Today when I was reading questions on Quora, I stumbled upon a pretty interesting question: Why is there such a stunningly short supply of designers in Silicon Valley right now? And after I finished answering the question half way through, I thought I might as well blog about it too.

First, to become a real professional designer isn’t easy. You will be flooded with resumes on Craigslist but you won’t find one that is actually “professional”. Second, I think the criteria for designers in Valley is very different than how designers are taught in school. Unlike how engineers are taught (However, I can’t say for sure cause I didn’t major in computer science), but art students are not taught to create wireframes, user flows, or product management. These skills either came from designers who are interested, have experience from doing an internship or just that damn talented. Third, if you say designers don’t think with their left brain, I think that’s a load of bull. Designers aren’t fine artists (people seems to put us all in the same category). I would actually argue that great designers are actually more logical because we have to deal with more user-facing problems like trying to analyze how to get from point A to point B as easy/simple as possible.

So to answer the question, it seems there is a shortage of designers because you see ton of people out there who can draw and you think they’re designers. But you actually want someone who is a smart, tech-savy, design eccentric genius. So yes, these people are hard to come by so I suggest once you find that person, you stick with that person and hope he/she can help you grow more of that person.

Good design

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:12:00 -0400

We finally finished moving into Google Shanghai, the whole process has been wild and great at the same time. Now that we’re getting settled, I can’t help but notice there aren’t any designers here besides us. I don’t mean that to be a criticism at all but simply an observation. Neither am I surprised by this observation because I knew Google is an engineering centric company like many other tech companies in the valley. So the lack of designers actually gets me more excited than anything. Why? Because I believe design is important. Why is design important? So I have been really inspired by interior and industrial design as of late. Maybe it’s because I’ve also been looking for a new apartment which exposed me to a lot of different interior and exterior decor. This made me realize how well designed an apartment is has a huge impact to how much it’s worth and fast it falls off the shelves (Probably to no one’s surprise). One of my favorite industrial designer of all time, Dieter Rams listed 10 principle for good design and explained how it can affect a product. Here is what he said:

♦ Good design is innovative The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

♦ Good design makes a product useful A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

♦ Good design is aesthetic The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

♦ Good design makes a product understandable It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

♦ Good design is unobtrusive Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

♦ Good design is honest It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

♦ Good design is long-lasting It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

♦ Good design is thorough, down to the last detail Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

♦ Good design is environmentally-friendly Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

♦ Good design is as little design as possible Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity. I mean, I know I’m not going to be the Jonathan Ive of Google, but I really look forward to contributing the unknown.

UPDATE: Actually there are a few other designers in the Shanghai office and we got to meet with them yesterday. The crew are working on Ads, Mobile, Image Search, etc. All very interesting stuff!

Gunman in the Philippines

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:26:00 -0400

For those who don’t know what happened, see the full story on CNN. This event definitely made me feel uneasy and a little sick to my stomach. After reading the article, I started reading some of the comments people are making on the bottom. This made me even more sick because of the blame game people are playing. While it’s easy to blame and criticize others for what happened sitting in front of the computer, it doesn’t change what happened. My condolence to family/friends of the victims.

Slide into Google

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:36:00 -0400

The news you have read is true, Google have acquired us and I’ll become a Google employee. Before I get into what I think about the whole thing, I want to say that I’m very happy and grateful to be part of Slide the past 4 years of my life. Great work everyone, great work Max.

Now for those who cares about what I think about the whole thing, read on.

Max has been quoted many times saying something along the line of if Slide cashed out for $1.5 billion or less, he would regard it as abject failure. It’s definitely a very ballsy thing to say, but it’s really as if Kobe said it’s a failure if they don’t get a championship next year. It’s a no brainer, Max along with the other execs at Slide are a competitive bunch, just meeting the PayPal dream wouldn’t have been satisfying.

So was this a success or failure?

Before I answer that, I want to bring up one of Johnnie’s last blog post on how “It’s hard to predict the future”. Because it’s basically the story of Slide; unpredictable. Let’s go down the list: Bebo acquisition which killed one of the biggest platform we were developing on at the time. The collapse of advertising market forced us to reshape our revenue model. The crack down of the Facebook police put us under the microscope. The slow death of MySpace, another big platform gone. Last but not least, the constant hostility from Facebook with application developers slowing killing every viral channel. Sure, shit happens, nothing is easy, and start-ups are suppose to high risk. But man, this journey was rough, and we’re all pretty beaten up.

Okay, let’s answer that question by taking a trip down memory lane.

Slide started as a desktop application which later turned into a social widget with millions of embeds and billions of views. Success. During the early Facebook app development era, a bunch of us spent endless nights in the office cranking stuff out and you know what, we topped the chart. Success. Not long after, we had a all-hands where we were going over a bunch of company goals and one of which was revenue. This was the first time we really talked about our revenue goals and you know what, we met it. We made big deals with advertisers like Paramount and AT&T making really high priced, high volume deals. Success. After the market collapse, we changed our business model from advertising to selling virtual goods straight to users. We were selling out $50 pixel paintings a la carte in SuperPoke! Pets. Success. So Slide sold to Google? I don’t care what you say, mother fucking success.

We can’t succeed everything in life. Some occasional fail moments are inevitable. What’s important is that we made some great memories and had fun. Good luck to all you ex-Sliders, stay awesome. =]

· Google business card modified from Ji Lee’s original

Dragon Boat Festival

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:25:00 -0400

This past week has been very eventful because of the Dragon Boat Festival. Not that anything exciting ever happens on Dragon Boat Festival but I did happen to get a few days off from work. Which is rare. On top of that, Heather, Joanne and Cheryl came to visit me in Shanghai. During their stay, we took a trip to Beijing and visited places like the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, etc. It was a very fun trip despite of the fact that the Beijing heat was kicking our asses.

Beyond the Platform

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 07:18:00 -0400

The Social Gaming event we had yesterday was a great turn out. Around 60-70 people came to the event to hear Max speak. Max talked about the vision of Slide and what we’re doing is actually different from our competitors. I think at this point, it’s no secret that developing on Facebook is no longer a free lunch. New comers will find it very difficult to catch virality. So for both the older and newer developers, the only way to build a sustainable social gaming business is to build products driven by communities.

One of the things I miss

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:31:00 -0400

One of the things I miss about being back in the states are the television shows. I just saw some of the commercial clips that Tom Cruise did for the MTV Movie Awards. As much as I still think Tom Cruise is crazy, his Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman is crazy awesome.

Google image search redesign

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:44:00 -0400

Google have been moving forward with a lot of daring redesigns as of late. It’s really surprising to see the giant make such bold move. Of course, they’re going to run a million A/B tests before they settle with a final design. But I think the real reason might be because Bing is lighting some fire and they’re ready to make some changes. Especially with the rumor that the new iPhone will be defaulting their search to Bing. But who knows, I’m just happy to see these kind of competitions pushing companies to innovate/provide better experiences.

Control, Google, control!

Mon, 31 May 2010 10:12:00 -0400

Like everything else we do in life, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. In terms of being the best tech company today, Google and Apple are undeniably the best. While it may take a decade to find out who is actually better, it’s definitely very interesting to see the two duking it out on the mobile battlefield. On one end, we have Google taking the open platform, “Don’t be evil” approach. On the other, Apple is taking the controlled, “One man, one platform, one device” approach. For some reason, this just stirred up a lot of memories for me from about three years ago when Facebook launched their platform. For those who don’t remember exactly what happened. Facebook at that time was third to MySpace and Bebo in terms of size but Facebook quickly surpassed the two by opening up their developer platform, inviting developers like us to run wild on their playground. It was beautiful and exciting for both the platform and the developer side. Without fail, Google noticed this phenomenal as well and they were itching to do something about it; Enter OpenSocial. OpenSocial is an APIs that interoperable with any social network that supports them, allowing third party developers to develop on their platform. Sounds like a great idea right? At least Hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Netlog, Friendster, Ning and Yahoo thought so. I remember asking Jeremiah if Facebook is going to adopt OpenSocial as well after he came back from Fire Camp. His answer was no and I just thought that was the strangest move by Facebook. Why is Facebook running a different direction from the rest of the pack? Especially when it’s Google leading them? Now you know, it’s because of control. The way Steve Jobs runs his mobile platform is very similar to how Zuck is running his (and vice versa). It is one man’s vision/crusade on how they see their platform to be beneficial to the world (or themselves). Flash on iPhone? Suck it, Adobe. Can’t grow you apps on Facebook? Quit whining, developers. Yes, I am some what bitter because I am on the developer side and it’s just frustrating your destiny isn’t in your hands. But despite of that, I think it’s generally a good thing when a market isn’t dominated by one single company. People deserve to choose between Coke and Pepsi. Not like you’re listening but if you are, Google, please don’t fail in Android like you failed with OpenSocial. iPhone is already dominating 50% of the smartphone market. Find your Yoda and control your platform.

Expo day

Sat, 22 May 2010 04:54:00 -0400

It was definitely an exhausting day but overall a very fun outing.

Shanghai Expo tomorrow

Thu, 20 May 2010 06:45:00 -0400

Slide China is taking all of us to the World Expo, Shanghai tomorrow. It’s pretty much one of the biggest event for China since the Olympics in Beijing. The whole Shanghai was basically a huge construction site the past year or two until recently. It’s impossible to see all pavilions in one day so I’ll probably have to go back another time. We’ll be visiting in Zone C; Space Home Pavilion, State Grid Pavilion, World Expo Museum, African Union Commission Pavilion, United Kingdom, France, Ukraine, Russia, Canada and Australia Pavilion. Oh man, sounds intense. We’ll be there from 10am to 5pm and I expect 70% of the time will consist of us standing in line haha.

Social Gaming beyond the Platforms

Mon, 17 May 2010 09:44:00 -0400

Just finished the invitation/company profile pack for the up coming event Max is going to speak at in Shanghai. Those who are in Shanghai and interested in learning more about social gaming should definitely drop by, it’ll be a lot of fun.

Once in a while

Wed, 12 May 2010 13:44:00 -0400

My buddy Daniel has asked me to help him out with a tattoo design. Tattoo is something that I have never done before; I don’t have one, nor have I ever designed one. But it’s definitely cool to do something different once in a while to keep your mind fresh. Daniel is probably the most bad-ass biker I know so it’s only fitting that he wants his Korean name (포터) spelled out in a bike chain going through his skin, haha. Well anyways, here’s what I got so far. The inspiration came from the style of Rebel8 Clothing but it’s not 100% polished and cleaned up yet so who knows, the end result might be something totally different.

Back in SF

Sat, 08 May 2010 00:38:00 -0400

So I was back in SF last week (For those who didn’t know, sorry I didn’t tell you but I didn’t tell anyone, I just sort of showed up), I had a wonderful trip despite of the horrific flight experience that would probably take me two three posts to explain so I’m not even going to try. It was definitely a very good reminder to the good things about the states; the air is a lot cleaner, the traffic is a lot more civilized, the coffee is so much better, and family/friends are still awesome. The other reason why I didn’t tell anyone I was back was because it wasn’t really a vacation, I still had to go to work everyday. Work was interesting, I didn’t feel like I had enough time to do all the things I wanted but I did manage to talk to a few people to catch up on the things I missed. It was fun to hear about all the events happened after I left especially since Slide is such a fast changing company, if you missed one day, you basically missed a year. I also had the chance to meet up with my old boss, Johnnie, found out that he’s going to have a baby girl some time in June (Congratulations man!) I guess the other thing that’s worth mentioning since I’m such a geek, is that I got the new Nexus One. I know a lot of you are shocked by the decision because I’m such a big Apple fan, how dare I buy anything other than the iPhone. Well, as big of a fan of Apple as I am, I’m a bigger fan of technology in general. If I’m going to stick with iPhone, I need to know if it is the best smart phone out there. And after using this for a week or so, there are few things I really like about the Nexus. Such as the use of widgets, the flash on camera, the camera itself, the free GPS navigation system, and the Google’s apps within. Sure, iPhone is still better with its multi-touch, browser/email experience, and of course, the app store. But I got to say the Nexus is pretty damn good, iPhone is still the better phone in my opinion but it’s definitely not the best. But anyways, great trip overall, it was awesome to see everyone.

Do we need HTML5?

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:32:00 -0400

I’ve asked that question many times myself and while I’m still not very sure if I have a definite answer yet. The following Yammer post from my colleague, Sergio Villarreal, is definitely convincing me to say yes. “Omg this is the coolest thing you’ll see today. I knew html5 included support for both video and the canvas tag, but it didn’t occur to me that you could perpetrate an unholy marriage of both:”

Oh man, after seeing this, I’m beginning to think that Jobs is right about Flash. Again.

Capture the world

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:36:00 -0400

I believe I have found my next purchase

It’s a pretty simple and well designed camera, but what I really like about it is its GPS tagging feature. It allow you to record the exact coordinates of the location you’re in. It can also display 500,000 ‘points of interest’ sightseeing locations from 73 countries.