Technology News

2 technology news in Yahoo News caught my attention - Nine-year old whiz-kid writes iPhone application and Facebook turns five.

Nine-year old whiz-kid writes iPhone application

Extracted from Yahoo news:

SINGAPORE - While most children his age sketch on paper with crayons, nine-year old Lim Ding Wen from Singapore, has a very different canvas -- his iPhone.

Lim, who is in fourth grade, writes applications for Apple's popular iPhone. His latest, a painting program called Doodle Kids, has been downloaded over 4,000 times from Apple's iTunes store in two weeks, the New Paper reported on Thursday.

The program lets iPhone users draw with their fingers by touching the iPhone's touchscreen and then clear the screen by shaking the phone.

"I wrote the program for my younger sisters, who like to draw," Lim said. His sisters are aged 3 and 5.

Lim, who is fluent in six programing languages, started using the computer at the age of 2. He has since completed about 20 programing projects.

His father, Lim Thye Chean, a chief technology officer at a local technology firm, also writes iPhone applications.

"Every evening we check the statistics emailed to us to see who has more downloads," the older Lim said.

The boy, who enjoys reading books on programing, is in the process of writing another iPhone application -- a science fiction game called "Invader Wars."

This is so cool. At the age of 9, he already know 6 programming languages fluently. I think I only know C++ and basic HTML. Well, his dad also writes programs. Maybe the boy has gotten the genes from his dad. Hmm.... maybe I go and write a LUCKY TOTO or LUCKY 4-D number application, since singaporeans always like to try our luck.

Don't see me no up okay..... I wrote that program before when I was in JC. lolx.... it was quite a simple program actually. Just have to randomise the numbers according to the range I set. But it was fun actually. =P

Hmmm.... and I guess highly likely I will marry a guy that knows alot more technology stuff than me 'cos I don't think I have enough patience to explain/teach.... thus guys who are techno-nerds are most likely a turn-off for me. =P


In another news:

Facebook turns five

Extracted from here:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Facebook has celebrated its fifth birthday with 150 million guests but no clear path to profitability. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded the social networking website with two Harvard University roommates five years ago, marked the occasion in low-key fashion with a blog post urging members to send a virtual gift to their online friends.

"In the spirit of celebrating connections between people, we encourage you to use this gift to give thanks to your friends, colleagues and family members with whom you are connected on Facebook," he wrote.

Zuckerberg, 24, said he was "humbled" by the phenomenal growth of a website which began as a way for his fellow Harvard students to stay connected and has blossomed into a worldwide network that has dwarfed rival MySpace.

"Facebook was founded in 2004 to give people the tools to engage and understand the world around them," he said. "We are glad and humbled that so many people are using Facebook in this way."

Zuckerberg, who has a personal worth of 1.5 billion dollars according to Forbes magazine, launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room on February 4, 2004 with roommates Dustin Moscovitz and Chris Hughes.

It quickly spread to other schools around the country and eventually anyone aged 13 or older with an Internet connection was allowed to create a Facebook profile and post photos or update their friends on their status.

With the astronomical growth has also come controversy. Facebook has been accused of violating privacy, facilitating online sexual predators and hate groups and simply being a colossal waste of time.

It has also been touted as a force for good, serving as bridge between people and even as a tool to counter terrorism and repressive governments.

Both Moscovitz and Hughes have since left the company -- Moscovitz last year to set up an Internet technology firm and Hughes to join the online campaign of then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Zuckerberg predicted a bright future for the Palo Alto, California-based Facebook and its 800 employees.

"Building and moving quickly for five years hasn't been easy, and we aren't finished," Zuckerberg said. "The challenge motivates us to keep innovating and pushing technical boundaries to produce better ways to share information."

One challenge Facebook is yet to overcome is how to make money.

US software giant Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook in 2007 for 240 million dollars, valuing the social network on paper at 15 billion dollars.

But Facebook, unlike other Web giants such as Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo!, is yet to prove how it is going to translate traffic into cash.

"There's no significant visible source of revenue other than investors," said Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

"There's a lot of potential there but they're still kind of living in this dotcom mindset where a business plan doesn't make a difference," he said. "And as we saw with the dotcoms, that has a very unfortunate end to it."

"Google was able to figure out fairly quickly how to monetize what they were doing and they became a giant and that's the potential for Facebook but they've got to cross that chasm," Enderle said.

Going public with an IPO, or initial public offering, would not appear to be an option for Facebook right now.

"Doing a public offering when you have no revenue? Good luck with that -- particularly in this market," said Enderle.

Advertising could be a money-spinner but "the ad model doesn't seem like it works all that well for Facebook -- though it could," said Enderle. "You know an awful lot about people, and so you would think they could do targeted ads."

"Whatever the path, Facebook doesn't have an unlimited period of time to find it," Enderle said.

"They need to grow out of their childhood really fast. They can't be a five-year-old anymore," he said. "They have to grow into adulthood and adulthood means paying the bills."

Well, it seems like we got to pay for the usage of facebook soon. If you think about it, if each of us just pay $1 annual fee, he can earn $150 million a year! That is good money man. Maybe I can start such network when I grow old....and maybe some online business and some blogging community..... lolx.... any potential business partner? =P


In another incident, today there was an IT personnel down from HQ to change my colleague's CPU (mine's next week.... and I've yet to transfer out my personal files).... and he could not log into my colleague's work email acct and download the old emails into the new CPU. I vivdly remembered the other time we got same problem logging into the system and I managed to solve the problem through trial and error. They should seriously consider giving me some pay for being an occupational therapist cum IT support cum poster and video designing. lolx....

If we could draw the amt of money for the work we do, I guess alot of us will be rich.....

YES..... continue dreaming......

Time to sleep..... it's alrdy 2+am and I have school later.....