流量測試

為了增加 blog 的流量，不得不想些法子，最後想起了 search engine 最熱門的搜尋語句 “sex”，一於加一個 post 試試它的功力。

效果相當不錯，不知道是否萬試萬靈 ?

Wiki + Google = ?

一個十年前只敢想像，不能實現的工具，WikiMapia 利用了 Wiki、Google Map 這兩個偉大的科技，為大家提供網上版的地圖標籤分享工具，如果 Google Map 可以提供不同時間的地圖，它的應用將可以推展到更廣泛的層面，而我相信這日子應該不會很遠。到時，Wikipedia + WikiMapia 可否取代所有的教科書 ?!

Information Overload / Overflow ?

日常大部份的資料都可以從 google ，yahoo 等等的搜尋器得到，還有大量的資訊可以從電郵、RSS Feed 等不同的渠道收集。但如何整理，分析欲成了一個嚴重的問題。資訊泛濫超載，已到了不勝負荷的地步。互聯網 unstructured 及 dynamic 的特性，令到日益澎脹的電子資訊，難以有效的保存、分類、整理。

一直認為 Knowledge Management 是為了解決這方面的問題，但只聞其名、未能得見真身。縱然在商業應用中，亦未見具體的解決方案。

個人而言，會嘗試以下的方法：

1. 電郵盡量用 gmail ，以方便利用它強勁的搜尋功能
2. 網上資料方面，用以 del.icio.us bookmark 起來
3. 如遇到勁複雜的問題，會以 mindmap 的方法幫助整理

不過，這些方法仍有很多要改進的地方。

Sexy women …

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Book : 跟世界熱戀308天

萬二分佩服作者的果敢勇氣。好一個不怕死的香港烈女。

個人而言，老撾、緬甸、柬埔寨，已經是極根。津巴布韋、坦桑尼亞、埃塞俄比亞，似乎超越了我的想像。自由行的經驗不是沒有，但都屬於極奇”輕鬆”的一類，西歐、中國等等的旅遊點，性質完全不同，惟有將自己的體會無根放大，才能想像到作者這一年的經歷。

書本的編排是近幾年最普遍的那種旅遊書，圖片呀、排版呀，一齊是熟識的。但單人匹馬，去到言語不通、政局動盪的地方的女子的確沒有多少個。

不過略嫌文字的比重，有點不夠喉的感覺。

相關資料

作者 : 陳皮
相片 : 連結

A Team for Sucess

Surgical Team was first proposed by Brooks in his famous publication “Mythical Man-Month“.  A slightly modified version is shown below:

• Chief Programmer
• Assistant Programmer
• Editor / Secretaries
• Tools smith / Administrator
• Tester

The team size is much smaller than the one proposed by Brooks.  But it can be easily scaled up to the origianl version of surgical team.

Master Degree?

I am looking for ways to step forwards in my career.  Apart from professional qualification like (e.g. PMP, FRM, AHKIB ..). I would like to obtain a master degree in near future.  I am interested in Credit Risk, Financial Analysis and Information Technology, and all these are closely related to my existing job.  Related courses from 3 major universities in HK are listed below.  And I dun’t know which one suits me the best ……… Any idea?

HKUST

1. MSc IS Management
2. MBA Program
3. Part-time MBA Program
4. MSc Financial Analysis / MSc Investment Management
5. MScISM Program
6. MSc in Engineering Enterprise Management
7. MSc in Information Technology

CUHK

1. MSc Finance
2. MSc Systems Engineering & Engineering Management
3. MSc in Computer Science (Part-time)
4. MSc Info Eng
5. MSc Info Tech Management
6. MSc E-Business Management

HKU

1. MSc Computer Science
2. MBA
3. MFin
4. PKKI – Diploma in Risk Management
5. PKKI – Graduate Diploma in Financial Analysis

Factors for Successful Basel II Implementation

One of the research papers published in HKMA said :

Banks in Hong Kong maintain capital adequacy ratios well above the regulatory requirement. … To the extent that part of the high capital buffer is due to the agency problem, information asymmetries, or a mismatch between the expectation of the regulator and banks over the approach to maintaining a capital buffer to prevent a breach of capital requirements, action could be taken to improve the use of capital. In this connection, the initiative under Basel II is expected to help address some of these issues.

Assumed that risks beared by banks can be measured properly according to Basel II implementation, banks can re-invest the excess capital into business. Of course, it is an absolutely ideal case. So, how good does the credit risk system quantified the risk? and does it represent the real picture? From the experience of existing projects, there are two big issues upfront: (a) data quality and (b) underlying risk model.

Data quality

Take collateral informatin as example, due to historical reason, these information is not recorded in details in most banking systems. Data, such as repoession, valuation, default, may be maintained in spreadsheet manually. It is difficult to conduct precise analysis without a lot of data cleansing work. And even worse, management may not see the need for a automated collateral system. Therefore, even you has paid a lot to data cleansing, if the result is not referred back to daily business. The information would be corrupted soon.

I am not talking about how to extract the information right for one time, but how to obtain the correct information in a streamless way. Many consultants and vendors come up with product for Business Intelligence / Data Warehousing. But, there should be a system allow user to maintain the collateral information correclty.

Underlying Risk Model

(to be continued…)

瞄準、開火

keso 說到瞄準、開火的先後次序問題，joel 有個十分不錯的分析。

兩者加起來得出這樣的結論：在已經成熟的市場上，應該瞄準先 (Ben & Jerry model)。反之，新技術、沒有明顥競者時，應該瞄準先開火 (Amazon,model)。以 google 在市場、技術、資金上的優勢，大概可以先來個亂槍掃射，然後再來個逐點擊破。

先推出產品到市場，可以得到得到最大的初始用戶群，進而肯定市場佔有率|。問題是之後用甚麼的方法、準則去篩選目標?

另外，當市場日漸發展、google 會否 (或何時) 由 Amazon model 轉到 Ben & jerry?

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

I have encountered a lot of difficulties to deal with our security department.  And they rejected all our user profile maintenance request all the days.  After a series of “conversation”, it seems that they do have a difficult time under stress of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).  So, what is SOX? And what’s the impact to IT dev teams?

There are too much information for SOX over the internet.  And I can find nothing useful, but Wikipedia.  It covers information from history, overview, cost, and even case studies.  And what’s great is that all the information are writen for laymen, such as myself.  I think no IT guys would like to go straight into the laws, even a summary is too much for me.

After reading the material and linked back to the experience in the company,  I will would like to quote following from wikipeida:

The following areas are described as impedances to the process:

1. “Project mindset: … many companies understandably treated section 404 compliance as a discrete project with a clearly defined ending point.”
2. “Overextension of internal audit: If management continues to utilize internal audit for intensive 404 and 302 compliance-related work, then a significant infusion of resources (i.e., budget and headcount) to accommodate the additional workload will be needed.”
3. “Poorly defined roles: Internal control-related roles and responsibilities, often poorly defined and segregated from the day-to-day routine of employees during the first year, will require greater clarity and integration going forward”
4. “Improvisational approach: Another symptom of deadline pressure showed up in the jerrybuilt practices that carried many companies through the first year.”
5. “Underestimation of technology impacts and implications: …IT is recognized as critical for achieving the goals of the Act, and the impact and implications of technology are widely regarded as significant and pervasive. In many year-one projects, organizations focused heavily on business processes and did not consider the broader role that IT plays in managing financial information and enabling controls… IT will make a huge impact on compliance going forward. At a minimum, technology investments will be necessary to support sustainable compliance in several areas, including repository, work flow, and audit trail functionality. Technology will also be used to enable the integration of financial and internal control monitoring and reporting — a critical requirement at most large and complex enterprises.”
6. “Ignored risks: Effective internal control is predicated on risk… the controls themselves — exist expressly for the purpose of minimizing the risk of financial reporting errors… In year one, risk assessment was treated as an afterthought — if addressed at all.”