sfhuang.com

What more can I say? Listen for yourself.

I must admit that I am quite new to this concept of “open networking” on social networking sites, specifically LinkedIn.com which allows millions of executives around the world to “connect” with one another and build up social networks based on industry, expertise or just about anything you can imagine.

Fact is, LinkedIn.com advises its users only to invite people whom they are acquainted with to their networks. This serves well for the site’s purpose of enabling folks to keep in touch with contacts in their social circles. This is unfortunately not what some users would like to use social networking sites for.

Bring in the open networkers.

Open networkers, simply put, are folks who do not care about who the people in their networks are, where they come from, or what they do prior to accepting invitations to connect on social networking sites like Linkedin.com. Surely, Linkedin.com will not warm up to this idea because firstly, it goes against the purpose that its creators had intended the site for. Second, and more importantly, lots of users are not receptive to open networking.

They would rather keep their networks and contacts private, and would rather not have unsolicited invites flooding their inboxes. And Linkedin.com HAS taken action against open networkers - if you send out 100 invites and any 5 of those whom you sent invites to click on the “Don’t know this person” option, you will be identified, warned (if you’re lucky) and banned.

To avoid these unhappy situations, most open networkers send a message to prospective contacts to ask if they would like to connect before sending out the invites. This way, they could be sure that the other party is open to connecting and will not pull out stunts to blacklist them.

So how do you start to become an open networker?

Before I started to build and expand my network on Linkedin.com, I had about 100+ industry and work contacts. Then I stumbled on Toplinked.com, and the notion of open networking. Skeptical at first, I did some basic simple steps to expand my LinkedIn.com presence and in just 24 hours, my network has grown to over 400+ contacts. All you need to do to embark on the path to open networking is as follows:

1. Create a LinkedIn.com account (duh!)

2. Create a new e-mail account for LinkedIn invites and notifications (I highly recommend you do this!)

3. Import contacts from your address books (Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail etc)

4. Join Groups that are relevant to your industry or that interest you. I recommend you join groups that have at least 5000 members in them.

5. Join Open Networking groups - do a search for “LION” which stands for LinkedIn Open Networkers

6. Sign up at Toplinked.com as a free or paid member and gain access to contacts who, like you, are open networkers looking to expand their networks. Follow the instructions on the site to send out the invites.

7. Add the word “Toplinked”, your e-mail address, and “Invites welcome” to your profile title. When other open networkers see these words in your profile, they can tell that you are an open networker too and will more likely accept their invitations.

8. Optionally, you can also add the words “LION LION LION LION …” to parts of your profile description categories. This will make it even more obvious you are a fervent LinkedIn Open Networker!

9. Last but not least, make use of the above pointers to identify other like-minded Open Networkers. For a start, you can search for “LION” in the groups that you have joined, as well as across the LinkedIn community. This will point you to users who are open to invites. In addition, you can also post “Invites welcome” messages in Group discussions.

Once you have done all the above steps, just sit back for the next 24 hours and enjoy the open networking experience. I assure you that you will start enjoying social networking more than ever before!

I hope these tips have been useful to you. Visit my LinkedIn site at http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaofei and feel free to send me invites at sfhuang@rocketmail.com.

Have fun!

Eva Cassidy with a fantastic rendition of one of my favourite songs.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
In the land
That I heard of once
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams
That you dare to dream
Really do come true

Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up
Where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me

(Instrumental)

Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up
Where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams…that you dare to dream
Really do come true
If happy little bluebirds fly
Above the rainbow, why
Oh, why can’t I?

YouTube video of Yo-yo Ma playing the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. I think it is one of those quintessential pieces that really brings out the emotive sounds of the Cello. Fantástico!

I was informed that this is the Grade 8 piece for the 2008 ABRSM Cello Exam. I wouldn’t mind practicing with a splendid piece like this one!

This is one cool video from the 60’s that I love watching on YouTube again and again. The melody just keeps repeating itself in my head and the dancing girl in the background is oh so groovy … see it for yourself!

In the past few weeks, I had a number of conversations over lunch with a good friend. He just started working in a new job but somehow felt uncertain if he had made the right choice to switch jobs. When another job offer came along, he faced a difficult dilemma. After all, he has only been at his present employer for but a few months.

He asked me over coffee, “Should I stay, or should I leave?”

I was probably qualified (or unqualified, depending on how one looks at it) to give him advice from my own personal experience. After all, I had changed a number of jobs in my career and some stints were so short I hate to even mention them outright. Nonetheless, I urged my friend to consider two questions:

Firstly, is he the right person for the job?

Seond, is his present job right for him?

These questions may appear deceptively simple to answer, but in reality, it is extremely difficult (and sometimes painful) to look within oneself and get those answers. A year or so ago, I found a job in a bank and by all measures, the job seemed to be perfect for me. I had the necessary technical skills and the required soft skills to do the job well. In my mind (even today), I believe that I was the right person for the job. However, the job was not right for me. Reason being, I did not appreciate the need of having to do work (which would otherwise be none of my business, going by my job scope) just so that there’s something on my annual appraisal form that can be used to push for my promotion. Anyway, that was that - I found the answer to both the two questions. And I left a well-paying, comfortable job in a bank.

Was that the right thing to do?

I believe so, because I am now happier in my life and more importantly, I would have a better sense of when I become redundant for my present job, or when the job becomes too big or too small for my capabilities. Encountering either of the aforementioned situations would be undesirable obviously, but they serve as a guiding principle in my engagement with my bosses at work. Sadly, not all bosses understand this principle, nor do they appreciate the need to build lasting partnerships with employees at the work place - in order to reach higher goals, both for the company and for the employees.

For better or for worse, when I met my friend for lunch earlier last week, he told me with a wide smile, “I quit my job today!” I hope he had at least found the answers within himself before making the decision to leave. But in any case, I wish him all the best in his next job!

I am a self-professed geek. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a geek, but lately I have been thinking how and why I ended up being one.

When I was a kid, I was always around a computer. Nothing much has changed since then. The weird thing is, I grew up obsessed with programming, code and arithmetic, you know, the stuff that most kids hate. Numbers, logical expressions and algebra.

Back in around 1981, my Dad bought me my first computer, an Epson 8086 with a cool monochrome black-and-white monitor. I did not have any games so I started programming my own, using BASICA and LOGO. The most memorable project which I still remember fondly today was a lunar landing game, which I built on top of skeleton code out of a “1001 BASIC Games” book which my Dad bought.

Today, almost 27 years following the successful “RUN” of that immensely successful lunar landing game, I am still deeply passionate about programming. The sheer joy of coding something out of nothing, debugging and ironing out the bugs, and successfully executing the program from start to end, is beyond description.

Over the years, my passion for computers has extended well beyond programming, into reverse engineering, vulnerability research, security assessments and other wildly interesting areas in the field of computer security.

It has been a great ride getting to where I am today. I am not a rich man, nor do I fly Business every other week. But I am really happy doing what has been my life’s passion, and that’s all that matters to me in my career. Doing what I love.

And it all started - in 1981.

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