Soccer Result

Black Eagle vs Vietnam, 3-2

Facebook no longer Valley's hot new young thing

SAN FRANCISCO - A year ago, when Facebook opened up its social networking site to software developers, it was Silicon Valley's hot new young thing.

After forming a developer's sandbox, where programmers were given free rein to play and create everything from inane applications like vampire biting, to useful ones such as finding friends you might know, Facebook's user base began to explode. It was the talk of the valley: Microsoft Corp. made an investment and even Google was jealous of the attention the company was getting.

But what a difference a year makes. As Facebook gears up to host its first big developer conference this Wednesday and a major revamp to its site, it is going through some growing pains. I also think Facebook has lost some of its buzz factor in the valley. Some also believe that its valuation on paper, once pegged at $15 billion, has notably declined.

And now, Facebook is also competing for attention from software developers entranced with Apple Inc.'s new, faster 3G iPhone and its application store. Some see a better way to make money, even at the low rates Apple charges for some mobile applications, ranging from 99 cents to $1.99 that users can download to the iPhone, while Facebook applications are for the most part free.

"There was a fascination with Facebook in the valley that hit its zenith last year," said Dave Sifry, founder and chief executive of OffBeatGuides.com, a new startup in San Francisco.

To be fair, the numbers so far tell a much different story, and seem to contradict me. Facebook seems to be on an unstoppable roll. In April, it narrowly surpassed MySpace (which, like MarketWatch is owned by News Corp. in terms of unique visitors worldwide, to become the world's largest social network, according to comScore data. In May, Facebook had an even stronger lead, with 123.8 million unique visitors, compared with 114.6 million at MySpace, which saw traffic decline slightly from the month before.

And therein lies one of the company's problems. The site's architecture is not dealing well with the massive increase in visitors and the growth in applications, some of which are viral and add to the problem.

"I have noticed a bunch of operational issues, including latency, pages not loading, basically inconsistent response times," said Ray Valdes, a Gartner analyst. "It is something that plagues social sites in general when they have high growth and they are rewriting their software continually."

Facebook, which at least manages to stay live but often becomes sluggish, recently got a new round of funding in the form of debt, which it plans to use to further build out its infrastructure.

The company also recently improved some controls that make it more difficult for applications to be spammed to friends, an additional processing burden to the site. Previously installing a viral application would send a spam e-mail to your friends, telling them you've added an application. Valdes said that some of these viral applications have resulted in some artificial growth, and he commended Facebook for dealing with them.

"They realized the gates were opened too wide," Valdes said. "They gave developers too much freedom to inflict their own agendas on users."

At the same time, Facebook has also made a few moves irking developers. For example, it copied some functions in Slide's "Top Friends" application, a move that reminded some of Apple and Microsoft in their more predatory forms. Slide, which is known for some of the most popular as well as annoying applications such as sheep throwing and poking, is also developing applications for the iPhone.

"Everyone wants to build an application now for the iPhone," said Mukund Mohan, an entrepreneur working on a startup in Palo Alto.

Salil Deshpande, a general partner with Bay Partners who leads its App Factory fund for Facebook developers, said if the company wants its social network to be a development platform, much like a computer or an operating system, it needs to behave like a platform company.

"This is more easily said than done," Deshpande said. "It took platform companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Sun Microsystems, years to get this right."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pointed out recently that social networking companies tend to be faddish, and indeed, the past failures and travails of companies like Friendster, Tribe and others prove him correct. And Facebook, which was clearly last year's hot property, may have been usurped this year by Twitter, FriendFeed, and to some extent, the iPhone.

Facebook isn't going away anytime soon. Sudha Jamthe, who with a group of volunteers organizes the Bay Area Facebook Developer Meetup, said there is still magic in the air with Facebook. "The excitement among developers is still going on," she said.

Facebook still has the potential to become a big financial success, and perhaps an eventual public offering that could wake up the moribund IPO market. But the company needs to do more than just a cosmetic makeover to ensure that developers and its growing user base keeps going back, again and again.

Soccer Result

Black Eagle vs Vietnam, 5-4

Rou Gu Cha King

Location: New World Park, Penang (Rou Gu Cha King)

Rou Gu Cha King

wtf avid readers may have realised my blog is mostly about food and I have never been serious in my conduct. Today I would like to try something different... This is my very first attempt in writing a proper food review.

In view of this important event, I have decided to pick an outlet which deserves my attention and be benefit to my longtime followers :)

New World Park

My last visit to Penang was mostly about visiting places to sample the famous hawker food.

While seeking local delicacies in this new tourist attraction spot namely New World Park (formerly was amusement park during 70's-80's but recently redeveloped by Robert Kwok's group), I spotted this restaurant logo!

Are you kidding me... KING?

At the shop front there's a very distinguished signage which will capture everybody's attention, you really can't miss it... Rou Gu Cha King!

For the uninitiated, the name is in mandarin stands for "Bah Kut Teh King" (hokkien) which is more recognisable for Malaysians... or would it be better if direct translation to "Pork Rib Tea"? :)

Impressive interior setting

Wow let finds out whether this restaurant is really-up-to-that-something or not, by being so daring to self-proclaim as King in this food heaven of Penang island...

The brand spanking new outlet is nicely setup and have a very "up-market" feel when you first step in.

They have outlet in China too...

The big wall poster inside the restaurant proudly boasted their flagship outlet is in Shanghai, and this Penang branch has been in business here since August 2007.

I hope to envisage their future expansion into the Central Region so that I can have more choices instead of the defacto traditional Klang's BKT in Klang Valley.

Extensive menu item

There is an obvious attempt to embellish the ordinary upon browsing at the huge varieties of BKT items they can offer... it's impressive especially when come to uniqueness on their key dishes!

To sum everything nicely, it is really a glorified BKT joint that deserves to carry the king title :)

Tea set making facility

Every table comes standard with a mini tea set making facility. All tea leaves are imported from China.

Here really can yum-cha... haha!

Wow sooner I realised that here can become a comfortable gathering place to enjoy premium chinese tea instead of the normal tea tarik session elsewhere!

Friendly & impeccable service

The waiter is quite friendly and has the courtesy to guide us through the menu, thus further making good recommendation on their few signature dishes.

Drinks are served promptly and the food came within minutes. I started to like the dining ambience here.

Original Rou Gu Cha

No joke... seriously there are so many varieties

I'm a real BKT lover however this is the first time when I come across so many varieties just on BKT alone in a food premise.

They have the original soup-based, dry, spicy, red-wine and many many other versions.

Abalone Rou Gu Cha

Even Abalone BKT...

The menu offers quite a variety of food and ingredients, but generally majority are pork items here.

There are of course bah kut teh, with well over a dozen of different pork intestines (kidney, ribs, fatty meat, liver etc), chicken, duck, vegetables, yam rice, porridge, noodle and even abalone to choose from.

The add-ons are charged accordingly to your order and cooked in your personal pot of serving.

Chicken Rou Gu Cha

Strong & flavourful thick soup

BKT is by default made with pork meat.

I am amazed by the nice aroma and flavour of the thick pork soup. The soup is served boiling hot in the claypot and with strong herbal smell.

However the above dish is a variant called Chick Kut Teh (Chicken Bone Tea) which surprisingly tastes equally good as compared to the traditional robust taste of pork.

Dry Rou Gu Cha

Dry ones is so special

You don't get to sample the Dry-version of BKT easily elsewhere, most premises may not have this item at all and perhaps some other BKT outlets may have this dish prepared and available during weekend only.

But to all BKT fans: here you can get Dry RGC everyday! It's very nice and special... it comes highly recommended from me on this wonderful dish!

Rou Gu Cha Wang Mian

Signature RGC Wang Mian (Noodle)

This is their best dish so far, a dish not to be missed if you happen to visit this outlet!

It can't be wrong... Even before I stepped into this outlet, I would have guess this is their best selling item. The banner outside the restaurant says it all: 10,000 servings have been sold!

Rou Gu Cha Porridge

Obviously we enjoy it very much

For the six of us, we ordered all the above dishes. You can choose to go for the flagrance yam rice (by paying extra RM1.50/bowl) instead of the plain steamed white rice.

Drool on the dishes

You really must come and try then only you will know... there are also dim sum items and desserts available!

Combo Deep Fried Dim Sum

Wonderful side dishes

The nestum-typed prawn is more of a fried mashed prawn paste, and the Chinese Pear Dumplings are deep fried with savoury filling, they all look so yummy!

My only regrets...

There is also the Special Red Wine BKT and the Spicy BKT which we wanted to order but was told both have been sold out for the day!

The restaurant supervisor told me these 2 dishes are unique which we can't find elsewhere and normally sold out very fast here, hence my curiosity grows greater and I decide to come back to patronise them again soon...

Not to forget I also look forward to try their Ginger Duck and Vinegar Pork Leg on my next visit.

10% Special Discount Promotion

We are glad that the bill is being given 10% discount. The supervisor mentioned that they are running the 10% discount promotion for all HSBC & Citibank credit-card holders, and 15% for Celebrity Fitness Club's customers.

He also happily exclaimed that up-to-date they have served more than 13,000 bowls of RGC Wang Mian (RGC Noodle) to their patrons in Penang, and the number is still growing fast!

Wonderful meal

Price wise, it is pretty reasonable and in line with most of the aircond F&B establishment in town, with charges of RM10-12 for a standard single portion to satisfy your taste bud and hungry soul.

Overall I find my meal is particularly rewarding and I have no hesitation to recommend RGC to all my friends (except my muslim buddies lah). It's worth the visit, please go and try it out one fine day to pamper your stomach :)

It's inside the New World Park

Rou Gu Cha King is at the main restaurant section of New World Park, and New World Park is located between the junction of Burma Road and Swatow Lane, in Penang island.

This place is opened for lunch and dinner. Daily operation hours are 11.30am - 11pm, except Sunday is from 11am to 11.30pm.

Here are the contact details
102-A-2, New World Park,
No.102, Burma Road,
10050 Penang.
Tel: +604-2271204
http://www.rougucha-king.com/

Additional info ~
Cuisine: Chinese
Type: Non-Halal
Ambience: Quiet
Price: Average

Takeaway: Yes

Just for FUN - Coming Election?

I have voted RGC King during GE2008... did you?

Please do so for the coming next election and remember to cast your precious vote wisely ya :)

Soccer Result

Black Eagle vs Korea, 5-8 (Golden Goal 1-0)

Ketam Steamboat Seafood

Location: Bandar Manjalara, Kepong
(Restoran Ketam Steamboat Seafood)


Guess this is the most famous outlet along the steamboat's street...
It's always a nice session to dine with buddies while chit-chatting.


This is the order portion for 2pax which is sufficient for 3 person's consumption...
Generally we order 2:3 or 3:4 etc... there's a reason for this!


So that we can order other side dishes, there are so many choices over there...
All food are very fresh and prices are reasonable as well.


We opt for the clear soup and tomyam soup, nicely separated by a partition ...
Both soup can be re-filled regularly, the waiter carry both pots around.


This is another side dish served outside the restaurant, there are also stay and desserts around...
I would say this is the best chicken wing so far I have tried in Klang Valley, I particularly like their special sauce :)

Soccer Result

Black Eagle vs Vietnam, 9-6

Mid Valley Pan Mee

Location: Mid Valley,KL (Penang Noodle House)


It's inside the Oasis Food Court, at 2nd floor...


Dried-version of Pan Mee, simply one of the best in town!