Hung Truong: The Blog!

SXSW 2011 Panel Proposal: “Quitters Always Prosper” Please Vote!

I submitted a panel proposal to SXSW again this year entitled “Quitters Always Prosper: The Iterative Career Process.” Here's the proposal as seen on the official panel picker:

Quitters Always Prosper: The Iterative Career Process

You just graduated from college and started your first real job. But it isn't what you thought it was. Somehow, somewhere along the way, you made an error in judgment, or your company flat out lied to you about your job. What do you do?

Hear from a panel of young professionals who were in this same position and quit before they hit the one -year mark. They've since moved on to greener pastures and have found their true calling, or are at least a step closer. They are part of a larger movement who believe in an iterative career path.

Disillusioned employees: share your pain and ask the panel how and why they made their decision to quit. Learn the warning signs of a bad fit during the interview process and in the first few days on the job. Know that you aren't alone, and there's something you can do about it.

Employers: learn how to decrease new employee turnaround. Discover the best incentives to retain great talent. Learn when and when not to hire.

When the going gets tough, quit!

Questions Answered:

1. What are the warning signs before I accept a job that it is not a good fit?
2. What alternatives are there for reconciliation before sending in my resignation?
3. What should I do before quitting (e.g. securing a new job, etc)?
4. How do I explain my short stay to a potential new employer?
5. What should I learn from my bad experience, and how should I apply it to the next job?

Anime Nano iPhone App Update

My Anime Nano iPhone app was just approved again for the app store. “Approved again?” you ask? Yes. Here's the story.

I had a mobile startup a while back called Troubadour Mobile. While the company hasn't been operating for a while, I was using its iPhone developer account to mess around with submitting stuff to the app store. I wrote my Anime Nano app and it was pretty cool.

I wanted to start getting into other kinds of apps, and I wanted to integrate iAd with Anime Nano. To do this, I needed to make my own iPhone dev account because I didn't want to set up the taxes for a defunct company. I figured it would be a simple process to move an app from one owner to another, because it must happen all the time, right?

I sent in a request to move Anime Nano from Troubadour's account to my own personal dev account. That was around the beginning of July. I didn't get a reply until the beginning of August, more than a month later. Unfortunately, between the time I requested the move, my company's account expired (I wasn't going to keep paying $100 a year for an account we wouldn't use).

When the account expired, my original app was taken off of the iTunes App Store. After that happened I just submitted the application again under my own account with a slightly different name (Anime Nano!). Apparently, the “application transfer” doesn't really even transfer anything. Apple just asked me to remove one of my apps from sale and re-upload the binary. So I waited a month for nothing. This was pretty annoying, because if I had known earlier, I would've just done so myself. I don't know why I needed to wait a month to get those instructions.

Anyway, I submitted the app about a week ago and it was finally approved this afternoon. I'm happy to say that the iAds work and they look pretty neat.

Anyway, if you haven't gotten it yet (and actually, if you downloaded it before), go get Anime Nano! If you have the old version, iTunes won't know when it's updated unless you get the new version.

Ingrid Michaelson at The Ark, Ann Arbor 8/9/10

I went to see Ingrid Michaelson with my .gf at The Ark in Ann Arbor on August 9th, 2010. This was the third time I've seen her in concert, which is the most times I've seen anyone in concert, I think. Besides the band I was in myself, which doesn't count.

I had recently seen her and the band in Seattle in October last year. I was hoping there'd be a lot of new material, but for the most part it was a lot of songs from her latest two albums, Everybody and Be Okay/Girls and Boys. She played one new song called “Parachute” that was catchy.

As usual, Ingrid and the band came off as genuinely having a good time. I think it helped that this was a fan show (they pre-sold out to the fan email list) and they had been opening for a band so no one knew who they were for the past few shows. As with any live show, the best parts are when the band does something unexpected. In this show, they mixed in the chorus from Poker Face into Soldier (I think they might've done that last time, too), did a cover of Britney Spears' Toxic as a last song (before they left for an encore) and also played a punky fast version of The Way I Am as their real last song (which they also played at normal speed earlier in the show).

Overall, It was a really fun show. Ingrid and the band really have a good time, and it rubs off on the fans, especially in a small venue like The Ark. Hopefully a new album is on the way. I'd like to hear more new material next time.

Indian Pizza Hut Spam

I got this spam in my email box from Pizza Hut India:

I did not realize there were Pizza Huts in India. They appear to be marvelous institutions. There appears to be dancing and “Magic Times” to be had.

I'll make a point to try and visit Pizza Hut next time I am in India. Which is likely never.

The Angry Birds Secondary Market

So I was searching for Angry Birds on iTunes in order to get the link for it. I've already bought the game, and it's an awesome one for $1.

I noticed that there are a number of “Angry Bird” apps, but only two of them are the original. Angry Birds and the lite demo version. The others are all either cheat/walkthrough guides, or random knockoffs. The insane thing is that the price of the actual game is $1, and so are the knockoffs! You can buy the game for the same amount as an unauthorized guide, which has information freely that's available online! The craziest one is the app called “The Angry Bird,” which has an angry looking bird trying to kill worms or something. I am assuming all of these apps are legal under fair use and whatnot (if they're only stating facts), yet something tells me they could be violating trademark rules…

I wonder if other popular apps have this same kind of thing happening to them. And I wonder if the developers of Angry Birds are bothered by it. If they got angry enough, they might be able to make a spinoff game called “Angry Developers of Angry Birds.”