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James Chan

11 February 2010

Thoughts on Cuba and its Dual Economy

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[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
It didn’t quite occur to me that I had visited Cuba as a political tourist until I was onboard the Mexicana flight out of Havana.  I spent 7 days avoiding tourist traps and CUCs and using Cuban pesos while soaking in the local lifestyle, and went away with the [...]

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12 January 2010

Olympus E-P2: Snapshots around Singapore

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It’s been about two weeks since I got the Olympus E-P2, together with the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake prime, and though I haven’t worked with the camera enough to be able to pen a full review, I thought I’d leave you guys with 5 of my most favorite recent [...]

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9 January 2010

Wanderlust

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On Thursday, I’ll be heading to the American continent on a month-long road trip with my fiancée.  Much of it will be personal in nature, although I’ll be meeting with some business contacts in San Francisco and New York.  I am eagerly looking forward to it, not just because it’s been 4 years since my last [...]

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31 December 2009

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

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As we hurtle towards the new year, I thought I’d take some time to look back at 2009, and collect my thoughts.
It’s been quite an amazing year for me, both professionally and personally.  I bought an apartment, changed 3 companies in a year and proposed to my girlfriend (now fiancee).  Someone once told me it [...]

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31 December 2009

Neoteny Labs selected for NRF TIS

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I‘m pleased to share the following piece of news with you.
SINGAPORE, 31 DEC 2009 – Neoteny Labs is pleased to announce that it has been selected as one of seven technology incubators to participate in the S$50 million National Research Foundation (NRF) Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS).
The recent successes of global platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, [...]

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28 December 2009

Oly E-P2 beats Panny GF1: Here’s Why

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I think I’ve caught the photography bug again, after a 3-year hiatus.  After I sold off all my Canon equipment in 2006, I turned to Panasonic’s minute workhorse, the LX-3 as my sole photography tool.  Coming from the much larger APS-C sensor of the Canon 20D,  the tiny 1/1.63″ sensor of the LX-3 was a [...]

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15 December 2009

Post-NSC1 thoughts

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I finally got a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep last night. The past weekend has been nothing short of awesome.  Our inaugural Neoteny Singapore Camp 1 (NSC1) event went without major fails, and the speaker and crowd quality, level of discussion and energy levels were superb and electrifying.  Even though Sean [...]

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7 December 2009

How to have a jolly good meeting with me

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I had a less-than-ideal experience earlier today, at a tea-cum-pitching session with an entrepreneur that was introduced by a mutual friend.  I made the mistake of not asking for materials beforehand, and was still clueless as to what product the entrepreneur and his team was trying to build after listening for three-quarters of the hour [...]

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3 December 2009

Update on Neoteny Singapore Camp 1

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NSC1 is the first event (and a rather large one) that I have ever organized, so I’m really hoping that everything will run smoothly when December 12 and 13 finally arrives.  There has been a huge pile of logistics and coordination we’ve had to see to, and I’m glad to say I’ve had superb help [...]

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30 November 2009

Neoteny Labs

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November 30th, 2009 marks my first official day as Investment Manager at Neoteny Labs. I’ve had many friends ask me what I’d be up to, now that I’ve left government service. I thought I’d talk about it here so that I can point future queries to this blog post instead.

Joi and I are in [...]

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