kvmb Chapter 178 Star Language Online
Chapter 178 Star Language Online
At 2 p.m., there were still more than a dozen people in Xinghuo Internet Cafe.
Ling Yun sat in the corner, his phone off, just listening. At the next table, three college-aged boys were discussing something, their voices quite loud.
"Have you registered for ICQ?" the man in the baseball cap asked.
"I registered yesterday," the man in the plaid shirt replied. "My number is 342187. Add me."
"Mine is 289034. This thing is faster than email, and you can even see who's online."
"It has too few functions; it can only be used for typing."
"It's newly released, so we'll definitely add more features later."
Ling Yun stood up, walked to the counter, and took a bottle of water. He glanced at his watch; it was 2:07.
He left the internet cafe and drove back to his company.
On the third floor of Xingchen Technology's office building, in the browser development team's office, five people were discussing something. The code editor on the screen was open, and compilation information was scrolling through the terminal window.
Ling Yun pushed open the door and went in.
"ICQ has been released," he said.
All five people turned their heads at the same time.
"When?" asked David, the browser project manager.
"It's been at least a few months; users have been discussing it." Ling Yun walked to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, and asked, "What's the progress of our chat feature?"
"The basic functions are all complete." David brought up a test page. "Registration and login, friend list, text chat, offline message storage. We just integrated the browser sidebar yesterday."
"Let me demonstrate."
David opened the Star Browser. A small icon, like a bubble, appeared in the lower right corner. Clicking it brought up a simple window: the left side showed his friends list, and the right side was the chat box. David entered his test account and logged in. He then opened another browser and logged in with a different account. Messages could be sent between the two windows.
"How much of a delay?" Lingyun asked.
"Within the local area network, it's less than 100 milliseconds. Public network tests showed an average of 300 milliseconds."
"stability?"
"It ran continuously for 48 hours without crashing. However, when the number of friends exceeds 500, the list loads slowly."
"That's enough," Ling Yun said. "Today, we're releasing the beta version."
"But there are still features that haven't been implemented..." one developer said. "File transfer, group chat, emoticons, these are all on the schedule."
"Add more as you go online." Lingyun wrote on the whiteboard: September 30th, Xingyu will be online.
He walked out of his office and went up to the fourth floor. The lights were still on in the Eco-Tools department, and Manager Carly was reviewing a design document.
"Carly." Ling Yun knocked on the door.
Carly looked up. She was in her thirties, with short blonde hair, and wearing a dark blue shirt.
"You're being transferred to the position of manager of the instant messaging tools department," Ling Yun said. "Start building the team now. Xingyu, that's the product name."
Carly put down her pen.
"The original department?"
"Ryan will replace you; he'll be officially promoted tomorrow."
"Star Language's development plan?"
"Three versions: the native version of the Starry Sky system, the Windows version, and the web version. The web version will be the first to be released and will be integrated into the Starry Sky browser. The native version will be released next month, and the Windows version will be released within two months."
"manpower?"
"Transfer all existing instant messaging tool developers to form the backbone. Hire fifty new people, and you will be responsible for interviewing them. Requirements: experience in network programming, familiarity with TCP/IP, and cross-platform development experience is preferred."
"Hiring budget?"
"Approve separately. I need to see the organizational chart by 10:00 AM tomorrow."
"clear."
Carly opened her laptop and began creating a new folder. She worked quickly, the keyboard clicking crisply and rapidly.
Ling Yun went downstairs and returned to his office. He turned on his computer and logged into the backend of the Starry Sky System official website. He added a new entry to the download page: Star Language Instant Messaging Tool Beta Version.
The description is very simple: Deeply integrated with Star Browser, ready to use upon registration, and messages are synchronized to the cloud.
The release time is set for 6:00 AM.
He recalled the conversation he had overheard at the internet cafe.
"The number is 342187. Add me."
Those numbers, those usernames, those emerging social graphs.
He turned off his computer and walked out of the office.
On the third floor, David's team was still debugging. Someone discovered one last bug: sometimes when logging out, a residual process would remain in the background, and two people were checking the code.
On the fourth floor, Carly had already compiled the first batch of interviewees. She emailed the headhunting firm, copying the HR department.
When he returned to his office at eight o'clock the next morning, Carly was already waiting at the door.
"Organizational chart." She handed over a piece of paper. "We'll be divided into four groups: Core Protocol Group, Front-end Interface Group, Back-end Service Group, and Testing & Operations Group. Each group will have twelve people for now, and the group leader will be chosen from the existing staff."
"Recruitment progress?"
"Seven interviews were scheduled in the morning and five in the afternoon. The headhunter recommended fifteen resumes, and I selected ten for the interviews."
"it is good."
At 9:30 AM, the official website's backend showed that the preview page for the Star Language beta version had been visited 200 times. Someone on the forum asked, "What is this? A new chat tool?"
The link was activated at 10:00 AM.
In the first hour, usage was 127 times.
David's team kept an eye on the backend monitoring, and the number of users was growing: 10, 50, 100, 200.
A bug has been detected: DNS resolution in a certain region is problematic, causing login server connection failures. The operations and maintenance team has urgently fixed it.
At noon, usage exceeded one thousand.
Feedback posts began appearing on the forum:
"The interface is simpler than ICQ."
"It's very convenient to integrate with the browser; you don't need to open a separate application."
"The offline messaging feature works great; messages sent yesterday are still visible today when I log in."
"I'd like to add file transfer functionality."
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Lingyun convened an emergency meeting.
David, Carly, Eric, and Ryan were sitting in the conference room.
"The first version of the feature has been launched and the feedback has been good," Lingyun said. "Next, three things. First, Carly's team will continue to develop new features: file transfer will be launched next month, and group chat the month after that. Second, Ryan's ecosystem tools department will provide full support, offering a general component library. Third, promotion."
"Advertising budget?" Eric asked.
"We're not going to submit to GG for now," Lingyun said. "There are three channels: automatic updates from the Starlight Browser; built into the Starry Sky System; and pre-installed on all computers in the Starfire Internet Cafe with a shortcut set up."
"Over at the internet cafe..."
"I've already notified them, and they will make the arrangements."
The meeting ended. Carly and Ryan stayed behind to discuss the technical interface. David returned to the team to review user feedback.
At 6 PM, Xingyu's user base exceeded 5,000.
Server monitoring showed a peak of 800 online users and a message sending frequency of 200 messages per minute.
At 8 p.m., Lingyun arrived at Xinghuo Internet Cafe again.
On the display computer next to the counter, the Star Browser had been updated. A small red dot appeared on the sidebar bubble icon, indicating a new feature. The receptionist was showing a customer how to register.
"Click here, enter your email address, set your password... Okay, you now have a number: 520187."
"Can I add him as a friend? He uses ICQ."
"For now, I can only add Star Language friends. But you can ask him to install one too."
The guest thought for a moment, then took out his phone and made a call.
"Hey, next Star Language, my number is 520187... Yes, it's similar to ICQ, but integrated into the browser..."
Ling Yun went inside. Several regulars were already using it. A boy wearing headphones was playing a game while discussing tactics with his friends on Xingyu (a Chinese messaging app).
"There are two people at point B; they're coming to flank us."
"Roger that, I'll reload."
Messages are sent and arrive almost instantly.
Lingyun watched for a while, then walked out of the internet cafe.