Justin's blog

Glenn Gould: The Russian Journey

2012-01-31T15:53:00.000-05:00

Glenn Gould was the first North American concerto pianist to visit Russia in the cold war era. He had an impact through his artistry, musicality, and historical perspective that gave many Russians musicians a glimpse of what the musical world is like in the west. I enjoyed this documentary very much.

Book: Campus Confidential by Ken S. Coates and Bill Morrison

2012-01-31T15:36:00.001-05:00

(Picture from Amazon.ca)

Score: 4/5

This book, written by professor Coates, the University of Waterloo’s Dean of Arts, and professor Morrison, caught my interest as it demystifies and reveals many things about the Canadian university system. I recommend this book to prospective university students, parents, employers, and even policy makers.

Below are some of my favourites:

All Canadian universities are public institutions. As such, available funding is smaller and they are obliged to adhere to political priorities, such as focusing on accessibility of education to all Canadians. One consequence of this focus is low cost education and lower admission standards.
Traditional core disciplines from the 19th century, including literature, history, social, natural, and physical sciences are slowly giving way to other more lucrative, applied, or newer fields such as commerce, accounting, law, to name a few. There is a tug of war between professors who advocates for the traditional disciplines (who dominate the decision committees) and professors, students, and employers who want a more interdisciplinary and flexible education.
Universities are incentivized to see students as customers and cater to their needs. This sometimes run counter to the need of the workplace and national competitiveness.
Aboriginal students tend to put the need of their communities first and pursue areas of study that will directly benefit their communities.
The authors argue that the Internet with its abundance of piracy, is lowering the moral barrier to stealing intellectual properties, thus undermining intellectual integrity in universities.
Quebec universities are working closely with provincial government to transform the provincial economy with some success already. An example is Montreal’s emergence as a Canadian leader in pharmaceuticals and aerospace.
Of the 10 provinces in Canada, Ontario ranks last in the amount of provincial funding to universities. Of the 50 states and 10 provinces in North America, Ontario ranks 59th. In Stats Canada’s ‘07 – ‘08 report, public funding for Alberta per student was $22,469. Ontario? $9,718.
The resources dedicated to research in technology and scientific innovation far exceeds resources for innovation research from the field of social sciences and humanities. This leaves many important questions such as “how are innovation societies created and maintained? Which forms of education best support industrial and economic innovation? What impact do community structure, multiculturalism, and local heritage have on innovation” unanswered.
Harvard’s endowment fund per student is 100 times greater than that of U of Toronto’s. This impacts the quality of research and professor to student ratio.
Canada’s quality of high school education is quite high. According to OECD rankings, Canada ranks 3rd in science (US ranks 29th), 7th in math (per ‘06 ranking. US ranks 35th), 4th in reading. Canada isn’t doing as well in funding research, and especially in commercializing research efforts from private sectors. Patents and commercialized products are examples of what Canada doesn’t have enough of. With great education and somewhat lackluster basic research, and lacking commercialization, this hurts Canada’s national competitiveness.

Book: The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt

2012-01-16T23:08:00.001-05:00

(Image from Amazon.ca)

Score: 4/5

While I was researching for my democracy essay, I learned that during the Renaissance period there was a shift in art form and societies to focus more on humans and their experiences rather than the stories of gods. I kept wondering – how did this shift happen, and how did this contribute to cultural values of our time, the modern world? This was my motivation for reading The Swerve.

This book is about how Poggio Bracciolini, a book hunter in the 15th century, discovered an ancient Greek poem On the Nature of Things written by Lucretius. This poem and the discovery of other ancient Roman and Greek texts laid the foundation for the mainstream thoughts of the Renaissance.

Europe in the Medieval times was very repressive. The Church had much power and often influenced matter of the state. It persecuted many who contradicted its teachings. Curiosity was frowned upon, as Adam and Eve committed their sin out of curiosity. The pursuit of pain is viewed as the way to a better afterlife, just as Jesus had suffered for eventual glory. Discussion of textual material is strictly forbidden and book commenting is a privilege reserved for high authorities.

Lucretius’s poem, however, proposed that the world is made up of innumerable, small, and indestructible particles called atoms. These atoms, without the guidance of a divine being, move unpredictably, constantly, and humans are made up just as everything else in the world is. Humans are not unique, and gods, even if they existed, cared only for their own pleasure and not for humans’. The poem extols the pursuit of pleasure, human sensations, and vindicates curiosity, as humans no longer should fear their exploration would inevitably bring on a god’s wrath.

Lucretius’s idea seem rather mild to us now, but as the book shows, it was very radical and dangerous at the time of its discovery by Poggio. Though the book’s focus was more prior and during the time of discovery of this poem (thus not well suited for my question), I nevertheless enjoyed understanding the historic background. The writing style can be a little daunting, but is beautifully written.

Below is one of my favourite parts of the book. Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, owned at least 5 editions of Lucretius’s poem:

Jefferrson took this ancient inheritance in a direction that Lucretius could not have anticipated but of which Thomas More, back in the early sixteenth century, had dreamed. Jefferson had not, as the poet of On the Nature of Things urged, withdrawn from the fierce conflicts of public life. Instead, he had given a momentous political document, at the founding of a new republic, a distinctly Lucretian turn. The turn was toward a government whose end was not only to secure the lives and the liberties of its citizens but also to serve “the pursuit of Happiness.” The atoms of Lucretius had left their traces on the Declaration of Independence.

Video: Jack Dorsey interviewed by Kara Swisher

2011-12-13T15:21:00.001-05:00

Documentary: Steve Jobs - One Last Thing, by PBS

2011-12-07T12:42:00.001-05:00

Watch Steve Jobs: One Last Thing on PBS. See more from STEVE JOBS - ONE LAST THING.

Acknowledgement

2011-12-05T13:03:00.001-05:00

My last blog post is my entry to a contest to bring more awareness of democracy to youths. The topic was “what does your democracy mean to you”. It was an arduous journey but also a rewarding one. The resultant essay can be found here.

I couldn’t have written this piece alone, and want to take this chance to thank all those who have provided their help. Thanks, Taneem and Seungchan, for reading over my drafts and providing feedback, and my dad for helping me find my voice in the article. I also want to thank professor Nelson Wiseman for providing guidance on book selection (Canadian Democracy and The Penguin History of Canada, among them) to help with my research on the topic. Your help is much appreciated.

My gratitude goes also to the authors of books I’ve read. They have given me new perspectives and inspiration.

The following resources helped me to understand Canadian and Chinese politics and is what my article is based on:

Documentary: The Palace Museums – Five Millennia of Chinese Treasures, episodes 1 to 4
Book: 解讀中國經濟 (Understanding China’s Economy) by Justin Yi-Fu Lin
The Penguin History of Canada by Robert Bothwell
Canadian Democracy, by Stephen Brooks
John A.: The Man who Made Us, by Richard Gwyn
Wikipedia.org

Though the following material did not directly contribute to my essay, they provided inspiration and perspective on the research:

Models of Democracy, by David Held
The Age of Turbulence, by Alan Greenspan
The Unfinished Canadian, by Andrew Cohen
Documentary: Breaking Point – Quebec/Canada: the 1995 Referendum, CBC Television
Documentary: Freedom Had a Price: Canada’s First Internment Operation from 1914 to 1920, by NFB
China Witness: Voices from a Silent Generation, by Xinran
German Voices: Memories of Life During Hitler’s Third Reich, by Frederic C. Tubach and Sally Patterson Tubach
What we Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany, by Eric A. Johnson and Karl – Heinz Reuband

Last but not least, I want to thank my family and friends who encouraged and supported me through this whole journey. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Democracy – My Opportunity, My Voice

2011-11-30T23:49:00.001-05:00

In 221 BC, a unified China was born after 500 years of fighting between warring states. This new dynasty would be called Chin and its emperor, the first in China, had conquered 6 neighbouring feudal states in 10 short years.

Having unified the country by war, he gained absolute power and unleashed a slew of ambitious initiatives, unifying China’s measurement units, currency, culture, and language. Unification was codified in laws that severely punished anyone who didn’t obey. Old literature was burned and philosophers were executed to suppress dissents. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were forced to leave their homes and travel for months by foot in freezing weather to construct the Great Wall. Many young and able men died on the journey. Citizens were tired by years of war, the assiduous uprooting of their local cultures, and the separation between loved ones. But it didn’t matter, for the emperor had the only vote in the country that counted. So people revolted, ending a dynasty 15 years after its inception, plunging a newly unified China into chaos for 5 years. This was life under dictatorship – where people could only listen. When they want to be heard, chaos and revolt would often follow.

About 3 centuries earlier in another part of the world, the city state of Athens showed a different model of government. One of its prominent features was an assembly (Ecclesia) that occurred around 40 times a year, where every ordinary citizen could gather to listen to proposed laws, and vote to pass, reject, or return them for amendment. The assembly is also a place to elect officials. It was in Athens that the word “democracy” came into being. In Greek, it means “rule of the people”.

Democracy is a political system in which the people choose how and who will govern them. All citizens are given the freedom to voice their own view, with each voice having equal weight. Through voting, democracy allows the change of government and policies to occur without violence, and every citizen has an opportunity to be heard. In democracy, people have a voice and the government cannot silence them simply for its pleasure.

To me, democracy is the opportunity to have an impact on the country through my voice. It gives me a sense of satisfaction to know that if I form a point view through learning, and vote to help bring it to reality, then I am no longer an indifferent observer but an activist making a change. I become part owner of this country. It means I participate in a community of people with whom I share much in common to craft a future we deem beautiful, and that others’ lives could be better because of my contribution. I could help a friend’s parents pay less for home care, or help to fund the education for a child from a low income family, or help to attract foreign investment in green technology that creates more jobs for my neighbours. Democracy gives me the opportunity to change my world through my voice.

Democracy also gives me the opportunity to build a legacy. My family immigrated to Canada in 1997 and I have received for free what previous generations of Canadians have built through democracy – a safe and prosperous society, a high quality education system, universal health care, and more importantly, the laws and policies that value respect for minorities, compassion for the less fortunate in society, and appreciation for diverse points of view. These are qualities I admire, aspire to, and feel compelled to protect and pass on to the generations of Canadians after me so they may learn the values that the country has stood for. Democracy is the opportunity to shape the legacy I will be proud to call my own and pass it onto others as it had been passed to me.

There is a sequel to the Chin dynasty story. Even though the dynasty survived for only 15 years, the Chin emperor managed to leave an infrastructure for national unification and a centralized government system with emperor having absolute power. For more than 2000 years since Chin, China would remain largely a unified country with dictatorial rule. Many succeeding emperors found no incentive to educate the public, and in some dynasties intellectuals were actively persecuted. I often wondered how different China’s history would have been had its people been allowed to demand for more education. Could China have led the industrial revolution? We might never find out for sure.

Chin dynasty left a legacy in building its nation, but it stemmed from the emperor’s choices. The impact of this legacy was felt by many generations after Chin, yet Chin’s own people had no opportunity to choose that legacy. I could only imagine what that must have felt like, to live in someone else’s aspirations.

Canada faces many challenges today, ranging from youth unemployment to global warming. Democracy means these problems are opportunities for ordinary Canadians like me to be nation builders. With democracy we can shape a legacy for generations of Canadians to enjoy, a legacy we can proudly call our own.

Videos: Celebration of Steve Jobs’s life

2011-10-29T23:39:00.001-04:00

Jonathan Ive’s tribute to Jobs:

“The Crazy Ones” as read by Steve Jobs:

Book: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

2011-10-11T07:54:00.001-04:00

Score: 4.5/5

This book is about the internet as a medium, and its effect on the brain to make concentration and deep thinking difficult. Below is what I got from the book.

Through research findings, Carr shows that the human brain is ever flexible, constantly changing to adapt to the tools used and experiences received. As we make and shape our tools, so do our tools shape us.

A modern day book is a tool that collected centuries of innovation. Before them, writings were done on costly scrolls, requiring great hand-eye coordination and dexterity when reading. Words were written in the fashion of spoken syllables – with no standard spelling, no standard word orders (grammar), no punctuation, and no spaces in between words.

Reading and deciphering text in those days was a mentally taxing activity that often required sounding out the words, reading over the text multiple times to entertain possible interpretations and selecting the most possible one, all the while moving the scroll with both hands.

Reading was thus reserved for the rich, who usually hired a slave with dexterity to sound out the syllables on the scroll for a group of social elites who then discuss the meaning of the material. Reading was public and social.

Things changed after the book. Books are light weight, portable, have no back lighting (easy on the eyes), high resolution, and are very easy to handle and navigate with page numbers, chapters, and sections. The introduction of standard grammar, punctuation, and spaces made clear the start and end of a complete thought and deciphering text could be feasible without sounding out the syllables. Then the printing press came along to automate the craft of book making, dramatically bringing down the cost of book ownership.

All these innovations made reading low cost and user friendly to the the ordinary individuals, and widespread literacy soon followed. More importantly, reading became a private exercise. The book is a technology optimized for transmitting complex ideas and focused on creating an environment free of physical and mental distraction. This is the “rabbit hole effect” where the book disappears during reading and each reader can engage in a tranquil and private conversation with the author while forming ideas and exercise deep, abstract thinking.

The internet, by comparison, has very different characteristics. It lowered the cost of producing content further and every net user can become a contributor of content of all types – text, sound, and videos. The web is also driven by monetization models by clicks, and web pages are filled with hyperlinks and advertisements all vying for attention.

The net is also dynamic – one can be constantly notified of emails and web site updates that ceaselessly demand immediate attention. The internet is fraught with interruption.

Whereas information is abundant, attention is scarce. We handle the net information deluge by skimming and skipping, chopping our attention and taxing our mind to make decisions constantly on the links to click and where to navigate next. Many choose to “outsource” memorization to the net, not wanting to remember the information and trusting Google to help us find back what we had found.

All these have consequences. Not only are we more distracted on the net, but as our brain gets into the habit of distraction, we are more distracted all the time. Distraction, on top of making one tense and anxious, is the enemy of memorization and the formation, storage, and retrieval of complex thoughts and insights associated with intelligence. Studies show that for the same material, readers scored higher in comprehension and memorization reading off of the book than from the net. An experienced net user remembers and “sees” less from reading, making them shallower readers.

Just like the intellectual mind benefits from the lack of distraction, the qualities considered as human, such as empathy and compassion, also requires a calm mind. Contrary to the computer memory, the human memory and mind (and therefore the self) constantly inform and shape one another. A mind trained to be distracted and obsessed with speed could risk losing not just intellect, but some humanness as well.

Carr sees the internet as a great technology for betterment and admits to not having all the answers to the effect of the medium. He encourages new exploration and debates on the subject and urges the readers to be vigil on the effect of the internet on our lives.

I have found Carr’s argument eloquent, compelling, rich with historical context, and I highly recommend this book.

(Book image from Amazon.ca)

Video: f8 keynote from Facebook

2011-09-27T16:55:00.000-04:00

I am sharing this video for two reasons:

For all, there’s a pretty good anecdote at ‘37:45 of the video. What gives you the “kick” to do what you do?
For technical folks, I think the Open Graph/Graph feature is an important step. Maybe this is another way of approaching the semantic web that Tim Berners-Lee envisioned.

Watch live streaming video from f8conference at livestream.com

Article: Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption (from Forbes.com)

2011-09-25T14:37:00.001-04:00

A great article with a more realistic view about the former President of Facebook – so we’re not stuck with the theatrical view from the movie The Social Network.

Thanks Albert for sharing this article.

Economist.com article on Taiwanese film “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale” (賽德克·巴萊)

2011-09-19T10:56:00.001-04:00

From Economist.com – happy to see a film so focused on Taiwanese aboriginal history gain some spotlight.

Video: An ECG for the iPhone (from Technology Review)

2011-09-18T17:29:00.001-04:00

A doctor invented an ECG attachment to the iPhone.

Video: Interview of Siddhartha Mukherjee by Charlie Rose

2011-09-15T17:45:00.001-04:00

Charlie Rose interviews the author of the book 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'. Mukherjee brings forth some little known stories behind cancer and treatment discoveries and his optimism for the disease.

Interview: Playboy Interview with Steve Jobs (Feb 1, 1985)

2011-09-13T18:51:00.001-04:00

Once in a while you come across a very insightful piece that changes your perception in an area. This article did that for me, in more than one area. It’s my favourite piece on Jobs to date. (Thanks for sharing, Ben)

In this thorough interview Jobs touched on the state of the computer industry then, its future (GUI, internet, etc…), and advice on life, just to name a few. I gained a new appreciation for the machine I take for granted and learned a few things about life, too.

Enjoy!

Documentary: Guns, Germs, and Steel by National Geographic

2011-09-05T16:25:00.001-04:00

This fascinating documentary is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Professor Jared Diamond. Professor Diamond did the research to answer the question of “why are certain groups of people (say Europeans) so much more materially wealthy than others (say New Guineans)”.

To Diamond, a large part of the answer comes from geography. It turns out that how your area is home to a small set of animal species fit for domestication and how gifted it is in producing certain plants can transform food production, social structure, knowledge/material trade, and helped certain groups of people (like the Europeans) to acquire guns, germs, and steel. These major forces then shaped the world we know today through war fares, diseases, and technology.

This documentary is a good introduction to the book. For a complete picture though, the book is the way to go.

Enjoy!

Book: The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick

2011-09-05T15:31:00.001-04:00

Score: 4 / 5

I read this book because Facebook had reached 500 million users globally by 2010 and I wanted to understand what social networks mean and how Facebook “did it”. Though the book was a bit long for me, it provided good insights into the question.

This book is a detailed history of Facebook up to 2010 – its inception, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, investor relations, privacy, social impact, and possible future.

I had found the following things about Facebook interesting:

it started at Harvard as a universal online Facebook to consolidate the “silo” paper facebooks from the Harvard houses
It was the first major social network based on real identity, which allowed for significantly more granular and accurate targeted advertising.
Its large scale use of social network as a mechanism for automatically distributing information helps to advertise brands and generate demand for them (seeing what your friends bought through News Feed might nudge you to buy them, too), whereas Google’s search advertising is for showing you things you know you already want.
A big part of Facebook’s initial success lies in it being exclusively available to university and college students, where people are most “socially connected” to each other.
Facebook focused relentlessly on performance of the site and simplicity of features, contrary to some major social sites at the time.
Mark had wanted to build Facebook as a platform from the start. Facebook’s application is now viewed as a training tool for what adding a social layer to sites would mean. In the future, Facebook’s focus will be more around providing the social data services to various sites on the web to build up the social platform. Facebook Connect is first such steps.

My favourite parts of the book are anecdotes around Mark’s personality. Here is one of them.

Mark had just brought in Sheryl Sandberg, an ex-Googler, as his second-in-command. They had just gotten out of a meeting where Sandberg proposed something Mark didn’t totally agree on. And…

Zuckerberg walked out alongside Sandberg.

   “I’m really sorry,” he said

   “For what?”

   “Well, I rolled my eyes.”

   “I didn’t even notice.”

   “Well,” Zuckerberg said, “I’m bringing you in here and I know I need to empower you and make sure everyone knows I believe in you, and I shouldn’t be rolling my eyes.”

She was impressed Zuckerberg would call himself out for such a minor infraction. “I said to myself, ‘This is going to work,’” she recalls.

Enjoy! :)

Videos: Steve Jobs at the D conference through the years

2011-09-03T21:49:00.001-04:00

This page has links to the past D conferences when Steve attended. My favourite is the interview with both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as they impart insight into the various chapters of the PC and post-PC era.

List of Sites I like

2011-08-29T17:10:00.001-04:00

Enjoy!

English Sites

The Gates Notes
Bill Gates’ web site, my favourite is his reading list.

TED.com
Video of influential thinkers presenting their idea to change the world in culture, technology, art, and many others.

Kevin Kelly
Author of What Technology Wants, has tons of material links to fascinating documentaries from many fields.

Khan Academy
An educational web site with a huge collection of videos on math, science, business, and even history.

FORA.tv
Has video interviews/speeches of influential thinkers in tech, culture, and more

jnd.org
Blog of Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things. A great resource on interaction design.

MIT Open Course Ware
MIT’s free course materials online.

Paul Graham
Thoughts and essays from the cofounder of VC firm Y Combinator.

Design Mind
From Frog Design.

Simply Albert
From Albert Lai, a Canadian internet entrepreneur.

Charlie Rose.com
Video interviews from award winning journalist Charlie Rose.

Governor General’s Literary Award
From Canada Council for the Arts

Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction
A Canadian literary award for non-fiction.

Technology Review
Magazine from MIT about emerging technology.

Clay Shirky’s blog
Contains Clay Shirky’s essay on internet’s impact on society.

Gladwell.com
Blog of Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Outliers.

Steven Sinofsky’s Microsoft TechTalk
Blog from the Microsoft’s President of the Windows Division. It has many good posts about what it’s like working for Microsoft as a Program Manager, Developer (SDE), etc…

Larry Smith’s Blog
Thoughts on the economy from one of my favourite professors.

Ray Ozzie’s Blog
From Microsoft’s former Chief Software Architect

Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan
Japan from the view of a foreign technologist who lived there for 8 years and has a very good camera

A VC
Blog of Fred Wilson, VC and principal of Union Square Ventures.

AllThingsD
Part of the Wall Street Journal Network, ”AllThingsD.com is a Web site devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media.”

中文網站

CNEX
有許多兩岸三地華人文化的紀錄片

商業週刊
商業週刊的官網

遠見雜誌
遠見雜誌的官網

Video: Salman Khan, founder of Khan academy, on TED and Charlie Rose

2011-08-29T09:41:00.001-04:00

I had previously posted about Salmon Khan. Here are two more videos that shows how Khan academy works (TED video) and what Salman Khan’s aspirations for the academy and himself are (Charlie Rose video).

Enjoy!

Salman Khan TED Talk, with Bill Gates Q&A at the end

Salman Khan on Charlie Rose

Video: TED talk by Neil Pasricha, author of “The Book of Awesome”

2011-08-28T18:03:00.001-04:00

Pretty awesome guy - here’s a Globe and Mail interview with him.

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford University

2011-08-27T18:36:00.001-04:00

How fast has the data grown on the web?

2011-08-21T13:59:00.002-04:00

According to Think Quarterly (2011 Q3) – “In 2003, a total of 5 exabytes of data existed. Now we generate that every two days.”

Businessweek: Computer Camp: No Canoes, Just Coding (and Kickball)

2011-08-08T15:55:00.001-04:00

Instead of going to camp for being close to nature, there is a growing number going to intensive 2-week programming camps. See article.

Memos by Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie

2011-08-05T23:22:00.001-04:00

Once in a while the Chief Software Architect at Microsoft (formerly Bill Gates and until recently, Ray Ozzie) would write a memo to focus the company on the current and future trend and set the strategic direction for the company.

The following memos are about the importance of the internet, cloud computing, and the continuous service for connected devices, respectively. Through them we get a glimpse of what goes on in the minds of these tech giants. : ) Enjoy:

Bill Gates’ recommended reading

2011-08-03T17:48:00.002-04:00

Bill reads a lot, and fortunately for us he is sharing what he reads on his web site in the “Books” section. It got started recently but more will come later.

Enjoy!

Article: How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of Education (by Clive Thompson)

2011-08-02T10:33:00.001-04:00

Here is a great WIRED.com article about Khan Academy, a very promising educational non-profit web site that contains educational videos, problem sets, and a dashboard that’s helping students to learn and challenging traditional educational system in the process.

This site was started by Salman Khan, a man passionate about learning and teaching, and it started out as a “help cousin to understand her math at school” thing on YouTube. It now has funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and Google, among others. Bill Gates claims his children use the site to help with their school work as well.

Khan Academy shows the many promises of technology in delivering personalized education – online video lectures for students to learn in their private time, re-watching the parts they didn’t get without criticism, doing problem sets at their own pace, have their learning statistics collected and used by teachers to focus the help given to each individual, and students are motivated by rewards points given by the system based on their progress and effort (number of problems sets achieved, the courses taken, etc).

Enjoy!

Article: Inside Google+ – How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social (by Steven Levy)

2011-08-02T03:24:00.001-04:00

Here is a good article by Steven Levy from WIRED.com on Google+. It provides some background on the building of this product. Some of the main points are:

Google+ has two main “content sources”: sparks (where information about your interest comes in), and streams (where information from your social connection flows in)
Google realizes that search result quality can be much improved with social/personal information and now is investing “orders of magnitude” more into social efforts
Some of Google’s main assets: strong user loyalty, strong cash position for acquisition, and mastery in determining relevant information and links

Video: Bill Gates on Energy (from WIRED Conference, May 2011)

2011-07-29T17:52:00.001-04:00

Each time I listen to Bill I learn a ton. He is always able to get down to the core of the issues in whichever field he chooses to study - be it healthcare, education, or in this case, energy.

In this video, WIRED magazine editor in chief Chris Anderson (author of “Free” and “The Long Tail”) asks Bill on the issue of energy. Some questions from the interview:

Why is energy an important issue? (Because it impacts everyone in every industry/country. Its impact on the poor will have a rippling effect on the rich as well)
How does the Japanese nuclear disaster affect your view on nuclear power? (Nuclear power is 1 million times more potent per reaction, compared to coal and natural gas)
What are some of the future designs of nuclear power plants? Why does it matter?
How we solve this energy generation issue has an implication on the climate as well.
What are some of the biggest challenges in energy farming? (This refers to solar, wind, etc… One of the big issues is stability for grid scale energy)

Here’s a very short summary of the talk. During the talk he recommended some books by Vaclav Smil. It’s on Bill’s book recommendation page.

Enjoy!

Documentaries List

2011-07-20T12:59:00.001-04:00

Here is a list of the documentaries that I’ve found interesting.

Empire of the Word
A history of reading and the written word (4 episodes). It documents the how reading started (to account for contributions to the king), how it was forbidden for political reasons, and what the future of reading (electronic/digital) might look like.

The Machine that Changed the World
This is the history of computing (5 parts), and it is one of my favourite documentaries. From Charles Babbage’s difference engine to today’s electronic computers and the various major inventions in between, this film outlines the significance of each event and development.

Guns, Germs, and Steel (by National Geographic – 3 parts)
Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning book of the same name by Professor Jared Diamond. It shows how geography gave some groups of people a leg up to acquiring the power of guns, germs, and steel, which dramatically shaped the world.

The Ascent of Money
A history of money (4 parts) – how it was invented and gradually played a dominant part of politics, commerce, and our daily lives in general.

Locomotion: the Amazing World of Trains
A history of trains – how one of the most important inventions of the industrial revolution changed the nature of war, commercial outsourcing, colonialism, and how its status changed as automobiles became more popular.

Breaking Point: Quebec/Canada – The 1995 Referendum
The sequences of events that led up to the Quebec referendum and the result of it. It seems to not be sold anymore. The Vaughan Public Libraries have this in its collection.

Freedom had a Price
Describes Canada’s first internment operation to imprison Ukrainian immigrants between 1914 to 1920. This is in the Vaughan Public Libraries collection.

The Russian Journey
Glenn Gould was the first North American concerto pianist to visit Russia in the cold war era. He had an impact through his artistry, musicality, and historical perspective that gave many Russians musicians a glimpse of what the musical world is like in the west.

Video: Hilary Hahn – a Portrait

2011-07-19T22:03:00.001-04:00

Hilary is a world class violinist. I got to know her and subsequently liked her playing through her Bach album. Her sound is very clean, lively, and very sensitive. This is a documentary about her (5 parts).

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

(Chinese) Video: documentary of 潘建成

2011-07-18T18:03:00.001-04:00

Below are the clips of Mr. 潘建成, the founder and CEO of PHISON Electronics Inc. The company came up with the world’s first single chip USB flash drive IC that made portable USB key drives possible. It is now a world leader in this market.

Mr. Pan started the company in 2000 in his 20’s. In 2009 its revenue reached USD $750 million. This documentary highlights his journey thus far, and how his business philosophy and a team of 20 somethings helped to create the first USB drive we know of today. It’s in Chinese and has 3 parts.

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Economist.com: Samurai go soft (ware)

2011-07-17T10:32:00.001-04:00

Japanese technology industry is warming up to software:
http://www.economist.com/node/18958643?story_id=18958643

Reading List

2011-07-12T16:14:00.003-04:00

Here is Bill Gates' Reading List

Below is list of books and magazines I’ve found helpful. If you’ve found any to be useful to you, let me know. : )

English Books

The Google Story
By David A. Vise

Beyond the Internet
By Larry Smith

The HP Way
By David Packard

The Information
By James Gleick

The Shallows
By Nicholas Carr

The Dream
By Gurbaksh Chahal

Talent is Overrated
By Geoff Colvin

Delivering Happiness
By Tony Hsieh

Free the Children
By Craig Kielburger

Now, Discover Your Strengths
By Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.

Good to Great
By Jim Collins

The Big Switch
By Nicholas Carr

The World is Flat
By Thomas L. Friedman

The Rickover Effect: How One Man Made a Difference
By Theodore Rockwell

Shift: Inside Nissan’s Historic Revival
By Carlos Ghosn

The Facebook Effect
By David Kirkpatrick

Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy
By Isadore Sharp

Getting Organized in the Google Era
By Douglas C. Merrill

Getting Things Done
By David Allen

The Age of Turbulence
By Alan Greenspan

Outliers
By Malcolm Gladwell

The Element
By Ken Robinson, Ph.D.

Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit
By Chester Dawson

The Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch

Rework
By Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
By James Wallace and Jim Erickson

English Magazines

The Economist

Bloomberg Business Week

Fortune

Chinese Books (中文書)

日產的文藝復興
卡洛斯‧戈恩自傳

OFF學
大前研一著

核能潛鑑之父李高佛
迪奧多‧洛克威爾著

放任心中的一百次流浪
劉軒著

7-Eleven經商之道
鈴木敏文口述

王永慶奮鬥傳奇
郭泰著

五體不滿足完全版
乙武洋匡著

我是黎智英
黎智英著

最尖端武器: 核子潛水艇
讀貴新聞社著

超越自己
劉墉著

現代寓言
杏林子著

我的人生從廁所開始
白倉正子著

俠風長流
杏林子著

肯定自己
劉墉著

新知識生產術
勝間和代著

高速鐵路新時代
蘇昭旭著

Book: Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

2011-07-11T21:50:00.002-04:00

Score: 4/5

The book, Rework, was recommended to me by my friend Seungchan (thanks) and I liked it. It’s a collection of short articles expressing authors’ views on various business practices such as hiring, marketing, innovation, and starting up a business.

The authors are the founders of 37signals, a company that started as a web design firm, but now has a product line up includes various collaboration software tools (such as project management application Basecamp) to help businesses be more efficient through software.

I liked many of the book ideas, such as eliminating meetings for programmers, and how to truly connect with customers through personal touches. (probably because 37signals isn’t your typical 9-5, in-the-office type company)

Below I have quoted one of my favourite sections in the book. I’ve often fallen victim to it. The words might be a bit harsh, but I do find truth in it.

Hopefully you will get a sense of the style and type of book this is. Enjoy:

Workoholics:
Our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. We hear about people burning the midnight oil. They pull all-nighters and sleep at the office. It’s considered a badge of honor to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much work.

Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it's stupid. Working more doesn't mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more.

Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working like that just isn’t sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes-and it will - it’ll hit that much harder.

Workaholics miss the point, too. They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions.

They even create crises. They don’t look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more.

Workaholics make the people who don’t stay late feel inadequate for "merely'' working reasonable hours. That leads to guilt and poor morale all around. Plus, it leads to an ass-in-seat mentality -people stay late out of obligation, even if they aren’t really being productive.

If all you do is work, you're unlikely to have sound judgments. Your values and decision making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what's worth extra effort and what's not. And you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisions when tired.

In the end, workaholics don't actually accomplish more than nonworkaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just means they’re wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.

Workaholics aren't heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.

Book: Seven Years to Seven Figures by Michael Masterson

2011-07-11T14:44:00.001-04:00

Score: 3.5/5 (I haven’t found the career listed in the book very appealing personally, but some people might)

I learned about the author, Michael Masterson, through a friend. My friend’s original recommendation was for the book “Ready, Fire, Aim”, but I thought to read this book since it’s in the library.

This genre is a bit out of my typical reading path and I first got interested in the book out of curiosity – on how this can be achieved. After reading the book, though I’m not convinced it’s what I want to do, I do think if you really follow the book’s direction you can become pretty healthy financially.

Masterson is a successful entrepreneur himself and wrote the book to help people build wealth quickly. His background in sales and copywriting makes the book a refreshing perspective for me.

The book is mainly a collection of stories of high net worth individuals, and their stories have a recurring pattern:

They all earned high incomes.
They all had equity in a business.
Most of them invested in real estate.

On top of that, I’ve learned that being a copywriter has a lot of leverage. A great copywriter writes a sales copy once, and can have its message replicated digitally for virtually no cost, and each one can generate a handsome profit. Oh the wonders of the internet and nature of information. : )

There are some good tactical advice as well but I won’t list them here. If you’re interesting in the field of copywriting, sales, or just general wealth building, have a quick look at this book.

Happy reading!

Book: The Information

2011-06-28T22:39:00.001-04:00

Score: 4/5

I just finished reading the book “The Information” by James Gleick. In it Gleick chronicles the history of information – the idea, storage, retrieval, transmission, and processing of it.

The book opens with an examination on ancient techniques for transmitting messages – African drumming, speaking, all the way to examining the writing systems, natural languages, information theory, the origin of computers, quantum computing, and ends at discussing the phenomenon of information deluge.

I found the book to be insightful and comprehensive, though a little long when explaining the various information theories. It will suit someone with a serious interest in those areas.

My favourite part in the book was when it detailed what the world prior to writing was like. In that world, there was no standard spelling, alphabets didn’t have order, there were no dictionaries, very little formal logic system developed for argument sakes, and mental abstraction of ideas were not present. Words disappeared as soon as they were spoken (they only existed in people’s memories otherwise), and definitions for terms changed constantly, sometimes within the same conversation. The invention of writing allowed a thought to be analyzed repeatedly and meticulously, which made recording history and the development of science, math, logic, and all other fields in its current sophistication possible.

I hope you find this book enjoyable as well.

Harvard Business Review article–“The Age of Hyperspecialization”

2011-06-27T18:25:00.001-04:00

In this article, HBR discusses the trend, promises/perils of using the internet to break up and distribute digital work, and what that means for management.

The Economist: the future of China

2011-06-26T14:11:00.000-04:00

This is an Economist article on some of the challenges facing China in the years ahead.

Video: Great Composers – Bach (by BBC)

2011-04-16T18:40:00.001-04:00

Documentary of J.S. Bach. (7 parts)

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

Video: Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage

2011-04-16T18:28:00.001-04:00

A documentary about Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s performance of the Bach Cantatas. (6 parts)

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Videos: history of the Shinkansen (3 parts) and other Japanese rail culture

2011-04-09T22:46:00.001-04:00

The chime that plays prior to Shinkansen announcements. I still remember the amazement when I first heard the chime aboard a Shinkansen:

The various procedures/gestures performed by Shinkansen operators:

Here’s one performed by normal train conductors:

Cleaners bowing to the train:

Staff bowing to customer upon leaving the coach:

Japanese station master bows to greet commuters:

Book: Free the Children by Craig Kielburger

2011-02-20T14:32:00.001-05:00

Score: 4.5/5

This book was a gift from my friend Patrick Wan over the holidays of 2010. It documented the beginning of “Free the Children” foundation and the dramatic journey of its 13 year old founder, Craig Kielburger, through Asia interviewing the many children who were sold to slave labour.

Craig was inspired by a Pakistani child labourer Iqbal Masih, who was murdered for standing against child labour. He founded “Free the Children” with the belief that children understand their own needs the best, and contrary to conventional wisdom, can and want to participate to make the world a better place. To better understand his cause, Craig traveled to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Thailand to see the child slaves first hand. These observations formed the basis for the book.

Perhaps because Craig lived in my neighbourhood, and is almost the same age as me (he’s one week younger) that the book had an impact on me. I am inspired by his determination and optimism that he can make tomorrow better. Some of my favourite parts from the book:

(My brother and I) grew up with the mottoes: “Go for it! The only failure in life is not trying.”

What is a good and normal childhood in the world today? In my travels i have found two extremes. In many developing countries, children are often asked to work long hours at hazardous jobs with no opportunity to play or to go to school. They are not allowed to develop physically, intellectually, and emotionally as they should. They support entire families. They fight in wars. They are given too much responsibility at too young an age.

On the other hand, in many industrialized countries everything is done for children. They are segregated most of their lives with members of their own age group and are given little opportunity to assume responsibility, to develop a social conscience, or to learn through interaction with adults. Through media they learn to be consumers, to gain their self-image through the electronic toys they own and the labels they wear. They, too, are exploited.

Hope you enjoy the book, too!

Video: Bill Gates on Reinventing Capitalism (from Techonomy)

2010-09-06T11:36:00.001-04:00

A great interview with Bill Gates from the Techonomy conference. Thanks Taneem for sharing this with me.

Video: The Machine that Changed the World

2010-08-30T01:53:00.001-04:00

This 5 part documentary chronicles the history of computers from the 17th century to 1990 – from Charles Babbage’s vision of a calculating machine, to the Personal Computer of today. It takes the viewers back to the original motivation for creating such machines, and outlines the many breakthrough innovations such as integrated circuits, and why they are significant. This is a very well done documentary.

Enjoy!

Book: Good to Great by Jim Collins

2010-08-30T01:44:00.001-04:00

Score: 4.5/5

In this book, author Jim Collins tries to answer the question “why did some companies start from a normal/good/bad performance to achieve great results later”. A case study method was used where companies fitting the criteria of such performance leap were chosen, and another set of companies with roughly comparable performance and industry were chosen as comparisons. Collins and his research team then tries to look for patterns in the good-to-great companies.

I really enjoyed reading this well researched book. In many instances it’s as if Mr. Collins was reading my mind. As I thought “well, what if x happens”, and his next section would address x. Many insights were dispensed in this manner, demystifying many common beliefs about a successful company or leader. I highly recommend this book.

I feel I can’t do justice to the insights of the book without all the context, so here’s the ending thought from the book for you to think about what’s your motivation for greatness:

When all these pieces (from the book) come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.

Book Afterthought: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

2010-08-23T01:31:00.001-04:00

Score: 4/5

Delivering Happiness is written by the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh. Zappos is an online company that sells shoes, a bit like the Amazon of shoes. Zappos had gone from zero to 1 billion in revenue in 10 years through exceptional customer service, with jaw-dropping policies such as 365 days return period for shoes sold online.

In this book, Tony outlines how he grew up and ended up being the CEO of Zappos, what lessons he had learned through running the business, and where he sees the company and going in the future.

It’s a great book and easy to read. I especially enjoyed the candor and a little weirdness of Tony. The later part of the book was a little long and repetitive, but overall I really enjoyed the book. Below are some of my favourite moments/quotes.

1. Much of our sense of reality is perception. At one point Zappos was weeks from going out of business from lack of cash. The source of funds was unclear. During this time Tony took a trip he had planned for a long time to climb a mountain, and here’s his experience:

The next four days hiking up Kilimanjaro tested my physical, mental, and emotional strength. We hiked twelve hours a day…I ended up getting a cold, with a cough and runny nose. The dryness at higher elevations caused me to get a bloody nose. Half the time spent hiking was with tissue paper stuck in my nostrils, making breathing even more difficult. And even though I’d taken altitude sickness medication, the high altitude resulted in headache, vomiting, and diarrhea. I was only carrying a day pack, but my shoulder and back started acting up and spasming…There were no showers or bathrooms…This entire experience was by far the hardest thing thing I had ever done in my life. It was testing every ounce of willpower I had. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached the summit just as the sun was rising. I couldn’t believe that we had actually done it. We were standing at the highest point in all of Africa, looking down at the clouds below us, with the sun directly in front of us, its rays welcoming us to the beginning of the new day…In that moment, I thought to myself, Anything is possible.

2. There is a time to harvest, and a time to sift:

“In the pursuit of knowledge, something is added every day. In the pursuit of enlightenment, something is dropped every day.” – Lao-tzu

3. Great quote to live by:

“No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future.” – Author Unknown

Hope you enjoy the book!

Book afterthought: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

2010-08-23T00:30:00.001-04:00

Score: 4.5/5

I actually started this book about 3 years ago, but only recently had the discipline to finish it. The World is Flat is a book about globalization in the 20th century – what are the significant historic events that caused it, how technology helped to level many playing fields, how companies and individuals are and should cope, and what economic and geopolitical implications it has on the world at large.

Written by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Thomas Friedman, this book is a great introduction to the understanding of globalization. It was easy to read, and covers many areas – education, technology, politics, and economics. Though the book is 3 years old now and some examples are not as timely, many lessons are valuable nevertheless. Below are some of my favourite parts of the book.

1. If you are not interested in your job. Be careful if your competitors love what they do, because “Nobody works harder at learning than a curious kid”, and when the learning is materialized, it becomes a significant force.

2. Speaking about a key cause of violence:

This humiliation is the key. It has always been my view that terrorism is not spawned by the poverty of money. It is spawned by the poverty of dignity. Humiliation is the most underestimated force in international relations and in human relations. It is when people or nations are humiliated that they really lash out and engage in extreme violence.

3. About the tech bust’s lesser known impact on India’s tech industry:

India didn’t benefit only from the dot-com boom; it benefited even more from the dot-com bust! That is the real irony. The boom laid the cable that connected India to the world, and the bust made the cost of using it virtually free and also vastly increased the number of American companies that would want to use that fiber-optic cable to outsource knowledge work to India.

4. Why oil dependency hinders growth in oil rich countries:

Nothing has contributed more to retarding the emergence of a democratic context in places like Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran than the curse of oil. As long as the monarchs and dictators who run these oil states can get rich by drilling their natural resources – as opposed to drilling the natural talents and energy of their people – they can stay in office forever. They can use oil money to monopolize all the instruments of power – army, police, and intelligence – and never have to introduce real transparency or power sharing. … They never have to tax their people, so the relationship between ruler and the ruled is highly distorted. Without taxation, there is no representation.

It had been an insightful read, and I hope you find this book equally useful to you, too.

Videos: 2 TED videos about interesting game dynamics

2010-08-22T15:29:00.001-04:00

Video: Full length D8 Interview with Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie

2010-06-27T21:01:00.001-04:00

Book Review: Chief Culture Officer

2010-06-22T03:58:00.001-04:00

Score: 3.5/5

Summary: Author Grant McCracken argues that today’s popular culture is much more fragmented yet also more crucial to the financial well being of companies as purchasing decision processes change. He advocates therefore, for a CCO position, whose mandate is to drive the initiative to monitor pop culture and inform product design and brand marketing.

My thoughts: Interesting book with some great insights. I’d like it more if it were shorter.

Book Review: Four Seasons

2010-06-22T03:30:00.001-04:00

Score: 4.5/5

I picked up this book quite a while back but finally finished it this past weekend. Many people probably don’t know that Four Seasons is a Canadian company. This book is an autobiography of its founder Isadore Sharp, about how he entered the hotel business as an outsider and through determination and some luck, created the well known five star hotel chain as we know it today.

This is a great book and I’ve learned lots about Mr. Sharp’s courage and commitment in excellent customer service. I’ve enjoyed the book and hope you will, too.

Here were some of my favourite moments in the book:

About Excellence

“Excellence is often just a capacity for taking pains.”

About Courage

Not long after Sharp entered the hotel business as a building contractor, while arranging the financing of his second hotel, he realized if the hotel didn’t prove successful, he would be in debt for the rest of his life.

He went ahead, and now his chain is 150 hotels strong.

About Excellent Customer Service

A black-tie event was held at Four Seasons Chicago. Every gentleman was wearing a black-tie except one, who complained to his wife that he looked like an idiot because she didn’t say this was a black-tie event.

A Four Seasons employee, Hans Willimann, overheard this and leaned toward the couple…

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. I work here. I understand your dilemma, and I think I can help.”

Hans invited the man to follow him to the uniform office.

“Khaled, this gentleman doesn’t have a tuxedo. Can you help him?”

Khaled invited the gentleman to have a seat in his office, excused himself, changed out of the tuxedo he was wearing, put on his civilian clothes, and rushed to the laundry to press his very own tuxedo for the guest to wear. The pants were a little bit too big, so the staff seamstress came up and fixed them, and the gentleman rejoined the party.

The next day Hans received a lengthy and effusive letter of praise from Mr. Steingraber expressing his gratitude. The letterhead indicated that he was the chairman and CEO of a major global strategic consulting firm, A.T. Kearney. And he felt that if his consultants had the kind of attitude that Hans and his banquet manager had demonstrated, the company could be twice their size.

Book afterthought: “The Rickover Effect” by Theodore Rockwell

2010-05-31T16:06:00.001-04:00

Score: 4.5/5

This book is an account of Admiral Hyman Rickover’s life in the navy written by one of his trusted subordinates Mr. Theodore Rockwell. Though not well known by many outside of the Navy/Nuclear industry, Admiral Rickover drove the development of nuclear submarines and the thus the industries from which nuclear power generation became possible. His determination, moral values, and multi dimensional personality both inspires and puzzles me. There are nevertheless many great lessons from him. Below is the story that stuck out the most for me.

In a class of physics students many years ago, nuclear physics was being taught by a famous professor named Frederick Seitz. Among this class were some navy personnel, training for the nuclear projects they are to contribute to in the future. During class, a gray-haired gentleman kept asking some fundamental and simple questions, causing some ridicule from classmates. Even after 2 times explaining the same concept, the gentleman still replied “I still don’t understand, professor”. To which the professor asked “would you like me to give you extra help every afternoon”? The gentleman replied “that would be great professor, I much appreciate it”.

When the extra help session began, the professor, the gray-haired gentleman, and many classmates, including the ones who ridiculed the gentleman, were in it. Apparently, the gentleman wasn’t the only one that didn’t understand the material, but he was the only one who was willing to admit it.

That gentleman was Hyman Rickover, “the Father of the Nuclear Navy”.

Book afterthought: “Getting Organized In the Google Era” by Douglas C. Merrill

2010-05-31T10:32:00.001-04:00

Score: 4/5

This book was written by the former CIO of Google, teaching people how to use various tools (like Gmail and the iPhone) and best practices (like when to use paper and when to use digital tool) to thrive in today’s information overloaded lifestyle. I found the recommendations helpful, though probably even more so for a non-techie. The lesson I liked the most was about filtering information (i.e. skimming):

Reading every single word in a book, article, or anything else is much more time-consuming and more difficult, at least for me, than filtering that information. And yet, it comes with the same risk of forgetting. So you may as well filter. It’s easier to do, and it’s easier on your brain – and you may need that extra brainpower later.

There will still be material that I read every single word for (like personal letters), but this lesson from the book reminded me that the risk of losing important info is generally no greater than the risk of forgetfulness, and that I should have confidence I will catch most of the goodness in the material by my skimming. It’ll also help me remember better that which is worth remembering.

Book afterthought for “Linchpin” by Seth Godin

2010-05-31T09:52:00.001-04:00

Score: 3/5

This book describes the characteristics of an indispensable individual in an organization. No specific actions were outlined. Rather, a set of principles and anecdotes were illustrate the point, which I liked. Though an interesting read, I do find the book a bit repetitive. The following is the one story that stuck out the most from the book:

Forty years ago, Richard Branson, who ultimately founded Virgin Air, found himself in a similar situation in an airport in the Caribbean. They had just canceled his flight, the only flight that day. Instead of freaking out about how essential the flight was, how badly his day was ruined, how his entire career was now in jeopardy, the young Branson walked across the airport to the charter desk and inquired about the cost of chartering a flight out of Puerto Rico.

Then he borrowed a portable blackboard and wrote, “Seats to Virgin Islands, $39.” He went back to his gate, sold enough seats to his fellow passengers to completely cover his costs, and made it home on time. Not to mention planting the seeds for the airline he’d start decades later. Sounds like the kind of person you’d like to hire.

Video: Interview with Niall Ferguson, author of “The Ascent of Money”

2010-05-23T14:09:00.001-04:00

The book “The Ascent of Money” is a general history about modern finance written by Harvard professor Niall Ferguson. Here’s an hour interview with him:

Video: (documentary) How Britain made the modern world

2010-05-16T08:17:00.001-04:00

This documentary series consists of 6 episodes, each split into 5 youtube videos. It’s a good intro to Britain’s modern history. You can also find the book counterpart on Amazon.

Here’s the first part from the first episode (it seemed to have some issue for me, but the second part onward seemed find):

Video: TED talk by Roz Savage – why I’m rowing across the Pacific

2010-05-02T08:13:00.001-04:00

Good lessons about stretching ourselves:

Video: James Cameron TED Talk

2010-03-15T00:08:00.001-04:00

James Cameron talks about curiosity, imagination, taking risks, and leadership.

Video: NHK program about the next generation bullet trains

2010-02-28T14:43:00.001-05:00

Very interesting to see the how considerations like weight, noise, and vibration, are put into designing the new bullet trains.

Enjoy!

Video 1 of 7:

Video 2 of 7:

Video 3 of 7:

Video 4 of 7:

Video 5 of 7:

Video 6 of 7:

Video 7 of 7:

Why natural interface excites me

2010-02-28T12:02:00.001-05:00

What do you think about when the word “Natural Interface” comes up? If you were like me, things like the iPhone touch interface, the Microsoft Surface, and the tablet PCs would immediately come up. When a new paradigm of interaction, like touch, comes on the scene, some would wonder about its usefulness beyond the cool factor. I wish to address part of that question below.

Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer, recently demonstrated the interaction paradigm of 3D gestures in one of Microsoft's research projects. My favourite part was how he manipulated the design of a turbine blade using gestures and be presented with the outcome in terms of wind flow on a colour scale. By using gestures to manipulate design this way, engineers can avoid a large part of perturbing and experimenting with various parametric equations. The results are immediate, and changes can be made on the spot. This speeds up the design process, which has a direct economic impact. On the industry level, it enables larger problems to be solved more quickly.

Consider yet another scenario - robotic surgery. To operate with ever greater precision and effectiveness, surgeons need the help of various medical equipments and robotic devices that help them to see and operate better. Robotic arms that are small, flexible, and very "natural" to use for surgeons will allow for ever more complex surgeries to be done in minimally invasive manner. This is very important because size of cuts has an big impact on the patient's quality of life after surgery. Here again having an interface very natural to use makes a difference.

Let's consider the broader concept of natural interface. To me, technologies are tools, and making interfaces more natural is about accessibility - making those tools accessible/useful to a larger audience and support innovation in their respective problem domains so they enhance human abilities rather than impede it. How different would lives be if actuaries had to interact with their data through switches rather than keyboard/mouse/monitor/GUI? The impact is immense.

More importantly, on top of supporting people within their problem domains, if interface designers can find a low enough common denominator in interaction paradigm, people from across disciplines can collaborate much more effectively. What if auto designers can manipulate their design and immediately show engineers the impact of the change in a way engineers can understand and action on? What if the data was shown to designers in a way that they can understand engineers' perspective, too? Better designs faster is my guess.

What about being able to easily visualize and manipulate the mountain of data collected to enable high level decision makers to get a good picture of their organization and effect change more successfully. I think we are just seeing the beginning of such initiatives. Applying this level of accessibility to the entire industry or society and the effect is profound and full of possibilities.

No pressure, interface designers. :)

Parable of the financial crisis by Charlie Munger

2010-02-27T20:20:00.001-05:00

Very well written article summarizing the financial crisis. Thanks to my friend Seungchan for sharing this article with me.

Subscribing to email notification for my blog

2010-02-27T19:13:00.001-05:00

I have just added a new widget in this blog to allow email notification on new blog posts. If you would like to be notified by email whenever a new post is available on my blog, please type your email in the text box under "Subscribe via email" and click the “Subscribe” button. You’ll be sent a verification email. Just follow the activation link and you are all set!

I hope this makes it easier to keep track of my blog. :)

[Testing] Feed subscription

2010-02-26T19:07:00.001-05:00

Testing…

Testing Post

2010-02-24T15:12:00.001-05:00

Test import feature in Google Buzz.

Google and Railway companies

2010-02-17T09:09:00.001-05:00

A rough thought…

I like trains, and often thought the railway industry has many similarities to the telecom industry. Both industries are about transporting stuff, just that one is for physical goods, and the other digital goods.

Watching a documentary about railway, I learned this fun fact. In Japan, railway networks are more developed and the industry is full of private railway companies. Some (not sure how many) railway companies run their passenger rail business at a loss consistently. But how do they survive? It turns out, they cross subsidize. By owning both the railway and the department stores around its stations, they use the profits from those stores to fund the railway business. The railway subsidiary continuously improves their ride experience to try to drive more traffic to the department stores.

Could something similar to this happen in the telecom/internet industries? If we consider Google and other expensive web properties to be the department stores, and the railways the internet’s infrastructure (in the sense of browsers/OS, and the telecom infrastructure), could it make sense that companies like Google will eventually want to provide this infrastructure directly to consumers to provide a better surfing/browsing experience in hopes of driving more traffic and value for their search/ads business? What are the factors that would make this proposition of directly controlling the infrastructure more compelling, if at all? Perhaps Google will consider this approach if it find the added benefit of delivering their ideal surfing experience outweighs the cost of setting it up. For example, when the building out their own browsers and OS helps them to understand the users to target their ads and searches much more and help them be way more profitable. Google came up with the Chrome OS and browser so far, and now are branching into the mobile software space. I wonder what is in store next.

Going back to the Japanese railway example, Japan’s national railway company (the crown corporation) couldn’t compete with the private ones because it was prohibited as a public company to operate in the same manner. If one day Google does provide consumers its own infrastructure, both on the software and hardware level, it’ll be an interesting thing to watch.

Thoughts and comments are welcome!

How does technology distract us?

2010-02-14T08:49:00.001-05:00

I was thinking about this a little, about how technology has an impact on the way we think. Here are my thoughts.

It wasn't too long ago when I was in high school in Taiwan and all you need was a textbook. You know that if you study the textbook well a grade of A would be guaranteed. Everything you needed was in that one nice package. No worrying about what information you have missed and trying to hunt down the right information.

This is quite different today. We now live in a stream of information (I got this notion from Nova Spivack, CEO of Radar Networks). Information is updated all the time, and often it is our job to deal with the ambiguity and diversity of data that is out there. The low cost of swinging from one piece of information (in the case of internet, just switching to pages) is lower than ever before, urging us to move on whenever our judgment call deems a page not worthwhile.

I think this "background processing", the need to feel we are responsible for finding the right information in what seems like an unending pool of data at least contributes to the feeling of information overload. It's a bit like gambling. We are not sure of the outcome, and thus the effect is magnified. The ambiguity about whether we have the complete picture and the fear that maybe one thing out there could completely change the basis for our research, drives us crazy.

Another fact I think makes us information addicts that check emails all the time is the fact that it is asynchronous. The non-real time nature of tools like email and voice mail have made group collaboration much more efficient, but precisely for this reason, the recipient of this information can often get overwhelmed, because the sender does not need consent from the recipient. For example, if people had to always use phone calls to conduct business rather than using email, there won't be "left over" calls at the end of the day because when you're on one call, someone else has to wait for you to finish before speaking to you on the phone. With emails, it is up to you to just send the info and let the receiver deal with it. This makes for the volume of incoming data more volatile with emails, and since habits have momentum, when the volume of email is low, we crave for it.

All this comes down to the question of "what does information mean to you". Of course, if none of us deem the information valid or useful, no information overflow would occur. However, it is useful to address this issue for a growing number of people who find information to be an indispensable part of their work life well being and for sustainable progress as a society. I wonder what are the technologies that will be required to address this. Some sort of intelligent agent perhaps? Habit change is definitely needed, but how? Just one of my many thoughts. :)

How does technology distract you?

Thoughts on the iPad

2010-02-12T23:14:00.001-05:00

On January 27, Apple announced the iPad, their first tablet device. It is a very interesting product in many respects IMO, so I have gathered my thoughts below. Enjoy!

Form Factor

The iPad is a tablet and not a clam shell device, users will most likely use it either on a stand or be holding it with one or two hands. This makes it ideally suited for use while standing and in confined spaces. It also feels more "intimate".

Size wise, the iPad is a bit bigger diagonally than a regular hard back book, about the thickness of 2 pencils stacked up, and weighs 1.5 pounds. It is very mobile. I can see users carrying it around the house more than they do a laptop.

Casual Computing

15 years ago, when you want to check your email, you would walk up to your Pentium I PC, turn it on, wait forever for the start up, dial a phone number to connect to the internet, turn on your email client, and click "Send and Receive", and wait some more for your messages to download. Today, we have our Blackberries/iPhones that notify us when a mail comes in. Within seconds we are reading and replying to it, and many managers today can't imagine their life without mobile email, and nothing is stopping email from being the basic feature of every phone in the future.

This concept of a technology being completely woven into and adapted to a user's lifestyle (it disappears) is what I think of as "Casual Computing". (I am not sure if Steve Jobs agree though. :) ) Using the email example above, the instant on, always connected, and mobile characteristics of a cell phone makes email disappear and we start to use it very casually - anytime, anywhere. Compared to 15 years ago, emails these days are quite "casual".

Of the many interesting features about the iPad, this is the most important thing for me - it has the potential to make many applications more casual than before, and introduce a new set of behaviours in using computers. Purchasing decisions are often based on impulses. How many times have you thought about buying something at one moment and not long after decided you weren't going through with it? What if the ability to execute the purchase was readily available then? Many people would probably have gone through with it.

The iPad, with its current screen real estate, makes browsing and selecting products pretty pleasant. Combined with its mobility, connectedness, and instant-on feature, I suspect consumers would perceive and use the iPad as a large iPhone in app usage. If the iPhone user behaviour is any indication, then we can expect huge amounts of micro-transactions of many kinds and the user data gathered to be more real-time than before. The two areas that I'm most excited about on the iPad are in books and gaming.

Book Reading

I love to read, and I love paper. I've been checking out various e-readers and the iPad seems the most attractive to me thus far, though it's more than an e-reader. It has a colour display large enough to feel "intimate" with the book, allows web browsing, and refreshes pages quickly when page turning and can play videos.

iPad's desktop like display in my opinion opens up a lot of possibilities in book reading. Videos and other interactive features not possible with the Amazon Kindle can now be embedded in books. Think about a music history textbook that has video/audio of the music pieces being taught, or any book with interviews with the author, or instruction manuals that have videos to teach you how to assemble a piece of furniture. Videos will greatly enhance reading in these areas.

I think the iPad may also make book reading more social - allowing more interaction with the author and other readers in the community. Readers may participate more in the making of future books with the author, too.

Gaming

I am not a big fan of gaming, however, I can see the iPad bringing new audiences like what Wii did. Social games on Facebook like FarmVille have become very successful recently, and it appealed to many people who previously did not consider playing games on a PC. iPad is very suited for games (like FarmVille) that require frequent status checking, some degree of interaction between other players and the player’s properties. Imho the iPad addresses the needs of this market and the audiences in it, particularly middle age women.

If the iPad is coupled with a very frictionless way to buy/sell virtual goods I think there is a tremendous commercial opportunity.

Concluding thoughts

I think the iPad is a device with a lot of potential. The challenge is to convince the consumers that it’s a device way more intimate than a PC, and with a much better visual experience than a phone. I expect the user adoption would be slow at first, starting with frequent travelers and e-reader buyers. Interesting times indeed!

I welcome your comments. :)

Video: Q&A with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates

2009-08-09T17:45:00.001-04:00

One of the best Q&A I've seen. Thanks to Alex Chen for sharing with me (follow the play list on this video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmegPcTmWRs&feature=PlayList&p=5E16211235DCB278&index=0#

Video: Woody Norris: Inventing the next amazing thing

2009-08-01T00:20:00.001-04:00

Video: documentary of Cecilia Bartoli's Vivaldi Album

2009-01-18T22:12:00.001-05:00

See how Cecilia researches and performs some of the rarely/never performed Vivaldi opera arias.

There are 6 parts.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Video: Clay Christensen on innovation, Healthcare and Education

2009-01-10T15:33:00.001-05:00

Mr. Christensen, a well known professor at Harvard Business School, was being interviewed by Walt Mossberg in this video.

There are 3 parts to this video, talking about innovation in technology, healthcare, and education. I didn't quite agree with Christensen's prediction that Nokia will win the battle in building mobile devices. He seemed to have used his model on Nokia and Apple without taking into account the fundamental different natures of the two companies.

Having said that, I did feel that his talk on healthcare and education interesting. My question is how can we build technology systems that really help kids to learn in their own style, in a way that really maximizes the value of technology and human teachers?

Enjoy!

Video: Documentary of Ghibli Studio and the great animator Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿)

2009-01-05T21:43:00.001-05:00

When thinking about the word "animation", many westerners consider it as an extension of cartoon, with a bit of eccentricity. Some picture conventions with girls wearing really short skirts. Some associate it with comic books.

These are all valid associations, but it is not all that animation is. In Japan, an animation movie such as "Spirited Away" can have box office sale equaling or exceeding that of a Hollywood hit movie. (in this case, 150 million dollars)

Animation is a mainstream medium in Japan and enjoys high status. In the following documentary, you get a glimpse into the renowned animation studio Ghibli and the people working in it.

It makes me wonder - how do people of different cultures develop different styles of animation, what are the effects of different styles of medium on sending a message to its audience?

Enjoy! (This is the first of the 6 parts)

Language and values of an Amazon tribe

2008-11-30T11:46:00.001-05:00

This article is about a very secluded tribe in Amazon, and a bit about how they live, communicate, and what their values are. One of the very few missionaries went to the tribe hoping to convert it, but is instead converted by it.

I read this story from The Guardian. It makes one wonder what makes one culture or value set superior to another:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/10/daniel-everett-amazon

Book Review: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

2008-11-25T00:15:00.001-05:00

This book is about extraordinary success, and more specifically, about the environment around the individuals that made them successful. Gladwell argues that though individual hard work and talent is important, the opportunities presented by one's family, culture, and social conditions have not received enough attention as factors to those successes. Thus the writing of this book.

Outliers is an easy read and full of interesting stories and data. Sometimes it gets a bit repetitious, but overall the data presented were refreshing and helps to explain Gladwell's arguments.

I do not agree with all of the conclusions in the book, but here are the points that I agree and feel are very important:

1. Parents' impact on a child's life is very profound. Kids from wealthier families tend to have parents that are actively involved in cultivating their interest, teach them to have a sense of entitlement, and comb them to be comfortable in social settings. This skills will greatly help a child to succeed in the future. So parents, don't underestimate your power to make an impact.

2. A culture that doesn't encourage a healthy dose of defiance to authority can cause harm for people in that culture. If the consequences of any form of rebellion is too great, truths cannot surface and advancements will slow, or, in some cases, disasters will strike.

Overall, I give the book 3.5 out of 5, for its accessibility (easy to read) and its insightfulness. However, I would like to see a more complete and in depth study on the topics covered in the book.

Video: Rimi Natsukawa (and others) singing "Shimauta"

2008-11-22T21:31:00.001-05:00

"Shimauta" is Japanese for "Island Song". It came from the Island of Okinawa, right beside the mainland Japan. I really like the song as Rimi sings it, and it's interesting to see it being sung/played in different ways.

Thought: this consumer behaviour is seen in other products as well. Designers often find successful products being used or customized in ways they didn't intend.

Here it is with guitar accompaniment:

The version released on Rimi's CD. It's more pop-ish:

Sung in a cappella. I find it really cool:

I don't know who the singer of this is. But this is in Spanish with a Latin flare:

Lastly, here's a version in Chinese. The name of the song translates to "Sleepless":

Video: Adam Gyorgy plays "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Amazing Grace"

2008-11-11T22:51:00.001-05:00

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring:

Amazing Grace: (I liked the first part the best)

Video: Glenn Gould plays Bach Piano Concerto

2008-08-30T10:33:00.001-04:00

One of my favourite piano concertos played by Glenn Gould:

Ecorio made the top teams in Android Apps competition

2008-08-30T01:32:00.001-04:00

Ecorio, the Android application that my friend's team built, just won $275,000 from Google to further their development. You can find the list of winners here. Congratulations Ecorio!!

Video (Chinese only): Chinese students practicing democracy

2008-05-31T15:12:00.001-04:00

This hour long documentary shows the class president election campaign of a grade 3 class in China.

It is very interesting to see how Chinese kids get introduced to democracy and how their parents guide them to win the campaign. In Taiwan, class presidents are elected in less than 20 minutes - someone nominates someone, and everyone raise their hands to vote. It seems the election process is a lot more elaborate in China.

You can also see certain bad practices in adult elections manifesting themselves in this elementary student election. Even in such a benign environment I wonder what really constitutes "clean practice", and is democracy really the best form of government.

Enjoy:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Video: New pen-based tablet computing paradigm from MSFT

2008-04-30T15:53:00.001-04:00

This video shows an application called InkSeine that introduces a new interaction paradigm based on pen computing. (The previous interaction paradigm of menus and scroll bars were designed for the mouse.)

iPhone to come to Canada!!

2008-04-29T11:16:00.001-04:00

In today's Globe and Mail news, Rogers Wireless said it'll bring iPhone to Canadians later this year. Finally!

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie talks about Live Mesh

2008-04-26T23:28:00.001-04:00

In this transcript (with a link to the video of the interview), Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie talks about Live Mesh - a platform to seamlessly synchronize data and settings from an individual's many devices.

Semantic Web and Collective Intelligence by Nova Spivack

2008-04-26T22:36:00.001-04:00

This blog post written by Nova contains a very high level view of the Semantic Web and what it means in the evolution of the web.

Expert system: anti-laundering software

2008-04-26T00:16:00.001-04:00

This article shows that banks use expert systems to detect transaction patterns that might indicate money laundering activities.

From The Guardian

2008-04-22T00:03:00.001-04:00

Starbucks asking consumers how it should be run
Some corporations have changed how to get feedback from consumers and implementing it. Consumer community is the new suggestion box.

Mobile Voice to text service: Jott

2008-04-16T12:53:00.001-04:00

Jott is a free voice to text service so you can call, speak a reminder to yourself or an email/text to yourself/others by dialing a toll free number. This might be especially useful for non-BlackBerry people who want BlackBerry type functions.

This Washington Post article summarized the service. Have a look!

Mobility: Economist Special Report (April 12 issue)

2008-04-15T21:33:00.001-04:00

....about how mobility enabled by technology has an impact on language, social space usage, work place, and social activities:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/