Things seem just so sudden. Though there are so many pointers to this inevitable event that happened today, I am not prepared. I am not prepared to lose a tech visionary that inspires millions, whom I one day wanted to talk to. I am not prepared to let go the dreams of one day that I could be part of his legacy.

I guess these are all gone now. What we have now is just countless memory and measureless thank you note. As much as I want to praise this work, his accomplishment, his legacy. I find part of myself just hate him for saying Goodbye so soon. Without a dwindling path people could see and know.

Do you know there are people who are growing up to become like you. We all hate you for not being able to talk to us, leaving only the things you did for us as example.

I love you Steve for all you have given us, yet, I hate you for leaving us so soon without preparing us like you’ve prepared apple for its continuous success.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary
words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a
drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary
parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid
all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

From “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr

And it simply takes huge amount of time to train myself in writing in a vigorous manner.

Either way, I think you are going to enjoy the new iPhone App: WordPress 2. I was actually merging the applications from acount to acount when I stumbled upon this gem.

Here is how it looks on my iPhone after I have configured this blog:

The most prominent feature I love is moderating comments. Finally turning iPhone into a road journalist’s lover.

Suffice to say, in the terms of browsers, this blogging tool is like Google Chrome (Yes, I am using it on my Mac as well) – with everything essential yet holding a mini footprint at the same time.

Update: There is a blog entry on the official WordPress blog here

I really like you. I do. You’re so nice, and sweet, and you listen to all my problems and respond with the appropriate compliments. But, well, I don’t really see a relationship in our future. It would be terrible if we let sex destroy this great friendship we have where I get everything I want and you get nothing you want. Don’t you think?

I knew you would understand. You always do.

We’re so perfect as friends, you know? I can tell you anything, and you know you can always come to me anytime you need to hear me bitch about work or how ugly I feel. You wouldn’t want to ruin a friendship like that just so you could be my boyfriend, and have me look at you with desire and longing in my eyes, if only once—would you? Of course not. Well, if we started dating, it would only complicate this wonderful setup I’ve got going here.

It’s just…you’re like my best friend, and I would hate for something you desperately want to change that. I mean, sure, we could go on some dates, maybe mess around a little and finally validate the six years you’ve spent languishing in this platonic nightmare, but then what? How could we ever go back to the way we were, where I take advantage of your clear attraction to me so I can have someone at my beck and call? That part of our friendship means so much to me.

No. We are just destined to be really, really good friends who only hang out when I don’t have a boyfriend, but still need male attention to boost my fragile and all-consuming ego.

Anything can happen once you bring romance in. Think about how awful my last relationship was at the end, remember? The guy I’d call you crying about at 3 a.m. because he wouldn’t answer my texts? The guy I met at the birthday party you threw me? I had insanely passionate sex with him for four months and now we don’t even talk anymore. God, I would die if something like that happened to us.

Plus, ick, can you even imagine getting naked in front of each other? I’ve known you so long, you’re more like a brother that I’ve drunkenly made out with twice and never mentioned again. It’d be way too weird. And if we did, then whenever you’d come shopping with me, or go to one of my performances or charity events, or take me for ice cream when I’ve had a bad day at work, you’d be looking at me like, “I’ve seen her breasts.” God, I can’t think of anything more awkward that that.

Oh, before I forget, my mom says hi.

Anyway, you would totally hate me as your girlfriend. I’d be all needy and dramatic and slowly growing to love you. If I was your girlfriend, I would never be able to tell you all about the other asshole guys I date and pretend I don’t see how much it crushes you. Let’s never lose that. That’s what makes us us.

Don’t worry. You’re so funny and smart and amazing, any girl but me would be lucky to date you. You’ll find someone, I know it. And when you do, I’ll be right by your side to suddenly become all flirty and affectionate with you in front of her, until she grows jealous and won’t believe it when you say we’re just friends. But when she dumps you, that’s just what we’ll be.

Best friends. Friends forever.

[ Shamelessly Copied ]

• Baidu Personalized Homepage (The brand new iBaidu myBaidu)
• Wow has signed contract with netease, terminated their contract with 9c
• I Dream a Dream by Allison Crowe
• Set blog for a long run
• Ashton Kutcher 1 Million Follower
• Time Waster of the Week: Blahgirls

We are still turning the publishing time as well as the content to talk about, while working on a central location to host all the podcasts.
email you suggestions and comments to dusenyao@gmail.com

leave your comments, for we are testing as well

Host: Peter Du and Priscilla Chen

Welcome to our pilot show for Pod for Thought, recorded in the field

• iPhone may enter Chinese Market (sooner than we thought)
• Huawei is going all American
• No more Youtube for China
• You are listening for money through Pandora
• Interview with our avid traveler Preetam Rai on budget traveling.
• Software pick of the week: Bumptop

Last year, Google turned its front page to this total darkness:

Message? Simple: switch off ALL your electric devices during the earth hour.

This year, more people are involved in the movement locally, I know a friend started the baiktour group on facebook to promote bicycle riding for one hour.

I advocate consistency, which means I believe 20 minutes of exercise every day drives you a longer way than 2 hours of intense workout over weekend, so cycle to work every day after the baik event if you are a true believer of earth hour.

In the cyber world, which is quickly turning into a TwitterLand or the pages to FaceBook, there are supporters similar to the black Google.

Senatus is one of the extraordinary, besides painting website black, they manage to find suitable content that shines in the darkness, materials that might make an lingering impact on conversing energy. So instead of doing a Google search which costs 12 grams of coal, you stay on to read more.

Turn off to 

So don’t it is time to go to Senatus if you believe only in participating ad hoc events that soothe your feelings and firm up your belief.

And don’t please go to Senatus if you enjoy only popular culture and think all want to become wall street people who are financial masters.

During the earth hour (Saturday 8.30pm GMT+8), you should turned off your laptop, skipped using the Internet, stayed in the dark, kept still and silent, so you could help to conserve as much energy as possible.

Or perhaps you could continued to surf the Internet, went out with friends for drinks in the bar, enjoyed the bright lamps along the street, kept on your air conditioner, and had fun playing WII.

But either way, remember, when you leave house next time, turn off all the lights, all the switches, take the train instead of your car, do whatever you could to save the energy.

Wouldn’t it be fun if you could play the game of saving energy, or rather redesign the game to suit your taste?

A columnist is as good as the last column she wrote, while a blogger could lose her audience for a while and regain them later on more relevant posts.

This is the event that I attended in Ogilvy Centre

While she, a SPH scholar who worked for SPH for 10 years, a veteran columnist for Straight Times, who reads blogs through search engines instead of Google Feed Reader, thinks blogging is similar to or exactly same as journalism, they are intrinsically different – the most obvious: journalists are paid to write the sensational, the factual and the political, bloggers volunteer their time to create a voice of her personality. The motivations behind them are not the same.

Exercise: create a compelling ultra short story with 6 words. This is the most enjoyable part of the conversation when I am in the position to create. If you’ve been paying attention on twitter, there was this 6 word/twitter short story event a while ago.

Anyway, here is my 6 word story:

Beer with a woman, later suicided.

Compare with the most famous one:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

You don’t need a lot of words to tell a compelling story.

So I’ll end my post here, and I’ll do a post about creating a compelling story another day.

Living in isolation is not a trait of a human being and this is the reason why we all need someone to talk to and emote with. In our daily lives, we interact with people at varied levels – in workplace, in our residing premises, at community gatherings and so on.  It is driven by this basic instinct of humans that now various online social networking sites have come into vogue. Some of the popular sites like MySpace and Friendster aim to build communities of people who share common interests and objectives.

The advantages
A social networking site is like a virtual meeting place where people join to connect with varied interest groups, and build up new acquaintances. It provides a socializing platform for people of diverse backgrounds, nationalities and professions. You can connect with different knowledge groups and build upon your own awareness level. Some use these networking sites to promote their blogs, to post bulletins or even to pursue prospective love alliances.

Social networking sites also offer ample opportunities for small business entrepreneurs as they are easy to use, and involve least monetary obligations in most cases. In comparison, creating and maintaining a commercial website might be a costly proposition for small business set ups. Social networking sites have also established themselves as reliable and effective outlets of advertising.

The biggest edge that online networking has over other socializing media is that most of these sites provide free networking avenues, hence making it well within the reach of common man.

The disadvantages

Besides the various advantages of social networking sites listed above, off late some grave security concerns have also surfaced that could be considered its disadvantages as well.  As internet provides easy access to information, it has made it very easy for individuals to claim to be someone who they are not.

However, it is strongly advised to make sure that safety and security are the topmost concerns while you use these social networking sites. This is because social networking sites require or give you the option to provide personal information such as your name, location, and email address. Unfortunately some people can take this as an opportunity for identity theft. They can copy your information and pretend to be “you” while engaging in illegal activities. This leads to cyber-stalking, where the stalker uses electronic media such as the internet to harass you.

Another issue is privacy, when signing up for a facebook account and filling up all the personal information, you are providing more information to strangers who otherwise will never have access to when meeting in other social settings. While it might help to discover someone new, there is much more unwarranted attention, giving “social eningeerers” a easy way to harvest your personal data for sale.

Conclusion
In view of above advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites, we need to understand that this is a medium that comes both, with opportunities and risks. The need of the hour is that this powerful platform of creating human connections should be exploited in positive ways to make this world a better place to live in. Let us try to merge in people of diverse backgrounds to positively channelize efforts of individuals.

By-line:
Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of an online school for bachelor degrees. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com

It's Magical

Milk, OMG.

Jason Lee has published an amazing series of photos as a dad and a photographer.[via jnack]

I always wanted to be a photographer, these images start to tickle me. I shall envision a 5D Mark II with Leica lenses will come right at me soon. Meanwhile, I’ll continue my Flex programming.

Update:

I forgot to put in this link, which is an awesome-long short:

“We’re all Gonna Die – 100 Meter Experience“

1. Complete involved in what we are doing – focused, concentrated.
2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.
3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing
4. Knowing that activity is doable – that our skills are adequate to task.
5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes.
7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.

[via TED]

I felt this from time to time. And it has other name like “peace of mind”, “zen feeling”.

Update: Here is a diagram of how to get to flow, the nearer to “flow”, the easier it becomes.

How to achieve flow

Studies in supermarkets have shown that if the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less likely to make a purchase.

Many Pantenes on one single shelf

I am a bit skeptical about this “studies”, which I thought could be a conjured case, so I did some googling, leading me to an article published on American Psychology Association.

In the article there is my familiar jam/food/shampoo picking experience:

when shoppers are given the option of choosing among smaller and larger assortments of jam, they show more interest in the larger assortment. But when it comes time to pick just one, they’re 10 times more likely to make a purchase if they choose among six rather than among 24 flavors of jam.

And in an experience where 800,000 employees at 647 companies are given multiple choices about their retirement plan:

When given two choices, 75 percent participated, but when given 59 choices, only 60 percent did

While these two types of experiences remain true to my shopping experience in the supermarket and electronic store, I have also noted what I think is one important aspect of this choice situation: when I have something to buy in mind, especially those products that cost more than $500, I would have some criteria in mind. Fitting those criteria would mean I achieve the goal of buying the right product for use. I have recently bought my Canon VIXIA HV30, a very nice high definition camera. I didn’t go through all the available products on amazon like I would do in the supermarket, looking up and down, being afraid of missing any important product on the shelf. Instead, I just set up some simple filters to pick the features I want (Live Firewire Connection + HighDef), sort the price and read some reviews before I hit the checkout button.

That is explained by Nobel Laureate Herb Simon:

when consumer enters with an articulated preference, they often choose the first decent choice that fits their preference as opposed to exhaustively scanning all options until finding the perfect, or “maximizing” one.

Hope you’ve learnt something, I did.

The lack of breaking news, the slow arrival of technology products have effectively annihilated the originality of the technology bloggers in Singapore. Just like the banks around the global are becoming more and more similar to each other, having more and more financial derivatives to make money out of complex mathematical formulas, technology bloggers in Singapore are increasingly morphing into the big companies’ PR channels, having only some brief and shallow look at the products during product launches, while being shoved down the throat lots of “PR worthy information”.

In an environment where computer geeks and nerds, coders and programmers are look downed upon comparing with bankers working for Citi,BarCap, etc, I could only see a cloudy future for us who are passionate about technology could survive on our own, staying independent of “larger influence”.

While that is yet to be seen, I still could recall the CNN + Facebook experience I had that day. It was wonderfully executed online. As long as you have logged into your facebook account, you have a tiny conversation box with your friends and everyone, here is a 1 minute screencast explaining what happened on the day:

It was indeed a powerful experience, though dated back to the days when we have no money to afford one TV per house. When the crowd gather to one place, watching the TV program, talking to each other on the programme, or some other randomly interesting topic. The desire inside people wanting to socialize is always there, and CNN facilitated this desire by creating this virtual platform for everyone. The “everyone-come-together-watch-tv-and-talk” experience.

PS:
It’s interesting that some people was wondering that who few people twitterred during the election. I did some research through compete.com, the result is quite shocking:

Facebook Twitter Plurk Comparision

Facebook has 60 million unique visitors per month, comparing with pathetic twitter or plurk. Guess the numbers say all.

iWorkServices is the infected file

It has indeed dawned on me that the mac people are generally not equipped with virus prevention software. Though these virus rarely spread on a real Mac hardware, as comparing with thsoe hacked PCs. The starting of threat of virus might be exaggerated. Soon enough, marketing department will roll out more schemes to ask people to buy in. Or are they simply bored just to create the virus?