Almost New Year

DSC00555, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Tomorrow is the last day of the year. Looking back on the year 2008, most of the joy comes fun the progress made by my son.

Today he correctly said my name when asked by his grandma, only the third day since she began to teach him for about ten times. He likes dogs, butterflies, flowers, and running on grass fields. He would grab my hand and tell me what he was playing when we came home from work.

He loves the TV show "In the Night Garden" and remembers every episode he saw (you don't want to go to the movies with him because he can't wait to tell you what is going to happen next). Thanks to the internet, I downloaded 50 episodes overnight from all over the world otherwise it's almost impossible that I can watch the show with him.

He learned at least 500 words I guess, some of them we didn't know where he learned from. for example, one day when my mom went into a lottery store, he said "many lotteries" but we never bought or discuss lottery at home. He invents new games and forces everyone at home to play the game as he assigns roles and rules for us.

Last year I woke him up to watch the fireworks at Taipei 101, and I doubt that he remembers it. I think he will remember tomorrow. Farewell, year 2008!

HuaZhong Riverside Park

DSC00536, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

With beautiful sun and cool weather this Saturday, we took Yoshi to HuaZhong Riverside Park for a good run. He enjoys running on grass fields very much, and this park has huge fields to run on. Tomorrow he will be one year and eight months old.

Merry Christmas to You

My Mac Mini is still broken because I was too lazy to bring it for repairment. So, instead of the lovely designs in Mac, I tried the service of a young Taiwanese company called http://www.elucard.com. Well, yes, I know. I'm busy, and it's free.

Merry Christmas

It's been a very busy month at work and also in personal life. Allie and I went to a potential distributor to do sales training in the morning, then came home and pick up my son to have a late lunch with her ex-colleagues. And there was a Christmas party in our community tonight, so I hurried home to prepare the dish we promised to offer for the party. What made this even challenging was that I didn't sleep last night until 5 AM, and tomorrow I have two important meetings to attend. Wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year despite the global economic challenges.

Life and Death

Just heard a terrible news. The fireman killed in action is the husband of my colleague's sister. They were married less than two years, and have a boy just nine months old. My colleague, the sister, is expecting her first baby next week.

I-Lan week

I-Lan is a beautiful place. We had a small trip to I-Lan last weekend. We went there on Saturday and came back on Sunday. Monday evening I had an urgent work and had to go to I-Lan again and came back the same day. On Tuesday morning, I got a call and told me that I had to go again. So, I went again and came back in the afternoon. For four consecutive days, I was in both I-Lan and Taipei each day. By the way, I will be going to Taichung tomorrow morning and come back in the afternoon.

Yoshi packing

We had a family trip to I-Lan last weekend. Last Friday night when Allie was packing, my son was also busy packing his own luggage in the next room.

Yoshi Running at Daan Park

We took Yoshi to Daan Park today. He loves running on the big, green field of grass, and was curious to watch squirrels climbing up and down on the trees. We went to the flower market afterwards, but he was too tired and fell asleep.

L'IDIOT

We celebrated mom's birthday at L'Idiot. Food was delicious, service was good, and Yoshi was happy.

Update - Yoshi and Politics

More videos of Yoshi on YouTube.

I was extremely busy in October, and therefore this blog was squeezed out of my calendar. Yoshi turned one and half, and he is now making obvious progress in talking and walking. He is very curious and adventurous, so it's hard to keep him in one place whole day. In the past two weeks, he began to stick to his mother for some reason in stead of hanging with me, so I have more time to read my books. A child at this young age seems still have access to some unknown source of information, so I often get surprised that he knows something he is not supposed to know.

Life is all about choices. We choose our works, our friends, our neighborhoods, and many other factors of life. All these choices are related. Sometimes you have to live with the results of your earlier choices or choices made by people of your earlier choices -- and you can't complain because it's your choice of life.

on politics, I would vote for Obama if I were a US citizen, but I doubt that everyone will live happily thereafter. However, in the past two Presidential campaigns, the candidates all demonstrated the maturity of democracy in USA. Al Gore is a real statesman who I think may be the only one for the century. Obama of course represents a whole new era, but I think McCain also shows his dignity fighting a losing battle yet refusing to call for racism.

Politicians are reflection of the voters, as media is a reflection of the audience. Last week was a week of disorder and violence in Taiwan according to what the media shows us, and Taiwan looks like going to the edge of riot or martial law. But in fact, I tried very hard to catch up with the reports last weekend because I had meetings with Japanese companies and other customers without noticing a bit of chaos in my daily life. There are always people on both ends of extremes in any society, but the media made the 5% looks like 50%. Until the audience knows how to choose, and until the voters knows what to choose, this is what we can get.

DEMOgod Trophy Received

Today I received the DEMOgod trophy. The glass plaque was returned to DEMO team right after the award ceremony to have the names of the winners inscribed. The claimed value stated on the shipping document is $10. That is how it's worth.

Big Fight Out of Shit

Last night Allie and I had a big fight on the way home. She accused me of being unkind to her. I didn't want to talk about such non-stop topic over and over again every other week. When she began to say if she were some other girls I wouldn't have treat her that way, she really stepped on my red-line. I hate to be accused for something I didn't do. The logic was, she accused me because she cared. I didn't respond means I didn't care. If I say something she didn't like, I don't love her anymore. SO BE IT! Now it's WAR!

Post DEMO

Briefly summarize the first week at work after DEMO. We got a lot of media attention because of the award, so I had a chance to talk to many reporters. Unfortunately, most of them were disappointing to me in terms of their background knowledge or even basic writing skills. I wonder where good reporters are doing., chasing political news maybe. However, I met two really good ones from magazines, so there is still hope.

On business side, I received inquiries from countries I'd never expected. There was one software development service company based in Ukraine, and a IT company from Burkina Faso in West Africa. These names only exist in my geography books, and now we are connected by internet.

Personal note on my DEMOfall experience

In one word, awesome! It's a great place for product launch because the media attention is huge, and lots of great people to meet and talk to there. And then, I'm going to say something I hope my boss will not see.

I'd like to thank Shan for bringing us to DEMO, putting her own credit at risk for that we (or I) actually fell in the IDEAS Show. When we were invited to the IDEAS Show, we had no idea what it was for, nor the importance of DEMO Conference. So basically I was appointed by my boss to do a usual "demo" as we do every day, following the instructions from him and deliver what he has in mind. The only adjustment was to make it into six minutes - a rule we heard for the first time. And you should have known that I failed if you are a regular reader of this blog. However, Shan had a strong confidence on our product, so she actually talked Chris into inviting Awind to DEMOfall.

With the experience of failure, plus the fact that my boss and anyone else were extremely busy on daily jobs, again I was assigned to take care of our preparation for DEMO. But this time I have better position to speak since I was the only one who actually did a six-minute demo and knew the response of the audience. So I started writing a script based on the concept of Xiang Sheng (a Chinese duo comedian talk), similar to the Get-a-Mac Ads familiar to the western people. With the help from Shan and Chris, I finished my script and revised it like six times before my boss had any response to the scripts I sent him. Since he was too busy for this, I did all the conference calls with DEMO staff and preparing the stuff with the help of my colleagues. I became the writer and director of our demo.

Finally it was one week before DEMO, and my boss was able to work with me to practice and revise the script -in the spare time of making the demo sample ready before we depart. And, after about 10 times practice, we were on the plane heading for USA.

Then, a could-be disaster. When we arrived the Grande Ballroom for the only one rehearsal, we found the camera for mobile phone screen could not fit into our script at all. I decided to change the script at the last minute, and thanks to the help from the professional DEMO staff, we kind of finished the rehearsal, despite the mess of video transition because no one could follow the new script.

And, you know the rest. We won a DEMOgod Award. But the best part of it was that people came by and said how they liked our demonstration on stage. A guy from Boston who works in Shanghai approached me and asked me if the demo was in the form of Xiang Sheng, and I was like, "Geez! They get it!" It was unbelievable that even in the afternoon of the second day, when the audience had seen dozens of demos, people still recognized us and cheered for us. Thank you to everyone who helped me on the way to the first DEMOgod Award of Taiwan!

Media Coverage on Awind's DEMOfall Presence

We got a lot of attention and coverage attending this DEMOfall. It was an amazing experience to talk to people from important media like CNET or Mercury News, among other journalists or bloggers from around the world. Here are some of them:

http://twitter.com/cshipley/statuses/914021524
Chris Shipley
12:36 AM September 09, 2008 from web
Awind is charming the audience with its wireless high-definition display technology. www.awind.com

http://twitter.com/dgmandell/statuses/914021875
the AWIND demo from #DEMO is THE video to watch. Trust me!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10034909-52.html
September 8, 2008 9:45 AM PDT
Awind takes controlling presentations mobile
Posted by Daniel Terdiman
SAN DIEGO--If you're the kind of person who runs a lot of PowerPoint presentations, you probably are very familiar with trying to connect your computer to a million different projectors.
But a Taiwanese company called Awind showed at DemoFall today a product called MobiShow which is designed to take the difficult and complex connection problem--what if you don't have the right cables--folks like this face on a regular basis.
MobiShow is a mobile-phone and Wi-Fi based projection controller.
The idea is that with MobiShow running on your mobile phone, you can use that device as what amounts to a remote control for the presentation.
You would run MobiShow--which would be connected to your computer via Wi-Fi--and then use your mobile phone to set the proper screen resolution, as well as to easily click through various slides in a PowerPoint presentation.
This would be extremely useful for the road warriors who until now have been forced to try to always remember to bring the various cables and connections they need to hook up to clients' projection systems. Instead, they can rely solely on their computer and their mobile device.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/11865/print
DEMOfall '08: Back to the (paper-enabled) future
By Frank Hayes
Created Sep 9 2008 - 1:06am
* Awind had something that got these presentation-oriented business users oohing and aahing: MobiShow, a box that lets a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone display presentations or even video on a full-size screen in full-size resolution. The phone can display its desktop in the usual itty-bitty size, but can do full-size PowerPoint displays. The streaming video was especially impressive, even when a demonstration video of fireworks took a while to download and made the crowd think the demo had crashed. (It started up eventually, and looked very sharp.)

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_10415773?nclick_check=1
DEMOfall conference highlights innovation
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
“Taiwan-based Awind is developing a device called the mobiShow, which will allow users to send video and presentations from a smart phone to a TV or digital projector. The idea is that instead of lugging around a laptop, jetsetters can store their PowerPoint presentations in their phones. The device not only connects with smart phones; it also upconverts the video stored on the phone for display on larger screens.”

http://etech.eweek.com/content/mobile_and_wireless/live_from_demofall_08.html
Monday, September 08, 2008 3:26 PM/EST
Live from DEMOfall 08
“Drawing the most applause from the crowd (full of people who probably do their fair share of presentations), was MobiShow from Awind. This was a small wireless projector that made it possible to drive fully functional and decent resolution from a mobile phone.”

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1815927645;img;9629;ssid;1
15 cool new technologies at DEMOfall 08
Jon Brodkin (Network World) 09/09/2008 10:55:00
Company: Awind Technology: mobiShow connects your PC or smartphone to your television set using a wireless transmitter, allowing you to stream high-definition movies, your desktop or any video format to your big screen. "Born of expertise in delivering high-definition, PC-based presentations to the television screen, mobiShow makes it easy to discover and watch IP-based video," DEMO organizers say. "But it's the transcoding of PC-based video into high-definition video scaled to fit the television screen that makes Awind's offering remarkable."

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3770116/DEMO+Web+20+Is+So+Yesterday.htm
DEMO: Web 2.0 Is So Yesterday
A sneak peek at a flexible display; power presentations from your cell phone and how to save your DVD collection.
September 8, 2008
By David NeedlA company from Taiwan called Awind got the crowd's attention with mobiShow, a book-sized hardware device that lets you use a cell phone to give presentations via Wifi. In its demonstration, Awind showed how the mobiShow can stream a presentation, wirelessly, or an IP-based video for that matter, to a big screen with a range of transition effects typical of a Powerpoint presentation. The technology can also sharpen the image from what appears on the cellphone display to high definition on a big screen.
We can bring anything you want to a TV screen," said Richard Chen, program manager of Awind, who claimed that it's a much more effective way to access and manage video than Apples TV, for example. And yes, he said, mobiShow will work with the iPhone.
No word on when it's coming to the U.S. market, or price. Chen did say the company is opening up the software to developer and Web designers to further tap its potential.

http://www.dantynan.com/2008/09/08/demo-live-continued/
A-wind MobiShow
MobiShow box about the size of a Palm connects video from iPhone to projector — no wires required. Increase resolution to show at large sizes with “presentation to go” (PTG) software on phone. Transition effects, simple animation. These guys are total geeks (and they know it), the slides are Dork City, but this one looks pretty damned cool. Turns phone into media server. Not clear what wireless technology they’re using. Oops, video demo crashed. But still, impressive.

http://www.giiks.com/?2008/09/12/1423-demofall-08-xumii-et-awind
DEMOfall 08 : Xumii et Awind
par Sophie dans General
Awind est une sympathique start-up taïwanaise qui a fait forte impression avec sa box MobiShow de streaming mobile vers un écran TV.
La box d’Awind se connecte en WiFi ou Ethernet au réseau et crée un point d’accès pour le mobile.
Connecté en VGA ou HDMI à la TV, l’application mobile permet l’affichage intégral de l’écran du mobile sur le téléviseur.
Le mobile devient alors un vrai media center qui streame vidéos, musiques et photos.
Awind propose un format adapté de présentation mobile streamée sur TV : le Powerpoint To Go (.PTG).
Une fois formatée à partir du PC au format .ptg, le mobile se transforme en télécommande de diaporama en grand écran.

http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/blogs/yi-jian_ngo/archive/2008/09/11/top-6-startups-at-demofall-2008.aspx
Top 6 Startups at DEMOFall 2008
Had a blast at one of the startup world’s biggest shindigs, getting to know lots of interesting companies and the fiercely passionate entrepreneurs that run them. Here are my favorites:
Awind allows mobile phone users to wirelessly transmit content (slide presentations, video etc.) from their phone to a standard monitor, projector and certain TV sets. Their solution consists of a modem-sized box that connects to the display plus software that lives on the mobile phone.
Even as the compute power of mobile phones increases exponentially, the mobile user interface is still constrained by the size of the device. Awind’s solution represents part of a broader ecosystem of technologies that can liberate the mobile user interface from its physical constraints, opening up new use cases that could enable mobile phones to become the primary personal computing device of choice in the future.

An Unusual Journey

I had an unusual trip flying home on BR015 from LAX to TPE. The first sign I noticed was that there were three people required wheelchair assistance when boarding. Actually this was the first time I had wheelchair passengers with me on the same flight instead of the more common people with infants. But, l didn't realize that it was only the beginning.

The flight seemed normal. Smooth takeoff, terrible airplane meals, and soon it was time for sleep. When we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I heard someone cried out loud in the back. I thought it was a child who felt boring or uncomfortable during the long flight. Several minutes later, the cabin crew broadcasted and asked for medical professionals - just like in the movies. A male Caucasian two rows in front of me stood up when went back with a flight attendant. After a while, he came back with the flight attendant and the flight attendant was taking notes and asking questions for a long time by the man.

Later - I could not tell for how long because I did not wear my watch - the Captain announced that due to medical situation, we will turn to Haneda Airport (HND) in Tokyo. I suppose all the cabin crew are too young so that they have never heard of this airport before and confused it with Narita (NRT). We landed in Tokyo around four o'clock local time. Emergency crew of Tokyo came on board and performed CPR or other measures necessary for a short while, according to passengers in the same cabin with the ill man. Then, they took him down to a hospital. It seems the man who travels alone had a heart-attack, and perhaps died before any of the doctors examined him -while the cabin crew was calling his name and shaking him for several minutes. I wonder if they will have nightmares when they realized that the time wasted may have killed the man. He left on the plane gifts he bought for his family or friends, who were still in bed and expected to welcome him when they woke up. But, it will never happen.

It took more than two hours in Tokyo to finish paper works and refuel, and another three to fly to Taipei. Life is unpredictable. Attached is a new video of my son. Cease time when you still can, friends.

Vote Awind for Best of the Show

There is a new Best of the Show award for DEMO, beginning this DEMOfall. It is no more than a popularity contest if you look at it this way, since there is no regulation on how you vote. You can just go to the vote page and select one without even watching any of the videos. But still, if you're reading this blog and you know me or Awind, please go to the vote page and vite fot Awind Inc. Ask your friends to do it if possible, thanks!

Awind demo video on DEMO.COM

Here is the demo video, and here is the official page of us on demo.com.

We Are DEMOgod

We won DEMOgod. Unbelievable. DEMOgod awards are chosen by the DEMO staff. 10 companies are chosen from the 72 demonstrated, and 2 teams out of three from Taiwan won DEMOgod award. I think that helps on promoting Taiwan in someway.

DEMO is a really cool conference not like any other trade shows. However, the internet in Sheraton sucks. It costs 11.95 a day for room guests but the speed is like a 33.6K dial-up.

A Hunch?

Sometimes I feel that my son has a hunch when someone is leaving for several days. This week, he always wants to make sure that I am beside him before he sleep. If I am in the living room, he asks me to go to bed with him otherwise he does not sleep. This is unusual because he only sticked with his mother when he felt sleepy in the past few months. So, I wonder if he knows I will not be home next week. I'm not making this up because it happened twice when Allie had business trips. I have no idea why he knows, since I have not packed my luggage or something. Maybe he can sense the atmosphere in the air.

YouTube Upload Sucks

I tried to upload to YouTube, but somehow it is always very hard for me to successfully upload a video. My video was small (under 20 MB), short (within 2 minutes), and I've tried different codecs (MPEG2, MP4, H264...), but more than often I got an error after a long wait. On the contrary, uploading to metacafe is always quick and successful.

More Yoshi Videos

Posted two new videos today. It is really fun to watch him in action, compared to static photos. Many people suggested us to buy a DV to record moments of babies, but I don't see much good video coming from them. Sometimes great moments come so suddently and you just don't have time to go to the drawer and take out the DV. On the other hand, mobile phone is much more convenient, but the quality is relatively poor.

Daan Forest Park

Took my son to Daan Park last Sunday. We were to go on Saturday, but it rained heavily that afternoon. Yoshi loves playing on big, green grass fields, but it's hard to find one for him in Taipei city. The Daan Forest Park is 15 minute drive from home, with lots of space for him to run. The down-side is that, despite the name "forest park", it has actually very scarce trees and thus EXTREMELY HOT! So, we escaped to nearby Yong Kang street for delicious Vietnamese lunch, and then head to Miramar to meet his uncle and cousins. It was an exhausting but happy Sunday. Selected pictures and track can be found here or visit my flickr.

Video of Yoshi Playing

Recorded this with my cell phone couple days ago. My son was playing by himself, talking, and having fun. I picked up my phone and recorded for 90 seconds before he tried to grab my phone. The most interesting part is that he pushed the bar again and agin to swing the hook over so that he could reach his hats. There are so many funny moments but too little chances to record them. I think that's why people don't agree when parents say their children are clever or lovely, because they do not have the chance to observe these moments.

GPS Logger Test Drive

This Saturday we went to stay at Tamshui with Allie's family. On the way I tested my GPS Logger. I uploaded my track and a few photos at jmap.cc. Check it out here!

Selection process finalized for fall class... Waiting list begins for DEMO 09

On the DEMO Blog a summary on the trends of this round. We meet two of them, and yes, we are going. So, meet you  in San Diego this September!

--rwcutter

By DEMO Conference Team•08/01/2008

After hundreds of interviews, the class of DEMOfall 08 has been finalized. This year more than 70 new products are set to launch on center-stage in a series of live, six-minute demonstrations. And for the first time, DEMO has created a waiting list for DEMO 09.

"This has been a very exciting DEMO selection cycle and will undoubtedly lead to an extraordinary DEMOfall event. Not only did we receive an overwhelming response from potential demonstrators, but the caliber of products we've selected introduces a new phase in technology," said Chris Shipley, product analyst and executive producer of the DEMO conferences. "At DEMOfall you will see more mature, sophisticated, market-ready products that are a welcome counter to the Web 2.0, widgetware and free-site explosion of the last two years."

During the selection process, several trends began to surface as companies demonstrated their visions for the future of technology. Some themes that attendees can expect to see this DEMOfall include:

Television Meet the Web; Web Meet Television: new ways for Hollywood and consumers to deliver and view content.
Protecting Your Digital Property: from photos to music and film, new products for keeping what's yours.
A Smarter Web Finally Within Our Reach: new ways to search and use the Web.
It's Easy Being Green: products that make it easier to go green in the enterprise and at home.
Getting Embedded with Social Networks: useful ways to network and share on the Web.
Your Mobile, Your Life: from CRM systems to transport networks, there isn't anything you can't do on a cell phone.
Enterprise Meets Web 2.0: the future of collaboration, content and delivery.

In addition to new product demonstrations, DEMOfall 08 will continue to push the edge of technology dialogue with three new panels including top journalists, thought leaders and technology evangelist as they debate the industry's future. And as always, attendees will "collaborate" as they bring their instruments to the conference and join in at the DEMO Jam Session.

Alvin and Monica Scored

DSC00030.JPG, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

My son was afraid of my sister Monica and her husband Alvin recently for unknown reasons. Last Saturday we went out together, and somehow he enjoyed playing with Alvin and Monica. Perhaps it's the heat that made him dizzy...

Yoshi Bath on YouTube

My son Yoshi was taking a bath, and then he found that I was filming. This video was taken with a CASIO Exilim EX-Z200 DSC and uploaded with the CASIO software. My boss lent it to me to try the YouTube feature.

Reunion

On July 20th 2008, there was a reunion for KSHS Class 1991. I've known these guys for 20 years, and now I've put on 20 more KGs on myself.

Acute Bronchitis

Yoshi got a fever last Friday. The temperature gradually rose day by day, although he was taking medicine from doctors. On Monday it reached 40 degrees, and on Tuesday midnight he began to vomit. The doctors who inspected him in the beginning told us it was probably common cold, but when we took him to the hospital again on Wednesday because of the pattern of temperature rise was unusual, the doctor decided to hospitalize him for further examinations.

The results shows that he was probably infected by some kind of Mycoplasmosis which caused acute bronchitis. He responded well to the treatment of antibiotics, and was released from hospital on Friday afternoon. He still needs to take medicines for at least one week and go back to the hospital to make sure the disease is being controlled. Now we have three sick people at home: Yoshi, my wife and my mom. I wonder if he got it from one of the two adults in the beginning because he seldom contacts other people in the past two weeks.

This is the first time he's been hospitalized since he came home after the first week of his birth. He behaved bravely enough in the exams. They took his blood and urine samples, and gave him intravenous drip and antibiotics along with other medicine to relieve the symptoms. Therefore, a plate was tied at his left fore-arm. When he began to feel better, it was impossible to keep him in the tiny place and he started to pull the tube for IV drip. Fortunately he was released soon enough, otherwise we may have to knock him out to keep him in the ward :D.

Coming Storm

Coming Storm, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

I took this photo one afternoon when a thundershower is coming.

Awesome Music on Glass

Boom!

I hit a pillar last night when I was backing out from a strange, dark and tiny parking lot. There were so many iron pillars around the spot where my car was moved to by the guy running the place. I was paying attention to the my left when backing out, and suddenly I heard a big cracking noise from the right. The damage was a lot worse than I hoped - I can't open the door of the pessenger's seat now without making a big noise and using some violence. It's hard for me finencially recently already because there are income tax, insurance for my son, insurance for myself, house tax, license tax and fuel tax for my car, and now this. I think it will cost me many thousand-dollar bills and several days to repair.

My Show on IDEAS Stage

Found this clip on YouTobe. It is my demonstration in the IDEAS Show. Thanks to christiney35 who did a live web broadcasting that day and uploaded these clips. It's terrible to watch again knowing that it was a failure. Performing on a big stage is not like my usual demonstration to customers in a meeting room. Now I know why Steve Jobs is a God!

Rainbow and Phone Call

I received the first phone call from my son when I was driving home. He pressed the speaker button and then dialed from recent numbers to my cell phone. He's been very fond of phones recently. He likes to use the "Find Handsets" button on the station to make the handsets ring while putting the handsets away on purpose. Besides, he already made long-distance calls to my mom's friend, my wife's colleague, and my wife's families. He also created a playlist on my cell phone which I didn't even know how to edit. When I was not keeping a close eye on him, he sometimes connect to the web with my cell phone - he can't read but I still have to pay.

Besides phones, his new favorites are shadows and rainbow. There is a prism-like coordination on the fences of my balcony. When the sunshine comes through, it produces a rainbow which moves with time on the wall. My son would wait excitingly for the rainbow to appear and try to grab it. He always wonders why it disappears when he unfolds his hand after grabbing the colors.

Failed in IDEAS Show

We were invited to present our product in the IDEAS Show on short notice. I had no idea what it was about when I got the message, and somehow we entered the final stage. Since my understanding was that we are not seeking any funding but to expose our product only, and I've been busy on my daily work already, I didn't have much time to prepare for this presentation. The staff of the III that hosted the event were not well-trained or communicated, so I actually spent more time working out problems which they should have done for us than preparing for my presentation. And, things always went wrong when it must not. When I was on stage, my mic went dead, lights turned on fading my projection, and the video folder I was to demo became empty. I was beaten by these little surprises and lost my tempo for the rest of the six minutes.

Okay, the above were my excuses. The truth is, I was not prepared enough to sell my points clearly enough in the six minutes. The product was a complicated concept, and I haven't figured out how to describe the most of its value in one word. Some people confused it with DMA, some people thought it was a web desktop, and I guest nobody really connect the idea with web 2.0 concept.

Sorry, my dear product. It's me that failed, not you.

Suddenly International

Last Thursday and Friday suddenly became very international for me. My lunch on Thursday was with a Japanese, dinner with an American and three Dutch young men. And, I had a guest from Singapore on Friday afternoon. It's always interesting to talk to people from different places, and I guess it's a good sign to see more foreign visitors coming to Taiwan this year, compared to several years ago.

Challenging Week, More to Follow

It's been turbulent recently. My son seems fully recovered from the flu last week, but the entire island is on red alert for Enterovirus which has caused 7 deaths and over 100 severe cases. Taiwanese fishing ship hit by Japanese Coast Guard near the Diaoyutai islands. Chien-Ming Wang got hurt and is to miss his first possible All-Star Game or even the whole season. I am worried about the first, provoked by the second, and sad about for the third. Peace for everyone!

A Night of Fear

My son had fever last Friday midnight, and was taken to the hospital for examination and treatment. The temperature got higher and higher even with medicine, and the period of rising showed no signed of improvement. Finally, his temperature began to drop on Sunday night, and we were so happy - not knowing what to happen later.

At 2 am Monday morning, he began to cry in a loud and strange voice not similar to his usual voice at all. He refused contact from anyone, even his mother who could always conform him. We measured his temperature, and the reading was below 36 degrees. I thought that the instrument was broken, but we took him to ER anyway because we have no clue what's making him so uncomfortable. Surprisingly, his temperature was really very low. He was suffering from hypothermia. It could be caused by many reasons, including the medicine he was taking. The hospital did blood and urine tests, used lamp to keep him warm, and his mother was holding him all the time. He finally fell asleep around four o'clock in the arms of his mother.

We were kept there for hours. The doctors and nurses changed shift. Many ER cases kept them busy all morning. At 11 am, the pediatric doctor on duty came to us and said that his tests were all normal, and he could not tell what was the real reason for his hypothermia. Since they could not do anything more and my son looked okay, he suggested that we took him home and keep a close eye on him. We should take him to the hospital right away if he shows any sign of hypothermia again.

Now one day passed. His temperature is still not as high as should be, but high enough (around 36) to keep him home. He was not eating as much as usual, but still very energetic. We hope that it will be alright very soon.

Yoshi Sick on His Corrected 1st Birthday

June 6 was the date my son was predicted to be born, so last Friday was his birthday by corrected age. That night, he began to have periodical fever which gradully increased to 39 degrees. We took him to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. The pediatric resident doctor on duty for ER determined that it was caused by some sort of virus, so he reminded us things to note in case of any severe complication. His temperature was still rising periodically, but was not over 39 degrees. However, last night it reached 39.4 around 4 o'clock and the prescription was not showing any effective result for controlling his temperature. We took him to the ER again early in the morning. It was the same resident doctor again. He was so kind to explain the situation to us and then asked the clerk to refund because there was no further treatment. It's a challenge but good to meet good a doctor.

Wen Jiabao on Facebook

This is Wen Jiabao's page on Facebook. The prime minister of China, the emerging power rising from the east. It is an interesting timing to see his page on a place like Facebook. We all know this year is an important year for China to renew its image to the world, by hosting the Olympics Games in Beijing. Unexpectedly, there seemed to be more negative news in this year than ever - snow storms, Tibet conflict, and the huge earthquake that caused over 60,000 deaths.

Summer, Insects

Summer means insect season. There were fireflies couple weeks ago, a butterfly stayed on our French window last week, and last night a giant grasshopper. It fun to have so many insects volunteered for a close-up observation for my son. However, there are insects that I'd rather not see at home - mosquitoes! But, I guess they won't listen since they're not on my payroll.

Great Taiwan Portrait Blog from an 18-Year-Old Girl

Saw a great blog from an 18-year-old girl. Born in a poor aboriginal family, she overcame thousands of harsh challenges to educate herself. Unlike others in her condition, she never blamed anybody but dedicated to help others even when she was just a child. Here is a blog to let you see the people of Taiwan through her eyes. Please visit http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/i2taiwan/. To know more about her, here is another site from her offering free online learning for young students.

Ma made cover of Time

Ma Ying-Jeou is listed as the top 100 "The World's Most Influential People" by Time magazine and his photo is on the cover. Hu Jin-tao, leader of China, is also on the list and is much higher ranked than Ma. However, his photo was not on the cover. This is interesting.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to my son! He's now officially one year old. It's hard to believe that a year passed so quickly. Thank our families and friends who celebrated his birthday on different occasions. Thank those who visited him and sent him many gifts in the past year. Thank my mom for taking good care of him. Thank my wife for bringing him to the world. Thank himself for growing up healthily and exploring the world bravely.

Fireflies in Fuyang Park

Tonight we saw many fireflies in Fuyang Park. Lots of orange-yellow lights twinkling in the trees and flying in the air. It made the park looks like Christmas time. I didn't know there are fireflies inside Taipei city, so it's a big surprise for me and the best birthday present for my boy.

My First DSLR

I finally got my first DSLR yesterday. I knew it's a road of no return, so I kinda resisted my desire to get one. As my son grew up, I found it more and more difficult to take photo of him because he's never still for five seconds but the auto focus of my Olympus 5050Z could never focus on the right spot at the right time. Okay, this is just a great excuse for myself. Anyway, I bought a SONY Alpha 300 with two lenses this month. Tonight I took a test drive and it's not bad.

KUO Made the Front Page of MLB

Kuo Hong-chih started for the Los Angeles Dodgers today. It means a lot for a pitcher who has gone through two Tommy-John surgery and a lot of minor injuries. After 75 pitches in four innings, Kuo finished his work today. The front page of the MLB official site noted Kuo's start with his photo when he stepped down. Though it was just a short moment, but it's something to be remembered for Kuo and his supporters.

He was wild in the first inning when he threw 3 consecutive walks to lose the first earned run this season, but after that, he struck out 5 batters in a row. His record today was 2H 3BB 6K 1ER, with 0.84 ERA this season.



After the game, Kuo was also put on the home page of Dodgers web site.

Fallig Grand Hotel

Once upon a time, the Grand Hotel was the best hotel and symbol of Taiwan. I had a chance to visit the legendary hotel last Sunday, but I was very disappointed on what I saw. The service crew were not friendly or polite as what I expected. The service was much worse than what I experienced in China last week. That's not the worst yet. WHen I went to the men's room, I saw a big piece of dirty cloth lying in the middle. How sadly fast a legend falls!

New video of Yoshi

Auto Drug Vending Machine

Saw this in Shanghai. You can buy almost any common drugs and condoms on this machine.

Internet Rocks

I use Skype to make video calls with my home on this trip. It's amazing that you can still see and talk with your family even when you're thousands miles away. It's not that I didn't know that, but it is so great that I have to thank modern technology and internet. BTW, it seems that Blogspot is no longer blocked in China, at least I can read my blog now. I can access some google pages, including mail and calendar, but no picasa. I can't figure out what Chinese government is thinking.

Screwed Up

Today sucks. I visited the most important partner of the product line I'm working on, and found out that things is not going to happen as we thought. We may have wasted our time and money to give away to this "partner". And, it can get a lot worse. The entire line can become a bubble and cause a big hole in our income forecast. Besides this, I forgot a contract I brought from Taiwan.

Glory for China, Shame on London

I ate well in this trip, thanks to J.J., whom I'm traveling with. But, I'll leave that in another article. I'd like to record a few things I read today on my way to Shanghai. My plane to Beijing was using the latest terminal opened one month ago, the Terminal 3 (T3) of Beijing airport. I read on a magazine saying that they recruited a "golden tulips" task force to actively serve travelers or local people who visit the new terminal. T3 occupies over 10,000 square meters, and is the largest single air transportation facility in the world. Beijing airport now has three runways and three terminals in operation, which can serve over 650 million travelers this year. Besides Beijing, Shanghai Pudong Airport also has a new terminal (T2) and a new runway joined the service last month. What I noticed is that besides the hardware construction, China is now emphasizing their software (service) in these recent developments. For example, the Golden Tulips team was trained by senior instructors from the Hong Kong Airport and is determined to impress the world in the year of Olympics at the new front door or China. And from my experience in this trip, they are really getting there. How hard is it? Just compare it to the new terminal of London Heathrow Airport, the Terminal 5. T5 has been a complete disaster since the opening day, and the chaos is still getting worse. Oh, by the way, T3 in Beijing only took half the time of London T5, and spent half the money.

First Day in Beijing

I arrived Beijing this afternoon. This is the first time I come to the head of China in terms of politics, but my first impression was ruined by the pilot of Air China. The final approach was the worst I have experienced in recent years. It was extremely bumpy and shaky although the weather was actually good. The plane was moving so terrible that I even got motion sickness. However, the new terminal made the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) very impressive. Modern and huge are the facilities, with many beautiful young girls wearing volunteer vests to help travelers, it seems this time China really wants to show the world it is modern and friendly. Ironically, there will be more random inspection in central Beijing, especially in the Tiananmen Square for security concerns. Thanks to those big countries (or, USA if only to name one) who made the world so unsafe!

I will be busy for the next few days and I'm not sure if I will have time to write, so don't miss me too much if anyone is reading, ha!

Wait and See

Today, we have a new president for the next four years. Many people hope that the results of the two recent elections will push Taiwan back on track and bring better life. Will it happen? I'm watching you, President Ma.

Taipei Tree Frog

Last week I finally saw my first frog in Fu Yang Park, which is an important habitat of Taipei Tree Frog. My son saw his first frog couple months ago on his second visit, but I never saw any before when I visited the park. On the contrary, I saw snakes more often. This time I finally met one, when I did not have my camera with me. The photo was taken with my cell phone, so it was hard to control what I captured. Can you find the frog?

Yoshi's Ten Month Gift

Last week, my son turned ten-month old. In celebration, he got the first flu in his life. I suspect the he got it from his mom, who has been a lot weaker due to stress and fatigue since we had a child to look after. He gradually began to cough, sneeze, and today he got fever. My wife is very upset and nervous, and I believe we will have argues under the tension.

Offend Tai-Sui?

This year is a year I offend Tai-Sui in Chinese culture. Recently I'm feeling that it may be true. My part-time worker disappeared after the Chinese New Year, and a new designer I hired one month ago who was supposed to come last Monday called and said that he will join another company. Now I have to try to look for another person as soon as possible to catch up the already delayed schedule. What a good start for the new year!

On My Name

When I first joined this company last year, I was introduced as Richard. It was very interesting to see how people try to remember it. Most people try to associate it to a name they are familiar with, and that's what I want to share with you.

You can really tell a lot from what occurred to them when they think of the name Richard. Some people think of Richard Clayderman, so I know that they like piano or easy-listening music. Some think of Richard Marx, which implies that they like American Pops. A young girl calls me Gere, and I know she probably likes movies. The most interesting is that someone calls me Uncle Richard. I didn't realize why he calls me uncle because I'm not that old (yet). Finally I figured it out last night. I'm sorry that I have to explain it in Chinese because it's related to the pronunciation. Uncle Richard (理察杯杯, Li Cha Bei Bei) sounds like Uncle Policeman (警察杯杯, Jing Cha Bei Bei)! He must have been intimidated by his parent as a small kid that, if he did not behave, policemen would come and arrest him. Ha!

Ouch...

I hired a college student as part-time worker in my office last October. I liked him a lot because
he was very polite, responsible, and hard-working. And why do I want to write about him? He simply disappeared after the Chinese New Year holidays. I called his mobile and land-line phones
, both unanswered. Despite that I was worried if something happened to him in the holidays, I didn't went out searching for him. After all, he's a grown-up already, and I doubt that anything could happen to him so serious that his family did not get the phones.

Today he was fired by my company. We will send an official notice to his address, and start looking for a new candidate.

As Brief Summary on the New Year Holidays

This Chinese New Year holidays was my son's first one, and also the first time he met his grand grand parents and may other family relatives. Of course, it was also the first time Allie and I experiences how it's like to travel with such a small child for more than two days. In short, I was so tired that I didn't had the energy to write about it until now.

Yoshi was well-behaved on the way. He did not yell, scream or struggle on trains or taxis. However, he could hardly sleep in the nights while in Kaohsiung, partly because he was not familiar with the environment, and partly because his third teeth (upper maxillary central incisor) was coming out. So, we were all very exhausted.

He went to Kaohsiung, Jia-yi, Zi-guan (in Kaohsiung county) and was introduced to about 30 people. Luckily Yoshi seemed enjoyed meeting people he'd never seen before. He smiled a lot, laughed a lot, and people seemed to like him, too.

After Kaohsiung, we had back north to Tamshui and stayed with Allie's family. And, after that, we visited Eric's place at Taipei before we finally went home. Good job, son!

Photo of First Two Teeth

I mentioned my son has his first tooth earlier, but I didn't have photo to post back then. Here's a photo taken while he's asleep. You can see that he has two teeth now.

Yet Another Video

I shot this with my cell phone on one hand while holding him. He stared at my phone and tried to grab it as soon as he saw it, so I was unable to get a good shot for quite a while. In the end, he got angry because I didn't let him play with the phone. :D

New Videos on Wretch

Uploaded three new videos of Yoshi to my wretch album. I'm not sure if all three of them can be seen because sometimes the videos are successfully added and other times it fails. He invented a few new moves this week and got me really exhausted--you can tell from my hair-style.

Steve Jobs Keynote in 60 Seconds

LOL! This is really funny! Find out what Steve Jobs said in his 90 minutes keynote on MacWorld 2008, all in one minute!

Status Update and a Late Happy New Year

I've been busy at work recently and did not have the mood to write this blog for quite a while. My office is under a re-design to accommodate more seats for our new recruitment, so in the past two days it's like sitting in a construction site. Trying to get a quiet place for discussion or interview was the biggest challenge because we only have one meeting room left until the construction work is finished.

I posted some old photos of me and Allie on Flickr from our honeymoon to New Zealand. We'll be celebrating our third anniversary this Saturday. My son now has two tiny teeth, and he's getting more and more naughty everyday. Allie's families and mine gathered at my home and atched the fireworks on Taipei 101, but I didn't post firework photos because I did not get a good one. There was not much to see. The so-called golden and silver fireworks just made the building looked like it's on fire. And, at the end, there was no climax. I was wondering why it took so long for the next program to display and didn'y realized that it was over.

That's pretty much my update for the first two weeks of the year 2008. Wish you all a great year.