Monthly Archives: October 2011

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Steve Jobs, Dennis Ritchie, Machu Picchu, And Long-Lasting Innovations

Last couple of weeks witnessed the passing of some very influential tech giants, Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie are the two I am more familiar with. People are talking about the significance of the products like movie Toy Story, iPod, iPhone, iPad that were produced under Steve’s leadership; Computer industries are again reminded of the great creations such as C programming language, Unix operation system, and many useful software tools for which Denis Ritchie was one of the brains behind.  These innovations already have and will continue to have lasting impact on how we develop our computing technologies and live our lives. All these also got me thinking of the ruins at Machu Picchu too. Although the creators, Incas people, are no longer there to show the place off to us, we cannot help but be impressed by how they came to select such a site, managed to build such a self-sustaining village, designed and built their houses, Sun-dial for season keeping, and terraces for agriculture.  After some serious thoughts, I believe that useful innovations and striving for perfection should be the two most critical elements for us to build technologies and products that will have long-lasting impact. Please click on the pictures to get a better view. Thank you.

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Fleet Week Impressions

I finally made my way to the Fleet Week air show this Saturday after being in the bay area for over 10 years.  I wish I could have stayed longer at the show.  This time, I was not admiring nature per se, rather the human feat of creating amazing flying machines and those pilots’ ability to fly them.  There are teams creating celebratory writings by their contrails; there are teams flying in spectacular formations that literally leave great impressions in the sky;  there are pairs performing precision cross-overs and showing their “loving hearts” to the spectators; and there are solos causing roaring cheers through their daredevil verticals.  Here are just a few shots I took, hoping that you enjoy them as well.  Regardless how fast you’ve driven your cars or how many times you’ve flown in a commercial jets, I bet being in these planes will be very different — much more exhilarating!

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Two Pictures For An Observation

To be exact, I would like to share two pictures with you and offer up an observation, hoping to hear your feedback. As you can tell, the two pictures below have nothing to do with usability of any kind that may directly come to your mind.  I won’t argue with that. One picture was taken at the “rainbow cascade” place in Yellow Stone national park, the other was taken at Lewis Lake in Grand Teton. I just like the magnificent marble-like color and texture in the first one, and the tranquility of sunset in the other. I hope you enjoy them too. You can have a better view by clicking on the photo.

Two minor incidents during my recent trip to China triggered this observation. First, one day I almost stumbled over a set of stairs in an expensive restaurant because the pitch suddenly changes for some steps. Later on, I saw a few other places with similar issues in the stairs. Second, I found myself having to stretch and twist to reach for toilet papers in several 4-star hotels (don’t try to picture it :-). Being a technology geek I am, I think this may reflect a poor level of usability design in these buildings. Usability is in my mind lately because I happen to be dealing with software usability issues. I certainly hope what I experienced were just exceptions; Otherwise, we should all look forward to better design and better construction with good usability in mind!