It’s only ten days till Christmas and sixteen till the new year, 2012, that is. Some of us have big plans for 2012 already, whom I envy; some of us are going to make great plans and ambitious resolutions, whom I admire and wish good luck; some of us believe in the coming of the end of the world, to whom I would say enjoy your life as if it’s true.

Much left to desire. The physical world is not much safer, people still getting shot on the streets; the environment still urgently needs a lot of care, that dreaded gloomy haze in Beijing still causing controversy; the cyber security situation is not that rosy either, good old firewalls at network boundaries not yet being confidently managed when IT managers now have to worry about the security of cloud computing and millions of smart phones.

Desire, we shall. I believe it’s OK to have those problems but it’s not OK if we drop the ball on fixing them. Recognizing the problems is a good start, we (including politicians, executives, researchers, developers, and netizens of the world…) just need to keep at developing better solutions and implementing them diligently. Hey, I am going to work harder on better security solutions to help make cyberspace a safer and more productive environment for all in 2012! To help you get started, here are a select few of pictures I took around the States in the past, America The Beautiful, reminding you that there is great beauty on this land and there are more for us to discover, maintain, and cherish. Wishing you all a great holiday season and a more fulfilling 2012!