I just came back from a one-week vacation on Aruba island (I know, I am trying to take a good break from worrying about security product development for the time being) Although it’s officially Dutch speaking, English speakers can pretty much feel at home in Aruba. English is widely spoken and US dollars are readily accepted, so what else would you need then? Indeed, I ran into many fellow Americans throughout the stay. I really liked the place – it’s big enough to have a variety of natural geographical features, plants, and animals to see, yet small enough to go to different places by car on one-day trips. There are many beautiful beaches. People are very friendly and good restaurants are easy to find as well. Enough words from me, here is the link Aruba Impressions to some pictures I shot for you to see yourself. One other interesting observation: the small island has a surprisingly prominent Chinese presence, at least judged by the grocery store and restaurant chains run by Chinese. I hope these beautiful sights help to brighten your holiday season!
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Holiday Season Is Coming
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!
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.
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!
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!
The Beauty And Power Of Nature
I recently visited Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil as part of my family vacation. As someone who claims to be a high-tech technologist, I have marveled at numerous human creations including intrusion prevention systems and next generation firewalls (don’t let these distract you if you never heard of them). However, whenever I get really close to nature, I cannot help but being impressed and overwhelmed by the beauty and the power of IT (by IT I mean nature, not Information Technology). I had another such wonderful experience visiting Iguazu Falls. Here are just a few pictures that speak well for me in spite of my amateur photographic skills.
LENS4THOUGHT - MAY SHARING BRIGHTEN YOUR LIFE'S JOURNEY! 