Category Archives: Life Reflection

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To Open Or Not, It’s Not A Question

I hope that your “shelter in place” has been productive for your life’s pursuit (and for work if that is part of your agenda), and that you and your loved ones have been staying safe and close, at least in spirit!

It has been almost two months since my office, DiDi Labs, implemented the “Work from Home” policy, which was about a week before our Governor Gavin Newsom issued the state-wide order for California. The DiDi Labs team has worked very creatively to keep our staffs safe while striving to be productive with business goals, and to keep everyone in good spirit. For example, our staffs organized virtual “Welcome New Comers” and “Happy Hours”, and online games such as “Who’s That Cute Baby” and “Identify That Song”. I enjoyed all events I could find myself to be part of! In between work affairs, I also managed to follow quite a few of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily Coronavirus Briefings – all with my greatest appreciation. Full disclosure, two of my daughters are in Manhattan with productive schooling and working, which made me quickly realized that we need means of “social closeness” to reinforce “physical distancing” behavior on them :-). Kudos to New York Governor Cuomo and his “New York Tough But Loving” citizens!

Governor Cuomo shared some stories of his grandparents, reminding us that hard times tend to bring both the best and the worst out of people, which made deep impression on me! To witness, I have heard and seen bad examples, such as people hoarding PPE supplies and price-gouging the society, and people pushing their own political agenda showing little respect to science, news professionals, or even life. However, we have seen that the best side far outshines the worst during our fight against the Coronavirus! The letter and one single pair of N95 mask sent to Mr. Cuomo by the old couple from Kansas, Dennis and Sharon Ruhnke, moved many of us in the nation! To be frank, to most of us, the life still goes on, owing tremendously to all those frontline workers, from food to energy production, from health care to sanitation, and from police to transportation, and so on!

Moreover, everyone of us, by being caring, kind, thoughtful, and rational, we can show more of our “good side” of humanity through continuing our vigilance against the virus spread. I am proud to report that I have felt great positive energy in my town of Los Alto Hills, as seen by all the beautiful “positivity” rocks sprung up by the side of the pathways since around the Easter. I have captured many of them during my walks, with credits to the folks who took their time to create and distribute them. By sharing them here, I hope the creators and the readers alike can share and amplify the positive energy!

Finally, I believe that there is no question as to IF we should reopen our life, business, and economy. It is the HOW, that will determine if we will get to achieve our desire to reopen, how soon we can get there, and at what cost in the end. Let’s act together with reason, and guide our actions with passion for humanity and best science!

Stay safe, be kind, be rational, and we shall overcome!

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CoronaVirus On My Mind

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How odd it is to be negligent of your blog for 3.5 years and then come back with an article about virus on your mind!

First off, it’s year 2020, 2020 screaming for a year of better vision 🙂 Seriously, I got inspired by a LinkedIn sharing by Alan Cohen, who reflected on 2019 a couple of month back and decided to reexamine what matters most to him in his life. I decided then that I should pursue my beliefs with more resolve – one of which is to share and learn more! So I am coming back to this long-forgotten blog.

Next, I want to apologize to those of you who have actually read some of my old posts and found them somehow interesting. I felt that I have in fact disappointed you with my failure to persist with my “Lens4Thoughts”. I indeed believe in sharing and learning together, except that I was not determined enough to persist.

I am very torn with the subject of today’s sharing [I have been working on this over the last two weekends]. On the one hand, I wish to share something witty and light-hearted to start the new year on a bright note. There are plenty of beautiful photos from my family trips to share and reflect upon. For any kids, who would not love cuddling with the warmth of the mom like that panda puppy. However, the dark cloud of Coronavirus overshadows so much of everyone’s life, from Wuhan China to Beijing, from Hong Kong to Macau, to Taiwan, from Oceania to North America, and so on. Nova Coronavirus weighs heavily on my mind — it’s a serious virus doing significant damage to our lives globally.

Wuhan, once a vibrant city of over 10 million people, had to go into lockdown in order to quickly control the spread of the virus. People of Wuhan deserves all the prayers and respect this world can give!

In the city today, healthy citizens have to survive the lack of daily supplies and the risk of being infected; those infected are enduring more due to the shortage of isolation and treatment facilities. Many people are losing their lives because proper care lost some races with the virus. Many brave and caring souls are working day and night inside Wuhan, providing medical care and life assistance to the needy, often with less-than-ideal protection for themselves. Many drivers and service personnels from DiDi are staying inside Wuhan, working overdrive to provide the necessary transport for doctors and patients alike. When I heard some of the accounts on how these workers strive to provide the best services in Wuhan while trying to shield their loved ones from risk concerns, and how volunteer groups comfort and draw encouragement from each other by taking group photo together, I fought back tears hard, but with no avail.

The battle is still raging on, spreading to cities near Wuhan, and to other major cities. With it, there are many more innocents who will suffer and many more heroic souls who will risk their own lives to help fight the virus. This outbreak is a threat to Wuhan, to China, and to the world, and our humanity! Working together to contain and eliminate this threat should be the overarching goal for all earthlings. Identifying the original source, understanding how it spreads, and effectively controlling it should be our highest priority!

No use crying over spilled milk. While it is imperative to find out how this virus break started, how it was handled, and who are responsible for failing to control it effectively early on, we must focus on winning over the virus spread right now! In this very spirit, let me make the following suggestions in fighting against the Nova Coronavirus. Needless to say, this is my personal thought, not representing my employer or anyone else:

  • World citizens, including you and me in the capacity of an ordinary individual. While material and monetary donations are nice actions you can take to help, the best things for all of us should be avoiding big crowd with close proximity, following best personal-hygiene practice, and caring for each other. Of course, you should exercise your judgement when reading online posts and avoid spreading rumors and unfounded fears.
  • Media organizations. The best a media organization can do during the time of war against virus outbreak is to more strictly stick to its mission — to inform timely, and not to mis-inform. A better informed mass can better fight the infection. The media should help discover blind spots or neglects in the execution of infection control actions. Media reports should avoid sensationalism and political bias, and avoid distracting people from the task of infection control by asking “who is at fault” prematurely.
  • Governments. The war against virus infection can only be won when the virus is under control across the world! Governments must be open and collaborative. Governments must focus on virus control as a common objective and it should take priority over other trade or geopolitical issues. Governments should be careful in taking border, immigration, and other international exchange actions, in order to lend material and moral support effectively to the virus-control effort.
THIS OAK SEEMS TO CHANNEL THE HEALING POWER OF MOTHER EARTH – WIN!
WUHAN PEOPLE ARE TOUGH AND FULL OF LOVE. WITH THE WORLD BEHIND THEM, THEY WILL EMERGE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS THREAT AND BLOSSOM WITH BRILLIANCE!

All our prayers and thoughts are with people of Wuhan, and all those who are negatively impacted! Humanity as one, we shall overcome!

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New York City, A Lovely Place!

I have visited NYC many times in the past, but never had the time to enjoy and appreciate how lovely it is until my recent visit at the end of May. I got to move around Manhattan ever so conveniently taking the old but efficient subway trains; I was able to take a nice walk across the Central Park between the Upper East and Upper West, where I experienced firsthand the harmony between nature, wild life and the Manhattan metropolitan; Last but not least, I took a nice stroll on the High Line, where urban chaos yielded quietly to the beautiful colors and fragrance of Spring flowers, and to the thirst for knowledge and love of these creatures – people. I cannot help but thinking, this is great harmony! Here are a few shots I took, tell me if you feel something on the contrary 🙂IMG_3179 IMG_3192 IMG_3218 IMG_3239IMG_3220

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Catch The Spring Beauty Before It’s Too Late

There are so many hidden treasures in the East Bay of Northern California, I just began to explore them after living in Livermore for some many years.  Treasures, parks, where the beauty of nature is in its full display.  Here are some more moments I captured for this season before the dry heat of 2015 hits East Bay.

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Nature simply inspires me, to think, to appreciate, and to do my best in making this world a more secure (did I mention that my company Cyphort just won the Rookie Company Of The Year from SC Magazine 🙂 ) better place for us all.  You may ask what do I get out these moments.  Confession time!  Cow and Feeding Calf – I decided to let her show her love for the baby in public; Butterfly and Flowers – Enjoy the beauty, add to it but without ruining it; The tree with bright clusters of flowers – no blazing color or big pedals like others, but still adding its beauty to the blue sky in the warm Sun; Two turkeys or pheasants (please tell me what they are) – my curiosity tricked me into disturbing their nice outings in the meadow; Two different flowers (I wish I knew what they are) – they proudly persuaded the Spring to stay longer for us, simply elegant and outstanding; Trees, oak trees – the first displayed amazing character through its branches, the second makes you wonder how are oak and rock related or connected?  The boulder-oak pair – I see harmony and beauty between that boulder and the oak, don’t you?

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Earth Day Visit To The City, San Francisco

Finally, I got to pay a visit to San Francisco on Earth Day last week.  To be exact, my short excursion included a stop at the Civic Center where a dance event marking the Earth Day was happening, and a hike in the Golden State Park where hatching herons supposedly could be seen.  Before that weekend, a lot of disturbing things already happened upon us: the Heartbleed exploit on HTTPS websites, data breach disclosure at more companies, ferry accidents in Hong Kong and South Korea, lack of progress with Ukraine situation.  I am not the most optimistic person, but I was hopeful that the Earth Day weekend would be better.

How did it turn out? Well, let me just say that I am still savoring the experience after a week even though I missed hatching herons.  Here are a few things I captured through my lens.  I was not able to see anything reflecting a cybersecurity threat, a ferry or airline disaster, or the shadow of cold war.  Maybe that is the beauty and power of the nature? I feel recharged so that I can go back to my cause of fighting advanced Malware threat at Cyphort.  I hope you enjoy these moments as well!

Enjoy Earth, enjoy dance, do Earth justice and smile!

Enjoy Earth, enjoy dance, do Earth justice and smile!

Different colors, different kind of beauty

Different colors, different kind of beauty

Just enjoy the scenery, Chckling 4 & 5 will catch up soon!

Just enjoy the scenery, Chckling 4 & 5 will catch up soon!

I like water, but I like up here now!

I like water, but I like up here now!

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Elephant Appreciation

It’s been a long time since I last shared with you through my lens.  My excuse is that I have been busy working with the Cyphort team (http://www.cyphort.com). We have just successfully released the Panther 1.0, offering the first effective, practical, and affordable solution for continuous monitoring and mitigation of modern threats for enterprises.

Luckily I was able to take a 10-day family vacation in Africa, blending deep into the natural game reserves and getting really close to the wild lives.  I feel the impulse to share again and will try to do so in the coming weeks.  Elephants are on my mind today.

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The first thing coming to mind in mention of an elephant is “big”, which becomes apparent with this lonely male elephant standing next to the tree. When we first approached it in the jeep, it flapped his ears, blew the trumpet, and postured to charge at us; the experienced driver quickly went in reverse a little and revved the engine a little, as if to say “Ok, big guy, no harm intended but be nice!”  As shown in the next two pictures, the elephant showed us the power of his tusks against the tree trunk and his true size by standing right next to the tree. Honestly, we really did not need more convincing.  We learned that indeed, elephants are safe from the threats of lions and cheetahs.  The size and strength matter!  We encountered many herds of elephants in the Greater Kruger Game Reserve area, ranging from lone male to several dozen in herd with many babies.  We witnessed many occasions of “giant affection”, as captured by this last picture.  So next time, you’d better not complain that your big nose is in the way 🙂

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Cherry Blossom, Big Boulder, And 1977

I just took a personal trip to Xi’an China from April 2 through April 9. This was a great trip worth sharing. This was the first ever reunion of my class – Computer Hardware Class 1982 of Xi’an Jiaotong University. It’s special because old classmates got to gather together after 30 years, to reminisce the disciplined campus life between class rooms, library, cafeteria, and dorms; to remember the bicycle rides to the suburbs; and to retrace the paths lined with cherry blossoms leading to class rooms. It’s even more special because all of the Class Of 1982 joined forces to commission a 25-ton boulder in front of the library to commemorate 1977 – the turning point in modern Chinese history.  It was 1977 that China began her journey of reform and openness; It was 1977 that China restored the college entrance exam system, affording millions of high-school graduates in the past 10 years a chance to enter college, and allowing many more village kids a chance to become someone other than a peasant.

As can be seen from the pictures here, the boulder is beautifully engraved with a description of the historical 1977. The cherry blossom is ever more beautiful. The campus is packed with people coming to appreciate the April flowers and the campus atmosphere, among them are young generations dressed in costumes of their favorite cartoon characters. What would all these pictures look like if China did not make that right turn?

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Mt Hamilton Impression – Beauty Is In The Details

Last Sunday, I finally got to make my first trip to Mt. Hamilton to the East of San Jose. I have heard about the Lick Observatory atop there and had seen the snow capped top of it more than a couple of times in the past 12 years I have been living in the bay area.  Although it was plenty warm in the South Bay, there was still snow on the ground on the top of the mountain.  The Joseph county park is right at the foot of Mt. Hamilton, visiting the park was icing on the cake to the Hamilton trip.

Check these pictures out, they say much better than my words of the trip.  There was the view of the Observatory buildings atop the summit, with snow still trying to stick around in the bright spring Sun; I spotted a brave hawk standing its branch looking me straight in the eye; then I passed by flowing curtains of Spanish moss from oak trees; I admired pines with the biggest cones I have ever seen, and with generous saps protecting wounds around trimmed branches.Image

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Of course, that’s not all.  I was especially amazed by intricate patterns in the Spanish moss, and by the crystal clear look and the elegant surface patterns of the dry resin. Look at these cropped image to see them yourself.  I have to say that Beauty Is In The Details! Don’t just fool around, enjoy life and enjoy nature!

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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!

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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.