Category Archives: Nature Admiration

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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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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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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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Aruba Impressions

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!

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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.