The Amazing Whyteboard Machine

The company I work for has hundreds of years of history. So you can imagine it retains tradition in quite a number of ways that they do things. I guess having worked in a software integration company and in Creative Technologies for a while, I am not used to moving from the forefront of technology to a place where technology supports other functions and is deemed as "optional", and avoided even.

However, there is this piece of technology that is simply amazing and fascinates me. It is found in some of the meeting rooms. Its a whyteboard. *Yawn* you say. Hold on - it is not just any ordinary whyteboard.

As I am revamping a site, I conducted a meeting with a colleague who is building the site for me. We were planning on the storyboard for the site, and I used The Whyteboard. We drew and discussed the layout of the home page, worked out the names of the links and and sections, the navigation pathways, and before you know it, a couple of hours had flown by and we were done.

All that was left to be done was to copy what was on the whyteboard onto paper. Where I would have picked up a pen and paper for an ordinary whyteboard, I pressed a button labeled "Print" on this whyteboard. There was a whirring sound, and the board slowly turned inside of the whyteboard, displaying a blank new writing space. Then this bar of light behind the whyteboard slowly scanned the back portion from left to right, as does a photocopier machine. Next you know, a piece of A4 sized paper appears from a slot at the bottom panel of the whyteboard the way paper does from a fax machine with the storyboard of our home page on it. All I had to do next was press the "Cut" button, and wallah! Our storyboard had been transferred to paper. Isn't it amazing? I now like to invite vendors to hold meetings in rooms with these Whyteboards. Watching their jaws drop has become a favourite past time of mine...

How Retired People Get Their Kicks

The Match Against the Japanese

Why the Japanese lost the World Soccer, according to Pepsi.

"Sticky" Problem

The New Starbucks Coffee

I'm not much a fan of Starbucks. I've gone cold turkey on coffee a couple of years back already, but once in a while, I'll have that occasional coffee. And if I ever do, it won't ever be for Starbucks. However, they have come up with an innovative idea of "flavoring" their blends. I have a feeling the new taste will be more popular with the mates than the chicks.

Foiled Suicide Attempt

This is an ad which shows how a man's plan to jump to his death was foiled by a vacuum cleaner.

Kids Night Out

Do you still remember Mr Attention Seeking, Mr Irritated, Mr Cool & Ms L? Well, it had been a long time since we met so we decided to have dinner together to catch up. The japanese dinner ended up as a sort of kids night out. Needless to say, Ms L and myself were both BORED and ENTERTAINED all at once by the 3 dudes. We still love you guys!!

PS. Make a guess on who is who

The 20th Century Slimming Ad

Have you ever wished that losing weight were as easy as peeling it off? Well, here's an ad that capitalizes on that wish:

The New Ergonomic Toyota

Toyota has recently released their latest model which is the truly ergonomic human car. Watch the ad below. I think I'll give it a miss...

My New TV Set

So what do you think of my new TV set for my new home? How much did it cost me? I don't know... I sent Santa an email and am expecting his delivery on 25 Dec 2006. Cool eh? The TV I mean. Santa's getting a little too fat to be "in" or "vogue" anymore. JUST KIDDING. *ducks a reindeer's antler*

Steve Job's Vision

Received this from a friend - Steve Job's speech to Stanford University in 2005. Inspiring and with heart. If you're a fan of the Apple brand and the Mac, it'll give you insight into the vision and resilience of leadership in this man. If not, move on to the next post.

Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Thank you all, very much.

Google Buys YouTube.com for 1.65 Billion

Ok, so I know this piece of news is late. The press reported this on Oct 10. I saw it on Oct 10. But I only have time to blog about it now, and was reminded of it when catching up on my news. Yes, I'm supposed to be packing. I'm on my break. *grin*

Google seems to be buying over everything these days. Blogger.com and now YouTube. After the shock of Adobe buying over Macromedia, I guess nothing shocks me much anymore. Yes, it shocked me more than Lenovo buying over IBM. Seems like the big guys are choosing to conquer the competition by buying them over. Wonder if that will happen to MY company... *trying to wrap my head around that thought*

Well, as the saying goes, "If you can't beat them, BUY THEM OUT". And how does it relate to you, you ask? There is now a new Google Service called Google Video where you can browse and upload videos just as in YouTube. Convenient tool if you've got a gmail account - upload your video and email it to your gmail contact list.

I Want Your Lily Frond!

Reading through a few of my favourite blogs, one of them gave a link to this mathematical puzzle which takes on a fun front. The key is to get the brown frogs over to the lilies where the green frogs are sitting on, and vice versa. Sound simple enough? Its mentally stimulating enough to keep you engaged, while easy enough for you to solve in 5-10 min. Throw on realistic frog croaks and rushing waters, and you've got a winning game. Got 15 min to kill? What better way to spend than switching frogs on lilies...

Try it now!

Beastiality Crime

Your reaction to the title of this post might be a "Wha'??" or a shake of your head. So what is Beastiality? Its the name of the law pertaining to cruel treatment of animals. While this may sound innocent enough, it certainly isn't. If you've been charged with Beastiality, it means that you have been caught committing a sexual act forced on an animal.

Incredible? Unbelievable? Read it for yourself Apparently, beastiality was instituted as a crime in the state of Washington after a man died post having sex with a horse last year. Michael Patrick McPhail is now the first man to be charged with the crime of forcing sex onto his pet dog while intoxicated. His wife walked in to see his act as their dog was visibly squealing and crying. She took pictures with her handphone and reported him to the police.

One of my absolute favourite blogs, where I got this story from, writes about this piece of news from a funny angle. It was difficult to decide if I should laugh or cry. Thanks for the laff Matt! Read it here.

The Bed Where the Princess Will Never Feel the Pea

So I'm shifting into my house this Friday. Scheduled to that is. I've got my mover, and my contractor has been alerted (aka all reno works should be finished by then), etc. etc. But I'm only 2% packed. So what happened to my long weekend? Well, given the long hours I've been putting in at the office, my body protested against more work and refused to let me get up from bed the entire weekend. Exhaustion and fatigue are formidable enemies...

I did manage to make my way to IMM on Monday afternoon though, after accompanying my dad to change the new pair of optician's glasses he got. He was concerned that he would have trouble with the shop staff, and got me to go along with him. I prayed very hard that God would intervene, give us favour, and allow my dad to get a replacement pair of glasses as the new pair they prescribed were making him giddy, and the frame he got were too wide and kept falling off.

Given the recent spate of work, contractor, HDB, and vendor woes that have been plaguing me every week, I have had to follow closely on every project from work to personal. From chasing colleagues for information so that my copywriters could meet their deadlines, following up with internal colleagues who are providing services to my department but were deployed away for 2 weeks' training (such that I had to take over their tasks myself), to supervising my renovation due to an overstretched and somewhat irresponsible contractor, negotiating with HDB officers, conservation fees, front door replacement, upgrading policies conflicting with my renovation, worries about my dad's biopsy and health, etc etc etc, I was beyond being burnt out.

So I prayed. When the universe seems to be hurling at you the full brunt of Einstein's law of chaos, that is the only truly valuable thing you can do for yourself.

I told God I really needed a break, and that I needed to conserve my energy for the upcoming move. So I really wanted things to go smoothly. Praise God, He chalked up another answered prayer. While I believe in social & career networking, the best connection you can ever have is God. When we reached the shop, the senior optician took over my dad's case and believe it or not, he happened to know my dad's long time friend and previous optician. In fact, they were socially networked to the same group of cohorts. He changed the frame for my dad and replaced it with a Hugo Boss model. He also arranged for new lenses to be made for my dad, to be collected this Friday. All at no extra charge. It was a blessing of peace that I needed!

Since things were going so well, I thought I might venture into IMM to hunt for my bed / mattress. Based on a friend's recommendation, I looked out for the Sealy brand. No, not the "Silly" brand, the "Sealy" brand. I tried a few mattress shops and actually thought that the Americana brand was pretty ok. That was before I tried the Sealy mattress. They had the whole range from hard, semi-soft, to soft mattresses, based on your personal preference. The mattress was designed by chiropracters and are built to support your back and whatever sleeping posture you have. On the side, flat on your back, with your legs over your head (no, just kidding!), and so on.

When I tried the version where they used latex instead of 8 layer down for the "Semi-soft" range, I felt I was lying on a cloud in heaven... It wraps around your body posture, drives out all the aches, and had an unbelievably plush feeling. Then I tried the "soft" range. A little too soft for me, but if you had hidden a pea in it, I wouldn't have felt the difference...

With the promotion for "buy one mattress, get one bed for $125 and 2 fibre pillows for free", the real decision I have to make is if I were going for the "On Cloud Nine" or "Princess" bed.

Drawing Manga

If you are a manga fan and have an artistic gene, here's a site that teaches you how to draw manga digitally. Do remember to send me links of your new creations if you decide to take it up.