Posted 3:46 PM by Blah blah

Damn it. A couple of weeks ago, Sally had invited me to go to this Sina.com MBA forum held today. I had bought a ticket but then totally forgot about it. They had MBA admission speakers from a variety of top schools, and I even know one of the girls speaking, Louisa, from high school. Get organized, Raymond! :(

My housemate and I picked a name for our company last night. We think it's very cool. I'll let you know when our website is up.

Posted 2:13 AM by Blah blah

The Rice Bowl Journal Discussion Boards have moved here. Check them out!

This is my 2nd plug for you to read God's LiveJournal. God, You just crack me up! Wanna cook dinner this Sunday night? I'll bring the loaves...You got the fishes?

God sayeth things like:

"I'm phasing out prayer, mostly for reliability reasons. Most of the time, all I can hear is a bunch of gibberish, and then you get all mad when I give you, for instance, a pot of honey, instead of a lot of money. I always wondered why all you girls were praying for bigger zits."

Posted 6:58 PM by Blah blah

Check out this site: SevenQuestions. Especially Chris Adamson's interview.

Digital cinema shoots for an industry changeover

A digital cinema initiative by Kodak will help change the way the movie industry delivers and exhibits full-length motion pictures -- and IBM will be the key technology provider. Kodak's Digital Cinema System using IBM's Intel-based eServer and rich media storage systems will contribute to an industry changeover from 35mm film to digital that is slated to reduce the high cost of delivering film to theaters, develop new revenue opportunities, and turn movie theaters into digitally managed data centers.

IBM knocked Dell out of the running after client representative George Hebert and his team convinced Kodak's executive management team and application developers that IBM is a solutions provider, not merely a "box seller." Hebert also credits Team IBM, including Steve Canepa, vice president, media and entertainment; general manager Dick Anderson; and Greg Harrison, business development executive for global digital media, for helping to close the deal. Future deals with Kodak are expected to include IBM software.

Movie makers, director George Lucas among them, are the most enthusiastic champions of digital cinema. The British-based Economist observes that the recent Cannes film festival had nine digital screenings for "some remarkable digital films." Other beneficiaries: Distributors will be able to send digital movies overnight to theaters around the world, and simultaneously show a given movie on several screens. And theater managers can develop new entertainment and promotional offerings, like corporate annual meetings and concert showings, to increase their revenue.

Overcoming obstacles

But makers of digital cinema systems, like Kodak, Qualcomm, and Boeing, and infrastructure partners like IBM and Sun, recognize that a technology shift from film to digital will take at least three or four years. A Booz-Allen & Hamilton study observes that movie makers, distributors, and theater managers will have to agree on finding "creative ways to finance the multi-billion dollar cost of the changeover." Today theater owners, who overbuilt megaplexes in the 1990s and suffered financial setbacks as a result, are balking at the $5 to $7 billion investment it would take to install a new digital infrastructure in a system that "ain't broke." Meanwhile, studios argue that there is not yet a digital cinema standard, and they are "reluctant to risk backing the wrong approach."

Yet the studios are in the best position to profit from the changeover. First, using digital cinema can boost revenue. As the arrangement now stands, studios get the largest percentage of revenue at the start of a movie's run. The Booz-Allen & Hamilton study notes that if demand for a new film beats expectations, "theaters can use digital files to immediately show the film on more screens," and "studios will actually get a larger share of the increased revenues from new releases."

Second, the studios will save money. A major proponent of the new technology is Industrial Light and Magic, a division of Lucas Digital. The New York Times reported in May that director George Lucas saved $2 - $3 million in production costs by shooting on digital videotape from start to finish. The new technology aims to reduce the cost involved in movie production by creating, storing, distributing and projecting movies electronically. Intrigued by the benefits, movie studios have formed a digital cinema consortium to accelerate the adoption of digital media.

Kodak demonstrated its digital media solutions and technology infrastructure, featuring IBM technology, at the Cinema Expo International Conference in Amsterdam on June 25. The first Kodak Digital Cinema Operating Systems are expected to be installed later in 2002.

Digital cinema slow to reel in fans (CNET)

Posted 12:44 PM by Blah blah

This woman wants to come on our TV show for our next taping, in August, to talk about her trip to Afghanistan. She is amazing---she was mayor of Mountain View and has served on its city council for the last several years. She ALSO is a web developer and even taught a networking class at DeAnza College. She originally studied economics at Cornell. It's cool I'm gonna meet her.

My review of The Bourne Identity, take two:

Actually, never having read the Bourne trilogy, I love this movie! I saw it twice already!

The whole POINT is that Matt Damon is not the typical dumb action hero. He and the others worked hard to make this an intelligent, character-driven story. When he was making the movie, one time Matt told the director he didn't want to say a line a certain cliched way.

Off camera, he nailed the line perfectly in the typical way, but on camera, he did it differently.

Anyhow, I like pretty much all of it. Casting Franka Potente was excellent, because she is not a typical blonde action beauty and really convinces me she is one of those wandering students you meet all over when you travel.

I especially love the first parts, where Matt looks dazed and awkward in discovering his powers, like Tobey did in Spider-Man. I like the awkwardness between Matt and Franka too. It shows his consideration for her feelings and is more realistic. I love how they show his own gradually increasing disgust with his work and the assassin's ambivalence about his work.

Both Matt and Franka gave complex, smart performances. Intriguing and thrilling. Jekyll and Hyde-like. Way better than Ben Affleck's in The Sum of All Fears. I give this movie an A.

If you want Schwartzennegger, go somewhere else.

Posted 11:35 AM by Blah blah

From The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. He is one of my favorite writers. I devoured The Three Musketeers in one night when I was a teen.

Chapter 16
The young man had never thought about escape. There are things that seem so impossible that one instinctively avoids them and doesn't even consider attempting them. To dig fifty feet beneath the ground, to spend three years on this task, only to arrive---if you were successful---at a sheer precipice above the sea; to descend fifty, sixty, perhaps a hundred feet, only to fall and crush your head against the rocks---if the sentries had not already shot you; and, even supposing you managed to evade all these dangers, to be faced with swimming a distance of a league---all this was too much for one not to resign oneself; and, as we have seen already, Dantes had almost resigned himself to the point of death.

But now that he had seen an old man clasping on to life with such energy and giving him the example of such desperate resolve, he started to reflect and to measure his courage. Another man had attempted to do something that he had not even thought of doing; another, less young, less strong and less agile that himself, had succeeded, by sheer skill and patience, in acquiring all the implements he needed for this incredible task, which had failed only because of a failure of measurement; someone else had done all this, so nothing was impossible for Dantes.

Chapter 17
"What might you not have done, had you been free?"

"Perhaps nothing: the overflowing of my brain might have evaporated in mere futilities. Misfortune is needed to plumb certain mysterious depths in the understanding of men; pressure is needed to explode the charge. My captivity concentrated all my faculties on a single point. They had previously been dispersed, now they clashed in a narrow space; and, as you know, the clash of clouds produces electricity, electricity produces lightning and lightning gives light."

Posted 8:19 PM by Blah blah

I've been skimming through this book: Eight Keys to Greatness by Gene Landrum. Some of these qualities describe me to a T, while others I seriously lack. Nevertheless, in all of them I can and must keep striving to be better.

Traits of greatness that Landrum observed from his research on eminent entrepreneurs, artists, politicians, and scientists:

Communications

1. Rich and fluent vocabulary
2. Excellent self-expression
3. Inspires others to follow your lead
4. A philosophic communication style
5. Voracious reader of nonfiction books

Views the World

1. Always sees the big picture or essence of situation
2. More interested in the qualitative than quantitative
3. Inquisitive
4. Seeks opportunities and possibilities---never the safe and secure
5. Has a long-term perspective on most things

Creativity

1. Has a vivid imagination
2. Short attention span when listening to proposals by others
3. Inveterate need to know---in constant search for new knowledge
4. Prefers math to accounting---the abstract to the routine
5. Intolerant of useless conformity

Lifestyle

1. Is a high risk-taker
2. Spontaneous adventurer
3. High in intellectual playfulness
4. Often called a renegade
5. Eats, talks, walks, and thinks fast---(for example, often receives speeding tickets) [I like to drive fast. Always managed to avoid speeding tickets till this year.]

Self-Image

1. Easily bored with routine tasks
2. Prefers to work independently
3. Comfortable with ambiguity
4. Enjoys juggling many tasks simultaneously
5. Belief in own ability to succeed at new tasks
6. Strong sense of self---uses "I" often
7. Optimism pervades thinking---very positive
8. Needs little confirmation to proceed on new adventures
9. Flexible in dynamic environments
10. Candid responses to controversial inquiries

Critical Thinking Style

1. Prefers being different to being perfect
2. Asks many questions
3. Compulsion to reduce the complex to the simple
4. Searches for similarities and differences in people
5. Impatient in lines and with incompetence

Self-Sufficiency

1. Needs little support in proceeding on novel ideas
2. Very achievement oriented
3. Has variety of interests
4. Grasps new concepts quickly
5. Gets things done without being told

Posted 5:38 AM by Blah blah

Wow. What do you think of this?

Survey says 19% of Filipinos want to leave, see no hope in Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer). How bad is it???

Science, semi-science and nonsense (Salon.com):

"The questions that I ask -- the quality of evidence, who's doing the research, what else do they believe, what else have they done, have they tested their own claims -- is the way of science. All skeptic stuff is science. Scientists are skeptics. It's unfortunate that the word 'skeptic' has taken on other connotations in the culture involving nihilism and cynicism. Really, in its pure and original meaning, it's just thoughtful inquiry."

WorldCom may be going bankrupt, and other sad trends in the telecommunications industry. (CNET) Mona! How is it going at your end?

Posted 11:46 PM by Blah blah

Here we gooooo. The Oprahization of this blog continues:

Finding the career for you:
"My father told me to go 'where your greatest joy meets the world's greatest need.' " -Diane Sawyer

From Eight Keys to Greatness:

1. Charisma: the gift of divine grace
2. Competitiveness: the need to win at all costs
3. Confidence and self-esteem: believe and the world will follow you
4. Drive: great people live life in the fast lane
5. Intuition: seeing the forest through the trees
6. Rebellion: abnormal success demands abnormal behavior
7. Risk-taking: there are no great wins in life without great risks
8. Tenacity: if you never quit, you can never lose

Paradoxes of Success

- Catherine the Great, Napoleon, and Hitler became rulers of world powers on the basis of nationalism yet were of a different nationality than those they ruled.
- A man of the cloth concocted the theory of evolution---the most pernicious argument against the Church's most fundamental dogmas. (Darwin studied to be a minister!)
- A medical doctor who denied her own child became the Messiah of Education
- A man who couldn't hear invented the phonograph and first sound movie camera
- A Russian immigrant with no philosophical background wrote the greatest epic philosophical novel---Atlas Shrugged
- A peasant farmer rose to the status of god and implemented China's Cultural Revolution
- A man kicked out of high school derived the theory of relativity, became an avid pacifist, and then advised the U.S. president to develop the atom bomb
- A man who hated art and would not hire an artist or allow the word "art" to be used at work, created Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Goofy
- A woman became the Mother of Modern Dance without ever taking a dance lesson
- A man who feared the common housefly became a daredevil test pilot
- The woman known as the Duchess of Death never met a criminal
- Nikola Tesla, a pathological recluse, was a mesmerizing speaker who could captivate hundreds for hours
- The man who claimed sex was the motive behind all behavior did not have sex after age forty
- An eighth grade dropout solved the technological mysteries of the catalytic engine
- An average-sized female outdrove 80 percent of the world's professional male golfers
- A man who claimed he couldn't write became one of the most successful authors in the 1980s

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Posted 2:39 PM by Blah blah

Introspection

"Ulysses," by Alfred Lord Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Posted 6:58 PM by Blah blah

Look at this crazy, amazing scheme: Icepick.com, the world's least private house. It's completely wired, and this couple (I think the girl is Asian) even graphs statistics on the Internet, of things like number of times their toilet was flushed. Stalk them with me.

WOW. The Brick Testament. Stories from the Bible enacted in Lego building blocks! I'm not used to the sight of Lego toys having sex.

This sucks...just what I need now. :(

High-tech slowdown may be worsening (San Jose Mercury News): "Silicon Valley's high-tech hangover isn't over. In fact, it may be getting worse. In recent weeks, executives and economists have begun to acknowledge that the downturn in corporate spending on new technology is far deeper and more widespread than they imagined. With businesses continuing to slash the spending that fuels the Silicon Valley economy, local companies are watching their sales continue to shrink, leading to new rounds of job cuts to appease Wall Street."