Just feel like writing something here. I realize that writing is simply thinking through our fingers. And that’s great because I myself love to type. I suppose I don’t have much choice because I’m deaf so this is pretty much the only mode I could communicate with hearing people. Unless they know sign language, of course. One friend of mine gave some wise words. She thinks it is actually our advantage that we could write in these circumstances because that means less distractions for us especially and use constraints in an advantageous way. Back to typing, I should mention that I’ve remapped the cap-locks key as a backspace, so whenever I mis-type, I use my left pinkie to do a backspace on the caps-lock key, not the normal backspace key that’s at the top right above the enter key. It’s helped with my typing speed and much more comfortable to reach as well. I should say it’s probably the same reason why I insisted upon working for an employer like Google because pretty much everyone at the company knows how to type and loves to chat on their computers, which puts someone like myself on an even field. Gmail, Gtalk, and now Google Wave. Cool. Writing also feels pretty natural to me that I can compose words like a picture and try to make some points and make sense of my own thinking through my fingers.

When I was younger, one of my fave games was SimCity on SNES (the original one). I remember I would play the game obsessively. I think I got started on it after getting bored with playing Street Fighters. Not quite sure of how I first heard about the game but I was fascinated by this video game genre called stimulation gaming. Nowadays, the excitement of slot gacor maxwin brings a new level of thrill to gaming, offering great chances to win while enjoying the immersive experience.

As I first started on the game, I didn’t quite get what the game was all about (I think I was 9 years old) but found out that it’s about building housing/commercial zones, transportations and ultimately, growing in population, which was the whole point of this game. Before I knew it, I was completely hooked. I played obsessively, all night on it and ofc, my mom couldn’t understand the addiction when she was yelling at me to eat dinner or do something. One thing, though, was that I would run out of money and would have to wait for annual year to get taxes so I could use the money to build more zones. Having realized this, I looked up in my old Nintendo Power magazines (I have the first 12 subscriptions) and sure enough, it contains a cheat code where I could get 20k every time I ran out of money. Delightfully, I built new zones, destroyed not-so-developed zones, put in all trains (which lessened car pollution), built airports, stadiums, and fetched more money till I reached the metropolis level at the 500k population, which was the highest level you could achieve at this SimCity game. I remember how simple the game was and how neat the panning/zooming was, even on a SNES platform.

Then, there was a PC revolution, so I got on that wave, and there was a new game called the SimTower.  When I first saw the cover on the box in the Best Buy store, I knew I gotta have it and practically begged my parents to buy it.  Again, I got hooked on the game and kept adding floors and rooms till I got a 5 stars rating and over 100 floors built. It was a beautiful game and the graphics was decent too. Then, another game, the Sims, came out and I tried it out but didn’t find it as appealing as the other two because it wasn’t that progressive or rewarding (folks were even unpredictable in the game too!) to me and it was more of goofing around than learning, I suppose.

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Liked how this pic turned out.

I learned something about how much data we are generating everyday. I’d say it’s a fair guess that anyone who has access to the Internet has done some searches on Google. If you need to eliminate your data storing problems, an experienced vendor of Salesforce.com will manage your hardware and software.

Examples of the use of “petabyte” to describe data sizes in different fields are:

* History: According to Kevin Kelly in The New York Times, “the entire [written] works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages” would amount to 50 petabytes of data.[1]
* Computer hardware: Teradata Database 12 has a capacity of 50 petabytes of compressed data.[2][3]
* Telecoms: AT&T has about 16 petabytes of data transferred through their networks each day.[4]
* Archives: The Internet Archive contains about 3 petabytes of data, and is growing at the rate of about 100 terabytes per month as of March, 2009.[5][6]
* Internet: Google processes about 20 petabytes of data per day.[7]
* Physics: The 4 experiments in the Large Hadron Collider will produce about 15 petabytes of data per year, which will be distributed over the LHC Computing Grid.[8]
* P2P networks: As of October 2009, Isohunt has about 9.76 petabytes of files contained in torrents indexed globally.[9]
* Games: World of Warcraft utilizes 1.3 petabytes of storage to maintain its game.[10]

Petabyte – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Now that my trip to five countries (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong.) is completed, I’ve had a plenty of time to mull and I read ‘Outliers’ book by Malcolm Gladwell since it got out in the paperback version. Outliers was fascinating because basically, in order for people to be as successful as those mentioned in the book, they needed to be born at the right place at the right time. That was his major premise of the book. I thought about that deeply, and well, I thought I’d share a story of mine…on how I got adopted.

When it comes to adopting a child, you can be sure that there are lots of procedure/factors involved to have a successful adoption. One tiny misstep in the procedure could make adoptions go awry. I’ll give an example. My parents needed to get their fingers pressed for the application. The agency was able to get my dad’s fingerprints but not so for my mom. They were having a hard time getting a clean copy from my mom’s. Why? because my mom had worked 15 years at the Capitol Records (EMI Manufacturing) factory in Jacksonville, IL on checking the quality of cassette tapes. She had to make sure that tapes were properly packaged before they get inserted into plastic boxes. All of those checking had pretty much smeared my mom’s fingers. She also had to quit because the job was giving her carpal tunnel syndrome, in which she got a surgery on her both wrists. After unsuccessful prints, my parents had to drive up to Chicago and stop by a FBI office to meet with a FBI-trained officer and get fingerprints. They did manage to get them but barely. So if that didn’t happen, I won’t be here typing this post.

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I was glad to see this because I wrote a similar post so it affirms my thinking.

What People Buy

People only pay for what they want or need when the price is low enough to be a greater value then the alternatives. Think about your own buying decisions: When the need or desire is great enough you buy when it’s not you don’t. If the price is too high, you look for an alternative or go without. Sometimes the need or desire outweighs the reality that you can’t afford it, hence the financial mess (debt) most folks put themselves into. But when the value is bigger than the other offerings, they buy.

Link

My post – The American Dream

And god, I need to re-work my website…

“I remember you.” were the words my sister signed to me after we were finally reunited and as an adoptee who was “temporarily gone” from home for more than 18 years, ofc, I had questions to ask. “Do you remember me?” was one of those more immediate questions.

I remember when I was growing up, I’d often play sports with non-asian people, and during evenings with my parents, I watched TV. It was a good thing that TV had closed captioning and that it was always turned on. My parents were deaf too. My dad used to sell Zenith TVs, and had the big analog satellite in the backyard and installed a black box to access all channels like HBO. 4 pm to 5 pm was the reserved time for my mom to watch ‘Days of our Lives’ soap opera and she’s never missed an episode. If there was ever Jeopardy on the topic, she’d sweep the column.

I was their only child and as an only child, deep down inside, I’ve always felt that I couldn’t be an only child and felt strongly that I had siblings and by this, I often wondered about my birth family. It was quite like the movie, Star Wars, with Luke Skywalker sensing the Force with his sister, Princess Leia. That remained unknown till I received the news that my family had been discovered and that I indeed had a brother and sister. I was happy to know that. However, I still needed to confirm to make sure that they’re really my birth family (there were cases that required DNA testing to confirm, for example.) What’s more was that my sister is deaf, like me, so that vastly increased the odds that we’re family.

As I was visiting around in Korea, the mother took me to visit the orphanage where I stayed for about a year before I was adopted. The orphanage was one of those last memories I had in Korea and still could remember. I remember I played a lot with balloons—it made those loud sounds when you try to rub it. They had a high balcony with big windows and I would try to crawl up onto the balcony and see the world out there. Out in the world, there would be a white van coming up in front of the fence and then a man came around the van to the back and hauled something out of it and a white cloud of steam would come out. I had no idea what that was and I also remember that some of young faces would be missing, so I thought maybe the guy took them in and went somewhere.

The building still looked exactly the same as if it never changed except for the trees that had gotten bigger, like me. Built with red, auburn bricks, it had a small playground with swings inside the fence. I met up with Director who oversaw the orphanage. He was the same guy who took me in and one thing he said caught my attention was that I was the only deaf child they had and there hadn’t been another orphan after me who was also deaf. So, a further evidence that I was the same child that he had overseen. Then, I saw the white van coming up in front and a guy came around to get something out of the rear. It was food he was delivering to the orphanage. So much for kidnapping the children.

During one evening, I asked my sister if she remembered me. She said yes, and she was six years old when I had been taken away. She said she’d remember the orphanage, that place with red, auburn bricks. We actually had gone there a few times, as the parents debated whether to give me up and when that day came, my sister didn’t come with me. That information was never communicated by the parents but the absence of their youngest brother was obvious enough that he’s not going to be back anytime soon.

So, when I signed to my sister and she signed back at me, that was enough of a confirmation to know we’re family after all.

When it comes down to monetizing the Internet, there are two different kinds of ads. One is a text-based ad or keywords, namely AdWords, which Google basically has a monopoly over. One reason why this works so well is due to the intentionality in users’ behavior. Say if a girl wants a Barbie, the mother would go to a search engine and type in ‘Barbie’, and whichever shopping site makes a catchy header or has the best sale shall get the successful transaction and the search engine that provides the referral gets the commission for being a middlemen. Which has the best search engine? Google, ofc. That’s why they’re so successful, having raked in $5.1 billion dollars this past quarter.

The other kind of ad is contextual ads, often displayed in banners and it is this area that many web companies are striving to get our eyeballs as many as they can. Google has AdSense. Facebook has banner ads, often seen on the right side of your browser. It doesn’t have the same sense of intentionality that I mention above and for this to work well, banner ads would have to be relevant and try to hold attention to our eyeballs and hope that it gets our pesky finger to click on their ads.

So, that’s pretty much how the Internet is monetized. Happy surfing and don’t forget to click!

Breathlessly.

via Esquire.

Wow, this is one hell of a wave.

via roxy

I’m not sure how eloquent or articulate this will be, as I attempt to explain this thought I have in my mind. For some time, I’ve been thinking why we’re here and how we come into existence but that’s a kinda too far-fetched question as no one knows for sure and there is an ever battle between religions on this question.

The more important question we should be asking ourselves is that since we’re already here, the question is what are we doing with ourselves and time? I’ve been thinking about that as I drove alone for 7 hrs one way to Los Angeles and San Diego. Well, I think I’m closer to the truth than I ever have been in my whole life. I’d like to throw in an excerpt from Wikipedia.

“Quality,” or “value,” as described by Pirsig, cannot be defined because it empirically precedes any intellectual constructions. It is the “knife-edge” of experience, known to all. “What distinguishes good and bad writing? Do we need to ask this question of Lysias or anyone else who ever did write anything?” (Plato’s Phaedrus, 258d). Likening it with the Tao, Pirsig believes that Quality is the fundamental force in the universe stimulating everything from atoms to animals to evolve and incorporate ever greater levels of Quality. According to the MOQ, everything (including the mind, ideas, and matter) is a product and a result of Quality.

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The new Sidekick LX is coming out on May 13th, though you can get on one sooner if you’re already a T-Mobile customer.

The pic here:

Before I share my opinion on this, one guy named Vic couldn’t have said it any better:

The sidekick found its humble beginnings in the deaf/hard-of-hearing world, and it has always been a text-based communication champ. You will not find a device that is easier to use for IM, rapid-fire email.

I had a Sidekick 2 a month after it came out and it served its purpose well. Contacting my friends through IM was my only option as using the cell phone is just plain fruitless. Consider that the “sidekick” plan was quite a bit cheaper than the blackberry plans as well as unlimited data plans. If this continues to be the case, it will continue to be the champion of instant text-based communication simply because of its physical format.

Even my Palm Treo 650 and Blackberry Curve cannot match the IM superiority of the sidekick, and it is something I sorely miss at times. Unfortunately, with the physical format being superior, the software and hardware has since the 3rd sidekick lagged one step behind in intuitive nature. We’ll see if Microsoft can change things around for the better.

That’s right. Out of all devices I’ve owned, I’ve yet come across a device that is more friendly typing than Sidekick does. Admittedly, I got caught up in the marketing hype and got on the iPhone’s bandwagon. While iPhone is nonetheless a great device, it’s definitely not designed for speed thumb-typing. You have to cautiously press on virtual keys and there is a certain lag between letters for them to appear correctly on the screen. There is almost no lag on Sidekick and I can type as fast as I could—purely from my muscle memory. The word I would use to describe Sidekick is the functionality. Research has shown that less than 5% people who purchased apps on their iPhone only play it more than 3 times. Pure entertainment and a waste of a few dollars—much to both Apple and developers’ profits. The new Sidekick has a GPS, 3G, tight integration with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. A ping of a SMS or email is all you need to initiate a data transmission to your favorite app for communication. The best feature may be its screen resolution at 854 x 480 in a landscape mode in addition to its unbeatable form factor. iPhone’s screen is only 480×320. Nothing delights my eyes more than the highest pixel resolution available. Since it is a keyboard-based and isn’t a touch screen, it has handy keyboard shortcuts that get you straight to the selected app in one single action.

On May 13th, you and I have a hot date.

As is accustomed for me to write a self post on my birthday. See my last four:

Twenty-seven years old
Twenty-six years old
I turn 25 today.
The Existence of 24 years old on this Planet Earth.

I’m actually writing this post on Facebook’s notes. I’m not sure why but it’s probably the social vibe behind this app that is going on (with 175+ million users having signed up) and this awareness that I’m not the only one hitting on a keyboard. It’s almost like writing on a typewriter in a busy newsroom, only figuratively. I also really like the font typeface and its size – gotta send props to the designer who chose the font. I don’t even know what’s the font face – looks like Tahoma family to me, though.

To my amazement, I found out that I’m not the only one to do this type of post. Matt Mullenweg who created WordPress as a open source blogging software, also does the same thing – see his. He’s a Dvorak typist too. Not too long ago, I started to type pretty comfortable in Dvorak but had to stop because I sometimes needed to type on others’ keyboard to communicate with them and their layout is in QWERTY, so I would get stuck and have to remember how to type in QWERTY again. So, no good there.

Since I’m aware that my birthday is in Feb, I tend to wait and think back while people get busy bringing in the new year and making resolutions. And I started thinking about what I would like to say in my self post, so here this is.

It’s been more than a year since I moved here from Washington DC. It was an exciting time, thrilled to be working right in Googleplex, made a full transcontinental move to the west coast. And I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Wouldn’t replace for anything. It was hard to believe that I could be walking into a room and see the CEO or founders there. But now, I’ve gotten used to the sight and don’t get as excited as before. This year also has been a year of consciousness/awareness that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about who I am and how we all come into existence. Moreover, I think this year, more or less, marks the first time that I’ve come to terms with myself. I wasn’t always so proud of myself like being the only Asian in my class for most of my life and had some people making fun of my not-so-rounded eyes and my penchant in school. Before, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I was like, so this is an Asian-looking guy yet I don’t feel one bit like an Asian. Now, I don’t feel that way anymore and feel proud to be myself. I am who I am. I can’t imagine wanting to be someone else.

In terms of consciousness, I’ve tried to increase awareness in this capacity and how decisions we make may affect us. Sometimes, I do wonder if I even exist. The answer is yes and you do exist too. What you see is what you get. Activity on Facebook, pictures we appear in, comments we made, news we read. We know what the Golden Gate or Washington Monument looks like, we know how burgers from In n Out taste like, we know who is now the President of the U.S., and we know we can’t live without air and water. That’s existentialism. We exist, though how do we want to spend this present time is up to us.

As for my goals this year, well, not much, really. Just enjoy life and hang out with friends, also do fun stuffs like snowboarding, traveling, and seriously learn how to surf. The big thing will be the southeast Asia trip and Deaflympics. So, till then, take lots of pictures, blogging and being myself.

Lastly, I’d like to close this post by saying early happy birthday to Steve Jobs who will be turning 54 in two days and to wish him the best in his health. He was born an orphan here in Mountain View, CA. Cool.

The best is yet to come. :D

1. My first meal when I was adopted to here from Korea was a happy meal from McDonald.

2. I’m not much of a talker myself, so if you find me pretty quiet, don’t feel offended. You can be assured that my thoughts are almost always running at 100 mph per hour. If anything, I’d rather coding, writing, reading, or actually be doing something.

3. I’ve come to realize that emotional intelligence (or street smart) is as important as being smart in school. That said, my dad has a way better EI than I do, unfortunately.

4. My dad has many great stories when he was younger like he rode motorcycle across America and into Mexico. I think his life sounds better than mine already.

5. I try not to be judgmental but I’m capable of asking questions that would reveal who/what you are in a matter of minutes.

6. My 3rd grade teacher made me sit outside in the hallway because I made fun of her signing skill. It wasn’t very good at all, in fact. I hate it when teachers think their ASL is wonderful just like these girls who think their voice is great but is completely off-key. Know what I’m saying?

7. There are four men that I’d very much want to meet: Tiger Woods, Rick Reilly, Steve Jobs, and President Obama. (not necessarily in order)

8. I found out what I was made of after I spent ten weeks summer internship in Miami, FL. I knew nobody there, woke up at 6:30 am every day, did not miss a single day despite 1 1/2 hour of commuting, worked out a lot (they had a workout room on the third floor) and at the end, they held a farewell party for me and gave me appreciation award, which was unexpecting.

9. I’m a huge Honda fan. Huge. My dream is to own a ’01 Prelude SSH, then S2000, and lastly, an NSX. I currently drive an Element and used to own ’04 Civic Si hb till I totaled it.

10. Sometimes, I can’t believe I work at Google and help push doodles onto homepages. I consider it a privilege and will never take it for granted. I’m lucky to have a great team, also.

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This is in traceback to Seth Godin’s post on the best middle name.

It’s not Warren or Susan or Otis or Samuel or Tricia.

It’s “The.”

As in Attila The Hun or Alexander The Great or Zorba The Greek.

The web is getting saturated. It’s no brainers that the web is THE platform. Doesn’t matter which OS you’re using, just as long as you’re on the web. It reminds me of unix environment where its philosophy is to do one thing and do it well. I think the Web is quickly coming down to that too.

Twitter is the microblogging or real-time updates.

Facebook is the social networking app to be a member of.

Google is the search engine to go to.

Gmail is the webmail to use (at least to me.)

Flickr is the photo sharing website to upload pics.

Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia to go to.

Amazon is the place to do online shopping.

YouTube is the website to upload videos to.

You get my drift.

Ofc, Barack Obama is the President now. :-)