Happy Leap Day!

I was wowed by what I saw from origami expert Robert Lang [hat tip: boing boing]. So I looked for some fun and unusual video to share here.

Links: 2008-02-29 Conservatives bribe, End Software Patents, Avi on Al-Jazeera, Waterproof camcorder ad

1. Conservatives made million-dollar offer to MP Cadman - it is a criminal offense if a bribe was indeed offered.
2. Cadman 'bribe' furor grips Tories
3. Cadman's daughter backs up mom's bribe story - Conservatives have lots of explaining to do as this I just can't see any reason why the honourable Cadman family would tell lies like these
4. "End Software Patents" Launches With Website and Report
5. Joff Wild Responds to "End Software Patents"
   
6. Former CBC-TV host Avi Lewis begins hosting U.S. show on Al-Jazeera network (with YouTube of show)
7. Sanyo Waterproof Video Camera

More Steven Cheung Videos

For those that understand Cantonese or Mandarin, I’ve found a few more interesting and insightful videos of the insightful Chinese economist Steven Cheung. (see my extensive blog entries tagged with Steven Cheung)

On the occasion of Steven Cheung’s 70th birthday (in 2005), he talks about his academic thinking process and how he learns economics Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

《张五常七十诞辰学术思想研讨会》上的发言，题为《七十自述：我是怎样研究经济的？》 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Brief speech before 70th birthday dinner part 1, part 2

《张五常七十诞辰晚宴》上的发言 part 1, part 2

P.S. Here is an interesting Chinese interview posted on 2007, Apr 24 “张五常：我是天才因为我简单“

P.P.S. I am eagerly waiting for Steven Cheung’s upcoming English paper “The Economic System of China” which should be a great read to understand China.

The Warren Buffett poll and shareholder letter

Warren Buffett is one of the richest people in the world and yet he is very generous in his willingness to share his wisdom and insights.

This year, he got CNBC to post a poll to ask people what do they think the Dow Jones Industrials Average will be on December 31, 2099. What's your prediction? And more importantly, why? Warren will share his answer in Berkshire Hathaway's 2007 shareholder letter.

For longer than I can remember, I have been reading and trying to learn from Warren's shareholder letters, and this year will be not exception. Happy reading and learning.

2008 Oscars Q&A

Here are some 2008 Oscars Q&A

Oscar Winner Daniel Day-Lewis - Have to watch the flim.

Oscar Winner Marion Cotillard - Watch her beautiful rendition of Edith Piaf’s “Padam Padam” at the end of her press Q&A. Beautifully sweet.

Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton - Sweet Q&A. Lovely answers.

Oscar Winner Javier Bardem - Interesting talk between him and his mom (who is an actress for 50 years)

2008 Newsweek pre-Oscar Round Table

Here is a series of priceless chats between the stars (Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ellen Page, James McAvoy, and Marion Cotillard) and it was wonderful when they just chatted and were having so much fun doing it - Part 1, Part 2, …, part 7, …, part 14.

Here is Part 2 as you can probably skip part 1 which is the intro,

P.S. George Clooney is such a senior statesman. You can see him as such an insightful man in this chat. And he is funny (as expected).

Cambridge Breaks Chip and PIN (Debit card) terminals

[R]esearchers at the University of Cambridge, have shown how to compromise supposedly tamper-proof Chip and PIN terminals. With a paperclip, off the shelf electronics, and basic technical skills, fraudsters can capture card details and PINs, then create counterfeit cards. The full results of the team are published their academic paper and were featured on BBC Newsnight (Google Video).

[hat tip: Cory Doctorow]

Links: 2008-02-27 Human dissection photos, Sun MySQL, Daylight savings, Phone for homeless, Canada couldn’t say No, Smoking kills Ad

1. Incredible human dissection photos on Flickr
2. MySQL is Officially a Part of Sun
3. Daylight savings time increases energy usage - interesting study
4. Permanent phone numbers and voicemail services to the homeless (GrandCentral’s Project CARE initiative)
5. Canada: The Country That Couldn’t Say ‘No’ - This may not be a bad thing if one believes in free trade.
6. Smoking kills 14,000 people everyday - very creative ad

Chinese Patent Law - Obviousness and Case Selection Bias

I really appreciate researcher like Santa Clara University Law student Xin Ma posting research about Obviousness under Chinese Patent Law for people to read. Understanding Chinese Patent Law is important once the more important challenge of “rule of law” is resolved. (see next paragraph)

Although some people, like patent attorney Mark Walters, consider that “Enforcing IP Rights in China: It’s Not as Hard as You Think“, I still have strong reservation and doubt if the judges in China can consistently withstand potential pressure from the Chinese government. After all, it is naive to think the judges in China have “independence” in any remote way like their counter parts in countries that have a tradition of respecting the “rule of law” backed by a government accountable to the public in a democratic manner.

Quoting the China section of the “Thomson Scientific 2008 Patent Focus Report” (PDF file, emphasis added) [hat tip: Peter Zura for the link]

During 2006, there were more patent cases filed in China than in any other country, and while 98 per cent of these involved only Chinese companies, in the two per cent featuring a plaintiff from outside the country, the foreign entity ended up victorious 90 per cent of the time.

What the report author and the above bloggers, Mark and Peter, failed to pointed out was the existence of “Case Selection” bias. In a sense, foreigners only pick the best of the best cases to litigate so no wonder they appear to win more. If foreigners (especially small businesses/inventors) go into to China to litigate their patent cases and expect the above win rate, they may face with some unpleasant surprise.

Note: The idea of “Case Selection” bias is not my own as I learned of this insightful idea from two Cornell law professors during a previous consulting engagement for a client. Here is the reference for those that like to read more.

Xenophilia or Xenophobia in American Courts? Before and After 9/11
by Prof. Kevin M. Clermont and Prof. Theodore Eisenberg, Cornell Law School

Recreating D-Day by 3 men in 4 days

Wonderfully cool and creative work by 3 graphics designers with some props to do what Saving Private Ryan did with 1000 extras. Enjoy.

[hat tip: Richard]

On Writing

Chatting with my friend Ben last night about his writer’s block in completing his MBA thesis got me thinking about writing.

I am no “writer” but I try to read a lot and write a lot and not worry about making mistakes too much as I have adopted a “quantity”/”Bill Buxton” approach. And one of the things I live by is - “Make mistakes faster”.

Ben, may be check out a few of the existing MBA theses at the SFU library and see how and what did they do to get their degrees. After all, they got theirs done and I am confident that you can do better than many of them as I find your thesis topic quite interesting and engaging.

P.S. Having been quoting the author Stephen King for so long, I am happy say that my research last night confirmed that I had been quoting from his autobiography “On Writing“. And a copy of the book is waiting for me to pickup at the library.

And I was able to find a few insightful YouTube clips of Stephen King. (Too bad I couldn’t find the Bravo program “An evening with Stephen King” that I watched on TV the other night.)

Advice from Stephen King to new writers.

The Hour with Stephen King when he came to Canada to collect a lifetime achievement award.

Stephen King talks about his new book’s ‘language’.

Hong Kong’s Electric Shadows

My friend Daisann has an interesting blog entry about The 32nd Annual Hong Kong International Film Festival.

P.S. Movies is “dihn ying” in Cantonese, which can be translated as “Electric Shadows”.

Venus FlyTrap Growth - Time Lapse video

Beautiful and fascinating Venus FlyTrap Growth - Time Lapse video from Boing Boing. OK, it does look strange but beautiful at the same time.

Links: 2008-02-26 Books 2.0, eBay Rebellion, FCC Net Neutrality, Muni Bonds, Google bandwidth, ABC idiot

1. Canadians are playing key role in `Books 2.0′ - WikiTrave, print-on-demand, LibriVox project audio books
2. eBay’s Seller Rebellion
3. FCC Open Hearing: Net Neutrality
4. Bad Day? Be glad you are not selling Muni Bonds
5. Google and the Unity bandwidth consortium - Google and the under-sea cable business
6. ABC thinks you’re an idiot - Lovely pix Marc (smile)

Bill Buxton to deliver opening keynote at nextMEDIA

It is wonderful to know the insightful Bill Buxton will be delivering the opening keynote at nextMEDIA (June 6 - 8th, 2008 at Banff),

Bill Buxton, Principal Scientist at Microsoft Research will deliver the opening keynote address at nextMEDIA - The Future of Digital Content. In his keynote address Bill will speak to emerging trends around physical computing and a human-centered approach to technological design and innovation.

I consider Bill Buxton one of the Great Minds of Our Time and have featured him in the series. I look forward to attend the keynote.

Here are two of Bill's recent work,

• A Familiar Problem. BusinessWeek.com, February 6th, 2008.
• Surface and Tangible Computing, and the "Small" Matter of People and Design. IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers, Vol. 51, 24-29.

Oscars Picks vs Results

The Oscars winners were announced last night. I got most right and three wrong in my picks for the 2008 Oscars. I am most disappointed that Madame Tutli-Putli didn’t win. :(

See also this CBC report with video.

*******

**** Best Short Film, Animated (Got this wrong but I still love my pick)

Madame Tutli-Putli (2007): Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski (see my blogs here and here)

**** Best Motion Picture of the Year (Got this right, no surprise here)

No Country for Old Men (2007): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Got this right, no surprise here)

Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Got this wrong, big surprise here)

The official winner:

Marion Cotillard for La Mome (2007)

My pick:

Julie Christie for Away from Her (2006) (Note: In doing so, the Academy is also indirectly honouring Sarah Polley’s great job in making Away from Her.)

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Got this right, no surprise here)

Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Got this right)

Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (2007)

**** Best Achievement in Directing (Got this right)

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Got this right)

Diablo Cody for Juno (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (Got this right)

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

While I secretly hope Sarah Polley will win for Away from Her (2006) but I know the chance is bad.

**** Best Documentary, Features (Got this wrong)

Official winner:

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007): Alex Gibney, Eva Orner

Alex Gibney gave a wonderful speech (emphasis added),

“This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light.“

My pick:

No End in Sight (2007): Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs (World class research. I haven’t seend this film but I am betting my $1 it will win. Will see.)

Links: 2008-02-23 Girls vs boys online, cellphone business, 29-yr-old Obama-campaign lawyer, $500,000/yr doorman, customers’ tips, Belgrade Looting Yo

1. Girls are doing more online than boys - interesting (not too surprising?)
2. Cellphone business and its $99 problem
3. Law Blog Q&A: Obama-Campaign 29 years old staff counsel Kendall Burman - interesting insight from within a campaign
4. $500,000-a-year doormen in Vegas? - man, I am in the wrong business. (smile)
5. Love the customer who hates you
6. The Belgrade Looting YouTube video After Kosovo declaring independent - [The scary power (good/bad) of YouTube to draw attention)

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 2 (買手的故事, 第2集)

Program Introduction

My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事” to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories.

(Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect. And I hope to add the ability to subscribe to this show soon and make it a truly “podcast“.)

*******

You can click here to listen to episode 2 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

In this episode, we talk about

• The difference in handling manufacturers and dealers/distributors (處理廠家和代理的分別)
• The complexity in buying something as “simple” as screws (買螺絲並不簡單)

Oscars Picks

Instead of live blogging, I will be watching the 80th Annual Academy Awards tonight with some friends. To make things fun, I will continue to try to pick the winners like last year. Here are my partial picks for some of the winners from the list of nominations.

*******

**** Best Short Film, Animated

Madame Tutli-Putli (2007): Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski (see my blogs here and here)

**** Best Motion Picture of the Year

No Country for Old Men (2007): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Julie Christie for Away from Her (2006) (Note: In doing so, the Academy is also indirectly honouring Sarah Polley's great job in making Away from Her.)

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (2007)

**** Best Achievement in Directing

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Diablo Cody for Juno (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

While I secretly hope Sarah Polley will win for Away from Her (2006) but I know the chance is bad.

**** Best Documentary, Features

No End in Sight (2007): Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs (World class research. I haven't seend this film but I am betting my $1 it will win. Will see.)

Chat with Laurie Maher - Soul of Madame Tutli-Putli (Oscar nominated animated short)

If eyes are window to the soul, I think filmmakers/creators/fathers of Madame Tutli Putli, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, will agree with me that Laurie Maher is the soul of Madame Tutli-Putli because they share the same eyes (Laurie’s).

I have previously blogged about my love of Madame Tutli-Putli. Today, I have the great pleasure to chat with Laurie to hear her sharing some of her experiences and excitement of working the Oscar-nominated Madame Tutli-Putli.

First, here is a brief bio of Laurie,

Laurie Maher has a degree in fashion design and has worked in the fashion industry in Toronto, London and Prague. Her first film role was in the comedy short How Audley, which she co-wrote and co-directed. She also starred in the feature length film, Sleep Always, which was awarded Best Feature at the 2005 New Jersey International Film Festival.

You can listen to my audio chat with Laurie Maher in mp3 format (or you can download or stream the interview here). We talked about many things like,

• how Laurie came to the role of Madame Tutli-Putli,
• how a short term much smaller scale involvement turns into a wonderful and creative 4 years project,
• the attention to details and Laurie’s personal touch in giving a soul to Madame Tutli Putli (not only with Laurie’s eyes, but her movements, mannerisms, custom designed costumes, hat),
• how Laurie worked with filmmakers Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerebowski, and special visual effects magician Jason Walker.
• the delicate and time consuming process of creating the beautiful looking eyes of Madame Tutli-Putli (for more of Jason’s magic in adding Laurie’s eyes to the stop-motion puppet, see at Jason’s site with some really neat technical videos)
• the multiple takes to get the needed shots (sometimes as many as 25 takes) for the film,
• and many other things including Laurie’s plan for the big Oscar night tomorrow.

As I told Laurie, in my heart, they have already won the Oscar with all the beautiful and ground breaking work that have done together. Great job.

P.S. This video and article about Laurie in TorStar are not to be missed.

P.P.S. As I listened to my chat with Laurie again after the interview, I couldn’t help but noticed and realized how much dedication Laurie, Chris, Maciek, Jason and the team have put in to make this film beautiful and great. Upholding a great tradition of wonderful NFB films (special hat tip to NFB producer Marcy Page).

I am inspired by Laurie when she talked about the detailed preparation she went in to prepare for the original assignment, a short project, which turned into a 4 year collaboration and an Oscar-nominated film. I think many artists and entrepreneurs can learn a lesson here as one never knows if a “small project” may become a “Oscar-nominated” piece of work.

Good luck to the team. I hope you win and bring a golden boy home.

Laurie, thanks again for a wonderful chat today.

P.P.P.S. Here is the Madame Tutli Putli trailer,

Fran Allen - first female Turing Award winner

Quoting her Wikipedia entry,

Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen (born 1932) is an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Her achievements include seminal work in compilers, code optimization, and parallelization. She was the first female IBM Fellow. In 2006, she became the first female to win the Turing Award.

Here is a link to her 2006 Turing Award Lecture (streaming .mov file) which I quite enjoy.

Copyright Lesson: Jim Prentice and Conservative Party entangled “For the Love of Money”

From the front page of Ottawa Citizen today (emphasis added),

As the Harper government prepares to introduce tougher new copyright rules, the Conservative party is being accused of using the theme song ["For the Love of Money"] from the reality TV show The Apprentice without permission of the record company that owns it.

At a press conference on Sunday, the Conservatives presented an election-style attack video about the alleged costs of Stéphane Dion's spending promises, set to the musical refrain of "money, money, money, money, mo-ney."

The Harper government and Minister Jim Prentice, who is the minister in charge of Copyright reform, should really know better than to use a copyrighted song without proper permission in a public performance that they know will be broadcasted and not just a private small function.

[via Michael Geist]

Disk encryption not so safe - New results from Princeton

Quoting from the Princeton research site,

Abstract Contrary to popular assumption, DRAMs used in most modern computers retain their contents for seconds to minutes after power is lost, even at operating temperatures and even if removed from a motherboard. Although DRAMs become less reliable when they are not refreshed, they are not immediately erased, and their contents persist sufficiently for malicious (or forensic) acquisition of usable full-system memory images. We show that this phenomenon limits the ability of an operating system to protect cryptographic key material from an attacker with physical access. We use cold reboots to mount attacks on popular disk encryption systems — BitLocker, FileVault, dm-crypt, and TrueCrypt — using no special devices or materials. (K: This is a general hardware issue with the DRAM chip that is not going to be easy to solve, I think.)

[via Boing Boing]

Self-healing rubber not afraid of cut

From BBC (with video),

A material that is able to self-repair even when it is sliced in two has been invented by French researchers.

The as-yet-unnamed material - a form of artificial rubber - is made from vegetable oil and a component of urine.

The substance, described in the journal Nature, produces surfaces when cut that retain a strong chemical attraction to each other.

Pieces of the material join together again as if never parted without the need for glue or a special treatment.

[via Boing Boing]

In Love with Madame Tutli Putli

National Film Board of Canada has 12 Oscars and 70 nominations over the years. And in the last 4 years alone, there were 4 Oscar nominations and 2 wins! See my previous blog entry about the Oscars winning Ryan and The Danish Poet.

For 2008, I am in love with Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski's Madame Tutli Putli (their site has interviews, trailer, photos, and even a good part of the movie). The eyes of Madame Tutli Putli were just spectacular and beautiful thanks for the wonderful special effects work by Jason Walker (read this article for special effects) and the beautiful eyes of Laurie Maher (see a video and an article in TorStar).

If eyes are window to the soul, I think Laurie has given a beautiful soul to Madame Tutli Putli.

Wishing Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski, their team, and NFB the best of luck this Sunday at the Oscars.

Here is the official trailer. And here is the movie in two parts unofficially (part 1 and part 2).

Links: 2008-02-21 Free Speech, US Mail Surveillance, Privacy, Games for Windows?, Google Video Ads, Emerging Tech 2008

1. In Free Speech Flap, Calif. Judge Orders Web Site to Shutter
2. U.S. Post Office to Enable Wholesale Surveillance of Mail - Hmm, not good
3. Canadian Privacy Commissioner's Power and Privilege
   
4. "Games for Windows?"
5. AdSense for video now in beta - Interesting Google Video Advertising Solutions
6. MIT Technology Review Emerging Technologies 2008

Michael Geist Won 2008 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award

Congratulations to Michael Geist for being named one of the recipients of the 2008 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Awards.

[via Michael]

Total Lunar Eclipse With a Smile

I see two big round eyes, a nose, with a smile. Do you? (big smile) See more of my lunar eclipse pictures here.

See a beautiful picture of the full lunar eclipse passing the Calgary Tower in this National Post article. Here is a set of beautiful eclipse pictures from this Toronto Star article. Here is a link to some NASA info on this Total Lunar Eclipse.

The Last Lecture - read it in April

After watching and felt deeply touched by Prof. Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, I check up on Randy’s site once in a while to see how is he doing and happy to see him well at his last update (Feb 15, 2008) jokingly holding up a copy of the New York Times.

I noticed that his book is done and will be published by Hyperion in early April. Read it. I know I will.

Links: 2008-02-20 Olay Ad, Review Business Method Patents, Supreme Court, US NBER, Travel Wishes

1. Olay Ad - very creative
2. US Fed. Circuit to Review Business Method Patents - good step
3. Should Canadian Supreme Court Justices get along?
4. A Changing of the Guard at the National Bureau of Economic Research
5. 20 Travel Wishes for 2008

Mike Dillon, General Counsel of Sun Microsystems, at Kempton’s Virtual Cafe

I’ve been a regular reader of Mike Dillon’s blog “The Legal Thing” since it was launched on Aug 9, 2006. Mike, a lawyer with over 20 years experiences and Sun Microsystems‘ General Counsel, has been very generous in sharing his insights and wisdom. It was my great pleasure to chat with Mike about ideas he talked about in his blog and follow up with him on a few topics raised.

You can listen to my audio chat with Mike in mp3 format (or you can download or stream the interview here). The following are the time codes with topics, including links to the related blog entries.

00:00 - 04:54 : Welcome Mike to Kempton’s Virtual Cafe and talking about Reebok Rules and Mike’s experience of being an in-house lawyer. Mike talks about writing his own updated set of rules to include new requirements from acts like SOX.

1. This should be interesting - Mike’s first blog entry. Joining 3,000 of fellow employees at Sun and their CEO to blog. Mike also explained how he got the name of his blog from the “Reebok Rules” (PDF file).
2. Thanks, ACC - This is where Mike first linked to the wonderful “Reebok Rules” for in-house counsel. Now, I think we all have something to learn from these rules even you may not be a lawyer. You may be pleasantly surprised. Reebok Rule #15 is — Do “The Legal Thing” (see page 8 of the PDF file).

04:54 - 07:25 : Not having an office and its impact. And the tools Mike uses (including SunRay and his Treo 680).

1. Where do you work? - A few more benefits are discussed here.

07:25 - 10:54 : The work to simplify contracts at Sun.

1. Mr. Edison’s Lawyer - Check out the cool Sun Grid as well.
2. Contracts with Clarity - Check out the difference between the old contract and the new and simplified one.

10:54 - 17:51 : On patents and patent trolls. And taking internal intellectual property and open sourcing it.

1. The “Tax” On Innovation
2. On Litigation … (AZUL)
3. The NetApp Litigation
4. The NetApp Litigation (Continued)

17:51 - 20:24: About Regulation Fair Disclosure and the ground breaking blog and comment exchange between Chairman Cox and Sun CEO Jonathan.

1. Reg FD - Setting some cool example.
2. Sunlight on a Cloudy Day - Cool, a blog comment from SEC Chairman Cox.
3. Free Virtualization, and Sun’s Q2 Results - Check out the bonus at the end of the “Safe Harbor Statement”. (smile)

20:24 - 24:52 : Building and evaluating leaders. Giving and sharing.

1. Building Leaders
2. Planting seeds during the holidays - Mike talks about teaching his children the idea of giving and sharing.
3. Kiva Update - an update on the “Planting seeds” entry

24:52 - 26:44 : Sun’s Project Blackbox (modular data center). About the Google patent on similar idea.

1. During the next “big one” - has a really cool YouTube video about Sun’s Blackbox (modular data center)

26:44 - 28:51 : About Sun’s diversified workforce and “Day in the Life” videos of employees around the world. I asked Mike to see if Sun will consider posting and sharing these videos which I think are very informative presentation.

1. Working to be unnoticed

28:51 - 33:13 : The issues and benefits of allowing comments in blogs. Other companies’ request of Sun’s help with respect to blogging policies, work environment, and flexible working arrangement.

1. A Nice Decision for Bloggers - good to know it is safe to have comments (at least in California (smile))
2. FYI: Here is my entry and unsuccessful effort to help CBC. “CBC Blogging guidelines“

33:13 - 34:47 : Creating online contents under licenses like Creative Commons.

1. Have a question about licenses - ask your teenager

34:47 - 36:03 : Sun’s involvement in the Peer to Patent project

1. A Different “P2P”

36:03 - End : Mike’s experiences in blogging so far and how will he blogs in the future.

Ideas worth spreading

Forget these things about TED,

1. It has long been sold out even at US$6,000 for 4 days - Feb 27 - March 1st, 2008
2. TED is known to try to address big questions like: Who are we? How can we change the world? How dare we be optimistic? ...
3. Great place to meet new people and some of these are bound to be interesting.

Unless you are amongst the lucky ones to be attending TED 2008, I recommend you browse the many free TED videos and have some fun with them. I have blogged about and linked to some of the videos. You will likely be pleasantly surprised by many of them.

Here is TED's Chris Anderson on Charlie Rose last night.

Wear Sunscreen!

Wear Sunscreen! - advice from an old man

[hat tip: Angela]

Links: 2008-02-17 Keays v. Honda, Luke Arm, CBC, Olympics athlete blogs, Internet domain tasting

1. Supreme Court of Canada to Hear Keays v. Honda Canada Inc.
2. Dean Kamen’s “Luke Arm” Prosthesis Readies for Clinical Trials (with video) [via TED]
3. A new hope? - from CBC anonymous blogger Ouimet - nice intentional (?) reference to this. (smile)
4. Beijing Olympics athletes allowed to blogged - BBC - I’ve no idea that the IOC are into the business of censorship or deciding what can be published or not.
5. No More Tasting: It’s a Bad Year To Be a Internet Domain Name Registrar

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 1 (買手的故事, 第1集)

Program Introduction

My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事” to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories.

(Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect. And I hope to add the ability to subscribe to this show soon and make it a truly “podcast“.)

*******

You can click here to listen to episode 1 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

In this episode, we talk about

• Getting to know Simon (買手自白)
• Purchasing from Hong Kong to China (採購由香港轉到國內)
• Assistant purchaser acquiring basic skills (助理採購員學基本功)
• Learning English - parts names, financial terms, etc (在職學英語)

Getting Married at Good Earth

Yesterday at around 4pm, a group of us volunteers were having a rather serious meeting to talk about details of bringing the Darfur/Darfur multimedia project to Calgary at the Good Earth Café on 11 St. SW and 15 Ave. SW (pictured above). And then to the pleasant surprise of us and everyone else in the café, a charming bride in a beautiful wedding dress (an A-Line style dress?) walked in with her bridesmaids, groom, and groomsmen.

The beautifully charming bride and the group must have stayed for at least 5-10 minutes taking pictures and ordering coffees and snacks before they left. Sorry my fellow volunteers, I was paying way too much attention on what the bride was doing and was paying less attention to what you were saying (I did take notes (smile)).

I so much wish I had my good camera and snapped a few unobtrusive pictures to share with you here. The scene was charming, very happy and warm.

To the happy married couple, I wish you all the happiness in the world for many many years to come. I will treasure the beautiful pictures of you both in my mind.

To couples that are getting married in the future, may I suggest you visit some favourite hangouts of yours (coffee shops, restaurants, etc) and take a few pictures in full wedding dresses and tuxes. That should be fun and memorable for you and everyone that saw you. (smile)

Again, my best and warmest wishes to the married couple I met yesterday at Good Earth.

Banker David Li Resigns From HK Cabinet over Dow Jones Insider Trading case

I suggested in a previous blog entry that Mr. David Li, after paying the SEC millions of dollars to settle an insider trading case, should do the honourable thing and resign from both the Executive Council and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. I am happy to report Mr. Li has finally resigned from the Executive Council of HK,

1. David Li Resigns From Hong Kong Cabinet - WSJ
2. Hong Kong Banker David Li Quits City’s Cabinet After SEC Payout - Bloomberg
3. Tycoon resigns from Hong Kong cabinet after US insider-trading probe - AFP
4. Banker resigns from Hong Kong cabinet over insider trading case - IHT

Now, I hope Mr. Li will do the next honourable thing and resign from the Legislative Council as well.

Links: 2008-02-15 Leaving Yahoo, Creative Commons, Reverse syndication, Murdoch vs Zell, Panasonic AG-MHC150, Law firm wikis, laptop suit

1. On Leaving Yahoo ... by former VP of ADD (Advanced Development Division of Yahoo)
2. Australia may give go-ahead for Creative Commons on public data
3. Reverse syndication - with newspapers losing money and laying off people, may be it is unavoidable that we will read the same story by the same reporter even if we thought we are reading multiple newspapers for wider perspectives on things
4. Mogul Showdown: Murdoch vs. Zell - I was going to write a critical piece about Murdoch, WSJ, and Fox Business News after reading Fortune's "Inside Fox Business News" but I've now changed my mind. I think it is wiser for me to wait and spend more time watching what Murdoch does with WSJ before I make any semi-intelligent observations. And here is a good linking piece "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Rupert Murdoch ["rotten old bastard"]" from Slate.
5. Panasonic AG-MHC150 pro-level HD camcorders
6. Do Wikis belong in Law Firms?
7. The Great American ... Laptop Suit?
   

Rule of Law & Linda Keen, former nuclear watchdog

“By this application for judicial review, Ms. Keen is asking the Federal Court to declare that she was unlawfully removed as president and that the November 2005 Order in Council, which reappointed her as president, remains in full force and effect,” said Ottawa lawyer Allan O’Brien. - TorStar

The unjust firing of Ms. Linda Keen, former nuclear watchdog, needs to be overturned by the Federal court if we are a society that respects the basic tenet of rule of law. Ms. Keen was doing her job as a watchdog of nuclear safety in Canada and she has the international reputations and credentials of Canadian nuclear safety to uphold.

Here are some news of Ms. Keen’s appeal to Federal court,

1. Fired watchdog appeals to court - TorStar
2. Fired Canadian nuclear chief sues - UPI
3. Fired nuclear watchdog boss wants judicial review - CTV
4. Former nuclear watchdog asks court to review firing - CBC

Christine Cheung - Portrait of a young painter

Christine Cheung is a young Canadian painter that I’ve the pleasure to meet and get to know recently. Once I’ve seen a few of her abstract paintings, I know I have to try to interview and chat with her to understand more about abstract paintings because, honestly, sometimes abstract paintings can be intimidating and even down right confusing to the uninitiated. So recently, I spent six hours talking to Christine, taking pictures, filming Christine talking about her paintings, and even filming her paint.

You can take a look at some of Christine’s paintings at her blog. Or check out a slidesshow of pictures I took of Christine and her paintings.

Here is a video of Christine talking about how her earlier prints affect her later paintings.

Here is a video of Christine talking about her self-portrait.

In the following two videos, Christine talks about her thinking process when she paints, and then she shows us how she paints.

Here is a video of Christine talking about about her latest painting “Spillage (Montreal-Calgary)“

Click here to see all eleven videos of Christine (including the above videos). Take a look of the slidesshow of pictures I took of Christine and her paintings.

Christine, thank you so much for your participation in helping my understanding of abstract painting a bit more. It is incredibly generous of you to show us how you paint right in front of the camera and the talk of your techniques.

Thanks Christine.