kevin’s swimming class
kevin has completed the level 1 swimming class and is now attending level 2 class. he is doing great. he is still not able to swim by himself but that day may come anytime. he has all the skills to do that but he has never swim by himself before so it may take a bit longer, just like a baby walk, the first step is always the hardest.
msft a happy ride today
microsoft’s earning report is not at all good for this quarter. down 6% revenu, net income of $2.98 billion was down 32%… but msft is up >10% today, a rare jump for a long time. i feel sometimes it is hard to interpret what’s going on on wallstreet. but i am long at msft, the windows 7, the cost reduction. borrow a saying from the famous bizzar food host “if it looks good, eat it”, i say, if it looks good, keep it:)
Susan Boyle @ British Got Talent
It sounds like a disney sensation but it happens in real life. Susan boyle, the 47 years old lady rocked the judges and audiences at British got talent show and it was an “overnight sensation”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
this video clip has been viewed 41,335,790 times as of today, it is simply amazing.
some take away from this:
– if you got talent, it will shine one way or another
– it may not seem like this, but you are eventually judged by your talent not by your look
– make your weapon sharp and wait for the right opportunity
– everyone are equal in front of opportunity
– remain humble
– keep a positive view on things
– relax, life is beautiful if you think it is
the new microsoft search portal kumo
microsoft has been very successful playing the catch up game previously, from office suite, visual studio development IDE, to winning the browser war with netscape, and up coming xbox game sectors, but this has not yet happened in the search portal. although microsoft spent tons of dollars on search, the performance is by far disappointing.
although money still talks, but you really win by providing the best service or experience to your end users. this was true for office and visual studio, they catch the competitors and eventually beat them by quality. this can not be said on search experiences though. I admit using google whenever i need find something online, chances i usually find what i want in no time. i would love to use live search if it provides better results (or even comparable results). i see lots of investment in the search group and i would hope the same catch-and-pass game would come true to search.
had a chance to try out the latest microsoft search brand kumo, feel it has many details that the search portal put together. the map search has definately improved, so are the user experiences, etc. Another cool thing about kumo is the mouse over feature, it retrieves the content from the result page so you can view it without leaving the search page, as well as other topics on that page.
张雨生-一天到晚游泳的鱼
gold of the desert kings training – lessons learned (3)
The fun game of desert kings gives us some great lessons what we can apply to our daily work and life:
- there are many factors in life that would try to take control of me. Try to be active and take good control of these enviromental factors and not let them control you:
- deadline
- competition
- peer pressure
- desire to achieve
- fear of failure
- fear of unknown
- inexperience
- frustration
- information overload
- do not fear unknowns, find a way to make it known
- take time to make a solid plan before taking action. decisions make up front have the greatest impact on productivity
- find all the facts before making decision. decisions may seem good but if they are made based on bad or false info, they are bad decisions and will certainly cost. so stay calm, be patient, dont rush to decisions
- speck to the “old man”: every field you will find the old man who represents the past knowledget, who are the knowledge as stackholder. those old man could be:
- customers
- co-workers
- leadership
- competitors
- reports
- library
- value your resources. especially, time, info, people
- do not plan for the sake of planning, plan for productivity (in this game, the productivity is time in the mountain, not time in the desert)
- there is a big difference between playing to win and playing not to lose – maximize your chance to win and dont compromise on situation
- measure every decision based on the impact it has on the desired outcome.
- consensus, if unfocused, will lead to compromise and mediocrity. sometimes you should step up and make tough decisions, even they are not popular
- make sure your goals are:
- specific
- attainable
- measurable
- agreed upon
this is a very good team building and goal setting training that i highly recommend
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scientific fair at kevin’s chellenger school
yesterday I went with kevin to his school’s
gold of the desert kings training (2)
the training begins with a fun game. there are 3 colleagues in my team: Brett, mike and me. the game is something like this:
every team starts from the home base and will spend max 25 days to the gold mine and return safely. everything in the home base is free. but going into the desert will need water and food to survive.
there are villege in the desert. you can buy extra food or water at the villege, but cash only. there is also dival tome that usually has very bad weather. there is oasis that usually has clear weather and free water. the most other places you will stay is desert.
further, water is $25/jug at home base, and $50/jug at village, and each jug weighs 50lbs. food is $10/basket at home base
quote from movie “catch me if you can”
a good movie based on a true story, one of the (not many) film i enjoyed watching. i particularity like some of the memorable quotes from the movie:
Carl Hanratty: Well, would you like to hear me tell a joke?
Earl Amdursky: Yeah. Yeah, we’d love to hear a joke from you.
Carl Hanratty: Knock knock.
Earl Amdursky: Who’s there?
Carl Hanratty: Go fuck yourselves.
– ———————————-
Frank Abagnale Sr.: Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.
————————————
Frank Abagnale Sr.: You know why the Yankees always win, Frank?
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: ‘Cause they have Mickey Mantle?
Frank Abagnale Sr.: No, it’s ’cause the other teams can’t stop staring at those damn pinstripes.
————————————
Frank Abagnale Sr.: She’s so stubborn, your mother – Don’t worry I won’t let her go without a fight. – I’ve been fighting for her since the day we met.
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: Dad, out of all those men – You were the one who took her home, remember that.
Frank Abagnale Sr.: Two hundred men sitting in that tiny social hall watching her dance. What was the name of that town?
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: Montrichard, dad.
Frank Abagnale Sr.: I didn’t speak a word
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Yossarian: Let me see if I’ve got this straight: in order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy any more and I have to keep flying.
————————————
Paula Abagnale: Just tell me how much he owes and I’ll pay you back.
Carl Hanratty: So far, it’s about 1.3 million dollars.