午睡时做的梦

今天帮人搬家，回家来累得要死，破例午睡。
做了一个很怪的梦。

梦里我帮人顶班开公共汽车,但是开着开着就迷路了。这时候想起下午还有一个婚礼要拍。于是更加着急。这时候突然发现我要拍的couple正坐在我开的公共汽车上。狂faint。
他们看着窗外，说,"怎么到这里了？"
我正在使劲找High Way入口，就突然醒了，还是惊魂未定。

出门跑了一圈步，才算缓过来。

现在写的时候回想一下，这个梦是我上次拍婚礼途中回家迷路的写照，也许跟我n年前看的<生死时速二>也有点关系。

Google is a Media company

The boundary of distribution and creating of content is blurred.
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why marry or what is the secrete that holds a successful marriage

The other day some one asked this question and I think it's worthwhile to touch on this subject a bit.
Having seen so many marriages (literally, I witnessed many weddings), here is my 2 cents on this $25,000 question.

First, I want to distinguish physical attraction from the kind of emotion that leads people into marriage. Because they may happen to the same person, but one does not necessarily result in the other. A full moon in mid-summer night is enough for some physical attraction, but not quite there for a marriage proposal.

Secondly I believe marriage is an institution for children. Marriage is for the children, period. In essence, children are the ultimate goal of creating this thing called marriage. It holds true through out the entire history of human kind. 100 years from now, your children are the only evidence left on earth that you have existed.

So what if a couple don't (can't) have children? There are couples that manage to hold together without a child. I would put that kind of marriage in the 2nd category called "synergy". This is when the two parties share the same career goal, and the union of one plus one becomes larger than two. In that case, they become partners in life and WORK. And their mutual career essentially replace the position of their unborn child.

Any other relationship is bound to fail, sooner or later. Some of them manage to hold the outer shape intact, but they are like a journey without a soul, which is getting nowhere. Sorry, if I happen to have broken this piece of harsh truth to some of the folks who happen to fall into this category.


Well, that's all I know about marriage, so far.

A poem for eclipse

When java splash out of its mug,
when bug screw up thy release,
no use praying to the Moon.
Pray for eclipse,
which reverses all the deeds
as if thou never sin.

Posing is everything

近来临时抱佛脚，研究posing technique. 发现这还真是门大学问。
这里罗列一个最简单的tip, 如何让男生显得英武矫健，女生显得温柔苗条。
头部的角度
tilt: 男生tilt away from the camera, 女生tilt towards the camera，
pan: 肩膀左或右侧30度, 脸左或右侧15度（以能看到远处的耳朵的边沿为限）

躯干与光源的角度(45度背向光源比较瘦)，
躯干和臀部的角度（30度可以出S型），

手（男生要挺直支撑，或者半握拳； 女生要arm & hand 成半圆形引导视线到脸部）


当然最重要的是communication.如果不能引导subject自然的pose, 再好的technique也没用。

Just saw this from a stock photo website

8. What about properties, landmarks and logos?















       

An image of a property/landmark/logo may require a signed property















release if it is to be used for commercial purposes.















         
For example a picture of an















identifiable house would require a signed release from the owner. If in















doubt, remove all identifiable logos and trademarks from your images if















you plan on selling them for commercial purposes. However, please be















careful when submitting images with buildings that have patented some















technology or design. An image with Eiffel Tower in the morning can be















used for stock purposes but the same image at night with the lights on















are trademarked and may not be sold as the design of lights are















copyrighted.

quote of the day

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."
-- Oscar Wilde.


"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

--Mark Twain

TED 2007

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活在自己的气泡里

 

无数的“内容”提供者，你可以选择只看到那些内容，而那些“内容”构成了你认为的现实。所以如果你是一个不相信进化论和全球变暖的人，你可以找到足够的证据，坚定的继续自己的观点。

 

想到这些，是因为今天看到一张讲黑人工会的DVD, 电影放了5分钟，我决定换碟，“黑人与我无关。”

就在我的手指将要按下遥控器按钮的时候，我决定尝试看看自己的气泡外面的世界，黑人是怎样的想法。他们为什么要使用暴力，他们到底相信什么？他们的rap音乐怎样的改变了他们思维方式。他们为之斗争的权利，到底是什么？

幸运的是，这部电影没有让我失望。它解答了我的许多疑问。

它也许会让你失望，取决于你想看到的事实是怎样的。

说这么多，就是想说，仅仅活在自己建立的气泡里，永远不会有人挑战你的信仰，这很方便，但未必是件好事。当有机会看到不符合你原来想法的影像时，不要急着关机。

 

在一个媒体影响力越来越大的时代，任何信息都可以被精心包装成越来越有效的brain wash.
你能选择的，只是用那种水来洗。

How to hide yourself from competition

Jack Welch's book talk about how he started in GE by going to plastic division (the niche market that most people ignored) and then GE finance.

It's in those cold corners that your efforts can become visible, in the form of growth.

Guykawasaki: How to Get a Standing Ovation

I tried my best, but I can't resist borrowing this blog from Guy Kawasaki. I believe it will help your next public speech.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

When I started public speaking in about 1986, I was deathly afraid
of public speaking--for one thing, working for the division run by
Steve Jobs was hugely intimidating: How could you possibly compete with
Steve? It's taken me twenty years to get comfortable at it. I hope that
many of you are are called upon to give speeches--it's the closest
thing to being a professional athlete that many of us will achieve. The
purpose of this blog entry is to help you give great speeches.

1. Have something interesting to say. This
   is 80% of the battle. If you have something interesting to say, then
   it's much easier to give a great speech. If you have nothing to say,
   you should not speak. End of discussion. It's better to decline the
   opportunity so that no one knows you don't have anything to say than it
   is to make the speech and prove it.
2. Cut the sales pitch.
   The purpose of most keynotes is to entertain and inform the audience.
   It is seldom to provide you with an opportunity to pitch your product,
   service, or company. For example, if you're invited to speak about the
   future of digital music, you shouldn't talk about the latest MP3 player
   that your company is selling.
3. Focus on entertaining.
   Many speech coaches will disagree with this, but the goal of a speech
   is to entertain the audience. If people are entertained, you can slip
   in a few nuggets of information. But if your speech is deathly dull, no
   amount of information will make it a great speech. If I had to pick
   between entertaining and informing an audience, I would pick
   entertaining--knowing that informing will probably happen too.
4. Understand the audience.
   If you can prove to your audience in the first five minutes that you
   understand who they are, you've got them for the rest of the speech.
   All you need to understand is the trends, competition, and key issues
   that the audience faces. This simply requires consultation with the
   host organization and a willingness to customize your introductory
   remarks. This ain't that hard.
5. Overdress.
   My father was a politician in Hawaii. He was a very good speaker. When
   I started speaking he gave me a piece of advice: Never dress beneath
   the level of the audience. That is, if they're wearing suits, then you
   should wear a suit. To underdress is to communicate the following
   message: “I'm smarter/richer/more powerful than you. I can insult you
   and not take you serious, and there's nothing you can do about it.”
   This is hardly the way to get an audience to like you.
6. Don't denigrate the competition.
   If you truly do cut the sales pitch, then this won't even come up. But
   just in case, never denigrate the competition because by doing so, you
   are taking undue advantage of the privilege of giving a speech. You're
   not doing the audience a favor. The audience is doing you a favor, so
   do not stoop so low as to use this opportunity to slander your
   competition.
7. Tell stories. The best way
   to relax when giving a speech is to tell stories. Any stories. Stories
   about your youth. Stories about your kids. Stories about your
   customers. Stories about things that you read about. When you tell a
   story, you lose yourself in the storytelling. You're not “making a
   speech” anymore. You're simply having a conversation. Good speakers are
   good storytellers; great speakers tell stories that support their
   message.
8. Pre-circulate with the audience.
   True or false: the audience wants your speech to go well. The answer is
   True. Audiences don't want to see you fail--for one thing, why would
   people want to waste their time listening to you fail? And here's the
   way to heighten your audience's concern for you: circulate with the
   audience before the speech. Meet people. Talk to them. Let them make
   contact with you. Especially the ones in the first few rows; then, when
   you're on the podium, you'll see these friendly faces. Your confidence
   will soar. You will relax. And you will be great.
9. Speak at the start of an event.
   If you have the choice, get in the beginning part of the agenda. The
   audience is fresher then. They're more apt to listen to you, laugh at
   your jokes, and follow along with your stories. On the third day of a
   three-day conference, the audience is tired, and all they're thinking
   about is going home. It's hard enough to give a great speech--why
   increase the challenge by having to lift the audience out of the
   doldrums?
10. Ask for a small room. If you
    have a choice, get the smallest room possible for your speech. If it's
    a large room, ask that it be set “classroom style”--ie, with tables and
    chairs--instead of theatre style. A packed room is a more emotional
    room. It is better to have 200 people in a 200 person room than 500
    people in a 1,000 person room. You want people to remember, “It was
    standing room only.”
11. Practice and speak all the time.
    This is a “duhism,” but nonetheless relevant. My theory is that it
    takes giving a speech at least twenty times to get decent at it. You
    can give it nineteen times to your dog if you like, but it takes
    practice and repetition. There is no shortcut to Carnegie Hall. As
    Jascha Heifitz said, “If I don't practice one day, I know it. If I
    don't practice two days, my critics know it. If I don't practice three
    days, everyone knows it.” Read this article to learn what Steve Jobs does.

It's taken me twenty years to get to this point. I hope it takes you
less. Part of the reason why it took me so long is that no one
explained the art of giving a speech to me, and I was too dumb to do
the research. And now, twenty years later, I love speaking. My goal,
every time I get up to the podium, is to get a standing ovation. I
don't succeed very often, but sometimes I do. More importantly, I hope
that I'm standing and clapping in the audience of your speech soon.

the silicon valley eco-system

Seth is the founder and CEO of meebo.com He posted the following blog on meebo


seth posted this on June 05, 2007

From
time to time, someone will call or write about turning one of their
ideas into a startup. It's always really fun to chat with folks like
this... you get to hear some pretty nifty ideas, see what folks think
are emerging areas, and just get to know someone new. One question that
always comes up in these conversations is "do I need to be in Silicon
Valley?"

Tough question, but my answer's very consistent: "Nope, but it sure does help."

Before I moved out to California, people used to tell me that Silicon Valley had an entire eco-system built around startups.

I just didn't get it.

What,
in a tangible way, does that mean to me as someone who is trying to
start a business? Having experienced meebo for the last year and a
half... I finally get it.

First, the people. Silicon Valley is
brimming with people who have deep expertise in technology and
startups. Some may become members of your startup, others may advise
you so that you don't make the same mistakes they did when they first
started out. These same people are likely to have worked in startups
before, and thus they understand the unique constraints and culture of
a startup.

Second, the innovation machines. Stanford
University, The University of California at Berkeley and local
companies are full of new technology and ideas. They also happen to
attract and aggregate the people I mentioned above, who then team up to
work on turning those technologies or ideas into a business.

Third,
the service provider industry. In the Valley you have an entire
industry built around helping startups with their essential needs.
Lawyers in Silicon Valley will often defer your first set of legal
payments until you've raised a Series A venture round of financing.
Real estate agents who, typically, would have no interest in helping
people find a 3,000 square foot office (the commission is just too low
to justify the time) help you in the hope that one day your tiny
startup will become a big startup that needs 100,000 square feet of
space. Oh, and even the landlords are in on the game... they'll enter
into a lease with a company that has no operating history with only 1
month's security deposit... try getting that done in New York!

How
about getting those finances done? Every receipt has to be logged in
Quicken and your forecast presented to your Board. Hence, firms like
Horn Murdock Cole help you get your finances, book-keeping, and human
resources documentation straight. Need help hiring? Dozens of
recruiters who specialize in recruiting technical and managerial talent
for startups are just a phone call away. The support network is simply
amazing.

Fourth, funding your business. Once you've gone about
building an initial team and have launched a product that folks are
hopefully finding useful, you might need additional funds to help scale
the business. That's where one of the numerous VCs, most of them in the
hills just west of Stanford's campus on Sand Hill Road, can help.

A
lot of this stuff is available elsewhere. If you're connected into the
startup fabric of most any city, from Boston to New York to Seattle,
you're likely to find much of the same. But if you're a first time
entrepreneur and need some guidance and a support structure along the
way, it's tough to imagine a more supportive place for building a
company than Silicon Valley.

Seth


And here are some comments:

1. 
   Manish Baphna Says:
   
   June 6th, 2007 at 6:26 am
   

   Nice
   article..you are correct that Bay area Eco system is some thing which
   could be advantageous for new startups . But I feel it also depends on
   what kinda of work you are starting and what are your needs and
   supports. For example I am in INDIA and tryng to start a company , but
   I won’t start in Bangalore unless I have too fundu idea and great money
   support. I would prefer to do that in some 2nd level decent city though
   Bangalore is No1 in India for these fields. Its very difficult to
   retain talent in cities like Bay Area / Bangalore ..specially in tough
   times….due to multiple options floating around.

2. 
   Gavin Quinn Says:
   
   June 6th, 2007 at 6:54 am
   

   I
   think you have some great points in there. I am working on a startup of
   mine with four other great people in Minneapolis, MN. We’re looking for
   funding, and we’ve brought in a broker more or less to help us find it.
   However, many VC’s that we’ve contacted reject up-front anyone who is
   not from the west coast. I think some costs may be less in the Midwest
   however, so maybe its a wash. (Real estate, salaries, etc.)

3. 
   Dele Says:
   
   June 6th, 2007 at 7:54 am
   

   it’s
   really nice having so much support as this in the Valley, but come down
   to it: apart from the many expertise around and the “feel,” in terms of
   the revenue and the intense cost of living in Silicon Valley, many
   low-end start-up may find it difficult to survive.
   

   What about start-up somewhere else then moving to get really
   established in SV? I actually thinking of making up my start-up from my
   base in Boston.

4. 
   Gouri Shakar Says:
   
   June 7th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
   

   Hi Seth,
   A nice Informative article and thanx for sharing it,Its true and I
   agree with you at some point of time all startups need a additional
   funding to move ahead and apart from that there are many things that
   goes into it like what SCOTT says but Its good to hear that valley has
   many ppl to support startup these kind.
   

   I also agree with what jonclassmedia, Manish Baphna, Scott, Gavin
   Quinn have said and its true ,I have a small startup in here India http://www.iysys.tk/
   whose members a across globe and we also faced most of the problems u
   mentioned and I wouldn’t not start a venture in a city like banglore
   (one of IT hub of INDIA) unless I have a strong idea or a financial
   backup
   

   Keep sharing your Experience and thought and thanx for the above ,
   

   Gouri Shankar
   
   

Hatchery: that's my playground

A monthly money event in New York City matches dot-com dreamers with
venture capitalists. The catch is would-be entrepreneurs have only five
minutes to seal the deal.

For anybody who's ever thought they could come up with the next
Yahoo or Google, that was the easy part. All you need to do now is come
up with a couple of million dollars.

Enter The Hatchery. It's a monthly money event in New
York City that matches dot-com dreamers with venture capitalists.
There's one tonight featuring a panel of female VC's and some other
experts. The catch is, would-be entrepreneurs only have five minutes to
seal the deal.
"
how do you get someone to pull out their checkbook?

Josh Grottstein: Tell me about the market. What is your unique solution and why should I believe that you're uniquely capable of doing this?

Venture capitalist Josh Grottstein sees as many as 1,000 plans a year, but only ends up funding five or six.

VCs have a one-track mind. What they want to hear isn't so much
about the product, it's about how to get around the obstacles,
marketing, competition.

Grottstein: One of the
biggest concerns you have is when someone says there is no competition,
or we're not worried about the competition. Because that tends to
signal that they're not that savvy in terms of starting a business.

Yidrienne Lai gives big money to companies in later stages of development. She says an experienced management team is key.

Yidrienne Lai: You know you'd
much rather invest in an A+ management team with a B business then
something the other way round. You know, sort of an A business with a
B+ management team.

Even if you have the dream team and the dream five-minute pitch, what are your chances of getting a check?

Jason Olim: No chance.

Jason Olim is an early Internet entrepreneur who's been on both sides of the pitch.

Olim: Probably takes 60 to 90
days before a company gets bankrolled. But that five-minute pitch is .
. . can be how the introduction is made in the first place.

And that introduction is critical. Because after the bubble burst in
the '90s, venture capital investment went from a hundred billion a year
to a fraction of that. It's slowly coming back. The National
Association of Venture Capitalists says last year VCs gave $26 billion
to young companies. That's almost half as much as Bill Gates is worth.

Olim: It's definitely getting easier now.

But to the person pitching, that's not how it feels.

Seth Gilmore:

Seth Gilmore: I definitely
don't think that timer was five minutes though. I think it was much
shorter then that, because I timed myself in the bathroom and it was
always like four minutes and 30 seconds.

"

今天

今天我给Julian介绍女友，他说现阶段不考虑，因为找人一起奋斗太辛苦。
以后如果真得要找，也要等到他奋斗成功，或者那个女生奋斗成功（我想这后一种情况几率跟中mega million lottery 差不多吧)。

今天下雨，走在路上，想到一个老笑话，大意是说一个傻瓜认为下雨的时候没有必要跑，因为前面还是下雨。
我觉得那人不傻啊，为什么明知无法逃避，还要跑呢？

今天听到希拉里传记的作者interview, 讲到她always trying to be a different from the traditional politicians, but ended up being more and more like a traditional politician. 连犀利如希拉里，也只能从众，可见人是不可以特立独行的。

interview里不可避免的说道Clinton。作者说He is THE political genius of this century。
很同意!

昨天看了Clinton给希拉里在NY做的fund raising, 对伊战是否是美国的失败，他的回答是，"如果我们把胜利定义为阻止伊拉克内战，那么美国胜利的希望很小。" 然后他还分析了撤军的必然性。

如果他还能连任，美国就有希望了。

拍wedding

这活儿真是够累的。怪不得jay说不要再干了。

还要跟一伙拿着DC的小朋友抢角度，真是很跌份。

忍了吧。无论做什么，都是做忍者神龟。

应读者要求

俺决定减少转贴，增加原创。虽然转贴其实对读者更有用，写得也更好。

好吧，从这一贴开始吧。

那天做了一个骑士救公主的梦：美丽的公主被恶龙围困在城堡里，我是勇敢的骑士，架着滑翔机，闯过从从的箭雨，落在城堡的塔楼上。奋力与恶龙搏斗。在它炙热的火球里闪避，突击，挥剑砍在恶龙厚厚的甲胄上，火星飞溅。我终于刺穿恶龙的心脏。

就在我将要救出公主的时候，闹钟响了，我醒来了。

追寻着模糊的记忆，我有几重联想：
公主见到我，会不会说，“我又没让你来救我，我和阿龙仔正在过幸福的生活呢。你又不是王子，来到什么乱？”

或者这事情就像做project, 你辛辛苦苦干完了，也不会立刻有人发奖章过来。顶多和老板meeting，计划下周出发去砍另一只恶龙，攻下一个城堡。

台湾人

台湾人真的是另一个世界。他们用很怪的拼音字母。他们在卡丁车游戏上用尾灯和水弹交流，他们的论坛比较没有那么多那么明显的SHOW OFF和PA.什么都用"超"(超强，超赞)，很多方面比现在的大陆人还要传统。很多同样的东西，说法都不一样。大家叫“乡民”,打印机叫印表机,摄像叫录影。

听多了他们说话还是会受传染。

能改变他们认为大陆人都是自私狭隘的成见，也蛮有成就感的。

易良和sam

他们英文很有限，但是勇气很无限。仗着一个背包，就敢流浪天涯(去过真的Amazon丛林呀)。第一天到Seattle就问，上CAMP MUIR 要多久?

让我这个没hotel reservation就不敢出门的人很惭愧。

不过他们也不是愚勇了，还是有详细的计划的。每天都会碰到各式各样意想不到的人。