Year: 2010

Categories
Life

Happy Chinese New Year & start new job next week

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Last Updated on February 12, 2010 by stlplace

First want to say “Happy Chinese New Year” to my readers. Chinese (lunar) New Year, the year of tiger, starts on Feb 14, 2010.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Today is my last working day with my current employer. I switched to my current job about 15.5 months ago, in the middle of financial crisis (what an co-incident). I recall in last Chinese New Year’s day I was on road for business (the downside of consultant job). Obviously there is upside of working as consultant too (see different people and places; working from home, again Pros and Cons there).

I will start my new job on Monday Feb 15. Another co-incidence is my next employer and my first employer starts with same syllabus.

BTW, an excellent YouTube video on “how to quit with class” (saw it from Workopolis first).

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Fun Video gadgets

iPhone TV ads vs. Palm TV ads

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Last Updated on February 10, 2010 by stlplace

It appears to me iPhone TV ads are more effective than Palm TV ads.

First iPhone ads

There’s an app for that

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gadgets

Palm Pre First Impression

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Last Updated on March 3, 2010 by stlplace

Got opportunity to play with Palm Pre for couple minutes in the weekend. Sprint kiosk at Chesterfield Mall has the real Pre (instead of the faked phones at many other places). I was very impressed by the screen, both the (multi) touch and the display. Surfed the web: amazon, ESPN etc. Zooming in and out is very similar to iPhone (using two fingers). Checked out the tiny keyboard, it feels OK. Initially I thought it’s not “qwerty” keyboard, I was wrong: it was just different from the keyboard of my Blackberry 8800, as you can see from this picture at PreCentral: .

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Categories
Life Technology

Does multitasking work (I)?

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Last Updated on February 6, 2010 by stlplace

One big complaints on the new iPad is its lack of multitasking support. From technical perspective, I think that’s because iPad will be use iPhone OS, currently at 3.2 beta, and it does not support multitasking. It does support iPod (listening to music) and another task such as browsing web though. Some developers speculate Apple will support multitask in its iPhone OS 4.0.

Oh well, my point here is not just about iPhone/iPad multitasking. My point is trying to discuss whether multitasking, work both for us human beings and for the computers (ultimately controlled by us and supposed to help us work more efficiently). To be honest I don’t have the answer. But I read one interesting article when I google “multitasking makes you stupid”. I did not intensionally typed in those words, it just stands out when I typed “multitasking” in my browser google toolbar (another one is multitasking myth). Anyway, here are an interesting article from the Atlantic (2007)

The Autumn of the Multitaskers
and here an review article on the Atlantic article.
Multitasking Makes You Slow and Stupid…(I would read this one after the Long Atlantic article).

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Categories
gadgets

Palm pre plus ads and GMail on Nokia 5800

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Last Updated on March 3, 2010 by stlplace

Saw the Palm Pre Plus ads by Verizon at PreCentral.

I installed the GMail on my Nokia 5800. I could not remember why it did not work last year when I bought it first. The software on my Nokia 5800 is the same, but the GMail client may have changed. The user interface is kind of funky, but it works.

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gadgets

iPad: funky name cool stuff?

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Last Updated on January 27, 2010 by stlplace

There are already a lot of talks about iPad now that Steve Jobs showed off his latest toy. The name is funky because “pad” has a lot of meaning, and there are people already making fun of that, such as this video at Youtube.

But seriously, boy, this is cutting edge stuff in terms of technology. Apple has a video on its own web site, which explains the functionality and features very well. It’s more like a builder’s explainations of why the house is beautiful. Obviously, this new toy launch won’t be complete without the blessing of the chief creator: Steve Jobs.

(Source: cnet video from Youtube)

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Categories
Economy

Week in review Jan 23 2010

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Last Updated on January 23, 2010 by stlplace

What a week. Stock market indices dropped significantly in last 3 trading days of the week, following many events in the week.

1. Scott Brown won MA senate race
No one see this coming until recently. Looking back this is actually easy to understand. A few days before the Tuesday election, I was thinking, if Democrats want to keep the seat of Ted Kennedy, they should pick Vicki Kennedy. Similar outcome happened in 2002 Senate race in the Show-Me state, in which Gene Carnahan (the widow of Mel Carnahan) took the seat won by already deceased Mel. Note Gene was feature in the campaign ads leads to the election. Remember “don’t let fire go out” ad?

2. Bernanke confirmation in jeopardy
I think he should be confirmed. Some populists claims he was the arsonist who comes back to extinguish the fire. There is some truth, except I would add he was the cheerleader when Greenspan (the real arsonist) started the fire (by keeping the interest rate low, caused the US housing bubble). I would give Bernanke a second chance, after all the world and we all would be in a much worst shape if he did not put out the fire.

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Investing

Investing lesson I in 2010: pharmaceutical stocks

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Last Updated on January 21, 2010 by stlplace

Maybe speculation lessons will be more appropriate. I bought 3 pharmaceutical stocks recently. With the outcome of MA senate race, US healthcare reform is unlikely be massive, which is good news for the pharmaceutical companies. I learned some lessons in the short span of trading small pharma stocks. I think it’s a good idea to summarize here:

1) Pay attention to the trial phase of drug under development: Typically the earlier in phases, the more risk, sounds simple both from common sense and probablity point of view. Apply this to real world, for Athersys (Nasdaq:ATHX) all drugs are in phase I or earlier. On the other hand, pSivida (Nasdaq:PSVD) has drugs are in all phases (from preclinical, phase I, II and III and marketed); 4 out of 5 drugs from Lexicon (Nasdaq:LXRX) are in phase II.

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Categories
Life Tips

2001 Nissan Altima idle problems

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Last Updated on January 20, 2010 by stlplace

(Update 20Jan10) Removed the collision and comprehensive coverage from my 2001 Nissan Altima. This will cut the annual insurance premium in half: from $800 to $400. Now, find the other half of the car repair expense 🙂

(Original) I googled my car “rough idle” problem (aka it sometimes shake hard when the car is stopped when brake is applied) using the key words “2001 Nissan Altima idle problems”. And it gave me same results as the mechanic told me this afternoon. Now I am looking at around $1,000.00 repair bill.

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Nissan/Altima/2001/engine/shakes_when_idling.shtml

It’s not cheap, but I wanted to get it fixed because we are expecting our first baby in less than 2 months. Safety issue.

Now, if Nissan can issue a recall?

Categories
gadgets

Tech overview: cloud computing and smart phone

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Last Updated on January 27, 2010 by stlplace

Forget today’s Google China news for a minute. We are at very interesting times in terms of technology, from apps, cloud (web based) computing (online data backup, for one), to net book, smart phone, e-readers, smart book and tablet. The past week’s CES showed us the explosion of a lot of hardwares I mentioned above (plus many new mashups: hybrid devices). I did not attend the CES, but I found the CEO interviews at AllThingsD to be interesting, e.g., Palm CEO.


(Source: allThingsD video)

From investing/speculation point of view, I think PALM is at interesting point because Verizon will start to sell it on Jan 25.

Challenges

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