Book Review: The scorpion's sting, Antislavery and the coming of the civil war by James Oakes ISBN 9780393239935

Surrounded by a ring of fire, the scorpion stings itself to death. The image, widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War,captures long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: they would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom.

I picked up the book after reading Washington Post review and it certainly offered a closer look at Civil War from a new persepctive.

Book Review: Start-up Nation, The story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Den Senor and Saul Singer ISBN 9780446541466

One recent news item coincides with my reading of this book:after French's terrorism attacks on Jews in Paris, Israel's prime minister was visiting France to urge French Jews to immigrate back to Israel. Immigration, as stated in the book, was one of the policy reason that fostered Israel's innovation driven growth and industry.

Start-up nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel-a country of 7.1 million people, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources- produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom? Drawing on examples from the country's foremost inventors and investors, the authors describe how Israel's adversity-driven culture fosters a unique combination of innovative and entrepreneurial intensity.

Here are the list of possible reasons for Israel's success in generating start-ups:

• Geopolitical: Surrounded by Arab adversity
• Racial character: Jews individualistic and risk-taking culture
• Mandatory military drafting policy as a start-up incubator and entrepreneurial training ground
• Pro start-up investment environment
• Pro-immigration leads to inflow of new ideas and fostering bootstrapping mentality
• Expat community that support motherland's start-ups

Book Review: Thread of the silkworm 中国飞弹之父钱学森之谜 by Iris Chang 张定绮，许耀云译， ISBN 0465087167

想读此书源于越来越多的华人在美经济和社会地位提高，但似乎有一层玻璃天棚横在头上， 远有钱学森50年代McCarthy主义的冤狱， 近有李文和案。张纯如(Iris Chang)给此书定名Thread of the silkworm 颇含深意： 一可译为破茧而出，暗指当年钱学森冲破美国的玻璃天棚回到中国，另起炉罩，兴中国航天大业；也可译为做茧自缚，暗指来美的华人所常见的聪明，勤奋却也清高，孤立，不善结盟，不善交际，轻视不如自己的人，结果用事业学业的成功把自己隔绝起来，一旦冲突来临，孤立无缘，少人帮助的困境。

在美华人喜欢从事科技行业，靠头脑聪明打拼，希冀扬长避短，用善干来补嘴拙，以绕过玻璃天棚的制约。科学无国界，但科学家是有的。钱学森当年学术精英， 前途无量，但生不逢时，McCarthyism盛行，蒙冤受辱，只好回国发展。中美文化，体制不同，又均为大国，日后竞争角力在所难免，在美华人要有准备，全面发展，经济政治力量齐头并进，嗅觉敏锐，防McCarthyism于未然。 另外要广结善缘，联盟合纵，消除种族阶级壁垒，少做茧自缚。

Book review: Civilization, The west and the rest by Niall Ferguson ISBN 9781594203053

In Civilization, the author suggested that our modern society is dominated by western civilization, which he defined as "more than just one thing; it is a package. It is about political pluralism (multiple states and multiple authorities) as well as capitalism; it is about the freedom of thoughts as well as the scientific method; it is about the rule of law and property rights as well as democracy". And 6 "killer apps" comprise this package:

• Competition: a decentralization of political life, which created the launch-pad for both nation-states and capitalism
• Science
• Property rights
• Medicine
• The consumer society
• The work ethic

Throughout the book, the author explored and traced 6 "killer apps", how they came into being, how they shaped the West and led the West to world domination. And because of the network effect of these 6 apps, hence the West (which presumptuously means America and Europe) even with its dwindling economic and political influence over the world, still has more of the institutional advantages than the Rest.

Rating: 3 of 5

Book Review: The Emperor Far Away, Travels At the Edge of China by David Eimer ISBN 9781620403631

This is a book by an outsider looking inward to understand China's outmost regions and contentious borderlands.

The book is broken into 4 parts:

• Part 1: Xinjiang- The new frontier
• Part 2: Tibet - The wild west
• Part 3: Yunnan - Trouble in paradise
• Part 4: Dongbei - Pushing the boundaries

I only managed to finish part 4, and the authors went to Yanbian and Mohe to try to experience first hand Korean minority and Orequn minority life in modern China.

Should be a great travel book if you are not satisfied with stop-and-take-picture type of tourism and would rather immerse yourself in the local culture and history.

Rating: 3 of 5

Book Review: "Lives of" series by Kathleen Krull

What:Short and colorful biography for young readers age from 6 to 10. A gentle way to introduce kids to biography

Include:

• Lives of the athletes : thrills, spills (and what the neighbors thought)
• Lives of the writers : comedies, tragedies (and what the neighbors thought)
• They saw the future : oracles, psychics, scientists, great thinkers, and pretty good guessers
• Lives of the musicians : good times, bad times (and what the neighbors thought)
• Lives of extraordinary women : rulers, rebels (and what the neighbors thought)
• Lives of the presidents : fame, shame (and what the neighbors thought)
• Lives of the scientists : experiments, explosions (and what the neighbors thought)
• The book of rock stars : 24 musical icons that shine through history
• Lives of the artists : masterpieces, messes (and what the neighbors thought)

Book Review: Rouge Elephant, Harnessing the power of India's unruly democracy By Simon Denyer ISBN 9781620406083

The best book about modern India I read so far. "A penetrating portrait of what has happened to India in the past decade and where it is headed".

It covers India's pillars of democracy: Executive branch, legislative branch and media by profiling the movers and shakers of the country: Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Arnab Goswami, Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, etc. The angles of author's viewpoint are wide and analysis of each area is deep, from India's Right for Information law to land ownership dispute, the author talked to the key people and also went to the ground level to research, and the end result is a remarkable piece of India democracy today that is both sobering and hopeful.

What kind of democracy will Arab Spring bring to middle east? Maybe India is a good place to look and study. With the democracy's success in holding up the diverse and multi-religious cultures together as a country, and rampant corruption and inefficiency in governance as side effects from the democracy.

One wanting I have for the book is a detailed map of India, for people who are not familiar with India.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Book Review: Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee- A look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-sung ISBN9781476766553

What: An Kim Jong-il's "Admitted" poet wrote his escape from North Korea and along the way he shared his insider viewpoint on Hermit kingdom.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Best for: History buff and North Korean

Related book: Nothing to envy

Book Review: A weave of words by Robert D. San Souci ISBN 0531300536

Armenian tale of king Vachagan and Queen Anait

Book Review: Pearl Moscowitz's Last Stand by Arthur A. Levine, pictures by Robert Roth ISBN0688107532

How a grandmother preserved the last Gingko tree on Gngko Street. Funny and warm story.

Book Review: Brush of the gods by Lenore Look & Meilo So ISBN 9780375870019

The legend of Chinese artist Wu Daozi in a beautiful picture book, oriental style.

画圣吴道子的传说

Book Review: Three Strong Women A Tall Tale from Japan By Claus Stamm, Jean and Mou-sien Tseng

Great story telling with fun and beautiful illustration. Great for staring reader age 6+.

Book Review: The Nile, a journey downriver through Egypt's past & present by Toby Wilkinson ISBN 9780385351553

This is not a review as I haven't read the whole book yet, but just as a holder for future return. Egypt has been fascinating to me, and I once had a neighbor who worked as an environment engineer for a Unisco project in Cairo for extended period and his description of many healthy and strong Egyptian men wondering around Nile bank at night without ever trying to find work left me a strong impression and a big question: why Egypt today resembles none of its old glory? Why Egyptian today can settle in such idleness with so little to show? This book may not answer my question, but I hope history of Nile will reveal some clues.

A better review of the book can be found here

Book Review: To a Mountain in Tibet by Colin Thubron ISBN 9780061768262

".. account of a journey to the holiest mountain on earth, the solitary peak of Kailas in Tibet" "from our greatest living travel writer".

Maybe a good companion when you visit Tibet.

Book Review: The Diet Fix, Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work by Yoni Freedhoff ISBN 9780804137577

The book gives out a 10-day reset recipe for people to adapt their daily eating and excising habit to control weight gain in a natural and non-traumatic way. After reading the book, for people comes from Chinese food culture it feels like Mom is talking to you about all the eating on time, eating from all food groups, etc. But still a good book to go through.

Book Review: How to read a book, a classic guide to intelligent reading by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren ISBN 067121280X

The book explains

• Why activity is essence of good reading, the more active reading is, the better is
• What is active reading: asking questions
• What questions must be asked of any book, and how those questions must be answered in different ways for different kind of books
• Four levels of reading, and how these are cumulative, earlier or lower levels being contained in later or higher ones

Great book can grow your mind, what have you read lately?

Book Review: Positioning: How to be seen and heard in the overcrowded marketplace By Al Ries and Jack Trout ISBN 0071373586

A tight and entertaining book about how to effectively using word to trigger the image you intended for __ (fill in the blank here: product, company, your city, yourself as a college applicant, etc).

Some memorable quotes from the book:

• This is the classic mistake made by the leader. The illusion that the power of the product is derived from the power of the organization. It is just the reverse. The power of the organization is derived from the power of the product, the position that the product owns in the prospect's mind.from Chapter 6
• .. words don't contain meanings. The meanings are not in the words. They are in the people using the words. from Chapter 25
• The big winners in business and in life are those people who have found open positions near the center of the spectrum. Not at the edge. from Chapter 25
• To repeat, the first rule of positioning is: To win the battle for the mind, you can't compete head-on against a company that has a strong, established position. You can go around, under or over, but never head to head. from Chapter 25, remind you of Steve Job's early days in his return to Apple, not to compete against Microsoft, and John Chen's current Blackberry days, not to compete with Apple in consumer market, but rather focusing on enterprise market.
• In our overcommunicated society, the name of the game today is positioning.

Books about Berlin to memorize 25th anniversary of fall of the Berlin wall

A lot of things happened 25 years ago, one that we closely related to occurred in Beijing, but today is for another happening: Nov.9, 1989, a wall in Berlin fell.

Three books about Berlin that I don't have time to read yet, and hope to read later are:

• Berlin Portrait of a city through the centuries by Rory MacLean
• Berlin Now The city after the wall by Peter Schneider
• The collapse The accidental opening of the Berlin wall by Mary Elise Sarotte

Book Review: Amy for short by Laura Joffe Numeroff (ISBN 0027681807)

Amy is the tallest girl in the class, and best friend of Mark, the tallest boy. After summer of 2nd grade, she grew one inch taller than Mark, and the friendship seems to strain.Would Mark come to Amy's birthday? As the backcover of the book said: "... all youngsters who are beginning to read will enjoy Amy's ingenuous story of her bumpy romance and the key to its happy resolution". Funny and touching, a great book for both young and old.

[UPDATE12/03/14]Laura Numeroff's other books are also great choices for young readers

• If You Give a Pig a Pancake
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin
• If You Give a Dog a Donut
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• If You Take a Mouse to the Movies
• If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
• If You Give a Pig a Party
• If You Take a Mouse to School

Best books for kindergartner and 1st graders to enjoy reading.

Book Review: Age of Ambition, Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith In the New China by Evan Osnos (ISBN 9780374280741)

[UPDATE]The book wins 2014 National Book Award in nonfiction category. Well deserved.

I have lived in the States for nearly two decades and I have seen American understanding of China increasing by leaps and bounds, but still when I read books or articles written by Westerners about China, they tend to depict China in one huge brush stroke, either China is an economic miracle bent in world domination or China is a dictatorship society thrives in crushing human rights.

What a delighted surprise to read Evan Osnos wonderfully written book. In the prologue, the author mentioned he had lived in China for eight years and it shows in the book. The author does all the usual China observers do: marvels at its economic progress and questions its neglect of human rights and one-party dictatorship. But what sets the book apart is its detailed and nuanced depiction of individual Chinese: former World Bank Chief Economist Lin Yifu, dating website Jiayuan founder Gong Hainan, blogger Han Han, artist Ai Weiwei, human right activist Chen Guangcheng, Crazy English follower Zhang Ziming (Michael), Hong Kong gambler Siu Yun-ping, publisher Hu Shuli, nationalist web blogger Tang Jie, railway official Liu Zhijun, the list goes on, from big shots to small potatoes. The author told life stories of these people in the backdrop of China’s economy and China’s political system. And growing up in China under Communist rules myself, I can relate to these stories and I feel the author understands Chinese way of thinking and sometimes he speaks from a Chinese viewpoint. From the book I assume the author can speak Chinese very well. Yet he is also able to pullback from his subjects and narrates the stories from an outsider American viewpoint, and his analogy of China today to American Gilded Age really struck a chord with both Chinese people and westerners, as validated by rave review it received from Washington Post.

One of the three best non-fiction books about China I have read. The other two: The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor and Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism by Edgar Snow.

For people who don't know what their passion are

If you are not sure where to go
Don't stop, keep moving along the trail
Take in the scene and be thankful
Rest assured you show up and your destiny will reveal

Prep for Tibet trip

Physical prep

Lose weight to what level? Oxydized training or non-oxydized training?

What to exercise for high altitude ?

Dry run in North America, which mountains to climb?

Financial

How much $$ for how long? $$/day?

Vacation planning

How many vacation days needed? CF allowed carry over?

What to look?

How to get there?

Partners

How many?

How many from China? How many from US?

Book Review: Joha makes a wish, story by Eric A.Kimmel, illustrated by Omar Rayyan

A great picture book with excellent story telling and wonderful pictures, best for 5 to 8 years old and definitely a treat for the whole family

How to be a best #N (N>1): Lessons from Sheryl Sandberg

1. Excel at your job, there is no way around it. Even if it is bottom of the org chart, or just one step away from the #1. Focus on your job, make it solid and outstanding
2. Develop your unique brand outside work. For Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In catapulted her to the same league as her boss. Write a book, develop a social media following, marketing your brand
3. Get a buyin from your boss. Sheryl's lean in was endorsed by Mark Zuckerberg. It lends credibility and it also tells people that you are team player even if you have a strong brand outside the team

Fee-for-service business model is dead, time for fee-for-value

Telephone service, healthcare are all fee-for-service, you pay for service.
WhatsApp, ACA are fee-for-value, you pay for value you get from service

WhatsApp and NetFlix

WhatsApp is eating worldwide telecom's lunch, by providing basic messaging service without ad/game/gimmick at a price of $1/year, while telecom providers are charging $20 per month for a service that couldn't even stop spamming.
NetFlix is eating all the cable companies lunch by providing great content without bundling and time restriction.
And these two great companies are able to do that because of software and open internet infrastructure.
So if you are great developers and internet remains open, your preys are abundant!! Long live the human creativity, long live the open society!

The longest wait

---- There is a will, there is a way. In between, there is the wait.
The longest wait in my life happened when I was 8.
After one long winter of lugging a backpack stuffed with books and lunchbox onto a packed public bus to an ethnic Korean elementary school one hour away from my home, my mom had enough and decided to transfer me to a public elementary school across the street. Besides proximity, the school was THE school for the elite in our neighborhood. Mom and dad took me there for a tour when I was ready to start the school, and I was awe struck by the well manicured schoolyard and clean desks and chairs in the classroom, and the teachers smiled a lot. I dreamed of going there, joining the elite. But there was one catch (actually there were several and the school combined them into one that seemed to be most effective in stopping many transfer students): The school only took kid who had some English language education since English was part of its curriculum. Years later I realize it is actually a ruse the school used to deny the kids from a factory where my father worked. The” factory kids” as we were called back then usually went to the elementary school funded by the factory and English was never in the curriculum. Me being an ethnic Korean and going to an ethnic Korean elementary school, I was an exception, but still the “catch” caught me since my foreign language in my Korean elementary school was Chinese.
Mom being a determined woman, and probably also from cannot stand the agony of seeing her son got home late in the night almost frozen from the bone chilling coldness in Harbin winter, she decided that we would overcome that obstacle by learning English on my own, from the radio. There was a 5:30 AM morning English radio class and mom made sure every morning I would have my family’s bulky cream colored portable radio near my pillow and I would follow the teacher in the radio to learn English. Every night on the dinner table after I finished meal I would recite to her what I learned from the radio that morning. And she assured me if I hang on with radio class until the fall I would be able to transfer to the school across street from my home.
Late Spring mom took me to the school and met the school principal, a stern looking lady about my mom’s age. She checked me out from head to toe with her icy stare and asked me how much English I had learned. Mom promised her that I would be able to follow the 2nd grade curriculum and she instructed me to recite an English lesson for the principal. Finally the principal said although she would be fine to let me transfer, she would need me to come to school later that summer for a thorough evaluation before the transfer.
The clock was on and my daily routine of early radio class and after dinner review continued with more fervent. Finally the evaluation morning came. Mom put me in a new short sleeves shirt and short and put the radio class English book in my backpack, sending me off for the evaluation.
The principal brought me to an English teachers room and told me to wait for a English teacher to give me a full evaluation. The summer session was still on and I could hear the commotions outside the room from students running into their classroom for class. Yet the room was empty, the principal said I had to wait for the test teacher to finish the class. And she left. I sat on an empty chair, waiting. The bell rang, first class was over. Some teachers streamed into the room, and were surprised to see me waiting alone there. They asked me who I was waiting for, and after hearing my story, they looked surprised and they gathered around me asking where my school was and why I wanted to transfer. Before I could finish my story, the bell rang again and all of them left for another class. I went back to my chair, waiting and looking at the well manicured school yard. The bell rang again. The teachers streamed back into the room, and this time no more questions but some hushed chats between themselves, and one of them went out and came back again, telling me to go to principal’s office. When I got to principal’s office, the principal was not in her office. I waited there for a while, then the bell rang again. Another class started. I waited in principal office for a little while, then I thought maybe I need to go back to English teachers room so that I wouldn’t miss the evaluator. So I went back to English teachers office. Two teachers were sitting in their tables. One of them, a lady with spectacles and warm smile looked up at me surprisingly, and I told her the principal was not in her office and I wouldn’t want to miss the evaluator so I was back. Back then it never occurred to me to ask for evaluator’s name from either principal or the teachers. The lady nodded her head and looked at me with a thoughtful look. Then she said, OK, tell me what you have learned on your own. I went to my backpack and brought out my radio class book, and started reading a text for her. I was nervous and made many mistakes, and the teacher was very nice and patiently corrected me. Then she said with a hesitant look on her face, maybe it would help me to spend some more time on English during that summer. I asked her if she was the evaluator, she said she was not sure and she would want to double check with principal for me. And she left for principal office. Then bell rang again. Another break and some teachers streamed back into the office. But still no principal. And that lady didn’t show up again either. Then bell rang again, teachers streamed out again for another class. I sat on the chair waiting. Years passed and what happened next was a blur. There were different versions within family. Maybe mom picked me up from school after she got off from day’s work, maybe I went back to my home alone. One thing for sure was that I waited there for the whole day and the principal never showed up again. And in the end I never got to go to the school across the street. I ended up went to a school several blocks from my neighborhood.
And since then I have had more waits in my life. Some are actually much longer. When I came to America, I had to wait for half a year for my wife to join me because of visa. When I graduated from my graduate school, I had to wait for two months without pay for my worker’s visa to start to work. And my wife and I had to wait for nearly ten years to get our green card. But that summer day’s wait feels longer, and feels like I am still waiting for the evaluator to show up, to tell me that I am good enough to go to that well manicured schoolyard across the street.

One of the simplest and best precepts Katharine Graham got from his father Eugene Meyer for parents to live by

"What parents may sometimes do in a helpful way is to point out certain principles of actions. I do not think I would be helpful in advising you too strongly. I do not even feel the need of doing that because I have so much confidence in your having really good judgement. I believe that what I can do for you once in while is to point out certain principles that have developed in my mind as sound and practical, leaving it for you yourself to apply them if your own mind grasps and approves the principles.'" --- Eugene Meyer

Book review: The age of the unthinkable: Why the new world disorder constantly surprises us and what we can do about it by Joshua Cooper Ramo, ISBN9780316118088

The book covers a lot of new thinking in the current economics and political sciences:

• Eric von Hipppel Democratizing Innovation
• Ricardo Semler and his new management practice in his company Semco
• Per Bak and his self-organized criticality phenomenon
• Isaiah Berlin: Hedgehogs thinker vs fox thinker
• Masako Watanabe: Styles of reasoning in Japan and the United States: Logic of education in two cultures
• Richard Nisbett: The geography of thoughts
• Mike Moritz and secret of successful venture investment in Sequoia Capital
• Aharon Farkash's tenure at Israeli military intelligence unit IDF
• Shigeru Miyamoto's creation of Wii and revival of Nintendo
• Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola's invention of camouflage in World War I
• Dan Kaminsky's discovery of DNS flaw and innovative way of fixing it
• Anselm Kiefer's painting Deutschlands Geistesheldon
• Tony Moll's leading anti HIV efforts in South Africa and re-emergence of TB due to failure of patient education
• Gertrude Stein and her role in new art movement (Cubism) in 1910s
• David Kotz with Fred Weir Revolution from above: The demise of the Soviet System
• C.S Holling and Simon Levin: Two ecologists
• Bill Broweder's Russian investment strategy and his early detection of 2008 financial meltdown

Security vs Privacy

Privacy is gaining attention from C-suite, "it is all about data, stupid!" But how privacy initiative plays with security initiative?
"You can have security without privacy, but you can't have privacy without security" - Michael Howard

What separate a security amateur and security professional

"A security amateur can tell you how to secure something, a security professional knows when you don't need to." - Michael Howard

Book review: The cod's tale by Mark Kurlansky and illustrated by S.D.Schindler, ISBN0399234764

What: A picture book about history of cod fishing and cod trade and its contribution to the sea voyage and discovery of America
Best for: Intermediate reader grade 3 to 5
Rating: 5 of 5
Review: A enchanting history of cod and cod fishing and cod trade masterfully told and illustrated. And the author threads the information about cod and its impact on history is subtle and brilliant. If all history and trade book can be written this beautifully ...

Book review: One witch by Laura Leuck and illustrated by S.D.Schindler ISBN0802788602

What: A beautiful picture book
Best for: Beginner reader Pre-K to 2nd grade
Rating: 5 of 5
Review: Crispy color, beautiful illustration, simple and rhymed Halloween themed stories. Any young reader will fall in love instantly.

Book review: The discovery of the Americas by Betsy and Giulio Maestro, ISBN 0688068375

What: A picture book about the discovery of America
Best for: Intermediate reader (grade 3 to 5)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Review: Beautiful illustrations and clear simple languages make this saga of discovery as fascinating to six-year-olds as it will be to older readers. Very informative material.

Fall's line

Fall's line

Vivek Ranadive: How to win anything

The video is here.
Three winning rules:

• Think out of the box
• Play by your own rule, not other people's rule
• Work harder than anybody else

The tricky business of transforming a culture

The unifying and stabilizing force in western culture is the law. Law is the foundation. It provides a stable platform to evolve and change. And it may also be the reason why western civilization is leading the pack.
For China, the unifying and stabilizing force and foundation is Confucian's concept of family. Family is not just the household, whole kingdom is a big family. Family is why China as a culture still maintains its sanity and dignity (although very vulnerable) after all the indignities suffered during last couple of centuries. And closeness and inward looking nature of family may also be the reason why China missed the opportunity for industrialization(outward exploration+open competition) and scientific advancement early in the twentieth century. And Chinese people realized that family may not be a good foundation for China to enter the world market and compete any more. China may need a new foundation to be able to catch up and lead.
The challenge is really in the transformation. While China is searching for new culture launchpad, we cannot throw away the current foundation (family) yet, otherwise the house will crumble down and collapse. We especially need a strong foundation during this time of great change. Chairman Mao tried to rid all the old and rebuild a new one from the ruin, and it led to twenty years of setback and chaos. Deng Xiaping learned the lesson and vouch to maintain Communist ruling as a stable foundation.

Tons of witches and bats and a bat girl

Tons of witches

There are lots of bats,arggg

And then there is a bat girl :-)

Book Review: The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters by Anthony Pagden ASIN: B009Y4JPTA

I haven't even started book yet. I picked up this book because another Pagden book. I was trying to answer: Why Western world got the enlightenment while Eastern world missed it? What was the secret ingredient that was missing from Eastern culture that prevent enlightenment's birth? From when such ingredient was lost in Eastern history?
[Update] Page 269 to page 292 alone is worth the cover price. This part of the book talks extensively about key figures of Enlightement especially Leibniz and Montesquieu opinion on China and Chinese culture.Montesquieu in his The Spirit of the Laws categorized Chinese government as despotism, a governance that is "one alone, without law and without rule, drags everything along by his will and his caprice". Montesquieu identified three possible types of government:

• Republics, either democratic or aristocratic, which the "people as a body or ionly a part of the people" exercise sovereign power
• Monarchies,where sovereignty is held by "one alone" in accordance with "fixed and established laws"
• Despotism, where "one alone, without law and without rule, drags everything along by his will and his caprice"

Of the three, Montesquieu thinks only the first two were truly legitimate. Despotism is a condition in which "there are no laws, so to speak, there are only customs and manners, and if you overturn them, you overturn everything. Laws are established, customs are inspired." And in his opinion, the immobility of Chinese government structure was the result of Chinese emperors smart use of "manners" and "customs" to rule over their citizens. Customs are generally those long-accepted practices of a community that hold it together on a daily basis. Manners are the routine social exchanges between individuals and the code of behavior that all but real savages need in order to negotiate their daily lives. Both of them are superficial, carry no meaning of virtue or vice. Unlike laws which reflects a consensus and changes as circumstances change, customs and manners are not examined and exist only for the sake of they always existed. And Chinese rulers have been using Keju (科举), a meritocratic system to enforce manners and customs, and by promoting Confucian the Chinese emperors upped these manners and customs to the sacred and secular level, a religion which "fear added to fear", and exempt those manners and customs from change or criticism. It is very similar to Muslims choosing Qur'an as their "sacred book that acts as a rule". The Chinese seemed to have gone one step further than any other "Oriental" despotism, in that their legislators have successfully "confused religion, laws, mores, and manners" thus emptying the concepts of vice and virtue of any real meaning. The outcome of all this was to make of the nation one single, indivisible character, so tightly bound together as to be impervious to any change. In this way China had come to resemble not a society but an immense family, and it was an image that Chinese philosophy had worked hard to present as a reflection of a perfectly harmonious world."The Emperors of China are very eager for the people to believe the maxim of the Chinese philosopher that the empire is a family and the emperor its father". It is an illusion fostered by despots and work to their ruling advantage."a spider's web, with the emperor like the spider at the center. He can not move without everyone else moving, and no one else can move without him moving also". Despotism of this kind, however can only exist in isolation. And China's isolation was reinforced by the Chinese system of writing, a non-alphabet system of more than three thousand unique characters for daily usage, a symbol system that demands life learning to be able to read, a system so burdened and heavy that Chinese had neither the resources nor the inclination even to interpret much less challenge the received wisdom of past centuries. What science the Chinese had was thus reduced to little more than "the knowledge of language" and of a language "barely sufficient for daily life".
[Update, 11/10/2013] To read this book will require a strong discipline resulted from a set of urgent problems. The writing does not lend to a easy read.

Book Review: My beloved world by Sonia Sotomayor ISBN 0307594882

Being a minority in the States, I am always interested in success story of minorities. Sonia Sotomayor was born in a Puerto Rican immigrant family from New York city public housing, went to a Catholic middle school and high school, got into Princeton University under Affirmative Action, went on graduating from Yale Law School and became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is a story of talent, well thought out plan and perseverance. I didn't finish the whole book, only reading her high school years and college years. Several things jumped out from the book:

• She is extremely talented. She got into Princeton under AA, but she graduated summa cum laude and awarded Moses Taylor Pyne Honor prize, the highest honor awarded to undergraduate. Undoubtedly she has a very high IQ.
• Although she came from a unprivileged upbringing and she experienced first hand such deficiency costed her, there was not a single trace of bitterness in the book. She definitely has a very high EQ too. This is a stark contrast to another book I read and reviewed on this blog Paper Daughter.
• She stays the course throughout her college and law school and didn't detour much. A supereme court justice is highest point of a law career and she made it to there in a very straight line.

To Bootstrap or not to Bootstrap

Check out these Bootstrap showcase sites to see if you find any style you like, then remember to check out 5 reasons not to use twitter bootstrap

To Breeze or not to Breeze

What Breezejs can offer you is a good overview from a MS viewpoint

To knockout or not to knockout?

Want some pointers ? Check out Knockout vs Backbone The question is: How do you build large client app with a good structure when using Knockoutjs? Still thinking about it, but here are some pointers: A walkthrough using KnockoutJS and AMD AMD(Asynchronous Module Definition) vs CJS(CommonJS Modules 1.1) What a world of fun and thrill...

Tech gotcha of the day: kogrid needs knockoutjs version 2.2 and above

If you have been using knockoutjs for a while and then you heard of a beautiful grid that will work well with knockoutjs, aka kogrid, forewarned: To use kogrid successfully, you have to update knockoutjs to version 2.2 and above, otherwise you will get an empty webpage with no grid and when you F12, you will see a JavaScript funtion error of something like the object doesn't have a method "seek".

Mentorship

From Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg ISBN 0385349947, instead of "Get a mentor and you will excel", "Excel and you will get a mentor".

Matchmaker, friends and funny bunny

Some of latest arts from in-house artist Cindy...

Book Review: Worlds at war, the 2,500 year struggle between east and west by Anthony Pagden, ISBN 978-0199237432

Why I read this book: With ascent of Chinese economy, a lot of discussion are centered on how china will evolve its political structure, following the foodsteps of western democracy or continuing single party structure. And I think there are a lot of history lessons we can learn from reading the eternal enmity between east and west, which is the focal theme of this book. For an China-centric view, check this one out 李世默:兩種制度的傳說 Eric X. Li: A tale of two political systems
What is this book about: This dome is 600+ pages long and ambitiously tried to cover a span of 2500 years history of conflicts between East (Asia) and West (Europe), starting from Persian invasion of Athens by Darius and continued to Alexander the Great conquer of Asia and goes all the way to America's invasion of Iraq in 2002. I am still long way to go to finish it, but just want to add some thoughts while I am still reading it.
1. The author seems to think East (Asia) always prefer despotism or oligarchy and West (Europe) prefers individualism and democracy. Not sure it is a widely held belief but looking back in Chinese history it seems the pattern holds.
2.In western history, there seems always be multiple power centers to check and balance each other. In Roman empire, Senate vs Caesar and church vs king post Rome, and in current days US, it is tri-power structure: White house, Senate and Congress, and then Superium court. On the contrary, in Eastern history there seems always a single controlling power: either it is king or it is Muslim religious leader. Is it due to geographic reason or homogeneous race?
3. In chapter 5 The coming of Islam, during 712 to 833, there was a period of "Arab Renaissance", when Muslim scholars(most notably among them were Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Riruni, Ibn Sina, al-Farabi, Ibn Tufayl) translated and annotated many Greek and Roman(/Byzantium) scientific and philosophical writings. This period of "Arab Renaissance" precedes the later European Renaissance and provided European scholars insight into Greek era ideas and knowledge. So the big question is: Why can it happen? Why doesn't it happen again? One explanation from French theologian Ernest Renan is that Muslim derived their culture and education wholly from Islam, and he believes all the monotheistic religions (this include both Islam and Christian) are incompatible with the progress of modern sciences. And he believes "Arab Renaissance" was the result of non-Muslim scholars work during a rare moment of openness during Islamic rule in Euroasia.
4. In Chapter 8 Science Ascendant, religion provides 1st permanent settlement for for human race on the earth, ie. Islam for near east, Christianity for west and confucian for far east, and science provided human means to explore the surrounding of their settlement and help them find out where their home is and where they can go further.
5. Chapter 9 Enlightened Orientalism, Voltaire asked if the East had been "the nursery of all the arts, to which the Western would owes everything it now enjoys,", why was it that the nations of the West "seemed to have been born only yesterday ... now go further than any other people in more than one field?". Answer: Ownership society. Francois Bernier, who had spent 12 years as physician to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, in his book A New Division of the Earth According to the Difference Species or Races Which Inhabit It, states that Oriental despot did not rule over but actually owned the state (《诗经》『溥天之下，莫非王土；率土之滨，莫非王臣』). In the West the status and identity of an individual were to a great extent determined by his or her ability to own property. In the East, however, everything was owned by the sovereign, and it was this that lead to the same fate for all Oriental empires: tyranny, ruin and desolation.Only in the Orient did there exist what Montesquieu termed "political slavery", the absence of any freedom to act or express oneself independently of the sovereign's will. And the sovereign's will was enforced not through honour,as occurs in monarchies, nor through virtues, as is the case in republics, but through fear, which is why in despotic states, in particular those in Asia, religion is so important, for all religion is always "fear added fear". Oriental despotic societies resembled not states but large families (家天下）. All the Eastern countries "had one thing in common: they were all, in their different ways, ruled by despots, enthralled to systems of government upheld by religious whose objectives was to persuade the masses that neither nature nor any of their gods offered them any other way of living. They were societies composed of hordes, not individuals. And as long as they remained immured behind their self-imposed walls of ignorance and apathy, nothing could help them. For them, time and progress had little meaning; the truth of everything, including what Europeans looked upon as science, could be established only by reference to the past". Think about North Korea and Cuba.
6. Chapter 12 Epilog , 启发民智，始于民生，吃饱穿暖，再谈民选，帝制压抑，积弱百年，自由民主，循序渐进，小民可教，需要时间

Book Review The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley ISBN 1451654421

Before getting to the specific book, this is the first book I finished reading on eReader device. In my case it is Kindle. Somehow I still cannot quite equate reading on eReader with the experience of holding a paper book on hand. The sense of possession of the knowledge is just not as much holding a electronic device as holding an ink-on-paper book. Maybe it is just me.
Now back to our subject. The book is about 300 pages long, but excluding a lot of notes and references, it is a bout 180 pages. It is an enjoyable read about why American kids not faring well in PISA test and tracking three American high school exchange students experience in PISA superpowers Finland, Korea and Poland. If you are European parents or Asian parents living in America with high school kids at home and interested in education issue, you probably already had the same conclusion as the authors and there is really little gain reading the book.

Bat queen and king

Cindy is five, and she is a natural born artist. Here is her latest master piece: a bat queen and king

Can you guess who is queen and who is king?

Grasshopper

A good size grasshopper waited patiently on our screen windows this morning

Here is a picture from another angle

Book Review of The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer who temporarily worked as a network administrator due to funding shortage at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(LBL). The first assignment he got as network administrator was to figure out a 75 cents discrepancy in Unix system's user computer usage. His investigation led to the discovery of a foreign hacker breaking into US military computer systems and first fully documented case of computer espionage. As a scientist, Cliff Stoll did an excellent work explaining the technical side of computer hacking without losing the entertaining side of a good story telling, and he also artfully blended in his opinion on network security and privacy. The espionage happend in 1986 and the book was published in 1989, but it doesn't feel outdated reading it today. With recent Edward Snowden case of NSA eavesdropping on US citizens, the book seems ever more relevant.

鹿鸣翠谷

摄于公司院内

书评： 《神权，民本， 民主： 二千五百年的竞赛》 郑楚材著 ISBN:978-957-41-4915-5

书的作者是住在华府的一位内科医生和风湿病学家，写历史人文方面的此书纯粹是兴趣，但很显然是下了多年的功夫，所以读来很有收获。作者认为中国从秦汉至现在走的是儒家：以民为本，以仁爱为中心，以中庸为方法的作者称之为民本政治，对比与西方民主国家的”For people, by people"的民主政治， 两家之外就是宗教立国如阿拉伯国家即作者所称的神权政治。另外作者认为中国在民国以前更具体的应该定义为帝制民本政治，因为汉武帝以来的帝王绑架了儒家民本思想以服务于帝王朝的稳定，但帝王却没有任何监督和约涑，只有自上至下从君主对臣民的约涑却没有自下而上臣民对君主的约涑。另外作者认为现在的中国不应生硬照搬西方民主政治，而应把儒家民本思想从帝王或一党专政的枷锁中解放出来，取民主政治的长处，走自己的政治道路。民本政治实际是精英治国，好处是效率高，成本底。但当民本政治，民主政治和神权政治的精英都出自Harvard, Yale等Ivy League时，不知作者的政治分类还有没有意义。 另外大概由于作者的自然科学背景， 书中做了一些关于中国历史有趣的统计, 比如：“从秦使皇到轻宣统共218个皇帝（五胡十六国的皇帝未计算在内），77个皇帝未达18岁即以登位，其中34个10岁以前就登基，竟有11个在5岁以前就登皇位，2个仅1岁也登上皇位，甚至3个月大的婴孩也做了皇帝，“，”仅26位皇帝活到60岁以上，其中14位是开国皇帝，6位功业彪炳，但这20位所谓英明贤君都在晚年犯下严重错误，其余6位乏善可陈，宣统帝溥仪5岁被废后活了61岁，阿斗刘禅56岁被废，继续活到64岁。在总数26个末代皇帝中，仅此2人享此高寿，其余竟有15个末代皇帝都死于非命，其平均年龄只有19.6岁。在218个皇帝中竟有81人活不到30岁，占总数的37.2%.位上被弑36人，被废34人，被废后遭杀12人， 被逼禅位6人，自杀3人，他杀2人，战死1人，被俘3人，总之居皇位未能善终的高达85人，占总数39%。死于非命的有54人，几近总数的25%。“总括言之中国二千一百多年的帝制民本政治仅有四百来年的天下太平人民受惠，只占总时期的18.5%"。仅这些统计功夫， 就可以给作者5分。

EV charger

书评： 《被利益集团拖跨的王朝》

先讲两句题外话， 这本书是2011年出版， 可依然延续了中文书的痼疾， 没有索引， 文中引用典故不注明出处。白玉微暇。
《被利益集团拖跨的王朝》是世界知识出版社出版的《同舟共进》杂志精华系列的一本，ISBN 978-5012-4105-7。这是一本文集， 文章评点中国历史成败兴亡， 借史喻今。启发很多， 容我分别道来。
网上国人每谈及中日历史纷争，算我在内， 很快就热血沸腾，杀气腾腾，情绪压制了冷静的思辨。李扬帆文<<中国近代之败，实为意识之败-两千年中日交往中的反思>>细数历史，结论：中国不了解日本，日本摸透中国，中国必败。记得小时候看李默然主演的〈甲午风云〉，心中不平，恨一颗鱼雷，击沉致远舰，似乎于日本的胜负全系于那一颗鱼雷上。后来又看冯小宁拍摄的电视剧《北洋水师》，约略明白甲午海战，中国不止输在那一颗鱼雷上。读了此文，终于明白，中国输在，我们中国人口口声称与日本是一衣带水的邻邦，却从没有认真的去了解我们这位邻居。日本有阿倍仲麻吕，高杉晋作，宗方小太郎， 长期居住中国，考科举，学中文，考察经济，社会，文化，把中国摸个底透；可我们中国人，却对日本一无所知，了解依然停留在日本是中国文明的分支，是小亲外戚。有多少中国人知道日本国策自丰臣秀吉到伊藤博文的演变？有多少中国人知道日本民族称雄世界（不只是东亚）的野心？日本人学习中国，是为了文化上独立于中国文化。此文对我最大的提醒是：日本有个思想家福泽谕吉，他比我们中国人更理解中国文化，也因次他提出日本“脱亚”，于西方各文明国家共进退。一旦看到日本文化的这个转变，你就会理解为什么日本对二战侵略罪行躲躲藏藏。因为他们认为自己是西方一分子，西方从未对亚洲认错，为什么你们让我日本认错？对我们这个邻居，在未来很长的时期，我们都无从避开，或合作，或对抗，但我们应该记住此文作者的警告： 请别漠视你的对手

Financial engineering: necessary evil

I have read a lot about financial engineering after 2008 financial crisis. Books like All the devils are here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, The big short:inside the doomsday machine by Michael Lewis, Hedge Hogs: The Cowboy Traders Behind Wall Street's Largest Hedge Fund Disaster by Barbara T.Dreyfuss, The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson. Some of the pioneers of financial engineering are Noble Laureates who essentially invented Wall Street money machines. My take home message is: Financial engineering is like germs on our body, they plays a critical role in the health of global financial system if under control and regulation, but they will destroy the whole system if let grow unregulated.

What drives an investment property value: demography

So you bought a investment property, and you are looking for cash flow and appreciation. There are a lot of rules and calculation to guide you for a non-negative cash flow . But what drives up the value of the property? I think it is human. To be more specific, the demographic composition of the area your property resides. If the area is composed of highly educated people, the long term economic prospect will be good and property appreciation will be high. In an extreme case, if you turn your investment property into an incubator and rented out to entrepreneur, the payback and appreciation from the property can be huge.

What sets a great Chinese entrepreneur apart from a great entrepreneur: Confucius ethics

Yang Yuanqing, CEO of PC vendor Lenovo made news lately by sharing his $3.25 million bonus with 10000 Lenovo staff. Lenovo overtook HP to become world's biggest PC vendor, and Yang earned his bonus, by market standard. According Wikipedia's profile of Yang, he grew up in China before western market economy was introduced to communist China, and I assume he was influenced by Confucius philosophy in his upbringing. And his sharing of his bonus money with his staff manifests core belief in Confucius ethics, the superiority of personal exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. With market economy takes its root in China and more and more Chinese people are looking into Confucian ethics and philosophy for their identity in world stage, we can hope more and more great Chinese entrepreneurs like Yang will emerge, successfully blending western management acumen with eastern Confucian ethics.

野性回归

中国人教育孩子, "吾日三省吾身", 讲究自我批评,自我反省. 最高境界是不卑不亢,不温不火. 不这不那, 那是什么呢? 似乎没人追究. 如同鹅阮石, 圆滑没棱角, 可以融入任何环境, 但自己站立起来, 就会不稳. 感觉上欠缺些野性.

Neel Kashkari, 2008 经济危机中美国财政部$7000亿解危资金的管理人, 当他在2009年底从那个高压力高风险的位子上下来后, 他减压的办法就是躲进北加州茫茫大山中, 砍柴, 打猎, 用自己的双手盖了一个小木屋 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402016.html?sid=ST2009120402037). 按中国人的人才观念, Neel Kashkari 是个全才. 他做过NASA的工程师, 后来又投身华尔街成为一名对冲基金的管理人. 可从他减压的办法可以看出, 他刻意定期回归自然, 保持一点野性.

另一个例子是Google. Larry Page 和Sergy Brin 在公司创业早期, 每年夏天都会放下工作, 去Nevada沙漠中去参加一个名叫Burning Man Festival(http://www.burningman.com/)的活动. 在一周的时间内, 住帐篷, 共用洗浴设施, 过简单的生活, 用双手创造艺术作品, 最后付之一炬. 换个活法, 放弃一会儿, 用另一种态度去生活一会儿. 尤其是用一种物质乏匮的方式, 用一种只靠双手的方式生活. 所吃所用, 皆源于双手, 回归我们的祖先.

物质的丰裕, 使人如同开水锅里的青蛙, 水在一点点沸腾, 我们却在舒适中不觉. 需要跳出去, 跳到寒冷的地上, 哆唆着清醒.

Father-daughter chat series 1: Marshmallow test and danger of instant -gratification

There was a test conducted by Walter Mischel during 1960s at a preschool on the Stanford University campus. The researcher left a group of 4-year olds in a room with each one of them had one marshmallow with them. They were allowed to eat the marshmallow, but if they can wait 15 to 20 minutes until the researchers returned to the room, they can have two marshmallows for the treat.

The result: About one thirds of the 4-year olds waited until the researcher returns and got two marshmallows. A third or so didn't and ended up with only one marshmallow. What more striking is that when the same kids reached to high school graduation, the ones who couldn't wait had much lower SAT scores than those who could. In other words, by measuring your capability to resist instant gratification at early age we can predict your future success.

This is a test of self control, or what Walter Mischel described as "goal-directed self-imposed delay of gratification". It shows the importance of EQ or Emotional Intelligence to our success. And it is a better indicator of person's success than IQ.

Now imagine some other situations that need impulse control: abstinence, watching TV vs. reading a book, etc. With the temptation of instant-gratification, can you still maintain your control?

We live in an instant-gratification time; Internet ensures your gratification is met at speed of thought. Want that new movie in Blue-Ray? Several clicks through Amazon and it will show up at your doorstep a couple of days later. Can't wait to talk to the old friend face to face? Hop on MSN or AIM and turn on the webcam, you can talk to her or him right away. Now ask yourself as a parent: are you encouraging your kids into the activities that require delayed gratification? Would you take that computer or iPod away from kids and hand them the books and newspapers? Or even better, can you help your kids to divide the gratification into sub goals, make actionable plans to achieve these sub goals, and enjoy not only the final gratification but also every minute of the process?

Book Review: Paper Daughter A Memoir by M.Elaine Mar

From a perspective of an immigrant parent of an America born Chinese kid, reading the masterfully written Paper Daughter is a wake-up call. You see this talented little kid everybody loved back in Hong Kong struggled to fit in the life in America. Her parents worked like slave in restaurant, earned very little and spoke very little English. And they offered little help to little Elaine, as they themselves struggled to adjust life there too. This book offers an insight into the pain and struggle of an immigrant kid growing up in classed America.

The appearance: The author was born on Oct. 1^st, 1966 in Hong Kong. She graduated from Harvard University in 1988.

The perception: Many Chinese parents would think the author's parents are a success. Having an Ivy league trained kid means a lot in Chinese culture. The facts: The author's father immigrated to US in 1969 with the help of his sister (who supposedly is a US citizen), and the author and her mother followed him in 1971. When in US, both parents worked in a restaurant kitchen. They don't speak English, and they made $18000 combined per year in 1980 (not sure about the poverty line then, but I would think they were very close to it). With low social economic status and compounded by the author's own language barrier in early years in the US, the author struggled to find her identity growing up. And from the book, it seems the scar never heals.

The problem: Usually Chinese kids tend to focus on building up their IQ in their education, but not much attention has been put on EQ (Emotional Intelligence). The fact that the author can get into Harvard from the low-education, low-income family she grew up from says a lot about her high IQ. Yet even with the success she had in the academics, she still sheds a more negative light on her childhood. Glass is half empty here. Contrast to another book Big Russ and Me by Tim Russert, who also grew up in a family where parents are low-educated and medium-income(Russert's father is a city employee in upper New York city of Buffalo). In Russert's book, he painted a brighter picture of his mother and father, even though in reality his father and mother divorced. Glass is half full there.

Chinese parents tend to pay a lot more attention to kid's IQ development, and the high percentage of Chinese kids in IVY league school attest to this effort. But life, no matter how smart you are, is not a fair game. Things you deserve may not come to you and you have to take it and move on. How we Chinese parents better develop our kid's EQ while maintain our investment in IQ is going to be question we have to answer as the kid grows.

Using ASP.NET Application Services

MSDN has a very good walkthrough on exposing and using ASP.NET Application services at this link. Unfortunately, it is marred by several technical mistakes and lack of cautionary notes on connection issues commonly encountered in distributed system.

1. 
   
   When creating services mapping files(.svc) for Authentication, Profile and Role application services to the web site, instead of
   
   
   

   <%@ ServiceHost Service="System.Web.ApplicationServices.AuthenticationService" ServiceHosting="System.Web.ApplicationServices.ApplicationServicesHostFactory" %>,
   

   
   

   it should be
   

   
   

   <%@ ServiceHost Service="System.Web.ApplicationServices.AuthenticationService" Factory="System.Web.ApplicationServices.ApplicationServicesHostFactory" %>.
   

   
   

   Without this change, when you point to http://localhost:8080/YourWebAppName/AuthenticationService.svc, you will get a server error, like this one:
   
   

   
   

   
   



2. 
   
   In the walkthrough, the application services client is a windows console application. In GetProfileInfo() method, ProfileService proxy is instantiated like this:
   
   
   

   
   ProfileServiceClient profileSvc = new
   ProfileServiceClient();
   

   
   

   It should be like this:
   

   
   

   
   BasicHttpBinding binding = new
   BasicHttpBinding();
   

   
   

   
   string ProfileUri =
   

   
   

   
   @"http://localhost:8080/AppServicesWalkthrough/ProfileService.svc?wsdl";
   

   
   

   
   ProfileServiceClient profileSvc = new
   ProfileServiceClient(binding, new
   EndpointAddress(ProfileUri));
   

   
   

   
   In GetUserRole() method, RoleService proxy is instantiated like this:
   

   
   

   
   RoleServiceClient roleSvc = new
   RoleServiceClient();
   

   
   

   It should be like this:
   

   
   

   
   BasicHttpBinding binding = new
   BasicHttpBinding();
   

   
   

   
   string RoleUri =
   

   
   

   
   @"http://localhost:8080/AppServicesWalkthrough/RoleService.svc?wsdl";
   

   
   

   
   RoleServiceClient roleSvc = new
   RoleServiceClient(binding, new
   EndpointAddress(RoleUri));
   

   
   

   Essentially, without specifying binding info and service URI, the proxy will fail and generate the error like this one when you run the client and try to connect to application service:
   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
3. 
   
   To test the client, another thing you need to do but the document fails to mention is to disable firewall. If you don't you will bump into this error:
   
   
   
   

Learning AJAX and JavaScript(part 1):

Why learn JavaScript now?

Rich internet application(RIA) fattens the web UI considerably. HTML sprinkled with JavaScript event module won't cut it any longer. Before Silverlight and Air matures to a level that can seamlessly migrate current web app, JavaScript is the only option available.

Can't we rely on server technology such as ASP.NET/Google Web Toolkit to generate JavaScript for us(also referred as indirect Ajax programming)? Good question, and all these players are trying hard and they are getting there. But there still be the rare and critical situation in your project that you need to rollup your sleeves and do it yourself without help of tools. And I also think there are just too many indirection involved when using these tools. UI rendering requires a lot of trial and error iteration, and if tools add more steps in the middle, you may need to rethink about using them. Also Ajax as a web app pattern, there are still a lot to be explored and to explore we will need JavaScript as a tool to gain finer control of the whole HTTP communication process.

Cookbook approach to pick up JavaScript

1. How to do drag and drop?
   
2. How to create pop-up panel?
   
3. How to enable bookmark in Ajax app? (Google map uses "add a link" link to solve this)
   

Some patterns in JavaScript based fat UI

1. Browser-side templating(BST

   and this link
   

2. HTML Message (HTM) and this link
   

Comparison of Ajax library

1. ASP.NET Ajax library comparison
   

   http://www.daniel-zeiss.de/AJAXComparison/Results.htm
   

2. OSS Ajax library comparison
   

   http://www.sitepoint.com/article/javascript-library

Office Programming: Two Namespaces for navigation Package

There are two namespaces to leverage on when developing office application

• System.IO.Packaging in WindowsBase assembly and it is part of .NET framework 3.0 and 3.5
  
• DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging is in DocumentFormat.OpenXml assembly which is part of OpenXml SDK
  

Eric White has a very good post on the difference of the two namespaces

• http://blogs.msdn.com/ericwhite/archive/2007/12/20/what-is-the-difference-between-the-system-io-packaging-and-microsoft-office-documentformat-openxml-packaging-namespaces.aspx
  

The two namespaces serve the same purpose as to provide API to navigate within OpenXml document package, the difference is that DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging provides strongly typed classes ie. WordProcessingDocument, SpreadSheetDocument, PresentationDocument, while System.IO.Packaging doesn't.

Resources for System.IO.Packaging

• Word 2007 Content Control Toolkit, this is a handy tool written by Matt Scott for listing and adding content control to word if you want to bind them to custom Xml data source, it is provided with source code which also serves as a nontrivial sample of using System.IO.Packaging to customize Word.
  
• Manipulating Content in a WordProcessingML document, MSDN tutorial that uses System.IO.Packaging and LINQ to Xml to program word
  

Resources for DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging

• Manipulating Word 2007 Files with the Open XML Object Model (Part 1 of 3)
  
• Manipulating Word 2007 Files with the Open XML Object Model (Part 2 of 3)
  
• Manipulating Word 2007 Files with the Open XML Object Model (Part 3 of 3)

Customize Office 2007 Ribbon using Visual Studio 2008(Part 2)

In part 1 of the series, I posted a question as where are the Office Add-In built by VS 2008 saved, and today I somewhat find out an answer (though it is not complete answer yet) with help of this blog

• Deploying your VSTO Add-In to All Users (Part I)
  

The AddIn is physically located at C:\YourAddInDir\Bin\Debug, and when Office application starts, it looks into following registry location for custom AddIns developed by user

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\<App>\AddIns
  

To see it, open a PowerShell window, and do the following

• cd Registry:: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\AddIns
  
• dir
  
• get-itemproperty WordSearch format-list
  

Still some questions remain:

1. How many places the Office app look during its startup?
   
2. Where are all the MS built-in customizations located?
   

Book Review: The Bug A Novel by Ellen Ullman

How do I know about it: I was looking at Daemon reader comments, and one of the comment recommended this one. And as it happens, local library has a copy.

What I like: As a developer myself, I feel "real" about the story. The novel is about software developer and omnipresent bug fixing in software development process. A psychological drama with considerable twist of technical adventure, if you can appreciate some quite psudo code and C code. The author comes from a developer background as evidenced in the explanation of the bug and famous Game of Life by John Horton Conway. And its depiction of professional developer's daily life is realistic and truthful. It talked about the software development in early eighties, but the relevance still holds. I would give it 3 stars out of 5. People in software business will be able to appreciate it much better.

What I don't like: The book cannot be categorized as techno thriller. As exciting as bug finding and fixing is to brainy kids and developers, it just cannot stir the same excitement as true techno thriller. I am still looking forward to my shipment of Daemon from Amazon. Also a little too much algorithms explanation and coding deciphering in the book for non-software people.

Customize Office 2007 Ribbon using Visual Studio 2008(Part 1)

This link provides a good walk through on Ribbon customization using Visual Studio 2008.

Displaying a Directory Search Custom Task Pane from the 2007 Office Ribbon

The question is : Where are the new customization saved in ? normal.dotm? But inside it, I don't see a customUI.xml file.

Q&A: How to find all the idMso for Office applications

Q: Office 2007 comes with a new Ribbon user interface, and all the built-in controls on it have id, these ids are special id called idMso. For example, File Save button's idMso ="FileSave", Developer tab's idMso="TabDeveloper". To customize Ribbon UI, many times you need to know idMso for the built-in controls you want to customize. But how to find what all idMso are for Word, Excel, Access and Outlook?

A: According to Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 3), here is how:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Application Options.
   
2. Click Customize, and then select the item you want information about.
   
3. Move the pointer over the item. The dialog box displays the control's idMso value in a ScreenTip, in parentheses.
   

Vista: Search can be tricky

One of the most talked about features of Vista is its search capability. You can search from search bar on start menu, or you can search from Windows Explorer search box. But you can be tricked by search results. I was trying to search a customUI.xsd file that I pretty sure exist on my machine, but search bar on start menu said no.

I was a little taken aback. So I went to Windows Explorer and navigated to the directory where I believe the file exists, and did a search right there using Windows Explorer search box, Voila! This time search finds it, as shown in the picture below:

So the trick is to add the more locations to Vista search indexer. To add more locations, in Windows Explorer, type something random in search box to turn on the Search Tools option and set the index locations from there, as shown in picture below:

LINQ to XML: Use it with Office 2007 documents

Last couple of months I have been focusing on learning Language Integrated Query (LINQ). One flavor of LINQ is LINQ to XML, an extremely powerful XML API to query and transform XML data. One problem I had when learning LINQ to XML is that simple XML data like <Customer><Name>John Smith</Name></Customer> can only get you so far. Eric White mentioned in his blog that OpenXML(which is the underlying format for Office 2007) is a good source and provided some very good samples on using LINQ to XML to manipulate Office 2007 documents. With vast amount of data parking in Office documents, LINQ to XML should be a good tool for mining this valuable data source.

Here are some other good LINQ to XML tutorials:

• Query XML tree
  
• Pure functional transformation of XML
  
• How to retrieve Value of Element
  
• How to project Anonymous type
  
• How to filter an optional Element
  

Migration to Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5

Being a procrastinator, I finally take the dive and migrate to Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 platform today. By migration, I mean installing Visual Studio 2008 and converting all the VS 2005 projects to VS 2008. And uninstall Visual Studio 2005 completely from my hard drive. Part of the reason for the switch is that I have been learning LINQ for last couple of months on the VS08 installed on my laptop, and I feel comfortable enough now to upgrade my workhorse desktop setup to the VS2008. All things seem go well, the project I have been working on migrated well too. Everything compiles, including the website, WinForm application, DAL, BLL and all the goodies. And after a quick run-through, everything seems to work too. Next step: refactoring some of the code to more functional style and LINQish. Keep tuned.

Q&A: How to change file extension in Vista

Q: In Vista, how can I change a file named like FileWithWrongExtension.docx to FileWithWrongExtension.zip?

A: Open an Explorer window, click Organize dropdown on Ribbon bar, then select Folder and Search Options. This will bring up Folder Options window with General/View/Seach tabs. Click View tab, uncheck Hide extensions for known file types in Advanced Settings section. This will enable the Explorer to show file extension. Now you can change the file extension right there in the Explorer.

How to get ahead

Recently, due to the unexpected changes in life as it always is, I am out of job and find a lot of time on my hand. So I take advantage of it and start to check off the ever-growing To-Read/To-Do list that get accumulated during my hectic working days, lot of them new technologies that I found relevant yet didn't have time to explore. And also I a lot of catch up with all blogs I subscribe to and my own blogs.

Then it hits me that all those bloggers are working professionals too. Just like myself when I was employed, they have products to deliver and they have family and kids and they cannot always sit in front of the computer during their spare time. How could they find time to enrich themselves? How could they grow their skill and advance their career while serving the needs of their employer? Where did they find the time to research and blog about their research ?

Then I ran into this statement by Juval Lowy, a highly respected developer:

I think you have to be a professional developer. I think you have to understand that you have spent part of your time honing your skills, it's an ongoing life goal. It doesn't stop because you learn one thing, there is going to be changes. You should also search for a more nourishing business environment -- if they don't let you learn on the job [then] it's probably not the best place to work for.

Seriously I mean, the rate of change today is such that learning is part of the job. No ifs, no buts, that's the way it is.

Hah! That's it. If the place you work for just doesn't allow you to explore new things, you just won't get it. And if the culture in the workplace is against exploring new things, the innovation just won't thrive and all your poor souls just going to wither out like dry lily.

FIND A RIGHT PLACE TO WORK THAT IS HOW YOU GET AHEAD.

But how?

1. Only join a company that seeks to hire best. Even if you don't think you are the best, by all means, give it a try. When you work day in and day out with the best, you grow every day. Human beings are products of environment.
   
2. Only join a company that is the best in its niche. Good won't cut it. It has to be the great.
   

Book Review Peopleware: Productive project and teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister

How do I know about it: Joel Spolsky gave the booka glowing recommendation on his blog. Being a fan of Joel, I bought a copy.

Content:
The book is divided into five parts. Part 1: Managing the human resources, there are six chapters. Chapter 1: Somewhere today, a project is failing. Chapter 2: Make a cheeseburger, sell a cheeseburger. Chapter 3: Vienna waits for you. Chapter 4: Quality-If time permits. Chapter 5: Parkison's law revisited. Chapter 6: laetrile. Part 2: The office environment has seven chapters and one intermezzo. Chapter 7: The furniture police. Chapter 8: "You never get anything done around here". Chapter 9: Saving money on space. Intermezzo(according to the book,"an intermezzo is a fanciful digression inserted between the pages of an otherwise serious work"): Productivity measurement and unidentified flying objects. Chapter 10: Brain time versus body time. Chapter 11: The telephone. Chapter 12: Bring back the door. Chapter 13: Taking umbrella steps. Part 3: The right people has four chapters. Chapter 14: The hornblower factor. Chapter 15: Hiring a juggler. Chapter 16: Happy to be here. Chapter 17: The self-healing system. Part 4: Growing productive teams has six chapters, chapter 18: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Chapter 19: The black team. Chapter 20: Teamicide. Chapter 21: A spaghetti dinner. Chapter 22: Open kimono. Chapter 23: Chemistry for team formation. Part 5: It is supposed to be fun to work here has three chapters, chapter 24: Chaos and order. Chapter 25: Free electrons, chapter 26: Holgar Dansk.

What I like: It is a small book, with total of 188 pages and twenty six chapters. That puts average of 7 pages per chapter. The longest chapter is 12 pages and shortest one is 3. With short chapter, it is easier on readers concentration span. On the other hand, it puts high demands on author to deliver points efficiently. Overall, this book delivers. I feel I take home a clear message from each chapter. In terms of content, the book brought back a lot of dreaded memory of my previous project experience and shed a light on them. One now-defunct start-up I worked for before, the CTO went through a product design meeting with us engineers and wrote down the time needed on the whiteboard, then set a deadline that reduced the development time by one fifth. Guess what, the product was delivered overdue with a lot of bugs in them, and the whole engineering team had to be brought to the support side to fix the problem (at meantime making more bugs along the way). And years after the company imploded, I found the answer in the book.

What I dislike: None.

Quotables: "Quality, far beyond that required by the end user, is a means to higher productivity." "Quality is free, but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it." "The one thing that all the best organization shares is a preoccupation with being the best." And I especially like the authors quoting of "Vienna waits for you" by Billy Joel, oh, those good old days J

Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R.Covey

Why did I pick it up in the first place?
I just lost a close family member to chronic disease, and also lost my job due to my immigration status, I am short on goals but abundant in time for the first time in my adult life. And this book falls into my hand naturally.
What is the book all about?
Here are the 7 habits the book talks about, my translation in parenthesis:
1. Be proactive (You need to be in control of your life)
2. Begin with end in mind (Find out the things that matter most in your life)
3. Put first things first (How to manage your time)
4. Think Win/Win (How to manage your interpersonal relationship)
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood ( How to communicate with people)
6. Synergize ( How to manage team work )
7. Sharpen the saw ( How to renew yourself )
What I like?
All. It is not just a how-to type of time management book, it dives to the core of an effective life style: principle-centered, value-driven approach. It asks you to think about long-term life goals and from there find out your life principles, and based on those principles to organize and manage your life. It wrinkled with examples from author’s teaching and training experience. A thought provoking book. On top of that, the author also provides suggestions to implement and practice the 7 habits in your life. Very practical book too.
What I dislike?
The author coined P/C and P throughout the book, yet the definition of them are not easily found. The index doesn’t help with finding either. So just you know, P/C means Production Capacity, P means Production.
Conclusion
Highly recommend.

What difference does it make to be born in America(Continued)

The difference lies in the economy and what a difference it makes. Just read this and you realize the pressure a Chinese kid endures. In America, pressure to succeed in adulthood is also high, but at least kids are free from it mostly.In China, it starts way earlier in life. Do you know how many Chinese parents spend their whole life savings to send their kids abroad so that they can stand a chance in competition?

What difference does it make to be born in America(By Daddy again)

Smart kid seeks self identity at very early age. That is the case for Shannon. She makes a lot of comparisons between herself and other kids to get a concept of who she is and what makes her different to others. One interesting question she asked me lately is: what makes her different than the Chinese kids born in China? That gets me thinking: What difference does it make to be born in America?
(To be continued ...)

Thinking vs Talking(by Dad)

Shannon likes to talk. And some of her teachers think it is a weakness of her. Well, I beg to differ. She talks a lot because that is the way she thinks. She thinks out loud and likes to bounce around her idea with others. It is a not a weakness, it is a strength. When people thinks silently, a lot of effort are spent on keeping notes of short ends and making sure the thinking flows in a confined and focused way. It is not a very efficient way of thinking, at least in my own experience, when I think silently, my thinking tends to flow in all direction and sometimes staggers in one point and not moving ahead. By thinking out loud and communicating with other people, you essentially offset to your listeners the task of keeping the thinking focused and making sure it is moving forward.

The question is how to effectively guide her thinking and talking so that the thinking process move forward and move fast. In other words, ask her good questions.