Ten cool things about Marissa Mayer

1. among the best: No. 3 on the 40 under 40 according to Fortune edition October 29, 2012.

2. wears multiple hats: A CEO, a Mom (to a baby boy since September 30, 2012), a wife (to Zack Bogue since 2009).

3. visionary and ambitious:
(A) Google’s 20th employee, Google’s 1st female engineer. She was offered a job in Oracle, Toyota, Carnegie Mellon, McKinsey, Google. If she went to McKinsey, she could give advice to Fortune 500 companies, but she chose Google (to help change the world), although she admitted that she gave the drilling Sergey Brin and the quiet Larry Page a 2% chance.
(B) has planned to make Yahoo "the absolute best place to work". Will this talent-focused approach make Yahoo’s products more innovative and delightful?
(C) Marissa told Yahoo employees that she will follow
"the rule of 100 million", invest only in products and ventures hat have a good shot at reaching 100 million users and $100 million in revenue. Possible e.g. PubMatic, Criteo, Pulse, Flipboard.

4. Courage to move out of comfort zone. Her personal career credo: "Do things that you’re not quite ready to do. And surround yourself with the smartest people." She gave up daily programming that she loved for moving into management.

5. nurture talent: leadership depends on nurturing talent. Delegate to succeed. Her proteges include Jess Lee (CEO of fashion startup Polyvore).
incredibly energetic, loves hard work, she pulled an all-nighter at least once weekly in Google’s early days. Sometimes I wonder if over-work results in a trade-off, e.g. beauty for women. I find that her photograph by Robyn Twomey used by the Fortune magazine (p49) makes her look older with a line on cheek and no smile. As a woman, I prefer to look younger and smiling.

6. transparent: she admits that she is an introvert, but she is not a loner.

7. Well-educated: In undergraduate, she focused on symbolic systems, that integrates psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science. Aims: to figure out how people learn and reason, to endow computers with human-like behavior. She later graduated from Stanford with a master’s degree in computer science. Before then, she got accepted at every college she applied to (Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, Duke, 6 others). It is always good to be interdisciplinary.

8. Well-rounded: her Dad was a water-treatment plants engineer, Mom an art teacher, brother is sport (hockey)-loving. Her Mom instilled in her a willingness to try anything; every day of the week, her Mom took her to a different lesson: swimming, skating, ballet, piano, cake decorating.
This can be an inspiring plan for my progeny.
In high school, Marissa was an all-round over-achiever:
captain of the debate team.
captain of pom-pom squad, thanks to her sheer talent, hard work, fairness.

9. data-driven (she used spreadsheet / matrix to decide which college to attend, which of her 14 job offers to choose upon graduation), democratic, fun.

10. acronym-loving e.g. PB&J = Process, Bureaucracy, Jams.

Reasons why Blueroselady needs a 50mm lens

1. light (in term of weight)
2. makes you think / walk
3. everything looks right
4. versatile
5. bokeh (I always LOVE THIS)
5. fast (to capture the spontaneous action of our subjects e.g. baby)
6. f/1.4 allows taking photos in low light condition
7. can take portraits with depth of field (LOVE THIS)

AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G (SGD$339)
AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G (SGD$1019)
AF 50mm f/1.8D (SGD$229)
AF 50mm f/1.4D (SGD$649)
Pricing info is as of December 2012

I want to buy AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. eBay sells at SGD297.
USD220 (according to Nikon USA website), which is cheaper!

Tips: how to maximize your Blackberry camera

Keep the lens clean.
Remove oil (from our skin), dust, debris.
Use a cotton bud to clean the lens.
The first time I cleaned my Blackberry camera lens (after using for more than a year) using a tissue paper, the tissue paper was stained in black. OMG!

Rename photos upon taking them.
Useful for file management.
I love the date as part of the auto-name for every photo taken using Blackberry.

Camera = scanner / copy machine.
For
submitted documents, e.g. medical claims / medical leave certs.
photographing valuables (for insurance purposes).
price tags across different supermarkets (to ensure you obtain the cheapest bargain).
some pages of books.
slides in talks.
useful newspaper articles.

Camera setting.
White balance: fluorescent. Personally, I found that this is the most realistic. The automatic is too dark.
Pictures size & quality: I use the highest quality.

For fun:
For filter effect, try shooting through sunglasses / color-tinted glass / plastic.
For macro / close-ups, try shooting through a magnifying glass (if not too troublesome to carry around).

Do not zoom. It is a digital not an optical zoom, which means it only magnifies the pixels in the camera.

Hold your phone firmly to prevent blur picture.
There is a lag in the shutter, expect about a half-second delay from when you depress the shutter to when it takes the picture

Hold your hand over the phone to shield the sun.

The BlackBerry Pearl has a voice recorder that allows you to attach up to a minute of digital audio to a photo.

Some of tips here are inspired by John Tlumacki, a Boston Globe travel writer. Thank you!

Desirable mobile phone

camera to take picture sharply (even in dim light) without sound, bonus: instagram.
voice recorder (mic).
video recorder.
can listen to voice notes and songs, bonus: radio.
notes in txt format.
can work with MS Word, Excel.
can read PDF, bonus: can annotate PDF.
calendar synchronized with Google calendar.
alarm clock.
compass for direction.
calculator (including power function).
map functions.

Miscellaneous in May 2012

@~@
世上不劳而获的，我想只有父母的爱。
A joke: But part of you (before you were fertilized) swam really hard, so there is no free lunch in this world.

@~@
An admirer HY graduated this month a year ago and brought his parents around. I am proud of you!
Love Story(1970) – Theme From Love Story (Finale)

I am sorry that I did not say NO well, hope that I would not hurt you too much. His Dad has artistic interest, he has musical interest, all of you seem so talented to me.
Honestly, I can be a hard core geek, so I was looking for a non-geek.

@~@
Sometimes life can overwhelm you with work.
Just prioritize and knock things out 1 at a time.

@~@
May 15th
I suffered a sudden sharp facial pain or headache during descent, which increases as the aircraft approaches ground level.
This is termed as aerosinusitis.
Particularly for my case was sinus frontalis.
Perhaps, I had suffered from nose blocking for the past few days. How to treat? The air stewardess gave me a sweet.

This indicates that I have a vulnerable sinus. Thus, I must be more careful than others.
How to prevent in the future?
Chronic sinusitis is a condition that is present for more than three months. My pain subsided after the plan landed, so I am OK.

Note: Inflammations of the frontal sinus can give rise to serious complications, as it is in close proximity to the orbit and cranial cavity (orbital cellulitis, epidural and subdural abscess,
meningitis).

@~@
Install VLC Media Player so that I can listen to my voice notes taken using BB (in im laptop).

@~@
I win Revlon gift set.
Though the collection site is remote (hence it took a morning in the 1st week of May), yet I met a heroine of mine today (a female driver who earns $1,200 monthly). Without her, I would have to walk in heavy rain. Thank you!

New eyeshadow (Revlon CustomEyes 020 Naturally Glamorous): Keep. It is time to throw / give away my old, very seldom use eyeshadow. New lipstick: macaroon. will give away as a gift. My lips are naturally red. I love my lips. I am loyal to my only lipstick that can change color according to the layers of application.
New mascara (001 blackest black): it is time to throw away old clotted dried mascara. Before I throw them away, I can declot and create an art piece.
New foundation (Revlon PhotoReady 006 Medium Beige): to give away, does not match my skin tone (I wish it is 001 Ivory). I love my Kose foundation.
Revlon 020 Tawny Peach powder blush: Ultra-soft powder blush adds a natural burst of color to cheeks. Blends smoothly and easily for a streak-free finish.
Revlon beyond natural smoothing primer: to apply before foundation.

Wanted! Dual boot Windows Linux

Next month, my dearest Gateway laptop is celebrating 2nd anniversary.

She is my 3rd laptop, after Toshiba (1st), HP (2nd).

She is getting slower than ever. HELP!

Is it because I have filled her with so many data?

I need to sort out a number of files in my laptop.

I want a dual boot Windows Linux.

The IT officer can help me to convert the Gateway into a dual boot.

The pro of Windows:

1. MS Office – EndNote.

2. Adobe Acrobat. create PDF from multiple files. Save as JPG, PNG, PDF format. Photoshop (seems better than Gimp). Can highlight my PDF files. can save with password.

3. Irfanview – batch rename / convert images files.

4. CutePDF

5. WinRar.

I seldom use them now:

Windows live messenger.

Putty, WinSCP

I am going to try these:

1. to create a PDF from multiple files in Linux: http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/

2. There is no native-Linux version of IrfanView. However, you can use IrfanView in conjunction with Linux programs like WINE.

Wine enables running windows application on linux.

3. winrar for linux : http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5168-winrar-for-linux.html

The pro of Linux:

1. FREE. open source.

2. command lines : ls, grep, rm, mv, cp, ssh, scp

3. R

Things that can work in both Windows and Linux:

1. Notepad++ (Windows) vs gedit (Linux).

2. internet browser (chrome, firefox).

3. Skype.

4. QQ (as long as I have internet browser, http://web.qq.com/)

5. VLC media player

6. LaTeX

It is important for me to have a partition that can be accessed by both Windows and Linux.

Now, I love to store my data in simple text file.

Then, I can highlight them using text editor (or save as .rb or .r)

But how to store Chinese characters in simple text file?

I do not play games, do not watch movies on my laptop. Can you believe it?

Honestly, I dislike staring at monitors for too long.

Thankfully, I can connect my laptop to our TV for editing jobs.

Still, I prefer to read hard copies or rest my eyes by appreciating nature.

Sometimes, I consider of giving my Windows 7 up, and be a 100% Linux; yet there are features of Windows that I love of course (see above).

Alternatives:

I can use the Windows of my partner when he is sleeping.

I cannot live without either Windows or Linux.
I heard that Mac combines both features, yet Mac seems to be expensive to me.

I welcome any advice and suggestions 🙂

Pray and Back-up

@Mar 15, 2011
I feel sad about what happen in Japan. They seem to suffer from multitude of disasters. Earthquakes, tsunami, nuclear radiation, and volcano eruption.
I admire and respect those rescue workers, risking their lives to save others. Some of my friends went to Aceh and Sichuan to aid, they are very kind-hearted and courageous. You all are heroes!

What is the most important?
My father said that we only live once, we have to cherish our lives. Be careful when we travel (cross the road, do not overdrink, rush for train / bus). While we are careful road users, others may not, so we have to be precautious againsts others too.
My father prepared a rope so that in the event of fire, we could climb down using it.
My mother experienced her home being burnt down from fire. Except from clothes that she calmly managed to wrap around using large bed cloth, she lost everything, including her childhood photos.
With today technologies, back-up our photos (memories) online or in e-mails to your closed kins / friends (if you want to keep them private).
I also suggest you to back-up your birth cert, identity card, travel documents (e.g. passport), baptism, and academic certs.
Academic certs are required for job / further studies applications.

We cannot back-up our lives, we can only pray more to God and be more careful.
Realizing how vulnerable we are, we can only live our lives with diligence, perseverance, respect, humility.
Count our blessings and be grateful.
Always have faith and hope, in God, in a better future!

@ Apr, 2011
A lesson from April 2011.
How to prevent data loss?
Back-up your files in computer:
(1) email them to your inbox.
(2) back-up at thumbdrive / to other computer using .sh file which runs multiple scp commands.
(3) perhaps in future, auto sync across computers.

Tips: linux

Hummingbird Exceed: to link to Unix.
WinSCP3: to transfer files.

How to bulk rename files from the terminal:
rename -n ‘s/\.png$/\_26Nov09.png/’ all_*.png # to check
rename -v ‘s/\.png$/\_26Nov09.png/’ all_*.png # to run

My ideal mobile phone

As of May 2011, I am contented with a phone with the following functions:
basic phone functions (talk, text messages, call logs, caller IDs, alarm clock).
media (listen to music, snap pictures, record voices).
read and take notes (with a transferable capacity to my laptop).

Though my current BB has a calendar, I prefer Google Calendar and text format: 1 line per event.

In future, I may want to have:
map + transport info
compass
weather (especially for places such as England)
internet access
stock performance data

Week ending June 27th, 2010

How to install Adobe CS from DVD on a laptop without DVD-drive?

Get Folder2ISO from http://www.trustfm.net/divx/SoftwareFolder2Iso.html

How to use Folder2ISO:
Step 1: Run the Folder2ISO program
Step 2: Use the folder browser to locate the folder which you want to convert.
Step 3: Now select the destination folder where you want to save your ISO file.
Step 4: If you want give a label to the ISO file which you are going to create.
Step 5: Now go on and generate your ISO file from your folder.

Reference: http://www.shivaranjan.com/2006/09/26/how-to-create-iso-file-from-folders-and-cd-dvd/

How to uninstall Adobe CS4?
Remove all Adobe in old laptop: (1) Deactivate the license, (2) Control Panel -> Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium -> uninstall
Get a portable DVD drive for new laptop -> Just follow the instruction.

@~@
Once upon a time, we received a letter of encouragement from Australia Prime Minister, Julia. So lucky to be us!

@~@
Today activities:
did packing for upcoming multi-destination trips.
did sweeping and mopping home.
got my Adobe CS4 ready, thanks to roommate.
made Honey happy.
attended an evening mass.
had a Japanese dinner: raw salmon, pork ramen, lobster salad sushi, fried salmon skin.
shopped for almost 50 pieces of disposable underwears.
replied emails from stranded passengers and an aspiring student.