Shanghai’s Visibility Depends on Wind

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I am sure I am not the first one to discover it. The rule is, if the wind blows from the east to the west, Shanghai is always as clear and beautiful. The visibility is very high, and I can see both Jinmao Tower, and the World Finance Center in Pudong from my office in Puxi. The wind from the east is from the Pacific Ocean, and it brings fresh air.

If the wind blows from west to east, Shanghai will be dirty and visibility is very low.

In most of the time, the wind in Shanghai blows from the north west to south east – as the wind of this latitude around the world, and the blue sky and clear sky in Shanghai is not as many as the bad time.

Anyone also observed the same thing?

Yifan’s Drawing of Dad and Him

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Yifan pick up a chalk and drew the following drawing on the floor at home.

I assume the left bigger one is Dad (me) and the right one is Yifan himself. I don’t know where he got the inspiration from. From kindergarden or from some of my drawings?

I just cannot keep it on floor for too long so I take the photo and save it digitally.

Yifan was very happy today because we took him to a Japanese restaurant downstairs to eat the “all-you-can-eat” package. Wendy and I paid for our parts and Yifan is free of charge because he is not o110 cm in height yet. Obviously that was a bad rule since Yifan actually ate more than I did. He was so happy with the food and kept singing for an hour after dinner.

Yifan, we love you.

Always Make New Mistakes

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Last night, I had nice dinner with my friend Doug, Haisong and a group of venture capitalists at Lao Maotou (we talked about the silliness of it’s English name, the Cool Dock).

I was impressed by Pascal Levensohn. He mentioned about his belief of his work: always make new mistakes.

I assume the meaning was

1. Don’t make the same mistakes twice.

2. Be aggressive and brave enough to try new things, acknowledging the possibility that it may be a new mistake.

Thanks, Pascal.

The Function of Hair

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I start to realize the function of hair when I don’thave it. The key function is

  • It helps to keep you warm. It is a raining day and I just cannot walk outside. I actually got cold a little bit. Is it relates to the hair?

I Got Shaven Head – Part II

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Some interesting observation. After I got my head shaven, I realized that my world does not change at all. I cannot see any change from my eyes, unless I unintentionally glance into a mirror. Other than that, nothing.

But the world changes more for people around me. They have to get used to a new image of a person.

Isn’t it interesting enough? The change of a person does not has impact on him, but the world around it. I may have changed a lot in the last few years (lucky me. I can trace the change in very details in the 9 years of blogging, and I can see it), but I am totally unaware of it. It is people around me who felt the change. What I can feel is the interaction between me and my friend. Change of hair style (or in my case, with or without it) is more visible than the change in characters. There is no such a thing called personality mirror so my friends may be the only way to act as the mirror so you can discover the change.

I Got Shaven Head

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Don’t be surprised, and Yes, I was serious. I had all the hair shaven today. This was a promise I made many months ago, that when the business of Baixing reaches certain level (I don’t disclose the amount here), I will have my head shaven, as a celebration ceremony. Obviously, the Baixing team got excited about my head shaving. They did it by themselves for me. I am happy to have a great team, that I can share my happiness with. Actually, I didn’t seriously think about it until we had celebration, and after I am home, and watch myself in the mirror. Ops! :-)

It takes some time for the hair to grow up a little bit. This is the first time in my life to get haven head, and what a fail it is that I didn’t try it in the first 30+ years!

Happy Birthday to Xiaoliang

Today is Xiaoliang’s birthday. Happy Birthday!

Hosting Students

I hosted some MBA students from Berkeley. I did it the last time for National University of Singapore. Talking with young smart students are always my favorite, and it helps me to keep thinking – they ask really good questions, and it keeps me younger (well, I am not old, but still older than university students). Thanks Emma for making it happen.

A Template Day

Today is a pretty good template for me as a CEO – to meet with different people from different world, and put them together. Hope I will refer to today as a template to transform my daily routine life.

Baixing’s TVC Created by Users

After Baixing’s first TVC were on air, hundreds of users started to create their version of TVC. Here are just a very small portion of the creation we collected. Click on the links to see the lovely users of Baixing community.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/hr7dCp8rmMw/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/wotQv–17Lo/

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY3OTcwNTYw.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDAzNDMy.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDE5ODEy.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDcyOTEy.html

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/O1Et4MKPowI/

http://www.56.com/u95/v_NjA2MTM5NTY.html

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/xQG95rzh6W4/

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDMzMzA0.html

http://js.tudouui.com/bin/player2/opn_3.swf?iid=83833355

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDY1ODgw.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDY0MTky.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDc3NTIw.html

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/NKNEP-oS9PM/

http://u.youku.com/user_show/uid_hbgdyjlz99

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Us1L3UecG-8/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/w7dgeImx658/

http://www.56.com/u71/v_NjA2MTgwNjg.html

http://www.56.com/u94/v_NjA2MTg0NDM.html

http://boke.qq.com/play.html?v=7cTiFnQcyfz

http://images.56.com/flashApp/56.11.05.13.swf?vid=NjA2MTgyMDc&ref

http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/52626773-1805579555.html

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/L8bsZvLVRWQ/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Ve_abg22BbE/

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MDczMDg0.html

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Ve_abg22BbE/

http://www.56.com/u95/v_NjA2MTM5NTY.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY4MTE0MzAw.html

http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/52679482-1096728725.html

Life without Coffee or Tea

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I decided to try life without coffee, tea or spicy food from two weeks ago. So far, I feel great.

I said good bye to Starbucks or Coffee Beans and enjoyed water and orange juice more often.

I also tried to sleep earlier and to try to think more and doing more important but less stuff. By giving some constrains to life, do we lead a more spiritual live?

I will share my answer after I practice for more time.

China may Bypass Lots of Things

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Today, when I had dinner with Bruce, he asked the question about credit card. I had been following credit card usage in Shanghai for many years, and witnessed the transition from very hard to use to very popular today. However, I just realized that maybe Chinese will directly bypass credit card stage.

Something we may ignore is, credit card system was invented well before Internet, or even computer was invented. Since there is no way to trace usage of money in real time, people at that time either use “check”, or credit card – one for debit, and one for credit.

In China, people tend to use debit card protected with password, over credit card. They are essentially the same user experience in China. The computer system connects with the mainstream machine back in bank, and authorize in real time.

When that system is in place, why bother using credit card. PayPal type of services, or mobile payment will continue to evolve and provide better solution than credit card. Then why bother?

That also answered the question why Chinese people don’t use check. I never have a check book, and I believe no one in my close circle in China ever wrote a check.

It is the same for other things. Chinese have passed the whole generation of

– Fax

– Voice mail

– Taped movie

– Calendar

– Fixed line phones (in some rural areas).

We did catch up the CD, DVD, and VCD age, that is the reason when online downloading has been so convenient, most people still prefer buying DVD, because they have the infrastructure of DVD machine at home…

See? Technical trends always get dragged back by social trends.

An Even Better Way to Record Life than Twitter

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I thought twitter, and in China, its counterpart (copier) Weibo, was

the best way to record life, especially with the nicely done iPhone

App. I know blogger.com has the ability to allow people send emails to

it, and have it posted. MovableType has a plugin called PostOffice,

that serve exactly the same propose. Now, i am writing an email to an

email address I setup, and it will automatically appear on my blog.

Pretty old technology, but it works. The good thing is, I can start to

use as many applications, including email clients to send to this

address.

Hopefully, you will see this post within few seconds. MovableType is

still great.

Five Sentenc.es

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To keep an email as short as five sentences sounds like a great idea. Twitter is a way to simplify our lives with fixed amount of characters (with the problems that people write more often than before). Put some constrains to life actually makes it more efficient. What is the constrain you put to your life?

——————————————–

Q: Why is this email(blog) five sentences or less?

A: http://five.sentenc.es

GMail Partially Blocked

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The long-lasting concern that other Google application will be banned in China after Search became a reality. In the recent two months, Gmail has been more and more inaccessible.

I am still not sure what is happening behind, Gmail is just on and off with some functions like “send”, or “view” hanging there for ever. That, I assume, will also promote the usage of VPN in China in the tech space. At least I have to rely on VPN to access Gmail.

I am just curious about how the history will record these interesting period of time. Does it finally settle in the textbook just as we settle Culture Revolution? People like me already have no idea to feel the exact frustration, pain, and hopeless of that era. What will people feel after 50 years? Can they feel the frustration we have today?

History forgets itself, and repeats itself. Always. Sometimes when I am driving along the Hong Kou District and see those Jewish buildings. That reminds me of the terrible time during the WII. At least, the buildings are still there. But in a digital world, after few decades, when all the websites, and digital stuff disappear, what is left?

Office Renovation Started

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We are starting to design our new office, and obviously, we have great ideas about what the new office environment should look like. Here are some of my note, and I would love my readers to share some insights about what is important for an Internet company office.

  • There should be combined relax corner with sofa, foods, books and business oriented meeting rooms.
  • There will be as many places to write on, to stick notes on as possible, since whiteboards, glass boards, and writable walls inviting and engaging people discussion.
  • A very clean office with well managed facility.
  • The best view of windows should be reserved for as many people as possible. That means, offices and meeting rooms should be built at places without window, and leave the view of window to people. I hate offices with offices for upper management at window and squeeze people with cubicles in the middle.
  • Walls should be either be whiteboard, or decorated with wall painting. Avoid white walls.
  • Put drinking machines in central location, and build environments to allow people to interact around the drinking machine. The same for the door to the rest room. Because drinking machine, and the rest room hall ways are two places people get to so frequently, where communication happens.
  • Encourage people to decorate their own office space with photos.
  • Design paths in the office to allow the design of one clear “main street” where people can gather and greet each other during the work.
  • Put important metrics at most dominate places, say, the entrance so people can see it easily everyday.
  • Lighting is always important to make an office comfortable.
  • There must be a “mixer” area, to balance the natural groups of people – people tend to communicate with people around them, with rare chance to talk with others in other corner. If there is space to allow people from different corner to participate in one activity – like print machine, or breakfast table, that will help communication a lot.
  • Use as many places as possible to increase the internal brand awareness of the company brand, and the brand of individual product – to make it “famous” brand at least within the office with posters, and videos.

Anything else?

Baixing’s First TV Commerical

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I’d like to share with you the first TV Commercial of Baixing.

Hope you enjoy it. I enjoy the process of creating the clip with elements of Shanghai architect, the traditional pop-corn machine, and the quick disappearing refrigerator.

No matter what we do, we want to do it with confidence, professionalism, and a sense of hummer.

If you see it on TV, please let me know. :-)

Great YLF Dinner in Shanghai

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Finally, we had 10 persons for the YLF gather. Todd, and Gregg flew from US, and others from Xia’men and Beijing…

Jian Shuo

Haisong

Greg

Todd

Ming

Hong

Ron

Brice

Sean

Doug

It was always inspiring to talk with the YLFers. We chatted about a great variety of topics, You can imagine to put a group of people mixed of American and Chinese, and career from great architect, to lawyer, to government official, to military, to TV anchor, to investor… what people will share, and especially when many people have spent quality time together for almost ten years.

This is the tenth year of the wonderful program (YLF), and we are going to have a huge gather in China at the end of Oct. Where will the 10 year party be? Tibet? Inner Mongolia? Taiwan?

Resuming Blogging

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I am resuming blogging. The blog is not dead, just cooler, when I experimented to use Sina weibo (twitter like services). Obviously, the challenge of simpler, and quicker twitter model presented is big for blogging and bloggers. I am embracing both.

I am in Beijing now, and will return to Shanghai tomorrow. It is just a quick visit, so I skipped meeting most of my friends in Beijing.

The Advantage of Traveler

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1. As traveler, every in town loves to meet you since you are there just few days out of the year. For people in their own city, you’d better think of really good reasons before you call.

2. Traveler arrange their time according to whathe/she want to do, not what others want him/her to do. Most of the time, the traveler’s calendar for the days is blank initially waiting to be actively filled. For people in town, they have to deal with routines even their calendar is blank.

3. Traveler has the sensation of time. Every half an hour matters. For people in town, the life is endless without hard deadline like the return flight traveler’s have.