Smart Homes

Imagine all the systems in your home (hvac, electrical, hyrdo, lighting, security, electronics/appliances, motion/environmental sensors) are linked wirelessly to a central computer interface at home, with a dashboard and guage/meter giving direct quantitative feedbacks to the performance and consumption volume for each of these systems. An algorithm could be set up to run all these linked systems (by switching on the 'energy-saving mode like on your laptop) that respond to changing weather conditions, occupancy load, and fluctuation in utility pricing throughout the day to avoid costly peak hour consumptions. You could also override the system via your smart phone by inputing your own custom preferences with regards to your lifestyle behaviour, routine activities, and personal comfort.

Ref:http://www.thezeroprize.net/images/lets_do_for_buildings_what_we_have_done_for_cars_cndn.pdf

Mass customization

Laminated timber framed roof covered in transulent fiberglass + teflon textile designed by Shigeru Ban for Center Pompidou in Metz France. Each of 1800 individual timer beam is unique in size and cut robotically by a 5 axis CNC mill. Parametric modeling (done by swiss firm designtoproduction) makes mass customization possible. Total cost of custom roof is 8 million euro, representing approx. 13% of total construction cost (65 million).

Daymond John in 5

1. "Luck is when desire and fate meets opportunities"...the harder you work, the luckier you get.

2. "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing"

3. "Sacrifice is giving up something of lesser value for something of greater value."

4. "If you work for money, one day will seem like forever. But if you work for love, forever will seem like one day."

5. "The world is full of talented people who are technically proficient but lack the drive or the instincts or the contacts to make a meaningful impact."

- Daymond John, Co-founder/CEO/Brand-master of FUBU.
source: "Display of Power" 2007

Wireless Interface - Smart Homes of the future

Failure

"Losing is a part of winning, anybody who try only to win and never to lose could never ever win" - Robert Kiyosaki

"Failure is an option, fear is not." - James Cameron, TED speech

"Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me...It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default." - J.K.. Rowling, Harvard Speech

Simply said, failure is a learning process of becoming successful if you choose to learn from those failures. Picasso and Jobs are always risking failures... There's no doubt that you will fail several times in your life, but its how you respond to failure that's more important.

How do you know what success is if you haven't fail?

NY Times Invention of the Year 2010

It is only when people witness the consequences of their actions in person that they start taking their actions seriously.

NY Times Best invention of the year 2009: Energy Hub

An device connected to your electric meter at home showing every bit of your electricity usage and the amount of $$ you're spending for every light/appliance/etc you choose to turn on. Information in this case is used to generate behavioral awareness about consumption habits of homeowners.

Odds versus Performance

"People dont fail,they simply quite before they learned the necessary skills to do them" - Tim Sales


Which matters the most - odds or performance? Odds dont matter when performance is invovled. Your odds of success will certainly be greater if you've learned and practiced the necessary skills to perform successfully.

Great Quote on Paradigm Shift

"All truth passes through three stages:

First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher

Socrates, Plato, Palladio, Da Vinci, Copernicus, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Jørn Utzon, I.M. Pei, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Frank Gehry, Greg Lynn, and....

Theory of Exponential Growth

Us humans don't realize the practicality of certain issues until its too late as things often accelerate exponentially in severity and effects just slightly before its tipping point, whether its about Climate Crisis, Peak Oil, Gold Price, Financial Crisis, Personal Health, Species Extinctions, Fresh Water Shortage, etc; we've always failed to comprehend the power of Exponential Growth that defines the order of our Universe. This clip explains really well, serving as an reminder for us to simply 'Start before its too late' - ignorance is a sin.

Make Sense !

"The best financial assets for a person to own would be those over which he has peculiar knowledge of expertise." - Randal J. Kirk, a Pharmaceutical tycoon

But always learn to know what you need to learn, even though you don't want to learn it.

Truth of Capitalism: How a Billionaire pays less income tax % than you

Full article:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/1994/01/01/88600/index.htm

Unrealized capital gains:
http://www.ctj.org/hid_ent/part-2/part2-2.htm

'5% of world's population controls over 95% of world's wealth'

Lesson on making your first million

"Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spent" - Thomas Stanley, The Millionaire Next Door

Hard-work, perseverance, planning, goal oriented, self-disciplined

Like all sports, must learn to play offense (earning) and defense (saving)

Know the difference between Income and Wealth.

Don't be a cowboy with "big hat, but no cattle"

Taxes are the greatest expense of your life time.

Concentrate on building cashflow over realized income.

Subjectivity and ambiguity are essence of Art - "仁者見仁 智者見智, 在欣賞永遠是作品的再創造"

"You have to commit an enormous number of hours and hard work. Then, you have to make sure you're prepared to work that much harder to bring it to another level." - Rebecca MacDonald, Just Energy Income Fund

The Heart Talk

"While the heard itself is hidden, the acts it inspires are there for everyone to see." - Michael Jordan, induction speech to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Why not to shop for Christmas: the Economy of Consumption

Our current economy is based on models of consumption, i.e. more consumed = more profit....but the critical issue we eventually have to arrive at is the fact that our resources are finite; the day we run out of resource is the day our economy stops growing...to avoid this we must come up with an economic model based on conservation over consumption, where the values (both economically and morally) are generated in the amount we give back instead of taken....

With the rising concern of climate crisis, we are preaching the tipping point where consumption will no longer have as much economic benefit (both short-term and long) as it used to have (theory of diminishing return: where it will take more in the future than now to achieve the equivalent desired effects)

The future challenge lies in our ability to build an economic system that profits from conservation, not consumption, Carbon Trading is a start.

"Our needs are little, yet our wants are always infinite."

Edward de Bono in 5

1. "Proof may be no more than the lack of imagination."

2. "The natural tendency of mind is toward certainty, security and arrogance...We need to pay equal attention to possibility...possibility is the key to creativity."

3. "Information may be about facts, but the way the information is seen is a matter of perception."

4. "We are very happy with what we have because we cannot conceive of anything better- and until we can conceive of something better we are not motivated to look for it."

5. "When everything becomes a commodity what is going to matter is the ability to design and deliver values. That needs creative and design thinking."

- Edward de Bono, an expert on creative thinking

Fear-less

"Fear limits our options, strangles creativity, restricts our vision of what is possible. If we're lost in fear, we view any change as a threat, and the unfamiliar as a mortal enemy."- Michelle Graves

恩人們...我一定 - 忘不了

詞曲：童安格　

為何一轉眼
時光飛逝如電
看不清的歲月
抹不去從前
就像一陣風
吹落恩恩和怨怨
也許你和我
沒有誰對誰錯

忘不了你的淚
忘不了你的好
忘不了醉人的纏綿
也忘不了你的誓言

何不讓這場夢
沒有醒來的時候
只有你和我, 直到永~遠

..只有你和我...逆爭上~緣

Li Ka-Shing in 5

1. "The strength of a nation and its people depend on education and medical care. These are the country's roots. And like a tree, the deeper its roots, the more flourishing its branches and foliage."

2. "You can use your skills to earn respect, but you will only touch others with your contributions."

3. "Perhaps the key to success is to identify your moral and intellectual coordinates. A life without principles is a life without direction."

4. "I believe in freedom as I believe in responsibility."

5. "Your life is meaningful if you can honestly say that you have done your best to do some good."

- Li Ka-Shing - Chairman, Cheung Kong & Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

"You can't improve unless you want to improve." - Lebron James

Advice from the Dragons

Robert Herjavec, CEO - Herjavec Group (internet security):

"Work hard, have fun, be nice, play fair, dream big. We only get one chance at this, one life to live. If you're going to play this game, play it to win."


Brett Wilson, Chairman - Prairie Merchant (Venture Capital):

"Just because something works doesn't mean it can't be better."

"..life is about balancing passion with priorities. Simply being excited is wandering aimlessly. And a plan with no passion is empty."


Kevin O'Leary, O'Leary Funds:

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. You have to get up in the morning after the worst day you ever had and go back to work."

"It's true that money doesn't buy you happiness, but it sure makes misery a lot easier to take."

"None of us own our lives - we are all living on borrowed time, if you're going to do it - do it now!" - Oprah

"你可以感動人, 哪怕你的(歌唱)技巧沒有那摸會轉,成熟, 那都還成立. 可是不管你如何會轉, 但都不感人, 對我來說是沒用的"- 林隆旋

Power of '1'

"Somethings you just can't achieve alone. But like all other things, they started from 1 person." - Seth Godin

"You are the authority of what's not possible" - Vincent Antoine Freeman

"假的東西永遠都會被真的沖掉" - 蔡琴

生於憂患 死於安樂

Pursuit of happiness

Most kids can do what they desired and feel happy about it, while most of us (adults) can't without thinking about consequences that our actions might bring (both good or bad). You could say that on one hand, kids are more naive/ imature/ selfish/ over-optimistic by ignoring or unable to think ahead of their actions. But the truth is that these atitudes are what makes kids happier than most of us. Certainly, it is the process of doing what one desired that makes one feel very very happy. In the world where "i wish i could do this if....", "i want to, but its going to..." "I couldn't do it because..." are more often spoken, sadness and dissapointments reign over happieness. I certainly hope 10, 20, 50 years later, or at the time when i look back at my life, it would be filled with a plethora of happy moments, I think most of us would desire that as well.... then what's holding us back from being more happy? Perhaps at times, unlike kids on the other hand, we are too sophisticated/ matured/ unselfish/ and over-pessimistic. Dont just get disobliged or intimidated over the possible results, enjoy the process of doing what is desired.

"We hold these truth to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." - Thomas Jefferson

黑色柳丁

今天我心情有一點怪怪
可是說不出到底為什麼
好像有一點悲哀的徵兆
可是病因不知道
頭上有橘色的加州陽光
我的口袋只有黑色的柳丁
我只有一個藍色的感覺
不要問我為什麼
很想說但又感覺沒有話好說
我只恨我自己逃不出這監獄
或許我是個沒有出息的小蟲
不該一直作夢你不是個英雄
葉子用墜落證明換季
可我昏昏沉沉沒有辦法醒
你願意做個英雄
還是你會要放棄
天是亮的卻佈滿烏雲
所有焦距被閃光判了死刑
你想做什麼英雄
我看你不過是傭兵
我只想哭只想哭只想哭
我只想哭只想哭只想哭
今天一起床我就頭痛
不管吃了幾瓶藥都沒有用
心情有一點莫名的焦躁
你離我越遠越好
外面有橘色的加州陽光
我卻躲在自己孤獨的黑洞
我只有一個小小的要求
就是請你Leave me alone
我只想哭只想哭只想哭
我只想哭只想哭只想哭

詞:陶喆/娃娃曲:陶喆

Power of Nature

"As I took in the scene, I realized my own littleness, my helplessness, my dread exposure to destruction, my inability to cope with or even comprehend the mighty architecture of nature..." - Nathaniel P. Langford, 1870

Sensational beauty

"You recognize some thing to be beautiful before you recognize what it is." - Mark Gage

Beauty is often a pure sensational/subconscious experience autonomous from its actual subject matter. It is not till you recognize something being beautiful that you start seeking reasons to why it is so.

"its nice to be important, but even more important to be nice" - Peter Li

Client point of view

"Our relationship to architecture is less that of a driver to a vehicle than of a consumer to a meal. The consumer (inhabitants) is concerned not with the evolutionary process and pressures that lead an animal (building) to take a certain form but with what tastes and textures results from that process (such as atmosphere)." - Reiser Umemoto Architects in Atlas of Novel Tectonics

What makes a building appreciative by the inhabitants is not necessarily the methodologies and techniques implemented during the process of creating the project, but the (perceivable) environmental qualities given as the result of using these methodologies and techniques. Inhabitants must feel the difference.

Driver to vehicle: Eisenman's House Series
Consumer to meal: OMA's Seattle Library.

我心中尚未崩壞的地方

"...當人心變成市場 市場變成戰場 戰場埋葬多少理想
回想著理想稀薄的希望 走著鋼索我的剛強..."- 阿信/五月天