卖国英雄, 爱国贼

从历史的角度以及人类价值观的演进来看，卖国必有其美好的情理，爱国也有其丑陋的缘由。

2008 Layoff in Texas

We still should be feeling thankful as living in Texas. According to the Fortune Magazine, more than half of all the new jobs created in the U.S. in 2008 were in Texas! The sorry state California did just opposite with the highest income tax and the largest population loss.

Installing MAC OS X on a PC (dual boot)

Install Mac OS X to Dell M1330 (dual boot)

1. Preparation

- burn iATKOS v5i (OS X 10.5.5) ISO DVD
- Boot with Vista DVD
- Go to repair, then command console, issue DISKPART
- Delete all partitions in hard disk (WARNING: ALL DATA LOST)
- create two partitions on disk0 (149GB)
    1) for Vista: 100GB with default type
    2) for OS X: the rest (49GB) with ID=af (late, OS X installation will recognize this partition)

2. Install Windows Vista

3. Install iATKOS v5i
Refer to Installing Mac OS X on a PC (single boot).

4. After the two OS's are installed, reboot PC and Darwin Bootloader will appear. Type F8, then select the OS to boot.

Installing MAC OS X on a PC (single boot)

Install Mac OS X to Dell M1330 (clean install)

1. Preparation

- iATKOS v5i (OS X 10.5.5) ISO DVD
- Delete all partitions in hard disk

2. Install iATKOS v5i

- insert the DVD
- boot computer from DVD
- Darwin bootloader starts, hit F8 when counting, and type -v then hit enter to continue
- OS X loading from DVD. Once loaded, hit ..> button at the bottom right
- Once top manu bar appears, Utilities --> Disk Utility
- select the disk (on left side), select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and name it as "Leopard". A new partition under the disk is created
- still select the disk, click partition, resize the Leopard partition to 50GB and apply
- exit Disk Utility
- continue, will find the Leopard (50.12GB) disk appears. Select it. Continue
- Now, DO NOT just INSTALL. Click customize,
Besides the default checked options, just check these following additional options from Customize Install

Bootloader: PC EFI V9
Decrypters: AppleDecrypt
SMBIOS drivers: SMBIOS-EFI Air
ACPI: x86
Drivers: VGA drive: X3100,
Intel AHCI SATA
then done with customize
- install (skip DVD disk check). it will take about 20 minutes.
- Once complete, remove DVD. restart to boot on hard disk (it may ask for turn off PC, so do it)

3. Start Leopard

- Once booting with with hard disk (the first Leopard boot up), it takes very long time (watching the HDD LED is still flashing, though the screen may turn to black). Be patient for at least 30-40min
- Leopard is finally up and running, for the first configuration

4. Keyboard and Mouse recognization

- the m1330 keyboard and mouse pad should be recognized (with ACPI; x86). If not, plug in a USB keyboard and UBS mouse. they should be recognized.
- follow the step until "How Do You Connect?" window, answer not connect to the internet
- Fill in bogus info for registration fields
- Create account by using user (eqian) and my internet password

5. Problems remained:
- Power on booting very slow (could be 30min)

Windows vs. Mac - A Fair Perspective

I am working on getting a Leopard running in a PC. Here is what I had learned: It is easy for Apple to claim a MAC OS works perfectly for a one kind of MAC; However it is not that easy for Microsoft to claim the Windows works perfectly for all kinds of PCs.

Two full weekends have been spent for just bringing the very basic OS X functions working on my Dell. No sound, no networking, some keys on the keyboard do not even work :-)

But why I insisted on doing it? After a few difficult tries, it caused me very obsessed. I could just simply go out to grab a MAC Mini for only 600 bucks. Yes, call me crazy.

It’s just an experiment, to me. No one in world so far can claim everything on PC working under Mac OS X. The reason is so obvious. It’s very simple and easy for Apple to makes sure OS X working just for a Mac, the one kind. Microsoft, however, has to make sure Windows to be able to support millions of different PCs (even home-made ones) with so vast array of different devices (keyboards, mice, video cards, sound cards, NICs, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, …).

So such dirty adaptation work have to fall into all OS X hackers’ shoulders. It reminds me the early days when I was installing a Linux on a PC back in early 90's time.

The Leopard is Running on my Dell Laptop

Finally, the Leopard is running on my Dell laptop!

That’s so called a Hackintosh.

Success vs. Happiness

Success is to get what you wanted;
Happiness is to want what you've got.

Raise yourself up, then view the world under

"不以物喜，不以己悲。居庙堂之高则忧其民，处江湖之远则忧其君。是进亦忧，退亦忧，然则何时而乐耶？其必曰，先天下人之忧而忧，后天下人之乐而乐乎！"

To Fellow Eggheads … …

To recall what we have talked about during the party gathering last night.

Wish all of us the best, whether

working for your own or for company,
leading or supporting,
investing or gambling,
wanting more PCs or loving MAC,
watching the wealth channel or willing to cover Hawaii group trip,
enjoying or being enjoyed,
making baby or emptying nest, 
Republican or Democrat,
in Dallas or in California… …

Nortel is on sales

As we speculated earlier, the application delivery product (former Alteon) piece were sold to Redware on 4/1.

Now today, Nokia Siemens made official to bid the large piece of NT including LTE:

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7bFC797B96-4E88-4E9B-8CE0-0C285C8E8064%7d&siteid=yhoof2

The rest part in Enterprise business are under Avaya and Siemens Enterprise Communications' eyes.

So the question remains that what is the core left after these series of divesture?

iPhone Gold Rush

Will mobile phone application development make many programmers rich? Then think twice.

Thought of doing it... however the iPhone SDK requires me to buy a Mac, plus other hurdles as lack of good app ideas, Apple will rip off another 30% of revenue sharing, converting to Objective-C from my C# dialect. :-)

Actually the biggest hurdle is that my wolfish employer sucks up all my spare time!!!

That's why I need an entrepreneur boot camp this Saturday with you eggheads.

Scotia Waterous – A Brief Assessment

Scotiabank overall
- 69000 employees

Structure

• 4 major groups: Domestic Banking, International Banking, Scotia Capital and e-Banking
• Scotia Capital:
• Scotia Mcleod (Canadian i-Banking),
• Scotia Mocatta (metals trading),
• Scotia Waterous (the well-regarded M&A division that operates exclusively within the oil & gas industry)

Relative hierarchy

Scotiabank ==> Scotia Capita ==>Scotia Waterous

Remark:

Scotia Waterous is a very focused team with most directors come from petroleum industry as engineering experts.

They are well regarded mostly because of their focus and specialty.

They are doing business but with their strong technical domain knowledge. However, you as a pure financial/business background might find little difficult to fit in to this close circle, unless you would like to grasp their knowledge and daily language.

Citi Group – A Brief Assessment

Recent job cut

• April 2007 Citigroup eliminated 17,000 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce
• Jan 2008, it announced another 5% cut.
• Nov 2008, the subprime crisis hit Citigroup with full force, despite its receipt of $25 billion in federal TARP bailout money, and on November 17, 2008 Citigroup announced plans for about 52,000 new job cuts.

Market Performance

• $300B market value in 2006 down 15 times to $21B in 2008

Federal Assistance

• $25B federal TARP bailout money
• $20 direct investment to the company by Federal
• $306B in loans and securities from Federal

Structure - four major divisions:

Global Consumer Group, Global Wealth Management,Citi Institutional Clients Group (newly created in 2007), and Global Cards

• Global Consumer Group: Citi Cards, CitiFinancial and Citibank
• Global Wealth Management: Citi Private Bank, Citi Smith Barney, Citi Investment Research
• Citi Institutional Clients Group: Citi Markets and Banking, Citi Alternative Investments
• Global Cards: all Citi credit cards

Relative hierarchy

Citigroup
         ==> Institutional Clients Group
                   ==> Global Banking
                            ==> Investment Banking

https://icg.citi.com/global_banking/invest_banking.jsp

http://www.oncampus.citi.com/careers/north_america/institutional_clients_group/investment_banking.aspx

or you could be end up with this hierarchy

Citigroup
         ==> Institutional Clients Group
                   ==> Global Markets
                            ==> Global Commodities
                                     ==> Oil & Oil Products

https://icg.citi.com/global_markets/product_solutions/commodities/index.jsp

https://icg.citi.com/global_markets/product_solutions/commodities/oil_products.jsp

Are Private Colleges Worth Your Money?

Are private college worth the money?

The answer is a big NO, according to the future earning power of the graduates (what else matters more than the ROI of your education investment?). Note that UT Austin ranked #3 and A&M ranked #2 in the ranking of "The Best Colleges for Making Money".

This is a very interesting ranking, which reconciles what I have been thinking and learned in these years on college selection.

It’s good to see two Texan schools made at the top of the list. This once more reflects on the similar matter what we have tried to justify ourselves for staying in Dallas with the relatively more effective savings, as a living place section thought process.

Another point that I would like to share with you is that selecting a career-focused major is far more important than taking the glory of a school name. Don’t get me wrong, I should qualify further that no one would reject any prestigious glory if it is financially justified. By saying that, I won’t want to pay just for any glory. Thus the key point here is: “glory on other’s name” vs. “gain belongs to your own”.

Taking my daughter’s case just as an example, I think she is maximizing her ability to gain much more from what her school in average could offer to students. I would like to share with you a status update I just learned recently about her job exploring strategy. She has gained so far among only a dozen of students in her school who had got a full hit-rate set of interviews from all investment banking firms they applied to so far. Given the current economic situation, gaining interviews with I-banks such as UBS, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Citi Groups, Scotia Waterous, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Greenhill, etc. apparently is not a easy task for students this year. Due to the financial crisis impacting much more in the Northeastern area, many Ivy school students had to turn to the South in order to get higher chance for an interview. Needless to say, we are very proud of her.

Just taking this direction as a talking point (not extremely), I start considering more and more that a school is just a playground, it is crucial and really depends on how individual students perform after having entered. So being admitted by a better school is just a formality. In that case, the teacher-to-student ratio, for instance, is just a formality, which will very unlikely affect most of self-motivated students. On the other hand, a student who can stand out of a vast student sea in a school with very low T-to-S ratio would convincingly prove that she or he could perform very well in their career in the future. What matters is the real life in a real world. And obviously, for the same argument, she or he could definitely perform very well if she or he would have been admitted in an ivy school.

Got My iPhone

Things have seemed to change
There is one thing that’s still the same
In my heart you have remained
And we can fly fly fly away
Yes, babe, you’re not lost

The way as Michael Bublé sang.

Network Attached Storage with D-Link DNS-323

The product name is DNS-323 made by D-Link.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=509#

The key technical term here is NAS (Network Area Storage), comparing with the traditional hard drive mounted inside a PC. By putting the hard drive (Storage) outside in the network, so any PC whichever connects to the network can access this storage. So sometimes people call this concept as Network Shared Storage.

Here is a nice tutorial video
http://www.dlinktv.com/?vid=1

The data stored and shared in the DNS-323 are actually secured by setting access passport in the DNS-323 via configuration. PCs/laptops, which though connect to the network but do know the password, cannot access the data stored in the DNS-323.

Here is a good example of network connection diagram (I did almost exactly the same at our home):
http://www.dlink.com/products/resource.asp?pid=509&rid=1954

The DNS-323 box has two bays and can host to hard drives (3.5 inch SATA drives at any size, say 100, 250, 500Mbytes,… ). I only use one hard drive (500Mbytes), so another bay is empty. There is an initial configuration to setup this box. Then in normal case, no more configuration is needed for regular daily use.

Configuration is mainly involved for

• Setting password to protect your data in this box from unwanted access
• Set IP address to this box, so other PC can recognize it.

The configuration is something like this:
http://images.dlink.com/products/DNS-323/utility.gif

Key hint:

• Assign a static (fixed) IP address to this box, so your PC and laptop can always easily recognize it
• On each PC, map DNS-322 as just another logical drive (assign a letter of your choice, e.g. I use Q:) like C:, D:, etc.. Here is the step:
  Start ==> Network ==> Map Network Drive… ==> assign a letter to Drive, browse to find this DNS-323 by looking for the IP address or its alias name you ever named this box during its configuration time.

After all this necessary setup, this network hard drive will be accessible from any PC as a Q: drive on your PC whenever you connect to the home network.

A Viewpoint of Life

无欲则刚,
无为则道,
无贪则富,
无才则德?

Growing Cucumbers in My Backyard

The yellow flowers, the detailed textures of cucumber skin … …

And there are other scenes like the Jasmines and the lamp in the back yard.

See more with larger size in the following link

Picasa Album: Growing Cucumbers in My Backyard

《天道》

悟

悟道休言天命
修行勿取真经
一悲一喜一枯荣
哪个前身注定

袈裟本无清净
红尘不染性空
幽幽古刹千年钟
都是痴人说梦

所谓真经，就是能够达到寂空涅磐的究竟法门。可悟不可修。
修为成佛，在求；悟为明性，在知。
修行以行制性，悟道以性施行。
修者以律制心，觉者由心生律。

有信无证者虽不落恶果，却住因住果住念住心。如是生灭，不得涅磐。

佛乃觉性，非人。
人人都有觉性不等于觉性就是人。
人相可坏，觉性无生无灭。
即觉即显，即障即尘蔽。无障不显，了障涅磐。

觉行圆满之佛乃佛教人相之佛。
圆满即止，即非无量。若佛有量，即非阿弥陀佛。
佛法无量即觉行无量。无圆无不圆，无满无不满。亦无是名究竟圆满。

佛教以次第而分。
从精深处说是得道天成的道法。道法如来不可思议，即非文化。
从浅议处说是导人向善的教义。善恶本有人相我相众生相，即是文化。
从众生出说是以贪制贪，以幻制幻的善巧。虽不灭败坏下流，却无碍抚慰灵魂的慈悲。

天下之道论到极至，百姓的柴米油盐；
人生冷暖论到极至，男人和女人的一个情字。

Plano, the Best Place to Build Your Wealth

Living at this city over 12 years, is this the reason we are still staying in Plano?
Here is the headline at Yahoo today.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/080630/063008_personal_wealth.html?.&.pf=banking-budgeting

OK, really feel good about Plano, and be also proud of your state, Texas! The #1 state for doing business, ranked by CNBC.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=789947678