Category Archives: Peek into my mind

Do you want to be a millionaire?

Posted on February 19, 2011 by sinyaw

The Economist’s January 20th edition had a special report on the gap between the world’s rich and poor. In the article, Credit Suisse estimated that 0.5% of the world population are millionaires (there are 24.2 millions of them): 16% of … Continue reading →

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Does it really?

Posted on January 27, 2011 by sinyaw

Is recycling paper really more ecological? To recycle paper, used paper must go through some pretty intensive chemical processes that pollute heavily. In the meantime, people would plant less trees since demand decreases. Maybe the total number of trees would … Continue reading →

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Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

Posted on January 18, 2011 by sinyaw

Wall Street Journal’s provocatively titled article stirred up such a storm. I got several direct emails and numerous forwards, one of them a comment from Melanie on my blog. Most of my American friends asked, “Is it true? Did you … Continue reading →

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Fee for Services

Posted on January 9, 2011 by sinyaw

The story began when she was 15. At that time, she has been bed ridden for six years. Summers were scorching hot and winters bitterly cold. The parents cannot afford the $1,500 operation that will close the hole in her … Continue reading →

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QE2

Posted on November 18, 2010 by sinyaw

Early this year, the US government printed an extra trillion dollars. This operation is called quantitative easing. Similar to the stimulus program, it pumped money into the society in hope for coaxing the economy to bounce back. The side effects … Continue reading →

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Akeelah and the Bee

Posted on November 14, 2010 by sinyaw

A good movie on an obscure topic: spelling tournament. Like all good stories, the pursuit (to win the tournament) is vividly elucidated. One will be awed by the difficulty of mastering spelling at tournament level and cannot help admiring those … Continue reading →

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A China Telecom Giant

Posted on November 9, 2010 by sinyaw

Huawei tried to stay away from the spotlight. It seems New York Times found them. Do you know that it has a sales reached about US$30 billion last year? This top technology company employs an army in China and several … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Thoughts, Peek into my mind | Tagged | 1 Comment

Mandelbrot remembered

Posted on November 6, 2010 by sinyaw

As a young software engineer focusing on interactive graphics, I had the office next to Vaughan Pratt. I knew him only by the name plate and this beautiful screensaver that’s always on. I would looked at it for minutes and … Continue reading →

Posted in Peek into my mind, Witness to my life | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Election Season

Posted on October 25, 2010 by sinyaw

Why is California not governable? Gray Davis exited in disgrace and Arnold really did not do much better. So neither the professional politician nor outsider worked. Is there any hope for either Jerry Brown or Meg Whitman to make this … Continue reading →

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Would you be better off next year?

Posted on October 20, 2010 by sinyaw

IMF publishes World Economic Outlook twice a year. The latest one was out in October. You need to read only the executive summary and the first table to get the idea. It predicts that the US will have 2.7% growth … Continue reading →

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