Sin-Yaw @ Juniper

When I started this job in July, Juniper did not have an active blogging community. That changed drastically since, and I am part of that transformation. I found myself questioning the purpose of this one.

If Juniper employees will read my internal blogs, who read my external ones? Why don’t they just go to Loud Thoughts? I cannot come up with a compelling reason. In fact, my lack of activity here answered that question.

So, readers, I am retiring this blog. If you are Juniper employees, click Core Dump to read my recent posts (I share this blog with Mike Bushong and others). Juniper employee or not, you are always welcome in Loud Thoughts.

Vendors, suppliers, companies, whoever heed these get my money.

• An HDTV that works with my computers. I am a computer person and use it as my DVR. I connect my computer to the TV in a painful way. I would like their relationship to be similar to the one between iTune and iPod, the TV being the iPod. The physical connection should be simply BlueTooth, USB, or Ethernet. Don’t create new connectors.

  I don’t want another computer in my living room Gateway2000-style. I just want my TV to be computer friendly or network savvy.

• Downloadable music and video without DRM. Online contents should enjoy the same rights as traditional media. If I buy a CD or DVD, I can rip it into my computer, give or lend it to my friends, and use it on as many devices as I please. If I pay for a song or movie online, why can’t I have the same rights?

  On similar note, I want CDs and DVDs to be priced as if they are selling in China or India. I can buy perfectly legal “Asia exclusive editions” for a fraction of the costs. They play equally well for my iPod. The world, after all, is flat.

• I want all portable devices to use the same charger, preferably without any connector. I would like to throw all my portable devices on the coffee table and find them fully charged the next morning. This technology exists. Can’t be that hard.

  As an acceptable secondary option, please all use the small USB connector.

• Hulu that caches. With today’s fatter pipe, I still get buffering pauses for a full-length movie. I also want to watch them when there is no connection. The point of Hulu is for me to watch those commercials, having a copy locally should not matter.

• No subscription. I want NetFlix, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Economist, etc. sold per issue. Offer me the same options available in the print world. I can buy an issue from the stand; I can also subscribe.

  Same thing with the hot-spot wireless services. Once in a while, a better connection, or the only one, requires me to pay. I am OK with paying for them. A better service should be rewarded with my money.
  I just want the experience of purchasing two hours of internet connection similar to buying a cup of coffee or tank of gasoline. Here is my credit card. Thank you. Done..

I optimized the route to building 1: go down the stairway on the gym side, cross street, enter building 1, turn left to the corridor, up the elevators, 4th floor. This is my engineering instrinct: must optimize for heavy usage.

A new device appeared several weeks ago. It is an over-sized ashtray. I was puzzled.

How much money Juniper spent on this apparatus? In addition to the giant ashtray, there is also a sign telling the smokers to use it. Prior to the new device, smokers simply use the trash can that is 6 inches away.

The dooor enterinng building 2 has a sign, “No smoking within 25 feet of the door.” That new ashtray just barely 25 feet away, or slightly less. Hmm. Maybe one must smoke beyond the sign-post? But that’s on the road. Is that a hint?

That ashtray also the starting point of my routine jogging routine. I will be a bit annoyed to meet a herd of smokers at the end of my run. Good thing that never happened.

Since building 2 houses the cafeteria, this smokers’ station will also get maximum notice with the heavy foot traffic. Guess that’s why few smokers use it. Most of them simply hover somewhere in the parking lot near the main entrances. They tend to avoid paparazzis these days.

I am not sure there are more such smoker’s stations around Juniper campus. I am thinking of request it be moved, then that appears to be a “not in my backyard” petition. Oh well.

slide:ology The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations Nancy Duarte ISBN: 9780596522346 O’Reilly Media, Inc. August 12, 2008

Completely reasonable for a graphic design company to publish a book on slide design or presentation style. The principles are completely dead-on: spend the time to prepare; watch out 3 elements: delivery, visual, and message; focus on the presenter not the material; and use contrast to emphasize.

The professional approach, however, makes the book less a tutorial than an advertisement. Ver few people can afford 90 hours for preparation, creating custom diagram, establish an image library, or do professional color schemes. Not all presenters will be Al Gore. In fact, many who present frequently are stretched in both time and money to just get by with slides slammed together quickly and a few minutes of mental preparation. They are the ones who need helps.

Like many companies with a dispersed campus, Juniper provide shuttle services that transport employees from building to building. Hey, losing that hard fought parking space in the early morning is not cool.

This shuttle service also make it possible for me to attend meetings on those days I took the bus to work. I wouldn’t need to beg for rides, just hop onto the shuttle.

So I did. Surprise! A bumper sticker right there. Make my day.

Juniper reminds of China all the time: energetic, optimistic, impatient, and creative: precious like a talented young adult ready to change the world. All what’s needed is a good tool chest and some practicing.

The timing is everything. Choose a good direction and the world changes according to the plan. A bad habit may hinder competitiveness beyond remedy. I am very fortunate to join the company at this time. The opportunity to participate an era does not come frequently. This, again, reminds me of China too.

I met many people and made friends. Breaking-in is always scary; Juniper made it easy. Several senior executives went to length to introduce me to other leaders. I became part of a company-wide tiger team. What followed was 6 weeks of whirl-wind accelerated assimilation.

In the midst of those, I was still moving back from Beijing to my west San Jose old home. I stole a trip back to Beijing to wrap up 3 years of life there. On my way back, I took a detour, too short, to visit Juniper’s Bangalore site. There I got a renewed appreciation of my 3 years as the remote guy. I came back mentally excited, physically tired, and over-whelmed by a garage full of moving boxes.

Juniper soon entered its annual planning cycle. Every companies does this. Juniper’s process is a familiar ones: messages exchanges at various levels until they are reasonably consistent. This is just like routing: adjacent nodes exchange information until their view of the world become consistent. Only the physical layer here is the budget.

I felt sure-footed enough to start trying out some change ideas. They coincided well with the second phase of the tiger-team project earlier. These new activities kept my daily calendar booked wall-to-wall almost everyday. The bus rides, 40 minutes one-way, gave me precious time to collect thoughts and calm-down from the adrenaline-filled days. I am not sure what will I do when winter comes.

100-day is just a calendrical event. Today will roll like yesterday or tomorrow. In my heart, this marks a milestone of becoming a part of this company. Many more friends to come, I am sure.

I have lived and worked in silicon valley for decades. Except for a few train rides to Palo Alto, I have never taken public transportation to work. Unlike Tokyo, New York, or even Beijing, there is no good network of mass transporation here. There has never options other than driving. Then I started working for Juniper Networks.

My work location is right next to a bus hub. Route 26! Isn’t that the one that run through the street 10 minutes from home?

A simple Google later, I am ready. On a nice day, I left the house with my computer backpack and walked toward the bus stop. Walk! 10 minutes later, I stood waiting at the bus stop with exact change in my pocket. I felt nervous: would the bus show up, have I missed it already, what kind of people would I found onboard, could I deal with the bus?

I went onboard, paid the fare, and faced a sparsely occupied bus. I sat down at the back corner and surveyed. My fellow passengers are all minding their own business, catching Zs, absorbed into the MP3 player, or busy studying the air. They are all clean commuters. Just like myself.

Juniper is the last stop. So I leisurely disembark. For the journey, it covered about 10 miles, costed $1.75, I left home at 7:45, arrived the stop at 7:55, the bus came at 8:05, I walked into the office at 8:50. I enjoyed Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section all the way. iPod is a wonderful thing.

Later, I found the company will give out EcoPass: a sticker for free VTA buses and light-rail. Sweet.

“Oberoi hotel walls separated the city into two worlds: meticulous on one side and a bit ruinous outside. Bangalore has many walled islands of niceties. The trick is to hop from one to the other without stopping.”

Read more…

When I was mid-air between Bangalore and San Francisco, the mover called. “Your household passed the US custom. When do you wish to take delivery?” What!? I tried to remember what’s in the container and begged for the weekend to clear out the space. Monday, September 15th, a big truck pulled into our drive way and started the last part of my relocation.

Last I saw these boxes was July 11th in Beijing.

Start unpacking.

Cross posted.

Leaving a place is a process of being stripped. Piece by piece, something that used to attached to you was forcibly removed. I experienced this process for the past several months. This trip, I can feel it, removed the last part. Beijing is no longer my home.

What are the names of those emotions when you come back home? Six weeks separated me from Beijing, now I am visiting, instead of returning, according to China custom. The taxi did not stop at my apartment and took me to the hotel instead. Felt so weird.

People asked me to compare and contrast. My readily made answer is, “Beijing is stressful socially and easy at work. The US is the other way around.” Much of what one need to accomplish requires extensive personal network, so called GuangXi, or special assesses to information not widely available. Living in Beijing is hardwork, at least for those who want to make things happen. Work, on the other hand, is relatively straight-forward. I was blessed with staff and employees that are diligent, detail-attentive, smart, and motivated. They usually carry out my decisions smoothly without much over-sight. They exchanged my trust with effectiveness and efficiency.

In the US, or silicon valley, work decisions and their implementations are more complicated. The data collection and interpretation take longer time. The conclusions are usually not obvious and decisions, therefore, harder to make. This translates to longer planning cycle and working hours. Socially activities, though, are simple. Crack open several cold beers, fire up the BBQ, turn on the TV, bring out the food. Everyone just have a good time.

Beijing’s bright blue sky shocked me. I don’t remember seeing white clouds in the entire 3 years. The traffic is eerily light. The always brisk hotel lobby is quiet and subdued. What did they do to Beijing? Oh yes, Olympics.

Many told me stories: she got married, so did she. She is pregnant and he divorced (and married again). He left the company and he got a new boss. And, the usual, so-and-so bumped into so-and-so while interviewing at that company. It feels like watching your family through a one-way mirror. I care so much yet can do so little.

Maybe it is enough that I listened. I hope.