dainty 206-gram gizmo

Kindle Paperwhite reader is really a bang for the buck. Other than its dainty 206-gram lightness, it has a very powerful "vocabulary builder". Whenever you tap a word in the article, the explanation in the built-in dictionary pops up and stores it in vocabulary builder for later reference. In the vocabulary builder, you can trace the context of this word in the original article. Job well done, Amazon.

gobbledygook

Ten days ago, I sent a patent lawyer two pages of PowerPoint drawings. Today, he returned 22 pages of writing in patent disclosure, full of turgid gobbledygook (or, euphemistically, patent-class language) and flight-of-fancy technical description. Remember the old joke? "How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?" Any number from 3 to 53 is a correct answer.   

Act your age

Spent this afternoon reading the waning of once Internet giant, Yahoo, from $128B market cap down to nothing today (if its Alibaba shares are divested). Every old legacy giants dream to restore their glorious past and reinvent themselves to become another example akin to the renaissance of Apple. Apple had the epochal disruptive innovation, ipod, in 2001 which brought forth the coveted resurgence of its glorious legacy. However, Yahoo has no mind-blowing innovations in the last five years.   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/magazine/what-happened-when-marissa-mayer-tried-to-be-steve-jobs.html?_r=0

neuron network vs. computer

電腦也許越來越聰明但是想完全取代人類的大腦恐怕沒有那麼簡單. 人類的大腦有一千億個神經元，一萬兆的神經聯絡點。 電腦的反應時間是十億分之一秒而人類大腦的反應時間是千分之一秒，但是人類大腦還是比電腦聰明。 電腦可以取代人類固定反覆性的工作,但是要取代用複雜腦力的工作還是有一段很長的時間   

A much-vaunted deity

A hagiography for Steve Jobs' s tour de force? He may have 313 patents but almost all of them are related to minute design details and was listed as one of the many co-inventors simply because his deified name has immense commercial and legal values. Yes, I do agree that if Edison or Bell look at Jobs's achievements, they probably will say: "He is a great guy but he is not one of us"   http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532841/steve-jobs-lives-on-at-the-patent-office/#comments

Goldilocks economy

Just learn a buzz word, Goldilocks economy, from radio. First bowl is too hot (inflation rate is too high) while 2nd bowl is too cold (inflation rate is too low) and 3rd bowl is perfect (inflation rate lands at the magic 2%). Obviously, U.S. is inching toward the Goldilocks economy.  

Disrupting Cancer

Tonight's CBS "60 Minutes" had a very intriguing story, "Disrupting Cancer", about Patrick Soon-Shiong, 黄馨祥, the wealthiest man in Los Angeles. He has spent more than $1B of his own money to prove his innovative idea: "If focusing on mutation, cancer can become just a chronic disease and drug can be developed in tow". His approach is pretty comprehensive: genome mapping of cancer, T-cell gobbling cancer cell, and separating cancer cells in the bio-microchip. This is a formidable task but does not seem to be a pie-in-the-sky. If successful, this wealthiest man in LA may become a Nobel prize laureate.http://www.cbsnews.com/…/billionaire-doctor-fights-cancer-…/

Most disruptive 85 ideas

Latest issue of Businesweek has listed 85 most disruptive ideas. No. 1 is jet-engine (jaw-dropping?) and No. 2 is microchips (rightly so).  Most disruptive 85 ideas

Enigma of Income inequality

Something is fishy about income inequality. According to US Congressional Budge Office, top 20% households earn 10 times more income than the lowest 20% and pay 11 times more tax. However, when taking government subsidy into account, top quintile households pay $46,500 tax while lowest quintile earn $8,650. Income inequality is a hard fact or just a figment of imagination? 

Mistakes are the portals of discovery

In a video in PBS TV news tonight, it shows a tagline, "Mistakes are the portals of discovery", affixed at the entrance of a school with innovative approach and curriculum. "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made."