customers#1 stockholders#3

Jack Ma (馬雲) appeared in tonight's CBS "60 Minutes" to claim that "We treat customers #1, employees #2 and stockholders #3". That sounds pretty assertive. However, I do have some cynical view on this statement since it seems to be tinged with the pretense of Alibaba's controversial management scheme: His 30-member core team can overwrite any opinion from the majority of stockholders.

1 F22 raptor = 6 satellites to Mars

Just heard from radio that cost of every unit of F-22 raptor can send almost six Indian satellites to Mars. Pax Americana has been swelling since Roosevelt era but how long can it last? This fraught situation is especially glaring when 75% of government tax revenue is spent on social safety net.

phubber

Just learned a new word, phubber (低頭族), which was coined in 2012 and has become a buzzword since then. It is derived from "snUB someone in favor of mobile PHone (專注手機而冷漠他人)". This kind of portmanteau words will become more popular in the future.

Jack Ma

The frenzy IPO of Alibaba increases the wealth of Jack Ma by almost 25% to $20.8B and boosts his world wealth ranking to #36 from last year's #395. Hopefully, the whopping increase of his wealth will make him ante up his $3B philanthropic trust declared in April this year.

stagnant household income growth

US census bureau released 2013 household income today. 2013 median household income was only $51,939, $180 higher than in 2012, which accounts for 0.35% increase, well below the 1.5% inflation rate in 2013. US economy is still disappointingly stagnant. However, Asian household income is still towering over the other ethnic groups.    

Scratch

以前從來不知 Scratch 是什麼，搜尋一下，發現 Scratch 應是很適合給八歲小孩以上，互動式入門 coding 的免費軟體。https://docs.google.com/.../0B8aMeqYeJfEIM2Y3MDVk.../edit...# Scratch 來自於 MIT 的 Media Lab。小孩子由Scratch 的生動 GUI, 可以寫出簡單互動式的多媒體程式。進階的小孩子，還可以連接 Scratch 軟體到硬體(如經由 S4A 連到 Arduino board 或 直接連到 TI 的 Scratch Booster Pack) 而發揮小孩子無限的創新想像力。小孩子要是能減少一點玩電動，將多出的時間用來學習"自己寫的簡單電動遊戲"，以後台灣的創新競爭力一定不差。 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8aMeqYeJfEIM2Y3MDVkNjQtZWM2YS00ZTVmLTllOTctZjJmNjNhZTgzMWMz/edit?ddrp=1&pli=1&hl=en

Arduino toy

Spent a few hours to play Arduino "toy", a $90 starter kit for micro-controller applications. Pretty cool. You can use simple C programming to generate various visual/audio effects. Following photos are temperature sensor and LCD display controlled by Arduino board.