Neo Talks

博客大搬家

2007-06-19T23:07:00.000+08:00

发生得很突然。blogspot再次被封，毕业的诸多感言难以抒发，尝试了一些其它的BSP，都没有找到最好的替代。下午索性购买了域名和虚拟主机，开始自己的独立博客。请各位移步http://neotalks.org。如果你订阅了feedburner的RSS，可以不用更换订阅地址，我会在近期将其转移到新的站点。还有很多事情要做，配置wordpress，ICP备案……

毕业时邮件节选

2007-06-17T16:26:00.001+08:00

快要毕业了，在给一位长辈的信中，我这样回味过去的四年，并展望未来的生活：

时间的确过得太快了。四年之中，很多事情仿佛一翻就过去了。今天下午收拾了一些书，准备赠人的赠人，带走的带走。发现大学四年中所购买的书如果列出清单，实际上可以看到自己关注点的变化：大一会买一些文学、学术方面的书，到了大二大三则转向实用的商业方面，而大四则两者兼有，多少有点回归。这些书有很多是新的，完全没有看过，简直辜负了墙上老师送我的"手不释卷"四个字。只剩下一个月就要开始全职工作，想想自由的时间越来越少。在未来的几十年中，我都要作为一个雇员而各种利益而辛苦，校园的时光与之相比，当然惬意得太多。我似乎还算是一个对自己的事业充满理想的人，或许即将开始职业生涯会成为更加精彩的生命历程。也许不是，世事无常。

2012看伦敦

2007-06-05T14:13:00.000+08:00

今天伦敦发布了2012年奥运会的新会徽，据说是花了40万英镑邀请大牌设计公司制作，希望创造20亿英镑的品牌价值。说实话，这个设计第一眼看上去真的没搞明白是什么意思，只是觉得图案突破了以往会徽的流线型局限，显得新鲜跳脱。或许是主办城市希望由此寄托一些不同的含义。相比于北京奥运的会徽，觉得伦敦的设计过于前卫，缺乏传统元素的融合了。
另外一个发现是：伦敦奥运网站的博客系统是wordpress 2.0.4。
一些链接：

Opera好

2007-06-04T22:53:00.001+08:00

快好看自定义邮件功能缩放网页大小

美国人的担心

2007-06-03T13:53:00.001+08:00

今天在Google Finance上看到这么一篇美国人的博文。发现其实每个国家都有心理脆弱的一面。或许这种担心不无道理，或许在某些问题面前人们倾向于变成阴谋论者。

Original Link: http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/06/buying_america.html

A report issued last month by Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Jen estimated that funds such as the United Arab Emirates ADIA ($875 billion), Russia's stabilization fund ($32 billion) and Singapore's Temasek Holdings ($100 billion) collectively hold $2.5 trillion in assets -- a sum equal to about 18 percent of the value of the S&P 500. 摩根士丹利经济学家Stephen Jen上月发布报告，估计（政府控制的）基金如阿联酋8750亿美元的ADIA、俄罗斯320亿美元的冲销基金以及新加坡1000亿美元的淡马锡控股总共持有25000亿美元资产，相当于标准普尔500市值的18%。

But in recent weeks, ... General Electric ... sold its plastics unit to Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), which is 70 percent government owned... On May 20, the private equity firm Blackstone Group announced that China's State Investment Co. is buying a 10 percent stake for $3 billion. 最近几周，通用电气公司将其塑料集团出售给沙特基础工业公司，该公司70%为政府所有。在5月20日，私募股权黑石集团宣布中国政府投资公司将以30亿美元购买其10%的股权。

In 1996, Norway's government, planning for a day when its North Sea petroleum bounty would slow to a trickle, began plowing oil revenue into a mutual fund, which is now worth about $311 billion -- or about $67,000 per Norwegian. 1996年，挪威政府为北海油田未来的资源枯竭做准备，开始将其收益注入共同基金，现在该基金价值3110亿美元，相当于每个挪威人67000美元。

China, which has a whopping $1.2 trillion burning a hole in its coffers, has thus far been content to invest in U.S. government bonds and bonds issued by quasi-government agencies such as Fannie Mae. But like any smart investor, it is looking to diversify... 拥有12000亿美元外汇储备的中国远未满足于投资美国政府债券和半政府机构如Fannie Mae发行的债券。像其它聪明的投资者一样，它还在寻求多样化。

One could imagine a day when the Chinese or Saudi government is a top shareholder in blue-chip companies. 你可以想象有一天中国和沙特政府成为蓝筹股的最大股东。

What's more, the foreign state-affiliated companies tend to cluster in industries that have a bearing on national security: logistics, infrastructure, oil, petrochemicals, airlines. 甚至，与外国政府关系密切的公司在担负国家安全责任的行业中聚集，如物流、基础设施、石油、石化、航空。

The greatest impact is likely to be psychological. 最大的影响可能是心理上的。

Opera Wish List

2007-06-02T22:09:00.000+08:00

Use Opera 9.21 for a few days. Now I have a short wish list. Hope the
developers can see it someday.

* Auto Spell Check
* Google Toolbar
* Del.icio.us api integration
* Stronger content blocker
* Better setting control

数学? 再见?

2007-06-01T23:10:00.001+08:00

在CMA的Workshop上面听到拿到投行实习offer的美国交换学生讲起数学对于banking的重要性，心里暗自想，这些美国人的数学能好到什么程度呢？Adam那么怕数学的人在美国学生中间已经是高材生…… 数双的最后两门课要了我的命。看了一天书发现无论是多元统计还是抽样，都是在大一大二学的矩阵代数和概率论的拓展和应用。基础没打好的弊病都显现出来。看累了，合上书，不知道考试结束后，这些知识还有没有机会再用到。我基本上不会成为任何意义上的Rocket Scientist了，数学是不是要再见了？舍不得。

For Those Who Try to Revamp Their CVs

2007-05-30T12:32:00.000+08:00

The links below used to inspire me on resume writing and layout. Time spent on CVs will never be a waste, because you are only as smart as what you can show.

McKinsey: Writing a Good Resume/CV link This is an index to many McKinsey essays on resume writing
McKinsey: Improving Your Resume link An interactive guide to show what's bad on one's CV
Lifehacker: Articles tagged with Resume link Small tips, great articles
LifeClever: Give Your Resume a Facelift link Some tips on resume layout, also a good Word lesson

活动过后再说沟通

2007-05-26T13:27:00.001+08:00

CMA刚刚结束了商务礼仪和沟通的workshop，这个活动邀请了我大学里面的VIP和业界资深的培训师小满老师。经过精心的安排，控制活动人数只有20多人。现场气氛热烈，游戏环节丰富，效果出乎意料。归来还是有很多感想的。

首先从与老板的交流开始。这个问题实在是太常见了，但是却难以简单的用一两句话来回答。因为情景复杂，老板也有很多种，即便在同一个人身上也会分他什么心情。现任老板们似乎都是很随和的人，只在工作上tough，平时只是保持必要的沉稳，不仅仅不端架子，还经常主动邀请大家吃饭、娱乐，甚至到家里做客。印象比较深的是那次和Wilson下棋。那是一种国外的游戏，比较挑战你的对空间的想象以及计算后面棋路的能力。作为初学者，我很想在老板面前表现的聪明一点，可是这个游戏似乎显然是他擅长的。最后我很努力的输掉了两局。Wilson就说不玩了吧，然后我们就去看DVD了。从沟通的模型来看，不知道我传达了什么样的信息给他。或许我第二局输得比较好看一点，他会觉得我还是学习很快。看DVD的时候，我突然问他好莱坞电影成本的问题（他曾经在NBCU做过一段时间，对好莱坞的生意比较了解），他简单回答了两句，很快又没了下文。现在想来应该是因为我用了封闭式的问题。

在项目中，我和team的沟通应该存在很多噪音吧。一个反省是我的反馈不够。在interview之后，应该尽快把自己的理解反馈给对方，以便及时发现错误和缺漏加以补足。另外，准备不足和主观臆断也是比较严重的问题。这些问题直接影响了我对问题的理解，导致工作效率的低下。

几个游戏都非常有趣。听力测试和猜人名分别从聆听和提问的角度来讲沟通。我在工作中对两者都有很深的体会：我对沟通的定义就是一个说话另一个人听明白了，并且让对方知道自己听明白了。在工作中，你却经常碰到两个人都说中国话，但是就是互相误会的情景，干着急。而提问的方面算是我做得相对较好的，从逻辑结构出发，提出一系列能提供有效信息的问题，这是一个可以锻炼的能力。最后的那个游戏说明了说服别人的关键在于找到对方的需求，也就是利益所在，同时也不能忽视情感因素的作用。那个分橘子的例子也是如此。

最后，大体觉得沟通这件事需要相当多的经验和历练，但同时也与性格相关。我不是一个sales的性格，所以应该找到适合自己的语言。

实习感言

2007-05-24T19:17:00.001+08:00

这次实习的项目快要做完了。周五去一天，下周四上课之后就是六月份，就可以在学校准备最后的几门考试了。想想寒假的时候接到Tracy邮件时的兴奋劲儿，现在不由得有些感慨。这个项目覆盖的scope很不错。Tracy没有把我当作一个实习生看待。尽管是枯燥的documentation project，我和Jay一起在短短的几个月时间中横跨十来个人的工作范围，甚至和operation的人打起交道。如果有人知道我是一个实习生，他们大概不会那样和我讲话。这些工作对热衷于数学模型的人而言是机械、不用动脑筋的高级体力劳动，但是在这些工作衔接的缝隙中，却出现了很多有趣的问题。这些问题归结起来是沟通。这个项目首先需要我们两个人的沟通。开始的时候，我似乎过于激进，总是希望能找到一些能surprise老板的opportunity，但是全都无功而返。对于这个庞大的team的了解我还真的知之甚少，特别是对细节的追问，我总是难以应对。而Jay不知道是否意识到我实际上一直需要她的领导，希望她能够在进度上给我一些督促。这样我就不至于有那么多的奇思妙想。在中后期，节奏忽快忽慢。这个星期为了赶上Tracy的review，Jay和我不约而同的加快了速度。下班的时候发最后一封邮件，都觉得手指发烫，不自主在键盘上哆嗦。这个时候我发现，其实Jay也在抱怨Tracy没有给她一些在项目进度上的安排，使得她总是处于一个被动的境地：有的时候无所事事，有的时候乱作一团。回头看这个rotation的要求，有一点是对project management skill的要求。或许在最终交付所有结果之外，Tracy还会要求一些过程中的东西。比如对时间、资源、人力的掌控，与team routine工作的契合，以及在多任务的情况下的从容等等。这是一个非常stretch的项目，尽管从technical的角度看并没有大不了的（这些所有的工作在accounting的教科书上可能最多5页），但是，正如我最近强烈意识到的，scaling是一个重要的问题，这个问题产生的需求几乎成了大企业管理的核心。

生活搜索：找房子2.0

2007-05-19T09:48:00.001+08:00

正在为找房子的事情发愁的时候，谷歌发布了生活搜索。有人说是酷讯的模仿者，可是我却不这么认为。谷歌可以把搜索到的房子显示在地图上，这个功能对我这样的路痴还是非常有帮助――与公司的远近一目了然。还可以查火车票、找吃饭的地方、找工作和物品。谁不试试才不2.0呢～

搜狗拼音好

2007-05-13T21:45:00.001+08:00

今天捏着鼻子用了一下谷歌拼音，一个傻弱到极致的事情是

输入zai，第一提示居然是"再"……

谷歌是不是真不懂中文啊……

Test Your Techie Sense

2007-05-09T12:28:00.000+08:00

Pew Internet has a quiz to test your technology typology (via Scott). Below is the demographics for all types. My type is called Omnivores.

朔爷不是吹的

2007-05-08T12:07:00.001+08:00

我在西樵山，看了五千五百次日出，无端难过了五千五百次，破晓醒来心坎处处哀伤，日暮山中归来浑然以忘，不知阳光有快车，长空有手势，白云在绘山，白云在绘路，白云在绘山川万物，顽石有忆，苍苔有想，游鱼无非前儿女，飞鸟尽是旧情人，春风吹开万年历，秋雨降下千秋寒，闪电暴露前朝事，雷鸣都是旧消息，远星参商古渡口，新酒从来不新鲜，地平线上生面孔，地球一轮新组合，浑天疯转终不转，沧海狂蒸到底干，从流窜到淌，到翠微，三十六亿五千万次日落走一趟，不是什么都没见过，而是什么都见过，什么都失去了――明白了，但是一扭脸，忘了。蓝天有指示，蓝天画得很清楚，但是一低头，只顾哭，哭得肝疼，哭谁，不曾记得。

在邓铮的博客上发现这段朔爷《我的千岁寒》里面的文字，着实惊了一把。终于发现比藏人写得更好的中国话了。

找个人显然比戒烟还难

2007-05-05T18:04:00.001+08:00

(5:56:57 PM) Samantha: 为什么你不喜欢户外运动呢多健康阿
(5:57:34 PM) Neo: 是我时间不够用啊
(5:57:50 PM) Neo: 不过我的确挺不健康的
(5:57:55 PM) Neo: 检讨
(5:58:05 PM) Samantha: 呵呵对阿你总是觉得累
(5:58:11 PM) Neo: 恩恩
(5:58:26 PM) Neo: 越累越懒得动弹
(5:58:31 PM) Neo: 然后身体变差
(5:58:35 PM) Neo: 然后越累
(5:59:35 PM) Samantha: 对的你至少应该养成健身的习惯
(5:59:48 PM) Samantha: 不然以后工作了更没时间锻炼了
(6:00:03 PM) Neo: 呵呵你不知道我下了多少次决心制定了多少计划
(6:00:10 PM) Neo: 简直就像戒烟一样
(6:00:57 PM) Samantha: 哈哈你应该找个人带你一起
(6:01:12 PM) Neo: 找个人显然比戒烟还难

世界针孔摄影日 - 4月29日

2007-04-27T10:47:00.001+08:00

Joy, originally uploaded by tearoom.

从Flickr知道，每年的4月29日是世界针孔摄影日。这种拍照的方式往往有独特的角度和光线，感觉大不一样。

Flickr Pinhole Pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/pinholephotography/pool/

Twitter Blocked in Office

2007-04-25T08:40:00.000+08:00

It's a sunny morning. Everything is fine, except that twitter.com is found to be blocked by corporate firewall in my office. So is jaiku.com. Well, I assume you know who I work for. Conclusion: well-known is a danger. Update: facebook.com also found blocked. It seems a complete attack towards web 2.0. But what would you think if you look at the news below.

Biggest M&A Deals in 2006

2007-04-20T09:28:00.000+08:00

Fortune: link

Last year saw the biggest buyout frenzy since 2000, as 42 FORTUNE 1,000 corporations were acquired. Click on any circle below to see the value of each deal, and the companies involved. Acquisitions are displayed in order of deal size - a bigger circle indicates a bigger deal. A dotted line surrounding a circle indicates a private-equity buyer.

糟糕的一天 Had a Bad Day

2007-04-19T20:46:00.000+08:00

Bad Day 更多相关视频美国偶像的主题曲，来自Daniel Powter的Had a Bad Day。看着那些匆匆穿鞋出门的人，感人~

异口同声的Sell Side Equity Research

2007-04-17T11:57:00.001+08:00

周六光子同学的讲座再次表达了他对Sell Side Equity Research的鄙视，具体内容就不说了，从激励的角度还是很好理解。详情可以请教他老人家或者参阅一本红色封面的书，但是名字忘记了。
第一季度财报出来之后，随着 Jeff Immelt语重心长的一段话，华尔街开始此起彼伏的叫好。从基本面的角度，这些较好并非空中楼阁吧。几乎所有的大机构都给GE很好的评价，Target在43-45美元不等，当然也有人煞有介事的表示了轻度的怀疑。如果各位感兴趣可以到网上去找找这些卖方分析员的报告，对鼓舞士气、调节心情很有帮助的。

这个Mac太爽了

2007-04-15T20:45:00.000+08:00

paulstamatiou.com/2007/02/26/review-ilift-vesa-arm/

进京申请模板

2007-04-13T11:06:00.001+08:00

本人系xx大学学生，将于2007年6月毕业，加入xx公司工作。北京作为我国的首都，经过多年的建设发展，已经跻身世界知名的国际化大都市。在2008年奥运会的契机下，北京焕发了更强大的活力。在北京学习的四年中，本人亲历了北京的飞速变化，并希望能够参与建设北京的进程，为北京和中国的发展做出自己的贡献。
在北京大学学习的几年中，本人刻苦学习，取得了优异的成绩，特别是在英语（大学x年级就获得大学英语x级证书）、计算机以及xx方面具有特长。在学校中积极参与各类社会活动，特别对公益事业抱有热心。参加工作后，由于工作地点主要在北京，本人的父母也即将在京购房。出于事业和家庭的双重考虑，以及能够更好的发挥在校所学，为北京城市建设贡献自己的智慧，特申请进京指标，望有关部门批准。

过来人

2007-04-09T16:47:00.000+08:00

刚刚进入某投行实习的牛MM的MSN签名档：每天6点半。在投行工作了N年的牛GG的MSN签名档：脑子转的慢了……

不靠谱的事太多

2007-04-08T14:57:00.001+08:00

最近，不靠谱的事太多：

谷歌拼音明明切换速度比搜狗慢，抄袭之事也证据确凿，舆论还是在往谷歌那边倒
Jaiku明明比twitter好看+好用+更努力，还是一大堆人围着这个长期半瘫痪的网站不走
有的人明明没有才气，偏偏处处挤兑人家，好像自己有多靠谱一样

何必呢？

近乎一个佛教徒

2007-04-07T21:58:00.000+08:00

这使我明白，为什么一个不缺智慧、勇气与良知的藏民族在近代却发展得如此落后，我们执迷于佛教教义和文化，而忽略掉了对真理的追寻。宗萨仁波切

这个嘻嘻哈哈的藏族朋友，深刻起来真是令人发指……

速度决定应用

2007-04-07T21:05:00.001+08:00

我承认时常在公司上与工作无直接关系的网站，比如在中午大家都在散步、午睡或者聊天的时候。但那实在是一种享受：毫无延迟的打开世界各地的网页，体验最新的网络应用。周三快下班的时候，我偶然想起last.fm。这是一个社会化的音乐网站，可以在线收听你感兴趣的音乐，并发现新的乐队或歌手。注册了新的id并下载了客户端之后，我在搜索中输入Simple Plan，按回车。last.fm告诉我它在tune in。不到5秒钟，耳机中传来熟悉的音乐，中间没有因缓冲中断而造成的停歇或延迟。一切感觉棒极了。
回到学校，我向朋友谈起这件事的时候，只能不无遗憾的说，没办法，我们的网速太慢了。
在高速的网络环境中，新鲜的网络应用，特别是音频、视频以及涉及大量数据传输的web
application，才具有实际意义。中断的声音、图像和长久停滞不前的进度条令人难以忍耐，从而变成断续的字节而非媒体。
另外一个例子是优酷(www.youku.com)。这个后来的youtube.com中国版只是因为在教育网（甚至在公网）的速度最快，从而一具超过了早先的前辈tudou.com以及6room.com，成为无聊大学生的最爱。
最后一公里的网络线路有时能够胜过很多实验室中的奇妙构想。
我仍然看好提供网络基础设备的企业：它们还有很多美元可以赚，尽管不见得能像Google那样拥有无数年轻人作为拥趸。但是正如Jeff Immelt曾经讲过的，这些twenty-something往往因为潮流而追逐某些行业。

Catch-ups

2007-04-06T12:18:00.001+08:00

公司和FESCO的一堆入职手续开始像苍蝇一样绕着我转了。今天上午去北阁，居然还找不到了。路上问了几个人都不是北大的。最后发现自己其实一直在绕着北阁转圈圈。在北阁还发现了Piper Jeffaray的招聘海报，恍然大悟那些心存投行理想的同学们原来在申请这些东西。
然后去中心机房下载论文数据，越下越贪心。
下午写作业，晚上腐败。
四天不去公司，回去估计任务会堆成小山。
明朝的那些事儿真不错。
下次写一点正常的东西。

孙燕姿的新专辑

2007-03-24T15:03:00.001+08:00

也许是我错了。
为什么总是等待她变成王菲那样的飘飘欲仙，为什么她不能只是她自己。或许是自己一直都太想长大变成熟，所以有意拒绝诚实勇敢不逃避。于是故意用评论家的口吻挑剔，不满意她许久停留在过去的年纪。
后来发现是我错了。

企业绩效排行榜

2007-03-17T09:57:00.000+08:00

上午看了BusinessWeek的Top Performer 50，怏怏的没有找到GE的名字。后来在digg上看到说Microsoft也没有出现在前50名的清单中。Google一如既往的高居榜首。BW追踪新潮很及时啊，前段的最佳雇主也把Google列为状元，这家杂志似乎是在我关注高科技方面的商业新闻时候的首选，虽然它也报道那些相对传统的公司。排名的方法并不复杂，主要基于财务数据。我想这样的方法论自然会让高速成长中的企业进入。看看高盛、JP摩根、大摩、雷曼和贝尔斯登这些华尔街巨头纷纷入选，不正好映射出这几年金融业汹涌澎湃的潮流吗？无独有偶，在欧洲的排行榜上，UBS和DB也列于其中，并不惊讶。最近几天，GE的股票稳中小涨，特别是在宣布了一宗并购案和人事提升之后。但是后来联储的消息又把这几天的努力全部消弭…… 在这么一个大公司工作，有的时候好像在汪洋大海中漂流。能够经年保持external focus和curiosity真是一件不简单的事情。对资本市场和TMT的关注仍将继续。

Official Google Blog: Talk on your Personalized Homepage

2007-03-15T09:05:00.000+08:00

Google最新推出的Google Talk在个性化主页上的gadget有很多很好的特性，对我而言，最好的莫过于可以穿透防火墙，在办公室登录Google Talk。 Official Google Blog: Talk on your Personalized Homepage

America's Most Admired Companies 2007 - FORTUNE Magazine Ranks the Best

2007-03-07T09:29:00.000+08:00

America's Most Admired Companies 2007 - FORTUNE Magazine Ranks the Best

37signals的新产品+Google Desktop 5 Beta

2007-03-07T08:55:00.000+08:00

Preview 1: An introduction to Highrise (the product previously known as Sunrise) - (37signals): "Highrise is a shared contact manager that helps you keep track of who you talk to, what was said, and what to do next. Like Basecamp helps you collaborate on projects, Highrise helps you collaborate on people. You can use it alone or with your co-workers. You can think of it as a company-wide, web-based, shared address book with a few twists." The New Sidebar and Gadgets - (Google Desktop Blog): "After many months, we are pleased to release the Google Desktop 5 Beta application, featuring a new sidebar and redesigned Gadgets."

Thomas Hawk

2007-03-06T13:42:00.000+08:00

Thomas Hawk是我非常喜欢的数码摄影作者。 Update: 原来他就是zooomr的CEO。

How Much Do They Get in 2006?

2007-03-06T10:17:00.000+08:00

Yahoo's Semel gets a nice bonus - Mar. 2, 2007: "Yahoo announced last year that Semel would receive an annual salary of just $1 a year for 2006 through 2008 and the right to receive up to 1 million stock options as a bonus." "Yahoo said that Semel's stock options have an exercise price of $32.12 a share, which was the closing price of Yahoo's stock on February 26, the date the grant was awarded." "Yahoo's stock took a tumble this week, along with the rest of the market. Shares closed on Friday at $30.42. So these options are currently underwater, meaning that Semel would lose money if he exercised them now." GE's Immelt takes home $17.9M - Feb. 27, 2007: "General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt received $17.9 million in compensation last year, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission." "In a proxy statement detailing executive compensation, GE said Immelt's payout included $3.3 million in salary, $5 million in bonus, $7.4 million in stock awards and options valued at $574,322." Immelt's payout also included other benefits - such as payments for life insurance, retirement plans and use of the company aircraft - valued at about $1.6 million." "GE's stock rose about 12 percent in 2006."

失败-成功-恐惧-勇气

2007-03-05T13:05:00.000+08:00

午饭多吃还是少吃好？

2007-03-05T12:55:00.000+08:00

科学家们总是得出令人左右为难的结论，下面一段话告诉我们如何让大脑学习更快一点：

Eat a light lunch. Heavy lunches have a tendency to make people drowsy.
Take a break. Change physical or mental perspective to lighten the invisible stress that can sometimes occur when you sit in one place too long, focused on learning.
Take a bath or shower. Both activities loosen you up, making your mind more receptive to recognizing brilliant ideas.

结果我们被告知要少吃午饭……

GE年报里面有趣的地方

2007-02-28T22:28:00.000+08:00

GE最近发布了2006年的年报，比起去年的标题Go Big的豪言壮语，今天的Invest and Deliver似乎更加贴近投资者。在年报开头CEO伊梅尔特致股东的信中，他这样写道：

大家都知道，2001年9月7日我接任了首席执行官的工作。在911事件之后的一周内，GE的股票像是“自由落体”。9月21日，GE的股票以29美元开盘并保持稳定。当股价跌倒34美元时，我购买了15000股，心想：“我深爱这家公司，什么时候它还能这么便宜呢？”结果，答案居然是2006年。

自从我开始关注GE的股票，就一直是在35美元左右徘徊。对于股票，我没什么发言权。但还是觉得这家公司的战略是正确的，执行是有力的，经济环境和财务指标都可圈可点。谁知道为什么伊梅尔特为什么没有从那15000股股票中赚钱呢？这位CEO先生2006年的年薪是1500万美元。而GE在去年的收益也突破了1600亿美元。股价稍稍涨一点，这就是世界最大的公司。

第一天实习

2007-02-26T21:53:00.000+08:00

今天是开学头一天，在大学的最后一个学期（也有可能是我生命中最后一个“学期”）我选择了回到公司实习。一天下来，没做什么事情，也不累。但是心情却很复杂。突然发现自己原来这么需要爸爸妈妈。中午在翻看报纸的时候居然被一篇写春节合家团圆的文章感动的一塌糊涂。而对于事业的前途也慢慢变得冷漠起来：无非是一个位置一个位置的升下去，最后升到一个升不动的地方变成人见人厌的绊脚石。希望一直能有好奇心，了解那些与手头的工作无关的事情，不至于变得了无生趣，这是唯一的愿望了。

Shotlog 02/25/07: 1984

2007-02-25T22:04:00.001+08:00

Books Originally uploaded by neo.zhangning.

在博雅堂小书店转悠要走的时候偶然发现了这本平装的小说，大一暑假的时候趴在寝室的床上猛吹电扇的时候翻完的。向很多朋友大力推荐过，今天终于收入囊中列为收藏书目。自去年9月来，已经陆陆续续开始着手购买大学期间借阅过的经典好书，藏书防老。我通常不爱读小说。一是长，我的性子耐不到真相大白的一刻。二是假，小说真是无巧不成书，不过也太天马行空了点儿。所以我只能看畅销小说，长度都按照读者的忍耐度剪裁，情节又构思巧妙，尽管离奇但却真实。而《一九八四》虽然不是畅销书，但是很精致，情节好像一部科幻电影，拥有完备的背景假设，里面的人物不多，关系也不复杂，并不挑战我们记忆名字的能力。这部小说就是在讽刺人类的政治，甚至不单单指某个意识形态，尽管当初作者的意思是暗喻苏联。还是很有兴趣再读一次。另收到Samantha转交的Adam送我的礼物，一本英文原版的The End of Poverty。终于不是肚皮舞教程。谢天谢地！

Shotlog 02/02/07: Backspace, Home

2007-02-02T13:50:00.001+08:00

Backspace, Home Originally uploaded by neo.zhangning.

很快就要回家了，用微距拍键盘上的两个键。曝光不好，颗粒感十足，经过处理之后的色彩还算说得过去。这些天很累，放弃了一个星期的休假去赚钱，而且是纯粹为了赚钱而赚钱。碰到过分的人和事，似乎更加看清事情的本质。无论如何，都结束了，剩下的三周多一点时间，就完全的放松。和家人一起过年。忘掉所有高出家这个主题的东西。单纯的把最后的寒假过好。下午4点离开。

淘宝手机充值指南

2007-01-25T17:17:00.000+08:00

第二次在淘宝上给手机充值还这么提心吊胆的，人家发货之后还是找不到"货"在什么地方。索性写一个指南。首先比较容易搞晕的地方是淘宝的多重密码体系。也许是为了保障交易安全吧，阿里巴巴（淘宝和支付宝的母公司）要求每一个用户在注册的时候设置多个密码，并且建议密码的安全级别较高，彼此不重复。而这样的设计对个人而言的确并不舒服。一般的淘宝买家用到的密码应该有四个：

淘宝登录密码
支付宝登录密码
支付宝支付密码
网银支付密码

这四个密码的区别实际上和他们背后的主体不同有关。taobao.com的用户需要一个登录帐户，自然有一个密码。而网银的密码实际上是你所使用银行卡设置的密码，很可能就是银行卡密码。而支付宝亦即alipay.com是一个相对独立于淘宝的主体，是一个在线支付的服务，为了安全性着想有两个密码，一是登录密码，而是支付密码。一般会建议不要重复。在淘宝上充值手机卡的地方很多，可以在首页的商品目录找到，也可以搜索。更可以在我的淘宝界面中找到链接，或者登录支付宝后在左侧的导航中选择手机充值。后两种方法号称会自动在淘宝中搜索符合条件的最便宜的卡。我想既然淘宝知道我的手机号码，就可以据此找到归属地和服务商，按照价格排序，就可以给出建议，应该比较合理吧。一般而言，淘宝手机充值分为两类，一种是卖家帮你充好，一种是把充值卡密码发给你。前者我没有碰到过，应该是比较少的。后者的基本步骤是，选中你所要的卡，注意面值和服务商。然后先从网银支付到支付宝，需要输入网银支付密码。之后卖家发货，这时卡密已经发给买家了，但是每次都我都找不到，这次记住了，在我的淘宝-已买到的宝贝中有一个列表，列表中充值卡的项目会有绿色的提取密码的按钮，点击就可以看到充值卡号（没用）和密码。拨打13800138000充值。最好听到"您现在的余额是……"才挂机，保证没有问题。然后回到我的淘宝确认收货，需要支付宝支付密码。不久之后，可能还需要对卖家评价之类，都是可有可无的。基本上就是这样。 Update: 淘宝还可以订机票，在我的淘宝页面左侧的垂直导航条中可以找到。 Update2: 中国工商银行的网站也可以通过银行卡在线充值，链接。

当幸福来敲门

2007-01-25T00:22:00.000+08:00

最近很多朋友都在实习，在一些非常体面的企业。这些企业的名字就不一一列出，但是你总可以在各种500强的排行榜的前列轻易的找到它们。这应该是一件多么令人羡慕的事情啊，在最年轻的时候就得以接触这个世界最好的商业企业，衣着光鲜，出入高档写字楼和会所。但是，我听到更多的是抱怨，抱怨实习工资低，抱怨工作繁忙得不到休息，抱怨工作内容枯燥无聊，抱怨实习生不受重视，抱怨每天上下班要顶着世界上最大交通潮之一……

我在大一时候开始做第一份不是家教的兼职。这个兼职的信息还是Mandy告诉我的，并非我没有看到，而是觉得自己不能胜任这份工作。工作内容是CCER的MBA项目找经管类的学生做撰稿，报道一些他们的活动以及课程，作为公关稿件。在大一的时候，我几乎每天都会写一篇千字左右的时评在BBS或blog上发布。在Mandy的鼓励下，我从中选了几篇觉得不错的发给了招聘的邮箱。第一次申请"职位"，没有简历，甚至在邮件中连自己的电话都没有留下。没有想到的是，我那华丽的文风竟然获得了市场部主管的认可，要我去面谈。第一次面谈我穿了一件红色的T恤和一条七分裤就出现在朗润园的办公室里。主管名叫Nancy，一见我就笑了，她表示了对我文字功底的认可，并且愿意长期聘用我做兼职助理，还告诉我说我是所有申请者中年级最低的一个（大一）。走出办公室，我真是高兴死了。那是2004年的6月19日，天气很热。我当时决心去买一件好看的衬衫。
衬衫是和Danny一起在中友百货买的。那件衬衫后来因为多次汗透而变得颜色泛黄，但是当时是我按一份平媒广告上的样子买的，与我的肤色并不相称。当我穿这这件衬衫在6月23日出现在搜狐当时在长安街上的写字楼的时候，带我去参加活动的老师在电梯里揶揄说：新衬衫吧……活动结束以后，我记得我穿这这件衬衫去人大和高中同学见面。他们惊奇的看着我的滑稽样子嘴上说着称赞的话然后去打篮球。我在人大校园里面的长椅上津津有味的看着采访的笔记。
我的志向曾经是当一个记者。不是投资银行家，也不是咨询师，更非首席财务官甚或创业者这么酷的角色。在那段时间，我贡献了大量时间和精力在这份兼职上。所做的事情无非是参加媒体活动，记录，写稿，修改。Nancy看到了我的努力，她帮我找到了我简历上的第二份实习，2005年夏天的6月最后一天，我去《经济观察报》报社的白色二层小楼去见张帆编辑，后来他辞职了，但当时他给我的感觉异常沉稳。我现在还记得他的样子。在那里我还碰上了（尽管不是见到）前一年在某个小杂志社认识的艺术评论工作者方振宁，他在2004年的某个炎热的下午给我一块钱人民币让我出去帮他买当天的《北京青年报》，我绕了2个街区帮他买到。那件新衬衫就是在这样的奔波中逐渐失去了光泽。我在《经济观察报》和他偶遇是因为整理他的采访录音，他在采访一个画廊老板的时候不懂得赝品是什么意思，让我狂汗不止。在《经济观察报》的一个月，我见到了许知远、李翔、黄一琨、方军和林嘉澍。他们觉得我还是个孩子吧，但是李翔带我去和一个电影学院的教授聊天，就在北师大附近的一个咖啡馆。
后来Nancy在离开北大之前把我推荐给他的老板做助理。这是在2005年的11月了，我发着高烧接到了Nancy的电话。兴奋。
2006年的夏天在GE Healthcare位于亦庄开发区的工厂中。10周的实习，不想描述了。在那里我碰到了Craig和Tracy，还碰到少清、彦青等好多善良能干的同事。我很快要回到这个地方和team一起工作。这是我的归宿。

下午看了Mike以及Mandy推荐的In Pursuit of Happyness，一部很不错的励志电影。主人公从最底层的医疗扫描仪销售开始，最后成功的成为Dean Witter的经纪人。很多做法是冒险的，但是他已经没有退路。这些情况和我们所遇到的并不相同。但是，当幸福来敲门，能否抓住机会，能否有足有的耐心，能否付出足够的努力则是相同的道理。

The Bourne Ultimatum

2007-01-22T21:43:00.000+08:00

偶然间发现谍影重重系列第三集就要在2007年上映。在Google上面搜索了一下，没想到在新华网这么正式的网站上发现了一片不错的评论。间谍片能够如此着重刻画人物内心的微妙变化，并且最终引申到identity的深层含义中去不是一件容易的事。尽管香港电影对间谍/卧底的描写非常多，但是却没有这个系列中马特·达蒙所饰演的伯恩那样富于层次。根据原著小说改变的最后一部即将上映，一起关注吧！新华网上对第二部的评论豆瓣上第三部的链接

五万杀一人？

2007-01-17T17:01:00.000+08:00

发现一段话，来自一个外国人的blog，讲到中国的司法系统：

I don’t know if this is accurate, but I was told that in China, if you accidentally kill someone, you don’t go to jail. You are fined 50,000 RMB to the family (about USD 6,500) of the victim. Every time you kill someone, the fine goes up, until your fourth incident, where you will go to jail or be sentenced to death yourself, unless you pay off an official.

这是真的吗？ V2EX恢复了，最近被封的网站里面，数这个风光。

网易的年度娱乐语录2006

2007-01-16T19:41:00.000+08:00

在网易新闻发现了这个链接，进去之后发现编辑的功力不俗，有一些话很有趣。比如不知道自己姓啥的：

“我太完美了，挑不出什么毛病。” 何洁评负面新闻

以及有自知之明的：

“看到费翔的脸，我的脸简直像屁股！” 言承旭自叹不如费翔帅

还有痛快淋漓的：

“我跟谁吃饭关你屁事，开什么车关你屁事，买什房关你屁事，怎么激瘦关你屁事，我不喜欢出来关你屁事。” 陈晓东炮轰香港媒体炒作

更多精彩，尽在网易娱乐，激起娱乐新高潮。链接

Shotlog 01/12/07: FMP Annual Dinner

2007-01-13T23:35:00.001+08:00

Newbies Originally uploaded by neo.zhangning.

很多人都是好久不见，当然也是有很多人都是头一次见。在种种思量和选择之后，照片上的5个人决定留下来做GE的FMP。不想再矫情的说那些大而空的话了。事到如今，事情已经变得越发现实。过年之后就回到公司实习，还是做项目。Tracy总是能帮我找到让我感到兴奋的工作，真不知道如何感谢她。 Sophie和Min已经开始实习了，据说Sophie的优异表现让老板通报嘉奖。而其他几个人也开始筹谋未来发展，暗暗中的比赛已经开始了吗？我只是突然间想回到学校，回到那个不用思前想后的地方继续无聊的上课、自习和考试。我很快就要离开学校了，做一个学徒。最后离开的时候，郑重的和Thomas这个法国小伙子道别，他就要完成FMP回到法国故乡。看他的脸庞，还依然年轻。还有一些图片在这里和这里。

Quotes on iPhone

2007-01-10T12:20:00.000+08:00

生产黑莓Blackberry和Palm的智能移动设备的RIM以及Palm公司股票大幅下降。更多反面，已经登上digg的第一名。终于有人说反面了，还是大名鼎鼎的37signals。 37signals Signal vs Noise:

That may prove to be a good thing. It may prove that what we think we need we don’t really need. The tradeoffs may payoff. But we’ve certainly lost the tactile feedback humans are used to when dealing with things that are right in front of us. Now the connection is simulated. Rich textures have been replaced with androgynous glass. How can you dial the iPhone without looking at it? How can you reach in your pocket and press “1” for voicemail? How can you orient yourself with the interface without seeing it? With a traditional phone or device with buttons you can feel your way around it. You can find the bumps, the humps, the cut lines, the shapes, the sizes. You can find your way around in the dark. Not with the iPhone.

各方回应Apple iPhone问世：

Nokia's Pekka Pohjakallio (SVP):

It just confirms our message, and it's good to have others preaching the same message. The best company will win in the end, so I think it's good news for us. It's not a threat, although of course it's hard competition, but that usually makes you perform better yourself.

30boxes.com: [link]

Did you see Apple’s iPhone announcement. It will run Safari (and people speculate Firefox as well) so 30 Boxes should run in all its ajaxyness on your phone sometime this summer. Pretty cool.

to be continued...

iPhone露面

2007-01-10T11:16:00.000+08:00

一觉睡到太阳照屁股，iPhone已经发布了。在美国通过Cingular的售价是$499，4G版本，包括2年的网络使用费。8G版本卖到$599。在亚洲要等到2008年才会上市。主要功能如下： Hardware Features - 3.5" Widescreen touch-sensitive display - 11.6 mm thin - 2 megapixel camera - proximity sensor, accelerometer, and ambient light sensors - Quad-band GSM/EDGE + WiFI + Bluetooth 2.0 - Battery Life: 16 hours audio, 5 hour talk/video/browse time Software Features - Runs version of OSX. "Full desktop-class applications" - conference call support with up to 3 participants - multiple SMS session support (iChat-like interface) - Safari: first fully useable HTML browser on a phone - "coolest photo management app ever" - Widget support - Yahoo IMAP mail - Google Maps (with satellite image) integration via Macrumors.com

Macworld Expo 2007

2007-01-09T20:19:00.001+08:00

今晚的Macworld上，Steve将会告诉我们什么才是这个年头应该配备的手机。除此之外还有新的Leopard操作系统、第六代iPod、和Google合作的iTV、新版iTunes以及12英寸的MacBook Pro。但是我最期待的，仍然是Steve的keynote~ 文字直播链接

只会说一种语言的白痴

2007-01-09T18:00:00.000+08:00

在Ethan Zuckerman最近的演讲中，他分享了他对发展中国家高科技发展的想法。这里的发展中国家并非像中国或者印度这样的准发展中国家，而是指非洲或拉丁美洲这些真正还在温饱线下挣扎的地区。这个长发微胖的年轻美国青年，秉承了美国青年一贯的大胆和change the world的美好理想前往非洲考察。他希望能够派遣IT专家到这些地方建立信息系统，提高居民的技术认知，从而帮助World Wide Web变成名副其实的worldwide。他认为变成geek的唯一方式和geek一起工作学习，而非进入最好的那些学校。他指出美国虽然捐助了最多的美元，但是在GDP比例上却远远落后。他抱怨布什对伊拉克和阿富汗的军事开支本应该捐赠给非洲。他还说未来的竞争格局将从跨国公司之间转为大量创业公司直接的竞争。他看到传统媒体对舆论的控制使得非洲这样的字眼在大众的视线中消失，而新媒体模糊了创作者和受众的界限。他在blog上写道：

像大多数美国人一样，我是一个只会说一种语言的白痴。 Like many Americans, I am a monolingual idiot.

他的演讲被O'Reilly从IT Conversations上挑出来放在了Podcast Picks里面，实在很有趣。

Cream - Vim的现代配置

2007-01-09T13:09:00.000+08:00

光缆好像基本上恢复了，用网通访问外网，顶多稍稍加上CoDeen的代理，总可获得60%-70%的正常速度。考试也行将结束，又开始把种种奇怪的软件往电脑上面装。Vim虽然已经使用了一段时间，但是总是感觉自己处于陡峭的学习曲线的下端。什么是Vim呢？

Vim, which stands for Vi IMproved, is an open source, multiplatform text editor extended from vi. It was first released by Bram Moolenaar in 1991. Since then, numerous features have been added to Vim, many of which are helpful in editing program source code. Vim and vi are the most popular editors for programmers and users of Unix-like operating systems. [link]

私底下认为，Vim/Vi之所以能够获得略高于Emacs的地位，一定程度上是由于它在Unix/Linux/BSD下面的内生支持。作为默认的编辑器设置，很多人不得不习惯这个事实标准。而它略显古怪的操作方式使得任何转移都显得成本高昂而难以接受。当然，Vim的入门并不那么复杂，特别是对习惯了编码和终端的程序员或系统管理员而言。 Cream，曾经厌恶它对经典的Vim的颠覆。但是最近发现其实它仍然支持传统的Vim操作。而重构的菜单使得这个宣称自己仅仅是Vim的“现代配置”(modern configuration)的软件变得人性化。从这个角度，我重新安装了它，经过一番设置，当作标准软件环境的组成部分。这些软件中的中文显示都很丑，不知道怎么能够解决掉。希望能够以正常的10pt宋体来显示中文。

Fix You

2006-12-29T22:20:00.001+08:00

A favorite song by Coldplay

When you try your best but you don t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can t sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you re too in love to let it go
But if you never try you ll never know
Just what you re worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

海缆中断时期的应急策略

2006-12-29T16:54:00.000+08:00

Gmail 在Settings中启用Forwarding设置，把邮件自动转发到国内的稳定邮箱内
Blogger/Live Spaces 设置电子邮件撰写，可以通过指定邮件地址来实现blog撰写
Instant Messenger Google Talk登录速度缓慢，但是完全可以使用
RSS Feed Google Reader等难以忍受，可以使用抓虾

GE Hires MIT President into Board

2006-12-26T15:25:00.002+08:00

How I love the marriage between my favorite company and favorite university!

FAIRFIELD, Conn., Dec. 18, 2006 – The Board of Directors of the General Electric Company elected Dr. Susan Hockfield, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to its Board of Directors on Friday, December 15. "Dr. Hockfield’s experience leading one of the world’s most respected universities and her expertise in energy and life sciences will be invaluable to GE and our business leaders,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. “She shares our commitment to a strong global research and development capability and the advancement of technology in helping solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. Her intellect, passion for learning and record of achievement will be a tremendous addition to our Board.”

Source: GE Company website

Donate on Xmas Eve

2006-12-24T14:01:00.000+08:00

Watch the video below. Listen to Jet Li's (李连杰) words. And donate through SMS. Send "1" to 9993 (China Mobile) to donate RMB 1.00 to China Red Cross Association.

Merry Xmas

2006-12-23T22:55:00.000+08:00

The Xmas email run has already started. Only one day away from the day. When I tried to sort out all the people on the Xmas mail list, I found that I cannot control the length at all. Man, you are living in such a big network.

Therefore, I decided to publish the words here on my blog. Dear friends, are you feeling happy right now?

The year 2006 is leaving us. What have you done in this ordinary year? I believe all of you have achieved and enjoyed a lot. The joy and achievements are the base of your next big things. Make a wish at the moment. Bless the next year to be a better time.

The world is smiling. Are you?

I am.

Two Letters

2006-12-17T21:56:00.001+08:00

Letter 1: 09/03/2006 to CMA members

Dear all,

Thank you for coming to CMA Summer Reunion last night. With all your presence, it's a perfect get-together event, which I believe to be a lifelong asset in our minds.

For every CMA member, he/she will confront new challenges in the new semester. The Association will try its best to back him/her all along the way, not only as rewards to him/her contribution, but also a long term support for individuals.

To meet the new demands mentioned above, we would like to see more leadership and drive-force in the Association. New members should prove their outstanding growth potential, practical skills, detail-oriented attitude and exact reasons to join. Directors should take more initiatives to lead teams scoring on daily operations and projects. We will have university-wide or cross-university events in this semester. Details will be disclosed later this month.

All in all, we choose and join CMA for different reasons, but we share the same vision of faster growth on the rail of capital markets. Best wishes for us and for the Association! Move on, my friends!

Sincerely yours,

Neo, Zhang Ning

Letter 2: 12/17/2006 to CMA members

Dear Members, With all your efforts, an important chapter in CMA Career Path Series has been finished this afternoon. Thank you for everything you do for CMA. We appreciate it so much. Our former president, Levi Zhang, contributed his personal time and energy to the preparation of the event. He leveraged his network to invite guests and help us with operation of the event. Monica Jiang and Alex Xiong hosted the event successfully and also contributed their ideas to the organization. The project team as a whole, led by Xu Ying and Wang Guannan, was so efficient and considerate. Jian Lian, the photographer, has recorded the highlights of the event, which will be delivered to you soon. I can't name more, but I surely know there must be many to thank. The event is not only a successful career talk show, but also a great showcase of CMA-styled collaboration and initiative. One can see strong development straits on junior members, who have solved all the problems on the way with outstanding skill set. I am so proud to be one of you, and also think all of us should have the same feeling. The organization is totally a success. We break even financially and smooth every talk session. All the guests appreciated our work while leaving, which demonstrated our high quality. At the same time, I would like to see more initiatives on junior members next year. Every CMA member should have the courage, the ability and also the practice to generate his/her own idea and implement it. Please value the opportunity to work with the best of the best and leverage them to realize your dreams. Our president Richard Tu is now on his flight back to Beijing. Let's give him a warm welcome by replying this email and crying out your new year ecstasy. Thanks and best regards, Neo, Zhang Ning

逃

2006-12-17T21:56:00.000+08:00

突然间想到这样一个字作为标题，想来倒是恰如其分。

下午在CMA的活动中见到了多年未见的高中校友，刚刚结束了5个月实习并签约某投资银行的她实际上并非高中时代的熟人，只是她安静说话的神态让我感到南开淳厚的校风经历多年依然扑面而来。南开的校训，恐怕不为众人所知，但却永远是我内心的精神支柱，"允公允能，日新月异"。

大学的时光更多的花费在社团活动中。想起大二的时候写博客，说社团是一种社会软件，其解决的基本问题是人际沟通，还颇有互联网教父的感觉。现在回头看看，也不知道人际沟通的问题有没有解决。反而觉得是有一些想法得以实现，懂得做事做人颇有难以言说的难处。产生想法，征得众人同意并最终付诸实施，凡此种种真是一场悲喜交加的剧。时至今日，恐怕该是落幕之时了。

已经记不清当初如何学会和牛人寒暄和攀谈，又如何误打误撞进入CMA并且后来担任重要的责任。无论如何，我告诉自己，我并不习惯这样的场面，不习惯这样的沟通和相互结识。一切都匆匆忙忙，发于斯止于斯，不会深入到那个让人感觉舒畅的层次，更不可能发现忘年之交或灵魂拍档。一年以前我固执的在李开复博士面前提问的时候，对类似场面的怀疑早己昭昭然，难以理解的反倒是我为什么会反复的徘徊在金色大门的门口，久久不能决定。

无论这个想法有多么幼稚、轻狂和不知所谓，我希望自己的生命能够影响这个庞大的世界，用我的微弱渺小的力量推动时间的前进。在这个过程中，解决难题，推己惠人，恪守诚信。像过去和现在那些已经被时间证明了的人物那样，改变世界，使之向善。

Business Idea: LoverSpace

2006-12-15T21:55:00.000+08:00

Idea hits you very randomly. Just before I want to shut down my laptop and dive into dream, it comes.

Now we have social network/blog services like MySpace, Facebook and Live Space. All these services don't offer space for lovers. I am thinking of a new type of social network/blog service, which provides

Wiki-like blog platform for the couples with special control on privacy
Wish list with privacy protection. One can have surprising gifts for another. Links directly to Amazon-likes
Photo/video/audio collection
Social network connecting friends behind the two nodes

Features can be enriched in the future. The idea is a simple mimic of the existed model, but designed for another niche market. Advertisers and online stores will see new opportunities here for these crazy lovers.

If you see any problems here, please follow up in the comment section.

Start with Finals

2006-12-12T23:54:00.000+08:00

My academic year Fall 2006 starts with some finals.

While making love with one, you just cannot tease with another, Neo said. After finishing the 16 pages long term paper, I feel it totally wrong. What is university? The question, thousands of times being asked, now returned.

Can you help answer?

Quote from Arsene Wenger

2006-12-09T21:05:00.000+08:00

I would be happy if Chelsea-Arsenal on Sunday is a fantastic football game and a good promotion for football. My responsibility is to make sure that it is. I would not like any stupid aggression but a feast of football like it can be in England.

Source: arsenal.com

Shotlog 12/04/2006

2006-12-04T12:31:00.001+08:00

From Random Shots

If I could write a novel titled "Da Si" (final year student), I will adopt this one as the cover.

Blogspot Recovered

2006-12-03T14:46:00.001+08:00

It has recovered for days. And I think it's stable this time. Will update in the two blogs 1 2 simultaneously. If you don't want to lose anything, please subscribe to my Feedburner RSS.

Softly, Slowly and Sentimentally

2006-11-29T14:33:00.000+08:00

I was a very little kid when I saw computer for the first time. The ugly little box had a black screen with green characters on it. The teacher was teaching BASIC at that time, softly, slowly and sentimentally. Soon I found some guy called Bill Gates, who started from BASIC and finally became to one of the most successful business people. He was not a pretty boy in school, but he did what he loved and he was smart. Now we all use what he invented 20 years ago. In this way, he changed the world.

I deadly wanted to have a PC in 1990s, which my family couldn't afford. I don't know whom to thank, but in 1997, I had a $2000 white box, which has been sent to my cousin as a gift after several upgrades. I spent thousands of hours in front of it and never became tired or bored, from Windows 95 to Windows XP, learning various types of software, trying to overclock and adding new hardware. I can still remember the first time I touched it, softly, slowly and sentimentally.

As I grew up, I realized that there would be the next big things. I was excited about the first boom of Internet but also soon heard the bang. I used to compare which was better, ATI, 3dfx or S3, but now they are all sold. I still remember the change on HP logo, from "Hewlett-Packard" to "invent". I deadly love the word and love the saying "invention inspires invention". I used to put it in my MSN signature, softly, slowly and sentimentally.

Soon Google became the next big thing. Google has cool technologies which I may never understand, but they promise they will make money without doing evil and they only hire nice and smart people. I still remember when I asked the question "Wall Street or Google" to Kaifu Lee. That was the first time I met a real Googler. The answer is not important now. What I can remember is how he answered me softly, slowly and sentimentally.

Later I joined the battle to become someone's apprentice and was selected by General Electric. After the 10-week internship, the company kept me waiting for 3 months for a job offering. During the 3 months, I suffered all the way of wearing black suits and pretending to be passionate towards jobs I never like. But I also thanked all these suffering, which helped me figure out what I love in the lifetime. I love to help solve some of the world's toughest problems, invent new things that benefit the rest and always sustain integrity while doing business. I am not regretted to sacrifice all the good salary, fancy clothing, five-star hotel and first-class air ticket if I lose any of the values above. Many people remember what Steve Jobs said in Stanford last year, "stay foolish, stay hungry" and they become that aggressive. But there is another sentence which is almost forgotten but more important, "you've got to find what you love". I can imagine, at this point of time, Steve read it softly, slowly and sentimentally.

Sometimes

2006-11-27T12:58:00.001+08:00

In a recent letter to a friend, I wrote,

Sometimes I think you made a wise choice to go out and see the rest of the world. And I hope I can do it later. Anyway, be nice to yourself as to your teammates, friends and maybe strangers. When I cried out in my dreams and woke all my roommates up in the midnight, I suddenly realized this point. We don't chase future dreams which destroy the current ones, do we?

On the Road

2006-11-27T12:54:00.001+08:00

I can never think of a birthday like this one: you got up and rushed to classroom for a cold welcome before a presentation, though claimed to be "the most interesting story I've ever heard", after which you managed to catch up with another interview only to find you were one hour earlier than required. While waiting, you suddenly decided to take an extra interview in the afternoon, for which you abandoned your lunch, and more miserably, the sweet afternoon sleep. Night approached when you were dragged back, grabbing pizza with a friend, who was almost the same tired as you were.

You spend days on the road. And it goes on in the night. Sometimes you cried out in the dreams, where you are chasing your light, your kite and the rest of your life. "I will never quit." you always say, as Harry Porter did, "Never." What's there at the end of the road? A rock? A treasure? A beauty? "Another road," calmly replied you, "leading to another."

Sometimes you rethink all the way back, back to the first step, cautious, hesitated and unbelievably bold. They try to draw a map, but you started to take your step. Is it faster? Or is it another cheater?

Finally it turns out to be my birthday, the 22^nd. No history for losers, as no miracles for winners.

Heavy Schedule on the Eve of 22nd Birthday

2006-11-27T12:47:00.005+08:00

One day from my 22th birthday. See my heavy schedule.

McKinsey 8:00 - 12:00, rejected

It was really a hard time for me when I stepped outside the Kerry Center building. Skyscrapers around, sometimes you just feel lonely and trivial. Minutes before the rejection words were delivered, I stood in front of the window in McKinsey office, saying to myself, it might be the last few minutes staying here. Very shortly, it came true. Maybe

better choices are ahead. Wish for good prospects
CICC 14:00 - 16:00, no response yet

Crowds, all crowds, rushing for golds

I thought after the CICC written test, let's call it a day. But just as I sat in bed and sought for funny websites, JP Morgan called me up.

JP Morgan 22:00 - 22:15, no response yet

Very nice lady from Peking University, first year analyst. The talk was short but felt good. Waiting for some positive feedback

Before sleep, sing a song to myself. 22 by David TAO.

Microsoft Office 2007 Arrives

2006-11-27T12:47:00.003+08:00

Finally it comes.

Don't want compare OO.o with it. But I do think OO.o Writer has some strengths over Office 2007. And it updates more frequently, and offers more new features.

This post is published by Word 2007. SUN asks $ 39 for a blog posting feature on OO.o. Stupid.

Social Network Mkt Share, US, Sept 2006

2006-11-27T12:41:00.003+08:00

Source: GigaOM

Prison Break Wallpapers

2006-11-27T12:41:00.001+08:00

The best set I have ever seen so far. They have some real-life photographs and also two illustrations. Enjoy~ [Link]

Editor War

2006-11-27T12:38:00.001+08:00

Can't afford more time on the "Editor War". In my long hours in front of the computer and on the web, I have spent too much time on looking for a handy text editor. From commercial Editplus and EmEditor to open-source Vim, and even Web-based Google Docs, my choice changes over time. The most recent failed attempts are Emacs and XEmacs, only because their lack of native Chinese support and ugly initial looks.

I want to layout my thinking on the computer and keep them organized, though they are not generated in that kind of good manner. I need something that captures ideas in a flash and reorganize them in a wiki style, or, at least, with hierarchical structure.

Ideas generate in these steps.

Launch. It was within a moment you got inspired. Thank god.
Outline. Quickly unpack the gifts.
Elaborate. Painful.
Organize. Ping the whole picture.

Different software dominate one aspects. For example, desktop sticky notes capture faster and more effective, but they generally don't offer advanced functions. Vim is strong player for writing and editing, but lacks formatting and organization (maybe I am not qualified vimer).

It is tough, and it's funny. I will keep you posted if I finally find the one.

Google Customized Search: Business/Finance

2006-11-04T21:08:00.001+08:00

Introduce a co-product from Google and me this time.
Very recently, Google has just announced it's Rollyo-follow-up product, also known as Google Customized Search Engine . The new engine enables users to create new search engines on their own demands. You can easily add some sites into the search range to refine the search results. This is very useful when you have a vertically professional mindset and use some websites which are not so popular under common sense.
Try Neo's Business/Finance CSE now. And create your own new engines later.
The portfolio behind are

Sequoia Capital

2006-10-30T17:46:00.000+08:00

How can you forget Sequoia if you talk about Google and Silicon Valley all the day?

Source: 旁观者的奇妙冒险

作为一家运营近35年的风投公司，它战胜了科技跃迁和经济波动，从而获得与这一生命长度相呼应的优秀项目密度：在大型机时代，它发掘了PC先锋苹果电脑，当PC大肆发展，它培养起网络设备公司3Com、思科，而当电脑被广泛连接，互联网时代来临，它又投资于雅虎和Google……因其秘而不露自己的投资业绩，外界便常引用这样一种说法：它投资超过500家公司，其中130多家成功上市，另有100多个项目借助兼并收购成功退出。因其投资而上市的公司总市值超过纳斯达克市场总价值的10%。
让这本杂志提供给你一些在中国从未披露过的数字：以8年为周期，红杉于1992年设立的6号基金的年化内部回报率（annualized IRR）为110%，1995年设立的7号基金的内部回报率为174.5%，即使因设立较晚而未完全收回回报的8号基金，在1998年到2003年初之间的内部回报率也达到了96%。这是一系列足令风投业任何人侧目的数字：行业内部回报率的平均水平，在15%至40%之间。
而且，红杉的传奇还在继续：业内推算，2004年Google上市后，红杉将其1250万美元变为50亿美元以上回报。而它在YouTube上的1150万美元投资也随着Google的收购，变成了4.95亿美元。

Temporary Home

2006-10-30T16:47:00.001+08:00

Since neotalks.blogspot.com has been blocked for days and can't expect the recovery, I will post new articles on the two sites till the old one is back.

Thank you for your reading. Hope you all enjoy it.

Neo Talks @blogger.com /Google
Neo Talks @live.com /Microsoft

Yahoo Time Capsule

2006-10-25T18:12:00.001+08:00

Yahoo has a fantastic idea to create an online time capsule. Everyone, as long as you have a Yahoo account (or you have to sign up), can contribute his/her words, pictures, videos and sounds to the whole world. Yahoo will collect contributions for 15 days. Today is the first day.
Check if you have Flash plug-in installed before you go. Bandwidth and a not bad computer is also needed.

Tired of Distance

2006-10-24T21:31:00.001+08:00

The more I feel tired, the further we go departed.

Switch to Windows XP English

2006-10-23T15:58:00.001+08:00

I have fully switched to an English environment on my laptop. The new face looks more smooth. Apparently, Microsoft pays more attention on its native language pack. Almost everything looks better now, especially the display font. The default one for Simplified Chinese sucks a lot.

Never Talk To Strangers

2006-10-20T01:08:00.001+08:00

For job-seekers. The process of finding a job is a process of sales. Interviews, whatever form it takes, want you to talk about yourself as much as possible. They have prepared tons of questions for you, everyone of which has even no clear intention. They are designed only to keep your mouth open. Those big-mouths might be proud at this time. However, my advice is "never talk to strangers". Someone may want you to ask them questions, but you don't know them well. Go away. At once. Don't try to find something deep in your mind. They seldom work under such circumstances. Go back and do your homework and then return with good ones and talk for two and a half hours. That is the way it should be. Just imagine an interview in which you have the resume of your interviewer on hand. What a catastrophic mistake I committed this evening.

Neo Mac

2006-10-18T21:20:00.000+08:00

Mike has bought his new Mac laptop. And I just grabbed the Ricoh GX8 digital cam.

What is "Crowdsourcing"?

2006-10-17T17:04:00.001+08:00

Now you must be familiar with "outsourcing" and enlisted as one of your top ten answers to cost-saving. But have you ever heard of "crowdsourcing"? Not yet? Out. Read on.

Crowdsourcing was first coined by Wired Magazine earlier this year. It's a process where businesses faced with tough challenges don't try to come up with all of the answers themselves. They tap into the collective wisdom of millions of amateurs around the world to come up with a solution. Naturally, this is enabled through digital technology. For example, Procter and Gamble researchers post about their particular research challenges on InnoCentive.com, offering rewards to hobbyists and amateur scientists who come up with the best solution. And they do.
In the creative disciplines of advertising, marketing and public relations, however, we're just beginning to see the fruits of such collaboration. Crowdsourcing is one reason YouTube was such an attractive acquisition for Google. Marketers by the boatload are rushing to launch campaigns where consumers, not the advertising agency alone, determine what goes into a television ad. The TV nets have been at it even longer. Reality television and text-message voting for American Idol are at their heart, crowdsourcing.

Source: Micro Persuasion

Life, Prioritized

2006-10-16T23:31:00.001+08:00

Now switch back to English. The GE interview is all over, just like all the photos, beautiful and silent, hanging on the wall. There is no history for losers. Will go on to challenge my life. There are some big things to get done in the following months. Let me sort them out and get them in order.

Jobseeking: IBDs and consulting firms, next week
Accounting and Corporate Finance: read textbook, case study and think about CFA
Math: catch up with timeline
Python and Tennis: planning for next year

Will update timely.

Google Is 8th Years Old

2006-09-28T00:38:00.001+08:00

Congratulations! And read the post from Google Operating System.

Look Back When You Step Forward

2006-09-28T00:34:00.001+08:00

Very busy days recently. All kinds of things are piling up on my calendar. For today, it's a little bit different. Met some new friends, especially Michael Pettis, the energetic investment banker. Went his bar D-22 after the Citigroup lecture with Pei Pei and Troy Chen. We talked about career development in banking sector. He has very good suggestion for each of us. GE is very good place to start with, he said. And I asked about Internet questions. He told me to look back while stepping forward. It's quite like telephone and radio in 1920s, he argued, young people like Internet because it's fashionable, instead of profitable. His sayings are life-changing I think. I will review the whole thing after I got some real good job offering.

Bain Campus Workshop

2006-09-21T00:43:00.001+08:00

It is not my first time to join Bain's campus event. Bain is the only consulting firm that I can tell its uniqueness: results rather than reports. For others like McKinsey or BCG, I can only end up with "excellent" or "top player". And during the workshop, Bain China CEO Larry well leveraged such uniqueness to deliver his speech "How consulting firms add value to clients". The speech was very informative for me. It provides a process map in the first. And then a solid example case was shown, with a lot of fancy charts that I really appreciate. I even can't help ask a question like "how can I develop the skills of visualizing data?", a very typical question in GE. The direct answer to the title of the speech was like

consulting firms bring fresh air to their clients, preventing biased results delivered due to stakeholder problems.

The mock case interview was not so helpful for me. I think if I was bold enough to take the showcase, I may win more this evening. Anyway, it was a good case. And I can tell that I was thinking in a totally different way. Larry showed his approach, which is data-based and in a revenue-cost comparison way. But my way was rather logically abstract and shortcutting. But I would rather to use more charts than to show more math work. Hope this doesn't break the rule. Met Erick and Tong today.

Big Challenge, Great Fun

2006-09-20T15:45:00.000+08:00

Recently there are some great chances to challenge yourself besides boring courses, CMA issues and killing job hunting. I would like introduce one of the most exciting (maybe killing, pls take care) one: Beijing International Marathon 2006. Running couldn't be funny, I used to think. But everything changed after I took the try last year in the mini-marathon (only 3 km) game, from Tiananmen Square to Fuxingmen Street. When you run with thousands of hundreds people together, with TV broadcasting and crowds crying for you, marathon in no time becomes your tipping point in life. The death facts happen every time, following the first ever marathoner. Stand-byers cannot understand why they still rush to pay for insurance and to run with thousands. However, the participants will know that's the chance to demonstrate their presence. Passion, energy, dedication and physical strengths will burn with the flame of life. Join us, to enjoy the big challenge and the great fun all the way!

Calendar vs. Reminders

2006-09-20T00:52:00.001+08:00

Source: GTD Whitepaper Use the Calendar only for calendar items. David Allen often refers to the calendar and calendar based data as "The Hard Landscape". He even goes on to say, on page 41 of Getting Things Done, "The way I look at it, the calendar should be sacred territory. If you write something there, it must get done that day or not at all". In other words, one should be highly selective about what goes on the calendar.

Why is this? Well, your calendar is filled with little contracts between you and yourself or you and someone else. If you schedule a meeting with someone, or lunch, or a vacation, or a daily workout, you have made a "contract" to be there at a certain date and/or time. Don't show up and you essentially breach that contract - especially if another party is involved. You should really treat these items with that high level of importance.

So what should go on the calendar?

Time-Specific Actions (Appointments) - Things happening at a specific date and time that you must attend (i.e. 3.7.2008 @ 12:00PM: Meet with Bob re: Strategy for Project X).
Day-Specific Actions (Events) - Things happening on a specific day but not a specific time (i.e. 8.14.2008: Buffy's Brithday).
Day-Specific Information - This is information you may need to know on a specific date and, sometimes, may be tied to appointments or events mentioned above (i.e. directions to location of that meeting with Bob, notes for that project meeting, etc.)

These are all "hard landscape" items. Things that are happening at a specific time or are needed for specific appointments and events.

But there are some more "soft landscape" things that you might want to use the reminders for and should not disrupt the "sacred territory" of the calendar.

Reminders are meant for exactly that, just a quick little alarm to remind you of something. That is the reason that, by default, the reminder times are nebulous and not exact (i.e. "Later Today", "In a couple of days" etc.). These include, things you need to get done later in the day like "Pick up milk on the way home" or in advance of an event but not by a specific time like "Make dinner reservations for birthday dinner" or maybe just a little nudge like "Don't forget to pack your charger". Sometimes, some action items that are time sensitive may benefit from a little timely kick in the pants.

Here is another possible use for the Reminders feature in Backpack - Future Options. In Getting Things Done, David Allen states, starting on page 171, that this category of items can exist on the calendar as well. I would argue that the Reminders feature is better suited to these sorts of items and more protective of the "hard landscape".

Future Options are:

Triggers for activating projects - If you have a project that you don't really need to think about now but that you should revisit at a time sensitive date in the future (i.e. product launches, yearly reviews, what Buffy wants for her Birthday, etc.). Make a reminder for them and then put them on your project list when it pops up.
Events you might want to participate in - Time sensitive events like conferences, seminars, etc. that you may want to wait to make a decision about until they are closer to the date (i.e. GTD Roadmap Seminar coming to town next month, "Bon Jovi Tickets go on sale today"). Set a reminder for it and if you purchase those tickets or book that conference it will then (and only then) become part of your hard landscape.
Decision Catalysts - There are decisions that are significant and may need to made by a certain time but you are not, for whatever reason, ready to make them yet. Things like hiring a new employee or changing a job or career. Place a reminder to bring focus back to that choice and review it for action at a time where you are more prepared.

In other words, the Reminders feature allows one to be a little more creative with the sorts of things that are time related but flexible. Use it that way and guard the hard edges of the calendar with everything you've got.

Lazy Blogger

2006-09-19T15:48:00.001+08:00

How time flies! My latest post on this blog was over 10 days ago, talking about report-out things. Just now I received a mail about full-time interview. All these days were well devoted to CMA. Maybe it's my last big thing in university. Try my best. Report some recent progress

CMA Recruitment
CMA Member Update
Resume revision
Some courses
Read The Google Story
Plan to learn some modern programming language

PS: the new Paradiso Cafe is pretty good. Worth some while to spend there. And this post is published via Blogger's Email Post. Very handy function.

Recent Work

2006-09-06T21:25:00.000+08:00

Internship

Finalize Dashboard design
Prepare Report-out
Project report
Update job information for full-time interview

School

Graduate information
Curriculum

CMA

Update member information
Call brainstorm meeting
Prepare recruitment

Personal

Clean the room

Finally ...

2006-09-01T12:48:00.000+08:00

Cole to Chelsea, Gallas to Arsenal

Click-to-call

2006-08-29T10:50:00.000+08:00

"Click-to-Call" Advertising and Technology Integration

Google and eBay also plan to integrate and launch "click-to-call" advertising functionality within eBay's U.S. and international marketplaces and Google's search platform. The click-to-call capability will allow a user to click on a link or icon within a product or service advertisement to initiate an Internet voice call to participating eBay merchants or Google advertisers directly from either company's respective sites, using Skype or Google Talk.

Click-to-call advertising is an emerging e-commerce model that brings buyers and sellers together by opening up new ways for advertisers and merchants to generate customer leads using the Internet. It is particularly valuable for merchants or advertisers who may not have a website, or who currently use channels such as local directories to reach potential customers.

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/ebay.html

Make Your Mark: Roundtable with Craig

2006-08-28T13:26:00.000+08:00

It couldn't be better than to talk with your manager in a totally non-business way. But Craig gave us such a pleasant roundtable with him, a GE senior finance manager. He pended all his jobs out there and spent half a day on interns. How can you expect more? I would like to share some of his points during the roundtable.

GE is a company where decisions are made quickly, because we are not afraid of making mistakes.

As I see it, GE is really fast in moving forward. Such flexibility comes with more faults, which could be reasonably avoided by carefully consideration. But as you see in GE, everywhere and all the time, there is some kind of rushing blood to the new and unknown areas.

It's a small world. Think twice before you move.

It's all about commitments. Many junior people give their commitments to the employer too easily, leading to unacceptable answer when they eventually want to reject them. It might be no big deal for a single young student when he/she rejects an offer and jumps to another. But as Craig put it, it could be dangerous enough to ruin it all.

Every type of personality can lead to a great success.

We are wrong, not because we were born to be with a certain type of personality. Instead, it's because we are following a way that doesn't belong to us. You've got to find what you love and connect the dots.

I love history, and learned to think in different perspectives.

A great many people claim that they love reading history books. But it's not a plain love to some certain times or figures. Craig finds it interesting because he reads enough and thinks more. He sees through those superficial interestingness and reached deeply the essentials.

Personally, I suggest all of you try out other places for internship. And whether you come back to GE, it's your own decision.

These words made Craig more like an old friend, instead of your boss.

Make Your Mark: Talk with Jim Agnew

2006-08-22T22:43:00.000+08:00

Just as I was thinking about how to deliver a birthday gift to San Diego, some folks from the States came to visit Healthcare China. As FMP interns, we can get access to these global seniors. Jim, a veteran controller, just sat next to me. Jim had worked for PwC for six years before he joined GE this January. Being tired of preparing paper work for the Sarbanes Oxley Act requests, he decided to move onto new field of his career life. "GE is big and has its own way of dealing with Finance, GE GAP. Some of them are pretty good, but some don't work." he said, "In such a company, you have to line up with right person, or you lose the game of politics." He joined GE's new CDP (aka Controller Development Program) as an experienced manager. After first rotation in US, he turned to China to help Healthcare improve its controlling system. During the conversation, he expressed great passion to work in China. At least, he is an excelling chopstick user. I am thinking about the lifestyles. Finance in public firms, investment banks and manufacturing companies are totally different. Do you like traveling around the globe? Do you need more family life? Can you work overnight and catch up with deadlines? Do you want to keep up with the market? And how do you feel about money? Even do you like tie and shirt? These are all different styles. Which one do you prefer?

What Gmail Can Learn from Outlook

2006-08-18T21:51:00.000+08:00

Most people have to drop Thunderbird or webmail services at work, even they have better choices like Gmail. At GE, the strong firewall blocked all the popular mail services on the web, including Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Fortunately, Gmail has its powerful auto-forwarding function. I could leverage it to read my personal mails at work. People pay a lot of money for Outlook and Exchange. And I do think it's worthy. Outlook has many good features, like flags and calendaring. I have used Thunderbird a bit. The most handy feature of it, in my eyes, is its search power. (And I am looking forward to its new version, providing tagging and better UI.) For Outlook, the Follow-up folder and the flags with different colors help a lot for multi-task handling. You can think in a non-linear way using this feature. But in Gmail, though we have labels and conversations, it's still hard to overview what's going on right now and to prioritize. Outlook stays quietly in the system tray when minimized. Its notification is based on periodical POP3 log-on. The balloons pop-up with the basic buttons: flag and delete. But Gmail doesn't have these in Google Talk, its notification client. Outlook provides more rich text editing features. You can make better signature in it. But in Gmail, only plaintext is accepted.

First Excel Macro

2006-08-18T13:03:00.000+08:00

Just wrote my first Excel macro. It's very simple, only 30 lines. But it shows great functionality. With two buttons linked with the little script, I can change the look of worksheet, Common View and Heatmap View. Heatmap is very useful to visualize the priority levels of data records. Though one can always sort, it is still more convenient if color indicates the "heat". On the left is an example heatmap of London Travel Time. You can get the results manually through Conditional Formatting or Filter.

Coldplay on Google Music Trend

2006-08-17T13:46:00.000+08:00

Fix You, No.2 Green Eyes, No.4 Clocks, No.6 Politik, No.17 2:25PM Beijing Time Google Music Trend

Google Talk, Da Vinci Code and Del.icio.us

2006-08-17T09:23:00.000+08:00

Google released its new stable version of Google Talk, with fresh voicemail and file transfer functions. It's not new for me, only for those not familiar with gadgets. Download
I have fininshed Da Vinci Code this morning. And want to see the movie soon.
Del.icio.us updated this morning. Network functions become stronger. But don't like it's new homepage. The designer wanted to arrange too many elements on the page. Overcrowded.

New Book and Blogspot

2006-08-15T13:29:00.000+08:00

Just write to report recent progress.

I can fully get used to five workdays a week and even enjoy it. My project in GE runs pretty good. I think I want to finish it before I leave here.
Recently I started to read the novel: Da Vinci Code. It is so attractive that I can't live without it! I don’t like novels generally. But I do read those bestsellers.
Blogspot is accessible now in China. Love its new beta version, faster and smarter. Hope it keeps going. I have already set a new mirror there. Live Space and here will also be updated.

Make Your Mark: Kick it Out

2006-08-13T13:02:00.000+08:00

Also posted here, here and here.

It’s a different summer, in which I entered my favorite company to work. One month has passed. And I know it’s only a start.

For someone, it might not be a good choice to work for companies like GE, though it’s big and well-known. But from the perspective of salary, GE could be far behind from others, especially those investment banks and consulting firms. And what’s more, finance staff inside a company is totally different from outsiders, as Faye, the FMP intern recruiting HR pointed out during my interview. The job is extremely detail-oriented and even mechanic. Instead of creating profit in the frontier directly, like bankers or traders, finance people in industry act more as supporting team to maintain daily operation of business. The role is totally reversed. Neither rewarding nor dominant, corporate finance in industry is more or less the second or third place for superior job hunters. For some top ones, it’s only a backup.

I have experienced the application for investment banks. Fairly speaking, they are really tough. and I was not ready to join them. In the few interviews I attended, my performance was not right at all. Some kind of strong arbitrageur attitude was deep in my mind. With little persuasive reason to meet the challenge from the interviewer: “Why do you want to join us?” I lost the game just at the startline.

Fortunately, I was right when answering GE’s question. For the question “why do you want to do finance job?”, I was like “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Please let me try.”

I kicked it out just one day after my last final exam. It was June 23rd 2006 Friday, only one week to Q2 closing deadline. Everyone was busy. They worked for every second, till very late. For me, it’s exciting thing to work in that context. I like being busy. It makes me feel respected.

Spreadsheet and Database

2006-08-04T00:55:00.000+08:00

80% of the world business run on Excel. At least true for me. After years of developments, Excel has grown from one of minor opponents of Lotus 1-2-3 to the most popular business software in the world. Being challenged by online spreadsheet suites, the omnipotent software is absorbing more functionality into its backstage, aiming to provide more complex features for business data users. As a common Excel user, who only takes advantage of limited set of Excel power, I started to use it as a temporary substitute to Word, to make a curriculum table for new semester. The greatest finding was that Excel can generate arrays like Monday, Tuesday, …, Sunday through simple drag and drop. But I was confused that why Microsoft made such a big thing only to make tables: Word can do that, and maybe even better. If you only use it occasionally like I used to, building small datasets and performing little calculation and analysis work, you will never experience the true nature of a spreadsheet. Firstly, it’s visual. What you see is what you get. People don’t have to run any reports to see what’s going on inside the box. Secondly, it’s lightweight. My computer at work is a Dell laptop with 512M RAM running Windows 2000. The CPU could be Pentium III, loading Windows in more than 10 minutes every time. But Excel runs just as fast as Freecell (which could be another good name for spreadsheet application). It loads a 500K file in 5 seconds and executes almost all calculation in no time. Such a lightweight application can hold thousands of hundreds of data, up to 256 worksheets at the same time. And there is even a built-in script language (though it’s not so visual as how it’s named). It’s amazing, isn’t it? Thirdly, it’s extensible. This is a relatively high-end feature. The VBA framework behind the scene provides Excel good extensibility to all types of applications, even in the future. You can export and import data to and from Excel easily. This, along with Microsoft’s market share, makes Excel the in-fact data center of the world business.

I use Oracle 11 at work. What should I say? It’s big, ugly and slow. With Java as its interface language, the application runs at an incredibly low speed. I thought it might be safer. I was wrong. It’s full of errors, reasons not clear. The buggy, sluggish stuff cannot even export data in a considerably flexible way. People have to query manually and copy/paste one by one…

What people invent database for? It should be the center of data collection, storage, processing, analysis and reporting. Built on the steady base of network, database guarantees the security and proper accessibility of data. In my case, Oracle does this job well, although at the cost of performance. However, Oracle cannot do analysis. Users have to export the data to specific analytical software (for most cases, Excel). Unfortunately, the export format is not XLS but plain text. Excel expert wrote a macro to convert the plain text report into XLS format, which saves some time for analysts. Another tragedy happens here: the macro poorly designed, users have to check the converted report manually. If we all do it manually, why should we invest money on IT?

Spreadsheet should be also database, or database should take a well-designed spreadsheet UI. That’s what we expect, but might also be the beginning of mass unemployment of so-called analysts.

Neo Talks

博客大搬家

毕业时邮件节选

2012看伦敦

Opera好

美国人的担心

Opera Wish List

数学? 再见?

For Those Who Try to Revamp Their CVs

活动过后 再说沟通

实习感言

生活搜索：找房子2.0

搜狗拼音好

Test Your Techie Sense

朔爷不是吹的

找个人显然比戒烟还难

世界针孔摄影日 - 4月29日

Twitter Blocked in Office

Biggest M&A Deals in 2006

糟糕的一天 Had a Bad Day

异口同声的Sell Side Equity Research

这个Mac太爽了

进京申请模板

过来人

不靠谱的事太多

近乎一个佛教徒

速度决定应用

Catch-ups

孙燕姿的新专辑

企业绩效排行榜

最近

Official Google Blog: Talk on your Personalized Homepage

America's Most Admired Companies 2007 - FORTUNE Magazine Ranks the Best

37signals的新产品+Google Desktop 5 Beta

Thomas Hawk

How Much Do They Get in 2006?

失败-成功-恐惧-勇气

午饭多吃还是少吃好？

GE年报里面有趣的地方

第一天实习

Shotlog 02/25/07: 1984

Shotlog 02/02/07: Backspace, Home

淘宝手机充值指南

当幸福来敲门

The Bourne Ultimatum

五万杀一人？

网易的年度娱乐语录2006

Shotlog 01/12/07: FMP Annual Dinner

Quotes on iPhone

iPhone露面

Macworld Expo 2007

只会说一种语言的白痴

Cream - Vim的现代配置

Fix You

海缆中断时期的应急策略

GE Hires MIT President into Board

Donate on Xmas Eve

Merry Xmas

Two Letters

逃

Business Idea: LoverSpace

Start with Finals

Quote from Arsene Wenger

Shotlog 12/04/2006

Blogspot Recovered

Softly, Slowly and Sentimentally

Sometimes

On the Road

Heavy Schedule on the Eve of 22nd Birthday

Microsoft Office 2007 Arrives

Social Network Mkt Share, US, Sept 2006

Prison Break Wallpapers

Editor War

Google Customized Search: Business/Finance

Sequoia Capital

Temporary Home

Yahoo Time Capsule

Tired of Distance

Switch to Windows XP English

Never Talk To Strangers

活动过后再说沟通