There are some folks that claim iPhone makes up as much as 40% of Apple’s revenue. How many companies can claim that type of success with their 1st or 2nd generation product in a brand new industry? The company is on a tear. In fact, it’s already supplanting older and more established products like Macs & iPods as the bread-winner.

The company’s recent string of hit products is just amazing if you remember the old days of Gil Amelio. Whatever happened to him?

This incredible piano performance is from a 14 year old Jennifer Lin who demonstrated her composition talents by improvising a song on the spot after asking a guest to randomly chose 5 notes for her. Wow…

Ran across some funny campaign posters inspired by the original posters by Shepard Fairey…

At 9:47AM this morning, Allison turns exactly 5 years old. She’s such a happy and lovely child. She makes up for her petite in size with her stubbornness. She loves to color, draw and dress up as princesses. She knows how to melt your heart and has her daddy wrapped around her tiny fingers.

Happy birthday kiddo, I love you…

This past Saturday, I had a rare afternoon which I didn’t have to tend to the girls. I took advantage of it, grabbed my camera bag and headed out for a hike at Rancho San Antonio. The rain the night before cooled the afternoon but not enough, fortunately, to leave mud on the trails. The highlight was the view at vista point at “High Meadow” and my encounter with a pack of deers on my way back.

It was a nice way for some quality time alone and decompress…

We were looking at the photo books we made recently in bed last night, when I casually (honest!) mentioned to Suzanne about Canon releasing a new full-frame camera. I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a full-frame awhile, but these babies cost an arm & a leg. So, I was describing the camera to her (with no ulterior motives, of course! ;), when Suzanne said

I don’t care how much it costs, just buy whatever it takes to get good pictures. These photo books are worth it!

Alright, I’m blogging this as proof. Got a license to kill… our budget, baby!

As employees here at Shutterfly, we get to make some of the company photo-related products as freebies. These past two weeks, Suzanne & I have been busy making photo books.

We got the first two this week. Oh my… they are simply amazing products. Suzanne & I are thrilled with them. The printing is National Geographic quality. The background is simply gorgeous (the icons on our web site don’t do them justice at all). The book binding is great. Quality is top-notch (I’m not claiming this just because I’m an employee). These are coffee-table quality books!

It’s a great way to breath new life to photos that normally sit on your hard drive as idle bits. It’s such a more fun and liberating way to organize and make prints. A photo book like these instantly elevate the sentimental values in your photographs. I believe we found the best method for presentation. No more stuffing 4×6’s into a shoe box or a clunky photo album. I highly recommend you checking out Shutterfly’s photo books.

Most of all, the photo books really give me great satisfaction because it really showcases the photos that I took myself!

One thing I like about Chrome is that it’s fast and light. It starts up fast and performs zippier than Firefox. The memory footprint is about 1/3 to half of that uses by Firefox as the screen shot below shows. Both where running with a single tab opened. Not surprising since I have a few of Firefox plugins installed. Firefox started out as a light version of Mozilla, but has gotten fattened up a bit over the years. I’d like to think the bloat is for richer features and extensible plugins. It’s still my browser of choice, but I am finding that I’m firing up Chrome more & more when I want some quick surfing.

I found out this morning that Ensemble Studios is closing down after 12 years. They make the RTS series that I played for years: Age of Empires. I knew it wouldn’t bode well when I found that Microsoft bought them over… What a shame!

Even at an early age, Allison exhibited stubbornness. She was born in 2003, the year of the goat/ram in lunar calendar. So we sometimes try to explain her stubbornness by attributing her as “stubborn as a goat”, an old saying.

So I was working on my photo book last night when Katelyn and Allison both came running and screaming into the computer room. Katelyn was especially upset and started swinging her arm out of frustration. Though not intentionally, she hit Allison. I promptly sent her to the corner. Intentionally or not, she violated rule #1 “no hitting.”

Later on, I sat down with both to understand what went on. Katelyn claimed Allison started it all by snatching a toy Katelyn was still playing with, without asking. I gave Allison a stern look and I can see her immediate panic in her eyes. Seeing the attention has shifted to her, she quickly sprung up for damage control.

Rex: “Allison, did you grab Katelyn’s toy without asking?”

Allison: “Daddy, but I’m learning…”

Rex: “But you know it’s not nice to grab things without asking!”

Allison: “But I’m learning…”

Rex: “You know it’s not nice, but why did you do it?”

Allison: “But Daddy, I’m the year of the goat! Remember?”

Priceless…

I didn’t exactly grew up with what you call “outdoorsy” upbringing, didn’t take my first camping trip until the year I graduated from high school. But I’ve always associated the outdoor with a sense of romanticism. The source of this feeling was probably developed through the books I was reading as a young boy.

Growing up, I dreamed of being a fisherman, ala Hemingway’s The Old Man & the Sea. There’s something undeniably adventurous (at least through the colorful description in the books) about battling the elements of the sea and the simplicity of living off nature. The 3 days I spent in the south China sea escaping Vietnam as a kid probably further enforced the idea. It’s funny because of course, had I followed that dream, I’d be starving everyday since I get sea sick & puke every time I step on a boat.

I admired folks with deep passion for the outdoors like John Muir, Edward Weston & Ansel Adams. I often imagine the thoughts that were running through John Muir’s head when seeing the pristine western wilderness for the first time.

Then there are extreme folks like Chris McCandless who desperately seek solitude and pit themselves against mother nature, without an ounce of fear. I started to look into McCandless’ life after watching movie Into The Wild. I got curious after I realized when I was watching the credits that the movie was based on real life. (Spoiler-alert: rest of this post discusses the endings at lengths).

McCandless was from a middle class family in suburban Washington DC. It was clear even at an early age that Chris marched to a different drummer. He was compassionate, intelligent, independent & adventurous. He also had an unusual strong will. To escape a troubled family life, Chris turned to writings of Thoreau, Tolstoy and the likes. He quickly subscribed to the doctrine of asceticism: extreme self-denial as a means to salvation. These writings turned Chris from an innocent young man into an extremely idealistic skeptic. He began to “feel extremely uncomfortable with society.”

After college, rather than attending law school per his parents’ wishes, Chris rebelled. He donated all the money in his estate and was determined to invent a new life for himself. He permanently severed all family ties and created for himself a new identity: “Alexander Supertramp.” He burned all his cash, left behind identification documents and drove off in an old Datsun, embarking on a spiritual pilgrimage to seek solitude and to “kill the false being within.”

He wandered the west for almost 2 years before beginning the audacious trek into the frontiers of Alaska in spring of ‘92. Determined to live off the land, Chris brought minimal rations. Frankly, he was ill-prepared. He proved very resourceful at first, able to supplement his 10 lbs of rice with hunting and gathering. He sleeps in an old abandoned bus and keeps a journal for 189 days.

By summer however, food was getting low and Chris resorted to eating roots and seeds. Chris eventually succumbed to starvation one August summer day; he was 24 years old and weighed all of 67 lbs. Both the movie and the book suggest toxins did Chris in but that theory had been debunked. Chris left the world with a self portrait snapshot (2nd picture below) the following last message:

“I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Good bye and may god bless all!”.

It’s ludicrous to suggest Chris was suicidal. Some dismissed Chris as a foolhardy misfit, a nature greenhorn who is no match for the Alaskan wilderness. And some even questioned his mental stability. On the other hand, some people made him out to be a hero; in fact his story is quickly reaching a level of folklore.

I’d argue that “Supertramp” was a lost soul. Every answer he thought he had spawns even more questions. The existential struggles within him lead the young man in search of the pure meaning of his own life and his relationship to the world. His last message and picture seemed to suggest that he was at peace or at least content. There was no indication that he regretted any of his actions.

In the end, that’s what made his journey admirable and worthy of our attention. It is one thing to subscribe to a set of ideals, it’s another to gather the courage to practice them in real life, especially ideas most consider extreme. Chris lived his life by his ideals and died clinging onto them. The wilderness may have defeated him, but there’s no denying that his journey self-discovery was extremely courageous– the type of courage is all but rare this day and age. We can only speculate and theorize if Chris really managed to kill his “false self” within and found what he was looking for.

As for his family, they have my sympathy. His father said that it’s ironic how a compassionate person can create so much pain for close ones. Perhaps they found comfort in one of last Chris’s entries in his journal:

“Happiness is only real when it is shared.”

I believe I ran into a bug with iTunes.

A few weeks ago, the credit card I was using on iTunes was replaced. As soon as I got the new replacement, I updated my iTunes account with the new card. Starting then, I wasn’t able to make purchases or update my existing iPhone apps. I’d get the error msg “The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time” each time on my home PC, work PC and my iPhone itself. So it’s clear, it’s a server bug not client. I roamed the forums but didn’t see anything helpful.

The workaround? I create a new iTunes account and now I can make purchases & updates finally.

We returned to Maui this summer after our wedding there 8 years ago. It was mainly a family vacation but we scheduled it so we got to celebrate our anniversary on the island. It was a quiet celebration at Roy’s, one of our favorite Hawaiian fusion restaurants.

The girls are bigger now, so traveling with them is so much easier & less hassle. Also helps that we traveled a little lighter this time. Airlines these days charge hefty fees for additional or over-weight baggage.

The girls had blast, spending most of their time in the pools & beaches. We pretty much stayed put at the hotel most of the time. We didn’t even make it to Kea Lani (hotel where we stayed when we got married) as planned. Katelyn got around the pool by herself this time, good to see those swimming lessons paying off. In fact, she’s pretty much like a fish. Allison too enjoyed it more since she’s much more comfortable in water.

We hooked up with a few friends. My buddy Vince flew over from Oahu; hanging out with him and his friend Vijack made us feel less touristy. We also hooked up with our friends, the Truongs, for a few days. Our hotels were close by, so the girls got to swim with the Truong boys. It was a shame our stays only overlap for a few days. One highlight of the trip is a sailing trip with Alex & Nicholas. The kids were super excited we spotted dolphins & turtles. It was a first snorkeling experience for our girls. It was a kick for them to see the fish & corals in the water.

Another highlight was a trip to Haleakala summit with Vince. Haleakala is a dormant volcano in Maui. We started out around 2AM up the windy road and made it to the 10,000 feet summit while it was still dark. Dozens of other tourists crowding at the the little shelter– it was very cold and windy. Dawn broke and we saw a glorious sunrise (my last memorable sunrise was at Bryce Canyon in Utah). Wow– sunrise above the cloud! Vince & I spent the next 4 hours snapping pictures, including some with us jumping up & down at the top of the world. That was great fun.

We also took the girls to a luau at the Sheraton, it was way overrated for me. But it was the first for the girls and they enjoyed it. They even went up the stage with Suzanne to do the hula.

As with other family trips, I found I was so busy having fun with the girls and I barely have time to shoot some real photos. In fact, I had all but one opportunity to shoot sunsets. So the night before we left, I spent 2 hours in the middle of the night shooting some night photography. It was cool to walk the emptied beach at night under the moon light. Plus I don’t have too many chances for night shooting.

Below is a few shots, check out more here @ Flickr or here @ Shutterfly.

Earlier this year, I resurrected the girls’ fish tank. Took the girls to the local pet store, Allison chose an orange guppy and Katelyn chose a gold fish.

Katelyn named hers Fred; Allison named her fish Rose.

I set up the fish tank in their bedroom and made it a ritual for the girls to feed the fish before going to bed each night. While I still have to remind them, Allison is always happily feed the fish. Katelyn on the other hand isn’t always keen about it. And it shows…

Rose is doing well. On the other hand, we’ve gone through Fred I & Fred II already. I promised Katelyn we’re going to take her to get Fred III later today.

Let’s hope we can fool Rose with Fred III. Perhaps she’s wised up about the situation already…

Just installed the new iPhone app from Wordpress. Sweet…
Blogging this post from my iPhone!

Sometimes instead of running several sessions of SSH’s or putty’s, I run Emacs with multiple shells– this cuts down on the number of windows I have to deal with.

To run a shell in Emacs, you invoke the Lisp function “shell” via meta-x shell. This creates a buffer called *shell*. Running it the second time though doesn’t create a 2nd shell buffer as you might expect, instead it brings you back to the original shell buffer. The trick is to rename the original buffer to avoid name collision. The quickest way to do this is via “rename-uniquely" function via meta-x rename-uniquely. It renames the buffer to a similar but unique name like "*shell*<2>“. Now if you start another shell.

The better behavior is for Emacs to automatically create new buffer with unique name. Perhaps there’s a hook to configure this that somebody can point me to.

I was lining up at the AT&T store last night to pick up my iPhone. This one guy at the front of the line picked up his phone a few minutes earlier and came up to the employee:

Guy: “Where’s the wand to my iPhone?”

Employee: “What wand?”

G: “You know the thing you write on the screen with.”

E: “Oh, iPhone doesn’t have one, you don’t need it!”

G: “Then how am I going to write it?”

E: “You use your finger, it’s a touch screen.”

G: “But I need a wand”

E: “You really don’t need it, let me show you…”

E: showed the guy how to use it

G: “I want my wand, where’s my wand?”

The episode cracks me & all the folks at the store up. And it goes to show some people are buying into this iPhone craze without really understanding the product they’re buying.

Ah, the omnipotence of Steve Jobs…

Where’s that bandwagon that is iPhone? After skipping out on the 1st generation, I decided that I too will join the iPhone generation. I was one of those dorks that lined up when iPhone 3G was launched. They ran out of the model I wanted, so I placed an order rather than settle with the available models.

Anyway, my unit finally came & I picked it up last night. It’s a beautiful device and I can’t wait to put it through the paces! If only I can pry them from my girls’ hands… The fact that even my 4 year old can operate with easy the first time is a tribute to its design. They’re all over it.

Funny… but it says it all, doesn’t it?