Sound of Madrid: Weekend Jazz

People said last Friday was the longest day, luckily I was right in downtown Madrid that night and close enough to the delightful weekend Jazz...

Almost half of the small cafe y restaurante was full of tourists like me and the rest couples at their 50s or 60s...this was a very different experience from what I had in shanghai where live Jazz was "spoiled" usually played in fancy night clubs or five star hotels with dressed listeners, making me wonder--- what is more important--- the Jazz? or the place?

The play continued for two hours, the resonance was strong, I could feel all the beats from the performing stage; people were enjoying, sending applauses spontaneously from time to time; I love their improvisational part most, the call and response between piano and saxophone, the polyrhythms, and the swing...

Mad World

Well this is one demo clip I first watched during visit of Cinegame, I just love this song Mad World and the hero running through the darkness fighting for the glory...

Cinegame: Create new game playing joy at cinema

"Revolution" might be too big for this innovative change for video game playing, but with all of the on-spot effects like lights, smoke, seat vibration, 3D theatrical sound resonance, bunches of people playing the same game at the same place and the same time...isn't there anything beyond your expectation?!

If you are going to San Francisco...

Well this is a must-add old post...One week stay in San Francisco and visits to hi-tech world's central server Silicon Valley drew was definitely our most unforgettable time during our Master. But for me, the impact of this trip was far beyond the business workshop; rather, I breathed the freedom in the air, I was amazed by its huge, fast, powerful, pervasive commercial culture, and moreover, the rooted-in entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley.

May 12th, 2007.

Our first picture after officially entering into land of The United States. Not surprisingly, we were "friendly" reminded by certain customs officer that the place where we took the photo was not for tourist sightseeing. Oops.



May 13th, 2007. San Francisco city tour. Museum of de Young, Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39.




May 14th, 2007. Cisco campus in San Jose.

We were so lucky to have a real-time video conference with its London-based management team. The audio/visual experience was so real and spontaneous. Hopefully Cisco guys will soon make huge money out of it.

Comparing with all visited companies, Cisco is my favorite. It has been in the valley quite a long time, but still maintains very nimble moves in new product development and very innovative in managing people (I am very impressive on its "open space" office layout). People in don't look as young as Google's, but they seem quite comfortable about their job. My comments for CISCO: open-minded & down-to-earth!

May 15th, 2007. Sun Microsystems.

Every visited company in Valley is so proud of themselves, well, they have reasons, but some are becoming outdated, and losing curiosity to the new guys playing around. They shouldn't.




May 16th, 2007. Google @Mountain View.

As a group formed of Tech geeks, Google is absolutely the most exciting company we've dreamed for so long time. We've done Google projects both on Corporate Strategy & HR Management; besides, my life is totally surrounded by Google, read my previous post "Living upon Google"

Google @Mountain View is completely a university campus. To live there, you've got to be genius or nerd :p It's amazing because you can just go there and settle down, bring your laundry, walk your dog, play the basketball at 10:00am, and take free food from everywhere...but you've got to be really smart and crazy to achieve hight performance. As we are not allowed to take pictures inside, hope these outdoor glance could satisfy your curiosity for the moment.




May 16th, 2007. Hewlett Packard

HP is well known in China for its family style management, that day I also saw it from its "Digital Living Room". The idea is to enable the whole family to play together with the integrated entertainment devices, such as its touch screen tea table. I was also enticed by its new transparent "box" designed to allure professional gamers---just look at the way of those complicated crossing wires and chips and circuits, isn't it sexy? Oops, really, I don't know since when I've becoming so INTO "tech" stuff :p. Thanks to my GEEK classmates.




May 17th, 2007. EA Games.

Well if you happen to be a gamer, just name any famous title now occuring to your mind right now! No wonder, they are all from EA Games :P
The company's lobby is a place where your audio & visual senses are fully activated. It is a heaven of digital entertainment. The last picture shows all of its game titles produced. And I believe they have more.


May 17th, 2007. IDEO "Innovate through Design".

@IDEO's 5-hour innovation workshop, we experienced an intensive brainstorming & prototyping process of developing the original idea to real world product. Once again, the power of creative commons, the team work, the pressure handling...Well I'd say what I've learned from the Business School makes sense :p.



May 17th, 2007. San Francisco Dinner & clubbing.




Apart from above...
The following was my first intimate touch with my STREET SMART Mac & Apple's flagship store @San Francisco. Thanks to DivDiv to catch the sweet moment, Javier as my Mac counselor, Alex to supply the desk :p

Now as a Macintosh user, I realize that most complaints about Mac are actually from non-Mac users, because only after you use it, can you really know what is "user-friendly" and what a Personal Computer should be like :X For those wanting to know more about Mac, read my post "15 Reasons to Get a Mac"

Some happy moments @airport, bus, Hooters...





For more "official" report about our trip, visit our program director's blog "Our Week in San Francisco I-IV"; for "fun & non-main-stream" opinions, visit my peers' reports "San Francisco & Silicon Valley" as well as "Silicon Vally, not alley anymore..."

Steve Jobs has humor and looks cute

The latest interview conducted by The Wall Street Journal was pretty much interesting in terms of different presentation and views of the two big computer & digital business veterans.

As a new Macer, I personally like Steve very much, his sharp-looking appearance, his smart yet humorous response, his relaxed posture, his white sports shoes & seemingly shorter jeans, his passion/love/enthusiasm/pride of what he has been doing...

Oh, gosh, this guy doesn't look like 40 something!!!

The videos below are selective clips I personally like a lot! The quotes with * are not necessarily accurate word by word, but it is absolutely Steve's original idea!!



* we are where we are, yesterday doesn't matter, we invent tomorrow.
* when I wake up in the morning, wow, there's something exciting around the corner.



* what we do is kind of navigating through, make life more efficient.
* isn't a ship funny that leaks on the top?
* we are not one company trying to do everything; what we are trying to do is to deliver the best consumer experience, friendly GUI in a coherent product.
* it is hard for one company to do everything, we partner with people who are good at stuff.



Well, who can believe Steve is only 6 months older than Bill?!

I love Steve's humor when he was asked to describe the relationship between Apple and Microsoft. This is not an easy question considering both are strong competitors of each other, but it was so much entertaining moment that Steve came up with his humor "we keep married for secret". I just love it!



Snapshot for Bill:
Belief and love in software, software pulling him throughout his creative 20s, energetic 30s, mature 40s...

Snapshot for Steve:
luckily born in middle-class family, never care about money, land in what really loves to do, greatful to working with super great people, create something for people which are also really loved by himself...

Who has the future?
Increasingly creative powerful post-PC devices or PC with more integrated tremendous power?

The best answer might be, citing Steve's personal quote, "I don't know", * That's why we are so exciting about the future as we never know what our exploration will arrive at, that's what keep me working up to the morning.

Komoo: Chinese Twitter?!

Komoo is the clone of Twitter, and the news said it's getting very very popular in china (it just started early May this year)------it makes sense, as many chinese net citizens do like "gossip", and many chinese like send SMS. Lets see how it develops........

See related news here.