Sharing observations and thoughts on nature, technology, and life through my lens and eyes. Everyone has his or her rights to pursue happiness, at the same time, everyone has to deal with the "ugliness" that life throws at them. I believe that sharing and learning will help us get better at how to balance between the pursuit and the mundane so that we can have a more fulfilling journey!
I hope that your “shelter in place” has been productive for your life’s pursuit (and for work if that is part of your agenda), and that you and your loved ones have been staying safe and close, at least in spirit!
It has been almost two months since my office, DiDi Labs, implemented the “Work from Home” policy, which was about a week before our Governor Gavin Newsom issued the state-wide order for California. The DiDi Labs team has worked very creatively to keep our staffs safe while striving to be productive with business goals, and to keep everyone in good spirit. For example, our staffs organized virtual “Welcome New Comers” and “Happy Hours”, and online games such as “Who’s That Cute Baby” and “Identify That Song”. I enjoyed all events I could find myself to be part of! In between work affairs, I also managed to follow quite a few of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily Coronavirus Briefings – all with my greatest appreciation. Full disclosure, two of my daughters are in Manhattan with productive schooling and working, which made me quickly realized that we need means of “social closeness” to reinforce “physical distancing” behavior on them :-). Kudos to New York Governor Cuomo and his “New York Tough But Loving” citizens!
Governor Cuomo shared some stories of his grandparents, reminding us that hard times tend to bring both the best and the worst out of people, which made deep impression on me! To witness, I have heard and seen bad examples, such as people hoarding PPE supplies and price-gouging the society, and people pushing their own political agenda showing little respect to science, news professionals, or even life. However, we have seen that the best side far outshines the worst during our fight against the Coronavirus! The letter and one single pair of N95 mask sent to Mr. Cuomo by the old couple from Kansas, Dennis and Sharon Ruhnke, moved many of us in the nation! To be frank, to most of us, the life still goes on, owing tremendously to all those frontline workers, from food to energy production, from health care to sanitation, and from police to transportation, and so on!
Moreover, everyone of us, by being caring, kind, thoughtful, and rational, we can show more of our “good side” of humanity through continuing our vigilance against the virus spread. I am proud to report that I have felt great positive energy in my town of Los Alto Hills, as seen by all the beautiful “positivity” rocks sprung up by the side of the pathways since around the Easter. I have captured many of them during my walks, with credits to the folks who took their time to create and distribute them. By sharing them here, I hope the creators and the readers alike can share and amplify the positive energy!
Finally, I believe that there is no question as to IF we should reopen our life, business, and economy. It is the HOW, that will determine if we will get to achieve our desire to reopen, how soon we can get there, and at what cost in the end. Let’s act together with reason, and guide our actions with passion for humanity and best science!
Stay safe, be kind, be rational, and we shall overcome!
It’s a Saturday. Normally I would have simply headed out to the nearby Fort Funston or one of the many natural reserves with my wife and our dog Watson in the morning for a good hike. Today, however, I tuned in for President Trump’s Coronavirus Taskforce press conference a bit, I watched New York governor Cuomo’s press conference and California governor Newsom’s video address on Youtube in addition. Coronavirus infection is still trending up in many parts of the world (China and South Korea are a few exceptions). Except for its ferocious infection and higher fatality rate, we still know little about this Nova Coronavirus. We have witnessed China experiencing 81000+ confirmed infection with 3200+ deaths, and getting it under control. Now, we are observing 27000+ confirmed infection with 340+ deaths in a short few weeks and still trending up, it will take an idiot to not see that we are not doing something right!
Thank god, California, New York, and many other communities are now on a “shelter in place” or “stay home except for essentials” order. Dow losing all its gain which President Trump trumpeted on and on up to this point, helped to send the biggest shock wave across the establishment. Nonetheless, it’s our disease control professionals, healthcare workers, and State leaders like Newsom and Cuomo, who deserve a loud shout-out! They took the initiatives, they took the matter in their own hands to protect their citizens!
Three-Prone Approach
We stay safe for you, You stay home for us!
Sincere message from some doctors and nurses working overtime to take care of infection patients in the face of shortage for basic protection supplies such as face masks and ventilators
Given the current state of understanding on the Coronavirus, a three-prone approach taken by many State and City governments make perfect sense. This three-prone approach actually bears many similarities to the layered-defense approach that we use in dealing with cybersecurity problems .
First, reduce person to person close contacts. Since the virus is known to spread primarily via air droplets and surface contacts, and that we do not have the most precise understanding and detection of when an infected person is contagious, “social distancing” gives us the best bang for the buck! That is why majority of the businesses have adopted a work from home policy (my company DiDi Labs started this policy on March 6). That is why many restaurants closed their dine-in services. That is why citizens in California and New York are practicing “shelter in place” or “stay home”!
Second, since we still need to live our lives and we still have life-essential services and interactions going on, we need means to more accurately identify high-risk individuals timely and apply tighter restrictions on their contacts. That is why we need to quickly ramp up our screening test capacity and improve our test accuracy. Again, we heard governors Cuomo and Newsom loud and clear. We have seen their actions significantly increase the test availability to their citizens. Finally, we are seeing the federal government getting their acts together, and enlisting private sectors support. Virus does not discriminate, we need a united effort in our United States to win the war against the virus!
Third, as we all have seen and many experts have predicted, a lot more people will get infected, and many with compromised immune system or other complications will die, unless we have timely and effective treatment! Again, we are seeing great effort to increase ventilator supply to the hospitals, thanks to the forceful “cry” from the health care professionals and local officials. We are also hopeful that some of the existing antiviral drugs can be repurposed for fighting this virus. FDA and other regulatory bodies should be commended for taking extraordinary steps to expedite the process! Of course, all of us, the good citizens, should understand that this process, along with the new vaccines, will take longer time to come. We should seriously practice “social distancing” in the meantime!
Seeing, Believing, and Acting
Now, let me share some perspectives on “silver lining in the cloud”.
I believe firmly that with some common sense, some care, and some effort, we will overcome this challenge soon. My technology training taught me to be thorough and precise while my entrepreneur experience taught me to be patient and to seek opportunities. Let’s see if a couple of photos can help you follow my dry, technical, and maybe naive perspective better.
Although we are under the cloud of Coronavirus, people are practicing “shelter in place” in California statewide. At the same time, they are still trying to stay healthy physically and mentally by exercising outdoors, here at Fort Funston with their dog friends. They were courteous with greetings but observing 6-foot separation. On this sunny day, the silver lining in the cloud is abundant and clearly visible.On this same sunny day, from the hilltop at Fort Funston, you can see Golden Gate bridge clearly standing with strength. We can appreciate the blue sky highlighting the graceful red bridge. A few patches of cloud still bring with them the silver lining. It takes the effort to be at this particular place to capture this moment!If you made the effort to be at the twin peak in the evening of this clear day (Thursday March 19), you could appreciate the silver lining of the cloud with a warmer tone. You could appreciate the light reflecting off of the cloud onto the city of San Francisco. You can imagine how beautiful the city will be at a different moment and with a different cloud cover! It takes more effort to imagine and patient to wait, in order to witness another nice day!
As my thoughts wonder, Sunday has rolled around. We were experiencing thousands of case increases in a matter of days. It’s high time that we heed the “shelter in place” orders and fight the virus spread together!
There are plenty of silver linings in this Coronavirus pandemic. Neighbors are offering to watch and help elderlies; Food delivery businesses are adopting “contactless” delivery schemes to reduce chance of infection; Consumers are planning take-outs during “shelter in place” because they care about the livelihood of workers in the restaurants; People are organizing donations, in kinds or in cash, to help solve the supply shortage of health care workers; More efforts are in motion to help all those impacted to get back on their feet!
There are also plenty of opportunities for our positive strength to show, and humanity to shine! We have seen businesses quickly adopt “work from home” policies, and employees quickly adapting to working from home to remain productive; we have seen our networking infrastructure got stretched and capacity expanded quickly; we have seen remote working systems such as Zoom experiencing rapid expansion and rising to occasion; not to mention innovation and development improving our ability to test and cure Coronavirus infections!
Most of all, it’s a humble feeling to realize that this virus pandemic is forcing us to think about what humanity means! Humanity must sustain and prosper, but how? Humanity needs to transcend physical boundaries and sustain through test of time! It may require us to think more long-term? It may require us to sincerely seek “win-win” collaboration? One thing is clear for now — we need to work together to win this battle with Coronavirus! If we can all act with responsibility and with care, practice social distancing and with kindness, we will triumph! You can find good information on the development and tips for protection against Coronavirus on this John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center site (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/). Love and peach for the world!
How odd it is to be negligent of your blog for 3.5 years and then come back with an article about virus on your mind!
First off, it’s year 2020, 2020 screaming for a year of better vision 🙂 Seriously, I got inspired by a LinkedIn sharing by Alan Cohen, who reflected on 2019 a couple of month back and decided to reexamine what matters most to him in his life. I decided then that I should pursue my beliefs with more resolve – one of which is to share and learn more! So I am coming back to this long-forgotten blog.
Next, I want to apologize to those of you who have actually read some of my old posts and found them somehow interesting. I felt that I have in fact disappointed you with my failure to persist with my “Lens4Thoughts”. I indeed believe in sharing and learning together, except that I was not determined enough to persist.
I am very torn with the subject of today’s sharing [I have been working on this over the last two weekends]. On the one hand, I wish to share something witty and light-hearted to start the new year on a bright note. There are plenty of beautiful photos from my family trips to share and reflect upon. For any kids, who would not love cuddling with the warmth of the mom like that panda puppy. However, the dark cloud of Coronavirus overshadows so much of everyone’s life, from Wuhan China to Beijing, from Hong Kong to Macau, to Taiwan, from Oceania to North America, and so on. Nova Coronavirus weighs heavily on my mind — it’s a serious virus doing significant damage to our lives globally.
Wuhan, once a vibrant city of over 10 million people, had to go into lockdown in order to quickly control the spread of the virus. People of Wuhan deserves all the prayers and respect this world can give!
In the city today, healthy citizens have to survive the lack of daily supplies and the risk of being infected; those infected are enduring more due to the shortage of isolation and treatment facilities. Many people are losing their lives because proper care lost some races with the virus. Many brave and caring souls are working day and night inside Wuhan, providing medical care and life assistance to the needy, often with less-than-ideal protection for themselves. Many drivers and service personnels from DiDi are staying inside Wuhan, working overdrive to provide the necessary transport for doctors and patients alike. When I heard some of the accounts on how these workers strive to provide the best services in Wuhan while trying to shield their loved ones from risk concerns, and how volunteer groups comfort and draw encouragement from each other by taking group photo together, I fought back tears hard, but with no avail.
The battle is still raging on, spreading to cities near Wuhan, and to other major cities. With it, there are many more innocents who will suffer and many more heroic souls who will risk their own lives to help fight the virus. This outbreak is a threat to Wuhan, to China, and to the world, and our humanity! Working together to contain and eliminate this threat should be the overarching goal for all earthlings. Identifying the original source, understanding how it spreads, and effectively controlling it should be our highest priority!
No use crying over spilled milk. While it is imperative to find out how this virus break started, how it was handled, and who are responsible for failing to control it effectively early on, we must focus on winning over the virus spread right now! In this very spirit, let me make the following suggestions in fighting against the Nova Coronavirus. Needless to say, this is my personal thought, not representing my employer or anyone else:
World citizens, including you and me in the capacity of an ordinary individual. While material and monetary donations are nice actions you can take to help, the best things for all of us should be avoiding big crowd with close proximity, following best personal-hygiene practice, and caring for each other. Of course, you should exercise your judgement when reading online posts and avoid spreading rumors and unfounded fears.
Media organizations. The best a media organization can do during the time of war against virus outbreak is to more strictly stick to its mission — to inform timely, and not to mis-inform. A better informed mass can better fight the infection. The media should help discover blind spots or neglects in the execution of infection control actions. Media reports should avoid sensationalism and political bias, and avoid distracting people from the task of infection control by asking “who is at fault” prematurely.
Governments. The war against virus infection can only be won when the virus is under control across the world! Governments must be open and collaborative. Governments must focus on virus control as a common objective and it should take priority over other trade or geopolitical issues. Governments should be careful in taking border, immigration, and other international exchange actions, in order to lend material and moral support effectively to the virus-control effort.
THIS OAK SEEMS TO CHANNEL THE HEALING POWER OF MOTHER EARTH – WIN!WUHAN PEOPLE ARE TOUGH AND FULL OF LOVE. WITH THE WORLD BEHIND THEM, THEY WILL EMERGE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS THREAT AND BLOSSOM WITH BRILLIANCE!
All our prayers and thoughts are with people of Wuhan, and all those who are negatively impacted! Humanity as one, we shall overcome!
I have visited NYC many times in the past, but never had the time to enjoy and appreciate how lovely it is until my recent visit at the end of May. I got to move around Manhattan ever so conveniently taking the old but efficient subway trains; I was able to take a nice walk across the Central Park between the Upper East and Upper West, where I experienced firsthand the harmony between nature, wild life and the Manhattan metropolitan; Last but not least, I took a nice stroll on the High Line, where urban chaos yielded quietly to the beautiful colors and fragrance of Spring flowers, and to the thirst for knowledge and love of these creatures – people. I cannot help but thinking, this is great harmony! Here are a few shots I took, tell me if you feel something on the contrary 🙂
There are so many hidden treasures in the East Bay of Northern California, I just began to explore them after living in Livermore for some many years. Treasures, parks, where the beauty of nature is in its full display. Here are some more moments I captured for this season before the dry heat of 2015 hits East Bay.
Nature simply inspires me, to think, to appreciate, and to do my best in making this world a more secure (did I mention that my company Cyphort just won the Rookie Company Of The Year from SC Magazine 🙂 ) better place for us all. You may ask what do I get out these moments. Confession time! Cow and Feeding Calf – I decided to let her show her love for the baby in public; Butterfly and Flowers – Enjoy the beauty, add to it but without ruining it; The tree with bright clusters of flowers – no blazing color or big pedals like others, but still adding its beauty to the blue sky in the warm Sun; Two turkeys or pheasants (please tell me what they are) – my curiosity tricked me into disturbing their nice outings in the meadow; Two different flowers (I wish I knew what they are) – they proudly persuaded the Spring to stay longer for us, simply elegant and outstanding; Trees, oak trees – the first displayed amazing character through its branches, the second makes you wonder how are oak and rock related or connected? The boulder-oak pair – I see harmony and beauty between that boulder and the oak, don’t you?
I am happy with my effort of slowing down aging 🙂 One way of doing it is to keep regular exercises, preferably outdoors. Today I had a great hike (6 miles only, I confess) with my wife on one of the hidden gems in the East Bay – Tassajara Ridge Trail, San Ramon.
To me, in addition to burning some extra calories, this was a great opportunity to get close to nature – filling my mind with the sights of the amazing colors of wild flowers, with scenes of foraging critters, and with the sounds of singing birds. This was a welcome break from tracking cybersecurity attacks or following stock market performance. I hope you like the pictures, feel the calling of the nature, and better yet, there is still time to go out and experience it yourself!
Finally, I got to pay a visit to San Francisco on Earth Day last week. To be exact, my short excursion included a stop at the Civic Center where a dance event marking the Earth Day was happening, and a hike in the Golden State Park where hatching herons supposedly could be seen. Before that weekend, a lot of disturbing things already happened upon us: the Heartbleed exploit on HTTPS websites, data breach disclosure at more companies, ferry accidents in Hong Kong and South Korea, lack of progress with Ukraine situation. I am not the most optimistic person, but I was hopeful that the Earth Day weekend would be better.
How did it turn out? Well, let me just say that I am still savoring the experience after a week even though I missed hatching herons. Here are a few things I captured through my lens. I was not able to see anything reflecting a cybersecurity threat, a ferry or airline disaster, or the shadow of cold war. Maybe that is the beauty and power of the nature? I feel recharged so that I can go back to my cause of fighting advanced Malware threat at Cyphort. I hope you enjoy these moments as well!
Enjoy Earth, enjoy dance, do Earth justice and smile!
Different colors, different kind of beauty
Just enjoy the scenery, Chckling 4 & 5 will catch up soon!
It’s been a long time since I last shared with you through my lens. My excuse is that I have been busy working with the Cyphort team (http://www.cyphort.com). We have just successfully released the Panther 1.0, offering the first effective, practical, and affordable solution for continuous monitoring and mitigation of modern threats for enterprises.
Luckily I was able to take a 10-day family vacation in Africa, blending deep into the natural game reserves and getting really close to the wild lives. I feel the impulse to share again and will try to do so in the coming weeks. Elephants are on my mind today.
The first thing coming to mind in mention of an elephant is “big”, which becomes apparent with this lonely male elephant standing next to the tree. When we first approached it in the jeep, it flapped his ears, blew the trumpet, and postured to charge at us; the experienced driver quickly went in reverse a little and revved the engine a little, as if to say “Ok, big guy, no harm intended but be nice!” As shown in the next two pictures, the elephant showed us the power of his tusks against the tree trunk and his true size by standing right next to the tree. Honestly, we really did not need more convincing. We learned that indeed, elephants are safe from the threats of lions and cheetahs. The size and strength matter! We encountered many herds of elephants in the Greater Kruger Game Reserve area, ranging from lone male to several dozen in herd with many babies. We witnessed many occasions of “giant affection”, as captured by this last picture. So next time, you’d better not complain that your big nose is in the way 🙂
I just took a personal trip to Xi’an China from April 2 through April 9. This was a great trip worth sharing. This was the first ever reunion of my class – Computer Hardware Class 1982 of Xi’an Jiaotong University. It’s special because old classmates got to gather together after 30 years, to reminisce the disciplined campus life between class rooms, library, cafeteria, and dorms; to remember the bicycle rides to the suburbs; and to retrace the paths lined with cherry blossoms leading to class rooms. It’s even more special because all of the Class Of 1982 joined forces to commission a 25-ton boulder in front of the library to commemorate 1977 – the turning point in modern Chinese history. It was 1977 that China began her journey of reform and openness; It was 1977 that China restored the college entrance exam system, affording millions of high-school graduates in the past 10 years a chance to enter college, and allowing many more village kids a chance to become someone other than a peasant.
As can be seen from the pictures here, the boulder is beautifully engraved with a description of the historical 1977. The cherry blossom is ever more beautiful. The campus is packed with people coming to appreciate the April flowers and the campus atmosphere, among them are young generations dressed in costumes of their favorite cartoon characters. What would all these pictures look like if China did not make that right turn?
Last Sunday, I finally got to make my first trip to Mt. Hamilton to the East of San Jose. I have heard about the Lick Observatory atop there and had seen the snow capped top of it more than a couple of times in the past 12 years I have been living in the bay area. Although it was plenty warm in the South Bay, there was still snow on the ground on the top of the mountain. The Joseph county park is right at the foot of Mt. Hamilton, visiting the park was icing on the cake to the Hamilton trip.
Check these pictures out, they say much better than my words of the trip. There was the view of the Observatory buildings atop the summit, with snow still trying to stick around in the bright spring Sun; I spotted a brave hawk standing its branch looking me straight in the eye; then I passed by flowing curtains of Spanish moss from oak trees; I admired pines with the biggest cones I have ever seen, and with generous saps protecting wounds around trimmed branches.
Of course, that’s not all. I was especially amazed by intricate patterns in the Spanish moss, and by the crystal clear look and the elegant surface patterns of the dry resin. Look at these cropped image to see them yourself. I have to say that Beauty Is In The Details! Don’t just fool around, enjoy life and enjoy nature!
LENS4THOUGHT - MAY SHARING BRIGHTEN YOUR LIFE'S JOURNEY! 