This was taken from the Swissotel Stamford Hotel balcony (23rd floor) in Singapore during last week's business trip.  I wish I had my SLR and tripod with me.  Unfortunately this was taken with ordinary compact easy to carry digital camera

Yes, this is 5 shots stitched together.

Matching Wine and Food

There is a lot written about best wine-and-food paring.  Some people are very prescriptive about it and some people say the best pairing is whatever you like.  No matter what! 

There is no rule behind it - rather than rules, it's based on instincts and experiences.  However, there are definite pairings which create synergy to enhance each others taste - it's like squeezing flesh lemon onto your oysters.

One example of this is blue cheeses, because of their strong flavor, overpower most wines except one type - dessert wines.  This is why most of you know Roquefort cheese with French Sauternes is a classic match.

Now, living in Korea, we must answer this question..."what goes best with Kimchi(or spicy food) ?"  For those of you who had wine with Kimchi can testify to the fact that spicy taste of Kimchi overwhelms wine, right ?  So, what pairs best with Kimchi and spicy food ?  Try out these three wines recommended by 신의물방울.  I have not tried them myself, so I will let you know as soon as I do  

The first two probably taste spicy which match the spiciness of Kimchi and the champagne's strong stimulating experience enhances Kimchi's strong flavor.

Happy Lunar New Year !!

Korea is one of Asian countries which celebrate the lunar new year.  We had the luxury to stay away from work for past 3 days (wed thru fri).  During this break, I finally accomplished something I've been meaning to do for a long time - upgrading/replacing my home computer.  Before I get into the details, here is...

BEFORE


AFTER


Do I need to explain the first picture? - it was basically a messy uncontrolled environment.  That was just under my desk and the top of the desk wasn't much better.

Now, you may ask... why I gave up a desktop PC and bought a laptop/notebook PC?  Well... this wasn't any ordinary notebook PC, it was 20 inch desknote PC(this is what notenook with bigger than 17 inch LCD is called in Korea).  In every features aspect, the new desknote PC was better than my old PC.  The most impressive features were:

• it only needed one connection which was power cable. 
• it only weighs 7kg(15.4lbs) and actually mobile from a room to room in the house.
  
• it's actually a multimedia station with a remote control.

Information and communications technology accounts for roughly 2% of global CO₂ emmissions.  If you break this down by types of devices, the biggest culprit turns out to be PCs and monitors which accounts for 39% of the CO₂ emissions, followed by servers ar 23%.  My drive behind replacing my older PC was not necessarily in reducing the carbon footprint, but in:

• reducing noise pollution
• cleaning up under and over the deak - cleaner environment
  
• reduce heat being generated
• becoming mobile
• etc...
  

With this I am personally contributing in being eco responsible and Sun is doing its part in being eco responsible and also providing eco innovation solutions.

I will answer the last question before you even ask...why didn't I buy iMac?  I did consider, but two biggest contributing factors were:

• Korea is probably a country with most Microsoft ActiveX dependent web sites - e.g., can't do any bank transactions on non-Window/Explorer environment.
• my children do not use Macs at school - use only Windows

This is a part of reasons why Apple computers are not widely used in Korea. 

Anyways, my home is now a bit more eco friendly.

"What is the most expensive wine in the world?" 

It's the bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite from Bordeaux sold in an auction in1985 for $160,000.  You can read more about it here.  This was said to been purchased by billionaire Malcolm Forbes.  Unfortunately, it wasn't kept in proper conditions - put on display under strong lights and at the wrong angle. These conditions eventually made the cork fall into the bottle, and the wine lost its value and was thrown away.

And, now you know why wine should be kept in a cellar under a proper temperature and never kept straight up for a long time - if the cork does not come in contact with the wine, it dries up and loses the ability to seal.

Last week, we gave our older daughter(Kelly) her 8th birthday party at home and invited 15 of her girl friends.

During the party, they kept asking me to play "Ghost in the Hospital".  What is Ghost in the Hospital?  Have I been traveling too long?  I told them we didn't have a such DVD.  They responded by asking me to bring my laptop and hook it up to our PDP and download the movie.  At this point I was a bit amazed - maybe they know how things work ...

I hooked my laptop.  Turned on the TV.  All ready to download a movie and asked them what next ?  To my surprise, they instructed me to go to "youtube"  Then, I realized what they wanted to do.  So, we typed "Ghost in the Hospital" searched for short clips of real(?) ghosts appearing in the hospitals and watched it together.

Lessons learned from this experience:

• popularity of "youtube"
  
• kids ability to learn
  
• generation gap
  

This is me playing golf in freezing temperature today - I think it was minus or close to zero celsius.  It definitely is my last round until next Spring

p.s. Yes, the white stuff in the picture is snow. 

I got into watching American TV series with Lost.  The first season was very refreshing - never seen anything like it on TV before.  The second season was interesting because it answered many questions but posed even more.  The third season dragged on and I lost interest quickly.  The fourth season episodes are peding due to 2007 Writers Guild of America Strike.  In my opinion, the mistake with Lost is not ending the show when the public interests were at the peak - it could have remained a classic.

So, my interest turned to Prison Break where there were so much hype about the show in Korea.  The first season turned out to be much more intense than the hype.  The process of breaking out was so thrilling, I was always waiting for the next episode.  The second season was as exciting viewing how fugitive survived or died.  However, the third season, currently being aired, is also on the track of boredom - I don't know why they are back in prison and trying to escape again   Prison Break is on the same path as Lost trying to stretch the series unnecessarily due to it's popularity.

However, my REAL interest is in Heroes.  This series is a cross between Lost and X-men.  It's on its second season continuing to build excitement.  I can't say enough about how exciting this series is - it's my best pick so far.  I hope this series ends on a climax and does not try to extend itself beyond its age.

To close this posting, I am recommending a Japanese manga  - "Death Note".  It comes in manga, anime, movie versions.  The manga and movie have complete different endings and both are very creative - I recommend you read and watch both.  I have no doubt you will love this series.

I mentioned during one of my previous posts about wine studying.  It's been less than a year since I started and  I am enjoying it tremendously.  As I gain knowledge and acquire tasting skills, I thought I share some interesting facts about wine.  This will be my first of many posts to come ...

There is a misconception that all wines improve with age.  However this is not true.  Over 90% of all wines produced in the world should be consumed within a year.  And, more interestingly, less than 1% should be aged more than 5 years.  But, no need to be alarmed.  1% equates to over 35 million bottles of wine produced in a year worldwide.

After reading Hal Stern's latest blog entry on importance of lens filter, I thought I would say a few words about photography   I am not, by any means, an expert in photography.  Although I want to be, I don't have the time for the dedication required to practice photography.

As you all know photography is more of an art than science, but in order for it to become an art, one must learn technology and science behind it first.  I am one of those occasional photo shooter who rely on equipments/technology as much as possible.

I remember somone asking why it is so hard to take good quality photos.  Some experts would say it all depends on type of available light.  Yes, that is true, but I would lean toward the following few resolutions from my limited knowledge:

• drop your bundled lens and buy an expense lens - there is reason why it's expensive.  I purchased Canon 24-105mm f4.0 L IS USM lens for my Canon 400D a couple weeks ago.  It's amazing how the quality of photos improved - trust me
• when you actually press the "shutter release button" to take a photo, you are unknowingly shaking the camera.  IS(Image stabilizer" lens does help here, but the best way to take a photo is to use tripod and release the shutter remotely.
• flash photography is difficult and you can never seem to get it right.  I found something which will dramatically improve your flash mode - Gary Fong's diffuser.  You will be amazed at the result.
  

As suggested by Hal, definitely use lens filter for protection, it's a must.  However, spend a bit more and don't buy the cheap UV filter.  Someone told me taking photos with a cheap UV filter is like shooting thru a dirty window

Photo from APAC GSE FY08 Q1 Meeting - with 24-105mm f4.0L IS USM lens and Gary Fong diffuser

I tried very hard to hold off in buying a 3G phone, but I finally gave up. Yesterday I purchased Samsung SCH-M620(Ultra Messaging Smartphone, a.k.a. BlackJack) with SKT's 3G+ service.

Some of you may ask why I stayed with 2G for such a long time...well, in Korea, for 3G services, it requires a new number - a new prefix "010".  I just got lazy and didn't wanted to change my number which I had it for over 10 years.

Well...I just bit the bullet - there were more benefits than need for keeping my old number:

• For those of us not using 3G services have probably experienced where our phone do not roam everywhere.  With all the travelling I am doing, I really needed to have my mobile phone roam everywhere - my old 2G phone could not roam in Japan, Singapore, India, etc...
• Wireless e-mail service is not popular at all in Korea.  I didn't wanted to commit to Blackberry device and service which probably only has less than a thousand user base in Korea. With SKT's 3G+ service, IMAP e-mail feature is just an added value.
  
• It provides high speed Internet access thru HSDPA and direct access thru Wi-Fi if needed.
  
• I am not sure how useful this feature will be for me, but it also provides videophone service.
  

It's not perfect.  I had to give up DMB services (Digital TV) with this phone

Over the weekend, I cleaned and stored away my snowboard and boots.  This winter was exceptionally warm compared to previous years.  Although the weather and my free time didn't cooperate, I managed to go riding a few times this winter.  The pictures are from YongPyong resort in Korea where Sun Korea's SAC(Sun Activity Club) members went riding over the weekend in January.

After reading "Global warming sends a chill through winter sports" or related articles, you really begin to wonder about remaining days of outdoor skiing before our human race have to start relying on indoor slopes - what a pity.  However, there is no need to panic, they are still debating over the global warming theory.

I've been tagged by GSE Divas which reminds me of a "chain letter" I received when I was a child.  Now I need to reveal 5 things about myself and tag 5 more people.

1. California Earthquakes - do you remember these earthquakes in California during past two decades?

1989 Loma Prieta (San Francisco)                                              1994 Northridge (Los Angeles)



I was in both.  The first one ...I was working in Sun office in Palo Alto when it happened.  The second, I was visiting my parent in Northridge.  Some people actually blamed me for the second one.


2. Thyroid Cancer - back in 1999 we were having our first child, I was dignosed with thyroid cancer. I went thru surgery to removed my thyroid glands.  The prognosis is so good some people don't even consider it as cancer, however, it did have an everlasting impact on our lives.


3. What's with the name - there is another person in Sun Korea office who has exactly the same name as mine(오세창).  He also uses exactly the same English spelling for his name.  You can imagine the confusion this can cause in our e-mail system, right?  We managed for him to use a different variation of English spelling to eliminate the potential mess.  However, we still do have e-mails that cross.

My last name is somewhat unusual in U.S., right ?  Not in my Junior High School which I attended in North Hollywood, California during late 1970's.  There were 6 students with last name "Oh" and there weren't many Koreans in this school - Americans probably thought all Koreans had last name of "Oh".

One other interesting fact about my last name.  In Chinese character it writes "吳".  The same last name exists in Japanese as "Go", in Cantonese as "Ng", and in Mandarin as "Wu"


4. JPL/Galileo - as a college intern back in 1985, I worked at JPL(Jet  Propulsion  Lab) in  Pasadena Califonia for about 6 month working on a Telemetry System on Galileo spacecraft missioned to Jupiter.  This project lasted over 20 years until Galileo's mission ended in 2003.


5. Korean Solaris - I started my life at Sun in 1989 as a software engineer responsible for Korean  Solaris.  Back then it was called SunOS and with SunView and OpenLOOK window systems.  It seemed like yesterday, but we were the pioneers of internationalization(I18N) & Localization(L10N) in 80's & 90's.

Now it's time for me tag...I think I will get my Chief Technologists In APAC active:  Ken Pepple, Shitamichi-san(already tagged),  MJ Sim,  Santhosh D'Souza, & Sutum Chaiyawat.

There are times when good things happen when you least expect them.  This was the case with this book.  I was so busy in an airport trying to make a connecting flight, but couldn't  board the plane without something to read - I just hate watching those on-board movies on a small screen.  I picked up the first book that came into my sight at a book store and was pleasantly surprised! 

Some of these topics maybe a bit strange to compare or analyse:

• What do school teachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common ?
• What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan(KKK) have in common ?
• Why do drug dealers still live with their moms ?
• What makes a perfect parent ?
• How can your name affect how well you do in life ?

However, Freakonomics (translated version is 괴짜 경영학) by Steven Levitt answers these questions by discovering a totally new way of seeing the world.

This is an excerpt from the book:

As Levitt(the most brilliant young economist in America) sees it, economics is a science with excellent tools for gaining answers but a serious shortage of interesting questions.  His particular gift is the ability to ask such questions.  For instance: If drug dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their mothers?  Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?  What really caused crime rates to plunge during the past decade?  Do real-estate agents have their clients' best interests at heart?  Wht do black parents give their children names that may hurt their career prospects?    Do schoolteachers cheat to meet high-stakes testing standards?  Is sumo wrestling corrupt? ...

Enjoy!

First serious snow in Seoul last night ...

When you view DVD(720x480) movies on your HD(1,280x720) or full-HD(1920x1080) TV, you know something isn't quite right - software/content is just lagging behind.  What's even worst than this?  Take your digital camcorder videos(usually 500 lines of resolution) and view them on HD TV.  "Who took these videos ?" - you don't remember taking such low quality pictures.

The DVD issue is solved by new formats - Blueray & HD-DVD.  Camcorder issue is solved by what I purchased last night    Yes, I had to spend some money in purchasing Sony's HDR-HC3.  You will be amazed at the picture quality - it's simply stunning.  Finally the right software/content for the right hardware - you finally get to appreciate the hardware.  And, a very good excuse to your CFO(wife) why you are spending $1000 on a new camcorder when you already have one.  However, when I showed her the difference in quality, she quietly approved by saying "you better use it often."

Our Solaris 10 OS behaves the same way.  It truely makes us appreciate the hardware - it brings out & utilizes full potenital of hardware it runs on whether it SPARC or x64 systems.  It's the most advanced operating system on the planet which run on over than 500 systems from vendors as diverse as Sun, Dell, HP,and IBM.  More importantly, it's open source and free.

 

Have you ever encountered quotes or statements where they just stick to your mind forever ?  These are some of mine and I thought I share them with you.  Interesting thing about quotes is same sentences with same words mean different things for different people ...

"It's not what people do to us that hurts us. In the most fundamental sense it is our chosen response to what they do to us that hurts us"  by Steven Covey

(in Korean... 우리를 속상하게 하는 것은 상대방의 행동 자체가 아니다. 가장  근원적인 면에서 생각해 볼 때, 우리를 속상하게 하는 주범은 그들의 행동에 대하여 우리가 선택한 반응, 바로 그것 때문이다)

"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be" by Grandma Moses

(in Korean ... 인생이란 우리가 만들어가는것, 지금까지도 그랬고, 앞으로도 영원히 그럴것)

"I always wondered why someone doesn't do something about that.  Then I realized I was somebody" by Lily Tomlin

(in Korean .. 나는 문제를 해결해야 할 사람들이 항상 다 어디에 가 있는지 궁금했다.  그런데 어느 날 갑자기 '그 사람이 바로 나' 라는 사실을 깨달았다)

After a long debate, I finally decided to purchase a new mobile phone - Pocket TV(DMB) phone by LG.

It becomes really handy when you need to quickly view TV, or need to kill time waiting for your spouse in the shopping mall   But, more seriously, the benefit to an end user is the fact that TV broadcast is free of service charges.  There are over 1.67M DMB units in use in Korea(with 45M population in South Korea) and its adoption is growing rapidly.

However, with many good technologies and services without a good business model, it may not survive.  In this case, the concept of free may actually do more harm than good to end users.  The current DMB service providers are struggling to survive because there is no profitable business model.  The only source of revenue at this moment is thru minuscule advertisement - this is mainly due to advertisers being very skeptical about impact of DMB advertisement to consumers.

I hope this does not become a classic case of good technology with a bad business model, or no business model in this case.  I REALLY like my DMB phone and I am willing to pay for services.

When I was reading "Stolen laptops are only the beginning" article by Sara Gates, it reminded me of a discussion I had with friends back in U.S a few month back. 

They were quite surprised at a service my Korean credit card company was providing at no charge.  When I used my credit card to pay for the dinner, I received an SMS message on my mobile phone(which was roaming at the time) about the content of usage in a matter of seconds. 

The following is a sample of hotel bill right after I checked out:


If this type of service is implemented across all credit card companies, it could save a significant portion of $2 billion a year lost globally due to fraud and could have prevented an unpleasant experience I had when I was living in U.S. more than 10 years ago.

One day, out of the blue, my graduate school alumni association called and asked me to participate in an ethnic survey.  Being a good alumni, I willingly responded. The last question to the survey was "What is your mother's maiden name?"  At the time, it didn't register. 

After 3 months has passed and I received a call from my credit card company.  They informed me I was withdrawing cash like crazy off the credit card.  At that moment, I realized I 've been conned...my password for the credit card was my mother's maiden name...if I had this service back then, I could have stop the transaction after the first one!

You may wonder how they withdraw cash without my credit card.  They used my password to regenerate a credit card to a different address with a different pin number...