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Recently I’ve been looking into the development of high-definition (HD) technology. What is HD? Those unfamiliar might not know — the first image that comes to my mind is… the God of Gamblers movie character! I think I’ve been brainwashed too thoroughly. The second thing that comes to mind is a company name. And then finally I understood: HD = High Definition, the same HD that appears in all those “HD high-quality digital TV” ads! ...

I woke up this morning and as usual turned on the TV to watch the game. Wang Chien-Ming (Wang Xiaoming) started yesterday, but I watched one of the worst performances I’d seen — worse than when he completely fell apart. That’s life. Maybe it’s better to face setbacks earlier rather than later; when you’re young, a stumble still leaves time to bounce back. But if Wang doesn’t confront these struggles until he’s thirty-something, he might be finished — like the Yankees’ injury-prone pitcher, Pavano. ...

The day after the typhoon, I went back home to help my parents move to their new place. Heading out early in the morning, I got my first real glimpse of how powerful this typhoon had been — motorcycles were knocked over in dominoes. It was genuinely the first time I’d seen a domino effect made entirely out of motorcycles. Honestly, Taipei City government should consider reorganizing all motorcycle parking spots around the entire city — next time a typhoon hits, Taiwan could set a Guinness World Record. That would be one unique way to be in the spotlight. ...

Reading a few friends’ blogs brought back some recollections — though my brain is impressively forgetful. A while back I went down to Tainan, and before leaving I tried to recall what life there had been like. Strangely, I couldn’t. But once I actually arrived, something in my brain clicked, and memories of my university days played back like a fast-forwarded recording. Without many records to anchor them, I started to doubt my own past — my younger face, my old way of thinking. ...

Every now and then BusinessWeek profiles a company they consider outstanding at the time. The strange thing is, stocks featured prominently in the magazine have a curious tendency to become duds in the short term — not because the companies are bad, but it has a contrarian-investment flavor to it. You know Nike, right? The legendary stock trader who, after decades of navigating the markets, casually drew a swoosh and founded the company. The name means “endurance and perseverance” — stay patient and things will turn around. Pretty apt. But I’ve gotten sidetracked! ...

After entering the workforce, my stamina has declined year by year, and I’ve grown increasingly out of shape. Now all I have left is a round of golf once every two weeks — or sometimes stretching to once a month. Today my instructor seemed to have reached his limit with me… probably feeling the same frustration a tutor feels when they want to shake a student. But I finally feel like I’ve made just a tiny bit of progress! XD ...

While compiling Busybox 1.7.2 using the default config (make defconfig) with a specific ARM toolchain, I encountered two specific compilation errors. One was related to the route applet, and the other was in taskset.c. I resolved the taskset.c issue by disabling it temporarily, but later found a proper fix. The root cause lies in a mismatch between uClibc (which Busybox is primarily designed for) and glibc. Specifically, the number of arguments for sched_getaffinity and sched_setaffinity differs between the two. ...

To speed up the boot process, Ubuntu uses dash as the default shell instead of the traditional bash. You can verify this at /bin/sh → /bin/dash. If you want to switch back to the original bash, type the following at the prompt: sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash When the configuration window appears, select “No” to revert back to bash. Recommendation: If you’re doing software development on Ubuntu and write shell scripts, it’s safer to switch back to bash for compatibility. ...

BusinessWeek Issue 1035 — Lead Story: Joining forces with e-commerce’s army of ants, Terry Gou sets his sights on becoming an internet “flying tiger.” Taiwan’s most globally powerful manufacturer is undoubtedly Foxconn. To build a new strategic layout, Foxconn has been in negotiations to cooperate with Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce platform — leveraging internet commerce to capture what matters most in the digital age: information and personalization. Four years ago, Foxconn expanded upward from its original three C’s (Computers, Communications, Consumer Electronics) by adding three more (Automotive Electronics, Channels, Content). Now, by bridging the gap between virtual and physical worlds, Foxconn has officially entered the internet industry. ...

The key to rapid M&A: make personnel decisions swiftly, and avoid internal power struggles. Priority order for an insurance company’s development should be: → Introduce and innovate products → Build a more efficient organization → Expand distribution channels → Improve risk management → Pursue M&A The real key to winning in M&A is respect. Price matters, but the real secret is not overpaying — the true value of an acquisition is realized in long-term stock performance. ...