Kaiwen Blog 凯文的博客

I stumbled upon Warren Buffet’s 2003 article about U.S. Deficit.  The deficit simply cannot run forever, as it has negative consequences for both the US and foreign countries that are manifested in current economic debacle.  I like Buffet’s idea of using the Import Certificate (ICs), a market-force friendly way, to achieve trade balance for U.S. import and export. The idea is that the US government issues ICs to all US exporters in the same amount of their export value. The exporter then sell their ICs to US importers or foreign exporters to the US, probably in a market.

I have a few additional thoughts on Buffet’s idea.  First, the 1-for-1 ratio is too dramatic to get started.  We can think the ratio as a continuum from the current actual ratio to the target ratio of 1-for-1.  Thus, at the beginning, we can start issuing ICs comparable the current trade deficit ratio.  With a target date when the trade balance should be achieved, say 5 years, we adjust the ratio month-by-month gradually toward the 1-for-1 target.

Second, different countries may have different deficit ratio now.  We can let the beginning ratio to be specific to each country, while keeping the same pace for merging into the target ratio.

Third, we can have an even gentler ramp-up period, where we start the ICs ratio equal to the previous period’s deficit statistics.  When the deficit reduce, we continue to adjust the ratio, but never adjust with any deficit increases.  When the market is warmed up to the ICs, say in a year, we start the time clock to drive the ratio towards our 1-for-1 target.

“I’m a firm believer in luck. The harder I work the luckier I get.” -Dick Motta

Generally speaking, phase change from mediocrity to excellence requires extraordinary inputs, which we often describe as inspiration, commitment, focus, perseverance, talent, etc..  Money per se, without intrinsic value to our life or sense of calling, cannot create such brilliant and consistent energy, except for desire of shortcuts planted into our mind by external influences.

There are two general human drives that can create such commitment and perseverance.  First, you are very poor physically or psychologically, and your survival instinct drives you to extraordinary height, often with some luck elements as in the surviver bias.  Second, you have a comfortable life with no distractions, and you found the passion of your life, which makes you unstoppable.  In success or failure, you charge on, completely obsorbed.

Let us call the first kind of drive the drive of survival, the second the drive of calling.  An ideal society should eliminate its average citizens the drive of survival and provide an environment for the drive of calling.  However, the path to the drive of calling remains squarely in the hands of each individual.

Here are my wish list for Kindle:

1. Password protection (software)
2. Chinese display support (software): UTF-8
3. Content organization support (software): folder or tagging
4. Shortcut setup (software): supports jumping around among several relevant materials across contents in the library
5. Paper version and kindle version bundle (business model): classics needs both paper version for reference and kindle version for reading
6. Tactical navigation (hardware): horizontal slider or touch-sensitive stripe below the screen (next to the progress bar) with a simple, small, and responsive digital display similar to a dumb watch to indicate location in the reading or list.

Since Grace asked me how to make it easy for more people to use computer, I have been thinking a computing device that is a mirror on the wall when it goes into sleep. This toy of mine would be probably named iMirror if made by Apple, SmartMirror by HP, StudioMirror by Dell, LiveMirror by Microsoft, VaioMirror by Sony, or GMirror by Google, but for me, let’s call it the Magic Mirror (MM), so that Snow White might use it against the evil queen.

The MM hangs on the wall quietly for most of the time. It’s being charged silently by a wireless charger, similar to the one you use to charge your toothbrush. It makes update quietly to the content cache on its solid state drive (SSD) through wifi, receiving data from a network storage device and the web (optional: fall back on a mobile network).

Unknowing all the things going on inside, its master (my mom) walks to the MM and wakes it up: “芝麻开门吧” (open sesame). The hidden webcam scans her face and recognizes the master, instantly fade in a polite servant (one of those Flash movie loops). The servant is pretty smart, figuring out that she understands Chinese only. According to the time of the day (7am), he guessed she probably wants to know the weather, direction, and traffic for the event planned ahead.

He even remembers to praiser her in a flattering tone: “wow, you look very healthy after working on the garden yesterday!” Then put on a stylish hat on her with augmented reality, probably from one of the department stores nearby.

However, she decided to wake me up from my warm bed, so she yelled: “KAIWEN!!!”. The servant immediately zoomed in my smily face, and started dialing my MM. Five seconds later, my sleepy face shows up on the glass. My mom’s order comes in from the other side of the Big Apple: “don’t forget to bring my green tea tiramisu today!”

“But, the only bakery that made it at the Cooper Square has closed.” I can’t believe she don’t remember that.

“I know, but I want to eat it now, you better learn to make it.”

“Yes, your highness.”

My hands touch the mirror, making circles. Kudos to Google, after I did a few Tai Chi strokes, a recipe jumps into view:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Green-Tea-Tiramisu-144906

Such is the life with Magic Mirror.

I am thinking a web application which takes an RSS feed and generates a PDF file suitable for printing. While it is great to read blogs online, it can be invaluable to have an archive in a book format, or just a plain ebook format, so you can read like a book on iPhone or Kindle.

It can be very simple, just requires the URL of the blog or RSS feed, then generate the PDF file, with table of content, table of photos, index, etc. A paid version can include visual configurations and other fine-tune options. It should allow easy ordering for printed copies.

I would be interested in hearing from people who want to make this real.

On new year’s eve, I migrated my web site server and started this new blog.  Wish the world a better place in 2009, my friends more moments with happiness, my family ever closer in the heart , and myself a better person.