Chan's Personal Blog

As you may know, I generally dislike cellphones. Talking on a cellphone while driving is even more concerning. However, texting while driving takes it to the next level, and I'm disturbed when I see that happening.

In either case, I came across a game simulation from the New York Times that measures how well you multitask while driving and texting. It's called, "Gauging Your Distraction."

Every time I come back to Victoria, I get a little shocked when I see people on their cellphone while driving because this practice has been banned in California. Then, a couple seconds pass, and then I remember that it's legal here.... for now.

Enjoy.

This weekend, I went and saw District 9. I have to admit that I went into the movie with fairly high expectations, and even then, the movie exceeded my expectations. Don't worry, no spoilers.


I think the director did an excellent job of portraying this story as realistically as possible. I'm often skeptical when I see science fiction movies showing humanity suddenly cleaning up its act when it makes first contact with aliens; on the contrary, District 9 shows a very ugly side of humanity. The movie does an excellent job of highlighting some very real problems that humanity still struggles with such as racism, corporate greed, corruption, war, black market trade, trafficking, unaccountable private military, media control, etc.

I also appreciate that the movie didn't require any big name actors to carry the movie. The story is just so immersive and rich that you really don't need big actors. It was reported that this film cost $30 million to produce, and most of that went into the visual effects which were absolutely stunning. This was considered a small budget film especially when you consider Terminator Salvation, and Transformers 2 cost $200 million each. For $30 million, District 9 has a lot of bang for the buck. By the end of the movie, I found extremely satisfied even though they've barely scratched the surface of the story.

I am declaring this the best movie of the summer. Two thumbs up, way up. Definitely go see it in theaters. I'm glad that there are already talks of a sequel.

Well, this last week has been an emotional roller coaster at work due to the Yahoo Microsoft deal. I have to say, the night before the deal was announced, I was reading the rumours from various tech websites, and I didn't like what I was seeing. There was obviously some anxiety over how much longer I would be able to stay in Silicon Valley, and whether my job would still be here. The idea of becoming a Microsoft employee wasn't very palatable either.

Day break came, and the deal was announced super early in the morning (4:30am ish?). My immediate reaction was, oh my goodness, the stock price is sinking like a rock. I should have seen it coming though, speculators were piling into the stock, driving the price up to $17/share which wasn't sustainable. When the deal finally came, these people were piling out of the stock. It seems like investors in general didn't like the deal because Yahoo didn't get cash upfront for the deal. I have to admit that the deal is fairly complicated. The next two days, I spend several hours sitting through meetings that explained the deal, and its implications. I understand what the deal entails now, but the merits of the deal were definitely not apparent at first glance.

In either case, I was glad to hear that my job wasn't going to be transferred to Microsoft. I will continue be fighting on the side of Yahoo, and my job should be safe. My team should be unaffected by the deal, so I thank God for that.

Anyway, I'm still digesting this deal, and pondering what the future holds, and what change shall come.