PK Shiu
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Top 5 Podcasts for 2016
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Values, Vision and Life Experience

P090412PS-0695 Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC 2012 was amazing. No doubt about it. So many inspiring lines. So personal. So positive. Thinking through the speech and re-reading the transcript, if I have to pull out one line from the speech, this is the one:

But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

Not everyone is going to be President, but it is so truth that one is guided by one's values, vision and life experiences. So as parents, those are the things that we need to give our children.

Kindle is still better than the iPad, for reading

Instructions on Power Up I love my iPad. There, I said it. It is with me 50% of the time. I consume media on it, Zite, Hulu, Netflix, Safari . I connect with it, Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite, Mail. I write on it: iThoughtHD, iA Writer, Notability. I even read Kindle books on it using the Amazon Kindle app. But when it come to reading books, I still like the real Kindle ereader better.

The Kindle is better for five very important reasons:

  1. The e-ink display is wonderfully usable even in sunlight. A person who like to read, like to read outside. iPad does not work.
  2. The Kindle is light. The iPad is not very heavy, but the weight difference is significant when you are holding it to read for a long period of time.
  3. The Kindle battery last a long time.
  4. The Kindle is cheap(er) than the iPad. I would feel much less annoyed if I damage or lost my $99 Kindle Touch than my $700 iPad.
  5. The Kindle is more robust. It is much less likely to damage the Kindle then the iPad, when taking places.

What prompted me to write this blog post? I just came back from a short cabin camping trip for four days. I took my iPad and my Kindle Touch with me. I never once took out my iPad. I carried my Kindle everywhere, and caught up with a lot of reading. Sitting under a tree reading from the Kindle. Much better than the iPad.

I look forward to the anticipated new Kindle announcement next week. I am pretty sure I am going to get one. But I hope they bring back the hardware "next page" button.

English Public School is American Private School

This used to confused me when I started living in the States. I went to an English public boarding school, which would have been called a private school in America. Why the opposites? I found a good answer while reading Jeff Jarvis' Public Parts, a book on the impact of sharing and being public in the age of the internet. The definition of Public, prior to the early modern period, was synonymous with the state. Only men of official stature were public. English non state run schools, usually for the privileged, are call public school. Similarly, the common soldiers, the ordinary man without rank, is a private.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-09-02

The fluffy product reviews - Jabra Solemate

I am sick of them. A company releases a new product. Major gadget sites get a review unit and write up a fluffy review that is pretty much useless. Copy a few talking points from the product release. Snap a few pictures, write a few generic paragraphs and push publish.

Case in point -- Jabra released the Solemate Bluetooth outdoor speakers today. Both gizmodo and Engadget has a "review". Anyone could have written them without even seeing the actual product. Do you the one thing that I wanted to know about this product? What is the power source. Is it rechargeable batteries? Is it proprietary built in rechargeable ? Does it have a DC in with a supplied adaptor? You won't find the answer in these is call reviews.

Oh, and I looked on t Jabra site. The battery information is not there either. It says something about charge via USB and that's it.

Other things a real review should tell us:

  • What is the power source?
  • Do a real life battery rundown test to see how long it last
  • Are the batteries replaceable?
  • What is the range of the bluetooth connection?
  • How much power drain is there for the source, iPhone, iPod?

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-08-26

Twitter Updates for 2012-08-24

Twitter Updates for 2012-08-22