blog.thomaspan.com

My library is actually called Sunnyvale Public Library. Since I have been there almost every weekend, it is mine now!

Given its location, one can easily find a lot of technical books there. Its magazine section covers finance, photography, travel, and IT. It contains major financial newspapers, such as Barron’s, IDB, and Wall Street Journal.

Though, there are two drawbacks: first, it is a small, cozy library; second, it doesn’t provide free wireless Internet access. Now, the situations will be altered! At top-right, there is the library concept design of the future. A new main library building will be built near the current library building. I am very happy to see that “my library” has a bright future!

The tragedy of San Francisco online editor James Kim grimly depicts what nature can do to us in the worst case. What’s happened is done. Other than feeling sorry for Kim family, we need to learn from the tragedy to prevent furture life loss. It is us who are responsible for our own lives.

1. Get detailed driving directions from either Yahoo Map or Google Map. It would be even better by carrying along a GPS device.
2. Do research beforehand and understand the road condition and the local weather. Google Earth could be a good source. A lot of roads are closed during winter due to heavy snow. Depending on the location, winter could be very long. That’s what I learned when visiting Glacier National Park in late May, 2004.
3. Carry enough food and water in the snow country. Energy bar is a good source of food and easy to carry. During winter, a snow storm could hit you at any time. When that happens, depending on where you are, you could be completely on your own for quite a long time.
4. Leave your itinerary with a trusted person and notify the person from time to time. For example, before leaving Merlin, James could call his father, which could reduce the search area for the rescue team.
5. Carry a compass. Unless you are pro backpacker, compass is useful when you have to walk long distance for help. It prevents you from walking in circles or getting lost. It is better if you have a watch like Casio Sea Pathfinder Atomic Solar Watch, which is solar powered and contains a digital compass, and a barometer.
6. Carry a PLB (personal location beacons). A PLB is a pocket-sized emergency beacon, a scaled down version of the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) and ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) that boaters and pilots, respectively, have had available to them for years. When activated, a PLB sends a distress call and location data via two separate satellite systems to the U.S. Air Force Rescue Center Coordination Center in Langley, VA. From there, your exact location goes to local rescues. It is more reliable than satellite phone, not to mention cell phones, and it only costs $500-$700, which is much cheaper compared to your precious life and the rescue cost.
7. Carry a singal mirror or learn how to use the mirror in your car. That’s how Kim family finally got rescued. The mirror flashes can and may be seen even when you can not see the airplane, just sweep the horizon as there may be someone out there who will see your signal. Further, strong reflections can be achieved even on hazy or overcast days. Most importantly, it is free to use a mirror as far as there is light.

Any more tips for survival?

If one searches for “has Google peaked”, one could find two interesting articles. The first article, dated Oct. 10, 2005, is from Slate and written by Adam L. Penenberg. Adam had very interesting observations, such as

About 99 percent of Google’s revenue comes from advertising. …… Not only does Google depend on ads, it relies on one source—AOL—for about 12 percent of its AdSense revenue. If AOL terminated its contract, Google would feel some pain and its stock price could take a significant hit. …… For a company that depends so much on a single type of revenue, Google has stretched itself awfully thin.

However, Adam missed an important point, which is that online ad revenue is growing faster and faster, from 25% in 2007 to ~40% this year. As the market leader, Google could enjoy the growth even without doing anything.

The second article — Google love waning: Has Google peaked? — is from Donna Bogatin at ZDNet and is published in October 14th, 2006. Obviously, Donna missed the fact that Microsoft’s financial success is based on its monopoly position. If Google behave as bad as Microsoft, Google will do very well financially in the next few years. Every company would behave like Microsoft when they have monopoly positions. which has been approved by the history. That’s why we have anti-trust law. Donna is right that Google is not the Good Witch. As its position secured, it starts to play evil.

Google’s biggest problem is on its own success. First, it grows too fast. According to its own public data, it has grown from 682 in 2002 to 9,378 in Q3, 2006. Any company growing that fast could have management issues in the long run. The company could end up lack of necessary processes for a sustainable long-term growth. We had Gmail Disaster near the end of 2006, which caused the loss of user emails. The good news is that the fast-growth issue is not only for Google, but also for Microsoft. Techcrunch has a good article about it.

Second, Google needs to upgrade adsense to 2.0. The problem for the current version of adsense is that it requires that one homepage ONLY contains one topic. Otherwise, the homepage wouldn’t be classified correctly. Thus, I keep getting useless ads on this blog site.

All the above concerns are for the long-term. Google’s near-term future is very bright. Its stock chart shows that it will break through in this year, at least reaching $600. What’s your bet?