The cable TV recently rerun the classic movie “Casino” by Martin Scorsese and it really reminds me the beautiful neonlights and signs of Las Vegas … you know, no matter how popular the new LED lights are, only the old style neon signs have the taste of LV.
Archive for 2006Tourists spend most of their time around the Strip of Las Vegas but in fact they really shall spend a night to the Frement Street of Las Vegas downtown (oh yes, believe it or not, the Strip is not the downtown of LV). With neon lights like this, who need special effect ? Being an “IT Practitioner”, it is really hard to convince me to place my bets or even sit around a gambling (ooops … gaming) table, even in Las Vegas. You know, everyone can calculate the odds of winning and you will know it’s a sure loss. So what I did was to tour around the casinos, hotels … one by one … just treat them like different museums. Of course, I highly recommend the Harley-Davidson store and the Coca Cola Museum. OK, we are the person of the year 2006, according to Time. According to the magazine, we are the person of the year because instead of watching TV after work, we write, we shoot, we video etc. and contribute those contents to the web. And many of those contents, actually changed the world. Hmmm … I agree with that, but to me it happens every year since the born of browser back in 1994 / 1995. Back to the idea, what will be the possible next step of all these photo, video, music sharing services ? In the past few years, there is one category of digital product waiting to take off - Digital Photo Frame. It’s now cost as low as US$ 100 and for some companies like Ceiva and eStarling, you can even update the photos automatically. The concept of Ceiva and eStarling is quite simple but novel - the user upload the photos to a central storage or send the photos to an email address; and the digital photo frame will show the newly uploaded pictures automatically. Imagine you buy this frame to your parents and grandparents. They can see you new pictures without switching on their computers (even they know how to do it). My idea is about combining these Web 2.0 stuff with the Ceiva / eStarling concept … WeTube !! Now everyone of us owns one, two or even three digital cameras. We have mobile phone cameras, idiot-proof digital cameras and digital SLRs … and we can capture any image around us with just a flip of finger. But what if you can capture something really touching, something that can tell a story, even though it is a sad one ? Years ago, whenever I visit a bookstore, I would spend a long time around a revolving bookstand next to the cashier - the bookstand of “Bluffer’s Guide”. There could be two dozens guides and each of these cover a topic - from astrology to wine and women. And I reckoned it’s the perfect way to learn something new in 10, 15 minutes, especially before a cocktail party that you need to talk to some total strangers. You still can buy those guides nowadays from Ovalbooks (the publisher). But the point is you no longer need those books before attending a party, as all you need is to go to Wikipedia.org, type in the keyword and you will be an “instant expert” in a few minutes. The trouble is you still need to spend a lot of time to search around … Merry X’mas and Happy New Year!!
See things from new angles, find things from new places, do things with new methods … ITU 2006 is really grand … unfortunately all I have is a phone with a crappy camera. Anyway, just see below pictures for the booths of two Chinese companies. One has to believe, China is the next giant.
The booth is so big that there is an elevator inside to transport you to the third floor !! Checked the Samsung booth (see below … so big …) and my dream phone SGH-i600; then compare to the phones in SE booth. You can tell South Korea is the new leader.
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