Crios de Susana Balbo 2004

From Mendoza, Agentina.
50% Syrah and 50% Bonarda
I am not familiar with Bonarda at all. That is why I decided to give it a try. Young, sort of heavy and high acid. May be contributed by Syrah. From thr label, it seems this is the cheaper class of its own family. Well, when writing this, I learn this wine marker has its own style and seems quite interesting and impressive. to avoid hindersight, I better stop andl post her linkage here. this is my problem for wine trial now - did not do reseach beforehand. But comma, when you are travelling, want to drink some wine, stop at a shop you have never been and they happen to sell some nice looking wines, what you do!? thinking to put a wine dictionary on my MDA. http://www.dominiodelplata.com.ar/vinos.php

Toyota Matrix

Ok. This is much less fancy than the movie 'The Matrix'. My neighbor actually is driving it. so time to time I was thinking how it is. sort of odd looking small car in US.I was wondering why initially someone will name a car 'matrix' and what the name try to convey.
that made me recalled a story. a motorcycle called 'Freeway'. at that time. japanese motor industry was booming and some of their engineer had weird english. so I was assuming it must be named by a engineer. a motorbike named freeway but definitely cannot survive on freeway!?
so, the matrix does not drive like a matrix. it seems actually a good news.
small but not too crowded car. the engine, urr, is helpless. I think anyone could easily kill it.
the sitting is a little bit high. I tried to adjust it but still kind of awkward. nothing big I really can complain about. it is just a transportation tool. seems pretty reliable. as for comfortness, please look for something else.

2006

Today is my last day working in office. hew......
This 2006 is a little bit rougher than I expected. Not sure because the things are not going smoother as before, or just because I am getting old.
Noticed my daughter needs more attention (or I want to give more attention). Current job needs more efforts than I thought since not all things are on track and travel was more intensed than I thought. School is rough, lower than expectated quality, poor administration support and tough logistic arrangement. All these build up certain stress here and there.
I can try to establish a list of accomplishments for this year. However, I kind of feel it might be a list shorter than I expected. Even some of them are crucial for future, I still believe this will disappoint me by the end. So, I better not doing it.
Made me blue.

Toyota Camry

I have to say this first. I love hertz, especially its NeverLost system. With 10 bucks extra, damn, it reduced the stress of travelling significantly. I loved this system back to 99,the first time I used it. At that time, system was still slow on response and the POI was not that geat. Last time was my LOS trip with my wife. I aleady saw a significant improvement. This time, I was driving like no brainer and got destination without any problem. I should look for a way to invest in this area.
Anyway, back to Camry. My wife keep saying that this will be the car she want next time when replacing currnt Honda Accord V6. My answer? Nope. smooth steering and nice driving. Decent dashboard and good finishing. a little bit high for driving view and sort of cramped. the problem is really the kickdown, accerating from 50 to 70 will make RPM jumped significantly. Not having too much time to dig in, either a transmission or a low horse power is causing this issue. I won't say according is smoother on acceration, bit it has its character. Camry, na... it is the best sedan. The best driving machine if you want to plain driving and don't look for any characterisitics.
By the way, visited Madison, NJ. An impressive small-town-atmosphere place in New York suburbs. However, I heard the living cost is unbearable tought.

Marlborough Pinot Noir 2004

From Brancott New Zealand.
Light and sort of fruity. was not impressed initially. But was surprised later on after the wine has waken up. I guess the timing of drinking it will be tricky.

Domestic Economy

Couple days back, I had a discussion with my colleagues about the domestic and international economy. The topic is starting from one point, whether the english speaking is the mandatory skill for software industry in China.

My young colleague believes it is yes. Because he believe software is highly intelligent property oriented and being able to communicate and interpretate the IP from english speaking market is crucial. And he also think that companies need to operate in a global scale, and have to conduct business in English.

My position is different. Understanding IP from english speaking is easy stuff. To read patent or tech spec doc does not really need english proficiency. The key is the market. If china market growes tremedously, then it will form a domestic market which is self-sustainable to have chinese speaking and operating only market and will have some companies which only operate in domestic market with domestic language.

This is actually a very interesting topic by looking into Japan and Germany. Germany is on my colleague track, running software business in english and achieving global economies of scale. SAP is the best example. However, domestic market and domestic operating companies are basically non-existing. Japan is sort of reversed. Some of japanese software firms like Fujitsu is running at global scale. But even just look into Fujitsu, some of its subsidinary is running like a traditonal japanese companies, operate only in japan market and do everything in their own language.

Then at this moment, we also need to bring in India in this discussion also. India is also interesting. No domestics market and completely relys on foreign (english mainly) market.

So, of course we can use Dunning's OLI or Porter's five force and diamond model for this. But from market perspective, does india going to be competitive for chinese speaking software industry? the answer is no. So, in the case if china's software market is formed (means chinese language based application), then there is no doubt this market could be domestic by chinese company, or the foreign company with signficant IP which can utilize economies of scale.

This is proven in Japan. In japan, there are quite some domestic companies only operate in their market. They are japanese oriented and know the market better. So, if they are in possession of enough IP, then there is no foreign company can beat them up.
SAP and Oracle are the cases which foreign company have to use more IP (like the world class process this kind of BS) and economies of scale to win Japanese market.

So, for Chinese market and software firm, the future is interesting and tie to each other. If china's software market grows and sustains, then chinese software firms will have their niche market and they even don't need to go outside (means no need to penetrate english speaking market) until they reach certain growth threshold. Recently China government's Linux case is symbolic to establish a unique market.

But if the market is not self-sustaining. Then chinese firms will end up directly compete with global companies on IP and economies of scale, and with India with cost and effiency. Then the future is more blurr.

This is sort of tie back to the domestic demand factor in Porter's dimond model. The sustainability of domestic demand by far is still the most signficant factor in the influence of a industry from country/nation perspective in my personal view. The growth of india software industry and the fail of US auto industry are two intersting and special cases. But we can talk that future later.

My MDA

Ok. This is my MDA, T-Mobile MDA. It is called Wizard in Europe and made by Taiwan's HTC. It is a nice piece of gadget. small, compact and have most features I want. Windows mobile, GPRS/EDGE, bluetooth, and Wifi.
It is also the main instrument I used for this mobile blog. Key in some text, take a photo, then I directly post it here, extremely streamlined.
I used to use it to browse internet when in restroom or anyplace I need to kill time. But with mobile blog, it is excellent since I can easily key in my thought and idea, fetch to blog without any delay.

Today, I rejected an offer. It is a really nice deal but I have to reject it. Overall, I am still pretty happy. This is the first time I conducted and negotiated through the whole processes with extremely high professional manner. The outcome is excellent and become such a achievement. Of course, letting an opportunty slide away from fingers always has some wonders. But I need to head up and look forward.