Harry Chen Thinks Aloud

New Job

Today marks the beginning of my second week at Image Matters LLC. IM is a small company with about a dozen employees. The company has a very friendly working environment, and it has some extremly bright people.

My job in the company is to lead the R&D of a new software product based on geospatial and the semantic web technologies. We work closely with the OGC and W3C standards. Few reasons why I like my work (so far). (i) I’ve always wanted to learn and to be in the development process of a commercial software product (e.g., doing extream programming, writing regression tests, working with releases and debugs). I guess it’s kind of a continuation of where I had left when I was working at the McCabe & Associates. (ii) I’ve been in the academic research for serveral years. But I was never convinced that I will continue my career in the acadeima. I think jumping into a small company will help to answer many questions about my future career path. (iii) I believe location-based services will play a major role in the future computer world. The use of geospatial data and tools are the key enabling technologies for location-based services. IM is doing a lot of interesting work in relating to OGC standards. For that reason, IM seems to be the right place for me to be in.

New Life

IM is located in Leesburg, VA. It’s far away from where I live. Everyday I drive about 66 miles each way going to and coming from work. It’s about 1.5 hrs each way. In other words, I spend about 3 hrs of my life everyday on driving. It’s horrible!

I used to spend about 15 mins on commuting to school. *sign* I really miss those kind of commute. I’ve looked around for options that involve taking public transportations. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found any acceptable routes. If you know any, please email me.

New Goals

(i) Do a good job at the new company. By helping the company to grow, it helps me to grow my personal wealth. (ii) Keep in touch with the SW, PerCom, and Agent research communities. If possible, I still want to be able to publish papers, go to conferences, and see my colleagues from different universities and companies. (iii) Enjoy life. Do work, but don’t forget to find time to take vacations and travel. (iv) Do more exercises. I’m in one of the professions that inheriently discourages wokers to workout. (v) Blog my location! blog more often.

Today my TiVo notified me about a new Universal Remote Control by Logitech. It’s a pretty cool gadget. At first, I was skeptical about this product. After digging deeper into the spec., I start to like the device.

This remote is really easy to set up. Most of the existing Universal Remote Controls on the market require users to manually enter the IR codes for the systems that they want to control. A key feature of this device is that it has the ability to download the IR codes for controlling different home entertainment systems via the Internet. A user connects the remote to a computer via USB. Through a web site, the user then specifies the models of his/her home entertainment systems (TV, DVD players, DVR, etc.) and downloads the IR codes that can be loaded into the Universal Remote. It’s brilliant!

Logitech even has a more advanced version of this remote control that has a color display. I think it looks a PDA from far.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Here is few stories on China reported by the BBC news:

(1) There are now more than two million cars in Beijing, and it is estimated there will be 3.5 million by 2008. Because of this increase in car ownership, parking is becoming a big problem. For example, city roads are being clogged because drivers circling in search of a cheap outdoor parking option. Indoor parking bays can cost up to 250% more than outdoor ones.

(2) China has stopped providing visisting foregin leaders with motorcycle escorts. Why? Because such services often casue traffic congestion in the city.

(3) China no longer allows new tobacco factories to be built. “The ban threatens to reignite tensions between the regulator and British American Tobacco, which plans to become China’s first foreign cigarette maker.” (of course!) China has 350 million smokers who consumer 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year.

This is a mind-opening blog article by Jeff Cornwall…

How are Good Opportunities Identified?: “Success does not simply come from a ‘good idea.’ It comes from some basic knowledge about the product or service, good information about the market, and having the right business skills represented in the members of your team.”

A Tokyo company plans to develop a subterranean farm on the top of an old bank vault.

“A 1,000 sq metre former bank vault under an office building in Otemachi, a central Tokyo business district, has been chosen as the site for a high-tech farm growing lettuce, tomatoes, herbs strawberries and rice. The underground location will allow complete electronic control of the environment with artificial lighting and heating. Plants at the “vegetable factory” will be grown hydroponically, or in a solution of nutrients, rather than soil, the Asahi said.

I posted a story about Amazon’s Web Service API at EBB.

Web Service API Helps Amazon to Give Away the Store

Happy new year! Time does pass quickly. Again, I’m sitting in front of my computer looking back the past 365 days, and thinking how I can change the world in the next 365 days.

I feel that many things have changed in the past year. However, few things still remain unchanged. For me, the biggest change in 2004 is finishing my PhD. Until today I’m still having a hard time convincing myself that I’m no longer a PhD student. I’m looking forward to my new job in 2005.

Enjoying my 1st year of marriage in 2004 is also worth to be mentioned. In the past year, many people asked how I feel about marriage. My answer has always been the following: “for me, marriage is great! But I don’t suggest that it’s something for everyone. You can enjoy marriage only if you can understand what marriage means to you. No marriage is the same for everyone. I believe a key to a successful marriage is communication.” I’m looking forward to my 2nd year of marriage in 2005.

So what are some of the things that haven’t changed? I still like to party like I was 21 (at least I think I do). Couple weeks ago, I turned 28 — only 2 years away from the big number 30. I thought my party mood would fade away quickly as I grow older. It seems not. Going to bars and clubs I still enjoy. I still believe beer is a man’s best friend.