SML Flickr goes Creative Commons

Effective immediately, all photographs on my Flickr stream, SML Flickr, will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.

Under these terms, you may use my photography for non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute credits to me. I will license my photography for commercial use on a case-by-case basis. You can email me at seeminglee+flickr@gmail.com.

Read full license (legal code)



Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr
+ SML Marketing
+ SML Photo Blog
+ SML Photographs

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Guitar Hero Pr0n

I was first introduced to Guitar Hero by Brian Loube. I liked the game but I never thought that people are so serious about the game.

I found this on YouTube togday of some college kid playing expert on Guitar Hero 3 Through the Fire and Flames. Like his buddy says, it's sick. The guy's fingers are more like a machine. This kid would make a perfect piano player, if piano lessons can be this much fun for him. And why not, music notes can roll this way, too, no?



Update 1 / 2008-11-13
Due to abnormally high amount of traffic to this post based on keyword indexing, title has been renamed.

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Queen Elizabeth II Christmas Broadcast, 2007

Queen Elizabeth II joins her country folks and posted her annual Christmas Broadcast this year on YouTube:

YouTube: The Christmas Broadcast, 2007 Embedding disabled by TheRoyalChannel so you have to see it on YouTube - Read transcript

The video was uploaded at 3pm GMT on 2007-07-25 and so far has been favorited 288 times, over 900 ratings with 123,651 in 3 short hours. At the time to this writing, it has received 7 honors:

+ #7 - Most Viewed (This Week) - United Kingdom
+ #2 - Most Viewed (This Week) - People & Blogs - United Kingdom
+ #11 - Most Viewed (This Week) - People & Blogs
+ #7 - Top Rated (This Week) - United Kingdom
+ #96 - Top Rated (This Week)
+ #4 - Top Rated (This Week) - People & Blogs - United Kingdom
+ #12 - Top Rated (This Week) - People & Blogs

TheRoyalChannel joined YouTube 2 months ago, has 19 videos posted, and now has 14,680 subscribers and 732,121 channel views. Fairly impressive.

Web 2.0 save the queen.

Related SML Universe
+ Life 2.0
+ SML Channel
+ SML Data
+ SML YouTube

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Merry Christmas + Happy New Year / 2007 / SML

SML wishes you all a very merry christmas + happy new year. Also, thanks for a lovely 2007!



Related SML Flickr Tags
+ Helvetica
+ holiday
+ typography

Related SML Universe
+ SML Collection (Collection)
+ SML Graphic Design
+ SML Identity Design
+ SML Projects
+ SML UI

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Google Christmas Map 2007

As the official Google Blog reported, The Google Blog team created a map for users to customize and jointly create holiday greetings. I have made my mark... loud and clear :)


View Larger Map

Cheers and happy holidays from SML Universe

:)

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Yahoo Image Search: SML / 2007-12-22 / SML Screenshots

I love Yahoo! Doing a search on Yahoo Image Search proves that the acronym SML most definitely belongs to me :)

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=21


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=41


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=61


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=81


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=101


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=121


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=141


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=161


http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=sml&b=181


As you can see, aside from slight irregularities on Page 9 and 10, a year of image SEO is working :)

SML Thank You
Yahoo, thank you for making such a wonderful christmas for me this year!

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Still in hospital, feeling energetic

I've decided to post a brief summarized update to what happened to me so you don't need to read my small bursts of tweets for my whereabouts.

A much longer post will be meticulously crafted after my return to home.

I am writing this blog post standing in in the hallway of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, on one of the computer stations that I technically should not use, but since I am not one of the cool folks with an iPhone, I will have to make do, and you will have to make stand.

I have not been feeling all that well since Tuesday last week. I thought that it was just a stomachache and I didn't think much about it. Since I was on a rather time-sensitive project, I didn't want to 'drop the ball' as a certain "K" personality might like to put it, and go for some check-up. This stomachache got a whole bit worse and by the time Friday hits, I could barely walked. I was having diarrhea all day long til eventually I sent a panic email to a very closed friend Gregory Hull (Flickr / SML Wiki) who received my email at on 2007-12-08 10am in the morning in LES and rushed over to my RAMBO (Right After the Manhattan Bridge) residence (see www.seeminglee.com/map for exact location) to help me to the nearest emergency room.

We originally got to a rather shabby hosptial, but upon which I realize that surgery is necessary, I decided to switch to the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, also known as the Weill Cornell Medical College.

I had a CT scan and was determined that I had a ruptured appendicitis. Surgery commenced on Sunday around 1am. Detail on the surgery to follow on a follow up post. But the design of the OR is AMAZING! Looks even better than any movie sets I've seen.

I'm currently staying at

Rm 8-224, 8 Central
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
525 E. 68th St.
New York, NY 10065

My direct line at the hospital is +1 212 585 7433.
My cell as you all know is +1 646 373 9008.

SML Thank You
I would like to thank the fantastic phonecalls and lots and lots of love from people at IconNicholson, including Susie Rust, Michele Lomas, Scott Heydt, Kip Voytek (via Susie), and the millions of you who are not allowed to call me because of an effective IconSpam halted by Travis Barr of Sunday Morning Mimosa

I would like to thank IconNicholson for the red flower arrangement.

I would like to thank John Frazier for the really gorgeous hand-picked flower arrangement and the oh so lovely darling phone call.

I would like to thank Jingle Blues for tracking me down on my Twitter post and navigitating his way to come see me with books in hand!

I would like to thank Susie Rust for dropping by with the orange rose bouquet last night. They bloomed today and are soooo pretty!

I would like to thank Kip Voytek for the chess strategy book for study.. though my mom accidentally transported it back home today... :(

I would like to thank Yale Alumni Magazine for featuring SML Universe on the November / December 2007 issue. I saw that blurb during my miserable stay at the hospital and it *really* made my day.

I would like to thank my mom for flying over from Hong Kong to see me. My dad is coming on December 18 I think.

I would of course like to thank Gregory Hull and my sister for medical assitance throughout the episode, which is not yet finished!

Lastly I would like to thank all the doctors, nurses and nursing aids who have been supportive and making me feel so at home here (what is particularly crazy about hospitals, as I have learned, is that farting and having gas will get a huge congratulating hug... details to come on next post.. no space no) too much verbal diarrhea here anyhow as I haven't taken any ADD meds for a week -- nor any other food for that matter..

More will be thanked as I gain more consciousness... not much moleskine'ing has been done during my adverse morphine'ing.

Will be pausing here.
Look for me again next week!

Cheers,
SML

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Google Web History: See-ming Lee: Web Activity: 2005-2007 / 2007-12-04 / SML Data

Screenshot / visualization of my web activity on Google from 2005 to 2007:



My hypothesis is that my Google search activity is:

1. inversely proportional to the number of production-heavy projects
2. proportional to the number of research-oriented projects

In fact, I think that it's likely that my projects would follow a heavy-search (research) start and then progressively go down the slope because I'd have to produce a lot of stuff so no time / no reason to search.

I shall find out when I map my time-sheets to this visualization :)

Related SML Universe
+ SML Data
+ SML Google
+ SML Philosophy
+ SML Research
+ SML Viz

SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Ideas / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

SML Bookstore: SML Recommend Books

I did a test drive on the Amazon Associates program and created a bookstore using my existing Listmania lists:

Redirected smlrecommendbooks.com to this bookstore as a result :)

Graphic Design

See-ming Lee says: "In order to master the art and science of any field, have a solid foundation of the basic principles, learn the history of its development and always have a critical mind of everything that you create. With these tools in hand, you can solve any challenges that come in your way."



Information Design

See-ming Lee says: "Before there was a field called information architecture, IA is the first step in the graphic design process. Content gathering and organization is arguably the most powerful steps in gaining a thorough understanding of what we wish to create and conceptualize. Information needs to be designed in the form that most eloquently describe its function. This collection of books represents best-of-breed examples. From maps to airplane safety instructions, they knock down linguistic and cultural barriers and enable viewers the most immediate path to their content and structure."



Typography

See-ming Lee says: "My graphic design education at Yale has planted the seed for my love for typography and artists' books."



Flash + ActionScript

See-ming Lee says: "A collection of books on ActionScript that I have read and can easily recommend to any ActionScript developers."



Network Theory

See-ming Lee says: "After reading Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams, my exploration of decentralized networks went down a very viral path. Here are a collection of books that I have picked up over the course of a few years. The application of network theory is enormous, and can be used as a tool and device to understand cities, computer networks social networks, human-human interactions (speech), human-computer interactions (HCI), computer-computer interactions (protocol), diseases, computer viruses, nature. This field of study has brought me tremendous amounts of ideas for the next big thing in marketing strategy."



Life Hacks

See-ming Lee says: "As a highly stressed ADD'ed individual working in the information systems / design industry, these books helped me tremendously in balancing my work + my life."



Business Administration
SML Recommend Books: Business Administration

3D: modeling, rendering, mathematics models
SML Recommend Books: 3D

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

See-ming 思明 / 2007 / SML Dictionary

思 (pronounced ‘see’) is composed of two parts: 田 and 心
田 is a pictogram and it means an agricultural field.
心 is a pictogram as well. It means heart.
Putting both together means putting your heart on
your field. The character 思 means to analyze and to think

明 (pronounced ‘ming’) is composed of two parts: 日 and 月
日 is the sun 月 is the moon
When you place the largest light sources together,
it’s bright, so 明 means bright and clear.
It also means to understand.

Chinese names are poetic by nature, and its meaning
can best be appreciated poetically.
思明, See-ming, can best be translated as
to think clearly, have bright thoughts, to think and be understood.

Related SML Universe
+ Design for Everyday Living
+ SML Dictionary

PS
I moved my previous post to my life blog because I thought this morning that it might be too much for most people to handle.

SML Copyright Notice
© 2007 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / LinkedIn / Network / Orkut / Twitter / Wiki)

Don't Give Up / 2007 / SML

Don't Give Up: Rev 1. Created in response to http://www.pokenewyork.com.

Related SML Universe
+ SML Fine Art
+ SML Notebook

SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Ideas / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Flickr Image Loading: Firefox vs IE7 / 2007-11-26 / SML Screenshots

This is a screenshot from my computer browsing to the same Flickr set. On the left is Firefox 2.0.0.9, on the right is Internet Explorer 7.

As you can see here, all the images on IE7 is loaded, but Firefox still won't punch them in. Why? I don't get it. I'm on the same broadband connection here and it appears that Firefox kept on not loading the images.

So why not just use IE, you ask? Because I like my Greasemonkey scripts and Flickr is a whole lot different without them.

I have as such resulted in browsing on IE to look at the photos and commenting on Flickr. This is sad. Am I the only person experiencing this problem?

Originally I thought that maybe it's the greasemonkey scripts that's causing the problem but I disabled them and the problem persists.

Any clue? Any one? Comments would be highly appreciated. Any leads will be given full credits.

Thanks!

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Tom Ajello / SML Thank You

I would like to thank Tom Ajello (SML Wiki) to keep up posting awesome stuff onto his various social networks—from del.icio.us to Flickr, Facebook to Twitter—they most definitely keep me entertained.


Image Source: Tom Ajello's profile on Vimeo

I love data and I enjoy seeing things that are inspiring and original, and most definitely enjoy seeing someone who appears to share the same belief that great things ought to be shared with the world. It is my belief that the human race will progress a whole lot smoother if knowledge, awareness and education are better spread throughout the universe.

I am delighted to find someone who shares my believes.

Tom, thank you.

Related SML
+ SML Network

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee / SML Thank You / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Human Calendar / Inspirations Are Everywhere

The Human Calendar™ is a calendar created by Craig Giffen where portraits of everyday people and puts them into a calendar, where everyone is looking at the current date.

In addition to the main calendar, there are also portable versions, i.e. widgets for Google Homepage, your blogs, MySpace, etc. Very neat. Here's the blog widget. I will look forward to seeing it change for tomorrow:

"

SML Thank You
I found this on the Facebook posted items from Tom Ajello (SML Wiki). Thanks!

Related SML Universe
+ Inspirations Are Everywhere

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

DirtyPatrick's Toolshed = Cubist Constructivist Photography / SML Fine Art

I had the pleasure of visiting DirtyPatrick's studio (aka Toolshed) last Saturday and found some pretty incredible artwork:



DirtyPatrick's real name is Patrick Shawn Bradley (LinkedIn). He was born in Louisiana on December 3, 1966. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a bachelor of architecture in 1993, then moved to New York and became a designer for CNN as a broadcast visual designer for their on-air graphics department.



He now works full-time at R/GA as a senior visual designer. When he is not busy, he publishes a very popular fashion documentary which showcases the everyday fashion statements from the crazy people at R/GA.

His art can best be described as cubist constructivist photography. Each photograph will only be printed once and are signed and dated by DirtyPatrick himself. They can be printed at any size (maximum size: 5ft x 4ft). Pricing depends on the size of the print. DirtyPatrick is represented by SML Fine Art. If you are interested in his work, please email seeminglee+art@gmail.com.

More of his work can be seen at toolshed.us/catalog and flickr.com/dirtypatrick.

More DirtyPatrick
+ DirtyPatrick.com
+ DirtyPatrick's fashion documentary
+ Flickr: Dirtypatrick
+ Facebook: Patrick Bradley
+ Prick'D - DirtyPatrick's Video Blog
+ LinkedIn: Patrick Bradley

Related SML Universe
+ SML Fine Art
+ SML Flickr Tags: DirtyPatrick
+ SML Genius Pool
+ SML Gay Blog: Ideal Husband
+ SML Love: Dirty Patrick
+ SML Wiki: Dirty Patrick

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Uniqlo Grid = Branding through interaction design

http://www.uniqlo.com/grid/

YouTube: Uniqlo Grid / Inspirations Are Everywhere



SML Thank You
I would like to thank Tom Ajello (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / LinkedIn / SML Wiki / Twitter) for alerting me to this on his recent tweet.

Related SML Universe
+ Inspirations are Everywhere
+ SML Collection
+ SML Ideas
+ SML Interaction Design
+ SML UI

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Oye Modern = Contemporary Jewelry Design Collection

Jeni Oye launched her own line of modern jewelry collection called Oye Modern. It is the source for contemporary jewelry by emerging and independent designers. It's unique, original and hard to find.

Jewelry is shipped internationally to 40 countries with a 14 day return policy. You can shop in any of the four currency as well: AUD, GBP, EUR, USD.

Check it out!

www.oyemodern.com

Related SML Universe
+ SML Fine Art
+ SML Genius Pool
+ SML Wiki: Jeni Oye

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

365 Special Days = Celebration of Life and Humanity

Fernando Luis Lara is a brazillian artist living and working in the US. He draws the 365 days of the year based on stories submitted by people around the world. Each day will only be drawn once. For $182.50 USD, you get an original drawing (9 x 12 inches = 23 x 31 cm) by mail, and your story and drawing will also be shown on the site. The idea is that over time the site will become a collection of special days around the world, thus serving as a reminder of how special each and every day can be.

It's a genius marketing idea for an artist, and it utilizes the mechanisms of the collaborative theme seen today in the rise of Web 2.0. Very inspiring. Check it out!

365specialdays.com



Related SML Universe
+ Inspirations Are Everywhere
+ SML Fine Art
+ SML Ideas


SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

SML LibraryThing = See-ming Lee + LibraryThing

You are what you read.

SML LibraryThing = See-ming Lee + LibraryThing



Related SML Universe
+ SML Books
+ SML Network
+ SML RecommendBooks

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

TouchGraph Facebook = Social Network Visualization

TouchGraph Facebook = TouchGraph + Facebook







Now I know who my top friends really are...

1. See-ming Lee
2. Adam S. Kirschner
3. Kip Voytek
4. Claudia Chow
5. Susie Rust
6. Roland Nasr
7. Alex Rainert
8. Luke Hughett
9. Daniel O'Neil
10. Paul Steketee
11. Sugar Butter
12. Joy Yih
13. Angela Fung
14. Kim Carpenter
15. Gavin Fraser
16. David Papworth
17. Michael Paige
18. Ning Gao
19. Jeffrey Durland
20. Anthony Monahan

Related SML Universe
+ SML Facebook
+ SML Genius Pool
+ SML Life
+ SML LinkedIn
+ SML Network
+ SML People
+ SML Viz

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Menumap = MenuPages + Google Maps

http://menumap.monkeythumb.net



Menumap = MenuPages + Google Maps

Source: Thrillist

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Amazon Kindle = iPod of E-book Reader

Amazon.com unveiled its electronic-book reader Kindle to compete directly with Sony® Reader. Unlike Sony's electronic book reader, Kindle allows users to shop and download books from Amazon.com wirelessly via cellular network EV-DO. Books are priced at $9.99 or less. The reader itself will sell for $399.

One of the key issue users of the Sony Reader has is the lack of content, and Amazon.com definitely has content. You can not only download books, but also magazines and newspaper, which is a god-send. It also has a built-in dictionary and allows you to perform searches across your entire library. Sounds like a pretty smart business plan to me.

Design wise it's not as sweet as the Sony Reader, but I look forward to trying it out to see how its performance compares to Sony's, as the number one reason I did not buy the Sony Reader is because of its sluggish refresh rate.

WSJ Video: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tells WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg the new Kindle is "designed for people who really love reading."

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Related News
+ CNET News.com: Amazon's Kindle vs. Sony's Reader

Related SML Universe
+ SML Wiki: Amazon

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

UGC = Love + Culture + Free Speech / Larry Lessig / TED Talks

Stanford professor Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of "three stories and an argument." The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel" to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you've ever seen.

TED Talks: Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

The HBR Interview with Jeff Bezos

Harvard Business Review did an interview with Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, on the October 2007 issue.

Here are my key take aways:

Amazon.com = Strategy

Amazon.com was born of strategy.

Base your strategy on things that won't change:

Jeff Bezos: When I am talking with people outside the company, there's a question that comes up very commonly: "What's going to change in the next five to ten years?" At Amazon we're always trying to figure that out, because you can really spin up flywheels around those things. All the energy you invest in them today will still be paying you dividends ten years from now. Whereas if you base your strategy first and foremost on more transitory things — who your competitors are, what kind of technologies are available, and so on — those things are going to change so rapidly that you're going to have to change your strategy very rapidly, too.

If in the old world you devoted 30% of your attention to building a great service and 70% of your attention to shouting about, in the new world that inverts.

No-brainers = important

Jeff Bezos: We're still working on identifying [the constants] for the developer community, although we have some good guesses as to what they are. Reliability of the platform would be one, which is a kind of a no-brainer. But then a lot of these things are no-brainers. No-brainers are no-brainers for a reason: They actually are important.

Social features = Customers first

Jeff Bezos: One of the ways to get vast selection is to invite other sellers, third parties, onto our websites to participate alongside us, and make it into a win-win situation...

Now, if we're offering a certain digital camera and you're a seller with the same camera to sell, you can go right on our own detail page and underbid us.

It was a very controversial decision internally at the time.

Whenever we're facing one of those too-hard problems, where we get into an infinite loop and can't decide what to do, we try to convert it into a straightforward problem by saying, "Well, what's better for the consumer?"

We don't make money when we sell things; we make money when we help customers make purchase decisions

How to be #1 = customer focus

Jeff Bezos: If you're competitor focused, you tend to slack off when your benchmarks say that you're the best. But if your focus on customers, you keep improving. So there are a lot of advantages.

Listen to your customers first-hand

Jeff Bezos: Every new employee, no matter how senior or junior, has to go spend time in our fulfillment centers within the first year of employment.
HBR: Even you?
Jeff Bezos: Oh, yeah. I just got re-certified about six months ago. The fact that I did a lot of customer service in the first two years has not exempted me. Besides, it's quite entertaining, and you learn a ton. It's not a chore.

Response to Barnes & Nobles = customer focus

Jeff Bezos: I told everyone [in an all-hands meeting], "Yes, you should wake up every morning terrified with your sheets drenched in sweat, but not because you're afraid of our competitors. Be afraid of our customers, because those are the folks who have the money. Our competitors are never going to send us money."

Don't just ask why, but why not as well

Jeff Bezos: When something seems like an opportunity — it seems like you have the skills, and maybe some kind of advantage, and you think it's a big area — you will always get asked the question, "Why? Why do that?" But Why not?... But that question doesn't get asked. It's an asymmetry that is linked to those errors of omission.

Innovation: The institutional yes

Jeff Bezos: Sometimes you make guesses and you think, When we launch this, people are going to love it. And they don't... Our history is full of things like that, where we came up with an innovation that we thought was really cool, and the customers didn't care. Fortunately, there are also quite a few that went the other way... And by the way, it's very fun to have the kind of culture where people are willing to take these leaps &mash; it's the opposite of the "institutional no." It's the institutional yes. People say, "We're going to do this. We're going to figure out a way."

Pursue your believes

Jeff Bezos: My observation on [the early results of experiments] would be that it's important to be stubborn on the vision and flexible on the details. I talked about the evolution of our marketplace business — that's a good example of where we wee relentless on the vision... We worked on it for a few years. But we didn't give up on the vision... If you really believe that the addressable market is big enough for it to matter, then it pays to be stubborn in pursuing that.

Company culture at Amazon

Jeff Bezos: I'm actually thinking, who doesn't [say no to me]?... Intensity is important. I always tell people that our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove, we'll settle for intense. But there is no contradiction between being intense and having fun... In a one-hour meeting we may spend ten minutes of it joking around, and I'm often the worst offender. I'll laugh and say, "This reminds me of..." and get us off on some story. Eventually somebody says, "Well, that is very interesting, but you do see we have an agenda..." And I think that works out great."

Full article available as a PDF for purchase at HBR:
Harvard Business Review: 2007-10: The Institutional Yes: The HBR Interview with Jeff Bezos: How Amazon's CEO leads strategic change in a culture obsessed with today's customer by Julia Kirby and Thomas A. Stewart

Also available in the print edition of Harvard Business Review: 2007-10: pp.74-82

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Digg 2.0 Comment Digging Features: Friend or Foe?

Two weeks ago, my friend Rich Schuster (SML Wiki) sent me a photo of the halloween costume his friend Nathan Sharatt (SML Wiki) has made. I like it, so I faved it on Flickr and dugg it.



Since Digg now added Web 2.0 features, I thought that it would nice to leave a nice comment thanking demonbaby for sharing, since he is a friend of mine.

Digg - Spectacular Bioshock Big Daddy / Little Sister Halloween Costume! [Pics]: User Comment from iamorlando

Just like that, I received a comment from a user named iamorlando posted on 2007-11-01 which says the following:

Dear See-ming,
Thanks for adding to our discussion, also thank you for turning the comments section into our own personal correspondence section.

Yours truly,
Orlando

Digg Stats
iamorlando's comment has +13 diggs on it, for which I am stunned. Conversely, my thank you note has -26 diggs on them, which I am double stunned.

SML Research
To figure out why a user hate me so much, I instructed SML Bio Bot to do some research for me to determine who iamorlando is, and this is what it scooped:
SML Wiki: iamorlando

SML Question to iamorlando
If we cannot even thank our friends for posting to something we thought is brilliant on Digg, then what should we post instead?

SML Ask
Conversely, how reasonable are the Web 2.0 comment digging features on Digg?

Related SML Universe
+ SML Digg
+ SML Random Thoughts
+ SML Public Media

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Wing Suit = Human + Wings

Found a video called Wingsuite on Ben Hammersley's blog today. Stunningly amazing. It's like jumpsuit with wings. Found more videos so created a playlist:

SML YouTube Playlists: Wingsuite



Related SML Universe
+ Crazy is Good
+ SML Skydive
+ SML YouTube Playlists

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Flickr Social / 2007-11-11 / SML Pipes

Yahoo Pipes: See-ming Lee: Flickr Social
Updated with additional fields for permission filtering.

See Flickr screenshot for module details:



Here's a screenshot of the additional fields. They are all optional. Again, see Flickr screenshot for notes.



More information available on SML Wiki
SML Wiki: Flickr Social

Related SML Pro Blog
+ SML Pro Blog: Flickr Social / 2007-11-11 / SML Pipes

Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Tags: Yahoo Pipes
+ SML Ideas
+ SML Pipes
+ SML Wiki: Yahoo Pipes
+ Yahoo Pipes: See-ming Lee

SML Copyright Notice
© 2007 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / Google / LinkedIn / YouTube)

Yahoo Pipes: Flickr Social / 2007-11-10 / SML Pipes

I use Flickr a lot, but I am increasingly finding it frustrating to have to go onto Flickr everyday to track my friends' comments and also comments I have posted on, so I created this pipe to track all the commenting activities such that I can log them somewhere.

One of the problems I have with the way the Comments You've Made page works is that if you commented on some particularly popular images, you ended up having a lot of noise in that feed that is unrelated to you.

Given these two problem at hand, I created this pipe to return an RSS feed of all things happening to my activities without the extra noise:

pipes.yahoo.com/seeminglee/flickrsocial


This screenshot has notes. Click on the images to get notes on individual modules used on Flickr

What this pipe does

1. Based on a Flickr username (not user id), return a feed of:
   • Recent comments other people have posted about your photographs
   • Recent comments you have made to other people's photographs
2. For your recent comments on other people's photographs, fitler out the result such that the feed contains only comments you have made and exclude other people's comments on the same photograph. This ensures that you don't get too much noise on that particular feed if that photograph become very popular--which appears to happen a lot to photographs which I commented on.
3. Aggregate the results from the two and sort the items based on the published date.

More SML Pipes

• SML Flickr Tags: SML Pipes
• SML Pipes (smlpipes.com)
• Yahoo Pipes: See-ming Lee (pipes.yahoo.com/seeminglee)

SML Thank You
I would like to thank Kris J. Clarke from Scotland for helping me out during the process as I develop this. Kris, you rock!

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Thoughts on Google Personalized Search Results

I did some random Googling this morning and found that my initials SML is featured on page one again (Google: SML) which is sweet. However, I noted something interesting when I performed the same search at work.

In both cases, I was logged into Google account—which technically speaking should give me the same results. Well, apparently not. I did some screenshots so you can scrutinize it:

Home: SML Flickr: Google: SML / 2007-11-08 / SML Data



Work: SML Flickr: Google: SML / 2007-11-08 / SML Data



Noting this, I can't help but wonder if Google uses algorithms to randomize results a bit to test which links people would click on in various times—a strategy that I hypothesize is being used on Flickr to determine interestingness as well.

In turn, this suggests an interesting visualization exercise: what would the results pages look like if I search for the same thing over and over again by taking screenshots of the results page? It would be a kind of a SERP time-lapse, if you will. And if the data is available, all the merrier. It would surely be nice to see search results nodes moving at real time. Now I just need two more instances of SML working on these projects while I can still live my 24-hour day.

More random searches
Additional random searches that I like to do are Google: Google SML vs Google: SML Google, which gives different results. This means that Google's search algorithm give weights to the ordering of the words. By how much? I'll let you genius programmers find out. Feel free to email me your results when you do. I LOVE DATA!

Related SML Universe
+ SML Data
+ SML Google
+ SML Search

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

MyBlogLog Problogger Contest = Win-Win Marketing Strategy

So if you want to win the ultimate Problogger toolset, check out our little contest over at MyBlogLog.

— Tweets from Duzins (aka Robyn Tippins)

In an attempt to lure more customers to use MyBlogLog, a blogging community and analytics service, the company announced the "Become a Problogger Contest" which will hand out one grand prize winner to the community with the most rapid-growth over the period between November 8 to 30.

The grand prize winner will receive:

• One Year Pro MyBlogLog Subscription
• $500 Yahoo! Search Marketing Credit
• A 1-year membership to SEOmoz Premium Membership
• 1 Complete Blog Redesign
• One Year Subscription To Yaro Stark's Blog Mastermind
• A Featured Community for the month of December at MyBlogLog
• An invitation to the invite-only blog gathering, SOBCon 2008, in Chicago

More Details about the contest.

I thought that it's a brilliant idea. The contest is user-centered, and no doubt any contestants will learn from the experience on how to market his/her own site. In turn, the company gains the community audience that it seeks.

When you have a win-win strategy for both the consumer and the company, you have a golden marketing plan. This, btw, is my key take-away reading from reading an article on the October 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review, where Jeff Bezos shares his thoughts on leadership through strategic change in a culture obsessed with today's consumer.

Harvard Business Review: he Institutional Yes: The HBR Interview with Jeff Bezos

Related SML Universe
+ SML Del.icio.us: Marketing
+ SML Del.icio.us: Strategy
+ SML Marketing
+ SML Strategy

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Analysis of the Intel Sound Identity

An amazing video analysis of the Intel aural identity (aka sound identity), or how music is used to drive consumers marketing / advertising messages. Created by P. Tagg from Université de Montréal in 2005.



SML Thank You
I would like to thank Ken Kraemer for sending this over.

Related SML Universe
+ SML Advertising
+ SML Music
+ SML Identity Design
+ Symphonic Electronica

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Zero Punctuation = Crazy = Good

So I was tweeting yesterday about the game called Orange Box and antikewl picked up my tweet and sent me to The Escapist, adding that Portal is worth the price alone. I was not surprised, given that I pretty much looked into buying this game based on the Gamespot review of it alone.

But this post is not about the Orange Box, because I haven't gotten it yet. This post is about this absolutely insane amount of information fired by Zero Punctuation:

This guy is funny + to the point + sarcastic + information-stuffed + crazy which equates to fantabulous in my dictionary. I don't think that I have yet experienced information-overload in this capacity before.

I am in awe.

Reviews of Orange Box at Gamspot
+ Gamespot: The Orange Box (PC)
+ Gamespot: The Orange Box (Xbox360)

SML Thank You
I would like to thank antikewl for being a fantastic Internet news correspondent from the UK. You rock! Much love :)

SML Friends
I met antikewl aka Trevor May when he was "shipped over" from London from IconMedialab (now LBi) to work on a global B2B content portal. Because of Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Flickr and all these social networking goodies, we stayed in touch after almost 7 years now!

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

The Power of Tagging

If you are one of those people who simply don't see the point of tagging, here's a true story from a friend of mine who has become a recent Flickr-tagging convert.

I recently got Gregory Hull (Blog / Flickr / SML Wiki) into getting his Flickr account, and shortly after I noted that his photos are not tagged. A couple of emails later, he started tagging.

Greg posted this photo on 2007-10-28 onto Flickr and tagged it with dog, halloween, costume, tompkins-square and iPhone.


Source: Flickr: Gregory Hull: iPhone' halloween costume. © 2007 Gregory Hull

Two days later, he received an email from a newspaper from Chicago asking to see if they can publish his photograph, and the rest is history.

Now this little known artist from New York, who used to garden for Jasper Johns (Google), went from an unknown to being covered by hundreds of iPhone-related Web site:

• Gothamist: Pups on Parade at Tompkins Square Park
• Gizmodo: Halloween: Dog Dresses Up as iPhone for Halloween Celebration
• MAKE: Blog: Even dogs like iphones for halloween
• Textually.org: iPhone costume for dogs

The photo was posted 7 days ago, and so far it has already received 3,758 views and 12 favorites. It stunned him and most definitely stunned me! (While I have photos on Flickr that has received 15,000+ views, this photograph's views-accumulation rate is still a record I cannot possibly beat!)

Hopefully this will provide a glimpse into the magic of tagging to the next avid tagger. :)

Related SML Universe
+ SML Dogs

Amazon.com redesign = List Listmania!

Amazon.com just went through a redesign. In place of the cluttered tabs, which also resulted in the famous Amazon vs. Barnes & Nobles lawsuit, is a super top-nav which contains a see of lists within lists — or what I can best describe as List Listmania!


Source: Amazon.com: A Quick Tour of Our New Remodel

What I like about this new design is how Amazon is able to jam a ton of information and functionality in a tiny area, which is not easy to do.

The second thing that I thought was true innovation is how the search box stretches horizontally depending on the size of the browser window, which is a god-send for the power searchers. Now when is Google going to start implementing that in the browser toolbar?!

Related SML Universe
+ Seemazon
+ SML Recommend Books
+ SML Shopping
+ SML UI

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Wear your brand colors everyday / See-ming Lee / SML Everyday + SML Life

Wear your brand colors everyday / See-ming Lee / 20071031.SD850IS.0949 / SML Everyday / SML Life, originally uploaded by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML.

My halloween costume for 2007: SML

SML Brand Colors
+ Cyan by Ben Sherman
+ Yellow by Puma
+ Magenta by Swatch

Related SML Universe
+ Design for everyday living
+ I am SML
+ SML Brands
+ SML Everyday
+ SML Me
+ SML Life
+ SML Wiki: See-ming Lee

SML Copyright Notice
© 2007 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / Google / LinkedIn / YouTube)

SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

IconNicholson Halloween 2007 Art Installation by Rivka Schoenfeld

Rivka Schoenfeld (Google / SML Wiki), interior architect of IconNicholson (Google / SML Wiki), once again transformed the historic hallway on the 8th floor of the Puck Building into a magical landscape of horror using a mixture of video projection, black lights, birds sculpture and fortune cookie wisdom on Halloween in 2007.

SML IMEEM: IconNicholson Halloween 2007 by IconNicholson
YouTube: IconNicholson Halloween 2007



Video projection: The Birds (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock

Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Tags: IconNichoson Halloween 2007
+ SML Fine Art
+ SML Magic

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

IconNicholson Social Retailing = Time Magazine's Best Inventions of the Year 2007

Time Magazine: 2007: The Best Inventions of the Year: Hot or Not? (IconNicholson Social Retailing)

You know the feeling. You try on a shirt at the store and think you look pretty fly, but you need a second opinion. With Social Retailing, developed by IconNicholson and shown at Bloomingdale's in March, you can send a video to your friends' cell phones and instantly get their vote. You can also try on outfits virtually using a mirror that shows how fab they might look—or not.

Available 2008

iconnicholson.com

Related SML Universe
+ SML Del.icio.us: IconNicholson + Social Retailing
+ SML Projects
+ SML Wiki: IconNicholson

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

SML Flickr: Google Page Rank = 5

Craig Konieczko (Google / SML Wiki) got me into checking my page rank last night, and it is my pleasure to congratulate myself for achieving:

+ 5 for http://www.smlflickr.com
+ 4 for http://www.seeminglee.com
+ 3 for http://blog.seeminglee.com

Here's a screenshot of SML Flickr with the PageRank widget on Google toolbar:



Related SML Universe
+ SML Data
+ SML Flickr
+ SML Wiki: SML Flickr

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

NextEngine = 3D Scanning for the masses

Found this amazing laser 3D scanner today while browsing on YouTube:

YouTube: 3d scanner



The system is called NextEngine and according to user comment on the YouTube page, it costs $2495 including hardware and software, which is fairly affordable.

More information at NextEngine.com

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Bug Labs = Mindstorms for Super-Geeks

BUG is a collection of easy-to-use, open source hardware modules, each capable of producing one or more Web services. These modules snap together physically and the services connect together logically to enable users to easily build, program and share innovative devices and applications. With BUG, we don't define the final products - you do.
—Bug Labs: Products

BugLabs on YouTube
+ YouTube: Bug Labs: Beginnings - Episode A
+ YouTube: Bug Labs: BUG - Episode B

Technical Specifications

• ARM1136JF-S-based microprocessor
• 1 USB 2.0 HS host interface/4 hub port connections
• 1 USB OTG HS interface
• 4 UART serial links
• 4 channel SPI interface
• I2C (400 kbits) interface/4 channels
• I2S interface/2 channels
• Smart LCD interface
• Camera sensor interface
• Micro memory card interface
• MPEG4 hardware encoding/decoding
• Hardware graphic acceleration
• 10/100 Ethernet MAC
• 802.11b/g
• Base unit LCD module interface
• Base unit onboard memory (FLASH/DDR SDRAM)
• JTAG/ICE support
• Serial debug port
• Power system
• AC operation
• Battery operation/up to 4 external batteries
• Fast battery charging/simultaneous of internal and external batteries
• Smart power management support
• Battery-backed real-time clock
• Audio out via onboard piezo speaker

Pretty cool. Check it out!

SML Thank You
I would like to thank Alex Rainert (Google / SML Wiki) for sending this over :)

SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.