So it's coming to another end of the year, so this is a good time to reflect on what happened this year, what I've learned and what to be thankful for.

On the business side, a lot of excitement in the Cloud space as we saw a ton of mergers and acquisitions as well as adoptions into the Cloud. Since we're in the industry, this is a good sign. Selling software in Greater China has always been challenging and will remain so due to cultural and political reasons but we are making a lot of headway in the right direction and I truly believe 2012 will be  a breakout year.

On the personal side, I learned a lot, people always say patience comes with age, but I seem to be on the reverse path, I think I was more patient as a teenager and somehow now I have lost all patience. Maybe it's because people I admire from Oda Nobunaga to Steve Jobs all seem to expire in their 50s and knowing you have limited time forces you to use your time better than dealing with shitty people. Well, it's how I rationalize my declining patience anyways. 

On the family side, I am extremely grateful for all they have done for me, put up with my declining patience and buiser travel schedule, the kids continue to grow not just in physical form, but spiritually as well, in fact, my boys are quoting the Bible much more than I am these days. (Feel like I'm losing the spiritual leadership role in the family)

2011 also marked the 100th year of the Republic Of China, now on the tiny island of Taiwan, but it is meaningful to me and my family. 

The goals for 2012 will be the following

• Publish a book on entrepreneurship in Chinese
• Complete a half marathon
• Organize for once the home network and storage issues
• Learn to be more humble
• Write at least one blog post a month
• Work on the boys basketball game more with them

Here are some pictures to share in 2011

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Click here to download:

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There, hopefully when I come back and check this list next year I'll be able to check off some items.

On September 19, 2011, working with MiTAC, Joyent launched Taiwan's first Public Cloud and I was happy to be part of the team who delivered this deal.

I remember in 2007, I really thought to myself that Cloud, or just virtualization would change the fundamentals of our business and that Taiwan needed to "move up the stack" to gradually get away from the OEM to ODM low margin business. After all, that was what our fathers did, making ICs, and now that they've done such a great job, hardware is highly affordable but so have the margins been eroded. 

Since that cold winter night in 2007, a lot has happened. 

2009-Started LayerBoom and built the world's first virtualization appliance

2010-Acquired by Joyent 

2011-Work with MiTAC to launch Taiwan's first cloud

As I sit here still adjusting my jetlagg, I just wanted to take this time and record this point in my personal life, to remind myself how gracious the Lord has been to me, to allow me to follow my dreams and having a lot of fun getting there. My family for all the support they have given me, especially Clara for dealing with a guy whose head is always in the clouds.

So this post is but a little milestone set here to remember this moment and the awesome people I get to work together with, you all know who you are and you all have a very special place in my heart. 

世界豆漿大王是永和豆漿的創始店，所以剛到台北就迫不及待帶老婆小孩去吃，真的超好吃

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About two years ago, I posted a blog on Rethinking Democractic governments, my premise was that since 2000, the US had elected a very bad President in George W. Bush and Taiwan elected a very corrupt President in Chen Shui Bien, while China went through a fast growth period unexperienced by any form of democratic government the world has ever seen.

If we are results oriented beings, we might ask ourselves if Democracy is paying off after all ? Or is Democracy merely a form of government that disables the government from functioning at all and thus let the public sector be left alone, as envisioned by the US's founding fathers.

Today, I find myself asking that quesiton again, as we see in Japan, post its earthquake, the mayor of a municipality openly talks about the feeling of abandonment and despair.

This bother me a lot because I love "freedom" and I love democratic governments, however, I also understand that in times of economic hardships and disasters, dictatorships such as China has its advantages and the world/population just might revert back to it.

This is what bothers me, the fear that my children and their children won't have the ability to grow and posper in a democracy like I enjoyed and take for granted. In all honesty, I really think the time has come for a younger generation to take control of the world we live in and exercise our ideas and abilities to make this world a better place.

I've decided on getting a new car, but it's not just any new car, it's an EV, the Nissan Leaf. The way I justify this is simply that people like me have been trying to get others to solve the problem for too long. Now, I love the gas guzzling V12 like any good ol' boy, there is simply nothing like the sound of a healthy V12 spitting out fire and fumes from that dual exhaust. 

As an average citizen, I decided to do something about it. That decision is I want an EV, even though it looks like a girl's car, only does 90MPH, a speed I first broke riding on a motor cycle when I was 14, and probably gets no respect no matter what kind of rims I get on it, for the love of making a difference, I will get the new Nissan Leaf. To all my loyal readers, I hope you will too.

35, it's sort of a magical number to me. In our family, it's basically the half way point in life, and it is really the start of the so called "mid-life". 

My grandfather was a Colonel by the time he was 35, my father became the youngest University President in the history of Taiwan at age 35, and I'm still busy being wide-eyed by the wonders of the world and BAMM, 35 hit me in the face. 

One of my favourite Japanese war lords, Oda Nobunaga, once said that life only needs to be 50, for after that, the beauty of life fades away. Nobunaga was killed by a traitor at age 49. 

At 35, I've outlived many famous people, Bruce Lee, James Dean, Jesus.

This morning I woke up as usual, took the dog for a walk as usual, jumped in the shower, then unusual happened, I pulled my back. It's a weird feeling, like you popped your back, you heard about it from your grandma when you were 14, but you never thought it would happen to you, until you turned 35. 

Maybe I'm getting old, sentimental, soft, but tonight, sitting on my sofa, kids asleep up stairs, dog beside my feet, I'm suddenly feeling very 35.

Whoa, it sure has been a while since I posted anything on this site. As evidenced by our never miss a post and never fail Josh. So for all of you who do read this blog, I'll provide a quick update. Well, two months ago, we sold Layerboom Systems to Joyent . The reasons were simple, Joyent's one of the largest Cloud service providers in the world, it shares the same vision as our team on where the space is going but most importantly is that the executive team is simply amazing. I will try to refrain from using the word "awesome" since some of us use it like it's going out of style.  

Another major reason I've been ignoring this blog is because the weather in Vancouver has been awesome great. So whatever spare time has been spent on taking the kids and dog out before the cold winters of Canada hits. 

Well, there you have it. It's been a busy summer and I still think of last year's journey as an amazing testament to my faith. 4 guys with a dream, 13 months of hard dedicated work and a lot of fun later, we're now part of the Joyent family continuing to do what we love. 

So a lot of hoopla happened around the iPad, as a self appointed early adopter of technologies (such as the Apple Newton, the wide screen movie glasses etc.) I had to get in the rush with the rest of the group that gobbled up 2 million iPads in 60 days. For the iPad's features, it really is a machine perfect for my wife, she can do email, calendar, watch chinese soap and read the Bible on this one simple device. So when the iPad came out, I asked her which one she wanted ? The answer ? The iPad 3G.

For my project Icarus, I'm following the step by step guide set up by these MIT students. The components seem simple, box, camera, GPS tracker, balloon, parachute. As most of you already know, I've secured the SPOT messenger GPS tracker and according to Len Youden, General Manager of Yamnuska Mountain Adventures, it's the right decision. GPS, check.