Sean Chin » Inspirational

The Value of Travel

Sean Chin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:50:16 +0000

I absolutely love this TEDx talk by Rick Steves. And as part of my new years resolutions, I will be heading to South Africa at the end of January. I cannot wait to explore and discover the wonders of that region of the world. You can bet there I will have a plethora of photos coming!

2012 Resolutions

Sean Chin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:08:57 +0000

I want to wish everyone a healthy, prosperous and happy New Year! I have made 4 main New year’s resolutions for 2012.

1) Do things that make me happy. [Already got my first car! 2005 Mercedes E320]
2) Learn new topics/fields that interest me. [I spent New Year's weekend learning all about Supply Chain Management for fun even though it currently has nothing to do with what I do]
3) Eat and live healthier.
4) Spend more time with my family and friends.

I never liked the idea of “giving things up”, but I do enjoy the idea of “doing new things”. And I hope all of your can do something you love and be productive and successful in 2012!

Sean

Thank you Steve

Sean Chin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:23:29 +0000

Thank you Steve. Even though we never met, you were one of my biggest inspirations of creativity, innovation, hope and leadership. You and your amazing team at Apple, in such a short amount of time, has left a significant foot print in our world. Your philosophy and desire for innovation and organically beautiful hardware and software will never be forgotten. You were a master of marrying art with science. I for one am truly sad and got goosebumps upon finding out about your passing this week on October 5, 2011.

Thank you Steve for the memories. I clearly remember playing Treasure Mountain in elementary school on a Apple computer. It’s actually funny now, that when I look back, the first first computer I ever spent much time on was a Macintosh. Then for some reason, which didn’t really seem to bother me, Macs kind of disappeared from a large part of my childhood. In high school and in undergrad, we were given IBM ThinkPads (none of which are currently functional and gave me so much anger…) to learn such tools as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint etc. I guess it was fine for the time, but then something exciting happened. An TV commercial featuring a silhouette with white earplugs started rocking out to U2 aired and I was sold. I bought my first iPod, and it was truly revolutionary. However, it wasn’t up until I finally graduated my Bachelors degree that I purchased my MacBook Pro. And boy did I love it. The feeling you get when using such a beautifully engineered product and the confidence of stability, performance and no viruses was just perfect. Later in 2010, I ditched my Blackberry for an iPhone 4 and then in 2011, I got an iPad 2 (which I never thought I needed, but it is totally useful). You sure helped designed some good products Steve.

Thank you Steve for the innovation. It would be an understatement to say that you only made incredible iDevices, Macs and the intuitive OSX. You also created a brand new environment and way of looking at technology and art harmoniously. Every time you walk by or into one of the many beautiful Apple Stores, it truly is an experience like none other. Your desire to push the status quo and to never be held down is inspiring. The touching stories of your upbringings, to all the hurdles and disappointments you over came, but never calling it quits is inspiring. You and Woz came up with the concept of a having a personal computer in everyones house, everyone thought you guys were crazy, you were, and you were crazy geniuses who helped revolutionize technology and the quality of life we have in the world today. Without you, we wouldn’t have mouses peripherals or even the ability to choose different fonts for design purposes.

Thank you Steve for the leadership. According to many sources, you led with a tough stand and demanded one’s very best work. But you always gave everyone a reason on why a specific detail had to be a certain way. Every company wishes it could influence the media and consumers the way Apple does. Massive twitter trends to an upgrade on a phone or even an operating system? Unheard of. Every CEO wishes he or she could be like you and have millions of people mourn over your death and post notes at their retail stores. Unheard of. In this infamous time of American greed with corrupt CEO’s sinking large companies and businesses such as Enron, you were the real deal. You did something no other CEO would have done, work for $1.00 USD a year. This means that success was the only option for you. You based your entire fortune off stocks, translating to that if you wanted to be prosperous, you had to work your tail off and fully believe in what you did, love what you did and do what ever it took to be successful. And you did it.

If there is a take away message about everything you’ve done for our world, it can all be found in your speech at Stanford University. “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” and to “Think Different”.

Thank you Steve.

Sean Chin
Publisher, Live in Limbo
Originally published at Live in Limbo

Thoughts on LOST

Sean Chin — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:57:35 +0000

Having been an avid follower of the television show LOST for the past 5 years, I decided to jot down some of my feelings and interpretations after the series finale ended. I was initially left with mixed feelings and felt somewhat ripped-off, however later while sleeping I felt a sensation of great satisfaction and closure to one of the greatest television shows in history.

The reality is that everything occuring on the mysterious island was real, and in the end, Jack manages to kill the man in black (MIB) and save the island before dying in the bamboo forest he has awakened in the pilot episode. He died while he the last satisfaction of seing his friends leaving the island on the Ajira plane.

Afterwards, Hurley assumes the new “Jacob” as Ben become his right-hand man and the two protect the island with some new policies, by allowing people to come by, and allowing desmond to leave it to go back with Penny.

Kate, Sawyer, Richard, Lapidus, Miles and Claire come back to the real world and live their life to the end, in their own separate and distant story lines we will never know about.

In the very end, everyone that was on the island manages to die (that’s life) and as they were all very important to each one, they all manage to reunite in “purgatory”, some after life waiting room where everyone seems to live a “near perfect life” where their main dissapointed in their real life is fixed (ex. Jack having a son to fix his parent-son poor own relationship with Christian, Locke having a real family with Helen, Hurley is not cursed, Desmond has gained Widmore’s approval, Faraday is a pianist).

In this “Happy Ending Storyline”, as they were all very important, they manage to remember their life together (ever since some died long ago and some recently) and being together helps them moving on. I truly feel that what everyone thought has a “flash sideways” was actually not so. I believe it was more of a “flash future renunion party”.

The matter of the fact is that what I loved is that the show seems to tell us that in the very end of our lives, we will be reunited with every person we ever loved in our life, every one who has a special place in our heart, leaving us with a special opportunity to make amends, to say what hasn’t been said in time, and to be in peace for real.

Proud to be Canadian!

Sean Chin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:14:41 +0000

Congrats to all of Team Canada and the men’s Hockey team for owning the Gold podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics right here in Canada !

Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize Wish

Sean Chin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:06:40 +0000

Celebrity British Chef, Jamie Oliver has recently won the 2010 TED Prize in California. Obesity is the #1 killer in U.S. today. His wish is to educate children all over North America about food. I urge you to watch this amazing talk.

Craig Venter @ TEDMED 2009

Sean Chin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:12:20 +0000

UOIT + IBM + SickKids = Innovation + Collaboration + Inspiration

Sean Chin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:17:21 +0000

“Groundbreaking work aims to help medical profession detect potential life-saving changes”

This is the First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) program, which is being developed by IBM, The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Carolyn McGregor (UOIT), who is a Canada Research Chair in Health Informatics, is collaborating with doctors at Sickkids and researchers at IBM to create a “system” that will allow doctors to make sense of the enormous amounts of vital data from ill premature babies.

“This first-of-a-kind research project, known as Artemis, is helping ‘make sense’ of the constant stream of data collected from critically ill premature babies so that doctors will be able to recognize the subtle changes that can reliably predict a deterioration in condition and allow them to intervene more quickly. Using IBM InfoSphere Stream software to help manage the stream of biomedical data, such as heart rate and respiration, the software analyzes environmental data gathered from advanced sensors and more traditional monitoring equipment on and around the babies.”

Related Articles:

1. First-of-a-kind research at UOIT drawing international attention

2. UOIT professor receives prestigious international award from IBM

All the best, Sean

Eigenharp Demonstration

Sean Chin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:34:26 +0000

This odd-looking piece of hardware is actually a British instrument that allows users to play, manage and customize sounds from their computers.

I saw this demo on Attack of the Show on G4 Tech TV in Canada and was blown away at all the possibilities.

http://www.eigenlabs.com/

Start with Why

Sean Chin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:38:25 +0000

Leadership is a valuable asset that not everyone has, but can certainly develop and accomplish wondrous things.

In this TEDx talk, author of the book “Start with Why”, Simon Sinek describes what sets “those who lead” apart from “leaders”.