出發之前，朋友都問：不丹？甚麼地方？

我把我知道的，從 wikipedia 裡讀過的，電視裡看過的，都搬出來了 . . . 甚麼印度和西藏之間 / 喜瑪拉亞山山脊上 / 一個小小的國度 / 從前有個靚仔國皇 / 讓了位給他的靚仔兒子 / 人民很窮但快樂指數高企 . . . 更是梁朝偉跟劉嘉玲結婚的地方。香港人一聽到這裡，都會很滿意地點頭表示明白的樣子。其實他們都不太清楚。包括我自己在內。

我是 OLPC (one laptop per child) 新加入的小小義工之一。兩年多前，2007年的一個聖誕節前夕，我捐了一部小小的 XO laptop 給遠方的一個小孩。當時的我，還以為自己很了解這個 project，以為給孩子送電腦就是這個 project 的目標。這趟不丹之行把我這個觀念完全改變過來了 . . .

雖然說這次的不丹任務有當地政府的支持，但出發前還是一步一驚心。先有VISA 問題、後有機票問題、東部地震問題、天氣究竟有沒有如某些網站所說只有 -4 度的疑問、住的酒店究竟確認了沒有、到底我們要去的是哪一所學校、究竟有多少學生參與、不丹各地又有多少老師前來參與、電線拖板夠不夠、班房有多少等等，甚麼都不清楚，問不丹的負責人，他們都好像不著緊！有一個不丹人後來跟我說： "We don't plan here at Bhutan!"

也許這就是他們快樂的秘訣？

(待續) (cross posted to OLPC asia's blog)

it feels like home to be at barcamp again!
old faces and new
geek talk all the way!

it's like the only place in hong kong where you won't feel unique by waving your flip recorder around (see napoleon below for an example)... so instead of getting questions like what a flip is, people will just ask:

"why didn't you bring yours?"

here's what i think people will remember barcamphk 2009 for:

• hot food from microsoft! lol...

• hot (stuffy) rooms too... but only because we had a record-breaking attendance this year!

• "hot" organizers as usual :P

for me, i'll always remember what it feels like to have forgotten to bring my own name cards and to turn my back to people whenever they ask for my contact:

above: the one and only android tee designed by yours truly!

side note #1: i originally wanted to print a QR code in my chest but decided against it for obvious reasons... i also learnt that a QR code cannot be decoded if it's in white :(

side note #2: i'm a loyal fan of dookaz and usually print my tees with them, but i chose not to this time because they don't offer green lady tees.... sorry, ed =)

see it in action!

photo credit: billibala

that's me with my htc hero android phone, in total sync with cyrus's green google developer tee (which also has cool logos like the chrome printed on)!

my hero was a big hit, haha... coz it's not available for sale in hk yet.  i'm happy to see iphone fanatics interested in an android phone.  if only more hk developers write apps for android.......

anyway, i've achieved the effect i wanted - to stand out in my android tee! haha...see me below?

photo credit: victor issac cheung

in 2007, there were only 7 females out of 98 attendees (7%)...small minority

in 2008, there were 12 out of 220 (5.5%)...not too bad

this year? at least 23 out of 304 (7.6%)...best turnout so far!!!

what i love most about barcamp is still the people.  the spirit of sharing what one's passionate about.  here are some interesting people i met in no particular order:

• a local web developer named richard who works for NGOs - who actually knows about the opensource CivicSpace CMS that's never been used by any hong kong NGOs! i only learnt about it 2 weeks ago at the OLPC party and found it an amazing tool for NGOs to keep track of donations and to increase the overall transparency of their organizations...

• 2 engineers who work for the Octopus Card company - interesting discussion on privacy concerns - their company's focus is now on developing overseas mkts

• an intern at turner (winnie) - collects evidence of IP infringement! for big brands! watches videos and screen captures infringing content... even writes to infringers.....hmmm competes with what i do at my law firm!

• compared augmented reality apps used on iphone & android phones =)

• richard cohen - thanking him in person for writing me an applist.apk to extract a list of all apps installed on my android phone!

• Preetam who flew all the way from singapore just to attend this barcamp! liked his presentations on the pokens & other barcamps in south-east asia (great tips on how to travel 2.0 style too).  the thailand barcamp for instance has an attendance of over 700! people talk about pretty much everything, from how to make ice-cream to how to chase a japanese girl.  whereas cambodians would use paper cards to do mash-up demos when there are not enough computers around.  verrrry interesting i think :-)

• spoke to a teacher at the CityU school of creative media about her frustrations (a fixed curriculum, no way she could add new ideas she learnt from MIT) and her patented works of "visual representation"

• saw a live google wave demo!!! aaron, napoleon and leon ho all have developer accounts... enjoyed the demo by aaron despite having watched the 60+min long online preview already :) aaron's protocols diagram is also immensely helpful for non-hardcore programmers like me!

• a Janet from PwC, told me that their management is quite open to new ways of doing things so she's here to get some inspiration

• wife & husband running a website business together

• a Thomas working for NTT.  told me his main job is to review and buy "toys"... soft(ware) toys to be exact :P his gf also came and she's is a litigation solicitor!

• another Thomas who introduced me his new web app - good luck dude :) i'll be happy to be your tester!

• a "medical practitioner" who works at a local hospital and responsible for making the hospital's website

• alan B ho - who wore this threadless tee i almost bought for myself! an early bird of twestival and likes his funky professor at CMU :P thanks again for car pooling us girls & giving me a lift home :P

• dr winnie tang on GIS & kenny chien on a business model for QR codes... lots to think about

• outblaze employees - amazed by my knowledge of their company history and what they do XD

• douglas white of Prosperity Research, the guy behind the langham video... a chat on SEO

• henry oh of hk startups association - so happy for them for securing a HK$100,000 grant for cc/open source-related projects!

• wendy & cliff - thanks for coming to barcamp upon my recommendation :D hope you guys enjoyed

• quite a few never heard of cc - felt good sharing some of my cc stories

.

more pics! my full set is on flickr - mouseover to see descriptions:

best part of the day was actually the dinner - not sure how i got mixed with this circle of apple crazy fans >_<

twestival - went for a while... happy to have finally met caphun of yelotofu in person!

overall a very fruitful day!!! thanks to the barcamp organizers belle, napoleon, ben and henry!!! edit: and aaron too!!!

some suggestions for next year:

• please bring back the tee-throwing >_< the one who almost got killed last year was me, but i wasn't killed :) it was fun! it's a great way to wake people up at 10am on a saturday morning!

• things i also miss from the previous years: naming rooms as dim sums, and using a "dong dong" bell to say time's up :) these things may seem trivial but they're very Chinese, very local

• is it possible for sessions to start 30min earlier (at 10:30am)? tee-throwing may start at 9:45am.  this way we can at least fit in one more time slot!

• what about a best costume award??? hahahahha. should let people vote!!!

thanks again and looking forward to seeing all of you at barcamphk 2010!!!!!

finally a chance to hear them sing live today at the cattle village!

背靠祖國　面向世界　We wanna make a change
其實我 c-o-m-p-l-a-i-n　我哋嚟做d咩　嚟唱歌
愛你至鬧你　愛你至話你　We wanna make a change
其實我 c-o-m-p-l-a-i-n　我哋嚟做d咩　嚟唱歌哦～

• listen for yourself!
  http://peppeppep.org/audio/rehearsal_record_0613.mp3

• video! and a photo of me...by david:
  http://daveinstock.com/2009/08/blog-post.html

• complaints choir of hong kong:
  http://hkcomplaintschoir.blogspot.com

• complaints choirs around the world:
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=duoV0egI_ww

“近年社會上大唱和諧論，有人將投訴打成了擾亂主旋律的雜音，打亂經濟發展進程的行為。這些人認為自己知道甚麼是當務之急，而投訴者則發表著沒有必要討論的問題和沒有效的動議，亦象徵著對發出投訴的群體的不信任。投訴合唱團在這個對投訴不信任的社會環境中，重提投訴本身對社會的信任。很明顯，我們正和他們唱著反調。” -- 解讀 "Believe in Social Order"

they let me decide in 24 hours...what they didn't know was, i had already decided to go the moment i was given the opportunity.

yes, the mission will be handing out laptops to the children of Bhutan.  it's an awesome thing to do but there's more to that.  i'll get the chance to see for myself whether it's true that they say, that the people there see through "the bitter and the sweet of temporary things".

---

追求是美好的，生命卻是自己的。

「也許你的夢土沒有想像中來得遠。」

於是趕路的人開始禱告不要有車子經過，一心想要遊遍四海的人想要落腳定居，織布的女人則希望這匹布一輩子也織不完。

~ from Travellers & Magicians (旅行者與魔術師), the first movie shot in Bhutan.

running android cupcake on my HTC Hero - the first phone i ever bought!

people ask why i didn't get an iphone....all i can say is, i'm not an apple person, i need a phone that i can freely play with and modify, so android is all for me! not to mention that the Sense UI is by far the best implementation of android yet! with support for widgets and flash and what not! also has a teflon coating which feels and looks like a white thermal tile out of NASA's shuttle! haha played around with it for 3 days and i'm still in awe :-)

when i went to buy a screen protector for the Hero, when i showed them my phone they're like, "WHAT PHONE IS THAT?" XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

thanks to dave i got the phone before it's even for sale in Hong Kong =D

hungry for more pics?
http://flic.kr/laihiu/sets/72157621976446710

「每次旅行我都感覺很真實。這是我跟你的分別！」nat 說。

但...

要是你去到一個面積比自己的家還要小的火車站
要是你遇上那個可愛的 pension 老板
那個默默地在車站等你出現的老板
雖然他只懂日語，但他的眼神告訴你
他明白你們來的原因
他明白你們為甚麼選上他的 pension
於是你忘了那天的疲累
你跳上了他的 van
然後那些"背包論壇"上人家說的一幕一幕呈現
老板在漆黑中在雪山上把車子拐了又拐
最後拐上了一個不知名的小山丘
那兒佇立著一間微微亮著的小木屋
那便是老板的心血
他的 pension jacatra
熱愛攝影的人都不會放過的 pension jacatra!

pension 的旁邊還有兩間更小的 cottages
你們被安排住進其中一間
裡面暖氣電視機花灑浴缸廁所等等一應俱全
每一個小擺設都感受到老板的心思
窗外雖然一片黑
但你清楚知道，明天一早
便會全都變成白
要是真的這樣
你能不興奮嗎 ? XD

那晚你們吃了一頓很豐富的日式牛肉 BBQ
還有 bento box 及 asahi beer
你很奇怪為什麼這麼好吃
差點忘了老板以前是一名酒店廚師！

於是你不好意思的
請一位坐在鄰桌的日本人替你們拍了一張合照
後來你發現
他並不是普通人！
他將會是你們明天美瑛攝影之旅的關鍵人物......

(待續)

他 或 許 只 是 那 個 你 喜 歡 他 他 喜 歡 你 你 想 待 他 好 他 想 待 你 好

就 算 你 們 有 幾 不 同 你 們 也 願 意 繼 續 相 處 的 人 。

~ R. Ho

. . .

my new flickr url!
http://flic.kr/laihiu

. .

"you can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

abraham lincoln

就這樣
過了廿年

無論世界怎變
我答應你那一點
不會變

更多:

• 六四前夕：絕食同學 & 黃皮膚人 pics
• 六四廿年：晚會 pics
• 過去有關六四的 posts

永遠站在「雞蛋」的那方 (村上春樹)

original in English: The Novelist in Wartime by Haruki Murakami

今天，我不打算說謊。

今天我以一名小說家的身分來到耶路撒冷。而小說家，正是所謂的職業謊言製造者。當然，不只小說家會說謊。眾所周知，政治人物也會說謊。外交官、將軍、二手車 業務員、屠夫和建築師亦不例外。但是小說家的謊言和其他人不同。沒有人會責怪小說家說謊不道德。相反地，小說家愈努力說謊，把謊言說得愈大愈好，大眾和評 論家反而愈讚賞他。為什麼？我的答案是：藉由高超的謊言，也就是創作出幾可亂真的小說情節，小說家才能將真相帶到新的地方，也才能賦予它新的光輝。

在大多數的情況下，我們幾乎無法掌握真相，也無法精準的描繪真相。因此，必須把真相從藏匿處挖掘出來，轉化到另一個虛構的時空，用虛構的形式來表達。 但是在此之前，我們必須先清楚知道，真相就在我們心中的某處。這是小說家編造好謊言的必要條件。

今天，我不打算說謊。我會盡可能地誠實。我在一年之中只有幾天不會說謊，今天剛好就是其中之一。 請容我告訴你們真相。在日本，許多人建議我不要來這裡接受耶路撒冷文學獎。甚至有人警告我，如果我堅持前來，他們會聯合抵制我的小說。主要的原因，當然是 迦薩正在發生的激烈戰鬥。根據聯合國調查，在被封鎖的迦薩城內，已經有超過千人喪生，許多人是手無寸鐵的平民、孩童和老人。

我收到獲獎通 知後，不斷問自己：此時到耶路撒冷接受文學獎，是否正確？這會不會讓人認為我支持衝突中的某一方，或認為我支持一個發動壓倒性武力攻擊的國家政策？老實 說，我也不想看到自己的書被抵制。經過反覆思考，我還是決定來到這裡。原因之一是，太多人反對我來。我和許多小說家一樣，總是要做人們反對的事情。如果有 人對我說，尤其是警告我說，「不要去」、「不要這麼做」，我通常反而會特別想去、特別想做。這就是小說家的天性。小說家是特別的族群，除非親眼所見，親手 觸摸，否則他們不會相信任何事情。

我來到這裡，我選擇親身面對而非置身事外；我選擇親眼目睹而非矇蔽雙眼；我選擇開口說話，而非沉默不 語。但是這不代表我要發表任何政治訊息。判斷對錯，當然是小說家的重要責任，但如何傳遞判斷，每個作家有不同的選擇。我個人偏好用故事、尤其用超現實的故 事來表達。因此，我今天不會在你們面前發表任何直接的政治訊息。

不過，請容我在這裡向你們傳達一個非常私人的訊息。這是我創作時永遠牢記在心的話語。我從未將這句話真正行諸文字或貼在牆壁，而是刻劃在我心靈深處的牆上。這句話是這樣的：「以卵擊石，在高大堅硬的牆和雞蛋之間，我永遠站在雞蛋那方。」 無論高牆是多麼正確，雞蛋是多麼地錯誤，我永遠站在雞蛋這邊。

誰是誰非，自有他人、時間、歷史來定論。但若小說家無論何種原因，寫出站在高牆這方的作品，這作品豈有任何價值可言？這代表什麼意思呢？轟炸機、戰車、火箭 和白磷彈就是那堵高牆；而被它們壓碎、燒焦和射殺的平民則是雞蛋。這是這個比喻的其中一層涵義。更深一層的看，我們每個人，也或多或少都是一枚雞蛋。我們 都是獨一無二，裝在脆弱外殼中的靈魂。你我也或多或少，都必須面對一堵名為「體制」的高牆。體制照理應該保護我們，但有時它卻殘殺我們，或迫使我們冷酷、有效率、系統化地殘殺別人。是我們創造了體制。我寫小說只有一個原因，就是給予每個靈魂尊嚴，讓它們得以沐浴在陽光之下。故事的目的在於提醒世人，在於檢視體制，避免它馴化我們的靈魂、剝奪靈魂的意義。

我深信小說家的職責就是透過創作故事，關於生死、愛情、讓人感動落淚、恐懼顫抖或開懷大笑的故事，讓人們意識到每個靈魂的獨一無二和不可取代。這就是我們為何日復一日，如此嚴肅編織小說的原因。

我九十歲的父親去年過世。他是位退休老師和兼職的和尚。當他在京都的研究所念書時，被強制徵召到中國打仗。 身為戰後出生的小孩，我很好奇為何他每天早餐前，都在家中佛壇非常虔誠地祈禱。有一次我問他原因，他說他是在為所有死於戰爭的人們祈禱，無論是戰友或敵 人。 看著他跪在佛壇前的背影，我似乎感受到周遭環繞著死亡的陰影。 我父親過世了，帶走那些我永遠無法盡知的記憶。但環繞他周遭那些死亡的陰影卻留在我的記憶中。這是我從他身上繼承的少數東西之一，卻也是最重要的東西之 一。

今天，我只希望能向你們傳達一個訊息。我們都是人類，超越國籍、種族和宗教，我們都只是一枚面對體制高牆的脆弱雞蛋。 無論怎麼看，我們都毫無勝算。牆實在是太高、太堅硬，也太過冷酷了。 戰勝它的唯一可能，只來自於我們全心相信每個靈魂都是獨一無二的，只來自於我們全心相信靈魂彼此融合，所能產生的溫暖。

請花些時間思考這點：我們每個人都擁有獨特而活生生的靈魂，體制卻沒有。 我們不能允許體制剝削我們，我們不能允許體制自行其道。 體制並未創造我們：是我們創造了體制。 這就是我想對你們說的。

我很感謝能夠獲得耶路撒冷文學獎。我很感謝世界各地有那麼多的讀者。我很高興有機會向各位發表演說。

if you're like me

if you've been blogging back in 2000

if you know the pain of using blogger.com

the web publisher made by evhead before he invented twitter

if you know what greymatter is or who noah grey was

(matt said it was noah who got him into photography!)

(and matt's the creator of wordpress, the guy above)

if you went through sleepless nights

just to hack your way into greymatter's cgi madness

finally finding a way to make it work with rss

but one day

you woke up and finally decided that it's time for a change

it's time for something big

so you took a deep breath

and did the 5-min install

and BOOM!!!

you fell in love with wordpress 1.5

you fell so hard

that you made your own theme

and wrote a plugin for wp 1.5 that nobody uses anymore

(but at least it gave me lots of page hits!)

and if you're like me

you're a plugin whore

you installed 100 plugins and activated 33

"who's that girl?!"

yes matt, that's me

the one who had the most plugins @ wordcamp hong kong

who never thought this would win her a special wordpress sweatshirt :)

did i also mention that my red wordpress tee was a gift from belle?

but even if you don't have 33 plugins

don't have a red tee

don't have nothing

consider yourself lucky

because you were there

in a giant egg on a sunday morning

you attended the first wordcamp in hong kong

you had a chance to meet the matt mullenweg

and you know your blog is better

because it's run on wordpress

whichever version it is

and you love it :)

hello matt, we love you :) but we love wordpress better!!! (dave on the left, who came because i told him to, won the coolest photo of the day award and won 2 tickets to Cirque du soleil!!!! dave you know what to do!)

wendy & me with the wordpress banner designed by jay :)
guess what, matt said he likes wendy's choker and called himself a "fashion person"!!!

this very well explains why i have 33 wordpress plugins =)

wendy, dave and me the plugin girl with our wordpress logo tattoos!

my vaio with a letter "W"! haha...there were loads of wordpress schwags...tattoos, badges, stickers, pencils, hopefully enough for everyone.  matt on bottom right.

twittering with my vaio while matt was speaking ;)

slides from matt's speech, "State of the Word"!

photos from dawvon & LEMONеd