Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! :)

In Taiwan the Christmas day is already passed but in some other countries Christmas is still not passed yet, so I think it's still OK to say Merry Christmas now. Wish you all have a great Christmas time today.

Some status updates for the Christmas party of Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan. Well, not too many people came to the party (about 1/4 people of both companies) and the live band did not come as expected, but we still have lots of fun and joy in the party! I and other Ulead/IVI EWC members had prepared 12 extra gifts for the people who joined the party, and the 2 biggest gifts (Play Station 2 gaming boxes) were all been given to Uleaders: Quality Assurance Engineer, Patty Dai, and the Senior Financial Manager, Julia. Let us congratulate them to be the winners!

For the pictures of the Christmas party, you can check the pictures photoed by my colleagues.

Photo by Legis Lu:
http://www.cmlab.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~legis/Photos/Ulead/20051221-Party/

Photo by Taur Su:
http://www.tomsun.org/thumbnails.php?album=19305

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, today is my birthday. I and Rebecca did not go for travelling as planned because she has to deliver 2 Beta cam tapes for her company, GOOD TV, to the broadcasting company. If she cannot deliver the tapes on time, some TV programs in the evening will have problems. So, by Rebecca's request, I decide to go with her and spend some time to visit the food market in downtown after her delivered the tapes. Well, I think the foods are delicious, but they are a little expensive. But why care about the price? It's my birthday!

GOODTV is a Christian satellite TV station in Taiwan, and also is the only Chinese Christian satellite TV station in the world (at the present time). Now it's been located at channel 15 in Taiwan and has an Internet broadcasting site. Rebecca already works for this company for more than 6 years now. If you can understand Chinese, you can go to http://www.goodtv.tv to know more information about this TV station.

Last night I and Rebecca went to Jedidiah's church for the Christmas Eve activity. We had heard 2 stories about how the lives to be changed by Jesus. Rebecca is been moved by the first story. Well, I think God is really good for He always watches us and never sleeps, and we are been protected by Him and his angels. I think maybe it's God telling me that I should be strong and keep faith on Him. I do believe it is.

All right, I think it's time for me to go to bed now. (It's 4:00am here in Taiwan) See you next time.

Christmas Party for Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan

We are going to have a Christmas party for Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan at Dec. 21, 2005. This would be the first big employee event for both Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan. We plan to have a gift exchange activity in the party, so I need to go to the shopping mall tomorrow for the gifts. I would not only buy the gift for myself, but also buy the gifts for both companies with my colleagues because I'm a member of Ulead Employee Welfare Committee. But we still not know what to buy now. Should we buy Sony PS2, or should we buy Apple iPod Shuffle? Or any other gifts? Maybe we can only decide when we get to the shopping mall tomorrow.

BTW, Christmas is coming, and it's also my birthday (I was born at Dec. 25, 1974). My wife Rebecca thinks we should go for travel again in Dec. 24 to Dec. 25 for celebrating, maybe I should think about it.

I just come back from the church group gathering with Rebecca. Tonight we are celebrating Christmas in advance. Everyone is having lots of fun and joy. I think it would be a great blessing from God for me today, especially after I have some sad things happen in the afternoon. I think I should thank God for this.

No matter what happens, we still need to live our lifes with joy, because God is with us and He is always watching us, isn't He?

Thanks, to my lovely God.

Good night, and may God bless you guys, in this Christmas season.

Will be visited by IT Home Weekly reporter

Tomorrow afternoon I will be visited by a reporter of Taiwanese magazine, IT Home Weekly, for a column about the life of a IT person. The reporter wishes to ask me about some questions like: why do you get into the IT industry? How do you feel about the programming life? Any leisure time hobbies? What do you plan to do in the future? And bluh bluh bluh....Have you guys ever been visited by a reporter before? I never have. I only have a experience to meet a editor from a Chinese magazine "Programmer" on MSN messenger to discuss about the differences of the developer life in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. (The editor made the discussion as 2 column articles) Now I'm a little nervous about this. I feel a little uncomfortable because I'm not used to expose myself to the media and the public.

You may want to ask me why I feel uncomfortable about this, since I already have several blogs on the net to tell people what I think and what I do. Well, I think there are some differences. Although I have several blogs available, not many people are reading them so I can feel free to write what I think. And, I can control what to write and what not to write on my blogs. But if someone come to visit you and write something about you on the media, it would be a little different. (Sometimes it would be a big difference) Anyone who read the column article will know you immediately. And you cannot control what the reporter writes about you.

So, why do I still wish to get visited by the reporter? Well, I don 't know. Maybe to get famous is one of my desires. (But it's possible I might still be no-one after the column article is been published).

The reporter said he will contact me again today. Well, let's wait and see what he wants from me. :)

Update: the article on me now is been published in Chinese, read it if you want to know me more.

I will be off for traveling in Peng-Hu

I will fly to Peng-Hu County of Taiwan with my wife Rebecca for sight-seeing trip from 10/06 to 10/08. If you are interested in Peng-Hu, you can check the following websites.

Peng-Hu County Government: http://www.penghu.gov.tw
Peng-Hu County Government Tourism: http://tour.penghu.gov.tw
Peng-Hu National Scenic Area: http://www.penghu-nsa.gov.tw

I was born in Taiwan and I think it is really a good country. To know Taiwan more, you can check the following websites.

Naruwan - Welcome to Taiwan!: http://www.taiwan.net.tw
Wikipedia - Taiwan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan

Our traveling plan is as the plan C listed in http://penghu.phhg.gov.tw/tourism/English/6tourplan/3_c.htm.

It's been a long time I have not went for a travel with my wife, so we are a little excited about this trip. Just wish it can be a good experience.

Gonna sleep now, we have a plane to catch in 1:30 pm. See you guys at Saturday night. :)

The day Ulead HQ moved to the new building

(Click on the picture for large size)

Due to the purchase offer from InterVideo Inc. on March, Ulead has some changes inside in these months. One of the biggest changes is that Ulead HQ moved to an new building on July (but the new building is not too far from the old one, maybe 500 meters I think).

This picture was taken before the old Ulead HQ building. Most people in this picture are still in Ulead, but Becky, the first girl on the left, just left Ulead on Sept. 30th.

All people in this picture are RD engineers, however not from the same division.

After 5 years passed, I think Ulead is a good company to work in. Uleaders are very friendly and easy-going, but they also work very hard to deliver the Class A Products. (Any Uleaders still remember what "Class A Product" means and what "Work Hard, Work Smart" is?) I really like these colleagues and maybe it's the reason I still stay in Ulead.

The culture in Ulead now is changing (maybe more InterVideo style), I just pray it can be better.

And I believe it will. :)

Hello world!!

Hi, I'm Hsiang-Tai Chien who work in Ulead Systems, Inc. and I work for Ulead as a senior software engineer in the data burning team of DVD RD Division. I have several Chinese blogs already but I think it would be nice to start my English blog here. Not knowing how many people around the world will read my blog, but I will post something about what I see and what I think in my life here.

I joined Ulead since 2000/9/27, and I was one of the engineers of Ulead COOL 3D 3.5 and Ulead COOL 3D Production Studio 1.0 (for 3D render engine and DirectX/3D Studio file import/export). After Ulead COOL 3D Production Studio 1.0 was released at 2002/11/15, I was transferred to the Data Burning Team of Ulead and help to develop the data/audio burning product, Ulead Burn.Now (for audio burning and audio file processing), till now. Tomorrow it will be my 5th anniversary of the day I work in Ulead. Maybe it's a good time to start this blog to celebrate. :) However, my English ability might be a little poor and I will try my best to express my words well, so if you guys cannot understand my English, please forgive me.

OK, that's it. Hello world!! :)