Merry Christmas!

It's the Christmas season again. :) As a Christian and a person who was born in December 25, I always like Christmas a lot. This year there will be something different, but it's still not the time to tell why. Maybe a few days later I will let you guys know why it's a little different.

Last Christmas I helped to hold the Christmas party in InterVideo Ulead because I was a member of Ulead Employee Welfare Committee. This year we will not have a party for the Christmas in InterVideo Ulead, but we do have a party for joining the Corel family. As some of you already know, Corel had completed the acquisition for InterVideo Ulead in December 12. On that day, some Corel management people came to Taipei and met us in the employee meeting to announce the acquisition. And after the meeting we had a cocktail party to celebrate the event. If you wish to know how it goes, you can check the party photos in my flickr album.

I took some pictures of Corel people in the party. For example, this one:
This is the CEO of Corel Corporation, David Dobson. I think I like him, and he is much more handsome than what you see on the picture. Will he take Corel InterVideo Ulead to another higher stage? Maybe, we will see.

And I photoed another Ulead people here:
This is Tobias Openshaw. Most of time we call him Tobie. He is the editing manager in the Strategic Marketing Division of Ulead and was the product marketing manager for Ulead's video product line. He is also the photographer to take photos in the parties in InterVideo Ulead. He is very active in film editing and helped Ulead on the promotion for VideoStudio / MediaStudio Pro a lot. Before joining Ulead he was an armorer for some independent film in USA. You can see his filmography on IMDB as well.

He is a really nice person, and I like his pose here when I was trying to take a photo of him. :)

We enjoyed the cocktail party for a while, and that reminds me about the past life I had with Ulead. Well, it's not bad, isn't it?

Tomorrow I will join the Christmas activities in the church, maybe I will come back and share the feeling I have in the church.

It's a little late here in Taiwan. I think it's time for me to go to bed. Merry Christmas to you all, and may Gold bless you.

Related articles:

• 2006/12/12: Corel Completes InterVideo Acquisition
• 2005/12/18: Christmas Party for Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan
• 2005/12/26: Status updates for the Christmas party of Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan

Taipei chosen to host Wikimania 2007

After weeks preparing the Wikimania City Bidding Contest, the jury had announced that Taipei is been chosen to host Wikimania 2007 in September 25 (Monday). As a Wikipedian and a member of the Taipei bidding team, I'm very happy with the result. But we did not happy for too long because we have realized that now there are more responsibilities to be put on us (mostly the pressure is from ourselves). Now it's not just a bid or contest, it's a real thing to host a international conference. I think we need more blessings and wisdom for the preparation of Wikimania 2007.

Last Thursday night I made the bidding banner by using the newly announced Ulead PhotoImpact 12. Well, it's not difficult to make it. Just a little editing and then the bidding banner is done. Nice looking and sweet. :) I've been used to use Ulead products to make my life to have more fun (and sometimes to do some serious things). Now I'm considering to make some video for Wikimania by using MediaStudio. BTW, the most difficult thing is not how you use the tool. Most of the time it's how you can get the idea to edit the video. And now I would definitely need some idea to make that video. Fortunately I still have 11 months for the video so I can take my time for the idea. :)

I know some people in other bidding team do not like the decision the jury had made. But take it seriously, if the jury chose your city to host Wikimania, we people in the other end of the earth will also have the issues that you have. BTW, I think maybe those people do not understand this because sometimes people just cannot see things in a much neutral point...

All I can say is that we Taipei team will try our best for Wikimania 2007 and we are looking forward that you can join us together to work on Wikimania in Taipei. At least, we are all sharing the same vision of Wikimedia Foundation and we share our knowledge to benefit the human beings via Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia.

People who work on non-profit Wikimedia projects are volunteers and devote themselves to share knowledge in their leisure time. It does not conflict with my job in Ulead, if you have doubts on that. :)

Viva Taipei!! Go for it!!

Think Different, Do Smarter, Work for Joy

Today I decided to change the name of this blog. Something is changing but I think if you care about Ulead then you will know what is going to happen soon.

These days I was thinking about redesigning my blog, not just the style but also the content. I have some plans to do but I'm a little busy now. However, I will try to write regularly here.

Some old Uleaders might still remember the working attitude "Work Hard, Work Smart" from the founder, Way-Zen Chen. But now I have my own working attitude as "Think Different, Do Smarter, Work for Joy", and I think the most important part should be "Work for Joy". Without joy, work would be just boring. I think I'm lucky because I still have joys in my work. And I wish you readers would also have joys in your works.

Since my last post, Ulead had released the 1st official service pack for MediaStudio Pro 8. If you are interested, go ahead and try it.

FIFA World Cup Germany now is going on and will have its final winner in a few days. I did not notice this soccer game until I watched Italian versus Australia. Now I'm crazy about this game. I'm sorry to know that Germany just lose the semi-final and got the 3rd position. I'm sorry not just because we have a subsidiary in Germany but also I voted for Germany as the winner of FIFA WCG in the "Guess the Winner" game in Taiwan (that means now I lose a chance to win a Sony VAIO. What a pity). Now the Portugal vs France semi-final is going on and I wish the Portugal team could win because they have a good and interesting coach, but who knows? I might be wrong again. Anyway, in a few hours we will know who is the one to compete with the Italian team in the final game.

Few hours later it would be a big day to Ulead, just wish everything can go well.

Oh yes, several days ago, Eric Chen, the product marketing manager of DVD MovieFactory, have discussed with me about the possibilities to hold some activities on my blog to send out some free copies of DVD MovieFactory 5, the first consumer HD/BD authoring software. If you wish to know the details then you can keep an eye on my blog.

And, the author of a great book, Getting Results with MediaStudio Pro 8.0, now is cutting the price of the book down to clear his stock. I think the price is affordable to someone who wants to try video editing. It's not only useful for MSP users, but also useful for video-graphers because it covered most topics on video editing from beginners to professionals and has some excellent tutorials for readers. If you wish to know video editing, I think this book is a must buy.

Wish you all have a nice day, and so does Ulead.

Something New in Ulead Today - DVD MovieFactory, VideoStudio and MediaStudio Pro

Today I just got the box of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 from Eric Chen, the Product Marketing Manager of DVDMF. I know some people wish to see the box version of DVDMF5 in these days, so I will put some pictures here.

The front side of the boxThe back side of the box
The Blu-ray notice and the tech support card
The user manual
According to Eric, Blu-ray is still supported in this version. However, at this time it can only offer to burn a Blu-ray data disk because the Blu-ray spec for video is not finalized yet. I think it's no doubt that DVDMF 5 is still the first consumer software that offers both Blu-ray and HD DVD burning. When the Blu-ray video spec is been finalized, I believe Ulead will release the Blu-ray video burning pack ASAP.

Paper to introduce digital media and Ulead products
The installation disk

This box is a small size one for selling in Costco and some shopping malls. For selling DVDMF 5 in computer stores there will be a regular size for the box. Soon you will see the box to be available in the store in U.S. and some other regions.

I had took some pictures of the regular size box of DVDMF 5, but I left them in my office PC so I cannot post now. Maybe I will update them to this post later on Monday.

OK, now for the second news.


After a few days waiting, today Ulead VideoStudio 10 Plus box version is been shipped in U.S. and in European. Now you can put your order to Ulead Mall to buy a box of UVS 10 Plus now. :) If you have any opinions or ideas on this, you can post to Ulead VideoStudio forum.


The 3rd news is, we have released the first Service Pack Preview of Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8 today. You can download the release note for complete information on the features and updates included in the service pack. If any feedbacks or opinions, you are welcomed to post to Ulead MediaStudio Pro forum or send them to the service pack feedback page.

However, this download is only a preview, check the Disclaimer before you install it. The real service pack will be released a few weeks later.

Wish you would enjoy with these new releases.