Trying Adobe Express

It’s quite interesting that Adobe has created a web application for image editing called Adobe Express using Flash and Flex.

Microsoft has launched Silverlight.

I am wondering who will win between Flash/Flex and Silverlight.

Flashover and Backdraft

Have you ever heard of the movie called “Backdraft” starred by Kurt Russel?

I have seen that movie since I was a child. I had no idea that the word “backdraft” has a special meaning.

Fire requires oxygen to burn. Backdraft occurs when there is no oxygen in the room. Combustion is stopped, but the combustible gas and smoke is remained. If the oxygen is introduced, the room could explode. One way to avoid is not to open the door to the starved oxygen room directly. I played the game “Fire Department 3,” and it suggests that we should break a small hall in the door instead of openning it. We don’t want to introduce large amount of air into the room suddenly.

I think that the flashover is similar to backdraft in term of there is fire exploding everywhere in the room.

Heat causes some material to emit flammable gasses. When the temperature is high enough, then these gasses exploded.

The Fire Department 3 game suggests that the firefighter should break the window to let the gas out. As shown in the picture, the firefighter breaks the window from inside the room. I was wondering whether the room would explode first before the firefighter has a chace to break the window.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashover

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft

Konjuntiv II in German

If you want to say something like “If I were you, I would have been there or I would have gone.” This kind of sentence indicates an unreal situation in the past.

In German, this kind of grammar is called Konjunktiv II which can used to indicate an unreal situation in the past.
first sentence : Welches berühmte Person aus der Vergangenheit hättest du gerne getroffen?

and

second sentence : Welches berühmte Person aus der Vergangenheit hattest du gerne getroffen?

These two sentences are very similar. If you notice the word “hättest” in the first sentence and “hattest” in the second sentence, you would see the small difference. This small difference makes the meaning of these two sentences differently. The first sentence is Konjunktiv II. The first sentence means, “which famous person in the past that you would like to meet?,” which indicates an unreal situation in the past. The second sentence means, “which famous person in the past that you have met?”

I would answer the first sentence by saying, “Ich hätte George Washington getroffen” which means, “I would want to visit George Washington.”

I would answer the second sentence by saying, “Ich hatte Mr. John Doe getroffen” which means, “I have met Mr. John Doe.”

Choosing the right source to finance a start-up firm

why VCs (Venture Capitalists) is better than FFF (Friends, family and fool) or perhaps a bank?

FFF is suitable when a firm is in a start-up process. For a bootstrap company (start from a beginning), VCs are not really interestet to invest, because they don’t see anything solid (patent, products, team, etc) except ideas. Entrepreneurs have to find seed money from FFFs. When a firm is grown a little bit, a firm may seek funding from an angel. An angel is a wealthy person. An angel has some knowledge in the industry. An angel may help guiding a firm as well based on the angel’s knowledge. The scale that the angel can invest is smaller than VCs can. Still, there are many ventures get funded by an angel. Later on, a firm may need funding from VCs to grow. Further info on financing by an angel.
VCs are professional investors. VCs often demand a lot of equity in your company. VCs are the most expensive, but they can provide the most value. They know a lot about business. They will serve on the board and make sure that the company is heading in the right direction (in term of making money). They may have a connection in the industry. While FFF or Bank just give you the money, and they can not provide any other value to grow the company.

Bank has its pro and con as well. Bank does not help you to do the business unlike angels and VCs. A bank does not want an equity or ownership in a company. An entrepreneur does not have to share his or her company with someone else. On the other hand, no matter if you are success or not, you still have to pay back to the bank. Banks usually do not lend out to a start-up firm. If an entrepreneur does not put his money in, then VCs do not have a confident to invest.

VCs are usually MBAs. Entrepreneur background is usually technology. One guest speaker points out that MBAs think differently from technologists. MBAs calculate the profit a firm in the future. MBAs would expect a firm to make xxx amount in xxx years period. VCs may invest in 10 firms. Half of them may not work. Just few (3-4) of them are needed to return high profit. From calculation, if the firm will not be able to make that xxx profit, then they may terminate that firm. Even though they would lost the money for sure, but it would give them more time to work on other firms. On the other hand, technologists have a passion in technology. They keep working until it works. To become successful, it may requires the process of keep working and keep working. VCs may stop this process in the middle.

I am just a student, so I do not have any real experience. Knowledge is from the talks (Edinburgh Entrepreneurship club), guest speaker from the course Informatics Entrepreneurship I & II and the book (Technology Venture: Idea to Enterprise).

Engineered wood product

http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/ff_fat06.pdf

Engineer wood product is very popular currently. It is being used in residential areas. Engineered wood product is made from putting many different piece of wood together. Engineered wood product performs good under normal condition; however, it fails when there is a fire. There was a case of a firefighter died because the engineered wood product collapses, and the firefighters fell into the basement.

Cause of death of firefighters

http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/ff_fat06.pdf

I just found out today that there are on average 100 firefighters dead every year (exclude 2001) in USA. In 2001, there are 344 firefighter deaths from the collapse of World Trade Center, so there are approximately 400 something deaths in 2001.

It’s quite sad that the number of death per year is quite high. Another important fact is that cause of death is not only from structure fire (fighting fire in the building). Causes of deaths include driving crash, helicopter crashes for fighting wild fire, training and heart attack after going home. Deaths could occur at the incident scenes or while going/returning from the incident scenes.

I hope that the emergent technology could help save more lives.

My master thesis’s purpose is to study. If it turns out well, the prospect supervisor would make it happen.

If a technology will be used, it must be well tested, and the firefighters must be trained to use it. One thing which I must bear in mind is that deaths could occur while in the training as well, and its cause includes a heart attack. I never imagine that there could be a death during training. Thus, new technology requires a training. Be careful, not to come up with a stressful training at the begining.

Deutsch Lesson (verbs which take Dativ and Akkusativ)

There are some learning curves which is needed to overcome when learning German. One of them is to use the right Dativ or Akkusativ preposition with a verb in German.

Dir is “du” in Dativ form. Dich is “du” in Akkusative form.

Verbs which take Dativ :

Ich gratuliere dir. (I congratulate you)

Ich gratuliere dir zum Geburtstag. (Happy birthday)

Ich bedanke mich bei dir. (I thank you)

Ich schreibe dir. (I write you)

Ich schreibe dir einen Brief. (I write you a letter). – einen Brief is akkusativ.

Ich helfe dir.

Verbs which take Akkusativ :

Ich mag dich. (I like you)

Ich liebe dich. (I love you)

Ich kenne dich. (I know you)

Ich vergesse dich. (I forget you)

Ich sehe dich. (I see you)

Ich höre dich. (I hear you)

Ich errinnere mich an dich. (I remember you).