Kidding. I just had this thought that Banksky sneaked up on me and painted on my t-shirts (if he's in China)...

 

1. Urban Administrator / Chengguan / 城管

2. Rich Second Generation / 富二代

 

 

Why a lot of people prefer performing an "Wiki search" on Google?

1. When you search on Wiki for a term that has multiple entries, it's almost like using Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" on your unlucky day.

2. Since Google has already indexed all Wiki pages, you always get a nice list of highly relevant wiki pages, with your target page appearing as the first result.

3. The search results from Google may even reveal other interesting pages serendipitously.

The above redesign has one group of wiki users in mind: People who indulge themselves in all kinds of media and are over-curious, whose wiki searchs are usually triggered by information received in other forms of media (e.g. watching movie / TV, reading a book / blog). This group of people never stop on the target wiki page, but will always continnue browsing other wiki pages through links embedded.

Lots of our friends fall under this group. How to spot them? They are knowledgable about less-known facts which can be traced back to a more popular media product as its reference. The re-design aims to improve their experience for discovering facts and information around & connected to the target search result.

The key elementes introduced in this redesign are:

1. Removal of "I'm Feeling Lucky" - users will be directed to a result pages

2. Top embedded links (of other wiki pages) & top category that users exit to from the target wiki page will be show alongside with each search result.

3. Mouseover the top links will show a short summary of the page, users can consume a minimal amount of information without opening the page.

 

The second redesign also has the "Over-curious Media Kids" in mind. By using "Intonow"'s technology, users can easily locate the relevant wiki pages of the shows / movies they are watching. When users continue to getting absorbed in information discovery and moving further away from the target page, they can "like" the pages they are currently browsing to help other discover interesting information.

 

The magic pill, NZT, is an experimental drug taken by the main character (Eddie) in the action thriller, "Limitless". The movie is about the series of fortunate and unfortunate events following Eddie's encounter with the pill.

We all heard the myth that large part of our brains remain unused. What the pill does is to allow its users to fully exploit all faculties of our brains. So after Eddie took the pill, his intellectual power was tremendously expanded. He was able to finish a novel in 4 days, learn a new language effortlessly, acquire new knowledge 100 times faster than Einstein could, and even become an god-like invincible stock trader.

There's always a catch, of course. The intellectual enhancement is only temporary. When NZT wore off, users would revert back to their dumber forms. Things can get ugly when a user stopped taking the pills, the withdrawal could cause severe damages to both the brain and the rest of the body, leading to death (or brain death).

The ending is most intriguing. After some extraordinary events, we see Eddie was now running for president of United States. His former boss, a relentless multi-billionaire, Warren Buffett kind of guy (only eviler), revealed to Eddie that the lab that made NZT was bought out by him. He threatened to cut Eddie off from the only supply of NZT, unless Eddie did him some dirty favors after getting elected to be the president.

That didn't scare Eddie at all. He claimed that he had the drug perfected, fixing all the defects and side effects. With Eddie's super intelligence, we can be rest assured that there was nothing impossible for him, including the creation of a more powerful "Smart Pill" that allows him to make an even more powerful "Smart Pill". Infinite intelligence? Maybe, like a "Big Bang" of intelligence. (I'm a strong believe in this happening one day, with or without drug.)

And why he wanted to be the president? Doing good? Got nothing better to do? Run the world the right way (my way)? Just hope that Eddie won't say to us what he said to his old boss, "you should be glad about me not working for you, because you'll end up as my bitch."

Do you covet Professor Xavier's power to tap into other people's minds? It may not be as physically damaging or visually impressive as an energy blast, but having exclusive private information can be extremely powerful too, just like the movie shows us. Breaking into the enemy's mind to see his next move, you can preempt a lethal blow. For more leisure use, you can better assess your mating opportunities in the nightclub. To be more specific, you probably want to zero in on the girl who also likes to watch "Glee", loves reading "Techcrunch" and lists Korea as their favorite country.

It doesn't sound too futuristic? That's what I thought too when I was using the iPhone app "Sonar". As soon as you connect with Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, it tells you what other Foursquare users are around you. And if they have Facebook and/or Twitter already hooked up with their Foursquare accounts, the app will analyze how well you match with that nearby person, or at minimum shows you who your common friends are. Oh, you can also send that person a tweet saying "Hey pretty, I'm a total stranger, guess where I am, I'm watching you mu-ah".

Using an "Sonar"-equipped iPhone is still not very "Professor X-like". Luckily, as Ray Kurzweil the "Transcendent Man" predicts, we will soon have tiny but super powerful computers embedded into human bodies. Imagine an iPhone with a size of red blood cell inside your body, allowing you to make phone calls (I believe there will be a cooler word for "calls"), search nearby people, And, look up their social profiles, connections, and every information that they happily share with the world. Oh, you can probably leave a message inside their brains, I mean inboxes. Sounds fun…

Like a lot of loving mothers who never treat their kids as grown-ups, the level of care and attention my mom gives his son can be overwhelming (and funny) sometimes...

As for his son, me, my humble origin taught me not to waste anything. What could possibly happen when the love of a mother meets her son's frugal nature? An Economic Bubble Inside our Refrigerator! Let's go back a few months when the fringe started to foam.

Couple months ago, my mom moved to live with me. I love eating fruits, but the single guy hardly refilled his empty fringe until things ran out for excessively long. Fearing that my health could be potentially harmed by the lack of nutritious fruits, my mom started to stock up all kinds of delicious fruits. Amount was still reasonable at the beginning, about a week's supply.

So the fruit lover gobbled them all up before the week's over. My mom reacted very quickly during her grocery shopping, replenishing the fruit drawer with more than a week's supply. Initially, since fruits are perishable, the frugal son ate them all up so that they wouldn't turn bad and get wasted. But the loving mother took it as a sign of insufficient supply... Buying more and more, the bubble must get bursted!

Luckily, all it took to fix it was one proper communication. And unlike other serious economic bubbles, a week was enough for the market (the fruit drawer) to recover (a week's lunches with only fruits helped...). Still, I'm very cautious about showing my preference or telling my mom what I like. I guess it's a natural tendency for parents to spoil their children which prevent them from learning from mistakes. Another bubble may be forming when I am seen drinking too much Red Bull (mom, startup is hard work)...

It's almost trivial compared to what happened 22 years ago, but does epitomize the kind of society it's progressing to become. About a week ago, my colleague told me a shocking story about her sister who worked in China (Shenzhen).

One day when she came home after work, her house was ransacked and turned upside down by burglars. As any normal person would do, she went to the police. Instead of starting an investigation like a responsible law enforcer should, she was immediately reprimanded by the police officer for reporting the crime and was imposed a fine.

Ridiculous? You think I must be joking? It turned out there would be some major events being held in the city (Summer Universiade I suspect), and the local authority is working hard fighting crimes, I mean crime number. Anything that disturbs social harmony and disgraces the city, including the report of crime, in front of our international friends shall be suppressed.

In a nation where its outward appearance and state-prescribed "Harmony" are valued over the most basic right of its people, citizens are encouraged to follow the moral code of Renminbi only, unless you want to land yourself in jail like this poor folk.

This is my entry for the inmode design competition. (And my first interface design!)

We who live in the wealthy part of the world have intimate relationships with our mobile devices. A simple click on "Log In" can take us to the wonderland of the "App" world. Replaced by an equally simple "Swipe", we can bring wonderland to those in needs.

By presenting different causes each day, users are exposed to wide range of issues around the world and have the opportunities to support those they believe in.

The dangling "droplet" and its close distance with the pool symbolize how effortless we could be in giving a helping hand. By creating a feeling of motion, users are also encouraged to to bring the droplet down to the rising pool of water.

 

Unfortunately, the entry was not accepted as it didn't comply with the guideline. Still a good exercise :D