Of course GOHtk bloglah!

Just brought Tony Wheeler’s Bad Lands from the bookshop.

Currently reading…

Tony, the Lonely Planet Publications founder shared his encounters with Bad Lands, so called George Bush’s ‘axis of evil’ (Iran, Iraq and North Korea) and 6 other ‘interesting’ nations such as Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Got Jamling’s book - Touching my father’s soul, which he wrote about his IMAX film Everest expedition with David Breashears in 1996.

Jamling is son of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who first reached the summit with Edmund Hillary in 1953.

This book describes the stories of his father ascent to the vertical end of the world and provides information about the society of the Sherpa, the Tibetan Buddhists who help Westerners climb Himalayan mountains since early 20th century.

He also documented the ill-fated 1996 summer climbing season, where both Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were killed after summiting due to unforeseen storm hit the mountain.

Jon Krakauer, who was travelling with Rob Hall’s team in 1996, described the tragedy in his book, Into Thin Air.

Hence, Jamling’s book is a good cross reference to Jon’s one.

“We look up. For weeks, for months, that is all we have done. Look up. And there it is—the top of Everest. Only it is different now: so near, so close, only a little more than a thousand feet above us. It is no longer just a dream, a high dream in the sky, but a real and solid thing, a thing of rock and snow, that men can climb. We make ready. We will climb it. This time, with God’s help, we will climb on to the end.” —TENZING NORGAY.

First Malaysian Everest expedition in 1997 via the South East Ridge remains clear in my mind. That year, Mohandas Nagappan and Magendran Munisamy successfully scaled the 8848m summit with 5 sherpas on 23rd May, reaching vertical end of the world.

Still remember the excitement I had vividly when watching live telecast and daily reports on the progress of Malaysian team beamed back from Everest Base Camp using satelite transmission, accompanied with ‘Malaysia Boleh’ slogon and KRU’s Everest song composed by Yusry Abdul Halim.

I asked myself… Where is Everest? Who are first to set their foot on the summit of Everest?

Then I found out that it was Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

Tenzing Norgay on the summit, May 29, 1953, during the first ascent with Edmund Hillary

Borrowed Hillary’s View From The Summit.

This is a reasonably interesting autobiography, especially the ascent of Everest.

Inspired by David’s dream - to climb the Everest, I am reading his book. He was the leader of Singapore’s 1st mount Everest Expedition in 1998.

David Lim’s book, Mountain to Climb

I am amazed at his determination to counter the rare and mysterious nerve disorder, Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which he suffered one week after the S’pore mount Everest Expedition team’s triumphant return from Nepal.

Still reading… The seven lessons mentioned by author are:

1. Break the rules
2. Make a better product
3. The world is your labaratory
4. Offer something what user wants
5. Create and share values
6. Recruit and reward talents
7. Make money without doing evil.

Ten things Google has found to be true

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

“Google has infiltrated its way into basic part of today’s world” - Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post, February 22, 2004

Purchased from Popular book at RM39.84 (Selling price in Taiwan NT320). Reading… To understand more about the history and success of Google. Hopefully, book review later.

I guess one of the success recipe of Google is breaking Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).