Diane's Blog
http://blog.dianeyu.com
Diane's Blog

Steve Wolkoff - A friend sorely missed and will be forever remembered

It was 8:45am Sunday morning, as I was pulling my car out of the drive way, Doug's ID flashed on my cellphone, I picked up the phone and puzzled because Doug doesn't call me on a Sunday morning. "Hello?", Doug's voice was on the phone, "Did I wake you up? I am sorry that I have a very bad news." For a second I thought there was a problem with production or we run into trouble with a customer...Then Doug continued: "Steve died in a car accident on highway 1 last night..." My mind went completely blank...I repeatedly yelled to the phone with disbelief: "Steve?! You meant the Steve Wolkoff?! Steve?!"...

24 hours later, I am still shocked and speechless, trying to avoid any topic related to Steve, couldn't hold on to read any email related to him, refusing to admit that I won't see him tomorrow, with his trademark grin — as how Mike puts it.

I have known Steve since he was in GTS at DoubleClick, then getting to know him more when he started on DART Motif, and finally,
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The Girl With Many Talents - Melissa

I took FreeWheel NY team out for a lunch my first day at our new NYC office, when I asked: hey, where do you guys want to go? Everybody smiled and said: ASK MELISSA! Melissa, referred as "'the party coordinator" by Mike, took us to BLT fish. BLT fish is one popular restaurant, she got us a table by moving others around, no idea how she did that! Just like Mike says, Melissa knows how to get what she wants...The lobster salad I had was just amazing. Great choice!

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Airports Just Like Second Home

Alright, seeing Doug’s has developed a habit of sending out company-wide updates on the back seats of airplanes, I am going to try to develop a habit of blogging at the airport :-)

For frequent travelers, airport is like the second home. I am not a frequent traveler by any standard comparing to our rock star sales force (small, although, effective, oh, I should say extremely effective :-D), however, over years, I have got to know airports pretty well. Especially when you are stuck at the airport, waiting for your never departing flight, you get to know every corner of the airport. Just like where I am right now, at San Francisco airport, sitting at the gate area for four hours, after completing my manicure and pedicure, two visits to the book store, and anything else that I can think of doing. The flight is still nowhere in the sight, the lonely announcement board just showed yet another 2 hours delay for the flight I am waiting for…This flight is going to turn into a red eye, if I am ever going to arrive my destination — NYC.

I have learned to be patient, after getting used ...

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FreeWheel Outing

We arranged an engineering outing at the end of May, FreeWheel Beijing team and visitors from NYC went on a field trip to MuLan Paddock, a royal family hunting ground during Qing dynasty. Since it is on the Mongolian high plains, it is still pretty cold when summer has long arrived in cities. There was light snowing when we arrived the night before. 

On a hill at MuLan Paddock (木兰围场)   
  
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A Memorable Day for FreeWheel

Today is a memorable day for FreeWheel, we have just reached a BIG milestone in getting customers!

I am posting some exciting quotes here to share our excitement with everybody passing by:  

Quote - Amazing accomplishment!! - End Quote.
Quote - This is an amazing company - the model, the customers, and most importantly, the people. Fire it up!!!!! - End Quote.
Quote - Colossal - End Quote.
Quote - I am so lucky to work in this company with great people and powerful business. - End Quote.

On top of this, there is another amazing event just happened: Di got married!!! Congratulations, Di!

So I decided, impromptu, ordering a white cake to celebrate this moment, I have asked the cake to be pure white in memory of this special FreeWheel moment during this special time. It turned out to be amazingly beautiful. Many many thanks to Andrea and Taoran!

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Nation paused in mourning

May 19th, 2:28pm, exactly one week after China’s largest disaster in generation, WenChuan region earthquake in SiChuan province, the nation paused in mourning.

For 3 minutes, everything stopped, traffic stopped, I felt the time stopped too. People got out of cars, out of offices, standing still bowed for those lives lost in the quake. Sirens, horns of cars and buses, lingering over the entire nation, expressing our mourning along with tears in eyes.

Shen called in the morning, wanted to donate more. So I did it again, under his name. Sometime I feel that I am selfish, trying to buy moments of peace…When I know regardless what we do, it is nothing in comparison to what people in WenChuan suffered…

FreeWheel Beijing office participated the national mourning as well, YingNan took some pictures, I am attaching here.  

Picture taken outside of FullLink plaza in the morning, the red banner reads: Love China, Beijing, Be strong!

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SiChuan Earthquake Relief Contribution

May 12, 2008 is a sad day, where as everybody in Beijing felt and was shocked by the tremor, people in SiChuan and surrounding regions suffered badly, the death toll has reached 12,000 and it is expected to rise...the last disaster in similar scale that I remembered was the TangShan earthquake when I was three years old...hundreds of thousands of lifes were lost overnight at that time...Sadly we are not yet capable of preventing such disaster from happening...However, there IS something we can do to help...Please land your hand to people in Sichuan, to those in need.

Via Am-Cham China, where FreeWheel is an active member, we received following information about how to make donations to charities specialized in helping this. I am posting here for everybody who reaches my blog and wants to help... 

The list of the organizations taking donation:
http://www.amcham-china.org.cn/amcham/show/news.php?Id=649
 
The following is provided by AmCham China:


Through a partnership to increase private sector involvement in disaster preparedness in China, The Asia Foundation, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA — the government agency responsible for disaster relief), and AmCham have been working together for over a year. As well, AmCham has a close relationship with the ...

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Advanced Rails - Translation Completed by FreeWheel UI Team

Have been really busy recently, forgot to update my blog...I just realized that I have received soo many supportive comments recently, wishing us successful at FreeWheel. Thank your for your earnest support, we will work hard to make sure you won't be disappointed! :-)

I received a note from hideto last night, announcing the FreeWheel UI team has completed the Chinese translation of "Advanced Rails" by Brad Ediger. Amazing...It has only been a few months since Kevin told me that UI team was going to participate a ROR related technical book translation (see my previous post), now they have done it, using their personal time while maintaining the same heavy development schedule. Hideto posted preface of the book by the translators, FreeWheel UI team, on his blog. I am sharing a snippet here.

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令人欣慰的是,Brad Ediger携O'Reilly为我们带来了《Advanced Rails》。对,就是您手上的这本书!
 

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FreeWheel California Office

Doug sent beautiful FreeWheel California office pictures to add more colors to my blog, after seeing my Beijing office posts.  

The beautiful open space

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FreeWheel Beijing Office Extension

Grow and grow quickly! I am very happy to announce that we just doubled the size of the current Beijing office. We are very lucky to get a room next door: FullLink Plaza, Suite 501. It is now almost fully built out, Kevin's team will move to the new office! I took a few pictures before they move in. 

The reception desk and the new FreeWheel logo. 

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