Outline of the Book

2.0 The real job – computer career at Digital Equipment Corporation

Tseung did not pass the security clearance test. He could not get into the high technology area of airplanes and missiles as a career. His main career turned out to be in computers. That earned him and his family very comfortable living. He had his second child - a daughter while working at Digital Equipment Corporation. He made a name for himself in the computer industry with his innovative work and a very important ‘many-to-many’ patent which influenced the development of the internet.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) Tseung failed to use his primary university training in his lifelong career. Is that a blessing in disguise? Is it a waste of university years for him? I believe every book he read, every game he played, every visit to the library and every International function he attended helped to model him.

(b) In hindsight, Tseung used his university training in both physics and aeronautics after his retirement. In other words, some of his most innovative ideas did not get a chance to develop until some 30 years later. Life is not always a smooth and straight path. We need to equip our students with the best.

(c) Can the Hong Kong or China educational system tolerate such a delay? Should such delay be regarded as the price to pay for innovativeness? The success of one important innovative idea – such as the Lee-Tseung theory – brings more wealth to the human race than the sum of all known wealth in the past.

(d) Some people argue that the fastest way for a developing country is to copy and not to innovate. Is this argument still valid for Hong Kong and China?

2.1 The Job Interview

Tseung went to the Interview at Digital Equipment Corporation. The Manager was very busy and gave Tseung a PDP-8 manual to read. Tseung had 3 hours to digest the book. When the manager came back, Tseung was writing a mini-program using the PDP-8 instructions. The manager had a look at the program and asked Tseung to report to work on the next day. The manager must have been brainwashed by the agency that he was interviewing a genius. It was the start of a 20-year relationship with the Company.

Figure 2-1 Writing a Program at Job Interview

Tseung had the success of scoring full marks at two consecutive IQ tests. He used his job interview to write a computer program for the PDP-8 computer. He had the Instruction Manual for a few hours. The success landed him the job.

Thinking back, Tseung believed that almost any one could score high in the IQ tests if one were to spend the same effort in the University Library. It was dedication, hard work and total focus. The job interview was also luck and hard work. The luck was the brainwashing of the manager by the agency. The hard work was the willingness to write the mini-computer program rather than sitting around and wasting time.

The myth that Tseung was a genius affected Tseung throughout his life. He was given many challenges not normally offered to the average person. He failed many times but he always stood up again. He got invited to closed-door forums with the US Department of Commerce. He got invitation to help in the many US Presidential Elections. He appeared in front of many Hong Kong politicians. He got chances to appear in front of important Chinese Officials even though he could not speak Putonghua. Einstein said that Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. That applied in the life of Tseung.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) I wish my job interviews would go as well. If this book becomes a best seller, I may be in that privileged position. I better try my best and get the best people to help me. Proof reading is a painstaking task demanding much patience and concentration. It is not glorious but it needs to be done. Life will have more periods like this than the glamorous ones.

(b) How can we show our best in a short job interview? I have the special advantage in presenting and writing material that will change the world. Hopefully, that will be my blessing. However, I still need to package it and present it in the few minutes of the interview. Tseung has a similar task. He needs to package his ideas and experiences into this book.

2.2 The first Business exposure

The first job position for Tseung at Digital Equipment Corporation was that of a software instructor. The job involved teaching the instruction sets; helping customers to type and enter the mini-programs from paper tapes. It also involved the debugging and running of those mini-programs. Tseung and other instructors had to design and develop the mini-programs. Tseung spent many hours preparing the course material. His normal schedule was - have dinner with the family and came back to the office for a couple of hours testing his programs. That was the best time because the machines would be available and there were no disturbance from telephones.

The hard work paid off. Tseung was soon regarded as “the answer man” known as such even to the sales force. One day, the Sales Manager for Europe came to see Tseung and his manager. The Sales Manager said, “I have two extremely important customers from Eastern Europe. They are evaluating our Company. They represent several East European Countries. The potential sales are in the multi-millions. Please help to impress them”.

Tseung made special efforts to help them. Tseung spoke more slowly when communicating with them. Tseung even took them to one of his evening preparation routines. A few mini-programs were written specially for them with their participation. They were delighted.

A few weeks later, the Sales Manager came and said, “We have the multi-million dollar deal. The two evaluators were extremely impressed with the enthusiasm of our instructors. They said that they learned more about our products than almost any other manufacturer. They could actually program and use our products. Congratulations!”

Tseung then realized the importance of going the extra mile. That became his motto at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). One of the greatest impacts he made at DEC was teaching both internal software support staff and customers how to extract information directly from computer listings.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) Opportunities knock at every door from time to time. It is a matter of whether one can take advantage of it. If Tseung did not spend those extra preparation hours when he first joined DEC, he would not have been known as “the answer man”.

(b) The extra mile he went with the customers from Eastern Europe is worth noting. Many people feel that if they spent their 9-5 office hours at the company, they have done their duty. How many would work with the customer outside office hours. Genius is 99% perspiration. I believe that is an understatement. Genius is at least 199% perspiration. The average person may not see the extra 100%.

2.3 Teaching RSX11M from listings

Many DEC customers were OEMs or “Own-Equipment Manufacturers”. They bought the PDP-11 computers from DEC and added their own hardware and/or software. They were not satisfied with reading the user manuals. DEC got a real computer guru from DuPont (Mr. Dave Cutler who was later the development Vice President of Microsoft and gave the World the de facto standard – Windows Operating System). In the Computer World “guru” implies a master from whom to learn. A guru is above average. He can lead the way and support an entire division or even an entire company.

DEC was not well known for its software before hiring Cutler. DEC had an operating system called RSX11D which was inefficient and had many bugs. Cutler was hired to help to fix the problems. He took a look and said that the RSX11D operating system sucked. It was beyond repair. Another totally new operating system must be written from scratch. That upset many RSX11D developers. However, Cutler had a great reputation and was specially hired with great expense. He was given a computer and a desk. Within 6 months, the award winning operating system, RSX11M, was born. The RSX11M system could be conditionally assembled to include or exclude certain features to make the operating system larger or smaller. The source code was provided to customers as part of the package.

One of the stories on how Cutler motivated the other DEC engineers was to challenge the other software engineers to improve his code. Any person could get a free coke from his personal refrigerator if the person could improve a single line of code. That motivated the other software engineers to study his code in great detail. The support person from Europe spent four months in the USA learning the system and was very proud to tell us that he got two cokes from the Cutler refrigerator. To earn that reward, he had spent many sleepless nights studying and discussing the computer code alone and with other software engineers.

Tseung was assigned to teach this RSX11M operating system. He had a look at the three-inch thick computer code listing and was totally lost. That was just too much information. The code was well written but it was for computers and not for human beings. One needed to have an extremely clear overall picture before one could understand the brilliant code. The analogy was that one needed a map of Hong Kong before one could explore and find the interesting places in the City.

Tseung decided to write such a map. He asked for dedicated time of a few months. There were some objections initially. There were arguments that customers did not need such detailed knowledge. Tseung decided to go his own way with or without support. He flopped a couple of times. Both the internal software support people and the customers complained. They said that Tseung confused them totally. The courses taught by Tseung were a waste of time. It required a great manager to protect Tseung. Tseung was extremely lucky to have such a manager. The manager got a few other instructors together and personally supervised Tseung and the team as they developed a section of the course material. He was aware of Tseung’s brilliance and so he decided to give Tseung some dedicated time to prove his point of view.

The many months of reading computer code finally paid off. The source code was very large. A two-stage process was needed to turn the code into something the computer hardware could understand. The first stage was the assemble process in which small chucks of code were turned into object code. In technical terms, this was known as running the source code through the Macro Assembler. The second stage was putting this object code together into the final computer-readable code. In technical terms, this was known as task building. There was a task builder map showing where the code would be loaded into the computer memory. The task builder map contained symbols or labels from the source code.

Tseung made a chart relating the labels to the source code. He traced mini-trips or tours of the computer source code. It was like a guided tour of a city. The tour guide gave an overview introduction of the city and then went into the scenic spots in detail allowing tourists to take pictures etc. Tseung did a similar thing. He showed the software support people how to actually modify the RSX11M executive. That quickly established his reputation as the undoubted number one instructor inside the company. One of the most important customers in England – the Atomic Energy Authority – heard about it and wanted Tseung to teach them the Internals of the RSX11M Operating System. Tseung asked his manager were there any sections that he should not teach. The manager said, “This is an extremely important and influential customer. They had many PhDs studying the code already. Some of them are even more knowledgeable than our software support person”.

Tseung started the special course. Within 10 minutes, a customer raised his hand and said that the privileged task feature never worked. The RSX11M system was no good and he wasted two years. Tseung then asked him how he used the switch task code inside the executive. He said, “What task switching code?” Tseung showed him the correct way to use the code. He disappeared for two hours. When he came back, he said that the problem which had bothered him for two years was solved. Apparently, he was one of the most respected computer gurus at the Atomic Energy Facility. He raised many in-depth questions and Tseung was able to answer them all. When others raised simpler questions, he helped to answer or commented on them.

Figure 2-2 Turning a Skeptic into a Believer

Tseung turned a computer guru at the Atomic Energy Facility from a skeptic into a believer. A nice letter of appreciation helped Tseung’s career.

A few days after the special course, Tseung’s manager called Tseung to his office. He said, “The customer said that you could walk on water”. Tseung did not understand that statement at first. The manager explained that it was the highest praise that could be bestowed on a software engineer. It implied that the engineer could work miracles. He then showed a long letter of appreciation from the customer. The customer requested DEC to provide a standard course on the Internals of the RSX11M Operating System. The Head Office of DEC in USA was willing to triple the salary of Tseung and move him to USA.

Tseung said, “But I flopped before - I did not have a perfect record”. The manager said, “In DEC, the company motto is to make mistakes and show those mistakes to the rest of the company. In this high technology field, if you do not make mistakes, you are not moving forward. If you make your mistakes known to the rest of the company, others will not make the same mistake. You essentially learn on behalf of the company. Your technique of learning directly from computer listings will now be standard practice”.

Tseung then become a top consultant of DEC. Some of his successful projects included writing the first e-mail program using the indirect file features of RSX11M, supporting the Hong Kong Jockey Club, training the first batch of computer engineers from China and the development of the many-to-many patent that greatly influenced the development of the internet.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) Tseung got complaints from both Internal Software Support Engineers and Customers. The average manager would have demoted, isolated or fired him.

(b) I am sure that I shall meet with similar fate in my career path. I shall attempt many things that have never been done by humans previously. It is the challenge of innovation. Will I get a manager good enough to protect me?

(c) In accepting the task as the Chief Editor of this book at the age of seventeen, I have already opened myself to ridicule, jealousy and criticism. Dreaming that I can achieve more than Bill Gates? I have to work extra hard to prove myself.

(d) I feel like a child getting a tennis racquet as a gift. At the same time, he gets the encouragement that he may became the tennis champion of the World some day. It motivates him. But there will be a long and difficult road ahead. He has to take lessons, practice alone, enter competitions and receive the inevitable jeers and cheers. But the chance of getting involved in Lead-Out-Energy machines and Flying Saucers at their infancy is one in a thousand. Life will not be dull!

(e) Have you ever taken on seemingly impossible tasks? Will you start now? Bringing benefits to the entire world seems impossible – will you do it?

22.4 Moving from England to the United States

There was an interesting story related to a fortune-teller associated with the Tseungs move to the USA. Tseung had the date fixed and already had the plane ticket for him and his family. One of their very good neighbors and friend gave the Tseung family a farewell party. That friend invited a lady fortune-teller from Cambodia. Tseung asked the fortune-teller casually whether the move to USA would be successful. The fortune-teller said, “The move will not happen that quickly. You will have to wait”. Tseung secretly laughed and ignored her.

The next morning, the manager said to Tseung, “We need to train up someone in England to replace you. We are willing to give you a very good deal. We shall triple your salary when you move to USA. We shall take care of your house in England. We essential pay your rent. If you want to sell it any time, we shall pay all the necessary fees. When you go to USA, we shall pay for your first years rent, including all furniture. Can you stay in England for a few more months and help to train up a few persons to replace you?” There was no way for Tseung to say no.

After about 9 months, Tseung was ready to move to the USA again. This time, he specially requested his friend to invite the fortune-teller. He was extremely polite to the fortune-teller and asked seriously about his future in the USA. The fortune-teller said, “Be careful with your teeth”. She then continued, “You are an extremely special person. Your fortune depends on your heart. If you have a kind heart and perform good deeds, you will be successful. The moment you become selfish and greedy, you will lose everything. In addition, after the age of 55, if you still have a kind heart, you will achieve phenomenal success. A success that will dwarf all great men in history”. Tseung remembered those words. So far, they appear accurate and they have had a great effect on Tseung.

When Tseung moved to the USA, he was playing with his daughter who was jumping up and down in bed. His daughter accidentally banged her head on the front tooth of Tseung. The tooth broke. Blood streamed out and Tseung was rushed to the hospital. How could a fortune-teller predict such an accident? Tseung had to believe her.

Tseung was willing and eager to do good deeds. His brother-in-law called and said that he and some of his newly graduated, married friends wanted to buy homes. However, they did not have enough cash for the down payment. They were willing to let Tseung co-own a small percentage of the property. They will repay after they sell the house in a couple of years. Some of the friends of Tseung laughed. They said, “What happens if they do not sell? You will never see your money again”. Tseung focused on good deeds and decided to help out. The price of homes rocketed in California. The US $20,000 helping money increased tenfold or more in just a few years.

Tseung’s wife got bored and talked about getting a job so as not to waste her university education. Tseung’s mother-in-law came to help take care of the children. Suddenly, the Tseungs became a two-income, upper middle-class family.

Tseung did a project for the Mexican Stock Exchange as a DEC consultant. He wrote a dummy-trading program. He modified that program to include stock options and trading of stock indices. That dummy program earned many dummy dollars. Tseung was tempted to go into real stock trading but he remembered his promise to his friend and the words of the fortune-teller. He joined a social club called Greater Boston China Cultural Association where he met many successful Overseas Chinese. These friends learned about the computer-trading program and persuaded Tseung to join them in a joint investment effort. Tseung said, “You must all promise to donate 10% of the profit to charitable causes, otherwise, I will not participate”.

Their initial target was a 20% increase in the value of their portfolio. That was achieved within a few weeks. They donated 10% of the profit to charitable causes. They set a higher goal of a 100% increase. They played with stock options. They were lucky to catch a rising bull market. The target was achieved within a month. Again 10% of the profit was donated to charity. This time a few people grumbled as the actual sum amounted to many thousands of dollars. Many friends put in extra money and invited more friends to join in. Some even talked about setting up a mini-investment fund. The target was again a 100% increase. With stock options on a rising bull market, that was predicted and achieved. The group started to disagree on the 10% donation. Some said that they previously lost money. They needed to recover their losses. Some argued that the donation was an individual thing. Some looked at the donation amount and said that it exceeded their annual income. The donation was never made.

Figure 2-3 Tseung falling into the temptation of money

Tseung broke his promise of never playing in the Stock Market to his friend who helped him to raise educational money.

He and his investment friends lost heavily on his computer-trading program of stock options.

Sure enough, the group started losing money. In stock options, the total amount could be lost if one guessed incorrectly. The group broke up and accused each other of making the many bad decisions. On zero profit or losses, nothing would be donated. Tseung also lost heavily but he had a good job and investment in real estate to cushion his losses. Tseung began to believe in doing good deeds and regretted he broke his promise of never playing in the stock market.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) I do not believe in fortune-tellers but if they help to point me in the direction of doing good to society, I listen to them. I am not religious but I go to Church or Temple from time to time.

(b) I hope I shall never fall into the temptation of greed – wanting more and more money. May God and Buddha help me!

2.5 Getting the first pot of gold via an unintentional investment

Tseung also went into the restaurant business by accident. Their family dentist called one day and said that he wanted to buy a restaurant. His father failed on a restaurant business and the son laughed at the incompetence of the father. The father angrily challenged the son to show that he could do better. The dentist found a local 400-seat American restaurant on the verge of bankruptcy. Apparently, the owner incurred huge gambling debts. The restaurant was run down and had few customers. The restaurant at its peak was worth US $2 million and the owner was willing to sell it for US $600,000 in order to get a quick deal. The property alone would be worth more than that amount. The dentists did not have that much cash and looked around to find investment partners.

Tseung’s wife decided to invest. She did not trust the stock market any more. She also wanted to help the dentist friend and to impress others by showing that she could handle a business herself. The decision was to turn the American restaurant into a Chinese restaurant. Tseung initially objected and said that they did not have any experience in running restaurants. Investing in such a business would need much personal time and attention. It would be a bad decision. However, his wife got some of the profit on property investment in California from her brother. She said to Tseung, “I have been supporting you throughout your life. I helped to earn and save money for your MSc. I left my family in Hong Kong to join you in the foreign lands of England and the USA. I did not blame you when you lost much of our joint savings in the stock market. Can you support me this time?” Suddenly, the highly paid software engineer and friends became painters and decorators in their spare-time.

Then came a lucky break. When the restaurant opened, one of the large local American restaurants had their license suspended because they served drinks to minors. Another large restaurant was turned into a private club. The new Chinese restaurant was the only game in town. The $6.00 lunch buffet was the talk of the town. It included soup, salad, desert and fruit. It had daily variations of four main dishes. The menu was actually half American and half Chinese to cater for the predominantly American neighborhood. The lunch buffet was almost always full. In particular, the bar at night was packed. The income from drinks at weekends easily exceeded $100,000. A band and six cocktail waitresses were employed. The $600,000 investment was recovered within the first few months.

Tseung’s wife became a social celebrity especially with the Overseas Chinese Professionals. There were many admirers and flowers were sent to the home and to the office. The family relationship suffered. After one of the long business trips, Tseung got the call from the wife of a very good friend. She said that her husband wanted a divorce. She asked whether Tseung received a similar message from his wife. Tseung then saw the start of the break up of his marriage and family. There were daily quarrels but they decided not to separate until their children were both at university. Tseung’s wife had enough money of her own to buy a property to live with her lover. Her lover also got venture capital to start up a bio-tech company. Tseung realized that money was not everything. After a couple of years, the marriage finally ended in a divorce.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) Money and success do not necessarily bring happiness. I better remember that. I am seventeen. I care more about being popular. I dream about romance with a Prince on a White Horse.

(b) Innovators may not be good businessmen. Nikola Tesla is a good example. Mr. Tesla invented the AC current that we all use today. He died penniless in a cheap hotel.

2.6 Taking up the challenge of Networks

Unhappy at home, Tseung focused his attention at the office. The internet was in it’s infancy. The DEC machines were the favorite of the academics and many DEC machines were used on the Internet. DEC also had its own propriety networking software – DECnet. Tseung could direct his attention away from the RSX11M Operating System as the RSX11M knowledge at DEC was well spread. Hundreds could trace executive code and add new features.

Tseung wrote his first primitive E-mail program allowing the vice president of training to communicate with the vice president of software engineering via dial-up modems. It involved the use the indirect file feature on RSX11M. Tseung was invited to many strategic meetings related to the future direction of the Company. He picked up a good deal of management training at the same time.

One of the things that sank into his soul was the Silicon Valley Mentality. There are five major characteristics of this Mentality.

l Whatever we want to achieve, or have already achieved, is only third class. We have to turn it into second or first class. When we pass the thing to you, you should treat that as only third class and seek to improve it to second or first class. When you pass it back to us, we shall treat it as third class again. This Mentality will cause us to become better and better.

l When a problem is passed to us, either we crack the problem or the problem cracks us. This Mentality causes us to concentrate and overcome all possible obstacles.

l We are the Gods. We can change or make any new rule. This Mentality will force us to think outside the box. We will not be bounded by past experience or traditions.

l We shall not find excuses for our failures. If we disclose our failures, the World can learn and benefit from our failures. In the innovative society, we shall do many things which our predecessors have never done before. This Mentality helps us to face challenges. We shall not fear the possibility of failure.

l Finally, if there is something we do not know now, we shall know it tomorrow. The internet has brought the World Libraries to us. This Mentality helps us to overcome the doubts created by our own limitations. We do not need to worry about anything.

Tseung promoted this Silicon Valley Mentality among his many friends and colleagues. He emphasized that this is the difference between Western Culture and the traditional Chinese Culture of humility.

When the personal computers appeared, Tseung and many others at DEC saw the danger which they posed to mini-computers. There was much debate and many wasted opportunities. Tseung was one of the first to realize the importance of networking and the use of the public network – the internet. DEC had a proprietary product called DECnet that used dial-up or leased lines. Tseung knew that private networking could never compete with public networking. Why should one build and maintain a road? Tseung gave one of the least successful lectures of his career as he explained the future of DECnet. His view was so pessimistic that he was heckled so badly that he was unable to finish his prepared speech.

DEC started to make a series of costly mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes was the introduction of the DEC manufactured PC – the VAXmate. The VAXmate was supposed to be a disk-less, network connected workstation. The product was both expensive and unreliable. The price of IBM compatible PCs was dropping on a daily basis. The failure of it’s new workstation impacted on DEC’s confidence and culture. Tseung believes that this cultural change started the downfall of DEC. Previously, the DEC engineers were encouraged to talk to one another. They freely exchanged ideas at the local bars and restaurants. Then some managers imposed security measures. Engineers were not allowed to discuss their work outside the office. On many occasions, consultants like Tseung only heard about new products after they had reached the marketplace.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the computer industry. Its PDP and VAX products were arguably the most popular minicomputers for the scientific and engineering communities during the 1970s and 1980s. DEC was acquired by Compaq in June 1998, which subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard in May 2002.

(a) Can I build my Company up with phenomenal growth and avoid catastrophic failures?

(b) A Company in the Lead-Out-Energy and Flying Saucer field will have a chance to be great. There are the challenges of building it and then maintaining it. Will that involve different skill sets? Do I need to master all such skills? Should I focus on building a team?

(c) This book may be the first pot of gold to help to launch the Company. What is next? Innovation Camps? New Energy Products? Flying Saucers? Mutual Credits? Life will be full of challenges and excitement. Should I follow the Tseung philosophy of benefiting the World and ignore all personal fame and fortune?

(d) What will be your first pot of gold? Will any of the ideas presented here become your first pot of gold?

2.7 Training the first group of Chinese Computer Engineers

In the early 1980s, China sent a team of engineers to the USA for both computer hardware and software training for a period of 1 year. Tseung was assigned as one of the trainers. There were many non-technical Political Advisers accompanying the technical people. After one of the lessons, one of these Political Advisers went up to Tseung and said, “We appreciate your excellent presentation on Networking. You talked about Ethernet, Token Ring Networks. Those are good. However, when you talk about hierarchy networks, you mentioned that failure of the nodes at the higher Archie (architecture level) would have a more serious effect on the Network. That might be taken as a criticism of our political system. Please remove that from your lecturers”. It was the first time that Tseung personally experienced the stranglehold of Communist dogma.

Then a very important political event occurred. In the customer lounge, DEC had a map of its many Offices. There was a small local country flag placed at the Cities where DEC had offices or manufacturing plants. Taiwan was one of them. The Chinese team demanded that the Taiwan flag to be removed otherwise they would all go home and severe all contracts with DEC. The Senior Management at DEC refused to comply. Tseung was asking the Chinese team to calm down and tried to explain that was not an insult to China but to no avail.

The Chinese Ambassador from Washington came up. He went to the customer lounge. He stared at the map and said, “I do not see any Taiwan Flag. Do you?” His smart deputy also said, “I do not see any?” Suddenly all the Chinese Engineers and Political Advisers did not see any Taiwan flag. Tseung learned a very valuable lesson in politics. Reality and facts have different interpretation in politics. The incident was solved with brilliant political play. The Political Advisers then kept a very low profile.

After Tseung presented his famous lessons on the internal workings of RSX11M, another political incident occurred. This time it was from the USA Government side. The accusation was the unauthorized disclosure of technology to a Communist Nation. Tseung argued that the source listings were part of the sales. The customer would have them in any case. The lessons were just explaining the obvious. The course material could be purchased at the Training Center. Tseung was removed as a trainer.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) Politics is always unpredictable. Someone once said that in politics, there are no lasting friends and no lasting enemies. I am sure that when I get involved with infinite energy and the Flying Saucer, I shall make friends and enemies. I hope to make long lasting friends and no enemies.

(b) Can I change the rules of the game? Remember that section in the Silicon Valley Mentality – I am God, I can make or change any rule.

(c) Do you have long lasting friends or enemies? How do you make friends? Have you ever made enemies? If you have a chance to do it again, how would you avoid making such enemies?

2.8 The Many-to-Many patent and the start of Tseung’s own Company

In networking and in human communications, we can have the following classification.

l One-to-One communication. This is one of the most common forms of communication. However, it is also one of the most inefficient if one wants to pass the same message to many different people.

l One-to-Many communication. Television and radio broadcasting are good examples of such communication. However, it is mainly a one-way flow of information.

l Many-to-Many communication. The conference room is an example. However, human conferences have serious restrictions in terms of scheduling, location, time and the number of participants. The Internet Forums removed such limitations. The information from any of the participants is shown to all other participants. The restrictions of location, time zone and number of participants are effectively removed.

In the US patent database, there are three Companies awarded many-to-many data communication patents. One was IBM. One was AT&T. The third one 5,036,518 was awarded to Lawrence C. N. Tseung. Tseung conceived the early ideas while he was still working at DEC. He realized its significance and tried to persuade his management to apply for a patent and develop products based on the patent. There were many heated discussions and debates. Tseung was told to take his stupid idea and do it elsewhere.

Tseung decided to leave DEC and started his own Company.

Tseung had considerable savings and assets. He could survive without income for several years. His wife had a good job and good income from the Chinese Restaurant. She could take care of the financial needs of the children. Tseung thought that he could devote all his energy to his start-up Company. He really enjoyed his many-to-many patent idea. It was his first exposure to the patent world. He felt something strangely rewarding when he could invent something of world significance.

Tseung applied for the patent with his own money and in the name of his own company. When he knew that he would get his patent granted, he was really happy. He knew that the two other Companies having many-to-many patents were IBM and AT&T. He was amongst the big boys.

Tseung soon got his second patent related to combining Ethernet and Token Ring networks. Ethernet is a local area network where all of the computers, or nodes, share a common communication channel. A computer would listen to see if there was any message on the common channel. If there were no messages, it could send its message. It would listen to see if its message was messed up. The messing up could occur if two computers decided to send messages at the same time. In computer terms, the messing up was a collision. On collision, the computers would wait a random length of time before trying to send again. This turned out to be one of the most successful networking products. The Company which developed the hardware initially for DEC and later became independent, was Cisco Systems.

IBM developed the token-ring local area network technology. A token or a reservation message was circulated amongst all computers on a ring. The computer who wanted to send a message would wait for its turn to get the token first before sending the message.

The Tseung patent combined the two techniques. The computers were essentially arranged in a star fashion. Two communication channels were used. One was used for the token. The other was for messages. It was essentially a collision-less Ethernet. Tseung shared his idea with his professor friends at the Irvine University and later at MIT. The concept was good but developing that into a standard and then a product required much greater resources than were available to Tseung.

Comments from the Editor and reviewers:

(a) Tseung once said to me: “The biggest joy is the discovery of something totally new. Something nobody in history has thought of before”. That is the joy of innovation. Few of us ever enjoy that.

(b) Is that joy worth the many years of learning, hard work, frustration and discouragement?

(c) Have you ever derived joy from a great idea? Life should be joyful. What can you do to bring joy to yourself? What can you do to bring joy to others? Can you act now?

(d) Tseung commented at the beginning of this book that the reader should discuss the material with his friends or via the internet. Do you have anything to say or to contribute?