UI Rebel George Loo

Hi, I am George Loo.

I joined Apple-ISS around May 1993 to June 1995 for a Software Engineer role developing the software applications which incorporate the algorithms from researchers who did cutting edge work in speech and handwriting recognition.

Working at Apple-ISS was a mind boggling experience. My previous job was as a Night Shift Systems Administrator in the highly stressful hard disk industry. In Apple-ISS, I was in the presence of so many talented and highly qualified researchers and engineers. The environment was very pleasant compared to the harsh factory. Software development was relatively easier than in the factory, where software downtime is measured in the millions of dollars per hour.

Ten days after joining, I was sent to Cupertino - the headquarters of Apple Computer to quickly make a prototype of the Chinese Speech Recognition running on a Macintosh desktop. With a lot of help from my mentor (ed: fellow engineer) Tai Hou, we finished ahead of schedule and brought the prototype back to Singapore to demonstrate to the stakeholders that Chinese Dictation was possible on a desktop of that era. (ed: both of us were very slim as we ate out of vending machines cup noodles).

In June 1995, Apple Computer hired both Mr Daniel Lau and myself from Apple-ISS to fully productize Chinese Dictation in the Apple Design Centre Singapore. We managed to launch Chinese Dictation Kit in 1995. The product won many awards from the industry. Apple Computer was at its lowest point in 1997 and they had to retrench everyone at the Design Centre.

Both Tai Hou and I returned to ISS (later renamed as I2R) to develop Chinese Handwriting for the PC. I left I2R in 2003 to start my own IT business which I exited in 2018 as the shareholders wished to retire.

I did some Angel investing before 2018 and one of my investments seems to have taken off in a big way, with Google, IBM, DBS joining their Council.

https://hedera.com