King for a day

 

Maybe just for one day, but I'm on top of my fantasy baseball league, finally!

 

[Update: it's 2 days in a row already! But I suspect my bro is going to break my streak soon!]

Is Adsense going to make me rich?

Well, it depends on whether enough people are clicking the ads on my music blog.

Hey my friend, you know what to do :D

I wish this book sells

The book in question is "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business," written by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, and published by John Wiley & Sons, publisher of many technology books.

Why? According to various news sources, John Wiley & Sons said Apple Computer has removed all its books from Apple stores in retaliation for this upcoming biography.

If you still think Apple is the angelic company (as opposed to the evil M$), think again. I'm surprised so few gadget/tech blogs cover this story.

I have a conspiracy theory though: Mr. Jobs is actually more forgiving than you think. He just wants more buzz around this book so that it will sell!

What do you think? >:)

Blessing in disguise?

My buddy started working for this company this Monday and was let go on Friday. According to the company, it is due to mismatch between his technical skill and what the position required.

This is something you find out DURING THE INTERVIEWING process! What a smart hiring manager!

I'd rather see my friend not working for a company like this anyway. Job seekers please learn from his experience.

So sue me, Gator (oops, I should say Claria)

Biased too

Check out this title from AP: China Accuses Japan of Distorting History

Anyone would logically think that the article itself must give more details on the accusations, i.e., how and why Chinese think those Japanese history books are distorted.

Wrong!

The article is about how Chinese government have distorted their own history book. While that could be true, I don't see the connection with the title.

Talk about bias, history books probably don't come close to news media.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

That's actually the title of a book I have been spending my late-night hours reading. The secondary title is "Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" Fortunately I haven't read that much American History textbook (only 2 during the sophomore year!)

I guess the criticism about history books being biased is nothing new. Otherwise we won't have this old saying: "victors wrote the history. Losers don't" The irony is that I picked up this book right when the Japanese government's selection of distorted history textbook is causing a lot of controversy.

You may say the critics are biased too. In any case, this is something we all should know and is always true: there are many sides to every story. Don't make up your mind just because you've heard one side of it.

My new computer

... actually, just new case and CPU heatsink/fan 
I know you could check out what it looks like on Antec's website but this one is put together by myself!!!

More pic at the gallery!

Both the case (Antec SLK3700-BQE) and the CPU Heatsink/fan (Zalman CNPS6000-cu) work as advertised! Not only the noise level dropped dramatically (I hear not as much as half of the noise) but also the CPU temperature dropped from >100C to consistently <60C, with the fan running at 1500rpm only. What a big difference! Special thanks to Buildsilentpc.com and Silent PC Review for the info and recommendations.

Since this heatsink is so easy to remove (thanks to Zalman's great design and the tool they provide), I should probably try some Arctic Silver thermal compound and overclock this thing like crazy!

Jobs was right about the great music vs. video debate

You might wonder if you came to the wrong blog. Nope, this is still run by Bigland, aka. self-proclaimed part-time Apple basher.

And I only agree with one point Mr. Jobs made, i.e., music is preferable to video during commute.

I watch a lot of soccer on my notebook during my train ride but I "converted" because of my recent experience: I was disturbed approached by fellow commuters about what I was watching on my notebook, on 2 consecutive days! Man, isn't my big black headphone equivalent to a "Do not disturb!" sign? I thought that's an unwritten urban custom. I will try putting on an Oakley tmw and see if it helps.

Hey, Oakley is already making MP3 glasses, why not video glasses, aka. porn glasses?

Band banned from concert at church-owned venue

The band in question is 'Lamb of God', who was previously known as 'Burn the Priest.' More details here.

The irony is: they are replaced by Obituary, a death metal band who is probably no more God (or Christian) pleasing than Lamb of God. May be they can't figure out what John Tardy (Obituary's vocalist) sings. Even Tardy himself admitted some of the stuff he sang weren't real words.

BTW, both are awesome bands. (Personally I even prefer Obituary more.) So metal fans attending the concert shouldn't be disappointed one way or the other.

This article probably belongs to my music blog but since it's also about over-religious hypocrites, I might as well leave it here.

Advanced marketing?

I didn't go to business school and know 0 about marketing. Did they teach you simply mention the opposite of all features that your competitor has?

Maybe that's M$'s school of marketing. Check out their tips on buying MP3 players. Might as well titled "Do not buy iPod"

Family pictures

 
What do the bottles have to do with family pictures? Well, it's a family of bottles. Just kidding. :D It actually shows all bottle water we drank during our Feb Las Vegas trip. Just when we thought we bought the cheapest bottle water on the strip at the ABC store in Fashion Show mall, my dad found something even cheaper at CVS! And he proved once again nobody beats him at this :P

Napa

Las Vegas

Madeline B-day dinner

Pier 39

Misc(incl. Filoli)

Look what M$ does to their loyal MVP

Check out this petition by Visual Basic MVP (most valuable professionals) asking M$ to continue VB6 support.

Do you think these guys will regret being loyal to the "dark force"?

Once bitten, twice shy. Welcome to the Open Source camp.

What is Wal-Mart?

As you all know that's become a famous quote from Paris Hilton.

"It's, like, they sell wall stuff?"

Nope. It's a huge playground.

If you haven't live in a rural town before, you won't realize how bored life could be. I still recall during my college days dating means visiting supermarket together.

Bloatware Marketing 101

Let's say company X invented a new format for video called FOO and ask you to download a FOO player from them to play these videos. When you download FOO player, you have to download BAR player, which has nothing to do with video but it sells other stuff for company X.

By this time you'll probably cry foul and start condemning M$.

Although it sounds like typical "evil" M$ tactics, it actually comes from the "angel" company: Apple.

This is what I found when I helped my dad to view QuickTime movies taken by his digital camera: if you download the free QuickTime player from Apple, it comes with iTunes as well. Both pieces of software are known to hog system resources on Windows. I certainly don't want any unnecessary software on my dad's computer. So, we have to go with something like QuickTime Alternative or VLC Media player from VideoLAN

What surprise me the most is not Apple's tactic but the few number of critics that condemn this. If this is from M$, you'll probably have heard of it a million times.

All these led me to thinking: the power of a cult is really scary. Although it has very few members, the members are exceptionally loyal and defend real hard for their faith. The masses cannot drown out their voice.

So, if your company doesn't have a cult, you won't get away with bloatware.

Side Note: I am also shopping for solution to protect/clean marking from keyboards on the screen of my iBook. I do not know of any manufacturer other than Apple that makes notebook that have keyboard marks on the screen yet I've never seen this criticized in reviews of Apple's notebooks. Talk about unfairness!

The bottom line is: when you're the darling of the media, you get a lot of breaks.

Why U2 sucks?

Here is why.

The part about those 2 DJs got fired certainly doesn't bode well for me as it showed they are just hypocrites. Not that I like U2 much to begin with. I guess artistic freedom other than theirs is not so important after all.

One port USB hub for $29

Last time I searched PriceGrabber, 4-port USB hubs are sold for $9-$20.

If I sell you a 1-port USB hub for $29, you're gonna scream "Ripoff!!!" right?

Well, I guess iPod Shuffle fans who bought their "dock" from Apple probably would think otherwise.

Side note: This is from a review of iPod Shuffle:
"the real story of the Shuffle is that it is designed to encourage you to approach your music differently than you would with other music players."

Man, is he for real? I think next time he visits a restaurant, they should sell him a piece of white bread for $10, that's designed to encourage him to approach food differently than he would with other restaurants.

Online Music Service (and when to ditch my iPod)

As a music lover and music maker, I constantly look for ways to listen to as much new music as possible (and legally so that the artists get paid!) Satellite radio certainly sounded exciting to me but my initial impression was so-so. While there are lots of free or paid radio available online, this article is about "music on demand," i.e., services that allow me to pick songs to listen to.

The most successful digital music store is, no question, Apple's iTunes Music store, but the fact that it restricts the purchased music only playable on iTunes and iPod does not bode well with me, not to mention $0.99 a song seems too expensive to me (see the side note at the end of this article) Even though I own an iPod, I don't want my purchased music to be tied to it.

Although its nature is very different to iTunes Music store, Real's Rhapsody is an indirect competitor IMO. All-you-can-listen-online costs $10 a month. Ideal for people glued to a PC 75% of the time when they are awake, like myself. Although "downloading" the songs (burn to CD then re-rip) is troublesome and costs you extra, technically speaking, you could digitally "record" the stream and thus get the songs free. That's a lot of work to "build a library" though. Their audio quality are praised over others like Napster and of course, XM satellite radio.

The new Napster-to-Go has make a splash in tech news because of its unique "renting music monthly" model. For $15 a month you could download as much as you want and listen to them as long as you continue paying the monthly fee. At a first glance it sounds totally counterintuitive to normal spending habit on music, i.e., paying a couple dozen $ to buy a few CDs per month and you own them for life and pay no more. However, if you think of it as a radio-like service (think Rhapsody), $15/month for unlimited rotations in your playlist chosen by yourself that you could bring with you anywhere you go is actually a pretty decent deal, especially for music addict like me. Their ad is kinda exaggerated but they do have a point. The downsides are: 1) Napster's selection is not that great compared to others according to some 2) their software works with Win XP only so my Win2K and Mac OS X machines are out of luck. 3) if you are taking your portable device out on a trip that lasted more than a month without sync-ing to your PC, your playlist is nothing more than a lengthy dead silence. Nevertheless, this model is in the right direction for digital music IMO. I'll check it out once I ditched my iPod.

On a side note: I found it interesting that Apple removed the claim that iTunes is "fair to the artists" from their website after people like those from Downhill Battle has pointed out artists were treated just as unfairly as CD sales "despite huge new efficiencies created by internet distribution --no CDs to make, no distributors to store and ship them, no CD stores to build and run"

The other side of the Tsunami slur story

After reading a couple of articles from US media about a New York radio station (WQHT) being condemned for a show that made fun of the tsunami victims with lyrics like "You can hear God laughing, 'Swim you bitches swim," I was thinking that was mean and poor taste but wasn't supposed to be such a big deal, was it?

Well, I've changed my mind completely after reading more from "alternative media" like Hong Kong newspaper. Here is the full text (mind you it's full of racial slur)

What puzzled me the most now is why the mainstream media didn't mention the rest of the lyric. That would fully justify the outrage against that show. The only reason I could think of is this is an act of mainstream media covering each other up. After all they are in the same business. Who cares about what Chinese wants to know in US?

(More ironically, "We're the World" is the song Hong Kong showbiz group chosen to cover as its theme song for the tsunami fund raising concert. I criticized them for not writing their own song way back. )

Update: here is a comment about mainstream media's initial refusal to even air the story at all.

Now they have sided with the devil

Looks like the conservatives are getting a bit lost. Christian groups have called for the Supreme Court to crack down on file sharing, basically taking the same side as their archenemy -- Hollywood.

Well, let me be generous by helping them here: Christian groups should have supported the file sharers instead. Simply let file sharers bring down Hollywood, the ultimate source of evil content! When you fight organized crimes, you always need to shut down the source. Then you won't have any porn, any violent video available.

Wait a minute, shutting down Hollywood is probably not enough. They need to ask their beloved president to bring back US troops so there won't be violent footages from the news on war anymore. And finally, ban Ms. Hilton from filming herself.

The conservatives lost, again?

They wanna outlaw all interesting TV programs like those episodes from Friends and Simpsons but failed! Can you believe conservative groups lost another fight (see this for details of the previous round) in the States?

CP/M: Nostalgia strikes!

Writing about the early days of Apple computer in the previous article certainly brought back a lot of good old memory: playing with Z80 card, 80 Col card, and CP/M!

So I did a search on CP/M and found this really interesting article: Windows-NT vs. CP/M

Back to 1976: Bring your own display and keyboard

That's a familiar slogan, right?

Yes, that's the "punch line" for the new 2005 Mac Mini.

Oh wait a minute! Doesn't that also applicable to the Apple's very first computer: Apple I?

I always believe the brightest people keep reinventing themselves. Well, maybe sometimes they simply need to copy themselves.

Round 1: Evil (a.k.a. Liberals) 1 - Jesusland 0

Bad news for the religious folks in Atlanta: they can't re-emphasize that evolution is a theory, not a fact.

I thought we all knew that already, don't we?

BTW, I don't recall we evil liberals ever requesting a "Christian is a religion, not a fact" sticker on all Bibles.

They could tell so much from a name

Please check out this notice sent by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) alleging a company of copyright infringement because of having a file called X-Files1.21b, which is open-source TCL code! (Not X-Files Season 1-7 as those morons were thinking!)

This is so ridiculous to a point that it's actually kinda funny. Beware of how you name your files otherwise MPAA will come knocking on your doors.

(Basically this is similar to what RIAA did to Professor Usher's now famous mp3 file)

Too sensitive?

Just watched "The Da Vinci Code Deception" on PBS. This program is backed by Christian organization aiming at separating facts from fiction in this vastly popular book. They claimed this book is no challenge to the religion since it's a fiction and people are not suppose to learn religious fact out of a fiction.

My question is: if that's the case, why bother making a program to dispute it?

iDiot or simply having too much money?

This article is not about what I don't like about the new iPod shuffle, namely, it's nothing innovative but a "re-colored" design of screen-less MP3 players from a couple of years ago. (I bought one such player for $60 in 2002. And yes, I did wish it had a display when I want to know the name of the song I was listening to. Anyway, I'll leave criticism to their competitors.)

This article is about the comments I read about this player: several people mentioned US$99 (or $149 for the 1Gb version) as "impulse buy." I used to think only $2 candy bar or bag of chips near supermarket cashiers qualify as impulse buy. Man, people in the States are rich! Or too brainwashed by consumerism?

(Can't believe I am writing 2 Apple related articles in a row!
Disclosure statement: I'm neither an Apple lover or basher. I own an iBook and an iPod, bought at heavily discounted price. It does pretty much what I expected for the price I paid, but that's pretty much the only good thing I'd say about them.)

From ass kicking to ass kissing

U2 claimed Apple has "single-handedly saved the music industry."

Considered they have partnered with Apple for the U2 edition of iPod, I don't see how I could view the above endorsement as unbiased.

I'd give some credits to Apple's effort in coming up with a simple method/interface to sell music online. (Well, they were not the first company that sell music online. And the way they restrict how the music sold could be played, i.e., DRM-ed and support iPod only, do deserve some blame) In any case, if they have indeed "saved" the music industry, the major record companies won't be crying and whining everyday about sales going downhill.

(Disclosure statement: I'm neither a U2 lover or hater. I do agree "New Years Day" and "With or Without You" are great songs but that's pretty much all I care about them.)

For those who think a name is just a name

The baseball team formerly known as Anaheim Angels have offically been renamed to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Doesn't it sound too desperate for them to lure fans from LA?

Well, I have been wondering why the football teams who play in New Jersey name themselves New York Giants and New York Jets for a long time.

However, the most ridiculous name of all gotta be Golden State Warriors. Where the heck is Golden State anyway?

X'mas in Vegas

Madeline got her caricature "potrait" drawn there. Please check out my article in Chinese.

Don't forget to click the link at the end of the article for more pictures! (No need to signup Ofoto. Just click the purple "View Photos" button on the linked page)

Spreading the disease

Poisonous formula (milk powder)
fake egg,
dyed orange...

What's next biggest export from China?

It's SPAM!

I feel bad reading all these being a Chinese myself.

A costly miss by the censorship "sensors"?

Music fans know that Wal-Mart censors music it sells. It's not supposed to sell any music with explicit lyric. This is a practice heavily criticized by more open-minded music fans, including myself.

Well, apparently their "effort" is not enough: a couple bought Evanescence's latest CD from Wal-Mart for their daughter and was not happy to hear 'fuck' in the lyrics so they sue Wal-Mart 'coz Wal-Mart is supposed to censor such thing. See Wal-Mart Sued Over Evanescence CD Lyrics for more details.

So, what an irony! Wal-Mart's censorship practice backfired. If they don't do it in the first place, I guess they can't get sued.

(BTW, I never claim that my blog is free of foul language. So don't even think about suing me for that!)

A day to remember: no more IBM PC

(from eweek.com)

BTW, there has been numerous analysis on this deal, with most saying IBM is getting out of PC business because it's not profitable, but this is the most interesting one: The China Syndrome: If You Want to Understand IBM Selling Its PC Division, Just Look East

Who censors?

I gotta brag about writing about Google's biased (pro-Beijing) Chinese news website before major news agency reports that media watchdog Reporters Without Borders accused the U.S.-based company of being complicit by filtering its Chinese-language site.

Ironically, the Chinese government backed search engine Accoona doesn't seem to do much censoring. See Try this search

Good bye Wong Jim

The legendary Hong Kong lyricist James Wong (Wong Jim in Chinese) died from lung cancer today at 64.

Wong is arguably the most prolific and best known lyric writer for "modern" HK music. His collaboration with composer Koo Kar-Fai has produced many many classics in the 70's and 80's.

There's really no equivalent of Wong Jim in Western music. Lyricist is pretty much a HK music specific job as Western music has been dominated by singer-songwriters or bands.
I believe his best works will be remembered for many many years.

DualDisc DOA?

DualDisc gotta be considered as one of the most disastrous product launch. For those not familiar with this latest audio/video technology, DualDisc is a new media format that combines CD and DVD, i.e., including one of each on two sides of a disc.

It is being pushed by the four major record companies and was first released to retailers earlier this month. However, one of the first DualDiscs, the latest album from the all-girl band Donnas, was pulled due to production issues.

That would have been bad enough but it got worse! Major audio/video manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer and Sony, have issued customer advisory that recommends against using DualDisc on their products! (See the one from Pioneer) Well, I guess the only players that are OK to play DualDisc are those $40 no-name-brand players from China.

I think the major record companies are too busy suing file downloaders. Making products that actually work is the least of their concerns.

Microsoft's patent application

Check this out: Microsoft is applying for patent for its invention of the ISNOT operator in BASIC

I think it is time for me to patent my invention of using more than 1 piece of kleenex to wipe my face.

Money talks

This is a follow-up to the KSJO article. I did more search on the topic and once again people are pointing to Clear Channel for ruining the good old KSJO.

For those not familiar with the background, the government deregulated the radio business several years ago, allowing big corporations like Clear Channel owning multiple stations in a market and across the country. That started a wave of consolidation in the radio business. Now only 2 conglomerates left: Clear Channel and Infinity. (BTW, Clear Channel is also in the business of selling concert tickets. They have been accused of using its influence in radio on pressuring acts)

Since then, a familiar pattern appears:
- Clear Channel bought a popular station.
- Fire some DJs, cancel some shows and replaced them with non-local syndicated shows (which are broadcasted to multiple channels over the country) to cut cost.
- Also, the station will be playing songs from a common playlist shared by other Clear Channel stations in the country.
- Local listeners lose interest due to lack of local focus. Rating plummets.
- Clear Channel changes the format to chase the current fastest growing market, which is Spanish.

Read more details: Inside Clear Channel [Rolling Stones] It also mentions the tie between Clear Channel and George W. Bush. Now you see why there are rumors about Clear Channel stations censoring liberal musicians.

So, the radio is one more thing that goes to the list of things ruined by too much emphasis on $ and bottom line by conglomerates.

No more "triple-Metallica" every hour!

You will hear less Metallica and other hard rockers on the air in Bay Area (until they are old enough to become a regular on classic rock stations) KSJO has been playing rock for 37 years but it has been converted to a Spanish music station. (See Oldest S.J. rock station goes to Spanish format [Mercury News])

Man, this certainly belongs to my list of things happened while I was gone for 2 weeks Whoever says "Metal is dead" must be nodding their heads. :((

Clear Channel, owner of KSJO (and many many other stations in this country), has striked again: I guess they're tired of providing bland programming, so they simply kill off the station.

This is so sad! Now I need to find another station to replace #2 on my preset (#1 is of course KCSM, always.)

[Update: just found out KLOL in Houston and KWID in Las Vegas all went Spanish recently. So this is a national trend. I wonder when CRHK2 will go Mandarin >:) ]

Conservatives strike again

Singing a Bob Dylan song draws attentions from secret service today. (Read ABC News for more details) What's wrong with this country?

RIP Iris Chang

Iris Chang, the author of the book "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II", was found dead in South Bay. This is a really sad news. Salute to her work on preserving a piece of horrible history that the Japanese society is trying to deny.

No escape from discrimination for Hong Kong people

HK people are not treated fairly even in their own territory. That's very sad. Check out this news (in Chinese) about 7 mainland China visitors beating up repairmen in HK after being rescued by them from a malfunctioning elevator. They were fined less than US$100 each.

Another proposal

Here is a followup to The alternative


Credit: http://house.style.net/usa.jpg

The alternative

Now we all have to accept the fact that USA is a very conservative nation.
Could this be an alternative?

What could happen in 2 weeks?

The answer is: a whole lot.

During my 2 weeks away from US, these had happened:
- Jerry Rice joined Seattle Seahawks. Another sports legend has left the Bay Area.
- Red Sox won its first world series title since 1918.
- All 3 Florida college football team (Miami, Florida and Florida State) lost in the same weekend for the 1st time since 1978.

In addition, the following products are announced:
- a portable XM radio
- new iPods (the photo version and the U2 edition) Well, I'm not too crazy about U2 (now if they make a "Kind of Blue" version with signatures from Miles, Coltrane and Bill Evans...)

Doesn't it sound like I have left for a few decades?

First impression of XM: not impressed

For those who haven't heard of XM, it's one of the 2 satellite radio providers in US (the other is Sirius) I have been very enthusiastic about such service ever since they emerge few years ago. Why? As you know, I'm a music junkie, who wants to listen to good music any time any where. If satellite radio is anything like satellite TV, it is going to provide far superior programming than its "free-over-the-air" counterpart. And it's going to catch on like a fire (or should I say, like WWW?)

Apparently I was wrong. I don't know of any of my friends interested in sat radio (let alone subscribed) Spending ~$100 on equipments and calling them for subscription is just too much trouble for me to try out the service. Finally, XM is going online and offering 3-day free trial. I can't wait to experience satellite radio for the very first time!

First of all, there are several problems I found with their online service:
- their audio streams contain lots of audio artifacts like pops and clicks. The most weird one sounds as if there are 2 sets of speakers positioned slightly differently and it's playing set A then suddenly switch to set B. (This analogy is the best I could describe it)
- songs are chopped off in the middle of playing. Then it repeats the same song again!
- poor UI (forcing me to use IE and PC is the least of my complaint!) It looks fancy for sure but that "floating" display of the current channel and song actually obstructs navigation up and down the channel list. And some real bugs like showing wrong song title appear quite often.

I'm sure these are technical glitches that should go away as XM fine tunes the service. However, I see bigger problem with their programming. Note this is kinda subjective as I focus on music channels and for 3 genre only: jazz, classical and rock. With multiple channels for each genre, I was expecting more modern music, not talking about extremely avant garde stuff, but more like Ornette Coleman, Shostakovich, Bartok since they could have dedicated some channels to mainstream/old school/more commercial stuff. Unfortunately, I don't see them taking advantage of the extra channels. Their choices of jazz and classical music sound too bland to me, no superior to the free local stations here (KCSM and KDFC.) They don't seem to have an extensive playlist either. And I saw too many tunes coming from compilation albums titled "XYZ, Vol. N" This can't be a good sign as I value the effort of DJ putting into playlist and see that as a potential advantage over those computer programmed (or simply shuffle?) stations (e.g. Yahoo Launch!) and those you-pick-what-you-want online music service (e.g. Rhapsody)

On the plus side, XM plays a good variety of heavy music: Liquid Metal plays the latest stuff. Bone Yard focuses on old school metal/rock (heavier than your everyday classic rock stations on the air.) And Squizz specializes in Nu-Metal (e.g. Korn, Linkin Park)

I guess my listening "profile" probably doesn't fit XM's main target audience too well. (Check out forums for jazz on XM: I don't see much complaint about lack of modern jazz. I do see comments on too much vocal in the main jazz channel, which I agree.) Nevertheless, I am certainly happy to see more competitions in the radio business. Maybe someday there will be one that get me hooked. In the mean time, I will stick with Digitall Imported and Radioio (whose jazz and classical programming is more appealing to me. And it's free!)

Fighting the Power

[Note: I have been editing this article for a while. It ended up sounding like the Sequel to my article above. This is yet another sad story about how rich people do whatever they want to get richer.]

See Fighting the Power Basically it's about investors spotting undervalued stations, buy them then improve the signal strength and rating, and sell quickly for profit.

One of these station is the Bay Area station 92.7. It was renamed to Power when it was bought. The investors pitched the ideal of creating a station for the local hip-hop community. That gave the local listeners high hopes. Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed when Power was sold quickly (and turned into a dance station after) Not only the listeners suffered, but also the ones who quit their previous radio station jobs to join Power for the ideal.

Monopoly one, meet monopoly two

You know I have never been happy about the music business being controlled by big record companies and big retailers. Well, finally something good come out of this: Wal-Mart Squeezing Record Labels to Cut CD Prices I like this line: "Monopoly one, meet monopoly two." (And if you're interested in arguments for and against capitalism/big corporations, check out the lengthy responses below that article.)

Travellers beware of rip-off

This gives a new meaning to rip-off. In preparation for an upcoming trip, I was told that locks on my luggages may get destroyed (literally ripped off!) by airport security (TSA) if somehow they think there are things suspicious in them.

So the advice from TSA is to get one of those TSA approved locks, so called Travel Sentry Certified locks.

You know what I found? Stories about such locks are destroyed by TSA personnel even though they are supposed to have keys to unlock them. Even worse, sometimes they break the zipper in addition to the lock on a soft case and render the case useless. (See the story from Seattle Times)

To be honest, I don't mind all these extra security measures. After all, it's for our own safety. However, the authority must follow procedures instead of acting like they could do whatever they like.

These travel sentry locks are sold for more than double the price of the normal ones. Now you tell me this is rip-off or not.

Cheney couldn't differentiate between .com and .org

This Vice President didn't invent internet. No wonder. See Cheney Blunder Lauded Anti-Bush Web Site

Mr. Ballmer, you went toooooo far

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, made a comment to an exclusive group of UK journalists in London that the most common format of music on an iPod is "stolen".

This is a really cheap shot and an insult to all iPod users. (For the record, the most common source of music on my iPod comes from CDs I paid for with my hard-earned cash!) Mr. Ballmer: where is your survey?

Please read Ballmer's iPod slur memory lapse for more details (and some good quotes of responses from readers)

Biology = next Computer Science?

Check out what Bill Gates said to students at UC Berkeley: Two Words from Bill Gates: Computer Science

Despite the title of the message, I think the real message from Bill Gates is that biology will be like computer science in the near future. That is, the booming bio technology industry will blossom and thus you will see a lot of job growth and money in that area.

Well, if biology is anything like computer science, it also mean its jobs will be offshored soon after the boom. So, don't think job security yet. (If you wanna be trained for local jobs, you'd better think optometrist, dental hygienist, plumber or locksmith.)

A lesson of courtesy

If you are learning from Professor Sheriff Luk, programme director at Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Graduate School of Business, be careful, don't show too much courtesy to him.

Quoting from Mainlanders blast retail service:
"Staff at retail outlets are always told to be courteous and smile at their customers, but this is just too artificial," Luk said. "Sometimes mainland tourists would like to be treated as ordinary customers. Being patronising could be another kind of discrimination."
More quotes from an article in Apple Daily (Chinese):
"他 促 請 從 業 員 招 呼 客 人 時 ， 應 以 真 誠 的 態 度 相 待 。"

Is he too naive or something? How much sincerity could you expect from a salesperson?

Maybe he enjoys the publicity from such idiotic comments but it does no good to the reputation of the school/program.

Google's true color?

If you read Chinese, please check out this page from Google news HK If you read carefully, you will notice most news sources quoted by Google are pro-Beijing.

Now, do you think you'll be able to get unbiased search results from Google?

To be honest, I don't like Google since they started Gmail. Privacy concern is one thing (See Gmail is too creepy) Extra-hyping Gmail by making it invitation only is another. (That's why I have declined several invitations to open a Gmail account) IMO this company is about hype more than anything. Their co-founders couldn't even get their fact straight during interview with Playboy! It seems like they enjoy the fame too much and too eager to cash in.

We don't give a **** about you

I thought this is the "philosophy" of the customer service of most companies (especially the consumer electronic manufacturers and phone companies.) They are always very eager to talk to you when you order/add new services but showed a different face when asked for service. Don't you realize your call gets answered immediately for the former but you are always on hold for the latter?

Well, finally there is a "honest" company. See Customer Service with a Twist

Transformania

Which boy growing up in the 80s did not love the cartoon Transformer? It has cars and airplanes that transform into robots! (Still wonder why airplanes are bad while cars are good) Check out Tranformers: A History and also Japanese Transformers Cartoons Guide(similar info in Chinese) (if you enjoyed the Japanese version like I did. My friend used to ask me why there are 2 different versions and how they are related back when I was in high school and I was totally clueless. With this FAQ, finally the mystery is solved!)


My favourite character is the leader of the good guys (Autobots): Optimus Prime
His archrival is, of course, the leader of the bad guys (Decepticons): Megatron

Apparently this cartoon still has a lot of followers. I guess a lot of them is from my generation. So what's the appeal of it? A reviewer at Amazon sums it up the best: got to relive the childhood favorite!

BTW, 2004 marks the 20th anniversary of Transformers (yeah, that shows my age >:)

CRM does too much and knows too much

Does too much? See Albertsons Learns the Legal Dangers of CRM It's about Albertson's CRM system sending out letters to the customers who previously filled prescription there.

Knows too much? See Retail CRM: Does Data Create A Duty? It's about whether a company (in this case, Kroger's) is liable to inform their customers about recall when it stores customers contact and purchase info in CRM.

Now you know how tough the enterprise application business is!

914

Tomorrow is the day to Save Betamax and your right to recording technology.

Don't let the movie industry dictate what technology you could and could not use!

While I'm at it, I recommend you all check out DownhillBattle.org It is an organization against the greedy money sucking monsters a.k.a. music industry.

First NFL game for all of us

Falcons at 49ers 

At 3Com Park 
If you know me, you know I am a huge football fan. Football is the #1 sport for this sport junkie!

Well, you might be surprised that I've never been to a NFL game until now. (First time for my wife and daughter too!) IMO Football is one of the sports that is better seen on TV than in person 'coz the closeup camera makes it much easier to follow the ball and the ball carrier. Not to mention the great invention of computer generated Yellow first-down line shown on the screen these days. (Just realized some channels are showing a dark blue line of scrimmage as well)

Nevertheless, this game has changed my view, literally speaking. Watching the game in person gives me a complete view of everythings happen on the field. This makes game much more enjoyable. (Hey, a Cowboy fan like me could even enjoy a 49er game. See them getting beaten by Falcons was icing on the cake! BTW, 49ers' offense really look awful in the first 50 mins of the game with no TD. We left after Falcons scored another TD that resulted from turnover and up by 15 pts. Niners scored 2 TD after that and made it a real close game! They should probably have paid us to leave earlier :P ) That said. I still won't trade channel flipping away. The tix are so expensive. Spending the money on the TV package seems to be a better investment.

Thanks to my wife for the tix.

Another "invention" by Microsoft

We all hate to listen to commercials on radio, right? (Well, except when you're an advertiser) You can now say goodbye to them, thanks to Microsoft's latest invention: MSN Radio.

Sounds like magic huh? Well, what it actually does is playing the songs from the playlist of other radio stations and thus "mimic the sound" of those stations. See Microsoft creates static over new radio feature

Ultimate TV Junkie

I actually don't watch that much TV but I do like the ability to watch my favorite program wherever I prefer. I have been streaming TV signal through my PC and internet for a long time (using Windows Media Encoder, free download from Micro$oft) The only problem I have is inability to switch channel.

The previous route I have researched is to get a device (e.g. Ocelot) that connects to a PC and is able to learn and transmit IR signal. Then use a software like Mister House to control the device through a web server. Such device is not cheap though.

Apparently I'm not the only person in the world who wants to do this. This guy has posted a cheaper solution Tivo Project 101 His solution is based on "learning" by converting IR into audio. Then play back the audio file through a device like Griffin Total Remote Transmitter Module to transmit the IR signal.

Jinx...

I hope this won't jinx Lefty: Report: Mickelson, Titleist part ways

Remember what happened to Tiger after he dumped Titleist for Nike! I know my next club won't be from Nike for sure...

Offoffshoring

Just when people are talking about US jobs offshore-outsourced to India, this pops up: Jobs Outsourced to Indian Firms May Not Go to India

Does this make you feel better? (or worse...)

Anti-hero

Please DO NOT WATCH the movie "Hero"! It is basically propaganda disguised with martial art packaging. Just look at how much the Chinese government has endorsed the movie and you know what I'm talking about. This movie praises the brutal totalitarian Emperor Qin. I'd expect this comes from the Communist Party but really disappointed that it comes from Zhang Yimou's movie.

Zhang Yimou, the director, is selling out, IMO. It's hard to remember this is the guy who used to make movies that criticize the backwardness of Chinese villages and injustice done to the people. In fact, the Chinese government used to censor his movie for exposing the dark side of the country to outside.

Maybe the crave for power has changed Zhang. Now the government rewards his "conversion" by putting him in charge of 2008 Beijing Olympic ceremonies, a big step forward for a showbiz guy. I gotta admit this is hard to resist.

Here is another reason to boycott this movie. Quoting from Joseph Kahn "Film on Ruthless Dynasty Delights China's Leaders" The New York Times January 2, 2003:
"In an interview with B International, a Hong Kong- based magazine, [Tony] Leung said he applauded the message of 'peace and human kindness' in Hero, then reflected on the Beijing government's suppression of the democracy movement 13 years ago. 'During the June 4 incident, I didn't join any demonstrations, because what the Chinese government did was right to maintain stability, which was good for everybody,' he was quoted as saying. Mr. Leung later said that his comments had been taken out of context and that he was speaking from the perspective of his character in the film. 'My interest is in making movies, not politics,' he said."

Other reviews:
Fighting for Peace (and Art Films), Zhang Yimou on "Hero" (incl. interview)
Hidden dragon
Zhang Yimou's Hero The Temptations of Fascism
Martial Arts Worldwide Network's review

A true hero will never condone oppression.

When in doubt, don't sing

This is quoted from Camp Site Director Leslie Shanders. Why? See The birds may sing, but campers can't unless they pay up.

Let's blame it on capitalism (or maybe it's just greed?) Scouts can't sing "God Bless America" in camp any more unless they pay ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers). That's sad sad sad... (BTW, we were wrong when we camped and sang "Happy Birthday" at Yosemite. That's copyrighted too.)

Hey, maybe ASCAP did a good thing by encouraging everyone to write their own songs! More motivations for creativity!

[Update]It turns out the story was from 1996 and there was a followup: ASCAP Changes Its Tune; Never Intended to Collect Fees for Scouts' Campfire Songs, Group Says. Please read the 2nd part of the above link.

I wonder that was a truly sincere intention or merely a reaction when ASCAP saw the outrage against them.

Canadian inventions

In the spirit of rooting for the "underdogs", I would like to recommend this page about Canadian inventions

This is how I found out basketball was actually invented by a Canadian (while he was in US)

It's not fair! (take II)

This happened at Olympic Marathon: Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima was attacked by one Irish "priest" Cornelius Horan, three miles from the finish line. At that time he was the leader but at the end he could only take bronze. The attack had certainly disrupted his rhythm.

Too bad the security wasn't able to prevent idiots like Horan from damaging the race.

Olympic Gymnastic Controversy

Let me ask you a question. Which one would you wanna be remembered as:
a) the guy who is not supposed to win the gold medal but got it because of scoring error
b) the guy who gives back the gold medal he should not have won

Which guy has genuine sportsmanship?
The choice is pretty obvious to me. Of course Paul Hamm thinks otherwise.

[Update] Please check out the comments, which presents a different point of view. I gotta admit he knows the story/background much deeper than I do. One thing we both agree though: FIG, the sports governing body who messed up the scoring, is the real "bad guy."

Flashmob Opera

Gotta admit promoting music using the flashmob concept is a smart idea. See Music to the masses: BBC plans opera by stealth

When are we going to have flashmob Tai Chi?

Fallacy of the day

Quoting from Movie Industry Sues More DVD Chip Makers on Piracy:
"The CSS license pact has aided the success of DVDs because it has provided protection against illegal copying to copyright owners of movies, television shows and other content sold on DVD."

Gimme a break! DVD became successful because:
- easy to navigate
- higher quality
- marketing, marketing and marketing (Movies on VHS were never displayed as prominently as DVD Movies today in record stores and electronics stores)

It has absolutely nothing to do with copy protection, which has been available on VHS long time ago! Anyone interested in "illegally copying" DVD enough would have found out how to break the so-called protection anyway.

[Update] Let's face it: copy-protection is made to be broken. Here is another example: How to Un-DRM your Un-DRM'd iTunes 4.6 Songs

Outsourcing CEO: take 2

Carly may not be too happy when she read this article: Jobs and the Resurgent Economy Outsourcing CEOs, especially after her company announced bad results.

Well, what goes around comes around. Carly: remember you said, "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore..." (see Outsourcing can build a safer world, Fiorina says BTW, this was the 2nd time I heard such ridiculous argument from CEO )

Ultimate Sports Junkie Sunday

I'm flipping between the following programs now:
- olympic soccer
- olympic boxing
- olympic basketball
- PGA championship
- A's baseball
- NFL Preseason

What a great day! Gotta love living in US :D Now I wish I have 6 TV...

HOWTO: Get out of AT&T Wireless contract without paying Cancellation Fees

Here is the thread from FatWallet

Basically ATTWS is going to increase the fee for 411. When the service agreement changes, customers are entitled to cancelled the contract without penalty.

I almost feel sorry for ATTWS when I see the level of enthusiasm and the number of responses to this thread. But then, who could sympathize with a company that provides poor service? Worse yet, they are trying all sorts of B.S. to refuse honoring cancellation without penalty. Some posters were told 411 is an optional service. Some were told they called too late (later than the period after the mail is sent.) All sorts of excuses...

When a company relies on this to keep its customer, you know how bright the future it has.

Salute to Mr. Koo Ming-Kown

Reading all those scandals about celebrities in the entertainment, political or business world, some times I ask myself: Do people still care about doing good deeds anymore? Who should be my daughter's role model when she needs one?

Fortunately, once in a while, you still hear some heart-warming stories: Mr. Koo, CFO of Nam Tai Electronic (and a fellow Pui Ching Middle School alum), has donated funds to keep alive the John F. Kennedy Centre of HK Red Cross, which offers senior secondary education (equivalent to Grade 12 in US) to physically very fragile students who have intense difficulties in attending classes in a regular school setting.

Previously Mr. Koo has donated HK$100 million to Hong Kong Baptist University to meet its fund-raising goal such that the government will match its subsidy in the same amount. This is a big boost to colleges that are facing financial difficulties in Hong Kong.

Now I have an answer.

You can rewrite books but you can't rewrite history

You can burn records but you can't burn memories.

Japanese government has deliberately taken out references of their invasion of China during WWII, including the Nanking massacre, from their history textbook, which is already a very shameful act. Now they request the Chinese government to do the same.

I certainly hope that the Chinese government would protest such a ridiculous demand (instead of being bullied like the old imperial China) I also hope Japan would acknowledge that painful part of history and apologized for the past sin. Then we could all move on. I condemn hatred, especially the unnecessary hatred between Chinese and Japanese simply because a few stubborn or manipulative government officials refused to recognize history. (The academics have once again shown their conscience. Read this article about how this is studied by some Japanese scholars)
Japan could learn a lot from Germany on how they coped with WWII.

People will not forget but people will forgive.

Here I am quoting from Modern History Sourcebook:
The Nanking Massacre, 1937

The Japanese occupation of Nanking, the capital of the Republic of China, lead to one of the greatest horrors of the century . This eyewitness report was filed by a New York Times reporter.

Aboard the U.S.S. Oahu at Shanghai, Dec. 17 [1937].
Through wholesale atrocities and vandalism at Nanking the Japanese Army has thrown away a rare opportunity to gain the respect and confidence of the Chinese inhabitants and of foreign opinion there....

The killing of civilians was widespread. Foreigners who traveled widely through the city Wednesday found civilian dead on every street. Some of the victims were aged men, women and children.

Policemen and firemen were special objects of attack. Many victims were bayoneted and some of the wounds were barbarously cruel.

Any person who ran because of fear or excitement was likely to be killed on the spot as was any one caught by roving patrols in streets or alleys after dark. Many slayings were witnessed by foreigners.

The Japanese looting amounted almost to plundering of the entire city. Nearly every building was entered by Japanese soldiers, often under the eyes of their officers, and the men took whatever they wanted. The Japanese soldiers often impressed Chinese to carry their loot....

The mass executions of war prisoners added to the horrors the Japanese brought to Nanking. After killing the Chinese soldiers who threw down their arms and surrendered, the Japanese combed the city for men in civilian garb who were suspected of being former soldiers.

In one building in the refugee zone 400 men were seized. They were marched off, tied in batches of fifty, between lines of riflemen and machine gunners, to the execution ground.

Just before boarding the ship for Shanghai the writer watched the execution of 200 men on the Bund [dike]. The killings took ten minutes. The men were lined against a wall and shot. Then a number of Japanese, armed with pistols, trod nonchalantly around the crumpled bodies, pumping bullets into any that were still kicking.

The army men performing the gruesome job had invited navy men from the warships anchored off the Bund to view the scene. A large group of military spectators apparently greatly enjoyed the spectacle.

When the first column of Japanese troops marched from the South Gate up Chungshan Road toward the city's Big Circle, small knots of Chinese civilians broke into scattering cheers, so great was their relief that the siege was over and so high were their hopes that the Japanese would restore peace and order. There are no cheers in Nanking now for the Japanese.

By despoiling the city and population the Japanese have driven deeper into the Chinese a repressed hatred that will smolder through tears as forms of the anti­Japanism that Tokyo professes to be fighting to eradicate from China.

The capture of Nanking was the most overwhelming defeat suffered by the Chinese and one of the most tragic military debacles in the history of modern warfare. In attempting to defend Nanking the Chinese allowed themselves to be surrounded and then systematically slaughtered....

The flight of the many Chinese soldiers was possible by only a few exits. Instead of sticking by their men to hold the invaders at bay with a few strategically placed units while the others withdrew, many army leaders deserted, causing panic among the rank and file.

Those who failed to escape through the gate leading to Hsiakwan and from there across the Yangtze were caught and executed....

When theJapanese captured Hsiakwan gate they cut off all exit from the city while at least a third of the Chinese Army still was within the walls.

Because of the disorganization of the Chinese a number of units continued fighting Tuesday noon, many of these not realizing the Japanese had surrounded them and that their cause was hopeless. Japanese tank patrols systematically eliminated these.

Tuesday morning, while attempting to motor to Hsiakwan, I encountered a desperate group of about twenty­five Chinese soldiers who were still holding the Ningpo Guild Building on Chungahan Road. They later surrendered.

Thousands of prisoners were executed by the Japanese. Most of the Chinese soldiers who had been interned in the safety zone were shot in masses. The city was combed in a systematic house­to­house search for men having knapsack marks on their shoulders or other signs of having been soldiers. They were herded together and executed.

Many were killed where they were found, including men innocent of any army connection and many wounded soldiers and civilians. I witnessed three mass executions of prisoners within a few hours Wednesday. In one slaughter a tank gun was turned on a group of more than 100 soldiers at a bomb shelter near the Ministry of Communications.

A favorite method of execution was to herd groups of a dozen men at entrances of dugout and to shoot them so the bodies toppled inside. Dirt then was shoveled in and the men buried.

Since the beginning of the Japanese assault on Nanking the city presented a frightful appearance. The Chinese facilities for the care of army wounded were tragically inadequate, so as early as a week ago injured men were seen often on the streets, some hobbling, others crawling along seeking treatment.

Civilian casualties also were heavy, amounting to thousands. The only hospital open was the American managed University Hospital and its facilities were inadequate for even a fraction of those hurt.

Nanking's streets were littered with dead. Sometimes bodies had to be moved before automobiles could pass.

The capture of Hsiakwan Gate by the Japanese was accompanied by the mass killing of the defenders, who were piled up among the sandbags, forming a mound six feet high. Late Wednesday the Japanese had not removed the dead, and two days of heavy military traffic had been passing through, grinding over the remains of men, dogs and horses.

The Japanese appear to want the horrors to remain as long as possible, to impress on the Chinese the terrible results of resisting Japan.

Chungahan Road was a long avenue of filth and discarded uniforms, rifles, pistols, machine guns, fieldpieces, knives and knapsacks. In some places the Japanese had to hitch tanks to debris to clear the road.

From F. Tillman, "All Captives Slain,'' The New York Times, December 18, 1937, pp. 1, 10.

---

This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history.

To be Goggled or not?

Just read an interesting article: while most of us try to boost our website's ranking in search engines/directories, some people actually are trying to do the opposite (BTW, "search engine optimizer" What a cool title! Sounds like my dream job :D )

Inspired by this, I've also learned something new today: the use of robots.txt to guide popular search engines.

Too dumb to dump (your date)

No one could be too dumb to dump his/her date anymore. Thanks to this new service that will make up excuses to get out of dates.

Man, whoever comes up with this idea is a genius, who got ditched too many times :P (Hmm... sounds like it could be one of my friends >:) Not bad turning his sour experiences into money!

It's a PDA? a laptop? No! It's TUG (THE ultimate gadget)

PDA, checked.
Cell phone, checked.
Laptop, checked.
Digital Camera, checked.
DV, checked.
MP3 player, checked.

That's what any typical gadget freak would do before (s)he goes on a trip. (That's what an Xtreme-freak would do when going to grocery shopping :P)

Wouldn't it be great when some day we could have an ALL-in-one device that combined the functionalities of all of the above? That's what I'd call the Universal Gadget (TUG), or THE ultimate gadget :D.

THE industry calls this convergence. Right now we have seen:
- PDA x Cell phone x Camera x MP3, e.g. Treo 600
- Laptop x Camera x MP3, e.g. Sony VAIO TR-series
- DC x DV, e.g. a lot of DV could take megapixel+ (up to 3.3) still these day
- DC x DV x MP3, e.g. Panasonic D-Snap SV-AV50S
etc.

Unfortunately, you need to sacrifice a lot of quality/performance on some (or ALL) functions in any multi-fuctional units. Not to mention a lot of money too!

I believe a TUG, with reasonable quality/performance in ALL areas, will appear in the next few years. Here is my minimum requirement/spec:
- 3 Megapixel camera
- 10x optical zoom
- Over megapixel CCD sensor for video
- record directly to HD in DV format (not mpeg2! don't want inter-frame dependency!)
- 80 Gb HD (enough for a couple hours of DV, music, still photo, movies for entertainment, games, combined. Oh yeah, the OS and PIM app too)
- 7" tablet-type screen. (No integrated keyboard)
- Running the same version of OS as my desktop with instant-on capability
- Integrated messenger application that combines voice mail/email/SMS/MMS/voice call/IM/video call in a seemless fashion.
- ability to connect to 3G phone network
- WIFI and auto-switch to 3G phone network when WIFI is unavailable.
- 6 full hour of battery life (per battery) with WIFI and bluetooth on.
- less than 3 lbs.

Periphreal for the UG would include:
- Blu-ray optical read-write drive with 13+ Gb capacity on single disk (in case I fill up the 80Gb during my trip)
- Bluetooth stereo (or multi-channel :P) headphone + mic

It would look like this (but less thick and bigger screen):

(Yeah, it's a Sharp ViewCam)

Alright, enough day dreaming!

Japan vs. China

[Asian Cup] Even if you don't follow sports, you've probably heard about the upcoming football match between Japan vs. China, the final of this year's Asian Cup, from "regular" news.

You've probably also heard about anti-Japanese emotion is running high around this game in China. A lot of Chinese fans' behaviors as a result of this have been criticized. The critics, including Mr. Tao Kit, an Apple Daily columnist that I have a lot of respect, say: sports is sports, politics is politics. Do not mingle them. On one hand, I agree boo-ing during Japanese national anthem is a poor display of manner. On the other hand, I think it is naive to expect too much rationality since sports fans are emotional by nature (hey, the emotional vs. rational debate again! Miss Yu: what's your comment?) Mr. Tao used France vs. Germany as an example to illustrate fans from those countries won't bring up wounds of WWII. I think that's a bad analogy though. How about Israel vs. Egypt, Jordan or Syria? I'm pretty sure the issue of the occupation of Gaza and West Bank will be brought up. Can you even imagine what will happen at an Israel vs. Germany game if the German hadn't apologize for holocaust?

In fact, sports and politics had a long history of mingling together. Remember the table tennis diplomacy between US and China? Remember the West boycotting Moscow Olympic?

Enough of politics, back to this game: my heart is certainly with the Chinese team. I hope they could play the best they can (Think Greek!) However, let's not set our expectation too high though. Their current success is most certainly a result of "inflation of ability" due to home field advantage (Think Portuguese!) Look at how many Japanese players are playing in Europe professionally (even though mostly as backups) and you know there is a gap between us and them.

Go China!

Charlie Haden

You learn something new everyday, man! (According to the book "Like Young", ending a sentence like this is the great Jazz bassist Charlie Haden's mannerism :P BTW, since my Palm was broken, I went back to reading "hard copy" books during commute. This is one interesting book on jazz. The author, Francis Davis, provided a lot of his insights.) I wrote this after his concert in HK. And I was so puzzled by his use of a big clear plastic "wall" separating himself from the rest of the band. Now I finally realized it's because he has hyperacousis (extreme sensitivity to loud sound)

Also new and interesting to me is that he's anti-Republican, a so-called leftist. Now it's clear to me what the name of his band, Liberation Music Orchestra, stands for. In fact, this band only releases new music during a Republican administration! He wrote a song called "Song for Che." Go figure! Even more surprising is that my idol on piano, Bill Evans "The Introspective", actually opposed to Haden's political views. Evans once told Haden he thought US troops should go to Vietnam.

Contributors to Tyranny

My fellow workers in silicon valley: I guess none of us are aware that companies we work for are providing technologies to the Chinese government to censor their people's internet access. See Tech firms blamed for aiding censorship in China. Amnesty International report cites deals done by Microsoft, Nortel, Cisco, and Sun in China

Money and morality: which one is the priority in the capitalists' world? It's so obvious.

Too simple, very naive

Just read a new argument for supporting offshore outsourcing, from the CEO of Parasoft. Quoting from Are Tech Jobs Moving Overseas?: 'Some residents of nations with few economic opportunities can turn to terrorism or cause other political instability, says Adam Kolawa, chief executive officer of Parasoft, a Monrovia, California, software vendor that uses offshore outsourcing. But countries with strong economic ties to the U.S. have little reason to target the nation, Kolawa says. "Offshore development is the best way to prevent going to war," he says.'

Doesn't he know most of American's (current and former) enemies: Osama Bin Laden, Taliban, Saddam Hussein, for example, used to have very strong ties to the US government? Why did they "betray" us?

Mr. "CEO": if you say you support offshore outsourcing since it helps to cut costs and thus make more money at your company, fine. It's a capitalist world. But saying things like "Offshore development is the best way to prevent going to war" is just naive.

Well, your big mouth has at least earn Parasoft some publicity. (Hmm.... I started thinking whether your company's name is inspired by parasite...)

[Updated] Came across a counter-argument in an interesting post on Yahoo's msg board about the danger of this practice: Eye-Opening Story on Indian IT industry

How to make soccer more entertaining?

While researching rules of soccer (still haven't figured out why no OT in the Copa America Semi-Final game), I came across these 2 articles:
Improving Soccer's marketability in USA via Higher scoring
Who else wants more entertaining soccer?

I could identify with this author as (1) I'm no soccer purist, (2) I do find American sports are in general more entertaining. IMO, the author made some good points when analyzing why soccer's popularity remains low in the States. His suggestions to rule changes seem a little bit too radical to me though.

Here are my suggestions:
1) [inspired by hockey] when the goal keeper takes the ball rather than punching it out after the other team's shot-on-goal, the opponent will be rewarded with a corner kick (analogous to face-off in hockey)

2) [inspired by basketball] disallow passing the ball back to own half when the ball has been advanced to opponent's half of the field (analogous to back court violation in basketball)

So long, Ricky

Ricky Williams, RB of Miami Dolphins, former Heisman trophy winner from my alma mater, University of Texas, has announced his retirement from NFL at the age of 27. In my mind, he has been THE MAN ever since he broke the all-time NCAA rushing record. He has been and will be a hell of a football player for many years to come. His retirement is totally unthinkable to a huge football fan like me!

However, when I talk to my wife about this, she has a completely different perspective. She said, "this is his life. Who could tell him how to run his own life?" Apparently a lot of people hold the same opinion.

French invented golf? Another myth?

Just read about this from Fortune magazine. Well, it probably has more truth than the 1421 theory! At least they were able to find a medieval French illustration of playing the game.

1421: the year China discovered America?

This is the subject and title of a controversial book by retired English navy Gavin Menzie. This is also the subject of a TV program recently broadcasted by PBS.

I saw the book at Costco before the program was aired but I didn't buy it. After I watched the program, I'm glad that I didn't spend money on the book. Why? I think there are simply too many "quantum leap" of faith in Mr. Menzie's theory. For example, he claims that when Columbus explored the sea, he had a chart, so did Magellan. The chart must have been created by someone travelled the route before. That someone must be Chinese since only Chinese would have such advanced knowledge. The last statement is nothing more than an educated guess. I don't mean to downplay his effort but good science is always supported by facts and logical deductions, not educated guesses. His work simply does not meet the rigorous standard that would allow it to be accepted by the academic community.

Offshore Outsourcing

Something interesting about my call to PalmOne's customer service (for repairing my Zire 72)
Now we all know a lot of companies have outsourced customer service call center to India but I just realized how much effort these companies have put it to disguise this fact!
For example, the reps would made up American-sounding names for themselves. (Though it's common practice in HK. All of my Indian friends use their Indian names.)
Also, my wife said she talked to some customer service rep. When they are asked where they are physically located, they said they're not allowed to disclose.

We Californian or most urban people are used to deal with foreigners. But not so for the more convervative populations in other areas. Maybe that's why those companies are doing this but I don't think these efforts would be effective unless the reps could disguise their accent as well.

Regulation Time then Penalty Shootout?

[Copa America 2004] Semi-final: Brazil vs. Uruguay 1-1 at end of regulation.
Then they went straight to penalty shootout.

Anybody knows why there was no over-time period? New rule again? So we had full 30 min OT, golden goal, silver goal... now no OT? The rules change too fast!

Boycott PalmOne

Look at what my 2-month-new Zire 72 has become:


a $300 paperweight.


Saw that dark area on the screen? It suddenly appeared out of the blue after 2.5 months of usage. Now this PDA is completely unusable, which means I paid >$100 for each month of its service.

The retailer (Circuit City) is not accepting return as it has passed 14 days. Man, I wished it died within the first 14 days. Apparently PalmOne's quality dept is good enough to figure what units would last longer than that so that you're stucked with it, but not long enough so that you have to replace it soon. Anyway, Circuit City refers me to PalmOne's service.

So what does PalmOne's warranty say? "This warranty excludes (1) physical damage to the surface of the product, including cracks or scratches on the lcd touchscreen or outside casing..." Notice that it excludes all physical damage to the screen, not just the ones caused by the owner! Well, I'm still sending it to PalmOne for repair. Let's pray they don't charge me AND do a good repair job.

So long my $300. So long PalmOne, which is going to lose me as a customer for life.

From what I read and heard, PalmOne really has a serious quality control problem after Palm III. They went too far to cut cost because PDA has become a low profit margin business but this jeopardized their quality and their brandname. (Dunno how reliable his source is but I was told that Treo 600 has a return rate close to 20%! My god!)

I will only buy another Palm OS machine if IBM is back in this business, which I think unlikely. :(

[Update: I did sent it to PalmOne for repair. They didn't charge me anything and sent it back in a week. It has been working fine since. Maybe I'm not boycotting PalmOne after all]

Microsoft Portable Media Center

I suspect this would be how it works and I hope it would not be. Well, too bad I was right. See Another Dumb Idea from Microsoft

The problem with it is that the software can't switch channel thru the tuner card if you have digital cable or satellite. So you can't program it to record the TV show you want.

The Archos AV 420 has chosen a different route: the player connects to your satellite/cable box video out directly. The dock has a infrared that could remote control the satellite/cable box and thus able to change channel!

So, problem solved! (only if this thing is actually in stock...)

"Sing good" or "sing bad"?

Master So taught me one thing that I always remember: "Lie, damn lie and statistics"

Every so-called analyst are presented with all sorts of statistics. It's human nature to focus on numbers that support one's point of view while ignoring others.

So, no matter what tune an analyst "sing", it will have a lot of convincing statistics to support it.

Check out this "sing bad" article about real estate.

Good news or bad news for jazz?

As a huge jazz fan myself, this article Upbeat Jazz Sales Lift Music Business Blues really interested me.

So, has Jazz become hip again? Has it become hip enough that people would call their things jazz just to sell them?

On one hand I prefer not to see the good name of jazz get tainted by non-jazz. On the other hand it probably has no impact on the instrumental side of jazz, which is my true love. After all, my idols won't suddenly start playing non-jazz.

Copa America 2004

When I wrote about Match of the Century in 2000, I said Copa America was the only event that plays on odd years. Well, I was wrong. It had played in even years before and it is playing in an even year now. By the way, I just realized they are the oldest international tournaments. Check out their history!

Unlike Euro 2004, all Copa America matches can be seen on regular cable/satellite channels (Telefutura, Univision and Galavision) IMO, some of the games are even more entertaining than Euro 2004. Probably because South American footballers tend to have better scoring skills.

Common trends in 2004 Sports

So far I have watched the Superbowl, Stanley Cup, NBA Championship, Euro 2004. And there are a few things common among them:

- no bona-fide superstar.
Let's look at the best known stars on each team.
New England Patriots have Tom Brady, but he's not as heralded as Peyton Manning or even Michael Vick. Certainly not comparable to QB's like John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young or Joe Montana from the previous generations.
Tampa Bay Lightnings have Martin St. Louis and Nikolai Khabibulin. I doubt many people could pronounce their names properly.
Detroit Pistons have Ben and Rashid Wallace, no marquee name compared to Shaq and Kobe.
Greece National Team...... I am not able to name one Greek player!

- defense, defense, defense.
All 4 champions are known as great defensive team. All are capable of holding their opponents' scores to the minimum and score enough points themselves to win. All of them do not have the most powerful/beautiful offence among their peers but efficient enough to "manufacture" goals/points.

All I could say is: these trends make the games boring! The sad thing is, it will continue in the foreseeable future :(

The end of the French era

[Soccer] Now that the French no longer own the World Cup and European Cup titles, it is the right time to call this the end of the era of French domination. Looking back, France was indeed the best team in the world from 1998-2001. Most members of their national teams were often the most important players in their professional teams. At this moment the above statement is no longer true. Only Thierry Henry is still the force at Arsenal (Zinedine Zidane to a certain extent at Real Madrid)

I think it is fair to say that France had a good run. Not so sure about the future of Greece though.

This reminds me of analogus situations in US sports: Brazil is like the Yankees, the perennial favourite. On the other extreme, Greece is like the Baltimore Ravens (NFL), who overachieved and surprised everyone but went back to reality soon. Germany is like Altanta Braves, who seems to be a contender every season. What is France like? I'd say New England Patriots, which had found their own success formula to win games and championships for the past few seasons, but not yet close to the status of a dynasty.

$700 stroller

Madeline doesn't like to sit in her $40 stroller.
Maybe she will enjoy the SUV-like view on this one.

This is Cecily and Robin. Oops. This is from their wedding :P 

The Year of Greek

Earlier in the year, "Troy" was the box office blockbuster.

Later in the year, Olympic will return to its origin, Athen.

Have there been enough clues?

We should all know this is the year of Greek! Shouldn't be surprised that they won Euro 2004.

They played well and showed great composure against more highly-regarded opponents. They even beat Portugal at their own yard, twice! What more can I say? They deserved to be the champion.

July 4th weekend family trip (LA, OC, SD)

Who are cuter? The Panda family or us? 
This is taken at San Diego Zoo. For more pictures, click here.

San Diego Zoo - Disappointments

We saw the panda. Other than that, the zoo is quite disappointing:

1) Poor direction. There are not enough signs to tell where you are and where the animals are. The maps do not even have the simple "You're here" indicator!

2) Poor layout. It's definitely not easy to go from point A to point B. When we decided to leave, it took us a long time to get to the exit. Not to mention the difficulty of finding it!

Maybe these are because the zoo is in the middle of remodelling. I hope it will improve. At this moment, two thumbs down!

The World famous Little Dragon Bun

They open at 10:30am. It's full at 10:31. Fortunately we got there earlier than expected. :D