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.