Monthly Archives: November 2003

To 30N 119E

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I decided to explorer the degree confluence point of 30N 119E. According to the website, it is 7.4 km (4.6 miles) N of Qiuyuan, Zhejiang, China

with approx. altitude of 581 m (1906 ft). I spent some time in the book store to find out the Chinese name for Qiuyuan. It is 秋源.

I will be there in about two week. Sebastian has been so kind to alow me to use his GPS for one week. Thanks Sebastian.

My Resources

Before I go, I have collected the following resources and it may be of help. (All of them are in Chinese)

Shangxi Village. From the description, I believe the “7.4km north of Qiuyuan” should be some where near Shangxi Village. I checked the two villages and learnt that Shangxi 上西 and Qiuyuan all belong to the Pingmen 屏门, Chunan 淳安 county, Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

Also on Shangxi. Seems it is a famous place already. There are more than 12 waterfall there.

Qiuyuan Map

I was surprised that a map company in Euro has so detailed map for China. It is also the only map I found on the Internet to mark Qiuyuan. It is marked as Ch’iu Yüan there. It seems it is the German style translation (note the two dots on u? ?.

Shanghai Metro #5 (Xin Min Light Rail)

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The Shanghai Metro Line #5 (a.k.a Xin Min Light Rail) started trial operation this Tuesday. The 17.2 km light rail run from Xin Zhuang (the terminal station of Metro Line #1) to Min Hang. This means the Metro line extends to the south Shanghai and connect the city with the satelite city of Min Hang.

I am particularly interested in the station near the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Min Hang Campus. I studied there for two years from 1995 to 1996 before I moved to the Xu Hui Campus. At the time I set my foot onto the campus, I have heard the news that a Metro line will connect the campus to the central part of the city. We waited and it didn’t happen in the two years we were there. The commute is a very big problem for students there. Getting onto the smelly and tightly packed Xu Min Line is nightmare for us especially for rush hours of Friday night or Sunday afternoon, when students living in Shanghai leave or return to the campus.

Now, the Dong Chuan Road Station is just at the corner of Dongchuan Road and Xumin Road. Although it is still about 5-minute walk to the gate of the campus and more time to dorm, it is already very convienient for the current Minhang campus student. :-) It only takes 30 minutes for the whole journey.

Anyway, it is a good news for everyone.

The newly added Metro #5 is shown as puple on the left-bottom corner of Shanghai Metro Map

Moscow Fire

My best wishes go to those who lost their beloved children in the Moscow Fire. Among the victims, there are 9 Chinese students and 4 more are still missing. May God bless them all….. //sign

Expressing with Icons

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I laughed out loud when I see the statement on Run’s website:

As to celebrate one month opening of Run2me website and thank those who supported the site, I issue a series of 5 website logos with high value of collection.

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Image courtesy of Run. Used with permission

It is a good idea to put the name of the website and the picture of the owner together to create the name card of a website. Interesting idea, isn’t it? I mean if this does not lead to personality cult in the long run. :-)

MSN Mesenger Icons

The new MSN Messenger Icon function of MSN 6.0 or higher is a great feature. Alex (website not functioning now) has a bunch of interesting icons. He just sent me a funny one this morning:

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Credit: Anoymous

You can also import the three icons (19×19 pixel in size) into your MSN Messenger (Click the emotion icon (the smiley face) and click “My custom emotions…” when you chat with some body. Then click Add to add these three icons to your MSN one by one. Be sure to assign a short cut to each of them. I am using //c1, //c2 and //c3. Thanks Alex for sharing.

Media – Should I Love It or Hate It?

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Today, I talked with the journalist from the People’s Daily about her new book about Microsoft. Very good person and very good book too. She also let me reviewed the section about my story. I always admire people who can devote him/herself to something consistantly, especially something like “writing”. I was told that I am the first read of the book. Will it be another best selling book? Not sure.

I have some media touch. I was personally interviewed (the kind of 1:1 interview) by Forbes, YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company), Strait Times (on SARS), and Oriental TV (on the traffic status in Shanghai..) I don’t trust media too much since just like the Muzimei’s blog, something that is not a big deal will cause many problem, not only to the persons involved, but also to many other people (for example, the children who search for the term of Muzimei)… That is bad.

My Digital IQ = 190

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Stonese’s comment on my Starbucks page led me to his blog (Chinese site). Really interesting to read all the funny stuff he has gathered. I was interested in the analysis of the Xi’an Anti-Japanese movement (via Kairen) and the Ditigal IQ Test on MSN.

Here are some sample questions among the 68 questions in the test. I also posted my explanation since it is a good way of explore my digital world. I agree that it really reflect one’s Digitial IQ. :-) Very interesting!

  • Do you buy computer online?

    No. Ecommerce in China is not that advanced now. I only buy CD and book online. BTW, I bought my last computer four years ago when I didn’t even buy book online.

  • Do you have broadband Internet access at home? Yes. I had Great Wall broadband at the beginning and then switched to ADSL from China Telecom.
  • Do you open attachments from people you don’t know?

    Never. I don’t open attachment with .exe extension from any of my friend either.

  • Do you have Wi-Fi Internet access on your laptop?

    Yes. Happen to have embedded wireless NIC in my Dell laptop

  • Do you know the closest free “hot spot”?

    Yes. There is no free hot spot in the area I live, but I know the nearest Starbucks, where you can access the Internet using the Tian Yi Tong I subscribed.

  • Do you use wireless Internet access while on the road? No. I don’t often do so. I do have experience to access the Internet using GPRS of my Alcatel OT715
  • Do you use your cell phone to access the Internet?

    Yes. I have WAP in my current mobile phone. I also play with Wendy’s SmartPhone Dopod 515

  • What does the “MP” in MP3 stand for?

    Moving Picture. Haha. Although MP3 is popular, seldom shall people know it is Moving Pictures for the MP. What is the relationship of Moving Picture with music? Hehe. It is a long story to tell.

  • Have you ever written a virus?

    Yes. Very small virus that is too dangerous and too easy to be killed. It was in the DOS era in my university. A ten line .BAT file that copy itself to all the shared (Novell) network folder and then make a copy of the current parent folder, then make copy of the resulting folder again, util the disk is full. :-( I was so naughty in the old times.

  • With today’s software, the amount of memory doesn’t matter as much?

    No. I don’t think so, but I know some people who think so.

  • I have a Weblog

    Yes. If you don’t know yet, it is at home.wangjianshuo.com

  • At least five other Weblogs are linked to mine

    Yes. 553 website link to home.wangjianshuo.com and 326 website link to wangjianshuo.com. (There are duplicates in the result but I heard Google return result from websites above PR3 only for link: function) Most among them are blog sites.

  • Do you have a home network?

    Yes. It also went wireless on June 17, 2003.

  • When you meet someone new, do you Google them?

    Yes. Yes. I do. Those guys behind the questionnaires are genius! How can they think of such interesting question. I do Google new friends to learn more about them if I think he/she has a high Digital IQ.

  • Have you installed Google toolbar?

    Yes. I cannot live without Google. My homepage is also set to Google.

  • Do you have dual monitors hooked up to your PC?

    Yes. I connect my monitor (big CRT monitor) into the dock of my laptop. So every morning, when I dock my laptop into the dock, the CRT shows the screen and I begin to use my keyboard and mouse on the desktop instead of the mini laptop. My laptop is powerful though. Some times, when I do a copy or backup things, I will configure to use two monitors together – just extend the main monitor to the other.

Why not have a try and know your Digital IQ? Of cause, do treat it as a joke instead of serious psychology test.

Starbucks in A Day – Part II

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Today, I continued my walk tour to the rest of the Starbucks. Due to the limitation of time and being unfamiliar with Pudong Area, I only visited 4 of all the 5 Stores in Pudong. They are:

Bin Jiang Store

Super Brand Site Store

Mori Tower Store

Times Square Store

The pictures and descriptions are consolidated to yersterday’s page.

It was really cold in Pudong and there are not many people. There are barely no customers in Mori Tower Store and Times Square Store. In contract, Bin Jiang Store is always crowded – it is said it has the best view in all Starbucks around the world. Is it true?

Starbucks in A Day

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On this page, you will see the photos of almost all Starbucks in Shanghai. I personally visited all of them in a day.

I mentioned that I want to go to all the Starbucks stores in Shanghai by walk. I am doing it today – I visited 12 stores of all the 27 hotels I know so far. Here are some pictures. It is not in particular order. I will take some time to modify this entry to add more comments on the location, comments and names to these pictures. Now I need to go to bed…

Here are a full list of Starbucks stores in Shanghai.

Kerry Center Store Add: 1515 Nanjing(W) Rd. Tel: 021-52986431
Zhao Jia Bang Rd. Store Add: 888 Shanxi(S) Rd. Tel: 021-54654992
Metro City Store Add: No.1111 Zhaojiabang Rd. Tel: 021-64268250
Lippo Store Add: 222, Huaihai Zhong Rd Tel: 021-53966379
East Paris Store Add: 559, Nanchang Rd Tel: 021-54652377
Xin Tian Di Store Add: Unit 1, Building 18,North Blocks Xin Tian Di Tel: 021-63200137
Mei Chen Store Add: 937, Huaihai Zhong Rd. Tel: 021-64728339
Citic Store Add: CITIC square,1168, Nanjing West Rd Tel: 021-52984548
Hong Xiang Store Add: 869, Nanjiang Xi Rd Tel: 021-62581941
People’s Park Store Add:189, Nanjing West Rd Tel: 021-63271930
Yu Yuan Store Add:100, Yuyuan Rd Tel: 021-63552271
Far East International Add: 299, XianXia Rd Tel: 021-62350615
Gu Bei Store Add: 20,ShuiCheng Nan Rd Tel: 021-62091760
Bin Jiang Store Add: Fu Du Duan, Bingjiang Da Dao, Pudong Tel: 021-58781332
Times Square Store Add: 500, Zhangyang Rd, Pudong Tel: 021-58368819
Orient Meitha Store Add: 98, Huaihai (C) Rd. Tel: 021-53858461
Super Brand Site Store Add: 168, 3F Lu Jia Zui (W) Rd. Tel: 021-50471106
Zun Yi Road Store Add: 101, ZunYi Road Tel: 021-62592540
Kerry Everbright City Store Add: 218, Tianmu (W) Rd. Tel: 021-63172662
Fuzhou Rd. Store Add: 567, Fuzhou Rd. Tel: 021-63222584
East Ocean Centre Store Add: 588,Yan An Rd. Shanghai Tel: 021-53855001

Source: Starbucks Newsletter

Updated November 23, 2003

Visit All Starbucks By Walk

I wrote the Article Starbucks in Shanghai on May 20 this year, It was just after SARS. I had a pleasant talk with Karine from Finland in the Starbucks Metro Tower Store. “I suddenly realize I need to turn my focus back to the amazing city itself instead of watching SARS everyday – the nice life will begin again.” I wrote.

Also, I happened to have visited Winter’s Starbucks Everywhere site. Winter’s goal is to visit every Starbucks Store in the World and at the time I check his website again today, he has visited 3686 North American stores and 114 British stores. It is amazing! So obviously inspired by Winter, I was planning my visit to all the 22 Starbucks Stores in Shanghai. The plan was to complete the tour at the beginning of June, but was postponed till today. I’d like to thank Winter for the great idea.

Then what is my own propose to visit all the stores? Why is it meaningful?

This brings another interesting project called Degree Confluence Project. “The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted on the website.”

So combine these two ideas together, I think it will be interesting to take Starbucks Stores as sample place in Shanghai. By putting these sample point together, it comes out a picture of the whole city. Starbucks management staff must have done a lot of work to choose the best place to open their stores. By following the stores of Starbucks, one can has a tour to see the most modern, attractive, prosperity side of the city. Yes. It is true!

Note: The following comments (“The best.. etc”) is based on my current incomplete tour of the Starbucks stores in Shanghai. It is subject to change in the future. The Best View means the best view in all the Starbucks stores in Shanghai, not world wide. :-)

Starbucks with Best View – People’s Park Store

My friend Patrick once told me that the Bin Jiang Store was awarded the best view of all Starbucks store around the world. This was not the first time I heard of this. However, if I am the judge, I will definitely choose the People’s Park Store of Starbucks.

The People’s Park Store is Located in exactly the central of Shanghai – either in terms of distance to the government building, which is a most common way of the concept of “Central” in China cities, or in terms of the geographic central. The base point of land measure is in the International Hotel, or Park Hotel, which is only 200 meters away. :-)

It is beside the People’s Park and the Shanghai Art Museum. It is also an (almost) stand alone building with to stories. It has a nice big first floor and a large gazebo on the second floor. From there, you can see the beautiful tower of the Shanghai Art Museum. See people below:

Also, the building is surrounded with the People’s Park and you can take your Coffee and step into the grass land of the Park.

Above: The consistent Starbucks style counter of the People’s Square Store.

Near Metro: B – within 2-minute walk to the nearest Metro Exit

Stand Alone Building: B – A stand alone building shared with another one store

Scene: A – Very good view without obvious shootcomings.

Starbucks with Chinese Style – Yu Yuan Store

Yuan Yuan is the only store in Shanghai, I have to say, with strong Chinese style. The reason I followed all the Starbucks in Shanghai is, all the Starbucks stores are located in the business centers in Shanghai. However, there are two exceptions. One is the Yuyuan Store and the other is the Qibao Store. The areas are crowded and there are no business people there.

It is clear that the major customer segment for the Yu Yuan Store are foreign tourists. It is also the smallest Starbucks Store in Shanghai with only 9 seats or so. I had a hard time to find the store in the Yu Yuan area. Finally, it show up in the opposite side of the famous Jiu Qu Bridge. Yes. It is the heart of Yu Yuan Garden Area.

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Near Metro: D – no Metro access

Stand Alone Building: C – no stand alone building but with a stand alone shop venue

Scene: C – Interesting view but either crowded or dirty

Xin Tian Di Store

Xin Tian Di is the place of all kinds of Bars and western Restaurants. It is for sure that Starbucks will reserve its place there. Built in a Shanghai old style house, the Xin Tian Di Store fits into city very well.

Below is the standard name plate for all the restaurants/bars/cafes in Xin Tian Di. I like the simple design.

Below: The seats are always occupied. The Tai Cang Road by the seats are considered the entrance to the great area.

Below: The famous Starbucks Logo on the typical Shanghai gray brick wall…

Below: The house of Starbucks.

I would like to recommend everyone to visit this store and take a seat on the second floor. The wood stair and the decro insdie reminds people of the old times of Shanghai.

Near Metro: c – within 10-minute walk to the nearest Metro Exit (Metro South Huang Pi Rd. Station)

Stand Alone Building: B – A stand alone building shared with another one store

Scene: B – Good but no particular view of interest

Lippo Store

Moving eastward along the Huai Hai Road from the Zhong Huan and Xin Tian Di Store, we get to the Lippo Tower Store. Just like many other simliar stores, it is located inside a top office building – the Lippo Tower.

AIDS Comes Closer to Us

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World AIDS Day on Nov 1, 2003 is approaching, just as AIDS itself approaching ourselves.

Via Sina.com.cn, I learnt there are 1 million HIV carriers in China, which means there is one AIDS patient among every 1300 people. It is predicted that the number of AIDS patients will rise greatly in the next five years.

I first learnt AIDS from a campaign on AIDS in Luoyang when I was only 15 years old (in 1987?). The knowledge of AIDS and how to prevent it were displayed on the board on the central square. However, I never saw such kind of campaign again. Now in Shanghai, it is reported that there are 685 AIDS patient in Shanghai – I don’t believe in the number. I saw the astonishing news that half of the caught 26 chief in Hangzhou were tested to be HIV carrier.

I really begin to worry about the society now. The recent horrible mass killer was caught after he killed 60+ people in the last two years. Also, another one just killed 20+ children before he was caught. What astonishing news! It is much more serious than SARS.

Besides AIDS, SARS and the massive killing criminal, suicide is also a society problem. 0.28 million people successfully commit suicide every year in China and another 2 million people try suicide but fail every year. That means one person kills himself/herself every two minutes in China.

Without a strong religious common belief, it is really a hard time now for China.

Wandering in the Rain

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I am tired.

I took one day sick leave at home. It was a short pause after the long week, if I count the two intensive day of driving last weekend as working days. :-)

It started to rain from this morning in Shanghai – actually not only rain – it was very foggy from 11 PM yesterday night till this morning. All express ways of Shanghai had been closed. Even the National Road – the lower level of highway are closed. This does not happen frequently. Not to mention the closure of the two airports. I learnt this from the newspaper when I was buying my lunch at C-Store downstairs. It was the headline of the local Youth Daily.

It was exteremely cold outside. I only wear a T-shirt inside and a coat outside. After lunch, I went to the street. Although it was still raining slightly, the Charity Lottery organizer lined their tables up in the square in Tianlin. The high volume speaker repeatly annonced the new award winner of 100 RMB – the big price is 300,000 RMB each for 24 persons. I smelt the sense of money in the air. Many people rushed to the tables and put their money in, dreaming to get the 300K.

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Metro Line #3

I got on board a bus No. 830 and it took me northward the city. I don’t know why but I fall deep asleep on the bus. I woke up only to see myself in a completely unfamiliar area that I never being. I get off the bus and got into the coldness again.

It was a busy town there. There was even a Hymall there. Thousands of bicycles and cars were taking their ways to home in the rainy cold afternoon. It was totally a mess. At least, I saw the elevated railway – it is the symbol of Metro Line #3. I know if I walk along the rail and I will get back home. It is intesting that I never felt into a situation like this – cold, alone and in a strange place.

Walking along the elevated railway of Metro Line #3 for about 10 minutes, I finally found a station in dark. It is the Zhongtan Road. Station next to the Shanghai Railway Station. I extended my hand into my pocket and touched my camera – I often took it with me when I get out – who knows what interesting things happen around me? It does not hurt to take it with me.

The Station

Standing about 3 stories high, the station of Metro Line #3 was by no means warm. The high roof and the ground made up a short tunnel and the cold air keep coming from one side of the tunnel and blow to the other side. There are not many people waiting there. It is interesting that the train heading to the north side of the city was tighly packed but there is almost no people waiting for the southward train. It is clear that those people just finished work and get back to their home in the north side of the city. The metro line #3 is mainly designed to help people in the north side of the city to get to work. Maybe.

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The Train

I love the color of the train for Metro Line #3. It is dark blank – very cool color. The train looks more modern than those running in the tunnel of Metro Line #2 and #1. The head looks like a bullet – something similiar with the MagLev.

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Look inside – it is much warm. I was so glad that I finally get inside to enjoy the short warm room before I get back to the cold dark night of Shanghai again.

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The impression of the day is cold for me. It was also an interesting day though.

World Toilet Day

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After getting up, I have the feeling that Nov 19 is a speicial day but cannot find out why it is special. I remember I read about it on some blogs but just cannot recall what it is.

Finally, I found out it is the World Toilet Day (via Flyingchair) I really laughed to see there is an organization in Singapore focusing on Toilet.

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Shanghai’s Toilet is Dirty

What is most impressive about your visit to Shanghai? I didn’t conduct a survey yet, but I believe many foreigner’s will say: First, the skycrapers and the second, the toilet.

Shanghai’s toilet is by no means clean. There are still lots of toilets with strong bad smell and tissue is not supplied. Sometimes you cannot find water to wash your hand and sometimes, it is very hard to find a toilet. :-(

I do hope the movement will make the toilet cleaner.

Do you Know

From the World Toilet Organization website, I learnt

  1. An average person visits the toilet 2500 times a year. About 6-8 times a day.

    You spend about 3 years of your life in the toilet.

  2. Poor toilet condition is a worldwide problem. More than half of the world population have no proper sanitation.
  3. Suppression of urination due to dirty toilets can lead to kidney and bladder diseases.

    In order to avoid visting public toilets, Some people refrain from drinking and suffer dehydration.

  4. Most toilets are designed incorrectly.
  5. Female takes 3 times longer than male, yet both toilet sizes are often same.
  6. Toilet remains as a ‘taboo’ as people are shy to discuss the subject.
  7. There are toilet associations worldwide promoting toilet education and culture.

Interesting. But they really created ugly poster that made people sick!

Smart Card ID Card in Hong Kong

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Phil shared the new Smart Card version of his Hong Kong Permenant Identification Card on hisFlying Chair website. It looks very cool. “I actually like the fact that I can put my driving license information on it and carry less cards. If you put it in a reader you can see all the information stored in the chip….”, Phil mentioned. It is a cool feature. Now, I have at least three government issued cards I need to carry with me every day – the National ID (who knows when I need it), the Driver’s license (if I will drive) and the Social Insurance Card to see a doctor (good thing is, the expense will be covered by my insurance). It will be a good news if these cards can get together.

The Social Insurance Card I have already have some kind of IC card feature – I can go with the card and every hospital will recognize my name and dedute money from the card.

101 Building in Taibei

Thanks to Taipei101 MBlog website. There are plenty of pictures of the newly built 101 building in Taipei (via CNBlog)

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Credit: Taipei 101 Mblog

It has 101 floors and took 5 years to complete. It is 88 meters higher (509m) than the Jinmao Tower (421m) in Shanghai and now ranks the tallest building in the world. This building looks similiar with Jinmao Tower from outside.

Weather

Shanghai is getting much cold now. I cannot do without a warm coat. Winter has arrived. I still remember my first winter in Shanghai. There was no A/C or any heating device in my dorm and people screamed when getting into the cold wet quilt. :-(

This is the scene from weatherpixie.com, describing today’s weather:

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New SJTU Minhang Campus

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I drove to the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiaotong University today. It changed greatly. Look at the picture below? Who know where this building is?

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© Jian Shuo Wang

It was the Dining House of the North Area – the most ugly building on the campus. Now, it is rebuilt. They even have Yonghe in it. The new building is named:

SJTU – Hualian Community Center

Big Minhang

Minhang is much bigger than it was when I studied there. The area east of the Xinfeng Highway has been developed and the road infurstructure has been estabilished. When I studied there, the vast area at the corner where the Huangpu River wind to west is farm, now, the high quality road has divided the area into blocks. There is no building on it yet, but it is clear that the area will be very good place in the future.

Here is the map of the future plan.

Minhang Blog

Via a Google search for Minhang Campus of SJTU, I found Sebastian’s ShanghaiBlog. He is logging her daily life on Minhang Campus and in the city. Nice articles.

My Drive Record

First Time: Really Scared. Went to Minhang – Pretty good Santana

Second Time: Went to see the houses on sunny Saturday. Very nice Santana Century

Third Time: Poor VW. Went to Songjiang and back for the America Broadway Theater. Then get a ticket and first run up to the Nanpu Bridge.

Forth Time: Very good Santana – the same as the second time. Picked up Chen and Xia in Pudong and run to sea shore. Back to Minhang and went to Chifeng Rd. Near Fudan.

Reached Sea and Saw Faye Wang

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I invited my friend Chen and Xia to go with Wendy and me for a weekend drive today. We started at aroudn 2:30 PM and reached the China East Sea at around 3:30 PM.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

Saw Supper Stars in Asia

At night, we rushed back to Shanghai Stadium, parked my car in IKEA and went to see the Asia Super Star Anti-Pivacy Show. I saw about 10 super stars in the show. Very cool!

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Matrix Revolutions

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I just returned from the film Matrix. I did hesitate for quite a while before I decided to pay 60 RMB to the Kodak Theater at Metro City to see the film. After I get out of the theater, still having all the stories in my mind, I have to say, I will make the decision to see it again – it is just fanatics. It is a good practice to go beyond imagination and a good test of one’s logic ability.

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Credit: Whatisthematrix

Online PRG Games – A Good Analogy

My friend XGAO who came with me to the field give a very good analogy to understand the Matrix.

In the Matrix I, actually, it is tell a story just like the current online PRG games:

The Human Factor

The game fans eat and sleep in a small room with a computer terminal. They have their roles in the game – the virtual world: soldier, farmer, ghost, etc.. you name it. They don’t have any real relationships in the real world. They talk, live and work in the online games.

In Matrix, it is exactly the same. However, it is more ugly. Human beings are not treated in small rooms – they are put into tubes without being aware of. :-) What a good design.

The Matrix Factor

In the online games, all the human player follow the same role – you have to fight to gain strength points. You have to work to gain money. You need to at least walk around to gain experience. The increase in the value needs your work.

When two persons fight, the one with higher strength point win. Pretty fare – just like the vitural socioty in Matrix. No one will notice it is actually a program.

So who is the matrix? The online game operator in real world is the matrix. They can turn your money to zero if they want. They can erase the whole city including people living in it if they want. They just change the configuration of the program.

From the perspective of the players of the online game, sometimes they will find some roles that cannot be defeated. They have the highest power possible – out of the imagination of human being. There is no human behind these roles – they are programs. This is the matrix.

Neo

If there are some people who don’t want to follow the rule, they will great some kind of add-on or hacking scripts to falsefully increase one’s power – to be super man. Computer hacks can do it in online games. In the film, these group of people are Neo and all the human beings. They find ways to disobey the rule the Matrix (online game operator in real world) designed. So the Matrix is going to find these people and kill them. This is the story told in Matrix I.

Agent Smith

Actually, Agent Smith is exactly the computer virus in online game system. They gain power and duplicate themselves. It is out of the control of the whole system and will eventually ruin the whole system – alone with all the virtual lives in the system. This is what the system operators (in the analogy – The online game operator (like Sina or Netease in China)) don’t want to see.

The War

Since Agent Smithes get stronger and stronger, there are three parties in the game – the matrix, the human and the virus. The matrix accepted Neo (the hacker)’s proposal of peace. The Matrix can only rely on the hackers to remove the virus (Agent Smith) from the computer system. So it stops attacking the human being after Neo did the job.

The Oracle

Oracle is also part of the system who is in favor of the hackers.

Thanks for XGAO for the great analogy.

Muzimei Shock Wave (cont.)

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Shock Wave in Search Engine Terms

Keyword: 木子美 (Muzimei)

11/10/2003 Hit 998 Baidu Rank 730

11/11/2003 Hit 117,318 Baidu Rank 1

Keyword: 遗情书 (Yiqingshu)

11/10/2003 Hit 181 Baidu Rank 5495

11/11/2003 Hit 54,151 Baidu Rank 4

Shock Wave in Website Traffic

11/10/2003 Unique Visitor 16K Bandwidth 2.99G

11/11/2003 Unique Visitor 114K Bandwidth 11.59G

Source: BlogChina

Can I draw the conclusion that on Nov 11, 2003, the hotest topic in China Internet users is, Muzimei and her sex blog?

Blogcn.com Shutdown Because of Traffic Reason

Intead of my guess of media or government pressure, blogcn.com is not accessible due to the huge volume of the traffic. According to Blogchina.com, blogcn is trying to add more servers to handle the huge traffic. Our reader JH and dodo, Muzimei’s website is accessible on North America while I cannot access it even via proxy in U.S. The traffic reason will explain this – it is not because of the block, it is because the traffic is much lower at U.S. day time – when the Muzimei seekers in China fall asleep. Zzzz…

“Microsoft Violated My Right of Know”

After reading Blogchina.com, I found one of the most interesting statement I saw this month. It is in an article about all the reasons of using pirated Microsoft software. Most of them didn’t make sense. I think the author just wrote it as jokes. Among them, I see this reason:

“Microsoft refuses to open the source code to me. So they violated my right of know”

Haha. What a right of know. :-)

Muzimei’s Sex Blog Brought Trouble

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Hehe. After the DOS (Deny of Service) attack of U.S. network, a girl caused the same kind of attack to blogchina.com. Moreover, the magic is, the girl really caused people to click on the links to BlogChina using their own mouse, instead of the DOS previously caused by virus program. The girl is a journalist called Muzimei.

The girl shared all her sex experience with the public. This is extremely astonishing in the current China society. Also, she became the most famous blogger in China. After her blog was exposed by Sina, Sohu , ycwb and hundreds of blog sites, people got aware of the blog and rushed to her blog:

遗情书 木子美

www.blogcn.com/blog/?u=muzimei

www.blogcn.net/user/muzimei/main.asp

However, the blog has already be closed due to (maybe) media/ISP and/or government pressure Update: No pressure except huge volume of hit is involved so far. Disappointed people turn to Google or Baidu for help. Our victim BlogChina, as listed in the third of the result page, got 5 times more than normal hit rate.

Blogcn.com Shutdown

The Blog Service Provider (BSP) of Muzimei’s blog (blogcn.com) has already been shutdown. Along with Muzimei’s, many more people are affected. I don’t know the exact number of user for this server. It should be huge since blogcn.com is one of the largest BSP with the longest history. How painful others blog owners feel to be shutdown with this star blog.

I Support Muzimei

Clearly, I am on the side to support her. Sharing is good. Why people have to judge others behavior if it does not hurt anyone?

Wait a minute. Muzimei has released the name of the men who has ever slept with. This is bad. I believe a blog can reveal whatever you want to show about yourself, but not others.

This is my definition of privacy: Privacy is the right not being known. Everyone can judge about what is private and what is not. Of cause people has the right to expose everything about him/herself. It is granted right. But people cannot hurt other’s privacy by exposing other’s personal information without other’s agreement. I see the problem of Muzimei’s blog as privacy probelm only.

Update November 30, 2003

Muzimei’s book of Yiqinshu was ready to be published these days. The Twenty-First Centuary Publishing House has made 120,000 copies of the book already. However, the National News and Publishing Administration banned just issued the order to stop the publishing of this book. Why?

Appologize from Baliforyou

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Today, I got email from the web manager of Baliforyou.com, which I claimed to be Comment Spam.

Dear Jian Shuo

hi

my name is Zack and Im the Web manager of Baliforyou.com, we are in partnership with kecak.com. My staff member indicated to me today your website with your comment about us as being spammers. I am sorry i did not know that my staff was signing guests book when they were suppose to be finding links and link exchanging instead of spamming on guests book.

Please accept my appology on behalf of baliforyou.com. I have given a warning letter to my link masters and threatened them in loosing their jobs,

Once again, please accept our appologies, I too agree with you that spamming is not a healthy business. I also get 3000 spams on my forum and emails and believe me I dont enjoy this either.

Thank you for you indicating this

kind regards

Zack Olsson

Web Manager

baliforyou.com

Well. Good. I’d like to thank Zack for his/her quick response. I withdraw my claimation and decide to call baliforyou.com a good net citizen now. :-D