Flowers Bloom on MSN Messenger

Two days before, Eric sent me the message via MSN: “请放一朵玫瑰 ,在MSN名字之前( 名字前加”括号f括号”),用来表现对于数百位俄罗斯死于恐怖行动的孩童哀悼,希望可以传这个讯息给你所有线上名单,看看会有少朵玫瑰盛开” or in English: “Please put a rose in front of your name to show your sympathy for the hundreds of children killed in Russia terrorism attack.”

I added.

One hour later, there are 10 contacts on my MSN Messenger with roses (f) before their names.

Two hours later, there are about 30.

At noon, which is about 3 hours later, I counted and there are 62 contacts in my MSN Messenger contact list put the rose before their names.

Roses bloom on MSN Messenger world.

Argument Spread on Blogging and BBS World

With many people put on the flowers, many people strongly criticized this behavior. Under Eric’s report on this event, I found this link. People who are against this “rose movement” argued: “Why you don’t put on rose when people in China surfer from disaster, like the fire in Luoyang (killing more than 300 people), or flud currently in southeast (killing more than 100 people)? What is the point to show sympathy to other countries?” The term they used are sham, shameless, stupid…

It is good that different voices are heard on BBS, blogs, comments, and almost every where on the Internet. On one hand, this is good thing to see people start to think differently. On the other hand, I am also very worried about chaos in the new generation. Some dangerous ideas may lead to war after several decade, such as racism, narrow-minded nationism comments and post.

Let me share a store. Kevin sent out an email about three abandoned cats in his neighborhood. The poor cats were abandoned when someone move out. Now they are homeless, don’t have food and wandering on the street without a place to hide from rain.

I was so moved and wanted to adopt them, the poor lives. I discussed with my friends and they said: “Why bother taking care of animals when there are still some children in this country need money to go to school?.” Well. It is reasonable. How about I denote to charity o help poor children to go to school? Wait a minute, will any one jump out and say: “Hey. You are stupid. They can at least survive. There are many others who almost died…”

What I am trying to say is, whenever there is something you can help, just help. Don’t wait… Back to the topic, to show sympathy to people does not mean lack of sympathy to people on the same motherland. Regarding this event itself, it is just a co-incident that this idea got spread quickly. It reached the tipping point. If you remember, a similar movement to memorize Christine Zhang by adding a C before display name stormed the whole Internet world about one year ago…

Going to F1 Grand Prix

I finally got the F1 Grand Prix. I was not interested in F1, as most of people in Shanghai, maybe in China. No suprise. This is the time time F1 comes to this country. I never saw real F1 before. However, when the big, nice, red ticket is on my hand, I became a little bit excited. I never saw F1 before. At the time I bought it, there are only GRASS STAND TICKET for Sunday, Sept 26, 2004.

shanghai-f1.ticket.jpg

F1 Ticket for Shanghai Grand Prix 2004. © Jian Shuo Wang.

On the official Shanghai International Circuit website, there are some very cool photos of the venue. Go there and have a look. I will bring my camera with me and record the event.

The venue is not very far from Shanghai downtown – if and only if you have a car. Here is a map, somewhere at the north-west part of the city. It is 30 minutes car ride to Hong Qiao Airport, 50 minutes to the Pudong Airport.

I considered to driver there – to drive to see F1 is exciting. However, I learnt parking area is not planned at the F1 Circuit. How can it be possible! Since there are 150,000 visiters to the event, private cars (without special pass certificate) have to park at the streets nearby. It is about 4-5 km away from the circuit and takes at least 1 hour to walk there. En…. Let me think twice – to stand whole day on the grass to watch F1 and walk up to 3 hours a day may be too tiring. So I decided to join the group to take shuttle bus from downtown there. There are 4 lines from four big stadiums in Shanghai to F1…..

I guess it will be an exciting day for me. I went to karting for some times, but I know F1 is totally another thing.

AutoComplete in Web Page

This is an Auto Complete in Web Page demo. According to the file header (thanks to my good habbit to write long and detailed file header in all my source code), it is written on March 6, 2001. It shows how to implement the AutoComplete feature on a web page. Try to input something and see the input gets AutoCompleted. I have populate a long list of titles on this blog into the history.

Fahrenheit 911

Yesterday is the third year memorial day of 9-11. I cannot skip this day without posting something about it. My flowers go to all the people (from various nations) who were killed in that disaster.

I bought Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 DVD from a video store at Tian Lin around 9:00 PM, after swimming at Sports Hotel. I admit it is pirated, the only channel to access the film here in China. The film importing administration has decided not to import this film this year.

Putting the video into my Shinco DVD player, I started the journey to explorer the stories behind the scene. I know it is only one of the many voices in United States regarding 9-11 events, but the fact that this film came out is astonishing. When my day of Sept 11 passed, I finished the movie. Well. I don’t want to comment on the content of the film, but I appreciate Moore’s courage, reasoning and fact finding efforts. It is a nice film.

Font Changed to Bigger

After the forecast of Upcoming Change in Font Size, I uploaded the new CSS to my web server. I have formed a habbit to link to this CSS file whenever I create a new web page, so the most basic features of my style becomes handy. These features include:

  • Verdana font
  • Font size of 12pt (the default size in IE and most browsers). It was 10pt before.
  • Colorful Headings.
  • Margin on the left and on the right

Do you like the new design?

More than Font Size

Besides the change in font size, I made some minor changes to other parts for sake of usability improvement. This the second usability improvement on this site (first Usability Improvement). I conducted Top Usability Mistakes of Wangjianshuo’s Blog) research one year and a quarter ago. I hope the site keep involving itself.

Navigation Bar

I changed the navigation bar a little bit so when you click Home and navigate to Home page, the Home does not has a link, implying you are on the page. The same applies to Archives, Directory, and Map. What is the usability guideline behind this?

Visibility – By observing, users should know where they are and what is the possible actions they can perform

Wangjianshuo’s BBS Launched

I am cautious to open a BBS on my site. One month ago, I posted: Shall I Open a Shanghai BBS. At that time, I still didn’t decide to open one. The major barrier is, I don’t think I have any spare time to operate a BBS. As everyone is aware of, to maintain a good BBS is not easy, even tougher than running a blog.

However, with friends’ encouragement, I finally step out to open one. It is to forester more voices and more topics beside the “Wangjianshuo monopoly” on my blog. :-D

More Topics, More Voices

After writing for this blog for two years, I (successfully) created a community around my ideas, my observations and topics I am interested. I will always cherish this community and keep it unchanged.

Meanwhile, with more and more visitors coming everyday, people find their questions and their needs are well beyond the scope I can touch. Imagine, there are constantly 110,000 page views every single day, 7 days a week on this site. There are all valid human actions. If you count Google bots, automatic reading machines (like RSS readers), hit rate is sometimes as high as 260,000 hits/day. Imagine how I can cover all the topics these huge number of visitors want. People are asking “I wanted to know this but I cannot find a right article on your site to post, so….” and “….so I am writing this email to you…”, or “…so I am posting here but it maybe out of topic….”.

Taking that into consideration, I am opening a new forum for people who are reading this site, who stumbled to this site via Google, to share, to help each other.

I Won’t be too Active on BBS, Though

Although I opened the BBS, please don’t expect me to be active in the BBS. I am not full time on this (if you consider that I have a very busy job to do already). To make sure you are not disappointed, I will keep the rule that I WON’T answer posts in the BBS. I expect my friends and frequent readers to help people with their questions. If I found some questions that I cannot help answering it, I will answer it in my blog. I will still monitor all comments on my blog as before. Does it make sense?

Moderates

The good news is, earthmilk, and some other great readers have accepted my invitation to be be the moderates for each board. I bet they can help to make this BBS a great success.

Risks

Is there any risk to open a forum? Yes, surely there is. When I open a BBS, as a responsiable service provider, I have to make sure the data is well maintained. Nobody wants to post to a forum that disappear after one or two year. If the traffic is high, the maintaince cost well worthes it. However, if not many people come to the BBS, to maintain the forum (weekly backup the data, daily check for new posts – although this is not mine job…) will be a burden.

If it does happen, let’s say after three months, I may consider removing the links from the navigation bar of this site but still keep the data. As the usability guideline suggested, any new function is a road block for users to find the other functions. If I want to close the BBS in the future – I keep the right to do so, I will post a notice three month in advance so people can back up their articles and data. You see, to be a professional provider is not easy.

Last Post in Year II

This is the last blog of Wangjianshuo’s Blog in the Year II. Well. Relax, relax. This is not the last post – I know some of my frequent readers are alarmed to see the title, as Carroll did when she read my article To Continue or Not? Confusing in China Blogsphere. I am not abandon this blog. The news I am going to deliver is, I am stepping to the third year of Wangjianshuo’s Blog from tomorrow.

Here are some experienced I got in the last 731 days.

  1. Write personally.
  2. Start your own domain early.
  3. MovableType is a good blogging tool for serious bloggers.
  4. Link is a gift to others.
  5. Set an interval of posting (if you cannot post once everyday as I did) and stick to it.
  6. Forecast OOB (Out Of Blogging) whenever possible.
  7. Content is more important than appearance. Don’t hurt the content by adding disturbing element.
  8. Always include souce when quote and give credit to others is the best way to build your own credit.
  9. Don’t like quoted content domainate your blogs.
  10. Write with great details.
  11. Blog is not something new to show off.
  12. Turn on Google AdSense if your readers think it is acceptable. This is to support you to get your own domain instead of blah-blah.blogspot.com or blogcn.com..
  13. Start with a topic and write around it.

Upcoming Change in Font Size

I have planned this for a long time, from the first day of this blog till now. I am going to change the current fixed font size (10pt) of this blog to a blog with relative font (100%, 120%…) size.

This is a change according to the suggestion of this article: Let Users Control Font Size.

I didn’t change since I used MovableType’s original CSS and the change made the page almost unreadable. Now, with two years gradual change, I will launch the bigger font version tomorrow, exactly at the first day of the third year of my blog.

Changes

The first change you notice is, the font in this blog becomes bigger. Now it is Verdana with 10pt in size. From tomorrow, it will change to 12pt Verdana if you are using Intenet Explorer’s default setting. This, I hope, give people better reading experience.

The second change is, you can control the font of all elements on this website. You can point to Text Size on View menu of IE and select one of the 5 text sizes: Smallest, Smaller, Medium, Larger, Largest. According to the size you select, the font size of the website changes. This feature was disabled in my current version since I explicitly specify the font size.

Feedback

Give me some feedback on how you like it. I hope the change is a positive move for most of readers. I am using this site as a usability project that continue to strike for the best usability possible.

Shanghai’s Growth is Slowing Down

No matter how the media reports, I am feeling the development speed of Shanghai is slowing down, from the tiniest things happening around me. Shanghai is still growing, but not at a speed like years before.

When I was in university, especially in the years of 1998, 1999, Shanghai changed so much. New bridges, new shopping malls and office buildings (like those in Xujiahui) and the elevated roads became into being. When I return from a vacation longer than 2 weeks, sometimes only for several days, I will find significant change in the appearance of the city. That was the most exciting part of the city and is among the most exciting memories I had.

However, I don’t feel the excitement when I am back to the city. The basic infrastructure of the city has been built and now the constructions are focused on improve, instead of build. I don’t see something very new when I am back. The city does not change at the speed it did.

The Shanghai’s growth seems to be slowing down.

P.S. F1 ticket

I got the assignment to buy 21 F1 tickets tomorrow for Sept 26, 2004. I am not sure if I can get it now – it seems too late. Even if there are some tickets left, it should be the grass ticket – the area without seats and people have to stand there to watch. Anyway, compared to those who traveled thousands of miles to Shanghai to see the circuit, it is much easier for us to watch it.

On Credibility

Eric is angry today. His blog article on 75 Rules of Thumb of Software Development (Chinese site) was quoted by CSDN without prior notification on the homepage. The worst is, under another person’s name. 27 comments quickly followed the original article including an editor from CSDN.

When I just started this blog, I read this article: Honesty Honesty (Credibility Revisited). It is a very good starting point for me to keep my promise on credibility. I became very careful to quote, and to give credit to where it belongs to.

You can build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence. Even if people don’t follow these links, you’ve shown confidence in your material.

Quoted from On Credibility (via Honesty )

My Rules

Here is my own rule regarding credibility – always check the owner for permission before quoting any article. I seldom quote (in full) articles on this site since they belong to where it is. If I want people to see it, why not just give comment and provide a link? Readers can go there to see themselves. Pulling the content into my own site and even worse, pretend it is my own content does not help to build up my own credibility.

Nice People Always Check with me before Using my Content

I appreciate people who checked with me before using my articles or photos. The second most frequently received emails in my email box are mails requesting permissions (the first frequently asked questions are about visiting Shanghai). I happily granted all of them – I don’t remember a single rejection so far and I always thank them for asking. At least I know my pictures appeared at a TV commercial in Tokyo, many text books in universities in U.S. and Europe. I know my article went to some websites. The most interesting story is, one musician used my photo as the cover of his album.

I am happy that they at least provide a link back to my site or they print my name with the pictures or articles. Some even promised to send me a hard copy when the book is published. They are all nice people.

Dan

Dan discussed about credibility and credits with me and we laughed a lot about his experience. He said one newspaper (I’d like not to mention the name but it is among the largest) editor called him to ask for permission to use his article. He suggested some modification and asked to put a link on the article. The editor said “Well, but the article is on yesterday’s newspaper already.”

Creative Common

Not everyone will check permission like this editor (although he checked too late). Isaac Mao and other guys are working on the Creative Common in China – the idea is label the content with granted permissions so people don’t need to check for permission before use the content. Even in CC, link back and credit are required since it is the property of the content that should always go with it. I didn’t adopted Creative Common yet since I still didn’t really read the full license yet.

If I were a Visitor to Shanghai

If I were a visitor to Shanghai, who has never been to this land, I would choose to land at Pudong Airport. Actually, I don’t have other choice since all international flights arrive at Pudong Airport (PVG) only.

If I were a visitor, I will stay either in a nice five star hotel that is at the central of the city, like JW Marriot or JC Mandarin, because it is cheaper than the same standard of hotel in other countries, or stay at Youth Hotel for 40 RMB per night only but also enjoy the convenience of sleep at the heart o the city.

If I were a visitor, I will visit the Huaihai Road. Unlike those roads in Hong Kong, the Huai Hai Road is a strait road that I can go from the east to the west and all the big shopping malls line up on both sides. The only branch I need to go is the Xin Tian Di – to have a cup of wine there at night.

If I were a visitor, I will spend half hour at night on outside platform of the New Height Bar of Three on the Bund. It is the best view of the Bund and the Pudong skyscrapers I have ever found.

If I were a visitor, I will go to the Yu Yuan Garden. It may not be so attractive to local residents, but I never saw a foreigner who was not excited about the Chinese traditions on he market.

If I were a visitor, I will go to the top of the Pearl TV Station before sun set and wait until the whole city was lit up. The view of Puxi from the tower is fabulous.

If I were a visitor, I will try the Maglev when I depart the city. The 8-minute at top speed of 430 km will be the last but most impressive experience in this city.

What else if you were a visitor to Shanghai?

The Sea Ranch , Hong Kong

I would have never been to the private resort on the Lantau island named Sea Ranch if Minji (Eric‘s girl friend) hadn’t lived there.

Private resort at Lantau island of Hong Kong, where Wendy and I were hosted

I understand why Dan Washburn found a contact at each location before he started his journey to go around China. A contact there is so difference that you (have to) visit somewhere you would never visit as a normal visitor.

Ferry leaving Sea Ranch to Cheung Chau

It is 45 minutes ferry’s ride away from Central. Minji take the ferry to work and take ferry back. It is so interesting (for the first time visitor), yet boring (if you have to take it everyday) trip. The place is marked as Tai Long Wan even on the most detailed map. According to Min, there are only 50 residents on the island. Although it is on Lantau, the largest island in Hong Kong, there is almost no path to other parts of the island, so, it is a seperated world connected to the outside with ferry service.

Facing south, the strait is on the route from Hong Kong to Macau.

At night, sitting at the gate of the resort and the whole beach and sea is just above you. It rained heavily when we were there. The sound of the sea wake us up every morning. It is just like our Sanya trip at the beach of Holiday Inn. The difference is, it is the daily life of the people on the island – it is really a resort far away from the most crowded city.

The nearest place for residents to buy food and other goods are the island of Chueng Chau – I have marked the island on my map.

Look at this picture. I like it very much.

Small restaurant on the street of Cheung Chau. © Jian Shuo Wang

Airport Construction Fee Included in Tickets

From Sept 1, 2004, the Airport Construction Fee (50 RMB for domestic travel, 90 RMB for international and 10 RMB for branch airlines) is paid along with the ticket (news) in China. Travelers no longer have to buy it at airports.

I took Shanghai Airlines flight from Wen Zhou to Shanghai yesterday (Sept 2, 2004). The price is 50 RMB higher than the listed price. On the ticket, CN 50.00 was printed in the TAX field (at the left-bottom corner). I directly got on board the plane after the security check. There are less stops I need to go through:

1) Check-in

2) Pass security check

3) Get on board.

Please pay attention to this change during your next travel in China. This change may confuse people since there is no sign or promotion of the change anywhere at airport yet.

Refer to Airport Construction Fee for more information about the fee.

Hong Kong MTR

I was very impressed by the Hong Kong MTR. I have just uploaded some pictures of the MTR onto the photo section of this site:

hongkong-kcr.tickets * 1280 x 960 * (548KB)

The Hong Kong MTR ticket is very similar with the ticket in Shanghai. The difference is, it is much more expensive (9 HKD to go across the Victoria Strait v.s 2 RMB to cross Hong Pu River in Shanghai).

hongkong-kowloon.tong * 1280 x 960 * (600KB)hongkong-central.sign-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (596KB)hongkong-rocket.wall-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (493KB)

The Hong Kong Metro is colorful.

hongkong-signs-exit.mtr * 480 x 640 * (149KB)hongkong-mtr-inside * 960 x 1280 * (591KB)hongkong-quanwan.line-kcr * 960 x 1280 * (584KB)

hongkong-station-mtr * 640 x 480 * (147KB)hongkong-red.entry-kcr * 1280 x 960 * (593KB)hongkong-waiting-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (569KB)

Hong Kong is famous as a crowded city, but the metro was built with large scale. There are very big halls undergrand, many wide tunnels and enough elevators. I didn’t experienced jam (short delay due to too many people) there.

hongkong-large.hall-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (540KB)hongkong-entry-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (540KB)hongkong-slop.from.up-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (562KB)hongkong-slop-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (592KB)hongkong-ticket-seller * 640 x 480 * (144KB)hongkong-window-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (574KB)

I like the transition of the Metro most. From KCR to Central, I can always get to another line on the opposite side of the same platform as I get off. It is like Singapore. Shanghai and Beijing are different stories.

P.S. I am on business trip these days. I travel to a city, sometimes a county, sit down and have meeting with local customer, get on to a van, travel, and then sit down with another group of customers. I visit two places every day and sleep in a different city every day until this Friday.

How to Go to Hong Kong via Shen Zhen

If you want to enjoy easy and relaxed trip, and you are not interested to save money at cost of time, just directly fly to Hong Kong from anywhere in the world. However, if you want to get there with a budget trip from mainland China, to visit Hong Kong via Shen Zhen is a cheaper choice. You can experience the KCR (Kowloon Canton Rail) and Hong Kong MTR (Massive Transit Rail).

I went to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. The ticket to Shenzhen I bought one day before the departure was 790 RMB (55% off). If I directly fly to Hong Kong, it is more than 1400 RMB for single trip. (Wendy bought the promotional package from Shanghai to Hong Kong and it is 1660 RMB for round trip). From Shenzhen back to Shanghai took me 700 RMB only.

Here is a route map I created based on my memory. I didn’t refer to a map when I created it so its anything but an accurate map.

map-shenzhen.to.hongkong.jpg

It is said the Shenzhen airport is 40 km away from the Luohu Custom Port. I took airport bus there and it took 20 RMB and about one hour (maybe 40 minutes, I do not remember). After I left the bus, as I expected, I was very confused since there is no single sign pointing to the destination many people are interested – the Luohu Custom Port, the gateway to Hong Kong. I asked four persons to find out my way to go to Luo Hu Custom Port. Two pointed to the right direction, one gave me the wrong way on which I met the forth person who were looking for Luohu too. She confirmed at least the way she came from is the wrong way so I turned and continued seeking. Later, when I approached the entry to the custom building, I finally saw the first sign pointing to Hong Kong – the typical Hong Kong style black bordered sign.

If you follow the same route, follow the following suggestions:

1. After you get off board the bus, turn left and go directly along the street for 200 meter.

2. Get to the over-head pedestrian bridge and go upstairs.

3. Go to the end of the road and turn right. (Never turn right along the road until you reached the end off the road)

Passing the Custom

Passing the customer is easy. Now, mainland residents still need a special Hong Kong/Macau Entry Visa to cross the border. There are not many people if it is not weekend. It took about 20 minutes to me, but others suggest to plan one and a half hour for it.

After getting into Hong Kong, I don’t need to talk about the route since everything became very easy and there are volunteers to help. Get onboard the KCR train (almost the same train like MTR), and transfer at Kowloon Tong (the only station) to MTR. After you reach MTR (or subway, or Metro), you can reach almost every corner of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

See some pictures of Hong Kong MTR at my Hong Kong MTR Photo Gallary.