Monthly Archives: March 2006

Adding Tag Support to MovableType

Posted on by
1

Joey asked how I implemented tag in my MovableType. I didn’t used plugin. Here is the cookbook to add tag as this blog.

Use Categories in the Tagging Way

First thing is, use the built-in category feature in the tagging way. When you want to assign some tags to an entry, just assign multiple categories. Thanks to the features of MovableType, you can easily add a new category (a new tag). It is not free form, but good enough.

Below is the list of tags I have:

screen-categories-mt.PNG

The list is long.

Adding Tag Chart to Template

One of the key feature distinguishing tags from other category or keyword based classification is, tag chart or tag cloud. Like this:

screen-tag.chart-mt.PNG

In Category Archive template, use the following code:

<!–tagging map–>

<p class=Headlines><MTCategories>

<a style=”text-decoration:none” href=”<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>” title=”<$MTCategoryCount$>”><$MTCategoryLabel$></a>

</MTCategories></p>

<script language=javascript>

e = document.getElementsByTagName(“A”);

for(i=0; i < e.length; i++)

{

if(e[i].title != “”)

{

t = e[i].title;

if(t > 256) e[i].style.fontSize = “150%”;

else if(t > 126) e[i].style.fontSize = “140%”;

else if(t > 68) e[i].style.fontSize = “130%”;

else if(t > 16) e[i].style.fontSize = “120%”;

else if(t > 8) e[i].style.fontSize = “110%”;

else if(t >= 2) e[i].style.fontSize = “100%”;

else if(t = 1) { e[i].style.fontSize = “80%”; }

}

}

</script>

<!–end of tagging map–>

The codes (including the VBScript) are self-explained.

You can put this piece of code to other pages, like homepage.

Done

It is just as simple as using the existing functions to create a new way of presentation. Anyway, categories, keywords, and tags are not too different in nature.

Happy blogging!

Business of Zhending Chicken – Part II

Posted on by
16

I talked about Zhending Chicken and their strange policies days before. After that, there is another similiar discussion on airlines. These discussion reveals the difference in culture and business conduct in China and U.S (representative of western or international world). There are other articles on this topics:　Diversity, Consistency, and Efficiency, Diversity, Consistency, and Efficiency – Part II. I am afraid this will be the sixth article along the row on this topic.

Zhending Chicken Continued

On the previous article, I outlined many strange conduct of Zhending Chicken. I don’t think it is 100% wrong, or right.

People Takes People-People Relationship Seriously

I am reading some China ancient books, like confusious, and Laos, Daos. They all focus much more about the relationship between people – how you should be havior to archive the harmony of the relationship (instead of efficiency).

In Kening’s comment, I, for the first time, learnt the term: Judeo-Christian. During my search for this term, I was let to this page:

But what does “Judeo-Christian” mean? We need to know. Along with the belief in liberty — as opposed to, for example, the European belief in equality, the Muslim belief in theocracy, and the Eastern belief in social conformity — Judeo-Christian values are what distinguish America from all other countries. That is why American coins feature these two messages: “In God we trust” and “Liberty.”

With the common believe of God (the system we are in), people in U.S. are more willing to follow the rule instead of people. However, in China, at least from what I see, people tend to follow other people’s instruction, stead of laws. Why a policeman at the cross-street can greatly help to enforce the traffic law is an example of “people-people relationship” or “people-system relationship”.

Customer’s Need: Price or Quality?

I totally agree that quality, consistency, and value are very important for business, but businessman need to have much better insight into the Chinese market before using exactly the same belief in China.

For example, Price really rules in China. See the long line in the shopping mall. When people said they are willing to pay more for something if the quality is better, they are not typical customers. Whenever people are willing to pay additional money for better quality, that means it is just a very small portion of spending in their life. What if it is the major one? I still remember the time when I was in university. To go to KFC is very luxurious for the 20 RMB meal. We only plan once or twice in the whole term to go there. In this sitution, Zhending Chicken obviously offers much more than KFC. We always need to distinguish the so-called “middle-class” (i don’t like this term), and the majority of consumers in China.

China is changing

China is changing, and consumer’s behavior is changing (in a very slow fashion).

Booking China Domestic Flight Outside China

Posted on by
37

My friend asked me whether it is cheaper to book China domestic flights within China than outside China. It is for sure – almost always so.

When I check popular ticket booking website in U.S, like Expedia, Travelocity, I am amazed on how big the price difference is, for the same China domestic flight between US agent price and China local price. Here are some examples for China domestic flight booking.

Example 1: Shanghai to Beijing Round Trip

SHAPEK: March 19

PEKSHA: March 21

Expedia.com price: 308 USD or 2464 RMB. There are two flights to be chosen from.

screen-shanghai.beijing-expedia.png

Image in courtesy of Expedia.com

From CTRIP.com (The largest China online booking system)

SHAPEK: March 19

PEKSHA: March 21

CTRIP Price:

SHAPEK: CA178 08:20 10:30 767 Y 50/40 1130 620

PEKSHA: HU7603 17:00 18:40 767 Y 50/40 1130 570

The lowest combination is 1190 RMB, or about 150 USD.

There are 42 flights to be chosen from on the day of March 19, from Shanghai to Beijing…

Example 2: From Shanghai to Guiyang

Let’s choose another route – a more rare route.

SHAKWE: March 19

KWESHA: March 21

Round trip.

Expedia Price: 579 USD

CTRIP Price: 1440 RMB or 180 USD

For other routes, the local price is definitely cheaper than U.S. price.

Conclusion: Find Friends in China to book your tickets

So when you are traveling with limited budget within China, and you need to transit to cities other than port cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou), my suggestion is to find local friends to help you to book the ticket using domestic agent, or just use ctrip.com/elong.com.

The difference for International flights are not so big compared to China domestic flights. There are several reasons: 1. For domestic flights, the discounted price is the mainstream offering. You can easily find 70% to 50% discount prices. 2. Domestic flights are not in the global distribution system, so it is invisible for most users.

The airline market in China, as many other areas, are highly competitive, and flexible – by flexible, I mean the price, the service, and the schedule are not fixed. It is not always good thing, (also, not always bad thing to have). This kind of flexibility seldom gets reflected in the international systems.

P.S. Previous, I have published an article called PVG: Book Domestic Flight in China

Network Speed of my FTTB+LAN

Posted on by
17

Look at the PING result from the HP Pavilion desktop computer in my reading room, to the web server of this blog.

C:\Documents and Settings\Jian Shuo Wang>ping home.wangjianshuo.com -t

Pinging home.wangjianshuo.com [216.227.219.43] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=402ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=398ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=414ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=400ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=400ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=398ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=402ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=399ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=405ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=399ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=400ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=402ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=405ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=408ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=399ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=397ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=400ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=403ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=413ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=402ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=400ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=400ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=410ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=404ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Request timed out.

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=404ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=401ms TTL=50

Reply from 216.227.219.43: bytes=32 time=404ms TTL=50

Here is the TRACERT result.

C:\Documents and Settings\Jian Shuo Wang>tracert home.wangjianshuo.com

Tracing route to home.wangjianshuo.com [216.227.219.43]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.2.1

2 12 ms 9 ms 9 ms 218.1.22.82

3 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms 218.1.22.81

4 6 ms 8 ms 4 ms 4ge0-ip-yl-012.online.sh.cn [218.1.2.65]

5 5 ms 4 ms 2 ms 218.1.2.1

6 9 ms 6 ms 6 ms 218.1.0.202

7 4 ms 5 ms 6 ms 202.101.63.206

8 10 ms 8 ms 8 ms 202.97.33.30

9 198 ms 198 ms 204 ms 202.97.51.118

10 203 ms 207 ms 206 ms aer1-gigabitethernet4-4.LosAngeles.savvis.net [208.173.55.197]

11 405 ms 416 ms 405 ms 208.174.194.18

12 * * 204 ms ge1-1.ar01.lax02.mzima.net [64.235.224.214]

13 238 ms 219 ms 208 ms ge1-lunarpages.cust.lax02.mzima.net [216.193.192.66]

14 * 401 ms 403 ms alnitac.lunarpages.com [216.227.219.43]

Trace complete.

The result is, ipowerweb.com is still much faster than lunarpages.com. Here is part of the result for ipowerweb.com:

C:\Documents and Settings\Jian Shuo Wang>ping wangjianshuo.com -t

Pinging wangjianshuo.com [66.235.199.101] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=203ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=206ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=213ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=214ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=212ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=214ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=202ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=233ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=205ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=207ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=204ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=205ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=204ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=204ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=211ms TTL=50

Reply from 66.235.199.101: bytes=32 time=203ms TTL=50

Car Numbers Explode in Shanghai

Posted on by
13

I went to Decathlon at Long Yang Road Station in Shanghai with friends yesterday. It was 3:00 PM. To my surprise, the parking lot at B&Q and Decathlon area was completely packed. Not only big area (with about 10 rows of 10 cars) was full, the back yard – which typically not used are also fully parked. There are many volunteers guiding cars into the underground parking area under Decathlon.

With the continuous “immigration” from Puxi to Pudong, and the popularity of cars, the once empty parking lot at B&Q area becomes so crowded. I remember when I just moved to Pudong less than 2 years ago, something I didn’t understand was, why B&Q built so large parking lot. At that time, only 1/3 of the parking was used. I LOL when I saw there were entrance to the underground garage. Whenever I drive there, I can easily find a place very near to the entrance.

Today, everything changed. The area looks so crowded. Of cause, it will become more and more crowded in the future. The good thing is, they still have underground garage for future expansion.

How I miss the old days when there is barely no any customers in Decathlon (as a customer). Now it is fully packed of people, and you have to wait in line to try out some cool equipments.

© Jian Shuo Wang. First posted in May, 2005, under Running in Pudong.

Two years means a lot in Shanghai – everything from the business of a store, to the availability of cars and parking lot change.

P.S. With this entry comes the new round of price cut from major car manufactures. With the price cut, I believe cars will become more popular in the next few years.

Slow Internet Connection at Home

Posted on by
30

The internet connection at my home (China Telecom FTTB+LAN) is unbearably slow. In the recent month, I found it was so hard even to load the homepage of this blog.

I doubt whether it was due to the high usage of BT on the community network. The short-come for FTTB+LAN is, the network speed is not guaranteed. When there is less traffic, it can be super fast. But when the traffic is crowded, it can be slow.

I miss ADSL again, but it is not available in my home. Sometimes, I will have to switch to China Unicom CDMA solution. It is even faster than the broadband at home. It is ridiculous.

My Favorite: Jifeng Book Store

Posted on by
10

I recommended this book store to a friend visiting Shanghai. I’d like to share again.

The best book store for me in Shanghai is the Jifeng Book Store. Here is the location:

5th Floor, Raffles City, 268, Xizang Middle Road, Shanghai

There is another one at the Shaan Xi Road Metro Station:

They are good because they spent good effort on book selection. So the books in the store are nice for me. However, there is not many English books or other language books there.

New Year for Everyone in the team

Posted on by
2

What a nice idea to start the new year for Kijiji with two days of briefing and training session. I just get back home from the full day event. It is already 0:50 AM the next day (I will adjust the posting time a little bit to make this entry fall into March 1), but I feel so excited to be the part of the team and see the growth of a young and passionate team. Hope I can get up in time tomorrow morning.

P.S. The training center at 17th Floor of the Shanghai No. 1 Department Store New Tower is a pretty decent place to host small scale training. Highly recommend – to find a good place at the Metro station of the People’s Square at the Nanjing road is not always easy.

Have a good night (day, afternoon, evening – depending where you are), everyone.