Perhaps Love Movie

Posted on by
13

A cold Saturday. At night, since there is only one person at home, I drove (I even didn’t know why I drove there) to the Super Brand Mall to see movies. There are many movies on show recently, such as “The Legend of Zorro”, and “Wu Ji”, it seems the most attractive one is “Perhaps Love”. eBay is the sponsor for this film. I was involved in it. I feel deep connection with the film before it comes out already.

screen-perhaps.love.jpg

Image in courtesy of the film publishers (Applause Picture?)

It is a nice film. Although it was not easy to understand the story at the very begining. I didn’t now what happened in the first 20 minutes, but later, the story reveals and I start to understand it a little bit. The story is moving, presented in a slow but decent pace.

For me, to memorize people’s face is a super hard task. I failed to recognize who is the “director” – acted by Zhang Xue You, who is the one fall in love wit the girl. Well. I gave up. At the end of the film, the only person’s name I know is “Miss Sun”, the girl. I have no idea about the name of other actors.

I love the group dance. I love it so much. It is not common theme for movies in China before. I fell in love of opera after I watched “Phantom of Opera“, “Nutcracker” (ballet) in New York, “Lion King” in Seattle, “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in Washington D.C.. They are the “primary school” type of education for me to understand what opera is. The opera part of the movie is “splendid”, “wonderful”, and “magnificant”.

screen-perhaps.love-desktop1.jpg

Image in courtesy of perhapslovemovie.com

screen-perhaps.love-desktop2.jpg

Image in courtesy of perhapslovemovie.com

screen-perhaps.love-desktop3.jpg

Image in courtesy of perhapslovemovie.com

There was eBay advertise before the film. Two occurance of the logo during the course of the film and the name appears as sponsorship page at the end of the film.

P.S. Other News I Noticied Today

Robert Scoble is visiting Dublin, Ireland these days.

Hengge was happy to tell me that the new building of blogbus.com started construction these days. He will be the third company moving into warehouse in Shanghai. The first one is Haisong’s etang.com, the second is Gary’s toodou.com.

Shanghai is Still Highly Polluted

Posted on by
12

Today, the weather is the same (except colder) and the dark gray, almost yellow sky is still like several days ago. According to local newspaper, it had been the 8th continuous day of grade II (which means slightly polluted). Based on my observation, I guess today should be the 10th continuous polluted day. So called “slightly polluted” is already “very polluted” in normal people’s view, because it starts to do harm to people already.

Me?

Recently, I am feeling very tired this week. Maybe catching a little bit cold is one example, staying late at night is another. I hope I can go to bed early today – 10:30 PM? I hope so.

Wendy is back home for her sister’s wedding, and I am packing for my trip to San Jose. Driver’s License, passport, flight tickets, invitation letters… and the power converter… It requires some work, but I think I’d better go to sleep now. I went to bed too late last night (or this morning).

Ads on the Street

There are new things around me every day. Several days before, I saw the new form of advertisement at the Raffles City (at the side of the Xizang Mid. Road).

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

There is a big projector at the top of the shopping mall and project the advertisement image to the street. It also keeps moving so attracts a lot of eyeballs

.

Ignorance?

I don’t want to response too much about the comment on ignorance of major events in China, or Shanghai (so change this paragraph to smaller font). I admit that recent half year, I was not able to get involved in the city as much as I did before. I don’t often watch TV (what was my last time watching TV?). I don’t often listen to radio (besides the 20 minutes on my car back to home). Sometimes my connection to the city was cut out so I don’t have too much city story to share. Meanwhile, as my rule, I intentionally limit to my first hand information. If I am interested in a piece of news, I may go there by myself, just as a reporter do, and take pictures or exprience it. Then write about it. Otherwise, I don’t feel I can add any value by just translate the news (which is already on headline of major newspaper). Point-of-view is important, but facts are meanful to share. So take it as a blog, not a newspaper, since I cannot carry my cameras and go to all the events. :-)

Maglev Extended Time

Posted on by
13

Good news. Maglev extended the operation time from today, according to Shanghai Daily.

The trains will run from 7am until 9pm instead of the normal 8.30am to 5.30pm

I complained that although Maglev is my first-choice if I can take Maglev, I only took Maglev for once. I believe I am a frequent flyer, but I seldom take flight later than 9:00 or get back to Shanghai early than 6:00. So I missed Maglev. Maglev connects the airport to my home (somewhere 4 km away from my home) and it takes only 8 minutes, but I wasn’t able to enjoy te benifit.

My Maglev Picture

I took many Maglev pictures before. Among them, there is one about Maglev before the control tower.

Today, when I search for Maglev, I saw “Maglev, First on DVD” Google Adwords advertisement on the right. Clicking on it, and I found out the DVD. It sells at 24.5 USD.

I recalled from my memery that I have granted the permission to them to use the picture free of charge as their DVD cover. Now, this is the result. Pretty good.

Check out all the Maglev Pictures I have:

shanghai-maglev-inside.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. Shanghai Maglev Inside

shanghai-maglev-outside.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. Shanghai Maglev Outside

The collage photos were created with Picaso 2.0 from Google.

P.S. Xiao Fan from Pian Pian Qing

I was impressed to find out Claire Robertson’s blog and wrote: “I Write While She Draws“. Today, I found another person who is also amazing. I would say: “I Write While She Speaks“.

Xiaofan, the host of famous broadcast program Pian Pian Qing on AM 792, Shanghai

I kepted writing one article one day for 3 years. Xiao Fan create an one hour broadcast program every day. Most times it is real time broadcast on the most attractive channel in Shanghai – City792. How long she has kept doing this? Nine Years!

If broadcasting were not her job, she may be the most consistent podcaster. :-)

Polution in Shanghai – Part II

Posted on by
13

This is the seconf part of Polution in Shanghai.

It is the second time my warm hearted reader Carsten send photos on Shanghai to me. Last time, carsten wrote

I would like to help people here to be more aware of, and understand, that if all do a little every day, it will have a tremendous impact.

This time, Carsten sent me another picture taken from CA164:

shanghai-polution-from.air.jpg

© Carsten, who kindly gave me some earplugs for F1 race

To be honest, the scene is not the worst in Shanghai. Sometimes, Shanghai’s sky is completely gray or even dark at daynight and visability is only 1,000 meters at most. Polution is a big problem in Shanghai.

Carsten said (used with permission):

I attach a photo taken today from a Boeing 737 (CA164 from KIX, Japan)

a few minutes before landing on runway 34L on PVG. Nasty air pollution, isn’t it ?

You can use it for a posting of pollution. That is an issue worth following up on.

I totally agree that it is an issue worth following up.

How to Follow Up?

This is not an easy question to answer.

Besides the telephone number, email address and website I provided in my last article, I think at least we can do something.

1) Report whatever polution source we see to news hotline or on some public forum or BBS (This blog included). Although most time the voice will be ignored, at least it is something we need to keep doing. (A blog does not make any difference to the world, but keep doing may contribute something)

2) To tell other people about the situation of polution in Shanghai or in China, exactly like what carsten did. I was moved (for the second time) deeply by Carsten, who is an expat in Shanghai but concerns about environment more than most people do (I admit he is doing a much better job than I do).

Any other suggestion?

Small Effort? But It Makes Impact

This is the second time he drop me emails and more than second time commented about polution on this blog. I feel I have the responsibility to talk about polution at least immediately after I get the email. I believe what carsten did at least impacted one person – me, and I hope what I did at least one person – you.

What is Google Doing

Google started to offer 1 USD per installation in China – previously, this program didn’t open to China. Today should be the first few days that a FireFox tab appear in Adsense.

What is Google doing? By investing agressively on a browser (not belong to Google yet), Google wants to occupy the one of the most fundmental ring in the chain – the browser. If there are enough people to put it on, and attracts enough uses to use this browser (with Google toolbar), it will really be scary.

Shanghai Metro News

Posted on by
5

Here are some piece of Shanghai Metro news.

Folded Bicycles

According to the regulations, folded bicycles (not sure how I can put it. It is a bicycle that you can fold to make it smaller) are allowed on Metro. Some people ride bicycles to Metro Station, fold it, carry it onto the metro cart and unfold it at the destination station and ride to work.

Practically speaking, it is not so easy to carry it in rush hours, but many people do. The problem is, on some very crowded stations, say, from Cao Bao Road to Xujiahui, or Shanxi South Road to People’s Square on Metro Line #1, or from Dong Chang Road station to People’s Square on Metro Line #2, if someone carries a folded bicycle, it may reduce the capacity of the cart and someone may not able to get to that train. I believe I will feel bad or at least a little bit embarrased at that time, although it is accepted by the regulation.

Ticket Discount

I saw a poster recently. It was posted at the end of Sept, I believe. It said that after Oct 1, if you can spent more than 75 RMB, you will be given 10% off discount. This is the first time in the Metro history in Shanghai that gives discount. Previously, the only benifit you get to use Shanghai Transportation Card is, you can still use the card if the money in the card is less than the money required for the trip at your last time swip. However, you still need to pay the -1 or -2 RMB balance at the next time you deposit money.

Ticket Price Increased

Recently, the price of Shanghai Metro increased. Metro is fast, reliable and convinient, but people feel it becomes a more and more like a burnden. Previous, I only need 3 RMB from Long Yang Station to People’s Square, now, it is 5 RMB. From People’s Square to Xujiahui, I pay 4 RMB, which was 3 RMB previously.

Tricks to Save (or Steal) Ticket

Many “smart” people start to think of “solutions”. One method I discovered so far is, some people will find “pairs” with others that exchange tickets to decrease both cost.

Passenger A starts from Long Yang Road Station to Xin Zhuang. He needs to pay 6 RMB. Passenger B starts from Xin Zhuang to Dong Chang Road, he needs to pay 5 RMB. But if Passenger A and B both buy 3 RMB ticket, and they arranged their trip and meet at some station in the middle, say, People’s Square, and exchange their ticket, and they can exit at the gate because it seems the person enters and exits at the same station for the ticket passenger B bought, and seems just several stations in between for the ticket Passenger A bought. Obviously it is not “politically right”. I just see people doing this.

Use the Same Ticket?

The newspaper said this morning that at the end of this year, one ticket can be used on all the metro lines: #1, 2, 3, and 5. Now, only line #1 and #2 can use the same ticket. Passengers need to buy new ticket if there is a transition between #1/#2 to other lines.

Wheat Powder Fuwa (Olympic Mascots)

Posted on by
7

© Jian Shuo Wang. Shot in the Changfeng Park of Shanghai

See this picture. I took it in Changfeng Park – the Beijing 2008 Olympic Mascots created by the woman. She used wheat powder and color to create the toys.

P.S. Previous Issue of BusinessWeek on Microsoft

The Sept 26, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek is wonderful. I read almost every single article on this issue. The article “Troubling Exits At Microsoft” is a good one, as other articles in the magazine. I was surprised to two things: 1) BusinessWeek is sensitive to new stuff like AJAX, Tag, or Cyworld. 2) One statement in comment on this site is true: “No readers are interested in the questions interviewees are willing to answer”. There are many tough questions for Steve Baller. One example was “[some employees] question whether you should be CEO. What’s your response?”. OMG…

Busy as Keyword

Posted on by
9

How fun. Some one searched:

I am extremely busy recently in Google and got to my site. Haha.

my life is busy

P.S. I found a strange trend that when I ask my friends around me, “How are you doing these days”, the more common answer is “Busy” or “exteremely busy”. I have two or three friends who are always happy to describe how many lunched they have skipped or how many nights they didn’t sleep. The question is, is “being busy” something to show off? Is he taking “being busy” as an accomplishment or archivement?

I hope I am leading an effective life, instead of busy life. :-)

Craigslist’s Success

Posted on by
27

Hi my readers, I need some help for you. I am thinking hard about the success of craigslist in San Francisco and other cities in U.S. I just read an article on Craigslist written by a reporter from 21st Century Econoics Report. He visited SFO and interviewed Craigslist and created the nice report. (It is one of my favorite newspaper that I will buy at the news stand twice everyweek).

For those who has used Craigslist or highly rely on it, would you please help me to list top 5 most attractive things in Craigslist or the top 5 reasons why Craigslist is so successful? Thanks.

How to Read Shanghai Bus Stop Plate

Posted on by
22

Edward told me he is still confused when he read Chinese Bus Stop Plate in Shanhgai after living in the city for 3 years. He came from UK and travelled a lot in China. The most confusing part is about the difference between “Upward” and “Downward” route. Let me try to help explain it.

A typical bus stop plate in Shanghai

Here is the informaiton on the plate. People who do not understand Chinese may also recognize the information.

screen-bus.stop.plate.PNG

© Jian Shuo Wang

The one in the middle is a route with Chinese name. It is similar.

Upward and Downward

Many bus stops are wired. If you leave a bus at one stop, and after you get back and go to the opposite site of the road, you cannot find the bus stop to go back. It happens all the time. It is because there are just too many single-way roads in Shanghai that makes it impossible to get back on the same road. So the route of buses going to one direction may differ slightly from the route going to the opposite direction. I also get confused when they use “upward” or “downward”, because I don’t know what is the definition of up and down. Upward may mean “east to west”, or” “west to east”, “south to north” or “north to south”. Anyone can explain it?

Ask the driver or the bus conduct to get more information about where the bus actually stops, since two bus stop with the same name (typically the name of a road) may be very far (say, more than 10 km away) from each other.

Inside the Shanghai Radio Staiton

Posted on by
14

I visited the Shanghai Radio Station this afternoon (for the first time) for a radio program.

The Security Check

Shanghai Radio and East Radio are two major (if not the only two) radio stations in Shanghai. It was easy to enter the building. Radio station is always a sensitive location in China. The security check was intensive. I waited in the line for quite some time before I arrived at the window of the gate outside the building. It was cold outside and three security guards were looking at me to fill a form with my name, gender, telephone number, home address, company name, the person I visit, the room number, and deposited my national ID card.

After phone confirmation, I got the electronic ID card at the expense of my National ID card. :-) I can only claim my national ID after I come out of the building, with the ID card, and the signed form by the host.

It is not so high tech as I expected, …., until I entered the recording room.

The Recording Room

I took some pictures of the room. I hope there should be more paintings or drawings on the wall to make it more friendly. :-)

The Program

It is very few English program that started broadcasting from July 15, 2002, according to their About us. Kevin is a not a typical Shanghainese. Only the brief communication with the control room in Shanghainese reminded me the handsome, talktive, and energetic young man is native Shanghainese. The name of the program is called Live It Up Shanghai. It is on air at 22:15 to 23:00, Monday to Sunday, at frequency 990 AM or 93.4 FM. They call it the “News Channel”. Please check it out.

screen-live.it.up.shanghai.PNG

The Radio Room in Chicago

I happen to have a studio of WDN 720 AM at the grand floor of the Chicago Tribune Tower that people can see the host broadcasting live. It was quite amazing experience for me.

Radio station in the glass room near the Chicago river on the Magnificant Mile. Taken in Dec, 2005

Same as above

Same as above

The pictures were taken from my last Chicago Trip. More notes about the pictures can be found under the section: Public Radio is Really Public Radio.

Fun Toys on the Web These Days

Posted on by
2

How Much does This Blog Worth?

This is the question people like to know. So when http://www.business-opportunities.biz/ tried to answer this question, many people got so interested, although everyone know it is just a game. The rule is simple. The price is calculated by the incoming link on Technorati using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal. I don’t think I will put a link like this to my home page, but I’d like to play with some of the interesting tools.

According to the interesting calculation, wangjianshuo.com, home.wangjianshuo.com worth of about half million USD, $558,894.60 to be more exact.


My blog is worth $558,894.60.
How much is your blog worth?

My Page Rank

The Page Rank of this site decreased a little bit.

This is my Google PageRank™ - SmE Rank free service Powered by Scriptme

What does the numbers mean?

screen-my.page.rank-gpr.gif

Image in courtesy of mypagerank.net

I saw this for the first time on Joi Ito’s blog

Joi Ito’s Skypecast from Sky

Check out Joi Ito’s post named Skypecast from Sky. How interesting it is to have Wifi on LH711 and use Skype to chat with people on the ground. I listened to the 1.7M mp3 file for about 10 times while I write this blog.

Skypecast is a Good Way of Audio Classified

I am very interested in skypecast now, and waiting for the audio recording feature of Skype. When it comes out, I am very sure that we can post audio classified or even video classified in the future.

Cycling in Pudong

Posted on by
21

What a nice Sunday afternoon. It has been quite some time before I can enjoy the peaceful weekend. I am so satisfied to stay at home and feel the good mood of “having nothing to do”, and start to think of doing something new, something crazy, and something unusual.

So, what is the unusual thing in my life? Yes. The bicycle. Since I bought the Giant bicycle and completed the Taihu tour in 2003, I seldom used the bicycle especially after I got my car in March, 2004.

This afternoon, I washed the bicycle, did some maintenance, and added air to the tier. Then, I visited the Decathlon Huamu Store. At the entrance, I saw this poster:

I learnt about 2Wheels trip – traveling from Shanghai to UK by bicycle. As the introduction said, “it may take you 12 hours to complete the trip by air, but it takes me 12 months. Why? Because it is a more environment-safe way to travel this way…”

New Bicycle

“Life is always at somewhere else”. This saying reminds us that to pay more attention to what we have, instead of what we don’t have yet. I feel so obliged to live in Pudong beside the Jin Xiu Road – the road with very nice trees and parks. I should use bicycle more instead of car. Decathlon is the sponsor for this tour. Very nice job!

At Decathlon, I saw a new bicycle that is cheaper than the one I already got with much better quality. After playing with the new one for about 15 minutes, I started to love it so much. So the result is, I finally bought it. :-) So there will be two bicycles in my home that Wendy and I can go cycling together.

Update November 21, 2005

The price for the bicycle is 499 RMB.

End of update

Pudong is More Bicycle Friendly

There are much less traffic in Pudong, both cars or bicycles. Biyun International District is doing the best job. They have specially bicycle lanes:

Check out the three lanes. The left most is for cars, the middle is for bicycles and the right is for pedestrians. I feel much safer to ride on the bicycle lane there.

The sign for pedestrians are also very interesting there.

Sunset in Pudong

Finally, check out some pictures I took today during the cycling. As I described before, Pudong’s sunset is different from those in Puxi (I, II. I cycled around 20km today, and will increase it to 30 km in the future as my favorite sports.

Jian Shuo Wang in San Jose in Dec

Posted on by
17

I will have a trip to San Jose in early Dec. The weekend, Dec 12 and Dec 13, are open. I’d like to meet more friends there and take the opporunity to continue to improve my understanding about the U.S. sociaty and especially on technical side. Web 2.0 is a buzz word in China. I want to learn more new application and innovation. :-) If you happen to be in that area, feel free to post a comment or drop me an email.

Since I have been to the heart of the Sillicon Valley, I’d like to take a one day tour to all major companies like Apple, Cisco, Intel or Google.

eBay

2145 E Hamilton Ave, San Jose, CA 95125

map-ebay.png

Image in courtersy of Google

Apple Computer Inc.

1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA, 95014

Here is the relative location between eBay and Apple.

map-ebay.apple.PNG

Google

1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy. Mountain View, CA 94043

map-ebay.google.png

Intel

1600 Amphitheatre Pky, Mountain View, CA 94043

map-ebay.intel.png

This is my Google PageRank™ - SmE Rank free service Powered by Scriptme

IPEVO Skype Headset Hardware

Posted on by
12

Today, I tried the new Skype phone from PCHome-Skype from Taiwan. It is a wonderful application – very cute iPod-like design, cute buttons, and much improved voice quality above already very nice quality of Skype.

The Skype Phone

Although it is basically not a big change from using mouse+screen+software to a headset, when I experienced it, it still brings big difference into the experience.

The coolest thing is to press the green “+” button in the middle. It is the starting number of any Skype out. For example, I can call +862168xxxxx to call my home, or +8610xxxxxxxx to a phone in Beijing, or +861391614xxxx to call any mobile in China, even +1416xxxxxxx to call phone in Toronto… It is so nice. The rate is 0.017 Euro per minute. It is half the price for regular mobile phone’s receiving rate…

The Headset

The headset is so cool. It is manufactured by IPEVO at PCHOME’s request. They have both logos. It sells at around 1000 New Taibi, or around 250 RMB. I hope we can have these kind of phone in China soon.

Technology is Lovely Only When it Changes Life

Tonight, I called my mother and father in Luoyang using the new Skype Headset (Thanks Tony to lent it to me). Then I called my brother in Fuzhou, and the other brother in Toronto. Thus all my parents’ three sons gathered on the phone using the Skype conference function and joined the family conference. My parents were so happy to hear everyone just like our reunion at home. So am I.

Technology is cool. It is cooler when it enables people to feel warmth of life.

P.S. Don’t ask me about the Skype block things in China, though. I won’t answer because it is not appropriate to discuss about it.

Added Tag to Category Archive Template

Posted on by
2

Tagging is important. MovableType does not support tagging. There is a plugin for it, but it only applies to MovableType 3.16 or higher, not my MovableType 2.66.

So I leveraged category as tag in MovableType 2.66. To add enough categories that covers all the “tag” I want to create. Maybe in the future, I need someways to automate the creating, mapping and final “save” action of the tagging system on MovableType.

Meanwhile, I added many tag related feature to this blog, like the flickr photo with the same tag also comes to the site.

New Template (after Nov 17, 2005):

Old template (before Dec 17, 2005):

Cold Winter Comes

Posted on by
35

Cold winter comes to Shanghai. The sky was clear, but really cold. It has been two or three weeks that Shanghai was cloudy. Today is the first day recently to see blue sky.

Branches of trees were cut, so they can preserve some energy for the winter. The green color disappeared leaf by leaf in my garden. The good thing I know is, I don’t have to worry about the grass for at least three months.

Welcome, winter 2005 to Shanghai.

International Events in Shanghai

Posted on by
11

Today, I visited Ad:Tech briefly in the morning and attended the keynote panel. It was obvious Ad:Tech this year is an international event. Many people from outside China arrived in the Shanghai International Convention Center. There were not many people attending the conference. The conference hall was about 30% full.

The session was conducted in English at the beginning. COO of Sina and Director of MSN attended the panel. The language barrier was obvious. In which language a conference is presented now is an important decision. English seems to be the usual choice, but it really breaks down the communication this morning. It presents the same problem if the session is completely in Chinese. It is especially hard if English is not the native language for the panelists. I don’t know what about native English speakers; at least I tried very hard to understand.

Chinese-Speaking American

Last week on the China Blogger Conference, Rebecca, former CNN reporter, used Chinese to host the panel of some bloggers from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her Chinese was amazingly good. It also presented a good solution, a perfect solution actually, since most audience comes from China. Chinese has now been more and more used in some international conference in Shanghai. It is a good trend, from my point of view (obvious it is not for many others).

Translate to English?

Some bloggers in China started the effort to translate the best blog post to English so the outside world can see what common bloggers are discussing about everyday. This provides much more information than media reports. The sad fact seems to be, if something is not in English, it does not exist. One of the organizers admitted his confusion though. He was not 100% confident about the effectiveness of his effort. The problem is, if more effort like translating to English happens, English will become a much stronger language. He wondered why people in Asia still needs to use western media to know the world. For example, to know what is happening in Korea, most information sources are U.S. or Europe media. That is not always a complete view of the world.

I share the some confusion with the organizer of Dongxinanbei. That is the reason I asked: Is English Skill That Important?

Going to Ad-Tech Tomorrow

Posted on by
9

I didn’t think ad-tech is a big deal. I even didn’t notice that the conference is not far from my home. Recently, I got some emails asking about hotel or transportation informaiton. They started the mail like “I am going to the ad-tech…”

I realize it may not be a small event. To me, only COMDEX, or recent etech is big thing.

I happen to get the ticket for the ad-tech. So I decided to visit there with enough name card to see opportunities there. Starting from IT, now I can proudly announce that I am also in the advertisement industry – the classified advertisement. :-)

P.S. University Webstes

Ken echoed my post on Fudan v.s. Tongji post and wrote a blog to claim all the three universities have really bad home page designs. I totally agree.

Update: When I took taxi back from Metro station home, I found Ken’s face at the back of the seat of the taxi. It is an advertisement from Kaien English school. :-) Interesting.

Bird Flu?

I didn’t see too much difference in my life due to bird flu besides the repeated news on TV. Today, I did feel the difference. I saw a girl with mask in book store – the first one with face mask I saw so far.