Is this Water Safe to Drink?

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Wendy and I was in a decent restaurant the other day. A well-dressed couple from Florida were seated next to us. We chatted a little bit when they seek for help to order the Chinese dishes.

After they completed the order, the lady pointed to the glass of water before her and asked: “BTW, is it safe to drink the water here?”

“Well. I think so”, I answered.

Safe or Not? What is the Standard

I know they just arrived in Shanghai and had started a short vacation in Shanghai. The whole route was arranged by a professional foreign tour agency, and they just want to grasp something to eat before the dinner arrives about 3 hours later. It seems we are the only persons to ask whether it is safe to drink water in Shanghai.

I can understand their questions. Just as I just landed in the U.S., I suspect the water is different from Shanghai and asked the question to myself. It is even so when they just arrived in a city in which the average water quality is not as good.

Don’t Drink Water directly from the Pipe

It is for sure that do not drink un-boiled water in Shanghai. Although it is still safe to drink the water (I think), it is not recommended.

In restaurants, I think it is pretty sure to assume the water in the glass is drinkable.

Not Perfect English is Fine, So does Correction

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After I arrived to home, ate a banana, took a hot bath, and logged onto my home computer at around 11:00 PM, I was surprised to see hot argument in my previous entry: Removed my Email from Blog. I wasn’t able to checkout comments at day time yet.

The thread started by bob’s correction of a sentence in my English writing. Itself, to be honest, does NOT seem offensive to me.

Not So Perfect English is OK…

I know, that I am not writing perfect English. And I also know that recently (in the latest half year), the misspelling and grammar mistakes are worse. I didn’t always have time to read what I typed for the second time as I did before. And I didn’t always copy and paste the content from MovableType into Word for spelling checking. As you may notice, most of my entries were created around mid-night, the time my IQ for language is among the lowest. I guess fifteen minutes more sleep is more appreciated for a sleepyhead like me in mid-night.

However, I also remember that keeping the most basic spelling and grammar checking is also critical for a good blog (as stated in bulletin 10 of Writing Good Website Content).

… So does Correction

I admit I felt a little bit embarrassed whenever someone pointed out some errors on my blog. I felt even stronger when the erros are so obvious. I tried to correct the original version if the suggestion makes sense. Don’t worry. I am not discouraged at all for these cases.

I think I have built enough confidence after the three years of blogging. Being confident means to truly understand what one can do and what one cannot, and to accept imperfectness.

Peace, Please

I appreciate everyone’s encouragement to keep on blogging with the “creative spelling” (as Carroll put it in her privous comment. It does give me much courage. However, I felt not good for some later comments with some not-so-respectful tone toward bob. As I outlined in this article: Peace in Discussion, I cannot bear anyone writing flaming comment against my other readers, no matter what attitude he has toward me. Here are some points I selected from the article:

  • As you can see again, there is a comment system on this site. I value everyone’s post and it is part of the blog – actually, it is very large portion of this website.
  • The comment entries provide very informative and updated content to the readers. I have my principle on comments (check the My principle on comments section).
  • I cannot bear anyone writing flaming comment against my other readers
  • Thank you for your defense for me, but I just want to make it clear that I value any disagreement as much as those supporting comments.
  • I don’t think (helping me by flaming other commenters) hurts me as much as people’s attempt to discourage others from express their opinion.

I have hidden the comments with offensive comment to bob in that thread. I hope a peaceful environment for everyone to participate. Meanwhile, let me give blogging more time to correct those obvious grammar and spelling errors. :-)

Have a wonderful night – sleepyhead Jian Shuo is going to bed now.

Removed my Email from Blog

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Today, I removed my email address signiture from every page of my blog.

screen-email.me.png

Old footer of individual page in this blog

I put on my email into my blog from day one of blogging. I enjoy being interactive with my readers. When there is not so much traffic, it was very rare to get any email from reader. Later, after my monthly page view reached about 1 million, I got two or three emails everyday. Most people seek for help about Shanghai. The questions helped me to find good topics to write about Shanghai.

This March, after my job change, I find it very hard to follow the emails. Now when monthly page view mraches to about 2 million, I simply don’t have time to even read all the emails in my email box. It is very bad that someone put effort to write an email to me, waitted somewhere in the world, but I don’t have the ability to reply. So I decided to remove my email from this site. It is not easy to balance being “open” (by posting my email address), or being realistic (by realizing that I don’t have time for it), I finally choose the easy one – to keep my email to limited audience…

87 Entries Included in Google Blog Search

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Google released Blog Search. Chedong used inurl to see how many entries are included in Google search. I tried and found Google indexed 87 blog entries out of my 1000+ entries. It takes some time to index all – if Google really index those older entries.

P.S. I created my sitemap file at https://home.wangjianshuo.com/sitemap.xml to include all links.

Although I was surprised that I still can find time to work on these technical details, I still insist to have certain level of involvement into the new things on the Internet by MYSELF, instead of reading articles about “cool” new things.

Shanghai World Financial Center

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shanghai-world.f.c.jpg

World Financial Center under construction. Picture taken by Jian Shuo Wang

Yes. I can confirm it – the building, Shanghai World Financial Center, which was held during the Asia Economic Crisis, starts construnction again.

As you can see, the building is just a little bit higher than a bus yet, but it has much more potential to grow than a bus.

The picture above was taken at night from my taxi window. It may takes 3 years to complete. Then it will become the tallest building in the world. Below is a concepture picture of the building.

screen-world.f.c-image.jpg

Image in courtesy of www.kpf.com

China Internet Conference

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I found one picture of the China Internet Conference in my camera. This picture was taken on Sept 1, 2005, in Beijing.

beijing-internet.conference.jpg

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Let’s remember this hot season again – as many speaker repeated, the warmth felt in this conference is exactly like that in 2000 – the year before the big bubble bursted.

Tips to Get a Taxi

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Taxi is becoming a headache in Shanghai. I remember about three years ago, taxi is was still abundant resource and I can could hire a taxi easily – empty taxis are were everywhere. (Update: Thanks Fang Fang to correct spelling of this paragraph)

However, recently, it is very hard to find a taxi. It is not rare to wait for half an hour in People’s Square area or Lujiazui area. There are no empty taxi at all and there are more than 20 passengers are waving their hands to call a taxi.

I chatted with a taxi driver on this and he laughed out loudly. He was very kind to share some tips and suggestions he has for passengers to get higher chance to call a taxi in rush hours.

1) Avoid Corners

Typically, if you wave your hand, and there are enough passengers the taxi driver can choose from, he will avoid those who stand at street corners since it will caught attention from police.

2) Avoid crowd

If there are many people standing together and all wave their hands, he suggests that you should stand about 3 meters behind those crowd. Most taxi drivers try to avoid stop before more than one person. It also happens that some one opens the front door and the other one grap the back door, and they start to argue who should take the taxi – it is not easy for any of them to give up after standing their and waving for 20 minutes – It means another half an hour of waiting …. Taxi drivers don’t want to get involved in this. They typically will choose someone who stand behind but also waving – just stop directly in front of one person so others don’t have a chance to catch up.

3) Keep Waving

According to the first rule, even though you think the taxi has slowed down for others, just keep waving. Some taxi drivers will keep moving until they see someone like you they feel comfortable to stop – to avoid conflict.

4) Go to Hotels

To go to hotel front door is a good idea since many taxi drops off passengers there.

It is very interesting tip!

Life in Shanghai is not Easy, isn’t it?

Everyone’s patience is a limited resource. After waiting for taxi for half hour, and there is no order (because everyone line up alone the long street), it seems the only reason to explain why some one get a taxi and others don’t is “good luck”. According to a happiness expert, “When people cannot control their lives and can only rely on luck, people feel unhappy”. That is one reason why people in Shanghai is not as happy as other cities.

eBay China Job Opening – Part II

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After I posted job posting for one friend in eBay, it seems it worked and another friend asked me to post more for their organization. Besides posting to Kijiji, let me also try here. If you are interested in working in eBay, why not have a try?

Technical Job Openings in eBay Shanghai office

Want to join a great team of professionals that built the largest e-commerce site in the world?

http://pages.ebay.com.cn/aboutebay/contents/job2.html

Sorry for posting long JD again. Last time cyhloi said “My god, it is too long.”. I hope he will have the same feedback again. :-)

1) Unix Technical Manager, Unix System Administration

(Please email your resume to sha-hire@ebay.com)

The manager of Unix System Admin reports to the General Manager of eBay China Operations Center at eBay Shanghai. This manager is responsible for leading a team of 5-10 highly skilled Unix System Administrators to support eBay’s dynamic, fast-paced environment QA & Production environment.This manager works closely with US SA teams on daily basis to ensure that projects are delivered on time, change requests are executed flawlessly, motivate and grow the team to be one of the top SA teams in the industry. This person also needs to work with eBay development, Program Management and Operational support organizations in China and US to develop and refine processes which will increase the efficiency and accuracy of teams work in order to provide world class services.

Responsibilities

o Manage and coordinate the China Unix Admin team to ensure projects implementation are successful

o Ensure the best practice, the standards and processes of site operations are followed and enforced.

o Provide technical leadership in designing and implementing new initiatives.

o Manage escalations related to both QA & Productions in China.

o Establish performance and development objectives for the staff and perform regular review of those objectives

o Report weekly on progress, deliverables and metrics against plan

Job Requirements:

(Knowledge, skills, abilities, experience required to perform job)

Given the goals for this position, candidates must have:

o Strong Knowledge of host-based, networking technologies and understand complex relationships between components of a multi-tiered, distributed web site

o Worked as Unix System Admin Manager or Senior/Principle level System Admin for at least 3 years in the past.

o Has broad knowledge in the internet based technologies and infrastructure including Unix OS, SAN/NAS, Networking, load balancer, F5. CDN, DNS, SMTP).

o Experience in implementing a large-scale unix systems (preferably Oracle RDBMS on Sun OS)

o Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to peers and management both in verbal and written Chinese and English

o Ability to multitasking under high pressure environment.

o Exhibits leadership qualities and strong procedural and architectural documentation skills, experience with related tools (such as visio)

o Bachelor or Master Degree in computer related fields or equivalent with minimum 5 years experiences in a Unix system administration environment and project management).

o Minimum 2 years of people management experience.

2) Sr. Unix Administrator

(Please email your resume to sha-hire@ebay.com)

Primary Job Responsibilities

(List and describe the essential responsibilities of the position for which the individual is held accountable)

o Participate as a member of a top UNIX Systems Administration team responsible for operationally excellent management and operation of the eBay servers required to keep eBay’s web properties running in a 24x7x52 environment.

o Build, maintain and upgrade hundreds of Sun and Linux systems.

o Requires ability to perform on-call duty on a rotational basis.

o Assess systems utilization to assist in troubleshooting and performance tuning

o Create scripts

o Act as a project member on various projects (supports, as a supporter or consultant in the RASCI model, either business or infrastructure projects in a variety of systems administrator tasks, including: configuring systems, installing software, providing guidance in technical meetings, defining standards, assisting with research for architectural issues, assisting/providing status updates, attending project meetings, and implementation of new features and tasks)

Job Requirements

(Knowledge, skills, abilities, experience required to perform job)

o Minimum five years Unix Systems Administration experience

o Proficiency with common Unix System administration tools

o Proven troubleshotting skills and ability to understand complex relationships between components of a multi-tiered, distributed web site

o End-user and configuration experience with Network Management and Enterprise Monitoring tools, especially within a network operations center environment

o Broad knowledge of common applications and technologies in Internet computing (web servers, proxies, load balancers, etc)

o Cross-platform unix/windows administration skills a plus

o Knowledge of host-based and network security tools and technologies

o Working expertise with at least one scripting langua e (perl, bourne shell, etc.)

o Experience with TIBCO messaging a plus

o Ability to provide reliable technical support and guidance on routine site issues in a high velocity, dynamic environment

o Exhibits leadership qualities and strong procedural and architectural documentation skills, experience with related tools (such as visio)

o Flexible, adaptable, and able to manage multiple tasks in a dynamic, fast-paced environment

o Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to peers and management

Expect at least 6 months of training or a solid understanding of eBay would be required.

3) NOC Unix Administrator

(Please email your resume to sha-hire@ebay.com)

Overview

The Systems Engineer is a key member of the operations staff with responsibility for proper functioning of all availability and performance of all components of the eBay production sites. As a member of a world-class Operations team, the Systems Engineer is responsible for operationally excellent management and operation of UNIX and Windows servers, supporting web properties running in a 24×7 environment. The Systems Engineer has primary responsibility for all monitoring and site tools as well as first and second tier resolution of production issues. Additionally, the successful candidate will work quickly under pressure to execute actions required to maintain site availability and performance.

Responsibilities

o Manage and monitor systems to drive troubleshooting and tuning

o First and second tier resolution of production issues and alerts

o Understand all components of the eBay site infrastructure in order to analyze impact of alarms and other system messages

o Work with external teams to diagnose complex problems and drive resolution

o Utilize toolset to diagnose and resolve production issues

o Resolve errors and alarms quickly and provide timely escalation

o Complete tasks required to maintain service levels and availability of all site features and functions

Requirements

o BS in technical field or equivalent experience

o Excellent verbal communications in both Chinese and English

o Minimum two years system administration experience

o Solid knowledge of operating system internals, file system structures, and machine architectures in a UNIX and Windows operating systems

o Experience with common system administration tools

o Working experience with scripting tools, Perl and UNIX shell scripting

o Knowledge of relational databases preferably Oracle

o Proven problem solving skills with an emphasis on quick problem resolution

o Ability to work on many tasks simultaneously in a high-pressure environment

o Basic LAN and WAN network knowledge

o Experience with web development technologies like HTML, XML, XSL, Java

o Be a good team player

4) NT Administrator (Several)

(Please email your resume to sha-hire@ebay.com)

Job Description:

– As a System administrator to execute site maintenance on large 7*24 environment

– Take quick actions to solve problem and escalating issues as appropriate

– Responsible for remedy collecting and recording

– You will be responsible for managing mission critical Windows NT servers.

Should have knowledge of Windows server operating systems (NT & 2000)

with a thorough understanding of NT Domains, Active Directory, WINS, DNS, and DHCP.

Requirements:

– Unix/Linux experience is preferred

– University degree or above majored in computer science or other disciplines

– NT/Win2K knowledge, MCSE knowledge

– Experience with TCP/IP protocol, solid knowledge of DNS

– scripting skills are a plus

– Be able to work under high pressure

– Warm-hearted and self-motivated

– Strong communication skills both in mandarin and English.

IMPORTANT: Please directly send your resume to sha-hire@ebay.com, not me. Thanks.

Three Years of Blogging

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This is the first day of the forth year of my blogging.

After three years (or 1095 days) of blogging, I thought this may be a bigger event for my life, but I didn’t feel it that way when this day come. This is a normal Sunday for me – Typhoon hits Shanghai again, and it starts to rain. The subtitle of Shanghai Oriental TV reminds people to stay in home and check windows and doors. Four year ago, on the same day, 9-11 event happened in New York (BTW, the most admirable exhibition I ever heard of is Here is New York). Maybe the rain brings more blue mood for me and an three year anniversary reminds me to look back to see what happened in the days before.

I’d like to invite everyone to visit my Archive Page. On this page, you will see a list of 1058 articles of the previous three years. All those marked with Bold font are hot topics with more than 10 comments. You can also click here to load the list into the search pane, making it easier to navigate through articles (IE only).

In the three years, my topics shifted a lot. From daily Shanghai life, to my travel record and to big news happening in Shanghai. Some times I intentionally ignore some hot news, and people will argue on that – why did you keep silient on this? It is the expectation.

Recently, the topic shifted a little bit from the city of Shanghai to culture and Internet, due to the shift of my own focus. I also started the Chinese version of my blog, and kept it in a pace of one article every week (It is just impossible for any one with a full time job to post two entries, one in Chinese and one in English every day).

Again, every time I review what we have accumulated on this blog, I want to thank people who commented on this blog. On English blog, 1058 entries received 111924 comments. The ratio of comment to entry is 11.27. On Chinese blog, 87 entries received 1259 comments, making the ratio to be 14.47…

I hope in the forth year, I can still be able to keep my promise from day 1 – to report “Events (in Shanghai) that affect my life (and others’)” in a personalized way.

Wangjianshuo’s Blog Change Log

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23:29 2006-7-31

Project:

  • Remove Google Adsense code from Individual Entry Archive

    Propose:

  • Increase user experience by providing ad-free browsing on

    Individual Entry Archive page.

  • Increase Google Adsense revenue to improving overall CTR rate.

    Success Metrics:

  • Get earning back to 40 level, from 28 (after the change).

    Steps:

  • Template -> Archives tab -> Individual Entry Archive
  • Remove the following code from under

    <span class=Adsense>

    <$MTInclude module=”RelatedEntries”$>

    Below is removed.

    <p align=right>

    <script type=”text/javascript”><!–

    google_ad_client = “pub-8513779941474461”;

    google_ad_width = 234;

    google_ad_height = 60;

    google_ad_format = “234x60_as”;

    google_ad_type = “text_image”;

    google_ad_channel =”0738760540″;

    google_color_border = “D2E4FC”;

    google_color_bg = “FFFFFF”;

    google_color_link = “0000FF”;

    google_color_text = “000000”;

    google_color_url = “008000”;

    //–></script>

    <script type=”text/javascript”

    src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js”>

    </script>

    </p>

  • Save.

    23:50 2006-7-31

    Project:

  • Remove BBS from blog site

    Propose:

  • After putting up BBS onto site for some time, no one uses it, and get only less than 10 reply. So remove BBS, and confirm BBS is not the way to go.

    Success Metrics:

  • N/A

    Steps:

        Templates -> Modules -> Chinese

          Remove the following lines: <iframe width=100% height=250 FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no src=”https://home.wangjianshuo.com/scripts/php/bbs.php”>

          </iframe>

            Save.

    • Chinese Blogger Conference

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    Chinese Blogger Conference will be held in Shanghai on Nov 5 – 6, 2005 in Shanghai. It is a weekend.

    screen-blogcon.jpg

    Image in courtesy of Blogger Conference Organizer

    I don’t know why, but I just have the mixed feeling of this event. I didn’t got any notification/invitation of this event yet. I am worrying about this event. I met Isaac and discussed my concerns: it is more like a conference of only some people, instead of the blogging world. BSPs like blogbus, bokee, blogcn, anyp.cn seem not involved yet, and many bloggers like me are not involved yet. The speakers are great persons but seem to be only in a small circle. Although many bloggers are encouraged to participate, but there is not good way to organize the participation. There are many pannel discussions, but I worry how to organize it if there are so many people – I don’t know what the pannel discussion will look like if it is 100 people conference…

    screen-I.report.blogcn.JPG

    Image in courtesy of yining

    I will be a reporter, suppoter, and participant, but… I still worry a lot. Let’s wait and see what happens than.

    BTW, Barak, CEO of Six Apart will participant in this blogcon.

    Short Time Flight Ticket

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    Question

    When I get to Shanghai Oct 10, I need to get a one-way flight to Chengdu on 13th. Will I be able to do that on the 10th or 11th? No web site that I can access in US permits reserving a one-way ticket. If you think trying to get a flight on 2-3 days notice is not realistic, could you suggest a travel agent located in Shanghai that might assist me. I love Shanghai and wish I had more time to spend this trip. Thanks for your help.

    Answer

    Typically, if it is not the golden week (Oct 1 – Oct 7, May 1 – May 7 and Spring Festival Week), a good bet is that you can book flight on the same day when you travel. The air tickets works not the same in U.S. Typically, the cheapest air tickets are only available just few days before the departure. So typically, my suggestion is you go to the airport and buy the ticket at the counter – there are enough ticket counter at any airport of Shanghai (or other city).

    If you want to be safe and get lower price, making a reservation on CTRIP.COM is a good idea. They have English version of their website. Or try to call them at +86-21-34064888. They are really nice.

    My 17 “OR” Articles

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    Chedong is my good friend and a search engine expert. He wrote an article on his blog named: 15 OR of Wang Jian Shuo (I found this is 976th article from him already)

    We discussed two topics I wrote: one is Enjoy Doing or Being Able to Do and Dislike Doing or Starting to Do. Then Chedong get back and used Google to get a list of 15 articles. I just searched and got 17 results (Maybe I changed to English interface?) The question I asked include:

    1. Where to Study Chinese, Beijing or Shanghai?
    2. Pudong or Puxi
    3. Mandarin or Shanghaiese?
    4. To Tip or Not to Tip
    5. To Focus or Not?
    6. Car or Bicycle?
    7. Sina, Sohu or Netease?
    8. To Continue or Not? Confusing in China Blogsphere
    9. Dislike Doing or Starting to Do
    10. Blog, to Host it or Not?
    11. House of Flying Daggers (or Shi Mian Mai Fu)
    12. Thinking in English or Chinese
    13. Enjoy Doing or Being Able to Do
    14. Media – Should I Love It or Hate It?
    15. To Host It or Not? Confusing in China Blogsphere
    16. Sina, Sohu or Netease?

    You will see how many questions (confusion) I have in the past three years. Further, I found Google intitle search is a great way to organize the articles by keywords. For example, you will find the following search result useful on the topics:

    taxi metro bus PVG maglev

    Chedong suggested me to add a “OR” tag on the article and finally we agreed that it is by no means can an author find out a “silly” tag like “OR” when he writes the article. It has to be some thing that is discovered after many articles.

    We Filled Our Lives But Lost Our Souls

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    Wendy wrote an article named We Filled Our Lives, But Lost Our Souls (Chinese) and posted it on her blog. It is very real comment from a normal person in Shanghai. The original version was very well written. Let me try to translate part of them.

    These are among our frequent topics: I went to English, and you visited Europe, and he went to America; your house is at Lian Hua Metro Station, and mine is at Pudong, and he has several villa; The Peace Masion on Fen Yang Road is not bad, and Ying Qi on Ju Lu Road has great taste, and the Rose Garden is Pudong is OK; We care about taste, and we care about sentiment; we care about thoughts; We will have afternoon teas, and we will enjoy German black beer…

    We filled our lives, but we lost our souls.

    We do not insist any more, and we are not paranoia any longer. We start to say “Yes” to everything. The uncertainty of future and pressure of life forced people to put benifit and stability the first place before any decision….

    I know Wendy is a good thinker and this piece is very well written. No matter people think it or not, it is a very common situation for people’s life in Shanghai. Shanghai is becoming more and more internationalized, but the life is much more harder. It is not easy to survive in Shanghai, since “we have to fill our lives”.

    More interestingly, one of the email Wendy got is another great piece on the meaning of lives:

    Dear Wendy,

    I saw your latest blog entry “we filled our lives, but lost our souls.” You

    sounded a bit down and I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts. We’ve

    only met once, but for some reason, I felt a special connection to you. I

    also really admire the brutal honesty in your blog. I hope I’m not being

    too blunt or personal in my writing:

    First off, lemme just say it’s damn hard to keep one’s soul in contemporary

    China. Everytime I went back to Shanghai, it felt very different to me. In

    recent years, increasingly, I felt an overwhelming sense of materialism.

    Adding to that is tremendous peer pressure and the need to ‘keep up with the

    Jonese.’ What others have I have to have it, too. What others do I have

    to do it better. That’s painful. By going with the flow we essentially

    give up our own choices, ideals, and individuality. Or, in other words, our

    souls.

    But how can you not go with the flow? If the entire society is crazed about

    making money and buying houses, how do you dare to be different? What about

    parental expectations? They’ve had a hard life raising us. What about our

    children? We can’t have them lose out from the start. Life is a race and

    you simply cannot afford to stop.

    Stop to think, what do I really want from this life? Do I really have to be

    in that race? I think a lot of times we don’t give ourselves enough credit.

    We don’t give ourselves enough space and freedom to explore, to make

    mistakes, and to find out who we really are. All of our lives we’ve been

    told who we should be and what we should do by our parents, teachers,

    friends, society, or by a self that has internalized the values of all

    those. We are defined by our roles as daughters, wives, mothers, employees

    and citizens. But we are more than that. Each and everyone of us is

    unique. We each have our own talents, passions and beliefs — We may have

    yet to discover them, but they are there. Life is a privilege. Don’t rush

    through it without knowing what you’re doing.

    I try to tell myself, I came to this world for a purpose, and that purpose

    is more than to have a job, get married, buy a house, make babies and

    retire. I’m going to find out what that purpose is. I know this probably

    sounds extremely naive, and I often have doubts about it. Sometimes I feel

    like I’m not a good enough daughter. Sometimes I feel like my peers think

    I’m crazy and a failure. Sometimes I’m gripped with this fear that I’m

    going to end up old and homeless, not having had a job ever long enough to

    build a career. :) But I think I’d rather live with the fear and guilt than

    the nagging, perennial question: why am I here?

    Partly that’s why I hide in San Francisco. In Shanghai reality is presented

    in a much harsher, right-in-your-face kind of way than in SF. Here people

    could care less about what you do with your life. Sometimes I try to

    picture what I would be doing today if I stayed in China. And all I could

    think of is a stifling cube in an office building somewhere in Beijing or

    Shanghai. I don’t think I would’ve had the courage to do anything

    different. I have a lot of respect for the independent spirits in China

    today, simply because it’s just so much harder there to stay true to

    oneself.

    I can’t believe I wrote so much. It feels like I was writing as much for

    you as it is for myself. And one final note for all of us

    soul-searchers–have a sense of humor. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

    Having a sense of humor makes one more open to new experiences and makes it

    easier to stand up again after you fail. Allow yourself to explore, allow

    yourself to fail, allow yourself to be confused, because it is from failures

    we learn and confusion forces us to think. Most importantly, soul-searchers

    or not, we’ll still eat, crap, and sleep everyday. :) We’ll still laugh and

    cry. We’ll still have all the bills to pay and bosses to please. In some

    ways I think soul-searching is more of an attitude toward life than concrete

    actions. What’s the difference between the soul-searchers and

    non-soul-searchers then? Well, not much, except we set ourselves free, from

    inside out.

    I don’t know if any of this makes you feel better. It’s just a topic I

    struggle with a lot myself, so thought I’d share some of my own thoughts.

    If any of it is offensive, I apologize! I hope that, other than your

    sometimes elluding soul, all is well on the other side of the Pacific. :)

    Credit goes to the original author

    This piece is so nice.

    Cheng Shan Road Opens

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    5

    After one year of construction, the Cheng Shan Road near my apartment finally opens these days. It provides a new way to directly go to the Lupu Bridge directly from my home.

    Along the road, there are still many villages. Although it is the site of the Shanghai Expo 2010, currently, there are still villages in the cities. The villigers are planning their new life since the villages will be moved to other places, and modern buildings will raise at the same place. The road is the first step to kick off this kind of construnction. I believe in the year 2010, this area will be completely another new look.

    The opening of the road is great news to me. When people are discussing big events in the world, the small news like the completion of a road around my apartment is something really meaning for me.

    P.S: Google Local was release recently. The domain is bendi.google.com, a very local name. Meanwhile, it gives a much shorter name for the Chinese version of Google Local.

    Price Increase of Shanghai Metro

    Posted on by
    11

    It is HEARD that the price of Shanghai Metro will continue to increase due to the high pressure from the passenger volume at rush hours. The lowest price will be adjusted to 3 RMB from 2, and it takes 5 RMB from Long Yang Road in Pudong to Xujiahui in Puxi. Now, it is only 3 RMB.

    Meanwhile, since the Dong Fang Metro Station is the conjunction station of three metro lines, it will be closed for 1 years for construction. The transition square of the People’s Square seems will be completed soon, and I guess at that time, the transition between Metro Line 1 and Line 2 will be shortened…

    Just some random news about Shanghai Metro…

    When Nothing to Blog

    Posted on by
    Reply

    If there is no topic to blog today, how about try thinking about these ideas:

    Event?

    Will it be a conference, meetup, or events coming soon? If so, write about it. What is the propose? Who will come? Will you go there? If yes, why? If not, also why?

    New product?

    See if there is a new product, new release or new plugin. Try it, describe it and write some comments on it.

    to be continued…

    Updated July 25, 2007

    Reflection

    If there is nothing to write, how about do some reflections? Thank about the past, and think about the days you blogged, and think about what you have believed in. Are you still doing what you believe is true? Are you still believe in what you believed? Why? Why not? That is the value of a blog – to help (or the better word – to force) you think. To explain one’s thought beautifully is a power everyone should manage.

    OOB

    If you really don’ t have too much to say, an OOB (Out of Blogging) notice is also good – to tell people why you don’t want to blog, and that can be an interesting blog as well. The bottom line is, you keep up your blog and don’t let people worry – what is going there?

    Of cause, it is OK to pause for a day or two.

    Pictures

    A picture is better than thousands of words. Try to post a recent picture and it will well explain what is happening…

    Baidu Post

    Posted on by
    18

    Check out Baidu Post (something like BBS). It has generated great traffic.

    For example, under the winner of the Super Girl Li Yu Chun, up to now, 5.1 million message were posted under this single name.

    Check out the page. Every time I press F5 to refresh the page, new entries were added – at interval of less than 1 second. Just keep refreshing and we have some idea about how active people are posting on this board.

    I didn’t a simple test: at 23:50:00 of Aug 30, 2005, there are 5109585 message. 15 seconds later, which is 23:50:15, the number increased by 50 to 5109635. It means on average, there are 3.3 NEW post on this thread every single second. This has lasted for at least several weeks.

    Meanwhile, the SMS Li Yun Chun got is 3.5 million in just one week – this may give people some hint that mobile phone usage is still much higher than Internet.

    The super girl is a very interesting case study that reveal some solid facts that many people in IT industy ignore….

    screen-post.baidu.png