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Showing posts from January, 2007

Babel, the movie

Some movies are just brilliant. This is one of them. It seems that they are totally seperated people in this world, speaking in different languages - English, Spanish, Japanese, and some northern african language. However, they are actually linked in some ways, and share the same feeling as human being. I guess this is the part where Babel for. Very touching.

Talk Show in US

By definition, talk show is a program where a group of people come together to discuss various topics led by a talk show host on TV or radio. However, the most popular TV talk shows in US are more or less in a one-man-show style. The host himself or herself becomes the celebrity and focus, shown up in Hollywood movies as ‘host’ now and then. The program covers anything, including politicians (president, Bush is the most favorite these years, state governor, congressmen), celebrities from Hollywood, Wall Street, and everyday bizarre news, mostly in comedy sketches. Some TV talk shows • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – Fun fact, Jay Leno on eBay with userid jayleno-harley. The Harley Davidson was sold for $800,100 to raise money for the 2004 tsunami. • Oprah – The highest rated talk show in US, the target audiences are desperate housewives, to lift their spirits. The show has such a huge influence, a book mentioned in her show can rapidly become bookselling blockbuster from nowhere. In o...

Google News in China doesn't look correct

The related antibody news sure is very scary 患者丙肝抗体阳性与佰易涉嫌产品有关联 人民网 江苏省全面清查佰易问题球蛋白 新华网江苏频道 On Google News China version, the top focus news is this one. The subject is something related to antibody in Chinese, but it is metaphor style here, real meaning is to take precaution. The content and side picture is even more interesting. Totally nonsense.

郭富诚的《父子》

在台湾电影行业萎靡不振,金马奖越来越无聊的今天,郭SG连中两元,也不奇怪了。其实他自己的演技在两部戏里并没有多大变化,就是哭的眼泪鼻涕的,一脸打工仔春运挤车几天没睡好的样子。不过比起金光灿灿,晃的人眼睁不开的大片,《父子》和《三叉口》还是强多了。故事发生在马来西亚,拍的环境背景也很贴近马国的生活。里头的哥们生活的及其郁闷,欠了一屁股赌债,老婆和别人跑了。自己和儿子四处躲债,让儿子去偷东西。真是背极了。里面几个女演员也看着比巩大妈顺眼多了。

Pay utility bill online in Shanghai

China really changes a lot. Now 1 out of 10 Chinese is web citizen (using internet). To pay utility bills now is really easy. The website is http://www.962233.com . Well, the site name looks really spooky. Don't worry. It is printed on the back of your bill. You login, search your bill by some number, and pay it, as simple as that. How much the utility? For electricity, 0.617CNY per KWH. For gas, 2.10CNY per m3.

看大片《黄金甲》

《黄金甲》就不多说了,我看的怎么老觉得是《夜宴》呢?而且从《无极》开始, 皇帝都改了叫法了,一个字,王,很奇怪的感觉。据说是《雷雨》改编的。实在是无聊极了。王朔说老张就是一搞装修的。我看也就是给暴发户搞装修的。

VMware Fusion on Mac

I heard the buzz - VMware Fusion on Mac beta is out. I logon the VMTN, register to download. Apparently the site only accepts US address. Nor Singapore neither China. The .dmg file is around 110M. I am so eager to see how it works. Whoops! Click the .dmg and get the message that it only supports Mac on Intel, not PowerPC core. Damn. BTW. In China Apple store, I see Apple computer installed with not Mac OS X, but Windows XP. Why bother to pay extra cash just to get that bitten apple logo?

Not easy to blog on blogger.com in China

To view blogger.com is fine in China, but to create new post is another story. I want to post more blogs, but the sign-in is almost unusable in China. The most talked about topics in Shanghai are - investment fund, stock, house. If you got nothing to talk about, these topics are good start. Of course, there are many other gossip - such as automobiles, big screens. The most played social game is Mafia or killing people game. Everyone is playing it. It is fun.

Unhappy taxi drivers

I have met twice in both Singapore and Shanghai. Both are from airport. One is the travel distance is too short. Another is too far! Sound strange? In Singapore Changi airport, there are some luxury Benz cars. The fare is fixed 35SGD for whole island. I need go from airport (east) all the way to NTU (west), the longest distance in Singapore. The driver keeps complaining on the car, very annoying. He think I am taking advantage of this fixed price. Frankly, I don't know. This is my first time taking this fixed price taxi. When arrived, I gave him 5SGD more. He is happy then. I will not take this cab anymore. In Shanghai Pudong airport, I took one back to where I sleep. The fare was 130 RMB. The driver was not satisfied too. He said he waited for 5 hours in airport. I understood. Every taxi driver on airport wants to pick up someone go back Puxi. I share the feeling with them, but I need go back sleep no matter they are happy or not.

Ubuntu 6.10 Resolution on VMware Player

I have installed VMware-player-1.0.3-34682 on Windows XP, grabbed a Ubuntu 6.10 vmware image from http://isv-image.ubuntu.com/vmware/ . The monitor is Dell 20" LCD with 1600x1200 resolution, but the Ubuntu guest inside VMware can only have 800x600 resolution. I tried to modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf and restart X. It didn't work. The Scree Resolution Preferences still has only 800x600 and 640x480. I tried to modify the .vmx setting, no luck. Finally, find the solution. Run sudo vmware-config-tools.pl, it will ask if you want to change resolution. Now Ubuntu is in 1280x960 resolution, and there are plenty other options shown up in Screen Resolution Prefs.

Duty Free?

After I bought a bottle of Hugo Boss perfume at a Shanghai's mall, I was thinking next time I should buy it at airport duty free shop. The price should be at least 30-50% cheaper. Yesterday I was in Singapore Changi airport. I checked the price. Surprisingly, the price is almost the same as I paid in local stores. Is it real duty free?

IP phone card price

To call international or domestic long distance, it is nice to buy a IP phone card for newcomer. There are plenty of places, especially around Metro stations, selling all kinds of IP cards. When I just arrived in Shanghai, I bought one with face value 100 CNY at 100 CNY. Several weeks later, I bought another one with face value 100 CNY at 28 CNY. Now I know I was ripped off on the first card. Doh! That mtoherfcuker!

Winter in Shanghai

The outside temperature is around zero degree these couple of days. Inside the house, it is around 12 degree. The feeling is about the same if you don't turn on the heater, air-con. Everything is cold, including your body. The feeling of watching TV on the coach? It is just like sitting on the street. It reminds me one word - penetrating, yes, the cold can really penetrate anything.

ICBC Bank website hacked

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) website got a special new year gift. The website portal is hacked at the beginning of 2007. The backend technology is exposure of cross site scripting (XSS). As ICBC claimed, the hack is more like a prank than deep finacial breakin. For the sake of bank industry, it is not good in any sense to see this page for customers.

环球时事参考

看第一版, 还是一个很正经的报纸。有点参考消息的风格。从第二版开始,每版至少有1/3的牛逼广告。大致分为以下几类: —— 通过手机Callin的色情聊天,一个比一个大胆诱人,大概目的是赚手机费? —— 保证“真实“的女性争友广告。大概内容是女的很富,寂寞无子,愿意付若干万元求一夜情。大概是骗肾?或者银行信息? ——卖透视眼镜,迷情粉,万能钥匙。。。 ——还有就是治疗小鸡鸡的广告了。 国内变化大啊。

Apple sucks in China

Put its unreasonable price aside, the Apple computer simply doesn't do the job in China. Most chinese popular sites and softwares are only available on IE/Windows. I can not access China Mechandise Bank online banking, can't use eMule, can't watch Sina TV.