Expected: Stanford CS Grads are HOT

Google and Facebook are fighting over top talents from Stanford. (TechCrunch article)
This is definitely expected. The salary hike has started.
How cool that is... the rise of salary in the software engineering/ web development market, makes the industry really attractive to students who are going to colleges. Stanford only produces a limited amount of top talents every year, a lot of them might want to work for something really cool around that 50 mile area.
Google seemed already to pass the stage of center of attraction. Now it is Facebook. Yes! it's hot!
Everyone is talking about it, not only in the market but also all linked industries.... yes... lot of liquid here!

what else? Zazzle is there.
Digg is in San Fran.
MySpace is not that far...
and many many hot stuff around there.
Clean Energy and Green Energy also attract fairly a large pool of talents to work on it. it's been really hot in 2007. 2008 might be the year to demonstrate some of the work already done. It's really exciting.

China is another hot spot in terms of the global market. I saw so many foreign students at Wudaokou, Beijing to learn Chinese. So many foreign expats are coming to China for business opportunity or career opportunity.

Olympic is close! 190+ days away from today!
many many more!

Cool: Enhanced Online picture browsing experience!

This is really something cool that I need to talk about it here!
tell you first: it's PicLens.
You don't really have to install something on your computer. it's available for Safari (2.0), Firefox and Internet Explorer extension or plug-in.
If you browse pictures a lot on Facebook, I think it is cool to use it. As you are aware, each page only shows 20 pictures maximum to glance through. If you use piclens, all pictures from the album can be previewed there. It's really nice!

You can do it the same for flickr or Picasa!
Basically, whenever this is pictures on the page or ablum, you can browse them all at once!

Try it! It might blow you away...=p

OMG: unlocked iPhones reached over a quarter

gosh!!!
this is really amazing... ever since the first iPhone was unlocked. There are over 25% of the sold iPhone in 2007 have been unlocked already.
There are quite a few unlocked iPhones around me.

I really like it and want it but my only concern is that I am going to damage it because I often drop my phone on the floor. errrhh!!!

here is the article on Boing Boing .

A Good Chinese Book for People in Their Twenties

It's titled as "everything of men's life can be changed in their twenties".

I am half way through the book. Hopefully, I am done tonight!

Another translation of the title can be "Men's life is determined during their twenties"
I think this book is a good mind blower for undergraduate students in China. In fact, that's the targeted audience. To people who found the title very catchy, you picked the right book to read about. It's good to know. I found there are lots of resonances.

I'll pass this book around among my friends who are in their twenties!

Going Back to Hometown this CNY

After so many years of celebrating Chinese New Year, aka Spring Festival, I can finally make a trip back to my hometown to celebrate with my grandparents and relatives in Inner Mongolia.
Feel very excited now! =)

Will be back for a few days since Feb 4, 2008.
Spend a few days there, eat some good food, visit some old friends... hopefully, I can get to visit some new places that I have not been to, like the grass land! =p

Post more before CNY

It's been a while since my last post.
Have been working on some performance for an Annual Dinner. It was fun!
We had a skit and also a dance within the skit. Had lots of fun in the preparation as well as at the dinner.
The food was okay I think because I did not really eat all the dishes. It's okay. I drank more red wine then, even though the Chinese red wine really sucks! I still miss the wine from Napa Valley.
=)

Anyway, lots of update to post here. Lately, I came across quite some interesting stuff which I have some across before but have forgotten.
1. iGoogle
2. NetVibes
3. My Blog (here, what you are reading)
4. Friendster

Go after Your Passion

What are you passionate about?
Have you thought of it thoroughly?

Hope you are very clear on it as early as possible in your life. When there is something to look after and look forward to, things might become much more beautiful than they already are.

Thanks for the article, Roger!

wow: Singapore, the happiest country in Asia

Singapore used to be very unfamiliar...
since 2002, it became a word that I started using almost everyday...
yes, i started living in Singapore then... for education...

It was only after I went to US to learn something new while at night on the San Francisco streets, I really felt that Singapore is safe...

I think I am one of the happy camper there too, living independently and enjoying every day of life. It was wonderful. However, i was not aware of such great environment I was in. Looking back at what I have done, taking for granted still plays some part in my life there. i wish I could have taken more opportunities and become better than who I was before I went to the US and then became even greater during the one year course there.

Now... it is still not late... I really like what Douglas Foo said in this article

"There are a lot of things I want to do in my life; I want to make sure by the time I leave, when he calls up and says 'Now is the time to go,' I will leave smiling, and saying that I lived a very fulfilling, meaningful life."

I am a very family person, too. Even though I have not met my wife yet, I am sure I'll have a very happy family with many kids.

Good luck to everyone!

Cool Video: Web 2.0 in 5 minutes

Think about how text has transformed so far?
from carved on the rock... to cloth... to paper... and then it was digitized... till now...
the Web 2.0

What Web 2.0 is about from looking at the text!
It is really a cool video done... I like it a lot!

Would you: let your kids blog?

Have you thought of this question before?
Would you let your kids blog? Why? or why not?
I think i would... and i do agree with this video below.

WOW: Placebo Effects

hey.... have you thought about if you really want to lose weight, actually you will without being different in terms of your daily routine?

it is hypothesized that your perception of how your body is like plays a more important part than what physically your body is like. In my opinion, it's good and bad...
what's good about it:
if you are sick and the sickness is not too serious, your positive perception can help heal it and recover from the illness.
You can make your body stronger with a stronger mindset.

what's bad about it:
you might be overconfident about your physical strength and did not apply the right strategy about your physical body. For example, you think you can do 50 push-ups and physically you cannot... .you might get closer and might finish all. you might also injure your muscles...
another bad thing about it is that your positive thinking of your already diseased body might get the solvable problem unsolvable....

Those were only my two cents and please think over it and apply it carefully yourself.
Nonetheless, I do believe that a stronger mind with a stronger physical body can achieve double of what you might have expected.

suggestion:
1. use the placebo effects accordingly
2. have a healthful daily routine
3. build your body up

So, let me come back on the loss of weight topic!
I guess my personal experience is that I knew I was going to lose weight after I came back from the US after a year's stock-up of my weight. I think what's more important here is that "I knew".... I have already told my body to get ready for losing weight... of course, life in Beijing is different than it in Silicon Valley. I started to have more unplanned exercise than before. I do not drive here. Thus I have to take buses, or subway and I walk a lot to get around. I feel more conscious about what my intakes are (not too oily, no salty food, more vegetables, less grains and more proteins etc.) I wanted to have more planned exercises but I did not have a written plan for me to follow. Hence, I sort of got around with what's been planned in my mind. That's bad... Nevertheless, my weight loss is still working in progress. If I can carry out my exercise plan well, the results will be multiplied.

In preparing for the annual party, there is a dance that choreograph by me - it is a very simple one. =p So, I am getting some exercise from there daily... hope will get onto a good plan with a healthy diet! life is good!

if you want to find our more about placebo effects.
1. Wikipedia
2. NPR article

Bill Gates Last Keynote @ CES

Want to share with you the Keynote that Bill Gates delivered for the last time of his at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES). Here is the video.

It's really cool! There is a video he and his friends did about his last day at Microsoft Corporation.
Gosh... the people in there are high-profiled. He really enjoyed the fun he can get. Even though people say "you cannot get anything and everything in this world with money", money brings you close to what you want...

The Beijing Olympic Games was mentioned there on NBC's Internet On Demand Olympic coverage there. It is really cool! Why it is there? It is because Microsoft is their technology partner and the technology used is Silverlight.

The video above is ussing Sliverlight technology. However, I am not sure how good it is. It's high-definition? It did not really look like it was. I could not control much about the video at all. I could not make the video full-screen though it seemed to me that there was this sign on the right bottom. What's really bothering me is that I had to finish the video at one time. If not, I have to watch the whole thing from the very beginning. Luckily, the Internet connection right now is fine and I have not experienced any issue except some buffering time.

Alright... Microsoft is still trying its best to beat Google. I am not sure why it wants to do so. Killing someone is not very good. If they can work together, that would make the world a much better and more wonderful place! Guys, wake up!!! don't talk about killing. it's not even worth mentioning. Win-win & Collaboration is the way to go... think about the globalization, alright!

By the way, Bill Gates also demonstrated the Surface technology. It is really cool! I've love to try it out or even own one... =p I thin I am very much into technology... With all these stuff shown, I believe that the digital world is still coming our way... there is still a long way to go. Nevertheless, we are getting there. The digital home, digital car, digital workplace... and the digital world...

Funny: Web 2.0 Outsourcing Humor

this is from TechCrunch article: Sign Of The Times: Web 2.0 Outsourcing Humor

What?: Virtual Banking is banned in Second Life?

I was skimming through the web again after referencing some of the latest Web 2.0 news.
When i went to TechCrunch homepage, I saw Second Life is going to ban virtual banking within its world, effective on Jan 22, 2008.

Gosh! What's that?
I could not believe that Second Life is getting into the organic growth of the virtual world.
I am not sure whether the underlying reason is really about the a few complaints from the users. Or Second Life is having some other plan for this big pie?
hard to tell... but there is definitely something fishy here!

Event: CommunityNext @ West Hollywood, CA

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We are bridging together Silicon Valley to L.A. for the Next Generation of Media and the Web on Saturday, March 29 in West Hollywood @ Level 3 Club. Register for early bird tickets now: http://nextmedia.eventbrite.com What to expect: * learn how the web and media are changing and what you can do about it * connect with key people from top online companies * fun times at the "Community Next with a Twiist" open bar party Friday night hosted by Twiistup, who has an event coming up Jan 16 in Venice. Check it out! * Free Redbull, drinks and free food all day Start the year off right: http://nextmedia.eventbrite.com. Cheers, Noah and Karen http://communitynext.com

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Baidu Spaces, Blogs & its Social Networking

I was searching for a good Chinese Blogging Web Service to start a Chinese blog besides my English blogs on Blogger (by Google) and Word Press. I enjoyed using Blogger initially and then went to Word Press since it seemed a little bit more professional. After Blogger was acquired by Google I sort of started using Blogger again because the integration with other Google applications and services.


What was interesting was that I wanted to search a blog site on Baidu and then the clean baidu home page made a little change at the bottom of the search box... "Spaces | More " (it is in Chinese of course).

You might know that "Spaces" on the Chinese Web has already gained its recognition as online profile, personal presence. With that in mind, I went to explore. Surprisingly, Baidu started offering such services like Microsoft. Not surprisingly, blog is an application offered by the space.



Besides the look and feel of Baidu is so similar to what Google looks like, the services Baidu is offering is a lot like what Google has offered to its users! Here is another screen shot of all the services that Baidu is offering. People always say Baidu is the Google in China... Baidu has done a great job... but the fair close of UI to Google makes me feel that Baidu is copying from Google... maybe it is the UX thingie... not about the technology... However, there has to be some words about it... How does it so much look alike?






























I think there are a lot to ponder around this topic... I accidentally ran into a program on CCTV9 when a pretty well-known MC of the channel was interviewing the Rock & Roll star Mr Jian Cui. She mentioned that lots of people in this world consider China as a copycat. I am sure in music, history, culture, food, agriculture and many other traditional fields, we are not at all. In term of the high-tech and emerging industries and markets, the copycat concept seemed truer than in any other context. At least one of the biggest market in China, we are not copying at all- the movie industry... There is no Hollywood in China... will there be? yes eventually, but we are not taking that Hollywood commercialized model yet.

Back on technology.... copycat might not be a bad thing at the beginning of catching up since everything in the emerging markets are so new and there might be loss of direction and might get in the endless loop. Thus, the copycatting is a good way to set the starting level higher than normal. Yes... we take what's already good and innovate on top of that... That's the Chinese model...
Xiaonei vs. Facebook
Baidu vs. Google
Jiwai vs. Twitter
Youku vs. Youtube
and many more... I need to explore more on this!

=)

OMG: Please Stop Complaining

I overheard these two women talking about "English"... it was actually about English accent. They complained about Indian accents. They found it hard to understand and get what the Indians are talking about.

it is true that the Indians do possess very strong accent. However, there is nothing to complain about. I used to complain on this before and I realized that I was wrong. It was not the problem of their accent. The problem lies on I had very poor listening. I could not understand the good English coming from a strong accent.

On the other hand, I really wanted to ask those two women. How about your accent? I have not heard a single English word coming out from your gentle mouth. Do you think your English is better understood than the Indian ones? I am not sure how good your English is. Hope it is great! Otherwise, you are just making yourself lose face because you cannot even speak good English, how can you comment about other's English then. If your pieces of rotten English can be understood by other native English speakers and good English speakers, it is not because you speak better but rather the listeners can listen and understand better.

After all, in communication, accent problem does occur. The reason should not all be pushed to the speakers. The listeners should have at least 50% of the responsibility to check on their listening. If they have heard so many different accents already, how could they just simple do not understand one? I know some accents are very strong and might take a little longer to get used to and get comfortable with. Nevertheless, it is a matter of whether you want to listen or not.

Good luck, the two ladies!
Try harder next time before you make any complaint!

Exciting: What's gonna happen in the high-tech work in 2008?

this sounds really exciting... don't you think so?
you might want to ask what's that?

Here you go:

Where's RIAs, AJAX, SOA & Virtualization Headed in 2008?

Our life is tighted with Oil~ now the oil price is just so high

In almost every aspect of our life, we cannot live with out the impact of oil.
Right now, the oil price has gone up to $100 over per barrel.

many prices related to oil are rising...

Will we leave a harder life than before? So much to think about!

Share with you an article on it.

OMG: Fire under your buttocks?

If you have visited Japan, you might have seen some very high-tech toilets where you don't need to grab toilet paper to wipe your buttocks. Instead, you can get your buttocks washed and blown dry. How's that? Sound very interesting... ha ha...

To be honest, I did try using that toilet. However, my concern while I was using it was whether it could really clean my buttocks well with some high pressure water sprays. (It did not feel like the pressure was that high. of course, if it's too high, you might feel attacked.)

Anyway, I did not think that high-tech toilets can catch fire. imagine the fire got started while you are using it... gosh... sounds so scary!

Check this one out!

Interesting: Wallpaper Clock

have a clock on your wallpaper such that you can be reminded of time any moment?

is that cool?

my friend recommended this to me... I think it is really interesting... some wallpapers are really cute!

=) Enjoy!

Click here for the wallpaper clock. 

It supports Mac OS system. =)

Can you live without them in 2008?

Michael blogged about the Web 2.0 companies he could not live without in 2008.
How about you?

China has Twitter too: Jiwai

gosh... only found it today...
there is a Chinese twitter, named Jiwai... what does Jiwai mean?
"Jiwai" is a sound-like noun/verb, meaning talk in a very lazy manner...

I found the name very funny... =p the URL of the site looks like it is from Germany... interesting... check it out ...