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June 25 Really Cool Portable GPS TrackerI found an interesting gadget and here is the original words
From Coolest-gadgets.com:
The Portable GPS Tracker is pretty small so you could either always carry it on you or use it in 007 spy mode by planting it on a person or vehicle you want to monitor. You may be wondering how you retrieve the stored info and secret routes, well that’s where it gets really cool.
I just think this is so cool (may of said cool a record number of times in this post) it obviously has the spy functionality of tracking somebody else but to me it is even more useful for tracking your own holidays and backpacking adventures. So not only can you bore visitors with your holiday snaps you can also show them exactly where you went. Full feature list:
You can buy this nifty GPS tracker from Think Geek for $249.99, if you do please let us know how you get on with it as I am so tempted. June 18 Chery's attemp on U.S marketThere is a news saying that the Billionaire investor George Soros wants to be an automaker and this time he choose Chery from China. I was not surprised by the news since Chery already has built a plant in Russia to produce the RAV4 alike SUV Tiggo. And I know all the automakers in China are thinking about exporting cars to U.S. which is considered to be the country on wheels. I think it will be a little bit easier for chinese automaker to penertrate the Yankee's auto giant then put their feet on the European market. Because customer in Europe has much strick and special requirements for a car. You could sense that if you have ever watched the Top Gear show from BBC in which it apears that only automakers from europe is doing the car right and all the other companies outside europe are just making cheap bad ones,including Americans. Well I think that is probably because cars were actually invented in Europe and they do have some the best automakers in the world like Benz, BMW and VW from Germany, Citroën and Rnault from France, Ferrai and Lamborghini from Italy. These companies actually defines the standard of automotive industry. While on the other hand, American automakers are only good at making cars BIGGGGGGGGG like Hummers and Ford F-150. They also have some legendary cars like Fort T-model and Shellby Mustang. But most of them are just muscle cars. So they are not very good at producing cars for daily life and that is why Japs could dominant the family car market in America.(Frankly to say, Japs dominate all the family car market all around the globe) So let's just wait and see if Chery could make a good move this time just as what Toyota and Honda have done 30 years ago. June 17 Am I a Google fan?After written the previous blog entry, I found that I am now actually surrounded by Google products. Besides the Google Earth, the Google search engine is the must have for daily job. And I rely on it so much that I felt quite inconvenient last week when the DNS problem with Google in China appears again. Gmail is my primary private email service. I use Google Talk to have conversation with my wife. I use Google Desktop to manage the vast information and documents in my computer. I also use Picssa to manage the photos although I think that product is terriblly bad. Sometimes I use Google Map and Google Local to search for resturant and coffe shop. I even use Google Adwords to promote my company's products. Faint! What else products Google is going to produce in future? Maybe my whole computer? Google Earth 4 beta has been releasedHaven't update the space for quite a long time cos I was really busy these day with a new products. Since it is the weekend and the mood to work has already gone after struggling with the schematic for several hours, i decided to give myself a rest.
I have just downloaded the Google Earth 4 beta yesterday and it is time to fool around with it for a while. Actually I haven't used the Google Earth for quite a long time, partly because it does not have clear picture of my hometown and the city I am living right now in its last version. But things have changed a little bit in this beta 4 version because it has a very recent image of Hang Zhou now. So it is a little bit fun to wandering around in the map to discover something which may not been seen when you stand on the ground. It's to my surprise that there are actually lots of sports ground near the office and I have never noticed them even though I have passed most of them before. Some of them seem to be well equiped. Maybe next time I can give myself a stretch there.
There is an interesting post about what you could see in Google Earth this version. It contains Chinese and I am sorry if you don't understand them. The only way to solve it is that " Go learn some chinese and it will do you good!!!!" March 24 UTStarcom receives delisting noticeIt is really a suprising news to hear that UTStarcom received delisting notice from Nasdaq. Here is an article on Wireless Week about this issue:
UTStarcom stock faces delisting from the Nasdaq National Market for failing to file its annual report in a timely fashion.
The company received a Nasdaq Determination Notice that its stock is subject to delisting. UTStarcom intends to request a hearing, which will delay the delisting at least untile the hearing. Without the hearing, the company stock is scheduled for delisting on March 29.
USStarcom previously announced it was delaying its annual report while it sorted out financial issures related to premature recognition of revenue from a contract with a customer in India, as well as other internal financial assessment adjustments. The company plans to file the 2005 10-k form on or about April 30.
The company shares dipped nearly 5 percent on the possible delisting news,trading at $5.83 at one point during noon hour trading today.
Ari Bose was recently appointed as UTStarcom's new vice president and chief information officer.Bose previously served as information officer at 3Com corpoeration,a computer hardware company.
UTStarcom forged a licensing agreement with Tessera Technologies in Feburary to use its miniaturization techonoly to develop modular phones.
UTStarcom has been a miracle in China for the past several years because of its rapid growth in the share of mobile market in China, where it is reported that over 200 million mobilephones are used in this contry. A new survey discovered that there are 97 mobilephones out 100 citizens of Beijing. March 19 Land Rover Defender
If you ask which car is my favourite, here is the answer. If you are a Lora Croft fan, you must have seen a special Tomb Raider version Defender in the movie. Defender is not the best one of kind but it just have the line I prefer for a 4WD. Although Rover has other more sophisticated and more advanced 4WDs, the straight line of Defender still catch my eye the most. I don't like the interio of a 4WD to be look like that of a BMW or Mercedes Benz. A true 4WD should a as simple as possible, with less electronic equipment and is built for hardzard evironment while not for the road. A true 4WD should be able to stand the most tough challenge in the desert or jungle. And that's what Defender is for! Qing Hai - Tibet Railway
One of my former colleagues was just back from his business trip in Tibet. He was there to test some equipments on locomotives built for the Qing Hai to Tibet Railway. You can find some photos taken by him in my Album. Setting off on Jun.29, 2001 the railroad started from Golmud in the north, stretching over a distance of 1,142 kilometers to end at Lhasa in the south. All along the way, a section of over 960 kilometers are over and above 4,000 meters above sea level, the highest altitude being 5,072 meters, of which about 550 kilometers are in the frozen earth region. The picture on the left depicts the location of the railway. You may click on it to view a larger one. The railway will start to open for passengers in 1 July this year. Because of the high altitude the passenger cabine used for this railway is specially built with oxygen generators. So even when you are travelling at an altitude of 4000 meters, you will feel like to be at 3000 meters above sea level. Trust me, that 1000 meter difference really counts. This project has raised lots of controversy from its beginning. Since the railway will pass an area where its environment is very fragile and many experts fear that it will damage the source of the two biggest rivers, Yellow River and Yangtez River. So environment protection becomes the most difficult problem to conquer. Although many measures has been taken to minimize the possible effect to the surrounding area, it may still take a long time to see if these protections are really effective or not. March 18 Here comes the Su-30MK(Su-27PU?) Ten aircrafts from Russian aerobatic team "Russian Knights", including Su-27 fighter jets, SU-30 fighter jet, IL-78 re-fueling tanker and Yak-52 sport plane, are now in my hometown to perform an aerobatic show. It is one of a serial activities for the China's Year of Russia, which includes a wide range of cultural and economic exchanges between China and Russia throughout the year.Although this is not the first time that Russian Knights come to China, this event attracts thousands aviation enthusiasts to gather in the nearby park to watch the show and there are also lots of people staying in front of the TV waiting for the live show.
The organizer of this show has selected two ordinary citizens to ride the Su-30 with two of the top fighter testers from Russia. For sure these two lucky people are really are envy of many others, including myself. March 14 Maglev railway
China today annouced two major railway projects, including the express train beteen Bei Jing and Shang Hai and the Maglev railway between Hang Zhou and Shang Hai. The first commerciallized Maglev railway in the world was build in Shang Hai connecting the city with the new PuTong international airport. Although that track has very important meaning and has become an attraction for many people who visit Shang Hai, it is totally a commercial failiure. Because of its poor design and high ticket price, this airport express even could not even earn enough money to pay for the interest of bank loan. The just annouced Maglev railway between Hang Zhou and Shang Hai is actually built for the 2010 Expo in Shang Hai. Since Shang Hai does not has the ablility to provide enough services to so many people who are going to the Expo, they decide to bypass some of them into other cities around Shang Hai. The distance between Hang Zhou and Shang Hai is 200km and it will take the Maglev railway less then half an hour to finish the trip. It then becomes logical to make Hang Zhou one of the backyard of Shang Hai. The maxim speed for the Maglev railway would be 450km/h and 200km/h in the city area. The fastest train I have ever exprienced is the TGV in France, which travels at a top speed of 300km/h. There has been an argument about the feasibility of Maglev railway in China for quiet a long time since it is as twice expensive as a ordinary one to built a Maglev train, about 200 million as estimated . And many people worry that the high price of ticket will stop us from taking it, even though it could really shorten the time a lot. March 13 fantastic beginning for F1 2006 season
Finally F1 becomes interesting after a boring season in 2005. The new V8 engine and other changes of rules have made the race more competetive and unpredictable. It is very nice to see Michael ,Alonso and Kimi standing on the same platform. Maybe we can see a rebirth of Ferrari this year judging by the their performance yesterday. I am not a Ferrari mania or fan of any one of the team. I support everyone of them playing on the track or the pit stop. Just wish that someday we could spot a chinese face during them. March 12 Strong cold wave strikes Hang Zhou again
March 11 From the Renault V10 - a real swan song!I found that I have never postes anything about my favourite thing--the automobiles. Since the 2006 F1 season has begun yesterday, I decided to start a series about autos in the future. Here is one interesting article from autoblog for all of you to see what a F1 car could do outside the track.
Posted Oct 23rd 2005 11:00AM by Stuart Waterman 
To celebrate their 2005 F1 championship victory, and the last race for the V10 engines, the Renault team persuaded one of their V10's to sing! The solo performance of the Queen classic "We are the Champions" was performed by one of Renault's RS25 V10 engines at the teams dyno testing facility in France.
Unfortunately, the Renault's website is not as fast as its F1 car. So you may have to wait a few minutes to hear it. But I can guarantee you it really worth listening. For those who does not know much about automobiles or engines, I have to mention you that the throttle of a normal engine could not change so rapidly as what the F1 engine did in the music. long time no seeI received a SMS from a friend a few days ago complaining that I have't updated my MSN Space for years. Yep, I was just too busy to write anything these days. Yesterday there were three guests from Iran visiting our company. Once I have almost had a chance to visit Iran 4 years ago when I was still in that locomotive research institue. We have built some express trains for them and they asked us to send some engineers to test the equipments. I didn't got the chance finally since I changed to work in another department. My friends who have been there told me that it is the country where you can see the most beatutify girls in the world! It's interesting to think that Iran is a country of Muslim and in our mind most of the ladies there should cover themselves by black robe. And how could my friends tell if they are beautify or not? Well, my friends told me that although most women in the street are dressed like that, the yound lady you find in the hotel are all very attractive. Usually they have very BIG eyes and long eyelashes. What impressed them most are their smiles. The three guests for our company are all man, so I couldn't tell if my friends' words is true. But I have to say that three gentleman are very handsome, even according to a chinese stardard. (after I post this, I found a link with lots of pics to prove that Iran do have lots of beautiful women)
Together with these three Iranians, there was a Taiwanese. He's been doing business with Iran for many years and also has factories in China. During the lunch it is inevitable to talk about the recent situation between the main land China and Taiwan. Obviously he is the one who is against the policy of the president of Taiwan right now. And he call the president "Crazy". The Iran guests then said that they also have a "Crazy" president in Iran righ now. If you care about internatinal news, you should know what I mean here. Finally it is even interesting to find that this Taiwan guest is actually the classmate of the current president of Taiwan.
Perhaps we have to take great care to do business with them since they are all in an area where war is very likely to break out recently. Ha Ha, just a joke. January 24 Cool Gadget
Nethrone Desk of the Future: This thing kicks you back in an automotive-style seat with massage, allows you to motor your monitor up and down, and even allows you to easily take a nap while video conferencing. It looks cool, comes in a variety of colors and you can bet your neighbor doesn't have one. At US$2,500, he can probably tell you why, but it's cool. You can find a demo on it's website instructing you how to adjust it. January 23 Snow Dogs Have you ever seen the film"snow dogs"? The story is just those of Hollywood. But these dogs are my favourite. I also want to have a snow dog, like Hasky. These two white dots above their eyes really make them cute. But unfortunately Hasky need a lot of space just to spend its enormous energy which seems to be limitless. It maybe easy to find a big place in Australia, but I don't think it is good idea to raise a dog in such a hot weather while itself belongs to snow. Time Crept ByI've been running this business for 6 months now. I already know it is going to be a great challenge for me, but never expect it to be so hard. The main problem with me is short of hands. It's not easy to find a really usfull employee. Maybe it is like looking for girlfriend. It needs two sides to match up. There are many newly graduated university students looking for a job, but what we need is someone who already has some working experinces. Unfortunately people in china still don't change their job as frequently as westeners do. Because the social security is not so good and people have to worry more about much bigger possible risks. If one lose his job, he may get very few support from the society. China is still a under development country. And because it has the most population in the world, the burden to give everyone free basic educaiton, health care or retirement care is much bigger. January 21 Linux device drivers 3rd edition For those who has no technical background, this may appear boring to you. But I just couldn't help to talk about this book which I am reading its third edition. I am a loyal reader of this book ever since its first edition. And that is probably in 1999. I have never read a technical book which could explain thing so clearly and logically. And it is also free for downloading from the internet. It solved lots of my puzzles about the linux kernel and the device driver too. And the author just keep updating his book in each editon following the development progress of the linux kernel. The book is published by O'Reilly which is also one of my favourite publisher in computer science. I have also read many books from O'Reilly before. Except for the excellent contents of those books, I really appreciate the cover design and the figures used to decorate the book. They have their own consistent style in those design and most of them looks like engravings. Unfortunately O'Reilly has but one shortcoming -- its price is usually to high for me. January 20 use email to update your msn spaceI found that you can use email to update your MSN space. That means you can send your thought through your PDA or smartphone to you MSN space at anytime and anywhere you desire, provided that there is internet access,no matter by wire or wireless. I think this is a very interesting function. So I would like to have try here.
abandon gasolineI found this news from ABC News today:Iceland the First Country to Try Abandoning Gasoline . It is said that Iceland is going to use hydrogen fuel in large scales and finally get rid of the dependency on oils. They have tested several models of buses in some cities and the result is very good. I have already read an article when I was still in Australia about how Icalanders uses so called "green engery". They build electricity plants by using the lava-heated water to generate electricity. And it is really great challenge to build such plants on top of the rock which is actually floating on lavas. The government of Australia also encourage people to use resources other than gasolines too. Every year there is an famous competition called "World Solar Challenge". The comeptitor would drive their solar powered vehicles from Darwin to Aderlaide. It is a 30000KM long journey and is considered a very high honor among solar power engineers. There are also some moves in China too. The research institute I used to work for before I went to Australia has a department doing R&D works on fuel-cell automotives. They have built several buses for the city and are also looking forward to using it in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It is reported that the government of Beijing has annouced their plan to make the 2008 Olympic Games into a "Green Olympic". The Toyota's Prius is being made and sold in the Chinese market now, which uses hybrid powers to reduce the gas emission and gasoline usage. pizza hut There opens a Pizza Hut downstairs of my office and I have received some coupons when I passed there last evening. Pizza seems to be very popular in Hang Zhou because there are many Pizza shops. The basic price for a 9" pizza would be around RMB45, $7 in AUD. The price is almost the same to that of Australia. But it is considered too high here in China where people usually spend only RMB10 for a lunch. Pizza Hut is not so poplular in Australia as far as I know. Maybe it is because its price is just too high compared with other brands, e.g. Domino. Maybe Pizza Hut spends too much money to decorate their shops while others usually only have very small waitting rooms. There is a Lygon St in Melbourne where you can find many very authentic Italian food, including pizza of course. I have to say that the Italian pizza is just too strong for me cause they put too much salt in it. But I really like the flavour of the creamy cheese they put on the Pizza. There is also a very famous pizza shop in my university. And many people in the city would drive a long way to our uni just to have some pizza of there. |
Temperature in Hang Zhou drops a lot today when a strong cold wave strikes the whole northeast part of China. I have to put on the thick clothes again. But the peach trees in our district were already in blossom because of the warm weather these days. Maybe I should go visit the botanic garden next weekend. 
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