Long live Google!

Blogger Quwei wrote an article giving reasons for his love for Google, mocking its Chinese competitor, Baidu's name as "hundreds of poisons" (originally meaning "hundreds of aspects").

As a Google fan, I share many of my feelings with Quwei, and have written articles and convinced friends and acquaintances to migrate their web services to Google. What I, and possibly most Google lovers, enjoy about Google is that Google has always promoted the concepts of freedom and sharing, with its motto "Don't be evil". Almost all services provided by Google, such as Gmail, Reader, Docs, Calender, Sites, etc., are free with all functions and features enabled, and Google has also developed open-source programs like Chrome and Gears, and funded the non-profit Mozilla Foundation for the development of Firefox and other open-source softwares.

Please also read my article about Gmail.

Donald Tsang on Dialogue

Hong Kong SAR Chief Donald Tsang was interviewed on China Central Television (CCTV) by Tian Wei on the topic "Asia seeks way out of financial crisis", in the prime time talk show Dialogue. Here's the full video.

Feline Prophet

This can be printed on the first pages of macroeconomics textbooks:

Money is not everything. There's Mastercard & Visa.

~ Garfield (Yes, the cat!)

Hanrizon on Twitter

I finally opened up a Twitter account, although until now I still doubt the necessity of having a microblog, while I already have a blog and a Facebook page for social networking and sharing my statuses. But as microblogging is getting popular, it is really tempting to give it a shot. Please leave comment on my Twitter page and share yours as you may.

The Truth

An article can have no value unless it has utility. No one will give anything for an article unless it yield him satisfaction. Doubtless people are sometimes foolish, and buy things, as children do, to please a moment's fancy; but at least they think at the moment that there is a wish to be gratified. Doubtless, too, people often buy things which, though yielding pleasure for the moment, or postponing pain, are in the end harmful. But here ... we must accept the consumer as the final judge. The fact that he is willing to give up something in order to procure an article proves once for all that for him it has utility, - it fills a want.

Frank Taussig, 1912

Google blocked in China yesterday night

According to my testing, starting from somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 pm on June 24 Beijing time, all sites in the domain google.com were blocked in my neighborhood. The blocked services include the search service of google.com (except google.cn, which was still accessible), Gmail, Google Talk, Reader, Docs, Sites, etc.. The exact time of the recovery of the connection is not certain. BBC reports it was not resumed until today's morning; while some other source claims it was 11 pm yesterday night. The analysis on Kenengba, a blog in Chinese, is quite interesting, if you could read Chinese or would like to try some translating machines.

A New Mega-Competitior for iPhone

Intel and Nokia teamed up.

Buying a textbook or not?

College students, at the beginning of new semesters, have you often asked yourselves: Should I buy this textbook or not? It is a typical question especially in regions where the prices of textbooks are absurdly high. Of course there are very understanding instructors who speak openly that their recommended textbooks are not necessary in passing, or sometimes even acing, their courses. In those cases, I always followed their advice. However, most instructors would not be so merciful to students' bank accounts.

In the past two years of college experience, I've tried to minimize the money spent on textbooks so far as infringement on my grades or copyright laws are avoided. The way is to categorize textbooks (or the courses themselves) into two types. The first requires rote memorization of facts or theories, and the textbook usually does not present many "principles"; and the second requires you to understand and sometimes duplicate the deduction of theorems, or analyses of numerical or practical problems.

In classes pertaining to the first category, you can expect the materials to be memorized be provided by instructors in lecture notes and handouts, and as long as those are handled well the exams should be an easy shot. The textbooks usually serve as no more that an expanded version, sometimes with additional but inessential explanations, of the materials presented by the lecturer. For the second-type subjects, however, textbooks are indispensable, because it is usually not possible to remember every detailed proof made on class (whereas they are usually not included in the handouts), while the textbooks are clear and definitive references for those information not captured.

Unfortunately, such criteria may differ from country to country or even from one institution to another. If you are not sure whether you need a textbook, it is always safer to buy one. Even if you are not able to sell it after the semester, it can always enrich your personal library.

Green Dam Technology

Do you realize that the Green Dam is actually a pioneer in employing "technology of the cutting edge"? Nelson points out:

Although the government may not necessarily have been aware, they are utilizing the advantages brought about by distributed computing, as enormous amount of calculating tasks required by image identification have been distributed to individual personal computers.

US Complained to China

FT.com: US lodges China censorship complaints -  a rare scene partially driven by economic incentives.

Off-Campus Internet Access

Below is my letter sent to the Information Technology Service Center of my university on June 17 (five days ago), regarding secured off-campus access to the Internet. By now I haven't received any reply yet. I understand that this letter may suffer from inaccurate technical details in the second paragraph, as I am not an expert in network technology. However, I believe the point I would like to make is well conveyed.

Dear Officer

As is known to the world, the Internet censorship in China is most intensive, especially in recent years. Many essential resources on the web, e.g. Wikipedia, Bing, Live Search, AOL (partial), Google (partial), MSN (partial), Hotmail, Irish Chronicle, Hong Kong Economic Journal, United Nations News, The Learning Channel, Technorati, Blogger, Webshots, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, MotorBikeAssociation etc., are frequently blocked (though maybe intermittently unblocked) by the Great Fire Wall of China (GFW). As a university student, I very often have the need to study and research and access these and more sites at home. The inconvenience in not being able to access many blocked sites has been extremely troublesome during my study.

May I request the ITSC to provide services that equip students and scholars to access the legally allowed whole of Internet wherever they are in the world. Actually the Chinese University of Hong Kong already has such measure. CUHK students can connect to the VPN server of the University through an encrypted tunnel (via HTTPS), making the data recondite to the GFW, thus serving the purpose. I hold the belief that providing access of information to students and scholars is a university's foremost responsibility, and this responsibility should not be limited to the time students stay on campus but whenever and wherever they need it.

For your information, my intended access to the information provided by these sites and others, no matter blocked or unblocked, perfectly complies with local and international laws, and serves solely the purpose of necessary research and education.

Yours faithfully

Zhang Han

China forbids Google to offer foreign search results

FT.com:

Beijing has ordered Google to stop users of its Chinese-language service accessing overseas websites in the biggest blow to the world’s leading search engine in China since it started operating there four years ago.

I don't understand how this is reasonable, as pornographic content, the major censorship target claimed by the Chinese government, exists no less in China than elsewhere. Besides, as China now has antitrust laws, shouldn't Beijing also order all other search sites to disable their overseas links?

Noble vs. Rude

The construction of the pair of words, though unrelated they may seem, churl, meaning "bondman, villain," and earl, meaning "nobleman, warrior," is quite curious. To make things clear, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the Old English forms of these two words were eorl and ceorl respectively. Such a formation as adding a "c-" in front and invert the meaning seems rare. May it be related to the prefix "contra-"?

Of Blogging

Years ago in High School, having registered a dozen blogs at different service providers to test their performances, I started my first frequently updated blog. Back then, I did not believe in the idea of blog as web log. Instead, I managed the blog as an anthology - mostly posting answers to writing assignments at school and some other leisure-time essays.

After learning about philosophy during the Eton College Summer Course, I devoted much of my articles to the subject, especially epistemology. I thought ordinary people knew little about what the world was really like; therefore I wrote to spread the “truth” to my audience. Once a kid who hated writing assignments, I discovered a bottomless fountain of writing ideas.

I thought about the meaning of existence in this world. Mortal life lasts no more than a dozen decades, and then whatever can I leave to the world behind me? What would happen after my death? My children will remember me, maybe so will my grandchildren. How about the offsprings following after? A hundred years after my departure, will anyone in the world still hear of me at all? If not, what difference can I make to this world?

It came to me that the way to make my life worthy is to make a difference that endures. One way to achieve this is by writing. People die, but good books and essays survive generations and ages. That’s when I truly discovered my reason and passion for writing. Among all courses, by now, I enjoyed the Chinese language most, and I craved for writing assignments. I didn’t believe writing for oneself – it seemed a waste of time spending hours writing for only one person (especially when the person was the author and thus already knows the idea). And after I discovered the Creative Commons license, I adopted it for my works – hoping to serve my initial purpose for blogging, which was to let people know more about the reality.

After matriculation into college, I also used my blog as a personal bulletin board, posting news about my life and commenting on events happening around me and my friends, as a way to communicate with people in my circles. This was especial useful (and potentially risky) during my presidential election campaign for the Association of Hong Kong and Mainland Youths.

Earlier this year, I reestablished this Blogger blog (originally founded in 2007) and renamed it Hanrizon, a blend of my name and the word "horizon". In naming this way, I hoped this blog would not be limited to any particular topic or purpose, but everything I wanted to express and let either the public or my friends to know about. With intention to make information available to the greatest audience, I published this blog in English. Up till now, the posts consist of my perceptions on current issues, some of my essays originally written elsewhere, and proses in general.

I do not know where my blog will be heading to in the future. But I enjoy writing, and sharing, and that is why I blog.

The Wise Way

An old friend sent me this presentation regarding the philosophy of doing good. I find it quite inspirational and it reminds me of a true story told by my respected high school Chinese language teacher, Mr. Li Jiasheng. Maybe I will jot down that story here after the exam on Saturday.

General Motors is Down

It’s a sad day for the automobile industry, and the playing field of the global market has been reshaped again. General Motors, the a-hundred-year-old automaker having dominated the industry for seventy-seven years, filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1. The U.S. Treasury will extend loans to the company that will be converted into a 60% stake in the reorganized GM.

For GM China, WSJ reports:

"It is absolutely business as usual in China," said Kevin Wale, president of GM China Group. "None of General Motors' operations outside of the U.S. are included in the Chapter 11 filing, including GM China, our joint ventures and our other China operations."

Wale reiterated that GM's businesses in China are self-sustaining and would require no funds from the parent company in the U.S. The company's overall auto sales in China rose 9.4% in the first four months of the year, while sales in the U.S. have plummeted.

By the way, the failures of American automakers and possibly their counterparts in other advanced countries potentially provide opportunities for local automakers in China. The Shenzhen-based BYD already has plans to sell hybrid vehicle in the United States by 2011, according to a report by NY Times earlier this year.

Search Engine Wars

Microsoft has launched its new search engine Bing (formerly dubbed Kumo) today (China site, Hong Kong site). I tried a few queries though found no fundamental differences from other major search engines. But advances in the searching techniques probably are not something identifiable within a few trials. I decide to use Bing and Google interchangeably for a few days or weeks and see what Microsoft has actually accomplished in the past few months.

No matter how much Microsoft can achieve this time and how long Bing will go, the market is at war again. The development of search engines is yet far from ceasing.

The Interlude

This short story was written for an English course assignment.

The Interlude

The last year of college finally came for Dylan Yeung, a HKBU Government and International Studies major. The graduation was approaching, but as yet, Dylan was still somewhat confused about the future. Although he had always been a prominent student with excelling academics and extracurricular participation, including presiding over the GIS Society, he felt that there was still something left to discover and understand before he can formally commence his course.

Wintertime in the South had always been brief. As the weather turned warmer day by day, different summer programs and activities emerged on the posters haunting the campus. Among them, a study tour at Peking University attracted Dylan the most. Although he had never been to the capital city, he had heard much of it from mass media and his friends from Beijing who were also studying in BU. Besides, he hoped that the experience in this modern yet historical metropolis would help him in discovering his future. Dylan was not a daydreamer but an actor. By the end of May, he was already on a flight to the Beijing Capital International Airport.

During the Orientation at Peking University, students were divided into groups of six, including three local Beijing students and three visiting students, to help them get familiar with the University and the neighborhood. Holding the group number card bearing a big "3", Dylan hustled through the crowd to find his group mates, but quickly halted upon seeing a young lady in a citrine smocked tube dress, elegantly ambling through the horde, with her chestnut-brown hair waving and flowing down her shoulders. Sensing the stare, the girl glimpsed Dylan, and smile at him before unhurriedly moving away.

It was a blessing and surprise for Dylan to learn that that girl was in the same group as him.

"Hey, I'm Olivia, friends call me Livie. Nice to meet you! Hope you'll enjoy your time here!" The girl approached him, with a grin on her face.

"Yes…uh...My name is Dylan," he replied with a little stammer, "Can I buy you a drink after this?"

"We were actually going to meet up tonight! And of course I would be glad to take you up on that drink!"

Later Dylan learned that Olivia's major was economics, and she had been admitted by Columbia University in New York to pursue her PhD degree starting from the coming academic year.

Time passed by swiftly, three weeks had gone. During the mornings, Dylan had classes in the University, sometimes with Olivia and her friends, sometimes not. They were mostly free in the afternoons, during which the gang of six went sightseeing all over the city. They visited historical sites like the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and also major shopping sites like the Wangfujing Street and Xidan. As time went by, they began forming new clusters of friends by themselves, and Olivia and Dylan more and more often went out with only the two of them. Instead of taking Dylan to tired tourist sites, Olivia preferred more private locations or common destinations for local residents. At times, they would go to Bifengtang Teahouse spending a whole afternoon chatting and laughing, and they also went shopping in the nearby Zhongguangcun area, usually until nighttime. Dylan discovered that, probably because of their more or less interweaved fields of study, and the well-rounded education they received, they did have a great deal to talk about.

Now it came to the last seven days, every day seemed a torture for Dylan, for he knew that he and Olivia would be apart very soon. Dylan also noticed that Olivia's mood had become depressed. They spent more quality time together, sometimes nestled together under an arbor near the Weiminghu Lake.

The departure pending, neither of them could wait any more. "Oh Livie, I really don't wanna go. I miss my family, but I know I'm gonna miss you even more."

"So will I, sweetheart," Olivia chocked with sobs, "but you'll have to go back to your own home, and I'll have to pave the way to my future, mustn't we?"

"Maybe I can make a way to New York, don't you think," Dylan suggested, cuddling Livie gently, "I knew some alumni of my major are now working in the States. Maybe I can find a way there. Yes…I will!"

The promise to reunion mitigated the pains in the farewell. Upon arriving Hong Kong, Dylan looked high and low for a job opportunity in NYC. Luckily, owing to his solid achievements in college, after two months of tedious searching, he was recommended by a BU alumnus who now worked for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, and Dylan was offered to fill a vacancy there!

Dylan could not wait a minute to tell Olivia the good news! He quickly made a phone call, yet that someone never answered. Dylan waited and called again, and again, but likewise failed. He sent her an email, but she never replied. He became anxious, and later upset. He ate less and less for meals, and hardly stepped out of his home. Friends tried to soothe him by telling him that it may just be that Olivia was too busy in those days, and she would probably reply him very soon.

Not until late August did Dylan received a letter from Olivia. In the letter, she told him that she had been occupied these days for some reason and wanted him to go to New York first and she would very soon follow. Dylan was as happy as a clam!

The first day for work in his new office in NYC, Dylan received a letter sent from China, dated more than a month before.

Dear Dylan

First of all, congratulations to you for your new life! My father was diagnosed with cancer right after you left and the doctor told us that he may not have a long time to go. My mother is heartbroken, for which I really cannot leave her. Besides, my family is running out of our savings paying the medication for my father, forbidding me to afford a further education. I do not know how to get through this and I am sorry I did not tell you earlier. I was afraid you may abandon your plan to go to the States if I have told you. I do not want to impede your future, Dylan. So please, stay where you are and concentrate on your pursuit. If destined, we may still meet each other sometime in the future, somewhere in this small world.

With love,

Olivia

End.

I'm Back

Back home. Unfortunately I discovered that the Great Fire Wall of China blocked all Blogger sites, again (after temporary relaxation since the Olympics period). Therefore I'll have to access my blog via proxy during the summer, discouraging me from updating this place frequently.

Compaq V3431AU

My Compaq failed again. I cannot even boot it now. People at HP just supplanted the original motherboard by a new one last summer, and probably they will need to do that for a second time if I still want my notebook PC. And as now it is already out of the warranty period, several thousand bucks (HKD) may be needed to replace the motherboard. The alternative is buying a new laptop. Does anyone have some advice on that? I don't want another one that breaks twice and can only work for two years.

Besides, alienation from a PC further impedes me in posting here.