Integrity

This seems so petty but I found out that a co-worker is parking in a handicapped spot with someone else's permit. He is not disabled. I think the permit came from another co-worker that recently had surgery but no longer needs the permit.

For some reason, this bothers me a lot. It "feels" like all the corruption stories I hear in China about the military license plates and crap like that. Not sure if it's a real Chinese idiom but my mom always told me 從小事看大事, which literally means you can see big things from small things. If he's willing to cheat on a parking permit, how will I trust him with insider financial information or salary data?

Did I mention he works for me? Sigh...

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

-Luke 16:10, NIV

Email Nuggets from the Spam Folder

Hmm, why don't I remember this person...?

BABE... i guess your not getting any of my email huh? ive been tryign to email u so many times but this dam laptop is such a piece of garbage and keeps freezing.. anyways how u been?

In case u dont know who this is its ME Adriana.. we used to chat a bit on facebook and then I think u deleted me :( haha.. anyways guess what... I got 2 things to tell u.. both good news.. 1) im single now.. yup me and my bf broke up about 3 months ago... and 2) guess where im moving? RIGHT EFFING NEAR U.. lol... ur actually the only person im gonna know there.. well 3 cousins too but i cant chill with them lol..

I remember when we chatted u told me u thought i was cute and u wanted to chill so now we finally can HAHA! im kinda scared to move.. im hoping this email addy is still the one you use and u can chat with me ebfore i get there.. maybe even help me move my shit in...are u still on facebook? i cudnt find ui was soo confused...anyways im gonna need someone to show me the town and take me out so u better be around bebe...

we only chatted a couple times but i remember thinking to myself i wanted to get ot know u better when i was single..a nd i thoguth u were cute too but cudnt tell u cause i wasnt single lol...ok so more info about me.. well im 23.. virgo.. love the outdoors and love to socialize, go out for drinks, restaurants, movies etc.. travel.. i have a lil kitty named BOO and i luv her to death... uhhh oh im a super horny gurl too but every gurl is they just wont admit it. so ilove watching p0rn and all that.. love sex etc blah blah blah...who doesnt..

I really hope we get a chance to chat for a bit either online or on the fone before i get there enxt week.. i hope u remmeber me and still wanna chill and arent married yet lol.. OH YA also.. i need to find a job when i get there..

do u have any hookups or know anybody hiring? id LOVE to work in a bar or osmehting like that...really anythgin cause my current job is fun and all.. and technically i CUD keep doign it but i want a change.. i currently work from home and well thats cool but i need ot be out meeting people.. oh wait. i dont think i ever actually told u what i did? hmm shud i......???? ok WELLLL... and dont get all weirded out on me.. i work on a webcam chat community site and i get paid to chat with people and get naked HHAHA... BOMB right :)? I KNOW.. like i figure iim horny anyways why not get paid to chat with people and play with myself heheh...anyways i hope u dont look down on that and NO THATS NOT WHY IM CONTACTING U RELAX URSELF lol... i actually need help once i move and i remembered u live there so im reaching out....like i said before this computer is a complete piece of CRAP and freezes NON STOP.. ive tried ot send this email to u maybe 3 times already and im hopign this time i can hit SEND before i run into trouble lol..

ANYWAYS.. heres the deal....every month natalie (my boss) gives each of us 3 VIP codes to give out to whoever we want.. so with this code u can lgoin to watch me at work for free and dont have to pay like everyone else... the only way i can give u one of the codes (so we can chat) is if you absolutey DO NOT give it out to anyone else and u ONLY USE IT FOR URSELF... i only get 3 a month and she gets pissed if more than 3 people use them so DONT SHARE IT MISTER... i figured u cud always email me back instead but my email account doesnt even let me login half the time.. so the bets palce ot chat me is my chat room...

if theres anyone else logged in when u sign in ill boot them out.. but remember DONT SHARE THIS PASSWORD PLEASE BABE IM BEGGING U.. I TRUST U... im online most of the day now to try and save money for my move.. also since im in such a huge debt already form my student loan :( I really thingk we need to chat before i get there and make sure u evern remember me hahha.. anyways ive rambled on and on now and ur probably soooo annnoyed with me so ill stop now.. im gonna go start work.. i really hope u come chat me. it wud make my day and releive a lot of my stress about the move... REALLY i mean that....anyways once i see u in insdie ill shoot u myc ell number and u can gimme yours.. if u dont

wanna come chat i understand but its really the only palce to find me now days.. if u email me abck ill probably get it once i get there after my internet is setup so about 2-3 weeks fomr now.. but im hopign to see u in my chat room.. rmemeber its 100% free with this code im gonna give u.. just DONT GIVE IT OUT OR ILL KICK U IN THE BALLS INSTEAD OF LICK U IN THE BALLS WHEN IS EE U hahahahha...k babe im out for now... chat ya soon.. kisses xoxo Adriana

Three Strikes on 4shared

... or is it?

I got this email earlier this week:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received a notification that certain materials you posted on the 4Shared website as described below infringe upon someone else’s copyright:

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/...

Access to this material has been temporarily disabled or such material has been removed.

This is the THIRD instance of copyright infringement claim associated with your 4shared account. In accordance with 4shared’s Terms of Use, your account is now TERMINATED. You are permanently banned from using 4shared’s services. You will not be able to open a new 4shared account if you attempt to register under the same name or email address or from an IP address associated with the terminated account. 4shared will also disallow the registration of a new account if it has reasonable suspicion that the person attempting to register is you.

Blah, blah, blah...

I've had my account for a long time and I used to upload MP3s so I can listen to songs over the Internet, kinda like cloud storage before clouds were all the rage. Now that iTunes and Amazon music clouds are popular, I haven't uploaded anything to 4shared for a long time. I do link some previously uploaded MP3 files to my tumblr page since tumblr only lets you upload one song per day. Anyway, not that I'm complaining, but my account is still active and all the links still work. Maybe it takes them more than 4 days to TERMINATE an account.

New Sistar 19

Sistar 19 = Hyorin + Bora


Gone Not Around Any Longer (?) - Sistar 19

Ken Fong Project

SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to Shirley Liao, Len Tamura, Jason Chu, Bosco Tung, Tony Chi, Stephen Kim, Heidi Riddlesperger and Joy Cheng!!!

— kenfongproject (@kenfongproject) January 23, 2013

TD Ameritrade and Apple

I got an email promotion from TD Ameritrade for Apple gift cards. If you open a new account or deposit money into an existing account, they will give you $xxx in Apple gift cards.

$50k-$100k = $100 or 0.2%
$100k-$250k = $200 or 0.2%
$250k-$1m = $400 or 0.16%
>$1m = $2000 or 0.2%

Assuming you're maximizing your returns on Apple gift cards, you would fund enough to get to each tier. Unless you have a million dollars, you would fund either $50k or $100k to get a $100 or $200 gift card, respectively. Since you have to fund the account at that level for one year, the annual return is a measly 0.2%. That's probably more than a regular bank account but you can easily get 0.8% from an online savings account.

So for $50k, I can either put it into TD Ameritrade for a year and get a $100 Apple gift card, or put it in Discover Bank (for example) and get $400 in interest (before taxes).

Girl's Day

This group has been around for a few years but has gone through a few member changes. Now they're a 4-member group.


Don't Forget Me - Girl's Day

EXID

Another one... they debuted earlier in February of 2012.


Every Night - EXID

Does every girl group need a rapper?

SPICA

Another new K-pop girl group. They seem to have some talent.


I'll Be There - SPICA

What's up with the cow DJ?

沒辦法

沒辦法 (Traditional characters) literally means "no way to do" and is heard a lot in China, normally when you ask someone to do something they should be doing anyway. In reality, it just means that the person saying 沒辦法 is too lazy or wants a kickback.

There's an article in The Nanfang about zoo patron abusing animals at the Shenzhen zoo:

Zoos are supposed to be designed to protect people from animals, but sometimes they need to work the other way around.

Only two crocodiles are left alive of over a dozen that were placed in Rural Grand View Garden, a zoo in Shenzhen’s Guangming New Zone, Shenzhen Evening News reports. The cause of their death? Visitors throwing stones at them and polluting their habitat with garbage.

Visitors, particularly children, have been unimpressed by the hibernating beasts.
A journalist who visited the zoo this week reported that, as crocodiles hibernate during the winter, a lot of visitors have been shouting, spitting and throwing things at them to make sure they are alive.

Because the manmade lake in which they lived was full of garbage thrown by visitors, staff from the zoo went in to clean it this week but discovered that only two were still alive.

The zoo has issued warnings about such behaviour but staff say they have little power to stop it, for some reason.

I can just hear the chorus of 沒辦法s being said at all levels of zoo management. This is stupid. The answer is very simple... kick out anyone caught throwing crap at animals. No appeals, no refunds. When I go to the San Diego Zoo, I don't throw stuff at the animals. First, it a horribly wrong thing to do, but I also know that I'll get called out by other zoo patrons or forcibly ejected from the zoo.

I've only been to the Chengdu zoo and thankfully I didn't see dead animal exhibits.

Korean Bee Gees

How Deep Is Your Love - Jinusean

I just heard this for the first time on a K-pop Internet radio station, even though this came out in 1999. Junisean = Jin-woo Kim + Noh Seung-hwan and they were part of YG Family. Jinu was featured in this music video from SWI.T.

Disneyland Fireworks

I was at Disneyland on Christmas Day with my sister's family. We got there when the parked opened at 8am and stayed didn't get home until 11pm. Yawn...

During the fireworks show, I took some pictures with my Sony a55. There is a special mode call Twilight which takes 5(?) shots rapidly and processes it into one photo. It's supposed to allow you to take low light shots without a tripod. Not sure how it works since the scene is moving but the pictures came out ok.

Privacy and Trust

Instagram, which was purchased by Facebook for ~$1 billion ~$700 million in stock, made a change to is TOS earlier this week and caused a firestorm of criticism. The changes were interpreted to allow Instagram/Facebook to sell your photos without permission nor compensation.

CNET

Facebook's new rights to sell Instagram users' photos come from two additions to its terms of use policy. One section deletes the current phrase "limited license" and, by inserting the words "transferable" and "sub-licensable," allows Facebook to license users' photos to any other organization.

A second section allows Facebook to charge money. It says that "a business or other entity may pay us to display your... photos... in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you." That language does not exist in the current terms of use.

After the PR fiasco, Instagram backed down and removed some language. Their CEO said:

Blah, blah, blah...

Legal documents are easy to misinterpret.

Blah, blah, blah...

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question.

Blah, blah, blah...

I call bullsh*t. Basically they tried to expand the TOS so they could do whatever but got busted. It's ludicrous to claim that their legalese was misinterpreted. I've worked with lawyers at many companies; they know exactly what they want to say. To blame all this on users is lame.

I've deleted my Instagram account. I didn't talk that many photos with it and I'm picky about what I share. The TOS change most likely won't affect me anyway. However, there's a lot of pressure to monetize their database of users and photos, and this episode shows that Instagram/Facebook will do whatever as long as they don't get caught by their users.

Jackie Chan is Pro-democracy?

Not really...

chinaSMACK

@南方都市报:

Jackie Chan: Hong Kong Criticizes and Demonstrates About Everything, Should Be Restricted

During an exclusive interview with Southern People Weekly, Jackie Chan said that Hong Kong had become a city of parades [demonstrations]. “Protesting China, protesting the leaders, protesting everything, demonstrating about everything. There should be regulations on what can be demonstrated against and what can’t be demonstrated against.” “We have returned to China now, how can we still be criticizing Chinese leaders all the time? Whoever amongst you has what it takes can come govern, but you guys don’t have it in you, and all you do is criticize.”

Hmm... I criticize the CCP a lot. I also think I have what it takes to govern China... so where do I sign up? Do I join/form a party? How do I get my name on the election ballot?

Wait... this is China and there are no elections. There is only an authoritarian dictatorship that crushes all opposition, even benign protests.

I agree with some commentators: Jackie Chan should shut up and retire. I don't like any of his movies anyway.

All Propaganda, All The Time

Go Chengdoo

A Swedish man is being heralded by local media as a hero and "foreign Lei Feng" after he rescued a drowning woman from the Jinjiang River.

Witnesses say that a crowd had gathered around near the Jinjiang Bridge after a person was spotted in the river at around 10 at night on December 6.

Not long after, a man emerged from the crowd, tore off his coat, and ran into the river. He swam about 10 meters before he was able to grab a hold of the woman.

Props to the Swedish guy but everything about the story is super lame.

1. How long was she in the water? There seems to be quite a crowd in the video, including a guy wearing a Police jacket, but they're all just standing around... probably all taking pictures with their phones.

2. Foreign Lei Feng?! I think that's an insult. Why not call him a hero and leave it at that? Why always focus on the "foreigner" part? In the video, the first thing someone says when he rescues the woman is not "are you okay?" or "is she still breathing?" but "HE'S A LAOWAI!!!" Also, Lei Feng is a total fabrication by the communist party; calling him "foreign Lei Feng" is a feeble attempt to link his heroism with the CCP.

3. Swimming lessons should be mandatory. Watching swimming competition on TV is not the same thing.


Does he know how to swim?

"Censorship Is Necessary"

Surprise! Commie party member thinks censorship is necessary, compares it to airport security checks.

Associated Press

This year's Nobel Prize in literature winner, Mo Yan, who has been criticized for his membership in China's Communist Party and reluctance to speak out against the country's government, defended censorship Thursday as something as necessary as airport security checks.

He also suggested he won't join an appeal calling for the release of the jailed 2010 Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a fellow writer and compatriot.

Mo has been criticized by human rights activists for not being a more outspoken defender of freedom of speech and for supporting the Communist Party-backed writers' association, of which he is vice president.

What a total disgrace. The article says he is spending several days in Stockholm, presumably for sightseeing, while Liu Xiaobo is in jail for 11 years.

Chinese "Secrecy" Laws

Reuters

Regulators on Monday charged the Chinese arms of five top accounting firms with securities violations over their refusal to produce certain audit papers for U.S.-listed Chinese companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission began proceedings against the Chinese affiliates of Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BDO and Ernst & Young. It was the SEC's widest enforcement effort yet to procure documents in connection with probes of possible accounting fraud of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, and raised questions about whether talks have stalled between the U.S. and Chinese governments to resolve the issue.

The SEC said it has been seeking documents related to investigations of possible wrongdoing at nine China-based companies. Chinese secrecy laws have stymied efforts to obtain audit documents that investigators need to determine whether there were accounting irregularities.

I don't understand why there is an issue. If Chinese companies want to be listed on US stock exchanges and attract US investors, then they need to follow US laws on disclosure. If they can't or won't, then they should go find another exchange to list their stock. With China's pervasive corruption, there's no way I would invest in any Chinese company unless they submit to an US audit. Even then, a friend working in Deloitte China has told me about fake invoices, fake purchase orders, fake contracts... even fake bank statements with official red stamps.

The whole Chinese secrecy law excuse is crap too. Laws are not enforced in China... it's just a tool for the CCP to do whatever they want. They can easily release financial documents for audit. The only reason the documents are "secret" is because they're hiding outright fraud or documents corruption by government officials.

I say delist all these companies, especially those that got listed through the "reverse merger" backdoor.

Goo Hara Solo

This one is for Mr. anonymous...


Secret Love - Hara (KARA)

iTunes 11 User Interface

I don't like it.

A lot of my music collection is CJK-pop (Chinese/Japanese/Korean). When I'm putting in song info, I like to include the artist's name in the originai script as much as possible. I used to just cram both languages on the Artist field so entries would look like this: Koda Kumi 倖田來未 or Lena Park 박정현. However, this adds non-English characters to the folder names. This may be okay system-wise but I wanted to keep the directories English only.

I then started putting the non-English names in the Artist field and the English name/translation into the Album Artist column. This way, all the songs would still sort in English and I can see the CJK artist names... and folder names would be all in English. I can also sort by Album Artist with old iTunes sorting everything correctly, substituting Artist when the Album Artist field is blank.

Anyway, iTunes 11 screws this up. By creating multiple graphical views, Apple has split up the view I like and none of the options fit my needs. If I view by song, you either have to sort by Artist, in which case all the non-English names fall to the bottom of the list. If I sort by Album Artist, then entries without Album Artist filled out (blank) rises to the top. The hybrid version (if Album Artist = "", Artist, Album Artist) is gone as well album covers in the song view.

Why not just add in Album Artist when it's the same as the Artist field? One, that's a pain in the ass. Two, entering something into the Album Artist field causes it to appear in the Artist view. If the field is blank, then all the songs for the Album is listed in one row (for each song). If there is text, then iTunes switches to a two line view, displaying the Album Artist field, and wasting vertical space in the window. I think they make the UI much more uniform with iOS6 but didn't take into account people that like the old UI just the way it was.

I wasn't going to write so much but after the iOS6 fiasco with Google Maps and YouTube, I'm tired of Apple not listening to its users.

HELLO?! Still no Google Maps app for iOS6?

MV Reaction Vids

I've been noticing that when I look for K-pop music videos on YouTube, the search results include a lot of so called "reaction" videos. Basically they're videos of people watching music videos. These have to be the most ridiculous waste of bandwidth ever. I wish YouTube could tag these uploads so I can filter them out of my search results.

Maybe I should make a video of my reaction (of disgust) to watching one of these retarded reaction videos... how meta would that be!

==========

Not sure what I'm ranting about? Go to YouTube and type in "aoa get out mv" in the search box. About 50% of the results are useless "reaction" videos. They're mostly fake (staged) anyway.

AOA - Ace of Angels

Wow, a K-pop girl band that plays instruments! That's pretty cool. I wonder if they actually played for the studio recording or if they hired musicians. Also, I haven't seen a performance where they play live (except for the drummer) instead of using the instruments as prop; you can tell by the lack of a power cable to the keyboard. They do sing live though and it's not too shabby.

The group setup is a bit confusing too. There are 8 members that form two subgroups: a 5 member band and a 7 member dance group. The drummer doesn't dance... how cool is that! Most bassist I know don't dance either.


Get Out - AOA

The top comment on YouTube tells you each girl's name and what she does in the group.

==========

After watching the MV a few times, it reminds me of when I first saw SNSD. I can't tell the different band members apart in each shot... most of them pretty much look the same.

$15 Per Hour

... for working at McDonald's? Not yet.

Fox NY

Fast food workers call for higher wages

Workers at some fast food restaurants in the New York City area walked off the job on Thursday.

A large group gathered outside a McDonald's on Madison and 40th St. in Manhattan demanding higher wages and the approval of a workers union.

"They're giving us $7.25 an hour, so many of my co-workers are living on food stamps. You can't live on that in this city," a protester told Good Day NY.

The workers who say they don't make enough to put food on the table for their families would like an increase in their hourly pay to $15.

Heh, I would like a 106% pay raise too. I understand that NYC is an expensive place to live but there are consequences to decisions. Can't afford to live in NYC and work at McD's? Then move away from the most expensive city in the US. I always thought that working at McDonald's or other fast food joints was a transitional job; do people (non-managers) actually work there for life?

Worst-Run State in America

Of course it's California... 2nd year in a row.

Yahoo! Finance

Every year, 24/7 Wall St. conducts an extensive survey of all fifty states in America. Based on a review of data on financial health, standard of living and government services by state we determine how well each state is managed. For the first time, North Dakota is the best run. California is the worst run for the second year in a row.

Now with a Democratic super-majority in CA state government, it's going to get a lot worse.

Diablo III Ban

I read this on Blizzard's site this morning:

We've recently issued several rounds of account bans for cheating in Diablo III. In each of these cases players used a hack program for exploitive purposes, for example to zoom out their game view and kill monsters that were beyond the normal range at which AI is triggered. As we do with all Blizzard games, we will continue to monitor Diablo III for cheating and take action as needed.

First, I don't like Diablo III as much as the previous titles. I have the original Diablo game plus Diable II and the expansion. I hesitated for a long time on buying D3 because of the "always connected" requirement but after playing the game for 2 months, the main problem is that the game is boring. The difficulty ramp is lame... the game is too easy at first, then gets way to hard. My guess is that Blizzard wants you to buy better items on its Auction House with real cash, where they make a commission. So after paying $60 for a game, you can only play it when connected to the Internet, and you have to spend more money or otherwise keep dying in-game. I'm too old for this crap...

Anyway, I wonder what happens when you are banned? I think I used "trainers" for D2 since the single player games/characters were not authenticated and were local to your computer. Does the D3 ban only affect your existing characters or to the entire game? Since your registration key is linked to your account, does that mean you can't play the game anymore? Does Blizzard refund the $60 (or whatever you paid)? Does it impact all your other games, like Starcraft II, that is linked to your Battle Net account?

I'm very disappointed in Blizzard. I also have bought every other Blizzard game except for World of Warcraft, but I'll probably pass on the next SC2 release... didn't realize I paid $60 for 1/3 of a game when I bought SC2. To think some executive is probably sitting in my old office in Irvine (Blizzard took over our office space when Broadcom moved to its new campus by UCI).

Kim Il-sung University

Just read the bio of Zhang Dejiang, one of the presumed members of the next 9-member Politburo that will run China. It was fairly typical of CCP leaders: restricting of news about SARS breakout, suppression of protests and news reporting, etc. This tidbit caught my eye though:

Zhang, a native of Tai'an in Liaoning, attended Yanbian University, where he studied the Korean language. Zhang enrolled in Kim Il-sung University in North Korea in August 1978 and received a degree in economics in 1980. Zhang's degree in economics makes him something of a rarity among the Chinese leadership. His connections to North Korea and his handling of illegal immigration from that country as a local official in Jilin are believed to be key factors in his rise to power.

Degree in Economics from Kim Il-sung University in North Korea?! What could he possibly learn about economics in North Korea? How to screw up a country so bad that most of your citizens are starving? Juche? It's so ludicrous that I tried to come up with an analogy for hours but could not.

Fairies (J-pop)

I "found" this J-pop girl group on the avex Channel on YouTube. They sing and dance pretty well but are really really young... only 13-15 years old. When do they have time for school? I think K-pop has trainees that young but they usually debut their artists later. Maybe it's just a Japanese thing.


White Angel - Fairies

==========

Ugh. I saw a video of them singing Madonna's "Like A Virgin"... very awkward coming from middle school girls. :(

United Airlines Boeing 787

United Airlines took delivery of a Boeing 787 in late July with tail number N20904. From FlightAware, it looks like the plane flies between Houston/Chicago and Houston/Los Angeles each day, with LAX arrival at ~5:30pm. I need to go out to Imperial Hill to get a photo. Departure is around 8:00pm so I won't be able to get a take-off photo during the winter.

I have some UA miles and I hardly ever fly United. Maybe I can use it to fly to Houston on the 787, though I think I only have enough miles to fly one-way.

Stock Market Tanks...

4 more years!

4 More Years of Wealth Redistribution

Crap. Well, at least I don't live in China. This has to be a bad translation... or the most incoherent article I've ever read.

Be wary of populism led by democracy

Results of the US presidential election will be made public today. No matter who wins, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, there's no expectation either domestically or externally that US policies will dramatically change. The problems in the US will remain.

The election has just been about getting votes, and this is gradually becoming a popular political rule throughout the world. Politicians should try their best to please the voters and make various promises. The demands of voters will continue to increase, while their patience for setbacks grows weaker.

The electoral system encourages populism. Parties and politicians are slowly turned into its captives.

Viewed from the literal meaning of the phrase "civil rights," this evolution in the political system is correct.

The outcome of carrying civil rights to their extreme is to maximize everyone's benefits.

The concepts of effort and hard work will become outdated. The overall progress of the country has become an issue of secondary importance.

This is a worldwide phenomenon. China will also be affected, even though its political system is not the same as the West's. China once attached great importance to efficiency. The impact brought about by populism may affect this.

However, Western governments have given up their responsibility to lead society and now only shuffle voters and votes.

This should alarm Chinese society. The spirit of hard work and effort must not be replaced by unrealistic welfarism.

China's general situation is far less well-developed than that of the US.

However, many people in the world are optimistic about China. This is because they trust in the continuity of Chinese policies and China's social governance capabilities. They believe that China's system can overcome difficulties and promote the development of the country.

There's no perfect political system. However, China's current system is widely considered to be an effective one. The efficiency of this system is both outstanding and rare.

The most precious thing in the world is development. Some people think that happiness is more important than development.

However, without development, the economy will deteriorate. Then what happiness can there be?

Fairness is also very important. However, only when the joint development of both the economy and society has been achieved, can fairness be ensured.

China has already experienced the old days, when there was a low standard of fairness. But now, who wants to go back to that time?

A real understanding of the US presidential elections is extremely important to Chinese society. It can broaden our horizons.

We can also heed warnings from their examples. Modern Chinese society should be able to discern the truth. China's rise is already an unstoppable trend and it is halfway through this path.

Difficulties can be found on all paths. What we should overcome is our own difficulties. Our determination and confidence will be more firm once we have overthrown illusions.

Doug Martin... Who?

I have Doug Martin (running back for Tampa Bay) on my Fantasy Football team. I've never heard of him before the season and I picked him up in the 5th round (59th pick) of our league.

He scored 67.20 points tonight by rushing 251 yards and scoring 4 touchdowns. I didn't think it was possible to get that many points. For this week, I'm currently leading my opponent (my manager) by a score of 177 to 85.

My Sassy Girl

Post #2000 according to Blogspot!

Full length version of my favorite K-movie with English subtitles. 대박!

G.E.M.

I bought a Chinese album from iTunes this morning. The artist is G.E.M. (鄧紫棋) from Shanghai though she sings songs in both Mandarin and Cantonese. The "Deluxe" version of the album comes with 2 music videos and a digital booklet, probably the CD insert. I say "probably" because the PDF file is corrupt and won't open... still dealing with iTunes store.

Here is a music video:


Oh Boy - G.E.M.

==========

Eh? The video link switched to another song. Weird.

I can't embed it but here's a link to the original video that I uploaded to Tumblr. Hopefully this one won't change.

Disney Acquires Lucasfilm

Press Release

Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney stock on October 26, 2012, the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.

Wow, $4 billion. Is the Star Wars franchise worth that much after Episodes I, II, and III? Hopefully this will prevent George Lucas from making any more Star Wars movies.

Mileage Test

With gasoline prices approaching $5/gallon (my car drinks the premium stuff), I decided to try and see how driving habits can affect mileage. I read/heard that the slower you drive on the freeway (safely), the better your gas mileage. So on my weekly nighttime commute from Orange County to Torrance, I tested to see if speed affected mileage.

Both times I tried to set the cruise control and not touch the brakes. The route was the same: 55S/22W transition, 22 West, 405 North, 110 South, 223rd Street exit.

Trial 1:
Saturday, October 6
Average speed = 59.6 mph
Average mileage = 32.4 mpg

Trial 2:
Saturday, October 13
Average speed = 67.4 mph
Average mileage = 30.5 mpg

The data was from the onboard trip computer; I reset the counter at the beginning of the trip. Before this, I had never reset the computer, and my average mileage was ~23 mpg over 29,000 miles of combined highway/city driving. I was surprised at the high mileage numbers since my car is pretty large and has a 300 hp V6 engine. I was also surprised that I got a 2 mpg improvement by driving 60 mph instead of ~70 mph, even though it was a bit scary to be the slowest guy on the road. Finally, changes in velocity also affected mileage. The effect was most evident when I had to slow down for the 405N/110S interchange since it was a big right-handed loop. I probably had to slow to ~35 mph, then accelerate back to speed. The drop in mileage was ~0.2 mpg on the computer display even though I've driven ~35 miles.

Save gas, drive slow(er)!

Shuttle Endeavour at The Forum

This morning, I went in person to see Endeavour parked at The Forum in Inglewood.


There was supposed to be a ceremony of some sort so there was a high school marching band and cheerleaders. I left before it started.


The shuttle was parked on Manchester Avenue. There was lots of barricades but the crowd was able to get fairly close.




I think Endeavour only flew 25 missions. I was surprised how old it looked. :(


Back view. The 3 main engines have been removed and may be reused on the SLS.


Lots and lots of people...

Shuttle Move Live Feed

We had a live feed of the shuttle move yesterday at work. It was probably for a future NASA documentary but not sure how we got it. Anyway, I took some screencaps while they were moving Endeavour across Manchester Avenue.

Ubuntu!

Wow, that must have been the easiest OS install ever. I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04.1, burned an install CD, then installed it on my netbook (which I'm using right now). The total process only took about an hour and everything works! When I installed Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.0) on the same netbook, I had lots of issues with drivers and crashes, and the sound never worked correctly. Here, sound, wifi, Bluetooth, and even the weird Asus Eee specific function keys all work. No drama...

First impression of Ubuntu is that it's very similar to OS X. I guess I wasn't sure what to expect since my last Linux experience was Red Hat (line commands) on an old Pentium. I was even able to open Word .docx files. However, after using my work laptop (SSD), my iPad2 (RAM), and MacBook Air (SSD), I'm used to instantaneous app loads so this feels really really slow. The Atom processor probably is not helping.

Now I have four laptops at my friend's house with 4 different operating systems.

==========

Just figured out how to connect to wireless network at work with Ubuntu. I read a bunch of posts on the web with lots of line commands but the Edit Connection wizard on Ubuntu 12 was pretty easy. All I had to do was plug in an Ethernet cable, download our CA certificate, then add the hidden SSID for the network. Pretty cool.

Next I need to try out the Excel-like app to see how well it handles spreadsheets.

Computer Shuffle

Now that the wifi is working well on my MacBook Air, I think I'll use it as my primary portable computer, which means I'll probably transfer all my photos and mp3's from the desktop PC. At least this will make the pain of paying Apple $300 for an additional 128GB on the SSD a bit less.

This then frees up my Mac mini (OS X 10.6.8) which I'll probably attach to the Samsung TV at home. I'll need to teach my parents how to use a Mac; they've only used Windows before. This also frees up my Sony Vaio notebook (Windows Vista) and my Asus netbook. The OS X install on the netbook wasn't that successful; I'm still at 10.6.0 and audio messes up when you unplug the AC adapter. Just to add another OS to the mix, I'm downloading Ubuntu 12 and will attempt to install that on the netbook. This should be easy since a lot of smaller netbooks ship with Ubuntu.

Not sure what to do with the Sony Vaio and the old Dell 17" laptop (Windows XP!) that will be displaced by the Mac mini. Maybe I can install Windows 8.

Microsoft "Support"

We use Microsoft Dynamics AX at work as our ERP software. Since the beginning, we've had lots of problems with our implementation since we're still using our homegrown system for production/purchasing. Anyway, as part of the software package, we also get a reporting software called Management Reporter. For some reason, we have 20 AX licenses but only 4 Reporter licenses. We've fired our VAR/implementer since they sucked and now I don't know where to get more licenses.

At the Microsoft Dynamics support website, there is a link that leads to Operations Support. It says: "Submit operational questions regarding ordering policy, licensing, registration keys, etc to the Microsoft Regional Operations Center (not technical support or pre-sales support)." Great! I then click on "Submit a new operational support inquiry" and I get a Microsoft Silverlight error? Huh? It then tells me to refresh the screen or contact the site administrator. Site admin at Microsoft? Where do you go for help if the submit help screen craps out? Doesn't any at Microsoft QA their customer-facing website? Ugh.

Another K-pop Dream

I'm sure I've had many strange dreams but don't remember the next day...

Anyway, I dreamt that I was in my bed, reading something on my Kindle Fire. I don't recognize the location but it felt like my bedroom when we lived in Harbor City. Sitting next to the bed were Tiffany, Sunny, and somebody else (Yuri?) from Girls' Generation. I think Tiffany was talking to the third girl when I whispered to Sunny, "Since you're already in my bedroom, can I get your autograph?" Yep, autograph... I remembered that I had bought their Asia Concert DVD (I did in real life), and I wanted them to sign the packaging or booklet.

Before she could answer, a huge crash woke me up. My roommate/landlord had stuck a smoke detector on the ceiling with double-sided tape and it chose that exact moment to release itself and hit the hardwood floor loudly. I told my roommate just now while handing him the smoke detector. He said "sorry" but looked at me like I was crazy.

Maybe I am.

Worst College Majors

Kiplinger/Yahoo! Finance

1. Anthropology ($28,000)
2. Fine Arts ($30,000)
3. Film & Photography ($30,000)
4. Philosophy and Religious Studies ($30,000)
5. Graphic Design ($32,000)
6. Studio Arts ($35,900)
7. Liberal Arts ($30,000)
8. Drama and Theater Arts ($26,000)
9. Sociology ($32,000)
10. English ($32,000)

Dollars = median salary for recent grads. In comparison, the median for top 100 majors is $37,000 per the article. We recently hired two new undergrads for finance/accounting and their starting salary was $55,000 + stock options.

I think schools should have this data available for students. If you really want to major in these subjects, don't expect to find a high paying job. Tuition at USC is $21,081/semester. If you graduate in 4 years, that's ~$170k. Add in housing, food, books, and other costs, it's probably closer to $300k. If you're going to make only $30k after graduation, it's going to take a long long time to pay off those loans.

Apple Maps - Apology NOT Accepted

Bloomberg

Apple CEO ‘Extremely Sorry’ for IPhone Maps Frustration

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook apologized for the iPhone mapping software released last week that has been criticized for flaws such as misrouted directions and inaccurately located landmarks.

“We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” Cook said in a letter to customers posted today on the Cupertino, California-based company’s website.

Apple’s decision to build its navigation application reflects a widening rift with Google Inc. (GOOG), which had provided its Google Maps program since the iPhone debuted in 2007. While the new software adds features such as turn-by-turn navigation, it is widely faulted for unreliable landmark searches, routes that get users lost and a lack of public transit directions.

He's not sorry. If he was really apologetic about the Maps screw up, he would make Google Maps available on the app store. Another example that Apple doesn't give a sh*t about its customers.

I remember many years ago there were several lawsuits about Microsoft bundling IE with Windows OS. People complained that it was unfair to competitors (other browsers) and the courts forced Microsoft to make IE uninstallable. I didn't know what the fuss was; you could always download other browsers after installing Windows. Here, Apple intentionally shut out Google Maps (and YouTube) from iOS6. Not only did I lose Google Maps on my iPad2, I can't even install the old app. Why doesn't anyone question Apple's monopolistic policies?

...and I still can't play Flash videos on my iOS devices.