What's new in iOS 5

1. Chinese input.

That's added value for Chinese users like me. It's smarter than its predecessor, but a little bit slower.

2. Notification center

This thing works as a double-edged sword. On one hand, you just love how all your push notifications being aggregated into one page, on the other hand, it's a battery killer! Every few minutes, you'll get a notification from your email, SMS, Calendar, IMs, etc. So to save battery, you might not wanna put push notifications active for a lot of apps.

3. Photo editing

It doesn't do much magic, just crop, auto-enhance and red-eye reduction. Compared to what Android can do, this is just like nothing.

4. Twitter built-in

Now you can post tweets inside photos

5. Reminder

This could come in handy when you think you might forget something yet not considering it as worthy of putting in the calendar.

6. Reader in Safari

7. Dictionary

Double clicking on a word doesn't only give copy and paste, it also gives a "Define" option, which is a dictionary

When you hit it, it'll be something like this

8. iCloud

This is the killer update in iOS 5, but it seems Apple hasn't turned on the service yet, even though I had iCloud installed on my Mac, I don't see any syncing between the phone and mac.

9. iMessage

Mac OS X Lion Pros and Cons

Having been testing Lion for a few days, I‘m starting to get used to the new system. Below is what I've found.

Pros:

• Airdrop makes sharing much easier.
• Versioning keeps track of modification history.
• App full screen is a nice feature but it doesn't work quite well on non-apple applications, at least for now.
• Reader in Safari works like an information aggregator, it detects the core information on a page and display it in a pretty decent way.
• Built-in dictionary and smart zoom are two smart features, but dictionary is a little slow.

Cons:

• When switching between desktops, desktop icons sometimes don't show up.
• Back/forward gestures disabled, even in finder. So you need to press on that little back/forward arrow to go back or forward in applications like Chrome. However, one could use two/three finger swipe gesture to switch between pages in Safari, iCal. It seems that Apple is trying to promote its own apps.
• When switching to an app on a different desktop with Finder open, screen would give a quick flash.
• Launchpad is not as useful as it seems, you could always use spotlight or third-party search apps to find things quickly.
• Switching between apps is not as straightforward as in Snow Leopard where you could just swipe four fingers and select the one from the active apps. Whereas in Lion, there is mission control, you need to switch between desktops first and find the target app and then activate it.

All in all, I don't think it's a major release, it could just as easily be an upgrade. It might take some time to adjust to the new gestures if you are already familiar with Snow Leopard, especially with the new "Natural Scroll Directions", which allows you to swipe like the way on iPhone. So if you turn this feature on, you will be treating your touchpad as the screen, swiping up means grab the page and pull it up, yielding pagedown, which is just the opposite to the traditional scrolling.

Butterfly Effect

wikileaks -> turmoil in middle east -> twitter -> more turmoil -> soar in gas price?

first day of 2009 in Guangzhou

7am, 1/1/2009
Guangzhou MTR


I WAS THERE

promotional skill

the Edison thing has been almost a year, remember all the craziness of digging all these ** photos during lunar new year's eve. As I was wandering in Golden Computer Center yesterday, so much better than the last time I was there, which was a total disaster, the PC sales men were playing Edison's apology video again and again and again as a selling point to attract tourists and consumers. And it's not just one retailer who's playing the video, most of the shops as long as they sell display or computer, it's like they've reached some kind of consensus, they all played it, shame on those who didn't. So it's like wherever you go, you see Edison's poor little face like some kind of criminal. Turn left, he's apologizing, turn right, wow, he's still apologizing. Such a relief they were not showcasing the photos on every display. I just wonder how much real extra revenue they do earn by doing so, probably not so much, since everybody is enacting such a strategy.

How to get to Shenzhen with Student Octopus

With student octopus, you always have 50% discount on the metro ride except for one route from Sheung Shui(上水) to the border station of Hong Kong--Lo Wu(羅湖) or Lok Ma Chau(落馬洲), this 5 minutes' ride alone costs 18.6 dollars and full fare is mandatory even if you're holding a student octopus. It's kinda like a starting cost of crossing border, which is totally not reasonable.

Weird thing is if you travel from any metro station straight to the border stations mentioned, without getting off in the midway, full fare is charged as if you were punished for going to the border because the routes that should've been half-charged are in full fare.

So here's what I would do to take advantage of student octopus to get the discount back.

DON'T go straight to the border station
ALWAYS get off at Sheung Shui station with octopus

and get back in the station one minute after octopus is charged and go on the ride to the border. By doing this, you get all the discount from any station to Sheung Shui station. For example, if I go straight from Choi Hung Station to Lo Wu station, I'll need to spend over 33 dollars on the whole ride. But if I get off at Sheung Shui, I'll be charged only some 5 dollars, and then get back on to the train to Lo Wu, which costs 18.6 dollars, that is TEN dollars saved in my pocket.

The same trick works when going back to Hong Kong from Shenzhen, get off at Sheung Shui, save another 10 dollars. And this getting-off thing is not time consuming and burden carrying, you just take some walk out off the station, wait for a minute and walk back in.

some changes in HK

Having returned for 11 years, some changes have happened in Hong Kong, a recognition that they're in blood Chinese. I don't want to draw any general conclusion here, just give two simple facts that I've seen.

When Shenzhou 7 landed I was in a big shopping mall, where there was a TV put up in the middle of the mall, broadcasting live the whole thing. Shoppers, old and young, stopped to crowd around the TV set. And they cheered when the shuttle safely landed, after the landing, there were still many people watching.

Tonight as I was on the bus home, a mother sat right behind me was teaching her baby girl the national anthem. I can't tell from their cantonese that they are local residents, because they could well as be from Canton. But how often do you see parents teaching their kids the national anthem on a bus in mainland China? Almost never. I happened to see one in Hong Kong.

ceteris paribus

there's this interesting word mentioned today in macroeconomics course,

ceteris paribus

meaning: if other relevant things, factors, or elements remain unaltered

there must be some historical reasons the English language creators or broadly speaking, users, favor Latin words to be their linkage words, like

"i.e." originated from Latin expression "id est", means that is;
"e.g." from Latin "exempli gratia", means for example;
"q.v." from Latin "quod vide", means which see;
"etc." from "et cetera", means and so forth;
...

and now the ceteris paribus, which is abbreviated as cet. par.

Wikipedia has given a list of Latin Abbreviations which could be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_abbreviations



.

in Shenzhen

Having got used to the rapid pace in Hong Kong, it's a little bit uncomfortable to be somewhere not that fast-moving. The thing that I hate most in SZ is the traffic lights. It takes like 3 minutes to turn from red to green, and once caught by red light, it'll be "RED" all the way down. That's many 3 minutes wasted in waiting! If you're so lucky to be taking a cab and caught by a red light, congratulations, your heart might beat faster watching these little red numbers on the meter "move" every few intervals whilst waiting the traffic light. So my advice is taking metro!

dejavu

I had a dejavu today in Investment Analysis course, something I dreamt about several months ago happened in real time.

free stuff is not always good

Got two bottles of body lotion from Johnson & Johnson's recruitment talk, thinking, "wow, this is generous, giving out stuff that probably worth some dozen dollars". For all these years, I've kept this good habit as to check the manufacture date before purchasing any good, food or non-food. Guess what, the body lotion happens to be manufactured in the last month of 2005, and is coming to expiry this december. It's like dumping garbage while the receivers feel like having taken big advantages over this, well, not for too long, because sooner or later, we'll find out it's obsolete, we're totally fooled. Nothing good could come out from this strategy.

missing golden week

-Prof. Facchini, "so see you all tomorrow"
-class, "tomorrow is public holiday, no classes"
-Prof. Facchini, "holiday? what holiday is it?"
-class, "it's National Day!"
-Prof. Facchini, "......you really do have many holidays!"

Yeah, in Hong Kong, both traditional Chinese holidays and western festivals are public holidays. No work on public holidays!

Christmas day, holiday!
Chung Yeung Festival, holiday!
Easter day, holiday!
the birthday of Buddha, also holiday!

The local people even do "treat or tricks" on Halloween, which is approaching. So excited about the things here!

free stuff

the good thing about recruitment talks here is you always get free stuff!
free pen,
free notepad,
free bags,
free toys,
free key chains,
free brochures,
sometimes even free food(UBS offered a mini but nice buffet today!)

some participants have made it very clear,
"I'm here just for the free stuff, the talks, I don't care!"

The Pavilion Hotel

two years....

CV versus resume, what's the difference?

Have a look at: <http://www.dcardillo.com/articles/resvscv.html>

"Although many people use the terms “resume” and “CV” (curriculum vitae) interchangeably, they’re actually two different types of documents, each with its own distinct focus. [...]

A resume is the 1-2 page career summary that most of us are familiar with. It summarizes work experience, accomplishments, education and other pertinent topics such as professional associations and special skills. The resume is what is most universally used and expected by prospective employers. [...]

A curriculum vitae, or CV, on the other hand, is a longer, more comprehensive document. It’s usually multiple pages long and gets into much more detail, including a listing of publications, presentations, research projects, academic work, teaching experience, and so forth. A CV is generally used in PhD-driven environments, such as academia and higher level research. It attests to expertise and authority.
[...]

There are even two different styles of CV, the American and the International. Which style you use would depend on where the company you’re applying to is located. The International version includes personal information, such as marital and health status, which would be inappropriate on an American-style CV."

An Inconvenient Truth

Watched An Inconvenient Truth last night, I got really startled by the solid fact how badly we are ruining the earth atmosphere. Even worse, we know the temperature is keeping increasing, we know carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is going high year by year, and we know something bad, something vital is coming, we just sit there and let it come. Time to do something to save the atmosphere, for us, as well as for our future generations, even the most trivial things in one's daily life, when everyone on the earth does the same, it'll be huge. Following are ten simple suggestions the film gives to take action.

Ten things to do

Change a light

Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Drive less

Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit more often. You'll save on pound if carbon dioxide every mile you don't drive!

Recycle more

You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.

Check your tires

Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%.

Every gallon of gasoline saved keep 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!

Use less hot water

It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead

Avoid products with a lot of packaging

You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

Adjust your thermostat

Moving your thermostat just 2 degress in winter and up 2 degrees in summer

You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a yeas with this simple adjustment.

Plant a tree

Asingle tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

Turn off electronic devices

Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you're not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

The Banquet

Another Chinese commercial flick targeted at golden Oscar. A Chinese "Hemlet", more than just Chinese Kong Fu. Right at its birth, it was doomed to be compared, by the picky audiences and mass media, with Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, which were all directed by Chinese big shots. Despite all the differences in background, expenditure, and influences, there is one thing in common, Ziyi Zhang in ancient Chinese costumes picturing us Chinese Kong Fu. Coincidence? Absolutely not. It's just that Ziyi Zhang is one of the few Chinese names that could make these western audiences voluntarily buy tickets.

Back to the movie itself. As I see it, it's pretty good. Comprehensible scenario, splendor scences and fabulous attires. And most importantly, the theme the director attempts to convey to audiences--craving for power. To seize the supreme power, everyone, from the emperor and empress to government officials, all have their way: usurpation, machination, betrayal, retalliation, propitiation, etc. It doesn't matter who kills the Empress in the end, actually, it has already aroused quite a lot of public disputation. A lust, a desperate lust for power stabs her on the back. Any one has this lust could be the murderer. In this sense, The Banquet has revealed a profound theme and ended a perfect conclusion. And by the way, I like the theme song, it's hard to describe my feelings but I do like it.