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| 43 |
Meu Carro Novo De in Portuguese means the same as De in Chinese. So, you are right. It doesn't mean anything meaningful. http://zhongwen.com/d/170/x186.htm |
| 42 |
Beijing Airport Terminal 3 (T3) Opens Heathrow Terminal 5 opened here in London too! Been to the airport in Beijing... it was pretty grotty! |
| 41 |
Conversation with IPowerWeb Support Did you ever resolve the issue? How? I'm experiencing the same thing now with one of the sites I have. They transitioned it, said everything was tested and because I host my DNS externally, I switched over only to find none of the database stuff worked. After some useless assurances that it was working (when it wasn't), I spoke to them in email as if they were 2 year olds, and that seemed to get my simple point across -- that the site was down. The came back saying that I need to change my scripts to use nnnn.ipowermysql.com, which doesn't work either. I actually found your post when I typed in that name in the browser and google brought me back some other possibilities... This is the first db driven site to be transitioned, so I'm scared that I'm going to have issues with every single one of them... |
| 40 |
Support Experience of iPowerWeb Unless you signed a non-disclosure agreement with them, you can post the emails you received from them. You can also post phone conversations. As long as you are not claiming anything that is untrue, you are free to publish what you wish and quote them at will. They will try to intimidate you with their legal department. Furthermore, you are providing your opinion by sharing your experience. You are fully entitled to express an opinion. I wouldn't worry about their "legal department". Chances are they do not have a "department", they have some friend or someone on retainer or a CPA firm that has a lawyer on staff who will craft letters on an as-needed basis. My experience with ipowerweb has been such that they do not even have a support group. They have a group of people that are there sometimes. They claim 24X7X365 support...well, it's been over 1 hour now that I have been waiting for a "live support" person to show up. This is typical of my experiences with their support. Phone calls remain on hold waiting for the next available person. Live chat refreshes forever waiting for a person. Emails go into a queue and sometimes are answered. If ipowerweb is so busy helping other customers, then that means one of three things... 1. The customers are idiots. Of which I find that hard to believe given the number of intelligent people I know who have used and since left due to horrible support and service. 2. Ipowerweb has so many issues they are indeed over worked in their support centers and cannot get to all the customers 3. Ipowerweb is understaffed and cannot handle the call volume. If it is item 1, then stay with ipowerweb. Personally, I have migrated my accounts from them and not only have NEVER had a support issue with the new service provider, my site has never gone down. When there are planned outages, I also get notifications. In unplanned situations (we had a hard drive crash), I got a notification. The notifications came with an estimated repair time too. Wow...what a difference. There is a tracking number associated with all contacts and history of the conversation. If it is item 2 or 3, then that should say something as to reliability and availability. There are a lot of other low cost hosting providers out there that provide the same types of services (and more) for the same price as ipowerweb. The difference is in the level of service. Beware of these sites that rate hosting services. Some of them are planted there to promote some of the lower quality providers. Use reviews from reputable organizations and be sure to search for things like ipowerweb sucks in google, along with the others you are researching. Certainly there will always be someone complaining, but looking at the positive and negative comments on all the ones you research will lead you to the right place, and likely that wont be ipowerweb. In their defense, when they are up and not touching anything, they have been reliable for the most part. Whenever they do an upgrade or change, they seem to break things. There was a time when four mySQL databases just spontaneously disappeared and no one knows why. If you go with ipowerweb, I would highly suggest you manage your own domain name. I had mine held hostage for over 2 weeks when they renewed my account but didn't update the domain name and as such lost the DNS entries (though I paid, and on time) After teaching them now to do an NSLOOKUP and explaining how DNS works, I finally got tired of it and switched registrars so I could manage the DNS on my own and haven't had a problem since...best of all, it makes it a lot easier to transfer out of a bad hosting provider when you have control over your domain name. |
| 39 |
Train from Beijing to Shanghai Hello - I am looking into "T" train from Shanghai to Beijing. I would like 2 person sleeper and I understand it is not available on Z train. Any comments on T train are appreciated. |
| 38 |
Living Cost in Shanghai - Medicine Any foreigner who comes to China without medical insurance is mad. A mate of mine was driven into a truck in one of those wonderful white taxis and the taxi company basically washed their hands of him. His medical bills for a series of botched operations were London prices. How's four hundred pounds a night to stay in a Shanghai hospital for starters? Complete rip off. The only way is if you know a doctor personally, and this really means "if your wife's family has a good doctor contact". If not, check the evacuation clause on your expat medical insurance. Ring the company up. At the slightest need of hospitalisation you should be on a plane to Bangkok or Singapore where the treatment is better and cheaper. Best hope your company uses SOS International, who are the best for China. My insurer does. Phew. They have access to PLA planes if necessary, as well as military hospitals. Good if you get sick in the middle of nowhere. In 1992 a friend of mine was evacuated to Hong Kong from the absolute middle of nowhere and it cost 70k US. Impressive eh? 35k of that was a special medical flight in an air ambulance with a doctor and nurse flown in from Beijing to join the patient. I use a London insurance broker and she gets me the best deals for global expat medical insurance. I won't post her name or the firm I'm with because this is not an advert. Premiums went up 20% this year. Ouch. I suppose you've notice WorldLink are getting sued for negligence? Can't say I'm that interested in going to see "expat" doctors who charge London prices in China. The trick is getting a doctor who actually cares not one that's motivated by Hong Baos. |
| 37 |
Watch Out Bad Shanghai Taxi Drivers Wow. 450 to the Bund. Awesome. From Pudong Airport to the city should be no more than 160 during the day and 200 at night. If they won't give you a receipt, call the police. If they have overcharged you by a small amount (20-30 RMB is common as people won't usually make a fuss about that) get the receipt and then ring the taxi company or the city complaints line. You should ask for ten times the overcharge, and you will get it if you have been overcharged. That's what my wife (Shanghainese) and her family do. Although you should never get into a taxi with a broken meter. Da Zhong are the best. Qiang Sheng are OK too, and the others are pretty much dreadful. At the end of the day they are all knackered old Volkswagen Santanas from the mid 1980s and you shouldn't expect too much. If it's a hot day sit in the front as the aircon doesn't reach the back seats very well. And if you don't take a taxi from the rank then you are asking for trouble. The Maglev is next to useless as it stops about 9pm and leaves you in the middle of nowhere anyway. It's an option if you don't have any luggage and your ultimate destination is near a tube station because it connects with the underground. In general you have to remember that many drivers first drove a car six months ago when they arrived in Shanghai. It's pot luck as to who you get. Da Zhong and Qiang Sheng tend to use Shanghainese drivers who at least have a vague idea of the city. You'll still get the odd driver who doesn't know where Nanjing Xi Lu is and so on. But given the horrendous shortage of taxis in Shanghai sometimes you just have to take what you can get. |
| 36 |
National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) June 5th 2007 Can someone please e-mail me with the following information, please. My e-mail address is englishteacher_djp@yahoo.co.uk I am a British teacher working in China so I am not fmailiar with the intricacies of the Chinese 'Gaokao' system about to take place this week. I have two questions only: 1) I have been informed by a student that she will receive a card prior to the examination and that once she receives that card, she MUST sit the examinations. The way she explained this made it seem that if she did not sit the exams having been given this card, she would be hunted down and shot. She already has a place at a university and claims to be sitting th gaokao only because of this card. My advice has been that she should not sit an exam that she has no need to sit. 2) Approximately when will the 2007 exam results be published? Thanks Dave |
| 35 |
Polution in Shanghai Just came back to Shanghai from three weeks away to India, Australia, and USA. First off, India makes China look clean but the at least the air is better there (Mumbai). The last two weeks in Sydney and Florida with colbalt blue skies everyday were amazing, but a sad reminder of how bad Shanghai and Beijing really are now. Perhaps if the Chinese travel more they will see how amazing this planet is and what blue skies and clear lakes are supposed to look like. Also, if they learn that it does not have to cost much more to be clean. As they open a new coal-fired power plant every week or two without scrubbers, how much would it cost to install scrubbers on them all (before they get built)? Not much if they had standards and enforced them across the board. |
| 34 |
Reasons of Bad Traffic in Shanghai Well seems that government is using OLYMPIC Games 2008 to make some advertaisment for showing people respect,education and having a good hurt and it is a nice advert, the message is you help people and they help you as shows people opening the door to other, giving seat in the bus to old people, an also a car that stop in a zebra cross !! Congratulations, it is a great idea. As i said hope this become better and better. |
| 33 |
Reasons of Bad Traffic in Shanghai I now I can not change norms, but even I am living in Shanghai 3 years and enjoy many chinese culture but stills makes me crazy that cars do not take care of lights and zebra crossroads. It really makes me anoyed ! Now pedestrians could have different reactions: - Keep everthing as now, cars are the kings of the road, pedestrian are not persons just objects and subordinate to the cars. ddjjii said '' traffic rules can be broken '' no come on tell me cars can brake traffic rules (as they are stronger) but pedestrian should not cross the street when there is a red light. So cars follow the chinese norm but pedestrian have to follow the traffic rules. -Another behaviour as pedestrians could be, because the norm says ''traffic rules can be broken'' so my as a pedestrian can also brake the rules, so from now one i will not take care of the traffic lights and cross if there is no near car !. Really when i go by bike i see traffic is messy and bikes and motorbikes also follow the ''traffic rules can be broken'' norm even they are weaker than cars. So i proposed from now on this, lets pedestrians also do the same as the other cars, bikes and motorbikes, let's make a little more messy the traffic. It doesn't matter as traffic rules can be broken,so lets all brake the rules and cross anywhere because the messiness make people to behave also messy, it brings as to libertinism ( libertinaje in spanish). -The third way of behaviour would be ok i will wait my tourn and not cross in red light but i will defend until the last my right to cross when the green light.To defend ourselves we can use anything we have close to us, for instance the umbrella could be used to frighten bikes, motorbikes or even cars of being hit if they are not so kind to stop when the light is red for them. I tried it and worked anyway if they are rude to me why i can not be rude to them? Let me explain a story, one day i was going to superbrand mall in pudong, near the pearl tower and there is a long beatifull and useless drawings on the road of the century avenue(which ironically it is supossed to be a sign of future development and prosperity of china) and there was a huge number of people waiting for the chance to cross the street but one only one man thought people should cross and then that crazy man encourage to one small group to cross and then 4 people crossed risking to have been hited and then the car stops and the lowai make a sign of OK to the car driver to thank the driver and then the rest of the people including old people and children also crossed and i could see those 4 people felt happy inside no matter what the other people may think and thought it was correct what they did. So toghether we can do it people crossing will stops the car is forced to stop and then we give thanks for their amability. Some people may look you like an ET, but maybe after a while the driver or the people who watch this may think, hey this crazy laowai was right, why we should respect the traffic lights and cars don't?, hey cars should also stop in the lights and in the zebras. Otherwise ddjiii tell me traffic rules can be broken tell me cars can brake traffic rules (because they are stronger) but pedestrian should respect the rules and do not cross the street when the light is red . And remeber cars are stronger but if another car (or even worse a truck) doesn't respect either its traffic light a big accident could happen. So as a conclussion to all this please lets all respect the rules or this would be the law of the forest. I really expect this to become better in the future in China. Hope some people think about this. I know the easy is to say this battle is lost but i will keep on fighting even one day i get injured but i will not surrender. Sometimes norms have to be change to be adapted to the rules and best practies. HK probably did it probably due to the british influence, this could be a very interesting topic to do some research. I know i have been a little drastic and may think i am crazy but crazy people changed the world.For instance Newton,Colon,... |
| 32 |
Reasons of Bad Traffic in Shanghai Why in China the cars do not respect the passage of zebras ? I am from a country in Europe where cars usuallly stop when the pedestrian are crossing one zebra and I really get anoyed becuase of this behaviour. I really do not get used to it, i do not want to be educated like this i want to educate drivers to change themselves. Maybe one day i will be run over or involved in a fight because of this. It really makes me piss off and sometimes i can not control my reaction. I now i am in China.I have two questions : First, and this could be answer by Jian Shuo -as he recently pass the examination- what the driving rules state about passage of zebras in China? Are they just for decoration of the street or it is the place where the pedestrian will cross and the cars have to stop if there is a pedestrian crossing it?. Who has preference cars or pedestrians? Second, why cars do not stop when a person is crossing? Person is not important? What about if and old person is crossing,why cars do not stop if chinese culture is very respectfull with old people? Can any chinese solve this mistery because is very contradictory? The same could be applied to the traffic lights but first lets make the zebra thing clear. Jian Shuo this topic of about the passage of zebra is related to the bad traffic (could be consider the bad traffic as a bad excuse for not taking care of the zebras ) but also could be a different one. |
| 31 |
My Google PageRank Increases to PR5 Might have to try the sub domain technique to see if i can get my real estate website higher up in the google PR! www.fitzgeraldcyprus.com |
| 30 |
Rent an Apartment in Shanghai Once I read an article while ago off NY times about real estate in Shang Hai, particularly rental properties. It compared with rental properties in NYC. It equated the rent some of them were higher than the states. Go figure, what would a studio costs in NYC? So, just being a little realistic about what you would like to have with how much you would like to shell out. |
| 28 |
MSN Messenger Virus BR2002 yeah i ge this error code now too....any idea how to fix it? |
| 27 |
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| 26 |
Beijing 2008 Olympic Mascots Hate it. The red one looks like the head is on fire. |
| 24 |
Pudong Starbucks is Nice jianshuo, my first blog comment, feel how it feels. dave |
| 23 |
My Google PageRank Increases to PR5 I am a little confused about search engines pageranking matter, how to increase the pageranking of my company website? which is http://www.watchwinderstore.com ; does it means higher pagerank means higher listing on Google? How about MSN, etc. thanks for your help. |
| 22 |
Jian Shuo on Wired Magazine? Apologies for any typos in the above... I assure you that everything is spelled right (including your name) and is grammatically correct in the actual article... |
| 21 |
Jian Shuo on Wired Magazine? Exerpted from the April '05 Wired article entitled "China's Next Cultural Revolution," p108: Here's the new cultural revolution: Every morning, Wang Jian Shua and his wife leave their condo in the suburbs of Shanghai, get into their Fiat sedan, and drive to jobs in the city. Two years ago, they lived in a cramped, decrepit apartment in the center of Shanghai, and Wang, an engineer for Microsoft, traveled to work by bus or train. "I never thought of getting a car," he says. "Driving was a very serious profession - like medicine." Cars were for party bureaucrats, or at least the very rich. But in 2000, Shanghai's per capita GDP (already much higher than China's overall) rose above $4,000, and the roads started filling with private cars. Local highways, which were designed by engineers who'd never driven, clogged. Shanghai's narrow streets became so congested that commuters abandoned their bicycles for the subway just to avoid the cars. Smog grew so thick that on many days you couldn't even see the boisterous skyscrapers looming above you. And so, a year ago, Wang moved into a spacious condo in the suburbs - and bought a car. "The change the car brings in my life is bigger than the house," he says. "My life scope is much larger now." Today Wang and his wife shop in Western-style supermarkets instead of haggling with the fishmonger, and they can drive to visit friends and return home by car long after the subway has shut down for the nightr. They grew up in a world bounded by transit schedules, shabby housing, and nosy neighbors, but now they live in an airy apartment, surrounded by the brand-new high-rises that have sprung out of the rice paddies. Some nights, when they're tired, Wang and his wife get in the car and drive out to the new airport just to experience speeding down the empty highway. But even that road is filling up. It makes Wang happy he bought a car as soon as he did. "What a car becomes something everyone can afford, forget it," he says. "You won't be able to drive." At a Hyundai dealership not far from Wang's condo, families prowl the showroom, inspecting the stitching on the seats, criticizing the design of the rear lights, trying to find the biggest car for their yuan. A TV blares a gov't program featuring a singer in a yellow dress crooning in front of a suburban development. "Nowadays life is getting better, sweeter and sweeter," she sings. "You can fulfill your dreams. The roads are getting wider and wider." |
| 20 |
MSN Messenger Virus BR2002 The SKYDEVIL and Larissa stuff sounds like the W32.Serflog.C worm virus - see http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.serflog.c.html |
| 19 |
Buying Computer Parts in Shanghai I want to purchase fake North Face jackets and other fake stuff online such as DVDs and any other expensive things that cost too damn much in the states. Is there any online site that I could purchase these things from using my credit card? I also would like to get any electronics cheap too. I sell alot on ebay and was trying to make a buck or two that is why I would like this information. Can you help me out? Please email me with any sites that I can purchase goods cheap on the net. Email me at digidydave0357@hotmail.com Thanks A Bunch Dave |
| 18 |
Jia You, Shanghai Metro! Wow! And I thought it was bad in Toronto at Bloor and Yonge interchange during rush hour :-) David |
| 17 |
Taxi in New York City Taxi Driver was set in the 1970s', a whole different era in NYC. I'm too young to remember that time, but I grew up in Manhattan in the 80s and 90s, and alot of things looked like Taxi Driver in the mid-80s. |
| 16 |
Life in New York is Tough for Me Oh, I didn't notice that that survey was from 1997... which was when I was in Shanghai... so yeah, all those things I mention are exactly why the 136:100 Shanghai to New York ratio exists... you're very right; in reality 20:100 is not at all unreasonable for everything except for housing for foreigners (which is probably by far the biggest cost of living factor). |
| 15 |
Life in New York is Tough for Me Usually those cost-of-living indexes for expats like the one you link to at CNN, measure the cost of living in the foreign country with 100% of the comforts that one would have in America. For example, when I lived in Shanghai as an expat a few years back, foreigners had to live in those special housing areas... We lived in a 1000 sq ft house for US$5000 a month (paid by the company that sent us there)... In the US, we had lived in a 2000 sq ft home which would probably rent for about US$ 1500... so by the standards of that CNN survey, we were paying 3 times as much, for a major step down in "quality of life" (not really). Similarly, if you try to buy groceries only at American-like supermarkets (does the Wellcome at Shanghai Centre still exist?), and not at the Chinese markets, things could get pretty expensive. And if you would only buy foreign brand name clothes and other products, that was pretty expensive too at the time. Also, since Americans have a car in the US, cost of living in China probably includes a car and English-speaking driver, which, at the time, I think cars had a 100% or more gov't markup over what they cost in the US. Sure, you could get around by taxi really cheaply, but theoretically that would be a reduction in quality of life. I think my family managed to save up a pretty good amount of money because we were compensated by the company as if we were living at "American standards" with all the trimmings when it wasn't hard to live cheaply, and effectively, equally as well. |
| 14 |
Real-Time Stream Broadcasting Cookbook Windows media encoder 9.... I tried it back in 2002, and after receiving a face full of errors, gave up. 2004, re-taking that plunge again to re-try it, and I'm STILL getting the same old "the device is not connected" message, same as everyone else, it works in all other video cap programs, aswell as Vidcap32 and AmCap. Oh well, time to give up for another year and go back to encoder 7.... -Dave |
| 13 |
Pudong Airport Maglev in Depth Just returned from Shanghai on a business trip. I was surprised to see that the Maglev is in routine operation now - and the price is OK. Taxi from my hotel in the old city to the Maglev station was 38RMB, roughly $5US or 6 Euro. The fare for Maglev, if you have an airline ticket, is 40RMB one way to the Pudong airport. A taxi direct from my hotel to the Pudong airport is 90RMB, so actually, using taxi from hotel to Maglev, then Maglev to airport cost less than taxi all the way. And the 8 minutes of Maglev subtitutes for 45 minutes of taxi. Faster and cheaper - everybody wins! Inside the train, it looks and feels just like a small jet airplane with overhead and underseat luggage, and more leg room than in an airplane. The acceleration is not so strong as an airplane. You basically gently accelerate for four minutes, then gently decelerate for four minutes. Fun ride |
| 12 |
37 Killed in Beijing and 40 in Moscow In America we hear that the subway fire was caused by a bomb. Is the Chinese media reporting another story? |
| 11 |
Starbucks in A Day - Part II I really liked your site, even before I visited Shanghai in Oct. Great work! Starbucks should pay you money for all those work, ;-) Dave |
| 10 |
Shanghai Hotel Guide Is the staff at the Hilton really "very hostile"? What type of problem did you run into with them? |
| 9 |
Travel Plan to Kanas Lake, Xinjiang WOW! I am so inspired by your trip! I hope you can take another trip like this one some time. I am living here in Minnesota, USA and I am so much in love with Asia, IE Japan and China, Korea. I beleive that there is a strong relationship between all of these countries even though most people will say that it isn't the case. I love the pictures! Did you hike there? Are there any roads to the park? How much is the trip in US dollars so I can get an idea. Thanks for sharing your trip there. |
| 8 |
Webcam Shanghai Resumes I looked into the matter some more. Just to clarify, would it be sufficient for the computer to be able to turn on/off electrical power to a outlet correct? I have this dongle that plugs could plug into the serial port of my computer. Using the provided software, I can use the device to signal home automation devices. One possible home automation device is a switch that plugs into the AC power outlet. I can plug a lamp into the switch and then leave the lamp on. The actual power would be controlled by the switch. So I can control the lamp using my computer. I figure the same model might work for your webcam control. If you have already have a rotating platform that plugs into the outlet, then you can use this device to control it. Admittedly, the control would be simple (only on/off), but it would be a inexpensive solution. I have seen 3rd party libraries for serial port dongle that allow it to be control by other programs (via API). I suppose after figuring out the physical side, all that would be need is to write a dynamic web page (JSP/ASP/etc) that calls the API. |
| 7 |
Webcam Shanghai Resumes If you looking for some way for a computer to control the camera or an external circuit, you probably want to do a search on "Home Automation". There are several different companies with all kinds of products in that area. Some things to check for (that came to mind): 1. Works with outlets/voltages in China. Most of the products I see support 120VAC with US outlet configurations. Maybe the solution could be to buy an adapter/converter? 2. Programmable API from either the vendor or a third party. If it's only going to work with their specific (GUI) software, it might be a real pain to control it from a web application. Even a CLI interface would probably be enough. 3. I think there is a common protocol for home automation devices. Probably want to make sure the device supports it. I took a look at the stuff a long time ago, but I have not kept up. I do not know a specific product that will address your needs or what the approximate cost is. Sorry for being vague but I hope this helps you. We can talk more if you like. I did not leave my email address since I am concerned about it harvested for spam by web crawlers. Sorry. |
| 6 |
SARS Pictures From Beijng and Shanghai PS don't use cloth!!!! you NEED to wear the N-95 masks |
| 5 |
Mobiles in China - My Personal Perspective Thanks for taking the time to look at this, much appreciated. For the moment I guess I can review the various Hong Kong operators' contracts, although they are very small companies compared with China Mobile. With best regards Dave Bartell |
| 4 |
Mobiles in China - My Personal Perspective I am researching the "terms and conditions" (contracts or agreements) which mobile operators make with their customers. I would like to research China Mobile's contracts - because they are the biggest mobile company in the world - but ... I need to find their English language version! I found your online information on China Mobile prices very helpful thank you, and if you could direct me to a URL containing China Mobile's terms and conditions for supply of mobile services to their consumer and/or business customers this would be great (I have looked at their web site but no luck - at least on the English language version). In order to give you an idea of the information I am seeking - here is a typical link to a mobile compamy's terms and conditions ... http://www.peoplesphone.com.hk/english/contact/e_T&Cterms.htm Thank you for any help you can provide. With best regards David Bartell Suffolk England |
| 2 |
Install Perl on Windows XP okay so I got the example.pl to work but I can't get any other scripts to work. I created a file called testperl.pl and copied the text from testperl.pl into it and that doesn't even work! need help, thanks |