Whiteboard infinityby Sin-Yaw WangLast Flight- June 28, 2008 June 7th started a complicated itinerary, I actually did not fully comprehended the complexity before I left home. The plan was to attend a graduation, work for several days, take a vacation, visit a customer in Seattle, kept several connections warm in Taipei, and come back to Beijing. All within a 3-week span. Busy, tight, complicated, but not really unusual for someone who travelled 13 times in 2007 and earning the sad UA Global Services status 3 years in a row. Things changed drastically.http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/last_flight The Local Face of Sun in China- June 16, 2008 LISA's Rebecca Ray was curious, persistent, and quite courteous. She interviewed myself and Melanie Gao a few months ago. My staff decided to send her a slightly eccentric picutre of mine.http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/the_local_face_of_sun EEE PC, Episode 3: the Long Flight- June 11, 2008 Before I left for the US, I bought a 16GB SD card (550rmb) and transferred my mail folders, some TV series, and my blog drafts on it: plenty of space left. I knew that this computer is not very good at battery life, so I was hoping the airplane has a working electric outlet. When the moment comes, I first tried the BlueFish editor. Overall, not a bad editor, but the preferences dialog is too big for the EEE PC screen! I realized that the screen resolution is 1024x600. Many dialogs are...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/eee_pc_episode_3_the EEE PC Chronicles, Episode 2- June 11, 2008 OK, I am supposed to be an expert user. I hate that "easy mode" desktop. That's for beginners. How do I get rid of it I thought of simply re-installing opensolaris 2008.05 over it. I work for Sun and it should be cooler than this easy mode thing. Then again, maybe I should check out the community first. So I searched and got blasted away with the communities. There is this nice article that hold people hands to "unleash" EEE PC. Download a script, open a terminal window, and run the..http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/eee_pc_chronicles_episode_2 BYOC- June 9, 2008 You have an impossible choice similar to the famous "paper or plastic" question at the supermarket. At a Chinese restaurant the disposable chopsticks are clean but wasteful, the reusable ones are always suspicious, how were they cleaned, with what detergent and rinsing water Earlier last week, every employee at Sun China received a pair of reusable chopsticks, thanks to its employer-funded employee association, dubbed SunClubs. The engineers chose to chip in more and got 2 pairs. These...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/byoc What's going on in the US- June 8, 2008 I hardly put up a fight to the usual drowsy attack that comes in the afternoon of the arrival day. In fact, I took a shower and willingly sneaked into the slumber around 2pm, before I set the alarm to wake up in 3 hours. Then I clicked on the TV groggily. Hillary Clinton was on. She "threw her full support behind Barack Obama." I watched her full speech and felt the emotion. She is a good speaker and probably a good candidate. This, indeed, is a historical race that mobilized so many to...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/what_s_going_on_in EEE PC Chronicles, Episode 1- June 6, 2008 A laptop that is smaller than most hardback books I have seen and used the famous OLPC XO (One Laptop Per Child) machine. But I really cannot see myself carrying a Barbie-doll accessory. Eee PC, by ASUS, has a more mainstream design. The new 900 model has 20GB flash memory. Yes, this thing has no internal moving parts and is absolutely quiet. So I ordered one for 3,900MB (and an external optical drive for 800rmb). This baby has a 900MHz Intel CPU, 1GB of memory, and 20GB of flash drive. ..http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/eee_pc_chronicle_episode_1 Richard Stallman, 1st Contact- June 4, 2008 "It is so, so cool, this gnu thing," I thought. My first editor on Unix (BSD4.1) was naturally vi, much better than ed that I used before. One day, I went to a senior engineer for his wisdom and was dazzled by his editor. It split the screen into two parts, doing two tasks, without using job controls, at the same time. It was magical. It was emacs. I got to have it. I ftp'ed, configured for SunOS, make'ed, and got my own shining emacs. I spent the next few years mastering it. I proudly...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/richard_stallman_1st_contact A more expressive language- June 4, 2008 Bi-lingual readers, did you notice my Chinese posts are always shorter Hmm...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/a_more_expressive_language A Beijing online purchasing experience- June 1, 2008 Yes, mundane as it sounds, it is worth a blog. In a hurry, I asked Haiping to procure some for me. She diligently researched, on Internet of course, and found the desirable one. What happens after is where the American and Chinese experiences diverge. She picked up the phone, spoke to a human being, confirmed the availability (just briefly), and placed the order. A day later, a young man, a bit sweaty and in such need of a shower that I wished to shorten our interaction as much as possible,..http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/a_beijing_online_purchasing_experience |