Made in china: manufacturing and hi-tech research

The Big Chinese Wall was an early messenger… that the Chinese people can do everything. Maybe the Great Silk Way would be even more illustrating. Yes, China had so much to offer to the world since Antiquity… from the earl green tea to the royal purple.
You enter in a shopping market somewhere on the European or the American continent and buy a product… (such as textile or electronics or a toy) and you will often see that is manufactured in China. The Great Silk Way was as profitable as it is nowadays the Chinese export. Impressive! In my hometown, when the Chinese products entered on the local market, the local textile factory was in short time closed because it could not face the Chinese products… the price criteria was the strongest. In the last years, something interesting happened… I started to see again on the market the “Made in ” label. I started to hear people saying “I am to poor to afford something cheap. I rather buy something to put in the washing machine more than once.” Then, the Chinese products adapted and started to grow a little in price… diversifying their customer targets.
Well… the boom passed. People started to have preferences, opinions and… just more products to choose from. I must admit that the textile industry that I choose as example is a “light industry”. Things are much more complicated and SLOW in metallurgy or navy industry.
I think the product exchange starts… Some European merchandise does get to China. I am thinking about the luxury products. Yes, there are very rich people now in China. Step by step, various merchandise will start to move in both directions.
It is true that the economical analysts fear of something else. Big fashion houses have the manufacturing lines in China. If I would start talking about the computer industry… I should write a separate post. Thanks to the cheap Chinese computer manufacturing, the computers became affordable almost all over the world... And yes, this made a huge educational and technological difference. As such, the software industry developed much easier all over the world.
Yes, HP moved the divisions in China and IBM sold to Lenovo its hardware division.
Is it good is it bad, is it progress? Does the world depend now on the Chinese manufacturing? Or maybe is China dependent on the external consumers? Who depends more on who? I think the global market environment is far from reaching maturity. All this globalization thing and the huge role that China is playing is for me just an example of what the Great Silk Way became: a ramification in each store :).


The invention of the paper machine or of the magnetic compass, were just some premonitions of what nowadays China means for the world. Big hi-tech companies like Microsoft and Intel opened R&D centers in China in the last years. This means a lot more than manufacturing and yes I see in this trend the possibility for China to become one of the innovation leaders of the world. It is not anymore about manufacturing or hi-tech… but further about a country highly increasing the number of bright people. This is a healthy sign of economical growth.

Online map services. Virtual Earth Local Preview

I’ve tasted recently a pretty pretty map navigation. Well, it is only a preview for two cities… but since I live close to one of them… I can totally enjoy it.
Long story short… I shall show what you can obtain with some online maps services inserting the same address: 100 Pine ST, Seattle WA 98101.
I have chosen this place as I think the view towards the “Public market” is simply charming: the water, the sloped street, the market… all so cute.

First, some years ago… I was into yahoo maps.
Classic, old fashioned, sweaty navigation.



Then it was Google Maps. Total revolution. Sattelite/hybrid image, and could drag the map with the mouse… and all the local search results…yammy.



I was also impressed by amazon's A9 maps. I’ve found the both street sides pictures as an useful thing. If you need to get to totally unfamiliar place, it can prove more useful then the satellite image.



Then, then I saw birds eye with two levels of zoom on local.live.com.
I found very pleasant to rotate around the target from nord to south and from east to west.



It is cool to be a bird but I still was dreaming to see things also just like walking or driving along the street. And here it is:



The chance to walk / drive on the streets of Seattle with preview.local.live.com.

Quite amazing… isn’t it? Well, what next? I know what I want.
I want multi touch interaction on our hardware to use it for map navigation. It might take some years but I am patient… though eager. :)

Noutati gramaticale in DOOM 2 (niciun, niciunul, odata ce, odata cu)

Sunt ceva noutati gramaticale care m-au intrigat... :)

dintr-o data ==> dintr-odata
o data ce ==> odata ce
o data cu ==> odata cu
nici un ==> niciun
nici unul ==> niciunul
nici o ==> nicio

<< Lansarea noii Gramatici a limbii romane nu reprezinta foarte probabil o stire care sa tina prima pagina a cotidianelor si nici "capul" de jurnal tv. Mare brinza de stire asadar, ar putea zice unii. Si totusi cum vom scrie corect cind ne vom referi la aceasta informatie? Nici o brinza de stire? sau poate nicio branza de stire?

Gramatica da un raspuns la aceste intrebari. Asadar, ar trebui sa stim ca "nici o" nu exprima o "negatie definitiva" ci o disjunctie. Astfel, se spune corect: aceasta stire nu e nici o vaca, nici o capra, ci e o informatie (neavind desigur vreo legatura cu produsul final al laptelui dat de cele doua animale).
Alta e situatia cind e vorba de "nicio", care arata ca este vorba de o negatie definitiva. Un exemplu in acest sens: "nicio carte nu reglementeaza mai bine evolutia limbii decit o face noua Gramatica.">>

Inca doua exemple edificatoare:

<<Conform noului Dictionar Ortografic, Ortoepic si Morfologic al limbii romane, este corect sa scriem "nu a venit niciun elev" si "nu e nici un om prost, nici un incult".

De asemenea, in cazul unui adverb urmat de numeral sau de pronume nehotarat se foloseste varianta "nici un".
Exemple: "Nu am nici un frate, nici mai multi", sau "nu-mi place nici unul, nici celalalt".>>

Niciodata nu mam gandit ca sar putea intampla ca gramatica limbii romane sa nu mai aiba niciun rost. Am tot experimentat clickul cu mouseul pe cateva forumuri.
Odatace privim spre viitor vedem dintr-odata multe cuvinte dezlegate fara niciun motiv intemeiat. Decisalelegam! Propunsalegamabsoulttoatecuvintelecaasaecelmaibine!

Lumea se bucura de aceasta schimbare cat se poate de cosmopolita si (retro-interbelica in cazul lui niciun niciunul):
Originea ideii dupa parerea unora:
italiana: nessuno, alcuno;
spaniola: ninguno etc.
franceza: aucun;

Propunerea mea: sa scriem si della in loc de "de la" etc etc. Da, sa bagam si un l ca asa e in intaliana nu?

----------------------------

<<1/ "o data ce" este locutiune conjunctionala, formata din art. nehotarat, subst. "data" si pronume relativ "ce". Se ortografiaza corect in 3 cuvinte, asa cum se arata in DOOM, ed 1982, pag. 419, sau in Gramatica Academiei. Personal, cred ca este o scapare. S-ar ortografia "odata ce" numai daca ar fi locutiune adverbiala, dar nu este.

2/ "o data cu" este locutiune prepozitionala, formata din articol nehotarat, subst. "data" si prep. "cu". Se ortografiaza corect in 3 cuvinte, asa cum se arata in DOOM, ed 1982, pag. 419, in Gramatica Academiei, dar si in alte surse, de exemplu lucrarea Narcisei Forascu "Dificultati gramaticale ale limbii romane", disponibila online la adresa http://www.unibuc.ro/eBooks/filologie/NForascu-DGLR/
Personal, cred ca este o scapare (din nou).>>

Propunerea mea: daca tot nu avea sens folosirea lui "o data" in locutiunea conjuntionala ci mai degraba a adverbului "odata" propun sa se scrie legat cu totul: odatace, odatacu. Asa acum arata excelent!
--------------------------------

<<Cunosc persoane care scriu inca "sînt" si "cîine" in loc de "sunt" si "câine", raspunsul la intrebarile de genul "de ce" fiind o injuratura mai mult sau mai putin discreta de mortii mamelor alora care au impresia ca gramatica e legea finantelor, pe care o schimbi ori de cate ori ai chef.

Din pacate dupa aparitia "nicio" & co. incep sa le dau dreptate.>>

Hi hi hi. M-am bucurat cand am inceput sa spunem iar "sunt"... ca asa spunea bunicul meu dintotdeauna. Dar sa fi scris cu niciun... ei bine... nuuu...
Probabil ca tsunamiurile gramaticale vor contiuna si perspectiva asta ma enerveaza cel mai tare... M-au zgariat pe urechi cu "stirile din trafi`c". Mai nou, sunt valabile ambele pronuntii: tra`fic (stil englez) si trafi`c (stil francez). Oscilatii...romanesti...cosmopolite.

Concluzie:
Nu imi place nicio shimbare gramaticala de mai sus si nu din comoditate. Dar astept pareri... poate ma razgandesc.

My favorite quotes. A small collection.

I started a little collection of famous quotes that I found inquisitive or fascinating or simply made me smile and say... "Truee... so truee"

• "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers."
  Alfred Lord Tennyson
  =)) Ouch! This hurts...
  
  


• "You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance."
  Ray Bradbury
  All the time... on a daily basis.
  
  


• "The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness."
  Andre Malraux
  
  


• "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
  Mahatma Gandhi
  For most of the people actions helps to deny the nothingness of himself between relative to humanity... Humankind also fights to deny its nothingness in front of the universe. We got some pattern here!
  
  


• "A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling."
  Arthur Brisbane
  I think I had this a few times... either as a teller either as a listener... was fun.
  
  


• "In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is."
  Gertrude Stein
  No comment...
  
  


• "Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults."
  Thomas Szasz
  Because people seek and talk so much about happiness...
  Because yes, happiness is kind of "If only I could... reach that or have the other"... rather then a sate. And when you finally made it... well it comes a small moment of satisfaction followed closely by new aspirations.
  Humankind needs to dream about happiness (“an imaginary condition”) to find themselves a way in life.
  
  


• "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
  George Santayana
  Sometimes I have the filling that history is twisted or forgotten on purpose...so that some politic players can benefit comfortably from that while misleading everyone.
  The UE recent decisions... are one of the things I am talking about.
  
  
  

Contemporaneous definition of human intelligence

	Old definition: with the minimum of knowledge you obtain maximum of efficiency. In other words, I would say do all you can with the things you learned. So we have: intelligence + knowledge => solutions + innovations
This was so true 200 year ago when Lord Isaac Newton discovered g while resting in his garden and watching the apples falling. The thing is the knowledge of man kind is growing and growing. People are requested to do things on the run… knowing nothing about them. They simply are able to get the necessary information during the development phase and make there the improvements, find the solutions and yes, invent. Classically, it all should be clear at design time but... the projects are larger and larger. It became somehow utopian to have the entire solutions from the start.This was the case of the world's biggest-ever passenger plane, the Airbus A380. They had two limitations: the time and the resources.
	So nowadays the equation becomes: Time + intelligence + resources = solutions + innovations. We have economical plans, we have budget, so we have deadlines.The resources are limited either by the budget either by simply the real world limits.
The ultimate intelligence would be to use at maximum the resources that we have. Look at the picture! Two PET bottles transformed ingenuously into slippers. All the nowadays intelligence signs: limited budged, limited resources, fast implementation and a great solution. Yes, the picture is very funny... but beyond this…I find it brilliant...I think this is the contemporaneous definition of the intelligence.

Mars HOAX Aug 2005

I was so happy... when I heard on the local radio from Bucharest this "news": "Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history." "On August 27th … Mars will look as large as the full moon."

As large as the full moon? Is this possible? Oh, but they said on the radio. I was very excited and talked about it with everyone arround. Everyone knew about it. Greate event! So... let’s go the observatory from Bucharest, to see more. I enterd on the observatory web page, To see all the details like the visit hours, what is to see and everything...
I looked very curios on the calendar , then on the map. And... surprise surprise... there was not written there anyhing like „closest approach between the two planets in recorded history”: X-(
Ok, maybe they have a problem... But guess what... the problem, was mine:
Mars hoax sais NASA and space.com. :((
Hey... „Mars closest to Earth” was indeed but on 27 aug 2003.

Yes, I remember very clear the bright orange-pinky star on the sky in 2003. Oh...
On the beginning of November, Mars will get close to Earth once more. Not as close as 2 years ago: „As noted previously the Martian disk will appear only about 1/90 the apparent size of the Full Moon when near the 2005 November opposition. (Mars appeared about 1/75 as large as the lunar disk at the 2003 August opposition.” (http://www.floridastars.org/marsdisk.html)
Let’s see the size difference for this year as it looks on floridastars.org:

What can I say... verry funny! Let’s take „news” from any Internet source and publish them on the local radio. Isn’t it cool? It is such a sad situation to end up loosing my trust in mass-media not only when is about politics.

Is US loosing Europe?

Well... here there are my opinions regarding this article.
The subject is really hot and interensting for me. Because is about global... and about lookin forward ;)

Source: http://www.conference-board.org/articles/atb_article.cfm?id=308

I think the most remarkable quotation of the article is this:

Finally, at the national and international level, there are signs that the U.S. model of globalization is losing popularity and momentum. The American corporate approach, based on turning iconic U.S. brands into global brands, is under attack; and the recent scandals have sapped the credibility of U.S. management principles -- the same ones that dominated the first phase of globalization.

The article gives a nice overview of the phenomenon: the Europeans do not like to do business with USA any more. Some time ago America was an economic model for the entire world… but not anymore. Now there is a strong European Union. Euro proved to be able to compete with the dollar. The entire idea that Europe can be united economically and get stronger made everyone view things from a different angle and behave differently. The article itself gives a very relevant quotation: "Attitudes have changed," confirms Marjorie Thompson, an American management consultant who has been based in Europe for twenty-two years. "I came here when Ronald Reagan was president, but at that time, people separated the administration from Americans here on business. Now, there is a sense that we are held responsible."

I agree that the scene of the global market changed a lot once the European Union became stronger. But… the article seems to me is not making a big effort to be exhaustive in giving reasons. Why the Europeans changed their direction? Why they are not pleased anymore to make business with the American big corporations? The article emphasizes excessively the political aspects. Is seems indeed that the European business community is disappointed by the US political context: does not like the USA president, and strongly disagrees the Iraq war. But this is not enough for businessmen to do this:

It's brought out the worst in many French and Europeans. In short, just about anyone now feels they can tell you what they think of America right to your face, whether they know you or not. We're all guilty by association for being American, and we're learning what it's like to be on the receiving end of bigotry.

Further, in my opinion the article is very optimistic when giving such conclusions:

Is this anti-Americanism significant? I'm not so sure. We have so much trade and so much influence that it would really take a cultural tsunami -- even more hostility – to

significantly affect how we're perceived and how we prosper in Europe.

I think the Americans image is affected significantly in the European business community. I do not see a global market still dominated by the big American corporations in the future. It is not “bigotry” the one that changed the European business men attitude. I think is all about the consumer behavior. The Europeans do not want to hear any more about the “Americanization of Europe”. They consider that the united Europe provides enough cosmopolite, trendy and healthy life-style and values than USA.

The Europeans step by step are giving up to the unhealthy American Fast-foods, cola... In the hi-tech area, I see rather global market dominated by Asian corporations in the future. Bill Gates position sustains the last affirmation:

"If you look at the trend 10 years ago, the U.S. and China were not that different in terms of the number of engineers graduated," Gates said. "Now we have one-quarter the number of engineers, and the trend is continuing, with the U.S. number going down, and China going up quite a bit...We need to improve our own game, to make sure own slice of the pie stays very large." Gates is among a handful of technology executives who have issued periodic warnings that the United States is in danger of losing its mantle as high-tech center of the world as the skills of other countries catch up or even surpass those of American workers.

Gates: Get U.S. schools in order

The article brings a quotation that suggests that the Middle East might be a bridge that could improve the American image.

Wittes' recommendation to Hughes: "Work with Congress to increase spending on rebuilding American libraries and cultural centers. It may be impossible to make people happy with your foreign policy, but at least you can still create a broader opportunity for people in the Middle East to learn about America."

But…the authors forget to say also about the fact that UE is with some steps in front: European scholarships like Erasmus or Mary Currie are bringing thousands of Middle East students to the best European universities. Why would they turn suddenly to America, where the entire industry seems to start a smooth but still visible decline?

From here to loosing the “high-tech center of the world” position is not more than a step

I think the article ends in a very optimistic grace-note, considering my previous affirmations:

A lot of the time, the people who seem the most anti-American are in fact, deep down inside, hugely admiring of America, what it stands for, in the finest sense. As the French say, Qui aime bien, chatie bien --who loves well punishes well. So if you happen to be the type of person who is readily going to agree with any criticism that's leveled at the United States and join in on dumping on your country, that's not going to elicit much respect from your opponent. You have to stick to your guns without drawing them.

From a business perspective, I think the serious effects will be that we as Americans will be forced to be ever more innovative, ever more competitive. Which is as it should be. We Americans thrive on competition, and now we have some.