Collecting fruit stickers: how serious can this be?

Looking over http://www.hobbieslist.com/ … this is not even a hobby…
I’ve seen many websites that try to give “hobby ideas”. I guess searching your hobby in a list works as well as having a list with people names to choose your friend from.
In my opinion there are 3 rules to call something a hobby:

1. You avoid naming the activity “hobby” to yourself. It’s some kind of little obsession or “passion”.
2. When some practical guy asks you “What is the use of doing that?!”, you won’t give an answer. It does not mean there is no serious reason. It simply means that your main reason is that you love doing it. By the way, that guy is narrow-minded ;)
3. You are actually going to learn interesting things from this activity but learning was never your main goal.

I’ll give an example. I collect fruit and veggie stickers. I must confess, I also collect the triangular labels from the cheese wedges since I was 10… Yes… these are two of my little obsessions.

What have I learned?
The number (PLU code) from the fruit stickers can actually reveal a very important thing
1. If it starts with 4 it is a normal veggie
2. If it starts with 8, it is genetically engineered
3. If it starts with 9 it is organic.
I am not the only software engineer under the sun… collecting fruit stickers and having this particular urge to collect small disposable things following of course two common sense rules:

The allure of like objects (that is, a set of things with similar size, shape, and whatnot) is difficult to resist. I am uneasy about the collector mentality, with its inevitable trajectory of ever-increasing sums spent on objects whose values are appreciated by a diminishingly small number of people. I can't stomach the idea of consumption as a creative pursuit. A more informal sort of acquisition - saving the disposable artifacts of everyday life - lets me satisfy the urge to collect. The rules for my fruit sticker collection are 1) each sticker must be unique (no repeats), and 2) the item of produce must be eaten by me.[Andrea Shiman- Fruit Stickers—The Overlooked Booty of the Lunchroom]

I tell you collecting fruit stickers is a serious thing… :)

Alize on travel

What can it be more exciting then travel? Actually a lot of things (like computer games for some people :P)… but seriously traveling changes the way you think, your personality and somehow the vision about esthetics. There are all kinds of travel… but the way I see it…
There is weekend/opportunistic travel. That’s right. There is never time/ enough money to travel. It is never the right moment. Therefore, the philosophy is not to miss any occasion.

It is a big disadvantage with this approach: you visit everything in a hurry. You go and see stuff in a “veni, vidi, vici” style and meditate about it later. The advantage: you don’t have time to get bored. This is important. I always fear that one day I might say that I find travel some kind of exhausting effort and decide to stop searching for exciting places to go.

When I want to travel some place new (or an event) I go to Flickr and other similar web-sites to set up my expectations. There are all kinds of travel / tourist attraction sites but it seems to me that they always miss the essence. I’ve found other people’ travel photos so useful for so many times that I felt in debt to share my small collection in a public gallery too. :) I haven’t yet time to sort all of them but what I have ready is on my Picasa photo album.

So… here I am in WA State with a long list of cool things to do. About Seattle.. I like the I520 and I90 bridges when the traffic is not heavy… and regarding the Space Needle... I find it quite nice. When I see such a tower I remember the breathtaking feeling of being in Tour Eiffel’s elevator looking down over Paris at night. It simply worth doing this… New York is certainly an impressive urban experience but something with a medieval flavor like Brussels is more appealing to me. My all time favorite place is Brugge. This medieval city has cathedrals, old buildings, amazing architecture, daffodil gardens and even fairy-tail like windmills. Swans swim on the water channels and eat from your hand.


I think travel can help you choose the best place to live in. You have to see both awful and good shows to recognize a great one. I could never understand why a lot of young people say, “I hate living in Bucharest. Terrible city.” It is not that bad at all. It has beautiful architecture and nice parks; it has cleaner subways then Paris and New York, it is not that crowded and you have plenty of urban life. This sounds just nice to me.

I think it is nothing more rewarding and pleasant then mountain hiking no matter how strenuous the trail might be. The “let’s go to the mountain” does not mean sitting all day in a warm hotel-room enjoying the TV. It is such great feeling catching your breath while admiring volcanic lakes or waterfalls or an impressive belvedere. I must admit… exploring caves is even better for me!
I have a long list of mountain trails here around … and these are pretty much my plans for the next weeks. I hope we’ll have sunny weekends! :)

My movie ratings page

I guess it makes sense to post things in a place where the people interested in the subject can find and read them. I prefer rottentomatoes.com rather then movies.yahoo.com or imdb.com because the critics are a little more exigent and reveal many truth and subtle aspects about the movies.

So, I've decided to rate movies on rottentomatoes.com and here is my personal web page.

I'll try to rate mostly the movies that draw my attention somehow. I'll mostly rate the distinguishably good movies that I thing worth seeing. Sometimes I might also rate the intriguingly bad movies in contrast to the positive reviews from the critics.

Hope you'll enjoy my movie reviews and recommendations!

Norhwest storm. What to do / have on power blackout.

How was it? It was a pretty strange experience.
It started with a call “Honey you’d better hurry up home because a storm is coming”.
I went outside… expecting some wind and heavy rain... but what I saw in the dark was water flowing all around in the outside parking. Cold water was everywhere, freezing my ankles while I was running to the car. And then the poor car… had to make it to through some ugly mini-rivers and puddles along the road while I wasn’t able to see too much in front.
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Then, at home, the power started to swing until finally went off. We went to sleep pretty confident that tomorrow morning we’ll have some hot milk or tea for breakfast. Well, actually, instead of that it was cold as there was still no electricity. No problem, let’s go to work. At the residence gate there was a fallen tree blocking the way out. Again ‘no problems’ I thought, the tree was old and didn’t make it. Let me take the other exit. And then the shock: as far as I could see on the street, there were no semaphore lights on! I must say it look pretty sinister to me. All I could see was a huge queue of cars; every intersection was now a 4 way stop…
..........................
Then we heard the big news: no power for the 1 million people. So, no power all around us at least for the day! Ok, what do we do? Some supermarkets were opened because luckily they were on generators. Of course, no cheese, yoghurt or ham, etc… as there was no power for the refrigerators. Cans, chips and biscuits were filling the baskets. So…we got some too… and joined the long queues at the cashiers.
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Back home, it was getting pretty cold in the apartment and dark. I was kind of confused by the lack of news on the radio. A lot of annoying ads… and nothing I was searching for: where was electricity available so we could head that way to find an opened gas station? Well when the power is down this means: no stove, no refrigerator (we had to throw away most of the food…), no light, no heat, no hot water…and also no gas station opened because they need also electric power. Sad but true… With no gas, there is no way to go anywhere to get candles, batteries or any stuff that you need.

So I guess all this story is somehow a lesson learned. Here is what I think is relevant to do / have in case of a power blackout that seems to take more then a few hors:

1. Whatever you need, there might be a lot of other people needing it also. Don’t count on finding it in the few opened stores.
2. You can hear useful things from the people around rather than from the radio. (like from where you might find a propane camp stove or an opened gas station)
3. What is good to have in this situation: candles and matches, a flashlight, working batteries, a radio running on batteries, extra blankets in the house…Having a car charger for the cell phone and for the laptop is handy.
4. Keep just some lamp turned on so you notice when the power comes. It is recommended to turn off the appliances. This will protect them when the power will turn on and eventually have some high peaks.

Well, that’s about it. After two days the power is back on and we’re so happy about it!
I made no pictures as I consider that for this kind of stuff you must be a journalist to have the angle.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Why such bad reviews from the critics?!

I saw a few days ago Pirates of the Caribbean 1. I liked it, so I wanted to see the sequel. A quick look on the reviews warned us that it is not much to expect. The preparation for the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 "It is a disaster".
But the movie has a good box office against the all the critics:

For instance, one of moviedom's most influential critics, Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum, put the smackdown on "Pirates," calling it "a hellish contraption into which a ticket holder is strapped, overstimulated but unsatisfied, and unable to disengage until the operator releases the restraining harness." Schwarzbaum gave the film a dismal D+ -- and look what happened.

What did the critics expected from the second part…a documentary about the pirate’s condition?! It usually helps me a lot to decide upon a movie starting from the critics’ reviews, so I trust them.
It was a first exception: Scanner Darkly. Interesting technique, great acting, incredible image editing but still, a movie that could last 20 minutes instead of 100. Not exactly something I appreciate. But it has nice reviews on Rottentomatoes.

Now, the second exception: The "Dead Man's Chest" has awful reviews but I’ve found it marvelous. I wonder if the critics watched objectively the movie or applied rule: "the sequel must be worse". The rules is true, disappointingly true about sequel of the "Lord of the rings", "Matrix II", "Harry Potter"... and perhaps many others. But this time, I think the sequel was so great. To me, was better then "The Curse of the Black Pearl"

"Dead Man's Chest" brings fantastic imagination. I loved to see pirates dealing with mythological forces rather then robbing ships. (Tia, the witch is kind of a Hermes and Dutchman reminds me of Poseidon)

Right now, I must say I can not have the same trust on what critics have to say about movies...
I read about an interesting declaration of Keira:

If kissing Depp wasn’t enough, Knightly also kisses Bloom during the film! She does, however realise how damn lucky she is saying: "It's like, wonderful, I can have feelings for both of these very beautiful men."

How else could it be, but having feelings for both?

Will is honest, brave and self-confident.

Jack Sparrow: So what's your plan?
Will Turner: I row over, search the ship until I find your bloody key.
Jack Sparrow: And if there are crewmen?
Will Turner: I cut down anyone in my path.
Jack Sparrow: [turns to Gibbs] I like it. Simple, easy to remember.

Jack Sparrow is Machiavellic, funny and surprising.

Elizabeth Swann: It's real!
Norrington: My God. You actually were telling the truth.
Jack Sparrow: I do that quite a lot. Yet people are always surprised.
Will Turner: With good reason.

Will Turner wins Elizabeth’s heart playing the handsome hero. *Captain* Jack Sparrow seduces her being mysterious and tempting:

Jack Sparrow: [To Elizabeth] One word love; curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on selfish impulse. You want to see what it's like. One day you wont be able to resist.

I think that curiosity characterizes the modern girl. The tale of the princess doing nothing but waiting to be rescued and loved is deprecated. It seems that the actors needed to make a declaration about this non- conventional fairy tale approach:

"I couldn't ask for a better kissing scene with Johnny Depp actually, I think my 14-year-old self was yelping with pleasure," the 21-year-old actress said. "It was fantastic! What more can a girl ask for? I've got Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and I get to kiss both of them. It's wonderful!"

The declaration is 10 times more "yelping" if you read what Johny Depp has to say about the scene:

"Any kind of scene like that whenever you're doing that sort of thing, it's always unbelievably awkward, especially having met Keira when she was 17 years old," the 43-year-old actor said. "But regardless of that it's always awkward so you kind of just make light of it; she was a good sport and we just kind of did what we had to do, that's the gig.”

I can’t wait for the "Pirates of the Caribbean III". "Savvy?"

The best websites for airplane ticket reservations.

Over the last few years, many great websites have sprung up that offer outstanding airline travel fares that beat what most agencies and ticket brokers can offer.
These websites might seem a bit daunting at first look, but once you get comfortable and realize how to navigate it and how to submit your questions, you'll no doubt be able to enjoy outstanding airline travel fares in a relatively short time. Here's a quick peek of what you may see from a typical travel website.
Finding The Best Airline Travel Deals By Morgan Hamilton

I am sure that all the above is true… but...
What does everyone want when searching an airplane ticket?
Well, to optimize the price subject to the departure date time and the traveling duration.
Optimizing the price is practically optimizing the date when you make the purchase and the flight schedule.
It matters a lot how is your schedule constrained by departure hours, month or trip duration and between what airports you are traveling.
And there it is: an optimization equation with a lot of variables!

Make the reservation too early or too late, have non-flexible traveling hour or try to minimize the trip duration, prefer a certain airport from your area and the price doubles… There is no magic solution, no know it-all searching tool, no way to say "yes I did see all the possiblities and there is my best choice"!

Most of the traveling sites do not allow aggregators to use their search results. Their Terms of Use forbid the use of robots / crawlers. You should not develop one even for a personal use to optimize your travel over a largely flexible time schedule.

This is why, buying some plain tickets online is not something to I enjoy so much. I do like heuristic algorithms /approaches but not when I talk about money and time spent in airplanes and airports.
The truth is I’ve find some nice features on some websites that significantly reduced my frustration:

• autocomplete my travel request on the most popular airplane tickets sites bookinbuddy. This is a great work-around for the aggregator restrictions.
• aggregate with one search data from as many websites as possible: this is kayak.
• let me sort after trip duration, and then narrow the results by price or the departure/ arrival hour: kayak again.
• optimize the search around departing date and hours. The best place to do this: orbiz. It shows a nice table with a few days before and after.
• have the option of searching the nearby airports (expedia and kayak again)

There is a lot of room for improvement. I wish I had the possibility when choosing the departure hours to choose my own departure interval rather then a fixed hour or some general option like noon evening, etc.

I wish things could be more transparent as I only spent more time to search for the same thing.
In the end, of course everyone is patient when saving many hundreds of dollars on a plane ticket.

Cainele vagabond, parazitul sfant al Romaniei

Am citi de curand un interviu cu Radu Georgescu, "Romanul care i-a vandut un antivirus lui Bill Gates". Excelent interviul.
Una din intrebari, fara legatura cu IT-ul... mi-a trezit amintiri vii:

«-De ce va este teama in Romania?

-De cainii vagabonzi.»

Da... le e teama multora dintre romani. Si mie.



Merg acasa. Trec prin parcul de leagane. O mama tipa la un copil care se joaca in nisip. A pus mana pe un r*** uscat de caine. Trec pe langa spatiul verde din fata blocului. Ah pute pute a hoit… iar a murit un caine in boschet. Da, uite muste. Trec prin tronson… muste si r*** de caine de nu stiu pe unde sa calc. Au vecinii caini si pentru ca ii scot prea tarziu… nu mai ajung sa faca in parcul de leagane in nisip… si isi dau drumul in tornson. Iar muste, iar pute. Cinci-sase caini stau la intrarea blocului si maraie. Imi atin calea. Trebuie sa stau calma si sa ma uit in alta parte. Nu am mancare la mine asa ca poate scap. Ma chinui sa intru in propriul meu bloc, in propria casa. Urc in bloc. Un caine la parter pe pres. Un caine la Etaj 1 pe pres. In fata usii sta o cutie de conserva cu resturi de mancare care put. Nu e nimic, oricum pute peste tot a excremente si a caine jegos de tomberon. Nici nu ma agit sa gonesc cainii din scara. Oricum ii baga iar la 12 noaptea vecina. Femeie buna. Intru in casa. Aud ceva care s-a pleostit de frunzele copacului din fata geamului. Sunt bucati de paine inmuiata in mancare prelingadu-se. Acum si copacu e imputit. Asta e, a aruncat vecina de la 4 mancare la caini. Bine ca nu m-am trezit cu un os unsuros in cap. Ce tare e vecina!... nu mai trebuie sa duca gunoiul plus ca a facut o fapta buna. Deci sa ma culc. E cald. Deschid geamul. Nu pot sa dorm… latra cainii. Or sa adune sobolanii de la subsol resturile aruncate. Cainii se pare ca au treaba sa latre si sa schelalaie.

Cred ca este perceputa gresit libertatea si protectia animalelor.

In Bucuresti, lucram prin Pipera. Cel mai greu a fost sa intru in cladire cand am avut interviu. Apoi am invatat sa vin la ora optima, dupa ce oamenii buni hraneau cainii. Cand sarea la cate un nefericit haita faceam ca toata lumea... ocoleam scena.

In ianuarie 2006 un om a murit in plin centrul Bucurestiului, atacat de un caine vagabond. Nu a fost nici primul, nici ultimul incident grav. E incredibil ca tot ce s-a intamplat a fost ca milioane de romani sa ridice vocea in apararea cainilor vagabonzi. Vor sa se cheltuie sume uriase pentru vaccinare si castrare ca sa fie iar retrimisi pe strada!!! Sunt aproximati 200.000 de caini numai in Bucuresti. O astfel de campanie e deja imposibila. In timp ce cateva sute de cadre specializate castreaza cateva mii, restul se isi dubleaza numarul in cateva luni.

Sunt zeci de specii pe cale de disparitie, padurile sunt defrisate, dar pentru astea nu are nimeni bani... Oameni atacati, cosuri de gunoi rasturnate de cainii flamanzi, purici, zapada in parcuri plina de r**** de caine, lesuri de caini calcati sau nu de masini = peisaj romanesc urban.

Planul cu castrarea si repunerea in libertate e ca si cum cineva ar dori sa interzica otrava de sobolani, sa ii adune pe toti sa ii castraze si sa ii vaccineze. Sobolanii sunt la fel de “folositori” si se inmultesc cu acelasi succes ca si cainii vagabonzi.

M-a muscat odata un caine vagabond si mi-a dat sangele. Nu a latrat, a venit din spate, fara avertisment si a sarit direct sa muste. M-am dus pentru vaccin anti-tetanos. Era coada. O femeie cu o fetita in brate cu mana sangerand. Mi-am amintit cu tristete de urmatoarea parere caraghioasa: “Numai pe oamenii rai ii musca cainele. El simte omul.”. Absolut. Politia de pe tot mapamondul e incompetenta. Folosesc ei cainii pentru depistat urme dar asta e nimica toata. Detectorul de infractori ar fi o haita de caini vagabonizi flamanzi. Suspectii sunt pusi la zid. Cei la care sar cainii sa ii muste sunt omenii rai. Da da da, cainii vagabonzi sunt cei mai buni psihologi si clarvazatori. De altfel si pe politisti ii latra cainii. Oameni rai! Si oamenii care merg pe bicicleta sunt tot oameni rai. Si cainii care latra la masini... simt oamenii rai din masina. Clar!

M-am gandit de multe ori sa infiintez o organizatie de educare si trezire la realitate in privina cainlor…dar am renuntat intelegand ca nu sunt destui adepti. Oricat as incera sa imi inchipui pana unde se va merge... simt ca imi depaseste imaginatia... Cred ca inspaimantatoarea moarte a omului de afaceri Hajime Hori a adus o pata de nesters Romaniei.

Am gasit pe unele forumuri cateva pareri care mi-au trezit sperante. Nici in EUROPA si nici in USA, eu nu am vazut caini vagabonzi. Si e o idee buna. Cainii abandonati de stapani care nu gasesc adoptie sunt eutanasiati. Are cineva o idee mai buna? Care?

Social Networks : the potential, the trends and the critics (YASNA)

Social networks. Definitely a boom in the last years!

The need to make your life public aka “not a nobody anymore” is old and strong: “I need to live, feel and share everything online. Feel like a celeb!” I saw people describing where they stay where they go and what they do on a daily basis in their public blog/ web-site, adding all their friend information also. Is it wise? Does it make any sense? I heard people being proud that their name is indexed on Google pointing straight to their personal page. There, all possible information: physical address, personal photos from their birthday, their professional achievements and interests, all mixed!
What if I am your boss or subordinate? Reading all that stuff I might start not to like you at all! What if I am a recruiter and I do not like to see that you are such an online extroverted? Companies wake up with some unexpected information on the internet. I think their solution (firing the bloggy person) is not repairing anything. I remember well the Google fired employee story. Actually, a friendster developer was fired for blogging about her work!

Having some private access can be an appealing compromise. And so comes the need of social networks.

I think the need of social networks comes from four big directions:

1. Globalization. People all over the world need to cooperate, as friends, colleagues or business partners. Usually, they benefit from the grained security access that social networks provide. Examples: Multiply, Classmates, Famoodle

2. Structure and give wisely access to your personal information. Professional stuff: go on LinkedIn, personal stuff on MySpace or Me.com, etc. It is all about having different access levels of the information, like private view, friends view, friend of friends view and finally the public view.

3. Dating dating dating. You are single. You are buisy and in a tight social circle. You need somehow a link, a connection that would happen spontaneously, to find a friend. Social networks are a comfortable solution. How nice is to make personality tests on Tickle.com and by accident meet the perfect match! Sounds somewhat more romantic and naturally than agencies. H5 and Friendster to OkCupid, most of the social networks provide dating. I sometimes think that dating is the main thing happening. Thousands of teens trying to look handsom in their photo collection from Hi5 and collecting comments like "Oh you are such a good looking!". This kind of users become suddenly inactive. It is nothing further to do or say...

4. Make new acquaintances in your interest area: you have the need to connect and share with others … as special as you.
Travelers: tripconnect.com, wayn.com,
Cars: carspace.com from Edmunds
Jokes: jibjab.com
Url bookmarks: stumbleupon, wink, del.icio.us
RSS sharing: bloglines, rojo

After reading the article from Slashdot I understood that social network analysis software is the dimond of marketing. I start realizing what a huge value have all these social network sites.

1. Media repositories of tagged photos and videos (the ones made public). Try a search on Flickr...

2. Huge collection of all kind of life stories enough to inspire and give some recent realistic flavour for thousands of magazines, movies, books, TV shows... whatever. Take a look: livejournal, xanga, deadjournal

3. Huge potential to analize the behavior, wishes, occupations of groups of people. See the article:

« " The whole point is that you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, so you use data mining to search for patterns," Brobst says. "Going in the other direction is easy." »

Well, is seeams that soon all the companies will have some consistent data about their customers . The more niche-oriented is the social network the more relevant patterns. If no social network available the company starts one (see Edmunds). Many companies started to have a business blog... now they add to their forums an newsgroups some social network behaviour. So it comes the social network software going from open source to enterprise solutions.

Ok, now are there enough money coming from advertising? Some photo,dating or diary social networks have paid services. The rest… hope for advertising. So, where is thing going? To the end of out privacy?

«Our social networks, searching habits, visual identifiers and personal preferences will be mercilessly sold to anyone who wants to get their hands on our particular demographic. And when your photos, your files, your email and your friends are all online, you'll have to be online - and thanks to net everywhere, like the Google San Francisco project, you'll always be able to be online. And as long as you're online, they can market to you.» sais Wil Harris in "Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy".

I read an article saying that specialized social networks can provide good targeted advertising and therefore become much more attractive. Therefore, this is why it is a large number niche-oriented social networks yet to come targeting the no. 4 need. However, they have problems promoting themselves. For instance for social network- photo sharing. Each has its own non-exhaustive way of presenting the features so you end up making an account to try it. I find this quite annoying. Flickr, Slide, Zorpia, Zoto to name some of them…

So, are there too many social networks? (See the article). Well ... it seams that one person tends to subscribe to more then one social network (need no 2)…. It is necessary some kind of common protocol to help everyone use aggregators with all the benefits. It seems that some social network aggregators (not yet released) like Iceflake have their impatient customers. I am one of them.

“Stick it”, the movie, and what is the feminine artistic gymnastic in reality

A good movie for the feminine artistic gymnastics and teenagers ! It has nice humor, the heroine performs remarkable, and all the characters are so nice! The main thing about the movie is bringing some focus on the problem that gymnastics has nowadays.



It is pretty true the fact that artistic gymnastics is loosing its popularity among teens. What is performance gymnastics? A sport for kids and teenagers that dedicate their time to work hard! For what?
Ludicrous movements, the jury being conservative on evaluating new figures, or the jury giving marks that the public disagrees. The evaluation of the gymnasts is somehow influenced by the previous performance of the gymnast. The popularity of the coach or the popularity of the gymnastic school is also a disturbing factor.

I liked that the movie explicitly pointed out all these problems.

Will gymnastics survive? “Stick it” suggests that this sport is somehow asynchronous with the teen’s aspirations. I am a big fan of feminine artistic gymnastics and very proud of the medals that my country had won along the time but I think this sports needs to change and evolve somehow.

The 2006 European championships from Volos, Greace brought a surprise on the team’s podium. Italy won the gold at the teams competition for the fist time. This sounds like a good challenge for the traditional winners.

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.

Energie alternativa

Super imbucurator articolul despre
ETANOLUL= ALTERNATIVA VIABILA LA BENZINE?

Ah.. ce ma bucur... Chiar se poate renunta la benzina! Mult timp oamenii au crezut ca nu pot sa zboare. Apoi ca nu pot ajunge pe luna. Chestia asta cu combustibilii mi se pare o incercare modesta. Totusi... merge greu researchul. Nu sunt fonduri pt cercetare? Sunt companiile de petrol asa puternice incat sa influenteze directia vantului? Acum un an-doi am eram detul de optimista incat sa fac un calcul cam asa: voi avea bani sa imi cumpar masina exact atunci cand vor trece pe energie alternativa si nu vor mai fi la stadiul de prototip. O masinuta mica, pt o persoana, hai fie 2... cu poluare ZERO. Dar timpul trece... si stirile ca cea de azi sunt rare...

Early Universe Liquid-Like

Washington, April 18 (Reuters): Scientists using a giant atom smasher said today they have created a new state of matter — a hot, dense liquid made out of basic atomic particles — and said it shows what the early universe looked like for a very, very brief time.

“We think we are looking at a phenomenon ... in the universe 13 billion years ago when free quarks and gluons ... cooled down to the particles that we know today,” Aronson said.

The quark-gluon plasma was made in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider — a powerful atom smasher at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. Unexpectedly, the quark gluon plasma behaved like a perfect liquid of quarks, instead of a gas. For their experiment, the researchers smashed two gold ions together at extremely high speeds, very close to the speed of light. The collision was so intense that the strong force that usually binds quarks into protons and neutrons weakened, allowing the quarks to roam freely.

Great news! Big discovery…


Remember from physics what the quarks are?
Quark:
Any of a group of six elementary particles having electric charges of a magnitude one-third or two-thirds that of the electron, regarded as constituents of all hadrons.

Hadron
Any of a class of subatomic particles that are composed of quarks and take part in the strong interaction.

Baryon
Any of a family of subatomic particles, including the nucleon and hyperon multiplets, that participate in strong interactions, are composed of three quarks, and are generally more massive than mesons. Also called heavy particle.

Meson
Any of a family of subatomic particles that participate in strong interactions, are composed of a quark and an antiquark, and have masses generally intermediate between leptons and baryons.

Gluon
A hypothetical massless, neutral elementary particle believed to mediate the strong interaction that binds quarks together.

Interesting definitions! Interesting world! Are we getting the grasp of the state of matters possible in this universe? Are we close to know them all? Probably there no one would think that. Is the quark the smallest electrical charge? Oh… one day… possible someone will prove something else. I think the more physics discovers in the area the more questions appear. So we try to answer and make a step forward, but not very far. It is not possible to look beyond although everyone wishes that.

Terri Schiavo: deschidratation death decided by her husband against her parent's will

If you want some resume about the case there is a nice one here What You Need to Know about Terri Schiavo
What is my problem? I think this entire story in simply disgusting. I cannot believe that this really really happened: U.S. Supreme Court rejects latest plea by Terri Schindler (Schiavo)'s parents

Since when and why a husband has priority in front of the parents? Two actors: the unfaithful husband and the parents. If they could agree upon the death then ok… perhaps this decision could be somehow stated by a court. But this it is not the case! The parents waned to take care of her with their own resources and leave the trust fund awarded for Terri’s care to the husband.

The Terri’s mother, Mary Schindler: “Yes, I've received hundreds of letters from people who have, yes - recovered! And some of them, in their letters, were worse than Terri.” In a few words, the parents had resources, there were specialist saying that they can try to cure Terri, but the husband’s “ethical” will is more powerful that anything else on this world! More powerfull than the proof that: Terri Schindler (Schiavo) is Cognitively Able

I hate what THEY dare to call “justice”.

How about certification?

What can I say? Certification is now kind of “U must do it”. What for? The employer is sure that you know that thing. Also you make sure yourself that you do know that thing. Further, the client will be sure that the respective product/ service is made well.
Ok, but this is theory. How close are the current certification tests to this? I am in the stage of leaning for my Sun Java Certified Programmer exam. I like the book. I see lot of things I did not know until now… but still I was able to program… some code… I think certification is a personal self- confidence act. And ok, gives confidence in you to everyone.
I think this kind of stuff will become more and more a routine in all possible jobs. It already is… but not exactly in creative or unusual jobs… How would it sound: “Hello I am a certified painter. Trust me your walls will be wonderful decorated”. But things move closer and closer.
To come with a diploma saying that you know to generally tailor, design and sew clothes is one thing and to guarantee that you know everything about gloves is another. Perhaps you need a certificate to prove this ;))
And here I am.
What is the danger? Everyone learns of course standard stuff. Only that I am affraid that gloves will become more and more alike. I am affraind that the glove designers might loose their inspiration. Nothing more. For the rest... well all the gloves will have quality. And guess what? About the same quality. High or low... depends on what was requested to learn to get the certificate.