Ranking is funny

Yes, ranking is funny. See the following:

Newsweek Top 100 Global Universities:
27. University of Texas at Austin

The Top 100 Global Universities - Newsweek: International Editions

And at the same time...

U of Texas-Austin tops party school list

BTW, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is number 60 in the newseek list.

Actual lessons from Kiko

Kiko just sold their business using eBay and they posted the lessons they learned regarding their business. A good read.

Actual lessons from Kiko

Doraemon Air Gun Toy

This is definitely a cool Doraemon toy that I really want to own! I want it NOW!

HKUST RP and ELP completed!

Finally finished both UST's Residential and Experience Learning Program (Total 5 days). I certainly learned a lot from the last two weeks. Especially in team work and management issues because I usually work alone in my company.

In RP, we were asked to work on many different assignments and presentations within three days. We learned things like better decision, team work, etc. We worked so hard that we didn't even get enough sleep at all.

In ELP, we learned through experience. I think we should better call it situational simulation. We need to push our limit by performing physical and psychological demanding activities. It made us think more on personal potential and risk taking. We found out that time management and role definition are very very important for every tasks.

The RLP and ELP definitely help because I am taking on a more leadership role in some of the coming work assignments and I believe I am more equipped to handle them.

If you want to see some photos of our team and us, please go to our team blog! Thanks Joseph for putting that up.

Finally, I would like to thank every single one in our team for their effort and support. Without you we cannot made it. I really value their feedbacks because only through feedbacks I could know what to improve. THANKS!!

Windows Lives Writer Beta

I tested the Windows Lives Writer blogger application and I really like it. It contains many tools to make your blog interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn't seems to support image posting for blogger.

 

Hey Google, please makes a similar posting software, otherwise people may switch to Windows Live Spaces instead.

Krispy Kreme in Hong Kong and its marketing act

While walking on the street in Causeway Bay last Saturday, we saw people holding boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts. I was very excited because I have a lot of great memorize with Krispy Kreme in the US.

So we actually looked for the store and prepare to buy a box of original taste. We found out that there was a very long line standing in front of it. The reason? Krispy Kreme was giving out FREE boxes of donuts. So we stand in line too because I was very hungry. We didn't get a whole box eventually, but I was happy with three free donuts.

It certainly generated a lot of attention on that day. However, from a marketing point of view, it is hard to know whether this is really successfully. We actually think that the act will generate bad publicity instead, mostly based on the following two points:


1) The FREE donuts that was given out was COLD. So people in the line does not experience the taste of a fresh and hot Krispy Kreme dount that it is famous of.
2 ) The coldness of the donuts makes it sweeter. Chinese doesn't like food that is too sweet.

So the donuts were too sweet and cold. If this is my first KK experience, I will not tell other to buy it.

Having said that, maybe it is not a fully planned marketing event after all. As they were having a private party on that day. The donuts that were given out were probably leave-overs.

Anyway, I will still go to KK for its Hot and Fresh original donuts. But I highly doubt I will buy a whole box again like I was in US.

I do hope it is successfully in HK. Maybe Wan Chi or Central is a better place for the store? There are probably more foreign worker wanting donut as breakfast.

What?! Stupid Design in Japan!

I took this picture from one of the hotel room in Osaka, Japan. Did you notice the light switch on the right? What did you see? Yes! There is an electric outlet right under the white button.

So what's the big deal? Imagine that you have just finished using the restroom...you wash your hand.....go out......missed the button and.....zzZZZAAAPPPP!!!

Of course, you need to have a small finger to actually get eletrocuted. But didn't you mom always ask you not to put your finger in an electric outlet??

I never thought I would see this kind of thing in Japan! 

Testing Meebome Chat Widget

I am testing the meebome chat widge in my blog. Just look at the right column and find it. I may be online and feel free to chat with me. Unfortunately, it requires me to login to the meebo site.

[Java Tips] How to convert between different Unicode and Chinese character sets with only 3 clicks!!!

I was given a task to add simplified Chinese support for an existing application yesterday. I talked to myself: "It isn't that bad, I just need to create another ResourceBundle file in Simplified Chinese". Than I notice that the current Traditional Chinese ResourceBundle file contain HTML Unicode data, not Java Unicode. That means I cannot use the JDK's native2ascii tool to convert it back. Does it mean that I have to type all those texts in simplified Chinese all over again?? I talked to myself:" This is insane! I am not going to sit here all day and re-type the whole thing in HTML Unicode simplified Chinese!".

I decided to find ways to make my life easier. And this is the steps that I took to do it.

Before the start of the process, install Alibabar to your IE. I have this installed long ago already. It will add the following toolbar to your IE.

1) Goto this Unicode converter page. (Works in IE only)
2) Select HTML Unicode on the top menu, you could also use java Unicode, depending on your needs.
3) Copy and past the traditional Chinese resource bundle data to the lower left text box, than click the "Decimal Code to Characters" button under it.
4) You will see the original data on the top textbox. For me, I saw the original Traditional Chinese Characters.
5) Remember Alibabar? Now click the "Simplified Chinese" button in the Alibabar toolbar. This will convert exiting traditional Chinese data to simplified Chinese. Just like magic!!!
6) Click the "Characters to Dex, Hex Codes" button. Viola! You will see the converted text in the lower text box again! It is now in HTML Unicode formatted Simplified Chinese! No need to retype all of these!

Hope this tips help you in dealing with language convert for Java or other applications.