The Fun of Advertising

I love funny TV Commercials with meaning. My wife and I went to Hong Kong Art Center for the "The Art of Commercials 2006" yesterday and we had a lot of fun watching commercials from Japan and America. The show lasted for an hour and it was packed with funny and very well done Ads. Watching TV ads on a big cinema screen is very different experience from watching it on TV or a monitor. The whole event continues till next month so you will still have chance to check it out. The ticket price is $40/person.

I also purchased the tickets for another show next month. But unfortunately, I may miss the show because of a business trip.

After the show, the bookstore was packed with people.

Chinese language used in newspaper nowsadays

What is wrong with the following sentence appeared in a well known HK newspaper ?

"假 如 你 問 我 ， 究 竟 買 一 部 細 如 卡 片 、 具 備 基 本 分 唇 DC 好 ， 抑 或 係 一 部 影 相 手 機 較 適 合 影 Snapshot ？"

Yes, the editor used "分唇" (Function) instead of "功能"!!

Even though it is nothing serious, I hope this kind of sound substitution will not pollute youngster's mind.

Funny Joke.....who would you rather be?

Found this on the internet:
------------------------------------

A man flying in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing altitude, he spotted a man on the ground and descended to shouting range..

"Excuse me," he shouted. "Can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him a half hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below responded: "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees North Latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude."

"You must be an engineer," responded the balloonist.

"I am," the man replied. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost."

Whereupon the man on the ground responded, "You must be a manager."

"That I am" replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in the exact same position you were before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

What? A video instruction for stealing soda!

Wow....neat trick...but it is illegal to do it! And they have the guts to shot a video of it.

Soda machine "hack" yields extra beverages - Engadget

F for Feeling

I was watching "V for Vendetta" and I found the following screenshots really matched my post yesterday. What a coincident!

Thoughts on Apple's Secret Ingredient

Read a short article on Apple's Secret Ingredient.

"I think the key is, simply, fearlessness. Over and over again, they choose something that feels right and they pursue until it either succeeds or is no longer interesting. It's intuition."

I think it may only works well if the big boss "feels" the same in a company. It is pretty difficult for lower level people to justify any projects that just "feels" right to keep doing until for no up-front major benefits.

I think Apple's secret(Or not so secret) ingredients are really Steve's insistent on simplicity and industrial design. We like its product because it is "Cool" to have, not necessary the best features.

Still no built-in FM in iPod.... :(

Which American Cities That Best Fits You.....

Saw this in my brother's blog and decided to give it a try. So what best fits me??

It is AUSTIN!! The place where I spent around 5 years of my life living in! What a match!

American Cities That Best Fit You::

55% Austin

50% Atlanta

50% Honolulu

50% Las Vegas

50% Miami

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

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.

Free call to HK landline and mobile

Gizmo is offering free phone call from other country to Hong Kong for free, even landline and mobile number.

My name is getting less popular...

...what about yours? Find it out here

旅行後的後遺症

十天的大旅行過後, 又要面對種種的煩惱: 錢, 工作, 人事等。這數天的心情都不大好。要快點回復狀態才行。

Back from the trip.

I am now back to Hong Kong. I didn't have internet access for the last week so I didn't get a chance to check email or post anything. Anyway, I will post some of my travel experience here in the future.

It was a wonderful trip, I wish I have more money to travel more!