Tao’s Blog

Just learned that the following three sites are called big three social networks:

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

All other sites, are called niche sites, such as GoodReads, Shelfari, etc. The following article argues the benefit of niche sites:

Beyond the big three

For all the niche sites, I use GoodReads a lot, a wonderful site for book lovers.

Something about the mobile access to Facebook: my mobile carrier, T-Mobile, is not no the list for SMS status update, so I end up using Twitter to send SMS status updates. Although I can use the WAP mobile site for status updates on my phone, SMS has the benefit of having a larger coverage area and easier to send.

Last year, I wrote a blog entry about Netflix’s challenge:

Netflix’s Algorithm Challenge.

Just learned BellKor had a breakthrough:

Break the Netflix 10% challenge by BellKor

Kudos!

I use multiple computers routinely, so it would be very convenient to have a single copy of spell checker for my main web browser, Firefox 3. The location of the spell checker file is located at:

For Windows,

inside %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles, there is a folder named like xxxxxxxx.default, inside it, there is a file called persdict.dat. Use a text editor to edit the content of that dictionary.

For Mac OS X, the folder is located at

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles

By the way, the custom dictionary for Google Chrome is located at

C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data folder, and the file name is:

Custom Dictionary.txt

The custom dictionary for Microsoft Word 2003 is located at

%appdata%\Microsoft\Proof folder, file name is

CUSTOM.DIC

WinRAR is a quite good archving utility available for Windows.

WinRAR Official Site

Only command line RAR utility is available for the Mac. But the functionality is the same, including the split volume and size options.

To install, put the RAR folder into Applications folder, then add the path to bash_profile file in the home directory. There is a global position to set the path, similar to XP’s system environment variables. That’s /etc directory. Remember to use sudo command to do stuff inside /etc. Maybe you need to read the Bash documentation for details.

Also, the rarreg.key file should be put into home directory or /etc directory. Remember the Mac is case-sensitive, so ensure to use all lower case characters.

Some important commands and switches:

general format:

rar command switches archiveName fileList directoryToExpand/

Commands:

a for add to archive
x for expand to full path
e for expand to current path
l list archive contents
t test archive

Switches:

-s for solid archive
-r recursively
-v50m split volume to 50 m, can be m, M, k, etc.
-p switch only encrypt the files,
-hp encrypt the headers and other meta-data.

For example, to compress a folder, including all the sub-folders

rar a -s -r -v50m myArchive.rar FolderToArchive/

To decompress,

rar x myArchive.rar

Other switches can consult the command itself or read me file.

The point of using RAR on Mac is, WinRAR is very popular in China on all Windows computers. I adopted it as my main archiver for easy communication with China. It’s very handy, with its split volume capacity, especially when using with SkyDrive, Microsoft’s 25 GB free storage space, which has a 50 MB per file limit. WinRAR is very convenient with its GUI on Windows platform.

I use both Windows and Mac OS X, and sometimes the different keyboard shortcuts can be rather confusing and annoying when quickly switched to and from each other, so here I make a list, just to remind myself when I forget, especially when I am on Mac, since I spend more time on Windows on Mac.

To move the cursor to:

• Top of document, on Windows, Ctrl+Home, on Mac, Cmd+up arrow
• End of document, on Windows, Ctrl+End, on Mac, Cmd+down arrow
  

  However, inside Google Documents, Cmd+left and right arrows doesn’t work this way, instead, use Ctrl-A / Ctrl-E to move to beginning and end of line. Note that Ctrl-A is select all for gDoc under Windows, and Ctrl-E is for align center. I am using Firefox 3 with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

• Begin of line, on Windows, Home, on Mac, Cmd+left arrow
• End of line, on Windows, End, on Mac, Cmd+right arrow
• Delete character on the right side, on Windows, Del, on Mac, Fn+Backspace
• Move over a word, on Windows, Ctrl+arrows, on Mac, Option+arrows
• On Mac, in a text box, up arrow moves to the beginning of the box, down arrow to the end of the box, on Windows, use Home and End key. Should remember the up and down arrows in a text box on Mac.

Joseph Needham probably is more wide-known in China than UK or US. He knew more about the science and technology of ancient China than anybody else, including the Chinese themselves. He popularized the Four Great Inventions of ancient China:

• Compass,
• Gunpower
• Papermaking
• Printing

Although he is well-known in China, not many Chinese know much about him. I lived in China for more than 20 years, heard about him a lot, but have no idea of what kind of person he was, what about his personal life, what did he do when he was not writing about science and technology of ancient China.

Until I read this book:

The man who loved China

I purchased the book from Sony eBook store, which is a little more expensive than Kindle store, but not much. Consider how much I saved by buying Sony PRS-505 instead of Kindle 2.

The Last Cavalier

Just added Dumas latest book, The Last Cavalier, to my GoodReads page.

Enjoy this genre very much. Liked his The Man in the Iron Mask and The Count of Monte Cristo. Fortunately, those books now can be obtained for free.

The Man in the Iron Mask

The Count of Monte Cristo

Those books can be easily obtained from Google Classics inside Sony eBook store, if you happen to have a Sony eBook Reader.

Although I have had my T-Mobile Dash for more than a year, I never used voice dialing on it. Living in New York City, I don’t drive daily, so that feature is never on my demand list when choosing a phone.

Last week, I need to drive to upstate for a couple of days, so I decided it was time to start to use this feature. Usually, on my previous phones, I record a name for each contact, and then I speak the name while voice dialing, the phone will match my voice command with the recorded voice tag, then dial the number for me. I thought it would be the same on my Dash. I was wrong.

It turned out that the Windows Mobile 6 Dash is a more ambitious phone, instead of simply match the recorded sound with the voice command, my Dash tries to understand what I say, so no recording tags any more. So I can say, Call wife at mobile, if it understands, it will confirm with me, repeating Call wife at mobile?, then I confirm, yes, then it will dial my wife’s mobile number. Cool, isn’t it?

Since it does not simply match my voice with the contact’s voice tag, it can also answer many simple questions, such as:

What time is it?

What date is it?

What’s my battery level?

What’s my next schedule, etc.

It will then read out the answers.

Now I understand what’s going on: when I have my Bluetooth headset on, sometimes I hear: Call Bill in 15 minutes. It was reading out my schedule! I was freaked out the first time, and I though it was fancy, but did not dig deep enough to figure it out. Now I know it is just the Voice Command of the Windows Mobile 6.

To change the behavior of the voice commands, just go to Start -> Voice Command application. Button #4 is the Bluetooth headset button, and Record button is the Home button while holding more than a couple of seconds.

Microsoft Voice Command Tutorial

Tried Winodws Live Writer. Like it. Will use it for blogging on Windows Live Spaces.

Winodws Live Writer Download

Windows Live Writer Introduction

Windows Live Writer Wikipedia entry

Photos of my Sony PRS-505

I am a big fan of eBooks for quite a while, ever since I had my first PDA, a Palm III about ten years ago. Still remember how hard it was to read large chunk of text from that dim dark green monochrome screen.

Later, those bright LCD PDA screen made reading less a pain. After the monochrome Palm III, I got a Palm Tungsten T2, a Tungsten E, and a Winodws Mobile Mio 168RS PDA, in the following years, all equiped with eBook readers. Over the years, I used many eBook reader software, and I found myself satisfied with the following:

MobiPocket Reader

This is a big eBook vendor, later purchased by Amazon.com. I used it because New York Public Library eBook Library chose it as the official PDA eBook reader. On Windows Mobile it is superb, but on Palm it is only so so. Anyhow, since not many people use Palm PDA/Smartphone anymore, MobiPocket Reader is getting stronger.

eReader

eReader used to be Peanut Reader, established early with the rise of Palm. However, it was not doing well afterwards. But it’s eBook reader is superb on both Palm and Windows Mobile. Now they also have versions for BlackBerry and iPhone. eReader sells their own eBooks, but since they are aquired by Fictionwise.com, I suppose their offering will be very similar to that of Fictionwise.com.

Fictiowise.com

Fictionwise.com sells books for both eReader and MobiPocket Reader. However, since it acquired eReader, it is pushing the eReader format (more discount for eReader format, etc). Considering Fictionwise now is a Barnes and Noble company, and MobiPocket Reader a Amazon company, it is reasonable.

So much for the PDA eBook readers, now back to the Sony PRS-505 reader. Deviated from PDA/Smartphone tradition, Sony reader use a slow-refreshing e-ink technology. Compensating for the slow refreshing rate, e-ink offers better resolution and contrast, claims less eye-strain when reading large amount of text (a 4 hours sitting with War and Peace?).

Of course, the hotting e-ink eBook reader is Kindle 2. They both use the same e-ink display technology, so on this front, both are very similar. The best thing for Kindle 2 is the WhisperNet, a cell data wireless network to purchasing books directly on the Kindle 2 unit, without connecting to the computer. As long as you are in a covered area, you can buy books directly from the Kindle 2, and that’s why you have a qwerty keyboard on the reader. Since Kindle 2 is quite independent with the computer, a keyboard is necessary. But there is a problem: it takes valuable real estate. A large area of the device is dedicated to the keyboard, instead of reading space.

Sony PRS-505 has no wireless data capacity, you must buy book on your computer, then download to the reader unit. For me, it is not such a deal, I am on my comptuer almost 24/7 anyway, and I prefer my eBook reader lean and mean, without a big qwerty keyboard stuck on the face.

Also, Sony PRS-505 has better pdf support than Kindle 2. Although there is no built-in Chinese fonts on the Sony reader itself, it will take advantage of the embedded Chinese fonts of pdf files. I can easily convert my Chinese text into PDF files and load to the reader. Check my pictures of Chinese text display.

A note on make pdf files for Sony reader: make a customized paper size of 3.54 x 4.73 inches, when printing to the Adobe PDF printer. I usually take the following procedure when making pdf files for Sony:

1. Format the Chinese text in Word, make the page of the Sony size (3.54 x 4.73 inches), don’t make too large a margin, since 6 inch screen is smaller than a paper page
2. Print into Adobe PDF printer, also, make sure the paper size is 3.54 x 4.73. I just saved a paper size as Sony PRS-505
3. Save the PDF file, use Calibre to load to the Sony Reader

BTW, a note on the Calibre software. Sony Reader comes with its own synchronization and eBook purchasing software, called Sony eBook Library, very similar to iTunes. You can think it as a iTunes for eBooks. However, the format support is not wide, and there is an open source sync/convert software called Calibre, which is a superb eBook manager. It is a must-have if you use Sony reader, especially when you use Mac or Linux.

Calibre Software (Open source).

Sony eBook Library only supports Windows platform, but Calibre supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. One more reason to use Calibre. However, you must use Sony eBook Library to purchase books from Sony eBook Store, but there are a wide range of free eBooks other than those offered at Sony bookstore.

Sony eBook Store