[m] “Aggressive" 的百度

上次老陈来芝加哥的时候，我开车陪同。他对我在高速路上驾车的两个习惯颇不以为然，一是换道时回头看盲区，一是经过高速入口时减速让支道车并入。按老陈的说法，在成都要像我这样，大概是寸步难行的。"在国内就得Aggressive!"

"Aggressive"的注解，我在生活中当然颇有体会。早在当年申请出国时，实验室一位常年做学生干部，而同时在申请的兄弟，即“无意”地用嗅探软件获得了我的邮件密码，并侦听三个月之久。我的所有电子邮件，均被抄送一份给他，直到被我发现，并投诉至网络中心为止。此兄目前在某银行开发软件。仅此记忆，已让我不敢对国内银行“保守客户隐私”的承诺太过认真。

无独有偶，百度在裁员风波以后，最近又惹出了一个新麻烦。那就是修改搜索结果，把用户对知名下载网站的搜索结果，引导到自己旗下的下载网站去。搞得人家不依不饶打整版广告抗议。这起事件说明，对有些公司标榜的“诚实”、“严谨”、“用户至上”、“商业道德”，只需要完全按相反意思解读就对了。2002年，Google的搜索结果中忽然出现大量的天x门，法x功关键字，导致Google在中国被屏蔽了好一阵子。当时就有许多证据指向新兴的百度，使用了垃圾链接技术，诱使Google的自动搜索提高被禁页面的搜索评级，然后再匿名向监管机构举报，以此打击竞争对手。

我很奇怪象百度这样的公司为什么没有被用户抵制，或是出现股市信任危机。同样的作为在美国，对公司的影响是相当负面的。对此，大概只能用中国国情来解释了罢。

[m] 最近的一个小爱好

就是到新浪去看blog。自己写blog两年了，就是自娱自乐。新浪的全是名人（现在也有一些草根了，象非常真人），充分满足大众的8卦心理。要是美国名人也自己开博，估计我早把Jennifer Aniston的订上喽，还看什么八阙啊。

先是以为名人也跟风，今天看了几篇文章才发现蛛丝马迹，原来新浪的内容编辑联系了300多名人，而且反复做工作（估计也提供一些代写服务）才竖起的这面大旗。高，实在是高！blog不比邮箱，估计没人愿意开两个，看来搜狐是棋输一招了。

我看要做社会网络的研究，还是得在中国，随便点开个博客文章评论都上百。跟中国比，美国的互联网社会网络太小儿科了，不过蕴含的商机还是多点。

[d] 印度房东家的晚餐

到科罗拉多来的两周确实过的相当充实。细细算来，公司组织了午餐两次，烧烤一次，漂流一次，日子过得还比较腐败。在公司的项目和Summer of Code上也颇有进展，厚厚的一本"lucene in action"居然已经看完，这种效率是原来从来没有过的。可见好的环境是多么重要。
印度房东晚上有客人来，邀请我一起进晚餐。我再三推辞，倒不是因为吃不惯印度食物（我对curry颇有爱好），而是因为来的人中有长者，而据我推断一般老人都不说英语，怕自己混迹其中让别人交流不便。房东一再说明语言不是问题，英语绝对通行。盛情难却，于是答应了。
7点左右客人陆续来齐，连主人夫妇和我，共有10人之多。大家先是围坐聊天，主人捧出面包待客。不出所料，几句英语过后，果然就是!@#%##. 好在印度话有一个好处，和日语一样，就是夹杂很多和英语同音或相近的单词，所以我还不至于完全云里雾里，居然还听出大家谈论的是板球：）。谈话里大致知道在denver地区有8个印度板球俱乐部，也有自己的赛季，累积分冠军和淘汰赛冠军，觉得颇为新鲜。
晚餐桌上摆出了五样菜：烤辣鸡腿、酸沙拉、炖蔬菜、咖喱米饭和咖喱汤。大家各拿盘取食，然后坐在一起聊天。男人们到了沙发上，都自然地脱鞋盘腿坐上去。我想就是传说的印度人吃饭时盘坐手抓大致就是如此了罢，只是时代进步，餐具不是直接用手而改用刀叉了。女主人的手艺真是不错，味道和平时在印度餐馆吃的有些不同，不过我想要比正宗程度，肯定还是今天的更高了。饭后大家打牌，兼有小赌，我就没参加了。倒是因此，有了小小的对双扣和麻将的思念...

[d] Another Summer of Code

It is summer again and Google is organizing the second Summer of Code. Although I am going to start my internship soon in Colorado, I still wrote two project proposals and both got accepted. Due to time constraint I could just take one, from Open Source Application Foundation.

Being a developer for open source projects is fun. It means lots of email exchange, coding in the midnight and in the backyard, trying hard to understand others' ideas and making self understood by others. But so what? it is FUN, that is worthy of all the efforts.

There are quite some rule changes this year for SoC, overall Google is much matured on managing stuff. Started to involve in open source communities from last year, I also gained experience for a better participation. Let me start the keyboard exercise today.

[d] Feelin' Good

Chicago is welcoming 2006 spring now. In the morning when I walked out the house to the car, oh, the gentle breeze make me feeling so good. Mild weather, a little bit moisture, a non-crowdy I-290, what can I expect more?

I am still working on the grant proposal. Kinda of slow, yet there is progress. The past project is a deviation from my career goal, but if it could be funded, the whole idea will not be too bad. I wish that a month later, I will be updating this entry with joyful comments. Anyway, let's see how it goes.

[updated 04/20/06]
I am glad to put it here that my research grant is funded today. Yay!

The summer internship is going to start on May 15, and there will be less than two months for me to stay in Chicago in the upper year. Since 2003, I've spent every summer at the lakeside and seldom realized those wonderful aspects of Chicago's hot season. Although it is often implicit, I do have to admit my love for this city in heart, for its diversity, social events, various people I met, and most importantly, the Ph.D. student experience.

[updated 05/24/06]
The export licensing is still under processing, and internship start date gets deferred to uncertainty. Let's wait and see.

[m] Notes about Staying at Shanghai

My staying at Shanghai, which was between Jan. 13th and Jan. 21th, was definitely involuntary and unexpected. The U.S. consulate general in Chengdu sent my visa application for background clearance and I could do nothing but just wait. Although the checking process was annoying and the hotel cost was expensive, I did found something interesting and worth writing down. This could act as a memorandum for my next Shanghai visit, however readers should warned that China is changing so rapidly and any experience notes could get outdated quickly.

[trip-planning]
e-trip is now becoming popular in China and a site to recommend is ctrip(www.ctrip.com). Ctrip is like a Chinese version of hotels.com, and provide lodging searching and booking services in major Chinese cities. Another convenience it is providing is booking ticket over the phone and picking it up at the airport. This service is especially in China as electronic tickets are not commonly provided by the flight carriers yet.

There are also several Chinese hotel chains that have online service. To name a few, Motel168(www.motel168.com) and JinJiang Inn(www.jj-inn.com). To save your cost instead of browsing Hyatt, Marriot and Ramanda sites, you should defintely give them a try first.

[on-site at the airport]
There are lots of services at the airport. You can find lots of small travel agency counters that could help you for lodging and ticket booking. But remember to bargain! Almost all quoted prices are negotiable and the final deal could be 40% to 50% less in price. I found my hotel at one of the counters, and get a RMB160/day price with free airport picking up. There are also car rental at the airport, including lots of international brands as Hertz, Budget etc. However, to rent a car, you need either be a foreigner (with non-Chinese passport) or company-endorsed.

There is an outlet mall at the airport, which consists of 40-50 stores. Most brands are European and North American and the prices are a somewhat higher than at Chicago. Be careful to read the "Made in" tag, as lots of the mechandise are actually made in China.

[monetary matters]
Although credit cards are now commonly used in Shanghai, cash is still the king. Don't count on traveler's cheques unless you could find a nearby bank. At the same time, there a lots of limitations to use credit cards, such as inconvenient refunding. I used to pay the hotel bill with Unite Visa and found a mischarged item later. When I called the hotel, I was told that my card is needed again for refunding, even if the card number was known.

Despite of the temporary inconveniences, I could expect credit cards to be in majority of Chinese's wallet soon. There are so many credit card advertisements on the news paper, and the offers vary from reward points/miles to VIP travel service. I also saw quite a few chain stores issuing their own credit cards, with a bank partner.

[other things]
1. Ask and keep all the receipts as possible as you can. The cash-transaction nature makes purchases hard to manage, unless you keep all the receipts.
2. Be cultural "billingual". When you are back to China, think and act as normal as the local people there. This is especially true for daily life.
3. Be ready for new stuff and make quick decisions under new circumstance. At least for me, China is now is somewhat as fresh as I arrived U.S. three years ago. Never hold prejudices of the local environment, but be open minded and willing to learn.