I have been running regularly in the mornings in the past two months. Morning runnings help me in building the endurance, maintaining a working momentum and losing weight. One of the proofs is that I was able to hike the Hollyburn Ridge trail in Cypress Provincial park with relative ease. This trail, being "moderate" as rated, used to be a challenge for me.
When I was at Vancouver I ran in the neighborhood of UBC, on SW Marine drive. The route starts from St. John's college, ends at Westbook Mall, and follows the same way back. This route boasts very scenic view, and best fresh air in North America.
The San Diego route starts from Regents Road and Executive Drive. I run to UCSD campus, going as far as the Computer Science and Engineering building, and take the same way back.
On 9/17 after staying one night at University of Chicago's International House, I started from I-House and toured the whole U. Chicago campus. The temperature was a bit cool but after a while it became okay. Chicago's summer is really nice, albeit after October you basically will be forced to run indoors unless coldness is your favorite.
On 9/20 (today! I am back to San Diego now). I did a morning running from UIC to Chinatown, and took the bus back. The route starts from UIC, takes Halsted street all along till Archer street, and then turns into Chinatown Square. This is what I have never done in the whole past 5 and 1/2 years when studying in Chicago, and brings lots of fun :).
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
[m] What is Google Chrome aiming at?
Google released its Chrome web browser on Tuesday, September 2. Being a long-time Firefox user, I have downloaded and tried out Chrome. The browser is light weight. Its user interface, just as described in the release news conference, is "simple enough to make you forget the existence of the browser itself". Google claims that the release of Chrome is to contribute to the diversity of browser user's choice. Nothing wrong with this statement, but what's more?
Here are my two cents:
- A defensive attack at Microsoft to protect Google apps. To ensure a significant control of the platform where one's own applications runs on is a key factor for the success of internet giants. An analogy is that we never heard an Amazon statement claiming "powered by Microsoft SQL Server technology". Google has invested considerable effort in the new business of Google apps (docs, mail, calendar) that have both light local existence and tight integration with the service cloud. Putting the user experience of these applications in the hand of a well-know rival is a threat of today, and will be a disaster in the tomorrow.
- Make official endorsement to a non-IE platform. Isn't there Firefox, and it is backed up by Google already? The answer is both yes and no. OEMs can hardly bundle Firefox with a Windows PC, even if Microsoft does not offer incentive for such deeds. Simple reason: nothing offered by Mozilla foundation. On the other side, another open source browser endorsed by a money-making company as Google could potentially bring money-making opportunities to the OEMs too. The time-to-market cycle of business stimulated feature development, such as adding a security control for online shopping checkout, will be much more assured in this case.
- Think about Opera, think about the mobile markets. Opera makes its own share in the mobile browsing market largely due to it is so far the best candidate who achieved seamless user experience both on desktop and mobile devices. The light weight and concise user interface of Chrome makes its expansion to a mobile platform quite feasible. As for Google's future in the mobile OS field, I am optimistic. Remember Robert Love is on its side...
Well, with one of the players makeing a big move, let's wait and see how the whole chess game goes on.
Here are my two cents:
- A defensive attack at Microsoft to protect Google apps. To ensure a significant control of the platform where one's own applications runs on is a key factor for the success of internet giants. An analogy is that we never heard an Amazon statement claiming "powered by Microsoft SQL Server technology". Google has invested considerable effort in the new business of Google apps (docs, mail, calendar) that have both light local existence and tight integration with the service cloud. Putting the user experience of these applications in the hand of a well-know rival is a threat of today, and will be a disaster in the tomorrow.
- Make official endorsement to a non-IE platform. Isn't there Firefox, and it is backed up by Google already? The answer is both yes and no. OEMs can hardly bundle Firefox with a Windows PC, even if Microsoft does not offer incentive for such deeds. Simple reason: nothing offered by Mozilla foundation. On the other side, another open source browser endorsed by a money-making company as Google could potentially bring money-making opportunities to the OEMs too. The time-to-market cycle of business stimulated feature development, such as adding a security control for online shopping checkout, will be much more assured in this case.
- Think about Opera, think about the mobile markets. Opera makes its own share in the mobile browsing market largely due to it is so far the best candidate who achieved seamless user experience both on desktop and mobile devices. The light weight and concise user interface of Chrome makes its expansion to a mobile platform quite feasible. As for Google's future in the mobile OS field, I am optimistic. Remember Robert Love is on its side...
Well, with one of the players makeing a big move, let's wait and see how the whole chess game goes on.
Monday, August 11, 2008
[m] 俄罗斯教训格鲁吉亚: 小国滥玩"大战略"不足取
格鲁吉亚选择在奥运开幕之际进攻南奥塞梯, 结果被俄罗斯反戈一击. 搞得军事行动失败不说, 主动要求停火还不被别人理睬.俄罗斯作为前苏联的主要继承人, 当然是霸道的, 和原来的小兄弟们关系也都不太亲密. 我有好几个朋友就是从前苏联加盟共和国过来的, 说到俄罗斯都颇有微词. 问题在于像格鲁吉亚这样明知在南奥塞梯有俄罗斯驻军, 还敢于不宣而战的二愣子却是仅此一个. 究其根底, 还是盲目相信美国和北约必会撑腰. 四百万人口的小国, 何以能确定俄罗斯, 美国, 北约三大势力能被自己运筹帷幄? 这次滥玩"大战略", 吃亏真是不小.
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