Comment that makes you vomit

"We've been joking internally (that) our server and tools business is comparable to the New England Patriots in the NFL playoffs - they just don't lose,"

-- John Connors

This really makes me vomit. Of course, it's not
exactly surprising becuse it comes from the CFO
of the company that makes me vomit all the time,
Microsoft.
That's nothing like Tom Brady.

"Like a little flu bug is a big deal or something."
-- Tom Brady

Guess what, the virus IS a big deal for the M$.

Practice and be prepared to sing

Rendell, Romney finalize Super Bowl bet
Looks like Celtics fans in for a great opera.

95% of Bill Gates' wealth

Bill Gates has reportedly said he will give away
95% of his 46 Billion wealth. While everyone
admires his generosity, I urge everyone also
consider the way he acquires such wealth and
whether he deserves such wealth in the first
place.

It's from ugly monopoly.

I strongly urge Chinese media who has just started
to learn how to hype craps to consider this, and
especially considering the extraordinary harms
the monopoly Microsoft has done, is doing and
will do to China.

The media is helping again

Now the media is focusing on Terrell Owens's ankle.
That's good news for Patriots. Each time the media
focused on their opponent and hype some crap up
as if the other side got a fat chance, it gets turned
into a rallying cry of disrespect for the Patriots
and you know how well they played the disrespect card
even if they are now a touch down favorite.

TO will not be a factor at all. If he doesn't make it,
it's a moot point. In case he does, he better be prepared
for another re-hab.

Lucky decade for the Bostonians

It's already a lucky decade for Bostonians.
Red Sox finally won it all and Boston will
prepare for another parade only months after.
Tradesports.com puts NFL.PATRIOTS at
over 70%. In ten days, back to back champs
and three times in four years will ignite or
end the already heated D-word debate.
Don't bet your money on Red Sox though.
They won't until another 86 years. But for
patriots, as long as Belichick is the coach and
Tom Brady is healthy, you can safely bet
that they will come back and try again.
With another run, NFL better prepare some
metals to put Belichick's name on it.
Romney and Menino, lucky guys, you know you
don't sweat when you bet.

Homesick

It took me two hours' drive to work today.
Will probably be more after work.
It really made me remember the good old
days in Shanghai, where you get to see
snow every five years.
If you want to see snow, here's some from Globe.
Globe
Globe

Missing piece

I will put a missing piece for the conspiracy theory
for Boston terror alert by pointing out this blog.
In case you don't know already, the terror threat is officially debunked.

Stinking Blogger.com database

Commercial RDBMS has been around for more than
a quarter century and the Blogger.com still
cannot get its stinking database right. I have
just experienced great difficulty editing my
post. Come on, it's simple OLTP transaction.
Maybe, Google should send some of their top
brains to fix the problem.

Caught, now what?

Is it surprising that one of the 16 people sought after,
has been in a US Customs and Border Protection detention
facility in San Diego since her arrest on Nov. 11 on an
immigration violation?
What a shocker!
Who would have thought?

You beat him once, he beats you everafter

This will serve another lesson to all rookie QBs.
You can beat Bill Belichick once, but he will beat you ever after.
Chad Pennington is one example and Ben Roethlisberger is being
slaughtered right now.
Belichick's Patriots are 14-0 since 2001 when facing the same
starting quarterback for the second time in a season.
The only way out is the old saying, "if you can't beat him, join
him". Of course, it's up to him if he lets you.

Conspiracy theory

Let me offer a conspiracy theory about the
boston terror alert.

One stone, as many birds as you can relate.

Why leak? Oh, the Feds are doing real homeland security
work at home, not just in Iraq.

Why boston? Because XXX lives in the million condo there
and XXX is weak on terror so he gets what he deserves.
Plus, you XXX supporting nuts, how do you feel now?

Why China? Of course, who else will be a better villain, or
evil doer?

By the way, I swear that the guy at the gas pump stared
at me for more than 5 minutes.

An eerie feeling of deja vu

"It is the policy of the United States to seek and support
the growth of democratic movements and institutions in
every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending
tyranny in our world".

-- Inaugural speech by George W. Bush

Is it just me? Someone must have said similar things
except with the C-word instead of D-word.

Inauguration VALUES

You, democrat losers, listen up. Stop whining about the
inauguration. You don't understand the president's VALUES.
George Bush treasures family VALUES. Of course, you
democrats won't understand, otherwise you woud have
won the election.
This is Bush Jr.'s sulate for Bush Sr.
"Hi, Dad. I did it. I did it for you. I dedicate it to you!"

Zhao Ziyang's death

Purged Chinese leader dies.
Western media has always been facinated by dissenters in
communist/islamic/non-western countries. Zhao is a good
example. It's shocking that he has not received Nobel
Peace yet, like Shirin Ebadi.
Tons of Nobel Peace/Literature Prizes went to Soviets.

Don't take me wrong. I have high regards for Zhao who opposed
the use of force against the Tiananmen Square demonstrators.
His oust is a personal tragedy and greater loss for China.
But, don't think for a minute that the so-called pro democracy
leaders were true believers in democracy. They just used naive
students for personal gains and they took off before the crack
down. Even worse, they told the students to hold positions so
that they will have time to flee. They knew that the crack down
was immediate and staying at square meant death. At least,
a great number of Chinese communist leaders, including party
chairman died for what they believed in during the 1920s
throughout 1940s, not just followers. Going further back in the
history, reform leaders in the Qing dynasty refused the chance
to flee and would rather die to wake up the crowds. True
reformers don't fear death. Today's Martin Luther King Day.
There you go.

All I can say is that it could be worse for China. Look no
further than north for a perfect example what instability,
rapid and radical change could bring to a country,
especially the economy. Double digit GDP? I don't think so.
Unofficial and incomplete eulogy here.

What do you expect from Indonesia?

This is what you get when you donate to Indonesia.
It serves a good lesson to China.

Stem cell research

It's a good thing that New York state is proposing
for 1 billion for stem cell research.
Now it's time for Massachusetts to respond.

Where's the almighty Manning?

Still not Peyton’s Place, even without Ty Law.
The possession time is 2:1, Pat over Colts.
So, where's the almighty Manning?
This is like, eh, Yankees over Red Sox.
I can't wait for the next week.
Let the revenge begin.

Angry youth

An interesting report on the "angry youth" group in China.
But it's not unique to China.
Here's an analysis of "angry youth" in Japan.
SIYDUC(Sorry if you don't understand Chinese).

Longer school day, way to go

I applaud Governor Mitt Romney's proposal for longer school day.
"Learning should last well into the afternoon, not end at 2 o'clock,"
Absolutely. My classes ends at 4 PM when I was in elementary school.
And please, governor, how would you fund it?

No escape from communism

I came to the "free world" from a communist country,
but the people here are worried about
progressive communism? This Michael Savage guy, the talk
show host, seems deeply troubled by the trend.
Nuts, I can run but not hide?
Ironically, in China, people have been worried about
peaceful takeover by the capitalism for 50+ years.
And hey, it is happening now, fast and furious.
China is the Wide Wide West of 21st century.
And Bill Gates has just invented "IP communists",
the "new modern-day sort of communists".
Good, as Mao pointed out, class struggle is everywhere.
We must talk about it daily, monthly, yearly.
Free to substitute class struggle for communism, terrorism, etc.

Certain people don't talk about certain things

The "red" people won't be talking about
Iraq weapons search is over.
The "blue" people won't be talking about
Kennedy's name mangling.
Globe reports the weapon but not mangling.
Herald reports the mangling but not the weapon.

Crap, I have to dump T-mobile, ..., after contract expires

Crap, Hacker penetrates T-Mobile systems and
was able to obtain SSN, DOB information for a year.
Finally, he was brought down by secret service because
the secret documents of the secret service were leaked
to IRC chat rooms.
Panic, really panic and furious that T-mobile has
not notified me about the incident whatsoever.
Its connection is crap, coverage is crap. I will dump
it as soon as the current contract expires. That's
real soon, eh, in May.

Not my dollars to Indonesia

My wife and I were discussing about donations.
I have decided to research for charity that
would only help with countries other than
Indonesia.
Meanwhile, here's some good brief history
about chinese in Indonesia from kzeng.
Part 1
Part 2
Sorry if you don't understand Chinese.

Day care

I grew up in day care. Not that my parents don't care
about me, but they were both busy working during day
time and attending night schools to get a college degree.
I was in day care before I was even 1 years old and
I grew up just fine. And yeah, that's in China.
When boston city mayor Thomas M. Menino proposed
all-day preschool for four year olds, I am surprised
that many would oppose it. Some obviously for economic
reasons, like more burdens on the property tax. But
some just reject the idea of day care outright. What's
the big fuss about it? Man work and woman stay home
may be the norm for US for the past, it's not norm at
all around the world and even now in the US. I consider
mayor's suggestion an interesting one and whether it's
a good or bad idea depends on how the plan will be
financed, not the merits of day care.

Canada, a great neighbour

US should consider lucky to have Canada as a neighbour.
Not aggresive by any measures, under the same culture,
and share the same values. You can always point your
finger at Canada, when there's a mad cow scare.
Look at neighbours that China's got, Japan the nemesis,
Russia and India are all hostile. The one that's not hostile,
North Korea, the axis of evil.

Some will disagree with the "same values" part. I can see
the logic goes like this: Bush wins 04 election due to
"values". Thus, the majority of the US citizens approves
Bush's "values". Last time I checked, the majority of
Canadians disapproves of Bush.

Mexico is a good neighbour too, although some disagrees,
because of this guide.

Sick of it

I am sick of the Peyton this and Manning that, just
like this guy.
If statistics is all that's important, how about the
most critical of them all, how many rings you've got?
Eh, Manning?
And the potential of how many more?

Big fight in town

Who would have thought a small free newspaper would ignite
an all-out, full-blown legal fight between the two big guys in town.
Here's how Globe describes it.
Here's how Herald describes it.

Reading a little history about Globe and Herald is a lot fun.

Brian David Mitchell and 1.3 Billion

Each time, major US media makes the reference that China
has the most executions in the world, the implicit or explicit
tone is that there's no human rights in China.
Let me tell you one of the benefits of most executions, is that
Brian David Mitchell will have been executed one month after
arrest. Yeah, remember that guy?
The news is that the hearing is delayed again and there's a
distinct possibility that he might even be deemed insane and
imcompetent for trial. That's real great for a country full of
human rights. Now there's something more that annoys
the talking heads is that Ed Smart, the father of the victim,
wants a plea bargain. Ok, had it been China, even the father
wants a plea, the court will accept nothing but execution.
Now that's instant justice and human rights for the victim.

On related news, Chinese population has reached 1.3 billion,
also see here. Geez, isn't normal that the country with most
population will have most executions?
Now the one child policy is another evidence of human rights
problems in China. My feeling is US will better understand
the issue when its population reaches 0.5 billion. And hey,
US is not that far behind China. US is now in fifth place
worldwide for the total number of executions annually,
trailing only China, Turkmenistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Keep up the good job.

Homeowner, not easy

To be a homeowner in US, you have to be a plumber,
a painter, a roofer, an electrician and list goes on,
unless of course, you earn enough to pay for such services.
It snowed again today, and I noticed that my snow
thrower is not chewing up happily. My neighbour
noticed too and was kind enough to come up and
pointed out to me that one of the screws was damaged
and needs to be replaced. He's kind enough to give
his spare one so that I could plow the way out to work.
It's the always the small things. And it's doesn't
seem easy at all especially when you did not grow
up with parents doing these kinds of things. So I am
always amazed to see teenage boys and girls at
Homedepot with their parents, apprently knowing
a lot of how-to than I do.
I have learnt to do a lot after becoming a homeowner
that my dad would be surprised how much I can do.
Of course, you know what happens in China. It's dirt
cheap to hire something to do whatever job you
wanted. Sometimes, I wonder maybe I would feel
richer in China.

No Chinese donation to Indonesia

I strongly oppose any Chinese donation to Indonesia
for the tsunami crisis. Until Indonesia formally
appologizes for its brutal acts towards the Chinese
population in that country during the Fifties, in
1998 and now and take real actions to prevent such
incidents.
It's ok for other countries to donate to Indonesia.
It's ok for China to donate to other countries.
But, No Chinese donation to Indonesia.
Blood for blood, teeth for teeth.

Local jobs, please

Data suggest local jobs improve lifestyle.
Is this a surprise? My wife and I are the two among the
20,000 or so workers living in the region having to
commute more than an hour a day, in fact two hours.

China orphanage

More and more US families are adopting chinese orphans,
especially girls over the years. As a result, more articles
are published in the main stream media so that the lives
of the adopting parents and child(ren) are better
introduced to the public. Here's two good ones.

And Zoe Makes Three

China through the eyes of its American children
As coming from China and a father, I am grateful to every
American family that adopts chinese orphans.