So how do you factor in?
After coming to China, what do you think the greatest difference is between China in the movies and China in reality?
2. It's not a bunch of fighting all the time - you never see people who know kung-fu or who can fly: 18%
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
EVE
Playing EVE itself is a constant lesson in market capitalism.
I started a strip miner manufacturing business with the help of some capital donation. Since I have no compunction to generate a return right away, I squandered a few million ISKs just shopping around, buying a few frigates and fitting them to my fancy. By the time I started manufacturing, the business is under tremendous financial pressure from daily operating activities.
Another mistake was inadequate research: I got into the strip miner manufacturing business because EVE's economy is based on mining; strip miners, along with their tech 2 cousins, Strip Miner II, are the most powerful mining lasers in EVE. My logic was to tap into this constant demand and go for a steady stream of income... but a variety of factors proved that the initial optimism is simply nativity.
One, I chose to manufacture and sell in the most competitive solar system in the game: Jita. It is the biggest market exchange in the universe with 500 players buying and selling on average and 700 on peak time. The pricing arbitrage that takes place is a killer. Not only are input prices high due to the fact a lot of rich players shop here, but the margins for end-user products are extremely low because of the price competition.
Two, the capital involved for strip miner manufacturing is tremendous. Aside from the blueprint, the materials involved in making a strip miner costs more than 1 million ISKs. As an upstart industrialist researcher, my character's low manufacturing skills means that the production process is very wasteful. Around 25% of the input materials are discarded as waste. This puts the manufacturing cost of one unit of strip miner around 1.5 million ISKs. At one time, the prices for strip miners in Jita are little more than 1.5 million ISKs, recouping the initial capital will take weeks at this rate.
Three, time and distance is a big factor in buying and selling. Since all the public manufacturing facilities are already in use in the region, I had to establish my base of operations in a system one jump away from Jita. The difference in this one jump is between night and day. Because the new system is not in The Forge region as Jita, the products do not show on the Jita market. Here the demand for mining tools is really erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes it takes weeks to sell one product. In addition, materials are just as difficult to procure as for end-user goods to sell. Transporting the finished good is not the problem, but getting the raw material input to the location is a huge headache. By myself, I had to spend hours in my destroyer hauling the materials purchased in Jita. Later I was to mitigate this factor by learning the skills and purchasing an industrial for the hauling. One problem is apparent: the operation is going to face big scaling challenges.
I started a strip miner manufacturing business with the help of some capital donation. Since I have no compunction to generate a return right away, I squandered a few million ISKs just shopping around, buying a few frigates and fitting them to my fancy. By the time I started manufacturing, the business is under tremendous financial pressure from daily operating activities.
Another mistake was inadequate research: I got into the strip miner manufacturing business because EVE's economy is based on mining; strip miners, along with their tech 2 cousins, Strip Miner II, are the most powerful mining lasers in EVE. My logic was to tap into this constant demand and go for a steady stream of income... but a variety of factors proved that the initial optimism is simply nativity.
One, I chose to manufacture and sell in the most competitive solar system in the game: Jita. It is the biggest market exchange in the universe with 500 players buying and selling on average and 700 on peak time. The pricing arbitrage that takes place is a killer. Not only are input prices high due to the fact a lot of rich players shop here, but the margins for end-user products are extremely low because of the price competition.
Two, the capital involved for strip miner manufacturing is tremendous. Aside from the blueprint, the materials involved in making a strip miner costs more than 1 million ISKs. As an upstart industrialist researcher, my character's low manufacturing skills means that the production process is very wasteful. Around 25% of the input materials are discarded as waste. This puts the manufacturing cost of one unit of strip miner around 1.5 million ISKs. At one time, the prices for strip miners in Jita are little more than 1.5 million ISKs, recouping the initial capital will take weeks at this rate.
Three, time and distance is a big factor in buying and selling. Since all the public manufacturing facilities are already in use in the region, I had to establish my base of operations in a system one jump away from Jita. The difference in this one jump is between night and day. Because the new system is not in The Forge region as Jita, the products do not show on the Jita market. Here the demand for mining tools is really erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes it takes weeks to sell one product. In addition, materials are just as difficult to procure as for end-user goods to sell. Transporting the finished good is not the problem, but getting the raw material input to the location is a huge headache. By myself, I had to spend hours in my destroyer hauling the materials purchased in Jita. Later I was to mitigate this factor by learning the skills and purchasing an industrial for the hauling. One problem is apparent: the operation is going to face big scaling challenges.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
when the petals depart from the flower
当花瓣离开花朵
the faint aroma remains
暗香残留
the aroma fades after wind and rain
香消在风起雨后
and no one comes to smell
无人来嗅
if love tells me to continue on
如果爱告诉我走下去
I will press forward to the end
我会拼到爱尽头
if heart dies in the splendor
心若在灿烂中死去
love would revive in the ashes...
爱会在灰烬里重生
难忘缠绵细语时
用你笑容为我祭奠
让心在灿烂中死去
让爱在灰烬里重生
烈火烧过青草痕
看看又是一年春风
当花瓣离开花朵
暗香残留
当花瓣离开花朵
the faint aroma remains
暗香残留
the aroma fades after wind and rain
香消在风起雨后
and no one comes to smell
无人来嗅
if love tells me to continue on
如果爱告诉我走下去
I will press forward to the end
我会拼到爱尽头
if heart dies in the splendor
心若在灿烂中死去
love would revive in the ashes...
爱会在灰烬里重生
难忘缠绵细语时
用你笑容为我祭奠
让心在灿烂中死去
让爱在灰烬里重生
烈火烧过青草痕
看看又是一年春风
当花瓣离开花朵
暗香残留
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Erinnerung an die Marie A.
On that day in blue-mooned September
Quietly under a young plum tree
I held her there, that silent pale love
In my arm like a graceful dream.
And above us in the beautiful summer sky
was a cloud, which I saw for a long time
It was very white and immensely high
And when I looked up, there was no longer a sign.
Since that day many, many moons have
Quietly swum down and past.
The plum trees probably have been chopped off
And you ask me, how is it with the love?
So I say to you: I cannot remember.
And yet, sure, I do know what you mean
But her face, I really do not know it anymore
I only still know: Once I kissed it.
Even the kiss, I would have forgotten it long ago
had the cloud not been there
That I still know and will I always know
Very white it was and came from above.
Perhaps the plum trees are still flowering
And that women now perhaps has her seventh child
But that cloud blossomed only for minutes
And when I looked up, it already was disappearing in the wind.
Quietly under a young plum tree
I held her there, that silent pale love
In my arm like a graceful dream.
And above us in the beautiful summer sky
was a cloud, which I saw for a long time
It was very white and immensely high
And when I looked up, there was no longer a sign.
Since that day many, many moons have
Quietly swum down and past.
The plum trees probably have been chopped off
And you ask me, how is it with the love?
So I say to you: I cannot remember.
And yet, sure, I do know what you mean
But her face, I really do not know it anymore
I only still know: Once I kissed it.
Even the kiss, I would have forgotten it long ago
had the cloud not been there
That I still know and will I always know
Very white it was and came from above.
Perhaps the plum trees are still flowering
And that women now perhaps has her seventh child
But that cloud blossomed only for minutes
And when I looked up, it already was disappearing in the wind.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
In the lovely month of May
Haven't written a real post in a while.
Probably read more books outside of class in the last four years than in class. The bad news is that the total number of those books are not many. The more interesting authors are Naipaul, Borges, various contributors of the LRB. At the moment I feel like reading nothing in particular and just something in general.
Some occasions, realized that the girl in front of me is a pale imitation of the woman I want. It is hard to imagine less when you think you have seen your ideal.
Staying another year in school. Why? To take ballroom dancing, read a bit more outside of class, build the resume a bit more, take a few more Chinese lit classes.
Wish there are more peers with the same interests and more lofty ideals. Most people just want to get by and not leave their mark on the world; they scoff at the notion of contributing something back to society, of making it better through sheer will and intellect. Even in this day and age of specialization and free exchange of ideas... disappointed.
Probably read more books outside of class in the last four years than in class. The bad news is that the total number of those books are not many. The more interesting authors are Naipaul, Borges, various contributors of the LRB. At the moment I feel like reading nothing in particular and just something in general.
Some occasions, realized that the girl in front of me is a pale imitation of the woman I want. It is hard to imagine less when you think you have seen your ideal.
Staying another year in school. Why? To take ballroom dancing, read a bit more outside of class, build the resume a bit more, take a few more Chinese lit classes.
Wish there are more peers with the same interests and more lofty ideals. Most people just want to get by and not leave their mark on the world; they scoff at the notion of contributing something back to society, of making it better through sheer will and intellect. Even in this day and age of specialization and free exchange of ideas... disappointed.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
Spiderman 3
Too much exposition; where is the inquiry? where is the subtlety?
Rushed. Good overall, but the other points prevented it from being great.
Rushed. Good overall, but the other points prevented it from being great.
Friday, May 04, 2007
安静 - 周杰伦
...
你要我说多难堪
我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑來带过
我沒有这种天份
包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多
我会一直好好过
你已经远远离开
我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的沒有天份
安静的沒这么快
我会学着放弃你
是因为我太爱你
...
你要我说多难堪
我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑來带过
我沒有这种天份
包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多
我会一直好好过
你已经远远离开
我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的沒有天份
安静的沒这么快
我会学着放弃你
是因为我太爱你
...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Regression toward the mean and cruel
In the marketplace of ideas, competition creates virtue.
Some people here at the business school have no maturity to participate in an open academic environment. Their grades might have gotten them here, but grades alone shouldn't keep them here. Trying to silence dissent and claim sole credit for teamwork is not only petty, but worst of all - against the spirit of the marketplace of ideas. The best part is that they end all their speech with a quote about how great a leader they are. How they can afford to live with that attitude and intellectual dishonesty just baffles me.
Some people here at the business school have no maturity to participate in an open academic environment. Their grades might have gotten them here, but grades alone shouldn't keep them here. Trying to silence dissent and claim sole credit for teamwork is not only petty, but worst of all - against the spirit of the marketplace of ideas. The best part is that they end all their speech with a quote about how great a leader they are. How they can afford to live with that attitude and intellectual dishonesty just baffles me.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Necons in the Treasury
In Gold Digging, China Matters writes:
"Glaser injudiciously escalated the confrontation by promising further investigation of mom-and-pop banks in Macau, possibly an indictment of BDA’s directors for being knowing conspirators (something that was bruited about in the Macau press) and, most unwisely, threatened to make it known that Treasury considered Bank of China Macau to be implicated in the North Korean money laundering web.
This kind of threat against the reputation and viability of Bank of China Macau is the best explanation I can come up with for China’s remarkably harsh and pointed subsequent summons to Treasury...
If the sanctions against BDA were removed explicitly to facilitate the Six Party Agreement, then the legitimacy of Patriot Act Section 311 investigations—and their intimidating aura of implacable, inexorable malice—would be lost.
And Daniel Glaser and his boss, Stuart Levey, would look like jerks who had been using the pretext of supposed U.S. law enforcement obligations to promote a secret, unilateral, destabilizing North Korea policy under false pretenses...
Given the general contempt for North Korea and the credulity and sloppiness of most Western reporting on this subject, the only reason that we know or care that the Treasury Department is out to screw the North Koreans no matter what is the embarrassment and chaos its intransigence has brought to American diplomacy."
"Glaser injudiciously escalated the confrontation by promising further investigation of mom-and-pop banks in Macau, possibly an indictment of BDA’s directors for being knowing conspirators (something that was bruited about in the Macau press) and, most unwisely, threatened to make it known that Treasury considered Bank of China Macau to be implicated in the North Korean money laundering web.
This kind of threat against the reputation and viability of Bank of China Macau is the best explanation I can come up with for China’s remarkably harsh and pointed subsequent summons to Treasury...
If the sanctions against BDA were removed explicitly to facilitate the Six Party Agreement, then the legitimacy of Patriot Act Section 311 investigations—and their intimidating aura of implacable, inexorable malice—would be lost.
And Daniel Glaser and his boss, Stuart Levey, would look like jerks who had been using the pretext of supposed U.S. law enforcement obligations to promote a secret, unilateral, destabilizing North Korea policy under false pretenses...
Given the general contempt for North Korea and the credulity and sloppiness of most Western reporting on this subject, the only reason that we know or care that the Treasury Department is out to screw the North Koreans no matter what is the embarrassment and chaos its intransigence has brought to American diplomacy."
Friday, April 13, 2007
Ignorance Collides With Political Naïveté, and the Olympics become the Sandbox for the Promulgation of the Yellow Peril
"One possibility that activists are weighing: trying to get Olympic athletes to carry a replica of the Olympic torch from Darfur to the Chinese border."
Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields - New York Times
Perhaps Steven Spielberg should read The Twisted Triangle: America, China, and Sudan and redirects his letter to the Bush administration.
Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields - New York Times
Perhaps Steven Spielberg should read The Twisted Triangle: America, China, and Sudan and redirects his letter to the Bush administration.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Good Tinker
Just watched The Good Shepherd. It reminded me of Smiley's People.
It seems the people who prefer discretion are the ones end up leaving their mark in the world.
It seems the people who prefer discretion are the ones end up leaving their mark in the world.
Monday, April 02, 2007
April Fools from the Chinese media
Better than anything you read in the U.S.
some examples are: PhD holders are exempt from the one child policy, China would return to Daylight Savings Time, the Qianmen Tower had been sold off, Jinan had installed pipes for beer distribution, and counterfeit goods could be legally purchased with counterfeit money
and of course there is the other stuff about problems of higher education in China
some examples are: PhD holders are exempt from the one child policy, China would return to Daylight Savings Time, the Qianmen Tower had been sold off, Jinan had installed pipes for beer distribution, and counterfeit goods could be legally purchased with counterfeit money
and of course there is the other stuff about problems of higher education in China
Accountants, the soldiers of modernity
There is a Chinese saying, "Don't use good steel to make nails; don't use good people to make soldiers." We hear that from our parents, we hear that from our peers. If there is a profession that suffers the same level of under appreciation, it would be the accountant.
I suspect the hierarchy of the prestige ladder for Chinese people all over the world looks something like this:
1. Doctor (U.S. ones, of course)
2. Lawyer
3. Engineer (hard sciences)
4. Scientist
5. Entrepreneur (in China)
6. Engineer (software)
7. Accountant
For Chinese expats in the U.S.:
1. Doctor
2. Investment banker
3. Lawyer
4. Engineer (hard sciences)
5. Engineer (software)
6. Scientist (professor)
7. Entrepreneur
8. Accountant
The scientist is less desired by the Chinese community in the U.S. because they are so badly compensated. You spend your whole life to get a PhD and then end up getting paid $50,000 a year doing research in a lab.
The entrepreneur is lower on the ladder because the Chinese community here is conservative. Chinese parents prefer their kids to get jobs in big MNCs for job safety and also bragging rights "Oh yeah? my son works in the #3 Fortune Global 500 company!"
But, those who become scientists and entrepreneurs are true idealists, admired for their technical mastery and daring visions. So that leads me to the last on the ladder, the accountant.
Let me clarify the previous Chinese saying, one would not "willingly" use good steel for nails, nor "willingly" use good people to make soldiers. So, in this day and age, who would "willingly" become an accountant?
The idealist? Sure, young Chinese people dreammmm of becoming a number cruncher sitting in front of a general ledger.
The materialistic? I could start as an analyst in an investment bank for $100,000 a year, or I could be an accountant, working the same hours, and getting paid 50% less. The latter sounds like a deal!
To be sure, those who know a bit more about the accounting profession would say that Due Diligence and Compliance work approach the same level of respect that lawyers get, but doing anything meaningful in these work require you to be a Partner in any well respected accounting firm.
In short, there are very few people in the Chinese community who would willingly become accountants because the profession is perceived as equivalent of becoming a soldier. Indispensable? yes, like nails, but also commodity, expandable. Who would let their good sons and daughters become that?
I suspect the hierarchy of the prestige ladder for Chinese people all over the world looks something like this:
1. Doctor (U.S. ones, of course)
2. Lawyer
3. Engineer (hard sciences)
4. Scientist
5. Entrepreneur (in China)
6. Engineer (software)
7. Accountant
For Chinese expats in the U.S.:
1. Doctor
2. Investment banker
3. Lawyer
4. Engineer (hard sciences)
5. Engineer (software)
6. Scientist (professor)
7. Entrepreneur
8. Accountant
The scientist is less desired by the Chinese community in the U.S. because they are so badly compensated. You spend your whole life to get a PhD and then end up getting paid $50,000 a year doing research in a lab.
The entrepreneur is lower on the ladder because the Chinese community here is conservative. Chinese parents prefer their kids to get jobs in big MNCs for job safety and also bragging rights "Oh yeah? my son works in the #3 Fortune Global 500 company!"
But, those who become scientists and entrepreneurs are true idealists, admired for their technical mastery and daring visions. So that leads me to the last on the ladder, the accountant.
Let me clarify the previous Chinese saying, one would not "willingly" use good steel for nails, nor "willingly" use good people to make soldiers. So, in this day and age, who would "willingly" become an accountant?
The idealist? Sure, young Chinese people dreammmm of becoming a number cruncher sitting in front of a general ledger.
The materialistic? I could start as an analyst in an investment bank for $100,000 a year, or I could be an accountant, working the same hours, and getting paid 50% less. The latter sounds like a deal!
To be sure, those who know a bit more about the accounting profession would say that Due Diligence and Compliance work approach the same level of respect that lawyers get, but doing anything meaningful in these work require you to be a Partner in any well respected accounting firm.
In short, there are very few people in the Chinese community who would willingly become accountants because the profession is perceived as equivalent of becoming a soldier. Indispensable? yes, like nails, but also commodity, expandable. Who would let their good sons and daughters become that?
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Study says: leave the multitasking to your computer
it took an average of 15 minutes to return to the task they were working on after being interrupted
our context-switching penalty is extremely high
Even a small distraction such as a noticeable sound playing in the background can hamper the formation of "declarative memory," which is necessary for a full understanding of a new idea.
our context-switching penalty is extremely high
Even a small distraction such as a noticeable sound playing in the background can hamper the formation of "declarative memory," which is necessary for a full understanding of a new idea.
Yu Qiuyu: why book reading is a waste
Unlike the yearnings of literati of old, I do not believe that reading is an important affair. Investigation, travel, experience, and creativity are more important for cultural insight.:
"Literature is somewhat different, but the American author Singer said that one sign of a mature writer is that he no longer reads books. For the highest plane of writing is consulting one's own soul and facing the silence of nature."
"Literature is somewhat different, but the American author Singer said that one sign of a mature writer is that he no longer reads books. For the highest plane of writing is consulting one's own soul and facing the silence of nature."
Saturday, March 24, 2007
黑社会 Election
I was really impressed by this movie. The knife fight scene(probably the only real fight scene in the whole movie) is intense in an movie that is filled with battles fought with wit.
I did not imagined the sequel: 黑社会2以和为贵 - Election 2 could best the first movie, but it surprised me. The ending message is just chilling. Just imagine that everything you do is really the whim of a greater power.
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