Year: 2006

Categories
China

Home Inn Rujia

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Last Updated on September 6, 2006 by stlplace

I have stayed in the Home Inn (Rujia) for a while. My hometown friend, who is a small business owner, recommended it to me in 2004. Since then I would stay at this motel for my China trip, because it’s clean and fit my budget. Not supersingly, Wang Jianshuo also recommended it in his blog. I stayed at Jin Jiang Star too. The main difference is Rujia has free Internet access (Jin Jiang charges a fee based on usage).

But I had some problems with the mattress at Rujia, both during my last trip and this one. I felt the mattress is too hard. I know I am a little spoiled after being in the States for a long time, but my body seems only like the mattress made in the US (more soft). Last time, I tried different rooms in the Rujia, without any luck. I believe they bought the mattress from the same place. So this time, I have to do something else. I asked them give me some comforter (quilt). They came back with a small comforter. It helps but it’s like “using a cup of water to put out a fire”. So I decided to called up my old buddy in SUFE, took the taxi, and got the quilt from his home.

Now I feel more at home at “Home Inn”.

Categories
Business China

Comfortable zone

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Last Updated on September 5, 2006 by stlplace

I came back to Shanghai last Saturday. To be honest, after stayed in Midwest US for long time, I felt not very comfortable at Shanghai. The most obvious thing is the physical distance between people is much closer. The traffic and the (need to) walk instead of driving. I am not complaining here. I think similar thing will happen to me if I move to New York or LA.

On the other hand, getting out of my comfortable zone gives me new perspective about the “boringness” of life in Midwest. I guess a lot of times, we just can not get the best of the both the world. It all depends on what you treasure/appreciate most.

This applies to work place too. If we do the same thing for a long time, we are good at doing it and will feel very comfortable. Sometimes we are afraid to try new things. This way we may not grow much and achieve the full potential in our career.

Categories
Career Software development

Working with gurus

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Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

From time to time I had the oppertunity to work with gurus, I mean, the expert, or the genius in the field. I think I enjoyed my time spent with them from time to time. Although I had to admit those days were not easy 🙁

In the second year of my graduate school, I took a course from a very well known professor (known for his toughness). He will assign homework as he lectures. Because at that time my English and course knowledge were not very good, I had to pay close attention to his lecture so that I won’t misunderstand the homework. His homework is not easy, to say the least. First I had to spend time to figure out the questions being asked. I think I went to his office almost every time. Besides understanding his problem, the solution is not straightforward either. I remembered sometime I had to work on the solutions until his class begins (which is the deadline for the homework). The most scary part is his test: stuffed with questions with long answers, lots of math. I remember I got a 30s score in the first test, partly due to my misunderstanding of the question: I started working on it before fully understand the question because of time constraint. To my surprise, one of my classmate, who got my help for almost every assignment, got a better score. But I worked hard. At the end of semester I did got “A” for that class. I think my attitude (not my score) impressed the professor.

In the same semester I also had an oppertunity to work with another guru for research. This was the beginning of my graduate research. We had a few short deadlines to meet. I worked hard during that time, sometimes sleep in the office, to make the computation results available before each group meeting, during which the guru will take a quick look, determines what makes sense, what does not, and giving a few encouraging words. I admired both his technical and business skills.

Nowadays in my work place I also meet gurus from time to time, sometimes even work with them. It is always a pleasure to work with gurus, because they know the stuff and can explain difficult things in simple terms. They are also inspirational most times.

Categories
Business Career

Start the career I

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Last Updated on October 4, 2006 by stlplace

Recently a few friends completed graduate study, and got full time positions. They asked me the question: how to start in the new company? Or put in another way, how to win the trust from the boss/coworkers, and do well in the new company?

While I don’t think I am expert on all these, I do believe I have learned a great deal in my past six years. So here are my experience and lessons (some are learned from the hard way).  

First, business is very different from the school. While in school a student is measured by scores or GPA; in business an individual contributor is measured by performance (or contribution, or results). In school a student can simply do the homework, read the text book, work on the projects, prepare/take the test and get “A”. Note all these tasks are assigned by the instructors. The only thing a student can show some creativity is the project, in that case he/she can get some bonus points if he/she do really well. In the company the boss (manager, project leader) will typically give some guidance for the work, they may even give detailed instructions for the new hire, but in my mind, if a guy/girl really want to do well, he/she should be more proactive. This means working closely with the boss and coworkers, define what needs to be done, and deliver it.

Let me emphasize this again, what matters is the “results”, not how hard you  work, not how funny your joke is during lunch break, or how many common hobbies you and your boss share. The reason is simple, business is for profit, ultimately everyone in the company should strive for that goal. I remember Jack Welch once said, a company without profit can not give back to the share holders, the employees and the community. Very much true.

OK, back to the topic. To be successful, I believe two things are equally important: work hard (the real work) and make the work known to others (marketing, communication, customer relations). When I first started, I put lots of emphasis on the first portion and did not take the second portion seriously. As I gained more exprience, I began to appreciate the importance of “speak up” or get “buy in” from the management or customers. The reason is also simple: if one doesn’t speak up during a few meetings, people will not ask his/her opinions later on; without the management’s “buy in” your work and effort could be wasted because the results may not be what the customer wants.

Categories
Business Fun

Cell phone problem

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Last Updated on January 31, 2008 by stlplace

I did not realized my cell phone did not ring until yesterday. I was suspicious of my missing calls in past a few days. But as I normally set it to “vibrate” mode and it did vibrate when I wear it, it disguised the real problem. Basically my Motorola V600 did not ring and the speaker phone is broken.

I decided to get a new phone. I don’t need a fancy phone, as long as it works, I mean, it rings when somebody calls. But soon I found out I need to either sign up for a two years plan or pay high fees for a new phone. That sucks. So what did I do? eBay. I went to eBay and bought this Nokia 6010 phone for $54.00.

Nokia 6010

Meanwhile, while I am anxious waiting for my new phone, I have to wear the phone more often now.

PS (Aug 29): got the phone for a few days now and loved it. I remember my first cell phone is also a Nokia (candy bar style). I liked its simple user interface. The sound quality is also good. There are many fancy cell phones on the market these days, but do I really need those features?

Categories
China

Li Jia Jun

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Last Updated on August 17, 2006 by stlplace

Li Jia Jun, the legend Chinese short track speed skater, announced his retirement today. Here is the news (in Chinese). And here is his picture. The thing I like him is he never quits. Let’s wish him well upon retirement.

Li Jia Jun 

Categories
Saint Louis

The ideal house

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Last Updated on August 8, 2006 by stlplace

Buying a house is probablly the biggest investment most people make during their life time. In past few years, as I was looking for my first house, and accompanying my friends for their house hunting, I have seen lots of houses in St. Louis area. The price ranged from 100 K to 800 K; the square feet from under 1000 to 5000; stylewise from condo, to townhouse, villa to Single Family House; agewise from more than 50 years old to brand new. So which one impressed me the most?     

It’s not the 800 K mansion, although I liked the size (2 stories plus basement), the atrium, the family (game) room, etc. Here is a picture of the luxury home:

Spring Mill at St. Charles

 

Besides I can not afford it (the house itself and utility bills), I think the house is too big for me. It is designed for a family of five I think.

My favorite place, is a townhouse I saw recently. It’s a decent size town house with lots of light (San Francisco style). Here is a link. And here is a picture from inside.

Town house

That’s about the right size for me. I can imagine I will be very happy just sit on that sofa and look out of the windows, doing nothing.

Categories
Business China

Shaq Shaquille O’Neal to wear LiNing?

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Last Updated on August 10, 2006 by stlplace

This is going to be huge, if proved to be true. Here is a link about the sponsorship news.

A few months ago I saw an article on WSJ talking about LiNing signed up Damon Jones of Cleveland Cavaliers. I don’t have the link of original WSJ article but here is a press release from LiNing’s own web site. The rationale behind LiNing’s move was to fight off the international brands such as Nike’s growth inside China.

Now with Shaq’s help, LiNing is one more step closer to their goal.

PS, I saw Damon Jones’ blog here.  

Categories
Web

Do because believe self

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Last Updated on August 2, 2006 by stlplace

Saw this word from a Chinese blog, and I liked it. Recently I started to work on a web project I thought about for a long time but did not do too much about it. This past weekend I started working on it again, and I did learn something. Now I know why I need Ajax (why HTML and PHP are not enough) and what is Ajax, the buzz word (technology) of this web 2.0 arena.

Last few days I also found two interesting web sites (or search engine for vertical market), they are kooxoo (in China) and propsmart (house listings with google map). They are just startups. But I believe they are solving real problems for consumers and will have bright future.

Since I am working on my project, I will probablly scale down on the blog for the moment, which I think may worked out better because I don’t think I can come up interesting things everyday, and there are lots of interesting blogs out there (hint, the links at the side bar).

So, for the moment, I will do what I believe.   

Categories
Business China Saint Louis

Small is beautiful

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Last Updated on July 28, 2006 by stlplace

I like ice cream. The one I liked most is not hagen daz, it’s a little known place called Ted Drewes. If you do a google search on “st. louis frozen custard”, it will show up on the top. It’s located at Chippewa, very close to my old apartment. This is a very popular place in St. Louis. In the summer evenings, you can see lots of people standing outside of this store, waiting in line or just eating the ice cream. This place opens even in Winter, here is its web site (warning, its’ web site is slow).

At one time I wondered that since this place is so successful, why not go ahead and expand, open more stores in St. Louis, if not nationally? Turns out the owners of Ted Drewes keep it small intentionlly, so that they can keep the quality and community feelings. For them as long as the business is doing well they feel they have enough to live on. In another words, they potentially give up the oppertunity to be very rich.

I think in China there are also similar stories, here is just one I saw yesterday. Remember the corner “noodle store”? Or “dumpling store”? We all have our favorite stores, right. I still remember one where I went for graduate school in Shanghai.

Unfortunately, last time when I visit Shanghai, I saw more and more franchized stores, I am not talking about, McDonald, KFC, Pizza Hut (those are well known ones); I am talking about “Chatea”, “Xiao Mie Yang”, etc. I am not against those, but I like the small specialty stores better.