Year: 2006

Fun Life

Lose as a team

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on May 30, 2006 by stlplace

I started watching Detriot Pistons when they beat the Lakers in 2004 NBA finals. I liked the players and their coach Larry Brown. At that time Detroit team was good but no one was selected as NBA all star (this year 4 of them, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Rich Hamilton and Chauncy Billups, were selected). Besides a good coach, overall skills of the players, they won the championship because they play as a team. Nobody is super star; everyone listened to the coach and play for one goal.

Not any more. Did you noticed Ben Wallace publicly criticized the current coach Flip Sanders, and Rashsheed Wallace did not want to listen to the coach in the time out and did not even clap the hand with the coach. Even the soft-spoken Tashaun Prince second guessed coach’s substitution arrangement. Fortunately Chauncy Billups, their team leader, did the right thing: he said he still believed in coach.

Stocks

Quicken

Post author By stlplace
Post date May 29, 2006
No Comments on Quicken

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on May 29, 2006 by stlplace

I heard about Quicken (the personal finance software) long time ago. Last fall I decided giving it a try because I felt it’s harder to manage my bills and payments manually. My goal is to view all my banking, credit card activies, phone/utilities/home loan bills, and pay them in one place: Quicken. If possible, I would like to manage my investment, asset/liability, tax too.

Nine months later, my original goal was not quite accomplished. I still go to individual sites for the activities and bills, set a reminder in my Yahoo calendar before the bills due, and pay them when Yahoo send me the reminder. Pretty much manual process. Besides I am too cheap to pay Quicken for the “online bill pay”, and I was a bit slow to learn “Quicken”, another reason is I can not get away from old way of doing things, which obviously worked.

Technology

Wi-Fied finally

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on January 3, 2015 by stlplace

I mean the wireless Internet for my laptop at home. My laptop does come with Intel (R) Pro/wireless Lan 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter but it losts the connection with my D-link wireless router very frequently. Initially I thought it’s the problem with my Internet provider. But after I changed from DSL to cable for Internet, the problem persists. Finally I decided to invest some money, I ordered this D-link AirPlus DWL-G650 card Thursday night from buy.com; and I received it today (that was fast). After installation and restart, I am able to write this post on my lap while sitting on the couch. No more cables.

Life

Mark Cuban

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on May 27, 2006 by stlplace

I am not a big fan of Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks, and a successful business man. But I liked what he said about “investing” in his blog.

In this changing world, it’s hard to predict whether the stock market will crash tomorrow, it’s hard to know whether we will have the same job next year, and we don’t know whether the gas will go to $5 or $2. But we can do one thing: consistenly improve ourselves.

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Let me repeat myself one more time on another topic. The best investment you can always make is in yourself. If you want to secure your financial future, invest in your own knowledge. 29 dollars for a book is going to be a better investment than 29 dollars in commission to a brokerage 99 out of a 100 times. Being the best at something you love to do, is going to bring rewards, financial and otherwise that will far exceed what any stock or bond can offer you.
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Software development Windows

Left hand mouse and UNIX

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

I started to use left hand for mouse last week because my right hand did not feel well: being a programmer, I had too many mouse clicks for my job. One of my coworker hurt his right hand permanently so I decided to be more careful. Initially I felt it a bit awkward but I am doing OK now (this is the second week).

The real job is much tough. I had to do lots of work on UNIX. Don’t get me wrong. I am a fan of UNIX and I think I have decent skills on UNIX. It’s just in the past few years I almost used Windows exclusively. Now I felt a bit wield coming back. As I read “Joel on Software” recently I agree with Joel said: Windows is designed for everyday user; UNIX is for the programmer. The mind set of two systems are so different and I need to adjust. Different compilers on different UNIX systems, different debuggers, and different problems: compile error, run time error(bad results or crash). I think that may be one of the reasons that UNIX is losing market share in applications (in addition to higher hardware cost compared to Intel). I don’t know how the new generation programmers are taught in school. Are they using MS Visual Studio IDE for C++ class or gcc/gdb on Linux? The latter is much harder to use and debug; it’s all command line. Years ago I heard there is this thing called “KDevelop” Linux C++ IDE but I have not used it. Personally I do believe it’s important for programmers to know both IDE and command line, because IDE is not always available.

Fun

My car could not start

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on May 17, 2006 by stlplace

Monday morning, 8:45 AM, when I turned the car key, it barely clicked and could not start. I was not panick but I started wondering what to do: call my neighbour to give me a jump because my car is stuck in between theirs, not a good idea, it’s too early and I barely know them; call AAA but it will take a while; work at home? It’s OK but I really want to have the freedom of the car.

I opened the hood, started looking at the battery, the negative side was fine, how about the positive side under the cover? All kinds of green stuff. Ha ha, I found the root cause. I had this problem before. Last time (long long time ago) the mechanic showed me how to clean it. I got the toolbox, and used to screw driver to clean up the battery connection. After that, when I turned the key again, it worked! I was able to rock and roll again.

This is not a hard problem. I was able to figure it out because I had similar experience before. I believe many car problems are not that hard if we can learn step by step. Last time I tightened the bumper using a washer. I paid $0.16 for the materials. Initially I was asking the car shop people but they seemed don’t care (to do this small job), so I did it by myself.

Fun

Steve Nash

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on May 9, 2006 by stlplace

I started to watch Steve Nash when he was playing for Dallas Maverick a few years ago. I guess I watched Dallas because of Wang Zhizhi. Recently Steve Nash got the MVP award and his team, Phoenix Suns, beat LA lakers and entered second round of Western conference. It was fun to watch Steve and Kobe face to face, shouted at each other on the court; and for me it was more fulfilling to see Steve won because I like him better. Unlike Kobe, Steve looks just like an ordinary person. I heard he lets his girl friend decide his hair style. On the court, he is the leader. When other guys are cold, he makes the shots; when other guys are hot, he makes them better. From physical condition, he definitely can not match with most guys in the NBA. He also has some back injuries which prevents him to sit down during break. But all these did not stop him doing the amazing things.

Will the Sun rise to the top? I don’t know. But I hope they will.

Fun Technology

Lost in translation

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

I was looking for some information on “Multithread programming” lately and I happened to find the Chinese version of the book “Practical UNIX programming” by Kay A. Robbins and Steven Robbins. Since my friend brought it from China, it has been sitting on my desk. I was glad I could find some use finally.

But it did not work out. I found it’s difficult to read a translated technology book, because my computer knowledge is larged acquired in past 8.5 years in the States (through English), not to mention the loss of semantics when the book was translated from English to Chinese.

I am not trying to criticize the translation work done by my wonderful Chinese colleagues. I have done technical translation work from time to time, and found it’s always a challenging task if I want to make it real good. The thing is sometimes we just can not translate things from one language into another: no corresponding words, background information, etc.

Saint Louis

For a better St. Louis

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Last Updated on May 2, 2006 by stlplace

I read the following article “Success is an ‘us’ thing, SLU president says” from St. Louis Post Dispatch a week ago. The President of St. Louis University talked about problems and hopes of St. Louis community. I have been in this city (oh, more accurately county) for more than 5 years, and have witnessed some of the problems he mentioned. For example, there are many small municipalities in St. Louis county. While there is tradition in it (such as the Kirkwood & Webster Grove rivalry), I think it also means inefficiency in governance, public services, and development planning. As a region, St. Louis has lost many corporations headquarters in recent years. Inerestingly enough, it appears the Chinese immigrants population is bucking the trend. Maybe it’s a sign of revitalization?

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The region’s fiefdoms, polarization and overall “myopic attitude” are holding St. Louis back from greatness, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi told an auditorium full of community leaders and friends Wednesday.

The crowd was on hand to honor Biondi as the 2005 Citizen of the Year.

“The future success of our St. Louis region is not a Republican versus Democrat thing,” said Biondi, who is president of St. Louis University. “It is not a city versus county thing. It is not a black versus white thing. It is an us thing. All of us – you and me – together.”

Business

Reality check

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on April 29, 2006 by stlplace

One big news in the business world last week: Microsoft missed its earning estimate for this quarter and guided down its earnings for next quarter and next year. It caused the Microsoft stock (MSFT) to drop more than 10% on Friday. It was the largest drop in one trading day in 5 years. I did not own MSFT stocks. But I was expecting MSFT go up from its trading range in past 3 years (24 to 28) because its upcoming new products: Windows Vista and new Office suite. This news kind caught me in surprise. I have similar feeling for Intel and Dell because every time when Microsoft releases new OS, it will spur the upgrade of PCs.

Obviously I was wrong. The convention wisdom does not work any more in today’s business environment. The competetion is intense in the new areas of growth for Microsoft: online services, game, media, etc. Nowadays even Microsoft is talking about sacking. This reminds me the GE “20, 70, 10” rule which invented by Jack Welch. Basically GE will get rid of bottom 10% of its work force every year. A lot companies followed the suit, but some did not get the soul of this rule. In the talk given by Jack a few weeks ago at Washing U. at St. Louis, Jack explained why: at GE the managers are honest (or direct) to its employees, they will point out what the employee needs to improve constantly. If the employee did not improve performance as recomended by his/her manager, he/she already knows about the situation and will not be surprised if told to let go. He pointed out in some companies the managers are too nice, they would say “everything is good” until hard time comes, in which case they have to lay off lots of people. The sad thing is in that case, those employees are already in their 40s and 50s and it’s hard for them to get new jobs.