Category: Technology

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China Technology

Sohu and Chinese Internet Companies

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The other day I saw Charles Zhang Chaoyang on the “Boss town”, No. 1 Caijing’s (China-CBN) talk show between CEO and guest commentators. This reminded me that Chinese Internet companies are coming of age. Two interesting stories Charles told on the show:

1) Two MIT professors are the earliest investors for Sohu, they put in $ 75,000 each, and it’s worth $30 mil later. Charles is a graduate from MIT. Obviously he knows how to talk to his professor.

2) He went to New York to talk to potential investors in 1996. He wasn’t successful; and found a phone booth calling his lawyer (in crying tone). He had to insert coins to keep the line alive. People waited behind him became impatient. At that time cell phone is still rare in the US.

Keso had a good article about the current status of Chinese Internet companies.

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Technology

Spammer Got Smarter

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I got this email from spammer, it feels very much like a real one except in the end it says “please act within 24 hours”. You know how desparate the spammers want your identity.

Be careful about those messages look like from eBay and PayPal.

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Technology

Phishing Mail Appears from eBay?

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This one caught me off the guard. It looks like a normal eBay message. I actually clicked through the link in the email and a few days later I received the real email from eBay says my eBay account is compromised. So I did the demage control thing.

Today I received the same message again. I don’t know whether this is a mistake by eBay or a phishing mail. But from now on I should be real careful about clicking on the links in an email…

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Technology

Phishing Mail from Paypal

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I got this one from Paypal, it’s faked but it looks very much like real. I mean the words (as you can see below), graphics and return address etc. Obviously the phishers are gettting smarter. So we need to get smarter too. I would not click on a link in an email unless I know it’s safe. I will open a new window and type the web address myself.

==========================

Your account has been flagged!
PayPal Security Measures.

Dear PayPal Member,

Your account has been randomly flagged in our system as a part of our routine security measures. This is a must to ensure that only you have access and use of your Paypal account and to ensure a safe PayPal experience. We require all flagged accounts to verify their information on file with us. To verify your information at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the hyperlink below:

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Technology

A Little Yahoo Mail and Map Tip

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I noticed this a short while ago. Basically, if there is a valid US address in the Yahoo Mail, it will be shown underlined (dotted line). And if you move cursor to it, it will be highlighted. Then if you click on it, it will pop up the menu asking you if you want to see the Yahoo Map of that address. From there you can get the driving direction and alll the good stuff. Suddenly, Yahoo is cooler than Google 🙂 

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Technology

Apple Raising the Bar

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It’s not the first time Apple jumped into the mobile phone party, they teamed up with Motorola and came up with this RAZR. Obviously Steve Jobs is not satisfied with that, and today at MacWorld show he unveiled the iPod Phone (or iPhone as people call it, although legally Cisco owned that name). If you are really curious, here are some pictures at engadget. It will be interesting to see how this will affect the Palm and Blackberry’s sale.

iPod phone picture 

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Business Technology

Don’t Count eBay and Yahoo out

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Google is doing everything to become the king of the Internet. The holiday promotion of Google Check out is targeted towards eBay’s Paypal; in the search market it’s continuing gaining market share from Yahoo, although I still like Yahoo Mail better than GMail 🙂

eBay is not standing still, it’s raising the listing fees. As a seller on eBay I certainlly don’t like them raising fees. But if I am eBay share holder, I will love it 🙂 Seriously, in today’s world, raising fees without losing customer is always a good sign of competitive edge. Not many companies, online or offline, can do that easily because customers are expecting more while paying less. Remember the Oracle’s 50% off Linux support (vs. Redhat)?   

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China Technology

The Status of Internet Development in China

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Keso (Hong Bo), an outspoken blogger in China, summerized his views about the Internet in China in his blog. While I don’t 100% agree with his view, I think some of his points are well said. I am thinking current stock market in China kind reflect this “make quick money” theme.

By the way, Keso has some cool pictures on flickr.  

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Technology

A Little Tip on Yahoo Mail and GMail

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All right, I received this tip from a credit card company, and I think it’s a good one. Sometimes Yahoo Mail will mistakenly put the monthly billing email from someone into junk mail folder. To ensure delivery, add the sender’s email address to your address book, that way it will always put email to your inbox.

Well, until spammers find a way to hack your address book 🙂

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Technology

GMail or Yahoo Mail?

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I started to use web based Yahoo Mail from 1998. It’s not perfect (large amount of spams, sometimes it put legimitate mail to bulk folder), but it works. About 2 years ago I got the GMail account and started using it. GMail has some nice features such as it “groups” same subject emails in one mail; and better previews for photos. But recently it was a bit goofy. One thing I noticed is it did not send out mail to the receivers. I confirmed this with my friends. In both cases, it looked OK for the senders but “not OK” for receivers: the receiver will just get the “quoted” original message. Those kind of problems mainly cause some inconvenience, but it could be more serious. Because I signed up electronic bill for my cell phone using GMail, and I have not received the email (and I did not go to t-mobile site lately), I missed the deadline of bill payment. T-Mobile happily charged $5 late fee. OK, I guess I will give back a portion of the $20 I saved from Google Checkout back to T-Mobile 🙂

Seriously, a while ago I thought about moving my email service from Yahoo to GMail. But I decided to stay with Yahoo for now. Besides the problem mentioned above, GMail is not reliable in China. I guess that’s one reason people in China like Hotmail better. I believe Hotmail is faster compared to Yahoo Mail in China too.