Categories
Software development

Software bugs

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I received a letter from Missouri Department of Revenue yesterday. And it says my tax return for the year 2004 was invalid. That made me nervous. I scambled to look at my 2004 return which is done by Turbo Tax software, and other supporting documents. I found out an obvious problem eventually.

I should have taken a look at the tax return prepared by the software but I did not. I guess the lesson here is don’t trust the software blindly. The good thing is the consequence is not life or death situation, it’s going to cost me money though.

Software bug is just a way of life, sadly. Just like we human being could have illness one way or the other. But some software bugs can cause real big trouble, such as fail the space mission, explode gas pipe, kill patients, etc. Here is an article I saw from the Wired News. It lists 10 worst software bugs in the history. Interesting reading if you have time.

Categories
Technology

Cell phone

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I ordered Motorola E815 and Verizon Wireless new service plan from Amazon yesterday, after doing some research on the web. My contract with T-mobile expired recently, and I was not impressed by their service: the biggest problem is their limited coverage area. Many times when I am off the highways, I no longer have the signal. The other day when I was in MSP airport, in some places it had signal, in other places it didn’t. And their customer service is not consistent either. I heard mixed messages from time to time.

I checked out the cell phones and plans from Amazon. Cingular and Sprint both require 2 years contract, which I don’t like. I had some difficulty to choose the phone between E815 and LG VX8100. Sometimes choice is not necessary a good thing. I chose the Motorola because it’s slightly cheaper and it comes with bluebooth headset.

This evening (Feb. 21) I drove by the Verizon store and decided to take a look at the real thing. It seems the LG phone is much sexier than the Motorola E815. Now I can only hope the E815 has better substance. How can I forget the store which I drive by everyday? I know I am a little out of mind these days.

Note: I found the cell phone buying guide from eBay to be helpful.

Note on Feb 22: on second thought, I changed my order from Motorola E815 ($20 money back with mail-in rebates) to SamSung A850 ($100 money back with mail-in rebates). People in China will think it’s crazy we can make money here just buying cell phone. But it’s just a way the carriers here used to entice new customers. The monthly rate of the plans is not cheap. The one-year plan I am going to have is $39.99 per month before tax. That’s $480 for one year. Thinking I may not be in St. Louis for several months in the coming year, I want to cut the phone bill a bit. Besides that, I don’t think the extra feature offered by E815 such as 1.3M camera, video capture and MP3 player will be very useful for me. I am just a simple guy who use phone for talk and text messaging.

Categories
Fun

Olympics figure skating

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The highlights of the Torino Olympics, Ladies figure skating will start tonight. American Sasha Cohen and Russian Irina Sluskaya will be the favorites. While I like both of them, I hope Irina could win because she went through a lot (illness) in recent years and I like her personality better. Compared to Sasha, Irina is more mature and more easy going. There could be some dark horses in the event, just like Tara Lipinski and Sara Hughes in 1998 and 2002. Michelle Kwan was favorite in both events, but she did not win the gold because those young girls did better. I guess it’s just the nature (or the beauty) of life: there is always something unexpected.

A side note: in the past week I enjoyed watching China CCTV channel 5 coverage on Winter Olympics, which is mainly about Chinese athlets. After I came back, when I watch the NBC Olympics program, it mainly shows American athlets. I have to go to web if I want to know how Chinese did.

Categories
China

Direct flight from ORD to PVG

Reading Time: < 1 minute

American Airline (AA) is starting this direct flight from Chicago (ORD) to Shanghai (PVG), using Boeing 777, on April 2. This is in addition to current United Airline’s (UA) direct flight for the same route. UA is also using 777. I checked it on the AA web site. AA is offering special prices for the initial period. This is good news for people live in Central and Eastern part of the US. As competition heats up, consumers will benifit. In recent two trips to China I bought Northwest round trip tickets for low 800s. I expect the price stay that way or even drop below 800 as capacity builds up.

Categories
Technology Web

Be careful

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The following is a faked email I received today. I found it out by
“show full headers” in my Yahoo email. I believe you can do it in
other mail clients. The lesson here is don’t click on the link from
your email unless you are absolutely sure it’s from a trusted source.

=========================
To: my email address (msgid-XXX-XXX-XXX)
From: Paypal-XXX-XXX-XXX
Subject: Resolution Center Notice: (PP-XXX-XXX-XXX)
————————————————————
We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information about your business to allow us to provide uninterrupted service. Until we can collect this information, your access to sensitive account features will be limited. We would like to restore your access as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Why is my account access limited?

Your account access has been limited for the following reason(s):

Jan. 19, 2006: We have observed activity in this account that is unusual or potentially high risk.

(Your case ID for this reason is PP-XXX-XXX-XXX)

How can I restore my account access?

Please visit the Resolution Center (here is a faked link) and complete the “Steps to Remove Limitations.”

Once you complete all of the checklist items, your case will be reviewed by one of our Account Specialists. We will send you an email with the outcome of the review.
==========================

Categories
Saint Louis

I am back

Reading Time: < 1 minute

To the river city after 20 hours travel. I fell into sleep before the small airplane (RJ-85) landed in St. Louis, at 3:15 PM local time. There was some delay in Shanghai airport but things worked out OK because the flight NW20 from Tokyo to Minneapolis was waiting for us.

It’s 16 degree F (about -10 C) here in St. Louis. I could feel the chill when I walked from my car to Schnuck grocery store. I am going to cook my favorite “Cauliflower with pork” and “Tomato egg soup”. Back to the reality of living in St. Louis.

Categories
China

Going back

Reading Time: 2 minutes

St. Louis, flurries, high 18 F, low 7 F, that’s -7 C to -13 C.

Shanghai, snow, high 41°F (5°C), low 38°F (3°C).

Shanghai also had its first round of snow today. When I was talking to the taxi driver this morning, he told me his daughter was really excited about the snow because she never saw such snow before. To be honest, there is really not too much compare to the snow we saw in St. Louis.

Do I really want to go back to the cold winter in St. Louis? Well, it seems I have to because I burned all the cash I brought with me.

Just kidding. As much as I love my families, friends and things in Shanghai, I love my job and friends back in St. Louis, too. I know I will be welcomed by both my buddies and my cats. Just as I was well treated here in Shanghai and Ningbo. I feel both places like my home now. Actually I started to take buses instead of taxi these days because I felt more close to the common people that way (I myself am an average Joe too). It’s more convenient to take bus sometimes. Especially during rush hours or rainy days when it’s hard to get a taxi.

Talking about impression about Shanghai. I think it’s best to be summerized in one popular game name: WOW. I left Shanghai in 1997 and this is my first time I spent significant time here. The change is tremendous. The new metro lines. The luxury brands. Today I saw a Ferrari dealership opposite to a McDonald restaurant in Nanjing Rd. The tall buildings. The cars and traffic. The road. The bars. The coffee shops. The hair color of ladies and girls.

And the people. To be honest I felt a bit uneasy by the number of the people in Shanghai Book City in Fuzhou Road this afternoon. I guess it’s because the new semester just got started, the students are getting books. I saw a girl student is buying “C++ Premier” Chinese version. When I asked her whether she is Computer Science major, she told me she is Engineering student and she is interested in computer. I like the attitude of these young people. I never saw so many people in Borders or Barnes&Nobel in the States, hungry for the knowledge. I believe that’s one reason more and more foreign companies are setting up R&D shops here. And hopefully I will join the force in the very near future.

I also meet my cousin and her husband this moring. And some of my graduate school classmates in the evening. Everyone is doing well although I understand they all face things much harder than mine. Maybe the secret is they all have a happy family. My cousin told me she used to commute 2 hours one way by bus and metro. Note she is more than 15 years older than me. Now I will be more humble and patient when I stuck in the traffic in rare occasions in St. Louis. Most of time I spent 15 minutes one way. Lucky me.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Dollar and Yuan

Reading Time: < 1 minute

This afternoon I exchanged my last USD 80 at Bank of China in Kerry center. After that I only have $ 8 left at my pocket. I am not extremely disciplined at budgeting. But I think another reason is whenever I saw something in the RMB price, I tended to divide it by 8. This gives me a false sense of “everything is so cheap”. When all these “cheap things” added up, they are no longer cheap any more. I did pay more attention to the price of things lately, e.g., give up the latte at Starbucks for regular coffee , otherwise I won’t have $ 8 left.

Yuan is also going strong against dollar, I remember last summer I get Yuan 8.2 for $ 1, this time it’s about 7.97. Will this trend stop? I don’t know. One thing I do know is China’s economic growth is still very fast compared to the US. And the growth will be there for a while.

Categories
China

Light meal

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I was a bit tired of big meals these days. I think I should blame myself for lack of self control. But there are just so many good food in Shanghai I can not resist. The buffet in “Home Inn (Ru Jia)” was good, especially the Ru Jia near Xu Jia Hui. So I ate a lot. Then during lunch my co-workers take me to different places, I ate a lot again. Sometimes I felt sleepy and I had to go downstairs to get Starbucks coffee. Maybe I should buy some Starbucks stock instead.

Today I took a different approach, to save myself the coffee. I had Congee for the lunch and the toasted sweet potato for dinner. I liked the sweet potato. Maybe I will use oven to bake the sweet potato in St. Louis. But I think the taste may not be as good as Shanghai.

The good thing is it seems I have not gained any weight. Maybe I can tell my boss I worked too hard.

Categories
Windows

MSN messenger

Reading Time: < 1 minute

After I upgraded from version 5.0 to 7.5, I had some problems using MSN messenger. Basically when I start the Windows, it will start up the 5.0 first, and then launch the 7.5 version. In doing so it will sign out from 5.0 and then sign in the 7.5. So I will see two or three messages saying “you sign out from MSN messenger because you sign in another computer”, bala bala bala. I am sorry to my MSN friends if you got all these annoying messages. The good thing is I believe I found a workaround: I disabled the automatic sign in for the 5.0 when Windows starts. So we all should not get all these stupid messages.

I think the root cause of this problem is when I installed the new version (7.5), it did not automatically uninstall the old version (5.0). It appears to me 5.0 is a part of Windows Operating System, and it could not be uninstalled separately. In my mind it’s just another bug at Microsoft side.

Now if I could fix my own bugs.