Categories
video

Google China put on hot seat

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谷歌, Google China, is reprimanded by CCTV (China official TV) on its prime time news broadcast, for “provide easy access to porn material in search, and harm Chinese youth”. A while ago Baidu was blamed for “placing faked medicine ads in search results”.

Video source: Tudou.

Categories
Fun Video

iPhone 3G S distribution center video

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(Update) My initial guess was wrong. If you read the introduction at YouTube, it says it’s located at Dallas Fort Worth.

(Original) Via YouTube.

Categories
Life Tips

People are brewing coffee at home

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Folgers coffee pic

Reuters: JM Smucker Q4 beats Street, raises 2010 profit view. Quote:

Peanut-butter and jelly maker J.M. Smucker Co’s (SJM.N) fourth-quarter profit handily beat market expectations, helped by strength in its Folgers coffee business, and the company raised its 2010 profit outlook.

“Our core business continues to produce solid results and the recently added coffee business’s performance has exceeded our expectations,” co-Chief Executive Tim Smucker said in a statement.

My take
More trouble for Starbucks…this is one sign of consumer behavior change amid this recession. Bye bye $2 a cup coffee, welcome home brewing gourmet coffee 🙂

Categories
Web

What is Twitter

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A poor man’s blog.

A microblog service which shutdowns from time to time without notice (in the old times, until Hillary’s guy called to delay the shutdown yesterday).

A gossip with limit of 147 character.

A tool appears used by Iranian opposition and youth to exchange information on campaign and protest.

A tool used by Dell to sell $3 million hardware (DellOutlet, source: WSJ).

…a tool the big brother thinks it’s too hot for its people 😀

Categories
Web

China’s Fountain of Youth

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From ABC news.

Maybe I will visit that place sometime.

Categories
Economy

May housing starts

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May housing starts beats expectation, quote Bloomberg:

U.S. builders broke ground on more houses than forecast in May, offering a sign that the industry’s slump, now in its fourth year, may be approaching an end.

The 17 percent increase in housing starts to an annual rate of 532,000 followed a 454,000 pace the prior month, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, also rose more than estimated.


(source: NAHB web site)

Categories
401k and Personal Finance video

Is cash for clunker a windfall for consumers?

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Not really. Some issues: eligibility, trade-in value of your old clunker (maybe more than $3,500 or $4,500), also your clunker may worth more than its face value (consider the insurance cost and property tax of a new car).

MyMoneyBlog has did some analysis on his/her own (used) vehicles; and Edmunds.com has a comprehensive article including a FAQ.

Categories
gadgets

A new way to listen to NPR marketplace

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Via Podcast. Partially inspired by an idea suggested at bbs. But I want to automate it a bit more, here is the software: DopplerRadio. It has both iTune and Windows (Media Player) version. Here is a detailed Windows guide written by Jake Ludington.

The MarketPlace RSS feed is:
http://feeds.americanpublicmedia.org/MarketplacePodcast

The same site also has feed to MartkPlace Morning Report etc.

After download it (the mp3) to PC, I did “sync” (Windows Media Player Sync) it to my Nokia 5800 so that I can listen to it when joggling. It worked beautifully.

Now I started to look at “Music Player” icon on Nokia 5800, I found there is this Podcast icon sits besides Music Player. So I will try that “direct” option next time, saving some hoops 🙂

Bonus material: how to burn music from CD to Nokia 5800

Categories
Business

This tobacco bill

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Yesterday President Obama announced he is going to support the Tobacco bill (details by AP). Ironically the President was (is?) a smoker himself.

Categories
Saint Louis

DTV day, PBS and NPR

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Today is DTV day, the analog TV will be turned off and the local TV stations will broadcast digital signals only. Go to DTV.gov for the government coupon Digital TV converter box and other information.

Local PBS station (KETC) is running short of funds recently, partly due to the recession, corporate underwriting and viewer donations declined quite a bit. Similar situation is facing KWMU, local NPR station. I am both a fan of PBS and NPR, the programs I paid attention to is Nightly Business News (NBR), and MarketPlace at NPR. The reasons I like them is: they are much better than those Mad Money, Fast Money and other programs on CNBC. I used to watch quite a bit Mad Money for entertainment, but unfortunately it influenced my thinking, from time to time. In the past year I still watch them, but with a much critical mind.