ChoChoPK

Food Safety

2012-01-12T06:16:00.001Z

There was this one time when I was grocery shopping and I saw many ingredients on a package. I wasn’t sure which ones are good and which ones are bad. So I decided to collect a few, do a quick look up, and share the results with everyone.

Just because something is approved by the government doesn’t mean it’s completely harmless. The fact that “it may cause xyz” doesn’t necessarily means it’s a big deal. The effects on human listed below are mostly copied from Wikipedia, without further verification. So take this with a grain of salt. The more common ones are listed in bold.

Chinese	English	E number	Effects on human	Found in
抑霉唑	Enilconazole, a.k.a. imazalil, chloramizole		Causes cancer according to California's Proposition 65	Exterior of oranges
噻苯達唑, 噻苯咪唑, 噻苯唑	Tiabendazole, a.k.a. thiabendazole, TBZ	E233	High dosage may cause liver and intestine disorder, also cures lead poisoning or mercury poisoning	Exterior of oranges
Probably 苯基酚鈉	Sodium-o-phenylphenate		Causes cancer according to California's Proposition 65	Exterior of oranges
麩胺酸單鈉, a.k.a. 味精, 谷氨酸鈉, 穀氨酸單鈉	Monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. MSG	E621	Disputed, approved in the EU.	Lee Kum Kee chili bean sauce, instant noodles, many other products
肌苷酸二鈉	Disodium inosinate, a.k.a. disodium 5'-inosinate	E631	No harm found so far, approved in the EU.	Lee Kum Kee chili bean sauce, chips, instant noodles, snacks
鳥苷酸二鈉	Disodium guanylate, a.k.a. disodium 5'-guanylate	E627	Bad for children under 12 weeks, those with asthma or gout, approved in the EU.	Lee Kum Kee chili bean sauce, instant noodles, snacks, packaged soup
菸鹼酸, a.k.a. 菸酸, 維生素B3, 維生素PP	Niacin, a.k.a. vitamin B3, vitamin PP		Bad if in excess or shortage	Wonton and dumpling wraps
硫胺, a.k.a. 維生素B1	Thiamine, a.k.a. vitamin B1		Bad if in excess or shortage	Wonton and dumpling wraps
核黃素, a.k.a. 維生素B2	Riboflavin, a.k.a. vitamin B2	E101	Deficiency leads to cracks at the corners of the mouth (angular cheilitis). Excessive dosage taken orally is probably not toxic. Approved by the EU and the US.	Wonton and dumpling wraps, instant noodles
葉酸, a.k.a. 維生素B9	Folic acid, a.k.a. vitamin B9		Good for pregnant women	Wonton and dumpling wraps
丙酸鈉	Sodium propionate, a.k.a. sodium propanoate	E281	Unknown, approved in the EU.	Wonton and dumpling wraps, bakery products
苯甲酸鈉	Sodium benzoate	E211	When combined with vitamin C, it forms benzene, a known carcinogen, but approved by the EU.	Wonton and dumpling wraps, soft drinks
檸檬酸	Citric acid	E330	Unknown, approved in the EU.	Wonton and dumpling wraps, Hsin Tung Yang soy bean paste
半胱胺酸	Cysteine	E920	Has antitoxic property, approved in the EU.	Wonton and dumpling wraps
二氧化矽	Silicon dioxide	E551	May cause silicosis, bronchitis or cancer if inhaled. May cause dementia if drunk with water, approved in the EU.	Indomie Mi goreng
瓜爾豆膠, a.k.a. 瓜爾膠	Guar gum	E412	Wikipedia has unreferenced list of effects, approved in the EU.	Indomie Mi goreng, Nissin Demae Itcho (出前一丁) XO sauce seafood flavor
生育酚（可表現維生素E活性）	Tocopherol, a.k.a. TCP (has vitamin E activity)	E306-309	Beneficial for the most part, approved in the EU.	Indomie Mi goreng, Demae Itcho XO sauce seafood flavor
三聚磷酸鈉	Sodium triphosphate, a.k.a. STP, sodium tripolyphosphate, TPP	E451	Healthy with moderate amount, approved in the EU.	Demae Itcho XO sauce seafood flavor
磷酸鈉鹽（包括磷酸一氫鈉, 磷酸二氫鈉, 磷酸鈉）	Sodium phosphates（包括monosodium phosphate, disodium phosphate, trisodium phosphate）	E339	Probably not good for kidneys, approved in the EU.	Demae Itcho XO sauce seafood flavor, Pocky
六偏磷酸鈉	Sodium hexametaphosphate, a.k.a. SHMP		Unknown	Demae Itcho XO sauce seafood flavor
海藻酸	Alginic acid, a.k.a. algin, alginate	E400	Unknown, approved in the EU.	Demae Itcho XO sauce seafood flavor
抗壞血酸棕櫚酸酯（油溶性維生素C）	Ascorbyl palmitate (fat-soluble vitamin C)	E304	Approved in the EU, the US, Australia, and New Zealand	Demae Itcho XO sauce seafood flavor
山梨酸鉀	Potassium sorbate	E202	No harm found so far, but has irritant property. Approved in the EU.	Sriracha sauce
亞硫酸氫鈉	Sodium bisulfite	E222	Approved in the EU	Sriracha sauce
黃原膠	Xanthan gum	E415	Excessive amount may cause diarrhea. May trigger allergic response to those allergic to corn, gluten, soy, or milk, approved in the EU.	Sriracha sauce
乳酸	Lactic acid	E270, E472b	Approved in the EU, the US, Australia, and New Zealand	Hsin Tung Yang soy bean paste
麥芽糊精	Maltodextrin		Unknown	Instant noodles and package noodles
紅40（人工色素）	Red 40, a.k.a.. Allura Red AC	E129	May lead to hyperactivity in children. Approved in the EU and US, banned in Switzerland.	M&M, snacks with saturated colors (both sweet and savory), red colored flu syrup
黃色5號（人工色素）, a.k.a.. 檸檬黃	Yellow 5, a.k.a. Tartrazine	E102	May lead to hyperactivity and reduced intelligence in children. Banned in Norway, was banned in Austria and Germany, until overturned by EU. Approved in the US. Many organizations call for bans of Yellow 5.	M&M, snacks with saturated colors (both sweet and savory)
黃色6號（人工色素）	Yellow 6, a.k.a. Sunset Yellow FCF	E110	May lead to hyperactivity in children. Banned in Norway and Finland. Approved in the EU but reduced safe dosage in 2011. Approved in the US.	M&M, snacks with saturated colors (both sweet and savory)
藍色1號（人工色素）	Blue 1, a.k.a. Brilliant Blue FCF	E133	Was banned in many European counties. National Institutes of Health in the US claims it does not lead to hyperactivity in children.	M&M, snacks with saturated colors
藍色2號（人工色素）	Blue 2, a.k.a. Indigo carmine	E132	Harmful if inhaled	M&M, M&M, snacks with saturated colors

Tocopherol (has vitamin E activity) and ascorbyl palmitate (fat-soluble vitamin C) are sometimes labeled as “preservative”. But it’s not as scary as the name “preservative”. Compounds with names that look like something in a chemistry textbook aren’t necessarily bad. Some are good, but some are bad too. “All natural” isn’t always good either, such as drinking liquid lard directly.

Oranges are coated with enilconazole, tiabendazole, and sodium-o-phenylphenate

Lee Kum Kee chili bean sauce contains MSG, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate

Wonton and dumpling wraps contain sodium benzoate

Indomie Mi goreng contain silicon dioxide, MSG, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate

Nissin Demae Itcho (出前一丁) XO sauce seafood flavor contains sodium phosphates and MSG

Tainan Yi Mien (dried noodles) has outer package and inner package contradicting each other. And some of the translation is wrong

Some Japanese noodle seasoning contains disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate

Sriracha sauce xanthan gum

Hsin Tung Yang soy bean paste

Some Korean packaged noodles. I am too lazy too look up the outrageously many number of ingredients.

Pocky contains sodium phosphates

M&M contains red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 1, and blue 2

NyQuil syrup contains red 40

The myth about speaking English

2011-10-07T04:18:00.002Z

In urban Taiwan, there’s been an increasing trend in the belief that being able to converse in English to a foreigners on a street is cool, and being unable to do so is uncool. If I had to speak to a white person, a black person, or an Indian looking person in Taiwan, I would first try in Chinese. Only when the other party doesn’t understand me, I’d try English. I have two reasons

In the United States, people speak English to me. They won’t attempt in Chinese or Japanese just because I look like an East Asian. In France, people speak French to me. In Japan, people speak Japanese to me. So why must I speak English in Taiwan when speaking to foreigners? Chinese is the language of the land here, in other words, they bear the burden of speaking Chinese more than I bear the burden of speaking English. Therefore, Chinese has precedence over English. Conversely, if I were to work in the States, I’d speak English at work, even to those whose mother tongue is Chinese, when alone.

If I were to automatically speak English to strangers of a certain demographics (say white people), the implication of such action is that these people are unable or unwilling to immigrate to Taiwan. In these days, district offices, township offices, and public schools in Taiwan offer activities to immigrant spouses of foreign origin. Most of the activities involve language learning. By doing so, it means the society accepts them, and has faith in their ability to integrate with the society. But if I were to skip over Chinese for strangers of a certain demographics, it implies that these people cannot be immigrants. Such subconscious assumptions, may it be that our society doesn’t accept them, or these people are unable or unwilling to immigrate, are not good.

Make no mistake, I do not oppose learning English. In fact, I encourage anyone to learn any language. That said, I must impart my personal experience of English learning. During the process, I witnessed how a dominating language slowly erodes a weak language. There was a time when I was active on Wikipedia. At the time I chose the English Wikipedia because editing the English Wikipedia makes the most impact. While doing that, I met editors around the world whose native language isn’t English. But they all joined the English Wikipedia for similar reasons, that was to maximize their contributions, or the Wikipedias in their languages were not mature enough. For these reasons, the English Wikipedia has become the largest, and is still growing at the fastest speed.

English is not the only language that benefits from being dominant. During the course of history, Chinese has also made other languages extinct. Soon after the Xianbei people established the Northern Wei Dynasty, they started sinicizing themselves. The Manchurians did the same after the founding of the Qing Dynasty. Now the Xianbei language is extinct, fewer than 100 can speak Manchu. The Han people never forced them to sinicize because the Xianbei and the Manchurians were in power at the time. They voluntarily did so. From this example, we can see how a dominating language rolls like a snowball.

I have made some Indian friends in the States. They told me that in India, some schools choose English as the medium of instruction, some choose Hindi, while some choose the local state language. I’m not sure which kind of school did my Indian friends attend, but I know many of them do not speak their mother tongues fluidly. They have to pause and think when I ask if they know how to say simple words like “math” or “taxi”. Most of the time, they communicate in English on Facebook, with occasional use of Romanized Hindi. I also happen to know many people whose native language is Chinese, who went to high schools or colleges in the States. They, too, often use English only on Facebook.

I encourage everyone to learn English. But I must remind everyone, the more you learn, the more responsibility you have to protect your native language.

Further reading: "我的孩子不會講中文" (My kid does not speak Chinese) by 張湘君 ISBN: 9867894219

East Asian Culture Comparison Table

2011-09-19T17:40:00.000Z

	Mainland China	Taiwan	Hong Kong	S Korea	N Korea	Vietnam	Japan
Lunar New Year	Restored in 1980	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but because of the time zone difference, new moon may be off by one day	Only before 1873. Okinawa Prefecture and Amami Islands of the former Ryūkyū Kingdom still do.
Chinese zodiac	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but with rat, ox, tiger, cat	Yes
24 solar terms	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Duanwu Festival	Restored in 2008	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but not a public holiday	Celebrated on Gregorian 5/5. Transformed into Children's Day
Mid-Autumn Festival	Restored in 2008	Yes	Yes, but on lunar 8/16	Yes	Yes	Yes, but not a public holiday	Yes, but not a public holiday
Pronunciation of the character "文"	wen2	bûn (Min Nan)	man4	mun	mun	văn, von	mon/bun/fumi
Is there a standalone word for 10⁴	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Usually "mười nghìn", where "mười" means ten, and "nghìn" means thousand	Yes
Uses Chinese (Han) characters	Yes	Yes	Yes	Almost none	No	No, only visible at historical sites	Yes
1-char family names, 2-char given names are common	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Basic sentence structure (the ordering of subject, verb, object)	SVO (I eat rice)	SVO (I eat rice)	SVO (I eat rice)	SOV (I rice eat)	SOV (I rice eat)	SVO (I eat rice)	SOV (I rice eat)
Has level 1 municipality	Yes	Yes	/	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Multilingualism in the Greater China Region

2011-01-22T08:18:00.003Z

Although Han Chinese constitute as much as 92% of the total population, cultural exchanges between different ethnic groups are common through out the history, within today's political borders or otherwise. Linguistic influences in both directions are also widespread. Even some Han Chinese don't know that the modern word for "brother" (哥) is borrowed in the Tang Dynasty from the Xianbei language, which is of Mongolic. There is a Chinese idiom that roughly translates to "With great diversity comes greatness" (有容乃大).

Below you will find public signs that are written in many different languages, starting from the Northeast region, then counter-clockwise

Korean in Yanji City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province

延吉市實驗中學 = 연길시 실험 중학 = Yanji Experimental Middle School

東北亞喜宴 = 동북아 희연 = Northeast Asian Wedding Banquet

Russian in Fuyuan County, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province (where Russia is just across the river)

五金家電商場 = Амур бытовая техника --> Home appliances of Amur River

With some English

Russian in Aihui District, Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province (where Russia is just across the river)

РЕСТОРАН "ПУТИН" --> RESTAURANT "PUTIN"

Mongolian in Mongolian script and Russian in Manzhouli City, Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (where Russia is 5 km away in minimum distance)

電器維修 = ремонт магнитафонов --> Tape recorde repair

(магнитафонов is a typo, should be магнитофонов)

Manchu, Han Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian in Mongolian script at the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, Yonghe Temple, Dongcheng District, Beijing Municipality

Introduction in Japanese, Korean, and Russian at Juyongguan, Changping District, Beijing Municipality

居庸関長城のご紹介 = 거용관 장성 소개 = Краткие сведения о Стене Цзюйюнгуань = Introduction of Juyongguan

With some English

Mongolian in Mongolian script, Mongolian in Cyrillic alphabet, and British English in Erenhot City, Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

華聯商城 = ХУА ЛИАНЬ ХУДАЛДААНЫ ТӨВ = HUA LIAN COMMERCIAL CENTRE

Mongolian in Mongolian script in Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

With some English

Kazakh and Uyghur in Tacheng City, Tacheng Prefecture, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region

I cannot tell if the text above "中國農民銀行" (Agricultural Bank of China) is Kazakh in Arabic script or Uyghur. With some English.

Uyghur at the Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar City, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region (not far from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)

With some English

Uyghur and Sarikoli in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region (where Tajikistan is 19 km away in minimum distance)

With some British English

Tibetan in Chengguan District, Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region

有一些英語

Arabic, Tibetan, and Han Chinese in Chengguan District, Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region

Tai Nüa, Tai Lü, and Jingpho in Jiegao Townships, Ruili City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province (where Myanmar is just across the street)

I cannot tell if the text is Tai Nüa or Burmese

Tai Lü in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province

With some English

Tai Lü and Lao in Mohan, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province

With some English

Vietnamese in Dongxing City, Fangchenggang City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

異國特產批發 = Bán buôn đặc sản nước ngoài

Russian and Korean in Tianya Town, Sanya City, Hainan Province

Portuguese, Japanese, and English in Macau Special Administrative Region

British English in Kowloon City District, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

土瓜灣體育館 = To Kwa Wan Sports Centre

British English in Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City, Republic of China

高雄市楠梓國民小學 = Nan-Tzu Primary School, Kaohsiung

American English and French in Minxiong Township, Chiayi County, Republic of China

嘉義縣表演藝術中心 = Chiayi Performing Arts Center
法國春天藝術節 = Printemps, Français de Chiayi --> Spring, French of Chiayi

American English in Lugu Township, Nantou County

遊客中心 = Visitor Center

Romanization and Katakana at Din Tai Fung, Hsinchu City, Republic of China

鼎泰豐 = DIN TAI FUNG = ディンタイフォン

With some English. The Katakana "ディンタイフォン" merely denotes the pronunciations. In regular Japanese text, the name is still written as Chinese characters "鼎泰豊".

In addition to multilingualism in the Greater China Region, the language of Han Chinese is also widely accepted and used throughout the world.

Russian and Chinese in Zabaykalsk, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia (where the border is 2 km away in minimum distance)

Mongolian in Cyrillic script, English, and simplified Chinese in Zamyn-Üüd, Dornogovi Province, Mongolia (where the border is 4 km away in minimum distance)

British English and Chinese in the City of Westminster, Greater London, England, the United Kingdom

Simplified Chinese and Burmese in Kokang (First Special Region), Shan State, Myanmar (where the border is 6 km away in minimum distance)

Chinese is the primary language at this place, which is politically and militarily unstable.

Thai, English, traditional Chinese, and Burmese in Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand (where Myanmar is just across the river the Chinese border is 119 km away in minimum distance)

Malay, traditional Chinese, English, and Tamil on Penang Island, Penang State, Malaysia

Malay, traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese on Penang Island, Penang State, Malaysia

English, simplified Chinese, Malay, and Tamil in Singapore

Note that it is common in Singapore to mix traditional and simplified Chinese for everyday use. This example contains only traditional Chinese.

Lao and simplified Chinese in Boten, Luang Namtha Province, Laos (where the border is 1 km away in minimum distance)

Indonesian, two Englishes??, simplified Chinese, and French in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Vietnamese, simplified Chinese, and English in Lao Cai City, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam (where China is just across the river)

Vietnamese, traditional and simplified Chinese in Móng Cái, Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam (where China is just across the river)

Note that traditional and simplified Chinese coexist on the same object

American English, Chinese, Japanese, Korea, Spanish, Filipino, Vietnamese in Bell, California, the United States of America

Traditional Chinese and American English in possibly Richmond, Virginia, the United States of America

Canadian English and traditional Chinese in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

With the sheer number of Chinese, some mistakes are inevitable.

Possibly in Tainan City, Republic of China

台南海鮮 (Tainan Seafood) = Platform South Sea Fresh

Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

餐廳 (Restaurant) = Translate server error

The Chronicle (Drama) of Mobile 2010

2010-11-08T07:53:00.011Z

This chronicle is *NOT* to document important technological break throughs that matters to the consumers in 2010, but to record the dog-fight between these tech companies from the eyes of someone who follows tech news.

This article is U.S.-centric, and the dates are in a U.S. time zone unless specified otherwise. Even with my best effort, the dates may still be off by a day or two.

1/5 – The Nexus One is released, along with Android 2.1 (Eclair). Multi-touch was not available and it is believed to be a gentlemen's agreement between Google and Apple.

2/2 – Android 2.1 gets an update with multi-touch.

2/16 – Google CEO Eric Schmidt says 60,000 Android devices are activated per day.

3/2 – Apple sues HTC, the manufacturer that makes the Nexus One and many other Android devices for 20 patents. It is speculated to be a retaliation against Android's update with multi-touch.

3/10 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25.1% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Jan. 2010, while Google has 7.1%, and RIM has 43.0%.

4/5 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25.4% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Feb. 2010, while Google has 9.0%, and RIM has 42.1%.

4/8 – iOS 4 announced.

4/8 – Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber points out that article 3.3.1 of the iOS4 SDK license agreement basically rejects Flash or Adobe Air on iOS 4.

4/12 – Microsoft unveils KIN.

4/15 – Apple App Store rejects Pulitzer-Winning Satirist Mark Fiore's app.

4/16 – Millennial Media, a Mobile ad network, reveals that iOS has 70% share of impressions, while Android has 6%, and RIM has 14% in the previous month.

4/17 – Engadget reported an iPhone 4 prototype.

4/19 – Gizmodo reported the lost iPhone 4 prototype. For some reason, media direct their attention at Gizmodo and not Engadget.

4/19 – Gizmodo reported how they obtained the iPhone 4 prototype that originated from Gray Powell, an Apple employee.

4/19 – Apple formally acknowledges the lost iPhone 4 prototype is their property and demands it back from Gizmodo. Gizmodo complies.

4/19 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly says in an email, "Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone."

4/23 – Law enforcement raided Jason Chen's house. Chen is the Gizmodo editor who reported the iPhone 4 prototype.

4/26 – Motorola plans to use Skyhook's XPS (a location software) instead of Google's.

5/7 – Nokia sues Apple over iPad and iPhone-related patents.

5/10 – NPD survey shows that in Q1 2010 in the U.S., Android has 28% U.S. market share, Apple has 21%, and RIM has 36%.

5/12 – HTC counter sues Apple.

5/20 – Google Vice-President of Engineering Vic Gundotra quotes Andy Rubin, "if Google did not act, we faced a Draconian future, a future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our only choice."

5/20 – Android 2.2 (Froyo) and Google TV announced. Google says 100,000 Android devices are activated per day.

5/20 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 62% share of impressions, while Android has 10%, and RIM has 17% in the previous month.

6/7 – Steve Jobs announces iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010.

6/18 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 48% share of impressions, while Android has 15%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.

6/15 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Apr. 2010, while Google has 12.0%, and RIM has over 40%.

6/23 – Andy Rubin says 160,000 Android devices are activated per day.

6/23 – Apple sues HTC again.

6/24 – iPhone 4 released.

6/24 – iPhone 4 reception problem reported. Steve Jobs allegedly tells a complaining user "Just avoid holding it in that way."

6/24 – Brian Maupin (tinywatchproductions) uploads an "iPhone4 vs HTC Evo" (NSFW) video on YouTube, featuring 2 cartoon characters with synthesized voice. Maupin also uploads an opposite video "HTC EVO vs iPhone4." Both videos become viral shortly. The former that bashes iPhone outpaces the latter that bashes EVO at a 5:1 ratio in terms of click rate.

6/30 – Microsoft discontinues KIN.

7/1 – Reports suggest that the end of KIN is a result of ugly workplace politics at Microsoft.

7/1 – Best Buy, the employer of Brian Maupin, puts Maupin on suspension, which further contributes the viralness of the videos.

7/6 – Best Buy decides not to fire Brian Maupin. But he decides not to take the job back.

7/8 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.4% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending May 2010, while Google has 13.0%, and RIM has 41.7%.

7/12 – Consumer Reports can't recommend the iPhone 4.

7/14 – Paramount Pictures shows interest in hiring Brian Maupin.

7/14 – Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says "It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista."

7/15 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 56% share of impressions, while Android has 11%, and RIM has 17% in the previous month.

7/16 – At a emergency press conference, Steve Jobs says 1.7% of iPhone 4 were returned, compared to 6% of iPhone 3GS, the perceived signal drop is a result from a miscalculating formula, and Apple will be giving away free Bumpers. Apple also makes a web page that shows the signal drop problem also occurs on BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid X, Nokia N97 mini, Samsung Omnia II, and its own iPhone 3GS.

7/16 – RIM's co-CEO's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie states "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. … During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls."

7/17 – Nokia says "Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design."

7/17 – HTC's spokesman Eric Lin says the support rate of Droid Eris is approximately .016% of customers.

7/19 – Samsung defends their Omnia 2 phone "Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future."

8/4 – Eric Schmidt says 200,000 Android devices are activated per day.

8/5 – NPD survey shows that in Q2 2010 in the U.S., Android has 33% U.S. market share, Apple has 22%, and RIM has 28%.

8/6 – HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns for inappropriate business conduct found in an investigation into a claim of sexual harassment. (I know this isn't mobile-related.)

8/9 – Oracle CEO Larry Ellison comments on Hurd's resignation, "The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago."

8/12 – Oracle sues Google over Java patent infringement in Android.

8/18 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 55% share of impressions, while Android has 19%, and RIM has 16% in the previous month.

8/27 – Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Yahoo!, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and YouTube over patents

9/1 – Steve Jobs announces the 2nd generation of Apple TV

9/2 – Samsung Galaxy Tab announced in Berlin. Galaxy Tab runs on Android 2.2 and a 7" display.

9/6 – Oracle hires Mark Hurd.

9/6 – HP sues Oracle over hiring Mark Hurd.

9/9 – Apple relaxes its restrictions on iOS app code.

9/15 – ComScore reports that Apple has 23.8% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Jul. 2010, while Google has 17.0%, and RIM has 39.3%.

9/16 – Skyhook sues Google for strong-arming of Motorola.

9/28 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 48% share of impressions, while Android has 26%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.

10/1 – Microsoft sues Motorola because of Android.

10/3 – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says Android isn't really free.

10/6 – Motorola sues Apple.

10/6 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.2% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Aug. 2010, while Google has 19.6%, and RIM has 37.6%.

10/11 – Windows Phone 7 announced.

10/18 – Apple announced financial results for its fiscal Q4 2010 (ended 9/25). Steve Jobs says iPhone sale surpasses RIM 14.1 to 12.1 millions, Android's openness is disingenuous, 7" tablet is an awkward size, and 275,000 iOS devices are activated per day. Jobs also quotes TweetDeck's statistics to show the alleged fragmentation problem of Android.

10/18 – Andy Rubin tweets, "the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make""

10/18 – RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie says, "For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7″ tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. ... We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple."

10/19 – Iain Dodsworth, one of the two developers of TweetDeck, tweets "Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Errr nope, no we didn't. It wasn't."

10/19 – Joe Hewitt, developer of Firefox and FireBug, says that even Android is not "open" by Firefox's or Linux's standard.

10/19 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 46% share of impressions, while Android has 29%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.

10/20 – At "Back to the Mac" event, the next generation of MacBook Air was announced. Shortly, people discovered that the new MacBook Air does not have Adobe Flash pre-installed.

10/21 – Android and Me reports a rumor that Samsung will have a Google-experience phone in 2010.

10/22 – Giant Gingerbread (Android 2.3) man arrives at Google HQ.

10/28 – Gizmodo claims that Samsung "Nexus Two" is real.

10/30 – Apple counter sues Motorola.

11/1 – Samsung says the Nexus Two rumor "simply not true."

11/1 – NPD survey shows that in Q3 2010 in the U.S., Android has 44% U.S. market share, Apple has 23%, and RIM has 22%.

11/2 – T-Mobile U.S.A. launches their 4G campaign, mocking A&T and iPhone 4 at the same time. Despite not meeting ITU's specification, most carriers in the U.S.A. still call their new service "4G".

11/2 – Sprint responded T-Mobile's 4G campaign, "Halloween is over–it’s time for T-Mobile to stop dressing up like their favorite super hero–Sprint 4G."

11/3 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.3% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Sep. 2010, while Google has 21.4%, and RIM has 37.3%.

11/3 – AT&T responds to T-Mobile's commercial, "T-Mobile's claims about 4G are based on the same HSPA+ technology we have deployed to 180 million people today, more than T-Mobile’s reported 140 million, and we’ll have it rolled out to 250 million people by the end of this month, substantially more than the 200 million T-Mobile says it will have by year-end."

11/4 – T-Mobile continues the offensive on Facebook, "Hey AT&T – It is easy for us to be proud when we have the 4G network to back it up. We challenge you to show us any data speeds on an AT&T iPhone that can top the speed on T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Check out these amazing speed test screenshots from our T-Mobile fans: http://goo.gl/P0wk3"

11/4 – At&T replies to T-Mobile on Facebook with the same statement said on the day before.

11/9 – Microsoft sues Motorola.

11/11 – Motorola sues Microsoft.

11/11 – Numerous rumors about the alleged Nexus S explode this day.
- BestBuy website leak suggests Samsung Nexus S on T-Mobile.
- Pictures of a physical Nexus S leak.
- BestBuy internal document leak suggests Samsung Nexus S on T-Mobile.
- Samsung "flagship device" (not Nexus S) coming in Feb 2011. Gingerbread.
- Pictures shot with Samsung GT-i9020 (according to EXIF) found on Flickr.
- First Nexus S was scrapped in favor of a new dual-core version.

11/15 – Eric Schmidt shows the Nexus S.

11/18 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 37% share of impressions, while Android has 37%, and RIM has 20% in the previous month.

11/18 – Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak is reported to say that Android will dominate the smartphone market.

11/18 – Steve Wozniak says his pervious statement was quoted out of context.

11/18 – Microsoft Kin ONEm and TWOm are back with lower prices.

11/27 – Apple bans a Danish Android magazine app from the App Store.

12/1 – Verizon announces their "4G" (LTE) network. On the same day, T-Mobile reiterates that T-Mobile has "America’s Largest 4G Network".

12/3 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.6% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Oct. 2010, while Google has 23.5%, and RIM has 35.8%.

12/6 – Nexus S is officially announced.

12/14 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 38% share of impressions, while Android has 38%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.

12/16 – Nexus S is available from Best Buy in the U.S.

1/6/2011 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25.0% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Oct. 2010, while Google has 26.0%, and RIM has 33.5%.

1/13/2011 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 32% share of impressions, while Android has 46%, and RIM has 16% in the previous month.

Sue graph. A→B denotes A suing B.

Actually, similar graphs have been circulating on the Internet for some time. See also

ComScore data are market shares in the U.S. in the past 3 months

Millennial Media data are shares of ad impression in the U.S. in the previous month

NPD data are shares of purchases in a given quarter

Chinglish

2010-10-02T06:13:00.004Z

Good not easy.
Another has hole sky.
Hundred mouths cannot argue.
Cup bow snake shadow.
Not move sound color.
The dharma gateway of nonduality.
Fast horse add whip.
Insert wing difficult fly.
Face has difficult colors.
Powder body shatter bone.
River east lion roar.
Poor path end road.
Steal chicken touch dog.
Stupid stupid want to move.
Unforgiving when gaining reasons.
East see see, west see see.
The vengeance of non-co-load heaven.
District district small event, how enough to hang on teeth?
It was late when speaking, but fast at the moment.
One drum as gas, repeat then deplete, third then exhaust.
Old my old, and then old someone else's old. Child my child, and then child someone else's child.
First under heaven worry and worry, then under heaven happy and happy.
You calculate what east west. You give me small heart one point.

Good not easy. 好不容易
Another has hole sky. 別有洞天
Hundred mouths cannot argue. 百口莫辯
Cup bow snake shadow. 杯弓蛇影
Not move sound color. 不動聲色
The dharma gateway of nonduality. 不二法門
Fast horse add whip. 快馬加鞭
Insert wing difficult fly. 插翅難飛
Face has difficult colors. 面有難色
Powder body shatter bone. 粉身碎骨
River east lion roar. 河東獅吼
Poor path end road. 窮途末路
Steal chicken touch dog. 偷雞摸狗
Stupid stupid want to move. 蠢蠢欲動
Unforgiving when gaining reasons. 得理不饒人
East see see, west see see. 東看看，西看看
The vengeance of non-co-load heaven. 不共戴天之仇
District district small event, how enough to hang on teeth? 區區小事，何足掛齒
It was late when speaking, but fast at the moment. 說時遲，那時快
One drum as gas, repeat then deplete, third then exhaust. 一鼓作氣，再而衰，三而竭
Old my old, and then old someone else's old. Child my child, and then child someone else's child. 老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼
First under heaven worry and worry, then under heaven happy and happy. 先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂
You calculate what east west. You give me small heart one point. 你算什麼東西，你給我小心一點

Why is captioning photos a baffling ordeal?

2010-08-28T08:00:00.001Z

Some people wonder why I hardly caption my photos. Two and half years ago, I explained why organizing photos is a baffling ordeal. But I didn't explain very well why captioning is too, even more so. I decided to do a self-observation. I take one of my photos, and measure the time to caption it. Here are 2 examples:

Stalingrad now serves line 2, 5, and 7 of Paris Metro. The station opened as "Rue d'Aubervilliers" in 1903, and was renamed "Stalingrad" in 1946 because a nearby boulevard was renamed "Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad" in honor of the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. Although the City of Stalingrad has been renamed "Volgograd" as one of the results of De-Stalinization, the Paris Metro station's name has remained the same.

It took me 23 minutes to caption. I spent my time on

Looking up the station's history
Looking up the mean of "place" in French
Making sure that "Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad" still exists in Paris
Deciding whether to translate "boulevard" into "大道" or "大街"
Making sure that Volgograd is a new name, not a reversion
Adding links
Translating (I insist that all my personal publication such as press release on my personal life, blog, photo website, and Facebook update must be bilingual in Chinese and English)
Reading the history of Uzbeg Khan because the Chinese Wikipedia says its capitcal was in modern day Volgograd. But the English Wikipedia doesn't say anything. It doesn't add any value to the caption above. But this is what can happen if I start doing it.

All three pictures to the right were taken in Macau. The reason for taking them is to capture the usage of traditional and simplified Chinese characters, and the decline of Portuguese. Although traditional Chinese is the official script, many commercial signs are written in simplified to attract tourists from Mainland. And this doesn't occur everywhere. Note that in the second picture, "hamburger" is written as "漢堡" with the traditional "漢". The same thing is written as "汉堡" with the simplified "汉" on the middle board. In the third picture, "McDonald's" is written with traditional characters "麥當勞" in the background, while "the Grand Canal Shoppes" is written with simplified characters "大运河购物中心" in the foreground. Portuguese is nowhere to be seen in these three pictures. Portuguese nowadays only appears on public facilities and official objects, for the most part. In addition, I found myself having to communicate in English with a waiter in a restaurant in a hotel. This made me ponder, why I had to speak a foreign language on Chinese land, and this foreign language isn't even one of the official languages of this special administrative region. Two things to ponder: 1. Nobody seems to care about the official language. 2. The invading force of a dominating language is undeniable. Right now Portuguese is not a language that needs to be preserved. What about official languages that used to be widely spoken, now almost extinct, and were added as one of the official languages for political or cultural preservation reasons?

It took me 32 minutes to caption the 3 photos above, as one story. Not much time was spent on finding data, but rather on forming my own thoughts.

Of course, I intentionally picked the photos that are story-rich as examples. Let's assume an average of 2 minutes per photo. It is not unusual that I take hundred of photos per trip. Now please multiply.

Megapixel Myth

2010-03-29T04:30:00.003Z

High megapixel value equates to better quality? Megapixel = quality?

If you search for "megapixel myth" on a search engine, you'll find many websites on this subject. In fact, there's an entire website dedicated to this. But most of these websites are text only, and full of technical jargons. Therefore, I decided to bust the myth with photos and simple language.

The devices I used to perform the comparison are Canon SD940 IS (a.k.a. Canon IXUS 120 in Asia and Europe) and the camera on the Nexus One phone. Canon has 12 MPs, set to 5 MPs during testing; Nexus is 5 MP.

Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)	Nexus One

Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)	Nexus One

Below are two photos taken by the two cameras at the same spot, almost at the same time:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)↑

↓Nexus One↓
↑Nexus One↑

When reduced to this small, both look great. But if you view them at their original size, that is using each pixel on your screen to display one pixel from the photos, we get these results:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 100%↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 100%↑

↓Nexus One, 100%↓
↑Nexus One, 100%↑

Obviously, Canon the real camera has much better quality. If enlarged at 300%, the contrast is even greater:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 300%↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 300%↑

↓Nexus One, 300%↓
↑Nexus One, 300%↑

Due to the web page layout, I cannot give you a more comprehensive comparison within the text. So I provide this side-by-side comparison. Click to enlarge and see the side-by-side:

I was very forgiving to the Nexus One by testing under broad daylight. The result would be catastrophic if under low light:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), hand held, no flash↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), hand held, no flash↑

↓Nexus One, hand held, the output would be the same with or without flash↓
↑Nexus One, hand held, the output would be the same with or without flash↑

You might be asking, "if MP doesn't mean quality, what does it mean?" It measures the size of the photo. It is the number of dots that make up the photo. A 5 MP photo is composed by 5 million dots. When a camera takes a photo, the following happens

Light ray shoots off from the object
These light rays enter the camera's lens
Lens causes refraction or reflection
After refraction, the light arrives at the sensor
You can imagine that a 5 MP camera has 5 million units of sensors, where each one must determine how much red, green, and blue is hitting itself

If the lens is bad, the number of MPs of the sensor is irrelevant because the sensor is behind the lens. If you want image quality, the basic requirements are

Good lens, no faulty refraction
High MP value
The photosensor must be accurate about the color and brightness

Therefore, high MP value is a necessary condition, but not the only condition. If you want to learn about the image quality, the only way is to judge from sample images from an objective web site.

How many MPs are enough? It depends on your ultimate output.

Viewed on a 19" screen → 1.3 MPs
4×6" print (10×15 cm) → 2.2 MPs
Viewed on a 26" screen → 2.3 MPs
A4 size print (29.7×21 cm) → 8.4 MPs
40×30 cm print →16.7 MPs

If a camera cannot be judged by a simplified number, can you judge a person by number? Can you evaluate a student by a standardized test score? Can you say how "achieved" a person is by his or her salary?

Translation is hard

2010-01-16T09:17:00.004Z

(This article assumes a certain level of Chinese proficiency from the readers)
In recent years, the Chinese translation of movie titles of movies produced in English speaking countries has become a laughing stock among the bilingual community. It is evident when articles like "超搞笑的港臺電影名翻譯", "片名的遊戲版本0.3 之一" (之二, 之三), and "香港台灣電影片名翻譯" all point to the same twisted translation practice employed by the three major Chinese speaking markets (Taiwan, Hong Kong + Macau, and Mainland). These articles have summarized that countless movie titles are merely permutations of

「魔鬼戰將戰警絕地追殺令追緝令火線無敵烈火超級終極任務悍將王牌致命終結令絕命危機總動員奇兵女兒閃靈神鬼迫切第三類戰士魔宮也瘋狂本色傳奇獵殺不可能終結者第六感情挑時空遊戲捍衛威龍小鬼赤子駭客惡夜毀滅最後英雄戰場桃色戰慄出擊擋不住攔截驚爆（點）特區帝國刺激特攻隊靈異奪命禁入時刻密碼戰拼圖我的野蠻心靈獵X行動星際霹靂特務魔法重裝殺手生死戀公敵百分百未眠辣妹控訴愛XXXX難開女（男）人香異想世界麻辣戰地」(at least this is the long standing pattern in Taiwan)

The following pirate movie and science fiction movie further illustrate the problem

Original:	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (1)	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2)	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (3)
Chinese (literal)	加勒比海海盜：黑珍珠的詛咒	加勒比海海盜：死人的（寶）箱	加勒比海海盜：在世界的盡頭
TW	神鬼奇航：鬼盜船魔咒	神鬼奇航2：加勒比海盜	神鬼奇航3：世界的盡頭
Reversal from TW	Devine and Ghostly Voyage: Curse of the Ghost Pirate Ship	Devine and Ghostly Voyage 2: Pirates of the Caribbean	Devine and Ghostly Voyage 3: World's End
HK	魔盜王決戰鬼盜船	加勒比海盜：決戰魔盜王	加勒比海盜：魔盜王終極之戰
Reversal from HK	Demon Thief Lord v.s. Ghostly Pirate Ship	Pirates of the Caribbean: Duel with the Demon Thief Lord	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Final Battle of the Demon Thief Lord
ML	加勒比海盜：黑珍珠號的詛咒	加勒比海盜2：聚魂棺	加勒比海盜3：世界的盡頭
Reversal from ML	Pirates of the Caribbean: (The) Curse of the Black Pear	Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Soul Collecting Coffin	Pirates of the Caribbean 3: World's End

原名：	The Matrix (1)	The Matrix Reloaded (2)	The Matrix Revolutions (3)
Chinese (literal)	矩陣	矩陣重新載入	矩陣革命
TW	駭客任務	駭客任務2：重裝上陣	駭客任務3：最後戰役
Reversal from TW	Hacker's Mission	Hacker's Mission 2: Heavily Rearmed for Battle	Hacker's Mission 3: The Final Battle
港澳翻譯	廿二世紀殺人網絡	廿二世紀殺人網絡2：決戰未來	廿二世紀殺人網絡3：驚變世紀
Reversal from HK	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century 2: Battle of/for the Future	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century 3: The Century of Startling Changes
大陸翻譯	黑客帝國	黑客帝國2：重裝上陣	黑客帝國3：矩陣革命
Reversal from ML	Empire of Hackers	Empire of Hackers 2: Heavily Rearmed for Battle	Empire of Hackers 3: Revolution of the Matrix

In my opinion, other worse examples include

Speed = distance ÷ time

Hancock→台：全民超人、港：街頭超人、陸：全民超人漢考克
I, Robot→台：機械公敵、港：智能叛變、陸：我，機械人
Speed (1994)→台：捍衛戰警、港：生死時速、陸：生死時速
The Rock→台：絕地任務、港：石破天驚、陸：勇闖奪命島

Although these translations are crappy, I must point out that good ones are hard to come by. And the 4 examples above are the perfect proof. Can you provide a better one?

Many bilingual people like to mock these translations. But has anyone analyze what makes good translation so hard?

One important factor is the differentiation between "literary" (L) and "colloquial" (C) in the Chinese language. There's a phenomenon among southern Chinese dialects called the "literary and colloquial readings" (文白異讀), that is the same character has a reading in a literary context, and another in a colloquial context. Using Min Nan which has the most number of such differentiations as an example, the reading from 1 to 10 are

Character	一 1	二 2	三 3	四 4	五 5	六 6	七 7	八 8	九 9	十 10
Lit.	it	jī/lī	sàm	sù	ngó͘	lio̍k	chhit	pat	kiú	si̍p
Col.	chi̍t	nn̄g	saⁿ	sì	gō͘	la̍k	(as above)	peh/pəeh	káu	cha̍p

(Note: Some special diacritics cannot be displayed in IEor Google Chrome. Firefox can)

When describing monetary amount, the colloquial reading is used. The "一" in "一百塊" is read as "chi̍t". When describing a telephone number, like "0912", it is read as the litarary reading "空kiú it lī". In addition, even a character as simple "人" (person/people) is read differently in "有人" ("there's a person") and "人民" ("people" in a socio-political context). The primary cause such differentiation is that colloquial readings are inherited from some time between the Three Kingdom (三國) period and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (南北朝) (220-589 AD), while the literary reading is a result of southern Chinese trying to imitate the northern standard dialect during the Tang (唐) Dynasty (618-907).

So what does the "differentiation between L and C" (文白異讀, DbLC) have to do with translation of modern English movie titles? Although DbLC is (almost) non-existing in Mandarin, the distinction still exists in people's mind. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a New Culture Movement (新文化運動) some 90 years ago. That is to say it was not long ago when the educated Chinese population during the Ming (明) and the Qing (清) Dynasties (1368-1911) wrote literary text by imitating classical Chinese from the Qin (秦) and Han (漢) Dynasties (221 BC - 220 CE).

The title "I, Robot" is translated as "機械公敵" (Robotic Enemy of the States. Yes, 公敵 is part of it only because Will Smith played the protagonist in Enemy of the State) in Taiwan, and "我，機械人" in Mainland. Although "機械公敵" is not exactly the same as the original title, any Chinese native speaker will tell you that this title is more suitable as a title of an artwork; Although "我，機械人" is exactly the same as the original title, any Chinese native speaker will tell you that this title is not as suitable as a title of an artwork. Hancock is another good example. There are many more examples, the easiest being titles with only one noun, like The Mask, The One, or The Pianist.

The distinction between literary and colloquial is more pronounced in Chinese than in English. Therefore, if the original English title is a very commonly used word, then you can only choose between something that is faithful but too colloquial or something that is polished but distorted. (Of course, commercial incentive is another important factor for this chaos.)

So being bilingual doesn't really qualify a person to laugh at these translations, albeit not ideal, without examining the fundamental differences between the two languages and the collective habit on the choice of words between the two groups of speakers. In addition, there's no point with mainlanders mocking Taiwanese translation such as "捍衛" and "總動員" as a ghost of the past from Chiang Kai-shek's era, nor is there point with Taiwanese mocking HK translation as some cheap erotic or mainlanders' translation too colloquial. None of them are good at this.

Now I'm done with English to Chinese. Let's move on to Chinese to English.

There's this one time when I found out from newspaper that a certain media or group of people make fun of "unofficial" translations of Chinese dishes before Beijing Tourism Administration published 中文菜單英文譯法 (English Translation of Chinese Dishes) during the Olympics. (Another news report, CNN report). The most frequently mocked examples of unofficial translations include

童子雞 → Chicken without sex life
麻婆豆腐 → Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman

Although such translation is indeed inappropriate, I must yet again question what the root cause is. I propose the following

Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language
English is a highly hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, the phonetic values are usually taken without looking at the meaning. (And if a borrowed word is written is Roman letters, then it is borrowed as-is)

Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language

When the Chinese world sees something alien, they usually first look at what it is, what its functions are, and what it means. Only when all those fail would the Chinese resort to phonetic borrowing. This phenomenon is quite unique in modern language transfusion. Even in Korean and Japanese, the two languages most influenced by Chinese, they both tend to borrow as-is in comparison to Chinese. These two languages are not as semantic oriented as Chinese.

JP	reading	KR	reading
エ	e	ㅅ	s
レ	re	ㄱ	g
ベ	he	ㄹ	l
ー	(long vowel)	ㅂ	b
タ	ta	ㅌ	t
コ	ko	final ㅇ	ng
ビ	bi	ㅡ	eu
ニ	ni	ㅏ	a
ス	su	ㅣ	i
ト	to	init. ㅇ	(silent)
ア	a	ㅔ	e
		ㅓ	eo

For example, elevator, invented in the West, is 電梯 in Chinese (tele-strair), "エレベーター" in Japanese (erebētā), and in Korean, it is sometimes "승강기", cognate to "昇降機" Chinese (elevator translated semantically), and sometimes "엘리베이터" (el li be i teo). Convenience store is "便利商店" in Chinese, a semantic translation, and "コンビニエンスストア" in Japanese (konbiniensu sutoa). Similar examples (where it's a semantic translation in Chinese and phonetic in Korean and Japanese) include escalator, remote control, allergy, and BlackBerry, the phone.

Because Chinese is a strongly semantic-oriented language, many Chinese use the same logic while exporting Chinese words. This is why 麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu) becomes "bean curd made by a pock-marked woman".

English is a high hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, they are usually borrowed as-is)

Sources of English words. Latin takes up 28%

On the contrary, there are numerous borrowed words. English is a member of the Germanic language. But as you can see from the pie chart, words from Germanic sources only take up 25%, while words from French and Latin encompass 28% each. Both of which are Latino-Faliscan languages, which are not so close to Germanic. Despite that, there are still many loan words from French and Latin. As a result, a concept can be represented by many different words. For example, "kingly", "regal", and "royal" all mean "of or relating to a king", and "kingly" is from Old English, "regal" is from Latin, and "royal" is from French (although ultimately also from "regalis" in Latin); "Water", "aqua", and "hydro" all represent water, and "water" is from Germanic, "aqua" from Latin, and "hydro" from Greek.

More examples:

Eng.	Chi.	Related	Chi.	Latin root	Meaning
body	身體	corporeal	有形體的	corpus	body
hand	手	manual	手動	manus	hand
fire	火	ignite	點火	ignis	fire
light	光	photon	光子	φως(希臘)	light
death	死亡	mortality	死亡	mors	death
year	年	annual	每年的	annus	year

What about Chinese things? "風水" is feng shui, not "wind water"; "豆腐" is tofu, fewer use "bean curd"; Even "炒麵" (fried noodles) is sometimes written as "chow mein" or "chao mian".

All the examples above point to one thing, that is English often borrows words directly as-is. Those that are unaware of this probably doesn't know "mapo" is acceptable.

White ____ ?

Diplomatic tussle: 'Aobama' or 'Oubama'? by The Washington Post is an unusual article about not politics, but linguistics. It shows the differences of opinion between the Americans and the (mainland) Chinese over some of the Chinese translation, which can be summarized as the follwing:

The Americans wants the Chinese to call White House "白屋" (lit. "white house"), and not the established "白宮" (lit. "white palace") because the U.S., as a federal republic, has no palace.

The Americans wants the Chinese to cal the current president "歐巴馬" (Ou-bama), where as the Chinese prefer "奧巴馬" (Ao-bama) because "奧" can mean "profound and deep" (深奧), and "歐" can mean Europe (歐洲). The Americans' rebuttal is that "歐" is closer to the actual pronunciation.

What do we see from this example? Although the Americans translators have learned the meaning of Chinese words and sentences, they are unaware of the distinction between literary and colloquial Chinese and the collective habit of native Chinese speakers. Second, both parties over-analyze the meaning of "歐" and "奧". In fact, either word carries only the phonetic value.

This article is quite long, but I have only 3 take-away points
The distinction between literary and colloquial words is stronger in Chinese than in English
Chinese is a strongly semantic-oriented language
English often borrows words directly as-is
Because of these reasons, translation can be a difficult task.

Learning a language is more than just knowing the meaning of words, mastering the grammar, and being able to live a life in that language. There's another layer of the cognitive process behind a language that needs to be understood.

english.com.tw

2008-09-20T14:50:00.002Z

The website says

English.com.tw = English(英語) + .com(網際網路) + .tw(台灣)
which translates back to English(English) + .com(Internet) + .tw(Taiwan)

This really opens my eyes. I've never known that .com stands for the Internet. I always thought that .com was intended for commercial use. This is really a self disgracing irony.

Archive of the website in question.

I don't want Chien-Ming Wang to be "Light of Taiwan"

2008-07-23T05:01:00.002Z

No, I don't want to be beaten by thousands of fans. In fact, I have great respect for people who have talents and work hard to earn their places. I'm not saying that against Chien-Ming Wang. I am against the second half "Light of Taiwan". Accepting this kind of saying is acceptance of the following two statements:

Major League Baseball of North America is better than the Chinese Professional Baseball League
Taiwanese participation in MLB is rare

Although the statements are true as it stands now, repeated use of the honorary title is the acceptance of the current state. It means that people are content with the current state. If the Taiwanese as a people have ambition of progress and improvement, they would try to negate the second statement first. Taiwanese now can be seen in many industries in the States, engineer, doctors, businesspeople. We don't call these people "Light of Taiwan". After the second statement becomes invalid, ambitious Taiwanese would invalidate the first statement. When both statements are false, nobody would call Chien-Ming Wang "Light of Taiwan". On the contrary, Americans would call any American professional athlete who work in Taiwan "Light of America". This is the status Taiwanese should seek.

2008 food price inflation

2008-06-27T16:10:00.003Z

"清之味" (roughly translates to "light flavor") sandwich from Nikomart, made from the best and nutritious ingredients!

And it really costs NT¥10 (US$0.33, €0.21 at the time of writing) only! (regular: NT¥15)

The interior ........................ seems a little .........

WTF? WTH is this? Pig food?

The two-party politics in the Republic of China

2008-04-09T11:55:00.001Z

It's not because of legislative violence, negotiations fail,
It's because negotiations fail, legislators fight so that they have an excuse.

The two parties don't earn support by doing something good,
They screw up something, and then manage to place the blame on the other party.

Shouting in Japanese at restaurants

2008-03-19T00:07:00.000Z

What is the reason that waiters and waitresses greet customers by shouting in Japanese at Japanese restaurants in Taipei? This phenomenon transcends food types, whether it's fondue or rice and dish. Taipei has the most diverse restaurants with cuisines from all over the world. But do you hear people shouting in Portuguese at a Brazilian barbeque, in Italian at an Italian pasta shop, in Cantonese at a dim sum restaurant, in English at McDonalds' or T.G.I.Fridays? For whatever reason, this is an unsymmetry.

Region coding for video or game

2008-03-13T16:28:00.001Z

I've wanted to complain about this long time ago. DVD, Blu-ray, or console game region coding is wrong.

I'm no economist, but there's one thing I remember from my economics class in college. "If a certain product can be used globally (e.g. medicine), and there are forces that prohibit the import/export of such product, then the following are the results compared to a completely free market.

Consumers are hurt
Producers gain extra benefit
If we combine the utility (happiness) of consumers and producers, the total utility is still less than that of a free market"

If you argue that medicine should be highly regulated, I can't deny that. But movies? Why can't a German buy an American movie while visiting the U.S., and bring the movie back and watch it at home? Or a South African wants to send a gift to someone in India? Region coding is just a scheme artificially created by big corporations to maximize profits. One key ingredient of profit maximization is price discrimination. Price discrimination is a blatant violation of consumers' right. Why is it that a customer is forced to buy a product from his/her region when and if there's a substitute that is close enough and cheaper from another region? If a customer is willing to pay for extra shipping cost and wait for extra shipping delay, who are we to take away his/her right to buy from other places? Yes, I know most things are priced differently everywhere. "Price discrimination" is more than "different prices". It's "difference price + you can't buy from other places". It is that I'm against.

Protection against piracy they say? How does this artificial barrier increase the difficulty for someone in region 1 to copy a region 1 disk, where the clone is also region 1? In practice, a simple PC nowadays can make region-free copies from a single-region disk! Region coding does not make piracy more difficult.

Some people would say "what's wrong with a company trying to make money? Isn't it their primary purpose?" Even so, companies are still members of this society. There are morals and laws to be followed. Everybody would agree that false advertisement is wrong, therefore laws are made so. Region coding is also wrong. The inability to watch/play something from another region is not a result of some natural economic or technological difficulty (e.g. shipping cost, or a DVD can't be read by a CD-ROM). The difficulty is intentionally created by people. The artificial barrier benefits a small number of corporations, at a greater cost for the consumers. This "rob from the poor, give to the rich". This can't be right. Furthermore, what pisses me off the most is the fact that I hear this kind of argument from consumers themselves! Why are you defending the other side while economists already prove that it's bad for the society?

Video and game region coding

costs more to the consumers than benefits to the producers (the society as a whole incurs loss)
does not prevent piracy
is a scheme cooked up by big corporation no other than profit maximization

What would you do when you …?

2008-03-09T08:42:00.000Z

Do you often hear expressions such as

"What would you do when you go to college?"
"What would you do when you work?"
"What would you do when you have a boy/girlfriend?"
"What would you do when you serve in the military?"
"What would you do when you are married?"

? Many people use this kind of expression to persuade another to change some current habits. Why do I have to make daily decisions now based on some future scenario? If my options are fewer in the future, I will adapt then. Why can't I utilize the larger number of options that I have now? This reminds me of someone I knew when I lived in a dorm. He doesn't want to clean up the room because "rich people hire housekeepers to do the clean up". The problem was he did not have any housekeeper at the time. If you persuade me with reasons such as health, hygiene, knowledge, frugality, or any the good morals, I'm willing to listen. But "What would you do when you …?" is not a convincing argument.

SNG unit report

2008-02-25T17:41:00.001Z

When you watch news on Taiwanese TV channels, do you often hear "John Du, SGN (satellite news gathering) unit report" or "Jane Du satellite report from Washington"? What I'm going to discuss is not the content of news because everyone knows just how bad it is. I'd like to discuss something technical, something applicable everywhere in the world.

As an audience, I don't care how the pictures are transmitted to my TV. What I care about are location and time. They usually show the location, although the precision is not completely satisfactory. Time is just as important as location. Since news is called "news", then they have the duty of showing how new the news is. Some SNG pictures are live, and then get recycled during the next hour, and over and over again. So what if they tell me it's SNG? I'd rather see time stamps that include full date and with the precision of minute. This is a very simple technology, yet it provides vital information. Many news reports involve A saying something, then B responding to A, and then C saying something. In this case, the ordering is very important. In addition, news shown in late night or early morning are usually rerun. And the news may include video recorded even earlier, possibly ranged from 4 to 20 hours ago. At this time, they must show two time stamps, anchor's time and the video's time. Furthermore, people who watch news at this time during the day usually don't have the sense of time. Showing time stamps help these people come to sense. And pictures captured in another time zone must include local time and the time in major broadcasting area.

Some people might think nobody would care about this, except geeks like me. But do you not see reporters' names included in news articles, printed and televised alike? Most of these people are not famous. Why? This is a form of responsible journalism. Showing time stamps is also a form of responsible journalism, as a proof of not falsifying the sequence of events, or misleading the audience.

Example

Mumbai, India
Picture in local time	5:30 PM 2/25/2008
Picture in Taipei time	8:00 PM 2/25/2008
Anchor's time	9:13 PM 2/25/2008
Now	1:13 AM 2/26/2008
(not lotto numbers)

Edison Chen sex photo incident — Part 2

2008-02-24T19:19:00.003Z

Many people have criticized the police for this incident, such as "everyone has seen it. What good is arresting a person or two" or unfair prioritization just because the victims are celebrities. About the first criticism, I have to criticize the criticizer. If spreading the photos in public is illegal, spreading them privately is legal, then the police were merely doing their job. They can go only as far as where the evidence is. The second criticism is understandable, but it's not excusable at the end of the day.

The following is that I have to criticize against the police. They've arrested some John Doe here and there. If spreading these photos publicly is illegal, then the first suspect that should be arrested is the newspaper or magazine that publishes the photos! So what if the important parts are censored, cropped, or covered by text? Selective prioritization is minor; Selective arrestment is no better than a bully!

Kosovo declaration of independence

2008-02-17T19:37:00.007Z

If you land here to read about Kosovo's act, then this is not the best place. I apologize in advance. I am no expert of Balkans' politics, but I do know that this event is important enough to be on the headline. It is between 1:19 AM and 3:37 AM on 2/18/2008 in Taipei (6:19 PM to 8:37 PM 2/17 in Kosovo, 12:19 PM to 2:37 PM 2/17 in New York) when I compose this blog post. Let's take a look at the front pages of news media inside and outside Taiwan.

BBC News

Financial Times

People's Daily

科索沃 = Kosovo, 独立 = independence

CNN

Le Monde

Yomiuri Shimbun

コソボ = Kosovo, 独立 = independence

In Taiwan
United Daily News

陳冠希 = Edison Chen

China Times

A political gossip related to the presidential election

Liberty Times

Unregistered helicopter "handcuffed"

Apple Daily

建仔 = 王建民 = Chien-Ming Wang

TVBS

入聯 = to join the UN

SET

An old man (grandpa) spent a night in a night club with no money at all. He had to strip and leave all clothes as collateral.

CTI

Just a "real time" news ticker. No sign of Kosovo.

Eastern Television

陳冠希 = Edison Chen

Era News

Drunk man hit mom

Formosa TV News

錯誤 = error

Edison Chen sex photo incident — Part 1

2008-02-14T04:03:00.005Z

      Edison Chen
      Cecilia Cheung
      Gillian Chung
      Bobo Chan
      Hong Kong Discuss Forum

The Edison Chen sex photo incident has drawn massive media attention recently. Google Trends shows a huge increase of searches for the parties involved (right). I didn't want to comment on this issue because it is just a gossip by its very nature, a big gossip. But there is one thing I can't stand and must say. Edison Chen and some of the other celebrities have publicly apologize. What is there to apologize? These people are victims of a criminal activity! The person who spreads these images and videos without permission should apologize. If you can tell me how that two (or more) consenting adults taking sex photo is illegal or unethical, I will shut up forever. Chen was also pulled from a new movie as a result of this incident. He is a victim too. Why should anyone take away his employment opportunity? If somebody stole your privacy, and your boss fired you because of it, what would you think?

This makes me remember another thing. A student was raped, and the school expelled the student in the name of "damaging the school's reputation". This is preposterous. These examples expose a distorted belief in this society. That is if a criminal activity involves sex, then the victim is also questionable.

These celebrities don't need to apologize. They have done nothing wrong. They should be angry and condemn. This incident is in the same class as leaked private financial or medical records.

TWY

2008-01-18T05:44:00.001Z

I think the translation of the Taiwanese currency should be "yuan", not "dollar". The symbol should be ¥ and not $.

Why is "圓" (yuan) sometimes translated as "dollar" (e.g. Hong Kong dollar), "dollar" translated as "圓" (United States dollar in Chinese)? It is not without reasons. In late 19th century and early 20th century, the world was divided into a handful of monetary regions. The dollar, peso, yuan, won, yen regions can be considered as one because one of such unit was defined as approximately 27 grams of 90% pure silver. These countries gradually became unable to sustain silver standard or gold standard, and abandoned the standards around World War I. But the names of the currency units remained unchanged, for the most part. It was a chaotic period between 1911–1949 in Mainland China in terms of monetary history. Warlords were everywhere, and new banknotes were issued almost every year. When the character "圓" was printed on the front side, sometimes English translation with "yuan" was printed on the back, sometimes with "dollar". Yuan was more frequent than dollar. Therefore, I've proven that 圓 = yuan = dollar.


圓	yuan ↑ ↓dollar

Then why do I still advocate the use of yuan? Right now the currency unit of Mainland China, South Korea, and Japan are all cognates of the character 圓 (yuan). And they are respectively transliterated as "yuan", "won", and "yen", spelled as they are spoken. The fact that Hong Kong's 圓 is translated as dollar is because it was a British colony. However, Macau's 圓 is not translated yuan or dollar. It is "pataca" because pataca is the Portuguese word for peso. Taiwan was never colonized by an English speaking country in modern time. There is no reason to use the word "dollar". So we should use "yuan".

In addition, English has almost never been printed on banknotes since the issuance of the Taiwanese (old) "dollar" in 1946. But the first two series of the new Taiwanese "dollar" after 1949, the vertical series, had English translation with "YUAN" on the back. What else can be more official than banknotes? So my proposal is not without precedent.

If we were to use "yuan", then the symbol should be ¥.

Unfortunately, the ROC government in Taiwan, in recent decades, disregards the precedent of yuan. English documents and web pages use "dollar". Even the folder of the 1999 commemorative banknote for the 50th anniversary of the issuance of the new Taiwanese "dollar/yuan" had the word "dollar". This also exposes the ignorance of standardization in the Taiwanese society.

Taiwanese yuan, TW¥.

Unnecessary redundancy that is not needed

2008-01-16T05:01:00.000Z

Why is organizing photos a baffling ordeal?

2007-12-27T12:43:00.000Z

If you know me, you know that I like to take photos. I have two cameras, one of which is compact enough to fit in my pocket so that I can capture rare or interesting things at the spot. I know that people often wonder "when can I get your pictures?". Organizing photos is a demanding task for me. It's not just a simple matter of transferring files from the memory card to the hard drive. There are many other little tasks, and I will explain why

Photos

Exif

JPEG files produced by digital cameras usually contain Exif metadata (data about data). What it records includes a number of things such as time, aperture, shutter speed, orientation, and other camera settings.

Orientation

While taking photos with portrait orientation, Canon cameras still store the photo in landscape orientation, but flip the orientation information in Exif. As a result, not all software recognizes this method of orientation. Photoshop, ACDSee, Firefox, and IE don't recognize Exif orientation. So for maximum compatibility, I have to rotate these photos manually. There are many software that can do this. But most destroy or partially destroy the original Exif information. The only one that does not, at least for Canon-camera-captured photos, is Canon's own ZoomBrowser application.

Timestamp

As I said, Exif includes timestamp. The file system, NTFS in my case, also records timestamps. NTFS records the timestamps in UTC internally, and displays with user's time zone setting. When I change my system's time zone, the timestamps on my file system appear to shift as well. But this is not the case for the timestamps in Exif, as it is part of the file. I leverage this difference to indicate where the photo was taken, at least in what time zone. I make sure that the timestamp in Exif is the local time where the photo was taken, while the NTFS timestamp is in the time zone of my system. But wait, why am I telling you this? How does this impact my organizing photos? Rotating photos changes the NTFS timestamps. So I have to correct the NTFS timestamps after rotation using ACDSee.

Videos

Canon cameras capture videos in Motion JPEG, a compression scheme that doesn't really compress much. Therefore, videos must be recompressed. And my choice of codec is Xvid. Here are the steps that I must perform to convert MJPEG to Xvid.

Extract the audio (wav file) from the original video
Convert the wav file to mp3
Encode the video with Xvid as the video codec, and the mp3 as audio
Inspect the quality of the new video (watch two files side by side)
Validate that it is indeed encoded with Xvid and mp3
Restore the original time stamp
Delete the old copy and rename the new copy

Publishing

There are thousands of websites that provide photo service. But I'm not satisfied with any of them. The problem? Size and scale. These websites usually shrink the image size. If the size can be preserved, then most likely they limit your upload capacity. If you know me, then you would know that size and completeness is a big deal to me. There are no free online solutions for 9GiB of 8600+ files. What better place is there than my own hard drive? So I used JAlbum to generate HTML and thumbnails, then I host them with Apache. This process is also time consuming (computer time). I'm looking for alternatives.

Text description

People often ask me why I don't add text to the photos. I could, even with the complex process described above. But it's not the action of adding text that takes most of the time. It's the time spent on deciding what to write. If I were to write anything at all, I must look up the right references, provide background stories, and most important of all, write them in both Chinese and English. I tried this with my trip to Paris and England. And it proved to be a time consuming task as well.

Since it is a complicated process, it is best for me to accumulate the photos for a while and do them in batch. I can achieve economies of scale by performing the same tasks repeatedly in a shorter amount of time.

Wikipedia has everything

2007-12-11T20:11:00.000Z

Test card

Scale of large things

2007-12-10T22:04:00.000Z

We often hear "project A will cost $X million" or "something will cost $Y billion" on the news. Do we really understand how big these amounts are? Studies show that a group of people would spend a lot of time to decide how to spend a US$3000 budget, and relatively less on a multi million dollar budget. The reason is simple: we know how big US$3000 is. For your convenience, I've compiled a table of large monetary values. While I was doing this, I realized that the number of units sold is also a frequently mentioned figure on media. So without further ado,

Monetary
Source	Date	Thing	US$	TW¥	CN¥
IMF thru Wikipedia	2006	Nominal GDP of the World	48.25 tr.	1559.77 tr.	356.82 tr.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of the U.S.A.	13.19 tr.	426.58 tr.	97.59 tr.
White House	2007	Outlays of the U.S. Federal Government	2.78 tr.	89.85 tr.	20.55 tr.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of the P.R.C.	2.64 tr.	85.50 tr.	19.56 tr.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of France	2.25 tr.	72.81 tr.	16.66 tr.
HM Treasury	2007	U.K. Government expenditure	1.20 tr.	38.70 tr.	8.85 tr.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of the R.O.C.	364.56 b.	11.79 tr.	2.70 tr.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Singapore	132.16 b.	4.27 tr.	977.42 b.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Vietnam	61.00 b.	1.97 tr.	451.12 b.
Forbes	2007	Bill Gate's net worth	59.00 b.	1.91 tr.	436.36 b.
Yahoo Finance	2007	Microsoft's revenue	54.07 b.	1.75 tr.	399.90 b.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accouting and Statistics, Executive Yuan	2007	Outlays of the R.O.C. central government	51.46 b.	1.66 tr.	380.62 b.
Yahoo Finance	2007	Microsoft's gross profit	40.43 b.	1.31 tr.	299.02 b.
Yahoo Finance	2007	Amazon's revenue	13.15 b.	425.14 b.	97.26 b.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Brunei	11.56 b.	373.77 b.	85.51 b.
Apprentice 505	2006	Cruise line industry	10.00 b.	323.30 b.	73.96 b.
NY MTA	2007	Total operating budget of NY MTA	9.72 b.	314.09 b.	71.85 b.
Apprentice 504	2006	Americans spend this much on cereal	6.00 b.	193.98 b.	44.38 b.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Madagascar	5.50 b.	177.78 b.	40.67 b.
Department of Budget, Accounting, & Statistics, Taipei	2007	Taipei government expenditure	4.39 b.	142.05 b.	32.50 b.
Yahoo Finance	2007	Amazon's gross profit	2.46 b.	79.53 b.	18.19 b.
Washington Metro	2007	Budget of 2007	1.89 b.	61.14 b.	13.99 b.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Eritrea	1.16 b.	37.50 b.	8.58 b.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Liberia	614.00 m.	19.85 b.	4.54 b.
Yahoo Movie	1997	Cumm. gross of the movie Titanic	600.79 m.	19.42 b.	4.44 b.
Yahoo Movie	2004	Cumm. gross of the movie Shrek 2	441.23 m.	14.26 b.	3.26 b.
Reuters thru Wikipedia	2007	Official list price of Airbus A380	319.20 m.	10.32 b.	2.36 b.
Taipei MRT	2006	Revenue of Taipei MRT	311.78 m.	10.08 b.	2.31 b.
Yahoo Movie	2003	Cumm. gross of X2: X-Men United	214.95 m.	6.95 b.	1.59 b.
NY MTA	2004	Long Island bus operating budget	100.60 m.	3.25 b.	744.04 m.
Department of RTS, Taipei	1988-2006	Per km cost of high volume lines (Taipei MRT)	89.58 m.	2.90 b.	662.51 m.
IMF	2006	Nominal GDP of Kiribati	70.00 m.	2.26 b.	517.72 m.
Taipei MRT	2006	Pre-tax profit of Taipei MRT	31.55 m.	1.02 b.	233.34 m.

Unit
Source	Start	End	Thing	Unit
ITWorld.com thru Wikipedia	2001/10/25	2006/1/15	Windows XP	400.00 m.
Sony thru Wikipedia	2000/3/4	2007/9/20	PS2 Worldwide	120.00 m.
Wikipedia	2001/10/23	2007/10/15	All iPods	119.00 m.
Sony thru Wikipedia	1994/12/3		PS	102.49 m.
Wikipedia	1983/7/15		NES	61.79 m.
Motorola thru Wikipedia	2004/11/8	2006/7/18	RAZR V3	50.00 m.
Nintendo thru Wikipedia	1990/11/21		SNES	49.00 m.
gamecubicle.com thru Wikipedia	1985/9/13		Super Mario (All-stars excluded)	40.24 m.
GameDaily Biz thru Wikipedia	2000/10/26	2007/9/13	PS2 US	39.10 m.
Nintendo thru Wikipedia	1996/6/23	2005/3/31	Nintendo 64	32.93 m.
Wired thru Wikipedia	1988/10/29		Sega Genesis (Mega Drive)	29.00 m.
Xbox.com thru Wikipedia	2001/11/15	2006/5/10	Xbox	24.00 m.
Nintendo thru Wikipedia	2001/9/14	2007/9/30	GameCube	21.66 m.
ownt.com thru Wikipedia	1988/10/23		Super Mario 3 (All-stars excluded)	18.00 m.
Punch Jump thru Wikipedia	2005/11/22	2007/9/30	Xbox 360 Worldwide	13.40 m.
Nintendo thru Wikipedia	2006/11/19		Wii	13.17 m.
GamePro thru Wikipedia	1998/11/27		Dreamcast	10.60 m.
IGN thru Wikipedia	1998/4/1		StarCraft	9.50 m.
GameDaily Biz thru Wikipedia	2005/11/22	2007/9/13	Xbox 360 US	6.30 m.
Sony thru Wikipedia	2006/11/11	2007/9/30	PS3	5.59 m.

Note: Using the following exchange rates
US$ = TW¥ 32.33
GB£ = US$ 2.03947
US$ = CN¥ 7.396

Vegetables

2007-11-25T16:14:00.000Z

Year 1997
People: "You eat vegetables!? I didn't know you eat vegetables."
Me: "Yes, I do."

Year 2007
People: "You eat vegetables!? I didn't know you eat vegetables."
Me: "Yes, I do."

Year 2017
People: "You eat vegetables!? I didn't know you eat vegetables."
Me: "Yes, I do."

Bracket

2007-11-25T16:08:00.002Z

I think brackets should be used in regular writings, where appropriate. For example, in the article "Free My Phone" that I posed earlier, it says

breaking the link between (the producers of goods and services) and (the people who use them)

If the brackets were omitted, it could be interpreted as

breaking [the link (between the producers of goods and services)] and (the people who use them)

which is wrong.

Let me give another example that is more relevant to our daily life: "Combo meal includes beverage, desert, soup or fries". Which one is it?

(beverage, desert, soup) or fries. (3 or 1 item)
beverage, desert, (soup or fries). (always 3 items)

Let me give yet another example from a computer game

red (wolf meat). (the meat is red)
(red wolf) meat. (the wolf is red)

In fact, Civilization IV has adopted the use of brackets when appropriate to describe tech tree prerequisites. For example, fiber optics requires "computers and (plastics or satellites)".

Free My Phone

2007-10-30T00:01:00.000Z

One day I read this article written by Walt Mossberg, the principal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, on October 21, 2007 about the ridiculous cell phone market system in the U.S.. The original article is here (contains video). For your convenience, I've added Wikipedia links here.

Suppose you own a Dell computer, and you decide to replace it with a Sony. You don’t have to get the permission of your Internet service provider to do so, or even tell the provider about it. You can just pack up the old machine and set up the new one.

Now, suppose your new computer came with a particular Web browser or online music service, but you’d prefer a different one. You can just download and install the new software, and uninstall the old one. You can sign up for a new music service and cancel the old one. And, once again, you don’t need to even notify your Internet provider, let alone seek its permission.

Oh, and the developers of such computers, software and services can offer you their products directly, without going through the Internet provider, without getting the provider’s approval, and without giving the provider a penny. The Internet provider gets paid simply for its contribution to the mix: providing your Internet connection. But, for all practical purposes, it doesn’t control what is connected to the network, or carried over the network.

This is the way digital capitalism should work, and, in the case of the mass-market personal-computer industry, and the modern Internet, it has created one of the greatest technological revolutions in human history, as well as one of the greatest spurts of wealth creation and of consumer empowerment.

So, it’s intolerable that the same country that produced all this has trapped its citizens in a backward, stifling system when it comes to the next great technology platform, the cellphone.

A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer.

Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, it’s hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes. While power in other technology sectors flows to consumers and nimble entrepreneurs, in the cellphone arena it remains squarely in the hands of the giant carriers.

The Soviet Ministry Model

That’s why I refer to the big cellphone carriers as the “Soviet ministries.” Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between (the producers of goods and services) and (the people who use them).

To some extent, they try to replace the market system, and, like the real Soviet ministries, they are a lousy substitute. They decide what phones can be used on their networks and what software and services can be offered on those phones. They require the hardware and software makers to tailor their products to meet the carriers’ specifications, not just so they work properly on the network, but so they promote the carriers’ brands and their various add-on services.

Let me be clear: Any company that spends billions to build and maintain a wireless network deserves to be paid for its use, and deserves to make a profit and a return for its shareholders. Not only that, but companies like Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. should be free to build or sell phones or software or services.

What Is Needed

But, in my view, they shouldn’t be allowed to pick and choose what phones run on their networks, and what software and services run on those phones. We need a wireless mobile device ecosystem that mirrors the PC/Internet ecosystem, one where the consumers’ purchase of network capacity is separate from their purchase of the hardware and software they use on that network. It will take government action, or some disruptive technology or business innovation, to get us there.

To my knowledge, only one phone maker, Apple Inc., has been permitted to introduce a cellphone with the cooperation of a U.S. carrier without that carrier having any say in the hardware and software design of the product. And that one example, the iPhone, was a special case, because Apple is currently the hottest digital brand on earth, with its own multibillion-dollar online and physical retail network.

Even so, Apple had to make a deal with the devil to gain the freedom to offer an unimpaired product directly to users. It gave AT&T exclusive rights to be the iPhone’s U.S. network for an undisclosed period of years. It has locked and relocked the phone to make sure consumers can’t override that restriction. This arrangement reportedly brings Apple regular fees from AT&T, but penalizes people who live in areas with poor AT&T coverage.

Apple has also, so far, barred users from installing third-party programs on the iPhone, though the company announced last week it will open the phone to such programs early next year. (Web-based iPhone programs–those that run inside the Web browser–have been available from day one.)

These restrictions have rubbed some of the luster off the best-designed handheld computer ever made.

A few other “smart phones” sold primarily to businesses have been freer of carrier restrictions on third-party software and services than typical cellphones. But even these handsets, such as Palm Trēos, Windows Mobile devices, and BlackBerrys, have been partly crippled by carriers in some cases.

As a technology reviewer, I have met with multiple small companies that had trouble getting their programs onto consumers’ phones without the permission of the carriers; getting that permission often requires paying the carriers. Sure, there are some clumsy workarounds that can evade the carrier barrier, but it’s nothing like the ability small software companies have had for decades to offer their products for installation on Windows or Macintosh computers.

We also need much greater portability of phone hardware. Because the federal government failed to set a standard for wireless phone technology years ago, we have two major, incompatible cellphone technologies in the U.S. Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. use something called CDMA. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile use something called GSM. Except for a couple of oddball models, phones built for one of these technologies can’t work on the other. So that limits consumer choice and consumer power. If you want to switch from AT&T to Verizon, you have to swallow the cost of a new phone.

But the problem is even worse. The government didn’t require the CDMA companies to include a removable account-information chip, called a SIM card, in their phones. So, unlike people with GSM phones, Sprint and Verizon customers can’t keep their phones if they switch between the two carriers, even though they use the same basic technology. And, the government allows the GSM carriers to “lock” their phones, so a SIM card from a rival carrier won’t work in them, at least for a period of time. Techies can sometimes figure out how to get around this, but average folks can’t.

The carriers defend these restrictions partly by pointing out that they subsidize the cost of the phones in order to get you to use their networks. That’s also, they say, why they require contracts and charge early-termination fees. Without the subsidies, they say, that $99 phone might be $299, so it’s only fair to keep you from fleeing their networks, at least too quickly.

But this whole cellphone subsidy game is an archaic remnant of the days when mobile phones were costly novelties. Today, subsidies are a trap for consumers. If subsidies were removed, along with the restrictions that flow from them, the market would quickly produce cheap phones, just as it has produced cheap, unsubsidized versions of every other digital product, from $399 computers to $79 iPods.

The Federal Communications Commission is selling some new wireless spectrum that will supposedly lead to fewer restrictions for technology companies and consumers, but it’s far from certain that the carriers, with their legions of lobbyists and lawyers, will allow such a new day to dawn. Google Inc. is making noises about trying to bust open the cellphone prison, with new software and services, but that’s no sure bet either.

Remember Landlines?

We’ve been through this before in the U.S., though many younger readers may not recall it.

Up until the 1970s, when the federal government intervened, you weren’t allowed to buy your own landline phone, and companies weren’t able to innovate, on price or features, in making and selling phones to the public. All Americans were forced to rent clumsy phones made by a subsidiary of the monopoly phone company, AT&T, which claimed that, unless it controlled what was connected to its network, the network might suffer.

Well, the government pried that market open, and the wired phone network not only didn’t collapse, it became more useful and versatile, allowing, among other things, cheap connections to online data services.

I suspect that if the government, or some disruptive innovation, breaks the crippling power that the wireless carriers exert today, the free market will deliver a similar happy ending.

Email me at mossberg@wsj.com.

Move log

2007-08-28T05:16:00.000Z

Time	One ... to another ...	in/on the same ...
1996 beginning of the year	One apartment building to another	in the same city
1996 summer	One continent to another	on the same planet
1997 summer	One room to another	in the same building
1997 end of the year	One apartment building to another	in the same city
1998 summer	One room to another	in the same building
1999 summer	One city to another	in the same country
2000 summer	One apartment building to another	in the same city
2002 summer	One apartment building to another	in the same city
2005 summer	One city to another	in the same country
2005 autumn	One apartment to another	in the same building
2007 end of the year	One continent to another	on the same planet

Indomie Mi Goreng

2007-08-22T01:38:00.000Z

Indomie Mi Goreng has a MySpace page! (Scroll down to see two people eating 4 packs each.)

Hypercorrection

2007-08-16T09:26:00.001Z

I have a tendency of hypercorrection with language. For example, "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put!" (no preposition at the end of a clause). Since English is not my native language, real examples are best illustrated in Chinese.

One example I can think of in English is the refusal of using redundant acronyms, such as "PIN number" and "ATM machine".

Picky eating kids

2007-08-16T07:33:00.000Z

When kids (say 5 to 8) are picky on the dining table, parents usually say "Did you know? Many people in the world don't even have enough food…". And the kids would say "Then we should give them what I don't want to eat". Does this sound familiar? The reason that this repeatedly happens is because kids think in this way

Some people don't have enough food → this is a problem → the solution is to give them food → I happen to have some I don't want

But the adults think like this

Some people don't have enough food → what if I was in that position …

The missing link is "what if I was in that position". Most kids of age 5 to 8 cannot put themselves in others' shoes and think. This is a proven fact in psychology.

In fact, parents make exactly the same mistake in this scenario. Parents do not think "what if I was a 5-year-old…"

Breast implant and dental braces

2007-07-24T08:14:00.001Z

I have the same attitude toward breast implant and dental braces.

A tale of souls and swords, and ridiculous breasts

2007-07-10T07:49:00.001Z

...And it wouldn't be a Soul Calibur without some lass with crazy huge mammaries. Though in this installment, Namco has opted to give the already impressively big Ivy a next-gen boob boost. You can see the difference below. And what's with that costume, anyway? More...

Gary Brolsma (aka The Numa Numa Guy)

2007-07-02T00:35:00.000Z

Gary Brolsma (aka The Numa Numa Guy) is know for lip-synching Dragostea din tei while dancing in front of a web cam.

Hardest Super Mario

2007-06-28T13:35:00.000Z

These videos are not work-safe.

Large numbers and East Asian languages

2007-06-20T04:45:00.001Z

A large number is usually written with commas separating every 3 digits (e.g. 123,456,789). The system is established this way only because many western languages have a decimal superbase of 1000. That is to say there are no new names for powers of 10 between one thousand (10³) and one million (10⁶). 10⁵ is constructed with 10²×10³. This is not the case for Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. These languages have a decimal superbase of 10000. So a large number like 123456789 should be written as 1,2345,6789. Different languages have different standards. The following table is a simplified illustration of the major standards in the world.

Country	Standard
France, much of Latin Europe	123 456 789,00
Germany, the Netherlands	123.456.789,00
the U.K., the U.S.	123,456,789.00
India	12,34,56,789

(more details at here)

In the past, financial and accounting industries in the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese speaking countries have employed the U.K./U.S. standard. It is understandable when computer systems had little resources for such customization. But now Windows and Mac OS have been completely translated. Windows even supports various decimal separating schemes described above, including the Indian numeral system (see screenshot). I have to wonder why isn't the East Asian scheme supported. I am disappointed in two groups of people because of this.

Microsoft.
They're supposed to be the leader of software localization. They have failed to do it.

Speakers of these three East Asian languages.
Just because some people who work in the financial industry or some of the bilingual people are accustomed to the U.K./U.S. format does not justify its usage in these three language. There is not enough root-grass demand for a change.

By the way, Vietnamese has a superbase of 1000.

See also 數字多位分節之我見.

This has been debated on the style guide discussion on the Chinese Wikipedia. I will counter some of the arguments against the "a-comma-per-4-digit" scheme.

Hindu-Arabic numeral isn't a Chinese thing to begin with

No, it is not. But it isn't a European thing in the beginning either. The Europeans adopted it and eventually the thousand separator evolved out of need and natural linguistic construction. And the Indians use a system different from the Europeans'? Why? Because it's how they say it!

A comma for every three digit is an established world standard

Wrong! As the table above shows, there are several standards.

Chinese pride has blinded your judgment

If there were any blind pride, I would argue not to use any Hindu-Arabic numeral at all in the first place.

Chinese speakers are accustomed to read and write the U.K/U.S. system

It is so only because there has not been any alternative. Trust me, if you're a native Chinese speaker and you start reading and writing like 1,2345,6789, you will get used to 4-digit-per-comma very soon. Imagine this:

Item	Numeral, U.K/U.S.	Numeral, Chinese	Chinese
Population of Taipei	260,0000	260,0000	260 萬
Population of Taiwan	23,000,000	2300,0000	2300 萬
Population of China	1,300,000,000	13,0000,0000	13 億

Now, which one is more natural?

Safari for Windows

2007-06-20T04:42:00.000Z

Safari for Windows was released on 2007-06-11. It has some serious problem with internationalization. It doesn't display Indic scripts.

Safari

Firefox

In addition, when a page contains mixture of traditional and simplified Chinese characters, two different fonts are used. For the example on the right, the simplified characters 维 and 历 are rendered in Ming font, while the traditional characters (or characters common to both systems) are rendered in sans-serif. Apple can probably get away with internationalization because their website says so.

Usability issue: Hotkey Ctrl-+, Ctrl--, and Ctrl-0 for enlarging or shrinking font size don't work. Pressing enter after clicking on a radio button doesn't submit the form. It crashed within 5 minutes I started using, and continue to crash later.

Google Maps

2007-06-20T04:41:00.000Z

Try searching for the driving direction from Boston to Paris on Google Maps.

Blue Screen of Death

2007-06-20T04:40:00.000Z

Seoul Subway

New York Subway

Blue Screen of Death

Google Earth Taipei road map

2007-05-24T04:41:00.000Z

Google Earth now has Taipei road map!! Including lanes (巷) and alleys (弄)!

So does Google Maps. It also has MRT routes.

Did you know?

2007-05-22T02:52:00.001Z

White Chicks and Gang Signs

2007-05-13T21:23:00.001Z

Don't do that please, I beg you. This applies to everyone, not just white chicks.

Gapminder

2007-04-29T10:39:00.000Z

People usually want to live in the comfort of their own belief and stereotypes. And media, to attract more audience, would fall into the vicious cycle of presenting exaggerated stories, making stereotypes, and back and forth. In an age when the amount of information is increasing exponentially, we must not only read carefully edited news, but also the raw data. Some of the latter task can be aided by technologies now.

Hans Rosling's 21 min. talk at the 2006 TED Conference in Monterey, CA highlighting novel ways of presenting global statistics.

Search statistics through Google and watch it move with Gapminder. Google Subscribed Links makes it possible to search deep into Gapminder's moving graphs visualizing world development. Spring 2006.
Subscribe
Go straight to the graph

A presentation for UNDP Human Development Report 2005 in English and some other languages. Human Development Trends was produced in 2005. Available in English, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish & Swedish.
Download

Related links

Wide screen

2007-04-27T06:41:00.000Z

In recent years, there is an increasing trend to advertise "wide screen" on laptops. It seems that a wider screen shows more than a narrow screen. But it's all relative. One can say that a wide screen is a short screen, and a narrow screen is a tall screen. And I personally prefer tall screen over wide screen on a laptop. Why? The price of a LCD display is approximately proportional to its size and the number of pixel. For example, Dell 2007FP (20.1", 1600×1200 = 1.92 megapixels) is US$379 on PriceGrabber, and Dell 2007FWP (20.1", 1680×1050 = 1.764 megapixels) is US$369.95 on PriceGrabber. So if I'm paying roughly the same amount, I'd like to have as many pixels as possible. The number of pixels here is not really the simple product of the height and the width. It's how many are actually utilized. Most websites are built to be 800×600-friendly, and most sites have vertical scroll. If my screen width is larger than 800, then it is likely that I'm "wasting pixels" on the left and right, although enough websites are multi-resolution-friendly. Most blogs are fixed width. By the same token, many contemporary DVDs video have a aspect ratio of 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. On a screen that is 4:3 (or 1⅓:1), there would be black areas on the top and bottom. These are the two major cases where the pixels are wasted. And I have to ask myself, which one scenario is more common for myself? It's websites. When I'm reading a web page, what good is the extra 80 pixels on the horizontal axis, while I could have 150 extra pixels on the vertical axis, and possibly avoid some scrolling?

You may have a different use case. But you have to think about it for yourself. Marketing people do not have your best interest in mind.

Why is my life boring?

2007-04-07T15:14:00.000Z

Two reasons.

I insist on doing the right thing
I insist on efficiency, consistency, and completeness

As a result, I spend so much time upholding these two principles, and I don't have time for anything else. Or my life has become so routine because of efficiency. So when people ask me on Monday how my weekend was, I don't know how to answer because any answer I can give would be the same as the answer I gave last week, and it would be boring. What am I talking about? This is best illustrated by examples

I eat the same food over and over again. This is a result of evaluating all kinds of factors like price, lead time and tastiness. It doesn't matter what my metric is. The point is because I insist on the optimal solution, I end up eating the same thing. If I deviate from the routine pattern, it would violate the optimality.
I keep all the mail from charity organization. I hope that one day I can donate to them all because this is the right thing to do. Also, I have to spend time eliminating the duplicate mail from the same organization, otherwise my space is not efficiently utilized.
I keep all the coupons from all kinds of restaurants hoping that one day I can use them. Saving is a good virtue. But I have to eliminate the ones that expire. Time is spent on that.
I write blog, like many others do. But when I write my blog, I have to do it in two languages because some of my audience prefer English over Chinese, while some others prefer the other way around. And because I want to write something meaningful and original, and don't want to have silly things like "I'm just eat two burgers and I'm still hungry, hahaha", I spend so much time thinking about my arguments, evidence to back up my claim, background research, and even proper links to Wikipedia and correct HTML syntax.
I keep my address book clean, to a degree that somebody would call obsessive. But all I'm trying to do is for completeness and correctness. All I need is a complete current address (many of my friends have to provide two, on in the U.S., one in Taiwan), land line phone number, cell phone number, email, IM IDs. Also, I need to make customized portraits for my own cell phone. As a result, people just come to me for contact information. What am I? Yellow book?
When I see some interesting thing on the internet such as videos or photo collection, I am obligated to download them. I hope that I can go back and re-enjoy them some time in the future, reuse them for creative work, share them to people I know, or just for the record. This means that I have to spend time actually downloading them, categorize them properly. Sometimes I have to write code to perform massive download, or by brute force manual effort. Maintaining them is also a tremendous effort, such as removing duplicate copies. Duplicate copy is fine, it's the "almost identical" copy that causes the trouble. A video can be as long as 40 minutes, and I have to watch two copies side by side simultaneously to compare the quality. After all, maintain the best quality is the right thing to do, and removing unnecessary copies is an efficient utilization of my disk.
I have obtained many DVDs in a relatively cheap method. But now I have a huge backlog of unwatched DVDs. I feel like watching these DVDs has become a responsibility. If I don't watch them, then the effort I spent on obtaining them cheaply would be a waste. That would be a contradiction. But I just don't have the time. And I have to watch DVD and eat at the same time. If I did two things separately which could be done simultaneously, it would be inefficient. Now that DVD watching has become a scheduled activity.
When I share my photos, I strive for completeness. I don't use online photo gallery service because they always have limits. I use my own computer as a server to serve the 7500 photos that I have to share. But every time there is an update, the gallery has to be rebuilt in different languages and it takes an hour. And before generating the gallery, I have to categorize the new photos properly, and make sure that the time stamp is correct.
I spent so much time on Wikipedia because it is the right thing to contribute.
My electricity company offers automatic debit from checking account, or one-time credit card payment. If I go with the automatic debit, I would lose interest and the opportunity to build up my credit. To optimize, I have to manually go through the payment process every month.
When I play video games, such as an RPG, I have to optimize my character. That means I have to do external analysis, usually with many Excel work sheets. The beginning would be very difficult. What is supposed to be an entertainment has become a math problem.

These are a few examples where my time is spent. This is why my life is boring. This reminds me an interesting saying: "America is a boring heaven, Taiwan is a happy hell". Americans do make more money, probably because American works are more efficient so more things get done. But at the same American life is boring and routine, just like my life is. Go to work, go home, watch TV. Taiwanese life has much more varieties. There are many things to do after work. And many things are 24 hours. Maybe it is also because a portion of the work force is dedicated to those 24 hour operations, Taiwanese don't make as much as a whole. It's off the topic. Let me give another example. American politics is boring because these politicians are doing the right thing (more or less). Perhaps more laws are passed and the citizens are more protected. But C-SPAN is boring. In contrast, Taiwanese politics is like a soap opera. Nothing gets passed in the legislative body, but the news is much more interesting.

Bottom line, efficiency and doing the right thing is an incompatible concept with an interesting life. How do you balance the two?

P.S. I spent 4 hours writing this (including translation and proof reading).

Suggestions to the denomination lineup of the United States dollar

2007-02-26T12:06:00.001Z

Currently the commonly used denominations of the United States dollar are 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, $1, $5, $10, and $20. Other currencies may have other kinds of arrangement. One must wonder if there is a better lineup than this seemly arbitrary one. In this post, I present you my sincere suggestions as a 6.5 year long currency collector.

Eliminate the penny

What is the optimal smallest unit of cash transaction or accounting? Economic theory dictates that the smaller the smallest unit, the more it stimulates competition, which is a good thing. But this unit cannot go indefinitely small, as there are also cost associated with handling and counting these petty units. Such cost includes labor counting, wrapping, and distributing. There are good arguments and counterarguments at this Wikipedia article - Efforts to eliminate the penny in the United States, which I will summarize here

cost of production
It costs more than the face value now. Prices of all metal have been increasing at an alarming pace in the past 5 years. See here.
Distribution costs
It costs 3¢ per penny.
Lost productivity and opportunity cost of use
With the average wage, it takes 2 seconds to earn 1¢.
Limited utility
Many vending machines and bus fare machines do not accept pennies.

Some people are worried about the additional inflation this action may bring. However, if the merchants do not change prices during the switchover, the statistical experiments show that the impact is extremely low to customers. Wikipedia quotes study which concludes a 1/40 cent per transaction gain to the customers. Another similar study conducted for Canada shows that with 1 item the rounding produces less than 0.06 cent of impact per transaction in average, and even less with more items.

But ultimately, it comes down to the cost/benefit analysis, the benefit being the above mentioned better competition. As a common person, without the resources and manpower of the government, think tanks, or consulting firms, I can only resort to a comparative study and a historical study – look at what other people do, and what the Americans did. I will talk about the methodology and the result later on the next section.

Replace $1 bill with $1 coin

In modern societies, lower denominations are coins, higher denominations are banknotes. Why? A coin lasts for decades, while the life of a bill depends on its value. The lower the value, the faster it circulates, and the shorter the lifetime. The manufacturing cost of a coin is much higher than that of a bill. But in the long run, the cost of using a coin may be cheaper if the lifetime of the bill is less than a certain threshold. For this reason, there exists a mathematical optimal cut-off point between coins and bills. Is it now the time to replace $1 bill with $1 coin? In 2000, Bernard Unger of the Government Accounting Office reported to Congress that switching from a dollar bill to a dollar coin would save the federal government $522 million a year. In this post, I will resort to comparative study again.

Comparative study

25 "richest" countries/regions are selected. But there are two primary methods of calculating income: nominal GDP and GDP at purchasing power parity. The nominal value is just the sum of economic output as-is, and then converted by exchange rate. PPP adjusts price differences from one economy to another. In other words, it measures output relative to an imaginary index good. 25 richest from both lists are combined to make 27 countries/regions. The source is the IMF (nominal and PPP). Wikipedia has copies which are sorted (nominal and PPP). The smallest coin, the larges banknote, and the smallest banknote in each country/region are listed and converted into various meaningful values for comparison. Mainland China is also included in the list just for my own curiosity. However, only the original 27 countries/regions are used for ranking and average.

Result

In this table, we will find that the smallest coin, the largest coin, and the smallest banknote in Norway are 50 øre (0.5 krone), 20 kroner, and 50 korner respectively. By a straight conversion to the U.S. currency, they are worth 8.13¢ (!), $3.25, and $8.13. By this comparison, penny being the lowest denomination in the U.S. ranks 24th among the 27; quarter being the largest denomination in the U.S. ranks 26th, and $1 ranks the 25th. This is simply not in sync with the economic status of the U.S.. It ranks the 3rd if using PPP and 8th if using nominal.

From now on, these three values will be written as a tuple, like (1¢, 25¢, $1).

If changing the value of the U.S. to (5¢, $1, $2), then the U.S. would rank (7th, 23rd, 22nd). There are still room to "improve" on the largest coin and the smallest bill. (5¢, $2, $5) means (7th, 16th, 17th). Remember, this comparative study is based on the assumption that most people are sane and do the right thing.

However, prices are different in each country/region. Prices in Norway are 49% higher than in the U.S.! so 50 øre in Norway cannot buy as much as 8.13¢ in the U.S., but only 5.44¢. This is where the ratio between nominal and PPP comes in. The current value (1¢, 25¢, $1) ranks (24th, 25th, 25th). Jumping to (5¢, $2, $5) means (8th, 17th, 18th).

The same process can be repeated for relative value to GDP per capita. I used the nominal value because it is the value measured in their respective currencies and prices. The result is similar.

Enough with the numbers, what does this mean? The U.S. dollar is in a low position relative to its economic rank. That means these three numbers have room to grow upward. I have to admit that raising the smallest unit from 1¢ to 5¢ is a big step, both from an absolute and a relative perspective. But the pressure of replacing the $1 bill with $1 coin is imminent. Heck, the results even show that it is about right to use a $2 coin. Canada issued CA$1 in 1987, CA$2 in 1996. Australia issued AU$1 in 1984, AU$2 in 1988. The U.K. issued £1 in 1983, £2 in 1997. It is already late to replace the $1 bill.

Historical study

measuringworth.com is a good website for querying relative value using various metrics. GDP deflator usually gives the smallest ratio, while relative share of GDP gives the greatest. To make a convincing argument, I will use the GDP deflator to conservatively state the relative value in 2005 of some amount in the past. Let's see how much 25¢, 50¢, and $1 in the past would be worth in 2005.

	25¢	50¢	$1
1900	5.133875	10.26775	20.5355
1950	1.705075	3.41015	6.8203
1960	1.3396	2.6792	5.3584
1970	1.0238	2.0476	4.0952
1980	0.52155	1.0431	2.0862
1990	0.34545	0.6909	1.3818
2000	0.28185	0.5637	1.1274
2005	0.25	0.5	1

So if people in 1900 didn't have problems spending what would be at least 20¢ in 2005 as the smallest unit, and people in 1950 didn't have problems spending what would be 6.8¢ in 2005 as the smallest unit, why should we have problems using nickels as the smallest unit? By the way, the half cent coin was rendered obsolete some time in the 19th century.

By the same token (no pun intended), $1 coin is more than appropriate. The value of the quarter had been more than a 2005 dollar up until early the 1970s. They didn't have problems, why should we?

Take advantage of $2 bill or even coin

Eliminate the quarters and replace with 20¢ and 50¢

For every $2 bill/coin produced, two $1 bills/coins are saved. For this reason, the more denominations, the more cost saved. So why not $3, $6, $7? I believe that if a denomination is less than twice of the next lower one, the setup would be suboptimal. I wish I could prove this mathematically, but I have yet to come up with a proof. And because we live in a decimal world, $0.1, $1, $10, $100 ..., are a must. If we combine these two requirements, it would only leave three lineups: 1-2-4-10, 1-2-5-10, 1-2.5-5-10. A number four is hardly seen from physical currencies, anywhere in the world, although it did exist. So the first one is out of the question. The U.S. dollar is a funny thing. Sub dollar denominations are 1-2.5-5-10, denominations higher than a dollar are 1-2-5-10. Which one is better? We can study this through "average usage". Assuming 100 different sub-dollar amounts, from 0 to 99¢, have equal probability to occur at each cash transaction. For example, there is 1/5 probability to use zero, 1, 2, 3, or 4 pennies. Therefore, the expected usage is 2. (1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢) => (2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.5), an average of 4.7 coins used for each transaction. The table below illustrates expected usage for any given lineup, expected total number of coins used for a transaction, expected total weight of coins under different weight assumptions.

	Denominations (¢)								# of coins	Weight Assumption (gram)
	1	5	10	20	25	50	100	200	# of coins	Current	Hypo	Euro	My
1-5-10-25	2	0.4	0.8		1.5				4.7	17.3194	17.3194	18.058
1-5-10-25-50	2	0.4	0.8		0.5	0.5			4.2	17.3194	15.1494	16.218
1-5-10-20-50	2	0.5	0.4	0.8		0.5			4.2	18.6132	16.4432	16.692
5-10-20-50		0.5	0.4	0.8		0.5			2.2	13.6132	11.4432	12.092	10.004
5-10-20-50-1		0.5	0.4	0.8		0.5	0.4		2.6	16.8532	14.6832	15.092	12.804
5-10-20-50-1-2		0.5	0.4	0.8		0.5	0.4	0.8	3.4	24.4532	22.2832	21.892	19.604
Weight Assumption (gram)
Current	2.5	5	2.268	5.67	5.67	11.34	8.1	9.5
Hypothetical	2.5	5	2.268	5.67	5.67	7	8.1	9.5
Euro	2.3	3.92	4.1	5.74	5.74	7.8	7.5	8.5
My		2.3	3.92	5.67		5.5	7	8.5

In this table, the "current" weight assumption is the weights of the American coins, including the gigantic 50¢ coin. The weight of the quarter substitutes for an imaginary 20¢ coin. And I made up the 9.5-gram weight of an imaginary $2 coin. The "hypothetical" weight assumption changed the weight of the 50¢ coin to something more practical.

The current system results in 4.7 coins which weigh 17.3194 grams. If 50¢ coin is used, either 20¢ or 25¢ would result in 4.2 coins. So which one is better given this tie? 20¢ is better for two reasons:

It is easier to make human mistake with quarters when change is a number like 38¢, 43¢, 84¢, 93¢.
Inflation is inevitable. Eventually, 10¢ will become the smallest unit of account. That will leave 25¢ in an awkward position.

Therefore, I conclude that the 1-2-5-10 setup is the best setup.

Following with the use of 20¢ and 50¢, eliminating the penny will reduce the expected number of coins to 2.2 with a weight of 13.61g! Even if $1 becomes a coin, the usage only increased to 2.6. The current size of the 50¢ coin is a legacy specification. If I change it to 7 gram, then the (5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1) setup would result in (2.6 coins, 14.68g), not a bad gain from the original (4.7 coins, 17.32g), eh?

A $2 coin will increase the expected number of coins and weight somewhat. If that is a concern, the use of a $2 coins can be deferred. However, $2 bill must be a substitute.

So if the advantage of a 50¢ is so obvious, why don't people use it? This Wikipedia article has a thorough explanation.

What can we learn from the euro

The euro was designed when there was no euro. They must have designed it to avoid all kinds of silly things learned from the history, because it would be much harder to correct once the physical currency is in circulation. Euro is a 1-2-5-10 setup from 1 cent to €500, which confirms my previous claim. There are 8 euro coin denominations. 1, 2, 5 euro cent form a group, which is copper in color, smooth on the edge. 10, 20, 50 euro cent coins from a second group, which is gold in color, scalloped on the edge. 2 and 20 euro cent coins also have lightly different edges, to distinguish themselves from peers of their respective groups. €1 and €2 are bimetal, with fancier edges.

The sizes of the euro coins generally increase with value, which is only intuitive, unlike the American coins. The 5 euro cent coin is slightly larger than the 10 euro cent coin, the 50 euro cent coin is slightly larger than the €1 coin. This is done to enlarge the size difference within each "group" I defined earlier. This combination of color, edge, and size is a perfect design for common users, visually impaired people, completely blind, and tourists.

If the American currency was to be completely redesigned, what can be done, assuming a 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2 lineup?

Make 5¢ smaller than 10¢

It is only a legacy that the current nickel is bigger than the dime. When the U.S. was on the gold/silver standard, the quarter and the dime had to be a certain size, in silver with certain purity. So the size of the dime was defined like that and still remains the same until this day. Nickel, not made of silver, was not constrained by this. So they probably decided not to make the nickel even smaller than the dime, which would be ridiculously small. Now in the 21st century, it is only natural to make 5¢, which would be the smaller coin in my design, smaller than 10¢.

Replace 5¢ and 10¢ with copper plated metal

Copper color coins represent lower values in most places in the world, including the U.S. itself. The interior metal should be some cheap metal, like zinc ($1.64/lb) or aluminum ($1.31/lb). The edge of the 5¢ coin shall be smooth (cheapest to make), and the edge of the 10¢ coin shall be smooth with a grove to distinguish from the 5¢.

20¢ and 50¢ gold in color

You might be wondering, why don't I choose silver color for mid tier coin, and gold color for high end coins because people usually think of gold being worth more than silver. Unfortunately, silver color coins are usually made of cupronickel. 25% of nickel is typical. And nickel is the most expensive metal among the common ones to make coins. Nickel costs $19.92/lb, while copper costs $2.81/lb. Choices of gold color metal includes aluminum bronze, which is typically 92% copper, 6% aluminum, and 2% nickel, or Nordic gold, the composition of 10, 20, 50 euro cent that is 89% copper, 5% aluminum, 5% zinc, and 1% tin.

The edge shall be scalloped and Spanish flower

$1 and $2

They shall be made with a silver color metal, like cupronickel, or bimetal. One of the coins shall have intermittent scalloped and smooth edge; the other coin shall have inscription on the edge.

Arabic numerals

Come on! It is absurd not to have any Arabic numeral on coins. By the way, do you know that the presidential $1 coin is the first coin to have Arabic numeral in modern time?

More security features on banknotes

The designs of the Federal Reserve notes have not changed much since 1928. It was until the late 1990s and early 2000s when they upgraded $5 and above to "large portrait", and then added colors. If all other countries were doing things much earlier than the U.S. did, then there has to be something wrong with the USD. It's not rocket science!

Color

The background color has been solid white for decades, or very light khaki. Color background was only added to $20 bill in 2003. If you take a new $10, $20 or $50 and inspect the background closely, you will find that it is not solid color, but fine lines. This is a hard thing to replicate, as most printing machines are only capable of printing small dots of different color, in a manner similar to a computer screen. Just look closely at a photo in a magazine. I welcome this change. But at the same time I am disappointed. This technology was available in the early 20th century, at the latest.

Not only the background must be printed with thin lines, the paper itself must be made with color. Color should be added as early as the stage when the material is in liquid state, a different color for each denomination. If counterfeiters overcome the difficulty of printing, they can get $1 bills, bleach them, and print $100 on them. Fully utilizing color prevents them from doing so.

It is unfortunate that only background colors are added to the new "color" bills. Foreground objects on the back side are still green; and foreground objects on the front size are still black. Changing the foreground color so that it is different for each denomination helps the visually impaired.

Sizes

If the bills increase in size with their values, it helps the completely blind, and gives an extra clue to machine readers. It also helps preventing the "bleaching" counterfeit described above.

Hologram

Banknote security features are something the more the merrier. Hologram is simply a nice thing to have. All denominations of the euro, the pound sterling, the Bulgarian lev, and the Canadian dollar have holograms.

Symbolism

Some people are reluctant to see the current setup changed because they fear that the long-lasting symbols will disappear. I beg to differ. True symbols always live on, in one form or another. The French franc was once an important currency in Europe. It was the basis of the Latin Monetary Union. The 1 French franc coin has featured "the sower" since 1898, interrupted briefly in the 20th century. When inflation took its toll, and France had to introduce "new franc" as 100 old francs, the sower was still on the 1 franc coin. It's not just that, the design was identical, except metal composition and size. Even when the euro replaces the franc, the sower is still on French euro coins. If they don't want to see Washington and the Great Seal go, I totally understand that. This problem can simply be resolve by placing them on the $1 coin.

Inevitable

Humans are creatures of comfort. We all like to use the things we're familiar with. The lack of change in the American currency may be attributed to political and financial stability. But people's unwillingness to change for the better (like the metric system) is another big factor. Economic theory says that inflation is inevitable, and a small amount is healthy to the economy. If the change doesn't happen now, it will happen sooner or later. We must look forward, not back.

Implementation

Rounding

Rounding is easy, with computerized registers. Doing it manually is also trivial. Like the two Eurozone countries that uses 5 cent as the smallest cash unit, Finland and the Netherland, items can be priced to cent. If paid with non-cash methods, such as credit card or check, they are paid to the precise cent. Only when cash is used, prices are rounded to the nearest 5 cents. And rounding occurs after the total is taken.

Public awareness and distribution

It is easy. As long as they stop printing the $1 bill, people will be aware, and the $1 coin will be distributed. Failure of doing so only shows one thing: lack of will. To start, they can give change only in $1 coins in post offices and federal establishments that deal cash with the public. And the federal government can "ask" state governments to do the same, such as DMV's. They can hang posters in the post offices, a very cheap way to increase awareness. Plus, if they are truly determined to carry the plan out, news reporters will report.

Vending machine and parking meter

Many vending machines are already capable of accepting the $1 coin. In fact, companies that make these machines prefer eliminating the $1 bill, to save maintenance cost on bill validators. Parking meters in my city accept the $1 coin too!

Summary

Eliminate the penny, make 5¢ the smallest unit for cash transactions, but just cash.
Make use of 50¢, and replace 25¢ with 20¢.
Replace $1 bills with $1 coins.
Make use of $2 as bills or coins.
More colors on bills.
Variable sizes of bills.

Topdim Bahtimni on Uzbek Google

2007-02-16T12:49:00.000Z

It is amazing, someone in Mainland China used Uzbek Google with simplified Chinese interface to search "Topdim-bahtimni" (search result) and landed on this post.

Daylight saving in 2007

2007-02-16T12:33:00.000Z

The Bush administration, with the infinite wisdom, decided to extend the length of daylight saving time by 4 weeks (most of the times) starting in 2007, in the name of energy saving. Yes, it will save electricity consumption, and the number of barrels of oil saved will be emphasized in all kinds of reports. However, productivity lost to system upgrade/change in the software/financial/aviation industries is much harder to measure and will less likely surface on these reports. Well, if it is energy they're trying to save, what about promoting public transportation, gradual tax increase on gasoline, subsidy to alternative fuel? Of course, they picked a route that would result in the least opposition from the public or big corporations.

Google Ditu

2007-02-12T14:17:00.000Z

http://ditu.google.com/
Cannot search 重慶 (Chongqing in traditional characters)
Can search 重庆 (Chongqing in simplified)
Cannot search 台北 (Taipei) or 香港 (Hong Kong)
There is a path from Hangzhou to Shanghai
There is no path from Nanjing to Shanghai
It is politically correct on South Tibet and Aksai Chin

Accurate anniversary

2007-02-05T01:25:00.000Z

In today's globalized life style, figuring out the anniversary has become a baffling ordeal. Besides the problem of time zone, some years are longer than others. Therefore, I give you this simple Excel file to compute *what I think* is the accurate anniversary. It is based on the following rationale

One year is 365 + 97/400 days (There are numerous definitions of a year in science and calendar systems. But I chose Gregorian calendar, the calendar we use, for simplicity). So if I had been born at 1/1/1970 7:20 AM, then "one year" from then would be 1/1/1971 1:09 PM. Note that it's roughly 6 hours later because of the 97/400 days.
Time zone offset has to be compensated. If I had been born in UTC+8 time zone, and I moved to UTC+7, then my birthday (or more precisely, time of anniversary), would be 1/1/1971 12:09 PM local time.
The word "birthday" implies a whole day. So the date/time of the anniversary plus and minus 12 hours defines the "day of anniversary". Following the above mentioned example, I could celebrate my first birthday, in UTC+7 time zone, from 1/1/1971 12:09 AM to 1/2/1971 12:09 AM.

In the Excel sheet, all you need to do is to fill in the blue cells. And the rest are computed. I use my real birth time as a demonstration.

This also takes care of the problem of events on 2 / 29.

Tone and body language

2007-02-03T23:25:00.000Z

One of the biggest flaws of humans is that we only hear the tone of voice, rather than the words; we only look at the faces and body language, rather than the facts and information.

Legislative violence

2007-02-02T07:10:00.000Z

On Wikipedia, the first and the most extensive example of legislative violence is the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China. Same on the Chinese version.

Shanghai

2007-01-28T00:56:00.000Z

According to my estimation, per capita GDP (PPP) in Shanghai will match the level of Taiwan. But this simple average does not address the issue of the gap between urban and rural areas, the distribution of wealth, and other structural issue of economics. Besides, the definition of municipality is more like something in between a metropolitan or a region. Comparing Shanghai with the whole Taiwan may seem inappropriate. The area of Shanghai is approximately equal to ¾ of Hsinchu County and City, Yilan, and everything north of them, or Delaware.

When I was collecting data, I found this article, which states that China (didn't specify whether it's mainland China or the whole China), in between 2025 and 2030, will reach the level of Korea in 1991 or 1992, and becomes a developed country in between 2055 and 2065. The blog has many interesting posts. I added it to the links on the right column.

Technology news in Taiwan

2007-01-23T04:20:00.000Z

I am tired of those so called "mainstream" print media in Taiwan. When they talk about "tech news", most of them are about the increase/decrease of production, revenue, and the up and down of stock prices. These are "tech industry news", which are more business than technology at the core. Indeed, those are useful information. And as media, they have the duty to report it. But not all readers are investors. On the contrary, most are consumers. The impact to consumers is usually briefly mentioned. Is this product like microwave oven, which will change the way we do things, or is it just a trendy thing? Is there any obvious short coming? Substitute? Cons and pros? You hardly see those.

This could be attributed to the manufacturer's state of mind that lasted for decades. Manufacturers do not need to worry too much about what the consumers want or need. All they need to take care of is the number: capital, income, expense. The challenge that Taiwanese firms face right now is not how to make things at a very cheap cost and with a superb quality. They've already achieved that. The challenge is to choose a path. They can continue their current course, and be the leader. Or they can sell their products directly to consumers, then in turn establish their brands. The latter would cause an immediate problem: their customers would become competitors instantly. It's too early to tell. I seem to deviate from the original topic too much.

Apple

2007-01-19T08:35:00.000Z

Steve Jobs said that there will be more iPhone applications by the time it is released. Apple will control what applications make it onto the iPhone. He said "You don't want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers." While I believe that they have the best intention of providing better software, this strategy is totally a double edge sword. The reason why PC is still the dominating platform is not because Windows or the software that runs on it is so much better than those of Mac. It's because everyone can make PC hardware and the OS/software can be easily pirated. What's my point here? Openness. Although I am in no way demanding Apple to let everyone pirate their OS/product, but being open is absolutely important to a product like smart phones.

The example Steve gave could happen. But bad software will be eliminated by natural selection. Is Apple implying that smart phone users are not smart enough to make the selection so that the smart people at Apple will make the selection for the 10 million customers they anticipated to have? My phone is a Windows Mobile 5. If you press the on/off button, the touch screen will shut down and all inputs are locked. However, what they fail to do is to let the music continue being played when everything else is locked. I had to turn to a third party software. If Microsoft employs the same strategy, this software will probably never see daylight. It makes me wonder if Apple will reject a certain software because it will cannibalize its profit elsewhere (e.g. iTunes), hurt its beloved partner ~~Cingular~~ Wireless from AT&T (e.g. VoIP software like Skype), or some small utility that will expose iPhone's deficiency (like my personal example above).

Apple's lawyer team is cracking down blogs that provide links to screenshots of Windows Mobile skins that look like iPhone's in the name of copyright infringement. (another report). First, it is already questionable to take action against the skin. It is like McDonald's taking action against a small mom and pop's burger shop because the wrappers look too similar to McDonald's (while the burgers taste differently). Please, it is just a skin. Second, it is just beyond absurd to threaten a blogger who simply reported the thing. The blog doesn't even provide the skin itself.

If this is not for chilling effect, then what is it?

In addition to Cisco, LG is considering suing Apple for similar design. Now we know who has the habit of copying!

Taste your own medicine, Apple! (The same proverb in Chinese is "a taste of your own fruit" (自食其果), which gives it an extra pun!)

This is like when Intel tried to register a well established acronym (was it RAM, DRAM, or SDRAM, I don't remember) as a trademark so that everyone else can't use the name anymore (in favor of RDRAM). They tried to win by law instead of better products. Nobody uses RDRAM nowadays.

If you know me for years, you will know that my criticisms on Apple's products have been technical. From time to time, there are appraisals too. Now Apple just falls into the "uncool" category in my book.

I was contemplating buying an Apple's laptop. (In case you haven't noticed, I didn't use the proper product name because I'm afraid of legal trouble about trademark infringement!)

New technology

2007-01-16T20:48:00.000Z

I hate when a new technology comes out, developers and designers spend additional resources with the new technology, just to mimic some imperfection of an old technology. This statement is best illustrated with examples

Some digital cameras make the noise that is similar to a mechanical shutter at the time of shooting. All the user needs is a confirmation that the picture is taken. A simple beep will do just fine. Now that someone needs to make/record/synthesize a sound file to mimic that. What's next? When I put in a new memory card, the camera will make the noise of film being scrolled?
There is a world clock widget in Apple's Dashboard. I am not against analog clocks on computers, but if you look closely at Apple's widget, when the second hand moves every second, it shakes back and forth a little before landing on the next second. This is a perfect example of the imperfection of a traditional analog clock. How does this reproduced inaccuracy enhance time measuring? What's next? A pendulum below the clock?
Cell phones show reception strength in bars, usually from 0 to 5 bars. I would guess that the actual measurement of the signal strength is a numeric value, but not from 0 to 5. So now the developers have to convert the strength to a 0 to 5 scale, and then draw bars on the screen with increasing sizes? Isn't it easier just to display a percentage number? A 2 digit number will take about just as much space on the screen. Why sacrifice the precision?
Some calculator programs on computers display digits like a green 日 shape LCD. Again, it would be easier just to print the digits with regular fonts! Apple's Dashboard again falls into this category.

Doing things like these is just a waste of hardware and human resource. These examples are not so different from a flat screen TV morphing the picture so that the rectangular video frame would have round corners.

Who read my blog?

2007-01-15T04:38:00.000Z

Overview at the right.

We all know that telecommunication in Taiwan is very developed. But I never know that ET home (東森) has operation in the Gulf of Guinea.

Eating habits

2007-01-13T13:49:00.000Z

Many people like to comment on the way I eat. In order to save time, I write this FAQ preemptively.

Q: You don't eat meat with bones. You're lazy.
A: Nope. The definition of lazy is not doing things that you're supposed to do to avoid trouble. I stress "supposed to do". Although I'd like to avoid trouble, eating meat with bones is not a duty of anyone. If the duty doesn't exist in the first place, the issue of laziness doesn't exist either.

Q: You don't eat seafood, except sashimi and sushi. It is inconsistent.
A: If you think that having exception is inconsistent, not eating all seafood is consistent, then I beg to differ. "Not eating all seafood" is equivalent to "Eating all food, except seafood". Contradiction.

Q: You eat fast. Why not eat slowly and prolong the enjoyment?
A: Perhaps for some people, the joy acquired per unit time (dj/dt) is about the same at any eating speed. But for me, when I eat fast, the value of dj/dt can be so high so that the total amount of joy (the area under curve in the graph) would be higher than if I eat slowly.

Q: If you've never tried this, how do you know it's not good?
A: I have tried many things. It's just that I deem them not good after trying. It doesn't take 20 years to try these. In addition, not every instance requires trying. Existing knowledge can provide much insight on the chances of good or bad. Why do people not eat shit without trying? Because our knowledge tells us there is a very high probability that it wouldn't taste good. By the same token, if I have tried yellow watermelons, red watermelons, and they taste about the same; Red apples and green apples are about the same. And I've tried green kiwifruits and deemed that not tasty, then I don't need to try golden kiwifruits.

iPhone

2007-01-11T09:12:00.000Z

Apple announced iPhone on 1/9/2007. This is a news the industry has been expecting, so there's no surprise here. Many news media report the event, whether it's newspaper, TV, or online-only. It's big, of course. But it's been 2 working days and I have seen few editorials or true journalism. All they do is reporting what happened, what feature the iPhone has, or what Steve Jobs said. Well, I can get all that from the keynote speech video. So I thought I'd like to through in my 2 cents.

Apple excels at user interface and design, I reiterate. Not just the look, but the usability as well. Here are some highlights that I feel are innovations or good reinventions.

With so many features, the device is only 11.6 mm thin, and weighs only 135 grams.
I often find the QWERTY keyboard on other smartphones clumsy. Most of the time, I don't type. But I do want to preserve the possibility to type. My current phone offers a sliding solution, which satisfies my need. But the drawback is a thicker body. The iPhone has a soft keyboard only. It addresses my concern of clumsiness, but iPhone is definitely not the first that has a soft keyboard. Let's see how well it does.
"Multi-touch" control where you can use two fingers to zoom in and out things by the distance between the two points. Innovation. Period.
Proximity sensor that shuts off display and touch screen input while the phone is near the ear. This is a problem all smartphone users have. Apple has solved it!
Ambient sensor that adjusts the brightness according to, um... amount of ambient light. As above. But see my counterpoint below.
Accelerometer determines if the device is portrait or landscape. Nice feature, but many cameras have that already.
Random access voice mail. You don't need to go through the first 5 message to get to the 6th. Again, a solution everybody can use.

Those being said, I would like to give my constructive criticism as well. These include things that are questionable or never discussed.

No stylus. Steve said this as if it were a feature. Perhaps the touch screen is so sophisticated that even people with larger fingers can type the virtual keyboard with no problem. In that case, more power to iPhone and I give the credit where it is due. But what if I want to prevent my sweaty fingers to smear the pretty screen? Some of us like to preserve the phone so that it would have higher resell value.
While the ambient sensor is a good thing, is there a manual override?
It runs OS X. Really? True OS X or a scaled down version? Forget about whether or not the OS is shrunk down version. Is it easy to develop software on iPhone? Is there any developer tools?
– Which leads to the question – how many software will there be? How easy is it to install? No demo, no mention at all. What about Skype?
Steve and the official website briefly mentions synchronizing contacts and other stuff between the phone and your PC or Mac. Great, but no demo. What kind of contact does it accept? Outlook? Thunderbird?
The keyboard was shown with 3 lines of regular keys and 2.5 lines of symbols and numbers at the demo. What about international characters? How easy is it to mix different languages while typing?
Steve demoed the contact with scrolling. It would suck if I need to call multiple members of the Zellwegers. Can it display by categories? Go to Z? How easy is it to transfer a contact to another device?
When talking about the price, Steve combined the price of an iPod nano, $199, and an average smart phone with 2 year contract, $299, because "these phones sort of do music, but nobody uses them for music". False, 2 of my co-workers and I have the Windows Mobile phone and we all use the phones for music (not that Windows Mobiles phone are good phones). The point is, a simple addition doesn't justify the $499 cost.
No expansion slot.
There is no way to replace the battery easily.
In the U.S., iPhone users are stuck with Cingular. I'm not against bundling two products or services that are highly related. I am against offering the bundle as the only choice while its products are totally separable. Why do they have to pick Cingular for me?? This will suck for frequent travelers. But Steve has the amazing ability to spin this as "partnership of innovation". We all know better.

Metric

2007-01-08T12:51:00.000Z

Use metric. I don't know why the Americans are still using the customary units. I'd like to ask, if a pound of meat costs $3.45, how much does one ounce cost? Who can compute 3.45 / 16 without aid? How much does one ounce of water weigh? Ah ha, there are many different ounces, such as American fluid ounce (29.57 ml), British fluid ounce (28.41 ml), avoirdupois ounce (regular weight system, 28.35 g), and troy ounce (31.1 g). When the United States achieved independence, Thomas Jefferson promoted a decimal currency, as opposed to the British 1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence system. There are a series of acts in the States to promote the metric system, such as the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 and its amendments. But the voluntary conversion is useless. Because the metric is not yet adopted, Amazon has encountered problems when transmitting product information with other companies. Yes, habits are hard to change, and it will cost a great deal. But the earlier the better. If Canada and Australia can, so can the United States.

Wikipedia

2007-01-05T11:09:00.000Z

Sometime people ask me what I do during my free time. I've always been busy as Wikipedia for the past few months. Why and how? Because the tasks are like ever-expanding tree. In layman's term, 1 task leads to a few others, and they in turn lead to more. This is part of what I've done today

I found out that Kyrgyz banknotes are not eligible for copyright (So are banknotes from other ex-USSR republics).
Someone else has already uploaded some Kyrgyz banknote images. But I have better ones. So I upload them.
For the ones I got from www.banknoteworld.com, I had to tag them properly with their sources as dictated by the Wikipedia policy.
So I needed to make a template so that the same tag can be reused.
There were existing tags, but they were all over the places. I needed to clean them up.
On the English Wikipedia, I categorized these tags.
I repeated that on Wikipedia Commons, which is a image depository for Wiki in all languages.
Finished the upload
Requested the inferior images for deletion

This is just for Kyrgyzstan.

Juggling convention

2007-01-04T21:03:00.000Z

My boss said there is a convention for juggling, and his son participated one for a week!

2007-01-02T09:25:00.000Z

Attempted to put JavaScript here. Can't!

Holiday gift blunders?

2006-12-22T20:27:00.000Z

When I was deleting my spam mail, I came across a website talking about holiday blunders. It says "don't give kitchen gadget to a woman because it is like telling her to do more housework," and "don't give a man a gift that would hint your intention of changing him, such as body care product". These arguments all sound logical and we've all heard this before. But on closer examination, the arguments are under the assumption that gifts come with some agenda of the giver. This is wrong. This is not the spirit of gifting. So instead of picking the gift that the recipient really wants, which is already a difficult task at times, now I have to think about "how to avoid making myself a complete ass by hinting something I don't mean in the first place"?

It is, of course, wrong to think about hinting when buying gifts. At the same time, it is wrong to think about avoiding hinting when choosing a gift because you're just thinking about self-preservation instead of what the recipient really wants/needs. It is equally wrong to think about these thoughts when receiving a gift. That is mind game. That is diplomacy. That happens when people are not completely honest and forthcoming to one another. That is not the spirit of giving gift.

Gifts are not instruments of hint. Let's get back to the real spirit of gifting. You love someone; that someone loves you.

Uzbek music

2006-11-15T12:00:00.000Z

Topdim Bahtimni
(presumably) I've Found My Happiness

Topdim Bahtimni (live)

Toshkent Samarqand

Chin Muhabbat

Sog'inch

Muhabbatim

Muhabbatim (Live)

Phishing

2006-09-17T11:33:00.000Z

There are many phishing emails pretending to be from some banks or well known retail websites to trick you into giving user names and passwords. I'm sure you've all seen those. But the point of this email is to say if you delete the email directly, you're protecting yourselves. If you want to help countering these criminals (therefore indirectly protecting yours friends and family), I ask you to enter garbage data on those bogus websites multiple times to pollute these frauds' data. Of course, this won't stop them. But this can slow them down.

Toilet seat

2005-10-05T03:29:00.000Z

I have heard of women complaining that the guy in their household doesn’t keep the toilet seat down. Ah, the age old toilet seat problem. We all know that. It makes me wonder, some usage of the toilet requires the seat down, while some other instances requires the seat up (i.e. guys peeing), then is it really a good idea to keep the seat down all the time? My intuition tells me that keeping the toilet seat as-is makes seems fairer and I’d like to verify that.

Assume the following

A guy always makes sure the seat is up before peeing.
Let x = the portion of the toilet usage where it requires the seat up, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1
For simplicity, assume bathroom going is a memory-less process (i.e. a bathroom going has no impact on the next one).
Each toilet seat flipping has a cost of 1.

The old rule: keep the seat down all the time

Then when a guy pees, he has to flip up the seat, and then down when he finishes. There is an x probability that happens, so the expected cost of each bathroom going is 2x.

The rule in question: leave the seat as it is

Then when a person go to the bathroom, there is an x probability he/she will find the seat up, and (1 – x) probability down. The seat requires flipping when

The seat is down, and a guy wants to pee
The seat is up, and someone needs to sit on it

“The seat is down” has a probability of (1 – x), and “a guy wants to pee” has a probability of x. By the assumption of independence, event 1 has a probability of x(1 – x). Likewise, event 2 has a probability of x(1 – x). Because event 1 and 2 are disjoint, there is a
2x(1 – x) probability that the seat requires flipping. And a flipping only cost 1 in this case, so the expected cost of each bathroom going is 2x(1 – x).

Conclusion

2x ≥ 2x(1 – x) because 0 ≤ x ≤ 1. Therefore, it is more efficient to leave the seat as it is.

Although I have not proved the fairness of this rule, it is sure that men and women both share the burden of seat flipping. And it has to be fairer than men doing all the flipping.

Future Work

Proving the lower bound of the expected cost
Detail on fairness
A non-independent bathroom-going process
Empirical simulation

Chinese

2001-03-04T09:34:00.000Z

You know You're Chinese if...

You unwrap Christmas gifts very carefully, so you can save and reuse the wrapping (and especially those bows) next year.

You only buy Christmas cards after Christmas, when they are 50% off.

When there is a sale on toilet paper, you buy 100 rolls and store them in your closet or in the bedroom of an adult child who has moved out.

You have a vinyl table cloth on your kitchen table.

Your stove is covered with aluminum foil.

Your kitchen has a sticky film of grease over it.

You have stuff in the freezer since the beginning of time.

You use the dishwasher as a dish rack.

You have never used your dishwasher.

You keep a Thermos of hot water available at all times.

You boil water and put it in the refrigerator.

You eat all meals in the kitchen.

You save grocery bags, tin foil, and tin containers.

You use grocery bags to hold garbage.

You always leave your shoes at the door.

You have a piano in your living room.

Your parents know how to launch nasal projectiles.

You iron your own shirts.

You play a musical instrument.

You pick your teeth at the dinner table (but you cover your mouth).

You twirl your pen around your fingers.

Even if you're totally full, if someone says they're going to throw away the leftovers on the table, you'll finish them.

You don't own any real Tupperware -- only a cupboard full of used but carefully rinsed margarine tubs, takeout containers, and jam jars.

You also use the jam jars as drinking glasses.

You've eaten a red bean Popsicle.

You bring oranges (or other produce) with you as a gift when you visit people's homes.

You have a collection of miniature shampoo bottles that you take every time you stay in a hotel.

The condiments in your fridge are either Price Club sized or come in plastic packets, which you save/steal every time you get take out or go to McDonald's.

Ditto paper napkins.

You never order room service.

You carry a stash of your own food whenever you travel (and travel means any car ride longer than 15 minutes). These travel snacks are always dried. As in not just dried plums, dried ginger, and beef/pork jerky, but dried cuttlefish (SQUID).

You own a rice cooker.

You wash your rice at least 2-3 times before cooking it.

You spit bones and other food scraps on the table (That's why you need the vinyl tablecloth).

Your parents vehemently refuse the sack of gold coin oranges that their guests just brought just to be courteous.

You fight over who pays the dinner bill.

Your dad thinks he can fix everything himself.

You majored in something practical like engineering, medicine or law.

When you go to a dance party, there are a wall of guys surrounding the dance floor trying to look cool.

You live with your parents and you are 30 years old (and they prefer it that way). Or if you're married and 30 years old, you live in the apartment next door to your parents, or at least in the same neighborhood.

You don't use measuring cups.

You feel like you've gotten a good deal if you didn't pay tax.

You beat eggs with chopsticks.

Your parents' house is always cold.

You have a teacup with a cover on it.

You reuse teabags.

You have a drawer full of old pens, most of which don't write anymore.

if you're under age 20, you own a really expensive walkman if you're over 20, you own a really expensive camera.

Your mom drives her Mercedes to the Price Club.

You always look phone numbers up in the phone book, since calling Information costs 50 cents.

You tip Chinese delivery guys/waiters more.

You're a wok user.

You only make long distance calls after 11pm.

You know all the waiters at your favorite Chinese restaurants.

You like Chinese films in their original undubbed versions.

You have acquired a taste for bittermelon.

You like congee with thousand year old eggs.

You prefer your shrimp with the heads and legs still attached -- it means they're fresh.

You never call your parents just to say hi.

You always cook too much.

if you don't live at home, when your parents call, they ask if you've eaten rice, even if it's midnight.

Also, if you don't live at home, your parents always want you to come home.

Your parents tell you to boil herbs and stay inside when you get sick.

When you're sick, they also tell you not to eat fried foods or baked goods because they produce hot air (yeet hay in Cantonese).

You e-mail your Chinese friends at work, even though you only sit 10 feet apart.

Your parents never go to the movies.

Your parents send money to their relatives in China.

You use a face cloth.

Your parents use a clothes line.

You're always late.

You eat every last grain of rice in your bowl, but don't eat the last piece of food on the table.

You starve yourself before going to all you can eat sushi.

You've joined a CD club at least once.

You know someone who can get you a good deal on jewelry or electronics.

You never discuss your love life with your parents.

Your parents are never happy with your grades.

You save your old Coke bottle glasses even though you're never going to use them again.

You keep used batteries.

You own your own meat cleaver and sharpen it.

You keep most of your money in a savings account.

You know what MJ means.

You've been on the Love Boat or know someone who has.

Your toothpaste tubes are all squeezed paper-thin.

You love Chinese Martial Arts films.

You have Tupperware in your fridge with three bites of rice or one leftover chicken wing.

Shao Lin and Wu Tang actually mean something to you.

You love to go to $1.75 movies.

You love to go to $1.50 movies even more.

You never order sweet-n-sour pork, egg foo young, or chop suey at a Chinese restaurant.

You have a pager even though you don't really need one.

You have a really nice pager with an alphanumeric display.

You have a cell phone even though you don't really need one.

You hate to spend more than $5 for lunch.

Someone in your family drives a Honda.

There are custom rims on the Honda.

You have a Chinese knick-knack hanging from your rear-view mirror.

You like to eat chicken feet.

You suck on fish heads and fish fins.

You turn bright red after drinking two tablespoons of beer.

You can get a buzz on Coors O'Douls or Miller Sharps.

You look like you are eighteen.

You always look up at white women if you are male.

You always look up at Chinese men if you are female.

You own a gun if you are male.

You only buy used cars.

You have more than five remotes in your house.

You like to sing Karaoke.

You have a custom stereo in the Honda with the custom rims.

Your entire house is covered with tile.

You have those plastic walkways covering your hallway and other heavy foot traffic areas.

You have plastic or some other kind of cover on your furniture.

You leave the plastic on the lampshade for ten years or more.

You eat family dinners with the TV on.

You watched Connie Chung.

You have a frightening amount of clutter in your house.

You can't bear to throw things away.

Your dad washes his hair four times a day, or never at all.

You really hate getting B's on your report card.

Your house smells like preserved fish.

Or your house smells like Chinese medicine.

You have 12-20 uncles and aunts.

You've never kissed your mom or dad.

You've never hugged them either, unless at family parties.

Your unassisted vision is worse than 20/500.

You wear contacts to avoid wearing those "coke-bottle" glasses.

You've worn glasses at least since the fifth grade.

You go to yard sales often.

You've had a bowl cut before.

if you lose a dollar, you dwell on it for more than five minutes.

Your parents (or some other close relative) own a grocery store or restaurant.

You love to "buck" the system.

if you're overcharged you scream bloody murder, but if you're undercharged you go your merry way.

Your hair sticks up when you wake up.

You get a rush from making a good deal.

You make ridiculous offers when bargaining (I'll give you $5 for that Integra).

You'll haggle something that is non-negotiable.

You love to use coupons.

You drive around looking for the cheapest gas.

You add twice the amount of water recommended when making orange juice from concentrate.

You'll drive around for hours looking for the best parking spot.

You take showers at night.

You'll learn about sex from someone other than your parents.

You'll be convinced your parents only had intercourse as many times required to produce you and your siblings.

You've never seen your parents kiss.

You've never seen your parents hug.

Your grandmother lives with you and your family.

The Honda has been lowered.

You never buy stuff from the concession stand at movies.

You tip less than 15%.

You never order desserts at restaurants.

You always have water when dining out.

You refuse to use the valet.

You try not to use the bellhop for fear of tipping.

You avoid the non-free snacks in hotel rooms.

You don't mind squeezing 20+ people into one motel room.

You want your dollar back from the friend that borrowed it right away.

You get the runs when you drink too much milk.

Most girls have more body hair than you if you're male.

You have an unexplainable love for cameras.

Sanrio means a lot to you.

Your refrigerator stinks.

Your parents don't want you to move out when you turn 18.

Your parents want to live with you when they are old.

You tap the table when someone pours tea for you (not applicable for jook sing).

You point to your nose when referring to yourself.

You say "aiya!" and "wah!" frequently.

You lie about your kids ages to get a discount.

You lie about your age to get a senior citizen discount.

You don't want to wear your seatbelt because it's uncomfortable.

You love Las Vegas, slot machines, and blackjack.

You love to play mah jong.

You want to marry Chinese, or at the very least white.

You have to read all your parents' mail written in English.

You have to make phone calls for your parents to English speakers.

Your parents ask you if you are home when you come home (faan nei lah").

You are constantly being set up with uninteresting (and usually ugly) people by your parents.

You always hear how great so-and-so's son or daughter is doing. Then your parents ask you why you are such shit and why you are always embarrassing the family.

Your parents wish you gave them 30% of your income.

Your childhood is filled with painful memories of the ong feather duster (guy mo so).

You can use words like "chink" and "chinaman" with impunity.

Your clothes smell like fried rice.

You talk at the top of your voice a lot.

You hate eating cheese.

You go to a lot of Chinese wedding banquets.

At these banquets, for some unexplainable reason all the older Chinese people will start hitting their water glasses with chopsticks until the newlyweds kiss.

All the older Chinese people will have to be addressed with some title like "great grand aunt" or something. Then when you address them and bungle up your inferior "ABC" Chinese, your mom fakes laughter and makes some comment about American Born Chinese.

Your mother worries constantly that other Chinese will consider her a bad mother if her children re "bad."

You have a big aquarium filled with colorful fish somewhere in your house.

Your mother is strangely obsessed with plants.

Your mother answers the phone, its one of your friends, she asks them personal questions.

Your mother likes to try to smooth/tuck in your clothes in a public place.

if you are a guy, you either have brown/blonde bangs with black hair parted down the middle, or if you're middle-aged (like most fathers) you have a "comb-over."

White people look at you strangely if you tell them you are Buddhist.

Even though you have a lot of white friends, you harbor a deep resentment towards them.

#194 except to include people of all races.

You either hate black people or think and speak like you were black.

You believe that "length doesn't matter."

yOu tYpE LiKe dIs tO LoOk kEwL.

if you are a girl, you don't mind hanging out with ~10 guys by yourself.

Computer graphics and acting skill

1999-02-02T17:00:00.000Z

With the tremendous progress on computer graphics recently, movies now have many more possibilities. Some people think that this kills actors' acting skill. IMHO, I cannot agree. We must take one step back and rethink what the core value of "acting skill" is. The fundamental value of "acting skill" is "realistic". Therefore, if computer graphics can be realistic, it deserve the same credit. In other words, if computer graphics replace some of the acting skill, then the appreciation from us the audience is now transferred onto the computer graphics.
(The timestamp of this article is an estimated value)

MD

1999-02-01T17:00:00.000Z

I don't know why people are so into MD. I am certain that MP3 portable audio player will dominate the market. Here are my reasons

Transferability
Many people have mp3 files on their computer nowadays already. However, there seems to be no natural or easy way to get the mp3s onto MD. MD only takes ATRAC format. And getting the music from CD to MD isn't all that apparent either. On the mp3 players, it would most likely be a straight file copy.
Capacity
An MD holds 80 minutes; mp3 is 1 MB per minute, and the mainstream mp3 players nowadays are 64 MB or 128 MB. You might ask: they're about the same, and you can carry many MDs if you want. True, but mp3 player storage can be replaced by a CDR, and you can carry many CDR too. I am arguing for mp3 audio player regardless of storage type here.
Price
It doesn't seem to me that the prices of MDs are coming down any time soon. However, if the CDR solution is implemented, or with any other alternative storage that can be shared with a computer, the per unit price of mp3 storage can drop considerably over time.

(The timestamp of this article is an estimated value)

1970-01-01T01:00:00.000Z

Can I change the timestamp of my blog entry?

Earliest timestamp

1970-01-01T00:00:00.001Z

This post has the earliest possible timestamp on this blog, the first minute of year 1970 (Unix epoch zero). Therefore, it will always appear at the bottom. Please respond to this post if you have any comment on the blog as a whole.

ChoChoPK

Food Safety

The myth about speaking English

East Asian Culture Comparison Table

Multilingualism in the Greater China Region

The Chronicle (Drama) of Mobile 2010

Chinglish

Why is captioning photos a baffling ordeal?

Megapixel Myth

High megapixel value equates to better quality? Megapixel = quality?

Translation is hard

Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language

English is a high hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, they are usually borrowed as-is)

english.com.tw

I don't want Chien-Ming Wang to be "Light of Taiwan"

2008 food price inflation

See also

The two-party politics in the Republic of China

Shouting in Japanese at restaurants

Region coding for video or game

See also

What would you do when you …?

SNG unit report

Example

See also (all in Chinese)

Edison Chen sex photo incident — Part 2

See also

Kosovo declaration of independence

Edison Chen sex photo incident — Part 1

See also

TWY

Unnecessary redundancy that is not needed

Why is organizing photos a baffling ordeal?

Photos

Exif

Orientation

Timestamp

Videos

Publishing

Text description

Wikipedia has everything

Scale of large things

Vegetables

Bracket

Free My Phone

The Soviet Ministry Model

What Is Needed

Remember Landlines?

Move log

Indomie Mi Goreng

Hypercorrection

Picky eating kids

Breast implant and dental braces

A tale of souls and swords, and ridiculous breasts

Gary Brolsma (aka The Numa Numa Guy)

Hardest Super Mario

Large numbers and East Asian languages

Safari for Windows

Google Maps

Blue Screen of Death

Google Earth Taipei road map

Did you know?

White Chicks and Gang Signs

Gapminder

Wide screen

Why is my life boring?

Suggestions to the denomination lineup of the United States dollar

Eliminate the penny

Replace $1 bill with $1 coin

Comparative study

Result

Historical study

Take advantage of $2 bill or even coin

Eliminate the quarters and replace with 20¢ and 50¢

What can we learn from the euro

Make 5¢ smaller than 10¢

Replace 5¢ and 10¢ with copper plated metal

20¢ and 50¢ gold in color

$1 and $2

Arabic numerals