Raccolta Online

November is easily the saddest month of the year — and yet, the most David Feng month of them all. That’s because the month is often seen as a month of massive changes.

A runthru since 1997:

• November 1997: On an unfortunate November 15, 1997, I got house-arrested by The Parental Authorities That Be — and missed a charity show I pledged my bit to. This started intra-familial enmity and mutual distrust which would last for nearly a decade. (Later explanations would reveal the reason: incomplete homework… — you see, this reason was censored for nearly a decade, too…)

• November 1998: November 1998 made a bad situation even worse; I was at a high school where I liked no-one and no-one liked me in return. (I prefer the Chinese prison camps of fame to that high school of infamy; at least there I could practise my then-ailing Mandarin Chinese. By the way, I never got arrested…) Things got off to a chill point where I started sharing bank accounts with someone just to get a car (which required a driving license; back then, I was 16; two more years to go…), and when the relations froze, oh well…

• November 1999: Oh my. Heilige Schiesse. This was the autumn of total, utter, complete “f**k-you diplomacy” that made the bombs that ended World War II look more like rat droppings than anything nuclear. Maybe it was my age back then, but if any old thing got in my way…

• November 2000: For some very odd reason, the US elections (Gore and “Dubya”) got me interested and, odder still, taking a more conciliatory tone in every single thing I do. (I know. It’s weird. Weirder still was the pure water explosion inside the Chaoyang Garden home, where my dad’s toilet had one of those taps go off, out of the blue, inundating the whole freaking apartment…)

• November 2001: Ah. The month — and the year — of mass changes. The former “Why the Mac is so great.com” site got massive changes and visitor increases as it went on MacSurfer, Tagein, Tagaus, and I started doing desktop downloads which the Japanese loved like mad.

• November 2002: Moves towards to the microphone: Prezos, public speaking, the whole shebang. November 2002 was also the very first November with BeiMac in attendance. Good stuff!

• November 2003: Oh man. November 2003 was easily the sweetest thing ever — moves closer to hosting or co-hosting shows, rides and insane bowling parties with uni friends, and stuff like that. Me like!

• November 2004: Ah, but you couldn’t have good stuff go on forever. In April of that year (2004), convictions by Taiwanese classmates (should we call the guy a class-”mate”?) that the always-single me was in danger of being “gay” meant that I had to get myself a lady (that I didn’t like) in April, for fear of mass abandonment by the class masses. The two of us were incompatible in every way conceivable, and we — very much, in essence — declared war on our families (mostly on my family) in November 2004. Add to that the fact that I was sick every other weekend — and you get the idea.

• November 2005: Thank the Love Gods that the era of Dynamite Duo ended September 10, 2005 (signs of a fallout were already apparant in early May 2005). A newly-single me got together with the BeiMac group and received recognition from society at large. I did the keynote at the World Usability Day event for Beijing, and BeiMac received brilliant mass media coverage.

• November 2006: The good that we did to BeiMac kept rolling, and in that same month a year later, the BeiMac Union was founded, which expanded BeiMac ops. An 11-member exec team kept the whole BeiMac biz rolling (at least for a bit).

• November 2007: BeiMac fell out of favor, but that’s because nearly all efforts went into blognation China. I started blognation China on October 2, 2007 as “just another site” in the 13-country network, and a month later, it would have its own launch party and end in late 2007 as one of the “top three sites” (along with Japan and India).

November 2008 will be big. Here’s why:

• I’ve a whole slew of new projects to start. DF NDAs mean that we’ll see more from this as things get finalized, but for the moment, they’ve all been near-finalized; they involve at least tech and Beijingology.

• There’s that great big China 2.0 tour and the Chinese Blogger Conference to look forwards to. I’ll be representing CN Reviews, as well as what I do (techblog86 + BeiMac, Beijingology, just to mention a few), and it’ll be a big party.

• Those two are good enough to start the month in the public eye. In more private eyes, I’ve more “world-friendly” principles afoot to make sure that I’m doing my bit to society at large.

We’ll see how big November 2008 gets at the very end of the month.

My God — November 1, 2008 already? Jeez. Please get ready for your arrival…

當然，我們希望你們是比較理性的抓狂。比如在日本，我有看到，因為工作壓力過大，人家公開手舉麥克風，把身體中最後一口氣都喊出來，發發瘋，消停消停一些。所以嘛，人民的的確確有抓狂的權利。

一些人去一些地方搞一些比較奇怪的事情，這不僅本人也有在幹 (比如想不通時在一個孤獨的房間隨便亂講台語，罵來罵去)，相信是人的，都在幹；惟每個人的抓狂方式相近不同。

但是若一個人終身抓狂… 那就很嚴重了。建議送到蘋果吧，不是因為蘋果是一幫神經病，則是相反! 蘋果是由一些普通人看成神經病的人來幹起來的! 不相信我?

The IBM PC was created by people who drank alcohol. The Mac was created by people who smoked pot.

哇，在最典型的中國家長眼中最典型的神經病；吸毒搞電腦！然而？

我在這裡並不主張大家集體去 smoke pot，也絕對不主張大家借抓狂的帽子實際搞違法行為。但是，還是那句話：「人民有抓狂的權利」。

而且我，我希望也有學好台語的權利。

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, and Madness Within Reason as allowed by Law.

“The next station is ANDINGMEN. Please get ready for your arrival.”

OK, OK… listen, not a great deal of David Feng updates lately. That’s because — well, now there is!…

• Zhangbei Trip, Feb 7, 2008: At “Liberation” (something personal to your DF — David Feng in initials), I went to Kalgan or Zhangjiakou to take in the scenery of northwestern Beijing. Never thought I’d land in HORRIBLE TRAFFIC JAMS! Made it further northwest — and discovered that there was this place called Zhangbei I never heard of. This year, made it there for the 2nd time — for some drop-dead gorgeous scenery.

• Bei’an Drive Trip, Feb 20, 2008: Made it to Tianjin and Bei’an Drive and Bei’an Bridge, to be precise, for some great scenery of the copycat (sans the Beijing accent) city 100 miles southeast of Beijing — Tianjin. Road names are pretty much the same (Guanghua Bridge and their ilk) — and there is even — GASP — a Fuxingmen subway station!

• niu-bi! Niu-bi from Niu-York is here, and pulled off a stellar presentation last day at BeiMac’s last meeting before it turns six. 22 people turned out, including “President” Allan Yong from Canada.

I update my Twitter like there was no tomorrow, so if this blog dies (Heaven forbid!), I’ll always be on Twitter…

I’m paraphrasing a former “big one up in the top” guy with this quote. Apple is no longer a revolution-first company — I’ve seen them through 1997. It’s no longer the company willing to create personality cults. With the arrival of the iPhone, Apple has taken a plunge closer to the “Deadpool” than it might have thought about it. The reason: its “too simple, sometimes naïve” attitude — in particular when it comes to QC, or quality control.

The attitude of Apple is, simply put, “too simple, sometimes naïve”. They’re trying to liberate more and more PC users — an effort I applaud warmheartedly. But in their attempt to do this, they’re creating crappier products. Why is it that I have to force quit Safari more often than I thought? Sure, it’s a “public beta” (I’m still on Tiger), but I’ve heard a lot about bad Leopard experiences.

So why is Apple at times appearing “too simple, sometimes naïve”? They’re “too simple” in the sense that they want to get great products out there. No mistake — they’re innovative, and they kick the rear stuff (the stuff that’s hidden in the dérriere) out of Microsoft. I never was a Microsoft fan (although I’ve used Office for Windows), and I’m pleased the World’s using iPods, not Zunes. Honestly, I once was of the opinion that if I had to lay down my life (not that I would, of course) for just one duo, that duo would be the Two Steves, not Bill and Paul. I sometimes brand the MS gang as “evil MS imperialists”, and I still do, as they seem to be doing a great job of ripping off stuff from the Mac OS. (To this I salute Bertrand Serlet for exposing just how much of a copycat Vista was and remains to this day.) But Apple’s getting a bit too simple — they’re just an “Inc” now and are interested in making Apple products on just about every last thing. Expand by all means — that’s good stuff. But to expand in its own and not care about quality and feedback is too simple behavior.

Along with being “too simple” comes naïvity. Apple’s sometimes so confident that they’ll liberate the Windows clan that they create half-baked products. Leopard appeared half-baked (thanks to the iPhone), and the biggest half-baked product on my desktop now is Safari 3 Public Beta. All I do is open up iPhoto, quit iPhoto, and then Safari plays dead.

Apple, we need to get you back on track. Continue being revolutionary — continue being great — just please stop being “too simple, sometimes naïve”!

Well, OK… actually, no. But hey, quite a sight nonetheless…

Note to self: stick Apple logo on my Teana!

It was, actually, quite a shock to see SPAM, flushbunk naked, in my face.

My Macs have behaved incredibly well (they used to be, in fact, awfully miserable). Here’s some tricks to make sure your Mac is just as well-behaved as you want them to be…

• When on the road, always take your system CDs/DVDs with you. Even if it’s just for an overnight stay in Kalgan (KALGANITIS mate!). If your Mac gives up the ghost and you don’t have your CDs with you… ∑¶®©•‡™·Á·°›‚·°‹¶#¶§€ª¡€ª•…

• Get a universal adapter. Apple provides a great set in their Worldwide Traveller Kit; you should grab your own — and even get another one just in case.

• Get all the chargers you need.

• Grab a FireWire (400) cable and USB as well as FireWire iPod cables.

• And that — should be all…

…things have changed a little a few posts back. Thank God nobody’s with me anymore (romance-wise); as Guy Kawasaki said it so well, “now is the time to suck life into your lungs… before you have a family”. Let’s just say that my credibility, ego, and self-confidence had a Rabatt worse than the ones you see at Jumbo Switzerland — with the last one next to me.

The rain. Beijing was drowned all right Tuesday. It felt like good old Zurich… constant Niederschlag. I don’t know what I really did… hanging out with friends, working on my Big Three (Macs, media and other projects), and other stoff like that.

Just finished playlist “200705 A 20″. I used to name iTunes mixes by names so corny that the supposed auto-censor mechanism on this blog would have flagged it as a candidate to send to that big Liste Noir in the sky. Now the whole thing has just got a little more 798 (here’s a hint for you), and I’ve managed to mix 58 songs way back since 1997. Ten years on… and precious little has changed. Except for now, I’ve BeiMac and another big-@$$ project that’s taking its own wings there. (Here’s hoping it doesn’t undergo Swiss SWISS treatment… Swissair was bad enough (in 2001, that is)…)…

And on to playlist “200705 A 21″…

The funny thing about these playlists… I name them after the current month, and then there’s the A-B-C-D-E-freakin’-G biz-ness… A is for myself only, B is for friends, C is for someone who DARES (that’s how things stand now, DARES) call me her honey, D is for myself (again)… K is for KTV mic attacks (KM for male songs, KF for female songs), S is for tunes to send you to Dreamland (now officially bought by Franz Carl Weber, Lego & Gang), and W is the kind of stuff that is supposed to wake you up. Supposed to.

I never consider myself 100% Chinese. That’s funny, because the locals tend to look at Tokyo with the kind of feeling you’d get when your speedboating event just got ruined by a passing rain cloud. It’s true that Germany kind of owned up after 1945, and Tokyo’s not quite following the footsteps of Berlin. If I was 100% Chinese… let’s say the kind of reaction to anything out of Tokyo would fall short of the words expletive deleted. Happily, I’m kind of like a “citizen of the world” (if that sounds M**xist at all) — I’ve been in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Turkey, Austria, China, Hong Kong, Australia, the US, and just about everywhere else you can think of. And I’ve kind of been in the Arabic world — I clearly remember that (now unfortunately broken — but hey, I nabbed it back in 1992) pair of binoculars I got from Sharjah Airport in the UAE. (That’s when Air China used to do London - Zurich - Sharjah - Beijing.) So, back on topic — I consider myself a “citizen of the world” (one of my friends in the US told me about this, so I didn’t make this up), and I kind of maintain neutrality and diversity. To this extent, my mastery or near-mastery of all tongues, including Japanese, Korean and Chinese, is apparent not just in front of the mic, but also in the iTunes library, now home to 3,252 songs (good for 9 days, 7 hours, 28 minutes and 20 seconds) in English, German, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

So, you know… a little bit of everything in that playlist. Vicky Zhao, CHEMISTRY, Stefanie Sun, Robbie Williams, and all that kind of stuff…

A little iTunes mix, indeed…

Turn on “Show Associated Words” in the Traditional Chinese Pinyin input. Enter the word “zhong” as in 中. Then scroll up…

You’ll get suggestions like “中國鋼鐵股份有限公司”, “中華醫事技術專科學校” and stuff like that. (If you’ve picked the vertical input window, it’ll scroll out of view — there’s only like space for about 6 - 8 characters.) And it goes on and on and on. It will keep on going on and on until there are no more “associated words” to go around with. I spent about two minutes fussing around, and ended up with this, all in one row:

中央圖書館臺灣分館後二十四番花信風雨如晦，雞鳴不已指撥保留盈餘額不多餘設備操作費用壞勝於鏽壞人是逐漸變成的黎波里約熱那盧溝橋事變禮詩文藻外語專科學校際比賽璐珞.

OK, we start off with the Taiwanese library, then have a proverb, and finally end up with a competition? What the hell is going on here?

…All I know is that we’re gonna see one big Macinwiki (the guys that host the site — recommended by a friend — have gone over their heads with yet another superdose of storage space).

Man alive…

To Belle, Bill, Dr. Yip (”Beta”), Derek and Johnny, and to the gang at HKUMUG, MACitizen and Mactivity:

Thank you so much for everything — absolutely everything — in Hong Kong. My August 2006 trip was best-of-anything and was a smash hit. You guys deserve — endless thanks, warmest smiles — this trip was just great.

Keep in touch y’all! BeiMac will get better — and your support is our encouragement! If any of you ends up in Beijing, ring me up (y’all have my number) — and I’ll make your stay in the capital a great one. :-D

Das git’s aber nöd: scho wieder fängt d’elesson a, s’Chrieg z’mache. Und immer no s’sälbe: de gliiche Affechäs über Chrieg vo de Gruppe gägä Macfans, gägä MacX, und so wiiter…

Die bruched no villicht no es Bitzeli Hirnefleisch! Was uf de Festland mangelt, isch Arbeit und Fortschritt im Mac-Welt! Wenn sich de Steve Jobs d’China nöd chommt go besueche (de isch aber huure frääch), weisch wieso? Allne Festland-Foren sind chomplett mit anti-dere-Gruppe und anti-d’andere-Gruppe Posts chomplett… s’git nie Ruhe! Niened tönd öppis! Alles was die mached, isch Chrieg! Die beleidigt und nänned Lüüt “Du XYZ” oder “Du A-loch”, aber mached nie öppis! Cheis Progress, cheis Fortschritt! Das stinkt aber!

Mir sind anders: mir mached öppis im Feschtland Mac-Markt…

Im Shanghai und schon einiges Sachen — ganz irre:

1. Ein Megaton iPod-Ads — einiges sogar auf Strassenfernsehen. Das kann Beijing nur erwarten. Unsere Staatsbürgerinnen und Staatsbürger im Taipei haben auch hier etwas ähnliches — dasgleiche gibts auf der Taipei MTR.

2. Irgendjemand hat das CID verändert — wollte China Mobile anrufen, fand dann aber, dass der CID ,,11CMWAP'’ statt ,,CMWAP'’ war. Irgendjemand hat das getan…

3. Ist mein 17-Zollner all zu gross? In ein Kafe habe ich so atmensartige Ausschreiungen wie ,,Das ist aber gross!'’ gehört. Wissen die Jungs, dass es sogar ein 20-Zollner (pixel-per-pixel) gibt?

Richtig irre…

Und plötzlich wird es vier: beim Halbterrasse-Teil vom UBC-Cafe erschiente am Sonntagabend ein extrem seltener Phänomenon: am alle 4 Tische gabe es Laptop-Computern!

Ja — eigentlich. Und zwar alle prigionieri non liberi vom MS-Imperialisten. Der eine spricht wie verrückt mit der Telefon, der andere schaut ein Film ohne Kopfhörer, und der dritte schreibt und schreibt. Ein wahnsinniger Busy Way, um dein Sonntagabend zu… verschwenden!

Ich aber nicht — ein kurzer Update auf BeiMac.cn — und das wär’ alles… und das als einziger Mac-User mit ein mega 17-Zoll Laptop…