Google China Blog Has Opened

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Just came across the main page of world’s largest search engine and to my surprise I found the link of Google China Blog. In Chinese, 黑板报 means news in blackboard, which is a common form of posting articles by students of each class in schools of China. Said under the logo, “Google 中国的博客网志,走近我们的产品、技术和文化“, which has the same meaning as said in Google Blog in the same position. It is just the Chinese version of Google Blog, and I am getting very excited about it. Nowadays in China, Google’s name is just as famous as Microsoft back to last century, when Windows had just arrived in every family just got their computers. Even though there is Baidu, the largest China based search engine, most people still prefer to search in Google, for its huge amount of results returned.

Reading its first blog, it reminds me MSDN Blogs, a collection of blogs by developers at Microsoft, showing off their ideas and different opinions from daily work. It seems that Google is doing everything Microsoft is doing, such as gmail and hotmail, gtalk and MSN Messenger, etc. What makes Google different from Microsoft, is that its product are looking so simple but still sufficient for average use. I am not saying Google’s product is better, since different user has different demands, but it just makes people feel different. Of course, Microsoft learns from Google too, but as a giant in software industry, it is no surprise. Looking back to their blogs, you know what I has just talked.

What I am expecting now, is the Chinese version of MSDN Blogs, or does it exist and I just don’t find it?

发展软件产业,阴阳之道为上

刚刚看了Mr. Icon的一篇Blog,讨论了Asianux 2.0与Microsoft Windows的相似性,并且展示一些屏幕截图。很理解他的意见。在中国,对绝大部分普通电脑用户来说,Windows就是OS,OS就是Windows。如果你不给这些人装一个类似Windows界面的OS的话,他们很可能会以为这个电脑没有装OS,然后就会去装个Windows。微软在中国的影响太大,而且绝大部分软件除非用WINE,基本上都是极其难移植到其他平台上的,因为这些软件通常都用Internet Explorer和Macromedia Flash的引擎做它们的界面,比如最流行的软件腾讯QQ联众游戏

很多非Windows的用户,或者更确切地说,非Windows支持者,在谈起此事时都会咬牙切齿。我不反对这么做软件,因为这样一来,软件制作成本可以通过利用现有资源而大大降低,而且花哨的界面更加符合国人对一个软件的审美观。如果真的希望这些软件商能够开发出夸平台的应用程序,那么非Windows支持者们就应该更加督促他们的阵营中能够有像上述中那种方便被其他程序调用的引擎,比如推出一个Macromedia Flash的替代品。

在提到非Windows的时候,人们往往会联系到自由软件。作为一个最终用户,我很喜欢自由软件,而且自从大学初期就开始用了。任何事物只要有一个对立,那么它就一定是一把双刃剑。虽然在理想的开源社区中,自由软件之间的联系愈加紧密,但纯粹的自由软件在某些情况下可能并不自由,反而会束缚重重。比如有一段非常好的代码。这段代码是基于GPL的,而且是唯一的许可证。作为软件商,或者通过软件来盈利的个人、团体,如果我把这段代码包括到了我的产品中去,那么我的产品就一定也要遵循GPL,拘束了我盈利的权力。这个时候我不得不寻找另外一种可能的方案。也许并没有这段代码那么优秀,但是有合适的许可证可以让我购买并使用,我就可以放心大胆地去开发我的产品了。实际上,有很多自由软件开发方已经认识到了这一点,比如MySQL。MySQL施行的是双重许可证策略,在提供GPL许可证的同时,也提供商业许可证,保证了依赖于MySQL的软件商的营销利益。

哲学里面说,世界是矛盾的,万物是阴阳的。所谓开源与闭源、自由软件与商业软件,只有相辅相成,相互应用,才能够对整个IT产业作出积极的推动。

A Hint For Catching My Interest When Promoting A Computer Language

In CAS 703 class, it is asking to use two very different computer languages to implement an algorithm in the first assignment. These two languages are WEB, created by Don Knuth for literate programming; and Eiffel created by Bertrand Meyer, an object-oriented language featuring the concept of design by contract.

Unlike learning common computer languages, such as C/C++ and Perl, learning these two languages makes me head-ache, since I am not smart in learning languages and my TOFLE score is unspeakable. The paper for WEB and the documentation for Eiffel are fantastic and wonderful, but what I am actually looking for for my first step, is a piece of sample code less than 20 lines for each of them, and I don’t want to see just ‘Hello, World!‘.

Pardon me, I am lazy.

条条大路通成功

周末跟几个美女帅哥室友围在一起吃火锅,以庆祝新春。外面吃饭奢侈,而且Hamilton就这几家中餐馆,换来换去也没什么意思。虽然是自己动手,这火锅吃得却是心中一片热乎。那水深火热的鸳鸯汤底,最后到让大家一把鼻涕一把泪的。留学在外,远离父母,同在一屋檐下的年轻人不免惺惺相惜,天南海北,却不知何时才能出人头地,告老还乡。

俗话说:“吃饱不想家”,所以各自的橱柜、冰箱里自然少不了各种做饭的工具和调料。收拾碗筷的时候,我在冰箱里发现一罐“老干妈”……(不打算写了。多点实干,少点感叹,比什么都好。

他们说……

他们说夜是黑的 他们说月是明的 水是流的 树是动的 粪是臭的 花是香的 他们说钱是花的 他们说金是耍的 工作是苦的 生活是酸的 他们说男是坏的 女是贱的 工作是关系的 道德是他妈的……我不闻不问 我扪心自问 手攀生活的每一峰坡 脚踏自己的每一方寸 笑在每一瞬间 即使寒风阵阵

找回Pocket PC上的PPTP Miniport驱动

上星期突然发现学校的VPN允许用PPTP连入了,兴奋不已。学校的VPN用的是Cisco某个系列,之前只能用和Cisco VPN兼容的客户端连入,而基本上绝大部分Pocket PC都只配备了PPTP连入方式。早就发过邮件给学校的管理人员抱怨对Pocket PC的支持太差,然后等到现在才等到令人神往的PPTP连入。网站上有详细的连入说明,当然是非常仔细地一步一步照做了……

很快,就被Dell Axim X5浇了一头冷水:总是提示我的用户名和密码错。不是X5有问题就是学校的VPN有问题。可是,网页上表述的那么清楚,怎么会有错呢?经过反复的密码输入验证,一定不是自己的问题。算了,把它摆在一边不去想它。

今天不知道什么原因又把X5拿了出来,可能因为是这个VPN的问题让我心里实在难受。打开Connections下的Drivers,看看里面的驱动,有一堆NDISWAN Miniport的驱动。不过,竟然发现没有PPTP NDISWAN Miniport!我很自然地去Google一下,发现基本上搜到的其他Pocket PC都有这个驱动。花生料虾米西芹?这个得好好想想。不是X5有问题就是我有问题。对了,好像有一次随便逛注册表,看到某个地方出现PPTP和PPTP1两个关键字,然后又好像绝对那个PPTP1看起来很不顺眼,选而删了。

赶快去注册表看看!有了微软官方MSDN上对PPTP的信息,找到问题应该不难。原来每个Miniport在/HKLM/Comm下都有一个“Type”和“Name”,比如L2TP1的Type就是L2TP。那么,我删除的那个PPTP1就是PPTP了。木哈哈哈!问题找到了!

不过,怎么修复这个问题呢?算了,直接照着L2TP1的葫芦画个PPTP的瓢吧。经过一番捣鼓,然后Reset。Yeah!驱动列表里的PPTP NDISWAN Miniport又出现了。赶快连上VPN,能看网页,能MSN的。一个字,爽!

Mpage And pstops

It is annoying that there is no simple solution for printing two pages on a single sheet of paper under UNIX systems, while under Windows it is simply a select box in print GUI. There are two ways under UNIX to do this, which are mpage and pstops.

Using mpage

$ mpage -2 input.ps > output.ps

Using pstops

$ pstops "2:0L@.7(21cm,0)+1L@.7(21cm,13cm)" input.ps output.ps

Note that files to be printed, but in other formats, need to be converted to PostScript (.ps) format first.