The historic sinking of the legendary Tudor warship Mary Rose is sort of reminiscent of how complexities encumber and even fail the continuous operation and deployment of large software systems.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose#Causes_of_sinking .

By the way, the Mary Rose warship of Tudor has a romantic name, doesn't it?

Which lingua franca will the increasing internationalization of Montreal lead to?

Some of China's politicians are good at putting out flowery speeches. But I guess Chinese people care more and more about facts.

We can see many Asian companies commit to buying energy in the forms of crude oil, natural gas, and so on, from Western energy companies.

And we can see how energy-hungry Asian countries and industries are.

Ideas have been percolating in my mind. And I've been gradually executing and evolving them.

The true power only comes from the above second sentence, not the first one.

Historically, Russia sent tributary wealth twice to the Qing Dynasty, the then China. How history turned drastically afterwards, regarding the relative levels of power of the two countries.

Besides, one thing I don't quite understand is why Great Britain sent tributes to China for four times between 1793 and 1816, given that Great Britain must have become one of the super powers in the world back then.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tributaries_of_Imperial_China#Qing_Dynasty.

Among the most crucial tasks which higher education needs to accomplish are to develop in students a knack of thinking deeply and to pass on to students the value system which regards intellectualism highly.

Nevertheless, the two above tasks often fail. We can see the traces of that failure in some people who hold university degrees.

Ice isn't a traditional foodstuff. But if you can find a machine to mash it nicely and then infuse some delicious cold drink into it, then you've made a good potential drink for hot sale.

And that's how fast food chain restaurants and coffee houses serve their customers in the summertime.

Iced cappuccino is an example of such at Tim Horton's.

An excellent quote

"Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords."
--King Richard, as in King Richard II by Shakespeare

"Couscous" is a unique name, I think.

I don't know how much trepidation China actually holds for the following mounting problem. But I think it should hold some.

The increasing aging demographic is a global phenomenon. For countries like the U.S. and Canada, it's not really that threatening, I guess. After all, developed countries which are not very crowded, which the U.S. and Canada are, can always just loosen their immigration threshold a little bit, and more young immigrants, potentially from all corners of the world, will just file in due to the attractiveness of many aspects of building a life in those rich countries.

But China playing the immigration card? Isn't the Middle Kingdom already quite crowded? Can it really attract many young immigrants from abroad?

And, with the ubiquitous domestic feeling that the living costs in China have climbed so high and to almost unbearable levels, coupled with the lack of good social welfare programs targeting to help families raise their children, can China spawn enough young people by itself?

HP computers have done me a yeoman's service these years. I like them.

But I should've bought models equipped with larger memories. For that matter, I mean memories twice as large as in mainstream models at any given time.

I think the word "impediment" is one of the words which sound the most crispest among those ones ending with the suffix "-ment".

Blessed are those who deserve implicit trust.

Theoretically, there are many rogues and jerks in this world. One has his share of meeting them.

Also theoretically, there are many good people in the world. One also has his fair share of meeting them.

I think it's almost impossible for people who hadn't experienced being attacked severely during the Cultural Revolution to really understand the baseness of it.

Nowadays a lot of novel writers in English crank out fictions very quickly, individually, every year.

Essentially, many, if not most, of those books are the MacDonald hamburger equivalent in the book world, I'm afraid.

My work progress has been clogged by the taking care of my toddler daughter, which is much more to be done than expected from looking on the surface.

But that's life. In half or one year, I'll be much freer.

When a biz owner needs to do some big changes to his already successful biz, it's natural for him to have trepidation.

Life's never easy. When you're not successful, you want to become. When you're already successful, you still have to overcome enormous difficulties, both expected and unexpected, otherwise you would fail easily down the road.

Along the way, I'm apt to consider that Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple have played fair, although I don't know all the details of what they've done all these years.

Music videos - 心的祈祷 - 臧天朔 / 张行

歌词：

心的祈祷
作曲：臧天朔
作词：黄小茂（主持人李静的老公，华纳前总监）
--------
我祈祷 那没有痛苦的爱
却难止住泪流多少
我祈祷 忘记已离去的你
却又唱起 你教的歌谣
我没有怨你
我心里知道 我知道
我祈祷 留下孤独的我
走向天涯 走向海角
我祈祷 带上无言的爱
从此失去心里的笑
我与影同行
我心里知道 我知道
----
我知道 天涯路漫漫
我还要去 海角遥遥
我知道 失去的是什么
我又启程 却不是寻找
我心里明了
我心里知道 我知道
我像那一支火鸟
无声地燃烧
我要唱那 那一首歌谣
伴我天涯海角
----

黄小茂的词好，臧天朔的曲好！

In Canada, Tim Horton's is very notable at the $5-7 price point for lunches.

It seems that there's no big difference between a salmon fillet and a salmon steak in the ways I cook them.

I've seen a few relatively weak businesses act as if they are playing by the axis of capital, which they actually somewhat lack or completely lack. I consider their outlooks, let alone prosperity, to be problematic in the long run.

I think Baton Rouge, Louisiana has got a nice name, hasn't it?

Americans are inherently much against statism. However, are the bureaucrats in its government naturally apt to be wanting to be more of statists deep inside their hearts?

English became the lingua franca of the world. In essence, it's a phonetic language. By contrast, Chinese is a symbolic language. So the translation of some Chinese words into English can be funny.

A real-life example happened in a Montreal office with a Chinese whose last name is 缪 (spelled commonly as "Miao" in English and pronounced as /'miau/, according to the pronunciation of the original Chinese word). So when one vocal Western colleague of hers learned that her family name is such, the female co-worker uttered "oh my God, her name is Meow" (In English, "meow" means the crying sound made by a cat).

:-)

J said to the store clerk, "I've been kept being asked what my postal code is, for your company's customer locations survey, since last year. Has any new store been opened during the interval?"

As a matter of fact, the historically new layer of human rights, in the organization of human societies, removes most people further from villainy.

I for one am a fly on the wall when RIM's fate has been unfolding.

What a spectacular fall that has been. I guess it has revealed a probable classic flaw that the Canadian biz mentality possesses, which is a biz needs not to participate in or even be posted from innovation frontiers.

It's said that Dell's historically continuous choice of not doing any real R&D and instead focusing on excelling at supply chain management can be its own undoing, especially after it has missed the first years of opportunities of jumping on the bandwagon of smart phones and tablets.

Being lofty and esoteric is different than being haughty.

With Montreal's air being actually dusty, I wonder if dining alfresco, e.g. on a patio, is really good.

Anyways, that shouldn't bother.

Well, I never really knew "rainbow" also stands for "homo" in slang terms.

No offense towards LGBT with the "h..." word, though.

J has a knack of sensing people's abnormal feelings, or emotions, so to speak.

"Benet" is now an obscure word. But it's a good word, with its meaning straightforwardly hinted by its structure.

See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/benet.

It's as good as "begone" and "besiege".

How many baristas can you feel celebrate coffee while they are making it?

Mr. Earl Jones was a knave, a rogue and he fleeced his clients dozens of millions of dollars.

He betrayed other people's trust of him. I wonder how that is explained theoretically in Moral Philosophy.

No one can bate the ever accelerating paces of the changes of the business world, especially in the software technology industry. It's a collective phenomenon.

Apparently, Quebec celebrates equality in some or many ways.

Speech impediments include stammer, lisp, and so on.

Yes, when I see that word "lisp", I always am curious about whether it has something to do with the Lisp programming language, though I always knew that's highly unlikely. :-)

In Canada's political system, the position of the Leader of the Official Opposition is marvelous, I think.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Official_Opposition_(Canada).
Quote:

The Leader of the Opposition is entitled to the same levels of pay and protection as a Cabinet minister. He or she is entitled to reside at the official residence of Stornoway and ranks fourteenth on the Order of Precedence, after Cabinet ministers and before lieutenant governors of the provinces.

What a figure David Ogilvy is! And how he looks like an old-era English gentleman.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman).

By the way, Mr. Ogilvy (pronunciation: /'oɡəlvi/) is not to be confused with the Ogilvy's department store in Montreal. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogilvy_(department_store).

Typing on the computer keyboard gives my daily computing a tactile quality.

The notion of "rogue state" is interesting.

Quote:

Rogue state is a controversial term applied by some international theorists to states they consider threatening to the world's peace. This means meeting certain criteria, such as being ruled by authoritarian regimes that severely restrict human rights, sponsor terrorism, and seek to proliferate weapons of mass destruction. The term is used most by the United States, though it has been applied by other countries. 

... 

A common presumption applied to rogue states is that they do not necessarily behave rationally or in their own best interests. In political theory it is generally believed that a stable nation, ruled by a leadership that is subject to broad scrutiny (though not necessarily democratic scrutiny), will tend to act in its own best interests and will not take actions that are directly contrary to its own interests, particularly not to its own survival. Rogue states, however, may not be subject to this assumption and, as such, relations with them may be more complicated and unpredictable. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_state

We are all groping or fishing for opportunities in the sea of information.

Once upon a time, Microsoft far exceeded Apple. Nowadays, it's the opposite.

The inversion of their relative competitive positions makes me astonished by showing what time can change.

E. X. is cranky. Anyways.

The new generation of websites usually have simple web page layout, but not all instances of it are pleasant.

To a certain degree, many free websites supported by ads are in the experience business, I think.

For instance, when I look up the definition of "bilbo" at dictionary.com on my Android phone, the website presents several ads of cruise trips in front of me, alongside the word's definition. So by injecting semantically relevant ads into my browsing experience in which I look up a word, it remakes and tries to maneuver my online experience and tries to automatically generate sales leads for advertisers.

In this world, many business negotiations are greatly encumbered by the lack of trust and creditability. One option is to just let them go.

I'm completely untrained in music. But I'm curious about why a galopp (the German word for "galop") is a Polka.

I found that while googling about the Chineser Galopp by Johann Strauss I. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_I#Polkas.

Shipboard mutinies are especially harmful for a country's military actions.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny#Famous_mutinies.

Do the recent labor strikes at Air Canada, both legal and illegal, resemble them?  :-)

It seems that when a sales agent finds out that a competing supplier has a much lower price, then how his current supplier treats him becomes questionable in his own mind.

《春雨》

悵臥新春自祫衣 

白門寥落意多違 

紅樓隔雨相望冷 

珠箔飄燈獨自歸 

遠路應悲春晼晚 

殘宵猶得夢依稀 

玉璫緘札何由達  

萬里雲羅一雁飛

--李商隱之《春雨》

Music video - 江南 - 林俊杰

四月二十二日。Montreal。小雨雪。

我喜歡看晚春斜雨細雪裡，方形路燈側畔的綠楓樹、綠楓樹側畔的方形路燈。

Video - Erzberg Rodeo 2009

The hill climbing in the first minute is sick! Those motorcycle rodeos rock.

The chalices of spring flowers in Jiangnan must be filled with rainwater now.

The faces of some Caucasians are so palish white that there would be no rosiness at all on their cheeks if they didn't rouge them.

I look forward to the day when our toddler daughter will begin to eat her dinners completely by herself. On that day, my wife would happily quit waiting on her and save a little more time.

Before our daughter was born, I'd never realized that it takes so much time and energy to take care of an individual without self-care abilities. Even the smallest things which hadn't previously passed my mind add up to take a good chunk of time.

Throughout the years, I've been doubling down on building my life and career based in Canada. I'm not sure if my parting with China was a river of no return.

My wife and I used to buy instant miso soup paste made in Japan.

No more since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster broke out in Japan in March 2011. Because we became afraid of potential radiation pollution of foodstuff made in Japan.

In any area, even for those in the U.S., which used to boast "American dream" for individuals, many average Joes and average Janes are apt to be dubious about local biz tycoons, or even harbor spleen against them, especially during economically difficult years. That's my impression.

And I suspect that's what drives some wealthy people to do philanthropic work and donations in order for them to contain and stave off that dubiousness and spleen.

Cats mew. Dogs bark. People speak. There is a two-way communication sphere around each individual.

The thing is, how do you manage that sphere?

In this world, it happens a lot that the rift between or among people causes them to drift apart.

Well, I'm glad that Montreal is among the top 50 cities worldwide, in terms of livability, according to a 2011 report by Mercer.

See http://www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr#city-rankings.

Everyday, as the HOURS go by silently, my heart droops. But it doesn't droop as the DAYS go by, because I know I've been making efforts day after day, everyday.

How vivid the word "bounce", as in "bouncer", is.

Both the biz owner and the customers know the moments of truth. But the biz owner may not care very much.

J always keeps a far-flung outlook for his life since his salad days.

Most of ancient Chinese poems make use of many rhyming couplets. That phenomenon seems not to be as pervasive in ancient English poems. No, not at all.

You know, chicks like to chill together. But each of them will learn how to fly only in her or its own way. :-)

Wow, the above line is my first pun in 2012. Not bad, huh? :-)

Pivotal is a company's texture and culture. I wonder how many companies have robust and good ones in presence and in formation.

Better than three of the most famous electronics multinationals have been in red in their respective latest fiscal years, i.e. either 2011 or 2010. And they are Philips (HQ in Netherlands), Sony (HQ in Japan), Panasonic (HQ in Japan), and JVC Kenwood (HQ in Japan), to my incomplete knowledge.

The electronics industry has been a tough one to be in since the early 2000s, my impression tells me.

Uncontrolled and unmanaged, information overload is a major impediment to productivity.

To quit Facebooking and Twittering, after careful evaluation and consideration, can be the first step towards managing info. overload.

Personally, I've abandoned them around two years ago.

Standing at the dawn of digital economy, I think the current biz models of many Montreal retail stores look problematic.

I don't know how quickly they will be able to adjust themselves and adapt when the tides come.

I don't know. The words "dove" and "pigeon" mean precisely the same thing. However, it seems that "dove" has a more beautiful and lovable flair associated with it.

有時候，你在掌勺時，看見炒鍋中的紅燒茄塊在『明油亮芡』這最後一道工序中明亮起來，感覺有點像在昏暗悶熱的夜裡驀然看見清風明月拂楊柳一樣，小驚喜的心情變得輕快明亮了起來。

When coffee house owners talk about "sensory triggers", you know they are talking about an experience business.

It's so incredulously hot today. It's still April, not June!

Sigh. RIM may have very well missed another opportunity to save itself. It was a huge mistake. The company's end will present itself anon.

See Exclusive: Former RIM boss sought strategy shift before he quit | Business | Reuters.

Here goes an essay over egalitarianism which is difficult to read for my completely untrained eyes.

See EQUALITY -- WHAT IT IS, by Prof. Ted Honderich who had worked at and had been educated at UCL. The essay tries to explain the core of the ideology of the Left, I suppose. The drift must be he's with the Left, I guess?

The HTML5 localStorage and sessionStorage thing is interesting.

Many Chinese immigrants in Canada are hindered, by their inadequate or outright limited English, when they face career choices. That's a moment of truth.

They lack the required cultural capital and it's likely no one had told them that before they boarded on an airplane and flew out of the Chinese border. The thing is, not only they lack it, but also they don't have time or aren't willing to remedy it.

It's said that in Canada, many people in traditional service trades have questionable honesty. For instances, car mechanics, building repair people, and financial advisers (read, financial salesmen).

And we often hear journalists cry out "buyers beware".

But, it still may be the case that the numbers of good people in those trades far exceed that of their corrupt peers.

Any biz deal is an exchange of biz values and economic values. You've got to accept it, warts and all.

It seems that there are all kinds of rodeos taking place in this world.

We have the traditional rodeos, we have the motorcycle rodeos, we have the auto ones, and now we have the browsing rodeo. Yes, browsing is becoming a rodeo, you know, riding a wildly capable browser till you're dizzy. See Chrome Multitask Mode.

I think it's not my cup of tea, well, yet?

Are we gonna see Oracle's crumbling down the road?

New technologies which can make themselves popular are always the hit squad of their older counterparts.

And welcome to the lifelong learning software industry.

You've got to enjoy life, warts and all.

For every entrepreneur at the beginning, it's natural for him to be doubtful.

But after having chased and researched about the market and potential customers, it's then natural for him to be more confident and productive.

The spinach I used to eat in China is quite different than the one I see in local commonplace grocery stores in Montreal such as IGA.

To cook the spinach available over here, frying with oil doesn't do well. Instead, sautéing the spinach with butter produces a smoothly delicious green veggie dish.

Seriously, I do think that French sounds prettier and more elegant than English does.

For instance, the English word "pate" sounds O.K., but, the French word "paté" appears more pleasant in ear, and, the French term "paté de foie gras" is most pleasing and stimulates rich imagination in one's mind for the gourmet little thing!

In an open society like Canada, it's impossible to entirely bar the flow and residence of foreign spies through and in its territories. But I guess that CSIS wants to monitor and control those particular flow and residence.

See http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/spies-canada/.

One's got to singe his own ignorant imagination and pipe dreams by constant reality checks.

Just now I pried a fact out of the long history of computing. Apple had been developing and selling the Newton PDA by its 1998 end, which people say is the very first handheld PDA.

See http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/PDA.

I wonder how much of that legacy has been used to prop up their roll-out of iPhone.

Perhaps I prate about English too much.

I'm not sure what the future holds for the Calgary Stampede.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Stampede#Animal_welfare.

It's improbable that unions are able to outface the employers. Time has changed.