Life Digest

Google Keep: Will it be closed by Google like Reader?

2013-03-20T23:13:00.001-07:00

Google Keep, a Evernote competitor from Google, was launched. The UI seems good, as well as the features highlighted by Google.

However, I'm not willing to try it, or at least I will not really use it. Why? Let's recall Google Reader. Reader has good UI and good features too. But, Google closed it because it can not bring profit to Google. Google Notebook, a lightweight version of Google Keep, indeed is just another widely used product closed by Google. If now I transfer my notes to Keep and start to use it as my notebook instead of Evernote, what can I do if it is closed by Google some day?

Google has lost its faith.

Multi-terrain for cycling at Fragrant Hill

2008-09-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

This entry starts a series of introduction to the multi-terrain of Fragrant Hill, Beijing, for cycling.

Braker

2006-09-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

Shifter

2006-09-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

Forecasted My Death Time

2006-09-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.deathforecast.com/result.php?record=297785

It seems to be of some funny and some scientific reliabilities. Thanks for biking everyday, I have good heart and lungs.

Rear Hub and Cassettes

2006-09-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Wheel Hub

2006-09-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

Curve of Change Rate of Canadian Dollar to Chinese Yuan

2006-09-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, the change rate of CAD to CNY is very regular. From the curve left (from my Chinese version of blog) , you can see an obvious period of fluctuation. Further more, the fluctuation is not small, the change rate can change 2% in only a month. So it is necessary to choose a best time for changing the money, especially to the Canadian travellers.

Mountain Bike Component Tutorial

2006-09-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Rear Derailleur
Crank Set

Shopping in China: buy something the cheapest but also good!

2006-09-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

Made in China was famous in the world for its low price. In contrast to made in China, shopping in China was supposed to be unvalued, for most advanced industrial products, such as cars, computers, etc., were more expensive in China than other developed countries.

Things are changing. Now, more and more commodities are going to be cheaper and cheaper in China, especially that produced in China locally, for example, many consumer digital products are cheapest in China than anywhere else.

But, the market in China is strange. The sales often offer different prices to different guests. To get the lowest price, you need some professional shopping technics. This is very hard to foreign travellers. So, if there is a third-party agent, must be neutralism and reliable, shopping in China will be a good experience.

Feed Meter: acknowlegement to your hard work of blogging!

2006-09-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

I also placed a feed meter on my blog. Different to FeedBurner, feed meter acknowledges my work on blogging instantly.

It's a long time waiting for a considerable count of subscriber of my feed. So, my FeedCount will stay at zero for a while. What a depression for a hardworking blogger like me.

But feed meter is lovely. The meter will be updated immediately when you've posted a new article. Then you can see your efforts through the higher update frequency. It gives me a lot of encouragement.

Benefits of adding FeedBurner to your blog, make your blog more professional!

2006-09-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

According to a piece of advice suggested by an older blogger, I added my blog to FeedBurner to make my blog more professional, at least seems to be.

Sure, adding blog to FeedBurner not only makes your blog seems to be professional, but also brings a lot of benefits to your blog.

FeedBurner is a way of publishing your blog. If your blog is added, the feedburner will notify other services such as My Yahoo, Bloglines, etc. when your blog is updated.
FeedBurner is one of the most popular RSS provider. Users will be glad and easy to subscribe you blog if added to FeedBurner.
There are some little cool functions provided by FeedBurner. FeedCount gives popularity statistic directly; Headline Animator is very suitable to be your signature in forums.
...

Picasa: two most frequently used features

2006-09-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

Picasa is a photo software what I really need. Photoshop is too comprehensive to me, and also too expensive, too complicated. On the other hand, ACDsee is too simple.

Picasa offers a very good function of cliping/cutting. It provides a way of making expanded pictures without wide angle lens, such as the pictures I post in previous blogs. To landscape pictures, this feature can make you photo more attactive if you cut out a 4:3 picture to large than 16:9.

Another cheerful feature of Picasa is stacking. For portrait photos, some just so so pictures may create a wonderful portrait art through stacking. Examples will be here later.

Find a teaching job or a local partner for trip in Beijing through SMTH BBS

2006-09-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

The SMTH BBS is one of the most popular BBS/Forum site in China. But, the great difference between SMTH and other BBSs is that most of the members of SMTH are students/graduates in Tsinghua Univeristy, Peking University, etc. Normally, there are about 15000 members online on SMTH and many of them are finding a private language teacher or a travel partner.

So, it's very easy to find a suitable teaching job in Beijing or a good local partner for trip through SMTH. However, the key challenge is that Chinese characters are full of screen. If you can NOT read Chinese, it's nothing. What a pity! I wonder to suggest that SMTH should generate a data miner and translate some related messages to English. Then it will be a very good resource for foreign friends.

Tiger Valley, in the North of Beijing City

2006-09-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Near the Great Wall of Bada Ling. And, there is a nuclear reactor research institute in the vicinity, called Institute of Nuclear And New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University.

Scene from Fragrant Hill

2006-09-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

Scene from Fragrant Hill in ascenting . The Beijing city is behind you.

Approaching Tiger Valley: Road bike riding in Beijing.

2006-09-05T04:57:00.000-07:00

By my MERIDA Extreme 903 and Sigma BC 1600. About 45km away from Tsinghua University.

Walk through only! No riding!

2006-09-05T04:39:00.000-07:00

A narrow on the road of Fragrant Hill. Walk through only.

Extremely Dangerous! The snow covered path of Fragrant Hill.

2006-09-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

With a cliff, the snow covered path becoming more dangerous. The height from the bottom of the cliff to the path is about 30 meters.

Path in trees. The mountain bike tour of Fragrant Hill.

2006-09-05T04:19:00.000-07:00

Path in trees. The season was winter, fallen leaves extended to the whole surface of the hillside.

A pool in the Fragrant Hill

2006-09-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

Down hill to the lowest quarter of height by your mountain bike, there is a pool, or say little lake.

Spiral Roads on Fragrant Hill: a Mountain Bike tour.

2006-09-05T04:02:00.000-07:00

Spiral roads on the Fragrant Hill. The condition of the surface of the roads are very good, you can even ride road bike to complete the tour.

Fragrant Hill, a cross country tour. Cross Country in Beijing by Mountain Bike (2)

2006-09-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

Entry of the mountain, the beginning of ascent. The temple on the left side called Biyun Si, means green cloud temple ( Ah ha, merely word by word!) . Doctor Sun Yat-sen's grave with clothing only.

Make money by AdSense with blogger efficiently!

2006-09-03T05:44:00.000-07:00

Place as many Ads as possible. 3 Adsense for content units + 1 Adsense for search unit + 1 Adsense for content link unit + 4 referral buttons = 9 Ad Units per page allowed by google!
Add a channel for each Ad Unit in any different position. Tracking the Ad Units and analysing the CPM of each unit, make your ads tuned and more reachable in a long term.
Choose the same colors for your ads as your blog content. The same background color, the same border color, the same text color, and the same link color. People would like to click the links which don't look like ads.
Take more concern on positioning Ad Units. Top banner, bottom banner, sidebar, etc. are commonly used. More ads should be placed at the right side of your page, because most scroll bars of windows are located at there.
Modify the templates of blogger slightly. The templates here are indeed good. But, for more efficiency of advertising, you should widen the main column of the tempates from 440px to greater than 468px. Because there is an 468px wide banner Ad Unit. The change can be completed by modifying width of #header, #footer, #content and #main in style sheet section simultaneously.
Add your blog to google sitemaps, analytics, and so on.

Cross Country in Beijing by Mountain Bike (1)

2006-08-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

Beijing is the capital of China for many dynasties. It's reasonable for choosing Beijing as the capital of the country. The first advantage is that the terrain of Beijing is very suitable for defense. Beijing is surrounded by mountains on three sides, so there are many mountain suitable for cross country, by mountain bike even road bike if possible, in the vicinity of Beijing urban district. I'll be here to introduce my experience of cross country in beijing by mountain bike in this series of posts.

First, the nearest, eden of mountain bike - Fragrant Hill (Xiangshan) (find it in Google earth).

The Fragrant Hill has many reasons to be eden of moutain bike for people lived in Beijing.

It has only a distance of about 14 kilometres from urban district (Zhongguan Cun, or West of 4th Ring Road) to the mountain. You can arrive at the foot of the moutain by bicycle in 30 minutes.
There are all types of terrain in Fragrant Hill for mountain bikes, ascents covered by cement with different road grade for climbing, very steep accidented freeride/downhill road, etc.
There many historic sites in Fragrant Hill, and the scene of the hill is very good.
There are interesting and exciting, but not dangerous.