| 12.22.2008 21:06:56 |
Author:  Jack Yang |
Comparison of Online Recommendation Functionality
Getting recommendation is more and more encountered in online experience. Browsing a site may quickly bring suggestions, like Amazon, eBay and Yahoo! Sometimes the recommendations are made by robots. Sometimes they are made by real people. Who makes the recommendation is not so important. But a successful recommendation must have two points.
1. Real experience with the recommended object. Recommender must know the object details and must have real experience of using the object.
2. Honesty and objectivity. Recommender shall not simply say that an object is “good” or “bad”. Instead, s/he shall point out “what the good (or bad) things are”. Recommender shall respect the truth, neither concealing the defects nor exaggerating the capability.
With more stores open online, techniques of online recommendation also grows quickly. Internet is good at speed and massive coverage. So it will be a good source for customers to refer to for making purchase decision. However, a site making recommendation must assure the above two points so as to survive.
Amazon, eBay and Yahoo! all give product recommendations. At Amazon, you will find what have been bought by readers who are interested in the same books you are browsing. On Yahoo! Auto category, for example, there is Editor’s Picks where a lot of new car reviews and auto shows are posted. It has Y! Groups designed to discuss for Hybrid cars, but obviously there are many spam messages inside. On eBay, there are Hot for Holiday product list and Great Finds and More Great Finds lists. eBay also have Community hub, where members can meet with one another via discussion boards, chat rooms, Online Workshops, eBay Groups, and the Answer Center for interactions.
Other sites not run by online stores, like acobay, is designed to promote sharing of real user experiences. These sites relates with product recommendation. Unlike online stores or networking sites, acobay is a consumer network that enables users of same products to connect and communicate with each other. Users can write review of products that s/he purchased. And they can also give ratings to the products. To make sure that the reviewers have real experience of purchase (rather than an advertising agent in disguise), Q&A function are added for the browsers. Questions can be asked for details (e.g. price or store address) that interests the browsers. Since these questions are random, only those who have real experiences can make the correct answers. As long as these questions can be answered satisfactorily, it will not matter too much even if the review was posted by an advertising agent because the agent has already known enough about the product.
The non-seller nature of these sites makes it unnecessary to solicit users to give good or bad comments. Independency is helpful to generate objectivity. And ranking is calculated on a massive review basis so as to avoid significant system bias.
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| 08.14.2008 21:06:00 |
Author: Jack Yang |
US vs Iraq in Men's Double Sculls Rowing
US team and Iraq team eventually met each other in men's double sculls on the tranquil lake of Rowing-Canoeing Park, 50km to the northeast of Nest in Beijing.
Fifteen teams, divided as three groups, were scheduled to take part in the heats on August 9. However, Chinese team was excluded due to the late arrival of one athlete. So the total number of competing teams was fourteen. US team was in Group 1 and Iraqi in Group 2. Iraq team (7:00.46) got the last place in Group 2 and US (6:39.37) was also the last one in Group 1. Both teams were put together with other 3 teams (Russian Federation, Belgium and Bulgaria) to compete in the repechage on Aug 11 17:20 where top three winners would be qualified to enter the Final B. However, US ranked 4th (6:26.05) and Iraq ranked 5th (6:52.71) hence they would enter the Final C for the rank of 13th and 14th place.
The results of previous heats and repechage show that US team is 21-26 seconds faster than Iraq team so there would be nothing surprising to anticipate during Final C. Wes Piermarini (bow) and Elliot Hovey (stroke)are both from Alameda and they are members of California Rowing Club. On the other side, Nozad Haidar (bow)and Jebur Hussein (stroke) are from Baghdad. Nozad escaped to Sweden for three years during the Iraqi war.
On Aug 13 afternoon 17:30, the final C started with Iraq in Lane 1 and US in Lane 2. US team kept the leading position till the end of the 2000m-long lane. Its time spent was 6:33.15, which was almost 19 seconds quicker than that of Iraq's 6:52.02. But Iraqi team also tried its best and the final result was also the best one it achieved in the three rounds. Both teams were warmly applauded by the audience.
The Iraqi team arrived in China just three days before the opening ceremony, after IOC reversed its decision to cancel Iraq's qualification to participate. After the rowing, Iraq still has two athletes to compete in track and field.
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| 08.13.2008 03:14:48 |
Author: Jack Yang |
Phelps Wins Medals, Sponsors Win Gold
With President and First Lady cheering at the Olympics for the team players, good news comes out both from the swimming pool as well as the market place.
Among the Olympics top sponsors, Coca-Cola, UPS, GE, McDonalds, Johnson-Johnson, VISA and Budweiser are all enjoying big deals handed out by Olympic Organization Committee.
GE has provided water supply facilities to the Nest and air conditioning systems to more than 30 Olympics stadiums, including the Water Cube where Phelps won his 1st gold medal. GE's child company NBC enjoys the right to live broadcast the games for North America, which will bring additional billions of dollars.
UPS is operating the Olympics Logistic Center to handle 20 million parcels during the whole season. Right after the awesome opening ceremony performance, UPS spent 56 hours to withdraw all the dancing platforms and rebuild the ground into track field.
2.5 million tourists worldwide have come to Beijing for both Olympics and sightseeing. Coca-Cola, McDonalds, KFC, Wal-Mart are all making tremendous amount of money from their consumptions, VISA and Citi are providing currency exchange service in its 3 branches plus 35 ATMs for cash in Beijing's major hotels and stores.
Other sponsors also get good reward. Speedo is an excellent example. Its new version LZR sharkskin (artificial) swimwear has contributed greatly to the record breakings. 50 teams from other countries also placed orders before the game. $500 apiece is not cheap but still affordable to the national teams. 10 athletes in one team will bring Speedo $250,000. More orders will follow since the swimwear can only be used for six times.
After 12 hours of flight, American athletes are still enjoying services provided by home enterprises in a comprehensive manner. No wonder the lion's share of the medals will be taken back.
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| 08.08.2008 06:27:35 |
Author: Jack Yang |
VIPs Attending Olympics Opening Ceremony (part)
(P.=president PM.=prime minister)
USA P. George Bush, First Lady Laura Bush
France P. Sarkozy
Japan PM. Yasuo Fukuda
Spain PM. Zapatero
Russia PM. Putin
UK Princess Anne
Denmark Crown Prince Frederik
Netherlands PM. Balkenende
Luxembourg Grand Duke Henri
Switzerland P. Pascal Couchepin
Iceland P. Olafur Grimsson
Finland P. Tarja Halonen
Norway King Harald V, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon
Crotia P. Stjepan Mesic
Czech PM. Mirek Topolanek
Romania P. Traian Basescu
Bulgaria P. Georgi Parvanov
Albania PM. Sali Berisha
Israel P. Shimon Peres
Greece P. Karolos Papoulias
Iraq P. Jalal Talabani
Saudi Arabia Prince Alwaleed
Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, P. Nathan
Pakistan P. Musharraf
Sri Lanka P. Rajapaksa
Bangladesh P. Iajuddin Ahmed
Philippines P. Arroyo
South Korea P. Lee Myung-bak
North Korea Kim Yong-nam. President of the Supreme People's Assembly
Thailand PM. Samak, Princess Sirindhorn
India Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi
Cambodia King Norodom Sihamoni
Viet Nam P. Nguyen Minh Triet
Mongolia P. Enkhbayar, PM. Bayar
Brunei Darussalam P. Bolkiah
Ukraine P. Yushchenko
Turkmenistan P. Berdimuhamedow
Kazakhstan P. Nazarbayev
Armenia P. Sargsyan
Azerbaijan P. Aliyev
Latvia P. Zatlers
Lithunia P. Adamkus
Egypt P. Mubarak
Madagascar P. Ravalomanana
Algeria P. Bouteflika
Burundi P. Nkurunziza
Mali P. Toure
Kenya P. Kibaki
Ethiopia P. Girma Woldegiorgis
Angola P. Dos Santos
Gambia P. Yahya Jammeh
Costa Rica P. Sanchez
Namibia P. Hifikepunye Pohamba
Peru P. Garcia Perez
Brazil P. Lula
Argentina P. Cristina
Cuba Former P. Fidel Castro
Australia PM. Kevin Rudd
Mauritius P. Jugnauth
Vanuatu P. Kelekele
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| 08.04.2008 22:24:29 |
Author: Jack Yang |
Special Report 2008 Beijing
Stay at the spot site and see things with one’s own eyes. That’s why tourists would like to visit Beijing during August for Olympic seasons. However, only part of the public can get the opportunity to view the stadiums and get the spot feelings.
 Nestle
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Visas, airline tickets, and hotel bookings to Beijing are hard to get, much less to say the game entrance tickets. Suppose you are lucky enough to have obtained all these and arrived in Beijing already. You can take a taxi from airport to see the stadium directly. The taxi drivers, wearing the newly distributed yellow shirt and black tie, are trained to speak a little English like ‘Welcome’ and ‘Thanks’. As long as you show a picture of the Bird Nestle, s/he will know where you want to go.
 Taxi
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Traffic rule in China is to drive on the right hand side. The light posts along major roads are decorated with skyscraper banners in different colors. The inner lane, painted with Olympic 5-circle logo, is devoted for the exclusive use of Olympic vehicles. Driving mistakenly on the lane by non-Olympic vehicles will be fined as much as RMB1800 (approx. $300). On the road, you will see other cars with labels in Odd (or Even) numbers depending on the calendar day number. Public transportation including taxi, buses and police are not restricted. The Odd-Even Rule is applicable from July 20 to Sept 20.
 Helicopter
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In case your taxi gets lost, it’s still easy to find the stadium by following the helicopter overhead. It’s noisy and circling around the stadiums. Seeing helicopters or hearing its noise tells you that you are about to arrive.
The central Olympic area locates in the north of Beijing, consisting of Nestle, Water Cubic, National Stadium, Main Press Center, Athletes Village and Olympic Park. All buildings are fenced for security reason. The most concerned ‘Bird’s Nestle’ (or ‘Niao Chao’ in Chinese pronunciation) and blue Water Cubic are isolated from the curious public with 2-meter high fence placed about 200 meters away from the buildings. So visitors can only look at them and take pictures of or with them from afar. Behind the fence are soldiers in green standing still in the little shade of umbrellas placed on the ground about 50 meters apart from each other. Policemen in blue and anti-riot policemen in black, together with their specially-trained dogs, are roaming outside the fence. All working staffs are wearing a rectangle ID label in orange and red, possibly sponsored by Kodak. Content in ID labels, as well as all direction boards, are printed in three languages: Chinese, English and French.
 Volunteer
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On the streets outside the fence, you will see the police cars back and forth with blinking blue and red lights on its roofs. Smiling young volunteers are standing in scattered sites, wearing sky blue T-shirt and silver-colored pants. Most of them are from universities. Their non-volunteer university classmates are enjoying an extraordinarily long summer vacation from July 1 till Sept 15.
 Logo
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The torch, designed by Lenovo and made by a space-tech firm, is under relay in different cities. The medals for winners, with jade embedded at the rear panel, are ready for awarding. Opening ceremony performance and fireworks show is under busy rehearsal. Delegations from different countries are arriving and checking into the Athletes Village to get adapted to the new environment.
 Dream
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Everything seems ready. If you are not able to visit Beijing, make sure to watch the live broadcast of the opening ceremony and game performance on TV, mobile or Internet.
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| 08.04.2008 04:11:27 |
Author: Jack Yang |
10% Gain or Loss: Foreign Exchange Risk for Software Outsourcing
Outsourced software programming is growing quickly in today's software business with the use of Internet. The major possible advantage at client side is the lower cost and shorter turnaround. However, freelance programmers must consider exchange risk when providing the services. Negligence of this will result in losses.
When a U.S. company needs to hand out a site development project to engineers from India, the company may find Indian immigrants living in America already and make payment in US dollars. In this case there will be no exchange rate problem for the client. However, in most cases, resources in India homeland will be cheaper since the supply of service is adequate.
The U.S. client will usually compare offers from several potential Indian local service providers to determine the best price and quality. The U.S. buyer usually prefers to pay for the services in US Dollars, but the Indian engineers must pay local expenses in Indian Rupee. One of the two parties to the transaction will be forced to deal in a foreign currency. Either the U.S. client will end up paying in Dollars, with the Indian provider forced to convert the payment to Rupee. Or, the U.S. client will convert the Dollars to Rupee first and then pay the Indian provider. Since client has more bargaining power, client will decide the payment currency. US dollar, as home currency, will be used by American clients in most cases.
Another thing is payment term. When a work is finished, client need to check its quality and then deliver to next step such as send to webmaster to launch online. Then client will report to accounting department for payment. The larger the company, the slower the process. Usually 30-day or 45-day time need to be waited. Since the project itself will also take a certain amount of time to complete, depending on its size. Hence, the period between the order date and the actual receipt of payment can range from 3-6 months. At this point, the risk from exchange rate differentials comes into play, because rates are free to move up and down in response to changes in underlying economic conditions and the policies of individual countries.
Let's see several real-world data. The rate between USD/Rupee is around 39 at Jan 2008. It jumped to around 43 at the end of June 2008. So if an Indian engineer agreed to do a work in Jan 2008 for an American client and gets paid in USD till June 2008, his/her exchange extra gain will be as much as 10.26%! This percentage is not a small one. Of course, one party's gain means the loss of the opposite party. But situation will be totally different in 2007. In Jan 2007 the rate was 44 and it dropped to 40 by June 2007. For the same project, the Indian programmer will lose 9.1% due to Rupee's appreciation.
Freelance software programmers must be aware of the exchange risks and take some proactive measures to minimize the exchange loss due to exchange rate volatility. The first thing to do is to try to shorten the payment term. When planning tasks, especially if it is large-scale, set two or three payment milestones and get paid phase by phase. And then diversify the currencies. For example, using USD and Rupee (or Euro) in payment on a half-half basis will efficiently reduce the risk.
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