You may have heard of Engrish.com, which showcases the bizarre ways English is often used to “look cool” in Japan and China. Well, two can play that game: Tian Tang was inspired by Engrish to set up Hanzi Smatter, which is dedicated to the bizarre ways Chinese characters are used to look cool in Western …
Author Archives: Jimmy Lin
More music fun
When I was in elementary and middle school, I listened to mostly adult contemporary songs (i.e., “soft rock”), mostly because I didn’t know any better. So watching the infomercial for Time-Life’s Classic Soft Rock collection was particularly trippy, because they showed that these songs were sung by real people! With bad hair and funny clothes! …
The (not-so-latest) hits
Every once in a while, I’ll hear a song that catches my attention, and then I can’t resist going online to do some research. Like when I first heard Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” and then finding out a few weeks later it was built around a sample of the 1971 hit “Are You My Woman?“ …
Thoughts on Flickr
A few observations about my experience with Flickr: Ever since I’ve been uploading my photos to Flickr in June, I’ve blogged a lot less often. I guess I can only devote so much attention to any online activity. Out of the 21 people who list me as a contact, I don’t know 1/3 of them. …
A relaxing weekend… sort of
This is the first weekend in over a month I’ve stayed at home. Last month, Matt and Laurel visited over two weekends. The week after was Ben and Judy’s wedding over Labor Day. Three days later, I flew to New York for Sebastian and Carine’s wedding. Then a week after that, I flew to Boston …
Walking while working
Soon after I started working, I noticed I was even less physically active than as a computer science grad student (which is saying something), and I’ve dreamt of putting a treadmill in my office and walking while I worked. Not surprisingly, I’m not the only one with this brilliant idea: Dr. James Levine at the …
IBM Software product names getting spiffier
I’ve blogged previously about IBM software getting snappier names (e.g., Sametime->”Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing”->Sametime). Looks like this philosophy is slowly spreading. For example, take a look at this name evolution: Workplace Client Technology Micro Edition, Enterprise Offering Workplace Managed Client for WebSphere WebSphere Everyplace Deployment for Windows and Linux Lotus Expeditor It also shows …
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Limited attention span
I’ve realized that I’ve been blogging a lot less ever since I started posting my photos on Flickr. Seems like I can do only so much “content creation” before maxing out.
A new watch
I’ve decided that at age 30, a Casio Databank calculator watch just doesn’t look very, uh, classy in certain situations. Plus, now that I have a cell phone, one of my original reasons for having a Databank, to store phone numbers, isn’t as useful as it used to be. So I bought an analog watch …
Turboman lives!
The developer tools group in Borland, which is in the process of being spun off, is resurrecting the Turbo line of programming tools. They will include a free edition and a professional edition that will cost less than $500. (Currently Borland’s cheapest professional tools cost over $1000.) They’re even bringing back their old mascot, Turboman. …