Posts Tagged ‘china’

Problemic boc.cn

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

今天上中行的网站,本来是找信息的,却发现了很多大问题,比如:

  • DNS 只解析 www.boc.cn,不解析 boc.cn
  • 供下载的申请表竟然用 rar 打包,是不是在考验申请人的计算机操作能力?
  • 网银操作依赖于 IE
  • 安全增强依赖于 ActiveX
  • SSL 证书只是基本型的,而不是银行业界普及的增强型
  • 网页用 gb2312 编码,而非最适合国际公司的 utf-8
  • 网页申明为 xhtml,但显然不知 xhtml 为何物
  • table 布局

小问题肯定数都数不过来,我也没心情帮他们去纠错。

Nice looking wqy fonts

Friday, June 5th, 2009

装 Fedora 时我选 locale 是 United Kingdom,所以中文字体没有装。但能读中文,也能输入中文,大概得感谢 utf-8 之类的标准。

但英文 Fedora 显示中文的方式太别扭了,一句话里会夹杂几个字黑体,几个字宋体。我不理解为什么会这样,不研究了,用
yum install wqy*

把文泉驿字体装上就好看多了。

Why Chinese hack Chinese

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

今天想用 iphone 看电影,于是 google 有关视频格式转换的开源软件。MediaCoder 就在其中,网站做得还中规中矩,装它的软件也让我放心。

安装开始时提示选择语言,只有 Chinese 和 English 可选。没多想就选了个 Chinese,接着病毒防火墙就提示有 Adware,Trojan-Downloader:W32/ConHook.APX。真不爽,赶紧取消安装。重新选了 English,安装过程病毒防火墙没有发现病毒和流氓软件。

这下我更不爽了,为什么中国人做个软件专门害中国人呢(我猜 MediaCoder 出自某个 Chinese 之手吧)!中国网络环境在国际上排在榜尾,行业中人不自律给此雪上加霜。

My view of Liverpool

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

在我到过的英国城市中,我最喜欢利物浦。利物浦号称欧洲的文化名城,我只在利物浦停留过一天,还没时间探究她的文化底蕴。我说我喜欢,说白了,就是喜欢她的外观。如果在英国投资物业,如果不考虑工作因素,我首选利物浦。为什么我把利物浦推崇到如此高度?我自己也觉得奇怪,仔细想来,大概是因为我喜欢上海,在英国这么年,到过的城市也不少了,没见过哪个城市有点上海气息,利物浦是个例外。

为了证明我的感觉是正确的,我归纳一下:

  • 利物浦也是个港口城市,构局也有点像上海,一条默西河(Mersey)仿似黄浦江把利物浦分为东西两部分,目前是利物浦东比利物浦西热闹,毕竟利物浦东位于内陆。
  • 阿尔伯特码头(Albert Dock)可以隔江远眺利物浦西。阿尔伯特码头于1846年由阿尔伯特亲王主持开港典礼而得名。该码头由约克郡设计师杰斯·哈特利设计,占地约2.8公顷,所属仓库用于储存来自远东地区的茶叶、丝绸、烟草和烈性酒。经旧城改造,阿尔伯特码头现已发展为旅游商业区,位列利物浦首要旅游景点,十足的上海外滩。
  • 利物浦步行街规模庞大,英国其他城市的步行街根本无法与之相比。利物浦步行街在历史建筑群基础上往外扩建,我把它分外新旧两部分,新的部分像徐家汇,时尚而尖端;旧的部分仿佛上海南京路,可以充分满足购物和欣赏建筑的双重愿望。

我事后了解到1999年10月18日,上海和利物浦结为友好城市,我衷心希望她们世世代代友好下去。

(两个月前拜访的利物浦,现在才写完观感,惭愧)

最值得从英国带往中国的商品

Saturday, March 15th, 2008
  1. 婴儿奶粉。
  2. 婴儿用品。如Tommee Tippee奶瓶系列。
  3. 英国红茶。
  4. 威士忌。
  5. 化妆品、香水。
  6. 巧克力。
  7. Clark。

最值得从中国带到英国的商品

Saturday, March 15th, 2008
  1. 香烟。英国是世界上烟税最高的国家,所以在英国尽量不要抽烟。如果要抽,每人入关时有两条香烟(400支)的免税额度,千万不要浪费。
  2. 茶叶。龙井、铁观音、碧螺春、乌龙、普洱,随个人喜好,即使你不喜欢喝茶,你带来的茶叶保准受欢迎。在英国很难买到高等级的茶叶。
  3. 丝绸。丝绸礼品很轻巧,几乎不占用行李重量。
  4. 贺卡。如果是批量发送的贺卡,到了英国再买也不贵,2镑可以买到50张。值得从中国带来的贺卡是精致型,面向重量级亲友、上司的贺卡,这种贺卡一般也是单张卖的,零售价3-10镑。来英国前应该考虑好用得着这种贺卡的场合,把可以预见到的贺卡一股脑买好带到英国来。

如果你还没有手提电脑,来英国之前想在中国买一台带到英国,我建议你打消念头。四年前,从中国买一台手提电脑再快递到英国,总费用仍比在英国买便宜,但今非昔比,虽然大部分电子产品仍然Made in China,但能列上清单的、中国比英国便宜的消费类电子产品一件件消失。如果想买手机、手提电脑、打印机,还是到英国再买,最近存储卡也英国便宜,真是很让人很难理解中国零售消费者有接近产地的优势,却无法享受优惠的零售价格。On top of my head, only digital cameras and digital videos are relatively cheaper in China.

Sourcing Chinese Products

Friday, January 4th, 2008

To me, sourcing Chinese products is a piece of cake.

  • I am UK based so I can be close contact with the buyers.
  • I have no language barrier because I am from China.
  • I have years of experience of talking to manufacturers.
  • I know or I can easily find out the production base area of a certain product, so I avoid fruitless approaches from the very beginning.

However, some people may think sourcing products in China is a hi-tech job, especially for those English speakers. One of my partners, before he became my partner, used a weird approach to source Chinese products. He can only speak English, which makes him reluctant to talk/write to Chinese suppliers directly. He is neglecting the fact that China is open to the world now and many Chinese factories and/or import and export companies have staff with good English literature. He is just afraid of the embarrassment of misunderstandings in communication. He employed someone in India as Virtual Assistant to source products in China.

It was a weird approach because the Indian Virtual Assistant was virtually a liaison. It would raise more chances of misunderstandings in communication even the Indian Virtual Assistant is English-Chinese bilingual. What’s more, the Indian Virtual Assistant could not go to China in case the situation requires. I did not see any benefits of employing a Virtual Assistant in Indian.

Well, now I am his partner, and I source products in China, liaison with Chinese factories, and inspect the factories as partnership. I can find many good Chinese suppliers that never appear on Google. (If I was a Chinese suppliers, the first thing I would do was calling for Google awareness. But that is another issue.)

If you are outsourcing sourcing manpower, I would also like to be your Chinese Products Sourcing Manager. Leave a reply for details.