Archive for March, 2007

Best Shanghai Restaurants

Even six months ago, it was hard to get many English language reviews of Shanghai restaurants, but thanks to blogging, that’s rapidly changing. Here are some sources based on a query of google:”Best Shanghai Restaurants”:

“Frommer’s:http://www.frommers.com/destinations/shanghai/0717010028.html. Not surprising that this traditional print book has a top listing. Their “best bets”:http://www.frommers.com/destinations/shanghai/0717020003.html are some traditional ones including M on the Bund, Three on the Bund. But there are some other good ones like Crystal Jade for Xiao Long Bao ???? One that is particularly good is Lan Na Thai. It is really in an amazing place that is the grounds of the Ruijin Hotel. A great place to wander. Also the La Villa Rouge is really terrific too.

“Travel.yahoo.com”:http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2761468-shanghai_restaurants-i Yahoo is really a user review site. Actually it doesn’t have that much useful information as there are not that many reviewers, but they are right about a few things.

“Bi Feng Tang”:http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2761484-bi_feng_tang_shanghai-i;_ylt=A0Je59q3zgxGxAkATS04FWoL is Cantonese style and is very crowded. The food is quite good and they have restaurants everywhere. It is very Chinese though so there is no English language memo. The one I’ve been too played a great Hong Kong movie with plenty of machine gun fire which is great for

“Tandoor”:http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2761517-tandoor_shanghai-i;_ylt=A0Je59q3zgxGxAkAWS04FWoL This is quite an authentic Indian restaurant and the belly dancers are worth the price of admission.

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Carrying a Tripod

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!>http://www.kgear.com/images/H250L520.jpg! A Tripod bag, the T720 is the medium one handles up to 34″ long tripods including a big ballhead. You can carry it in your hand, over the shoulder with a “shoulder strap”:http://www.kgear.com/t/index.html#ss called the Y215 or the Y315 is you want a padded one. You can also ge tthe “H245″:http://www.kgear.com/h/#h245 and convert a tripod bag or a long lens case into a back pack. You also probably want the free H130 which stabilizes a long lenses if you carry it on your back and you get the “T220″:http://www.kgear.com/t/#t220 phone insert so it cushions your back.

So specifically, you need the T620 and the H245 Harness and you get a backpack thingy that you put your tripod in. How cool.

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Latest Music

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"Beyonce":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonc%C3%A9_Knowles. Now famous because of Dream Girls, she was the lead on Destiny's Child and then had a huge hit with Dangerously in Love in 2003 and now B'day in 2006 which she did on her 25th (wow I'm old!) birthday.

"Rihanna":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna? Are singers getting younger. Rihanna is from Barbados and was discovered when she was 15! Her latest album is A Girl LIke Me which is awesome.

"Paula Deanda":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_DeAnda. She's actually my personal favorite. (And she's younger than Rihanna yikes). She's Mexican American Her debut album is just amazing with Doing Too Much, Walk Away and When it was Me being amazing!

"Sean Paul":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Paul. A Jamaican reggae artist

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Even Better Chinese Dictionary

I’ve been using “Mandarin Tools”:http://mandarintools.com, but lately I’ve found that “MDBG.net”:http://mdbg.net works even better. Thats mainly because you can feed it a whole chinese sentence and it shows you the pinyin and english dictionary entries. With Mandarin tools, you have to split up the sentences because it doesn’t parse very well. MDBG.net in Advanced Word Dictionary works way better.

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Desktop Pets

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Blackberry Games

Blackberry has a few free games on “mobile.blackberry.com”:http://mobile.blackberry.com, but “pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/downloads.html?s=&catid=2&page=1&pp=30&sort=30 has a bunch more with Tetris being the coolest.

You can also get free Java games from “Mobilerated.com”:http://www.mobilerated.com/rim-blackberry-8100-pearl-games.html

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Blackberry Music and Video Codecs

Here is what the blackberry can playback according to “Pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/6354-comprehensive_blackberry_pearl_8100_guide.html and there is a freeware encoder for video that “Pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/6948-original_video_encoding_8100_a.html recommends.

h3. Music

The following Audio formats (including extensions) are supported:
- ACC – audio compression formats AAC, AAC+, and EAAC+
- AMR – Adaptive Multi Rate-Narrow Band (AMR-NB) speech coder standard Supported AMR-NB rates are 4.75 KBps, 5.15 KBps, 5.9 KBps, 6.7 KBps, 7.4 KBps, 7.95 KBps, 10.2 KBps, and 12.2 KBp.
- AMR files must conform to the standards specified in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) document RFC3267, Section 5, on the the Internet RFC Archive web site.
- MIDI – Polyphonic MIDI (.mid, .midi, or .smf)
- MP3 – encoded using MPEG Part 1 and Part 2 audio layer 3 Supported sample rates are 16Khz, 22.050Khz, 24Khz, 32Khz, 44.1Khz and 48Khz.
- WAV – supports sample rates of 8 kHz, 16 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, and 48 kHz with 8-bit and 16-bit depths in mono or stereo Supports WAV files created using audio codec GSM6.10.

The following Audio file extensions are also supported:
- .avi containing PCM, MP3, and AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+
- .3gp containing MP3, AMR-NB, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+
- .mp4 containing MP3, AMR-NB, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+
- .mov containing MP3, AMR-NB, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+
- .aac and .m4a containing AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+ Video

The following Video formats are supported:
- MPEG-4 Part 2 – Simple Profile + bvops (including DivX files in this format)
- H.263 Profile 0 and Profile 3

The way to get H.263 and then you select,
1.Select the Output Container= avi
2.Select the output Video codec=H.263
3.Aspect=11:9,4:3 or 1:1
4.Frame/sec= 14.985
5.Bitrate kbps= 64-576

The following Video file extensions are also supported:
- .avi containing MPEG4 Part 2 and H.263
- .mov containing MPEG4 Part 2 and H.263
- .3gp containing MPEG4 Part 2 and H.263
- .mp4 containing MPEG4 Part 2 and H.263
- .m4v containing MPEG4 Part 2 and H.263
- .mpg containing MPEG4 Part 2 and H.263

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Blackberry Pearl Tips and Tricks

“Pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/f78-blackberry_pearl_8100.html has an amazingly helpful list of things for the Pearl. The biggest and the incredibly bizarre keyboard shortcuts. They aren’t intuitive anymore because the keyboard is so much smaller.

Keyboard Shortcuts
Basic Shortcuts

The following shortcuts can be used in many applications:

- To move the cursor, roll the trackball.
- To exit a screen or to move to a previous page in a browser, press the Escape key.
- To move upwards in a screen, press 3.
- To move downwards in a screen, press 9.
- To move to the top of a screen, press 1.
- To move to the bottom of a screen, press 7.
- To move to the next item, press 6.
- To move to the previous item, press 4.
- To move to a list item or menu item, type the first letter of the item.
- To select or clear a check box, click the trackball.
- To select adjacent items, hold the Shift key and roll the trackball.
- To delete a selected item, press the Delete key.
- To switch applications, hold the Alt key and press the Escape key. Continue holding the Alt key and select an application. Release the Alt
key.
- To return to the Home screen, press the End key.
- To lock the keyboard, from the Home screen, hold the asterisk ( * ) key.- To unlock the keyboard, hold the Send key and press the asterisk ( *) key. Type your password.
- To switch between the Default and Vibrate notification profiles, from the Home screen, hold the pound ( # ) key.
- To turn on a theme or notification profile, select a theme or notification profile, then press the Space key.

Phone Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the phone application or during a phone call:

- To answer a phone call, press the Send key.
- To place an active phone call on hold and answer a second incoming phone call, press the Send key.
- To view the contact list, hold the Send key.
- To insert a plus sign ( + ) when typing a phone number, hold 0.
- To add an extension to a phone number, press the X key, then type the extension number.
- To assign a speed dial number to a key, from the Home screen or in the Phone application, hold the key you want to assign. Type the phone number.
- To check your voice mail, hold 1.
- To view the last phone number that you dialed, scroll to the top of the Phone screen, then press the Enter key. Press the Send key to dial the number.

Camera Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the Camera application:

- To take a picture, press the Right Convenience key.
- To zoom the camera in, press the Volume Up key.
- To zoom the camera out, press the Volume Down key.
- To turn flash on/off in camera mode, press the Space key.

Message Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the Messages application:
- To compose a message from the message list, press the comma ( , ) key.
- To reply to a message, press the exclamation point ( ! ) key.
- To reply to all, press the question mark ( ? ) key.
- To forward a message, press the period ( . ) key.
- To view received messages, hold the Alt key and press 3.
- To view call logs, hold the Alt key and press the period ( . ) key.
- To view voice mail messages, hold the Alt key and press 7.
- To view SMS text messages, hold the Alt key and press the question mark ( ? ) key.
- To view your message list again, press the Escape key.
- To move up a message in the list, press 2.
- To move down a message in the list, press 8.

Typing Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used when typing text in an application:
- To type the alternate character on a key, hold the Alt key and press the character key.
- To type an accented or special character, hold the letter key and roll the trackball left or right. Click a selected character.
- To type a symbol, press the Symbol key. To view more symbols, press the Symbol key again. Type the letter that appears below the symbol to enter the corresponding symbol.
- To insert a period, press the Space key twice. The next letter is capitalized.
- To capitalize a letter, hold the letter key until the capitalized letter appears.
- To turn on NUM lock, hold the Shift key and press the Alt key.
- To turn off NUM lock, press the Alt key.
- To insert an at sign ( @ ) or a period ( . ) in an email address field, press the Space key.
- To type a number in a number field, press a number key. You do not need to press the Alt key.
- To type a number in a password field, hold the Alt key and press the number key.
- To type a letter in a number field, hold the Alt key and use the multi-tap input method to enter the letter.
- To switch typing input languages, hold the Alt key and press the Enter key. Select a language, then release the Alt key. Note: To allow this functionality, on the Language screen, verify that the Use Input Method Shortcut field is set to Yes.
- To select a line of text, press the Shift key and roll the trackball.
- To select text character by character, hold the Shift key and roll the trackball left or right.
- To cancel a text selection, press the Escape key.
- To cut selected text, hold the Shift key and press the Delete key.
- To copy selected text, press the Alt key and click the trackball.
- To paste your cut or copied text, press the Shift key and click the trackball.

Search Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used when searching in an application:
- To search for a contact in a list of contacts, type the contact name or initials separated by a space.
- To view the criteria of your last search, in your list of searches, press the Menu key. Click Last.

Attachment Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used when viewing attachments:
- To search for text in an attachment, press Q.
- To switch between the table of contents and the full content of an attachment, press O.
- To change the size of a column in a spreadsheet, press Z.
- To move to a specific cell in a spreadsheet, press A.
- To view the content of a cell in a spreadsheet, press the Space key.
- To view a slide show presentation, press A.
- To stop a slide show presentation, hold the Escape key.
- To switch presentation views, press Z.

Browser Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the browser applications:
- To insert a period ( . ) in the Go To dialog box, press the Space key.
- To insert a forward slash ( / ) in the Go To dialog box, hold the Shift key and press the Space key.
- To open the bookmark list from a web page, press 5.
- To add a bookmark from a web page, press the question mark ( ? ) key.
- To view a thumbnail version of a web page, press X. To return to the normal view, press any key.
- To stop loading a web page, press the Escape key.
- To move to a specific web page, press the period ( . ) key.
- To hide the banner on a web page, press the exclamation point ( ! ) key. To view the banner on a web page, press the exclamation point ( ! ) key again.
- To close a browser, hold the Escape key.

Media Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the Media application:
- To pause a video, press the Mute key. To resume playing the video, press the Mute key again.
- To zoom in to a picture, press 3.
- To zoom out from a picture, press 9.
- To return to the original picture size, press 5.
- To rotate a picture, press the comma ( , ) key.
- To pause a slide show, press the Space key. To resume the slide show, press the Space key again.
- To pause a song, press the Mute key. To resume playing the song, press the Mute key again.

Maps Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the Maps application:
- To zoom in to a map, press L.
- To zoom out from a map, press O.
- To view the status information at the top of a map, press Q. To hide the status information at the top of a map, press Q again.

Calendar Shortcuts
The following shortcuts can be used in the Calendar Day view:
Note: To allow shortcuts in Day view, in the Calendar options, set the Enable Quick Entry field to No.
- To schedule an appointment, press the period ( . ) key.
- To move to the next day, press 6.
- To move to the previous day, press 4.
- To move ahead one hour, press 2.
- To move back one hour, press 8.

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DST 2007 Patches for Blackberry

What a pain, this shift in Daylight Savings Time has burned more IT cycles for less benefit than anything I can remember. In any case, a Blackberry is completely messed up, so check “Blackberry”:http://www.blackberry.com/DST2007/patch/index2.shtml for the patching needed. You have to download something to your PC and then sync it to your blackberry.

And the patch only works under IE. Ugh.

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Camcorder Recommendations

Only I could go from looking for a simple camcorder for someone to suddenly finding myself on a professional film production site, looking at 4 pound broadcast quality cameras, but heck, that’s me. “Videomaker”:http://www.videomaker.com/article/12964/ has a great list of top products for video types at the high end. A pretty good list of things if you are nerdy enough to want them.

By the way the great resources are “Camcorderinfo.com”:http://camcorderinfo.com, but also “SonyHDVInfo.com”:http://sonyhdvinfo.com where all the Sony geeks live.

* “Canon HV10″:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Canon-HV10-Camcorder-Review/Performance.htm. Mainly because it is very small. Weighs less than a pound. Main drawback is that it doesn’t use a hard drive. $1200 list. The “Sony HDR-SR1″:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-HDR-SR1-Camcorder-Review/Performance.htm is tempting as it has a hard drive, but it is quite noisy in taking HD pictures and not as high resolution as current miniDV-based HD camcorders. So as I said before, if you can stand it wait a bit for the true camcorder that is both HD *and* hard drive based, but if you can’t then you have a hard choice, get the HV10 with better picture quality (in fact, very close to the XH A1, its $3,500 brother) or have the convenience of hard disk with the SR1. “SonyHDVInfo”:http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=8909 say that while the SR1 is good, editing the new AVCHD format is a pain. Most packages support the HDV which is HD on a miniDV right now, so if you are editing current stuff and need it right now, the miniDV is right. That’s going to change fast, so if you can hold on.
* “JVC Everio GZ-MG505″:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/JVC-GZ-MG505-Camcorder-Review.htm or the “Sony DCR-SR300″:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-DCR-SR300-First-Impressions-Review.htm. $1300 list. It is standard definition but it does have a hard disk with 30GB and most importantly it uses a 3-CCD design, so images are much better and these are 16:9 format imagers according to Videomaker, although Camcorderinfo found the SR100 (now the SR300 updated) to have much better picture a quality and it also has optical image stabilization like the older “SR100″:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-DCR-SR100-Camcorder-Review/Performance.htm which they liked quite a bit at Camcorder info.
* “Sony HDR-FX7″:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-HDR-FX7-Camcorder-Review.htm or the “Canon XH A1:”http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Canon-XH-A1-Camcorder-Review/ComparisonsConclusion.htm $3500. This is a prosumer HD camcorder, it uses three sensors as well and has an HDMI interface. It is still tape based though. Its main competition is the really good XH A1, which is about the same price and Camcorderinfo liked the Canon better because the FX7 didn’t do well in low light (because it uses CMOS not CCD sensors) and the XH A1 has more manual controls. As a technical aside, both a 3-sensor systems, but the FX7 isn’t native 16:9 so it stretches pixels whereas the Canon is a native 16:9 chip. The tough tradeoff is that the Sony has more sharpness but more noise, while the canon has less sharpness, but has very little noise
* Manfrotto 560B Monopod $210. I really love the Gitzo that I just bought, but there times when a monopod is just lighter. This one actually has a little stand at the bottom so it will standup.
* Steadicam Merlin $849. OK, this is a true geek gadget, this makes the camera gyro stabilized. What a cool idea.
* AKG Perception 100 $200. This is a really high quality microphone for those studio podcasting situations.
* Sony Vegas 7 + DVD Architect, $700. This is what I use, I have to say it is amazingly good.

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