Reading Time: < 1 minute Charlie Rose, the famous TV talk show host at PBS, has this 3-part series show features Warren Buffett. The show is played in PBS station in late night. Here is the link of Google Video for Part 1 (it’s free as of now). I watched it last night. Here is an interesting comment I heard from Buffett:

Reading Time: < 1 minute The gas price is creeping up again. This weekend the regular unlead costs about $3.00 here in St. Louis. Last time it broke the $3 barrier is post Katrina. It seems siutation is not going to improve in the near future due to geopolitical reasons (Iran, North Korea), more importantly, the supply and demand trend.

Reading Time: < 1 minute There are a lot of hype about Web 2.0 lately. As I learned more about it and I believe some are not just hypes, e.g., the RSS, XML, and the del.icio.us bookmarking site with social networking and tagging capabilities. I have 5 computers (3 at home, and 2 at work), and I used 3 of them frequently. I would like to

Reading Time: < 1 minute MUNY is probablly one of the best kept secrets in St. Louis. Not sure the full name of MUNY, but it is America’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theater. It’s located in the Forest Park. Besides great musical shows, it has another nice feature: it reserves the last a few rows of seats for public

Reading Time: < 1 minute 前两天说到找Roommate, 有各种各样的人回应. 从种族上分, 有白人, 黑人, 印度人, 中国人. 其实找Roommate毕竟不是找老婆, 没必要那么认真. 我不是种族歧视, 但是我对美国的黑人还是有一些切身体会, 憋在心里不吐不快. 我有一个中国朋友特别不喜欢, 看不起黑人, 同时又有点害怕黑人. 我想大多数在美国的中国人也抱有类似的心理. 主要原因还是因为缺少了解. 说实话, 黑人多数是比较穷, 可能在有的方面素质差一些, 但是他们毕竟比华人早来新大陆一二百年, 在政治上的地位和自我的感觉比我们华人不知道要高(好)多少. 这听上去可能有点不可思忆, 却是不争的事实. 前不久在电视上看到这样一个的故事, 一个在美国出生的亚裔(成功女性), 人家这样问她: Where are you from? 从心底里面, 多数人还是认为我们这些黑眼睛黄皮肤的人”是从其它地方来的”. 这在我所在的美国中西部就很明显. 就我个人而言, 我碰到过很好的黑人(我的同事), 也碰到过极差的黑人. 我的黑人同事Programmer, 他是我们公司最好的Programmer之一, 曾经上过MIT, 人也极好(Nice). 反过来, 当我刚来St.Louis住在公司附近(黑人较多), 曾经接到过黑人的骚扰电话, 放在家门口的拖鞋无故不见, 出去散步回来发现房门是开的. 总之叫了两回警察. 最倒霉的一次, 过绿灯时车被一个黑人撞了(估计是急着去上班). 跟她说好大家把车都停到加油站, 结果她趁机跑掉. 第二天自己当了一回侦探把她抓到, 她又没有买保险. 说到这, 又想起一个一面之交的黑人. 有一回买了个27寸的电视, 从停车场吃力地往家搬, 有个黑人兄弟正好看到, 二话没说就过来帮忙. 说了这么多,

Reading Time: < 1 minute 我的朋友兼室友准备离开这个城市, 前几天我把召室友的广告登在网上.   收到很多回音, EMAIL, 电话, 有一位还发来了照片. 有白人, 黑人, 中国人, 印度人. 昨天有两个人来看房子. 老印(印度人)先到了, 他来美国也有五六年, 人看过去挺老实. 最近在这里百威啤酒找到工作. 我实话告诉他我不能容忍印度饭的味道, 因为他说他会”Cook a lot”. 其它倒没什么, 他说下班后主要也就上上网. 那倒不要紧. 他对我的房子挺赶兴趣. 恨不得马上就敲定.   把老印送出门, 老美(小美)就来了. 在路上迷了点路. 谈了一谈, 双方都还满意. 他甚至想当场给定金了. 我说你再想想, 毕竟已经找了两个月的房. 他也是最近搬到St. Louis, 本来是想买房的. 看了两个月, 没看到合适的. 先找个地方再说. 我说(今天)我等你电话.   今天两个人都没电话, 也没EMAIL. 看来我还得再等一等. 正好我也可以想想, 听听各方的意见.

Reading Time: 2 minutes Shortky after I wrote the web 2.0 article, I got comment from Andy and he mentioned his new site hnlhousing.com. I checked it out and it was cool. As I said when I first saw the housingmaps.com about a year ago, I thought it was a very useful tool. Basically it combines the listings on Craigslist

Reading Time: < 1 minute Thought it might be helpful for people new to Shanghai or have been away for a while. Get the money: exchange your USD for RMB at Pudong Development Bank in PVG airport. There is no transaction fee if you exchange more than $500. You can use the US debit card to withdraw cash (RMB only)

Reading Time: < 1 minute I saw the following from Joel on Software . I had some hard time trying to understand it. Is he looking to be a distributor of foreign software company? Or he is interested in doing outsourcing work for foreign companies? I am thinking, this English problem (if typical among Chinese software industry), does present oppertunities.

Reading Time: 2 minutes Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, the richest man on the earth (12 years in a row), announced his semi-retirement from his Microsoft day to day operations job last week. As we know Bill Gates is the icon of technology industry in last 20+ years, I think his quits at this time is very interesting.