In mid October I received news that my application for a summer research scholarship had been accepted. As I plan to continue studying until I attain a PhD, this is big news for me.The most I’m going to say about the research here is that it involves Cyc.

Also, I’m REALLY EXCITED!

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Tags: University

I’ve been pretty busy lately, writing and reading about code. Not really for the right reasons though...

I have an exam, see. It’s tomorrow. It is going to be really hard, and the subject bores me. I think that’s why I’ve been avoiding it. It’s a bit late now, but I recently found out some good news: It’s OPEN BOOK, and THREE HOURS! These two things are excellent. The first because it means I can print all my notes and bring them, along with my text book (and computer?? (doubt that!) into the exam. The second because it means I have a lot of time to flick through the book/notes looking for likely answers. Like I said, it is a hard paper. I didn’t really understand what the teacher talked about in class, and I didn’t really understand the projects. I passed them all, even got 90% for a couple - but generally I didn’t know what I was doing.

The only assignment I really liked was the Genetic Algorithm one, which I actually thought was pretty fun. I plan to implement that algorithm in PHP, so I can show it off on my site. The only thing stopping me is that I can’t think of a “real world” application of the algorithm, which I think is important - no point saying “Hey! Look at what I can do!” if what I can do isn’t useful. The program we had to write took sets of characters, say ABC AB ABD AC, and had to output the smallest subset of given sets that contained all characters. The program I made did this well, it output the optimum subset every time, even if it was given only a limited number of generations. I was happy. If you think of a way to apply this to a real problem, maybe even to a RW related problem, let me know!

So, to avoid thinking about my exam, I’ve been thinking about RW problems, and trying to create (at least in my head, if not in reality) effective solutions for them. One example is the “Archive Annihilator”, which replaces the silly archive links list that is the only option in RW. Well, the only option aside from off, which is what most people choose after a year of blogging.

Also I have just finished hooking up js-kit’s awesome commenting system with GreyBox, which I’ll put in all of my photo pages. You can see an example of the final result on this page: Beijing Day #2; Great Wall.

I’ve got a few tutorials planned, one explaining how to embed multiple PhotoAlbum slideshows in a blog post, like I have done in my post about the Besta Ta-3000 electronic dictionary (I wanted to use the slideshow to demonstrate a) how one inputs characters and b) the “show stroke order” function of the dictionary). The second tutorial will be about creating the same comments in GreyBox system mentioned above.

Well... I’d better go and “prepare” for my exam now ... (prepare = print out the notes and put them by my shoes so I don’t forget them).

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Tags: University | COMP

Haven't written for awhile, I've been away at a course. The course was at Shanghai University, and was helpful. It was a Chinese course, and ran for two weeks. Most of the material I had covered before, but as we used a different text book, each day was filled with about 15 new words for me to attempt to memorize. Of course there were some grammar points that I had not come across before, and I learned yet another way to say "but" - "不过". Now I know about 4 ways to say "but". This type of thing is one of the hardest aspects (I find) of learning a language. One learns enough to have a short conversation quickly - so long as the conversation partner uses only the variations that one has learned. Even for a hard-working student such as myself swiftly learns that language "in the field" is a different beast to language in the classroom. I know how to say a lot of things, but I can understand far, far less. Like English, Chinese has 2~5 different words that mean essentially the same thing. Technically they're different words, but for a novice the difference between "popular" "famous" "acclaimed" "infamous" "renowned" is not large. This means that I often have to get people (Yvonne's parents, they're the only people I try to have actual conversations with) to repeat themselves using variations of the same words, as I'll often know what they're talking about, I just won't know it because they're using words I am not familiar with.

Two days before classes had begun, Yvonne and I went to the dorm and paid my fees. They had neglected to mention that bond was required, luckily we'd learned from the last week of payment trials and had brought an amount of money far in excess of whatever extras we imagined they'd tack on. Bond was 800元, and we got it back afterwards. When payment was finally over, we went up to my room, where I was doomed to live for the duration of the course.

Contrary to my expectations, the room was quite nice. I'd give it a 2.5 star rating. It consisted of a bedroom/office with a desk, a bed, a TV, a chest of drawers a cupboard and a water heater thing and an ensuite. There was also an air conditioning unit, which was welcome. I immediately set the unit to its highest setting, 32°C, where it stayed until Yvonne found out and told me off. When I had unpacked my laptop, and thrown the rest of my baggage into a corner, I announced that I had settled in, and that we should find a supermarket. The closest was just across the road from the nearest university gate, and from it we bought various snacks and some water. The water in my room tasted like dirt and had a yellow-brown tint. I didn't drink the water in the room.

The area surrounding the supermarket was filled with small restaurants and other student orientated stores, none of which interested me. On our way back to the room we had dinner, at LEM. LEM is short for 乐而美 - lè'èrměi, and is a KFC clone. I ordered a student meal, I forget what Yvonne ordered. The food was OK, good enough for me to return a number of times throughout my stay at the university. After eating I accompanied Yvonne to the bus stop, then played Battle of Wesnoth alone in my room. Battle of Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game. It is free, and runs on Mac, Windows or Linux. Though it is free, the quality is still high, and is a very enjoyable game. After completing some of the campaigns, which teach you the basics of the game, I'd recommend moving on to multiplayer.

I didn't have the internet in my room however, so I just played single player. To use the internet on one's own computer, one is required to install some software, which is Windows XP or Vista only. There were three computers in a room on the first floor for communal use though, which meant I was able to check emails.

The next day I had to get up at 8 AM to pay my fees and collect my text book. This all went relatively smoothly. At one point, after successfully paying my fees, I was told to sit on the ground floor and wait for the rest of the foreign students, which I did. I had been sitting for about 30 minutes when a different person came into the room and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for the other students, and he gestured that I should follow him. We went to the room I was originally in, and I was told to sit in a different chair. After waiting there for about 20 minutes, we (some other students had arrived by then) were taken to a small room where our Chinese competence was assessed. I was put into the B class, which is better than the A+ class. After this we were given our class schedules, and told that we were finished for the day.

I went back to my room and played Battle of Wesnoth, then watched a movie.

The next day we had our first class. I made sure I arrive just on time, so I wouldn't have to sit with a bunch of people I don't know and exchange small talk. The demographics of the class were: 8 Germans (one male), 4 Japanese (two male) 1 Korean (male) and myself (New Zealand). Note: some of my classmates were not present for the photo.

The teacher spoke mostly Chinese, and we covered a chapter each lesson. There was little homework, so at night I either watched documentaries/movies or played Battle for Wesnoth.

The course was fun, and helpful.

Later I'll write about how I got food poisoning from Japanese food, my new dictionary, and an igloo.

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Tags: China | Shanghai | University | 大学 | 上海 | 中国

Before coming to China I applied for a scholarship to study at a University here. I was successful, and since I came to China have enrolled in a short course at the Shanghai University. Applying was no problem, that was sorted out very quickly. Organising the payment, however, has proved to be more than a little irritating. Yesterday we went to the International Student's Center with all of the required documents, and asked to pay. There appeared to be only two staff members working, one was busy with an American woman, who had forgotten where she was, and was trying to use English. I thought it was a little funny, as she would ask a question in English, and the man would answer in Chinese. Yet she continued to make requests in English. She became more and more upset, and was crying by the time we left. I don't know what she was trying to achieve. Anyway, the man we were speaking to told us that we'd have to go to a different office to pay, as the woman who handles payments was out. He was kind enough to accompany us to this office. When we arrived, we were told that the woman wasn't there either. As we were leaving, we ran into her, and asked if we could please pay my fees. She said that we could, but they only accept cash. This was just great. We were short by only 200元. We asked where the nearest ATM machine was, expecting to hear that there was one on-campus. This was not so. The woman told us that the nearest machine was "just up the road." We thanked her, told her we'd be back soon, and left.

The walk to the ATM machine took at least forty minutes. Not only did it take a long time, it was also quite hazardous. The area is under heavy development, which means areas of leveled rubble, no footpaths (one must walk in the bike lane), and heavy machinery. All of this requires one to have three sets of eyes, as buses don't slow down, no matter how many people are walking on the side of the road. When we finally arrived at what we thought was the ATM machine the woman was talking about, we found that it was out of service. So we kept walking. We eventually found a working machine, and started the long trek back. I got in trouble for taking photos, as we were apparently in a hurry.

When we arrived at the university, I discovered the reason for our haste - the woman seemingly works thirty-minute shifts, she had gone home. The man we dealt with earlier, while typing an email in Japanese, told us to come back the next day. GREAT!

* * *

Annoyed, we went from the university to town, where we spent some time looking in shops. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant, where I had a glass of Korean Ginseng Whiskey. That whiskey was so strong, it was difficult to drink. Each sip burned my mouth like acid, but I drunk it all. After dinner we went to Pudong, and looked in more shops. Yvonne bought a nice set of formal clothes, so she will be able to win at job interviews. Finding the right set took quite some time. Before going home we had a snack at McDonalds. I had a "fresh vegetable beef burger," which is known as a Quarter Pounder in western countries. The only difference is the addition of cucumber.

On the way home I took some photos of welders welding.

On sunday I start my course, hopefully it is more organised than our first impression leads us to believe.

Edit: course was great.

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Tags: China | Shanghai | University | 大学 | 上海 | 中国

Our goals for today were to enroll me in Shanghai University's summer program, and to have a look at the big electronics market. Long story short, we successfully completed both goals.

We took bus 767 to the university. While we were waiting for this bus I noticed a funny box fixed to the wall. I asked Yvonne what it was, and she said it was a condom dispenser. I took a photo of it, and giggled for awhile. About five minutes later this old guy came up on his bike, which had metal carry boxes fixed to the rear. He walked up to the dispenser, and I wondered at the fact that a man in his condition could attract women.

Actually, he was just doing his job, refilling the city's condom dispensers.

Then the bus came. During the bus ride we ate some chocolate whose packaging claimed was of four different flavours: strawberry, rock melon, banana and some other fruit that I can't remember. The package was lies, it should have read: candy centered chocolates with four different colours, not flavours, as they all taste the same. After eating our fill of the lie-chocolate, we just sat for awhile and I tried not to irritate Yvonne. I obviously wasn't very successful, because she decided to play a trick on me. She reached into her bag and pulled out what looked like two small chocolate brown candies, and handed them to me. I popped them into my mouth and started to chew. One burst in my mouth with a loud pop, which alone was rather disconcerting. The flavour that followed was entirely unexpected, being more similar to grape seeds than chocolate. Turns out they were pills, not chocolate, and one is supposed to swallow them with water, not chew them... They made my tongue go purple, hence the photo.

After arriving at the university, we went to ask the security guard for directions to the foreign student's building. He gave some rather vague directions: "once you pass the big lawn go right". He was old and looked grumpy so we didn't press him further. We passed the only lawn we could see (not a very large one) and then turned right. We walked for a little while until we realized we were entering a construction site, and all the workers were giving us the "what the hell are you doing here" look. We turned around and wandered further into the university. After walking for some time we noticed another, far larger lawn. We crossed it and turned right, asking people for further directions as we went. There are no signposts pointing the way anywhere on this campus. The buildings themselves are labelled, but that isn't helpful when one is one kilometer away, with buildings and trees preventing line of sight. Finally we found a building that looked promising (it had some English written on it) and went in. I have no idea what that building was for. The interior was that of a posh hotel, totally out of place on this campus. The receptionists told Yvonne that this was definitely not the foreign student building, that building was further along. Eventually we did find it, though the building itself had no label, and the reception area was on the third floor. Totally logical, I thought, and out-of-their-way helpful to boot.

The enrollment process was pretty quick, and for me involved a short attempt to initiate the process in halting Mandarin, then a lot of sitting, and then paying, while Yvonne did the talking. It seems that people either can't, or can't be bothered understanding my attempts at Chinese speech, unless they have a real reason (I'm staying at their house, in a store, asking about something they're proud of etc.). Enrollment was 410 元, or 410/5.25 = NZD, I can't be bothered moving the mouse over to open my calculator program, do it yourself.

When the enrollment confirmation form arrives I'll be able to get the rest of the money from the Confucius institute, from whom I have been lucky enough to receive a scholarship to do some study here in China. Thanks Confucius Institute! And thanks Dr. Wong, who convinced me to apply for the scholarship.

The university is only one bus ride (short distance in Shanghai) from Yvonne's parent's house, and there is a subway station right in front of it.

Enrollment done, it was time to go to another part of the big shopping center that is Shanghai. This time it was my turn, after lunch and a quick look around the makeup stores, of course. Yvonne's dad has a lot of vouchers for meals and the like, and he often kindly gives them to us when we go out. This time we went to a restaurant in the mall pictured here. It was called "Flowers of ... something", I forget. My meal was nice, but from Yvonne's reaction hers wasn't so good.

One is not supposed to take photos inside the big malls, I have idea why. There were not many security staff about in this one though, so I snapped away. I saw the shotgun-toting armour guards again, but didn't take any photos of them (reason: shotguns, sour looks). Shanghai malls are different to what we have in NZ, in that there are actually very few closed-off stores. Everything is open plan, one is never sure whether one is actually inside a store or not. This also means that the salespeople are free to harass you almost anywhere in the mall, a freedom they take full advantage of. The tactic that Yvonne taught me works really well: ignore them totally, like they aren't actually there. This doesn't stop them, not by any means. What it does do is prevent them from getting an opening. Despite this treatment, a previously ignored salesperson will treat you well the second you ask them a question. They really could teach the NZ salespeople a thing or two, bar Remy who works at Bond & Bond at The Base in Te Rapa. He is a sales God.

So yeah malls blah blah. We left the 'Zelda' mall* and crossed the road, into another mall. This one was not as nice, so forget hearing about it.

The main act of the day was the electronics market, which is a 4 story building filled with tiny electronics retail stalls.

It is awesome for these reasons:

• There are four large floors devoted to electronics
• Each store sells a variety of similar products, meaning they are all competing with each other
• No store is larger than three square meters, meaning there are A LOT of stores in this building
• The salespeople generally know what they are talking about, are nice, and can speak/understand Mandarin
• One is able and expected to haggle

The competition between stores means that the prices are generally quite low to begin with. Each sells a diverse range of whatever specialty product they've chosen. Say a store sells mp3 players - this store will have at least twenty types of mp3 players across a wide price/brand range. The store will also sell every mp3 player accessory imaginable.

We were looking for an electronic dictionary with the following features: ability to search for the English/Mandarin definition of a word, the ability to display Pinyin for a selected character, and a library of Chinese idioms. Idioms are the most difficult part of Chinese, as there are so many, and often quite abstract in that the literal translation has no bearing on the actual meaning. The ability to have a word read out was not desired, this is often flawed and serves only to inflate the price.

The saleswoman at the first store tried telling us that these features were impossible, so we walked off. The next one's was OK, but too expensive, so we walked off. The next store's salesperson obviously didn't know what she was doing, evident by her inability to correctly orientate the batteries in the display unit. We hung around for long enough to realize this, then moved on. The next stall we stopped at had a dictionary with all the required functions. Yvonne haggled the price down quite low as well, I think from around 500元 to 300元. I didn't like it though, it was white with a lime green stripe around the edge, and was wedge-shaped, not cuboidal which is the ideal shape for any electronic dictionary. We left that guy, telling him we wanted to check out all the other stores first.

We finally found what we were looking for at the next store. It has all the features we wanted, and is attractive in two-tone white/black. The cuboidal shape is ideal for my pocket, and doesn't look like folded crap. The other one looked like folded crap, if crap were plastic and white/lime green. Yvonne haggled the price down for this one too, from around 500元 to 280元. I almost felt sorry for the saleswoman. From this store I also bought a small screwdriver set, which ended up costing 60元. I mainly wanted because the Wii has been playing up for some games, and I need a special tri-phillips head screwdriver to get it open so I can have a look.

I demanded to be allowed to peruse the products sold in the stores that we hadn't yet looked in. As we had two Wiimotes, but only one nunchuck, I figured we ought to get another one, so we could play two-player boxing and soccer (actually so I can beat everyone at these games, I'm tired of winning in tennis). Genuine Nintendo products are pretty much fixed price no matter where you go, like Mac. For this reason the nunchuck was the same price as we'd get in NZ, only in 元. The salesman in the shop we bought the nunchuck from was incredibly helpful, and genuinely a nice guy (or a good actor/both). We noticed he had a Wii carry-bag on the shelf, and asked about it. He told us it was 200元, real leather. We murmered that it was too expensive, and looked at other things. I asked if they sold Wii component cables, as I was sick at looking at an image that had been squeezed down a single RCA cable, especially since I'll be playing on a quaility TV for a change, for the next couple of months. He grabbed one of the shelf and said 150元. I was pretty sure they cost that much in NZ (I was right, I checked trademe), so I said no and we started walking out. When it was obvious we actually were leaving, not pretending, he came up and told us he'd give us both the bag and the cables for 200元. We accepted.

*I give it this name because its layout of crevass-spanning walkways and bright colours reminds me of a big Zelda level.

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Tags: China | University | Malls | 大学 | 中国 | 商场

The second night, after dinner, we went for a walk around the University. In China, if you don't go for a walk after dinner, your food won't be digested.

The Shanghai University is so big it has a road running through it. It really is BIG.

Each dormitory building is big, and there are 26 of them. That is a lot of students.

I have to say, at night time Waikato is more pretty, as Shanghai University doesn't have any spanking-new lights set up.

Yvonne and I got no more funny looks (per Chinese person we passed) than we do in NZ. Some openly stare, and I stare right back. They don't seem to notice or care, they just want a look. A few give you that slack-jawed, wide-eyed OMG A WHITE PERSON look, which makes me laugh every time.

On the way home we stopped at a small corner store, and Yvonne's parents bought a whole sugar cane. The sugar cane was about 2 m long, and cost 7.20 RMB. It tasted good, and I enjoyed watching the shopkeeper peel the skin off with his intimidating knife.

The next day Yvonne and I went for a walk around the uni, and into the Baoshan suburb shopping centre. The uni looks a lot nicer than Waikato during the day, mostly due to the fact that there was recently a flower show, and the flower arrangements are all still set up. They look pretty, and I took some photos to prove I wasn't hallucinating.

The library is worth a mention. WHOA it is big. Massive is probably a better word. It is bigger than probably 6 of the Waikato libraries put together. If this building was in the middle of Hamilton, our tourist 'attraction level' would most likely triple. Not only is it big, but it looks nice too. Yvonne's Dad says it looks like a book. He loves books.

To get to the Baoshan shops, one must walk through the uni. The title: "Baoshan shops" implies a couple of dairies on the corner... Actually it is a mall bigger than Chartwell Square. It was also incredibly hot, so hot that we quickly found what we were looking for (mint Sprite, a razor and some shaving gel) and got out as soon as possible. The people in charge of the airconditioning must be recieving bribes fromt he power company, it was that hot in there.

Mint Sprite is my new favourite drink.

On our way back to the uni I saw three beggars, and Yvonne remarked that they were just lazy. Everywhere we go we see people sweeping the street, and Yvonne says that the beggars are just too lazy to do that for a living, and/or they make more money begging. I sniggered at a western couple who were trying (failing) to ignore a beggar as he trailed after them bleating for coin.

Not only was there a mall there, there was also a large amount of little shops. Most of them seemed to sell crappy pink plastic 'things' - think cellphone accessories. We didn't actually go into any of the shops though, so it could be that they all read the same Store-Window Advertising Instructional Manuals.

We also needed to buy a USB cable for Yvonne's camera. We got one of those at a store on campus. Guess how much it was in NZD?

NZ$2. The same cable, in NZ, would have cost in excess of NZ$15!

When I started gushing over how cheap it was, Yvonne reminded me that the majority of the population earns a pittance. I agreed, but still kept going on about the price. $2! A USB cable the same price as a bottle of coke. There was a guard standing at the uni entrance, and Yvonne speculated that she would get paid about 800 RMB a month. That put things into perspective, but as I come from NZ, and never intend to earn that little, the USB cable still seemed cheap. I think it always will.

On the way back we also passed the same shops that Yvonne's parents bought the sugar cane from the night before. Beside sugar cane store there is a tropical fish store, and I demanded we stop in for a look (I love fish). The fish were of good quality, though there were not so many types. They were far, far cheaper than their contemporaries in NZ, further cementing my desire to live in China one day. Oh the aquarium I will have.

Later that day I felt I was coming down with a cold, thus the reason for late posts. It's been a few days now, and it has gone away. Tomorrow we're going into town proper, I'll try to get some photos of beggars and shops selling cellphone accessories.

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Tags: China | University | 中国 | 大学