Disqus - Latest Comments for Pandapassport

Re: iKnow: The Best Japanese Vocabulary Flashcard Site on the Web

Pandapassport — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:47:21 -0000

Been using them for a month of so now. Very impressed.

Re: Will China Twitter?

Pandapassport — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 14:21:28 -0000

Fanfou.com, iLaoDao.cn, TaoTao.com are other examples of lively Chinese twitter-like sites.

People are already using SMS, and IM clients like QQ, MSN, Gtalk to update their feeds.

So Chinese people are already twittering. I guess the only question is are they doing it as much as we expected they would, given the population size and mobile phone use.

Personally, I'd just chalk it up to the fact that most 2.0 services require more time to catch on in China.

Re: What Robert Scoble found in China

Pandapassport — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:57:16 -0000

Agreed on the climate change concerns. I'm mostly worried about a pervasive apathetic attitude that I see in China. People I know are mostly indifferent to problems that face the world as a whole.

Yes, apathy and indifferent people are common in all countries. But I've been here in Northeast China about 5 years, and I can't think of any exceptions off the top of my head.

Re: Tweetdeck vs Twhirl: It’s a very hard call

Pandapassport — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:05:37 -0000

Twhirl's Seesmic capability makes it more than just a twitter client.
It can do video messages and twitter messages.

Tweetdeck cannot.

If Seesmic ever goes mainstream, as twitter did once it was liberated from the browser, Tweetdeck will be a distant memory.

Re: LifesterBlog, An Open Space for Your Web2.0 Life

Pandapassport — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:28:30 -0000

I got the same email from him as well.

To be honest, I would normally go check out such a site - but I did not, because I felt like I'd been spammed.

As for media sharing in China, I think it will be interesting if someone can make a chinese version of tumblr.com

Re: Google is Buying FeedBurner and FeedSky Has Two Potential Competitors

Pandapassport — Sat, 19 May 2007 18:23:39 -0000

I think RSS will really go mainstream as soon as Windows Vista does. Vista is going to have an RSS desktop widget, and I think that is the best chance that RSS has of being used by the masses.

Until then, I expect online apps like bloglines and google reader will continue to only be used by more net-savy surfers.

As for feedsky, I think it's great. But I don't think they can keep up with all the new features that feedburner can roll out on a regular basis.

And because of that, I don't think they (or feedtea) can compete.

Re: It is Frenzoo, An Asian 3D Social Networking Company Funded by Skype Co-Founders

Pandapassport — Mon, 28 May 2007 09:32:54 -0000

that is interesting. I read about this on mashable too, FYI: http://mashable.com/2007/05/28/frenzoo/

there are so many of these 2.0 services coming out these days, it's almost impossible to keep up!

Ah well.

Re: 6.cn - Popular Chinese Video Sharing Site Got An iPhone Version, What If…

Pandapassport — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:31:46 -0000

Yeah, I noticed that little iPhone option on the bottom of the videos too. 6.cn seems to be improving their service a lot these days. It's interesting that they are targeting their mobile delivery specifically for the iPhone, and not for all mobile handsets.

I think if any video site will replace youtube, it should be tudou. Although youku is looking pretty competitive these days. I'd go so far as to say their site runs a little quicker than tudou for me on my "ancient" laptop.

Re: Google throws its toys out of the pram - Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Pandapassport — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:33:39 -0000

You said:"Keep the Yahoo! brand but turn it into a search engine. Use the bookmarks as described above, as an engine to help provide more meaningful searrch results."Methinks that already happened... Jan 19th.

Re: Will China Twitter?

Pandapassport — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 14:21:28 -0000

Re: What Robert Scoble found in China

Pandapassport — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:57:16 -0000

Re: 2007/05/10/exposed-the-7-most-blatant-web-20-rip-offs/

Pandapassport — Fri, 11 May 2007 05:23:20 -0000

Another Chinese youtube clone is youku.com

As for 6rooms, there's a lot of dodgy stuff going on there. For example, here's Spiderman 3: http://www.6rooms.com/plist/83835/0.html

Re: 2007/05/19/mixi-invites/

Pandapassport — Sat, 19 May 2007 18:11:48 -0000

I'd love an invite as well.
Thanks in advance!

rick [AT] pandapassport.com

Re: 2007/06/08/flickr-ban-in-china/

Pandapassport — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:41:37 -0000

Danwei.org says it might be because of the protests about this Chemical Plant showing up on flickr.

Strong possibility, but who knows their motivations are...

Re: Top Japan-related people to follow on Twitter

Pandapassport — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:17:12 -0000

Hey Chris.

When I was in China we had a Twitter account called @chinalist, and if you wanted to follow China you simply followed everyone that Chinalist was following.

Maybe make a @japanlist twitter account, and follow all the people you just mentioned?

Awesome list though, regardless of format.
Thanks!

Rick
http://www.twitter.com/1rick

Re: JapanList is now on Twitter!

Pandapassport — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:42:10 -0000

Nice one man.
Keep up the good work. :)

Rick

Re: Yoyogi Park, Tokyo - The Park Of Awesomeness

Pandapassport — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:37:55 -0000

That's awesome. I especially liked the Elvises. (Or should I pluralize that at Elvi?)

Re: JapanSoc Revamped!

Pandapassport — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:40:59 -0000

That's pretty damn slick.
Nice work.

Re: Tokyo CGM Night, March 09

Pandapassport — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:50:44 -0000

Good to finally meet you too Chris!

Re: Is that dinner, or are you just happy to see me?

Pandapassport — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:18:44 -0000

I'll never complain about a fly in my soup again.

Re: So it goes.

Pandapassport — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:11:12 -0000

I'll trade ya The Wind up Bird Chronicles for Slaughterhouse Five.

I've seen people mess with chess pieces like that. If I'm not mistaken, I think Fischer used to do it.

Re: Rite of Passage, my ass

Pandapassport — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:43:55 -0000

sounds like Ã¦ÂÂ£Ã¥Â¥Â½Ã©ÂÂ¢Ã©Â¦â€ .

Hope you're doing alright.

Drink some hot water. :)

Re: Dalian’s clean, but is it really open?

Pandapassport — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:20:43 -0000

I've had this discussion with some non-Dalian co-workers in Dalian.

Their perspective was that Dalian doesn't really have any character that they identify with, it doesn't really have any "Dalian feeling." Maybe it's just the sterile conrete and lack of landmarks, or neato historical spots.

But for example, Qingdao has it's beer and germanness.
Harbin has it's beer and Ice festival and russianness.
Dandong has north korea.

Dalian doesn't really have anything to set itself apart.
No particular mood or atmosphere.
And thus, it doesn't feel like home, no matter how long you've been here.

(Just one take on it)

Re: Apple Store Opens in Dalian

Pandapassport — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:11:26 -0000

Valehru's right. I bought my girlfriend an ipod there.

that one brought tears to my eyes.

I was told, at that time, that it was the only Apple location in the city. I wouldn't call it a store by any stretch, but it was at least an Apple Kiosk.

Re: Is there luck without the Irish?

Pandapassport — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:51:49 -0000

Like you Alex, I didn't get down there nearly as often as I'd have liked.

But I hope it doesn't change too much.

I've seen that place go through many incarnations over the years.
But but this was the best one.

Re: Things we can’t talk about

Pandapassport — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:43:39 -0000

Writing the date on the board. that's a good trick.
I used to use that when I was teaching university kids.

Though at that time, it was used as my response to them saying "Japan doesn't remember history!"

Re: Flickr Blocked: Net Nanny doesn’t like what she sees

Pandapassport — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 04:46:23 -0000

They weren't available friday at work.
I wrote up a little thingy about all this crap this morning.
Flickr Blocked: Great Firewall, your mother's in for a long night

You'd have thought my mediocre titles would have stopped by now...

Re: I’m asking for it: What should I do next year?

Pandapassport — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:32:16 -0000

If you have a realistic shot at covering BJ2008, you might want to shoot for that. In order to do that well, I'd recommend studying like a mad bastard for 1 year, starting now.

Starting now might mean the difference in skipping or not skipping one/both of the 2 beginner semesters. And that makes the difference of getting in a beginning class with a few semi-serious english speaking westerners -- or getting into a slightly more advanced class where the less serious students have dropped out, and there's little/no english spoken between classmates.

(note: At least, that was my experience, having joined Dongcai at the intermediate level with mostly serious students, after the not-so-serious ones had dropped out or gone home)

If you decide to live off campus, get a Chinese roommate.

And keep writing good stuff on your blog, so you have something tangible to show for the year. If you're strapped for cash, tutor koreans. Or maybe teach part-time in the software park once or twice a week.

Just my thoughts. But as Kevin said, yes, those are nice choices. Weigh 'em carefully. But don't sit and do nothing while you decide. I tend to do that sometimes.

Re: A fast Flickr Fixr to flip off the Firewall

Pandapassport — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:13:19 -0000

Yahoo released a statement saying the block came down due to pictures of Ti@ananmen being posted on flickr.

But that doesn't make sense.

If you go to youtube and search for ti@ananmen, you can watch a ton of videos, none of which seem to be blocked. But they have blocked a bunch of the Xiamen videos.

If it was Tiananmen photos, they'd have blocked youtube as well.

Re: Setting out, a bit farther this time

Pandapassport — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:53:51 -0000

Take good care of Leo for me!

Re: From Madagascar: Searching for the whales of St. Marie

Pandapassport — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 08:28:20 -0000

Hey man. Sounds very cool.

In the meantime me and my brother have been eating up a storm here in Dalian, and I'll probably resemble a whale when you return.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Re: Midnight train to Dalian

Pandapassport — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:42:44 -0000

Yeah man, welcome back.

:)

Re: When all else fails, find a bigger hammer

Pandapassport — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:22:11 -0000

Looks excellent man.
And yes, Ryan is a ninja.

Re: Straight to the Moon: What if China gets there first?

Pandapassport — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:16:23 -0000

@Yay yo

I doubt the Japanese will bother.

As they likely don't care about the face to be gained by a pointless 3rd place trip to the moon.

Re: China and Japan: Putting it all on the field

Pandapassport — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 01:26:59 -0000

Dude, you play tennis?
We should play tennis.

Re: Fire on the home front

Pandapassport — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:49:31 -0000

Puts things in perspective for sure.
And here I came home all in a bad mood just because I was still in China. Not so bad after all.

delicious tags are good for keeping up to speed on this: http://del.icio.us/tag/fires

Re: Notes on taking the GRE in China

Pandapassport — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:01:37 -0000

I get a kick out of the "I-want-to-study-at-a-famous-university" attitude. It's odd to me that most chinese people hold where they study as a greater priority than what they study.

Re: YouTube is back in China (and Hong Kong and Taiwan)

Pandapassport — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:14:15 -0000

Speaking of Heroes, http://tinyurl.com/2u2bp3

Re: Slow boat, slower money. Act Two.

Pandapassport — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:28:44 -0000

That is somewhat of a headache. Glad you got it sorted out alright.

Happy New Year!

Re: Freedom 2006: Taiwan first and North Korea last in Asian ranking

Pandapassport — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 22:24:15 -0000

Wow. And Mongolia comes from out of nowhere...
Surprised by their result, but not sure why exactly.

Surprised by Singapore as well.