Category: Internet

How to Sign Up for Weibo in English

UPDATE: Through a little URL sniffing I found this English-sign up page. More and more I’m hearing folks ask me how do you sign up for Weibo in English, so I thought I’d make a quick little guide with the help of my translator (i.e. wife). The easiest way to do this is to download Google Chrome and get the translation extension that will translate, on the fly, any webpage.  Now the English-Chinese translations are never quite perfect, in fact, they’re usually quite a bit worse than say English-Spanish or English-French, but you can get the general idea of what is going on through those plug-ins that will do the translation for you. If you don’t have Google Chrome, here is what the first two pages say when you get started with Weibo. Goto http://www.weibo.com Click the Blue button at the top right.   That will take you to the details screen, where you enter the details as follows.  When you click the submit button at the end, you’ll get an activation notice saying that an email has been sent your email address.  Click the link there and you should be good to go.       Now, as for who to follow, I’m creating a list of English-speaking Weibo users on another site.  Will have that up shortly.  ]]>

Going viral to catch an African war criminal

In the next few days, you are going to start seeing signs all over the net for KONY 2012.  No, he’s not a politician–far from it, he’s Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda and a total and complete scumbag. Internet savvy users around the world are pushing for his arrest in a coordinated effort this year to capture him.  Last year 100 US military advisors were put on the ground to train the locals to help find him. So join the Facebook group and post away.  Expect your social media feed to fill up with this in the next few days.   ]]>

Toy Trains Battle Royale for Supreme Dominance of the Tracks

I couldn’t think of a better translation, but you get the general idea from above what’s going on here. On Youtube, where you can find just about anything, there are quite a few guys in Japan who have filmed incredibly complex train crashes involving toy PLARAIL trains.  These are plastic battery-powered Japanese toy trains that zip around on blue Tomica track, of which there is quite an abundance in my own home.  These Otaku train guys film massive competitions between various train types across multiple track layouts to determine once and for all who is the strongest. My kids are hooked. There are literally hundreds of these videos.  My boys watch them over and over again to the point they know which trains will succeed and which will fail, and more complicated, which track layouts we should attempt to duplicate here in the house.  “No daddy, build the one with six bridges and four crossing points” (and by the way, my son says ‘points’ instead of ‘switches’–darn British-based education system over here). ]]>

Hong Kong iPhone 4S line starts 72 hours prior to launch.

love to line up to get it.  In fact, this line of about 150-200 people outside the Hong Kong Apple Store isn’t even “official”–it’s just people milling about waiting to get into the official line that will start “soon” according to some in the know. The local paper (paywall) reported that a scuffle broke out between some of the early liner-ups-to-line-up and some more recent professional line sitters, predominantly South East Asians hired by the iPhone smugglers of Mongkok and Mainland China. Here are some pics of the wackiness.  We’ll have more Friday when the iPhone 4S goes on sale at the Apple Store in the IFC Mall.   [gallery link="file" orderby="ID"]]]>

iPhone Laser Range Finder — my new product

I’ve been busy here in Hong Kong coming up with some new gadgets, and the first one is now ready through Makible.com. An iPhone / Android laser range finder attachment.  Simply place this against the wall, snap a picture, and the app will tell you the distance.  Pretty cool stuff. Available Now        ]]>

A high-tech homesickness cure.

Winscape which at first glance looks very successful, after all the demo video shows their home in the Marin Highlands overlooking the San Francisco Bay Bridge.  But a closer look reveals that these are mere windows overlooking some spectacular views, but a virtual window running on an HD TV. Through some high tech gimmicks you can have a window overlooking whatever part of the world you want. At the moment it is rather limited to HD playback, but the thought has crossed my mind of trying to do this with live HD webcams from different places. For example, I called up a webcam from Abbey Road in London and was just watching the morning traffic compete with Beatles fans who wanted to get their picture taken on the immortal crosswalk.     It does open up some interesting ideas.  A virtual window outside your “house” back “home” so you can see what’s going on in your neighborhood is now only a webcam and a bit of streaming kit away.  Watching the neighbors and your home just as if you were looking out the window. Might have to investigate this a bit further.      ]]>