cliché: Definition, Synonyms and Much More From Answers.com: four-character idiom: Information From Answers.com:

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p>When I’ve got some time, I’ll write about some thoughts on 成语 (chéngyǔ) compared to a cliché, and the corresponding view into cultural differences.

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Shanghai is truly a cosmopolitan city. Every week I bump into people from France, UK, Australia, Germany and others. This morning, I met an Iranian businessman – a steel trader. He went to USC (in LA) 10 years ago but otherwise has been living in Tehran. He lives in just upstairs from me.

Tonight I bumped into by far the most interesting cab driver I’ve ever met. A former member of the Chinese Navy. Young. Still in his late 20′s. He loves China. He loves Germany in spite of their prior colonization of China – pointing out that their “colony” in northern China was even larger than France. He loves America in spite of China being at war with America during the Korean War. He loves all the western countries for one reason or another… But he hates Japan. He feels the Japanese have never paid for the sins they committed in Nanjing, the rest of China, the rest of Asia… He is very much not alone in his feelings. This one man to me is representative of China, if such a representative can be found. He’s not terribly worried about his own civil rights while half his countrymen are barely surviving on family farms. He said that American’s just don’t understand that though the Chinese Communist Party has the same name as that defeated Russian political party, it’s totally different. It’s only the same name, but nothing else. In his heart he wishes for peace, but he feels the Chinese can’t build their military fast enough. He feels the Japanese are still a huge threat and feels that Taiwan is part of China. We didn’t talk about Tibet…

这年头，老婆像小灵通经济实惠但限本地使用，二奶像中国电信安全固定但带不出门，小蜜像中国移动使用方便但话费太贵。情人像中国联通优雅新潮但常不在服务区！

Translation… (Sorry, can’t remember the english names for XiaoLingTong and LianTong)

Nowdays, wives are like XiaoLingTong: economical, have real tangible benefits, but very limited usage. Mistresses are like a fixed line phone: safe and stable, but you can’t take it outside. Girlfriends are like China Mobile: very convenient but too expensive. Lovers are like LianTong: tasteful and fashionable, but frequently out of service.

Yet another example of the prevalence of the “二奶” (mistress) in modern-day Chinese culture…

1. Install quickTake to document each step
2. Install and activate latest versions of CJKOS to avoid any issues with transmitting encoded data
3. Install and activate Pen Power. (Why doesn’t it start up by default?)
4. Clean install of each remaining Palm Application File
5. Open and Enter Serial Numbers inside of: Chatter, NesEm, PlectoDict and Documents to Go
6. Configure Phone Ring Tones and Disable Annoying SMS Alerts
7. Download clean Memo, Calendar and Contact database for Mac

We’ll see how the procedure goes in the morning…

No time to blog about anything interesting today as my Treo is having issues. Probably time for a clean reboot. Before I pull the trigger I need to put together a list of the required steps to bring this thing back to the land of the usable. I could use the Missing Sync feature to backup the installed files, but then I would end up with whatever mysterious set of files and preferences have collided to cause the current set of problems.

How funny… I just noticed that I used to have Documents To Go installed on my Treo, but I must have deleted it accidentally a while back. Used it so infrequently I just now noticed. Sort of like MS Office on my Mac. It seems that we’ve finally passed the turning point of the ubiquitous Word Document in favor of HTML. Still wish I had Excel for Windows on my Mac. Excel for Mac itself is not nearly as good.

Just finished up the “Clean Reset” and sure enough, all of the problems my Treo was having were “restored” along with everything else that was backed up… So, tomorrow morning I have to do a hand install. Let’s hope I don’t forget to set the encoding first…

Heck, I don’t have time to configure it all over again… Let’s hope the Missing Sync restore process can just get it done right. Might have a story about Blendtec blenders coming up…

Military budget of the People’s Republic of China: Information From Answers.com:

I’ve head a few comments about PRC military spending… If you’ve lived here, you won’t be surprised to find that nobody has the real numbers on PRC spending. Assuming that most of the PRC’s military spending is on domestic materials and employees, the PPP of that spending is actually quite significant.

Seems that Rumsfeld was questioning that spending a while back… Asking for more transparency. Seriously, if transparency were to start somewhere here, do you really think it would be with the military budget numbers? Sounds like he was looking to start a fight. Wouldn’t be the first time.

On the other hand, it seems most of the China related content on Wikipedia has been commandeered by Taiwanese folks. Not saying the facts are wrong, but I do sincerely question Wikipedia objectivity concerning the PRC. Seems the Great Firewall questions that objectivity as well…

It’s a little bit complicated, but I’ll try to make a chart to help you make sense of it. In any case, here’s a summary I wrote for a friend of mine:

The japanese name for Chinese characters is “Kanji”. In Japanese, all Chinese characters can technically be used as part of the language. Japanese also has it’s own special characters called “Kana”. Kana is pretty simple… Just a few strokes per character. Often looks like rows of slashes…. Korean and Japanese both give Chinese characters adopted meanings in their language, though the meaning isn’t necessarily *exactly* the same in each language… Of course pronunciation is all over the map.

If I’ve got a few spare minutes today, I’ll use OmniGraffle and put together a little chart of how they all (including Vietnamese!) fit together…

Is China trying to seal away France’s claim to fame as the world’s “most romantic city“? This year Valentines Day will strike 3 times in China. First, the western celebration of St. Valentine on February 14th (translated “Lover’s Day”). Additionally, the 7th Day of the 7th Month on the Chinese Calendar (NongLi 农历) is also “Lover’s Day”. But best of all, this year the 7th month comes twice on the Chinese Calendar, so 28 days from now it will be Valentine’s Day for the 3rd time in 2006… But only here in China.

So, does this mean that China is the most romantic spot on the planet? Or is China the spot on the planet most in need of some romantic assistance?

In case you are interested, the Chinese name for the Chinese calendar translates as “Agricultural Calendar”. To the older generation of Chinese, this is the real calendar and the calendar we’re using right now is just some western invention that will pass… Probably some truth to that – the Gregorian calendar has only been in use since 1582 (though the Julian was nearly the same and has been in use since 46 BC)

There are a few extremely painful problems that I believe every Treo 650 user faces.

• Wireless is “turned off” after Palm OS silently crashes… causing you to miss calls and short messages. (Radio Control)
• LEDs that always light up at the wrong time. (LEDOff)
• Versamail, Real Player and other programs you probably never use have the most prominent places on the “Favorites Menu”. (Filez)
• Programs you never use like “Quick Tour” and “Welcome” are ever present in the Applications menu. (Obfuscate)

Today, let’s fix all of them without spending 0.01￥. You’ll need to download:

• Filez: Best File Manager for Palm OS, and it’s free.
• LEDOff: Manage your Treo’s blinking LEDs
• Obfuscate: Hide those unused applications
• Radio Control: Turn on the Radio after your system crashes…

Of course there are many other programs that Palm users should not be without. I’ve tried all of the 3rd party launchers and I wouldn’t choose any of them over the default launcher, though the default launcher probably works best after deleting all of the categories.

If you’re planning to waste your time blogging about your Treo, you’ll probably need the ubiquitous “quickTake” screenshot manager for $10 USD.

If you’re thinking of replacing your trusty Blackberry with your Treo, you might be able to pull it off with Chattermail+. Even supports IMAP + SSL. Of course POP works too… $40 USD. Only downside of Push Email on your Treo is the battery life will probably not be long enough. I’ve upgraded to the Seidio 2400mAh Extended Battery and carrying one device instead of two is great!

Sometime I’ll write about all of the Chinese applications that you should have on your Palm (PlectoDict, PenPower, CJKOS). These three really deserve some explanation. Each is great. Excellent together!

To round out the miscellaneous list, I would recommend the excellent free “SFCave” game… It never ends… SoundRec in case you ever need to record sound, DiddleBug for drawing, Converter for unit conversions and of course TCPMP if you want to turn your Treo into a Video iPod…

Now to figure out how to change the names of applications and their icons…