Chinese text input and output works just find on all Blackberry 7290s, and likely on other models. You’ll need to download a new version of the Blackberry OS for the Chinese market. Note that the Chinese input method (pinyin input) on the blackberry is not nearly as good as the Plum SIP (梅花输入法）that I use on my Palm Treo or the QIM Input Method that I use on my Mac.

Note, to toggle between Chinese and Roman input modes, you hit blackberry “shift” key (under the a, left of the z on my 7290) and the return key at the same time. You can download the Chinese Blackberry software from HKCSL: http://1010.hkcsl.com/blackberry

Select 1010 + Blackberry for Enterprises OR for Individuals, then select “Downloads”.

Or, you can just jup right to the HKCSL Blackberry Download Page

If you don’t already have the “Desktop Manager” software, you’ll need to grab that first. Here is a link to the current version: http://tinyurl.com/94hu9

Now that you’ve got the “Desktop Manager” installed, you’ll want to download the chinese version of the Blackberry 7290 operating system. http://tinyurl.com/b7row

Next, use the “Desktop Manager” to load the Blackberry 7290 firmware onto your device. In the Application Selection Window, make sure to select the pinyin input method. Note that you’ll probably get an error saying “INVALID SOFTWARE” or “INVALID VENDOR” when you try to do the install. To bypass this error, just delete the “vendor.xml” file, which should be located at:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\vendor.xml

Once you’ve got it all installed, use the shortcut below to download RIM’s PDF on using the Chinese language features: toggling romanchinese, tone options, etc. http://tinyurl.com/bw7lu

Enjoy your new Chinese Blackberry!

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Yet more Geeking out today… My apologies, but it looks like the next month is going to have all sorts of geeked out PHP, MySQL, and payment gateway related fun.

#1576 (CakePHP FAQ) – CakePHP : The Rapid Development Framework for PHP

If you’re a web developer, you’ve probably heard of “Ruby on Rails“, a full stack web application framework. PHP is a very mature Web Development language and CakePHP brings many of the Rails feature right into PHP.

I’ve done a tiny bit of CakePHP development, including some building on top of Cheesecake (CakePHP Blog) and Bakesale (CakePHP Ecommerce Catalog).

Unfortunately, there are still a few questions that I’ve still been struggling to find answers for. I’ve tried the #cakephp IRC channel and follow the Cake PHP google group, but nothing yet. Today, I’ve finally posted these questions to the CakePHP FAQ in hopes that somebody will write the answers.

Q: How can I make a Multilingual (i18n/l10n) website with CakePHP? A:

Q: What is the preferred way to share templates between multiple CakePHP and non-Cake PHP Projects? A: The CakePHP team does this on the cakephp.org website right now. We use ??? to share our templates between CakePHP projects, our Trac system, etc.

Q: How should I manage the deployment of CakePHP Database schema and data from Development to Testing to Live systems? A: This is a complex problem because web application database schemas typically consist of: Application Settings / Configuration Oriented Data managed by Developers/SysAdmins Business Data such as calendars, products catalogs, etc maintained by system operators End user application including Comments, transactions, subscriptions, etc Properly migrating both schema changes, application/setting changes, and business data changes each require a separate mechanism. The CakePHP collective recommends…

Q: How does CakePHP handle caching? A: PHP is a template language, so Smarty and Smarty’s caching system are not required. Instead CakePHP…

Q: Where can I find CakePHP experts in my town/region/country? A:

Seth’s Blog: The China problem:

The problem with huge markets is the same problem you’d have playing squash or raquetball on a court that’s too big. The ball doesn’t have a wall to bounce off of. Huge horizontal markets have no echo chamber, no niches, no easy entry points. To make a system like this work, everyone has to agree on the technology and then there has to be a huge push to get millions of people to make the same decision at about the same time. It might work, but it’s awfully expensive.

In my mind, Seth issue has more to do with relevant messaging and effective marketing than some inherent problem with the size of a market. If you somehow had a monopoly on bringing a product to China (one that could not be duplicated domestically) and it was a product that everyone in China need and had the money to pay for, I’m sure you would sell it.