Gadget: Digsby = IM + Email + Social Networks

There are increasing large amount of ways we can contact with friends or know their latest status. MSN, GTALK, EMAIL, FACEBOOK, TWITTER just to name a few. Digsby is a handy software that can centralized all these onto your desktop. Watch the vedio for more detail:

Info: Google Cloud Storage $5USD/year for 20GB!

I have found that I used up the free space provided by Google – it is great to know that starting Nov. 10, 2009, they are offering new storage plan:

• 20 GB – $5/yr
• 80 GB – $20/yr
• 200 GB – $50/yr
• 400 GB – $100/yr
• 1 TB – $256/yr
• 2 TB – $512/yr
• 4 TB – $1024/yr
• 8 TB – $2048/yr
• 16 TB – $4096/yr

This is a dramatic decrease compared to their original offer (10G for 20USD). This space can be used for Picasa, Gmail, and blogger. As I am a heavy user of gmail and picasa, I would think it is a great time for me to buy some additional storage — also as a backup for my valuable photos.

See the complete information.

 

Gadget: Amazon Kindle Reader for Windows

Amazon finally got their own reader out for PC users: (download here). It features several free books and the option to sync with your Kindle. It might be interesting to give it a try!

Note that you will need your Amazon account to login to their service.

Gadget: PDF Markup Tool – PDF Xchange Viewer

PDF file format is almost a standard now for document sharing and for papers. This file format can be read using the reader provided by Acrobat.

Lately, I have been trying to read research papers on the screen so as to reduce the need of printouts. To do this, I feel like having a marker or a pen to mark on the document I am reading is very convenient. Although Adobe do provide “Acrobat Professional” for such purposes, it cost money.

These days, I have been using a free software called “PDF Xchange Viewer”. It is free even for commercial use. Of course, you get more features if you buy the software but the free version is good enough for my document-reading purposes.

You can find the software from the following link:

http://www.docu-track.com/

I also like the way it opens multiple PDF files — instead of instantiating multiple copies of the software (as for Acrobat reader), it open it in a tab format as in firefox. I guess this is more memory-efficient.

Life: English Prounciation

記得六月坐飛機回台灣的時候，在我身邊坐了一個馬來西亞華僑，她英文講得讓我覺得像是美國人一樣。我們討論到關於英文發音的問題，她說我的英文發音是比較「netural」，雖說有accent但不會特別知道是台灣來的。不過我我自己知道自己的英文發音當然還是有進步的空間，有時候還是會被實驗室的美國人糾正發音，不過至少暫時在溝通上沒什麼問題。

上週六，朋友給我在Youtube的Accurate English頻道，內容是教非美語為母語的人，正確的發音。網址如下：

http://www.youtube.com/accurateenglish

記得在國中的時候，教KK音標，其中[i]有分長音跟短音。不過在這系列影片當中的「Beach」與「Bitch」那堂課，我才知道兩者的差別是一緊一鬆，如此念出來的感覺果真不同。

發音跟唱歌滿像的 — 如果自己覺得聽起來 OK，就不會嘗試去改變了。所以要加強發音（或唱歌？），也是要加強自己耳朵的辨識能力，這樣對於自己的發音才能夠更精確的辨識與改進。

 

Music: 盧廣仲 — 七天

在2009年金曲獎獲得最佳新人以及最佳作曲的盧廣仲在10/30推出了他的第二張專輯：七天。這張專輯一開始聽起來，跟他以前的風格感覺有小小的差異 — 似乎少了一點「雜湊」的味道？ 至少整個專輯聽起來是很舒服的！不過，這些炸聽起來很簡單的歌，其實並不好唱。就比如說下面這首「Oh Yeah!」裡面，有許多轉音、壓音，以及盧廣仲自己特殊的口氣，這絕對是一般人所唱不出來的味道。

另外，這個版本的「七天」也滿生動可愛的，雖然不是盧廣仲唱的，不過唱的還真不錯！

Life: Microsoft on campus interview

This morning I had a 30-minute on-campus interview with Microsoft. My interviewer, Winnie, is a very nice lady from China. She has been working in Microsoft for nearly 15 years and had experienced several positions as program managers, developers, test engineer etc.

The interview process is unlike other interviews that I had before. In the whole process, Winnie spent time looking into my resume and my job application form. Although I intended to apply for a program manger position, she suggested me to start with a test engineer for the reason that 1) non-native speaker do have some disadvantage in a management position; 2) many Ph.D.s are trained to have great logical thinking and excel in a test engineer position.

To evaluate my programming skill, she asked me to write  a breadth first search algorithm, in which I failed. Based on her evaluation, I am more suitable for an internship position, which has lower entrance bar. An internship is a great opportunity for me to understand if that position fits my passion, as well as for the company to know if I am a proper full-time candidate.

In addition, based on her own experience, she suggested me to look for jobs in a small company, or even a start-up, so that I can explore different perspectives of a company. Latter, if I want to, I can move to a larger company so that I can know how to scale a business. Big companies are good for those who has expertise and depth in a specific area, and since I am good at nothing (know little bit about something), a small company should be a better fit.

Overall, it is always good to have career advises for experienced people. I really treasure this interview experience and hope that I can clear up my mind about what I want to do for my next step very soon.

Finally, if I really want to apply to a software company, significant practice on one type of programming language is inevitable. In that way, I will be able to write code when being asked a question, rather than just expressing my logic flow.

Music: 林宥嘉新專輯「感官/世界」

星光一班的冠軍林宥嘉在10/30推出了第二張專輯–感覺這次的曲風變化沒有上一張專輯多，但是他的歌唱風格更是明顯了。用他迷幻的聲音唱出來的歌還是那麼有味道。

第一波主打為輕快的「看見什麼吃什麼」，第二波主打為「說謊」 — 兩首歌的風格在上一張專輯中都有表現過，但在唱歌的技術上似乎更純熟了。

看見什麼吃什麼：

說謊：

更多的介紹請參見華研音樂網頁！

Gadget: Google Navigation for Android 2

Mobile phone is getting more powerful these days — including navigation. For Apple’s iPhone, there are built in navigation engine to do the job, but for Google’s Android platform, the new Google Navigation system can do the work (while your 3G/wireless connenction is alive?). Watch the video for more info:

And more analysis from Techcrunch , Standalone GPS will be fine, Effect on Garmin and Tom2’s stockprice

Money: No-Tax vesus Credit Card Cashback

Although the economy seems to gradually recover, money-saving ideas are still prevalent. Recently, I found that by paying cash, some stores provide 10% discount and some stands are tax-free. Since the CA tax rate is greater than 8%, both means more than 8% of saving in that purchase. In contrast, if I pay by credit card, the best cashback I can get is probably 3% (maybe 5% when using Discover card). Therefore, going for cash payment is the top choice.

Of course, for tax-free states such as Oregon or for tax-free online purchases from Amazon.com, using credit card for an 1%+ cash back would make a lot of sense.

It seems that instead of paying with plastic bill,  I should carry more cash around now.