A Patchwork Planet

Great way to access Twitter and Facebook from China

2010-05-31T16:22:00.001+01:00

Both Twitter and Facebook are blocked in China but so far, Brizzly hasn't been blocked and it works.

in reference to: * Brizzly / philou (view on Google Sidewiki)

On Yunnan TV with June 朱婧

2010-03-01T02:48:00.005+01:00

Hey, maybe that deserves a blog post?!

I was on TV with June 朱婧! She's a chinese pop singer from Yunnan but living in Beijing. My friend asked me if I wanted to do this TV 2 minutes yunnan tv's special spring festival performance on drums and so it happened. On a friday evening, I went to June's friend house in Kunming, met her and her friends for the 1st time and recorded my instrument over the song. Of course, we were going to do play-back. I

From Playing music in Kunming

took my djembe but finally a friend there had this drum from Nepal and the sound was pretty good so that's what I used. It was also easier to walk with it. So we did several take to record my instrument, they had done so in the afternoon already for the other instruments: accordeon, violon, mandoline... turns out you can't hear much the difference from the original song. That's because the TV wanted a good quality sound track i guess, and we did the recording very quickly.

Anyway, on sunday afternoon, we did a fake recording with strange cloth. The director didn't like it so we did it with simpler cloth on Monday for the real recording.

Then, the show was on TV sunday night, February 14th:

And June had this video on her blog where she presents her "special band":

Well, it was a cool experience. I was certainly delighted to meet June who was very nice. I have been listening to her CD for 1 year as you can see from my 1st tweet about June.

More pictures here.

From Playing music in Kunming

1st Drupal website: Ecotourism in Yunnan, China

2009-04-23T19:02:00.001+01:00

For a while now, I've been working on making a new website for Xintuo Ecotourism, an ecotourism company based in Lijiang, Yunnan, China.

The old website was not well compatible with Firefox and was difficult to update. I considered WordPress but I have finally chosen the famous Open-source CMS Drupal as a platform for the website. Mostly because I wanted to learn by doing and this opportunity allowed it, I was sure I could do a decent website with Drupal.

I'm pretty happy with the result. I haven't been disappointed with the possiblities. The only thing is : Drupal is much more hard to keep up to date (Modules, Themes...), but maybe it's not that important once your website is up and running.
I find the theme update most troublesome, because I did some change in the theme, but when you update it (when the author released a new version for bug fix for example), you have to do these changes again...

The most difficult task was maybe to get Clean Urls to work. At first I had difficulty to understand the "help" section about this. But I finally succeeded.
My biggest disappointement was about some modules which are not available in Drupal 6 (but in Drupal 5, which makes it frustrating). For example, a module to deal with Picasa Web Album, or to have a Google Sitemap.

I had fun to play with the Weather and Maps modules, and I had difficulty to find a WYSIWYG editor but in the end, i think it's a good website for that company.

List of the main modules I added:
Views, CCK, GMap, Location, Weather, Google Analytics, Tagadelic, Wysiwyg, Fivestar...
Theme:
Marinelli

Next time, i'll write a bit about 2 other websites I did, this time with WordPress.

banging away

2009-03-10T07:08:00.002+01:00

Newspaper interview

2009-03-07T07:13:00.004+01:00

Today, I bought the local newspaper. No, I still can't read most of it! It's just that today, they had a supplement about young Laowais (foreigners) in Kunming and I was one of them. Earlier this week, I had answers a few questions by email and forwarded my picture. A friend of my friend is a journalist for 春城晚报 (Chuncheng Wanbao), the Spring City Evening Paper.

Here's the result:
Here's the content online. And here's a direct link to my interview. And here's the pdf file (same as image above).

亮相：Philippe Semanaz（菲利普），法国人，27岁，在昆明学习中文，希望能找到份好工作。

　　第一次见到菲利普是在KTV，卷卷的头发，戴着眼镜，文质彬彬的感觉。菲利普很聪明，学什么东西都比较快就能学会，玩骰子、吹牛，赢了众人好多次，搞得“老江湖”们有些汗颜。第二次在打架子鼓的酒吧里看见他，没想到，这位外国朋友一打起架子鼓来，非常地投入和忘我……

　　通过交谈了解到，菲利普是法国人，因为非常热爱昆明，所以决定留在这里。他说：“当我还是一个工程学学生时，因为一个项目，我很幸运地在昆明度过了一个学期。然后我回到法国继续学习。毕业后，我在巴黎做了一年IT工程师。我并不讨厌那里的生活，但我想到国外去体验一些不同的东西。而且我不想等到找到工作才着手准备。所以目前我在昆明学习中文，希望能够在这里找到一份很好的工作！”

　[Above is my friend's description: we first met in KTV (friend of a friend) and then we went to Speakeasy, with the same group of friend]　

　　对话菲利普

　　Q：为什么选择留在昆明？昆明最吸引你的地方是什么？

　　A：我认为这是一个学习中文非常好的地方，我从来没在上海或北京生活过，我也不打算这样做。当然，我也喜欢昆明的天气，云南的文化很多元，在这样的氛围中学习和生活很不错。这里丰富的生物资源以及奇妙的景观，让人惊叹。

　　Q：在中国，1980年后生的一代人被叫做80后，在你们的国家，20~30多岁的年轻人有特定的称谓吗？

　　A：在法国，我们称之为“千禧一代” 或者“ Y一代” 。众所周知，这一代人是非常灵活而又十分叛逆的。

　　Q：你如何看待昆明的年轻人？

　　A：我在昆明认识了许多年轻人，他们绝大多数都对我的国家以及文化非常感兴趣，并且他们提问时都十分友好。

　　Q：法国的年轻人有什么比较特别的？

　　A：似乎我这个时代的人都被国际化的职业所吸引。我有已经结婚的朋友，我觉得对我们而言，结婚并不是优先的，事业更重要。

　　本报记者杨颖

My original presentation and answers in English:

I'm from France and when I was an engineering student, I was lucky to spend a semester in Kunming for a project. I then came back to France to continue my study, and when I was done, I worked 1 year as an IT engineer in Paris.
It's not that I didn't enjoy my life there but I felt like I wanted to live abroad to experience something different. and I didn't want to wait until I get a good job opportunity. So now, I'm learning Chinese and I hope to find a good job here because I really enjoy to be here.

1、为什么选择留在昆明？昆明最吸引你的地方是什么？ [why Kunming?]
For the moment, i think it's a very nice place to learn Chinese because the city life is particularly enjoyable. I have never stayed in Shanghai or Beijing and I'm not planning to do that unless I find a good job there. I like the weather of course, but the thing that I like the most, is to be in Yunnan, this region of China that has so much to offer: so many different cultures, rich biodiversity, wonderful landscapes...

2、在中国，1980年后生的一代人被叫做“80后”，在你们的国家，20—30多岁的年轻人有特定的称谓吗？你怎么理解？[how do you call the generation of people who were born under 1980, I made some Internet research for that one :-)]

In France, we call it the "Millenium Generation" (because they got in the working life after the year 2000) or the "Y Generation" (because born after the "X Generation" which is the generation after the "Babyboomers"). This generation is know for being flexible but also rebellious. Only our grand-parents have know a war on our territories and our parents are often Babyboomers. We generally feel European and we gave up our national money (Franc) for Euro when we were young enough so we adapted quickly.

3、你如何看待昆明的年轻人？ [What do you think of Kunming's young people? question piège :-D]
I have met many different young people in Kunming but I have to say, most of them were very curious about my country and my culture, and always asked me very nicely. It's always interesting to exchange about cultures.
It feels like many of the young people I met would like to travel abroad but it's still difficult and expensive: I feel very lucky to be able to be here.
(On another note, I know most of them are only childs and I always wonder how this might affect a whole generation's "personnality". I have to say that I have yet to find out about this.)

4、在你们国家，年轻人都追求一些什么（尤其是80或者90后）？ [what are people from that generation are looking for?]

Well, it seems people from my generation are attracted by an international carreer. I have friends who have gotten married but that's maybe not a priority: I feel the carreer is more important for most of my schoolmates. We tend to think we can deal with that later, maybe in our 30's.

[I'm still not sure how my answers where translated...]

Test

2009-01-29T20:47:00.000+01:00

some issues with the Disqus comment system. this is a test post

Websites without RSS feeds...

2009-01-12T06:32:00.007+01:00

Yes, there's still website without RSS feeds outhere, and if like me you can't accept that idea, or if you find RSS to practical to live without, then you find a way to make your own, and/or find something to replace it.

I've been doing exactly that for a while now, and I felt like sharing about 2 tools I find very useful to do that (Feedity, to create free RSS feed from a website, and Update Scanner, a firefox add-on) through some examples (GoKunming's classified, GoKunming's calendar).

Feedity
It's been a while since I have been using this service and it proved itself to be quite valuable. It's not that easy to set-up but when it finally works the way you want to (if it ever does), it's great.
For example, GoKunming has a feed for its article section but not for its classified section. And if you live in Kunming, you might wanna keep a look on that without having to visit the site everyday. Well, that's what RSS feeds are for, right?
Feedity let me create this feed which is working well for now. Might not work forever as it depends on how the website is built. if the said website change something, it might not work anymore. You then have to create it again if it's still possible.

Update Scanner
This tool proved to be useful when feedity was no help. Because it's not always possible to create the feed you want.
Then, this Firefox Add-on will help you to scan regularly the webpage you want to find if anything changed. It will even tell you what changed!
For example, look at that calendar page on GoKunming... I've tried to create a feedity feed for it, but it didn't work. So I've just added the page to the Update Scanner list : Whenever they add events there, I know it quickly (you can set up how often it should scan the page):

Well, if a website doesn't give you what you want, you might be able to get it anyway. It's not perfect, I wish all webmasters would use modern tools... (and opening up their site). Sometimes, you can also ask for it, like I asked GoKunming to have a RSS feed and got it. I've been wanting to do another wishlist for them but it's just too damned long...

But I'm ranting... This post is about how to keep an eye on website you love but don't have RSS feeds :-)

[update] sorry, comment section is missing because of a blogger-Disqus issue I'm trying to fix. please email/twitter me. or comment on friendfeed.

[update2] Funny how GoKunming just changed its calendar page - to something worst - the same day I published this. When I say worst... just check it out.

[update3] March 12, 2009. Calendar has been improved from last time. Now you get all the month events on the page again. so it means you can use "Update scanner" again! Let me see if I can make Feedity feed...

[update4] not so good but here it is:

三首歌

2008-12-23T05:52:00.002+01:00

三首歌... 3 songs. That's the small job I got for Christmas night, from my neighbor. I'm not a good singer but that Chinese company need some entertainment for the party they organized in a five-star hotel, and what's better than a foreigner singing songs that you can't understand...
The good part is I could choose the songs. I picked 3 french songs I like (and that I could sing) that I plan to sing in the following order:

- Bazbaz : Sur le Bout de La Langue
- Art Mengo : Lettre à Milena
- Bazbaz : Allo Papa Tango Charly

1. Bazbaz : Sur le Bout de La Langue

J'ai sur le bout de la langue
Un mot qui me brûle
Un mot qui m'embrouille
La tête m'arrache les os
Me griffe le cerveau
M'abime de bas en haut

Refrain:
J'ai sur le bout de la langue
Ton petit coeur qui tangue
Sur le bout de la langue
Ton petit coeur qui tangue {x3}

Il y a sous ta peau
Comme un frisson qui me touche
Un éclair sur ta bouche
Couche-moi près de toi
Nan, je ne bougerai pas
Même si tu ne m'écoutes pas

(Refrain)

Ne me montre pas du doigt
Si je veux tes mains d'abord
Si je te demande encore
De me raconter l'histoire
Des gens qui s'aiment une nuit
Des gens qui s'aiment une vie
(Refrain)

2. Art Mengo : Lettre à Milena

Il disait "Vous avez sans doute mieux à faire
Que de lire, je le sais, mes lettres ordinaires
Vous avez, il est vrai, mieux à faire de vos nuits
Que de lire sans arrêt mon visage qui s'écrit"

Mais permettez, Madame, cet aveu déchirant
Je suis sous votre charme, comme un petit enfant

Il disait "Dites-moi au moins "tu" une fois
Alors, je serai comme le plus heureux des hommes
Dans cette intimité seule connue de nous,
Vos lèvres de papier sauront me rendre fou"

Si le sommeil me fuit, si j'ai peur de dormir
C'est qu'au fond de mon lit, c'est la mort qui soupire

Il disait "Arrêtez de m'écrire chaque jour
Ce que vous me donnez, pour moi, est bien trop lourd
Chaque mot que je trace, chaque mot que je lis
Porte en lui la menace de rester incompris"

Vos lettres me font peur, leur bonté m'exaspère
Vos rêves de bonheur sont des fruits trop amers

Il disait "C'est ainsi, je ne sais pas y faire
J'aurai vécu ma vie comme un célibataire"

Permettez-moi Madame, de me taire aujourd'hui
Je vous laisse mon âme et je reprends mes nuits

3. Bazbaz : Allo Papa Tango Charly

Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Répondez, nous vous cherchons
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Vous vous dirigez plein sud
Vers le triangle des bermudes

Ici, Papa Tango Charlie
Je vous entends très bien
Ici, Papa Tango Charlie
Me laisserez vous enfin
Je n'ai plus besoin de vous
Je vole par vent debout
Je vais noyer ma solitude
Dans le triangle des Bermudes

Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Répondez, nous vous cherchons
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Vous n'allez pas d'habitude
Vers le triangle des bermudes

Ici, Papa Tango Charlie
Je vous entends déjà moins bien
Ici, Papa Tango Charlie
Auriez vu compris enfin
J'ai perdu celle que j'aimais
Je ne la retrouverai jamais
Je vais noyer ma solitude
Dans le triangle des Bermudes

Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Répondez, nous vous cherchons
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Allo, Papa Tango Charlie
Vous perdez de l'altitude
Sur le triangle des bermudes

Ici, Papa Tango Charlie
Je n'entends cette fois plus rien
Ici, Papa Tango Charlie
Vous m'avez laissé enfin
Mon avion est comme fou
Moi je me moque de tout
Je vais noyer ma solitude
Dans le triangle des Bermudes

Allo Papa Tango Charlie
Allo Papa Tango Charlie
Répondez, nous vous cherchons
Allo Papa Tango Charlie
Allo Papa Tango Charlie
Pas de réponse sur latitude
Du triangle des bermudes

non, non, non ....
yeh, yeh, yeh, ....

On a side note, I just realised how difficult it was to include music on your blog. Even snippets which is legal (right?). Seems to me that the World Wide Web is loosing more than a battle here. Last.fm doesn't seem to support the sharing of music by including code in your blog anymore.... Deezer can't play any of the songs I want anymore (that's because they don't support snippets)... and iLike didn't have the song I wanted... Life is hard.

(update) and radioblog is back to the rescue...

Next semester

2008-12-18T10:55:00.001+01:00

Time to think about next semester already.
The current semester in Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture (KCELC) is going to finish on January 9th. That's soon.

This morning, we were handed the information sheet for next semester: it will start on February 23rd and end on July 10th 2009.

I definitely wanna continue to study Chinese and I was very satisfied by the school, so I'll continue to study there...

Citation d'Albert Einstein

2008-11-19T05:57:00.001+01:00

Kunming's Zoo

2008-10-22T11:52:00.002+01:00

I finally visited my neighboors... the animals of the Zoo. The sky was amazingly blue today and the view was so bright, I had to go out in this green hill in front of my home.

So my neighboors are birds, monkeys, elephants, lions. Some look very depressed and I don't really wanna see them again, but some were quite nice. I'm thinking of the Lion (maybe because I feel related, being born in the end of july, or maybe, just because he was eye-catching)

From Zoo

I still don't know who are the noisy ones in the morning. I can hear them shouting (or is that singing?) from home quite often. and it could be birds or monkeys. I'm not sure.

Entrance is 10 kuai. Lots of people go there to play Mahjong in the shadow of the bamboos. I guess they don't pay. Will ask next time.

Linux : mon expérience (Xfce)

2008-09-18T07:46:00.004+01:00

J'ai installé Linux sur mon ordinateur portable Toshiba (Satellite 2410-303) qui se fait vieux (plus de 5 ans). Ce n'était plus tenable sous Windows XP, l'ouverture d'un programme était souvent très longue. Et je ne pouvais pas réinstaller car je n'avais plus le CD fourni par Toshiba. Il fallait payer 60 euros pour en récupérer un de façon légal et j'ai préfére tenter l'aventure Linux.

Heureusement, je ne me suis pas lancé seul dans cette aventure, et mon ami G. m'a beaucoup aidé. J'ai débuté avec Ubuntu 7, puis Ubuntu 8 pour enfin installer Xubuntu (Xfce, une distribution plus légère).

Tout ça pour dire que j'en suis plutôt content malgré les quelques limites auquelles je me heurte:
- gros problème avec Scim, le "programme" permettant d'écrire du chinois. celui n'a pas l'air de pouvoir fonctionner malgré les différents essais que j'ai fait en suivant des indications plus ou moins complexes. Quand je lancais le programme, l'ordinateur se mettait à ramer pour une durée semblant indeterminé mais surtout très longue.
=>Bref, je l'ai désinstaller et j'utilise NJStar pour écrire du chinois. C'est un programme qui ressemble à un éditeur de texte avec son propre système d'écriture. je peux ensuite copier-coller mes charactères chinois. Pas top, mais ça me suffit pour l'instant.

- je viens d'essayer d'installer Skype, mais ma machine ne semble pas en vouloir non plus : même comportement, l'ordi se met à ramer et Skype ne s'ouvre pas.
=>Apparement une alternative : http://www.raketu.com sans téléchargement! à tester.

- le client Last.fm que j'avais finalement réussi à installer semble maintenant avoir un poblème. Il marchait bien sous Ubuntu 8. Mais maintenant, même comportement, l'ordi se met à ramer. Je me dit qu'il est probable que ces différents problèmes soient issues de la même source.

- Google Earth ne marchait pas quand j'ai essayer de l'installer. C'est un des 1er programme que j'installe... mais avec ma distribution légère, il ne faut peut-être pas trop en demander.
=> Heureusement, il y a google maps.

- Problème de raccourci clavier. Je ne me suis pas trop confronté au problème mais il est clair qu'il ne sont pas facile à parametrer.

- Screem Html/xml editor pour éditer les pages web. Il plante souvent : le programme se ferme sans prévenir et surtout sans sauvegarder. makes me SCREAM a lot.

Pour finir ce billet sur une note positive, voici une petite liste des programmes que j'utilise et dont je suis content:
- Picasa! pour la gestion des photos/images, je trouve qu'il n'y pas mieux.
- 'Pidgin' pour le chat. gère plusieurs protocole, c'est bien pratique.
- Je suis passé de 'Amarok' à 'Banshee' pour la musique. (Il me manque des options mais c'est pas mal.)
- 'Transmission' pour les fichiers bittorrent. Il m'a l'air de faire son boulot plutôt bien!
- Google Desktop fonctionne.
- 'Cinq et plus', un casse-tête auquel j'ai bien accroché.

Et puis, vivement Google Chrome sous linux!

PS: à noter aussi que Xfce (Xubuntu) est la première distribution qui a pu faire marcher ma carte wifi. Excellent!

Un blog francophone pour Kunming

2008-08-31T15:03:00.006+01:00

From Kunming

M'installant à Kunming pour un moment, je viens aussi d'ouvrir un blog dédié à cette ville de Chine. Gokunming.com est le site anglophone de référence de la capitale du Yunnan. On verra bien ce que devient mon site en français...

Sinon, voici les nombreux billets sur Kunming que j'ai écris dans le passé.

Flickr permet enfin d'incorporer les diaporamas

2008-08-21T03:03:00.002+01:00

Il y avait des alternatives mais c'est quand même bien que Flickr propose enfin cela directement:

Going... back!

2008-08-02T23:28:00.001+01:00

In time like these... I feel the need to write down, to express some feelings, kind of.

In times like these
In times like those
What will be will be
And so it goes
And it always goes on, and on, and on....

(full lyrics)

Découvrez Jack Johnson!

I'm going back to China (in the city called Kunming). To live, not just to go and come back. I guess I'm looking for something more.
It's not easy to go and live abroad if it's not your work who take you there, but that's the "rules" of this world. And if most of the times, you go by the rules, sometimes you push the things a bit. So I registered as a student (to learn Chinese) in a school and got a student visa for 1 year.

I am a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky
to hang the stars upon tonight
I am a little divided
do I stay or run away
and leave it all behind?

(full lyrics) (wikipedia page)

Découvrez Foo Fighters!

It's times like these, you just have to make a choice:

PS: This post has also been written to test the new shiny (but useless here, i have to admit) comment system (Disqus)

Bullet in the head - RATM

2008-05-07T19:05:00.005+01:00

Great song from Rage Against The Machine

This time the bullet cold rocked ya
A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika
Nothin' proper about ya propaganda
Fools follow the rules when the set commands ya
They said it was blue
When the blood was red
That's is how you got a bullet blasted through your head

Blasted through your head
Blasted through your head

I give a shout out to the living dead
Who stood and watched at the feds cold centralized
So serene on the screen
You was mesmerized
Cellular phones soundin' a death tone
Corporations cold
Turn ya to stone before you realize

They load the clip in omnicolor
They pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

They load the clip in omnicolor
They pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds

No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it again jack and then rewind the tape
Play it again and again and again
Until ya mind is locked in
Believin' all the lies that they are tellin' ya
Buying all the products that they are selling ya
They say jump
Ya say how high
Ya brain dead
Ya gotta fuckin' bullet in your head

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

Ya standin' in line
Believin' the lies
Ya bowin' down to the flag
Ya got a fuckin' bullet in ya head
...
A bullet in your head

Live version:

Délabré

2008-04-27T09:25:00.001+01:00

Délabré
Mise en ligne par Philou.cn

I just love being back on Flickr...

3 R's

2008-04-06T16:39:00.003+01:00

Getting more andd more invites on Deezer "social network"... but will it work? didn't tried any sharing feature yet there.

Also, more and more people following me on Twitter. I like to use it as mini-blog, as a status updater in FB, and would love to use it to chat with my friends...

Travel map

2008-03-27T22:27:00.002+01:00

Discovering some new feature of a Facebook application...
Here's my travel map:

Kunming, China

San Martino Di Castrozza, Italy

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Visit TripAdvisor.com

Bande annonce: Le Bocal (Arte Radio)

2008-03-19T22:03:00.004+01:00

Je suis allé au 'gouter' d'Arte-radio ce dimanche, et c'était pas mal du tout. (Le Point Ephemère, pas loin de chez moi)

On a notamment écouté cette bande annonce pour la saison 2 de leur feuilleton "Le Bocal". très drôle!

A la radio

2008-03-13T22:26:00.006+01:00

Une petite chronique Radio bleu besançon sur le blog de la LPO Franche-Comté dont je suis à l'origine. On parle de moi à la radio :-)

Where am I?

2008-03-12T20:40:00.003+01:00

Trying out Loki web services... It's quite promising if you ask me.

It seems i don't have the right phone to use it (could have been cool though). And anyway, i'm not using Internet on my mobile yet (too expensive).

Update:
Can't make the automatic update work from my office computer(i think because of a proxy issue) so it's not really fun.

Concert au "Perroquet bleu" (Rue Darwin)

2008-03-01T21:07:00.006+01:00

Cool concert last night. Liam have some really cool tunes. I especially enjoyed when he played a song with Erica and Stephanos.

Erica's cover from Marie Laforet was very nice. ("c'est Julien")

Concert was at le "perroquet bleu".

Chat with me!

2008-02-26T12:10:00.003+01:00

You can chat with me if i'm logged in Google Talk, and you don't even need an account!

On my shoulder - The Dø

2008-02-25T23:09:00.000+01:00

The Dø – On My Shoulders

(via canal +)

Buy music online? maybe later

2008-02-25T19:54:00.003+01:00

I've tried to buy an album online. Jack Johnson's new album.

I thought it would be normal to buy the album as I wanted to listen to it ASAP. I don't usually buy music: I use Last.fm to discover new stuff but didn't start actually buy music although I now have money to do that. There are more and more music tracks/albums i would like to buy. It's just that I didn't start doing it.

So when I saw Jack's new album, I thought: "let's do it".

I don't use iTunes. I don't buy the Apple hype. I "get" it but I don't wanna be a part of it. So I was happy to see Amazon offer free-DRM music to its customers. Unfortunately, that's USA only for the moment. If you use Deezer (a french music start-up) and want to buy a track, there are 2 links: Amazon and iTunes. The link to Amazon.fr (which says DRM-free) actually leads to the search result page for the track and the results are actually CDs. Same for Last.fm. The link leads you to the page of the CD. :-(

Okay, so who will sell me some mp3? I tried fnacmusic.com. The websites is terrible to navigate through but I finally found Jack's album. There are different ways to pay. It's not well done but I finally paid the album. The download process was terrible. It seems there was a bug because I couldn't download anything. I first thought it was my computer but I could finally download it 1 week later. The help section is really terrible. The whole experience was just a big mess.

But the worst part was when i found out i didn't actually bought mp3 but DRM protected WMA files (With some artist, you have the choice but not for Jack Johnson). What the hell am i supposed to do with those? I downloaded them with my parents computer. One by one. Terrible process. It seems the license was given to this computer, and after lots of reading, I found out I could transfer it with Windows media player to an MP3 player. Ouf! my player was compatible. Actually even that i couldn't do. and I tried listening to the files but I could only get the 1st minute of the song. There was something wrongly done in the process of getting the license. Never again.

Anyway, I finally found a way to download free-drm mp3 files. And not one by one. I won't describe how I did that. Let's just say it took 5 minutes and that I won't buy mp3 again before they make it simple and easy. Can't believe they could actually invent DRM protected files.

PS: The new album of Jack Johnson is a little bit too cheesy for me...

Conseil survie dans le métro à Paris

2008-02-21T22:37:00.004+01:00

Le conseil-survie du jour: regarder l'état du plafond quand vous attendez sur le quai!

Bon d'accord, les chances sont minimes pour que quelque chose vous tombe sur la tête. Pourtant, c'est ce qu'il aurait pu se passer hier soir dans le métro, en rentrant du boulot: plusieurs blocs de béton/plâtre se sont décrochés du plafond et se sont écrasés sur le quai et la voie. un bloc de la taille d'un ballon de handball n'est vraiment pas tombé loin de moi. ça aurait fait de gros dégâts.

C'était sur le quai de la ligne 7 à la station Opéra, direction La Courneuve.

Il semblerait que des trous est été comblés au plafond et c'est cette matière utilisé pour combler qui est tombée. C'est mon expertise.
L'incident s'est produit alors que le métro rentrait en Gare: les virbrations auraient été la cause du détachement.
2 stations plus loin, le conducteur de métro a fait une annonce disant qu'il avait vu ce qui s'était passé et qu'il l'avait signalé.

D'après ce document ratp, il y a eu des travaux "du 4 juin au 17 août 2007 inclus" dans cette station.

J'ai pris des photos de la fissure comblé. j'aurais du prendre le bloc de béton.

Promoting birding 2.0

2008-02-09T21:30:00.000+01:00

Petit post pour le blog de la LPO FC sur Geobirds. Je vais essayer d'attirer leur attention là-dessus. extrait.

Voilà un site intéressant pour les ornithos anglophone et passionné d'Internet (y'en a?): http://geobirds.com

Geobirds est un site d'Amérique du nord qui fournit aux ornithologues "connecté" un moyen de recueillir leurs observations. Il surfe sur la vague du web 2.0 (basé sur le 'user-generated content')... avec des outils collaboratifs qui gèrent les données caractéristiques de l'observation naturaliste... la date, la situation, la localisation, l'observateur, le temps... un champ de commentaire est disponible.

It's coming!

2008-01-25T18:36:00.000+01:00

...maybe soon!

via techcrunch.fr

J'ai pas mal d'admiration pour ce genre de gars. Quand on a pas de compétences techniques dans le développement informatique, ça semble inaccessible... si je continue dans ma voie de "consultant fonctionnel". Mais il y a certainement d'autres choses à faire à mon niveau...
Il faut que je me concentre sur ma "start-up".

Dans les commentaires de techcrunch, découverte de www.viteunvelib.fr. Excellent! je le mets dans mes raccourcis internet de mon tel pour les cas d'urgence...

Concert à Paris

2008-01-07T23:17:00.000+01:00

Je reviens juste de la "Flèche d'Or". Il y avait un concert gratuit et j'ai pu voir un peu des prestations d'exsonvaldes et de Mangrove (je crois).

à compléter + tard.

La photo, c'est pas à la flèche d'or, mais à "la chapelle des lombards", lors du concert de l'atelier Salsa...

Free

2008-01-02T23:38:00.000+01:00

7 pm. First day of work of 2008 is over. In the crowded metro with colleagues and nothing much to talk about. As I leave the last one, a twitter sms makes my phone vibrate in my pocket:

Oil hits $100 a barrel on first day of trading in 2008. Violence in Nigeria and Algeria lifted oil futures (newalert)

No Velib' available makes me turn back and decide to stay out and do something else than go back home.

Wandering around. Good various food. And a movie... just like a good consumers that I am. For my defense, the movie was not too bad and make you think about the world we live in...

Translating Frog stuff...

2008-01-01T19:17:00.000+01:00

... from french to english, for chinese people...

Well, I found myself working on a translation of a zoology book. I did it for a friend of a friend from China. The subject was rather new to me: it was about frog species in south-west china. The book describe the difference between species of frogs.

Here is the frog description translation in english. (warning: not a full finished translation)

So if you wanna know more about Rana arnoldi and Rana chayuensis , Rana maculosa... here are some materials.

Well at least, the chinese person that needed it was very thankful.

Below the french book pages i got:

Tour mercuriale, Paris

2007-12-16T19:58:00.000+01:00

Souvenir d'une 1ère mission chez un client qui se trouvait à Bagnolet, dans une des 2 tours Mercurials.

Le "nouveau Miyazaki"

2007-11-24T12:22:00.000+01:00

Fan de Miyazaki père, j'ai enfin regardé "les contes de Terremer" réalisé par son fils Goro. Forcement j'ai été un peu déçu.

Mais ça m'a tout de même donné envie de regarder des mangas, mais pas n'importe quoi... Il fallait que je trouve quelque chose de costaud. Après quelques recherches sur Google, j'ai trouvé le titre d'un manga dont je pensais avoir vu la bande annonce alléchante il y a 4 ou 5 ans. En faite, c'était la bande annonce d'un autre film mais du même auteur: Makoto Shinkai [en].

J'ai trouvé sur mininova (torrent) une version japonaise sous-titré en anglais de "Byousoku 5 Centimeters (5 Centimeters per Second)". C'est très très bon.
De même je vais regarder "Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe)" et "The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho)". C'est un peu plus science-fiction mais ça devrait être un régal aussi.

Un immeuble en feu à Paris (XIXe)

2007-11-16T19:07:00.000+01:00

View Larger Map

Here's the map of the burning building... I've "twitted" from Avenue de Flandre. Well nothing interesting but an experience.

My green readings

2007-11-08T21:14:00.000+01:00

Google Reader has a new "blog-roll" feature... you can share (usually in the sidebar of your blog) the links to the blog you read. Could be nice if you don't use Google Reader sharing feature.
Also, it follows your tag: you can share the blog you tagged a certain way. Example, here is the list i tagged "green" in G-reader:

Seems there is a bug with that specific tag. Google, can you fix this? (I've tried several times... i could make it with another of my tag)
(UPDATE: it works)

Here was the feature already existing:

It's very china/international NGOs oriented...

Jango, yet another cool music website

2007-11-04T17:34:00.000+01:00

Pandora was already really cool. When i got last.fm, i found it amazing. And now here is Jango.

Jango is THE internet music radio. the one you were dreaming for. It just let you choose the music you wanna listen to... in a cool kind of way: not only can u type the name of an artist and one radio will start, but as you might know if you tried this already (in pandora or last.fm or others...), it has its limitation. you will soon feel you don't have enough control on what the radio will play.
Jango gives you more control, and it seems to me it was very easy to do.

Example. I wanted to do a female singer radio. Norah Jones was the 1st name that got to my mind. But then, Pandora or Last.fm propose to me singers i don't like at all. sure i can switch and teach the radio what i want her to play but it takes time. With Jango, you can add other female singers. I added the other one i like: Ani Difranco, Suzanne Vega, Erykah Badu, Feist and numerous others. I could add names that were coming to my minds as well as checking or not the box of other artists proposed (from the 1st search or whatever... something related)

The experience is really nice.

I'm really into Last.fm now. As i wrote last month, I even pay for some premium services. It just finished, and i'm wondering if i'll pay the 2€50 this month. ~~Honestly, I think i will. Sure I could live without, but I also wanna support last.fm~~ (i just saw that they got acquired by CBS). The service they offer (collect the database of what you listen) is just unique. I find it precious.
I'm gonna try to tag some more. I wanna tag these music i like, for example, those tracks were the musician sing along with its instrument... possibilities are wild.
It seems Last.fm will soon clean its database so there will be no bad spelled artist. good news.

Jango is not very good looking but you can easily find what is useful. there are some noise though.

It's still beta so it seems i can't show you my radio. Anyway, the feature is coming. I have 3 invites though. or you can just go to Techcrunch where i got mine.

ok, back to my music. got some salsa rhythm to practice (learn actually).

PS: ok, i've been listening some great songs while typing this. Too bad it's not being scrobbled (sent to last.fm)

UPDATE
the sharing feature now works.
and i also wanna mention how much music can be found on Jango. they say it's still limited, and yes, you can't find everything... yet. They clearly says (in the FAQ) it's just the beginning.

Well, just listen to that song from Ray Charles (i didn't hear this one before... and that's the kind of tracks I wanna find, with some impro. not just a formated version).

Journalisme et commentaires sur Internet

2007-10-31T19:48:00.000+01:00

En 2005, un livre de fiction racontait déjà l'Arche de Zoë | Rue89: "A ceux qui pensent que l'écrivain cherche le coup de pub, son éditrice, Anne Carrière, précise qu'elle n'a pas l'intention de remettre le livre en circulation: 'Vous savez, c'est une affaire dont on parlera quinze jours et après on passera à autre chose.' Elle promet juste de nous l'envoyer."

J'aime bien lire ça. On dirait que le journalisme se nourrit positivement des réactions des internautes (qui sont souvent les mêmes). Les commentaires sur les articles sont souvent affligeant, mais il n'y a pas que du mauvais...

Ah oui, les commentaires sur Internet... toute une histoire. Pour les habitués (et anglophone), une vidéo hilarante (qui ne date pas d'hier, mais ce que je viens de lire m'y fait penser...):

Google newsreel language "issue"

2007-10-25T18:46:00.000+01:00

Just a small post to mention a small language "issue" i just realized with google newsreel in blogger (i'm only talking about something I've checked, i don't have the technical knowledge to elaborate on this).

I'm using google newsreel in blogger for the LPO Franche-Comté blog (a regional bird NGO in France) to display the news mentioning "lpo". it looks really nice when it works the way it supposed to, showing French article including "lpo".

The thing is, this blogger module seems to depends on the language of the web browser. My Firefox is in English and when visiting the LPO FC blog, I was seeing article about lpo in English which were not related to the French NGO as lpo is something else in English (to make it short).
Hopefully, I realized what had happened and didn't delete the module. I guess most of people won't have the problem.

How many persons will browse a website in a certain language with a browser in a different language, looking at this newsreel module checking for a keyword that don't have the same result in the 2 languages? well, some... but not much i guess.

Lospopulares.org

2007-10-23T21:58:00.001+01:00

je reviens de la répét' de l'orchestre Salsa et Latin Jazz "Los Populares".

Notre répertoire au jour d'aujourd'hui: (y'a du boulot!)

Update:
Bon, Deezer n'a toujours pas approuvé les mp3 donc vous ne pouvez toujours pas les écouter ici. mais j'ai bonne espoire. dans quelques jours peut-être.

Bon à part ça, la méthode de batterie qui va bien, en format pdf. (16 M!) (j'essaie de la mettre en ligne mais c'est un peu gros)

Me Libere!!!

2007-10-04T22:25:00.000+01:00

'Me libere' is a standard salsa tune that we are playing with lospopulares...

found one version on last.fm:

The Salsa Kings – Me Libere

And on Youtube, El Gran Combo:

The lyrics:

Me libere, me libere
Gracias a dios me libere
Me libere, me libere
Gracias al cielo me libere

Verse 1
Me libere de mujeres perversas
Que quieren hacer mi vida de cuadritos
Me libere de chicas sin escrupulos
Me libere de Olga y Socorrito
Me libere de Nancy, de Rebeca, de Olga
Damaris, Celia y de Gissel
Me libere tambien de Raquel
Gracias a dios me libere
Me libere de Mariela y de Fe
Gracias al cielo me libere

Repeat Verse 1

Bridge
Todas me insultaban
Me decian mujeriego no te dejare vivir en paz
Donde quiera que te encuentre te la formo
Y no se porque sera
Pero que todas me insultaban
Me decian mujeriego no te dejare vivir en paz
Donde quiera que te encuentre te la formo
Y yo me pregunto, y yo no me explico
Que razon ellas tendran
Por eso lo tuve que hacer

ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE - GRACIAS A DIOS ME LIBERE
ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE - GRACIAS AL CIELO ME LIBERE

Montuno 1
QUE YO NO QUIERO MAS COMPLICACIONES - POR ESO ME LIBERE
1) Fueron tantas las preciones que me puse
los patines, me puse en boline y tuve que correr
2) Mujeres egoistas me querian solo para ellas,
Para ellas nada mas, y asi no puede ser
3) Recuerdo a mi madre cuando les decia
"bendito si ese es un muchacho bueno, el es un hombre de bien"
4) A toditas les quiero decir que el amor hay que
Compartirlo, y si no, "Im sorry, goodbye my jail"

Mambo

Montuno 2
QUE YO NO QUIERO MAS COMPLICACIONES - POR ESO ME LIBERE
1) Libre yo soy - ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
2) No le debo a nadie - ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE

Montuno 3
MAS COMPLICACIONES YO NO QUIERO PARA QUE
1) Ya resolvi todo esos lios, ya yo no quiero saber
2) Ahora soy libre sin problema, buena vida me dare

si .... ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
yo .... ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
me....ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
libere .... (bis)

MAS COMPLICACIONES YO NO QUIERO PARA QUE
1) yo no quiero que me digan lo que yo tengo que hacer
2) Que yo no quiero cantaleta de todo yo me canse

si .... ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
yo .... ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
me....ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
libere .... (bis)

Montuno 4
QUE YO NO QUIERO MAS COMPLICACIONESPOR ESO ME LIBERE
1) Si me siento bien - ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE
2) Preguntale a Julito, o Aitier - ME LIBERE, ME LIBERE

can guess the meaning!

Last.fm subscription

2007-09-29T15:08:00.000+01:00

Just subscribe to Last.fm for a month, to try it out. I think I'm in love already!

Arte Radio 2.0

2007-09-27T20:14:00.000+01:00

Arte Radio a fait peau neuve, et ils ont fait du beau boulot!

Un bon souvenir:

Abonnez vous à Arte Radio!

Channel Youtube au ministère de l'environnement

2007-09-13T11:06:00.000+01:00

Je viens de lire le communiqué de presse annonçant la création d’une chaîne "Grenelle Environnement".

Etonnant choix de plateforme... j'aurais parié sur Dailymotion vu l'utilisation de cette plateforme en France, et notamment par les politiques et les ONGs. France Nature Environnement par exemple a un blog (certes chez Google) mais composé de nombreuses vidéos chez dailymotion.

"C'est après un entretien au mois d'août dernier avec Elliot Schrage,
vice-président de Google, que la secrétaire d’Etat chargée de l’Ecologie a tenu
à exploiter la puissance de frappe de ce moteur de recherche en termes de
fréquentation et de trafic pour rallier le maximum d'internautes à cette
consultation."

Les arguments de trafic sont intéressants... et dailymotion? j'imagine que du point de vue trafic des internautes français, ils ne sont pas mauvais.

On verra ce que ça donne... Je viens de voir que les vidéos avaient leur propre lecteur media sur le site officielle du grenelle de l'environnement. (compliqué tout ça...)

My Flickr Pro account

2007-09-11T22:24:00.001+01:00

Yes! I've got one.

It is so good to see my old pics i uploaded there. They are back!

Thanks to Yahoo photos closing (and because i had some pics there), I got 3 months for free on Flickr pro. I don't think I will go back from Pro. I'll buy myself a pro account in 3 months.
I have to organise it but it's so fun to do with the Flickr Organisr... I've got many pics to put on the map (When I uploaded these pics, there were no geotagging system.)
and I've also got to try that collection feature (to group some album).

The close of Yahoo Photos also brings a hope: the LPO Franche-Comte is using a Yahoo Group and some users are using the photo album feature. will that also be transfered? I guess it will be difficult to do that but the result could be great. (Flickr has more sharing features!)

Here's one picture that I had there. That's me in 2002. I was a engineer student in Cluny, France. I guess I was playing with the webcam in the computer room of the school.

Métro-Boulot-Dodo

2007-09-09T21:45:00.001+01:00

... Ou "la vie parisienne" -1ère semaine à Paris pour mon premier job-

Bon, en faite de métro, je ne l'ai pris qu'une fois, quand il s'est mis à pleuvoir alors que je rentrais en vélo. J'ai pris mon Vélib' tous les jours. Dommage que la station en bas de chez moi est souvent vide...
Et le boulot alors, ouais... m'enfin pour l'instant je n'ai pas de mission (chez un client) donc je suis allé au siège pour suivre une formation. Horaire assez cool.
Dodo enfin, no problemo. Mon "appart" me plait toujours autant.

Pourvu que ça dure.

Livebox

2007-09-09T20:53:00.000+01:00

Voilà, j'ai installé ma livebox, non sans mal. J'ai souscris à une offre Internet+Téléphone illimité+Tv chez Orange et je voulais faire un billet pour mettre mes quelques remarques par écrit.

Pourquoi Orange? Comme la locataire précédente a gardé son numéro, il parait que ça peut poser problème aux autres opérateurs. On m'a conseillé de passer par Orange. Bon, c'est plus cher mais apparemment, le service après-vente n'a pas une aussi mauvaise réputation que Free/Alice.

Les questions que je m'étais posé (et dont les réponses n'était pas si facile à trouver)
- les numéros en 0811 sont-ils accessible? Hélas, non. Il faudrait souscrire à un abonnement classique chez FT et cela en couterait 16 € par mois (sauf erreur)
Donc je n'utiliserai pas Télérabais.fr pour, par exemple, appeler un portable en Chine. (prix d'un appel local avec telerabais.fr.)

- Peut-on utiliser jajah.com? On m'a dit que non. je vais tester. (mise à jour: ça marche! contrairement à la Freebox)

Installation
L'Internet, ça marche. Plutôt très bien même. Mais il a fallu installer plein de m*rde sur son ordi comme un gestionnaire Internet et un navigateur. et au début j'ai eu peur: j'ai cru qu'il fallait lancer la connection à chaque fois, comme avec un modem dial-up... heureusement, non. Mais par contre, le navigateur, ils auraient pu éviter. Me le mettre en navigateur par défaut sans prévenir, j'ai pas aimé. (update: On peut tout désinstaller d'après l'assistance Orange)

Je me suis acheté un téléphone à 40€ chez BHV. Pour l'instant, je peux appeler mais pas être appelé. ça devrait marcher bientôt (update: ça marche cf. plus bas)... Cool, illimité sur les fixes en France. Par contre, pas de gratuité vers l'étranger :(
Avec un peu de chance, ça marche avec Jajah. Je n'ai pas eu de message d'erreur comme avec la freebox, mais comme pour l'instant mon numéro n'aboutit pas jusqu'à mon téléphone '"numéro non attribué") je ne suis pas sûr. Au moins avec Orange j'ai un numéro en 01.

Tv
Je l'ai pris parce que c'est le même prix avec ou sans. Franchement, je suis pas fan. C'est vraiment trop long avec le décodeur. ça ne vaut pas le coup... c'est vraiment une corvée de zapper... La VOD a l'air sympa mais un catalogue trop limité.

Les petits soucis
- Mon lecteur DVD-CD se fait vieux et il ne lit pas tout les CDs. Il n'a pas voulu le CD d'installation de la Livebox, j'ai du attendre le lendemain pour transférer le CD sur mon disque externe.
- Le premier courrier arrivé en même temps que la livebox ne contenait en faite pas les bons codes pour configurer la livebox. J'ai du patienter un jour de plus pour les avoir.

- ça y est, mon téléphone marche complètement. Il a fallu que j'appelle Orange un certain nombre de fois car les manips qu'ils faisaient ne dépannait que temporairement. A 2 reprises, le lendemain des "successful "réparations, mon téléphone ne marchait plus du tout. Aujourd'hui, ça a l'air de marcher. Au cas où, ils me rappelle demain soir.

Abonnement
DSL Valley
Je suis passé par dsl valley pour m'abonner. Délai bien. (j'avais peur qu'un intermédiaire ne complique les choses mais non...)

1st week at "work"

2007-09-09T20:45:00.000+01:00

Well, after 1 week at work I should feel like diving in the active world.... it's more complex than that. I'm working in a company that offer services to other big companies which are 'the clients'.

Most of the engineer working in my BD (business division) (it's also true for the other BD) are doing a mission at the client offices. I still don't have a mission, they are looking for one. They are looking for a job for me. I guess it's more easy for them than me and that it won't take 6 months ;-)

So now I'm doing a "training". It's about "managed testing". When you make a computing application (it's a big project generally), there is one last step before releasing the application: testing it. and collect "defects" that will have to be repaired.

I'm getting familiar with my future job but I'm looking forward to really dive in...

Flickr photos from a set in a Gmap

2007-08-24T22:10:00.000+01:00

trying out this (found via Ogle Earth)

View Larger Map

I've chosen my "...and China" set. I like the chronological order shown by the red line. (although here, the set mix photos of 2 different trips to China)

Google embedded maps

2007-08-21T19:32:00.000+01:00

It's finally there, and i had to test...

Here's my notes on Paris map:

View Larger Map

I recently found the mapplet to add the Paris Metro lines. Quite useful but waiting for a better one.
It look like this:
ouuuuuuups! no sorry, that map can't be embedded. that's really too bad!

I'm also announcing that I'm now renting a small apartment in Paris (see on the map "my place"), since yesterday. Slept there last night, now I have to get Internet there so I can feel at home.

PS: I already embedded a map recently through a third party website. It was good that this map is updated when i'm doing change to the original Google My Map. Should be the same here. testing...

[update]
- I don't like that the zoom scale is the "minimum" one. I'd like to be able to choose.
- I was having a look at my map tagged posts. It's looking good to see all these maps. I could see a difference in some china maps as the Google data has improved (not only satellite pics anymore). Wikimapia also improved. Have also been over at tagzania. He's terrible to have to make a choice between 2 great services. Tagzania have some great features (tag, comments, send to twitter...)

[update 2]
- Just found some Vélib' data. The Vélib' KML file for Google Earth is quite great.

View Larger Map

Tu pars...

2007-08-19T14:01:00.000+01:00

Con d'homme - Bazbaz

Tu pars
j'sais pas où
faire, je sais
très bien quoi

Bazbaz – Con d'homme

Vélib'

2007-08-17T20:49:00.000+01:00

En recherche d'un logement sur Paris, j'ai testé le nouveau système de vélo pour se déplacer et faire les visites.

J'ai d'abord pris un abonnement d'1 semaine sur mon passe Navigo. 5 euros. Je n'ai jamais dépassé la 1/2 heure donc je n'ai pas payé plus. Il faut quand même y faire attention et bien se rappeler l'heure à laquelle on a décroché le vélo.

J'ai pris le vélo un nombre incalculable de fois et j'ai commencé à développer un 6ième sens pour trouver les stations vélib'. Et oui, car il faut les trouver! (ou prévoir à l'avance où l'on va s'arrêter)

J'ai ensuite pris 3 abonnements 1 jours, à 1€ chacun. C'est très rapide de le faire au borne avec une carte banquaire. Vivement mon abonnement annuel (qui implique de la paperasse). Il ne devrait pas tarder... Je me demande s'il vont me renvoyer quelque chose par la poste: un mail suffirait pour m'avertir lorsque mon passe Navigo est valide pour un an.

Les bonheurs de Vélib'
- Pour ma part, je trouve que c'est le meilleur moyen de transport: écologique, rapide et plaisant.
- Pas besoin d'y aller en vélo, pour revenir en vélo. et vice versa... la liberté de mouvement.
- Connaitre Paris, pas seulement les stations de métro.
- les nombreuses stations (si on sait où elles sont)
- la convivialité (pas mal d'échange avec les autres utilisateurs et le personnel de maintenance à l'occasion... pour l'instant, avec le facteur nouveauté, on verra après)

Je ne trouve pas dangereux de faire du vélo à Paris. Faut pas rêvasser, c'est tout.

Quelques soucis...
- pas de vélo disponible: ça arrive... on verra comment ça se passe en septembre mais là, en cette période "creuse", y'a déjà des stations vides. Bon, après, faut marcher à la prochaine station. Et c'est une question d'habitude: avec le temps, on saura les stations qui sont susceptibles d'être vide (et à quelle heure) et vers où se diriger.
- pas de place disponible: apparemment, on a droit à 15 min gratuite supplémentaire. Je n'ai pas essayer (j'avais oublié et je ne me suis pas connecté mais je me suis dépêcher de trouver une autre station). Pareil, avec l'habitude, ça ira mieux.
- problème de connections (la machine ne répond pas). ça m'est arrivé plusieurs fois la 1ère semaine (début aout). Encore une fois, une solution consiste à marcher jusqu'à la prochaine station... ou attendre.
- trouver une station. ça peut devenir angoissant dans certains quartiers.... (mais comme le nombre de station va doubler d'ici décembre, il y aura certainement moins de problème.)
- avoir une montre et penser à s'en servir

Souhaits
- Je veux savoir où vont être les nouvelles stations
- Il me faudrait un mapplet pour Google Maps/Earth avec les stations vélib'.
- Je veux pouvoir signaler les vélos cassés (pour faciliter le boulot de la maintenance et éviter au gens de prendre un vélo cassé sans s'en rendre compte)

J'ai essayé de voir si d'autres villes avaient ce système à l'étranger. pas facile. Une recherche rapide: Copenhague et Amsterdam reviennent souvent (mais pas à la même échelle, et peut-être pas aussi facilement qu'à Paris). Vienne en Autriche. Séville et Barcelone en Espagne.
et Londre serait pour bientôt?
à suivre...

mp3 search engine

2007-08-15T15:41:00.000+01:00

SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

(via kelblog)

projectplaylist looks good too but need registration.

La voleuse de livres

2007-08-11T12:29:00.000+01:00

Je viens de finir The Book Thief, "La voleuse de livres" de Markus Zusak, histoire poignante d'une orpheline apprenant à lire dans l'Allemagne nazi, chez des parents adoptifs qui subissent le régime d'Hitler.

J'ai maintenant beaucoup d'admiration pour ce jeune auteur australien.

Happy 2 months

2007-08-10T19:50:00.000+01:00

2 mois de vacances avec Tang, et une petite carte souvenir (encore en construction).

Présentation du site Internet de la LPO FC

2007-08-08T21:38:00.000+01:00

Je viens de voir qu'un nouveau numéro de la gazette de la LPO Franche-Comté venait de sortir (du moins sa version PDF en ligne, je n'ai pas vu la version imprimé encore), avec ma présentation du site internet (à lire en page 4!).

Cela m'ennuie de voir que les actualités ne s'affichent plus sur la page d'accueil. J'ai demandé de l'aide sur le forum rss2html et apparemment, ce serait du à un changement de configuration du serveur. Et oui, c'est la LPO nationale qui gère les serveurs... Ils ont du faire un truc qui a eu des conséquences sur le site. dommage...
En tout les cas, des changements ont été entrepris sur la page d'accueil et je viens d'envoyer un email pour proposer des solutions de remplacement.

J'imagine que je vais en apprendre beaucoup dans les mois avenirs sur ces histoires de configuration de serveur!

AMV

2007-08-03T21:39:00.000+01:00

I haven't been watching AMV (Anime Music Video) for a while. The Internet connection of where I am now is much better than at home so I thought I would watch some videos. I typed AMV in Google video and here we go, I found a great one:

That's some quality work! really like the song of course (Foo fighters: Best of you), and I had no idea of which anime it was made from at the beginning. It's just a big mix, and I just recognize a few.

Green NGO in China

2007-08-02T18:26:00.000+01:00

I did a "mastère" (french appellation, 1 year study after a master degree) in the environmental/development field, and I did an internship in one of the WWF office in China. So I'm keeping an eye on the related subject.
This morning i found out what happened to China Development Brief last month. I was on holiday and even if Google Reader is great, the info got lost as i had to much catching up to do. Anyway, I was reading an article in the French newspaper about how things were getting tricky for Green NGO in China, taking as an example the Chinese authority who "ordered the Chinese edition of China Development Brief to cease publication forthwith".

I remember that when I was looking for an internship in a NGO in China, some people i was talking with (classmates for example, so they knew about environment stuff) were doubting there was any NGO in China. At that time i didn't know I will end up in one of the international NGO that came to China. WWF started to operate in China in 1980 to protect the Panda.

I've always thought the best of China Development Brief. The website is a really good place to find information about NGO in China. I've also appreciated the job boards (although I didn't find anything there, I could see the trends in the sector), the RSS feeds as well as the directory.
I hope there gonna make it.

The french article also mention some local NGO with international funding which had to stop:

" Une vingtaine d’ONG locales ont été sommées de ne plus accepter de fonds d’institutions ou de fondations internationales telles Ford ou Oxfam, et leurs projets arrêtés."

Really wonder which one they are talking about. I know some NGOs in Kunming with Ford funds...

Find my Flickr pics on the Web! (and in the world)

2007-07-31T23:07:00.000+01:00

Here a post i wanted to write for a long time... how my pictures on Flickr were used by others.

I've always been happy to see people like my pics and to be asked if they can use it for their project.

Here's my first list:
- a Sweedish article about Tea (link was lost...)
- The French Guyana Satellite launcher model, used in wikipedia (and more recently for a brochure)
- Some of my sichuan pictures for Panda protection on a WWF International website. (for example here)

But what makes me write the article now is the most recent case:
- a Flexible rentals advertisement from the HCR group, a british company who made postcards out of a picture i took in Cameroon.
I got the postcard in my mailbox when i came back from holiday.
They even did a banner with the picture on their specific website about Flexible rentals:

Looks great! ;-)

Testing Picasa features...

2007-05-17T18:42:00.000+01:00

First Minshan Impressions

Marcus Miller attaque [Mozinor]

2007-05-17T13:04:00.000+01:00

Cosmos 99: Marcus Miller attaque
envoyé par mozinor

Márta Sebestyén: "Tavasz Tavasz"

2007-05-13T16:55:00.000+01:00

I've already mention Márta Sebestyén music here when i discovered it in a Ghibli animation movie. One of the song I like is available for free on Last.fm so here it is:

Márta Sebestyén – Tavasz Tavasz

It's not related in anyway to the last.fm update I blogged about yesterday. But my enthusiasm about Last.fm is not going down...

Last.fm: Huge update.

2007-05-11T11:01:00.000+01:00

Last.fm just got better. A lot better.
I cannot hep thinking Last.fm just became the best music website ever, leading the game in this area... Others are far behind.
I mean, Pandora is going back (it cannot be used in France anymore, just in the states i think), Radio.blog is not going anywhere (from my point of view, i hope they'll surprise me soon...).

so what is so huge? You can finally include the music of your choice on your website/blog, thanks to the "playlist" and "widget" feature. It's still limited in the possibilities (just 1 playlist, but it's so easy to manage while browsing last.fm) but it's simple and efficient.

I'm impressed by what they have done and what's available for us now!
Not in French yet, it seems.

More about the new feature here. et En français aussi.

My last.fm profile
choose the english version, it seems improved compared to other languages.

One thing that is clear, things are evolving really quickly. The possibilities to find music on the web are getting really interesting.
Including a given track in a post is simple and easy with blogmusik:

The Version2 is very recent (and i forgot to mention it before) and is quite amazing.

God! Even there, they have a feature called "smart playlist" to find music you might like (the pandora way).

Balade...

2007-04-21T19:11:00.000+01:00

tagzaniapaste
Balade à vélo (vtt) map - Tagzania

Aïe! Le nouveau blog de la LPO FC m'a donné le goût d'écrire pour un blog... et me voilà bloguant ma petite balade à vélo de ce soir, un truc que je n'aurais pas fait avant (y'a qu'à regarder les immenses archives de ce blog).

Non, vraiment, faut que j'me surveille.

Bon, c'était aussi pour dire que Tagzania présente encore d'énormes avantages par rapport à Google my maps (qui est néanmoins génial). Le fait d' "étiqueter" ses localisations plutôt que faire des "cartes". Et la possibilité d'inclure sa carte sur un site (mais ça, c'est surement pour bientôt sur Google)

Balade Nature sur franche-comte.lpo.fr

2007-04-19T20:49:00.000+01:00

Je viens d'écrire un billet sur le tout nouveau Blog de la LPO FC à propos des "balades nature" de l'association que j'aimerais essayer de cartographier... (le blog que j'ai créé et intégré au nouveau site franche-comte.lpo.fr maintenant en ligne)

"Parce que j'aime les cartes et les outils de cartographie de plus en plus répandu sur Internet, je voulais me pencher sur les "balades nature". Nous avons prévu l'emplacement sur le site, dans la belle rubrique "Partager". Il n'y a "plus qu'à".
Plus qu'à mettre en forme les balades déjà publié dans l'ancienne gazette, et dans le premier LPO info Franche comté."

Une des balades sur "Google my maps".
Si vous avez déjà installez Google Earth sur votre ordi, cliquez ici!

A Faire:
- une carte pour chaque "balade nature" déjà publié.
- une carte de localisant toutes les "balades nature" déjà publié.
- une carte regroupant tous les endroits significatifs pour la LPO FC... (MRE, Maison de velotte, Sabot de Frotey, ...)

LPO web 2.0

2007-03-10T17:17:00.000+01:00

La LPO, c'est la "Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux".

Je suis en train de faire le site Internet de la nouvelle délégation Franche-Comté en tant que bénévole. Pour moi, c'est une chance de travailler sur un tel projet qui comme je le pensais est très enrichissant. Pour la LPO FC, c'est aussi un chance puisque le projet était en stand-by par manque de moyen.

Le premier objectif est de faire un site simple avec l'idée de pouvoir le développer comme on le souhaite par la suite. Ma première conviction a été de faire un blog pour lancer ce nouvel outil de communication qui pourra se révéler très utile j'en suis sûr. Mon challenge a été d'intégrer le blog dans le site. Ainsi, sur la première page apparaient les 2 derniers billets publié sur le blog. Il y a donc un fil RSS disponible! (indoispensable selon moi) J'espère maintenant présenter l'outil aux membres de l'association pour que chacun puisse participer.

adresse permanente: http://franche-comte.lpo.fr/
adresse actuelle du nouveau site pour son développement: http://franche-comte.lpo.fr/index2.php

Intéressant, la LPO Haute-Savoie vient de lancer son nouveau site avec un feeling web 2.0 incontournable! Le site a de nouvelles fonctionnalités comme la saisie en ligne des observations ornithologiques. Flux RSS présent mais en m'abonnant, je le trouve vide. A voir...

J'aimerais utiliser des fonctionnalités avancées pour le calendrier et les photos. j'aimerais aussi intégrer la mailing liste existante de la LPO FC. Afficher les derniers messages par exemple mais ça n'a pas l'air d'être facile. c'est un "yahoo groupe" sans flux RSS.

Ce n'est pas fini....

Myths about world development

2007-02-09T14:44:00.000+01:00

Check out this video, a must-see:

Hans Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden's world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, he debunks a few myths about the "developing" world. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)

Google has started hosting this tool for visualizing development data developed by that Swedish NGO: http://tools.google.com/gapminder/

via Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog:

There are only a few variables at the moment, but wouldn’t it be great if one day the data in FAOSTAT were to be added? Anyone want to volunteer to do the mash-up?

UPDATE 16.03.2007: Google bought Gapminder's software today.

Tracking Miserlou...

2007-02-03T10:21:00.000+01:00

What's Miserlou? or is it Misirlou? well i didn't know either before i got started. Miserlou seems to be the title of that music everybody knows, the great theme songs from pulp fiction. You know, the one that goes "la lala la laaa lala la laaaaaaaa, la lala la laaa lala la laaaaaaaa...."

no? come on... try a little bit harder:

First i went to google. I found out the name of the song and the guy who plays it. Then i turned to radioblogclub.com, last.fm, and pandora.com.

There are so many version of this song:
http://www.last.fm/explore/search/?q=Miserlou&m=tracks
http://www.pandora.com/backstage?songPage=1&q=Miserlou&type=song

The song is called Miserlou, sometimes, Misirlou. The pulp fiction version is from Dick Dale. (official website)

http://www.pandora.com/music/song/9ccca0ea220b4eeb
http://www.pandora.com/music/song/5127012b3aba8d3f

But where is it from? let's try allmusic.com.
Interesting, big number of performers... well, let's even compare the date. Not really better results. It's still not clear who composed it. The song must have a complex story... so we'll turn to google once again hoping that somebody wrote details about it already.
aaaaaa, there's a wikipedia entry!
This webpage is interesting as well.

so Misirlou is a popular greek song!
Greek: Μισιρλού, 'Egyptian Girl'; from Turkish "Mısırlı" 'Egyptian', from Arabic مصر, Miṣr, "Egypt
It got popular in different style:
Greek rebetiko, Middle-Eastern belly dancing, Jewish wedding music (Klezmer), and American surf rock.

No wonder I heard it yesterday on Arte, in a documentary about Cyprus (an island separated between turkish and greek).

I like the Black Eyed Peas' version "Pump It":

Lyrics:

Ha ha ha
Pump it
Ha ha ha
And pump it (louder) [4x]

Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right

N*ggas wanna hate on us (who)
N*ggas can be eerin' us (who)
And I know why they hatin' on us (why)
Cause that's so fabulous (what)
I'ma be real on us (c'mon)
Nobody got nuttin' on us (no)
Girls be all on us, from London back down to the US (s, s)

We rockin' it (contagious), monkey business (outrageous)
Just confess, your girl admits that we the sh*t

F-R-E-S-H (fresh)
D-E-F, that's right we def (rock)
We definite B-E-P, we rappin' it
So, turn it up (turn it up) [3x]
C'mon baby, just

Pump it (louder) [6x]

And say, oh oh oh oh
Say, oh oh oh oh
Yo, yo

Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right now
This joint is fizzlin'
It's sizzlin'
Right

(Yo, check this out right here)
Dude wanna hate on us (dude)
Dude need'a ease on up (dude)
Dude wanna act on up
But dude get shut like flavor shut (down)
Chicks say, she ain't down
But chick backstage when we in town (ha)
She like man on drunk (fool)
She wanna hit n' run (errr)
Yeah, that's the speed
That's what we do
That's who we be
B-L-A-C-K -E -Y-E-D-P to the E, then the A to the S
When we play you shake your ass
Shake it, shake it, shake it girl
Make sure you don't break it, girl
Cause we gonna

Turn it up (turn it up) [3x]
C'mon baby, just
Pump it (louder) [6x]

And say, oh oh oh oh
Say, oh oh oh oh
Yo, yo
Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right now
This joint is fizzlin'
It's sizzlin'
Right

Damn (damn) [5x]

Wow

Apl. de ap. from Philippines
Live and direct, rocking this scene
Waiting on down for the B-boys
And B-girls waiting, doin' their thing
Pump it, louder come on
Don't stop, and keep it goin'
Do it, lets get it on
Move it!

Come on, baby, do it

La-da-di-dup-dup die dy
On the stereo
Let those speakers blow your mind
(Blow my mind, baby)
To let it go, let it go
Here we go
La-da-di-dup-dup die dy (c'mon, we're there)
On the radio
The system is gonna feel so fine

Pump it (louder) [4x]

And say, oh oh oh oh
Say, oh oh oh oh
Yo, yo
Turn up the radio
Blast your stereo
Right now
This joint is fizzlin'
It's sizzlin'
Right

Couldn't find an older version on radioblogclub.com like the one i heard last night on tv but here is the translation of the traditionnel song lyrics, found on wikipedia.

My Misirlou (Egyptian girl), your sweet glance
It's lit a fire in my heart
Ah, ya habibi, Ah, ya haleli, ah
(Arabic: Oh, my love, Oh, my night)
Your lips are dripping honey, ah

Ah, Misirlou, magical, exotic beauty
I'll go crazy, I can't take any more
Ah, I'll take you away from the Arab land

My wild, dark-eyed Misirlou
My life changes with one kiss
Ah, ya habibi, one little kiss, ah
From your sweet little lips, ah

6h - 13h

2007-01-27T11:56:00.000+01:00

Petit job pour dépanner la semaine prochaine. De 6 à 13 h, travail en équipe comme je l'ai fait maintes fois les étés précédents.

Ils me prennent 1 semaine et me prolongeront si besoin.

Ryszard Kapuscinski

2007-01-25T18:38:00.000+01:00

Je viens d'apprendre la mort de ce journaliste-écrivain-... polonais que j'admirais beaucoup.

voici mes précédents billets (liens et cotations) concernant Ryszard Kapuscinski.

- Google news about him
- NY Times article

UPDATE:
Recent blog post about him:
(Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography

and yes, there are criticisms about him. I like the answer the above blog made here.

Spotless mind

2007-01-24T22:39:00.000+01:00

Beck - Everybody's gotta learn sometime - Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
It will astound you
I need your lovin'
Like the sunshine

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
Will astound you
I need your lovin'
Like the sunshine

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

I need your lovin'
Like the sunshine

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Lynx

2007-01-21T10:50:00.000+01:00

Petite conférence sur le lynx de Loic Coat, vendredi soir à Serre les sapins.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28mammif%C3%A8re%29
http://www.jura-france.com/lynx

Des images impressionnantes... Je n'ai pas pu m'empecher de penser que ça ferait un tabac sur youtube... ;-)

Still looking for a job

2007-01-16T15:13:00.000+01:00

Enquête emploi mastère spécialisé forêt 2006 (pdf)

Secteurs d'activité
Le secteur de la forêt est globalement le premier des secteurs d'emploi, très loin devant les autres, et cela qu'il s'agisse du 1er, du 2e ou du 3e emploi (ou plus) après le diplôme. L'objectif de double qualification du mastère spécialisé semble donc atteint, et d'autant plus nettement si l’on agrège au secteur forestier les secteurs du bois, de l'aménagement et de l'environnement (cf. tableau 4). L'emploi est majoritairement public ou parapublic (cf. tableau 5).

Looking for a job / je cherche du boulot

2007-01-09T18:26:00.000+01:00

Je suis Ingénieur Arts et métiers et je cherche un travail.
Je vous renvoie sur ce site pour plus de détails... et mon CV (fr) (en ligne)!

I am a French engineer and I am looking for a job.
Please go to this site for further details... here is my CV (en) (online).

Double Birthday

2007-01-09T18:09:00.003+01:00

3 years ago, i was trying to post something on Internet. I was starting this blog... It started by finding a nice little name (and i don't think i will change it).

It's never been a great blog (like the one you can find out there). I just wanted my space to share some stuff from time to time. Now, most of what happens is on my link blog. I also have a personnal website. It's not perfect yet but it's easy to do it when I feel like it.

But that's not the birthday i wanted to celebrate today... no, what i wanted to celebrate happened 25 years before. Happy birthday my love!

Anaïs et Tenderness

2006-12-23T22:22:00.000+01:00

Très bon concert ce soir....... à la télé :-)

J'ai découvert Anaïs. En fait, je crois que j'avais entendu une chanson d'elle avant. "Christina". Je n'avais pas poussé plus loin. Mais ce soir, j'ai vraiment découvert l'artiste et ce qu'elle est capable de faire sur scéne... toute seule. impressionant. (c'était ce soir sur W9)

et puis les 2 sites:
http://anaisinyourface.free.fr
http://www.myspace.com/anaisinyourface

Sinon, autre découverte musicale du moment, An Pierlé et le nouvel album. en fait surtout une chanson. J'ai entendu "Tenderness" sur France Inter et ça m'a bien plu. j'adore les 4 accords du couplet...

L'album est tout nouveau donc pas encore sur Radioblog... et sur leur Myspace, y'a pas "tenderness".
http://www.myspace.com/anpierleandwhitevelvet

The lake house - This Never Happened Before

2006-11-12T10:22:00.000+01:00

I watched "The lake house" in the plane back home, from HK to London.

Really liked the following song:
"This Never Happened Before" by Paul McCartney

Lyrics:
I'm very sure, this never happened to me before
I met you and now I'm sure
This never happened before

Now I see, this is the way it's supposed to be
I met you and now I see
This is the way it should be

This is the way it should be, for lovers
They shouldn't go it alone
It's not so good when your on your own

So come to me, now we can be what we want to be
I love you and now I see
This is the way it should be
This is the way it should be

This is the way it should be, for lovers
They shouldn't go it alone
It's not so good when your on your own

I'm very sure, this never happened to me before
I met you and now I'm sure
This never happened before (This never happened before)
This never happened before (This never happened before)
This never happened before (This never happened before)
This never happened before

Go Elong!

2006-10-20T12:11:00.000+01:00

Interesting post again at "Migrant Worker" about Elong, the online travel agency and its plane ticket service, here in China.

But I have a totally different feeling about Elong. I actually like Elong and use it all the time. I wanted to post about it so I guess now is a good time.

I 'm booking my plane tickets by Internet because I want to buy it at the best moment. Discount are coming and going away quickly. So with Elong, you can check the price 1 month before and check it again 1 week before from your computer, and if you know the kind of discount you can get, it can be very rewarding to wait or to hurry to buy it. Of course, there are many surprise: "What??!! where is my 70% discount i thought i'd get"

One thing that happened: I had booked the ticket 1 week in advance and i found out about a great discount 2 days before the flight. I could call Elong and cancel my ticket, and book the cheap one. Of course, there is a trick: my cheap ticket was delivered to me but i had to normally pay for it. To get refund, you have to go to their local office (they have one in Chengdu, Kunming...) and there is a 5% fee.

Elong has the best site, according to me. Fast, easy to use... and clear. Better than Ctrip, better than Yoee. (i think Yoee doesn't have a delivery service everywhere). You can really consider the price, the time of the flight and make your choice, the company...
Why the company? Sichuan Airlines has free transportation to and from the airport in Chengdu if you have a ticket which discount is not superior to 50%.
Ctrip is so messy!

Now let me mention some of Even's critics:
- Yes, the English page is terrible as you can't enter Chinese characters. They really should fix that! You can't input your address in Chinese, you can't input your Chinese friends name. But actually, it's not a big deal. Yes, Elong Beijing office will call you and make sure about your booking. If they need the Chinese, they ask you to do that by email (it happened to me) or something else. At that time, they also make sure about the delivery(time and place). From experience, this is quite annoying as Elong Chengdu office will call you if these details are unsure or doesn't satisfy them...
- Not all the staff can speak English, but normally it's no problem: Beijing office call is done by somebody who can speak English. Yes, I had some call from the Chengdu office or the delivery guy... in Chinese. But I could always rely on a colleague, friend, passerby or my poor Chinese:

"- shenme shenme... feiji piao... shenme shenme?
- aaaaah feiji piao, duiduidui!
- shenme shenme... zai bu zai?
- zai zai zai! mei wenti!
- dui ba, xie xie..."

Free Chinese practice for me ;-)

- They do have to deliver to you right away. Well, I think the solution is to find somebody you trust (and is willing to pay for you in the 1st time) they can deliver to... on the webpage, you can actually give the address and contact of another person. Very practical.
- They don't guarantee the price of the ticket. It did happened to me, once or twice (it was also on short notice: on the day of the trip). But i wouldn't say it happens often. In that case of short notice, I think I would call Elong directly, I wouldn't wait them to call me back after my booking. (They do have a booking phone number)

Ok, i didn't try Ctrip. And ok, there might be several phone calls involved but for me, the point of ordering online, is that I can compare price and time and do it when i want.

Some facts (not really related to Elong actually)
-They have the good discounts (like the one you will find elsewhere). I know about the Chengdu-Kunming flight (you'll guess why). The full price is 700 RMB. I could get 210 RMB tickets sometimes. That's about 320 RMB with tax.
-The Fuel Tax has doubled from sept 1st. from 30 Yuans to 60 yuans. And I think the airport tax is 50 RMB. (Total tax is 110RMB).
- Price in Summer were really higher than now. No 70% discount at that time...
- I could get good price, even during the October golden week.

Other Elong anecdotes:
- My first time I knew about Elong was in France, 6 Month ago. I was looking for a ticket from Shenzhen to Kunming. They called me to ask me for my credit card number. At that time, I didn't know if I could trust them so I finally found another solution.
- Elong sponsored an episode of danwei tv show "sexy beijing".
- On the homepage there is a very attractive offer:
Beijing--London(RT) ¥2430
I guess I'll know if it's true only when I'll try to get it. Sounds too cheap to be true.

And another mention of Migrant Worker today on the web: see see Gokunming today's post.

GoKunming gets RSS

2006-10-19T04:33:00.000+01:00

GoKunming: Kunming news, events, travel, business, living:

Welcome to GoKunming RSS feed!
For now, only one RSS feed, for the general kunming news section of the website (blog).
I remember when i first discover this website (at the very beginning i believe), i was already hoping for it.

Eco-tourism in south-west China

2006-10-19T03:56:00.000+01:00

Interesting article about Eco-tourism featuring Wanglang Nature Reserve in Sichuan. (but mainly about Yunnan)
Can China embrace eco-tourism? | 生态旅游在中国可行吗?
"Tourists are choosing the holiday that involves the least effort, and China's eco-tourism sector is suffering as a result. Sichuan's Wanglang Nature Reserve is a haven for giant pandas. Since 1996, Peking University professor and panda expert, Lu Zhi, has been promoting eco-tourism to the area. But the lack of dramatic scenery and the need to spend time outdoors in order to see the pandas mean that Wanglang still lacks the number of visitors it deserves. The same could be the case in Yunnan."

Talking about copyrights and Ghibli...

2006-10-17T14:15:00.000+01:00

Talking about Copyrights issue and "studio Ghibli" (see my last post), here is what you can find in a Pizza Hut of Chengdu for Halloween decoration. (picture on the right)

At the first glance, I recognize Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, a somewhat famous japan animation movie, and her cat. Yeah, the cat is obviously the same, no doubt. Here is the original, the spanish poster (don't ask why) and a picture of the cat. Don't tell me they didn't took it from there!

When Copyrights start to be a problem....

2006-10-12T05:17:00.000+01:00

Email from youtube:

"This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Studio Ghibli Inc. claiming that this material is infringing..."

So byebye to:

Harmony 02:48

Porco rosso / Brandford Marsalis

Tags:

miyazaki amv music jazz

Added: November 12, 2005, 12:20 PM From philou155
Views: 2,740 Rating: 13 ratings
(4) comments

I put my other AMV in private video. I guess if they can't find it, it will be ok. Wanna first make sure i kept a version on my hard drive.

"Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account."

don't want this to happen...

Funny enough, this is the second time in 1 week I've been told to remove contents i had on the Internet. well, this time, they did it for me, and ask me to clean my account. (the other copyright problem: i had pictures on my picasaweb album from a "big environmental ngo", i just upload in "private mode" to send to colleagues, and make our work of gathering pictures easier) . I guess I'm a big copyrights dangerous criminal.

My excuse to studio ghibli... I'll never do it again ;-)

Ecologie en France

2006-09-24T12:04:00.000+01:00

politicshow the french politic show : politique lyrics: Emission Spéciale > Soirée débat : l'écologie politique

Serge Orru - Directeur général du WWF
Philippe Desbrosses - Intelligence Verte
Philippe Quirion - Réseau Action Climat
Michèle Rivasi - CRII-REM
Daniel Richard - Président du WWF
Dominique Voynet - Candidate à la Présidence de la République - Les Verts
Corinne Lepage - Candidate à la Présidence de la République - Cap 21
Nicolas Hulot - électron libre (et think tank "comité de veille écologique")
Alain Bougrain-Dubourg - LPO
Dominique Belpomme - scientifique
Jean-Marie Pelt - scientifique
Gilles-Eric Séralini - scientifique
Julien Sage - Fac Verte
Yann Werhling - secrétaire national des Verts
Eric Delhaye - Porte-parole de Cap 21

et Denis Cheissoux, France Inter

Kenny Garrett

2006-09-15T04:47:00.000+01:00

Adblock

"URBAN JUNGLE" Feat:Kenny Garrett & Roy Ayers.
i was emailed this by the guy who posted the video on youtube. Great stuff!

Kenny Garrett Interview about new album.

Beyond The Wall [...] inspired by Chinese music and philosophy.

Snack food in China

2006-09-14T15:36:00.000+01:00

Very good article again on chinadialogue.net about Food Safety.

small interesting introduction on snack in China:

China's food fears (part one) | 中国的食品安全恐慌（第一部分）: "Perhaps the biggest difference between food in the West and in China is that Chinese people like to eat lots of little snacks whereas Westerners prefer one ‘main meal’. In the West, restaurants and fast food outlets produce standardised meals, where quantities are strictly regulated. But the Chinese have a long history of eating snacks. Traditionally an agricultural country, when farmers went out onto the fields, they would bring snacks with them to eat and to share with friends, or would swap them with farmers from neighbouring villages. The quality of the snack was important – it would indicate how skilful the wife was in the kitchen and help the family to maintain their ‘face’. So over the centuries the quality of these snacks became better and better, so that gradually, all over China, one could find snacks that were both delicious and safe. "

Then, it is about Pickle... Sichuan Pickle. Made here in Chengdu. very interesting as well! I will be thinking about this article every meal for a while!

Sichuan wiki.... well, not exactly but...

2006-09-11T08:49:00.000+01:00

Interesting use of a wiki by american exchange students in Sichuan University!
Main Page - UW-SichuanWiki: "Welcome to the wiki of the University of Washington-Sichuan University Research Exchange.

This website is the compilation of wisdom from previous exchange students who have volunteered to share their knowledge with others in hopes to make their time in the exchange more productive and more enjoyable. We have specifically compiled this information in wiki format so that it is easily accessible and future students can continue to contribute. The wiki philosophy is that everybody has the freedom to share information. If you see a mistake on these pages or something lacking, then jump right in and edit it!"

Photoblog / Huajiao

2006-09-11T04:22:00.000+01:00

Check this photoblog for pictures of rural area in Sichuan. Nice captions! (couldn't leave my comment but will try again later)
Dan's China Days: Policy in practice:

"The municipal leader of He'ai town, a single mother, with her only child. The town meeting hall behind her is emblazoned with the slogan, 'Carrying out the One-Child Policy is China’s basic national policy'"

update:

Dan's China Days: Huajiaoping village: a difficult life: "One of village's few sources of income is the sale of huajiao (known in the West as Sichuan peppers, and after which the village is named), for which they can earn six yuan per kilogram"
wow, that's cheap huajiao! Carrefour is helping selling huajiao from communities living around the Nature reserve in Minshan area (sichuan), in partnership with a WWF project.

wow, that's cheap huajiao!
Final price this year is around 100 yuan per kilo in Carrefour. It's very high this year because of poor weather and good quality (sic). Farmers can get more than 50 yuans.

HuaJiao (Sichuan Pepper)
Originally uploaded by Philou.cn.

Suez/GDF: article du monde diplo

2006-09-09T08:14:00.000+01:00

A lire:
Suez va-t-il avaler Gaz de France ?:

"Le 7 septembre, le gouvernement de M. Dominique de Villepin a soumis à l’Assemblée nationale un projet de loi pour la privatisation de Gaz de France (GDF) afin de permettre sa fusion avec Suez. Pourtant M. Nicolas Sarkozy, alors ministre des finances, avait assuré en 2004 : « Je le redis avec force : conformément aux engagements du président de la République et du gouvernement, EDF et GDF ne seront pas privatisées (1). » Le projet de loi supprime l’obligation pour l’Etat de détenir au minimum 70 % du capital de GDF. Celui-ci pourra ramener sa participation au sein du nouveau groupe à 34 %. A quelques mois de l’élection présidentielle, ce transfert au privé du contrôle de l’un des derniers grands groupes industriels publics inquiète jusqu’au parti majoritaire, l’Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP).
En dépit du résultat du référendum du 29 mai 2005, indice d’une opposition populaire aux orientations libérales des gouvernements européens, l’un des premiers actes du premier ministre nommé au lendemain de ce scrutin, M. de Villepin, a été de confirmer l’entrée en Bourse de GDF, puis d’EDF. Le 25 février 2006, sur fond de manifestations contre le Contrat première embauche (CPE), M. de Villepin a dévoilé le projet de fusion de GDF avec Suez. Depuis, le groupe privé n’a pas ménagé ses efforts pour convaincre les parlementaires. Au point d’inviter certains de ces représentants du peuple à assister, en juillet dernier, dans les loges privées de Suez, à la finale de la Coupe du monde de football…
[...]"

Je n'avais pas remarqué le "carnet" du Monde Diplomatique qui resssemble à un blog. J'aime bien! Je crois qu'ils appellent ça "La valise diplomatique". Pas mal du tout.
Et moi qui est reçu ça dans mon Gmail... Bien sûr, il faudrait s'abonner pour les supporter.

"Plus que jamais, au milieu des turbulences que
traverse la presse française, les abonnés sont
les meilleurs garants de notre indépendance.

Soutenez-nous, abonnez-vous :
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/abo

Lecteurs solidaires :
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/abo/solidaires"

Streaming music websites...

2006-09-07T11:53:00.000+01:00

This website called blogmusik is quite nice. it seems people have been talking about it since July 13th.

It is interesting that it actually takes the Radio.blog database. without mentionning it for now. maybe, this new website is not only taken its music from there. But where else could they take the music from?

I suspect the website to french, because of its french version and because french blogs talking about it are numerous. Also, on the radio.blog forum, there is a thread in french about it. couldn't find one in english.

The good thing about this website is the ability to get a link for a song and share it easily. For example, here is one: http://www.blogmusik.net/?urlIdSong=102397
I could get this link very quickly.
I've blogged here tracks from Radio.blog before but blogmusik will be more easy for beginners.

Then, here i wanted to blog the track so you can listen to the song directly, without leaving this site, but radio.blog is down for maintenance....

About the song:
Well it's a new song from JJ, to me. it's about the 3Rs, yes: Reduce Reuse, Recycle!!! cool song.
3Rs by Jack johnson

Also, I could find this link using google, i couldn't find how to access it from the page.
http://www.blogmusik.net/music-genre.cfm

[update:]
Now it's on Techcrunch!

My free Tripper Map

2006-09-06T07:20:00.000+01:00

Get your own Flickrmap!

I knew this website but didn't know they made a free version. they support the new flickr geo-service, which is cool.

aaah! Elaine!

2006-09-01T03:04:00.000+01:00

Nice news from Elaine...
"Seinfeld" veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus wins Emmy | Reuters.com: "Former 'Seinfeld' co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus won the Emmy Award as best actress in a comedy on Sunday for playing a divorced mom looking for love on her new CBS show 'The New Adventures of Old Christine.'

Louis-Dreyfus, who played self-absorbed Elaine Benes for nine years on NBC's smash hit 'Seinfeld,' is the first of that show's cast to find success in her own prime-time series, after previous solo attempts by former co-stars Michael Richards and Jason Alexander flopped.

She previously won the Emmy as best supporting actress in a comedy for her work on 'Seinfeld.' Her first return to series TV, starring as a nightclub singer on NBC's 'Watching Ellie,' failed to get off the ground."

The show:

Chimp Conference...

2006-08-30T15:31:00.000+01:00

Interesting post on the Gombe Chimpanzee Blog.
Too bad the text is not available in the blog. I mean, i love Google Earth but my laptop is slow, so i don't want to launch it just to read a blog post. Hopefully, Google maps now reads kmz files:
http://www.janegoodall.org/news/gombe-blog/New-Postings/August06/08-29-06.kmz - Google Maps

un extrait du post:
"Today was the first day of the conference and it started with a bang. It was an exciting morning as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni spoke with us during the opening of the meeting. It was certainly an honor for him to join us and it was reassuring to hear him speak about his commitment to conservation in Uganda, a place of rich primate diversity. Dr. Jane Goodall also spoke to the congress. In her tradition, she opened her speech by giving a pant-hoot, the chimpanzee greeting, and invited the congress attendees to respond with the answer of their study species. It was wild to hear the entire conference answer Jane! It was most moving to hear Jane talk about her experiences over the years and how the field of primatology has grown from her first meeting of just 10 scientists in the 1960s to an international meeting of more than 700 people in 2006."

[update]
I really love Google maps, look at these 2 links:
Overview of the posts location in Africa
Zoom on the Chimpanzee's habitat. woaw, the nice beach...

Maps in China

2006-08-30T12:33:00.000+01:00

Xinhua - English: "Foreign organizations and individuals, who engage in surveying and mapping in scientific research and teaching programs, travel or exploration, must obtain approval from the government and accept supervision, the State Bureau of Survey and Mapping said.

The number of foreigners conducting surveying and mapping in China is on the rise and many field projects have been carried out illegally, which have threatened the security of the country, according to the state bureau.

[...]

Earlier this year, two Japanese scholars were fined a total of 80,000 yuan (10,000 U.S. dollars) and deported for collecting materials and coordinates of an airport and water facilities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It was feared their results could be put to military use.

The bureau notice said that foreigners who illegally survey, gather and publish geographical information on China will be severely punished.

Chinese partners or translators will be fined if they fail to stop illegal mapping activities as soon as they find out about them.

Details of regulations on how foreigners can conduct surveying and mapping in China will be announced soon by the State Bureau of Survey and Mapping."
_____________________________________

"foreigners who illegally survey, gather and publish geographical information on China"
Mmmm, of course, i'm not concerned! I don't "survey". I do feel i'm gathering and publishing though... ;-)

Other blog post about this (about Google Earth)
Another one (Single Planet)

WWF map

2006-08-30T12:23:00.000+01:00

WWF - Selective map of flagship WWF projects around the world
woaw, cool map. Not i'm not ironical, it is not so bad!

Many maps i could find in the nature conservation area were very poor, very slow... compare to what could offer Yahoo or Google maps. But this one, is not so bad.

Arg, the Minshan area hasn't a little red cross. I guess it's not flagship. (i though it was)

Funny to notice the amount of "red cross" in Buthan. I thought there were doing pretty well there, towards environment i mean... do "they" really need WWF or WWF need some model projects?

Giant panda cited as global most sightworthy animal

2006-08-30T12:15:00.000+01:00

People's Daily Online -- Giant panda cited as global most sightworthy animal: "According to a recent survey conducted by a global environment protection organization, China's giant panda and the Amazon rainforest in South America are elected as 'the most sightworthy animal' and 'the most sightworthy natural sight' respectively."

Strange they don't mention WWF directly.

That's the survey:
http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/best_place_species/index.cfm
and that's the result:
http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/best_place_species/current_top_10/index.cfm

i was going to say: "there is no date, who knows how long the survey as been running here."
actually, there are some details:
"Page last updated: August 29, 2006." that's for the "survey".
"Page last updated: August 23, 2006." that's for the result.

Anyway, i don't really understand of 1. the survey 2. the article.

If the article mention WWF, everything (the behind) would be much clearer to me.

Chinois sortis de la pauvreté

2006-08-30T02:08:00.000+01:00

Un séminaire à Chengdu dans le Sichuan (22-23 aout)
En 20 ans, 100 millions de Chinois sont sortis de la pauvreté: "Depuis longtemps, le gouvernement chinois travaille inlassablement pour éradiquer la pauvreté et améliorer les conditions de vie des paysans. Au milieu des années 1980, il a fondé un département spécial chargé de venir en aide aux pauvres, et a déclenché à l'échelle nationale une lutte organisée et planifiée contre la pauvreté.

Selon les statistiques récentes du Bureau du Conseil des affaires d'Etat pour la lutte contre la pauvreté, à la fin de 2005, dans les 592 districts recevant la plus grande aide de l'Etat, 79% des villages sont maintenant desservis par la route, 95,8% des villages par l'électricité, 70% des familles paysannes ont accès à l'eau potable, 73,8% des villages sont reliés au téléphone et 87,6% des villages reçoivent les programmes de TV."

The black-necked cranes of Shangri-la

2006-08-29T03:48:00.000+01:00

WWF - Buddah birds: Protecting the black-necked cranes of Shangri-la: "A rare species endemic to the Tibetan Plateau, the cranes have also achieved something of an iconic status in the tiny village of Hamagu, on the edge of the Napahai wetland in Shangri-la County in China’s northwest Yunnan Province. Here, villagers are tying their fortunes to the cranes’ popularity as they are becoming more and more of a tourist attraction. But those small fortunes will depend on how well the bird’s habitat is protected."

Flickr geotagging: Impressive

2006-08-29T03:18:00.000+01:00

Great shot - where'd you take that?: "Flickr's great for exploring photos by photographer, tag, time, text and group, and now it's also great for exploring photos by place. There are a couple of short video tutorials (or "screencasts") which give the 90 second overview on how to geotag your own photos and how to use all the controls for searching and exploring geotagged photos. Watching them first will give you all of the information you need to get up and running.

If you want just jump in on the exploration side, here's the place to go: http://flickr.com/map"

"geobblogers.com" is back! well, kind of... it's a big new step for geotagging pictures.
Many new features make the experience very pleasant. (grouping pictures with the zoom level for example).

Well sure, it's yahoo maps, not google maps... but can't wait to use it. maybe yahoo maps are not so bad ;-)

Anyway, there will still be a way to see the same pics on a google maps, i guess.
Well, if you'll excuse me, i feel like geotagging now!

[update]
a nice link of my new flickr map:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philippe/map/
but i'll suggest fo there instead. (you can zoom in and out and filter to get the pics you want, and then link to the result by using the "link this", great simple feature. will we be able to embed this in a website soon?)

There is a lot to read about this. Here is a good place to start.

I'm only wondering something. I haven't found any comments about that, but it seems that if you use flickr tool to "geotagged pics", you will not give them the tags as geo:lat=xxx and geo:lon=xxx...
I think that means that, contrary to my "there will still be a way to see the same pics on a google maps, i guess.", it will be impossible to see the newly geotagged pics using the cool geotagging tools like Yuan.CC Maps. and that sucks.

[update 2]
ok, i could finaly find some info about this. it's there:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/geotagging/discuss/72157594255303300/
There is an API. The geotag-tools dev will have to adapt their tools.
Another important adress, the group discussion about Flickr API:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yws-flickr/

To sum up:
Yes, the geo:lat=xxx and geo:lon=xxx are not used by Flickr but it is still working and you still be able to get the location from the FLickr API and display it on another map.

[update 3]
great post again on the Flickr blog:
http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2006/08/geotagging_one_.html

[update 4]
I wasn't the only one (of course) to pick up on the geotag format choose by flickr:
http://www.ogleearth.com/2006/08/flickr_maps.html
In the comments, Rev Dan Catt! (the geobloggers guy) he says he will be blogging now.

Ecological degradation in Wolong NR

2006-08-28T08:32:00.000+01:00

Entrez PubMed "Ecological degradation in protected areas: the case of Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas.": "It is generally perceived that biodiversity is better protected from human activities after an area is designated as a protected area. However, we found that this common perception was not true in Wolong Nature Reserve (southwestern China), which was established in 1975 as a 'flagship' protected area for the world-renowned endangered giant pandas."

Ecotourism (via singleplanet)

2006-08-26T14:40:00.000+01:00

Ecotourism is more than just a label: "According to Jiang Mingkang and Wu Xiaomin, researchers with the Institute of Environment Science under the State Environmental Protection Administration, 22 per cent of natural reserves have seen damage to the species or biosphere specially protected in them due to tourist activities, and 11 per cent of the reserves even saw an overall deterioration of resources.

Jiang and Wu attributed the damages to three causes: an overload of tourists and their activities in the reserves, lack of careful tourism planning and strict supervision and the excessive presence of buildings.

Deng Bing, a graduate student from Peking University specializing in tourism planning, stayed in Jisha village in the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Area, a natural world heritage, for more than a month for her survey.
[i don't understand what this paragraph is doing in the article]

Boiled down, real ecotourism has rarely materialized. It is distorted into mere tourism in these protected areas, which either damages the natural resources or hurts the local community's culture or traditions.

Researchers have had made numerous suggestions to decision-makers on the topic of how to strike a balance between natural reservation, economic growth and community development with ecotourism."