Archive for July, 2010

Dutch Design Workspace in Shanghai

Yesterday I went to the soft opening of the Dutch Design Workspace, an incubator in Shanghai for Dutch companies active in the fields of design, fashion and architecture. I am on the selection committee of the incubator program and this was my first visit to the Workspace. I was pleasantly surprised, the Dutch Design Workspace looks great. The space is big and very bright, with lots of windows and a very nicely designed interior. Plus it has a very nice rooftop terrace! The Dutch Design...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Tudou looking for social media intern

Tudou is looking for a part-time social media intern for its Shanghai office. We are looking for a native English speaker with a good knowledge of written and spoken Chinese. A proven track record in English language social media (SNS, blog, video etc.) is a must. You should be a good writer and be available for about 2.5 days per week for at least 6 months. Starting date: asap The internship gives you the opportunity to be active in a very dynamic working environment and to be one of the...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Next month...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

China Unicom keeps on serving ads without permission

While driving commuting between home and the office I always work in my car through a 3G connection. The connection is normally fine, but what gets on my nerves are the ads that China Unicom keeps on serving. No full screen China Telecom ads anymore like a year ago, but some still cover half the screen. At least they go away after a few seconds - so quickly that you can't even take a screenshot. Yesterday I was driving home when I checked Spil Games' Arabic site DailyGame.com. I opened the...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Football and religion

On the day of the final of the football world cup a lot of people in The Netherlands were overjoyed that the Dutch team made it to the finals. But some went a bit (too) far: in the YouTube video above a Dutch priest turns the Sunday mass into some sort of football party. At first I thought it was a practical joke, but it seems to have been a real event. What I read in the Dutch press is that the Catholic church authorities were not amused and suspended the priest. I don't really have an...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

The coming brain drain: Is Shanghai becoming too expensive?

For the third time this year a staff member at Spil Games Asia resigned because he/she could not afford the cost of living in Shanghai anymore. Our salary level is not low compared to many other companies, but it turns out that the cost of living in Shanghai is so high that for some people it just does not make sense to stay anymore. Housing prices are the main culprit. If you bought a house a few years ago things are fine, prices have doubled or tripled over the past years so you are safe....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Android will dominate China’s mobile market

My colleague Richard Yu wrote a good article on TechCrunch about future of the mobile market in China. His prediction is that Android will win the mobile wars in China and become the biggest platform by far. I fully agree with him, see for example the last paragraph of this blog post that I wrote a few days ago. The fears that because Android was originally developed by Google it can never win here are unfounded: (...) officially sanctioned versions of Android are flourishing, starting...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Video of Elaine walking

Two days ago I blogged about Elaine starting to walk and put a picture of her taking her first steps online. My wife just told me that she actually filmed Elaine and me in the supermarket and she put the video on Tudou. A video says a lot more than a picture: Elaine is not a steady walker yet, she almost falls a few times and also her walking speed changes constantly (fast-slow-fast etc.). A nice memory, within a few weeks she'll be running around without allowing me to hold her hand. The...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Mobile Internet booming in China

Today CNNIC (China Network Information Center) published its half yearly Internet statistics (pdf, in Chinese). As expected the total number of Internet users kept on growing and there are now 420 million Chinese online. Almost everybody has access to broadband, the penetration rate is over 98%. But what's actually even more interesting is the number of people that go online on a mobile device. At the end of June 2010 there were almost 277 million mobile Internet users in China. That is more...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Elaine starts walking & knows how to say iPad

About 10 days ago Elaine took her first steps without any help. Just 2 steps, after that someone had to catch her. But she is learning very quickly, because today I took the kids to the City Supermarket after work and Elaine walked around everywhere. I still had to hold her hand in case she would lose her balance, something that happened every couple of steps, but most of the time she was basically walking without my help. I love my little girl! Scott was not so happy that Elaine was...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Mediocrity rules in Holland…

Holland has a 'tradition' that when the national football team wins a European or World Championship,...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

My latest gadget: Concept 2 rowing machine

When I do sports in Shanghai I normally only run on my treadmill or occasionally do a spinning work-out. I felt something was missing in my exercise regime and so I decided to invest some money in a good rowing machine. After a bit of research I found that the best rowing machine on the market is probably the Concept 2, so I decided to order their latest model. I have the machine for about 2 weeks now and I am very happy with it. It makes a lot less noise than the Concept 2 rowing machines...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Using the iPad as a restaurant menu

Yesterday I came back from a trip to Europe, so last night we decided to have a family dinner. We couldn't decide where to go (too much choice in the Hongmei Lu area & some of the best places had no tables available), but when I walked back from a visit to the wine shop on Saturday afternoon I got a flyer from a Japanese sushi/sashimi & BBQ place. I had been there once before and I remembered it was pretty good, so after a phone call to check if they would have 2 kids chairs available...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>