- Watching a show about H5N1 flu on Nat Geo, how it could spread on an airplane. As if I weren’t already dreading the flight home… #
- Uploaded 35 or so photos of the Shanghai "PC Mall" (like Fry’s on crack) to Flickr. http://tinyurl.com/68eys7 #
Monthly Archive for April, 2008
I’m starting to get through processing and uploading the hundreds of photos that I’ve taken since I’ve been in Shanghai. Here are some from the “PC Mall” that Richard and Welles took me to the first day I was here. It’s a huge 5 story mall, like you’re probably thinking of. Except that every store, every kiosk, every nook, and every cranny is crammed full of computers, computer parts, cameras, media players, games and consoles, phones, monitors, and every other kind of electronics you can think of. It is a gadget lover’s paradise.
The best way I can sum it up, to people in the US, is that it’s like Fry’s on crack. 
Anyway, here are some photos. As always, I love it when you leave comments. Let me know what you think, if you have any questions, etc. You can see all 34 photos in this set on Flickr, and view them as a slideshow.
Enjoy!
- On the agenda in Shanghai today: Welles is going to take me to do some shopping. And I still have a pile of photos and videos to work on. #
- Back from shopping, dinner, and sightseeing with Welles. What a day! He is an awesome host. I’m way luckier than the average tourist. #
- Today was rainy in Shanghai, which dampened (ha!) the views a bit. But this is still a stunningly beautiful city. I’ve fallen in love… #
- @davidavdavid I’m not going to Beijing this trip, but I’m itching to find an excuse to go there. Would love to see it, the Wall, etc. #
- A little research has taught me that my PSP, DS, and Wii are region-free (Wii with a bootdisc). Methinks I’ll look closer at games here. #
- Up and at em. Just talked to Rachel on SkypeOut. Today’s kind of a catch up day - email, uploading video and photos, etc. Should be nice. #
- Posted another video of IDF and Shanghai. Including what sites are blocked in China, and which aren’t. http://tinyurl.com/26pwge #
- @scaleovenstove The Atom chip launched 2 days ago. Of course products using it aren’t on the market yet. They’ll ship in the next few months #
- @scaleovenstove Are MIDs overhyped? I don’t think one can say that until they’ve used one (which I haven’t, much). I’m giving them a chance. #
- @scaleovenstove My guess is, some MIDs are going to suck, and some are going to be awesome. Too early to know which is which yet. #
- @scaleovenstove I’m uploading a video of my first ever MID hands on experience. It’s brief, but it gives a glimpse of what they’re like. #
- Hmm. Apparently, icanhascheezburger.com and ihasahotdog.com are also blocked in China. I can not has LOLCats and LOLDogs!
# - Interesting look at Intel from an entrepreneur who quit to pursue his own vision: http://tinyurl.com/2oecbw #
- Another site that’s blocked in China: wordpress.com. I can’t get to @kenekaplan’s post about me to thank him for his kind words. #
- And LiveJournal is blocked, which we knew. so I can’t get to @davest’s post on shopping in China, to comment. http://tinyurl.com/2yjtsg #
- @kenekaplan since I can’t comment, thank you for your kind words in this post: http://tinyurl.com/2eoxk3 Stuff like that keeps me going! #
- @turoczy Yeah, it’s weird. I’m 9 hrs (or 15 ahead) of PDX. It’s 1:45 PM here. I’m about to go find some lunch. #
- @Skawtnyc My VPN worked from the IDF venue, but not from my hotel room, so yeah, I’m kind of cut off. But oh well! Most of my stuff works. #
- Just posted video of my very first hands on experience with one of the new MIDs (mobile internet devices): http://tinyurl.com/yp8uvw #
- Surprised to see a show about Tibet on the National Geographic Channel in my room… #
- @peat You’ll have lots of MID news once I get all the video I shot here at IDF digested and posted. They’re a few months out, but coming! #
- Back in my room after several hours walking around Shanghai, taking photos. Then @kellyfeller and @mnmmom "Shanghai’ed" me, to a cool place. #
- They took me to the restaurant at the top of the Hyatt hotel, supposedly the tallest in the world. The view was astounding! Photos soon. #
- Thanks @kellyfeller, @mnmmom, and Jay, for a fun evening! We talked about Twitter, social media, cameras, and were entertained by a magician #
- Now, I’ve got 350 photos from today to sort through. And @rachelbancroft will be awake soon, so I can call her. #
- @harrisja It’s pretty typical for me, though. I shoot a ton, and throw most of them away. #
- @KevinCTofel Thanks for the blog post re: my MID video. I’m hoping to get a lot more hands on time with them soon. Stay tuned! #
- @KevinCTofel I’ve got a whole lot more to share once I get it processed. Hundreds of photos, and 12 HDV tapes full of video. #
- @Jerry_Makare Sounds like growth to the ISN video site is snowballing. That’s awesome! #
- @Jerry_Makare I’d love it if you can stay on. Because we all know I’m never going to get through editing the 12 hours of IDF video I shot
# - @Jerry_Makare Yeah, that would have been a good idea, huh? I’ve tried to do a good job getting the footage, but I’m sure we’ll learn. #
- @MnMmom it totally sucks that your BlackBerry got ripped off on the subway. But tonight on top of Shanghai was quite cool. Photo coming. #
- Of all the photos I took today, I had to post this one right away. View from the 87th floor of the Hyatt. Amazing! http://tinyurl.com/3k2hmw #
- That might be the most amazing (if not technically perfect - it was handheld, through glass) photo I’ve ever taken. I can’t stop looking! #
- Grr. iPhoto didn’t save my edits (cleaned up some glass reflections on that pic) before it went to Flickr. Replaced it, so it’s better now. #
- @NontrivialMatt Thanks. It pretty much took itself. The view from that place was incredible! #
- @psteinb Heh. We should have our next team face to face here. At that bar. #
I shot 350 plus photos this afternoon and evening, walking around Shanghai and the Huangpu riverfront. And I’ll put all of the good ones on Flickr, eventually, but I just HAD to share this one immediately:
Click it to view the photo on Flickr, then check out some of the larger sizes. I snapped this about an hour ago from the bar on the 87th floor of the Shanghai Hyatt, the “tallest hotel in the world”. It occupies the 50th through 87th floors of the building that houses the Shanghai stock exchange. And the view is astounding.
Thanks to Kelly, Tammy, and Jay, who I ran into on my way back to my room, for “shanghai’ing” me into going back out with them. The view alone would have been SO worth it, but the company and conversation were great, too.
- Waiting for the keynote ballroom to open. Got here early today. Looking forward to hearing Renee. #
- That is, Renee James, VP of software at Intel, and head of my division/group. #
- Keynote crowd is much smaller today. Yesterday was a zoo. #
- Crap. Kaynotes went 20 minutes over, and I missed the first part of the Nehalem session I’m recording. #
- I saw something that dropped my jaw in Andrew Chen’s keynote: light field photography. Adjust the focus, DoF, etc. AFTER the pic is taken. #
- Light field photo is unfreakingbelieveable. Can’t wait to blog/show you. Check out a company "refocus imaging", who did the demo. Amazing. #
- @memathews et al http://www.refocusimaging.com #
- This Nehalem session is aimed at hardware folks: board designers, etc. Crap. Hard to judge these just by title. #
- Now I don’t feel so bad about missing the first 15 minutes. Some Moblin and Open Source sessions later. Should be good. #
- Need to find more on the Intel/SpikeSource "open source validation" service that Renee announced. I don’t get it yet. #
- Just shot some "man on the street"/"what’s in your pocket" video with Holly, Helen, and a Gigabyte MID. #
- Noteable: this was the first time I’ve ever touched a MID with my own hands. #
- I’ve staked out the room where the Moblin session is, so I can get a spot to film. Every session I’ve been in so far has been packed. #
- Just emailed a bunch of IDF photos to Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/JoshB #
- I’ve only been taking photos on my iPhone while filming IDF. Carrying my DSLR in addition is just too much. Better photos of Shanghai soon! #
- This session on Moblin is Gold. Should be very informative for developers. Glad I could get it on video! #
- Wow. The Intel MID SDK tools are going to be available for free (you can pay for support incidents if you need them). Yay! Out next Tuesday. #
- Next up: Dirk Hohndel, Intel Open Source Stud. Er. Superstar. #
- "Open Source Stud" just sounds wrong. His official title is cooler: Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist. #
- Whoa. I didn’t know that Dirk used to be the CTO of SUSe. Awesome. #
- Did you know that there are more open source projects targeting Windows than Linux? #
- In the Intel MashMaker session. This is going to be another great video. The number one video on ISN is about MashMaker. It’s very cool. #
- I can’t wait to show @sourcecode this MashMaker video. It’s right up his alley, along with anyone else into web hacking javascript magic. #
- Dear Canon XH A1 and Manfrotto tripod: You know I love you, but after lugging you around the last two days, I need some time alone. #
- @mihaisecasiu How can I tell what? The "more open source on Windows" statement? According to Dirk, check SourceForge and Google Code. #
- @funkatron I’m sure the Portvangelists will find a place for you to stay during OSCON. Anyone got a couch? #
- @matt_mcc MID - Mobile Internet Device. It’s Intel-speak for the soon-to-come pocketsized devices with the Atom processor and mobile Linux. #
- @funkatron Portland’s a friendly town. Full of Portvangelists and bacon lovers. Plenty o’ couches! #
- Had dinner, bought some books and snacks, fiddled with some video, and called Rachel. Now, the sleep is hitting me. Good night! #
A few days before IDF, I met Holly from Intel via an email thread on who was going to Shanghai to blog, etc. She let me know that there was going to be a MID (Mobile Internet Device) photoshoot at some point, and invited me to come, shoot video, and check it out. Well, it turned out that the photoshoot took place at 8 PM the first night after IDF started, and didn’t finish until 8 AM the next morning. These devices are pretty much the only ones in the world right now, and they were needed for the keynote addresses both days of IDF. So the middle of the night was the only time they were available for a photoshoot. I passed.
But! On Day 2 of IDF, Holly came by the Upload Lounge with one of the MIDs - a unit from Gigabyte. She was supposed to do some “man on the street” video, showing people in Shanghai the MID, and asking them to show what they had in their pockets. But her video crew wasn’t available for some reason. SInce I was there with all my gear, and had time before the next session, I happily accompanied her out onto the streets of Shanghai (with Helen, our translator) to do the man on the street video.
But before we hit the streets, I shot this short clip with my Apitek Go-HD, to commemorate my first ever hands-on experience with a real, live MID. Here’s the video - about a minute and a half, not long enough to go into any depth. But it should be enough to give you a glimpse of what they’re like to actually use.
Holly is hard core - she was up all night long for the photoshoot, and still came around to do this. I would have chickened out and hidden in my soft warm bed for a few hours. Hats off to you, Holly! Hope you got some rest! And thank you for letting me touch the MID!
Here’s another collection of video clips from the two days of IDF Shanghai. Highlights include a look around the IDF venue (Shanghai International Convention Center), the Huangpu riverfront at night (gorgeous!), a peek at Chinese TV in my hotel room, a look at what websites are blocked in China and which aren’t, some “man on the street” video with Intel’s new Mobile Internet Devices, a look at the terrifying chaos that is pedestrian and vehicle traffic in Shanghai, and a cameo appearance by Celene Dion.
Like the walkabout video I posted before, these little clips were all shot in HD on my little Aiptek Go-HD video camera, then pieced together in Quicktime Pro and rendered down to 640×360 on my Elgato Turbo.264. And then converted to low quality Flash by YouTube.
The video is about 10 minutes long, and I’ll probably post a higher quality version than what I can get from YouTube when I get home.I’ll probably keep shooting and posting these while I’m in Shanghai. I’m here until next week - going to spend a few days working with some of the Intel Software Network team here at Intel Shanghai. And I kind of like the style/technique of these videos. I’ve had lots of people ask me how I’m doing this. It’s very simple: I turn the screen on the camera so I can see myself, then hold it out at arm’s length, pointed at me, and pivot around in place to show what’s around me, while keeping myself on screen. Kind of fun to shoot, and I like the results.You know the drill - leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Want to see more like this? Hate it? Have something about Shanghai that you want me to shoot? Drop me a line, and let me know. And thanks for watching!
It’s been a whirlwind two days. IDF just got over, and for the last two days, I’ve been shooting video of keynotes, sessions, demos, and other interesting stuff. Since all my video gear is kinda heavy to lug around, I haven’t bothered taking my Nikon D40 DSLR with my, to take many photos. Now that I’m done with the heavy duty video stuff, I’ll have my camera with me much more while I’m here in Shanghai, and will take and post some more photos.
In the mean time, here are a few that I’ve managed to shoot with my iPhone. Some of these turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. As always, I love it when you comment on my stuff, so let me know what you think, and enjoy!
You can, as always, see all of the photos I share on Flickr.
- Up and at ‘em for Day 1 of IDF. Camera gear is ready, and I should have wifi all day at the venue (which means I’ll be tweeting). Let’s go! #
- BTW, I’ve been totally unable to get VPN to work, so no access to my Intel email. If you’re an Intel person, use my Gmail to reach me. #
- In the IDF keynote, waiting for it to start. Requisite happy pop music playing. I may not get decent video - couldn’t get a good spot. #
- Some people came and set up a tall tripod RIGHT in front of me. Rude. #
- Managed to film all 3 (4?) keynotes. That was a marathon! In the "upload lounge" now, taking advantage of some bandwidth from @mnmmom. #
- @DivaDanese I don’t REALLY want my VPN to work. I get along just fine without it. Yay for pushing so much of my life into the cloud! #
- Is blip.tv blocked in China? I’m trying to upload a video, and it’s timing out. #
- @Matthewdaniels I’m in Shanghai for the Intel Developer Forum (IDF). I’m shooting video and covering it for Intel Software Network. #
- @annierodkins Well, that’s dumb. Especially since YouTube is NOT blocked (uploading there for now, will do high qual to blip when I get home #
- @purr No, Vimeo seems to work. And FTR, Veoh does appear to be blocked. At least, I can’t get there from here. #
- Just did a blog post and put up the video of my little "Shanghai Walkabout" from yesterday. Enjoy! http://tinyurl.com/yto98o #
- @mattg Yeah, it was fun. I held out the camera at arm’s length, and moved around. Hope no one gets motion sick! #
- Filling up HDV tapes left and right. Keynotes, demos (Nehalem, MashMaker, wireless USB, etc) and sessions. #
- Tomorrow: Renee James’ keynote, Moblin, open source, and more demos. Whew! #
- My Canon XH A1 camera just rocks. I’ve done 5+ hours of HD video, and the battery is still more than half full. I lub this camera. #
- The marketing folks are having a blogger party at some club tonight, but I think I’ll skip it. I’m SO tired. Maybe cause I woke up at 3 AM. #
- Connectivity here has been really spotty. I’ve yet to attend an event/conference with really great connectivity. Big opportunity here. #
- My Twitter friends sure are quiet. What, are you all asleep or something? #
- I don’t know why YouTube isn’t showing a thumbnail for embedded versions of my video. I edited it and told it which one to use. *sigh* #
- Flipping through TV channels in my room. For some reason, this song/commercial comes to mind: http://tinyurl.com/rea3x #
- See this waterfront panorama? It’s right next to my hotel. I was there shooting video a couple hours ago. http://tinyurl.com/ywxuwx #
- My hotel is also across the street from the Oriental Pearl Tower, tallest in Asia, 3rd tallest in the world. http://tinyurl.com/29he5g #
- @anjrued Know what’s really disconcerting? That tower is so tall, I don’t have a camera lens wide enough to even see it all at once. #
- @anjrued Seriously, I’ve tried from a couple blocks away, and it’s still too tall for my widest lens (which, admittedly, isn’t super wide). #
- @anjrued Heh. Problem is, by the time I get far enough away to see the whole thing, I’m so far away it looks like a toothpick. #
- And now that all my Twitter friends are waking up, I’m going to bed. I’m beat! More IDF madness tomorrow. #
- Good morning tweeple! Up and at em for IDF day two! Gonna fill me up some more tapes for me and @jerry_makare to work on when I get home. #
- Breakfast = Pocky Almond Crush. #
- Catlogueing tapes from yesterday, getting some ready for today. #
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