Author Archives: dontai
Preventing a Hat-astrophy
Wasabi Baseball Hat did not make it safely through the washing machine. Finally the logo patch was sewn onto the donor Maple Leaf hat. Photo 3 by Don Tai
My dear neighbour gave me an urgent call. It seemed that she had put her baseball hat in the washing machine and the machine chewed it up and spit it out. All that was left was the “Wasabi” logo. She brought over the logo patch and wanted it sewn onto a Canada baseball hat. Ok then, let’s prevent a Hat-astrophy!
Oukei TW-2700-E1 Table Tennis Training Machine: Repair
The Oukei TW-2700-E1 Table Tennis Training Machine is a consumer grade serving machine. It stopped working due to an out of aligned spring. Photo 1 by Don Tai
My neighbour is hard working and has few hobbies. She loves table tennis but has no partner, so she bought a table tennis machine, which shoots balls at her. This machine, an Oukei TW-2700-E1, she loves, allows her to return balls without help from the family. It was unfortunate when the machine began jamming. I opted to fix the machine, and she was grateful to have it back in service. It turned out the fix was very simple, but rendered the machine unusable.
Tracking by GPS in China: Google vs Baidu Maps
A friend at Tongji University, Shanghai. Using his GPS coordinates of 31.2820193,121.5083353 he is at the red pin., but this time over 500m west north west of his Google location Baidu Maps.
What to do to Clear Snow and Ice from the Driveway, Toronto, Canada?
Frozen tulip, Toronto, Canada. I hope it will survive. 2018 Apr 15. Photo 8 by Don Tai
Mapquest Gives Developers Free SDK, in Exchange for Customer Data
We’re extremely excited to announce the launch of our new Mobile Navigation SDK for Android and iOS applications. Our Mobile Navigation SDK is available to you for free, if you agree to a mutual flow of data sharing.*
QQ Ceasing operations in Europe, 2018 May 20
We are sorry to announce that for operational needs from 20 May 2018 QQi will no longer be available in Europe.
China Store Owners Forced to use Government Routers
BiHu routers are government mandated in Qingdao, Xiamen, Chifeng China for any company providing wifi services, including all retail stores, or the stores will get a heavy fine.
Mapping GPS Coordinates: Google vs Baidu
Baidu map, Beijing University, is accurate to the line map. The map has a lot more detail about local anemities than the Google Map
If you play around with GPS coordinates you will quickly need access to a map. The GPS coordinate numbers do not reveal a geographic location useful to a human. The two go-to internet resources are Google and Baidu. Both have maps for North America and China, but are not as good outside of their competitive areas. As I am in Toronto and have lived in China, I can verify their usefulness for these locations, but for other parts of the world you are on your own.
Average Entry Level Salaries: China, US, Other
As I talk to people in China it is very useful to understand general level salary levels. These are average starting salaries for entry level university grads. These do vary depending on the cost of living.
These salaries are very variable. In all cases I used the highest average. None of these mean much comparing one country to another, as expenses such as housing vary greatly.
| Year | Country | Monthly | Yearly | 2017 | China | 5,600RMB/$823USD | 67,200RMB/$9,880USD | 2017 | US | $4,000USD | $47,300USD | 2017 | Japan | $1,800USD | $21,600USD | 2017 | Malaysia | $585USD | $7,020USD |
|---|