Thursday, July 30, 2009

Newsmap


今我发现了一个挺有创意的新闻网站 Newsmap。该网站是利用 Google News 的资源,然后将新闻进行分类,用更具视觉冲击也更直观的方式呈现出来,但是略显花哨而且颜色太多不易阅读。

Photobucket

最上方的导航是国家,有意大利,英国,美国等多个国家,可以选择一个或者多选。下方右侧是新闻的分类,有世界新闻,国家新闻,商业新闻,健康新闻等多个分类,也可以选择。不同颜色代表不同的分类。
另外右下侧还有图例,颜色最浅的就是最近10分钟的新闻,次浅的为最近10分钟到一小时的,颜色最深的就是一小时之前的。至于新闻方块的大小,我觉得应该是根据同类新闻来源的多少所确定的。

Photobucket

鼠标指针移到一个新闻标题上就会出现新闻概要和新闻图片,点击就能进入新闻来源页面。

Photobucket

当然也不能少了搜索,而且搜索结果的呈现也更视觉化。比如当搜索 swine flu(猪流感)的时候,大部分的新闻都是健康类别里的(紫色)。

雅虎与微软达成10年卖身业务

雅虎的女CEO Carol Bartz“食言”了。上任伊始,她拒绝贴上微软CEO Steve Ballmer递上来的热屁股,拒绝与微软进行收购谈判。甚至在今年5月份,给鲍尔默留便条,“劝告”鲍尔默“别想那事儿”了。那事儿是个啥事?别惦记我们家搜索业务了——“Steve-- Forget it. Won"t help. ha, Carol”。

7月29日,微软与雅虎宣布签订为期十年的搜索合作协议,微软将为雅虎提供搜索技术服务,雅虎将负责两家公司的大客户搜索广告业务。这一协议的期限为10年,微软将获得为期10年的独家授权,获得雅虎的核心搜索技术。微软将把雅虎的搜索技术整合到自己的互联网搜索平台中。而微软 Bing (必应)将成为雅虎网站独家的算法搜索和付费搜索平台。

一个10年的合作,雅虎砍掉了自己的搜索技术,转而将微软的bing揽入怀中,寄望共同与微软分享30%的搜索份额和80%的搜索广告收入。这是一个令人沮丧的消息。雅虎在砍掉诸多业务之后,再次将互联网最重大的技术革命产品搜索拱手让给微软。这看起来绝对是巴茨作为职业经理人不得不做出的选择。当然,市场和资本永远不会说谎,这合作刚宣布,雅虎股价随即暴跌10%。

从今年1月15日接替杨致远出任雅虎CEO以来,巴茨以迅雷不及掩耳盗铃之势关闭了众多产品,每隔几个星期,你都会看到雅虎关闭某项业务的新闻。

7月22日,雅虎打算出售HotJobs等非核心业务。

7月11日,雅虎公布个人主页服务GeoCities“死期”。要知道,这个业务是雅虎花了36亿美元收购的。不过时过境迁,随着博客的流行,个人主页已经成为上一代网民的记忆。这是典型的技术和产品创新缺失导致的巨额损失。

7月1日,在斥资1.6亿美元收购MavenNetworks仅17个月后,雅虎计划关闭该视频广告网络。

6月18日,雅虎拟7月14日关闭展示利用雅虎各项服务和各种API开发的优秀应用Gallery服务。

6月2日,迫于大竞争对手的激烈竞争及广告支出放缓压力,雅虎将关闭其雅虎360社交网站。

4月17日,雅虎将把持有的韩国电子商务网站Gmarket 10%股份出售给eBay。

4月16日,雅虎通过电子邮件通知用户,将在6月5日正式关闭视频编辑网站Jumpcut。

2月3日,雅虎日前致信第三方伙伴网站,表示RSS广告服务“Ads in RSS”将停止运作。

2月2日,雅虎宣布关闭在线存储服务Briefcase。

此外,雅虎健康、雅虎美食、雅虎儿童、雅虎教育、雅虎小企业、雅虎旅游都被视为鸡肋产品而面临着出售或关闭的境地。

上述这些非核心业务的关闭令人称道,这是卡尔·巴茨在为雅虎的“花生酱”战略失误买单和擦屁股。短期内要想提高雅虎收入,裁员和缩减不赚钱业务是最好的两把钥匙。卡尔·巴茨深谙此道,她都使用了。

在错失收购当今最火热的社交霸主facebook之前,雅虎还错失把Google收入囊中,当新兴互联网产品或者重大互联网变革产品到来之时,笨重、臃肿、高高在上的雅虎已经丧失了创新力和敏感度。错失了Google,搜索引擎立即成为雅虎的掘墓人。错失了facebook,雅虎在新兴互联网市场没有建立竞争优势。骄傲的雅虎由于没有深刻认识到互联网的变革,同时看不起改革者,没有立即通过收购的手段“扼杀”facebook,这和微软倒很相似。

从Google的发展和facebook的崛起可以看出,自主不断创新的新技术和新产品才是促进一个互联网企业正常运转和保持竞争力的最好法宝。国内的多家互联网企业也已经证明了这一道理。技术驱动绝不是一句空话和口号。如今,雅虎连搜索引擎这个互联网最大的商业模式创新也放弃了,这真是一个悲剧。

一个瞎子和一个跛子的联姻,悲剧的注脚已经从7月29日晚开始写下,以后关于雅虎的任何新闻都不再具有任何价值,雅虎的没落已经不可逆转.
Monday, July 27, 2009

Stuff.co.nz wins People’s Choice NetGuide web awards 2009

The winners in the People’s Choice NetGuide Web Awards 2009 have been revealed. Stuff.co.nz has won the best media site and best homepage at the people's choice netguide web awards. Stuff.co.nz was also a finalist for site of the year, best mobile site and for best new site, relaunch or innovation. As a member of the team, these awards give me great encouragements and make me work even harder.

The results of the People’s Choice NetGuide Web Awards 2009 are, as follows:


SITE OF THE YEAR (Sponsored by NetGuide)

Winner Trademe.co.nz

Finalists Stuff.co.nz, Google.co.nz, MightyApe.co.nz

BEST EMPLOYMENT SITE (Sponsored by The University of Auckland)

Winner Seek.co.nz

Finalists Trademe.co.nz, Cvb.co.nz

BEST BLOG SITE (Sponsored by Xpress Group)

Winner Blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/blogger-bites-back

Finalists Radiochick.co.nz, Kiwiblog.co.nz

BEST REAL ESTATE SITE (Sponsored by Resene) Winner Trademe.co.nz

Finalists Realestate.co.nz, Open2view.co.nz

BEST ENTERTAINMENT SITE (Sponsored by Ticketmaster)

|Winner Biggie.co.nz

Finalists Radiochick.co.nz, Youtube.co.nz

BEST FINANCIAL SITE (Sponsored by TaxRefunds.co.nz)

Winner Raboplus.co.nz

Finalists Asb.co.nz, Sorted.org.nz, Kiwibank.co.nz

BEST GAME RELATED SITE (Sponsored by SEGA)

Winner Gameplanet.co.nz

Finalists MightyApe.co.nz, Blackoutrugby.co.nz, Nzgamer.com

BEST HOMEPAGE (Sponsored by OKI)

Winner Stuff.co.nz

Finalists Google.co.nz, NZherald.co.nz, NZcity.co.nz

BEST MOBI SITE (Sponsored by Vodafone)

Winner m.nzherald.co.nz

Finalists m.stuff.co.nz, airnz.mobi

BEST ISP (Sponsored by RaboPlus)

Winner TelstraClear.co.nz

Finalists Slingshot.co.nz, Orcon.net.nz, Xtra.co.nz

BEST LIFESTYLE SITE (Sponsored by Honda)

Winner Nzdating.com

Finalists GrownUps.co.nz, Huggies.co.nz

BEST ONLINE SHOPPING SITE (Sponsored by House of Travel)

Winner Mightyape.co.nz

Finalists 1-day.co.nz, Dse.co.nz

BEST MEDIA SITE (Sponsored by ICONZ)

Winner Stuff.co.nz

Finalists Nzherald.co.nz, Tvnz.co.nz

BEST EDUCATION SITE (Sponsored by Toshiba NZ)

Winner Studyit.org.nz

Finalists Mathletics.co.nz, Auckland.ac.nz

BEST NEW SITE, RELAUNCH, INNOVATION (Sponsored by Fly Buys)

Winner Mightyape.co.nz

Finalists Stuff.co.nz, Flybuys.co.nz

BEST COMMUNITY SITES (Sponsored by TelstraClear)

Winner Move2nz.com

Finalists Donatenz.com, Grownups.co.nz

BEST GOVERNMENT SITE (Sponsored by Acquire.co.nz)

Winner Ird.govt.nz

Finalists Aucklandcity.govt.nz, Companies.govt.nz

BEST SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE (Sponsored by Bit Defender)

Winner Facebook.co.nz

Finalists Nzdating.co.nz, Oldfriends.co.nz

BEST TRAVEL SITE (Sponsored by Stuff.co.nz)

Winner Houseoftravel.co.nz

Finalists Runners Up, Bookabach.co.nz, Airnewzealand.co.nz

BEST SPORTS AND RECREATION SITE (Sponsored by SPARC)

Winner Vorb.org.nz

Finalists Nzfishing.com, Allblacks.com, Stuff.co.nz

BEST TRADING SITE (Sponsored by Clever Internet)

Winner Trademe.co.nz

Finalists Zillion.co.nz, Webuy.co.nz

BEST YOUTH SITE (Sponsored by GameConsole.co.nz)

Winner Whatnow.tv

Finalists 247girl.co.nz, Radiochick.co.nz

BEST SEARCH ENGINE (Sponsored by ESET Nod 32)

Winner Google.co.nz

Finalists Yahoo.co.nz, Bing.com

BEST WEB AD CAMPAIGN (Sponsored by IAB)

Winner Testdrive.co.nz

Finalists Creativefreedom.org.nz, Yellowtreehouse.co.nz
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

15 Years Of Yahoo Homepages 1994-2009

雅虎今天发布新版主页。成立于1994年的雅虎公司,走过了15年的漫长历程,我们来回顾下雅虎主页的变迁之路,也可见证互联网在这15年中的审美演变。
Yahoo! HomePage 1994.jpg
  1994,雅虎将自己定位于一个目录网站,页面非常简洁,连图标都没有。
Yahoo! HomePage 1995.jpg
  1995,启用了头部设计,有了搜索功能,不过这个 Logo 和8个功能按钮也太难看了。
Yahoo! HomePage 1997.jpg
  1997,出现了沿用至今的”Yahoo!”经典Logo,下部加上了相关列表。
Yahoo! HomePage 2000.jpg
  2000,整个网页突然开始严重膨胀,太多的色彩和链接,很杂乱。
Yahoo! HomePage 2002.jpg
  2002,网页的体积继续增加,色彩更加多种,采用框架设计,引用图片说明。
Yahoo! HomePage 2004.jpg
  2004,页面更加富丽,但字体更小,整个页面采用两种色调,大幅广告出现。
Yahoo! HomePage 2006.jpg
  2006,这与当前雅虎主页有了细微变化,如 Logo 下的按钮没有了,搜索条的样式变化了,但大体是一致的,以新闻导航为主的门户网站设计。比以前的版本相比,趋向简单,整个页面的色调统一。
  2009,这据说是即将推出的新版主页,Logo 的颜色采用紫色,雅虎的本命色,整个网页色调统一,且更加清新淡雅。页面的内容进一步精简,主要是加入了用户个性化设计,用”我的应用程序”来管理用户的第三方邮箱、社交网站、资讯、购物,而不仅仅是雅虎自己的服务,让雅虎主页成为更多互联网用户的起始页。
  雅虎主页截图图片来自 BoomTown
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Twitter avatar IE6 must die

有人发起的一项Twitter签名活动,通过在自己的Twitter头像上添加一个小的“IE6 must die”的小图标来加速IE6的死亡。

尽管这对IE6市场份额没有太大的影响,但是,只要是能够推动IE消亡的事情,就是我必须支持的。

目前已经有将近4000人参加了这个活动。事实上,昨天,IE6 must die”已经成为Twitter最热门关键词之一。

点击这个链接,参加此活动。

注:在该页面只需用你的Twitter帐号登录一下,就可以自动的在你的Twitter头像上添加一个小图标。

Google vs. Microsoft: What you need to know

简介

不到一周的时间,谷歌宣称将发布一款同Windows系统竞争的操作系统,而微软宣称要发布Office 10,其中包括四款广受欢迎的软件程序的免费网络版——向谷歌的一套基于网络的办公应用软件宣战。微软与谷歌之战尘埃落定之时,世界上最了不起的高科技公 司也将出炉。

原文作者:Ryan Singel
原文链接:Google vs. Microsoft: What you need to know
译者:zhanyisky

谷歌VS微软:你必须知道的

赖安·辛格

google vs microsoft

至多一个半月前,微软推出了新的搜索引擎Bing,希望从谷歌的市场份额中分得一杯羹,并最终实现真正的网络业务盈利。

新闻透露这是一场全面的高科技战争,充斥着明争暗斗,双方利用政府监管机构互相攻击。

然而这场较量并非性命攸关——由于两家公司吸钱的方式截然不同,不可能在短期内重创对方,因此这更多只是一场决出谁是高科技之王的争斗。

谷歌2008年收入220亿美元,97%来自销售关键字微型文字广告服务,这些广告置于此关键字的搜索结果内,或者网站页面上。谷歌以每年50美元一个的价格,打包销售其在线商用服务,赚取的利润微不足道——但通常其在线文本编辑器、电子邮件和电子制表程序是白送的。

相比之下,微软在过去9个月销售了价值143亿美元的Microsoft Word、PowerPoint和其他商用软件,赚取的利润达93亿美元。此外2008年其操作系统销售收入160亿美元,涵盖了安装在上网本上的XP系 统、Vista系统、Windows Mobile系统及服务器软件。

现在谷歌计划推出自己的系列操作系统,开始是针对智能电话这类小型设备的开源操作系统Android,及可以在上网本和台式机上运行的、以浏览器为重点的开源操作系统Chrome OS。

显然,每家公司的高管都琢磨了对方赚得盆满钵满的方法及实现梦想的途径,并试图依葫芦画瓢,或至少让对方难以赚到钱。

其实,他们彼此厌恶到花钱让对方收入受损——例如,微软的幕后阵营从中作梗,破坏了去年谷歌-雅虎的广告交易提议;或锲而不舍试图使谷歌的图书搜索解决方案计划流产。

但实际上,两者之间的竞争真地想要开创一番天地,好让消费者都生活在他们的技术构建的生活中。而且,这也关乎自尊——为获任世界上最了不起的高科技公司而战。

微软巴不得世上每个人都用它的IE浏览器,搜索用Bing,看新闻用MSN门户网站,给朋友发电邮用Hotmail或Outlook。再加上运行 Windows Mobile系统的智能手机与孩子在客厅玩的Xbox,你就有了个微软之家。尽管这一说法太过戏谑,对各类软件开发商而言,无论是开发小的商业软件,还是 大的在线角色扮演游戏,或是相片编辑功能,微软仍是占主导地位的平台。

谷歌的天地看来不同。它始于谷歌的Chrome浏览器(奇怪地是仅能在Windows上运行),其默认主页设置为谷歌新闻,或一个定制的谷歌页面。 经此你可以进入Gmail,然后点击一个作为附件发送给你的Word文件,谷歌将迅速——而安全地——用在线文字处理器为你打开文档。

但最重要的,谷歌希望你搜索和浏览网页,点击那些嵌有谷歌服务的广告和谷歌追踪记录标记。你可能觉得谷歌太好了,白白送给你所有这些免费技术,却从未料到谷歌为了把你转给广告商赚钱,正在源源不断悄无声息地收集你的档案数据。

那么,这两家公司在四个关键性竞争领域内,状况如何呢?

浏览器:各版IE仍然占据近70%的市场(依统计者和统计方式而定)。即使微软最新出炉的IE8在外观和先进的网络性能方面,落后于其他所有主要浏览器,这种优势依然存在。

Firefox, Opera,和苹果的Safari浏览器在过去5年里都推动了浏览器创新,但就算其他替代浏览器更安全先进,大多数人仍对IE浏览器不离不弃。为什么这至关重要呢?嘿,IE浏览器安装中有个默认主页,是吧?

另一方面,谷歌的Chrome浏览器,是一款漂亮的天才浏览器。它界面简洁,操作灵敏,彻底变革了标签的处理方式。地址栏就是搜索框(自然地,谷歌 将其设置为默认浏览器)。每个网站都用它自己的浏览器打开,读写文件的权限很低。其标签保护机制意味着,如果某个网站挂了或垮了,其他的不受影响。同时, 较低权限也让黑客难以通过你的浏览器侵入你的电脑。

Chrome浏览器拥有不到2%的市场份额。

在线搜索:对大多数用户而言,谷歌现在就是搜索的代名词。谷歌的搜索引擎意味着收钱。6月,美国网民接收的搜索结果页面占谷歌总的搜索结果页面的 78.5%。2009年前三个月,谷歌收入52亿美元,主要来自AdWords,这是一种基于拍卖的服务,能引发基于关键字(搜索查询中产生的)的广告。

微软最近推出了新款搜索引擎Bing,希望其表现胜过Google。它有一些很好的创新,说明微软想方设法寻求更好的方式向用户展示搜索信息,它通 过综合处理数据、而不仅仅是检索链接来找到途径。然而,尽管Bing做了上述改进,但价值一亿美元的广告大战和狂轰烂炸的新闻报道却让其像个弱 者,Bing在6月仅上涨了一个百分点,让微软在整个搜索引擎市场得到了8.2%的份额。

操作系统:微软自1979年起就已经在生产操作系统,它花了28年时间完善MS-DOS和Windows NT,让这种架构方式深入人心。据估计,全世界大约90%的笔记本电脑和台式机上都运行微软的系统。靠着拷贝竞争对手产品的最佳性能,借助引人质疑的许可 证协议,利用其惯有用户的基础来赢得战胜创新者的时机等一系列手段,微软在操作系统市场牢牢占据领先地位几乎30年。任凭来自数字化研究、苹果和IBM的 挑战,岿然不动。

微软最新版的Windows 7系统这个秋天将上市。早期评论说该系统启动迅速,关机快,避免了一些莫名其妙的界面判断,正是这些判断让很多人讨厌Vista系统,它将接替 Windows XP系统。微软也主宰了商界,几乎每个大中型企业都使用了标准化的Microsoft Office系统。微软也在开发针对手持设备的第6版操作系统,其最早于2000年发布。

微软的操作系统优势巨大。拥有数百万对其他操作系统一无所知且喜欢Windows系统的用户。很多用户喜欢一些只在Windows上可用的游戏或桌面应用程序。很多设备只能插入和工作在微软的硬件上。而熟练掌握微软软件是大量办公室工作的求职需要。

相比之下,谷歌2007年在发布针对小型设备的Android操作系统之时,首先涉足操作系统游戏领域。谷歌估计去年底约有18款型号的手机运行这款操作系统。上周,谷歌低调宣布推出一款与Windows竞争的新款操作系统,取名Chrome OS。

这个名字意味着谷歌的操作系统将基于网络和浏览器。它希望说服开发者编写可在浏览器内而不是操作系统上运行的软件,他们在Windows系统和苹果 的OS X系统上曾编写了大量软件。谷歌通过扩展浏览器功能,允许网站靠浏览器获得存储和处理帮助,也会让网站开发者扩大其站点的影响力。

广告:谷歌网站上基于拍卖的文本广告创新,令其获益匪浅,但随后,通过Adsense计划,它将扩展至在其他站点投放广告服务。2007年,它以超过30亿美元的价格,收购了广告服务和行为定性业巨头Doubleclick,并涉足手机、印刷、广播和电视广告。

微软一直试图复制谷歌互联网广告上的成功。尽管其拥有MSN.com——这个仅次于雅虎的门户站点——但微软尚未在互联网上赚钱。为提高其广告发送技术,2007年微软收购了一家提供全面互联网广告服务的公司aQuantive,为此支付了60多亿美元现金。

事与愿违,微软2008年的互联网广告交易亏损12亿美元,是其2007年损失的两倍。它期望2009年的收入能高于去年获得的32亿美元收入,但并未表示是否盈利。

出人意料,谷歌-微软之争的好处巨大。

微软一向自命不凡,直到谷歌的到来,才撼动了其地位。Gmail可观的在线存储能力和新奇的设计令微软疲于升级其广受欢迎不易使用的互联网e-mail服务。谷歌地图服务催生出微软的Live地图服务,现在,该服务在某些方面甚至比谷歌取得的成就还棒。

过去几年,谷歌在赢得这场较量,说明它比西北边的软件巨头更为聪明机变。但一边倒的局面也许正在放缓,甚或悄然转向。改进Bing,且承诺在线办公产品免费,并比谷歌同类产品功能更完善,微软正在挑战谷歌深得人心之处:创新领域。

而那会促成一场趣味无穷的竞赛,不管你喜欢骑哪一匹马

Chinese Internet users reached 338 Million in Q2 2009

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has just published their mid-year statistical survey report on the Internet Development in China:
  • The Number of Chinese Netizens increased by over 40 Mil during the first half of 2009, representing a 13.4% growth rate compared to 2008. By June 30 2009 the total number of Chinese Internet Users has reached 338 Million, which represents a penetration rate of 25.5%
  • 320 Mil (or 94.3%) of all online users have broadband access
  • 155 Mil (or 45.9% of all netizens) use their mobile devices to go online. In the first half of 2009 this number increased by 37 Mil. 28% of these Mobile Internet Users are considering to use 3G in the second half of 2009.
  • The number of Rural Netizens surpasses 95 Mil, accounting for 42.7% of the total online population, 15% growth alone during the past half year
  • Although security software is installed on 82.4% of all devices, security still remains a huge problem with 195 Mil Chinese experiencing Viruses/Trojans and another 110 Million becoming the victim of Account/Password Fraud

Entertainment, Online Research & Communication account for over 50% of all online activities while levels of Online Shopping & Payment are still comparatively low. Online Gaming grew by 30 Million users and in total 181 Million Chinese netizens now write their own blog. Here is a more detailed ranking of what Chinese people are actually doing online:

  • Music: 85.5%
  • Network News: 78.7%
  • Instant Messaging: 72.2%
  • Search Engines: 69.4%
  • Video: 65.8%
  • Online Gaming: 64.2%
  • Email: 55.4%
  • Having Blogs: 53.8%
  • Forum/BBS: 30.4%
  • Online Shopping: 26%
  • Online Payment: 22.4%
  • Online Stock Speculation: 10.4%
  • Travel Reservation: 4.1%

The majority of Internet users with over 60% are still in the age group of 10-29 although users between 30-49 are slowly catching up. 31.7% of Chinese Internet users are students. 81.5% of all users earn less than 450 USD/month. 23.5% even earn no more than 75 USD/months.

The report also touches some ethical implications of the rapid Internet growth in China. While people in general believe the Internet broadens their horizon (90%), allows them to save time (81.6%) and facilitates information sharing (78.5%), the report also points out that 1 out of 6 Users has the tendency to become an Internet addict. 77.5% believe their life is invariably linked to the Internet. The average hours per Internet users spent online per week has for example risen from 16 to 18 hours in the last 6 months.

Interesting to note is also that 84.3% of all Internet users consider the Internet the most important and most trustworthy source of information.
Friday, July 17, 2009

HTML Character set and special characters

Table of printable Latin-1 Character codes
Characters of the iso-latin1 character set
© Copyright W3C out=>

Special characters

If you need a to use a special character, like an accented character or a currency sign, you have to use a special notation. There are two ways to use these special characters:
  1. Use the decimal representation, in the format &#nnn;, where nnn is the decimal code of the character.
  2. Use a character entity, in the format &ccc;, where ccc is the character string that represents the specific character.

HTML 4.0 supports three sets of special characters:

ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters
Decimal Character Example Explanation
   no-break space
¡¡ ¡inverted exclamation mark
¢¢ ¢cent sign
££ £pound sign
¤¤¤currency sign
¥¥ ¥yen sign = yuan sign
¦¦¦broken bar = brolen vertical bar
§§ §section sign
¨¨ ¨diaeresis = spacing diaeresis
©© ©copyright sign
ªª ªfeminine ordinal indicator
«« «left-pointing double angle quotation mark = left pointing guillemet
¬¬ ¬not sign = discretionary hyphen
­­ ­soft hyphen = discretionary hyphen
®® ®registered sign = registered trade mark sign
¯¯ ¯macron = spacing macron = overline = APL overbar
°° °degree sign
±±±plus-minus sign = plus-or-minus sign
²² ²superscript two = superscript digit two = squared
³³ ³superscript three = superscript digit three = cubed
´´ ´acute accent = spacing acute
µµ µmicro sign
¶¶ pilcrow sign = paragraph sign
···middle dot = Georgian comma = Greek middle dot
¸ç¸cedilla = spacing cedilla
¹¹ ¹superscript one = superscript digit one
ºº ºmasculine ordinal indicator
»» »right-pointing double angle quotation mark = right pointing guillemet
¼¼¼vulgar fraction one quarter = fraction one quarter
½½½vulgar fraction one half = fraction one half
¾¾¾vulgar fraction three quarters = fraction three quarters
¿¿¿inverted question mark = turned question mark
ÀÀÀlatin capital letter A with grave = latin capital letter A grave
ÁÁÁlatin capital letter A with acute
ÂÂ Âlatin capital letter A with circumflex
ÃÃÃlatin capital letter A with tilde
ÄÄ Älatin capital letter A with diaeresis
ÅÅ Ålatin capital letter A with ring above = latin capital letter A ring
ÆÆ Ælatin capital letter AE = latin capital ligature AE
ÇÇÇlatin capital letter C with cedilla
ÈÈÈlatin capital letter E with grave
ÉÉÉlatin capital letter E with acute
ÊÊ Êlatin capital letter E with circumflex
ËË Ëlatin capital letter E with diaeresis
ÌÌÌlatin capital letter I with grave
ÍÍÍlatin capital letter I with acute
ÎÎ Îlatin capital letter I with circumflex
ÏÏ Ïlatin capital letter I with diaeresis
ÐÐ Ðlatin capital letter ETH
ÑÑÑlatin capital letter N with tilde
ÒÒÒlatin capital letter O with grave
ÓÓÓlatin capital letter O with acute
ÔÔ Ôlatin capital letter O with circumflex
ÕÕÕlatin capital letter O with tilde
ÖÖ Ölatin capital letter O with diaeresis
×× ×multiplication sign
ØØØlatin capital letter O with stroke = latin capital letter O slash
ÙÙÙlatin capital letter U with grave
ÚÚÚlatin capital letter U with acute
ÛÛ Ûlatin capital letter U with circumflex
ÜÜ Ülatin capital letter U with diaeresis
ÝÝÝlatin capital letter Y with acute
ÞÞ Þlatin capital letter THORN
ßß ßlatin small letter sharp s = ess-zed
àààlatin small letter a with grave = latin small letter a grave
ááálatin small letter a with acute
ââ âlatin small letter a with circumflex
ãããlatin small letter a with tilde
ää älatin small letter a with diaeresis
åå ålatin small letter a with ring above = latin small letter a ring
ææ ælatin small letter ae = latin small ligature ae
çççlatin small letter c with cedilla
èèèlatin small letter e with grave
ééélatin small letter e with acute
êê êlatin small letter e with circumflex
ëë ëlatin small letter e with diaeresis
ìììlatin small letter i with grave
ííílatin small letter i with acute
îî îlatin small letter i with circumflex
ïï ïlatin small letter i with diaeresis
ðð ðlatin small letter eth
ñññlatin small letter n with tilde
òòòlatin small letter o with grave
óóólatin small letter o with acute
ôô ôlatin small letter o with circumflex
õõõlatin small letter o with tilde
öö ölatin small letter o with diaeresis
÷÷÷division sign
øøølatin small letter o with stroke = latin small letter o slash
ùùùlatin small letter u with grave
úúúlatin small letter u with acute
ûû ûlatin small letter u with circumflex
üü ülatin small letter u with diaeresis
ýýýlatin small letter y with acute
þþ þlatin small letter thorn with
ÿÿ ÿlatin small letter y with diaeresis


Symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters

The character entity references in this section produce characters that may be represented by glyphs in the widely available Adobe Symbol font, including Greek characters, various bracketing symbols, and a selection of mathematical operators such as gradient, product, and summation symbols.
Note from HTML 4.0 :

This entity set contains all the letters used in modern Greek. However, it does not include Greek punctuation, precomposed accented characters nor the non-spacing accents (tonos, dialytika) required to compose them. There are no archaic letters, Coptic-unique letters, or precomposed letters for Polytonic Greek. The entities defined here are not intended for the representation of modern Greek text and would not be an efficient representation; rather, they are intended for occasional Greek letters used in technical and mathematical works.

Symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters
Decimal Character Example Explanation
ƒ ƒ ƒ latin small f with hook = function = florin
Α Α Α greek capital letter alpha
Β Β Β greek capital letter beta
Γ Γ Γ greek capital letter gamma
Δ Δ Δ greek capital letter delta
Ε Ε Ε greek capital letter epsilon
Ζ Ζ Ζ greek capital letter zeta
Η Η Η greek capital letter eta
Θ Θ Θ greek capital letter theta
Ι Ι Ι greek capital letter iota
Κ Κ Κ greek capital letter kappa
Λ Λ Λ greek capital letter lambda
Μ Μ Μ greek capital letter mu
Ν Ν Ν greek capital letter nu
Ξ Ξ Ξ greek capital letter xi
Ο Ο Ο greek capital letter omicron
Π Π Π greek capital letter pi
Ρ Ρ Ρ greek capital letter rho
Σ Σ Σ greek capital letter sigma
Τ Τ Τ greek capital letter tau
Υ Υ Υ greek capital letter upsilon
Φ Φ Φ greek capital letter phi
Χ Χ Χ greek capital letter chi
Ψ Ψ Ψ greek capital letter psi
Ω Ω Ω greek capital letter omega
α α α greek small letter alpha
β β β greek small letter beta
γ γ γ greek small letter gamma
δ δ δ greek small letter delta
ε ε ε greek small letter epsilon
ζ ζ ζ greek small letter zeta
η η η greek small letter eta
θ θ θ greek small letter theta
ι ι ι greek small letter iota
κ κ κ greek small letter kappa
λ λ λ greek small letter lambda
μ μ μ greek small letter mu
ν ν ν greek small letter nu
ξ ξ ξ greek small letter xi
ο ο ο greek small letter omicron
π π π greek small letter pi
ρ ρ ρ greek small letter rho
ς ς ς greek small letter final sigma
σ σ σ greek small letter sigma
τ τ τ greek small letter tau
υ υ υ greek small letter upsilon
φ φ φ greek small letter phi
χ χ χ greek small letter chi
ψ ψ ψ greek small letter psi
ω ω ω greek small letter omega
ϑ ϑ ϑ greek small letter theta symbol
ϒ ϒ ϒ greek upsilon with hook symbol
ϖ ϖ ϖ greek pi symbol
•• bullet = black small circle
…… horizontal ellipsis = three dot leader
′′ prime = minutes = feet
″″ double prime = seconds = inches
‾‾ overline = spacing overscore
⁄⁄ fraction slash
℘℘ script capital P = power set = Weierstrass p
ℑℑ blackletter capital I = imaginary part
ℜℜ blackletter capital R = real part symbol
™™ trade mark sign
ℵℵ alef symbol = first transfinite cardinal
←← leftwards arrow
↑↑ upwards arrow
→→ rightwards arrow
↓↓ downwards arrow
↔↔ left right arrow
↵↵ downwards arrow with corner leftwards = carriage return
⇐⇐ leftwards double arrow
⇑⇑ upwards double arrow
⇒⇒ rightwards double arrow
⇓⇓ downwards double arrow
⇔⇔ left right double arrow
∀∀ for all
∂∂ partial differential
∃∃ there exists
∅∅ empty set = null set = diameter
∇∇ nabla = backward difference
∈∈ element of
∉∉ not an element of
∋∋ contains as member
∏∏ n-ary product = product sign
∑∑ n-ary sumation
−− minus sign
∗∗ asterisk operator
√√ square root = radical sign
∝∝ proportional to
∞∞ infinity
∠∠ angle
∧∧ logical and = wedge
∨∨ logical or = vee
∩∩ intersection = cap
∪∪ union = cup
∫∫ integral
∴∴ therefore
∼∼ tilde operator = varies with = similar to
≅≅ approximately equal to
≈≈ almost equal to = asymptotic to
≠≠ not equal to
≡≡ identical to
≤≤ less-than or equal to
≥≥ greater-than or equal to
⊂⊂ subset of
⊃⊃ superset of
⊄⊄ not a subset of
⊆⊆ subset of or equal to
⊇⊇ superset of or equal to
⊕⊕ circled plus = direct sum
⊗⊗ circled times = vector product
⊥⊥ up tack = orthogonal to = perpendicular
⋅⋅ dot operator
⌈⌈ left ceiling = apl upstile
⌉⌉ right ceiling
⌊⌊ left floor = apl downstile
⌋⌋ right floor
〈⟨ left-pointing angle bracket = bra
〉⟩ right-pointing angle bracket = ket
◊◊ lozenge
♠♠ black spade suit
♣♣ black club suit = shamrock
♥♥ black heart suit = valentine
♦♦ black diamond suit

Markup-significant and internationalization characters

The character entity references in this section are for escaping markup-significant characters, for denoting spaces and dashes. Other characters in this section apply to internationalization issues such as the disambiguation of bidirectional text.

Markup-significant and internationalization characters
Decimal Character Example Explanation
" " " quotation mark = APL quote
& & & ampersand
&#60; &lt; < less-than sign
&#62; &gt; > greater-than sign
&#338; &OElig; Πlatin capital ligature OE
&#339; &oelig; œ latin small ligature oe
&#352; &Scaron; Š latin capital letter S with caron
&#353; &scaron; š latin small letter s with caron
&#376; &Yuml; Ÿ latin capital letter Y with diaeresis
&#710; &circ; ˆ modifier letter circumflex accent
&#732; &tilde; ˜ small tilde
&#8194;&ensp; en space
&#8195;&emsp; em space
&#8201;&thinsp; thin space
&#8204;&zwnj; zero width non-joiner
&#8205;&zwj; zero width joiner
&#8206;&lrm; left-to-right mark
&#8207;&rlm; right-to-left mark
&#8211;&ndash; en dash
&#8212;&mdash; em dash
&#8216;&lsquo; left single quotation mark
&#8217;&rsquo; right single quotation mark
&#8218;&sbquo; single low-9 quotation mark
&#8220;&ldquo; left double quotation mark
&#8221;&rdquo; right double quotation mark
&#8222;&bdquo; double low-9 quotation mark
&#8224;&dagger; dagger
&#8225;&Dagger; double dagger
&#8240;&permil; per mille sign
&#8249;&lsaquo; single left-pointing angle quotation mark
&#8250;&rsaquo; single right-pointing angle quotation mark
&#8364;&euro; euro sign
Monday, July 13, 2009

The new TradeMe layout in my eyes

TradeMe launched their site last week, the first impression to me was neat and clean looks like a modern website, but I still don't like its color combo strong blue and strong yellow. Secondly the loading speed is even more faster. (Maybe I am using Firefox3.5 ^_^)


I am really interested in people's feedbacks on the redesign, so I roughly went through trademe users comments about new layout, not surprisingly about 95% users hate it. Just like we launched the third generation of Stuff.co.nz in March, it again has proved that People hate changes! From Stuff.co.nz's experience, what I can say is keep eyes on what users do and react to that rather than paying too much attention on what they say they are going to do.

For me as a developer, there are things about this new design that I think are noteworthy,
  1. The fixed width (1020px) canvas makes me concentrate on the content, significantly easier to scan the listings.
  2. Finally, TradeMe replaced the endless nested <table> tags with nested <ul> for listings.
  3. Clean and optimized CSS, CSS Sprite in use.
Surprisingly, I found this HTML comment on the top of the Trade Me homepage:
<!-- If you're looking at our HTML source, you're exactly the personwho should send us your resume. View current vacancies at http://www.trademe.co.nz/careers -->

Should I send? ^_&

Lastly, TradeMe is already 10 years old since it launched in 1999, if you are interested, you can review its footprints at Rowan Simpson's blog.
Sunday, July 12, 2009

Issue of Firefox 3.5 slow startups on Windows

升级Firefox到3.5后我发现对比Chrome、IE来说,在Windows环境下,Firefox 3.5的启动速度非常慢,据说是因为Firefox 3.5从某些临时文件夹中抓取文件,用于计算随机数引起的,因此,用户可以将这些临时文件清除,用以加快Firefox启动速度。

  Firefox 3.5调用的临时文件很多,包括temporary目录、history目录和recent document目录,Firefox通过这些临时文件来增加随机数计算的随意性,但却意想不到的引来了启动速度过慢的性能问题。

  Firefox正在开发相应的补丁来解决这个问题,不过用户也可以手动方式来处理,就是删除相关的临时文件。

  临时文件的目录包括:

C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\History
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\My Recent Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Temp\

  用户也可以直接点“程序”-“附件”-“系统工具”-“磁盘清理”来删除临时文件。(via)

  经过这样的操作处理,可以看到Firefox 3.5的启动速度似乎有所加快,但是和Google Chrome、IE来比较,Firefox 3.5的启动速度依然是最慢的,Google Chrome的启动速度虽然非常快,但因为没有插件系统,因此这样比较不算特别公平。


Thursday, July 9, 2009

10 popular jQuery plugins I recommend

在当前的Web设计中,jQuery被越来越多地应用在Web开发中,之所以jQuery收到如此程度的欢迎,除了其本身具备的优秀易读易操作的代码编写机制外,更多的jQuery第三方插件也是其被快速传播应用的一大原因,这里为你整理了10多个在日常的Web开发过程中,通过jQuery实现的常用功能。
1,Superfish – 优秀的jQuery多级下拉菜单
Superfish 是一个jQuery多级下拉菜单生成插件,优雅的扩展动画、子菜单自动标注箭头等功能,让你的多级菜单实现起来不再那么麻烦。
2,Tabs 标签切换
使用作为 jQueryUI 的一个重要组成部分,jQueryUI Tabs可以非常容易地实现你要的Tabs标签切换功能。
3,Lightbox
这个效果如今被应用在了无数的优秀网站设计中,Lightbox是一个简单而又谦恭的用来把图片覆盖在当前页面上的脚本. 它能被快速安装并且运作于所有流行的浏览器。
4,Form Validation
jQuery表单验证,一个验证页面中表单元素最高效的实现方式,可以验证包括e-mail在内的几乎全部表单内容的有效性。
5,Tablesorter
Tablesorter,jQuery表格排序插件,点击表格中对应列的头部单元,表格立即重新排序。
6,Carousel and Content Slider
Agile Carousel, jQuery幻灯片插件,多种幻灯操作模式可供选择性使用,让你们的幻灯片效果更富可操作性。
7,Image Crop
Image Crop,jQuery图片切割工具,鼠标圈定图片的有效区域,生成切割后的局部新图片。
8,quickSearch
quickSearch,顾名思义是一个jQuery驱动的快速搜索插件,Ajax显示搜索结果。
9,Date Picker
Date Picker,一个灵活个性、功能强大的jQuery日历插件。
10,jQuery Accordion
jQuery Accordion,jQuery手风琴效果。
Friday, July 3, 2009

Record traffic at Stuff.co.nz on the day Michael Jackson dead

AS I blogged Michael Jackson dead news collapse many American websites.

No doubt it was a big day for Stuff.co.nz too. The traffic activity began building up from 9am on Friday and hit its peak between 10:00am – 12:00pm on Friday where traffic levels were double that of normal levels. From Friday to Sunday (26/06/09 to 28/06/09), Michael Jackson related content pieces generated about 464,069 domestic impressions and 557,261 total impressions.
stuff.co.nz traffic record Michael Jackson

At the end of the day, the visits reached 767,112 visits far more ahead both US election day (604,661 visits) and NZ election day
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Resume infographic


最上面一横条是职业经历
左下角是每天24小时的各种摄入\输出,包括咖啡、注意力、交流、幽默感等等(我很纳闷,为什么2点钟幽默感达到峰值?)
右下角的饼图是各种技能

来源大图