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External MergeSort Sample Code

2011-10-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today I practiced external merge sort just for fun. Here is the java code, for merge-sorting 5 sorted files, each of which contains a list of sorted integers. The input are out0.txt, out1.txt, out2.txt, out3.txt, out4.txt, output is sorted.txt.

import java.io.FileWriter;

import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class ExternalMergeSort
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
// initialize n buffers for merge sort
List bufferList = new ArrayList();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
bufferList.add(new MergeSortBuffer("out" + i + ".txt"));
}

// output stream
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(new FileWriter("sorted.txt"));

// store merge sort result into output buffer
int[] outputBuf = new int[1000];

// merge until only one mergebuffer left
while (bufferList.size() > 1)
{
int min = -1;
int minPtr = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < bufferList.size(); i++)
{
if (minPtr < 0 || bufferList.get(i).pokeNext() < min)
{
min = bufferList.get(i).pokeNext(); minPtr = i;
}
}

// now we got minPtr buffer, write it out
out.println(bufferList.get(minPtr).getNext());

// remove the maxPtr buffer if it doesn't have elements anymore
if (!bufferList.get(minPtr).hasNext())
{
bufferList.remove(minPtr);
}
}

// output last buffer
MergeSortBuffer buf = bufferList.get(0);
while(buf.hasNext())
{
out.println(buf.getNext());
}

out.close();
}
}

--------------------------------------------------

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;

public class MergeSortBuffer
{
private BufferedReader reader;
private int[] buf = new int[1000];
private int bufSize;
private int start;

public MergeSortBuffer(String fileName) throws Exception
{
reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
refillBuf();
}

public boolean hasNext() throws Exception
{
return bufSize > 0;
}

public int pokeNext() throws Exception
{
return buf[start];
}

public int getNext() throws Exception
{
int next = buf[start];
start++;
if (start >= bufSize)
{
refillBuf();
}
return next;
}

private void refillBuf() throws Exception
{
int i = -1;
while (true)
{
String line = reader.readLine();
if (line == null || line.equals(""))
{
break;
}
i++; buf[i] = Integer.parseInt(line);
if (i + 1 == buf.length)
{
break;
}
}

start = 0;
bufSize = i + 1;
}
}

来美国父母老人探亲医疗保险问题

2011-10-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

最近根据网上的讨论仔细攒了一篇超强的美国父母探亲保险文章.很多人的父母都有心脏病或者心脏有问题。这种病有时候确实不能耽误。大概的情况就是，即使没有保险也可以去看急诊并且不付或者少付款。但操作中有些细节的东西，详情请看USA Visiting Parents Insurance Coverage

FindTheBest.com Alternatives Everyone?

2011-10-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

I was searching for comparison engine related topics on the web and came across FindTheBest.com. It is a startup that is trying to do this be-all-end-all type of work, to compare any and all services, products etc.

But, when I visited the site, I have to say, it is not very impressive. The site seems a bit cluttered and search loads slowly, also, the search box slides far to the right hand side. It is a surprise that the search result is powered by Google custom search.

I couldn't believe FindTheBest.com secured a lot of VC funding. A one-man shop like JiansNet.com has good search result, and the best part is that it is not powered by some type of custom search.

The bottom line is that, it is always interesting to see this and other startups popping up from time to time, but only to see that they are still perfecting their technology/websites.

Skechers Promos and Coupons

2011-03-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

I buy and wear skecher shoes. They are the best, light weight and good quality. Other than Skechers, I also have new balance, Nike etc. But to me, fashion-wise, Skecher shoes are more chic/elegant.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Just checked our site, we have some pages that are related to Skechers here:
Skechers Promotions and Sales

In the future, if Skecher has any sales, we will post more, just love it...

free site search engines

2010-07-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

For a decent website with couple hundred pages or more and keeps growing, you need a on-site search engine for your website. This is important so that your visitors could find pages easily.

Below are some free or cheap site search engines you could consider.

http://www.freefind.com
Free search engine for your website. FreeFind.com lets your visitors search your website. Add a search engine to your website today, for free, in less than ten minutes. This is the fastest and easiest way to add professional level searching to a website.

http://www.atomz.com
Atomz Site Search: The premier free search tool for your website.

http://www.picosearch.com
Add a free site search engine to search your web site - no software, easy to install, free! Powerful options, large maximum pages, more professional search features for business site search.

http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/search2/
Site search and free site search by bravenet.com. Let visitors search your site.

http://www.jrank.org
Are your visitors getting lost on your website? Put a search engine on your web site to help your visitors find the content they're looking for. Completely free, lightning fast, and super-easy to use.

Other than that, JiansNet.com is also a search engine for useful information for overseas Chinese in USA.

Integration of Product Reviews on Google

2010-07-04T09:18:00.001-07:00

Google is entering more into the semantic web by just brute force. Lately it has integrated product ratings and reviews from sources like:

--Amazon.com
--Overstock.com
--ePinions.com

Besides these large eCommerce sites, Google has also integrated reviews from different vendors through review engines such as Bazaarvoice.

So, when you do a search on Google product search, you will see full-length reviews, here is a sample link:
http://www.google.com/products?q=toy

Searching on Google.com will show snippet of a vendor's review content and linking back to the vendor's site.

In this regard, Google is definitely beefing up shopping related searches and compete with Microsoft Bing in terms of shopping search.

I think some day, eCommerce sites might be able to submit reviews directly to Google.

Ten Tips for a Successful Internet Startup

2010-06-28T20:33:00.001-07:00

Below are the 10 rules for creating a successful internet startup.

1. Don't wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible

2. Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.

3. Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.

4. Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.

5. Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.

6. Be the first to recognize a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.

7. Don't spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.

8. Don't obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.

9. Don't plan a big marketing effort. It's much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.

10. Don't focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

Searching Multiple Hot Deal Forums

2010-06-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

We've launched SimpleDealSearch.com, a site that searches multiple deal forums. Right now it searches:

Fatwallet
DealSea
Bensbargains
Slickdeals

We are going to add more forums and sites as appropriate. If you have any suggestion for what sites/forums to search, let us know by following this message.

SimpleDealSearch.com, deal search made simple

百度空间博客上， ”文章内容包含不合适内容“

2010-06-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

想在百度空间上放一篇博客文章，结果百度博客显示"文章修改失败! 文章内容包含不合适内容，请检查".

经过逐步删减词和句子后，发现就是"预测"两个字有问题。

另外，百度知道上也有人有同样的问题。

百度空间竟然将“预测”这个词作为不合适词汇屏蔽了，何故?
http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/158534946.html

Last installment of the Google Interview Questions Series

2010-05-04T06:54:00.001-07:00

This will be the last installment of the Google interview questions series. I think these interview questions are the best in terms of more search engine related. So without much ado, here you go:

* What method would you use to look up a word in a dictionary?

* In Java, what is the difference between static, final, and const. (If you don't know Java they will ask something similar for C or C ++.)

* Talk about your class projects or work projects (pick something easy), then describe how you could make them more efficient (in terms of algorithms).

* How would you compare two search engines?

* Write a function that takes a string and converts '%20' sequences to spaces (in place).

* You have a stream of infinite queries (ie: real time Google search queries that people are entering). Describe how you would go about finding a good estimate of 1000 samples from this never ending set of data and then write code for it.

* How would you determine if adwords was up and running and serving contextual content?

* Describe the data structure that is used to manage memory. (heap / stack)

* Design a web server that serves the Google homepage. a) What are the requirements. b) Design a multi threaded web server that uses shared memory instead of disk access. c) Design a work load balancer for their data centers. d) Design a DNS server that returns the IP address of a data center that has the best connectivity relative to your IP.

* What is multi-threaded programming? What is a deadlock?

* Describe Sorting algorithms and their complexity: Quick sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort.

* Given a list of numbers and a target sum, how would you efficiently determine whether a pair of numbers from the list can add up to the target sum? (list based approach is O(n^2) while hash-table based approach is O(n) )

* Tree search algorithms. Write BFS and DFS code, explain run time and space requirements. Modify the code to handle trees with weighted edges and loops with BFS and DFS, make the code print out the path to goal state.

* Design an algorithm which can find all the dictionary words correspond to a n-digit telephone number, assuming each digit maps to several alphabet letter.

* There are N stars in the sky, how do you find the closest pair?

* Write a program for displaying the ten most frequent words in a file such that your program should be efficient in all complexity measures.

* Given two sequences of items, find the items whose absolute number increases or decreases the most when comparing one sequence with the other by reading the sequence only once.

* What are some trade-offs between a multi-threaded and single-threaded implementation?

* (string class) What do you need when you instantiate a string? (I said a byte array and possibly the length.)

* You have N threads and M resources. What protocol do you use to ensure no deadlocks occur?

* Lets say you have to construct Google maps from scratch and guide a person standing on Gateway of India (Mumbai) to India Gate (Delhi). How do you do the same?

* You are given a small sorted list of numbers, and a very very long sorted list of numbers - so long that it had to be put on a disk in different blocks. How would you find those short list numbers in the bigger one?

* Given a set of coin denominators, find the minimum number of coins to give a certain amount of change.

* How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

* You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

* Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.

* How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?

* Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?

* In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. if they have a girl, they have another child. if they have a boy, they stop. what is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?

* If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?

* If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer to this is not zero!)

* Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it is only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slow poke takes 10 minutes to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?

* You are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?

* How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?

* You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weightings?

* You have five pirates, ranked from 5 to 1 in descending order. The top pirate has the right to propose how 100 gold coins should be divided among them. But the others get to vote on his plan, and if fewer than half agree with him, he gets killed. How should he allocate the gold in order to maximize his share but live to enjoy it? (Hint: One pirate ends up with 98 percent of the gold.)

* Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.

* Calculate the Resistance in ohm's that a knights move would require on an infinite plane of resistors(forgot the resistance of each resistor, or whatever).

* What is the most beautiful equation you have ever seen? Explain.

* You have 10,000 Apache servers, and 1 day to generate $1,000,000. What do you do?

* Why are manhole covers round?

* A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?

* Explain the significance of "dead beef".

* Write a C program which measures the the speed of a context switch on a UNIX/Linux system.

* Given a function which produces a random integer in the range 1 to 5, write a function which produces a random integer in the range 1 to 7.

* Describe the algorithm for a depth-first graph traversal.

* Design a class library for writing card games.

* You need to check that your friend, Bob, has your correct phone number, but you cannot ask him directly. You must write a the question on a card which and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?

* How are cookies passed in the HTTP protocol?

* What is the size of the C structure below on a 32-bit system? On a 64-bit?
struct foo {
char a;
char* b;
};

* Design the SQL database tables for a car rental database.

* Write a regular expression which matches a email address.

* Write a function f(a, b) which takes two character string arguments and returns a string containing only the characters found in both strings in the order of a. Write a version which is order N-squared and one which is order N.

* You are given a the source to a application which is crashing when run. After running it 10 times in a debugger, you find it never crashes in the same place. The application is single threaded, and uses only the C standard library. What programming errors could be causing this crash? How would you test each one?

* Explain how congestion control works in the TCP protocol.

* Design and describe a system/application that will most efficiently produce a report of the top 1 million Google search requests. You are given:
--You are given 12 servers to work with. They are all dual-processor machines with 4Gb of RAM, 4x400GB hard drives and networked together.(Basically, nothing more than high-end PC's)
--The log data has already been cleaned for you. It consists of 100 Billion log lines, broken down into 12 320 GB files of 40-byte search terms per line.
--You can use only custom written applications or available free open-source software.

Some tricky google interview questions

2010-05-04T06:52:00.001-07:00

Google likes to ask interview questions with extreme cases. For example, those problems couldn't be solved with one computer, or, the data set is so big that it runs out of hard drive, etc. Below are some interesting Google interview questions for you to chew on.

* Given an array, you are given with three sorted arrays (in ascending order), you are required to find a triplet (one element from each array) such that distance is minimum.
i) find the longest continuously increasing subsequence.
ii) find the longest increasing subsequence.

* Given a file of 4 billion 32-bit integers, how to find one that appears at least twice?

* Find missing number in 4 billinon 32 bit integers

* Suppose you have N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are theres to merge?

* There is a linked list of numbers of length N. N is very large and you don’t know N. You have to write a function that will return k random numbers from the list. Numbers should be completely random.

* Suppose you have an NxN matrix of positive and negative integers. Write some code that finds the sub-matrix with the maximum sum of its elements.

* Find or determine non existence of a number in a sorted list of N numbers where the numbers range over M, M >> N and N large enough to span multiple disks. Algorithm to beat O(log n); bonus points for a constant time algorithm.

* You have a collection of numbers that's so big that it would not fit onto one single computer. It is therefore scattered across N number of machines, with roughly L number of numbers in each machine, how would you find the median in this entire collection?

* Write some code to find all permutations of the letters in a particular string.

* If you had a million integers how would you sort them efficiently, and how much memory would that consume? (modify a specific sorting algorithm to solve this)

* How do you find out the fifth maximum element in a Binary Search Tree in an efficient manner?

* Given a number, describe an algorithm to find the next number which is prime.

Even More Google Interview Questions

2010-05-04T06:50:00.001-07:00

This is another batch of the Google interview questions I managed to assemble. I heard to prepare for an interview with companies such as say, Google or Microsoft, you need to take 6 months to do the preparation for the interview questions.

* Implement division (without using the divide operator, obviously).

* Given a function that returns a random number between 1-5, write one that returns a random number between 1-7.

* Write a function (with helper functions if needed) called by Excel that takes an Excel column value (A,B,C,D… AA,AB,AC,… AAA…) and returns a corresponding integer value (A=1,B=2,… AA=27…).

* Write a function (and dictate it to your interviewer) that reverse the order of words in a sentence. The final algorithm should work in-place! E.g.: "This is a sample" --> "sample a is This".

* How would you implement a stack to achieve constant time for "push", "pop" and "find mininum" operations?

* You are given a list of numbers. When you reach the end of the list you will come back to the beginning of the list (a circular list). Write the most efficient algorithm to find the minimum # in this list. Find any given # in the list. The numbers in the list are always increasing but you don’t know where the circular list begins, ie: 38, 40, 55, 89, 6, 13, 20, 23, 36.

* What should you consider when choosing a (sorting) alogrithm?

* Is it always better to use O(n log n) than O(n^2) (sorting) algorithm?

* There are 8 stones which are similar except one which is heavier than the others. To find it, you are given a pan balance. What is the minimal number of weighing needed to find the heaviest stone?

* Order the functions in order of their asymptotic performance:

* What is the best and worst performance time for a hash tree and binary search tree?

* You are given a game of Tic Tac Toe. You have to write a function in which you pass the whole game and name of a player. The function will return whether the player has won the game or not. First you to decide which data structure you will use for the game.You need to tell the algorithm first and then need to write the code.

* How do you put a Binary Search Tree in an array in a efficient manner?

* Given a Data Structure having first n integers and next n chars. A = i1 i2 i3 ... iN c1 c2 c3 ... cN. Write an in-place algorithm to rearrange the elements of the array as A = i1 c1 i2 c2 ... in cn.

* How many lines can be drawn in a 2D plane such that they are equidistant from 3 non-collinear points ?

* Given a Binary Tree, programmatically can you prove it is a Binary Search Tree?

* Write a function to find the middle node of a single link list.

* Classic - Egg Problem
1. You are given 2 eggs. You have access to a 100-storey building.
2. Eggs can be very hard or very fragile, meaning it may break if dropped from the first floor or will not even break if dropped from 100 th floor.
3. Both eggs are identical. You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-storey building an egg can be dropped without breaking.
4. Now the question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process.

* Given two binary trees, write a compare function to check if they are equal or not. Being equal means that they have the same values and same structure.

* Implement put/get methods of a fixed size cache with LRU replacement algorithm.

* You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know if you can get there. What would you do?

* Write a function to determine whether a number is a power of two (used a bit-shifting based algorithm).

* Describe the stack ADT (abstract data type)- include functions and variables that might be useful.

* How would you design google maps

* Write a function that outputs an integer in ASCII format.

* (string class) What is the best and worst time for the operation 'equals'?

* (string class) How do you spe.ed up the 'equals' operation?

* Given that you have one string of length N and M small strings of length L . How do you efficiently find the occurrence of each small string in the larger one ?

* Write some code to reverse a string.

* Describe an algorithm to find out if an integer is a square? (e.g. 16 is, 15 isn't)

* Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?

Some more google interview questions

2010-05-04T06:49:00.001-07:00

Google likes to ask tough interview questions. Some are just relating to the basics of computer science. Below are couple of typical Google interview questions.

1) Given a string of words separated by space char, expand the string to a certain length by adding more space chars inbetween the words. The space chars should be equally distributed as much as possible. method signature could be:
String expandStr(String s, int newLen) could be the method name.
Example: "abc de fg" (9 chars), could be expanded to "abc de fg"(11 chars)

2) Given the IMDB movie database and the following two API functions:
a. getAllMovies(String actorName)
b. getAllActors(String movieName)
Find out the degree of separation between two movie stars, such as Brad Pitt and Nicolas Cage

3) How to serialize a binary tree to a file? How to read the same file back to memory and re-construct the binary tree?

4) How to check if a string is partial reverse of the other string?
Example:

"abcdef" is partial reverse of "cdefab"
notice the original string is split into "ab" and "cdef" and put in reverse

"abcd" is partial reverse of "cdab"
notice the original string is split into "ab" and "cd" and put in reverse

To answer Google's tough interview questions, you first need to be calm and be focused on the interview question itself. Think about simple solutions first for that interview question. Then, find out optimized ways for solving the question.

During the interview process, be honest, don't panic. If you don't know the answer, just tell the interview person you don't know.

Yet another Google interview experience

2010-05-04T06:44:00.001-07:00

Below are some Google interview questions that someone got when conducting interviews with Google. Sharing below for my friends:

----
I had a phone interview with Google today. I took notes; some of the questions they asked were interesting. We were allowed to ask questions. The interviewer didn't ask many questions in response to my answers, except to occasionally say "interesting". There's almost certainly more than one answer to each of these, and a few are probably wrong answers or could be improved in some way; I only include my answers for comparison. Any intermediate questions that I asked for clarification or otherwise have been omitted.

Without further ado, a few of the more interesting ones:

Q: "You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

(my answer): Take off all my clothes, wedge them between the blades and the floor to prevent it from turning. Back up against the edge of the blender until the electric motor overheats and burns out. Using the notches etched in the side for measuring, climb out. If there are no such notches or they're too far apart, retrieve clothes and make a rope to hurl myself out.

Q: "How would you find out if a machine's stack grows up or down in memory?"

(my answer): Instantiate a local variable. Call another function with a local. Look at the address of that function and then compare. If the function's local is higher, the stack grows away from address location 0; if the function's local is lower, the stack grows towards address location 0. (If they're the same, you did something wrong!)

Q: "Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew."

(my answer): A database is a way of organizing information. It's like a genie who knows where every toy in your room is. Instead of hunting for certain toys yourself and searching the whole room, you can ask the genie to find all your toy soldiers, or only X-Men action figures, or only race cars -- anything you want.

Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

(my answer): A business doesn't stick around for long unless it makes a profit. Let's assume that all gas stations in the US are making at least some profit over the long run. Assume that the number of people who own more than one car is negligibly small relative to the total American population. Figure that 20% of people are too young to drive a car, another 10% can't drive because of disability or old age, 5% of people use public transportation or carpool, another 5% choose not to drive, and another 5% of the cars are inventory sitting in lots or warehouses that a dealership owns but which no one drives.

There's about 280 million people in the US; subtracting 50%, that means there's about 140 million automobiles and 140 million drivers for them. The busiest city or interstate gas stations probably get a customer pulling in about twice a minute, or about 120 customers per hour; a slower gas station out in an agrarian area probably sees a customer once every 10 or 15 minutes, or about 4 customers per hour. Let's take a weighted average and suppose there's about one customer every 90 seconds, or about 40 customers an hour. Figuring a fourteen-hour business day (staying open from 7 AM to 9 PM), that's about 560 customers a day.

If the average gas station services 560 customers a day, then there are 250,000 gas stations in the US. This number slightly overstates the true number of gas stations because some people are serviced by more than one gas station. Actual number in 2003, according to the Journal of Petroleum Marketing: 237,284, an error of about 5%.

P.S. Apparently, if you make it to the next stage, you can't even tell people you're interviewing, because you sign a 6-page NDA. I haven't had to sign anything yet, though.
----

Some Google Interview Questions

2010-05-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

Google has tough interview questions for computer science graduates. You need to prepare with the following in mind:

1) Basic data structure and algorithms

2) Systems and networking knowledge (operating systems, database systems, computer network...)

Below are some google interview questions to give you an idea of what they are interviewing you with.

#1. Given a number, describe an algorithm to find the next number which is prime.

#2. There are 8 stones which are similar except one which is heavier than the others. To find it, you are given a pan balance. What is the minimal number of weighing needed to find out the heaviest stone?

Answer:
Divide the stones into sets like (3,3,2). Use pan to weigh (3,3).
If the pan is remains balanced, the heavier is in the remaining (2). use pan again to find which is heavy from (2). (Total pan use 2)

If the pan does not remain balanced when weighing (3,3), pick the set of stones that outweigh other. Divide it into (1,1,1). use pan to weigh first two. It it remains balanced, the remaining stone is the heavier, otherwise the one outweighing other is heavier(total pan use 2)

#3. Order the functions in order of their asymptotic performance
* 2^n
* n^Googol ( 10^100)
* n!
* n^n

Answer:
n^(whatever constant), 2^n, n! (==> n^n / e^n ), n^n

#4. what is the best and worst performance time for a hash tree and binary search tree?

Answer:
Best is O(c), worst is O(log n)

#5. Questions regarding a string Class
* What do you need when you instantiate a string ( i said a byte array and possibly the length) ?
* What is the best and worst time for the operation 'equals'
* How do you spedup the 'equals' operation (i said used hash MD5 for example)
This still has some problem ( a hash can be the same for unequal strings)
-> Use Boyer–Moore string search algorithm => O(n)

#6. Trade offs between a multi threaded and single threaded implementation?

#7. N threads .. n resources .. what protocol do you use to ensure no deadlocks occur?

#8. There are a set of 'n' integers. Describe an algorithm to find for each of all its subsets of n-1 integers the product of its integers.

For example, let consider (6, 3, 1, 2). We need to find these products:
6 * 3 * 1 = 18
6 * 3 * 2 = 36
3 * 1 * 2 = 6
6 * 1 * 2 = 12

last one is simple

int mul = 1;
for i = 1 to N
mul *=a[i];

for i= 1 to N
a[i] = mul/a[i];

(I got this question, your answer is not correct)
First of all if a[i]=0 you get an exception, the guy wanted me to use dynamic programming to solve this.

Here's the dynamic programming solution:
You want to build a table where x[i,j] holds the product of (ni .. nj). If you had such a table, you could just output

for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++)
{
if (i == 1)
print x[2,n];
else if (i == n)
print x[1,n-1];
else
print x[1,i-1] * x[i+1,n];

}

To build the table, start along the diagonal (x[i,i] = ni). Then do successive diagonals from previous ones (x[j,k] = x[j-1,k] * x[j,k+1]).

#9. Describe Sorting algorithms and their complexity - Quick sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort

#10. If you had a million integers how would you sort them and how much memory would that consume?

Binary tree - requires 1,000,000 integers x 4 bytes = 4 MB + left pointer and right pointer = 12 MB
Insertion sort - can be done in under 4 MB

#11. Describe an alogrithm to find out if an integer is a square? e.g. 16 is, 15 isn't.

a) simple answer - start at 2 and divide the integer by each successive value. If it divides evenly before you reach half way then it is.

b) complex answer after much leading - Do the bitwise AND of n and (n-1). If it is zero then it is a square (I think this is wrong. This actually tests whether n is a power of 2).
No, it almost tests whether n is power of 2. It falsely proclaims 0 to be a power of 2. More info: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~seander/bithacks.html#DetermineIfPowerOf2

C)
i=2;
while(!NO)
{
if((i*i)==Number)
{
NO;
return True;
}
if((i*i)>Number)
{
NO;
return false;
}
i++;
}

#12. How would you determine if adwords was up and running and serving contextual content?

#13. Suppose you have an NxN matrix of positive and negative integers. Write some code that finds the sub-matrix with the maximum sum of its elements.

#14. Write some code to reverse a string.

#15. Implement division (without using the divide operator, obviously).

#16. Write some code to find all permutations of the letters in a particular string.

#17. You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know if you can get there. What would you do?

#18. What method would you use to look up a word in a dictionary?

#19. Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?

#20. You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you fine the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?

#21. Phone interview

1. Describe the data structure that is used to manage memory. (stack)

2. whats the difference between local and global variables?

3. If you have 1 million integers, how would you sort them efficiently? (modify a specific sorting algorithm to solve this)

4. In Java, what is the difference between static, final, and const. (if you dont know java they will ask something similar for C or C++).

5. Talk about your class projects or work projects (pick something easy)… then describe how you could make them more efficient (in terms of algorithms).

#22. In person interview (1)

1. In Java, what is the difference between final, finally, and finalize?

2. What is multithreaded programming? What is a deadlock?

3. Write a function (with helper functions if needed) called toExcel that takes an excel column value (A,B,C,D…AA,AB,AC,… AAA..) and returns a corresponding integer value (A=1,B=2,… AA=26..).

4. You have a stream of infinite queries (ie: real time Google search queries that people are entering). Describe how you would go about finding a good estimate of 1000 samples from this never ending set of data and then write code for it.

5. Tree search algorithms. Write BFS and DFS code, explain run time and space requirements. Modify the code to handle trees with weighted edges and loops with BFS and DFS, make the code print out path to goal state.

6. You are given a list of numbers. When you reach the end of the list you will come back to the beginning of the list (a circular list). Write the most efficient algorithm to find the minimum # in this list. Find any given # in the list. The numbers in the list are always increasing but you don’t know where the circular list begins, ie: 38, 40, 55, 89, 6, 13, 20, 23, 36.

Retrieved from "http://alien.dowling.edu/~rohit/wiki/index.php/Google_Interview_Questions"

#23. In person interview (1)

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? This is a Fermi question.
2. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
3. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
4. How would you find out if a machine’s stack grows up or down in memory?
5. Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.
6. How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?
7. You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know if you can get there. What would you do?
8. Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?
9. Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?
10. In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. if they have a girl, they have another child. if they have a boy, they stop. what is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
11. If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?
12. If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer to this is not zero!)
13. Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it’s only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slow poke takes 10 minutes to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?
14. You are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?
15. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
16. You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?
17. You have five pirates, ranked from 5 to 1 in descending order. The top pirate has the right to propose how 100 gold coins should be divided among them. But the others get to vote on his plan, and if fewer than half agree with him, he gets killed. How should he allocate the gold in order to maximize his share but live to enjoy it? (Hint: One pirate ends up with 98 percent of the gold.)

美国交通事故违章罚款上法庭经验谈

2010-05-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

以下转载网上看到的一篇文章:

刚从国内来的朋友因违章超车吃了ticket，需要记点加罚款，一时间胆小的他成了热锅上的蚂蚁，不知所措。那些想挣他钱的律师更是添乱，即不停地给他的住处送广告信，信的内容不外是可以代他庭，免除记点，但前提是先将多少美元打入他们的帐户或是给他们credit card #。胆小的朋友有点不干心，而找本人商量，可本人虽然一向调皮，但也没有这方便的经历与经验，一天一个偶然的机会我认识了一位在state farm做agent的朋友，结果她给我们指明了前进的方向，即有时间本人出庭就可以了，这样一可省去律师费，二则可在交完罚款后向法官要一张 PJC（注：凭此证可以免除记点，保险公司不会提升你个人的车保费，该证发放依据是本州法律，即一个家庭在三年内有一次赦免的机会），天底下既然有这等好，我们就决定亲自出庭，顺便也长点见识！出庭那天，因怕误点我们特意起了个大早来到法庭外排队，刚站稳脚根，身后就陆续来了大队人马，其中大多数是黑人朋友，亦有相当一部分是阿密哥，这我才意识到今天是个集中出庭的日子，可能是法庭为了工作上的方便集中处理交通违章案件。安检后进入法庭，工作人员命令大家贴着墙根一字排队，以好一一验证来者身份，并按违章类别将大家分成若干小组，以听候处理。被验证身份后，我有时间来作点调查、统计和观察，并得出如下结论：

1、按种族分类，60%左右的违章是黑哥们或黑大婶，35%是阿密哥，其它是white和yellow（就我们两人）等。

2、从外表看，黑人朋友大多理着光头，身材臃肿，脖子上几乎都有一条粗大的金项链，双耳插着ipod，嘴巴还在不停的抖动，长长的T 恤向下延伸至双侧膝关节以下。再看阿密哥，一个个体态健壮，除了脖子粗短一点，人人都有一头乌黑、致密而坚硬的头发，这预示着他们的肾都很强壮，故有着其它人没有的生育能力，并且他们都用厚厚的磨丝将乌黑的头发疏理得溜光，如果你不了解他们的来历，你绝不会相信他们大多来自周围的建筑工地，甚至连一纸证明自己身份的公文都没有。白人兄弟虽然大多已经秃顶，体态也大多丰满、硕大，但脸庞上还是看得出有几份自信、几份精神。至于我俩是一个什么样的形象，俺在此不想过多描述，再则大家心里也都清楚…..

3、从工作效率看，法庭人员的素质极佳、效率挺高，他们就三个人，仅用了一个小时多一点点的时间就将二百多号人查验完毕，整个过程非常有序，显得忙而不乱，特别是他个点名的黑小伙，非常合理地利用他那特有男中音点名，使得大家完全没有在出庭时的感觉，似乎是在听美声！当时我就想如果咱们的USCIS，特别是FBI这般爷们如果有这么个效率多好，咱们还用等吗？

4、从法庭的运作形式，你可以看得出法官的地位是何等高呢？我想这就是权力或权威的象征吧？因为，法庭的普通工作人员将出庭者点验、分组完毕后，身着黑袍法官大人才正式的姗姗来迟，尽管他步态不稳，可全体人员必须起立，就差奏乐和仪仗队了，待他那老朽的身躯落坐在那大大的皮革椅子后，其它人才允许坐下，我心想难怪他那么老了还不想退休？这感觉多好？

5、从过堂的形式看，咱们黄人仍然受歧视，别忘了咱们可是合法来到这里呀！当一众人马一一过堂，渐渐的让我生气的事情就冒出来了！为何？因为那些illegal的阿密哥大多不会说英文，可这又何妨？人家法庭早已给他们备好了翻译！他们一个个过堂时就像国家领导人出访那样，备有专职翻译！并且还是长得挺甜的小白妞！同胞们，你说这气不气人？最后，我灵机一动，计上心来，我告诉我朋友，轮到你，你就说因为刚来只能听懂一点点英语，更不会说，但能认！看他们如何是好？朋友一开始不肯接受我的建议，因为他害怕，随后他又突然变得勇敢起来了，为何？因为他越想越生气，NND！老子在国内开在左边都没有人管，咋在美国开在右边还要被罚款？终于轮到朋友，好戏也就开始了，法官怎么陈述他如何违章，老兄就是不开口认罪，一副呆诺木鸡的样子死死的站在被告席上，最后一旁的工作人员问他为什么？他用中文说“我听不懂英语，只能认”，cool！可法官也不是省油的灯，说道： “你不是有一个兄弟同你一块来的吗，那把他请帮忙！”朋友说：“不用了，他的英文比我还差，要不他不早就站在这里了吗？”没有办法，法庭为此延误了不少时间，随后只好书记将事件经过写在纸上，让朋友看后划押。

6、上帝送给的礼物，交罚款时，有趣的事情又冒出来了，因为原先警察开的罚单是一百六十美元，可柜台内的那个黑小妞只肯收下一百二十美元，个中原因俺不知道，难道是那小妞数学太差！傻乎乎的老兄这个时候又良心发现了，拼命argue为何不是一百六呢，而是一百二，俺真不明白他的脑子？你不是想省点，又咋啦？我扯了扯他的衣角，老兄总算是明白了，交钱走人。我们正离开时，柜台内的小妞还说：“That’s all over，bye”。

从法庭出来后，我问朋友，心里好受一点没？他说舒服多了！我说为何呢？他说至少省了一百律师费，又少交了四十美元的罚款，还顺便出了一口气，多好？接着他说：“这得感谢大哥你！”俺说：“我还得好好谢你呢，否则俺哪有这么个好机会，见世见世美国的法官大人，并且还颇有收获！只是以后你老兄记得别把国内如何如何带来美国来就是了。”老兄回答说：“记住了”，就坐在驾驶位去了，我敢忙说：“你还是让我来开吧？否则一高兴，又不知道弄出点什么明堂来?"

许多英文网站比中文网站对于反向链接更加友好

2010-05-01T23:33:00.001-07:00

我知道的很多海外中文网站都很小气，比如说mitbbs或者huaren.us，国内的网站我不熟悉，不便评论了。很多网站不喜欢给人家提供链接。这个可以理解。但，对于一些老用户，这些网站也是一视同仁的不给与外链的机会。

而相比之下，英文网站就比较好。很多都允许在签名档加链接到自己的网站。或者相关话题里面可以加链接到自己的网站。

我觉得造成这个现象的原因可能是中文网站比较惧怕垃圾信息。而很多英文网站因为管理的好，所以，内容比较干净而且质量高。所以，才可以提供一些外链的机会。

总之，我现在感觉在中文网站上发文章或者话题啥的没有什么动力了。因为带不来啥好的链接到这个站点。所以，干脆多光顾英文网站，发表一些好的文章内容，然后带流量回到这个网站。

美国网址大全大全

2010-05-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

最近查看了一下美国网址导航站，太多了。所谓的美国网址大全，基本上都是包罗万象，啥都有，不止是美国网址，连国内的网址都有，挺可笑的。下面是一些网址大全，关于美国的，基本上都是眼花缭乱:

美国网址大全|美国网站大全|美国网址导航|美国购物网址大全|美国生活
www.best918.com

美国网址大全
www.v1122.com/us/index.htm

美国网址大全_87871世界网址大全
这个搞笑，除了美国网址，还搞个世界网址大全，搞的过来吗？？
www.87871.com/us/index.htm

美国网址大全-美国在线|Myspace|YouTube|Lycos|哈佛大学|洛杉矶时报
www.world68.com/America.asp

美国网址导航--美国123网址大全--美国网址大全
www.meiguo123.net/

美国网址大全|云集世界网址导航|世界各国网址大全
yunji.ca/html/USA.html

等等。

这些网址大全网站，我都不知道谁会去看。特别是大而全的那种，貌似没有啥特色。

我最近也收录了一些网站，但都是我经常访问的，或者是我知道的。不是啥都往上放的那种美国网站. 虽然不多，但感觉比上述所谓的网址大全感觉要更加平易近人多啦。链接在这里: 美国实用网站

有朋友有建议的，可以加评论.

Content Website Ad Revenue

2010-04-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here is what I learned today:
http://dailyconversions.com/all-posts/content-website-ad-revenue/

Google Gmail's Great Customer Service, Freaking Awesome!!!

2010-04-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

Google is freaking awesome!!

I tried to send an email out using gmail with attachment file. However, after I wrote the email, I forgot to attach the file and clicked on send button. Then I saw a popup alert, asking me if I really want to send the email 'cause I haven't attached anything but I said I would attach.

Boy, they are good at these little things. That's great customer service to learn ;-)

---
Opinion expressed by JiansNet.com, an ecommerce shopping site

The wiki released for a demo use

2010-04-05T20:48:00.001-07:00

Recently I've worked on a very simple wiki software as a programming practice, together with another friend. The wiki is pretty much ready and now we've released it to production usage on JiansNet.com here:

JiansNet Wiki

I hope this would be used as a test bed and a good SEO tool for content generation. If anyone is interested in this simple wiki tool, shoot me an email at jiansnet@gmail.com , there might be some collaboration for using this for a better user experience for your website.

JiansNet released English version of the site

2009-11-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

JiansNet, a website for sharing useful information and articles, just released an English version of the site. The link is as follows:
JiansNet, A Simple Hosted CMS Service

The English version will be used to promote the hosted simple CMS service.

做美国中文论坛为什么不靠谱

2009-09-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

总有人想做海外中文论坛。尽管有mitbbs, 北美华人网还有文学城等等，还是有人想做大而全的网站。这个基本上说是不靠谱。分析原因如下链接：
美国各个大学中文华人论坛群, 不靠谱

海外华人要说比国内的华人更忙，没有人会没事儿去论坛灌水的。

JiansNet added a new section for businesses to promote their services

2009-09-08T00:26:00.000-07:00

In order to help out Web businesses and individuals to promote their services, JiansNet.com recently released a new section called "Services". This section will be dedicated to personal marketing effort.

The link is as follows:
http://www.jiansnet.com/list?label=1

最近开始写一些关于网络创业和软件创业方面的感想

2009-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

以这个为开头:

Magento是目前非常成功的网店软件。有很多商家用Magento购物系统. 使用Magento网上商店系统的商家总销售额已经超过几十亿美元. Magento创始人Roy Rubin谈了他是如何成功开创和经营Magento的. 以下是我看过视频后的感想
http://www.jiansnet.com/topic?id=22396

mitbbs sucks and the way to fix it

2009-08-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

Despite having tons of content, Mitbbs has a lot of garbage messages, full of personal flame wars. Also the mitbbs home page has piles of news that are only designed to catch the user's eye balls. You would think a major website like mitbbs would care for the user and do a better job huh?

Apparently not.

There is one way to fix it as I could see. That is, come to JiansNet.com. We provide quality content and share useful information for overseas Chinese. There is a thing or two we learned from Google, i.e, don't do evil...

JiansNet.com added English Version

2009-08-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

In order to offer Internet and other China related useful news and information, JiansNet.com has released a English Version label. Here is the link:
http://www.jiansnet.com/list?label=18

mitbbs的困境

2009-07-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

身为海外华人的第一大论坛, mitbbs有很多不错的信息。但也有大量的低俗新闻和令人作呕的帖子. 最近看到有人抱怨mitbbs站长3k(老邢)的一个帖子，颇有意思，如下:

网友: 3k你是不是要点击不要脸阿, 首页上专门弄造谣的所谓新闻。别推说是钻风弄的你不知道啊，一年多了，不是你定的路线才怪。

老邢回答: 我说你能不能好好说话？什么玩意儿。

经营论坛不容易，但，mitbbs也有自身的问题。应该搞一些好的实用新闻来登. 在剑知小站, 我们的原则就是坚持实用信息和新闻为主。决不容许八卦和低俗的新闻以及信息.

八阕站(popyard)为啥不好?

2009-06-14T00:18:00.000-07:00

如标题，最近笔者看了一些关于popyard的文章。很多mitbbs上面的网友都抱怨popyard网站有病毒容易被挂马。这个我不是特别清楚了。但，每次想去看看popyard的新闻，就发现上面啥都有，很多花边新闻什么的，觉得很无聊而且低俗。这个和文学城也没啥太大区别了。竟是搞一些耸人听闻吸引人眼球的新闻。

其实，这样做反倒让人反感。现在看看海外的一些中文站点，我只能说很多都是连web 1.0还没有达到标准。用户体验是怎么做的呢？难道放一些污七八糟的文章和新闻，就算是做好了用户体验了吗？难道我们的用户就那么低俗吗？

deal搜索和价格比较网站是否不靠谱

2009-05-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

答案是不靠谱. 具体笔者总结了5点，分享给大家.
deal搜索和价格比较的分析请看...

网店是如何利用员工简介改进搜索排名的

2009-05-22T19:18:00.001-07:00

网上做生意卖产品，最重要的就是信任度。特别是像贵重商品，比如说珠宝首饰等，更是如此。所以，美国东部珠宝连锁店Day's Jewelers就把自己员工的简介放到了网站上 - DaysJewelers.com.

该公司专门雇佣了一名员工来为网站添加内容。公司140个员工的简介都放到了网站上的门市部分(store locator)。更多请看...

美国人创业: "不需要追逐惊天动地的大事业"

2009-05-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

美国博客站点 MyWifeQuitHerJob.com (我老婆辞职了), 介绍了一家美国人创业的经历。他们夫妇两个创业在网上卖结婚服装用品的。而他们的朋友创业都是做令人羡慕的生意的。有的是开咨询公司的...更多请看

美国医疗保险(medicare)离破产仅有8年了!

2009-05-12T17:20:00.001-07:00

美国的养老医疗Medicare已经运营50多年了, 目前给4500万美国老人提供医疗保险. 但由于婴儿潮退休的人越来越多，还有就是医疗费用的上涨，美国的medicare基金还有8年就用完了。更多请看

美国人对亚裔的印象整体还好，但认为有威胁

2009-05-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

最近民调结果显示,目前有61%的美国民众认为,亚裔每年移民美国的人数恰恰好.而认为亚裔移民美国人数太多的美国人则有22%.

20%的美国人认为亚裔只知自扫门前雪,...更多请看

微软CEO致内部员工email, 继续大幅裁人

2009-05-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

微软今天大幅裁人

西雅图Bellevue的网络公司被告，CEO被判刑

2009-05-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

最近，从事计算机编程和网站开发公司Minecode LLC被告了。原因是是进行了四起利用计算机非法侵入的事件。公司的CEO Pradyumna Samal被处罚了90天在家并受到监控，288小时的社区服务以及3年的保释期。更多请看...

美国数据中心(data center)耗能知多少

2009-04-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

现在节省能源,净化地球生态环境已经成了潮流。而大家想到没有，其实，我们每个人在用电脑上网的时候，也是在大量消耗能量。倒不是说我们的电脑本身有多耗能，而是我们访问的站点，都是运行在data center的服务器上的, 这些服务器一刻不停的运转，非常耗电. 更多请看...

百度阿拉丁平台和Google Product Search

2009-04-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

...其实Google Product Search和百度的阿拉丁计划是一回事儿，都是要走向真正的结构化数据交换的方向...

mitbbs当机

2009-03-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

够郁闷的。广大网民上不去了。看来mitbbs的程序有问题呀。mitbbs当机, 到现在也没有恢复...

mitbbs的垃圾邮件

2009-03-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

最近看到mitbbs站长工作室里面骂声一片，大家都不喜欢mitbbs强加给用户的定期精彩导读，认为这是垃圾邮件。

但，现在还在试目以待的看是否mitbbs能够停止这样的垃圾邮件。

笔者认为，mitbbs就算在海外中文站点中做的不错的了，虽然商业化的不好，但坚持理想。值得剑知小站学习和敬佩。但，即使这样的大站，也难免犯错误啊。

总之，经常聆听用户的请求，看来才是做站的关键。

如果大家对剑知小站有啥建议，意见，也望给说说。也许，剑知小站太小了，没啥建议可提的，那也好，给传播一下小站，另外给小站贡献贡献实用信息，也不错啦。

今天被站务警告了，说发广告贴

2009-03-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

呵呵，被某个海外知名站点给警告了，说俺发广告贴。我靠，发的没有广告啊，就是一些新闻之类的. 以后看来不发也好，大家直接到剑知小站看就好了。

为啥文学城封杀剑知小站

2009-03-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

文学城是个海外大站，但，对其他的海外中文站点毫不留情。封杀没的说。

另外，不得不说的是，文学城的广告太多，界面真不敢恭维。其实，有那么多的广告，难道人家就点击吗？大家也不是傻子，经常上的人，我想对广告也是熟视无睹的。

网站讲，剑知小站目前的特色应该是不错的。至少没有那么花里胡哨，华而不实。我们坚持实用信息和精准的搜索技术的实践。相信会越做越好的。

Google上了Twitter啦!

2009-02-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

Google正式在twitter上面注册了账号, http://twitter.com/google. 更详细的请看剑知小站

美国Sears第四季度盈利下降高达55%

2009-02-26T06:15:00.000-08:00

Sears拥有Kmart和众多的零售商店. 全年净收入下降达94%, 第四季度盈利下降55%. Sears在全美有3900个零售店。剑知小站撰稿

美国相机专卖店Ritz Camera宣布破产，但网站照常运行

2009-02-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

Ritz Camera 近日申请了破产保护。它在美国40个州拥有800多个零售商店, 还有14个电子商务网站。它旗下有如下品牌: Ritz Camera, Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkley's...更多请看JiansNet.com

Google's problem

2009-02-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

To quote the google svp:

"No one argues the value of free speech, but the vast majority of stuff we find on the web is useless. The clamor of junk threatens to drown out voices of quality . . .

Just like a newspaper needs great reporters, the web needs experts. When it comes to information, not all of it is created equal and the web’s future depends on attracting the best of it . . .We need to make it easier for the experts, journalists, and editors that we actually trust to publish their work under an authorship model that is authenticated and extensible, and then to monetize in a meaningful way."

So far, JiansNet.com, a search based question and answer website, has been able to stay clean from the junk content and provide useful information for especially overseas Chinese.

google对剑知小站的收录频率

2009-02-14T07:03:00.000-08:00

发现最近Google收录的还是比较频繁的。基本上是3-4天就更新一次。但，有时候，Google收录的还会倒退。hehe，和移民排期差不多啦。

欢迎访问剑知小站

美国主要的购物搜索引擎提交产品的链接

2009-02-11T00:06:00.000-08:00

对于做美国网店的人，很有好处。具体请看：
Product data feed urls for major shopping comparison engines

美国连锁书店borders的网站borders.com人事变动

2009-02-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

公司最近重组borders.com的管理人员。原先全权负责borders.com业务的Kevin Ertell被迫离职，由Rich Fahle替代。Rich是在Borders公司工作了10年的元老。更多请看剑知小站

剑知小站新加实用站点标签

2009-01-27T22:17:00.000-08:00

开始收集对海外华人有用的实用站点，剑知小站特意推出了实用站点标签如下：

实用链接

希望会很有用.

美国的各大工作搜索引擎成为热门站点

2009-01-24T14:09:00.001-08:00

美国经济不景气，而各大工作搜索引擎流量激增。根据comScore的统计，美国2008年搜索引擎增长最快的领域就是工作搜索。

在各个job search engine中, CareerBuilder.com的流量第一。然后是Yahoo的HotJobs. 在前十名的工作搜索引擎中，只有Monster.com的流量有所下降。

以下就是美国各大工作搜索引擎的依次排名：更多请看

网上可以获得免费图像的站点(Free Graphics)

2009-01-23T16:39:00.001-08:00

做网站，特别是电子商务网站，免不了需要好的图像。站点图像不要太多，但，有一些，就碰壁生辉。以下就是一些免费的图像站点. 请看剑知小站的免费图像下载页

美国珠宝商GEMaffair.com在twitter上免费抽奖赠送珠宝

2009-01-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

为了吸引客户，美国珠宝商GEMaffair.com开始利用社交网站twitter来推销产品。该公司希望通过此举，增加客户对公司产品的忠实度。

GEMaffair.com 自从去年圣诞节以来，就开始在twitter上面发送产品信息抽奖。该公司的做法是，每周选择一天，通过twitter来发送奖品信息的tweets. 跟随公司twitter信息的人，看到这个信息后, tweet回复一下，就参与了抽奖。然后，公司专员将所有回复的人的信息放到一个帽子里，抽奖。

更多请看剑知小站

美国大规模裁员(layoff)在一年里各个月份的排行表

2009-01-18T01:03:00.000-08:00

我们可以从美国劳工部1998年到2007年间的统计资料来看看美国大规模裁员各个月份的可能性高低。详细请看...

美国不需要大学学历也能够挣到10万美金以上的职业

2009-01-18T00:51:00.001-08:00

以下是14种在美国不需要4年大学学历，也能够挣高薪的工作。其实，没有学历，想挣大钱，还是不容易的。在以下的14种职业当中，只有两种工作的平均薪水超过10万美元。其他的工作，你必须在前10%的顶尖上，才能够突破10万美元，但，即使这样，需要你每周工作50到60小时。详细请看...

剑知小站新加了logo

2009-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

很长时间，大家都提意见说站点连个logo都没有，现在终于加了个logo. 哈哈。感谢关水草月的大力支持呀。有才的designer, 呵呵。

请到小站做客...

Circuit City因为找不到买主，准备彻底关门倒闭

2009-01-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

Circuit City去年11月份申请破产保护。但到现在，也没有找到卖主。所以，该公司已经想法院提交请求，彻底破产，关闭全美567个商店。

CircuitCity.com作为该公司的网上销售渠道，很可能继续存在。更多请看

美国Macy's网上销售狂涨26%

2009-01-16T01:04:00.000-08:00

过去的圣诞节期间，美国的Macy's的网上销售良好，而它的840多个实体店铺却销售不景气。

Macy's运营的电子商务网站有Macys.com和Bloomingdales.com. 更多请看剑知小站

美国在网上买东西将来可能需要交税了

2009-01-13T19:28:00.002-08:00

在美国，从网上买东西的好处就是不用交税。但，目前美国各州正在开始谋求简化税收，这样的话，州政府能够得到更多的收入。美国很多州都赤字, 就想通过这个来找些钱.

这项潜在的法案对网上销售的公司构成威胁。包括Amazon在内的公司，都是因为没有税才能够低价销售产品的。

根据2008年的情况，Forrester分析师指出，如果网上销售征税的话，可以为美国各州带来高达30亿美元的税收。

更多请看这里...

美国亚马逊和Overstock.com拒绝网上收税的诉讼最近败诉

2009-01-13T19:28:00.001-08:00

近日, 美国亚马逊公司(Amazon.com)和Overstock.com告纽约州政府的诉讼案败诉了。

纽约州要求网上销售公司对于卖给纽约居民的商品收税，即使该网络公司不在纽约有办事处. 因为纽约州的这项规定，上述两家公司状告了纽约州政府。但最近都败诉. 亚马逊的总部在西雅图，Overstock.com总部在美国犹他盐湖城. 更多请看剑知小站...

美国的经济使得高科技人员就业市场萎缩不振

2009-01-12T20:26:00.001-08:00

美国的高科技人员在经历几年的景气之后，突然发现身处一片凄凉的工作前景。据统计资料表明，现在是美国15年以来工作市场最差的。

不出意料的是，美国高科技就业的薪水也受到影响。当今和一年前比较，从业者的薪水普遍下降1%-5%。更多请看...

eBay, Wal-Mart和Target是去年11月份被搜索最多的商家

2009-01-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

去年11月份，ebay被搜索了1700万多次，沃尔玛850万次, target是480万次.

以下是2008年11月份美国前20名被搜索次数最多的商家(商家和被搜索次数列表). 更多请看...

阿北的豆瓣网

2009-01-11T18:53:00.000-08:00

最近学习了一下阿北的豆瓣网开办以来所走过的路程。基本上是个人建站，但，很成功。关键是满足了用户需求，小众用户，长尾效应。

剑知小站不会发展成为小众那样的情况。我们的目的正好相反，是要发展成为针对大众的实用信息站点。

欢迎大家给剑知小站提建议意见。

欢迎访问剑知小站.

精兵简政就是好

2009-01-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

剑知小站从今天起更加专注到某几个领域的话题了。这样，我们的信息将更加精准，更加实用。。。

菜谱没啥意义，所以放到了其他(Other）下

2009-01-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

剑知小站其他(Other) 分类

因Bill Me Later与Paypal合作, 亚马逊停止使用Bill Me Later服务

2009-01-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com决定停止使用Bill Me Later付费选择。从2008年12月31日午夜起，该项网购付费方式已经被终止.

其主要原因是因为eBay的竞争。eBay在去年10月购买了Bill Me Later, 以加强其在网络购物支付方式方面的垄断地位. 更多...

调查显示，美国网上购物者习惯看产品评论，但还是自己拿主意

2009-01-07T22:51:00.001-08:00

许多美国的网上零售商错误的认为，负面的客户产品评论会对产品销售有不好的影响。另外，商家认为网购者只在购买电子产品配件的时候对其他人的观点在意，因为电子产品的功能容易评估。但最近Forrester的一项调查显示，以上两点均属误区。

调查结果表明，有一半的网购者购买了有负面评论的产品。有37%的人在阅读了其他人的负面评论后，又去阅读官方对产品的评价。26%的人还是最终购买了产品. 但有18%的人选择到保证退货的商家网站购买产品. 只有14%的人说他们会信任负面的产品评论. 更多...

在美国, Google在商品搜索市场继续领先

2009-01-07T22:50:00.001-08:00

美国的网上购物者最多的还是使用Google查商品信息. 同去年相比，Google的市场份额更大了。第二位的Yahoo和第三位的MSN Live搜索市场份额都比去年有所下降。

以下依次是美国前10名搜索服务提供商:
更多...

圣诞节期间美国购物比价搜索引擎Sortprice.com流量激增

2009-01-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

美国购物搜索引擎Sortprice.com在去年11月28日到12月24日之间，流量比前一年增长18%。用户共进行了1百多万次的搜索查询.

在Sortprice.com上面居前三位的产品搜索依次为:

1) Nintendo Wii Console
2) Samsung LCD TV
3) Canon PowerShot Digital Camera

更多请看...

什么是好的SEO

2009-01-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

最近有很多人误认为好的SEO就是为了Google而做的。其实不然。酒香不怕巷子深，有道理的一句话。

Google对站点的评级，是根据你的站点对你的潜在用户是否实用，用户的experience是否好。如果只是追求短期效应儿去trick搜索引擎的话，到了来受害的是自己。

Google为了能够提供有效的搜索，一定会不断改进算法的。如果你的站点在你的用户眼里确实不错的话，那么Google也会给大量的流量的。

所以，少一点SEO, 多一点站点自身的建设吧。这个才是长远的立足于不败之地.

剑知小站

剑知小站论坛开张了

2009-01-02T01:27:00.000-08:00

剑知小站新增加了论坛功能，以更好的进行站点的互动。论坛入口是forum.JiansNet.com

美国网上零售商The Parent Company申请破产保护

2008-12-29T21:22:00.000-08:00

美国网上零售商The Parent Company, 于昨天向法院递交了破产保护申请. 该公司旗下拥有eToys.com, BabyUniverse.com, PoshTots.com, DreamtimeBaby.com和PoshLiving.com, 而且该公司还经营BabyTV.com, ePreganancy.com等。更多...

看看你属于美国哪个年龄段

2008-12-29T01:27:00.000-08:00

根据美国Deloitte公司研究报告，以下是美国四大年龄段的人的业余消遣娱乐习惯. 更多...

美国传统零售商圣诞节销售剧降

2008-12-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

美国今年的节日期间，购物者很多都上网买东西，电子商务成为美国经济极少的几个亮点之一。

与美国各个购物网站的销售良好形成对比的是，传统的商店为了吸引顾客，纷纷大幅降价并且赠送礼品。但还是不能够弥补销售的惨淡。这是自1980年以来最差的。更多...

股神巴菲特的电动汽车在中国市场推出

2008-12-27T14:51:00.000-08:00

美联社报道, 一款由股神巴菲特投资，在中国研制的电动汽车，于近日开始引入中国汽车市场。这款汽车的电动引擎可以走62英里。车子还带有一个小的汽油引擎作为备份. 充电需要9个小时。价格约为15万人民币，合2.2万美元. 更多。。。

郁闷的新年: 2009年美国会有更多的layoff

2008-12-27T11:26:00.000-08:00

据CNN报道，2009年美国衰退将更加严重，4个公司里就有1个公司准备明年裁人。预计会有1百多万人被裁员. 上星期, 美国著名咨询公司Watson Waytt报告指出，12月初有23%接受调查的公司说他们会在明年裁人. 同时，这份报告还说39%的美国公司已经裁员了, 而10月份才只有19%的美国公司裁员过. 更多...

怎么样做有特色的网站(转载)

2008-12-26T16:12:00.000-08:00

这篇关于做特色网站的文章很好，编辑转载如下:

要领一：确定网站主题

做网站，首先必须要解决的就是网站内容问题，即确定网站的主题。对于内容主题的选择，要做到小而精，主题定位要小，内容要精。不要去试图制作一个包罗万象的站点，这往往会失去网站的特色，也会带来高强度的劳动，给网站的及时更新带来困难。记住：在互联网上只有第一，没有第二！

要领二：选择好域名

域名是网站在互联网上的名字。一个非产品推销的纯信息服务网站，其所有建设的价值，都凝结在其网站域名之上。失去这个域名，所有前期工作就将全部落空。

要领三：掌握建网工具

个人网站制作者需了解W3C的HTML4.0规范、CSS层叠样式表的基本知识、javascript、VBScript的基本知识。对于常用的一些脚本程序如ASP、CGI、PHP也要有适当了解，还要熟练使用图形处理工具和动画制作工具以及矢量绘图工具，并能部分了解多种图形图像动画工具的基本用法，熟练使用FTP工具以及拥有相应的软硬件和网络知识也是必备的。

互联网还是一个免费的资料库。编制网页需要多种多样的按钮、背景还有各种各样图形、图片。如果这些都要靠自己完成，既浪费时间又浪费金钱，而且还需要强大的图形、图片制作技术。所以，为了省却这些麻烦，网站制作者完全可以从网上下载各种精美实用的图片、按钮、背景等网页素材。

要领四：确定网站界面

界面就是网站给浏览者的第一印象，往往决定着网站的可看性，在确定网站的界面时要注意以下三点：

1) 栏目与板块编排

构建一个网站就好比写一篇论文，首先要列出题纲，才能主题明确、层次清晰。在动手制作网页前，一定要考虑好栏目和板块的编排问题。

网站的题材确定后，就要将收集到的资料内容作一个合理的编排。在制定栏目的时候，要仔细考虑，合理安排。在栏目编排时需要注意的是：

尽可能删除那些与主题无关的栏目；

--尽可能将网站内最有价值的内容列在栏目上；

--尽可能从访问者角度来编排栏目以方便访问者的浏览和查询；辅助内容，如站点简介、版权信息、个人信息等大可不必放在主栏目里，以免冲淡主题。

另外，板块的编排设置也要合理安排与划分。板块比栏目的概念要大一些，每个板块都有自己的栏目。如果有必要设置板块的，应该注意：

--各板块要有相对独立性；

--各板块要有相互关联；

--各板块的内容要围绕站点主题；

2) 目录结构与链接结构

-- 树状链接结构（一对一），这类似DOS的目录结构，首页链接指向一级页面，一级页面链接指向二级页面。这样的链接结构浏览时，一级级进入，一级级退出，条理比较清晰，访问者明确知道自己在什么位置，不会“不知身在何处”，但是浏览效率低，一个栏目下的子页面到另一个栏目下的子页面，必须回到首页再进行。

--星状链接结构（一对多），类似网络服务器的链接，每个页面相互之间都建立有链接。这样浏览比较方便，随时可以到达自己喜欢的页面。但是由于链接太多，容易使浏览者迷路，搞不清自己在什么位置，看了多少内容。

因此，在实际的网站设计中，总是将这两种结构混合起来使用。网站希望浏览者既可以方便快速地达到自己需要的页面，又可以清晰地知道自己的位置。所以，最好的办法是：首页和一级页面之间用星状链接结构，一级和二级页面之间用树状链接结构。关于链接结构的设计，在实际的网页制作中是非常重要一环，采用什么样的链接结构直接影响到版面的布局。

3) 进行形象设计

网站的设计可以从以下几点出发：

--设计网站标志(LOGO)。

--设计网站色彩。

--设计网站字体。

--设计网站宣传语。

要领五：确定网站风格

“风格”是抽象的，是指站点的整体形象给浏览者的综合感受。这个“整体形象”包括站点的CI（标志，色彩，字体，标语）、版面布局、浏览方式、交互性、文字、语气、内容价值等等诸多因素，网站可以是平易近人的、生动活泼的也可以是专业严肃的。不管是色彩、技术、文字、布局，还是交互方式，只要你能由此让浏览者明确分辨出这是你网站独有的，这就形成了网站的“风格”。

要领六：有创意的内容选择

好的内容选择需要有好的创意，作为网页设计制作者，最苦恼的就是没有好的内容创意。网络上的最多的创意即是来自于虚拟同现实的结合。创意的目的是为了更好的宣传与推广网站，如果创意很好，却对网站发展毫无意义，那么，网站设计制作者也应当放弃这个创意。另外，主页内容是网站的根本之所在，如果内容空洞，即使页面制作地再怎样精美，仍然不会有多少用户。从根本上说，网站内容仍然左右着网站流量，内容为王（Content Is King）依然是个人网站成功的关键。

要领七：推广自己的网站

网站的营销推广在个人网站的运行中也占着重要的地位，在推广个人网站之前，请确保已经做好了以下内容：网站信息内容丰富、准确、及时；网站技术具有一定专业水准，网站的交互性能良好。一般来说，网站的推广有以下几种方式：

1) 搜索引擎注册与搜索目录登录技巧

2) 广告交换技巧

很多个人站点在相互广告交换时都提出了几个条件：第一，访问量相当；第二，首页交换。显而易见，这种做法是为了充分利用广告交换。以很多个人网站的经验，当与一个个人站点交换链接时，对方把网站的LOGO放到了友情连接一页，而不是首页时，很少有访客会来自那里。通常在首页，广告交换才会有很好的效果。

3) 目标电子邮件推广

使用电子邮件宣传网址时，主要有如下技巧：可以使用免费邮件列表来进行，只要你申请了免费邮件列表服务，你就可以利用邮件列表来推广你的网站；可以通过收集的特定邮件地址，来发送信息到特定的网络群体，在特定网络群体中推广自己的网站；发送HTML格式的邮件，即使其内容与接收者关系不大，也不会被被当作垃圾信件马上删掉，人们至少会留意一下发送者的地址。不过，在进行邮件推广的时候要注意网络道德。

要领八：支撑网站日常运行

当个人网站做到某一程度，就必须把赚钱提到议事日程上来，通常来说，个人网站获取资金通常有以下两个渠道：

1) 销售网站的广告位

2) 与大型网站合作

转载自: http://www.kpyy.net.cn/

圣诞前夕, 美国提供免费邮寄的站点开始减少

2008-12-24T16:19:00.001-08:00

在圣诞节前夕，越来越少的美国零售网站提供免费邮寄了。但还是有些站点免费邮寄。比如说，eBags.com最近开始推出订货超过$75就给免费邮寄的冬季促销活动...详细请看圣诞免费运输

剑知小站新闻区更新

2008-12-23T23:56:00.000-08:00

突出了新闻区，欢迎来看。。。
剑知小站新闻区

home made cheese

2008-12-23T16:42:00.000-08:00

美国有句话，叫做home made cheese is always better.

Well, 剑知小站的风格就是home made cheese. 我们自己设计的页面，自己的程序。。。

Stay tuned...

剑知小站更新主页

2008-12-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

添加了关于本站，并且加入了链接到博客以及技术支持。

目前，剑知小站感觉开始走上了正轨。希望将来能够有更多的海外华人使用。

----
JiansNet.com
海外实用信息

百度给国内各大站点屏蔽

2008-09-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

此文章写得不错，转载自admin5.com
来源:张云峰
http://www.admin5.com/article/20080912/103694.shtml

随着马云的阿里巴巴封杀李彦宏的百度蜘蛛，紧接着李彦宏的“百付宝”想抢占马云的C2C市场，两位大佬级的人物，在互联网的这片江湖中杀的难解难分，颇有“谁与争锋”之势。然而，毕竟马云不具有“屠龙之术”，李彦宏无“倚天之能”，究竟最后胜负如何，也许谁也说不清楚。

　　呵呵，本人不是在写武侠小说，只是随便附庸风雅两句。从题目可以看出，这篇文章我针对的人物是李彦宏，这位百度公司的大佬。在此再声明一点，本人不是任何人的枪手，只是在互联网上的一个无名小卒。不过，还要说句感谢的话，谢谢互联网让我有的发表个人观点的机会，也谢谢各位看客的捧场!

　　言归正传，半年之前，百度曾HI了一把。当时，也在这片江湖中掀起了不小的波浪。然而，半年已过，百度HI犹如三分钟的热气一般，现在已经悄无声息。现在，李彦宏又要进军C2C市场。呵呵，其胃口之大，让我们这些无名小辈看的心惊胆战。

　　李彦宏在2000年将百度扎根于中国，在中国一大群爱国青年的追捧下，成为最大的中文搜索引擎。且不说百度的真实身份究竟是什么，不过能有中国人自己的搜索引擎，也着实让当初的我激动一把。年轻的我们，总是那么热血那么冲动。

　　这么多个年头过去了，回过头来看看百度，不知道李彦宏什么感觉，敝人是万千感慨阿!说句很通俗的话，现在百度的情况是：李彦宏的口袋鼓了，百度却没落了。百度从最初的百度推广开始，到现在的C2C。在我眼里，我没有看到百度这个大公司的任何创新精神，我看到的是，一副商人贪婪的面孔!

　　笔者曾经在百度HI推出的时候，写过一篇文章《百度HI真的能HIGH起来吗?》，曾经在文中已经指出过百度不求创新、只求利益的问题。结果最近百度的C2C商城的推出，更让我大跌眼镜，竟然叫什么“百付宝”。看来李彦宏懒到连最起码的创意都没有了，只是将“支付宝”换一个字就拿来用，不过这种 “拿来主义”也颇符合我国国情。

　　一个没有任何创新的公司，一个只知道吃老本的公司，一个见利忘义的公司，作为中文搜索引擎的百度，这些条件基本上都占有了。但是，作为这样一个公司，却是胃口极大。

　　我们来看看同为搜索引擎的Google。Google作为世界最大的搜索引擎公司，现在正努力的开发中文搜索引擎市场。我们可以搜索同样的资料来看一下，Google给每一个恶意页面都做了标注，防止用户上当受骗。在来看看百度，第一页全是推广，且不论公司好坏，只要掏钱，百度就让这样的公司排名靠前。也正因为如此，大量的骗子公司用推广的方式排在第一页，来骗取用户的信任。百度，从这样一个方面助长了骗子们的嚣张气焰，这也是阿里巴巴为什么封杀百度蜘蛛的原因之一。

　　其实，我认为李彦宏，不应该满身只充满铜臭气。百度作为世界上最大的中文搜索引擎公司，身后有着几亿中国用户的支持，完全有实力将主要精力投入在研发当中，不但在中文搜索引擎中称霸，更应该去进军英文搜索引擎市场，抢占Google的份额。但现在的情况是，百度丧失了大量站长朋友们的支持，而且还在逐渐败坏这么多年来自己辛苦建立起来的声望。反倒是Google，在中文搜索引擎方面越做越好，蚕食着中国市场这块大的蛋糕。

　　当然，互联网这块蛋糕很大，但是给我的感觉，百度的胃口更大。百度喜欢仗着自己在搜索引擎上面的优势，对互联网的任何一个行业横插一手，让其得不到健康正常的发展，搜索引擎优化和百度推广就是一个很明显的例子。然而，这样的结果是什么?扰乱互联网正常的秩序，斩断一个行业在互联网的发展，最后将自己葬身于这个混乱的市场。我们想想百度C2C的推出会有什么样的结果?利用自己搜索引擎的优势，将“百付宝”的客户资料排名靠前，产生一种不正当竞争的情况;然后，凭借着自己的优势，蚕食阿里巴巴的客户。这样下来，百度已经不是搜索引擎了，也许从这个阶段开始，Google将会彻底的击败百度。而另一方面，百度和阿里巴巴的竞争，必将使易趣坐收渔翁之利。从此之后，互联网上，百度、阿里巴巴没落，国外的公司进来垄断国内的市场。

　　呵呵，也许笔者是杞人忧天，也许笔者是多管闲事。但是，以现在百度的道德水准，无止尽的膨胀，对于国内互联网来说并不是一件好事，也许真的会引起一番腥风血雨!

The demise of search engines

2008-09-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Search couldn't solve all problems. At least the current search engines. What's missing is the trust. For example, when trying to buy an item online, you would want to go to a trusted source, such as Amazon to find and buy the item. It doesn't matter how well a site does SEO and how well the site ranks on Google or baidu. People simply don't have the high level of trust for the site.

So, for online purchase, what we are seeing is that lot of people directly go to those shopping sites, such as Amazon etc.

So, the search engines are not useful in this case for the shoppers. In fact, one of the weak point of web search engines is lack of trust for the searchers.

Long term wise, I envision a day when there is no web crawler based search engines anymore. Instead, a trusted source that aggregates all the feed is the new search engine paradigm.

淘宝把百度封了，谁受损失最大？

2008-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

淘宝很果敢，真的把百度爬虫给封了。淘宝不封别的搜索引擎，单封百度，很明显，是两家互联网巨头之间的对赌。

百度进军电子商务，成不成先不说，这个动作让马云非常不爽。我说了，淘宝是马云手里最大、最有价值的一张牌，绝不容许他人染指。因此一向人缘很好的马云，会拉下脸跟马化腾死磕，当然也不在乎跟李彦宏拼命。

按白鸦的说法，马云认为淘宝现在已经足够强大，到了必须让购物入口与搜索相脱离的时候。或者说，淘宝已经有了足够大的用户基数，可以不再依赖搜索带来的用户。真是这样吗？

根据第22次CNNIC调查报告，目前网络购物的使用率是25%，搜索引擎的使用率是70%。如果考虑到1/3购物者来自搜索引擎，那么网络购物的直接使用率就只有17%了。这说明，电子商务尽管已经有了很大的发展，但与网络音乐、即时通讯、网络视频、网络游戏、电子邮件这些使用率超过60%的应用相比，网络购物还算不上中国网民的主流应用，未来仍存在巨大的增量市场。这或许也是百度做电子商务的一个原因。

其实，问题的关键在于，即使淘宝不封百度爬虫，由于百度自己的电子商务产品即将上线，百度能带给淘宝的用户数量，也势必会大幅滑坡。与其被动挨打，不如主动亮出自己背上的刺。

有人说，封掉百度爬虫，肯定会首先伤及淘宝自己，伤及在淘宝开店的小店主们，但不会伤及百度. 我觉得这个说的不对。百度自身是做搜索引擎的，做网络购物平台，我觉得不是百度的长项。迟早被淘宝击败。

中小网站如何做好做大

2008-09-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

在中小网站成立的初期，他们通常是很难与那些大型网站直接竞争的。在这种情况下，他们或许可以更精确地为网站定位。打个比方说，或许我不能制造所有种类的鞋子，但是或许我可以专门为那些脚型特别大的人制造鞋子。当您逐渐成为某一专门领域的专家和领导者后，那么您就可以逐步扩展自己的事业了。

另外，作为中小网站，可以充分发挥自己富有创造性和决策迅速灵活的特点。这是中小网站与大网站相比，最具有优势的地方。中小网站可以积极尝试各种新的技术和经营形式，如果它们可行，就要果断地执行，或许不久您就会发现自己已经成为这一领域的权威来源了。

美国中文站点: mitbbs和文学城的比较

2008-09-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

mitbbs挺开放的。有一套比较好的制度（版主负责制）。而且，感觉因为mitbbs是留学生创办的，人都比较开通nice. 特别是感觉老邢好像不错。

而文学城感觉就比较walled garden了。再者，文学城的广告到处都是。I mean, WTF, 难道你放了广告，人家就会看吗？可以说，文学城的用户体验很差。但有一点好的，就是速度快。而mitbbs相比之下，有时候上不去。但，相信mitbbs会改善的。

文学城很黑的。动不动就封人家的站点，连接。这个偶在别的海外论坛中已经看到一些complain了。店大欺人呀，何必呢？

我信奉的原则是: live and let live. 大家在海外都不容易，没必要给别的创业者过不去。能帮人处皆可帮人。

本着为海外的朋友们做一点贡献的想法，剑知小站会经常提供一些好的海外找工作，报税，移民等信息的。吸取文学城的教训，剑知小站的特色就是，决不为了盈利而牺牲良好的用户体验。

google chrome推出，对百度极为不利

2008-09-03T01:56:00.000-07:00

google股价回落了不少，但google的技术实力不错, 我长期还是看好它能通过创新找到新的增长点。

此次chrome的推出，就证明了google的技术实力。而google在技术上面的领先，偶觉得有可能对百度造成很大的威胁。这个就像当初微软word对wps的威胁一样的。虽然wps曾经红极一时，但最终被微软的word击败了。

所以，本人给百度的建议，多做门户吧，搜索方面，想和google竞争，很难。暂时的中文优势，有可能全部消失，就是个时间的问题。

西雅图的雨

2008-08-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

西雅图雨多是有名了。比温哥华和维多利亚多。

感觉大家整天呆在屋子里面，所以，容易好好学习，天天向上，呵呵。所以，普遍的这里的人比较高知，收入相对其他州高。

据说西雅图的中国人在10万左右。所以，也算小成规模了。比起加州，这里既不大，也不小。适合居住啊。

剑知小站的总部估计要在西雅图有很长一段时间了。。。

西雅图中文信息互助问答

2008-08-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

为了推广JiansNet(剑知小站), 最近将自己的这个blog换了title.

因为人住在西雅图，所以，对西雅图的情况了解。欢迎大家到JiansNet(剑知小站)互助问答。特别是西雅图的方面的信息。

偶搜集了一些在这里: http://www.jiansnet.com/list?label=9

JiansNet.com split into several sites now

2008-06-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

www.JiansNet.com is now our main site that contains all the services we could provide to our valued customers.

en.JiansNet.com is the English only question and answer site, for demo purpose for the services we could provide, as well as for people to find valuable information online. Especially for ecommerce, search engine technology, small business.

cn.JiansNet.com is the bilingual website that have both English and Chinese content there. It is still a question and answer website.

The debacle of jobster

2008-04-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

"Jobster, the much-hyped and heavily funded online-recruitment-meets-social-networking service, is out looking for more money, after burning through most of the $48 million it has raised since 2005. Founder and CEO Jason Goldberg left the company late last year, and has started a new social news site. Jobster, under new management, is now looking to raise more money, reports ERE.net. In a letter sent to investors, quoted in the story, the company lost about $11 million in 2007 and has less than $3 million left in the bank. Its burn rate about $1 million a month, an amount calculated from information contained in the shareholder letter, the story says."

Sorry I have to use rude English, but, holy crap, they have been burning through 1M$ per month. I wish I had 1M$$ to get started... That's why I keep www.JiansNet.com small and nimble. Who needs that 1 million $$?

真正的垂直搜索?

2008-04-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

垂直搜索是针对某一个行业的专业搜索引擎，是搜索引擎的细分和延伸，是对网页库中的某类专门的信息进行一次整合，定向分字段抽取出需要的数据进行处理后再以某种形式返回给用户。

垂直搜索引擎和普通的网页搜索引擎的最大区别是对网页信息进行了结构化信息抽取，也就是将网页的非结构化数据抽取成特定的结构化信息数据，好比网页搜索是以网页为最小单位，基于视觉的网页块分析是以网页块为最小单位，而垂直搜索是以结构化数据为最小单位。然后将这些数据存储到数据库，进行进一步的加工处理，如：去重、分类等，最后分词、索引再以搜索的方式满足用户的需求。

整个过程中，数据由非结构化数据抽取成结构化数据，经过深度加工处理后以非结构化的方式和结构化的方式返回给用户。

事实上这种搜索引擎对技术的要求并不太高，要建立这样的搜索平台还是相对容易的。但如何建立个性特色？如何增强竞争能力？如何建立合理的赢利模式？是这些搜索引擎必须面对的严峻现实，这也是对于包括奇虎在内的垂直搜索引擎的共同考验。

然而，是否能够如酷讯希望的那样成为“中国最大生活信息搜索引擎”？事实上仍然要依靠其领导人陈华、吴世春，对于“生活信息”的进一步参悟。而另一方面，我们依然不能排除在确定互联网络对于酷讯率先提出的“生活信息搜索引擎”这一概念的肯定后，几大搜索引擎以及大型门户会组织技术与资金进入市场。

于是对于酷讯网来说，对于陈华、吴世春来说，并没有太多的时间可以成长！这是无奈而又必须面对的现实。也许，对于年轻的创业人来说，如何站在巨人的肩膀上？这才是最重要的课题！

我个人觉得，真正的垂直搜索，应该是像craigslist, ebay那样的。做到和行业紧密结合。

2008-04-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

酷讯是２００６年开始成立，先有了２００万美元风险投资，后来又有了１２００万美元ＶＣ。

酷讯在使用问题上许多是不方便。用酷讯定机票等等，一般出行的人总不能背着个笔记本，然后到处上网找酷讯定票吧，到了当地直接打114,12580等电话，酒店，机票马上就可定好，并可上门服务，价格也有选择。用酷讯买火车票吧，还有手续费。不如找票贩子了，价格也不过贵个１０－２０元，订机票酒店价格可选也贵不到哪去，我总不会到了一个地方，为了省几十元钱，东找西找网吧，然后上网，然后酷讯，然后订机票，然后找银行交钱，累不累呢。　因此在这些业务上的服务，酷讯还做不过１１４，１２５８０移动等，因为手机是必备的，酷讯的手机上面的搜索业务还不够，或者没考虑。

酷讯目前的模式是，靠流量人流，带动网站后面的电子商务活动，以此来盈利。类似当当网搜书买书，这样的盈利商务需要广泛的合作及业务切割、割接。想做到赚钱不容易，如果酷讯的产品线过多，这样的困难更多，酷讯创始人是技术出生，所以开始考虑问题不是从市场，而是从技术，产品上。　酷讯发现问题后，才收缩产品，专做部分产品。

酷讯有两个公司，上海，北京，上海估计应该是市场与业务人员多。北京以技术为主要。陈华说酷讯有１００多人的员工团队，学历层次高，博士４％硕士４０％，通过这些可估算出酷讯的成本，按人力成本８０００元每人，１００×８０００　＝８０万，加上办公其它成本，每月１６０万，一年日常成本是１９００万，－这还是最优基础成本，不包括基建、设备网络等等。

酷讯获得的投资是１４００万美元，按人民币算1个亿，从０６年已经烧了２年，估计现有的风投在没有利润的情况下还可烧三年。

下面算下酷讯的盈利，酷刑的流量按独立ＵＶ每天１００万算，每１００个ＵＶ产生１０元收入的话，那么每天就１０万，每月就是３００万，每年就是３０００万，这样才可以盈利。

但是关键是每１００个UV的产值是否是１０元，独立ＵＶ的流量能否是１００万？知道这个数字就知道酷讯是否盈利了，从目前来看，（仅仅是估计无正面数据）酷讯的ＵＶ顶多１０万，每１００ＵＶ产生５元收入，

每天就是５０００元，每月是１５万元，这样根本不够成本。从陈华不说成本与盈利就该知道，目前还没赚钱，否则他就会说今年我们怎么怎么利润增长怎么怎么。因此酷讯当务之急的事情就是商务，业务以此的收入与盈利，及寻求盈利增长点。目前酷讯的盈利还是订票，订酒店之类的传统业务的延伸服务，只是包了个搜索的外包装。还缺乏突破，这种突破是商务上的，非技术上的。这也是技术出身的创业团队共同的问题。

从我个人对搜索领域的认识来讲，做垂直搜索，关键是做好数据抓取。关于模板问题，陈华的回答是他们技术也在不断解决,可见不易。

总之，我觉得垂直搜索数据抓取，本质上就是个hack.真正的应该是各方数据共享，提供xml接口。但，因为商业的关系，不容易。

所以，我开始改做问答系统了。大家有兴趣，可以来看看，www.JiansNet.com

eNom.com disabled my domain service prematurely

2007-12-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

This is aggravating. HongandJian.com has been registered with eNom.com for almost a year. Now, I requested a transfer of the registration service from eNom.com to MyDomain.com. The transfer was successful, however, the new domain registration service won't start until Jan 6, 2008.

Meanwhile, I just found out that eNom.com disabled HongandJian.com domain service. This is a total surprise to me as I paid them for a whole year! They should really disable the service on Jan 6, 2008.

I recommend people not using eNom.com as it is such as bad move they did this. Just because I moved out of their service doesn't mean that they should be mean to me!

I feel I need to write this blog post so as to warn people of the bad practice of eNom.com.

A very disappointed customer of eNom.com

Free Site Search Engine

2007-12-28T10:56:00.001-08:00

I recently got a message from Affiliate Marketing forum Affiliate Marketing - http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums, Matt Seigneur is looking for a free site search engine. He mentioned "Don't want loads of adsense ads coming up, just a straightforward engine that will search only my site for results."

Well, JiansNet is the choice I think for him. I can provide a free site search for him and others that needs a site search badly. Unlike google, we don't put ads in your search result.