阿水師豬腳

I went to "阿水師豬腳", just next street block in 忠孝東路四段. I ordered one pig knuckle rice and one fish ball soup. Total costs is NT$130. It was a good dinner, very full, the pig knuckle is very soft for serving.

I then went to a nearby bookshop reading two magazines. This is a taiwan bookshop culture that people likes to read book in bookshop without anybody disturbing you as you didn't pay for your reading. I saw some children sitting on the ground although it is a very small bookshop. After reading magazine, I went to buy ice-cream from Mac Donald. When you ask for ice-cream they will ask you whether you want a hand carry one. Oh yes, I want a hand carry one, it cost NT$15. After that, I went to buy a can of Cola costs me NT$20, five dollars expensive than the hand-carry ice cream cone.

This was my dinner today.

Where am I go for dinner tonight?

Different day, but same question to me. After office, need to eat, where to have my dinner tonight? Just surf urmap and find a taiwanese restaurant called "阿水師豬腳" serving pig knuckle. See see what it is...

珍惜

當您知道什麼是珍惜時,可能您己嘗到失去的味道.

What is love?

I think this question is common and everybody may have thought about it even you cannot got any answer. Someone says love is scarify, some people says love is sharing.

Just see a movie and it may help to answer the question of love between two people, you and me.

Before watching the movie, think about who really loves you.

Two bad things in Czech

I come across to bad things in Czech. First one is about money exchange, second is about restaurant here.

Today, I was out of cash and I have to exchange some more CZK. Since today is Saturday, all the Bank is not opened.

I went to a local money exchange agent to exchange my 100 Euro. They changed to me 1,659 CZK. I forgot to bring my previous statement to check the rate.

After I checked the rate when I back to hotel, I found my statement that recorded the money exchange rate from a local bank yesterday. I realize that 100 Euro should change me about 2,300 CZK. What's the hell the profit margin is so high for the money exchange agent?

I never change money again in such local agent forever!

Another story is about restaurant. I was seeking restaurant last night and entered one restaurant near the old city square. I picked the menu by myself and the waiter asked me to take a seat anywhere I want. Then I sat there for 5 min without anybody came to take the order. What's next? I left.

Praha, Prag, Prague

It has been the third days I am here in Praha. This is my second time to come to here. Last time was in March after Cebit in Hannover. The difference is that I come to here alone this time for a few meeting here.

I stay closed to Old Town and by a 5 min walk I can reach the old town square to see the infamous astronomical clock.



What is my impression of Praha so far? Anywhere there are tourists. I think one of the most important income is from tourists here. Food is mainly either bread or meat and can fill a standard westerner stomach. Normally, I can finish half of the dish only.



But for the above big dish, I finished it all as it was really good.

Beer is famous here. Starting from the first dinner, I have started to order beer when the waiter asks me "what do you want for drinks?" Then you may need to tell him, if you want "Light or Dark" Beer.

Although, I need to work whole day in every weekend, today, I find an interesting activity here is to attend classic concert. There are many and normally it starts at night about 1900. The entrance fee is about CZ450, which is about HKD225. The concert is lasted for 1 hours with about two performances. I plan to see this on coming Saturday.

Google Maps Hong Kong Version

I've just realized there is a Google Maps for Hong Kong that was announced a few days ago. Checking the map data, they provides road network which is no surprise, many photos, no surprise again, DTM, at low resolution, this is fine. Then, satellite photos, this is tradition from Google Maps. No surprise too. Well, there is building footprint for the whole territory. This really shocks me. I thought if Lands Department supplies that. The answer is negative and I cannot find any LandsD logo. The only map data suppliers are MapKing and TeleAtlas. For China portion, it should be from Mapabc.

At present, there are a few web mapping application in Hong Kong. The most famous one should be centermap (www.centamap.com) who uses map database solely from the Government. In fact, they need to pay for the map database usage by number of map clicks. This is a successful partnership and Centamap is also free to public. After all, resources putting in developing the map database can help the public.

Finally, after years of operation, both centmap and the Government encounters a competitor. The impression of Google is always creative, young, high-tech and aggressive. Google maps can provide routing function plus linkage to real time image from TD that is what I think the most critical function to people like me who drives in Hong Kong. Of course, if I have a iPhone 3G, it will be good to surf the google.maps outdoor. By the way, I think my tomtom720 is sufficient enough to guide me at this moment. Honestly, considering the map quality, the system performance, functionalities, and so on, I cannot find any good reason not to use Google Maps as my default web map portal.

I heard that the TIS will be launched a few month later. Why don't they need to spend so much money and year of time to develop something that someone has been done at high quality. Any officer would be creative enough to think about buying map from Tele Atlas instead?

http://maps.google.com.hk/

BTW, I've just tried the Hong Kong version again. The routing result is wrong as it does not consider direction of traffic flow. Clearly, someone didn't do his job well.