Catshanghai

Today a friend kindly gave me a chest of drawers that he no longer needs as he is moving on to a new teaching job in Dubai.
Moving large items around British cities can be an expensive hassle, but it is really easy in Shanghai thanks to services like Datong’s taxi vans. You see these vehicles [...]

I have been an Ubuntu user since the end of last year. I wanted a low cost and secure operating system that embraced open standards, but it has not been without its problems.
Firstly, it trashed my Ipod’s playlists and made the purchased Itunes tracks (complete with Digital Rights Management) unplayable.
It took ages to tweak [...]

Learn more about this project
This is a chasing game developed in Scratch to celebrate this summer’s street dramas between cyclists and Shanghainese traffic attendants. You are the bicycle trying to keep away from JingJing the famous Net policewoman, who is trying to serve you with a fine for riding on the wrong side of [...]

I have just sold my house in the UK, which means it will be very difficult to go back and live there for any length of time unless we are offered a fantastic job or win the lottery.
Britain is just too expensive. It has wild, unteachable kids and crap weather. I miss friends, family [...]

I want to be a Mac user, but I also like open standards and the whole cult of Apple phenomenon has troubled me on many occasions. This may account for the contradictory remarks that I make about Apples and Macs, which I am fully aware of. My objections have often been more cultural than technological [...]

Term is nearly over, but recently my students (aged 11 to 17) have been wowed by the latest product announcement from Microsoft to launch a multi-touch table computing platform called “Surface”. Here are some observations they made about this product concept.

It is really cool
It may not be on the market yet
It is more expensive than [...]

Shanghai Daily - Credits rolls at city’s first art-film theater
“SHANGHAI movie buffs finally have a theater dedicated to foreign and domestic art-house films.” You can find it at 496 Nanjing Dong Lu.
(tags: Shanghai films)

Pitchfork: Starbucks to Release Sonic Youth Celebrity Compilation
Thurston: “We asked all these different people to choose their favorite Sonic Youth song. Jeff Tweedy, Beck, Marc Jacobs, Portia de Rossi, Michelle Williams … Starbucks is the new record store, right?” Horrible idea!
(tags: Music)

The melodies are direct, memorable, and inseparable from the interlocking harmonies that are weaved around them. My Two Toms carries the traditions of the most memorable music; the complexity found deep within the drone of the Appalachian Mountains, the spiraling melodies of Northumberland pipe tunes, a simple song that stands well the test of time [...]

The Register: Chinese net addict murders mother
“A southern Chinese teenager killed his mother with a kitchen knife after being refused cash to go to a net cafe, Reuters reports.”

(tags: China Internet)

Shanghaiist: Shanghaiist Happy Hour at Abbey Road: Featuring Whitesnake, Fats Domino and, yes, Elmo
It would be good to go to this, but we already have [...]