Technology and its drawbacks

I went looking for some offline blogging tools recently. First of all, there were surprisingly few. Looks like everybody wants to write (another) super-duper-spanking-new-DVD-to-iPhone-Zune-PSP-ripper and nobody thinks of writing offline blogging tools. Some people said good words about Windows Live Writer (like here and here, for example) but it would not install on my laptop due to the annoying bug with Windows Installer in Vista (wrong access rights to the Config.msi directory) and I am tired of fixing the permissions. Anyway, there still were a couple of tools. One, called Qumana, refused to connect to this blog (although they do list support for Blogger in the features), but another one - Post2Blog - hit the spot. It - finally! - connected to the blog, even downloaded previous messages (without titles - well, gotta look into this soon... but this will do for now).

Anyway, while looking for that offline editor - first for my phone and then for the notebook - I pondered the whole idea of modern technology being a way to accomplish certain tasks in the shorter amount of time and stuff. Well, it does that - but usually only after enough time was invested into finding that piece of technology which will do it - and then you have to learn how to use it. Oh, and then you find out that you have to rearrange your data, or do something equally time-consuming... and once that is done - finally! - you start saving time, efforts and whatever else you were hoping to accomplish.

So... I’m all for the new tech, but could it be at least a bit more... well, time-saving?..

Test drive for the moBlog app, take 2

Just testing mobile blogger client. I still don't know whether I'll use it but it is fun testing new things.

Test drive for the moBlog app

Just testing mobile blogger client.

China: Future meets the Past, part 1

China is a strange country to the Westerner. It's modern at the first glance, archaic at the second... and soon you begin to understand that it's just pretty mixed up and you can't tell what is going on. And only after that may you hope to begin to understand...

When I first came to China, I was in awe. You see, when you come to Beijing after four days in the train and see all those steel-and-glass buildings, throngs of people (and bicycles!) on the street, smell all the exotic smells... When next day we went for a walk, we were shocked to find some rural-looking houses just round the corner behind all those high-rise wonders of modern architecture. And that was nothing comparing to the sight of donkeys and mules lazily trotting along the main streets of Shenyang (provincial capitol with 7 million population at the time) - with the cart loaded with computer tables. Or the guy on the cargo bicycle (tricycle, actually) loaded with several dozens of computers. But, being funny, at the same time it symbolized what modern China is all about: Taking a country and trying to cram as much development into it as it is possible... and then much more. And I can tell you - it is exciting and fun to watch!

Of course when the excitement subsided a little, I started to notice a lot of the outdated and outright stupid things... but I'll write about it later.

Who in the hell am I?

Now, that would be a good question. Actually, sometimes I'd love to have an answer to it myself.

Anyway, I'm the Russian guy who lives - mostly - in China. First came here in 1996 and spent more than eight years in different cities - studying, shipping cargo, and generally doing whatever was needed at the moment (guess that's what most of us have to do, no?). Right now I'm in the Southern China, in the city of Guangzhou - and you bet I like it here (I do prefer +22 Celsius here to -20 Celsius in Siberia where I was born!). Of course, it ain't no Garden of Eden, but still quite a good place.

Well, anyway - that's enough about me for now. No point in boring the readers to death, innit?

Obligatory "Welcome everybody!" entry.

Well, as they say in that "Blogging for complete and utter retards" I just must post this. Ok, ok, I hear and obey... So - welcome everyone who managed to stumble upon this blog. I do hope you will read it - maybe even on somewhat regular basis. I know there should be something for you to read and be amused - well, I'm working on it. Honest!