No Random Walking!

I seem to be the only QQ user who has not used "QQ coins".

From Wall Street Journal Online: (Link to QQ: China's New Coin of the Realm? - Preview )

HONG KONG -- China's fastest-rising currency isn't the yuan. It's the QQ coin -- online play money created by marketers to sell such things as virtual flowers for instant-message buddies, cellphone ringtones and magical swords for online games.

In recent weeks, the QQ coin's real-world value has risen as much as 70%.

It's the most extreme case of a so-called virtual currency blurring the boundaries between the online and real worlds -- and challenging legal limits. A Chinese Internet company called Tencent Holdings Ltd. designed the payment system in 2002 to allow its 233 million regular registered users to shop ...

In a related piece of news,  ???????????????????.

This guy raised AMKR's price target by a whopping quarter! What a big 'news'!

NEW YORK, March 21 (newratings.com) - In a research note published yesterday, analysts at American Technology Research reiterate their "buy" rating on Amkor Technology Inc. The target price has been raised from $13.50 to $13.75.

I've moved my blog to dreamhost.com for two reasons:

1. The blogs hosted at wordpress.com cannot be accessed in China;
2. I needed a host that offers more than blogs. More specifically I needed services for a power user, including access to a shell account, compilers, databases, job scheduling, etc.

The initial tests seem to prove that dreamhost is up to the task. The database server is kind of slow in the business hour, but for less than $10 a month, I really shouldn't complain.

... in 2007. Who are going to be hurt the most? The online game companies. 

Link to China won't let new Internet cafes open

From worldarchitecturenews.com: Terry Farrell and Partners to design tallest building in Shenzhen

Won in an international competition featuring some of the world’s best known architects, London based Terry Farrell and Partners have been commissioned to design the 439m tall Kingkey Finance Tower. Scheduled to begin construction late 2007, it will be Shenzhen's tallest tower as well as one of the world’s tallest mixed use buildings when completed in 2010. The 97 storey tower comprising over 210,000m2 of accommodation, is part of their master plan design for a 2-phase, 355,000m2 mixed use development. There are two floors of basement retail connecting directly to a new metro station; 5,500 m2 of banking trading halls slated for two prestige banks; 167,000m2 of Grade A office space over 68 floors; and, 30,000 m2 over 22 floors of “6 Star” business hotel complete with state-of-the-art conference and business facilities. A variety of fine dining options are contained within the crowning sky garden feature on the top 4 floors. Rational and efficient planning principles combined with the gently curved profile result in a desirable variety in the plan form at each floor. Situated on Hong Kong's doorstep with a population of over 6 million Shenzhen is perhaps the fastest growing city in the world and China's biggest port. Located in the city's prime district of Luohu, the tower’s position and orientation will give panoramic views over all of Shenzhen as well as views to Hong Kong. The tower's fluid, elegant shape and reflective skin is an allusion to a fountain that connotes the wealth and prosperity springing forth from the economic success zone that is Shenzhen.

I am confused with the differences between tags and categories in Wordpress. Where links to my own categories are expected, they are really pointing to the global Wordpress tags. For example, the link to the category for this post should be norandomwalking.wordpress.com/tag/itcomputing". However Wordpress provides a link to "wordpress.com/tag/itcomputing". Seems a bug or bad design to me. I do have checked other Wordpress-based blogs and they seem to have the same problem. But I haven't seen them complaining. Am I the only person confused?

[Update:] This page explains the differences between Wordpress tags and categories, but I don't think it offers a solution to us who cannot edit the templates.