Poll Results – The Most Used Pronunciations
A few months ago I wrote a couple of posts about how I pronounce some of the technical “words”. I also included a few polls to let you vote on your favourite pronunciation. Well, I noticed that I have never published the final results… until now.
The following are the poll results. Hover your mouse pointer over the bars to see the number of votes: Continue reading…
2 Comments | Filed in Oracle, Technology | Tags: pronunciationUseful Firefox Extension: ConQuery
If you use Firefox and have the Oracle Firefox search plugins installed, you know that you can easily search the Oracle documentation by typing your search terms in the search box up in the top right corner of your Firefox browser.
You can get to the search box by hitting Ctrl+K or just clicking your mouse inside the search box.
I have recently discovered a handy Firefox extension that allows you to interact with the search box in a different way. The extension is called ConQuery which stands for “Context sensitive web Query”.
ConQuery puts your regular searches to the context menu and allows you to search for selected text.
Click to see a larger picture
If no text is selected, ConQuery acts as a list of shortcuts to the search engines, allowing you to enter search terms manually.
Whenever you want to correct the content of the selected text, you may hold the Ctrl key while executing a search and ConQuery will bring you the configuration dialog for that engine. Edit the text and press OK to proceed, or Cancel to interrupt the query.
The Oracle Docs Firefox Extension has a similar functionality when you right click on a highlighted text on a web page.
One of the benefits of using Firefox is the availability of many useful extensions that can make your browser a more useful tool.
By the way, Firefox extensions will be re-named Add-ons in the next version of Firefox (2.0).
2 Comments | Filed in Extensions, Firefox | Tags: extension, FirefoxChinese view Americans as Cowboys
Last week I attended a “Chinese cultural workshop”. The company I work for will open a new manufacturing plant in China soon. So, employees were invited to attend this workshop in order to “understand” the Chinese people and how to do business with them.
My wife is born and raised in China. She taught me everything I needed to know about China. I have visited China twice so far. Nevertheless, I wanted to attend the workshop just in case there was something new I could learn (and maybe brag about in front of my wife) 
.
The following are some of the interesting things mentioned in the workshop.
Let me start by saying that there are no such thing as fortune cookies in China. Fortune cookies were invented in California, USA. With that out of the way, let’s see how Americans view Chinese.
Americans view Chinese as:
- Indistinguishable from one another
- Unsophisticated
- Difficult to understand
- Reserved
- Secretive
- Autocratic
Chinese view Americans as:
- Cowboys – I bet you that they got the “cowboy” stereotype from Hollywood movies
- Impulsive, impatient, and immature
- Arrogant, loud, self absorbed
- Interested only in personal profit
- Young and rebellious
- Sexually explicit
- Good entrepreneurs, innovative and creative
(source: Cowboys and Dragon by Charles Lee)
Chinese don’t like the numbers 4 and 5. What they like most are numbers 8 and 9.
Chinese don’t like the color white. What they like most is the color red.
If you are traveling to China, here are some tips on what types of gift Chinese will mostly appreciate (or not appreciate).
What to give as gifts:
- Made in USA products – Almost everything is made in China nowadays, so you’ll have to look hard
- Name brands like Levis Jeans, Armani…
- Any highly taxable imports like wine, liquor and cigarettes
What not to give as gifts:
- Clocks = your time is up, you’re going to die soon
- Green hats = your wife or husband is cheating on you
- Cheese – Chinese just do not like cheese
- Anything white
And if you want to see, listen and read some of my observations when I visited China, proceed to my post titled A Different World.
8 Comments | Filed in Personal, Tips | Tags: chinaOracle to buy the Israeli company Demantra for $41 million cash
You probably know by now that Oracle has just announced that it will expand its supply chain planning applications with the acquisition of Demantra, a leading provider of demand-driven planning solutions. Oracle has set up a special web page containing more information about this acquisition. Based on this RedHerring article, Oracle will pay $41 million in cash for the Israeli company Demantra.
What’s interesting is that the Oracle press release does not mention that Demantra is an Israeli company, and it does not mention how much Oracle is paying for the company. In fact the press release states that “financial details were not disclosed”.
6 Comments | Filed in Oracle | Tags: acquisition
