Ray Shan's Online Journal » Personal

My Building Featured on The Consumerist

Ray — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:52:38 +0000

Gotta love Excelsior & Grand!

Trader Joe’s Will Remove All Single-Ingredient Food From China From Their Stores By April 1

Photo by Payton Chung

Updated: iPhone / iPod Touch: The Most Comprehensive RSS Feed Ever!

Ray — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:16:41 +0000

Everything iPhone / iPod Touch, from 40+ sources and BS-filtered!

*Updated, now cloned 20+ times and way too complicated to fit in a screenshot*

Yahoo Pipes page

RSS feed

In Brief: I’m OK

Ray — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:24:56 +0000

Thanks for those that called, texted, emailed and facebooked me. It’s nice know that someone cares about you, especially when you are thousands of miles away. Yes I’m OK, no I don’t regularly go through the 35W bridge, or any other bridges.

Best of luck to those who are affected by the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Air Travel Tips

Ray — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:07:43 +0000

From a friend that used to work for an international travel agency and my business travel experience over the years:

Before the flight:
- Cheapest tickets can be found on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday mornings
- Book 2 weeks (ideally a month) in advance so you can get cheap tickets, even for holidays
- Use sites like Expedia/Travelocity to find best prices, but book with airline websites to avoid $5~$10 booking fees (this is in the process of being eliminated)
- Pack light, don’t bring liquids over 3 onces, check in online a day ahead, then you can avoid the long check-in lines and go straight to the security checkpoint (free/paper tickets cannot be checked in online)
- If possible, wear comfy clothes (e.g. sweatpants); if you have to bring a suit, wear it so it doesn’t get wrinkled in luggage
- If your flight gets delayed/canceled, there’s probably a long line at customer service at the airport with angry flyers; call the airline 1-800 number instead to get quicker service (although if you want to get on a different airline’s flight you’ll have to take to someone at the airport)
- Get aisle seats if you want to get up often, get window seats if you want to sleep
- If you want free WIFI and airport doesn’t offer any, ask another flyer that looks like a business traveler with a laptop to create an ad-hoc laptop-to-laptop network with internet sharing so you can mooch off his company-sponsored EVDO/EDGE wireless internet; takes 2 minutes
During the flight:
- Ever noticed all the people standing on the back of the plane just chilling? They aren’t weirdos, but rather may have back/leg problems; walk around often if you do
- Don’t drink things with sugar and eat the salted peanuts, always ask for water instead to stay hydrated
- You can use your ipod headphones for satellite radio/TV (found on AirTran, JetBlue, etc.), they sound MUCH better and helps to save the environment
- If there aren’t many flyers and you flirt with the flight attendant you may get a business-class seat for free, or at least get a whole row for yourself to sleep on

Moving to Minneapolis

Ray — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:54:23 +0000

If you wondered about what I’ve been up to for the past few weeks, here’s the short version: I’ve accepted a new job and am in the process of moving to Minneapolis, MN. But that’s not the only thing keeping me busy lately. Although things have been chaotic, I’ve been happier and am feeling like my life is on its right track.

And BTW, I still don’t think we are heading for a recession. As a matter of fact, inflation-combating rate hikes are still more of a concern for me.

More updates to follow…

Sweden Takes Web 2.0 Way Too Far

Ray — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 04:09:41 +0000

Just the other day, I was discussing web 2.0 and the transition to web-based TV in the future with a few friends (in fact I only have basic cable, AKA 12 channels, everything I watch mainly comes from the web, thanks to BitTorrent & YouTube). Then I saw this article on NeoWin:

Sweden opens diplomatic relations with Second Life

All I can say is, WHAT? The country of Sweden has set up an official Embassy in the virtual world of Second Life! This was not the kind of cyber-revolution I was expecting, at least not yet.

And yes, for those of you who asked, I tried out the popular K2 Theme, and now I’m back with Tarski.

1st Post on WordPress 2.1

Ray — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 05:36:18 +0000

OK so WordPress 2.1 is finally out and I’ve upgraded, together with Tarski theme 1.22. New features are great, but most importantly, the front end feels much more responsive and Admin Panel is even faster!

As promised, I’ll make a new theme but that may take a bit. ~~Permalinks also seems to be broken.~~ I also need to change my permalink structure to www.RayShan.com’s root. Please bare with me for a few days while I roll out the improvements. .

Brix @ JAX Beach

Ray — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:16:52 +0000

So I’ve been to Brix at Jacksonville Beach (map) twice now. Each time were drastically different experiences, but both were lots of fun. We were there a few Sundays ago; it was upscale, laid back and they had a band playing Jack Johnson stuff. Last night (Saturday) was pretty crazy. The bar was jam-packed and I kept seeing familiar faces in the crowd. Music choice was more up beat (read: rap) and the atmosphere was more energetic. I enjoy their large selection of beers, including Delirium Tremens on tap, the voted “Best Beer in the World” at the 1998 World Beer Championships. Finally a new hangout spot in JAX!

Math Will Rock Your World!

Ray — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 15:24:12 +0000

A large part of my job is to gather huge amounts of raw data and draw conclusions from these raw data. In a sense, I predict the future based on mathematical models. That is why I find myself relating to everything this article represents. In my opinion, Math Will Rock Your World is one of the best articles of 2006, and the missing link to Friedman’s The World Is Flat.

Check out the article here: HTML with discussions, PDF

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Ray — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 07:37:41 +0000

So I’m in Gainesville visiting Matt and Dr. Lutz’s family for Christmas. I figured that I’d give an update on great new things you can expect from me in 2007. Here’s a few:

Upgrade to WordPress 2.1 when released in Jan. 07 (currently still running good old 2.02, can’t wait!)
Upgrade to Tarski 1.2.1 or next WP 2.1 - compatible version
New header image, maybe a whole new color theme all together
More finance/economics posts and personal updates
Some C++ programs, depending on my learning progress, currently have 2 planned:

Bloomberg Radio scheduler
Something relating to financial derivatives / trading automation

And finally: