Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Day 45: Stupid Line 9

Published on Friday, May 30, 2008 in Blog.

Line 9You know what’s lame? Shanghai Metro’s Line 9. The Line 9 bus service, which covers the missing segment (Yishan Road to Guilin Road) separating the line from the rest of the metro system, ends two hours before the metro service ends. Line 9 metro service ends at 10:30 PM, but after 8:30 people coming from the rest of the metro system (basically the rest of Shanghai) can’t even get on it. [June 13 update: Apparently Line 9 ended at 9:00 PM. I guess the 8:30 end time for the bus made sense then. Line 9 now ends at 9:15.]

I had to get turned around twice to find out, because the first time was after 10:30 and I figured I just had to get there before the Line 9 service ended next time. Well to my surprise, no bus service at 8:45 tonight either. Me and others who got off there were like wtf, so I asked the guy there and he’s like the Line 9 bus has always ended at 8:30.

They should post up a big sign somewhere, or at least announce it on Line 3 which takes people to Line 9, because I bet every few minutes of everyday after 8:30, a new group of confused people have to find another way home.

By the way, this website is awesome: www.exploreshanghai.com/metro. Click and drag from one stop to another stop to see the estimated travel time. According to their blog, Line 9’s service should be extended a bit starting tomorrow, but it doesn’t say if that includes Line 9’s bus service.

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Day 44: Shanghai popo checks passports

Published on Thursday, May 29, 2008 in Blog.

“Foreigners in Shanghai should carry their passports with them for random checks by police, according to the Exit-Entry Administration of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.” – ShanghaiDaily.com

I don’t think I’ll get checked. Do I look like a suspicious foreigner?

Didn’t think so.

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Day 42: Epson ME 1+ works with Mac

Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 in Blog and Featured Content.

Success! I got my recently purchased Epson ME 1+ (sold in China only) working with my Mac. It was made for Windows only, and Epson doesn’t have a Mac driver for it. Thankfully there are people who play around with Linux and make free software. So if you’re in China and bought the cheapest Epson printer you could find, here’s what you need to do:

  1. Go to this page and download Foomatic-RIP and Ghostscript.
  2. While they’re downloading, go to this page and download usbtb.
  3. Install Foomatic-RIP and Ghostscript first. Administrator privilege needed.
  4. Then with your printer on and plugged to your Mac, install usbtb.
  5. Let usbtb detect the printer and try to find a driver for it. It’ll fail.
  6. Manually choose the Epson C46 driver. Ignore usbtb’s warning and proceed.

And that’s it! You now have a slow, craptastic printer that you wish would break so that you’d have an excuse to get a better one. You’re welcome!

Originally got the tip from here.

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Day 41: Photography page revamped

Published on Monday, May 26, 2008 in Blog.

dkwan.com/photography

I redid my photography page. All the images on that page now load from my website’s server rather than Flickr, so people in China (like me!) should be able to see them now. I also removed all the unnecessary text, like “Studio Portraiture / These are portraits taken in a studio.” There are 33 images currently, but whenever I feel like it I’ll probably add or remove or replace some.

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Day 36: Still shooting

Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 in Blog.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
Michael Corleone, The Godfather III

Nikon goodiesI guess I’m still sort of a photographer. The company wants me to take a bunch of photos for their brochures and whatnot. I skipped my own English class today to go shopping for Nikon goodies, and guess what I found out.

You can’t set the SB-600 to SU-4 slave mode! It only works as a slave in a CLS setup. Meaning it only plays with other Nikons. Not a problem for me since I have SB-800s, but I was just surprised by this.

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