Microsoft Windows CE TTT 6.0 Impressions (1)
From February 3 to 10, 2007, Microsoft held the Asia-Pacific Windows Embedded CE 6.0 TTT (Train The Trainer) training in Guangzhou. The Asia-Pacific region only included Japan, Korea, China plus Hong Kong and Taiwan — about 40 people total, half Chinese, half foreign. I was honored to be invited. Here’s my diary-style record:
February 3, I took a 2:30pm flight and arrived in Guangzhou at 5pm. Took the airport bus downtown and went to Microsoft’s recommended hotel, but the price was ridiculous — 800 RMB a night. I was afraid Dean Zhang and Professor Wan would be angry when I reimbursed, so I carried my suitcase and wandered the streets looking for accommodation. I was a bit scared at first, having read so many bad stories about Guangzhou’s public security online. But then I saw women and young people walking alone, so I thought, what am I, a grown man, afraid of? Walked about 2 kilometers and finally found a place with vacancies under 300 — 260 a night. The environment was pretty good, even had internet.
February 4, TTT hadn’t started yet. I arrived a day early just to visit this famous southern city. Went to Yuexiu Park and Whampoa Military Academy, took some photos, all on Google Pages. URL below:
http://hezongjian.googlepages.com/guangzhou
On the 4th, Microsoft had a welcome dinner. It was supposed to start at 7 but was delayed to 8. Before that, I met ICOP’s Wang Hongkui in the lobby — they were accompanying two Japanese guests to the TTT. I’d heard from Qiu that this Japanese guy could really drink, often carrying a gourd of sake, sometimes passing out on the street — a real modern-day Japanese ronin swordsman. I figured I’d meet him sooner or later, so I joined them at his room. My English was about as good as his. I only knew him as Sato — turns out Sato is Takahashi Sato. We chatted a bit, then went to dinner. Microsoft only provided Zhujiang beer. Sato took a sip and said “This is not beer” — meaning it was too weak! That left an impression.
The 5th was the first day of training. I arrived early and found my name card and a nice bag from Microsoft. Class started at 9. The instructor was Randy Moore from A7 Engineering. Samuel Phung had introduced him before — a Bluetooth expert. His English was very easy to understand, probably because it was all technical English. A whole morning felt like listening to Chinese. Skimmed the new TTT materials from Microsoft — mostly similar to CE 5.0 training, just some new content. Microsoft treated us to lunch. Sat with a group from Taiwan, chatted about the differences between Taiwan and the mainland. Felt that if we don’t reunify soon, it’ll be too late. In the afternoon, I talked with Randy about my book. He recommended I translate it into English. God, that would be a great opportunity, but do I have the time? The funniest thing was when he heard my ringtone — the Super Mario 1UP sound — Randy immediately recognized it as a Nintendo game. Chatted about Wii too. His son bought one and said the whole family had fun playing together. Sad — I want one too.
In the evening, I went to dinner with Sato-san. Unexpectedly, I became the Japanese translator (hope Sato never reads this). ICOP was treating, but Qiu had a budget limit. We went to a Hunan restaurant. On the way, I casually asked “Do you play games?” That led to a ton of fun topics. The two Japanese guys pulled out Nintendo DSes — fellow enthusiasts! I asked what games they played. To my surprise, they said they use flash carts to play pirated games. I asked if they could buy flash carts in Japan. They said they ask ICOP China to buy them, download games, copy to portable hard drives, and courier them over. China’s environment is so much better. I told them my DS store had no original games, so I was forced to buy a flash cart, forced to play pirated games. Immediately the other guy got interested — “Buy me a flash cart too, gozaimasu.” I said no problem — original games are hard to find, but flash carts are everywhere in China. Human nature is the same everywhere — they just can’t buy flash carts in Japan. Hoho. They also asked where to buy Wahaha purified water — they said they could buy it in Japan, but not at the source. At the restaurant, I learned that in Japanese, “mapo tofu” and “green pepper shredded pork” are pronounced the same as in Chinese — cultural invasion, haha. They took one bite of green pepper shredded pork and shouted “Good!” but wouldn’t touch the expensive chopped pepper fish head. Cheap taste. We started drinking. Between two beers, they preferred the Pure Draft. Then suddenly they pulled out a Chinese phrase book, flipped to a page with Maotai and Wuliangye, and got the idea to drink baijiu! I told them Wuliangye is super famous and super expensive. They said no problem, they’d pay 400 for a bottle. So we got a bottle of 39-proof Wuliangye. Thank goodness an ICOP sales guy held his own drinking with them. After one small cup of Wuliangye, they consulted their dictionary for a long time, then shouted — “Good wine!” I thought, no kidding, if Wuliangye isn’t good, what is? Next time I’ll make them try national liquor Maotai. They finished most of that bottle in a few rounds, shouting “refreshing” and even learning to say “cheers.” When they were good and tipsy, they had me translate for the ICOP engineer: “You know good wine and you drink a lot, you’re a true man!” Sounds like Japan is like parts of China — drinking well makes you a real man.