Welcome -- what you will find on this blog

This is the home page to Pablo and Pingrid.


Related to Chinese learning

• Pablo, a free Chinese-English dictionary for Windows. Probably the best for beginners.
• Pingrid, a clever and effective game to train your Chinese vocabulary.
• Tips on how to install Chinese speech synthesis in Windows.

Related to travel

Some musings about traveling.

Related to leadership

Although this was the initial idea behind this blog, it is still to develop.

You can find an introduction here.

New! Popup definitions in Pablo

Discover an exciting new feature in Pablo:

Popup definitions when you move the mouse over Chinese text in other programs!
Just run the mouse over text in Word or Explorer and you get the translation right away!

Also, click in the popup window to bring up the full Pablo window!


Warning: This feature is still under test. Use it with caution as it may slow down your computer and cause application crashes.

Requirements
The popup definition feature is designed for Windows XP, Windows NT. It does not work under Windows 95 or Vista.


A file named "readme-Popup definitions.txt" is present with Pablo. Open it and configure the applications where you want popup definitions. Please note that due to technical reasons, popup definitions may not work in all applications nor for all Chinese text.


You can also toggle Popup definitions on/off by clicking the small 'Pablo' icon located in the taskbar.

Installing Chinese voice synthesis in Windows

A frequently asked question on this blog is: how to install Chinese voice in Windows? Voice synthesis is a great enhancement to Pablo and Pingrid.

Here are some step-by-step instructions. This is mostly a repost of a comment made by Benjamin Lim on this blog (thanks, Benjamin).

1. Follow the Lingoes link http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/speech.htm
(Lingoes is a very good freeware translation tool).

2. At the Lingoes webpage look for the following paragraph:

Recommended Excellent TTS Engine
Microsoft Simplified Chinese Voice
PackageFile Size: 1.55 MB
Download: Mirror 1, Mirror 2

3. Download that and it will appear as "Microsoft_TTS_51_chs.msi"

4. Double click on the msi file once it is downloaded

5. Go to Windows Control Panel and click on the Speech icon. Change the Voice Selection from default to the newly installed one. In my case Microsoft Simplified Chinese.
** Before you close that window, click on the Audio Output button and direct the voice to the correct audio driver which might come with your sound card.

6. That's it and I hope it is helpful for some.

What to pack for a 1-week desert adventure

Have you tried spending one week walking in the desert? It is an awesome experience, as it lets you erase your stress and reset your mind. On top of that, if you happen to do it in an exotic place, add the thrill of cultural discovery. Many travel agencies offer packaged treks, that are convenient and safe. The rhythm of life, the sights, the sounds, the swarms of stars at night... When returning home, you won't believe it was only one week!

But what to pack? After 3 stays in the desert and repeating each time the same mistake (forgetting to write down what I needed when returning home), I have decided to make this list. I hope it can help others too.

To wear on you

- comfortable walking shoes. Sneakers are OK

- cotton socks

- cotton pants, preferably grey

- cotton T-shirt

- cotton long-sleeved shirt

- windstopper jacket

- good sunglasses

- sun-protective hat. Traditional "shesh" (a 2-meter+ strip of cotton you wrap around your head) is best.

In a small bag with you

- 1-liter+ drinking bottle (a re-used PET bottle is OK)

- strong sunscreen

- toilet paper + lighter (to burn the used paper!)

- passport

For fun, during the (long) stops
- postcards from your place, 1 book
- drawing pad + pencils

- star map

In a bigger bag (hopefully an animal or vehicle carries it for you during the day)

- 1 warm sleeping bag + lining sheet

- 1 polar fleece

- 1 cotton long-sleeved shirt

- 2 cotton T-shirts

- 2 underwear

- small washing basin + detergent in a small bag

- small towel

- piece of soap in a box

- headlamp with battery

- toiletries + medicine (at least: anti-diarrhea, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, disinfectant, band-aids)

What not to pack

- new shoes. You don't want to take that chance.

- more stuff. You really don't need much. In the desert, there is no one to impress with fancy clothes or stuff, and hygiene is limited to basics. On top of that, traveling light also helps free your mind. Even try to forget your camera (oblige yourself to look).
However, you need to ensure:
+ you are warm at night (it may freeze),
+ you are protected from the sun during the day,
+ you have some basic medicine ready just in case.

Marrakech = Pompei

That's the thought I had this year, visiting Marrakech again. On your way from the airport to the city center, you just can't but notice the new developments sprawling along the avenues. They basically come in 2 styles. The first style consists of "luxury residences", 5 to 6-storied Marrakech-pink concrete blocks, complete with shops and swimming pools.





The second flavor is deliberately more exclusive. It consists of "luxury villas" swarming in walled compounds. The difference, apart from the price, is that you get your own precious private swimming pool, and sometimes a patch of precious private green lawn, all fed with the scarce water of that Sahara city. The lush palm groves, by the way, that used to spring form that water bounty, are steadily drying up, from lack of water and care, yielding more precious private space for more extravaganza developments.





I personally feel no appeal at all towards this urban style (is it really one?) The location has no charm whatsoever, either along lifeless modern boulevards, or along equally lifeless roads outside the city. The quality of construction looks average. Or rather, it looks like it is going to decay from the construction phase directly to ruins without enjoying the "new" (let alone the "charmingly old") state.

This is too much. Too much concentration, too much speculation, too much wasted resources.


And also too late.



The (mostly French) tourists that fell in love with Marrakech 20 or 30 years ago, refurbishing old houses in the historic city center and rejuvenating some dilapidated areas, sure did have a wonderful idea and had an awesome time. Marrakech is a world wonder, showcasing a civilization of its own. European eyes marvel at the sight of craftsmen MAKING things, from furniture to clothes to ironwork and much more. European minds wonder at the feeling you get from the strength of the tight-knit communities (despite the apparent absolute disorganization of everything.)


But now is too late. The lode is empty. Developers still want to ride the wave one more year, wringing more dollars or euros from enthralled tourists, seducing them into buying their share of the dream, in the form of a "luxury" home they will never use. (Sometimes using the most loathsome manipulation techniques to get their deals, which is no indication of a good product or a healthy business.)


Visiting Marrakech again this year, I predict that we are seeing the end of this Pompei of modern times. Pompei was also a luxury resort down South for foreign gringos, who came there once in a while. Pompei's end was tragic, Marrakech's decline is gradual, but no less certain. The wave is now going down.


I also predict that in Pompei, archaelogists will one day discover complete housing developments in second-class areas, off the prestigious neighborhoods that we admire. Those developments will be strangely bare, as though they had never been inhabited. And they never have: they were the latest fantasies from hungry developpers, the ancestors of those that we see at work again today.

Learning Chinese -- PINGRID, my vocabulary training game

Hello, Chinese learners.


If you are like me, one major difficulty in learning Chinese is to associate characters with their pronounciation. Noting that, I developed a small game to help memorize new words.


It is called Pingrid. The game consists of finding a word among a grid of other words.


Pingrid incorporates an original learning model aimed at insisting on "difficult" words. I have been using it for several months now to study my vocabulary and it has proved to be a real asset in my learning process.


Though quite simple, Pingrid is tremendously effective. It works along the same lines as other advanced repetition-based learning programs. What makes Pingrid unique is that it is 100% tailored for learning Chinese vocabulary.

Screenshot:


Included is a sample study list and a complete tutorial to get you started right away !

	Download the package at: http://www.box.net/shared/b7uzv0g548 (Just unzip the file to a directory and... RUN) current version is v2.1 (April 26, 2009) - major upgrade
	Feel free to donate to support developments and updates. You can try it out for free, but if you like Pingrid and use it, it is only fair to contribute a small amount, don't you think?
	How to get the Chinese voice to work. -> you need to install the voice engine with the Microsoft Chinese voice. You can find that on the Lingoes web site (which, by the way, is a great translation tool): http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/speech.htm That voice is not very nice but it is free. Commercial alternatives are all pretty expensive. If you know of any good free voice, please let me know! For more detailed instructions, look here.
	Finally, if you haven't yet, be sure to check out Pablo, a great Chinese-English dictionary for beginners.

Learning Chinese -- PABLO, my personal Chinese dictionary

Here is a treat for Chinese learning beginners: a compact, nifty, featured-packed and free Chinese-English dictionary for you to download and use. It is called Pablo. Pablo is probably the best Chinese-English dictionary alternative for beginners. (new!) "Popup definitions" let you spy the translation of Chinese words when you move the mouse over other programs, such as Word, Explorer, etc! Extensive database: Pablo uses the CEDICT database, 80.000+ entries Flexible search: search for Chinese words, pinyins or English translations.

Can't spell it? Draw it!: handwritten character recognition based on Jordan Kiang's excellent algorithm.

Can't draw it? Learn the strokes!: now over 3,200 quality character animations using the EuroAsiaSoftware standard.

Supports both simplified and traditional characters.

(exclusive! and awesome) "Multi-radical" character search, inspired by Jim Breen's WWWJDIC.

Compact and fast: runs under Windows (no Java).

Complete help and tutorial included.

As you can see, Pablo is inspired by and expands a lot of freeware tools I came across on the internet. I must also mention Mandarin Tools' DimSum (http://www.mandarintools.com/). Pablo was originally meant to be a transposition of DimSum to Basic language, because my computer was not powerful enough to run it well in Java.

Screenshot:


Yes, yes... I want Pablo!

	Download the package at: http://www.box.net/shared/b7uzv0g548 (Just unzip the file to a directory and... RUN) current version is v1.99a beta (Apr. 4, 2009)
	Now, donate to support developments and updates. You can try out Pablo for free, but if you like it and continue using it, it is only fair to contribute a small amount, don't you think? Donation amount is left up to you, all contributions are welcome.
	How to get the Chinese voice to work. -> you need to install the voice engine with the Microsoft Chinese voice. You can find that on the Lingoes web site (which, by the way, is a great translation tool): http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/speech.htm That voice is not very nice but it is free. Commercial alternatives are all pretty expensive. If you know of any good free voice, please let me know! For more detailed instructions, look here.
	Finally, if you haven't yet, be sure to check out Pingrid, a fun and effective game to train your Chinese vocabulary.