用膩了 phpBB 了嗎？ phpBB 雖然功能強大，但是卻不是每個人都覺得它好用；而且他的強大也常常引起了安全性的問題，不知道有多少網站都是因為 phpBB 的關係而被入侵……呃，總之我個人對 phpBB 具有某些偏見（這種偏見也許不正確……不過反正就是偏見嘛），而此時 Vanilla 出現了。

Vanilla （請不要把它跟 OpenVanilla 這套輸入法框架搞混了，他們是全然不同的東西）是一套相當靈巧的討論區系統，一樣也是使用 PHP 與 MySQL （有的人可能會很高興，不過其實我對這兩者都不熟啊）。他跟其他的討論區系統相較之下，有幾個比較大的差異：首先是 Vanilla 相當簡潔，各種設定、功能、操作介面都可以算是很乾淨的，反應也真的算靈敏。預設的樣式也很素淨，想必很合我這種老人家的胃口（笑）。

很有趣的一點是， Vanilla 預設的頁面中，會直接列出所有的討論串，按照時間順序，把最新的討論放在最前面──一般的討論區總得要點進好幾層頁面纔能開始看到內容， Vanilla 這種直接放在最外面的作法，反而讓他變得比較像部落格的呈現方式；其實把 Vanilla 想成是給一群人一起寫的部落格似乎也說得過去（啊，這個講法是某位超級大長輩提出來的）。我有提過 Vanilla 現在預設就有提供 Atom 格式的源料 (feed) 了嗎？

另一方面，雖然 Vanilla 很簡單，但是擴充能力卻一點兒也不弱。舉凡擴充套件、風格設定等都一應俱全，甚至每個使用者還可以自己使用自訂的風格設定，而不會受限於管理者有安裝的風格套件，然後系統管理者還可以把這種會員自製的風格套件接回系統，真的是彈性至極。除此之外，就連每個使用者自己的個人資料中，都還可以自訂資料欄位──看妳想要秀出甚麼個人資料就秀出甚麼個人資料，絕不囉唆也絕不麻煩，更是沒有限制。

因為是這樣有趣的東西，所以我花了一點時間完成了 Vanilla 的中文化。在中文化的過程中，我發現了 Vanilla 畢竟是美國人 (?) 做的軟體，處理國際化 (i18n) 的時候有不少瑕疵。像是如果我把 Applicant 翻譯成中文的話，就會使得管理介面中「搜尋申請成為會員的使用者」功能失效；又，如果我把 ON 和 OFF 翻譯成中文的話，居然連帶著某個 HTML 組件的 class 屬性內容也會被中文化，然後 CSS 就爛掉了……其他還有像是在設定討論區標題時，如果使用的是 UTF-8 中文，雖然儲存與顯示都沒問題，但是下次要變更設定時，讀取出來的值就會變成亂碼，這也是不該發生的事。（關於這部份，應該要算是多語化 m17n 的瑕疵了。）其他還有像變數的順序被固定了，導致某些語句怎麼翻譯就是不順，或者同一個字串用在多個地方，不全盤顧及的話在某些地方就會變得很奇怪等，也是這次都有遇到的問題（其實多數英文軟體的中文化就都是如此）。

上述提到的這些中文化會遇到的問題，目前的 Vanilla 簡體中文語系檔似乎都沒有考慮到……而我著實下了一番功夫在這裏，該處理的一詞多義都有盡量顧及，不能翻譯掉的地方有保留原文，而且整個操作介面大致上有跑過一輪檢查過一遍，所以應該沒有像簡體中文語系檔那樣弄錯情境與字義的狀況發生。所以對於目前的翻譯品質來說，還可以很自滿地給自己打上八十分啦。當然如果有人覺得我的翻譯不好、要修改的話，也是相當歡迎指教的。

喔，對了，關於大家都會關心的安全性顧慮，因為我也不是這方面的專家，所以還是留著讓時間來考驗吧……

我们每个人都想将工作和生活管理得井井有条，有效的时间管理方法对于生活的帮助自然是不言而喻，所以相信大部分人都和我一样多少使用过一些时间管理的工具，最常见的就是在outlook中带有的“任务”(to-do list)功能，但往往用过一段时间后就会因为种种原因而不再使用，最重要的原因往往就是to-do list发挥不了很好的效果。我就不只一次地兴致勃勃地告诉自己“这次是真的要开始实施to-do list管理了”，但也不只一次地以失败和不能坚持而告终。 时间管理专家Mark Forster认为to-do list没有效果的主要原因有两个：一是你从来不会完整地完成一份to-do list，二是你往往在完成一个工作后，会再想到几个后续需要跟进的事，所以to-do list会越来越长，越来越多。针对这种情况，他还给出改进to-do lists的九个建议： 1、将to-do list写在纸上而不是放在电脑上 2、不要重新抄写，保持各项目的原貌以及修改，你也可以知道每个项目在列表上保留了多长时间 3、谨慎选择to-do list上的项目，只写下那些你真正有时间去完成的工作，而且需要预留需要应付各种意外情况的时间 4、新想法单独列出，不要将新想法直接写到to-do list中，单独列个“日后可能做”的列表 5、保持每个项目都是可具体执行的行动，最好不要写“完成XX项目的报告”这样的项目，而是写“完成XX项目报告的提纲”等等 6、不要为每个项目分优先级，这点与我们一般的了解有很大的不同。Mark认为如果为项目分优先级，那么那些优先级低的项目就永远都不会被完成，如果我们已经谨慎地确定了必须作的项目才写到to-do lists上，那么再区分优先级就没有什么意义 7、从头开始浏览to-do list，可以先选择你目前最喜欢做的事来做，但一定要从头开始逐一浏览，而不要随机挑选 8、每次完成一项工作后，都再次从头开始浏览 9、对于email，也按照时间顺序从头开始浏览，选择需要处理的工作 其实Mark也说，他自己并不喜欢to-do lists。虽然上面的建议应该会对我们改进任务列表的效果有所帮助，但我仍对实际效果持怀疑态度，而且在阅读了这篇文章后更加感觉GTD的方法对于时间管理以及提高工作效率会有很大的帮助，准备在最近整理一些相关资料，并开始GTD。

1. A Cypriot plane carrying 121 passengers including 48 children crashes in Greece;

2. Chinese President Hu Jintao visits 'Great Victory' exhibition which features the 60th anniversary of the victory of China's resistance war against Japanese aggression;

3. More than 30% participants turn against the new draft regulations to loosen ban on firecrackers at the public hearing;

4. The price of second hand houses published first time;

5. Reconstruction of the bottom of Yuanmingyuan's lakes to be started (the anti-infiltration protection to be removed and replaced with natural clay).

Companies spend millions of dollars on drug names. ED drug names like Viagra and Levitra were chosen to connote virility and elevation. One is led to suspect, then, that claims of Agony's status as a "legendary American product" are somewhat overstated, despite the presence of a proud bald eagle on the box.

Looking at the Chinese name, 傲精力, which translates as "proud stamina", Agony is clearly a virility medication. An ad circular claims it is a product of AWPC (American Wondeboo Pharmaceutical Corporation, aka Wanbang) and BP (American Caroth Biological Physical Laboratory). The testimonials by satisfied wives read like excerpts from smut magazines.

Unsurprisingly, the product has caught the attention of the regulators, who have banned its advertisements for portraying it as a drug when it only has food supplement authorization. This hasn't stopped sales, nor has it prevented unauthorized ads from being slipped in with evening newspapers.

The Shanghai Book Fair closed Sunday. Numbers on the book fair as reported in The Beijing News put 300,000 visitors spending more than 25 million yuan in cash over nine days (Danwei makes no guarantees about the veracity of any statistics quoted about the publishing industry). Orders for Shanghai publishers totalled 115 million yuan, and for other regions 87.14 million yuan. Someone even forked over 180,000 yuan for a set of string-bound volumes of the Twenty-Four Histories.

One of the big winners was Yu Hua, whose new novel Brothers went on sale at the fair. It topped the list of orders from Shanghai region publishers, and by closing time it had run through the first two printings, totalling 250,000 copies. The publisher, Shanghai Literature Press, is preparing a third printing of 100,000 copies. Brothers enters the fiction list at #9 this week. Orders for Yu Hua's previous novels, including To Live and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, have benefitted from the new book's strong debut.

The last time Danwei looked at children's lit, the school semester was just ending, and the bestseller list was largely made up of collections of self-esteem-building fables and parenting manuals. Now that it's August, fiction dominates. Pictured at the top is the cover of Tomboy Dai An (#4) by Yang Hongying, who specializes in children's stories about clever, rambunctious boys and girls. This particular book is the story of a girl and her single mother.

But that's about it for reality - kids are reading adventure and fantasy during the holidays. The rest of the list is Harry Potter, Tiger Team Special Edition, and Ultraman. Once again Harry Potter #6 is the top-selling children's book, despite the recent completion of an online translation into Chinese done by fans. Philosopher's Stone and Goblet of Fire are up there, too.

The Tiger Team novels, by Austrian writer Thomas Brezina, sell incredibly well in China. Nearly 7 million copies of the various books in the original 30 volume series had been sold between 2001 and the beginning of 2005. The publisher claims that these numbers put Mr. Brezina ahead of J. K. Rowling as most widely read foreign author.

At the beginning of this year, the ten-volume Tiger Team Special Edition was launched, featuring more involved stories and more sophisticated mystery-solving tools. One of the attractions of the Tiger Team series is that each book invites the reader to assist the heroes in solving their problems. To do this, the books are accompanied by special toys. The cover pictured here advertises "Three Special Decoder Cards Included."

Ultraman has been on the children's list for most of this season. From the publisher's date on the front of book pictured here, as well as the phonetically-translated title, this appears to be a Chinese version of the 1996 series of Ultraman Tiga stories (broadcast on the mainland in 2004), in which the hero has three battle modes.

Ultraman is currently involved in a trademark dispute among companies in Japan, Thailand, and China. The Japanese producer, Tsuburaya Productions, claims that over 80% of Ultraman products on the Chinese mainland are pirated, and has sued around 10 companies for illegally producing and selling Ultraman merchandise.

And in the midst of this is a plan to produce original Ultraman adventures rather than translating and dubbing Japanese versions. Media regulations that favor domestic programming, an audience hungry for Chinese settings and characters, an industry looking for a native superhero (if an alien from the Land of Light can be called native), and the inability of Japanese producers to keep up with Chinese demand lead domestic companies to believe that there's a market for a Chinese Ultraman, once the dust clears on the right issues.

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The juvenile bestseller list for the week of 8/6--8/12:

1. (1) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling: British version. (J.K. 罗琳, 《哈利·波特与混血王子》)
2. (3) A Night With No Adults edited by Liu Haitao. (刘海涛, 《没有大人的夜晚》)
3. (4) Light for a Book-Dream edited by Liu Haitao: subtitled One hundred stories to motivate middle school students. Similar to the popular A Night With No Adults (#10). (刘海涛, 《书梦的灯》)
4. (5) Tomboy Dai An by Yang Hongying. (杨红樱, 《假小子戴安》)
5. (2) Harry Potter #6 U.S. edition.
6. (10) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. (《哈利·波特与魔法石》)
7. (9) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling. (《哈利·波特与火焰杯》)
8. (-) Tiger Team Special Edition by Thomas Brezina. Austrian mystery-adventure stories. (托马斯·布热齐纳, 《超级版冒险小虎队》)
9. (-) Mischievous Ma Xiaotiao by Yang Hongying. (杨红樱, 《淘气包马小跳》)
10. (6) New Ultraman Tiga. The Japanese galactic hero in comic book form. (《迪迦奥特曼》)

The overall bestseller list for the week of 8/6--8/12:

1. (1) Modern Chinese Dictionary (fifth edition), published by The Commercial Press. (《现代汉语词典》)
2. (2) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling: British version. (J.K. 罗琳, 《哈利·波特与混血王子》)
3. (3) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: For the past few months this novel has been a best-seller shared by the mainland, Taiwan, and the United States. Digital Fortress is a perennial on the fiction list, too. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
4. (4) Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong: Another long-running best-seller, this loosely-plotted novel is being made into a movie (mentioned earlier on Danwei). (姜戎,《狼图腾》)
5. (10) My Normandy by Tang Shizeng: New work of photojournalism commemorating the 60th anniversary of victory in the war against fascism. (唐师曾, 《我的诺曼底》)
6. (6) Short Stories, Great Truths complete set. Classic parables with wisdom for today. (《小故事大道理全集》)
7. (9) About Going to Work by Zhu Deyong: The author is a cartoonist from Taiwan whose earlier work was the inspiration for the incredibly popular television series Pink Ladies. A sample of Work is available on Sina. (朱德庸,《关于上班这件事》)
8. (7) A Night With No Adults edited by Liu Haitao. (刘海涛, 《没有大人的夜晚》)
9. (8) Light for a Book-Dream edited by Liu Haitao: subtitled One hundred stories to motivate middle school students. Similar to the popular A Night With No Adults (#10). (刘海涛, 《书梦的灯》)
10. (-) Rush to the Dead Summer by Guo Jingming (Danwei previously translated the title as 1995-2005 Not Yet Summer Solstice): Novel is serialized on Sina. (郭敬明,《1995-2005夏至未至》)

Bestseller rankings are taken from the Friday Book Review section in The Beijing News, which compiles its data from the city's major online and brick & mortar bookstores.

Guestmap這玩意一早已經有，就如Bravenet一早就提供Guestmaps的服務，讓訪客在一個世界地圖上留下自己的名稱及所在地。不過以Google Maps來造成的MyGuestmap當然比一般的Guestmap更加有賣點。...

Chaile.org is an English language website about live music in Beijing and China. This is what they say about Subs:

Subs screaming punk rock is the most sought-after live experience in China. Their gigs are riotous explosions of pure energy rare to the Middle Kingdom.

Subs are currently touring in Norway. Beijing-based writer Jon Campbell is following them and writing (a little) about the tour on Chaile.org at the URL linked below.

We’re happy to announce that a new version of WordPress is now available for download. This set of improvements and security fixes is in line with our commitment to maintaining an extremely stable 1.5 series. In addition to fixing a number of bugs and adding requested enhancements for plugin authors, this release also addresses all [...]