André 小山 Schappo

Browser Language

2011-12-31T06:49:00.001-08:00

By Browser Language I do not mean the Browser User Interface Language. I am referring to the Browser Preferred Language for displaying Pages. I will use the acronym BL to mean Browser preferred Language for displaying pages.

An internationalised website will have pages in multiple languages. These pages can be displayed according to BL eg If BL is Korean then the website will send it's Korean pages to the browser.

With most browsers, the BL can be set in the preferences and can be set independent of the language settings of the OS. Some browsers do inherit their BL from the OS language setting.

This ability to change the BL has so much potential that few are aware of. Google are switched on to this potential. Google maps, if embedded correctly, will automatically adapt to BL. You can try it out for yourself. Visit lboro.ac.uk/about/findus.html and you will see a Google map of Loughborough. Now change the BL in your browser preferences and refresh. You will see menus displayed in the BL you chose. If you had chosen Japanese as your BL you would also see some place names transliterated into Japanese.

This ability for the user to change BL is a good thing, a very good thing. But... This function is buried down in the preferences. It is my experience that few people are aware that the BL can be changed and even less are aware of the possibilities this opens up.

My recommendation to all the browser manufacturers is that the BL preferences should be made manifest by bringing them up front. Put a BL graphic in a prominent position on the browser window so that it is always visible. This BL graphic will serve to inform the user of the current BL and allow the user to change the BL (eg a popup BL selection menu).

Such a BL graphic will:

Raise user awareness of BL and the ability to change BL
Encourage users to explore sites that adapt according to BL
Encourage web developers to incorporate content, widgets and features that are BL adaptive

Here is an illustrative story. About a year ago, a Chinese person told me he had a problem when viewing some Google maps. His problem was that the map info was displayed in Chinese but he wanted to see the info displayed in English. This problem occurred when he viewed these maps from his own computer and he could not work out how to view the info in English.

I explained to him that what he was experiencing was not a problem but rather a symptom of a very powerful feature. The feature being Google maps auto adapting to BL. His Computer had a Chinese OS and the browser he used had it's BL set to Chinese. I told him how to change his browser's BL and then, of course, he could view the Google map info in any of the many supported languages.

A manifest BL graphic would have made it obvious what was happening and would have enabled him to explore and appreciate Google maps BL adaption and BL adaptive websites in general.

Microblog Space (character) Saving

2011-12-30T09:13:00.001-08:00

Take the following example two lines of text:

Fruit: apples, pears! Veg: cabbage, onions. Cars? Ford; Mini
Fruit：apples，pears！Veg：cabbage，onions．Cars？Ford；Mini

Line 1 has 60 characters and line 2 has 52 characters. I reduced the number of characters by using full-width punctuation characters. These full-width forms start at Unicode codepoint U+FF01. Using full-width forms I can dispense with the space character. So, for example, instead of colon + space I use full-width colon only. For microblog posts small space savings like this can be very useful.

I could, and sometimes do, use OSX Character Viewer to obtain these full-width punctuation characters. When I am microblogging in English I toggle to the Simplified Pinyin Input Method to write the full-width punctuation. This may sound complicated and time consuming but with a little practice it is easy and quick and does not disrupt the flow of writing. There is one exception character. When I type full stop whilst in the OSX Simplified Pinyin Input Method the ideographic full stop is produced rather than the full-width full stop. That is what I would expect and still saves me a space character. So, when I am microblogging I would write the example text, above, as:

Fruit：apples，pears！Veg：cabbage，onions。Cars？Ford；Mini

Sometimes I use my OSX Japanese Input Method for microblog punctuation. The one difference is that when typing comma the ideographic comma is produced. i.e.

Fruit：apples、pears！Veg：cabbage、onions。Cars？Ford；Mini

English is my primary language and, as such, my examples are in English. The same space saving technique can be used for any language/script that uses the standard ASCII punctuation e.g. Korean & Russian

My setup is OSX Lion with the standard Input Methods. I have setup a keyboard shortcut (Control + Space) to quickly toggle between a pair of languages. When microblogging my toggle pairs are English & Chinese or English & Japanese. Your setup may well be different to mine and you may well get different results to me. Whatever your setup, you will be able to use the Chinese or Japanese space saving punctuation characters.

ZARA Website

2011-12-06T06:28:00.001-08:00

Interesting! And the sort of thing I would do. ZARA's website adapts the Social Media links displayed according to the Region. ZARA caters for multiple regions and for the majority displays a link to their Facebook facebook.com/Zara

There are some regions for which it displays a link to that region's Social Media:

China 中国: Zara's China landing page is zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home/cn/zh/zara-I2011 and the displayed Social Media link is Sina Wēibó 新浪微博 weibo.com/zarachina

Russia Россия: Zara's Russia landing page is zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home/ru/ru/zara-I2011 and the displayed Social Media link is Vkontakte ВКонтакте vk.com/zara

With their Japan landing page it appears that the intention is to link to a Zara twitter as indicated by the displayed text on zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home/jp/ja/zara-jp-W2011 The link does not though resolve to a Zara Twitter or indeed any Twitter.

AI Website Adaptations

2011-11-09T02:48:00.001-08:00

Work in Progress

AI in this case means Adaptive Internationalised.

BL = Browser preferred display Language as set in browser preferences or inherited from the OS.
BR = Browser Region
BD = Browser Date
BT = Browser Time

Adverts: In it's simplest and now quite commonplace form, adverts on websites will adapt according to BR. When browsing, I frequently see adverts localized to the midlands of England which is where I most usually browse. One can also incorporate BL by having different language versions of the advert. When adapting to both BR and BL then one can also culturally style the advert according to BR. Many adverts display for a fixed period of time. These adverts could be seasonal or for the duration of a campaign. Thus the adverts can also be adapted according to BD and maybe in the case of short term special offers, according to BT.

Background: Many websites have a fixed width area for webpage content. The area outside the content is the background I am referring to. This background can be used creatively from an AI perspective. The background could adapt to BR with, for example, iconic images of a region. The background for region China could, for instance, be a collage of images such as the Forbidden City, qípáo and Chinese Lanterns. The background could also adapt to BR + BD by incorporating festivals. A more contemporary approach would be to incorporate images of the latest fashions and memes. There is much creative scope to make the background interesting, eye catching and ever changing using AI techniques.

Censorship: By this I mean self censorship according to BR. There are regions in which some content could, for example, be politically sensitive. An AI website can be self censoring and restrict or modify content for some regions.

Date Format: Regions can have different formats for dates and so date formatting would be according to BR. The following illustrative examples use the date 10th November 2011, as per the Gregorian Calendar:

Japan ➠ 2011年11月10日
Russia ➠ 10.11.2011
UK ➠ 10/11/2011
USA ➠ 11/10/11

Festivals: There are many festivals celebrated in different parts of the world. There are a small number of festivals, such as Christmas, which are celebrated in most parts of the world. Most festivals are regional. Festivals would be displayed according to BR and BD. The festival information displayed could be translated according to BL. If BL is not the native language of or predominant language in BR then one could reasonably assume that the person browsing may not be familiar with the festival, hence, one could provide additional information. This additional information could, for example, be an explanation of the history, customs and traditions of the festival

Chinese Festivals/Holidays: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_festivals
Japanese Festivals/Holidays: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_festivals
Korean Festivals/Holidays: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivals_of_Korea & english.visitkorea.or.kr/festival/eng/korea_festival.html

Flags: Display of flags should be according to BR. I agree with flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog/ that flags should not be used to represent languages and so should not be according to BL. If you still want to use flags to represent language then one should consider that many countries can share a common official language. English, for example, is the official language of many countries. Invariably, I see the UK or American flag to represent English. The flag used to represent English could be according to BR eg when BR is Australia then use the Australian flag to represent English.

Forms: There are several considerations when implementing AI web forms. Text labels on forms could be written according to BL. When a form requires user input of a postal address then said address input format should be according to BR. In the UK postal addresses are ordered minor to major and in China, major to minor when written in Chinese en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address.... Personal names are also a consideration for form design. In the UK, full names start with a Given name ad in China full names start with the Family name www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names. If a form requests a web address then it should be able to correctly and natively handle IDNs schappo.blogspot.com/2011/08/chinese-companies-5.html

Maps: Embedded Google maps, if set up correctly, will auto adapt according to BL. If your embedded code contains hl=xx where xx is a language tag then simply remove and the map will then auto adapt to BL. Google maps will display menus and information according to BL. When BL is Japanese, Korean or Russian it will display the transliterated/translated place/street names. Most Impressive. By way of example, here are Google maps of Loughborough, ラフバラ, 러프버러 and Лафборо. When BL is Chinese (language tag zh-CN) place names are displayed in Chinese but not street names: 拉夫堡. The map service used could, where appropriate, be regional and hence according to BR. A Japanese map service is goo eg link.maps.goo.ne.jp/map.php?MAP=E139.46.23.658N35.40.31.302&ZM=2 Daum is a Korean map service eg local.daum.net/map/index.jsp?map_type=TYPE_MAP.... Russia's Yandex has a map service eg maps.yandex.ru/?ll=-... In a previous article I described three Chinese map services schappo.blogspot.com/2011/03/baidu-3d-maps.html

News: News would be according to BR. There is the consideration of the region scope of news displayed. One could display National or City/Town news. Alternatively one could simultaneously have an International news section, a National news section and a (nearest) City/Town news section. Furthermore one could adapt the news items to BL by having these news items translated according to BL. News items are inherently subject to BD and BT.

Star Ratings: Star ratings are a common method for indicating quality. Usually there are between 0 and 5 stars awarded, with 5 stars being the best. One could replace the star symbol with a BR relevant symbol. In the case of England, the symbol used in place of the star could, for instance, be an image of Big Ben.

Twitter: Using the twitter Search Widget one can embed a live twitter feed in which the tweets displayed will be determined by search keyword(s) twitter.com/about/resources/widgets/widget_search. These keywords can be dynamically changed to produce a live AI twitter feed. Lets take the single search keyword chocolate. When BL is English set the keyword to chocolate. When BL is Japanese set the keyword to チョコレート. In this case the twitter feed is being adapted to BL, hence different tweets will be displayed. Other combinations could, for example, include:

When BL = Japanese & BR = Loughborough, then set keyword to ラフバラ
When BL = English & BR = Loughborough & BD = 9th November ⇰ 12th November 2011, then set keywords to street fair
When BL = Japanese & BD = 1st December ⇰ 25th December, then set keyword to クリスマス

URL: A URL path can be rewritten according to BL. Given a URL of the form:

http://domain-name/learn/webfonts/unicode6.html

This could be rewritten into Japanese as:

http://domain-name/習う/ウェブフォント/ユニコード6.html

With Unix it is relatively straight forward to set up a set of directory/file names in different languages that all resolve to a master directory/file using the ln command. The syntax for one of the forms of this command is:

ln [options] target link-name

So, given the directory webfonts, one can create a japanese named symbolic link to it with the ln command:

ln -s webfonts ウェブフォント

Here is a working URL with the path rewritten in Korean. As I am not administrator for the server I am restricted to what I can rewrite. I have rewritten as much of the path as I can as a standard user.

co-project.lboro.ac.uk/users/coas/배우다/웹글꼴/유니코드6.html

Given that one registers a set of IDNs in different languages/scripts for the website then one can also rewrite the domain name part of the URL according to BL.

Loughborough in Munich

2011-09-28T03:50:00.001-07:00

The following photo was taken in Munich, Germany. The person featured in the photos is Adam-Lucas Pettit. He is wearing one of the internationalized Loughborough Market T-shirts. The text printed on the T-shirt is 拉夫堡市场 which is Chinese for Loughborough Market.

A very big thank you to Adam-Lucas Pettit for having this photo taken whilst in Munich and for giving me permission to put it on my blog.

My nickname for Adam-Lucas Pettit is Adam Action as he used to be Chair of the Action Group at Loughborough 拉夫堡 Students Union ☺

Loughborough in Nanjing

2011-09-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

The following photos were taken in Nánjīng 南京, China. The person featured in the photos is 朱莹 (Zhū Yíng). She is wearing one of the internationalized Loughborough Market T-shirts. The text printed on the T-shirt is 拉夫堡市场 which is Chinese for Loughborough Market.

A very big thank you to 朱莹 for having these photos taken whilst in Nánjīng and for giving me permission to put them on my blog.

Companies on Sina

2011-08-30T09:52:00.001-07:00

The purpose of this article is to list some of the Western Companies/Brands that are using China's Sina Microblog 新浪微博. Those marked with a ☆ are using the Enterprise version 企业版 which allows open access to all postings. The text in the square brackets is the 新浪微博 name.

Note: There are problems connecting if you click on the links below. I believe this is to do with the http referer header. Until Sina resolve this problem you can visit this article's mirror at blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6fab54120100wohn.html where the links work fine. Alternatively, copy a URL from the list below and paste into the address bar of your browser.

3M [@3M中国] weibo.com/3minnovation ☆
7●Up [@7喜官方微博] weibo.com/2137888361 ☆
ABB [@ABB中国] weibo.com/abbchina ☆
Absolut Vodka [@绝对伏特加中国] weibo.com/absolutvodkachina ☆
Acqua di Parma [@Acqua_di_Parma] weibo.com/1874337865 ☆
Adidas Originals [@adidasOriginals] weibo.com/adidasoriginals ☆
agnès b. [@agnesb雅昵斯比] weibo.com/agnesbfrance ☆
Air France [@法国航空AirFrance] weibo.com/airfrancechina ☆
Air Wick [@安悦嘉官方微博] weibo.com/airwick ☆
Airbus [@空中客车] weibo.com/airbusweibo ☆
Amazon [@亚马逊中国] weibo.com/amazonchina ☆
American Airlines [@AmericanAirlines] weibo.com/americanairlines ☆
American Apparel [@AmericanApparel] weibo.com/americanapparel ☆
Anna Sui Cosmetics [@ANNASUI安娜苏] weibo.com/annasuicosmetics ☆
Aquascutum [@Aquascutum雅格狮丹] weibo.com/2253981542 ☆
Ariel [@碧浪] weibo.com/arielchina ☆
Audi [@奥迪车友会] weibo.com/chinaaudi
B&Q [@百安居] weibo.com/bnqch ☆
- B&Q Běijīng [@百安居北京金四季店] weibo.com/2286782284 ☆
- B&Q Běijīng [@百安居北京双井店] weibo.com/2286299685 ☆
- B&Q Běijīng [@百安居北京来广营店] weibo.com/2285772117 ☆
- B&Q Běijīng [@百安居北京立水桥店] weibo.com/2285778653 ☆
- B&Q Hángzhōu [@百安居杭州航海店] weibo.com/2285813117 ☆
- B&Q Hángzhōu [@百安居杭州上塘店] weibo.com/2285817483 ☆
- B&Q Nánjīng [@百安居南京雨花店] weibo.com/2285798417 ☆
- B&Q Nánjīng [@百安居南京大桥店] weibo.com/2286335405 ☆
- B&Q Qīngdǎo [@百安居青岛山东路店] weibo.com/2286353521 ☆
- B&Q Qīngdǎo [@百安居青岛福州路店] weibo.com/2285826517 ☆
- B&Q Shànghǎi [@百安居上海龙阳店] weibo.com/2286362571 ☆
- B&Q Sūzhōu [@百安居苏州园区门店] weibo.com/2286319731 ☆
- B&Q Wúxī [@百安居无锡新区店] weibo.com/2286323275 ☆
- B&Q Wúxī [@百安居无锡橙风店] weibo.com/2286326181 ☆
Bacardi [@Bacardi百加得] weibo.com/bacardichina ☆
Baileys [@百利Baileys] weibo.com/baileyschina ☆
Ballantine's [@百龄坛真时刻] weibo.com/bailingtanzhenshike ☆
Bally [@BALLY中国] weibo.com/bally1851 ☆
Benefit San Francisco [@benefit贝玲妃的微博] weibo.com/benefit ☆
Benetton [@贝纳通中国] weibo.com/benettonchina ☆
Bentley [@宾利世界] weibo.com/worldofbentley ☆
Bershka [@Bershka中国] weibo.com/bershkaofficial ☆
Beyerdynamic [@拜亚动力] weibo.com/beyer ☆
Biotherm [@碧欧泉Biotherm] weibo.com/biotherm ☆
Blackberry [@黑莓] weibo.com/blackberry
BMC Software [@BMC软件] weibo.com/bmcchina ☆
BMW [@宝马中国] weibo.com/bmwchina ☆
Boeing [@波音] weibo.com/boeingchina ☆
Bottega Veneta [@BottegaVeneta-宝缇嘉] weibo.com/bvchina ☆
Bourjois [@BOURJOIS妙巴黎微博] weibo.com/bourjoisparis ☆
Braun [@Braun男士] weibo.com/braun ☆
Budweiser Beer [@百威啤酒] weibo.com/budweiser ☆
Buick [@别克] weibo.com/sgmbuick ☆
Burberry [@Burberry] weibo.com/burberry ☆
Burger King [@汉堡王中国] weibo.com/burgerkingchina ☆
Burger King, Běijīng [@汉堡王--北京] weibo.com/burgerkingbeijing ☆
Burger King, Shēnzhèn [@汉堡王深圳] weibo.com/bksz ☆
Burson-Marsteller [@博雅公关中国] weibo.com/bmchina ☆
C&A [@CA西雅衣家] weibo.com/candachina ☆
Cadillac [@凯迪拉克] weibo.com/sgmcadillac ☆
Calvin Klein [@CalvinKlein] weibo.com/calvinklein ☆
Camay [@卡玫尔Camay] weibo.com/camaychina ☆
Campbell's [@Campbells金宝汤] weibo.com/2294722300 ☆
Carlsberg [@嘉士伯] weibo.com/carlsberg ☆
Carrefour [@家乐福中国] weibo.com/crfchina ☆
Cartier [@卡地亚] weibo.com/cartierchina ☆
Castrol Edge [@嘉实多极护] weibo.com/castroledge
Castrol Magnatec [@嘉实多磁护] weibo.com/castrolmagnatec ☆
Chanel [@香奈儿CHANEL官方微博] weibo.com/chanel ☆
Chaumet Paris [@尚美巴黎CHAUMET] weibo.com/chaumetparis ☆
Chevrolet [@雪佛兰] weibo.com/sgmchevrolet ☆
Chic Outlet Shopping [@欧洲九大精品购物村] weibo.com/chicoutletshopping ☆
Cisco [@思科无边界网络] weibo.com/ciscobn ☆
Clairol [@伊卡璐草本精华] weibo.com/clairolhes ☆
Clarins [@法国娇韵诗] http://weibo.com/clarins ☆
Clear [@Clear清扬] weibo.com/clear2011 ☆
Clinique [@Clinique倩碧] weibo.com/cliniqueu ☆
Coach [@Coach蔻驰] weibo.com/coachchina ☆
Coca-Cola [@可口可乐] weibo.com/cokechina ☆
Cointreau [@君度橙酒] weibo.com/cointreauchina ☆
Comfort [@金纺] weibo.com/comfortunilever ☆
Converse [@CONVERSE中国] weibo.com/chinaconverse ☆
Coors Light [@冻感银子弹] weibo.com/coorslightchina ☆
Cornetto [@可爱多] weibo.com/cornettocone ☆
Cosmopolitan [@时尚COSMOPOLITAN] weibo.com/cosmopolitan ☆
Costa [@COSTA-ICC] weibo.com/costaeast ☆
Crest [@佳洁士Crest] weibo.com/icrest ☆
Crocs [@CROCS_卡骆驰] weibo.com/crocs001 ☆
Dairy Queen [@DQ冰雪皇后] weibo.com/1991021545 ☆
De Beers Jewellery [@DeBeers_戴比尔斯珠宝] weibo.com/debeersjewellery ☆
Dettol [@滴露官方微博] weibo.com/dettolchina ☆
Dewar's [@帝王威士忌值得就去做] weibo.com/dewarsworthdoing ☆
Diageo [@帝亚吉欧中国] weibo.com/diageo ☆
Dickies [@DICKIES1922] weibo.com/dickies ☆
Dior [@Dior迪奥] weibo.com/dior ☆
Disney Pictures [@迪士尼电影] weibo.com/disneymovie ☆
DJ Mag [@DJMag] weibo.com/djmag
Dolby [@杜比Dolby] weibo.com/dolbychina ☆
Dolce & Gabbana [@DolceGabbana] weibo.com/dolcegabbanaofficial ☆
Dove [@多芬-让美更美丽] weibo.com/dovebeauty ☆
Dove Chocolate [@德芙悦时刻] weibo.com/chocolatedove ☆
Dunhill London [@阿尔弗雷德登喜路] weibo.com/dunhilllondon ☆
Dunkin' Donuts [@唐恩都乐官方微博] weibo.com/dunkindonuts ☆
Durex [@杜蕾斯官方微博] weibo.com/durexinchina ☆
DVF [@DVF中国官方微博] weibo.com/dvfny ☆
Eau Thermale Avène [@雅漾] weibo.com/eauthermaleavene ☆
ELLE [@ELLE] weibo.com/ellechina
Ericsson [@爱立信] weibo.com/ericssonweibo ☆
Ermenegildo Zegna [@Zegna杰尼亚官方微博] weibo.com/zegnaofficial ☆
Esquire [@时尚先生Esquire] weibo.com/esquire
Estée Lauder [@雅诗兰黛] weibo.com/esteelauder ☆
Evian [@evian依云中国] weibo.com/evianchina ☆
Fanta [@芬达Fanta] weibo.com/fantaplaycrew ☆
FedEx [@联邦快递中国] weibo.com/fedexcn ☆
Ferrari [@法拉利中国] weibo.com/ferrari ☆
Ferrero Rocher [@费列罗Rocher] weibo.com/ferrerotiamo ☆
Fiat [@菲亚特中国] weibo.com/fiatgroupchina ☆
Folli Follie [@Folli_Follie] weibo.com/follifolliechina ☆
Ford [@福特中国] weibo.com/fordchina ☆
Forever 21 [@Forever21中国] weibo.com/forever21china ☆
Gap [@Gap1969] weibo.com/gap1969 ☆
Garnier [@卡尼尔Garnier] weibo.com/garnier ☆
Gatorade [@佳得乐Gatorade] weibo.com/southgatorade ☆
General Electric 通用电气 [@GE中国] weibo.com/geinchina ☆
General Motors [@通用汽车中国] weibo.com/gmchina ☆
Gillette [@吉列Gillette] weibo.com/gillette ☆
Giorgio Armani [@阿玛尼] weibo.com/giorgioarmanibeauty
Givenchy [@Givenchy紀梵希] weibo.com/officialgivenchy ☆
Glacéau [@酷乐仕带你去纽约] weibo.com/glaceau ☆
GODIVA Chocolatier [@GODIVA歌帝梵] weibo.com/lovegodiva ☆
Goodyear [@固特异goodyear] weibo.com/goodyear2010
GQ [@智族GQ] weibo.com/gqcomcn
Grazia [@红秀GRAZIA] weibo.com/graziachina
Gucci [@GUCCI] weibo.com/gucci ☆
Guerlain [@Guerlain法国娇兰] weibo.com/guerlainchina ☆
Guess [@GUESS中国] weibo.com/chinaguess ☆
Guinness [@健力士黑啤] weibo.com/guinnessbeer ☆
Guinness World Records [@吉尼斯世界纪录] weibo.com/gwrchina
H&M [@HM中国] weibo.com/hm ☆
Häagen-Dazs [@哈根达斯Haagen-Dazs] weibo.com/haagendazschina ☆
Harley-Davidson [@哈雷戴维森_中国] weibo.com/harleydavidsonchina ☆
Harman [@Harman-China] weibo.com/harmanchina ☆
Harper's Bazaar [@时尚芭莎] weibo.com/bazaarchina ☆
Harrods [@英国伦敦Harrods] weibo.com/harrodslondon
Hay Group [@HayGroup合益集团] weibo.com/haygroupchina ☆
Hazeline [@夏士莲洗发露] weibo.com/hazeline2011 ☆
Heineken [@喜力啤酒官方] weibo.com/heinekenbeer ☆
Heinz [@亨氏Heinz] weibo.com/heinzchina ☆
Helena Rubinstein [@HR赫莲娜] weibo.com/helenarubinstein1902 ☆
Hogan [@Hogan中国] weibo.com/hoganinchina ☆
Holiday Inn [@假日酒店HolidayInn] weibo.com/holidayinnihg ☆
Holiday Inn Qīngdǎo City Centre [@青岛中心假日酒店] weibo.com/holidayinnqdcc ☆
Holiday Inn Shēnzhèn [@深圳东华假日酒店] weibo.com/holidayinnshenzhen ☆
Holiday Inn Zhūhǎi [@珠海粤财假日酒店] weibo.com/holidayinnzhuhai ☆
HP [@中国惠普] weibo.com/hpchina ☆
Huggies [@好奇官方微博] weibo.com/huggiesclub ☆
Hugo Boss [@雨果博斯HUGOBOSS] weibo.com/hugobossofficial ☆
IKEA [@宜家家居IKEA] weibo.com/ikea
Intel [@英特尔中国天天事] weibo.com/intel ☆
IZOD [@IZODCHINA] weibo.com/1938141652 ☆
Jack & Jones [@杰克琼斯中国官方微博] weibo.com/jackjoneschina ☆
Jack Wills [@JackWills] weibo.com/jackwills ☆
Jaguar [@捷豹中国Jaguar] weibo.com/jaguarcn ☆
Jeep [@Jeep中国站] weibo.com/jeephome ☆
Jeff Banks, London [@JEFFBANKS_official] weibo.com/jeffbanks ☆
John Deere [@约翰迪尔JohnDeere] weibo.com/johndeere ☆
John Smedley [@JOHNSMEDLEY] weibo.com/johnsmedley ☆
Johnnie Walker [@尊尼获加威士忌俱乐部] weibo.com/johnniewalkerchina ☆
Johnnie Walker Blue Label [@尊尼获加蓝牌苏格兰威士忌] weibo.com/jwbluelabel ☆
Kappa [@Kappa] weibo.com/kappa ☆
Kérastase [@巴黎卡诗KERASTASE] weibo.com/kerastase ☆
KFC [@肯德基] weibo.com/kfcchina
Kiehl's [@Kiehls家的骨头先生] weibo.com/kiehlschina ☆
Kipling [@KIPLING_凯普林] weibo.com/kiplingchina ☆
Kjeldsens Cookies [@丹麦蓝罐曲奇官方微博] weibo.com/kjeldsenscookie ☆
KLM [@荷兰皇家航空公司KLM] weibo.com/klmchina ☆
Kodak [@柯达中国] weibo.com/kodakcn ☆
Kohler [@最科勒醉生活] weibo.com/kohlernumi ☆
KPMG [@毕马威中国-KPMG] weibo.com/kpmgchina ☆
Krispy Kreme [@卡卡圈坊中国] weibo.com/krispykremeprc ☆
Kühne [@德国冠利美食] weibo.com/kuehnchina ☆
La Mer [@LAMER海蓝之谜] weibo.com/lamerchina
la prairie [@LaPrairie莱珀妮] weibo.com/laprairie ☆
La Roche-Posay [@理肤泉larocheposay] weibo.com/larocheposay2011 ☆
Lacoste [@Lacoste] weibo.com/lacosteclub ☆
Lamborghini [@兰博基尼] weibo.com/lamborghinichina ☆
Lancel [@Lancel] weibo.com/lamaisonlancel ☆
Lancôme [@兰蔻官方微博] weibo.com/lancome ☆
Lee [@Lee牛仔部落] weibo.com/leejeans
Lego [@乐高中国] weibo.com/legochina ☆
Lékué [@西班牙Lekue] weibo.com/lekue ☆
LeSportsac [@LeSportsac] weibo.com/lesportsacchina ☆
Lipton [@立顿茶] weibo.com/ilipton ☆
Liverpool Football Club [@利物浦足球俱乐部] weibo.com/liverpoolfc
L'Oréal [@欧莱雅中国] weibo.com/loreal
Longchamp [@瓏驤Longchamp] weibo.com/longchamp ☆
Longines [@浪琴表] weibo.com/longineschina ☆
Louis Vuitton [@路易威登] weibo.com/louisvuitton ☆
Lufthansa [@汉莎航空] weibo.com/lufthansa ☆
LUSH [@露诗Lush] weibo.com/lushforever ☆
Lux [@LUX力士闪耀秀发] weibo.com/luxstyle
Lynx [@凌仕效应] weibo.com/thelynxeffect ☆
M&M's - Red [@红豆-Red] weibo.com/chocolatemms ☆
M&M's - Yellow [@黄豆-Yellow] weibo.com/huangdou521 ☆
Madame Tussauds [@上海杜莎夫人蜡像馆] weibo.com/mtsh ☆
Magnum [@梦龙Magnum] weibo.com/mymagnum ☆
Marie Claire [@嘉人] weibo.com/chinamarieclaire
Marks & Spencer [@马莎中国] weibo.com/marksandspencer ☆
Martini [@Martini马天尼] weibo.com/martinichina ☆
Mary Kay [@玫琳凯美丽到家] weibo.com/marykaychina ☆
Maserati [@玛莎拉蒂_Maserati] weibo.com/maseratiworld ☆
Massimo Dutti [@MassimoDutti中国] weibo.com/massimodutti ☆
Max Factor [@MaxFactor蜜丝佛陀] weibo.com/mfchina ☆
Maybelline [@美宝莲] weibo.com/maybelline09 ☆
McDonalds [@麦当劳] weibo.com/mcdonaldsworlds ☆
Mercedes-Benz [@奔驰中国] weibo.com/mymb ☆
Mido [@美度手表] weibo.com/midowatch ☆
Mini [@MINI中国] weibo.com/minichina ☆
Minute Maid [@美汁源橙客团] weibo.com/minutemaidpulpy ☆
Minute Maid Dairy [@美汁源果粒奶优] weibo.com/meizhiyuan ☆
Moët & Chandon [@MOET香槟] weibo.com/moetxiangbin ☆
Moleskine [@Moleskine] weibo.com/moleskine ☆
Monin [@MONIN莫林] weibo.com/monincn ☆
Montagne Jeunesse [@英国MJ面膜] weibo.com/mjmask ☆
Montblanc [@MONTBLANC万宝龙] weibo.com/montblancchina ☆
Moschino [@MOSCHINO莫斯奇诺] weibo.com/moschinofficial ☆
Mr Muscle [@庄臣-威猛先生] weibo.com/scjohnson ☆
National Geographic [@美国国家地理] weibo.com/geochannel
Nautica [@NAUTICA官方微博] weibo.com/nautica1983 ☆
Nescafé [@雀巢咖啡中国] weibo.com/nescafechina ☆
Neutrogena [@露得清官方微博] weibo.com/neutrogena ☆
Nivea [@NIVEA妮维雅官方] weibo.com/niveacn ☆
Nokia [@诺基亚] weibo.com/nokia ☆
Nomination [@Nomination] weibo.com/nomination ☆
Oakley [@Oakley] weibo.com/oakleychina
Oasis [@OASIS奥时裳] weibo.com/oasisuk ☆
Ogilvy & Mather [@奥美中国] weibo.com/ogilvy ☆
Olay [@OLAY] weibo.com/olay ☆
Omo [@奥妙] weibo.com/omochina ☆
Only [@ONLY中国官方微博] weibo.com/onlycn ☆
Oral-B [@欧乐B] weibo.com/oralb ☆
Origins [@悦木之源] weibo.com/origins ☆
Orlane [@法国幽兰ORLANE] weibo.com/orlanechina ☆
OVS industry [@OVS中国] weibo.com/ovschina ☆
Oysho [@Oysho] weibo.com/oyshochina ☆
Pampers [@帮宝适] weibo.com/pampers ☆
Pantene [@潘婷CLINICARE] weibo.com/panteneclinicare ☆
Pepsi-Cola [@百事可乐官方微博] weibo.com/1770691990 ☆
PerkinElmer [@PerkinElmer中国] weibo.com/pkicn ☆
Perrier [@Perrier中国] weibo.com/perrierchina ☆
Peugeot [@标致中国] weibo.com/peugeotchina ☆
Pond's [@旁氏Ponds] weibo.com/pondszun ☆
Pringles [@品客大叔Pringles] weibo.com/mrpringles ☆
Procter & Gamble [@宝洁中国] weibo.com/proctergamble ☆
PUMA [@PUMA彪马] weibo.com/pumablog
Quaker Oats [@桂格燕麦] weibo.com/quaker ☆
Qualcomm [@高通中国] weibo.com/qualcommchina ☆
Rado [@RADO瑞士雷达表] weibo.com/radochina ☆
Range Rover Evoque [@路虎揽胜极光] weibo.com/rangeroverevoque ☆
Ray-Ban [@Ray-Ban雷朋] weibo.com/raybanchina ☆
Reebok [@锐步Reebok] weibo.com/reebokchina
Rémy Martin [@人头马1898] weibo.com/remymartin1898 ☆
Renault [@雷诺中国] weibo.com/renaultchina ☆
Reuters [@路透中文网Reuters] weibo.com/reuters
Revlon [@露华浓中国] http://weibo.com/revlonchina ☆
Rexona [@舒耐Rexona] weibo.com/rexona2011 ☆
Rimmel [@芮谜Rimmel] weibo.com/rimmelchina ☆
Royal Canin [@皇家宠物食品官方微博] weibo.com/chinaroyalcanin ☆
Safeguard [@舒肤佳Safeguard] weibo.com/safeguardchina ☆
Salvatore Ferragamo [@SalvatoreFerragamo] weibo.com/2133330900 ☆
Sam's Club [@山姆会员商店] weibo.com/samsclubchina ☆
Saatchi & Saatchi [@盛世长城中国] weibo.com/saatchichina ☆
Scholl [@爽健官方微博] weibo.com/schollchina ☆
Schwarzkopf [@施华蔻官方微博] weibo.com/schwarzkopfretail ☆
Seat [@西雅特汽车] weibo.com/seatchina ☆
Sennheiser [@Sennheiser声海] weibo.com/sennheiserchina ☆
Sephora [@丝芙兰SEPHORA] weibo.com/sephorachina ☆
Shure [@Shure舒尔] weibo.com/shurechina ☆
Siemens [@西门子] weibo.com/siemens ☆
Siemens Home Appliances [@西门子家电] weibo.com/siemenshome ☆
Sisley Paris [@法国希思黎] weibo.com/sisleychina ☆
Skittles [@Skittles彩虹糖] weibo.com/skittlesfun ☆
Smirnoff [@Smirnoff斯米诺伏特加] weibo.com/smirnoffchina ☆
Snickers [@士力架酷玩儿] weibo.com/myurbania ☆
Sprite [@雪碧炫灵感] weibo.com/spritespark ☆
Stanley Black & Decker [@史丹利百得官方微博] weibo.com/stanleyblackdecker ☆
Starbucks [@星巴克中国] weibo.com/starbucks ☆
Stella Artois [@StellaArtois时代啤酒] weibo.com/stellaartoischina ☆
Stradivarius [@Stradivarius] weibo.com/stradivarius ☆
Subway Shēnzhèn [@SUBWAY深圳赛百味] weibo.com/szsubway ☆
Subway Zhèjiāng [@SUBWAY浙江赛百味] weibo.com/subwayzhejiang ☆
Swanson [@史云生官方微博] weibo.com/swanson ☆
Swarovski [@SWAROVSKI施华洛世奇] weibo.com/swarovskicom ☆
Swatch [@SWATCH斯沃琪] weibo.com/swatch
Tektronix [@泰克科技] weibo.com/tekchina ☆
Texas Instruments [@德州仪器] weibo.com/tisemi ☆
The North Face [@TheNorthFace] weibo.com/thenorthface ☆
Thermos [@膳魔师THERMOS] weibo.com/thermoslife
Tide [@汰渍Tide] weibo.com/tidechina ☆
Tiffany & Co. [@TiffanyAndCo蒂芙尼] weibo.com/tiffanyandco ☆
Timberland [@TimberlandChina] weibo.com/timberlandchina ☆
TimeOut Běijīng [@TimeOut北京] http://weibo.com/timeoutbj
TimeOut Hong Kong [@TimeOut香港] weibo.com/Timeouthk
TimeOut Shànghǎi [@TimeOut上海] weibo.com/timeoutsh
Tissot [@天梭中国] weibo.com/tissot1853 ☆
Titan [@TITAN中国] weibo.com/titanchina ☆
TNT [@TNT中国] weibo.com/tntexpresschina ☆
TOD'S [@TODS] weibo.com/todsgroup ☆
Tory Burch [@ToryBurch官方微博] weibo.com/toryburch ☆
Trek [@崔克中国] weibo.com/trekchina ☆
Twinings [@Twinings川宁茶微博] weibo.com/twinings ☆
Umbro [@UMBRO中国] weibo.com/umbrochina ☆
Unilever [@有家就有联合利华] weibo.com/unilevercn ☆
UPS [@UPS中国] weibo.com/upschina ☆
Vans [@Vanschina] weibo.com/vanschina ☆
Veet [@薇婷官方微博] weibo.com/veet ☆
Vero Moda [@VEROMODA中国官方微博] weibo.com/veromodachina ☆
Vidal Sassoon [@沙宣VidalSassoon] weibo.com/vidalsassoon ☆
Virgin Atlantic [@维珍航空中国] weibo.com/virginair ☆
Vogue [@Vogue服饰与美容] weibo.com/voguechina
Volvo Cars [@沃尔沃汽车VolvoCars] weibo.com/volvocarschina ☆
Wella [@Wella威娜专业美发] weibo.com/wellaprofessionals ☆
Windsor Whiskey [@温莎WINDSOR威士忌] weibo.com/windsorwhisky ☆
Wrangler [@Wrangler美国牛仔旗帜] weibo.com/wranglerchina ☆
Wrigley's Chew Bar [@嚼吧] weibo.com/chewbar ☆
Wrigley's Doublemint [@绿箭铁盒] weibo.com/tincan2010 ☆
Zara [@ZARA_CN] weibo.com/zarachina ☆
Zippo [@Zippo中国] weibo.com/zippocn ☆

Chinese Companies 5

2011-08-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Following on from my previous posts Chinese Companies, Chinese Companies 2, Chinese Companies 3 and Chinese Companies 4 I will now try for another 100+ Chinese IDNs. As usual there are some types of IDNs I do not list in my blog and these types are:

Any IDN that redirects to an ASCII Domain Name
Any IDN that is implemented as a Frame Redirect
Any IDN that requires the www prefix as I want IDNs that are completely Chinese

These restrictions I impose means that the IDNs I do list are fully integrated into the IDN's website.

Běijīng Beglary Lighting Equipment Installation Engineering 北京倍佳伲照明设备安装工程有限公司倍佳妮.中国
Běijīng Donview Digital Technology 北京东方中原数码科技有限公司东方中原.中国
Běijīng Hànlín Shèngshì Media Investment 北京翰林胜士传媒投资有限公司翰林胜士.中国
Běijīng Huachen Auctions 北京华辰拍卖有限公司华辰拍卖.中国
Běijīng Zhōngxīng Think Tank International Culture Communication 北京中兴智库国际文化传媒有限公司中兴智库.中国
Chángzhōu Hu-Lift Hoist Machinery 江苏省常州市沪力起重机械有限公司沪力起重.中国
Chéngdū Natural Impression of Wood 成都自然印象木业有限公司成都自然印象木业有限公司.中国
Dàzhèng Silo Engineering 安阳市大正钢板仓有限责任公司钢板库.中国
Dōngguǎn Fùměikāng Electrical Technology 东莞富美康电器科技有限公司富美康.中国
Dotop Medical Equipment Group 东唐医疗集团东唐医疗.中国
Eastdawn Corporation 北京东方道迩信息技术股份有限公司东方道迩.中国
Guǎngzhōu Sinovico International Corridor Agency 广州欧亚走廊国际货运代理有限公司中亚陆桥.中国 + 欧亚走廊.中国
HiChina Zhìchéng Technology 北京万网志成科技有限公司创联在线.中国 + 创联公司.中国 + 北京创联.中国 + 接入服务.中国 + 交换中心.中国 + 网站寄存.中国 + 网上营销.中国 + 网络推广.中国 + 文件.中国 + 上网联盟.中国 + 虚拟主机提供商.中国 + 您好中国.中国 + 内容策划.中国 + 企业上网联盟.中国 + 你好中国.中国 + 拨号上网.中国 + 国际域名.中国 + 国际域名注册.中国 ++ 創聯在線.中國 + 創聯公司.中國 + 北京創聯.中國 + 接入服務.中國 + 交換中心.中國 + 網站寄存.中國 + 網上營銷.中國 + 網絡推廣.中國 + 文件.中國 + 上網聯盟.中國 + 虛擬主機提供商.中國 + 您好中國.中國 + 內容策劃.中國 + 企業上網聯盟.中國 + 你好中國.中國 + 撥號上網.中國 + 國際域名.中國
Landbond Group 广东联邦家私集团有限公司联邦家私.中国
Memories Fargo Overall Household 成都市金牛区鑫大亚厨卫经营部忆法格整体家居.中国
Old Herbalist Doctor 广东老中医保健食品有限公司老中医养生.中国
WANVE 广东万维博通信息技术有限公司万维博通.中国
Zhōnglín International Group 中林国际集团中林国际集团.中国

Loughborough in Dubai

2011-08-10T02:47:00.000-07:00

The following photos were taken in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Featured in the photos is an internationalized Loughborough Market T-shirt. The text printed on the T-shirt is 拉夫堡市场 which is Chinese for Loughborough Market.

A very big thank you to 刘家杰 for having these photos taken whilst on stopover in Dubai and for giving me permission to put them on my blog

① The Dubai Mall en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Mall & www.thedubaimall.com

② Khalifa Tower - Burj Khalifa - ‎برج خليفة‎ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa & www.burjkhalifa.ae

Sri Lanka

2011-08-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

I notice that there are now a reasonable number of live idns using the Sri Lankan idn ccTLDs. Sri Lanka has ccTLDs in the Sinhala script (.ලංකා) and the Tamil script (.இலங்கை). The following is a random selection of some of the Sri Lankan ccTLD IDNs.

Department of Agriculture
- Sinhala: වෙබ්.රජය.ලංකා
Lake House: Associated Newspapers of Ceylon
- Sinhala: වෙබ්.ලේක්හවුස්.ලංකා
Millennium Information Technologies
- Sinhala: වෙබ්.මිලේනියම්අයිටී.ලංකා
Parliament of Sri Lanka

If the Sinhala and/or Tamil does not display correctly in your browser then it is highly likely that you do not have a Sinhala and/or Tamil font installed on your computer. The GNU FreeFont project has a free family of fonts that includes Sinhala and Tamil. You can download this free font family from www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/gnu-freefont

British Universities on Sina

2011-08-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

There are now several British Universities using China's Sina Microblog 新浪微博. I applaud their enterprise and initiative. Here are some of them:

Birmingham City University 伯明翰城市大学 weibo.com/bcuchina
Coventry University 考文垂大学 weibo.com/1928214367
Kingston University London 金斯顿大学 weibo.com/kingstonlondon
Lancaster University 兰卡斯特大学 weibo.com/lancasteruni
Leeds Metropolitan University 利兹都会大学 weibo.com/leedsmetropolitan
London Metropolitan University 伦敦城市大学 weibo.com/londonmet
Northumbria University 诺森比亚大学 weibo.com/unnchina
Sheffield Hallam University 谢菲尔德哈勒姆大学 weibo.com/shuuk
University of Bristol 布里斯托大学 weibo.com/bristol
University of Derby 德比大学 weibo.com/derbychina
University of Essex 埃塞克斯大学官方微博 weibo.com/universityofessex
University of Huddersfield [@哈德斯菲尔德大学] weibo.com/hudchina
University of Leicester 英国莱斯特大学 weibo.com/leicesteruniversity
University of Manchester Business School 英国曼彻斯特商学院 weibo.com/mbschinacentre
University of Northampton [@英国北安普顿大学] weibo.com/northampton
University of Sheffield [@谢菲尔德大学官方微博] weibo.com/sheffielduni
University of Sunderland 桑德兰大学 weibo.com/sunderlandchina
University of Ulster 英国阿尔斯特大学 weibo.com/2184786424
University of Wales, Newport 威尔士新港大学 weibo.com/newport
University of Westminster 威斯敏斯特大学 weibo.com/1997481725

With standard Sina Microblogs one cannot view the postings without having an account and being logged in. On the other hand, with Verified accounts, one can view the first few postings with out having an account or logging in. One does though need to login to view all the postings. All these University Sina accounts are Verified. So if you click on the links above you will see the most recent few postings.

And, of course, I have my own 新浪微博 weibo.com/andreschappo. My account is not verified so you will need to have an account to view my postings. Maybe, one day, I will get my account verified.

Loughborough in Europe

2011-08-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

The following photos were taken in various parts of Europe, mainly Southern Europe. The person featured in the photos is 余意 (Yúyì). She is wearing one of the internationalized Loughborough Market T-shirts. The text printed on the T-shirt is 拉夫堡市场 which is Chinese for Loughborough Market.

A very big thank you to 余意 for having these photos taken whilst on holiday in Europe and for giving me permission to put them on my blog.

① 余意 in Athens, Greece.

② 余意 in Santorini, Greece.

③ 余意 in Venice, Italy.

④ 余意 in Zurich, Switzerland

IDN Whitelisting

2011-07-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

When browsing using IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) it is important that the Unicode form is displayed in the browser address bar and not the Punycode form. Only the Unicode form is human readable. Well it is if you know the language the IDN is written in. Lets take the Korean web address 송파구청.한국 by way of example.

송파구청.한국 is the Unicode form
xn--2e0b569ap6hmmg.xn--3e0b707e is the Punycode form

You can convert between Unicode and Punycode forms using Verisign's online IDN Conversion Tool.

Unfortunately browsers do not always display the Unicode form but instead display the Punycode form in the address bar. Personally I consider that all browsers should always display the Unicode form. By displaying the Punycode form the browsers are impeding internationalization of the internet. The reason they give for displaying the Punycode form is for "Security". I am not convinced it is necessary because Registries take their own security measures to ensure registration of legitimate IDNs.

Ensuring display of the Unicode form of IDNs is achieved by whitelisting. Different browsers have different whitelisting strategies and different methods for whitelisting. My setup is MacOSX 10.6.8 using the English OSX and English versions of the browsers.

Firefox (v5.0.1)

Firefox whitelists by TLD (Top Level Domain). If a TLD is whitelisted the Unicode form will be displayed in the address bar☺. If a TLD is not whitelisted the Punycode form will be displayed in the address bar☹. There are many TLDs that are not whitelisted by default in Firefox.

One can view which TLDs are whitelisted in firefox:

Open a Firefox window & type about:config in the address bar
Click the I'll be careful, I promise button
Type network.IDN.whitelist into the filter box

You will now see a list of whitelisted TLDs. They are of the form network.IDN.whitelist.TLD. Note that some TLDs begin xn--. These are the Punycode forms of IDN TLDs.

Lets take the Korean IDN 송파구청.한국 as an example. 한국 means Korea and is a recently introduced IDN TLD and as such is not whitelisted by default. It is the Punycode and not the Unicode form that needs to be whitelisted in Firefox. The Punycode form of 한국 is xn--3e0b707e. Assuming you are still in the Firefox config window then in order to whitelist 한국:

right click mouse
select New ▶ Boolean
Enter the preference name network.IDN.whitelist.xn--3e0b707e
set Boolean value to true and OK

Korean IDNs with the TLD 한국 will now display in Unicode form ie in Korean as one would naturally expect.

Google Chrome (v12.0.742.122)

Chrome will display the Unicode form for, as Google puts it, "those languages that the user claims to understand" otherwise the Punycode form will be displayed. As usual, for display, Unicode good Punycode bad.

I will again use 송파구청.한국 to illustrate. If you have a basic unconfigured English version of Chrome then, in the address bar, you will see xn--9d0br8l80kv9k92a984a.xn--3e0b707e displayed instead of 송파구청.한국 So we need to configure Chrome to display the Unicode form for Korean IDNs:

go to Chrome Preferences
click Under the Hood
click Languages and Spell-checker Settings...
in the Languages column click Add
select Korean - 한국어 and OK that

Korean IDNs will now display correctly. Repeat for all other languages for which you want correct display of IDNs. For more detailed information see the IDN in Google Chrome article.

Safari (v5.1)

Safari whitelists IDNs by Script (as in the script used to write a language). Any IDN that is written in a whitelisted Script will be displayed in the address bar in Unicode form☺. Any IDN that is written in a Script that is not whitelisted will be displayed in Punycode form☹.

The whitelisted Scripts are in a text file entitled IDNScriptWhiteList.txt The pathname to this file is:

/System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework/Versions/Current/Resources

The default whitelisted Scripts are: Arabic, Armenian, Bopomofo, Canadian_Aboriginal, Devanagari, Deseret, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hangul, Han, Hebrew, Hiragana, Katakana_Or_Hiragana, Katakana, Latin, Tamil, Thai, Yi

If you want to whitelist other Scripts, such as, Cyrillic or Greek then you need to add the Script names to this file. You will require root privileges to edit this file.

Of all the browser whitelisting methods I have looked at I consider this the most rational but also, for the average user, the most difficult to configure. Apple should implement a simple user accessible method for whitelisting Scripts.

Loughborough Market T-shirts

2011-07-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 23rd July Gordon Gekko, Jonny (刘家杰) and myself gave free T-shirts to Loughborough Market Stallholders. These T-shirts have Loughborough Market printed on them, not in English but in Chinese or Japanese. This endeavour is part of an initiative to internationalise Loughborough and make the World aware of Loughborough.

In the photo below Gordon Gekko, who is on the left, is wearing the Chinese T-shirt and Jonny is wearing the Japanese T-shirt. The text printed on the T-shirts is:

拉夫堡市场 which is Simplified Chinese for Loughborough Market
ラフバラ市場 which is Japanese for Loughborough Market

Loughborough Market is on Thursdays and Saturdays so if you visit the market on a warm sunny day you may well see stallholders wearing these T-shirts.

Note: It may interest you to know that Gordon has the adopted Chinese name 恺心 (Kǎixīn).

Promoting Loughborough Internationally

2011-07-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

Those of you that use Twitter will be familiar with the concept and use of hashtags. Recently Twitter implemented internationalized hashtags. Specifically, they introduced hashtags for Chinese, Japanese, Hangeul (Korean) and Cyrillic scripts. This presents a golden opportunity for Loughborough Twitterers to raise the international profile of Loughborough. Or to put it another way: Make the World aware of Loughborough.

All you need to do is put internationalised versions of #loughborough in your tweets. The more tweets that contain internationalised hashtags the more Loughborough will be noticed. If you would like to take part in this initiative then just copy one or more of the following hashtags and paste into your tweets.

#拉夫堡
#ラフバラ
#러프버러
#Лафборо

where

拉夫堡 is Chinese for Loughborough
ラフバラ is Japanese for Loughborough
러프버러 is Korean for Loughborough
Лафборо is Russian for Loughborough

By way of example, here is a link to one of my tweets in which I have used the Japanese #ラフバラ hashtag:

http://twitter.com/#!/andreschappo/status/93953019670048768

Twitter Hashtags

2011-07-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

One can now use Unicode hashtags in twitter. This means that hashtags are no longer restricted to ASCII characters. One can now, for instance, have hashtags written in the Chinese or Japanese. The hashtag #loughborough can be written in Chinese as #拉夫堡 and in Japanese as #ラフバラ . Unicode hashtags have been operational since 13th July 2011. The original announcement is on the Twitter Japan Blog at blog.jp.twitter.com/2011/07/blog-post.html. There is also an announcement of the new hangeul (한글) hashtags (해시태그/해쉬태그) on Twitter's Korea Blog at blog.kr.twitter.com/2011/07/blog-post.html

I gather from the announcement that the currently supported Scripts for hashtags are Chinese, Japanese, Hangeul and Cyrillic. Therefore the supported Scripts are a small subset of the Scripts available in the Unicode Character Set. I tested out some Scripts in hashtags and my results are:

Chinese ✓
Japanese ✓
Hangeul ✓
Cyrillic ✓
Thai ✗
Arabic ✗
Hebrew ✗
Devanagari ✗
Tamil ✗

The announcement states that symbols are not allowed in hashtags. I tested #→ #① #∛ #≤ #△ #☃ #◲ #✈ #❄ #☺and none work as hashtags.

An example tweet using Japanese hashtags is at http://twitter.com/#!/andreschappo/...

I had written a previous article which covered some of the Twitter i18n issues http://schappo.blogspot.com/2011/... The implementation of Unicode hashtags is a significant i18n step forward. It will be interesting to see how this new feature develops amongst Japanese language tweeters. I have already noticed that there are some long Japanese hashtags. As I write this blog I notice that currently there are two Japanese hashtag Trending Topics in Japan:

#名言の文末を過去形にすると深みが増す
#文頭に週刊をつけるとディアゴスティーニ風になる

Japanese does not use the space character between words and so it is easy and natural to create long Japanese hashtags. It could be the length of a complete tweet by simply having # as the first character.

China's SNS

2011-07-04T02:07:00.000-07:00

I have frequently advocated the use of China's SNS in order to have a presence in China. I have had a Sina Microblog 新浪微博 for several weeks weibo.com/andreschappo. Sina's Microblog is a closed system so you will need to register an account in order to view my microblog. The exception is that with Verified Users one can view the first few postings without an account. My account is not verified.

On Saturday, with the help of 刘家杰, I created a Sina Blog 新浪博客 blog.sina.com.cn/andreschappo. Unlike Sina Microblog, Sina Blog is an open system and so you can view my blog without registering an account.

Yandex Maps

2011-06-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered that Russia's Yandex has a Map Service. It is fascinating to see place names transliterated into Russian. Here is a Yandex map featuring Loughborough maps.yandex.ru/-/CBQwVVLu Yandex have transliterated Loughborough as Лафборо

Even more interesting is to see China's place names transliterated into Russian. Here is a Yandex Map featuring Běijīng maps.yandex.ru/-/CBQ1MQlc Yandex has used the alternate name Pekin(g) which has been transliterated as Пекин.

Twitter i18n

2011-06-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

There are a number of internationalization (i18n) issues with Twitter. I use Twitter directly from a browser. If you use a Twitter client then your experiences could differ from mine. A client could, for instance, reconstruct Unicode Domain Names from a Punycode form. I deliberately use twitter from a browser so that I can determine what is happening at base level. Additionally I do not use any twitter related browser extensions. So now to the i18n twitter issues that I have so far encountered.

hashtags

If I use an ASCII hashtag then it works as expected. If though I use non ASCII Unicode characters then twitter does not recognize it as a hashtag. eg #loughborough works but #ラフバラ does not.

Sina's Microblog 新浪微博, unlike twitter, does have Unicode hashtags. Twitter uses a single # character as a prefix to the text. 新浪微博 uses a pair of # characters to bracket the text. By way of example, #ラフバラ# is a valid Unicode hashtag which I have used on my 新浪微博 weibo.com/andreschappo

ラフバラ is loughborough written in Japanese Katakana.

IDNs

Several countries now have functioning idn ccTLDs. A recently live ccTLD is Korea's dot 한국. Lets take the new IDN for Songpa District Office, Seoul, Korea. Their IDN should show on twitter as a live clickable link ie 송파구청.한국. Twitter, though, does not process it as a valid web address and so it just shows as plain text on twitter ie http://송파구청.한국/

If, though, I use an IDN with an ASCII TLD then twitter recognizes it as a valid web address and displays it as a live clickable link. See twitter.com/andreschappo/...

Auto Shortening

Twitter are rolling out an automatic link shortening service. Link shortening (currently) kicks in at 11 characters. The character count includes the http:// prefix. http://t.co is exactly 11 characters and one cannot have a shorter link. Therefore all tweet links will be shortened. Some time since yesterday I have been rolled in and so now my links are auto shortened by twitter. Not a problem for ASCII links but a new problem arises with IDN links. The punycode form is displayed in the tweet instead of the unicode form. See twitter.com/andreschappo/...

Instead of displaying xn--2e0b569ap6hmmg.kr twitter should display the unicode form 송파구청.kr. The underlying href link, as created by twitter, is http://t.co/tzlxTh4

URLs

Lets now add a pathname part to a Domain Name. Add an ASCII pathname part and all is fine. Take an ASCII Domain Name and add a non ASCII Unicode pathname and twitter fails to recognize the full URL.

In a tweet I want http://ta.gd/러프버러 to appear as ta.gd/러프버러 Instead it appears as ta.gd러프버러 The ASCII Domain Name is processed as a link but the Unicode pathname part is not being treated as part of the URL and is just displayed as plain text. One ends up with an incomplete URL.

Chinese Companies 4

2011-06-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

Following on from my previous posts Chinese Companies, Chinese Companies 2 and Chinese Companies 3 I will now try for another 100+ Chinese IDNs. As usual there are some types of IDNs I do not list in my blog and these types are:

Any IDN that redirects to an ASCII Domain Name
Any IDN that is implemented as a Frame Redirect
Any IDN that requires the www prefix as I want IDNs that are completely Chinese

These restrictions I impose means that the IDNs I do list are fully integrated into the IDN's website.

Àonīdìsī Home Furniture Manufactory 佛山市南海区奥妮帝斯科技睡眠家具用品厂奥妮帝斯.中国
Běijīng Fānglüè Law Firm 北京方略律师事务所北京市方略律师事务所.中国 + 方略律师.中国
Běijīng Liánfēng Law Firm 北京廉峰律师事务所劳动律师网.中国
Chángchūn Guóxing Credit Guarantee and Investment 长春国兴信用担保投资有限公司国兴担保.中国
Chéngdū Website Development 新网创想-成都网站建设网络公司成都网站制作.中国
Chéngdū Western Digital Technology 成都西维数码科技有限公司西部数码.中国
Chéngdū Yúnhèzhāi Art Studio 成都云鹤斋艺术工作室云鹤斋.中国
Chénguāng Hotel 邢台辰光大酒店有限公司辰光大酒店.中国
Chinese Ancient Classics Net 中华古籍网.中国
COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages 中粮可口可乐饮料有限公司中粮可口可乐.中国
Dàlián Painting and Calligraphy Art Center 大连市中世书画艺术交流中心中国书画艺术.中国
Dōngguǎn Hǔmén Childrens' Clothing 东莞市虎门格仔童装店格仔童话.中国
Eagle Shoe Eyelet 常州市雄鹰鞋眼有限公司雄鹰鞋眼.中国
Easton Pharmaceutical 成都苑东药业有限公司苑东药业.中国
Everyone Group Buying 珠海市晋丰商贸发展有限公司人人团购.中国
Fèngxián Building Materials Market 上海奉贤建材市场经营管理有限公司上海家具材料网.中国
Fóshān Vazbo Paint 佛山市威兹伯涂料有限公司威兹伯.中国
Fújiàn Sānmíng Food Additives 福建三铭食品添加剂有限公司三铭明胶.中国
Fújiàn Yánlóng Computer Technology 福建炎龙计算机科技有限公司炎龙.中国
Fúzhōu Yánfú Olive (Food) 福州延福橄榄(食品)有限公司延福食品.中国
Guǎngdōng Zhūhǎi Dǒumén Furniture Store 珠海市斗门粤港家私商场粤港家私城.中国
Guǎngzhōu Háo Dǐng Building Materials 广州市豪顶建筑材料有限公司豪顶建材.中国
Guǎngzhōu Power Shield Security Technology 广州市力盾防伪科技有限公司广州防伪.中国
Hǎinán Airlines Airport Group 海航机场集团有限公司海航机场集团.中国
Hànbāng Flooring 湖南华港建筑装饰材料有限公司汉邦地板.中国
Hang Yu Feng Qīnghǎi Mining 青海中航玉丰矿业有限公司中航玉丰.中国
Hángzhōu Fēiméng Clothes 杭州非梦服饰有限公司非梦.中国
Health and Happiness 华夏健康快乐文化传媒（北京 ) 有限公司华夏健康快乐网.中国 + 健康快乐网.中国 + 健康快乐.中国 + 快快乐乐.中国 + 健健康康.中国
Hénán Art Center 河南艺术中心河南艺术中心.中国
Huashì Vehicle Seat 江阴市华士汽车座椅有限公司华士座椅.中国 + 华申医疗.中国
Huìyǔ Calligraphy 惠宇书法.中国
Húnán Chéngtóushān Tourism Development 湖南城头山旅游开发有限公司城头山.中国
Húnán Nóngyǒu Machinery Group Heavy Industry 湖南省农友机械集团重工有限公司湘农友.中国
Inner Mongolia Yīlì Industrial Group 内蒙古伊利实业集团股份有限公司伊利.中国
IRIS Systems 爱瑞思软件（深圳）有限公司科研在线.中国
Isisvins - Shànghǎi Yīsīnuò Wines 上海伊思诺酒业有限公司伊思诺.中国
Jiāngsū East China Air Separation Equipment 江苏华东空分设备制造有限公司江苏华东.中国
Jiāngsū Sàidé Electric 江苏赛德电气有限公司赛德电缆.中国
Jiāngxī Furniture 江西省现代装潢家具公司家具装潢.中国
Jiāngxī Jūnzǐgǔ Wild Fruits 江西君子谷野生水果世界有限公司君子谷.中国
Jiāngxī Shànggāo Xīnxīng Electrical Appliance 江西省上高县新兴电器有限公司保健仪.中国 + 中国保健仪.中国
Jiāngyīn Great Wall Machinery 江阴市长城机械有限公司食品泵.中国
Jílín Huīnán Fúyuán Foods 吉林省辉南县福源食品有限公司中国野山参.中国
Jǐ'nán Pressure Vessel Factory 济南市压力容器厂济容.中国
Jūnyè Fire Proof Heat Preservation Material 唐山君业耐火保温材料有限公司直埋管.中国 + 唐山保温.中国
King's Along Bakery 石狮市金龙船食品有限责任公司金龙船.中国
Kūnmíng Stone Age Technology 昆明石器时代科技有限公司服务.中国
Leegee (Běijīng) Systems Technology 力景(北京)系统技术有限公司力景.中国
Lìlián Industry 利联实业发展（深圳）有限公司利联.中国
Lóngkǒu Jiāyù Plastics 龙口市佳裕塑料有限公司佳裕.中国
LSTL International Trade 丽水同亮国际贸易有限公司康炭郎竹炭.中国
Luòyáng China Petroleum Nondestructive Testing Engineering 洛阳中油检测工程有限公司中油检测.中国 + 洛阳中油检测工程有限公司.中国
Maydooer 美度佰臣商城车载生活.中国 + 车载生活用品.中国
Nánjīng Hóngnéng Electric Motors 南京弘能电气传动有限公司弘能.中国
Oaks Solar Energy 浙江省嘉兴市澳克斯电器有限公司澳克斯太阳能.中国
Qínhuángdǎo Real Estate 秦皇岛市旭海万嘉房地产开发有限公司秦皇岛房地产.中国
Qíqíhā'ěr Kūnhéng Wood Group 齐齐哈尔市坤衡木业集团有限公司坤衡木业.中国
Red Lane Art City 红巷艺术城.中国
Shāndōng Àibāng Food Machinery 山东爱帮厨食品机械有限公司爱帮厨.中国
Shāndōng Díshēng Electric 山东迪生电气股份有限公司迪生电气.中国
Shāndōng Rìzhào Water Treatment Equipment 山东日照漉泉水处理设备有限公司漉泉.中国
Shànghǎi Kēzé Information Technology 上海科择信息科技有限公司浦东数据中心.中国
Shànghǎi Kussun Electric 上海开胜电气有限公司高压真空负荷开关.中国 + 高压真空断路器.中国 + 高压断路器.中国 + 高压接触器.中国 + 真空负荷开关.中国 + 真空灭弧室.中国
Shànghǎi Safe Automation 上海希弗自动化有限公司希弗.中国 + 安全自动化.中国
Shànghǎi Superior Chemicals 上海超强化工有限公司上海超强化工.中国
Shàntóu Chūnbǎo Cosmetics 汕头市春宝化妆品实业有限公司春宝.中国
Shěnyáng Xiàsuǒ Speakers 沈阳夏索音响有限公司音响专卖.中国
Shēnzhèn Jīnshíjù Technology 深圳市金时聚科技有限公司电子工票.中国
Shēnzhèn Sanpo Instrument 深圳市欣宝瑞仪器有限公司欣宝瑞.中国 + 欣宝科仪.中国
Shēnzhèn Shānxià Hospital 深圳山厦医院山厦医院.中国 + 肺结核治疗.中国
Shēnzhèn Speed Technology 深圳市速拓科技有限公司一览通.中国 + 速拓.中国
Shēnzhèn Towei Electronic 深圳市拓伟电器有限公司拓伟.中国
Shēnzhèn Wànhuò E-Commerce 深圳市时代万货电子商务有限公司万货.中国
SIDO时道海宁时道太阳能科技有限公司时道.中国
South Memory Restaurant 望湘园（上海）餐饮管理有限公司望湘园.中国
Southern Electronics 新宁县南方电子有限责任公司中国南方电子.中国
Space Breeding 航天育种网航天育种.中国 + 民用航天.中国
Sūzhōu Elegant Bathrooms 苏州雅洁卫浴有限公司雅洁卫浴.中国
Sūzhōu Funway Plastic 苏州丰汇塑业有限公司真空热成型.中国 + 热成型.中国 + 塑料热成型.中国
Tiānjīn Huádá Garment 天津华达服装有限公司华达服装.中国
Tiānjīn Yīqīng Group (Holding) 天津市一轻集团（控股）有限公司天津一轻.中国
Tomb Raider 古墓丽影收藏网古墓丽影.中国
Tonda Information Technology 通达恒远（北京）信息技术有限公司论文检测.中国
TPI Lubricants 烟台德高石油有限公司德高石油.中国
Wall Street English 英国培生集团旗下子公司华尔街英语.中国
Wǔhàn Huáfēng Garage 武汉华丰汽车修理有限公司华丰汽修.中国
Wǔhàn Sīchuāng Electronics 武汉思创电子有限公司武汉思创.中国
Wǔhàn Xiéruì Electronics 武汉市勰睿电子科技有限公司勰睿.中国
Wúxī Pneumatech Air/Gas Purity Equipment 无锡纽曼泰克气源净化设备有限公司纽曼泰克.中国
Xī'ān Tamefire 西安特菲尔电子有限公司特菲尔.中国
Xiàmén Shǎngwán World Culture 厦门赏玩天下文化发展有限公司赏玩天下.中国
Yāntái Shènglìdá Engineering 烟台盛利达工程技术有限公司盛利达公司.中国
Yīnghuā Electrical Appliances 樱花电器有限公司樱花吊顶.中国
Yíngjiā Metal Products 浙江省台州市黄岩盈佳金属制品厂货车配件.中国 + 盈佳金属.中国
Zhèjiāng Guǎngchéng Law Firm 浙江广诚律师事务所广诚律师.中国
Zhèngzhōu Prodigy Amusement Equipment 郑州市神童游乐设备有限公司乐度.中国
Zhènjiāng Nánmén Primary School 镇江市南门小学.中国
Zhōnghuá Book Company 中华书局.中国
Zhongtiān Securities 中天证券有限责任公司中天证券.中国 + 中天证券股份有限公司.中国 + 中天证券有限责任公司.中国
Zhōngyāng Street, Hā'ěrbīn, Hēilóngjiāng 中央大街.中国 + 中央大街.中國

Korea

2011-05-16T01:02:00.000-07:00

Korea's idn ccTLD 한국 is now live!

Commemorative Plaques 원숭이기념패.한국
Jongrom School 종로엠 스쿨 아크로브레인.한국 + 엠스쿨.한국/ + 종로엠학원.한국
Korea Communications Commission (KCC) 방송통신위원회 방통위.한국
Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) 한글도메인.한국 & 도메인.한국
Korea Meteorological Administration 기상청.한국/
Seochang Elementary School 서창초등학교.한국
Songpa-gu Office, Seoul 송파구청.한국

Chinese Companies 3

2011-04-13T02:15:00.000-07:00

Following on from my previous posts Chinese Companies and Chinese Companies 2 I will now try for another 100 Chinese IDNs.

Agricultural Supplier 北京红瑞翔科技发展有限公司中国农业商城.中国
Aidihua Lighting 中山市爱的华家照明发展有限公司爱的华.中国
Ānpéiēn Women's & Children's Supplies 汕头市安培恩妇幼用品实业有限公司双胞宝贝.中国 & 邦驰路.中国
Bǎodìng Xiangyang Gerardi Machinery 保定向阳吉拉蒂机械有限公司精密工装.中国 & 向阳吉拉蒂.中国 & 精密夹具.中国 & 精密平口钳.中国
Běijīng Golden Grapevine Growers 北京金葡萄藤商贸有限公司金葡萄滕.中国
Běijīng Tiānzhú Airport Economic Development Zone 北京天竺空港经济开发区空港经济开发区.中国
Biepa Electrical 江西欧司朗实业发展有限公司别帕.中国
C&C Trucks 联合卡车.中国 & 聯合卡車.中國
Challenger 沈阳鑫长得科技发展有限公司鑫长得.中国
Changshu Fadong Plastic 常熟市发东塑业有限公司购物篮.中国 & 发东.中国 & 带轮购物篮.中国 & 超市购物篮.中国
Chángzhōu Cuīqiáo Locks 常州市崔桥锁业有限公司崔桥锁业.中国
Chángzhōu Hydraulic Components 常州市第二液压件有限公司常州液压件.中国
Chángzhōu Shuāngjiā Chemical 常州市双佳化工有限公司水质稳定剂.中国 & 双佳化工.中国
Chéngdū Ōulu Electric Transmission Equipment 成都欧陆电气传动设备有限公司成都欧陆.中国
China Culture Network 中国文化建设传播网文化建设.中国 & 特色文化.中国 & 文化建设传播网.中国 & 特色文化网.中国
China Fireworks Net 中国花炮网花炮网.中国
Cíxī Míngxīn Lighting Technology 慈溪明鑫照明科技有限公司明鑫照明科技.中国
Délóng Video Equipment 德龙影像器材.中国
Dórvona Cosmetics 广州华澜化妆品有限公司华澜化妆品.中国
Fēnglián Supermarkets 丰联商贸有限责任公司丰联超市.中国
Fóshān Nánhǎi Jiǔjiāng Yuèhǎi Electric Heating Equipment Factory 佛山市南海区九江粤海电热设备厂广东包装机.中国 & 广东包装机械.中国 & 广东包装机械网.中国 & 床褥压缩包装机.中国 & 中国热收缩包装机.中国 & 粤海电热.中国
Fújiàn Seafood 福建海鲜网.中国
Guǎngdōng Great Scenery International Travel Service 广东风光国际旅行社有限公司风光天下.中国
Guǎngdōng Yìxīn Food Industrial 广东亿心食品工业有限公司亿心食品.中国
Guǎngxī Post 广西区邮政公司广西邮政.中国 & 廣西郵政.中國
Guǎngzhōu CLG Electric Equipment 广州兰格电气设备有限公司电池设备网.中国
Guǎngzhōu Coma Electronics 广州市科马电子有限公司停车场系统.中国
Guǎngzhōu LeeChan Mechanical Equipment 广州市力辰机械设备有限公司力辰.中国
Gynostemma Jiǎogǔlán 绞股蓝.中国
Hángzhōu Jūtài Real Estate Marketing 杭州居泰房地产营销策划有限公司居泰.中国
Hénán Cross-Strait Trade 河南省两岸经贸进出口有限公司河南两岸经贸.中国
Hēngrùn Machinery 广东省潮安县亨润机械厂亨润机械.中国 & 亨润.中国
Héngshuǐ Yùxīng Wheels Factory 衡水玉兴轮业制造厂全铁轮.中国
Húběi Construction Group 湖北地建集团地建集团.中国 & 湖北地建.中国
Húběi Sāngtián Printing 湖北桑田印刷策划有限公司桑田.中国
Jialogo 健康家快乐购美凯龙.中国 & 家乐购.中国 & 生态家居.中国
Jiāngmén Huatai Plastic Manufacturing 江门市华翔塑业有限公司华翔塑业.中国 & 華翔塑業.中國
Jiāngxī Xìnhe Property Management 江西信和物业有限公司江西灯具供应商.中国
Jiēdōng Xīhuángshān Foods 揭东县溪黄山食品有限公司溪黄山.中国
Jíměi Express Hotel 北京集美家居市场集团有限公司集美快捷酒店.中国
Jīntán Sūnán Experimental Facilities 金坛市苏南试验设备有限公司高低温交变湿热试验箱.中国 & 盐雾试验箱.中国
Jiǔxīnjū Business Hotel 久馨居商旅酒店久馨居.中国 & 久馨居.中國
Lìdá Optical and Electronic 利达光电股份有限公司利达光电.中国 & 利达股份.中国 & 南阳利达.中国 & 利达光电股份有限公司.中国
Lìtiān Century 安徽皖投力天世纪空气净化系统工程有限公司力天世纪.中国
Lola Ceramics 易居远东建材连锁楼兰陶瓷.中国
Luna Cosmetics 北京光明日化有限责任公司露奈.中国 & 光明日化.中国
Míngchú Shìjiā 聊城市新恒基食品有限公司名厨世家.中国
Níngbō Jiǔyuán Electronics 宁波久源电子有限公司久源电子.中国
Níngguó Tiānyī Wear Resistant Material 宁国市天一耐磨材料有限公司天一耐磨.中国
Níngxià Yínchuān Xītǎ Antiques 宁夏银川西塔古玩城一品堂天下收藏.中国
Online Insurance Supermarket 网上保险超市保险.中国
Qīngdǎo Saileer Storage Cell 青岛赛力尔蓄电池有限公司青岛蓄电池.中国
Qīngdǎo Shùnyáng Food 青岛顺洋食品有限公司顺洋.中国
Rariro Golf & Turf Equipment 广州豪龙农业机械有限公司雷利诺.中国
Rónggǎng Coffee 荣港咖啡振瑞.中国
Ruì'ān Hǎibà Sanitary 瑞安市海霸洁具有限公司海霸洁具.中国
Sais Technology 广西南宁市赛胜科技有限公司赛胜.中国
Sero Electric 东莞市瑟诺电器有限公司瑟诺电器.中国 & 瑟诺.中国
Shànghǎi Appliances Research Institute 上海欣荣燃具研究所上海欣荣.中国
Shànghǎi Fùdàn Argosy Functional Material 上海复旦安佳信功能材料有限公司膨胀玻化微珠.中国 & 无机保温砂浆.中国 & 复旦安佳信.中国 & 安佳信.中国
Shànghǎi Huayìtáng Art Object 上海华艺堂艺术品有限公司华艺堂.中国
Shànghǎi Laboratory Instrument Works 上海实验仪器厂有限公司试验箱.中国
Shànghǎi Nicechem 上海优品生化有限公司化学试剂网.中国
Shànghǎi Shàngchuán Equipment 上海上船机电设备有限公司上船机电.中国
Shànghǎi Zhonghǎilóng New Energy 上海中海龙新能源有限公司中海龙集团.中国
Shàntóu Wau Phen Food 汕头市万盼食品有限公司万盼食品.中国 & 佳特糖果.中国 & 百旺糖果.中国
Shàoxīng Fēnglóng Electrical Machinery 绍兴锋龙电机有限公司锋龙电机.中国
Shěnyáng Hóngjī Wooden 沈阳宏基木业有限公司路易维克.中国 & 禧路.中国
Shěnyáng Jùtàixīn Economy & Trade 沈阳聚泰鑫经贸有限公司环保灶供应商.中国 & 商检.中国 & 沈阳北站.中国 & 中国环保灶.中国 & 北京环保灶.中国 & 沈阳环保灶.中国 & 针灸网.中国
Shēnzhèn Jīngdágōng Measuring Instruments 深圳市精达工量有限公司卡尺.中国 & 深圳工量具.中国
Shēnzhèn Zhìyuǎnchéng Technology 深圳市致远诚科技有限公司无线传输.中国
Shíjiāzhuāng Déyuan Instruments 石家庄德远仪器设备有限公司天平仪器.中国
Siemion Electric 美国西蒙电气（中国）有限公司西蒙电工.中国
SleepLotus 睡荷深圳市华爱嘉科技有限公司太空枕.中国
Special Offers Information 特价信息.中国
Sunpu Opto Semiconductor 宁波升谱光电半导体有限公司升谱光电.中国
Sūzhōu Jade Network 苏作(苏州)玉器网琢.中国
Sūzhōu Yōng Seiko 苏州雍均精工有限公司雍均.中国
Tiānjīn Jūnwàng Rubber and Plastic Products 天津市君旺橡塑制品有限公司君旺.中国
Tōngqí Logistics 广东通齐国际运输有限公司通齐.中国
Tribest Dental Products 镇江健而乐牙科器材有限公司牙宝宝.中国
Wànlóng Hardware Wire Mesh Production 安平县万隆五金丝网制品有限公司镀锌电焊网.中国
Websites World 网站世界网站世界.中国
Wēnzhōu Ruìxiáng Footwear 温州市瑞祥鞋料商城鞋料商城.中国
Wēnzhōu Wǔxìn Valves 温州五信阀门有限公司中国红丝砚.中国
Wǔhàn Weddings 武汉茗菲婚典礼仪顾问有限公司武汉婚庆公司.中国
Wúxī Fùdá Welding Equipment 无锡富达焊接成套设备有限公司铣边机.中国 & 自动焊接设备.中国
Wúxī Tongcheng Machine Manufacture 无锡通成机械制造有限公司输煤设备.中国
Wúxī Xuělàng Electricity Cooler Factory 无锡市雪浪电力冷却器厂中国风电冷却器.中国
Xùndào Wire & Cable 深圳市讯道实业有限公司讯道实业.中国
Xúzhōu Yàdiǎn Decoration Engineering 徐州亚典装饰工程有限公司徐州装饰.中国
Yángzhōng Jīnyuán Chemical Electrical Equipment 扬中市金元化工电力设备厂金釜电器.中国
Yāntái Zhìshèng Water Purifying Products 烟台至盛净水设备有限公司烟台净水器.中国
YǒuYǒu Hardware Store 有有商城.中国
Zǎoqiáng Yǒngshèng Hardware Factory 枣强县永盛五金工具厂铸造工具.中国
Zhèjiāng Magnetic Electrical Equipment 浙江中磁电工器材有限公司绕组线.中国
Zhèjiāng SF Oilless Bearings 浙江双飞无油轴承有限公司双飞轴承.中国
Zhèjiāng Xiànghóng Electric Appliance 浙江向宏电子电器有限公司辅助开关.中国 & 向宏.中国
Zhènjiāng Chéngyuè Machinery 镇江市诚悦机电有限公司除铁器公司.中国
Zhūzhōu Cemented Carbide Group 株洲硬质合金集团有限公司硬质材料.中国

App Language Launching

2011-04-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

My quest was to launch multiple instances of Mac OSX 10.6 TextEdit using Terminal where each instance has it's User Interface (UI) in a different language. The TextEdit UI language being independent from the Finder UI language. TextEdit is currently available in 18 UI languages ie 18 localizations:-

Chinese Simplified [zh-Hans]
Chinese Traditional [zh-Hant]
Danish [da]
Dutch [nl]
English [en]
Finnish [fi]
French [fr]
German [de]
Italian [it]
Japanese [ja]
Korean [ko]
Norwegian [nb]
Polish [pl]
Portugese [pt]
Portugese Portugal [pt-PT]
Russian [ru]
Spanish [es]
Swedish [sv]

The text in the brackets [ ] is the language tag for the language. The language tag rather than the full language name is used in the following terminal session commands. First the command to launch TextEdit in Japanese. I give two command line methods:-

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit -AppleLanguages '(ja)'
open -a TextEdit --args -AppleLanguages '(ja)'

Now to launch four simultaneous instances of TextEdit. The instances are Korean, Japanese, Chinese Simplified and English.

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit -AppleLanguages '(ko)'&
/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit -AppleLanguages '(ja)'&
/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit -AppleLanguages '(zh-Hans)'&
/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit -AppleLanguages '(en)'&

Alternatively use the open command with the -n option. The -n option will result in a new instance of an App even if one is already running.

open -n -a TextEdit --args -AppleLanguages '(ko)'
open -n -a TextEdit --args -AppleLanguages '(ja)'
open -n -a TextEdit --args -AppleLanguages '(zh-Hans)'
open -n -a TextEdit --args -AppleLanguages '(en)'

I assume that these methods can be used with all Apple Apps but I have not yet investigated.

Thank you to Douglas Davidson for the lead on the -AppleLanguages command line argument.

Baidu 3D Maps

2011-03-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered that Bǎidù 百度 have 3D maps. I think these maps are very impressive and visually stunning. I much prefer these 3D maps to satellite images and find them easier to navigate.

I assume that they are using a design/3D modelling App where each building is an object. Each building object then being fitted to an underlying street map. One day I will find out exactly how they do construct these 3D maps.

It is still very much a work in progress. Few cities, as yet, have 3D maps. Below I have given links to city 3D maps. As the Bǎidù 3D map coverage encompasses other cities I will add further links.

Běijīng 北京 j.map.baidu.com/Hw5e
Guǎngzhōu 广州 j.map.baidu.com/2aEL
Shànghǎi 上海 j.map.baidu.com/q7YL
Shēnzhèn 深圳 j.map.baidu.com/w8YL

I gather from Offbeat China that these maps are a collaborative venture between Bǎidù and O.cn. It looks to me like the 3D map technology is attributable to O.cn and the joint venture is the integration with the Bǎidù map service.

Below, I list direct links to the O.cn 3D maps. As I compiled the list, much to my surprise and delight, I noticed that some of the maps have traffic in the form of animated vehicles. I have marked these with ✰. Look out also for an Airship, a Flying Saucer and animated Billboards. All very impressive stuff ☺

Běijīng 北京 bj.o.cn
Bèngbù 蚌埠, Ānhuī Province 安徽省 bb.o.cn ✰
Chángzhōu 常州, Jiāngsū Province 江苏省 cz.o.cn
Dōngguǎn 东莞, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 dongguan.o.cn
Dōngyíng 东营, Shāndōng Province 山东省 dy.o.cn
Fúzhōu 福州, Fújiàn Province 福建省 fz.o.cn
Guǎngzhōu 广州, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 gz.o.cn
Guìyáng 贵阳, Guìzhōu Province 贵州省 gy.o.cn
Huángshān 黄山, Ānhuī Province 安徽省 hs.o.cn
Jiāngmén 江门, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 jm.o.cn
Jìnchéng 晋城, Shānxī Province 山西省 www.jc08.com
Kù'ěrlè 库尔勒 kel.o.cn
Kūnmíng 昆明, Yúnnán Province 云南省 km.o.cn
Liáoyáng 辽阳, Liáoníng Province 辽宁省 liaoyang.o.cn
Lóngyán 龙岩, Fújiàn Province 福建省 ly.o.cn
Lóudǐ 娄底, Húnán Province 湖南省 loudi.o.cn ✰
Luòyáng 洛阳, Hénán Province 河南省 www.3dluoyang.com ✰
Macau Àomén 澳门 macau.o.cn
Quánzhōu 泉州, Fújiàn Province 福建省 qz.o.cn
Shànghǎi 上海, #China 中国 sh.o.cn
Shēnzhèn 深圳, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 sz.o.cn
Shíyàn 十堰, Húběi Province 湖北省 www.3dsy.cn
Sūzhōu 苏州, Jiāngsū Province 江苏省 www.meedoo.cn
Tàiyuán 太原, Shānxī Province 山西省 taiyuan.o.cn ✰
Wǔhàn 武汉, Húběi Province 湖北省 wuhan.o.cn
Wúhú 芜湖, Ānhuī Province 安徽省 wuhu.o.cn
Wújiāng 吴江, Jiāngsū Province 江苏省 wujiang.o.cn
Yánchéng 盐城, Jiāngsū Province 江苏省 yancheng.o.cn
Yìwū 义乌, Zhèjiāng Province 浙江省 yiwu.o.cn
Zhūhǎi 珠海, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 zhuhai.o.cn ✰
Zhūzhōu 株洲, Húnán Province 湖南省 zhuzhou.o.cn ✰

edushi.com E都市 also provide a 3D Map service. edushi.com has 3D maps for some of the same cities as provided by O.cn. Below, I have listed only those cities that are not included in the O.cn list above.

Ānkāng 安康, Shǎnxī Province 陕西省 ankang.edushi.com
Chángchūn 长春, Jílín Province 吉林省 changchun.edushi.com
Chéngdū 成都, Sìchuān Province 四川省 chengdu.edushi.com
Dàlián 大连, Liáoníng Province 辽宁省 dalian.edushi.com
Dūjiāngyàn 都江堰, Sìchuān Province 四川省 dujiangyan.edushi.com
Dūnhuà 敦化, Yánbiān Korean Autonomous Prefecture 延边朝鲜族自治州, Jílín Province 吉林省 dunhua.edushi.com
Fǔshùn 抚顺, Liáoníng Province 辽宁省 fushun.edushi.com
Hā'ěrbīn 哈尔滨, Hēilóngjiāng Province 黑龙江省 haerbin.edushi.com
Hángzhōu 杭州, Zhèjiāng Province 浙江省 hangzhou.edushi.com
Hànzhōng 汉中, Shǎnxī Province 陕西省 hanzhong.edushi.com
Hong Kong 香港, Simplified Chinese 简体 hongkong.edushi.com
Hong Kong 香港, Traditional Chinese 繁体 hongkong.edushi.com/?l=zh-cht
Húnchūn 珲春, Yánbiān Korean Autonomous Prefecture 延边朝鲜族自治州, Jílín Province 吉林省 hunchun.edushi.com
Jǐnzhōu 锦州, Liáoníng Province 辽宁省 jinzhou.edushi.com
Lángfāng 廊坊, Héběi Province 河北省 langfang.edushi.com
Lúzhōu 泸州, Sìchuān Province 四川省 luzhou.edushi.com
Nánchōng 南充, Sìchuān Province 四川省 nanchong.edushi.com
Níngbō 宁波, Zhèjiāng Province 浙江省 ningbo.edushi.com
Qínhuángdǎo 秦皇岛, Héběi Province 河北省 qinhuangdao.edushi.com
Sháoguān 韶关, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 shaoguan.edushi.com
Shíjiāzhuāng 石家庄, Héběi Province 河北省 shijiazhuang.edushi.com
Suìníng 遂宁, Sìchuān Province 四川省 suining.edushi.com
Tiānjīn 天津 tianjin.edushi.com
Wēnjiāng 温江, Sìchuān Province 四川省 wenjiang.edushi.com
Wūlǔmùqí／Ürümqi 乌鲁木齐, Xīnjiāng Uyghur Autonomous Region 新疆维吾尔自治区 wulumuqi.edushi.com
Xi'an 西安, Shǎnxī Province 陕西省 xian.edushi.com
Yánjí 延吉, Yánbiān Korean Autonomous Prefecture 延边朝鲜族自治州, Jílín Province 吉林省 yanji.edushi.com
Yíngkǒu 营口, Liáoníng Province 辽宁省 yingkou.edushi.com
Yúnfú 云浮, Guǎngdōng Province 广东省 yunfu.edushi.com

HK

2011-03-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong's idn ccTLD 香港 is now live!

Activities HK 香港情報網情報.香港 & 刊物.香港
Allan Dyer's Blog 狂放.戴.公司.香港
Brand Hong Kong 亞洲國際都會.香港 & 亚洲国际都会.香港
Brand Marketing 长沙米拓信息技术有限公司品牌營銷.香港
Charles Design Studio 確定.香港
Cilla Kung Fansite 樂瞳.香港 & 乐瞳.香港
Day Dream TV 幻想電視幻想電視.屈機.香港
Diving Adventure 潜水历险会.香港
Easybuy 購物易.公司.香港
Find Home 搵屋.香港 & 揾屋.香港
FlexSystem 人力資源管理系統.香港
Foresoon Computer Accessories Forum 廣場 - 科訊電腦配件小而科討論區電腦節.香港
Hong Kong Art School 香港藝術學院.教育.香港 & 香港藝術學院.香港 & 藝術學院.香港 & 香港艺术学院.教育.香港 & 香港艺术学院.香港 & 艺术学院.香港
Hong Kong Companies Registry Services 注册.公司.香港
Hong Kong Post 香港郵政.香港
iGen6 New Media Company 越世代創新媒體有限公司新媒體.公司.香港
Joel Li 祺.香港
Joey Yung 容祖兒.香港
Just Climb 香港攀石訓練學會攀石場.香港
MaD - Make a Difference 創不同.香港
Miru 組播數據傳輸見.香港
My Hosting 网存.公司.香港 & 網存.公司.香港
OK Forum 討論區確定.香港
Online Shopping 网购.香港
Soweb Hosting 禾盈數位網絡有限公司中文域名.香港
Tong Li Publishing Group 東立出版集團有限公司東立.香港
United-Trans 聯營貨運.公司.香港
University of Hong Kong 香港大學.教育.香港 & 香港大學.香港 & 港大.香港 & 港大.教育.香港
Vampires (Hong Kong) 網.僵屍.公司.香港
xenForo 火火.香港

iFruit

2011-03-14T04:52:00.000-07:00

Danny 大霓 and Elaine 爱兰 Round have adopted the name iFruit for their Loughborough 拉夫堡 Market Fruit and Veg stall. I have produced a poster for them that reflects their name. There is much more to the poster than first meets the eye. But first a visual of my poster:-

A second version of the poster with business contact details.

The name transforms in steps from the English iFruit to the Chinese 爱水果. The Chinese character 爱, in this context, means Loves or Likes. 爱 is pronounced the same as the English letter i. Thus 爱Fruit is pronounced the same as iFruit. 水果 is the Chinese for Fruit. The three forms of the name now take on the meanings Love Fruit or Like Fruit.

The Emoticons and the Fruits on the poster are characters in new Unicode blocks introduced in Unicode version 6.0.0. The Unicode blocks they belong to are:

Miscellaneous Symbols & Pictographs U+1F300⇒1F5FF
Emoticons U+1F600⇒1F64F

The specific characters I used are:

U+1F347 GRAPES
U+1F349 WATERMELON
U+1F352 CHERRIES
U+1F353 STRAWBERRY
U+1F603 SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH
U+1F604 SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND SMILING EYES
U+1F60B FACE SAVOURING DELICIOUS FOOD
U+1F60C RELIEVED FACE

If you want to use characters in these new Unicode blocks then you will need a font with the glyphs. I highly recommend the excellent and free Symbola font.

I produced these posters on a Mac using Pages which is one of the Apps in Apple's 爱Work bundle.

Chinese Tones

2011-03-09T09:27:00.001-08:00

Recently, in one of my International Computing lectures, I was demonstrating the use of the Unicode Combining Diacritical Marks. I was using Latin letters as my base character and combining various combinations of diacritcs. As was expected they worked fine.

Then an idea occurred to me. I wondered if the diacritics would combine appropriately with Chinese characters. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that with TextEdit on Mac OSX they combined rather well. Later I tried with various Word Processors and the results of combining were either poor or non-existant.

The next step was to try it with web pages. Combining did not work at all with the browsers I tried. I then used html5 Ruby Annotation and that works quite well, as below.

北 ̬京 ̱欢 ̱迎 ̗你 ̬

The Combining Diacritical Marks I have used for the annotation are:-

U+0316 COMBINING GRAVE ACCENT BELOW
U+0317 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT BELOW
U+032C COMBINING CARON BELOW
U+0331 COMBINING MACRON BELOW

jShortener

2011-03-04T03:13:00.000-08:00

There is an excellent Japanese URL shortening service at 縮.jp This service uses Japanese Kanji characters instead of ASCII characters to form the shortened address. There are far more Kanji characters than ASCII characters and so one can produce shorter addresses.

The site refers to the 1981 Jouyou Kanji 常用漢字 which contains 1945 characters. Thus with just two Kanji characters there are 3783025 unique combinations. With three Kanji characters there are 7357983625 unique combinations.

The 2010 Jouyou Kanji has 2136 characters and so would generate many more shortened addresses for a given number of characters used in the shortened form. I am, though, assuming that this service is using the 1981 Jouyou Kanji character set.

The shortened addresses are ideal for use with Twitter because of current Twitter system deficiencies. ㊀地図.縮.jp and ㊁ ta.gd/ラフバラー both resolve to a Google Japanese map of Loughborough. ㊀ works with Twitter but ㊁ does not because the pathname part of the address contains non ASCII characters.

Here are some of my shortened URLs where I have let this service choose the Kanji characters. My observations lead me to deduce that the Kanji are being allocated in Dictionary order ie by radical and then by number of strokes.

Here are some customised shortened URLs where I chose the Kanji characters.

Loughborough T-shirts

2011-02-23T01:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took delivery of 50 new T-shirts. These T-shirts have been procured as part of an initiative to promote and internationalise Loughborough Market. The internationalised part is that the T-shirts have Loughborough Market printed on them in Chinese and Japanese. Specifically, 25 Chinese T-shirts and 25 Japanese T-shirts.

Chinese T-shirt: One of the transliterations for Loughborough in Chinese is 拉夫堡. Market in Chinese is 市场 which is a translation. So together that gives us 拉夫堡市场 for Loughborough Market.

Japanese T-shirt: One of the transliterations for Loughborough in Japanese is ラフバラ. Market in Japanese is 市場 which is a translation. So together that gives us ラフバラ市場 for Loughborough Market.

Thank you to Roger Stone for the T-shirt suggestion and thank you to One Stop Promotions for printing the T-shirts.

Thailand is Live

2011-01-19T05:03:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week Thailand's idn ccTLD ไทย went live. Below are some web addresses using the ไทย ccTLD. My knowledge of Thai is non existent so I will only give the English name when it is shown on the site.

Those of you that are using Safari will see the list below numbered in Thai.

DotArai [Domain Name Registrar] ดอทอะไร.ไทย
Franchise Business แฟรนไชส์.ไทย
iRPG Update ไออาร์พีจี.ไทย
KhaoJai - Thai Language Translation Services เข้าใจ.ไทย
Motorcycle Thailand มอเตอร์ไซค์เคิล.ไทย
Smile Pro Video รับถ่ายวีดีโอ.ไทย
Thai Decoration & Construction Materials Mart ไทยเดคคอนมาร์ท.ไทย
Thai Network Information Center Foundation มูลนิธิทีเอชนิค.องค์กร.ไทย
Web Games เว็บเกมส์.ไทย
เครื่องจักร.ไทย
ผ้าม่าน.ไทย
บิน.ไทย
ลูกทุ่ง.ไทย
เรื่องย่อละคร.ไทย

Cork

2010-12-31T08:35:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon an impressive family of Chinese IDNs. All these IDNs belong to Gērùn 歌润, a Company that specialises in Cork products such as flooring and wall panels. The difference between these IDNs is in the initial two characters which are the names of the cities in which this Company has stores.

The website adapts content according to the IDN used to access the site. On the contact (联系方法) page there is a store location map according to the city specified in the IDN. Apart from Yìwū the maps used are Google maps.

Běijīng 歌润北京店北京软木地板墙板.中国
Chéngdū 歌润成都店成都软木地板墙板.中国
Dōngyíng 歌润东营店东营软木地板墙板.中国
Jìnchéng 歌润晋城店晋城软木地板墙板.中国
Níngbō 歌润宁波店宁波软木地板墙板.中国
Shēnzhēn 歌润深圳店深圳软木地板墙板.中国
Tàiyuán 歌润太原店太原软木地板墙板.中国
Xī'ān 歌润西安店西安软木地板墙板.中国
Yìwū 歌润义乌店义乌软木地板墙板.中国
Zhèngzhōu 歌润郑州店郑州软木地板墙板.中国

Update: I found nine of the above addresses using the search engines site operator. I noticed the pattern and was thus able to group them into a family. Recently I discovered the Company's Sina (新浪) blog.

☺。blog.sina.com.cn/xabear

One of the articles in this blog announces and lists their Chinese IDN addresses. Ten of them!

☺。blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5920dea90100mxvi.html

The address I had not found with the search engines was ㊉ Zhèngzhōu.

Chinese Companies 2

2010-12-18T04:51:00.000-08:00

In my previous article Chinese Companies I listed 100 IDN web addresses. I compiled that list of idn addresses from 1st August 2009 to 18th December 2010. Considering that China went live with IDNs on 9th July 2009 I think it impressive that in a relatively short period of time so many Chinese Companies have registered and implemented IDN web addresses. I note that mostly they implement only the Simplified Chinese form of the address even though they do also automatically receive the Traditional Chinese form when an address is registered.
Considering the last list reached the 100 milestone I will now start a fresh list of Chinese Companies IDN web addresses.

Ahoo Film & Television 阿虎（北京）国际影视传媒文化发展有限公司影视广告制作.中国
Ānhuī Bentonite Mining Technology 安徽膨润矿业科技有限公司膨润土矿.中国
Ānhuī Innovative Electronic Technology 安徽创新电子科技有限公司创新未来.中国
Běijīng Hángyuǎnhóng Technology 北京航远鸿高科技有限公司角度传感器.中国
Běijīng Jiǔxiān E-Commerce 北京酒仙电子商务有限公司酒仙网.中国 & 酒仙網.中國
Běijīng Mozilla Network Technology 北京谋智网络技术有限公司火狐.中国
Běijīng Róngkē Huáchuāng Technology Development 北京融科华创科技发展有限公司融科华创.中国
Běijīng-Shànghǎi Express Rail Link 京沪高铁商务网京沪高铁.中国
BJSXSoft 北京万国思迅软件有限公司思迅.中国 & 思迅.com
CatchBEST Vision Technologies 凯视佳科技（北京）有限公司工业相机.中国
CCBC Credit-China Business Clinic 石家庄中鼎营销咨询有限公司企业门诊.中国
Chángzhōu Qīnghóng Chemicals 常州清红化工有限公司苯酐.中国 & 呔哔克.中国 & 清红化工.中国
Chéngdū Jīnquán Water Treatment 成都金泉净化水处理有限公司成都金泉.中国
Chéngdū Línyùn Furniture 成都林韵家具有限公司林海东方韵.中国
Chéngdū Sānlǐ Fisheries Seafood 成都市三礼水产海鲜行有机食品代理.中国
Chinese Style Classical Decoration 中国古典印象中式装饰有限公司中式装修.中国 & 古典印象.中国 & 中式设计.中国
Chinese Suit 中山市华人礼服有限公司华人礼服中山装.中国
Chóngqìng Lèěrjiā Machinery 重庆市乐尔佳机械有限公司乐尔佳.中国
Dé-Yù Lighting 广州市德钰照明有限公司德钰照明.中国
Dézhōu Yín'ān Asset Management 德州银安资产管理有限公司银安资产.中国
Dōngguǎn rongxingfeiersheng Air Compressor Equipment 东莞市嵘兴菲尔盛空压机设备行空压机保养.中国
Doublebridge Surveying Instruments 新乡市双桥测绘仪器有限公司新乡测绘仪器.中国
ESD Supermarket 青岛世科电子产业有限公司防静电产品超市.中国
Eximious 常州云杰仕(傑牌)机械有限公司杰牌.中国
Fènghuáng Tea 潮州市天羽茶业有限公司潮州工夫茶网.中国 & 凤凰单丛茶.中国
Fóshān Nánhǎi Xīnyuán Electronics 佛山市南海區欣源电子有限公司欣源电子.中国
Fújiàn Sīchén Fabric Structures 福建思晨膜结构技术有限公司膜结构设计.中国
Fùměijiā Decoration 扬州富美佳装饰装潢公司扬州装潢.中国
Golden Abacus 金算盘通信信息科技有限公司金算盘通信.中国
Good Sight (Xiàmén) Autoparts 美赛特（厦门）汽车零部件有限公司美赛特.中国
Guǎngdōng Zhàoqìng Détōng 广东肇庆德通有限公司不锈钢通风机.中国
Guǎngxī Píngxiáng Red Wood Furniture 广西凭祥市好家思红木家具行好家思.中国
Guǎngzhōu Sàiyà Design 广州市赛亚广告设计有限公司广州喷画.中国
Guǎnli Environment Technology 管丽环境技术（上海）有限公司市政非开挖.中国
Guómào Agriculture 哈尔滨市国茂农业科技有限公司国茂农业.中国
Hángzhōu HR Management 杭州华顺人力资源管理有限公司杭州华顺.中国
Hángzhōu Xiǎowánzi Foods 杭州小丸子食品有限公司小丸子.中国
Háotíngjū Furnishings 深圳市豪庭居投资有限公司豪庭居.中国
Héběi Huaqiang Technology Development 河北华强科技开发有限公司玻璃钢供水管道.中国 & 高压管道.中国 & 玻璃钢排水管道.中国
Hénán Chéngdá Cotton Yarn 河南诚达棉纺织有限公司棉纱线.中国
Hénán Xīnzhèng Resin 河南省新郑市树脂厂新郑树脂.中国
Hēngkāi Trading 亨开贸易（上海）有限公司奥安.中国
Héngshuǐ Shuàiyìn Rubber & Plastic Products 衡水帅印橡塑制品有限公司衡水橡塑制品.中国
Huángshān Xīnlín Bamboo Industry 黄山市鑫琳竹业有限公司竹搏金.中国
Huáshùn Technology 广州华顺科技有限公司华顺科技.中国 & 大型模拟机.中国 & 篮球机.中国 & 娱乐机.中国
Inner Mongolia Chìfēng Restaurant Food 内蒙古赤峰家餐馆食品有限公司宅火锅.中国 & 羔羊肉.中国 & 宅烧烤.中国 & 鸟鸡肉.中国 & 酷牛肉.中国 & 野猪肉.中国 & 家餐馆.中国 & 藏酷双宝.中国 & 藏酷三宝.中国 & 稻鸟米.中国 & 稻鸭米.中国 & 黑猪肉.中国 & 藏牛肉.中国 & 蒙牛肉.中国 & 笨猪肉.中国 & 宅面坊.中国 & 杂粮面.中国 & 宅茶吧.中国 & 宅酒吧.中国 & 宅米饭.中国 & 宅咖啡.中国
International Hàotiān Technology 厦门浩添冷链科技有限公司包式冰箱.中国
Jiade Sanitary 中山市嘉德卫浴有限公司中山淋浴房.中国
Jílín Chāngyì Toad Breeding Cooperative 吉林市昌邑区永发蟾蜍养殖专业合作社蟾衣.中国
Jǐnán Jīngāng Machinery Manufacturing 济南金罡机械制造有限公司磨样机.中国
Lánzhōu Education Technology 兰州学乐教育科技有限公司学乐教育.中国
Liáoníng Tóngzé Shock Absorbers 辽宁同泽减震器有限公司同泽.中国 & 同泽减震器.中国
Línyí Guótài Fasteners 临沂国泰紧固件科技有限公司国泰紧固件.中国
Liquid Wallpaper 摩尔贝蒂液体壁纸有限公司摩尔贝蒂.中国
MainTone 深圳市美安通科技有限公司平安节能.中国
Masterstyle 河北征帆贸易有限公司格调大师.中国 & 格調大師.中國
Níngbō Bóxǐ Import Export 宁波市博玺进出口有限公司博玺百货.中国
Packaging World 包装世界.中国
Qīngdǎo Huáxīn Casting Machinery 青岛华鑫克斯顿机械有限公司射芯机.中国 & 砂处理.中国 & 造型机.中国
Qīngdǎo Jīnjīng 青岛金晶股份有限公司超白玻璃.中国 & 超白玻璃.中國
Senparc Network Technology 苏州盛派网络科技有限公司苏州建站.中国
Shāndōng Xìnchéng Biochemical Technology 山东信诚生物化工技术有限公司西地那非.中国
Shāndōng Zībó Kūnshí Abrasives 山东淄博昆石金属制品有限公司昆石磨料.中国
Shànghǎi Biese Mechanical & Electrical Equipment 上海比泽机电设备科技有限公司上海比泽.中国
Shànghǎi Dōngtān Wetland Park 上海东滩国际湿地有限公司东滩湿地.中国 & 東灘濕地.中國
Shànghǎi Lawns 上海秀谷绿化工程有限公司上海草坪.中国
Shànghǎi Sanme Mining Machinery 上海山美重型矿山机械有限公司山美.中国
Shànghǎi Wéikěxīn Information Technology 上海潍可昕信息技术有限公司建站公司.中国 & 网站改版.中国
Shànghǎi Xiānguān Foods 上海仙冠食品有限公司一年茶叶.中国 & 一年.中国 & 一年茶.中国 & 一年茶业.中国
Shǎnxī Logistics 陕西省商业储运总公司商储物流.中国
Shèngtài Machinery & Tools 泰州市盛泰机电工具有限公司盛泰工具.中国 & 顺泰.中国
Shēnzhèn Aosion Photoelectricity 深圳市奥讯光电有限公司驱鼠器.中国
Shēnzhèn Jīnlìtài Plumbing 深圳金立泰水暖有限公司金立泰.中国
Shēnzhèn Marriage Agency 深圳市婚姻介绍所深圳婚介.中国 & 深圳婚介.中國
Shēnzhèn Shénzhōu Tōngdá Network Technology 深圳神州通达网络技术有限公司神州通达.中国
Shēnzhèn Tángyì Metal Industry 深圳市唐亿金属实业有限公司玩美空间.中国
Shēnzhèn Zhìzào LED 深圳深藉智造商业有限公司深圳智造.中国
Shíjiāzhuāng Xīnyuè Network Technology 石家庄新悦网络科技有限公司新悦网络.中国
Shùndé Dōngyà Termite Control 佛山市顺德区东亚白蚁防治有限公司顺德白蚁防治.中国
Shùnlì Steel 江苏顺力钢业集团顺力集团.中国
Sibrary Mobile E-Books 深圳市欣博阅科技有限公司欣博阅.中国
Sìfāng Livestock 四方祥隆畜牧科技股份有限公司四方畜牧.中国
Tea Center Online 茶城在线.中国 & 茶城在線.中國
Tiānjīn Xìntàigōng Science & Technology 天津信泰恭科技发展有限公司信泰恭.中国
Todaynic.com 广东时代互联科技有限公司时代互联.中国
TradeSNS 易家科技（大连）有限公司易之家.中国
Wéifāng Fúlái Boiler Equipment 潍坊福来锅炉节能设备科技有限公司福来锅炉.中国
Wúxī Xīnán Steel Pipes 无锡锡南钢管有限公司无锡无缝钢管.中国
Xiàmén Guóqiáo Mechanical 厦门国桥机械有限公司椰网.中国
Xiàmén Loowi Toys 厦门乐为坊玩具有限公司乐为坊.中国 & 乐为玩具.中国
Xingyitong Translation 新译通翻译公司.中国
Yāntái Yuǎnhóng Energy Technology 烟台远弘能源科技有限公司甲醇燃料.中国 & 醇醚燃料.中国
Yīdū Xīnpíng Machinery 宜都市鑫坪机械有限公司普通铸造.中国
Yocomodo Shànghǎi Shànměi Information Technology 上海善美信息科技有限公司囧豆.中国
Yǔlì Socks 宇力袜业有限公司袜子商城.中国
YUM! Restaurants (China) 百胜（中国）投资有限公司必胜宅急送.中国
Zībó Chem Trade 淄博凯姆经贸有限公司氯化聚乙烯.中国
Zībó Chénglìxìn Packaging Products 淄博诚立信包装制品有限公司纸阀口袋.中国
Zībó Shèngpǔsī Petrochemicals 淄博圣普斯石油化工有限公司圣普斯.中国
Zhūhǎi Gree Air Conditioning Appliances 珠海格力空调电器股份有限公司耐克森.中国 & 北京中央空调.中国

Meet All

2010-12-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

There is a Chinese Restaurant in Loughborough with the English name Meet All. It also has a Chinese name 金玉满堂 [jīn yù mǎn táng]. Bǎidù/百度 translates this into English as Treasures fill the home. I have found several references to and applications of 金玉满堂.

The Chinese name of a Hong Kong comedy-drama television series. 金玉滿堂
The Chinese name of a Hong Kong Film 金玉滿堂
An inscription on a Chinese numismatic charm. 金玉滿堂
It appears in chapter 9 of the Book of Dao [道德经] by Lǎozǐ [老子] 金玉滿堂 & 金玉滿堂
Classified as an idiom [成语] by 金玉满堂
There are several registrations of 金玉满堂 and 金玉滿堂 as IDN web addresses. So far I have only found one that resolves to a website 金玉滿堂.com
M-Girls have a song entitled 金玉滿堂
A Chinese Traditional/Classical instrumental 金玉滿堂

金玉满堂 is the Simplified Chinese form and 金玉滿堂 is the Traditional Chinese form. There are differences in the third character only. For the links in the list I have used the same form as the source reference.

Meet All [金玉满堂 [jīn yù mǎn táng]] can be found at:

5 The Rushes, Loughborough, LE11 5BE, England
tel: +44 1509 261717

View Larger Map

iSudoku

2010-11-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

Today I stumbled upon a Sudoku website that has interesting and clever Chinese IDNs.

Simplified Chinese 爱数独.中国
Traditional Chinese 愛數獨.中國

Both 爱数独 and 愛數獨 mean Love(s) Sudoku. The website concerns an App called iSudoku. Now to the clever part. 数独 and 數獨 mean Sudoku. 爱 and 愛 mean love. The romanization of 爱 and 愛 in both Chinese and Japanese is ai. The pronunciation of ai in both Chinese and Japanese is i. Thus iSudoku becomes 爱数独 or 愛數獨.

But what of the Japanese form of Love(s) Sudoku? In Japanese Kanji this would 愛数独. Well Huáng Jīng (黄晶) has already thought of this. 愛数独.中国 redirects to the Simplified Chinese address 爱数独.中国. I am totally impressed.

This adds a whole new dimension to the i prefix used by Apple. iPhone becomes Love Phone, iPad becomes Love Pad, iPod becomes Love Pod and iWork becomes Love Work ...etc... ☺

China Provinces

2010-11-07T03:12:00.000-08:00

The major administrative division of China is the province (shěng/省). Below, I list official provincial government websites with IDNs. Where applicable, I list both the Simplified and Traditional Chinese forms of the IDN.

Russian IDNs

2010-09-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Russian Federation idn ccTLD рф has been live for some time so it is time I had some рф addresses on my blog.

Дорожное Radio ДорожноеРадио.рф
Ферро Bank ФерроБанк.рф
Aspect Copy Center аспект.рф
Energis энергис.рф
Gazprom Neft газпромнефть.рф
Giga-Byte Technology гигабайт.рф
RM Company колоринг.рф
Sky Link Скай Линк скайлинк.рф
Slider Design слайдер.рф
Top Print топпринт.рф
Way Art вэйарт.рф
Zone.Rf - Goods & Services зоне.рф

Taiwan is Live

2010-08-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's idn ccTLDs 台湾 and 台灣 are now live. Here are some random finds:

Accommodation Management 安信租屋.台灣
Asia University 亞洲大學.台灣
Asia-Pacific Mobile Phones 亞太手機網亞太雙模.台灣
Atomic Energy Council 行政院原子能委員會.台灣 & 行政院原子能委员会.台湾
Baby & Mother 嬰兒與母親.台灣 & 婴儿与母亲.台湾
Baiyo Enterprise 百泑企業有限公司批發電視購物按摩器清潔用品.台灣 & 魔力家系列.台灣
Battery Specialist 電池專家.台灣
Breakfast Shop 早餐店.台灣
Carrefour 家福股份有限公司家樂福.台灣 & 家乐福.台湾
Central Bank of the Republic of China 中央銀行.台灣
Central Election Commission 中央選舉委員會.台灣
Chiali Meatballs 佳里肉圓.台灣
Chiayi County Government 嘉義縣政府.台灣
Chief Spa Hotel 台東天龍溫泉飯店台東飯店.台灣
Complete Marketing 整體行銷.台灣
Cōngwèi Chicken 蔥味雞.台灣
Copartner Tech Corp. 聯穎科技股份有限公司聯穎科技.台灣
Council for Cultural Affairs 行政院文化建設委員會.台灣
Disaster Mitigation 防災教育數位平台.台灣
DSG Technology 德士通科技股份有限公司網路通訊.台灣 & 网路通讯.台湾
English Vocabulary 江慶新英文單字學習法英文單字.台灣
Fashion Lighting Group 晶點流行燈飾流行燈飾.台灣
Food Reviews Blog 口口.台灣
George's Blog 生活的點點滴滴志吉.台灣
Happiness 幸福.台灣
Hóngdá Stinky Tofu 台南美食-鴻達臭豆腐創始店(不好吃免錢) 鴻達臭豆腐.台灣 & 不好吃免錢.台灣 & 台南美食.台灣 & 聞香下馬.台灣
iPhone 愛瘋手機.台灣
JoSheAi 就是愛生活合購網就是愛.台灣 & 就是爱.台湾
Kaohsiung City Government 高雄市政府.台灣
Kaohsiung County Government 高雄縣政府.台灣
Kinmen County Government 金門縣政府.台灣
Mandy Garden Magazines 蔓蒂花園外文雜誌雜誌訂閱.台灣
Měihuá Food Store 美華肉鬆.台灣
Ministry of Finance 財政部.台灣
Ministry of Economic Affairs 經濟部.台灣
Ministry of the Interior 中華民國內政部內政部.台灣
Mochiana Coffee 摩奇安娜.台灣
Money Savers 抗漲.台灣 & 抗涨.台湾
National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院.台灣 & 国立故宫博物院.台湾
Net Chinese 網路中文資訊股份有限公司網路中文.台灣 & 网路中文.台湾 & 網路中文.香港 & 网路中文.香港 & 網中.香港 & 网中.香港
Photographs 照片.台灣
Pingtung County Government 屏東縣政府.台灣
Rolling Dear 喜之坊食品有限公司喜之坊.台灣
Safety Windows 防墜鋼索窗.台灣
Sanwan Pears 台灣苗栗縣三灣鄉三灣梨.台灣
ShēngKǎi 笙凱 Ink & Toner Cartridges 笙凱科技有限公司碳粉匣.台灣
Sun Rehouse 台東日盛房屋日盛房屋.台灣
Ta-Lu Bookstore 大路國際文化出版事業股份有限公司大路書屋.台灣 & 大路书屋.台湾
Taitung County Government 臺東縣政府.台灣
Taiwan Network Information Center 台灣網路資訊中心台網中心.台灣 & 台网中心.台湾 & 我要一路發.台灣 & 愛上.台灣 & 爱上.台湾
Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council 臺灣省諮議會.台灣
Taoism 道教.台灣
TWM Solution 台灣大哥大股份有限公司台灣大電訊.台灣
Wénhóng Culture 文弘文化有限公司社區專屬產品布條通.台灣
Wòmǎ Insurance 沃馬保險經紀人股份有限公司沃馬保險.台灣 & 沃马保险.台湾
Yī Láng's Blog 蔡一郎的部落格蔡一郎.台灣 & 蔡一郎.台湾
Yilan County Government 宜蘭縣政府.台灣
Yunlin County Government 雲林縣政府.台灣
Zhāofù Foods 昭富食品花生酥.台

Internationalising Academia

2010-08-15T02:51:00.000-07:00

Most British Universities are now switched onto Internationalization. I have seen many statements of intent from British Universities. The intent being to internationalize their environment, their initiatives, their research and their curricula. Over the past few years I have been turning intent into practice. I have now incorporated aspects of internationalization into most of the modules I teach.

Many international students come to Britain to study. Most come for a Masters programme. They come for a British education and a British experience. I endeavour to turn this British education into a British + international education. It is my aim and practice to give my students the knowledge and skills that can be used globally.

So, how exactly do I achieve this? Below, for some of my modules, I give a brief description of some of my internationalisation initiatives.

Essential Skills for Computing (Eskills)

The international content of this module consists of one lecture entitled Fonts. In this lecture I, firstly, explain and demonstrate the Unicode Character Set. Then I explain and demonstrate Fonts and their relationship to the Unicode Character Set. There is a followup practical exercise. The students are tasked to construct a simple internationalised webpage using Mac OSX. The webpage is to contain characters from the Unicode Character Set eg arrows, mathematical symbols, enclosed alphanumerics, chinese, japanese, braille ...etc... The webpage is to be viewed from Mac OSX, Linux and Windows. The students are required to observe, analyse and explain differences between the views from Mac OSX, Linux and Windows.

Practical IT Systems

This is a three week module for MSc IT students. For the first week I teach PHP and some aspects of internationalizing websites. The students are allocated to teams and have two weeks to construct an Adaptive Internationalised Factlet Website. The basis of the website is a master set of factlets written in English. These factlets are translated into other languages/scripts. The language used for display of factlets will be determined automatically by the browser language setting or manually by the user language selection menu.

Rather than any further explanation from me it is better if you view one of the student websites for yourself → Internationalised Factlet Website

International Computing

This module is 100% internationalisation of Computing and IT. The topics I cover includes:

Characteristics of Languages & Scripts
Software Internationalisation & Localisation
Character Sets
Unicode Character Set
Unicode Transformation Formats
Fonts
Keyboard Mappings & Input Methods
Internationalizing Websites
Constructing AI (Adaptive Internationalized) Websites
Country Codes & Language Tags
IDNs (Internationalised Domain Names)

Students are only required to know English for this module. It is though essential to have knowledge of the characteristics of languages/scripts in order to internationalise computing. Characteristics I cover includes:

Chinese and Japanese do not use space to separate words
For a given sentence, Chinese requires less characters than English
Hangeul jamo (letters) are combined to form syllabic blocks
English words give no indication of syllable breaks

Student Projects

Most of the student projects I supervise are concerned with constructing AI (Adaptive Internationalised) websites. AI websites adapt content according to Browser Region, Browser Language, Browser Date and Browser Time. Each student is tasked to construct an AI website but each has a different content theme. Themes have, so far, included: Goscote Garden Centre, Loughborough's Chocolate Alchemy, Loughborough Market, Crazy English and Loughborough Student Union Shop.

There are so many adaptations that can be implemented in an AI website. Different themes will have different adaptations. Here are just a small number of the possible adaptations that can be implemented in an AI website.

display of Browser Region flag
display of text content in Browser Language language/script
display of date in Browser Region format
display of prices in Browser Region currency
display of Browser Region festival greetings according to Browser Date
display of time of day greetings according to Browser Time
...etc...

Taiwan's idn ccTLDs

2010-08-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's idn ccTLDs 台湾 and 台灣 were entered into the Root Name Servers on 14th July 2010. This does not though mean that they are now live. Taiwan's Registry Name Servers have not yet been set up to resolve 台湾 and 台灣.

The current situation is that a lookup of 台灣 gives the result "Non-Existent Domain". A lookup of 台湾 gives more interesting results. The Registry Name Servers are using DNAME to map 台湾 to 台灣 which, currently, is a non-existent domain.

I used www.simpledns.com/lookup-dg.aspx to perform a DNS delegation trace of 台湾 and 台灣 to determine the current state of Taiwan's Registry Name Servers. I used Taiwan's National Central University's web addresses for my tests. Their working addresses are:

Simplified Chinese 国立中央大学.tw
Traditional Chinese 國立中央大學.tw

For my tests I used the 台湾 and 台灣 forms of these addresses. In order to use the DNS delegation trace service one must use the punycode form of the addresses, as follows:

xn--fiqr8sswb1a55zxr2e.xn--kprw13d is the punycode form of 国立中央大学.台湾
xn--fiqy9slvb1a540au81e.xn--kpry57d is the punycode form of 國立中央大學.台灣

I am only testing for correct resolution of the idn ccTLDs 台湾 and 台灣 so which Taiwanese web address I use is not important. The two addresses above are currently dead links but sometime in the near future when Taiwan's Registry Name Servers are setup they will spring into life. Well, they will spring into life if the National Central University puts the addresses into their local Domain Name Servers.

Chinese Companies

2010-08-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

The China's idn ccTLDs 中国 and 中國 went live on 9th July 2010. Many Chinese Companies have been very quick to adopt these idn ccTLds. Having said that, I believe that they have been ready to go for some time. Shenzhen Jerima Technology announced the launch of their 中国 address on 15th July 2010. Below, I list some of the Chinese Companies that have implemented 中国 or 中國 addresses.

Adabiao Garments 广东阿达彪服装有限公司中国休闲运动服饰优质供应商.中国
Anhui Huatong Cable Group 安徽华通电缆集团有限公司华通电缆.中国
Anping County XiangGuang Metal Net 安平县翔光金属网业有限公司翔光金属网业有限公司.中国
Balesol Decorating Materials 法国芭丽软膜天花.中国
Bank of Jiaxing 嘉兴银行股份有限公司嘉兴银行.中国
Bank of Jiaxing 嘉兴银行股份有限公司嘉興銀行.中國
Beijing Dongcheng Agriculture Technology 北京东成盛世农业科技有限公司东成盛世.中国
Beijing Likang Moving Company 北京利康搬家公司.中国
Beijing YingHai XiMen Technology 北京瀛海西门科技发展有限公司瀛海科技.中国
Beijing Yingyuanya Foods 北京樱源鸭食品有限公司樱源食品.中国
Beijing Yongtai Hydraulic & Lubrication Machinery 分配器.中国 & 北京永泰.中国 & 润滑设备.中国
Blue Glass Boutique 宿迁蓝色玻璃精品有限公司蓝色玻璃.中国
Chángzhōu Golden Peacock Gift & Souvenir 常州金孔雀礼宾花有限公司电子礼宾花.中国
Chángzhōu Rongfa Drying Equipment 常州市荣发干燥设备有限公司荣发干燥.中国
Chángzhōu Tǒngyī Drying Equipment 常州市统一干燥设备有限公司统一干燥.中国 & 带式干燥机.中国
Chángzhōu Yībù Drying Equipment 常州一步干燥设备有限公司一步干燥.中国 & 一步.中国
China Eggs Portal 中国禽蛋门户网.中国
China Guāiguāi Enterprises Group 中國乖乖控股集團乖乖集团.中国 & 乖乖脆果.中国 & 乖乖虎.中国 & 乖乖公司.中国 & 乖乖米果.中国 & 乖乖牛.中国 & 乖乖控股.中国 & 乖乖嘉年华.中国 & 嘉年华国际.中国 & 乖乖食品.中国 & 乖乖网.中国
Chuangmei Celebration Ceremonies 芜湖创美庆典礼仪有限公司芜湖庆典.中国
Dàlián CCES Auto Parts 大连西西爱丝汽车部件有限公司西西爱丝.中国
Dongbao Software 深圳市东宝信息技术有限公司东宝软件.中国
Dongguan Dongci Ceramic Material 东莞东瓷陶瓷原料有限公司茶具批发.中国
Dōngguǎn Jīnyǎdá Specialty Paper 金雅达特种纸有限公司特种纸.中国 & 花纹纸.中国 & 金雅达.中国 & 充皮纸.中国 & 艺术纸.中国
Dongguan QianTai Electronic Science & Technology 东莞市仟泰电子科技有限公司弯刀机.中国
Dōngguǎn Qílián Precision Machinery 东莞市奇联精密机械有限公司自动冲床.中国 & 冲床厂家.中国 & 精密冲床.中国
Dry Ice Blasting 北京润石干冰清洗润石.中国
Fenglin Machinery 青岛枫林机械有限公司青岛枫林.中国
Fóshān Zhongchéng Stainless Steel Tube 佛山市中成不锈钢管业有限公司兴中成.中国
Fruit & Vegetable Network 果菜信息(深圳)科技有限公司果菜网.中国
Gao Burning Pigeon 锦州高家烧鸽子餐饮管理有限公司高家烧鸽子.中国
Garden Concepts 南京逸景轩景观工程有限公司概念花园.中国
Guǎngxī Jiāměi Paint Factory 广西南宁市嘉美涂料厂嘉美涂料.中国
Guangzhou Two-Jian Electronic Technology 广州双健电子科技有限公司双健科技.中国
GuoBiao Emergency Power Supply Project 国彪(北京)应急电源工程有限公司国彪应急电源.中国
Haisheng Fishing Machinery 广东省汕头市潮阳区海盛渔机厂海盛渔机.中国
Handan Dongchen Porcelain 河北省邯郸市东辰瓷业有限公司磁州窑.中国
Handan Elevators 邯郸市澳大电梯工程有限公司邯郸电梯.中国
Handan Fuxing Maojinyuan Packaging Machinery 邯郸市复兴茂今塬包装机械有限公司印刷机厂.中国
Handan Real Estate 邯郸乐嘉房地产有限公司河北乐嘉.中国
Harbin Hengtong Drainageplant Manufacturing 哈尔滨恒通排水设备制造有限公司恒通排水.中国
He Teng Industrial Oils 广东加得顺润滑油有限公司贺藤.中国
He Teng Industrial Oils 广东加得顺润滑油有限公司賀藤.中國
Hebei Xinheng Transformer Manufacturing 河北信衡变压器制造有限公司信衡变压器.中国
Hebei Xinheng Transformer Manufacturing 河北信衡变压器制造有限公司信衡變壓器.中國
Hechi Food Processing Plant 广西河池肉类联合加工厂广西河池肉联厂.中国
Hefei Huaxiang Shelf Manufacturing 合肥华祥货架制造有限公司合肥货架.中国
Huangshan Meida Electric Appliance 黄山市美达电器有限公司美达集团.中国
K-island 广州健林生物科技有限公司西岛.中国
Kunxing Embroidery 汕头市坤兴刺绣有限公司汕头花边.中国
Liaocheng Wantong Steel Pipes 聊城市万通钢管有限公司无缝钢管.中国
Long Teng Passenger Group Transportation 秦皇岛龙腾运输集团有限公司龙腾运输集团.中国
Low Carbon Environmental network 低碳环保网.中国
Luyu Plastic Industry 山东陆宇塑胶工业有限公司山东陆宇.中国 & 陆宇塑业.中国
Mandarin Orange 江西丰吉果业有限公司南丰蜜桔.中国
Mei Jia Study (America Canada Study) 美加留学.中国
MHML 广州健林生物科技有限公司健林.中国
MuTu 木土 Foods 苏州樱源食品有限公司木土食品.中国
Nánjīng Xīnshā Light Industry Machinery 南京鑫沙轻工机械有限公司鑫沙.中国
Nanning Aobo Hardware & Electric 南宁奥博五金机电有限公司广西紧固件.中国
Nanning Fangli Electric 南宁方力电气有限公司中国节能减排.中国
New Agricultural Warehouse 新农仓.中国
Newhome Furniture 南康新家园家具有限公司南康家具城.中国
Online Software 北京沃力森信息技术有限公司在线软件.中国
Online Software 北京沃力森信息技术有限公司在線軟件.中國
Pagate Natural Gemstone Ornaments 派高天然石饰品有限公司派高.中国
Qianyi Textile Industry 中山市千亿纺织实业有限公司千亿.中国
Róngchéng Déxìn Waterproofing 荣成市德信防水工程有限公司生活垃圾处理.中国 & 德信防水.中国 & 特种防渗.中国
Sailing Network 衡水起航网络科技有限公司起航网络.中国
Shandong Huoyun Electric Car 山东火云电动车有限公司火云.中国
Shāndōng Quánchéng Construction Group 山东全成建设工程集团有限公司全成集团.中国
Shandong Xinxibao 山东新稀宝股份有限公司新稀宝.中国
Shǎnxī Hengfei Biotechnology 陕西恒飞生物科技有限公司恒飞.中国
Shǎnxī Non-ferrous Metals Holding Group 陕西有色金属控股集团有限责任公司陕西有色.中国
Shenyang Huade Storage Equipment 沈阳华德仓储设备有限公司华德仓储.中国
Shenzhen Jerima Technology 智能电子鞋柜.中国
Shenzhen Mers Technology Development 深圳市美尔斯科技发展有限公司美尔斯.中国
Shenzhen Tailing Air-Conditioning 深圳市泰菱空调设备有限公司泰菱空调.中国
Sichuan Shanmu Forest Development 四川山木林产开发有限公司山木林产.中国
SNITE [HuBei] Industrial Manufacturing 斯耐特（湖北）工业制造有限公司斯耐特.中国
SNITE [HuBei] Industrial Manufacturing 斯耐特（湖北）工业制造有限公司斯耐特.中國
Tianjin Electric Cable Factory 天津市电缆总厂橡塑电缆厂.中国
Tianjin Huada Garments 天津华达服装有限公司防静电服.中国
Tiānjīn Huámiǎo Research & Design Institute 天津华淼给排水研究设计院有限公司华淼给排水.中国
Tianjin Quanyide Health Foods 天津全宜德保健食品有限公司寿比金.中国
Tition Electric Wire Group 天信电线集团有限公司天信电线集团.中国
Welding & Cutting Equipment 上海松奇焊割设备有限公司逆变焊机.中国
Wine Association 酒联电子商务有限公司酒联.中国
WoSign eCommerce Services 深圳市沃通电子商务服务有限公司沃通.中国
WoSign eCommerce Services 深圳市沃通电子商务服务有限公司沃通.中國
Wǔhàn BLY Advertisement Sunshade Products 武汉博力越广告遮阳蓬制品有限公司武汉遮阳篷.中国 & 武汉遮阳.中国 & 雨阳棚.中国
Wuxi Xinjie Software Technology 无锡市新阶软件科技有限公司嵌入式软件.中国
Xiewei Mold Plastic 晋江市协威模具塑胶有限公司协威.中国
Xingwo Electric 温州兴沃贸易有限公司兴沃电气.中国
Xize Fluid Systems & Components 上海西澤流體設備有限公司西泽.中国
YiMeng Trading 石家庄一萌商贸有限公司平泽.中国
Yueqing Hengji Electronics 乐清市恒基电子有限公司恒基电子.中国
Yúnnán Recruitment Network 昆明吉友网络信息科技有限公司云南招聘网.中国
Zhēngbà Kitchenware 东莞蒸霸厨房设备有限公司蒸品厨具.中国 & 蒸霸厨具.中国
Zhongshan Sunfair Batteries & Plastic Products 中山市顺发电池塑料有限公司顺发电池.中国
Zhūhǎi Begium Beer Bar & Restaurant 珠海市比利时啤酒吧餐厅时代啤酒.中国 & 比利时啤酒吧.中国 & 亚兰德饮食.中国 & 珠三角美食.中国 & 珠海西餐.中国 & 珠海西餐厅.中国 & 西班牙名庄酒.中国 & 比利时啤酒.中国

China idn ccTLDs

2010-07-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

China's new idn ccTLDs 中国 and 中國 are now live. These ccTLDs are in addition to the ascii cn ccTLD. Here some examples of the now fully internationalised Domain Names.

Beijing/Peking University http://北京大学.中国/
Beijing/Peking University http://北京大學.中国/
Beijing/Peking University http://北京大学.中國/
Beijing/Peking University http://北京大學.中國/
Loughborough University http://拉夫堡大学.中国/
Loughborough University http://拉夫堡大學.中国/
Loughborough University http://拉夫堡大学.中國/
Loughborough University http://拉夫堡大學.中國/
Nanchang University http://南昌大学.中国/
Nanchang University http://南昌大學.中国/
Nanchang University http://南昌大学.中國/
Nanchang University http://南昌大學.中國/

These addresses are combinations of Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Each label of these Domain Names is either Simplified or Traditional Chinese. For each of these Universities I have used the following order of combinations:-

Simplified Chinese dot Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese dot Simplified Chinese
Simplified Chinese dot Traditional Chinese
Traditional Chinese dot Traditional Chinese

British Airways

2010-07-05T04:46:00.000-07:00

British Airways make clever and creative use of language tags and country codes in their web addresses. The last part of their web address is of the form LT_CC where LT is a language tag and CC is a country code. Here are just a few of the many possible language tag_country code combinations.

http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb 『english_great britain』
http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/ja_gb 『japanese_great britain』
http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/ja_jp 『japanese_japan』
http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_cn 『english_china』
http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/zh_gb 『chinese_great britain』
http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/zh_cn 『chinese_china』
http://britishairways.com/travel/home/public/ja_cn 『japanese_china』

Their website presents content according to LT_CC. With ja_cn, for instance, it sets departure country to China and displays some content text in Japanese. If you experiment with the LT_CC pair you will find that there are many more supported combinations of language tags and country codes.

Loughborough Maps

2010-06-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

The last time I blogged about Google Maps it was about transliterations into Japanese. Since then, Google can also transliterate English names into Simplified Chinese and Russian. The following are Google maps of Loughborough in several languages.

Update: Google now transliterate English Place and Street names into Korean

Transliterations of Loughborough

2010-05-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

I have just noticed that Google Maps transliterates Loughborough into Chinese as 拉夫伯勒 http://ta.gd/拉夫伯勒地图。 The transliteration I have been using and that is in common usage is 拉夫堡。 Considering Google is so influential I think that 拉夫伯勒 will become the standard transliteration for Loughborough.

LA & NYC

2010-04-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

I am totally impressed by:

Los Angeles ロサンゼルス.jp
New York City ニューヨークシティ.jp

Not only do these sites have Japanese IDNs but also the pathnames are written in Japanese. Try navigating round the sites and you will see what I mean. So the whole URL is internationalized and not just the Domain Name.

Here are a couple of examples:

http://ロサンゼルス.jp/カテゴリー/ショッピング which I translate as
http://Los Angeles.jp/category/shopping

http://ニューヨークシティ.jp/カテゴリー/レストラン which I translate as
http://New York City.jp/category/restaurant

Alphabet

2010-04-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have found several Japanese Companies that have Latin Alphabet acronyms. These acronyms are usually also transliterated into Katakana 片仮名. Frequently, the components of the Katakana acronym are separated by the katakana middle dot. IDC, for example, is written as アイ・ディー・シー As I find these transliterations I will enter into the table below. I am not sure how long it will take me to complete this table.

A	エー	B	ビー	C	スィー	D	ディー
E	イー	F	エフ	G	ジー	H	エイチ
I	アイ	J	ジェー	K	ケー	L	エル
M	エム	N	エヌ	O	オー	P	ピー
Q	キュー	R	アール	S	エス	T	ティ
U	ユー	V	ヴィー	W		X	エクス
Y	ワイ	Z

Kashi

2010-04-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

Kashi is a recently opened Japanese Yakiniko restaurant in Leicester レスター. I received a leaflet about Kashi this week. The only Kanji on the leaflet was 川岸 which literally means River Bank. The romanization of 川岸 is kawagishi. Another Japanese word that means River bank is 河岸 and it's romanization is kashi. So there is some fascinating word play going on here. Both 川岸 and 河岸 are also family and place names.

I deduce that yakiniko is an anglicised form of yakiniku? The kanji for yakiniku is 焼き肉 or 焼肉

Next time I am in Leicester レスター I will visit Kashi and ask them about the origin of their romanized name Kashi.

Kashi Japanese Yakiniko Restaurant

84-86 Granby Street, Leicester LE1 1DJ

tel: 0116 285 8818

map: http://ta.gd/川岸

Acronym IDNs

2010-03-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Latin Script acronyms are common place. Much more interesting are acronyms in non latin scripts. Even more interesting is when non latin script acronyms are used for IDNs. Below, I list acronym IDNs I have found. I list both the full form and the acronym form.

Beijing University 北京大学.中国北大.中国
Beijing University 北京大學.中國北大.中國
HongKong University 香港大學.hk 港大.hk
Okayama University 岡山大学.jp 岡大.jp

DDN Co. Ltd, Japan, has an acronym as their Company name. They have an IDN which is also an acronym. Their IDN is a transliteration of DDN into Japanese Katakana where ディー is D and N is エヌ.

DDN Co. Ltd ディーディーエヌ.jp

Languages

2010-03-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

There is a family set of developed Japanese IDNs that are intended for Japanese people who are learning languages. They are all hosted on the same server.

Arabic ➫ アラビア語.jp
French ➫ フランス語.jp
Italian ➫ イタリア語.jp
Portugese ➫ ポルトガル語.jp
Russian ➫ ロシア語.jp
Spanish ➫ スペイン語.jp

Samsung 삼성

2010-03-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Samsung has a very interesting IDN. It is an acronym for Samsung. http://ㅅㅅ.com/ In the western world, we are familiar with acronyms for companies eg BT for British Telecom. The Korean for Samsung is 삼성. Take the initial letter/jamo from each syllable and one then has the Korean acronym for Samsung, ㅅㅅ.

City Maps

2010-03-08T05:23:00.000-08:00

Below I list some Google City Maps that use the Region Language. If you are using an English setup then it is most likely that links you create will have the host language set to English (hl=en). I modified the links to resolve to region language maps. I changed hl=en to hl=zh-CN, hl=ko, hl=zh-TW and hl=ja, respectively. With hl=en you will get a hybrid of English and the region language.

Howl's Moving Castle

2010-03-08T02:16:00.000-08:00

The award winning Japanese animation Howl's Moving Castle ハウルの動く城 is being shown at the Cope Auditorium, Loughborough ラフバラ University School of Art & Design, on Thursday March 11th 2010 at 6.30pm. Free Entry! There is a Wikipedia ウィキペディア article about ハウルの動く城 at ta.gd/ハウルの動く城
　This event is being organised by Loughborough ラフバラ Student Union and is sponsored by Santander Universities.

Korean IDNs

2010-02-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

Loughborough Jmap

2010-02-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

　This week I discovered that Google Maps have done an amazing job on transliterating English Place and Street names into Japanese Katakana. I am totally impressed. I looked at the Japanese Google Map for Loughborough ラフバラ

　Zoom out to see Town and City names transliterated into Japanese Katakana カタカナ

Japanese IDNs

2010-02-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

いっぱい情報.jp
おとく.com
ブログ稼ぐ.jp
虎王戦.jp
黒ぶた.jp
幻視球.net
ビッグバンド.jp
マルユー.com
純道.com
えべチュン.jp
野菜ジュース.jp
プラネタリウム.jp
チョーヤ.jp
総統の夢.jp
山鬼.com
ゴスペル東京.jp
明治.jp
明治製菓.jp
Bear Racing Service ベア.jp
Bowling Online Shop ボウリング通販.com
Cat's Cradle あやとり.com
Chiba Sewing Machines 千葉ミシン.com
Cos Wig コスプレウイッグ.jp
Denki･House でんきはうすいのうえ.jp
Eyelash Beauty まつげ美容液.com
Fiore esthetic salon & school フィオーレ.com
FreeBit dot com フリービット・ドットコム.jp
Fujigoko Cyber City 富士五湖.jp
FutureSpirits フューチャースピリッツ.jp
Gion Festival 祇園祭.jp
Happy Wedding - International Marriage 国際結婚ガイド.com
Hokuriku Telecommunication Network 北陸通信ネットワーク.jp
Jewelry Sanvi サンビ.jp
Kitchen Timers キッチンタイマー.com
Kouchi Fishing Club 高知釣吉クラブ.com
Kyoto Youth Groups 京都青年団体会議.com
Los Angeles ロサンゼルス.jp
Momotarou Real Estate 桃太郎不動産.jp
Naomichi Uramoto Official Web 浦本修充.jp
New York City ニューヨークシティ.jp
Pommes de Terre Restaurant 洋食屋.jp
Saifu Honpo 財布本舗.jp
Samurai Cover Shop: iPhone cases アイフォンケース.com
Shinran Association Blog Portal 親鸞会.com
Taiyaki Blog http://たい焼.jp/
Taguchi Animal Hospital 田口動物病院.com
Twilight Express Overnight Train Service トワイライトエクスプレス.com
Uesugi Kenshin 上杉謙信.jp
Voice Training ボイストレーニング.jp
Wonder Dream Web Shop ワンダードリーム.jp
Yahata Neji 八幡ねじ.jp
Yamada-ku Youth Association 山田区青年会.jp

Unicode URL Shortening

2010-01-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

I have just discovered a URL shortening Service that has IDNs. When creating a custom URL the text you provide can be Unicode and so can be any language. Here are some shortened URLs I have created:

Another Unicode Savvy URL shortening service is http://doiop.com/

http://doiop.com/拉夫堡市场

Japanese Input Method

2010-01-20T09:36:00.000-08:00

For many years I have used mechanisms like Character Palette for special pictorial symbols. Over time one acquires a set of frequently used symbols. There are also some symbols available by pressing key combinations. I do not find either of these methods satisfactory.
Recently I discovered an alternative method for typing pictorial symbols when using the Kotoeri Japanese Input Method on my Mac and iPod Touch. When writing Japanese one can invoke the Candidate Window by pressing the space bar after typing some Japanese. The Candidate Window lists all the possibilities for the word one has typed. Some Japanese words have associated symbol(s) which are selectable in the Candidate Window.
Below, I list those word/symbol associations I have, so far, found.

でんわ=telephone: type でんわ to get ☎
あめ=rain: type あめ to get ☂
ゆき=snow: type ゆき to get ☃
くも=cloud: type くも to get ☁
ほし=star: type ほし to get ★ or ☆
まる=circle: type まる to get ○ or ● or ◎ or ◉
おんせん=hot spring: type おんせん to get ♨
おんぷ=musical note: type おんぷ to get ♪ or ♩ or ♫ or ♬
かっこ=brackets: type かっこ to get 『』or（）or〈〉or《》or【】or「」or〔〕
とらんぷ=playing cards: type とらんぷ to get ♢ or ♤ or ♡ or ♧ or ♦ or ♠ or ♥ or ♣
きごう=symbol: type きごう to get a profusion of symbols

For a more extensive list see Wolfgang Hadamitzky's Page

Hong Kong IDNs

2010-01-15T09:26:00.000-08:00

Aji Ichiban 優之良品.hk
Aji Ichiban 优之良品.hk
Café de Coral 大家樂.hk
Café de Coral 大家乐.hk
Chinachem Group 華懋集團.hk
Evergreen Hotel 萬年青酒店.hk
Evergreen Hotel 万年青酒店.hk
HKR International 香港興業國際集團.hk
HKR International 香港兴业国际集团.cn
Hong Kong Electric 香港電燈集團.hk
Hongkong Post 香港郵政.hk
Hongkong Post 香港邮政.hk
Hongkong Post 香港郵政.cn
Lung Wah Hotel 龍華酒店.hk
Lung Wah Hotel 龍華酒店.cn
Lung Wah Hotel 龙华酒店.cn
Lung Wah Hotel 龍華乳鴿.hk
Lung Wah Hotel 龍華乳鴿.cn
Lung Wah Hotel 龙华乳鸽.cn

Taiwanese Universities

2010-01-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

Below are some Taiwanese University/College IDNs.

Air Force Institute of Technology 空軍航空技術學院.tw
Aletheia University 真理大學.tw
Asia University 亞洲大學.台灣
Central Police University 中央警察大學.tw
Chang Gung University 長庚大學.tw
Chang Jung Christian University 長榮大學.tw
Cheng Shiu University 正修科技大學.tw
Chia Nan University of Pharmacy & Science 嘉南藥理科技大學.tw
Chinese Culture University 中國文化大學.tw
Chung Hua University 中華大學.tw
Chung Yuan Christian University 中原大學.tw
Chungyu Institute of Technology 崇右技術學院.tw
Dahan Institute of Technology 大漢技術學院.tw
Diwan University 致遠管理學院.tw
Far East University 遠東科技大學.tw
Fortune Institute of Technology 和春技術學院.tw
Fu Jen Catholic University 輔仁大學.tw
Hsing Kuo University of Management 興國管理學院.tw
Huafan University 華梵大學.tw
Hungkuang University 弘光科技大學.tw
I-Shou University 義守大學.tw
Jinwen University of Science & Technology 景文科技大學.tw
Kainan University 開南大學.tw
Kun Shan University 崑山科技大學.tw
Lan Yang Institute of Technology 蘭陽技術學院.tw
Ling Tung University 嶺東科技大學.tw
Lunghwa University of Science & Technology 龍華科技大學.tw
Mingdao University 明道大學.tw
Minghsin University of Science & Technology 明新科技大學.tw
Nan Jeon Institute of Technology 南榮技術學院.tw
National Central University 國立中央大學.tw & 中大.台灣 & 中大.台湾
National Chengchi University 國立政治大學.tw
National Chi Nan University 国立暨南国际大学.tw
National Chi Nan University 國立暨南國際大學.tw
National Chiao Tung University 國立交通大學.tw
National Chung Cheng University 國立中正大學.tw
National Chung Hsing University 國立中興大學.tw
National Formosa University 國立虎尾科技大學.tw
National Hsinchu University of Education 國立新竹教育大學.tw
National Ilan University 國立宜蘭大學.tw
National Kaohsiung Marine University 國立高雄海洋科技大學.tw
National Open University 國立空中大學.tw
National Penghu University 國立澎湖科技大學.tw
National Pingtung University of Science & Technology 國立屏東科技大學.tw
National Taichung Institute of Technology 國立臺中技術學院.tw
National Taiwan Normal University 國立臺灣師範大學.tw
National Taiwan Ocean University 國立臺灣海洋大學.tw
National Taiwan University of Arts 國立臺灣藝術大學.tw
National United University 國立聯合大學.tw
National University of Kaohsiung 國立高雄大學高雄大學.台灣
National University of Tainan 國立台南大學.tw
National Yunlin University of Science & Technology 國立雲林科技大學.tw
Oriental Institute of Technology 亞東技術學院.tw
Overseas Chinese University 僑光科技大學.tw
Providence University 靜宜大學.tw
St. John's University 聖約翰科技大學.tw
Taiwan Hospitality & Tourism College 臺灣觀光學院.tw
Tajen University 大仁科技大學.tw
Takming University of Science & Technology 德明財經科技大學.tw
Tatung Institute of Technology 大同技術學院.tw
Tatung University 大同大學.tw
Technology & Science Institute of Northern Taiwan 北台灣科學技術學院.tw
Transworld Institute of Technology 環球技術學院.tw
Tunghai University 東海大學.tw
Vanung University 萬能科技大學.tw
Yuan Ze University 元智大學.tw
Yung Ta Institute of Technology & Commerce 永達技術學院.tw

International Computing

2010-01-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

One of the modules I teach at Loughborough University ラフバラ大学 is International Computing. This was a new module in the 2008-2009 academic year. It is an optional final year module. The uptake this year (2009-2010 academic year) has increased from last year's 14 students to 24 students. The topics I cover in my module include:

Characteristics of Languages/Scripts
Software Internationalization & Localization
Character Sets
Unicode
Unicode Transformation Formats
Fonts
Keyboard Mappings
Input Methods
Internationalizing Websites
Country Codes
Language Tags
IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names)
Internationalizing LaTeX

This year I am including an additional topic which is the Language Features of the iPod Touch/iPhone.

IDNs - The Future

2010-01-03T07:58:00.000-08:00

  There has recently been much publicity and controversy concerning IDNs. Here I are my thoughts on the future of IDNs or maybe my thoughts on what I consider should be the future for IDNs.
  English is currently the accepted International language and so most Domain Names are ASCII. So what should an organisation do about their Domain Names? Should they just stick with their ASCII names or also use IDNs?
  I consider that an Organisation's Domain Name strategy should be determined by their customer base or desired customer base. A Local/Regional Organisation should have Domain Names in both their local language and ASCII. An International Organisation, on the other hand, should have many Domain Names in many languages.
  My observation of many International Organisations' Websites is that, mostly, the content is predominantly/solely English. So why bother with multiple IDNs in multiple languages when they just resolve to a Website written in English?
  My answer to that question is: IDNs are just one small part of the Internationalisation of IT. AI (Adaptive Internationalised) Websites are one of the other parts of the Internationalisation of IT.
  An AI Website can adapt content according to:

Language/Script of the IDN used for access
The preferred display language setting of the visiting browser
The Region (GeoLocation) of the visiting browser

Korean Universities

2010-01-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

Below are some Korean University/College IDNs. I have not listed any that redirect to an ASCII address.

Anyang Technical College 안양과학대학
Chonbuk National University 전북대학교
Dankook University 단국대학교
Dong-Eui University 동의대학교
Gwangju University 광주대학교
Yong In University 용인대학교

Japanese Universities

2010-01-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

I am not sure how many Japanese Universities have IDNs and of those I have found, most redirect to an ASCII address. Below, I list only those I have found that do not redirect to an ASCII address.

Fukuoka Institute of Technology 福岡工業大学.jp
Hiroshima Institute of Technology 広島工業大学.jp
Kanazawa Gakuin University 金沢学院大学.jp
Kurume University くるめだいがく.jp
Kurume University 久留米大学.jp
Meiji University 明治大学.jp
Okayama University 岡山大学.jp
Okayama University 岡大.jp
Shiga University 滋賀大学.jp
SUN Techno College サンテクノカレッジ.jp
SUN Techno College 学校法人サンテクノカレッジ.jp
Tokyo University of Science 東京理科大学.jp
Tokyo University of Science, Suwa 諏訪東京理科大学.jp
Tokyo University of Science, Yamaguchi 山口東京理科大学.jp
University of Marketing & Distribution Sciences 流通科学大学.jp

Chinese Universities

2009-12-29T05:47:00.000-08:00

Most Chinese Universities now have IDNs. The following is a selection of Universities, Institutes, Colleges and Academies idn addresses. I have not listed any that redirect to an ASCII address. Addresses that end in 中国 are Simplified Chinese and those that end in 中國 are Traditional Chinese. Both 中国 and 中國 mean China. Some of the Universities I have listed below do not have the 中國 form because they have not yet configured their DNS for 中國

Anhui Xinhua University 安徽新华学院.中国
Beihua University 北华大学.中国
Běijīng Film Academy 北京电影学院.中国 & 北京電影學院.中國
Běijīng Forestry University 北京林业大学.中国 & 北京林業大學.中國
Beijing University of Chemical Technology 北京化工大学.中国
China Women's University 中华女子学院.中国
Communication University of China 中国传媒大学.中国
Dalian University of Technology 大连理工大学.中国
Fujian Medical University 福建医科大学.中国
Fujian Medical University 福建醫科大學.中國
Fuzhou University 福州大学.中国
Fuzhou University 福州大學.中國
Gānsù Coal Technical School 甘肃煤炭工业学校.中国
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies 广东外语外贸大学.中国
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies 廣東外語外貿大學.中國
Guangxi Normal University 广西师范大学.中国
Guangzhou University 广州大学.中国
Guilin University of Technology 桂林工学院.中国
Guilin University of Technology 桂林工學院.中國
Harbin Institute of Technology 哈尔滨工业大学.中国
Harbin Institute of Technology 哈爾濱工業大學.中國
Hebei University 河北大学.中国
Hebei University 河北大學.中國
Heilongjiang University 黑龙江大学.中国
Heilongjiang University 黑龍江大學.中國
Henan University 河南大学.中国
Henan University 河南大學.中國
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology 香港科技大学.中国
Inner Mongolia University 内蒙古大学.中国
Jimei University 集美大学.中国
Jimei University 集美大學.中國
Lanzhou University of Finance & Economics 兰州商学院.中国
Lanzhou University of Finance & Economics 蘭州商學院.中國
Liaoning University 辽宁大学.中国
Nanchang University 南昌大学.中国
Nanchang University 南昌大學.中國
Nanjing University 南京大学.中国
Nanjing University 南京大學.中國
Ningxia University 宁夏大学.中国
Peking (Beijing) University 北京大学.中国
Peking (Beijing) University 北京大學.中國
Qinghai Normal University 青海师范大学.中国
Qufu Normal University 曲阜师范大学.中国
Shaanxi Normal University 陕西师范大学.中国
Shandong University 山东大学.中国
Shandong University 山東大學.中國
Shandong Xinhua Computer College 新华教育.中国 & 山东新华电脑学院.中国
Shandong Xinglin Vocational College of Science & Technology 山东杏林科技职业学院.中国
Shanghai Jiao Tong University 上海交通大学.中国
Shanghai Jiao Tong University 上海交通大學.中國
Shànghǎi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine 上海中医药大学.中国 & 上海中醫藥大學.中國
Shantou University 汕头大学.中国
Shantou University 汕頭大學.中國
Shenyang University 沈阳大学.中国
Shenzhen University 深圳大学.中国
Shenzhen University 深圳大學.中國
Sichuan Agricultural University 四川农业大学.中国
Sichuan Agricultural University 四川農業大學.中國
Sichuan University 四川大学.中国
Sichuan University 四川大學.中國
Southeast University 东南大学.中国
Southeast University 東南大學.中國
Tianjin University 天津大学.中国
Tianjin University 天津大學.中國
Wuyi University 五邑大学.中国
Wuyi University 五邑大學.中國
Xī'ān Jiāotōng University 西安交通大学.中国 & 西安交通大學.中國
Xī'ān Jiāotōng-Liverpool University 西交利物浦大学.中国 & 西交利物浦大學.中國
Xihua University 西华大学.中国
Xuzhou Normal University 徐州师范大学.中国
Yanbian University 延边大学.中国
Yanbian University 延邊大學.中國
Yangzhou University 扬州大学.中国
Yangzhou University 揚州大學.中國
Yanshan University 燕山大学.中国
Yunnan University 云南大学.中国

2009-12-28T06:19:00.000-08:00

I have discovered three more fascinating Chinese Characters that are being used as Given Names. Each character 汉字 is constructed from three occurrences of a single radical.

晶 jīng ≅ crystal/bright/radiant. The radical is 日 which means Sun.

磊 lěi ≅ Sincere/Great/Massive/Pile of Stones. The radical is 石 which means Stone.

鑫 xīn ≅ Symbolises Prosperity. The radical is 金 which means Gold.

2009-12-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

When choosing an English Given Name there are considerations, such as, meaning and sound. There are extra dimensions when choosing a Chinese Given Name. I was recently introduced to a Chinese female Given Name: 淼 (miǎo). This has various meanings, including: Infinity / A Flood / A wide expanse of water. In the context of a Given Name I will take the meaning to be Infinity.

淼 is a fascinating character because it consists of the radical 水 repeated three times. 水, as a standalone character, means water. One can easily appreciate the connection between 水, 淼, flood and hence Infinity.

2009-12-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I gave a presentation on IDNs to UCISA-NG (Universities & Colleges Information Systems Association - Networking Group) Committee. The following is a short article I have written for the UCISA Newsletter.

Internationalisation (i18n) is on the Agenda

André 小山 Schappo - Loughborough University

Internationalisation is on the agenda and now is a golden opportunity to turn aspirations into reality in the IT domain. There are many aspects of IT that can be internationalised. This brief article will focus primarily on Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs).

Loughborough has a set of fully functioning IDNs in several languages/scripts. These include:

① http://ラフバラ大学.com/ - Loughborough University Japanese IDN

② http://拉夫堡学生会.cn/ - Loughborough Student Union Simplified Chinese IDN

The complete list of Loughborough IDNs can be viewed at http://yep.it/idns

I term these PIDNs, that is, Partial Internationalised Domain Names because the TLD is still ASCII. During 2010 there will be some ccTLD FIDNs, Fully Internationalised Domain Names. 拉夫堡学生会.cn will become 拉夫堡学生会.中国 where 中国 means China. In actuality, 拉夫堡学生会.中国 already works but not when using the ICANN Root Servers.

The implementation of internationalised gTLDs is longer term but we will probably see them in 2011. My considered prediction is that .com will be .公司 in Chinese and .コム in Japanese.

Registering IDNs is straight forward and inexpensive. At Loughborough ラフバラ we use dynadot.com as our Registrar for IDNs. Currently, not all Registrars are IDN aware or capable.

Along with Loughborough Students, one of my current activities is the development of AI (Adaptive Internationalised) websites. These websites adapt content according to: language of the IDN used to access the website, browser preferred display language, Region and Date. So, for example, one of the adaptations is display of prices in the currency of the Region of the visiting browser.

With commitment and imagination the opportunities for internationalisation of IT are limitless and boundless.

TLD ⇄ Top Level Domain
ccTLD ⇄ country code TLD eg jp, uk, cn
gTLD ⇄ generic TLD eg com, net, org

2009-12-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

Today 今日 Carolyn キャロリン Moses of BBC East Midlands filmed me writing Japanese 日本語 on Loughborough ラフバラ Market. I was writing the names of the fruit and veg in Japanese on the tickets of Joe ジョー Newsome's Stall. This film will be a part of a BBC special feature on how the region is benefiting from the Olympic Games.

More when I know more ☺

The Japanese writing is part of an initiative to Internationalise Loughborough ラフバラ Market. To learn more about this initiative see yep.it/lborom

2009-12-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

Loughborough ラフバラ Student Union now has a Japanese Web Address.

http://ラフバラ学生組合.net/

2009-12-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

It is an interesting challenge to transliterate English Names to Chinese. The technique I use is to try and get as close as possible to the sound of the English Name in pinyin and then find good/interesting Chinese Characters to match the pinyin. I mainly use the MDBG dictionary to lookup the Chinese Characters.

Elaine I transliterated as 爱兰 which I translate literally as Loves Orchids. The pinyin form of 爱兰 is àilán.

Deacon I transliterated as 螮空 which I translate literally as Rainbow Sky. The pinyin form of 螮空 is dìkōng.

Roger I transliterated as 柔杰 which I translate literally as Gentle Hero. The pinyin form of 柔杰 is róujié.

2009-12-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

In addition to my twitter micro-blog

twitter.com/andreschappo

I have a Chinese micro-blog on taotao 滔滔

taotao.com/1281414005

Loughborough Student Union

2009-11-28T03:44:00.000-08:00

Loughborough 拉夫堡 Student Union now has Chinese Web Addresses:

http://拉夫堡学生会.cn/ Simplified Chinese 简体中文
http://拉夫堡學生會.cn/ Traditional Chinese 簡體中文
http://拉夫堡学生会.中国/ Simplified Chinese 简体中文
http://拉夫堡學生會.中國/ Traditional Chinese 簡體中文

Several Organizations in Loughborough ラフバラ now have IDNs. For a complete list see my IDNs page .