GroupSharp Launch!

After three weeks of having people use ZipApp, I decided to change the name and web site and relaunch as GroupSharp. In other news, I've graduated from college. I'm now dedicating myself to GroupSharp full time. The feedback so far has been great. As long as I keep learning more about what people want and keep improving the product, GroupSharp will be a success.

Presenting ZipApp

Tomorrow I will be presenting the project I've been working on since June at the New York Tech Meetup. It's called Zipapp, and it turns your Excel or Access database into a web app. I'm launching it a bit prematurely, so there are still a few bugs here and there. But I really want to have it launched before the meetup so that everyone can try it out afterwards.

Returning to Hong Kong

Chris was telling me the story of the Czech army in World War I. They were crossing the Trans-Siberian railroad when the Communist revolution made Czech an enemy. Stuck in Siberia, they hijacked a series of trains in the Trans Siberian railroad, and the entire army decided to shoot their way out of Russia back to their home. I spent my last evening in China praying that I wouldn't have to do the same to get out of China. My first worry was the airline. I had a ticket with China Eastern Airlines and hadn't been able to reconfirm my ticket home. I had tried their phone number, but couldn't get it to work. I feared going to a branch office because with the language barrier I figured I might end up inadveratedly canceling the tickets. I've heard stories of China Eastern Airlines canceling flights unexpectedly, or canceling tickets when people failed to confirm. In Shanghai I met a student who was stranded in the hostel for an extra three days because China Eastern Airlines had screwed him over. His hand writing ticket had become unreadable, so he got a letter from the airline saying that it was still valid. However, the letter didn't have the proper stamp and they refused to let him board. My second worry was getting through immigration. I was also a little worried about getting through immigration. The last night in the hostel the girl at the desk told me that when she entered in my passport info at the police station it had come back that I overstaid my VISA. This was not true at all - I had entered on August 4th and had a 30 day VISA. But I had heard stories of the Chinese fining people$5,000 for overstaying their VISA by just one day. Suddenly I had all these visions of being fined as I tried to leave, and being caught up in hours of delay as I tried to prove that I hadn't overstaid my entry. But as it turned that once again my fears about China being undeveloped or scary or harsh were unfounded. I checked in and got my boarding pass without any problem. At immigration, the woman was extremely nice and was very happy when I spoke a bit of Mandarin. She began asking me where I studied. She stamped my passport, and I was out, my last contact with the Chinese confirming my view throughout the trip that these are a ridiculously nice people.

Destination: Xuancheng , Anhui

Today I woke up and realized that it was Thursday instead of Wendesday like I had thought. I had completely lost track of time. That means that I needed to check out of the hostel and find my next destination. So I walked down to the station and summoned up enough Chinese to ask the ticket agent what trains are available to go to any city between here and Shanghai. It turns out that there is a 2pm train to a city called Xuancheng in Anhui province, so I have purchased a ticket. I just now have looked up Xuancheng on the Internet and found two things: it's one of the poorest cities in Anhui (which is already a poor province) and it has an alligator farm where thousands of alligators are raised in capitivity. There is a bit of an entertainment complex built up around the complex, where you can sing karoke, and eat alligator in the restaurant. Should be fun . . .

July 1st Protests

July 1st marks the anniversary of the day that Hong Kong was turned over to China. The past two years 500,000 protesters turned out on the street to protest for democracy. Two years ago the proximate cause was a new anti-subversion law. Last year the focus of the protests was against the governor. But this year the governor has been replaced and people are generally content. A large protest this year would signal that people were truly interested in democracy, and not just in protesting against specific issues. Well, the protests turned out to be pretty small. The papers said between 30,000 - 40,000. To me it did not seem that impressive. The protests were also very calm and peaceful. Hong Kong citizens line up to cast votes in a mock election. Protesters listen to music and speakers.