Most of my Shanghai-based weblog readers probably know that the title of this post is the name of one of the city’s trendiest restaurants. And those not in the know, now know it as well. A Future Perfect is located in a small lane just off Huashan Lu (close to the Hilton Hotel). Not easy to find, but that did not seem to be a hurdle for the place to quickly become one of the most popular restaurants in town. For some reason I had not eaten here yet since it opened last year November, but now I finally managed to go. And I was pleasantly surprised, both by the ambiance, the menu and the prices.

A Future Perfect is a combination of a restaurant and a boutique hotel, located in a quiet lanehouse that was completely remodeled. The design of the place is trendy, almost futuristic. I loved it. There is a courtyard in the back where you can dine alfresco, or just have an after-dinner drink. Because I did not make a reservation, I was lucky to get a table (note to self: book in advance next time I go).

The menu in itself is worth a read. The names of many of their menu items are creative and inspirational, and some really made me laugh. No spoilers here, take a look yourself. The menu is pretty extensive, with lots of fish and meat, to pasta dishes and (if I remember well) even some burgers. The wine list is not a simple list of reds and whites, but they are categorized by the kind of food you are ordering. Great if you are not a connaisseur, or if you just want to try something different – now you know it will fit your food without having to ask the staff.

The food itself was simply great. Sometimes these designer restaurants look great, but their food is just so-so. A Future Perfect manages to combine a great design with excellent food. And even the service was quite OK, something that is often a problem in Shanghai. All in all a nice evening out, for a very reasonable price (dinner for two, starter and main course including two glasses of champagne and two glasses of red wine for around RMB 600). Anything negative? Well, the parking was a bit of a hassle. In the small lane you can park your car, but it is almost impossible to turn around. And avoiding the other cars turned it into an obstacle course. Next time I’ll either park at the Hilton or come by taxi – because I certainly will come back.

Ever tried to buy a Lonely Planet guide for China in China? Forget it, buy it before you arrive in China, because you cannot get it here. I was at Chaterhouse in Times Square last night to stock up on some English books for an upcoming vacation, and was browsing through the hundreds of Lonely Planet guides. I have several old China guides from them, but the last one is at least 4 years old. Because of the unbelievable development of this country, that is probably similar to 20 years in a European country, so I decided it was time for a new edition.

But I could not find the China guide, so I assumed it was sold out. Then I looked for the Beijing guide, and did not find it either. The Tibet guide maybe, as as preparation for next year’s bike trip? No luck. I asked the shop assistant, and he explained to me that in China it is not allowed to sell the Lonely Planet guides for China, Beijing and Tibet.

I never heard this before, but it’s probably true. Of course this is not very unusual because more foreign publications are banned here. But on my way out I noticed that the Shanghai Lonely Planet was on display near the entrance. Interesting, so this guidebook is available for sale. I wonder why?

Yesterday Google launched Image Labeler, a game in which 2 random internet users are asked to tag (label) a picture. If both players give the same tag, they both get 100 points, and they will get a new picture. If the picture is too difficult or not clear, you can click on pass for another picture. Each games lasts for 90 seconds.

The game is based on the ESP game from Luis von Ahn, who licensed the game to Google. De idea behind the game is that if two people give an identical tag to a picture, the tag must be viable, so that Google can use it in its search results. Possibly they even have an algorithm that only if more than two people use the same tag it will be used. I assume that non-matching tags are also stored, and will be compared to tags that other players give to the same picture.

It seems like a smart move from Google to use the power of the internet population to do some work for them – for free. But will it really work? It of course gives Google the possibility to get all its pictures in its database tagged for free. This should give a Google image search in the future even better results. The question, however, is whether the answers will all be good enough. After playing the game several time I noticed there is a much bigger chance of getting a match when you just type in the main color of the picture. Also it does not make much sense to to use difficult words, because other players also do not do that. Simple words like ‘people’, ‘book’ or ‘blue’ have the biggest chance of earning points. That’a weak point in the system, that could be solved by giving higher points for more difficult or double words (‘space shuttle’ instead of ‘space’ or ‘rocket’)

Another weakness is that a lot depends on your partner. Many game players seem to be not too smart, they give a pass at simple pictures, or only type ‘car’ when they see a picture of a car after 10 seconds. This is a bit irritating, but sometimes you have a partner who seems to think the same as you do, and suddenly you get 10 matches within a minute. An algorithm that puts stronger players together (in which a stronger player is one who scores higher than average), should make the game more interesting, and therefore better for Google.

This algorithm would also ensure that people would play the game for a longer period of time. Now there is no real incentive to play more often or to get a high score. The only thing you can earn are points, and if you are really good (or are really lucky) you might even reach the top-5. But most scores there are almost impossible to reach, and for the overall high scores you need to beat people who seem to play this game full-time.

But I have to admit that the game is addictive. It’s a bit like a casual game, that you play every now and then to do something different for a few minutes. But small prizes, such as a Google Image Labeler t-shirt or extra Gmail storage (I would play the game 10 hours straight for that), could make the game more succesful.

I look forward to finding out how popular Google Image Labeler will become. Will it appear on popular casual gaming sites as well?

(also posted in Dutch at Marketingfacts.nl)

The Sydney Morning Herald just reported that the whole Chinabounder blog seems to be a hoax! The blog was set up by performance artists, both men and women, from Britain, Australia, Japan and China. They ‘fabricated its content as an investigation into online vigilante behavior.’ If this is true they did a good job!

The SMH sent an email to the email address on Chinabounders blog, and got a reply from the group. The group claims that the blog was closed out of safety concern for the group’s Chinese members and expats in Shanghai.

Danwei writes today that the Sex in Shanghai story now even reached the Beijing Times. Professor Zhang Jiehai seems not satisfied with the password that Chinabounder put on his blog and wants to keep finding him. He thinks Chinabounder is scared. Could be, but maybe Chinabounder is just smart, and noticed that the situation was getting out of control. Then closing off the source to the main public is a good strategy to try to cool down things a bit.

Also the English Guardian picked up the story. They tried to contact Chinabounder, but got no reply so far. I actually contacted him as well right after he closed off his blog to the outside world, but did not get a reply either. Maybe someone hacked into his account, so he cannot read his mail anymore? I would not be surprised if this has really happened. Hacking into a blogger and/or gmail account is not impossible, and there might be lots of angry Chinese that are skilled at this.

There is actually some potential evidence for this theory: in the hours before the the blog closed down, Chinabounder left several comments on his blog. In these comments he copy/pasted parts of articles about penile lenght increasing surgery (I think that was what it was about, I actually skipped over it – and I cannot check it anymore now). This is not his normal style, so why would he do that? At that point I did not think too much about it, but when a bit later his site was blocked I started to suspect that something else might have been going on. If he would have been scared he could have done this a day earlier already, but he only did it after posting another sex-related article.

To be continued I suppose.

A couple of months ago I wrote about a new Chinese game that had been developed around Chinese national heroe Lei Feng. Although I never see people playing the game, the government decided to build another online game around Chinese heroes. Also this time Lei Feng will be participating, and he will be accompanied by among others Zheng Chenggong, a 17th century general who ‘liberated Taiwan from the Dutch’.

But will the game be a success? That’s doubtful considering the tasks that need to be performed: one of them is moving bricks, which probably sounds very exciting to gamers who are used to high-tech games in which they steer F1 racing cars or compete with magic swords in virtual worlds. Another task will be catching raindrops on a building site. No further comment needed I suppose.

The reporter wanted to know what gamers would think of the game. You would then normally go to an internet cafe and ask some of the gamers there about the game. But not this journalist from Chinese press agency Xinhua: he decided to go to the Beijing Internet Addiction Treatment Center and check with the internet addicts there! Can you imagine, you are addicted to games and try to get over your addiction, and then a reporter comes to by to ask how you would like a new government-developed online game.

At least he got some good comments from the inmates. They were not interested in this game, which goal is to ‘teach the public about Chinese ethics’. One even called it boring and a turn-off. And the center director agreed: “If hero games do not focus on killing and domination, gamers will not play them.” So I guess it’s back to the drawing board for the game developers.

It seems that yesterday’s witchhunt has forced Chinabounder to close down his blog, or at least to only make it accesible for invited readers. This morning he still posted a new article, which had over 100 comments by lunchtime when I read it. But it seems a few minutes ago he decided to pull the plug himself, or someone hacked his blogger password and did it for him.

If there are any new developments regarding this in the Chinese blogosphere I will post them on my blog.

China loves ambitious infrastructure projects, and normally not only announces them but also finishes these projects – and finishes them quickly (something that does not always happen in Holland, many projects there are eventually cancelled or drag on forever). Just last month the train connection between Beijing and Lhasa (in Tibet) was finished, a project that was impossible to carry out according to more than one foreign scientist. But the Chinese managed to pull it off, although there are still some questions about what will happen if the ice melts on which part of the railway is built.

And now the next project has been announced already, a rail link between Lhasa and Kathmandu (capital of Nepal). This is a stretch of well over 1000 km through very remote territory. Because I am planning to ride this route on my mountain bike, I did a bit of research on the area over the past months. The railway would need to go over several mountain passes that are over 5000 meters high, and would run along the foot of Mount Everest. Construction is planned to start next year, and should be finished within 3 years.

And in case you are wondering, the bike trip from Lhasa to Kathmandu that was planned for this year will still take place. However, it had to be postponed until spring next year. Last week we (Gary from Toodou, my dad and I) decided to start this gruelling ride around April 22 next year. We should be able to finish the distance in about 3 weeks. There will still be quite some snow along the route, but it promises to be a fantastic journey. The trip is open to other sportive people as well, contact me if you are interested. Costs should be around USD 3000 per person (excl. flights, but incl. permits and jeeps that carry our food, luggage and tents). We expect to cover the trip on Toodou, Flickr and our blogs, so everyone can follow our experiences.