Dr. Mark Nan Tu

Received the iPad recently. I use it as an ebook reader. I designed a bamboo case to house the iPad and called it Dragon Moss.

Like it? Check it out at: http://www.dragonmoss.com

Geotagging, referring to the contents of digital items such as pictures being marked with geographic information. For example, a digital picture can be added with geographic information includes: longitude, latitude, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), altitude, and even heading information. These information can be embedded in the photos’ EXIF file.

taken in ChongJiang, Guizhou, China

With software (such as Adobe Lightroom), when you open the photo, you can see the EXIF data, such as:
GPSVersion ID: 2.2.0.0
GPS Latitude: 25 deg 43 ‘23.72 “N
GPS Longitude: 108 deg 51 ‘57.77 “E
GPSAltitude Ref: Above Sea Level
GPSAltitude: 572 m
GPSTime Stamp: 02:19:15
GPSSatellites: 07
GPSImg Direction Ref: Magnetic North
GPSImg Direction: 133
GPSDate Stamp: 2009:10:03

This article introduce two of the most popular ways to add geographical information to the photos.

1: Direct write: that is when you press the camera shutter, the geographic information is written into the photo. This method requires the camera itself is able to write GPS data into images. The current high-end Nikon cameras, such as the Nikon D3, D3x, D300, D700, D2X, D2Hs, D2Xs, D200 and Fujifilm S5 Pro and D90, D5000, are able to write GPS signal to digital photos and they all have GPS connectors. All we need is a little GPS receiver (such as MetaGPS , http://www.metagps.com). The advantage of this method is the obvious, there is no follow-up treatment and it does not need any other software.

MetaGPS geotagging GPS receiver Nikon DSLR on Nikon D90

2: In direct write: that is, when you press the shutter, geographic information is NOT written into pictures but stored in another medium (such as CF card). You can use computers to post-process and join the geographic information log with the digital photos. The draw back for this method is the post-processing hassle. However, you can use any camera to take pictures and later on joint the geotagging information to the pictures.

There are many post-processing software, free with locr, PhotoMapper, etc., the software can import GPS logs and digital photos, and then join the GPS coordinates with digital photos.

When you have the geotagged photos, you can upload them to flickr. Flickr use yahoomap to display geotagged images for each specific location. Of course, the best location display software or google earth or google map. Many website such as panoramio.com or locr.com display the pictures with location using google map. http://www.panoramio.com/

Beijing Atlantic City on googlemap

With geotagged picture, people around the world not only can see you photos, then can also see where your photos are taken. Of cause, you can also take a virtual tour around the world with google map and the geotagged photos other people take.

About a year ago, during the Beijing Olmypic, I set up a goal to practice tennis. I was planning to reach NTRP 4.0 in a year, which is Aug, 2009.
For the past year, I have practiced at least 3 days a week and gone for private lesssons and training camps.
I have improved dramatically in terms of groundstorkes consistancy and footwork. I am now a NTRP 3.5 player.
I am now setting up my goal to reach NTRP 4.0 in about another year.

Mark Tennis Groundstroke Practice Aug. 28, 2009 from Mark Tu on Vimeo.

Hello all:

I started a new blog: MetaGPS Development Blog which keeps track of the MetaGPS development process. MetaGPS is a geotagging unit for Nikon DSLR cameras. The final product will be released to market in the next month or so. For more detail of this product, please take a look at: www.MetaGPS.com

No one can.

I brought a fake Wilson K90 for $25USD in Shenzhen. The seller even throw in a Wilson bag which should worth $5 alone. I brought my first Wilson racket back in 1993 and it was a real Prostaff classical 85. (the one used by tennis legend Pete Sampras). I only hit with it a few times before I went to the US and basically retired from the sports. I started playing tennis again in Aug. 2008. I brought a Wilson K95. I know both my Prostaff and K95 are the real racket as they all cost me around 190USD.
So now, I have three rackets, a real Prostaff, a real K95 and a fake K90.

I have played with fake k90 for a while. Here is what I found:
1: It is impossible to tell the difference from the appearance. The graphics are excellent, identical as the real K90.
2: It weights only 260 gram (real K90 weights around 320gram for the Asian edition).
3: It uses graphite material but is different than the real K90.

Surprisingly, this racket is very playable. It actually feels like a classical (80s) racket. I think that the racket uses a classical graphite material, similar to those 80s racket.

I personally believe that the racket is well worth the $25 USD I paid for. I even use it in real matches.

If I can demo it, I would buy the racket for $50 even it says: Milson or whatever on it. I started with Wilson as the sellers in those sports stores kept pushing Wilson to me (perhaps with high margin for themselves).

If a real Wilson is make in China, I am very confident that the same factory can make Milson with the same quality if not better. These factories do not use their own names as they do not have the marketing budget to build a brand name as they are busy making the 5% margin to do OEM for Wilson. Everyone got to live. I guess.

However, I expect the situation to change in the next 10-15 years. In the next 10 years, I will not care if my racket is a Wilson or a Milson. It will a good thing for all the consumers as the Wilson and Milson will all sell for $50-$100.

I played some tennis in my university years (without a coach). I also played a lot of basketball and was in the university swimming team. So I had a good athletic foundation. But I stopped playing tennis after graduation which was 17 years ago. I do excise 3-4 times a week through out the years just to keep in shape. Now, I wanted to pick up tennis again.

I recently went through a 3 week training camp just to get back on my tennis game. It was 2 hours each day and 5 days a week. After the training camp, I’ve made the following video.
1: Ground stroke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02lhy7ez33E
2: Ground stroke another angle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umPXQFNYLbU
3: Serve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNR1-gjkWRg
4: Match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsWU66ihPm8

I believe that my forehand is a NTFP 3.0 and my backhand is a 2.5 and my serve is a 2.5?I only know the flat serve and have not learned the kick and spin serve). Here is my plan to reach 3.5-4.0 in about a year.

1: I found a committed tennis partner who is about 2.5-3.0 level. We plan to practice at least 3 times (2hours/each session) a week.
2: We will hire a coach and train us 2 times a week.
3: I plan to play at least 1-2 times/month against other better players in the city.

I posted the above video on tennis warehouse.com’s discussion board. Most of the comments agree that I am between 2.5 to 3.0. They also pointed out the problems for the forehand and backhand.

1: Not much shoulder turn in the forehand.
2: Arm bending in the backhand.

For the intermediate plan, (for the next 2 month or so), I will mainly focus on the forehand and backhand movement. Getting the correct form is important.

As for the serve, I did the following calculation. I counted the frame of the ball leaving the racket to the ball hitting the ground. It was between 14 and 15. VirtualDub software says that the video is 25 frames/second. So I guess that makes the serve around 80mph. I think I can have faster serve if I:
1: arch my body more
2: toss 2 feet higher

I will also need to do more matches. I have played some matches against so called 3.0,3.5 players in my age group. I have won majority of them. I noticed that I have the following advantages.
1: I moved my feet more
2: I got quicker reflex than most of my opponents.
3: I could hit the ball almost the same as my practice. It seems that most of them lost their confidence in the match and become a slow pusher. I go to the net as much as I can.

So, my plan for the next few months:
1: Work on the forehand and backhand forms.
2: Do more matches.
3: Toss the ball 2 feet higher and arch the body.

I made a reservation for the exhibition in the Capital Museum a week ago. The reserved ticket is free but it does not cover the main exhibition: The Chinese Memory. Treasures of the 5000-year Civilization. This exhibition is 30RMB. It is well worth the price as the artifacts displayed are all the national treasures brought in from provincial museums all over China. It takes about 1.5 hours to exam the treasures.

How to get there: No. 1 subway line, exit in Muxidi exit southeast. Walk 200 meters.

The Chinese Memory. Treasures of the 5000-year Civilization

National Centre for Performing Arts

I went to watch a show in this egg-shaped building which cost 2.2billion RMB. Each seat costs 500,000RMB. Wow, a very impressive building, on par or more impressive than say Sydney Opera House.

The best way to get there is by No. 1 subway at the Tiananmen west station and at exit C.

National Centre for Performing Arts

China National Film Museum is located at the north east of the city, outside the 5th ring road. It was built in 2005 and was officially opened on 10th Feb, 2007. According to their website, the admission is free. There are 1600 free tickets every day. Therefore, reservation is recommended.

When I called them today, I was told that there were plenty of free tickets left. I went there in the afternoon. The museum was built on a huge empty space. There is no bus leading to the entrance. There is hardly any taxi either. Therefore, the best way to get there is by private cars.

There were about 10 cars parked in the huge parking lot. The Museum is a huge 4 story building. There are 20 exhibition halls. In chronological order, there are diverse collections of photos and posters showing over 1500 films produced in China, Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau for the past 100 years. A quick walking tour of the whole building takes about 1.5 hours.

In addition, China National Film Museum has an IMAX cinema, a digital projection cinema and three 35mm cinemas. The cinemas show all the major new releases. However, the last show is around 3pm in the afternoon.

No photography is allowed in the exhibition hall. I saw no more than 30 visitors in the whole building during my 2 hours there, a very rare situation in China today.

I personally feel that the Museum should have more interactive shows that draw the visitors in. Given the huge empty space outside the Museum, perhaps a Universal Studio type of theme park is possible. It is actually not far away from the city. A ten minutes drive from the world renowned 798 Art District can reach the Museum parking lot.

China National Film Museum

China National Film Museum

China National Film Museum

After a whole day of raining, the sky finally cleared up. Being in Beijing for more than 4 years now, I can swear this is one of the clearest days in Beijing. The sky is deep blue with clouds hang in the distance. I was later told that the visibility is 35 kilo meters (instead of the usual 500 meter).

I went to the 798 art district. Because of the Olympics, the 798 had a face lift. The streets are decorated with flowers. The motorized vehicles are not allowed in the district. There are lots of visitors and many photos enthusiastic.

The pictures are taken with the color set to: vivid in the Nikon D300. I love the colors.

The entrance to the 751 D-Park

The boilers from the 60s

Nike’s showroom

This should be a Changjiang 750 (modeled from a second world war BMW)

The 798 Art District is still under contruction

Model shoots