Red Envelopes in Red China! 中国红的红包

Cash-stuffed Hongbao

Ahoy from Amoy! (Xiamen, China)

On special occasions (New Year, weddings, birthdays, funerals), Chinese the world over give Red Envelopes (Hong Bao 红包) stuffed with cash. It's very practical, helping newlyweds to avoid getting 5 thermoses, 8 blankets, 4 electric fans (well--that was 28 years ago; today wedding gifts are cars, apartments and wall-to-wall flatscreen TVs). And from day, one we've been astonished at how generous they are.

During our first year at Xiamen University (1988), a retired university leader gave each of our sons a Hong Bao with 100 Yuan—half of our monthly salary! Money, of course, was not used much back then. We used ration tickets, not cash, for everything from meat, rice and veggies to cooking oil. But no one ever had enough rations. For 200 Yuan, our friend could have bought one months’ ration tickets on the black market!

Even the poorest Chinese give freely of time and money. The bike repairman who lived in the loft of his roadside tin shack repeatedly refused money. “It was nothing. Wait until a big problem...” It was humbling.

Christian Hongbaos Chinese Christians have their own versions of Hongbaos with angels, doves or hearts, often with Bible verses or “Jesus Loves You.” One seller on Taobao (China’s eBay) sends a free Bible to customers!

Chinese Magi? Over 1700 years ago, legends claimed the Wise Men who visited Christ were from the land of silk at the farthest Eastern country, which bordered the “Great Ocean.” That would have been appropriate because Chinese have certainly mastered the art of gift-giving.
 
So who knows? Maybe even the wise men’s gifts were Made in China! 
 Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

Academic Director, XMU OneMBA
Xiamen University School of Management


Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"



Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

EZ Homemade Wooden Pizza Dough Press!

Ahoy from Amoy! (Xiamen, China)

Since coming to XMU in 1988, we've made a tradition of making pizza every Christmas Eve (and many other holidays as well). We've even had Chinese TV crews film our pizza making (maybe they'll give us the Nobel Pizza Prize?) How I've wanted a pizza dough press, but even today they cost from USD 700 to 9.000. But I just made a great homemade wooden pizza dough press for only USD 25! With nothing but a small drill, hammer and screws, small hand saw, and wood glue, I made this very practical, easy to use press in only 4 hours.

If you have very basic woodworking skills, just look at the photos below and you'll see how to make it. The key is--make it strong! This is basically just a very large version of a wooden tortilla press, but it must be very strong to handle the pressure needed to flatten a big ball of pizza dough. The good news is--it doesn't need much pressure when the base and handle are so long.

You will need one 8-foot long 2"x4", a 17" long piece of 1" x 10", two 18" diameter round pieces of 1" thick wood (or square if you can't make it round), a 10mm thick 4" long bolt for the handle rod, two hinges, and lots of screws.

1st step: Place something between the two round (or square) pieces so they are 1/8"to 1/4" apart and fasten them together with two hinges. The pressure will be enormous, so bend the hinge over the top of the upper wooden piece and screw it on both top and side. It will never come apart!

2nd step: On the opposite side, screw in the vertical assembly that will hold the handle. That assembly is made from 3 pieces of 2"x4" (two are 9 inches, the center piece is 3") that screwed together very securely (and wood glue on everything!) with 4" screws.

3rd step: screw a 17" long piece of 1" x 8" on top of the upper round piece (don't forget the wood glue). Let it cover the bent over hinges (I chiseled out two grooves so they lay flat). This is double insurance that the hinges won't fly off when you press the handle.

4th step: screw (and glue) the 1" x 1" x 7" strip on the upper round piece near the handle (this handle will hit this and press it down).

5th: drill a hole in the handle (28" long 2"x4" board) and fasten it to the uprights with the 10mm 4" bolt. No need for a nut, or for it to reach all the way through, if you make the furthest hole a bit small and then force it in. It won't come out.

6th step: Make some pizza! It's large and heavy, but it has to be to handle the pressure--and it works beautifully. But some wax paper or saran wrap on the wood surfaces before placing the dough. Or better yet--we bought two 15" diameter silicon baking pads. The dough presses smoothly between them and comes right off (but you can use these pads to bake the pizza as well).

Again, I have no woodshop (not even a work table; I sat on the floor to make it), but it took me only 4 hours to make it, cost only about $25, and my wife loves it (and I love her pizza). See photo below for details (click to enlarge them).

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill Brown
Academic Director, XMU OneMBA
Xiamen University
Fujian, China 

 School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"


Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

How to Restore OneDrive Icon in Windows 10

Ahoy from Amoy (Xiamen, China).


Several times a day, my computer has frozen, and I've found the problem is "System and compressed memory", which for many minutes uses up to 45% of GPU memory. This is often related to using the internet but OneDrive also causes the problem.

 I don't use OneDrive (internet too slow here), but I could not disable it because the OneDrive icon was missing from the notification area. The Windows website said to disable OneDrive with the OneDrive icon in Notifications--but my computer didn't have that icon (even in hidden icons).

I found many people have this problem. Here's here's how to restore the One Drive icon simply so you can turn the thing off:

Restore OneDrive Icon: In the root of C: drive (C:\ ), type this command, and hit enter (BUT replace William with your own user name!!):

C:\Users\William\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\OneDrive.lnk
 
The OneDrive icon will appear. You can then, in theory, disable it and click exit. 

As to how to solve the System and Compressed Memory" problem--it is a bugbear! There are so many causes for the problem, and the only real solution is getting rid of Windows 10, which is increasingly impractical. Very frustrating. I can't believe that Microsoft folks don't know about this problem. People have been blogging about it for at least 18 months. You'd think they could resolve it, but they're too busy adding new things (X-box, Weather, TV and Movies--which we can't delete) to bother fixing what doesn't work.

Oh well--on the bright side, with all its problems, Windows 10 works far better than Windows 3.0 or 8.0 (though I did like Windows XP).

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

Academic Director, XMU OneMBA
School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.comBill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Easily Unlock Any Size PDF File for Free!

Ahoy from Amoy! (Xiamen, China).

I sometimes forget the passwords to large PDF files I use for my MBA classes at Xiamen University, and though many online sites offer to unlock them for free, most have you upload the file and only then tell you that there is a fee for files over 5 MB (many of mine are 20 or 30 MB). Very frustrating. They don't say this up front because they figure once you've uploaded the file, you'll just pay the fee.

But I found a site that easily, and for free, unlock any size PDF file (and remove the password): https://smallpdf.com/unlock-pdf

A warning--such sites are not designed for people to unlock files they don't have authorization for.

Also, this site may in time change. Many unlock any size file at first, but once they've established a reputation and clientele, but the 5 MB limit on files. But for now, Smallpdf.com is the best out there. If it too changes, let us know!

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

Academic Director, XMU OneMBA

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com
Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Find and delete duplicate photos in Windows 10!

Ahoy from Amoy! While working on my 15th book about Xiamen and Fujian , I found my computer had over 24,000 photos, mostly of China, and hundreds were duplicates or similar versions I'd cropped or edited. 

For years, I've sought a simple, reliable program to find and delete not just duplicate photos but also all versions of a photo (cropped, or edited), or even similar photos, but not even expensive commercial programs were  that reliable or else were awkward to use. But I recently found a completely free program that easily detects and deletes all duplicates or similar photos (edited or cropped, or different photos of the same scene). anywhere in the computer (you can also easily rename duplicates instead of deleting them). I found 8 versions of one photo I'd cropped and tweaked for various projects--PowerPoints, books, articles, etc. In one simple procedure, I deleted 100s of duplicate, similar or edited photos--and freed up several Gb of my hard drive.

Fuzzy Slider! Move the slider up to detect only exact duplicates; move it down to the bottom and you'll get edited versions (cropped, tweaked tints, etc.) or even 8 or 10 different photos of the same event (though scattered across the computer) so you can keep only the best.



Over the past 2 or 3 years, I've tried everything, but the best is the 100% free Visipics! Click here, read all about it, and then click the download link in the left column (third down).

It says it's been tested for 32-bit Windows up Windows 7 but I can vouch it also works perfectly with 64-bit Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

Academic Director, XMU OneMBA

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com
Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com