Lexiconer Blog (by Ben)

Recent dictionary updates

Hi all, no time no see. Recently I made several updates to our English-Chinese Dictionary. First, MP3 voices have been added for most English words. Second, different variants of verbs or nouns can now be searched; for example, if you searched for "searched", the dictionary will give you the explanation for "search". Third, if you input a mis-spelled word, the dictionary can give some correct candidates; for example, if you input "compell", the dictionary will give you a few correct spellings such as "compel" and "compile".

As always, feedbacks and comments are welcome.

Learn Chinese Dialogue

Recently I had a conversation with a website visitor 
regarding some learning Chinese tools. Following 
please find my dialogue with him.

--- Dave wrote -----
 
  I read your review on Rosetta Stone. In your opinion
  what is the fastest/best learning program. 
  I am interested in Mandarin.
 
  Thank you for your help.
 
  Dave

 ----- Ben Wrote -----
 
 Dear Dave,
 
 Thanks for writing to us.
 
 Would you mind answering me a few questions first:
 1. Have you learned any Mandarin Chinese before?
 2. Will you focus on Spoken Mandarin or Writing
 Mandarin (Chinese)?
 3. What is your reason of learning Mandarin? (For
 example, for the purpose of communicating with
 someone
 who is speaking Mandarin only; the for purpose of
 doing business in Shanghai; for the purpose of
 reading Chinese novels).
 
 Best,
 
 Ben

--- Dave Wrote -----

 Dear Ben,

 Wow, thank you for the very quick response.

 

 I have not taken any classes or courses in Mandarin.

 

 I am interested in only speaking at this time.

 

 I have traveled to China several times each year for

 business and this year I will be going at least 9 times. 

 I am in the boat building business and just want to 

 be able to talk to the yard managers

 one on one. In the past- and future - 

 I have had a guild that was by my side

 every minute and I am lazy so I learned very 

 little. I am looking to leave

 him or her behind  and see if I can get on alone.

 

 The factory is in Xiamen, China.

 

 I thank you for your help.

 

 Dave

----- Ben Wrote -----

Dear Dave, You are welcome. Xiamen is very close to my hometown (less than 150 miles away). Regarding your situation, I think Comprehensive Pimsleur Chinese (Mandarin) is the best program. There are three levels for this program. Each level has 15 learning hours (or 30 lessons), either in CD or Cassette format. These are for learning Spoken Mandarin only. There are no textbooks accompanying this program. Check them out here: Pimsleur Chinese I: http://www.lexiconer.com/bookstore/item.php?id=17 Pimsleur Chinese II: http://www.lexiconer.com/bookstore/item.php?id=19 Pimsleur Chinese III: http://www.lexiconer.com/bookstore/item.php?id=21 These comprehensive programs are costing roughly $250 for each level. You can also try the first 8 lessons for Level I first (to see if it fits your need and see if you can follow): http://www.lexiconer.com/bookstore/item.php?id=15 Best regards and good luck on your business,

Ben

Home Business

Do you have a home-based business? Do you know that you can have a home-based business without registering a company?

I just learned about this from my tax accoutant. Yes, it is true that you can have a home business, without registering for a company. One way to start your home business is to start an internet affiliate marketing business. Want to know more? Check this link out.

Are you using the most recent version of Firefox?

What is your favorite web browser? Are you still using the dangerous Internet Explorer? Or are you using any older version of Firefox?

If you are using Internet Explorer, it is time for you to switch to Firefox.

If you are using an older version of Firefox, please upgrade your Firefox to version 1.5.0.1! The sooner the better.

To check which version you have goto Help->About Mozilla.

* U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommends not using Microsoft's Internet Explorer because of security vulnerabilities. Instead you should use a different browser such as Firefox... More details.

Multiple Streams of Income

Recently, I read the book by Robert Allen:
Multiple Streams of Income. It lays out some good strategies to earn multiple streams of income, including (but not limited to) stocks, mutual funds, and real estate investments. The books is roughly 10 bucks if you buy from Amazon. I likes this book.

Routines and success

I read a note by John Reese the other day, which gave me this thinking and note: It is very important to keep doing some routine things to be successful.

In Johen Reese's word, it is: "If you don’t create a routine for growing your business, it won’t grow." One can always replace the word "business" with some other words such as "website", "study", "research" to apply this to his/her own situation.

Of course thinking is important, but keep doing something is also important.

Just a brief note to myself.

Miramar Airshow

I moved to San Diego in August this year. San Diego is a little bit cooler than Los Angeles, probably several degree lower. My living place is very close to the La Jolla cove, also very close to the USA navy air base in Miramar. There will have the annual airshow this weekend (Oct 14, 15, 16,2005). If you happen to live close to San Diego, I think you don't want to miss this free airshow. See

http://www.miramarairshow.com/

Ken Evoy Site Build It

If you have been using Lexiconer for the last few weeks, you might already read several messages regarding a second source of income streams. One of them is: "I am living in Hong Kong. The job market out there is not very good. Opportunities for a second source of income stream is rare... If you have a similar situation, consider to download Ken Evoy's free ebook: The Affiliate Master Course (TAMS)."

Well, in the era where internet prevails in our daily life, second sources of
income stream are always out there, no matter where you live (USA, China, Hong
Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Indonesia, ...). I myself already benefit a lot from the
Internet. The free ebook

The Affiliate Master Course
(TAMS)

by Ken Evoy is only a starting point for you if you want to start your
internet money-making venture.

You might be wondering "who the heck is Ken Evoy?"

Ken Evoy is a millionaire internet marketing guru. He got his MD degree from
McGill University (Canada) in 1979. He taught medicine courses at McGill University
Hospital after receiving his MD degree.

In 1997, Ken Evoy began his adventure in marketing his own software tool
PennyGold over the internet. (PennyGold is a software tool specialized for penny
stocks investment. PennyGold is no longer being sold on market today since Ken
Evoy promised only to sell 1000 copies - those 1000 lucky guys!).

With the outstanding success of marketing PennyGold, Ken Evoy put together what he has
learned and packed them into an ebook, "Make Your Site Sell (MYSS)". This ebook
described basically all the key techniques and key components to the success of
online business, such as "how to create products that over-deliver the promise",
"targeted traffic is the blood for your business", "how to make
your sites rank well in search engines". The ebook is available at the price of US$29.95 at

Make Your Site Sell Main Page.

The ebook MYSS (1,500 pages) is actually much under-priced. The reason that MYSS is selling at so low a price is that they use MYSS to promote their core product - "Site Build It". Site Build It fully integrates all major key techniques described in MYSS into one single package. If you are want to learn more about "Site Build It", here is a review of "Site Build it" that I wrote.

The Affiliate Master
Course (TAMS) is to some extent an abridged version of Make Your
Site Sell. I personally benefit from this ebook a lot. Click the above
link to download your own copy if you want.

Bye the way, the download page is on another domain
Affordable and Reliable Hosting.
It is one of my other websites.

Calling China Phone Card

Today I want to recommend a phone card service for you. The phone card service is provided by eCallChina. They ever advertised with us two years ago. The advertisement results are not very effective since we did not have a lot of traffic at that time. It is different today, we have thousands of unique visitors every day. Lexiconer nowadays is among the top 0.0005 fraction (or top 0.05%) of all the websites on the internet.

I recalled their advertisement with us. It was ineffective and the ROI (Return On Investment) was very disappointing for them I think. I am still feeling guilty for them. Actually they provide very excellent phone card service. The customer support is very nice. The prices are very inexpensive and the voice quality is very good. I purchased all my phone cards from them ever since 2003 for calling to Hong Kong and China (I tried various phone card services from 2000 to 2003). They are selling phone cards for calling to Taiwan as well.

Today eCallChina is not advertising with us. I am recommending them for two reasons. The first reason is "they are very good", as I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The second reason is that I want to compensate for their advertisement with us two years ago - so that I can feel less guilty.

If you need to call back to our Greater China, consider give them a try. I guess you will enjoy their service as well. You get a US$0.5 permanent coupon (LEX00) for each phone card you purchase. Please write down the coupon for later use. Or simply come here to buy your own phone card. Buy a phone card now.

See you next time.

Lexiconer Website Memo

In the past few months, a lot of new web pages have been added, including the hand-held dictionary store, the language bookstore, the language video store, and the discussion forum. More pages are coming in the near future.

The discussion forum is to provide a chance for our visitors (i.e., you) to exchange thoughts and probably help each other. You are not obligated to post an article in the forum though. Just keep in mind that there is a forum over here. You might someday find that the forum is useful for you.

Have a nice day and see you next time.

Lexiconer Website Memo

Now we provide an English to Chinese translation search box to website builders for free. If you are a website owner, you are welcome to add the search box to your website. Please check out this page to see how you can add the search box to your website: Adding an English to Chinese translation search box.

Furthermore, recently more than 1,000 new words were added to the English -> Chinese dictionary. There words were compiled according to user feedback. Please send us feedback if you think there is something that need to be improved for the dictionary.

GMAT vocabulary practice

Hey, everyone. One more page, GMAT vocabulary practice, is added. Please check it out: GMAT Vocabulary Practice. Have fun and watch out for future update news.

Hello from Los Angeles

Hi, I am here again... It is very hot here at Los Angeles. Every year from
late August to late September, the temperature in Los Angeles (LA) can rise up
to more than 30 degree Celsius - this is hot for Los Angeles since the
temperature is quite moderate for the rest of the year. The high temps are
usually from somewhere around 15 degree in winter to somewhere around 25 degree
in summer. Despite the hot outside, I still think that the weather in LA is the
best one I ever seen. Many people choose LA as the place for living just because
of its moderate climate. Needless to say, there are some other good things about
LA.

It is a year already

It is a whole year since I posted my last diary. Hope
that last year is a fruitful year for you (It is fruitful for me :-). I want to
thank every friend for your care and support. I also wish everyone can find
something useful here at lexiconer. I will be busy in the coming year. However,
I will try to keep this diary updated more frequently (other than once in a
year). Let's push everything forward...

Lexiconer Trivia Update

Long time no see, buddies! They say "time goes very fast" when you are busy. This is true. So, do something, before we get old :)

Recently you might have seen a lot of changes to my website. I've added some advertising links to the website, which might also be of some interest to you. I did not realize that some ads slowed down the web page loading until I got a feedback from a user. Thus I re-located and re-organized the ads so that the loading speed is still the same as before. Hope that you guys can be satisfied with the speed and let me know if you have any suggestion. Also, the ads are selected carefully, usually according to the reliability, usability and reputation of the advertisers. So, you are encouraged to visit the advertisers' website. You might find something very useful there, you never know...