Why I don't like the IPod

The IPod is a HOT item. Everyone wants one. Joggers carry that while running on the threadmill. Every other music player is considered copycat and inferior. The IPod had Microsoft scared that it made its own Zune. Microsoft goes after every successful product, well that's another story.

Yes the IPod has some great features. Good sound. The lightweight and the key hold switch is required for joggers. It has more memory than my computer. But I dare to say it has some serious design flaws.

1. Anti-intuitive dial

This may be a cool unique feature but I don't like it. What? you spin over the buttons to choose something? What? you can't tap on the screen to choose a song? The dial has limited the interface. My ipod even comes with games. But what games can I play just with that dial?

2. No turn off switch?

You basically can't turn it off. I demand it to be turned off NOW to preserve battery.

3. Must connect to a computer to charge

Connect the IPod to the USB port, songs will load to it immediately and charging. Good. What if you don't have a computer and want to charge? Sorry no way to do that, except you buy a charger. If you take your ipod on a flight half way around the world and you don't have access to a computer you're out of luck.

4. ITunes needs to follow my orders

ITunes will download everything in "My Music" directory, no question asked. I can't make it download some but not all. Some of my songs don't have the singer name and it will not let me organize my songs. Itune should let me choose what to download and perhaps let me do some editing. When I plug in the USB it will say "Do Not Disconnect". Come on I am done, I WANT to disconnect, ok?

The Palm is a much better music player. However, it can only play Real Player files and do not have a key hold switch needed for jogging.

Global warming

Recently I saw former vice-president and almost-president Al Gore on TV. "The earth has a fever. If you have a child that has fever, what would you do? you take action, you take the child to the doctor."

Mr. Gore. You are absolutely right. It IS something to worry about. (We'll consider priority later.) That ozone layer is letting UV rays coming in and iceberg are broken and penguins have no place to live. We see plenty of evidence of pollution destroying the earth.

When weather gets bad, we all lose. How do we battle hot summer? Air conditioner! How many see this vicious cycle? That produces more pollution! I never had air conditioning at home and I don't need one.
It is not just minor annoynance of hotter summer. It is big hurricanes. See how often we get hurricanes now.

Everyone must take effort to reduce that pollution! Also, I can't afford the expensive gasoline! I want to dump my car and get a hybrid. However, I still have rather attachment to my first car so I'll put up with it for now. I promise to get a fuel efficient car when my attachment is depleted by more expensive fixings as the car ages.

Some people (like the guy who stole Gore's presidency in 2000) ditched global warming altogether and believe it is not important. Some people think the earth naturally gets hot and just ditch any warning of global warming.

However, what I don't understand is this: how come I had a horrifying cold winter this year? Isn't the world's temperature rising?

Ok, how high priority is the global warming warning?

The world is increasingly unstable with warfare and conflicts going on and on. These guys would even suicide bomb you. They are desperate to kick you out. Some hostile nations may have nuclear weapons that may increase the temperature of your town MUCH quicker than global warming can. Why do we have a interest in that part of the world? It is simply because of the oil underneath. Look folks, if we don't rely on oil so much we can just leave them alone. Fighting global warming also helps us get out of warzone.

World hostility is surely more emminent danger than global warming. Does US have good plans to solve that problem? Not really. We just keep sending troops and deplete our tax dollars. Does US even have good plans to solve her own problems in the military hospitals? No!

We are in such chaos.

Daylight saving time: self imposed trouble

The last time the world was in panic for computer problems was 1999, when the Y2K approached. That's inevitable. After all, it has been 2000 years since A.D.

Lots of efforts were made to get ready for Y2K. No major problems were known. But how many people know some programmers merely pushed the problem of Y2K by assuming anything less than '50' is before 2050 so things appears to work? (Replace that 50 if any number if you like). Well that's another topic. Nobody worries about if 4 digits are enough for years when year 10000 comes. Well human civilization is only 6000 years? so we don't worry about it now, but inevitable assuming the earth is still going to be here in Y10k.

How many even know that Unix's unsigned 32-bit seconds since 1900 will overflow in 2036?

Y2K or Y10K are inevitable. What about the rather strange day light saving time? Note: not everyone in the world uses DST. Not everyone in US uses DST. It is self-imposed annoyance.
This year, daylight savings time is pushed a month ahead (by legislation), causing many computers to put patches to keep the right time.

Why do we do this? Why do we have daylight saving time at all?

The purpose is to save energy. By pushing people out an hour earlier there are more daylight, therefore saving some energy for lights at night. What is the net saving? Perhaps 1%.

Ok, we are used to the annoyance of having everyone set their clocks twice a year. We programmed it into the computers. And now you are going to move it? The little savings do not justify the potential programs of fixing all the codes and risking breaking stuff. Have a clue.

I think the only legitimate change to DST is to remove it altogether, and not moving it backward or forward. We have enough annoyance in life. Don't mess with the clock.

Hong Kong Revisited

I visited Hong Kong again.

Best time to visit:
It is good idea to visit Hong Kong during November and December, the weather is the best during these months. In the bitter months of summer Hong Kong can be unbelievably hot and humid. When September and December comes HK will be battered by its typhoons.

Strange work hours:
Shopping malls are everywhere in Hong Kong, there is almost always a large shopping mall connected to a train station. Hong Kong have such strange working hours. Besides restaurants, nothing seems to open until NOON, and they work until 9:00 or 10:00PM. Places like MongKok are always filled up with people. One has to have a good expectation that there are lots and lots of people in HongKong so you're not overwhelmed.

Shop, shops everywhere
So HK is known as a heaven for shoppers. One obvious reason is that there is no sales tax. No extra % calculation. Prices tend to be much lower than America. There are also so many shopping malls, and they vary. Some are small, small shops that only a handful of people can go in. Some are major high end shops with pricey products. In the small shops there are not even a cashier machine. They all have solar calculators, when they have trouble negotiate price to visitors who speak English, they punch in the numbers. Numbers is truly THE universal language.

Shopping Too specialized
If you visited the dried seafood street in Sai Wan, you will see maybe 2 miles of shops, each selling the absolutely same products. If you live in that area, there is absolutely nothing else in that long street. You may need to take the bus just to find a grocery store or a restaurant. If you visit the clothing wholesale street, you also get endless such (small) shops.

Octopus Card - Electronic Cash
Currency has a long history. In the beginning people exchange products, like fisherman would exchange fish for fruits. Then there is coin, then there is a paper money. Now there is Octopus Card. The Chicago Card is strictly used for public transportation. You can add value to the Octopus card in all the convenience stores and buy stuff using it. Great convenience but you may be spending more than you realize.

Where are the washrooms?
There are so MANY people in Hong Kong, when there are many people, washrooms (toilets) tend to become dirty. It seems like every restaurant owner and merchants are not willing to maintain them. They are hard if not impossible to find. If you find them they may be lowly ones that don't even have a seat. Even McDonalds don't maintain washroom. Toilet signs may lead you to an outside washroom which is crappy. HK government need to award money to those willing to provide good washrooms! You have to know where the toilet papers are. They may be OUTSIDE the stalls. You may need to grab them before going in. Now that's outrageous.

Tell me about yourself

"Tell me about yourself" is a dreadful question that we were told to prepare for in a job interview.

This actually can be a deep and tricky question. So, what kind of answer do you expect? In a job interview you can say you are working for certain company and tell what you can do. In more social environment you can say where you went to school and where you work and what you like. Real philosophical folks will go into deep thinking mode and wonder who they are.
DesCartes would tell you "I think therefore I am".

Ok I'll tell you something about myself.

I live in Chicago, IL, USA (for 20+ years). I was originally from Hong Kong. I make a living as a computer programmer.

I went to college at Northwestern. I originally majored in math but found it too difficult at the Abstract Algebra class, so I switched to computer science (they called it computer studies back then). That Abstract Algebra professor was good. It was rare to find good English speaking math professor. But I still think that class was too hard. Although hardcore mathematics was hard, but I think it is only hard because the books are so hard. (more on this later)
I already had the instinct to be a programmer in high school. I can turn problems into code pretty quicker so majoring in computer science was the right thing to do. Despite NU is a pretigious school the CS department wasn't that great. I collected enough credits to graduate. I forever hated the computer graphics professor at NU. He simply taught with heavy accent and doesn't seem to care if anyone understand anything. He was a disgrace to Chinese, and he still hasn't replied to my email.

Later I realize how little I know after the degree at NU. I enrolled into a very-easy-to-enroll master's program at Depaul. They don't even require the GRE. At Depaul I was able to get top score in midterm and finals! I studied computer graphics. I find those various math techniques rather interesting.

I've been working for a programmer for 10+ years at various jobs.

"Are you smarter than a 5th grader"

America recently has undergone a game show craze revival. There are many game show that runs over many years, such as "Wheel of Fortune" and "Price is right." It does not take a lot of knowledge to play these games. It takes luck and some guessing to win at these games. There is also a long running game show "Jeopardy" that target toward the intellectuals. And at 3:30pm, who is going to watch?? Only people with substanial knowledge can score on that game. On average I may be able to give the correct question to 1 or 2 answers. Then recently there are new, big money, starts-off-easy quiz shows such as "Who wants to be a millionaire?" Almost anyone can answer the first few questions, and that attracts you to watch them. Then there are a number of copycat shows not so worthwhile mentioning. I like "The Weakest Link". It is fast pace and fun. But you do not have to embarrass the contestants, ok?

Recently while channel surfing, I found a great new game show on Fox, Thursday night at 8 'clock. "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?". See this link: http://www.fox.com/areyousmarter/ for details.

You play along with a bunch of fifth graders for big money, and you only answer grade school level questions. If you lose, you must face the camera and admit that "I am not smarter than a fifth grader."

Here is a 3rd grade astronomy question, "Which is hotter? regular yellow star, red dwarf, or a blue giant". Gosh I am not sure. So red has longer wavelength, imply hotter or colder? The answer is blue giant.

Here is a 3rd grade math question that stumbled the contestant: "how many sides does a rhombus have?" Only students with interest in math remember a rhombus is a parllelogram with 4 sides congruent to each other.

Here is a 4th grade history question, "Which year did Lincoln first elected as president?" Now only people with interest in civil war history may remember this one when grown up.

These are all great educational questions that we should know when we were fifth grade. Much of these are learned and forgotten. The 5th graders on the show may probably forget when they grow up.

But this show is a great informational and fun show for families to watch. Great family activity that I would play with 9-year-olds.

American schools have a LOT of improvement to do. Kids must realize that learning is for their own good. Shut off that video game and wacky music and learn something!!

Treasures found at the Discount Bin

At the local Barnes and Nobles bookstore, there is a discount section where we find outdated books such as "Teach yourself Windows 95" and other books that has trouble selling. I found two GREAT mathematics and scientific works which do not have the lastest book covers as found on Amazon. These are probably old editions. But nevertheless it is still great work.


I am both happy and disappointed. I am happy that I find such bargain. I am however disappointed that such great works end up in the dime-a-dozen bin.


I love great scientific books written for general public. The hardcore, professional versions are too difficult for most and are for extreme students or scientists.



The first treasure I found is Roger Penrose's Road to Reality. The modern cover looks like the figure on the right. This book is BIG. It collects what physicists know today. This is not like a typical textbook. It has light description of the heavy duty mathematics involved in physics and it will take years of schooling to understand much of it. This book is hard. Although I don't understand most topics, I can still sense Penrose's enthusiasm in math and physics as you read. But the idea is exactly like my math book work! Except this journey takes you much, much further.




The second treasure is Keith Devlin's "The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time". This book describes the 7 math problems that the Clay Institute would offer a million dollar to a solution to any of these well known problems. The book is written to those interested in math, and you don't need a phD to read this one. When he describe each problem, he went in depth to gently introduce the math concepts needed to understand the problem, without the rigorous stuff you see in a hardcore textbook. The concepts span from prime numbers to computer science to topology and other topics of interest. Great introductions throughout! I am still trying to grasp some ideas in the book. This book can be a great gift for math majors. I do have a slight complain though, he should have shown how the zeta function relates to prime numbers clearer.

Math talk at Elementary School

A friend's 7 year old son has a rather difficult assignment from the teacher, and that is to invite a speaker to the classroom. The speaker can talk about any topic. Some kids brought in skiing expert and other fun stuff.

I was invited to talk an interesting topic in math!

I am DELIGHTED to do such talk.

After all, I almost became a teacher. I backed out of teaching for a variety of reasons: low pay, guns in school, little respect. The most important reason why I backed out is that I don't think I have what it takes to teach the kids to be honorable, respectable individuals. I'd love to make a living teaching math. But it is more than teaching the subject when you become a teacher. It gets especially hard when kids reach the high school age. I have no interest to teach kids the four basic operations and elementary school stuff. I'd like to teach at least high school level where I can let the students think past beyond calculations...

So I went to Graham elementary school. I haven't been in an elementary school for gosh so long. The 2nd grade kids were adorable! They sit on the floor instead of at chairs like I expected.

So what can I talk to the 2nd grader kids about? in 15 minutes?

Finally, I settled with Gauss's famous homework problem: adding 1+2+3+4...+100.

I asked"Do you know how to add?"
The kids: "Yes!"
I asked "What is 1+2?"
The kids: "THREE!"
"What about 1+2+3?"
The kids: "SIX!"
How about "1+2+3...+97+98+99+100?"

That stumbled the kids for a while. Finally one kid says "400"!

"How did you get 400?"
"1+99=100, 2+98=100+3+97=100, plus that 100 = 400"

This (smart) kid did not understand the "..." notation. But she saw the pattern!

Then I explained the dot-dot-dot notation, she stumbled for a while.
Finally I told her that she is on the right track. The pattern here is 1+100=101, 2+99=101, for each pair of numbers.

"How many pairs?"
One kid said "50".

"Multiply it out what do you get?"
"5000"
"Almost"
Then a bunch of kids raised their hands to guess: 6000? 10000? 4500? The kids simply pull numbers out of thin air.
Finally, one kid says "5050".

He got it! I gave him a gift calculator that I got at a dollar store. I told the kids that sometimes we have to look for patterns in solving math problems.