Everyday on public transportation, I see people punching text messages on their phone. This is unseen a few years ago when phones were just used for talking.
Phones no longer have 12 buttons and a few arrow keys and 2 soft keys, almost all modern phones have a rice-krispie keyboard for people thumbing messages with the QWERTY keyboard.
QWERTY makes no sense! Keys should be layout as ABCDE... At one point I thought maybe people has done analysis so that the least used keys such as Q and Z are further away. Um, is the semicolon used so often that it is in the home keys?
No, QWERTY is the old typewriter keyboard designed that way to slow down people and prevent jamming.
Of course you have also heard of the Dvorak keyboard which is designed to type faster, but of course you gotta learn it first.
Most of use are trained to PUT UP with non sense rather than bother to fight them.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
iGoogle theme
iGoogle is such great thing, you can add your own portlets onto your own page.
You can set your own themes. Some are sensitive to time-of-the-day.
I am now set to this Street Fighter theme.
You can set your own themes. Some are sensitive to time-of-the-day.
I am now set to this Street Fighter theme.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
jQuery: don't let the name fool you
Find x
A while ago someone forward me this fun pic:
Can you really say the student is wrong? He did find x!
A better worded task is "Find the value of x in the following diagram."
What's the answer? of course, it is the 3-4-5 Pythagorean triple!
The student better write "5 cm", "5" is not correct.
The image above came from this link.
That funny "Expand" question for Peter is testing the Binomial Theorem, another important theorem for Algebra 1 students.
To be precise, "a" and "b" needs to be specified as any real number. If "n" is not a positive integer, we can't expect Algebra 1 students able to handle.
Newton even came up with a negative binomial theorem.... which I haven't found a very easy-to-understand proof yet.
The binomial theorem is not just true for positive integers, but for real numbers, even complex numbers!
Can you really say the student is wrong? He did find x!
A better worded task is "Find the value of x in the following diagram."
What's the answer? of course, it is the 3-4-5 Pythagorean triple!
The student better write "5 cm", "5" is not correct.
The image above came from this link.
That funny "Expand" question for Peter is testing the Binomial Theorem, another important theorem for Algebra 1 students.
To be precise, "a" and "b" needs to be specified as any real number. If "n" is not a positive integer, we can't expect Algebra 1 students able to handle.
Newton even came up with a negative binomial theorem.... which I haven't found a very easy-to-understand proof yet.
The binomial theorem is not just true for positive integers, but for real numbers, even complex numbers!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Distasteful bonus outrage
So the AIG chairman says their millions in bonus "distasteful and difficult to recommend to you that we must proceed with them"
See this link for details.
What does it mean to be "distasteful" but "must proceed", now that's non-sense.
However, it is easy to stop this nonsense. Threaten to stop giving them money until they give the money back, and promise they will never get any more bailout money.
Or tax the heck out of them so they give it back.
If they don't comply, don't help them. Let them fail.
CEO is boss? let the know there are bigger boss and stockholder: the American public.
See this link for details.
What does it mean to be "distasteful" but "must proceed", now that's non-sense.
However, it is easy to stop this nonsense. Threaten to stop giving them money until they give the money back, and promise they will never get any more bailout money.
Or tax the heck out of them so they give it back.
If they don't comply, don't help them. Let them fail.
CEO is boss? let the know there are bigger boss and stockholder: the American public.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Amazing robot
Human-like robots as we have seen in Terminator (and other science fiction) is getting more real. See this link. The robot is used in fashion show! Amazing.
I hope no one use robots for world domination (nor the robots themselves think world domination) as evil people in science fictions do.
I hope no one use robots for world domination (nor the robots themselves think world domination) as evil people in science fictions do.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
150 Years in Prison
One of the biggest recent news is the Wall Street criminal Madoff, who is accused of frauds totalling billions of dollars. This man was formerly chairman of Nasdaq and was once well respected... Greed... corruption... we've heard too much of this theme for fall-of-man, that's too common of human weakness.
So this man is 70 years old, and he can be sentenced up to 150 years in prison.
Wow, who can live 150 years? This is such a joke.
It is fairly amazing if you can live just 100 years. How about life-in-prison?
If there are some ultra medical breakthrough that makes him live pass 220. Are you going to actually release him in 2009+150=2159?
So this man is 70 years old, and he can be sentenced up to 150 years in prison.
Wow, who can live 150 years? This is such a joke.
It is fairly amazing if you can live just 100 years. How about life-in-prison?
If there are some ultra medical breakthrough that makes him live pass 220. Are you going to actually release him in 2009+150=2159?
TV Aspect Ratio
TV and monitors have always come in screen size measured by inches: 17", 19", 21", 25" etc. Waita minute, elementary school students know that rectangles ought to be measured with both width AND height. So is 25" the width or height? Oh it is the diagonal that it is measured. Waita minute even diagonal does not determine exact width and height.
You can have a 25" x 1" TV and still be called 25".
Oh to ensure uniqueness, there is also the aspect ratio of 4:3 in older TV sets.
Ok, if you got a 25 inch TV, the height and width is 9 and 16. (Remember the 3-4-5 triangle and the Pythagorean theorem!
This theorem is profound... as it is the passage to irrational numbers... integer Pythagorean triplets are so neat..)
Newer wide screen TV have 16:9, compared to the older 4:3. Curiously 16=42 and 9 =32. I wonder if there is any relation. Ah there is, as explained in the wiki article.
You can have a 25" x 1" TV and still be called 25".
Oh to ensure uniqueness, there is also the aspect ratio of 4:3 in older TV sets.
Ok, if you got a 25 inch TV, the height and width is 9 and 16. (Remember the 3-4-5 triangle and the Pythagorean theorem!
This theorem is profound... as it is the passage to irrational numbers... integer Pythagorean triplets are so neat..)
Newer wide screen TV have 16:9, compared to the older 4:3. Curiously 16=42 and 9 =32. I wonder if there is any relation. Ah there is, as explained in the wiki article.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Another life lost to reckless guns
Shocking news over the weekend: Illinois small town pastor mysteriously killed by unknown person during sermon.
On Monday this news item got bumped off headlines... replaced by pretty much same old news of more signs of sinking economy.
There is no apparent motive.
Even if the guy has intense hatred toward the pastor, he could have choose a better time and place where he can escape. He did not intense to escape. He would have killed himself if his gun is not jammed. Obviously this guy has some psychological issues.
People with mental issues are dangerous. Guns are dangerous. Add them up you can get disastrous results.
This news should get a lot more attention. Debates over stem cell research can wait. Gun control never get enough attention.
On Monday this news item got bumped off headlines... replaced by pretty much same old news of more signs of sinking economy.
There is no apparent motive.
Even if the guy has intense hatred toward the pastor, he could have choose a better time and place where he can escape. He did not intense to escape. He would have killed himself if his gun is not jammed. Obviously this guy has some psychological issues.
People with mental issues are dangerous. Guns are dangerous. Add them up you can get disastrous results.
This news should get a lot more attention. Debates over stem cell research can wait. Gun control never get enough attention.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Unemployment rate
Latest news: unemployment reaches 8.1%. Whoa. 25 year high.
That's the national average. See here for state averages. Ok, this data is not so recent, but some states reaches almost 10%.
Biggest unemployment is in Michigan, where auto plants are... well not even Toyota can sell a lot of cars these days.
The unemployment rate sounds bad, and it is probably going to cause more DOW loss. But we have seen worst. When? um, 25 years ago! How did we get out of that? Is there any econ history lesson to be learned? Cycles of boom and bust seem inevitable.
We gotta be innovative to get customers... build a better and cheaper car and I will be glad to buy one!
Wyoming has lowest unemployment... what do they do over there? Everyone just maintains Yellowstone?
That's the national average. See here for state averages. Ok, this data is not so recent, but some states reaches almost 10%.
Biggest unemployment is in Michigan, where auto plants are... well not even Toyota can sell a lot of cars these days.
The unemployment rate sounds bad, and it is probably going to cause more DOW loss. But we have seen worst. When? um, 25 years ago! How did we get out of that? Is there any econ history lesson to be learned? Cycles of boom and bust seem inevitable.
We gotta be innovative to get customers... build a better and cheaper car and I will be glad to buy one!
Wyoming has lowest unemployment... what do they do over there? Everyone just maintains Yellowstone?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Math Behind Toys
Recently I glanced through this rather professional book: Adventures in Group Theory, which explains the math behind the Rubik Cube and other games. Abstract algebra and Groups are not high school Algebra 1.
Part of the difficulty of abstract algebra is that most of the time it lacks answer to the question: "so what?"... and gosh, most books are too formal too tough too boring. This book seems to be more approachable. I like the "Adventure" in the title. Math... ought to be an adventure of some sort.
No, I didn't buy it and dive into it yet although I have some curiosity. There are two quantities to balance: 1) curiosity 2) laziness. if (1) > (2), then I will buy and read. But laziness often overcomes effort, making (2) a low value, especially for non must-do items.
Ok, does the word "abstract" in abstract algebra scare you? Well, you already deal a lot of with abstraction. In children's learn-number books, you see pictures of things: pencils, apples, etc. Children needed those solid objects in the beginning. When you grow older you can deal with numbers (an abstraction of quantity) directly. Then you deal with "solid" operations: add, substract, multiply, divide and you can invent your own operations. In elementary school you deal with actual numbers, beginning in high school you deal with variables which stands for some numbers (more abstraction here). Well how about deal with operands and operations in general? (even more abstraction) Ok, we observe: some operations are communtative, you can switch the order of operands a+b = b+a, some are not, such as matrix multiplications. Some operations are associative, you can do one first then another (a+b)+c = a+(b+c), but some operations are not... That is my introduction talk of abstract algebra. :)
When my curiousity > laziness, I will learn new things.
Part of the difficulty of abstract algebra is that most of the time it lacks answer to the question: "so what?"... and gosh, most books are too formal too tough too boring. This book seems to be more approachable. I like the "Adventure" in the title. Math... ought to be an adventure of some sort.
No, I didn't buy it and dive into it yet although I have some curiosity. There are two quantities to balance: 1) curiosity 2) laziness. if (1) > (2), then I will buy and read. But laziness often overcomes effort, making (2) a low value, especially for non must-do items.
Ok, does the word "abstract" in abstract algebra scare you? Well, you already deal a lot of with abstraction. In children's learn-number books, you see pictures of things: pencils, apples, etc. Children needed those solid objects in the beginning. When you grow older you can deal with numbers (an abstraction of quantity) directly. Then you deal with "solid" operations: add, substract, multiply, divide and you can invent your own operations. In elementary school you deal with actual numbers, beginning in high school you deal with variables which stands for some numbers (more abstraction here). Well how about deal with operands and operations in general? (even more abstraction) Ok, we observe: some operations are communtative, you can switch the order of operands a+b = b+a, some are not, such as matrix multiplications. Some operations are associative, you can do one first then another (a+b)+c = a+(b+c), but some operations are not... That is my introduction talk of abstract algebra. :)
When my curiousity > laziness, I will learn new things.
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