Windows 8 Annoyance (part 3)

If you miss the start button and don't want to bother downloading some third party program, don't be too despair. It is still kinda there: launch it with Windows-X. Good! There are some useful links there.

Another way to get to it is to hover the mouse to the lower left corner, you will see the link to the Start page, and then RIGHT-click. Come on, Microsoft is making you remember non-obvious secret tricks.

A particular useful tool since Windows 3.1 (or earlier, I am not even sure) is the Start->Run prompt. I can launch anything there. Need to launch calculator (or some program where you know the name)? Even when Start button was there you still have to click and hover over a few things to find it, but with Start->Run you can type "calc" and hit Enter. Now you can launch it with Windows-R. But I don't want to learn ANY Windows+key shortcuts.

I want to be able to launch Run dialog without the non-obvious trick of hover the lower-left and right-click, or Windows-R. Ok, VBScript will be my tool here. There seems to be ways to simulate key pressing. Alas, but there seems to be no way to simulate the not-so-standard Windows key. Fortunately there is CreateObject Shell thing that still can be used!

Set app = WScript.CreateObject("Shell.Application")
app.FileRun

So I have another VBS on my desktop that goes to the Run dialog.

Windows 8 Annoyance (part 2)

Yikes, the Start button is gone. Ok, maybe the huge, at-your-face Start screen is even better than the good old Start button since Windows 95. Ok, HOW do I go to the plain desktop. Ah there is an Desktop icon. Ok, it looks much like Windows 7 without the Start button. Waita minute, the Windows have a flatter layout. That Aero and beveled look are gone. But I see a beef-ed up Windows Explorer (that's good news). Other than this I do not see anything too exciting yet. Ok I need to tweak things... without the Start button how the heck am I supposed to go to the Control Panel? Oh, you go Windows-C to bring out the Charm Bar. (Is it charming to you?) Charm Bar->Settings then the Control Panel. Oh, and it is looks slightly different from previous versions of Windows. Ok, let's personalize it, let's see what kind of backgrounds do I have? Just a handful of pictures... Note: If you use a colorful desktop background, you will hide the word "Desktop" on the Start page that you may not be able to find it.

What about changing the background of the Start page... oh you can only use a handful of pre-defined patterns, can't put your own image there.

Now, that Metro page... it looks like made of elementary school construction paper... flat, single color tiles. The icons can only be 1 square box, or 1x2 wide fat box. That's about all the tweaks you can do. Horizontal scroll with squares is the interface that Microsoft calls "Modern" (or "Metro"). There are some basic things such as news, weather and sports apps built in. Alas, each time I click it shows me a paper made huge icon followed by a WAIT. There are NO GAMES! Not even Solitaire or Minesweeper. Seems like you need to sign up to xbox to play anything. Now that sucks. Ok, how do you find your programs on Metro? You type, RIGHT on it! No prompt for search.

Ok, done playing, how do you turn the computer off? You'll need the charm bar again with Windows-C->Settings->Power. This is not even obvious unless someone tells you. And it is so many steps to get there. In Start button, at least there is one place to start looking for options, and the option to turn it off is not far away. Another thing, the good old Alt-F4 (since Windows 3.1 or perhaps even earlier) still works.

This is requiring people to remember keyboard short cuts. (Windows-C for charm bar, or Alt-F4). Now that's POOR design, Microsoft! There are plenty of Start button apps for Windows 8... Just why the heck people need to write such programs? Because people NEED it, Microsoft you hear?

Ok here is what I want: a shortcut on the desktop to shut down... I do not need ANYTHING on the Metro UI. Heck, the option to shut down isn't even there.

There is a DOS command you can run to shutdown Windows (since the dawn of Windows I suppose): shutdown /s /t 0. Go shutdown /? to see what else this can do. Now you can create a desktop shut cut to that DOS command.

Ok, that's nice. But that command will shut it down right away. I want to have a prompt like "Are you sure?". Batch files won't give you a dialog, good old VBScript is still available.

Here we go:

' This script displays a prompt then calls the shutdown command
' Find a nice shutdown icon in %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
'

Dim i
i = msgbox ("Are you sure?",vbYesNo,"Shutdown Windows 8")
if i=vbYes then
   Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 
   WshShell.Run "shutdown /s /t 0"
end if

Windows 8 annoyance (part 1)

Microsoft is on its path to self-destruct with Windows 8. The missing Start button is the first thing. Ok, I'll talk about the Metro interface in future.

But now I want to address one thing. You can't play a DVD anymore on Windows 8. See here. Windows 7 lets you do that. Come on! Fortunately your machine probably comes with a third-party DVD player.

Ok, here is one thing I like about Windows 8... it boots up faster. I hope I can find more on the Like list.

Mayan Doomsday and its math

Ok, the world is supposed end today according to the Mayan calendar? Just how the heck did they come up with this day beats me. Yet the Mayan civilization is a remarkable part of human history... How they collapse remains a hot topic of study for some scientists.

You probably heard that the Mayans know a lot about math and astronomy, which makes some people believe they can predict the end of the world. Their base-20 system (see here) looks interesting. Their symbols is quite intuitive: dot = 1, bar = 5. But we are so used to the decimal system that this may seem a bit awkward. That bar = 5 notation we use too, as in, ||||, and in the abacus. But I guess the most important invention that they have is the zero. Not a whole lot of math can be done without the zero. And I wonder how the Mayans add numbers. Do they line them up and add them (and remember the carry) like what we teach elementary students today? Do they do fractions? Ok, a base-20 number system is better than some others like the Roman Numerals, but is that it? Do they know the Pythagorean Theorem or other things that modern elementary school students know nowadays? (When my children learn the Pythagorean Theorem I want them to be able to prove it and not just remember it)

The Mayan people has studied quite a bit about astronomy. So this more-advanced-than-most-other-civilization made that doomsday prediction seems believable.

Really, if a doomsday is to come, you won't know about it. (and I am not going to bother quoting the Bible since you may not be a believer anyway). NASA folks were so confident the world won't end by asteroids today because they didn't see any in their radar. What about somehow there is space-bridge like hyperwarp things that they don't know about transporting asteroids or other invaders? You just don't know, ok?

Ok, maybe a doomsday is not a 1-day event, it may come gradually as there are some evidence suggesting the Mayans eventually disappeared as there were not enough rain fall. Look, we pollute the world so much that eventually we are destroying ourselves.

Will this world last forever. If I understand correctly, no, it will NOT. The sun will eventually run out of fuel, but don't worry it won't be in a long while.

Play with Surface in Best Buy or Staples and see for yourself

Now you can play with an actual Microsoft Surface machine at Staples or Best Buy. See here.

This is Microsoft's last hope of being relevant in modern computer/tablet market... and ALAS I am not thrilled with it.

First it is kind of a heavy rectangular block with an odd dimension. Not as nimble as the Kindle or other tablets. A first look of it tells me it isn't even looking as good as other Android tablets in the store. This is intended for landscape view only, not portrait. Even a $1 photo frame can hold a picture in 2 ways but the stand doesn't do that, and the screen doesn't turn 90 degree when you turn it around. Ok, that's fairly minor. But I would imagine it will be hard to read a PDF novel on this thing.

Ok, more about Windows 8 itself later. It needs at least a few things to become less annoying...

The keyboard! Yikes it doesn't feel good. I am afraid the virtual keyboard of the IPad works better. It doesn't click like a real keyboard should do. But there is another one in the store that feels better. Alas, you have to pay extra ~$150 for that?! This is overpriced. How can you be competitive that way?

The Metro interface... doesn't work so well with the traditional desktop, which is now a hard-to-find icon on the tiles. This is poor replacement for the good old Start button. Sorry, this won't fly. I am sure that Palm WebOS thing and the Blackberry thing work a lot better and they didn't fly either.

Microsoft is going to be LESS relevant... The reign will soon be over as alas, soon people will get used to some oddity of the Mac and switch when their Windows 7 machines grow old.

Microsoft has been a formidable company... In the past it won against Wordperfect, Netscape, even Sony and Nintendo on gaming consoles... but sadly they will LOSE because they chose idiot Metro interface and can't design a better tablet.

Another tragic shooting, but why are you surprised?

Another school shooting, another American tragedy. This time at innocent 6-and-7-year-olds and their teachers, and in non ghetto neighborhood.

Young kids and great teachers robbed of their lives, hearts broken, all because of some "socially awkward" confused young man with plenty of guns and bullets.

Not too long ago we heard about some shopping mall shooting. We shrugged and lives go on. Not too long ago that Joker rampaged the theatre. Though he was caught (though general pattern should be that he would have been killed at the scene), the meaningless trial (is it over?) is probably only going to give him a life sentence for each person he killed. We also shrug. Even a congresswoman is hit by bullet though miraculously survived, news still says "guns laws won't change." Obama said he wanted some action taken back then but nothing happened. Would something happen after this time? I DON'T THINK SO.

And there was assault weapon ban for a decade, and gosh statistics did not indicate an decrease of crimes in that decade. Yikes, this is to say gun laws don't work(!) See here for details.

There are just news about concealed weapons being more legalized. In this nonsense nation, to solve the problem of guns, the solution is everybody carry their own guns. The judges interpreted the amendment to say, your rights to carry weapon should not limit to your house.

The Supreme Court has decided that the amendment confers a right to bear arms for self-defense, which is as important outside the home as inside

Now what sense is this to for someone to have such high powered weapons, hundreds of rounds of bullets for self-defense purpose? That really is something to ponder, dear fellow Americans.

It is the rights that Americans cherish. Even this can mean death! death! death! to innocent and not-so-innocent people. We cherish rights over lives.

Is hunting that much fun? Even if you hunt you don't need powerful weapons. Get a copy of Duck Hunt from Nintendo and let's play. I can probably beat you in this game.

ENOUGH. Quit this gun ownership. It is dangerous and nothing to be excited about owning a gun. Only law enforcers need them. Every American ought to have conscience and destroy their guns. You don't need this right. If there is a right to have guns, can I make bomb? can I make a nuclear weapon? The answer is apparently no right?

The ONLY way to stop this is to NOT have a weapon, especially if you have someone with questionable mental health issues at home.

Yes, crooks will always have guns. But let's make it harder to buy guns even for law abiding citizens.

I am doubtful if ANYTHING will change. Every gun owner toss their guns out? No way... Even if someone shoot at elderly homes or baby centers. Perhaps it may be effective if someone starts shooting at a NRA convention... UNTIL we are like the rest of civilized world where regular citizens do not have guns. I am setting a counter on how many days WITHOUT mass shooting. There WILL BE ANOTHER ONE. I just hope you're not the next victim.

We should perhaps follow the Japanese model: see here

Instant hit item if you can build this

A device that keeps a distance between a kid and the TV. All kids ignore "Don't stand too close to the TV" when their favorite show is on.

Here is an idea: you give your kid a cool watch with a device inside that calculates distance between it and the TV. It turns TV automatically OFF if the kid is too close. Back off? turn the TV back on.

If GPS devices can be made, this technically should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately I don't have a clue how to create something that sends infrared signal to TV. Perhaps it can be integrated to xbox or something, that is connected to a TV and has a sensor...

Every parent in the world would want this watch+sensor device. This can be an instant hit.... get it patented... sell a ton of these and collect $. (dream on)

Chess on front page of WSJ

I saw this article about chess Armenia on the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday. There are places on earth where the stars are not movie stars or football players... but chess champions. I also must admit I do not know exactly where Armenia is without looking for it in google map... Makes me want to move there until I read that some of these folks are so poor that don't have $ for gasoline, parking, or eat at restaurants.

Chess is compulsory in their elementary schools. Wow, now is that getting too far?

It is a game, although a very educational one... that teaches patience, strategies and all that. I hope they have other items on their economy. I hate to see great players who knows all the pros and cons of various openings and stuff end up suffering from hunger. No $ is a checkmate. I hope there are other means to make money over there.

I hope Armenia discover the fun of other games, such as the even more ancient, but even more difficult game of Go, or other variants of chess. Or perhaps some video games. :)

Know your CSS?

Stylesheets sure looks easy. You specify a set of font sizes, padding, etc to a name and then you specify your HTML elements to use that. Easy enough? Nowadays stylesheets can get a lot more tricky.

In one job interview, I was asked. "What does 'div > p' means? How is it different from 'div p'". A sweat came down my spine. I just don't know. I have not seen this.

How do you react when someone ask you something you don't know may be difference between get job or not get job. I think I eventually guessed something close to the correct answer.

This is a CSS Selector. Glorious details: here. Nowadays CSS can even do manymore interesting stuff. Of course you need to watch for browser compatibility. How the heck do you expect people to keep up?

Lunch disappointments

So there is a good Louisana-style cajun food place that I like in downtown... good food for good price. Today I revisited it and gosh I found out the box is smaller! I get less food for the price! Now this is sneaky way to reduce that operating cost. They may be thinking... ooh I am saving 10 cents off that rice for each order. Ooh soon I'll be able to buy a new car, etc. Let me tell you this, that will eventually hurt you. A bigger box with a couple spoons more of rice make happy coming-back customers. You save 10 cents this time, but you will lose $6+ for each customer lost, Ok?

Non-Panda Chinese restaurants have become almost extinct in downtown. There is a new one. I tried it once and not going back. Ok the restaurant itself doesn't have glorious decorations like Panda, it is even gloomy and feels dirty. Come on, don't save by using 10 watts lightbulbs. Light please. Let me try the food... First, it is in a small package, ok, roughly equivalent to Panda. But it tastes poor! Come on, if a Chinese person is to open up a Chinese restaurant to compete with Panda you better can do at least as good as those non-Chinese chefs. Go TASTE their food. Compare with yours. If you can't do better than this then don't bother starting a restaurant business and please contemplate why Chinese can't do better Chinese food than non-Chinese in that gloomy dirty place heading toward bankruptcy.

To win, there is a simple formula: fill up your customers stomach with good food, and don't charge more than $6 or $7. I may actually BUY a pop if it is less than $1.50. Work on food first. For those who can afford it, get good decorations, at least good lightbulbs.

Can't recycle that batteries

I recycle things. That plastic bottle shouldn't end up in landfills. That aluminum can also shouldn't. So are those cardboard boxes and the annoying advertising stuff coming to my mailbox. I take them to the city's recycling center. Find one near you here. NOBODY ELSE that I know do this. Go to some party? garbage full of aluminum cans. I don't know anyone who cares about the environment. Perhaps I should find a support group in Green Peace or something.

What about batteries? Once upon a time I see collection bins in Walgreens and the public library. And yes, they are supposed to have it. See here. Nope, not anymore. And they redirect me: Walgreens->Library->Radio Shack->Walgreens. This is ridiculous, no one is taking used batteries. Sorry... I had to toss them in regular garbage. Future generations! do not blame me. I had no outlet to toss them right.

I probably should burn and explode them in front of the City Hall to protest I guess.

Notable children songs

The Wheels on the Bus

go round and round...., followed by the people on the bus go up and down, the horn on the bus, etc.

This little song is quite profound. It is observation of life! Yes, the world turns, people work, come and go. This is a step back look of life. Quite philosophical!

Hush Little Baby

Now this one is formula for spoiled kid... but demonstrates mother's love. If mockingbird don't sing? buy you something else... The song can go on and on. (Guys can apply the same techniques to their Miss Right, but watch out you may still get rejected). But the idea is to put baby to sleep that's all. No kids are actually getting mockingbirds.

BB 2.0

I have a new baby boy! Exciting but lots of work... the feeling of "here we go again". Almost forgot how much powder to mix for given number of oz. BB 1.0 needs to cooperate... Tough times now but I am giving up present pleasure for future gain...

Election is over. Time to move on

The election is finally over. Congrats to Obama. Yes I did predict his victory.

It seems to be a lukewarm election for Chicago. Four years ago, Obama signs were everywhere, and just about every light post has his picture as he makes history.

Obama wins because he was better of the 2 candidates. There are actually other candidates who have absolutely no chance to win even a single electoral vote. Obama and Romney's approval ratings are always 50/50. This country is deeply divided. Obama just has little over 50% of popular votes... Half the country doesn't like him. Well more people don't like the other guy. He didn't even win the state that he was governor, and I wonder why.

However, I am scared that someone who don't even know where are Syria and Iran on the map be a world leader. I am scared that someone who thinks America should be best and dominate everything would be president.

It is unfortunate that the Republicans don't have a better candidate. Will there be one in the future?

Millions dollars spent on negative ads... American politics is becoming a joke somewhat. Millions dollars raised and wasted on losing candidates. That money could fill up the deficit a bit.

Now that Obama is elected... is he really going to raise tax on the wealthiest people? Or it will be blocked blocked blocked by dysfunctional Congress which can't agree on anything.

I wish I can find a candidate who is a strong global leader without having America dominate. I wish I can find a candidate who can really have working plans to fix economy and lower the deficit. I wish I can find a candidate who believes in the most fundamental block of human: the natural family.

I can't find a Mr. Right who can do it all, and I voted for the guy I believe is the better of the two.

CNN Money: Best jobs in America

How come they don't give you all 100 in a list? Ah, so they can sell more ads I suppose.

#1 is Biomedical Engineer? See here. Ok, it is going to be some difficult classes to take and you may find about 5 jobs in your city with 1000 people competing for it.

Look, software architect is #3, median pay is 119k, gosh I am severely underpaid. http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/3.html

Waita minute, that person is using an old monitor?! I haven't seen one in many years. Ok ok I probably belong to just this category: http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/9.html.

Look, no one ever ask me to "architect" anything, but I can probably do better than many overpaid self-proclaimed architects who don't actually have a clue.

Windows 8 and Surface

Windows 8 debuts today! But it seems like nobody really cares.

When Office 2007 debuts I see ads all over the place, impossible not to notice. Yes there are many Surface ads around too. But seems not as much.

It certainly has come late in the game, when everybody who wanted a tablet probably already got one. How do I play with one on my hand? Gotta visit a Microsoft Store? It may not be near you. This thing should be available in every electronic store for me to evaluate.

I am afraid it won't dent the market share of the iPad.

Ok Windows, let me tell you this. I LIKE your interface more than the Mac. Pre-8 versions that is. I am afraid the Start menu at-your-face will make me change my view.

But I have a complain. My computer GETS SLOWER, close to unusable state, over time. Is it virus? is it needing hard-disk defrag I don't know. Hey I still have a lot of free disk space, don't think it is defrag issue and if I defrag I risk frying the system.

Your OS needs to be secure and defend itself against all the virus you hear? Is your Defender strong enough?

Why do you choose to debut it so close to the election?

This alone should cause Romney's to lose

ROMNEY: "Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea."

THE FACTS: Iran has a large southern coastline with access to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. And it has no land border with Syria.

More fact checking here.

This demonstrates his failed elementary school level geography education. Ok ok I have to admit I have to pull out google map to verify the coastal lines.

But Obama also didn't get all the facts straightened out either.

Who do you think demonstrate better leadership? For the country and somehow for the world? Neither man is Mr. Perfect.

I predict Obama re-elected.

Electric as future

One weekend. I saw 2 all-electric cars.

1. The Nissan Leaf
2. Tesla

And you think hybrid or electric cars are new? Nope, they are here 100+ years ago. See here.

I didn't take a look at the Leaf closely. But omg, the Tesla has no engine! The hood is a storage compartment.

I am seeing these cars as the way of future. This will reduce that pollution! Who the heck cares if gas is $5+ a gallon? (But wait, I am not sure what these cars would do to the electric bill yet).

Yes, electric cars maybe more expensive now. But I am sure price will come down as more competitions take place. About maintenance, will I be able to find mechanics that are able to fix it? Are these electric cars more reliable? But alas if someone bump to it will the whole car needs to be totalled?

Maybe I'll live to the day when gas cars are obsolete.

Street Fighters in Disney

Oh my, Zangief and M. Bison (maybe others) is coming back to the movies. See it here. A Disney movie? Will I soon find M. Bison Halloween costume in the Disney store?

They better pay Capcom or copywright lawyers will be after them.

Street Fighters have many good characters and have lots of potential to be a very entertaining story. Of course Van Damme didn't do it right....

Round 2: Obama's comeback

Watching a good debate is more interesting than watching NBA finals or the Olympics... because the issues matter to the viewers. Whoever wins the next sports championship is not really your business unless you sell those T-shirts.

Now is the president an all powerful figure that can single-handedly bring the unemployment, deficit and gas price down? I don't think so. A lot more people need to cooperate. And alas we see what I call Clowngress not able to pass anything.

To make an informed decision as to who to vote for it is important to listen to the candidates to see if you agree or disagree with their approach of solving the problems for this nation.

Both candidates accuse each other of not telling the truth. Fact checkers indicate both are lying in one way or another. Yet, the political stage is not the courtroom. You don't need to put your hand over the Bible and take a oath to tell the truth.

I am glad that Obama appears much more prepared and determined. He really needs to do that to stay in the game. Romney also appeared confident mostly.

Who won? I'd say Obama won. Just slightly. But Romney won overwhelmingly last time.

Looking forward for round 3.

JQuery Quickpager

Seen paging on websites? Well some people use ajax to load pages when you hit next, or a certain page. Some simply load them all first, and show-hide individual pages when you click on page links with client-side tricks.

Some will only load a subset base on page number as parameter. I did this years ago!

Here is a jquery library that can do this somewhat effortlessly. The approach is load them all and hide-show with styles.

Each item is a <li> http://geckohub.com/jquery/simplepager/

Debate 1: Romney scores

Have you spoken in front of a crowd? It is harder than you may think... to communicate clearly and have points without being nervous. I encourage all college students to take a speech class. Take it Pass-Fail if there is such option as it is hard to not hurt your GPA unless you are real good. My lecturer decided to tape every speech and tell students to see your own speech to find out how to do it better. I didn't even want to see my own performance. Um, I didn't take it Pass-Fail and I ended up DROPPING the class. Ok that wasn't my highlight of my education.

And I have never participated in a debate. I expect that can be even harder as your opponent can throw you curve balls.

In a successful speech and debate, besides having well-prepared content, it is important to note non-verbal communication. You need to look confident, relaxed and able to respond to attacks.

Romney scored points last night. He set a good example of a good debate: he remained calm, have points and stayed on the offense without going overboard.

Obama appeared less prepared and not able to grab the show as he usually can do.

As an audience, I do not know for sure which of these candidates are correct about the various numbers throwing around. I guess I have to read someone's researches later.

During the last weeks of my college year I was kind of unprepared and unable to do well in job interviews. Hey I was studying and preparing for finals too. Perhaps Obama has been dealing with the problems of the world and didn't prepare enough for the debate.

This is just round 1. Two more rounds to come. and I am sure Obama can do better next time. Yes he can. This election is becoming more interesting.

Motion sensors have no place in the bathroom

HOW do you open some faucets in the bathroom? Just about every bathroom has a different type of control. Sure I can tell if I need to turn it. Sure I can tell if I need to lift it. For those with no control at all, that is supposed to be automatic. But just where do you trigger it? You can wave all day and water doesn't come out. If it takes more than 1 second to work it is too slow, ok?! There is the soap. The only valid way to dispense it is to hit it on top. Automatic is annoying, ok? I decide how much to dispense.

It is especially funny and helpless if I try to get water out but soap helplessly come out.

And the darn paper towel machine is also motion sensor-ed? Come on. I prefer simple lever. Or just put a pile let me take one.

Too much technology is too annoying. Get it out of the bathroom!

Glancing math section of bookstore

I am delighted to find some new interesting titles.

Street Fighting Mathematics
No, this is not Ryu and Ken vs calculus. This is an interesting math book covering various techniques for problem solving. And this is some serious stuff and not Algebra 1. This is very interesting for those who has to tackle real life math problems.

Girls Get Curves: Geometry Taking Shape
Danica McKeller done it again! Another great math book for girls! This is some huge contribution to education! Now speaking of high school geometry, we actually don't deal with much curves. Circles maybe. Stuff like Bezier Curves are best left for college or even grad school. But the basic concepts of triangles, polygons, proof and stuff are great mind building logic exercises. Geometry should be part of everyone's education. .
Oh and I want your autograph. If you come to a book signing session I will buy it!

Sorry great authors, I usually browse but I don't buy... perhaps until I know someone who may find your great books useful.

Romney's airplane comment

Romney exposed another weakness... in airplane science about windows in airplanes. See here.

So the president is the commander-in-chief... better know something about military science, the powers of all the powerful and horrible weapons on top of dealing with domestic issues and international relations. It is a tough job.

But before everyone simply just laugh at the candidate. How many of these laughing people actually know just how airplane works? How many can tell me Bernoulli's Principle? How many people totally understand that pressure within airplane?

So, rather than rebuking Romney for being stupid this time, I sympathize with him. And I think perhaps our science books should include stuff like this. Rather than endless drills of equations from Newton's 2nd law of that inclined plane, we should include far more interesting questions such as this, and things like why the sky is blue.

Once upon a time I saw this book, and all candidates should read it! Physics for Future Presidents

Joystick for ipad

This looks fun: iCade. See here.

I long didn't believe iPad can be a good gaming device because it has no buttons. I prefer button with springs over tapping regions on flat surface. Maybe I should change this view. But yikes this is expensive.

Ooh, 6 button joystick! Looks like I can bang a few rounds of Street Fighter on it?! Ok, but this appears only for oldie Atari games only.

Atari fans: go to atariage.com to download emulators all the oldie hits if you want to play on a regular computer.

Romney's 47 percent

This is a notable and quite alarming quote from Romney:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Is he saying the truth? The answer is...close to a yes.

See here

Look, the number is 46.4%. If he has to round to whole number he should have said 46%. Ok, please don't let a rounding error bother you right now.

I am not tax accountant, I am not so sure what it means by someone who "paid no income tax did pay payroll taxes".

Is there a way to reduce this percentage?

Yes, there are so many who just sit there and collect things from the government... But there are elderly folks. There are those who face bad circumstances... and yikes healthcare is so expensive.

This comment is hurting Romney, he is saying 47% don't care for their lives. People just do not like to be called that way.

Anti Japanese madness

The "Fishing Island" Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute between China and Japan has recently heated up big time. Chinese people are rallying on streets and smashing Japanese cars and shopping centers in China. Come on! The guys in that Japanese car are your fellow Chinese folks!

This insane madness has been spread to Hong Kong. A Japanese couple got punched! LOOK! This couple are not occupying the island in dispute, ok? You've gotta calm down.

Look, in case of territory dispute, there is the government officials to confront the other side. Regular people please calm down. Please don't hit Japanese people or smash Japanese cars around you!

I do not predict a WAR will happen as a result of this. I do not believe either side will back off either.

To that guy who punched the Japanese folks in Hong Kong. I'll BUY YOU A TICKET to go to Tokyo, but the return is you punch every Japanese people you see. Let's see how far you can get.

Windows 8 bad Start

So I played with the Windows 8 Preview. You can get a good feel of the interface by going to outlook.com (the make over of hotmail).

The Start button is now a full screen AT YOUR FACE. It is an entire screen of blinking tiles. How do I go to the regular desktop? It is one of the tiles. And once you're at the desktop, where the heck is the Start button since Windows 95? You have to press the Windows key.

Ok the merit of the Start button of Windows 95 is this. It quickly lets you get to your stuff, faster than the Program Manager of Windows 3.1. It definitely isn't so easy to look for things to launch now. That Start Page is too busy, ok?

Overlapping Windows is kind of a breakthrough. Windows 1.0 does not have it! The Start tiles seems to be going back to 1.0.

I think the Start button should be back, and if I can, I will forever hide the Start menu. Waita minute, I ain't upgrading. Heck I still use Windows XP at home.

Generic brand not so "Nice!"

Department stores and now pharmacies like to put products along with their own generic version side by side to lure you buy their cheaper version. They often make it look similar. But they should still be distinguishable.

Now Walgreen came up with its own brands too. "Nice!" brand, and oh my, I tried some "Nice!" food and it tastes pretty bad.

And look at this cough drop, looking exactly like Halls. They copied even the font and color! Deceptive! I am going for real brands.

For not food items... I usually go with generic brands. Sorry GLAD, I haven't bought you in a long time after I saw the generic Target brand. Sorry Kleenex, I haven't bought you in a long while either. Will you still be able to stay in business?

Can Nokia stand a chance?

That new Lumia is out. Some people are impressed with it, but won't buy. See here.

I haven't seen one myself. I am sure that camera is good. I am sure that display is sharp. I like the unique page flipping animation. I also like the clean Windows 8 font known as Segoe.

But alas, I don't like the tiles. Why tiles? Did someone patent icons?

That hundreds of bucks people already used to purchase that iPhone and Android... are people simply going to dump their old phones?

Teacher Strike

Teachers in red ON STRIKE shirts roamed across downtown yesterday as they start another strike. I am a bit confused. What are they striking about? Is it money? is it shorter hours? or is it something else, such as evaluating them base on their student's scores.

It is probably all of the above.

Well the lessons the teachers teach here is this: let's try to get as much as we can get and do as little as possible. Teachers should not focus on me-me-me, but should be kids-kids-kids!

Ok, first, give them the $ they deserve. Waita minute, the average is 75K! Nowadays they make good $ now. And I am sure some of them don't deserve this much. But alas, there are so little money there to make everyone happy. Look at how much $ we spend on education and how much we spend on war! Perhaps something should be adjusted.

Second, only the best can be teachers. Those lazy and can't teach ought to be doing something else. Sure! evaluate them! Why we test test test the kids and not evaluate the teachers? But perhaps not just base on students scores. If even the best teacher in the world got put into a school full of problems such as kids beat up by parents and drugs all around it is hard for them to get good scores overnight.

Education in Chicago (and in America) is not a simple problem that can be solved overnight.

How fast can you type?

Here is a fun game. Typing test.

http://www.keyhero.com/typing-tests-wpm. OMG, records on this site has something like 199 words per minute??

I can type more than 80 wpm!

I thank early DOS programs for teaching me typing. The QWERTY keyboard, though weird, is here to stay.

Obesity in America

Interesting statistics http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html.

• Over 1/3 American adults are obese (35.7%)
• No states has obesity rate less than 20%
• Mississippi has obesity rate of 34.9%! and Colorado is least with 20.7%

Oh my. Americans are fat to death and much of the world starve to death. Some even predict by 2030 it will be 42%.

People keep eating high fat food and don't move. I am not sure if there is anything that can be done about this. You can't put a surgeon warning label like cigarette on that fries.

But I rather see people fat to death than shot to death with reckless shooting.

Same as years ago

What is the #1 thing technical job interviewers look for in a programmer? Yes, knowledge of Design Patterns.

Every programmer needs to be able to talk intelligently about this "Gang of 4" thing. There seems nothing else is exciting about software development since the publishing of that book in 1994.

This book is over-priced, difficult to read, has only brief incomplete code in C++. Let me dare to say this: I DON'T LIKE THIS BOOK!

Yet the idea of the Design Patterns are actually important to know. A decade ago I finally understand them much better after reading something like this: non-software examples of the Design Patterns. For example, http://www.cours.polymtl.ca/inf3700/divers/nonSoftwareExample/patexamples.html

Years ago I had to leave my job because people give me non-software development stupid tasks. The answer to "why do you want to look for a new job" is "I want to do software development (and not endless support or RUN programs)" Yet recently I answer the same question the same way.

Interviewers quiz me Design Patterns. Yet everywhere I go because actually don't do that much design patterns in use. (Ok, except that MVC) Everyone merely read some input fields store them somewhere, do some simple processing and redisplay them elsewhere. They don't need all that abstract factories and stuff.

10 Scientific Laws

I came across this link: http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/10-scientific-laws-theories.htm. I am glad I at least heard of all these 10 theories. The glorious details of some of these are very profound and complex.

However, unless you're some rocket scientist needing those theories, what is the difference between "know it" (like a good student) or "not know it" (like a bum on the street)?

I guess the difference is called enlightenment.

Olympic tears

I saw an athlete banging on the field crying on TV. She just got disqualified because she felt down and rolled a few times during the race. The world watches her helplessly cry. No one kicked her. There is nobody to blame.

Nope, the other 7 athletes won't stop and hug her like Barney would. The clock isn't stopping.

Years and years of training for that moment... and that ended up in frustration.

She is already among the world's top athlete. Something she should be very very proud of. She probably had not drink a coke or had a pizza for years while most people in the world doing just that watching her on TV. And the world just briefly go aawww and go back to their lives.

I hope that athlete is not too hard on herself. Don't be afraid to go out. I assure you no one remembers nor dare say anything. And let me tell you this: few in the world can ever achieve your status of going to the Olympics. Be very proud.

Life can be full of frustration... ah, I was a tad late for that train this morning. That Miss Right/Mr. Right decide to go with a lesser being... I should have got an A but got a A-... That frustration list is endless. The only way to deal with it is let it go.

That national anthem... that applause...are actually short-lived. How many people can name some gold medalists? Unless you have huge $ from endorsing certain products, even the fame of winning a gold is short-lived.

What's life for athletes after the olympics?

Mac BSOD and math tools

I've heard one co-worker said this "You never have to reboot your Mac. My Mac has been running for months." Ok that's nice. Windows users probably should restart at least once a week.

Ok, so I don't turn off the Mac. I just put it to sleep. As time goes on, it's getting slower... churning... that color wheel spinning without reason... It just chokes sometimes. Then today, boom, it restarted itself!

Not exactly a BSOD but it is a crash. Fortunately after restarting it is working again.

This means: Mac fanboys, Mac is not bulletproof.

Ok ok, enough Mac bashing. I found the following math utilities on my Mac awesome.

1. The calculator
Look, it's got RPN mode! Great! Although Windows 7 has a even more interesting mode: mortgage calculator. But this is a great looking calculator app. and RPN is great to have.

2. Grapher
Oh my, it is Algebra student's dream app. It plots nice graphs for you. (Nicer than the grapher app that I wrote). But hey I write my own tools. Love that math input capability. Oh mine it's got 3D graphs!

On Guns and Mad Men

This issue of Time is worth reading.

'We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence,' President Barack Obama said in January 2011, after a deranged gunman shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, killing six. "We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future." He called for a "national conversation" about "everything from the merits of gun-safety laws to the adequacy of our mental-health system," and he asked that it be conducted with civility. It was a terrific speech, perhaps the best of his presidency. And then ... nothing.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2120498,00.html#ixzz22JMymoHp

Guns in America is REALLY worth talking about. But there was...nothing.

Then one day the Joker open fire with a semi-automatic weapon at the theater killing and wounding so many.

Yet we still shrug at gun violence. This Batman shooting captured your attention because it is a mass shooting. However, remember that there are countless single shootings everyday across America!

This is an election year. No candidate would dare to restrict any gun ownership freedom.

The 2nd Amendment is so fundamental to this nation... We have 5% of world population and we own 50% of the guns in the world. Something seems not right here.

But is gun control REALLY going to curb the violence? Look there was an assault weapon ban for 10 years. (Oh I didn't know because I never tried to buy an assault weapon and got denied) Look at that statistics... the number of mass shootings really haven't gone down in that decade.

To echo the president, we cannot and SHOULD not be passive in the face of such violence. Whichever candidate actually make that national conversation happen gets my attention.

Now about the mad man.... there is really no other explanation besides he is crazy. Alhtough this guy is a top student, but there may be too much stress in that PhD study. Not every bright student can survive that. He may be isolated watching such dark themed Batman all day and become too immersed...and become crazy. And without criminal record, he won't fail a background check. This is so similar to that Virginia Tech incident...

Concealed weapon isn't the solution either! This nation cannot be stuck in the Old West!

Hello Objective C World

I did it! I followed this link: here. NSLog? "NextStep" stuff is within. #import and not #include? I thought it is C...

Knights in chess

Look at this great short classic game (known as Légal Mate) of queen sacrifice and "unpinning". (Oh and I love chess.com's chess moves player)

Look at that brilliant knight move as it joined by other minor pieces!

I learned about this game from this great book: Checkmate Tactics by the world champion Garry Kasparov. Look this guy is the grandmaster who played with the Deep Blue yet he still writes beginners books to promote this great game.

I especially respect great achievers teaching others, be in chess, in academic, or in anything.

* * *

It is hard to get minor pieces such as the 2 knights to win. Even in Chinese chess... seasoned players should know about 雙馬飲泉

What's wrong with the Macintosh

Just about everyone likes the Macintosh like cult followers. One good reason to like it is it is not as prone to virus attacks and that there are no Blue Screen of Death. Ok, let's be fair to Windows, the BSOD doesn't appear that often isn't it? (unless your machine is really screwed up). Before the Unix merge for the Mac, there is no way to go to a prompt where I can tell it specifically what to do instead of click and click to find the options. The Unix within is good. Ok, the good stops here.

I really don't like the always on top menus for one program. This doesn't translate well when you have dual monitors. Just what program am I running? I have to look at the main monitor. and when you have a bunch of windows open, the windows you are seeing may have absolutely nothing to do with the menu on top.

Unfortunately, I don't have a full keyboard with numpad. Excuse me? Even in smaller keyboard, where are the good buttons page up, page down, home and end? They don't exist! Fortunately there is fn-up arrow for page up, fn-down arrow for page down. There is Ctrl-left arrow for home, Ctrl-right arrow for end. Is Apple supposed to be as few button as possible? Here is what I see at the left side of my short space bar: fn, control, option, command. Excuse me?? Why so many? Ok, once upon a time there is even the wacky Apple button.

If you need to insert a CD (or floppy) in old days, how do you eject it? no button! In floppy days I am supposed to drag it to the garbage can. How do I do it now. Ah, now there is an eject button on the upper right of keyboard. Excuse me?

The mouse: just ONE button. How do you right-click? Excuse me? Control-click. Did some one tell me it is a friendly product? how the hell am I suppose to know. Fortunately for the Magic Mouse, you can tap on the right side and even scroll like a GOOD-HOW-IT-IS-SUPPOSED-TO-WORK wheel mouse.

Ok talk about the wheel on the mouse, or the imaginary one on the Magic Mouse. Let's scroll. EXCUSE ME? when I scroll down the text moves the OPPOSITE direction I expected. Fortunately this is also fixable.

Ok, let's play with Unix prompt. I am glad I can do vi, emacs, grep, etc. Ooh it even have java and python built in? Even ruby. Ok what about cc. Not there. HELLO???

Ok, what's the equivalent for Notepad in Mac. Ah, TextEdit. Ok, let me for fun type up an html file... ok, < b > hello < /b >. Gee, how do I open it from the prompt? Sure I can vi but I like to do File->Save and other UI feature ok? Ok, it is "open -e foo.html" Wait it is wysiwyg! I want to see the html! Nope, can't do that! I need to download a wysiwyg editor.

Ok, Mac is supposed to be the premier awesome graphical platform. How do I screen shot? can't alt-print screen. ah, command-shift-3, HELLO? How intuitive is that. How do I make a simple picture, something like paintbrush in windoze. HELLO? NOTHING OUT OF THE BOX. Although that Preview thing can let me annotate the screenshot.

I want to like the Macintosh like the rest of the world.

How to write a Mac program? XCode is a free download. Good. Objective-C? Yuck. and no sample programs come with it? HELLO?

Street Fighter x Hello Kitty

This is interesting. Street Fighter and Hello Kitty can mix. See here.

I think with anything Japan, "X" means "and".

And while I think Hello Kitty and Street Fighter cross over is cute, it is about 20 years late.

4th of July and the Higgs Boson

Fourth of July! Time to burn those fireworks!

Look, every year somebody gets hurt. See here for example.

It is best just to watch fireworks, and not deal with that dangerous explosives.

And this year it is HOT. It is best to stay in doors.

* * *

That's it! People have found the long sought Higgs Boson! See here for example. How many people actually know something about that Standard Model? This is not for the faint of the heart. This is some heavy duty stuff beyond the realm of most people.

Most people I know (with a college degree) don't even remember sin/cos/tangent from elementary math. Some people I talked to have absolutely no clue why is the volume of a cone 1/3 π r^2 h... One time some person dare to mock me with "tell me one use of calculus" I shake head at these folks' cluelessness.

When I look at that Standard Model and its confusing arrays of particles and heavy duty mathematics I am just as clueless as those folks.

Higgs Boson found... we now know where "mass" come from. Please don't mock the scientists with "tell me one use of knowing where mass come from", nor mock someone who wants to climb the highest mountain in the world.

Ok BILLIONS spent to find such particle... is it worth it? Should that money be spent to rescue some countries on brink of financial collapse or feed the hungry? Now are you tempted to say, "tell me one use of spending all this money?"

Columns without tables

Once upon a time I was phone interviewed. The first question was: how do you do 3 columns on a webpage? Sure, it is <table><tr><td></td><td></td>..<tr><table>

Ok, but how about WITHOUT a table. I was stumped. Tables are not liked nowadays everyone wants to do div tags and stylesheets. I am no style designer.

I didn't get the job, but I wish I can tell the guy: hey I can probably find something on the web and able to use it, and I did.

Masthead and Titles

Left

Middle

Right

Bottom

<html>
 <head>
  <title>
   Multicolumn pages without tables or frames
  </title>


  <style type="text/css" media="all">
   body {
     font-family: arial, sans-serif;
     background: #fff;s
     }



   #head {
     margin: 10px 10px 0px 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px solid #000;
     background: #cfc;
     }
 #masthead {
     font-weight: bold;
     font-size: 36pt;
     color: #fff;
     background: #9f9;
     }

 #left {
     float: left;
     width: 25%;
     margin 0px;
     }
 .leftcontent {
     margin: 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px dotted #000;
     background: #eef;
     }

 #middle {
     float: left;
     width: 50%;
     margin 0px;
     }
 .middlecontent {
     margin: 10px 0px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px dotted #000;
     background: #eff;
     }

 #right {
     float: left;
     width: 25%;
     margin 0px;
     }
 .rightcontent {
     margin: 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px dotted #000;
     background: #ffe;
     }

 #foot {
     margin: 0px 10px 0px 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px solid #000;
     background: #cfc;
     }

  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
  <div id="head">
   Masthead and Titles
  </div>

  <div id="left">
   <div class="leftcontent">
    <p>Left</p>
   </div>
  </div>


  <div id="middle">
   <div class="middlecontent">
    <p>Middle</p>
   </div>
  </div>

  <div id="right">
   <div class="rightcontent">
    <p>Right</p>
   </div>
  </div>

  <br clear="all" />

  <div id="foot">
   <p>Bottom</p>
  </div>

 </body>
</html>

Tracking Homicides App Idea

The number of homicides in Chicago is ALARMING. This link contains lots of data. Look! 250 so far this year.

Oh and there is no phone app for this data?! There may be one and ought to be one. It is quite easy to draw a map, put some icons on each crime scene... tap on it and show you details.

It will take some time (and motivation) to do this.

Dinobots are back!

Dinobots are coming back!

These autobots are unique! They are fun. They don't use language well. As in: Me, Swoop, No See Nothing. In one episode Grimlock even tries to overtake Prime. That's badly out of place!

These are autobots, kick Devastator's butt as in 1986 movie? Yes! Terrorize around? No. and I don't remember seeing Grimlock breathe fire. They are missing in the new movies and I doubt they will be done right anyway.

Gun fire in Magnificant Mile

This is insane!

Gun fire on Magnificent Mile

Look folks. People don't just get shot in the troublesome neighborhoods. These gangsters have cars. Something needs to be done!

Maybe Chicago will have fewer and fewer visitors now as we embrace bullets flying all over the place. That will hurt the economy even more and probably cause even more gun troubles!

Microsoft Surface surfaced

I want Microsoft to survive in the tablet market. In general, I don't like dominance. The world needs choices! innovations!

Here we go, the Microsoft Surface is announced. Nope, no details on price or when it is available.

At a glance, this looks just like an IPad, but with 2 good things built in: the keyboard and the stand. Yikes, an Ipad cover will cost you almost $50! A keyboard will cost you even more!

This is likely to be good at one thing that other tablets can't: Microsoft Office. It is hard if not impossible to craft a document more fancy than a regular text file on other devices. This thing has potential: if the price is right, if the keyboard works well, if it is responsive, if it doesn't have Blue Screen of Death.

How do you write a program on it? It better be EASY to catch on. Face it: Objective C for IPad programming is hard. Fortunately there are html5 converters and other easier libraries.

I welcome the Surface into the tablet ecosystem. Lame Android pad makers would be very afraid.

What is using that port?

Apache Tomcat server a must-have for local java web development. Alas sometimes you may have more than one of these running and occupying your ports. Who knows maybe you have some that set up to run automatically by something you installed.

Here is how to list all the ports that are in use.

netstat -ano

See this helpful link here.

You can then identify it and then terminate it in Task Manager.

Young People With Great Careers

When you are out of college for a couple of years, what do you think about high school students that you know? They are kids. Yes, you are perhaps 5 to 6 years older than them.

How does it feel when they become manager of something, or have glorious titles such as director of something or whatever when you are still rank-and-file worker trying to make a living?

They probably also make twice as what you make. Perhaps even at whooping $100 an hour (no kidding)

Perhaps the kids turn out to be true little genius at something. But perhaps, they may or may not be as skillful as you.

Yes it does feel kinda suck. Perhaps one should reflect why their career is not as vibrant.

Perhaps it means corporate ladder climbing is not your focus. You are good at what you do but may not be aggressive enough. Personality determines destiny. It maybe actually be OK. These directors of something probably have their own problems.

Look, if you have to compare with somebody you will never be happy.

I understand. I just don't want to work under these kids.

Grim future for Nokia

Job cuts and analysts are not giving Nokia a positive outlook. Details here.

Teaming with Microsoft is its last hope to regain its competitiveness. But you are not buying that Lumia, and I am not buying one either. Why am I ditching my current still working phone for it? Is there real must have features as incentive?

Good luck to you, Nokia. Try to stay away from the dominant-to-death stories such as Kodak, Polaroid, etc. Good luck to you, Microsoft.

Jobs and math

I found the comment on this CNN article here interesting:

For my experience as a professor in engineering, I have observed the following..

Every class that I teach, there will be 1 or 2 (at most) native born American kids who will be brilliant. It will be hard for me to find a foreign student who can match these by a long shot.

The rest, I am afraid, are far below your run of the mill foreign student. At the senior level, they cannot handle math that a high school student is expected to know in India, China (pick your favorite former 3rd world country) by default.

There is a reason for this. The best students are self motivated. Do not need prodding. The rest need to be guided and cajoled. Unfortunately, standard of high school education has sunk so low, that majority of student have little or no math when they graduate. There is no challenge. Their absolute reliance on calculators etc to do the most basic math is scary. Most of these kids can do one thing very well. Given a formula, they are perfectly capable of using their calculators to "plug and chug" and get an answer without understanding the fundamentals. This coupled with a sense of entitlement ("I think I deserve a B in this class") is a recipe for disaster. There is no way these kids are going to compete with foreign talent. I am afraid that this is clearly showing. American companies will recruit foreigners (to work in the US) in spite of all the immigration hoops that they have to jump through not because they are cheap, but because they beat the local competition hands down!.

I agree completely with this gentleman. Although I am not a professor in anything, that's my observation with my experience as a student. And I am not a foreign student. I attended American high school. But my first 10 years in Hong Kong definitely make me different.

So whose fault is this that American students are so much lacking behind? The teachers? The teachers union? Culture? What is it? What can be done?

Instead of blaming can anyone do something.

I'd like to see excellent produced math related TV shows with excellent graphics (and perhaps hire the most handsome and pretty teenagers to talk about the Pythagorean Theorem I guess may help). Look, math is not just for geeks.

I'd like someone tells me what kinda phone apps can help your math (and I'll write one for you)

But the article is about job loss. One guy lost 6-figure manufacturing job to China. See, that's precisely the reason why we lost job. American workers cost too much. But when the company fire him, do they ask, "hey, how would you like keep your job for $30,000". Chances are: they don't even give you he option. They fire you first, with or without math skills.

Venus Transit

Earth can see Venus passing through the sun! Details here. This is a rare event. The next transit is 105 years from now. Hmm how did they calculate that? That calculation will probably scare me. Waita minute how do you know that is actually Venus? Ok ok I believe the scientists out there.

Venus is supposedly about the same size as Earth. Look, do you realize that we are so small compared to the sun. I do. I knew that at my first visit to the planetarium in Hong Kong. Look, if the sun is size of a basketball, we are like a grain of corn. The sun is just a typical size star in the billions of stars in Milky Way... and the Milky Way is just one of the billions of galaxies.

Yes it is a BIG world out there. Most earthlings seldom ever look up, they look down and work on their own things. Instead of pondering the mysteries of the universe, most earthlings actually have an even more important question to think about. And it is "what's for dinner".

Ok folks, AFTER dinner, when you have a moment, look up perhaps you will find some awesomeness within the universe.

Alas, I can't see any stars, I live in the city.

Lost & Found - Friends

If you open up a high school yearbook, or look through old pics, do you realize that many of the people you know are simply gone? If that high school yearbooks says, "Friends 4ever, KIT" with a phone number are you going to call that person up and say hi after so many years?

If you do, chances are the person will say "what's up?" and afraid you are trying to sell life insurance. Chances are: the person in those old pics or in your old memory actually do not care about keep-in-touch with you.

Yes, people go separate ways. For many cases, it is perfectly ok. As time goes on you meet different people do different things and end up just doing your own things. You have your things to work on and nobody else understands. After all, we are all individuals.

I guess the best way to communicate to long lost friends and work colleagues is through email. That way I won't catch them driving or in the bathroom (unless that person checks mail in those places). But gosh, in high school emails were not used... in college everyone has yourname@yourschool.edu addresses and of course those aren't valid anymore. There wasn't yahoo, gmail or hotmail back then... Fortunately now there is facebook and other things that you can hook up with friends if they are on it.

There are times I attempt to contact old work colleagues after job change. There are those who replied and those are those who don't. That's perfectly fine I hope you have glamorous career and I am not trying to sell you life insurance, but if they end up selling life insurance they can contact me and I'll politely say "no thanks".

So I encourage you to take pictures with friends, colleagues to capture moments of togetherness... people have common paths just briefly and may go their own ways soon. Get to know their personal emails.

I am glad to get in touch with old college friends. I am glad they are accomplished people who I can locate on web searches. I am glad friends still remember me.

Friends... some people say... are like pieces in your chess game. You use them. I BEG to differ to this view. Relationships need to be a lot more genuine than this. Are you going to tell your children that you are merely using them so that they can take care of you when you get old? I am afraid your children will have you pay your own nursing home bills if they find out your bad intent.

I hope you have some good friends and work colleagues. They are hard to find. After all, all the individuals that I know don't have to be friends with me. Other wise there are too many people to keep track! I don't have to be friends with everyone either. We are individuals.

Violence in Chicago

Finally someone speaks up about violence in Chicago. Something ought to be done about the violence!

See Tribune article here.

There should be many cops on the dangerous neighborhoods like that NATO days! Waita minute who is going to pay for them?

There are heated discussions on that article... while people are discussing, boom, another young man is probably got shot as we speak.

Facebook hype

There is no escape: every news page is full news about Facebook going to IPO.

"Like" it or not, Facebook has made social media an multi-billion industry from a dorm room. It is also software engineering triumph being able to handle millions of users. That "Like" is also a simple innovation that revolutionized advertising. Just about every website added a "Like" us on Facebook icon, Tweet us on Twitter icon.

This means: people want to be heard. Their status, their photos, etc. Is there a better way to do this than Facebook? The guy who can do this will be the next multi-billionaire.

A big plus of FB is that it enabled long lost friends to hook up. Advertisers also yearn for new ways to advertise things. I hate to disappoint you but I never look at a single ad in detail. The big minus is... do you want your life to be revealed to people you don't know?

Giants have attempted to knock FB out: that (confusing!) Google Circles, that MSN stuff. I do not think even Google or Microsoft can knock any market share out, because people have already hooked on to FB. If FB comes up with an operating system you are going to stick with Windows right? If FB comes up with web search you are going to stick with Google right?

The only real possibility for FB to lose now is some outage or something which better not happen.

I find it tiresome to look through FB to read the long list of statuses. Yes, some are worthy news updates which I prefer a personalized announcement email (like a new baby).

I prefer blogging over putting my thoughts as status. I don't want to further pollute your facebook feed.

Here is a dire warning: people will eventually get Facebook fatigue and not bother look at it altogether.

Obama supports gay marriage

This is it. Obama declares support gay marriage.

Note this position shift:

In 2004, as a candidate for the US Senate, he cited his own religion in framing his views: “I'm a Christian. I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”

For those who are against is, what is your basis? The Bible you say? Do you have good explanations for each one of the following as described here?

Homosexuality is nothing new. It is there since ancient times. It is legal vs not-legal, support vs not-support debate being the new thing about it.

Perhaps one can look at this in anthropological point of view... the problem with homosexual couple is... they can't have their own children. Sure they can adopt. Sure, one of them can be actual parent given some sperm/egg donation from someone else. But these are not official offspring involving both members of the couple. If everyone is gay, the human race becomes distinct.

No I am not implying those who can't have children can't marry either.

Supporting gay couples means the very foundation of human structure: the family would be altered.

This is some tremendous social impact.

Where did you come from? Yes, you came from one man and one woman (your parents).

Marriage is spawning a new family, and it takes one man + one woman to have kids to create the family. I dare to say: nature has specified this process.

For those who prefer another combination of family... I do not support any laws to make that illegal. But I do not support marriage available for any other combination other than one man + one woman.

Coming next, what stops you from marrying your Ipad, your dog, your own granddaughter?

Once again disappointed with law and order in China

News says a foreigner tried to stop thieves in China then got beaten up as crowd look upon.

There are guards there, but won't help. and I am not too surprised.

Many clueless people just have $ on their eyes when they look at China. This incident once again reveals how horrible it is over there. Remember that 2 year old kid who got ran over by 2 cars and nobody offered to help?

Waita minute, eventually somebody helped, but not soon enough.

Besides economic growth, there is plenty for China to work on.

Math Genius Created by Brutal Attack

This news is fairly interesting. A man became a math genius after a brutal attack.

First, this man is extremely lucky. Most people under brutal attack die or got into coma.

But I'd like to comment on this line:

Everywhere he looks, he sees complex mathematical formulas -- like the Pythagorean theorem, for example.

Hmm, is the Pythagorean theorem all that complex? Waita minute are you talking about some Pythagorean Theorem involving complex numbers? (I don't think so...) If you look around, just about everything can be drawn by breaking things down into little triangles (and then right triangles) so the Pythagorean Theorem applies everywhere... That's how computer graphics work basically...

A visual representation of π? Here, call up your favorite pizza restaurant. Get a 24 inch pizza (do they sell that big size?) Instantly you get a visual (and edible) representation. That area of the pizza (in square feet) is 1*1*π = π. Order a 12 inch pizza, that circumference is 2*(1/2)*π inches.

A much more fascinating view of π are the infinite equations, such as the Gregory's Formula, and the Viete's Formula, and many more.

Fractals! The mysterious composition of small shapes... Some can be cranked out by a computer by iterations of complex (meaning complex numbers) equations. For instance, the Mandelbrot set is given by this relationship: z_n+1 = z_n² + c. Fractals CAN'T really be drawn by hand exactly because there are infinitely small parts. Alas, fractals don't have a lot of practical uses except drawing terrains to simulate some landscape in some video games.

So yes, this lucky man's brain is probably active now so he can perceive things not previously thought before, and creativity is needed in mathematics!

I think he should study some open problems and prove some age-old theorems and contribute to the world with his genius ability. Don't know where to start? try these million dollar problems.

Staples can do better than this

I am generally a happy customer of Staples. They generally have good products and good price. However I am a bit disappointed this time.

I played with their Android tablets and yikes they are not even connected to the internet! (What's up with their Wifi?) Yet there are signs all over the place saying "We will fix your PC".

Ok, the stuff I was looking for is... blank CDs. This is fairly common product. Yet I walked all over the store, no where to be found. Can hardly find 1 sales person. Found 1, who was talking to somebody and giving me 1 finger "just a minute", and that person never come back. Come on. Customers first, your other chores later to stay in business. I can get just about anything online you know.

The blank CDs turns out to be behind the counters. This is not some exotic DVDs ok? It should be out in the store.

Windows Phone Revisited

So I wandered into a phone store to play with Windows Phone again. No one was in line of course. Liked the thin clean font and unique paging animations. Nice vivid colors.

But the main screen's square tiles seem a bit odd. But if you use icons like everyone else I'm sure Apple will sue.

Minor complain 1: This is a PHONE, but you have to press quite a few clicks to get to the dial pad.
Minor complain 2: The calculator app has no scientific functions?

I think the best feature will be tight integration with Microsoft Office. Other phones may be able to do that but Microsoft can probably do this better.

Lack of apps is going to hurt Microsoft. Idea: someone write a code converter that convert other apps's native Java code (or Objective C) to Microsoft?

Microsoft + Nokia doesn't look like winning combo

It doesn't look like the the Microsoft+Nokia Windows Phone Lumia will be a big hit. See news here.

I wish I was at the event so I can play with it again.

Once upon a time I walked into the Microsoft store and played with it and actually think it is nice. I like the unique animation on paging.

The people with Android and iPhone with contracts are not going to drop their phone and go to Microsoft... this phone even if it is better, came too late.

I guess those with worn out basic (Symbian) phones or worn out Blackberries may be good customers candidates. But I don't see special sale price for them.

This is going to be tough battle for Microsoft and Nokia. Remember, Microsoft is a formidable company. It has won a lot of battles: Windows 3.1 vs OS/2, IE vs Netscape, Word vs Wordperfect... Its XBOX got significant market share over other gaming device. But does Microsoft have to be in every business?

Now Windows is called Windows because of the overlapping windows (actually the original Windows does NOT have overlapping windows). Now that Metro interface... should it be called Microsoft Tiles instead?

Yahoo layoffs 2000

Here is a link to yahoo news, Yahoo layoff 2000.

It is the FIRST popular search engine... I remember the days of Netscape and (extremely lame) IE 3. The first page people go to was Yahoo.

I use yahoo for a decade+. My yahoo email is still my primary email. I read news from it (I like it better than google news). I used the yahoo search engine and yahoo maps too.

But when google search gives me a clutter-free simple screen and have less ads I went to google and didn't come back. When google maps nicely use AJAX to let me scroll around I did not go back to Mapquest on yahoo, even yahoo maps can do the same now.

There is no turning back when you see something better. Have you ever seen people go back to use CRT monitor after they use LCD?

People tend to STICK with what they use until something is revolutionary better and they won't come back.

Even google isn't able to pull a lot of users from facebook. (That circle stuff is confusing and isn't revolutionary better that's why)

I would be disappointed if yahoo completely disappears. You need to come up with something completely revolutionary (new) to attract users and advertisers back. Good luck

17 Equations

I may be getting this book: In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World. Look at that cover, how many of these do you recognize? I think it will be a fun survey to ask American college students how many of these they understand. Come on, you know the Pythagorean Theorem, right? (but you probably don't realize how awesome that is). However, I probably don't want to know the answer, that may be too disappointing.

I especially like the way the author enlarge each equation and describe each variable.

However, given just a handful pages each, it is hard to describe some of these monumental equations in depth... but it should be good introduction.

No, I don't understand fully all of these glorious 17 equations either.

Android App Ideas If I have time

1. Expense Tracker
Went to get coffee? log it. Bought some grocery? log it. Went to get breakfast? log it. Parking meter? log it. Then it show you expense report on how much you spent on things, show you a pie chart, and you can export as CSV file and send yourself an email. I had this idea even when I was programming the Palm. Yes other people have done this already.

2. Shoot the bad guy
The old Nintendo game Hogan's Alley was a lot of fun. Shoot the bad guy! oh no, I shot the good man. Now you can use your own pictures. Take pictures of innocent people... take picture of a villain such as that guy you hate at the office (or take it from the Office Directory). Take a picture of your office as background! Then tap your way to shoot the bad guy! with random pictures come and go. Not impossible to implement :)

...and finish my Interactive Math Quiz which generates questions, AND SHOW EXPLANATION if you get it wrong with bouncing balls in number line, multiplication table, and paper-and-pencil methods.

Google Play vs Android Market

Android Market has been renamed to Google Play (for a while now). I like the old name better... the name imply what it does: you buy (or download for free) games and other things... it is a market. Now that it is all about Play. Things like books and music from Google Play may actually be serious and not playing matter. So I like the old name.

Afgan Massacre

π Day has come and gone, nobody cares about its significance this year, and no one talks about the Tau Manifesto on news headline this year... because there are other real news that shook the headlines.

The world is saddened on the massacre of the 16 innocent people in Afghanistan by a US soldier. If you send soldiers to some foreign place and get injured with no clear objective and no end in sight I am sure many will go crazy as well.

Yes, it was horrible act of violence.

But it is also horrible to have this longest ever American conflict. Waita minute, why is America fighting in Iraq and Afghan again? Ok, Iraq... is because someone believe Saddam has some weapon of mass destruction and that turn out to be false. Afghan? it is because Al Queada is there? Now bin Laden is gone isn't it time to wrap up? We can't yank all Al Quedas... new ones will come if we continue to provoke violence.

Bring the troops home!

Let me remind you of a even more violent act by American soldiers: the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

It is horrible that thousands and thousands people die in war throughout history... the death of innocent people sadly is not uncommon.

Bring the troops home! As quickly as we possibly can!

On Windows 8

No, I did not download nor rush to play with Windows 8 Preview. My machine at home is still Windows XP and I won't even bother to pay Microsoft $ to go to Windows 7. The ONLY must-have upgrade ever was Windows 3.1 to 95.

Now many people think Microsoft is going downhill with its failure to dominate the phone market. And I am sure many people think the tile nature of its Metro interface is a bit strange.

See a good preview here.

I dare to say, Windows 8 look very promising! If you ever play with a Windows 8 phone, you may probably even like it. Its got some unique animations between screens. Android and IPhone... share a lot of similarities and I welcome uniqueness.

I like Windows 8's unique thin font. I like the new great pics. I like its stock of games. A piano app? nice. Hey, that flash card math quiz app! I have an Android version in progress!

I am not sure if I like the tiles interface though.

So I welcome new OS player in the computing world. I will get it when I am ready for a next computer. Yes Windows 7, I am going to skip you.

1 < 3 Math

I saw this interesting T-shirt from GAP.

See it here. It took me a while to figure out what's the deal with 1 < 3. Turn your head 90 degrees to reveal the affection for math.

The real math lovers should know a thing or two about polar graphs. How about r(θ) = 1+cos(θ)

See here. You should have seen this in high school or sadly you didn't have a decent high school math education.

We are also dying

When you turn on the news, all you see is gun violence and reports about certain candidates trying to win some states. Is there any candidate caring about people dying everyday on gun violence? Or do all of them say gun control doesn't solve the problem or "it is people killing people not guns" or "we embrace the 2nd amendment". No candidates will talk gun control because gun owners are also voters.

Yes, people in Syria are dying, so are some helpless Chicago people.

Happy Leap Day

This February has an extra day this year because it is divisible by 4. Waita minute, years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. [See here]

Relax, even if you have a bug in some isLeapYear code it is not likely it will come back to haunt you. You probably won't be here to fix it in 100 years. As long as you get mod 4 = 0 you are good.

Even with 29 days, it is still fewer days than other months of the year. Yes, this isn't really fair for February. But we are so used to this system and it is here to stay.

Nice-To-Have ideas for phones

Phones are nice but I can make it even nicer with the following features.

1. Add Dialer Password

If you let someone (kids) play with your phone, the least you want to happen is to call someone accidentally and leave a long voicemail of nonsense. It is easy to add the password capability. Hey I can do this. All you need is to let me configure the phone icon so it calls my doorman app instead. Sure you can lock the phone, but it is all-or-nothing. Waita minute you can still make emergency call (accidentally).

2. Voice mail in words

If you'd like to do this Press 1! If you'd like to do that Press 2! The last thing I would like is to listen through all these choices. I want to go to my messages! and modern phone is not so easy to press 1 press 2. They keyboard go away and slight vibration of phone will make it think I pressed a certain key. I believe modern voice mails should LIST the options. Let me click though the messages with date time stamp and caller ID if available. There are messages I do not need to listen to.

Good bye to the Greatest Voice of All

You've heard the news: Whitney Houston died at 48.

Although it is still unclear exact cause of death but drugs probably played a huge part.

This is a huge loss. Whitney has the greatest, most powerful voice I have ever heard and the "Greatest Love of All" is so inspiring. See it in youtube.

Every teacher and parent should have the same belief: "I believe the children of our future... teach them well and let them lead the way..."

Look at how many problem can be solved in the world if children are taught well with beauties they possessed inside shown to them.

It is unfortunate that Whitney Houston has a history of drug use... and there are domestic violence at home...

Look people, it is very very clear that drugs kill. Many celebrities and many not-so-celebrities had died. Drugs isn't going to help your situation!

The Greatest Love of All sent a worldwide positive message of believing in the children of the future. The world needs a powerful message against the use of drugs. But unfortunately people simply ignore. "Say no to drugs" is part of "teach them well and let them lead the way".

CD rate is so low

At a bank, I saw this advertisement:

10 year CD, $10,000. 2%.

Oh my, the rates are so low! Not too long ago it was more like 5%.

I learned some reasons here.

So this reflects poor economy. But when CD rates go up, so do mortgage rates. This means: time to refinance if your rate is high and your house is still worth money.

I am never good at financial things. But knowing too much may not be a good thing either. People go invest too aggressively and eventually lose. Stocks is too sensitive to news and world events. War going on or somebody important assassinated? Boom, stocks fall. Who can predict who will wage war with whom for what reasons? Life is too short to watch shirt-and-tie people talking Wall Street. I play on the safe side.

2% is still money, though not a whole lot. But I won't lock it for 10 years.

How to raise the next Steve Jobs?

"Parenting" magazine has an interesting article: How to raise the next Steve Jobs.

The real paper copy has quantum equations in the background and sadly I don't understand any of it.

This article highlights the importance of the parents' role in raising up any child. Sure, if you don't give child food or care he isn't going to be genius. If you don't encourage him and teach him anything he is not going to be genius. I do not think there is any specific parental techniques to raise a genius.

Quantum equations in the background? I do not know Steve Jobs was a quantum physicist. Does knowing your way around quantum physics automatically make you a genius? It probably takes a lot of hard work to understand that stuff (I don't, and not even going to try now). But does that hard work make you genius?

Parents should do you basic job: provide basic needs and provide basic education. I even write apps for my kid. Let kids grow to have a happy life. Encourage kid to try different things.

AND I DON'T WANT MY KID TO BE STEVE JOBS.

I don't want him or any kid to suffer cancer so young. I want my kid think buttons are actually ok.

Waita minute, did he really invent the ipod and ipad? Did those marvelous engineers ever get praises they deserve?

Kodak had its moments

Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

It certainly had its moment. It is a 132-year-old company who pioneered the film. Alas no one is buying films these days. Just about everyone is using digital camera. Perhaps even the digital camera is getting out dated, replaced by fancy phones instead.

Is it Kodak not keeping up with technology? Well they had their own digital cameras too. Although you probably have a Canon or Nikon instead. My first bulky digital camera (10 years ago!) was a Kodak. It appeared to cost less than the Japanese models but it required that base (which actually costed me more money). It makes fairly dcent pictures. Sorry, the Canon was just sleaker and cooler and I didn't buy a Kodak ever since.

A giant for decades can swirl down to bankruptcy.

Microsoft, are you afraid, very afraid to get the same fate?

On SOPA

You have seen and heard about SOPA because you use the Internet. Google (and other sites) urge you to take action to tell Congress to stop it.

Before you follow the millions to sign it. Perhaps we should see why someone would propose such laws... oh to protect intellectual property. Here, you can take a look at the case for it here.

Ok, let's say Piscasso is alive and he makes some great art. Someone decides to photocopy them and post all over the walls to share with his friends. Do we need a law to let the government strike down any walls hosting this?

That is certainly the wrong way to stop piracy, and it won't stop them really all that much.

The internet is free and ought to stay free.

Look Congress, there are much more other important work to be done... like reducing that huge deficit, do something about failing school system, and dealing with other world crisis.

Outrageous teenage brutality

OMG, a teenage boy is bullied and on Youtube!

This is absolutely outrageous, a bunch of kids gang up on one poor kid and beat him, kick him, punch him for minutes.

Such brutality is recorded and posted on the web? How crazy (and stupid) are these criminals. No charge has been filed? There better be some soon. If this is not crime I don't know what else can be. I want these kids to be very very very sorry for what they have done.

IF this poor kid is gunned down but not on Youtube, even that is more violent, but people will just shrugged as this is happening in Chicago way too often.

The only thing positive thing out of this is that the victim have survived this horrible beating.

Kids: never have a lot of cash on you or have real shiny shoes. Stay away from trouble.

Ditch these 10 devices in 2012?

Someone wrote about 10 devices to ditch in 2012, see here.

Basically the writer has an iphone and everything else is not important anymore.

1. The flip camcorder Unfortunately Cisco aren't making them anymore. This is a way cool device that the iPhone CANNOT easily replace. First this is inexpensive. Second this is so easy to use that a kid can use, do you want a 5 year old to crack your iPhone?
2. Portable DVD player Yes newer movies now can be downloaded and stuff. What about your older ones. Are you going to bother copying them to other media to play with your newer machines?
3. Flash Drive Cloud replaces it? I'll bet to differ. What if cloud services decide to crash on you, or you got connection issues. you will lose EVERYTHING. It is handy backup device.
4. GPS Yes if you have smartphone and have expensive data plan yes you can ditch this.
5. Small digital camera Yes if your smartphone can do high quality pictures with flashes and all that
6. Fax You should have thrown it out a few years ago.
7. Netbooks But it is cheaper than your iPads
8. CD player But your computer should still have one to reinstall some stuff in case you need
9. Voice recorder You should have ditched them years ago
10. Palm The modern android is just a beautified colorful version of this. You should give your respect to it like give respect to the Wright brothers each time you fly.

Don't really need to toss most of that list away (except that fax and Palm). The Iphone cannot replace EVERYTHING yet. It is great but remember you pay a lot of $ for it (and continue to do so monthly).

HTML5 Revisited

Besides canvas, video and audio tags, HTML5 can find out where you are with Geolocation and you can start a thread to do background computation with a Worker.

This codediesel site is VERY nice.

• Geolocation
• Web Worker

It can even do Sockets, check this out: http://websocket.org/echo.html.

Now HTML and Javascript is not so separable.

Modern web developers should at least heard of most of the HTML5 elements. Oh my, that's also an excellent page.

But the problem of HTML5 is still not all browsers support everything.

Gender Gap in Math

The verdict is this: There isn't a gender gap in math learning. See details here.

This means boys as well as girls can do well in math. Absolutely! What does gender has to do with it?

Female students can take any math class they like. No one is restricting them in American universities. Alas, look around the math classroom beyond the required basic classes. You will find mostly guys, especially foreign student guys. If math majors want to find a Miss Right in the classroom, probably should consider taking classes in nursing or elementary education and secure your Miss Right first then switch back to math.

Americans need not to worry too much about gender gap of advanced mathematics... work on the basics first! Ranking 25th in the world isn't something to be proud of. Come on America, yes we can.

There is no gender gap. Mom and Dad both learn that easy elementary school and high school math please! Mom and dad teach your kids please. Don't rely on the teachers alone.

2012

Happy Holidays, Happy 2012.

MANY people are killed over the holidays. See here and here for violence in Chicago alone.

As people party over celebrating the earth returning to an rather arbituary position relative to the sun, violence sometimes result. Every year we see sad story like this: a kid got shot by a new year celebration bullet shot in the air. See here.

There should be legislation BANNING shots firing in the air! These equations are deadly!

Instead of needed legislations, we have the following:

1. Already Expensive Parking Meter Increase!
Details here

2. Seat belt in back seat required
Details here.

Ticket them for talking while driving! Ticket them for texting while driving! For that endangers other cars and pedestrians. Car makers to provide seat belts, sure, and they have done so. Cops ought to have better things to do than checking rather people have seat belts on.