Friday, June 29, 2012

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.

Left

Middle


<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>

Thursday, June 28, 2012

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.

Monday, June 25, 2012

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.

Friday, June 22, 2012

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!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

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.

Monday, June 18, 2012

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.

Friday, June 15, 2012

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.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

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.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

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.

Monday, June 4, 2012

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.