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.