/**Comments - Joseph Mak's Blog*/

How to raise the next Steve Jobs?

2012-02-02T13:37:00.002-06:00

"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

2012-01-23T19:30:00.002-06:00

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

2012-01-19T10:13:00.003-06:00

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

2012-01-17T16:00:00.000-06:00

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?

2012-01-09T15:48:00.000-06:00

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

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

The flip camcorderUnfortunately 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?
Portable DVD playerYes 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?
Flash DriveCloud 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.
GPSYes if you have smartphone and have expensive data plan yes you can ditch this.
Small digital cameraYes if your smartphone can do high quality pictures with flashes and all that
FaxYou should have thrown it out a few years ago.
NetbooksBut it is cheaper than your iPads
CD playerBut your computer should still have one to reinstall some stuff in case you need
Voice recorderYou should have ditched them years ago
PalmThe 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

2012-01-04T15:40:00.002-06:00

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.

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

2012-01-03T16:03:00.002-06:00

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

2012-01-02T10:00:00.001-06:00

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.

Don't terrify your kids in Christmas

2011-12-23T12:03:00.002-06:00

Kids are afraid of Santa.

You get in lines to get your kids scared by taking them to take picture with a fictitious character? how silly is that. Besides Santa, kids are also afraid of big dolls their size or strangers (don't bring them close to your rarely-ever-visit friend)

Ok, when your kid gets older that won't be a problem anymore.

Merry Christmas to those who read/subscribe to my blog.

2012 predictions

2011-12-22T16:48:00.001-06:00

Election 2012
With no obviously-better-choice-than-the-incumbent Republican candidate, I predict Obama will get re-elected!

Tech
Android and iPhone will continue to battle with no winner needed. They can co-exist (like Apple and Microsoft coexist in desktop for decades). In the phone market, I am afraid Microsoft phones will be like Palm Pre. Microsoft Windows and Windows desktops will completely dead if people can do everything with their Android/IPads. But that day isn't here yet! The pads need a file system (like c:\mystuff) and an Office Suite at least. Otherwise pads will just be a portable browser and that can just run little apps.

World Events
Now that's hard to predict. Conflicts will continue and I just hope US is not going into another war. All these people worrying about China dominating militarily will prove to be like the ancient Chinese story of a man scaring of the sky collapse onto him. I hope to see: the new young leader of North Korea will learn a thing or two about its neighbors and at least reduce the famine in that country.

Higgs Boson
I do NOT predict the Higgs Boson be found in 2012 despite huge expensive machines. It does not seem to be easy (otherwise people found it long ago).All that to explain a fairly basic question, "why do things have mass".

2012 is not the end
I predict there will be 2013, despite the Mayan doomsday prophecy.

End of War

2011-12-15T16:08:00.000-06:00

The end of the Iraqi war is finally here. This is an excellent news coverage.

So our nation is tricked into war for Weapons of Mass Destruction. And the guy who says that just get away with that?Imagine this, I say FIRE and call 911 but there isn't fire. I probably will get charged for this misdemeanor, right?

For Americans, the ceremony on Thursday marked an uneasy moment of closure, with no clear sense of what has been won and lost. As of last Friday, the war had claimed 4,487 American lives, with another 32,226 Americans wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics.

It was wrong to go to this war. Wrong for the thousands of Americans to lose their lives, and wrong for the many more civilians who lost their lives too. It is billions of dollars lost too.

This war ended in confusion: there is no clear sense of what has been won and lost.

Towers of Hanoi

2011-12-15T09:52:00.001-06:00

News says, there are fires in some office tower of Hanoi. Details here.

I hope everyone is ok... I wonder if the news reporter has a computer science background. Why not simply call it office building?

The Towers of Hanoi is a famous mathematics/computer puzzle that every computer science student should know about.

Start with 3 pegs and a bunch of disks of various size. The goal is to move them from peg 1 to peg 3. The rules are simple: you can only one disk at a time and you cannot put a big disk on top of a small disk.

Now, write a program to solve this.

This can be solved ultra elegantly with recursion (and other methods), and I've seen that in high school.

If you interview an "architect" and he has no clue what it is immediately show him the door.

Book Donation

2011-12-12T11:31:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I donated a big box of old books to a dropbox outside of the supermarket. They cost hundreds of dollars. Some are computer books for some obsolete technology. Some are college textbooks that are no longer useful.

Donating them is better than tossing them to the garbage. Some people may still find interesting stuff in there. The dropbox says if nobody wants them they will be recycled.

Recycle that paper! That is the #1 landfill item that can be recycled. I hope my books' next reincarnation will be a best seller.

Computer books used to be big business. Alas things are changing so fast. By the time a book is made it is already outdated. Perhaps a subscription service is a great idea.

I even tossed a draft copy of my book to it. Hope someone will find it interesting.

Kung Fu pays off

2011-12-06T11:27:00.001-06:00

A robber got beaten up bad by a martial art expert. See story here.

That's exactly the purpose of martial art: to fend off villains.

However, I don't recommend martial art experts try to fight someone with a gun.

Of course, someone will misuse martial arts to be villains themselves, and perhaps kill his own master, and the good big brother must revenge in tears. Now that's a classic kung fu story scheme. This storyline I never get tired of.

Earth 2.0

2011-12-05T17:06:00.001-06:00

This is exciting discovery... an earth-like planet. See here.

Ooh it sounds like a warm weather, roomy place: "2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C."

However, it is 600 lightyears away.

I am not even sure if human can ever get on Mars, our neighbor planet (and it is ok not to go there, that $ has better use on earth).

We aren't going nowhere. It is merely science fiction to migrate to the Moon or Mars. It is too harsh to live there, and too far to go even if you find a new place lightyears away... unless you got some sort of warp engine (which is just science fiction).

We are grounded on earth. Please love the Earth. Recycle that can. Make less waste. Don't play with nuclear weapons.

"Chok"

2011-11-30T16:15:00.001-06:00

If you watch any recent Hong Kong made TV show, you are likely to see the word "Chok", spelled in English.

It is uncomfortable to see a supposedly Chinese word written out as English.

Ah, its origin is 擢. See here.

Its current use is non-standard and low class. Yuck.

Microsoft will fall apart?

2011-11-29T16:22:00.001-06:00

Article says Microsoft's business could collapse. See article here.

Ok, the logic is basically the following: IPad outsells the PC, and Windows phone is not going to be hot, developers leaving the .NET platform, Office cash cow will no longer be relevant and boom their whole business collapse.

I agree with some of the points but I do not think Microsoft will just collapse. Their stuff are too deeply rooted.There are plenty of folks running Windows XP even it is a decade+ old.

Microsoft is formidable, it showed it can knock out leaders. In the old days... Boom! They knocked WordPerfect out. Boom! They knock Netscape out.

Sometimes even if their products are mediocre they still win.Early versions of Visual C++ did not even have try/catch from standard C++. (Details here)MFC was horrible yet people embraced it. Hmm, was there really good alternatives?Delphi was way way better than Visual Basic and now it is as relevant as the ancient Greek god it references, and Visual Basic reincarnated itself to an inferior looking C#. Nope, C# does not (and will not ever) beat Java.

But they do not always knock the leader out successfully. Do you know someone with Zune player? (I don't)

But they can be a mighty contender. The XBOX knocked quite some marketshare out of Sony and Nintendo in gaming world.

If Microsoft continues to innovate, yes people will still pay.

IPad is not going to dominate the world of computing. It is good for casual web browsing, casual gaming, even movie viewing, but not for heavy duty use (like programming or serious gaming)!I cannot imagine myself able to have a great time with a first person shooter on the IPad or play a version of Street Fighter on it.The IPad does not even get as good wifi signal as my cheap PC laptop and my Android phone. It is overrated!

I think Windows 8 will be the MOST important release for Microsoft. It better be way better than IPad or Android for Microsoft/Nokia to stand a chance.However, given all that tiles that I see so far in previews... I have failed to share enthusiasm.

In order for someone to switch, you need to be BETTER. I switched from yahoo map to google map because I like the ajax feature. I don't bother to use Bing because google map serves me well.Are Microsoft phones better than the Android/Iphone that people will dump them and go to a Windows phone?

I do NOT believe Microsoft will fold altogether, but it will shrink to smaller.
I do NOT believe the PC will go away altogether either. The IPad is not that capable to do so.

Super committee failure

2011-11-22T12:30:00.001-06:00

Headlines all over the place says the "super committee" has failed. Some details here. And this is causing the Dow Jones to drop.

Both sides stand firm... this is a deadlock.Imagine this, get 6 Coke fans and get 6 Pepsi fans in the room to vote for the best tasting cola. You are not going to get results.

Waita minute, did the constitution give power to the Vice President for tie-breaking? Ok this is not exactly a 50-50 senate vote. I am not so sure if the constitution provides the answer in case Congress can't agree on things.How much $ do we pay these congressmen just for debating? That $ can be used to reduce the deficit a bit I bet.

Look people, country first (is that some candidate's slogan)? Gotta do BOTH of collecting more money and spending less.

Imagine you have a big credit card bill, how do you pay for it? You need to be BOTH making more $ and spending less. No debate needed.

To solve the gridlock, how about get another person in the committee... a RANDOM citizen. Like jury duty.

Failed restaurants at same spot

2011-11-16T11:26:00.001-06:00

There is a donut restaurant in my neighborhood that ran out of business. Although it has good ratings on yelp but it still didn't survive for too long.I wish they post a sign saying "thank you customers". I supported your business!

In a previous incarnation, it was a Mexican restaurant... before that it was an excellent Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately the fate are all the same.

Restaurants need to be in a place where a lot of people walk by, like a business district, or close to some shopping area. That neighborhood isn't it. Even if you make 70 cent profit on that $1 donuts if no one is buying you are going to run out of business. But alas, the rent of a good location must be very expensive.

A successful restaurant needs excellent decorations (tons of money to be poured in first) and good food and service. It isn't so easy.

HTML5 Canvas in Action!

2011-11-11T12:22:00.001-06:00

Chinese Calendar

2011-11-07T13:40:00.002-06:00

It is the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. Yes, xinhai 辛亥 is the year.

Every Chinese ought to know a thing or two about this important history. But alas, many don't. Come on people, at least read a bit about it.I will smack the next guy who says, "what's the use of knowing that". Yes there isn't a lot of practical use. The mentally retarded don't know that information either and they live a happy lives too.

Rather than discussing the history, which I know little (better than none), I'd like to discuss the ancient calendar.

In ancient China, there isn't BC/AD years like the rest of the world use. They cycle 60 names for their years, using 10 "Heavenly Stems" and 12 "Earthly Branches". See here for glorious details. And those have minimal Chinese education know that "花甲" or "甲子" means 60, a cycle.

For DECADES I didn't understand. Waita minute, 10 and 12... Should the cycle be 120?

The way they increment years is strange 甲子, then 乙丑. Both heavily stems and earthly branches increment by 1. I never bother to figure out when they use up the tenth value of the stems.

Here is the complete list...

甲子乙丑丙寅丁卯戊辰己巳庚午辛未壬申癸酉
甲戌乙亥丙子丁丑戊寅己卯庚辰辛巳壬午癸未
甲申乙酉丙戌丁亥戊子己丑庚寅辛卯壬辰癸巳
甲午乙未丙申丁酉戊戌己亥庚子辛丑壬寅癸卯
甲辰乙巳丙午丁未戊申己酉庚戌辛亥壬子癸丑
甲寅乙卯丙辰丁巳戊午己未庚申辛酉壬戌癸亥

The world is a better place by calling this rather obscure naming system as obsolete.

On Job Creation

2011-11-04T11:04:00.001-05:00

Someone needs to be bold to start new companies, expand existing companies to create jobs.

Sometimes, it starts with a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, such as Microsoft's "A computer on every desk and in every home" in the old days. Ok, it certainly needs a new BHAG now, that's another story.

Now, a good BHAG can create new business and solve the unemployment in the short term, and have tremendous big impact in the long term.

I have a couple grand BHAG ideas.

1. Solar panels on every rooftop.
2. Americans students do better.

You know solar panels can tap on the sun's enormous amount of energy to generate some electricity on your own. Yes I know it is expensive to set up but it will save money in the long run. (Ok I don't know how it will survive a foot of snow in winter though) Look at how many homes to install, now that's jobs jobs jobs.

About the depressing American student performances, yes we can do better. Yes we can! We test and test students and report they are losers. No one ever go over tests to tell them why they get problems wrong. Come on students, it takes effort to learn. There should be a lot more after-school training centers to help students stay off street and learn something.

There should be: a national effort to promote learning through a TV channel, broadcast good education programs 24x7. And I am talking QUALITY programs, not adults in 40s learning fractions. (Now that's jobs for those screen writers and film workers not working in Hollywood).

To start a business, you need to be psychologically bold, willing to take risks. You need some money. An more importantly is, you need capable friends with similar vision. Without these? you will continuously look for a job in the diminishing job market.

There should be more people with BHAG. There's gotta be more Steve Jobs out there.

Waita minute, even a smaller goal will do, how about a goal of making the BEST burgers or wonton soup? Start hiring!

Google Translate now wants $

2011-11-03T17:04:00.001-05:00

Look! Google Translate API now wants money. It used to be free!

If translate.google.com is free, why is the API not free?

There used to be a google dictionary that offers definition, now it is not there anymore! Ok, I'll use the Wiki dictionary instead: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hello.

My VocabList app needs to be tossed out because it relied on these. Webservices, clouds? I hope you're not betting your lifesavings on it.

Starbucks and Create Jobs

2011-11-02T11:54:00.004-05:00

I learned about Create Jobs For USA from Starbucks.

Jobs Jobs Jobs. There are too few jobs out there and you need job to get insurance. Without insurance you go instant bankrupt if you need any medical care. (now that's an issue! healthcare is too expensive!!) Unless the president hires you, he can't directly solve your unemployment issue, so someone gotta start somewhere.

This Create Jobs For USA... seems to work like helping the poorest people in Africa by offering them loans so they can help themselves. Yikes, soon we may be needing medications from World Vision because we can't afford the ultra expensive healthcare here.

I admire Starbucks' effort to do this.

Besides unemployment numbers, one other figure depresses me, and that's the low performances of American students.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Northwestern Revisited

2011-10-31T11:23:00.002-05:00

It is awesome experience to bring your child back to your alma mater.

20 years ago I was there as a freshman. If things are to change many times in a decade, let's double that amount of changes for 2 decades. There are quite a few new buildings made within the 20 years... the main parking lot is unpleasantly chopped to make place for one... and there are few more buildings (some are architecturally not so pleasant) are blocking some once-clear views. Those building climbing plants have gone out of control, devouring a lot more percentages of the surface area of some buildings.

Norris Student Center was my favorite hangout place. I walked by the lagoon, studied there, and banged on the video games when I get bored. What happened to the grass near the lagoon? It seems like no one mows that weed that is at least 3 feet high! Inside the Norris Center... oh my gosh, what happened to the nice furniture? It is now replaced by cheap cheap plastic chairs. What happened to the neon light "1999"? At 1990, 1999 seemed to be a very distant future.

"Look, daddy attended school here" is not so comprehensible to my son now. Here, proudly wear this toddler T-shirt bought at the student center.

Write Your Alderman

2011-10-27T15:12:00.000-05:00

Dear Alderman:

Someone encouraged me to write you to show some concern about some budget cuts for the public library.
Details here.

Sorry, I live under the rock here I don't even know who you are.

I found a list of alderman here but I am not even sure what ward I am in.

I went to the city's website that is supposed to a map here but all I see is a blank page.Now it isn't that difficult to program google maps perhaps you should consider hiring me for fixing it first.

-A Concerned Citizen

I am saddened about China

2011-10-18T11:13:00.002-05:00

A two-year old got hit-and-run in China, twice, a dozen+ people ignored.
Details here

The article says "Internet users have flooded microblogs decrying the apathy of the people who left her for dead." Ok, I am going to make that number++

This is OUTRAGEOUS.

Add that to the list of fake milk powder, poor railroad accident rescue efforts and other scandals.

China has become a world of me-me-me-first. Good Samaritan laws should be set NOW. Oh, good Samaritans are blamed and fined? Now that's outrageous. At least call the police, ok?

Throw stones at those who ignored the poor kid like they do to each other during the Cultural Revolution!

The prime minister or the president ought to say a thing or two about this incident.

China still has a LOT to work on despite its economic growth.

Cancer Awareness Month

2011-10-17T11:16:00.002-05:00

You may have seen pink ribbons every where. Yes it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
You have succeeded in making me aware.

But look, this is even on Parking Meters!

Is the city donating some money on every quarter I put in that thing? Don't put a ribbon there if the city is not going to.

The parking meters eat more money than laundry machines during my college years or video games I played. Ouch.

Yes, breast cancer is horrible and we are well aware. But other cancers deserve some attention too.

Apple should donate some money to pancreatic cancer (or all forms of cancer) research on every new iPhone, iPad, iWhatever it sells. That will generate a ton of money.

But yikes, are the money put in good use? or poured into the fat pocket of drug companies?

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-11T13:24:00.001-05:00

Alas, a lot of people are suffering, and are occupying the Wall Street.

See some stories they have to tell here.

People have lost jobs, can't find new work, can't afford the house they have, can't pay the bills, etc. Everyone has their story to tell.

I question any use of occupying Wall Street... just what do you want them to do? Empty their wallets and distribute their fortunes to you?

Many folks are college grads terrified by not able to find work with loans on their back. Yes I see your concern. Many now question whether going to college is worth it. Let me tell you this: if you have a chance to go college and you don't go your chance of getting work is even more grim. Go to college to learn something. Go to a vocation school (such as fixing air conditioners or CTA tracks) if a job is all you have in mind. I think education should not be so focus on job.

It is perhaps more effective to occupy college tuition collection departments to demand lower tuition or ditch it for public universities?

It is perhaps more effective to occupy Washington(!) to lower that income tax.

Rather than begging for jobs that are so hard to find, sometimes I think there should be more spawning new business. Start with humble hotdog stands, burger shops, chop suey house... how about barbershop, grocery store?

For those who can write a program or two, show what you can do for $20 an hour while some shops charge $100+ (and pay programmers overseas $10). Yes, I know those silly people won't listen to you.

Politicians: if you can meet some demands you win 99% of votes. Even the most powerful rich people can only give you one vote each.

So, 99%... go ahead, vent your frustration, but please not for too long. Actively seek your next possible moves. Good luck.

Goodbye Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T12:31:00.000-05:00

The world saddened to learn the news that Steve Jobs passed away at 56. He revolutionized the world in many ways. Recent Apple products set the world on fire.
Pancrea cancer grabbed his life so young. It has also taken the life of Randy Pausch, the inspiring professor who has given the Last Lecture.

Most people if not all tends to like Steve Jobs. On the other hand, Bill Gates also revolutionized the world in many ways, yet Gates is probably not as popular. I guess people are just jealous of him being the richest man in the world selling Window$.

I think Apple's success has a lot to do with its uniqueness.

Apple's one button simple interface has to do with Steve Jobs' buddhist religion, which defines Apple's unique minimalist approach.
Jobs decides to use metals or great colors while the rest of world uses beige (or black) boxes for computers.

Yes, people judge anything by its covers! and by strategic advertising.

Not all Apple products were successful, however. Notably the Apple Newton. I never played with one myself, just how bad it was?

I am never a big Apple fan.

My biggest complain with Apple is its embracing of Objective C, acquired from its NeXt OS.

If Apple uses a more intuitive language such as Java, even C++, that will allow developers to have a easier time programming for the Mac products.

Apple won't play Flash. <period>. The world doesn't complain loud because people like Mac products so much and this is just a minor "shortcoming". Flash sites just have to give in. If you have an IPhone, you MUST use AT&T (or Verizon). I want freedom.

Everyone should try to learn a lesson or two from Steve Job's remarkable success story.

Here is one lesson. Even if you have a LOT of money and access to the best doctors, when the lord of death comes it is time to go.

Thanks to Steve Jobs for revolutionizing the world. Thanks to awesome engineers who make those gadgets possible.

Men in trouble

2011-10-05T12:06:00.000-05:00

Look folks, men are in trouble.

The message coincides with many ideas of another book I read by James Dobson... men are in trouble. Many guys refuse to grow up and are so incapable. More men (20%) are not even working, distant from family. "Where are the decent men?"

Ok, here is my question: where are the decent women? Having a good education and job automatically make you "decent"?

I am sure there are thousands of decent men in the army, and we are sending them to Iraq and Afghanistan to risk their lives.

And the blame is on video games (as the picture show). Yes, too much video game is bad for you. However, some video games may be good for you. It develops your problem solving skills and hand-eye coordination, and it is good stress relief.

We may need to say to a number of our twenty-something men, "Get off the video games five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married." It's time for men to man up.

Sadly, those unman men are not going read anything to get enlightenment to become a man.

But yikes, where are the jobs?! No job => go right back into the video games.

Another blame is on movies. Is a movie about an upright man with kids interested in calculus going to win at the box office? Maybe. If the plot of the movie is about discovering the fundamental theorem of calculus. Ok, hollywood, go ahead, make such movie.

To fix men, one step is to fix the economy.

Music and Fractions

2011-10-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

At a kids music lesson place (in LA) I saw a post luring parents to sign up. "Research says music boosts your kids reading skills and math skills. They understand fractions better."

Sure. If you can have your kids sit still and count with you while reading notes they will learn to read (notes) and count with you, 1-2-3-4. and "1 e & a".

Waita minute, the alphabets starts with A and stops at G. The piano starts with C and cycles C D E F G A B... no H and beyond. That # and b stuff has no place in regular alphabets.

Music is perfect example of fractions: Whole notes: divide it to get half notes, divide further into quarter notes. Ah, there are triplets too to handle to denominator of 3.

Ok little piano whiz. Take this: 1/5.

Let me ensure this, parents: pizza is just as good example for fractions (if not better). Do not feel your kids MUST take piano lessons.

Piano (and other instruments), however, lets you appreciate music, which can add a lot of essence to life. And it takes tremendous discipline to learn any instrument well.

Visiting LA

2011-10-03T13:12:00.002-05:00

I have been to the biggest city in America: New York. I live in the third biggest city. I decided to visit the second biggest city in the sunny area: Los Angeles. It has Disneyland and Hollywood is nearby and it ought to be a good place to go for vacation.

Orbitz is a great place to start planning for any vacation. I like its clear layout and ease of use. Ok, United offers good flight prices? I am going for it. Yikes United charges $25 for each big luggage. Ok... Now it will only offer you drink and water. You now have to pay for its food. They don't even give you peanuts and almonds now. I am not a very tall guy so legroom is not a big problem in economy. I have never been on First Class and will probably never pay more to get a bit more comfortable for just a few hours of flight.

LAX is an alright airport... but not as pretty as O'hare or other airports I've been.

LA... has SO MANY visitors. On a non-holiday weekday I lined up for 1.5 hours to get to the rental car. OMG.
In my past experience with Hertz, the cars come with a navigator and I didn't even have to ask for it. LA is a place full of highways and a navigator is a must-have for first time visitors. They don't have it pre-installed! Oh no.
Fortunately they have a little internet booth (that costs money) so I can type up the address of the hotel on google maps to print out directions.
Oh my, it takes TWO HOURS to get to the hotel. Traffic is ultra horrible, and I need to change highways (freeways) maybe 5 times.

LA's highways are kind of old, not as well paved as it should be, and the signs are super old.
LA is supposed to be a very smog filled polluted city, but it isn't the case on the days I was there.

Yikes, it has A LOT of ghettos area, very worn out throughout the city of LA. However, the outer cities (suburbs) are very nice.
I visited Irvine. Oh my it is VERY nice business area. I wish I work there and can afford to live there.

There are MILES of Chinatown-like little plazas spread in various suburbs with hundreds of very nicely done interior designed Asian restaurants. They are mostly Taiwanese. Where are the Hong Kong folks hiding?

Hollywood Blvd... is mostly ghetto until you reach the Kodak Theater and the Chinese theater there. Do not join any tours unless you want a tour guide to talk to you via headphone and very interested in Hollywood history and the movie industry.

Now there is a huge contrast uphill on to the beautiful buildings of the Beverly Hills where the rich-and-famous live in mansions.

The Getty Museum is one awesome place in LA. It is a beautiful art museum up on the mountains and it is free. You only pay $15 parking.
Parking throughout LA is MUCH cheaper than Chicago. Gas is cheaper than Chicago too.

Disneyland is only so-so. It won't be so fun if you have seen the big one in Orlando.

Universal Studios is nice.

The Farmers Market is nice relaxing area full of eating-places-on-the-street. There are Chinese food booth run by entirely non-Chinese.

Santa Barbara has some awesome beaches but some people placed crosses all over to remind you so many people have lost their lives in Afghan and Iraq. It has got a very nice shopping area close to the Santa MOnica Pier.

17 Everyday Facts You Know Are Correct -- That Are Totally Wrong

2011-09-20T17:29:00.001-05:00

Here is an interesting list that may violate your understanding

The Great Wall of China is not visible from space
Dropping a penny from the Empire State Building is not deadly
We do not use just 10% of our brains
Dogs don't sweat by salivating
Human beings do not have only five senses
Alcohol does not make you warmer

...and finally

Men don't think about sex every seven seconds

See here (Chinese) or here (English).

Ipad Review

2011-09-19T12:45:00.002-05:00

I played with the most beloved tech product ever, the IPad.

Ooh, Star Trek like tablet is finally here. Its sleek design melted everyone's heart. Beaming however, will remain science fiction.

First, you need ITune to start using it. Can't use IPad without it. No ITune? Gotta download one. Itunes will copy your songs from your computer onto it.

Of course this is slim, ultra portable, starts up fast. Finally, a machine that doesn't require bootup like a Windows machine. (Waita minute, phones are always on too)Excellent battery life, and it doesn't get too hot like some laptops.

It is excellent for web browsing sitting on a sofa. But remember: IPad does not play Flash, or non MP4 formats. Lacking a keyboard is no big problem (the on screen keyboard is nice and responsive). However, there is no cursor, none whatsoever, your finger is your cursor. Select a bunch of text to copy-paste? This will be hard to do.And if you craft an email, there is no way to do an ASCII friendly single quote. Keyboard input will ALWAYS beat screen text input, yes you can buy one from apple.

The standard apps Notepad and Calendar and of course Safari are all awesome.

The self rotating feature may be cool. But I disliked it spins 180 degrees. Sometimes I INTEND to read upside down ok? (as in chess match looking at black pieces). Fortunately it is possible to lock it.

So, the Ipad is excellent for web viewing or ebook viewing (yikes, books are so expensive to download). Excellent for chess (so you never lose your pieces)Yes there are endless apps to play with.

I give it 3 stars (out of 4)

Sad news but bad headline

2011-09-14T13:14:00.000-05:00

Oh I am sorry to hear bad news about an elderly lady died of carbon dioxide at a McDonald's. The following is from CNN:
I am sure lawsuits will result and lawyers will work hard.But the headline is wrong. CO₂ not CO². Chemistry demands subscript... It would be quite interesting if a headline nearby claims so American students fail science.I am never fond of chemistry... It's over my head. But I manage to pass my high school class.

Past 911 10 year anniversary

2011-09-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

I am glad there weren't any new terror attacks at the 911 10th year anniversary. Obama said this, "Today, America is stronger and al Qaeda is on the path to defeat"

I am not so sure about the first part. In 2001, economy was booming, and unemployment numbers were quite low. Gas price was $1.69 a gallon and I didn't even think about gas when I bought that less-than-very-fuel-efficient car.

I am not so sure about the second part either. Can you really defeat all the terrorists out there when all they live for is jihad? Even the all covered up women are learning to use grenades and AK47s.

If they have inhabitable space, have an economy of some sort, perhaps they think about something else other than jihading.

If Al Qaeda is going to strike again, they'll probably choose a day when we're least prepared, like celebrating holidays or some sport team's victory. I wonder how much $ was spent on the extra security measures. Now that's jobs jobs jobs: everyone train to be a security guard.

911 10th anniversary

2011-09-09T13:04:00.002-05:00

The 10th anniversary of 911 is coming soon. I am sure everyone old enough will have vivid memory of that day. What were you doing on that day?

I remember that day had perfect weather... and I have some code to implement. I was at a client's office (my ONLY work experience to work outside of my company) Then soon after the first plane hit. I am not sure how to react. My first reaction was... why so panic? Yikes it may be a horrible accident but miles and miles away, ok? I got stuff to work on.

Then soon after the 2nd plane hit I was told to go home. I am still puzzled.

Oh it was a terrorist attack!

Yikes, even one plane was hijacked it will be on headlines for days, 4 planes? and 2 crashed into the World Trade Center and one onto the Pentagon? OMG. Now I realize this is serious.

Then the videos of the planes crashing in re-run many many times.

10 years later, bin Laden dead, but we are still into War on Terror and no complete end in sight.

10 years later, jobs changed a few times. That code I worked on that day is probably no longer used (It was some ASP and VB6 stuff)

Wrong phone direction

2011-09-06T12:51:00.001-05:00

Phones are getting ever larger and heavier, like somebody struggle to get weight loss and then the weight has come back. Ok this is not perfect analogy. Phones are getting much more powerful. Cool that crisp screen and huge storage lets you watch a movie on it.

But folks, is it easy to carry such big thing around? You will need a belt and a clip. No device should alter what you wear.

Look, phones should be small. To watch a movie and other heavy duty tasks, get a tablet.Another thing with phones: gone are the cursor keys. Most newer phones require you to tap on it. Ok, that is fine for most cases. What if you want to go to a precise location? Let's say, chess. I want to move that pawn in e2 (not d2 or f2, ok?) What about battleship, what about 19x19 GO. Cursor is better in these situations. Keep the cursor keys please. The 0-9 keypad is probably gone like rotary phones, and they are best when you have to really call somebody (new).

So, I want a small phone, vivid screen, hopefully with cursors. Can somebody make one.

Preparing Clergy for War

2011-08-30T16:42:00.002-05:00

There are army clergy in training for war.

I am not exactly sure why clergy need to expose to danger and it is kinda crazy to proclaim "Love others as thyself" and then either sprinkle enemies with bullets (or run away from it). Well they are there to perform funeral service for the fallen.

I love the "Love others as thyself" part and I have some difficulty with the "God will deliver me to the promise land so let's kill all the enemies" messages.

If the entire country is to sit down for a sermon, the topic should be this, "Look, let's find a way for peace".

Washington Monument Cracked

2011-08-24T09:21:00.003-05:00

Oh wow, earthquake hit the east coast and cracked the : Washington Monument.

When there is a earthquake the first thing I look at is the magnitude, if it is under 7, it probably doesn't do much harm.

Washington has a lot of memorials and the Washington Monument is quite unique...
I do not understand why the monument has to look like that. Perhaps it is a missile in disguise! (Ok, that's probably not the case)

Every American should know this about Washington: he was not the first American president! Sure, Washington was first president under the Constitution, but the Constitution was not the first document that runs the country.

Remember the Article of Confederation? Read about the forgotten presidents before Washington here.

3/4 not ready for college

2011-08-17T11:39:00.003-05:00

Today's Sun Times headline says,
Three of four state grads not ready for college, ACT scores show.

The article itself focus on science, the Related Documents give you more data in details. Yes, this is quite depressing for Illinois.

But is the ACT really a good predictor of college success?

That science test (when I took it) was merely a reading comprehension kind of test. Does it really measure science knowledge?

ACT Math is very easy. Come on teen, you can do this. I hate the term "college algebra" there is nothing college about it.

The English part is very reasonable. It tests your understanding of grammar rules and it is something you can actually prepare for, unlike crazy antonym test of arcane words you have not seen nor will ever see in the SAT.

How come we have 2 tests for college admission? I vote we whack the SAT and embrace the ACT. SAT scoring was 2*Verbal+Math. That is DISCRIMINATION to math!

Google honors Fermat

2011-08-17T10:02:00.003-05:00

Look, Google honors Fermat and the Fermat's Last Theorem:

It is 410th birthday, I wonder if there is any significance to this number.
Read more here if you like.

Fermat's Last Theorem looks somewhat like the Pythagorean Theorem, but no triangle is involved here. No integers will make this equation work if n>2. xⁿ+yⁿ=zⁿ. Of course n=2 is the Pythagorean Theorem and you know 3-4-5 is a Pythagorean Triple.

People tend not to know anything else with Fermat... he has a lot of significant contributions to Number Theory, which makes people believe he actually had a marvelous proof.

All students interested in math should take Number Theory... and you don't need to know anything about calculus to succeed... Much of Number Theory deal with integers only.

You will then able to explain: why can you determine if a number is divisible by 9 by adding up the digits to see if that is divisible by 9. Example: 6561 is divisible by 9 because 6+5+6+1 = 18 is divisible by 9.

Ok, is someone going to say, so what?

The answer is this: so you know something about the numbers and it is cool to say "congruent modulo".

Raising Boys

2011-08-09T11:35:00.004-05:00

Raising Boys is a great book for parents of boys. I listen to James Dobson "Focus On the Family" on the news radio when I commute to work a decade ago. I admire his ability to communicate ideas so effectively through radio and writing.

In this book, he painted a horrible picture describing the hostile environment for boys to grow up. The disappearing father role, feminism, failing school systems, and um, lifestyles different from the traditional family make it difficult to raise boys to become upright men.

The father... is so important for boys. Come on, guys, don't abandon your kids. Statistics paint horrible picture: kids without fathers are likely to be resentful criminals. Even if the fathers don't provide food and shelter, some fathers don't pay enough attention to the boys. There is an account of the author talking to a 50+ year old man, in tears, telling him the story of his father not ever show up in his football games and even if he does, he didn't stay to watch him play. Look dads, pay attention to your kids achievements!

Idiot dads think they'll spoil kids if they give them encouraging words when they win something. WRONG. I WILL tell my son I am proud of him if he accomplishes something, and I WILL show up in his sports events (or chess tournaments) if he is into those.

Look, the family structure is so important. The statistics of the number of single mom/dad families are quite saddening. Yes, there are arguments, but please don't give up taking care of the kids.

Failing school systems bother me. I shake my head whenever I read statistics about dropouts and that kids are so incapable. Some of the teachers are gosh so incapable that they can't even divide fractions. COME ON. The public elementary schools do the same stuff year after year and students still don't know anything.

Dobson believes school can wait, and home schooling is great. He thinks some boys are not capable of sit still and listen until older, and all they can get from schools are ideas that promote feminism and homosexuality agendas and therefore hostile. I beg to differ on this point: I do not think the parents should act dual roles as teachers and kids need to learn how to get along with other kids.

Yes, boys need parents, especially a loving father.

Good fathers already knows this, and most bad fathers probably never read something like this.

You do not need to be a PhD or read volumes to find out how to be a good parent. Your parents probably didn't read a whole lot about parenting either (and yet you turn out to be a reasonably good kid right?) If you grew up correctly, you know what to do. It is instinct.

Goodbye DOS EDIT

2011-08-05T12:50:00.003-05:00

The good old DOS Editor is gone in Windows 7. You cannot type "edit foo.txt" anymore to create a quick text entirely in DOS prompt. Yes, you can use notepad nowadays.

Before there was fullscreen editor in DOS, there was edlin, and I never used it.

The MS-DOS editor made sense, and ooh you can even use the mouse. It was HUGELY BETTER than the Unix vi. Ok, it is a matter of preference. :wq!

Fairwell bookstores

2011-08-01T11:57:00.003-05:00

Bookstores are great to-go places, for kids and adults. Reading bring so much enrichment to life as we read know-hows and wisdom from authors.

However, the uprising of the internet shopping caused bookstores to suffer because of the low prices that real stores cannot offer. (Look, online stores have no staff to feed and no rent to pay). And now, electronic readers have come along, the demand for paper copies is even less.

Bookstores have suffered to a point of collapse. The Borders stores are closing soon.

Sorry Borders, I admit browsing books at your store and buy them online.

Now with the GOING OUT OF BUSINESS signs hanging, I decided to buy a book from you. I bought Garry Kasparov's Checkmate Tactics. I browsed through this excellent book months ago and it was still there. That is exactly the reason why stores are closing. No one is buying! This is my first chess book ever. It is excellent and when I am done I'll write a review.

I also bought Prime Obsession to read about the Prime Number Theorem and the great unsolved problem: the Reimann Hypothesis.

Although at a discounted price, I still would pay less on Amazon. But I decided to give this extra dollars to Borders, to thank it for providing me a place to read, to wander into.

Although movies are all over on the internet, it hasn't yet killed the theater, for the social aspect for it. (Mr. Rights need to take Ms. Right candidates some place right?) Unfortunately it has killed most bookstores.

Transformer 3 done wrong

2011-08-01T10:20:00.002-05:00

The movie makers still don't know the Transformers after the 3rd time around.

First, Sentinel Prime is a fresh good idea for the movie. We have already seen the martix before. But primes are supposed to be the ultimate good guys and should not overshadow the evil of Megatron. Ok, for something brand new, perhaps using Sentinel Prime as evil is ok. Megatron is a complete wimp in this movie. Come on.

Waita minute Sentinal, just why do you want the space bridge to bring Cybertron over? The movie makers do not even have a complete storyline.

If Sentinal Prime is going to be the bad guy, why doesn't he take the matrix when Optimus offers it?

The first hour of the movie is nonsense human activity that can be collapsed to 5 minutes. And when the actions come, the robots lack reason to cause mayhem and they lack character. Come on, Shockwave isn't a wacky snakelike drill. Starscream is the most interesting decepticon with an interest to overthrow Megatron that all 3 movies don't bother to build upon this. 3 movies... where are the Combiners? The vacuum Devastor from the second movie does not count. Where are the dinobots. I won't bother asking to see Omega Supreme and Metroplex.

After 3 movies, the movie makers still don't understand the character of Optimus Prime. (Giving him a jetpack is a good idea, though) That last scenes is too short too brutal. Optimus and Megatron are arch rivals of millions of years, if Optimus can ax him up singlehandedly that should have happened million years ago. Optimus shooting the defeated Sentinel? Come on, only Decepticons are brutal, as seen in Megatron killing the 4 autobots in the 1986 movie. Outrageous! Optimus Prime deserves some respect. He should forgive Sentinel (and that makes the autobots heroic). Megatron (Galvatron) should be thrown out (not destroyed) like in the 1986 movie.

Where the heck are the teamwork of the autobots? What the heck are the 2 small autobots with one of them smoking? Perhaps the last scene should be Bumblee and others rush to help and Decepticons retreat (like good old cartoons). With the Decepticons defeated, perhaps the autobots can use that space bridge to go back to Cybertron to build a new golden age to end everything nicely (The 1986 movie has done that).

Rosie is awesome (but too skinny), I like her better than Megan Fox.

God Created the Integers

2011-07-26T14:54:00.004-05:00

Every math enthusiast should take a look at this big Stephen Hawking volume: God Created the Integers.

No, Hawking didn't write all 1000+ pages. He collected some classic texts of great mathematicians, preceded with a short bio and sprinkled commentary throughout. Amazon reviewers say the Lucasian professor made some mistakes. Yes, I wish Hawking will correct them all too.

It is awesome to read Euclid, Archimedes, Newton and other great mathematicians in their own (translated) words. They don't write like mathematicians today write, such as "I will say...." I do not understand much of the writings, of course.

The lives of the mathematicians are interesting to read about too. Some suffer horrible circumstances in life. It is also interesting to read about the feuds of some of them. Gosh, Newton and Hooke don't get along! He also attacked the heck out of Liebniz on calculus. Besides being a great physicist, I think Hawking is an awesome writer too.

However, I do have some complains about the book. Some footnotes and commentaries are in some ultra small fonts that requires magnifying glasses. It is ok to split this work into multiple volumes. To distinguish text from comments how about a complete different font, or boxes, or other means of typography?

Now about the title, "God Created the Integers" is a short form of the quote "God created the integers all else was the work of man".

Now I am no distinguished mathematician (not even a decent student) but I beg to differ. Integers themselves are also the work of man. Zero and the negative numbers are invented (and are significant milestone of mathematics).

I would say it is more appropriate to say "God Created the Natural Numbers".

Glad you're back, Atlantis

2011-07-21T12:30:00.002-05:00

The final voyage of the Space Shuttle came back safely. Details here. Hooray!

The 30 years of Space Shuttle flights span glorious pages of human achievement history. Yes, we still mourn the loss of the Challenger and Columbia.

Now United States needs to ask Russians for a ride to space to do something on the Space Station. I am not so sure if we still need to patch the Hubble.

Welcome home, Atlantis.

Where did your tax money go?

2011-07-20T11:46:00.003-05:00

You can generate yourself a Federal Taxpayer Receipt here.

Look at that breakdown of your tax dollar:

26.3% goes to National Defense!
7.4% on debt interests
4.8% for education

What if you do not agree on this breakdown? Hit the feedback button? Write your congressman? Or run for congress yourself?

Complain to the Mug Shots in the Tribune

2011-07-18T12:38:00.003-05:00

The Chicago Tribune is no doubt an important part of Chicago history. But who is buying the expensive paper copies now? I am afraid not that many. I hope they remain afloat with the ads on their web edition.

Ok, click on news articles, your attention will probably be redirected to the criminal suspects' faces on the Mug Shots section. Some are quite fearsome looking followed by horrible crime description underneath: robbery, weapons, sex abuse of boys. Horrible! But when you click on the horrible criminals you don't get the detail of that particular criminal but you get to the first criminal (ok, suspect) out of hundreds.

I wanted to see the news article, but not the criminals (but I got shown the horrible faces of the criminals)
Now, when I want to see the detail of the criminal, I get to see another criminal but not the one I clicked on.

This Mug Shot stuff should be on its standalone page. Shield the readers from these fearsome people please.

Yikes, there are so many criminals out there doing horrible things!

Debt Ceiling

2011-07-12T16:42:00.002-05:00

The hottest talk of the day is the debt ceiling. I am reading all about it here. There is a limit of so much money that United States can borrow... Oh, and the debt ceiling was raised many times in the past to keep the government running... so why not lift it again?

Ok, if we keep lifting it, it is then meaningless. Why even have such (arbitrary) limit?

Come on, you can't keep borrowing. Imagine you don't make enough money and you keep using your credit card.

The unpopular remedies to this are simple: cut stuff or increase tax. Just like how you do your personal finance: stop buying things or make more money.

Here is what I propose: do BOTH, at least temporarily. Get the deficit down first! Yes, it will be unpopular but do it now is better than do it later.

If that limit is useless, take it out entirely.

Mark Zuckerberg's Law of Sharing

2011-07-07T13:33:00.004-05:00

Exponential equation (and logarithms) are useful!

See, Mark Zuckerberg talked about it.

Does Mark Zuckerberg have to show the graph of 2^x?

According to this article, he demonstrates logarithm by using 2^50 as an example of folding paper 50 times.

Ok, trying to inform people with logarithms (that high school students should know about)? Do you know that folding something 12 times is the WORLD RECORD. Read it here.

Some people mock Zuckerberg is no Steve Jobs. Well, no doubt, facebook is a big success. Most likely, however, nobody ever cares about YOUR presentation nor care your wardrobe.

Ok, I think 2^x is over simplification of sharing. If you send me uninteresting things? I won't share. Exponential growths stops at me.

Trying Go

2011-07-06T11:03:00.005-05:00

"Go" is a strange name for the 4000+ year old ancient board game. It is actually short for igo, the Japanese name of this black-and-white-surround board game. Countless generations of intellectuals play this game of simple rules but of incredible depth.
I think everyone should at least look at this game to see why so many people are hooked.

Now, where do you find someone to play with? No one has time for you.

But the computer will gladly play with you. Today's phone apps are even more convenient. I recommend this Android game:
Go Free. Excellent UI, excellent game play.

The real game of 19x19 is long, who has time and patience for that? Amateurs should start at 9x9 to get a taste of this.

Gosh, simple rules, but I get defeated hard. Gotta watch your back as you try to capture your opponent's pieces (by surrounding).

I will never be truly good at any classic board games, because it takes an incredible mind to do well.

But hey, these are games. Have fun.

Paragraph that speaks for itself

2011-06-22T12:50:00.001-05:00

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

and someone wrote a scrambler program to further illustrate this:
http://jtnimoy.net/itp/cambscramb/

Movie: Waiting for 'Superman'

2011-06-20T12:40:00.001-05:00

This is an awarding winning documentary about the failing American Public Education system that requires a 'Superman' hero to save. Ok, Superman can fly, is super strong, bulletproof, have laser eyes, x-ray vision and breath that can freeze you. He is only afraid of Kryptonite.... but even if he is here, can he solve all the problems?

I am afraid not.

He can't punch the heck out of the failing teachers who say, "I get paid rather you learn something or not", or the evil unions who protect them. Ok, he can probably block a bullet or two in the horrible gun violence conflicts.

Statistics play a strong role in this movie... Ok there are so many percent WILL dropout, so many percent a few grades behind, etc. After watching this film, my head spins a bit. There are many pieces of heart-breaking statistics like only a handful of percentages have decent math skills at a certain grade, and the dropout rates are so high. There are dropout factories that create thousands of dropouts a year. The movie is not so focused. I wish Mr. Canada speak longer in one session and not broken pieces. (He is a captivating speaker that I don't mind listening to for an hour.) Another thing, is it my DVD player or TV? the whole documentary is so dark, like I am watching a worn out VHS tape from the 80s.

It is saddening to see the lottery system for so many people trying to get into the so few good schools.

I wish the movie interview the teacher unions more, let them talk about what they think about the poor teachers that can't be fired killing the future of the students.

This movie seems to suggest that if you get a college degree or even a high school degree, your future will be bright. But let me tell you this, it is still hard to find work even if you get a 4.0 GPA for your masters. Microsoft and other high tech companies prefer to hire those cheaper labor from overseas.

Is CLOSING poor performing schools altogether a solution? Unless there are toxic things on the ground, I think schools should remain OPEN, just find a way to fire the under-performing people that can't teach.

Here is what I believe in: See, if we can send people to the moon and even give a strong blow to Al Quaeda, America CAN FIX ITS OWN SCHOOL SYSTEM.

Here is one idea: install cameras in EVERY classroom and monitor the classes. Good teachers will WELCOME this to broadcast their fantastic lessons. Seek and fire the horrible teachers who can't teach (and there is the evidence). And that will curb the naive kids throwing paper at the teacher while writing on the board.

Make laws to strip powers off the unions. Come on, there isn't a computer programmers union that gives us tenure (and there probably SHOULD be one to be fair)

DO NOT ABANDON the children! Once upon a time I saw an ad featuring someone like Mother Theresa that says something like this, "Give your unwanted children to me"

If the students don't know certain skills by certain age, do you simply abandon them? Come on, these kids just need someone to teach them.

There is ought to be a way for kids to re-enroll back to school after dropout, and there should be some volunteers organization to provide free tutoring (and I will sign up for that).

Every kid who wants to learn ought to be taught.

OMG, it is a vicious cycle and a downhill spiral: bad economy => bad neighborhood => poor performing students

I give the movie: 2-and-a-half stars.

Programming IQ test

2011-06-17T10:02:00.003-05:00

InfoWorld published some Programming IQ Test. It is a bit of a geeky test and have terrible slow interface. <yawn/>

Don't feel bad if you don't know it all.

Programming... boils down to the SMARTNESS and KINDNESS of the programmer. Even with excellent tools the idiots and the over-engineering morons will make unmaintainable mess. Kindness refers to the documentations sprinkled throughout (and outside) the code.

Dow fall

2011-06-10T15:21:00.004-05:00

I do not understand stocks. Neither do most of you, I'm sure.

Ooh, panic there, it falls below 12k and it is headline news here.

Ok, this is triggered by all sorts of news and things happening globally.

Ok, let's look at it differently. How about a 1 year chart. See
here.

The big picture says we are pretty much going uphill if I interpret correctly and I am not too worried. I worry not too much about things that I cannot control.

I think a happy life is when numbers don't affect you. I am not betting my life savings on stocks.

Doers get no credit, but the teller does

2011-06-10T13:17:00.003-05:00

It is the person who tells you what to do who gets the credit, not the person actually doing the work.

Ask any student: who built the Great Wall? Ok, many students will simply don't know. But for those who do, the answer will be Emperor Qin (and not the poor slaves who lay the bricks or those architects). The teller gets credit AND don't have to get hands dirty. Emperor Qin probably has no idea how to do it himself but he is able to make people listen to him.

Forward 2000+ years. Who earns more money than you by simply tell you to do things (and keep asking you status) even he has no idea how to do it?

It is the managers.

And even if something is successful who gets the credit?

It feels especially bad when the tellers are 10 years younger.

Rank-and-file doers should aim for the awesome occupation of just telling people what to do.

Look at these garbage!

2011-05-31T13:17:00.003-05:00

News says the new mayor agreed it is the right thing to close the beach when people gets too hot and get sick.

Yes, I agree too. Although it must be disappointing for those people who wanta have some summer fun.

It was a hot memorial day, and THOUSANDS of people went to the beach. I know because I was at Lake Shore Drive stuck for an hour+.

OMG, LOOK AT THOSE GARBAGE! How irresponsible are those people. COME ON. They are polluting the beach big time!

Get cops out there to give them tickets for garbage throwing and the city can instantly get a ton of cash.

LOOK beach people, use common sense, get a lot of water with you to prevent heat stroke, and COME ON, PICK UP THAT GARBAGE. That garbage can filled up? Get it on your own garbage bag and take them with you.

Ok, Memorial Day is not working. It is supposed to remember those who were lost in battles. But besides those who actually lost love ones, everyone else seem to be just barbecuing. Just call it the Long Weekend Day.

Minor complains for the Android built-in calculator

2011-05-27T11:23:00.002-05:00

I love to play with calculators. They are fun toys and relief you from mundane calculation routines.

Just about every phone comes with a calculator app. I have some minor complains with the default Android calculator.

I love the test case of dividing by 0. This is the only taboo function in the calculator world. 1 / 0 is... ∞ (infinity)?
Ah ha, once you get ∞, you can add stuff or subtract stuff from it... of course still infinity.

I beg to differ for this answer. Dividing by 0 is undefined, not infinity!

There is a Advanced Panel, with trigs and log function there. Ok, let me try other invalid operations like log of a negative number, it tells me "Error". Good.
Why can't "Error" be used in dividing by 0?

Technically, even log of a negative number is defined when you involve the complex numbers, but dividing by 0 is not.

Now, sin(30). Why is it not 1/2? Oh it is stuck in radian mode.

There are PLENTY of Android calculator apps out there, and I am not going to bother to build my own. I built a 4 function calculator and RPN calculator in Turbo Pascal in high school.

OUTRAGEOUS Windows 7 issue

2011-05-25T17:39:00.002-05:00

Windows 7 does not show the handy IME pad for entering handwritten Chinese.

A lot of people are seeing this. See
here.

No workaround, no fix.

Come on, this works perfectly in Windows XP.

You select Chinese keyboard in Control Panel and it will give you hand recogniztion for Korean and Japanese? Thanks for the extra, but where the hell is the Chinese IME.

Outrageous!!

Other than this, Windows 7 works fine until I discover another outrageous issue.

Yahoo 10 year anniversary

2011-05-24T16:33:00.002-05:00

My yahoo email address has the year 2001 in it. That's because josephmak is taken when I try to open up such account and it suggested me to add the current year back then with it.

It is 2011... I had the yahoo account for a DECADE.

Back then, messenger was kinda new. Yahoo account was created so my coworkers can chat. I witnessed years of messenger getting matured, and web email interface getting better.

That job was gone, so are jobs after that. A decade is a long time... coworkers still appears connected but we are no longer chatting (and that's ok).

It hurts when trying to contact some old colleagues and get ignored. It won't be so fun when I see them again, especially if they ever need to work under me.

Ooh, yahoo email has an update. See here. Oh, it seems to be better than the previous ajax version. Nice try.

Yahoo email is decent. Gmail's conversation model is a bit wacky but I get used to it now. Both are free and that's great, and I NEVER pay attention to the ads.
I like hotmail the least.

End of World tomorrow?

2011-05-20T15:50:00.002-05:00

May 21, 2011: another pointless prediction that the world will end based on groundless interpretation of the Bible.

Just how many times people have failed predicting the end of the world? I'll let you google around.

Let's look at this May 21, 2011 prediction for a moment: here.

Look, what makes you think that statement to Noah "Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth" point to the end of the world? The calculations that follows are simply... nonsense.

This guy has plenty of Bible quotes, but didn't bother to look at some real ones such as Jesus talk about he will come like a thief. Are you able to predict thieves?

But the sad news is: there are people who may actually believe this and someone paid money for those billboards.

Read that Bible. Don't just listen to someone else quote chunks of it.

Did someone else predict 2012? We'll see.

Distrubutions Plushies

2011-05-13T17:03:00.004-05:00

Statisticians will love these: Distrubtion Plushies.

I used to know some glorious details about them... of course, the most famous being the normal distribution.

Yes, that's the bell curve.

It is mathematically saying... most people are average, a few of them will stand out extraordinary good, and a few will be extraordinary bad.

There are teachers who grade on the curve... even if you get 50 points in an exam you probably are still not getting an F... it depends on how your other classmates are doing.

I BEG TO DIFFER in this grading scale. All my students can get perfect scores if I teach them right.

The normal distribution function begs to be integrable to get analytical answers, but sorry, it simply can't be integrated, because it involves e^{x^2}. Nope, u-substitution is not going to work, and by-part isn't going to work either.

But OMG, although the indefinite integral cannot be evaluated, but the definite integral from -infinity to +infinity can... and there is this surprising relationship between e and pi!

See Gaussian Integral for details. This is one reason Gauss is the prince of mathematics.

And if you have never heard of Gauss, you did not have an decent education.

Obama got Osama

2011-05-02T13:05:00.000-05:00

Osama bin Laden is dead. this is extremely significant milestone... and some sort of justification to YEARS of military action (which depletes American resources quite a bit). We did this just one time, before the 10th anniversary of 911. So he is dead... in Pakistan, not Iraq or Afghanistan.
That Ak-47 that Osama always has behind him was not able to help him kill one or two US troops.

Does this mean Al Queada is done? I am afraid not. There will be revenge. America must continue to be on high alert!

Waita minute, just why did Osama plan 911? Ah, he is just a mad man? This is what he has to say:

"Allah knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed - when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the -same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women. Osama bin Laden, 2004

It is a cycle of revenge going on here.

Let's break the cycle of violence with LOVE and FORGIVENESS?

I know what you gonna say, Come on, it is NAIVE to even think that.

But waita minute it may just WORK. How about leave them alone... give Palaestine and Lebanon some aids (instead of bombs). Let that violent neighbor live peacefully together. How about a turn-in-your-guns-for-food program. (Gee, I am not working on that post)

If you ask EVERY human being.. dude, do you prefer violence or food? I suppose everyone would want food, even the "bad guys".

Perhaps it is time to think naively to break the cycle of violence.

Google map on Android

2011-04-29T17:03:00.005-05:00

Google Map is awesome and easy to use on javascript. Don't believe me? Go here.

Well if it is so easy, and Android can show html/javascript, why not do in javascript and then have Android display it? Boom, it did't work for me, perhaps I am missing something.

You can try the MapView API, and get a key... details in here.

Throw away the easy javascript stuff, they don't apply in the MapView API.

Waita minute, just what do you want to use google map for? just about everything has been already done by someone else? like getting directions from point A to B, put little balloons at certain locations etc.

Well I need google map for drawing polygons as outline for states.
Sample use: draw red and blue states for election results.

But I have another use to draw states, stay tuned.

Drawing states is not so easy. It would be easy if every state is a rectangle like Wyoming. First I need to get latitude/longitude data... and eventually I found them on the web. But wait, the earth is not flat! If I treat it like regular x-y coordinates they will look funny... so I will need google map...

I tamed it and am able to draw states in any color I specify.

Android 300 Tang Poems

2011-04-22T13:30:00.004-05:00

Soon I will release another educational free app, featuring the 300 Tang Poems.

These classic poems are fundamental for a classic Chinese education. Unfortunately today's students know so few of these. There are already a few apps (some free) on these poems, but alas, they are in simplified Chinese.

These classics ought to be read in its original form!

Here is a complete list. Yikes, in frames?

A few surprises, 詠鵝 is not part of the 300? (actually, 320)

This is usually regarded as the simplest (and cutest) of Tang Poems for kids.
鵝，鵝，鵝，
曲頸向天歌。
白毛浮綠水，
紅掌撥清波。

Oh, this one is not? 關雎 with the classic line: 窈窕淑女，君子好逑. Oh this is from another text (詩經, way before the Tang Poems 300)

See, this reflects how LITTLE I know about classic poetry.

Tech note: I went through helluva time copy/paste the text into xml, then the xml gets parsed and put into a SQLite database on the Android.
Once the data is set, it is straightforward to query by category, by author, and get individual poems.

Sorry, no English translations, and no simplified Chinese version.

No Space Shuttle for Chicago

2011-04-12T15:40:00.004-05:00

Aww, no space shuttle for Chicago.

Details here.

Just what is the criteria for getting one? Was there a bid? It would be a great tourist attraction for Chicago. The space shuttle is truly amazing breakthrough for space exploration and making today's satellites possible, and thanks for putting the Hubbles telescope in orbit.

Adler planetarium... I will visit you again soon even if you don't have the shuttle.

Apple's weaknesses?

2011-04-07T13:17:00.005-05:00

I saw this article in headline. Oh there are 3 big weaknesses of the iPad:
1. It needs to plug in to a computer
2. not integrated tightly with social things like facebook
3. limited selection of videos

These are just minor complains. Look, the iPad is a hugely successful product and won the heart of many. (Although I don't have one). Android pads are good contender but no one knows sleek design like Apple. Look at the basic Android apps for things like notepad and calendar and compare that to iPad. Though Objective C is HORRIBLE but Apple does have a great UI and great exterior that other devices are hard to beat.

So for those who envy Apple: face it, their products are pretty. Unless something VERY bad happens like it explodes, Apples are here to stay. Let the world have BOTH Android and Apple.

Job ads, recruiters, and companies are ALL THE SAME

2011-04-05T12:40:00.005-05:00

Hi, we need a senior programmers who can do , at a fast growing company. We won't talk to you unless you have consulting experience.

Everyone is looking for superheroes to solve all their problems.

So many companies are ALL THE SAME. They offer to sell you bodies to create some apps for you by charging you for as many people for as many hour as they can. Their salesmen know how to draw pictures but have absolutely no idea how to accomplish anything. After clueless people lure the clueless customers they try to hire senior programmers to get things done.

I am BORED at the openings, BORED at the all-the-same bodyshop companies.

I want to work for an unique company doing interesting things.

Why do they look for the superheroes all the time? because there are few, if not none.
A successful company should grow their employees to be the superheroes and keep them happy.

My Android Apps live on Android Market

2011-03-28T15:59:00.002-05:00

My 3 apps are now on the market!
https://market.android.com/search?q=Joseph+Mak&c=apps

To sell apps on the app market, you need an google account (of course), and you need to pay $25.

Your apk files need to be signed, here is details:
http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/app-signing.html.

But first you have to export your app as unsigned first. See here for details.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=492822

Google requires you to have a BIG icon: 512x512 and at least 2 screenshots, with specified dimensions, one acceptable format is: 320x480. So use the emulator get some screenshots and zoom it to be the right size.

I have a new blog for exclusively for android:
http://josephmakandroid.blogspot.com/

Sorting

2011-03-24T12:27:00.004-05:00

In my first job out of college, one day I was told to query some data... and SQL was new to me. Gosh, computer science without knowledge of database is not so adequate for work because people want data, not determining if your algorithm is O(n²) or O(n log n), or if your problem is NP-complete or not. The ORDER BY clause saved me from pulling out the quicksort algorithm.

Fast forward many years, one day I take a look at some source code of a colleague (JSP file) and found the BUBBLE SORT algorithm!
What a surprise... Ok, that data is not from SQL so the ORDER BY clause can't help us here, but... buble sort on the presentation layer? this is not good strategy.

Ok, before you boo on the Bubblesort algorithm as poor O(n²) algorithm, let me tell you this: the quicksort is also O(n²) and a lot more ugly to write on your own.
Bubblesort is perfectly fine if your items to sort is not a whole lot.

The beauty of java is that many things are implemented for you already. How about Collections.sort? Stuff your items in an ArrayList, provide your own compareTo and voila.

I recently found out there is also Collections.shuffle too. This is ideal if you have to implement something like a card game.

So many objects so many methods within each... How do you learn them all?

So many new toys, some are here to stay, some are temporary hype.

Perhaps there ought to be continuous education program for people to stay updated. Perhaps it may be good business idea to open "tech update" classes...

Do I blame that colleague for being STUPID? No, as long as the code works.
That colleague was just not informed.

Sudoku Generator

2011-03-24T11:29:00.003-05:00

I am impressed with this Sudoku Generator. And the python source code is right there.

You can generate puzzles on the fly in HTML, PDF or PostScript.

A LONG time I wrote a Sudoku solver (in java)... by recursion trial-and-error backtracking like solving the Eight Queens puzzle.

Being able to solve Sudoku classify yourself as a real programmer from a handwaving-ppt-generating, don't-really-know-any-programming "architect". Architects earn my respect if they can do-the-talk. Example: please don't talk web-service if you can't actually implement one.

Coming soon: I may turn that python into java and crank out my own puzzles.

AT&T again

2011-03-22T15:31:00.000-05:00

I remember the day I had my FIRST cell phone. Cell phones were available for a long time I just didn't need one... my philosophy was this:
if you can't find me at home and can't find me at work, chances are: you don't need to find me. I got answer machines in both places
One day the weather was bad I made it to work and a cell phone company come to my company for promotion... gee, I could use it to call for help if I get stuck in snow.
So I got a phone, and it is in my glovebox. Thankfully I never needed it to call emergency.

The plan was 50 minutes a month.

I had it for several years. Then cell phone market exploded, my phone becomes a dinosaur.
Then AT&T becomes SBC then later I became a Verizon customer, and by then I needed to upgrade the dinosaur to something cool at the time.
My philosophy has changed: don't call me at home or at work, call my cell.

Verizon dares to not work well in places I needed most. I ditched it altogether and went with T-mobile for its mobile-to-mobile free feature.

Unlike some people I don't upgrade phones until they are broken... with the exception of my Android phone for programming on it.

Oh now AT&T takes T-mobile, and I will soon go back to AT&T. As a customer, all I care is... am I able to get calls, and is it affordable.

Nintendo 3DS and Street Fighter IV

2011-03-22T09:22:00.004-05:00

Handheld gaming devices get more powerful than ever. The new Nintendo 3DS is demoing at the lobby of my workplace... specifically I played with Street Fighter IV.

It has been a LONG WHILE since I played any Street Fighters... I used Ryu to fight Dudley and beat him fairly easily and then it says, "thanks for playing the demo".

Ooh there is a slide switch to go from 2D to 3D without wacky glasses. I sense depth in the background. With 4 buttons, how do you do FIERCE punch/kick? Ah, the buttons are pseudo buttons in the lower half of the LCD.

Buttons are necessarily for games, especially fighting games. It is not fun without them, but I wasn't able to execute the Super... This is something the IPhone and Android CANNOT match.

I am impressed with graphics ability... and SFIV plays like SFII, with fancier graphics...

But a gaming device.... is a gaming device. The phone is more versatile, I am afraid that even with nice graphics and nice game play, people will just go to play BeJeweled on their phone.

The kids? they have plenty of games on the phones and ITouch too, if they can put up with touch screen and no buttons. I am afraid the Nintendo 3DS won't sell like hotcakes.

I'd like to play the real SFIV on PS3, but I am not going to shell out money.

文章修訂

2011-03-21T22:03:00.003-05:00

I saw an interesting article in news regarding editing a news article...

The author suggested some way to make things better, but I BEG TO DIFFER.

The revision just pretend to read more like classic but not fit today's style. That's just my opinion.

Pi vs Tau

2011-03-14T13:58:00.002-05:00

Happy Pi Day at March 14.

It is interesting that π made it to news headline.

Pi is to be CELEBRATED. There is so many interesting things about this number.

Oh and pi is "under attack" as the news article says. Take a look at this Tau Manifesto.

Yes, yes, 2π is in a lot of formula, and by setting τ = 2 π you can tidy up a lot of formulas.

Well, π comes naturally to Archimedes... Circumference over diameter. Yes, it is quite natural to measure by diameter. Have you ordered pizza by radius?

So &pi = C/d ever since, and besides minor frustration over extra 2s in the formula, there is no need to throw away all the textbooks out there with tau.

The world has already gotten used to π

When Mother Nature Roars

2011-03-14T13:55:00.001-05:00

Everyone should take a look at some videos of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. It swept away cars and houses like toddlers destroying lego structures. It is more powerful than Godzilla monsters imagined in the Japanese TV shows... yet there were no Ultraman to save them. The only thing fortunate about this is that it did not hit even more populated areas such as Tokyo. (But I am sure financially it would.)

When mother nature roars we are so little powerless beings. It is not over yet... that nuclear plant anxiety... it is going to be very difficult in the days ahead in Japan.

Suddenly the blizzard of 2011 in Chicago is so small an incident. Mother Nature just barely coughed, not roared.

According to Plate Tectonics, the earth is moving... and earthquakes happen when it decides to move. Are earthquakes getting more frequent worldwide? Before you conclude, read stats here.

We are powerless beings.

But you can help by donating to help those in needs.

The next natural disaster can happen to you.

Subway surpasses McDonald's

2011-03-07T14:53:00.003-06:00

There are more Subways than McDonald's. Yup, see details here.

Subway sometimes is so expensive. The breads may tear your throat apart. It uses way more plastics than it should be... I usually don't go to Subway.

For me, Subway is too many steps to order, follow a line, what you like, choose toppings... I like numbered combos. I prefer Chipotle for get-in-line-choose-your-topping food.
For subs, Potbelly is better than Subway, even Jimmy John is better.

So I find it surprising for it to surpass McDonald's.

Gas passed $4 a gallon

2011-03-02T12:38:00.002-06:00

Whoa, gas is now more than $4 a gallon!
See here for details.

Soon it will be this:
.

Time to dump your car and go for a hybrid car? But they cost thousands more...

Android logo and Alien Syndrome

2011-02-28T10:22:00.003-06:00

During the first time I looked at the Android logo:
,
my immediate reaction was... Hmm, I have seen this font before.

Ah ah, I have seen that in Alien Syndrome... an old game which you try to shoot some enemies, pick up powers, save your comrades, exit the map, go to next level.

* * *

The newest Android 2.3 may rock. But my 2.2 phone has a lot to be desired... what? no default voice recorder app? what? you can't even organize your apps in folders in main menu? The Messaging app stink bad... what? don't even have an option to choose Contacts? (must use the editbox for autocomplete), what? no default text messages such as "see you in a few minutes"? Come on, basic phones can do better than that. The radio app quits immediately after showing a message saying need headphone, come on, i want it outloud. and the phone didn't provide a headphone (even a cheap one)

Making your Android App run on a real phone

2011-02-22T13:04:00.002-06:00

I finally got an Android phone... a Comet.
I am still unwilling to pay for Data Plan. So insert your SIM card from your basic phone and voila you have Androids, but no web feature like navigator until I am willing to pay.

An Android without a real keyboard is pain to use. The virtual keys are too small to press! Someone should invent an input system to use the ENTIRE screen to write chars instead of fighting the little keys. Even this Swype thing is hard.

Ok ok, let's talk about putting an Android phone app you developed on the SDK (on Windows) to your device.

First, make sure you developed for the right version of Android. On the Phone. Home->Settings->About phone, check the "Android Version". Make sure your app's target is not higher.

Now, put the USB chord in. Does your computer recognize it? Good. But it may only treat it as another USB drive.

The goal here is make "adb" (in SDK\platform-tools) knows about the device, with the command "adb devices"

Many people on the web has problem making this happen, including me... Ideally, it should be less troublesome.

On the phone, you will need to enable USB Debugging.
Check the checkbox in Settings->Development->USB debugging

On your machine, you will need
1. Download Google USB Driver. (This should be straight-forward).
2. Install it. Now that can be tricky. You may need to manually use the Add Hardware Wizard in Control Panel to look for the driver. The goal is to make Device Manager knows about the phone. If it does, you will see Android Phone->Android Composite ADB Interface.

There may be a set of drivers right on the phone, you may need to use those. You may get a Yellow exclamation point (that may mean USB Debugging is not enabled on the phone)

3. Use "adb devices" to see if you can see the device. If Device Manager can see it but adb can't see it, try to kill adb first with "adb kill-server"

Once you are attached, you can use Eclipse to install your app, or use the command line "adb install path/to/your.apk" to install your app on your device!
"adb logcat" will tell you if you have any errors. Things may run perfectly on your emulator but you may still get a "Sorry! This app must close" error.

If you get a NullPointerException in the onCreate of your Activity on an innocent line: findById(R.id.yourcontrol), that may mean you need another layout xml file for lower resolution. Duplicate your layout file in layout-small folder in the "res" folder in your source.

Good Luck.

Android database

2011-02-21T14:10:00.007-06:00

Android has SQLite3 built in. and its got a strange way to do JDBC-like database.

You need to implement the SQLiteOpenHelper to define your schema with CREATE statements in the onCreate on provide the destruction statements with onUpgrade. You then get the db instance with the getWritableDatabase()... and may call the methods to query.

Look at how they do query. Instead of SELECT statement, you do this:

public Cursor query (String table, String[] columns, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String groupBy, String having, String orderBy)

Don't be surprised if you pass in a bunch of null, null and nulls. Ok, for those who prefers SELECT statement, you can do a rawQuery.

Instead of UPDATE statement, you do this:

public int update (String table, ContentValues values, String whereClause, String[] whereArgs)

Why abandon the goodness of tried and true SQL?

So this is a new approach to DB, different from JDBC... and SOMEBODY is going to say this is not cool an do XML wrapping on things!
* * *

Being to do little database in a device is pretty cool. You want to mess with little memory blocks instead?

Besides SQLite, you can also write files or deal with the memory card, or good old value pairs for preferences.

Whoa, their is an linux shell you can deal with directly: adb shell.
See here for glorious details.

Graphics, database... http calls, and even geomap are just the beginning. Still many interesting things on the Android... There are all kinds of sensors that takes programming to a new level of possibilities.

HP and Palm RIP

2011-02-17T11:08:00.002-06:00

HP bought Palm and going to move the WebOS to PCs. That's interesting. Details here.

Palm HAD the spotlight (about 10 years ago). I played with Palms... in fact, I owned THREE Palms. My first Palm (Palm Vx) was destroyed by water, second one is Palm Zire 72 (destroyed by screen crack),
and the third one Palm Tungsten E2 is not destroyed but the calibration is out of whack. These are decent devices, but you can't talk to somebody with it (not a phone) or surf the web or use it as a map. Yes there were Palm+Phone combos (the Treo) long ago but they didn't fly like the iPhone. They were just not quite sleek enough.

This webOs thing was the os for Palm Pre... Palm's last approach to grab some marketshare... unforutunately the sales number are disappointing. Now HP are you SURE that's a good buy? Everyone is just too happy with their iPhones (or their basic free phones) and won't even look at the Palm.

Good luck HP... it is competitive out there, and you will need A LOT of marketing to convince people your stuff is cool too.
Apple users are so loyal... they are not so likely to dump their cool iphones/ipads for your stuff unless your stuff is hugely better. Their screens are so crispy clear that you've got to beat first (probably not so possible).

Android Graph 2D with bells and whistles

2011-02-15T15:41:00.007-06:00

I learned a few new (basic) things about Android programming.
1. They don't do dialog boxes with many controls, you need a new "Activity" to do that, and you can toss parameters around with an "Intent".

The config dialog

2. There are various kind of menus in Android, you launch menu with the menu button and can add your own menu items in bottom of screen (options menu).

Options menu for zooming

3. Now the ultimate bells-and-whistles for a graphing app: I can drag the graph around with a onTouchEvent. I bet your graphic calculator can't do that.

All these activities change the x and y range and will refresh the View within.

On Egypt

2011-02-15T10:36:00.003-06:00

Egypt's revolution is remarkable... Oh, the dictator Mubarak gave up the dictatorship after protests. The people have won I suppose.
But does it end of all their woes? I am not so sure. Still rocky road ahead.

I have been living a rock, I have never even heard of Mubarak for the past 30 years. He doesn't come on headlines often like some dictators with nuclear weapons threatening neighbors. Egyptians ought to be happy their protest didn't end up like Tianenmen Square in 1989.

I only know Egypt has an ancient civilization. They have some great pyramids. There are the mummies and there are the Pharoah and there was incapability of drawing in 3D.

You may have heard about Egypt in the Bible.

Egypt is where the 11 bad brothers of Joseph go to when there was famine.
It is where Israelites get enslaved and God rescued them in Exodus.
God punished them with the horrible Ten Plagues.
The Red Sea opened and devoured the Egyptian soldiers. That's terrifying.
In NT, Gabriel the angel tell Mary and Joseph to go there to avoid the killing of the boys.

Egypt had all that idols and stuff that God didn't like.

Readers are supposed to go "yay! God has delivered His people from the slavery and idols"... so they deserved it. I wonder if Egyptians ever protest against that (probably not a good idea)

Android revisited

2011-02-07T15:13:00.006-06:00

Phones... it's the platform of the future. Software developers ought to know a thing or two about programming the phone. Or maybe not. Modern phones can run webapps and perhaps all you need to know is html+javascript like programming a web app.

Now there are many phone platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7.

Well the biggest players are iPhone and Android. IPhone requires a Mac (which I don't have), and yikes, Objective C is ugly!

Android is open source java based, sounds good to me. Blackberry... seems to be not as dominant as the big 2. Microsoft phone.... I have not seen anyone using one, have you?

BTW, my favorite Microsoft writer Charles Petzold is giving away his Windows Phone 7 book for free.

I experimented with Android quite some time ago, and I was impressed with the sample apps that come with it. Ooh it can even do OpenGL 3D graphics (on a phone?!).

I decided to port an very old app that I did a decade+ ago in java applet into Android. My 2D function plotter. Given an edit box to type in f(x), such as f(x) = sin(x), provide a button to plot the graph!

Now, for a compiled language like Java, it may be harder than you think to turn a String of equation, such as 2*x+1 and sin(x)-cos(x), and plug some values in to evaluate. It requires a parser. A decade ago I got a parser from some C code I found and I ported it...

Eclipse is your friend. The plugin do a lot of work for you when you New->Android Application.

So... to create an android app with an UI is MUCH like a java applet, you put controls on a layout, either by "adding" or by the XML UI designer. For some strange reason, I can't get the custom graphic view to work right... so I am doing old fashion "add" to the layout.

And after some tweaking my app is running!

The Android API is nicely documented, but like any javadoc I'd like to see more runnable samples.

Android provides its own Log (not log4J), in its LogCat window in Eclipse, and System.out.println doesn't spit things out to the console. Unfortunately, Eclipse's LogCat window does not always work! The adb debugger works better.

The Android emulator is SLOW. Yawn.

To do:
add other fun things such as config dialog box or menus...
find out what else I can play with on Android...

Blizzard of 2011

2011-02-02T13:36:00.002-06:00

The blizzard of 2011 is dumping some heavy snow.

The 1999 snow is worse? I beg to differ. Well the amount of snow you get depends on where you live. It is more than that 18 inch the weatherman says.

It has been a long while since I hear school closings, and office closings due to severe weather. It is good that modern day technology allows you to login to your computer even you're at home.

It will take entire neighborhood's effort to clear out the alley to get cars out... at least a couple weeks for lives to get back to normal. Many people will lose a lot of money in snow... such as that busy coffee shop.

Can someone give me an explanation why snow storms get so big?

Yea yea as a kid, I've heard water evaporate and become cloud (but why heavy rain cloud is black) and come back down as rain (but why sometimes so heavy than others?)

Julia on google map

2011-02-01T14:04:00.003-06:00

The Google Research Blog has an article on the zoomable Julia fractal with the mapping API. Wow, this is cool.
This is some heavy duty number crunching.. and HTML5 canvas at work.

Fractals are complex equations in action...by iterating... gee, I have to look up my notes to remind myself what I once knew about it. Some people finds immense beauty.

Once upon a time I found code in Pascal that plots the Mandelbrot set and I converted it to java applet with zoom-able range.

HTML5 will be more relevant if IE adopts it, or the world dumps IE for FF and Chrome.

Math and Science in the State of the Union

2011-01-28T12:06:00.002-06:00

I applaud Obama's State of the Union address regarding math and science education.

It is first realizing that we lag behind, and indicating where that responsibility is (and Obama do not have to tell you, everyone SHOULD know this already).

Think about it. Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school.

The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us – as citizens, and as parents – are willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.

That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair;

Well if the TV is turned off right there. America will not hear the rest of his speech (unless you sit right in front of him).

About science fair... it is a HARD thing to do. Very hard to come up with a good topic (and able to explain and able to demonstrate). Great ones such as splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, and some pseudo-volcano are so un-original. I think it is far more important for students to understand concepts.

TV can actually help education. Audio/visual is far better than hitting the books. I'd like to see great TV shows promoting education, beyond the elementary school level.
Bill Nye the science guy is a GREAT show. I'd like to see a show that shows me an equation or two for some real science. Someone please videotape some great lectures from college professors (and add great visual demonstrations)

I hope some young people raise their hands and response in tears to the following call.

In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child –
become a teacher. Your country needs you.

However, do we have enough schools to host new teachers? Do they have to wait til some old teachers retire? Are neighborhoods safe, free of drugs and gangs in order for teachers to feel safe? There may be more underlying problems than not enough teachers.

Now, let's talk about jobs. Even if you have a sea of educated people with college diplomas, if there is no jobs out there it is still quite useless. And, a lowly bachelor college diploma is not adequate any real math/science work, it is merely a beginning. Jobs are being exported as outsourcing steal jobs, and nothing is manufactured here. We ought to protect jobs here by taxing the heck out of companies who bodyshop workers from overseas.

Ultimately it is the parents' responsibility to teach your kids to want at least a BASIC education.
It is not enough to "don't be a fool, stay in school", but take advantage of it, learn something! Don't be a lazy fool.

Violence everywhere

2011-01-25T11:28:00.001-06:00

Everyday you see news items like this:

x people shot, y cops dead
Suicide bomber killed n
Genocide somewhere in Africa kills hundreds

When killings happen in warzones or somewhere remote, we shrug and say "we can't help it".
When killings happen close at home, we briefly mourn the death of the innocent victims and life goes on. We shrug.
When suicide bombing in airport, we are scared briefly but it isn't stopping vacation/business trip plans unless it happens right here in your airport. We shrug.

Suicide bombing and genocide has deeply rooted hatred and unending revenge that has no easy solution.

There are people (even women) with plenty of AK-47 around them and ready to be suicide bomb anytime. This story here is quite scary.

What about killings right at home... there are too much gun violence!

Yet, people will say Gun control measures don't stop violence.

Ok, there are some valid points in that article: Gun control only restricts law abiding citizens.

Guns are intended for self-defense? I am SURE the congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford have some security guards around her at the time of shooting and how effective was the defense?

When do you hear news items say some people were able to fend off/kill burglars with their guns? You are more likely to read kids stealing their parents guns to kill their classmates or themselves.

Some people want laws to allow them to carry guns around, concealed and shoot any time like Old West, and that is insane.

Given that gun control is useless to stop violence... there will be more and more victims. Look at the illustration in Time magazine for some alarming statistics.

It is a miracle... that Gifford is recovering. After she wake up, please ask her, are you still pro-guns? Read about her stance of gun control here here

curl

2011-01-19T12:23:00.001-06:00

Today I come across a command line tool known as cURL that can retrieve stuff from a URL.
This reminded of the "inverted triangle" operator. See glorious details here.

There is a very good (classic) book named Div, Grad, Curl and all that that helped me understand some of that stuff.
This book has helped students for decades.

The curl appears in the differential form of the glorious Maxwell Equations that governs electromagnectic forces. I want to buy a T-shirt with these 4 beautiful equations on them.

2266字對聯

2011-01-18T12:48:00.000-06:00

There is a 22 year old who wrote a 2266 "parallel poem" that breaks record.
News item is here.

在對聯中我用到了賦、五言絕句、五言律詩、七言絕句、七言律詩、詞、曲、對聯、佛偈共9種文體，於是就申請了文體最多的對聯

Impressive indeed. Some excerpts in here.

However, great poetry does not have to be long and record breaking.
Short 20 word poems can be classified as a "ultimate!" 絕 and receive endless praise for centuries.

That excerpt reminds me of this classic, written with an education focus.
That impressive poem has no duplicate words, but this does not have the "parallel" feature.
I am sure most Chinese do NOT know all 1000 words there, and that's a children book. (Ok, I admit I don't either)
See, ancient Chinese education is quite demanding.

Ancient Chinese education focus much on word elegance.

Chinese Mom vs Western Mom

2011-01-13T12:54:00.003-06:00

There is a wall street journal article about Chinese Mom vs Western Mom, in which the author' kids are not allowed to:

Attend a sleepover
have a playdate
be in a school play
complain about not being in a school play
watch TV or play computer games
choose their own extracurricular activities
get any grade less than an A
not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
play any instrument other than the piano or violin
not play the piano or violin.

Whoa, this even made to CNN.

This is an attempt to win some attention by being loud. That's a 4-word Chinese proverb phrase (譁眾取寵) that many poorly Chinese educated second generation such as the author probably does NOT know.

Ah ha, the idea is to promote a book. and I WILL NOT BUY and western moms shouldn't buy either!

Look, you are pushing your kids to the cliff. No grade less than A? Come on. This is nuts and not superior.
Rather, encourage your kids to do their best. Help them with their homework. If there are 4 A's given in a 20 people class. You want the 16 kids to jump off the cliff? Ridiculous!

Look, there are MANY other instruments besides the piano and the violin. There is nothing wrong in learning things other than that either.

Yes, I do agree we should demand more from kids. Pratice! I do agree practice is crucial for success... for mechanical tasks such as mulitplying 2 3-digit numbers together by pencil-and-paper method. Yes, for piano and violin... tremendous number of hours needed to play just one song.

There is nothing wrong about being in school play. This is a great social activity that I would encourage kids to go.

The author father called her "GARBAGE!" and the book probably is. Look, this means that comment had tremendous impact on kids so the author remember it for years.
Don't call your kids garbage please.

There is nothing wrong NOT know how to play the piano and violin either. You can't turn that skills to cash unless you become someone like Lang Lang.

The important thing is you teach them discipline... It is OK to play a game or watch some TV.
Teaching them discipline IS embracing your kids. Parents MUST participate in your kids' education.

Why the heck are you pushing your kids to learn that piano and violin? The right reason is... music is fun, and not for showing off your Sargent parenting results.
If YOU can't play as well as your kids, YOU ARE GARBAGE! GO PRACTICE!

66% tax increase coming

2011-01-12T16:28:00.003-06:00

Look out Illinois: 66 percent increase on income tax coming, and no other states has to raise tax.

Some predicted people will soon moving out to do business elsewhere... and other catastrophe. Ok, let's look at this 66%. Oh, it is 3% to 5% income tax increase, and we have a flat percentage.

No increase in tax and the state may be in debt spiral: fiscal house is burning. No tax payer wants tax increase.

I support spend money wisely and temporary small increase tax to cover the mess but the state's money must be managed correctly. I want to elect upright people who do things right. But they are hard to find or may not exist at all.

Why is Illinois the only states to do this?
Why Chicago has the most expensive gas per gallon?
Why Chicago has the highest sales tax?

Why am I still here? But it will cost me $ and a lot of courage to go to a brand new place.

Geometry problem that stumped the nation - and I admit defeat

2011-01-11T13:18:00.005-06:00

I saw a book that features this problem here - it is a geometry problem that stumped the nation!

This looks just like a regular sophomore high school geometry problem... and I admit defeat after spending half an hour or so. The equations formed... just don't give enough information?!

Even some NASA scientists can't do this!

I didn't bother to follow the solution on the book that I can't come up with myself either.

But the brainteasers in the book... I got instantly turned off on the first one.

Question: Two U.S Coins adds up to 30 cents. One of them is not a nickel. What are the 2 coins?
Answer: One nickel and One quarter. Look, just one of them is not a nickel, but the other one is. Duh. I am not reading further.

Saddened once more with shooting

2011-01-10T11:07:00.002-06:00

There was another shooting rampage in America over the weekend, this time involves a congresswoman. Details here. The ammo was bought in Walmart.

We have seen the following too often: somebody write a few lines in social websites, shoot people, get arrested or die at the scene.

If the congresswoman miraculously recovers... I hope she will think gun laws (is it on anybody's agenda?)

If you think gun laws are useless I hope you won't be the next victim in the next shooting spree.

Mentally disturbed people are dangerous.
Mentally disturbed people with guns are more dangerous.

Sure, he could have used knifes or ninja stars. It is probably far easier to stop someone with those weapons.

We are so helpless. Who will be the next poor victim?

Excise tax

2011-01-06T14:29:00.003-06:00

I learned about excise tax in elementary school. The teacher told me it is extra tax for special items such as alcohol and cigarettes. Some call it the "sin tax".

"Oh that will probably never apply to me", I thought.

Not so. Look at your mobile phone bill. Why is it so expensive? You are paying a big percentage in excise tax!

Wow, how much the government is silently collecting this money... so many users, for so many months? I wonder why no one ever complain about this.

Also, I think the phone industry should stay away from contracts... no one wants to be bind, and everyone knows the cheap phones are just ways to lure you to contracts.

Welcome to 2011

2011-01-04T17:06:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! Holidays are over. Back to work!

In the past, the joy of New Year usually goes by so quickly... I remember having to face bitter cold and shovel snow most of the time... This year... wow, it is quite WARM. Is it global warming taking place? Although global warming is scary, I WELCOME lower heat bills.

The most scary new year story is dead birds falling... followed by more news of instability and violences around the world as we step closer to the 10th anniversary of 911.

New Year Resolution? (1) Stay alive. (2) Stay Employed. Hopefully to learn some new skills to sustain (2).

Tech Trend of 2011? Endless talks of Apps on gadgets. (Are you tired yet?) I'd like to find some time to do my own Android app on a tablet/phone... seems very doable.

Have a wonderful prosperous New Year.