Windows 7 new trick discovered

Yes I still use Windows 7 at work.... and am glad not using Windows 8, or the Mac. Gosh I hate the Mac though I don't mind its Unix prompt. Without that it is even more unusable.

Alt-Tab to switch between things has been there for ages. Since Windows 3.1. One day I tabbed on the Windows-button instead of Alt. Oh wow, I discovered a new way to switch apps and it is called Flip3D.

See here

This is probably not on Windows 8 as this is Aero.

Now that flat interface of Windows 8... according to some stuff I read is a battery saving feature for laptop and tablets as it is expensive to show half-transparent things in the title bar. Ok I buy that. But this isn't issue for computers plugging in all day. Windows 8 really should give people an option to use Aero... see you spent so much time and money to develop it and you just throw it away.

Another note: that image above has that Windows 7 Gadget thing... sure is neat idea (basically a window less program). But the world just abandoned it due to security issues. See it here. But why can't it be fixed and just abandoned? Well but the wacky Windows 8 Metro (yes I refuse to call it Modern) don't need the gadgets to live on desktop as the entire Desktop is kinda going away for its wacky titles.

Looking forward for Windows 10.

Stop calling people 'dorks'

The π moment of the century has came and gone. Saturday was a special π day. March 14, 15. The moment was 9:26:53 to spell out the first 10 digits of π 3.141592653.

There were numerous articles talking about this and plenty of pies made decorated with π.

Plenty of journalists needing ideas to write wrote about π these days. Most give you a review of the definition of π and that's about it. And you really are uninformed if you need someone to remind you that. Few go any deeper.

This one I like as it gives you more fascinating info. http://theconversation.com/pi-day-is-silly-but-itself-is-fascinating-and-universal-37948.

While yes, it may be silly to eat pie on π day just like eating something that starts with 'e' on Earth Day, I don't see anything wrong with that either.

I am especially not happy with this one: http://www.businessinsider.com/once-in-a-century-pi-day-2015-3 Just who are you calling dorks?

If you have no respect for people you aren't going to get respect.

See, the fact that the π day gets people some attention to math is already worth it. Is there something wrong with eating pies over there?

Oh look there is some interesting thing about math. There is this number that is impossible to complete grasp (write down) and that is in every round thing out there. There is another fascinating number that you can simply make out by sliding a square in its diagonal. That square root of 2 is another irrational number that can't be entirely written down either. (Yet nobody celebrates the square root of 2 either by eating triangular pies).

Most people are too shallow to know another thing about π besides maybe mixing up 2πr and πr², area of a circle. Most have no clue how you get π=C/d to the area formula = π r².

How unfortunate.

A better education helps. Although you may think it is absolutely ok not to know anything about it. (It is absolutely ok not to know anything else too)

Some people got tricked by their (clueless) math teacher in elementary school thinking π is exactly 22/7. How unfortunate.

When I was in elementary school I immediately pulled out my calculator and found out it is 3.142857 not quite the same as 3.1416. 22/7 is just an estimate (and a fairly good one). I already wondered: how the heck did you get 3.1416? And I thought people may have ultra good measuring device to measure circumference over diameter to get that. And when I found out π is cranked out in millions of digits I decided to find out how they do it... This itself is already a great topic to explore.

Speaking of approximation of π an ancient Chinese mathemtcian came up with 355/113 but I don't think anyone knows how he get it. Writing down steps of proof just wasn't properly practiced back then.

We should be humbled by gosh there are so many pieces of knowledge out there. And only when we are humble we can learn a thing or two. Mocking others do not get you anywhere.

Stop calling people dorks. That author owes me and every math enthusiasts out there an apology.

XLIX

I rarely watch any sports... but I decided to checkout the latest Super Bowl. XLIX.. at least some of it. I watched Katy Perry (and others) great performance on the half time. Wow, how do you turn the football field in such great stage of 3D stuff and change so fast. How does Katy Perry's clothes change so fast? How can her eyes be so widely opened?

So I have noticed XLIX. Is that some form of Linux? No it is the Roman Numeral. I remember Super Bowl 30 had an exotic title of XXX. I had some trouble interpreting XLIX at first... oh what does "L" stand for? It is 50.

So the Roman Numeral evaluates to: (50-10)+(10-1) = 49. Now that's wacky... Next year it would be Super Bowl 50 or Super Bowl L?

But No. NFL is actually not going to go "Super Bowl L". See http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/06/nfl-super-bowl-50-roman-numerals-l.

Now before you say Roman are dumb, it just isn't so obvious how to create a number system. You take the Hindu-Arabic system for granted because you're taught that way. In the old times such system does not even yet exist or known. The Romans just didn't come up with the place-value system like we use today. But I see that they want to prevent keep using I to represent 1's. Like for 4 they use IV to prevent IIII and for 9 they use IX instead of VIIII. See, using a symbol to represent 5 is quite intuitive (number of fingers you have in 1 hand). So numbers... is an human invention, and gosh, the invention of zero and negative numbers are such important milestones of mathematics.

Hello London

Over the past 20 years of working I never get sent to business travel. For most of my career I maintain things. Even when I make new things clients either are local or they come talk to me instead of me going to meet them.

So I get to meet a client in London... to see how their product currently works and see how to integrate that into the things I am working on. I met some fine gentlemen with some British/French accent. It is a challenge to understand everything they say perfectly. My trip lasted just 2 days.

London, Great Britain has such great influence around the world. Why do Americans (mostly) speak English? Even the history biggest don't-carers know that the original colonies belong to the British. There were so many British colonies all over the world but seems no one need to fight a war to gain independence besides the Americans. Oh well that's another topic. These guys took over Hong Kong for close to 100 years and able to develop it into a great city (at least it used to be). But that wasn't their original intent! let's not forget the Opium wars! I despise those uneducated Chinese people I met who have not even heard of this piece of history.

Now London is a great classic city with Gothic style architecture all over. Houses are generally not as modern as those found here. Unfortunately I only get 2 hours to tour around. I got off at the Westminister stop of the Underground to see the Big Ben (the clock tower) and the big ferris wheel London Eye, then walk along to see the front door of the National Gallery and saw the Big Blue Chicken . Then end up in the Convent Garden for dinner at the Union Jack.

Look, it all started here. The Industry Revolution is kicked off in Great Britain. The United States is started here as British colony and so was Hong Kong. Newton is from same place. Much of the world is influenced by UK. We are surrounded by Indians because of that Great Britain influence on them.

People from Hong Kong may feel right at home at the roads... it is on the left. There is the red-yellow light before the green light. The road sign designs are just like those in Hong Kong. The double decker bus look like the oldie Kowloon bus in Hong Kong. Yes they use 220 volt and you will need an adapter to use North American electronic devices.

Here are some interesting observations of small cultural shocks.

• The emergency signs such as Fire Exit are green, not red
• The men's room have the guys icon open legs not close legs
• Besides cookie is called biscuit...they also call potato chips differently, the call it "crisps"
• Their coffee shop have no half-and-half! Only skim milk! Man they are health conscious.
• The taxi have 4 seats facing each other and no trunk!
• Some British coins use SEVEN sided figures! Now that's difficult to counterfeit. But who is counterfeiting 20 pence and 50 pence?

Asteroid has a moon

Asteroids getting close to earth is no news... In fact, many little asteroids strike the earth and our atmosphere just burn much of it up.

But a huge one can destroy dinosaurs in the past and can destroy everything on earth here today.

It looks like none of the big ones are coming yet but this one "2004 BL86" is coming pretty close. But the news item is that it has a little moon of its own. See here.

Having a little moon is some status isn't it. Our fellow inner planets Venus and Mercury do not have one. Well you know the Earth has one. Saturn and Jupiter have 60+. Even the little demoted planet Pluto has 5. Even Mars has 2. And even if Venus has one and someone live there, they will NOT able to see it because of that thick cloud of death (greenhouse effect is real, my friend).

Now where do moons come from (especially our own moon)? There is actually not a written-in-stone solid answer. There are just theories like it is knocked out from earth or earth's gravity caught it. See here for 5 theories.

Look folks, it is gravity at work. That makes things fly around. It's the same (somewhat mysterious) force that keeps you on the ground.

Now this reminds me of a classic video game called Asteroids. In reality, even if you are at the Asteroid belt, asteroids would be quite sparse that you are not so likely to be surrounded by it. ooh hyperwarp! That's such great sci-fi idea. but you may get blown up in the process.

Now unless an asteroid destroys your town or land on your head, most of us (except astronomy enthusiasts) don't really care. We can barely see ANY object in the sky except the moon as we live in dense light and fog polluted cities. So go ahead gravity do your thing to push/pull, destroy stars and stuff while scientists continue to make a living to connect you to that Standard Model somehow. We other earthlings take gravity for granted and continue to just mind our own business here with our feet on the ground.

Will one day an asteroid come by so close that our earth's gravity pull it as moon #2? now THAT would be interesting.