How fast can you type?

Here is a fun game. Typing test.

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

I can type more than 80 wpm!

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

Obesity in America

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

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

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

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

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

Same as years ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 Scientific Laws

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

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

I guess the difference is called enlightenment.

Olympic tears

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's life for athletes after the olympics?

Mac BSOD and math tools

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

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

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

This means: Mac fanboys, Mac is not bulletproof.

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

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

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

On Guns and Mad Men

This issue of Time is worth reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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