Another tragic shooting, but why are you surprised?

Another school shooting, another American tragedy. This time at innocent 6-and-7-year-olds and their teachers, and in non ghetto neighborhood.

Young kids and great teachers robbed of their lives, hearts broken, all because of some "socially awkward" confused young man with plenty of guns and bullets.

Not too long ago we heard about some shopping mall shooting. We shrugged and lives go on. Not too long ago that Joker rampaged the theatre. Though he was caught (though general pattern should be that he would have been killed at the scene), the meaningless trial (is it over?) is probably only going to give him a life sentence for each person he killed. We also shrug. Even a congresswoman is hit by bullet though miraculously survived, news still says "guns laws won't change." Obama said he wanted some action taken back then but nothing happened. Would something happen after this time? I DON'T THINK SO.

And there was assault weapon ban for a decade, and gosh statistics did not indicate an decrease of crimes in that decade. Yikes, this is to say gun laws don't work(!) See here for details.

There are just news about concealed weapons being more legalized. In this nonsense nation, to solve the problem of guns, the solution is everybody carry their own guns. The judges interpreted the amendment to say, your rights to carry weapon should not limit to your house.

The Supreme Court has decided that the amendment confers a right to bear arms for self-defense, which is as important outside the home as inside

Now what sense is this to for someone to have such high powered weapons, hundreds of rounds of bullets for self-defense purpose? That really is something to ponder, dear fellow Americans.

It is the rights that Americans cherish. Even this can mean death! death! death! to innocent and not-so-innocent people. We cherish rights over lives.

Is hunting that much fun? Even if you hunt you don't need powerful weapons. Get a copy of Duck Hunt from Nintendo and let's play. I can probably beat you in this game.

ENOUGH. Quit this gun ownership. It is dangerous and nothing to be excited about owning a gun. Only law enforcers need them. Every American ought to have conscience and destroy their guns. You don't need this right. If there is a right to have guns, can I make bomb? can I make a nuclear weapon? The answer is apparently no right?

The ONLY way to stop this is to NOT have a weapon, especially if you have someone with questionable mental health issues at home.

Yes, crooks will always have guns. But let's make it harder to buy guns even for law abiding citizens.

I am doubtful if ANYTHING will change. Every gun owner toss their guns out? No way... Even if someone shoot at elderly homes or baby centers. Perhaps it may be effective if someone starts shooting at a NRA convention... UNTIL we are like the rest of civilized world where regular citizens do not have guns. I am setting a counter on how many days WITHOUT mass shooting. There WILL BE ANOTHER ONE. I just hope you're not the next victim.

We should perhaps follow the Japanese model: see here

Instant hit item if you can build this

A device that keeps a distance between a kid and the TV. All kids ignore "Don't stand too close to the TV" when their favorite show is on.

Here is an idea: you give your kid a cool watch with a device inside that calculates distance between it and the TV. It turns TV automatically OFF if the kid is too close. Back off? turn the TV back on.

If GPS devices can be made, this technically should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately I don't have a clue how to create something that sends infrared signal to TV. Perhaps it can be integrated to xbox or something, that is connected to a TV and has a sensor...

Every parent in the world would want this watch+sensor device. This can be an instant hit.... get it patented... sell a ton of these and collect $. (dream on)

Chess on front page of WSJ

I saw this article about chess Armenia on the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday. There are places on earth where the stars are not movie stars or football players... but chess champions. I also must admit I do not know exactly where Armenia is without looking for it in google map... Makes me want to move there until I read that some of these folks are so poor that don't have $ for gasoline, parking, or eat at restaurants.

Chess is compulsory in their elementary schools. Wow, now is that getting too far?

It is a game, although a very educational one... that teaches patience, strategies and all that. I hope they have other items on their economy. I hate to see great players who knows all the pros and cons of various openings and stuff end up suffering from hunger. No $ is a checkmate. I hope there are other means to make money over there.

I hope Armenia discover the fun of other games, such as the even more ancient, but even more difficult game of Go, or other variants of chess. Or perhaps some video games. :)

Know your CSS?

Stylesheets sure looks easy. You specify a set of font sizes, padding, etc to a name and then you specify your HTML elements to use that. Easy enough? Nowadays stylesheets can get a lot more tricky.

In one job interview, I was asked. "What does 'div > p' means? How is it different from 'div p'". A sweat came down my spine. I just don't know. I have not seen this.

How do you react when someone ask you something you don't know may be difference between get job or not get job. I think I eventually guessed something close to the correct answer.

This is a CSS Selector. Glorious details: here. Nowadays CSS can even do manymore interesting stuff. Of course you need to watch for browser compatibility. How the heck do you expect people to keep up?

Lunch disappointments

So there is a good Louisana-style cajun food place that I like in downtown... good food for good price. Today I revisited it and gosh I found out the box is smaller! I get less food for the price! Now this is sneaky way to reduce that operating cost. They may be thinking... ooh I am saving 10 cents off that rice for each order. Ooh soon I'll be able to buy a new car, etc. Let me tell you this, that will eventually hurt you. A bigger box with a couple spoons more of rice make happy coming-back customers. You save 10 cents this time, but you will lose $6+ for each customer lost, Ok?

Non-Panda Chinese restaurants have become almost extinct in downtown. There is a new one. I tried it once and not going back. Ok the restaurant itself doesn't have glorious decorations like Panda, it is even gloomy and feels dirty. Come on, don't save by using 10 watts lightbulbs. Light please. Let me try the food... First, it is in a small package, ok, roughly equivalent to Panda. But it tastes poor! Come on, if a Chinese person is to open up a Chinese restaurant to compete with Panda you better can do at least as good as those non-Chinese chefs. Go TASTE their food. Compare with yours. If you can't do better than this then don't bother starting a restaurant business and please contemplate why Chinese can't do better Chinese food than non-Chinese in that gloomy dirty place heading toward bankruptcy.

To win, there is a simple formula: fill up your customers stomach with good food, and don't charge more than $6 or $7. I may actually BUY a pop if it is less than $1.50. Work on food first. For those who can afford it, get good decorations, at least good lightbulbs.