You can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent.

From the movie "Revolver": tips for gambling, but I guess it applies for lives as well:

1. You can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent.
   
2. The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.
   
3. The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.
   
4. Always protect your investment whether it's in your interest or not.

Rate My Employers

Employer Ratings for Coders, by Coders:
http://coderific.com/

- Not surprisingly Google ranks top, as it is the dream job for most computer programmers,
- Surprisingly Amazon ranks among the top of the worst rated employees. I guess sometimes money isn't everything.

My additional search comes up with another unsurprising fact: two thumbs down for EA. :(

Well ... Here is How it Happened ...

An absolutely hilarious story!
Sometimes you got to work smart rather than work hard;
also try to be nice and make more friends on the way. ;)

==================================================================
Please read the amazing story of how i got this ps3
i went out wednesday afternoon to the local walmart to start camping out. when i got there, there were already 12 people ther so i got in line being number 13. i talked around and found out the first 6 people there had been there since monday, total hardcore nerds all planning to keep them. bragging about how only they should get the system since theyve been there the longest. how they are so dedicated and how if you dont want to do the time, you shouldnt get a system. generally being complete assholes. good for them. we had a hours to pass so we became friends and played some cards and whatnot. the 6 guys in front kept to themselves and didnt associate with the rest of us. we were cool with each other leaving the line to get food, bathroom, smoke, etc since we all knew each other and as long as they were back in 30 minutes. i was about to leave to go buy some KFC for a good number of us and when i stepped out of line, one of the nerds shouted that if i left, i would lose my spot. the other guys told him that they were vouching for me and that i was just getting food but those 6 assholes didnt care. they said i leave, i lose my spot and that was the rules and they would call the manager (they had his number) to come out and enforce it. i said whatever and stayed in line. a few hours later, the manager came out and told everyone that there were only going to be SEVEN available. they have them in their store and theyre not getting anymore. he told the people after # 7 they should leave if they wanted to not waste their time. me being number 13 should have left but i didnt, i wanted to stick around for a little bit more. everyone else left except me and the 7 other people that were getting it for sure. so the day goes on and i try to make friends with the nerds. i play mario kart on the ds with them and talk to them about the games they were getting. about an hour or 2 later, i tell im gonnna head home since im 8 in line and theres only 7 ps3s. one of them made some stupid joke about if i leave the line then i aint getting back in!! har har. so as im about to leave, i tell them im going to the vons next door and if any of them wanted any food or coffee and id bring it back to them. one of them said yea and all the rest like sheep followed and said yes too. they were gonna give me money but i told them it was on me since theyve been out here since monday. the 7th guy in line wanted some food and coffee and i told him id buy some for him also. so i go to vons and buy 8 coffees, some food, and some x-lax laxatives. i bring it to my car and put some laxatives in 6 of the coffees and seperate them from mine and #7s. i pull back to walmart and bring all the drinks and food upfront. i give #7 his stuff and then the coffees with laxatives to the 6 nerds annd wish them good luck and go back to my car. i park it around the corner so i can still see them. about 30 minutes later, #2 and 3 in line get up and it seemed like they were yelling to the other nerds. they both ran into walmart. seconds later (i guess all nerds have the same biology) #5 gets up and runs across the parking lot and into the trees and bushes somewhere. #1 is scrounging for this portapotty type thing he'd brought with him but he is squirting everywhere and all over his pants and their sleeping bags. he runs into walmart. at this time, i start my car and drive back to the walmart to claim my spot in line. when i get there #4 and 6 are gone but i dont know where. #7 is laughing his ass off so hard and i just smile at him. i call up 5 of the other people that i had made friends with that were in line with me ( i had their phone numbers cause i was gonne buy to food for everyone) and told them to get back to the walmart ASAP and get in line. Meanwhile, me and #7 threw all their shit into the parking lot and i claimed my spot as #1, him as #2. 4 and the people i had called arrived and got in line just as 1 of the nerds came running back and got #7. he started yelling saying they need their spots back. we all told them to fuck off, out of spot, out of line. it was all of us against him so he didnt say shit. the nerds came back and tried to start some shit but we just laughed, we told them it was their rule and to go fuck themselves and clean the shit off their pants. the called security and security came. security man was like WTF is that fuckin smell and looked at the nerds with shit all of them and kicked them off the grounds screaming LMAO. so that is how i got my ps3.

==================================================================

Source From: http://tinyurl.com/yestez

Just Chilling

Pretty much what I have been doing these days ...

==============================================================

A Two-Sided Coin

Open Source Software and Quality:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2006/tc20061006_394140.htm?campaign_id=bier_tco.g3a.rss1007
http://fortytwo.ch/blog/archives/2006-10.html#e2006-10-06T09_04_13.txt

MATHEMATICS GENIUS

----1---- ----2----
----3----
----4----
----5---- Originally from: http://immense-world.blogspot.com/2006/09/mathematics-genius.html

It Couldn't be Any Worse, Could It =)

Life is back to "normal" again. Just before I left for Waterloo, I got an email saying my paper written during my summer stay at Victoria has been accepted. So India in December it is then!

The timing couldn't be any more perfect than this. It is like a closure, saying "Good Job for the Summer". What is more, it feels even better after all the pain I have gone through for getting this paper done.

I have moved my old post(July 5th) here, hoping of it could motivate/inspire me again in the future. After all, "God Helps Those Who Helps Themselves" ;)

=======================================
July 5th, 2006

-- "It Couldn't be Any Worse, Could It?"

With that title in mind, here is the story.

It feels kind sad at the beginning, but at the end even myself feel funny about the whole incident. Hey, next time if we are facing difficulties, we can just look back and say to ourselves: "How can it be worse than this?!"

As I am doing research at Victoria. Not mention how much trouble venturing the scientific world, both my supervisor and myself encountered hardware problems. First, it was my hard-drive just got overheated and refused to function. Hmmm, no worries, with skills of computer scientists, we are able to bring it back:
once (YES! We did it!),
twice (yeah... It failed again a couple of days later),
three times (Yeah? What else would you expect? It died again),
four times (Oh, well... This time, it completely refuses to respond to electric shots [Power on/off])

I have no time for migrating to a new hard drive because all these times, I am busy gathering data and writing that paper!

(The camera switch to my supervisor side:) His laptop also decides to complain. Well, instead of going on a strike (like mine), it decides to protect (the SAWing sound from the fan is just completely intolerable).

As you all can see, we are very determined people. We carry on: working on a machine without permanent storage (I use a Live CD) cheered by another machine's fan; we manage to submit the paper. That's the happy ending, isn't it?

.
.
.
.
.
.

Oh, that's not the end of it. Guess what obstacle we face next: we have trouble submitting it online! That's the reply from Program committee Chair, after we seek for help from him:

The system does not allow me either. I have asked the CMT folks to see if I can help - will know by tomorrow. If I can, I will add it, otherwise I will not be able to do anything.

So what's on earth is going on here?!

As I cherish the moments I have spent with my hard drive, we are also praying for the success of paper submission and paper acceptance.

Follow up --- Well, the paper submission issue is resolved. So that's a relief :)

P.S. I guess I still should be graceful.
(Dell Laptop Explodes)
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32550

============

Finally, let's take a look at what's going on for the result of the world (today):

1. Minor Earthquake at Victoria:

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=8c1dbe86-af93-43e2-a3b2-d62e6693656d&k=47881


2. Flood in India(the place I will go to if the paper got accepted)

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/07/05/india-rain060705.html

3. CCFinder's Devloper Page (CCFinder is the tool that wears out my hard-drive)
http://www.ccfinder.net/

Last week my note PC (which has been used for the development) got a malfunction in cooling fan. I have successfully moved the data to another PC, but the (semi-) monthly version up planned in July will be significantly delayed. Sorry for inconvenience. (2006/July/11)

Progress Report

By popular demand, here is a list of the events in the past few weeks:

• "Hiking" through and up to Mount Douglas
  
  
  
  
• SnowBird AirShow
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Late Arrival at Symphony Splash Orchestra(Floating Concert)
  
  
  



• "Lunch Break" - Swimming at Lake Thetis
  
  
  



• Sneak Peek at the Aircraft Carrier "USS John C. Stennis"
  
  
  

To summarize: amount of work done: minimum; account balance: low; time wasted: a lot; fun had: tons! :)

No Beverage!

Traveling is a lot more trouble than before: Canadian airports boost security after U.K. arrests

At least the situation is still better than in Britain.

My 2 cents take on the whole issue is: you got to do what you got to do... Maybe it's time to market beverage to be "Travel Friendly"?

Finally, let me conclude with the following poster:

Ethics

How powerful can data be complied and cross-linked?

The act that AOL has recently released the search data from its users during the 2 months period is quite controversial.

On one hand, a lot of people argue that it's a violation of personal privacy. Simply because people can compile, link data and trace it to the specific person; no matter how carefully you mask the data. The supporting evidence can be drawn from today's news about "one lady's identity has been compromised using the search data".

One the other hand, these data are extremely helpful for research purpose. Here is one article supporting this "Your online life is not private".

Coincidentally, the theme of today's group meeting is about "Research Ethics". We are also concerned about this, mainly because we do data mining(MSR). Although not on the scale of watching people's back, but results obtained from cross-linking can be quite intriguing as well. For example, looking at the development history, we can pinpoint the individuals: which developer produces the most number of bugs, which developer is the least productive or who is least popular guy (a.k.a. which person's posts on the mailing list always get ignored) ... People can get extremely annoyed if these information gets published.

Well, one subtle difference with the search data is that our data is already publicly available: the source code repositories. We just don't want our published work angers anyone and in consequence causing any legal trouble. In the worst case, we can argue that since all the data is publicly available and open source developers should consider themselves as public figures. Therefore, there is no violation of ethics! But well ...

With all has been said, here is my stand: let's take the middle ground.
Ethics is about protecting people. Being constantly watched is really uncomfortable and publicly distribute the search data can be harmful. What if data is shared in a controlled manner? For example, it is distributed among researchers' who have signed a consent form which states the proper use of data? After all, even banks share credit information.

The immediate question is: so what's the proper use of the data?

Dude, Your Laptop is On Fire!

I always imagine my job is safe: sitting in front of the computer all day. Maybe the radiation and little phical exercise can be hazardous, but well...

A couple of recent reports really change my mind:

1. Dell Laptop Explosion
   
   
   
   




2. It is not an isolated incident. Here is another one
   
   
   



3. More media coverage(in-depth)
   



4. Too bad, we cannot rely on Mac, either
   
   
   



5. Another Mac PowerBook Explosion
   
   

At least, there is nothing related to Toshiba or ThinkPad, yet...

Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-- Marianne Williamson

Ahm, "NO FEAR" it is I presume... I am going cliff jumping today then!

Backup

Tip for restoring your computer when it crashes (like hard drive, or OS problems).

You need the following:
1. An enclosure
2. A live CD

For Live CD, any Linux distribution should be fine. Personally I recommend Ubuntu/Elive.

So first in BIOS, set it to boot from CD, it should fire up the Live CD. Follow the instruction on the screen, you should be able to have a working console.

Do "sudo su" to become the root user.

Then figure out which device is your old hard drive (normally it would be /dev/sda as the enclosure is connected via the USB connection).

Finally, do "dd conv=noerror if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda"
- "if" for input, and "of" for output device.
- "conv=noerror" means ignore errors and just keep going.

The advantage of this approach is that it does bits by bits copying, so no need to re-install anything. Just make sure do a "scandisk" after the copying is completed.

Follow up: The only problem with that is Windows might complain that the hard drive is not the original version which it is installed on; but you can safely ignore that.

Beaches

Every license plate here contains the phrase "Beautiful British Columbia". There are so many parks and beaches over here which makes it a really pleasant place to stay in the summer. :)

I have been to quite a few of them. Well, good enough to give a list and comment on them.

Unlike most of other beaches which are so crowded that you can hardly set your foot on





On the other hand, beaches at BC are less crowded...
.

One more thing to be aware of is that most of the time, the water is too cold to take a bath (YES! Even in the summer.).

• Cadboro Bay Beach: (Pros)minutes away from the UVic campus. There are kids playground, sand, grass and picnic table. (Cons) The water is so dark, and logs are all over the place. (3 star)
  



• English Beach: next to(or inside?) Standley Park. It's a proper beach, which has life guard. You can as well as discovering the rising star.(4.5 star)



• Mount Dogulas Beach:
  
  located next to Mt. Doughas. Even though, it is only 227m which cannot really be qualified for "mountain", it is the highest point in Victoria. It blows :( The water is warm, but I found dead crab and it is full of rocks and occasionally fragments of sea shells which makes it rather painful to walk on with bare feet. (2 star)



• Ross Bay Beach:
  
  
  next to Beacon Hill Park in the downtown Victoria. Not a proper beach, full of rocks and tree trunks. (2 star)
  



• Sooke Potholes:
  
  
  located at East Sooke Regional Park, it is a small and cozy beach, you can swim there as well as Cliff Jumping. (4 star)



• Wreck Beach: next to the UBC campus at Vancouver. Haven't been there yet. Well, nothing special except it's just another nude beach. (* star)



• Willow's beach:
  
  
  the best beach in Victoria. Sand, grass and playground make it an great place for picnic, beach volleyball and maybe castle building. I guess judging by the number of people lying on the beach, it is also the most popular one in Victoria. The neighbour is quite nice. However, the water is freezing cold. I set my foot in the ocean for merely 15 minutes and I can hardly feel my toes after that. (4 star)



• Something only seen at the sea(ocean rather ;-) ):
  
  
  
  



• More to fill in later ...
  

SCO Again

SCO Accuses IBM of Destruction of Evidence

It makes no sense to "destroy the evidence" by simply removing source code from the hard-drive, just because source code is stored in the version control system. This is really a lame accuse...

SCO is just playing dumb. However, this act is quite typical for SCO: as it periodically makes some noise to get enough news coverage. The whole endeavor is more likely to be an elaborate pump and dump scam for its stock.

Anyhow, even though the case seems to me is virtually dead, the commentaries followed are quite interesting. I have quoted a few to share with:

If the facts are on your side, bang on the facts.
If the law is on your side, bang on the law.
If neither the facts nor the law is on your side, bang on the table.

Well, I guess we all knew it was just a matter of time before SCO intro'd the "dog ate my homework" excuse.

Random Pictures, Random Comments - The Incredible Kid

- Who is the "incredible kid"?

Well, it's the boy in the picture.
Even though I don't know anything about him,
I truly believe he is going to be big someday.



- What's so special about him?

Take a closer look at him:
He is holding the ice-cream on hand, while trying to blow the bubbles.
That's nothing unusual except he is using wind to blow the bubble!
How many people can think of that?
To me, blowing bubbles and having ice-cream are both fun, but how to coordinate them is a real challenge (Not mention you don't want soap into your mouth...).

This kid redefines the word of "fun", in fact he has raised the meaning of "laziness" to the new dimension!



Let's take a final look at him and I sincerely hope he will keep these innovative thoughts and best wishes to his future!



Note: The pictures are taken at English Bay in Vancouver.

Random Picture, Random Thoughts - Don't Push That Button

There is a new building(ECS) at University of Victoria. It is designed to be "environmental friendly". For example, all the water in the building are circulated and lights or even projectors are motion sensored. But the most wired thing is that there is an "earthquake" button in the elevator. No one knows what it does and no one dares to press it.




Until one day, we discovered that it's not a button at all but just an indicator when there is an earthquake!
How fool we are! Whoever first "discovered" that is really our hero.
But again, "the cure for boredom is curiosity". Maybe after all we are just too bored?

So what's the next button we shall press? Or shall we not?

Man Bites Police Dog

Victoria is "peaceful" town, but occasionally it makes the news headline.
Here is one: "Man Bites Police Dog"


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/07/10/bc-police-dog.html

Trail and Error In Practice

Nothing comes natural. Even for trival things like getting two people into the photo. Here is the story: me and my buddy went for a bike ride. We decided to take a picture for both of us. We set up our camera (yes, we brought a mini-tripod with us) and everything was ready to go, except ...

This is the first trial:.
The extra leg on the left was actually from my buddy's, who was WALKing towards the scene.

Therefore, we tried again. Here is the second trial:.
We managed to get both of us into the picture, but sadly enough he was still too slow to get himself into a nicer posture (he was almost there...).

.
.
.

Here is the final product: .
It's pretty nice, isn't it?

Lesson Number One: timing is critical.
Lesson Number Two: maybe automation cannot solve everything ;-)

An Empirical Studies on Bunnies at the UVic

Not surprisingly, due to the lack of predictors and the pleasant weather: the growth rate of rabbits at the UVic follows the exponential rate or Fibonacci Sequence.

Here is an Software Engineering Researcher's approach to access the "rabbits phenomena" (Aside: the whole idea is enlightened at the CSER meeting ;) )


http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~migod/papers/CSER-EARS.pps

Life is What Happens to You While You're Busy Making Other Plans

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