Jogging

I went jogging this afternoon. This is the third time I jog in great Boston area.

It was about 6~7 degrees Celsius. After 5 minutes of running, I do not fell the cold any more. I planned to go a pond 2 miles away and when I got there, I think I made the right choice. Next time, if there is a good weather, I will try another route and destination. :)


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FUBAR

I read it on an article on ZDNet but didn't know its meaning.

Found it on Wikipedia: "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair" (used to describe the state of some equipment) or "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition" (used to describe a situation or scenario).

Another acronym which means the same is: SNAFU, "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up" or "Systems Neatly All Fucked Up" in computer world.

Last time we were talk about there are so many acronyms in computer world. Adrien mentioned once his school wanted to have a name. They decided to have the ACRONYM of the full name first. Then try to find words that can literally create this ACRONYM.

Now I believe there are many smart people in computer science world because smart people tend to do stupid things, often.

Minus 4 degrees!


This morning I went out for school. It's the first time I go out at a temp under ZERO.
Oh, what fun! (What cold!)

不凡的人生 真實的故事

今天趁著星期六放假，跑去參加了一個活動: 紐英崙中華專業人員協會第三十一屆年會。
付了 $25 的入場費。真的是完全值回票價 + 物超所值。

接連的演講都非常精彩。我自知筆拙沒辦法將它們全部忠實的紀錄並分享出來。但其中有兩則是不能不拿出來獻曝一下的。兩個故事分別是：

1. Sharing My Life Experience - 李昌鈺博士

2. 我在金三角2920天之見證心得 - 鍾儱徽執行長

李博士大家都聽過，他已經是一個家喻戶曉的刑事鑑定專家 (曾在全球四十幾個國家進行過鑑定)，也曾替 319 槍擊案進行過鑑定工作。他在UNH (University of New Haven) 成立了 Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science。四年前他曾主演電視劇。由於他的電視劇及CSI系列影集，他的學院近年湧進許多學生想要投入此類工作。

事實上，李博士的演講完全是從頭笑到尾。李博士的幽默感令大家都折了腰，笑到一整個不行。除此之外，我也對李博士的智慧五體投地，有空的話可以參考 youtube 上的影片：











可以看出李博士對主持人們的無俚頭可說是處理的非常之好。這兩位常會問讓來賓難以回答的無俚頭問題的主持人，他都 handle 的非常好。您可以看看上面的影片，看看是不是讚同我對於他的反應速度很快，常會反將一軍，或是回答的很漂亮，將有引導性的問題岔開 (但不是迴避問題喔)。

你可能覺得他很不錯，但你可能不知道，李博士的slogon就是把 "不可能變成可能"。

怎麼說呢？李博士跟著媽媽從大陸逃難到台灣，爸爸在逃難過程中不幸罹難，所以從小就沒有父親，媽媽一個人扶養十三個兄弟姐妹長大，他因為家窮所以考上大學時，因為要學費決定去唸警察大學。還因此被媽媽罵了一頓，認為是不行的人才去當警察。但他大學畢業後三年就當上警察局長，是至今的最年輕紀錄保持人。

在畢業後十二年赴美求學。由於很窮，李博士當時還得去端盤子打工，晚上半夜再去做實驗。由於美國的畢業典禮也是要交錢的，所以畢業典禮是自己在家裡舉行的。

他說他在這世界上最怕他媽媽，也最尊敬他媽媽。結果有些求助於他的人很聰明，找上他媽媽，結果他媽媽就會跟他講說你就去幫幫人家嘛。每次到最後他都會聽媽媽的話，真是超可愛的。(李媽媽三年前於106歲辭世。)

老實說，我已經開始在博客來跟金石堂找李博士的書跟DVD了！哈哈！

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至於鍾執行長的故事更是令人動容。

他陰錯陽差的步上了在金三角禁毒的路。很猛吧！在全世界海洛因供給量超過一半的地方搞禁毒。他的合作夥伴竟然是毒梟！

他跟老婆離婚，拋家棄子，把台北的三棟房子都賣了。連爸媽的棺材本也都拿了投入。最後媽媽連火葬費也都給了他。因為媽媽曾經對他說過：我生了你不是要你有什麼成就，只是希望你這輩子做一件有意義的事就夠了。

結果他決定幫忙禁毒，用禁毒改變這個世界。他的媽媽認為這事非常有意義，所以決定不惜一切幫助他，在今天的演講中，他提到他父母年事已高，現在兩人都住在加護病房中。其實演講中許多片段讓現場許多人都流淚了。一大群在美國的傑出華人 (現場應該有過半是博士學歷)，都被他感動了。

第一次見毒梟時，對方居然說，看你一個人很有骨氣自己闖進來，這樣吧，算你半價。事實上，在那之前他還被游擊隊抓過 (毒梟的手下)，對方認為他可能是間諜，不過後來不斷澄清，到最後對方也說，其實他看起來不像間諜，最後就放了他。他提到當他回了台灣時曾經有CIA與他接觸，要兩個毒販的項上人頭，共計五百萬美金的懸賞。只因為他是唯一一個可以在金三角活動的外國人 (非毒品交易者)。

當他回金三角時，他把這件事告訴了毒販頭頭，你知道對方的反應是什麼嗎？頭頭說，項上人頭可以給你，只是希望你能夠自己只留一萬美金，其它的可以用來幫助這裡的人民。事實上，就算殺了他也沒有意義，因為還是會有別的人出來接替的。

現在，他在努力的協助金三角建設以及進行教育。今天有在賣郵票，一份十美元，我買了。我沒有他這樣的勇氣、毅力、與骨氣，但是口袋裡還有十六塊美金。

今夏緬甸風災，全世界嘗試幫助緬甸的救援中，台灣能夠第一個進入幫忙他功不可沒。從四十歲起，至今十八年他把時間幾乎全部投入緬甸的有意義的事中。

和我庸庸碌碌的人生比起來，他真的是活的非常的有意義。我想他應該會一輩子在這事上努力，也許他到最後會死於為了緬甸而努力吧。但是無論如何，我相信他的毫不保留，將讓他在闔上眼的那一刻覺得自己活的有意義。

Cloud Computing: Software as a Service?

Microsoft is selling it Azure Services Platform to corporate costumers. Competing with rivals, Amazon and Google, in this growing business.

The up for cloud computing is: Corporates do not need to maintain its own data centers. And corporate users shall be able to access from anywhere, instantly, and from any device. If I were right, this idea is not new.

Despite it is an old idea, it was never possible before the web services succeeded. It seems now is the right time for it. But is it so?

I'd to recall one thing: Computers start as huge things. With terminals, it becomes a centered service platform, which is accessible from limited distance. Then PC is developed to be small and powerful constantly. Then Internet becomes a really success. Services on the Internet gets harder to be supported by a few big servers because there are more and more users. Boom, modern cloud computing is here!

What is the catch? To me, the catch is API.

In the old days, at mainframes age, when you got a system developed on an IBM mainframe, you can hardly get it off from an IBM mainframe. It is highly possible you can't see it before you retire (the millennium bug is your only hope.). Why is that? Because systems from other companies (sometime same computer has dramatic differences) were designed so differently that you can't (don't) want to port a live system.

Fortunately, even Microsoft is not following POSIX well, it is possible to write some wrapping functions to make your software portable among different OSes.

And now the catch: It would be impossible to port from one cloud computing environment to another.

What I want to say is, we need a POSIX-extension, to provide an open API for cloud computing. Otherwise, we soon will see over-charge happening again like what it did in the mainframe age. Again, customers would be trapped and not able to get away from its vendor because of non-compatible API.

BusinessWeek: Obama's New Lobbying Rules May Affect FCC Chief Selection

What is this about? I want to show this to people in my country: Politicians should avoid to be hooked with interests of certain groups.

FCC Chief is a position having great influence power to great benefits. For example, while radio spectrum is been re-segmented, which is occurring these few years, how it is divided and the constraints on it affect a lot. Certain bidders may not be able to get a slice of it because of many issues, such as the technology allowed on bands.

Obama wants to make FCC Chief as neutral as possible. Actually, he requests Chiefs he is about to assign to match this criteria. But how? you may ask. He does not allow candidates been sponsored by, such as, communication companies to be an FCC Chief. And this rule is enforced on other Chief positions as well.

I hope all politicians in my country can be morally cleaner.

The Chance of China

I just read a report at New York Times. It makes me more convinced about the importance of China in 21th century.

China is planning to spend $856 million in next two years to build more infrastructure and helping the community devastated in earthquake earlier this year. The spending is 7% of its annual GDP. And according to the report, China has more capability in it.

The economy downturn is not going to turn around in a short time. When it turns around, most countries with heavy debt on it (such as United States) is not going to have abilities to clean up their debt.

Here it is, the chance to become a dominant force like United States. According to their GDP list, it has plenty space to grow. Investing in the infrastructure can set the foundation for future growth, and greatly helps developing undergrowth areas.

With its economy capability and weak counterparts in the world, I believe China is going to outgrow others and become a "next" United States within 50 years.

Words from Bill Gates

I read this on some web site. I think it is 100% true. Hopefully we can learn
something from it. I like Bill Gates, although I don't like Microsoft. However,
I noticed not only me believes Microsoft is going in the wrong direction because
of its *current* management. It is relevant to this post so I will stop here.

Please enjoy:

1、社會充滿不公平現像。你先不要想去改造它，只能先適應它。

2、世界不會在意你的自尊，人們看的只是你的成就。在你沒有成就以前，切勿過分強調自尊。

3、你只是中學畢業，通常不會成為CEO，直到你把CEO職位拿到手為止。

4、當你陷入人為困境時，不要抱怨，你只能默默地吸取教訓。

5、你要懂得：在沒有你之前，你的父母並不像現在這樣“乏味”。你應該想到，這是他們為了撫養你所付出的巨大代價。

6、在學校裡，你考第幾已不是那麼重要，但進入社會卻不然。不管你去到哪裡，都要分等排名。

7、學校裡有節假日，到公司打工則不然，你幾乎不能休息，很少能輕松地過節假日。

8、在學校，老師會幫助你學習，到公司卻不會。如果你認為學校的老師要求你很嚴格，那是你還沒有進入公司打工。因為，如果公司對你不嚴厲，你就要失業了。

9、人們都喜歡看電視劇，但你不要看，那並不是你的生活。只要在公司工作，你是無暇看電視劇的。

10、永遠不要在背後批評別人，尤其不能批評你的老板無知、刻薄和無能。