Stinky Tofu Blog

Android patched QEMU NAT code architecture

2011-08-23T19:58:00.000+08:00

Personal Project Android patched QEMU NAT

Intro: The emulator of Android SDK comes from Qemu and is modified to support features such as bandwidth shaping. It is good to most developers, but it seems to be lacking some features, I guess some people out there are also interested in tweaking it to fit your needs.

Technical Background:

Because Qemu runs guest OS, it naturally needs to manipulates packets when it is under NAT mode. And to provide some small utilities, it has tcp/udp IP support in itself by using SLiRP, which was originally designed for PPP back in 90s.

Three pictures are attached in case you want to know the key points of NAT of UDP in Android. Sorry, TCP is not my interest at the moment.

Google+ Invitation Needed?

2011-08-06T12:19:00.003+08:00

Here it is...

A Simple Flowchart for XML Parsing

2010-11-26T22:15:00.007+08:00

I forget things easily. So I'd like to keep a note for my recent study about XML Document parsing and framing. Framing is easier as it is a controllable data source I provide. So I will focus on the parsing part of it.

I hereby is showing a flow chart I just drew for the XML parsing procedure. I guess I must have made some errors in it and it is not qualified to be good enough. However, like I said, this is a note I am trying to keep. If you know what can be improved, please don't hesitate.

Some notes that everyone should know:

The most frustrating thing I found is there is *NO* single package that can provide me parsing, framing, validating, data-binding code generation in C language while this is the language we used in most embedded systems.
Some of the steps in this flowchart be merged into one single step.
There are commercial products available with all the needed functions. Even with HTTP client/server in case you need to use XML over Web.
Links on Wikipedia about data-binding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_data_binding.
The most comprehensive list of resources about XML data binding: http://www.rpbourret.com/xml/XMLDataBinding.htm

ps. Drawn with Dia 0.97.1 Windows version.

Android ListActivity Problem

2010-11-13T13:20:00.003+08:00

I met these error messages last night and found the cause was I did not read document thorough. :)

11-12 14:33:19.976: WARN/ActivityManager(73): Launch timeout has expired, giving up wake lock!

11-12 14:33:20.164: WARN/ActivityManager(73): Activity idle timeout for HistoryRecord{44f542b8 com.demo.wally/.listview}

ListActivity is another kind of Activity that has a built-in ListView. I called the method: setContentView, under a ListActivity context, so I was destined for this problem.

In this ListActivity, a fullscreen ListView is used. To customize my own screen, I need to either take advantage of possible ListView options or create another view with ListView in it and use a normal Activity to create data adapters, and so on.

XML File Indentation

2010-11-12T13:47:00.003+08:00

I copied contents from a PDF file (I can't find its original version with proper indentation) and pasted into an XML file. The resulting file is flat with no indentation at all. After trying to fix it using vim and other text editors. I decide to give it a try to find a formatter. And I found one:

http://xmlindent.com/

Useful to me a least.

Cookie Flag: HttpOnly

2010-11-11T19:52:00.006+08:00

Today when I am trying to understand how cookies work in libcurl (). I found some cookies from Google has a strange flag behind it: HttpOnly.

I know this is a common sense to every web developer. As an embedded system engineer that never dealt with any web programming in last 9 years, I think I am eligible to not knowing it...

Anyway, it is shown by an example source code of libcurl as:

[1]: .google.com.tw TRUE / FALSE 1352547231 PREF ID=id_removed:FF=0:TM=1289474431:LM=1289475431:S=oLGFV.....

[2]: #HttpOnly_.google.com.tw TRUE / FALSE 1305286631 NID 40=T9tf9Y.....

This #HttpOnly_ confused me. After some research, I found that because malicious Javascript code may be able to access other website's cookies and transfer them to its site. This is a cookie theft as described in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie#Cookie_theft).

This flag blocks cookies flagged as HttpOnly being accessed by any scripts from originating website and hence prevents injected malicious code from sending important cookies to another site.

Python PyGtk + Multi-thread

2010-09-01T20:00:00.001+08:00

I chose Python language to make UI development easier. With Glade, a buggy but still functionally okay utility, I can design UI in a short time and load it up with my Python program.

I am doing some socket operations in this program, but found that multi-threading in this program seems to be malfunctioning. And the socket accept action never returns and continue and running my code. After some hours research, I found that GTK will lockout all other threads if I do not perform proper init.

So here is the trick when using PyGtk + multi-thread:

1. import gtk

2. gtk.gdk.threads_init()

With these two lines of code, the thread works happily. Note that multi-threaded applications need to add UI related actions to GTK main loop instead of touching them directly.

Interesting Question

2010-08-16T20:38:00.004+08:00

Maybe not so interesting to most people. But it is good to have a chance to dig a hole and jump into it by myself. I am implementing this and hopefully get it resolved elegantly.

Target:

Design a data structure + algorithm to be able to respond to query requests in a timely manner.

1. Assume you have a set of string, say N strings.
2. The lengths of the N strings vary from 1 byte to X bytes.
3. Design a data structure + algorithm to provide a fast query based on:
4. If a string S is provided, we want to be able to find out all strings containing S as their substring in O (log (N)) time.

Conditions:

A. Pre-processing time to make the data structure ready for query need not be considered. We can improve it later on. This is to simply the answer at beginning. I started with rigid requirement of this part and had trouble to have an answer quickly at beginning.

B. Assuming we to run the query many times, and hence first priority is to optimize complexity of the query.

C. You can use hash table in design at beginning. But it is really a memory hogger, so eventually you need to change it to something else.

Adding Logging Support to MaxiCom 0.2

2010-05-17T18:43:00.004+08:00

I wanted a neat serial console tool. I hate pressing combination keys so minicom's full capability and key combos are not what I want. I am not used to the separated command line of CuteCom, either.

I found MaxiCom's simple and intuitive GUI fits my needs perfectly when I have access to desktop GUI interface. But my job routinely requires capturing console logs. So its lacking of this feature made me add this feature.

When you click on the "LOG" button, it generates a file under $HOME with filename containing the date and time the log file is started. When you finished the capture, click log again. The file is then completed. When the file is created, the date and time will be written to the log file and when it ends, the date and time are also written.

Download Link

Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus

2010-05-09T20:23:00.000+08:00

This guys is really passionate about what he does. And all of us should try to think about what we can do to our backyard. (Although I do not have one.)

200 Dollors

2010-04-05T23:41:00.003+08:00

What can 200 dollars do?

Sally told us yesterday, she is a kid for sale for $200. I asked her why should I buy her? She told me the reason is then I can buy milk powder for her.

I then asked her why I should buy her to be able to buy milk powder for her, that seems not a good business.

She then told us that she can take care of us after she has grown up, "if we (her parents) were still alive".

Git via Proxy

2010-03-09T21:32:00.001+08:00

1. Create ~/bin and export path in .bashrc

2. Compile the connect.c and place binary to ~/bin

3. Create script for wrapping up "connect.c".

4. Set GIT variables to look for script.

export GIT_SSH="${HOME}/bin/socks-ssh"
export GIT_PROXY_COMMAND="${HOME}/bin/socks-gw"

http://threebytesfull.com/2008/04/git-with-and-without-proxy/

2010-02-26T21:00:00.001+08:00

Apple's Survival Plan

The comments in this post is purely biased. :)

Part 1. Apple's original plot.

To me, at least until I read this news, Apple stands no chance in the fight of mobile device with Android. Steve Jobs criticized Google entering mobile phone market was a strong sign of risk that Apple is facing or will be facing.

Apple is indeed good at creating maybe the best product of a kind in the world. The original plot was to have a very good product and sequels of it to dominate the market. Competitors may be able to create similar products after a few years of chase. But the S/W app store richness and MP3 purchase channel will keep Apple the winner for as long as it does not make a fatal mistake.

Apple's ecosystem would become an ever since mobile empire if the plot goes on as planned.

Part 2. Google's disruptive plot.

No threaten can be seen in this plot until Google joins the game. The best thing Google does is creative disruptions, creating me too products were never the strength of it. Google's targets are like this: creating an open platform, free Internet access, free (to Internet users) search engine creates healthy ad revenue from transforming mobile phone users to smart phone users.

The tricky part is no existing mobile phone manufacturers have enough power to disrupt this game, they are simply fighting each other and will not accept any creative ideas from each other. If Nokia creates its app store, Samsung, LG, and Sony will all have their own ones. In the end, this competition is still zero summed.

Even Nokia is willing to offer its Symbian OS for free, it is unlikely others will adapt it from their deepest heart because when it comes to a new feature rich upgrade, Nokia will definitely be the first to enjoy it. Google isn't so, fortunately.

- Google creates an App store that all mobile phone manufacturers are able to have their share.

- Google maintains an open OS for every one without license fees.

- Google evolves the platform/desktop/GUI and so on to make every manufacturers happy and be able to catch up Apple's UI design without investing much resource.

The plot became that Google/Android powered mobile devices blooms and overwhelms Apple's ecosystem in the end, it may take several years before the fight ends.

Part 3. Apple's plan to survive through this.

Apple knows what risks Android is putting onto its empire and is smart enough to not simply been stubborn (as it did with Mac computers at IBM PC era) again.

This time it is opening a job to port iPhone OS to new platforms. The description is not explicit enough to know all the details and the interesting part is everyone can have their speculations. My theory is Apple has not figure everything out yet because of the following logical contradictions:

- Apple knows it has to let manufacturers join its camp to survive.

- Apple has always been enjoying and will not give up its healthy margin. But Google's Nexus One is breaking neck of smart phone prices. Apple will have to let go its iPhone margin and stop making money on its iPhone. Letting other manufacturers to sell ultra low cost iPhone clones.

- Apple will no be able to license its iPhone OS at sky high price, otherwise it becomes harder to make every manufacturer to join Apple's empire.

- Its past culture was never licensing stuff to external vendors. And it will suffer from this re-habitation. And this is exactly why it is looking for a manager externally for this. But I think it still will be harder than Apple's expectation.

- Apple has been a skeptical customer to its vendors and the culture will not be able to transform easily to co-work with other vendors.

- To spread its OS to enough devices is the key to win this fight between ants and an elephant. However, the quality will become hard to control.

- Current iPhone OS is tailored to and optimized on specific H/W, it is hard to maintain its elegance while been adapted to various H/W platforms.

Part N. The rest mobile alliances.

Please note that I am skipping all other alliances because I simply do not believe any one of them will be able to have a major share in this game. Period.

2010-02-24T20:40:00.001+08:00

Targetted Cancer Therapy Medicine - PLX4032

Just read a report about PLX4032.

I was against any gene based medications. However, watching people to have their second chance of life is really encouraging. It is so encouraging that most of us forgets the side effects we may face in the future and the backfire from the nature.

I have a few unanswered questions:

If one day a medicine was invented to revert aging and subsequently keeping people alive forever, what would the consequence be?
As all other technologies human developed in the history, powerful technology *will* be misused at some point in time. For example, due to the justified development for medication, the maturing gene based technologies can be used to create super solders, superman (and if superman becomes a super stucker..). How do we prevent that?
The evolution involves adapting to ever changing climate, environment, threats, and so on. With gene medications, will it become that human become un-adaptive in the end?

The attractiveness of PLX4032 is infinite to those who needs it. History suggests it is impossible to stop it in a capitalism market. So maybe we should try to define the boundary of gene based technologies?!

2010-02-24T19:29:00.002+08:00

Can't Set Default Printer on Vista Home Edition

When trying to print stuff from Chrome browser, it keeps saying no printer found. Because the printer is there and can be printed in other S/W, I can't escape from the problem I found previously which is unable to set a default printer.

After some research, I found an article that fixes my problem perfectly. I can now print stuff perfectly...

2010-02-23T22:18:00.002+08:00

Kite Runner

I finished reading this book "Kite Runner" a few weeks ago and like it a lot. Though it is not as subtle as my last read book, it is still good to read as an adult. It contains sexual descriptions and *maybe* biased against Taliban authority.

But I like the descriptions of Amir who is kinda coward. He is a mirror of some part of us. In the end, he resolved/faced his weakness with his blood, which is the encouraging part of the story. With stupidness/bravery, he eventually transformed to someone else internally.

I bought it for a long time ago and yes: I buy books but not reading them. I'm glad I finished reading it.

2010-02-23T15:14:00.008+08:00

A Tiny Web Server for R&D or Local File Share

http://www.jibble.org/miniwebserver/

Very tiny, it really is. Taking advantages of Java's existing libraries, its size is: 4095 bytes. Yes, it is BYTES. Not Kilobytes. I am wondering whether it is possible to implement a smaller one without using assembly.

- On Windows, if filename extension is associated properly, you can double-click it in Explorer and get it up and running.

- On Linux, you need to use java -jar SimpleWebServer.jar.

The root dir is the directory you started it with. All interfaces are listened. Port 80 is used.

As a supplement, on Debian derivatives (including Ubuntu), you need to add sudo to make it possible to bind to TCP port 80. Otherwise you will suffer from permission problems.

2010-02-11T05:38:00.004+08:00

Cflow

Just learned that cflow is a C-language cross-referencing tool that can be used to generate the call graph. However, it is not ideal in terms of its adaptation by most modern editors.

Another way to do it is to modify gcc to generate the info needed. Someone has done this before but his source code page is gone and it seems the programmer is no more active on the Internet since 2002.

The Goal: Generate cross-referencing information in the format of cscope such that most modern open source C source code editors can use it. Whilst gcc can be modified to generate the most accurate information, it is nevertheless hard to be a complete one if you want real-time update of any modification and its lack of handling partial finished files (gcc stops parsing once any unacceptable syntax error is found).

It seems like there is no perfect tools for this, yet.

2010-02-02T09:06:00.005+08:00

Make some money with Google Chrome

Chrome is asking everyone to find security bugs for them, if you can find a significant one, you can make money from it.

Garett Rogers said that zero-day exploits can be sold at a better price in black market, but I think it is not a good idea because someone else may turn this bug to Chrome team and this black market mechanism will lose its advantage.

Hopefully this interesting model will get us a better browser than ever.

2010-01-25T21:28:00.003+08:00

AVT File Format

This is a rarely known file format. But I happen to be trying it out today. It turns out to be a very good for story-telling file format. The player is hard to find also. Every file-format sites I've found had no idea about how to play or open up this file. But 7-zip seems to be able to decompress AVT, although that was not what I want.

To play AVT file, you need to download akfavatar-0.18.0.bin.w32.zip from http://akfavatar.nongnu.org/.

It is listed on freshmeat also: http://freshmeat.net/projects/akfavatar.

2009-12-31T00:16:00.004+08:00

Widgets over SDL

To support widgets over SDL, I found the SDL-Widgets library seems nice, at least based on the sample applications it provided.

Later on, I found its dependency on SDL_gfx and SDL_ttf. I will start to work on SDL_gfx tomorrow.

Now it's time to chess with Mr. Chou.

2009-12-30T23:46:00.002+08:00

CodeBlocks Can Not Find SDL Library

I am using CodeBlocks 8.02 on Winodws XP. When I try to create a new project using SDL template, I met the problem that it can not recognize the SDL's installation path (unpacked only) properly. It seems there is a mismatch between SDL versions and Codeblocks versions. Luckily someone already solved this:

URL: http://forums.codeblocks.org/index.php?topic=11584.0

On the "New Project" page, right-click your mouse on SDL template, choose "Edit this script", then you can find the following code for patch.

Index: src/plugins/scriptedwizard/resources/sdl/wizard.script
===================================================================
--- src/plugins/scriptedwizard/resources/sdl/wizard.script (revision 5680)
+++ src/plugins/scriptedwizard/resources/sdl/wizard.script (working copy)
@@ -47,8 +47,15 @@
local dir_nomacro_inc = GetCompilerIncludeDir(dir, SDLPathDefault, SDLPathDefaultInc);
if (dir_nomacro_inc.IsEmpty())
return false;
- if (!VerifyFile(dir_nomacro_inc, _T("SDL.h"), _T("SDL's include")))
- return false;
+
+ if (!IO.FileExists(dir_nomacro_inc + wxFILE_SEP_PATH + _T("SDL.h")))
+ {
+ if (VerifyFile(dir_nomacro_inc, _T("SDL/SDL.h"), _T("SDL's include")))
+ SDLPathDefaultInc = SDLPathDefaultInc + _T("/SDL");
+ else
+ return false;
+ }
+

// verify library dependencies
local dir_nomacro_lib = GetCompilerLibDir(dir, SDLPathDefault, SDLPathDefaultLib);

2009-12-12T15:37:00.002+08:00

WiFi Radio Analyzer

Cisco Spectrum Expert can be used to analysis your radio spectrum status for debugging purpose. However, it does not capture packet trace. A H/W card is required to work with it. You can download this software from Cisco if you are authorized. Unfortunately I am not. :)

2009-12-12T15:26:00.002+08:00

Image Quality Tuning Kit

http://www.handsome-case.com/

Honestly, this is the first time I've had a chance to know anything about camera R&D. The website above sells kits for tuning.

Enjoy!

2009-12-10T08:04:00.004+08:00

Congratulations! Ubuntu is Popular Enough Now! Literally!

It is popular enough that someone decided to write some malware for it.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/12/malware-found-in-screensaver-for-ubuntu.html

Good thing is we know we should avoid install .deb files now.

Bad thing is you can not install any stuff if you can't use .deb.

The happiest one would be cloud computing service providers that
eventually we all suffer from malware, virus, and so on. Besides
cloud services.

But the really happiest one would be hackers who can hack into
cloud computing farm because they can have one stop shopping
experience. No more fighting against different versions of OS
and patches....

2009-12-09T06:20:00.004+08:00

Enabling Ubuntu Remote X11 Desktop Access

I modified the following two lines in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf:

DisallowTCP=false

Enable=true (in [xdmcp] section.)

Restart the gdm by sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Now I can use xming to connect to my desktop without a problem.

Is there a way I can disconnect and connect again without terminating the session?

2009-11-23T06:36:00.002+08:00

Identifying Where The Illegal Instruction Is

I am debugging an application which generates illegal instruction error for unknown reason and under unknown conditions. Some one pointed me to a web page for root causing it. Here is how:

1. Enable CONFIG_DEBUG_USER feature in the kernel.

2. Set the kernel variable user_debug to 1 (only bit 0 matters in debugging this problem).

3. Do the test.

One thing not so important here, lxr seems to have trouble location user_debug in the kernel source tree it has cross-referenced. But it ought to.

2009-11-07T22:56:00.003+08:00

How to Force Subclipse to Use English

Subclipse detects the system locale and uses the language matching the system locale that I am not familiar with when I am working. I found this can be solved with this article, the solution I took was to add two lines at the begining of eclipse.ini:

-nl
en_us

which forces the locale to be English, United States. After restart, it works after refreshing the menus of subclipse.

2009-09-02T01:18:00.004+08:00

TFTP Servers

They are something many RD uses daily. Just to list a few of them for tracking purpose only:

On Linux, this one is good to use and with security in mind:

TFTPgui - I found it at http://code.google.com/p/tftpgui/

On Windows, these two are good to use:

TFTPD32 - It is a legacy among many engineers I know.
Pumpkin - I knew about this one lately, it seems to be a good one, too.

None of them is perfectly I want. An ideal one to me should include:

1. multiple directories search capability.
2. warns properly for download / upload activities.
3. forwarding requests to another server.

I'd like to explain 3 a little bit more. It is typical that we have a dedicated build server. We typically connect the test net to our own computer's 2nd NIC to disconnect it from Intranet. When the target device needs to download, it can only talk to our computer, and the built code is one the primary NIC. So it would be optimal to forward the TFTP requests from our target device. Does it make sense?

2009-08-29T03:51:00.003+08:00

Open E-Book Format

I happend to found this today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epub

It is pretty interesting to me that such a format exists. I do not have the money to buy an E-book reader such as Kindle. Before today, I thought the de facto format for E-books must be pdf.

I am not sure what is going to dominate the universe in the end. But a unified format definitely will help reform this publishing industry. Some would call it a thing that extincts publishing business. But hey, I don't think so. This E-book technology will face lift this industry. Not to extinct it but to make it circulate faster.

I can't stop to think about the current problem of newspapers in countries with widespread Internet. They got their business shrinking because they did not do good enough to become a portal site that attracts enough eyeballs. Without enough scale, their ad business is going out to companies that knows how to do this on the Internet.

With the evolution/revolution of Internet technology, many has to make a decision now. They can choose to create their own business model in Internet age. Or to close the door and turn themselves into some expensive watch makers that becomes something for rich people's exhibit.

Staying still is not the way out.

2009-08-13T08:39:00.001+08:00

A Special Crash Report

I've never seen something like this, but this one is really cute. (At least to me...)

'import site' failed; use -v for traceback

Sorry, command-not-found has crashed! Please file a bug report at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/command-not-found

Please include the following information with the report:

No module named CommandNotFound

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/lib/command-not-found", line 10, in

from CommandNotFound import CommandNotFound

ImportError: No module named CommandNotFound

Python version: 2.5.2 final 0

2009-06-15T15:21:00.004+08:00

Windows XP Event ID 4191

I met this error today that states my NDISWANIP can not be accessed. The situation was weird that my network interface cards were actually brought up. But when I use IPCONFIG to view them, nothing was shown. I checked the event log and found event 4191.

I tried the solution provided by MS knowledge base but the problem persists. Then I cross compared the registry of a working computer with my non-functional one. I found a registry directory is missing on my non-functional computer, which I guess it went broken due to the enable/disable/setting of Virtual Box.

I was just about to give up but I found a way to solve it: uninstall the network devices and refresh the hardware manager. It starts to reinstall the driver and it is back to normal. I created the missing registry before I uninstall the drivers. I am not sure whether this will cause a difference, but I am happy for now and do not have plan to try it.

Product:	Windows Operating System
Event ID:	4191
Source:	Tcpip
Version:	5.0
Component:	System Event Log
Symbolic Name:	EVENT_TCPIP_ADAPTER_REG_FAILURE
Message:	IP could not open the registry key for adapter %2. Interfaces on this adapter will not be initialized.

2009-06-12T07:07:00.004+08:00

Good Luck, Google

I think Google is transferring from a do-no-evil (I believed it meant good-the-right-thing) company to a do-no-evil (I believe it is now: it is okay if it is not evil). It is the sign of going to its downturn.

At the very beginning, the founders wanted to create a real good search engine, that was what differs Google from its competitors. They could tell whether a feature is what user wants or not. But now it seems closer to what Google wants.

I am not sure how many people have seen the image above. But to me, it is the sign of collapse.

A big ad for Chrome on search engine homepage? A no brainer can tell Google is never google again. It is doing things against its principle. Even some internal Googler may claim this is also a test that can show the response of users, whether people feel annoyed, such as me, Google is still acrossing the line.

It is a pity that we shall start finding a good Internet service provider.

2009-05-28T20:20:00.004+08:00

How Autopsy Helps?

There is no new technology about pathology in this post, instead, it is about its usage.

United States Army is performing autopsies (and virtual autopsy, called CT) on dead bodies from war to find out the cause of death. In the end, the results can help reduce the rate of death in future combats.

For example, a collapsed lung can kill one easily. The typical immediate response to it on the field is to stick a needle into the chest and relief the pressure. However, autopsies and following research showed the 5 centimeters needle with medics is not long enough for 50% of the army. So you are 50% likely to be killed if one of your lungs collapses. Replacing a longer needle can effectively save 99% lung collapses (if other injuries are not lethal). So did US Army.

Maybe I should autopsy each day of my life and help improve tomorrow, too.

2009-05-28T17:51:00.007+08:00

The Trend of Emulation/Virtualization

The trend of virtualization is so non-stoppable that we are now surrounded by news with it and we are becoming numb with them. But this one is itchy (to me): Ubuntu has a working prototype of running Android applications on Ubuntu platform.

Android is generally considered an ecosystem itself (it has its own JVM, API, and its own app store.) However, as it is a piece of software, we always can port its Dalvik JVM to other platforms. With the binder IPC been ported properly and its *compacted* system libraries been handled.

The porting of Android ecosystem to Ubuntu is an indicator of the virtual applications that you can buy easily or download freely.

I once wondered the difference to native Java applications, why would we need Android development environment? The answer lies in Java itself. Sun claimed it would develop a CPU for Java years ago and finally dropped the plan. I am not sure why it ended ungracefully: is it only a marketing thing or there is technical difficulties? But one thing for sure, Java is never fast enough for ubiquitous devices, even JavaME. Although it is possible to run Java applications on your cell phone, the loading time of them is always pain-in-the-ass.

Android successfully solved the issues by optimized many parts of the Java environment to its own design. Yet the nature of Java is kept: portable application binary.

I am wondering whether one day we will have our desktop environment replaced by Android? Can anyone tell me a reason that Android will not be able to make it?

2009-05-28T16:51:00.004+08:00

Cisco settles with FSF after filching free software

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/2009-05-settlement

I think. It is always our best option to be honest and face any problem we have on hand. Not escaping it because it does not work. Even it works, you need to worry about the backfire that may come to you at any moment.

2009-05-24T21:19:00.005+08:00

SVN -> GIT

Recently, I start to touch Linux kernel, as an integrator and developer. I am in need to learn some basics of its source management to keep myself up with the rapid development of Linux

kernel and development repositories spreaded everywhere on the Internet.

As an SVN user, I am comfortable with canonical type of SCM (source code management) and have no idea about the rest of the world of SCM.

Git is the SCM used by Linux kernel and getting more projects using it. I am totally clueless with it and need some help despite I've compiled git on some Linux box and cloned some repository before. I am doing some simple study and found the following web page written by git guys really useful to an SVN guy like me.

http://git.or.cz/course/svn.html

Enjoy if you are having same problems I have.

2009-05-03T21:27:00.003+08:00

Golden Week

Golden Week is a national holiday in Japan that lasts for one week. It sounds great, most of us will envy it a lot, but I never knew it actually has great impact to us.

I took a HSR train today to southern part of Taiwan today. When I was on the shuttle bus to the metro, I found there are three Japanese girls sitting nearby. After ten minutes, I realized that some one in Japan notified me they are having Golden Week since yesterday and he will not be able to reply emails.

Also, on the 2008-2009 calendar I brought back from MIT, Golden Week is listed on it, too!

I think Japan has successfully marketted its national holiday. And the best thing is, because it takes only 4 hours flight to reach Taiwan (roughly two movies), many Japanese visit here for sightseeing.

That helps our economy.

Maybe, I should learn Japanese, too.

2009-05-03T21:11:00.004+08:00

Code Refactoring

We used to call it "code clean up", which is something rarely done in our company due to always "tight schedule" and "higher priority" tasks.

Despite the fact that after refactoring the maintainability is much improved, our managers typically do not want to give us a slice of time doing it. The reason behind probably would never be known.

I have a heuristic theory that they are not aware of the importance of software engineering. "Ya, I know that, but ..." is a typical scene you will see when a software engineering advocate proposes something about software engineering to higher ranked staff.

Another good reason is: most of our managers have hardware background instead of software. They wrote some 8051, hello world stuff in their colleages or universities and that is "the software" in their mind. The only difference is we are dealing with more lines of code.

I will stop pouring my complaint for now. This is the short definition of code refactoring:

Code refactoring is the process of changing a computer program's internal structure without modifying its external functional behavior or existing functionality, in order to improve internal non-functional properties of the software, for example to improve code readability, to simplify code structure, to change code to adhere to a given programming paradigm, to improve maintainability, or to improve extensibility.

2009-03-04T09:28:00.002+08:00

A Nice Poem

I got this from Mrbig a few minutes ago. It makes perfect sense to me. Hope it does to you, too.

五言詠麻雀曹興誠

東南西北風玩過人人瘋方城無歲月喧笑不知冬

峰迴出意表拙能勝智巧名利追逐苦何如吃碰胡

貪求把把贏必然頻放銃心快手要慢盯張不可鬆

聽熟不聽生聽邊不聽中牌背要能守牌順要敢衝

贏時莫輕狂輸時忌燥動出牌要果敢慢磨惹人煩

不可禁如廁牌規應寬容輸若贏友誼似敗實成功

有云玩喪志我問志何用人生如牌局無欲更從容

世道多炎涼幸有牌熱烘局散何妨去笑看月當空

2009-02-28T12:56:00.005+08:00

Femto Cell

Every now and then, new buzz occurs in technology world. Some of them are really excited, but some are simply buzz words. To see which type it is? Just Google it and find it on some amateur 3C forums. If only big companies and standard organizations are related. And it shows up only in news press, you can certainly tell the type.

Recently, Femto Cell is the hot spot of discussion in communication business. Many service providers plans to deplay it to its users' home. I am not optimistic about this technology due to several reasons:

1. Users won't pay for Internet surfing at home. Including extra equipment and 3G services. (Why shall I pay when you are using my Internet connection?)

2. The line between Internet service provider and communication provider is usually defined by govs and we all know govs are slow in responding things they do not want to accept.

3. 3G data rate is slow comparing to WiFi. It will be the bottleneck of speed. So why shall I use it?

4. If I really need to use such services with high data rate at home, why don't I just use my computer?

I did not mention some technical obstacles others have discussed on other websites and blogs.

To make femto cell success, I think those big bosses must rethink how they want Femto to happen. Such as:

1. Defining it as a replacement technology for WiFi and make laptops and netbooks supporting it.

2. Make it completely free or almost free when users are making calls at home using the Femto

cell.

3. Add power estimation feature to Femto cell and refund the power consumed to users' phone bills.

I sincerely wish this is going to happen but do not expect it to happen. :)

2008-12-19T11:00:00.003+08:00

An Eco Mosquito Trap

By today's definition, this is not a high-tech thing. But the process they found a way to capture thousands of mosquitoes is purely scientific! I believe our education needs more teachers and students like this. If someone really wants it, I will translate it into English.

http://share.youthwant.com.tw/sh.php?do=D&id=62005009

環保捕蚊罐

一個在網路流傳的小秘方，激發了小學生實驗靈感，經過不斷嘗試，成為真正的環保新聞、網站)良方！台北市永安國小師生從網路偏方得到靈感，利用資源回收(網站)的寶特瓶，以及不到2.5元的成本，製造出「環保捕蚊罐」，放在地下室，一罐最多竟可抓到超過1427隻蚊子，連環保專家都驚歎不已。

「環保捕蚊罐」的環保之處，不只在利用資源回收的廢寶特瓶，更因這種捕蚊法不需使用化學的殺蚊劑，無毒又安全。學生估計，只要有五分之一的人改用這種環保捕蚊法，每年全球就可省下10億元新台幣的購買殺蟲劑費用。

其實很多人都曾收到過這則網路偏方的電子郵件，指出只要在室內放一小盆水，再加點洗衣粉，蚊子就會全部溺死在盆中。永安國小學生郭家安的媽媽也看到了這則郵件，並付諸實施，雖然效果不佳，但卻激發郭家安動手研究，並在老師徐佳璋指導下，找出真正有效的捕蚊良方。

徐佳璋表示，剛看到這則網路偏方時，就懷疑是什麼東西誘使蚊子前來？是洗衣粉的成分還是香味？結果按網路傳聞操作，三天只抓到11隻蚊子，把洗衣粉濃度調高後，三天只抓到一隻蚊子，效果並不好。

因此，師生動手實驗，希望找出更有效的誘蚊法。蚊子會被高溫吸引嗎？試試看暖暖包。蚊子會對不同顏色有反應嗎？試著用不同顏色寶特瓶來誘蚊。捕蚊罐放置的高度是否有差異？把捕蚊罐吊高到蚊子飛行高度試試看。學生還試過用蜂蜜、蘆薈、黏鼠板膠來誘蚊或黏蚊。最後發現，蚊子會受到二氧化碳及黑色吸引，即利用發酵糖水會釋出二氧化碳的原理來製造捕蚊罐。

徐佳璋表示，「環保捕蚊罐」研發成功後，曾創下單罐一周內在地下室停車場捕獲1427隻蚊子的紀錄；另一次測試放置九罐捕蚊罐，更共抓到超過五千隻蚊子。徐家安回憶整個實驗過程，最「苦」的就是撈出一坨坨的蚊子屍體，計算到底有幾隻。

而這項成果不但讓永安國小這群師生獲得全國科展特優，並在環保署舉辦的2005年全國環保創意競賽中得到佳作殊榮。有人質疑蚊子會不會再度飛出？糖水罐反而成了「養蚊罐」？徐佳璋指出，只要上下半部的寶特瓶密合，蚊子絕對「只進不出」

2008-12-19T06:41:00.004+08:00

Snow Storm?

Below is the weather forecast I just copy-n-pasted from weather website. CSAIL has warmed snow storm for tomorrow. So, it is likely no one will be here tomorrow!

Eventually, it looks up we will have enough snow for a snowman!

Friday

Partly cloudy with a chance of snow in the morning... then snow in the afternoon. Snow may be heavy at times in the afternoon. Snow accumulation of 4 to 6 inches. Highs in the lower 30s. North winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming northeast 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

Friday Night

Snow. Snow may be heavy at times in the evening. Additional snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. Cooler with lows around 14. Northeast winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

2008-12-19T00:46:00.003+08:00

Courage in New York

A few days ago, I visited JFK Presidentail Museum. I knew JFK is a very attractive person before that, which is pretty shallow. Now I probably know more about why he is so attractive. I think he tried to be a courageous person as the eight senators in his book "Profiles in Courge".

I haven't have a chance to read that book. But I believe I just saw another example of courage: The budget proposal by New York State governor: David Paterson. There is an editorial on New York Times.

To minimize the gap between budget and expense. He is willing to conflict with many interesting groups. For example, he is going to add obesity tax on non-diet soft drinks which definitely will have trouble with soft drink companies. He plans to charge one-time tax to New Yorkers who make more than 500,000 dollars a year.

I believe we need some one who is brave to take away pies from interests groups. And create a fair world. For example, public servants typically receives more bonus than those employed by private company. But they are never considered efficient comparing to most of us.

This exmaple is only a corner of an iceberg. We definitely need some people willing to change. If courage is in place, a future would be not far away.

2008-12-18T07:27:00.005+08:00

New Way of Cost Down

For those that know my company, they typically recognize it as a seriously cost-cutting firm. We cost-cut virtually anything. However, here comes the new way to do the cost cutting:

Use a New Font Face on Printers

A Dutch company has added holes to Font Face so it would save up to 20% of printer inks.

This is a good news to every one. Also those that waste ink and paper: they can use 25% more ink than they used before without increasing cost. The catch is they still have to pay 25% more for papers they used.

2008-12-10T00:55:00.003+08:00

Writing a Trojan Horse Email?

I get some scam mails daily. But this one is interesting for me because it is so content independent but non-real. I guess there might be some viruses or Trojans in it. But the content of this mail is funny:

Good morning

We have already made ready the contract and we also joined some points you’d asked to add to it.
The lawyers change some points on the last page. Read the contract, please, and if there are no objections from your part we can pay for the first batch on Friday.
You can find the contract in the attached ZIP Archive.

We also ready to send it by fax if you need
Kind regards

2008-11-29T06:16:00.003+08:00

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. :)

View Larger Map

2008-11-26T05:50:00.003+08:00

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.

2008-11-20T11:59:00.004+08:00

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!)

2008-11-16T10:03:00.003+08:00

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！

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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。

2008-11-14T02:24:00.003+08:00

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.

2008-11-13T08:37:00.007+08:00

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.

2008-11-11T11:33:00.005+08:00

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.

2008-11-09T13:53:00.004+08:00

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。

2008-10-22T01:49:00.005+08:00

Google's Android Open Sourced (2008/10/21)

Its openness was promised by Google at the very beginning, but commercial companies like the one I am working for kept wondering how open it will be. There are some companies selling services for the development and maintenance of this platform.

Here we are! The grand opening of the Android platform takes place in Oct, 21, 2008. Source code can be downloaded from Android's git source repository. It is stated that from Bootloader to applications, everything is open sourced.

Visit Here for Android Open Source Announcement

I am curious whether they also open sourced video driver, DSP firmware, and radio protocol firmware. Need to download to check that out. From its announced code size, 1.2GB, I think it is unlikely to be so. :) I do not think Qualcomm will let that happen, either.

Let's git it and try to figure something out!

Updated (10/22): I've downloaded it. The size is 1460 MB. And it stops building on CSAIL shaggy because the bison is missing.

2008-10-21T01:38:00.004+08:00

Steve Ballmer Got Kicked

Mr. Ballmer stated that Google Doc has no threat to Microsoft. He pointed out a very simple feature that G-Doc is missing: "you can’t even put a footnote in a document”.

He was right. Note: "was".

Two days after he said that, G Doc has the footnote feature added.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1160&tag=nl.e539

2008-10-06T12:32:00.002+08:00

Happy 17 th Birthday (10/5)! Linux!

One year left to be legal. :)
The slashdotters are making fun of it. Enjoy!

2008-10-03T11:04:00.005+08:00

Boot Linux within 5 Seconds

Just found this article. It is great that they did it. I've wondered about why it takes so long to boot up a Linux box for an extended period of time. As I could tell from the console log, it is stupid to have so many mysterious waiting here and there.

Sincerely I wish their work can be synced to the upstream and distribution packagers. I will be more than happy to use a Linux box which takes shorter to boot up the installed Linux than its BIOS/Video card splash screen persisted.

2008-10-03T09:51:00.004+08:00

Chinese Accent

Honestly, I always knew I have accent problems.
Today is my lucky day. My short term English teacher Louise was helping us on accent problems.
Now I am reading the material I got. Gosh, I must say sorry to those who bore me. Hope I can indeed improve myself after this short semester.

Below are some key points digested from this 4 pages material.

* Intonation

In English, a pitch change indicates the speaker's intention. In Chinese, a pitch change indicates a different word.

For example: ma can be ma1, ma2, ma3, ma4 in Chinese.
And when you say "It sounds like rain". We usually speak it flatly.
However, the pitch should be like: "It ma3 like ma3" when you say "It sounds(3) like rain(3)".

* Pronunciation

I am totally helpless in this part.

* Liaisons - I am not doing too bad in this part although far from good enough.

Written English Chinese Accent American Liaisons
Tell him teo him tellim
Pull it out puw ih aw pul li dout

* Final Consonants

Final consonants are often left off. For example, hold sound like ho.
American English has a peculiar characteristic in that the t sound is, in many cases, pronounced as a d.

2008-10-02T06:25:00.003+08:00

A Trivial Non-Trivial Problem (C++ Linking Error)

MESSAGE: error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "private: static class .....

This error message occurred during link phase (in Visual C++) stopped me from moving on for a few hours. I just got it solved.

The situation is like this: I am going to use static member attribute in a class to reduce the effort to create more than one instance of a certain object A in class B. I declared it like this:

In file B.h

class B {

static A *varA;

};

Then the compiler complains unresolved symbol like the message above.

But it is there!

I tried so many ways to work it out until just minutes ago. I found that it seems non-primitive types been used in static way need be declared separately again so it is actually instantiated:

In File B.cpp

#include

A * B::varA = NULL;

This solves the problem.
The problem is not hard. It's just I am not knowledgeable of C++.

2008-08-22T20:26:00.003+08:00

海角7號

幾週前去大江看電影，在等待的空檔中看到海角7號的預告片，當時跟小潘兩個人覺得這是部很令我們期待的電影。不過因為我們看電影的頻率很高，所以也沒特別注意上映日期，心想總會發現吧。

由於後天要啟程去 Boston 出長時間的差，今天特別請了假陪陪家人，當然不能免俗的是去看場電影嘍！在電影院時我們發現電影的時間都不理想，但最後在Wall-E與海角7號之間要做一個選擇。小潘決定了看海角7號 (我猜想原因是受到之前Linkin Park的洗禮，現在對於有搖滾樂內涵的東西都特別有興趣吧。)

我們看的是中午12:25，應該是新竹華納威秀的第一場。

這場觀眾不多，我們也沒照劃定的位置坐，在差不多正片開始時我們右邊來了一位小姐，就這樣三個人一排一起看電影。

沒想到我們三個一樣被電影逗得笑的超大聲，看完電影還真給它有點累，因為笑點實在太多了。有好幾幕我還差點要哭了，眼睛已經濕了一半。

推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推推！

上面這一行就是我對這部電影的推薦程度。

這部電影當然不是什麼藝術大作。但它是非常細膩的一部電影。在看電影時，許多我們生活中的細節都不停的觸動神經讓我會心一笑，有時是大笑。看好萊鎢用大錢堆砌的電影所做不出的感動，在這裡才能看到！

電影中的愛情部份，是一段六十年前的一個懦弱的日本教師，與一個勇敢的台灣女人之間，最終由於男人的懦弱而沒有結果的愛情；映射到現代看似陽剛，卻其實也一樣膽小的台灣男人，對一個勇敢的日本女人的愛情所做出的回應。

在海灘上，他對她說的簡單的一句話 "留下來，不然我跟你走" 讓我看了好想掉眼淚，寫這篇post時眼睛也不忍不住濕了。

國寶的話常常令人捧腹。

至於從多年前就一直看著的夾子電動大樂隊小應跟糯米團主唱，完全就是一整個有喜感，跟平常表演時的他們一樣令我覺得自在。

非常喜歡千繪在這部電影裡的表演，其實在看電影前並不知道千繪的存在，回來後google了一下居然發現她有自己的部落格，中文也會通喔，千繪住在台灣，非常認真的在學中文呢！

千繪的blog: http://chieworld.pixnet.net/blog/

范逸臣這名字說實話很熟，但不知道是誰，高矮胖瘦幹什麼的通通都不知道，也是今天才認得。他在裡面的角色是個在台北混不出名堂的樂手回到家鄉，雖然做了個工作但其實始終自認懷才不遇，對世界充滿不滿，也不對自己的人生抱有熱情。最後是千繪這個角色的觸發，不放棄他的繼父讓他再次找到熱情，迎向未知的人生。

等我從 Boston 出差回來，我想再去一次墾丁.......... (夏都上次蜜月時去住過了, 怎麼覺得他們拍得讓我覺得比我去住還美呀?)

2008-07-24T13:00:00.003+08:00

DoDo

DoDo is my mother-in-law's pet. He was a 17 years old virgin and had bad temper. Since the first time I visited to my wife's family, he never liked me. He kept the habit barking at me every time it saw me. So, in some way, he is a very consistent dog.

I wondered whether his bad temper is related to his virginity. But I will never know the answer.

I tried to make peace with DoDo by talking gently nice words with him but he turned his tail to me.

Sally knew DoDo very well. Back when Sally was a baby, DoDo didn't bark at her at all. When Sally was learning to walk, DoDo doesn't bark at her, either. He only steps away when Sally walked toward him.

Sally has not lived with DoDo for one year and can speak a lot nowadays. Sometimes Sally said "DoDo!!! Don't bark" to him. (DoDo barks at her since she moved away.)

In any case, we will miss you, DoDo.

2008-07-04T14:29:00.007+08:00

Education of Intellectual Property

The war between YouTube (Google) and Viacom is very interesting. This is a highly concerned lawsuite as it is defining the boundary of compliance to DMCA concerning uploaded public content and the ad profits in relation.

DMCA defines the baseline for copyright materials on the Internet (at least in United States). The reason that DMCA is demanded: Internet is a different medium from legacy mediums and it forms a new world for copyright to apply to.

Ok, enough background. Now we are here to read about a blog post concerning the judge's ruling.
(Note that this blog could be biased.)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9242

However, what alerts me is from talkbacks following the main article, it can be easily seen that some people either have no clue about what IP really is or are twisting it purposely.

The fun catch:

The lawsuit by Viacom against YouTube (Viacom) is somewhat a joke. Refer to "Controversial complaints" section in the page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom#Copyright_complaints_against_YouTube

2008-07-02T20:02:00.000+08:00

Coolest Domain Name Ever Seen

http://err.no/personal/blog/

2008-06-30T20:13:00.003+08:00

最新的十字路口 DM

前幾天跟老婆兩個人一起去看電影, 車從高速公路開上新安路往寶山路上時, 鼓起了勇氣
告訴老婆我打算要去看赤壁在新竹遠百的首映這件事, 老婆果然是老婆, 不用三秒鐘就猜
出我其實是衝著林志玲的面子去看的。於是沿路就針對是不是為了林志玲而去看, 以及其
正當性展開密集的討論....

從竹科開出來後, 在新竹市寶山路到底, 過了 "制服女孩" 之後的路口停了下來, 按照慣例
有人在路中間發海報, 但是有位先生發的東西好像不是海報...那是什麼呢?

一個紙盒子?
在那位先生越走越近時, 有種不祥的預感, 我在想會不會是推銷東西的, 一開車窗就要你買東西...
不過到最後還是敵不過好奇心而把它接了過來, 好險那位先生沒叫我買什麼東東。

上面這三張是開箱照的連續動作圖......... 看出來是什麼了嗎?

這個東西的設計者非常用心, 還為了大家的安全, 加上了請勿食用的字樣

噹噹! 如果前面還沒猜出來是什麼的朋友, 不用再猜了, 這樣應該很明顯了吧......

請皮膚黝黑的 Model 拿著實品展示大家看: "老師在說, 你有沒有在聽阿? ㄚㄚㄚ..."

ps. 感謝小0小朋友不收費的幫忙拍攝廣告喔~~
ps 2. 到現在我們還是沒研究出來這個DM到底可以用來幹嘛

2008-06-25T21:24:00.006+08:00

我們家很窮系列之四: 來自警衛叔叔的禮物

我們家很窮系列之社區警衛叔叔也不知道自己今天即將被在部落格上被賣!! 哈哈!

社區的警衛叔叔原本在這邊做的不錯, 聊過後才知道原來他可是深藏不露的高人, 準備升級當社區總幹事, 在知道這事沒多久之後他就順利的高昇為新竹市某豪宅的總幹事!

不過天不從人願, 保全公司決定不做豪宅的生意了, 許久不見的總幹事叔叔再次出現在我們社區, 這次他是有準備的, 不像上次是送我們擦地板的布 (毛巾啦)...

聽說他花了五百塊買書買器材, 結果就在上班時間開始練起了玩氣球的工夫, 於是昨天下班回家時就在家裡看到許多成品, 到今天只剩下這三位小朋友還有完整的形狀了... 其它的不由分說, 只要家裡有小朋友的都知道下場大概如何了...

希望大家喜歡這些東東喔, 有apple, 貴賓狗, 還有snake喔~~

2008-06-17T15:36:00.003+08:00

A Chance to Set a World Record

The Mozilla set a goal of breaking world record of downloads in 24 hours by its Firefox 3 release. The clock is about to start ticking. It begins on June 17. Don't be shy to download a copy of FF3 and become involved in a world record!

2008-06-13T11:38:00.004+08:00

老婆的開車技術

老婆的開車技術是很好的, 很多女生領了照不敢上路, 或是上了路就當活動路障, 我老婆完全沒有這類的問題, 尤有甚者, 老婆曾經在我坐在副駕假眠時, 開到一百三, 可是一點都不含糊。

有一天我下班回家時, 老婆一看到我就笑的非常璨爛, 像盛開的一株非洲堇。

場景: 客廳
我: 老婆, 什麼事這麼開心呀?
老婆: 呵呵呵
我: 老婆, 發生了什麼事, 怎麼這麼高興?
老婆: 呵呵呵
我: (檢查一下臉上是不是被畫了多拉ㄟ夢) 咦, 我沒問題呀...
老婆: 呵呵呵呵呵呵呵呵
老婆: ....... 跟你說一件事不可以生氣喔
我: 什麼事? (疑惑)
老婆: 你要先答應我不可以生氣
我: 你被開罰單了嗎? 你去百貨公司花了很多錢?
老婆: 不是啦也不是啦
我: 那到底是什麼事呀? (心中有股不祥感升起 + 國旗歌)
老婆: 就是那個.......車子去撞傷了啦
我: 喔 (看看老婆跟小0, 都沒事), 那還好吧?
老婆: 還好啦就是刮傷了
小0: 車車受傷了車車痛痛擦藥藥
------- 這是分隔線 ---------------------
場景: 停車場
我: 哇靠, 見骨了啦
老婆: 呵呵呵呵呵呵呵呵
我: ............

2008-06-05T23:12:00.000+08:00

我們家很窮系列之三: 讓財富快速成長的方法

貼心的630在得知我們家很窮之後, 想出了一個方法可以讓NTD $1000成長為 NTD $3000。今天回家後聽到這個消息真是欣喜若狂。迫不急待的想要看看630是怎麼辦到的！

為了怕各位看倌覺得小弟藏私, 所以只得公開實作過程中的半成品。

以下是半成品的照片：

希望大家的寶貝也都能這麼貼心..... >_< (還好南寮腳踏車行的老闆收了$1000變$2000的版本, 呼!)

2008-06-04T21:37:00.000+08:00

我們家很窮系列之二

這次要被爆料的是, 女兒們在跟著媽媽一起去早餐店買早餐時, 店裡有個叔叔很喜歡她們, 一直不忘逗逗她們, 後來叔叔說, "啊! 叔叔有東西送給妳們", 於是就跑去拿了這個可愛的小車車出來, 媽媽當然不能免俗的要說這樣不好意思, 不應該拿你的東西。不過實在推辭不掉呀~~ 因為叔叔說他在中華郵政 (前台灣郵政, 前前中華郵政) 上班, 這玩意很多。

爸爸眉批: 老婆大人, 我也想要一個....

很可愛對吧? 底下是跟car key的比對顯示出它真正的大小。

不幸的是, 這可愛的小車車已經不見了.... (女兒們的玩具不見的速度跟增加的速度快要有拼了。

有人可能想問這跟我們家很窮有什麼關係? 很簡單, 女兒們得自己想辦法弄些玩具回來, 因此我們家很窮系列本來就會包含各種各樣的被女兒們帶回來的玩意兒。

2008-06-03T15:13:00.000+08:00

Forrest is Smarter More Than 7000 Times

I agree with that the society and government should put more resource on deaf and mute ones. But the problem is, how did they get the 7000 times math. Apparently, our law maker and professor need to learn more about telecom.

News:

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/080602/78/10e3k.html

手機簡訊費率通話費的七千倍

立委管碧玲指出，根據台大電信所教授林宗男的計算，一則簡訊以七十個字計算，傳輸一則簡訊僅需零點零一七五秒，目前中華電信最便宜的通話費為每秒零點零一元，每則簡訊則索費一點三元，換算起來簡訊費率足足是一般通話費率的七千四百倍，根本是「吸血費率」。

若以中華電信最貴通話費每秒零點一六五元計算，簡訊費用仍然是通話費的四百五十一倍。

2008-06-03T14:44:00.000+08:00

Gambling?

My attitude is simple: A resort? Welcome. A casino? No way.

Considering the credit card bad debt problems, we can tell there are many people lacks fortune management concept. Most of us know gambling is a game and do damage control. But some don't, their family members are innocent while they lose all their money in casinos.

Casinos can bring joy, fun, and relaxation to many people. But they do bad things, too. Do we really need fun from casino? Come on, hiking or cycling can be much better.

From News:

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/080601/11/10dre.html

新竹建賭場?英維京擬砸2百億

這裡是新竹市南寮漁港，服務中心高高的瞭望塔，打造得很有地中海風情現在是渡假聖地，未來可能變成台灣第一個博奕特區。看準附近海景優美，竹科新貴擁有驚人消費力，新竹距離台北都會區又不會太遠，這裡被英國Virgin集團相中，打算投資兩百億美金，打造國際級的度假中心。

聽到這個消息，許多新竹市民可是非常興奮。只是外資有意願，不代表一定能順利興建，還要經過立法院的審議以及環評團體的監督，能不能在這兒成立台灣第一個博奕特區？還有不少變數。

2008-06-02T15:08:00.000+08:00

Hell

In first impression, hell is a hot place. There are people been tortured and many been slaves. If it is a valid definition, our office is currently a hell.

I do not know exactly what the temperature is now, but it is so hot that I can barely sit or coding. As a matter of fact, I have not written a single line of C code today. Is reducing the coal emission equal to a sweat shop? I do not know the answer, but hopefully they are not.

2008-05-28T17:39:00.000+08:00

Linux High Priority Kernel Thread

Warning: This post contains only kindergarten level techniques about Linux kernel.

I met a problem that a real-time user space program with many threads has higher priority than my computation intensive kernel thread.

I have to adjust the priority of this kernel thread. But unfortunately, I found that the kthread_run doesn't provide me any way to set the priority of my kernel thread. So I wondered how to do it? Fortunately, I found the way to set the priority of a kernel thread. Using

struct sched_param param;
param.sched_priority = ;
if (sched_setscheduler(current, SCHED_FIFO, &param) != 0)
printk("set scheduler and its priority failed\n");

This effectively sets the process's scheduler to FIFO and priority to .

However, when I try insmod .ko, it complains the symbol sched_setscheduler is not found. The module insertion fails just like that. However, I tried to cat /proc/kallsyms, sched_setscheduler is right there, so I don't know what's wrong here.

If you are a newbie like me, you might be scratching your head or starts gazing the ceiling and think, why?

After one hour of trying, I eventually noticed in sched.c, after the function body is declared

int sched_setscheduler(struct task_struct *p, int policy,
                       struct sched_param *param)
{
...
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(sched_setscheduler);

The key is EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL limits the functions to be linked by modules using GPL.
And my module just didn't contain any license statement. So I added

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

Now, everything works like a charm!

2008-05-28T12:52:00.000+08:00

可抵扣稅率與股利

今年的報稅快要截止了, 還沒報的, 忘了的, 趕快去搞定一下吧。

趁現在還可以用網路報稅/二維條碼報稅先報, 過了期就只能填書面的, 可能會累死人。今年用二維條碼, 我家的印表機到最後印出來八頁洋洋灑灑一疊。(還不含要附上的證明文件)

不知道如果用手算這樣的量真的有人可以算出來嗎?

不過這不是重點, 重點是原本今年要交一筆稅的, 去年投資中鋼...等幾間公司幾張小股票, 結果今年發現核算下來, 可抵扣的稅額已經替我繳掉了, 而且還可以獲得退稅, 對於慘白的經濟狀況算是一個大好消息。

但是什麼是 "可抵扣的稅額" 與 "可抵扣稅率" 呢?

可抵扣稅額根據該公司所繳的稅金額乘以可抵扣稅率的乘積。至於可抵扣稅率到底是什麼呢? 在奇摩知識上找到了一篇淺顯易懂的說明, 即使不是學商業的人也應該可以看懂, 特此貼過來做為自己以後的參考。

這裡有人列出今年可以參考的表: URL

這是以下摘錄轉貼內容的原始網址: URL

---------- 以下為轉貼內容 ---------------------------------

由於兩稅合一，即個人所得稅和營利事業所得稅合而為一，消除重複繳稅的問題。

情況1，這個國家都要繳營利事業所得稅，但不能抵扣，也要繳個人所得稅

甲公司今年賺了100萬，繳了30萬的營利事業所得稅，假設你擁有甲公司10%的股票，你分配到7萬(100萬-30萬)*10%的股利。你要繳6%，即要繳所得稅4,200元

情況2，這個國家都要繳營利事業所得稅，但可扣抵稅個人所得稅

甲公司今年賺了100萬，但繳了30萬的營利事業所得稅，假設可扣抵稅率30%，你擁有甲公司10%的股票，你只分配到7萬(100萬-30萬)*10%的股利，也分配3萬(30萬*10%)的抵稅金，所以實際的股利也是10萬(7萬+3萬的抵稅金，你要繳6%，10萬*6%-3萬的抵稅金=你可退稅24,000元

最後結果:

差了28,200元

2008-05-27T20:38:00.000+08:00

My First Kernel Program

This blog post doesn't actually share any techniques.

If "modification" is not included, I just wrote my first Linux kernel program few days ago. It is a ring-buffer-duo program for buffering periodical data between a user-mode process and another kernel thread.

It is a small task, but means a lot to me. It is the first complete kernel program I've ever written. I learned how to build a Linux kernel module alone the way. And made a unit-test for this little program using both user-space and kernel-space ways.

Though trivial and easy. It took me some time to read document and write it from scratch. (About 1.5 days, including unit-test.) I hope I can do it faster with this experience.

Reference: Kernel Driver Model

2008-05-27T11:21:00.000+08:00

我們家很窮系列之一

我的女兒們, 從小就被教育一件不爭的事實: 我們家很窮。

女兒們常常得替自己謀福利, 最近小0小1認識了一個鄰居的三歲小朋友 "寶寶", 寶寶的特色是: 不愛吃飯。(好吧, 台灣可能還有幾十萬個小朋友有這個特色...) 他的奶奶於是乎每天隨身攜帶一個背包, 裡面滿滿的是餅乾糖果等各類零食。

因為我們家很窮, 所以沒辦法買很多零食很小0和小1吃。於是她們常常處於零食饑餓狀態中, 這位奶奶呢, 就對一直在旁邊打轉的小0 (因為發現這位奶奶會給她零食) 給很多的零食。

這些零食有些會被小0吃下肚, 但有更多的時候呢, 會被媽媽制止 "呆會晚餐會吃不下" 而沒辦法享受剩下的零食, 媽媽會說要帶回家之後再給她吃, 不過呢, 實際上很多都進了我的肚子。

難怪當爸爸的人會胖........

會覺得我們對小0太嚴格了嗎? 事實是, 她最近在零食上被媽媽管的比較嚴, 吃的少, 小1當然也是一樣受到保護管束 (不過小0會主動跑去找鄰居要食物這點實在是ooxx....), 但是這兩位女兒最近反而變胖了, 因為零食吃的少 -> 正餐吃的好 -> 晚上睡的飽 -> 變胖。

小0小1, 妳們還有許多文章會被爆料的, 等著看吧。將發表在我們家很窮系列中。

2008-05-25T23:24:00.000+08:00

我的名字叫紅 (My Name is Red)

這本書是在某網路書店上偶然看到的, 那陣子買書買得很勤, 不多加思索就敗了下去. 從2007到2008年之間, 利用隔星期六晚上的半至兩個小時慢慢的看它, 用了約半年總算讀完了這位Nobel Prize winner的大作.

這本書帶給我最大的震撼來自在土耳其這塊土地上的回教文化表面上的強烈制約力與實際人性的背離。書中一再提到許多畫師雞姦他們的年輕學徒, 似乎這在工匠坊中是種不公開的常態。在許多冗長的對話中也可以看到對話者在試探彼此心中真實的想法, 但最後得到的結論也常只是蒙蔽在對阿拉的敬意之下的場面話。

前陣子看到新聞報導至今在土耳其某些地方仍有一些陋習, 是頗令人匪夷所思的, 那篇報導中講到三個男人綁架了一個年輕女子, 目的是要女子首肯嫁給其中一位男子, 有沒有聽錯? 綁架? 不只是這樣, 他們綁架她當然是於法不容, 不過要是這個女子同意嫁了就沒罪, 因此他們便照三餐毆打這位女子, 要讓她屈打成親, 只要屈打成親, 也就沒有法律問題。這樣的習俗實在是很難理解呀~~

所以最後是好的結局收場: 一隻熊出現將三個男子嚇的拔腿就跑, 被揍的慘不忍睹的女子還被束縛著, 身上也有傷, 當然也理所當然的無法跑走。不過熊在嚇跑了三個男子後便靜靜的坐下一直到搜尋女子的幫手來了才離去。

嗯, 女孩子如果要去土耳其還是不要亂逛比較好~~

2008-05-21T21:08:00.000+08:00

老年人的生活

最近一個朋友告訴我, 她正替一間start-up工作, 這間公司的生意針對的客群是50歲以上, 主動性高的新一代老年人. 在剛聽到時馬上就覺得這是一個不容易的生意, 但也是一個對社會有正面意義的生意.

非常佩服他們的勇氣, 也為了替他們打打氣, 所以替他們打個廣告, 網址是:

** http://www.ez66.com.tw/ 樂齡網 **

跟朋友要了他們公司內的一份投影片, 翻翻之後才發現原來自己對老年人的世界的確是一點都不懂.

以前台灣稱為銀髮族 Google -> 772,000 hits, yahoo: 1,254,597, msn: 212,000 hits
現在也有人稱熟齡族 Google -> 273,000 hits, yahoo: 1,891, msn: 332 hits
新加坡則叫做樂齡族 Google -> 911 hits, yahoo: 632 hits, msn: 101 hits

這三個詞指的是一個族群, 也就是50歲以上的這一個族群.

銀髮族的生活, 隨著身體, 心理, 及週圍的人的觀感的改變, 而隨之改變, 因此生活用品的需求確實也會有所改變. 朋友工作的這間公司提供的商品服務就是鎖定生活用品這個層面.

據觀察, 目前針對熟齡族的用品還是不夠廣泛, 至少就看不出可以針對四季有一整系列的生活用品的整理出來.

但我覺得心理及生理的轉變是較用品更為需要社會共同提高這種認知的. 只是這部份不知道目前社會上到底有多少資源.

政府方面提供的資源目前看起來是台北是最多, 網站也最活躍.

底下是全省各地的老人福利單位:

http://61.60.79.3/gfweb/QandA/q00.htm

多半是些科或課級單位, 雖然我不懂政府機關的組織, 但感覺就是還應該再投入更多的人力在建設台灣成為一個幸福的島.

2008-04-22T18:51:00.000+08:00

Earth Day

Today is the Earth Day in the northern hemisphere. Above is the Earth day logo from Google.
Just to remind myself, there are a lot of things we can do for mother earth.

I plan to visit Antarctica after retirement, ya, it is still a long time from being able to. This is the question popped in recent years: If ice on Antarctica land melted, I will not be able to see any penguins there!

Some of my friends say it is not bad either because it will be much warmer. But to me, I would rather want it be what it was. Even its travel season is limited to 3~4 months in the winter, the cost is much higher, and cold weather is a risk to a retired software engineer, I STILL WANT ANTARCTICA AS IS.

2008-01-29T11:20:00.000+08:00

好心的路人捐個錢吧

看到這個新聞不由自主的想掉淚ㄋㄟ, 所以打算捐點錢共襄義舉, 我想我老婆應該會支持我才對~~
找了一下才找到捐款資訊, 它在第二則新聞最後面呦

http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/jan/26/today-north13.htm
http://blog.udn.com/yangmei320/1567663

1/26新聞

癌末老師周珮珊，往生

〔記者廖雪茹／竹北報導〕去年底放棄治療、捐出一百萬元推動國語文教育的新竹縣三十三歲癌末老師周珮珊，已於二十一日晚上往生。她的父親周朝基未發訃聞，僅訂了三百本星雲法師寫的佛書，送給前往弔唁的親友，與大家結緣。

生前在新竹縣竹仁國小任教的周珮珊，九十四年七月進修拿到國立台中教育大學語文教育研究所碩士學位，卻意外發現罹患直腸癌末期。周女治療兩年多未見好轉，去年底決定自然面對死亡，並捐出醫療費用一百萬元，盼成立「感恩基金會」，提昇學子的語文教育。

「往生，是另一個人生的開始！」周珮珊的父親周朝基，收起哀傷向親友說，女兒生前生活儉樸，但一生卻很精采，尤其是她捐出醫療費的做法，讓父母深感驕傲。她在臨走前，嘴角都掛著微笑，相信是圓滿完成了人間任務，才含笑離世。

周家以邀請函取代訃聞，請親友參加追思會，以懷念代替悼念。同時改以星雲大師的著作「星雲法語」，取代喪禮毛巾。

去年底頒發「榮譽縣民」給周珮珊的縣長鄭永金，昨弔唁時強調，將落實周老師的遺願，將每一分錢用在推動縣內國語文教育上。

教育處代理處長姜秀珠表示，礙於全國性基金會門檻需要一千萬元，縣府決定先以周老師捐出的一百萬元本金孳息，作為兒童文學獎金，再尋求社會資源。目前已獲多位竹仁國小老師響應。

1/25新聞

【新竹訊】直腸癌末、捐出一百萬醫療費作為新竹縣政府教育基金的新竹縣竹仁國小周珮珊老師，廿一日晚間往生，縣長鄭永金、議長張碧琴、縣議員黃齡慧、縣府教育處長姜秀珠等人廿五日上午前往吊唁，讚許周老師的愛心是社會的典範，鄭縣長表示會落實周老師的遺願，將每一分錢用在推動縣內國語文教育上。

周老師的父親周朝基說，女兒生前善解人意，生活儉樸，衣櫃裡都是簡單 T恤、牛仔褲，但她的一生卻很精采，珮珊去年底決定停止醫療、捐出醫療費的做法，讓他感到很驕傲。

周老師的父、母親指出，珮珊從往生到入殮嘴角都掛著微笑，相信是圓滿完成了人間任務，才含笑離世。

周老師離開人間，家人不發卜文改以邀請函的方式，邀請大家參加追思會，一般喪禮會發的毛巾，也改以星雲大師著作「星雲法語」與大家結緣。

原本周老師捐款一百萬元打算成立基金會，但基金會的門檻需有一千萬元，縣府決定先以本金孳息，作為兒童文學獎得獎作品的獎金，再尋找社會資源，讓更多人能為教育盡一分心，目前已獲多位竹仁國小老師響應。

教育局請周爸爸空出一本存褶，作為民眾捐款響應周老師的專戶，每一筆捐款縣府都會開立收據，供抵稅之用，善款請匯「渣打銀行竹北分行013200801935周朝基」。

2007-11-29T21:54:00.000+08:00

TransConnect Introduction

INTRO

As many users don't have the need for a proxy. Many applications are designed without considering the scenario that indirect connection may be needed, even NAT connections may be limited.

In the company I work for, it is a must to tunnel networked applications through a proxy server that supports CONNECT method.

The CONNECT method is a specially reserved method by HTTP, as you can see in RFC 2616. It's design was for TLS based HTTPS protocol to pass proxy servers correctly. However, it actually can be used by and is used by other protocols and applications.

If an application supports proxy server, congratulations, you can set it up and everything works happily. But if it happens to be hard to setup the proxy (like git), or the application I am about to use just don't have proxy support in it. What can I do?

Here comes transconnect.

It can be built and used without root privilege. This is nice when a certain application meets one of the two criterion:

Proxy setup is a nightmare
Doesn't support proxy at all

There are limitations, however.

The application has to be TCP based. (I guess, not verified.)
The application shall not be something like SIP, which is very bad designed for its dependency of an application layer protocol to its layer 3 address and layer 4 port number.

INSTALLATION

The download can be done within one nano-second. No configure needed. Just "make"
and "make install". It is installed in a user's home directory. "/usr//" installation is not needed and the default build works in this way, no "PREFIX" needed, either.

After it is installed, a shared object can be located "~/.tconn/tconn.so". Edit the "~/.tconn/tconn.conf" to provide transconnect the knowledge of your internal subnet setting and proxy server address .

To use it, just do the following:

LD_PRELOAD=~/.tconn/tconn.so git clone git://xxxx yyyyy

The LD_PRELOAD forces tconn.so be loaded and makes the application "git" to link its socket operations into tconn.so instead of standard socket library. "git" needs not be modified or proxy configured to be able to work from now on. Isn't it great?

CONCLUSION

Even applications support proxy, they will have to implement either refer to some environment variables for proxy setting or will have to implement a Preference to set and store it. That is one example of reinventing wheels. No matter how convenient the wheels can be made, struggles like Gnome and KDE still remain a burden for a regular user like me to be confused where to set up to make every thing moves like a charm.

Typically, I have to setup Firefox, Gnome, wget, ssh, git, svn, and so on, Synaptics Package manager just to get my Internet applications all working properly. Hope this will all end some day.

If the idea of transconnect can be adopted as part of the platform, my sleep can be tight and maybe nightmares won't come back.

2007-11-23T15:00:00.000+08:00

Our Time is Borrowed

Along the way, day to day, we are lucky that can choose what to do or not.
We do not need to fight against the void, like many poor people in third-world countries do. We do not worry about being starved tomorrow. We are responsible for our life and what we do.

We all pass away some day, big CEO, U.S. President, Bill Gates (richest). Fame doesn't go six-feet-under with us, so is shame. Make peace with the natural and stay away from extremism. It is our obligation to leave no track in the non-stop river of time.

Our time is borrowed from eternity and we all pay it back someday. And hopefully, we will have no regret if we can.

2007-11-20T23:11:00.000+08:00

對總統大選說 NO

自從有投票權以來以來, 一直對選舉這碼子事不熱衷, 倒不是覺得自己的一票沒有價值, 而是幾乎沒有看到值得去投票的政治人物。

每次的大小選舉帶來的是噪音的汙染 (選前是拉票廣播車, 選後變成謝票), 環境的污染 (旗子, 看版, ...), 漫天的政論節目 (每一台都有預設立場), 以及各種手段 (選前一夜放走路工黑函, 翻祖宗十八代, 槍擊, ...)。

唯一我關心的是政見, 所以, 花了一點時間畫了這個圖 "No Vote", 一點都不專業, 也一點都不可愛, 顏色也不好看 (但至少避開了幾個主要政黨的顏色).

就像菜價太高我們可以不買一樣, 我們不一定要挑爛芭樂, 不選不吃也是一種主張。

如果有哪位路過的朋友有美感, 可以提供更好看一點的圖, 小弟可以請吃一頓便飯。 :)

2007-11-19T15:34:00.000+08:00

A Note for Myself - Linkin Park tour, Taiwan, 2007/11/16

It's a pity I couldn't join this concert. But we got too many things to pity for in our short life. So, I can still enjoy the fun part. That is, buy their album and enjoy.

The playlist:

1.No more sorrow
2.Lying from you
3.Somewhere I belong
4.Wake+Given up
5.From the inside
6.Don't stay
7.Papercut
8.Petrified
9.Point of authority
10.Shadow of the day
11.What i've done
12.Numb
13.Push me away 《抒情版》
14.Hands held high
15.breaking the habit
16.In the end
17.Crawling
18.One step closer
19.The little things give you away
20.Cure for the itch(Mr.Hann超屌刮碟秀)
21.Bleed it out(rob 神之鼓技+chaz與大家互動 hey ho~ oh ho ~)
22.Faint+加長版ending

2007-09-12T13:28:00.000+08:00

莒光日

莒光日 is a brainwash lesson we have to take during the military service. Obligatory or non-, you have to join it.

Some says the company I am working for (its name can not be told) has military-like administration. I don't quite agree with that.

1.a. 莒光日 take place on Thursday morning. Which is a waste of military service time.
1.b. The company whose name can not be told takes 莒光日 on Saturday morning. It effectively remove the burden of 莒光日 from our daily job.
2.a. 莒光日 starts at 8:00am, we usually need to leave the dorm at 7:45 so we will not be late.
2.b. The company whose name can not be told takes 莒光日 at 8:00am, too. But, as a difference, I am healthier because I always wake up before 6:30 and catch the bus at 7:00am so I won't miss any piece of lesson.

That's the advantages I can found so far. Will update if found anything new.

2007-08-21T17:29:00.000+08:00

We can do something!

Just saw a sign on the greenpeace blog:

When the last RIVER is POISONED.
When the last TREE is DEAD.
When the last FISH is CAUGHT.
then we realize we CANT EAT MONEY.

It is one of the reasons I ate fewer fishes these days, ... etc.

We all can do something, for mother earth.

2007-08-07T09:56:00.000+08:00

Ubuntu Desktop

The key question for the Linux community has been asked since the Linux appeared is: When will Linux be on regular user's desktop?

There is no immediate answer for this question. It is like asking when *someone* will be grown up. The question itself doesn't make any sense to us. It only makes sense to business men who want to make money from it.

I think we should refine the problem to be: When will Linux Desktop be mature enough for (non-technical user) daily use? I am not qualified to answer this question since I am in technical industry. But I think Linux is just one-step away from it. It is capable of doing most of my daily routines and it looks cute (friendly).

For years, I've been waiting for a Linux distribution similar Ubuntu. Ubuntu is by far the most excited distro to me. I have no access (and lazy) to any formal statistics. But to now, the most widely used distros around me are: Fedora and Ubuntu. SUSE is not popular here but shall be strong in the desktop Linux.

Fedora is popular mostly because many RedHat Linux has been there for years and most engineers (who has no interest in specific OS) had experience with some RedHat Linux generation back to their years in school.

Ubuntu is more friendly than other distros and is best rated among users. Its default sudo only superuser design is way better than others. But the engineers mentioned in previous paragraph just will not give it a chance because people tend to use what they were used to, but not keep trying everything new. Another positive strategic for Ubuntu is (if you ever visited Canonical's hiring page) the embedded distro it is developing. However, the relationship with chipvendors is more important to deliver a quality BSP with lowest (maybe $0) royalty.

SUSE is backed by the agreement with Microsoft. As we can easily see in news, it is getting a good result from enterprise market. But the natural of being so commercialized could imply a strategy for making most milk out of its Linux distro, which in terms could imply it is not going to fully support poor users like me.

I predict Ubuntu to be the overwhelming one in Linux desktop market, as long as it doesn't try the server market. At the same time, I predict Microsoft to be the loser in the Linux competition as people has found out: Re-invent the 5th wheel of a van that Microsoft did is a waste of brain cells.

Ubuntu needs to keep its focus on strengthening an idiot-proof platform and making an GUI-only user be able to live happily with Ubuntu. And maybe creating a platform for users to customize their Ubuntu as easy as Firefox's Add-on management. (This one is what I want most.)

Hard to agree? Let's wait and see.

2007-07-30T17:27:00.000+08:00

What Will You Do?

Omega is a legendary rocker. I haven't seen him in a couple years. But, he is the kind of person you will never forget if you know him. Why? Maybe it is because I've known him for so long. Maybe it is because he is just the kind of person. Maybe it is because of him!

We studied in the same university. Though we major in very different departments, we knew each other through the Rumors, rock N roll, club. No, that is not true, actually, I knew him before we both joined the club. I firstly met him at ChengKung Camp as we both served our obligatory short-term military service after passed college entrant exam.

Not only our majors differ, Omega is very different from me, too. He is an ACTION HERO. This says Omega joined many off-campus activities to prompt Rock N Roll. He created at least one annual activity that was later took over by Freddy (閃靈樂團). I can still remember the days I helped moving speakers, AMPs, and other intruments down/up stairs just to perform an hour long show to the public.

Maybe Omega has accumulated enough thoughts. He later becomes active in writing articles. The articles he wrote are very impressive and straight to the point of problems. He does not write bullshits. (I am trying to make this blog post as concise as possible. But I just can't do it well like Omega did, sorry.)

I could rarely trust a friend like Omega. He doesn't try to be a famous person, never try to control of anything. But he had always played his role best. As a rocker, Omega will remain in the history of rock in Taiwan. It is never his tend to be in any history, but he will.

What (significant) will you do? I am not asking you but myself.

2007-05-17T09:43:00.000+08:00

Here is a presentation file, please download and try to figure out what it is talking about:

http://www.cs.washington.edu/orgs/student-affairs/gsc/offices/old/433/PoCSi43302/papers/dougz.ppt

I guess you might not able understand, and confused like me, here is the author's presentation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk

Enjoy ;->

2007-05-14T09:57:00.000+08:00

The Advertisement War

Recently, news about the merge of Microsoft and Yahoo buzzes. In my opinion, this is not going to happen. Because both of them are not willing to be leaded by the other one.

Even the case has turned out to have a real result. It will be a part of Microsoft merging with a part of Yahoo. And it is not going to end up with a good return.

Let's back to the ground, what is the deal all about? It is about is the advertisement business. Both Yahoo are Microsoft are striving to get larger market share in the advertisement business to survive in the market.

However, what they have not figured out is that the key is not the current market share, but future.

If a bigger market share guarantees you a better future, then how the heck did Google beat Doubleclick, which had been the dominant force back at Internet bubble age. Not mentioning how Google beated Yahoo and Microsoft in the past years.

Yes, the issue here is they just don't get it.

The key is to provide what user wants in user wanted ways. Not what the business strategy wants to provide. To fetch revenue from the provided contents (in Google's case, search engine and other services), never try to maximize the profit, trying to maximize the user's interaction experience and let the advertisement been least interfering to user experience will do good to your revenue.

Doubleclick is a role model (a bad one) of this, it's advertisements are still very disturbing when I surf through web sites with ads from it. So its click rate should be lower than others.

But hey, you still have a chance. Microsoft and Yahoo still have chances. Google has been successful because it followed the principle of clean ads. Somehow it is promoting its services on top of its search results. I even saw advertisements on top of its search results. This is an extremely stupid idea. Google didn't do this before (that's part of the reason that it has been so successful) but is doing this now (that's why you have a chance) to getting exposure for its services.

Google is now increasing its ratio in disturbing users. This is your chance!
Create us some clean and rich services, please.

2007-02-22T12:21:00.000+08:00

SETI Finally Finds Something

This is the news title I saw a few minutes ago and I was delighted about it. I installed SETI's software a long time ago to help finding extraterrestrial intelligence, a.k.a., aliens. Wikipedia has a page about SETI.

SETI@Home is the project to use computation power from Internet users that are willing to donate their available CPU cycles to help searching for patterns in signals captured from outer space. SETI@Home has found something useful: one of the volunteers found his wife's stolen laptop using IP address reported by the SETI@Home client installed on it. After getting back the laptop, his wife said that she always knew a geek would make a good husband.

2007-02-14T09:45:00.001+08:00

Taiwan De-han movement.

去中國化運動最近由台灣的執政黨以各種名目大張旗鼓的進行中

去中國化運動其實正確的名稱, 應是脫漢運動. http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8E%BB%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E5%8C%96#.E5.8F.B0.E7.81.A3.E5.8E.BB.E4.B8.AD.E5.9C.8B.E5.8C.96.E7.9A.84.E6.B0.91.E9.96.93.E6.95.88.E6.9E.9C

我個人對這個運動沒有什麼特定立場 (neutral), 這裡要講的是可以搞笑的東西, 基本上這個運動中對很多單位, 設施進行改名, 將中國, 中華, 中山等字樣改成台灣.

例如:

中華航空 -> 台灣航空
中華郵政 -> 台灣郵政
..... 等等, 族繁不及備載~~

重點來了, 有些地方應該要改名的沒改到:

中山北路 -> 台山北路
中山路 -> 台山路
中華大學 -> 台灣大學
中台禪寺 -> 台台禪寺

Got an idea??

2007-02-12T22:49:00.000+08:00

wii are here

I bought one wii today. The salesman shipped it to my company before I leave office, after I called him at 2:00pm. So I came home and installed it. I think it is not a real problem to install it. The only issue to me is it's a Japanese based machine. And I need to try-n-err on operation modes.

Two of my colleagues came and tried it out. We concluded that many others did. We like the tennis game most. Bowling the 2nd. Hopefully we will see more interesting games. I personally believe wii will bring Nintendo back to #1. This is definitely true for sports/shooting/fighting games. For real-time strategy or RPG games, I wish they can find a new play mode, too.

I am happy that I bought this machine. Wish the sport games can help shake me up a little bit, too. Losing some pounds can be a benefit besides nice mood. Maybe for you, too.

2007-02-07T22:08:00.000+08:00

A Better World (a wish I hope will happen in Taiwan, someday)

As we consider this country a democratic one. How mature it is has been a doubt on my mind for a long time. Can outcome of democracy procedure reflect the real needs? Can the politicians stand out for every one (or most) living on this island? Can we trust what we see?

There were politicians won campaigns in ridiculous ways and there will be. Believe or not, it has been the way for a long time. And there is no foreseeable future I believe this situation will vanish some day. This is why I do not vote. Honestly I voted a presidential campaign once to a candidate I think he is a very kind person with good manner. And I think he could have a problem passing the lower vote count limit. I never voted with this as the only exception.

Transparency. The opacity of performance of politicians is not far from good enough. The campaign is more like a battle of marketing: the point is not your product, but how you sell it. So it is not uncommon that good candidates are ruled out simply because they do not know have enough money marketing themselves.

What I want is a website to completely document every politician. What they have promised in which campaign and what they did in the end. Everyone can criticize and score politicians. A big public project done can be linked to every politician involved, and contribution can be the dividend and distributed to each one.

In this way, when the political spectrum is built against every politician. I believe more people will care bout which politician is more suitable for a certain position than that his political tendency. And maybe, a better world.

2006-12-11T13:15:00.000+08:00

The competition between Google, Yahoo, and MSN has continued for a long time. In my opinion, however, Yahoo and MSN are not getting the idea behind Google since the beginning.

So far, they do not stand a chance in the competition. And they will not be able to catch up in a short time frame. The reason behind is: they are not focused on the real cash-cow and does not have the dynamic culture to keep up the changing environment and innovating applications.

Every now and then, there are observers, journalists, and analysists trying to predict what business Google is going to cut in. Like the bidding business, many of them believes Google will join the bidding marketing at some time, becoming eBay's major competitor. It turned out to be a false alarm.

Google's sole business is: online advertisement. It creates innovative applications, buys start-ups, implements existing applications with new thinking for domains other than search, that is dominant for now. It will continue to keep search its core technolog. Buy start-ups that dominant in new applications. And in-house implement applications in ways different than others.

That says, it is not Google's intent to follow its competitors and fight its competitors face-to-face. The "different ways" is the key to make its applications like elegant gadgets, and differs from its competitors. The better design it is, the better ground it gains. Existing applications from competitors can hardly change their shape due to the familiarity of their users.

And all these applications will not be its cash-cow. Its sole cash-cow is online advertising. Google is not creating/buying applications to make money. It does so to show its ad to more users.

Google is making money only from search and ad. And this is not going to change in a short time. Personally I think the search *business* is not going to grow real big because companies tend to have a certain way organize its data and the data access is often restricted in some way. For the enterprise search demand, I think the source code search will be more valuable.

To compete with Google, a company need to adjust the mind of its employees. Using a more creative and dynamic way. If a company wants to compete with Google, it has to develop a culture that engineers' opinion will be much respected, not the CEOs or managers. Most companies tend to have a schedule to follow and the engineers are forced to follow the schedule. In this way, engineers will not feedback their opinions at the first moment they have found a possible improvement, since they have a schedule to keep up.

If your schedule is to be changed at any moment because your project design is found to have some flaws, what would you do? What would Yahoo and MSN do? What will the marketing guys from these big companies do?

The above is totally my personal opinion. Any comments wlecome.

2006-11-22T11:29:00.000+08:00

The first post! Due to the compatibility of xuite blog site with Firefox, I decide to move to this blog site.