Wednesday, September 28, 2005

今天在全家看到的leaflet...

今天中午在全家無聊亂逛
看到一個董氏基金會的"憂鬱症量表"
就試了一下...
做完, 拿了32分, 心想這麼好拿分, 有憂鬱症的應該超過50了吧...

結果...28分以上就是最嚴重的了...

well, uh...

Monday, September 26, 2005

車社迎新

今天到了迎新茶會的教室後我真的完全被嚇到了,好~多~新~生~啊!

於是基於好奇的心理,每一個都先問為什麼想來、怎麼知道關於車社的事?本來以為會來車社的都是經朋友介紹或有興趣自己找上門。結果竟然都是逛社團聯展的! 原來社團聯展這麼有效。不過我會因此感到驚訝也因為沒參加過啦。沒錯,我三年級了還不知道社團聯展長什麼樣子!一年級新生訓練完直接去系上新生宿營; 二年級辦新生宿營忙到忘了它的存在; 今年還在環島……。

所謂後生可畏,今年新生有的已經有騎乘經驗,有的已經對各車廠、零件很熟; 還聽說有學妹可以用淑女車平地騎40km/hr!!!(我平均的2倍XD)這不是要逼我以後多拿校園車到瑞芳練山路?

嗯,社長在迎新還沒結束就把新生全帶去買安全帽了。這對他們的安全是有幫助啦。不過第一天就全拉進後宮,小心以後沒社對業績哦!

(Feel free to comment)

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Warning: the iPod nano expires in less then a week?


http://www.flawedmusicplayer.com/

Just days ago, we were astonished by the release of the beautiful new iPod nano.
But now, seems like the beautiful LCD color screen of the iPod nano is going to break within a few days of your purchase. A quick view of the site tells you that most of them broke in about 4 days, without any noticable pressure applied to the iPod.

I can't confirm if everything on the site is real, since I don't personally own one, but there's already a scary amount of related feed back there, considering how less days had the nano been on the market. So you'd might need to do some more research on this, read more about it, if you're planning to buy one.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

環島後記(9/12~9/17)

前一天晚上已經打包完成,車也一切準備完成。但因還是對光頭胎缺乏安全感,怕會打滑; 半夜還夢見自己在北宜公路九彎十八拐過彎側滑; 於是清晨2點起來換回顆粒胎﹒﹒﹒
>出發
4AM 從校門口出發,本來要一起去卻有事的唯中騎著淑女車來替我們送行。(害我一度以為他要淑女車環島orz)唯中很hi的拍了照之後,我們上路。在市區 以時速30hm/hr很快的來到了北宜公路。人家說"紅綠燈是當參考的",柚子卻是完全的"信號無視",害我每停完一個紅綠燈就要加速追上他。

>雙人出發,單人環島
柚 子的速度爆快的,還是個騎20幾公里都不必休息的死變態,我一下子就被甩開。然後因為努力的拉高速度想追上,每天都有不同的毛病產生。膝蓋痛、大腿痛、 背直肌酸痛、手痛、肩膀痠,甚至腸胃不舒服都有: 結果我的速度反而越來越慢,一天能看到柚子的次數幾近個位數,幾乎只用手機聯絡……好吧,我這自不量力的跟錯人。一個人獨自賞風景,自己決定何時休息也還 不錯。不過柚子專門騎到離我還有幾十公里外的地方先找住宿,自己先享樂,然後打電話叫我自己慢慢夜騎倒是令人頗為不爽。(雖然說這樣才能6天環完……)

>遠離平日生活塵囂
環島,除了以騎車看風景滿足自己喜歡旅行的心之外,也暫時逃離了日常生活的煩惱。實驗、社團工作和一切心事拋諸腦後,以另一種步調過一個禮拜的生活。
此外,也暫時遠離了好人的怨念XD
同 行只有另一個男人,省道上也不常見同年齡的女生; 注意力完全在路上和兩旁風景。只是在宜蘭新城的警察在聊天時對我說: 「看你一臉忠厚老實的樣子應該還沒有女朋友; (然後對柚子說)像這位應該就有!」(此時柚子心中: 靠!我才剛被甩啦!)你是說我有好人臉是吧!好啦,我不否認啦,真有你的。

>休息點
除 了半路上累了在路邊停下來休息之外, 有兩種特別的休息點: 警察局和7-Eleven。警察局可以休息、喝水、上廁所、問路、和警察聊天; 7-Eleven則是覓食補給的好地方。各地派出所各有其特色,宜蘭的往往都有很漂亮的建築設計,臺東的有濃濃的原住民氣息,臺南的最有人情味……不過共 通點是警察伯伯們除非忙不過來,不然都非常親切,比以經不錯的7-Eleven好幾十倍。這次旅行讓我對警察的印像完全改觀。而7-Eleven也是各地 略有不同。東部的都很大,加上停車位、廁所、座位,真是個很好的休息點。南部有些"有點偏僻又不會太偏僻的"有思樂冰和重量杯喔!
>蘇花公路
據 說是最難的一段,但我還滿喜歡的。(嘉南平原才真是痛苦啊)當初膝蓋開始痛時就是為了想體驗惡名招彰的蘇花而忍痛繼續的。它平常很多沙石車,路面凸不平 又狹窄,而且共要爬三座山。不過我們騎的時候車很少,天氣又好。而延途的海景真的是美不勝收,而那三段下坡也真的很棒。總之那真的有種說不出來的爽感。



>臺灣南端
臺東到墾丁之間的海岸在陽光的照耀下有如電影中的夏威夷一般,平整的路面,右鄰青山,左靠蔚藍海面,頭上還有
藍天白雲,如此完美的體驗一開始還很難相信是真實的。
之後經南迴公路爬入山中,發現有如世外桃源的原住民部落: 東源村。這山谷有湖,有青青草原,還有一大片野薑花。傍晚的村中,大家似乎都已吃飽飯坐在家門口聊天、乘涼、看日落。很喜歡這樣悠閒的感覺。
晚上住旭海的民宿。(民宿老闆竟只請吃煮泡麵當晚餐,而那小村中也沒啥其它東西吃,餓啊~)當地的免費公共溫泉澡堂,很神奇的讓每一家民宿都可以無成本號稱「溫泉民宿」。不過公共溫泉澡堂正擴建中,所以是在鋼筋、水泥碎片之間以溫泉水沖澡。

>大逆風
一 般來講,臺灣夏天應該都是吹西南風,所以我們在東部南下時有點小逆風是應該的,而且風實在不大。而花東縱谷中因有山阻擋,可說是幾乎沒風。不過當我們在 墾丁往北轉時,風向卻跟著我們轉,而在我們到西岸時正好變成正北風!(據說在菲律賓莫名其妙的出現一個可惡的雲團造成的)而我們在西岸走濱海,無山擋風, 於是必需很廢力的龜速前進。若是在爬山路,多花的體力至少還可儲存為位能,在下爬路段很快樂的把它用掉; 但逆風時那體力卻是完全的浪費掉了。

>耍廢
話 說在東部時我可以為了美景忍住身體上的痛苦繼續前進; 在西部卻是個不好忍受的折磨。在西岸不但要逆著強大的北風前進,身邊還是極其無聊的魚塭和少數農田。我可以在一段100公里的路段中從頭到尾都看到一模一 樣的魚塭,簡直就沒有前進過。在這樣無趣又累人的路段中,我的雙腿還是在痛。於是在速度拉不上20km/hr又沒有繼續前進的誘因下,我決走在臺中放棄; 沒想到想耍廢也不容易。
離 濱海公路最近的火車站不讓我的單車上車,那些混蛋還收我退票手續費(怒),臺鐵果真是人渣的大本營……。於是我只好到臺中坐國光客運。走臺12從濱海到臺 中市竟然還要爬一座山,花了我2個多小時; 最扯的是我還經過大大小小共四所不同的大學!臺灣的大學浮濫程度可見一斑。
國光客運算我的愛車一張半票(需拆車包好),票上還寫著「寵物票」。呵呵,寵物是吧?

>Aftermath

Lance Armstrang在他的書中說過﹕「我們騎單車的都有點自虐頃向。」嗯,我現在手臂很黑,左臉脫皮中,全身汗斑奇癢,手腳痠痛一個禮拜了,手指無力,膝 蓋也還在痛,還一直咳嗽……果真有自殘到,不過磨破皮的胯下倒是好了。我想,騎車暴力環島是為了速度感和風景的視覺享受而不管身體的皮肉之苦吧!

Friday, September 23, 2005

評馬英九

話說馬英九一直被稱為"不沾鍋", 麻煩的是永遠跟他無關.

最近我對他當上國民黨主席後還想當"不沾鍋"還頗怒的.

國會空轉2天, 他的回應是: 我想立院黨團會做出最好的決定.

軍購預算被封殺, 又是: 那是立院黨團的事.

拜託, 一切都是立院黨團的事, 都跟你無關? 你黨主席是當假的? 你以為你是君主立憲式無責任精神領袖嗎?

試想, 如果一個國家去入侵鄰國, 而其總統卻說: "侵略行動是國軍做的決定, 我是愛好和平的", 而置身事外, 你作何感想?

身為黨主席, 卻不為自己領導的黨做任何辯解或負責, 到底是自己管不住自己的黨, 懒得管還是不為自己的決定負任何責任我不知道. 不過在我的眼裡, 我覺得馬主席只不過是個會在鏡頭前微笑講客套畫的演藝人員. 這些特質(不就是林志玲的工作內容嗎), 去當名模搞不好還比較適合.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

An exciting day for mobile music

Apple just reveled several new products yesterday, but before the excitement had time to fade, Sony also released new products. The mobile music market is getting in hotter battle with time. Seems like Apple and Sony are going to dual it off with their iPods and Walkmans. The result? Many great choices for us customers.

Apple:

iPod nano comparison
The iPod Nano was the most significant bomb here. Completly replacing the iPod mini, it comes in 2gig and 4gig flavors, and using flash memory, instead of relatively fragile Hard disks. Also, as a result, they're extreemly thin (Apple compared it to a pencil), have better battery life. But what makes me like it so much, is that there's finally a black colored iPod, with a color screen. iPods are certainly getting better.
Motorola ROKR phone
Also just out, is the Motorola iTunes phone, named ROKR. Which, in my opnion, is great software in ugly hardware. Crap. Apple should've designed the casing.

On the software side, iTunes was just upgraded to version 5. The big change is a more beautiful look, and integrated language packs(which makes iTunes be in the same language as your OS). The search function is also super charged. But, no big changes since it's already so good a piece of software that there's not much places to improve.

Sony:
Now, the revenge of the old Walkman kingdom.

First of all, the Walkman A series. There's the A3000 and A1000 series which has a 20gig and 6gig HD, respectivly. And the flash based A600, from 2gig to 256MB, which is just an upgrade of the previous E500/E400 series. All use dazling mono colored OLEDs, which although not a color screen, are still vary cool. They are touting a new built-in music search function and cool designs. However, I guess I can't say much before I get to play with one.

And, comming with the new walkmans, Sony included a whole new software to replace the highly critisized Sonicstage: The Connect player. Don't know much about it yet, since I can't find much about it on Sony's site, but looks like an iTunes clone at my first sight of a thumbnail. Although I believe that Sony isn't a company that likes to copy form other, I hope that it'll be as easy to use as iTunes. However, 1 bas thing. While iTunes and Sonicstage are free downloads, the Connect player seems to only come with the new walkmans for now.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

The Web Revolution 2.0 part II

(Click on the links to get farther explainations of the word)

  • Web on-the-go
Ok, everyone agrees that the internet changes our lives dramaticaly. However, those conveninces are restricted to the time you're in front of a computer, which is ony when you're at home, school or office, right? Think again. Enter the next best thing: Mobile internet clients. The web changed our lives in doors, next, it's going to effect every part of your life.

Actually, it's not such a new concept. The amazing people at Palm(the company that brought us the kind of PDA that we're most familar with) already did a web-connected wireless PDA(the Palm VII) in the mid 90's. However, the Palm connected to a propriatory network with limited content instead of the World Wide Web; connection is also limited to select US cities. Another flunk was the WAP protocol that's added on to the GSM phone system, which was slow, expensive and also not compatable with the popular WWW. Mean while the PHS and PDC (which was what iMode first run on)phone systems in Japan, while also only had access to a propriatory network with limited content became a hit in Japan due to fast speeds, cheaper rates and a special life style of the Japanese. And that past had lead to the recent sucess of 3G phone services there.

But what's really important is not just mobile content, but also, the network that we are all familer with, which is compatabilities with open standards such as the WWW, HTML webpages and email. The first sucessful tecchnology that I know of is WIFI(IEEE 802.11, also known as WLAN), which was first supported by Apple by the name "Airport" in it's notebooks. Then Palm came out with the Tungsten C handheld, and Sony with it's Clie NX70v which supports a WIFI card. But those were far before their time, at a time when there weren't much WIFI hotspots(access points that send/recieve signals to/from a gadget' radio and provide web access) around. But the number of hotspots gradually grew, first in offices and schools. And then about 2 years ago, Intel started to promote notebook processor and WIFI radio packages under the Centrino brand, and promoted the set up of public hotspots, which really jump started the WIFI standard. Now all major corporate offices and universities have WIFI access, and many big cities have them, too. It is also said that you can get a free access anywhere in New York.

But some people don't like to be restraned to hotspots. Here's where data access over cell networks comes in. GPRS and PHS systems had provided this for years, where your phone acts as your modem, which connects to your laptop or palmtop. But GPRS is slow and expensive while PHS is restricted to cities and are only used in Japan and regions near by such as Taiwan. Now 3G systems are suposed to do this fast and cheep, but we'll see. I've heard that some data technology called EVDO works well in the US with smartphones(PDA phones), but never seen it in person.

Anyway, with WIFI and 3G, you can easily see how a mobile network can spread and change all parts of our life, where ever you go(almost). You can do most of the work, like viewing sites, sending documents, Email and IM, all on the go with handheld devices that are connected to the net. But actually, we PDA loving geeks are already doing that.

(This article was written on a Sony Clie PDA)

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Oops! Forgot to celebrate my blog's aniversery

It's been pretty busy for the past few days that I forgot about it!
Anyways, more then 1 year has passed since I started bloging August 27 of last year.
I've tried many different title backgrounds before I settled down with this one. Changed my overall posting style every once in a while, and traffic has gone up and down with the popularity if the content.
Posting frequency has dropped last month due to my busy life style and my mood. But I now started to type more and more on my PDA, and posting has gone up again.
Also, I guess this has turned out to be mainly an English blog, rather then a multi-language blog. I originally tried to post in both English and Chinese to appeal to more readers, and tried Japanese postings for fun, but turns out that most of my thought are in English, so I got tired of translating stuff. And Japanese postings once scared off one of my friends from reading my blog, so I'm dropping it, I guess.

Well, blogging has been an intresting hobby for the past year, and I'd continue doing is for as long as I have the time to, and thanks for reading!!^^
---

Speaking of languages...
I now think and take notes in English, jot down todo lists and appointments in Japanese, and Chinese has become only a language of speech and reading for me... Looks like something's happening to my "Language-switching mechanism" in my brain...:P

The essence of lab experiments

Since it's impossible to have every experiment sucessful, I start to think the most important part of doing experiments is debuging. Starting with reading your lab notes and contemplating the possible problem, listing it all out, and then designing methods to tackle the problem. Then you execute your plan, obtain your results and do more brain storming, determining if you've found the answer or plan your next move if not. It most've been those chalenges and brain storming that make doing lab work truly exciting. No wonder experiment classes with predesigened protocols always seem more dull then nessesary.

Friday, September 02, 2005

A thought on the New Orleans tragedy

Absolutly terrible.

It just gets more frightening with every other news story you read. Some one who was evacuated to the superdome even said that he'd rather be in Iraq. It made us here inTaiwan, where another trapical storm just passed yesterday, seem like living in paradise. We had high mountains to destroy a typhoon, while they had a bowl shapped land that invites floods.

One good part, though. Yesterday the American Red Cross website was so clogged up by people intrested in the "New Orleans Relief fund" program. Maybe you could check it out when the traffic is a little lower.
link

Thursday, September 01, 2005

The Web Revolution 2.0 (part I)

It is frequently mentioned in the news that when the internet came into our life, it changed our lives a lot. Starting with the launch of Netscape and followed by the dot com boom, it totally changed our life style. But it's not over yet, here's a new round of revolution that's under going on the web.
(Please click on the links if you don't know that word)

  • Homemade Media
It all started with blogs. People are slowly getting tired of traditional news media, which often contains boring or make belief stuff. Someone eventualy started to set up sites that are a bunch of self written articles, posted in time order. It was called a "web log", which was then abreviated to "blog", and a whole new type of web site was born. All kinds of stuff was written, all sorts of people wrote them, and readers like the style of writing which differs from the traditional stuff. But the biggest blow came when a blog pointed out some thing wrong in a TV news report during the last US presidentual election. The ancher man was doomed and blogs are hotter then ever. Some blogs even feature first-hand news reports that renew faster then the news onTV, and are also mentioned or refered-to from time to time in newspapers.

And came podcasts, which some say are audio blogs. Homemade talk shows were recorded and uploaded to the web. Now people can not only get music from their portable players, but also weekly programing. And since iPods don't come with radio tuners, people are already tuning less to radio shows. With podcasts, there's even less reasion to turn on the radio. When Apple came out with iTunes 4.9 which handles podcast subscriptions easily, traditional radio networks got the message that podcasts were a big threat, and started to make podcasts of their own. But it's not just the fresh feel and convinence of podcasts that made it popular, I particularly love the "homemade" feel of them, which aften contains lots of um's, yeah's, let-me-see's, pauses, sometimes with a little static, friendly tones and best of all, they're in much more flavors that you could find just the flavor you like the most. What's more, no ads that come with long disclaimers. The programs are made because the host love his topic, just as his audiance; not for a profit. Wired once listed some company podcasts which are actualy ads disguised as personal podcasts, which are hysterical and lost the sprit of the original casts.

The underlying thing that made blogs and podcasts to be so special is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, which automatically sends the latest posts or recording the whoever that subscribes. This reduces the need for the receptant to check by him/herself for new content; instead, whatever new update is actively presented to the receptant in real time.

So what's next of this "grass roots media"(as journalests like to put it)? After the realm of newspapers/magazines and radio shows are tackled, what's left other then TV? When video taking and editing is easy enough, and the bandwidth is cheep enough, I'd guess that homemade TV shows would become more and more common, and of course, published on the web with RSS. By showing the traditional media the power of the mass, we could force them to offer better, improved content then what they offer now.
(To be continued...)