Today @ BK

There was this guy standing in the food prep. area, with his arms crossed in front of him, doing nothing except staring at the employees. I guess he must be a superviser or something close. And boy did you see his face, he had this expression that looks as if someone just slaped his face and took his wallet! Surely not a pleasent look. I guess it mustn't feel too good working in front of him(^○^).
But hay, didn't he notice that a customer is looking at him? They should of taught him not to give the "look" to customers...

News: What? you're taking pictures with that MD walkman??

No kidding, you could actually take pictures with a MD walkman.
Sony just released the new MZ-DH10P MD walkman. It has a tiny color screen, a 1.3Mega pixel digicam, and plays the new 1GB Hi-MD. I'd say it's a great gadget, only if it wasn't an MD.
Yeah, it can take pictures, it's got great design, it's got a color screen, ... But, why would you want an MD walkman when you can carry much more music on a HDD based MP3 player? MD's are like so phased out that a BestBuy store I went to was clearing them out a year ago.

Com'on, Sony , wake up to the reality. We want HDD, not MD!

Nearly killed my Clie!

I was just playing with some dangerous software on my clie, then found some system files corrupt. So I tried to delete the files I just installed. But the OS thought it was a system file, not letting me delete it, forcing me to do a hard reset. So I pushed on the power switch and pressed the reset button...but all I got is a normal reset. This is when I realized that my power switch died! Damn!
I tried to manually delete the bad files, but still to no avill.
Now I had only 3 more options left:
1.drain the battery to flush all data in the RAM(which might take hours or even a whole day)
2.send it to get the power switch repaired, which I'm sure would result in the Clie being away for a whole month.
3.unplug the battery, again to flush all data in the RAM.(which, is risky as I don't know if the battery would go wrong)
For time's sake, I took the 3rd solution, which might be the fastest.
.............................................
So I took off the battery cap and unpluged the battery power cord.
I waited for a few secends then pluged it back in, and...
All I got is a white screen and the power indicator LED flashing on and off...
Now I'm busted.
I repluged it, or repluged it to the AC adapter, but still, the same thing happened again and again.
Durring this, the reset button only temporily stopped the LED flashing.
-Panic--Panic--Panic--Panic--Panic-
I gave up and considered sending it in for a repair, then realized that that means that I'd have to go back to a paper based dayplaner, and copy over everything from my computer to my paper dayplaner...at least 3 hours going down the drain.
After considering that terrible thought, I pluged in the battery once again, minutes after my last try, and...

IT WORKED!!!

I was sooooo happy to see the friendly "Palm powered" logo back again. And it was so good that MS backup worked smoothly as usual. Now my clie is alive again, only that the power switch is dead(not broken but simply not responding). Good thing that the 4 main buttons still turns on the clie.

Firefox: security update(ver.1.01)

a new security update, firefox 1.01 is out.
it is said on mozilla.org that "The security update for Firefox includes several fixes to guard against spoofing and arbitrary code execution."
I guess you won't feel much difference, but it's a fixed version so it's safer, right?
go over to mozilla.org to update if you'd like to :)

photos:日月潭

日月潭照片
還包括大家下樓梯的影片
-----------
Photos took with Sony Clie NX-73V(j), photo size:640*320pixels

Alright, clies are dead.

This is a really sad day.

It is said that Sony would stop production of clies in Japan after July.
I guess all we could do is save up and buy a new one before that as a backup PDA.

Although in most markets, new and better thing well eventually phase out the old products, but after a year and a half with my clie, I didn't see any non-clie released afterwards that is better then my clie. PalmOne never did any model right after the Palm Vx; and microsoft stuff is always too complex, buggy. and never user friendly.

Wish my clie can live on for years to come...

Related:
1src news | discussions

從醫學院回來的路上...

在這濕濕冷冷的夜裡
漂著雨 視線不明

在這下著雨的夜裡
我無腦的仁愛路的騎樓下高速騎單車

每遇到有起伏的路段就抬龍頭
得意的往前跳 然後加速繼續

在這黑黑的夜裡
我在騎樓下摔車
臉頰撞到了地板
頭微暈 嘴裡流出了紅紅的液體...

在這下著雨的黑夜中
我哀怨的騎著車 回到學校
帶著還在痛的頭
和破裂微腫的嘴唇

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

下次騎車到醫學院我要戴安全帽!

Rumer: New clie comming out?(also: new Appshelf update)

It is said that Sony might come out with a new clie (in japan, of course) in the new future.
They said that it would be a successor of the TH55, and it would look more like a vaio then a clie.
Some say it would have never to be seen innovations(some say new features, some say new form factor).

...Lets hope that one of those innovations is the use of Palm cobolt(OS6)(this is not in the rumer, though)

related:
1src: new Clie coming soon
mobile read: A Sony Clie TH55 successor soon? There's hope!
Palm Addict: Rumor of New Clie to replace TH55 in Japan

-------------------------------------------------------------
Also, Appshelf is recently updated to Ver.1.2Beta3
Major improvements that I notced include:(please check the website for a full list)
1. support for the new landscape app for clies, loads seperate wallpapers for landscape and portrait mode.
2. embedded simple file browser.
3. the extension can now be placed on all 4 sides of the screen.

Palm OS not attractive any more to some developers?

Some how, that's what I feel. Here's why:
1.New software for palm don't appear as frequently as before. I'm seeing less new software now.(or is it just me?)
2.Skype made a PPC version, but said there are no plans for a Palm version.
3.Mozilla is looking for Win CE developers for it's new mobile browser project(minimo). But why aren't they looking for Palm developers? (I would like to see Mozilla on my Clie)
4.There are lots of CF and SDIO accessaries on the market, (like CF modems, WIFI cards, GPS recevers...etc), but with few exception, they only come with drivers for PPC, but none for Palm.
5.Almost all the new comers of the handheld market use PPC, we seldom see new Palm licencees.(I've seen some where that there are about 50+ companys making PPC; while the number of Palm licencees are scarce, and many of them haven't came out with new handhelds for a long time.)

I don't know what's the problem, but PPC is getting all the news now a days, and I don't see Palmsource doing anything about it. All I see is cobalt(OS6) siting there for a year with no one intrested yet. Come on, man, DO SOMETHING. I don't want to see Microsoft eating up everything. We already had enough of that bad UI(like digging very deep in to your start menu to do one simple task) and numerous security problems of Windows on PCs. I don't want those problems show up on every phone or PDA on the market. There is still symbian on phones to fight MS, but Palm is the only one who can stop MS from eating up PDAs.(Linux is not optimized enough for handhelds yet, I've seen them, thank you.) So why are you still sitting there waiting for MS to kill you, Palmsource?

從基隆騎車到臺北!!

因為無聊, 為了好玩
今天下午1點從位於基隆的家裡騎著單車, 背著家當(一部分啦)
往學校的方向出發
今天先到瑞芳, 轉106號縣道, 往平溪方向爬山
從家裡到瑞芳之間下坡不少, 而且我已騎過無數次
到達瑞芳時碼表上的平均時數竟有26km/hr
但是一上了106, 就慢下來了, 而且一下子就虛掉了, 前變一下子就切到了最低檔, 時速只剩個位數
體力虛掉, 是我過年期間狂睡, 沒運動的報應吧!
爬到山頂, 只有約6~7km, 卻花了我一個小時, 外加3次休息
平均時數降到了13, 我真的太虛了



接著就是快樂的長下坡, 中途經過十分瀑布, 此下坡一直持續到平溪
十分瀑布本身雖然要收門票, 但光是外面的風景就殺了我不少記憶體
拍完照, 又繼續高速往下滑, 一路標到平溪
口渴在平溪買了灌維大力
店員說25, 我給30然後就到外面開始喝
上車要走時, 才想到"沒找錢!"
由回去要錢
很久之後老闆才從裡面的廚房出來, 我說了之後才宣稱他"恍神了"
很好! 我會記得這家店的

離開平溪後又是一段很長的山路, 上上下下, 沒啥感覺, 就騎了20幾公里
經過之前的路程之後, 身體已經進入狀況了吧
一路上重型機車超多的
路上的汽車都狂超車, 還一直跑到對向車道去...差點被超車的撞XD

不知不覺, 來到了台北
發現接上了之前去騎北47北47-1時走過的路!
原來除了106中間之外, 其實這些路我都很熟...虧我之前還特地去找地圖說

出軍功路後
來到了久違的公館
這裡似乎比剛剛經過的木柵擁擠多了
路上塞車塞的很嚴重
呵呵, 才4點多就在下班塞車啦.
回到宿舍, 比過年前熱鬧許多, 看來加已經續回來準備開學了

ride time 2:56(+nearly 1hr of rest time)
average speed 19.2km/hr
max speed 55km/hr
distance 56.05km

A change of walkman recording media

Since Sony came out with the first cassette tape walkman, portable music players were always a hot product. But the recording media kept changing. First was tapes, then came CDs, MDs(which never caught on execpt in japan), then MP3 players with flash memory or hard discs, and all sort of other forgoten ones that never were popular.

Last year, the iPod was that star of the market in the US, causing prices of CD and MD models to drop to a level where there tape playing counter parts once had been. In Taiwan, although the iPod was also hot, but "USB thumb drive MP3 players" were more popular because they sell at a price near (or even cheaper) CD players. These tiny players quickly replaced CD walkman into the main show cases.

I always thought it weird that MDs were main stream in Japan. In Taiwan they were simply "highly over priced", so people stuck to CDs, then jumped on to flash based MP3s, by passing the cool but expensive MDs. But I guess the price of MDs were considered acceptable in Japan, and it was so hot that you can even buy albums in MDs instead of CDs. But, intrestingly, even as Sony came out with NetMDs and HiMDs, people are starting to flock to flash and/or HDD based MP3s, with MD sells droping dramatically. (see a Japanese report) I guess everybody likes newer stuff, not just newer modifications.

I, my self,had ditched my tapes , put away my CD player, is using memory cards(flash based) and my Clie PDA as a MP3 player, and considering getting a HDD based player. Maybe a Sony Walkman HD3.

So, guess MP3s are really going to take over. Face the reality and stop being in the way, record companies!

台灣駕訓班50分鐘體驗

由於已經有外國駕照, 今天只到駕訓班體驗個50分鐘
看看台灣如何考照

本來以為自己已經會開了, 只要到駕訓班玩幾次就可以直接去考照了
(若不是聽說有恐怖的感應線, 搞不好會不知死活的直接去考吧)
結果今天見識到很多我所見過"最窄"的各種道路相關設施
光是那裡的直線道路, 寬度都最多也只有加州一般"一個線道"的1/3不到
要考的倒車入庫的部分活動空間小得要命
我一直都以2個步驟完成的路邊停車(先倒進去再往前打直), 竟要求倒進去一次完成!
那個S-curve更恐怖, 那寬度和關山的單車專用道差不多, 往前開進去我還可以, 但還要倒出來...(我的罩門T_T)
還有考上坡起步的坡道上的4條感應線, 簡直是沿著一般車子輪胎的邊緣貼上去的, 讓我第一次恨不得要拆掉那個令我看不到前輪的引擎蓋

今天的心得嘛...
在台灣考得到駕照的所有人, 技術都是一流的
終於了解為何那些計程車司機能夠"採著油門, 以極快的速度"倒車退出與車同寬的小巷子了!
在台灣考試, 是考你如何成為"小巷子達人"(在沒有其他車輛時); 至於如何在車子很多的一般路上行駛, 考完再自己自生自滅吧!
而在加州只要在監理站附近開車兜一圈, 沒出啥大問題, 就可以過了. 而至於"小巷子", 那邊既然極為稀有, 就不必考吧.

至於我的台灣駕照嘛, 大概還要再練幾年吧(XD), 或乾脆等到真正需要時再考... 我承認我在窄路中技術極差.

News: 關於火狐狸的3則新聞

火狐狸(firefox)越來越引人注目, 今天赫然發現連自由時報都出現了相關報導 ^^
看來firefox的使用者將會像滾雪球般越來越多吧! 比爾蓋茲閃邊去吧!

隨著firefox的普及, yahoo推出了firefox版的yahoo工具列(雖然還是測試版)
現在只有英文版, 而且只支援美國yahoo的帳號
將來若出現台灣yahoo奇摩版的工具列那我大概會考慮用用看吧

Newsforge網站上出現了一則報導, 預測今年(2005)將會有人開始鑽firefox的安全漏洞. 很 多人改用firefox都是因為IE的安全漏洞過多, 很多病毒, 木馬, 廣告都會進來. 但當firefox的市佔率高到一定程度時, 這些問題也有可能出現在firefox. 雖然firefox的漏洞較少, 但不可能完全沒有, 而且去年就已經補了幾個. 但是在此, firefox和ie的差異在於firefox是開放原始碼, 雖然較用功的駭客可能會從原始碼中去抓安全漏洞; 但開放原始碼也等於全世界的電腦強者都可以幫忙補漏洞. 而且懂得使用firefox的人也比較懂得保護自己. 這將是一場激戰, 請大家拭目以待, 也準備好經常更新firefox喔!

心情: 好人...

在網路上逛著逛著
看到了這篇文章(出自好人俱樂部)

看完
覺得這寫的真是我的心聲啊!

過去一個月中被我埋到潛意識中的悲傷情感
瞬間又回到心頭
說「我沒事」
其實是個騙人騙己的謊言
「不會再想妳」
更是個大謊言

其實一切的情感都只是被草率的壓在心裡深處
一不小心
這些東西又全部都出來了

想哭
眼淚卻一滴也流不出來
也許小時後當愛哭鬼的時代中,有管道宣洩情感
會比現在好過一點吧

----------------------壓抑分格線---------------------

糟糕, 雙魚座多愁善感的毛病又發作了
在這種地方亂吐苦水
十分抱歉 :P

(驚, 好人卡!!)

Gmail invitations~~

天阿, 剛剛登入Gmail信箱發現我可以發出去的邀請函從7個暴增到50個!!!
這下google要開始大方送啦??
需要1GB容量email信箱的人請以comment留個連絡方式吧!

My gmail invitations just ballooned from 7 to 50!!
Any one need Gmail? please leave a comment :)

(I don't guarantee you will get one if you are a stranger, though...)

下學期修推探路之行(全)

今天非常熱血的和智誠學長(修推部長喔)用學生車一次把台北週邊可能辦修推的地點一次探完
據說里程有破百, 可惜學生車沒有裝碼表...
anyway, 騎中最特別的是淡水漁人碼頭, 還有從淡水做渡輪到八里喔!
單車社的好好期待下學期的精采修推, 將有不少社上從沒待過的路線吧!
非社員想玩的也歡迎來亂呵, 不知道單車社版在哪的可以問我^^
太多東西了, 懶得po遊記了, 除非有很多人在此post comment要求XD

就看看照片吧

tamshui fisherman's wharf ; pet pig

pig with yagaga & me

yagaga & me with bike on boat

view from boat ; me on bali wharf

花東之旅相簿大連結

> 卡門:
http://www.pixnet.net/thumbnails.php?album=365995
> 乃哥:
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~b91202032/bicycle/
> 映涵:
http://www.wretch.cc/album/album.php?id=ryannie&book=13
> 文豪:
http://myweb.hinet.net/home2/porscheturbo/huatung/index.htm
> 彥樺:
http://www.pixnet.net/thumbnails.php?album=367508
> 彥劭:
http://www.pixnet.net/thumbnails.php?album=368353
> 柏翰:
http://odintoby.pixnet.net
> mine:
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/%7Eb92b01024/biking/biking-foto-huatung.html
> 佳良：
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~r92942095/pic/page_01.htm

花東之旅後記～回家後第一天

1/29, 星期六
回家後有些許空虛感。

前幾天每天一早起來就是騎車，這下突然不用騎了，覺得渾身不對勁。於是把車子調了調（之前五天坐墊明明是個不舒服的角度，卻一直沒調），從家裡（基隆）騎到了瑞芳，走縣道106往平溪方向。這下背上沒有背包，覺得輕得有點詭異。

在花東真是被平路慣壞了，回來騎山坡竟虛到用最輕檔速度還只有個位數...比之前騎學生車爬山時還虛。但到了半山腰時，體力又來了，開始加速。當天早上霧 超濃的，可見度只有幾公尺吧，但我還是只開那家樂福的超虛後燈，繼續無腦的往上爬，到山頂後算算離平溪只有3~5公里吧，就開始往平溪滑下去。山上超冷 的，跟花東可說是天攘之別。在進入106時，路牌寫著「平溪 12」，結果看著路邊的里程標示，明明騎了13.5公里，平溪還是連個影子都沒有，這些路標有一定的欺騙性，12大概是水平距離吧。看看快中午了，只好回 家吃飯了。

很後悔沒報南橫，龜在家中真的很無聊，但現在就算想報，也沒錢了。買新車真的很傷。

花東之旅心得/遊記 part 2

27號早上，我們在關山再度塞暴一家早餐店。之後往關山自行車道走。那些租車行進步不少，上次來時是一堆鏽得快解體的爛車，煞車還不一定能用。現在每台車 都閃閃發光，只不過都是量販店才會出現的那種。只有一家例外，提供Giant AT100﹔但這些捷安特也很神奇，有前變速器，卻只有後變把，原本的十速剩五速，前變只是裝飾而已。關山自行車道風景不錯，只不過跟前幾天的沒差多少， 路面品質卻較差（凹凸不平的水泥地），還要買票咧（還是一個月前才開始收費的）。

鹿野的麵店非常神奇，我們一群人坐進去半小時後，來了15顆水餃，之後又來了幾盤炒飯。一小時後湯出現了。兩小時後才開始拿出麵皮和碎肉，準備要包我們點的剩下的60顆水餃。喂，我看你乾脆牽來一隻豬，告訴我們現在才要開始殺豬算了！

之 前在關山時，先殺到知本探路的智誠就已經打電話回來說路上有很機車的坡道，還叫我跟冠宇要好好照顧小隊員。這下終於在下午給我碰上了。但我也不覺得有多 機車，因為一直在後面推人，一直保持在非常輕的檔位輕鬆的慢慢踩。只是，到後來，先投車隊已離我們相當遠，再推也追不上他們，索性放輕鬆慢慢的推。在這過 程中，非常佩服種馬和團長一直在後面照顧人的耐心，也讓我打消了往前衝的衝動。半路智誠回來跟我們會合，幫忙押後，真是強者我學長orz

到 了下坡路段，不推人了，改用騎到前面幫他擋風阻的方式，發現效果也不錯，呵呵，帶後面的人能帶到時速30還頗有成就感的。只是，以後有相關的活動，體力 較差的人請主動要求要藉好一點的車﹔不要在那非常辛苦的騎著比各個幹部都還重，變速還很難用的車。對自己好一點吧。開始帶人下坡追大隊時，卻發現宇潔自己 在那悠哉的買釋迦！真是服了你。

在蔴薯賣場收隊後，隊伍不再拖那麼長，我也把握最後的機會開始飆速度。到了台東市，智誠跑到前面帶隊，看 了看，說：「啊怎麼幹部全部都擠在前面？」對了， 後面又沒人照顧了，於是我又滑到了後面了。一路上一直思考要如何讓後面跟上時，竟完全沒發覺我們正在其一段很長的緩上坡，完了，我竟騎車騎到有點無腦了。 到了熟悉的知本，開始興奮起來了，管他什麼坡，都給他狂踩上去，我真的瘋了。

溫泉旅館，當然不能太差。不但設備不錯，門口還有歡迎台大單車社的牌子。我們的車子一整排擺在大廳，還圍了繩子和兩塊「請勿觸摸，損壞照價賠償」的告示，活像單車展覽一般。旅館的溫泉很機車，還要泳帽才能進去，只不過我們也沒時間去。

晚 會還頗high的，各個主持人都超強的。圖騰柱尤其是經典。各組的表演也都很精采，我最喜歡的是「瘋狂種馬」，衝進來擺個很帥的姿勢然後滑倒。本組自己 的戲我都放不開，實在要跟大家道歉。小天使小組人很難猜，尤其像是到第四天還會把兩個人搞混或忘記別人名字的我，就算有別人提示還是掛了。不過倒是見識到 了大家如何耍心機片小主人或小天使。雖然只是個遊戲，但能被人照顧，還真是讓我感動了一下子，尤其是那兩封信，小天使謝啦^^

從沒想過我們小隊能拿下那麼多獎，尤其當我們小隊輔是非常忙碌的協辦人時還能表現的那麼好。但這最要感謝的就是宇潔。前一天討論時一走進來竟然就一口氣把劇本完整的說了出來。那樣的東西若要我這國文特爛的人寫，大概要一個禮拜才生的出來吧。

當 天晚上，開始和"強者我學長"討論第二天的落跑計畫。到櫃檯問了火車時刻，到火車站的路怎麼走，考慮了各種可能性，還跟櫃檯要了3個包車的垃圾袋。在跟 哈比人說好後，我在約2:00am去睡，設好鬧鐘要在2小時後起床。結果非常烏龍的，智誠3:40才去睡，然後兩個人都一覺睡到七點。吃完早餐後，哈比還 問我們怎麼還沒走ＸＤ

猶豫了一陣子後，還是決定不想做上那班10幾個小時，半夜過後才到台北的地獄遊覽車。於是我們2個狂人於9:40上 路。智誠卻因行李過重，又帶著10幾灌 啤酒，快不起來。學長前幾天太操了啦。好吧，拿出前一天幫助芳諭的招數，到前面幫學長擋風阻。這下才發覺昨天傍晚騎了多長的緩坡。約一個小時後，到了火車 站，卻發現前一班莒光號才在2分鐘前走掉...等下一班下午1:17的。後來在站前發現遊覽車司機，他說因為一點多才出發，還要去海邊玩玩，大概凌晨1, 2點才能到台北。

車子拆一拆包一包就準備上車了。此時還有另一位學長也來搭車了（糟糕，又忘了一個人的名字），我們3人每人不同車廂，剛好一個車廂放一台車。

在 火車上，發現我們前幾天所騎的台9線幾乎都在鐵路旁。一邊往窗外看風景，一邊回味這五天來的點點滴滴。我們在哪裡吃飯，在哪裡休息，在哪裡有人摔車，在 哪裡又做了什麼...那些畫面隨著火車的前進，每看到一段路，就想起我們在那作過什麼。經過池上站時還看到全美行的人在月台上叫賣，有點後悔之前已經買了 7-11的國民便當。到了花蓮站，一堆人擠上車，火車駛離我們所熟悉的地方，算了，睡吧！
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
這次活動，學到了關懷，摸熟了台9線，增加了耐力，也交了一些朋友，但還是有一堆人沒混熟。第一天不該耍自閉的ＸＤ另外，這次我在整群人中也算是小朋友（才大２），明年若有時間，再來一次吧，下次當個有經驗的老人好了^^

花東之旅心得/遊記 part 1

(照片在此)
禮 拜一凌晨3點半被好幾個鬧鐘叫醒, 有點對不起室友, 但不希望睡過頭. 前晚打包完的東西拿一拿, 扛著車衝到宿舍門口. 換上重檔, 全力往大門口衝刺. 一開始人不多, 但幫種馬把幾輛單車抬上車後發覺人越來越多了, 而且大部分都不認識. 不錯, 這次會認識很多新朋友.

當 然, 真正的旅程是從下遊覽車, 上單車開始的. 第一天的其車速度爆慢的(當時的感覺), 比我在校園內騎車都還慢. 但隨著天色變暗, 瀚葵(沒打錯吧, 社上的老人真是多到認不完...XD)帶隊的速度也越來越快, 隊伍越拉越長, 尤其每過一座橋, 後面的人又更遠了. 這下我才發覺, 其實這次大修推有很多第一次參加的人, 應該體諒一下他/她們.

在東華大學自介時, 其實我有點怕怕的, 怕自介完, 又要玩什麼記別人的名字的遊戲. 我最不在行的就是記別人的名字, 每次玩這種遊戲, 玩大冒險的一定是我. 好險沒有玩, 但我還是依照慣例, 在一個小時內, 把大家的名字忘得精光. 後來還一直把抽小主人的那張紙條拿出來複習, 因為我連小主人的名字都忘了(不知道名字怎麼叫別人送東西?).

第 一晚的民宿是個有趣的地方. 老闆娘說:"你們以後幾天不會住到比這個更好的了!" 若從老闆親切的程度和建築的美觀來看, 可以這麼說吧. 真的有"家"的感覺. 到了之後, 一直聽說有個人晚上要坐火車過來(聽說還一度坐錯車北上去了), 一直想說是何方神聖, 還要留"2人份"的晚餐...原來, 是映涵, 又是一個我在社上見過, 名字又被我遺忘的人...

夜遊, 一不小心就到了巴黎凱旋門, 真是神奇. 只不過此門小了點, 前面的噴水池還有一隻牛. 兆豐農場也未免華利的誇張了點. 除此之外, 其遊客中心還是個閃爍著燈光的皇宮.

第二天, 是車禍特多的日子. 一大早就有人因為別人碼表掉了而摔車. 只是我還是飆在最前頭, 不是很清楚後面的狀況. 但親眼看到這種事也不是什麼好事啦.

台糖是個神奇的公司, 他們做的冰, 硬是比別人好吃, 也說不上來為什麼. 我們這次的天氣實在是棒極了, 雖然是冬天, 但鋒面剛好遠遠的在我們後面追著我們南下. 結果, 我們感受到的天氣熱到正好可以吃冰.

縣 道195是個起起伏伏的路段, 一上又一下, 波又不陡, 正好練初學者的上下坡. 只是, 很不幸的, 諺劭特別花錢換裝的avid煞車竟在下坡時鎖死, 害他翻車(聽說)! 後來問諺劭說怎麼了(飆在最前頭的我, 還是沒看到), 他竟說:"沒什麼, 只是躺在地上裝死" 聽說他之前還說過"我每次出活動都一定摔車"之類的話. 我只能說, 大概每個人在學騎車的過程中都一定要摔車吧. 我自己在國小時就已經摔過無數次了, "該摔的都摔夠了".

提前脫隊, 到前面探路, 是個不錯的經驗, 能在修推之中有機會拿出實力狂飆; 只不過據說我在狂飆的過程中錯過了"北回歸線指標牌"XD. 在那段路程中, 空中飛行的小果蠅非常多, 卻又小的令人看不清楚. 結果以高速騎過去, 撞死了一堆小蟲, 卻只覺得"大顆粒灰塵好多". 直到用手在臉上沾到果蠅屍體才了解事實. 到了台18號, 往南安瀑布的路上, 說實在的, 能辦活動的地點不多, 幾乎都是別人的田地. 其實我們最候選中的地點, 包括遊客中心前面, 和其旁邊的草地, 在上山之前問路時別人推薦的場地, 因為她老公"常常在那辦活動". 到了遊客中心後, 又遇到管理員, 不但又介紹附近能辦活動的場地外, 還拿了很棒的地圖給我們. 真是的, 本來我們探路團要做的工作, 包括畫地圖和選場地, 別人都幫我們弄好好的了. 下山後, 我們在跟大隊會合前, 甚至還有時間悠閒的吃麵說...(我知道當時我們三個之外的大家一定很餓, 我們真惡劣XD)

非常抱歉, 因為我的疏忽, 接力賽各棒間的距離過短, 結果勝負幾乎都決定在拆裝車上. 大學拳挺色的, 學長真是委屈你了. 諺劭, 雖然我知道你就是這樣的人, 但是當這影響到本小隊的分數時, 我還是要說"你當關主時太多閒話了" 涵水說話, 難的不在猜答案, 而再於如何保持說話時啤酒不要從嘴角溢出來. 而旭昇你的比手畫腳, 我只能說, 象棋棋盤我在前一天探路時就發現了, 很抱歉開會時沒有提出來!

在池上時, 為了等冠祐修車, 我們幾個人嚴重落後, 於是開始追大隊. 冠祐你的跑車只剩9速還能把我們遠遠的甩在後面, 真是佩服你.

全美行的柴魚便當真好吃, 只可惜料多但飯過少.

池上到關山的路上要夜騎, 奉智誠學長之命, 我們第2小隊排好一路縱隊, 一路以車隊的形式高速飆到終點. 中間的就算看不到路也沒關係, 只要有前後的人夾著, 就沒事了. 這次身身體會到"車隊"的神奇, 前面幫後面擋風阻的功效好像也比想像中好.

網咖選課是個非常機車的事. 那骯髒的環境和古怪的計費方式已經夠機車了, 發現所有的通是全掛後更不爽. 最後, 在不到50分鐘就說一小時結束趕人還真是雪上加霜咧.

Biking trip: 3rd day

This day we woke up to some great breakfast- the host prepared some sandwich, soymilk(or milk tea)and some bread and a toaster. I'd say it's very good, expecially the toast. What's incredible is that when we woke up, our team leader(he calls himself "anyway"...)has just got back from where I checked yesterday. What an early bird!

Then we took everybody through the rice paddys, pass the smelly rivers across fields of flowers into the mountains where we would play some games. First stop is "bike assembly and sprint race". I'd like to say sorry here because it is I, who layed out the race route, which is so short that only the "bike assembly" part matters, if your bike acted up and you finished the assembly slower, the speed of the sprint afterwards just didn't matter. Because the brake wire got lose, our bike took longer to put together, which put our teem at 3rd place. However, we are good at the other 4 games, which ridiculously made us one of the 2 teems with the highest overall score. But we lost a final round which made us 2nd place.



The waterfall was great, but somehow I was so tired after the games that I nearly fell asleep on a rock.

Then, with a tired mind, but my legs still paddling, we rode on another small route through the rurel country. Yes, I know it's beautiful, but I'm sort of getting tired of those little yellow flowers(油菜花), 'cause they're just everywhere. And my mind is just a blank, not knowing where I'm riding to, just keep on paddling. I didn't even realize people are singing all along.

Oh well, some how I made it with everyone else to the "welcome to Taitung" post. We had some rest and took some photos. Then everyone went on to the next stop, while I waited for a friend to fix his derailer. We chased on afterwards at a high speed of about 30km/hr, but didn't know the way once we got to the town since the others were long gone. But another guy who is with us catcher-ups suggested that they must be at the place where they have the best food(池上便當). And sure enough, they were all there.

After dinner, we were supposed to ride in the night to guanshan(關山), where we would spend the night. On the order of our teem leader, we, teem 2, rode in a stright line, everybody with their designated place. To my surprise, it really reduces drag, increases efficiency, keeps even the ones without a headlight on the right route, and , with the help of a down hill, the whole teem could finish the trip with a whooping average of 30km/hr and arive at the destination together, no one left out. Just incredible.

We went to a web cafe to do our class selection, which is a new experience. However, I don't like it. The place has a heavy small of tabacco, sticky keyboards and mouse, slow connection, and the "one hour" time limit actually ends in less then 50 minutes according to my watch, now that really sucks.

The accomadation is the worst of the trip. Dirty slipers, cranky sofa, small and creppy room , a TV that is so old that can only tune to 7 channels and one bathroom every floor with a tilled bath tub. Oh well, guess that's a way to save money.

Biking trip: 3rd day

This day we woke up to some great breakfast- the host prepared some sandwich, soymilk(or milk tea)and some bread and a toaster. I'd say it's very good, expecially the toast. What's incredible is that when we woke up, our team leader(he calls himself "anyway"...)has just got back from where I checked yesterday. What an early bird!

Then we took everybody through the rice paddys, pass the smelly rivers across fields of flowers into the mountains where we would play some games. First stop is "bike assembly and sprint race". I'd like to say sorry here because it is I, who layed out the race route, which is so short that only the "bike assembly" part matters, if your bike acted up and you finished the assembly slower, the speed of the sprint afterwards just didn't matter. Because the brake wire got lose, our bike took longer to put together, which put our teem at 3rd place. However, we are good at the other 4 games, which ridiculously made us one of the 2 teems with the highest overall score. But we lost a final round which made us 2nd place.

The waterfall was great, but somehow I was so tired after the games that I nearly fell asleep on a rock.

Then, with a tired mind, but my legs still paddling, we rode on another small route through the rurel country. Yes, I know it's beautiful, but I'm sort of getting tired of those little yellow flowers(油菜花), 'cause they're just everywhere. And my mind is just a blank, not knowing where I'm riding to, just keep on paddling. I didn't even realize people are singing all along.

Oh well, some how I made it with everyone else to the "welcome to Taitung" post. We had some rest and took some photos. Then everyone went on to the next stop, while I waited for a friend to fix his derailer. We chased on afterwards at a high speed of about 30km/hr, but didn't know the way once we got to the town since the others were long gone. But another guy who is with us catcher-ups suggested that they must be at the place where they have the best food(池上便當). And sure
enough, they were all there.

After dinner, we were supposed to ride in the night to guanshan(關山), where we would spend the night. On the order of our teem leader, we, teem 2, rode in a stright line, everybody with their designated place. To my surprise, it really reduces drag, increases efficiency, keeps even the ones without a headlight on the right route, and , with the help of a down hill, the whole teem could finish the trip with a whooping average of 30km/hr and arive at the destination together, no one left out. Just incredible.

We went to a web cafe to do our class selection, which is a new experience. However, I don't like it. The place has a heavy small of tabacco, sticky keyboards and mouse, slow connection, and the "one hour" time limit actually ends in less then 50 minutes according to my watch, now that sucks.

The accomadation is the worst of the trip. Dirty slipers, cranky sofa, small and creppy room , a TV that is so old that can only tune to 7 channels and one bathroom every floor with a tilled bath tub. Oh well, guess that's a way to save money.

Biking trip: 2nd day

Set my alarm to 6:55, but some how the morning call guy knocked on our door just a minute before the alarm went off. After some preperation, we're on the road again. As a speedoholic, I once again rode to the front pack, then realized that the slower pack was no where to be seen. We stoped for a little rest, while someone finaly came over to tell that there's an accident way back. "Someone droped his speedometer, the one in the back pulled on the brakes, then the others just crashed into a mess." Now what did I say about ridding to close together? Although I didn't see it my self, seems that a girl was quite hurt, bless her.

After breakfast and a little riding, we stopped at a suger plant(台糖花蓮糖廠)for some icecream and popsicles. Although it's winter, it's still so hot around here that it's just right for some icy snack. Not only does the stuff taste good, the sceanary and some building around there were beautiful.

We then wound up to a smaller route that crosses the farms. I don't know about the others, but I'm finally having some fun with the little ups and down. Minute hills compared with the slops near home, but better than the flat roads of the morning. It also has less cars and much better sceanary of the country, with orange trees, rice paddies and fields of flowers. You even get a great look of the mountains in the back ground. Now that winding little route was really a film(or should I say memory?)killer. There was a long down hill of the route, where we speed-a-holics once again zoomed ahead, leaving the rest behind. We stoped at near the end of the slope, when we realized that the people behind was once again not showing up. A phone call back reveiled another accident. A friend who joined the club about the same week as me had a brake lock up and his bike rolled over, resulting in him lying on the ground, nose bleeding. Oh well, seems that he's expecting it...(he said he falls every time he rides)

Later, me and 2 others left the pack to check the path ahead, where we would have games tomarrow. In order to get there before it got dark, I said we should stick to an aveage of about 24km/hr. But seems we're slightly under that, because we are a little exusted be the day's riding before this. We asked a woman how to get to our destination, who started nagged like a mom, telling us how dangerous it is to ride there in the dark. Great thanks for her caring, but we have work to do, so we went on. We thought we were going to climb a mountian, but, oh well, the road was so easy and flat. After we maped out the area, the rest of the pack is still about 30 minutes away. Oh well, guess we are fast enough. We even had the time to have dinner before we meet with the pack and greet everybody "long time no see." We learned later that the others, unlike us, didn't have the time to eat until they arived. Oh well, I'm...speach less.

It was another great hotel on top of a hill, over looking the whole town. And to our suprise, it's got digital TV.

Biking trip: 1st day

Got up real early at 3:20 this morning to get on the bus at 4:00, but then we took an hour just to stack all those bikes into the bus. Slept for a while on the bus till we got to I-lan(宜蘭), when it's just about time to have "breakfast". After some intro and the sort, people started singing karaoke. Although I never liked the MIDI background music of karaoke, there's something intresting about it. How come people always pick the same songs, no matter when or who?

Then we got to the beautiful city of Hwalian(花蓮)where we finally got on our bikes and started riding. With all those flat roads and the slow speed of only 15+ km/hr(because we have amatures here), this is way too easy and I started to get bored. Then me and another friend who loves the feel of speed started to go into a cycle of slowing down, get to the back of the pack, speeding up back to the head of the pack then slowing down again. Some sort of entertainment, I'd say.

We then came to Tong Hwa University(東華大學). It's like twice as big as our school with so much grass filds that it looks more like a park. Although the place was so beautiful, but it seems so deserted that it would even be a pain in the ass to get a good meal. We took a rest there,and everyboby did a self-introduction. Being a sophmore, I suddenly feel like a little kid in a pack of big kids, since most people are older and many are already in graduate school. It's expecially weird to hear them say "it's so good to be young" when that's just what you would say to a fresrman. And just as usual, I forgot everybodys' names just 1 hour after the intros', of course. If I tell you I can remember someone's name by just meeting that person once, there's only 2 possibilities: 1)that's couldn't be me, or 2)it's the name of a girl that I decided I liked very much at first sight--which only occured to me once. So, so much for the intros, I don't remember a single bit of it.

Then we biked on. On the road , the first pack got a little fast and the slower pack lagged farther and farther. Guess this well always happen when you've got a lot of people.

We saw a stupid dog, who ran quickly without warning, trying to cross the road. It got hit by a little truck, yeeped loudly, but only wounded a leg, then nearly got hit by a secend. Now that was close.

We also learned a lesson: don't ride too closely to each other, or ride in a perfect stright line - the hard way. Someone slightly swinged his rear wheel, causing the guy in the back to dodge , and me, futher back lost my stabability and braked, causing the guy in the back of me crashing into each other. So, don't ride to close to each other.

Finnaly, we got to the guest house where we spend the night. The host and hostest was very hospitable, making us feel like home.
--------
I'm tired, maybe I'll right more some time later...

First long range biking tour

I'm going to the east part of Taiwan tomarrow, biking for 5 days from Hualen to Taitung(花蓮到台東). Although about 200km is a little easy for 5 days but it still seems quite exciting. I've just bought new gear, including a new bike for this.
Be calm...
Alright, I'll be on the road for the next 5 days. Maybe I'll post something on the road if I find an AP where I can connect with my clie.
Hay, you've got to get up about 3 in the morning, so why are you fooling around here???
Alright, I'm digging in...^^

Geeks don't know how to love

I saw yesterday on wired news about a geek who only knows how to deal with mac computers but don't know how to deal with women. Then he came apon a book called "How to Succeed With Women" and he finally had some success, and now he's teaching other geeks the trick. Yeah, I'm a geek, too. Although not a mac geek, but play with all sorts of gadgets. I don't think I'm shy, but I, too, screw up relationships. Guess technology is a modern maker of "nice guys".
With a trip to howtosucceedwithwomen.com , I even found a 4CD set called "Overcoming the 'Nice Guy' Syndrome: How to Stop being Shy without Becoming a Jerk". He he, nice guy...

Why didn't our school's library have that book memtoned above? I'd like to know. But on second thought, I guess I don't need it for now. 'Cause I don't even have a target, and it's awfully tiresome to be in "search mode", constantly on the look for beautiful girls... I'd had enough. Maybe I'd rest for the next ten years untill it's time to get merried, oh well.

Firefox still gainning on IE^^

here's Business week's take on this:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2005/tc20050112_0827_tc119.htm

I guess I've written this somewhere before, but, businessweek's article still has intresting stuff to it.

I'm still waiting for the day that Firefox gains over 10% of the market share though.

關於MP3隨身聽品牌

既然有人在問, 我來說一下我對各品牌的看法好了

Apple: 做蘋果電腦的, 最擅長使用者介面的改善, iPod的操作介面當然最簡單, 但音質就不是最好的了. Apple 過去也跟sony一樣賣超貴, 但最近有在降.

Sony*: 隨身聽的發明者, 音質和外觀造型都是一流的, 但操作介面呢, 除非你用過sony的其他產品, 不然可能不像iPod那麼直覺. (但掛vaio牌子的卻真的跟電腦一慢) Sony還堅持把所有的東西都賣很貴, 老產品寧願停產也不降價. 另外, 因為其下有sony/BMG music唱片公司, 早期產品會強迫你使用有"版權管理"的特殊格式, 還限制一堆(見下面的注解), 只有今年下半年的新產品才支援MP3

Aiwa: sony副牌, 一切比sony低一等XD

Creative: 做電腦音效卡起家的, 也是最早經營MP3隨身聽市場的, 風評不錯, 卻硬是被iPod比下去

iriver: 標準黑馬, 一家沒啥歷史的公司, 忽然就變成MP3隨身聽第二大廠. 音質很棒, 功能一堆, 但操作介面真的很爛

BenQ: 外觀設計不錯, 但其他方面被外國雜誌評得體無完膚

elio: 就是大同啦. 別以為大同只會做電鍋呵! 它也做了好幾年的資訊產品了. elio的外觀不錯, 功能多得恐怖, 但太大台, 而且要價跟sony有比.
無牌的爛貨: 那種音質, 乾脆回去聽錄音帶算了!

其他牌子我就不清楚了...

*sony walkman HD1和HD2絕不能買, 不但是水貨, 還不吃MP3(要經過電腦把MP3轉成MD所用的特殊格式才能撥(Atrac3); 升級可撥MP3的軟體則需送回日本原廠再加收服務費和運費) 要看好是型號是HD3才支援MP3. Sony Vaio pocket也不吃MP3但可從網路下載升級檔, 自行升級到支援MP3

空中巴士發表新雙層機型 A380

在波音的747橫霸了80到90年代後, 第一個挑戰者--空中巴士A380在18號正式發表
747曾經是空中最大的客機, 它剛出現時就創造了歷史, 成為第一個雙層客機, 雖然它的"二樓"其實只是機身前半部的一個"小突起物". 當時因為它的載客量過大, 很多人都在懷疑哪萊納麼多客人; 當時的2樓還甚至純粹當酒吧, 但現在它不但時常客滿, 那些如酒吧之類的豪華設備全被擁擠的座位取代.
現在A380出 現了, 它的二樓是真正的二樓, 也就是說整個機身都是雙層的. 現在又有人說可以設酒吧, 平躺的床......英國的維京航空甚至要在機上設賭場! 算了吧, 搞不好5年內又全被擠得誇張的座位取代.(雖然還是很希望此事不會發生) 然後, 因為全機載客過多, 從下機, 通關, 拿行李到走出機場的時間大概又要比現在多個1~2個小時...若是如此, 那一點也不比747好了. 另外, 各大機場為了迎接更的巨無霸, 必須擴充現有硬體, 把很多設備(如停機坪和跑道)加大, 這些都會使機場稅漲價, 直接影響到旅客的花費. 在歡迎新的巨無霸前, 我看還是先看看往後這幾年如何發展.
為防止市場被空中巴士吃掉, 波音在研發一種小一點, 但更省油的高科技客機--7E7, 強調班次增多但每位旅客的成本下降, 並提倡更大的座位, 更接近地面的機艙溼度(現在的飛機上都極度乾燥), 更舒適的旅程. 嗯, 很為旅客著想, 但很可惜, 會為旅客著想的航空公司比只為盈餘著想的公司少太多了. 我想小小的7E7大概會被視為"可塞進去的座位太少"吧...
其實我2個都覺得不錯, 至少航空業終於有新的東西出現了, 只希望不要又跟747一樣被航空公司以座位塞滿就好了. 現在的航空公司真的很惡劣, 叫人塞在那個迷你的"座位"中, 腳完全動不了; 就只差沒有叫我們相疊躺在機艙中了.

A380照片

An intresting comparison between the big guys of the web

Some companies do just about everything

	Microsoft	Aol/TimeWarner	Apple	Yahoo	Google
Browser	IE	AOL &Netscape	Safari		(in rumors)
Instant messenger	MSN messenger	AIM	iChat	Yahoo messenger	Hello
E-mail service	MSN mail	AOL (subscribers only) &Netscape	.Mac (subscribers only)	Yahoo mail	Gmail (people with invitations only)
Media player	Windows media player	Winamp	Quicktime & iTunes	Musicmatch Jukebox (another in the works)
Blog space	MSN spaces				Blogger
Desktop search	MSN toolbar &in longhorn		In next version of MacOS	Yahoo desktop search	Google desktop search

My Firefox extensions&themes

This post is for Firefox newbes...If you don't know what this is, check here:

Something great about Firefox other then safer and easier to use, is the ability to customize it.
Here is a list of my favorite extensions(外掛), which are things that enhance the features of a software.
1. Adblock.........擋掉網頁中的廣告
blocks ads, not popups, but images and banners in any site, just right click on an image and set it to block images from that address, and you won't see it again!! (you can always remove the address from adblock's list to see it again...)
2.ForecastFox ...在firefox狀態列中顯示天氣預報(城市代碼可搜尋"taipei")
shows weather forecasts, easy as that. But you've got to set your city the first time.
3.Image Zoom....按右鍵可任意放大縮小任何圖片
lets you zoom in or out of an image
4.IE View.............按右鍵可呼叫ie開網頁
right click on a page and open it in IE if it's so messed up that only IE can show it correctly.
5.Tabbrowser Extensions...加強分頁瀏覽功能(仔細找, 有中文版)但設定較複雜
lots of setting including forcing firefox to use one window only, open everything as tabs, and open every tab you left open last time when you run firefox.**A little confusing to set up though.

And my favorite themes(面板)(well skins in winamp language), stuff that change the look of a software.
1.Phoenity Christmas
The one I'm using now
2.Noia 2.0 (eXtreme)
skins nearly every part you could think of !!
3.rein
a clean interface

Oh yeah, and my favorite hotkeys(快速鍵)
1.[ctrl+enter]
automaticaly adds "www." and ".com"
for example, to goto "www.blogger.com", just type "blogger" and press [ctrl+enter]
2.[ctrl+w]
close current tab

photos: 考完試祭祭五臟廟

outing after finnals
今天大伙跑到永康街一ㄊㄨㄚ接著一ㄊㄨㄚ一直吃
不便宜, 但還蠻爽的XD
還要感謝我們的2位"永康街通"帶路
到那要吃什麼, 要到哪裡吃都知道; 連哪家店哪道菜最好吃都知道...
像那種一堆可以吃的又每家看起來都很好吃的地方我若自己一個人去一定會不知所錯的

Year in review~me in 2004

(Late post because of my exams, but now it's winter break, my long posts are back again^^)
Last year was really a big year for me. Many things happend, and I really had an intresting year. Although not a happy year, but it's a year I'll remember for the rest of my life. Here are a list of events that I remember from 2004.

>first half year:

• Finnal exam of freshman's first semester. Found out that collage isn't any easier then highschool, but tougher.
  
• Got to live in the dorm, first time living away from home. Got hooked one to the blazing fast web connection speed of the dorm.
• Got a new computer for my dorm, now I can do whatever I want with my computer without asking other users of the family.
• Got a swimming pass.
  
• Started to get involved in activities. (eg. 杜鵑花節, 生科之夜/lifescience night) Did a lot of handcraft for plays and display.
  
• Did a play in Chinese class.
• Started to ask a girl out, but didn't succeed until summer. (What, never did this before collage? Yeah, I guess that is late from american standerds, but oh well, I live in Taiwan, though)
• Assembled a frog skeleton.

>summer:

• Got a WIFI card for my PDA, the begining of my "net everywhare life". Found out that there are hotspots almost everywhere in Taipei, although most are encrypted.
• Went back to the US, but didn't did much. Found out that it's still hard to find WIFI hotspots in the south California suburban area.
• Got involved in our department's "newcommer's welcome camp". Designed games, and stuff. Camped by the coast on a stormy, rainy, muddy, windy, wet-wet-wet-day, with a typhoon near by, soked many things. But I've already had experience camping prior to a typhoon though, no big deal. It was really fun.
• First date ever!!
• Second date: first time to a movie with a girl^^(but, no more since than)
• Started this blog!!!

>Second half year:

• Turned Sophmore!!
• Got a dorm room again, this time a cleanner room.
• Got into the cycling club, biking about.
• Also got a taste of the badminton teem of our departmont, but quit soon.
• Got Gmail!!
• Took a class on immunology at the medical departmont, decided that this might be what I'd want to do research on in the future.
• Got to goto 龜山島, a tiny island of the coast of Taiwan, were daily vistor numbers are limited.
• Found out that the girl I liked was really just a friend...

One more thing... I resisted the desire of buying any new gadget and sticked to my clie PDA and black and white screened cell phone. Thanks to my clie NX73, over 90% of the new gadgets on the market seemed so lame :) (it was like: wow new color phone...what? 4096colored tiny color screen? that sucks. Or: wow, harddrive mp3 player...what does it do? play music only? never mind.) Still nothing does more then a clie, and most new phones are sophisticated and ugly. And I just can't stand a color screen about 1/3~1/4 the size of my clie's 320*480 screen.

Well that about closes the book on 2004 for me. In 2005, I guess I'll focus on school work and biking. Although I still haven't ever had a girl friend in my life, but boy is it tiring thing about someone 24/7, and since more and more of my classes are going to be for our own department(with classmates I know well), I doubt that I'll meet another girl in collage. And I won't have that chance in graduate school 'cause I'll be in the US, with far less Taiwaness people there. Oh boy, I'll be single for the next 10 years. It'll be a decade for me to concentrate on science.

呼~~終於考完了

在和期中考+期末考合體大魔王決戰了近半學期後, 終於結束了.
有鑒於上學期期末念不完, 這學期改採老師教到哪, 我就唸到哪的策略, 結果是唸到哪忘到哪...
其實臨時抱佛腳若唸得完好像也不錯
下學期不知要如何了, 但從小到大, 考試這種東西通常都是"船到橋頭自然直"吧
到時再依情況調整策略吧
但可以肯定的是, 以後要早點睡

總之, 這學期期末考了8科, 另有2科沒考試; 其中大爆炸2科, 小爆1科
有種比上學期糟糕的感覺, 但等到總成績出來再說吧.

之前每次考試時都一直想著考完要做什麼
但卻每次考完都因為懶, 或是其他原因而沒有一次真正的完成所有的目標.
這次索性不計畫了, 結果一考完, 看著PDA上空空如也的todo list, 有種異常空虛的感覺.
今天吃完晚飯後, 就龜到誠品, 把有興趣的雜誌全翻過一遍(圖書館的雜誌我有興趣的不多而且已經看完了), 然後買了一本痞子蔡已經出了很久的"最新小說".

就趁寒假把我一團亂的人生整理一下吧!

唸書無用論?

X科唸完1遍了!
很有成就感
當大家只唸一半時
我唸完2遍了, 很自hi
最後考試時卻忘了9成
考出來的成績比大部分的人都還低
我的記憶力到底是怎麼了?
為何唸的次數和成績成反比
然後考輸一堆臨時抱佛腳的?

考前無腦症候群

我的期末考準備計畫phase 1告一段落，雖比原先計畫晩了一天，但也讓我暫時鬆了一口氣。
結果今天下午大部分的時間都被漫畫，雜誌，和報紙吃掉了。
進入phase 2也只好等明天了。

今晩非常熱血的以最高速衝到了新體要游泳，要換衣服時才發覺...泳褲沒帶!!!
看看，若回宿舍拿泳褲再回來，游泳也差不多要關了。
只好若無其事的洗澡洗一洗，穿好衣服，就回宿舍龜了。
可惡！明早去晨泳算了～～

一輕鬆下來，我又開始胡思亂想了。
我真沒用，到現在還在想著那已經不可能的感情...放寒假時怎麼辦？
又要再讓自己玩一次憂鬱症嗎？用生科之夜的工作的忙碌來麻痺自己好了。
各大藥廠真的應該要賣點"思春少年用testosterone inhibitor"讓我們這些人暫時免除煩惱XD(也讓我們少花一點錢再一些芭樂歌的CD上)

Notice: Lower of post frequencies

As the final exams are closing, I'll do less posting for the next 2 weeks, I guess.
And, yeah, guess I'll take down that "Xmas" theme after my exams, maybe a New Year's theme :)
Happy New Year everybody, and good luck on your finals.(if you are a student, that is)
Boy, sure's cold these days...

Thought: Semi-split self

"Where am I?"
"at school, of course!" / "some strange place??"

"Who am I?"
"come on, you don't have to check your ID, do you?" / "I don't know"

"Why am I here?"
"To learn" / "I'm not sure"

"Am I dreaming?"
"pinch yourself and you'll know you're not" / "Maybe..."

Seems that there's two of us inside this body.
One confident, optimistic and rational, can answer each of the questions above.
The other not sure about any thing, pessimistic and sentimental, always not satisfied with the rational answer.
Actually, I'm not really sure which one is really me...

My emotions are going up and down at a fast frequency, alternating between the two selves.
Some voice tells me I need to improve my EQ; another telling me there's a hole in my heart that I need to patch, with what??

One thing I'm sure, I'm really confused, but not sure of what.

心情：On this morning's post

Well I was quite down this morning...
But feels much better after venting out my emotions here.
Just I don't have to do this over again tomarrow morning.
I've got to improve my EQ.

心情：......

Optimistic on the outside, pessimistic on the inside.
You smile in front of all your friends, you laugh with everybody else, but you are crying on the inside.
Your friends tell you you're strong, healing so fast, but they don't see the helplessness inside.
Your heart is bleading, you try to run away, but realize there's on way you can run away from yourself.
Everyday you try to forget about it, but it just keeps comming back in the morning.
It haunts your mind everytime you're all alone, you can't concentrate on anything.
Turning up the volume, turning up the bass, want to scream with the music.
Lost all confidence, in self denial, wondering whay doing it in the first place.

心情: A Lesson of Life

You could do all the day dreaming as much as you like
You could admire someone as much as you like
But you just can't ignore reality
I am thankful that I meet you and I learned a lot from this experiance
I now know more about my strangths and my weaknesses
And I now know how you could live such an intresting life

I well treasure the good memories
And it's always good to have a good friend

~Learning is what growing up is all about.

Thought: Done my Christmas shopping(finally)

Actually, it's my first time doing this my self
And the first time doing it for someone special.
I guess I've learned some things from this:
1. Good planning could save some time(yeah, I just went, found it and, viola, this is it!)
2. You could get wrapping paper at the bookstore for 70, but you can also get that for only 8 if you know where to find^^
3. Don't even look at the "pre-packaged fancy gifts" like a teddy bear in a plastic clear box with candy--they try to be fancy, but usually suck. Besides, it would be much better to package the present with your own hands, you could add a little touch to it.

Anywas, happy holidays!

Commentary: The Return of the Sprit of the Internet

I remember back in the early 90's (yeah, I'm an early web user) when the net was just starting to develop(well back when Yahoo was the only search engine), the web was once such a wonderful place. New stuff was comming out everyday, there was even a link on the Netscape toolbar labeled "what's new" which lists the newest sites. It was the era of rapid internet growth, with far less ads and almost everything free. Free news, free streaming music, free software, free email, free web space...etc. That's what it's all about, generosity. The spirt of the web was once "everything free".

Then came the internet bubble burst, taking a lot of the free stuff down. Maybe, people thought, it was just a little too generous. Then websites started to want people to pay. First, email spaces started to shrink, and they want you to pay for extra storage. Then they started to take down some of the other free services. Later on "registering" started to be all over the place, some free, some not. At last, the ultimate advertising era, with mail boxs full of spam; adware that don't charge you money but overwhelm you with ads; pop up ads everywhare; then automaticaly self-installing ad serving programs.

Now they are really getting on our nerves. People started to fight back. Now we have spam killers, pop up blockers, ad blockers that take out the ads from a page. I've even heard of a site called "bug me not" that do something like regestering for you.(well, the free ones I guess, but I haven't tried it)

But now, we are not only fighting back, we are making it better. People are doing more and more free projects that are open for anyone to contribute, eg. wiki, open source software. Great free services are comming back, and better too, with Google's Gmail taking the lead. What's more people are using free stuff to revolutionize media, with blogs and wikis, trying to do better then traditional misleading media. The whole internet community of the globe is pitching in to make improvements, and counteract the greed of big corporate behemoths. Now the web is finally improving once again.

Here are some great free stuff!
1. Blog hosting: Blogger.com (now owned by Google)

2. The wiki stuff:

• Encyclopedia: Wikipedia.org
• Dictionary: Wikitionary
• News: Wikinews

3. Email:
>Gmail beta (not open to all yet, you need an invitation, but I'm sorry to say that I haven't got a single invitation to give since I got in)
>Many other older email services has ballooned to 250MB thanks to Gmail

4.Open source software:(which should be free)
>Linux OS(Although I'm not familiar with this, it's so significant that I must mention this, you can do a research, if your intrested, though)
>Mozilla.org- A spin off of Netscape, with many projects, including:

• Firefox browser that's rapidly gaining ground, with pop-up blocking, and tabbed browsing.
  
• Thunderbird mail application with spam filter and other great features.
  
• The up comming Sunbird calender application
  
• a mobile browser called Minimothat's coming to cell phones soon.
  
• And of course, the old Mozilla browser suite(built on the old Netscape code) is still alive.
  

5.Other freeware:

>Skype- free VOIP net phone

6. Creative commons- see how people are sharing intellectual property, including music, texts and more.

心情：great, I screwed up again

Quote:
If you play it safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore.

Damn it! I'm playing it safe once again.
I've got to break this habbit, now what do I change first?

知識: 關於鋰電池

今天聽大師說某個手機販子關於鋰電池的說法:
鋰電池充電的次數是固定的, 不管你是一次充飽, 還是充個幾秒鐘就拔掉; 只要達到那固定的次數, 電池就掛了...

我想, 關於鋰電池的傳言我大概聽過n種版本了
於是我上wikipidia查了一下"lithium ion battery"
發現那是騙人的!!
以下是我的整理
1.鋰電池每次完全放電, 都會大大減短壽命, 所以不要把它當鎳鎘或鎳氫電池來完全放電
2.鋰電池的壽命一般是不會變化太大的, 不管你充電次數多少, 從"出場日"起算三到五年後它就掛定了. 下次買電池記得看製造日期呵!
3.若有一段很長的時間不會用到它, 保持在約40%的電力最好
4.高溫會加速它老化, 但也不要放冷凍庫
5.所以還是保持它在充飽的狀態最方便吧

物慾

糟糕
本來想說買了萬能的pda後應該能止住自己的購物慾望
畢竟pda可以替代隨生聽, 遊戲機, 照相機, 甚至是筆電的上網和文書處理功能
...
結果, 遊戲機和筆電是取代掉了
但是mp3隨身聽功能現在是用上癮了, 覺得記憶體不足, 想買個20GB的硬碟型隨身聽(sony walkman HD3)
然後, 加入單車社後, 騎車到很多風景很棒的地方, 開始覺得pda的3.1萬像素有點虛, 偏偏此時sony又出了付旋轉螢幕的510萬相素cybershot數位相機
(>_<);" >我又不是班上某同學, 為了隨身攜帶那成千上萬的高科技產品(anything, you name it, he brings it all the time), 還去買一個大到可以塞一個國小3年級學生的背包...

好吧, 買台好的腳踏車就好了.(然後專找資訊賣場試玩試玩, 過過乾隱)

Note: New look for this Christmas and winter

Although I really live in a so called "tropical island" (Taiwan), it's still good to have a snowy theme, gives people that feeling of winter. And the red colors and green leaves give a some what warm feeling of Christmas. Christmas is on it's way, a time to celebrate, a time to get together, a time to share, a time to give, a time to have fun.
So I give you the new "Christmas look", how do everybody think? Kinda borrowed the idea of "snow" from japan's Yahoo. But all materal is freshly made, no copy and paste. Hope everybody'll like it.

Speaking of Christmas, wish everybody a merry Christmas, and wish everybody could be with friends, family and whoever they love on Christmas. And yeah, has anybody gone Christmas shopping? I'm wondering if there's any good ideas for Christmas presents.

News: M$N 的新blog空間服務

哦，比爾蓋茲（他的公司名稱/商標以下一律馬賽克處理）今年大概把頭號敵人訂為google吧
看google把blogger.com(就是我這個blog的服務提供者啦)買下來
也不甘示弱，來個「M*N 空間」（基本上就是blog）
這次又有啥新花樣了？
我的研究結果是
1.內建相簿->還不錯
2.介面複雜
3.大家的blog看起來除了內容以外，只有背景和顏色的差別
4.超大M*N連結＋超多M******ft相關連結（變相廣告？？）
5.表情符號支援->還不錯

但重點是：
M*N使用規定中第6項：
「對於您張貼或以其他方式提供給 M******ft 相關「M*N 網站」資料 (以下簡稱「提供資料」)，您同意 M******ft 得 (1) 使用、複製、散佈、傳送、公開展示、公開表演、重製、編輯、修改、翻譯和重新格式化 (Reformat)「提供資料」」

向對之下，blogger的使用條款6a：
"CONTENT OWNERSHIP Unless stated otherwise for specific services, Member will retain copyright ownership and all related rights for information he or she publishes through Blogger or otherwise enters into Blogger-related services."

我寫啥干你啥事？最大軟體公司就可以妨礙別人的發言自由是吧？
另外，人家寫的東西使用/修改權在你手裡，你要幫我們為其內容負責任嗎？
(關於使用規定的事情我是看到這篇文章才去調查的：MSN Spaces = soylent green )

若你也想要一個blog點此頁左上角的連結就對了啦！

心情：大二生活

去上課
卻聽不懂火星話
只知道那是台語口音國語+日語口音英文

念講義
卻也看不懂火星話
只知道那是一堆由羅馬字母拼出來的東西
台式文法，單字拼法像英文卻不是，更不像拉丁文

念課本
永遠離進度還有好幾百頁要追
但至少看的懂

賴床->起床->吃飯->上課->打瞌睡->唸書->吃飯->考試->唸書->吃飯->好累->睡覺
日復一日
生活幾乎不在自己的操控之下
煩了
騎上腳踏車，校園夜間爆走，尋找自己存在的感覺
冬天的風吹在我的臉上，利用低溫使自己清醒一點
至少，此時我可以暫時自己決定我的方向、路線和速度

Comments: On Fortune telling...belivable?

Fortune telling, horoscopes, tarot cards and the like have a common problem. I'm not saying there's any thing wrong with fortune tellers, I tend to believe that most of them do their best to give you a picture of the future.
Some people think these things are unbelevable, because "they're un-scientific", "just a matter of probability"or "myths". But although they are not proven (and unprovable) by modern scientific methods, they are also un-disprovable, you can't design a good experiment and directly prove them wrong. We don't even know if there are any of those so called "powers"or "channels". Which I would consider limitations of modern science.

Well then, ARE they believable? Read on.
The big problem of fortune telling actually comes from this unanswerable question. Just because people are unsure, most people(well the people that have learned what is science, that is; people who don't might just believe it) tend believe WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE. If people were told they well have bad luck, they pascify them selves by thinking: "That's not true, after all, fortune telling isn't scientific." On the other hand, if people were given good news, they would say: "Sounds reasonable", and tend to believe it. This is just what people are best at, selective faith. It's analogus to the reaction "I can't believe it!" when some thing bad happens to somebody. I guess it's something that evolved to lighten psycological stress on our brain.

So, if you want to be a respectable fortune teller, you not only have to be good at your profession, but you may also need to know a little psycology. (Is this why I more often get good readings then bad reading from my horoscope?)

And as clients, I would just take it for fun. Getting reading and waiting to see if it'll come true is kinda fun and exciting. But be careful not to spend too much time on these stuff and relating websites. If you spend most of your time here, the bad part of your readings might come true just because you aren't doing good use of your time. (some thing like getting an F on exams :) )

Thoughts: Absorb.Reform.Evolve...

The slogon of my blog: "Absorb.Reform.Evolve" is actually my resolution apon going to collage.
When I was a freshman, I tried to stick to just that. Because once in collage, you've got freedom, so learn as much as you can, what ever you want; and you've grown up, so reform, change and throw away the unmature, childish stuff. And then evolve into a better man when you graduate. I thought I was always afraid of this and that, giving my self too much limits, so I also wrote down a quote from Goethe: "Plundge boldly into the thick of life", as a memo.

After almost a year and a half in collage, I guess I didn't do very well, according to my "freshman's resolutions". First of all, I've still been too cautious, still losing many great oppertunities. Second, trying to live a more meaningful life, indeed I changed a lot, but my grades are slowly going down. I've got to try to balance school grades with play. Third, I put most of my time on play, web surfing and studying, leaving no time for additional book reading. Like, we've got a huge library, but you haven't read even a tiny part of the books, what the hec are you doing?

Alright, I've still got lots of stuff to improve on and lots of lessons to learn. Lots of stuff to learn more about, on my studies, on life, on love, on relationships...

News:What? A typhoon in December?

Watch out everybody, according to some news report, this could be the first typhoon to strike Taiwan in December in history!
40年首見冬颱 南瑪都最快明晚警報

Or is it just another weather report to keep readers reading on?
I just read the other day in a magazine that modern weather reportors don't always report professional predictions, but report the worst instead, because their supervisers want more people glued to the news reports--and the ads, that is.
Edit of 12/3:Hay it's comming for real! I hate typhoons! Go away! Get lost!

anyways, here's the prediction from CWB:
http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V4

or from the US Navy:
Joint Typhoon Warning Center

My new web site!

Just did a website to organize my photos:
intelllidryad's forest
partially done, but will gradually add things

when will it be done?
will, some I-don't-know-when time in the future :)

Histology photos updated!

just added today's integumentary system photos
click here

單車社陽明山/濱海公路一日狂飆

好累喔
但是很爽XD
(台大->陽明山->陽金公路->金山->濱海公路->淡水->回台大)
photos here

>今日數據:
全程:111km
騎車時間(扣除休息):6hr49min00sec
平均速度:18.55km/hr(mine)
最高速度:55.4km/hr(mine, 下坡)

Don't buy flexible toothbrushs with a rubber flexible joint

I broke my tooth brush, after only less then 3 week's use, and I thought that they say on most packages that you should change brushs every 3MONTHS!!

does your tooth brush looklike this?

It was a "flexible" tooth brush, a brand starting with the letters "aqua..."
At first it was quite soft, but then it broke, where it was supposed to bend but not break.


see what I mean?

What a crap!! I'm not buying any flexible brushs any more.
Can I get a refund?

有趣的表情符號

\(^o^)/
隨著討論版, 簡訊和即時傳呼軟體的流行, 表情符號也越來越多, 我的sony PDA(日文機)甚至內建表情符號(日本人稱之為"顏文字")選單, 還分類為"笑", "泣", "怒", "驚", "焦", "謝禮", "返事"和"其他", 可以直接選, 聯打都不用打(日本人還真是的...)
好啦, 我真正的用意是要推薦這篇文章, 有表情符號介紹; 還有"orz"的來源介紹喔!
(推:鋼彈版orz圖片 XD)
udn-yam 表情符號 千變萬化

這篇文章中還有orz相關連結:
>みんなの作った　＿|￣|○クラフト　"paper craft of orz"
~各種orz的圖片, 還有orz紙雕教學...
>挫折禁止/株式会社マップス
~挫折禁止orz交通號誌; 有人要拿來當msn照片嗎?

另外, 在google搜尋orz就更有趣了
>失意体前屈
>www.orz.jp~哦好熟悉, 這不是mXn嗎XD
>Windorz Update~哦好熟悉, 你的windowsXP更新了嗎XD

士林一日遊

唸書唸煩了,今天就放著生化不管,跟著社團跑到士林玩
遊記,因為生化禮拜二要考,就先不寫了
照片在此

回來後真的覺得腦袋清醒多了,書唸久了果然是需要充電的.

友達の新いblogを誕生！！

BXの新いblog：BX's kingdomは新作成！
おめでとう！
Please check my links in the sidebar on the left of this page.
or click here

Damn, Biochem took me by surprise!

So I've been studying Histology for a week, thinking that Biochem is still sometime away and I simpily focused on Histology and forgot about it. Until just a while ago, I called up my organizer to see how many days I have to relax after the Histology exam. Then my jaws droped. The Biochem exam is JUST THREE DAYS after the Histology exam, which means I heardly have time to prepare, and I havent touched the Biochem book for a long time!
Damn was I stupid!

My stupid new quary file(名片檔) at ptt2 XD

Intellidryad is busy
I've gone on an on going conquest
killing time-eating evil EXAMS...
one each week
I SHELL NOT LOSE, I SHELL KILL YOU EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!

分享: 組織實的照片

as title, enjoy!
click here

and
上課投影片
助教介紹的網頁

Brain malfunction XD

I woke up one day, not knowing where I am, what time it is. I don't know what I should do. I don't know what I can do. I don't know if it's an earthquake or just me. I don't know if this is a dream or real life.

All I know is that I don't feel good, and as far as I know (which isn't much), I can do nothing about it.

--------brain recovering---------------

Alright, do something, anything, get busy. Just don't think about what you were previously thinking...＊※＃～...
┌──────────Fatal Error──────────┐
│The program just proformed a prohibited │
│action. Reset required.
│ ［ Reset ］
└───────────────────────────┘
...rats, brain short circuiting again...

News: Setting the web on fire~Firefox 1.0 is out today

Behold...the ultimate browser.

To switch>english version here >中文版下載
News on cnet
(They're going to do an ad campain on the New York Times, so download it fast, before a whole lot of New York Times readers clog the server, making it slow!)
but I would suggest that those who are upgrading from previous versions or those who like extensions(stuff that add functionality) and themes(skins, stuff that change the look) should wait a day or two. I guess the firefox update site, where you get themes and extensions, is down because of heavy traffic...

note:
browser=瀏覽器, 是用來上網逛網站的軟體
上網不是不用軟體的!!
最多人用的是windows內建的IE, 但IE會自動下載病毒和廣告軟體喔
下載firefox吧
(註:大家喜歡的kkman是一個IE外掛, 不是獨立瀏覽器, 所以有跟IE相同的安全性問題)

這是什麼季節？

「今天是個天氣晴朗的日子。刺眼的陽光從窗外照進來。走到戸外,蝉正在樹頭上高聲嗚叫 ...」請問以上引文是在描述那個季節？
如果這是一張國文考巻上的問題,答案是？ ...「簡単,一定是夏天嘛！」
但問題是 ...這是我今天早上走出宿舍時看到的耶！現在是 11月, November耶！蝉還在這叫？！這是怎様,連亞熱帯地區的台北都可以是「永夏」？
是 CO2過多？還是地球原有的周期性氣温変化？Is there any thing we can do?
難道 1,2年後的國文老師教到這種題目時要説：「這是以前的状況,現在没有季節之分」 XD

我們未來的孩子大概不會了解什麼是季節〜悲哀呀！

2nd Biochem exam~edited!

>Time: 據說改到11/23, Tue 晚上6:30 ~ 8:30(time copied from ptt 生科work版)
(抱 歉, 為了搶救物理, 我第一次翹生化, 聽說是新老師, 而且比之前的教得更爛! 怎麼說哩? 之前的雖然大家一直罵, 但我若中午先走, 事後問BX說他教了什麼, 他至少都說得出來; 但這次他的回應竟然是: "他教麼爛我怎麼知道他教了啥?", 難道我第一次翹課就被我翹對了XD?)

>Exam range: starting from 講義p12~hiarchey of proteins
&emphinson's experiment: the determination of protein sequences
to~??(I don't know)

>ch6重点:
mechanism of Lysozyme and Chymotrypsin(p216,217)
*serine protease:
the active site- Catalytic triad催化三分体~Ser, His, Asp

>no homework prior to exams

News: A new way to read my blog!

My blog has an atom site feed!
(What is atom?)
That means that you can make a live bookmark if you use Firefox 1.0 or 1.0pr
And you don't have to goto the homepage to check for new posts, just check your live bookmark folder in firefox, and all of my latest posts will just showup there, easy as that!

So how do you do it?
(You've got to be using Firefox1.0 , of course!)
Just go to the homepage of my blog (if you're reading this in the page with this post only, please click on the blog's title)
and the little orange "live bookmark"icon will light up(on your right lower corner, on the status bar)
click on it and click "subscribe to 'intellidryad's blog'..."
choose where you want the folder to be and you're done!

Of course, you could do the same thing with other sites whenever that little gray icon turns orange.

By the way, if you have other feed readers, my feed is at: http://intellidryad.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Share: Great Music - A Japanese Indies group "J.e.t"

Great music don't need to come in an expensive CD
I found some websites that let people download FREE MP3s of so called "indies" music.
These are great people who like making music, and share their works with the world for free.(But some of them still sale CD's if you like them)
Among these groups, I expecially like a group called "J.e.t", their music gives you a clean feeling. Since I'm not very good at discribing music, just download and listen for your self.
The J.e.t. page at muzie.co.jp
Their own homepage

~If you want to save money but are afraid of being sued, just listein to music that's legally free~
On copyright for sharing, please visit the Creative Commons site.

A slide from Histology class 

note: 有意義的文章回來了!

很高興，我的blog又開始出現一些有意義的文章了。前陣子在不知道要寫啥又忙著唸書的情況下，除了耍白爛的post以外，幾乎都是生化習題，結果逐漸遠離了我原本對此blog的期望。現在，blog又逐漸恢復剛開版時的樣子了我會盡量做好自己的po文品質管理的^^
另外再次強調，也歡迎大家以comment的形式提出對po文的看法。

～不忘初衷～

Just went to a great seminar~An Expanding Genetic Code

Our Biochem Teacher went abroad to attend a meeting, and a much better one came to teach this weak. Finnaly a good teacher who can at least get us intrested in Biochem once again. Today, he told us there was this seminar when the name "Peter Schultz" appeared in the text book. He said that this guy might get a Nobel prize in the near future for his great work, and that Schultz HIMSELF would be speaking here at school this afternoon. Finally a great seminar that I have time to go! And I just went "Wow" and grasped the chance.
Actually, I never thought Biochem could be so intresting before this. The title was "An Expanding Genetic Code", and he talked about how he changed a gene coden to represent a 21st amino acid, in addition to the normal 20 amino acids found in organisms. He thought "Why are there only 20 amino acids encoded in the genome in all life? What if God also worked on Sunday, would the number be something like 21, or 22?" (Which makes me think: How come Christens can always add "God" to every thing they think of?) And so they(him and his team) started out on a project to add more amino acids to an organism (E.coli actually) and see what could happen, and see if it will have an advantage or disadvantage over life with only 20.
In the process of translating mRNA (which is a info carier transcribed from DNA) into proteins, ribosomes read the mRNA strand and tRNAs bring the correct amino acid to ribosomes and add the amino acids up into a polypeptide chain (a precursor to proteins). In the process, an enzyme called "Aminoacyl-tRNA synthatase" load tRNAs with the correct amino acids.
So they tried to mutate tRNAs and Aminoacyl-tRNA synthatases to carry and load the specific amino acid they wanted to add. Surprisingly, it took them 6 years, several tries to produce what they want. I guess you need incredible patience to succeed in such an ambitious and ground breaking research, and you need lots of funding to do it, too. So it took them 6 years just to get the right tool they needed, now they finally are starting to add unnormal amino acids to E.coli.
They tried several different kinds of amino acids, even artificially synthesized amino acids with unseen-before side chains, with much success. Even more astonising, he said that because most triplet codes in the genome are already used for important Amino acids, only 2 not commenly used codens could be utilized to introduce additional ones. In order to add more, he did further mutating to get tRNAs and Aminoacyl-tRNA synthatases that use codons with 4 basepairs! And success again! Now there are already major pharmaceutical companies using these methods to develop new protein based medicines. In conclusion, he said that the proteins of life are constrained by the genetic codes, to only 20 amino acids, with no apperent reason.
What's intresting is that in the making of those tools, they made large mutation pools, insert into E.coli, and use negative selection to get the one they wanted, by adding genes that make the unsuccessful ones die off. What's more, in the adding of 4-based codens, it also competes with the less seen triplet codes which has a same sequence as on the 4-based. This is very like the development of T and B lymphocytes of the immune system, which also selects the sucessfull cells and let the failed ones die off. Which also makes me think of the similarity to the process of evolution of life it self. How intresting it is that the rule: "survival of the fittest" applies not only to the evolution of species, the developement of lymphocytes, but also to genetic engineering techneques. Maybe this is THE ULTIMATE RULE of life. Wonder if it also applies to anything else associated with life?

News:(kind of old news though) Bush gets to stay in DC for another 4 years

Looks like Bush won by a slight difference again. Actually, from an american point of view, I don't think there's much difference between Bush and Kerry. (Well, if you ignore the jokes on the tonight show that Kerry and his partner are constantly kissing and hugging like gay...) And I think that's why the 2 got a similar number of votes. But from a Taiwanese point of view, I'd say I'm happy because Bush is less likely it butter up China, and is more friendly to Taiwan. Which means that we could live safely for another 4 year, with a less possibility of war with China, since Bush will protect Taiwan.
Anyways, congrats to Mr. Bush, and good to see Kerry's a good person who is willing to admit he lost.
Good thing that he didn't went around saying" Not fair", shouting "Vote not valid", sueing everybody, creating riots, and practically messing up the whole country~~like some loser did when he wasn't elected the Taiwanese president(may be hard to understand if you're not a Taiwanese, but some people are really childlike). 1 or 2 bad losers is enough to mess up this country, those guys should see Mr. John Kerry as a role model.
Maybe we should write a law that says:"Losers who didn't behave well after an election can never apply to race again in their life."

心得: 植多實驗畫圖原則

從大一普植實驗到現在的植多實驗
一直都不知道手繪圖的意義為何
只能猜測，是助教除此之外不知道要出什麼作業？
還是照相機發明前古代留下來的傳統？
只知道再怎麼畫還是比不上相片
一張圖要畫很久，點到手痠；只為了在一個禮拜過後看到自己辛苦畫的東西
被打了一個紅紅的R或B-，退回重畫
然後更想不通為何抄課本圖的人分數永遠比照實畫的人高

直到昨天植多實助教的提醒
才知道原來植物圖是這樣畫的
啊這次終於解開了我長久以來的疑惑，也終於能畫出一張好圖了。
也把這些準則跟大家分享吧！

「為何連一些期刊上的論文也要附上手繪圖？
手繪圖的意義在於「呈現出原來的樣子」並「去除雜訊」。
由於在玻片的製作過程中細胞會萎縮，所以一些皺縮的結果要去除，以呈現它原本的樣子。
而不是非常寫實的畫下來。
不然的話直接照相就好啦！」

希望對大家有幫助。
（當然還有最基本的 1.用點呈現陰影 2.線條不要交叉）

另外，昨天還被眼蟲耍了40分鐘以上，不但一直跑，難追又不能畫；我還碰到了一隻用光照不死的……奇怪，不是據說眼蟲會被強光照死嗎？