Which book? Macbook or Vaio FJ?

The new Macbook or the Vaio FJ?
Just as I was about to decide on the Vaio, Apple released the new intel Macbook that replaced the iBook G4. Previously, I hated the white & cubic "plastic feel" of the iBook. But now, it thinner, it's lighter, and there's a black model, removing all that I hate about the iBook. What's more, the Macbook's pricing is really nice. With a similar hardware spec list, it's cheaper then the Vaio, but it's dual-core, while the vaio isn't. And it's got the ever-stable and friendly MacOS X!

But, what disapoints me is that the Macbook isn't avaliable here in Taiwan yet, and the cheepest model is still white. The black casing is restricted to the top model, which is too expensive to me. What's more, most 3rd party Mac apps arn't universal, or intel compatible, yet(requiring the rosetta powerPC emulator).

On the other hand, with the Vaio, it's got Sony eyecandy, but since it's the cheapest vaio, the specs are so-so. And, it may suffer if you load Vista on it in the future.

Macs have problems with processor transition; while PCs with OS transition. But damn, I need a notebook in this freakn' time period.

Should I just pass and depend on my Clie for the 2 months of summer? (Doesn't seem too good to me...)

Freshly announced Treo 700p & Vaio UX

After all the rumors, the "not so secret" Treo 700p is now officially anounced.

Comparing it with it's predecessor, the Treo 650, it supports EVDO highspeed networking, camera upgraded to 1.3MP, more memory, and the crapy Realplayer is replaced by the amazing PocketTunes(should have long ago).

So much for the incremental upgrades, this is not fun nor exciting, they are just doing a minor upgrade to the 650. (Boring!)


Although the Treo 650 was a big hit, not everyone liked the formfactor. Comeon, man, give us something new!


---------------
Now for something more exciting...
Sony has been hinting on this release for days with this flash movie.
Behold the Vaio UX ultra mobile PC, the latest update to the Vaio U series.

The Blog jkOnTheRun has a report on this, and many pictures. The Japanese Sony fansite, So-Mo has more on this.

It runs XP pro, instead of Microsoft's new "Origami" : XP tabletPC ed. for UMPC.

What's exciting about this is the way Sony's marketing presented it with a cool adumbrating flash site. It also seems to have many similaritys with Clies, such as the slider (VZ like form factor), a capture button and the Power/hold slide switch. However, it's way too heavy(yet another brick), and too expensive.

Kudos for Sony on the marketing part. Palm should really take a page from Sony's book. However, the price of the UX is restricting it to wealthy techies, it would never be a hit. Wish the next generation would be more friendly.

Anxiety of the future...

It growing...

First of all, it of this year.
In the first place, I set my targets to get my self some better social/acedemic experience and challenge, to pacify my feel of self-childishness. I'm trying to grow up spritually, be independent. So, I'm going to the states for summer research, and I'm doing all the main planing of this summer's ride trip (Wuling), then, next summer, arrange to go biking in Hokkido. OK, so, sweet and grand plans, sure challenging. Now comes the problems. As the plans pan out, the expenses sky-rocket. Let's see, summer ride trip: 4000; to the US: over 30000, I guess; summer housing: Not found, but may be as much as 30000; GRE: 6000...... (all in NTD) I feel like a money sucking tick. And then I saw in the NY times that gas prices in the US are incredibly high, talk about my need to go between LA and Rancho Cucamonga each week, maybe I should cut that. And I may need to get a new notebook and backpack for the summer.

So, I just canceled next week's class trip. Guess I'd also have to cut back on the lavish bedtime snacks. And I'd certeinly be tutering next semester. But hay, I still can't find housing for the summer in LA, ARRRG!

And then, I'd be homesick for bad in 2008. 'Cause after I graduate next year, my ARC/student visa would be expired for good. Next time I come back "home", I'm a "tourist". Taiwan is where I spent most of my life, where most of my friends are, where most of my memories are, but I'm not part of it, I'm just a damn-ol' "foreigner". And the immigration office wants me out of the country within days of my graduation. No time to celebrate graduation, no time for rest, no time for party, no time for saying good-bye; it's just "pack and flee". On to the "familiar, but not so familiar" US, where the officers smile at you and say: "Welcome home!" This all seems like a parody. The place where you set up your self-identity, wants you out of here fast, like you're some kind of pest or something.

OK, it's approaching. My last year in Formosa, the island of beauty. Starting summer 2007, I'm out of here, no longer a resident, away from everything I know, I love......

OK, I've made up my mind. Before I leave this country, I want to ride around the island once again, savor all that I see, all that I feel, and remember for good, the wonderful tropical island.

Cyclub president election

That guy just doesn't get it! He is so naive!
He thinks that repairing bikes for the whole school is doable (WTF?), but he hasn't even repaired his own bike! He doesn't understand.

Why are the recreational ride trips so unpopular? They seem too difficult to out siders, but not challanging enough for clubmembers. You wanna advertise for every trip, every week? Fine, get expelled.

He is dreaming a fantacy, but he doesn't know that he isn't so "omnipotent". He has no experience, he can't fathom the hardships, but he THINKs he knows.

Go get experience, go see the world, get the whole picture into your mind, before you attempt to lead us. Before that, I don't want you to ruin this wonderful club. It's be a tragady to kill what you love so dearly by heart, with your own hands.

What do boys like?

禮拜三去夜騎平溪看螢火蟲時，芳諭問我說會不會喜歡上美國人然後就不回來了。我很理所當人的說我比較喜歡臺灣人，不喜歡高加索人。她竟很驚訝，並說大部分 臺灣女生反而喜歡外國男生！怎麼差這麼多？對我來說，我覺得烏亮的黑髮有種奇特的光彩，是金髮不能比擬的。小一點的身材和淺一點的臉部輪廓也有種比較容易 親近的含蓄之美。高加索種的女生當然自有她們美麗的地方，可以當朋友，可以當工作夥伴，但再怎樣也無法跟"喜歡"有所聯想，總之就不是我的type啦。

今天又看到報紙裡的小說說男生普遍喜歡長髮的女生。說到此，真的有點慚愧。總覺得能在風中輕輕飄逸的東西，舉凡長髮，長裙，甚至是跳舞時用的絲質彩帶或國 劇中的水袖，都有種致命的吸引力。而偏偏這些會隨風飄的東西都是在生活中極其麻煩的東西。為何會喜歡這些東西呢？這些東西對生存上的適應沒有任何關係吧， 為何會演化出喜歡這些東西的男生呢？

以上幾點的完美組合，也許是我一年級時被她所吸引，而被拒絕一年多後還是無法忘掉她的原因吧。真是白癡。不過，至少我現在已經比較會控制自己的心情，好好過活。重要的是，有車社的眾多朋友不用再怕孤獨。

梅峰野調

剛從梅峰回來，真棒啊～～！
先貼照片吧。
在即將考遺傳的狀況下大概也不能po遊記了
photos here

Altrusic behavior

這是怎樣？
幫忙朋友討好女朋友讓我感到高興；自己追女朋友時卻很痛苦？

為何者我這種只會增進別人的genetic fitness的基因會留下來不被淘汰？這不符合達爾文的適者生存演化論啊～～

What has Firefox done for the world?

I'm now playing with IE 7 beta 2. Seems nice, but not as good as Firefox. However, Firefox is clearly what made Microsoft push out IE 7. Let's see what Firefox has done for the world:

1. Let the world know how IE 6 sucks
2. Let people know that you aren't stuck with IE, you have a choice
3. Popularlized the concept of Free software
4. Popularlized tabbed browsing
5. Forced Microsoft to work harder on IE 7 (which is, frankly, quite nice)
6. Forced Opera to strip out the ads and be totally free
7. Reminded lazy website managers about the importance of standards and browser interoperability.
8. Made web surfing a much better experience
9. Taught the world that there's something called a "browser", and it's not "just the blue E"

Now, about IE 7.

The new interface seems nice, clean and provides more space for your webpages. I expecially like the way they made adding new tabs stright foward. But here's the complaints:

• You need to "click to activate" flash movies before they work.
• Takes a long time and a reboot to install.
• There's no way to import bookmarks from other browsers.
• No bookmarks toolbar, you need to dig-into the favortes menu.
• Slower then Firefox to activate.

So, IE 7 is my new toy, while Firefox sticks as my main browser :)

Congrats

要祝福一個很好的朋友幸福快樂
我終於看懂你最近的進版畫面了
不過不是約好先有的要請客嗎？
Where's my meal???

陳明章 重回現場 校園演唱會

今天晚上正心煩不想唸書時，剛好發現活大有陳明章的校園演唱會耶～～^^
於是，就臨時起意，給他走了進去

我想他算是很有名的台語歌手吧，之前「手牽手護台灣」的主題曲就是採用他的創作，有名的「流浪到淡水」，更是今天的壓軸好歌。一些熟悉的音樂，聽現場的真的棒很多。在台北住久了，很久沒有這種這麼親近這片土地的感覺了。我尤其喜歡他那種每一首歌都是以台灣的一個地方為主題的創作方式（讓人有點想要再來環一次島XD）。正港的台語，對於我這個台南人之子，更是倍感親切。

把電視關掉

今天他還講了不少有趣的銘言：
「教你們一個愛台灣的方法：把電視關掉。那些人都很糟糕。」
「中國文化最美的東西都在文革時被毀滅掉了，他們現反而要來台灣把它學回去。」
「不要使用簡體字，很糟糕。」
「有自己的文化，才能有自信。」
「人生是一張單程車票。要回去時要用感性，不能用理性。」

嗯，我想，我們真的要為自己的文化感到驕傲。

photos:

陳明章把飲料喝光後，在台上喝起歌迷送的啤酒
陳明章音樂的宣傳車吧
會後的簽名會（我也買了一張簽名CD耶）

有趣的是，這次示愛鮮家食品贊助的，據說老闆想辦「文化活動」，就找來了陳明章。
會後還每人發一罐「卡打車」單車運動飲料呢XD
還不錯喝，不過據說富含vitamin B，結果就是跟維大力一樣黃。瓶子不錯看，但是瓶口不適合邊騎邊喝，單手操作。（反而比較像是洗碗精的蓋子耶）

Links:
陳明章音樂工作室（留言板中有關於今天的留言呢）
愛鮮家食品活動網頁（為何還沒有「卡打車」產品網頁？）

[大私約]台大2團-武嶺宜蘭支線

今年武嶺我想走宜蘭支線
希望招得到4個人以上 (大家來啊! 好玩耶)

原訂行程五天，6/27-7/1
走北宜公路(台9)經宜蘭市轉台7->台7甲就是中橫宜支了
然後走一段台8, 到大禹嶺
然後再到觀雲山莊跟大家會合，最後一天跟大隊

不過...剛剛查過里程, 覺得應該可以4天解決耶
以下為PaPaGo所查到的資料
day1
台大 -74.7km->宜蘭市
day2
宜蘭市 -40.8km->棲蘭山莊
day3
棲蘭 -61.7km-> 武陵農場(住武陵青年活動中心吧)
day4
武陵農場 -61.5km-> 大禹嶺 -14.9km->觀雲山莊
day5
觀雲山莊 -36km->武嶺 -54.4km->埔里

若真的要玩5天, 那等於要在宜蘭玩一玩了
難道還要去礁溪泡溫泉???

---

來寫寫為何想走宜支好了
一開始是覺得太魯閣我已經去過太多次了，所以去年有點羨慕師大團
而去年走過一次東段後，更覺得今年想走個不一樣的路線
再加上木瓜溪時感受到一個小團私約活動中，大家同甘共苦所得到的快樂，是參加多人大活動所不能比的。尤其是像武嶺這種超大活動，一大群人，跟大拜拜一樣；見到很多人，卻沒辦法深入瞭解任何一個人，結果回來後，連有誰跟著一起去都際不太清楚了。

真的希望能夠成行

Finished Hanoi Tower!!

Just finished my own version of Hanoi tower with C#. Non-recursive, no gray code.
I know this should be a piece of cake for programers, but for me, a beginner, it took me at least 8 hours in total, from asking questions, looking for referance, to plaining , coding and debuging. Boy was it satisfying!

爽～～～

Now, a late night meal to replanish all the glucose I used up in tackling this thing.

Firefox ads on firefoxflicks!

Here's some intresting Firefox advertisments, all made by Firefox lovers. Since the Ad submission contest is nearing an end, they're posting up some of the best each day. Enjoy!

Now this is truely the best: This is hot
Amazing animations!


Like it? Click on the Firefox flicks button on the top!

Alpha series DSLR, reborn.

Sony
Konica Minolta sold it's camera technologies to Sony last year and backed out of the camera market. Minolta was once a highly recognised brand, but has been suffering for the last few years. At some point, it was bought by Konica, and now it's assets sold to Sony.
(See Konica Minolta's last DSLR here)

Sony has just anounced that the sony branded DSLRs well be marketed under the "" moniker, and the first products, with Minolta's alpha-lens-mount system, will be avaliable this summer. More choices is always better for any market. So it's a good thing that Minolta's ledgend won't be going away. Can't wait to see what Sony will do with DSLRs.

Life science math homework notes

So that whole system of short hands of PDE calculations is called the Einstein notation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_notation

The Levi-Civita symbols, also called permutation or antisymmetric symbols, is actually the εijk part:
εijk
=+1 if (i,j,k)=(1,2,3), (2,3,1)or (3,1,2)
=-1 if (i,j,k)=(3,2,1), (1,3,2)or (2,1,3)
=0 if i=j or j=k or k=i
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi-Civita_symbol

While the δij part is the kronecker delta:
δij =1 when i=j
else, δij =0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronecker_delta

---
For info on the last question (caution, very long):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_equations

For (i) in the 2nd question, it wants us to explain the " Euler equation", however, the seems to be tens of hundreds of " Euler equation", and I can't find the right one. Please do tell me if you can.
(∂v/∂t)+ v・∇v = -(1/ρ)∇p - ∇φ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_equation

Pandora: Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Find Music You'll Love - Pandora

Just found this amazing web jukebox in an article on rohdesign, and it really amazing!

It's a flash based music player. You first enter an artist you'd like to listen, it then starts playing a computer generated playlist with songs of a similar taste, guessing the type of music you'd like. If it picked one you don't like, you could tell it to choose another one, and it'll refine it's guess, to better suit your taste.

The sound quality is quite nice by on-line streaming audio standards. What I like is that it's just like a personal radio station designed just for you, and you could accidentally stumble upon a piece of music that you like but never heard before.

Back to the basics of handhelds

Rohdesign Weblog: Back to the Future: from Zire to Clié
Jim's Tips | PDAs: Back To The Basics
PDA 247 | In Praise of the Z22 by Tom Stoneham

Here's 3 articles on the basics of PDAs: personal information managment. It's intresting that most people don't get it that Palm PDAs are first and fore most electronic organisers.

Yes they can play music, they can surf the net, they can view documents, they may take pictures... you name it. But it's core function is to organise, an evolution of your dayplanner, your pocket notebook. It remembers your appointments, remind you of them; it saves all your contact information, all your notes; it has a list of the things you must do but haven't. PDA stands for "Personal Digital Assistant", it manages your information, your appointments, just as a real assistant should. It s not just a synoym for "flashy toy that does everything". Everyone asks me if it does phone calls, or GPS. What's so important about those two? Isn't your normal phone enough? Don't you know where you are going? Can't you ask your friendly pedestrians for directions?

Yeah, it could play games, it could play videos. But the one single function that make it indispensable is the PIM functionality. It's the important things that count, it's the zen of Palm.

There must be a better way to live

I have turbulent, labile emotions.
心情上上下下，每過一段時間，就會心情越來越差，然後說沒心情做這個，沒心情做那個
最後，又把事情搞砸

接著，情緒爆發
（媽媽都說是「起ㄏㄨㄟ」（台語））
跟小孩子一樣，
一張臭臉
一邊吃甜食、喝可樂，一邊在這個blog上發牢騷
希望又有人來關心......

有完沒完啊？
都大三了，人家國中同學都成家立業了，同年紀的自己應該更勇敢，更堅強一點。

More snakes

昨天脊椎動物學又有蛇可以玩了^^

可愛的玉米蛇





BX怕蛇= =|||

羅馬公路

省道118, 又稱羅馬公路, 新竹馬武督山到桃園羅浮
之前聽服務課助教說他騎跑車去過, 一天來回
今天,在報紙上看到介紹, 真想去
找個時間私約吧
不過, 要玩的高興, 需要3天吧
北橫前段一天
羅馬公路一天
從新竹回來再一天

http://www.ylib.com/travel/notes/oneroad38-3.htm
http://www.hisport.com.tw/go/go02/index.html

A day of pythons and stupidity

今天中午，大家隨便約耶約，就十幾人一同到一家頗高級的日式料理吃中飯。大三了，還能這麼大一群同學聚在一起，實在不簡單。在去的途中有點感慨，自己跟系上同學越來越疏遠，還在思考原因。不過，一到店裡坐下來，就馬上得到答案了。一瞬間，出現了2大聊天集團；女生談化妝品（我聽不懂）；男生談籃球（無聊，沒興趣）。很好，很好，我的興趣比較特別，都沒有什麼跟大家的共同話題。也難怪我最近越來越常到社辦吃飯，至少，大家的聊天話題不會離我太遠。不過有趣的是，我去人本也不會像跟同學間這麼糟糕啊......

脊椎動物實驗大家玩蛇玩的很嗨。助教帶了他心愛的球蟒和紅紋蚺各一條。球蟒是黑色那條，還有褐色斑點。紅紋蚺則是褐色那條。都很溫和，尤其是球蟒，真的是超可愛的！！而且，摸起來光滑柔軟，非常有質感^^


剛放在脖子上會嚇一跳，真的好冰啊！



晚餐我又來到了社辦

羅得鳥啊～～

天啊，要上腦殘電視台的節目果然要狂耍寶。

在社辦，我忘了是誰拿我的耳機去玩了。後來一回到圖書館，就發現我那不到一年的，Made in China的爛耳機竟然接觸不良，掛了！貪小便宜買sony入門款果然是不對的。不過，也真是的，我這個沒音樂就活不下去的笨蛋，竟因耳機不能用，就心情盪到谷底，今晚也就沒唸到書。唉，雖然現在心情正常了，不過，明天要花800上下去買新耳機了。不過了，on the bright side，至少我不像朋友一樣，只要有「主機板」的東西，管他是桌上型電腦、筆電、手機、PDA全掛。很好，只掛個耳機的我也算是幸運的吧XD

Now, Google's online calendar

Google just came out with a new web app: google calender. Nice and elegant, similar to Gmail. However, I keep everything in my Clie, which is always with no matter if I have a web connection or not. Also, I can't seem to find a simple way to import my datebook data from Palm desktop.
However, what's intresting here is that Calender+Gmail, means an on-line competitor to Outlook. Eat dust, Bill Gates!

Plans for the remaining days of my undergrad life

As I start preparing for tests and prior work for grad school applications, I start to feel that I don't have much time left here.

Here's what I'd wish to achieve in the comming 1.5 years before graduation. This is what I call "reasionable day dreaming" :D

Summer 2006
1. UCLA lab work (Horray! I found it!)
2. Buy camera, ソニー サイバショットH3, H5(more control) or N1(coolness)
3. GRE general test
4. Find graduate school targets

Fall 2006
1. GRE subject test, bio & bio-chem
2. send graduate school applications (a least 15, I guess)
3. 家教打工見つける (saving up for biking trips abroad :) )
4. find next lab for the school year (This time, I 'd like to focus on viruses)

2007
夏と冬はどれ～？
?. 北海道自転車旅行(too cold in winter, but I'm busier in summer...)
?. 蘭嶼自転車旅行(all seasons ok)
(of the above, find at least 3 friends, with a max of 6)

Summer 2007
さよなら　大学生活～～！

單車社社服選拔

社服選拔來了！！！
(Notice：因之前出現錯誤，投票從4/11 1:00AM開始重記，截止日期往後延一天至4/16號)
在這裡選完喜歡的作品後，記得到PTT投票喔！
請投1-5號，寄站內信給PHAileen
一人最多二票(共1~5號)，每人每一號只能投一票，投票日期到4/16為止，下週一中午(4/17)公佈結果。

社員們記得投啊！

社團網頁

在我們車社網頁剛完成時，我自己無聊，去逛了一下其他社團的網頁，很滿足的說：「哈哈，我們車社的網頁果然最棒。」

結果剛剛逛到火車社的2006新版網頁。一開始嚇一跳，「wow，這個比我還猛XD」接著，發現以下幾點：

1. 狂用flash8... 撥接的，等到死吧；PDA/PSP/smartphone使用者，永遠看不到
2. 網頁各部分參雜了各年不同風格的網頁，incoherent
3. 為了美觀，犧牲usability（要連到各頁都要先跳回首頁）
   

以上，犯了我做網頁的3大禁忌，呵呵。

不過呢，優點也不少

1. 好看，高水準
2. 資料豐富（我們的文書呢？）
3. Navigation頗清楚的，不會迷路

希望不久的將來，我會有時間把車社網頁弄的更好。
Major objectives：

1. Elegancy
2. Usability
3. Design consistancy
4. More content
5. The Wow factor
6. Interoperability

1, 2, 3, 5, 6都已初步達成，不過都有改進空間。

北市單車 將登錄車籍

自由電子報-生活新聞-北市單車 將登錄車籍
叫馬英九去死啦
分明就是要找方法以後方便「罰錢」＆增加市政收入

我不爽不是因為我習慣違規，容易被罰錢；而是不爽停車要收錢。莫名其妙。要加裝前燈也很奇怪。1)白天要前燈幹嘛？ 2)安全帽才是最重要的。

還要證照？這又是壓榨市民，增加市政收入的好方法啊！辦證一定又要錢了，以後騎車違規也有「證照」可以看了。

不思考如何鼓勵市民騎車，反而無所不用其極的壓榨環保的單車騎士，這是全世界前所未見的。別以為到處亂貼「單車專用道」的標誌就是有做事。「單車專用道」中，有水潭、有鐵欄杆障礙、有機車、有野狗、有坑洞、有死路，我告訴你，「單車專用道」搞不好比一般馬路還危險。而且還有一大部分是凹凸不平的磚塊地，難道大家都一定要騎雙避陣車？

馬英九下台前，我不期待北市的騎車環境會有任何進步。不過，若有車隊抗議遊行，我一定支持。

很好，這次是前變

剛剛，我的校園車的前變，莫名其妙的撞到曲柄，整個扭曲變形變成一團勾著鏈條，會促進落鍊的廢鐵。

明天去社辦用老虎鉗凹凹看好了。現在2速的前變似乎很稀有，而且只需要再用1年辦的校園車換新的前變似乎有點浪費。另前變勾著鏈條，光要把鏈條從舊前變拿出來就要剪開了；除非新的前變跟Deore一樣有可以打開的螺絲設計，否則可能要打鍊或換鍊......現在，KMC的5速鏈條（我的校園車是前2速後5速的）似乎停產了......囧

我不喜歡必須看人家臉色的事情

以前碰到的事情都是只要自己認真努力，就能夠達成的事。現在，碰到決定權在別人手上的事情，不但很不習慣，沒有踏實感；還因為臉皮太薄，不知在不好意思什麼，就無法權利去做好它。

我不適合搞商業。
昨天去幫Puma store宣傳，光發個傳單，就有「怕會對人家造成困擾」的感覺。結果，發出去的張數比別人少很多。

我也不會搞感情。
臉皮太薄，很怕造成人家困擾，成為「黏人的蒼蠅」。結果所有的表現都很收斂，給人的感覺可能是不夠積極，甚至是「只當朋友」吧。於是，她就被別人搶先追走。而我這個挫折感很重的，就直接把「愛情」這件事拋諸腦後，再也不玩了，放棄了。

現在更是找不到實驗室。
這也要看教授臉色......。丟email都丟得很含蓄，完全表現不出自己有多好。於是，不是被忽略就是被拒絕。

Life is a struggle.

Frantic

In spite the impending midterm exam and reports, I still don't feel like preparing. The search for a summer lab slot has been futile, with no ideas what to do next. As for my GRE, I'm still headlessly memorizing vocabulary, with poor achevement. With summer just around the corner, I'm in somesort of panic, feels kinda like I'm going to screw up my future this year. Don't know how to go on, and I find my self avoiding my problems. I began deleting the unacheveable entries in my todo list, and ignoring others. I am franticly riding my bike as much as I can. I borrowed a book of Edgar Allan Poe's poems, to enchant myself, to feel the helplessness in The Raven.

I now see emptyness and fear in my future; I feel the weight of the world on my back. Don't know what to do.

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

再衝巴拉卡

之前有讀者來信，說陽明山的櫻花應該很棒。可惜當時我比較忙，而且想說新中橫已經看了一堆山櫻花，就一直拖延沒去。今天總算是有時間去了。整個下午因研究所考試而放假 ，雖然期中考快了，不過真的念得很煩，就衝陽明山，行義路上，巴拉卡下，再經淡水回來。

今天也順便走了一趟過去一年來一直避開的竹子湖海芋田。一年級班遊時來採海芋，然後它成為我第一次，也是唯一一次送過女生的花（好啦，我知道從植物學的觀點它其實不是真的花啦），象徵當時單純（也有點笨）的情感。後來，每次看到有人手裡拿著海芋，就勾起一些痛苦的回憶。今天能以平常心來逛逛，算是種突破吧！

一直拖延，櫻花果真沒剩多少。上面照片中的不知是什麼花，有點像櫻花，卻是白色的，而且凋謝得差不多了。

巴拉卡的風景還是一樣棒。不過今天風很大，再加上路面品質差，凹凸不平（胎壓不該灌60的，有夠震的），今天下坡很慢。今天的最高速：64km/hr 很神奇的是在下山後的101上的緩下坡達成的，可見巴拉卡的路況有多差。

想說之前都一直帶新生騎，今天來挑戰一下自己，順便練車。上坡時高轉速+有點種的檔位；下坡時也保持定速踩踏，還盡量過彎壓車少減速。不錯，均速有18.4km/hr。不過回程時就腳軟無力了，速度再也無法突破24km/hr。哈哈，體力被我操光了。有點小小不順的是，在台2進士林那又迷路了，一不小心到了社子島，只好折返再接再厲；最後，終於順利回到中山北，回到台北，順道去敗張YUI的新專輯^^

YUI / From me to you

昨天發現YUI的新專輯竟然已經上市一陣子了，我今天馬上把它買回來了^^

去年，YUI的的2張單曲：Tomorrow's way 的MV出現在日本Sony的walkman recommendation site，當時就覺得對於這種乾淨的吉他搖滾音樂有種久違的感覺，就決定等她出專輯一定要買。

整張專輯都是吉他音樂，有點像Michelle Branch的風格，也有點像「光明版」的Avril Lavigne。有趣的是，她很喜歡在歌詞中參雜一些英文，結果，是典型日本人的英文：用的怪怪的，發音也怪怪的XD

我特別喜歡TOKYO這首歌，有種離家流浪去的滄桑。聽著聽著腦中浮現一個街頭藝人抱著吉他到處彈奏，很有感覺。

最後，談談價格。這絕對張值得買的專輯，不過在這個音樂界充滿「貪念」的時代，真的要小心。台北站前商圈（或者該稱為補習街？）的大眾唱片竟賣398！400元一張CD未免誇張了。想必同公司卻沒有競爭者的公館玫瑰或大眾一定賣更貴，也許430左右吧，我猜。Anyway，附近沒有競爭者的唱片行絕對不要進去。我今天就直接殺補習接的大眾/玫瑰，不過發現他們在坑人，就到隔壁的光南，348到手，現省50！

YUI的首頁提供所有曲目的試聽喔

北橫生態之旅～photos

photos here
第一次把車社大活動當ecological tourism, 終於有像「別人眼中的生科系」XD

嗯, Sony Cybershot F707真棒，4、5年前的產品比現在市面上的任何一個非單眼數位相機都好用^^

Writing tools

Most people use ball point pens, I can not fathom why. To me the mechanical pencil seems to be the best thing for writing. Using good leads, you get a smooth and clean writing experience. With a small eraser, rectifications are simple and easy. Get a mechanical pencil with a big chamber, fill it up with a whole pack of leads (about 20~40), and you can write on for more then half a year with no hassles.

Let's see how pens do. For corrections, you either need a bottle of slow-drying liquid paper(which sometimes clog up); bulky and expensive correction tape; or scraps of paper and glue. Sometimes the pen is old, or you forgot to recap,or you might have accidentaly dropped it, or for no apparent reason, the ink just gets clogged, or ink gratuitously comes gushing out, or maybe the "ball" of the point just fells out. Farthermore, you use up ink fast, either you buy a new one, or get ink refills, every few weeks. Just think of all the hassle.

Clearly, the pencil is much better. All you have to do is concentrate on your writing.

------

Let's now talk about pen compuuting. Using handhelds for years now, I'm really wondering why we are stuck with keyboards and mouses on PCs. Sure, typing on keyboards is still the fastest input method. But the mouse? You've got to move the cursor to the correct spot, point it and click. that's at least 2 gestures. With a touch screen, all you do is tap, 1 gesture max. Neat and simple. So why didn't touch screens catch on? Price? That is one, but I guess the main reason is that no big company has strongly promoted it on desktops. Microsoft is trying to push it with tablet PC, but with a price way too exorbitant. They threw in a poor writing recognition system, stripped out the keyboard, and told you that you could doodle and scrible. The best combination should really be a touch screen usable with your finger(you could only use the stylus on tablet PCs) to replace the mouse, a good writing recognition system (such as Graffiti on Palms), and retain the keyboard. Wish future desktops are going this way.

------

So, here's the most used writing tools I use everyday:
-a mechanical pencil
-a stylus

No summer labs...

I SCREWED UP ONCE AGAIN!!!

S**T, WTF......

I missed the last paragraph of a email reply in January, and just found out minutes ago.
Sent my appologies out to the professor just now.

OK, I can't find a single Lab that well accept me, get the only professor kind enough to help was ignored by yours truly for nearly 3 months. He must be really pissed off.

I really want to hit a wall now. I wish I were dead.

F*****************************************k

男三現在沒熱水...

Shit, it's freezing
難道要我們先灌一灌啤酒然後進去用冰水修行？
Corporal mortification?

"Why does women like dumb men?"

I saw someone ask this funny question in Popular Science's FYI (for your information) section. Intreuging indeed, however is the question it self true? Yes we frequently see women on TV saying how "cute" stupid guys are, but I doubt it's the norm.

Pop Sci answered this from a zoologist's perspective, explaining that in animals, males with big testis have smaller brain, and then goes on to say that it's not necessarily that way with humans. But that's equivocating. Of course woman don't choose mates by the size of their balls(gross...)! Let me elucidate from the view point of evolution.

Let's just hypothesize that women do have more affinity with stupid men. That means that there's a selection towards stupidity, the dolts have better fitness, have more offspring, and in no time, the Human species would be one of the dumbest living beings on the planet! Neat, isn't it? Immagine a world of fools.

The Human race is not fit in many environments without the wit to manipulate it into a preferable one. Homo sepians bereft of intelligence would surely go extinct. This is absolutely un-eugenic. So, if women do gravitate towareds retarded mates, chances are that we would all be long extinct.

(Buy the way, good guys should also be de-selected long ago, why are we still here?)

10 years of Palm goodness

(image from Palm's website)

It was this month, 10 years ago when the first Palm device was launched. Through the years we have enjoyed this little innovative and easy to use gadget to enhance our lives.

Here are some of the sites celebrating the aniversary:
(Remember to listen to the audio interview on Palm's site, or get it here [download mp3])

• Palm inc.
  
• Palm infocenter/Happy 10th Anniversary Palm Computing
• Palm infocenter/Palm Pilot 1000 Retrospective
• 1src/10 Years of Palm Handhelds
• C|net/Ten years on, revisiting Palm's first Pilot
• C|net/Palm turns 10
• Palmaddicts/Palm Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary of the Pilot, ...
  

The Prius(with photos)

After a busy week, here's the post I said I would do. (See my first take on the Prius last week)

Although it's already a relatively old model, it is still fascinating, since it's still light years ahead of it's competitors.

It's an expensive hybrid, you wouldn't expect it to sell as good as Camry's; instead it's more of a proof of concept that sets the Toyota brand apart from the competitors. So, only select dealers do show the Prius, where they add a mark to show it does. They say it's a glimpse of the future, but we all know clearly, that we would ultimately need cars that doesn't been gasoline.


Here's the electric motor, taking up half the space of the engine chamber. And this is where it needs specially trained technicions for maintainence. So you're stuck to Toyota dealers that do Prius repairs.

The Hybrid mark on the side and the back, a show off badge that shouts out "I love the environment" (And of course, "I'm rich").

The driver's seat, you can see a "Power button"that starts the engine, the dashboard, and the shift, which is more like a joy stick: every thing's drive-by-wire. The dashboard might seem weird with all the meters and numbers in the middle, up on top on the dashboard. But I tried sitting in the driver's seat, and was amazed by the genious of the design. You can keep your head to the road, and read the numbers without moving your head. I like it.

The "Power button", up close. They use it with the newer "key-less" systems, and it's very cool.