Google's online Office softwares

Let's see what you get with your ordinary MS Office package... Do you know Google has an online version of most of them? (And this is what made Microsoft nervous about Google) The point of using online applications is that 1)It's free 2)Can do group editing, where everybody contributes, great for team works(How I with I had these when I was doing experiment course reports) 3)The files are online, accessible from any computer, with cross platform support. However, some of them are still not as powerful as desktop applications.

1. Word: word processor | Google's answer: Writely

Most of the essential formatting tools are there; table cell size relatively hard to control.
May upload files from your computer, and download them when you're done.
Because this app is accuired, integration with Gmail is not good, yet.
User account is also a seperate account of it's own.

2. Excel: spreadsheet | Google's answer: Google Spreadsheets

Most of the essential formatting tools are there; doesn't support hyperlinks.
May upload files from your computer, and download them when you're done.
Requires a Gmail account.

3. Powerpoint: presentation slideshows | Google has no answer to this
(Hay Google, want to try this one?)

4. Outlook: mail & schedule | Gmail & Google calander

First of all, I guess everybody knows Gmail by now, the famous email service with always growing storage (it's recently about 2.7GB), simple and intuitive UI, integrated IM & calender & mapping, great spam filter, and real time notificaiton via the Gmail notifier application avaliable as a download. If you want one, I have invitations :)

This has a similar UI as Gmail, and also offers event notifications via the downloadable notifier.
May import data from Outlook and iCal.
Supports Calender sharing.
Requires a Gmail account.

Also, for notes, I'm happily using Google Notebook

Are computers causing us more problems then it's solving?

This morning, someone in our lab asked me to help him send some pictures to his daughter. I thought it's just attach and send, so I went ahead to show him. First, he needs to find the photos he wants to send. The photos are on the lab intranet server, so he went to download them. But then, his connection kept disconnecting and reconnecting to the server every 10~20 minutes. It took him like half an hour to find the ones he wanted and get them on to his desktop. Then, I have to help him find the attach button in his Outlook tool bar. I have used Netscape mail, Thunderbird and Outlook express, and am recently just using Yahoo and Google's webmail UI, in all those cases, the attach button/link is relatively easily spotted. (Except Outlook express, which my junior high computer teacher telled us where it is...) However, I've never seen such an interface nightmare as I've seen today. Outlook launch this "Word email editor" window when you compose a new mail, and on top of the window, there's 3 whole lines of button icons there, most of them, of course, are stuff you'd never use. I felt like finding a needle in a haystack, but eventually found the "paper clip" icon, which I vaguely remember from Outlook express that means attach file (I'd never know what a paper clip means if I never used Outlook express). So there goes Microsoft's trick at it's best, using unsuggestive icons, and burying often used functions deep in a pile of junk.

But the nightmare does not end there. I don't know the outgoing mail size limit of UCLA's mail server, but he just attached 3 photos, reaching a size of about 7MB, and maxed out the size limit: mail blocked. After a futile attempt of compressing the photos into a zip file (size still near 7MB), we decided to send then photos one by one. But then his mail box it self maxed out. Maybe he didn't have the habit of cleaning his mailbox...

Should this be that hard? He just wanted to share some moments of joy of his life with his daughter. And our computing environment made this simple wish extreemly hard to acomplish. In the end I just gave him a Gmail account, which has a simple but useful user interface, constantly growing mailbox size, and 10MB outgoing size limit.
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One other night, a friend at the Co-Op wanted to log on to MSN messenger to chat with another friend. But her ACER notebook, also, kept connecting and disconnecting from the WIFI connection. I told her never buy an Acer again, and just let her use my ultra stable MacBook.
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Yet another friend, who also has an Acer, one day found out that his notebook somehow deleted it's CD/DVD burning drive's driver files, automaticaly, all by it self. The driver couldn't be found on Acer's support site. And the driver from someone else's Acer of the same model somehow didn't work either. After 2 days of trying, he gave up and recovered to the original factory settings.
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Computing should never be that hard, but we do have a lot of idiots in the IT industry.

With my MacBook and Clie TH55, my rate of having something crash in my face is less then once a week. However, it takes a geek like me to know to choose MacOS and Palm OS. It also takes a geek to know to stay away from Microsoft and wisely use Google's great services. Hope more people would get the know how to avoid computer problems and get their work done, not wasting their time solving stupid problems.

水袋入手！！！

一個月前買了個很棒的Jansport登山背包，來代替我原來的破爛Outdoor廉價品。因為想預留空間裝水袋，就選了個H2O compatable的。其實我之前的Outdoor就已經是Hydration compatable了，只是因為Walmart壓低價格，迫使製造商比需用很差的材料，用半年就已經破洞一堆了。Anyway，買了新的Jansport之後，我開始認真尋找水袋。主要的選擇有Camalpak和Nalgene，其中Camalpak很明顯是為自己的背包設計的；而Nalgene則是Jansport的御用水袋牌子，也是有名的塑膠水壺品牌。不過呢，兩家都很貴，1L的要20$；2L的要25~30$。

不過今天讓我不小心找到了最便宜的，Outdoor水袋小背包附贈2L水袋共20$，特價15$，比單買水袋還便宜！！！爽啊！Outdoor水袋小背包不是很好看，不過若要騎短程的路，只需要帶水的時候還滿方便的，而且透氣背帶和靠背導風溝都有。不過呢，若要出大活動，當然就用Jansport輕便登山包啦，只要把水袋裝過去就行啦^^

哈哈，Jansport登山包 + Outdoor水袋，可是台灣找不到的組合呢！以後我也可以當懶人喝水族了。

呆丸共和國

過去一直覺得台灣是個美麗的地方。風景漂亮，水果多，食物好吃，有人情味。不過最近覺得它已經成為一個解體中的國家。中國共產黨越來越聰明，以前採取鴨霸強硬手法，得到台灣人團結的反效果。現在靜靜的，暗中給新聞媒體和某些政治人物一些好處；他們就自行作亂，把台灣搞垮。真的是生於憂患，死於安樂，以前李登輝時代，有飛彈試射，台灣人就知道要自我保護。現在，共產黨裝乖，就靜靜的等你自殺。

台灣兩大亂源：
政治、媒體

政治：
國親兩黨把台灣視為中國的一部份；民進黨將台灣視為「政治實體」（那是啥？）沒有人心中有國家，自然就不會有愛國，肯為國家做事的。民進黨當中每個人都只想讓自己權力坐大，而頭頭老扁只會到處討好別人，沒有在做事，反而得罪自己原來的支持者。「有夢最美，希望相隨」只是個選舉口號，老扁當選後，沒有夢，更沒有希望。而反對黨也不做好監督的工作，「為反對而反對」的立場一路走來始終如一，只有一心想把在位者鬥下來，跟幾十年前的共產黨權力鬥爭差不多。每個人心中只有權，沒有國。以前想說呆丸人怎那麼呆，都選些垃圾出來執政；現在發現，怎麼選都一樣，大家都是垃圾。

媒體：
媒體本來應該扮演另一個監督執政的角色，但是他們只知道作亂。新聞亂報，不實傳言捕風捉影，任何雞毛蒜皮都可以編成偉大的獨家。（不過從另一方面來看，某T字頭新聞共產黨轉投資的港商，作亂不就是其任務嗎？）但是這樣亂來也有收視率，只因為呆丸人懶得動腦，電視報什麼都照單全收，放任自己被洗腦。例如，新聞叫你去捐100塊倒扁，你就去捐？有沒有想過，施明德要那麼多錢幹嘛？倒扁靜坐需要那麼多資金嗎？又，有多少人想過倒扁後誰當總統？台面上幾乎每一個都跟老扁一樣爛，甚至更爛；有必要花那麼多社會資源去搞一個更爛的總統嗎？台灣音樂工作者陳明章說得好：「關電視救台灣」，不過有多少人民肯花腦筋去了解這句話的意含呢？為何向劣質媒體宣戰需要一個王建民出來發表聲明才做得到呢？為何出來宣戰的還只是以王建民球迷為主體呢？為何反媒體只有幾天的熱度，比那唯恐天下不亂的施明德倒扁運動還虛弱呢？

人在國外，反而看得更清楚。全世界在進步，台灣在解體。連住在這裡的中國人都覺得台灣很悲哀。我可能提過很多遍，不過台灣真的需要一個敢改革、有理想的英雄，一個能夠像小泉純一郎那樣把國家從解體邊緣救回來的人。把國會的垃圾一次清掉，政府官僚也一次清掉，換一批肯做事，心中有國家的人；全民關電視，讓劣質媒體一次倒光。有大破壞才有大建設，唯有把癌細胞清掉，才能把這個癌症末期的國家救回來。

Lab work comming to the end

As the end of summer vacation is closing in, the day when I need to leave the lab is also closing in on me. 2 months have past and not much accomplished. I'm gradually getting a clearer picture of my project with each week, and as I got the whole picture in my mind, I started to speed up my work progress. And now, I'm in the last 2 weeks of my project. Still not much accomplished, and I'm getting anxious. Time is running out, my presentation is closing in, the pressure growing, and I'm trying harder.

The last 2 weeks for a summer research program is always the hardest. All the expectations and anxiousness builds up, and under the presure that you apply onto your self, you start to crack. Tasks forgotton, worse planing in search for faster results, fetigue... all add up to screw ups in your experiments. And then the normal bad lucks and unexplainable random faillares seems to be hardder to cope with when you're really anxious.

Hope my luck would be much better for the next week. Give me all the clones!!!

A car from Silicon valley: Tesla Motors

And you thought Silicon valley is all about computers, yeah it WAS. But now, a start up from Silicon valley is making really cool cars. Tesla Motors, an electric car company, is now introducing their first product, and it's a roadster. It has zero emission, runs sillent, never needs gas, and no, unlike previous electric cars, it doesn't need to be recharged after every commute (the GM EV1 can only go 60 miles per charge), and it doesn't look ugly. It runs on a high proformance motor that is sufficiently powered, and accelerates faster then a Porsche, silently. It's got lithium-ion batteries that allow it to run 250 miles per charge, and be fully charged over night. And, it's designed by a designer that previously design Lotus sports cars, guaranteed to be cool. This might be the coolest American car since the downfall of Detroit's big 3.

Feel the weather getting warmer each year? Hate the bad air? Get a high proformance electric car. And although most of our electricity is from burning fuel also, those power generators are much more efficient than internal combustion engines.

You might not be able to afford a stylish sports car, but stay tuned, an economic, affordable electric car is in the works.

Read more:
Tesla Motors
Wired mag: Batteries included

Useful sites for education...

Online class:

UC Berkeley on iTunes U
UC Berkeley is providing some of their class lecture recordings through iTunes, you could simply download the lectures you wish to listen, and listen at will. For those who wish to get a taste of how classes are in American universities, those who'd like to learn more, or those who simply want to practice English listening abilities, you'd really want to try this.


Grad school planing:
Peterson's Graduate Planner
This free site gives many suggestions on planning for grad school application, including what to expect in grad school, making sure that you really want to go to grad school, and preparing for the tests and application process.

Continue the Journey
This is University of California's introduction booklet to grad school programs on UC campuses. In addition to the information that the Peterson site provides, it also has a brief introducion to avaliable UC grad school programs, with application info, financial ad and scholarship info, tips on life as a graduate student and much more.
(There used to be an HTML version, but they just updated it to the '06 version, and only the pdf file is avaliable now.)

Mood: 懶與累

最近真的很累。

周一到周五做實驗，整天要耗精神的小心工作，然後精神耗光，累了，就一直 screw up，然後要找出原因，重做直到作好為止。
住Co-Op要每天注意公告和條規，一不小心又要被罰錢。
週末出去玩，也很累。要規劃路程、要找便宜一點的deal，也要注意時間分配。
還要注意理財，信用卡的錢是否要繳了、帳戶裡剩多少錢、手機的通話加值餘額剩多少。
台灣那邊也有得擔心，何時要選課，要排什麼課，何時要繳學費......。

還要擔心未來。
是否真的要去申請研究所？同樣要研究病毒與免疫還是要換個科目玩玩？要找什麼program？哪個學校？該準備什麼？該申請碩士班還是直接衝博士班？

累了，就開始懶惰。

研究所，找了一些program的網站，就堆到瀏覽器的書簽中，懶得去看。
實驗，強迫自己去認真做，實驗做到忙了，動力反而就出現了。
出去玩，懶得規劃了，上周隨性坐車逛；下週直接跟旅行社。
欠社上一個網頁改版和一個英文版網站。做了30分鐘就不想做了。反正社上對網站也是興趣缺缺，not much people appreciate it. 英文版本來想po版拜託大家幫忙翻譯，不過想想，大概沒什麼人會理我，反正獎金歸社費，幫忙的沒有回饋，當然不會有人幫忙。
最近開始懷疑我是否要終身拿著pipette龜在小小的實驗室中研究看不到的東西。把各個實驗結果統整出的結果的確很有趣，不過總覺得單一實驗和the big picture有段距離，連不太起來。

真的不知該選什麼課。除了生技實驗和專題討論兩個必修課以外，我只要再隨便修個一學分就可以畢業了。那麼，我該修什麼？似乎有趣的也被我修的差不多了。

懶了，累了，開電腦上網。
MSN線上沒什麼人，時區不同；就算有人，也不知道該聊什麼，似乎沒有什麼共同話題。
暑假的PTT和PTT2都很無聊，沒什麼文章。
就算開了瀏覽器，也不知該看什麼網頁。新聞，千篇一律，看都看膩了。共享軟體，也都完膩了。

什麼都提不起勁，完全是個糟糕的生活。

San Diego trip 心得

首先呢，最大的心得當然是對開車比較有感覺啦。每種機械要操控的得心應手都是要練習的。對於單車，我已經大致可以隨自己的意思去控制我所要騎的軌跡、速度與韻律。但車子就比較難操控。駕駛對於車子的狀況必須經由油門、車速、儀表板、後照鏡間接知道，視力範圍也小很多；不像操控單車那樣可以很直覺的靠自己的平衡感去隨意操控。速度的控制，是由油門力道、引擎轉速表和速綠表，去感覺的。尤其是油門力道和加速度所構成的曲線，每台車都有所不同，必須花些時間去體會。另外，每台車過彎的半徑、可操控速度範圍等，都是要花些時間去了解的。還有，就是如何在加州的高速公路網中生存。在什麼情況下、哪個線道的速度應該是多少；怎樣不要超速的太離譜，又不太慢當路障；怎樣判斷四周車子的狀況，是否即將要變換車道、加速或減速；什麼時候切入carpool lane，什麼時候切到最外線準備換到另一條高速公路？開車長途旅行非常方便，但也有很多需要學習的東西。

這是美國，不是台灣，凡事還是不要太隨性。租車和訂旅館房間都是last minute才搞定，結果都只能接受最貴的價格。
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來點美國旅遊tips吧
1. 信用卡真的很重要，不過每刷一筆都要記下來，不然不小心就會刷爆（差點...）
2. 租車時所有的條規都要看清楚，租車公司可以罰你錢的名堂多的是。（如還車前需要先加滿油）
3. 哪條高速公路在哪裡要接哪一條要先在地圖上弄清楚，只要不小心太晚變換車道就會來不及上交流道。最好先在Google maps或Google earth先作好行程規劃，然後在路上也要有地圖或GPS or 有Earthcomber的PDA更好。Earthcomber可以把地圖上附近的intrest point（如加油站、餐廳、旅館、ATM、交流道、觀光景點）全部找給你，真的超方便的。
4. 路上各線道的標示要看清楚，有時某些線道是"right turn only"或甚至是不同線道將接到不同地方。等到你發現開錯時，"No U Turn"的牌子總是會出現。
5. Carpool lane（"搭便車"高承載專用道）有時很好開，不過在你準備下高速公路前記得早點出來，因為Carpool lane可以出來的路段不多，幾乎都被雙黃線圍住。不要到時你的交流道接近了才發現自己被雙黃線所在裡面，出不來，欲哭無淚。
6. 路上想上廁所請找麥當勞。加油站的廁所有些要錢，幾乎都要跟店員界鑰匙才能上。
7. 同理，加油站的打氣機也要有消費或投錢才給你用。
8. 在加州開車沒墨鏡會死人的（陽光太閃，會瞎）
9. 高速公路上，大家集體超速很常見，不過還是要小心高速公路警察，他們出現時，大家會集體緊急減速。
10. 有些樂園或動物園的門票在超市買比較便宜。
11. 汽車旅館不提供牙刷、牙膏，請自備。
12. 到旅館不要太high，太大聲時，隔壁不會跟櫃台抱怨，而是很不客氣的用力敲牆壁抗議。

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最後，呵呵，我的外觀改造似乎有一點點成果了，感謝美聿的意見。我自己是覺得好的牛仔褲和襯衫能穿出讓我自己覺得很棒的感覺。不過呢，這次發現，只要頭髮剪好，加個有色鏡面墨鏡就很棒了......orz

本來想說，穿好看一點應該可以讓自己更有自信。多多少少有，不過若EQ太差，還是會破攻。所以，還要想辦法改善情緒管理嚕。

A note on ad posting...

Investigating deeper into how Google Adsense ad banners work, I decided not to add ads to my blog. First of all, the traffic here isn't that large, so revenue would accumulate really slow. Also, Google only sends out checks when your account revenue excedes 100$, so it might take a while to get the money. Last, Google sends out your revenue via checks in the mail, and I realized that I might not be in the US to recieve it and cash it.

So, I choose to give up, and keep this blog cleen. Thank you for all your support!

Driving trip to San Diego ~ part II

Read part I | Photo album
It was a nice sleep at the Super 8 Motel. Although expensive, it's nice to have a place to stay, since everywhere else is full. A simple breakfast is provided in the lobby, the service is named "Super start (TM)", but it is extremely simple. There is a choice of doughnuts and crescents, and drinks of black tea, coffee and juice. There is also apples. I didn't like the oily feel of crescents, so I got my self a glazed doughnut, getting a taste of ultra sweet american breakfast, and to dilute the sweetness, took that with tea.

First thing in the morning, we went to Vons to get discount tickets (which we found the day before when we went for supplies) for San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. For 25$ each ticket, we saved 3.5$ each person. Then we were back on the road to the zoo. Since there is free WIFI in the motel, I already got all the driving directions for today, the the drive over is straightforward. 9am on a Sunday morning, there is not much traffic on I-10. Going along with the flow of traffic, I can easily get a speed of 80mph. Yes, I know that's speeding, but when everyone's doing it, why be a law-obeying road block? There is a limit to speed, though, that is the van's own system. From a previous inspection of what's under the hood, I knew that the van has quite an empty engine space: big space, tiny engine. Also, the van is heavy, and the transmission is laggy. Already apparent during yesterday's drive, the gas paddle has quite a strange correlation to engine power input, the line is not linear. From the first bit of your step on the paddle, you get a little to much power, resulting in a jumpy start from a stand still, so you've got to get used to the high sensitivity if the paddle in this part. Then, as you push more on the paddle, the response lapses, you see no acceleration, and you start to see the rpm drop. Then, if you floor it, you feel a jump of the transmission - after a lag, that is - and then power comes in, but slowly. So it's a combination of insufficient power, laggy transmission, and nonlinear acceleration. I could manage to get by on normal highways, but on I-15 to the zoo, there is many hills, and whenever we go up hill, you see the majority of the near by traffic pass by, throwing us behind... Man, if I were driving a civic, I'd sure be the one cutting people off :D

Anyways, we got it to the zoo wildlife park in a reasonably short time, though, thanks to the good traffic (80mph, no sweet :) ). Parking is 8$. And the tickets from Vons requires no farther exchange, it itself is the ticket, and you just walk in. The Zoo got much better then the last time I got here. Seems like attractions have more then doubled. We originally planed half a day for this, but realized that it could not be finished within 2 days, so we skipped a lot of places and shows. As for the animals, I'm sure picture convey the message much better, so be sure to check out my photos on Zoto (link at the end of the post). Worthy of notice, there's these cute little mammals called merkats, furry little social animals with sentries that stand on high places on the look out, while the others dig holes all around. To me, those sentries look more like they're "musing". Also, there's the interesting gorillas, that just seem like over sized kids in black fur. Some times they're climbing the rocks, sometimes chasing each other, sometimes fighting, sometimes just sitting under a tree. And while sitting under a tree, it really seems like it's thinking, or just plan lonely.



There was this new ride that's a big yellow balloon that takes people up for a panorama of the whole valley. But each ride costs 15$. We really wanted to take it, but it was pretty damn expensive. Next to the balloon, there's lions just behind a glass, so you could see it real close. The mother is usually staying in the lier caring for the young, but we lucked out and saw a cub ran out to play, with it's mom coming out and biting it back into the cave. There's also a camping ground next to the lions and balloon, we really should camp there, if we did enough homework before going... Lunch is expensive burgers and sandwiches. Nice, but too expensive, and a little too much in amount. I got this weird "greek chicken wrap" that is literaly chicken sandwich (minus the bread) in a red soft wrap. It's nice that it's cold (good for a hot sunny day), but really doesn't have much taste, it's quite dull.

The must-go-attraction of the park is a monorail that takes you around the whole park, explaining, teaching and telling stories of the park and the animals, a tour of 45 minutes. When we first got in line, there is some kind of medical emergency on a train halfway on the track, resulting in a prolonged delay. So we got out and went to see a bird show instead. After lunch, the emergency is cleared, but another train broke down on the track. This time, we waited, we did get on the train, but we ran out of time, and couldn't leave the zoo on time for our next stop: aircraft carrier USS Midway museum in downtown San Diego, which stops selling tickets at 4pm. We left the zoo at 3:50pm, I guess. what a shame.

Anyways, we still went to the aircraft carrier in the San Diego bay: at least we could see the outside. Highway 163 to downtown is a small route of only 2 lanes, winding in the mountains. With the curves, the ups and downs, less traffic and high speeds, it's a real pleasure to drive, and best of all, it takes you directly into downtown SD. Downtown San Diego is a clouded city full of one-way streets. there are road names of 1st, 2nd~11th street, and also, crisscrossing with witch, A street, B street..., F street.... Also, each of the streets are one-way, with interchanging directions, this one going to the left, the next one to the right, and the next to the left, and vice versa. Eventually, with the help of Earthcomber, we got to the shore of the bay, where USS Midway is permanently anchored.

Having never seen an aircraft carrier, it sure is magnificent. No matter how large you previously think it was, you'd never imagine it to be this big. You could easily see the hangers under the deck, the huge lifts that lift planes from the hangers to the deck, and there's also a fleet of planes on the deck. As we got there, we were just in time to see the last of the visitors unboard the ship, and the staff locking the door to the ship. Now I really want to be here sometime next year. The bay it self is also beautiful, with the sun going down the horizon, sail boats sailing past, and a big island out there in the distance. There's also a big wooden ship with sails on a far dock, but we can't get there because of a lack of parking space.

Then we went to the Gaslamp Quarter for a walk in San Diego's streets. Bicycle cabs are everywhere. Since it's a crowded city with narrow streets, bikes are apparently the way to go. Many of them are even very nice bikes, like a Specialized MTB with a trailer of 2 seats connected behind on the seat post. But rides are for 10~20$ each person, yet another ride that we can't try. This part of city is crowded with high-end restaurants, crowding my Earthcomber map with spots. There's also some interesting stores, such as a really shinny yet cheep jewelry shop, an Oklay shop, a Quicksilver shop next to a Puma shop, and also a city souvenir shop with "I love SD" shirts. There's also this hip shop full of clothes but also with strange book. We found a book called "Fuck this book", full of photos with every verb substituted with the F word, making it really funny.

Dinner was Tai-food, since we can't afford steaks nor lobsters. The food is like Chinese food with a twist of special sauces. The original price was OK, but there's a tip, a state tax and a city tax. Ouch!

The drive back to LA was via 163 -> I-15 -> 78 -> I-5 -> 405. This is finally my time to sleep, and I tired from worrying about car burglars all night. So contrary to the previous drives, I didn't drive, nor track the route in Earthcomber for everyone. I slept and just answered questions when my friends don't know which way to go. But I was still awake half of the way, I guess I was just too tense and worried too much to sleep well. As far as I know, it was all nice and fast untill we got to I-5, where, as usual, it's jammed badly, and jammed all the way till 405. Then it got exciting on 405, as the gas level closes in on the empty line. We got back to the Co-Op with barely anything left in the gas tank, was that close.

After photos of us all back at the Co-Op, we all gathered to exchange photos, then to bed.
---
The next day, I drove the one who's just here in CA for the weekend and is going
on to another place to the airport, and also to return the car. We returned the car with an empty gas tank, resulting in a gas charge, ouch. Also, I left my own keys in the car all together with the car keys... RATS...

Spear keys of the Co-Op cost 18.5$ each, and I lost 2 of them, CRAP.

---

Photos of the trip on Zoto

Adding Ad's?

I'm considering to add some google ads here on my blog.
The travals, trips and mistakes of this summer is getting expensive, and I've got to save money for next summer's biking trip to Hokkaido.

So what do you think? Do you hate ads on blogs, or are you willing to click on it to help me out? (Ad payments are on a per click basis) Please do post comments, thanks.

我在考慮要在這個blog上放google的純文字廣告，這暑假花太多錢了，明年還想去北海道。當然，開學後也要開始打工/找家教了。大家覺得如何呢？無論你是討厭廣告，還是願意點廣告幫我，請務必po個回應。畢竟這個blog要有大家在看才有意義。

Driving trip to San Diego

It all started last week. A friend here living at the Co-Op said that a friend of his is coming to the US on the weekend, and they may have no chance to meet again in the next 4 years. So we started to plan a trip to San Diego in the weekend, to give his friend an experience of her life.

We searched on the net for points of interest, hotels and ways of going there, almost working every night, but it's very sophisticated and confusing. The bus is inconvenient, the train is too slow and the schedule isn't good, car rentals are very expensive and inconvinent in terms of age restrictions and insurance. Almost every affordable hotel, hostel and motel is shown as full on their website. So we gave up planing, and just go.

The mess started Friday night. We took a bus to LAX, to pick up the girl who's coming, just to find out that our guy here doesn't know her flight number, only vaguely knows her approximate arrival time and what airline she "might" take. We learned the hard way that her plane delayed an hour, and it took really long to get through the customs. We waited 2 hours in the arrival terminal. During the long wait, we called several car rentals. Most aren't even picking up the phone, also, a total of 6 people means that a minivan is needed, which is really expensive and hard to find. With all of us under age 24, it gets even harder. Eventually, Budget agreed to provide a deal for a minivan, an international driver's license and drivers of age 21. But things get even more complicated when our friend finds a problem with his credit card. In the end, the rent is on me, who has a CA driver's license, an American bank issued credit card
a US address and US phone numbers, making the situation simpler for the car rental, but putting the burden on my self. We got a Pontiac Montana. It is a minivan, so it need some getting used to. The parking brake is foot operated, the shift is located on the dash board, and it's really hard to see what's going on in the back. However, with some help and advice from my friend, after not driving for 2 years, and only been on the highway once, I managed to get the car back to the Co-Op intact, and fast. The feeling of driving is slowly getting back to me.

Next morning, all 6 of us got together and loaded into the van. We planed to get going at 9:30am, but ended up leaving at 11... So much for getting up early. Because my friend got his license in Taiwan, and is using an international license, he forgot that it's illegal to park near a curb. And a police car just went by when we are preparing to leave. Crap, we've started to trip with a ticket. It was a grudging traffic jam on the 405. Getting inpatient, and with insufficient driving experience, I made thousands of dangerous lane changes just in one morning. After 1~2 hours, I gradually got better with dealing with highway traffic, drove more smoothly and decreased my lane changes dramatically to increase safety. We got from the 405 to I-5 around noon, and made a stop at a Subway restaurant for lunch. This is also where I exchanged seats with my friend, letting him drive the rest, for fear that I might fall asleep after prolonged driving.

Halfway, we stopped at Oceanside to go play at the beach and take a walk on the pier.It was a nice sunny day, with a fine sandy beach and many people. It feels so great to get wet in the sea water. But once the water gets into your mouth, it's so salty that you could hardly take it. After getting out of the water, I got a pair of cargo pants with pockets of salt and sand, leaving me with salty pants pockets to deal with for the rest of the trip. The pier is much simpler then Santa Barbara or Santa Monica. It's just a plain long wooden pier with less then 3 stores on it, and the rest of it filled with people fishing. It is a simple public beach, all fun, less places to waste money, and free parking.

Another mess came our way after we leave Oceanside and head on towards San Diego. We started our search of hotels in Oldtown, which is near Seaworld. But what we got is: "full, full, full, no vacancy, full..." One even told us that as far as they know, every hotel in San Diego is full. Just as we are starting to get desperate, I fired up my Clie PDA, launched Earthcomber, set up our location, and zoomed out the map, taping randomly to find a hotel/motel, thinking, any vacancy is good enough. Luckily, on my first tap on a place with sufficient spots on the map, I got a Super 8 Motel, with their phone number listed right there in my Clie. I called, and got their last available room. Never thought Earthcomber could save my ass, but it sure did this time. Over the phone, the operator said that 6 people is OK, but we opened the door to find a room for 2. After realising that it's the last available room, we packed in. One interesting point is that the bathroom took half the size of the entire room. The twin bed consists of a mattress on top of another, so we split the to layers and there we've got a nice but clouded bed. We went to the near by town for dinner. The surrounding area is near the intersection of I-15, I-8 and highway 163, and the roads are very confusing, full of left/right turn only lanes, no U-turns and narrow roads with occasional road side parking. We often missed turns, encounter "no U-turns" and, as a result, drove on in the wrong direction for a long distance before we could turn back. I originally expected to have fast food or a dinner, but, with 5 Taiwanese and 1 Chinese on board, and most of us feed up with the junk food at the Co-Op, we went to a Chinese restaurants.

So that concludes our first day...

Photo album | Read part II

Monster House 3D

今天在還搞不清楚這部電影在演什麼的情況下就去看了Monster House。想說GRE考完了，就跟一群共同住Co-Op的台灣朋友一起去看電影。

It's really a very special movie. It's a slightly scary movie, for kids. But all those childish behaviors seem very cute to us adults, so I think people of all ages could enjoy it, although in different ways. The animation is so great, with THX sound systems and 3D effects, you really feel that you are some where in there. All the charectors' movements seem lively and smooth, showing all the power and activity you'd expect from a growing kid. But I love the first scene most, where you see a leef drop to the floor, drifting with the wind, simply beautiful, although seems more like a show-off scene to show how good the animator is.

It's an original story, full of immagination, and certainly no trace of your run-of-the-mill Hollywood script formula. No expected hero, no expected kisses, every development of the plot would surprise you if you expect it to be a benal Hollywood movie. It's simply full of unexpected excitment. But it's still sad that most people still like no-brainer formula compliant cliches, since when we got into the theator, it's almost empty (and add the point that we got in in the last minute). What a waste of this great work.

The 3D gives the screen depth, instead of making the things come out at you. It's not as realistic, but less likely to make you feel dizzy. You can feel which things are far away, which are close. It's really feels good to have a feeling of depth.

What suprises me is what I found on the net about this film. It's produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, director of "Back to the future"! Also, it's premire is here at Westwood, the Fox theater where we saw it, why didn't I know? Finally, the director is a new director, who just graduated from UCLA! Scroll down to the bottom of this post to read more from the links. This movie is expected to be in theaters by Aug 25 in Taiwan, you'd definatly got to watch it. (Yes, expecially you, who wanted to study animation in UCLA...)
A model of the Monster House in the theater

All of us Taiwanese friends who went

Links:
UCLA DAILY BRUIN: A Monster Opportunity
Trailers on Apple's site
Official site

回應7月31號的PTT2...

可魯...

支援時也慘遭閃光彈攻擊的可魯。
(以上來自http://komica.dyndns.org/wiki/?%E5%8F%AF%E9%AD%AF )

BX 版實在是太閃了啦

北海道地圖 網站 介紹

作者: chroma966 (找回遺忘已久的感動) 看板: chroma
標題: 北海道地圖 網站 介紹
時間: Sat Jul 29 13:11:52 2006

http://www.rickstudios.com/hokkaido/map/map.htm

http://domestic.hotel.travel.yahoo.co.jp/special/hokkaido/index.html

japan national touriest organization
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng

住宿--------------------------------------------------------------------
(便宜住宿)

北海道的yh
http://www.youthhostel.or.jp/chinese/menu.htm
辦證 約3000日圓一宿

天氣-------------------------------------------------------------------

北海道當地天氣
http://www.stv.ne.jp/weather/index.html
日出日落時刻
http://www.njwa.jp/weather/cgi-bin/sunmoon.cgi

交通-------------------------------------------------------------------

其他--------------------------------------------------------------------

在札幌火車站及地下街
很容易就可以看到一台粉綠的電話機
它可以免費打電話
只能打日本本土
打手機 1min
打室內電話 3min

--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢兔(ptt2.cc)
◆ From: 61.62.79.138

How I got to LA: @Narita

(Continued from this post)

Just after we got out of the airport at Narita, we took a free shuttle bus to Hotel Nikko Narita, the Japan Airlines owned hotel, where you were offered a free night's stay for transit. On the road, I see lot's of bikes on the side walks, I even spotted a beautiful white Specialized, which doesn't seem to be locked...


Because I'm going back to Taiwan later then my family, our tickets aren't reservered together, and thus, I was arranged to have a room to my self.

It's a nice small room, but the bath room is big, since it took half the space of my room.

As always, we got on the free hotel bus bound to Narita city, and went to the small city for dinner. A tiny japanese Ramen shop is always our first stop: Ramen Bayashi (ラメンばやし, which means Japanese noodles master). They serve delicious ramen and fried dumplings(餃子/ぎょうざ). Although expensive (about 700yen a bowl), the noodles are very good. It's slightly chewy but still soft (咬起來很Q), and you'll know that it's great noodles just by the feel of bitting on it. I like the Tenmen (天麺, vegetable noodles), which has a simple salt based soup with a generous ammount of fresh, crisp vegetables. You could actually hear that sound "crunch" when you chew. The down side of it is that the soup is different this year. Last time I went, the Tenmen is lightly flavered, but this time, it's a little over salty. My sister's fried rice and dumplings are also good but very salty.


After dinner, we walked around, going to the supermarket to get Japanese big peachs and Japanese instant noodles(which, as I realised a week later, is also very salty). We also went to a book store, to see what comics and novels they read. The Japanese verson of "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" are in easily spoted spots, they are pocket sized, and each cut into 3 volumns, nice to bring around.

Then, it's back to the Hotel. Since our flight is in the afternoon, we were planning on a more in depth tour of Narita next morning...

(My roommate just turned off the lights, to be continued...)

[單車] 北海道計畫002--裝備&路線

作者: chroma966 (找回遺忘已久的感動) 看板: chroma
標題: [單車] 北海道計畫002--裝備
時間: Sat Jul 29 15:56:35 2006

自行車後掛袋*2。
Topeak單車修理工具(補胎片、多用途工具組)；潤滑油；內胎*4
；打氣筒。
安全帽；遮陽帽；單車手套*２；墨鏡。

(露營裝備)
帳篷、睡袋。
snowpeak瓦斯爐；鈦鍋具；打火機、瑞士刀、頭燈。

(衣物)
Gore-Tex外套；Gore-Tex長褲。
保暖外套，保暖長褲。
自行車衣褲*2。
運動涼鞋。
其他衣物 (T恤*1、短褲*2、長袖上衣*1、長褲*1、泳褲)。

(個人用品)
盥洗用具、防曬用品、護唇膏。
醫藥包(外傷和一般疾病用藥、中藥按摩藥膏)。
繩子和曬衣夾、洗衣粉。
針線包。

(記錄用品)
日記；文具包；色鉛筆；計算機。
數位單眼相機 ( CANNO 800 )。

(重要財物)
隨身護照袋 (護照，機票，旅行支票，日元現金)
錢包(當地貨幣，信用卡)。

(其他)
地圖；Lonely Planet旅遊指南。
聯絡簿、名片、外交部駐外單位名冊。
隨身書籍。
文房四寶、小禮物。
旅行用泡茶組、茶葉。

--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢兔(ptt2.cc)
◆ From: 61.62.79.138

作者: chroma966 (找回遺忘已久的感動) 看板: chroma
標題: [單車] 北海道計畫002--路線
時間: Sat Jul 29 14:57:15 2006

慶典

6/14-16 北海道神宮祭
6月第三個週日 阿寒湖火花大會 阿寒湖
6/28 葡萄酒祭

7月中 薰衣草祭
7/20 海洋祭
7/20-22 釧路霧祭 釧路
7/28-30 小樽潮祭
7月最後一個六日 層雲峽峽谷火祭
7/28-29 北海道肚臍祭

--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢兔(ptt2.cc)
◆ From: 61.62.79.138

Sites to read carefully

For planing the Hokkido trip
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/index.html

Bike trip stories and info:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad/7808/
http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/meisaku/hokkaido/index.html
http://www.horae.dti.ne.jp/~tabi-pr/s_bike1.html
日本語の大挑戦ですね〜
and:
北海道單車騎士的資料收集：http://www.outdoorjapan.com/activities/cycling/activities-cycling-routescourses.html

當然到jcc(日本單車協會)找資料
http://www.japancycling.org/v2/

單車遊北海道的遊記
http://www.journeyintojapan.com.au/Cycle_Hokkaido.html (澳洲人)
http://www.logos.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~sugimoto/cycle/hokkaido95.html(日本人95夏)
http://homepage.mac.com/freeman588/bike/index.html(台灣人)
http://www.japancycling.org/v2/inter/reader/jerry/(台灣)

Also, visa info:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/arrange/essential/visa.html
http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/toko/visa/annai/visa_2.html
Anyways, US and Taiwan citizens may stay without prior visa appication for 90 days.

Stupid automated systems

"That tree ate my kite!"
Nah, I'm not Charlie Brown, but my ATM card was eaten by the mechine.

今天生平第一次使用ATM。因為剛收到Co-Op的statement，要交這個月的租金，提領金額頗大，於是提心弔膽的，深怕被搶。

中午，豔陽高照，來到Westwood一個十字路口的 ATM mechine。
拿出沒用過的全新ATM card插進去，接著輸入密碼。輸入第二個碼時不小心按錯，找不到backspace，就按了cancel，沒想到卡被吐出來了！！！很好，那我再推回去，重來。結果它就只是一直叫，叫我把卡拿走。但此時卡已經被我推的太進去了，拔不出來了，也沒有任何退卡鈕，我只好推的更進去，結果機器還是一直叫我把卡拿走。

怒，我拔不出來你也不吐給我。

此時，叫聲停了。

卡鏘！

卡被吃了．．．

此時忽然想到小冊子上說的，卡片忘記帶走時會被機器自動回收，以免被撿走．．．囧ｒｚ

今天不知罵了幾十萬個「ㄍ．ㄢ．ˋ」．．．

－－－

服務小姐曰：「We're sorry for you're inconvenence, and I'm very sorry that you're check card was eaten...」

不過更不爽的是，用手機打銀行的1-800 number (等同於台灣的0800)，竟然還扣我6分鐘通話時數！又多一個東西要argue了。

Email, bloging and shopping

My Gmail account is fixed, so it's working now. (Thank god...)

I've got tons of storys to blog about, but this week, my blogging time is alocated to GRE score damage control, so, no storys this week :)

If any of you in Taiwan wants anything that could only be bought in the US, you may send an email to my Gmail account, with your name, and a clear discription of what you wish to get. submissions would be accepted from Aug 1st thru Aug 24th.

The heat

It's so hot here in San Bernadino. The wind outside is like what comes out of a oven: you've got scorching hot air blowing in your face. It's so hot that you practically just want to sit around and do nothing. There's a cloud pattern in the sky, making the air a little more humid, and locking the heat in.

The TV news seems more like horror story shows, with extream heat all around Southern California, electric outages here and there, and the highest temprature in Los Angeles county history: 119 fahrenheit!

One good thing, it's still much dryer here then in Taiwan, where you are all sweaty and sticky.

Yam Map

在美國這邊習慣了Google Map/ Google earth 的方便
（Google只有美國有地址/地圖資料，其他國都只有衛星圖）
要找哪裡都上網查，還一步一步告訴你怎麼走
就開始想，為什麼台灣都沒有像美國這麼方便的免費網路地圖
（之前找到的都要交錢加入會員，而且很難用）

不過，剛剛亂逛亂逛，讓我發現蕃薯藤有地圖服務！
http://maps.yam.com/
而且使用界面還跟Google有點像，同樣都用了快速的AJAX技術
真高興，終於不用依賴PaPaGo了

不過呢，搜尋功能還有待加強
搜尋「台大」，第一個回傳值竟然是「台大加油站」
不過正宗台大正門，還可以在右邊的列表中找到
連台大Burger King都找到了^^

接著嘗試地址搜尋，打了自己家裡的地址
可惜的是，它只找得到「街」的層級，巷弄都沒資料
不像Google 查美國的地址，它可以把方位準確的指出來，還能在衛星圖上看到你要找的建築物

不過呢，這樣，已經很棒了
以後出去騎車，規劃路線又多一個工具了
希望它繼續壯大，大家多支持本土的蕃薯藤吧^^

Email down notice

!!!
I screwed up on my Gmail account, I changed the password, which, some how doesn't work after the change. So now I'm locked out of my account. I forgot the secondary email I entered in the account info, but it's likely to be one of the emails accounts that I no longer use and is deleted (such as Netscape).

Thus, I'll keep trying to recover my account, but I can't get your messages from that gmail account before I recover it. In this period, please send any messages to my old Yahoo mail box (the one I use for MSN regestration)

Good thing I have a 2nd Gmail account, which is working as my web drive. I just invited myself to a 3rd account and would switch to that one, if I unfortunatly can't recover my original Gmail...

隨筆

哇哈哈，我這幾天有趣的事情多到不知要寫什麼了，就來胡亂發揮吧！

我住的Co-Op housing已經不只是普通聯合國了。有中國團、有法國團、有韓國團，不過其他國的人，如台灣、日本、越南、印度，甚至道地美國人（白人&黑人）都是小貓兩三隻，無法成團。我表哥說Westwood算是大學城，應該亞洲人＆美國人約略各佔一半人口。結果，據我觀察，在街上逛的以白人居多；UCLA校內大概一半一半；Co-Op這裡呢，亞洲人壓倒性勝利XDD 來這裡簡直是英文聽力大考驗，要聽懂中國腔、韓國腔，就是大挑戰了；中文就更神奇了，中國人可以每個人的腔調都不一樣（不同省吧），其中，我認為廣州腔還算跟台灣接近:P

來這裡可以化解族群隔閡，我以前有偏見的韓國和中國人，現在發現都有其可愛之處。我們台灣經濟輸給南韓我現在認了，我的韓國人室友只有一個強字可以形容。除非有朋友來，他幾乎隨時都在唸書，那認真的程度，在台大絕對拿書卷。不過他有個更強的功力：電視開著唸書！讓我想起班上的書卷，王冠中，邊玩三國誌（電腦遊戲）邊唸書，期末考跟大家炫耀：我又統一中國了！然後拿書卷。而實驗室的另外三個比我早進去的大學部學生(UCLA student)全部都是韓國人，也全部都超認真的。我要振作啊！中國人，我老闆就是，很親切也很關心學生，不過這禮拜不在，我也才剛來，所以還不夠熟，只知道他超帥超有形的（羞）。我另一個室友呢，是浙江團的，也就是我老闆跟浙江大學合作組的暑假研究團。給人的感覺就是一個老實的鄉下人進大城市，對一切都既緊張又小心，不過待人誠懇，他講中文的腔調也滿好懂的，還滿喜歡他的:D

Co-Op check-in 時剛好有一位中山醫大的研究生排在我前面，聽不太懂櫃台（那個同學是韓國人）的英文解說，由一個同實驗室的廣東人當翻譯。在國外時還是覺得同鄉特別親切吧，我們吃飯偶而會一起吃。有趣的是，那廣東人見到我通常都講英文，而那中山的女生只要聽到英文就把嘴巴封的死緊，跟我交談絕對只用中文。她是我所知道唯一一個同樣是台灣人的說。

Co-Op 的食物很奇怪，老爸說要讓我體驗美國人平常都吃什麼。我現在覺得，當台灣人真幸福，美國人很可憐；以後要好好珍惜活大的ㄆㄨㄣ XD 第一個晚餐簡直是震撼教育，seafood soup 的腥味，可以在5公尺外聞到！很多東西起司＆奶油的用量超高。不過我也逐漸習慣這裡的食物了。恩，一般來說呢，所謂的蔬菜有兩種處理方式：用滾水燙到又爛又黃（青椒啊、紅蘿蔔、花椰菜、豌豆之類的）；不然就是洗乾淨生吃。所謂生菜沙拉呢，不一定有醬可以沾。生菜每餐一定有，我們所熟悉的沙拉醬沒出現過。吃法很多，我第一餐配蔓越莓醬，不過還是直接撒鹽又方便又好吃。很多中國或韓國人則使用大絕：拿出龜甲萬（有一罐一加侖裝的）狂加。所謂濃湯呢，就是奶油比水多的一種濃愁物，今天的cream chicken soup甚至只有奶油和雞汁，連個雞的碎片都沒有。主餐通常都是馬林薯泥或義大利麵，不過因為亞洲人眾多，白飯每餐都有。因為覺得美式爛菜配白飯很難吃，所以我就跟隨美國人不吃白飯。24小時供應的東西不少，如酸黃瓜、豆芽菜（生）、紅蘿蔔、橄蘭、豆腐，還有cereal（那種加牛奶吃的玉米片之類的）、土司、牛奶、豆漿，甚至汽水、果汁、咖啡、冰淇淋都是隨時都有。還有各式調味料，除了常見的鹽、胡椒外，還有醬油一筒、橄蘭油兩桶、番茄醬、芥末醬、牛排醬都是隨時供應。我有發現有人每餐都可以吃cereal。對付太濃的奶油味有個大絕，狂加番茄醬或酸黃瓜。酸黃瓜這種東西配什麼都會以自己的酸味掩蓋掉其他味道，把整個變成美味。不過呢，伙食有在進步吧，越來越好吃。昨天的西班牙飯一不小心拿太多，還是很高興的吃完；今天的主廚現身在那切一隻比保齡球還大的烤雞。

正如美聿說的，這裡的人穿著都很隨性。不過加州風也許就是如此吧。T-shirt + 海灘褲隨處可見，不然牛仔褲也很多，很少襯衫。墨鏡超多的。不過呢，最有趣的是鞋子。喔，不，鞋子很少見。涼鞋不少，不過拖鞋最多。拖鞋有名牌喔，有Nike、Fossil、Merell甚至Tommy Hill-Figger......。今天還看到一個女的，穿著短褲，屁股上寫著”Jackass”（囧rz）配件呢，最常見的就是那看到膩的iPod白色耳機。

校園車都很高級，大部分都是Shimano A系列（Acrea, Altus...）。常見的有Giant Boulder, Rincon, Yukon, 還有Specialized, Trek, GT, Fuji 等各大廠的入門車都有。在這裡，沒有快拆的車才算稀有，於是各種防盜措施就出現了。有拆坐墊的，有拆前輪的，當人，最保險的「搬進室內」還是有的。不過，校園中有飆車的，有定竿的，說起來這裡的人騎車技術比台大好多了XD

加州日夜溫差超大，白天快晒傷了，晚上著涼感冒。今天在實驗室鼻涕狂流T_T 另外，空氣超乾燥的，什麼東西都是一放就乾，什麼發霉啦、生鏽啦、長苔啦都看不到，野草地都是枯黃的，有灑水才有綠地；結果呢，我最近常流鼻血。難道這叫水土不服？

不知何時大家便聰明了。這裡現在到處都掃得到無線網路，但是都有加密，都不跟外人分享。真是的，WIFI隨時隨地上網的時代似乎不會來臨了，以後要靠超貴的3G手機系統了。

A walk in Westwood village

Today, after dinner, I set out to the streets in search for a bicycle store, also, to explore the surroundings of UCLA.

So, I pulled out my Clie handheld, with maps loaded on Earthcomber and walked out heading south. Earthcomber found many of the resturants and banks in the area, but didn't list bike stores, since that's not what a normal tourist would look for.

Westwood is a beautiful town. Most buildings are less then 2 stories high and have an intresting Spanish style that is common among Californian cities.

The streets are stright and wide, and lined with palm trees, adding to the sunny feel of sourthern California.

A Haggen-Dazs ice cream store, nostalgic brick styled building. I'll bet there would be a long line in front of this store if it opened in Taipei.


Westwood village is like a mall in that there are guide maps in corners of the streets, with listings of stores. So with the help of the guide, I finally found "Helen's cycles", only to notice that it's already closed at 7pm. From looking inside the windows, I can see that it's quite spacey, and the front window is filled with Cannondales. Maybe I'll try some other day.


Intrestingly, I noticed a psychic near the bike shop. It's got neon lights reading "palm reading" and "tarot cards", and there's peculear head shaped ornaments and curtains, much like in the cartoons :D

My temparary phone

Last Friday, when I was attempting to go back to where my family is, I some how took too long on the bus that took me from UCLA to Holywood, where I transfer to a subway and then to a train to San Bernadino. I took about 1 and a half to get to the subway station (including waiting time), and, realizing that I can't get the last train, another 1.5hr to get back to UCLA. A full 3 hours, I was unreachable to my family.

So, we got a new phone, that was just needed for the 2 months in the US.


Got the cheepest phone, 20 bucks, and added 20 bucks of airtime. I chose Virgin mobile mainly because it has the cheapest phone model, plus, it's not Motorola, which has the worst user interface that I know of. It piggy backs on the Sprint network, a great one. But other then that mentioned above, I hate the corporate image Virgin is trying to make. It's all flashy and colory, more like what they think a teenager would like, which, in my view, is tasteless and stupid. It's filled with dumb ugly wallpapers and ringtones of electronic sounds. I don't like them. I set my ringtone to the normal phone ring. Also, the customer service line is answered by a stupid unintuitive computer voice recognition system. The automated answers are in the language of kids, unprofessional and confusing. Also, you need to read keywords to make your choice; I prefer the old way of pushing numbers, or yet better, talking to a real human operator. The nice thing is that once you get a real service personal on line, the service is quite nice.

Crappy flashy phone, but it does the job. 2 functions to note: a painfully slow "web browser" to check your account and download ringtones and stuff; the most retarded function that you could get on a phone: a built-in LED flashlight.

This was never my idea of my first color screen phone :P

愛情...

似乎以成了我的弱點

只要讀到了跟愛情有關的文章，或任何讓我回想起兩年前的回憶的東西，我又會陷入憂鬱的漩渦，什麼也不想做，發呆胡思亂想個兩個小時。真沒用。

真糟糕，那些東西，明知道自己會受不了，還是會情不自禁的想看。

以後，還是少上B比較好

不過，這愛情恐懼症若改不過來我就真的要好人做到老了

First time into the GAP

I usually wear crappy clothes, just get the ones that fit and are comfortable. But then I had the thought to look better. So I told my self that I should get better looking clothes is summer.

My cousin suggested that I goto a GAP store. So there I went.

It was really cool and trendy and everything, but not the kind of place I'm used to be. The on sell price is just slightly higher then the normal cheep stuff that I get, so I went on and picked a pair of jeans. They've got a lot of spacious trying rooms and even buttons for calling for help on picking the right size. I picked the most conservative style of jeans, just plain blue, no wear and wash marks, no holes. The fancy one, although more trendy, just isn't my style.

Then I went on to look for a shirt. Most of them look good, really good. But then suddenly, out of nowhere, I've got a strong feeling that I don't belong. I'm used to the crappy discount stores, not fancy stuff, even if they're on sell. I feel like a dumb old villager in a city of vogue. So I put back the shirts, and only got the jeans, thinking that I might as well just wear cheep and wrinkled T-shirts with the jeans...

***

Later, as I walked down the isles of a cheep and messy Wal-mart, I feel much more comfortable and got the feeling that this is where I should be...

***

It's kinda strange that I prefer cool gadgets, such as the glossy Sony Clie TH55, the white and shiny Macbook. I even want my bike to have a good combination of colors when picking components, and want to wipe my bike clean and shiny. But for the looks of my self, I wear clothes from discount stores, I prefer my hair to be short and don't prick at my ears or neck, never caring about the style. I look like a man of the slums using cool gadgets. I am a GEEK.

If I really want to look good, guess I'd need a friend that knows how to look good to drag me around and make me buy this and that, like in one of those movies. But in reality, geeks make geek friends. So, whatever. On making a good visual impression, I give up. I feel like a fish out of water.

First day of my summer trip 1

Jul 4th...
Went biking the day after my final exams ended, then invited friends to my house just after I came back from the trip, and today, the day after that, I’m on my way to the US. Never had such a tight schedule, but this sure is my idea of an efficient use of time.

A tight schedule is sure tiresome, as I woke up this morning with an sore muscles all over and a stomach ache. Packing this year is especially challenging, since my backpack is quite small and I’ve got a Macbook to stuff in. Worsening the situation, I’m staying for 2 months and doing lab work this summer, so I’v got to pack in more clothes and some materials for my research.

Also, I need to pack in my GRE preparation stuff. The result is having to bring an additional bag, which is a first for me whose used to stuff it all in one single backpack.
And so we arrive at the airport, TPE. We are boarding from terminal 1, but JAA is changing to terminal 2 soon, so I’ll be at new terminal 2 when I come back, sweet.


The food at the airport is real expensive. (No wonder most of the resturants of 2 years ago are no longer there)They've got beef noodles for 160NTD, twice the normal price. There's also a Burger King, which has each meal only 5NTD more expensive then normal. But we, brought our own food, and a coupon for Burger King's onion rings^^


The plane we took was not painted as a normal JAA plane. It's, instead, a special paint, with beautiful flowers and a humming bird. It says "Reso'cha" and "JALways" on it. Looks beautiful. Even the inside is decorated with nice graphics of those flowers and hummingbirds.

Nice food, Japanese cold noodles, mango jelly and sashimi salad. There's even free French wine^^ The main dish is curry beef. I wanted the "Japanese special", just to know what it is, but I somehow slept over the lunch time, so, no choice. Later on, Mom said that the "special" on the menu was fish.

Narita Airport is still beautiful and clean, but I don't like the fact that there is no free WIFI.

... It late, guess I'll post more when I have time.
You may see my photos first, though.

Macbookを得る！！！

Got my Macbook today, finally!

I'd post the details when I have time in the future.

First thoughts:
1. It's so hot, you could fry bacons on the back
2. It's heavy, but well, acceptable
3. Screen's gorgous
4. Frontrow remote is very nice
5. Looks good and shiny, much better then the iBook

One issue:
All applications can connect to the internet, except Dashboard. Real weird.

Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference

Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference - the Inquirer

Wow! Better be careful with cheep and crappy laptops. Wonder what's the cause, though. I'd expecially like to know if it's an isolated case, a problem with Dell, or a problem with some component provider that also provides components to other brands.

Drying up

My blog is drying up...
But that's just because I'm in the middle of my finall exams.
Yet, it'll be dryer next week, as I go biking for 5 days :D

Oh, well, here's a little venting...
Where is my Macbook?
I was told that it would be shipping on about 6/10~6/15. It's now 6/21 and the store still has an empty stock. Stupid Apple Taiwan... They shipped plenty of the expensive black models, while letting the cheapest white ones deplete. Now, they're like:"If you can't wait, just pay more for the black." But hay, that's one of those unethical sells tactics, isn't it called "foot in the door"? Of course I'd like a black Macbook, but I can't afford it, and besides, if I could, I'd just go with the lighter and cooler Sony Vaio SZ.

So now, I've got 3 options:
1. Wait untill Sunday and test my luck
2. Just go get it in the US
3. Fine, I get to save my money, and just stick to my handheld. Then, no cyclub site updating, no BBS posting/replying, no photo uploads to Flicker, and blogging in English and Japanese only (no Chinese posts). (Oh, and no more Pandora.com radio nor Skype, crap...)

The last one seem like the most likely to happen. Fine, I'd have a lighter load on my back and backpack.

Article link: Words of wisdom for 2006 grads

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0614/p13s01-legn.html
I'm graduating next year, not now. (But I do know people who are graduating this year.) Never the less, it's a great article. Several suggestings from adverse fields, for being a person with better inner strength, for being a useful person to the society, to the country. Some are patriotic, and only for Americans; some others apply universally; some point out the US society, but may also apply to other countries.

A great site to see weather satellite photos

http://weathernews.jp/satellite/
It's a beautiful flash site, the photos are big and clear, but wait, it's a ... video!
I know it's a Japanese site, but since Taiwan and Japan use the same weather satellite, you can still get the see photos. Just click on "アシア広域"(Asia wide area) and you could clearly see the whole east Asia, including Taiwan. To zoom in a little, click on "日本広域"(Japan wide area), and you can still see Taiwan in the left bottom corner. Neat!

Cars

http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/cars/index.html

Any one wanna go watch Cars with me??

ARRRRRRG! STOP THE RAIN!

I've had enough! Stop it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wholesome life

Sometimes, it's nice to be busy.
Preparing for the finals, the reports, GRE, summer research, Wuling biking trip, graduation trip, my new Macbook, grad school application, scholarship application...... Life targets, things to look foward to, to anticipate, making every tomarrow more enticing.
This would sure be an intresting and meaningful summer. I like it.

Independence or intemacy?

Sometime ago, I've been reading the book , which discusses developmental psychology from a woman's point of view. Since most of the developmental psychology theories that we've read in our psychology text books are based on studies on men, it's nice to see how different it is in the other sex.

It is usually stated that from ages 18~25, people are in search of intemacy. Gilligan corrected this by substituting the "people" above to "men", and then giving us the other half of the story. Men, from their childhood, are always in search of independence, so in their post-adolscent ages, they need to fullfill their other need: intemacy, which, since they're unfamiliar with, are kind of afraid to face it. Woman, on the other hand, are the antithesis of this. As girls, they are adept in handling intemacy, while reluctantly face independency when they grow up.

That's the case before the 80's(when the book was written), I guess. Now, we are in a different age, when woman are more, will, indepedent. I now see my female friends all doing great with both indepedence and intemacy, while many of us boys are still afraid of intemate relationships. Seems that girls have advanced in their development, while boys are lagging behind. Maybe I still have some growing up in this part.

However, the theory seems to confirm in my case on the independence part. From grade school to collage, I've been switching districts each time I graduate, starting with a fresh pack of classmates eachtime, never seeing an old friend in the new school. I even attended a highschool far away from home for a better education and the adventure of going into the city alone. Next step, for grad school, I'm going to the US. Leaving the country, leaving all my friends behind, for a better future, for the adventure of the unfamiliar. Yup, I'm always on a plan to get farther independence alright. But intemacy? Left for fortune to decide. Should I fix it? How? When? I'm not sure, for now.

New Cyclub president

新任社長當選後的表情...

囧

社會亂象

今天在台科大吃晚飯時，餐廳的電視正撥著TVBS新聞。看到了不少令人不爽的事：

• 新聞報導不公正，參雜著偏見：
  在看完李泰安和趙建銘相繼的報導後，明顯的感覺到，新聞界喜歡李泰安，討厭趙建銘。
  在報李泰安時，把他拍得和藹可親，又拍了一堆鄉親、鄰居、支持者的關心，好像他是個被誣告的英雄似的；另一方面，趙建銘的待遇就大為不同了，捕風捉影的，報了一堆沒事實根據的「疑似......」，越抹越黑，好像整個電視台都是邱毅的走狗，大家一起亂槍打鳥。
  事實上呢，我想明眼人都很清楚，李泰安和趙建銘兩個人目前都處於被告身份。在一個法治社會中，再為定案前，所有嫌疑犯都應該視同無罪看待，待調查完畢，一切底定後，才能確定他是否有罪。
• 接著出現邱毅受到支持者歡迎與鼓勵，還有人叫他選總統......。這社會是怎樣？一個扮演只會亂咬人的瘋狗，卻沒有認真審理法案的民意代表這麼偉大？
• 國民黨黨中央正在對馬英九開砲，說該出來積極推動總統罷免案。其中有某位發言說：「罷免是我們的權利，身為在野黨，我們應該使用它！」啥？有權利就該用？不見時機，不爽就用，這叫做濫用權利。那麼，有解散國會的權利的總統，是否明天不爽也該來解散國會，立法委員全部重選？

之後，又在台灣日報上看到李登輝說，台灣的民主正在倒退，本土政權不能捨棄自己的路線，領導人不適合就該換掉。這發言呢，基本上是對的。我也對陳水扁的一事無成感到不爽。不過問題是，若罷免了，那該選誰來代替？目前的政壇上我看不到任何的是任人選。其實呢，若說要解散國會，那更棒了。「利」法院一直是我們社會最大的亂源，幾年下來法案幾乎都被封殺，我們的法律和政策一直停滯不前。不過呢，每次改選出來還不是那批混帳？

仔細想想，改選後似乎不會更好。因此，考慮改選的龐大社會成本，無論是罷免總統或解散國會，現階段都是不適合的。仔細想想，該反省的是選民：為何每次改選後，還是同一被垃圾當選？再這種選民亂投票的情況下，對任何政黨都沒有進步的誘因，大家恣意腐敗。目前的的政壇，無論泛藍或泛綠，我看不到一個真正有心要為國家做事的，我也看不到一個愛國的（只有愛錢、愛勢、愛中國共產黨三種）。可悲的是，放眼望去，人民中愛國的也了了無幾，難怪大家亂投選票。
---
其實我一直覺得台灣缺少一個能激起全國向心力的英雄。我們需要一個類似日本的小泉純一郎首相的領導人，一個有魄力，解散國會，重組政府，拯救國家的英雄。話說在陳水扁之前的李登輝和蔣經國也是很棒的領導人，兩人的努力，造就了台灣在90年代的繁榮與民主自由。怎麼開始覺得非民選的兩位總統比民選的更棒了呢？悲哀啊！

And the $ goes to...

Apple

I went to an Apple store (蘋果優勢, Appleuser @金華街) tonight to see if I could get to have an idea when the new intel Macbooks are avaliable in Taiwan. To my surprise, they not only have a clear answer (somewhere between Jun 10~15th), they also got one on display! Since it's not avaliable in Taiwan yet, they got one from Japan to let Apple lover in Taipei get to have a try before it's released. Boy am I impressed. Through a little sliming down, this baby look much better then the old, white, chunky iBook. It's also got a glossy wide screen, and a better looking keyboard now. But the best part is the price. People usually have the impression that Sony and Apple computers are among the most expensive models on the market. But not this one. The entry level Macbook is only 38900NTD (1211.88USD, tax included). It's got 512MB of RAM, intel integrated graphics, a 5400rpm HDD and a 1.83GHz intel core duo processor. And of course, WIFI(Airport, as in Apple jargon) and Bluetooth comes standard. No where else have I ever seen a core duo notebook under the 40000NTD price point! Also, you can now boot up Windows XP on these Macs, natively, no emulation. But the funny part here is that the infamous "Ctrl+Alt+Del" combo on PCs isn't supported on a Apple keyboard, which means no fast way out of crashs in windows :D

There are some drawback, though. In online review of the Macbook, it is said that this thing is hot and noisy (the fan). Also, it's still quite heavy, compared with the 13inch models from Sony. And it's assembled in China, which I defenantly don't like a bit. But the low price and great style justifies these drawbacks. So, I guess I'll be on the Mac ship in a few weeks. Here I come!

Vertibrate experiment exam info

脊椎動物學實驗期末考について

6/8(四) @12F
*考avian& mammals only
(考試說明錄音檔下載)

• 鳥的目的拉丁文＆哺乳類的各目（看到要認得）＆誰的親源關係較近(有配合題)
• 去梅峰看到什麼老鼠、鳥調看到什麼鳥(鳥調結果有上傳公布欄)
• 看標本時的list、台灣常見的動物、何科何目
• how to認鳥：嘴、脚、叫声
• 鳥叫CD 20種鳥
• 標本的標示牌上有的小東西？
• 小馬拍的照片？？

Others:

• 台灣的飛鼠：小鼯鼠、白面鼯鼠、大赤鼯鼠
• 鷺科鳥類的中指的一側有類似梳子的構造
• 刺蝟（小隻，食蟲目）&冠豪豬 （大隻，囓齒目）不同
• 黃鼠狼的分類：食肉目、貂科

Get a taste of Vista on XP

Craving for Vista? The next version of Windows, named Vista won't be avaliable to consumers until next year, and considering it's thrist of computing resources, your existing system might not be powerful enough to run it smoothly. Bellow is a screen shot of my desktop with some of the stuff I'll be showing off :)

Some features of Vista can already be tried out on XP, here's some:

1. IE 7 beta (download English version, Beta 2)

Yup, IE 7 is here, the first version of IE in history that has temped me to try it. Thanks to the pressure from Firefox, this supposed "Vista only" update is now avaliable for XP. The best new feature that I like is the new rendering engine that is updated and more standards compliant, which means that I can use more CSS coding in my future websites, and I could expect that my site would look more like it should be in a standards compliant browser such as Firefox. If you haven't done a website yourself, you might not know that the old IE 6 used to screw up your site frequently, requiring you to do specific tweaks to your HTML code, just to make it look right in IE, I hope those day would go away with people upgrading to IE7, or Firefox.

Other new features include all the features that you'd expect from a modern browser, including tabs, RSS, search box...etc, which is all already standard features on all other major browsers, like Firefox, Safari and Opera. Now, threatend by the popularity of Firefox, Microsoft finally put them in IE, by heavily copying features from major competetors, of course. One good thing is the tab implementation, which offers a clear new tab button out of the box. Firefox completely hid the tab function by default, requiring you to activate it. Another suprise is that the search box defaulted to Google, instead of MSN. It is said that it's because that's the settings it detected on my system(maybe Google desktop did the settings some how?), nice!

However, it's still in beta, which isn't stable enough. It terminates it self when you are low on memory, and it eats up your memory pretty fast. Also, you need to first click on Flash movies to "activate it", then it'll run, which is ridiculus. Firefox is still my top choice for it's stability, security and easy customisation; but IE 7 sure is a nice toy :)

2. Windows Media Player 11 beta (English beta here)

The last version, WMP10 took a page from iTunes, and made it my video player of choice. It has nice media file organisation capabilities, and video controls just the way you'd expect it to be. However, it still can't beat iTunes, as iTunes is still king of user friendlyness. With this update, it's copying the album art view from Sony's Sonicstage, and entering the "cool looks club". You can even make it search for album info and pictures for any song, but this feature is real slow, and some times screws up. It's yet another nice toy, with great usability. However, iTunes is still easier to use, and Sonicstage still looks better then WMP11. (Sonicstage CP4.0 rocks, it's only flaw is lack of multi-language support for files)

3. Google desktop (get it here)

2 major features of Vista are integrated file search and the sidebar with gadgets (well, toys like a clock and the news on your desktop). You can get both with Google desktop. Once the software finished scanning your harddisk, the search is blazing fast, narowing your list as you type in each letter. However, since I have my files quite organised, I found my self less frequently using search. Also, I tend to remember my files by location, instead of file name, which retards me from doing a search. the sidebar, on the other hand, takes up too much space on my small screen, and the widgets (gadgets in Microsoft jargon) arn't as good looking as Konfabulator's, mentioned below.

4. Yahoo Widgets(previously Konfabulator) (US & Taiwan versions)

Why use a "sidebar" when you can move each widget around? Here is the pioneer of the concept: get info from the web onto your desktop without opening your browser, and making your desktop beautiful at the same time. Since then, we've got clones such as Apple's MacOS X dashboard, Google desktop's sidebar, Microsoft's Vista Gadgets and Opera Widgets. But I still like the first one best. You can get traffic updates, news feeds, email notifications, weather and clocks and calanders on your screen in the form of wonderfull eyecandys.

5. XP power toys Alt-Tab Replacement
(choose Alt-Tab Replacement from the list on the right side)

Vista offers screenshots of the opened windows when you use Alt-Tab to switch between apps, to help you choose the one you want. Here's the equivilant in XP. (You can't see the app titles because it's darkblue on a black background, that because I installed something else to change the look.)

At the end of this post, here's another of my screen shots. This one better reflects my software usage, since I normally don't use WMP11 for music, nor IE7 for browsing. I use Sonicstage (official site & download link) when I want the cool look, and always use Firefox as my browser. The floting clock and circular memory meter is part of Yahoo Widgets. You may notice that my MSN messenger is skinned with Wave11. Also, my whole system (including the black statusbar) is skinned with Brico Pack Vista Inspirat (This is a system hack, it might screw up your system, so if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it) Last, I've got Objectdock on the bottom, to get a Mac like dock :)