Every year, around this time, I have the most frustrating work of marking these people's programming assignments. Which is even worse this year, because for the first time ever, the cryptography module has become the most popular third year module. The frustration arises not just from of the amount of work, which is bad enough, but also from other things.
(1) Why do people insist, year after year, assignment after assignment, to write something like this?
File privateKeyFile = new File("C:/Users/ChanTaiMan/Desktop/ChanTaiMan.prv");
Am I supposed to create a directory like this to run your program? Or am I supposed to edit everybody's program for such things before compiling it? And there are always a few people to offer a "user friendly" option of popping up a dialog box to input such things. To them
java ProgramName ChanTaiMan
is as alien as the Martian language. (Not to say options like -a, -b: I suspect they never did an ls -l in their life.)
And that is because they say their IDEs can't do this. All IDEs are evil! Nobody know how to use command line arguments anymore!
I would so much love to give these people just a zero mark! If only I could!
(2) OK, you can't write programs, you can't even understand sample programs given to you, so you copy your classmate's program. But why, why people can't even use "find and replace" properly? Rename one occurrence of the variable and leave the other unchanged?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
從前有一隻青蛙...
很久以前，我看過一個短篇科幻故事，名叫 "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed"。看完後我覺得那故事很 disturbing，不過我也沒有深究為甚麼。
還不過幾年前，大家還恥笑董建華這句話：
隨著中國「發展」，香港必將淪為中國一個普通城市，這是歴史宿命，多一條少一條高鐵，也差不了多少。不幸的是人的想法也變了。今天還有誰會覺得「求救」是令人「無地自容」？
那個科幻故事是說，有一些地球人滯留火星，其中一人有一天突然發現，花草樹木的顏色不同了， 慢慢的連別人和自己的眼珠顏色、頭髮顏色、甚至說的語言都變了。他想離開火星，其他人卻不介意那些轉變，或者「詐唔知」不去面對那些轉變。那人最後也不再堅持...
很多年後，地球才再有人來火星，卻找不到原來的地球人，只發現一些「火星人」 ...
青蛙心想，跳出去沒有水，會死的，其實熱水也很好呀！火力愈來愈大，青蛙卻愈來愈興奮。它死前的最後一句話，是：「 嘩哈哈！ 」
* * *
還不過幾年前，大家還恥笑董建華這句話：
「香港好，中國好。中國好，香港更好」 --董建華幾年後的今天，人人都已從心底裡由衷相信，香港必須要和中國融合，不然便會死。
... 最後連董建華也承認他曾去信中央，請求京官幫忙。但他這一下「求救」，教香港人無地自容，恨他無本事帶領香港擺脫困境，怨其丟盡香港的面子－－明明是全國最富庶的地方，卻公然厚著臉皮向「阿爺」（北京）伸手討好處。其實香港人雖然都在北望 神州，欲在中國崛起之際分一杯羹，但很多人卻覺得交往過程應是公平地互惠互利，而非中央單方面的「偏愛」，無條件不斷施予優惠，做中國的「敗家兒」...
他們說， 90後的一代將來畢業後，香港必已被邊緣化，沒有高鐵，他們就不能方便地回內地工作，沒有出路。 --蘋果日報, 引述某被訪者
... 宜家香港上至政府下至小市民個個淨係識背靠祖國做寄生蟲...
... 真正既邊緣化唔係有冇高鐵
而係香港政府同香港人自願放棄經濟上既獨立性...-- extracted from 某高登 post
隨著中國「發展」，香港必將淪為中國一個普通城市，這是歴史宿命，多一條少一條高鐵，也差不了多少。不幸的是人的想法也變了。今天還有誰會覺得「求救」是令人「無地自容」？
* * *
那個科幻故事是說，有一些地球人滯留火星，其中一人有一天突然發現，花草樹木的顏色不同了， 慢慢的連別人和自己的眼珠顏色、頭髮顏色、甚至說的語言都變了。他想離開火星，其他人卻不介意那些轉變，或者「詐唔知」不去面對那些轉變。那人最後也不再堅持...
很多年後，地球才再有人來火星，卻找不到原來的地球人，只發現一些「火星人」 ...
* * *
青蛙心想，跳出去沒有水，會死的，其實熱水也很好呀！火力愈來愈大，青蛙卻愈來愈興奮。它死前的最後一句話，是：「 嘩哈哈！ 」
Sunday, January 17, 2010
每日新聞圖片
兩名內地大款得戚地表示支持興建高鐵。
工聯會立法會議員王國興向會外高呼「撐高鐵創造就業」的示威者表示，工聯會成功爭取「反對高鐵工程優先聘請本地工人」，至於「示威工程優先聘請本地臨記」則在泛民拉布下暫未成功反對。
和諧黨副主席檢閱首名乘高鐵來港的女兵。
Sunday, January 10, 2010
「西班牙人」
再說，就算有極少數廣東人吃貓，也不能泛稱「廣東人吃貓」，就像不久前，有北京人殺了他自己全家（父、母、子、女、妻、妹），絕不能延伸說「北京人殺自己全家」，若形成「北京人殺自己全家」的說法，自然和「廣東人吃貓」一樣，是大大的謬誤。倪匡，《「廣東人吃貓」》，蘋果日報 10/1/2010
倪匡大概對「新中國」的「現代漢語」還是不太了解，網上就充斥著類似以下的大陸文字：
利物浦糟糕的戰績讓領隊賓尼迪斯本賽季承受著巨大的壓力，歐冠盃提前出局讓球迷們對西班牙人的失望之情到達了頂點。媒體也一度把賓尼迪斯和皇家馬德里、國際米蘭聯繫在一起，有消息稱西班牙人很可能在今夏取代摩連奴在國際的位置。
你不知就裏的話還以為球迷對所有西班牙人都感到失望，所有西班牙人一起取代摩連奴！這大概是從英文「翻譯」過來，英文可以說 (在文中提到過該人之後) The Spaniard, The England international 之類，你譯成中文，最少也應說「該名西班牙籍領隊」、「該名英格蘭國腳」 。就是英文也有那 the 字啊！不過大家也見怪不怪了...
Thursday, January 07, 2010
反高鐵，保香港
...
第一個假設是，假設內地的有錢人不斷來香港幫襯，帶挈香港地產發達，小市民可以分享唾餘，有份掃地捧餐做實Q。內地（主要是廣東）的人民和商人要來香港交 易，是因為香港有內地買不到的商品、服務、治安和生活品質。然而，這不會長久如此的...
...
高鐵的第二個假設是，香港長期維持優秀可靠的服務，可以吸引內地人幫襯。...
一旦香港的服務與內地拉平，內地人也毋須幫襯香港。
...
愛國者應理解國情，內地大勢不妙。香港應該保持適當距離，自求多福，而不是去銜接危機。內地人發達繁華，不稀罕你去銜接；內地災難爆發，香港去銜接也沒用。高鐵是一塊雞肋，不是一塊肥肉。一塊雞肋何須稀罕？
...陳雲：《反高鐵，保香港》，信報 7/1/2010
我不認為甚麼菜園村之類是反高鐵的強力理由(雖然是些比較冠冕堂皇的理由)。
反而支持興建的那些甚麼「促進中港融合」，「接上內地發展」之類才是最危險的糖衣毒藥。
不論物質上還是文明上，香港都比大陸先進 - 至少現在還是。這正是香港的優勢。你快快「融合」 掉，香港就和大陸一模一樣，沒有獨特之處，只會「死快D」。所以香港應盡可能減慢被大陸同化的速度，作一個好榜樣給內地學習。
再說，那是個每天都在殺人的政權啊！你跟它「融合」幹甚麼？你沒聽說人家要出兵了嗎？將來有了高鐵，石崗軍營出市區也很快捷嘛。
PS1.
出賣香港利益的，時時見報，就是這一伙了，七百萬人，記住他們的樣子。時機成熟，一起跟他們算賬。陶傑，《賣港》，蘋果日報 16/12/2009
PS2. 咁鐘意起, 起成咁好唔好? (我見到果洲個圈真係笑到停唔到...)
http://w3img.westkit.net/0286b67a82a0da64237c0d25c061c357.img
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Going into 2010 the cold way (almost)
At this very moment, I could have been typing my final words in 2009 in a zero degree Celsius room, with a torch, a mobile phone and a 2-hour laptop battery being my only power source. Thankfully it wasn't like that.
On this very last day of 2009, I lost electricity at home. It's the stupid laptop power adaptor again; this is already a replacement but this time it even brought down the power of the whole flat. The circuit breakers inside the flat did not trip, but every socket and every light switch was dead.
I was fearing the worst and planning how to endure a long dark night in this holiday period without lighting and without heating - surely an unconventional way to go into a new year - when the guy from the letting agent came over and fixed that. Which I'm very grateful to and perhaps I should just slightly change my view about the agent.
On this very last day of 2009, I lost electricity at home. It's the stupid laptop power adaptor again; this is already a replacement but this time it even brought down the power of the whole flat. The circuit breakers inside the flat did not trip, but every socket and every light switch was dead.
I was fearing the worst and planning how to endure a long dark night in this holiday period without lighting and without heating - surely an unconventional way to go into a new year - when the guy from the letting agent came over and fixed that. Which I'm very grateful to and perhaps I should just slightly change my view about the agent.
An unusually nice journey
You don't often hear me say that, but my return journey this time could not have been better. Having picked a closer and smaller airport this time (which I should have done years ago - you see, the algorithm running in my head does produce something that converge to the optimal solution,
just very slowly), it turns out that one leg of the flight is less than 1/3 full, the passport control and baggage reclaim was exceedingly quick, and the train timetable somehow allowed me to catch unexpectedly early trains. The only worrying bit was that there were actually officers from customs standing there inspecting passengers' stuff, but I even managed to escape that. (Why can't they learn from Heathrow where there's nobody inspecting anything round the clock?)
just very slowly), it turns out that one leg of the flight is less than 1/3 full, the passport control and baggage reclaim was exceedingly quick, and the train timetable somehow allowed me to catch unexpectedly early trains. The only worrying bit was that there were actually officers from customs standing there inspecting passengers' stuff, but I even managed to escape that. (Why can't they learn from Heathrow where there's nobody inspecting anything round the clock?)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
「港足奪金」之曾蔭權在做甚麼
曾蔭權真是一個X街...
... 當晚唯一的遺憾，是行政長官曾蔭權於頒獎禮期間突然宣布有話要對記者說，害我「拿拿臨」仆過去採訪而錯過親眼看港隊站上頒獎台最高一級的機會。...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Bring in video technology into football!
Is it just me, and nobody else really cares? So many blatantly wrong decisions have been made by referees over the years and that FIFA lot of people insist on not doing anything about it. It is beyond stubbornness, it feels more like something dirty is going on behind the scenes. And if not from within then what about the fans? On facebook, the largest group about this has, errr, less than 2000 people there, with most other groups less than a hundred. Even groups about 港女 etc. can get into tens of thousands much more easily and quickly.
Referees are humans and in such a high-tempo game, it is simply impossible to ask referees to make correct decisions instantly. Almost all other sports is using video technologies now, even snooker does!(*) An organisation that keeps on saying "fair play" is the same one that tries everything possible to stop referees from making correct decisions. Is it ironic enough? How much longer do we have to tolerate this?
FIFA stands for Football Injustice Forever Association. It is a total disgrace.
(*) To be precise, snooker only uses replays for replacing balls, not making decisions.
Referees are humans and in such a high-tempo game, it is simply impossible to ask referees to make correct decisions instantly. Almost all other sports is using video technologies now, even snooker does!(*) An organisation that keeps on saying "fair play" is the same one that tries everything possible to stop referees from making correct decisions. Is it ironic enough? How much longer do we have to tolerate this?
FIFA stands for Football Injustice Forever Association. It is a total disgrace.
(*) To be precise, snooker only uses replays for replacing balls, not making decisions.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
James May's Toy Stories
"He is completely insane!"
"That, and a bit magnificent."
- Valerie and Brannigan, Doctor Who "Gridlock"
This is a completely mad TV programme. The show takes several no-longer-fashionable toys (well, most of them), and blow them up to build real-life-scale things. You may not realise their names, until you see them. The first episode is about making an Airfix model (something like this) of a Spitfire, except it is 1:1 scale, and they asked a group of kids to do it, at an old factory where real Spitfires were produced. Other mad ideas include making a garden out of plasticine and actually putting it in the Chelsea Flower Show, and building a over 4 km long track out of Scalextric and actually run slot cars on it.
Other than satisfying the nostalgia of us "old" people, the best thing about this show is that it at least tries to do the impossible of tempting children of this generation to do things that require long hours of concentration without looking at a computer/TV screen. These toys are no longer fashionable precisely because they take time. I also like its engaging factor, where it often involves hundreds or even thousands of people to build the thing and to participate. The Scalextric episode for example, (not aired yet but from the lots of youtube videos flying around) involve lots of people, since one person can only be looking at a very small section of the track at one time. Very much like a community event where every kid living around are out, running along the track. Seeing people getting excited about such events at least gives a (however small) hope of reversing or stopping the trend of the dumbing down of toys (and everything else).
Update: here, before it gets removed...
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
In memory of a youthful heart
I suppose I owe quite a lot to him. Many years ago, since we lived relatively close to them, our family often visited theirs. My childhood memory mainly consisted of playing toys in other people's homes; this one was no exception.
There were probably some lego sets around, although my main activity appeared to be reading lego catalogs. For some reason this cement mixer and this classic space set had left very deep impression in my mind.
During that time I had one of my early encounter (if not the earliest) of a computer; in fact it might be an Apple II but I'm not so sure now.
He used to work in the UK for some time. Every time he came back he brought us lots of UK stamps, in two categories: those used for regular everyday mail, in large quantities and with many duplicates, and those that were relatively rare and only have a few copies in each batch. Then we have the task of splitting these stamps into 4 sets "fairly" (one for each of the kids there). We could spend an entire afternoon doing this.
He once gave me a thick and heavy book (the biggest book I had at that time), something like a Reader's digest compilation on topics related to the Earth, and a 1970-ish atlas used by Geography classes back when he was in school (in which you can see the version of Hong Kong coastline before the more recent landfills, and a whole lot about the British Isles).
I also stole, from the books he left behind after he emigrated, a (I believe?) C. J. Tranter's A-level Pure Mathematics textbook; it's very "British" and certainly treats topics very differently from a modern-day text (for example it starts with the question of what happens if we integrate 1/x, shows that it must be "log-like" and from this defines the constant known as e before finally moving on to its numerous other properties). Among other things it gave me my first exposure to the convergence of series and the natural logarithm.
These were probably useless stuff to him anyway, but were good to me. I really appreciate this because I myself hate to give things away to people; if you ask me to give you my atlas back in secondary school, I won't be too happy about it (even worse if you have taken it without me knowing it).
During all these years he never seemed to get old; he always spoke in a slow, cheerful and somewhat child-like tone. This probably is a reflection of an youthful heart.
In the past year or so, somewhat being kept out of the loop, I have only been barely aware of what has been going on with him. During a certain period of time there appeared to be positive progress, but the inevitable eventually happened. At least I believe he didn't have much regrets. He can rest assured the books had made their impact on a kid.
There were probably some lego sets around, although my main activity appeared to be reading lego catalogs. For some reason this cement mixer and this classic space set had left very deep impression in my mind.
During that time I had one of my early encounter (if not the earliest) of a computer; in fact it might be an Apple II but I'm not so sure now.
He used to work in the UK for some time. Every time he came back he brought us lots of UK stamps, in two categories: those used for regular everyday mail, in large quantities and with many duplicates, and those that were relatively rare and only have a few copies in each batch. Then we have the task of splitting these stamps into 4 sets "fairly" (one for each of the kids there). We could spend an entire afternoon doing this.
He once gave me a thick and heavy book (the biggest book I had at that time), something like a Reader's digest compilation on topics related to the Earth, and a 1970-ish atlas used by Geography classes back when he was in school (in which you can see the version of Hong Kong coastline before the more recent landfills, and a whole lot about the British Isles).
I also stole, from the books he left behind after he emigrated, a (I believe?) C. J. Tranter's A-level Pure Mathematics textbook; it's very "British" and certainly treats topics very differently from a modern-day text (for example it starts with the question of what happens if we integrate 1/x, shows that it must be "log-like" and from this defines the constant known as e before finally moving on to its numerous other properties). Among other things it gave me my first exposure to the convergence of series and the natural logarithm.
These were probably useless stuff to him anyway, but were good to me. I really appreciate this because I myself hate to give things away to people; if you ask me to give you my atlas back in secondary school, I won't be too happy about it (even worse if you have taken it without me knowing it).
During all these years he never seemed to get old; he always spoke in a slow, cheerful and somewhat child-like tone. This probably is a reflection of an youthful heart.
In the past year or so, somewhat being kept out of the loop, I have only been barely aware of what has been going on with him. During a certain period of time there appeared to be positive progress, but the inevitable eventually happened. At least I believe he didn't have much regrets. He can rest assured the books had made their impact on a kid.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
二數相乘，有口訣云：天天，地地，人人，天地人，盡負一...
怪哉，於此二十又一世紀，中學國文科尚棄文言如糞土之時，若干有志之士，竟以文言編維基大典，所涉更非限孔孟老莊、唐詩宋詞，諸般數學，凡 Quaternion 至 set theory 皆具文誌之，誠可貴也。
Saturday, July 11, 2009
more delays
As usual, this is the place for my rant about flight experiences. But this time I found out it may serve a new purpose: it might help some other people feel better by knowing other people (me) have even worse experience than them.
I won't bother you about what the trip is for, what exactly does the airport code DUS stand for etc, but instead just go straight about the travel itself.
Outward flight: LHR->DUS
The outward flight only had, relatively speaking, minor troubles. The flight was delayed by roughly 2 hours, but it is not the interesting part; the reason for the delay is more interesting. It was because "the toilets are not fully operational", resulting in a need to find a replacement plane.
When we arrived at DUS another trouble surfaced: all except a handful of the passengers lost their checked luggage. I didn't have any checked luggage, but other people travelling on the same trip did, and I got to see a hundred people hanging outside a small room filling forms etc. In fact, it looks like another flight also had the same problem...
Inward flight: DUS->LHR
I need a bullet list for this:
I won't bother you about what the trip is for, what exactly does the airport code DUS stand for etc, but instead just go straight about the travel itself.
Outward flight: LHR->DUS
The outward flight only had, relatively speaking, minor troubles. The flight was delayed by roughly 2 hours, but it is not the interesting part; the reason for the delay is more interesting. It was because "the toilets are not fully operational", resulting in a need to find a replacement plane.
When we arrived at DUS another trouble surfaced: all except a handful of the passengers lost their checked luggage. I didn't have any checked luggage, but other people travelling on the same trip did, and I got to see a hundred people hanging outside a small room filling forms etc. In fact, it looks like another flight also had the same problem...
Inward flight: DUS->LHR
I need a bullet list for this:
- During the whole week the weather was fine, but just when we were about to get a train to the airport, there was heavy rain. As a result, the train to the airport was delayed by 15-20 minutes. This was still fine, but...
- At the airport, we found out that the flight was delayed by "only" 50 minutes. This was still ok, except...
- I needed to catch a train at St Pancras. I've put in 2 hours between the original landing time of the flight and scheduled train departure time, which should be more than sufficient, particularly with Heathrow Express. And normally the plane can fly a bit faster to catch up at least some of the delay. But
- The plane circled at least 3 times above London before finally landed. And after landing, as the pilot put it, "to add to the misery", the air bridge to the terminal didn't work and we had to take a shuttle bus even though it was just 30 seconds walk away from it. And the shuttle bus needs (due to some ground traffic regulations on the airport ground) to make a big detour and travel round a loop.
- Then, long queues as usual at UK Border. Actually this time it was slightly faster with some more counters open.
- (If you need proof that worst-case analysis is useful:) then I missed a Heathrow Express train, and had to wait exactly 15 minutes when they have one every 15 minutes.
- Then there were further delay on the Hammersmith-and-City tube line which means overall it is actually not faster than taking the Piccadilly line directly to St Pancras.
- I was fearing the worst (I seem to recall the only other train departs at midnight and arrive at 3am or something like that), when actually there was one at 23:15 which I was able to catch. Usually such late trains stop at every station and takes about 1.5 hours, but this one was even worse due to construction work which required a hugh diversion costing some extra time.
- So I finally arrive Leicester at 1:38am. This was "only" 98 minutes later than scheduled, and when you take all these incidents together, it isn't too bad.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
偉大的中國人！
在柏楊「醜陋的中國人！」一書(2008年版)中，收錄了一篇(其他人寫的) 「偉大的中國人」，當中提到:
幾十年來，「國家在各方面的發展都得到驕人的成就」(更何況上文說的是台灣，沒有「黨」的領導，自然更差)，已進化到這樣，還在外國上報：
粵漢不滿阻塞交通 扮「握手交朋友」走近推落跳橋男子
China bridge jumper 'gets a push'
二十多年前，有一個男子，一時想不開，爬到台北市館前街某大飯店的十樓頂上，揚言要自殺。頓時招來了滿坑滿谷看熱鬧的觀眾，警察大人如臨大敵，一面在樓下撒下了安全救護網，一面派人上樓去勸說，新聞記者端起照相機，取好鏡頭，準備獵取那最珍貴的一剎那，那男子卻也作怪，任憑警察老爺說破了嘴，他仍堅持非自殺不可，可又不肯立刻就跳，就這樣一點鐘兩點鐘乾耗著。中國人看熱鬧的耐心是天下第一的，抬頭仰望兩三小時，脖子再痠，也不肯休息片刻。眼看對面火車站前的時鐘已經敲出十一點了，跳的還不肯跳，看的還不肯走，這時候，有一個提著空菜籃的主婦，嘴裡嘟嚷著道：「要跳還不趕快，老娘等著看完了還要去買菜！」
幾十年來，「國家在各方面的發展都得到驕人的成就」(更何況上文說的是台灣，沒有「黨」的領導，自然更差)，已進化到這樣，還在外國上報：
粵漢不滿阻塞交通 扮「握手交朋友」走近推落跳橋男子
China bridge jumper 'gets a push'
Friday, May 15, 2009
嚴正聲明
本人特此聲明，本人從無授權曾蔭權代表本人，亦從無直接或間接投票支持曾蔭權，其一切言論並不代表本人立場。
PS.
PS.
有人說，鎮壓壓出了繁榮。我只知道，是經濟改革改出了繁榮。是人民，用市場經濟打破了毛澤東的枷鎖，才創造了繁榮。現在有人總結說，繁榮是鎮壓的產物。面對全球經濟危機，我不知道他們是否正在準備介紹鎮壓的經驗，來拯救世界經濟。-- 《改革歷程》
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
World Championship Snooker 2009
This year I didn't go to Sheffield to watch the above event, because the tickets were already sold out (or more precisely, I'm not bothered to try the phone lines for the "resale" service. There are always plenty of empty seats in each match.) But the BBC streams everything on the web.
Marco Fu plays Joe Swail in the first round. I was quite worried, but somehow Fu got past this easily. Swail wasn't playing that badly, all he lacks is probably luck. Anyway, Fu's next round opponent was Shaun Murphy. Fu lost 3-13 with a session to spare. When he was trailing 1-7 overnight I wasn't too concerned - I saw him won six straight frames to come back from 9-15 to 15-15 a few years back. Never did I imagine that he could lost 2-6 in the next session this time.
He just played very, very badly. It is interesting that players can have complete different performance from day to day.
As for the other players, I'm glad to see Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out, particularly when he was "potted out", not "bored out" as some may claim for his other losses before. The fact that he has "motivation" difficulties (which is probably genuine, we have students like this) is his own problem, and it doesn't automatically mean that the whole sport is dying.
I managed to see the very last part of Stephen Hendry's 147 live. I have to say, though, that the pockets are incredibly huge and takes almost anything in.
John Higgins eventually won the title. He really is an all-round player, not as exciting to watch as many young players but fully deserves the title.
Marco Fu plays Joe Swail in the first round. I was quite worried, but somehow Fu got past this easily. Swail wasn't playing that badly, all he lacks is probably luck. Anyway, Fu's next round opponent was Shaun Murphy. Fu lost 3-13 with a session to spare. When he was trailing 1-7 overnight I wasn't too concerned - I saw him won six straight frames to come back from 9-15 to 15-15 a few years back. Never did I imagine that he could lost 2-6 in the next session this time.
He just played very, very badly. It is interesting that players can have complete different performance from day to day.
As for the other players, I'm glad to see Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out, particularly when he was "potted out", not "bored out" as some may claim for his other losses before. The fact that he has "motivation" difficulties (which is probably genuine, we have students like this) is his own problem, and it doesn't automatically mean that the whole sport is dying.
I managed to see the very last part of Stephen Hendry's 147 live. I have to say, though, that the pockets are incredibly huge and takes almost anything in.
John Higgins eventually won the title. He really is an all-round player, not as exciting to watch as many young players but fully deserves the title.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Leicester City promoted
So Leicester City is promoted back to the Championship, and as champion of League One at the same time, with two games to spare; although at one point it looks like losing momentum and wastes all the huge lead that was made in the middle of the season. It is important to get out of this League One in the first season, or otherwise it may take ages to get out, just like Nottingham Forest and Leeds.
Now let's hope "the management" don't make any more silly moves and make sure the team at least survives with some comfort in the Championship next season...
Now let's hope "the management" don't make any more silly moves and make sure the team at least survives with some comfort in the Championship next season...
Friday, April 17, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
賊喊捉賊
港足聯賽 爆踢假波疑雲
香港足球圈之「盛況」早已人所共知，多年來在一少撮人圍威喂的「緊密合作」下，把球市搞得「有聲有色」，每場賽事觀眾多達數十人。不知何故，近年竟能更創高峰，甲組球隊數目愈來愈多，有人更一人搞兩隊波。如果我是班主，一定提供一條龍服務。試想: 賭仔有波賭，開賭有錢搵，球員有波踢，唔駛踢也有錢收，可謂百利而無一害，對香港經濟將帶來巨大貢獻...
香港足球圈之「盛況」早已人所共知，多年來在一少撮人圍威喂的「緊密合作」下，把球市搞得「有聲有色」，每場賽事觀眾多達數十人。不知何故，近年竟能更創高峰，甲組球隊數目愈來愈多，有人更一人搞兩隊波。如果我是班主，一定提供一條龍服務。試想: 賭仔有波賭，開賭有錢搵，球員有波踢，唔駛踢也有錢收，可謂百利而無一害，對香港經濟將帶來巨大貢獻...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I'm now officially in debt...
...for an amount of 8.22 pounds.
This is the amount due from the "final electricity bill" left over from the previous tenant. Obviously, I'm not the one to pay it. I sent it to the landlord (and the lettings agent) several times long ago, and not surprisingly they won't deal with it; I also told the electricity company, Southern Electric, about this, and also not surprisingly (as they constantly feature on BBC's Watchdog programme) they didn't handle it properly either. In fact, I have set up my own account with Southern Electric (at this same property address), they sent me my bills, and I paid. But they continued to repeatedly issue several threat letters to "The Occupier" (they don't even know their client's name!) about that outstanding bill.
Eventually, they passed it to a debt collection agency called Past Due Credit Solutions. They sent a letter to me as a "new customer" asking me to call them "regarding an important matter". So I called. Before I get to know anything more about the case, they instantly told me, after asking when I moved in, that they should not be sending this to me and apologised. And I wonder, it can't be so simple, right? What's their next trick? Do debt collectors in UK do what those in HK do? Hmm... (And by the way, that Scottish accent was simply unintelligible, especially over the phone.)
Actually, the 8.22 is just my guess because there is also an outstanding water bill (which the water company didn't seem to chase after I set up my own account with them), and who knows how many more debts...
This is the amount due from the "final electricity bill" left over from the previous tenant. Obviously, I'm not the one to pay it. I sent it to the landlord (and the lettings agent) several times long ago, and not surprisingly they won't deal with it; I also told the electricity company, Southern Electric, about this, and also not surprisingly (as they constantly feature on BBC's Watchdog programme) they didn't handle it properly either. In fact, I have set up my own account with Southern Electric (at this same property address), they sent me my bills, and I paid. But they continued to repeatedly issue several threat letters to "The Occupier" (they don't even know their client's name!) about that outstanding bill.
Eventually, they passed it to a debt collection agency called Past Due Credit Solutions. They sent a letter to me as a "new customer" asking me to call them "regarding an important matter". So I called. Before I get to know anything more about the case, they instantly told me, after asking when I moved in, that they should not be sending this to me and apologised. And I wonder, it can't be so simple, right? What's their next trick? Do debt collectors in UK do what those in HK do? Hmm... (And by the way, that Scottish accent was simply unintelligible, especially over the phone.)
Actually, the 8.22 is just my guess because there is also an outstanding water bill (which the water company didn't seem to chase after I set up my own account with them), and who knows how many more debts...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Semester start at Chinese new year
Today is the Chinese new year. Of more relevance however is that this is also the start of the new semester. And I have three lectures to teach today, the first one at 9:00am.
The worst part of all this is, well, that I am the person to make the timetable...
The worst part of all this is, well, that I am the person to make the timetable...
Friday, December 05, 2008
Royal visit
The Queen and Prince Philip visited the university. Since the university is publicizing it as if it is the biggest event in the universe, I would save typing a few keystrokes and just point you to here for what it is all about, pictures, etc.
The Maths and CS Building has, I would say, the best view of the whole thing. One side of the building are offices with windows facing the library directly. Unfortunately mine is at the opposite side. Nevertheless I (and others) went to a room at a corner of the building, which used to be secretaries' office and now half-abandoned; it has a 270 degrees view of the whole thing, high enough to be above the crowd but low enough to see as closely as possible. See pictures below. (Btw, the day before, somebody had already put up a notice on the front door of the building saying there is no public viewing places inside. Depending on your interpretation, you can call it a lie.)
The thing I wondered is the (apparent lack of) security. Given our superb viewing angle, if anyone here is not that happy with them and has some weapon...
The Maths and CS Building has, I would say, the best view of the whole thing. One side of the building are offices with windows facing the library directly. Unfortunately mine is at the opposite side. Nevertheless I (and others) went to a room at a corner of the building, which used to be secretaries' office and now half-abandoned; it has a 270 degrees view of the whole thing, high enough to be above the crowd but low enough to see as closely as possible. See pictures below. (Btw, the day before, somebody had already put up a notice on the front door of the building saying there is no public viewing places inside. Depending on your interpretation, you can call it a lie.)
The thing I wondered is the (apparent lack of) security. Given our superb viewing angle, if anyone here is not that happy with them and has some weapon...
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The landlord
Now that I've said about the agent, I'll go on to say about the landlord. It's a company; it may just be the same name, but the only thing I can find on Google is a US-based company listed in NYSE. (I tried to search for it in UK company registration, I do found a company of the same name but it is listed as a "dormant" company. Btw, I cannot even find the lettings agent on this list...)
This company calls itself "a newly-formed specialty finance company" that invest in residential mortgage loans, residential mortgage-backed securities, Alt-A mortgage loans, and CDOs. Hah. They made their IPO last year and their share prices have since fallen about 85%. Just last week they announced a secondary offering of 110,000,000 shares...
This company calls itself "a newly-formed specialty finance company" that invest in residential mortgage loans, residential mortgage-backed securities, Alt-A mortgage loans, and CDOs. Hah. They made their IPO last year and their share prices have since fallen about 85%. Just last week they announced a secondary offering of 110,000,000 shares...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Parmars!
Parmars (http://www.parmarsestates.com) is a well-known lettings agent, presumably only working in the Leicester area, so this should not concern most people reading this; nevertheless I still want to share my experience with them here, so that people can know how exceptional their service is.
Before I say anything further, I must confess that the problems you may notice below, if any at all, are entirely due to my own fault. All other agents I've encountered so far are fairly reasonable, so I was not expecting such a unique experience with this particular one; I was more on the easy-going side and didn't follow rigidly the general principles dealing with lettings. Had I been more firm on those grounds, however, I wouldn't have a chance to experience this. Also, all these only happened after I paid 225 pounds (under various names of holding fee, application fee, etc.), so I was essentially tied to them and cannot change even if I wanted to. I suppose this is how they make sure their clients can receive their full suite of unbelievable services.
You would have assumed that the rent was the same as the one advertised. In fact, just before I paid that 225 pounds, they drafted a nice little list detailing all kinds of money I need to pay,
specifically the rent and the length of the contract (12 months). However, I was only told a few days later, when I went to sign the contract, that the advertised rent is only for the first 6 months and the rent will go up 7.5 pounds for the remaining 6 months. In fact, it is customary here for the rent to go up by (say) 25 pounds every 12 months, so such an increase is not a problem. What I particularly appreciate is this service of not bothering the client with such minor details until the point of signing.
The other point is that they offer you no choice of start date; you just have to start the tenancy on the date that the landlord/agent decided. Once again, this avoids the client the trouble of deciding when to move.
They also offer various fully automated service, e.g. asking me to sign on a completely blank standing order form. On another day I might have done it, but I was not in any good mood that day so I just turned down this nice help.
Here comes the main point which triggers me to write this article. When I viewed the property, which is a "part-furnished" flat, there was a table and some chairs (among other things). I was told that they will stay. Before I paid that 225 pounds of money, they assured me once again that they will stay (while they also specifically mentioned that some other thing will be removed). When I signed the contract and went to the property, the table and chairs have disappeared. I would like to praise their strict adherence to the legal point that you cannot trust anything that was said verbally (in this case, a staff member's assurance that the furniture will stay), but you need to put things in paper.
Actually, we did: like other agents, they drew up a list of inventory. One particular item on the inventory list is "dining table and 4 dining chairs". We signed the inventory list; strangely enough, we did it in the office, not at the property. I believe this is to avoid the client's trouble of going to so many different places. I believe nobody would bother to remove them anyway, so I trusted them and signed. So when I discovered the table and chairs were gone, I phoned them. They requested me, in their kindest possible tone, to go to their office the next day to sort it out.
The next day they sorted the matter out in the simplest way: they just crossed off that item from the inventory list! (see pic below) To try to make me feel better, they gave an explanation that the item was left behind by the previous tenant and had been subsequently picked up by those previous tenants. Unfortunately I'm a bit too stubborn to accept such an explanation as the tenant has clearly left long before I viewed the property. Then they went on to explain that "part furnished" means cooker and fridge only, any other thing there is only left beind by the previous tenant. Being not as intelligent as them, this somewhat confused me further because if that's the case then I'm not sure what's the point of putting so many items on the inventory list. I could only conclude that the agent/landlord are so nice that they decided to remove the items, at their own cost, so as to create more space for me. I have also learned from them that even things put in paper cannot be trusted.
In addition to these specific virtues, the general level of politeness of the staff also helped me learn how to improve my own patience and politeness too.
In conclusion, I really cannot recommend more about this lettings agent to you.
Inventory list. The red rectangle shows the thing that were crossed off after it was signed. (They countersigned it; I didn't.)
Before I say anything further, I must confess that the problems you may notice below, if any at all, are entirely due to my own fault. All other agents I've encountered so far are fairly reasonable, so I was not expecting such a unique experience with this particular one; I was more on the easy-going side and didn't follow rigidly the general principles dealing with lettings. Had I been more firm on those grounds, however, I wouldn't have a chance to experience this. Also, all these only happened after I paid 225 pounds (under various names of holding fee, application fee, etc.), so I was essentially tied to them and cannot change even if I wanted to. I suppose this is how they make sure their clients can receive their full suite of unbelievable services.
You would have assumed that the rent was the same as the one advertised. In fact, just before I paid that 225 pounds, they drafted a nice little list detailing all kinds of money I need to pay,
specifically the rent and the length of the contract (12 months). However, I was only told a few days later, when I went to sign the contract, that the advertised rent is only for the first 6 months and the rent will go up 7.5 pounds for the remaining 6 months. In fact, it is customary here for the rent to go up by (say) 25 pounds every 12 months, so such an increase is not a problem. What I particularly appreciate is this service of not bothering the client with such minor details until the point of signing.
The other point is that they offer you no choice of start date; you just have to start the tenancy on the date that the landlord/agent decided. Once again, this avoids the client the trouble of deciding when to move.
They also offer various fully automated service, e.g. asking me to sign on a completely blank standing order form. On another day I might have done it, but I was not in any good mood that day so I just turned down this nice help.
Here comes the main point which triggers me to write this article. When I viewed the property, which is a "part-furnished" flat, there was a table and some chairs (among other things). I was told that they will stay. Before I paid that 225 pounds of money, they assured me once again that they will stay (while they also specifically mentioned that some other thing will be removed). When I signed the contract and went to the property, the table and chairs have disappeared. I would like to praise their strict adherence to the legal point that you cannot trust anything that was said verbally (in this case, a staff member's assurance that the furniture will stay), but you need to put things in paper.
Actually, we did: like other agents, they drew up a list of inventory. One particular item on the inventory list is "dining table and 4 dining chairs". We signed the inventory list; strangely enough, we did it in the office, not at the property. I believe this is to avoid the client's trouble of going to so many different places. I believe nobody would bother to remove them anyway, so I trusted them and signed. So when I discovered the table and chairs were gone, I phoned them. They requested me, in their kindest possible tone, to go to their office the next day to sort it out.
The next day they sorted the matter out in the simplest way: they just crossed off that item from the inventory list! (see pic below) To try to make me feel better, they gave an explanation that the item was left behind by the previous tenant and had been subsequently picked up by those previous tenants. Unfortunately I'm a bit too stubborn to accept such an explanation as the tenant has clearly left long before I viewed the property. Then they went on to explain that "part furnished" means cooker and fridge only, any other thing there is only left beind by the previous tenant. Being not as intelligent as them, this somewhat confused me further because if that's the case then I'm not sure what's the point of putting so many items on the inventory list. I could only conclude that the agent/landlord are so nice that they decided to remove the items, at their own cost, so as to create more space for me. I have also learned from them that even things put in paper cannot be trusted.
In addition to these specific virtues, the general level of politeness of the staff also helped me learn how to improve my own patience and politeness too.
In conclusion, I really cannot recommend more about this lettings agent to you.
Inventory list. The red rectangle shows the thing that were crossed off after it was signed. (They countersigned it; I didn't.)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Moving house again, part 2
Another one I viewed (call it Flat B) turns out to be what I have to stick with unwillingly in the next 12 months. The strange thing about it is that it is exactly opposite to my first flat here (that's the one with bees, if you remember); see the map:
So it means I moved down the road, and after 18 months move back up to the same point again.
I don't really like the location - close to university but a bit too far from city center, and also a bit too quiet - but I told myself, if I could survive the first one for 18 months then I surely can survive this one for another 12 months? I think everything is so-so but acceptable, and since there are no other alternatives, I decided to go for it and paid some money.
The next day I viewed another property at the city center (yes, I decided to go for B already, but viewing doesn't cost money...). Let's call this one Flat C. This one is also nice, though not as good as Flat A. More importantly it is at the same price as Flat B; it is at a better location, newer, but unfurnished. If I have not put money into B, I would definitely go for C.
It turns out that maybe it's actually better to give away the deposit - partly my mistake and partly due to the agent...
So it means I moved down the road, and after 18 months move back up to the same point again.
I don't really like the location - close to university but a bit too far from city center, and also a bit too quiet - but I told myself, if I could survive the first one for 18 months then I surely can survive this one for another 12 months? I think everything is so-so but acceptable, and since there are no other alternatives, I decided to go for it and paid some money.
The next day I viewed another property at the city center (yes, I decided to go for B already, but viewing doesn't cost money...). Let's call this one Flat C. This one is also nice, though not as good as Flat A. More importantly it is at the same price as Flat B; it is at a better location, newer, but unfurnished. If I have not put money into B, I would definitely go for C.
It turns out that maybe it's actually better to give away the deposit - partly my mistake and partly due to the agent...
Moving house again, part 1
I'm not dead just yet, although not posted for a long time. After spending months writing something which I myself don't believe in, I have to immediately start a process of finding accommodation. It looks like I have to move house every 18 months (although I really hope the next one will be shorter than 18 months - it will become clear in the next posts), this time because the landlord wants to repossess the property.
Before I go on about how bad this flat-hunting process turned out, I should say that I like the current one very much - it is in a very convenient location, within walking distance to everything, and I find out that I like living in a noisy city center area much more than some more "rural" ones. (It can be quite scary that at night, when you look out of the window, all you see are some trees and shadows waving. Also, I seem to enjoy watching pedestrians, and the current flat has a great view on a busy point in the street. Shops in city center also close as "late" as 8pm, which is more convenient.) Thus, despite some minor problems (like fire alarm ringing at any time it likes, some idiots on the street playing with your intercom, and a bright orange colour scheme in the bathroom), I would be very happy to stay longer if possible.
The city center "regeneration" has created a whole lot of very nice flats, but for one reason or the other I always missed them. One flat that I viewed (let's call it Flat A) is in city center, has very very new furnishing and I like it very much. Except that the price is expensive. After several other viewing disappointments, I think maybe it's time I pay a bit more, and want to commit to it. Only when I actually go to their office and do the application do they try all sorts of tricks to squeeze more money out from me; I refused, and thus no deal.
As you will soon find out from my other posts, other agents are equally bad, or worse...
Before I go on about how bad this flat-hunting process turned out, I should say that I like the current one very much - it is in a very convenient location, within walking distance to everything, and I find out that I like living in a noisy city center area much more than some more "rural" ones. (It can be quite scary that at night, when you look out of the window, all you see are some trees and shadows waving. Also, I seem to enjoy watching pedestrians, and the current flat has a great view on a busy point in the street. Shops in city center also close as "late" as 8pm, which is more convenient.) Thus, despite some minor problems (like fire alarm ringing at any time it likes, some idiots on the street playing with your intercom, and a bright orange colour scheme in the bathroom), I would be very happy to stay longer if possible.
The city center "regeneration" has created a whole lot of very nice flats, but for one reason or the other I always missed them. One flat that I viewed (let's call it Flat A) is in city center, has very very new furnishing and I like it very much. Except that the price is expensive. After several other viewing disappointments, I think maybe it's time I pay a bit more, and want to commit to it. Only when I actually go to their office and do the application do they try all sorts of tricks to squeeze more money out from me; I refused, and thus no deal.
As you will soon find out from my other posts, other agents are equally bad, or worse...
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
垃圾會08
由於今年本人沒投票的分兒，所以在此嘈幾句算了... 本 blog 讀者(如有的話)大概早知本人立場。無他，那XX黨是惡霸，自然要支持其對家了...
(1) 獨立之謎
何解這麼多人這麼容易就幾乎可以當選？只要你自稱「獨立」，加上是「名人」就行，尤以此兩人為甚：
勞永樂 - 因廿三條事件被醫學界選民唾棄而未能成功連任醫學界議席，之後忽然化身民主鬥士，無間道得很...
龐愛蘭 - 此人更無厘頭，睜著眼講大話說自己獨立也有這麼高支持度...
(2) 唔做野之謎
長毛之類經常被指「唔做野」。我真不明白怎樣才算是「做野」。 抬棺材是「搞事」，議案投反對票也是「搞事」。我只希望議員們能夠：
You don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no! You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away!
正因為大部分人都不敢 make a stand (包括我，連XX黨大名也不敢說啊)，才更需要選這些人出來代替我們「搞事」...
(The link should make no sense to most people, so don't click it.)
(3) 我只想拜託各位新界東選民，不要投劉江華，唔該...
(4) 順便一貼:
其實觀眾無錯啊，那 proposition 是「我地唔係咁蠢 」，主持問是否同意，那當然是「係」嘛...
(1) 獨立之謎
何解這麼多人這麼容易就幾乎可以當選？只要你自稱「獨立」，加上是「名人」就行，尤以此兩人為甚：
勞永樂 - 因廿三條事件被醫學界選民唾棄而未能成功連任醫學界議席，之後忽然化身民主鬥士，無間道得很...
龐愛蘭 - 此人更無厘頭，睜著眼講大話說自己獨立也有這麼高支持度...
(2) 唔做野之謎
長毛之類經常被指「唔做野」。我真不明白怎樣才算是「做野」。 抬棺材是「搞事」，議案投反對票也是「搞事」。我只希望議員們能夠：
You don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no! You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away!
正因為大部分人都不敢 make a stand (包括我，連XX黨大名也不敢說啊)，才更需要選這些人出來代替我們「搞事」...
(The link should make no sense to most people, so don't click it.)
(3) 我只想拜託各位新界東選民，不要投劉江華，唔該...
(4) 順便一貼:
鏡 頭 一 轉 ， 民 建 聯 譚 耀 宗 、 張 學 明 等 人 在 台 上 扮 八 仙 演 話 劇 嘲 諷 有 人 想 分 裂 中 國 ， 主 持 搞 gag 問 ： 「 我 地 唔 係 咁 蠢 ， 係 唔 係 ？ 」 台 下 高 呼 「 係 ！ 」 主 持 忙 糾 正 「 唔 係 」 。 蔡 素 玉 是 片 中 女 主 角 ， 蔡 菜 子 對 婦 女 選 民 堅 稱 ， 今 個 選 舉 是 場 「 奪 權 與 非 奪 權 之 戰 」 ， 民 主 派 一 旦 取 得 優 勢 ， 香 港 的 政 局 會 不 穩 、 國 際 評 級 會 下 降 、 股 票 會 跌 、 失 業 率 升 … … 選 舉 論 壇 是 戲 肉 ， 當 年 大 家 力 爭 2007/2008 年 雙 普 選 ， 蔡 菜 子 咄 咄 迫 問 民 主 派 的 余 若 薇 ： 「 如 果 2012 有 普 選 你 地 支 唔 支 持 ？ 」 今 天 ， 民 建 聯 支 持 的 是 2017/2020 年 雙 普 選 。
(apple 3/9/2008)
其實觀眾無錯啊，那 proposition 是「我地唔係咁蠢 」，主持問是否同意，那當然是「係」嘛...
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
degree inflation
I think I should keep my mouth shut, so here are just some links:
Watchdog: degree grades arbitrary
Email leak of degree inflation
Or maybe I could say just a little...
The one reason that I've seen to support the current degree classification instead of GPA is: "students' effort and qualities cannot be represented by a single number". Well, if it cannot be represented by a number then why can it be represented by a even more meaningless label such as "upper second"? (Those labels remind me of the credit crunch crisis: there are only two quality levels for mortgages, prime and sub-prime. They may sound like "very good" and "not as good", but actually they mean "acceptable" and "rubbish".)
If it cannot be represented by a single number then give me an array of numbers then. As someone involved in admissions, I like neither GPA nor degree grades. Just give me all the marks and the average.
As for "arbitrary grades", the following is a purely hypothetical situation:
Watchdog: degree grades arbitrary
Email leak of degree inflation
Or maybe I could say just a little...
The one reason that I've seen to support the current degree classification instead of GPA is: "students' effort and qualities cannot be represented by a single number". Well, if it cannot be represented by a number then why can it be represented by a even more meaningless label such as "upper second"? (Those labels remind me of the credit crunch crisis: there are only two quality levels for mortgages, prime and sub-prime. They may sound like "very good" and "not as good", but actually they mean "acceptable" and "rubbish".)
If it cannot be represented by a single number then give me an array of numbers then. As someone involved in admissions, I like neither GPA nor degree grades. Just give me all the marks and the average.
As for "arbitrary grades", the following is a purely hypothetical situation:
[1 hour 45 minutes into a meeting]Of course, it certainly isn't like this in reality, is it?
A: Now we have a Mr. X who got this set of marks, which is just a bit below 2-1 degree, should we consider putting him to 2-1?
B: But according to our regulations, rule 37.1.2(a)(iii) says he needs at least N marks in M subjects in order to be considered as a borderline case.
A: Yes but if we raise this mark by 0.5 then his marks satisfy the condition in rule 4.69.12(f)(iv), after we execute this rule then his marks satisfy rule 15.1.2(b)(ii), after executing this rule then his marks satisfy rule 37.1.2(a)(iii) which means he can get a 2-1!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A trivial algorithm
I seldom talk about my research here. First, there's not much (...); and second, most of them are on very simple (a.k.a. "fundamental") problems. Recently, we have a paper where the "main" result is so simple that some of the reviewers' comments were:
So here is the problem. A set of equal-length intervals arrive online. Each interval carries a weight. The objective is to choose a set of non-overlapping intervals in an online manner such that the total weight of the chosen intervals is maximized. An interval can be discarded (preempted) in favour of another newly-arriving interval.
A deterministic 4-competitive algorithm is known and is optimal (Woeginger, TCS, 1994). The question is: give a better randomized algorithm.
Our trivial algorithm is 2-competitive. Since it is so trivial I'll not describe it here but leave it for you to imagine. Either people do not care about the problem (except this, this and this) or people have come up with this many times and didn't bother to write about it...
- simple to the point of triviality
- The new algorithm is almost trivial. It can be seen as a "real" result only due to the fact that several researchers tried to design improved algorithms in the past but did not succeed.
So here is the problem. A set of equal-length intervals arrive online. Each interval carries a weight. The objective is to choose a set of non-overlapping intervals in an online manner such that the total weight of the chosen intervals is maximized. An interval can be discarded (preempted) in favour of another newly-arriving interval.
A deterministic 4-competitive algorithm is known and is optimal (Woeginger, TCS, 1994). The question is: give a better randomized algorithm.
Our trivial algorithm is 2-competitive. Since it is so trivial I'll not describe it here but leave it for you to imagine. Either people do not care about the problem (except this, this and this) or people have come up with this many times and didn't bother to write about it...
Friday, August 08, 2008
cosplay @ leicester...
我仲以為香港先有「動漫節」呢味嘢, 點知今日係學校出現大批 cosplay 人物... 原來本校歷年嚟都主辦呢項「盛事」, 仲要係全UK最大 (第二樣又唔見咁叻...), 只係通常每年呢個時候我都唔係到, 所以先唔知. 我一行入 canteen, 見到一大班鬼仔鬼妹係到扮架仔架妹, 感覺很 surreal...
Thursday, August 07, 2008
What should I post?
I originally hoped that this blog can contain posts on a variety of topics - academia, politics, fun, teaching or even research. Over time however it becomes more or less a place of complaining about my miserable life, mostly about travelling. I hope to change this, and to make sure I do, here is a list of topics that I will post in the near future:
- how algorithms teaching went here
- project supervision and project reports
- politics: upcoming Legco'08 election
I'm not so sure how I can write about the teaching thing though, since there are many things like this that I can write but I don't want to get fired just yet.
Also, in order to update this blog more frequently without putting in any content myself, i would just quote other people's stuff that I've come across.
Here is today's quote:
- how algorithms teaching went here
- project supervision and project reports
- politics: upcoming Legco'08 election
I'm not so sure how I can write about the teaching thing though, since there are many things like this that I can write but I don't want to get fired just yet.
Also, in order to update this blog more frequently without putting in any content myself, i would just quote other people's stuff that I've come across.
Here is today's quote:
曾遭少女記者責備：「說什麼『行將就木』，誰聽得明？快死了就說快死了，行將就木，說了就學問很好麼？」
(倪匡, apple daily 07/08/2008)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Another flight delay experience, part 2
Next day:
09:30 This was when the coach was supposed to depart but it didn't until 09:50. Didn't matter anyway since there's absolutely no reason to go back to the airport so early anyway when the flight is rescheduled to depart on 13:15.
And to add to the potential trouble, the airline was scheduled to move to T1 on this exact date. Who knows what more trouble lies ahead of us...
10:00 You cannot believe how quick the re-check-in is. Apparently they have called in every single staff member available.
10:15 Then after security etc. at T1, we have to wait another several hours. As this is Heathrow, they won't tell you which gate it is until the last minute. In this case the electronic board sayid"gate opens 11:45".
There were a few laptop-friendly places in the waiting area - and when I plug mine in, nothing happened, and I was fearing the worse that the same adapter/fuse problem from last year happened again... Fortunately, everyone else failed, and it was just that the sockets actually gave no electricity...
11:45 The electronic board will usually only show two things: "Go to gate N"; or "Gate opens xx:yy". But at 11:45, our flight showed... "Please wait". Which can mean only one thing - delay...
12:40 They finally told us which gate it was.
13:15 Supposed take-off time and we were just beginning boarding.
13:25 Everyone was given a box of chocolates when boarding.
14:05 Plane finally started to move. A crew threw his fist to the air and shouted "yeah!". Come on, calm down, it is still on the ground...
14:40 Finally, the plane took off. Last night's hotel was just next to the runway!
Overall, my feeling is that they do all superficial things very well, like grabbing every single staff to stand around just to say good morning, and give you chocolates, etc. But they are extremely inefficient in actually sorting things out, and tried to cover up the true scale of the engineering problem until the very end.
Update: actually, I just realized my disaster in 2003 also happened in July...
09:30 This was when the coach was supposed to depart but it didn't until 09:50. Didn't matter anyway since there's absolutely no reason to go back to the airport so early anyway when the flight is rescheduled to depart on 13:15.
And to add to the potential trouble, the airline was scheduled to move to T1 on this exact date. Who knows what more trouble lies ahead of us...
10:00 You cannot believe how quick the re-check-in is. Apparently they have called in every single staff member available.
10:15 Then after security etc. at T1, we have to wait another several hours. As this is Heathrow, they won't tell you which gate it is until the last minute. In this case the electronic board sayid"gate opens 11:45".
There were a few laptop-friendly places in the waiting area - and when I plug mine in, nothing happened, and I was fearing the worse that the same adapter/fuse problem from last year happened again... Fortunately, everyone else failed, and it was just that the sockets actually gave no electricity...
11:45 The electronic board will usually only show two things: "Go to gate N"; or "Gate opens xx:yy". But at 11:45, our flight showed... "Please wait". Which can mean only one thing - delay...
12:40 They finally told us which gate it was.
13:15 Supposed take-off time and we were just beginning boarding.
13:25 Everyone was given a box of chocolates when boarding.
14:05 Plane finally started to move. A crew threw his fist to the air and shouted "yeah!". Come on, calm down, it is still on the ground...
14:40 Finally, the plane took off. Last night's hotel was just next to the runway!
Overall, my feeling is that they do all superficial things very well, like grabbing every single staff to stand around just to say good morning, and give you chocolates, etc. But they are extremely inefficient in actually sorting things out, and tried to cover up the true scale of the engineering problem until the very end.
Update: actually, I just realized my disaster in 2003 also happened in July...
Another flight delay experience, part 1
Perhaps I should have learnt not to fly in July. You may wish to look back my last year's experience first to refresh your memory before proceeding. This time I was flying to HK on a direct flight on Air New Zealand. And this is what happened. (All times approximate - just guessing from impression)
19:30 Arrived at airport, after a rather slow and confusing tube journey. As you may know, the same train platform can serve trains going to different destinations. As it turns out, the sign at the front of the train, the elctronic board at the platform, and the voice announcement inside the train, told me three different places.
I think I actually have never been to T3, and (perhaps due to some operations moved to T5) it seemed surprisingly refreshing. The check-in queue was almost non-existent and I was through within a minute!
21:05 Scheduled take-off time. Boarding was fairly normal and everyone was on-board.
21:40 After idling for 40 minutes or so, the captain finally spoke of some sort of "engineering problem", and said they were working on it.
21:50 Then they admitted we had to get off the plane first, but said we can get back "soon". I didn't believe it. We went back to the gate.
22:10 After even more delay, it was finally admitted that the flight had to be delayed until the next day. There was a fuel line problem and they had to wait for another plane to arrive on the next day. It was then announced that we will be given hotel accommodation; as you may have expected, there were some cheering from HK guys...
22:30 We were patiently waiting for the "logistics" arrangements, when they made an "unusual" decision. They realized it was too late in night, it wasn't possible for the hotel to provide meals... but wait, isn't the in-flight meal already here, huh? Brilliant, just ask all the passengers to re-board the plane to take the dinner!
22:45 I was eagerly waiting for having an in-flight meal on ground for the first time, when they made yet another disappointing decision that, at the end, they decided against that idea. But there was no other arrangements - we were supposed to be kept hungry until the next day. So we left the airport. First, we need to go through immigration without actually flying. Long queue as usual. And I wasn't sure what to write on the landing card... I mean, "departure port"?
I wrote "Heathrow"... and the arrival plane number... er did I arrive by any plane?
23:10 Next it was to collect baggage, without flying that is. The trouble didn't stop here - the conveyor belt didn't work, and we just walked around the belt full of luggage already scattered around (for some reason). Only after another 15 minutes they said they are getting "another engineer" to fix it. I didn't think it needed any fix - it just took someone to turn it on...
23:30 Finally we got the luggage...
00:15 ...and it took another hour or so standing in the street to wait for the coach.
00:20 It just took a few minutes to arrive at the hotel. But then had to wait another hour for checkin... At least this time round we were not standing outside in the street at 30 degrees Celsius in bright sunlight...
01:00 Finally found myself inside the hotel room.
...
19:30 Arrived at airport, after a rather slow and confusing tube journey. As you may know, the same train platform can serve trains going to different destinations. As it turns out, the sign at the front of the train, the elctronic board at the platform, and the voice announcement inside the train, told me three different places.
I think I actually have never been to T3, and (perhaps due to some operations moved to T5) it seemed surprisingly refreshing. The check-in queue was almost non-existent and I was through within a minute!
21:05 Scheduled take-off time. Boarding was fairly normal and everyone was on-board.
21:40 After idling for 40 minutes or so, the captain finally spoke of some sort of "engineering problem", and said they were working on it.
21:50 Then they admitted we had to get off the plane first, but said we can get back "soon". I didn't believe it. We went back to the gate.
22:10 After even more delay, it was finally admitted that the flight had to be delayed until the next day. There was a fuel line problem and they had to wait for another plane to arrive on the next day. It was then announced that we will be given hotel accommodation; as you may have expected, there were some cheering from HK guys...
22:30 We were patiently waiting for the "logistics" arrangements, when they made an "unusual" decision. They realized it was too late in night, it wasn't possible for the hotel to provide meals... but wait, isn't the in-flight meal already here, huh? Brilliant, just ask all the passengers to re-board the plane to take the dinner!
22:45 I was eagerly waiting for having an in-flight meal on ground for the first time, when they made yet another disappointing decision that, at the end, they decided against that idea. But there was no other arrangements - we were supposed to be kept hungry until the next day. So we left the airport. First, we need to go through immigration without actually flying. Long queue as usual. And I wasn't sure what to write on the landing card... I mean, "departure port"?
I wrote "Heathrow"... and the arrival plane number... er did I arrive by any plane?
23:10 Next it was to collect baggage, without flying that is. The trouble didn't stop here - the conveyor belt didn't work, and we just walked around the belt full of luggage already scattered around (for some reason). Only after another 15 minutes they said they are getting "another engineer" to fix it. I didn't think it needed any fix - it just took someone to turn it on...
23:30 Finally we got the luggage...
00:15 ...and it took another hour or so standing in the street to wait for the coach.
00:20 It just took a few minutes to arrive at the hotel. But then had to wait another hour for checkin... At least this time round we were not standing outside in the street at 30 degrees Celsius in bright sunlight...
01:00 Finally found myself inside the hotel room.
...
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Euro'08
Ok, so Euro'08 ended. I'm fairly happy to see Spain win, although I don't really care who wins as long as it is not Portugal or Italy. I feel that these two teams are just full of divers and liars, cheating their way through in recent competitions. So it is good to see them being knocked out in the last 8.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The French coach
Euro'08 isn't over yet, but this is bound to be one of the funniest thing. Clearly there is some problem with the French coach, not just the person but also the vehicle:
Friday, June 06, 2008
Legoland windsor
During the week 19th - 25th May (yes it's well past but I only have time to write about it now...) I've been to 5 cities (towns?) in 7 days. That's probably more than what I did in the past 7 months before it. But for various reasons I'm not going to describe all of that here, but only talk about Legoland at Windsor.
You would have thought that, as a Lego fan, I would have been to there long before. No, because there isn't actually much lego there and most of the stuff are quite silly and is targeted at small children. I mean can you imagine yourself going there alone, and stand in a queue with lots of 3-year-olds... Also the money could rather be spent on buying some half-decent sets. But this time round, we went together so it may look a bit less silly...
It turns out that this must be low season, with very little people and no queue anywhere. We finished rather quickly and didn't actually do much. What happened include: (1) seeing real ducks swimming leisurely in the rivers in Miniland; (2) unknowingly got on a roller coaster; (3) repeatedly taking a rather boring "train".
I'm a bit disappointed with the "big shop", it's not that big after all, and I was expecting to get hold of (literally; just grab it on hands, not buying...) some exclusive ultra-expensive sets, which there didn't seem to be any.
Elsewhere on the same day I had some fun with some other animals, including a cat which seem enjoy scratching its head with my jeans, and geese (or whatever water-birds they are) with me blocking their path...
You would have thought that, as a Lego fan, I would have been to there long before. No, because there isn't actually much lego there and most of the stuff are quite silly and is targeted at small children. I mean can you imagine yourself going there alone, and stand in a queue with lots of 3-year-olds... Also the money could rather be spent on buying some half-decent sets. But this time round, we went together so it may look a bit less silly...
It turns out that this must be low season, with very little people and no queue anywhere. We finished rather quickly and didn't actually do much. What happened include: (1) seeing real ducks swimming leisurely in the rivers in Miniland; (2) unknowingly got on a roller coaster; (3) repeatedly taking a rather boring "train".
I'm a bit disappointed with the "big shop", it's not that big after all, and I was expecting to get hold of (literally; just grab it on hands, not buying...) some exclusive ultra-expensive sets, which there didn't seem to be any.
Elsewhere on the same day I had some fun with some other animals, including a cat which seem enjoy scratching its head with my jeans, and geese (or whatever water-birds they are) with me blocking their path...
Sunday, May 04, 2008
A fully deserved relegation
According to Wikipedia, Leicester City is among a small number of clubs (with all others being big names) to have never played outside of the top two tiers in English football. This ends today when they are relegated to League One. A fully deserved result, sadly to say. I said previously how bad the performance on pitch was. When you look at the management it is even more ridiculous.
In early 2007 someone bought the club. You would expect him to spend lots of money to bring the club to Premier League, huh? He might have spent some money but I didn't notice him doing anything other than firing managers, and getting worse and worse ones. In 2007 alone there are 7 different managers including caretakers. I wonder whether he really knows what he is doing.
The latest manager is little better than a clown. He appears to have little or no footballing sense. Every time he appeared on TV or quoted or newspapers/websites, he said things like "think positive", "needs fans support" etc as if talking or cheering up can win you a match.
He is still in the manager position only because there were already too many managers fired, or maybe because no one want to pick up such a job.
Now that relegation is confirmed, may someone fire him? And if the owner is not interested, perhaps he can quit too?
In early 2007 someone bought the club. You would expect him to spend lots of money to bring the club to Premier League, huh? He might have spent some money but I didn't notice him doing anything other than firing managers, and getting worse and worse ones. In 2007 alone there are 7 different managers including caretakers. I wonder whether he really knows what he is doing.
The latest manager is little better than a clown. He appears to have little or no footballing sense. Every time he appeared on TV or quoted or newspapers/websites, he said things like "think positive", "needs fans support" etc as if talking or cheering up can win you a match.
He is still in the manager position only because there were already too many managers fired, or maybe because no one want to pick up such a job.
Now that relegation is confirmed, may someone fire him? And if the owner is not interested, perhaps he can quit too?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
World Snooker Championship Ding v Fu
This Tuesday I was at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield to watch the first round match of Ding Junhui vs. Marco Fu. The match was best out of 19 frames played over two sessions, and I was only in the morning session (you never know when the evening session will finish - well past midnight is not unusual, and you don't even know how many frames is going to be played. Moreover my only purpose of the trip is that now I can claim that I've been there.)
I have to get up rather early to go there by train. I just don't know who invented the complex UK train ticket pricing system. Not only two single tickets can be much cheaper than a return ticket, but also it can be much cheaper if you find some intermediate stops and buy two tickets separately (even though, in my case, the more expensive "single" ticket automatically produced by the system involved exactly the same station changes and same trains). Maybe next year I will set an algorithms exam question on that.
The match venue. It wasn't quite full, although it has rather few seats. In fact there's already more people than I expected. I mean who bother watching two Chinese players in a first round match on a Tuesday morning? I was allocated a seat at the "top of the mountain" at the corner. It isn't that bad, since (1) the top is only the 15th row anyway, (2) that gave me better legroom (yeah you have to sit there and keep quiet for time longer than many flights), (3) I can see both tables, and (4) I probably wasn't caught on camera.
The referee was Michaela Tabb, popular among fans for reasons I better not elaborate here. Fu didn't start too well, and went from bad to worse, trailing 1-5 at a point. But then all of a sudden he got 3 consecutive frames with two centuries. So it was 4-5 at the end of the session. For some reasons the British fans there (at least the few beside me) seem to be quite supportive of Fu.
At the evening Fu finally lost 9-10, but that's not too bad and it looks like he can get to top 16 next year.
I have to get up rather early to go there by train. I just don't know who invented the complex UK train ticket pricing system. Not only two single tickets can be much cheaper than a return ticket, but also it can be much cheaper if you find some intermediate stops and buy two tickets separately (even though, in my case, the more expensive "single" ticket automatically produced by the system involved exactly the same station changes and same trains). Maybe next year I will set an algorithms exam question on that.
The match venue. It wasn't quite full, although it has rather few seats. In fact there's already more people than I expected. I mean who bother watching two Chinese players in a first round match on a Tuesday morning? I was allocated a seat at the "top of the mountain" at the corner. It isn't that bad, since (1) the top is only the 15th row anyway, (2) that gave me better legroom (yeah you have to sit there and keep quiet for time longer than many flights), (3) I can see both tables, and (4) I probably wasn't caught on camera.
The referee was Michaela Tabb, popular among fans for reasons I better not elaborate here. Fu didn't start too well, and went from bad to worse, trailing 1-5 at a point. But then all of a sudden he got 3 consecutive frames with two centuries. So it was 4-5 at the end of the session. For some reasons the British fans there (at least the few beside me) seem to be quite supportive of Fu.
At the evening Fu finally lost 9-10, but that's not too bad and it looks like he can get to top 16 next year.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Oasis airline
我由一開始就覺得這間公司很「奇怪」。I ｍｅａｎ，牧師開航空公司？起初也不敢搭，後來見沒有墜機，又沒有倒閉，正想一試，就在事發前一日，我剛在其網站找便宜機票，正想付錢，怎知網站卻「正在維修」．．．當時我還媽媽聲，原來逃過一劫．．．要是早了一天, 便已成為苦主了．．．
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Leicester 0-2 Hull
I have never watched a football match for this city's team before, but I did it today, because (1) it is a holiday, (2) they are doing a promotion with cheap tickets, and (3) I don't like to watch championship matches but maybe next year it will be at an even lower level... So anyway I went, without knowing a single player.
The performance was, simply, awful. The other side wasn't playing very well anyway but ours was just plain bad. It looked more like a volleyball match; the ball was almost always in the air. Alright, this is "English football", but then they couldn't get their headers right - just standing there waiting for the ball to drop onto their heads when the opponents jump and get the ball. On the few occasions when the ball actually get passed on the ground, it was passed directly to the opponent's feet; almost every pass went wrong. I don't remember when's the last time I watched a match as bad as this for a full 90 minutes.
There are maybe two good players, including the goalkeeper which made brilliant saves including a penalty. Without him it would easily have been 0-4. But the rest is poor, the midfield almost invisible and I don't seem to remember any non-trivial shots on target at all. No wonder they are struggling against relegation. Just can't understand how this team can beat WBA 4-1 and Watford also 4-1...
The performance was, simply, awful. The other side wasn't playing very well anyway but ours was just plain bad. It looked more like a volleyball match; the ball was almost always in the air. Alright, this is "English football", but then they couldn't get their headers right - just standing there waiting for the ball to drop onto their heads when the opponents jump and get the ball. On the few occasions when the ball actually get passed on the ground, it was passed directly to the opponent's feet; almost every pass went wrong. I don't remember when's the last time I watched a match as bad as this for a full 90 minutes.
There are maybe two good players, including the goalkeeper which made brilliant saves including a penalty. Without him it would easily have been 0-4. But the rest is poor, the midfield almost invisible and I don't seem to remember any non-trivial shots on target at all. No wonder they are struggling against relegation. Just can't understand how this team can beat WBA 4-1 and Watford also 4-1...
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Earthquake?!
It was near 1am in the morning, and I was on the bed and would have fallen asleep any second if not for that. Then there's some strange noise and my bed was shaking. Given that just one day before that was a burglar upstairs, I thought, "again?", but it didn't feel like so. The shaking was quite horizontal, and after going on for a few more seconds, I still had no idea what happened. I sat up (still on the bed), then it got quiet. I didn't bother to get up and look outside - everywhere was very quiet, unusually quiet that is. I then just tried to go back to sleep. Only after a few minutes I started to wonder, "Could it be an earthquake? But this is UK right, how can there be an earthquake?" It's only until the next morning that I knew it is an earthquake.
This is my first experience of an earthquake (that I can feel). Rather "interesting", actually (if no harm or damage is made)...
This is my first experience of an earthquake (that I can feel). Rather "interesting", actually (if no harm or damage is made)...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
哦，你這是學歷歧視！
周融:
「我唔可以畀一歧視呢拼搏精神 人得逞，所以而家我站起來，話畀大家聽，我今日正式通知獵頭公司，我申請做 廣播處長呢個職位！至於我得唔得，無 關係！因為我只要證明一樣，一個無大學學位的人如果肯去申請，敢去申請的話，證明一樣，就係呢個世界唔係學歷歧視，唔係話拼搏的人畀人藐視、畀人歧 視、畀人侮辱。雖然概念略有不同, 不過我一見到呢單新聞就諗起N年前李天命已講過:
(明眼人一睇就知道係移花接木嘅疑似星島日報報道)
... 要是他們拒絕 我們的申請，我們就質問：「為什麼不請我？」他們說：「你沒有合資格的學歷。」我們抗議：「哦，你這是學歷歧視！」（眾笑）他們回應：「我們不 是歧視你，因為聘請條件上已經列明了這些標準。」我們反駁：「這並不證明你沒有歧視，你的聘請廣告本身就有歧視，那是學歷歧視，排斥沒有學歷的人，剝奪了 他們的『平等機會』呀！」
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Intergalactic Customer Survey
Companies in a certain part of the universe run a survey called "Intergalactic Customer Survey". The suvey is completed by current customers, and this forms part of the input to the "league tables", and this is very important for the companies because future customers choose companies based on their position in the league tables. Well, they are not actually companies and customers in an ideal world, but effectively they are now.
Interestingly, it is to the advantage of the current customers doing the survey to make the score as high as possible, since this also affects their own reputation: "I joined such a good company!". However, customers in a certain department of a certain company do not seem to realize the importance of this "positive feedback loop" as much as other customers, and the department feels they should give some "incentive" to the customers: proteins, carbohydrates, and cardon dioxide.
It remains to be seen whether this is effective...
Interestingly, it is to the advantage of the current customers doing the survey to make the score as high as possible, since this also affects their own reputation: "I joined such a good company!". However, customers in a certain department of a certain company do not seem to realize the importance of this "positive feedback loop" as much as other customers, and the department feels they should give some "incentive" to the customers: proteins, carbohydrates, and cardon dioxide.
It remains to be seen whether this is effective...
Sunday, February 03, 2008
法律面前...
死啦，我而家好驚... 我駛唔駛返香港自首呢？如果唔係國際刑警黎拉我個喎... 我又係窮人，今次實要... (話時話，創作「法律面前，窮人含x」嗰位仁兄真係創意十足，言簡意賅)
實不相瞞，本人電腦內有大量相片。至於係唔係淫穢不雅呢... 這個也不大重要了，反正警察拉人之前也不會先揾淫審處評級。況且啊「有志者特警成」口講的就係法律，點知佢聽日又有乜野新法律?
認真，我覺得呢個政府經常借啲意企圖加強控制互聯網，以達致「中港融合」... 香港人必須時刻警惕...
實不相瞞，本人電腦內有大量相片。至於係唔係淫穢不雅呢... 這個也不大重要了，反正警察拉人之前也不會先揾淫審處評級。況且啊「有志者特警成」口講的就係法律，點知佢聽日又有乜野新法律?
認真，我覺得呢個政府經常借啲意企圖加強控制互聯網，以達致「中港融合」... 香港人必須時刻警惕...
Friday, January 18, 2008
First post 2008
So, haven't blogged for a very long time. Perhaps it might be a better idea to blog less frequently but to write something more meaningful every time. Maybe not this one though.
As the first post of 2008, I will try to turn complaints to some "positive thinking". Coming back to UK again (yes I've been to HK once again), at least I wasn't on the flight which crash-landed at Heathrow, so it's not bad. Even though it was delayed by a full hour for another reason. This almost made the pre-bought train tickets becoming useless, except that, rather miraculously, my luggage was one of the first few to come out. This by itself was not good enough, and so for the first time I got on the Heathrow Express to catch the train. Paying for that may be better than to pay for an almost arbitrary fare of a train ticket. And when I was back home, the light bulbs all worked properly!
As the first post of 2008, I will try to turn complaints to some "positive thinking". Coming back to UK again (yes I've been to HK once again), at least I wasn't on the flight which crash-landed at Heathrow, so it's not bad. Even though it was delayed by a full hour for another reason. This almost made the pre-bought train tickets becoming useless, except that, rather miraculously, my luggage was one of the first few to come out. This by itself was not good enough, and so for the first time I got on the Heathrow Express to catch the train. Paying for that may be better than to pay for an almost arbitrary fare of a train ticket. And when I was back home, the light bulbs all worked properly!
Friday, December 14, 2007
witnessing a new record
According to this, I have just witnessed the longest-ever frame of snooker on TV last night by Marco Fu and Mark Selby (btw... this Mark Selby is from Leicester). My god, it is almost as long as a football match. Unlike some other very long frames which are very scrappy and boring, this one is actually of a very high quality and requires a lot of mental strength, just to watch it...
Friday, November 23, 2007
There can be no excuses
"There can be no excuses", said McClaren for so many times. Indeed, someone else threw such a lifeline at you and if you still lose, you can't blame anyone else. I don't know where to start writing about all these; in fact I am usually reluctant to write too much since it often appears that what can be said have already been said, in a better way. But since they won't play for quite a while, here is still something.
Formation. 4-5-1? (or 4-3-3, it doesn't matter) It has been proved so many times that England can only play 4-4-2. If someone is injured, just replace with someone else of the same position; don't mess with the formation to squeeze your star players in. But we all know this is exactly the thing that McClaren (and Eriksson) does. Comes to my mind again is the old joke that if McClaren has 11 star goalkeepers then he will put 11 goalkeepers in the starting lineup. (Or maybe this is a good idea, just for this match...)
Starting lineup. I actually think using SWP and putting Beckham on the bench is the right thing. Not too many people dare to recall Beckham just to put him on the bench. I think he is good enough as a substitute but perhaps not good enough to start.
Then the match started, and McClaren was holding an umbrella. At that moment, I knew it certainly isn't right, but I couldn't put it in words, until newspapers and others have now done. He isn't even prepared to get his hair wet? Afraid that fans throw objects at him?
After 7 or 8 minutes we have this, Scott Carson. You can't really blame him too much, he is so inexperienced, and it is this McClaren who put him out all of a sudden. I agree we should let go of Robinson, much earlier in fact, but I think James is a better choice. At least, he is used to these embarassing errors and will not be too shakened by them. Carson on the other hand is visibly shakened for the entire first half.
Wayne Bridge. No words are enough to describe how awful that is. Keep attacker onside for the second goal. Slow, slow, slow. Numerous errors. The other defenders ain't too much better either.
Tactics, if there is any. Peter Crouch alone up front, with everyone aiming the ball at his head. Again, it has been proven so many times that it does not work. It looks like nobody noticed he has two feet. Using Crouch is not that bad an idea, despite he is constantly being criticized. Alright, he is not a world-class striker - he will probably never be - but he can do something different. (Like bending the body and strike at unusual angles...) That is, as long as you pass the ball on the pitch. The next thing that happens after someone kicks the ball high up the air to his head is that they lose possession. You can blame the pitch, but Croatia is playing at the same pitch and they are passing the ball around.
The half-time substitutions are understandable - not much else he could do by that time.
Then somehow, they cheated a very soft penalty. The slightest shirt pull and Defoe fell down dramatically. Anyway, now back in the game, huh?
Next the Beckham-Crouch goal; this is more like it. I told you before, Peter Crouch has two feet. (And the ball is towards his chest, not his head.) Everyone says "see, Beckham is so important". Ok, you're right, but only because the other midfielders are so underperformed. Gerrard for example has been performing rather poorly for quite a while.
Then you lose one more goal, and then here comes Darren Bent. At that point there were completely no tactics - how are the three forwards supposed to do? Just randomly runs around and hope that something happens?
The next day, sacking of McClaren. Of course this is the right thing to do. But he is fired by the same set of people who recruited him, which from day 1 everyone knows that this is not the first choice. Why no one ever ask the people in the FA to take responsibility and resign?
Formation. 4-5-1? (or 4-3-3, it doesn't matter) It has been proved so many times that England can only play 4-4-2. If someone is injured, just replace with someone else of the same position; don't mess with the formation to squeeze your star players in. But we all know this is exactly the thing that McClaren (and Eriksson) does. Comes to my mind again is the old joke that if McClaren has 11 star goalkeepers then he will put 11 goalkeepers in the starting lineup. (Or maybe this is a good idea, just for this match...)
Starting lineup. I actually think using SWP and putting Beckham on the bench is the right thing. Not too many people dare to recall Beckham just to put him on the bench. I think he is good enough as a substitute but perhaps not good enough to start.
Then the match started, and McClaren was holding an umbrella. At that moment, I knew it certainly isn't right, but I couldn't put it in words, until newspapers and others have now done. He isn't even prepared to get his hair wet? Afraid that fans throw objects at him?
After 7 or 8 minutes we have this, Scott Carson. You can't really blame him too much, he is so inexperienced, and it is this McClaren who put him out all of a sudden. I agree we should let go of Robinson, much earlier in fact, but I think James is a better choice. At least, he is used to these embarassing errors and will not be too shakened by them. Carson on the other hand is visibly shakened for the entire first half.
Wayne Bridge. No words are enough to describe how awful that is. Keep attacker onside for the second goal. Slow, slow, slow. Numerous errors. The other defenders ain't too much better either.
Tactics, if there is any. Peter Crouch alone up front, with everyone aiming the ball at his head. Again, it has been proven so many times that it does not work. It looks like nobody noticed he has two feet. Using Crouch is not that bad an idea, despite he is constantly being criticized. Alright, he is not a world-class striker - he will probably never be - but he can do something different. (Like bending the body and strike at unusual angles...) That is, as long as you pass the ball on the pitch. The next thing that happens after someone kicks the ball high up the air to his head is that they lose possession. You can blame the pitch, but Croatia is playing at the same pitch and they are passing the ball around.
The half-time substitutions are understandable - not much else he could do by that time.
Then somehow, they cheated a very soft penalty. The slightest shirt pull and Defoe fell down dramatically. Anyway, now back in the game, huh?
Next the Beckham-Crouch goal; this is more like it. I told you before, Peter Crouch has two feet. (And the ball is towards his chest, not his head.) Everyone says "see, Beckham is so important". Ok, you're right, but only because the other midfielders are so underperformed. Gerrard for example has been performing rather poorly for quite a while.
Then you lose one more goal, and then here comes Darren Bent. At that point there were completely no tactics - how are the three forwards supposed to do? Just randomly runs around and hope that something happens?
The next day, sacking of McClaren. Of course this is the right thing to do. But he is fired by the same set of people who recruited him, which from day 1 everyone knows that this is not the first choice. Why no one ever ask the people in the FA to take responsibility and resign?
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
淪陷區
果然不出所料，本人 (喺香港) 住嗰區，由於少了本人關鍵一票，喺今次區議會選舉中正式淪陷... 講吓啫，差成幾百票咁多。唔輸先奇，上屆只係 "fu look" 而已，人地 N 咁多年前，已混入業主立案法團做主席了，咁深謀遠慮，你跟本唔係嗰皮。人地仲有無限金錢屈機，政府偏袒，傳媒支持 (公信力第一??)，所以長線我係好悲觀的...
(另見一個熱血青年的一堆評論)
(另見一個熱血青年的一堆評論)
Euro'08 Qualifying
Poor Scotland. They played very well and could have qualified in any other group. Like the one where you need to rely on Isreal to beat Russia in order to have any hope...
And the freekick which gives Italy the last-minute goal - it is completely ridiculous.
And the freekick which gives Italy the last-minute goal - it is completely ridiculous.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
權威字典解錯英文
唔記得邊度睇番黎:
我都唔知香港幾時開始變成咁樣。點解用 press for 咁客氣？ 施壓有乜唔啱？我十分贊成的。杯葛也冇咩大不了... 其實施壓，促請，游說，實際上都冇乜分別，不外乎都係威迫與利誘而已... 唔通真係「曉以大義」咩？
我都唔知香港幾時開始變成咁樣。點解用 press for 咁客氣？ 施壓有乜唔啱？我十分贊成的。杯葛也冇咩大不了... 其實施壓，促請，游說，實際上都冇乜分別，不外乎都係威迫與利誘而已... 唔通真係「曉以大義」咩？
Monday, October 22, 2007
Snooker grand prix 2007
Congratulations to Marco Fu for his (finally) first ranking tournament title!
Still, his playing can at times be rather embarassing to watch. Last year someone in the audience shouted "it's like watching paint dry" when both players keep on missing balls. It's not too different from that in the semi-final two days ago, against a rather unheard-of opponent. Yesterday's match with O'Sullivan was completely different. It looks like he really need to play against the top players to play well...
And this completes the football - rugby - racing - snooker disaster week for British sports.
Still, his playing can at times be rather embarassing to watch. Last year someone in the audience shouted "it's like watching paint dry" when both players keep on missing balls. It's not too different from that in the semi-final two days ago, against a rather unheard-of opponent. Yesterday's match with O'Sullivan was completely different. It looks like he really need to play against the top players to play well...
And this completes the football - rugby - racing - snooker disaster week for British sports.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Ig, Excel and Ricoh
The Ig nobel prize is out again. (So it's another year already!) Bizzare things seem to happen more often around this time, from Excel believing 65535 = 100000 to quantum mechanics in a printer ad...
The Excel issue is rather puzzling to me. We all know about 65535 but why would it become a nice number in base 10? Btw, you would expect people who post on the MSDN blog know what they are saying, but there are a few who apparently do not know what floating point numbers are...
The quantum mechanics ad is even more weird. Ok you like some deep-science-sounding stuff, but that particular quotation, or anything remotely similar to it, is not something you can find in a common quantum mechanics textbook. Do the ad producers actually know about Scott Aaronson and his lectures?
The Excel issue is rather puzzling to me. We all know about 65535 but why would it become a nice number in base 10? Btw, you would expect people who post on the MSDN blog know what they are saying, but there are a few who apparently do not know what floating point numbers are...
The quantum mechanics ad is even more weird. Ok you like some deep-science-sounding stuff, but that particular quotation, or anything remotely similar to it, is not something you can find in a common quantum mechanics textbook. Do the ad producers actually know about Scott Aaronson and his lectures?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Scheduling algorithms for procrastinators
This is the exact wording of the first paragraph of a journal paper:
We are writing this sentence two days before the deadline. Unfortunately that sentence (and this one) are among the first that we have written. How could we have delayed so much when we have known about this deadline for months? The purpose of this paper is to explain why we have waited until the last moment to write this paper.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
On a funny thing
I am a member of a certain thing, and just looking at the location of that thing you can already expect to receive quite funny things. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's perfect; you are not supposed to understand this. Obvious ethics do not allow me to say anything. I have effectively reduced my workload by 20% by picking a couple of things that anyone can make the required decision within 5 seconds. But they are so interesting you will keep on looking at them. Are there anyone out there who want to have some revision with their A-Maths? Actually, there is a tragic part of the story, so I shouldn't make fun of it. But still, A Maths is A Maths (or maybe Pure Maths at most); things should go to places appropriate for them.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
They're not using Windows, are they?
不 過 ， 據 田 小 姐 所 指 ， 機 器 屏 幕 確 曾 如 賭 場 方 面 指 突 然 變 了 藍 色 ， 但 卻 有 一 列 英 文 字 。 她 雖 不 懂 英 文 ， 但 其 友 人 看 過 後 ， 指 字 句 大 意 是 「 中 了 獎 ， 但 金 額 超 出 上 限 ， 請 聯 絡 職 員 」 ， 下 方 則 印 像 中 出 現 「 42,900,000 」 （ 她 前 晚 稱 是 $40,000,000 ） 的 銀 碼 ， 該 畫 面 在 賭 場 技 術 人 員 第 一 次 開 機 後 ， 畫 面 上 顯 示 的 字 句 便 變 了 ， 且 銀 碼 亦 消 失 了 。Blue screen... 32-bit address?... 超 出 上 限 (overflow)? Umm...
Sunday, August 26, 2007
More bad luck and a complexity question
Given that the number of page hits of this blog is proportional to the amount of bad luck described here, perhaps I could continue. Alright, not that bad. When I went back to my home in UK, immediately when I tried to switch on the light, the bulb blew and also catching the circuit breaker. Ok, at least that wasn't a fuse so I only need to switch the circuit breaker on again. I have become well prepared with this, and torches and so on are always ready.
The notebook finally had Windows reinstalled and things are almost alright now. The DVD drive isn't too willing to read discs (yet another different problem!), but I could bear with that.
So far so bad. Let's switch to a different topic. I have been wondering about a very important complexity question arising in airports. What is the time complexity T(N) of a group of N people to check-in at the airport check-in desks? Surely it is super-linear, but how bad is it? It always look like it takes forever for a group of 5 or so people to check-in...
The notebook finally had Windows reinstalled and things are almost alright now. The DVD drive isn't too willing to read discs (yet another different problem!), but I could bear with that.
So far so bad. Let's switch to a different topic. I have been wondering about a very important complexity question arising in airports. What is the time complexity T(N) of a group of N people to check-in at the airport check-in desks? Surely it is super-linear, but how bad is it? It always look like it takes forever for a group of 5 or so people to check-in...
Friday, August 10, 2007
Bad luck series 5: Computer problems
When I was back in HK, I tried to repair the notebook. As soon as I put the plug of the power adapter into the socket, the fuse blew. After messing around for some time, I found another fuse from an unused plug, so I swapped the fuses. Then it worked.
Ordinary methods did not work (safe mode, recovery console). At the end I realized registry editor can actually edit "other" registries (e.g. on a different harddisk). The login problem was then fixed.
Next day when I put the plug in again, it again blew. I bought some new fuses but it still didn't work. And it turned out that the power adapter itself was out of order...
I have repaired some problems of the notebook (at least, I can now control network connections), through modifying many things in the registry. It looks like it is not virus or similar, but some disk or file system error which leaves tens or hundreds of registry errors scattered around, one for each problem.
I hope this is the end of the series...
Ordinary methods did not work (safe mode, recovery console). At the end I realized registry editor can actually edit "other" registries (e.g. on a different harddisk). The login problem was then fixed.
Next day when I put the plug in again, it again blew. I bought some new fuses but it still didn't work. And it turned out that the power adapter itself was out of order...
I have repaired some problems of the notebook (at least, I can now control network connections), through modifying many things in the registry. It looks like it is not virus or similar, but some disk or file system error which leaves tens or hundreds of registry errors scattered around, one for each problem.
I hope this is the end of the series...
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Bad luck series 4: Hotel
After some time, the airline arranged a coach to take us to the hotel. Then all the people queued up all the way to the outside the hotel waiting for check in. People driving on the road was looking astonishingly at us; in at least one instance the driver actually wanted to shout and ask us what happened. (What would you think if you see a hundred or so people queueing up outside a hotel in Nathan Road, say?) To their credit, the hotel staff gave free cold drinks and ice lollies to those at the end of the queue (which includes me, of course), after we had queued for, erh, half an hour?
I thought I had enough of Calgary and decided to hide myself inside the room for the whole evening. They gave me a very large room - actually an entire "flat" with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, etc... probably because these are the rooms which won't usually be booked.
And then I discovered they have wireless Internet. So I used it happily. Until...
Next morning I wanted to check email before setting off to the airport again. I was surprised that the XP welcome screen becomes the classic Win2k login screen. And then I was immediately logged out after logging in. I thought I won't be able to fix it until I got back to get some tools...
I thought I had enough of Calgary and decided to hide myself inside the room for the whole evening. They gave me a very large room - actually an entire "flat" with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, etc... probably because these are the rooms which won't usually be booked.
And then I discovered they have wireless Internet. So I used it happily. Until...
Next morning I wanted to check email before setting off to the airport again. I was surprised that the XP welcome screen becomes the classic Win2k login screen. And then I was immediately logged out after logging in. I thought I won't be able to fix it until I got back to get some tools...
Friday, August 03, 2007
Bad luck series 3: Flight delay
After the "fun day on your own" the day of departure finally arrived. If not for that fun day, I could have left earlier and all the following will not happen...
Anyway, I was picked up by an airport shuttle. The driver asked me which airline I was flying with. "Thomas Cook airline", I replied. You know, those budget airlines. He said, "They are not flying today! You have to wait till tomorrow". I was puzzled but then he laughed.
I arrived the airport and while there's a bunch of people around the check-in counter, no one is really checking in. Finally I asked a member of staff. He replied, with his nose pointing to the other side, that we would be delayed "for a while". At that point I was already fully prepared for a 24-hour delay. Although I couldn't quite understand how the driver knows that at least 5 hours before departure.
Eventually we were informed of a "mechanical problem" which they had "successfully" identified, and we "only" need to wait for the parts. You see, typical budget airline problem. We were then promised overnight hotel stay and breakfast, etc. My next flight to Hong Kong is no more than 48 hours after I return UK; should they delay more then I better go from Gatwick to Heathrow directly...
My bad luck didn't stop here and actually, it affected other people as well. While I was sitting in the airport, a man sitting back-to-back with me fell to ground suddenly as if he had a heart attack. After a few minutes he woke up and appeared ok, though.
Anyway, I was picked up by an airport shuttle. The driver asked me which airline I was flying with. "Thomas Cook airline", I replied. You know, those budget airlines. He said, "They are not flying today! You have to wait till tomorrow". I was puzzled but then he laughed.
I arrived the airport and while there's a bunch of people around the check-in counter, no one is really checking in. Finally I asked a member of staff. He replied, with his nose pointing to the other side, that we would be delayed "for a while". At that point I was already fully prepared for a 24-hour delay. Although I couldn't quite understand how the driver knows that at least 5 hours before departure.
Eventually we were informed of a "mechanical problem" which they had "successfully" identified, and we "only" need to wait for the parts. You see, typical budget airline problem. We were then promised overnight hotel stay and breakfast, etc. My next flight to Hong Kong is no more than 48 hours after I return UK; should they delay more then I better go from Gatwick to Heathrow directly...
My bad luck didn't stop here and actually, it affected other people as well. While I was sitting in the airport, a man sitting back-to-back with me fell to ground suddenly as if he had a heart attack. After a few minutes he woke up and appeared ok, though.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Bad luck series 2: The conference
Actually, what happened in the conference isn't bad luck, but for continuity we will keep the same title. These are just complaints, although I am not the only one to make them.
The first thing is that I must have submitted to the wrong conference. I didn't notice that Banff is another national park (after Yellowstone in 2003). It all felt like a family retreat. In a very expensive hotel/conference location. There were no air conditioning in your room at over 30 degrees Celsius. Some people paid 120 canadian dollars for an extra banquet ticket which actually is nothing more than a common buffet. And so on. (By the way, they had a "game" or lottery during the banquet, which (1) is a bit too silly to describe here, and (2) no one understood it at first, and (3) no prize was given out at the end as if it never happened.)
But the real interesting thing is this. Usually in these conferences the organizers will arrange some tours or things like that. This time, they listed a "conference fun day" in the programme. A whole day in the middle of the conference without talks, but they never mentioned what it really is. Last time the experience in Sanya was already very "memorable". This time you simply can't complain about the tours, because there was nothing as such. It is a "fun day on your own". And no one told us so (well, until you ask). Come on, people who want to have fun at the national park can choose to stay behind by themselves after the conference. Why on earth do you want to put it in the middle of the conference? Haven't we wasted enough money already?
Coming up: What would you feel if this happens to you? While you are taking a shuttle to the airport, 5 hours before the flight departure time, the driver of the shuttle semi-jokingly tells you that your airline is not flying today...
The first thing is that I must have submitted to the wrong conference. I didn't notice that Banff is another national park (after Yellowstone in 2003). It all felt like a family retreat. In a very expensive hotel/conference location. There were no air conditioning in your room at over 30 degrees Celsius. Some people paid 120 canadian dollars for an extra banquet ticket which actually is nothing more than a common buffet. And so on. (By the way, they had a "game" or lottery during the banquet, which (1) is a bit too silly to describe here, and (2) no one understood it at first, and (3) no prize was given out at the end as if it never happened.)
But the real interesting thing is this. Usually in these conferences the organizers will arrange some tours or things like that. This time, they listed a "conference fun day" in the programme. A whole day in the middle of the conference without talks, but they never mentioned what it really is. Last time the experience in Sanya was already very "memorable". This time you simply can't complain about the tours, because there was nothing as such. It is a "fun day on your own". And no one told us so (well, until you ask). Come on, people who want to have fun at the national park can choose to stay behind by themselves after the conference. Why on earth do you want to put it in the middle of the conference? Haven't we wasted enough money already?
Coming up: What would you feel if this happens to you? While you are taking a shuttle to the airport, 5 hours before the flight departure time, the driver of the shuttle semi-jokingly tells you that your airline is not flying today...
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Bad luck series 1: Calgary
Now then, perhaps I can finally write what's happening from the beginning...
I went to COCOON'07, this time in Banff, Canada near Calgary. For various reasons I was forced to arrive one day earlier and stayed in Calgary. On the flight I somehow managed to lose a still-usable HK mobile SIM card... (I just couldn't understand why I brought that to Canada and took that out on the plane...)
Anyway, in Calgary. Not knowing what to do, I went to the Calgary tower, which has a glass floor observation deck. It is not as impressive as it sounds, though. Well, in fact, I think they could do some cleaning to the glass...
I also went to the Calgary stampede. I am not interested in these things, but since it happens to be in this time of the year, I went in. I didn't watch the rodeo stuff and therefore effectively just "walked around"...
I went to COCOON'07, this time in Banff, Canada near Calgary. For various reasons I was forced to arrive one day earlier and stayed in Calgary. On the flight I somehow managed to lose a still-usable HK mobile SIM card... (I just couldn't understand why I brought that to Canada and took that out on the plane...)
Anyway, in Calgary. Not knowing what to do, I went to the Calgary tower, which has a glass floor observation deck. It is not as impressive as it sounds, though. Well, in fact, I think they could do some cleaning to the glass...
I also went to the Calgary stampede. I am not interested in these things, but since it happens to be in this time of the year, I went in. I didn't watch the rodeo stuff and therefore effectively just "walked around"...
Light at the end of the tunnel??
The problem with my notebook is the immediate-logout problem. In theory you only need to change one or two entries in the registry to fix it. However you need to get to regedit first... Using the remaining battery on the notebook, I boot it using another harddisk, and fix the registry on the original harddisk.
Then I bought a new power adaptor for the notebook. I don't know they are that expensive; perhaps I should actually buy a new notebook instead (the current one is rather old anyway). With power supply, I can finally run the machine a bit longer. Although I can now log in, it still has numerous mysterious behaviour, such as disappeared recycle bin, disappeared control panel items, missing filetype-application associations etc. It looks like somehow it is not reading from / writing to the registry even when you ask it to.
But I can tolerate this, as long as it is stablized. Moreover, I get wireless access from my neighbor... Actually I can't stop it even if I wanted to, because anything about network connections in the control panel (or anywhere else) disappeared... It looks like there is no fix without reinstalling everything, which I would only do later...
Then I bought a new power adaptor for the notebook. I don't know they are that expensive; perhaps I should actually buy a new notebook instead (the current one is rather old anyway). With power supply, I can finally run the machine a bit longer. Although I can now log in, it still has numerous mysterious behaviour, such as disappeared recycle bin, disappeared control panel items, missing filetype-application associations etc. It looks like somehow it is not reading from / writing to the registry even when you ask it to.
But I can tolerate this, as long as it is stablized. Moreover, I get wireless access from my neighbor... Actually I can't stop it even if I wanted to, because anything about network connections in the control panel (or anywhere else) disappeared... It looks like there is no fix without reinstalling everything, which I would only do later...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Could it be worse?
Health problems. Lost mobile phone SIM card. Flight delay of 24 hours. Notebook got a virus and cannot boot. Fuse in power adaptor of notebook blown. Then the adaptor itself. I don't even know where to start blogging all these. Maybe not until I get some reasonably-working computers. I mean, this one I am using in the office is populated with 7 viruses and has some other strange problems...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
terrorists in arithmetic progression
Forget about the years for the moment:
30/6 Glasgow airport
7/7 London (tube and bus)
14/7 ?
21/7 London (failed)
What happens in 14/7? Nothing important except that I will be flying...
30/6 Glasgow airport
7/7 London (tube and bus)
14/7 ?
21/7 London (failed)
What happens in 14/7? Nothing important except that I will be flying...
Friday, June 22, 2007
Scaling down the marks?
For the other modules I gave in the past, the problem of exam marking is to give out as much marks as possible. This time however, the cryptography module has an average that is so so high and we almost have to scale it down. Although, at the end, it was not done. I really don't know why the marks are so high. (Can I just say my teaching is very good?) I don't think the exam paper is too simple. If the same paper is given to the batch of students last year, I'm pretty sure the situation would be entirely different...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
annoying project reports
I was reading the pile of project reports, and I'm getting more and more annoyed about their English. Perhaps as a non-native speaker myself I shouldn't complain, but they are just... almost disgusting. Unlike many HK students who write things overly formally, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous, the most common situation here is they write in a very chatty way - not complete sentences, going on and on without even a comma when it should have 3 full stops, wrong spellings of similarly-sounding words, etc. These are the relatively better ones. The worst ones are simply incomprehensible. I believe many of them are, although not ethnic-British, born and educated in UK. How they survived the exam system I don't really understand. Does GCSE test any writing skills?
Speaking of the projects, some of them are just way too weak. It is as if the students only spent half a day doing it. They have "successfully" implemented things like a seat booking system for a football stadium allowing you to book the same seat (for the same match) an infinite number of times, or a webshots-like photo sharing system where the owner/uploader is the only person who can view the photos, etc. In fact, the front webpage of the project is a template with words like "put your company name here" and "this is some dummy text"...
Speaking of the projects, some of them are just way too weak. It is as if the students only spent half a day doing it. They have "successfully" implemented things like a seat booking system for a football stadium allowing you to book the same seat (for the same match) an infinite number of times, or a webshots-like photo sharing system where the owner/uploader is the only person who can view the photos, etc. In fact, the front webpage of the project is a template with words like "put your company name here" and "this is some dummy text"...
Sunday, June 03, 2007
What you can do in ten months
We have been experiencing a severe shortage of secretarial support for some time. As if that's not enough, two of the secretaries somehow coordinated themselves into getting pregnant at roughly the same time. So they are off for ten months of maternity leave. Ten months!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
MSN
Ok, I finally gave up my insistence on not using msn. Perhaps I've been asked just once too often about this. In case you care to know, the email is a gmail account. The rest should be pretty obvious.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
new home
This new place appears to be better than I thought. However, as regular readers of this blog will know, I am quite negative and only look at bad things. The main problem is with the shower heater. Ok it doesn't "burn" the fuse this time (I mean, hasn't). But the product of rate of water flow and the temperature of water is a constant, which is not a problem by itself, but this constant is just too small...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
moved
So I finished moving house, and came off the days without Internet at home a bit sooner than I thought!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Snooker championship 2007
Time runs so quickly and it is another snooker championship already. Not unexpectedly, Marco Fu loses pretty quickly. Whenever you have any expectations on him, he will not perform. In fact, his mistakes are sometimes so embarassing to watch.
It is the second time that I watched a O'Sullivan-Ding match. This Ding Jun-hui simply doesn't look like wanting to win. Whenever a few frames behind, he will behave like this so that, like some school students, he can subconsciously give himself the excuse "it's not my standard too low, it's only I choose not to perform".
It is the second time that I watched a O'Sullivan-Ding match. This Ding Jun-hui simply doesn't look like wanting to win. Whenever a few frames behind, he will behave like this so that, like some school students, he can subconsciously give himself the excuse "it's not my standard too low, it's only I choose not to perform".
Friday, April 13, 2007
to view and be viewed
Yesterday a (continental-European?) couple viewed my flat. I don't know whether it is obviously too good or obviously too bad, but they spent less than 2 minutes here.
Today I viewed another flat, although I'm supposed to have committed to the one I mentioned last time. It is a brand new flat, the interior of which is furnished to the highest standards. What's more, the rent is exactly the same as my current one. On the down side, it is immediately next to a construction site, and the building (or group of buildings) itself is not completely finished, so you feel somewhat living in a construction site. But other people are apparently rather happy with it. This is also a bit too far from the university, which means extra travel costs. If not for this I would be very happy to take this...
Today I viewed another flat, although I'm supposed to have committed to the one I mentioned last time. It is a brand new flat, the interior of which is furnished to the highest standards. What's more, the rent is exactly the same as my current one. On the down side, it is immediately next to a construction site, and the building (or group of buildings) itself is not completely finished, so you feel somewhat living in a construction site. But other people are apparently rather happy with it. This is also a bit too far from the university, which means extra travel costs. If not for this I would be very happy to take this...
Monday, April 02, 2007
Moving house?
My current tenancy contract is about to expire and I want to find some cheaper place to live. (Actually, the real problem is this. There are still some unexplained ways for them to possibly get in. And rumour is that they have the same problem two years before. Another rumour is that there was even wasps...) So I viewed a couple of flats.
The first one I viewed was a complete joke.
I was advised long ago that "the other side" of London road is not as safe. Wondering why just the other side makes a difference, I arrived and noticed that, just a few blocks off the road, it clearly is a poorer part of the city.
When I found the house, the first thing to notice is that the house next door had its windows smashed. For the flat itself, there was still someone living and was in a mess, but let's forget about it. When I walked into the bathroom the biggest surprise came: one of the walls was only halfly built. The other side of the wall opened to the next flat, which was then visible from outside the house. The landlord said this is "renovation" and "will be finished within days". Then why don't you just wait a few more days before letting people view it? It's a complete waste of my time. And the most bizarre thing is that, as mentioned above, there was still someone staying there, although he was going to leave in a few days... I just wondered, how on earth does he use the toilet these days?
The second flat I viewed is much more reasonable. Its on the busiest road, near the train station, and directly above a restaurant, and should be very noisy. Other than this, it looks a reasonable place, but certainly not as good as the one I am living. The furniture etc. are not as complete/good and I will need to spend some money. I am actually looking for something with smaller area but similar quality (comparing with my current one), but it looks like all available out there is similar area but poorer quality.
I have some psychological struggle to move to a clearly worse place. I need to keep on reminding myself, "imagine a hundred wasps all burst into your flat through the ceiling!"...
The first one I viewed was a complete joke.
I was advised long ago that "the other side" of London road is not as safe. Wondering why just the other side makes a difference, I arrived and noticed that, just a few blocks off the road, it clearly is a poorer part of the city.
When I found the house, the first thing to notice is that the house next door had its windows smashed. For the flat itself, there was still someone living and was in a mess, but let's forget about it. When I walked into the bathroom the biggest surprise came: one of the walls was only halfly built. The other side of the wall opened to the next flat, which was then visible from outside the house. The landlord said this is "renovation" and "will be finished within days". Then why don't you just wait a few more days before letting people view it? It's a complete waste of my time. And the most bizarre thing is that, as mentioned above, there was still someone staying there, although he was going to leave in a few days... I just wondered, how on earth does he use the toilet these days?
The second flat I viewed is much more reasonable. Its on the busiest road, near the train station, and directly above a restaurant, and should be very noisy. Other than this, it looks a reasonable place, but certainly not as good as the one I am living. The furniture etc. are not as complete/good and I will need to spend some money. I am actually looking for something with smaller area but similar quality (comparing with my current one), but it looks like all available out there is similar area but poorer quality.
I have some psychological struggle to move to a clearly worse place. I need to keep on reminding myself, "imagine a hundred wasps all burst into your flat through the ceiling!"...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
LSD 2007
So I went to London again, this time for the LSD 2007...
(1) Obviously, you can't expect stringology people to be interested in online scheduling algorithms. Not much happened in the talk.
(2) It was announced that I made an important discovery. No, I didn't prove any important theorems. It was only about "discovering" a new toilet...
(3) We went to Chinatown again. Most stuff there are more expensive than those in here (the only problem here is that brands and choices are rather limited), but it turns out that instant noodles are cheaper.
(1) Obviously, you can't expect stringology people to be interested in online scheduling algorithms. Not much happened in the talk.
(2) It was announced that I made an important discovery. No, I didn't prove any important theorems. It was only about "discovering" a new toilet...
(3) We went to Chinatown again. Most stuff there are more expensive than those in here (the only problem here is that brands and choices are rather limited), but it turns out that instant noodles are cheaper.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Matchings, algorithms and problems
Some time ago I heard a presentation of a final year project. Somehow the student believed the project involves stable matchings. It is good that they attempt these things, and at first sight it appears to make sense. But when you think about it for a bit more you will realize that it actually does not make any sense to use stable matching in that problem. I won't go into the details here, but basically, the input arrives online rather than a batch, and only perhaps one side has preferences (and even that is arguable).
But this is not the point I want to make. The student did not understand the difference between a problem and the algorithms that solve the problem. His presentation showed a stable matching algorithm, but did not say anything about stable matching itself. So I asked, "So what is stable matching?" Then he showed that slide with the algorithm and is about to explain, when I interrupted and asked the matching itself, not the algorithm. He couldn't answer, and at the end said "a matching that everyone is happy". Other students there, even though they also don't know what a stable matching is, can at least appreciate that this answer cannot be correct.
And of course, he is not the only student with similar problems. Last year I had a project student whose project involve matching papers to referees, and the problem is to find a maximum matching. He just proceeded directly to invent some algorithm to find a "large" matching. I attempted to explain but he couldn't understand that there is a "maximum" matching independent of what algorithm you might what to use.
More recently, a student is doing a project on timetabling. I have nothing to do with his project, but anyway he came to ask me how to find the "optimal solution". I asked, "So what is the optimal solution you want to find?" and he wanted me to tell him what is the optimal solution. He has no idea of different "objective functions".
And I wonder, is all these because of me teaching too badly, or are they simply impossible to be understood by some people?
But this is not the point I want to make. The student did not understand the difference between a problem and the algorithms that solve the problem. His presentation showed a stable matching algorithm, but did not say anything about stable matching itself. So I asked, "So what is stable matching?" Then he showed that slide with the algorithm and is about to explain, when I interrupted and asked the matching itself, not the algorithm. He couldn't answer, and at the end said "a matching that everyone is happy". Other students there, even though they also don't know what a stable matching is, can at least appreciate that this answer cannot be correct.
And of course, he is not the only student with similar problems. Last year I had a project student whose project involve matching papers to referees, and the problem is to find a maximum matching. He just proceeded directly to invent some algorithm to find a "large" matching. I attempted to explain but he couldn't understand that there is a "maximum" matching independent of what algorithm you might what to use.
More recently, a student is doing a project on timetabling. I have nothing to do with his project, but anyway he came to ask me how to find the "optimal solution". I asked, "So what is the optimal solution you want to find?" and he wanted me to tell him what is the optimal solution. He has no idea of different "objective functions".
And I wonder, is all these because of me teaching too badly, or are they simply impossible to be understood by some people?
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Almost an issue 3
Within less than 6 months I lost it again! Except this time I discover it within 10 minutes, so rushing back to the supermarket to get it back...
I will now seriously consider not to use it in supermarkets, at least not in Sainsbury's.
I will now seriously consider not to use it in supermarkets, at least not in Sainsbury's.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Algorithms exam
At St. Valentine's day we had a dreadful meeting about the arbitrary manipulation of some numbers that are important to students (many of whom I don't know) in modules (many of which I don't care). I think it is now time to say something about the algorithms exam paper.
The exam paper has 6 questions and students answer 4. (I don't have any say about this.)
(1) I think I did an ok job of getting an average mark close to whatever number they want. You can easily estimate marks of students on different questions: if you want them to know how to answer, you must give them the exact same question beforehand, with only different numbers. This is the only way they know how to do something. Changing anything else would result in a very low mark.
(2) I included several straightforward (i.e. non-tricky) true/false questions, which are answered satisfactorily. (Never do tricky questions: the correct rate would be far lower than 50%).
(3) You might think that questions asking for simple counterexamples are easy, but they are not. I think this holds true for HK students as well.
(4) I believe no students can ever understand what "lower bound" means. Majority thinks "If the fastest known algorithm of a problem runs in O(n^2) time then the problem has a lower bound of Omega(n^2)" is a correct statement.
(5) There is only one dynamic programming question that you can expect people to do it correctly (and hence I put it in the exam paper) - working out longest common subsequences. They are fairly competent in filling in the tables, perhaps without knowing what they are actually doing.
(6) The divide and conquer question is a "difficult" one and as expected very few people do it. In an earlier assignment they did a question which has similar flavor - the standard maximum-sum contiguous subarray problem - and almost no one can get it correct. In fact, many do not even attempt to do it. It looks like if they decide that a question is difficult, they don't even bother to plagiarize - just leave it blank. I must say that I don't quite understand why they consider this very difficult, as I think this is a rather "natural" D&C problem - even when I first saw it in my first DAA assignment. Having said that, interestingly, a few actually accidentally discovered the linear-time algorithm.
The exam paper has 6 questions and students answer 4. (I don't have any say about this.)
(1) I think I did an ok job of getting an average mark close to whatever number they want. You can easily estimate marks of students on different questions: if you want them to know how to answer, you must give them the exact same question beforehand, with only different numbers. This is the only way they know how to do something. Changing anything else would result in a very low mark.
(2) I included several straightforward (i.e. non-tricky) true/false questions, which are answered satisfactorily. (Never do tricky questions: the correct rate would be far lower than 50%).
(3) You might think that questions asking for simple counterexamples are easy, but they are not. I think this holds true for HK students as well.
(4) I believe no students can ever understand what "lower bound" means. Majority thinks "If the fastest known algorithm of a problem runs in O(n^2) time then the problem has a lower bound of Omega(n^2)" is a correct statement.
(5) There is only one dynamic programming question that you can expect people to do it correctly (and hence I put it in the exam paper) - working out longest common subsequences. They are fairly competent in filling in the tables, perhaps without knowing what they are actually doing.
(6) The divide and conquer question is a "difficult" one and as expected very few people do it. In an earlier assignment they did a question which has similar flavor - the standard maximum-sum contiguous subarray problem - and almost no one can get it correct. In fact, many do not even attempt to do it. It looks like if they decide that a question is difficult, they don't even bother to plagiarize - just leave it blank. I must say that I don't quite understand why they consider this very difficult, as I think this is a rather "natural" D&C problem - even when I first saw it in my first DAA assignment. Having said that, interestingly, a few actually accidentally discovered the linear-time algorithm.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
LAW 2007
I went to the London Algorithmic Workshop, held at King's College London a few days ago. The main purpose is to see people, and to have some feeling of being in a city. (I don't expect to understand things like counting runs in a string using automata and such; although there is a talk about my ex-boss and his student's previous work.)
For all sorts of reasons, the cost of going there had increased considerably from the original estimate.
One thing is that I ended up staying at a hotel. Finding a cheap hotel in central London is like 買大細, for you never know how bad it can be. There are always terrible comments on the web for whatever hotel you pick. At the end, I picked one which seem to have not-too-bad comments. When I arrived I was relieved - it was very small as expected, but tidy and clean. From outside, the room is like a storage room or so at a turn of the stairs, but as long as you shut yourself inside it feels alright. There is no toilet/bathroom inside - have to use the shared ones outside. Apparently, this is the default for cheap hotels.
The return trip coincided with the heaviest snow of UK in 10 years (or something like that). You look out of the train window and it is white everywhere. But while the weather was bad enough, the train was very accurately on time.
For all sorts of reasons, the cost of going there had increased considerably from the original estimate.
One thing is that I ended up staying at a hotel. Finding a cheap hotel in central London is like 買大細, for you never know how bad it can be. There are always terrible comments on the web for whatever hotel you pick. At the end, I picked one which seem to have not-too-bad comments. When I arrived I was relieved - it was very small as expected, but tidy and clean. From outside, the room is like a storage room or so at a turn of the stairs, but as long as you shut yourself inside it feels alright. There is no toilet/bathroom inside - have to use the shared ones outside. Apparently, this is the default for cheap hotels.
The return trip coincided with the heaviest snow of UK in 10 years (or something like that). You look out of the train window and it is white everywhere. But while the weather was bad enough, the train was very accurately on time.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Gaim Internet messenger
On the school linux computer I am using Gaim as the ICQ client (I don't have much choices). Somehow it doesn't look like they can block people not in your contact list. And so every day I receive dozens of authorization requests or even direct messages from Russians... and also, HK people. And this does not happen with my Windows ICQ (which is a very, very old version). I think no one uses ICQ anymore these days and perhaps they connect through other protocols when I use gaim...
Friday, January 19, 2007
Chinese food at co-op
I don't really know when these all started but the co-op at the student union here start selling many Chinese food, including all varieties of instant noodles, vitasoy milk, and even 王老吉. I suspect this might be something one-off as I don't think the Chinese student population here is large enough to support it...
(PS. I know, I haven't blogged for some time. But I promise some interesting stuff are coming. Like a detailed analysis of the course evaluation. Only that it takes some time...)
(PS. I know, I haven't blogged for some time. But I promise some interesting stuff are coming. Like a detailed analysis of the course evaluation. Only that it takes some time...)
Monday, January 08, 2007
Christmas holiday
Alright, I was back in HK once again. Somewhat too frequent is it, when there is no particular reason to go back...
At Heathrow, it is very fortunate that the plane could actually take off with all the fog. I looked out the window at the airport, saw a plane and couldn't saw the next one. Other than the fact that they had no personal TV, I was quite happy with the airline.
In HK I went to a hospital to visit someone. Also I witnessed the last day of Hardee's. I should say that I'm not a big fan of it. However apparently quite some people do, and lots of people were gathering inside or taking photos.
And about the earthquake, I didn't sense anything at all. At that time I was probably staring at a bunch of equations...
Finally. It was not 5am or so at Heathrow, but still there was absolutely no one whatsoever in the Customs, again. Next time I will bring some "white powder"...
At Heathrow, it is very fortunate that the plane could actually take off with all the fog. I looked out the window at the airport, saw a plane and couldn't saw the next one. Other than the fact that they had no personal TV, I was quite happy with the airline.
In HK I went to a hospital to visit someone. Also I witnessed the last day of Hardee's. I should say that I'm not a big fan of it. However apparently quite some people do, and lots of people were gathering inside or taking photos.
And about the earthquake, I didn't sense anything at all. At that time I was probably staring at a bunch of equations...
Finally. It was not 5am or so at Heathrow, but still there was absolutely no one whatsoever in the Customs, again. Next time I will bring some "white powder"...
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