TV

As if my research isn't bad enough, I finally got (after being here for several months) a mind-distracting machine from a colleague.

I don't really understand how they come up with this system of paying a "licence fee" to watch TV. I think we can guess how well the system is working when letters are continually delivered to the ex-tenant here (or ex-ex, or ex-ex-ex...) asking him to pay. "Sophisticated equipment" to detect whether you have a TV. Sounds quite interesting...

Miscellaneous

(1) One day I was flipping through an MSc application. It says the applicant has a term with GPA 4.0 in MIT, but clearly he has never studied outside of his third-world home country. After 5 seconds I realized that MIT stands for "Master in Information Technology"...

(2) Alan Smith:

When I looked, the leg was lying one way and my ankle
was pointing towards Hong Kong so I knew I was in
serious trouble

(3)
【明報專訊】就特首曾蔭權任用民主派出身的劉細良為中央政策組全職顧問，民建聯行政會議成員曾鈺成與立法會議員鄭經翰展開罵戰，曾鈺成日前在報章批評鄭經翰﹕「主人都未出聲，狗唔需要吠住﹗」

不唔係通常主人未叫，狗就吠定先，要主人喝止架咩...
就好似你咁，上面都未出聲，你就...

Exam meeting

We have the exam meeting today. No, I'm not going to tell you anything. Except that I possibly over-worried - our module (i.e. course) is perhaps the only one among third year modules that does not require the application of some continuous bijective mapping from a compact set to itself. These mappings are not arbitrary, e.g. they must be piecewise-linear, and have at least two fixed points, one more than the theoretical minimum. We discussed how to design mappings that optimize different objectives, e.g. the power mean of order 1, or the difference from the required statistical distribution.

Yum Cha

Today I go to Yum Cha with Thomas, his wife who is from Hong Kong, his daughter, and Rajeev.

We have it at Peking restaurant. I know it but have never been there since it is an expensive place. It looks like all staff there speak Cantonese. And for the food, it is very close to Hong Kong standards except maybe the Har Gow which tastes a bit strange.

Thomas's wife is an alumni of HKU. She lives in a very different spacetime from me: she asks "Is 黃麗松 still the vice-chancellor?" I list out all the vice-chancellors after 黃麗松, none of which known to her, and I keep on wondering "did I miss someone?"

becoming a student again

Today we have the first regular meeting of the course Postgraduate Certificate in whatever blah blah blah. I am given a student card. That's perhaps a good thing since there is no such thing called "staff card" here and I always wonder how people prove themselves to be a member of staff. And perhaps I will finally remember to purge the HKU student card, Octopus card, etc. out from my wallet.

The meeting turns out to be a discussion where participants complain about universities turning into vocational-training factories, business-oriented management of universities, taking more students and thus lowering the quality, and continental Europeans complaining the spoon-feeding system here etc etc. The instructor hopelessly, repeatedly mention something like "well that's very much a double-sided sword" etc. After all, isn't that the whole point of the course - to transform us into whatever they want us to be?

Chinese new year

大年初一，正值星期日，應節食品包括年糕與走私臘腸。節日活動則有「新春發財跑」及「同電腦打麻雀」...

Chinese restaurant review: 東方酒樓

今日年廿九，我黎到呢間「東方酒樓」試試... 本來我諗住黎食叉燒飯，不過我見佢 buffet 都有叉燒，又有飯，咁就 buffet 把啦。

呢間只須4.2鎊，一星期七日都係呢個價錢。也是市中心，裝修很正常。侍應很兩文三語...

食物方面呢，都係咁上下嘅嘢，未來來去去都係 D 豬肉牛肉瓜瓜菜菜咁。比起上次，種類較少，無點心壽司，不過就好食 D ，同埋 D 春卷個樣好好多。 D 食得飽嘅炒粉麵飯反而有成四五款。D 叉燒... 好鹹。其實其他嘢都係。又其實上次個間都係。

總結黎講幾好，應該多 D 幫襯。

Exam results

我想問吓當年 Isaac 嘅 OS 試卷平均分係幾多呢... 話唔定我可以超越 Isaac，甚至迫近當年 HB 佬嘅 Solid state...

好在我只係出咗半份卷... 不過我已經可以想像，遲 D Examiner's meeting 俾人插嘅情形：「點解同一班學生, 做人地個三題好地地，做你個三題就咁差，你點出題目架？」

Exam

So my students have their exam today. I am invigilating another exam in the same timeslot, so I don't know how they are doing it. It is not a bad thing, though, to invigilate a lot of students taking "Renaissance poetry". (You know what I mean, right?)

Talking about my own exam, I think it is a easy paper. This is to be understood together with the fact, if you don't know it, that almost all tests and quizzes I have set in the past are believed to be of reasonable difficulty by me but not so by students, and sometimes proved to be deadly.

In the days before the exam there are students troubling, of course. I particularly dislike guys who keep on asking for hints. I mean, why do you think I would give hints to you? You ain't pretty gal, huh? (And even that won't help, of course...)

But at least I was out of office for the whole day before the exam, which possibly avoided some trouble. That is to attend an introduction session of a course on postgraduate certificate in higher education, or something like that (I never remember the name). I thought only HK secondary school teachers need to take a PCEd. A year's work to come. A probation requirement. Pooh...

epidemic

From here:

The death rate among aunts and grandmothers of college-age students is phenomenal, far beyond anything actuarial. It is biased toward exam time. A death in the family is the standard excuse for missing classes and examinations. Although some students are remarkably inventive in concocting stories, most are not. Faced with such an excuse, be aware that the student may be working you. These things are also cyclical. If one student gets away with it, others follow and you have a veritable epidemic among your students’ relatives.

AAIM'06

I think I ought to advertise this conference: my ex-boss is a co-chair, and the PC members include my current boss, my PhD examiner, 4 of my co-authors, HKU-related people, and many online algorithms and scheduling algorithms experts.

And I am not submitting a paper there.

Chinese restaurant review: Flame

由於各位對我咁耐都未幫襯過呢到既中國餐館感到十分驚訝，今日 lunch 忽然諗起，於是去了幫襯一間叫 "flame (焰)" 的，自助餐，每位五鎊 (只限 weekday lunch，weekend 要九鎊)。

這間餐館位於市中心，裝修很 "in"，紫色燈光(!)，外表横看豎看都不像中國餐館。

先說小食，除了那些蝦片沒有蝦味，與及春卷很蚊形(當然唔脆)外，大致上都OK的。

至於熱盤，有十多款普通過唔普通的，例如炒西蘭花，甜酸雞之類，部份菜式有點怪味，但大致上唔算難食。

這裡還有點心和壽司。點心共三款，分別貌似牛肉，燒賣與餃子，不論外表與味道都是公仔點心那個水平。壽司也無謂多說了。(五鎊你想有乜你食?)

最後是甜品，那西米露很啱我胃口，而諷刺地，全店最好食的似乎是那個西式的 cake。

總的來說，味道過得去，五鎊任你食，食乜都抵啦，算係唔錯。如果九鎊就可免則免了。

back to UK

I've come back to UK after this very short vacation (oops, no, should be research visit). Boarding the flight with no problems after a quick recovery from a fever the day before. For the first time, some officers appeared in the customs, although I still regret for not smuggling a lot more things...

People at tube and rail go strike causing the King's Cross St. Pancras station closed, and I need to go to the nearby King's Cross Thameslink station to take another train and involve a change in Bedford in order to get back. I have been around King's Cross for an enough number of times so that isn't much of a problem, fortunately.

A modern civilization

Yesterday I stay in school all day to have research collaboration, that is, looking at a figure I drew several months ago trying to recall what it means.

Today afternoon I walk to the Peak. In East Midlands it is exactly what the name suggests: a piece of flatland, with no mountains, no other interesting landscapes. Hong Kong, on the other hand, is a very strange place where there are so many tall buildings while at the same time there are mountains, seas, and everything else. Looking at all those buildings from the peak, I heard a tourist saying, "a modern civilization".

return from ISAAC

Today in the morning we have the flight back to HK.

Other than the "tour" and the weather, this ISAAC is generally well-organized. In particular, the hotel has free wireless Internet access (although there are many sites you can't go in mainland). The hotel staff can understand my standard of putonghua (!) and their general English level is quite good: at least better than some of the speakers in the conference, I believe.

Back to HK I relax in the bright sunshine that I didn't have for several months. Even in this day with the shortest daytime of the year, the sun is much brighter than that in UK. (Can I really call that thing in UK "sun", when it only hangs at 30 degrees above horizon even at noon?)

ISAAC day 3

今天大清早便要俾talk。我還以為咁早冇人聽，點知越講越多人。後來我才知道另外一個做同一problem的人 (而我們的paper cite了他們的 result) 竟然在場。幸好我的拉布戰術成功，冇時間俾人問嘢。

午飯後，沙達散博士可能真的太想去那天涯海角，也可能對昨日的節目「回味無窮」，大家決定去那天涯海角。結果每人付了六十五元入場費，看了兩舊石頭，以及以海南島天然雨水洗頭。我相信沙達散博士對祖國的「旅遊景點」一定加深了認識；不知此行令他後悔多少世？

回程時，王太被一樓盤吸引，參觀示範單位幾乎成為了本旅行團行程一部份。

ISAAC day 2

我不是得閑無事回香港的，而是要去 ISAAC.

主辦單位安排了今天下午有一個"tour"。行程包括三個半小時的車程和兩小時的「參觀」。

本來沙達散博士與宋博士打算不跟團，改往名景點「天涯海角」參觀。後來潘博士覆述王太之理論，表示天涯海角「唔去就後悔半世，去就後悔一世」，於是眾人決定還是隨團出發。

行程的第一站，各團友就被安排往某咖啡廠「參觀」及購買手信。之後我對明年將主辦 AAIM 之潘博士說，可安排團友到位於紅磡的金至尊買金，貢獻香港經濟。

行程的第二站，也就是最後一站，我們到了國家4A級旅遊景點「興隆熱帶植物公園」。

我們用了一小時半的時間，參觀了很多椰樹，蕉樹，其他樹，與及更多的椰樹。沿途碰巧遇到心情好的職員，便講解幾句，心情不好的職員更會互相吵架。我們還可看牌上的中文字，外國的團友們便只可專心觀樹。

各中外團友們對於OC竟然能安排如此節目，無不感到十分驚奇，臉上不由自主的流露出奇特的笑容。由於節目過於「精采」，潘博士與宋博士在途中研究「紅豆生南國」的下一句是什麼。沙達散博士更情不自禁，表演拋樽雜技。

回程時王太再發表理論，指這些節目唔係幾好，「雖然天涯海角只係兩舊石頭，但都係呢到景點，第二到冇得睇」，眾人大表同意。王太又表示此行也有好處，就是「得到人生經驗, 以後冇咁易俾人揾笨」。

晚上的 BBQ，我也不想多提，除了有表演以走音 (?) 的民族樂器 (?) 奏出「有隻雀仔跌落水」...

back to Hong Kong

終於，回到香港。

不知是因為我搭BA/CX終於夠多，還是訂票時擺了 DR. 出來，還是我靚仔了，我竟然被 upgrade...

晚上到了別人的婚宴，也聽到了一些消息。本學系師生戀的傳統，有各位師兄弟薪火相傳，我實在感到十分欣喜和羨慕。

light bulbs and electricity

Another light bulb blows itself, the second one within two weeks. Added to the fact that the auto-switch-off "feature" of the electric shower seems coming earlier and earlier, I really suspect there's something wrong with the electricity in this flat...

ebay

I better stay away from ebay for some time, after spending a ridiculous amount of money buying "hard plastic" (which is my favourite toy)...