Yearly Archives: 2010

Daily Scribble

Say NO to the Olympic

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The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games is only 8 days away. I don’t feel particularly exciting about the Olympic although I am living in the hosting city. Here are my top ten reasons why I don’t like Vancouver hosting the Olympic.

  1. None of the Winter Olympic events is interesting, except Ice Hockey
  2. I could not get any Olympic tickets, so it makes no difference to me whether or not it is in Vancouver. I am watching it on TV anways
  3. Millions of tourists comes to town disturb my normal life. It is a lot harder to make restaurant reservations and everything cost more during the Olympic
  4. The road closure in the city makes rush hour traffic across the city a nightmare.
  5. The Canadian team uniform really ugly. Roots definitely have better designers than The Bay.
  6. The Olympic will blow a black hole in the city’s budget. Prepare for tax raise after the Games
  7. Most of the Olympic events are held during the day when I am at work. My productivity would greatly suffer during that two weeks
  8. The Olympic mascots does not make sense and there are four of them. Why don’t they simply use a beaver or a Canadian moose
  9. The Sea to Sky Highway only got a half-ass upgrade. It should have 4 lanes all the way from Vancouver to Whistler and bypass all the traffic lights in Squamish

    10. and most important of all,

  10. The Sea to Sky Highway is closed during the Games and no one can drive to Whistler. Olympic interrupts my ski season!
News Clips

Marvell debuts passive optical network chips

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For a long time, I was wondering the decision of PMC buying Passive, a PON chip maker. Even though the Passive division did not bring in as much revenue as we expected, but it seems it’s the right acquisition after all. If Marvell and Broadcom are trying to get into the same market, it must be a good market to be in. With the Passive acquisition, PMC is ahead in the game and becomes the market leader of the moment.

Continue reading Marvell debuts passive optical network chips →

News Clips

The engineering gap

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My experience agrees with the articles that many Indian engineers are not as good as they claim to be. But I don’t think a new standardize test will solve the problem. The test only would work until some PREP school cracked the marking scheme and training loads of high marks idiots.

Continue reading The engineering gap →

兩週一聚

兩週一聚﹕鬼

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前言﹕這是一個叫「兩周一聚」的活動。是網友米雪兒發起。每月十五日﹑三十日﹐一班住在世界不同角落的香港人都會一起寫同一個題目。今天是第三十一次相聚，由浪子Ｍ出題﹐主題定為「鬼」。

從很小時候有記憶開始﹐印像中我從來不怕鬼。可能是我很細個的時候﹐家父常常對我說﹐我實在太頑皮﹐頑皮到連鬼也怕了我。於是潛移默化下﹐我下意識認為我為什麼要怕鬼﹐應該鬼要怕我才對。一直到長大我也沒有見識過鬼﹐也不知道鬼有什麼可怕。

我有段時間很喜歡看鬼故鬼戲﹐余過倪匡的鬼故﹐八九十年代港產鬼片﹐荷里活典經恐怖片﹐我差不多全看過。我對鬼的認識全來自那些故事﹐但我看時從不感到害怕﹐我只是不明白如果靈界存在的話﹐靈界的運行法則是怎樣。為什麼總有些害人的鬼跑出來﹐而鬼故中的人總又是那麼軟弱無助﹐幻想著如果我代入其中角色﹐我可以如何扭轉故事的結局﹐人定勝鬼讓鬼見我也怕。我曾經想過寫鬼故事﹐可是一個成功的鬼故事﹐先決條件是要嚇到讀者。問題是我不怕鬼﹐完全想像不到恐怖的橋段﹐次次想故事最後總是變了搞笑鬧劇。

根據一般鬼故的說法﹐鬼通常是人死後變成﹐那人為什麼要驚鬼呢。人始終會死﹐死了以後就會變鬼﹐那有自己驚自己的理道﹖若果有鬼走出來要害我﹐最糟榚的情況也是給害命﹐那我最多也只是變鬼﹐與害我的鬼打成平手。恐懼源於無知﹐人類不知道靈界如何﹐才會對鬼感到害怕。可是如果靜心下來﹐用理性分析靈界的各種可能性﹐用箍選法刪去一不合邏輯﹐不乎合人界與靈界平衡的情況。那些能力超強超屈機的鬼不可能存在﹐不然人類世界早就被鬼統治了。那剩下有關鬼的形像其實不怎麼可怕﹐只要找出其弱點人類便有辨法對付。

我最喜歡與鬼有關的故事是「捉鬼敢死隊」和「幽遊白書」﹐前者用科技的力量去收拾鬼怪﹐後者則是很熱血的人鬼大戰。當年貞子熱潮嚇倒了不少人﹐我看電影時見貞子從電視爬出來﹐我腦中第一個念頭不是驚嚇﹐而是想如果用五吋手提電視播那盒鬼錄影帶﹐會不會有個迷你貞子爬出來﹐我可不可以一腳踏死她。

其實人比鬼更加可怕﹐鬼害人多還是人害人多﹐鬼殺人多還是人殺人多﹖從機會率來看﹐繁忙時間過馬路比遇見鬼還危險呢。

其它鬼事: 浪子Ｍ; The Man Who Loves Everton; 南杏; 老子; RandomCoil; Just Little Something; 火羽; Maple; 加燦; mememomo; Bakingmaniac‧烘焙狂熱份子

若果想參加兩周一聚的朋友﹐可以參看這個網頁。

Daily Scribble

Measure twice, cut once

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I wish wood working is like writing software, there is a undo button to undo my mistakes. I make a very silly mistake today in my wood working class. I cut two pieces of wood one inch too short. Here is how it happened. The end of the tape measure, the metal piece, is not accurate, so we are told to make the measure starting from the 1″ mark. The problem is that I forgot to add an extra inch when I am reading the number. After I made the cut, I wonder how come my wood seems short, but it’s already too late. If I didn’t cut enough, it is very easy to trim off a little bit more. However if I cut too much, I have to throw away the wood and start from scratch. Luckily I bought some extra wood, so I can make a spare. I just have to work faster next class to catch up.

The instructor already told us the rule of thumb in wood working in the first class, “measure twice, cut once.” I didn’t read the measure again after I mark the cut line, and I had learned my lesson. I think I can turn this lesson into a chicken soup story if I spicy it up a little bit. Working with wood is like life, there is no undo button to fix a mistake. The moral of the story is always “measure twice, cut once” or “think twice, act once”.