random order

♥ Clarisonic Mia 洗臉刷

2010-11-14T20:44:00.000-08:00

I've been a student for most of my life. And I'm not a person who buys a lot of stuff. But in this past year, I bought a few gadgets that I really like!! Clarisonic Mia is one of them. It's the most simple model among several Clarisonic brushes you can choose from, but it's quite enough for me. It's easy to use, and definitely help a lazy person like me to clean my face much better.

I like to use it with the Philosophy purity made simple facial cleanser, which has a nice smell, doesn't generate too much bubbles and doesn't irritate the skin.

不過台灣好像沒有賣Clarisonic Mia的樣子, 我聽過的都是朋友幫忙代購。另外就是, Mia的刷頭要定期更換, 所以如果人在台灣要用可能比較麻煩一些。但是真的很好用! 值得買 :D

back pain, stress, etc

2010-07-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I had really bad back pain during sleep. Many symptoms and genetic factors led me to think that it could be Ankylosing Spondylitis. After consulting with the doctor, getting an X-ray, it turned out to be not AS (phew!), but I still have the back pain.

I'm happy to say, after several months of struggling with the pain, starting from last week I'm finally complete backpain-free! Since I started to have back pain, I have invested lots of time and money to make it better. A few things that I have done since then -- (1) buying a Tempur-Pedic bed, (2) seeing a physical therapist and doing the exercises he suggested, (3) ask ergonomics people at work to adjust my workspace, (4) start doing yoga, (5) start getting chair massages. And even before this I already have regular cardio exercising habits. So I kept doing that.

Basically I think all of these helped! Tempur-Pedic, surprisingly, helped on the first day it arrived. Right after the first night, I felt my back pain is much better. Before that, my back pain is like a burning sensation in my back, at about the second half in my sleep. When I started using Tempur-Pedic bed, it immediately improves it. My back pain still exists, but it becomes more like a stiffness and sore in the morning. Not so much that it would affect my sleep anymore. But, after the second nights and later, Tempur-Pedic bed basically just kept it that way, the back pain didn't completely go away.
Another common complaints of Tempur-Pedic (other than being expensive) that you'll find on the internet is that it retains heat. Yes it does. Sometimes it's a little too hot for me. But still, it does provide good back support.

What the physical therapist told me is to stretch my back muscles, and to strengthen my core muscles. A few exercise I particularly like is to use a tennis ball against the wall to massage the muscles next to the spine, and the prayer stretch (kinda like child's pose in yoga?) is good too. Some neck/back exercises are good too. I think the point is to take breaks during the day and actually spend time doing these stretches and exercises. It used to be impossible for me, because I just like to focus when I work. But now I have the back pain, it's actually a great reminder -- if you don't stretch, then prepare to wake up in the middle of the night and having burning pain in your back!!

Yoga is great too. I used to avoid doing it, because I simply don't have the patience for it. My favorite exercise classes are like step, kickboxing. I like things that's very active, and I used to go to yoga classes expecting that kind of level of activity. That's why I didn't get it and just didn't like doing it. But just this year, I took a "yoga 101" class at work. This time I go in knowing that it's supposed to be some kind of meditation and communicating with your body and mind. And I like it! I feel like I know more about how the muscles, joints work, and also learn very useful breathing techniques. I think it's very important to understand what yoga wants to achieve before trying it.

I also started going to chair massages at work. It helps me relaxes my back, shoulder and back, which are hard for me to relax myself. It seems to help so far! =)

It's like a journey, getting to know my muscles, how my body and mind works. =)

I've disabled commenting on this blog

2010-04-26T12:07:00.001-07:00

The only comments I got seem to be spamming. I can delete them right away, but they're still annoying. So I've decided to disable it.

having fun with Scratch!

2010-04-23T13:48:00.001-07:00

Recently my MAGIC mentee and I have been doing lots of fun Scratch programming. Currently our strategy is look for inspirations from other games, and build our own games in Scratch. Sometimes we also start from a game and do a "remix" of it.

This is one that we made within an hour last week:
Learn more about this project

It's fun to play! The original project is pretty cool, but doesn't really have a goal. We add the red doors as the transition points, and other fun elements in the game. It's a really good way to play with Scratch. And you won't feel bored getting stuck in a project for too long, because you can always switch to do projects you find exciting!

Interview at "Community Balance", KMVT

2010-03-13T23:31:00.000-08:00

MAGIC got invited to a local TV show "Community Balance" a while ago. Here are the interview videos: part1, part2, part3, part4. I haven't actually watch them myself, but hopefully we successfully convey what MAGIC is. :-)

hot shower

2009-11-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

I love hot showers.

I was taking a shower yesterday. The hot water was just the right temperature for a chilly winter night. It suddenly occurred to me how great it is to have hot, clean, running water. It almost felt like I was wasting the precious resource. I take a hot shower every day of my life, and it never really occurred to me that people might not even have enough water, or clean water to drink.
Well I think I always kind of know about it in my mind, but it just never struck me like yesterday. Maybe it's because of the charity advertisement I saw on Hulu about water...

I'll look up the charity and think about it more.

(I'm also a huge fan of flush toilet!)

update

2009-10-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

Recently several things happened that are worth updating. First, I graduated from the CS PhD program. After 5 years at Stanford, I defended in July, turned in my thesis in August and were finally done with school! I'm quite happy, but also a little sad that I had to leave Stanford. It was a good place to be. :-)

And after that, I took a 5 week vacation back in Taiwan. Andrew also joined me for 2 weeks in Taiwan. We traveled quite a lot in Taiwan. Here are the pictures.

And then, I joined Google recently. :-)
But since it's very recently, I don't have much to say about that yet...

相機的LCD全黑

2009-07-28T22:52:00.001-07:00

前陣子不知道按到什麼, 我的相機(PowerShot A620)在某些模式的時候會忽然全黑(快門關起來的感覺). 在網路上找資料, 找到這篇, 但是症狀卻不完全相同:

A Simple Fix For a Stuck Shutter

於是我就把我的疑問post上去, 結果很快就得到回答了!! 原來...原來是我按到 DISPLAY 按鍵...嗚嗚,耍笨..但是真的很感謝他! 大推他的blog :-)

Ways of exchanging USD to NTD

2009-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

I found a blog post (in Chinese) that compared 5 different ways:

匯錢回台的五種方法

It seems like the best way is actually to just write a personal check, and desposit in to a Taiwanese bank (USD account). The Taiwanese banks would usually charge some fees, but not too much.

Here's another post that listed the fees of several different bank: 美金支票如何兌現.

The drawback of doing this is that they have to send the check for verfication, so it will take a few weeks before the money appears in the account.

So if you're exchanging NTD (or TWD, as Google calls it) for a short trip, just bringing cash or traveller's cheque might still be the way to go. Or withdraw with an ATM card works too.

I'll probably open a USD account in Taiwan, and just write myself a check, and then transfer it to a NTD account in the same bank. :)

Ways of exchanging USD to NTD: direct withdrawal from US bank account

2009-07-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Withdraw directly from my US bank account:

I just chedked what the exchange rate and fees will be, if I want to simply withdraw New Taiwan Dollars in Taiwan using my Bank of America ATM.
First of all, the exchange rate is unsurprisingly bad: rate chart. Currently they give 1 USD -> 29.74 NTD, even though the true rate is 33.63. And there will also be three other things:

an Internal ATM fee of $5.00
"An International Transaction Fee of 1% is charged for each cash withdrawal made with a Bank of America Check Card in a foreign country. The fee will appear as a separate transaction posted on the same date as the purchase transaction."
"An additional 3% Foreign Currency Conversion Adjustment is charged for check card point-of-sale purchases made in a currency other than U.S. dollars. The fee is assessed to help recover costs of processing the currency exchange for check card purchases."

I'm not sure if the third one applies if I'm just using it as an ATM card instead of a debit card.

I'll post more on this topic later... This is useful for me because I'd like to wire some money back for my parents in Taiwan form time to time, and I'm really hoping for a better exchange rate.

Travel in Taiwan

2009-07-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going back Taiwan this summer. Here's a list of places to go in Taiwan.
I'm still working on the list. :)

View Travel in Taiwan in a larger map

Chrome and Firefox

2009-06-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

I was a Firefox user for a long time. A while ago I switch to Chrome, and there's a few features I like about it. The feature I really like is you can drag out a tab and it becomes another window. You can also drag a tab from one window and attach it to another Chrome window.
This is particularly useful when I have two monitors, and when I'm watching a video on one of the monitors and working on the other. But there's still one thing Chrome bothers me -- I couldn't open PDF files in Chrome. It has bothered me for a while, and I finally decided to look for answers on the Internet.
It turns out quite easy to solve. Here's a Google Chrome page that talks about this issue. Copying the dll file and paste it in the Plugins directory works for me!

Now I can keep Chrome and not switching back to Firefox. :-)

---
By the way, I would to switch back to Firefox if it also has the tab-dragging functionality. I just tried out Firefox 3.5. There is a similar functionality -- you can drag a tab out and it will become another window. However, it doesn't work as smoothly as Chrome, and also the content of the tab will be reloaded, which is not desirable when I'm watching a video in that tab...

moving out of Munger / CroMem

2009-06-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone moved out from Munger.

Before Munger, we were all residents of CroMem or Crothers. Because Stanford wants to renovate CroMem and Crothers and use them as undergrad dorms, we were offered to move to the newly built residence -- Munger. It was pretty nice. Building is all new and quite fancy. Also we only had to pay CroMem rate, which is pretty sweet. Although since there was still construction going on, the noise could be pretty annoying..
The point of having most of us move to the same place was hoping the community can stay together. Before living in CroMem, I've lived at several different residences on campus (Lyman for two years, two different places in EV in the same year). CroMem was definitely a very social place on campus. The CAs did a good job organizing events, and there was also regular study breaks (with food!) every week.
Probably because of the dorm setting, where people share the bathroom and the kitchen, in CroMem I had much more interactions with my neighbors than anywhere else on campus.

Munger was a totally different environment. I heard the people who built it want most social activities to happen within each apartment. But because the CroMem (and Crothers) community moved together, all the CAs still did a great job organizing events and keeping people connected.

But I guess everything has an end at some point.
Stanford is using Munger for the Senior Olympic this summer, so all of us had to move out. After this, many of us graduated, moved to other places on/off campus, etc.

It was a great time living in CroMem / Munger. The last (almost) two years on campus was wonderful. :)

申請H-1B的 DS156 form

2009-06-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

剛才從AIT的網頁上找DS156的線上表格, 發現還滿難找到的.
這個是線上表格的網頁:
https://www.visaagent.com.tw/niv/online_VisaSel_cht.asp

Do not run after giving blood!

2009-06-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

I went to give blood at the Stanford Blood Center today. It went pretty well. But afterwards, I went to PT&S to get an ES permit for the summer. I was parking at a 20min parking space, so I kinda ran a little bit into the PT&S office. That was such a bad idea. I realized it right away after I got in. I started feeling very very dizzy, disoriented and nausea. I thought it would go away after a while, but it only got a little better when I was sitting down.

I sat on the floor and probably looked quite sick. One lady there asked if I have some friends that I can call, but I can't think of anyone who's on campus and has a car... o_O After a while the lady actually called the fire department, and then the ambulance came.. O_o
Anyway, I was sent to the Stanford ER after that, and was tested for several things, and was there for 3 hours..

Sigh. Giving blood is a nice thing. I think I'll give it another try, but next time I'll definitely make sure I have enough water, and definitely go home and lie down right after giving blood.

Giving blood is supposed to be good (or at least not hurting) our health, but it is very important to remember NOT TO RUN after giving blood. (SIGH!)

----
All the people at PT&S, from the fire department and the hospital are all very nice!!
Thanks for helping and sorry for using the medical resource on a healthy young person like me. I'll be more careful in the future. :)

perl code for 99 bottles of beer

2009-06-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today at Alfred Aho's invited talk at SSST-3, he mentioned the "99 bottles of beer" website, and showed the perl example code for printing out the "99 bottles of beer". It's quite amazing! I knew that people can write some pretty undecipherable perl code, but this one is cool -- run it and get the "99 bottles of beer" printed out! :D

有點莫名其妙

2009-05-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

剛才跟一個人在IM talk, 後來結果兩個人好像開始有點不爽.
其實我有點莫名其妙耶! 回去看了一下對話紀錄, 可能是因為我後來叫
他不要一直抱怨, 畢竟我只是提醒他一件事情, 事情的問題也不是我的
錯. 然後他就不爽起來, 說什麼我才是一直跟他抱怨... Orz

我最近發現我有一個很致命的問題, 我有時候好像自以為是地把一些並
沒有把我當成朋友的人當成是我的朋友. 坦白說, 回去看那個對話紀錄
, 一開始也只是想問他他有沒有記得去登記某一項服務. 到最後卻被說
不要跟他抱怨...

什麼鬼啊..早知道不要自己無聊去問他有沒有登記.

以前一個好朋友跟我說過一句話 "要把別人當作朋友,也要先看這個人是
不是也有把你當作朋友." 問題會是出在這裡嗎?

說真的,雖然我跟這個人不是一直都很熟,但總覺得這樣一路走過來,
也算有很多交集,或多或少也互相幫了不少忙. 大概是我自己自以為是了吧.
但如果這樣的話, 究竟要怎樣才算朋友呢?

我覺得"朋友"應該是很容易達到才是, 當然"好朋友"又是另一回事了.
或許我也不應該這麼計較吧.

"Women of Vision" banquet

2009-04-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

I'm going to attend the Women of Vision banquet on Thursday.
Actually not sure what it will be like, but I'm going with several other female Stanford students so it should be fun.

One thing that I'm a little concerned is the dress code -- "Business Formal / Business Dressy Attire". I know what it is after doing some research on the Internet, but I'm not sure the one I have is good enough.

I'm planning to wear a buttoned shirt (white with thin color stripes), and a more "formal" looking skirt. and probably won't wear a jacket since I don't have a good jacket to go with the shirt and the skirt.

Hopefully that will be fine. Wow, I got that skirt five years ago when I came to the US. A friend gave it to me and told me: "You'll need this when you start working!" And I doubted I'll ever need it as an engineer. But now.. I am thankful I have that skirt! :p

有趣的字 - ㍻

2009-04-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

剛才在 IRC 上看到這個字 : ㍻

好有趣的字, 左邊是平右邊是成, 這是日本的用法嗎?
平成(Heisei period) --> ㍻.

而且原來還有更多, according to llwang:
07:34 <@llwang> 還有㍼㍽㍾

Stanford Women's Leadership Conference 2009

2009-04-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

I attended the Stanford Women's Leadership Conference today (April 18, 2009).
The theme of the workshop this year is "Creating a Valuable World".
This is the first time I attended SWLC. The speakers of talks I attended all had interesting stories to tell. And it's interesting to see how "successful" women have in common and where they are different.

All they have in common is having passion to life and care about people, very energetic and thinking positive about things, even though they do have very different life and career experience.

It's amazing how they can find so many good speakers to talk. It's a great conference. :-)

Also, it's a great day at Stanford!

Omonia Square

2009-03-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

For the first part of my trip in Greece, I'm staying in the Best Western Hotel Zinon near Omonia Square (Πλατεία Ομονοίας).

Before I came here, I read some reviews and people have mixed opinions about this place, mostly because of the location of the hotel.

I arrived in the morning. Omonia Square is very very busy. The streets around are not clean and definitely look old. But I feel it's pretty safe. I was curious if it'll feel more sketchy at night, so I just took a walk from Zinon to Omonia Square, and then to another square nearby.

View Larger Map
It was a very short walk, but there were so many people and traffic outside! I actually like it, and I still don't think it feels dangerous.

Although, it is true that there are many people just hang out on the street. They aren't really drinking or anything. Most people who just stand on the street are guys, in groups or by themselves. I understand why people sit at the Omonia Square, because it's kind of nice just sit at a square and hang out.

But I'm surprised that many people just stand by the side of a narrow street and hang out with their friends. Maybe because the weather is nice? I wonder what it's like in winter here.

One other thing worth noting about Hotel Zinon is: I found it a little hard to find. I followed the direction on this website, but missed the turn on Keramikou and walked quite far on P. Tsaldari. (And actually, while I was lost, I saw lots of Chinese stores around this area. Maybe there's a China town nearby?)
If you're also walking to Zinon, it's the second slight right turn on P. Tsaldari street.

Overall, I think Omonia Square is a fine neighborhood, and definitely a happening place. I haven't seen much to do in terms of "tourist" activities. But it's not dangerous, and Hotel Zinon is at a good location too. (We'll see how the breakfast is tomorrow morning. :p)

benadryl

2009-03-25T00:16:00.001-07:00

I've been coughing for weeks, so I finally went to the doctor yesterday.

The doctor checked my lungs, and it seems like the coughing is just the left-over symptom from the common cold I got a while back.

He first suggested Claritin to help clear up the congestion.
I told him I also had problem sleeping because I'd wake up coughing at night, so he said I might want to try Benadryl instead. Because Benadryl actually has the side effect of making you sleepy. In my case it could be a desired effect.

So I bought Benadryl from the grocery store on campus.

I tried it for the first time yesterday. At first I still coughed when I tried to sleep. But then..... I was completely knocked out and didn't wake up after at least 8 hours later!

It's pretty cool actually. But read the box before you take Benadryl. Definitely don't want to take it if you're going to drive or pull an all-nighter.

Homma's Brown Rice Sushi

2009-03-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Brown Rice Sushi是在Palo Alto一家非常小的sushi店, 如果沒去過不是非常好找.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/hommas-brown-rice-sushi-palo-alto

評價很不錯, 今天去吃的午餐是Combo #1, 七塊多不到八塊錢, 但是量也不多, 就是下面這一盤還有一小杯miso soup:

使用Brown Rice是他們的特色, 魚料的話我覺得還可以..(大概不能跟最近台灣一大堆壽司店比吧)
我的朋友裡, 有去過的都還滿喜歡的 (不過都不是亞洲人 :p)
我覺得使用brown rice其實很聰明, 因為更加強了"健康"的印象, 而且其實還滿好吃的!

Day Job - Sunshine State

2009-03-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

a cute song:

Sunshine State - Day Job @ Yahoo! Video

Donate blood!

2009-03-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

This is from the Stanford Blood Center on Stanford campus:

blood shortage:
http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/news/inventory.html

Schedule online:
http://www.membersforlife.org/stanford/schedule.php

If you're not around Stanford, donate at your local blood center.
It's actually good for you! :D

"Schengen"

2009-03-14T14:17:00.001-07:00

In my previous posts, I use the Chinese term "深耕" (literally means "deep plowing") as a transliteration for "Schengen". But it turns out the official transliteration is "申根", which literally means "extending the root". In terms of transliteration, I would say they're both fine, since they all both similar to Schengen. But in terms of the literal meaning, "extending the root" is probably better than "deep plowing"? :p

==

忽然發現 Schengen 應該是翻譯成 "申根" (extend the root) 而不是 "深耕" (deep plowing) :p
其實是取音譯, 但是似乎 extending the root 感覺比 plowing deep 來得有道理?

拿到希臘簽證!

2009-03-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

今天終於等到USPS把我的護照送到家了!
整個過程其實不是很滿意, 可能因為我住的地方是新的, USPS的express mail不知道為什麼送得不是很順.
希臘在舊金山的辦事處, 速度還算ok. 不過那裡負責辦簽證的先生, 每次電話打去都有點不耐煩的感覺, 但是該提供的資訊都還是有提供啦, 所以我就不要抱怨好了 :)

在等護照的期間, 也好不容易把行程敲定了. 這趟去主要是去開會的, 開會之後只排了五天的空閒時間 (沒辦法, 得回家寫論文). 所以我的打算是:
三天去 Santorini 晃, 兩天去 Delphi 玩 (本來想去 Meteora, 但是跟當地的團行程敲不定...嗚嗚)

本來是想兩天在Santorini, 然後Delphi+Meteora排三天的, 但是因為敲不定, 所以就只好很悠閒地在Santorini待三天囉!

其實也不錯啦, 旅行不要排太滿, 過得比較開心一點 :p
只希望Santorini不要太無聊, 至少希望天氣ok *^^*

3D Interactive Toyota iQ

2009-03-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

Toyota has made a cute program to promote their iQ.

I saw the demo video and thought it's pretty cool.

Here's the website: 3D Interactive Toyota iQ

It'll be cooler if I can try it myself. :)

So...the one with driving:

The one with the exploded view:

Tontie Remix in Scratch

2009-03-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

Tontie is a cute game that's like whack-a-mole.

Here's a remix of Tontie done in Scratch, which I think is pretty cute.
Here's the link and a picture:
.

Have fun whacking tonties. ;-)

十一年以前

2009-03-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

十一年以前, 看了村上的舞舞舞之後,在一張紙上抄下這一段:
--

跳舞啊, 羊男說.
跳舞啊, 思考回響著.
跳舞啊, 我試著出聲地複誦著.
然後按了十五樓的按鈕.
在十五樓走出電梯時, 從填在天花板裡的喇叭傳來亨利曼西尼的"月河"歡迎著我.
現實世界 -- 我也許無法變幸福, 也許無處可去的現實世界.
我反射地看看手錶. 回返時間是上午三時二十分.
那麼, 我想. 那麼那麼那麼那麼那麼那麼那麼那麼......思考回響著.我嘆了一口氣.

--
十一年以前.

重新拾回熱情

2009-02-25T18:05:00.000-08:00

從小我就是個功課不錯的孩子, 就這樣一路一直念到現在是Stanford的PhD學生. 這整個過程中我自己對自己感覺最滿意的事情, 並不是我有多聰明或是我念的學校有多優越, 真正一直讓我很開心的事情是我一直對於"學習"這件事情保持著熱情.
小時候我很喜歡物理數學, 除了課本的東西以外, 會想念更多的東西; 會想要了解 "為什麼", 但同時其實也滿喜歡鑽研解題技巧 (後者對於台灣的教育跟考試制度大概很有幫助 :p)

一路念下來其實我都很喜歡我所學的東西. 高中念第三類組時, 我對數理很有興趣, 對語言其實也很有興趣 (花很多時間念英文因為覺得很好玩). 大學時念資訊工程, 雖然剛進大學的時候對程式設計完全沒概念, 但是在大學真的學到很多, 不管是從學校的課程或是超級geeky的同學環繞之下, 覺得每天都可以學到很多東西, 不論是理論或是系統方面.

碩士班做的是中文語音辨識方面的研究, 我做的 language models 可以實際使用在當時實驗室的中文新聞語音搜尋系統, 也感覺相當有成就感.

一路走來, 我一直都是因為興趣而繼續做研究. 但是在進PhD program的前幾年, 我覺得我自己有點變了. 其實對研究的熱情還是有的, 但是對於研究成果的焦慮似乎蓋過多方面嘗試的興奮感, 曾經有一段時間焦慮和挫敗感甚至影響到對於研究的熱情, 讓我自己有種找不到方向的感覺...

這一年多來, 大概是研究比較上軌道了, 也比較知道怎麼平衡自己的生活, 減輕不必要的壓力, 我開始比較能夠再次享受研究本身的樂趣, 而不是一直覺得自己怎麼都沒成就, 沒有做出東西來.

之前的post有提到這一年我加入 MAGIC mentor program, 所以我每個星期會跟一個六年級的小女生meet一次. 之前我們會一起做 Scratch 的程式設計, 最近她提到她們學校有教 RoboLab, 所以我們也一起做了一些RoboLab programming. 這些事情讓我回想到以前的我自己, 雖然我小時候沒有接觸過任何程式設計的東西, 但是那種對於事情感到有熱情, 而且可以 "own a project" 的感覺, 就是從小讓我對事情很有興趣的原因...
(雖然我小時候自己的project大都是, 看我能不能解出這個很難的數學題目, 看我能用幾種方法解出這個題目, 之類的 :P)

而我博士班能夠覺得漸入佳境的時候, 其實也是因為開始可以喜歡上那種把一個個building blocks建立起來, 而不要一開始就斤斤計較這是不是會是一個成功的research project... 畢竟一個research project之所以為研究, 就是因為一開始不知道它會不會成功. 真正的樂趣應該在於建立那些小小的building blocks, 即使最後不能湊成自己原本計畫的建築物, 或許也可以湊出其他有趣的成果.

之前一直很想把最近的這些感覺寫下來, 或許以後工作的時候可以記得, 而不要犯一樣的錯誤. 今天看到 RoboLab 之後, 忽然覺得, 就是這麼一回事 :D

要享受hands-on的樂趣, 不要怕犯錯, 每天有一些進度(小的building blocks), 可以隨時修正方向. :)

Lecture on Design Principles

2009-02-18T15:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's Data Visualization (CS448B) was a guest lecture by Maneesh Agrawala.
He mainly talked about two projects. I really like the first project -- trying to generate maps that are easier to use for driving purposes. Usually the online maps systems generate maps truthfully to the real ratio, but when we hand draw a map to show people directions, we usually exaggerate the turning points, put on more useful context road names, etc.

And he showed us a demo online!!

Say, if I want to go to the Greek Consulate in SF from Stanford.
Here's a common map I get from maps.msn.com.

If I choose "LineDrive" as the map style, I get this:

It's more like a hand-drawn style, and all the "design principles" were first designed by following what's best for driver's perception, and the scoring function is then minimized with simulated annealing to find the best layout. He also showed us a video
of the search process (first search in the space of road layout, then label layout, etc).

I think it's pretty cool! I might use it for future driving directions. :)

follow up on 申請希臘簽證

2009-02-17T23:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure yet if I'll go to the city to apply for the visa, or if I'll just mail the documents. I was looking up on Google Maps to see if it's easy to get to the Greek Consulate (map). It turns out, other than CalTrain or BART, I will have to take the bus in the city.
I'm not sure how much I like that, but I'm also not sure how much I want to drive and park there... :-/

Chinese Grammatical Relations in Stanford Parser

2009-02-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

The typed Chinese grammatical relations already existed since 2005 or 2006. But there has never been clear documentation on it, and probably no publications related to it either.

I'm currently reorganizing the grammatical relations and making a documentation for it (well, it's going to be part of my thesis. :))

I was just writing down the hierarchy of all the relations, and see if there's anything that need to be fixed.

This scratch is not going to be a figure or anything in the documentation. I'll try to organize it so it's pretty and professional as the manual that Marie wrote. More details to come...

a heart-shaped island

2009-02-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

I saw this in the news. I thought it fit well into the Valentine's day. <3

View Larger Map

Booking hotel in Athens, Greece

2009-02-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

Originally I wasn't so thrilled about going to Greece. Because I am kind of lazy about having to travel for so long, and really want to work on my thesis more. (seriously! :p)

But just like every other travel, I started to get excited when I actually started planning out the dates, and where I'm gonna stay.

Here's a hotel lists from EACL 2009 and the map.

I haven't decided where to stay (probably the cheapest one possible). But yay! Greece!

"Cecil"

2009-02-09T21:00:00.001-08:00

I have a friend who's name is Cecil.
And this name turned out to be a really "old" name according to NameVoyager....

申請希臘簽證

2009-02-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

身為台灣人, 每次旅行之前就是要先注意申請簽證的事情了. 這個世界上幾乎沒有哪幾個國家是我們不需要簽證的. :-/

(現在去日本不用簽證了, 而且聽說過一陣子去英國也不用簽證!)

因為投到WMT2009的paper上了, 今年三月底要去希臘開會, 所以就很苦命地開始申請深耕簽證.
要開的會(EACL)的人好心告訴我可以聯絡 SF Greek Consulate. 打電話去, 結果得到的資訊是, 請連到 http://www.mediavisa.net/ .

其實想想也奇怪, 去年去Prague, Czech開會, 應該也是深耕簽證, 不過不知道為什麼沒有連去那個網站. 印象中好像是把表填一填, 跟護照一起寄去 LA 的 Consulate General of the Czech Republic, 然後就回來了. 好像也沒有自己買保險什麼的, 難道是我記錯了. o_O

總之, 開始填表付錢吧.

終於拿回吉他

2009-02-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

之前因為搬家的關係, 吉他不在身邊好幾個月了. 昨天終於拿回吉他了! 剛好在廣播上聽到陳綺貞的"魚", 又找到魚的吉他chords, 所以就自己試著唱了一下. :p

坦白說我唱得太用力了, 沒有另一個女生唱得好聽...嗚嗚.
其實副歌唱起來很過癮, 所以很容易就唱太用力.

不過總之開心就好 :D

Scratch

2009-02-06T23:34:00.000-08:00

因為 MAGIC 的關係, 我開始玩 Scratch 這個程式語言 (應該算程式語言吧? :p)

Scratch很有趣, 而且用它可以很容易做小遊戲跟動畫之類的東西.

我看了一下, 目前最受歡迎的project之一大概是這個 Super Mario.

除此之外, 還有很多projects都讓我覺得超驚訝的. 比如說這個 Duck Hunt project, 看起來跟在小時候任天堂上的 Duck Hunt 一模一樣.

之後我可能會post一些自己做的projects上來, 不過不會這麼高品質... :p

Scratch真的很好玩, 我覺得很適合吸引小孩子來學基本程式邏輯. 就算已經會寫程式的大人也還是可以玩...我就玩得滿開心的 :p

Are women the worst enemies of their own at work?

2009-02-06T15:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a NYTimes article about women at workplace: A Sisterhood of Workplace Infighting

Although I haven't actually worked a full-time job myself, I did have similar experience in the past where the female coworkers / classmates are hiding information and male ones are more open to share.

I thought it was more a personality issue though. Men or women, there are just some people who are good-natured and like to share; some others who want to keep everything good to themselves.

Hopefully when I start working later this year, I'll have collaborative and smart people to work with!

Bill Gate and mosquitoes

2009-02-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

I read the 2009 Annual Letter from Bill Gates about his work at the Gates Foundation.

I think what they're doing at the Gates Foundation is great. Although it's kinda funny that he released some mosquitoes at his TED talk. (Video below)

I still think what the foundation does is great, and I still respect Bill Gates. But I can also understand why there's criticisms about what he did... :p

I personally find it kinda funny that he released some bugs at TED, but maybe I'm easily amused. :p

Triops "恐龍蝦"

2009-02-05T00:42:00.000-08:00

Because of the MAGIC program, I visit GMS every week. Last week I saw this creature called "triops" the very first time in my life!

Since I did all my earlier education in Taiwan, what often happens is that people would say a name of a creature and I don't know the word. But I usually know what it is and know the name in Chinese. But this creature, after seeing it, I was so surprised that I actually have never seen it before, and didn't know its Chinese name!
After I came back, I tried to look up its Chinese name. It seems like one name that people use is "恐龍蝦", which translates to "dinosaur shrimp". It's an appropriate name. :)

The triops were hatched from a box that looked like this:

Water and bubbles under ice

2009-02-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

去 Lake Tahoe 的時候, 在路上看到這個景象:

http://flickr.com/photos/pichuan/3246858238/

水和氣泡在冰下面流動著, 看久了會讓我聯想到細胞裡面流動的東西...(也不知道是不是真的長那樣 :p)

why people like to reinvent wheels

2009-02-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a new projects. I created a new package, and was debating if I should reuse some of the classes that I wrote for the previous project.

Then I suddenly have this feeling that it's just so much easy and less messy to rewrite the basic classes for this new project.

And it not only feels more straightforward, but also more fun!

I know why people like to reinvent wheels... :-/