Music of the day: Chinese classical music

I found this Chinese classical music radio program by accident (got a link to listen to another RTHK program) It seems to be a biweekly broadcasted ~15 minute program. Good for casual fan like me. (Another choice would be the DJ-less stream that is available on Shoutcast)

Sports highlights: NASCAR at Darlington, Lakers swept, Man U defeated Chelsea plus more

The most exciting moment I watched was Regan Smith winning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington. The race wasn't much until the final laps, when big crash wiped out Kevin Harvick and teammate Clint Bowyer. Pit strategy came into picture: the leader Carl Edwards and most decided to take 2 new tires while the rest gambled by taking none. Regan Smith was among the latter group and the gamble paid out! He restarted first and maintained his lead over Edwards until he got the checkered flag. It's nice to see one-car team like his beating the big guns from Roush Fenway, Hendrick and Childress.
I didn't watch the game at all but I was really happy to hear that the hated Lakers (well, by most people outside SoCal, especially NoCal people like me) was swept by Dallas Mavericks. It's no fun to see the same team winning over and over again...... unless you are a fan of that team, which, in my case, applies to Man U closing in on another EPL title again, by beating the 2nd place Chelsea 2-1. Go Man U!
This might not be the biggest headline on the Sports section but we have lost a golf legend, Seve Ballesteros, this weekend. He was a well-known great golfer way before I started following golf but he always showed his charisma whenever he's on TV. I remember him captaining the European team to victory in 1997. Another sad piece of news was that cyclist Wouter Weylandt died at Giro d'Italia. May them rest in peace.

Music of the day: Nicole Scherzinger performs Black Dog with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience

Nicole rocks on this song! (Well, I'm totally biased because she's Lewis Hamilton's gf. Not sure if I will be as positive if it's anyone else)

潭巫排山遊記

古籍有云：「地神倒海，潭巫排山」位於三藩市以北的Mount Tamalpais，據說就是出自這個典故；又有另一說法，指山中水潭旁邊一排排參天紅木，乃係女巫棲身之所，故名。（以上當然本人老作。不過這座山有不少傳說倒是事實，既有睡美人之稱，亦和女巫有關。詳見維基百科）星期天一早五時半起床，六時開車前往北灣Marin縣的Fairfax市，一路交通暢通無阻，途經三藩市，這麼早好像還是第一次！七時半和其他三名車友集合，八時正式出發踩單車！一開始便爬山，頭四里已爬了差不多900呎，跟著輕鬆下山三里，到達Alpine Lake的水壩，風光不俗。不過好戲在後頭！接著十里路要爬1700呎，一段路上上落落七次，遊人稱之為七姊妹（不是老作）。在Tamalpais山頂遠眺三藩市金門橋及海灣，景致更佳！論風景、好玩（及辛苦）程度，比上次上南灣Mount Hamilton Lick Observatory有過之而無不及。

其中一名車友是新相識，踩起車來一點都不似實際年齡（五十幾），他在該地玩山地車(mountain bike)比山地車老祖Gary Fisher還要早！玩公路車(road bike)亦同樣了得，我今次獲益良多。除了單車，此君亦熱愛高爾夫球及滑雪，當然亦甚擅長。其實另外兩位車友亦是興趣多多，樣樣皆精。此行我有些感想：（一）中國人一向認為：「勤有功，嬉無益」「書中自有黃金屋」又曰：「玩物喪志。」今時今日我想不能一成不變地跟從。靠顯赫學歷飛黃騰達之士，固然不少。但條條大路通羅馬，只要有拼勁，就有機會創一番事業。要鍛鍊拼勁，靠體育音樂等「課外活動」又何嘗不可？這幾位車友從小就熱衷於運動，如今皆事業有成，想必有點關係。

（二）本地熱門的單車路線，我都去過不少，包括Los Altos Hills,Portola Valley,Woodside,Hillsborough,Stevens Creek Reservoir,Mt Hamilton,加上今次Marin County一役，發覺這些地方有一個共通點：附近一定是有錢人聚居地！如果說有錢人喜歡踩單車，所以發掘了屋企附近的單車路線，並將之發揚光大，未免說不通；皆因玩單車豐儉由人，昨天路上看到不少租的單車，都不是高價貨色（我的單車更不在話下）另一個解釋，是熱門單車路線多數風景宜人，有山有水，這些地方附近的房子，自然平極有限。

最後想講講早幾天放假另一次單車「旅程」：我心目中由Palo Alto過Dumbarton bridge到Fremont下Milpitas沿237旁小路經Great America到Moffett上Mountain View回Palo Alto的50里大圈算是一個壯舉；尤其想一試踩單車過揼爸藤橋的滋味，即使該路線好評不多。試完之後，的確不想推介給其他車友，因為（一）只得平路（二）要跨過幾條大highway的intersection（三）風十分大。

以下是這兩次的路線圖：

Bay loop over Dumbarton Bridge

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Music of the day: Eliesha Nelson performing complete viola works by Quincy Porter

This album won a Grammy this year (for best engineered album, but the performance itself is also superb. It's music by modern composer that doesn't sound too weird to most. Read the reviews on my link) I learned about this album when I was reading about Grammy reducing its number of awards, including some from the Classical category. This particular award seems to stay but the 2 best solo instrumentalist performance, with or without orchestra, will be combined into one. I guess the consolidation makes sense.
Speaking of viola, the Northern California Viola Society will be hosting a few workshops, at which participants will be playing a new viola piece together. Check out their blog for more details.

春爆遊記

又到一年一度「奉旨」放假的Spring Break，過去連續兩年都回香港，今年因為政府派六千元細節未定，加上剛在聖誕節回過（元氣大傷），所以決定貢獻給本地經濟。
總共拿了四天假，第一天早上帶小朋友去看電影HOP，主角是一隻不願乖乖繼承父業的復活節兔。電影班底據講來自Despicable Me，但情節舖排就遠遜於後者，不過小朋友沒有太計較。下午趁空檔去踩了一轉單車，由於只得四小時空檔，加上半夜要出車，結果選擇了較為簡單的路線：沿相當平直的Foothill南下Stevens Creek水塘，經Mt. Eden繞一圈再北上接回Foothill，水塘路段總算有點斜。
星期三凌晨三時出車，主要目標是聖地牙哥動物園。計劃是星期四一早到該處玩到下午，星期三如何打發？我們選擇了先到LA（正確來說是Arcadia）吃餐好的（鼎泰豐小籠包始終有水準，其餘的牛肉麵及蒸餃不過不失，紅豆rice cake就麻麻地）然後到Malibu（正確來說是Pacific Palisades）參觀Getty Villa。我們在兩年前參觀過LA的Getty Center， 覺得搞得不錯。雖然不是件件頂級珍藏，但建築本身相當有特色及氣派，派發的小冊子亦吸引小朋友探索藝術館各處。Getty Villa其實是Getty Center的前身，建築模仿古羅馬湮沒於火山灰中舊城大宅，所以極具特色，不枉一行。
下午三點半離開Malibu，遇上避無可避的大塞車，七時終於抵達聖地牙哥市中心的酒店。到酒店前經過一堆政府建築（法院及監獄），有點赫人，不過酒店其實也很接近食肆林立的蒲點Gaslamp Quarter，我們快快check-in就到了那裡，幾經辛苦找到一間menu頗為啱小朋友口味的意大利餐廳Operacaffe，結果也頗為啱大朋友口味！
星期四依計劃到動物園，先坐一坐圍園行走的巴士（下次最好坐右邊）了解一下路線，見熊貓無人排隊，決定以牠們作第一站，之後再按小朋友要求看他們有興趣的動物。其實動物園的安排不盡合理，如先看熊貓，基本上看其他動物就要走上走落走不少冤枉路，總算運動個夠吧！晚餐查了一陣網上reviews，選擇了可免費泊車的Joe's Crabshack。那裡是碼頭，景色不錯。我們叫了兩籃蟹，多得差點吃不完！飯後我一人再闖Gaslamp：除了食肆外，還有很多live music bar。我去了Jimmy Love's及Croce's。前者大概比蘭桂坊水準高一點，在後者演出的小號手Gilbert Castellanos及其latin jazz樂隊確係有料，收五元cover charge也值回票價。
最後一天高層指示要去名字相當配合春爆的爆煲園（Balboa Park），我下載了Balboa Park的app，發現其中有不少景點值得一遊。出發之前又再到Gaslamp Quarter的Cafe 21吃個brunch，店主夫婦來自亞塞拜疆，倒沒有期待omelette同pancake有太多西亞風味。餐後順道行行露天商場Horton Plaza然後出車。不得不提聖地牙哥的路牌做得頗差，前一天由動物園回downtown，其實路程極短，但指示奇差，白白浪費了半小時。這次由downtown去Balboa Park（其實動物園是Balboa Park的一部份），又兜了一大段路。
不過見到那個品種繁多、目不暇給的玫瑰園，心情頓覺開朗！欣賞完大自然後，輪到欣賞人工產物，就是博物館那堆建築物，都甚有特色。而在頗熱的天氣下，賣Hawaiian Shave Ice的街邊檔更覺合適。之後參觀了全球最大的室內模型火車展覽館，心境永遠年輕的我和小朋友同樣看得興奮。最後我們去了免費的美術館和植物園（温室），才踏上那長達十小時的歸途（因為途經LA，小不免塞車兩小時。）
照片連結在此。

出奇遊記

出奇是我為加州及內華達州交界的城市Truckee改的中文譯名（靈感抄自香港Chuck E Cheese的中文名）是次旅程亦名副其實地充滿奇趣（請看下文）
我因為這次旅行請了一天假（星期五），預備在下午開車到Truckee；早上有五小時空檔，決定「遠征」嚮往已久的Lick Observatory，該天文台座落於海拔四千英尺的Mount Hamilton。我先開車到半山（海拔二千英尺）的Joseph D. Grant County Park



然後踩11英里單車到山頂。上山的路徑巧合地分為兩段：前段在3.7里開始稍為回落至4.8里，騎者可以回一回氣，後段約6里基本上不停的爬山。我全程來回用了三小時，在正午返回起點，匆匆回家。
一時半終於起程，行680過了Concord才想起全家人人都有帶備厚褸，準備在滑雪場穿著，但我卻忘了，只帶了一件薄風褸。連忙上網找附近的Walmart，打算買件新褸；按地圖指示出Fairfield卻找不到（只見Jelly Bean工廠Jelly Belly，準備下次去參觀），唯有作罷。在Sacremento前後塞車塞了好一陣子，幸好之後無驚無險，找到友人一早預訂了的度假屋。同行的三家朋友其中兩家比我們早出發先到達，已經開始煮美味的晚餐（包括牛扒）飯後一同觀賞十多年前拍下的旅行及派對錄像，看到大家當年的老樣子，好笑得不得了。
第二天（星期六）是今次旅程的戲肉：帶一班小朋友到Squaw Valley滑雪！小朋友一身裝備，專心聽導師指示，努力在雪地上一展身手，實在可貴（師兄指可匹敵一支Hillside Select）。午飯後，又到Tahoe Donner的Recreation Center玩雪(tubing & sledding)，我們幾位大人反反覆覆拉那些tubing坐的大「水泡」（類似救生圈）上坡，總算消耗了不少連日吃下肚的美食。我雖然沒有厚褸，幸好事先pack好一件base layer，一件fleece（這些都是我在冷天氣踩車常穿的），再加一件長袖Tee及薄風褸，總算抵得住雪場出奇地不算太冷的天氣(50至60度華氏）只是沒有冷帽，寒風冷雨撲面不太好受。所以在雪場不少時間躲在Starbucks或入口接待處的長凳，用免費wifi上網，看看Cricket世界盃決賽戰況。晚上當然是繼續享用美食美酒！
第三天沒有安排出外活動，不用趕著七時叫醒全屋起床，幾位大廚慢慢出招炮製brunch：包括腸蛋，鰻魚risotto，焗雞等等，還有牛扒壓軸！飽餐一頓，一時左右大家收拾好（包括心情）離開，回程竟然沒遇上甚麼大塞車，四小時左右就回到家。出奇之旅圓滿結束。

Sports highlights: NASCAR and more NASCAR news

I was out of town this weekend and for some strange reason my DVR didn't record the Martinsville NASCAR Sprint Cup race on Sunday so I missed all those passes that sound exciting near the end of the race: Earnhardt Jr. passed Kyle Busch and then got passed by the eventual winner, Kevin Harvick. I did watch another eventual winner, Johnny Sauters, passing Kyle Busch, in the truck race on Friday, 'coz the place we stayed at has Speed Channel available. Another Kyle Busch related story is even bigger: former F1 champ Kimi Raikonen will be racing with the truck team owned by Busch! He'll be joining another former F1 driver, Nelson Piquet Jr., in that series. What's the motivation for him to race in the States? The money? Or the challenge? Who knows?

TV News goes Hollywood

The title refers to the news media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear crisis after tsunami hit Japan. You gotta admit that TV nowadays tend to picture the crisis like a Hollywood disaster movie. I think it's more likely than not that it is exaggerated, even though I'm no nuclear expert and have my own share of fear about how bad it could get. I like this quote from this article:

Not so long ago, the professionals showed all the deferential, forelock-tugging paternalism of the dept of "Keep Calm And Carry On". That era lasted into the 1960s. Now the driving force is the notion that "We're all DOOMED – and it's ALL OUR FAULT" that marks almost every news bulletin.

Sports highlights: auto racing

It's all about auto racing this weekend (yeah, I know "The tournament" is going on but who cares about VCU and Butler :P) Both Formula 1 and IndyCar's new season started on Sunday. I didn't watch the former but judging by the result I haven't missed much (The 2 cars started 1st and 2nd finished 1st and 2nd. How exciting!) IndyCar's race at St. Petersburg was slightly less predictable: the 2 cars started 2nd and 1st finished 1st and 2nd. What was predictable was that the broadcast focused way too much on Danica Patrick (that's an objective assessment. As a fan of her, I really didn't mind the focus. After all, I want to know where she was during the race most of the time and what happened to her car) The unpredictables were that Tony Kanaan (the former champ who just joined a new team this season) and Simona De Silvestro (the 2nd year "another female" driver) both did so well, finishing 3rd and 4th. In fact, the only battle worth watching was between these 2 at the end of the race. On the other hand, NASCAR delivered yet another exciting finish this season, with 3 drivers fighting for 1st during the last lap at the Southern California race. And we almost have the 3 series champion (Vettel, Franchitti, Johnson) winning all 3 races on Sunday if not for Kevin Harvick spoiling the party at the last seconds. For a moment I thought Kyle Busch was gonna win again (At the races I watched in the past 2 years, he was hard to beat when he had a lead near the end of the race) but he was passed by yet another Hendrick Motorsports driver (Jeff Gordon passed him in the 2nd race this season to win and Jimmie Johnson passed him this time) Just when we thought JJ was gonna have his 1st victory this season, Harvick took advantage and passed both of them. What a finish!

The SFJAZZ center: good for the music?

I am subscribed to SFJAZZ's newsletter (it's because I've probably been to one of the jazz concerts organized by them) and found out last week that there is a plan to build a dedicated center for this organization, with concert hall (to host their jazz concerts, of course), recording studio and offices for their staff, right at the heart of the "art and culture" district of San Francisco, near the symphony hall and opera house. They are getting funding to build it. One of the fund is a matching one (i.e., when others donate a certain amount, the fund will donate the same) On one hand, as a jazz fan, I'm excited to see jazz getting its recognition as a high-art form on par with classical and opera. I had the impulse to donate because of the matching fund. However, is having a dedicated building the best way to promote the music? After all, there are already plenty of venues for jazz music. I'm just worried that it will become a white elephant. Will maintanence of such a building result in higher ticket prices or musicians receiving less of the cut? I think instead of donating I'll just attend more jazz shows to support the scene.

Topic of the day: FM 92.3 abandoned rock (again)

Classical radio station KDFC moving from the frequency 102.1 to 90.3 earlier this year was a surprise to me, and it was not a pleasant one because it used to have decent signal strength through out the SF Bay Area but you can't receive it in South Bay anymore after the switch. I haven't done much frequency surfing for a long time until then. And that's when I found out KSJO 92.3 was broadcasting alternative rock again. I started listening to 92.3 way back as it is one of the few rock station but I stopped in 2004 when it was switched to Mexican oldies format. It seems that the station was sold and switch back to rock in 2009 but I just found out recently. Well, it has abandoned rock again. Back in 2004 when the switch to Spanish happened, I wrote about the company was chasing the growing market of Spanish listener at that moment. Back then I was wondering if Chinese will be next, after Spanish. Well, my prediction was right on! Yes, 92.3 is broadcasting Mandarin pop music now. Now it's time to move my preset to another frequency. And I won't be the only one judging by the responses here.

Topic of the day: fast food and health

I always think those ultra-health conscious people are no fun and refuse to be one of them. However, I am way past the age that I could just eat without considering the effect to my health. High cholesterol and diabetes, to name a few, are serious threats that we should not ignore. As a result, I do limit my visits to fast food chains (yes, the Jack in the box burger and KFC I had earlier this month was G-Double O-D good) I also avoid taking kids to fast food chains as much as possible (sorry, no happy meal toys if I'm taking care of you) Two recent news that were related to food and health caught my attention: a runner is having McD food for a whole month before the upcoming marathon and the spokesperson of Heart Attack Grill died from pneumonia at the age of 29

Let me start with the first one. Not sure if you have watched the documentary "Super Sized Me," which documented how eating nothing but McD's food (and super size whenever possible) could affect one's health. What this marathon runner did seems like trying to contradict that movie at a first glance. However, he is preparing for the marathon and running 100 miles per week! By burning all those calories, the effect of fast food might not be that obvious. Moreover, he's picked the relatively healthier items on McD's menu, like chicken sandwiches.

Again, not sure if you have heard of Heart Attach Grill. It's a hospital themed restaurant at which waitresses dress like nurses and serve food with extra high calorie contents (e.g. a burger with 8000 calories. I dunno how many miles you need to run to burn that off! My bike computer says I burn ~1500 calories when biking for 25 miles. And it probably overestimates. Go figure!) It's a little bit extreme to say the government should ban such restaurant. On the other hand, obese people are known to be more likely to get pneumonia so it's hard to say his death is not related to his lifestyle.

Sports highlights: NASCAR surprises in Phoenix and Vegas

The sports week started with Jeff Gordon winning the Sprint Cup series race in Phoenix and ended with Danica Patrick finished 4th in the Nationwide series race in Vegas. Jeff Gordon is 5th on the all-time NASCAR's winner list. So it should not have been a big surprise except he hasn't won in his 66 prior races. And this victory was an impressive one as he battled the talented Kyle Busch at the end. Busch was really good at late race restarts usually and had won 2 other events on the same track that weekend already. It sounded like lots of fans rooted for Gordon to win and I was one of them, which was another mild surprise, because Gordon dominated NASCAR in the 90s to the point that it got really boring (just like Jimmie Johnson did in the past few years) More surprising was Danica's good finish. This race really showcased her skills as you could see her passing other cars with confidence. And it's a continuation of the trend started this season: she looked much more comfortable racing stock cars than last year. Obviously she learned a lot from her experiences. BTW, it was nice to see Mark Martin winning that race. He is a class act. Also glad to see Justin Allgaier finished 2nd. This guy got talent.

GDC = Game Developers Conference

Just found out what those people I saw near SF Shopping Center (and at the food court) on Monday afternoon were! A lot of them were wearing a big badge with the big letters GDC. While there were a whole bunch of Asians, there were also a good amount of Caucasians. And I just read this article mentioning it being held at the nearby Moscone (Conference Center. BTW, the article was about one of the company attending the conference used balloons to promote its new game but drew heavy criticism because all those balloons went into the bay!) I have not been to the downtown shopping area since X'mas. Sad to see that yet another store was closing: the big Borders bookstores inside SF Shopping Center. I bought two magazines at 40% off. All those stores in that area with stuff that interested me seem to have gone out of business: CompUSA, the Virgin Megastore, Cody's, Stacey's and now Borders! It seems that only stores that sell clothes and food could survive these days! (I heard from the news that Old Navy didn't do well though) Things like books/music/movies have all gone online. (Even the Blockbuster in my neighbourhood is going out of business!)

山坡路遊記

Hillsborough正式中文譯名不知是甚麼，山坡路是我亂取的名字，因為我在那裡的確是踩單車上上落落山坡的路。今天晨早天未全亮載著單車開車，原本想過叫住在那裡附近的友人同行，幸好沒有，不然就連累他跟我一同走寃枉路（容後再詳述）到San Mateo B St的有蓋停車場時是6:45左右，氣溫華氏38度；由那裡出發，經Crystal Spring轉上Skyline，感覺上比280至Portola Valley那一段Alpine Rd斜一點（但沒有那麼長。其實這裡我以前也到過，因為著名的Sawyer Camp Trail入口就在那裡，多年前已踩過，近年對那樣的平路興趣不大。）到高爾夫球場轉入Hayne，那是Hillsborough的住宅區，竟然在那裡偏離了原訂路線（GPS也幫不上忙，真不該！）就沿著Hayne下山，頗為斜（不知原訂行Ralston的路線會否較為好踩？）東找西找，終於沿El Cerrito Ave重返San Mateo。起程回家時是8:15，氣溫華氏48度。這是原訂路線圖，下次打算找友人同行，不會要他迷路吧？

We Dare

If I'm 15 years younger, I'll definitely be looking forward to playing this game (on Wii or PS, developed by Ubisoft) described here. "We Dare is a sexy, quirky, party game that offers a large variety of hilarious, innovative and physical, sometimes kinky, challenges," goes Ubisoft's pitch. "The more friends you invite to party, the spicier the play!"

Sports highlights: New NASCAR season

Two months of off-season for NASCAR was too much for me and I'm glad that the new season has finally started last weekend! Daytona speedway was re-paved last year (that had to be done to avoid causing troubles for drivers like the Daytona 500 of 2010) and because of this, the new way to race there was to have 2 cars drafting together in tandem (that's the new word I taught my son during the race) It was interesting to see how the drivers made use of this. The Nationwide Series race on Saturday was pretty good. Danica Patrick led at one point (not because of other drivers went to the pit) The finish was exciting too. And then the Sprint cup race on Sunday was even better, having the youngest winner ever in Trevor Bayne. Adding a 5th Daytona 500 victory to the legendary racing team Wood Brothers was a feel-good story. On the other hand, we saw the current top team, Hendrick Motorsports, suffered during this race, in which all 4 of their drivers crashed.

Movie of the day: Just Go With It

Gotta admit I'm biased because it's starring my favourite Jennifer Anniston but I think it deserves higher grade than those B-/C+ given out by critics. The storyline was predictable but the movie was funny and often heart-warming, i.e., your typical Adam Sandler comedy. That was nothing not to like for me. Swimsuit model/actress Brooklyn Decker was hot. Jennifer was still hot. Nicole Kidman was pretty as usual (and funny too!)

Los Gatos Creek Trail

I seldom cycle on bike trails these days but I did two days in a row! It's a huge coincidence. I had 2 hours to kill near San Jose City College but I wasn't able to find any recommended bike routes nearby on the web in a rush and ended up just biking around aimlessly. I biked along S. Bascom Ave and biked across the Hwy 17 overpass (it has an funny spiral ascent and descent) to Campbell and saw the "historical" Campbell downtown (the farmer's market was closing and I missed the music performance :( ) When I came back I still have more time to kill so I went further south along Bascom and discovered the entrance to Los Gatos Creek trail! The trail was a bit more crowded and narrower than the Alameda Creek Trail I biked with my buddy the day before but it was still nice.

How to spend 3 days in SF: Day 3

On day 3 we're back to SF. I met my friends at the Ferry Building. We're supposed to have an early lunch at 11:30 at Hog Island (known for its oysters) but it opened late that day (the day after superbowl! Someone partied too much I guess) so we ended up having a not-so-early lunch but it was still tasty as expected. Next, we drove to the Pacific Ocean. They missed seeing the ocean very much because there's none where they live. Then we headed to the beautiful Golden Gate Park. The tulips under the windmill and the Conservatory of flowers were all worthy of taking a few pictures. From there we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (the drive was surprisingly quick. It's really a short distance and there wasn't much traffic on a Monday early afternoon) and I drop them off at Sausalito. They took the ferry back to the Ferry Building and walked to Japan town for ramen for dinner (Man, they could really walk a lot :D) That's how 3 fun-filled days were spent!

How to spend 3 days in SF: Day 2

After hitting the major tourist spots in the city on day 1, we switched our focus to THE "Silicon Valley", which I loosely defined as places between SF and San Jose that are related to computer technology. My friends started their day walking around Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square and China town. Then I drove them down South 101. Our first destination was the headquarter of Oracle at Redwood Shores. It was a pretty day with the fountain operating and the BMW Oracle Racing Yacht USA-17 on display at "Lake Ellison" We have also visited the campus of another Silicon Valley heavyweight: Google! While Oracle's HQ had that big corporation feel, Google's was more in line with the stereotypical "free-thinking" IT workers. We saw a few families playing at Google's beach volleyball court that Sunday. And we drove by (didn't go in) Steve Job's house in Palo Alto. Of course, we needed to visit his company at One Infinite Loop in Cupertino (their security guys were very hard working and immediately asked us to leave the parking lot) Finally, we went to where all these Silicon Valley ideas were originated from: Stanford University. (No exaggeration! Stanford's Dr. Terman was widely known as the Father of Silicon Valley) We had a good walk around the campus and reminisced about our college days. Finally we headed back north to Burlingame and had a good prime rib dinner at Broadway Prime. Stay tuned for Day 3!

[Update: found a visitor's guide to Silicon Valley, which is quite similar to what I mentioned]

How to spend 3 days in SF: Day 1

That's what I did last weekend 'coz my friends Eric and Lea (my best friend from high school!) visited from out of town. They followed my advices and booked a hotel at Fisherman's Wharf. The first place I took them to after they got off the plane, was a Hong Kong style restaurant in Millbrae for lunch (yeah, the airlines are so cheap these days and actually charge for those horrible airplane meals) Then I drove them to checkin to hotel. And I suggested them to take the cablecar from Fisherman's Wharf to downtown (Powell & Market) Unfortunately none of the cablecar (from Taylor or Beach St) worked and they ended up just walked around Ghiradelli Square. The next stop was Cliff House (and we stopped before Golden Gate Bridge since it's on the way anyway) and the beautiful pacific ocean, where we saw a bit of the sunset. Finally, we had dinner at Thanh Long, famous for its Vietnamese crab made with its secret recipe. It was really crowded of course (To be continued...)

Sports highlights: Packers did it again

Green Bay Packers are not my favourite sports team but they have been #2 on my NFL list since 1993. (Well, if they win a few more super bowls before the Cowboys getting their act together, I might need to switch my allegiance!) I'm really happy to see them winning this year (I picked Pittsburgh to win even though they were the underdog. I thought their experience would have helped a lot.) One person I have to thank is Clay Matthews Jr, father of Green Bay Linebacker Clay Matthews III. He has been to 2 NCAA National Championship games that his sons have played in (USC vs Texas and Oregon vs Auburn) and the Titans vs Rams Super Bowl that his brother played in. We all knew the outcome (not to mentioned the few AFC Championship games himself played in, against the ultimate winner, Denver Broncos) So he decided enough was enough and did NOT attend this one.

And I agree with this Rolling Stones (Magazine) review that the halftime show was BAD. I have nothing against Black Eyed Peas but sometimes too much is too much. Their trademark exaggerated looks and moves might be cool in a music video but I'm not sure if it fits into a major sports event. Judging from the better reviews of past performances by the likes of U2 and the Who, I think they should ask Genesis next year.

Tech of the day: Debian static IP

My Dockstar has been getting its IP via DHCP. And I want to assign it a permanent IP address so I followed this guide. Basically commented out the line for dhcp in /etc/network/interface and add static IP like:
iface eth0 inet static
[tab]address 192.168.1.200
[tab]network 192.168.1.0
[tab]netmask 255.255.255.0
[tab]broadcast 192.168.1.255
[tab]gateway 192.168.1.1
[tab]dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Then I restarted networking:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

Musician of the day: Jon Eriksen

I picked up harmonica again recently. (Harmonica and I went way back! It was the first instrument that I attempted to learn by myself, and with a bit of input from my mom. She taught me how to play the scale. That's all :D What my mom bought me was a tremolo harmonica that is really popular in Asia. A few years ago I took a break from guitar and tried playing 10-hole diatonic harmonica. The hurdle I couldn't get past was bending/overblowing so I wasn't able to play any tunes with accidentals! This time I bought myself a chromatic harmonica, on which I could play accidental without bending/overblowing, which I should learn eventually but at least I could play some real music!) It was a great coincidence that I saw jazz multi-instrumentalist Jon Eriksen playing during lunch time at Rincon Center. His playing was great on both harmonica and vibes. Check out his page on Jazz Harmonica Summit.

我很老土

記得小時候（八十年代），父母喜歡聽徐小鳳鄧麗君，那時我們都聽Alan Leslie 陳慧嫻陳百强，所以覺得父母很老土。如今想起來，實在要為他們平反！為何要平反？皆因今日已為人父母的我和當日的他們相比起來，更老土得多！事實上，當時聽徐小鳳鄧麗君的歌，只不過是十年或以內的舊歌。我喜歡聽的流行曲（古典及爵士不應計在內）有多舊？都是八十年代的歌！前一排抄了一大堆落memory stick放在車裡，早幾天才播來聽：簡直首首喜愛！例如Alan的Don't Say Goodbye呀，Leslie的愛慕呀。至於電台頻道，聽得最多的也是以播舊歌為主。當今最流行的歌，例如Ke$ha, Jay Sean甚至Black Eye Peas唱那些，都覺得實在難聽。喜歡的只有Katy Perry一個！

Music of the day: Phantasia

What was that background music used by Patrick Chan (Canadian Figure Skater)? That's the question I had when it was on TV. And I was not the only one who asked the same question!

Tech of the day: Dockstar as print server

It seems that one major use of embedded device/plug computer is print server. Setting up printers on Linux was not known for being a user-friendly process though. It has changed a lot thanks to CUPS. (I wrote about it before for my Arch Linux install)

For Debian, I found its Wiki entry very useful. What I did was very similar:
1) apt-get install cups cups-client hplip
I used hplip because I have a HP PhotoSmart printer.

2) I edited cupsd.conf as suggested.
So I was able to administer CUPS on port 49631 from other PCs (which is necessary 'coz I am not running X on my Dockstar!)
Then I added my HP printer as a local printer by picking one of the choice listed: HP photosmart 7350 USB MY25S3308N3Y HPLIP (HP photosmart 7350)
However, I was not able to add the printer on my Windows 7 PC using HTTP URL.

To do that, I followed the steps from CUPS Mini-HOWTO at LinuxFoundation and edited /etc/samba/smb.conf.

Finally my Win7 box was able to see the printer on Dockstar automatically when I chose to add a network printer. The only remaining step is to manually pick the driver in the Generic section labeled MS Publisher Color Printer as suggested by the aforementiond Debian Wiki.

I found lots of info from other links like 1 and 2 but these are kinda outdated.

BTW, my root partition became full quickly halfway through installing CUPS and became unusable. My fix was to move /var and /usr out of it (by following the instructions found here):
1) use fdisk to create a new partition. Don't forget to format with mke2fs or it won't mount.

2) mount the new filesystem in /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/new
# mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/new

3) tar up /var/*

4) untar in /mnt/new

5) Rename the /var directory (to make sure this has worked before deleting it!)
# cd /
# mv var var.old

6) Make new var directory
# mkdir var

7) Unmount the new partition
# umount /dev/hda3

8) Remount it as /var
# mount /dev/hda3 /var

9) Edit /etc/fstab to include the new partition, with /var given as the mount point

I also did something similar for /usr. Instead of a primary partition, I created an extended partition (sda4) and then a logical partition out of it (sda5, which is the one to be formatted and mounted) (or I would have used up the maximum of 4 primary partition and won't be able to create any other partition in the future)

Tech of the day: Dockstar w/ Debian file sharing

Before we could share anything, we need to mount the drive(s) first!

I have some NTFS as well as FAT32 formatted drives in USB Enclosures. To mount them, first find out the "name" (sdb1 or sdc5) of your attached drives by:
fdisk -l

For NTFS, I installed NTFS-3G:
apt-get install ntfs-3g

Then mount as:
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 [dir name]

For FAT32, simply mount as:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 [dir name]

Next, install and configure samba following these steps. Basically we need to add a user to the server (useradd) and add a SMB password for this user (smbpasswd -a) Then edit the followings accordingly:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
/etc/samba/smbusers

[Update] After the above steps, I was unable to move/add/delete any file on the USB drive if I'm not logon as root to Dockstar, which isn't very useful. I google quite a bit and got many suggestions:
- chmod 777 [the mount point]
- add writeable = yes to smb.conf
- add the mount point to fstab with umask=000 in the 4th column
Well, I did all 3 and it works for me now (not sure which one is the key though)

Tech of the day: Debian on Dockstar

I bought a Seagate Dockstar (for fear of it being discontinued soon! Amazon is pushing its newer replacement) last week. I have no intention to use the remote file sharing service PogoPlug (requires payment after the 1st year) And Dockstar cannot be used without PogoPlug unless you modify the firmware. I might as well run Debian (or OpenWRT) on it. Here are my steps:
0) Connect it to a PC running Linux (e.g. booted from a Live Ubuntu CD) with an Ethernet cable. Turn off internet on the PC.

1) Find out its IP by following Alexander Holler's instructions.

2) Plug in a flash drive and mount it
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

3) Backup the stock image to /mnt
Using the instructions from the same link as (1)

4) Disable PogoPlug's daemon so that it won't attempt to phone home
killall hbwd
killall hbplug
mount -o remount,rw /
vi /etc/init.d/rcS
press "i" (to get into insert mode)
change the line "/etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start" to "#/etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start"
[esc] and ":wq" (write & quit)

After shutting the Dockstar down, it would be a good time to copy the backup images by unplugging the flash drive and plug to the PC.

5) Now the Dockstar is ready to be connected to the internet (by plugging the Ethernet cable to the router)

6) Follow Jeff Doozan's guide to install Debian (on a flash drive)
In case you couldn't find fdisk, it is under /sbin. Delete any existing partition. Hit 'n' to add the first Linux partition as primary partition 1. Accept the default first cylinder and +512M for the last cylinder.
Make it bootable.
Hit 'n' again to add the 2nd partition as primary partition 2. Also accept the default first cylinder but +256M for the last cylinder.
Hit 't' to change the system type of the 2nd partition. The Hex code is 82 (for Linux Swap)
Finally hit 'w' to write the partition to the drive (and wipe out everything you had originally!)
Now the drive is ready for Debian installation (just follow the rest of Jeff's steps)

Next I'll configure it for Samba and file sharing.

Music of the day: David Tanenbaum & SFCM Guitar Ensemble

I went to this concert today. Judging from the description and the organizer (San Francisco Chamber Orchestra), I expected a program of old and new classical guitar materials, probably from the likes of Fernando Sor and Leo Brouwer. What a surprise I was in! First of all, I saw the co-host holding a Samick acoustic (folk) guitar. Then another performer (turns out to be Mr. Tanenbaum) holding a resonator guitar (best known for its appearance on the cover of Dire Straits' classic album: Brothers In Arms) Also, the show was not in the format of your traditional concert. Instead, it was in the style of a variety show, with music-related games in between performances, not to mention detailed explanation given by performers/composers. Mr. Tanenbaum told the story of his resonator guitar. This type of guitar originated in 20s and is made of steel and consists of "speaker cones" to make it sound loud. The brand of his is National and it came from National's factory in the lovely city of San Luis Obispo. And his is not your "ordinary" National Steel Guitar but one custom fretted in Just Intonation (the alternative to equal temperament, which most musicians are more familiar with. You could see how unique the guitar frets look) Tanenbaum teaches classical guitar at conservatories. You might wonder why he didn't play it at the concert. It was because he has asked composer Lou Harrison to write a piece for him for a long time. Finally Harrison wrote one, not for classical guitar but a National Steel guitar with Just Intonation. He wanted to write something special and it turned out to be his last work before he passed away. It's called "Scenes from Nek Chand" which is based on the sculpure and architecture of Nek Chand in northern India and was indeed very Eastern sounding.

Another guest on the program was violinist Jeremy Cohen. I didn't know he was the founder of Quartet San Francisco, of which the music I really enjoyed! He played a violin solo piece and a viola duet (Tango #8, with himself and Ben Simon, SFCO's director, both on viola) piece from his etude books and also the jazz standard Honeysuckle Rose (with himself and Julian Smedley both on violin) What a versatile player! (in terms of instruments and styles)

Topic of the day: Parenting advices (with a hidden agenda)

This article started off making a lot of senses: who, as a parent, hasn't receive contradicting advices from different sources before? (e.g, the grandparents, the friends, the media......) It suggested parents shouldn't be frustrated when facing those contradicting advices as long as they love the kids (and do 9 other things on their list of 10) Well, it turns out to be religious propaganda!

9. Religion. You support spiritual or religious development and participate in spiritual or religious activities.

So I am a bad parent if I'm not religious? This is ridiculous. Fortunately I'm not alone in identifying the hidden agenda (read the comment section)

Sports highlights: Golden Gate Park to Golden Gate Bridge Ride

Normally I don't talk about my own sports activities here. For one thing, I don't do that much. The only things I like are golfing and biking. I still haven't played my annual 18-holes (not even 9-holes) this time of the year. Doesn't seem like it's gonna happen. I used to do a few hours of bike ride about once a month and I've tried almost all flat trails in the Bay Area but my biking has been reduced to mostly 15 minute trips between Caltrain and office. Nothing really interesting to share, until today. Well, everything changed in August when I thought my folding bike was broken (and thus gave me a perfect excuse to buy a long-wanted road bike as a replacement) I started with some easy routes (like this) and then some harder ones. Finally I have the most fun bike ride in years. I took me 4 hours to hit all these landmarks: Conservatory of Flowers, Palace of Fine Art, Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, Legion of Honor, Cliff House and back to Golden Gate Park (photo).

Music of the day: Telemann Viola Concerto in G

On Aug 30th 2010, 103 violists played this piece together in Berkeley (this ViolaMania was probably a record breaking event)


Too bad I hadn't started on viola at that time yet. The event allowed everyone who could play the piece to bring his/her viola and play!

Sports highlight: 由1993等到2002，等到星期一

講的當然就是新科棒球World Series冠軍三藩市巨人隊。我由92年左右開始追Baseball，看得最多的是Rangers, Astros, Braves, White Sox, Cubs。（前四隊都在近十五年打入決賽。）不過92年球季最令我印象深刻的是當時在Pirates的年輕巨星Barry Bonds，在季後賽對Braves失利無緣打入決賽！此後Bonds加盟巨人隊，由於經常到SF/Oakland遊玩，也漸漸對巨人隊及A's產生好感。該球季初至中段，巨人隊勢不可擋，暑假我在香港，最期待姐姐寄來巨人隊及A's新聞的剪報(Thanks!)，誰知季尾竟然又被Bonds的死敵Braves追過，連季後賽也無法打入！2002年WS Game6功虧一簣，又再次失望。今季不被看好，竟然就是成功的一季。要分析，十萬字也寫不完，還是看專家Peter Gammons吧（我覺得很有見地）

Topic of the day: the digital music business

As a long time Rhapsody subscriber/listener, I didn't even know the company was spinned off. Doesn't sound like good news. I guess it's really hard to make money there. A former player in this business, Imeem's founder Dalton Caldwell, explained why. Of course, current players like startup MOG's founder David Hyman sings a different tune. I recommend reading
this. It's an interesting read because what the author said about MOG was rather negative.

Tech of the day: java.util.HashMap

I used to think of HashMap as a easy-to-use class. You put a key-value pair in. Get a value out using the key. How complicated could it be? Oh well, apparently it's more complicated that I gave it credit for. I learned 2 things in the past few days. I tried using objects that I defined as keys. I knew for sure I need to override the boolean equals(Object obj) method so that two keys that are different objects but representing the same data will be treated as the same key. What I didn't know was that I also needed to override the int hashcode() method! Without overriding it, keys that are different objects but representing the same data will have different hash code and thus treated as different keys. One simple way (not always distributes the objects well in the Hash, depending on your data, but it will work) is to keep a running total starting with 0. Multiply by a prime number and add the hashcode of a data field to the running total. Repeat for all data fields you use for representing the same data. Another mistake I made was that I needed to iterate through all the keys and remove some of them depending on its value, I got a java.util.ConcurrentModificationException. The fix? Instead of removing keys from the HashMap, simply call remove() on the iterator to remove the element last seen. (Yes, the underlying HashMap will reflect this removal)

Musician of the day: Chrissy Steele

I just "discovered" this female metal vocalist. The track was actually from her album released in 1989. She has left the music business (and guess what? worked as a computer programmer!) already. Too bad. The track sounded awesome. I thought I heard Vixen or Lita Ford. Once again it showed how important luck is.

BTW, I heard the track on Radio IO's hair band channel. Yes, I actually enjoy hair band music (because it's guaranteed to have guitar solo) It was also useful to block out co-worker's voice :P

Topic of the day: Caltrain unfriendly to folding bike users

I like my folding bike a lot 'coz I could carry it in my car without a bike rack (and worry about the bike falling off or scratching the exterior of my car) I used to like the idea of taking my folding bike to ride Caltrain and then bike to where I work (without my bike, I need to walk 30 minutes) but it doesn't seem to be a good idea anymore after a few incidents:

1) This happened a year or 2 ago: a Caltrain passenger/cyclist told me I had to fold up my bike instead of parking it in the bike car like every other cyclist do, so that a space could be "saved" for other cyclist with non-foldable bikes. The intention was good but where am I supposed to put my folded bike? Caltrain's rule says that folded bike should be put under the seat (which is not possible for mine or most other reasonably sized bikes) or on luggage rack (which is 3 cars down. Dragging my bike through 3 cars was a workout that I didn't need) so I declined and that dude wanted to continue to argue with me but stopped by other fellow passengers. I didn't say another word and problem solved.

2) This happened today: instead of asked by a passenger, I was asked by a Caltrain conductor to do the same. To make things worse, this time another passenger (a 架兩) actually chimed in to support the conductor! I explained the problem again. And the conductor gave me permission to violate the aforementioned rule: she told me to put my bike on the seat! (And allowed me to seat in another one) Well, how was I supposed to refuse such a good offer? Since the aisle is too narrow for me to push my bike thru, I have to pull it off the ground and carry all the way to the empty seat in the back of the car. And this was the by-product:



Oh yeah, I told the 架兩 it's none of his business.

[Update: the bike chain grease stain on my pants were safely removed by Shout (Triple Action Stain Remover)]

Sports highlights: Iowa, NASCAR, F1, LCS

What a weekend for sports fan like me! The Saturday didn't get off to a good start: Texas was upsetted by Iowa State after upsetting Nebraska the week before. I guess this team is just inconsistent. Wisconsin beat the other Iowa team though, in a really close game. Then came the news that the Giants has finished off the Phillies in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. Finally, while waiting for the rain-delayed Korean Formula 1 GP, I have time to watch my taped NASCAR Nationwide race, featuring Danica Patrick and Justin Allgaier, who drove very well but couldn't win because of poor pit stops. It's sad to see that he might not get a ride next season. I thought with his good image and talent he should have been signed for the Sprint Cup series for next season already! I heard it has to do with his sponsor (Verizon Wireless) has to drop out because NASCAR has exclusive sponsorship deal with Sprint! BTW, Danica had another solid finish (22nd place)

I have waited and waited for hours for the start of the F1 race. Finally it's green flag and the championship leader Webber crashed with Rosberg and yellow flag flew again. Then I gave up and went to bed. I like the outcome though. With 2 races remaining, the championship is still wide open.

Nothing could have been more surprising than the Oakland Raiders beating up its rival Denver Broncos though. The Raiders was leading 38-0 in the 2nd quarter! I was interested in this game enough that I turned it on while driving (not enough to stay home and watch though)

Finally, I watched another taped NASCAR race. Fell asleep at the 400th lap (out of 500) Again, I like the outcome: Denny Hamlin won and is only 6 points behind 4-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson. So there's no guarantee that JJ will win it all again (boring!) but I think he's still the favourite (BTW, I read some fans comment that NASCAR helped JJ to win by choosing race tracks that favors him last week. I don't agree at all. JJ was simply GOOD! Last week he spun and got a flat tire. He didn't panic at all. All he did was patiently got in and out of the pit and gradually move up to the front again. I haven't seen another driver like that. Not even Jeff Gordon today)

Sports highlights (and lowlights): football, auto racing, baseball and golf

It has not been a very good weekend because almost every team/player I rooted for lost:
Texas losing to Oklahoma was kinda expected but they dropped out of Top 25 for the first time since 2000!
Wisconsin losing to Michigan State was not too surprising because they usually had a good start and then start losing to some semi-decent teams.
Will Power losing the IndyCar Racing League championship was not too surprising either given his not-too-great performances on the oval. It was disappointing to see his car hitting the wall and was not even able to finish the race.
As far as US losing the Ryder Cup to Europe is concerned, I wasn't even sure which team was the favourite. I was glad that Tiger won a few of his matches though. Give him some time and he will be back.
I didn't feel too bad to see St. Kilda losing the Aussie Rule Football grand final to Collingwood because I didn't root for either of them. It was just that the loss was too lopsided.
Man U didn't lose, but tying Sunderland while Chelsea beat Arsenal equalled to 2 points loss in the standing.
For a while I thought the Giants would suffer the same fate. In fact, they lost the first two games of the San Diego series to pave way to the dramatic finish: winning the division by winning the last game of the regular season! It was their first title since 2003. To be honest, before the season starts, it's hard to predict them to win without a premier hitter, which make this title an even bigger achievement!
Another exciting event was Chinese fighter made history in MMA in US. Tiequan Zhang, nicknamed the Mongolian Wolf, won his debut fight in WEC in US. Wish him more success!

Topic of the day: Taylor Guitar and GE Commercial

I was watching Ryder Cup coverage (on the background) and this commercial caught my attention: It's about Taylor Guitar got money from GE and one of GE's employee played their guitar at the factory, and played very well!

Oh well, too well! She didn't actually play it. It was achieved by clever videoediting.



The "real" guitarist was Marija Temo. Here is a video of her:

香港有史以來八間發鈔銀行

係邊八間？
答案在此

九龍地名剖析

亞皆老街、勝利道、自由道等等都是我們小時經常出沒的地方。這篇港台好文介紹了這些街名的由來。有趣的是，身為官台，卻公正地批評政府為了抬高價值而把地皮「搬區」。（九龍城說成在九龍塘）

Musician of the day: Edgar Meyer

Thanks to my wife, I got tickets to the opening concert of New Century Chamber Orchestra's new season, featuring double bassist Edgar Meyer. I have seen many great jazz bassist but this was the first time I saw a classical concert featuring bassist as soloist. Meyer definitely has the dazzling chops for that. He was not only exciting to listen to (making use of the whole range of the instrument from the booming bottom all the way up to the highs using harmonics) but also to watch: his fingers moving up and down and across the fingerboard is not unlike heavy metal guitar shredder at work. It turned out the piece he played was written by Giovanni Bottesini, aka "The Paganini of the double bass"

I was also the first time I heard Adagietto from Mahler's 5th live. I didn't know it could be performed by a chamber orchestra!

In addition to performing, Meyer is also a prolific composer. I am listening to his quintet right now(performed by Emerson String Quartet and himself. I find a bit unusual to listen to Emerson playing contemporary music. You would think this should have been a Kronos Quartet album!)

Tech of the day: anti-censorship tool

Unfortunately, this post is not introducing any. On the contrary, I just want to help debunk the myth of Haystack, which is a piece of software that was supposed to achieve this goal for people in countries in which the government heavily censor their citizen's internet usage. Check out this article, titled "The Great Internet Freedom Fraud". This is yet another case of hype over substance. To be a hero, you don't need to act like one. Instead, just sound like one.

Music of the day: Public Domain Music

I am listening to music from the MusOpen project right now. The goal of the project is to "set music free." A lot of recorded music are protected, meaning you can't just use them wherever you like (say, as the background music of a movie you shot) You might think it's OK if the music was written way back but it's not. It's because a piece of recording is protected by at least 2 copyrights: one for the underlying composition and one for the performance. For example, if you have the mp3 of a Beethoven Sonatina, you still might not be able to use it because even though the composition is not protected, the performance might still be. Currently the project is raising money to hire orchestra to record music such that both the composition and the performance itself are free. I saw someone criticized that the project should not focus on old/established works (aka warhorses) because one could easily buy such recording real cheap online but they missed the point. No matter how cheap those recordings are, you can't use them freely.

Sports highlights: Road course specialists

For IndyCar and NASCAR, road course expertise is certainly different from that of oval tracks. 4 time defending NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson has not won on road course until this year at Sonoma. In fact, he raced in other competitions at road course in order to prepare himself better and that paid off. At the other end of the spectrum is Juan Pablo Montoya, who has raced in Formula 1 before and now in NASCAR. He won two times so far in his NASCAR career, both on road course! There was a roughly half-half split between road course and oval for this IndyCar season. And IndyCar had its last road course race of the season the weekend before. Will Power was crowned the king of road course (for having the highest point total in all road course races. There will also be a champion for oval only and of course an overal champ) Power was also the overall point leader. However, his closest competitor, Dario Franchitti, was considered a better driver on oval than Power and could make up the difference in the remaining races. For a while during the race last weekend, Power proved that he was not just a road course driver but he could do as well, if not better than, Franchitti on oval. Unfortunately his car ran out of gas and Franchitti took a risk by not taking any tire at the pit to get to the front, and won!

For NASCAR, there was a different story: a group of drivers branded road course specialists race exclusively on the road course races of NASCAR (which is held much fewer than oval races) Boris Said is arguably the most famous among them (also because of his hair-do) In fact, some NASCAR drivers learned road racing skills from him. Last weekend NASCAR's 2nd tier Nationwide series raced on the Montreal road course. Said was one of the favourite again (many predicted him to do well in previous road races too but he has not won before, not counting his lone victory in NASCAR truck series) And he had to compete with the local favourite, the Canadian and former F1 champ, Jacque Villenevue. After the frontrunners all having trouble (bad battery, broken track bar and running out of feul), he took the lead and won the race. That's a feel good story. And I guess he didn't mind being a road course specialist last weekend.

Star of the day: Peter Lenz

Peter Lenz, a 13 year old motorcycle racer, died when he crashed at an Indy race last weekend. It was sad. I am sure he was a talented driver, competing this young at this level. RIP.

Topic of the day: Google = Invincible?

Well, Google is no longer selling Nexus One, once consider the iPhone killer. The sad part is, it wasn't even on my radar screen when it was announced a month ago!

Topic of the day: Canada to ban MMA

Canada has one of the best MMA fighter in the world, George St. Pierre! Ironically, British Columbia Medical Association is seeking to ban MMA in Canada. This link has a good analysis that showed why BCMA's arguments were bad. For one thing, there were more fatality involved in soccer. Canada might as well banned soccer!

Topic of the day: how my folding bike was saved

When I was riding my Downtube folding bike the other day, the chain all of a sudden fell off. And the 2 pieces of the chain guard (one on each side of the chain ring) were not held together anymore. I had to push it all the way home. I took it off after I got home:

Without this piece, the piece on the other side of the ride would not stay on either.

After further examination, I found one link of the chain is broken too:


I almost wanted to give up because I thought it would cost me quite a lot to buy a new chain as well as replacing the chain guard. Fortunately I didn't. Turns out the whole "repair" costed $6! I bought a few nuts/bolts/washers to reattach the remaining half piece of the chain guard to the chain ring. And with the help of Performance Bicycle in Mountain View, that 1 broken link in the chain was replaced. Now it works again :D

Music of the day: Jazz Organ Fellowship Gala

In the spectrum of popular jazz instruments, I'd say organ probably falls somewhere between violin and guitar. Joey DeFrancesco and Jimmy Smith are as big names as any other jazz greats but for some reason organ is not getting the attention it deserves. Only if someone would take action! And that someone is Pete Fallico, Founder and Executive Director of JOF (Jazz Organ Fellowship.) I really admire his efforts in raising the awareness of such a wonderful instrument and its players. I attended its 2nd annual gala/concert last night and saw wonderful performances by 3 organists: Tammy Hall, Atsuko Hashimoto and Trudy Pitts. Pitts is this year's JOF honoree. I am a fan of the organ trio format because most of them features a guitarist. And this performance featured the great (and local guitar hero) Mimi Fox as well as Yukata Hashimoto from Japan (husband of Atsuko)

This event was very inspiring. Maybe I should organize one for jazz violin some day!

Topic of the day: NIMBY

Just learned this new term (well, it's new to me) today because of the eviction of Ike's. Long story short: Ike's is a sandwich shop in the (SF) Castro neighbourhood. It was so successful that there were long lines outside the shop. And that caused problem with the people living upstairs, who complained about garbage and noise. Not sure if the complaint worked but turns out Ike's does not have the required license for its operation, according to the City. Anyway, it is facing eviction. Is this an act of "Not-in-my-back-yard"-ism? I dunno.

Sports highlights: Silva vs Sonnen, former F1 drivers in NASCAR

I have not watched any of Anderson Silva's fight live before this Sat but I'll make sure I do next time. The fight last Sat just added some more to his already legendary status. He was taken down and was dominated all 5 rounds and did not look like he had anything left to fight back. And then he did it! He submitted Sonnen. I guess that's why he's a legend.

Three former F1 drivers (that I know of) competed in NASCAR races this weekend. Both Villeneuve (the former F1 champ) and Piquet Jr did well in the Nationwide race (finished 8th and 7th, respectively) but they were 1-uped by Juan Pablo Montoya, who won his 2nd Sprint Cup races in his career. Both times he did in on a road course rather than oval. I guess he hopes Sprint Cup has more road course races than just 2 times per year!

Music of the day: Legend of the Ring

Just read an article about "Legend of the Ring", a condensed version of Wagner's masterpiece (consist of 4 operas) This is a funny quote from that review:

[it] resembles nothing so much as a PowerPoint mockup of one of the opera world's richest and most majestic creations. This is opera as performed by recent business school graduates; it feels as though the libretto is studded with "net-net," "bottom line" and "at the end of the day.

Well, I'm still curious enough that I might watch it some day!

Topic of the day: Simkins Hall renamed

I remember this dorm. One of our good friends from Texas used to live there. And it was the center of a recent controversy. For all these years we were at UT, we didn't know the name was dedicated to a former law professor who was a Klan member. I can't imagine being an African American knowing that fact could live in that dorm happily.

Star of the day: England World Cup team captain

His name is Mark Reynolds, a computer programmer. His team will start playing today in Lacrosse world championship hosted in Manchester. This event is just like its soccer equivalent, played every 4 years. Still, I will root for Team USA to recapture the title from Canada. I watched Team USA played against Major League Lacrosse All-Star team last week. Those guys are GOOD.

Topic of the day: NASCAR x Transformers

As a fan of both, I'm really excited that the next Transformers movie will feature NASCARs! From this link, you could see both #88, 48 and 42 (in NASCAR, they are driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya, respectively) I can't imagine Junior and JJ's cars to be decepticons but the #42 car fits that image!

香港 vs 美國

在香港，打警察一巴，上到法庭，官考慮判感化。
在美國，警察槍殺人，上到法庭，官已輕判了事。

Sports highlights: UFC, NASCAR at Daytona, CFL Kickoff, World cup

When Fedor lost the week before, naturally the attention turned to: who will be the next Fedor? Well, I am pretty sure both UFC heavyweights that fighted this weekend: Lesnar and Carwin, did not want to suffer the fate of Fedor, losing to a lesser opponent or be submitted. Lesnar almost did the former in the first round but Carwin was the one submitted in the second round. It was exciting to watch.

I am not a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr (or his dad) but I was happy to see him winning the Nationwide race at Daytona running the number (3) that belonged to his dad. It was emotional. And the Sprint Cup race at Daytona was equally good. Hate to say this but the big wrecks were something to watch.

And of course, there were world cup quarter finals that featured quite a few instant-classic moments. The top one gotta be Suarez's handball save of the goal that would have sent his team out of the tournament and the subsequent missed PK by Gyan.

With all these events going on, I didn't realize it's CFL's kick off weekend! Thanks to CFL's official site, I caught the highlight of an exciting (high scoring) comeback win by Saskatchewan Rough Riders over the team that beat them in last Grey Cup, Montreal Alouettes.

Sports highlights: Fedor, F1, NASCAR, World Cup

What was the biggest upset of the week? I would say it was the top ranked MMA fighter Fedor losing to Werdum in their StrikeForce fight, not to mention, in the first round, by submission. It seems to me that Fedor was caught off guard and made a bad mistake. And he summed it up the best: "The one who doesn't fall, doesn't stand up." This perfectly described another fighter on the same card, Cung Le: he rebounded from his first loss in MMA, by beating the same opponent Scott Smith. He looked to be in a much better shape than the last time, when he just came back from a hiatus to acting in movies. His kicks were as spectacular as ever. I guess StrikeForce would be especially happy to see Cung Le back to his form after their biggest star Fedor fell.

Not much of an upset in F1. It was shown after the England vs Germany WC match so I almost missed it (and it's on FOX, a channel available at home!) When I tuned in, Webber has crashed already. Vettel had a good lead on Hamilton while Kobayashi was hogging up the traffic. I also saw Hamilton got "penalized" for passing the safety car. His was a pit drive-through penalty. How much position did he lose after he took the penalty? None! That was actually quite amazing and showed how far ahead he was in front of Kobayashi. Another highlight of the race was Kobayashi delayed the mandatory pit stop (for tire changing) until the last few laps of the race. When he came out of the pit, he was behind former champ Alonzo and the move he made to pass Alonzo was a pretty good one. That's Asian power on display!

Talking about Asian power, we saw Japan and South Korea advanced to the round of 16 in WC while traditional power houses (and recent champs) France and Italy went home. Although no one predicted either France and Italy would did great in the tournament, the way they went down could be considered as minor upsets too.

Finally, the upset I was rooting for in NASCAR didn't happen. It seems like Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson win every weekend (the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series, respectively) Danica finally returned to the Nationwide series but has yet another dissappointing finish. Looking forward to her next race in 2 weeks!

Topic of the day: Happy Father's Day

Well, actually it was a whole weekend: started with Dim Sum at Koi Palace on Saturday and ended with crepes at U Ave in Palo Alto. Of course, there were more in addition to food in between! The highlight was Palo Alto World Music Day (I know the website left a lot to be desired. I wasn't able to find the schedule/map on it at all) Basically the musicians played scattering throughout U Ave and you won't miss them if you just walk down the street. I enjoyed the performance of "Sound of China" (4 Guzheng + Pipa/Erhu), Palo Alto Jazz Quintet and Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra.

The organizer planned to have this as an annual Father's Day event. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Sports highlights: Green, Zito and Allgaier

Barry Zito beat his former team, the A's, for the first time on Sat, and has now defeated every MLB team, which I think is quite an achievement! According to Sportsnet Central, his record was 109-6 when he has 4 or more run support. His overall record for the current reason is 7-2. So, I feel bad for rooting against him in his down years as a Giant. He might not deserve that huge contract but he probably deserves more credit than given to him.

I think giving English goalie, Robert Green, a green jersey for the England vs. USA world cup match was a big mistake. He didn't need the constant reminder for his inexperience. Maybe the Apple Daily analyst is right: the best goalie on this team is worse than the worst one on the German team.

I don't have much time to watch sports this weekend but I did catch the NASCAR Nationwide race. Can you believe a pro racer would shift to a wrong gear? Well, Justin Allgaier did that in his #12 car by shifting from 2nd to 1st when he meant to shift to 3rd! Too bad 'coz he could have done much better than finishing 8th.

Finally, a big applause to NBC for broadcasting the first ever NCAA Rugby 7 championship. I think they did a good job in educating the audiences about the game. I have been watching for almost a year but still learned a great deal. Congrat to the Utah Utes for upsetting the Cal Bears in OT and won it all. What an exciting game!

Topic of the day: if you are a sports star, it is taking instead of stealing

I am referring to this incident: a Seattle Donut shop employee called 911 to report someone came in and stole some donuts. And that someone was not charged by the police. Well, that someone is Seattle Seahawk's new receiver Golden Tate. Don't try this unless you're a sports star (doesn't have to be that good as Tate hasn't even played a pro game yet)
BTW, the donut shop has recently signed a deal to sell donuts at Seatle Seahawk's stadium. I bet no one want to jeopadize that relationship, right?

Topic of the day: Foreigner to headline pre-race concert at Atlanta

My first reaction to this NASCAR.com headline is: Why is this news? Do we have to hire local bands to do the concert since this is in the South?

Then I remember: Foreigner is the band with the hit song "I want to know what love is"
Well, I was not the only one with this reaction. Check out the comments on my link. Some people do think the concert should feature country musicians.

Musician of the day: Pat Martino

Pat Martino Live at Yoshi's was one of my favourite jazz guitar CD. He was playing with organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Billy Hart on that disc. Finally I have seen the "real" thing: Martino played at Yoshi's in a trio setting again this week. This time was in SF though. (The CD was recorded in Oakland in 2001. The SF branch didn't exist back then.) And the organist was Tony Monaco. I liked his playing so much that I bought his CD, A New Generation: Paesanos On the New B3, back in 2004. Interestly, that CD also featured Joey DeFrancesco as guest.

I don't need to sing more praises for Martino's playing. Just want to mention the story he told: back when he was 16 years old, he played in a club call Small's Paradise in Harlem (BTW, I just read from a biography of Jimi Hendrix that he has also played there before he was huge.) And there was another nearby club in Harlem called Count Basie's. Wes Montgomery was playing there. Martino was close to Les Paul then. He was a fatherly figure to Martino. Martino took Les Paul to Harlem to see Montgomery during his break at his gig at Small's Paradise. During Montgomery's break, he came over to Martino and Les Paul and introduced himself. He said his 2 biggest influence was Charlie Christian, and guess who else? None other than Les Paul! Les Paul stayed there the whole night and Martino got back to his gig. When he was done and back to Count Basie's, 5 guitarists were hanging out outside the club. Who are the other 2? George Benson and Grant Green!

Star of the day: Armando Galarraga

Let's all urge MLB to do the right thing and credit Armando Galarraga with the perfect game that he deserved. Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game against Cleveland Indian into the 9th inning with 2 outs. The 3rd one should have been an out too but the umpire screwed up the call (even he admitted it!)

I root for Galarraga especially because he was on my championship winning team in the fantasy league a few years ago (I picked him up as a free agent!) BTW, he is really a class act. He didn't even go into any heated argument with the umpire.

Sports highlights: UFC, F1 and mostly racing

It was Super 14's final last Sat. I couldn't watch the 2nd half but I guess I didn't miss much. The Bulls was leading at half time and went on to beat the Stormers and successfully defended their title. There won't be Super 14 next year as the league has expanded to 15.

The Rampage-Evans fight turned out to be not bad. Rampage looked passive in the beginning but he showed a bit of his old explosiveness at round 3. Evans did a great job trying to dominate.

The weekend was mainly about auto racing though: I watched both NASCAR races, Indy 500 and F1. I can't remember when was the last time the F1 race was actually more dramatic among all of them! I mean, the dominating driver in the beginning didn't win! The TV commentators mostly agreed that Vettel ruined teammate Webber's day but it wasn't so clear cut according to post-race analysis. After that crash, there was another close battle between teammates, Hamiton and Button. And that was just spectacular: Button passed the race leader Hamilton and the latter was able to regain his lead and went on to win. Another great finish I watched was the GT class of American Le Man Series at Laguna Seca Raceway at Monterrey. The Porsche passed the Bimmer at the final restart. These cars are more stock than those race for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (yeah, that's NASCAR) and they didn't need double file restart to have exciting passes during restart! It deserved to be more popular than it currently does. The coverage was not typical (wasn't even live). Instead, it's more like a documentary, which served as a great introduction to uneducated fans like me. As predicted, hardcore fans didn't like it but I agree with the posters here that it would have got even fewer audiences if the full 6 hour race was broadcasted. Kudo to CBS for showing it.

Congrat to Danica Patrick for her 6th place finish at Indy 500. It was much better than expected!

Star of the day: Barry Alvarez, newly elected college hall of famer

In my book, he is the best football coach ever (on a 2nd thought, maybe tied with Mack Brown and Jimmy Johnson :P) Congrat to him for being elected to the hall of fame! It is an amazing feat for him to turn around the Wisconsin football program that had been losing for a long time into a three-time Rose Bowl winner in a decade.

Music of the day: Purpose Built

This is an album by jazz bassist/band leader Michael Janisch. This album reminds me of Dave Holland's recent works. I believe that is a big compliment. Here is the line-up:
Michael Janisch: acoustic bass (1, 3-7, 9-11), electric bass (2, 8, 12); Aaron Goldberg: piano (2, 3, 9, 10); Jim Hart: vibraphone (1, 4, 6, 11); Jason Palmer: trumpet (2, 7, 8, 11); Paul Booth: tenor saxophone (1, 2, 6); Mike Moreno: guitar (2, 8); Patrick Cornelius: alto saxophone (5, 11); Phil Robson: guitar (5, 9); Walter Smith III: tenor saxophone (1, 8, 11); Johnathan Blake: drums.

And to be honest with you, I have not heard of any of them before but they all played impressively on this album.

Tech of the day: My非佛

鑑於富士康近月接連發生多名員工跳樓事件，本人建議各位iPhone用家下載「非一般唸佛機」App，南無阿彌陀佛。

Music of the day: Rainbow in the Dark

RIP Ronnie James Dio. The legendary heavy metal vocalist and band leader died on May 16th. I did not realize he was 67 as he always appeared so energetic. His work with Black Sabbath and his own band were amazing as he never sold out to the mainstream.

Tech of the day: Slingbox and Pace TDC577X DVR

I was trying to configure my Slingbox to use the new DVR we got from Comcast. For some reason this model does not show up from Slingbox's list. Fortunately, with the help of the great Google search (and more importantly, its cache) I found that I could tell Slingbox I am using a standalone DVR, then choose Comcast as the brand and DCT34XX as the model. (I should have thought of this since Comcast uses the same remote for all boxes anyway)

Star of the day: Viswanathan Anand, the world chess champion

Anand has just successfully defended his title from challenger Veselin Topalov, a former world chess champion as well. They were all tied through 11 games. Anand won the 12th and final game of this title match.

Star of the day: Dallas Braden

Another no-hitter from Bay Area's baseball team (Giant's Jonathan Sanchez did it last year)! And this one is even better: a perfect game (where 27 batters are all retired.) I was happy to see Mark Burhle threw a perfect game for White Sox last year. This one is certainly more surprising since Braden was not as highly regarded as Burhle. I hope the A's and Braden do better than the Sox and Burhle did the rest of the reason though (basically they went downhill from that game on)

Topic of the day: Progressive Insurance lives up to its name

Kudo to Progressive for being brave enough to go against conservatism in the States by making a commercial that feature a gay couple (not explicitly stated but a lot of people think so):


It's sad that so many businesses either pretend gay people do not exist or bow down to the extremely conservative/religious groups. I would sing more praises for them if the marketing guy at Progressive admit that's a gay couple (instead, he said they are modelled after Joey and Chandler from Friends but Friends expert like me know they are not) Besides, I really find that Progressive ad lady very annoying (my buddy agreed with me too)

Topic of the day: It's hard not to like SF

The title sounds like an old jazz standard but it's not (That would be "I left my heart in San Francisco") For one thing, you could always count on hearing live music somewhere. I went to Fishermen's Wharf earlier this week. Saw a guy playing classic tunes on violin and another guy playing blues guitar and harmonica. It was good entertainment. And during one of my regular bookstore trip, a gentleman saw me skimming through Michael Lewis' latest book "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" (about the current recession and its cause: sub-prime mortgage) and started chatting with me. He was a teacher and had met Lewis in person at his school and gave high rave about this book.

The only disappointment in SF this week was actually not its fault: my buddy, a visitor, wanted to buy a Sony product so Sony Store immediately came to our mind. The Metreon (a complex with shops and movie theater) had a big Sony presence. It was a "flagship"-type of store that showcase Sony's great products (like TVs, camcorders and most prominently, video games) Too bad they were all gone! What a pity! There was a time that people flock to Sony Store. That's when people ridicule that Apple was trying to open its own retail stores!

Sports highlights: Champions League semi, Stanley Cup playoff, NASCAR

Who would have guessed it is Bayern vs Inter in the final 3 months ago? Most of our friends didn't even give Inter a chance 3 weeks ago! In order not to jinx the team I root for (like I did so many times on this blog before,) I am not going to mention which team it is.

I haven't watched much of Stanley Cup playoff so far. So glad that our local team, the Sharks, at least made it to the 2nd round, unlike last year. They won the President's Trophy (best regular season record) but lost in the first round so unexpectedly. Well, this year another President's Trophy winner got eliminated in the first round. I am not a fan of the Canadiens but it was exciting to see them beating the high-powered Washington Capitals. (In fact, 3 out of the last 5 President's Trophy winner were ousted in the first round! I guess no one wants to win it in the near future >:)

Last but no least, what an exciting finish for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega last Sunday. As expected, there were a few big wrecks. And Kevin Harvick barely beats Jamie McMurray at the finish line, literally, at the 3rd green-white-checker restart. It is race like this that gets me addicted to NASCAR. For every boring race, you get something like this. Not a bad deal!

Tech of the day: HP bought Palm

In the storied history of Palm, one of the mobile computing pioneer, another new chapter has been written today: it was acquired by HP. As a gadget lover/user, Palm always has a special place in my heart. In the past I have owned 3 PDAs that run Palm OS (though only 1 was made by Palm. The other 2 were Visor made by HandSpring and the Watch PDA made by Fossil) Although many companies faded away quickly in the tech industry, it is still sad to see Palm going from having a really dominant product like Palm III, Palm V to having also-runs like Palm Pre (which probably has some good technologies but no one really cares) Almost everyone uses a Palm PDA 12 years ago. Now I do not know anyone that uses Palm Pre. The newest Palm I have seen my friends used was a Palm Centro! And Palm hasn't really have any game changing product since Treo 600, which was THE first successful smart phone with PDA and phone functionality integrated properly.

On the other hand, it seems fitting that Palm went to HP, who has made quite a few legendary mobile computing devices themselves, like the HP-71B, a handheld computer that runs BASIC and HP-200LX, a handheld that runs MS-DOS Even though HP seems to have lots its edge in building such devices, evident in the fact that they dropped their own Jornanda-line of Windows CE/Pocket PC in favor of the iPAQs from their acquisition of Compaq.

Will Palm ever be able to come up with another game changing/domainant device? Let's keep our finger crossed.

Movie of the day: Crazy Heart

I seldom watch Oscar but I did this year and saw Jeff Bridges won something for his performance in this movie. I like the Bridges brothers because of The Fabulous Baker Boys, a movie about a jazz piano duo (played by them) and drama caused by the addition of a female vocalist (played by Michele Pfeifer) It was one of my all-time-favorite movie. For some reason, I didn't realize Crazy Heart was also about music until I read about it from the cover story of the latest issue of Guitar Aficionado. From the same article I also learned that Jeff Bridges was actually a decent musician (he learned playing guitar for a long time) No wonder he was able to portray musicians so well in both movies.

Unlike the role of a jazz pianist from The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jeff Bridges played a country guitarist/singer in Crazy Heart. Country is not really my cup of tea so I have some doubts whether I would buy/rent it. Fortunately, it was available on my flight and there was no reason not to watch it for free. And I enjoy it a lot. I even enjoy the music to a certain extent. On the other hand, I'm not sure the movie is that great. For example, his relationship with his student (also a bigger star than himself) seemed a bit superficial.

Topic of the day: Cinderellas in college sports

From my experiences, college sports are full of upsets (well, at least I feel that it happens more often than pro sports. Maybe it's because pro teams are more consistent. Sometimes a heavy favourite is indeed much better than its opponents and thus no surprise. And the rest of the games are usually quite evenly matched and no surprise there either)

Butler, who made it to NCAA Basketball final as a #5 seed, was certainly the "Cinderella" that is getting a lot of attention this year. However, I would argue Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was even more deserving because their hockey team went to final 4 as a #15 seed (among the 16 teams in the tournament) before losing to my Wisconsin Badgers.

According to this article, their players are "ordinary" science/engineering students (just like yours truly!) and didn't receive scholarship like the student athletes from schools in major sports conferences did. On the other hand, it actually helped the team to stay together longer instead of losing good players every years to pro leagues.

Sports highlights (and lowlights): MLB Opening week, Champions League, F1

Last weekend was not as eventful as the previous one but it was special because it was the opening week of the new baseball season, started with none other than Yankees vs Red Sox! The funniest thing was, the commentators mentioned this was supposed to be the year of defense but the offense exploded in the first game! Also on the next day, 3 games ended with winning teams scoring 11 runs (1 scored 16!) Another funny incident was that our own Giants, Eugenio Velez, made the news because his jersey has "San Francicso" misprinted on it :D

As far as boxing/MMA went, the "big" fight was Bernard Hopkins vs Roy Jones Jr and it was booooooring! Both of them looked way past them prime and have nothing left. None of them showed any stuff that could knock another down except low blows. I literally fell asleep during the final rounds, which was good for me 'coz I got some good sleep before watching F1 from Malaysia, which was not that exciting either but it was fun to see Alonso trying so hard to pass the car in front of him and ended up blowing his engine. BTW, the Taiwanese ESPN commentator was really good. He kept saying Alonso's car was problematic quite a few laps before the problem materialized.

Even though I tried hard not to watch the Man U vs Bayern Munich Champions League quarter-final 2nd leg, I got regular updates thru IM from my 2 friends (1 Man U supporter and 1 hater!) That's certainly heartbreaking to see them going from hopeful to hopeless for a Man U fan like me.

Caught a few minutes of NCAA Hockey Final 4 actions. Glad to see Wisconsin advanced to the final. Go Badgers!

Topic of the day: Cloud computing and pollution? Blame Apple!

A few years ago Greenpeace admitted that they picked on Apple so that more people were aware of the environmental impace of computer technology. You might think they won't do that anymore. Wrong! Here is a headline from AppleInsider: "Greenpeace criticizes Apple for carbon footprint of iPad cloud"

I am not trying to defend Apple/iPad but all computing "gadgets" (e.g. smartphones, netbooks) these days are constantly making use of the internet (call it the cloud if you insist)

However, I do agree that our world will be less polluted without the cloud. Consider this, if everything is stored locally on your HD:
1) it uses less energy since you have to pay your own electric bill and more likely to turn off your computer (and thus the HD) when you're out.
2) you would be constantly deleting unnecessary data instead of simply adding yet another HD. On the contrary, with all these providers offering high limit free storage in the cloud, you won't bother to delete the junk.

Trivia of the day: honey and golf

I learned this from radio yesterday: in the past, golf ball manufacturers used honey as the core of golf balls!

Sports highlights: GSP, F1, Hong Kong 7 plus more

Last weekend began with an NRL game. Then there were a couple of big events during the weekend: George St Pierre totally dominated in his UFC fight against Hardy. Gotta give some kudos to Hardy though 'coz he really defended hard and avoided submission (his arm was twisted really bad twice but he survived!) The F1 race in Australia was much more excited than expected, probably because of the rain. It was exciting to see Hamilton quickly catching up near the end of the race, which caused Webber to crash (and he couldn't pass Alonzo either) Of course, the home team winning the Shield in Hong Kong Seven Rugby was huge too. (It was not the Cup, but we were happy for the team no matter what)

Both the IndyCar race at St. Petersburg and NASCAR at Martinsville were delayed from Sunday to Monday because of rain. Both were exciting! My idol Danica Patrick had a decent showing by finishing 7th. And Denny Hamlin's surge from 3rd to 1st during the final restart (with 2 laps remaining) at Martinsville was simply unbelievable! Everyone thought he was done when he went to the pit and gave up the lead a few laps earlier in the race.

Also catched an Aussie rule football match, a bit of NLL and NCAA Hockey (Go Badgers!)

Tech of the day: turns off iPhone data

You might think the title sounds stupid: the whole point of having a smartphone like iPhone is for its data capability (i.e., web surfing) What's the point of having one if you turn that off? Well, some people (not me) unlock their iPhone to be used on other networks, which might not have an all-you-can-eat data plan like AT&T. To avoid being charge for data usage at all, it is a good idea to turn it off altogether. Unfortunately, phones like mine that are bought from AT&T, such option is not available. In this case, faking the APN would be your workaround.

To access a data network, iPhone uses something called APN (access point name) The idea is to give it a bad APN so that data would be "turned off." There is a website that allows user to download a profile for that purpose but I had a problem with it (no data access even after I remove the profile! I had to "Reset network setting" to have it back)

Fortunately, there is another tool called FakeAPN (available from iSpatio's Cydia repo http://ispaziorepository.com/) which is an add-on to SBSettings.

In case you haven't installed SBSettings, it is another great app available on Cydia. Basically it gives you a panel that you could access anywhere (simply swipe the top edge of your screen) The panel contains button for toggling 3G, Bluetooth, Wifi, Power/Reboot...... etc. So you don't have to go thru the tedious Settings anymore.

BTW, there is another useful SBSettings add-on called UAFaker, which allows user to toggle between Mobile Safari's default user agent and a custom defined one. I wrote about the need to switch user agent before. After it is installed, you will also need to put your custom user agent string in this file on your iPhone:
/var/mobile/library/SBSettings/Toggles/UAFaker/UAFaker.plist

Tech of the day: tells VLC not to fix your AVI

The video I shot with my Canon TX1 is in a unusual video codec: MJPEG. Whenever I play them in VLC, VLC will detect the index of the AVI file is incorrect and ask if I want to fix them. Of course I'd rather leave the file as-is. There is a way to turn this off:
In VLC, choose Tool->Preferences
Check the radio button for showing all settings.
Then choose Input / Codecs -> Demuxers -> AVI
And select "Never fix" from "Force index creation"

Topic of the day: Tai Chi or Christian?

Christians are not allowed to practice Tai Chi, according to this church. In fact, they have banned the Tai Chi class that used to take place at their church. My understanding of Tai Chi is quite limited but I thought it is more related to Taoism, the philosophy, rather than the religion with the same name. I had never worshipped any Tao deity while practicing Tai Chi! (Maybe that's why I was no good!?) Shaolin Kung Fu probably has more influenced from Budhism than Tai Chi from Taoism (the religion) Still, it's perfectly normal for non-Budhist to practice Shaolin Kung Fu. Once again it shows how ignorant and close minded these people could be.

Topic of the day: GoDaddy stop going in China

Another high-profile tech company (coincidentally, it also starts with a G!) is pulling out its business from China. GoDaddy is well-known for its racy commercials and hot spokeswomen (one of them is my idol, race car driver Danica Patrick) In case you don't notice, their main business is registering domain names (also sells cheap web hosting service)

I'm not sure how popular it is in China though. Maybe it does not hurt them that much by not offering .cn domain names? I don't know.

Musician of the day: John H. Clarke

I just came back from Pier 39 and saw Spanish/Classical guitarist John Clarke playing there. Very creative playing.

Even though it was just him and his guitar (a cool looking thinline nylon string acoustic guitar), it sounded like he has percussion backing him up. His trick was: in the beginning of each song, he will tap/scratch his guitar and "save" it to his Boss RC-50 looping station, which will play it back, controlled by the foot switches. He also used a Yamaha MagicStomp for acoustic guitar effect.

Musician of the day: Svend Asmussen

Mr. Asmussen is a 94 years old jazz violinist. During his long and still on-going career, he has played with the best of the best in jazz, including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington! I have been listening to his albums (Still Fiddling, Makin' Whoopee!... and music!) and enjoyed them very much.

Joke of the day: What is a string quartet?

My teacher taught me today:

A good violinist, a bad violinist, a failed violinist, and someone who hates violinists.

Music of the day: The Melody of Rhythm

It was a collaboration between tabla player Zakir Hussian, double bassist Edgar Meyer, banjoist Bela Fleck, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Hussian and Fleck are both the most well-known players of their respective instrument but Edgar Meyer's playing is eqaully amazing. I forgot it's a double bass! This is refreshing music. Here is an interview by NPR (the public radio station)

Sports highlights: NRL, Pacquiao, IndyCar

It was the opening weekend of National Rugby League (Australia/New Zealand.) I watched one game, of course.

The biggest event was Pacquiao vs Clottey. Not a particularly interesting fight since the Clottey was blocking his head most of the time and did not try that hard to fight Pacquiao back.

The best one was Indy Car's season opener in Sao Paolo, which featured a whole lot of lead changes! And you seldom hear people praising sports coverage these days (see the comment section)

Musical of the day: The Phantom of the Opera 續集

讀了才子陶傑今天在《蘋果日報》的專欄，方知Andrew Lloyd Webber有新作，更是我至愛的The Phantom of the Opera 續集！本來想為本文標題《老貓燒鬚》，但怕人誤會我指的是Andrew Lloyd Webber，其實我想話陶傑！

以下節錄自原文：

新作是《歌聲魅影》的續集。戲名Love Never Dies，略嫌白了一點，不像《貓》（Cats）、《棋》（Chess）、《星光快車》（Starlight Express）一樣有遐想的餘地，但今天是網絡世代，八十後的觀眾，不喜歡咀嚼含蓄，只求一Q到位。......韋伯最叫座的音樂劇像顧嘉煇和黃霑，都由添萊思（Tim Rice）填詞。

看上文下理，相信你也會和我一樣，以為Chess也是Andrew Lloyd Webber的作品，其實作者是前ABBA成員Björn Ulvaeus 和Benny Andersson才對。

最後一句也有問題，Andrew Lloyd Webber最叫座的音樂劇是Phantom和Cats，但兩者都不是Tim Rice填詞；反而之前提過的Chess卻是。

我作為一名棋迷，竟然不知有Chess這部音樂劇，也多得他的錯誤，我才會去Wikipedia認識一下該劇！