Star of the day: Steve McNair

Another one left us this week! I'm talking about the great quarterback Steve McNair. Who could forget his performance in the superbowl? What a game he played (even though his team didn't win)

RIP.

Topic of the day: bike messenger

I was told that biking up and down hill is a great way to lose weight. Even though I'm no good at biking, I love doing it. So I figure it might be a good idea to get a bike messenger job if I get laid off. Well, it is a very dangerous job according to studies. And the job doesn't paid that well.

I still dunno why a lot of messengers ride road bike rather than mountain bike though. I thought the latter is easier to get up and down hill and ride through uneven surfaces in the city. If anyone knows the reason, please comment.

Star of the day: Billy Mays

RIP, Mr. Mays.

I am an informercial junkie. Of course I've seen many of Billy Mays' commercials, of which the most famous is Oxiclean (too bad I couldn't find a good YouTube link of that) I'm sure I'll be watching re-runs of this and many other of his great works. He will be missed.

Another icon from our generation has left us in the past few days :( When the radio station played a couple of Bon Jovi's songs in a row this morning, it scared me!

Musician of the day: Ottmar Liebert

I saw new flamenco guitar master Ottmar Liebert playing at the Rrazz Room inside SF's Hotel Nikko tonight. I was totally amazed by the complexity of the music coming from his solo guitar. His music truly embodies the "global village" spirit as its root is in Spanish while played by a German like him (his father is actually Chinese-German!) And the background slideshow of photo from places he traveled enhanced the whole experience too.

He also spent some time answering questions from the audiences. He told us he started playing when he was 13. He paid merely $20 to take weekly 30 minute guitar lesson for the whole semester!
About his guitar, it's made by luthier Lester Devoe. Even guitarists from Spain buy from this California luthier so it's a testament of how good his guitars are. He said flamenco guitars usually don't last longer than a few years because of the "abuse" they received from the guitarist (e.g. the percussive tapping on the top) so flamenco guitarists usually spends less (~$7500) whereas classical guitarists would paid $30K or more!

每週一噏：巨星殞落

講的當然就是Michael Jackson！無論你喜歡他的音樂與否，也不論他的私生活是否有問題，無可否認，他是流行音樂界一代巨星，82年一張Thriller，九首歌中有七首出single，全部都能打入Billboard十大，實在架勢堂！

不過，我認為MJ最值得被紀念的，是由他和Lionel Ritchie為非州旱災帶來的饑荒賑災，合寫We are the World一曲，該曲及相關的Hands Across America活動總共籌得一億美元善款。

最後想提一件個人的MJ小插曲，話說小時候有朋友問我最喜歡聽甚麼音樂，我說MJ，其實當時對外國樂壇一竅不通，只知有MJ，一首歌也未聽過；她即時嗤之以鼻，因為她喜歡的是巴哈！

Tech of the day: iPhone 3.0

I haven't upgraded my firmware for a long time. I am the type of users that refuse to upgrade unless it provides me features I could use immediately (that's why my Ubuntu install became totally obsolete with no upgrade path available) for 2 reasons: upgrades are risky. You are taking risk of destabilizing your gadget/system. Also, some companies use upgrade as a way to put more control/limitation. However, there are a few features in the 3.0 firmware that I couldn't resist:
- Bluetooth Stereo support (aka A2DP): finally we could go wireless when listening to music.
- Copy and paste: not sure my friends missed getting my e-mails that I wrote by copying and pasting interesting news from websites I visited. I used to do that a lot before iPhone replaced by my trusted Dell Pocket PC.

Here I'm re-posting instructions to upgrade a jailbroken iPhone 3G with 2.x firmware to a jailbroken iPhone 3G with 3.0 firmware (NOTE: NOT 3G S) written by someone (and executed successfully by someone, not me DISCLAIMER: use at your own risk)

1) Backup backup backup! For example, if you have stored some local files on your iPhone's filesystem, make a backup using SCP (assuming you have OpenSSH running on iPhone) That includes data and config (e.g. lighttpd.conf, sshd_config, ... etc) Of course, sync your phone to iTunes, which back it up. Also, some recommend installing Cydia's AptBackup and backup your Cydia settings.

2) Upgrade iTunes to 8.2 from within iTunes. It is a 80Mb+ download. Might take a while.

3) When iTunes 8.2 sees your phone, it will pop up a box telling you there is a new firmware available, click the "Download Only" button (not "Download and Install"!!!!!!) Then you will get a pristine firmware straight from Apple and no need to worry about downloading from dubious source. It is a 200Mb+ download. Might take a WHILE.

4) Put your iPhone in recovery mode (follow Apple's official instructions)

5) In iTunes, hold down the shift button on your keyboard and click "Restore" with your mouse. It will open a file dialog. Choose the file you have just downloaded in (3), under c:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates (to be safe, back this up somewhere else too)

Your iTunes/iPhone will go through the lengthy process of restoring (i.e., upgrading) the 3.0 firmware on your phone as well as resync-ing the settings/data (e.g. contacts) to your phone.

Now you're ready for jailbreaking it again. Follow these good instructions on how to use redsn0w for that purpose.

[Update: iPhone has problem with using some bluetooth headphones and streaming through WIFI. Hopefully yours is not on the list.]

Star of the day: Tim Howard

USA's goal keeper has made a bunch of great saves and played a huge role in the upset defeat of the #1 team in the world, Spain. Even though Spain was known for underachieving but it usually had to do with losts to the elite teams. The current Spanish squad is even more exceptional. Well, every good thing must come to an end. There goes Spain's 15-game winning streak. It proved once again that anything could happen in soccer.

Go USA!

Topic of the day: Clear's future is unclear

Just heard from the morning news that Clear, the program that allows paid users ($199 per year) to get through airport security faster, has suddenly stopped its operation. Users who already paid are not getting refund. While I feel bad about people losing their hard earned money, I was not a fan of this program from the beginning. Why should rich people has extra privilege when it comes to airport security? Apparently I'm not alone. See the comment section in the linked article. It's interesting to see some commenters seem to have valid reason to use such service (frequent travelers who is going to pay more than $199 to replace a ticket when they miss the flight on a tight schedule)

Topic of the day: Bozeman is in the news

Not sure if no news is bad news in this case. The Montana city became famous all over the world last week when the city government requested job applicants to handover their passwords of social networks (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) The purpose is obviously for finding out if the applicants have done anything improper and disclosed through social networks. When the news first broke, their official still defended it and said they did not violate privacy, which caused even more uproar. Finally they decided to abandon that practice, but I'm afraid it's already too late for damage control. The damage has been done!

每週一噏：美國精神

「美帝」一向被指責扮演國際警察，最近又孭上引發金融海嘯及輸出H1N1的新罪名，形象可謂每況愈下。

不過今日一場波，又令我再次感受到美國精神：永不言敗，戰鬥到底（當然仍要靠少少運）

講的正是洲際盃，早兩日提過美國兩戰兩敗，在小組包艇，出線機會渺茫。誰知最後一場，面對僅敗於巴西及小勝意大利的非洲勁旅埃及，竟然一洗頹風，越戰越勇，最後以總入球數字趕過同樣一勝兩敗的意大利打入準決賽！

Star of the day: Sir Paul McCartney

I thought today is his birthday when I heard the local classical version played a classical version of Penny Lane this morning and mentioned his birthday. Actually he turned 67 yesterday. He's way passed "When I'm 64!" He should probably start writing "When I'm 80"

Topic of the day: Confederation Cup

So far I have not watched any of the matches on TV. None of them are that interesting anyway. It's sad to see US lost both games. Both of them were not close game! I am not too optimistic about our chances in the game vs. Egypt either. I'm looking forward to a Spain vs. Brazil game at the later stage!

Movie of the week: Up

It's the movie I wrote about 2 months ago in the post titled Animation and age discrimination. Now that I've watched this movie, I call what the analyst said BS (my previous post was criticising the criticism of the analyst. That remained unchanged) First of all, the main character (the old dude) is not that grumpy. I mean, when you run into obstacles and having a cranky kid by your side, you are bound to lose your patience, just like he did. Second, that kid, the big bird and the dog are more than capable of moving merchandises. Disney didn't need to count on the old dude for that.

Those people should just open their mind, even though they will never have great imagination like the guys at Pixar do. Once again, Pixar did a great job in breaking the mold.

Game of the day: No Stress Chess

I am a chess lover and always wanted to spread the love to my kids. I have been thinking of ways to introduce them to the game ever since they were borned! Previously I have tried Quick Chess, which features a reduced-size board and less pieces. Still, there are too many possible moves to choose from for young kids like mine. So I decided to try No Stress Chess, which claims to be so easy that anyone could play. I didn't get much details from the descriptions/reviews on exactly how to play it. All I knew was that it has a set of cards and the players take turn to draw from these cards and play according to whatever the card says. Well, it turns out the cards merely tells the player which piece to move (legal moves of that piece was also explained on the card just in case the player can't remember the rule) On one hand, I hope it's more "precise." For example, on a relatively opened board, a queen could land on many squares if you drew a queen card. So there are still too many choices for young players. Maybe it could include two dices to indicate the direction to move and number of squares? On the other hand, I understand limiting the choices like I suggested will make the game hard to finish.

Another drawback is that there are a few things that won't happen in a real game: (1) checkmate only happens when the king is actually captured. So if you're in check but your opponent didn't have the card to move the piece that checks your king, you're still alive! (2) when you draw a card but you don't have that piece anymore or that piece can't move, you lose a turn. (3) because of the previous rule, sometimes I make unorthodox move like advancing the side pawns as early as possible so that I don't have to waste the turn when I get a rook card.

Anyway, my kids enjoy playing it. That's all I care. I won't worry too much about them learning bad habits yet. Exposure is a good thing!

每週一嗡: 十面埋伏

早兩日介紹過一個西樂中彈的錄像﹐今日掉轉過來﹐中樂西彈﹗

Game of the week: Stanley Cup Game 7

Any game 7 in the final series gotta be exciting regardless of the outcome. In the case, I'm even happier because it was won by my favorite NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins! I was asked how the Pens become my favorite team. Well, when I started watching hockey, there was no team in my area. (The Stars was still in Minnesota, then known as the North Stars!) And Lemieux and Jagr were simply the most amazing duo at that time. 16 years later, we have another dynamic duo in Crosby and Malkin (hope they will win another cup together!)

This is simply a fantastic series: the two same teams, Penguins and Red Wings played in the final last year. Even though the Pens were more mature by a year, most thought that the Red Wings was even more improved. They looked so correct when the Pens were down 0-2 after 2 games into the series. However, just like the series against Washington Capitals, they bounced back, which showed great characters!

When Lemieux got the cup again, this time as a owner (he was a player 16 years ago), I knew this gotta be one of the sweetest moment in sports this year.

Music of the day: Flight of the Bumblebee

This is a video of the virtuosic classical piece being performed on the Ruan (中阮), the Chinese version of guitar:


Amazed? I am!

Tech of the day: what is wrong with Twitter?

Well, I don't know but this blogger came up with this lengthy article about a non-issue (btw, he used to write for TechCrunch. See the connection?) Basically he claimed Twitter's developer are not Twitting much and not following a lot of people. He worried that by not using the product they developed, they won't be in tune with what users expect.

Not sure if he knows anything about software development. There is a thing called "testing environment," which is separated from the production environment he has been doing his so-called analysis! I'm pretty sure Twitter's development team uses Twitter a lot, in the testing environment!

Star of the day: Conan O'Brien

Conan made his big move last week: from the Late night show to the Tonight show. Well, I haven't watched any episode yet since I am not a big fan of him and the show even though Tonight Show was pretty much the only talk show I bothered to watch once in a while because of its band (featuring jazz guitarist Kevin Eubank!)

I did hear one of his joke on the radio and it was a good one: the 3 most time wasting websites, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, will be combined into one: YouTwitFace :D

Topic of the day: online textbook, good or bad deal?

I've just read about California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing online textbook to save cost. I expected lots of "old school" commenters will ridicule this plan just because it is different from what they are used to. It turns out they do have a point: the online textbooks might not be that good a deal for students because it is not gonna cost much less than the paper textbooks and they are not resalable!