形式vs意義

今早讀過明朝萬歷皇帝要面對一大堆形式多於意義的繁文縟節，今時今日作為凡夫俗子的我們亦不能倖免。此話何來？今天學校「慶祝」Read Across America Day，召了各位家長回校到課室和小朋友一起閱讀半小時。平日大家開車回校只是送子女上學便走，今天都要停車，為了應付此事，我們又要提早出門；至於不能出席的家長，就更感guilty。其實這裡的虎媽督促子女閱讀，每天也不少於半小時吧。

Do we need more Com. Sci. students?

I mean, in Western countries. The reason I'm asking is that the creators of the $35 Raspberry Pi computer said they are building this new programmable machine for a new generation. "Each year we had fewer and fewer students applying, and most of them hadn't really done much more than write a web page," Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton told CNN. In the long term, he hopes the computer will generate an additional 1,000 engineers in the UK each year. I guess it's a good thing to have more software developers locally to drive down the salary. Hopefully low enough such that companies don't need to offshore their development jobs.

A special wedding

What made it special?
It's at a golf course in Pleasanton. Golf course is a popular choice in the States but it's the first time I've been to a wedding at one. It's kinda cold watching the ceremony outdoor though. The flower girl was shivering!
The banquet's theme is bicycling. A tandem bike was on display. And the name of the tables are all famous biking routes like Old La Honda, Crystal Spring, Tamalpais. Guess what the name of the head table was? The road I rode earlier that day: King's Mountain! The bride explained the appearance of the tandem bike in her speech: their relationship grew with it. She felt secured to follow her man in the front. What a moving speech!

First day with new laptop

To me, the name "laptop" has always implied being bulky. I prefer calling my computers "notebook" instead. However, my new computer has a 15" screen so I reluctantly have to accept calling it a "laptop" It is a replacement of my netbook that died last week. It's amazing how I used an undersized and underpowered computer as my main machine for nearly two years. I'm looking forward to a better computing experience with a dual-core CPU and much more screen real estate for multitasking! And it's one of the very few <$1000 computer equipped with Nvidia 3D Vision. Let me share with you my first day experience.

First time starting up didn't seem to take that long. It needed to create user account/directory/desktop. 

Usually I hate computer manufacturer bundling a whole bunch of unnecessary software but it's nice to have Chrome preinstalled already. I just need to fire it up and get the latest update.

Next, I installed Rhapsody's desktop client (for sync-ing subscription music with my players. Yes, I still have standalone music players instead of relying solely on smartphone or tablet. It's easier to sleep with standalone player without worrying about breaking it or draining the battery!)

And I need Audacity for recording homework assignments for music lessons. The beta version works on Vista and 7 (This one comes with Win 7 Home Premium 64bit)

To watch SlingBox streaming on PC, the company now only recommend using the web-based client. I have nothing against web-based client usually. However, I prefer to use a desktop client for Sling because once in a while when I started the web-based client, it requires mandatory updates that takes a while to complete. Man, I just want to spend a little bit time watching a little bit TV!

To view QuickTime streaming video in the browser, I could obviously install QuickTime from Apple but I hate how Apple tried to bundle everything with QuickTime so I opted for QTLite. It has the QuickTime plugin for Chrome (and Firefox if that's your cup of tea)

The biggest attraction of this laptop is its support of 3D Blu-ray. When I put in one, I thought a player would open automatically but nothing happened. So I looked at the preinstalled software. There's a Toshiba Video Player. Tried it but it complained watching DVD requires another player, which didn't make sense at all because my disc is a Blu-ray. Then I tried BD Player. And it is a shortcut to Corel WinDVD (didn't know Corel got into this business. I knew Corel from the Corel Draw software) which works with "normal" Blu-ray disc but I could only see poor "double visioned" video with the 3D Disc. I found a Start menu item for Enable 3D Vision. Turned out it hasn't been enabled yet and I need to do a bit of setup while wearing the 3D glasses. Even after that, the playing of 3D Disc was still bad: lots of big squared "pixels" floated around especially when there's movement. I was so disappointed and not sure whether it's the disc, software or hardware that cause the problem. Fortunately I dug around and decided to go to Toshiba's support site to look for some sort of update (maybe video driver or player?) and found a Corel WinDVD update hidden "between the lines" (literally, under the Toshiba Video Player update!) Once I updated, I started it and followed the recommendation to update its keys (I think it's for decrypting Blu-ray, not the software license) Then I rebooted and kept my finger crossed. Viola! 3D Blu-ray on my laptop! (BTW, 3D video clips from Nvidia's website worked too, even before this update. Watched Joe Satriani played his guitar in 3D. Oh well, I have seen him live quite a few times :P)

The last thing I played with was Bluetooth. I'm familiar with Toshiba's Bluetooth stack. The first time I used Bluetooth audio with a computer was on my old Libretto from 7 years ago. I vaguely remembered lots of hacking was involved. Apparently it has improved after all these years even though it's still not trivial: I clicked on Bluetooth COM on my control panel and went through the steps which seems to enable the whole stack (getting the Bluetooth icon in the bottom-right corner of Windows bar) Then I tried adding a new connection. It recognized my BT stereo headphone when I put the latter in pairing mode. I chose the A2DP profile but connection failed. I realized the headphone has already connected to my phone so I disconnected that and retry and it worked this time. I got to enjoy a few tunes from Rhapsody wirelessly :D

Looking forward to having more fun with it.

太陽能電筒?

我們這個年代的人很多都聽過電影《國產凌凌漆》中這件經典攪笑道具，不過現實世界的確有這件產品，並讓不少發展中國家國民受惠。靠貯存太陽能供電給LED照明的電燈，令他們節省不少燃料費，更不像燒火水般排放CO2污染環境。

總統紀念日長週末遊記

寫完標題，首先想起的是『總統琴行』一曲，然後才是『紀念日』。首先慶祝的倒是女兒的生日，吃從Baskin Robbins 買來upgraded再upgraded 的雪糕蛋糕。接著參加了小朋友以前保母的派對，臨別依依。晚上看久別三個月的NASCAR 看得津津有味。星期天決定外出玩足一天，想了一陣子，否決了Napa(品酒), Point Reyes (觀鳥), Monterey broadwalk（遊樂場）, 還是老地方:金門公國吧。為免『執輸』，九時左右便去了鯉魚門醫肚，邊吃邊看林書豪大戰努域斯基(上屆NBA 總冠軍)，林每一次遠射，上籃，被foul，都是扣人心弦的轉播焦點!之後直闖金門，務求在十一時科學館開門前到達，其實我早已準備好單車，在難找車位的公園，泊車泊得老遠亦不礙事。

我們兵分兩路，對科學館興趣不大的我去了對面受歡迎度稍遜入場劵便宜得多(前者$35vs後者$10)的De Young 藝術館。De Young 一般將展品分於兩區:一為常規展品，二為需另加錢觀看從外借的『名器』例如兩年前從巴黎Musee d'Orsay借來的一批包括梵高等印象派名家作品，參觀人數激增，記得當年我們去看，人山人海。昨天De Young並無特別展覽，難怪人流較少，但絕非門堪羅雀。新展出的一些作品頗為發人心省：探討人性的負面，包括戰爭及破壞環境；前者有Stephen De Staebler木乃伊一般的人形雕塑，後者則有Jason Walker一隻形似吞下燈泡的藍鳥的茶壺。看完一批抽象主義畫作，想起De Young的入場券也適用於三英里外的Legion of Honor藝術館。你說我cheap我也不否認，$10元看兩館的誘惑實在太大！從金門公園到34街上Legion of Honor有段Category 5斜路，用我帶去的3 speed摺車上不算難也不算易。Legion of Honor的『常規』展品似乎也是一般水準，有點幸運看到最後一天展出從羅馬借來的Bernini's Medusa雕刻；更幸運的是適逢Ariel Ensemble表演室樂，從近距離欣賞Mendelsohn的弦樂四重奏實是樂事。回到金門，在De Young的Cafe像遊客般吃個不算貴得過份的late lunch後，和兩個反斗星踩了一會單車，是時候訓練下他們上斜下坡的能力了，不經不覺已是五時，到中餐館斬點料回家作晚餐，結束了我的長週末。

The day after the day after Valentine's day holiday

I don't know what it is officially called but my kids' school indeed have today, tmw as well as next Mon (President's day) off. So I have no choice but to take a day off with them as well. To prepare for this, I slept for 10 hours on the Valentine's night. Then the "celebration" began on Wednesday with a dinner at the Sushi boat restaurant nearby (it's the first time my son has been to one, unlike his sister :P) And a 3+ hr TV marathon afterwards: 1 documentary (about female orgasm), 1 episode of sitcom (How I Met Your Mother), 1 episode of cartoon (Transformers Prime), 1 motorcycle race (endurocross: an man-made obstacle course within an arena), 1 kickboxing match, 1 Rugby Seven final (the one just played in Las Vegas. What a dramatic finish!)

After a good night of sleep (no need to wake up early to make breakfast for kids), I decided to cycle with the kids to Stanford, which easily killed off 3 hours (2 hour round-trip ride + 1 hour lunch) Then I had some free time for myself. My activity is usually very predictable: either biking or golfing. I chose the latter (at my favorite 9 hole: Sunken Garden, where my buddies and I spent a lot of time way back). I try to play at least once (even if it's just a 9-hole course) per year. I shot a birdie at a Par-3 today! (Haven't done that for years :P Not that I played a lot) The "big finish" was supposed to be a visit to the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. I did go but it was a brief visit. Long story: anyone with any museum experience has probably seen some areas in museum being closed off to prepare for new exhibitions. And probably was curious what it looks like when an exhibition is being prepared. Well, for a small museum like Triton, when it needs to change to new exhibitions, it either closes off the whole place or let visitors see the "secret." And Triton did the latter. So I spent 10 min walked around and saw old exhibition pieces that were taken off lying on the floor and new pieces still wrapped waiting to be hanged up! Not a bad finish of my day off.

Guitar Heroes

This is not about the video game (which I indeed played) but an exhibition with the same name in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met). It will end on July 4th and it's unlikely that I would see it in person. I did browse through the collection online, including John Monteleone's Four Seasons: a set of four archtop guitars. Even though I didn't see the real thing, I was able to hear them via Anthony Wilson's album: Seasons, which contains the suite written for a performance of these 4 guitars at the Met by 4 top NYC jazz guitarists from the new generation, plus other pieces played live at the same concert.

「新遮」

在讀書時代在女人街買的一把縮⻣遮，左爛右破，竟然用到去年Spring Break；終於買了一把替代品，那是有防風吹反功能的新設計。但買了差不多一年，只試過幾次毛毛雨也打開它過一過癮，卻未曾經歷任何真正考驗！今早終於有一場夠大的雨讓它派上用場。雖然我不喜歡被雨水沾濕（特別是近年多了踩單車），倒也不介意今週下點雨，讓這裡喜歡滑雪的朋友享受下真雪；也算是上天為薄命的Whitney Houston流點眼淚吧。總之不要下太多，令上山之路太難行就好了。

Music of the day: Folk Art by Joe Lovano

I can't believe this album went completely under my radar when it was released in 2009. Fortunately Stereophile magazine mentioned it recently. Lovano was backed by a new band (including bassist Esperanza Spaulding,.before she won her Grammy ) and he wrote new tunes (all of them) on it. I just listened to this ballad "Wild Beauty" which lived up to it's title. Lovano's ballad always impresses me.

The RAZR Fit Driver vs. The Bellagio Fountains TV Commercial

This is a cool commercial. A lot of us are familiar with that lake. Having a golfer hitting a ball over it with a new driver is a great way to promote it for sure. I wonder if he did it so perfectly with his first shot though.

Keep on rockin' in the free world

Just read this story about Apple's ambition to improve the fidelity of music downloads has diminished since the death of founder Steve Jobs, according to singer-songwriter Neil Young. The most interesting part though, was that Young embraced illegal music downloads. "Piracy is the new radio," said Young, whose music has long had a rebellious streak. "I look at the Internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone."

I can totally understand. A lot of musicians made money from live performance (the drinks and the merchandises) Their cut from "legal" download or CD sale were small. I heard that some musicians signed contract that doesn't even include the cut from download, i.e., the record company keeps all of that.

The Chairman and the controversy

"Chairman" is the name of a food truck I saw at Folsom and 2nd St in SF the other day. Definitely a flashy sounding name! I didn't try the food though so don't know how good it is. I did google about it afterwards and found that it was involved in a controversy: the truck was originally named "Chairman Bao", which is the same as the top-selling item by a NYC shop called Baohaus (another great name BTW) Baohaus' owner was really upset that someone took that name. Looks like the truck owner gave in and changed the name! Not sure who to side with on this one but I guess both party should be happy that lives go on.

Contador banned

"This is just a very sad day for cycling." I'm quoting pro-cyclist Andy Schleck here and I agree with him (for me personally, it's more sad yesterday because I got 2 flat tires during my ride) For a casual cyclist like me, watching Alberto Contador climbing up hills like they are nothing was simply amazing. To me, he's superman. Oh well, using banned substance tarnishes his reputation forever. Just like my other favourite sports star Barry Bonds. Andy Schleck who finished 2nd to Contador at 2010 Tour De France will likely to be declared as champion instead. What if the same happened to US Sports? USC should have been taking away their football national championships on the years that Reggie Bush played (And the Heisman he won should have been given to Vince Young!) How about New England Patriots' "spygate"? Are they guilty of cheating by spying other team's practice during the years they won the superbowl? How long will the curse of spygate lasts? Patriots have lost 2 superbowls after that controversy already!

二月了

除夕開party的記憶猶新，原來眨下眼2012年已過去了12分之一！整個月好像沒有做過甚麼，事實上有半個月是活在jet lag之中，認真過份。由去年十月底萬聖節開始的holiday mood，好像一直無停過；農歷新十五將至，還等著和一些朋友吃開年飯呢。跟著情人節又到，之後又有Spring break，暑假還遠嗎？

Open house

It's open house at my kids' school again. Obviously it happened at normal class time, which means regular working hour for those parents with day jobs. Fortunately the American society values family activities highly. Not sure how working parents in Hong Kong could do the same though. Today I saw the digital white board in action for the first time. We should have one of these at work! Well, I guess my company has to cut cost to pay my salary so I could pay tax to school district so they could spend on fancy gadgets. That's how money moves around.

In the 3rd grade classroom, there is a list named "Ways to choose books." #2 item on the list is: "cover looked interesting." And #4 is: "interesting title." Now you know how to be a successful book writer! The outside is as important as the content! I guess these apply to how people choose phones too.

Another poster teaches how to deal with boring moments. #1 thing to do is keeping your body and eyes turned towards the teacher. Yep, that also works when you're with your wife or boss.

The last revelation is what our next generation want to be when they grow up. Doctor is still the most popular choice in spite of the ongoing medical reform for which reports claim doctors are going bankrupt. A few wanna be teachers. The most ambitious one wanted to become the best tennis player in the world. Good lucky girl! Just need to adapt to the grunting standard in the future :P The one that's really puzzling says he wants to "adlt". He either just wanna be an adult (hopefully without too much effort) that doesn't care about "u" or an auditor.

帝王之路

皇帝有座山，叫做皇帝山；上山果條路，就係King's Mountain Road；這條路在灣區單車界薄有名氣，僅稍遜於附近的Old La Honda Road（OLH），卻比後者要長，在MapMyRide屬Category 1 Climb，難度不低。
早幾天（住老遠的）同事說起會去，我亦有此意。昨晚大吃大喝，也夾了一會Canon，不忘叫培正老友今早一起上King's Mountain Road消滅點卡路里。六時起床匆匆出車，天仍全黑！倒是小事，最難頂的是雙手涷到僵，真後悔沒有戴上次熱到全是汗的fleece手套，到Sand Hill Road時已比原定時間遲了廿分鐘！正不好意思，但竟然不見老友，連忙取出電話check check。老友留了VM說昨晚飲太多所以肚痛不能出車，時為7:20am，雙手幾近全無知覺，內心掙扎要否打退堂鼓？邊掙扎邊踩，不久就到Tripp Road及King's Mountain交叉點，向左走向右走？再check email，見同事回覆confirm晚點會來，大家在路上見吧。此時有點騎虎難下，想想再過一會應更暖，而上山的風反而不如下山般勁吹雙手，加上面子攸關，上！後來也覺得這是明智決擇：天氣好得不得了，山上風景宜人。之前的折騰盡拋諸腦後，不當一回事了。(BTW，最後也沒有碰上應比我踩得快的同事們，唯有立此存照:P)

十五分鐘，陰與晴

今早早餐後望望窗外，無雨但灰濛濛。內心掙扎了一會：是否出車呢？按早兩日的觀卦，似乎不宜出，但觀望態度很快被搏一搏心態蓋過！馬上全副裝備上身，一踩到街口，即見濃霧籠罩，感覺頗為不妙；但出了車就很少回頭，開燈硬著頭皮上吧。幸好十五分鐘後，天氣豁然開朗，踩到上山，不但霧已散，雲也剩下不多，實在是踩單車的理想天氣！難道有時真要信信gut feeling，衝一衝再算？

Good books 好讀 2011

閱讀一向是我的頭號興趣（雖然花在看電視的時間亦不少，但我媽媽好proud的說她兒子之所以近視是因為小時候太多時間在光線不足情況下閱讀！）去年尾開始讀的是入選好讀網世紀百强的白先勇《台北人》，尚未讀完，容後再談（題外話：記得那些年追女仔扮文化人就是送她一本白先勇作品）之前寫過This is Your Brain on Music的讀後感；今次也介紹一本小說、一本音樂書。

小說是近年我追捧的日本推理小說作家（作品包括《白夜行》《嫌疑犯X的獻身》）東野圭吾的《使命與心的極限》。日本推理小說的案情佈局奇詭不在話下，不過其真正特色是借奇情剖白人性及社會現象等等，這本小說是最佳示範：本來各不相干的名醫及電機工程師，但作者就有本事巧妙地把他們拉在一起，探討醫者醫德，大企業社會責任等等。

另一本則是我在2010年第一次買的Amazon Kindle電子書，Tim Brookes寫的《Guitar》。 讀了年多才讀完，倒不是因為內容欠吸引，只是書在電腦電話入面，通常都是在無法上網的情況才會打開解悶。其實對於結他迷是一本相當有趣的書：本書的形式是兩條主線梅花間竹，一是結他幾百年歷史，由發明講到今時今日；二是作者本人訂造一支結他，專訪師傅製作過程，由零開始講到完成。兩者我都讀得津津有味；雖然聽結他音樂多年，有很多細節還是令我大開眼界。

風地觀

今日初三赤口，本地無車公廟，要占卦，唯有DIY，找來三個洋紫荊香港一元，起了一課，得風地觀：盥而不薦，有孚顒若。全卦均無變爻。僅一個「觀」字已經很有啟發，明顯就是要抱持觀望態度，謀定而後動。