Python

I read some where that Python is one of the "in demand" language for those looking for programming jobs (also for data scientist!) As a life-long computer enthusiast, I gotta be curious about this language, which seems to be successor to the "throne" of backend scripting language, i.e., Perl. I needed to write a quick and dirty program so it's the best opportunity to learn a new language. And I found that OS X has Python 2.7 pre-installed! Basically I learned how to write my first program entirely from StackOverflow (the for loop, if-then-else, functions......)

Next, I'm interested to see how it compares to PHP when it comes to building web app. So I found a free host that support Python and good old CGI: HelioHost. I changed one of my "idle" domain bought from GoDaddy to use HelioHost's name servers.

天災人禍

這幾個月美國真的禍不單行，繼多個颶風肆虐南部各州，又發生史上傷亡最嚴重的拉斯維加斯槍擊案，最新的則是北加州酒鄉山火，當真是親者痛仇者快！希望憑著這個地方一貫頑強的生命力，大家能共同渡過難關；就如紐約洋基棒球隊在落後兩場下也能挽回劣勢晉身下一輪季後賽！

Bye Bye Shoutcast

I "restarted" listening to Shoutcast, the free streaming/online radio directory, since about a year ago. To be honest, the UI seems really dated but I still get to listen to a ton of free smooth jazz almost everyday so I can't complain. Today I found that many of the links have stopped working. Most feed started with something like a commercial and no music. Then I really paid attention and that dude actually told people to go to "Radionomy" instead (I had a hard time figure out the spelling though) And I also found out Shoutcast was acquired by AOL/Radionomy a few years back. I guess the "cutover" (oh yeah, I hear this word too many times these days) is finally happening. Long live Radionomy!

New TV shows

I used to watch a lot of sitcom back in the days especially Wings and Friends. I think I watched every episode multiple times. Will and Grace was from around the same time too. And the show was revived this season! I watched the first episode last night (for nostalgia) and I found it entertaining (making fun of the white house)

And this is not the only new show from this season that I watch! My (Star)Trekkie friends strongly recommended me to watch Orville, created by Seth MacFarlane (of the "Family Guy" fame) who also acted (as the captain) in the show. Before it was air-ed, most speculated it would be a parody or at least a Sci-fi comedy, which I disagree after watching the first 3 episodes. The topics are rather serious IMO. Again, I found the show entertaining, with good stories and interesting characters.

Yeah, I've got some alternatives to watching auto-racing or baseball all the time :P

NASCAR in trouble?

Readers of this blog all know that I have been a big fan of NASCAR for several years. I probably started following the sports when it reached its height in popularity and witnessed its decline in recent years. I won't blame the NASCAR bosses for their efforts to reverse the trend. Critics actually think they tweaked the rules for the championship too much! For example, stage points and playoff points were introduced for the first time this season to encourage drivers to be competitive not just for the win of each race but also in the middle of it. I guess the goals of these rule changes are (1) having multiple (4) drivers eligible to win the championship and (2) encouraging drivers to win races instead of just accumulating points. It's hard to argue against that, IMO. However, with no such "playoff" system, IndyCar's championship battle almost always come down to the last race anyway. Unfortunately, as this article pointed out, there are just way too many distractions happening in NASCAR right now. The following video shows one of them: young phenom and championship contender Chase Elliot's car was caught "cheating" with illegal modification to give the car an advantage:

寒磣

讀書學中文！今天繼續閱讀上個月才找出來，買了多年的「新書」《雪梨！村上的奧運日誌》，其實早在四月去雪梨之前就應讀。譯者張致遠用了一個我不認識的詞語：「寒磣」來形容一間酒吧，我想他的意思是：醜陋；不好看，又或者是有點寒酸的味道？

烏鷺

在FB的圍棋群組見到一個帖介紹一本（英文）新書，封面是一隻烏鴉一隻白鷺，有群組成員問兩動物有甚麼意義？有人答兩種鳥分別代表黑白棋，亦有人質疑指動物背後有更深刻的意思，我不知後者對不對，且看這個台灣網頁怎麼說？

最早提及烏鷺的詩文是唐朝詩人解縉的大作：“雞鴨烏鷺玉楸枰，群臣黑白競輸贏。爛柯歲月刀兵見，方圓世界淚皆凝。河洛千條待整治，吳圖萬里需修容。何必手談國家事，忘憂坐隱到天明。”直到了宋元年間才開始出現大量以烏鷺代指圍棋的詩文

2017 Indycar championship

It was a busy weekend for auto-racing fans! All 3 of the NASCAR series, F1 as well as IndyCar raced during the weekend. To be honest, IndyCar normally doesn't get the highest priority but it's different this weekend because IndyCar will crown its champion at this final race of the season with 6 drivers still mathematically eligible! Based on the history of the past few seasons, Penske drivers came to the race leading in points were totally capable of screwing up their chances. I still remember how Will Power squandered his lead years after years until he finally won one. And just 2 years ago, Juan Pablo Montoya was leading the championship entering the last race but crashed with Will Power and losing the championship to Scott Dixon from Chip Ganasse Racing. In fact, I think Dixon has a good chances to do it again this year even though he was behind Josef Newgarden of Penske racing in the standings. The point gap would have been bigger if Newgarden didn't crash chasing teammate Will Power exiting the pit during the penultimate race. (I seriously questioned why the team decided to pit both drivers on the same lap!) Team Penske drivers were again fighting for the lead during this race. The defending champ Simon Pagenaud got ahead of polesitter Newgarden with a different pit strategy. Luckily no crash this time and Newgarden finished second safely and become the first American IndyCar champion in 5 years (the last one was Ryan Hunter-Reay) Glad to see that. (Newgarden's sponsor Verizon, which was also the series title sponsor, should be happy too. Their CEO Lowell McAdam flew all the way to California to present the trophy to their own driver!) These two and fellow American Alexander Rossi (2016 Indy 500 Winner who also won at Watkins-Glen last month) should increase the interest in the sports among Americans in the coming years. (Forbes agreed too)

結他之死？

最近在FB見到關於玩具反斗城生意不佳可能要關門大吉的新聞，令我想起早一陣子也有關於美國著名樂器連鎖店Guitar Center的傳聞，早幾個月前報紙就有文章探討結他之死，因為十年間電結他年銷量由1.5 mil下降到1mil！昨天Billboard採訪結他「神」Eric Clapton又提及幾家結他廠商生意均走下坡。不過讀過太多XX之死的文章，包括重金屬、爵士樂、唱片（還有某個國家前領導人）我想電結他還是有一定生命力。

The greatest jazz albums I've never heard

I can understand the rationale behind writing outrageous post title to attract readers because the competitions for eyeballs are just crazy. However, if one wrote about "The Greatest Jazz Albums You've Never Heard", it almost guaranteed to be a disappointment. Regardless of my bias against West Coast/Big Band/Vocal jazz, the lineup are really not that strong, with the exception of these 3:

• Larry Carlton "Last Nite": Carlton played awesome fusion that any fan of guitar cannot resist 
• Stan Getz "West Coast Jazz": I forgot to mention another bias of mine: jazz tunes less than 3:30 minutes long seems to left something unsaid to me. This 13-song album has 2 under 3:30 but you can't really go wrong when Stan Getz played his tenor so I let that go :P
• Lou Donaldson "Blues Walk" Another "you can't go wrong" rule has to do with Blue Note Records: anything they released in the 50s and 60s are simply Good.

草訣百韻歌

我問我一位寫草書的老友：「現在我每日學一個草書字，一年365日，但常用中文字就有2500個，豈不是要學很多年？」老友答：「草書其實有規律，有歌訣，偏旁部首有根可尋的。」找到這個解釋草訣百韻歌的網頁。

Tiangong-1 space lab

關於這個太空站如何回歸地球的報導，我先讀的來自一個中文媒體，很負面吧！似乎頗有造成大災難的機會！再在網友留言找到英文網站的連結，讀完又覺得好像沒有那麼高危。到底誰對誰錯？大家細心等等，今年十月至明年四月自有分曉。

以宗教名義豁免疫苖注射

上個月和友人討論地產市道，無意中在cap圖包括了這則關於家長拒絕疫苖注射以致某些病死灰復燃的史丹福大學研究報導，提到其中一個家長的理由宗教，友人十分好奇甚麼宗教禁止信眾接受疫苖呢？於是我再Google一番，找到此文，原來個別教派認為單靠信仰就可得到庇佑，接受疫苖是多餘罷了；其實根本沒有宗教／教派的領導人／發言人明言禁止。不過，任何人都可以宗教為由得豁免而無需證明自己信的是何教！要用來作藉口實在太容易了。

The Napa I don't know

Even though I won't call myself a food and wine expert, Napa is one of my favorite place to visit. Can't beat the atmosphere there! It has fun written all over. I read this article "The Napa You Don't Know" from AAA's magazine VIA. Turns out I've actually been to most of the places(wineries and shops) mentioned except the Gatehouse Gallery houses. The reviews are mixed though. As a cyclist, I do wanna check out the Clif bar founders related places, like the Velo Vino tasting room and food truck.

Changes in San Jose Downtown

I wrote about a new venue/bar called Forager in San Jose on my other blog. That space was huge and I was very curious what it used to be. Turns out it was the South First Billiards. Now I could visualize how the pool table fits in that space. From another news article back in 2015 I learned that there was actually a "wave" of moving out of that area because of the violence. Not sure if there was much improvement in that regard but new businesses seem to have moved back in. Another example was the nearby Agenda lounge. Now it's the Avery lounge (not sure if related)

Why Elvis Presley Isn’t the King to Millennials

The title came from a post by the History channel. Well, the question might as well be "Why should Elvis be the King to Millennials"? I guess the writer didn't have anything better to write on the 40th years after Elvis died. He wrote "Elvis. King of Rock and Roll, but not of Spotify" which did get me curious about who the top artist on Spotify is. For the record, Elvis ranked 331st as of 8/16. It turns out Spotify doesn't provide an easy way to see the whole ranking. Someone posted this in the forum. And this was from February.  I guess you could call Ed Sheeran the King of Spotify?

Stories from Wizard of Oz

I was listening to the local classical station this morning. I think it just finished playing "Over the Rainbow" when I tuned in. As we all know, the song came from the movie "Wizard of Oz" but the DJ said the song almost got cut from the movie (wikipedia has more details). I learned something new everyday. And the DJ mentioned another story about the movie: the coat worn by one of the character was bought from a used store. When the character put on the coat and reached into the pocket he found the name of the original owner, none other than the author of "Wizard of Oz", L. Frank Baum! Snopes.com has more details about this story (and it's not too sure this was not made up)

Manually fill a .Net DataSet

I am "refactoring" a piece of legacy software at work. One method returns a DataSet to the caller from an Oracle query. The Oracle backend has been replaced by a Web Service but I still need to populate the DataSet for backward compatibility. This post describes how to manually fill in a DataSet object.

亂世.強權

沒有最黑暗，只有更黑暗。有人說女方丈更小器，果然不幸言中，得罪她的小朋友都罪加一等；來一首應景歌曲：
 
這個「官方」上載寫道：

地球人在這個大地上用上種種藉口互相廝殺, 各自的歪理今日愈來愈令人類良心道德撕裂

諷刺的是歌手曾被批評轉軚愛國賺維穏費。

Sports highlights: Young guns and underdogs

I enjoyed all 3 NASCAR races this past weekend. Gotta admit I slept through most of the laps but did wake up in time for the exciting endings: both Sam Hornish Jr and Darrell Wallace Jr were able to preserve their lead late in their respective races (Xfinity in Mid-Ohio and truck in Michigan) and fought off the strong challengers from behind. You just don't see Kyle Busch finishing 3rd in a truck race often (NASCAR is limiting the number of lower-level events for top-level drivers so fans would actually see other drivers winning more :P) I guess it's an irony to see an African-American driver winning in a sports rooted in the south on a weekend dominated by news about white supremacists. And it's the first race that Bubba returned to the series this season! For the cup race, Martin Truex Jr was dominating as usual but out-gunned by Kyle Larson at the last restart. Yup. It's a weekend for the young guns and underdogs.  

The same is (almost) true for the opening weekend of the English Premier League, with defending champ Chelsea beaten by the underdog Burnley and Liverpool tied by Watford. And the young guns of Man United shined in their game vs West Ham: the 24 year old Lukaku scored twice in his EPL debut for Man U. So did Martial and Pogba.

And the awful SF Giants actually went 6-4 for the last 10 games, even won 2 on the road! Welcome back, Panda!