Bao's Blogs

1. It took 1 year for my submission to be accepted by Journal of Applied Physics. And 1 day by Apple.com

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/datatransformer.html


2. Got Google Wave and Google Voice in one day. The latter is really a great invention. Thus my cellphone bill can be pushed to the minimum.

3. I didn't buy an iphone for these reasons:
1) I don't like the shutter button inside a touch screen.. totally loses the feel of photographing.
2) I still don't like the idea of irremovable batteries. You know that the best way to use a battery is to drain it completely and then charge it fully. For a mobile device the only way is switching between 2 batteries.

4. My new spin-out photo album
(When will China stop censoring Picasa and my website????)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/baomobile/

This one is mainly for my photos taken using the cellphone.

I just like the feeling that I can shoot pix whenever I want. Even though it's a lousier camera. So this AT&T camera is one of my favorite thing. (Google Voice is another.)


5. Some sample photos

The camera is actually downgraded.. but it's nice that I can shoot anywhere, anytime.

1. A nice website+software:
getdropbox.com

Free, easy and cross-platform way to backup data and pass between computers. Even available on iphone.

2. Just cracked a Superdrive.
We heard so much "Apple are dicks for not making ..."

E.g. for not making superdrive accessible by computers other than MacBook Air.

Luckily there are geniuses in the world finding the solutions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tnkgrl/sets/72157605790040071/

3. So finally got Snow Leopard installed.
Nice refinements. Smarter PDF. more organized exposé.
Another great improvement: moving recording and screen recording from QuickTime.

i always delete my own work and start all over again.

一个例子是, 最近我经常发现我的网页有时LOADING很慢.原因很简单,以前这个WEBSITE的MECHANISM是:所有信息其实全部在一个网页里,每一个navigation button的作用实际是显示(show)或者隐藏(hide)一些模块(block). 以前我这么做的原因是为了保持一个可维护性(同时不愿意花钱买支持动态页面(like ASP.NET)的空间):好处是增加一个新条目只需在XML文件中更新,然后有一个软件自动把整个XML文件同步到HTML. 同时坏处就是, HTML文件很大, 从一开始就要加载整个网站的所有图片.

但今天开始觉得这样不是办法,有时网页loading会用到超过10秒. 于是从7PM开始(没有用OFFICE HOUR来玩自己的东西), 通过GOOGLE SEARCH学会AJAX技术, 然后从头重写整个网站, 只是沿用之前的DATABASE (XML FILE)和样式表(STYLE SHEET). 现在会比以前快很多, 因为没有显示的BLOCK将不会被加载.

到10点pm新的页面基本完成, 于是彻底REPLACE了旧网页. 后者也曾让我得意过,并且是从2006年以来一点一点更新到今天的形态. BUT I JUST REMOVED IT, WITHOUT ANY SYMPATHY TO MY PREVIOUS EFFORTS.


Another example is, I did the final presentation of my summer work on last Friday. But one week before that, I found one of my major simulation project is using a model which is not convincing enough. I decided to change that.

Through the whole weekend I tried extremely hard to get an idea which is guaranteed to work (and it did finally). Starting from last Monday, I started to write a completely new simulation program. On Wednesday it was almost done. I re-ran all the simulations from Wednesday to Thursday. And on Friday morning, the final slides for the afternoon presentation was ready.

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I get so used to completely denying my previous work. And redo from start. It's OK.

虽然内容还是英文,不过最近将我的WEB的页面风格改为
唐朝的風沙/現在還在颳

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Updated Web Page Style: Tang Dynasty
bit.ly/b-lei

English Version Also Available Below

长周末,连宅三天,还是有点痛苦.

不过也不是全没收获.最近刚买了两个iphone/ipod touch软件.在此之前我下载的软件都是免费,这次是第一次花钱.
不过都真的是物有所值.

一个是Real Soccer 09. 能够在iphone这样的屏幕上做出画面质量这么高的(伪)3D游戏,实在不易.而且更不容易的是:居然把中国队做的这么强!(不过中国队的球员名单全是乱编的).

另一个是Good Reader.很大程度地解决了用ipod读paper的问题.以前在ipod上看paper一个是慢,一个是移动不容易.这个软件在大文件和翻页上都有革命性的进步.还可以搜索,网页下载.剩下唯一的问题就是屏幕小了点,这也是软件没办法做到的了.

更重要的是,这两个东西分别只要一块钱.iTunes Store是我觉得Apple最成功的地方,曾经mac电脑被pc打死之后apple靠ipod生存下来应该也是这个原因.当年的一首歌一块钱,和现在的很多好软件一块钱其实是异曲同功.虽然盗版音乐在现在还是美国正在头痛(中国正在high)的一个问题 ([关于陶喆]里面也有提到), 但iphone/ipod app可以用一块钱买到比一首歌经用得多的东西,我已经想不到任何理由再去花时间找盗版了(有吗?).

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Just bought two iphone/ipod touch apps. The first time I downloaded two apps which are not free, and unsurprisingly I found both of them worth the money.

1. Real Soccer 09. This is the nicest game I have ever downloaded, in terms of graphics and complexity (other good games like Pockets Tanks, Mancala are good because of the way that the game itself is conducted). The pseudo 3D interface is really amazing. And it seems that all the teams in the game are balanced (contrary to the reality, but good for the fans of Team China or Team US).

2. Good Reader. Now I can totally read papers on my ipod. I don't like to read papers on computers because their are too many distracting factors; and I don't like to read them on real papers because I won't be able to find those papers a few days later (I haven't tried a binder or a trapper keeper yet, but I don't like that idea, and that is not environmental friendly either). In Good Reader, large files, scrolling, downloading, bookmarking and searching are all enhanced (revolutionized).

As both of them are as cheap as 1 dollar, I believe that the iTunes Store is the most successful part of Apple. I have faith in such a future of software market, where pirating are eliminated by all sorts of super cheap (and more importantly, easy to pay) apps (not just iphone apps, but also computer apps).

在电脑和网络使用等方面，我十分容易和绝大多数 中国 民众脱节。

第一件事，发现越来越多的中国人喜欢用开心网(kaixin001.com). 为什么？？我讨厌开心网因为多种原因：

1. 不让我用我的名字。在名字一栏我输入“雷暴”，点提交，网页回应说，“请输入您的真名”。!@%#%WTH. 好吧我理解让软件彻底判断什么是真名什么是假名有难度。于是我写email和网站管理员说明情况“我真的叫雷暴”。写了两三次，从来没理我。这一点我就不能接受了。一个不care customer的business能有前途吗。前几天我上Science Direct（总部在荷兰还是哪个北欧国家忘了）的网站发现paper下不了，于是我发信去抱怨说“你们怎么搞的，paper下载一点就出错”，结果别人下午网站恢复正常了，还专门给我回了封信说感谢我提示网站错误，现在已修复。

2. 最重要的是，开心网在我看来除了转载就是转投票，而且文章原出处都是我不认识的人。很难很难找到朋友的原创。社交网的目的应该是让人了解朋友的动态，而不是去了解贾君鹏或者吃的是寂寞不是面的那个哥们儿的动态。或者难道后者是中国网民天生的爱好？？

第二件事，发现好几个人convert到mac之后complain说不好用，让我在操件系统上再次与社会脱接。成功转mac的（中国）人多数是离我不远的，比如我boss已常打电话给我第一句话是"In Macintosh, how can I ....?" 重点是Windows XP到底好在哪里？经常任务栏（system tray）堆积一大堆程序每一个小到一个字都显示不了，用alt+tab切换程序还只能一格一格的走，走过头了还不能方便地后退一步，做slides写word document多数模板的默认字体还是难看的Times。今天第一次看到一篇中文写的Snow Leopard(原来中文叫雪豹)介绍，发现说中文输入法有升级，比如不会拼"喆"字的拼音话可以用"jiji"取代。才突然意识到有“中文”+“mac”共同语言的人其实很少。

以后考虑在blog上多写点中文的mac help.

除此二点以外，还有很多，比如有几个中国人是看hulu而非ppstream? 有几个中国人用twitter？还有我做的实验室网站，我用了一个晚上开发测试personal profile功能，就是让每个实验室成员可以登陆进去传个照片写点个人介绍，让全世界上我们实验室网站的人能更了解他们，可惜有很多中国labmate, 让他们上传一张照片也要请求多次。（这不是complain同事，他们都是很优秀的scientist,但是就network lifestyle而言和同是来自中国的我风格相差甚远）

那如果说中国网民的特点是不喜欢写作文不喜欢试新软件系统，那international网民呢？我承认，仅仅从软件，网络 life style的角度，我和一些美国人更有共同语言，但是，网络是用来反映和关心真实生活的。我仍然无法摆脱对融入中国大众习惯的需要。因为我事实上还是一个只是身在北美的中国大陆wsn.

I AM OUT.

我很不想套俗句式，但最后想说的是，做个人网站的时候写的不是HTML Code,是寂寞。