Category: Fun

  • Lost in translation

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I was looking for some information on “Multithread programming” lately and I happened to find the Chinese version of the book “Practical UNIX programming” by Kay A. Robbins and Steven Robbins. Since my friend brought it from China, it has been sitting on my desk. I was glad I could find some use finally.

    But it did not work out. I found it’s difficult to read a translated technology book, because my computer knowledge is larged acquired in past 8.5 years in the States (through English), not to mention the loss of semantics when the book was translated from English to Chinese.

    I am not trying to criticize the translation work done by my wonderful Chinese colleagues. I have done technical translation work from time to time, and found it’s always a challenging task if I want to make it real good. The thing is sometimes we just can not translate things from one language into another: no corresponding words, background information, etc.
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  • NBA playoffs

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    This week is the National Turn off TV week, but I did not participate as usual. I spent some time watching the NBA playoffs. Although I am not a big fan of NBA and those super stars, and I always think we should only watch the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter. Because in a close game, that’s when the result gets decided; in a not-so-close game (one team beats another easily), it’s no fun to watch anyway.

    But I think I saw something new in those last 5 minutes in past 2 games: the Sacremento vs. San Antonio game, and LA Laker vs. Phoenix game. San Antonio pulled up an unbelievable win because Barry made a 3 point shot in the last second of regular time and Manu Ginoboli is unstoppable in the overtime. Sacremento’s star player Mike Bibby could not match that. For the Lakers, as usual Kobe is their star in the crunch time. And he did very well.
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  • Filling the soul

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    What’s the common characters among book, coffee and music? Besides you can have them all in Borders or Barnes&Nobles. They all can fill your soul. One would wonder while that’s true for book and music, how can the coffee fill our souls? Well, that’s what I heard from Howard Schultz on today’s “60 minutes”. Mr. Schultz is the founder of Star Bucks, which has 11,000 stores in 33 countries, and is opening 5 stores everyday.

    Schultz says, “One of our colleagues coined a phrase a long time ago and said, ‘We’re not in the business of filling bellies. We’re in the business of filling souls.’”
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  • Best jobs by Money magazine

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    I came across this top 50 best jobs list a while ago. I was very surprised to see my job, software engineer, as many of my friends’ jobs, is on the top of the list. I got the hard copy of magazine today and confirmed this. I have quite a few friends who are college professors (ranked 2nd), I am happy for them too.

    There are a few factors in deciding the rank: the number of job openings, the salary growth, flexibility and creativity of the work, barrier of entry, etc. I believe the software engineer position is ranked high because of its projected salary growth (46%) in next 10 years. Not sure if this could materialize for US programmers with the outsourcing to India and China.

  • Cars

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I was a car junkie a few years ago. By that I mean I can call out the brand and models of most cars on the road; and I visited the dealership and test drive from time to time. Not to mention I spent tons of time on the car web sites, such as edmunds, autotrader, cars. com, etc.

    This is all past for me. I am no longer that enthusiatic on cars any more. I felt while luxury cars and SUVs are great, I can live with my current 5 years old middle size sedan. Basically car is a tool to get me from point A to point B: with good fuel efficiency, reliability, and safety. On the other hand, I can fully understand and respect my friends who fall in love with their cars: the style, the color, the feel of “driving machine”. It’s just that I am cheap on my car these days. I will ignore the “Service Engine Soon” light because I think it’s a nusance. I also ignored the windshield wiper noise for half year before fixing them.

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  • March Madness

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    I watched quite a bit NCAA men’s basketball this weekend. Although I am not a big basket ball fan, I like to watch college basktet ball (more than NBA) because the college game is more fun. First, the game is shorter (40 minutes total). Second, I can see more team work in play because there are no super stars like Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. Thirdly, the result is harder to predict, unknown school can upset the favorite in this one-game format. Yesterday Bradley beat Pittsburgh, this is the first time Bradley went to sweet 16 since 1955. Then George Mason came back from double digit deficit, and beat last year’s champion UNC. Also George Town knocked off big school Ohio State. It school named after “George” is rewarded this time.

    While I enjoyed all these craziness, I really wished Missouri had a team in the first round (64 teams). I used to take MU (U. of Missouri at Columbia) as my home team because I went to UM – Rolla. But MU disappointed me and a lot fans last two years. Hope I can see them in next year’s NCAA conference.

  • Olympics figure skating

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    The highlights of the Torino Olympics, Ladies figure skating will start tonight. American Sasha Cohen and Russian Irina Sluskaya will be the favorites. While I like both of them, I hope Irina could win because she went through a lot (illness) in recent years and I like her personality better. Compared to Sasha, Irina is more mature and more easy going. There could be some dark horses in the event, just like Tara Lipinski and Sara Hughes in 1998 and 2002. Michelle Kwan was favorite in both events, but she did not win the gold because those young girls did better. I guess it’s just the nature (or the beauty) of life: there is always something unexpected.

    A side note: in the past week I enjoyed watching China CCTV channel 5 coverage on Winter Olympics, which is mainly about Chinese athlets. After I came back, when I watch the NBC Olympics program, it mainly shows American athlets. I have to go to web if I want to know how Chinese did.

  • Bus

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    On the bus to Ningbo (Beilun), I fell asleep. I needed this break — past 2 weeks were not easy for me, I felt much relaxed when I could go home. I have choosen the bus ever since the highway from Shanghai to Ningbo was complete and the bus service launched. I still remember the first time I visited Shanghai in 1989, my dad and I travelled by the ship, and it took a whole night. Nowadays the bus only takes 4 hours or less.

    The bus is no different from the Greyhound bus I took in the US during 1997 and 1998. It has rest room, AC and the seat is confortable — another reason I could fall asleep. My initial surprise is that there are so many people in the bus station. I have been to Chicago bus station, it is nothing compared to Shanghai station. I can think of one reason: bus is a main transportation method for short-distance travel in China.

    While in the US, bus is used mainly by people without a car and people who don’t like to drive; there are not many people fall into these two categories in the US. While travel using Greyhound bus is generally safe, I had one incident. One night, about 2:30 AM, while we were all sleeping, the tire blew out, luckily we were close to a bus station and it was summer. So we waited there patiently for several hours until another bus come to rescue. During another trip, a homeless guy who wear rags and had not taken shower for months, was going to sit besides me, it made me very nervous. I told him there is another person sits besides me. Luckily he found another seat. In Chicago bus station, I remember a guy who drinks colored drink (drug?), and saying some curse words. I think I learned the other side of the American society from all these bus trips.

    I have not taken Grayhound since Summer 1998, after I got my own car and learned how to drive. I did took a bus tour in California. When the bus was in the mountaineous area of Yosemite National Park, I felt our fate is in the hand of the driver (or the God), a middle aged black guy. We all tipped him nicely. This reminds me another thing, while in the US, I saw bus drivers are usually more experienced, older and more patient. While in the bus from Shanghai to Ningbo, the drivers are younger and drive more agressively, they will try to race against a sedan, pass other cars using the ramp, from the right…at those times I really wish the seat belt would be working here.

  • Jack Ma

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Ma Yun (Jack Ma) is the founder of Alibaba. Although I don’t agree everything he says, I like his personalities and stories…

    I read this article from Wenxuecity, here is the link.

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    马云的纯真年代:内心深处那位女孩是块玉 《英才》杂志

    或许是太瘦,马云胳膊显得很长。他的手从雪白的衣袖中垂下来,几乎垂到膝盖上。他沉浸在回忆里,时而欣喜,时而愤怒。

    他的手永远在空中挥舞,说几句就忍不住换一个姿势,好像随时准备展开搏击。

      马云的“语录”之一是“男人的胸怀是冤枉撑大的,受的冤枉越多,胸怀越大”。这句话中,不仅有愤怒,委屈和自我解嘲,而且饱含宽容。在与现实世界的抗争中,究竟是什么让他始终斗志盎然,意气狂狷?

      那个叫曾瑾的小女孩

      幼时,马云很敏感。

      马云爷爷是保长,属“黑五类”。由于被欺太甚,这个从来不和人争吵的男人有一次终于不能忍受了。结果,警察到家里来,很多同学也趴在窗户上看热闹。警察当面大声呵斥,“只许你老老实实,不许你乱说乱动”。当时,这句话很经典。

      不幸的是,语文课本里也有这句话。那节课,马云只好硬着头皮听,老师念到那句话时,一个孩子扭过头,看了马云一眼。“哗”的一下,马云的课本就砸过去了。那孩子更猛,把整个书包猛掷过来。马云躲闪不及,书包里的铁文具盒角刚好撞在额角,顿时血流如注。

      关于“七人之中必定有混蛋”的认识,或许在这时已经萌芽了。而“六人之中必定有俊杰”的论断中,或许隐藏着更多的温暖。

      喜欢打抱不平,经常帮别人打架。少年马云坚定不移地践行他在武侠小说中看到的“侠骨仁心”。

      到了小学四年级,他在学校又帮人打架,白骨都露出来了。没有麻药,只好直接缝针。“虽然很疼,但我当时眼泪都没掉一滴。”马云的勇敢赢得同学的好感,期末评三好学生时,他本以为自己肯定没问题,结果却没人推荐提名。

      终于,一个女孩子站起来说,我选马云。马云吃了一惊,因为当时男女生互相不说话,更不能有好感。马云太感动了,而能不能评上三好学生对他而言,已经不再重要。直到今天,他仍记得那个西安女孩的名字:曾瑾。他强调说,是玉字旁的“瑾”。

      在他内心深处,这是一块不折不扣的玉。

      漂亮的地理老师

      各门课中,马云最得意的就是英文。

      英文好,他才能念杭州师范大学外语系,才能做英文老师,才有海博翻译社,才有机会到美国接触互联网,也才有后来的阿里巴巴。

      为什么喜欢英文?

      读中学时,教地理的女老师非常漂亮,讲课让人如沐春风。马云特别崇拜她。

      后来,这老师讲了一件事,马云受益终生。她说,在西湖边上,几个外国人问她中国地理,她英文也很好,自然对答如流。老师总结说,你们要学好地理,不然他们问你的时候,你会给中国人丢脸。

      一回家,马云就花6毛多钱,买了个纸喇叭,每天听英文广播。地理老师常去的西湖边,也成了他的最爱。遇到外国人,马云就凑上去和人讲话。他的英语口语就这样一天天流利起来。

      有了兴趣,才能做好。马云坚信这一点。而在兴趣基础上建立起来的实力,“就是一次次失败的积累。只要不把我打死,还会再来过。霉运当头时,要跳出来看,放弃不等于用头撞墙。搞不过就绕一下。学会放弃,才开始成功。”

      那个数学老师姓余

      马云最头疼的,是数学课。

      第一年高考,他数学考了1分。他垂头丧气,准备去做临时工。他和又高又帅的表弟去一家宾馆应聘,结果录用了他表弟,他遭到拒绝。至今,他这位表弟还在洗衣班里,做一名普通的洗衣工。后来,通过父亲的关系,马云到《山海经》、《东海》、《江南》杂志社,蹬三轮送书,打零工。

      偶尔,他会到浙江舞蹈家协会,为协会主席抄写文件。就是在舞蹈家协会,他看到路遥的《人生》。他喜欢高加林,暗暗在心里将他作为榜样,并且决定不再打零工,参加第二次高考。

      这次,马云的数学考了19分,总分离录取线差140分。父母都觉得他不用再考了。马云只好白天上班,晚上钜剐!P瞧谔欤斯睦约阂幌拢透?个小时的路到浙江大学图书馆读书。

      当时的6个死党,就是在图书馆抢座位时认识的。有一天,6个人躺在草地上,对着天空发誓,6个人一定要考上大学。

      第三次高考前3天,一位姓余的数学老师告诉他说,马云你的数学一塌糊涂,如果你能考及格,我的“余”倒着写。

      考数学的那天早上,马云一直在背10个基本的数学公式。考试时,马云就用这10个公式一个一个套。从考场出来,和同学对完答案,马云知道,自己肯定及格了。结果,那次数学考了89分。

      对于反对和质疑,马云说:“我们这类人,欣赏我们的非常欣赏,讨厌我们的极其讨厌。我不希望大家都喜欢我,这也不可能。当人们都反对我时,不是一件坏事。我讨厌中庸。”

      正是对“度”把握不同,承受度存在差异,“可能你的承受度是2000万,他的承受度是3000万,而我的是2个亿”,导致了每个人异样的人生。

      如果此生能有5个概括马云的词留下来,载入史书,他希望是:普通,简单,永不放弃,运气,学习。
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  • Senior moment

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    A few signs I am getting older:

  • I don’t need an alarm clock to wake me up. The night before if I remind myself to get up early in the morning, I usually do wake up early.
  • After walking 4 miles (6 kms), I can feel my knee is sore.
  • I went to the St. Louis Bread Co. for breakfast, but forgot to bring my purse (wallet).