Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL). Oakland As (MLB). Golden State Warriors (NBA). And more.
I wonder if one day algorithms are going to instruct every player move.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuH36R_QZtQ
2013-04-28
2013-01-26
Why my site is not worth hacking
A friend of mine, who is currently a grad student in a prestigious CS department, told me that his PhD adviser is pretty keen on the cyber security thing. Like, he will fuss about unencrypted project servers.
I do not encrypt my server. It is not nearly as popular a target as my friend’s department, and I simply do not think it is worth hacking. Allow me to do a quick breakdown of the content of my site:
90% are project ideas killed by myself.
9% are not killed, but papers rejected by reviewers.
1% are neither killed nor rejected, but so poorly written that reviewers, who are experts in my field, asked for 3 revisions to be able to understand.
I hope I have saved your time. Have a good day.
2012-02-22
Artificial intelligence
When I was younger I preferred to stay away from people as much as possible, as most of them are not very interesting and it is much more rewarding for me to be alone thinking and reading.
When I get older, I realized that humans are intensively intriguing subjects for study. I started to spend a lot of time observing human behaviors and try guessing what they are thinking and predicting their actions.
This caused certain dilemma for me: on one hand I still want to be as far away as possible from people, but on the other hand, I want to be close enough with them for the purpose of studies and observations.
(The penalty and reward seem to go in tandem; crowd behavior is the most interesting, but also the most annoying to be part of.)
Fortunately, computer science comes into rescue. Far from the common stereotypes (of nerds locking in toilets), computer science, especially the most current and active subjects, are very human centric. One example is user interface, including design for better user experiences, as well as analysis and synthesis for deeper understanding and more advanced interactions.
A more recent example is social networking. Previously, most human daily activities simply dissipated into entropy. Now, with people spending more of their interactions through various social networking sites, we can record their activities in better quality and quantity.
Such data not only enables better computer technologies but more profoundly, more insights into human nature. (Facebook probably knows more about certain individuals than their mothers do.)
Two sci-fi series could provide inspirations for both directions.
Caprica is about how humans create Cylons, a cyber-genetic life form that eventually pushes humans near extinction in the main Battlestar Galactica series (which I found to be much less interesting).
Dollhouse is about how technologies can allow memories and personalities to be extracted from one individual and installed into another, essentially programming human brains.
Both offer insights into computer science and humanity, as well as highly enjoyable entertainments. Unfortunately, both got canceled prematurely due to low ratings, a confirmation of my childhood observation about how ordinary humans would react to deeper materials.
2011-09-21
Why software is eating the world
I highly recommend this article from Marc Andreessen, especially for computer science folks.
To be fair, I think he is a bit too optimistic (as an entrepreneur he should be), but he still made plenty good points.
This is not exactly a new article, but I just realized that a lot of people haven’t read it yet, thus the sharing.
2010-09-05
The monk and the riddle
This is such a good book that I wish I had read it earlier (but fortunately found it is not too late). The gist of the book is about the right mind set for starting up companies (it was published right before the dotcom bubble burst) but I believe the main points are equally applicable to other professions: (1) do what you want to do for the rest of your life and (2) be ambitious, aim for the very best, and do not settle for mediocrity.
Read the book to figure out what the riddle is about.
2010-08-25
The man who loved China
I am not interested in biography, but I approached this book due to the Needham question: why China was taken over by the west in science and technology around 1500 AD after the amazing advances in earlier times? I was hoping that this book will provide answers, even though I never realistically expected that since this is a question about history, and thus can never be verified scientifically.
Well, I was right about that, as obviously nobody has ever managed to answer the Needham question. But that does not really bother me for several reasons.
First, I, like many others who have been through both Chinese and American style educations, know the main reasons more or less, even though none of us can rigorously prove anything. But answering a historical question is not really the point. The point is to find remedies and solutions. That, fortunately, I, just like many others, already know how to do practically, as evident from our achievements in modern scientific and technological activities.
Second, as pointed out in the book, the Needham question might be moot anyway, as China seems to have regained its rigor and creativity. But I cannot fully agree with this point; I agree that China has been improving, but it still has work to do to catch up with the American level creativity. Even from the young Chinese students I am collaborating today I can still see a lot of old problems that probably have been accumulated through hundreds if not thousands years of bad cultural impacts. But this is obviously fixable at least in an individual level; the million dollar question is whether it is also possible in a large national or even ethnic wise scale.
The funny thing is that the Needham question was not formally addressed until at the epilogue of the book. So the book is really testing my patience. Fortunately, the main part of the book, essentially the biography of Joseph Needham, turns out to be a fascinating read.
I recommend this book to anyone, especially (ethnic) Chinese working in the field of science and technology.
2010-08-10
Adding google reader into viigo
If you are having trouble integrating google reader into your viigo (e.g. getting the error message “Unable to fetch Google Resource due to Authorization error” or that viigo stops following up updates on your google reader channels), a simple solution is to export from your google reader the OPML file and import it into viigo. Specifically:
. Go to your google reader account, click on settings (reader settings), go to import/export, and export your subscriptions into an OPML file.
. Go to your viigo account, remove all existing channels of your google reader, and import the OPML file you just saved.
This should just do it.
I also think it is a good idea to save (and update) an OPML file for your google reader subscriptions, not just as a backup but also allows you the flexibility to switch easily to other readers.
2009-07-15
First encounter with Ciao
A good friend of mine, Ciao, is relocating to another part of the world.
Ciao is a very nice dude, and we have had a lot of fun hanging out together. Perhaps the funniest ever experience is our first encounter, when Ciao went to interview with a company that I previously worked for.
I guess most companies have a certain interviewing style that reflects the company culture. And for that particular company, the custom seems to be grilling the interviewees with trick questions, mostly in low-level math and computer science. I could see the value of such a style in testing the interviewee’s character and intellect, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to do that to someone who has recently obtained his Ph.D. with a SIGGRAPH paper. So instead I talked with Ciao a bunch of high-level research questions. We had a great time.
The troubles came after I filled out the interview evaluation. The hiring manager informed me that my interview style is “not very proper” and sent me to a course teaching people how to do proper interviews. (I confess I never attended the course.) Furthermore, the interview with Ciao turned out to be not only the first but also the last one that I ever conducted for that company.
Fortunately, my “not very proper” interview with Ciao did not cost his job offer, and later he joined the company. Together we had some additional fun for a couple of more years. It soon became pretty apparent that we are both not very good fit for that company (my “not very proper” interview with him is probably a good early sign), so eventually we both left. But I would like to thank that company for enabling me to learn a few very important lessons that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and most importantly, the chance for getting to know Ciao.
2009-07-11
Tumbling robots
I like the way they move….
The key idea behind these tumbling robots is nicely described here.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPEL4JOk7Vs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]