cosmordinary

生活资料和生产资料

2006-12-29T10:16:00.000+08:00

有一句话，那个从百安居到阿里巴巴的说的，我觉得很有道理。就是他在访谈中对于财富的回答。一个人可以所拥有的生活资料是极其有限的，比如即使你很有钱，也不可能天天吃金钱豹。很多事业成功的富人喜欢粗茶淡饭，深入简出的生活。富人富有在他们拥有生产资料。They are rich because they have more responsibilities to other people. So richness is proportional to one's responsibilities to the world.

输入/输出端

2006-12-21T14:44:00.000+08:00

VGA输入：VGA 接口采用非对称分布的15pin 连接方式，其工作原理：是将显存内以数字格式存储的图像( 帧) 信号在RAMDAC 里经过模拟调制成模拟高频信号，然后再输出到投影机成像，这样VGA信号在输入端( 投影机内) ，就不必像其它视频信号那样还要经过矩阵解码电路的换算。从前面的视频成像原理可知VGA的视频传输过程是最短的，所以VGA 接口拥有许多的优点，如无串扰无电路合成分离损耗等。

DVI输入：DVI接口主要用于与具有数字显示输出功能的计算机显卡相连接，显示计算机的RGB信号。DVI（Digital Visual Interface）数字显示接口，是由1998年9月，在Intel开发者论坛上成立的数字显示工作小组（Digital Display Working Group简称DDWG），所制定的数字显示接口标准。
DVI数字端子比标准VGA端子信号要好，数字接口保证了全部内容采用数字格式传输，保证了主机到监视器的传输过程中数据的完整性（无干扰信号引入），可以得到更清晰的图像。

标准视频输入（RCA）：也称AV 接口，通常都是成对的白色的音频接口和黄色的视频接口，它通常采用RCA(俗称莲花头)进行连接，使用时只需要将带莲花头的标准AV 线缆与相应接口连接起来即可。AV接口实现了音频和视频的分离传输，这就避免了因为音/视频混合干扰而导致的图像质量下降，但由于AV 接口传输的仍然是一种亮度/色度(Y/C)混合的视频信号，仍然需要显示设备对其进行亮/ 色分离和色度解码才能成像，这种先混合再分离的过程必然会造成色彩信号的损失，色度信号和亮度信号也会有很大的机会相互干扰从而影响最终输出的图像质量。 AV还具有一定生命力，但由于它本身Y/C混合这一不可克服的缺点因此无法在一些追求视觉极限的场合中使用。

S视频输入：S-Video具体英文全称叫Separate Video，为了达到更好的视频效果，人们开始探求一种更快捷优秀清晰度更高的视频传输方式，这就是当前如日中天的S-Video(也称二分量视频接口)，Separate Video 的意义就是将Video 信号分开传送，也就是在AV接口的基础上将色度信号C 和亮度信号Y进行分离，再分别以不同的通道进行传输，它出现并发展于上世纪9 0 年代后期通常采用标准的4 芯(不含音效) 或者扩展的7 芯( 含音效)。带S-Video接口的显卡和视频设备( 譬如模拟视频采集/ 编辑卡电视机和准专业级监视器电视卡/电视盒及视频投影设备等) 当前已经比较普遍，同AV 接口相比由于它不再进行Y/C混合传输因此也就无需再进行亮色分离和解码工作，而且使用各自独立的传输通道在很大程度上避免了视频设备内信号串扰而产生的图像失真，极大地提高了图像的清晰度，但S-Video 仍要将两路色差信号(Cr Cb)混合为一路色度信号C，进行传输然后再在显示设备内解码为Cb 和Cr 进行处理，这样多少仍会带来一定信号损失而产生失真(这种失真很小但在严格的广播级视频设备下进行测试时仍能发现) ，而且由于Cr Cb 的混合导致色度信号的带宽也有一定的限制，所以S -Video 虽然已经比较优秀但离完美还相去甚远，S-Video虽不是最好的，但考虑到目前的市场状况和综合成本等其它因素，它还是应用最普遍的视频接口。

视频色差输入：目前可以在一些专业级视频工作站/编辑卡专业级视频设备或高档影碟机等家电上看到有YUV YCbCr Y/B-Y/B-Y等标记的接口标识，虽然其标记方法和接头外形各异但都是指的同一种接口色差端口( 也称分量视频接口) 。它通常采用YPbPr 和YCbCr两种标识，前者表示逐行扫描色差输出，后者表示隔行扫描色差输出。由上述关系可知，我们只需知道Y Cr Cb的值就能够得到G 的值( 即第四个等式不是必要的)，所以在视频输出和颜色处理过程中就统一忽略绿色差Cg 而只保留Y Cr Cb ，这便是色差输出的基本定义。作为S-Video的进阶产品色差输出将S-Video传输的色度信号C分解为色差Cr和Cb，这样就避免了两路色差混合解码并再次分离的过程，也保持了色度通道的最大带宽，只需要经过反矩阵解码电路就可以还原为RGB三原色信号而成像，这就最大限度地缩短了视频源到显示器成像之间的视频信号通道，避免了因繁琐的传输过程所带来的图像失真，所以色差输出的接口方式是目前各种视频输出接口中最好的一种。

BNC 端口输入：通常用于工作站和同轴电缆连接的连接器，标准专业视频设备输入、输出端口。BNC电缆有5个连接头用于接收红、绿、蓝、水平同步和垂直同步信号。BNC接头有别于普通15针D－SUB标准接头的特殊显示器接口。由R、G、B三原色信号及行同步、场同步五个独立信号接头组成。主要用于连接工作站等对扫描频率要求很高的系统。BNC接头可以隔绝视频输入信号，使信号相互间干扰减少，且信号频宽较普通D－SUB大，可达到最佳信号响应效果。

RS232C串口:RS-232C标准（协议）的全称是EIA-RS-232C标准，其中EIA (Electronic Industry Association)代表美国电子工业协会，RS（ecommeded standard）代表推荐标准，232是标识号，C代表RS232的最新一次修改（1969），在这之前，有RS232B、RS232A。。它规定连接电缆和机械、电气特性、信号功能及传送过程。常用物理标准还有有EIA�RS-232-C、EIA�RS-422-A、 EIA�RS-423A、EIA�RS-485.这里只介绍EIA�RS-232-C（简称232， RS232）。计算机输入输出接口，是最为常见的串行接口，RS-232C规标准接口有25条线，4条数据线、11条控制线、3条定时线、7条备用和未定义线，常用的只有9根，常用于与25-pin D-sub端口一同使用，其最大传输速率为20kbps，线缆最长为15米。RS232C端口被用于将计算机信号输入控制投影机。

VGA输出：VGA 接口采用非对称分布的15pin 连接方式，其工作原理：是将显存内以数字格式存储的图像( 帧) 信号在RAMDAC 里经过模拟调制成模拟高频信号，然后再输出到投影机成像，这样VGA信号在输入端( 投影机内) ，就不必像其它视频信号那样还要经过矩阵解码电路的换算。从前面的视频成像原理可知VGA的视频传输过程是最短的，所以VGA 接口拥有许多的优点，如无串扰无电路合成分离损耗等。有些投影机可以通过先由VGA接口先将计算机信号输入，然后再有VGA接口输出到显示器或者其他的显示设备同步显示。

悟空、悟能、悟静

2006-11-24T09:15:00.000+08:00

从小学就开始看西游记，电视剧、连环画和书。可是直到今天才发现悟空、悟能、悟静的佛教意义。三个名字正好是佛教中关于修炼的三个阶段：先静下心来，然后会出一些功能，但不要执卓，把这些功能悟没了之后，如来自现。说明作者吴承恩是一位佛家弟子，对佛法悟的比较深，才能有如此安排。世人都知“色亦是空，空亦是色”的说法，但不知何意。这里色亦是空的色不是指现代人所说的女色，而是指太
阳照耀，我们眼睛看到的一切东西，都是虚的，早晚要不存在的，是空。空亦是色的空是指修炼之人，把眼睛看到的，天目看到的东西看没了，不存在了；色是指之
后再自然出现的东西，这个东西就是佛祖说的金刚世界的东西。

"const int * x" vs. "int * const x"

2006-11-23T11:59:00.000+08:00

The second way to use const makes it impossible to
change the value of the pointer itself:

int sloth = 3;

const int * ps =       // a pointer to const int

int * const finger =   // a const pointer to int

Note that the last declaration has repositioned the keyword
const. This form of declaration constrains finger to point
only to sloth. However, it does allow you to use finger to
alter the value of sloth. The middle declaration does not allow you to
use ps to alter the value of sloth, but it does permit you to
have ps point to another location. In short, finger and
*ps are both const, and *finger and ps are
not const.

Const Pointer

2006-11-23T09:03:00.000+08:00

You can use the const keyword two different ways with pointers. The
first way is to make a pointer point to a constant object, and that prevents you
from using the pointer to change the pointed-to value. The second way is to make
the pointer itself constant, and that prevents you from changing where the
pointer points.

Afterthoughts

2006-11-20T16:22:00.000+08:00

I had been brooding over some questions in the last movies I saw. At the sight of sports car, I understood that the woman in the movie Spanlish is dating her real estate agent. And this morning, while I was walking to work, I am enlightened to the fact that the guard counting the bank note is to keep Rose stay so that they have more time together. This might be wrong, but I like the symmetry it brings. The man kills the women who loves him deeply, and Rose killed the man who loves her deeply, though not personally. The symmetry makes this movie an eligible for a high rank. Therefore I recommend this movie, "Curiosity Kills the Cat".

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

2006-11-13T17:26:00.000+08:00

I watched the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)" yesterday. It is an unauthorized made-for-television docudrama written and directed by Martyn Burke. It covers the stories behind the advent of PC prevalence. Based upon the book, Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, this film documents the rise of the home computer/personal computer through the rivalry between Apple Computer (Apple II and the Apple Macintosh) and Microsoft (DOS, IBM PC, and Windows).

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates
are the true revolutionaries of our time. Not the students who occupied
the dean's office in the late '60s. Not the anti-war marchers who were
determined to overthrow the establishment. Jobs and Gates are the ones
who changed the way the world thinks, acts and communicates - answer to the question: "Why did these two "nerds" become icons?" in an interview with the director of the film, Martyn Burke

The Pink Panther

2006-11-13T17:25:00.000+08:00

The Pink Panther is the movie industry's hippest cartoon star. Film audiences of all ages, sophisticated cinemaohiles and drive-in denizens alike love the high style, clever humor and colorful adventures of this pink-inked feline.

Initially created by Friz Freleng for the opening title sequence of Blake Edward's, 1964 comedy farce THE PINK PANTHER, the cartoon character received reviews that were as good or better than the film itself! The new star had obviously clawed his mark, and a series of short subjects was immediately put info production.

Friz Freleng was the perfect man for the job. Having begun his career in the same small Kansas City studio where Walt Disney got his start in animation, Freleng moved to California in the late 1920s. He was soon helping fellow Kansas City animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising start up the series of "Looney Tunes" for Warner Brothers release. With the exception of one year with M-G-M in the mid-1930s, Freleng was a Warner Brothers stalwart, becoming Senior Director and supervising now-classic cartoons staring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tweety for over 30 years. Freleng also directed the first cartoons starring Sylvester, Porky Pig and Yosemite Sam, ultimately winning four Academy Awards® for the studio.

When Warner Brothers shut down its animation department in 1962, Freleng teamed up with cartoon producer David DePatie to make animated commercials and industrial films. At this time, director Blake Edwards - himself an aficionado of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons and silent comedies - approached Freleng about providing animation for the opening moments of his next film.

David DePatie recalls: "We got together with some of our guys and came up with probably 100 to 150 different illustrations of the Panther. I remember very well thatwe took them over to Blake's office and spread them all out and that he knew exactly what he wanted. He went right over, pointed to one of them and said 'that's the guy!'"

"Then they asked us to do a storyboard," remembers Freleng. "They just flipped when they saw it! When we finally got it onto the screen and they previewed it, the comment from the press was that the titles were better than the picture."

The cool contemporary style of the design and graphics (co-credited to Hawley Pratt), the distinctive theme music from Henry Mancini, and the pantomime comedy were a complete departure from the cheaply made theatrical cartoons created by their competitors. The first Panther cartoon, THE PINK PHINK , was honored with an Academy Award®. "We made them for the theaters, and we made them for adults really," says Freleng. "They didn't appeal to children; they're a little too sophisticated. Adults are the people who are really the fans."

Though the theatrical cartoons continued for almost twenty years, it is the earlier entries - those directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt - which are considered classics. Freleng and Pratt placed the Panther in many offbeat situations: spoofing 60s trends such as secret agents in PINKFINGER and youth culture in PSYCHEDELIC PINK ; exploring musical themes in PINK, PLUNK, PLINK and romping into the surreal in PINK PUNCH. However the most entertaining of all the shorts are those featuring "the little man," who can turn up as anyone - including a safecracker in DIAL 'P' FOR PINK and a drunk in PINK PAJAMAS.

When Edwards directed an Inspector Clouseau follow-up the next year, a similar situation occurred. The DePatie/Freleng opening title for A SHOT IN THE DARK, (1964) brought demands for yet another theatrical series. The resulting group of witty and distinctive cartoons, entitled THE INSPECTOR, featured the voice talents of comedian Pat Harrington as both the not-so-clever Inspector and his faithful assistant Deaux-Deaux.

The Pink Panther live-action feature films continued into the 70s, 80s, and 90s, each beginning with lavish animated opening titles.

This information from laserdisc cover of THE PINK PANTHER ANIMATION ARCHIVE
©1994 MGM/UA Home Video

Visual Illusions

2006-11-08T10:15:00.000+08:00

While I am searching for a solution of my cable TV network, I received again a "funny" mail about visual illusions. I cann't help digging into some discent explanations, since last time I am not given the chance to do it. The first image is a famous "Rotationg Snakes", and the following several pictures are all about static motion illusion. I hunt down to the term "asymmetric luminance steps " and then to this article on the Journal of Neural Science: June 8, 2005 . 25(23):5651–5656 . 5651,

Neural Basis for a Powerful Static Motion Illusion
Bevil R. Conway,1,5 Akiyoshi Kitaoka,2 Arash Yazdanbakhsh,1,3 Christopher C. Pack,4 and Margaret S. Livingstone1

The major founding is the denial of chromatic factors and support of luminance steps. Also that direction-selective neurons in macaque visual cortex gave directional responses to the same static element pairs, also in a direction consistent with the
illusory motion.

The last image is about "negative retinal afterimage" which was found long long time ago by Newton, as documented in Newton's hue circle. It is through this observation, that Newton gives definition of "Complementary Colors". Here is more about it http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color4.html#negafter

小京叔叔来访

2006-11-06T09:13:00.000+08:00

昨天（星期天）小京叔叔带着王主任来看我们，小京叔叔他们到二医大培训一周。哥哥开车把小京叔叔他们先带到他家，然后到妈妈家，然后到我家。然后我们一起到鑫鑫吃饭。吃完饭哥哥就送叔叔他们走了。叔叔给我们讲了创办农民工医院的事:

新华网郑州８月３１日电　“免挂号费，检查、治疗、用药等均优惠２０％，没钱也可先看病……”８月３０日，河南省首家农民工定点医院在信阳解放军第１５４医院挂牌。

据《河南日报》报道，信阳解放军第１５４医院的院长赵京生告诉记者，从８月３０日
起，凡在信阳市务工的农民，持由当地劳动保障局发放的医疗卡到医院就医，均可享受“一免一减”：免挂号费，门诊、住院检查、治疗、用药等全部费用，一律优
惠２０％。同时为农民工专门开通了“就医直通车”，农民工患者到医院就医不用挂号，可直接找有关专家检查、治疗。对那些特困或患有重大疾病和发生意外事故
的农民工，无论有没有钱，都将先行救治。

当日，这个医院先后接诊农民工患者２０人，２名病情较重的农民工住进了病房。（完）

小王的婚礼

2006-11-03T08:54:00.000+08:00

星期二晚上去参加了小王的婚礼，在南华亭。气氛比wedding story的那场好多了。吃得也好多了，价格肯定也比wedding story便宜得多了。婚宴真浪费，我们那桌也就吃掉了1/3，其余的都扔了。婚礼上小王的讲话挺不错的，后来我们八点半就走了，因为要去ikea定家具。第二天听小周说婚礼九点半就结束了，也没人闹新房，我觉得也挺好的，总比在wedding story坐着干等等到10点半好。我也不喜欢婚礼上太闹，何必整人呢。

ikea的家具

2006-11-02T13:20:00.000+08:00

昨天在ikea定的电视柜和茶几到了，质量不错，比想象中的要好。确实是刨花板，看上去质量很好的样子，尺寸开孔都很精确到位，安装没有遇到什么问题，自己装很有乐趣。和家具城里的那些三无家具相比，ikea的性价比要高。

三分配器

2006-11-02T10:04:00.000+08:00

初步鉴定家里有线电视是因为一分三分配器不好，现在不用分配器接一路是好的，一接上分配器就不好了。上次有线电视的师傅来修，也说是分配器不好，还说让我们找装修的人来搞分路，只要他们有本事。其实这又不是很难的，大不了再加一个放大器，搞的一付牛比轰轰的样子。

想做个软路由

2006-11-01T14:55:00.000+08:00

家里一台古代机，mmx166,96mb,3.2G, 想做个软路由，发现routeos要钱的，而且软路由的实现太繁琐而不切实际了，随决定放弃。但仍然在想如何利用古代机。

BenQ suffers losses, sells assets

2006-10-25T10:13:00.000+08:00

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's BenQ said it lost $600 million in the first nine months of the year, and intends to sell off some of its non-core assets in order to recover from a costly and futile effort to turnaround the cell phone business it acquired from Siemens.

BenQ's sales in the first nine months totaled $4.7 billion, excluding sales connected with the BenQ Mobile German subsidiary. When BenQ took over the troubled handset division of Siemens a year ago, it was losing about $1.5 million a day.

Things were so bad that Siemens paid BenQ to take it off their hands. During the last 12 months, BenQ has ponied up about $760 million to keep the former Siemens unit alive.

Last month, it threw in the towel and forced the unit into bankruptcy. This week, roughly two-thirds of the 3,000 workers in Germany were laid off and are fighting a bitter dispute over compensation from BenQ as well as the former parent Siemens.

Mike Clendenin

EE Times

(10/24/2006 10:40 AM EDT)

香格里拉回丽江的路

2006-10-24T13:37:00.000+08:00

今天报上说，有个人参团在从香格里拉回丽江的路上出车祸死了，旅游公司赔47万。我们当时也是在那段路上出事的，还好命大，撞在内侧，而且不重。说明这段路是非常危险的。

Teen questioned for online Bush threats

2006-10-19T17:04:00.000+08:00

AP - Upset by the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson vented her frustrations
with President Bush last spring on her Web page on MySpace.com. She
posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top
and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced
her page on the social-networking site after learning in her
eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061015/ap_on_hi_te/myspace_bush_threat

Heintje - Einmal wird die Sonne wieder scheinen

2006-10-17T09:44:00.000+08:00

昨天晚上看了上译的经典，德国电影《英俊少年》Einmal wird die Sonne wieder scheinen。电影拍摄于1969年，但八十年代初期才在中国上映。片中的小英雄海因切Heintje 是小演员自己的真实名字，他的歌声给人们留下了深刻的印象，形式有些像音乐之声，但是影片中的所有歌曲都由主演海因切一人主唱。歌手海因切(Heintje)，荷兰人，生于1955年，5岁登台，后演出一系列电影，发行许多唱片，是当时著名的实力派金嗓子童星。

《英俊少年》电影简介：
英俊少年海因切自幼丧母，与父亲卡尔相濡以沫，生活平静而幸福。海因切的外公实业家贝特霍德因反对卡尔与女儿的婚约而与其父子一刀两断。银行行长的儿子为敲诈贝特霍德，偷走银行的十二万元，栽赃到卡尔头上，而贝特霍德对此不闻不问，卡尔因此被捕入狱。海因切在律师的帮助下，寄养在外公家中。贝特霍德渐渐喜欢上了聪明的海因切，一曲《最后的玫瑰》使他在女儿和外甥间找到了重合的焦点，海因切给阴郁古怪的贝特霍德冰冷的生活带来了一抹阳光。一次偶然的机会海因切得知事情的真相，在艾伦和警察帮助下，追拿到罪犯。真相大白，海因切甜美的歌声在五光十色的游乐场上空回荡……

Kleine Kinder, Kleine Sorgen

Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen
und ein Haus voll Sonnenschein
kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen
könnt es so für immer sein

Doch so schnell vergeh’n die Jahre
Groß wird bald dein kleines Kind
Und die kleinen, lieben Sorgen
Wo sie dann geblieben sind

Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen
und ein bisschen Kummer bloß
aber einmal kommt ein Morgen
und da sind sie beide groß

Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen
Und ein Haus voll Sonnenschein
Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen
Könnt es so für immer sein

Doch so schnell vergeh’n die Jahre
Und dann schaust du still zurück
Denn die kleinen, lieben Sorgen
Waren einst dein größtes Glück

Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen
Und ein Haus voll Sonnenschein
Kleine Kinder, ….

Letzte Rose in unserm Garten

Letzte Rose in unserm Garten
Die verborgen im Laub ich fand
Willst noch immer auf Sonne warten
Doch der Herbstwind weht übers Land

Längst verwelkt sind alle Blumen
All ihr Glanz ging längst dahin
Letzte Rose in unserm Garten
So alleine musst du verblüh’n

La la lah lah
La la la lah lah
La la lah lah
La lah la lah

La la lah lah
La la la lah lah
La la lah lah
La lah la lah

Längst verwelkt sind alle Blumen
All ihr Glanz ging längst dahin
Letzte Rose in unserm Garten
So alleine musst du verblüh’n
So alleine musst du verblüh’n

http://www.lyrix.at/de/text_autor_list/28243#Heintje

Color Space Conversion 颜色空间转换

2006-10-12T11:44:00.000+08:00

A system for describing color numerically. Also known as a "color model," the most widely used color spaces are RGB for scanners and displays, CMYK for color printing and YUV for video and TV. Prior to the proliferation of electronic displays, color spaces were developed that were closer to the way people perceive color. For example, the HSB model uses hue, saturation and brightness, while the CIE Lab model uses lightness (L) and values on red-green (a) and blue-yellow (b) axes.

Changing one type of color-encoded signal into another. Converting from RGB to YUV and back to RGB are common color space conversions (see YUV). Converting from the display color space (RGB) to the printer color space (CMYK) is another common example. Color spaces may have different gamuts (color ranges), and conversion may result in a loss of color.

(YUV) The Y in YUV stands for "luma," which is brightness, or lightness, and black and white TVs decode only the Y part of the signal. U and V provide color information and are "color difference" signals of blue minus luma (B-Y) and red minus luma (R-Y). Through a process called "color space conversion," the video camera converts the RGB data captured by its sensors into either composite analog signals (YUV) or component versions (analog YPbPr or digital YCbCr). For rendering on screen, all these color spaces must be converted back again to RGB by the TV or display system.

(Red Green Blue) The color space used for capturing still and moving color images, as well as displaying them on screen. Color is captured by sensors that record the varying intensities of red, green and blue at each pixel location in the frame (x-y matrix).

(Cyan Magenta Yellow blacK) The color space used for commercial printing and most color computer printers. In theory, cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) can print all colors, but inks are not pure and black comes out muddy. The black ink (K) is required for quality printing.

(Hue Saturation Brightness) A color space that is similar to the way an artist mixes colors by adding black and white to pure pigments. The pigments are the hues (H), measured in a circle from 0 to 359 degrees (0=red, 60=yellow, 120=green, 180=cyan, 240=blue, 300=magenta). The saturation (S) is the amount of black, and the brightness (B) is the amount of white, each measured from 0 to 100%.

Following are the conversion formulas from RGB to YUV and from YUV to RGB.
From RGB to YUV

Y = 0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B
U = 0.492 (B-Y)
V = 0.877 (R-Y)

It can also be represented as:
Y = 0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B
U = -0.147R - 0.289G + 0.436B
V = 0.615R - 0.515G - 0.100B

From YUV to RGB
R = Y + 1.140V
G = Y - 0.395U - 0.581V
B = Y + 2.032U

“海鸥老人”的吴庆恒

2006-10-09T13:46:00.000+08:00

在昆明的最后一天看了中央台新闻频道的有关昆明的海鸥的报道，说到了“海鸥老人”吴庆恒的故事很让人感动。

被昆明人称为“海鸥老人”的吴庆恒生前孤身一人，每年冬天飞抵昆明的红嘴鸥是他唯一的寄托。每当红嘴鸥“驾临”，老人天天徒步十多公里进城给它们喂食，和
它们嬉戏，风雨无阻；老人每月三百零八元的退休工资有一半以上都用来给海鸥买吃的，为此，老人平时几乎舍不得花一分钱坐公交车。四元五角一斤的饼干，老人毫不吝惜买给海鸥，他知道那是海鸥最喜欢的美食；他还经常买来鸡蛋为海鸥制做“鸡蛋饼干”；而他自己，唯一的奢侈品是两毛钱一包的金沙江香烟；他与红嘴鸥建立了深厚的感情，以至于他能将水中的海鸥一只只叫上岸，其中就有“独脚”，有“老沙”。在老人生命的最后时光，老人最牵挂的依然是红嘴鸥。老人去世后，他被昆明人不断追忆和怀念，认为他代表了昆明人与红嘴鸥和谐公处的精神及爱鸥护鸥的优秀品质，值得每一个市民学习。

梦见在交大的破电梯里掉了下来

2006-09-13T10:22:00.000+08:00

昨天做了一个梦，梦见在交大的一个很破的电梯里，从很高的地方掉了下来，已开始很慢，后来越来越快。电梯做自由落体了。电梯里的人都站着，弯着腿，那种正确的姿势，只有我是趴着，肚子贴着地。后来醒了，我想肯定是我趴着睡觉了。

Spleak- the Chatbot

2006-09-06T14:10:00.000+08:00

"Have you been chatting with your computer lately? Wouldn't it be a major achievement to stop clicking our way through the Web or complex programs and get answers in the same way we talk to a colleague or a friend?"

This is a chatbot made with the technologies that I have studied. Just encountered and tried. Not to my supprise, the conversation is far from a real conversion with human. It provides more like a automatic answering telephone system, providing 1,2,3 multiple choices. I asked her to tell me about FPGA, and she gives me a list of available functions of the system. I have to choose through the menus. AI is really difficult. But this once again arouses my interest on AI. I will keep an eye on it.

Later I find more of chatbots here at robot invaders.

Ajax

2006-09-05T10:30:00.000+08:00

An Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript, DOM, XML, XSLT, XMLHttpRequest, XHTML, CSS) application eliminates the start-stop-start-stop nature of interaction on the Web by introducing an intermediary — an Ajax engine — between the user and the server. Adding a layer to the
application makes it more responsive. 所有的AJAX应用程序实现了一种“丰富的”UI——这是通过JavaScript操作HTML文档对象模型并且经由XMLHttpRequest实现的精确定位的数据检索来实现的。Highest-profile examples of Ajax application: All of the major products Google has introduced over the last year. 最重要的是，在用户通过地图导航或输入一个查找字符串的同时，这些事件不需要刷新页面。

Suicide of Ajax: When Achilles was killed, his armor was to be awarded to the next greatest Greek hero. Ajax thought it should go to him. Ajax went mad and tried to kill his comrades when the armor was awarded to Odysseus, instead. Athena intervened by making Ajax think cattle were his former allies. When Ajax realized he had slaughtered the herd, he committed suicide as his only honorable end. Ajax used the sword Hector had given him to kill himself.

改家具订单

2006-09-04T16:56:00.000+08:00

今天中午吃完饭，从交大走到裕德路去改家具订单。上午看了地图，去的时候走宜山路，过了虹桥路，南丹路，蒲什么路的左转就到了文定路。回来发现从文定路直走，就能直接到交大广元西路的门。

变态杀手和报警装置

2006-09-01T17:02:00.000+08:00

最近有个变态杀手在各省市流窜作案，已经杀了7人，手段残忍，闹得人心惶惶。这个杀手经常是趁人们熟睡，攀爬入室。现在如果某厂生产用于窗户和阳台的报警装置肯定发财了。

BenQ Mobile rechnet erst 2007 mit Gewinn

2006-08-31T13:16:00.000+08:00

Branchenkreise: Siemens will an SBS festhalten。BenQ Mobile rechnet erst 2007 mit Gewinn。看来中国人还是比老外有本事有办法。

贼头贼脑的老外拍照

2006-08-31T13:15:00.000+08:00

今天中午在交大排队买好饭，一回头看见一贼头贼脑的老外正对着排队买饭的拍照。躲闪不及，一片白光后，我被照了个正脸。拍完，那个老外，转身又对着身边的坐着的几个吃饭的年轻人咔嚓又一张。这老外张的是我最讨厌的那种，胖胖的，凸头，戴眼镜，拍照的时候还翻白眼。我拿完筷子，上前叫住了他，让他把我的那张照片删掉。一看他那样就知道他心虚，拿着那个破相机的手都直抖。破照相机LCD超小，都看不出人在那里，我叫他把倒数第二张删掉了。然后叫他以后拍照要take care，ask permission if you want to take a picture of somebody。这点最起码的礼貌都不懂。他和另一个老外同伴，怏怏地匆匆走了。

Rootkit

2006-08-24T15:12:00.000+08:00

Sophos: The term rootkit is used to define a Trojan (or technology) used to
hide the presence of a malicious object (process, file, registry key,
network port) from the computer user or administrator. Sony BMG 以及symantec反病毒软件被指使用Rootkit技术。其实技术是中性的，关键还是看是否malicious，对于哪个群体malicious。

iSkoot macht Skype mobil

2006-08-11T12:47:00.000+08:00

Handys und Smartphones mit Java-Unterstützung können mit Hilfe der Software von iSkoot die VoIP-Dienste von Skype nutzen. Über ein gemeinsames Vermarktungsabkommen wollen die beiden Anbieter die Verbreitung ihrer Lösung nun vorantreiben.

Die iSkoot-Software verwandelt Mobiltelefone in vollwertige Skype-Endgeräte, die ohne PC, WiFi-Hot-Spot oder Spezialhardware VoIP-Telefonate empfangen und absetzen können. Nach Einschätzung von iSkoot-Chef Jacob Guedalia eröffnet sich Mobilfunk-Providern damit ein neues Marktsegment. Statt VoIP-Anwendungen lediglich als Bedrohung für ihr klassisches Telefoniegeschäft zu fürchten, könnten die Carrier mit iSkoot Umsätze durch VoIP erzielen, ist Guedalia überzeugt.

Damit ein Handy eine Nummer aus dem Skype-Account des Nutzers anwählen kann, wird zunächst eine Standardverbindung zu einem iSkoot-Gateway-Server aufgebaut. Dieser leitet den Anruf an den VoIP-Dienst von Skype weiter. Ab diesem Zeitpunkt wird das Telefonat zu den Skype-üblichen Konditionen abgerechnet.

Bisher sind die Gateways von iSkoot nur in den USA verfügbar. Das Unternehmen stehe jedoch mit zahlreichen Mobilfunkanbietern in Verhandlungen. CEO Guedalia zeigt sich zuversichtlich, den Dienst in Kürze auch in Europa und Asien anbieten zu können. Als Stolperstein für mobile Skype-Anwendungen könnten sich die Kosten erweisen – speziell in Europa. Denn der Nutzer wird für jedes eingehende Gespräch zur Kasse gebeten. Das ist für Mobilfunkkunden in den USA nicht ungewöhnlich, Europäer zahlen bisher jedoch für eingehende Anrufe nur im Ausland. (map/c't)

Tor + Pivoxy

2006-04-15T14:21:00.000+08:00

Finally found a way to view my blog in China. One can install Tor+Pivoxy to browse anonimously. Check it out at http://tor.eff.org

小女孩在地铁里乞讨

2006-02-22T22:24:00.000+08:00

小女孩在地铁里乞讨
今天回来看到一个小女孩在地铁里乞讨。小女孩瘦瘦的，衣着整齐，略微有些脏。我站在靠门的最里面，小女孩突然在我身前面向坐着的人跪倒，那人正摆弄着PDA，小女孩嘟囔着敲了敲他放在腿上的公文包，见没有效果，跪着向右移到下一个坐着的乘客前。一群武汉口音中的一个给了小女孩6角钱。很快小女孩就消失在人堆里。

2006大年初2

2006-01-30T20:41:00.000+08:00

今天找到了一个涂blogger的好方法，blogger for word，用起来感觉不错。前两天大风大雨，着凉了，感冒了，病来如山倒，病去如抽丝，到现在还咳嗽。总算用走了琳达，爸爸妈妈都累坏了，面对我的感冒病毒，都有些支撑不住了。今天下了一个欧美精选13首KTV，yesterday once more 还是那么有味道，不由佩服the Carpenters’，Only You 是黑白的，它的原唱者是世界老牌乐队“派达斯”(THE PLATTERS)，可能现在的人只知道周兴兴的版本了。M. Jackson 终究是天才。只是Pretty Boys 中文版lyrics实在恶心，什么美眉只想爱，不知道是谁写的词。

beyond naivete and cynicism

2005-10-24T17:42:00.000+08:00

Beyond the yellow brick road of naivete and the muggers lane of cynicism, there is a narrow path, poorly lit, hard to find, and even harder to stay on once found. People who have the skill and the perseverance to take that path serve us in countless ways. We need more of these people. Many more.

straightness

2005-10-23T11:31:00.000+08:00

today I figured out why korean TV series are much more popular than Chinese home-made ones. Korean TVs feel so real and very close to daily life, while chinese ones often aim at some high moral theme. To give a piece of dialgue as example: son is later for work, and his boss called him. Son said that he is leaving home. His father blames him for being stiff and said that son should have said that he is on the way instead of leaving home. Very homely and vivid conversation that can easily arouse sympathetic response of even chinese audience.

This remind me of Taiwanese talk show. The reason that the taiwanese Xiao S is popular is also due to her straightness. She talks about her personal expierence and feeling, such as her feeling of pregnancy.

Another reason for the popularity of Korean TV series is the cultural recognition and sympathetic response of old Chinese values.

News clipping (internet news)

2005-10-22T13:40:00.000+08:00

* book publisher are forced to chanage:
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Major book publishers have quietly begun selling directly to customers over the Internet, in a move that could transform the trade by putting them in competition with online retailers like Amazon.com.
Publishers Sue Google Over Scanning Plans (AP)

* NK embraces IT,shackles Internet
The first hint that North Korea had entered cyber space came in 2000 when leader Kim offered visiting US secretary of state Madeleine Albright his email address.North Koreans are brought up to believe that the their country is superior to any other and that South Koreans, for example, are exploited, impoverished and starving. "If people learned 50 percent of the truth about South Korea, it (North Korea) would collapse".

* Inventor of Wikis Leaving Microsoft for Eclipse Foundation

* EBay's profit soars, but stock declines 5.7% (SiliconValley.com). Investors worried about its outlook
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)-Rivals Taobao, eBay clash on whether free is best
EBay said Germany was again one of its top-performing markets, though the company did not release detailed information about its performance in the country.

* AP - Shanghai police are investigating an online ad offering babies for sale on the Chinese subsidiary of auction Web site eBay, the company said Thursday.
Media reports said the ad offered baby boys for 28,000 yuan ($3,500) and girls for 13,000 yuan ($1,600), reflecting the traditional Chinese preference for males. It promised to deliver infants within 100 days of birth.

* TOKYO (AFP) - A fictitious article saying Chinese troops invaded the Japanese island of Okinawa was seen on a bogus Japanese-language Yahoo News website at the height of tensions between the two Asian neighbours.

google/ebay no match for baidu/taobao in China

2005-10-18T13:20:00.000+08:00

I have been heavily using Ebay in Germany. But I see clearly that Ebay is no match for Taobao in China. Ebay has just bought Skype for nearly 4 billion USD, but Taobao has long had its own IM ware TaoBao Wangwang, an IM tool with full fledged features and practical look. Not until Yahoo bought 40% share of Alibaba, has the westerners start to get nervous about Ebay's losing fate in China. The ebay fans are still dreaming of two consumer auction sites will reign supreme in China. Listed items are scarce in Ebay in comparison to Taobao. Moreover the westernized flavor of Ebay is not at all in consistent with Chinese values and mentalities.

The same is true with "Google vs. Baidu". What annoys me is the fact that google is sometimes completely unreachable. My blog at "blogger.com" is unreachable from http, but only through blogline. This puts Google's blogger in no position to rival with MSN space, although many likes blogger's techie and concise flavor over MSN's overstaffed UI.

Pressemitteilungen

2005-10-18T12:49:00.000+08:00

Pressemitteilungen

Nr. 102/2005
Osnabrück, 2005-05-11

Ideale Ergänzung

Kognitionswissenschaft der Uni Osnabrück kooperiert mit italienischer Hochschule

Ab dem kommenden Wintersemester können bis zu zehn Studierende der Universitäten Osnabrück und Trento/Rovereto (Italien) ihr Master-Studium in Kognitionswissenschaft für jeweils ein Jahr an der Partneruniversität durchführen. Ihnen winkt ein gemeinsamer Abschluss (joint degree) beider Universitäten. In einem nun unterschriebenen Kooperationsvertrag, der als beispielhaft für die Universität Osnabrück gilt, wurde eine enge Zusammenarbeit vereinbart.

Die Facoltà di Scienze Cognitive der Universität Trento ist wie die Lehreinheit Kognitionswissenschaft der Universität Osnabrück die einzige Einrichtung des Landes, die sowohl ein Bachelor-, Master- als auch PhD-Programm in Kognitionswissenschaft anbietet. Interessant für die beginnende Kooperation ist, dass sich die beiden Studiengänge in idealer Weise ergänzen: »Während das kognitionswissenschaftliche Profil der italienischen Partner besonders prägnant in Kognitiver Psychologie, den Sozialwissenschaften und der Neurowissenschaft ist, hat der Osnabrücker Studiengang seine Stärken in Computerlinguistik/Künstliche Intelligenz, Robotik/Theoretische Neurowissenschaft und der Philosophie der Kognition«, erklärt der Studiendekan der Lehreinheit Kognitionswissenschaft, Prof. Dr. Achim Stephan. Ziel sei es, in einem integrierten Studienprogramm sowohl den Austausch unter den Studierenden als auch den unter den Lehrenden zu fördern und gemeinsame Forschungsinitiativen zu ergreifen, so Stephan.

Weitere Informationen:
Prof. Dr. Achim Stephan, Universität Osnabrück,
Institut für Kognitionswissenschaft,
Katharinenstraße 24, D-49069 Osnabrück,
Tel. +49 541 969 6226, Fax +49 541 969 6210
E-Mail: acstephan@uni-osnabrueck.de

Neue Anfrage nach Pressemitteilungen stellen

letzte Änderung: 27-Jul-2005 (TH)
Verantwortlich für den Inhalt: Pressestelle

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Joint Master's Degree Programme Osnabrück - Trento/Rovereto
The Osnabrück Cognitive Science Institute and the Trento Cognitive Science Faculty have recently formed a joint Master's degree programme in Cognitive Science.

Beginning in October 2005 students from Osnabrück and students from Trento will have the opportunity to study at the partner university for two semesters. This exchange will result in a joint Master's degree from both universities providing career opportunities in an integrated Europe.

Trento and Osnabrück are the only universities in their respective countries offering Bachelor, Master's and PhD programmes in Cognitive Science. The Cognitive Science programmes in Trento and in Osnabrück are ideal complements: While in Osnabrück the focus is on Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Neuroscience and Philosophy, the Trento programme focuses on Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, Social Sciences and Mathematics.

The Cognitive Science faculty of Trento is part of the Rovereto branch which combines the studies of technology and cognitive science, information technology, communication and humanistic culture. It is located in Rovereto, a town about 25km south of Trento.

The exchange study at the partner university will be planned for the second year of the Master's studies but can be tailored to the student's individual needs. For more information contact Prof. Achim Stephan. As places are limited please contact him in due time.

"Saving Face"

2005-10-15T22:39:00.000+08:00

watched "Saving Face" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384504/
A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.
1. why gays are all so very attractive?
2. what would my mother generation say about this movie if they would watch?
This is a clever and enjoyable movie. These days witty movie are hard to find.

孔融“父母于子无恩论”

2005-10-08T09:39:00.000+08:00

回来的这些天观察了哥嫂对小侄女的作为，前两天又听老罗语录谈及孔融“父母于子无恩论”，今天就细细读了来龙去脉，觉得有道理。以此为戒，以后若为人父母，不要以施恩者自居，不居功，不市恩，作为子女对父母孝顺，也不必背上报恩的包袱，父母和子女的关系应该是比好朋友更好的关系。下引钱钟书《管锥编》的举例：　　

　　《朱子语类》卷一二六：释氏以生为寄，故要见得父母未生时面目。黄蘗一僧有偈与其母云：“先时寄宿此婆家”；止以父母之身为寄宿处，其无情义、灭绝天性可知！盖不知孔丘家儿早有“寄物”、“寄盛”之喻，较“寄宿”更簿情也。古希腊诗人亦谓：“汝曷不思汝父何以得汝乎！汝身不过来自情欲一饷、不净一滴耳”（If thou rememberest, O man how thy father sowed thee……Thou art sprung from incontinent lust and a filthy drop）①。后世诗文中，习见不鲜，举数例以概。十七世纪英国名作：“汝子被诃，倘不服而反唇曰：‘何故生我？我初未乞求诞生也！’汝将奚如？”（what if thy son／prove disobedient, and, reproved, retort, /“Wherefore didst thou beget me？I sought it not！”）②；又一剧二角色相语，甲云：“若翁生汝，汝则杀之，足以报施，”（Cutting his throat was a very gund return for his begetting you）乙答：“老革初未尝计及生我，渠只自述快意耳。”（, Twas for his own sake, he ne''er thought of me in the business）③《海外轩渠录》言小人国法令谓父母生子女出于情欲（by the motives of concupiscence），故子女于亲不必有恩义（obligation）④。当世波兰小说中母诫未嫁女毋外遇致有孕，曰“吾不欲家中忽添婴儿”（But I don''t want a kid here），女怫然答：“汝之生我，几会先事询我愿不乎!”（You didn''t ask me if I wanted to be born）⑤；一意大利小说中母责女曰：“汝对阿父语，不得如此。”（Guarda che non dovresti ripondere cosi a tuo padre）女藐之（alzava le spalle）曰：“我初未求出世，汝二人专擅，遽使我生。”（Io non avevo chiesto di venire al mondo. Mi ci avete fatta vemire）⑥吾国旧号“孝治”，故率言如孔融者不多耳⑦。

　　另一方面，以父母立场发言的，钱钟书也别有举例：

　　十八世纪英国才妇（Lady Mary Wortley Montagu）致其女（the Countess of Bute）书曰：“汝不必感我诞育为人，正如我不谢汝惠临出世。俗见多妄，每以孝思绳子女，吾生平绝口未尝道之。”（You are no more obliged to me for bringing you into the world, than I am to you for coming into it, and I never, never made use of that commonplace（and like most commonplace, false）argument, as exacting any return of affection-Letters.“Everyman''s Library”, 400）母久劬劳，而持此论，尤罕事也。

不止钱钟书，胡适，李敖等都有类似论调
http://read.lnd.com.cn/read/liao/200509/993620050927.htm

a typical chinese market

2005-10-03T18:13:00.000+08:00

a typical chinese market is a market with super high density. Cubic of 3 or 4 sqr meters of spaces is comprised of the entire shop. Shops are arranged into grids, grids into layers, layers into skyscrapers. Qiujiang Rd. 500 Cyber Square is such a suffocating market, where I bought a minipci netcard for my T22. The card works fine as I have expected. So the Chinese merchants are not all rotten to incurably wicked. The area around Shibei High school is still ekelhaft, with no pavements for walkers. It is a bit surprising to me. Almost nothing has changed in this inner area, whereas the area near Gonghexin Rd is much more cleaner.

China will das Internet noch schärfer kontrollieren

2005-09-28T21:15:00.000+08:00

China will das Internet noch schärfer kontrollieren
26.09.2005 um 18:02 Uhr

MÜNCHEN (COMPUTERWOCHE) - Das chinesische Informationsministerium hat Regeln für die Veröffentlichung von Informationen im Internet bekannt gegeben. Danach sind der staatlichen Willkür mehr oder weniger Tür und Tor zur Verfolgung anders Denkender geöffnet.

Wie die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur Xinhua schreibt, sind solche Artikel von den Seiten chinesischer Internet Service Provider (ISP) oder von Medien gebannt, die die Staatssicherheit unterminieren könnten oder die Staatsgeheimnisse aufdecken würden. Auch sind Artikel verboten, die die Einheit des Landes gefährden oder die die Reputation Chinas in Mitleidenschaft ziehen könnte. Informationen, die ferner nicht im Interesse Chinas sind, unterliegen ebenfalls einem Veröffentlichungsverbot. Schließlich sind Informationen im Internet verboten, die den sozialen Frieden und die innere Stabilität stören könnten. Unter Veröffentlichungsverbot fallen schließlich auch noch pornografische Inhalte und Gewaltdarstellungen.

Die jetzt vom chinesischen Kabinett verabschiedeten Regeln wurden auf den Seiten von Xinhua veröffentlicht. Die Nachrichtenagentur schrieb, dass jede Website, die gegen diese Regeln verstoße, geharnischte Maßnahmen zu befürchten habe bis hin zur Schließung der Seite. (jm)

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

2005-09-18T18:58:00.000+08:00

Memorable Quotes from
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Betty Warren: Don't disregard our traditions just because you're subversive.
Katherine Watson: Don't disrespect this class just because you're married.
Betty Warren: Don't disrespect me just because you're not.
Katherine Watson: Come to class, do the work, or I'll fail you.
Betty Warren: If you fail me, there will be consequences.
Katherine Watson: Are you threatening me?
Betty Warren: I'm educating you.
Katherine Watson: That's my job.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine Watson: I thought that I was headed to a place that would turn out tomorrow's leaders, not their wives.

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Katherine Watson: Look beyond the paint. Let us try to open our minds to a new idea.

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Katherine Watson: I don't think I can go a year without a hot plate.

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Betty Warren: She's smiling. Is she happy?
Mrs. Warren: The important thing is not to tell anyone.
Betty Warren: She looks happy. So, what does it matter?
Mrs. Warren: Don't wash your dirty laundry in public.

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[last lines]
Betty Warren: [in Betty's last editorial] Not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image.
Taxi Driver: Get the hell out of the way.
Betty Warren: I'll never forget you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Betty Warren: Dear Betty, I came to Wellesley because I wanted to make a difference. But to change for others is to lie to yourself. My teacher, Katherine Watson, lived by her own definition and would not compromise that, not even for Wellesley. I dedicate this, my last editorial, to an extraordinary woman, who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes. By the time you read this, she'll be sailing to Europe, where I know she'll find new walls to break down, and new ideas to replace them with.
[snapshot]
Betty Warren: I've heard her called a quitter for leaving and aimless wanderer. But not all who wander are aimless, especially those who seek truth beyond traditions, beyond definition, beyond the image. I'll never forget you.

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Betty Warren: [in Betty's second editorial] Wellesley girls who are married have become quite adapted at balancing their obligations. One hears such comments, as - I'm able to bast the chicken with one hand and outline the paper with the other. While our mothers were called to workforce for Lady Liberty. Nay obligation to reclaim our place in the home, bearing the children that will carry our traditions into the future. One must pause to consider why Miss Katherine Watson, instructor in the art history department has decided to declare war on the holy sacrament of marriage. Her subversive and political teachings encourage our Wellesley girls to reject the roles they were born to fill.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joan Brandwyn: It was my choice... not to go. He would have supported it.
Katherine Watson: But you don't have to choose.
Joan Brandwyn: No, I have to. I want a home; I want a family, that's not something I'll sacrifice.
Katherine Watson: No-one's asking you to sacrifice that, Joan, I just want you to understand you can do both.
Joan Brandwyn: Do you think I'll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?
Katherine Watson: Yes, I'm afraid that you will.
Joan Brandwyn: Not as much as I regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I'm doing and it doesn't make me any less smart.
[Katherine looks down]
Joan Brandwyn: This must seem terrible to you.
Katherine Watson: I didn't say that.
Joan Brandwyn: Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.
Katherine Watson: [hugs Joan] Congratulations. Be happy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie Stewart: My parents say my future is right on the horizon.
Connie Baker: Tell them the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[first lines]
Betty Warren: [voiceover] All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.

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Staunton's Secretary: I was in California once. How do you get any work done with all that sunshine?
Katherine Watson: We tan in class.

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Giselle Levy: [in reference to the husband in etiquette class] Whatever you do, don't put the boss's wife next to your husband.
Betty Warren: Why not?
Giselle Levy: She's screwing him.

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Connie Baker: And, it was perfect, romantic, we stayed up all night, talking.
Joan Brandwyn: [to Giselle] You're late, what happened to Sunday brunch?
Giselle Levy: We stayed up all night, too. Not talking.
Connie Baker: The psychoanalyst again.
Giselle Levy: Divine exhaustion.

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Katherine Watson: [about Betty's Wedding] This is quite the event. I can't believe I was invited.
Bill Dunbar: Well, look around you.
[beat]
Bill Dunbar: Who wasn't?

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Betty Warren: Does he charge you... for sex? Because at the rate you're going, you could make a fortune.

-artist: nat king cole
-peak billboard position # 1 for 8 weeks in 1950
-words and music by jay livingston and ray evans
-academy award winner from the film captain carey, u.s.a starring alan ladd

Mona lisa, mona lisa, men have named you
You’re so like the lady with the mystic smile
Is it only ’cause you’re lonely they have blamed you?
For that mona lisa strangeness in your smile?

Do you smile to tempt a lover, mona lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there and they die there
Are you warm, are you real, mona lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?

Do you smile to tempt a lover, mona lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there and they die there
Are you warm, are you real, mona lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?

Mona lisa, mona lisa

market of auto spare parts

2005-09-17T20:16:00.000+08:00

My brother took me to a huge market of auto spare parts in the very southeast part of Shanghai, attempting to educate me on this topic. It is very Chinese market with booths and pigeonholes along the street. Dirty of course, but not as stirring as I have expected.

Today I find a very annoying fact: blogger is blocked by Chinese Government. I can not access my blog, but the control and edit interface, from China. Have to deal with this problem soon.

met Helmut in Renaissance Pudong

2005-09-17T11:34:00.000+08:00

He came for ZOW-exhibition from 12.09 – 17.09, a German furniture exhibition. switched his job from Roxan GmbH (bad performance) to Renolit AG (second biggest in its industry). The same job as he has practiced for more than 20 years: selling furniture foils. And he looks exactly like 4 year before: seemingly an old German Opa, but actually tough, energetic and humorous. Now he has 7 sales under his wings and is reponsible for 45 million euro anunal revenue. Not as 4 year ago when we talked about trivia, we discussed a lot about German politics, social problems, those of China and our intercultural experience. Although he has keeping coming to China 2 or 3 times every year, I dont think he is fully aware of the many social problems of China. Only shining fridge has been shown to him.

I asked him of advices for being a good sales. Somehow he can not image what kind of job I can do with my M. Sc. in cognitive science. On the one hand this is not an engineering or BM degree, on the other hand, I think his imagination is more or less confined by his age and occupation. He advised me to talk to his agency, Ms. Chen Huiling. Huiling and his husband founded a trading company after their diplom in Uni Stuttgart. Till now the business with c.a. 30 people is running pretty well. At the moment they only need salesman for China. We chatted for 4 hours. He is the nicest German I have ever met. He is coming this November to Beijing. I hope I can met him again.

la marche de l'emper VS. deep blue

2005-09-03T23:35:00.000+08:00

企鹅：饥饿是黑的，吃饱了是白的，我们两面都是黑的，所以我们总是饥饿. All those who like the movie "la marche de l'empereur" should go and watch the documentary "deep blue" filmed by BBC in 2004. It not only beats The Day After Tomorrow hands down, but March of the Penguins as well (IMHO).

http://www.marchofthepenguins.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/06/02/deep_blue_2004_review.shtml

男生追女生的数学建模分析

2005-09-03T23:28:00.000+08:00

问题分析

男生追女生，对男生来说最重要的是学习、爱情两不误。因此我们引进男生的学业成绩函数Y(t)。

首先，我们不考虑男生的追求攻势，则影响该函数的因素主要是两个人的关系程度。为了便于分析，我们将两人的关系简化为女生对该男生的疏远度，于是引入疏远度函数X(t)。

问题就转化为求解Y(t)和X(t)的相互作用关系。利用微分，很容易就可以求出两者的关系。但现实中男生可能会对该女生发起一轮轮的追求攻势，因此还要考虑到追求攻势对模型的影响。而追求攻势又与女生的疏远度有关，可以简化地将两者看成是正比关系。将追求攻势加入到模型中，就可以找出攻势与Y(t)和X (t)的关系了。

模型假设

1、t时刻A君的学业成绩为Y(t)；

2、t时刻B女对A君的疏远度为X(t)；

3、当A君没开始追求B女时B女对A君的疏远度增长（平时发现的A君的不良行为）符合Malthus模型，即dX/dt=aX(t)其中a为正常数。

4、当Y(t)存在时，单位时间内减少X(t)的值与X(t)的值成正比，比例常数为b，从而 dX(t)/dt=aX(t)-bX(t)Y(t)。

5、A君发起对B女追求后，立即转化为B女对A君的好感，并设定转化系数为 α，而随着的A君发起对B女的追求，A君学业的自然下降率与学业成绩成正比，比例系数为e。于是有dY(t)/dt=αbX(t)Y(t)-eY(t)。

模型构成

由假设4和假设5，就得到了学业与疏远度在无外界干扰的情况下互相作用的模型：

{dX(t)/dt=aX-bXY；dY(t)/dt=cXY-eY} 其中c=αb. (1)

这是一个非线性自治系统，为了求两个数X与Y的变化规律，我们对它作定性分析。令{aX-bXY=0；cXY-eY=0} 解得系统(1)的两个平衡位置为：O(0,0)，M (e/c,a/b)。从(1)的两方程中消去dt，分离变量可求得首次积分：

F(X,Y)=cX-dln|X|-aln|Y|=k (2)

容易求出函数F(X,Y)有唯一驻点为M(e/c,a/b)。再用极值的充分条件判断条件可以判断M是F的极小值点。同时易见，当X→∞（B女对A君恨之入骨）或Y→∞ （A君是一块只会学习的木头）时均有F→∞；而X→0（A君作了变形手术，B女对他毫无防备）或Y→0（A君不学无术，丝毫不学习）时也有F→∞。由此不难看出，在第一象限内部连续的函数z=F(X,Y)的图形是以M为最小值点，且在第一卦限向上无限延伸的曲面，因而它与z=k(k＞0)的交线在相平面 XOY的投影F(X,Y)=k (k＞0)是环绕点M的闭曲线簇。这说明学业成绩和疏远度的指数成周期性变化。

结果解释

从生态意义上看这是容易理解的，当A君的学习成绩Y(t)下降时，B女会疏远 A君，疏远度X(t)上升；于是A君就又开始奋发图强，学习成绩Y(t)又上升了。于是B女就又和A君开始了来往，疏远度X(t)又下降了。与B女交往多了，当然分散了学习时间，A君的学习成绩Y(t)下降了。

然而我们可证明，尽管闭轨线不同，但在其周期内的X和Y的平均数量都分别是一常数，而且恰为平衡点M的两个坐标。事实上，由(1)的第二个方程可得： dY/Ydt=cX- e,两端在一个周期时间T内积分，得：

∫(dy/Ydt)dt=c∮Xdt-dT (3)

注意到当t经过一个周期T时，点(X,Y)绕闭轨线运行一圈又回到初始点，从而：∫(dY/Ydt)dt=∮dY/Y=0。所以，由(3)式可得：(∫Xdt)/T=e/c。

同理，由(1)的第一个方程可得：(∫Ydt)/T=a/b。

模型优化

考虑到追求攻势对上述模型的影响。设追求攻势与该时刻的疏远度成正比，比例系数为h，h反映了追求攻势的作用力。在这种情况下，上述学业与疏远度的模型应变为：

{dX/dT=aX-bXY-hX=(a-h)X-bXY；dY/dt=cXY-eY-hY=cXY-(e+h)Y} (4)

将(4)式与(1)式比较，可见两者形式完全相同，前者仅是把(1)中X与Y的系数分别换成了a-h与e+h。因此，对(4)式有

x’=(∫Xdt)/T=(e+h)/c，y’=(∫Ydt)/t=(a-h)/b (5)

利用(5)式我们可见：攻势作用力h的增大使X’增加，Y’减少。

我们的建议

考试期间，由于功课繁忙，使得追求攻势减少，即h减小，与平时相比，将有利于学业成绩Y的增长。这就是Volterra原理。此原理对男生有着重要的指导意义：强大的爱情攻势有时不一定能达到满意的效果，反而不利与学业的成长；有时通过慢慢接触，慢慢了解，再加上适当的追求行动，女生的疏远度就会慢慢降低。学习成绩也不会降低！

alternative to VisualStudio.net

2005-07-29T18:47:00.000+08:00

for c++
1. Code::Blocks
http://www.codeblocks.org/features.shtml

2. eclipse + CDT
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/index.php
http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/~checkout~/cdt-home/user/faq.html?cvsroot=Tools_Project
http://update.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/new

for asp/b#/c#/j#.net
1. ASP.NET Web Matrix
2. Sharp Develop
3. Primal Code (commercial)
4. eclipse + c#plugin
5. Mono Develop (linux)
6. Code Wright
http://www.zdnet.de/builder/program/0,39023551,39132993,00.htm

Temp replacing regular staffs [FTD]

2005-07-25T22:30:00.000+08:00

"Leiharbeit 2004: Hohe Erwartungen, in der Praxis kaum realisiert", A study by IAB (Institute fuer Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung) disclosed some facts about Zeitarbeit, where 15000 representative business organizations have been questioned and 80 case studies carried out. People's fear of Zeitarbeit replacing regular staff is not completely right. The number of Zeitarbeiter depends on business performance. The "Klebeeffekt" ist not at all strong, since only 12% Zeitarbeit are hired as regular staff in 2003. Zeitarbeit in Germany is not as widely popular as in many other countries, like the Niederlands. At 30. July 2004, there are 280.000 working als Zeitarbeit and they are usually found in automobile industry.

http://www.ftd.de/pw/de/9903.html?nv=cd-rss

Sven jaschan on trial

2005-07-08T20:12:00.000+08:00

On Friday, July 8, 2005, Sven jaschan received a 21 month suspended sentence in Verden Germany. He was arrested in May of 2004 for creating the Netsky and Sasser worm. These worms were released on his 18th birthday(April 29, 2004).
more -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Jaschan

Product prirates rob the european of 200k jobs [FTD]

2005-06-11T22:32:00.000+08:00

Product prirat rob the european of 200.000 jobs
In the last 10 years, forgery has been increased by 30 times. In 1994, there are 269 cases, in 2004, 8500 cases of plagiat. The macroeconomy is greatly damaged: The custom house has reported a lost of 145 Mio euro. About 5% to 9% international trade is related to plagiat. 500 Billion euro of loss due to forgery worldwide. In Germany 200.000 jobs are lost due to forgery. 1998-2002, forgery has rosen 8 times, causing loss of 2 billion euro in Europe.

In 2004, 23,5% forgery in Germany come from China. Thailand and Turkey follow. The 4th place, the USA. Real statistics will be much worse due to EU east expansion. Imports from east europe are only loosely controled.

ftd.de, 11.06.2005
http://www.ftd.de/ub/in/9730.html?nv=cd-rss

Standardization Working Groups for 3C Convergence and Home Networking

2005-04-04T22:23:00.000+08:00

The continued need for broadband sharing and a growing interest in entertainment networking will drive the total value of equipment with a home networking connection of some type from $8.3 billion in 2004 to $17.1 billion by 2008 (In-Stat/MDR report: Digital Domicile 2004: Home Networking Hits the Big Time). The ultimate goal for digital home networking is 3C convergence (communication, computer and consumer) so that users can access his digital content with ANY device at his home. An open standard, which is not solely dependent on one manufactory, is very important for the interoperability and compatibility between different devices. And it is also important for digital content providers. Here I introduce 4 standardization groups for digital home standards (DLNA, UOPF, IGRS and ITopHome) where the latter two are Chinese groups.

1. DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance, URL=http://www.dlna.org)
In June 2003, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance, formerly called the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), URL=http://www.dlna.org) was grounded, initiated by 17 electronic giants, including Intel, Sony, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Fujitsu and Samsung, with the goal to create an open environment for digital data exchange and interoperability among different devices in a home network. The devices include wired and wireless PC, consumer electronics and mobile devices. DLNA has issued "DLNA Home Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines v1.0" in 2004. To date it has 140 members (including Siemens AG), representing 14 countries, and is one of the most influential international organizations for standardizations. Lenovo is the only Chinese company among the 19 promotional companies of DLNA.

2. UOPF (Ubiquitous Open Platform Forum, URL=http://www.uopf.org/en/)
UOPF was establish on February 2004 with the target of a open platform where "easy setup", "online settlement" and "real-time connectivity" can be realized regardless of particular ISP and appliance makers. It was inaugurated by 14 Japanese companies (ISPs and information appliance makers), including NTT Com, Panasonic, Sony, NEC, Sanyo, Pioneer, KDDI and Toshiba. To date, it has 56 members. UOPF emphasizes on IA (information appliance) based on IPv6, e.g. m2m-x protocol by NTT Com (a PnP-like protocol for information appliance networking). The first edition of UOPF specification was issued in spring 2004 and will be revised biannually. Another Japanese group involved in home networking standard is the ECHONET consortium (Energy Conservation and Homecare Network, URL=http://www.echonet.gr.jp).

Among the two international organizations, Intel and Sony are the most active promoters for digital home, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D.

3. IGRS WG (Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing Working Group, URL=http://www.igrs.org.cn)
On July 17th 2003, Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing Standard Working Group (IGRS WG) was established, initiated by Lenovo, TCL, Konka, Hisense and Great Wall and joined by 7 more members. IGRS now has more than 30 full members, including Huawei, China Telecom, ZTE etc. ranging from terminal product manufacturers, chip design enterprises, software developers, Web service equipment vendors to telecom operators. Lenovo's PIPES (proactive, integrated, proper, effective and seamless) standard, introduced at the end of 2002, is the prototype of the IGRS standard. The IGRS version 1.0 was submitted in July 2004 to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) of China as a draft of an industrial standard.

The design objectives of IGRS is to enable automatic searching, dynamic grouping, resource sharing and collaborative service among various information devices, CE (consumer electronics) and communications devices in a limited network domain (wired or wireless), and to improve device interoperability and the ease of use, and to fully utilize various devices' functions and provide users with new application modes and rich applications. Products based on IGRS protocol have already been commercialized at the end of 2004. For example, the Lenovo P928 mobile phone, which can be used as a remote controller for PC to run CD player, PPT presentation or media player. It can also be used as webcam for PC, or transfer photos from your mobile to PC wirelessly.

The main obstacles that IGRS is facing are:
* Immature market and application environment
* Deficiency of core technology
* Difference between its members
* Competition from international vendors (like Intel) and domestic vendors (like Haier, main promoter of ITopHome alliance)

4. ITopHome (URL=http://www.itophome.org)
ITopHome was founded on July 26, 2004 by 7 top IT and CE enterprises in China, including Hair Group, Tsinghua Tongfang, China NetCom, Shanghai SVA group, Shanghai Belling, Chunlang Group and Great Wall. This alliance focuses on home networking of electronics, consumer appliance, communication devices, PCs and ISP connections. The Goal of ITopHome is to combine the advantages of its members and develop an open standard for home networking with independent intellectual property right. In august 2004, Hair Group, the primary promoter of ITopHome has announced its ITopHome-based Home Entertainment Center (linux-based set-top box), with similar functionalities of Siemens Gigaset M740 AV.

Reference:
"Louis Burns and Kevin Corbett on the Role of Standards in Enabling the Digital Home", Intel
URL=http://www.intel.com/standards/execqa/qa0504.htm

"Who can lead in the digital home field? ", China Economic Net
URL=http://en.ce.cn/Insight/200410/25/t20041025_2086004.shtml

Home Pages of the 4 groups

[Munich, written for CPE Siemens]

the one hundred most influential works in cognitive science

2005-01-22T22:38:00.000+08:00

original link:
http://www.cogsci.umn.edu/OLD/calendar/past_events/millennium/final.html

clipping:
"Here is the list of the one hundred most influential works in cognitive science from the 20th century as selected by our panel of esteemed judges from all the nominations we received.
The works on the list are rank ordered, with #1 being the most influential.

The one hundred most influential works in cognitive science from the 20th century

Syntactic Structures
Chomsky, N. (1957)
The Hague: Mouton

Vision: a computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information
Marr, D. (1982)
San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.

Computing machinery and intelligence
Turing, A. M. (1950)
Mind, 59, 433-460.

The organization of behavior; a neuropsychological theory
Hebb, D.O. (1949)
Wiley-Interscience, New York

Parallel distributed processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition
Rumelhart, D. E., McClelland, J. L. (1986)
MIT Press: Cambrige, Mass

Human problem solving
Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972)
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

The modularity of mind: An essay on faculty psychology
Fodor, J. (1983)
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology
Bartlett, F. C. (1932)
Cambridge, England: The University Press

The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information
Miller, G. A. (1956)
Psychological Review, 63, 81-97

Perception and Communication
Broadbent, D. (1958)
New York: Pergamon Press

The senses considered as perceptual systems
Gibson, J. J. (1966)
Boston, MA: Hougton Mifflin.

A mathematical theory of communication
Shannon C. E. (1948)
Bell System Technical Journal, 27, 379-423

On computable numbers: With an application to the Entscheidungsproblem
Turing, A.M. (1936)
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, ser. 2, 42,

A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity
McCulloch, W. S., & Pitts, W. (1943)
Mathematical Biophysics, 5:115-133 (pp. 18-27).

Hemisphere deconnnection and unity in conscious awareness
Sperry, R. W. (1968)
American Psychologist 23 (10), 723-733.

Cognitive maps in rats and men
Tolman, E.C. (1948)
Psychological Review 55, 189-208

Ferrier lecture: Functional architecture of macaque monkey visual cortex
Hubel, D.H. and Wiesel, T.N. (1977)
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 198, 1-59.

The Conceptual Framework of Psychology
Brunswik, E. (1952)
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

A review of Skinner's "Verbal Behavior"
Chomsky, N. (1959)
Language, 35, 26-58

Cognitive Psychology
Neisser, U. (1967)
Cognitive Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice-Hall.

Signal detection theory and psychophysics
Green, D.M., and Swets, J.A. (1966)
New York: Wiley

A study of thinking
Bruner, J. R., Goodnow, J. J., & Austin, G. A. (1956)
New York: Wiley

Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects
Shepard, R.N., and Metzler, J. (1971)
Science, 171, 701-703

The Sciences of the Artificial
Simon, H. A. (1969)
MIT Press, 1969

The problem of serial order in behavior
Lashley, K. S. (1951)
In Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior, Wiley, pp. 112-136.

Psychophysics: Introduction to its perceptual, neural, and social prospects
Stevens, S. S. (1975)
New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons. 1975, v, 329.

The Architecture of Cognition
Anderson, J.R. (1983)
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Thought and Language (Myshlenie i rech'.)
Vygotsky, Lev (1964 (original work 1934))
(E.Hanfmann and G. Vakar, Trans.). Cambridge, M.I.T Press.

Plans and the Structure of Behavior
Miller, G.A., Galanter, E, and Pribram, K.H. (1960)
New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Aspects of the theory of syntax
Chomsky, N. (1965)
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Unified Theories of Cognition
Newell, A. (1990)
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
Wiener, N. (1948)
New York: Wiley

On the psychology of prediction
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1973)
Psychological Review, 80, 237-251

Single units and sensation: A neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology?
Barlow, H. (1972)
Perception, 1, 371-394

Principles of Perceptual Learning and Development
Gibson, E.J. (1969)
Appleton, Century and Croft

The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception
Gibson, J. J. (1979)

Natural Categories
Rosch, E. (1973)
Cognitive Psychology, 7,573-605

What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain
Lettvin, J.Y., Maturana, H.R., McCulloch, W.S., & Pitts, W.H. (1959)
Proceedings of the IRE, Vol. 47, No. 11, pp. 1940-51.

Design for a Brain: The Origins of Adaptive Behavior
Ashby, W. Ross (1960)
New York: Willey

Theory of games and economic behavior
Von Neumann, J., & Morgenstern, O. (1964)
([3d ] ed.). New York,: Science Editions J. Wiley.

The information available in brief visual presentations
Sperling, G. (1960)
Psychological Monographs, 74 (Whole number 498)

Minds, brains and programs
Searle J.R. (1980)
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3.

High-speed memory scanning in human memory
Sternberg, S. (1966)
Science, 153, 652-654.

A framework for representing knowledge
Minsky, M. (1975)
In P. H. Winston (Ed.), The Psychology of Computer Vision. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 211-277.

Biological foundations of language
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967)
New York: Wiley

The child's conception of the world
Piaget, J. (1930)
New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World.

Levels of Processing: A framework for memory research
Craik, F.I. and Lockhart, R. S. (1972)
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 599-607.

Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions
Stroop, J. (1935)
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643-661

Theory of self-reproducing automata
Von Neumann, J., & Burks, A. W. (1966)
Urbana,: University of Illinois Press.

The perception of the Visual World
Gibson, J. J. (1950)
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press

Principles of Gestalt Psychology
Koffka, K. (1935)
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.

On the existence of neurones in the human visual system selectively sensitive to the orientation and size of retinal images
Blakemore, C., & Campbell, F.W. (1969)
Journal of Physiology, 203, 203-260

Recognition-by-components: a theory of human image understanding
Biederman, I. (1987)
Psychological Review, 94, 115-147.

Philosophical investigations
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1953)
New York: Macmillan, c1953

A feature integration theory of attention
Treisman, A. and Gelade, G. (1980)
Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97-136

The Working Brain: An Introduction to Neuropsychology
Luria, A. R. (1973)
New York: Basic Books.

Foundations of Cyclopean Perception
Julesz, B. (1971)
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

The Construction of Reality in the Child
Piaget, J. (1954)
NY: Ballantine Books

The language of thought
Fodor, J. A. (1975)
New York: Crowell

Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory
Tulving, E. and Thompson, D. (1973)
Psychological Review, 80, 352-373.

The formation of learning sets
Harlow, H. F. (1949)
Psychological Review, 1949, 56, 51-65

Mental models: Towards a cognitive science of language, inference, and consciousness
Johnson-Laird, P. M. (1983)
Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press

What Computers Can't Do
Dreyfus, H. L. (1972)
MIT Press

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Kuhn, T. S. (1962)
Chicago: University of Chicago Press

The Bisected Brain
Gazzaniga, M. (1970)
New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts

The Intentional Stance
Dennett, D. C. (1987)
MIT Press.

Posterior parietal association cortex of the monkey: command functions for operations within extrapersonal space
Mountcastle VB, Lynch JC, Georgopoulos A, Sakata H, Acuna C (1975)
J Neurophysiol 38:871-908

Judgments under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974)
Science, 185, 1124-1131.

The analysis of proximities: Multidimensional scaling with an unknown distance function
Shepard, R. N. (1962)
Psychometrika, 27(2), 125-140

Application of Fourier Analysis to the Visibility of Gratings
Campbell, F.W., and Robson, J.G. (1968)
Journal of Physiology. 197: 551-566.

Working memory
Baddeley, A.D., and Hitch, A.D. (1974)
In G. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 8; pp 47-89). New York: Academic Press

Language, Thought and Reality; selected writings
Whorf, B. L. (ed. by J. Carroll) (1956)
Boston, MA: MIT Press.

Two cortical visual systems
Ungerleider, L.G. and Mishkin, M. (1982)
In D.J. Ingle, M.A. Goodale, and R.J.W. Mansfield (Eds.), Analysis of visual behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Perceptrons
Minsky, M., & Papert, S. (1969)
(1969) Cambridge: MIT Press.

Sensory mechanisms, the reduction of redundancy, and intelligence
Barlow, H. B. (1959)
Proceedings of the symposium on the mechanization of thought processes. National Physical Laboratory. HMSO, London,

Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions
Scoville, W. B., and Milner, B. (1957)
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 20,

Working Memory
Baddeley, A. (1986)
Oxford University Press

Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding
Schank, R. C. and Abelson, R. P. (1977)
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chronometric Explorations of Mind
Posner, M. I. (1978)
Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawerence Erlbaum Associates

Segregation of form, color, movement and depth: Anatomy, physiology and perception
Livingstone M. & Hubel D. (1988)
Science, 240(4853):740-9, 1988

Visual Perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis
Johansson G. (1973)
Perception & Psychophysics, Vol. 14 (2); 201-211

The interpretation of dreams
Freud, S. (1927)
(1st English Edition) London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

The Nature of Explanation
Craik, K. (1943)
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

The coordination and regulation of movements
Bernstein, N.A. (1967)
Oxford, New York: Pergamon Press

The Integrative Action of the Nervous System
Sherrington, Charles S., Sir (1906)
New York: Scribner's Sons

Toward a model of text comprehension and production
Kintsch, W. and van Dijk, T. A. (1978)
Psychological Review, 85, 363-394.

Neural Darwinism: The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection
Edelman, G. M. (1987)
New York: Basic Books

Lightness and retinex theory
Land, E. H. and McCann, J. J. (1971)
Journal of the Optical Society of America, 61 (1), 1-11.

The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map
O'Keefe, J., and Nadel, L. (1979)
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol 2(4).

The Mentality of Apes
Koehler, W. (1925)
New York: Harcourt and Brace

Language comprehension in ape and child
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. Sue (1993)
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (serial no.233), vol 58, nos. 3-4.

Circuitry of primate prefrontal cortex and the regulation of behavior by representational memory
Goldman-Rakic, P.S. (1987)
Handbook of Physiology, vol5(1), American Physiological Society, Bethesda, MD: 373-417

Speech perception in infants
Eimas, P.D., Siqueland, E.R., Jusczyk, P., & Vigorito, J. (1971)
Science Vol 171 (3968), 303-306

The Operational Analysis of Psychological Terms
Skinner, B. F. (1945)
Psychological Review, 52, 270-277

Mental rotation of the neuronal population vector
Georgopoulos, Apostolos P., Lurito, Joseph T., Petrides, Michael., Schwartz, Andrew B., et al. (1989)
Science. Vol 243(4888), Jan 1989, 234-236.

Consciousness Explained
Dennett, D. C. (1991)
Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co.

The interpretation of structure from motion
Ullman, S. (1979)
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B., 203, 405-426

Cognition in the Wild
Hutchins, E (1995)
Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press

Acquisition of cognitive skill
Anderson, J. R. (1982)
Psychological Review, 89, 369-406

Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes
Atkinson, R. C. and Shiffrin, R. M. (1968)
In K. W. Spence and J. T. Spence (Eds.), The Psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (vol. 2). New York: Academic Press."

game theory

2004-04-25T21:35:00.000+08:00

summary of some basic concepts of game theory after some reading:

utility
denotes a measure of subjective psychological fulfillment

economically_rational
That is, a player can (i) assess outcomes; (ii) calculate paths to outcomes; and (iii) choose actions that yield their most-preferred outcomes, given the actions of the other players

imperfect_information
all simultaneous-move games are games of imperfect information. Games of perfect information (as the name implies) denote cases where no moves are simultaneous (and where no player ever forgets what has gone before).

strategic_games
Matrix games are referred to as ‘normal-form’ or ‘strategic-form’ games, and games as trees are referred to as ‘extensive-form’ games. When order of play is irrelevant to a game's outcome, then you should study its strategic form, since it's the whole set you want to know about. Where order of play is relevant, the extensive form must be specified or your conclusions will be unreliable.

NE
A set of strategies is a NE just in case no player could improve her payoff, given the strategies of all other players in the game, by changing her strategy. Notice how closely this idea is related to the idea of strict dominance: no strategy could be a NE strategy if it is strictly dominated. This implies that if a game has an outcome that is a unique NE, as in the case of joint confession in the PD, that must be its unique solution. This is one of the most important respects in which the PD is an ‘easy’ (and atypical) game.

Production-Possibility Frontier
Production efficiency occurs when production of one good cannot be increased without curtailing producton of another good. This is illustrated by PPF. When an economy is operating efficiently -on its PPF- it can produce more of one good only by producing less of another good. PPF illustrate many basic economic processes: how economic growth pushed out the frontier, how a nation chooses raltively less food and other necessities as it develops, how a country chooses between private goods and public goods, and how societies choose between consumption goods and capital goods that enhance future consumption. Societiesare sometimes inside their PPF frontier. When unemployment is high or when revolutionor inefficient government regulations hamper economic activity, the economy is inefficient and operates inside PPF.

thematic/semantic-roles/relations

2004-04-23T21:32:00.000+08:00

Semantic correlates of syntactic roles
syntactic: subject, direct object, indirect object, prepositional objects
semantic: agent, patient, benefactive, instrument-loc-source

Roles Suggested in Linguistc Work
Fillmore's (1968 ) 5 roles
agentive: typically animate perceived instigator
instrumental: inanimate force or object causally involved
dative: animate being resulting from the action
locative: location or spatial orientation of the action
objective: other entities invovled in the action

Frawley's (1992) 4 roles
logical actors: agent, author, and instrument
logical recipients: patient, experiencer, and benefactive
spatial role: theme, source, and goal
non-participant roles: locative, reason, and purpose

Jackendoff's (1972) 3 primitive roles:
CAUSE, CHANGE and BE later adopted by Dowty (1979) in Montague Grammar.

Dowty's (1989) 2 `thematic-role-like concepts' for verbal predicates:
the proto-agent and proto-patient role.
subjecthood vs. objecthood, agentivity vs. patientivity
Contributing properties for the proto-agent role
-- Volition; sentience (and/or perception); causes event; movement.
Contributing properties for the proto-patient role
-- Change of state (including coming-to-being, going-out-of-being); incremental theme (i.e. determinant of aspect); causally

affected by event; stationary (relative to movement of proto-agent).

Sowa's (1984) "Conceptual Structures" text
two dozen or so thematic relations and 37 conceptual relations [url]
Sowa's (1999) "Knowledge Representation" text
19 themantic roles [url=http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/thematic.htm]

Upper Cyc Ontology (1997)
100+ themantic roles [url=http://www.cyc.com]

FrameNetII countless frames
every sense of every word (i.e., every lexical unit) has its own frame. [url=http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~framenet]

A list of the most popular semantic/thematic-roles/relations and the properties usually associated with them is given below.
Agent: A participant which the meaning of the verb specifies as doing or causing something, possibly intentionally. Examples:

subjects of kill, eat, hit, smash, kick, watch.

Patient: a participant which the verb characterizes as having something happen to it, and as being affected by what happens to it. Examples: objects of kill, eat, smash but not those of watch, hear, love.

Experiencer: A participant who is characterized as aware of something. Examples: subject of love, object of annoy.

Theme: A participant which is characterized as changing its position or condition, or as being in a state or position. Examples: objects of give, hand, subjects of walk, die.

Location: The thematic role associated with the NP expressing the location in a sentence with a verb of location. Examples: subjects of keep, own, retain, know, locative PPs.

Source: Object from which motion proceeds. Examples: subjects of buy, promise, objects of deprive, free, cure.

Goal: Object to which motion proceeds. Examples: subject of receive, buy, dative objects of tell, give. (adapted from ([Dow89])

Term Weight

2004-04-22T21:28:00.000+08:00

Not every term has the same importance to its document. Terms need to be weighted, be it binary weights , raw term frequency or TFIDF. By TFIDF, weight is determined by the frequency of occurrence of that term in a certain document and inverted occurrence of documents containing that term. It is intuitively plausible. Mathematically:

Weight(word)= TF(Wi, Doc)*IDF(Wi)= TF(Wi,Doc)*log(N/n+1)

Where TF(Wi, Doc) is the frequency of Word Wi in Document Doc. IDF(Wi) is inverted frequency of documents containing word Wi. After normalization, N is the number of all documents, n is the number of documents containing word Wi.

Weight(word) = TF(Wi,Doc)*log(N/n+1)

However, since term-by-document matrices are usually sparse and have high dimensions, conventional vector space models are liable to noise (differences in word usage, terms that do not help distinguish documents, etc.) and are also difficult to capture the underlying semantic structure. Additionally, computing resources necessary for the storage and processing of such data is enormous. Dimensionality reduction is a way to overcome these problems. The method is to map a vector from high dimensional space to a much lower dimensional space vector. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) are popular techniques for dimensionality reduction based on matrix decomposition. Latent semantic indexing (LSI) uses SVD to reduce vector space.

6. explain LSI
Here we can make an analogy to help us understand the principles of VSM and LSI. Suppose you want to know what on earth Cognitive Science is and more concretely what contributing subjects to cognitive science are. You send questionnaires with 10 subjects on them to people and ask people to rank them from 10 (most important to Cognitive Science) to 1 (least important to Cognitive Science). You note down the rankings of these 3 subjects --- linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. You can graph the results of your survey by setting up a chart with three orthogonal axes, each for one each keyword. To plot a particular “Cognitive Science”, you count the rank of the 3 keywords in each questionnaire, and then take the appropriate number of steps (1-10) along the axis for that questionnaire. Each questionnaire forms a vector in that space, with its direction and magnitude determined by how high the ranks of the three keywords appear in it. When you are finished, you get a cluster of points in this three-dimensional space.

If you draw a line from the origin of the graph to each of these points, you obtain a set of vectors in the “Cognitive Science” space. The size and direction of each vector tells you how high the ranks of the three key items were in any particular questionnaire, and the set of all the vectors taken together tells you something about the kind of Cognitive Science people favour.

We choose 3 key words, so we get a 3-D visualization. However, this space could have any number of dimensions, depending on how many keywords we chose to use. If we were to choose Artificial Intelligence, Anthropology as well, then we have a 5 dimensional term space. In real world this term space usually has many thousands of dimensions. Each document in our collection is a vector with as many components as there are content words. Although we can not visualize them, the basic idea is the same as what we have with the Cognitive Science example. If we use binary term weight, that is whether the term occur in the document or not, intuitively documents in such a space that have many words in common will have vectors that are near to each other, while documents with few shared words will have vectors that are far apart.

[5.part of termpaper submitted 2004.04 Corpus-based Semantics]

Singular Value Decomposition (SVD)

2004-04-22T21:26:00.000+08:00

Latent semantic indexing works by projecting this large, multidimensional space down into a smaller number of dimensions. Keywords that are similar in meaning will get squeezed together, and will loose its distinctiveness. This method of data compression allows LSI to go beyond conventional VSMs. This is done with SVD. With SVD, every matrix A could be written as
A=(hanger)*(stretcher)*(aligner)
The formal explanation of SVD is beyond the scope of this paper. Readers are encouraged to read a comprehensive online tutorial of SVD, which starts from matrix action and all the way to noise filtering (http://www.acm.org/sigmm/MM98/electronic_proceedings/huang/node4.html).

The working principle of SVD is to reduce dimensions while preserving the relative distance between document vectors as much as possible. In this dimension reduction, information will be lost, and content words are laid over on one another. Information loss sounds harmful, but here it is a good thing. While losing noise from our original term-document matrix, we also reduce the dimension to a manageable extend. After SVD, similar things become more similar, while dissimilar things remain distinct. Synonymies get superimposed, while polysemic words get separated. This reductive mapping is what gives LSI its seemingly intelligent behaviour of being able to correlate semantically related terms. We are really exploiting a property of natural language, namely that words with similar meaning tend to occur together.

To make things easier to understand, we take a simple example, reducing a 2-D space to a 1-D. This happens to be called “Linear Regression” in statistics. With a set of n points (Xi,Yi), the optimal characterization would be a line f(X)=mx+b which is closest to all points in the set. This line also preserves the relative distance between the points to an optimal extent. When face a 3-D space, you are looking for an optimal mapping of points in this 3-space onto a plane, preserving the relative distance of the points as much as possible.

A typical term space might have tens of thousands of dimensions, and be projected down into fewer than 150. In an n-dimensional space, nevertheless, the principle is exactly the same. When term-document matrix is decomposed into 3 matrixes, the stretcher (the diagonal matrix) describes dimensions of variation. Thus the dimensions are ranked: the first value describes the dimension with the largest variation, the second the dimension with the second largest variation, and so on. Low-rank dimensions are deleted because they describe most similar vectors. After reduction, the original matrix is reconstructed. Here I will not reproduce the old examples, but examples obviously instantiate the whole procedure and help understanding.

The SVD algorithm has a complexity of O(N2*k3), where N is the number of terms plus documents, and k is the number of dimensions in the concept space. Typically, k will be small, ranging anywhere from 50 to 350. However, N grows rapidly as the number of terms and the number of documents increase. This makes the SVD algorithm unfeasible for a large, dynamic collection.

[7. part of term paper submtted 2004.4 Corpus-based Semantics]

Contruction Grammar and NeuroTheory of Language

2004-04-21T21:30:00.000+08:00

Founder of CG -- Adele E. Goldberg. http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/agoldbrg/ (summary on Goldberg 2000 nifty encyclopedia entry, quoted)
- a construction is a unique form-meaning/use pair
"A CONSTRUCTION is defined to be a pairing of form with meaning/use such that some aspect of the form or some aspect of the meaning/use is not strictly predictable from the component parts or from other constructions already established to exist in the language.

-a frame is a construct that links semantics and syntax
"A frame is an intuitive construct that allows us to formalize the links between semantics and syntax in the results of lexical analysis. Semantic frames are schematic representations of situations involving various participants, props, and other conceptual roles, each of which is a frame element. " (framenet website)

-share basic ideas of HPSG,CG,MG
"Construction Grammar shares the basic and fundamental idea that the construction
(or sign) is central to an account of language with several other current theories including
Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, cognitive Grammar, and Montague Grammar. "

-declarative, contraint-based, generative, not derivational(mono-stratal)
"CG is declarative, mono-stratal representation, no derivations are posited" Declarative mood is an epistemic mood that signals that the proposition expressed by a speaker's utterance is offered as an unqualified statement of fact.

- e.g. Elena faxed Ken the letter.
"the sentence instantiates the subject-predicate construction, the ditransitive construction, the determiner construction (the letter), the past tense morphological construction (fax-ed) and five simple morphological constructions, corresponding to each word in the sentence:"

- integrated information: CG includes everything!
phonotics + syntax + semantics + pragmatics + dialect variation + discourse
"Construction Grammar does not assume that syntax is generally isolated or isolatable from semantics or conditions of use.Construction Grammar also eschews a strict division between the pragmatic and the semantic. Generalizations about particular arguments being topical, focused, inferable, etc. are also stated as part of the constructional representation. Facts about the use of entire constructions, including register, dialect variation, etc. are stated as part of the construction as well. ... Construction Grammar aims to account for the full range of facts of any language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged “core”." by what? Speculation?

- contructions are related
relations mentioned by Goldberg "inheritance, sisters", any others? e.g.
constructions of restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses, topicalization, and wh-questions are inherited from left isolation construction.

- unification based formalism
"Thus each construction is represented by an Attribute-Value Matrix (AVM). Each attribute can have at most one value. Attributes may be n-ary, or may be feature structures themselves."

- data: "corpus, introspection, psycholingistic experiment"

- Argument Structure Constructions:
constructions that encode the form and function of simple basic clause types in a language such as the transitive, ditransitive and resultative constructions. The argument structure constructions provide the basic sentence patterns of a language, directly reflect types of basic frames of experience, such as something causing something else to move, someone causing someone to receive something, something moving somewhere, someone causing something to change state, etc.

more on NTL: http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/NTL/publications.html

[Writeup on CG-talk by Y. Zhao in J. Bach's MindBuilding Seminar WS03/04 Osnabrück ]

Introduction to LSI

2004-04-21T21:29:00.000+08:00

Here we can make an analogy to help us understand the principles of VSM and LSI. Suppose you want to know what on earth Cognitive Science is and more concretely what contributing subjects to cognitive science are. You send questionnaires with 10 subjects on them to people and ask people to rank them from 10 (most important to Cognitive Science) to 1 (least important to Cognitive Science). You note down the rankings of these 3 subjects --- linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. You can graph the results of your survey by setting up a chart with three orthogonal axes, each for one each keyword. To plot a particular “Cognitive Science”, you count the rank of the 3 keywords in each questionnaire, and then take the appropriate number of steps (1-10) along the axis for that questionnaire. Each questionnaire forms a vector in that space, with its direction and magnitude determined by how high the ranks of the three keywords appear in it. When you are finished, you get a cluster of points in this three-dimensional space.

If you draw a line from the origin of the graph to each of these points, you obtain a set of vectors in the “Cognitive Science” space. The size and direction of each vector tells you how high the ranks of the three key items were in any particular questionnaire, and the set of all the vectors taken together tells you something about the kind of Cognitive Science people favour.

We choose 3 key words, so we get a 3-D visualization. However, this space could have any number of dimensions, depending on how many keywords we chose to use. If we were to choose Artificial Intelligence, Anthropology as well, then we have a 5 dimensional term space. In real world this term space usually has many thousands of dimensions. Each document in our collection is a vector with as many components as there are content words. Although we can not visualize them, the basic idea is the same as what we have with the Cognitive Science example. If we use binary term weight, that is whether the term occur in the document or not, intuitively documents in such a space that have many words in common will have vectors that are near to each other, while documents with few shared words will have vectors that are far apart.

[6. part of term paper submitted 2004.04 Corpus-based Semantics]

Search engine vs. classic IR

2004-04-21T21:23:00.000+08:00

attractive and useful as they are, search engines are confused with free-text retrieval systems. In fact retrieval from web pages is something that is quite different from classic IR systems. Basically they are different in the following aspects:

Firstly they differ in data volume. Classic IR system has a capacity of several GB, while search engines must deal with billions of web pages. Thus search engines usually apply several servers for webpage indexing, which is not necessary for normal enterprises.

Secondly they differ in ranking. Search engines such as Google have its special ranking algorithm, not only according to relevance of content but also according to the importance of the web pages. A real enterprise application will be only concerned with relevance of content. That is, according the query the most relevant information should be place in the first place. Thus link analysis is useless.

Thirdly, enterprise IR systems are usually real time applications. Once the data has been changed, retrievals should reflect those changes. On the other hand, search engines have their indexing module and retrieval module separated. Indexes are updated periodically. Large search engines like Goggle need 28 days.

Fourthly, since both data and user groups are huge and complex, search engines have great difficulties to apply computation-intensive techniques from data-mining and classic IR systems. At present, most search engines simply match keywords. On the other hand, it would be much easier to apply intelligent and individualized techniques for user-specific and data-specific enterprise IR systems.

[2. part of term paper submitted 2004.04 Corpus-based Semantics]