Oldfield's Inner/Outer World

馬太福音：從「以馬內利」到「以馬內利」...

2011-12-21T22:41:00.000-08:00

馬太福音是一卷從「以馬內利」到「以馬內利」的福音書。

作者首先用「以馬內利」來介紹這位天國君王的降生，又以天國大使命的應許，即耶穌常與履行大使命的人同在來作結。「以馬內利」是指與我們同在的意思，神是與「我們」同在，並不是單單與「我」同在，神的臨在關乎一個「群體」，而不單是一個個獨立的「個體」。因此，透過大使命來擴展這個「我們」，實在很有意思。

作為天國的子民，倘若我們願意過以神為王的生活，我們就當在生命裡實踐大使命。這位君王也就真的常在我們心裡掌王權，我們也樂意叫更多人讓基督掌王權。

Online Photo Editing

2011-12-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

http://pixlr.com/editor/

This is a very powerful online photo editing website. If you're using a netbook like me or with a less than powerful desktop PC, this website is going to be great for you. No installation, fast startup and powerful indeed.

When people were switching their local storage to the cloud, we can even switch our application software to the cloud. It's a full realization of the concept that "the network is the computer" as proposed by Sun Microsystems.

Highly recommended.

差之毫釐, 謬以千里!

2011-12-09T01:48:00.001-08:00

預備講章時有感, 這也是我傳道的 passion 所在!

到底我們要在聖經中尋找蒙福的秘訣, 還是察驗那常施憐憫的神的恩手?

到底我們要在聖經中尋找得勝的方程式, 還是留心哪些違反方程式的神蹟?

到底我們要在聖經中發掘小人物的敬虔, 還是專心仰望那位偉大的真神?

真正基督教的信仰最寶貴亦最可怕的地方就是, 恩典是無條件的, 你不用做甚麼, 也真的不能做甚麼! 對此存著一丁點懷疑的人, 總愛找方法或是以敬虔來賺取祝福, 那只會是徒然!

Giving a new life to an aged notebook

2011-12-07T23:24:00.001-08:00

My Sony Vaio U3 was designed for Windows XP and it has been doing well in the past, and it runs smoothly. However, with the accumulated security update and new functionality, it was getting slower and slower gradually to a point which is near useless. I've tried to reinstall the whole thing from scratch but then it was still slow to an unacceptable level.

Without a bootable removable device, I proceeded to do a PXE install via network. I found tfptd32 a perfect and simple application for that purpose since it serves as both DHCP and tftp at the same time. At first, I tried to install Ubuntu but after the long installation process, I found it's too slow as well.

I suspected that it was a result of imperfect Crusoe support (probably obsolete) in newer kernel. By following the instructions here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LongRunHowTo

I managed to verify that my initial worry was invalid. Then, I proceed to install lubuntu instead. lubuntu has no PXE boot in mind, but then you can always install the base system via any other Ubuntu favor. When you were asked what packages to install, you may skip all packages and do it by hand afterward. Detail instructions on PXE install can be found here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/Netboot

After the installation of the base system, you may login via a text screen. And then you may install the lubuntu-desktop package via apt-get. And believe it or not, this is even faster than a straight PXE installation.

And after that, it would be nice to do the following:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

in order to install a number of non-free stuff.

Glory without suffering is heretic!

2011-10-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

以賽亞書有兩幅很難融合的圖畫, 一幅是受苦的, 而另一幅卻是榮耀的, 但它們都是預言和形容同一位彌賽亞。

最難叫人認出耶穌就是基督的原因, 或許就是這個！

登山變像就是把榮耀的彌賽亞與受苦的彌賽亞清楚的表達，門徒無法相信基督受苦，這位曾預言自己要受苦的卑微夫子，就在他們面前改變形像，好讓他們認出祂就是基督。

人的敬虔

2011-10-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

彼得看見，就對百姓說：「以色列人哪，為什麼把這事當作希奇呢？為什麼定睛看我們，以為我們憑自己的能力和虔誠使這人行走呢？」(徒 3:12)

容易高舉人的敬虔, 希望大家都要學習某些美好的宗教情操, 有時他們甚至製造出「屬靈偉人」這類詞語, 但這合乎聖經嗎?

畢竟人只是器皿, 神總不需要人去完成祂的工作, 甚至連人的敬虔也不是神所需要的! 神當然喜悅人過敬虔的生活, 但我們卻不要把人的敬虔抬得太高

因此, 讓人看見背後那位偉大的神豈不更好?

誇人的軟弱, 總比誇人的剛強與敬虔更有意思!

歷史被邊沿化

2011-10-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

香港人大概都知有個宋王台, 但我相信大概沒有人會特意去這個地方:

這裡除了石碑, 基本上甚麼都沒有

此外, 這地方十分狹少

還有, 這地方是交通交匯處, 四面都是繁忙的馬路, 跟本沒有人會步行經過

因此, 這地方大概跟墳墓沒有大分別, 更慘是墳墓每年都會在春秋二祭有人到訪, 這裡卻沒有!

在這個一切以經濟掛帥的地方, 歷史只好被邊沿化了

A good leader?

2011-10-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

With the death of Steve Jobs, people praise him highly to be an excellent innovator and leader.

On the text book, we believe that a good organization should not depend too much on a single person, and likewise, a good leader should not make his team so much dependent on him.

A good leader should be one who manage to motivate and enable the whole team, rather than to make everyone follow and even dependent on him.

Having said that, the most objective or even the most appreciated metrics for measuring a successful company is the revenue and the value of the company, and in that case, it seems like Steve Jobs was violating the above principle, but yet he and his company managed to earn.

So what's the problem?

甚麼是氣質?

2011-10-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

人們常說氣質, 但到底氣質是甚麼呢?

中國人說各花入各眼, 情人眼裡出西施, 或外語說 "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", 無非都是說明美麗其實很難定義, 但另一方面, 對於美麗的東西, 人們大概都有相當共識, 所以許多年前, 我這樣總結:

美麗沒有定義,但卻有共識 :-)

那麼氣質又是甚麼呢? 通常給人形容為有氣質的人都不會太過美麗, 起碼總不是那些所有人都有共識的美麗, 對嗎?

我想, 氣質就是內在生命的湧流...

i.e. the outward flow (or overflow) of inward quality.

Ouma Rusks 的故事

2011-10-09T19:02:00.000-07:00

工人姐姐搵倒一包過期食物, 竟然響包裝上面見倒一個簡單而美麗的見證....

話說當年大蕭條 (Great Depression), 有一班婦女聽完一個差傳聚會後, 教會每人分派了一丁點錢讓她們按自己的才幹, 把這些錢倍大, 結果她們按自己家族的方法, 製造出一些產品, 神祝福叫這東西大賣, 所賺得的錢就在經濟低迷的時候供應了宣教士的需要!

Pulling commodity from applications

2011-10-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to see that for the last five to ten years, people have been pulling computer applications from computer to make standalone products like VCD player, DVD player, mp3 player, etc. All these were very successful.

However, the trend seems to be reversed these days when smart-phones and tablets were getting popular. You will probably not use a standalone mp3 player, and you will probably not use a standalone DVD player, instead, you watch movies and you listen to music via your tablets there days.

While it could be nice if a single machine could do everything for you, however, it could even be better if things just get smaller. For example, even your tablet is powerful enough to play music but then you will still need a headphone/earphone! What if your headphone/earphone could play the music by itself? If it can, your tablet will not be necessary any more.

Content-wise, putting stuff in the cloud for centralized storage and manipulation should be the best.

CT-2 Artifacts in Hong Kong

2011-09-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

CT-1 is analog technology, only a handful of channels is supported, so it's very expensive. In Hong Kong, it was referred to as 水壼 or 大哥大.

後來有了 CT-2 技術，手機才開始普及。印像中有天地線和步步通等供應商。

因為這些網絡技術是用 cell 來通訊，倘若別人要打入的話，網絡供應商必需知道用戶在那一個 cell 然後才可以打得通，因此初期只支援打出，而不支援打入。用戶必需要同時使用傳呼機 (pager)，當別人傳呼你的時候，你再用 CT-2 電話來回覆。

這個當年破紀錄的長廣告就是展示了這個技術限制:

此外，最初技術亦不支援 hand-off，即你要停留在某一個 cell，才可以確保通訊不會中斷。我大學的時候，就看過不少處理 hand-off 技術的論文。

對於這些站著不能動的電話，今天我們仍能看見一些當年的通訊點還沒有被移除。另一個廣告就正好說明為甚麼供應商要以袋裝電話亭來宣傳產品，因為這是只能打出不能打入的技術，就好像電話亭一樣：

一直到了很後期，CT-2 總算能夠打入，但這也是 CT-2 技術消失的前奏。

通渠佬

2011-09-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

香港人一向慣用強酸來作通渠之用, 其實這頗為危險。

我試過有一次使用強酸來通渠, 結果水管因為熱力而彭脹, 最後還鬆脫了! 結果一定都是強酸和污水, 後來還要更換喉管呢！

後來我發現有一類產品, 使用後不會發熱, 也不怕損壞喉管:

它們有粉劑, 也有液態的, 方便不同的環境使用... 使用時, 它們也不會因為接觸到污水或淤塞物而淺出, 或是發出異味, 而且價錢還不貴！

Digitalizing your notes

2011-08-21T19:34:00.001-07:00

I've just finished a certain master's degree but that left me a huge stack of printed notes along with the personal notes that I've jot down during the classes.

Therefore, the best way is to scan them all and to keep them in your computer, index them properly so that I might read them again when required.

The scanning process is quite tedious even I've a scanner with auto-feeder. The problem comes when I'm scanning double-sided notes but the feeder jammed in the middle of the process. Anyhow, it's still way better than scanning one by one.

After scanning, I would keep those pages with one side blank and to send the double-page sheets to the recycler...

健康食物

2011-08-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

現代人喜愛健康食物, 因為覺得吃了健康... 此後, 人們就把食物分類, 有健康的, 也有所謂不健康的...

細心想一想, 其實食物本身沒有健康不健康的, 因為健康本來就是形容人, 而不是用來形容食物的!

因此, 只有健康的人, 和不健求的人...

對於健康的人, 一切食物都可以很健康!

但對於不健康的人, 才有所謂不健康的食物... 但對於這類人, 就算是健康食物也不能吃太多! 這樣, 不健康的人才是問題本身, 這個命題就變得更真實了!

以神為中心的靈修

2011-08-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

這個暑期我開始每晚都跟兩個女兒靈修，採用的是一本兒童聖經，但這只是素材，內容還是根據真實的聖經來講。

經過幾年神學反省，我認為認識神才是讀聖經的最終目的，其它如道德教訓等都是次要，除非聖經明言要我們學效，否則我們也不必從人物中找學習的功課。這就是我所指的以神用中心的讀經。

讓我先舉些例子：

1. 當讀到約瑟的生平時，我並沒有指出約瑟有甚麼好學習的地方。約瑟固然有可以學效的地方，但他的生命也不是沒有瑕疵的，如果要憑我們的喜好或理性去做選材，那麼我們就是把我們的喜好和理性放於聖經之上，我們總沒有權去這樣做！以神為中心來看，世界實在充滿罪惡，約瑟竟然被自己的哥哥出賣，忠心服事的約瑟也被人陷害，或被人遺忘，但神總不忘記人。約瑟晚年總結自己的一生，他肯定週遭的人或許心存惡意要害他，但神的意念卻是好的，他先去到埃及，就是要救活許多人。神的能力與安排總勝過人的罪惡！

2. 當讀到摩西生平時，我們就看到神的能力。出生時，神竟能把摩西藏在敵人的家中，不但生命得以保存，也有學習埃習知識的機會。年青時，摩西想仗自己的力量去救以色列民，就人來看，那時他確實滿有能力，但神卻不使用人的力量，唯獨等摩西老了才藉他施行拯救，好叫人只能把榮耀歸給神，人根本就都不濟事。

神在野地賜嗎哪，與主耶穌的五餅二魚一樣，叫人在野地裡得飽足。現代人謎信金錢，以為沒有錢就沒有東西吃；古代人謎信農業，以為要耕作才有得吃，但神卻能在野地裡叫人得飽足！天空的飛鳥也不種也不收，但神就供應他們。

到賜十誡的時候，我又叫女兒們有一幅更大圖畫。神應許亞伯拉罕要成為大國，那麼他們那時已經有許多人民，而且還向迦南地前進，可見神的工作從沒停止！要成為大國亦要有君王與律法，十誡就是這個的律法。

每天靈修後，女兒們無不驚歎神的作為，我們也學習藉信心一起過生活，願榮榮歸與神。

Re-evaluation

2011-08-17T01:43:00.001-07:00

The price of a certain item will not jump dramatically simply because people believe that it should worth a higher price.

It will jump only when people see it from an entirely new angle. Let say a certain company, after acquisition or re-organization, or having a new way of business, its true value should then be re-evaluated, and in that case, a huge price jump would then be expected.

Gold had lost its function as a form of reserve in the last twenty years so its price remained more or less constant. But recently with the economic down turn or better say re-shuffling, the function of USD was now in doubt and gold came out again so that it might regain its old position, by then it's value is being re-evaluated again!

Of course, such a re-evaluation process is hard to predict, and sometimes it will overshoot but then adjustments will follow. I expect the price of gold should keep moving in a generally upward trend for a number of years to come.

十誡

2011-08-17T01:39:00.000-07:00

誡命是守不了的, 但卻可以活出來

「所以凡有血氣的，沒有一個因行律法能在神面前稱義，因為律法本是叫人知罪。」 (羅 3:20)

因為罪從來並不單是外在的行為, 更是內在生命瑕疵的表現

若以有瑕疵的生命來守律法, 那自然是不可能的; 但倘若有了得釋放的生命, 我們就可以順著聖靈的帶領, 把誡命活出來

A hole in the heart

2011-07-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

許多人說: 人心裡有一個空洞, 別的東西填不滿, 只有神可以填滿...

早前聽過一個見證, 之後有這樣的一個延伸:

但神卻比這個洞更大, 大得要把所有其它東西都擠出來才成!

Price of Electronic Products

2011-06-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

My DVD writer had failed for over a year but I was not so interested to replace it since we used to use USB drive for file copying, it's just much faster, cheaper and more reliable and higher capacity as well.

Last night my kid wanted to read a CD from her school and so I checked the price of a new DVD writer, and to my big surprise, it's just $143 HKD!

At that price, I wonder why the factory would still produce it... you can always make a mouse which should be way easier, and then the cost is about the same!

Photography in a Crowdy City

2011-06-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Pretty long ago, I found that I love to use those high range zoom camera (my first DC has a zoom range of 10x). I don't really know the answer for that until maybe recently when I bought a fisheye.

In Hong Kong, fisheye lens is intrinsically hard to use. The problem is, it's so crowdy in terms of people, building and whatever, and it makes the composition very complicated if you use a wide lens.

In a highly complex (I mean non-organized) environment, you simply cannot find a view big enough for a fisheye. I guess taking portriat with a large background could be nice, but then the usage is still very limited.

Therefore, I wish that I will be able to get chance to shoot the night sky, and also for the coming trip to another country shortly. I guess I will want to sell it soon afterward.

Defishing

2011-06-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Recently I bought a 8mm f3.5 Korean fisheye lens. It built like tank and the focuser is extremely smooth like L-class lens. When you stop down to f8, you remove any need of focusing virtually.

One of the usages for fisheye lens is to work as an ultra-wide lens, however, we might want to remove the fisheye effect in certain situation. There is a simple way to do that, for example, in Photoshop, you may use the "transformation" function under the "edit" manual to do it.

This is the original:-

In less than one minute, you can fix the curve and then you may crop the edges:-

我是祢眼中的瞳人

2011-04-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

給自我形像低落的你, 也當然包括我自己:

我只有一個地方不怕看見自己 ---

那就是祢眼中的我...

我從我自己眼裡只看見自己的不足, 但從祢的眼裡, 我卻看到真正的自己, 那藏在基督裡的我真!

甚麼是藝術?

2011-04-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

甚麼是藝術? 這似乎沒有公認的定義...

這一刻...

我想...

藝術就是...

能叫人從心底裡與創作者 (或創造者) 產生共鳴的東西...

讓小孩子到我這裡來 (可 10:13-16)

2011-04-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

經文:

[13]有人帶著小孩子來見耶穌，要耶穌摸他們，門徒便責備那些人。
[14]耶穌看見就惱怒，對門徒說：「讓小孩子到我這裡來，不要禁止他們；因為在神國的，正是這樣的人。
[15]我實在告訴你們，凡要承受神國的，若不像小孩子，斷不能進去。」
[16]於是抱著小孩子，給他們按手，為他們祝福。

門徒責備那些人的原因:

1. 那些人要耶穌 "摸" 那些小孩子, 但那些小孩子顯然沒有任何病患
2. 地點: 屋子內 (見上文), 門徒正在屋企問耶穌問題 (屋子: Markan secrecy motif)
3. 氣氛: 馬可筆下的主耶穌都是非常忙碌的, "沒有事" 的人似乎不應該找耶穌, 祂有更重要的事情要處理

耶穌的反應:

1. 上述理由都看似合理, 但在耶穌心目中, 這些都不成理由
2. 因此, 我們要更新我們的觀念

耶穌是誰:

1. 耶穌把來見祂的人視為進天國的人!
2. 門徒或許以為耶穌是醫生 (cf. 摸), 是教師 (cf. 上文), 是先知 (broader context), 但其實耶穌就是神自己 (cf. 進神國), 沒有人不需要耶穌, 包括那些表面無病無痛的人

像小孩子:

1. 小孩子的語意範圍 (semantic range) 可以很廣闊
2. 參考下文, 那位來見耶穌的人, 他守律法, 又有財有勢, 但卻不能進天國
3. 因此, 小孩子應該被視為未懂律法 (未夠 13 歲的猶大人, 未行成年禮, 未能接受律法), 不能靠律法, 也不能倚靠錢財和今世事情的人, 他們凡事都只能領受

Raw and Simple, Realistic and Touching

2011-04-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

沒有英雄的世代

2011-04-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

這是一個沒有英雄的時代。

現代科技進步，資訊發達，人的缺點 (我堅信人世人都有罪) 總是藏不了，完美的英雄也因此而變成不可能。

神話式的故事就讓他們繼續神話，完美的人物好像天上的星星，看似實在，但卻對我們來說很虛幻，因為你總摸不著它們。真實的信仰應該能夠叫人摸得著，能夠帶我們穿過生命中的困難，也能越過生命中的軟弱。

練仙式的宗教信仰，高得比天還高，所以還是留待高人去修練吧。

因此，我只信那道成肉身，把高到比天還過的道理帶進人間，叫我可以摸得著，也叫我接納我的軟弱，叫我認真的面對那生命中的困難，一點不逃避，也毫不隱藏。

罪的實在，正好說明人對基督的需要，確實也是同樣實在。倘若神是愛，人有罪，我實在看不出有任何別的出路了。

Button Cell

2011-04-10T02:18:00.001-07:00

Here are some common size and their names:

1. LR44 = AG13
2. LR43 = AG12
3. LR626 = AG4 = SR626W

I wonder wonder why there're so many different names!

A minimalist approach

2011-04-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

A good software is not a software with all sorts of functions, instead, it should be trimmed down such that none of its function is excessive.

Similar philosophy could be applied to people, we shall not own anything that is excessive, we shall not do anything that is useless.

Bouncing fan like a flash!

2011-04-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

In flashed photography, in order to make the flash more natural, one will point the flash else where like the ceiling so that the light from the flash will be bounced from a bigger surface.

Similar technique could be used for an electric fan. Of course, it's not for photography, but you know, direct blowing is quite uncomfortable like direct flash. Therefore, you can point the fan some where else so that direct wind will be blowing to other direction but then the reflected wind which is more diffused and comfortable.

For most cases, a fan is good to keep the air moving around the room and that could be good enough for warm night.

Snapshots

2011-03-28T02:15:00.000-07:00

Just picked up my Canon 100-400mm to walk around, 地點: 花墟公園

This is a new one in my collection:-

These were really small, but after cropping it could be acceptable:-

Same as the one above, but wide open. It's more colorful inside!

長尾縫葉鶯...taken in the same place last time.

Allusion in Judges 18:20-29

2011-03-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

Judges 18:20 Taking away a teraphim
Judges 18:21 Depart with little ones, cattle and carriage before them
Judges 18:22 People chasing them
Judges 18:23 Asking why so many people chasing them
Judges 18:24 Being asked why they steal especially the teraphim
Judges 18:27-28 Kill all the people in a city

Genesis 31:19 Taking away a teraphim
Genesis 31:23 People chasing them
Genesis 31:26-30 Being asked why they steal especially the teraphim
Genesis 31:36-42 Asking why so many people chasing them
Genesis 32:16-22 Depart with little ones, cattle and carriage before them
Genesis 34:1-31 Kill all the people in a city

They were not placed in exact sequence, but a number of essential elements were in common. Certain rare keyword like הַתְּרָפִֽים can be found from both cases as well.

To explain such an allusion, I would say that the two stories at the end of Judges were indeed trying to conclude that Israelites were not doing well after they arrived Canaan. And in order to show that the specific problem of Dan is indeed general to the whole Israelites, the author was trying to allude the bad deeds of Dan back to their very ancestor Jacob. As a result, the specific issue of Dan was shown to be rooted from Jacob, this allusion serves to make specific example to general problem of the whole Israelites.

Taken during the partial solar eclipse

2011-03-10T04:30:00.001-08:00

Canon 100-400mm at 400mm wide open, handheld, corped, it's flying very high in the sky.

A small bird taken with an industrial camera

2011-03-10T04:29:00.001-08:00

Taken by my Tele Vue Ranger with a DMK 31AF03.

A few shots at the playground - 南昌公園

2011-03-10T04:28:00.003-08:00

Both taken with a Canon 200mm f2.8

Sparrows

2011-03-10T04:28:00.001-08:00

對面天台天線上, Canon 200mm f2.8L with Kenko 2x...

又多一種

2011-03-10T04:27:00.001-08:00

今日放 annual leave 響屋企, 女又訓左, 老婆又訓左, 自己一個人睇書睇到悶, 打開窗門睇下, 又見倒有之前未見過既 (should be 白頭鵯?):-

映左幾十張, 得呢張較為 sharp 少少

今日天陰, 200mm f2.8L + Kenko 2x, 有腳架都無用... crop 完再 resize 少少先可以似少少樣!

Birds from Hong Kong Science Park

2011-03-09T07:00:00.002-08:00

Canon 200mm f2.8L at prime focus:-

Canon 200mm f2.8L with Kenko 2x:-

Canon 200mm f2.8L with Kenko 2x:-

打開窗口就有

2011-03-09T07:00:00.001-08:00

EV+2 都唔掂, 個天太白, 或者好天映會好 D, 又或者手動... Canon 200mm f2.8L with Kenko 2x:-

Pigeon

2011-03-09T06:42:00.001-08:00

我諗其實佢地有人養? 因為都見幾多... 用 C5 at f/6.3, Unistar Lighter mount, 都算好用, 當然無人地 D 貴價千秋架咁好, 但勝在一物二用:-

Testing my Orion 100mm f/9

2011-03-09T06:36:00.000-08:00

It's taken with a 900mm lens (telescope)! This is a 100% crop and then resized a little bit to hide the noise.

Jesus Blesses the Children (Mark 10:13-16)

2011-03-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

In the Commentary on Mark from Baker, Robert Stein comments in p. 461 that this passage does not fit particularly well for the "house" of 10:10, however, after thinking for some time, I would say that it's could be a good fit.

The disciples were not happy when some people brought children to Jesus. The "house" in Mark is usually a place where Jesus would reveal secret to His disciples. By bringing the children to the "house", that means the people were not just bringing the kids to Jesus, but to join their inner circle, or even to share their secret! This is, of course, not something that the disciples could easily accept and that might explain why the disciples were not happy about that.

落湯雞

2011-03-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

對面樓天台, 舊式工廠, 有 D 地方會落大雨後積水數小時, 亦長有好多花草, 好多 bird bird 會黎玩, 飲水, 甚至沖涼... Canon 200mm f2.8L with Kenko 2x:

長尾縫葉鶯

2011-03-09T06:24:00.000-08:00

花墟公園, Canon 450D + Canon 100-400mm @ 400mm.

Decoupling of price and value

2010-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

In these days, the price is determined solely by demand and supply, and therefore, there's a decoupling of price and value.

For example, when you eat a lunch box, the foam box was very cheap because of the law of supply and demand. However, the environment cost of the foam box is extremely big, it takes hundreds of years to decompose. And the processing of rubbish is expensive as well.

Such a phenomena is best exploited in the stock market, in which you can drive the price away from the value given you have enough money in the first place. And then after distorting the price, you can "create" value in this process. Of course, those were not really "value" since there's no production afterall.

Replacing the keyboard of my Asus Eee 1005HA

2010-09-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

A few keys were found to be not responsing just 7 days after the expiry of the warranty. Called their service center and they said that they will charge me $300 HKD for inspection, and the cost for replacing a keyboard would be like $4xx HKD! It sounds crazy since this Eee costs me only $24xx one year ago.

Therefore, I went to ebay to buy a replacement keyboard and replace it myself. I ordered one last Friday and I got it now, and it's around $200 HKD shipped.

To remove the old keyboard, you need to loosen the clips under the battery.

After the above step, you can life up the keyboard with ease, no force required:

Remove the keyboard from its connector, put in the new one, and done!
Every keys work now!

Great tool for USB bootable Linux

2010-08-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Simple and yet powerful, it helps you to put a Linux distribution that you like on a USB thumbdrive. This is good for system recovery, emergency bootup, etc.

Highly recommended.

It's great for these days when USB thumbdrives are cheap and highly portable, a handy boot disk shall be great. It won't occupy much space as well.

Amazon and foreign currency

2010-07-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

I just realized that Amazon offered to pay in HKD (or your native currency) instead of USD, this seems to be very convenient at the first glance, but the evil is in the detail.

Yes, they will charge you HKD (or your native currency) and you will know the exact amount that you will have to pay very clearly. However, if you do a simple exercise with a calculator, you will immediately know that it's not going to be a good deal. I suggest you to try it out yourself.

I would advise you to use USD for the payment, and your credit card will do the conversion for you. The exchange rate of bank is far more reasonable in my experience.

Paypal currency switching

2010-07-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

I've some paypal balance in USD. Transfering it to the local bank would not incur a charge but the exchange rate is pretty bad. Therefore, it makes more sense to use it to buy something else.

Today, I tried to buy something in GBP, however, paypal would not allow me to use my paypal balance in USD. After some google work, I realize that if the amount to be paid is more than your balance would allow, it will not let you use the balance but instead, it will charge completely by the credit card!

To solve this problem, I asked the vendor to separate the paypal request into two parts. The first part is less than my paypal balance, so that paypal would allow me to use my existing balance. And the second part is to use credit card.

Quite simple, but of course, since there's a currency switching, I expect poor exchange rate again.

Great freeware video tools

2010-07-13T01:39:00.000-07:00

If you want to do one of the followings, you might want to have a look on a freeware tool.

Download video from youtube
Insert video clip in your PowerPoint slide
Convert videos from one format to another
Simple video manipulations
and more!

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

It allows you to do the above easily, and for inserting a video clip in PowerPoint slide, it helps by converting your existing clip to wmv, which I found is the best for PowerPoint purpose.

Broadband via Mobile Phone Network

2010-06-08T03:18:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I found that my Internet connection failed. After many different investigation, it was found that the cable was broken by the renovation work down stair. After millions of negotiation, the broadband provider agreed to lay the cable for me again but we had a very hard time to do that on the original trunking. After that, my internet connection becomes very unstable all the time.

Finally, I decided to switch to a wireless based solution. It provides broadband services via 3G mobile phone network, and it also provides conventional home telephone service as well. What they provided is a wireless gateway, which sits in the middle of the 3G network, and on the other hand, to provide internet services via LAN or Wi Fi.

The good thing about this technology is that, you don't have to lay any cable. There're virtually "nothing" to fix in case of network failure, except that small wireless gateway. The speed of the internet might vary over the day, it could go really fast like my last ISP (based on Cable TV network), or quite slow... but it's still fast enough for youtube, etc.

For me, stability is more important than speed. And I found it hard when the network had problem, you have to stay at home, to wait for the technician to come and fix the whole thing for you, and that requires a lot of waiting and negotiation. Troublesome enough for me.

I guess that I will stay with this kind of service. And another good thing about this service is that, you can move your house without re-apply another service. Mobile phone network can reach any places virtually these days, so it sets the internet and your home phone free.

DIY Macro Filter

2010-05-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

I've a 70mm f=500mm (astronomical grade) objective sitting idle from a finished experiment, so I was always thinking how could I use it in the best way.

When I heard that a macro filter is just an optical lens to bring the focus point closer, I begin to think that it might be just a converging lens! For example, if you have a 500mm focal length lens, if your subject is at 500mm from this objective, parallel ray will go out from the other side of the lens. Yes, parallel ray, that means, if your camera lens will focus at infinity, it will accept parallel ray! In that case, if my lens would focus as close as 1 meter, if I add this f=500mm lens in front of it, it will focus as close as, at least, 500mm now.

To do that, I will only need to buy a suitable threaded ring and stick it in the lens cell like the following:

So now I can put it on and take it off easily, and the result:

Not bad, right?

Network Convergence

2010-05-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

We have the following networks:

1. telephone (fax)
2. television
3. internet
4. mobile phone

Telephone Company: ADSL is to use the telephone network for internet connection, and to go a step further, video on demand can be made to work with ADSL. In that sense, the telephone network is now to provide TV, internet as well.

Cable TV: Cable modem is to use the cable TV network for internet connection, and voice over IP can be made to put telephone services on the same network. In that sense, the cable TV network is now to provide TV, telephone and Internet.

Mobile Network: Recently, I've subscribed a service which is based on mobile phone network to provide internet access, as well as conventional telephone service. It's not very fast, but then I believe it's fast enough for most people. Of course, it can support video on demand as well.

Who will win finally in the war of network convergence? Personally, I think Internet will rule in the form of optical fibre services provider since it's fastest and thus it can provide all sorts of services nicely, and the second candidate should be the mobile phone network, since nothing else could replace it.

Replacing the tap of the bathtub

2010-05-21T04:51:00.000-07:00

It was found broken earlier today... it's a public holiday today but thank God, I managed to find a shop to buy a replacement, so the question is, how to replace it?

I did measure that the distance between the two water pipes (hot and cold) are around 6 inches. So I went to the shop and asked, whether it's standard or not, the answer is positive. But then you know what, you can hardly be exact especially when the water pipes are coming from inside the wall! So, how to accomodate the difference?

The key lies in the following picture:

Yes, you can rotate it along with the threaded pipe from inside the wall, so the difference can be accomodated.

新輝眼鏡

2010-05-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, I dropped my eye-glasses and it broke into two pieces... So, I did a google on a simple phrase "邊度配眼鏡好" and I come up with this:

http://www.newfei.com.hk/

It is so close to my home and it's relatively cheap, so I went. The service is good, I would say. No sales will come to you, and so you've a lot of time to choose from a extensive collection of glases. They price range is big so that you can find something really cheap to some really famous brand.

Once you're ready, you can go for eye checking and they will measure by machine first and then you will be served by a professional optician.

The best thing about this shop is that, they can have your new pair of glases ready in half an hour!

Love and Imperfection

2010-04-25T21:45:00.001-07:00

I love my wife since she's imperfect, otherwise, she does not need my love.

Explanation:

I believe spouses are complimentary, we are made to help each others. We are all imperfect, and we shall love the good and the bad of our spouse. An immediately implication is that, I should love the imperfection of our spouse. And to go a step further, the imperfection is also why we would love our spouse.

Function of CPL filter

2010-04-15T06:28:00.001-07:00

Picture of my new CPL filter from DealExtreme, it's 58mm threaded, so it can fit my kit lens and also my 100mm f2.0, some people might think that the kit has a rotating front element so that a CPL filter could be hard to use, however, I found that this filter is nicely designed. As you can see from the picture, the threaded part and the filter part can be rotated, and therefore, after auto-focusing, you can adjust the CPL.

Two pictures said it all, first picture without CPL, you can see the contrast suffered a lot by the reflection:-

And then I installed the CPL, autofocused, and then adjusted the CPL angle to minimize the reflection, here we go:

Sounds a great little filter to bring around, computer processing cannot replace its function.

Backup strategy

2010-04-09T19:55:00.001-07:00

Optical media might not be as reliable as we thought, conventional hard drive seems the best.

With the growing data size from digital camera, video recording and digital music, we are facing tremendeous need on storage. Upgrading hard drive could solve the problem of storage, but how to solve the problem on backup?

Buying a big external storage could be a proper backup solution, but just like the problem of storage, the problem of backup is just growing as quickly. Right now my strategy is to use older hard drive as backup, what I'm doing is that:

1. Clean up older hard driver, so that no more software would be there, the space would be used solely for data

2. Copy all the data there, e.g: photograph, music, video, etc.

3. Disconnect all the power and cables, this could elongate their life

And afterward, we will need to update the data periodically so that the backup is closer than the real data.

This will work, for example in my case, my last hard drive is a 170G one and the new one is 350G. Give the existing one is about to fill up (only around 30-40G of free space), I will go for a bigger one.

But then the older two will be enough just for backup purpose. The chain goes on, and only the biggest two would be required for backup, and the smallest ones could be thrown away, or for backup even more important data which does not require any further updates.

歲月神偷

2010-03-29T01:53:00.000-07:00

無情的颱風, 貪污的警察, 都要拆毀他們的家...

小女孩刻意扮成不懂得熱帶魚, 對比著小男孩隨口的說說...

夫妻的緊握的一雙手, 一隻沒有介指, 另一隻卻仍舊...

深水埔的窮家子, 太平山上的富家女...

田徑場上白飯魚與跑鞋...

努的上進的哥哥, 挑皮的小弟弟...

可惡的醫護, 病床上的伯伯鄰居...

Replacement parts for really old PC

2010-03-14T04:34:00.001-07:00

I upgraded my PC owing to the failure of the display card, it's hard to get replacement by then or else I won't shell out the money for upgrade. Recently, I found these in dealextreme, not bad after all:

AGP:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.34467

And even PCI:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.34468

Potatoe chips (wet)

2010-03-03T02:15:00.001-08:00

Maybe several hours after openning, they will get soft and the crisp feeling will be gone. There's a very simple trick to fix that.

Put it inside your micro-wave oven, give it 10-20 seconds and yeah.

Simple and fast.

Indicator of good vegetables

2010-01-27T02:04:00.000-08:00

At least not much insecticides, chemicals, etc.

20100115 Partial Solar Eclipse

2010-01-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

First contact video in H-alpha:

Ugly profit driven business model?

2010-01-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

I have been using a certain brand of product for quite long. They're very good in quality and the price is reasonable. It has been getting more popular over the years, and they even got listed in the local exchange.

Recently, there's a noticeably drop on the quality, I wonder why. I imagine the situation could be like this?

1. Start a new brand, offering great quality product at reasonable price, let say they can sell 10,000 every month. So, imagine if they cut cost of $0.1 for each item, they can only save 10,000*0.1 = $1000 only, not worth to do at all!

2. They have a bigger market share, now they can sell 1,000,000 every month and since they are more popular now, they have more control on the price, they have more bargaining power, so they can always increase the price a little bit without problem. Let say by $0.1 for each item, they can earn 1,000,000 * 0.1 = $100,000 more each month.

3. Now, they are one of the major players, they can sell 100M every month, they can virtually control the price until the consumer cannot afford, and they are now ready to reduce the quality, let say $0.1 for each item, they can earn 10M more each month.

Is that what is happening all these years? I wonder.

Knowing your limitation

2009-12-14T18:15:00.001-08:00

Whether you believe or not, we do have our own limitations. However, I should first clarify that these limitations are not hard limits, they are soft in the sense that they can be stretched by continual effort. But anyhow, we could not stretch too much.

With that in mind, we will be far more relaxed in our life. We all want the best, but in the practical situation, whether it is possible or not, we need to think.

Limitation is somehow good for limited beings. We have more than one role in our life, but then if you always want to strike for the best, you are going to give up something else! Guess what, the first one who is going to suffer is usually the ones who are so close to you, like your significant half or your family members. Remember, life is not for task but it's the reverse! Relationship could be built, but once it was damaged, you need far more effort to rebuild it (with a scar).

Spending time with family while playing on your own

2009-12-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

A camera is a nice bridge to do both at the same time. This afternoon, I went to pick up my daughter from her school. Then, I brought her to the playground and play, and I tried to take a few snapshots myself.

Taken with a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L.

Focusing speed

2009-11-29T04:44:00.000-08:00

I've two zoom lens: a Canon EF-S 18-55 f3.5-5.6 IS kit lens and a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS, and three prime lenses: Canon 50mm f1.8 II, Canon 100mm f2.0 and Canon 200mm f2.8L.

Interesting enough is that, both zoom lenses have IS. I found IS pretty useful when the ambient light is weak, for examples, for all indoor settings, or when the aperture is small. All my prime lenses have relatively big aperture and thus, even without IS, they work pretty good.

When we talk about focusing speed, IS couldn't help. In dimmer light, those prime lenses are really fast and accurate. And being prime, they are intrinsically faster in terms of focusing, and with the added aperture, they truely shine. Actually, IS could slow down the focusing process, since the focusing will not be done until after the stablizer works. So, in case you want faster focusing, switching off the IS mechanism will help.

I always think that prime lenses are better for creativity, but of course, the zoom are unbeatable for convenience.

The Beauty of Pencil

2009-11-09T00:43:00.000-08:00

We used to use pencil when we're in primary school. And then when we grow up, we are somehow taught to use ball pens instead. And then habbit carries on.

Recently, I'm learning a new language and I've to erase and correct quite often, and therefore, I begin to re-discover the beauty of pencil! It's just easy to use, way easier to correct than ball pen. Nowadays when correction tape are fast and clean when compared to correction fluid, but then nothing work better than faster than a eraser.

Maybe that's my elder daughter who is using pencil these days, otherwise, I might forget about pencil entirely.

It makes me think of one thing. When people are going to the space, regular ball pens no longer work with the absence of gravity. Some clever guys enhance the ball pens with some electronic parts and pumps so that the ink will continue to flow in space without gravity. Guess what, some even smarter guys proposed that we can use pencil in this case!

Simple and elegant, simply unbeatable!

Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L for close up work

2009-11-06T05:50:00.001-08:00

It's not bad a lens for this purpose, this is not a macro lens, but it's serving its purpose pretty well if you're not very serious about macro imaging. This lens is truely versatile. I found push-pull zoom extremely handy and it's faster than any zoom ring can provide.

Remember, this is the first time that I tried to use this lens for close up work, and therefore, with more practice, it's going to be even better!

LED Light Bulb (E27)

2009-10-23T22:17:00.001-07:00

I got two of them from ebay recently at around $30 HKD each, the price is nice and the brightness is acceptable for soft illumination, the problem is that the light is closer to blue than white. The standard E27 interface worked out great.

Again, if you want them for soft illumination, the blue color is going to work.

I would say that cheap LED illumination technology is not yet ready. I wonder why, because it works pretty good for flashlight, and in that case, they're bright and truely energy saving.

I shall wait for another six months and longer to buy another small batch.

Refilling ink

2009-10-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

Just successfully refilled the ink cartridge of my printer, the cost different is a kind of crazy, more than 60:1!!!

The ink was purchased online from DealExtreme, now one of my favorite shopping place, and I will always check the price there before heading outside, it's usually cheaper and better yet, it features site-wide free shipping.

There is no trick in re-filling ink, and the instruction inside the package is more than enough. I failed for the first time simply because that ink cartridge was broken originally, the print head was leaking, maybe it's too old or maybe I've handled it improperly before.

I've ordered a re-fill set for the color one as well, will do it later, but it seems the method is a bit different.

The old fashion way about downloading

2009-10-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

Last night a friend of mine asked me to have a look on their internet connection, I did a ping and it works, and apparently, it was the browser which failed. Therefore, I proceeded to try Firefox, however, it was broken as well. So, how can I download another browser for them?

Yes, the answer is the old fashion ftp which is available even for command line!

Among all the browsers which I tried, only Firefox and also Mozilla still got ftp site which easy-to-guess name, i.e. ftp.mozilla.org

On (cleanly) removing the old Firefox and reinstall the new one which I just fetched from the ftp, it does not work still. So, I tried to install mozilla, and it works!

Afterward, I have also downloaded the google browser for them, just as a backup. But then it requires another browser first and in that case, it's mozilla.

As a summary, old fashion technology still has its place, especially when the new fancy stuff failed badly.

Source of noise from PC speaker

2009-08-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Some people reported that their on-board AC97 had noise, and I found a similar situation on my new PC. When you move your mouse, or when the hard drive begins to spin, you can hear the subtle noise, especially at night when the environment is relatively quiet. Therefore, I proceed to buy an external USB sound card in the hope to fix the problem.

However, the problem persists.

Then I know why, my speakers are drawing power from the USB port of the motherboard, and those were the real source of the noise. I tried to power the speaker from some other sources and the noise was gone!

Royal View Hotel

2009-08-13T02:57:00.001-07:00

http://www.royalview.com.hk/chi/index.html

We just had a short local holiday there. In short, when you got only two days of holiday and you don't want to travel far away, finding a good local hotel might be a good option.

Near this hotel we have a beach, the water was no good in quality but if you're parents and you will know that all the kids wanted would be a beach so that they can play around the sand, digging here or there and building sand castle, etc. Therefore, there's no problem for the relatively bad water. Anyway, people still swim there but it's not recommended.

The food is nice, the restaurant was a small one but the variety and the quality of food is superb, they keep re-filling and changing food all night, even during the last half-an-hour. The price is cheaper than outside given similar quality, it is especially true if you go for their promotional packages during holidays.

The guest rooms are big in the standard of Hong Kong, and the view outside is unique and good. The swimming pool is nice and clean, with some toys so that your kids would enjoy. Finally, there are two playing rooms for the kids where you can find video games, indoor playing equipments, chess, boardgames, etc.

It's just wonderful to stay there for one night, simple and relaxing.

Stepmania and Economical Dancing Pad

2009-08-13T02:56:00.000-07:00

In short, my kids (4 years old and 7 years old girls) enjoy it very much and it's just inexpensive and fun.

The USB dancing pad:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4234

The software:

http://www.stepmania.com/

Zero complain, and actually, I've something similar many years ago but it was a parallel port version and the quality was just far worse. This one is USB (no driver required) and it is much better designed. Highly recommended for your kids.

Using the last drop of ink

2009-08-07T00:00:00.001-07:00

I found that my inkjet printer was running of out black ink, there were nothing shown on the last few pages which I have printed, just a trace of black hint here and there, but it's definitely unreadable.

Last night, I pulled out the ink cartridge and clean the printing head with a tissue, after cleaning the mess, I inserted the cartridge again. And strange enough, the print out now is very good, and there's no trace of low ink as viewed from the printout. I don't know why, but it works. I believe this trick might be useful to squeeze the last bit of expensive ink from those original ink cartridge.

Identifying "new" version of Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM

2009-07-17T03:17:00.001-07:00

There is no new version officially, but people noticed rather significant improvement for this lens recently. Basically, you will want one which has a date code later than UV04xx and better yet UV06xx. And there is also another more subtle signature of the newer version:

As you can see, older version of this lens has "0" and "1" as the label for the stablizer, and the new version has "on" and "off". However, given the above two signs for new version, the date code is more consistent and more reliable.

Someone suggested that the so-called new version is just tighter quality control, and actually, older version can perform as great as this so-called newer version, provided that you are lucky enough to get a good copy.

The major improvement of the new version is that, it works nearly as great (someone suggested at least 90%) as a Canon 400mm f5.6L at its 400mm end!

Inside a MP3 player

2009-07-16T21:20:00.001-07:00

I broke another stuff again, this time is an MP3 player:

Canon 450D video

2009-07-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

There is no need to modify the camera, and I believe the principle behind this software is just to encode and write the live view stream to the hard drive. Since the camera does not have any audio input device, sound would be lacking. And for the camera will need to rely on the computer for the video capturing work, it would be nice if this software could be enhanced to take the audio stream from the computer.

This is just a testing video to see the effect of depth of field by using a cheap but fast camera lens. With that in mind, one should not say DV is superior for video capturing. And I always believe that most people would do video capturing in form of short video clips rather than continuous recording for very long.

Migration to OpenOffice.org

2009-07-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

The migration work could be hard if you are actively exchanging your documents with other parties, however, there are some work in which you do not have to share with other people. Those work were the best candidate to get the migration started.

As a personal user, your personal documents would be the great starting point. For example, if you are a (full time or part time) student, you can start with your homework. Most teachers would not love DOC format for they could generate shifting here and there due to different versions of the software. PDF should be much better in this case, and OpenOffice.org could provide PDF without problem.

Switching users in Windows XP

2009-06-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

I am never an expert or even a power user for Windows, but here's a handy tips which might be useful to others and myself (in the future). The situation is like this, when we found that we cannot switch between users, check this:

services.msc

And find out fast switching service, turn it on, and better yet, also make it start automatically so that it will work afterward, quick and simple.

Semantic shift in the macro world

2009-06-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is a corner of my mobile phone screen. It's a white closing bracket ")" but in the macro world, it changes to something like a mouth shape in rainbow colors. The meaning of things could have dramatic shift in different point of view, and even different level of scale!

Life could be similar. Within yourself, there could be some meaning, within your family, you have another role, and in your society, your country, you got entirely different position, in the cosmic scale, we might lost our entire meaning as a human being who occupies negligible space over a blink of time.

Inside a SD card

2009-06-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

I've a faulty SD card, so why not pull it open to have a look?

I guess the smaller chip is a controller and the bigger chip contains the memory cell.

Too many solid state memory?

2009-06-16T00:41:00.001-07:00

I counted today, and I have the following:

1. 1 piece of 1G and 1 piece of 4G MiniSD inside my mobile phone

2. 2 pieces of 2G SD for my DC

3. 1 piece of 8G SD for my DSLR

4. 1 piece of 512M SD for my DSLR, but now only used for photo-development outside, another piece of 512M SD died

5. 2G thumbdrive

And inside my new PC, I have 4G memory but then only 3G is useable by Windows XP, and fortunately, I'm also a Linux user :-)

Over 20G!

好! 但不要叫我來做...

2009-06-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

近日香港正生書院打算遷入梅窩，但這卻引來當地居民強烈不滿。

在於梅窩居民來說，這似乎不難理解。但在於普通市民來看，這似乎又太不近人情。這實在有點奇怪，但這卻又是一個正常不過的現像！有些大家看來都很好的事情，基本上要執行，每一個人都會贊成，但其實背後卻有一個重要的假設，那就是不要在我家附近！

若我們把這個現像推遠一點，我們就發現其實這個簡單的模型確實能解釋很多事情：

1. 捐錢幫助窮人實在是一件好事，但請不要叫我每月都捐出我收入的一個部份，別人要是這樣做我會很讚賞，但我就不會了

2. 捨身救人的好人：某某警察或消防員很偉大，但我的兒子最好不要當那些職業，要當也要以自己安全為首要啊！

3. 接納精神病人仕：那當然是一件好事，但請不要叫我參與

似乎這個 NIMBY 現像就是人自私的具體表現吧！但請不要怪別人，因為只要我們回頭想想，其實我們也是一樣的！

My arm in infrared

2009-06-08T20:57:00.001-07:00

I bought a 6mm f/1.2 Cosmicar TV lens for night sky monitoring sometimes ago, and it comes with a BW infrared pass filter. Today, I pulled it out to see what it will show. This is a shot of my arm:

My blood vessels are very much visible, but it's just very subtle to my eyes. I don't know the exact bandpass of that filter.

香港議會的 "出氣" 文化

2009-06-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

有人話香港議會好唔 productive, 鍾意搞對抗...

我覺得原因好簡單，皆因民選議員在議會只有 "發聲" 的權利，但因為人數不足，卻沒有足夠的影響力！在不能求實際的時候，就只能 "發聲"，並替選民 "出一口氣"

所以呢類能夠幫市民 "出氣" 既議員有相當市場... 你話佢粗口咩? 呢個正係佢可以幫人 "出氣" 既賣點........

如果他朝有日有全數直選, 相信呢種文化會慢慢消失?

南昌公園

2009-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

南昌公園是一個跑步的好地方!

我很久沒有運動, 昨天晚上回家的時候, 剛好碰到鄰居, 見他滿身是汗又面紅紅的, 就問他是否跑步回來, 他回答是, 我又問他到哪兒跑...

就是這樣, 今天晚上我就等女兒們睡了, 我就出去跑一會。這公園很開揚, 就是晚上十時多也有不少人在跑步和散步, 治安應該沒有問題的。

後記：一連十數天，我每隔天都去跑，有時九時多，有時十一時許，但那裡的人仍然不少，各年紀的人也有，好不熱鬧。這公園離我家只有十分鐘路程，正好給我一個做運動的好去處。

聽說那裡一圈有近 800 米左右，中間全是草地，兩旁種滿了樹，公園中央頗開揚，天朗氣清時可以看到不少星星（以香港的尺度來說），晚飯後散步也可不錯。

再後記：我在 Google Earth 那裡量二次，應該只有 550 米左右。

Extending the life of my notebook with a KISS

2009-05-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

My notebook is aging, and it's getting slower due to the upgrade of the software and the operating system (OS). I didn't change the OS but you know, you're somehow forced to upgrade it with those service pack, etc. And you will be installing some more supporting software along time, like video codec, different document viewer, application platforms, etc.

So in order to extend the life of my notebook, I tried to uninstall most of the softwares such that only the very core applications remain. I especially remove those which will be lauched upon system bootup.

On the other hand, I have narrow down the purpose to Internet browsing, word processing and a couple of astronomy related software. Therefore, much of disk space could be free up for other purpose.

In short, Keep It Simple and Stupid.

Subtle movement of plant

2009-04-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

I found that this little plant will have its "solar panels" extended flat when in the afternoon and it will retract at night:

Harvesting solar energy:

Energy saving mode:

Installation of a shelf on the wall

2009-04-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

This kind of shelf could be a little bit tricky to install.

There are four holes at the back, and they will give your four screws to fix it on the wall via those holes. You will need to keep the screws well aligned and leveled for proper installation. Failing to do this properly could be quite dangerous since the weight would not be distributed evenly among the four anchor screws at the back. However, if properly installed, those screws could be surprisingly strong that they can hold heavy stuff likes books.

Therefore, the key lies in proper alignment of the screws at the back.

First of all, you won't be able make perfect alignment in one shot. However, it's not impossible if you do that progressively. Good measurements and marking are necessary but those were not enough. To begin with your initial measurement and markings, I recommend you to use small nails first. When those small nails are placed, you can try putting the shelf there (while holding them with your hands), to see if it's a good fit. It should be quite good, but from that point, you can do small adjustments when the bigger holes were drilled for the final screws.

This is my first time doing this, and it's about perfect. Of course, if this is your first time too, check carefully if the screws are all installed properly. Check if all the screws are engaged in holding the shelf, re-do the whole thing even if one of them is not supporting the shelf. Last but not least, put only lighter stuff there, in my case, my collection of CDs and they won't add much weight to the whole thing.

Cleaning tap filter

2009-04-13T23:19:00.001-07:00

If you found that the water is running slower than before, it's time for you to clean the filter inside your tape. Normally, you can remove that filter assembly and have it shaked and cleaned. However, it will become less efficient over time, because more sand/small stones are stucked inside the filter. You need to diassembly the whole thing to remove the dirty stuff.

Don't worry, it's simple.

A small screw drive will help:-

After cleaning:

Problem with Software Updates

2009-04-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

Software updates seem to be a great feature, and yes, it should be. However, if you have a computer that won't be booted up frequently, you run into big trouble.

For example, I'm not a frequent notebook user. My notebook is sitting idle for most of its life in my shelf. When I need to go out with it, I will bring it along, and it won't happen more than once every few months. I guess that you already know what I mean. When I need to use it, I will boot it up, after the booting process, the antivirus software checks for update, the operating system checks for update, etc.

The updates are usually large both in terms of size and number! Since I'm essentially doing all those updates gathered a few months at all once! Guess what, it renders my notebook essentially useless for over tens minutes at least! This is just to download and apply those updates!

So, be sure to pull out your notebook once every week in order to keep it updated, otherwise, when you need to use it, you can't until after all those updates!

Fixing my Sony Vaio U3

2009-03-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

Plastic either gets harden (and then crack), or soften (and then break) over time. There is no exception to the "mouse button" of my Sony Vaio U3.

To fix it, I have replaced it with a soft pad which is of similar size, the motion is now perfect.

--

I always wanted to expand the capacity of my Sony U3, and a memory stick seems a good option. However, after some research, I found that the memory stick slot supports only the original plain old memory stick up to 128M only, so it makes no sense to buy a 4G one for it.

WD40, Thermal Paste and CPU Fans

2009-03-13T21:26:00.001-07:00

Computer is dust sucking machine! If you ever open the system case, you will agree with me.

Dust is the number one killer for fans, and there are usually many fans inside the system case. As time goes by, the fans will die. A natural solution (or workaround) is to spray WD40 there.

However, be warned if you do this with your CPU fan. WD40 is excellent to fix those fans, especially to solve those dust issues, however, it is also a great dissolver! A great dissolver to the thermal paste beteen your heat sink and your CPU! Once those thermal paste was dissolved, the function of the heat sink will become very weak, so the temperature will increase quickly.

Therefore, remember not to apply WD40 to your CPU fan, or even anywhere near the CPU.

Interesting Crystals

2009-03-12T20:23:00.001-07:00

Guess what are they.

They're crystals, they're crystals of soy sauce! Before the birth of my kids, we didn't cook too often, and many strange things happened. Among them, one of them is to let all the liquids dried by themselves.

So the above is one of those interesting remains.

Cable modem and Signal Splitter

2009-02-19T19:22:00.001-08:00

One day I found that my internet connection is having problem. What is so hard under this situation is that, I cannot even find the customer server phone number! I've to dig through the pile of documents to find out that number.

The guy came, and after checking, he said that the signal was too strong. He added a signal splitter there and everything go fine afterward. Interesting.

Until after several months afterward, it happens again! This time for the same reason, so that guy added another signal splitter there. The first one was a 1-2 splitter, and the second one is a 1-3 splitter, so I'm effectively using 1/6 of the original signal as I did in the first day!

That guy is helpful, he even explain to me why. Since the analog signal was too strong that it saturates, and that's why signal splitters work.

Doulton Water Filter System

2009-02-16T01:13:00.000-08:00

This is a great piece of stuff.

First of all, the installation is simple, no tool or any special skill required. It's also reversible at any time.

Best of all, it is very effective. You only have to clean the filter once around a month, if you are not cooking actively. And everytime you clean the filter, you will feel lucky that you have it. The ugly brown stuff deposit there ended up in the filter but not inside the body of your family members.

This is the filter before using:-

After several weeks, you see those brown stuff... they're the rust gathered from the pipe from the reservior to your home:

The reason is that, from the reservior to your home, there is a very long pipe. Part of it is even out of your control. You simply cannot change it. And if your building is not under good management, the water tank could be dirty as well. So this kind of filter actually helps.

There will be a switch near the tap. You will want to use the filter only when you will use the water for cooking, and for drinking. You won't need to use it for washing, and you cannot use it for hot water, for it will damage the filter.

You will need to replace the filter once it got weared up. Everytime you clean it, it will get slightly smaller, and how fast you used one up depend on how actively you use it.

Highly recommended.

Express Hair Cut

2009-02-12T21:08:00.001-08:00

Just back after having a very fast hair cut.

Finger nails and hair just keep growing non-stop. You need to have them cut. For finger nails, they're easier for most people since you could cut them by yourself. However for hair, you can hardly cut for yourself.

If you were just like me, who simply wanted to get the job done, i.e. clean and tidy, EC House could be a quick and simple (also cheap) solution to you:

http://www.ec-house.com.hk/

I have been using their services for more than one year, and it's just quick and simple. I feel satisfied as well. At the first few visits, when they're still new to the market, I see only men inside. But right now, I could see students, ladies of all ages, children customers inside. That means they should be able to fulfill your hair cut needs if you are not specially care about the style, etc. Don't get me wrong, everything will be elegant and tidy, they just won't do anything fancy.

For $50 HKD, and within 10 minutes, it's just fantastic.

While I was having the hair cut just a few minutes ago, I found it's one of the things which adsense could easily help you to pay fully even my blogs are not even popular with only a few clicks per month.

Body check

2009-01-18T14:51:00.001-08:00

Body check is something for urban populations.

Urban life is just unhealthy by its nature. We eat unbalanced meals, we stay indoor for most of the time and sitting, we did very little physical exercise unless you are strongly determined to do more.

While we can eat whatever that we wanted, that means nutrition is non-issue except having too much. So, there's nothing that can go wrong if we properly control ourselves.

Therefore, the only conclusion from a body check is to:

1. do more physical exercise consistently and persistently
2. eat less unhealthy food, eat more healthy food
3. or it's already too late! ;-)

So act now!