多多冷氣也不夠！
2011-12-09
2011-11-17
Shared Stapled Units of HKT
PCCW is now launching IPO of the HKT Trust (Stock Code 6823). While the media coverage is mainly on the prospective yield of the new stock, I find, however, that not many people realize that the stock is offered as Shared Stapled Units (股份合訂單位). In other words, each unit comprises three components:
(a) A unit in the HKT Trust
(b) A beneficial interest of the specially indentified Ordinary Share in the HKT Limited
(c) A specifically identified Preferential Share in the HKT Limited which is "Stapled" to the Unit.
In fact, this complicated arrangement makes me feel dizzy.
In the prospectus, there is a dedicated section to stipulate why this complicated arrangement is adopted.
(a) The Trust structure can ensure an explicit profit distribution policy
(b) The Ordinary share can confer proper rights from the actual company (HKT Limited)
(c) The Preference share can confer proper rights in case of the winding up of HKT Limited or HKT Trust.
On the other hand, the following are the disadvantages:
(a) It is a novel and unprecedented structure in the HKT market
(b) There are administrative costs associated with the HKT Trust
(c) As the duration of the HKT Trust is a fixed period (80 years less one day), the procedures related to the terminating of HKT Trust is necessary.
Frankly speaking, after reading, I still have no clues why this complicated arrangement is necessary. (My slogan is 'Simple is Beautiful.) I understand that so far, the IPO has not aroused great interest from general investors. I am not sure whether or not they stay alert on the previous great financial skills (tricks) encountered.
2011-10-23
非常不滿區議會選舉選區劃分
又是區議會選舉的日子，家住將軍澳區，一直以來都不滿政府把將軍澳選區歸屬於西貢區！
將軍澳的都市化，和西貢的鄉郊狀態根本格格不入，但西貢區倚著地域廣闊，我不覺得有把幾十萬將軍澳居民的需要放在眼內，君不見西貢區區議會網頁在介紹西貢區地區特色有沒有提到一ＤＤ將軍澳區？
算喇，但連選管會在選區劃分也一塔糊塗，政府只是用簡單的居民人數分佈來劃分選區:
(Source)
但是，實際分界就有可能將一條街分成兩區，但又將兩個不相連的屋苑歸納於同一選區。大家可看看以下慘不忍睹的選區分界圖（部分）：
（原網址）
這種盲婚啞嫁的小區設計，我不見得小區會有甚麼共同話題，以至競選區譏員的政綱都要提升到立法會的層次才找到最大公因數。
我住的是私人屋苑，相鄰亦是其他的私人屋苑，無奈何我住的是私人屋苑無端端被配到其他我政府屋苑，所以沒有候選人會以我的屋苑問題為政綱，可悲！
所以我正考慮投白票！
將軍澳的都市化，和西貢的鄉郊狀態根本格格不入，但西貢區倚著地域廣闊，我不覺得有把幾十萬將軍澳居民的需要放在眼內，君不見西貢區區議會網頁在介紹西貢區地區特色有沒有提到一ＤＤ將軍澳區？
算喇，但連選管會在選區劃分也一塔糊塗，政府只是用簡單的居民人數分佈來劃分選區:
(Source)
但是，實際分界就有可能將一條街分成兩區，但又將兩個不相連的屋苑歸納於同一選區。大家可看看以下慘不忍睹的選區分界圖（部分）：
（原網址）
這種盲婚啞嫁的小區設計，我不見得小區會有甚麼共同話題，以至競選區譏員的政綱都要提升到立法會的層次才找到最大公因數。
我住的是私人屋苑，相鄰亦是其他的私人屋苑，無奈何我住的是私人屋苑無端端被配到其他我政府屋苑，所以沒有候選人會以我的屋苑問題為政綱，可悲！
所以我正考慮投白票！
2011-08-13
Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself
Thandie Newton (wiki) delivered the captioned topic at TED (Video Link)
The transcript, which I like very very much, is posted as follows:
Embracing otherness, embracing myself
Embracing otherness. When I first heard this theme, I thought, well embracing otherness is embracing myself. And the journey to that place of understanding and acceptance has been an interesting one for me, and it's given me an insight into the whole notion of self, which I think is worth sharing with you today.
We each have a self, but I don't think that we're born with one. You know how newborn babies believe they're part of everything; they're not separate. Well that fundamental sense of oneness is lost on us very quickly. It's like that initial stage is over -- oneness: infancy, unformed, primitive. It's no longer valid or real. What is real is separateness. And at some point in early babyhood, the idea of self starts to form. Our little portion of oneness is given a name, is told all kinds of things about itself. And these details, opinions and ideas become facts, which go towards building ourselves, our identity. And that self becomes the vehicle for navigating our social world. But the self is a projection based on other people's projections. Is it who we really are? Or who we really want to be, or should be?
So this whole interaction with self and identity was a very difficult one for me growing up. The self that I attempted to take out into the world was rejected over and over again. And my panic at not having a self that fit, and the confusion that came from my self being rejected, created anxiety, shame and hopelessness, which kind of defined me for a long time. But in retrospect, the destruction of my self was so repetitive, that I started to see a pattern. The self changed, got affected, broken destroyed, but another one would evolve -- sometimes stronger, sometimes hateful, sometimes not wanting to be there at all. The self was not constant. And how many times would my self have to die before I realized that it was never alive in the first place?
I grew up on the coast of England in the '70s. My dad is white from Cornwall, and my mom is black from Zimbabwe. Even the idea of us as a family was challenging to most people. But nature had its wicked way, and brown babies were born. But from about the age of five, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black atheist kid in the all-white catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly. And my self was rooting around for definition and trying to plug in. Because the self likes to fit, to see itself replicated, to belong. That confirms its existence and its importance. And it is important. It has an extremely important function. Without it, we literally can't interface with others. We can't hatch plans and climb that stairway of popularity, of success. But my skin color wasn't right. My hair wasn't right. My history wasn't right. My self became defined by otherness, which meant that, in that social world, I didn't really exist. And I was other before being anything else -- even before being a girl. I was a noticeable nobody.
Another world was opening up around this time: performance and dancing. That nagging dread of self-hood didn't exist when I was dancing. I'd literally lose myself. And I was a really good dancer. I would put all my emotional expression into my dancing. I could be in the movement in a way that I wasn't able to be in my real life, in myself.
And at 16, I stumbled across another opportunity, and I earned my first acting role in a film. I can hardly find the words to describe the peace I felt when I was acting. My dysfunctional self could actually plug in to another self not my own. And it felt so good. It was the first time that I existed inside a fully-functioning self -- one that I controlled, that I steered, that I gave life to. But the shooting day would end, and I'd return to my gnarly, awkward self.
By 19, I was a fully-fledged movie actor, but still searching for definition. I applied to read anthropology at university. Dr. Phyllis Lee gave me my interview, and she asked me, "How would you define race?" Well, I thought I had the answer to that one. And I said, "Skin color." "So biology, genetics?" she said. "Because, Thandie, that's not accurate. Because there's actually more genetic difference between a black Kenyan and a black Ugandan than there is between a black Kenyan and, say, a white Norwegian. Because we all stem from Africa. So in Africa, there's been more time to create genetic diversity." In other words, race has no basis in biological or scientific fact. On the one hand, result. Right? On the other hand, my definition of self just lost a huge chunk of its credibility. But what was credible, what is biological and scientific fact, is that we all stem from Africa -- in fact, from a woman called Mitochondrial Eve who lived a 160,000 years ago. And race is an illegitimate concept which our selves have created based on fear and ignorance.
Strangely, these revelations didn't cure my low self-esteem, that feeling of otherness. My desire to disappear was still very powerful. I had a degree from Cambridge; I had a thriving career; but my self was a car crash, and I wound up with bulimia and on a therapist's couch. And of course I did. I still believed my self was all I was. I still valued self-worth above all other worth. And what was there to suggest otherwise? We've created entire value systems and a physical reality to support the worth of self. Look at the industry for self-image and the jobs it creates, the revenue it turns over. We'd be right in assuming that the self is an actual living thing. But it's not; it's a projection, which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death.
But there is something that can give the self ultimate and infinite connection -- and that thing is oneness, our essence. The self's struggle for authenticity and definition will never end unless it's connected to its creator -- to you and to me. And that can happen with awareness -- awareness of the reality of oneness and the projection of self-hood. For a start, we can think about all the times when we do lose ourselves. It happens when I dance, when I'm acting. I'm earthed in my essence, and my self is suspended. In those moments, I'm connected to everything -- the ground, the air, the sounds, the energy from the audience. All my senses are alert and alive in much the same way as an infant might feel -- that feeling of oneness.
And when I'm acting a role, I inhabit another self, and I give it life for awhile. Because when the self is suspended so is divisiveness and judgment. And I've played everything from a vengeful ghost in the time of slavery to Secretary of State in 2004. And no matter how other these selves might be, they're all related in me. And I honestly believe the key to my success as an actor and my progress as a person has been the very lack of self that used to make me feel so anxious and insecure. I always wondered why I could feel others' pain so deeply, why I could recognize the somebody in the nobody. It's because I didn't have a self to get in the way. I thought I lacked substance, and the fact that I could feel others' meant that I had nothing of myself to feel. The thing that was a source of shame was actually a source of enlightenment.
And when I realized and really understood that my self is a projection and that it has a function, a funny thing happened. I stopped giving it so much authority. I give it its due. I take it to therapy. I've become very familiar with its dysfunctional behavior. But I'm not ashamed of my self. In fact, I respect my self and its function. And over time and with practice, I've tried to live more and more from my essence. And if you can do that, incredible things happen.
I was in Congo in February, dancing and celebrating with women who've survived the destruction of their selves in literally unthinkable ways -- destroyed because other brutalized, psychopathic selves all over that beautiful land are fueling our selves' addiction to iPods, Pads, and bling, which further disconnect ourselves from ever feeling their pain, their suffering, their death. Because, hey, if we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life. And in that disconnected state, yeah, we can build factory farms with no windows, destroy marine life and use rape as a weapon of war. So here's a note to self: The cracks have started to show in our constructed world, and oceans will continue to surge through the cracks, and oil and blood, rivers of it.
Crucially, we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness with the Earth and every other living thing. We've just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other -- billions of each other. Only we're not living with each other; our crazy selves are living with each other and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection.
Let's live with each other and take it a breath at a time. If we can get under that heavy self, light a torch of awareness, and find our essence, our connection to the infinite and every other living thing. We knew it from the day we were born. Let's not be freaked out by our bountiful nothingness. It's more a reality than the ones ourselves have created. Imagine what kind of existence we can have if we honor inevitable death of self, appreciate the privilege of life and marvel at what comes next. Simple awareness is where it begins.
Thank you for listening.
- End -
The transcript, which I like very very much, is posted as follows:
Embracing otherness, embracing myself
Embracing otherness. When I first heard this theme, I thought, well embracing otherness is embracing myself. And the journey to that place of understanding and acceptance has been an interesting one for me, and it's given me an insight into the whole notion of self, which I think is worth sharing with you today.
We each have a self, but I don't think that we're born with one. You know how newborn babies believe they're part of everything; they're not separate. Well that fundamental sense of oneness is lost on us very quickly. It's like that initial stage is over -- oneness: infancy, unformed, primitive. It's no longer valid or real. What is real is separateness. And at some point in early babyhood, the idea of self starts to form. Our little portion of oneness is given a name, is told all kinds of things about itself. And these details, opinions and ideas become facts, which go towards building ourselves, our identity. And that self becomes the vehicle for navigating our social world. But the self is a projection based on other people's projections. Is it who we really are? Or who we really want to be, or should be?
So this whole interaction with self and identity was a very difficult one for me growing up. The self that I attempted to take out into the world was rejected over and over again. And my panic at not having a self that fit, and the confusion that came from my self being rejected, created anxiety, shame and hopelessness, which kind of defined me for a long time. But in retrospect, the destruction of my self was so repetitive, that I started to see a pattern. The self changed, got affected, broken destroyed, but another one would evolve -- sometimes stronger, sometimes hateful, sometimes not wanting to be there at all. The self was not constant. And how many times would my self have to die before I realized that it was never alive in the first place?
I grew up on the coast of England in the '70s. My dad is white from Cornwall, and my mom is black from Zimbabwe. Even the idea of us as a family was challenging to most people. But nature had its wicked way, and brown babies were born. But from about the age of five, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black atheist kid in the all-white catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly. And my self was rooting around for definition and trying to plug in. Because the self likes to fit, to see itself replicated, to belong. That confirms its existence and its importance. And it is important. It has an extremely important function. Without it, we literally can't interface with others. We can't hatch plans and climb that stairway of popularity, of success. But my skin color wasn't right. My hair wasn't right. My history wasn't right. My self became defined by otherness, which meant that, in that social world, I didn't really exist. And I was other before being anything else -- even before being a girl. I was a noticeable nobody.
Another world was opening up around this time: performance and dancing. That nagging dread of self-hood didn't exist when I was dancing. I'd literally lose myself. And I was a really good dancer. I would put all my emotional expression into my dancing. I could be in the movement in a way that I wasn't able to be in my real life, in myself.
And at 16, I stumbled across another opportunity, and I earned my first acting role in a film. I can hardly find the words to describe the peace I felt when I was acting. My dysfunctional self could actually plug in to another self not my own. And it felt so good. It was the first time that I existed inside a fully-functioning self -- one that I controlled, that I steered, that I gave life to. But the shooting day would end, and I'd return to my gnarly, awkward self.
By 19, I was a fully-fledged movie actor, but still searching for definition. I applied to read anthropology at university. Dr. Phyllis Lee gave me my interview, and she asked me, "How would you define race?" Well, I thought I had the answer to that one. And I said, "Skin color." "So biology, genetics?" she said. "Because, Thandie, that's not accurate. Because there's actually more genetic difference between a black Kenyan and a black Ugandan than there is between a black Kenyan and, say, a white Norwegian. Because we all stem from Africa. So in Africa, there's been more time to create genetic diversity." In other words, race has no basis in biological or scientific fact. On the one hand, result. Right? On the other hand, my definition of self just lost a huge chunk of its credibility. But what was credible, what is biological and scientific fact, is that we all stem from Africa -- in fact, from a woman called Mitochondrial Eve who lived a 160,000 years ago. And race is an illegitimate concept which our selves have created based on fear and ignorance.
Strangely, these revelations didn't cure my low self-esteem, that feeling of otherness. My desire to disappear was still very powerful. I had a degree from Cambridge; I had a thriving career; but my self was a car crash, and I wound up with bulimia and on a therapist's couch. And of course I did. I still believed my self was all I was. I still valued self-worth above all other worth. And what was there to suggest otherwise? We've created entire value systems and a physical reality to support the worth of self. Look at the industry for self-image and the jobs it creates, the revenue it turns over. We'd be right in assuming that the self is an actual living thing. But it's not; it's a projection, which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death.
But there is something that can give the self ultimate and infinite connection -- and that thing is oneness, our essence. The self's struggle for authenticity and definition will never end unless it's connected to its creator -- to you and to me. And that can happen with awareness -- awareness of the reality of oneness and the projection of self-hood. For a start, we can think about all the times when we do lose ourselves. It happens when I dance, when I'm acting. I'm earthed in my essence, and my self is suspended. In those moments, I'm connected to everything -- the ground, the air, the sounds, the energy from the audience. All my senses are alert and alive in much the same way as an infant might feel -- that feeling of oneness.
And when I'm acting a role, I inhabit another self, and I give it life for awhile. Because when the self is suspended so is divisiveness and judgment. And I've played everything from a vengeful ghost in the time of slavery to Secretary of State in 2004. And no matter how other these selves might be, they're all related in me. And I honestly believe the key to my success as an actor and my progress as a person has been the very lack of self that used to make me feel so anxious and insecure. I always wondered why I could feel others' pain so deeply, why I could recognize the somebody in the nobody. It's because I didn't have a self to get in the way. I thought I lacked substance, and the fact that I could feel others' meant that I had nothing of myself to feel. The thing that was a source of shame was actually a source of enlightenment.
And when I realized and really understood that my self is a projection and that it has a function, a funny thing happened. I stopped giving it so much authority. I give it its due. I take it to therapy. I've become very familiar with its dysfunctional behavior. But I'm not ashamed of my self. In fact, I respect my self and its function. And over time and with practice, I've tried to live more and more from my essence. And if you can do that, incredible things happen.
I was in Congo in February, dancing and celebrating with women who've survived the destruction of their selves in literally unthinkable ways -- destroyed because other brutalized, psychopathic selves all over that beautiful land are fueling our selves' addiction to iPods, Pads, and bling, which further disconnect ourselves from ever feeling their pain, their suffering, their death. Because, hey, if we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life. And in that disconnected state, yeah, we can build factory farms with no windows, destroy marine life and use rape as a weapon of war. So here's a note to self: The cracks have started to show in our constructed world, and oceans will continue to surge through the cracks, and oil and blood, rivers of it.
Crucially, we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness with the Earth and every other living thing. We've just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other -- billions of each other. Only we're not living with each other; our crazy selves are living with each other and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection.
Let's live with each other and take it a breath at a time. If we can get under that heavy self, light a torch of awareness, and find our essence, our connection to the infinite and every other living thing. We knew it from the day we were born. Let's not be freaked out by our bountiful nothingness. It's more a reality than the ones ourselves have created. Imagine what kind of existence we can have if we honor inevitable death of self, appreciate the privilege of life and marvel at what comes next. Simple awareness is where it begins.
Thank you for listening.
- End -
2011-07-19
Poor man's Outlook
I need to access my company's Exchange server at home. However, my home PC has not a valid Outlook license.
It is a pity some the open source email projects only endorse open protocol and do not bother to implement the proprietary Microsoft email protocol MAPI.
So far, I have resorted to command email client supporting POP3/SMTP to remotely access my company emails (not IMAP support yet).
Because of the limitation of POP3/SMTP, my email access at home is not working as a sychronized copy of my company email store.
For example,
To solve problem (2), I now use Magic Mail Monitor to directly remove junk or processes emails at my company inbox.
To solve problem (4), I use MFCMAPI
But since my home PC has no Outlook, I need to download "Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1" first so that MFCMAPI can allow me to create a new Exchange profile. Please refer to the thread at serverfault.com
It is a pity some the open source email projects only endorse open protocol and do not bother to implement the proprietary Microsoft email protocol MAPI.
So far, I have resorted to command email client supporting POP3/SMTP to remotely access my company emails (not IMAP support yet).
Because of the limitation of POP3/SMTP, my email access at home is not working as a sychronized copy of my company email store.
For example,
- Using POP3, I must configure the email client to "keep the emails after downloading". Otherwise, when I check in my company email again, I will find some of my emails are removed from the inbox.
- However, I cannot delete any junk email or processed emails at home and keep my company inbox growing after long out-of-office period. Worst still, my company has set up an inbox rules that limit my email activities after the inbox has reached a certain size (an unreasonably low figure)
- If I need to send emails out at home, I must "cc" myself so that my company email has a replicate copy. This even makes my company inbox bigger and bigger.
- I cannot use the other Outlook "advanced" features, like Out-of-Office assistant
To solve problem (2), I now use Magic Mail Monitor to directly remove junk or processes emails at my company inbox.
To solve problem (4), I use MFCMAPI
But since my home PC has no Outlook, I need to download "Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1" first so that MFCMAPI can allow me to create a new Exchange profile. Please refer to the thread at serverfault.com
2011-05-14
分析型思想家的十個詛咒
自己是理科出身，自小便以為自己的理性思維是一份祝福，使我能在現今的先進社會有更好的發展機會。但隨著年紀長大，便發覺自己的思想模式反而是一個障礙，而其他人的語言能力和社交技巧更能在人際關係的複雜社會中生存。
最近在 TechRepublic 看到 Alan Norton 在2011年5月5日寫的 "10 curses of the analytical thinker" 更加將我的想法表達得更完整，故轉譯部份和大家分享：
一般人以為IT是是一班電腦怪胎的天地；我就覺得IT是分析型思想家的國度。分析型思想家（或左腦使用者）其實是直線型思想家：他們用邏輯來思想，而不是情感。但這使他們和其他人相處表現差勁。
我自認是一個非常分析型的人，這使我在過往的日子從事電腦分析員或程式員時得心應手。但我亦體驗刑分析型性格的很多缺點，或許如果你也是分析型，你亦感受過以下一兩個詛咒。
- 資訊成癮 (Information addict)
- 搖擺不定 (Vacillatory)
- 猶豫不決 (Indecisive)
- 不敏銳 (Insensitive)
- 習慣性(Habitual)
- 社交笨拙 (Socially inept)
- 懷疑成性 (Skeptical)
- 差勁的推銷手腕 (Poor marketers)
- 政治不正確 (Politically incorrect)
- 不合群 (Loners)
分析型思想家永遠覺得他們還未有足夠資訊。他們貪婪地溜覽網頁的所有資訊：由天氣到最新的科技玩意，他們沈迷於網上討論區；但多只是lurkers（香港叫CD-ROM : Copy Download - Read Only Member）即只是觀看別人的帖子不發表評論。他們喜歡一切數據和事實，就算只是想買一個閙鐘，他們也只看產品說明書上的規格。
我可理解這樣的行為對定家庭成員的困擾，但要知道，尋求資訊是人的本性，只不過沒有像分析型思想家那樣強迫成癮罷了。
大部人只可一面倒看到爭論性議題的一邊，但分析型思想家就不是：對他來說，任何論據都有利與弊。所以他看半杯水同是半滿「和」半空。但這樣的立場會使他的朋友們立場不堅定（如果他真是有朋友的話）。
由於分析型思想家在做決定時需要愈多愈好的資訊，其他人會覺得他猶豫不決。所以一個分析型經理很容易不夠果斷地做決策。
我有一次同馬克解釋一個客戶伺服系統(Client System System)，我對著畫面就：「你看看這裡...」問題出現了：馬克是完全失明的！我當時是何等尷尬。如果馬克真是看得見，他會看到一個我目瞪口呆而連髮端也滲出汗珠。這種口不跟腦袋走的行為在一個分析型思想家不是少見的。
「甚麼？你想我不吃午餐？你是不是講笑呀？」對我來說要我放棄午飯時間去趕那些令人發癲的工作是不合理的。我感覺血壓上升，壓力荷爾蒙也上升。對，我是忿怒！
分析型的人很難改變他們的習慣，他們喜歡一些可預計的事物，不喜歡改變。左腦人仕缺乏開發一項新計劃的推動力；但是只要計劃已開展，他們會像牛一般的努力完成。
我有一次對一年輕女士講她有點體重過高（即有點肥）。是呀，是她先問起的，但我已再沒有機會補充說明其實她的體重仍屬合理水平。分析型思想家只看事物只照搬字面上的意思。其實他們不是有心挑剔，而只是想提供一份誠實的評論。但是一般人是不喜歡這些對他們外貌，行為，衛生，體重等的忠實評估。同樣諷刺地，分析型思想家自己也不是太接受別人對自己的批評！
大家都知道很難愚弄一個分析型思想家。如果你想對他推銷仕任何東西，你最好向他清楚解釋他為什麼需要這東西。他需要的是事實，而不是感覺，或一些陳腔濫調。
如果你是一名經理，正說服著一班程式員為何某一方案可以比原先計劃早兩個月完成，你最好準備好一籮籮的數據來支持你你的想法，否則他們的理性反擊是意料之內。
分析型可以是一個很好的產品評論員，但這亦使他們在推銷時非常差勁，原因是他們對產品的優點和「缺點」同時準確地描述。
同樣見工時其中一項重點是推銷自己，當其他人可以誇誇大自己的優點時，分析型的人就不會，例如可能你說「我比較喜歡對電腦工作，而不喜歡對人工作」是一項誠實的陳述；但面試官就會給你一隻「黑豬」。
你有沒有留意本文章只用他這個男性代名詞，而沒有用女性她。其實我曾嘗試用一兩次「他或她」但放棄了，原因是我覺得可讀性比政治正確更重要。女士們，請原諒我的政治不正確。
分析型的人寧願自己看一本書或電影，或不喜和其他人一起，這不是代表我們本身不喜歡群體，而只是我們覺得與人相處時乏味，無興趣和俗套。
底線
其實所有的詛咒也可以偽裝的祝福，因為分析型的人喜歡列表格式，我現在將先前的十個詛咒逐一寫成祝福的意思：
| 詛咒 | 祝福 | |
| 1. | 資訊成癮 | 看清楚 |
| 2. | 搖擺不定 | 不偏不倚 |
| 3. | 猶豫不決 | 想清楚 |
| 4. | 不敏銳 | 童真 |
| 5. | 習慣性 | 始終如一 |
| 6. | 社交笨拙 | 單純成實 |
| 7. | 懷疑成性 | 以事實為基礎 |
| 8. | 差勁的推銷手腕 | 全面分析 |
| 9. | 政治不正確 | 老實率直 |
| 10. | 不合群 | 獨立 |
2011-05-09
Microsoft Image Composite Editor
先前在不再Hugin講Microsoft的ICE更好用。
今次更有驚喜，因加入Structured Panorama（即可像Hugin一樣以ＭxＮ幅相組合）和Video Stitching（即似Sony相機的Sweep panoarama）。
但玩過Video Stitching後，有點失望：
- video的resolution不及相片高，合成後相片質素較低
- 由於video不斷改變光圈和色溫，ICE未能修正
單幅HDR
先前拍HDR要連拍3張相（一張正常，一張over，一張under）,但玩adhoc photography很多時忘記帶腳架，很麻煩！
後來知道有單幅HDR（如http://www.autohdr.co.uk/），雖然效果差少少，但勝在很方便！
後來知道有單幅HDR（如http://www.autohdr.co.uk/），雖然效果差少少，但勝在很方便！
2011-05-02
Euler's Equation
這是一條我很喜歡的公式！
正如維基網頁說，這公式非常有數學的美感，它有：
0: 加數的常數
1: 乘數的常數
pi: 三角的常數
e: 自然對數的常數
i: 複數的常數
其實，數學的美感是我讀預科時A. Maths老師常強調的，令我在有人覺得冰冷的公式中領略一份藝術感。
2011-04-16
The Universe history revisited
Although the talk by David Christian at TED has no new information, the whole 17 minute presentation is very very inspiring.
2011-03-28
Apply quota on Online registration by Form at Google Docs
I often used the Online Form from Google Docs, which I find very useful to solicit user inputs for event registration.
However, so far, the logic exposed in the form editor is none. Therefore the form content is quite static.
Recently I have a need to enforce a quota on the event registration. After searching on internet (even at the Google Help), there is no straight answer. However, inspired by some pages realizing the extra logic at the Google Spreadsheet, I finally come out with the following approach:
(1) Design the Form and the spreadsheet sheet as usual. Please note that I still set the spreadsheet to "private" lest the user input data are improperly exposed.
(2) Add a new sheet (called stat, shaded shaded in yellow below).
In the sheet, I do some calculation logic:
B1: count the number of registration at Sheet1
B2: calculate the number of remaining seats (I set the total number of sheet to 5 for the sake of example)
B3: use the hyperlink function to set a link. The URL is actually the form link as marked in red below:
B4: contain the rejection message when the event is full
B5: use the if function to give a conditional output
(3) Then I publish the content of B5. Please remember to click the "Automatic republish when changes are made"
Please note that although my spreadsheet is set to private, there is no contradiction to the data publishing, as explained in the following Google Help.
(4) Finally, I write a html page with IFRAME to refer to the published data:
The final result is:
The link will be automatically changed when the number of registration reaches 5
However, so far, the logic exposed in the form editor is none. Therefore the form content is quite static.
Recently I have a need to enforce a quota on the event registration. After searching on internet (even at the Google Help), there is no straight answer. However, inspired by some pages realizing the extra logic at the Google Spreadsheet, I finally come out with the following approach:
(1) Design the Form and the spreadsheet sheet as usual. Please note that I still set the spreadsheet to "private" lest the user input data are improperly exposed.
(2) Add a new sheet (called stat, shaded shaded in yellow below).
In the sheet, I do some calculation logic:
B1: count the number of registration at Sheet1
B2: calculate the number of remaining seats (I set the total number of sheet to 5 for the sake of example)
B3: use the hyperlink function to set a link. The URL is actually the form link as marked in red below:
B4: contain the rejection message when the event is full
B5: use the if function to give a conditional output
(3) Then I publish the content of B5. Please remember to click the "Automatic republish when changes are made"
Please note that although my spreadsheet is set to private, there is no contradiction to the data publishing, as explained in the following Google Help.
(4) Finally, I write a html page with IFRAME to refer to the published data:
The final result is:
The link will be automatically changed when the number of registration reaches 5
2011-01-31
2011-01-18
職場生存上位之道
迎來職場小說大熱，第169期iMoney就從多本暢銷小說中，選出了10條職場法則，分享如下：
- 銷售不是戰爭，商場也不是戰場。在戰場上，不是你死就是我活，而商場，是需要雙生雙贏。
- 不在其位，不謀其政。作為下屬，做好本份工作是首要的，莫要隨便去打聽上司的工作進展。
- 不管成與敗，要和老闆站在同一陣錢，共生共榮，這樣他才會為你分擔責任，分散職場的風險。
- 有些事心知肚明即可，說出來味道就變了，要學會在適當的時候保持沉默。
- 聯合次要競爭對手，打擊主要競爭對手，之後才集中火力，打擊次要競爭對手。
- 比起聰明，老闆更喜歡有執行力的員工。做好上司交代給你的事，不是你操心的就不要多想。
- 職場天條：慎用公司內部Email。
- 提高觀察力和記憶力，只要見過一面的人，盡可能記住他的姓名和見面時的林林總總，再見面時說出來，可得到對方的好感。
- 不要把勝負看得太重要，事成固然大吉，不成，最多換一份工作，重要的是，你學到了經驗，積累了知識，造些束西才是真正屬於你的，是比錢更重要的吃飯的本錢。
- 不要經常埋怨，埋怨別人只說明自己無能，做事情要有廣大心胸。
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