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2006-01-31

 

Full Pain, No Spain

I just found out the answer for a big big mystery: I am not going to Spain.

Bye bye, Barcelona. Bye bye, Spain. I won't be able to find out if the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain. Darn, if I'm not going to fly a lot, what's the point of attaining the elite status?

Instead, I'll stay here with my research project, which is on running some software that triggered the ID system on the campus network, causing the whole research cluster to be unplugged from the network and destroying other people's hours of simulation work, and on reading some open source project C code that uses unnecessary goto statements. It makes me want to do some hacking... with an axe or a hammer.

Here's a poll. Should I change the title of this blog to "A Series of Unfortunate Events on twngan"?

2006-01-30

 

Rumors Spread Fast

I didn't go to school last Thursday and Friday for just two days. It was not because of the Chinese New Year and to celebrate the Year of Dog, but sitting at home wasting my time.

Today I went back to school, there is already a rumor that I had a vacation or something...

2006-01-28

 

Final Fantasy Video

It is really not exaggerating to say that I grew up with the game Final Fantasy, or see official homepage. (Mysteriously, the name is translated, by sound, into "Space Fighter 太空戰士" in Hong Kong.) This is the best RPG series ever, even though I didn't understand a bit of Japanese.

Why do I want to talk about it? Well, I finally found some good out of Google Video by discovering this fan's tribute to this wonderful game series, mimicking the in-game environment. You'd probably have to have played this game before to appreciate it, but if you did, I'm sure you'd rofl.

2006-01-27

 

Eclipse is Awesome

No, I don't mean this paper. This is certainly a great paper, but not the focal point of this entry.

I am referring to the open development platform that has been used and (more importantly) loved by most.

I have already been an anti-IDE person, doing virtually everything in vim. This is because, given a reasonable level of familiarity with the commands, it is very hard to beat its speed, unlike Emacs, aka Escape-Meta-Alt-Ctrl-Shift (which, btw, was ported to Mac OS by Andrew Choi, the instructor of my first programming class in college, although he has stopped working on it around 2 years ago, and has been working on some interesting project since then).

Ok, enough digression. I really love Eclipse's on-the-fly compilation and showing errors. It would be perfect if it could be combined with vim. Of course, I am not the first one to think of that. There is already viplugin, but it would cost 15 Euros. I guess my best bet is to wait for a free plugin from the creator of vim, as it is now No. 2 in the most wanted feature list.

2006-01-25

 

New Layout

Bored with the old one, I've updated the layout. This layout will now take advantage of your large screen, particularly when I show letters.

 

Fun Restarts

Now this is again internship-hunting time (not for me, luckily), and the fun restarts.

Congratulations to this guy from IIT Kanpur! He is the first sending me request for internship.

Someone has asked me before that why I am so mean to put their emails here and not to reply them. I'll repeat my answer here. If they don't care enough to visit my homepage and check whether I am a professor (even though they seem to know one of my algorithm papers and even used an image to show the small cap letters edf), I won't care for them...
Dear Sir,

I, the undersigned, am furnishing my resume along with this letter. I do offer my candidature for the internship in summer of 2006.

I am an undergraduate student of Bachelor of Technology + Master of Technology (Integrated) in the Department Of Computer Science and Engg. at IIT Kanpur (Indian Institute of technology, Kanpur),India. I am in the 3rd year of the Program. As a part of my summer internship I want to work in an environment of intense intellectual stimulation. I can work well in a team environment and would like to work with dynamic and innovative people who share my curiosity and will to excel. I am very much interested in Algorithms and System Programming apart from other disciples of Computer Science. I am a good programmer in a number of programming languages (details in my CV).

I read your paper on "Performance guarantee for edf under overload". I found it very interesting and have a keen desire to work with you. I have a profound desire to work as a part of your dynamic team where I could make significant contributions while I develop my interpersonal and communication skills as well.

My summer vacations are dated: 05.05.2006 to 24.07.2006, that's of approximately three (3) months. I will be fortunate if I get an opportunity to work, as a summer intern in your research group, during this vacation period. I am sure that working under your supervision will give me up thrust in the relevant field and increase my intensity and inclination towards the same.

Please see my Resume in the attachment.

I hope and I am sure that you will find a suitable candidate in me matching all your requirements. Looking forward to receive your favorable communication.

Thank You

Yours Sincerely

Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
Junior Undergraduate
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

2006-01-24

 

First Rejection

Finally I get my first rejection for faculty applications. I thought most schools would just mostly ignore my application and directly send it to their recycle bin, but it happens that some may care enough to email the decision.

This comes from one of the two Canada schools I applied. Apparently, they don't consider my research interest close enough to what they do in their ECE department. Darn, why didn't they hire in the CS department?

Hey, stop being so happy seeing my failures! I am not going to talk about the obvious, that is, other rejections I'm going to receive anymore.

2006-01-22

 

How's Others Doing?

Having been in graduate school forever, it is usually depressing to see how my ex-classmates are doing.

Even others who have gone to graduate schools are already done. Some are even professors now. Even for those that stayed in graduate schools nearly as long as me.

But I don't need to feel so depressed now, after one of them became a "guest lecturer." At least, after learning the fact that his office hour is from 2pm to 4am.

 

LCD Dartboard

Now you can have the fun that I have! Amazon is now selling this LCD Dartboard for less than $10!

2006-01-21

 

Haircut

I desperately need a haircut, again.

For what it's worth, I have curly hair, thanks to my parents. I hate it, as it makes my hair unmanageable even when it is slightly long.

My philosophy of haircuts is to minimize the times it is required while not looking terribly awkward/disgusting without taking care of it, thus saving time and money (which translate into money and more money). When I have haircuts, I usually call for this "optimal length." But because of this cruel curly nature, I can't stay without haircuts for more than three months.

I know, I've wasted you quite some time reading this meaningless entry. All I'm trying to say is sorry for my hair, but I'm not going to have a haircut until probably before my interview with the colored giant, which is probably not some time very soon.

2006-01-20

 

4.75% APY!

ING Direct has just increased their deposit interest rate to 4.75% APY (for new deposits)!

Shoot me an email if you want to open an account there. I can send you an invitation where you can make $25 if you deposit for at least $250...

 

Gmail Delete Button

You know what is the best thing happened to Gmail since, uh, Gmail? It's the Delete button! Finally it is there, without needing to add it yourself by including a user scripts for Greasemonkey or even an extension.

While archiving mails is handy, sometimes you really want some email to be gone for good, particularly when they are from some annoying people. You don't even want to see them popping up in one of your email searches...

2006-01-18

 

Tor

I have (finally) restarted my research work. It has something to do with Tor (The Onion Router), an anonymous communication system.

So what I have done after one whole day? Well, only downloading their source code and all the needed libraries, compiling them on Linux with dual Opteron, and started running.

On the bright side, at least I could finish this in a day, and that should be a good start.

2006-01-16

 

RSR 0.2

I have came to the conclusion that counting only on the ads in my blog would not be sufficient. In order to booster the revenue, I have decided to release some software.

The first thing to do, of course, is to update RSR. It has been broken since Firefox 1.5, and I had been too lazy to check the changes in API that broke it. Now it is fixed. I have updated my example to include "current affair" happening in Hong Kong (after the step down of Mr. Tung). Sorry for those of you don't understand Chinese, though.

2006-01-15

 

Applications are Out

I have finally sent out all my faculty applications. This is after knowing that at least two-third of other graduating students looking for faculty positions have already been contacted by some schools.

I only applied to a short list of schools, instead of the very long list I've composed. Following the spirit of my quote on Friday, I can at least explain why I wouldn't be invited for a single interview.

2006-01-13

 

I like this one

in this latest PhD comic:
Aim high, it will make failures easier to rationalize.
While you are there, check out the part on political science too.

 

Missing Person Report

No, I'm not talking about those you receive every week delivered by the post office that actually try to find a missing person. It is a new kind of spam I just got. It is interesting that spammers now use this as a hoax to trick you into clicking their links.

Of course, it doesn't really matter, as gmail can still catch them as spams.

2006-01-11

 

LF2

Can't endure the boredom of writing statements anymore, I finally resort to this game, LF2, again. It is a pretty old game not being updated anymore, but is just the right thing when I want to kill someone. I especially like the battle mode. I would choose a character to be the only guy in a team, against another team with 30+ men. I feel like I have accomplished a lot when I kill them all.

True, it may not be as impressive as students working on a class competition, or making a game in less than 7 days, but what's the most important is that the game must be fun, and LF2 just got it.

2006-01-10

 

I'll be Broke

Gosh, it's finally here. I mean the Intel dual core Macs. I'll be broke, very soon...

What's unclear, though, is why the hell they charge the same for machines that are supposed to be three times faster.

Of course, Apple's closing price of $80.86 also makes the whole thing very funny.

2006-01-09

 

Random Things


2006-01-08

 

Amazon Associates

Since I don't get much revenue from the Goooooolg Ads on the right, I am now reducing their presence, but adding Amazon ads. And it may evolve into something like this:



If you think this blog entertains you, next time when you buy from Amazon, remember to come back and use the link on the right. But bear in mind that I won't split any revenue with you, as this would be a violation of their policy :P

 

The Cat, Again

The news about the cat never ends here, isn't it?

On top of getting into my neighbor's units, it seems to want to get in my unit too now. It sometimes hides outside my door, waiting for me to leave the door open. While it still seem to get that I dislike it when I confront it, it is being patient, expecting me to change my mind and be kind.

Maybe I should learn a little bit from Shanghai people and prepare some "lamb kebab" for my neighbors, particularly the old lady living next to me.

2006-01-04

 

Moving Plan

No, I'm not moving yet. But the boredom of a long break made me do a lot of things to kill the time. So I was imagining how I'm going to move to Bay Area if I'm to accept the offer from the nonevil company.

While I don't have a lot of stuff that I have to move, I would still like to keep my clothing, electronics, and cookware, just because it'd be cheaper than to rebuy everything. The nonevil company doesn't give me an option for moving for me, so I'd rather pocket the relocation allowance.

Probably the best way to move is to rent a truck, so I checked the price. This is what I found.

2006-01-01

 

Now He Knows

I was writing my blog the other day, but was procrastinated when someone came to my office for a chat. Then all of a sudden, a familiar voice from my back, "obsession with t w ngan." Yeah, my boss is back, and finally he knows about my blog. Guess I need to be a bit more careful on what I say here.

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