哈欠吟者在伯林艮晒太阳时的哼哼唧唧: 剧饮千杯

3.14——你玩数字游戏了吗？

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:41:00 GMT

昨儿是3.14，π日。"Ask a Scientist"在三藩里办π日谜题大Party。蛋黄和我照例专打无准备之仗。慢慢悠悠“赶”到的时候，活动已近尾声。还好，正赶上发布最后一道题。是道数字序列题：

有一序列，头几个数为1，3，7，13，21...

此序列的第600个数是什么？
此序列中有一数是某整数的立方，并小于5位数。此数是什么？
在此序列中找一看起来象二进制数（各位都是0或1）的循环数（从前往后读和从后往前读都一样）。
此序列中相邻并相差1000的两个数是什么？

我们连纸笔也没带。只好背了题回家做。题不算太难，也不算很有趣。做完了，蛋黄意犹未尽，又一鼓作气破了传说中无解的12小球问题。还不过瘾，又拿了去年的π日谜题来做。大家有兴趣可以试试。谁做出了去年最后一题的告诉一声，蛋黄好安心睡觉。我这儿谢谢众位父老乡亲了。

It's CES Time

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:19:06 GMT

It's the time of the year again. You keep hearing about how CES has become this ugly, overgrown, and over-covered beast. With media's help, the industry has a tendency to turn anything successful into a beast. This article on gizmodo says it all. But anyway, here is my best shot at picking out the interesting ones.

There are a lot of buzz about this big ass 150-Inch Panasonic Lifescreen Plasma. I don't see the point. To me, Pioneer's Kuro 9mm-Thin Plasma is what a FLAT TV is supposed to be like.

The Alienware curved monitor looks awesome, but don't know if it's any useful. As long as we are talking about sleek design, the iRiver Wing UMPC looks just delicious, if nothing else. And seems iRiver showed a lot of sleek products, like this iRiver Aplayer.

I was really excited to see this Aigopen that Reads Books, until I saw the catch. Nonetheless, a step toward an interesting future.

I hope things like this Half-Inch Thick Mobile Projector from 3M, Microvision Pico Projector, or TI's' Wee Picoprojector, maybe even this Optimus Keyboard, will play a role in making PC eventually invisible. But right now we are still missing a decent input device like a motion sensing virtual keyboard or mouse. And oh, of course, battery. Battery will be the ultimate killer of how tiny all the mobile devices can become.

Casio's EXILIM Pro EX-F1: 1,200 FPS Video and 60-Shots-per-Second, compared to the 1.5 shots/sec camera I just bought. :)

The 13 MPH Skate iShoes look geeky, and may even be marketable, given all the motorized bicycles I saw in China. It'll take me only one and half hours to go to work on these babies. :)

Now, some serious stuff, FCC Chairman Kicks Cable and Wireless Ass in 2008. Note that he said FCC will investigate Comcast's blockage of BT. Ha, this is the first time I like what FCC does!

And last, check out this funny looking car and the Erotic Wall of Undulating Subwoofers. Just imagine how silly people can be.

廉颇老矣，尚能fun否？

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:24:24 GMT

最近回家都只用 Linux 机器，不知为什么一直上不了 Live Spaces 。今天随便瞄了一眼，好像 Spaces 升级了吧，居然能上了。乐一下。
前些日子心血来潮，先是注册 twitter，玩了几天。可居然连被我绑来的蛋蛋都不接我的话茬，实在是无趣。这些天 facebook 红得发紫，又兴冲冲去注册。注册完了，搜索各种圈子。看着搜出来的都是些80后，有点心虚。哼哼，痰嗽一声，权给自己壮胆。廉颇老矣，尚能 fun 否？

iPhone magic

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:30:07 GMT

Cool iPhone tricks.

This is old, but I just saw it: Conan making fun of iPhone.

CES 2007

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 18:50:13 GMT

Previous years, CES always meant another freaking impossible deadline. Even after CES started, we'd still be testing different options and patching up our demo, desperately trying to make something happen. This year, thanks to the new job, I can enjoy looking at all the gadgets in CES as a consumer, mmm...

Nothing exciting though, at least those on Gizmodo. There's no terribly new concept or cool gadget, but a whole bunch of half-ass marketing ideas. But after all, isn't that what consumer market is about?

Four types I've seen:
new = OLD (what do you complain about? it's bigger!) What You Missed: TV's Everywhere
new = old1+old2+old3... Eclipse AVN2210 Car Stereo With Ejectable TomTom GPS
new = old or old or old... (wow, if you really like it old, you still can have it!) Kodak's Rainbow of Budget Cameras
new = old1? old2? (if it confuses you, it must be cool) LG LFD 790 DVD Microsystem: Chocolate Sibling?

There are some ingenious marketing ideas among those though. The Kodak rainbow camera is one:"Real men eschew girly frivolities like manicures, facials, and gizmos in colors other than black or silver. But real men aren't buying enough cameras on their own, so Kodak's offering the choice of ten colors (including black and silver) on its EasyShare V803 and V1003 to entice ladies and men who read Details". More than once I wanted to buy Ying some gadget. I told her (and myself), it's because I think she'll like the sleek design or the warm color. It always turned out a bad idea.

One thing seems interesting is an external laptop graphic card Asus XG Station is World's First External Laptop Graphics Card, though I'd rather they make it look less cool and fragile.

1/9: check out these "Three Stylish PCs Mac-Haters Can Brag About"; and, of course, "iPhone Does Have A Camera + Video of Photo".