Bento In Tally

The secret to getting authentic Chinese food...is to know other Chinese people.

In Tallahassee, there is a well-kept secret to getting the perfect Chinese bento box. There is no restaurant and no vending area whatsoever. Just a telephone number to call and order a box for the day.

Mrs. Chen's Lunchbox is one of Chinese students' best kept secret for wonderful food, and the price is only five dollars a box. Because it is a small business operation (it is run by a couple from Taiwan), they try to keep the order size small. Contrary to what I thought, they deliver to ANYONE, Asians, non-Asians...whatever. They deliver the orders to the customers and fees are paid up front.

Bento box is one of those traditional fast-food for East Asians. Koreans, Japanese and Chinese have enjoyed this type of lunch for many many years. The picture below is an example of a very expensive Japanese bento box:


So...if you want a box and you happen to be on FSU campus, you can get their number by asking around (or leave me a comment). I assure you, you'll love the food.

All the orders come with rice and vegetables.

Menu for 4/3/2006 to 4/21/2006
Monday: Spicy Marinated Chicken
Tuesday: Sauteed Fish with Stir-fry Rice
Wednesday: Japanese-style Fried Chicken
Thursday: Stir-fry Ham and Rice, with Shrimp
Friday: Spicy Chicken With Rice

Ah-oh...

Last friday, The Register posted this article that Steve Jobs sold 45% of his stock holdings on Apple (APPL). Ever since then, the Apple stock has been dwindling...

As CEO of Apple Computer, Steve's financial transaction on a publicly traded company is monitored and duly noted. In my limited experience in the past, it is generally not a good sign when the CEO sells the stock of his own company...

Things My SO And I Have Argued About...

Whenever we get into a really, really bad argument (anything ranging from which university is top ten for computer science and whether I am a total bitch or not), I like to go to this webpage to make me realize that it's really not that bad.

Roman Dirge On Livejournal!

I like JTHM and Invader Zim. I'm a huge fan of Jhonen Vasquez's works. I'm all about dark humor. So when I found out that Jhonen's friend Roman Dirge actually posts his Lenore comic strips on Livejournal, I'm in heaven. ;)

Eat This, OS X

Charlie Tan sent me a link to a project called Xgl, an X server that supports hardware acceleration by a compositing window manager. Here is a Gentoo Wiki on their Xgl package. It's still in alpha so install at your own risk!

Below are a couple of screenshots from the Gentoo-Wiki page:



Click here for a video demo of Xgl. *Warning (for slow connection): It is 57 Meg!*

Excerpt from "The Why of the Wind"

We must learn better
What we are and are not.
We are not the wind.
We are not every vagrant mood that tempts
Our minds to giddy homelessness.
We must distinguish better
Between ourselves and strangers.
There is much that we are not.
There is much that is not.
There is much we have not to be.
We surrender to the enormous wind
Against our learned littleness,
But keep returning wailing
"Why did I do this?"

--Laura Riding Jackson

Walter/Wendy

During my time as a piano major at CCM, one of the most well-known figure of the 20th century musician is Wendy Carlos. However, I'm sure to the chagrin of Ms. Carlos, whenever her name is mentioned, the Wendy/Walter joke that induces muffled chuckles and giggles down the practice room hall comes up so often that even the composition professors feel obliged to take part. However, after some readings on the matter, I feel that people should just leave her alone and appreciate all the wonderful recordings she has offered to us.

During the time when she was 'Walter Carlos' (Yes everyone, if you need me to spell it out for you: She had gender reassignment surgery. Big deal, move along.) she worked with Robert Moog in developing the Moog synthesizer, an analog contraption that is customizable but took hours just to set up a new configuration. Nevertheless, it was one of the most widely-used musical instrument and a ground-breaking feat for the electronic-music genre. Wendy is a terrific keyboardist and an avid fan of J.S. Bach, but she is also an intelligent engineer. She attended Brown University where she studied Music and Physics...something that I wanted to do, but my limited brain cells prevented me from achieving my glory.

I found these pictures on the web of Wendy when she was Walter.


I have to admit, though she was handsome as a guy, she had shown traces that she should've been a women. In an article regarding sex assignment, about 1 in 5000 infants is born sexually ambiguous. It is possible that the physician at the time assigned Wendy the incorrect gender, giving her a very feminine appearance even when she was officially a male.

Now, Wendy Carlos is a handsome woman, and I think people need to understand that she probably should have been a woman all along.

Humans Revolve...Not Evolve

For those of you who thought Columbine was a modern phenomenon due to violent video games, music and tv shows: Feature article on Wikipedia today is the Bath School Disaster that occured in 1927 (also referenced in the Columbine article). There is NO such thing as common sense: One man's crazy-talk is another man's logic. Apparently for Andrew Kehoe, the most logical thing to do in retaliation against the property tax that was imposed upon him was to:

1.) Plants hundreds of pounds of Pyrotol in the basement of an elementary school within a few months.
2.) Kills his wife.
3.) Sets his farm buildings on fire.
4.) Explodes the bombs in the school, killing most of the children inside (2nd to 6th grade).
5.) Waits until the rescuers gathered at the site.
6.) Drives up to the rescuers in a shrapnel-filled vehicle.
7.) Detonates the bomb in the vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent as well as injuring the rescue crew.

Yes, he did it in that order.

Microsoft: No-Go

I just received the news about 30 min ago that Microsoft rejected me as a potential candidate. I wish I had known this before they put me through the ordeal of 6 interviews and traveling from Tally to Seattle to San Jose only to reject me and possibly make me fail my automata exam.

Pandamonium!

My friend Mike sent me this link to a t-shirt featuring a panda smashing things up. Who knew this cuddly near-extinct bear can do so much damage?

Accidents Do Happen

This is just a reminder that whenever moving parts are involved, Murphy's Law always apply. Whether it is structural/mechanical/electrical failure, bad weather condition, human stupidity or...human stupidity, accidents DO happen. Here is a link to a collection of military/civilian air/land accidents. Some of the pilots you just KNOW were DUI when the accidents occured.

I have to admit, I nearly cried when I saw the bomb test they did to the 747...

Band of the Semester: Spring 2006

Every semester I have a particular band I listen to constantly whenever I am grading or coding. This semester the award goes to Solitary Experiments, a heavy, dark electronic band with surprisingly beautiful melodies and lyrics in their repertoire. Some of their spoken English words have a strong German accent, but for the most part they are understandable.

If you are interested in hearing full samples of their songs and have hi-speed connection, check out their myspace page.

The song of the semester: Existence (Cause & Effect, March 2004)

Extinction of the world in which we exist
Infected by the curse of a devil’s kiss
Corruption is the highest depravity
But nothing changes our morality

Together we must face our destiny
If you want to find your own identity
Forever bound in the same recurring dream
Alone in the dark, the answer so far:
"Rescue Me."

Pollution of the ordinary mind
Inflicted through the evil of mankind
Relentless on advance to eternal fame
Possessed by effects of the kindled flames

Together we must face our destiny
If you want to find your identity
Forever bound in the same recurring dream
Alone in the dark, the answer so far:
"Rescue Me."

Fluid Toons!

My friend Brett Thompson came down to Tallahassee today for a quick visit. He graduated from FSU a few years ago and currently works for Google's Data Center in Atlanta. He is also a very talented artist, and exhibits some of his works online.

Fighting Spam...Hammurabi Style

This is actually an old post from Blacklisted! 411 (October 2005): If you're interested in fighting spam actively, there is a tool called "Spam Vampire" that allows you to use up the spam host's bandwidth and rises the cost of hosting their site. So an eye for an eye: They use our bandwidth to send us crap, we'll use up their bandwidth and shut them down (hopefully).

Double Landing

The picture above is actually an untouched optical illusion of two planes parallel to each other in the sky. The original article regarding this image can be found here. Here is a snippet from the article:

(SNIP)
Here is a great optical illusion photo taken of a Lufthansa 747-400 and a United Airlines 757-200 that were on simultaneous approaches to runways 28L and 28R at San Francisco (SFO).

The separation requirement for flying parallel and simultaneous approaches is 225 meters (738 feet). These two aircraft are at a safe distance for the approaches they are each flying.

Due to the Lufthansa 747 being three times larger than the 757 plane and being slightly behind, gives us this incredible optical illusion.
(SNIP)

When I arrived at the Atlanta Airport on the 15 of March, I noticed another plane was flying beside us a few hundred feet away, holding steady. It wasn't until I noticed the landing gear that I realized both planes were to land simultaneously. It was a very very cool spectacle.

Also, I found this great website for aviation enthusiasts like myself. Have a good read!

I Probably Shouldn't Post This...

...but apparently my ability for logic is below average. So I am an illogical software developer. That's just great.

Your IQ Is 120

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Rain In Cupertino

It was actually raining in Silicon Valley when I arrived after my seminar at Redmond, Washington. It continued to drizzle the next day when I went through six interviews with the Microsoft SVC division at Mountain View. While I was in Cupertino during the summer of 2005, the valley didn’t rain for the entire three months. I drove to Apple campus after my interviews and stopped by DA3 to visit the Server people, specifically my former co-workers from the Apple Remote Desktop group.

I called Mike Margolis outside of DA3 to let me into the building. While I was waiting for my escort, Jussi came out of the building and he barely recognized me. He wore his favorite gecko shirt (but no matching shorts this time). We exchanged a few words. Upstairs, I met senior engineer Mike Stein (who recently got married in China) and Rob Cavanagh, ARD’s tester and lovable cynic. The project I worked on will be released sometime in the next few months, and I’m pretty excited. I found out that my former manager Robert is leaving Apple for good, and at the moment he no longer works with the ARD group. There were a few other people I wanted to visit, but there was simply no time. My flight was set to leave bright and early at 725h Wednesday morning. Sorry Jonathan...but I think you are coming back to Tallahassee at the end of March. If you are, I promise I’ll make it up to you then.

Dan Keen, Mike, Jason Townsend, and Joe Engel (the otter man) came along to the impromptu dinner. Joe complimented my bear hat and said that he likes it better than my panda hat because it looks more like an otter. Today incidentally is Joe’s birthday, he turned 25. :) I requested to eat at my favorite ramen restaurant in Mountain View called Ryowa, where a large bowl of very good ramen is served with slices of tender pork, seaweed, miso, bamboo and mushrooms. All this for only 6.50, which is cheap...for California. In Taiwan I can get the same item for little over a dollar. I used to go to Ryowa whenever I rode the Caltrain, because it is located within walking distance from the train station. It is also a tiny little place, hidden within the main downtown area. Afterwards, we went next door to a little cafe and got some bubble tea. Taiwanese people were everywhere, cheesy Chinese pop music played in the background and I ordered my drink in Mandarin.

AZN Yuppie Pride, baby.

Afterwards, we returned to campus and said our farewells.

What a weird and tiring trip, sunny in Seattle and rainy in Cupertino. Even though I’ve only been in touch with these people at various times throughout the year through IM and Facebook, that night it felt like I hadn’t left Cupertino at all.

One Offer

Pam Wilson from Northrop called me around 6 pm yesterday (Monday evening) to inform that I have an offer. That day I sat through a series of lectures from various personnel at Microsoft, and I was getting ready to go to Mountain View when she called. I asked her if I can wait until I return to Tallahassee to discuss with her regarding the offer.

ALICE reincarnates...

For your enjoyment, A.I. Nexus features various programs written in AIML to simulate conversations based on what you say. Some of the programs are really well written and gives quirky/poignant responses. Some of them crap out when I put emoticons in my conversation. It is interesting to see how the human thought process can be emulated.

Audiophiles vs. iPod

Stereophile recently published a short article regarding the companies lowering their standards of audio quality to cater to the more profitable market of portable music storage. There is a tint of pro-Sony message throughout the essay.

I'm 62% AZN

Almost Asian ...and your score is... 61%!

You might be an ABC or a Fobabee or even just someone who genuinely appreciates culture. Yay!! Keep watchin' that anime and eating that dimsum. Learn a few more words, and you'll beef up your aznpoints in no time.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 62% on aznpoints

Think you're AZN? Take the test!

Apple Featured Tallahassee!

Apple Front Page actually did a feature article on an advertisement company here in Tallahassee, FL called the Zimmerman Agency. Apparently, Curtis Zimmerman credited Apple Remote Desktop in the article, which is the team I worked for last summer during my internship.

Wow, Tallahassee is actually getting recognition for something NOT related to the presidential election!

Dark Lain With Pod

I drew this pic two years ago, with markers of 10 different shades of grey. I wish I have a scanner so the image would look better online. It's my rendition of Lain wearing a panda hat and a special edition U2 iPod.

More on "Scientific Papers"

Jonathan Shewchuk (the image above is I believe a mesh rendering of his face that can be found on his homepage. Please don't sue me...I'm a nice person...) wrote an essay that articulates better and adds to my list of grievances on my blog entry on the same subject. I'm actually in the painful process of trying to convert my professor's code from using LEDA to using Shewchuk's Triangle for generating a Delaunay mesh for a set of points.

Read the "Three Sins of Authors in Computer Science and Math" here.

By the way, Templates Are Evil and should never be allowed to exist. Ever.

Firefly Season 2

There is a survey being done as to how to deliver season 2 of Firefly. Please be sure to fill in the comment box regarding having the episodes in downloadable formats that you can store on your harddrive if you watch most of your TV on your computer (like I do). You can be an anonymous. Click here.

What is All Saint's?

Many of you who have seen my IM status "@ All Saint's" have asked me "What/where the heck is All Saint's?" So here is a small tidbit on this mysterious location that I frequent literally most of my waking hours.



All Saint's Cafe is ONE OF FIVE (thanks Evan) 24h place in the entire city of Tallahassee, FL, with Wal-Mart, Steak 'n Shake, Waffle-House and Walgreen as the other four. It is a perfect haven for me because they have free wireless and unlimited amount of Joe ready to be served in various fashion regardless of the hour. This is also the only place where the community is made up of artsy-fartsy students, activists, underground musicians, frat and sorority students, professors, and homeless people. However, because it is open 24h, the place gets a bit dingy and nasty. They try to clean the floor every night...but the chairs need to be replaced or go into an autoclave once a month.



All Saint's is also a part of the Railroad & Gaines community of locally owned restaurants, computer stores, music shops and clubs. In fact, the sandwich shop Fat Sandwich is conveniently located right next to the cafe when you're in the mood for something more substantial than cafe food.

Just one block down the road is the famous Railroad Square Art Park. A lot of studio art majors live there because of the community and the low cost of rent. Some of the apartments there are as low as less than 100 USD a month. However the reason the rent can be so low is because the facilities have no central heat/AC, and it is literally NEXT to a working railroad. I live several blocks away from the railroad, and I can still hear the train every time it crosses my area. I can only imagine what it's like living right next to it. Every first Friday of every month, the whole Park opens up to the public with free food and display of art galleries. There are vintage shops and art supply stores along side with stereo fitters and Porsche mechanics. It's pretty eclectic.

Hedy Lamarr

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

-- Hedy Lamar, inventor of WiFi in WWII, first actor to show her nude body and portray orgasm on film.

Cool Hats!

My online Mad Hatter Zet from Cosplay Casuals has a collection of wonderfully cute hat for the shameless adults like myself. I was so happy to see that Elise shared the same ideal that I do by owning several odd hats, ranging from jester's hat to the kitty hat.

Zet recently wrote me an email telling me that her daughter fell ill. My thoughts are to her and her daughter.

Here are the hats that I have purchased from her so far (for myself and my friends):

The "Were-Panda" hat. Personal favorite.


The Tenshi Kitty Hat...with wings!


The Bunny Hat. I gave this one to my friend Tyrese's daughter for Easter.

And last but definitely NOT least:

The Aviator Bear Hat.

The Panda and the Aviator Bear Hat are by far my most favorite hats of all times. If you're interested in getting a hat from Zet, click here for her website.

My Kingdom...For a VIDEO CARD!

I came back from Melbourne, FL on the 3rd of March after several interviews with Northrop Grumman, and I am pretty sure they will make an offer sometime next week. When Gil came by the airport to pick me up, he mentioned that we are stopping by CompUSA. I thought nothing of it.

When we arrived, we walked over to the video card section and immediately a red flag went up in my head. Gil bought a GeForce 6200GT not too long ago (October of 2005) so Civ 4 would be less jerky. Before that, two years ago he bought a 5700 FX for similar reason when he played Never Winter Night.

Gil's brother Jason recently acquired a MMORPG called Dungeons & Dragons Online, and created an account for Gil to log in and play. Now Gil pretty much spends all his free time playing the game, and has currently established himself as a level 5 Wizard. I know too well that as soon as I start playing, I will fail my classes. So I am exerting all my will-powers to NOT play the game. Still...I couldn't resist the temptation to create a character. ;) Right now I'm a level 1 Ranger because I haven't been on any real quest.

At the CompUSA store, Gil wanted to buy a GeForce 7800GT over-clocked. It retailed at over 340 USD, and Gil said it was a "good deal".

Check out the heat sink on this card:

Let me just say that this card is the biggest video card I've seen so far. I thought as time goes on, equipment should get smaller. Apparently, this rule does not apply to video cards. Each card is bigger than the last release. I'm pretty sure the really high end card will eventually take up the whole case.

I can't believe he actually got the card on the board...it looks like the AGP slot will be ripped out from the motherboard just from the sheer weight of that thing!!!

How does it look? Well, when you turn EVERYTHING up (high graphic detail, 4x anti-aliasing, etc), small metallic items such as belt buckles and buttons gleam and glitter beautifully. The individual blade of grass is more pronounced, and there seems to be diffused glow applied throughout game.



However, what makes this addiction for newer video cards so evil is that after 20 minutes of oooohs and aaaaahs, you get use to it and never notice the distinction again.

Project Open Sky

I fell in love with the Mehve when I first saw Valley of the Wind at the age of 12. At one point in my life, I thought about becoming an aerodynamics engineer precisely because I wanted to build and fly the glider before I die or become too cripple. It turns out that there is a small group of engineers in Japan who has dedicated themselves to making the Mehve. They named their endeavor Project Open Sky (not to be confused with POSKY, which is something completely different).

A while back, I discussed the wing design with my buddy Colin, who is an aviation hobbyist. We both came to the conclusion that a delta wing for a glider that supposedly operates at high velocity is near impossible. Most of the delta wing design are reserved for low speed gliders (usually without motor), or in the case of military aircrafts such as the B-2, they can only be fly-by-wire due to the unstable nature of the wing design. From the prototypes that I've seen so far, there is no control of the engine anywhere on the glider. There are some specifications that I think will be very difficult to meet. For example, you are supposed to be able to fly the glider with or without the use of the engine, and the aircraft is supposed to be light enough so that you can lift it over your head. In addition, the glider is supposed to be capable of vertical/short take-off like the Harrier II from the UK. Unless there is some alien technology that I am not aware of where a hunk of Pratt & Whitney JT9D engine can be as light as a feather, the ideal Mehve is still a distant dream. But I exaggerate...

It is possible that the engineers managed to control the engine thrust such that the glider will not reach the speed where the it becomes critical. If this is so and the Mehve will be in use while I am still alive, I will be very happy. They are currently seeking a female test pilot, 120 pounds or lighter, to debut the glider.

On Panda

"Variant of the common bear which is desperately trying to become extinct by only eating bamboo and hiding from zoos in the mountains of China. However, anti-evolution bastards Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund keep saving it from extinction, thus creating an undead variant of crappy bear which natural selection would have devoured long ago."

-- an entry on 'panda' in Uncyclopedia