Friday, December 05, 2008

Royal visit

The Queen and Prince Philip visited the university. Since the university is publicizing it as if it is the biggest event in the universe, I would save typing a few keystrokes and just point you to here for what it is all about, pictures, etc.

The Maths and CS Building has, I would say, the best view of the whole thing. One side of the building are offices with windows facing the library directly. Unfortunately mine is at the opposite side. Nevertheless I (and others) went to a room at a corner of the building, which used to be secretaries' office and now half-abandoned; it has a 270 degrees view of the whole thing, high enough to be above the crowd but low enough to see as closely as possible. See pictures below. (Btw, the day before, somebody had already put up a notice on the front door of the building saying there is no public viewing places inside. Depending on your interpretation, you can call it a lie.)




The thing I wondered is the (apparent lack of) security. Given our superb viewing angle, if anyone here is not that happy with them and has some weapon...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The landlord

Now that I've said about the agent, I'll go on to say about the landlord. It's a company; it may just be the same name, but the only thing I can find on Google is a US-based company listed in NYSE. (I tried to search for it in UK company registration, I do found a company of the same name but it is listed as a "dormant" company. Btw, I cannot even find the lettings agent on this list...)

This company calls itself "a newly-formed specialty finance company" that invest in residential mortgage loans, residential mortgage-backed securities, Alt-A mortgage loans, and CDOs. Hah. They made their IPO last year and their share prices have since fallen about 85%. Just last week they announced a secondary offering of 110,000,000 shares...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Parmars!

Parmars (http://www.parmarsestates.com) is a well-known lettings agent, presumably only working in the Leicester area, so this should not concern most people reading this; nevertheless I still want to share my experience with them here, so that people can know how exceptional their service is.

Before I say anything further, I must confess that the problems you may notice below, if any at all, are entirely due to my own fault. All other agents I've encountered so far are fairly reasonable, so I was not expecting such a unique experience with this particular one; I was more on the easy-going side and didn't follow rigidly the general principles dealing with lettings. Had I been more firm on those grounds, however, I wouldn't have a chance to experience this. Also, all these only happened after I paid 225 pounds (under various names of holding fee, application fee, etc.), so I was essentially tied to them and cannot change even if I wanted to. I suppose this is how they make sure their clients can receive their full suite of unbelievable services.

You would have assumed that the rent was the same as the one advertised. In fact, just before I paid that 225 pounds, they drafted a nice little list detailing all kinds of money I need to pay,
specifically the rent and the length of the contract (12 months). However, I was only told a few days later, when I went to sign the contract, that the advertised rent is only for the first 6 months and the rent will go up 7.5 pounds for the remaining 6 months. In fact, it is customary here for the rent to go up by (say) 25 pounds every 12 months, so such an increase is not a problem. What I particularly appreciate is this service of not bothering the client with such minor details until the point of signing.

The other point is that they offer you no choice of start date; you just have to start the tenancy on the date that the landlord/agent decided. Once again, this avoids the client the trouble of deciding when to move.

They also offer various fully automated service, e.g. asking me to sign on a completely blank standing order form. On another day I might have done it, but I was not in any good mood that day so I just turned down this nice help.

Here comes the main point which triggers me to write this article. When I viewed the property, which is a "part-furnished" flat, there was a table and some chairs (among other things). I was told that they will stay. Before I paid that 225 pounds of money, they assured me once again that they will stay (while they also specifically mentioned that some other thing will be removed). When I signed the contract and went to the property, the table and chairs have disappeared. I would like to praise their strict adherence to the legal point that you cannot trust anything that was said verbally (in this case, a staff member's assurance that the furniture will stay), but you need to put things in paper.

Actually, we did: like other agents, they drew up a list of inventory. One particular item on the inventory list is "dining table and 4 dining chairs". We signed the inventory list; strangely enough, we did it in the office, not at the property. I believe this is to avoid the client's trouble of going to so many different places. I believe nobody would bother to remove them anyway, so I trusted them and signed. So when I discovered the table and chairs were gone, I phoned them. They requested me, in their kindest possible tone, to go to their office the next day to sort it out.

The next day they sorted the matter out in the simplest way: they just crossed off that item from the inventory list! (see pic below) To try to make me feel better, they gave an explanation that the item was left behind by the previous tenant and had been subsequently picked up by those previous tenants. Unfortunately I'm a bit too stubborn to accept such an explanation as the tenant has clearly left long before I viewed the property. Then they went on to explain that "part furnished" means cooker and fridge only, any other thing there is only left beind by the previous tenant. Being not as intelligent as them, this somewhat confused me further because if that's the case then I'm not sure what's the point of putting so many items on the inventory list. I could only conclude that the agent/landlord are so nice that they decided to remove the items, at their own cost, so as to create more space for me. I have also learned from them that even things put in paper cannot be trusted.

In addition to these specific virtues, the general level of politeness of the staff also helped me learn how to improve my own patience and politeness too.

In conclusion, I really cannot recommend more about this lettings agent to you.



Inventory list. The red rectangle shows the thing that were crossed off after it was signed. (They countersigned it; I didn't.)

Monday, October 13, 2008

Moving house again, part 2

Another one I viewed (call it Flat B) turns out to be what I have to stick with unwillingly in the next 12 months. The strange thing about it is that it is exactly opposite to my first flat here (that's the one with bees, if you remember); see the map:



So it means I moved down the road, and after 18 months move back up to the same point again.

I don't really like the location - close to university but a bit too far from city center, and also a bit too quiet - but I told myself, if I could survive the first one for 18 months then I surely can survive this one for another 12 months? I think everything is so-so but acceptable, and since there are no other alternatives, I decided to go for it and paid some money.

The next day I viewed another property at the city center (yes, I decided to go for B already, but viewing doesn't cost money...). Let's call this one Flat C. This one is also nice, though not as good as Flat A. More importantly it is at the same price as Flat B; it is at a better location, newer, but unfurnished. If I have not put money into B, I would definitely go for C.

It turns out that maybe it's actually better to give away the deposit - partly my mistake and partly due to the agent...

Moving house again, part 1

I'm not dead just yet, although not posted for a long time. After spending months writing something which I myself don't believe in, I have to immediately start a process of finding accommodation. It looks like I have to move house every 18 months (although I really hope the next one will be shorter than 18 months - it will become clear in the next posts), this time because the landlord wants to repossess the property.

Before I go on about how bad this flat-hunting process turned out, I should say that I like the current one very much - it is in a very convenient location, within walking distance to everything, and I find out that I like living in a noisy city center area much more than some more "rural" ones. (It can be quite scary that at night, when you look out of the window, all you see are some trees and shadows waving. Also, I seem to enjoy watching pedestrians, and the current flat has a great view on a busy point in the street. Shops in city center also close as "late" as 8pm, which is more convenient.) Thus, despite some minor problems (like fire alarm ringing at any time it likes, some idiots on the street playing with your intercom, and a bright orange colour scheme in the bathroom), I would be very happy to stay longer if possible.

The city center "regeneration" has created a whole lot of very nice flats, but for one reason or the other I always missed them. One flat that I viewed (let's call it Flat A) is in city center, has very very new furnishing and I like it very much. Except that the price is expensive. After several other viewing disappointments, I think maybe it's time I pay a bit more, and want to commit to it. Only when I actually go to their office and do the application do they try all sorts of tricks to squeeze more money out from me; I refused, and thus no deal.

As you will soon find out from my other posts, other agents are equally bad, or worse...

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

垃圾會08

由於今年本人沒投票的分兒,所以在此嘈幾句算了... 本 blog 讀者(如有的話)大概早知本人立場。無他,那XX黨是惡霸,自然要支持其對家了...

(1) 獨立之謎

何解這麼多人這麼容易就幾乎可以當選?只要你自稱「獨立」,加上是「名人」就行,尤以此兩人為甚:

勞永樂 - 因廿三條事件被醫學界選民唾棄而未能成功連任醫學界議席,之後忽然化身民主鬥士,無間道得很...

龐愛蘭 - 此人更無厘頭,睜著眼講大話說自己獨立也有這麼高支持度...

(2) 唔做野之謎

長毛之類經常被指「唔做野」。我真不明白怎樣才算是「做野」。 抬棺材是「搞事」,議案投反對票也是「搞事」。我只希望議員們能夠:

You don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no! You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away!

正因為大部分人都不敢 make a stand (包括我,連XX黨大名也不敢說啊),才更需要選這些人出來代替我們「搞事」...

(The link should make no sense to most people, so don't click it.)

(3) 我只想拜託各位新界東選民,不要投劉江華,唔該...

(4) 順便一貼:
鏡 頭 一 轉 , 民 建 聯 譚 耀 宗 、 張 學 明 等 人 在 台 上 扮 八 仙 演 話 劇 嘲 諷 有 人 想 分 裂 中 國 , 主 持 搞 gag 問 : 「 我 地 唔 係 咁 蠢 , 係 唔 係 ? 」 台 下 高 呼 「 係 ! 」 主 持 忙 糾 正 「 唔 係 」 。 蔡 素 玉 是 片 中 女 主 角 , 蔡 菜 子 對 婦 女 選 民 堅 稱 , 今 個 選 舉 是 場 「 奪 權 與 非 奪 權 之 戰 」 , 民 主 派 一 旦 取 得 優 勢 , 香 港 的 政 局 會 不 穩 、 國 際 評 級 會 下 降 、 股 票 會 跌 、 失 業 率 升 … … 選 舉 論 壇 是 戲 肉 , 當 年 大 家 力 爭 2007/2008 年 雙 普 選 , 蔡 菜 子 咄 咄 迫 問 民 主 派 的 余 若 薇 : 「 如 果 2012 有 普 選 你 地 支 唔 支 持 ? 」 今 天 , 民 建 聯 支 持 的 是 2017/2020 年 雙 普 選 。
(apple 3/9/2008)

其實觀眾無錯啊,那 proposition 是「我地唔係咁蠢 」,主持問是否同意,那當然是「係」嘛...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

丐幫幫主!



其實我不認同社民連的某些立場,特別是經濟方面,只是我覺得現在的傳媒全都很「乖」,對社民連只有負面報導,令佢地淪落到只有在那個冇人聽的網上電台同埋去榕樹頭講故... 好似呢D咁大快人心嘅場面,如果唔係因為選舉要公平分配時間,邊有電視台會播?其他那些民主派,個個咁錫身,邊會咁鬧?

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

degree inflation

I think I should keep my mouth shut, so here are just some links:

Watchdog: degree grades arbitrary

Email leak of degree inflation

Or maybe I could say just a little...

The one reason that I've seen to support the current degree classification instead of GPA is: "students' effort and qualities cannot be represented by a single number". Well, if it cannot be represented by a number then why can it be represented by a even more meaningless label such as "upper second"? (Those labels remind me of the credit crunch crisis: there are only two quality levels for mortgages, prime and sub-prime. They may sound like "very good" and "not as good", but actually they mean "acceptable" and "rubbish".)

If it cannot be represented by a single number then give me an array of numbers then. As someone involved in admissions, I like neither GPA nor degree grades. Just give me all the marks and the average.

As for "arbitrary grades", the following is a purely hypothetical situation:
[1 hour 45 minutes into a meeting]
A: Now we have a Mr. X who got this set of marks, which is just a bit below 2-1 degree, should we consider putting him to 2-1?
B: But according to our regulations, rule 37.1.2(a)(iii) says he needs at least N marks in M subjects in order to be considered as a borderline case.
A: Yes but if we raise this mark by 0.5 then his marks satisfy the condition in rule 4.69.12(f)(iv), after we execute this rule then his marks satisfy rule 15.1.2(b)(ii), after executing this rule then his marks satisfy rule 37.1.2(a)(iii) which means he can get a 2-1!
Of course, it certainly isn't like this in reality, is it?

Sunday, August 17, 2008

A trivial algorithm

I seldom talk about my research here. First, there's not much (...); and second, most of them are on very simple (a.k.a. "fundamental") problems. Recently, we have a paper where the "main" result is so simple that some of the reviewers' comments were:
  • simple to the point of triviality
  • The new algorithm is almost trivial. It can be seen as a "real" result only due to the fact that several researchers tried to design improved algorithms in the past but did not succeed.
(Actually, I plan to put these comments on the slides in the talk.)

So here is the problem. A set of equal-length intervals arrive online. Each interval carries a weight. The objective is to choose a set of non-overlapping intervals in an online manner such that the total weight of the chosen intervals is maximized. An interval can be discarded (preempted) in favour of another newly-arriving interval.

A deterministic 4-competitive algorithm is known and is optimal (Woeginger, TCS, 1994). The question is: give a better randomized algorithm.

Our trivial algorithm is 2-competitive. Since it is so trivial I'll not describe it here but leave it for you to imagine. Either people do not care about the problem (except this, this and this) or people have come up with this many times and didn't bother to write about it...

Friday, August 08, 2008

cosplay @ leicester...

我仲以為香港先有「動漫節」呢味嘢, 點知今日係學校出現大批 cosplay 人物... 原來本校歷年嚟都主辦呢項「盛事」, 仲要係全UK最大 (第二樣又唔見咁叻...), 只係通常每年呢個時候我都唔係到, 所以先唔知. 我一行入 canteen, 見到一大班鬼仔鬼妹係到扮架仔架妹, 感覺很 surreal...

Thursday, August 07, 2008

What should I post?

I originally hoped that this blog can contain posts on a variety of topics - academia, politics, fun, teaching or even research. Over time however it becomes more or less a place of complaining about my miserable life, mostly about travelling. I hope to change this, and to make sure I do, here is a list of topics that I will post in the near future:

- how algorithms teaching went here
- project supervision and project reports
- politics: upcoming Legco'08 election

I'm not so sure how I can write about the teaching thing though, since there are many things like this that I can write but I don't want to get fired just yet.

Also, in order to update this blog more frequently without putting in any content myself, i would just quote other people's stuff that I've come across.

Here is today's quote:

曾遭少女記者責備:「說什麼『行將就木』,誰聽得明?快死了就說快死了,行將就木,說了就學問很好麼?」
(倪匡, apple daily 07/08/2008)

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Another flight delay experience, part 2

Next day:

09:30 This was when the coach was supposed to depart but it didn't until 09:50. Didn't matter anyway since there's absolutely no reason to go back to the airport so early anyway when the flight is rescheduled to depart on 13:15.

And to add to the potential trouble, the airline was scheduled to move to T1 on this exact date. Who knows what more trouble lies ahead of us...

10:00 You cannot believe how quick the re-check-in is. Apparently they have called in every single staff member available.

10:15 Then after security etc. at T1, we have to wait another several hours. As this is Heathrow, they won't tell you which gate it is until the last minute. In this case the electronic board sayid"gate opens 11:45".

There were a few laptop-friendly places in the waiting area - and when I plug mine in, nothing happened, and I was fearing the worse that the same adapter/fuse problem from last year happened again... Fortunately, everyone else failed, and it was just that the sockets actually gave no electricity...

11:45 The electronic board will usually only show two things: "Go to gate N"; or "Gate opens xx:yy". But at 11:45, our flight showed... "Please wait". Which can mean only one thing - delay...

12:40 They finally told us which gate it was.

13:15 Supposed take-off time and we were just beginning boarding.

13:25 Everyone was given a box of chocolates when boarding.

14:05 Plane finally started to move. A crew threw his fist to the air and shouted "yeah!". Come on, calm down, it is still on the ground...

14:40 Finally, the plane took off. Last night's hotel was just next to the runway!

Overall, my feeling is that they do all superficial things very well, like grabbing every single staff to stand around just to say good morning, and give you chocolates, etc. But they are extremely inefficient in actually sorting things out, and tried to cover up the true scale of the engineering problem until the very end.

Update: actually, I just realized my disaster in 2003 also happened in July...

Another flight delay experience, part 1

Perhaps I should have learnt not to fly in July. You may wish to look back my last year's experience first to refresh your memory before proceeding. This time I was flying to HK on a direct flight on Air New Zealand. And this is what happened. (All times approximate - just guessing from impression)

19:30 Arrived at airport, after a rather slow and confusing tube journey. As you may know, the same train platform can serve trains going to different destinations. As it turns out, the sign at the front of the train, the elctronic board at the platform, and the voice announcement inside the train, told me three different places.

I think I actually have never been to T3, and (perhaps due to some operations moved to T5) it seemed surprisingly refreshing. The check-in queue was almost non-existent and I was through within a minute!

21:05 Scheduled take-off time. Boarding was fairly normal and everyone was on-board.

21:40 After idling for 40 minutes or so, the captain finally spoke of some sort of "engineering problem", and said they were working on it.

21:50 Then they admitted we had to get off the plane first, but said we can get back "soon". I didn't believe it. We went back to the gate.

22:10 After even more delay, it was finally admitted that the flight had to be delayed until the next day. There was a fuel line problem and they had to wait for another plane to arrive on the next day. It was then announced that we will be given hotel accommodation; as you may have expected, there were some cheering from HK guys...

22:30 We were patiently waiting for the "logistics" arrangements, when they made an "unusual" decision. They realized it was too late in night, it wasn't possible for the hotel to provide meals... but wait, isn't the in-flight meal already here, huh? Brilliant, just ask all the passengers to re-board the plane to take the dinner!

22:45 I was eagerly waiting for having an in-flight meal on ground for the first time, when they made yet another disappointing decision that, at the end, they decided against that idea. But there was no other arrangements - we were supposed to be kept hungry until the next day. So we left the airport. First, we need to go through immigration without actually flying. Long queue as usual. And I wasn't sure what to write on the landing card... I mean, "departure port"?
I wrote "Heathrow"... and the arrival plane number... er did I arrive by any plane?

23:10 Next it was to collect baggage, without flying that is. The trouble didn't stop here - the conveyor belt didn't work, and we just walked around the belt full of luggage already scattered around (for some reason). Only after another 15 minutes they said they are getting "another engineer" to fix it. I didn't think it needed any fix - it just took someone to turn it on...

23:30 Finally we got the luggage...

00:15 ...and it took another hour or so standing in the street to wait for the coach.

00:20 It just took a few minutes to arrive at the hotel. But then had to wait another hour for checkin... At least this time round we were not standing outside in the street at 30 degrees Celsius in bright sunlight...

01:00 Finally found myself inside the hotel room.

...

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Euro'08

Ok, so Euro'08 ended. I'm fairly happy to see Spain win, although I don't really care who wins as long as it is not Portugal or Italy. I feel that these two teams are just full of divers and liars, cheating their way through in recent competitions. So it is good to see them being knocked out in the last 8.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The French coach

Euro'08 isn't over yet, but this is bound to be one of the funniest thing. Clearly there is some problem with the French coach, not just the person but also the vehicle:

Friday, June 06, 2008

Legoland windsor

During the week 19th - 25th May (yes it's well past but I only have time to write about it now...) I've been to 5 cities (towns?) in 7 days. That's probably more than what I did in the past 7 months before it. But for various reasons I'm not going to describe all of that here, but only talk about Legoland at Windsor.

You would have thought that, as a Lego fan, I would have been to there long before. No, because there isn't actually much lego there and most of the stuff are quite silly and is targeted at small children. I mean can you imagine yourself going there alone, and stand in a queue with lots of 3-year-olds... Also the money could rather be spent on buying some half-decent sets. But this time round, we went together so it may look a bit less silly...

It turns out that this must be low season, with very little people and no queue anywhere. We finished rather quickly and didn't actually do much. What happened include: (1) seeing real ducks swimming leisurely in the rivers in Miniland; (2) unknowingly got on a roller coaster; (3) repeatedly taking a rather boring "train".

I'm a bit disappointed with the "big shop", it's not that big after all, and I was expecting to get hold of (literally; just grab it on hands, not buying...) some exclusive ultra-expensive sets, which there didn't seem to be any.

Elsewhere on the same day I had some fun with some other animals, including a cat which seem enjoy scratching its head with my jeans, and geese (or whatever water-birds they are) with me blocking their path...

Sunday, May 04, 2008

A fully deserved relegation

According to Wikipedia, Leicester City is among a small number of clubs (with all others being big names) to have never played outside of the top two tiers in English football. This ends today when they are relegated to League One. A fully deserved result, sadly to say. I said previously how bad the performance on pitch was. When you look at the management it is even more ridiculous.

In early 2007 someone bought the club. You would expect him to spend lots of money to bring the club to Premier League, huh? He might have spent some money but I didn't notice him doing anything other than firing managers, and getting worse and worse ones. In 2007 alone there are 7 different managers including caretakers. I wonder whether he really knows what he is doing.

The latest manager is little better than a clown. He appears to have little or no footballing sense. Every time he appeared on TV or quoted or newspapers/websites, he said things like "think positive", "needs fans support" etc as if talking or cheering up can win you a match.
He is still in the manager position only because there were already too many managers fired, or maybe because no one want to pick up such a job.

Now that relegation is confirmed, may someone fire him? And if the owner is not interested, perhaps he can quit too?

Thursday, April 24, 2008

World Snooker Championship Ding v Fu

This Tuesday I was at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield to watch the first round match of Ding Junhui vs. Marco Fu. The match was best out of 19 frames played over two sessions, and I was only in the morning session (you never know when the evening session will finish - well past midnight is not unusual, and you don't even know how many frames is going to be played. Moreover my only purpose of the trip is that now I can claim that I've been there.)

I have to get up rather early to go there by train. I just don't know who invented the complex UK train ticket pricing system. Not only two single tickets can be much cheaper than a return ticket, but also it can be much cheaper if you find some intermediate stops and buy two tickets separately (even though, in my case, the more expensive "single" ticket automatically produced by the system involved exactly the same station changes and same trains). Maybe next year I will set an algorithms exam question on that.

The match venue. It wasn't quite full, although it has rather few seats. In fact there's already more people than I expected. I mean who bother watching two Chinese players in a first round match on a Tuesday morning? I was allocated a seat at the "top of the mountain" at the corner. It isn't that bad, since (1) the top is only the 15th row anyway, (2) that gave me better legroom (yeah you have to sit there and keep quiet for time longer than many flights), (3) I can see both tables, and (4) I probably wasn't caught on camera.

The referee was Michaela Tabb, popular among fans for reasons I better not elaborate here. Fu didn't start too well, and went from bad to worse, trailing 1-5 at a point. But then all of a sudden he got 3 consecutive frames with two centuries. So it was 4-5 at the end of the session. For some reasons the British fans there (at least the few beside me) seem to be quite supportive of Fu.

At the evening Fu finally lost 9-10, but that's not too bad and it looks like he can get to top 16 next year.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Oasis airline

我由一開始就覺得這間公司很「奇怪」。I mean,牧師開航空公司?起初也不敢搭,後來見沒有墜機,又沒有倒閉,正想一試,就在事發前一日,我剛在其網站找便宜機票,正想付錢,怎知網站卻「正在維修」...當時我還媽媽聲,原來逃過一劫...要是早了一天, 便已成為苦主了...

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Leicester 0-2 Hull

I have never watched a football match for this city's team before, but I did it today, because (1) it is a holiday, (2) they are doing a promotion with cheap tickets, and (3) I don't like to watch championship matches but maybe next year it will be at an even lower level... So anyway I went, without knowing a single player.

The performance was, simply, awful. The other side wasn't playing very well anyway but ours was just plain bad. It looked more like a volleyball match; the ball was almost always in the air. Alright, this is "English football", but then they couldn't get their headers right - just standing there waiting for the ball to drop onto their heads when the opponents jump and get the ball. On the few occasions when the ball actually get passed on the ground, it was passed directly to the opponent's feet; almost every pass went wrong. I don't remember when's the last time I watched a match as bad as this for a full 90 minutes.

There are maybe two good players, including the goalkeeper which made brilliant saves including a penalty. Without him it would easily have been 0-4. But the rest is poor, the midfield almost invisible and I don't seem to remember any non-trivial shots on target at all. No wonder they are struggling against relegation. Just can't understand how this team can beat WBA 4-1 and Watford also 4-1...

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Earthquake?!

It was near 1am in the morning, and I was on the bed and would have fallen asleep any second if not for that. Then there's some strange noise and my bed was shaking. Given that just one day before that was a burglar upstairs, I thought, "again?", but it didn't feel like so. The shaking was quite horizontal, and after going on for a few more seconds, I still had no idea what happened. I sat up (still on the bed), then it got quiet. I didn't bother to get up and look outside - everywhere was very quiet, unusually quiet that is. I then just tried to go back to sleep. Only after a few minutes I started to wonder, "Could it be an earthquake? But this is UK right, how can there be an earthquake?" It's only until the next morning that I knew it is an earthquake.

This is my first experience of an earthquake (that I can feel). Rather "interesting", actually (if no harm or damage is made)...

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

爆格

擒晚八點左右,屋企突然有人拍門,我開門一看,見係一個警察,我以為國際刑警真係黎拉我了,點知原來係樓上某單位俾人爆格,問我有冇留意到乜野。照計街上嘅人冇理由睇到二樓屋裏面有乜野,唔通佢random咁揀一戶黎爆? 如果佢不幸揀中我到就一定非常失望了,成屋冇一樣野值錢 (除左 D 絕版嘅... 不過應該冇乜人知呢 D 野值錢...)

Monday, February 25, 2008

哦,你這是學歷歧視!

周融:
「我唔可以畀一歧視呢拼搏精神 人得逞,所以而家我站起來,話畀大家聽,我今日正式通知獵頭公司,我申請做 廣播處長呢個職位!至於我得唔得,無 關係!因為我只要證明一樣,一個無大學學位的人如果肯去申請,敢去申請的話,證明一樣,就係呢個世界唔係學歷歧視,唔係話拼搏的人畀人藐視、畀人歧 視、畀人侮辱。
(明眼人一睇就知道係移花接木嘅疑似星島日報報道)
雖然概念略有不同, 不過我一見到呢單新聞就諗起N年前李天命已講過:
... 要是他們拒絕 我們的申請,我們就質問:「為什麼不請我?」他們說:「你沒有合資格的學歷。」我們抗議:「哦,你這是學歷歧視!」(眾笑)他們回應:「我們不 是歧視你,因為聘請條件上已經列明了這些標準。」我們反駁:「這並不證明你沒有歧視,你的聘請廣告本身就有歧視,那是學歷歧視,排斥沒有學歷的人,剝奪了 他們的『平等機會』呀!」

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Intergalactic Customer Survey

Companies in a certain part of the universe run a survey called "Intergalactic Customer Survey". The suvey is completed by current customers, and this forms part of the input to the "league tables", and this is very important for the companies because future customers choose companies based on their position in the league tables. Well, they are not actually companies and customers in an ideal world, but effectively they are now.

Interestingly, it is to the advantage of the current customers doing the survey to make the score as high as possible, since this also affects their own reputation: "I joined such a good company!". However, customers in a certain department of a certain company do not seem to realize the importance of this "positive feedback loop" as much as other customers, and the department feels they should give some "incentive" to the customers: proteins, carbohydrates, and cardon dioxide.

It remains to be seen whether this is effective...

Sunday, February 03, 2008

法律面前...

死啦,我而家好驚... 我駛唔駛返香港自首呢?如果唔係國際刑警黎拉我個喎... 我又係窮人,今次實要... (話時話,創作「法律面前,窮人含x」嗰位仁兄真係創意十足,言簡意賅)

實不相瞞,本人電腦內有大量相片。至於係唔係淫穢不雅呢... 這個也不大重要了,反正警察拉人之前也不會先揾淫審處評級。況且啊「有志者特警成」口講的就係法律,點知佢聽日又有乜野新法律?

認真,我覺得呢個政府經常借啲意企圖加強控制互聯網,以達致「中港融合」... 香港人必須時刻警惕...

Friday, January 18, 2008

First post 2008

So, haven't blogged for a very long time. Perhaps it might be a better idea to blog less frequently but to write something more meaningful every time. Maybe not this one though.

As the first post of 2008, I will try to turn complaints to some "positive thinking". Coming back to UK again (yes I've been to HK once again), at least I wasn't on the flight which crash-landed at Heathrow, so it's not bad. Even though it was delayed by a full hour for another reason. This almost made the pre-bought train tickets becoming useless, except that, rather miraculously, my luggage was one of the first few to come out. This by itself was not good enough, and so for the first time I got on the Heathrow Express to catch the train. Paying for that may be better than to pay for an almost arbitrary fare of a train ticket. And when I was back home, the light bulbs all worked properly!