Saturday, May 29, 2010

"Sex and the City 2" movie!!

Sex and the City 2 is rated 16% on RottenTomatoes. Megan went to see it, and pronounced it "terrible". So it was with lowered expectations that I saw it last night.



It was fantastic! I loved it!

I remember reading a newspaper article about Star Wars: Phantom Menace when it came out. One of the fans queueing outside Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood said, "You could show me two hours of Obi-Wan Kenobi mowing his lawn, and I would still go see it."

That's how I felt about the Sex and the City movie. It could be two hours of the ladies sitting in a diner eating flapjacks and discussing their romantic past, and I would still go to see it.



But it was not two hours of diner-eating. It was wonderful! There was a scene where Carrie wakes up Miranda to rescue Samantha from the consequences of her shenanigans. Instead of getting irritated at being woken up in the middle of the night, Miranda jumps out of bed and says, "I'm on it!" It was so sweet.

I also thought the way it portrayed relationships during the first half of the movie was realistic. The way people pester each other to change their behavior, and then sometimes the pestering results in the other person withdrawing out of feeling criticized. It seems realistic.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Sunfire Offices

I'm happy to announce that my friend Yishan Wong and I have created a co-working office in downtown Mountain View. It is called Sunfire Offices, and is located in downtown Mountain View. It will fit 20 to 30 engineers, designers, and other aggressively productive people to work on startups and independent projects.


Southeast corner of the office.

We're looking to create an office community where people can create great stuff, as well as explore opportunities for what they're doing next. The office is offered free of charge and paid for by our sponsors, a mix of angels and seed-stage investors who want to build relationships with people who are productive and entrepreneurial.

The only obligation for using the office is to attend the weekly networking mixer where one of the sponsors or a company in their portfolio will have the opportunity to give a demo or a pitch. These companies might be looking for publicity, product feedback, or recruiting.

Due to limited space, we are currently only offering services on an invite-only basis. Right now, we're extending invites to people within our networks (mostly ex-Google, ex-PayPal, and ex-Facebook) who have use for such a space. We are taking referrals from people we know.

The space is 2200 square feet and located on the 7th floor in downtown Mountain View, offering a great view and close proximity to Caltrain and food. If you have a track record of building great stuff and especially if you've worked with one of us in the past, we welcome you to inquire about visiting and to see if it's a place you'd like to use.

For more information, you can check out our site at www.sunfire-offices.com, and we'll also be having an office-warming party on June 24th.


View of Castro Street below.


Fort built by Chris, a UI designer working from Sunfire Offices. He made this from cardboard boxes that the office furniture came in.

Friday, May 21, 2010

let's make sure this SMS conversation passes validation

My parents and brother are on a Chinese-run tour of the East Coast right now. It is a six-day tour, conducted by bus. They started from New York City, rode down to Washington DC, and will soon return north to Boston and Niagara Falls.

This tour group does a promotion of "buy 2 get one free", as long as all three people stay in the same hotel room. Last year my parents and I went on a tour run by the same company, for the western US.





This morning I got a SMS from my brother:

Tom: "Might need to take a vacation after this one to get rid of stress."

Me: "Oh no, what is wrong?? Is it because you have to wake up at 6am?"

Tom: "No, that's fine. It's that we spend 90% of the time on the bus and get like 30 minutes at each stop."

Tom: "We got 60 minutes at the Met, 25 minutes on Capitol Hill. Now 30 minutes at the Smithsonian. What a joke."

Me: "Are you meeting other tourists on the bus?"

Tom: "No i am meeting no one else. I am just filled with disappointment."

Me: "Hahaha what were you hoping for?"

Tom: "I don't know. I gave up 5 days on a beach in Hawaii to spend time with our parents."

Tom: "There better be some divine karma that is getting direct deposited as we speak."

Me: [laughing]

Tom: "XML"

Me: "What do you mean by XML? FML? Did your iphone auto-correct?"

Tom: "FML. </>"

...

I can't tell if that last part is him making a squinty maximum-frustration face, or if he is writing the closing tag for his XML schema.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

shrek forever after (no spoilers)

I watched an advance screening of "Shrek Forever After" tonight.



It was amazing! The movie did an incredible job conveying emotional states (desolation, despair, missing a loved one horribly), without being heavyhanded. It was reminiscent of how "Up" used a montage to display the arc of a marriage over decades.

I'm impressed that the fourth installment of the film turned out to be the best in the series. Highly recommend!

Monday, May 17, 2010

law of big numbers

Over IM with my brother.

Me: "I think Cynthia is going to regret leaving Bill one day, when she realizes he is in the top .001% of men."

Tom: "Only 1 in 1000? I'd give him better than that."

Me: "0.001 PERCENT."

Tom: "Oh right. 1 in 100,000."

Me: "Actually when you write it like that, it seems like it should be better than that. Maybe .0001% of men."

Tom: "I don't know if it's better than that. He would be one of the top 150 men in the US."

Me: [lol]

Thursday, May 13, 2010

argh cable

My housemate suggested that we upgrade our cable, so that we can watch the World Cup this summer.

This morning the cable guy came and installed a HD box. He cycled through all the channels, and they looked awesome! All evening, I was looking forward to coming home and watching my new clear HD channels.



We have three guests over tonight, and we cannot get the cable box to work. There is no video on the television. The only thing I did after the cable guy left was to turn the TV off and back on.

Frustration!

We've tried rebooting the cable box, using the television menu to switch the audio input, turning the TV off and on numerous times.

At first, my guests made jokes about how many Google engineers it takes to turn a television on. But now we are so frustrated that it is beyond joking.

UPDATE: The Comcast guy replaced my HD box, and now the cable works.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Mother's Day cuteness

I called my mother on Sunday to wish her a happy Mother's Day.

My mother: "Your brother called two hours ago."

Me: "Yeah, I saw him yesterday in LA."

Mom: "How is he?"

Me: "He's on a fitness kick. He's down to 13% body fat."

Mom: "What is your body fat?"

Me: "I haven't measured in a long while. Last time I checked, it was 22%."

Mom: "Yours is much higher than Tom's, but you are not much fatter than him. Gosh, my body fat must be at least 50%."

Me: [laughing really hard]

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

you know what would go well with this pasta? Warcraft II

Yesterday CM and I cooked pasta.



Afterwards I was washing the sauce skillet. As I poured out the dishwater, a bit splashed onto the leftover penne pasta in a collander in the sink.

CM: [reaching for the penne to put into a tupperware]

Me: "I spilled some dishwater on it, but I already rinsed it off."

CM: [jerkily pulling penne out of the sink]

Me: "You want to wash it again, don't you? I can tell by your hesitant motions."

CM: "Okay, yes." [washing the penne]

Me: "I could tell because just now you were like those AI characters in video games, when they have two conflicting goals. They go into hysteresis and start twitching."

CM: "That's not very good AI."

Me: "It's actually extremely good AI, because it exactly modeled what you just did as a human. It would've passed the Turing test."

CM: "No. When I play Warcraft II and send my peon to mine gold, and he starts twitching, I don't wonder to myself whether he's experiencing dissonance between obeying my orders versus going home to his wife!"

Sunday, May 02, 2010

lillers



Hanging out with Lillers on Friday night.

Lillers explained beer pong to me. Apparently you throw ping pong balls into a cup of beer, and then drink the beer. Won't the ping pong ball be smushed against your nose, rolling beer onto your face while you drink? Also the ping pong ball is unsanitary. You wouldn't go around licking a bunch of ping pong balls, so why would you drink beer after dunking ping pong balls into the beer?

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

lol laguna beach

"That summer, my friends and I went through our 'Laguna Beach' phase."

"You went to the beach every day and picked up women?"

"No, what I meant is that we watched the show 'Laguna Beach'."

Monday, April 26, 2010

pragmatic dad

Two days ago, talking to my dad on the phone.

Dad: "Your brother keeps flying out of town on weekends. He went to Chicago recently."

Me: "他对 Irvine 还不熟, 没什么事做。 比较孤独。" (He's still new to Irvine, and doesn't have a lot to do there. It gets lonely.)

Dad: "孤独才好看书!" (But lonely times are the best times for studying!)

Me: [laughing]

Dad: "All of my useful knowledge was information I studied during lonely times."

Friday, April 23, 2010

Happy birthday to the best little brother

My brother is 23 years old today!

A montage of previous birthdays and occasions:




18th


20th


21st

As a birthday gift, I enrolled him in a six-month "Gourmet Food of the Month" club. The first shipment arrived on Tuesday: two bottles of premium vinaigrette dressing.

A new friend laughed at my gift choice. "This is clearly the gift YOU want," he said, "not what a 23-year-old guy wants. This would be like if he got you an xbox fighting game for your birthday. He would be saying to his friends, 'She'll like it, right? It's a really good fighting game.'"

This planted a seed of doubt in my mind. But Tom sounded really excited about his vinaigrette, and said I was the best sister and gift-giver ever, so hopefully it's not too bad.

Next year I'll give him an xbox fighting game.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

easiest way to get a piglet?

(Thanks to Melinda Owens for forwarding.)



Original article.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

girltalk

Talking to my friend Melody about guys, over sushi.

Melody: "Sam [her boyfriend from years ago] used to bring up his ex-girlfriends all the time. He would go on and on about how they were so beautiful. It really made me jealous."

Me: "Your name is the one that he tattooed onto his body, so I think you had nothing to worry about."

Melody: "That's probably why the girl he dated after me hated me so much."

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

previous years went to "The Matrix" and "Crash"

Coffee with CM.


Me: "I want to see this J. Lo movie, 'The Backup Plan'."

CM: "Is that the one with Steve Carrell?"

Me: "No, that's 'Date Night'. By the way, The Backup Plan is not about backing up your data."

CM: "I would be stunned if it were. Can you imagine? [in theatrical voice] 'And the Academy Award... for Best Software Advice ... goes to The Backup Plan!"

Me: [laughing]

CM: "'... for ushering in a new age of software data protection.'"

Saturday, April 10, 2010

i can sing (proof)

After my three singing lessons, I can now sing. It's still not GOOD, but at least people won't listen to me finish a song and ask, "What song were you trying to sing exactly?"

I'd say my singing was previously a F, and now a C-. That's a lot of improvement!

For all those who said "mp3 or it didn't happen":

Thursday, April 08, 2010

because that's what the engineer Barbie would've done

I am amused by this Wall Street Journal article (sent to me by JKL) about the recent computer-engineer Barbie:

Barbie's maker, Mattel Inc., thought it would be interesting to ask young girls who visited the Barbie.com Web site to vote on what the doll's next career should be. Mattel gave them a choice of architect, anchorwoman, computer engineer, environmentalist and surgeon. All told, more than 600,000 votes were cast during a four-week period this past winter.

The voting was open to anyone, and nobody could vote more than once. But by the end of the first week, a growing flood of adult votes for computer engineer Barbie trumped the popular choice. Female computer engineers who learned about the election launched a viral campaign on the Internet to get out the vote and ensure Barbie would join their ranks.

How did they ensure that nobody could vote more than once? Only allowing one vote per IP address? Requiring registration using an email address, with a confirmation check?

I sincerely hope that the result was not due to a grass roots campaign by female computer engineers across the country. I hope that it was due to a single female computer engineer writing a script to vote 300,000 times, using tor to route the votes to come from different IP origins, and automatically submitting the registration form using throwaway mailinator accounts.

the odds are still promising

Last weekend, while eating noodles with my brother.

Tom: "Mom wants to set me up with the 19-year-old daughter of her friend Mai. But that girl lives two hours from me! I said I'm not interested because it's too far."

Me: "Mai's daughter... Wait, is it Sabrina?"

Tom: "Yes."

Me: "Oh my God, Sabrina is sooo cute!"

Tom: [looking regretful] "Really?"

Me: "At least she was at four years old, when I last saw her."

Tom: [very exasperated expression]

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

2012 (spoilers!)

Two nights ago, I watched the movie "2012". I was excited about seeing the special effects, and the epic storyline.



*** SPOILERS BELOW! ***

Instead it was the most disappointing movie I've ever seen.

Not because the effects were bad -- quite the contrary! The tidal waves, earthquakes, and fires all looked completely realistic. It was because the movie introduces you to personable characters that you slowly develop an affinity for, and after you genuinely like them, it kills them off one by one. Each is killed in a more gruesome way than the last.

I really liked the Russian pilot Sasha. He bravely lets everyone exit the plane before him, and is narrowly saved from falling ... before dying in a fire.

Then the Russian girl with the little dog. I like how she gets more confident as the movie goes on! She gets trapped in a watery compartment, but it looks as though she'll get rescued just in the nick of time... except she doesn't and drowns.

The sweet Indian scientist we met at the start of the film embraces his incredibly pretty wife and kisses his son... just before they are all killed in a tidal wave.

The stepfather starts off seeming like a jealous douche, but gradually we see that he's actually a good man struggling with being a stepparent to two young kids... But not any more, after he's crushed in giant gears.

What the hell!

You know how some people watch movies as escapism from their lives? After seeing this movie, you'll want to escape back to your life.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Tom predicts I would reach for a hamburger, and he would lunge for a video game

Just now I was reading email, while my brother is cleaning his kitchen. I advertently moused over Omst in my contact list, and his profile photo came up.



Me: "Oh no! Omst's photo is of his one-year-old nephew drinking a beer!"

Tom: "Maybe it's a picture of Omst at one year old." [Omst is a huge lush and drinks wine like water.]

Me: "That would be fitting, but I know it's his nephew. Omst is a bad influence!"

Tom: [nodding]

Me: "By the way, do you know the Chinese tradition for determining what a baby will grow up to be? When the baby turns a year old, you put him on a mat, and lay out four things in front of him: a coin, a calligraphy brush, a silk scarf, and an ink seal. If the baby goes for the coin, he'll be a businessman. If he reaches for the brush, he'll be an academic. The scarf means he'll score with the ladies. The ink seal means he'll be a politican."

Tom: "Which one means he'll grow up to be a software engineer?"

Saturday, April 03, 2010

high-pressure job

Reading this story (from the book "Source of Power: How People Make Decisions) makes me glad that I'm not a doctor, and gives me newfound respect for doctors.

Norman Berlinger (1996), a physician, describes a case in which a fetus was diagnosed as having a large cystic hygroma, a tangled mass of lymph vessels, on the side of his neck. The sonogram suggested that the hygroma had grown inside the neck, wrapping around the trachea. If that were indeed the case, without emergency treatment the infant would die shortly after delivery because his air passage was blocked. As long as the fetus was in the uterus, receiving oxygen from the umbilical cord, he was safe. A cesarean section was scheduled for the following day.

During the delivery, Berlinger was going to determine if the baby was able to breathe on his own. If he could not, Berlinger's strategy was to intubate the infant, guiding a slender tube down his throat to clear a breathing passage. But that might be impossible if the hygroma had grown so large as to obscure the opening of the windpipe. In that case, it might be necessary to do a tracheostomy—piercing the trachea and inserting the breathing tube into it. That would also be difficult. A tracheostomy is easy with an adult, but an infant's trachea is less than a quarter-inch wide, and soft and spongy. It is difficult to find. And other complications were likely. The incision would probably cut into the hygroma, possibly leading to infection of the lymphatic cysts and serious problems with abscesses in his chest. Moreover, the tracheostomy would have to be done under crisis conditions. It would be a last resort.

Upon delivery the infant gave a cry, suggesting a clear breathing passage. But then the passage sealed up. The infant could not even grunt. One of the nurses suctioned the infant's mouth and nose and placed him in front of Berlinger. Berlinger remembered an earlier situation, when he had been called in to operate on a young man who had run his snowmobile into a strand of barbed wire strung above the ground to discourage trespassers. The wire had jumbled the victim's neck tissue into sausage-like chunks. On that occasion, when Berlinger arrived, he found that the emergency technician had already inserted a breathing tube, and Berlinger had wondered how this was done. The technician later explained that he stuck the tube where he saw bubbles. Bubbles meant air coming out.

So in the delivery room, Berlinger looked into the mouth of the infant for bubbles. All he saw was a mass of yellow cysts, completely obscuring the air passage. No bubbles. Berlinger placed his palm on the infant's chest and pressed down, to force the last bit of air out of the infant's lungs. Berlinger saw a few tiny bubbles of saliva between some of the cysts and maneuvered the tube into that area. The laryngoscope has a miniature light on its tip, and Berlinger was able to guide it past the vocal cords, into the trachea. The infant quickly changed color from blue to a reassuring pink. The procedure had worked.

I can only imagine being handed a tiny infant who is dying from suffocation, and having to figure out how to insert a breathing tube into a quarter-inch area.

James Franco's short story

James Franco wrote a short story that was published in Esquire magazine.

Many blogs (and a few of my friends) claimed that it was terrible. They had criticisms such as "Reading this story killed my crush on James Franco" and "This proves that if you are good-looking and successful in Hollywood, everyone will say yes to you no matter how bad you are at writing." I was afraid to read it, in case it was as awful as claimed. I do not want my attraction to James Franco to be killed.

Finally I read it, and it's pretty good! I like it. The characters are vivid. The dialogue about the power struggle between men vs women, especially pertaining to sex, was powerful. The story is good at conveying a malaise. There is a pervasive sense that the routine of existence is pointless and you feel compelled to do crazy things just to feel alive.

I like this line:

this spot is as good as any to just sit in the shadows and let life slow

Friday, April 02, 2010

best little brother

I have the best brother in the world!

Tonight we walked to the nearby mall and had sushi.


We have to eat out, because this is what his fridge looks like:


Afterwards we went to the gym for an hour. Tom lives in a "planned community" apartment complex, which is common in Irvine.


His complex has a gym, Starbucks, grocery store, and pool. My parents rated it 10 out of 10, and rated my townhouse a 5 out of 10.

Irvine and LA

I'm in Irvine and LA for a few days.

I drove down last night from the Bay Area with my college friend C3. We debated where to stop for dinner, and decided on a Caltech tradition: the "reverse time Tommy's run". I'd never actually done this before.

Legend is that Tommy's chili burger is so bad that it sends you back in time. I envisioned Tommy's as a sit-down restaurant, but apparently it's a fast-food burger joint. A corollary to the tradition is to perform the Tommy's run during daylight savings time switchover, so that you actually return before the time you departed.



I'm glad I experienced the tradition, but the food was lackluster.



...

Now I'm in my brother's apartment. Last night he told me cute stories of his artist friends being perfectionist. He'll ask them to whip up some placeholder art. They'll come back with it, saying, "This is so embarrassing. I only had an hour to spend on it. Don't show this to ANYONE!" Then they give it to him, and it's an amazing masterpiece.

...

Starting Sunday, I'm spending a couple days in downtown Los Angeles, to visit a friend. I'm staying at a hotel with an art deco pool:



My friend is picking me up from my brother's apartment and driving us to LA. LA parking is ridiculous. The hotel room only cost me $55 per night (via priceline), but parking costs $40 daily. I refuse to capitulate to this.

I hope my room has a good television for watching movies. I really want to watch movies in the room.

Friday, March 26, 2010

when Peach asks you, in the quiet of her mushroom castle bedroom

This is hilarious and well-written, an excerpt from the book Overqualified.

To: Nintendo
Re: Game Design

Dear Nintendo,

I am writing to apply for the position of game designer with your company. We have a chance here to help children experience games that are more true to life than any game before them. Computer graphics have improved and improved and improved, and some day soon we're going to have to ask ourselves where we can go next in our search for realism.

We need virtual pet games where you clean and feed and love your furry little friend and that car still comes out of nowhere so smoothly, a god of aerodynamics and passenger safety. Where you hear your father's quiet joke that night, when he thinks you are asleep.

We need a new Mario game, where you rescue the princess in the first ten minutes, and for the rest of the game you try and push down that sick feeling in your stomach that she's "damaged goods", a concept detailed again and again in the profoundly sex negative instruction booklet, and when Luigi makes a crack about her and Bowser, you break his nose and immediately regret it. When Peach asks you, in the quiet of her mushroom castle bedroom "do you still love me?" you pretend to be asleep. You press the A button rhythmically, to control your breath, keep it even.

We need an airport simulator, where the planes carry your whole family from A to B, job to job, and dad still drinks in the shower and your older sister still has casual sex that she confides might bring back a feeling she's certain she didn't imagine. Where the plane touches down and you all lean forward in your seats because of inertia, and again and again someone says "I hate to fly".

Yours,

Joey Comeau

Thursday, March 25, 2010

sand

Azer said yesterday that your trust reputation is like a pile of sand that you collect in your hands. Over time, you gather piece after piece, and the sandpile grows bigger. But all it takes is one time of letting your hands go, and all the sand falls through onto the ground.

It made me think of Tiger Woods. And of friendships.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

gamer segments

While playing the starcraft 2 beta with two friends, at my house.

Me: "One day I will make a game called 'Happy in Happy-land ... Goes Eating'."

MB: "When do the explosions come in?"

Scott Adams on names

I like this analysis of iPad vs Kindle, from Scott Adams (Dilbert creator):

Much has been made of the fact that iPad sounds like feminine protection. I get that. But how does that name influence consumer behavior? Feminine protection is generally considered essential. Perhaps that subconscious connection actually works in Apple's favor.

Consider the name Apple. An apple is the Christian symbol of an irresistible urge, whereas Kindle sounds like the unimportant twigs you use to start a fire. Kindle also sounds old-timey, as in "Grandma's got her Kindle and her rocking chair."

Compared to the Kindle, Apple wins on name, coolness, interface, cost-per-person, extra applications, web surfing, and probably its media distribution model. Kindle wins on screen readability, which is mostly relevant to oldsters. Battery life will be good enough on both.

I'm not sure that battery life will be good enough on the iPad. My Kindle battery lasts for a month.

Monday, March 15, 2010

surprise song

To quote from my own blog post of two days ago:

I have a fantasy that a breakthrough will happen, and a beautiful melody will emerge from my throat, and I will stand there stricken, tears streaming down my face as one soaring note after another rings out from a place I didn't know existed deep within my soul.

Well, it happened. Not the part about tears streaming down my face, but everything else happened.

My instructor said that it was gratifying to see me undergo such a large change. She said, "You made my night." I said, "You made my year."

That may have been an exaggeration. But it was pretty awesome!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

singing lessons

On Monday, I am starting a series of three singing lessons, 30 minutes every week. I bought a coupon from a music lesson web site. This is my instructor:



I am one of the worst singers that I know. When I go to karaoke with Chinese friends, they often encourage me to sing ("We're all amateurs! Don't be modest!"). If I succumb to the pressure and actually sing, it becomes awkward. Sometimes people take the other microphone and sing along with me to guide me. Afterwards, people won't meet my gaze. They say things like, "The important thing is that you were courageous enough to do it."

In college, I tried to improve. I was in glee club for a year. I took a group singing class. I took a music / EE course where we analyzed the frequencies of music. I did a 30-minute individual lesson with the glee club coach.

None of these helped, so I gave up.

But now I bought this coupon, so I'm going to give it another go. I have a fantasy that a breakthrough will happen, and a beautiful melody will emerge from my throat, and I will stand there stricken, tears streaming down my face as one soaring note after another rings out from a place I didn't know existed deep within my soul.

However, my recent motto is "Happiness equals results minus expectations." So I will keep to a realistic expectation, which is that my singing instructor will say after the lesson, "The important thing is that you were courageous enough to do this."

Thursday, March 11, 2010

instant gratification

Yesterday I had dinner at Google with my friend Rose. We ran into a couple who I haven't seen for a while. I really like this couple. They both have great personalities and are fun to be around. Plus the girl is a few years older than the guy, a social trend which I support:

After a few pleasantries:

Me: "So, you guys have been together for a while now."

The Guy: "Actually..." [shifting his hand to reveal a wedding band on his finger]

Me: "Wow, you're married! Congratulations! When did that happen?"

The Guy: "A year ago."

Me: "That's great! And ... how did you propose?"

The Guy: "I didn't. [gesturing toward his wife] She did."

Me: [turning toward the girl] "And how did you propose?"

The Girl: "I just walked over to building 42 [one of the Google engineering buildings] and asked him."

Me: "On a regular workday?"

The Girl: "Yeah."

Me: "You just thought of it, and then you immediately walked over and did it?"

The Girl: "Yeah."

Me: "Wow, that's awesome."

Sunday, March 07, 2010

quickersort

Me: "Did you see when Obama visited Google and answered the question about sorting 32-bit integers?"

Azer: "No, I missed it."

Me:



Azer: "Obama definitely has his charm. His answer was cute. If it were Al Gore, he'd say, [dull voice] 'When I was at Harvard, we made an improved version of quicksort. It was called quickersort. That's what I would use to sort a million 32-bit integers. Also, I invented quickersort.'"

Me: [lol]

Saturday, March 06, 2010

2% experiment

Azer: "Massachusetts has had its own healthcare system for a few years now. Obama's healthcare plan is based on theirs, with modifications.

Me: "Oh, I didn't know that."

Azer: "If it were up to me, I would take what works and implement it across the country, and then run the modified version in a single state to see how it fares. Don't immediately roll out the modifications to the entire country! Run a 2% experiment first."

Me: [lol] "That's very wise."

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

home sweet home

I am very grateful for my new housemate R!

R is a former colleague from Google, who I've known for five years. It's nice living with a friend, because we can have conversations about work, love, and life. He cooks every few days, and I like to do the dishes afterwards, which he hates. He enjoys taking out the trash, which I hate. It works out very well.


French toast and tea.


The dish on the left is a complex Persian rice dish stuffed with green beans and meat.

My neighbors are happy, because they are very friendly with each other, but rarely see me. R has been talking to them a lot more than I do, and is now planning a bike outing. My next-door neighbors brought over home-baked cookies twice since R moved in. A different neighbor brought oranges from her tree.

I ran into Elizabeth at a loft party, and she asked me, "Niniane, did you move to the midwest?"

"What?" I said. "No."

"Your tweets are all about how your housemate cooked, or your neighbor baked cookies. I was thinking that you must have moved to the midwest."

I guess I'm just a suburb-y kind of person.

Friday, February 26, 2010

a touching chinese story

Thanks to Alex Chen for this article. Sorry non-mandarin-speaking blog readers.


今天离婚,你得抱我出门 妻说,是你将我抱进家门的,要离婚了,你再将我抱出这个家门吧。

与妻结婚的时候,我是将她抱过来的。那时我们住的是那种一家一户的平房,婚车在门前停下来的时候,一伙朋友撺纵着我,将她从车上抱下来,于是,在一片叫好 声中,我抱起了她一直走到典礼的地方。那时的妻是丰盈而成熟的娇羞女孩,我是健壮快乐的新婚男人。
这是十年前的一幕。
以后的日子就像是流水一样过去,要孩子,下海,经商,婚姻中的熟视无睹渐渐出现在我们之间。钱一点点地往上涨,但感情却一点点地平下去,妻在一家行政机构 做公务员,每天我们同时上班,也几乎同时下班,孩子在寄宿学校上学。在别人看来,生活似乎是无懈可击的幸福。但越是这种平静的幸福,便越容易有突然变化的 机率。

我有了她。当生活像水一样乏味而又无处不在,哪怕一种再简单的饮料,也会让人觉得是一种真正的享受。她就是露儿。

天气很好,我站在宽大的露台上,露儿伸了双臂,将我从后面紧紧抱住。我的心再一次被她感情包围,几乎让我无法呼吸。这是我为露儿买的房子。

露儿对我说,像你这样的男人,是最吸引女孩子的眼球的。我忽然想起了妻,刚刚结婚的时候,她似乎说过一句,像你这样的男人,一旦成功之后,是最吸引女孩子 的眼球的。想起妻的聪明,心里微微地打上了一个结,我清楚地意识到,自己对不起她。但却欲罢不能。
我推开露儿的手,说你自己看着买些家具吧,公司今天还有事。露儿分明地不高兴起来,毕竟,今天说好了要带她去买家具的。关于离婚的那个可能,已经在我的心 里愈来愈大起来,原本觉得是不太可能的事情,竟然渐渐地能在心里想像成可能。

只是,我不知道如何对妻子开口,因为我知道,开口了之后必然要伤害她的。妻没有对不起我的地方,她依旧忙忙碌碌地在厨房里准备晚上的饭菜,我依旧打开电 视,坐在那里,看新闻,饭菜很快上桌,吃饭,然后两个人在一起看电视,或是一个人坐在电脑前发会儿呆。想像露儿的身体,成了我自娱的方式。试着对妻说,如 果我们离婚,你说会怎样?妻白了我一眼,没有说话,似乎这种生活离她很远。我无法想象,一旦我说出口时,妻的表现和想法。
妻去公司找我时,露儿刚从我办公室里出来。公司里的人的眼光是藏不住事情的,在几乎所有人都以同情的目光和那种掩饰的语言说话的时候,妻终于感觉出了什 么。她依旧对着我的所有下属以自己的身份微笑着,但我却在她来不及躲闪的一瞬间,从她的眼神中读出了一种伤害。

露儿再次对我说,离婚吧何宁,我们在一起。我点头,心里已经将这个念头扩到非说不可的地步了。妻端上最后一盘菜时,我按住了她的手。说我有件事要告诉你。 妻坐下来,静静地吃着饭,我想起了她眼神中的那种伤害,此刻分明地再一次显出来。突然间觉得自己有些不忍,但事到如今,却只能说下去。咱们离婚吧,我平静 地说着不平静的事。妻没有表现出那种很特别的情绪,淡淡地问我为什么。我笑,说:不,我不是开玩笑,是真的离婚。妻的态度骤然变化起来,她恨恨地摔了筷 子,对我大声说,你不是人!

夜里,我们谁也没理谁,妻在小声地哭,我知道她是想知道为什么。但我却给不了她答案,因为我已经在露儿给我的感觉里无法自拔。我起草了协议给妻看,里面写 明了将房子,车子,还有公司的30股权分给她。写这些东西时,心里是一直怀了对妻的歉疚的,妻愤愤地接过,撕成碎片儿,不再理我。我感觉自己的心竟然隐隐 地有些疼起来,毕竟是一起生活了十年的爱人,所有的温柔都将在未来化去,就这样的慢慢的过去,到了第二天.

陪客户喝酒,半醉的我回到家中时,妻正伏在那里写着什么。我躺在床上睡去,醒来的时候,发现妻依旧坐在那里。我翻个身,再沉沉地睡去。终于闹到了非离不可 的地步,妻却对我声明,她什么也不要我的,只是在离婚之前,要我答应她一个条件。妻的条件简单,便是再给她一个月的时间,因为再过一个月,孩子就过完暑假 了,她不想让孩子看到父母分开的场面,而且,在这一个月里还要像以前那样生活。

我接过妻写的协议,她问我,何宁,你还记得我是怎么嫁过来的吗?蓦地,关于新婚的那些记忆涌上来,我点头,说记得。妻说,是你将我抱进来的,但是我还有个 条件,就是要离婚了,你再将我抱出这个家门吧。这一来一去,都是你做主好了,只是,我要求这一个月,每天上班,你都要将我抱出去,从卧室,到大门。

我笑,说:好。我想妻是在以这种形式来告别自己的婚姻,或是还有对过去眷恋的缘故。我将妻的要求告诉了露儿,露儿笑得有些轻佻,说再怎么还是离婚,搞这么 多花样做什么。她似乎对妻很不屑,这或多或少让我心里不太舒服。

一个月为限,第一天,我们的动作都很呆板。因为一旦说明之后,我们已经有很久没有这么亲密接触过了,甚至连例行的每周两次的****时间也取消了,每天都 像路人一样。儿子从身后拍着小手说,爸爸搂妈妈了,爸爸搂妈妈了,叫得我有些心酸。从卧室经客厅,出房门,到大门,十几米的路程,妻在我的怀抱里,轻轻地 闭着眼睛,对我说,我们就从今天开始吧,别让孩子知道。我点头,刚刚落下去的心酸再一次地浮上来。我将妻放在大门外,她去等公交,我去开车上班。

第二天,我和妻的动作都随意了许多,她轻巧地靠在我的身上,我嗅到她清新的衣香,妻确实是老了,我已有多少日子没有这么近的看过她了,光润的皮肤上,有了 细细的皱纹。我怎么没发现过妻有皱纹了呢,还是自己已是多久没有注意到自己这个熟悉到骨头里的女人了呢。

第三天,妻附在我的耳边对我说,院子里的花池拆了,要小心些,别跌倒了。

第四天,在卧室里抱起妻的时候,我有种错觉,我们依旧是十分亲密的爱人,她依旧是我的宝贝,我正在用心去抱她,而所有关于露儿的想像,都变得若有若无起 来。

第五天,六天,妻每次都会在我耳边说一些小细节,衣服熨好了挂在哪里,做饭时要小心不要让油溅着,我点着头,心里的那种错觉也越来越强烈起来。

我没有告诉露儿这一切。感觉到自己越来越不吃力了,似乎是锻炼的结果,我对妻说,现在抱你,不怎么吃力了。

妻在挑拣衣服,我在一边等着抱她出门。妻试了几件,都不太合适,自己叹了口气,坐在那里,说衣服都长肥了。我笑,但却只笑了一半,我蓦然间想起自己越来越 不吃力了,不是我有力了,而是妻瘦了,因为她将所有的心事压在心里。那一瞬间,心里紧紧地疼起来,我伸出手去,试图去抚妻的额角。

儿子进来了,爸爸,该抱妈妈出门了。他催促着我们,似乎这么些天来,看我抱妻出门,已经成了他的一个节目。妻拉过儿子,紧紧地抱住,我转过了脸不去看,怕 自己将所有的不忍转成一个后悔的理由。从卧室出发,然后经客厅,屋门,走道,我抱着妻,她的手轻巧而自然地揽在我的脖子上。我紧紧地拥着她的身体,感觉像 是回到了那个新婚的日子,但妻越来越轻的身体,却常常让我忍不住想落泪。

最后一天,我抱起妻的时候,怔在那里不走。儿子上学去了,妻也怔怔地看着我说,其实,真想让你这样抱到老的。我紧紧地抱了妻,对她说,其实,我们都没有意 识到,生活中就是少了这种抱你出门的亲密。

停下车子的时候,我来不及锁上车门,我怕时间的延缓会再次打消我的念头。我敲开门,露儿一脸的惺松。我对她说,对不起露儿,我不离婚了。真的不离了。露儿 不相信一般看着我,伸出手来,摸着我的头,说你没发烧呀。我打开露儿的手,看着她,对她说,对不起露儿,我只有对你说对不起,我不离婚了,或许我和她以 前,只是因为生活的平淡教会了我们熟视无睹,而并不是没有感情,我今天才明白。我将她抱进了家门,她给我生儿育女,就要将她抱到老,所以,只有对你说对不 起。

露儿似乎才明白过来,愤怒地扇了我一耳光,关了门,大哭起来。我下楼,开车去公司。路过那家上班时必经的花店的时候,我给妻子订了一束她最喜欢的情人草, 礼品店的小姐拿来卡片让我写祝语,我微笑着在上面写上:我要每天抱你出家门,一直到老。

男的都应该用心看看,每个男人到你成功时,也许都会有这种经历,学学吧,不要让自己老时后悔了,伤害最大的是孩子,如果成功后不要妻子,还不如不要成功, 一家过苦日子也许也是幸福……

Monday, February 22, 2010

if only it were a genetic trait

I really like when my parents say nice things about each other.

A few months ago, talking with my dad while walking down a street in Argentina. (All the following conversations were in Mandarin, and I've translated them.)

Me: "Mom is the best cook of chinese food that I've ever encountered, except professional chefs. I've never gone to anyone's house and been served a chinese meal that tastes better than my mom's cooking."

Dad: "That's true. Sometimes when I see a mediocre Chinese restaurant, I don't even go in, because their cooking won't be as good as your mom's."

Me: "爸, 你捞着了! (Dad, you really lucked out!) Did you know Mom was such a good cook before you got married?"

Dad: "No. In fact, I didn't realize for years after we got married. I thought everyone else's wife was just as good."

Me: "How did you figure out the truth?"

Dad: "XXX [name of relative] invited us to dinner. She clearly spent a lot of time preparing, but it couldn't compare to your mom's food. Then another relative invited us, and the same thing happened. That's when I realized."

Me: "You get to eat restaurant-quality food every day. That's so fortunate!"

Dad: "恩, 不错。 [Yup, not bad.]"





At lunch in Irvine today, with my brother.

Me: "I think Dad's basic need out of marriage is to have someone cook a good meal for him twice a day."

Tom: "Whenever I call him, he always ends by saying, 'I gotta go. 你妈给我做了两菜一汤 (Your mom has cooked me two dishes and a soup.)' He doesn't just say 'I gotta go.'"

Me: "Hee hee. That's so adorable."

Friday, February 19, 2010

masquerade wedding

I'm going to a masquerade wedding tomorrow.

I asked my brother advice on what to wear. To illustrate my choices, I dug through old photos, which caused me to stumble across a few that I'd forgotten.


A costume shopping trip in summer 2007. Tom amused himself while waiting for me.


Trying not to laugh.


My flapper costume. This was one option I considered as my wedding attire.

...

In the end, I decided on my red dress and Carmen Miranda hat for the masquerade wedding. I hope it will be appropriate!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

a few costume photos

Five of us took the BART to Walnut Creek to watch our friend CM perform in a musical ("Patience" by Gilbert and Sullivan).


A beautiful outfit from the musical.


Me with CM. He grew out his moustache and sideburns for the role.


We had to go around town with CM for the entire two months of play rehearsals, while he was sporting this ridiculous facial hair. Here he is with our friend "Lavender", at AsiaSF on a normal Friday night.


Me with a blue drink at AsiaSF. It is my favorite San Francisco establishment.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

but I am very fond of my alma mater

Azer and I were discussing the most unexpected changes in our lives over the past decade.

Me: "I was so much geekier ten years ago."

Azer: "Oh?"

Me: "Well, I wasn't yet old enough to get into nightclubs. Plus I'd gone to Caltech, the geekiest college in the country."

Azer: "In the world."

Me: "Thanks."

Friday, February 12, 2010

throwing stones

I'm looking at my Google Buzz.

Azer: [glancing over my shoulder from across the room] "Who's in that photo?"

Me: "It's a photo of a stereotypical nerd. This is a tech article about how Buzz was designed by nerds."

Azer: "I bet the person who wrote that article is even nerdier."

my friends are funny (warning: mature language)

Dinner at Chou chou with Octo-man, Percyvale, and other friends.

Several of us: [making fun of Octo-man a lot]

Octo-man: "Later on tonight, if you guys remember, go fuck yourselves."

Percyvale: [immediately] "Done and done!"

Thursday, February 11, 2010

buzz

Follow me on Google Buzz! http://www.google.com/profiles/niniane

From the hilarious Kevin Fox: "To clear things up, a #buzz is a high-frequency #wave."

Saturday, February 06, 2010

an unexpected development

It has been a strange week.

I've been sick all week. But more importantly, I'm sad and angry at losing my best friend Dan. Longtime readers will remember many mentions of Dan woven throughout this blog. I met Dan when living in the same dorm in college. After graduation, we both worked at Microsoft. Later, he referred me to Google. We've been friends for half my lifetime. We supported each other through work crises, family drama, and countless relationship ups and downs. When my relative was ill, Dan helped me google for medical information.

Years ago, as a game, we predicted the likelihood that we would remain friends until our dying day. I said 97%. Dan said 100%.

How quickly times can change. If you'd told me last year that in 2010, Dan and I would stop being friends, I would've laughed at the absurdity. And yet it has come to pass. (If you're wondering, it is not because one of us became romantically interested in the other. It has always been platonic. It's also not because we got into an argument.)

I've accepted the facts ("God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change"), but every once in a while, something funny or thought-provoking happens and I wonder what Dan would say. Then I become angry. You only get a few chances to make a lifelong friend. Why must a good and rare thing be thrown away?

My brother was shocked when I told him. "But you and Dan have been friends for a bajillion years," he said. I realized that Tom was only a child when I met Dan. For as long as he can remember, Dan and I have been friends.

No matter what happens, I think both of us will always feel lucky for the times that we shared. One of my fond memories occurred last spring, before all this happened. Dan and I were sitting around his living room, chatting while both using our computers.

Me: "Frank confides a surprising amount to me. He must not have a lot of confidantes."

Dan: "Yeah."

Me: "Who do you confide in? I guess mainly me. Who did you confide in before me?"

Dan: [looking at monitor] "There was a time before you?"

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

sweet video

This woman seems very likeable. It is a cute story of her "worst Valentine's Day ever".

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

"last meal"

Last month, my parents were telling me about a relative's girlfriend.

Mom: "He was recovering from a serious illness, and she came over to take care of him. However, they got in a huge argument over wedding plans, and she stormed off, leaving him in the house without any food."

Me: "Oh wow, while he's sick?"

Mom: "If I were her, I would've cooked before leaving. Let's say I decided to divorce your dad. If he needed it, I'd still cook him dinner before walking out."

Dad: [surprised] "Wait, what?"

Me: [laughing]

Dad: [recovering] "几个菜呀?" ("How many courses?")

Monday, February 01, 2010

this brought back memories

I'm sick -- coughing a lot, and low-energy. I cancelled some meetings, in order to stay home and rest.

One of the old Lively users IM'ed me in the afternoon. He told me that long ago, he captured the Lively client in a virtual machine, and cached enough content that he can run the client even without the Google servers. He used video-conferencing to show me the client running in his virtual machine. I was pretty amazed that he managed to do this.

He used his client to show me a few of the rooms he built. One was a nightclub, with transparent floor tiles and a spinning disco ball. Another was the coffeehouse room, with a fireplace constructed from tables, and a shimmery blue stained-glass wall.

The last room was an Eiffel tower he made by stacking cabinets. At the very top was a hang-out area. When he panned his camera up there and sat his avatar down to watch television, it felt momentarily as though I were really sitting on couches 100 feet in the air. I experienced a moment of "shock and awe".



I commended him on his rooms. He said, "Thank you for making Lively."

It was nice.

Friday, January 29, 2010

IM convos

IM with my brother last week. (He works at Blizzard.)

Tom: There's a tornado hitting Irvine right now.
niniane: omg! Are you okay?
Tom: There's 1-inch hail coming down. People around here are repenting for not having shipped starcraft 2 sooner.




Chatting with a friend Dave about a couple we know.

dave: i think she makes him miserable
dave: and i've always been of the opinion that love isn't worth misery
dave: esp with non-miserable love options available
niniane: :)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

you should play this game too, in the comments

One day at lunch, a Googler told us that he was recently contacted by his first crush from elementary school.

Apparently, what happened was that years ago, in college, he agreed to participate in a psychology experiment run by the psych department. He was asked to fill out a list of questions. He did so, including one question that said, "What is the name of your first crush?"

Later, unbeknownst to him, the psych department posted up the results from this experiment on a web page, including his name and the name of his crush.

Years later, she did a vanity search on her own name, and this psych experiment result came up as a google result. So she emailed him. She's now married with kids, and he has a longtime girlfriend, but they had a lovely time catching up.

I thought this story was very entertaining. So I am going to confess now that I had my first crush when I was six years old in Salt Lake City, and the boy's name was Nathan Fujiki.

I hope this does not come back to embarrass me later!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Into Thin Air

I just read Into Thin Air, a tale of the fatal 1996 Everest expedition.

The author is a mountaineering enthusiast turned journalist. He went on the expedition in order to write an article about the commercialization of Everest. When he came back, he instead wrote a much longer article about the tragic events that unfolded.

Later, he continued to feel survivor's guilt, and tried to reach catharsis via recording his grief into this book.



The book really puts you into the mindset of an Everest climber. 2:00pm is the latest time to reach the summit and get back to Camp Four before nightfall. The climbers typically start for the summit around midnight and climb through the night, to get there before 2:00pm.

If by 2:00pm a climber has not reached the summit, he is advised to turn around and go back. One of the reasons for the catastrophe was that the expedition guides ignored this rule. They permitted clients to keep climbing until 4:00pm.

After the tragedy and the evacuation, other expeditions continued climbing. A couple weeks later, a South African climber by the name of Herrod summited just after 5:00pm, seven hours after the rest of his team. As soon as you read this, you know he will likely die on the mountain.


Herrod had been up on the South Col from the evening of May 9 through May 12. He'd felt the ferocity of that storm, heard the desperate radio calls for help, seen Beck Weathers crippled with horrible frostbite. Early on during his ascent of May 25, Herrod climbed right past the corpse of Scott Fischer, and several hours later at the south Summit he would have had to step over Rob Hall's lifeless legs. Apparently, the bodies made little impression on Herrod, however, for despite his lagging pace and the lateness of the hour he pressed onward to the top.

There was no further radio transmission from Herrod after his 5:15pm call from the summit.


I marvel at how someone could blithely ignore every warning and continue to ascend past 2:00pm. Stronger climbers had already perished by ignoring this rule, yet Herrod did not listen. On the other hand, I could imagine myself falling prey to this.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

you'll know it when you find it

Steve Job's powers as a public speaker are well-known, but I never fully understood it until a few nights ago. I watched his Stanford commencement address from 2005.

I've read the talk in an email previously, but hearing it was so much more powerful. All that marketing prowess, applied to inspiring people instead of selling smartphones.



I like the part where he says that in work and relationship, you need to find what you love, and you'll know it when you find it.

He also explicitly says "Don't settle." It's nice to hear it. A good counter to the dozen times each day that you hear people urging you to give up your dreams and settle.

Also I like the part where he talks about how we're all going to die, so there's no point wasting energy on pride or fear of looking foolish.

Go Steve Jobs!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Blizzard visit

Last week I visited my brother Tom at his new job at Blizzard.


Standing with the statue in the courtyard.

Later I referred to the "ogre statue", and Tom indignantly banged his fork against the table. "It's an orc, not an ogre!" he said.

I waited ten minutes, and then said on purpose to provoke him, "So the ogre statue..."

"It's an orc!" Tom shouted. "You're just like an Ent!"

"What?"

"The Ents captured Merry and Pippin, and said, 'Oh, these are goblins, we'd better squish them!' Merry and Pippin said, 'No, we're hobbits! We're hobbits!' But the Ents said, 'Goblins can be tricky! Better squish them just in case!'"


The best little brother in the world! (That's Tom.)


This would be a cool Halloween costume.


Dusty shelf stuffed with award after award.

Google has cases of these too in the lobby, but I was more impressed by the Blizzard shelf for some reason.


That one Starcraft character who got turned into a Zerg.


Their building map is designed to look like a map in World of Warcraft. Cute!

Tom was not allowed to bring visitors to his area, due to confidentiality. He showed me the door leading into his area. It had a custom-made sign that read "NO VISITORS". However, the space between the two words was too small, and I was momentarily confused.

I explained my bafflement to Tom. He said, "Oh, you thought it was NOVISITORS, like a Spanish word? All right, we'll change it to an Ñ to confuse people even more."

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

tfidf package updated

I changed my TF-IDF open-source package to use the MIT license, so that it is more freely re-usable.

I also fixed a couple of issues, and uploaded a new version. Thanks to the people who reported the bugs!

If you use the package and enjoy it, please drop me an email to let me know.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

costume happiness

At a San Francisco bar over the weekend, I discovered that the Indian guy standing next to me (friend of friend) was holding a rice hat.

He said he's moving the next day to the East Coast.

"You're going to use one of your carry-ons to transport the rice hat?" I said.

"No," he said. "I'll wear the rice hat on the plane, so that I can still have another carry-on."

...

He was kind enough to let me take a photo with his rice hat.

Friday, January 15, 2010

potential dilemma

Over instant messenger with my friend Nehster.


Nehster.

niniane: i <3 kindle
Nehster: but you use the library
niniane: omg what if there is fire and i have to save you vs kindle
niniane: oh noooooooooo
niniane: let's hope it never comes to that
Nehster: i will hold the kindle
Nehster: you will save me.
niniane: ok do you want to practice a few times
Nehster: or i promise, right now
Nehster: if there's a fire and you have to choose
Nehster: i will buy you a new kindle if you save me.

This promise is now recorded.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

a striking video

I just watched this tech-talk video "BORN AND RAISED IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP" about a man who lived the first 23 years of his life inside a North Korean concentration camp. He escaped a few years ago.



When his mother and brother made an escape attempt (which failed), he was tortured for months about a possible family conspiracy. Then he was forced to watch them get executed. Now that he has escaped successfully but his father is still inside the camp, won't the guards torture and/or kill his father?

He talked about how his dearest wish is to see his father, and walk hand-in-hand down the street.

Super RegEx Smash

I think there should exist games that teach computer science concepts:
- regular expressions
- A* search
- pointers
- Dijkstra's algorithm
- B+ trees
- ...

I remember in college, it was difficult to form an intuitive understanding of these concepts by reading a textbook or listening to a lecture. But I bet if you played a graphical game where you have to construct regular expressions to save the princess, you'd learn them real quick.

For example, in one possible incarnation of the game, the princess would be imprisoned in a traveling buggy. You are riding a horse, attempting to catch up to the buggy. The evil guard driving the buggy throws regular expressions at you. You have to construct a string which matches the regex before it reaches your horse. If you get it wrong, the part that doesn't match will flash green, and you can try again in the remaining time.

The game with B+ trees could consist of building a tree out of numbered jigsaw pieces sent by the princess from her prison tower. Dijkstra's algorithm is used to find the shortest path to the prison tower.

I've expressed this dream to friends, in the past. They laughed at me. Indeed no one will amass wealth or fame from making these games. But they should exist! It is a travesty that they do not exist in this world. The creator of these games would get adoration, at least from me.

This is like Dan's idea that technical articles should be written with dramatic plot and character development. I was skeptical at the time. But now it has been three years, and I still vividly remember that silhouette detection and rendering paper!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

couch <3

My friend Nehster is shopping for a new couch, and stumbled upon the overstock.com couch which I just purchased last month. (This is the same couch that I asked blog readers about last year.)

I sent her a photo of it in my house:



Over instant messenger:

niniane: i <3 it so much
niniane: not as much as i <3 you for sending me that article this morning
niniane: but quite a lot
niniane: if it ever came down to saving you in a fire vs saving the couch, i'd still choose to save you

nehster: thank you
nehster: especially since i do not think there's any way you could carry the couch
nehster: so you would perish with it

niniane: i could save the ottoman

Friday, January 08, 2010

a few conversations that made me laugh

Talking in a group of engineers:

"I want a phone number that I can call and get the current time. A bunch of them went out of business in the last year."

"If it's the middle of the night, you can call any number and get that."




(Blippy is a startup that shows your friends what you bought, e.g. "twitter for purchases". Square is a startup for charging credit cards using an iPhone plus a hardware device. If you're not in the Silicon Valley startup-focused mindset, the following may not amuse you.)

niniane: i signed up for blippy
percyvale: i don't plan to
percyvale: this way people won't see how many hookers i order via sqaure
percyvale: or maybe they could tell me i'm being ripped off
percyvale: it's a fine line between price optimization for hookers and privacy




At dinner over tapas, with Lillers, CM, and Omst.

Me: "Lillers, come to this party with us."

Lillers: "It's going to be all Googlers and ex-Googlers. I won't fit in."

CM: "You are more awesome than 99% of Googlers."

Lillers: "Aw."

CM: "99.9%, now that Niniane has left."

Omst: "And I'm the other 0.1%."

... Many minutes later, walking to the party without Lillers ...

Me: "Omst, you can't be 0.1%, because there are more than 1000 Googlers."

Omst: [laughing] "Yes. I know."

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

writing this blog post was a non-challenge!

My friend CM came over to my house over the weekend. I heard him laughing in the kitchen, while I was in another room.

Me: "What's so funny?"

CM: "I love your cheerios!"

Me: "What, no, don't eat those! I can't even remember how old they are! They need to be thrown out."

CM: "I didn't eat them."

He came over and showed me the box of Cheerios.



CM: "What a succinct, catchy slogan! [in his booming theatrical voice] Great taste helps make lowering cholesterol a non-challenge!"

Me: [laughing]

CM: "Doesn't that just make you want to repeat the slogan to all your friends?" [turning the box around]



CM: "They decided this catchphrase is so effective that they want to emphasize it. Splitting a dessert: non-challenge! Shooting hoops: non-challenge!"




I think we should all use this to praise people in the future. Some example situations:

"Do I look good in this outfit?"
"Looking at you is a non-challenge!"


"Do you still love me?"
"Being with you is a non-challenge!"

etc.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

cloudy with a chance of metaballs

When I worked for Microsoft in the early 2000's, one of the main features I developed was a cloud rendering system for Flight Simulator. I published a couple articles about it afterwards.

In 2007, I got an email from someone working on special effects for a movie. We have a friend in common, so we had exchanged emails previously about computer graphics. Now his team was reviewing previous work in cloud rendering, and my system came up on the list. He alerted me to a broken link on my cloud page.

I thanked him. He didn't end up using my real-time cloud techniques, but we kept in touch over email now and then.

This week he emailed me saying (paraphrased), "You may not remember me asking about your cloud paper a long time ago, but the movie finally came out. If you see it, check out the clouds."

I thought to myself, "Oh, what is this movie?"

The movie is Avatar!!!



I haven't seen it yet. Tonight he and I are going to go see it together, and then discuss the cloud rendering. I am very excited! We are seeing it in 3D at the Mountain View Shoreline theatre at 9:30pm! (All the IMAX 3D showings were sold out for San Francisco and South Bay.)

While everyone else in the theatre is captivated by the lush forests or the blue people, I will be wishing for them to get out of the way so I can see the clouds better!!!