[I]t seems doubtful whether any one spends his time well in reading lengthy translations of economic doctrines into mathematics, that have not been made by himself.
Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics
Samsung Q1
I have to admit that I have a taste for portable devices: first it’s PDA, now it’s UMPC. Despite lukewarm reviews everywhere, Q1 comes quite close as my dream machine. In particular, it addressed many inadequates of PDA. Here are the pros:
1. Size: Q1 has the size of an average package book; with a weight of less than 800g its very portable.
2. Screen: At 7″ physically it is much bigger than anything one could find on a PDA.
3. Touch-Sensitivity: I really like touch-screen–mouse-pad and pointer drive me mad. Touch-screen also allows me to work one-handed, something I really need when I am standing. I actually find entering through Dialkeys, a virtual keyboard bundled with all UMPC, somewhat enjoyable…
4. Windows XP: Since Q1 runs XP Tablet, anything that works on a desktop theoretically works in it to. This is an unbeatable advantage over PDA’s, which need specialized softwares. Just yesterday I demonstrated the concurrent running of World of Warcraft and a program I wrote to a research colleague.
5. CF-slot: This is how Q1 wins my heart over Asus R2H, another UMPC. I need CF-slot to load photos from my DSLR and R2H only has a SD-slot.
6. Spec: Nothing spectacular here–actually Q1 is arguably underpowered–but as a PC it’s still way better than any PDA. I could barely open jpeg’s from my EOS-300D on my X50v, not to mention RAW.
7. Connectors: 2 USB ports and VGA out, things that are not on my PDA, is really all I need.
6. Price: I was originally look for ultra-portable laptops but those are expensive. At ~$1000 Q1 costs at most 2/3 of many popular ultra-portables.
There are quite some cons too:
1. Underpowered: Equipped only with a Celeron M 900Mhz processor, 512MB RAM and 40GB hard disk, it’s not a fast computer in any sense. Q1’s 7″ touch screen is almost triple that of my x51v in size, yet at a native resolution of 800×480 it hardly offers any advantage in resolution.
2. No microphone jack: The built-in microphone works great, but it would still be great to have the option to plug in an external one.
3. No videocam and GPS: Not something I would use often, but Asus’ R2H has both.
4. Mediocre Battery life: This is by far the biggest drawback–battery cannot hold much longer than two hours.
5. Price: I did mention it cost a thousand bucks…well.
In the end I am happy: Q1 is the solution to my need; neither PDA nor laptop could address my need as well as the Q1 does. And while many condemned Q1 to its demise, I do see there are others holding the same opinion as I do. Sometimes you just have to leave aside the zillions of reviews and make your own choice.
Windows API
Have been messing around with Windows API’s these few days–a good learning experience.
「講哂」一例
【明報專訊】
問到胡錦濤的說話是否要親政府陣營取得大多數議席，不要讓梁家傑拿到100張選委提名票，陳永棋指出，梁家傑能否得到100張提名不是一個問題，因為他拿不到，代表他民望不夠高，即使他拿到，亦不等於大部分香港人支持他。
Ulrike Malmendier
So there was this article on Ulrike Malmendier, an assistant professor in the Berkeley’s department of economics–she actually just “switched side” from Stanford this semester. Since I do go to seminars and read papers, I can testify to Malmendier’s brilliance. Now the chance that I can reach the same level of achievement is understandably slim; consequently, as a maximizing agent I should not be aiming that level of achievement. What I do need to check out is whether speed is my comparative advantage.
Going Bilingual 雙語化
陳水扁：個人去留不足道
陳水扁昨日中午透過總統府公共事務室發出手機短訊聲明稱，「…總統並表示，他個人的去留微不足道，對於各方的意見也都會傾聽」。
陳水扁能當總統到今日本來已是發達社會的一個異例，且看台灣能不能再創下令人歎為觀止的一幕奇境鬧劇。
Given what has happened the fact that Chen Shui-bian is still in presidency ridicules ROC as a developed society. Let us look forward to yet another episode of this astonishing soup opera in the near future.
漫畫更新
《神兵3.5》越來越不像話，幾乎到了不知所謂的地步。相反《神兵前傳5》卻是出類拔萃，是港漫難得一見的佳作。讀者也是看得見的，《神前4》和《神前5》口碑銷量均是一流。後繼的《神兵玄奇F》正在大賣廣告。劇情細節當然無從得知 ，但那個「F」字總給我點《Final Fantasy》的感覺。
談拔尖
神童跳班被拒 澳洲當局涉歧視 2006年10月27日
【明報專訊】澳洲一名12歲天才女童要求跳班升讀被拒，其母於是控告昆士蘭省教育部門歧視，最終獲得勝訴，女童現正計劃14歲時入大學讀醫科。
住在布里斯班的馬拉克斯策巴里亞智商達147(常人是100)。她9歲讀小六時，原打算翌年跳班升讀中二，可是教育部以有礙其人際關發展為由不准跳級，只答應為她度身設計課程。
女童母親投訴教育政策錯誤，強迫天才女兒念普通課程，令她覺得沉悶，對她不公平。母親說：「這是她的需要，必須顧及其人權！」案件去年開始審理，反歧視法院今年4月裁定教育部並無歧視，但10月初最高法院判女童得直，要求反歧視法院重審。
在澳洲，華裔數學天才陶哲軒便幸運得多，他容許跳級，17歲就取得學士學位，21歲博士畢業，24歲便當上美國加州大學教授。陶哲軒的父親支持家長為天才子女爭取權益，但卻叮囑說：「一些專家認為加快受教育適用於天才兒童，但我認為應因人而異設計課程，這才對孩子有益。」
德新社/信使郵報
我從很久以前開始就覺得香港的教育系統拔尖效率極低。九年免費「愉快」教育的代價是制度僵化–跳級不用說，分門別類因材施教也是難得很(中六的優先取錄計劃是難得的改進，暫且按下不表)。 政府大概是拒絕承認要拔尖就有標籤這事實。其實學生的成就本來就是有高低之分，扮看不見不好，硬性規定不許分出高下更是愚不可及。教育制度的一大作用是為社會提供每個學生能力的指標，以求人力資源得到最佳的運用。有才華的人對社會用處較大，得到包括標籤在內的較高報酬是自然不過的事。更甚的是，當工作成果極之取決於材華時，材華只要高少許回報就可以高很多，這是所謂「贏家通吃」的現象。 材華不及人家並不代表一人個就只能妄自菲薄。一來天外有天，人外有人，永遠強中自有強中手，二來更重要的是所有經濟學的入門課都一定會教比較優勢定律–各展所長對所有人都有好處。
從根本上來說，這是政府微調教育出問題的又一例。不管一些教育界人仕怎樣辯駁，教育和其他行業一樣受用于競爭。中六優先取錄計劃就是一例，是外國大學來的競爭逼使香港的大學放棄從前被動的作法。計劃其實是在走回頭路–曾幾何時政府還未微調教育中大就是這樣做。另一例是炒得熱烘的陳易希。不論陳易希本人是否值得科大破格取錄，科大願意這樣做就已經是一個突破。盼望政府能有自知之明，減小干預才是香港教育之福。