Journal of Interesting Tidbits

Majors for Top 1% Earners

2012-01-19T11:24:00.000-08:00

A recent statistics about the college majors for top 1% income earners (in America) shows an interesting trend: pre-med majors have 11.8% chance of becoming top 1% earners.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/what-the-top-1-of-earners-majored-in/

Is that a surprise? Given the cost of healthcare expenses?

In the list for top 25 majors for 1% earners, there is no sign of computer science or electrical engineering. In fact, only chemical engineering makes the list at no. 19.

So the next time we talk about enrollment in computer science and engineering, perhaps we should also consider competition from other majors. Many kids may be interested in technology related majors, but they are also smart enough to consider the long-term reward for themselves.

Cloud-based Animation

2011-12-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Mugeda is a website that provides an editor for you to create animation on the web. The actual animation that is created is based on HTML5. It seems quite easy to create simple and yet interesting cartoons this way.

D-Wave back in the Quantum Computing world again

2011-06-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

Despite the questions, suspicions, and controversy regarding its quantum computing technology, D-Wave recently was able to accomplish sales at Lockheed Martin. Now, people who previously questioned this company are taking a second, serious look at its published technology again.

Recent publication on "Nature":
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7346/full/nature10012.html

Physical Review Letters:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.0669

D-Wave publications:
http://www.dwavesys.com/en/publications.html

Comments from IEEE Spectrum:
"Big Win for the Losers at D-Wave"
http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/computing/hardware/big-win-for-the-losers-at-dwave

The real question is:

Are we entering the Era of Quantum Computing?

The bumpy road towards quantum computing

2010-01-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

In a recent IEEE Spectrum article, various quantum computing researchers question the likelihood of success in D-Wave system's attempt to build a quantum computer.

To summarize, "D-Wave Systems' quantum computers look to be bigger, costlier, and slower than conventional ones".
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/loser-dwave-does-not-quantum-compute

Real-time search and beyond: the next frontier for news & journalism

2010-01-08T10:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday's earthquake in silicon valley hi-lighted the emergence of real-time search in this rapid changing world. Both Twitter and Google provide some sort of real-time search. But their coverage so far are limited to the Internet only.

In future, if we can come up with an information retrieval mechanism that is connected to sensors, recorders, and other devices of mankind, then it would be possible to uncover activity that is happening real-time. It may be able to replace news coverage or journalism, because the role of news reporters is to report and document recent or on-going events, which can be replaced or supplemented by the automated search mechanism if designed correctly. This would really bring the power of media to the people (or the search engine).

Traveling: Trains vs. Airplanes

2009-12-29T20:39:00.000-08:00

Recent news about terrorist's attempt to bomb an airplane has revived our memories of 9/11 and tightened airline security measures around the world. In the last decade or so, traveling by air has evolved from an enjoyable experience into a hassle, and perhaps nearly torture in the last few days. It is now time for us to look for other options. High speed passenger railway is gaining momentum in Europe and East Asia. Some of them can travel over 300 km/hour, a nice alternative to air travel.

It is now time for the U.S. to consider improving or revamping the railway infrastructure. The current AmTrak system is no fun. A simple trip from Portland to San Jose takes 19 hours. This is even slower than driving, which takes around 12 hours. If we can really build an efficient, high speed, railway system, it can substantially improve our transportation system, save energy and be more friendly to our environment.

For more information:

FMCAD 2009

2009-12-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

Last month I attended Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design (FMCAD) 2009.
The pictures from that conference is now available on the conference website:
http://fmv.jku.at/fmcad09/pictures/index.html

See if you can figure out which photo has my image.

The conference proceedings is available on-line at IEEE Xplore.

Tiger Hunting

2009-12-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

There is a new on-line video game that capitalizes on Tiger Woods' recent scandal.

http://www.break.com/games/tiger-woods-wife-outrun.html

Nobel prizes and U.S. immigration

2009-10-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

A recent article on the San Jose Mercury News takes an interesting look on the U.S. immigration debate from the perspective of recent Nobel prize winners.

http://www.mercurynews.com/chris-obrien/ci_13500107

4 out of 6 U.S. citizens who received Nobel prizes this year were born outside the United States. It is a vivid reminder on immigrants contributions to recent innovations that powers the U.S. economic growth.

Electronic Design for the masses (on iPhone)

2009-09-26T18:51:00.001-07:00

iWafer claims to be the first electronic design software on iPhone.
It is currently selling for $9.99 at the Apple iPhone App store.

Here is a demo video for iWafer:

Startups: Only a few can survive

2009-07-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

It is said that 99% of startups in silicon valley (or anywhere in hi-tech) are failures.

A recent survey of FPGA/PLD companies in the past few decades provides a graphical depiction.

Here is a history of FPGA/PLD startups from that article:

http://i.cmpnet.com/eetimes/news/09/07/1565chart_pg18.gif

Google Voice Widget

2009-07-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

Google Voice, a technology acquired from GrandCentral, is now available to people in the US. You need an invitation to sign up, but if you remember the early days of GMail, such invitations are not so difficult to get.

One interesting feature is the Voice Widget, which allows you to put a link on your own website and let people call you from anywhere within the United States.

Phishing attacks through social networks

2009-05-15T18:29:00.001-07:00

Do you use Facebook or other social networks? Do you have a number of friends on such network?

There are increasing reports of Phishing attacks on Facebook or other social networks.

This phenomenon does not sound well for social networks.

Creative Junk Mail? "Swine Flu Vaccine" spam

2009-05-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

The swine flu, now also known as H1N1 type A virus, is capturing news headlines across the globe. As of this morning, 44 human deaths have been confirmed due to this virus. 42 of these deaths are in Mexico, the remaining 2 in the good neighbor, the United States.

The e-mail spammers and fraudsters have also jumped on this bandwagon, with junk mail entitled "swine flu vaccine" trying to catch peoples eyes.

The real swine flu vaccine is still under development. It will be available soon, but not now!!!

Wolfram Alpha -- the Google Killer?

2009-05-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Wolfram Alpha claims to be an answer engine.

A search engine, like Google, returns a list of web links related to your search / query.
An answer engine, as prototyped by Wolfram Alpha, returns the "answers" to your query.
It is supposed to be better than Google.

Is it really going to live up to its hype? We will see.

Electric car is about alternative (not green) energy

2009-05-02T22:22:00.001-07:00

Electric (plug-in) cars will primarily draw their energy from the electric power grid, instead of gasoline. A recent article published at the IEEE Spectrum raises concerns that electric power grid may not be as "green" as we think.

However, we should remember that one big advantage of the electric car is about "alternative" energy. There are many ways that you can generate electricity: solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, coal, etc. Some of them may or may not be eco-friendly. But at least people have a choice. If you like, you can replace old fashioned power generators with more environmentally friendly ones.

Going forward, green energy may not be the most important aspect of electric cars. A bigger factor that may determine their success (or failure) will be how economical they are compared to old-fashioned gasoline cars, and how much support can government (or the public sector) can help to accelerate their development.

IE 8 release has lots of problems

2009-03-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

Have you tried the latest Internet Explorer 8.0 which was officially released yesterday?

If you have not, then please don't!!!

It's got lots of bugs. Many web pages that used to work on the IE 8 RC (release-candidate) version are not loadable by the IE 8 official release version.

Of course, such hiccups are expected. But under such market competitions, one would expect Microsoft to be smart and nimble with its execution. Again, I am disappointed.

Romantic Poetry Generator

2009-03-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried writing a romantic poem?
A 60-year-old computing machine specifically programmed to generate love poetry has been recreated in England: the Manchester Mark I.

Here is an example poem that it randomly generated:

SWEETHEART DEAR
YOU ARE MY WISTFUL ENCHANTMENT. MY DEVOTION SIGHS FOR YOUR AMBITION. MY LONGING LIKES YOUR APPETITE. YOU ARE MY ANXIOUS HUNGER. MY RAPTURE DESIRES YOUR CHARM.
YOURS BEAUTIFULLY
M. U. C.

Making Summer Longer -- A Bush Legacy

2009-03-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

In the 2005, the United States Congress and then president George W. Bush enacted a law that makes the summer time (daylight savings time) longer. Instead of the first Sunday of April, the law stipulates that the second Sunday of March should be the start of DST, and pushed the end of the DST from the last Sunday of October to the first Sunday of November. So the official calender for summer time is extended by 4 to 5 weeks depending on the year.

Can you really make summer longer by changing the law? Many people still think the weather is quite cold right now, so perhaps the switch to daylight savings time this weekend seem premature. Like it or not, this is yet another Bush legacy that will have long lasting effects on America :-)

Zeitgeist: conspiracy theory revisited

2009-03-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

The movie Zietgeist has been largely ignored by the media. It seems to be one of those exaggerated movie on the liberal front.

The Globe and Mail criticize this movie as:

"[...] this stuff [...] it's all been thoroughly debunked for years. Evidently, debunking isn't the issue. [...] Nor can you cite the findings of the professional, journalistic, and academic consensus to someone who's decided that having credibility means being under the sway of shadowy forces. [...] for all the talk of skepticism, conspiracy counterculture is really an anti-intellectual, populist movement - much like Intelligent Design. For all their absurdity, conspiracy theorists try to drag everything back to the level of common sense. [...] Did the collapsing buildings on 9/11 look like they were being demolished? Then they must have been demolished. Did the 757 that hit the Pentagon's blast-proof walls fail to make a plane-shaped hole? Then it must have been something else. Are there unexplained quirks in the official story? Then it must be the work of a higher power. [...] Conspiracy theorists want to see [...] a malevolent design behind events. The notion that calamity might be the unintended consequence of subtler causes doesn't hold the same appeal. Evil, whatever its other uses, drives a great narrative. Complexity, not so much."

Anyway, if you still want to watch this FREE movie despite all the above warnings, take a look at the following:

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Here is the original movie:

The addendum movie:

On-line Crash Course on US economy

2009-01-11T11:32:00.001-08:00

Worried about the economy? Where are we heading? What's in our future?

Chris Martenson presents an On-line Crash Course on the U.S. Economy on his website:

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

Take a look, and see if you agree or not.

Sock and Awe: web game to throw shoes at George Bush

2008-12-17T21:12:00.001-08:00

A British guy, Alex Tew, has created an on-line video game to mimic the Iraqi reporter's shoeing of George Bush. Granted he is still the current president of the United States, albeit one of the most unpopular president for the time being, we should at least pay him some respect. But that doesn't stop this British guy from making fun and taking advantage of the situation.

Here is the video game: Sock and Awe
Simply click it to play!

The game itself has enjoyed instant fame.
The Guardian newspaper has published a story about it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/dec/17/georgebush-games

Protect our civil liberties petition

2008-11-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

Bill Richardson has been nominated to the Obama cabinet as secretary of commerce.

However, there is a new online petition to remove his nomination from the cabinet:

As the Secretary of Energy under former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Richardson intentionally leaked Dr. Wen Ho Lee's name to the press as the suspect of giving China nuclear secrets and falsely accused Dr. Lee of espionage, stripping Dr. Lee's right to due process and marking the beginning of a 9 month solitary confinement. Judge James Parker made an unusual apology to Dr. Lee when he released him and accused the Department of Energy, among others, of misleading him and bring dishonor to the U.S. All this is documented in Wikipedia, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Ho_Lee

President Bill Clinton and the New York Times have both apologized publicly to Dr. Lee. Yet, Mr. Richardson said he stood by everything he said and did regarding Dr. Lee in an interview with Democracy Now in September 2005. He also criticized Judge Parker for making his apology and said the Judge erred when he said he was misled. See http://www.democracynow.org/2005/9/22/governor_richardson_says_he_stands_by

For more on Gov. Richardson and Dr. Lee, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv7v02jFHS8

The Dr. Wen Ho Lee case was not the only mistake Mr. Richardson made. Several hard disc drives were missing at the Los Alamos National Lab under his watch. Mr. Richardson's motive when he offered Monica Lewinsky a job on his UN staff is questionable. Additionally, he repeatedly claimed he was drafted by the Kansas City A's until it was proven that he was not.

For details, see the online petition:

Gov Bill Richardson should not be nominated Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/petition.html

Sign Language Over Cell Phones -- by video

2008-11-26T10:41:00.001-08:00

Research to provide sign language support for the hearing impaired using video cell phone has gathered some publicity recently. ScienceDaily has published an article detailing one of such work:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080821164609.htm

Here is a video about the video cell phone:

FDA found melamine in domestic U.S. milk formula providers

2008-11-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

According to an AP article: previously undisclosed tests, obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of 3 U.S. domestic baby milk formula providers. The three firms — Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson — manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.

For details, check this AP article on Yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_he_me/infant_formula

If you have a baby at home, you should probably beware of this problem.

The Good Consumer

2008-11-25T16:24:00.000-08:00

The Next Bubble

2008-11-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

The economic boom in the 90's was largely driven by the hi-tech bubble. After the bubble burst in 2000, America found a new frontier, the real estate and financial derivatives. Most of the economic development in the past few years seem to be related to the real estate bubble and the stock or financial tricks.

What is going to be the next bubble?

One likely candidate is the alternative (or renewable) energy, green technology, initiative.

If there is a real substitute for the gasoline (and petroleum to a larger extent), and if this substitute is low cost, low/no pollution, and unrelated to coal or petroleum, the potential market for this technology would be huge. However, if it turns out to be a disappointment, the downside could also be a lot of wasted resources, research, funding, etc.

Alphabets in 3D

2008-10-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting book.

As you flip the pages, it pop out the alphabets in 3D.

Check it out.

Election Ads on Facebook may not be so effective

2008-10-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

As the presidential election is looming closer, there is a increased attention on political campaigns, ads, etc. One would imagine that Facebook would play a significant role in such political activities. There are numerous reports of grass root movements on-line to support Obama. The McCain campaign must have been paying attention too.

However, one recent election closely related to the web community has just finished: the IEEE Annual (Presidential) Election. There were two candidates competing for the IEEE presidency. I have noticed election campaign ads for one of them on Facebook. One would argue that Facebook is an interesting community, with significant proportion of educated, computer savy individuals, some of them may very well be IEEE members with voting rights. However, the IEEE candidate whose ad that I noticed on Facebook did not win the IEEE presidential election. There may be several factors involved. Many of those actively voting on this professional organization may well be outside the Facebook demographic. Nevertheless, this is one data-point showing that Facebook ad may not be so effective after all.

The definition of Marriage -- political ramifications

2008-10-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

California is again the battleground between homosexual activists and conservative activists. After the California State Supreme court ruled that "same sex marriage" is constitutionally allowed in this state, those seeking to protect the traditional definition of marriage crafted the "California Marriage Protection Act", also known as the Proposition 8, which will be voted during the presidential election on November 4 this year.

The California Attorney General, Jerry Brown, has revised the title of Proposition 8 to be "Eliminates the Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry". Whatever the title, this proposition is still under heated debate and both sides of the measure are actively trying to gather support.

What's your opinion on Proposition 8?

O.J. Simpson on the headlines again

2008-10-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

Once again, O.J. Simpson was found guilty, this time for kidnapping and armed robbery during his confrontation with sports memorabilia dealer in Las Vegas.
It's hard to separate this trial from his history of trials:

13 years ago, on October 3, 1995, O. J. Simpson was found "not guilty" on the murder of his separated wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
On February 5, 1997, a civil jury found O. J. Simpson "liable" for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman and Brown. O. J. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000.00 in damages.
On Friday, October 3, 2008, O. J. Simpson was found "guilty" by a Las Vegas (Clark County) jury for kidnapping and armed robbery.

There are also a bunch of other litigation against Simpson.

What's your reaction to the latest verdict?

A (belated) justice served?
He was setup by those against him?

BTW, is this a fair trial?

It looks like the race issue is still lingering on peoples minds whenever we talk about O.J.

The Power of Yahoo headline: downtime on Ziggs

2008-09-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Ziggs.com was featured in one of the headline videos on Yahoo this morning. It seem the Ziggs website is not yet ready for such publicity. As of now, if you go to the Ziggs website, it will show "Service Unavailable". Some of the graphic icons are also missing.

This is yet another example that too much publicity can bite you.

Facebook Anthem

2008-09-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Nestle milk powder is found to be contaminated with melamine

2008-09-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Milk is a sensitive issue nowadays. After several milk powder brands in China were found to be contaminated with industrial chemical melamine, the Swiss branded Nestle is now found to be contaminated with melamine too [news report].

So we now have to be careful, especially those with children.

Banks are still looking for your pocket -- in the middle of the crisis

2008-09-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

Many banks are in trouble now. After the demise of Lehman Brothers, the Feds are pitching tax payers money to save AIG. Washington Mutual seem to be on its way to a new boss too. Still other banks are looking for clever ways of funding: your pockets.

One of the well-know banks (name start with a E*) is offering $10 bonus if you pitch in $5000 more into your bank account by October 15, 2008. It's probably a way to glean more cash from the public to secure their own financial position.

Obama vs. McCain: What's your stand on AMT?

2008-09-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

With less than 60 days into the presidential election, both Obama and McCain are advocating their own tax (cut) plans. But what about the AMT (alternative minimum tax)?

John McCain used to advocate a permanent repeal of the AMT, but recently he modified his message to a gradual phase out of the AMT, which means it will not have any real impact soon.

Obama does not seem to mention AMT in his campain website.

In the end, whatever have been promised may not be realistic after all. Only time can tell.

If iPhone is so hot, why TV ads and fake customers?

2008-08-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

The iPhone launch in 2007 stir up a whole new revolution in user interface and mobile devices. By now, pretty much everybody is impressed with its intuitive, gesture-based command interface. It has been widely reported that iPhone is a hot selling item around the world. So I was surprised to see an Apple TV commercial during NBC prime time Olympic shows. More shocking news: some cell phone carriers in Poland are hiring actors to line up in front of their stores (fake customers) pretending to buy iPhone. Now, they are on the borderline of deceptive commercial practices. If this were to happen in any communist country, perhaps some media would quickly term it as "propaganda".

If it's so hot, why do they even need the advertisement?! Why faking customers? Of course, many other companies also sell TV ads, if only to boost their brand. But the implication is that some merchandises are hot selling because of their brand, not because of their innate attraction to the customers. Obviously, cell phones (and especially the iPhone) are now more of a fashion item than a technology.

Fighting SPAM

2008-08-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

There has been an exponential increase in the amount of junk mail to one of my mailbox in recent months. Although the junk mail filter has been very efficient in filtering out these junk mail, the sheer bulk of spam means that one simply do not have time to even look at the subject lines (titles) before deleting. As a result, I routinely delete tons of e-mail without even looking at the junk mail folder, which brings up another question: what if one of those e-mail is not junk and worth reading? Well, tough luck :-)

There are a bunch of well known tips on the web for people to avoid spam, but most of them focus on the protection of your privacy and your e-mail address, i.e. the less people/organization that know about your e-mail address, the less likely that someone can spam that mailbox:

Don't give out name, e-mail address, phone number, (and certainly not your SSN) to any organization on the web. Unless you really know them very well, e.g. you probably have to give your SSN to your employer and your bank.
Don't buy/donate/click anything based on junk mail that you receive
Create a temporary e-mail address if you really need to sign up something that requires e-mail address. After a long period of them, if they haven't spam that temporary address, you can go ahead change that address to your mail e-mail, or simply forward from that temporary address to your mail e-mail box.

However, there isn't much progress on reducing spam once your e-mail address is known to the spammers. Telling the spammers to stop contacting you is simply acknowledging that your e-mail address exists and that you actually read their junk mail. Hence, the best way is to ignore and delete them.

Air tickets -- another reason to watch your weight

2008-08-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

With surging fuel prices, airlines are trying to cut their costs, and perhaps pass some of this burden to passengers. Some airlines are starting to enforce rules that over-weight passengers should purchase extra tickets. Although such practices trampers on touchy issues as sort of discrimination based on people's weight, it probably has some economic justifications. I have witnessed some extremely "well built" passengers trying hard to fit themselves into the economy class seat, and the seat handles were just too tight for them. It would make sense to have them purchase two tickets, so that they and their neighbors can all sit comfortably.

Of course, where should airlines draw the line between overweight and normal passengers? Some are require you to be able to fit within the seat belt. But then just how long should the seat belt be?

Ultimately, it is yet a another reason for people to watch their weight, and perhaps loose some of the extra fats :-)

It's not your major, it's your school that matters!

2008-08-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

A recent study showcased that English majors from Harvard on average earns almost the same as an engineering major from any university: $103K median pay for Harvard English major after 10 years, versus $103.8K for an engineering major (from any school) after 10 years.

We have heard all kinds of talks about promoting science and engineering education in the US. Where is the financial reward? The statistics seem to indicate if you go to the right school (Ivy League), you would do well financially no matter what is your major. Looks like schools (and perhaps the connections) are more influential than technical skills on a person's career.

Microsoft is playing catch up to Open Office

2008-07-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Although OpenOffice.org is just beginning to gain popularity in recent years, it is already putting a lot of pleasure on Microsoft. Take a look at the new Open Office 3.0 (Beta), it has pretty much everything that Microsoft Office 2007 has to offer, and more. Open Office was designed to be compatible with Microsoft from day one (at least for the most common basic features). There are a number of nice new features that was pioneered by Open Office, and Microsoft gladly copied into their latest products.

Take PDF for example. Adobe has published the PDF format for ages. Yet Microsoft never supported this format directly in all previous versions of MS Office, until Open Office comes with the PDF feature built-in. So now MS Office 2007 also has export to PDF capability, just so they can be on par with Open Office.

Another obvious example is the bibilography. Until now, people from academic circles pretty much all using LaTeX. The most important reason is that LaTeX provides a rich bibliography capability, e.g. through the BibTeX package. Open Office has built-in bibliography features since its inception. Now Microsoft also learn the lesson, and it is supporting bibliography in Office 2007.

Competition is sweat. Consumers are undoubtedly the biggest winner in this cat and mouse game.

Depreciation in the Value of an American Life?

2008-07-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

The EPA announced recently that the statistical value of an American life has depreciated to 6.9 million US dollars, which is a drop of $1 million from five years ago.

While this is all just statistics, there might be legal implications to the statistical value of an American life. Is $6.9million (or $7.9million five years ago) sufficient to purchase a life? Perhaps some lawyers may be tempted to cite this statistics to put a cap on legal damages.

If we use Euro to measure the statistical value of an American life:

5 years ago, (assuming exchange rate US$1 to 0.9Euro): 7.11 million Euro
Today, (assuming exchange rate of US$1 to 0.63Euro): 4.35 million Euro

So the depreciation is almost 40% over the past 5 years, in terms of Euro!!!

There should be plenty of argument against putting a price tag on human life. Whatever the reason for the EPA to put a monetary measure on a statistical life, the number is probably controversial at best.

Anti-war mom: Cindy Sheehan for Congress '08

2008-07-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

It's the Fourth of July, Independence Day. Let us take a look at our local politics. It appears that Cindy Sheehan, the famous Anti-War Mom, is now running for Congress in the 2008 election, against Nancy Pelosi.

Here is a brief summary of Cindy Sheehan's political background, quoting her campaign website:

Cindy's world changed forever on April 4, 2004, when her eldest child, Casey Austin, was killed while serving in Iraq. He was 24 years old. Casey, who was a Specialist in the First Cavalry Unit in Sadr City, was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star posthumously for his valor in combat.

and ...

In August 2005, Cindy traveled to Crawford, Texas, with the goal of speaking personally to President Bush to demand an end to the occupation of Iraq. Other peace activists joined Cindy's efforts and the demonstrations that came to be known as "Camp Casey" began. Camp Casey was a regular gathering held whenever Bush was in Crawford, Texas, and it drew thousands of activists and celebrities from all over the world to protest the Iraq conflict.

Cindy Sheehan is a world famous figure in anti-war activism. The main stream media has referred to her as "the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement" and "Peace Mom".

It remains to be seen how much steam can this grass-root campaign go for. Whatever the outcome, it will be an interesting election coming this November.

The campaign website for Cindy Sheehan:

http://www.cindyforcongress.org/

Their campaign headquarters is located at:

1260 Mission Street
San Francisco, California 94103

Browser wars reloaded

2008-07-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

How many different web browsers are you using now?

For me, I use an older version of Internet Explorer at work, not because I like Micro$oft or the older IE. It's because there are certain applications at work that are tailored to that older IE version. So people like me are kind of stuck with that.

I also use Firefox. It's pretty good, and extremely good compared to the older versions of IE.

However, the recent release of Firefox 3.0 brings many problems. It seems their development team have replaced the old memory leak bug with a bunch of new compatibility issues. As a result, there are several web pages at work that worked with Firefox 2.x but does not work with Firefox 3.0.

So I am shopping for a better web browser. Here are some candidates:

Opera: deemed the fastest web browser. It seems really fast in my experience, and it can access many web pages that Firefox 3.0 cannot. Until the next release of Firefox, I think Opera is superior.
SeaMonkey: an open source development continuation of Netscape, with many shared features of Firefox.
Safari: for Apple, runs on the Mac. But what about people who don't use Mac? Don't tell me we have to convert the entire world to Mac/Apple. It will be replacing Micro$oft with $pple, and even more expensive.
Flock: a social networking web browser.

What else?

Recharge your hybrid

2008-07-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Gasoline prices have skyrocketed for the past few years, and the petroleum-related inflation is especially noticeable in recent months.

A new experimental concept has surfaced recently: instead of pouring gasoline into your hybrid car, and charge the battery during vehicle movement (e.g. braking), why don't we just charge the battery at home. This would further reduce the gasoline consumption for your hybrid vehicle.

It appears Google is also participating in this concept via their RechargeIT.org project:

http://www.google.org/recharge/

Cultrual Stereotypes and Kung Fu Panda

2008-06-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Kung Fu Panda, one can immediately grasp the essence of the movie before even watching it. Having a cute panda with Chinese Kung Fu would surely make a Hollywood block-buster. But the movie is pretty much confined within Hollywood's self-defined, so called "main-stream", perception of Asian Americans. We are already at the dawn of a new era where America is considering a black president. However, we still have yet to see a Hollywood movie with a positive (normal) portrait Asian American male as the main actor, not as martial art master, not as a villan, not as a nerdy geek, but just as a normal person. Is that so hard for America?

BTW, it seems my perception is not the only one. The following blog also highlight a similar opinion:

http://blacksnob.blogspot.com/2008/06/kung-fu-panda-express.html

Here is a quote:

kirk: My point wasn't quite about racism, it was more about exploitation of a culture that is routinely treated as "exotic."

And since Asian Americans aren't always as mobilized as black Americans, they sometimes don't throw down over these sorts of things, even if they annoy them. This obviously wasn't worth a full assault. It's more of a minor infraction.

Most Asian's love Mulan because Disney worked closely with the Asian community to make it and it was based on their history. It's about what's tasteful and what isn't. It's a fine line. And Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan are routinely criticized in the Asian American community for the choices they've made in American cinema.

So my point really wasn't so much about the film, but how Asian Americans don't see representations of themselves as just people, not kung fu masters or cartoons, but just people in cinema.

That doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad movie, but it is part of a cycle that continues to only dramatize the parts of Asian culture western audiences are most fascinated by.

Ethics in Academics

2008-06-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

A recent article in the Nature magazine [1] suggested that scientific misconducts in the United States may be more prevalent than those reported through official channels. The article also suggested a few approaches to improve the status quo:

adopt a zero tolerance policy
protect the whistle blowers
clarify the reporting mechanism
training
provide alternative mechanisms
promote role models for ethical behavior.

The editorial in the same magazine issue [2] also discussed the ethics problem, and suggested that people should focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers. But who is really pointing?

[1] Sandra L. Titus, James A. Wells, and Lawrence J. Rhoades, "Repairing Research Integrity", Nature, volume 453, number 7198, pages 980-982.
[2] Editorial: "Solutions, Not Scapegoats", Nature, volume 453, number 7198, page 957.

social networking is slowing down

2008-06-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

After several years of rapid growth as illustrated by MySpace, Bebo, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, etc., recent reports indicate that social networking websites are experiencing slow down. A recent article by Creative Capital indicate that several well known social networking websites are seeing a decline in the amount of time that users spent on these websites, and in the number of unique visitors to these websites.

They never give up, neither do we!

2008-05-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

For donation information:

http://chinaearthquake2008.googlepages.com/

Graphics Processors Enable Low Cost Super-computing

2008-05-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

One of the recent hypes in silicon valley is Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Designed for graphics display in personal computers, GPUs present highly parallel computing capabilities. Now, more and more people are starting to find GPUs as cheap alternatives to perform parallel computing, which were traditionally restricted to super-computers.

From the General Purpose GPU (GPGPU) initiative, to NVidia's CUDA platform, GPUs are launching a battle to lure more researchers (and pragmatic software developers) to adopt their usage. It remains to be seen whether this is all just a hype or will the momentum keep on. But if it really takes off, what we are seeing now could be the dawn of a new computing era.

Model Checking Pioneers Win Turing Award

2008-02-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

It has been announced earlier this February that three pioneers of Model Checking, Ed Clarke, E. Allen Emerson, and Joseph Sifakis, won the Turing Award.

The Turing Award is the equivalent of Nobel Prize for people working in the field of computer science.

Model checking is one of the most important techniques for sequential formal verification. The award recognized the impact of model checking in addressing verification challenges. Although combinational formal verification techniques such as equivalence checking has been widely adopted by industry as an indispensable part of the design process, sequential formal verification techniques (such as model checking) still has a long way to gain wide acceptance.

The end of Moore's Law?

2007-12-15T16:56:00.000-08:00

In a recent article, "Chip-shrinking may be nearing its limits", the authors publicize a well-known question in the semiconductor industry: Is there an end to Moore's Law?

For the next decade or so, it seems advances in traditional semiconductor process technology combined with new developments in nanotechnology, quantum computing, and/or other innovative ideas may help continue Moore's Law. Beyond that, only time can tell.

Salary, Stock Option and AMT

2007-06-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

Recently, my friend Dean wrote this humorous article about Stock Options and Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

I got tired of this guy trying to sell stock option and quoting income I need to clarify something.

You might think UNCLE Sam is dumb but he is ACTUALLY very smart.

Some guy invented stock option to try to cheat tax but they didn't get away with it.

Apparently, some people don't report the GAIN ON stock option so UNCLE same got smart and started to ADD gain to the stock option AS INCOMES.

That is why you see a lot of inflated income in the silicon valley. Next time, add all your wages and then compare them to your w2, you will notice that sometimes your w2 have lot more
in box 2? Why because they added your gain on option to your income. So you might be only earning $40,000 but you received $40,000 so the compensation will become $80,000. BTW; companies are smart, they give out stock options through the brokers. Brokers get money when you sell. Because of AMT, most people sell on the same day they exercise (they still make money if you lose money), it is bad to hold options long time because of of AMT.

Next time if this guy tells you he is stock option broker ask him or her what is AMT and why is it so lucrative for Uncle Sam. Options are inherently dangerous, it is like gambling. I have a book over 1000 pages long about options, if you are bored I can lend it to you.

If you haven't heard of AMT, take a look at the following article:

Alternative Minimum Tax 101

17 Miles

2007-05-26T08:55:00.001-07:00

Picture shot at 17 Miles (Monterey) yesterday.

Golden Gates National Sea Shore

2007-05-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Went to the S.F. Legion of Honor museum yesterday and hiked along the sea shore with a clear view of the Golden Gates Bridge.

Peach Flowers

2007-02-18T11:38:00.000-08:00

This flower image was shot at 11:00 am this morning.

Quantum Computing Demo

2007-02-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

A startup company called DWave recently demonstrated a 16-qubit quantum computer for commercial use. They showed two applications:

pattern matching
planning/scheduling

Both are well known NP-complete problems, which previous researchers have found efficient solutions on (theoretical) quantum computers.

It's tax time

2007-02-04T18:18:00.000-08:00

"'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." -- Benjamin Franklin

The 3 top rated tax preparation software are:

TurboTax
TaxCut
TaxAct

However, beware of the various versions/packages that comes with these softwares. TurboxTax is priced in at least 4 different categories: Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home & Business. Depending which combo package you are shopping, you may also have to pay addition for the accompanying state tax and e-file options.

Imagine what will happen if the government switch to a flat tax system. A lot of accountants, lawyers, and some tax software companies will be in trouble getting new businesses.

Internet TV

2007-02-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

Joost.com, the internet broadband TV based on peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, has been live on Beta for a few weeks. Here is a sample screen shot published from their website:

It was formerly known as the Venice project, which was backed by the founders of Skype.

Let's just wait and see how the TV industry will evolve after this.

Immigrants are the backbone of US tech innovation

2007-02-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

A recent study shows that foreign nationals living in the United States have the largest share of patent application filings in the United States. Chinese engineers were the largest group of patent filers, with 26.8% of filings, followed by Indians with 21%.

Ron Hira of IEEE (USA) and vice president of career services points out the contribution of foreign born engineers to the U.S. economy:

"One of the most important policy conclusions is that highly skilled immigrants play an important role in creating this intellectual property, and we want them to stay here," Hira said.

Ed Levin County Park

2007-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken at Monument Peak in the Ed R. Levin County Park today.

Smoking-ban leads to Quit-smoking movement

2007-01-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

Ringing in the New Year of 2007, a new anti-smoking regulation has been enforced in Hong Kong. Smoking is prohibited in public places, parks, and recreation areas except certain designated smoking spots. Such a social change seems to incite a new wave of quit-smoking movement. It seems the new law has given more people a reason to quit smoking, which is a good thing.

Historically, new trends in Hong Kong tends to followed quickly by nearby regions in mainland China and elsewhere. Hopefully this new anti-smoking campaign and it's quit-smoking movement will inspire similar acts in the mainland or other places in south east Asia.

In Remembrance of James Kim

2006-12-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

Recent tragic news about James Kim has stroked the hearts of many in Bay Area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim

In all regards, James Kim was a good husband and a good father. His story reminds us of the limits of technology in the face of mother nature. In the efforts for his rescue, a cell phone designer erected an emergency cell phone tower to help searchers and to give Kim's cell phone a signal. Kim's father, an executive of an aerospace company, managed to get a satellite moved in space to help find his son. But reality was cruel, fog clouds prevented helicopters from flying. Severe weather and the rough terrain beat out satellites in space.

Under the difficult snowy weather circumstances and his weak body, James was taking a risk against all odds to get a chance of help for his family. As a man, a husband, and a father, he must have undertaken the burden to gave his family the love they need, and a chance of survival. He did the right thing, with dignity, even at the harshest conditions.

The Glass Ceiling

2006-06-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

Asian Americans face the worst discrimination in rising to the management class! (first chart)

Yet Asian Americans have the highest educational attainment, an important qualification for management.

The average rate of improvement over the last 6 years is so slow that it will take 75 years or three generations to reach equal opportunity.

Source of those charts? Government data. Indeed, EEOC has seen the first chart and replied "consistent with our calculations."

For more information, see Break The Glass Ceiling by 80-20 Education Foundation.

Grow old along with me -- Rabbi ben Ezra

2006-06-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Rabbi ben Ezra is a poem by Robert Browning about Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167), one of the great poets, mathematicians and scholars of the 12th century. He wrote on grammar, astronomy, the astrolabe, etc.

The poem begins with:
GROW old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith `A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!'
For SciFi fans, this poem was quoted by Issac Asimov in his science fiction, Pebble in the Sky.

top 10 lies

2006-05-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

There are some interesting blogs recently.
Here is another blogger who summarized the most common lines in business:

Top 10 lies of Engineers
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_top_ten_lie.html
Top 10 lies of Marketers
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_top_ten_lie_1.html
The Top 10 lies of Venture Capitalists
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie.html
The Top 10 lies of Entrepreneurs
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html

Tools for writing and publishing

2006-03-01T07:55:00.000-08:00

For those of us who are serious about writing scientific work, LaTeX is an indispensable tool, especially if you are writing a thesis or academic paper. We can also draw simple figures using Xfig. When using LaTeX, most people would prefer UNIX/Linux. As Windows and laptops become popular, most of these tools are moving to the Windows platform. So now, instead of LaTex, we can use MikTeX. Instead of Xfig, we can try TpX. In fact, we now can use any drawing tool on Windows, and copy&paste it to TpX.

The value of academic research papers

2006-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

What is the value of academic publishing? The purpose is to document new discovery or to contribute to the body of knowledge. Recent years, we have seen some efforts to quantify and measure these values. One of such metric is the "impact factor" for academic journals:

However, the correctness of these metrics are still subject to debate. Most of them are measurements of citations, and pretty much limited to English language pulications. There are many concerns about such a practice:

Ultimately, what is the impact factor of the journals who published Einstein's paper on relativity?

Scientific publications of Albert Einstein

ban smoking

2006-02-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

California, being a progressive state, is the first to ban smoking in bars and restaurants for the entire state. Now that ban has been expanded to many public places. More and more states are also moving in similar directions.

One would imagine, perhaps in a distant future, that smoking would be prohibited just like drugs, with few exceptions for mitigating circumstances.

Perhaps this idea is far too extreme for now. A significant portion of our population is still addicted to smoking. But everybody would agree that, in general, smoking is bad to our health. It is bad to the people who smoke, and even worse to those who had to suffer from second hand smoke.

Remember the 18th constitutional ammendment?

"... the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. ..."

This ammendment was ratified on 1/16/1919 but repealed on 12/5/1933. This law was not very popular under the circumstances.

However, smoking is quite different from drinking alcohol. While some might argue that drinking a small glass of red whine (e.g. on a daily basis) may contribute to health, similar argument cannot be applied to smoking. By now, it is generally acknowledged that smoking is bad for our health. Also, enforcement is much easier for a smoking ban than alcohol ban. The smell of the smoke would simply give away the smoker. It is easy to catch this type of stuff.

So if the anti-smoking campaign keeps moving forward, perhaps we will (in a distant future) be able to enjoy a smoke free environment.

HDTV and Big Screen TV

2006-02-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

America is moving towards the next generation TV: high definition television (HDTV). Since I am also planning on getting a big screen TV, it seems the following should be considered:

LCD vs. Plasma (other technologies are not so desirable)
HDTV
screen size

There are some web commentaries (including this one) that seems to provide some insights on HDTV. As for screen size, the bigger the better, as long as the price is right. There are also a lot of debate on LCD vs. plasma TVs. So far, it seems that LCD is popular for 32" or smaller TVs, whereas plasma has much lower pricing over competitive LCD for 42" or larger TVs.

Finally: never buy anything unless you really need it. Technology products depreciate very quickly.

Trip to Europe

2005-03-21T23:26:00.000-08:00

Went to Europe around the end of February and early March 2005. The main purpose is to attend DATE (Design Automation and Test in Europe), located in Munich Germany this year, where I served in the Technical Program Committee and also presented a paper to this conference.

Also went to nearby countries: Holland, Belgium, and France. The weather was very cold (kind of unusual this time of the year). Everywhere is covered in snow. See the following pictures.

Paris, France

2005-03-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

Statue of Louie XIV and the Versaile Palace

2005-03-21T22:59:00.001-08:00

The Arch of Triumph

2005-03-21T22:59:00.000-08:00

The glass pyramid in front of Louvre

2005-03-21T22:58:00.001-08:00

The Church of Notre Dame

2005-03-21T22:58:00.000-08:00

Eifel Tower

Koln, Germany

2005-03-21T22:04:00.000-08:00

The church of Koln, Germany is a gigantic building. The archbishop at Koln used to rule a vast region duing the Middle Ages.

Hiedelberg, Germany

2005-03-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

The castle: Schloss Heidelberg

2005-03-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

The bridge head of Hiedelberg, Germany.

Koblenz, Germany

2005-03-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

Statue of Kaiser Wilhelm Denkmal, located at Deutches Eck.

2005-03-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

Deutches Eck: There is a castle on the hill across the river.

GSM cell phone and International Roaming

2005-02-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

International roaming is expen$ive these days. For example, if I were to travel to western Europe and use a Cingular cell phone right now, I would have to pay $1.29 per minute + long distance + tax. Most people would suggest buying a GSM cell phone and switch to the foreign country's GSM SIM card when traveling. Unfortunately, the cell phones that we bought from our wireless carrier are already locked to their frequencies. There is a way to get around this: to unlock the cell phones. For example, there are plenty of information on the web for unlocking Nokia cell phones. The legal background of unlocking has also been discussed thoroughly. It seems the actual unlock process takes less than 5 minutes (provided you read all the instructions first). However, if you hit the wrong button, this could be a long/painful process. So read all the information before unlocking.

Publication update (TCS + ASP-DAC)

2005-02-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

Updated my homepage with two papers published in Asia South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), which was held in January 2005. Also updated the homepage with a link to my journal paper for Theoretical Computer Science.

Fight against racism

2005-01-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

Recently, the radio station HOT in New York broadcasted a racist song mocking the Tsunami victims of South Asia. In that song, they referred to the Tsunami victims as "chinks", "drowning Asians", and "Chinamen". One should point out a basic fact here, the hardest hit area of the Tsunami is Indonesia. The racist who wrote this song does not even have the basic knowledge to distinguish between Chinese and Indonesian. Also, the term "Chinamen" is a racial slur used mostly in the last century. It carries similar demeaning intention as the racial slur "Nigger". Such vocabulary should not be used by any descent human being in America.

Here are some information and protest petitions against the racist station.

hiphopmusic

```
nypost
```

We are already well into the 21st century, and we just celebrated Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech last week. It is sad to see that racism is still so deep rooted in the "popular" culture. The road to racial equality is still very long from here.

Mobile live traffic information and navigation (with GPS)

2005-01-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

GPS based navigation systems have been around for a number of years now. They typically receive signals from a satellite to find the current position, and then look up the map data (on your Palm, PocketPC, cell phone, laptop computer, or specific GPS device like Megellan/Garmin) to calculate the best way to route you to your destination.

However, the road condition keeps on changing, there could be accidents, construction, or traffic congestion ahead. If the GPS is simply looking up a computer database, they have no knowledge of what's going on ahead. This problem has been tackled recently by a few companies with "live" traffic conditions broadcasted to their GPS system. Typically they collect live traffic information from the transportation department or some local authority, and feed that data to the device. Another valuable information source is the tracking of cell phone signals on the road. These "live" traffic information services, not surprisingly, comes with a subscription fee. A simple search on the web reveals some of these new companies/products: Cobra, Pharos, TomTom, Teletype GPS, etc.

In future, it would be nice if the GPS device can collect and analyze the driving habit (such as average speed) of a driver on some typical roads or conditions, store them on a local device (to protect privacy), and automatically selects the best route for the driver based on the "live" traffic data, and his/her driving history. Also, as our local governments tackle the day-to-day traffic congestion problems, perhaps they will eventually be will to foot the bill for broadcasting the "live" traffic information, instead of relying on private companies that charge a subscription fee. After all, these traffic reports are free public information anyway.

Formal Verification of Software

2005-01-21T14:47:00.000-08:00

There is a plethora of Formal Verification tools for software verification in recent years. It should be pointed out that a lot of effort has been invested on formal verification of hardware, and it remains a challenging problem. Software verification is essentially more complex. In hardware we have at least a finite state space (they are all finite state machines); but in software the state space may not be bounded anymore. One couldn't help but wonder why people are rushing to solve a much harder problem while they couldn't solve the easier sibling. The truth lies in the return on investment. Although formal verification of hardware is still unsolved, a lot of easier subproblems have been worked on, and some (like equivalence checking) have been widely deployed in industry. Meanwhile, formal verification of software remains mostly untouched. So there are a lot of low hanging fruits (in the research field) if one simply work on software verification and perhaps borrow/transform some good techniques from the hardware side. At the end of the day, software verification remains a much more difficult problem. So those late to the game are going to be very disappointed after all this gold rush is over.

Hiking

2005-01-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

Went hiking for a few hours yesterday in Almaden Quicksilver Park. Although it's been sunny for a few days, the trail was still quite muddy. The real estate boom in Bay Area means that every piece of land that can be used has been used, including areas surrounding the park.

2 IEEE articles

2004-12-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

Published two articles in IEEE journals this month:

IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II

See my home page for an updated list of publications.

Skiing in Lake Tahoe (NorthStar)

2004-12-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

on the slope (NorthStar December 4th)

2004-12-05T13:24:00.000-08:00

Skiing in NorthStar (December 4th)
William and Chris on the slope

2004-12-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

William and Raymond in front of NorthStar's resort (December 4th)

Cowboy!!!

2002-05-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

This picture was shot at the reception party of ISCAS2002 (IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems) in Scottsdale Arizona. I was riding a real white bull.