Monthly Archives: February 2011

String theory 8

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Dualities

Before the 1990s, string theorists believed there were five distinct superstring theories: open type I, closed type I, closed type IIA, closed type IIB, and the two flavors of heterotic string theory (SO(32) and E8×E8). The thinking was that out of these five candidate theories, only one was the actual correct theory of everything, and that theory was the one whose low energy limit, with ten spacetime dimensions compactified down to four, matched the physics observed in our world today.

It is now believed that this picture was incorrect and that the five superstring theories are connected to one another as if they are each a special case of some more fundamental theory (thought to be M-theory). These theories are related by transformations that are called dualities. If two theories are related by a duality transformation, it means that the first theory can be transformed in some way so that it ends up looking just like the second theory. The two theories are then said to be dual to one another under that kind of transformation. Put differently, the two theories are mathematically different descriptions of the same phenomena.

— Wikipedia on String theory

2011.02.28 Monday ACHK

自我委員會

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而我所講的，是「多重人格」。那不是一種病患，那是正常的。每一個人也會有多重人格，而不同人格之間可以互相溝通。互相溝通的速度高到眾多人格，長年累月以來，一直以為他們是同一個「人」。

一個人的「自我」，其實不是一個單獨的「思想意志」，而是一個由很多個委員組成的委員會。委員之間互相溝通商量，然後做出集體決定。（那是正常的。）如果委員之間各自為政，甚至互相爭奪整個委員會的控制權，那就構成「多重人格障礙」（multiple personality disorder）。（那是一種病患。）

— Me@2011.02.27

2011.02.27 Sunday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Windows

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Product progression

Original line

    * Windows 1.0
    * Windows 2.0
    * Windows 2.1 aka Windows/286 and Windows/386
    * Windows 3.0
    * Windows 3.1
    * Windows 3.11 aka Windows for Workgroups
    * Windows 3.2

Windows 9x

    * Windows 4.0 (Windows 95)
    * Windows 4.1 (Windows 98)
    * Windows 4.9 (Windows Me)

Windows NT

    * Windows NT 3.1
    * Windows NT 3.5
    * Windows NT 3.51
    * Windows NT 4.0
    * Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000)
    * Windows NT 5.1 (Windows XP)
    * Windows NT 5.2 (Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition)
    * Windows NT 6.0 (Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008)
    * Windows NT 6.1 (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2)

   
— Wikipedia on History of Microsoft Windows

2011.02.26 Saturday ACHK

Windows 3.1x

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Legacy

Windows 3.x was superseded by the release of Windows 95 in August 1995.

Windows 3.1 found a niche market as an embedded operating system after becoming obsolete in the PC world. Up until November 2008, both Virgin Atlantic and Qantas employed it for some of the onboard entertainment systems on long-distance jets. It also sees continued use as an embedded OS in retail cash tills.

On 9 July 2008, it was announced that Windows for Workgroups 3.11 for the embedded devices channel would no longer be made available for OEM distribution as of 1 November 2008.

— Wikipedia on Windows 3.1x

2011.02.26 Saturday ACHK

Windows API

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Windows API itself is a virtual machine.

Windows API abstracts the hardware away from the application programs.

With Windows API, a programmer does not need to care exactly which hardware the computer is based on.

— Me@2011.02.25

2011.02.26 Saturday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Chrono Cross

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Chrono Trigger 2

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An Ancient Fort-
Chasing phantoms in one’s dreams…

Arni Village –
Where the tides start to turn…

Opassa Beach –
A calling from beyond time…

Arni Village –
Nothing has changed but everything!

Cape Howl –
A reminder of one’s former self…

Heading North –
In search of some answers…

The Port Town of Termina –
The pride of the Acacia Dragoons…

Viper Manor –
Where lies the key to the past…

Guldove –
Where ripples become waves…

Hermit’s Hideaway –
Meeting with the ‘other’ swordsman…

From Pirate Ship to Ghost Ship –
A mariner’s worst nightmare…

On to Water Dragon Isle –
In search of the dragon blue…

Fort Dragonia –
Ancient dragons’ dream in ruins…

Temporal Vortex –
Where lost souls wander…

The Lost Portal –
Isolation of people from the world…

Termina –
Knight or day…?

Marbule –
The village of the demi-humans…

The Masamune –
The blood-stained sword of evil…

The Dead Sea –
A place forsaken by the gods…

A Portal Reopened –
And the planet began to shake…

Back to Viper Manor –
A captive audience awaits…

Surprise Attack!!! –
Pursuers with heavy-hearts…

To the Sea of Eden –
Through the hidden holes in time…

The Arbiter of Time –
On whom the three Fates smile…

Terra Tower –
Caught in an echo of time…

Chrono Cross –
The point where destinies meet…

For all the Dreamers –
Our planet’s dream is not over yet…

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– Chrono Compendium

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2011.02.26 Saturday ACHK

Arts | Science, 2

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50 50, 2

這段改篇自 2010 年 4 月 30 日的對話。

如果「文科」和「理科」之中，二者只能擇其一的話，我建議你跟興趣。年級越高，讀書的工作量越大。如果不是面對自己極有興趣的科目的話，你會極不開心。

如果，你對「文科」和「理科」的興趣竟然是一模一樣，分毫不差的話，我建議你選「理科」，因為「理科」可以後悔，「文科」不可以。如果你在高中時選了「理科」而後悔的話，你可以在大學選科時，選一些「非理科」的科目。但是，如果你在高中時選了「文科」，而發現自己的最大興趣是「理科」的話，你大概沒有可能，在大學選科時，選一些「理科」的科目。

— Me@2011.02.25

2011.02.25 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Startup 5

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There are two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your own life, and those that you decide, from afar, are going to be necessary to some class of users other than you.

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There are ideas that obvious lying around now. The reason you’re overlooking them is the same reason you’d have overlooked the idea of building Facebook in 2004: organic startup ideas usually don’t seem like startup ideas at first.

— Paul Graham

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2011.02.25 Friday ACHK

Multi-mind Begins

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一個人的腦海之中，其實有超過一個「自己」。一個人其實有很多個不同「思想意志」，而每個「意志」在大部分時間下，也會以為所有不同的「意志」，是同一個「自我」。

（安：我記得有一齣戲是用這個做主題。）

不是。我估計那齣戲所講的是「多重人格障礙」（multiple personality disorder）。那是一種病患：同一個身體的多重人格之間，不能互相溝通。

而我所講的，是「多重人格」。那不是一種病患，那是正常的。每一個人也會有多重人格，而不同人格之間可以互相溝通。互相溝通的速度高到眾多人格，長年累月以來，一直以為他們是同一個「人」。

— Me@2011.02.24

2011.02.24 Thursday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK 

Autological

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1. An adjective is autological if and only if it describes itself. For example “short” is autological, since the word “short” is short. “English,” “unhyphenated” and “pentasyllabic” are also autological.
  
2. An adjective is heterological if it does not describe itself. Hence “long” is a heterological word, as are “abbreviated” and “monosyllabic.”

  
Is “autological” autological?

It can be chosen consistently to be either:

    * if we say that “autological” is autological, and then ask if it applies to itself, then yes, it does, and thus is autological;
    * if we say that “autological” is not autological, and then ask if it applies to itself, then no, it does not, and thus is not autological.

This is the opposite of the situation for heterological: while “heterological” logically cannot be autological or heterological, “autological” can be either.

In logical terms, the situation for “autological” is:

    “autological” is autological if and only if “autological” is autological
    A if and only if A, a tautology

while the situation for “heterological” is:

    “heterological” is heterological if and only if “heterological” is autological
    A if and only if not A, a contradiction.

— Wikipedia on Grelling–Nelson paradox

2011.02.24 Thursday ACHK

大時代

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地球轉捩點

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利比亞局勢急轉直下，一批軍官發表聲明，呼籲手下士兵「加入人民」，幫助推翻領導人卡扎菲，並敦促其餘利比亞軍隊向首都的黎波里進發，聲援反政府人士。

— 明報 2011年2月23日 星期三 05:05

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2011 比 1989 還要利害.

— Me@2011.02.20

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2011.02.24 Thursday ACHK

Be a miracle

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A single mom who’s working two jobs, and still finds time to take her son to soccer practice, that’s a miracle. A teenager who says “no” to drugs and “yes” to an education, that’s a miracle. People want me to do everything for them. What they don’t realize is they have the power. You want to see a miracle, son? Be the miracle.

– God, Bruce Almighty

— Me@2009.12.10

2011.02.24 Thursday ACHK

Metamagical Themas

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There are three articles centered on the Lisp programming language, where Hofstadter first details the language itself, and then shows how it relates to Godel’s incompleteness theorem.

The title is an example of wordplay: it is an anagram of Mathematical Games, the title of Martin Gardner’s column that Hofstadter’s column succeeded in Scientific American.

— Wikipedia on Metamagical Themas

2011.02.23 Wednesday ACHK

Philosophy

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      * If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science.
       
        o Ch. XV: The Value of Philosophy

— The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell

2011.02.23 Wednesday ACHK

Foreknowledge

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Cassandra in Greek legend, you recall, was condemned to know the future but to be disbelieved when she foretold it. Hence the agony of foreknowledge combined with the impotence to do anything about it.

— Dr. Kathryn Railly

— Twelve Monkeys

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2011.02.23 Wednesday ACHK