Daily Archives: May 18, 2012

Laser mice

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The laser mouse uses an infrared laser diode instead of a LED to illuminate the surface beneath their sensor. As early as 1998, Sun Microsystems provided a laser mouse with their Sun SPARCstation servers and workstations. However, laser mice did not enter the mainstream market until 2004, when Paul Machin at Logitech, in partnership with Agilent Technologies, introduced its MX 1000 laser mouse.

This mouse uses a small infrared laser instead of a LED and has significantly increased the resolution of the image taken by the mouse. The laser enables around 20 times more surface tracking power to the surface features used for navigation compared to conventional optical mice.

— Wikipedia on Optical mouse

2012.05.18 Friday ACHK

Transformers: War for Cybertron

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Transformers: War for Cybertron is a third-person shooter video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision.

The game takes place on the planet Cybertron, prior to the Transformers arrival on Earth. The Autobots and Decepticons are engaged in a civil war. The game can be played starting from either faction’s perspective, but begins chronologically with the Decepticon campaign. The game revolves around the use of a substance known as Dark Energon, which the Decepticon leader Megatron believes will allow him to return the planet to what he refers to as a golden age.

— Wikipedia on Transformers: War for Cybertron

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The game’s frame rate is capped at 30 FPS. To work around this limitation, the key is to use Lossless Scaling.

— Me@2025-10-31 11:08:42 AM

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2012.05.18 Friday ACHK

古怪題目 1.3

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這段改編自 2010 年 6 月 2 日的對話。

凡是「非公開試歷屆試題」（non-past-paper），即使不懂做，你也不用太擔心。教科書、坊間參考書、校內功課 和 校內考試 等等之中的題目，你毋須花太多時間去鑽研。你應試集中火力去研究歷屆試題。其中一個理由是，「非歷屆試題」的質素，一定遠遠不及「歷屆試題」的。

試想想，假設有一本數學練習冊，內裡有一千道題目。如果該書由三位作者合著，很可能，那一千道題目，也主要是由他們三人設計的。

但是，在同一個公開試中，每年每科只會有一份或兩份的試卷。如果是長題目，一份試卷會有十多題。如果是多項選擇題，一份試卷會有大約五十題。而出題者的數目，一定不只是兩三個。我猜想，大概有十多人。

只要你比較「非歷屆試題」和「歷屆試題」，平均每題的創作成本，你就會發覺，出公開試題目所投放的資源，絕對是多很多。

「公開試出題者」的意思，並不單只包括設計題目的專家，而且還包括負責驗證校對的專業人員。而「驗證校對」的工作，除了要確保題目本身沒有錯誤外，還要確保那些題目的深淺程度，適合考試之用。

— Me@2012.05.18

2012.05.18 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK