Monthly Archives: July 2012

Fighting the last battle

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The second-system effect refers to the tendency of small, elegant, and successful systems to have elephantine, feature-laden monstrosities as their successors. The term was first used by Fred Brooks in his classic The Mythical Man-Month. It described the jump from a set of simple operating systems on the IBM 700/7000 series to OS/360 on the 360 series.

Explanation

Although expressed as a problem of software design, the second-system effect is observable throughout all human design effort. It is somewhat akin to the idea of “fighting the last battle.”

People who have designed something only once before, try to do all the things they “did not get to do last time,” loading the project up with all the things they put off while making version one, even if most of them should be put off in version two as well.

Examples could include DOS to Win95 or Unix to GNU, using a simple metric like source lines of code to mark the difference.

— Wikipedia on Second-system effect

2012.07.21 Saturday ACHK

想不出來 1.2

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I’ve found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.

– Paul Graham

If you have really mastered a skill, it has already become your second instinct, and then you will seldom notice it.

– 13.10.2002

The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.

– George Bernard Shaw

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men — that is genius.

— Self Reliance

— Ralph Waldo Emerson   

— Me@2012.07.19
 

2012.07.19 Thursday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Batman Begins, 6

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To conquer fear, you must become fear. You must bask in the fear of other men. And men fear most what they cannot see. You have to become a terrible thought. A wraith. You have to become an idea! Feel terror cloud your senses. Feel its power to distort… to control. And know that this power can be yours. Embrace your worst fears. Become one with the darkness.
   
— Henri Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul

— Batman Begins

2012.07.19 Thursday ACHK

Indie Game: The Movie

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Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film documents the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish, during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of his Xbox Live Arcade game, Braid.

The film bookends itself with Jonathan Blow’s opening monologue about how indie gaming differs by offering flaws and vulnerabilities, making the games more personal.

— Wikipedia on Indie Game: The Movie

2012.07.18 Wednesday ACHK

Newton’s Third Law

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Newton used the third law to derive the law of conservation of momentum; however from a deeper perspective, conservation of momentum is the more fundamental idea (derived via Noether’s theorem from Galilean invariance), and holds in cases where Newton’s third law appears to fail, for instance when force fields as well as particles carry momentum, and in quantum mechanics.

— Wikipedia on Newton’s laws of motion

2012.07.18 Wednesday ACHK

想不出來 1.1

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這段改編自 2010 年 3 月 20 日的對話。

我以前在不知不覺間，假設了別人會知我所知東西；又或者，連我都想得出的東西，別人都會想得出。我有這類假設，是「自我中心」的一個表現。我後來發覺，我的這類假設，有很多時是錯的。

實情是，我想到的東西，別人未必想到；反之亦然。從是教學的人，尤其要留意這一點。

— Me@2012.07.17 

2012.07.17 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

To the Moon

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GOG.com

In GameSpot’s 2011 Game of the Year awards, To the Moon was given the “Best Story” award, … It was also the highest user-rated PC game of 2011 at Metacritic.

— Wikipedia on To the Moon (video game)

2012.07.16 Monday ACHK

魚目混珠 4

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You have the illusion of security, which is far more dangerous than no security.

– Based on Jeff Atwood

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.

— Based on Daniel J. Boorstin

Partial knowledge is far more dangerous than no knowledge. 

For example, if you don’t know how to fix a television, you will not try. Instead, you will find a technician. There is no harm.

However, if you think you can fix a television when actually you cannot, you will try. That can lead to an explosion.

— Me@2011.10.23

2012.07.15 Sunday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Exponentiation by squaring

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Using the following observation, one can create a recursive algorithm that computes x^n for an integer n using squaring and multiplication:

[The second line is incorrect, for the power should be –n. — Me@2012-07-14] 

A brief analysis shows that such an algorithm uses log_2 (n) squarings and at most log_2 (n) multiplications. For n > about 4 this is computationally more efficient than naively multiplying the base with itself repeatedly.

— Wikipedia on Exponentiation by squaring

2012.07.14 Saturday ACHK

善利用愚蠢 1.2

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這段改編自 2010 年 3 月 20 日的對話。

Stupidity is like nuclear power; it can be used for good or evil.

– Dilbert

（安：那樣，即是愚蠢的人當中，有一部分你無論多麼用心教導，也不會變成賢智的人。那怎麼辦？）

愚蠢人士當中，有機會變成賢智人士的，我簡稱為「向智人士」；而沒有機會的，我則簡稱為「不智人士」。面對「不智人士」，很多時也沒有所謂「怎麼辦」。「面對」「不智人士」的最佳方法是，令到自己毋須面對他們。例如，如果你是一間公司的老闆或者高層管理人員，你的其中一個責任，就是避免聘請到「不智人士」。

（安：但是，有些情況下，無可避免要和「不智人士」相處。那又怎麼辦呢？）

你可以試試 copyleft 了「不智人士」的愚蠢。這裡「copyleft」的意思是，把原本有害的東西，透過新奇的用法，轉化成有益的東西。我會把「copyleft」翻譯成「反利用」，或者「幽默利用」。

例如，你有一個學生不智。他的不智之處，在於人云亦云，不肯有自己的思想，獨立思考。你多次告誡他，老師的話未必正確，所以只能作為參考，不能作為金科玉律。但是，他屢勸不改。那樣，你可以思考一下，怎樣可以善加利用，他這個「人云亦云」的缺點，令到他會長期做利人利己的事。

例如，你可以對他下達指令：對人要有禮貌。由於他「人云亦云」，他自然不會有任何哲學的考慮：「為什麼對人要有禮貌呢？」他只會盲從附和。那樣，他自此一生人，也會對人有禮貌。結果，「人云亦云」在這方面，反而對他有利。

— Me@2012.07.12 

2012.07.12 Thursday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Permutation City

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Permutation City is a 1994 science fiction novel by Greg Egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, via various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality.

— Wikipedia on Permutation City

2012.07.10 Tuesday ACHK

Meaningful 5

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X is meaningful

= You can keep developing X

= X always has next steps

1. If you have a lot of good intellectual and social connections, you can keep having the next steps.

2. Action is a good way to create the next steps and decrease uncertainties. 

— Me@2012.05.14

2012.07.10 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

善利用愚蠢 1.1

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這段改編自 2010 年 3 月 20 日的對話。

（安：愚蠢的人，有沒有機會變成不愚蠢的人？）

這個問題很空泛，因為你沒有指明「哪」一個愚蠢人士。我只能說，有些愚蠢人士可以進化成聰明人士，有些不可以。

比喻說，如果你問，不漂亮的人，有沒有機會變成漂亮的人呢？我會答，有時可以，有時不可以。例如，如果一個人不漂亮的主因是髮型不好，他只要改善髮型，方可變成漂亮的人。又例如，如果一個人不漂亮的主因是心腸惡毒，導致面目可憎，他的樣子大概不可救藥。

（安：那樣，即是愚蠢的人當中，有一部分你無論多麼用心教導，也不會變成賢智的人。那怎麼辦？）

愚蠢人士當中，有機會變成賢智人士的，我簡稱為「向智人士」；而沒有機會的，我則簡稱為「不智人士」。面對「不智人士」，很多時也沒有所謂「怎麼辦」。「面對」「不智人士」的最佳方法是，令到自己毋須面對他們。例如，如果你是一間公司的老闆或者高層管理人員，你的其中一個責任，就是避免聘請到「不智人士」。

— Me@2012.07.10 

2012.07.10 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK