Category Archives: Books

Black Holes and Time Warps

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Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy (1994)

by Kip Thorne

It is my all-time favorite among the popular-science physics books. It presents a serious discussion on how to build a time machine, without misleading the readers.

— Me@2010.08.31

2010.08.31 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Lessons from the Light

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My answer is that you would be a truly free person. You would be forever liberated from the tyranny of others’ opinions, from self-doubt, from the fear of life and the fear of death, and from the demands of time.

Instead, you would be free to enjoy life as it is and to find fulfillment and joy in helping others.

— Kenneth Ring’s Lessons from the Light

I sometimes want to be a teacher but think my teaching role can best be by my example — not by class or going to find students.

— Kenneth Ring’s Lessons from the Light

1. Not everything in this book is correct. Read it with a critical mind.

2. There is a copy of this book in the Hong Kong Public Library.

3. There are more than one book called “Lessons from the Light”, written by different people. The one I mentioned is written by “Kenneth Ring”.

— Me@2010.08.28

2010.08.28 Saturday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Hackers & Painters

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Hackers & Painters Table of Contents

   1. Why Nerds Are Unpopular
      Their minds are not on the game.

   2. Hackers and Painters
      Hackers are makers, like painters or architects or writers.

   3. What You Can’t Say
      How to think heretical thoughts and what to do with them.

   4. Good Bad Attitude
      Like Americans, hackers win by breaking rules.

   5. The Other Road Ahead
      Web-based software offers the biggest opportunity since the arrival of the microcomputer.

   6. How to Make Wealth
      The best way to get rich is to create wealth. And startups are the best way to do that.

   7. Mind the Gap
      Could “unequal income distribution” be less of a problem than we think?

   8. A Plan for Spam
      Till recently most experts thought spam filtering wouldn’t work. This proposal changed their minds.

   9. Taste for Makers
      How do you make great things?

  10. Programming Languages Explained
      What a programming language is and why they are a hot topic now.

  11. The Hundred-Year Language
      How will we program in a hundred years? Why not start now?

  12. Beating the Averages
      For web-based applications you can use whatever language you want. So can your competitors.

  13. Revenge of the Nerds
      In technology, “industry best practice” is a recipe for losing.

  14. The Dream Language
      A good programming language is one that lets hackers have their way with it.

  15. Design and Research
      Research has to be original. Design has to be good.

— Paul Graham

2010.08.26 Thursday ACHK

A First Course in String Theory

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Rather than speculate on the ideas that might have developed in the absence of string theory, we can celebrate the remarkable insights that have emerged from it. It has explained, for example, why black holes have entropy and temperature. It has also demonstrated a surprising fact: theories of strong nuclear forces are equivalent to theories of gravity. Over the last two months, several new papers use string theory to describe the motion of quarks in the plasma created by the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven! Not bad for a theory whose critics say is pie in the sky.

— Barton Zwiebach: a letter to the editor

2010.08.25 Wednesday ACHK

Category Theory | Lisp

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My current self-study programme includes

1. read almost everything written by Paul Graham

public domain image
Wikipedia

2. learn Lisp programming language (Common Lisp/Scheme) by reading Paul Graham’s textbooks

3. learn Category Theory so that I can read almost everything written by John Baez

public domain image
Wikipedia

Yester-night and tonight, I discovered that they are related:

“Lists, and recursive operations on them, are an excellent case in point. But the path connecting them to their mathematical underpinnings is a long and winding one, which lays in the realm of Category Theory.” — jao

I had never expected that. They are one thing.

Paul Graham –> Lisp –> Category Theory –> John Baez

I have been learning Lisp since 2000 (Machine Intelligence course), since 2006 (Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs), since 2010. I have been learning Category Theory since 2006-2008 (John Baez), since 2008 (Sets for Mathematics), since 2010. I had never expected that they are just two different languages of the same thing.

— Me@2010.03.04

2010.03.05 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Hackers and Painters II

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1. How to be a good teacher
2. Writing Briefly
3. How to do what you love
4. The Age of the Essay
5. How to Make Wealth
6. Good and Bad Procrastination
7. Is it Worth Being Wise?
8. The Word “Hacker”
9. Great Hackers
10. How Art Can Be Good
11. Hackers and Painters
12. Design and Research

13. Why Nerds are Unpopular
14. What you can’t say
15. The Hundred-Year Language
16. Microsoft is Dead
17. Microsoft is Dead: The Cliffs Notes
18. Why to Not Not Start a Startup
19. Learning from Founders
20. Web 2.0
21. Better Bayesian Filtering
22. Revenge of the Nerds

— Organized by Me@2007.07.03

2010.02.15 Monday ACHK

Dust Theory

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Greg Egan’s Dust Theory

The first known publication of the idea of event symmetry is in a work of science fiction rather than a journal of science. Greg Egan used the idea in a short story called “Dust” in 1992 and expanded it into the novel Permutation City in 1995. Egan used dust theory as a way of exploring the question of whether a perfect computer simulation of a person differs from the real thing. However, his description of the dust theory as an extension of general relativity is also a consistent statement of the principle of event symmetry as used in quantum gravity.

— Wikipedia on Event symmetry

2010.02.03 Wednesday ACHK

Encyclopedia Galactica

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我的百科全書

自小(中三)的夢想是學會所有的知識,

所以對”百科全書”這個概念很有興趣.

中四時, 閱讀Bill Gates的The Road Ahead.

書中提到<>, 售價超過港幣萬多元.

而 Microsoft Encarta 百科全書CD-ROM只需數百元.

我當時已經覺得很神奇.

在2001年, 我花二百多元買了<>的CD-ROM.

我花了不少時間閱讀. 印象最深刻的內容是

當年Windows 95宣傳攻勢的成效大到有人為了用Windows 95而第一次買電腦.

在2004年, 我發現了<>. 它竟然是免費的.

而且它還有很多傳統百科全書不可能有的資料,

例如卡通人物的傳記.

新科技和創意已經將人類帶進了比科幻小說更加神奇的年代.

— Me@2010.01.06

2010.01.07 Thursday (c) ACHK

大英百科全書

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大英百科全書，是一種你可以買回家，但不需要翻，只要擺在書架上，就可以讓別人覺得你很有知識，很有學問的一套書。為了因應愛裝懂協會顧客的需要，大英百科推出只有書殼的簡易版，讓沒有內涵卻愛裝懂的人士可以輕鬆的炫耀家中的收藏。

— 偽基百科

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2009.06.10 Wednesday ACHK

Star Trek

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Where No Man Has Gone Before

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The show’s cultural influence goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. An entire subculture grew up around the show and, anecdotally, there are indications that Star Trek has influenced many people’s lives. This is apparent from the reported testimonials of people, such as scientists and engineers, who claim that their professional and life choices were influenced by Star Trek.

— Wikipedia, on the cultural influence of Star Trek

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2009.05.20 Wednesday ACHK

魔法 2

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The Prestige 令我心緒不寧. 一套戲, 竟然可以有百幾條伏線.

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初中時, 我有學過少少魔術, 可惜沒有開花結果.

或者, 科學就是真正的魔術.

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2009.02.27 Friday copyright ACHK

今天暫時停止

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| Groundhog day | 偷天情緣

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劇情簡介

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壞脾氣的菲爾至小鎮報導_土撥鼠日_盛會，原本採防完預計返回城市，因風雪過大而停留於鎮上一日。隔日醒來，卻發現自己仍在2月2日當天，接著菲爾嘗試各種方法，包括拼命去死，每天醒來都會重覆過著同一天的生活，永遠沒有明天。

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Phil continues to try to learn more about Rita, and when he reveals his situation to her and the knowledge he’s gained about the town’s residents, she opens up to him and suggests he try to use his situation to help benefit the town. Phil uses her advice and the time loop to help as many people around town as possible, as well as bettering himself, such as by learning to play jazz piano and speaking French.

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最後菲爾明白到，與其冇方法要人鐘意自己，不如令自己嘅每一個同一日都過得充實同埋有意義，等到萬一可以脫離框框時會有個新嘅未來，於是佢利用無限嘅時間去學咗好多唔同嘅手藝去增值自己，同埋因為佢已經好熟咁知道每日喺邊度會有咩事發生，佢亦會積極咁週圍去幫嗰啲要幫忙嘅人；不過當中都有個小遺憾，就係佢唔可以阻止其他人生命嘅終結。

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喺某一個土撥鼠節，菲爾感動人心嘅現場報導，令到在場所有專注聽佢講嘢嘅人都大拍手掌；而喺哩日嘅夜晚，麗塔去到鎮上開早春慶祝會嘅社區會堂，只見到菲爾喺舞檯度彈住一手輕快兼且熟練嘅鋼琴，之後人人都爭住向佢打招呼，成為咗席上最閃耀嘅人；原來一日嚟佢幫過幾個女人架車換呔，所以幾個女人都走埋嚟多謝佢；佢幫過一個食嘢啃親嘅肥佬吐返粒核出嚟，於是兩公婆又走嚟多謝佢；佢鼓勵咗一對心大心細想結婚但又唔放心嘅情人，於是哩對準新人又嚟多謝佢……

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Phil wakes up the next day, and finds the time loop has broken; …

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— Wikipedia, edited by Me

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2008.11.04 Tuesday copyright CHK^2

終定終定本

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不記得是 2002年 還是 2003年,

Mr Lee 主動給他家的電話號碼給我.

他說我可以約他出來談天.

在兩年多後, 我才敢打電話給他.

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今天是第三次的小型聚會, 有 Mr Lee, 安, 輝, Alex 出席.

聚會的大部分時間, 竟然是討論物理問題 —- 相對論加量子力學.

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Mr. Lee 送了他著作的兩個版本給我:

1. 珍藏本

2. 大陸的簡體版 (比繁體版還要終定的終定本)

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dsc02016b

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謝謝老師.

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2008.08.02 Saturday \copyright CHK^2