Think Wider

I was planning to clear the trash bin two weeks ago and was looking for a plastic waste bin bag but couldn't.

A week ago, the bag was kindly changed by my host.

Today, I looked at the cupboards again and found the plastic bags that has always been there.

Why?

Because the original plastic bag was black while the one replaced by my host was white and the ones in the cupboard, as you might have known by now, are white.

Yet another illustration that human minds at times, can be very narrowly placed.

Movies To Be Watched

I hope I can get all this done by next week before the next season of movies roll out ...

[Design] Current Affairs Competition

Broken pieces that really belonged to one whole plain.
But should physical separation matter anyway? Really?

This poster reminds me that maps are often misrepresented. Have you ever thought of why the "northern" hemisphere always appear on the top? Why is Europe most of the time appearing in the center? And if you pay enough attention, the sizes of countries often are not proportionate to their actual territorial area. Africa is three times larger than the entire Europe yet often appears much smaller on maps. And since planet Earth is a globe, everything should be stretched (distorted) a bit to reflect reality when printed on paper.

Test: Click to enlarge the upside down world map below. Close your eyes. Now see how long it takes to find Hong Kong. ;)

Exams Over

What next?


I guess I would have to start planning for my summer. I know I say this every year, but can't imagine that was a year.

Humour: A Tale of Two Cows

[Socialism]
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

[Communism]
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

[Fascism]
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

[Nazism]
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

[Traditional Capitalism]
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

[Surrealism]
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

[An North American Corporation]
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

[A German Corporation]
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

[A British Corporation]
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

[A Welsh Corporation]
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

[A Japanese Corporation]
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

[A Chinese Corporation]
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

[A French Corporation]
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

[An Indian Corporation]
You have two cows.
You worship them.

[An Italian Corporation]

You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.

You decide to have lunch.

Philosophies vs Theories

Your philosophies shape your behaviour while your theories are based on past experience. In this regard, I prefer philosophies over theories since philosophies allows imagination. To believe, not to settle for the believed.

Thai Food

Counting Down

Stepping into 2009, it's time make a several remarks as to the past year and the one to come. Moving on as a University student and not being a freshie any more, things do tend to be rather different. Not just the workload but also your mental perception of time. When you're new, you get the benefit of trying out and bumping around hoping you would fit into the right place where you belonged to. But as you move on, you would start to feel the urge of getting things right in one go. You want to make sure you are spending time on things that you really want, or in other words, would help bring you closer to your dreams. As intuitive as it sounds, it is actually more pressing than you can imagine. Choices are out there, and you have to pick the right ones. There is no harm getting some wrong, but you do lose time.

As we counted down to another new year, did we realise it was also a countdown to the time we have?

Gmail Stickers

Lately, the Gmail Team made some stickers and I decided to get a set. Since they don't reply emails anymore these days, I thought they might read my snail mail so I also attached with the letter some praise and suggestion. Here's what it says:

Hi Gmail Engineers,

I have been using Gmail since Feb 2005 (unfortunately, not one of those early adopters). Back in those days, I was still using a 2MB Hotmail account which meant that I had to delete my emails especially those with photo attachments every now and then let alone not being able to archive my sent mail. Then Gmail came along offering 1GB of storage and a much cleaner interface. My email life simply changed since then.

Spam are kept out of my Inbox most of the time, emails are grouped in conversations, chat is an amazing way to stay connected with friends, tasks (in Labs) help organise my todo(s) and best of all, I can keep every single email that I receive and sent even if they have huge attachments!

I'm sure the Gmail Team works extremely hard to make Gmail better but just in case, I have two suggestions that would hopefully make Gmail even more useful:

1. Search
   Huge amount of information is archived in Gmail and the fastest way to locate them is by search. Here are some possible enhancements to the existing search function:
   • Typo corrections/suggestions;
     
   • Search within attachments and attachment names;
     
   • Sorting. According to reversed chronological order and relevance. Maybe something like an EmailRank in Gmail, where you rank emails with reference to the date sent, the frequency of contact with sender, number of recipients, previous searches, etc.;
     
   • Import the keywords I type in the search bar into the fields in the Advance Search fields. E.g. if I typed "from:Mary" in the search bar, and click on the "Show search options" link, the word "Mary" would be automatically imported to the "From:" field in the form.
     
   • OneBox that integrates Contacts, email and attachment search.
     
   • A timeline view like Google News Archive Search to "zoom" into certain time intervals.
     


2. Attachment
   ManagerI have a lot of valuable files "stored" in my emails in the form of attachments. They might be daily life photos, project documents, or even birthday recordings. It would be great if I could see all these files in one location, just like the contacts manager in Gmail. Then I could preview these documents without pop-ups and easily organise my files just like in Google Docs.

When these features are soon out of the oven, I would be happy to help test them before they are rolled out to everyone. ;)

Keep up the good work and .. can I have two sets of stickers if there are any left? Thanks!

Happy emailing,

Keith
A year 2 student from the University of Hong Kong

Get yours too! All you need to do is send a self-addressed stamped envelope with an international reply coupon (國際回郵卷), purchasable from any post offices in Hong Kong, and send it to P.O. Box 391420Mountain View, CA 94039-1420.

Was There a Contract?

For those who did (or are doing) contract law, was there a contract in this scenario: