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Finally

Oh man, I almost forgot I have this blog. The last entry was maybe over a year ago? I suppose it is now time to write something!

School

First of all, I have finally passed the comprehensives! That was not fun! I have also fulfilled my course requirements now, so I am just focusing on research.

About research. It’s more time consuming then classes! For me, if I have something I want to solve (like right now), my head goes on for almost 24/7 until either I solve it or lose interest. This also makes me very busy, although most of the time I just look like I’m doodling on paper.

So now, my area is number theory and cryptography. Now, just about a week ago, I just realized something. Back in high school when I was deciding on what to take in university, I was dreaming to be a cryptographer (I was much influenced by John Nash in A Beautiful Mind); it was partly why I wanted to to math. Anyway, I just stuck me that, in some sense, my dream came true!

Cars

We have also lost the Jetta and the Caravan. The Jetta was sold (on Facebook! and from Calgary!) in the summer. I was kind of sad to let it go. I still remember the day we went to pick it up. Anyway, I saw it again a few days after we sold it, and the buy fixed up the dings and the slightly damaged back. He also added tinted glass. It looked so nice and new!

At few months later, the transmission on the Caravan died, and we had to get rid of it. Since the transmission was shattered and locked up in park, and wouldn’t shift out, the tow truck had to drag it out by brute force. It was as if it didn’t want to go! It was I almost cried when the tow truck towed it away. So many memories with the Caravan. It was the car I learned to drive and park in. It was the car on many many trips, including the eastern Quebec ones.

As we were selling the Jetta, I was car shopping the the summer to replace it. I tried out many cars, and was looking to get the new Jetta TDI clean diesel. There was one day when it rained really hard. We had heard on the radio that Honda had a sale. So we went. We checked out the Civic, Accord, etc., and the new Insight hybrid. The guy at Honda said if we are getting a hybrid, get the Prius instead, and since if you look at the Accord, you must also look at the Toyota Camry, so the next stop was Toyota. So we went. The first section in Toyota was the hybrid area, and the Prius was the closest car, dad jumped it. After 30 seconds, he said "cool". We briefly looked at the Camry hybrid and the standard Camry, but I was really surprised when the salesperson came over, dad asked to test the Prius right away. And so we went and I was surprised yet again. I have heard many negative comments about the Prius from Jeremy Clarkson, but I was in love with it. I knew it was quiet, but not this quiet; it was completely silent when it’s stopped.

So we got the Prius.

It has been a few months, and I am still excited about the and absolutely loving the Prius. I have never dreamed we would actually get a hybrid.

Now, when the Caravan died, we had to go "emergency" car shopping again. Luckily though, the Prius shopping was not that long ago, so I still had all my research and things didn’t change too much. So this time, we considered more cars. Since this time we were in a "hurry", I took a much more methodical approach, eliminating cars quickly and rationally. We were deciding between Honda and Toyota. Honda (the Accord or Insight) was ruled out, and were left with the Toyota Corolla and Camry. So we tested both. They both looked nice, since the Corolla design was based on the Camry anyway. Their interior were opposites. The Corolla interior looked really nice in pictures, but I was disappointed when I saw it in person. The finishes were cheap and just very disappointing. On the other hand, the Camry was better than it looked in pictures. So after some deliberation, we went for the Camry.

So there, we got two new cars.

I think that’s a long entry now. Until next time.

Möbius Transformations Revealed

Wow…I finally understand what that this is about!

My New Toy

I finally gave in and bought the Acer AspireOne. I had my eyes on this machine a while back, before it came out. It has undergone several changes (SSD + XP was not a good combination), and I think the one I have is pretty good.

 

Likes

The screen. It is suprisingly bright and clear. LED backlight means instant full brightness. The color on it is wonderful. I think it is better then the Presario V2000 and the LG P100 tablet. Actually, the text on it is slightly bigger than the tablet, so I have no problem with it.

The size. I wanted something small and light. After using the tablet for a while, I can’t stand bring my Presario around anymore; it’s just too heavy and bulky. The tablet is small and light, and I have no problem bringing it around. The AspireOne is even smaller and lighter.

The speed. It definitely beats my Presario. Using it to basic and general task is more than sufficient. When comapared to the tablet though, it is slower in my opinion. It does boot faster to a usable desktop. However, after the machines finished booting, the tablet is faster in almost every way, from general usage to lauching applications. The tablet is better at more intensive tasks. That’s expected though, as the Atom processor in the AspireOne will not match the Core 2 Duo in the tablet. Plus, the tablet has a dedicated graphics card as compared to integrated in the AspireOne, so CPU is not responsible for the graphics duties.

The looks. I think it looks nice. Better than the EeePC. It’s almost beautiful in some sense. But the tablet looks gorgeous too, and also more classy. Both blows the Presario away.

The dual card readers. It comes with two card readers – one for SD only, the other is multi-format (SD, MMC, MS, etc). Not that I really need it with a 160GB hdd, but it’s something cool to have.

The touchpad. It has the newest pad from Synaptics, which supports multi-touch (multi-fingered gestures and ChiralMotion). It was something I read about and wanted in my other notebooks, and was surprised to find it in the AspireOne.

The webcam and mic. It comes with a built-in webcam and mic. I have never had one – the Presario has neither, the P100 has a mic but no webcam. I actually wanted a Dell Mini 9 before, but webcam was extra and there is no option for a mic, which to me was pointless.

The wireless. It comes with b/g/n WiFi. Surprising for this price point. Note, though, the reception is not as strong as the P100.

The bulid. The build quality and finish is better than what I expected. The screen is tight and has no wobble.

 

Dislikes

The popularity. Everyone has one. Given the price point and the fact it’s sold everywhere, everyone seems to have one. It’s the major thing that deterred me from getting one.

The keyboard. Actually, it’s not too bad. The size is smaller than the P100, which is smaller than the Presario. I’m still getting used to it, but it’s already as large as it will get (the edges beside the keyboard are very thin – no space wasted). It looks messy, with blue and green alternate characters marked on it. Also, it’s a bit too soft. I keep getting extra characters when typing. I like the feel of the keyboard on the P100 a lot more. Also, there’s flex in the middle-top part of the keyboard, which shouldn’t occur in a machine this small. Then there’s the shift key. The left "Shift" key has another key beside it but that key is also repeated beside the "Enter" key. What’s the point of that? Fortunately, I have remapped it to the left "Shift" key, so it’s almost like a big "Shift" key (as is the case with right shift key, the way it should be).

The brightness control. There seems to be 8 or 9 levels, but only the top 4 work. So if you pressed brightness-down 9 times, you have to press brightess-up 5 times before you get anything. Also, the brightness resets to the highest level every time power is disconnected. However, I didn’t put the battery in yet, so I hope this will be fixed if the battery is in place.

The touchpad. I don’t like where the buttons are placed (left and right of the pad), nor the pressure required to press them (they are stiff), nor the loud click they make. It is actually one of the turn-downs that kept me away from buying it earlier.

The power adapter. Although it’s small, it’s a traditional cable-brick-cable type, compared to the all-in-one type as with the EeePC (and Macs). Also, it requires a three-prong socket, which is somewhat inconvenient.

The bloatware. The first thing I did was to uninstall most the of preloaded software (eg. Microsoft Office Trial, Microsoft Works, McAfee Antivirus, etc). And why does it come with InterVideo WinDVD? It’s not like there is a DVD drive. One of the good things about the P100 (and LG machines in general) is that it doesn’t come with preinstalled software.

 

Other Thoughts

I haven’t used the battery yet (it’s charging for the first time at the moment), I don’t know what the battery life is like. I expect 2-3 hours as most other people report.

Overall, I love the AspireOne. I don’t regret getting it (yet).

Update

Summer is over…life is back to "normal" again. School/work starts again for everyone, we all get busy again.

Over the summer, I worked on the new TCCSA Website. Check it out. I like it a lot…much more organized and looks better.

The Eastern Quebec trip was also fun.

I want to write more in this entry, but can’t think of much right now. Well, until next time…

Five Screen Madness

Yes. Another rant about computers. Check this out: Five Screen Madness. This is a picture of my desk with 4 screens on the desk and another screen near the couch (pointed at the desk).
Let me explain how this works. On the far left is my lovely old eOne; I play Need For Speed on it or have random episodes of Family Guy playing on it. Maybe it’s because of its 8MB ATI graphics card, NFS surprising runs better on it then on my Compaq V2305 laptop, which is the middle screen. Attached to it is the Acer AL1916W 19′ widescreen monitor, acting as an extended desktop. I usually have my email and MSN on one screen, and news and other websites on the other. The Toshiba Satellite A200 laptop on the left of the Compaq is Alison’s; I mainly use it for watching videos and Youtube. Finally, the laptop on the far left is the long-awaited LG P100 tablet, which I do TCCSA work on.
I am running Synergy on all of these computers, so I can control all of them with the same keyboard and mouse (currently attached to the V2305). So it’s really cool to see the cursor going from one screen another seamlessly. Better yet, the clipboard is shared, so I can copy something from one computer and paste it in another. Very useful.
Check out the pictures below.

Edison Chan

This is truly amazing: http://jaesonma.com/index.html. (Thanks KFu for sharing it! You’re the best!)

I would never expect this to happen. It seems impossible. But then this is what a miracle is. This is a miracle. Jaeson is right though; we do need to pray for him. To me, it is especially important that the faith is firmly rooted because this is such a high profile case and does generate a lot of attention. As Jaeson writes, "…millions all over Asia would read this uplifting article and possibly find Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior…" But you see, it could well work the other way if you flip it around. That is why I think we need to pray for him, and therefore millions of unbelievers. 

LG P100 (part 2)

I am still waiting for the LG P100 to come. LG had yet delayed shipping again.

In the meantime, I had a chance to play with the LG E300. It was fast and better than I thought. But the best thing I like about it is that there is a button to control the fan. You can put the fan in either Normal, Cool, or Silent mode. The P100 has this feature too. Great!

LG P100

I know, I know. I haven’t updated my MSN space for a while. That was because I had be busy with school and everything. And in the little free time that I have, I thought I would add an entry.

So, about the title. I’m anxiously waiting for the LG P100 to come.LG has been delaying shipping every week. I can’t wait anymore! Here is what it looks like (taken from Digital Home Thoughts):

I will post some pictures once I get my hands on it, which should be next week (but who knows?). Until then, I can only dream.

Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)

In doing my algebra assignment, I came across this video last week. It’s very funny and sweet. I love it!

Here are the lyrics (from http://www.math.northwestern.edu/~matt/kleinfour/lyrics/finite.html):

The path of love is never smooth
But mine’s continuous for you
You’re the upper bound in the chains of my heart
You’re my Axiom of Choice, you know it’s true

But lately our relation’s not so well-defined
And I just can’t function without you
I’ll prove my proposition and I’m sure you’ll find
We’re a finite simple group of order two

I’m losing my identity
I’m getting tensor every day
And without loss of generality
I will assume that you feel the same way

Since every time I see you, you just quotient out
The faithful image that I map into
But when we’re one-to-one you’ll see what I’m about
‘Cause we’re a finite simple group of order two

Our equivalence was stable,
A principal love bundle sitting deep inside
But then you drove a wedge between our two-forms
Now everything is so complexified

When we first met, we simply connected
My heart was open but too dense
Our system was already directed
To have a finite limit, in some sense

I’m living in the kernel of a rank-one map
From my domain, its image looks so blue,
‘Cause all I see are zeroes, it’s a cruel trap
But we’re a finite simple group of order two

I’m not the smoothest operator in my class,
But we’re a mirror pair, me and you,
So let’s apply forgetful functors to the past
And be a finite simple group, a finite simple group,
Let’s be a finite simple group of order two
(Oughter: "Why not three?")

I’ve proved my proposition now, as you can see,
So let’s both be associative and free
And by corollary, this shows you and I to be
Purely inseparable. Q. E. D.