Mare Tranquillitatis | 寧靜海

Jeff's Memorial

2008-06-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

I went to my friend Jeff's memorial today. He was probably the smartest person I know. He worked at Pixar back in the 80's when there were only around 20 employees. I met him at the Arecibo Observatory when I was an astronomy grad student. He designed and built the spectrometer for one of the receivers that we used. He also worked on the Nintendo Gamecube and Wii, and many other interesting projects.

Anyway, his best friend Bob read to us Jeff's "last words to his friends" (which he wrote on April 1 this year) at the memorial....one thing that I can't agree more with - "Stay away from organized religions".

I have no problem with my friends being religious, but I will remain an atheist :).

Update: One more advice from Jeff - "You don't have to show your receipt when you shop at Fry's."

WWDC08 Moscone Center West

2008-06-12T01:59:00.001-07:00

I needed to find an example of a steel construction for my class, so I took a picture of the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I was hoping to get closer so I can photo the construction details, but there were tons of people there so I gave up. It turned out that the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 08 was held there. It was also where Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone. No wonder I saw a lot of nerdy looking guys in T-shirts walking around :p (no offense, I'm a nerd myself).

Since when did computers become so cheap?

2008-06-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Just saw this on Dealsea.com:

Dell Vostro 400 Desktop + Two 22" LCD Monitor $629

Intel Core 2 Duo Proc E8300 (2.83GHz,6MB L2 Cache,1333FSB)
1GB, 160GB, Two 22" Widescreen E228WFP
16X DVD-ROM, 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8300GS

I remember that when I was a freshman in college, a crappy desktop cost US$2000. The monitor was probably 15" and it only had 2 GB of memory. Also, just a few years ago, I got my Dell widescreen monitor for US$350 (it was on sale too). And what do we have now? You can get a really good desktop with TWO widescreen monitors for $629! Like my friend said, I'm really glad that I live in the age of computers. I always wonder, what did geeks do in the past when there were no computers?

iPhone 2.0

2008-06-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

Apple昨日宣佈新一代的iPhone於7月面世。它有3G﹐比第一代更快﹐更便宜(很多)。連痛恨手提電話的我也不得不承認它非常之tempting :)。在這裡要讚一下Apple的product designer, 比起其他competitor﹐Apple的design實在是both tasteful and functional。他們的產品近年已經成為一種潮流﹐我相信有一大部份原因是出色的product design。換作是Microsoft的啡色(屎色﹖)mp3 player Zune﹐相信不會這麼受歡迎。

不過﹐男友以為Apple昨天會announce新laptop or iMac...所以他有一點點失望。繼Macbook Air之後﹐下一款laptop是不是可以用作切西瓜呢﹖

寧靜海 Mare Tranquillitatis

2008-06-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

翻看舊blog的archive﹐發現自己從2001年已開始寫blog。不過中間停了好長一段時間。沒甚麼特別的原因﹐就是一個懶字。還記得第一個blog的layout是麥嘜做背境的。圖是scan自一張麥嘜生日卡﹐他在海邊靜靜地玩泥沙﹐卡裡面寫著 “願你有個寧靜生日”。這也是blog名來源之一。寧靜海其實是月球上的一個平原﹐不要說海﹐連一滴水也沒有。我很喜歡這個名字帶給我的聯想。

我想這個blog會是半中半英吧﹖我是一個文筆非常差的人....其實是不應該在此獻世的﹐不過有時想記下一些感觸罷了。

悼亡

2008-06-09T14:10:00.001-07:00

I was going through past entries on my old blog and saw this....it's a short passage written by one of my favourite authors. One of my good friends recently passed away. Last night I had a dream about him and we were talking just like when he was alive, then I woke up and realized that it's just a dream. He wanted his ashes scattered in the Bay. He didn't want a funeral but there will be a memorial for him. I've always thought that funerals are for the people who are living. They need an outlet for their grief and want to feel that they are doing something for the dead.

悼亡 - 倪匡 (Mourning - by Hong Ngai)

一位朋友過世了。在生的時候﹐相親的機會不是很多﹐一年只有那麼兩三回。甚至於﹐有時一年只不過一回。甚至﹐更少。

A friend passed away. Didn't really get to see him much when he was alive. Maybe 2-3 times a year. Or maybe only once a year. Perhaps even less.

可是那有甚麼關係呢﹖只要大家知道對方活著﹐不見面﹐不通信﹐不打電話﹐依然是活生生的存在。然而﹐突然間﹐他去世了。從此之後﹐再也不能見到他﹐聽到他的聲音﹐看到他寫的信。

But why would it matter? As long as we know that the other person is still alive, even though you don't see each other, don't write or call, he is still there. However, all of a sudden, he passed away. From now on, you can't see him, hear his voice, and read his letters anymore.

是不是後悔﹐為甚麼大家都在生時﹐不多點見面呢﹖後悔也後悔不來。人與人之間﹐好像是有緣份的﹐該見多少次﹐大抵是有定數的﹐不能勉強 - 是不是這樣呢﹖相信命運的人﹐都這樣說。

Is there any regret? Why didn't you see each other more when he was alive? It's too late for regrets. It seems that there's a quota on how many times two people can see each other. It's a fixed number - you can't ask for more. Is that so? People who believe in destiny think that's that way it is.

時間可是毫不留情的。過去就過去﹐沒有任何力量可以找得回來。而任何人﹐時間總是愈來愈少的。想起來﹐真是心痛如絞。

Time has never been sympathetic. What's in the past is in the past. There's no way to bring it back. For anyone, the amount of time remaining will always decrease. It's painful when you think about it.

反倒不如死亡﹐帶來的是一片平靜﹐把傷痛全讓給了別人。

Perhaps death is easier. It brings eternal peace and leaves all the sorrow for other people.

Testing

2008-06-09T03:36:00.001-07:00

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