A belated 1st anniversary of my Blog

I just noticed that I've just gone over the one year anniversary of my rambling blog. Its odd to think that I completely forgot about it, but as they say, age is only a number ;)

Meeting Bill Gates

I just entered a contest to meet Bill Gates in person. I didn't win the contest, but at least I was invited to a seminar he is speaking. I'll get more details once I get them.

Cynical Expression

One of the most cynical expressions I've ever heard goes like this: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Some of the most world-weary purveyors of this belief also like to provide the following addendum: "And those who can't teach, criticize."

Greg Kasavin - Executive Editor

I couldn't stop laughing at the above statement. As you probably know, you know which camp I belong in ;)

Formating Error?

Hmm... somehow it seems my blog has some strange formatting errors that just appeared. Something must be wrong with my template O_o

On a curious note, my photogallery is updated, so do take a look!

p.s. that is the end of my rant :P

CBS' Most Memorable Movie Quotes

CBS' Most Memorable Movie Quotes

I thought this was interesting so here it is and as I wanted to point out by using the most popular movie quote:

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
- Gone with the Wind

"I'm going to make an offer he can't refure"
- The GodFather

"You don't understand! I coulda had hass. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am."
- On the WaterFront

My Dog Ate My Homework!

I was just reading through this article this morning:

Rats take down Kiwi telecoms
By AAP
24 June 2005

Rats gnawing through cable helped cripple telecommunications services across New Zealand for more than four hours, an investigation has found.

But the rodents will go unpunished as the telco instead goes after the humans who were unwitting collaborators in the shutdown.

Telephone, mobile, Internet and eftpos services affecting about 100,000 customers were lost on Monday and the nation's stock exchange closed for most of the trading day because of the outage.

The interruption occurred after two service pipelines on the North Island were knocked out within hours of each other -- one by a power company post-hole digger, the other by industrious rodents.

The rats attacked cable on a bridge north of Wellington protected by a steel duct.

"Rodents being rodents, they gnaw at those entry points, they burrow underground, they find a way in," Telecom New Zealand general manager of network delivery Steve Fuller told the New Zealand Herald.

Powerless to take action against the rats for the "unavoidable" damage, Telecom is seeking compensation from the electricity company it says is responsible for knocking out the other pipeline, eliminating backup services.

This article reminds me about what happened in Thailand a few years ago. During the course of the week, there were numerous Internet disruption. From the first occurence, I heard that some shark or marine animal managed to sever the underwater cables that connected the Thai Internet Connection to the world. After a week, the problem was fixed, though it happened again the next week when Internet service went back to a crawl. This time, I heard that some administrators were complaining about crabs eating the cables. Talking about it, notice the similarity? Somehow it does make "my dog ate my homework excuse" sounds credible :P

An Eye for the Odd

The last week I couldn't help but notice a few odd things that I couldn't help but ponder about.

The first thing that really caught my attention was a poster that had this as the highlight:

Argue Your Way to Victory

That was a headlines of a debate club poster, in which I couldn't help to figure the strange choice of words. Somehow I have this odd association when talking about arguing and debate, the first thing that comes to mind is the Taiwanese Parliment which is known for its frequent brawl. I wonder if it was the same :P

The second thing that really caught my attention is on the topic of fashion. In many cases, we can see alot of people trying to follow the latest fashion trends. I don't blame them for that considering all the modern influence of our pop culture, but at times I do feel things just gone a little tad too far. On my latest experience, the last time I went on the subway, I couldn't help but stratch my head at one of the passengers. One of the popular fashion these days worn by many female these days is to where a rather short top, which exposes much of the tummy clevage for people to see. If you don't get the picture, the picture below shows an example of how the top would be like.





The top is usually a spagetthi strap top, and it is complemented with usually jeans or any other pants or skirts. In many cases, I do think that this fashion has been in the craze of late might stem from the fact that such dress would garner the attention of people in visual distance.

Anyway, back to the topic, regarding the short spagetti top, imagine the following. Imagine if you see a fat young girl wearing that dress with alot of excess fat perturding through the dress.

.
.
.

Not a pretty sight is it?

The question is, is it best to stick with the latest fashion or is it best to dress decently? Or would it be easy to sidetrack back to the issue of losing weight to be able to fit in the dress?

Anyway, hard to figure, I do still feel that having a good health is certainly a lot better than having a good external appearance, but then again it could just be only me.

Class Time

Yesterday I dropped to a local supermarket to buy some grocers when I overheard a pair of male students who had bought stacks of ice and soda.

Student A: What alcohol should I buy? What do you have at home?
Student B: Quite a few things, you could get anything you like in particular.

Student A grabs a Vodka mixed drink from the fridge

Student A: Hey, are you sure that this would be okay? I mean you have class after this don't you?
Student B: What's wrong? I don't think any teacher would be bringing an alcohol tester to class. I suppose that there isn't a law against having drunk students coming to class?
Student: Yeah. That's absolutely correct, why didn't I think of that before.

Hmm... Now from what I can deduce from these two students:

Class Time < Alcohol

No to ID

In Thailand, our government is investing a hefty sum on a Smart ID card project in which ID cards are supposed to contain basic information about the carrier. It was intially quoted as an anti-crime prevention measure, and had a lukewarm acceptance from the population who couldn't care more or less about it. On a personal note I was highly against the move and I don't plan to cooperate in this matter if possible. Somehow I got tired of answering people why I thought a using national Smart Card ID won't help prevent crime, but another useless mega project the government is investing in. Anyway, I've just happen to hop in a great site, just accross the world that is campaigning on a similar line to what I believe in, so I just thought about updating my blog to highly why such idea or similar ones are not as good as you think.

Here is one quote that I liked alot:

"If the Government are serious about crime and security, they should ensure the police and security services have sufficient resources - not waste billions on an ID card scheme that won't stop serious criminals or terrorists but will inconvenience millions of law-abiding citizens."
Gareth Crossman, Liberty

There is also a good FAQ that lists important issues that you should know about.

Growing on to Othello

During the last few months, I've been developing strong Othello playing systems which is my major area of research at the present. Initially I was kind of relunctant to research in this area, as I was far more interested in other topics, but due to unforseen circumstances, I was kind of forced to explore in this domain.

Anyway, though at times you don't appreciate what you are forced to do, I have to admit, once you start to understand the naunces and challenges of the new task, you start to appreciate it more - and at times I have to admit, you start to love it.

All I want to say at this moment is that I've been working with two approaches at the present. The first is using a Genetic Approach to evolve board evaluation functions for Othello. In this case, I've adapted Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to come up with board evaluation for my Othello system. This approach though seems promising at first, I have to admit after doing numerous experiments with the numerous variations of the Evolutionary approach in programming, it ended up not as good as anticipated. To put it in CS terms, I feel that the Genetic Approach is just an heuristic for a brute force search on certain problem domains. I was looking into using parallel processing to help speed up the evolution and hope that the performance would be better - but after consideration, I decided that this approach may not be the best way forward.

After a few weeks of thinking, I've come up with a new radical idea that is so simple, yet very effective. The idea is simple, yet profound to a point I have a reason to believe that this system has potential to actually beat many of the World Class Othello playing algorithms once it is done. At the moment, I'm finishing up the prototype system and initial experiments prove to be extrememly promising. Once the system is up and running, I'll explain more on this idea.

Here I come, Pisal the Othello Expert ;)

I just can't help but mirror the picture from Wasin Pirom's Blog to this blog :P





:P

RIP - Chelsea

Chelsea just passed away a few days ago. She was a junior in my old highschool, a rather talkative and energetic young lass and best known as a party animal that got things going. I'll link it to another site with more details on it:

http://xtercy.blogspot.com/2005/06/farewel-chelsea.html

Energy Saving Rant Cont.

Talking about the last post, I've just noticed an article that is interesting from
NYTIMES and I've decided to append the article below.

June 4, 2005
Japan Squeezes to Get the Most of Costly Fuel
By JAMES BROOKE

TOKYO, June 3 - Surging oil prices and growing concerns about meeting targets to cut greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels have revived efforts around the world to improve energy efficiency. But perhaps nowhere is the interest greater than here in Japan.

Even though Japan is already among the most frugal countries in the world, the government recently introduced a national campaign, urging the Japanese to replace their older appliances and buy hybrid vehicles, all part of a patriotic effort to save energy and fight global warming. And big companies are jumping on the bandwagon, counting on the moves to increase sales of their latest models.

On the Matsushita appliance showroom floor these days, the numbers scream not the low, low yen prices, but the low, low kilowatt-hours.

A vacuum-insulated refrigerator, which comes with a buzzer if the door stays open more than 30 seconds, boasts that it will use 160 kilowatt-hours a year, one-eighth of that needed by standard models a decade ago. An air-conditioner with a robotic dust filter cleaner proclaims it uses 884 kilowatt-hours, less than half of what decade-old ones consumed.

"It's like squeezing a dry towel" for the last few drips, said Katsumi Tomita, an environmental planner for the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, maker of the Panasonic brand and known for its attention to energy efficiency. "The honest feeling of Japanese people is, 'How can we do more?' "

A number of other affluent countries with few domestic energy resources of their own are responding in similar ways.

In Germany, where heating accounts for the largest share of home energy use, a new energy saving law has as its standard the "seven-liter house," designed to use just seven liters of oil to heat one square meter for a year, about one-third the amount consumed by a house built in 1973, before the first oil price shock. Three-liter houses - even one-liter designs - are now being built.

In Singapore, where year-round air-conditioning often accounts for 60 percent of a building's power bill, new codes are encouraging the use of things like heat-blocking window films and hookups to neighborhood cooling systems, where water is chilled overnight.

In Hong Kong, many more buildings now have "intelligent" elevator systems in which computers minimize unnecessary stops. Parking restrictions encourage bus and rail transit, and authorities are also pushing hybrid cars equipped with engines that shut down when idling.

Other countries, including the United States, the world's largest energy consumer by far, have lagged behind, but even American consumers are starting to turn their backs on big sport utility vehicles and looking at more fuel-efficient cars in response to higher gasoline prices.

But Japan is where energy consciousness probably reaches the highest levels. The country has the world's second-largest economy, but it produces virtually no oil or gas, importing 96 percent of its energy needs.

This dependence on imports has prodded the nation into tremendous achievements in improved efficiency. France and Germany, where government crusades against global warming have become increasingly loud, expend almost 50 percent more energy to produce the equivalent of $1 in economic activity. Britain's energy use, on the same measure, is nearly double; the United States nearly triple; and China almost eight times as much.

From 1973 to today, Japan's industrial sector nearly tripled its output, but kept its energy consumption roughly flat. To produce the same industrial output as Japan, China consumes 11.5 times the energy.

At JFE Holdings, Japan's second-largest steel company, plastic pellets made from recycled bottles now account for 10 percent of fuel in the main blast furnaces, reducing reliance on imported coal. Japanese paper mills are investing heavily in boilers that can be fueled by waste paper, wood and plastic. Within two years, half of the electricity used in the nation's paper mills is to come from burning waste.

Many easy steps were taken after the oil shocks of the 1970's. Now Japan is embarking on a new phase. Billions of dollars are being invested to reach a 2012 target of reducing Japan's emission of global warming gases to 6 percent below the 1990 level. These gases are released by burning oil, coal, and, to a lesser extent, natural gas - sources for about 81 percent of Japan's energy.

As host nation for the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases, Japan takes its commitment seriously. But it faces a big challenge. Figures released last month show Japan was 8.3 percent over the 1990 level for the fiscal year ended March 2004.

"We are now at the stage where we only save energy by investing in equipment," Mr. Tomita said of Matsushita's effort. "If we can collect money in three years, we invest."

With the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, introducing its national campaign two months ago to meet the Kyoto targets, business is booming for energy service companies and consultants who advise companies on cutting energy bills.

But Japan's flattening of industrial energy consumption has not been matched in the transportation and residential sectors, where energy consumption has more than doubled since 1973, roughly pacing Japan's economic growth over the period.

Japan may be a mass transit nation, but now there is also a car for almost every Japanese household. Since 1970, the number of buses in Japan increased 23 percent, the number of trucks doubled, and the number of passenger cars increased more than sixfold, to 56 million.

With personal use accounting for the bulk of April's $6.4 billion bill for imported oil, Tokyo is trying to encourage greater efficiency by pushing fuel taxes even higher, lifting the pump price for gasoline to $4.70 a gallon, the highest in a decade.

During the 1990's, Japan's average fuel consumption per mile fell 13 percent. But since then, with more Japanese driving bigger cars, fuel efficiency growth has stalled.

Japan finds hope in the history of its refrigerators, which have doubled in size since 1981 as their energy use per liter has plunged 80 percent.

In hopes of working the same engineering magic on cars, Japan has extended its minicar tax breaks to hybrid cars - fuel-efficient vehicles that rely on a combination of a gasoline engine and an electric motor. Hybrid sales, while still relatively low in Japan, are growing fast. And in this environment, Toyota and Honda have become the world leaders in hybrid technology.

"We're entering the age of hybrid automobiles," Hiroyuki Watanabe, Toyota's senior managing director for environmental affairs, recently told journalists at the 2005 World Exposition Aichi, in Nagoya. "I want every car to have a hybrid engine."

The next energy-savings battleground is the home front.

After $1.3 billion in subsidies, about 160,000 homes have solar power systems. Solar power remains two to three times as expensive as the electricity supplied to households. But homeowners say that with time, the "free" electricity pays for the high installation costs. And the government is willing to devote taxes to the effort, preferring to spur rural employment through solar power installations to help reduce payments for foreign oil, coal and gas.

Although residential subsidies may be phased out, a Japanese government plan calls for increasing solar power generation 15-fold during this decade.

Japanese companies, notably Sharp, Kyocera, Mitsubishi and Sanyo, produce about half the world's photovoltaic solar panels, a roughly $10-billion-a-year market. With large commercial projects like a 4,740-panel generator going online at a filtration plant in Nara last month, Japan produces more than the combined total of the next biggest, Germany and the United States.

Prime Minister Koizumi is a political conservative who believes that saving oil starts at home. Visitors to his official residence here walk past a boxy hydrogen fuel-cell generator, a prototype installed by Matsushita in April to power the residence and educate the nation's leadership.

"Fuel cells are the key to the door of a new era in which we utilize hydrogen as an energy source," Mr. Koizumi told Parliament in 2002. "We intend to put them into practical use within three years, either as power sources for automobiles or households."

His government has set goals for cutting power consumption even further for the four main household appliances: televisions, 17 percent; personal computers, 30 percent; air- conditioners, 36 percent; and refrigerators, 72 percent. Engineers have been attacking the problem of the power used by appliances on standby, a drainage that can account for 5 percent to 10 percent of a household's energy consumption.

Still, while energy efficiency is seen as a patriotic act, many consumers in Japan are reluctant to part with working appliances, made with the Japanese ingenuity and attention to detail that ensure they will last for decades.

"The problem we are facing is over how much we induce consumers to trade in their appliances for more energy-efficient ones," Hajimi Sasaki, chairman of the NEC Corporation, a major appliance maker, said in April at a news conference billed as "Proposals Aimed at Overcoming Global Warming."

"I drive a hybrid car, and last fall I put heat-cutting film on some of our windows," he said. "And I intend to buy a new refrigerator."

Petra Kappl contributing reporting for this article from Frankfurt,

Wayne Arnold from Singapore and

Alyssa Lau from Hong Kong.

When I continued thinking over it, we can notice that many countries are trying to be less dependent on fossil fuels. For countries with huge industries, some examples might include Japan, US, and some parts of Europe, I've noticed that due to infrastructure that has been placed, it would be difficult to come up with energy saving policies considering the traditional reliance on fossil fuels. On an interesting note, it should be easier for countries that are developing, for example like Thailand to adopt an energy policy that goes away from fossil fuels and emphasize on renewable energy sources - e.g. Solar - in anticipation of the future. Won't that be a better government policy to push if energy conservation is a high priority issue? The main issue should be a clear policy, which now it seems sadly lacking other than some half-hearted attempt to cut down energy usage.