Miscellaneous and Useless Information
James Lin’s infrequently updated blog
You’ve probably heard that the Japanese are very disciplined. It’s true. Matt and I saw this while in the front car of a Tokyo subway train, where we could see into the driver’s cab. He sat up straight, in his uniform and gloves, and was constantly on alert. He regularly pointed at either his instrument …
Continue reading “Asia trip reactions: Discipline and Politeness”
Both Hong Kong and Taipei have RFID smart cards available for paying fares on subways and buses. Taipei even knocks 20% off of each subway ride. You don’t need to take the card out, just hover your wallet over the reader. It’s amazingly convenient. The Bay Area desperately needs something like this, especially since we …
It wasn’t easy finding fast, cheap Internet access throughout my trip, and when I did, I mostly checked up on e-mail. I always take a long time to write (look how long it took me to write my dissertation!) and I decided my time overseas was better spent doing stuff. But now I’m back, and …
I didn’t expect to be able to blog any part of my vacation, but my hotel room on the first night actually has a computer, so here goes. (Typing on a Japanese keyboard is a pain too.) I thought flying out on Christmas would ensure an empty flight, but I was wrong. The airport was …
And in the spirit of the season, here’s a link to one of the most incredible holiday light displays I’ve seen: Wizards of Winter So many people went to see it in person that the homeowner shut it down on December 6, after a car accident in the neighborhood. More info Videos of other people’s …
Here’s a video of some guys in Russia with some pretty amazing moves — don’t try this at home, kids! They’re doing a sport called Le Parkour, and there are a ton of videos on Google about it. BBC News and Wikipedia have good introductory articles. I’m not going to be trying this sport anytime …
Seth Roberts, a UC Berkeley professor in psychology, has an unusual theory on Lose Weight Exercise gain: whenever you eat a food that is flavorful and familiar, your body demands that you bank as many of those calories as possible. What if you could keep your thermostat low by sending fewer flavor signals? He eventually …
Everyone else is linking this, so I’ll join the fun. (Thanks, Jason!) Take a look at this rap video from Saturday Night Live: “Lazy Sunday.” There are some sick rhymes in there (sick as in phat. uh, yeah). As a geek, I love this verse: Yo where’s the movie playing? Upper West Side dude Let’s …
I finally submitted my Ph.D. yesterday. I would have blogged yesterday, but as you might imagine I was too tired. I spent all weekend prepping my dissertation for printing, and then a few hours actually printing the necessary three copies. It weighs in at 583 pages (about 200 pages for the text, and the rest …
I just got back from a BayCHI talk by Jensen Harris, the lead designer of the new Microsoft Office 12 user interface. He’s actually already blogged a lot of what he talked about, so I won’t repeat it here — take a look at his “Best Of” list on his blog for an overview. Instead, …