Eliminating Mosquitos

Some other night, my living room had some unexpected visitors–mosquitos when I was watching TV with my wife. She shouted loud to show me the mosquitos. I took a look, and noticed that they did not fly around the house, but stayed on ceiling corners most of time. We both had no idea how they flew into the room; however, I believe that every window was either closed or sealed with nets.

Since the mosquitos were not flying around, I was thinking to take care of them after the TV show. Anyhow, I glanced my wife's annoyed face and learned that she wanted me to do something to fix that.

I was thinking very hard, and tried to find an easy way to make those mosquitos disappear. That was about 30 to 40 of them stayed together with about three major groups. I did not want to kill some of them while chasing others away, and to leave stains everywhere on the wall.

Bingo, "vacuum" flashed into my brain. I told my wife about this idea, but she was still the unhappy face. Anyway, I took my action right away, and sucked all mosquitos in only one to two minutes.

From my wife's displeased face, I thought that she did not like my idea. A couple days later, I found something interesting! She was telling my mother-in-law how I remove the mosquitos out of my sight and at the end she made a comment, "that was very creative!" I was hoodwinked by her appearance.

Anyway, in my opinion, I have tried not to do thing following an consistent way in my life, and to create a life that I enjoy. Sometimes, people might think of me out of mind. Yet, the key thing is that as long as I do not do something to harm others, I could be crazy and wild! I did not recognize my sucking mosquito behavior as an creative act, but people would say it to be creative. No matter it is creative or not in other people's eyes, I have to be sure that creativity exists in all aspects of our daily life, but not only in our job or work. That is why creativity is a matter of living attitude!¶

蘋果熱與皮克斯瘋

這本書揭示了Steve Jobs大膽行事風格背後的小故事和成長的心路歷程。原來從小時候的他，就深深地受到養父母親、老師、朋友給他的影響，養父就常常在車庫裡教導他拆解跟組裝物品，因而使他了解物品運作的原理。學校教育對他是個惡夢，還好有位難能可貴的老師，幫助他遠離搗蛋淘氣、甚至能夠越級就讀。而鄰家的惠普工程師也功不可沒，在小小的年紀時，便教導他許多電子產品的設計原理。

在更大的時期，Steve迷上了印度的佛學，甚至遠赴印度親身體會修行，然而也是在從印度返回美國以後，才結論到：「科學和新技術將是改善人類生活的關鍵，只靠宗教信仰是不夠的。」儘管如此，這應該也是造就他嬉皮式作風的特殊成長經驗。

「圖形導向介面、物件導向程式語言、和網路」這三項技術，是他在走訪PARC後，才深入去研究發展的重要主題，也促使歷史上第一個網站，就住在一台NeXT的電腦裡，繼蘋果電腦後，Steve所創立的第二家電腦公司。

至於Pixar動畫公司，Steve自己也提到，Pixar的成功有三個重要關鍵門檻，一是創意、二是科技、三是創意加上科技，這樣的高競爭門檻，竟需要花上他們十年的時間。

現在還在熱頭上的Mac OS X、iPod、iTunes音樂網路商店，一路走來，並不容易，儘管這過程間曾經遭遇過許多的挫折，但這也是創新過程中必經之路。成功之路，在於持久地累積正向經驗，這一點我們從Steve的故事中，可以一覽端倪！

圖書資訊
=========
Cryil Fievet 原著
武忠森 譯
ISBN 986-124-304-6
2004城邦文化發行

About Book Review | 關於書齋書齋

How many books have you read since you know how to read? And, how many of them you are impressed and unforgetable? Yeah! It's so hard to tell. With this blog, I wish to record and share my readings with you! ¶

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

從你懂得讀書識字開始，你曾經讀過幾本書？又其中有哪些書讓您感到印象深刻且難以忘懷的？是的！那實在是一言難盡，所以，願以這個網誌，與您分享我的讀書筆記！¶

Text-to-Speech

Since Mac OS X embraced Unix, the old fashion command line interface gets its attention again from computing fans. I learned MS-DOS in the old time. Though the graphic interface is easy to use, I would admit that for sometimes only one word could describe how the command line interface feels--"COOL."

Try this if you are interested to have your Mac speak with a command line script. Launch the Terminal application, and input the following command:

/usr/bin/osascript -e 'say "hello"'

You should be able to hear your Mac is talking "hello" to you!

讓Mac說話

自從Mac OS X投向了Unix的懷抱，那曾經是老掉牙的文字指令控制界面又重新引起電腦迷的注意。以前剛學電腦時就是學MS-DOS，儘管圖形化界面非常簡單易用，不過，我還是得承認，有時候使用文字指令控制電腦的那種感覺，只有一個字能夠形容—那就是「酷」。

如果你有興趣嘗試使用文字指令來讓你的Mac說話，請打開終端機，然後依照以下範例輸入：

/usr/bin/osascript -e 'say "hello"'

你應該可以聽到你的Mac在跟你說「哈囉」！

Vision

Vision, it could be physically watching with eyes, as well as sensing the outer world with the inner mind.

I've stopped blogging for couple days, it helped me to calm down and meditate. I've been busy traveling around the globe. It's a pleasure to sense an inner touching of my heart today. I told myself that I will write it down on the blog when I went home, and share it with everyone of you who is reading this article...

There is always sometime that we need to make a choice when we encounter an intersection of our career. During this time, we look forward into the fascinating future. At the same time, we anxiously hesitate, while emotionally being so complicated. Especially, when it is very hard to find an everlasting friend around. One need to give up something, in order to enlighten oneself possibly, and thus, to acquire more maturity.

A lot of time, we do not need to talk that much, as long as other people understand what we mean. Speaking too much, it is just wasting our life and killing time. That is why Chinese people says, "More talking, more losing." It's better not to do so. However, while not talking too much, we need to express ourselves clearly. This helps to reduce misunderstandings. Moreover, if we hold back and do not address the key point totally, it is every easy to accumulate emotional stress mentally, and that is no good to the health afterwards. In conclusion, the philosophy of speaking¹ less or more might only be understandable, but couldn't be told. After we experienced and learned an unfavorable lesson from something, if we confront a similar situation again, the human nature will tell us how to handle!

I've already on my thirty something years. Though I walk on the path of my life following the flow, I'm still floating on my luck. A stranger can only tell my appearance, while a closed friend recognizes what I have been doing. It's so true that a confidant is not easy to meet in our life. Tonight, I had a wonderful conversation with my friend. He asked me a critical question, which touched deeply inside my heart. He helped me to really SEE something that I have never thought about, while indeed I realized something, a desired future hidden behind the inmost subconscious...

A man can die for a confidant. Noble men support each other. It may just like Mr. Yasuyoshi Tokuma to the popular Japanese animation director Mr. Hayao Miyazaki in the modern history².

Thank you, dear my friend, Mr. D.T.¶

1. This article might a little bit none sense in English. I feel that the native English speaker would ask why "vision" can relate to the "philosophy of speaking" in any sense. In the original Chinese, it is a kind of "emotional expressing" essay. In this kind of essay, the writer just write down how he feels about something. If you read this article a couple times carefully, you might be able to figure out the relation in between. I mentioned at the end that my friend is able to point out something which I did not aware. If we can not communicate to each other, my friend would not be able to point out that critical point. That is why I said, "we do not need to talk that much, as long as other people understand what we mean."

2. In the original Chinese text, the example I used are people in the Chinese history. If you are not a Chinese, it must be hard for you to imagine what is addressed here. Therefore, in the English translation, I found the story between Mr. Yasuyoshi Tokuma and Mr. Hayao Miyazaki. Because Tokuma's help, Miyazaki is possible to have his film glow around the world, such as the latest "Howl's Moving Castle" or the earlier "Princess Mononoke."

Spilled Keyboard Repair

Since my dad bought me my first computer, an IBM PC-XT compatible, in 1987, this is the first time that I spilled water on my keyboard.

I called the Apple dealer, and they told me that it's better go get a new one. Thereafter, I dug into google to find how to repair a spilled keyboard by myself. Thank God! I really found one on the web! Since it's a demo for the last generation apple keyboard, I am here to record how I rescued my white USB Apple keyboard.

Tools needed:
#0 phillips Screwdriver, 1.27mm hex wrench


Step 1. Use the 1.27mm hex wrench to remove the 3 screws.


Step 2. Remove all keys on the keyboard. You can just use your bare hand to do so if you like.


Step 3. Disconnect the two connectors from back cover.


Step 4. Remove the screws with a #0 phillips screwdriver on the back of the key pad. (Yes, all of the screws, though it's quite many of them.)


Step 5. Remove the transparent circuit membrane from the key pad. Find the stained spots on the membrane.

Attention! Do not lose the key punch sensors underneath the transparent membrane. It is sticky to the membrane.


Step 6. Clean the spots with water or alcohol. Be aware that there are three layers of the membrane. We need to wipe out the stains on all of the layers, and also make sure that the cleaning water or alcohol is dried before you put the three layers together!


Step 7. After the stain spots removed, reassemble with the opposite sequence.


Step 8. Test the keyboard.

Step 9. If every key works back to normal, then it's finished.

Enjoy the recovered keyboard!¶