Monday, November 24, 2014

Saturday, November 1, 2014

There is a Punjab State in India, and there is a Punjab Province in Pakistan.

And they have got the same main language, Punjabi.

The greater Punjab region is the historic homeland of the Sikhs. Unsuprisinly, Sikhs' main language is Punjabi. Take note that the Sikh people have a total population of 27 million globally.

For starters, the Sikh people have the following characterics which interest me particularly:

1. Kesh

In Sikhism, Kesh (sometimes Kes) is the practice of allowing one's hair to grow naturally as a symbol of respect for the perfection of God's creation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesh_%28Sikhism%29

And that naturally involves head hair, as well as body hair.

However,
In modern times the trend of short hair has encroached upon this tradition; in some parts of Punjab, it is estimated that 80% of Sikh youths have cut their hair. Reasons include simple convenience — avoiding the daily combing and tying — as well as social pressures from the mainstream culture to look like everyone else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesh_%28Sikhism%29

Nonetheless, you can take a look at the following old news (no oxymoron intended, :-) :
The Sikh woman who stood up to online abuse about her facial hair


2. Kacchera

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera .


3. Kirpan

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirpan .


4.
The Punjab is the wealthiest Indian state per capita, with the average Punjabi income three times the national average.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh#Representation

Can you see a way for Microsoft to claw back its desktop market share?

With laying off employees in large chunks, is it on the right track?

Saturday, October 18, 2014

There are two phases of cognitive natuaralization for a Chinese immigrant in Canada.

Phase 1: Finally he's come to realize that there are some certain crucial elephants in the room in the U.S. and Canada.

Phase 2: He's then come to terms with those elephants in the room.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Montage - 元曲《天净沙·秋思》

作者:马致远(元)


枯藤老树昏鸦,小桥流水人家。

古道西风瘦马,夕阳西下,断肠人在天涯。


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What a montage.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

J needs to revise his Linux installation doc.

I've been long muddled by the meanings of "hash", "hash function", "hash value", "message digest", and "hash table" in Compute Science.

Now finally I've made it clear to me that a hash function is simply a one-way encryption function which often is used to ensure a data file, or packet, transmitted over the internet has not been garbled.

Brouhaha. All that hodgepodge of different names and terms.

It's the same old hash of hash function over and over again, all in all.

By the way, a function is not a mapping.

"Data" is the plural form of the noun "datum" in the English language.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Thursday, September 18, 2014