narrow escape
These days I feel it is difficult to think in English and hard to express in Chinese.
Archive for June, 2009
miracle and magic
As a rational people ——sometimes I don’t quite think so, or I should say I am a romantic rational one ——I believe each magic has its scientific explanation.
I think some magic are mathematical while some are psychological .
An example for the former one would be the magic of guessing card: the performer picked up 15 cards, then made you to choose one and keep it in mind.
Step A: The performer dealt the 15 cards in 3 piles
Step B: took 3 piles one by one and asked you whether your card appeared.
Step C: put the pile with the specific card at the middle of 3 piles.
Repeat step A-B-C-A.
At last, the 8th card would be the right one. Of course, the 8th one is at the middle of whole 15 cards.
A magic once showed by a magician (David Copperfield?) would be a typical example for psychological magic. He had 5 cards in hand and asked the audience to pick one. Finally, when he showed the 5 cards once again, he made the audience to confirm that only his card had been changed.
The truth is that magician has changed all 5 cards. Perhaps you saw J club, Q diamond at the first time, and J heart, Q spade the second time. The first group and the second group are similar in appearance. You don’t remember the exact numbers and shapes, because you were focusing too much on your own card, and didn’t pay much attention to others.
I do not believe Criss Angel can walk on water either. It looked like that he was walking on a transparent route in that swimming pool, because when he was moving there was no one in front of and behind him; audience only stood beside him.
Yeah I’d like to say I believer there must have miracle in the world which we cannot explain, but not magic.
表不达
周五下过雨，空气清爽，晚饭后散步，
潜宝在马路上忽然诗兴大发，
指着夜里靛蓝发青的天空说 ：
“蓝天~白云~”
周日午饭，又教了他一个词 “青山绿水”，很有点知己存海内、山水会相逢的江湖味。
潜宝一边吃着冷面，一边说
“蓝天白云
青山绿水
麻麻黑 大潜”
他指了指自己的小黑手。
睡午觉的时候，潜宝异常兴奋。坐在我身边，一定要唱完歌才肯躺下。
第一首唱的是《小兔子》
“小兔子乖乖，把门儿开开，我要进来。”
他唱的是
“小屁股乖乖，把门儿开开，我要进来。”（一直都纠正不过来。听他唱的时候，只是觉得很好笑。写下来，才发现小子唱的很黄。）
潜宝最爱唱的是“不开不开就不开”，他会再加上几句“就不开就不开。”
第二首歌是跟着CD学的
“我家小弟弟 半夜笑嘻嘻 问他笑个啥 梦见毛主席”
潜宝通常会唱成：
“小弟弟笑嘻嘻 问他笑个啥 梦见毛主席”
这首歌我从前没听过。似乎是一首很厉害的宣传偶象崇拜的歌。但如果被小朋友唱成“小弟弟笑嘻嘻 笑个啥 毛主席”，那就一点也不PR了。
问自己
周四的时候，被迫填写了一张表格。有这样一些问题。
你最大的缺点是什么？
很多缺点，相互挤着挤着，就都不大了。
你觉得什么品质最重要？
纯真感。对理想对感情，始终抱有纯真感。
哪一本书，哪一个人对你影响最深？
学习和认识都是连续的过程。天知道一根连续的绳子哪里最重要。
对你来说，最重要的3件事？
学习、创造、爱。
真是一份很鸡婆的问卷，感谢它给我别扭的思想又照了一次小镜子。
片断（设计）
和Nik做了这半年的家园采访，采访对象也是这4年多来平均设计质量最高的：皋兰路的那套洋房，原来的屋主分家时，在自己院子里另盖了两幢洋楼各带一个面积宽裕的花园。贵族后裔Ya据说在上海过着殖民地色彩的生活，外界风传他有三个穿制服的佣人，我证明：他们不穿制服。Lynn是天分独到，她和我一样住一楼，不过比我胆大，我向下挖了10公分铺设地暖，她干脆向下要了50公分地坪，在老工房里搭出乡村别墅。
房子做的漂亮，主人更是传奇。这事情就像演讲，年轻的学生问：您口才真好，是怎样锻炼的？演讲如果真是口才的事，那思想就该无地自容。但凡性格可爱的人，神情也令人喜爱。总不能夸她：你笑的真好，请问是用什么牌子的粉底？
19分钟人
再复杂的计算问题都是简单问题。
Kerry讲AI的时候讲到一道题，四个人过桥。我最初的想法是，让走的最快的A来回送手电筒，于是最后结果是19分钟。得出这个结论我花了2分钟时间。
但是我想这个答案是错的。然后我花了10分钟（恩，我比较笨，尤其是在赶时间的情况下）计算出另一个答案：17分钟。
去[A1,B2]=2 M
回[A1]=1 M
去[C5，D10]=10 M
回[B2]=2 M
去[A1,B2]=2 M
所以一共是17分钟。
我想了一下，如果真的是比快，第一个方案，从思考到行动，21分钟已经搞定。
第二个方案整整耗费我27分钟。
所以，除了方法，还有效率。“磨刀不误砍柴工”不是真的。
我想到从前一道算法习题。关于婚姻介绍所的配对问题。我的解题思路是为每一个人寻找出最适合的结婚对象，哪怕有一些人轮空。正确的解题思路是从婚姻介绍所的立场出发，为尽可能多的人实现配对，即便没有绝配。
长久以来，我对这一“正确答案”心怀愤懑，认为它完全抹杀了关于爱情的美好想象。这是我第一次从对立的角度审视自己的算法。所谓最适合，不仅是性格、教育、背景等的适合，还包括彼此到达的难易程度。每个人都有权选择17分钟的最爱，或者19分钟的最容易爱。
明媚（6）
可能是考虑到地球人的习惯，整层楼面的墙壁都微微泛出荧光。虽然暗淡，明媚依然可以清楚地看见泰达的办公室，除了正中的会客室和办公区域，还附带一个设施齐全的休息室和一个小型吧台。办公室的保密性很好，四面都没有窗，通风系统也是采用了细密的毛细管道，几乎连著名的地球蟑螂也爬不进来。
办公桌上有一堆看似魔方的组件，不同的灰白黑色块组成一个“回”字形，独独中间缺漏了一块灰色的，缺漏的平面上仿佛有一个接口。路克望向明媚，明媚眉毛一扬，要找到中间的那块，那块应该就是数据存储元。
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AI
We discussed Artificial Intelligence this evening. Kerry showed us some videos such as The Terminator, Transformers and I, Robot to explain AI in Hollywood and one sample from discovery channel to show AI technology in the real world.
Compared with robot, pattern recognition is a part of AI which is much closer to our daily life. We may use fingerprint identifier to unlock a laptop, use writing pad and speech recognition software to input information. Once I have interviewed a company who used fingerprint identification technology in its HR system.
Finally, Kerry left us some questions.
1、You have 2 jars, one with 50 red beans inside and another with 50 green ones. There is someone who will pick up 1 bean from your 2 jars. What shall you do to make him much easier to pick a red one out?
2、There are 4 people in front of a bridge over river. It takes 1 minute for A to walk through this bridge. B needs 2 minutes, C needs 5 and D needs 10. Only 2 persons can walk on the bridge at the same time and they must move at the speed of the slower one. 4 people only have 1 torch which is necessary when walking across the bridge. How can they move as quickly as possible?