June 2011
1 post
Computex 2011
COMPUTEX Taipei is a computer trade expo held annually in Taiwan. It’s the second largest gathering of computing manufacturing professionals in the world, and companies take the opportunity to show of their new prototypes in hopes of luring the buyers that attend to, well… buy!
Normally, you’re supposed to be either a vendor or a bigshot buyer to be able to get access into this...
May 2011
2 posts
Fix for No SSL, Google Services with Far EasTone...
So I’m in Taipei yay! Wandered around town, got fitted for a suit/shirts (so cheap!), and bought the 18-55mm Canon IS mk II (also cheaper than US) to play with… but more on that later. This post is for troubleshooting 3G issues.
My cousin Bob was kind enough to lend me a 3G enabled SIM card to use with my Nexus One while in Taiwan (thanks, Bob!). Makes everything so much easier -...
Belief and Truth
We’ve been having heavy philosophical/epistemological discussions in the apartment thinktank, and I thought it would be a good exercise to condense some of the more relevant thoughts to words and put words to digital paper.
But first, I need a moment to mention that these discussions are what I’ll be missing most from my apartment-mates when we split off to all across the US soon....
April 2010
1 post
4 tags
Zerg Baneling Build Order in ZvT and ZvZ
In the month or so since I’ve posted (too many projects x.x), a few iterations of standard strategy for Zerg have occurred, and the one I’ve found to be most interesting is the rise of the Baneling as a dominant force in the early game. I thought I’d just share a few of the key moments of this trend here, as well as provide a build order for people to use and abuse =)
Youtube...
March 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Zerg v. Terran - Fast Expand and Infestor play
In the beta, probably the most interesting matchup for me has been ZvT - simply because of all the things you can “get away with” and the amount of mid-game push strategies employed by both sides. I’ve been trying out a variety of openings and unit comps and thought I’d share a few of the most successful I’ve found.
Also - must...
1 tag
SC2 Beta Patch 3 - Yet another Terran Buff,...
StarCraft II Beta - Patch 3 (version 0.5.0.14219B)
Balance Changes
TERRAN
Engineering Bay
Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Infantry Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds...
1 tag
Terran +1 Timing Push
Seems like a good BO - Shrews is trying it out. The idea is to have your M&Ms show up at their doorstep the moment your upgrades finish. I think it’s a solid opening for T, but as he mentions, banelings are pretty much hard counter to mass bio.
Source: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=114168¤tpage=2
On February 22 2010 23:30 Fallen wrote:
...
February 2010
2 posts
Starcraft 2 Beta - Patch 1 Opinions
http://www.starcraft2.com/launcher/patch-notes.htm
Beta Patch 1 came out last night and the full notes are linked above. Comments are below in italics.
TERRAN
Viking
The armor value for this unit in Fighter Mode has decreased from 1 to 0.
The damage done by this unit in Fighter Mode has changed from 6 (+8 armored) to 10 (+4 armored).
Seems reasonable. They were losing 1v1 fights against...
1 tag
Starcraft 2 Beta - Zerg Build Order and General...
Just leaving some notes - someone as bad as me might find this interesting or (maybe) useful while playing the Starcraft 2 Beta. It should at least give someone a place to start off while playing Zerg and heading off to the Bronze League (awwwyeah). I think I’ll also try to write a build-order simulator to search for optimal builds given different utility functions when I have the time. Also...
September 2009
1 post
Nootropics: Smart Drugs and My Experiment
I remember reading in high school about the intense regimen imposed on world-class Olympic athletes, of their sports doctors and nutritionists, of their medical tests and dietary restrictions, all to push their speed and edge just a bit farther. I read the article and wondered, why don’t the world class scientists, the genius thinkers, have the same devotion to their bodies? For every...
August 2009
1 post
1 tag
New computer yayyy
It’s been busy from flying back, moving in, and other new semester things.
As soon as I was fairly settled though, it was off to the races on building my desktop with Jesse. She’s all done and ready to roar now so I’ll throw up her specs. And hopefully more posts will be incoming, this semester shouldn’t be terribly hard…
Hostname: Hitagi (picture on bottom for...
July 2009
5 posts
Saving Data to Paper →
I’m reminded of Ghost in the Shell SAC ep01 when reading this article - In the episode, there was a sensitive report that the Prime Minister had encrypted and printed out on paper and I thought “wtf, doesn’t he have a flash drive in that day and age?”.
How to Apply to Y Combinator →
Good read for anyone interested in launching a startup (whether you want funding to come through YC or not).
Notes on Leadership
I can’t believe we’re at the halfway point of the Summer already. It feels like I just got here last week. =X So I felt like typing up some of the random notes I took from lectures here (they’re usually in a Moleskine Jeff gave me like… ages ago. I finally found a worthy use for it) so they’ll be in a more… permanant form. You know, just in case I get thrown in...
Review: Add-A-Bag Luggage Strap
I absolutely love my Waterfield bag - but recently had the desire to trade it in for a more mobile model (oh Chrome… you tempt my heart so even though you lack an external easy-access pocket). My 20 minute bike rides every day are normally a hard-fought battle to keep the bag balanced on my back. No longer! A key feature of Timbuk2 and Chrome bags are the third-leg/stabilizer strap/thingy...
On Meeting People and Doing Stuff
It’s been a whirlwind of things ever since I’ve gotten here and I must say the most interesting times I’ve had are not concerning work nor places I’ve seen, but the people I meet. I think I’ve connected with more people in the past month than I have since the beginning of college (beginning of TAMS might still be ahead in the game though), thanks to the insane amount...
Berkeley!
Went with Ouyang to go see Paul/JJ in Berkeley the past weekend. I’ve been getting pretty bad at updating this - everything has been rather busy =X So to be time efficient, random thoughts! * Berkeley was great fun - felt like Austin with better weather (though it was 80 and Paul would say “oh my god it’s so hot”). About the same number of trees, building heights in about...
June 2009
10 posts
Visit to the Computer History Museum
One of members on my team also volunteers for the Computer History Museum as a docent in his free time and was kind enough to show us around!
Babbage Difference Engine #2 - veeeerry cool. Can calculate 7th order polynomials at a fairly decent rate! The story behind is rather amazing as well - Babbage designed the whole thing in the 19th century and drew up the specs but it wasn’t until 20...
Asian Poses - The Definitive Guide to Asian Poses →
From Arun!
When smart people are hard to understand →
I try to apply this to my day to day life - mostly the asking question part since often the “know more than the person who brought it up” part is a bit hard xP
Schneier on Security: Corrupted Word Files for... →
Very clever. But pretty easy to do for free as he points out!
Learning a New Programming Language: C++ for Java... →
Good c++ early reference
Bicycling Street Smarts - Table of Contents →
So I need to learn how to ride bicycles in like… lanes and stuff. Recommended by Google.
1 tag
Google Day 1
What a long day. Very tiring but very exciting! Got to campus around 8 and went through a ton of training presentations and HR hoops, the highlight of which was a short (and humorous!) speech by this guy welcoming us to Google. Finished all the presentations around 5, and I got to meet my manager (this guy) and my computer (named azaka <3 and decked out with a quad core and 30”...
The Flimsy Doorknob & A Forgettable Receipt |... →
May 2009
23 posts
1 tag
Belkin Laptop Cooler is Cool
Pro:
Dropped my laptop temperature noticeably
Quiet (My laptop fan is louder)
$20 from Fry’s (Which I find has a different vibe than the one in Plano - there’s a lot of cowboy imagery/statues to be down-to-earth? whereas the Plano one seems more glossy and professional - kind of ironic)
Props up the laptop so I have to sit straight
Cons:
Props up the laptop so I have to sit...
The Last Psychiatrist: The Difference Between An... →
Figures of Speech - How to Teach a Child to Argue →
Seems like a smart way to raise smart kids
Official Google Blog: Went Walkabout. Brought back... →
Very nifty technology from Google. Has exactly what I want - realtime/persistent/multiparty conversations
Official Google Blog: Search engineer stories →
So my manager-to-be made a video!
How Long Did It Take for the World to Identify... →
From Arun’s Twitter. Easy to identify good services, hard to identify “killer” services
IEEE Spectrum: The Million Dollar Programming... →
Bell Labs explains their strategy for solving Netflix’s collaborative filtering problem.
The road less traveled: Hacker House: Lessons... →
Interesting idea - I’ll probably contact the Austin guy and see what he has planned.
Vim Recipes: Table of Contents →
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn... →
Interesting language learning methods - can be applied to most long tasks as well
Who Writes Wikipedia? (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought) →
Nifty article that I missed
You're probably stressed and seriously need to... →
Validatio
Deskography - Share photos of your desk →
There’s some reaaaally nifty desks out there.
3 tags
What I'll be Working on at Google!
Since Google annouced their new Search Options Panel today, my manager, Patrick, was kind enough to shoot me an email and tell me that I’ll be working on enhancing and adding new features to the search options. Definitely gives me something to look forward to! The ability to filter your results is an interesting new idea for Google search, and I can imagine how even more complex filters...
Annals of Innovation: How David Beats Goliath:... →
Flexibility and unconventional strategy are necessary tools for underdogs, no matter if it’s in basketball games, wars, or business. If you want to win be prepared to do odd things, “wrong” things, unexpected things.
Dept. of Science: Don’t!: Reporting & Essays: The... →
Fairly interesting. It does seem like much of like is delaying short-term for long-term satisfaction. I think I would’ve been able to wait out the marshmallow, not because of any real self-control,…
10 great experimental rock bands from Japan -... →
“characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords” - interesting, ill have to give some of them a shot.
1 tag
Trying this Tumblr thing
I’ve gotten quite lazy with maintaining my Wordpress blog, so I’m thinking of giving this Tumblr thing a shot. Seems easier to maintain/customize than running my own Wordpress and it looks like I can try making a custom theme and some doodads to brush up on my Javascript so I don’t embarrass myself at Google =X
Anyhow, my goal is to put up a more “serious” blog than...
Student's Wikipedia hoax quote used worldwide in... →
Great example of how widespread Wikipedia’s userbase is, and how easy it is to misplace trust in information on the internet.
Why Circuit City Failed, and Why B&H Thrives,... →
Don’t blame the economy for your failures. Successful companies are those that provide quality service and treat customers with respect.