昨日的香港頭條不少都是有關麥當勞改價。
先看看改價的內容：
– 巨無霸餐和魚柳包餐重上30多元；
– 雙層芝堡餐和脆辣雞腿包餐減價至21元；
– 魚柳包減價至9元，取代雙牛芝堡。
第一點可以看出的是雙牛芝堡加價是主打。近年美國牛肉價格上升了三成，
第二，魚柳包主要是單點減價多於套餐加價。
【明報】『剛公布的《施政報告》每年撥30億元，向逾20萬戶低收入家庭提供「低收入在職家庭津貼」…張建宗表示有關家庭僅得8%居於私人租住單位』 那是否說，92%的有關家庭住在公營房屋？ 假設一個三人家庭
【明報】『剛公布的《施政報告》每年撥30億元，向逾20萬戶低
那是否說，92%的有關家庭住在公營房屋？
假設一個三人家庭住在
我們不禁要問，這個家庭會有多少動力「上流」成為正真的中等收入戶？政府又怎能怪中產憤憤不平呢？
住在300呎的公屋單位，以差餉物業估價署的去年的資料計平均市值租金若為$6641。若這個家庭剛在貧窮線上，有兩名工作成人及一名兒童，則低收入在職家庭津貼會再給予$2800。以2012年家庭住戶每月入息中位數為$20,700計，貧窮線為$10,350。這個家庭的實質收入加起來有$19791，基本上達中位數了。 我們不禁要問，這個家庭會有多少動力「上流」成為正真的中等收入戶？政府又怎能怪中產憤憤不平呢？
What Exactly is Asus Instant On?
Quite a few people, myself included, have had this question in mind, but the internet is not very forthcoming in answer. We all know that Instant On promises a choice between fast resume from sleep under its high performance mode or extended battery life during sleep under the battery saving mode., but Asus never explained how these promises are fulfilled.
After some testing, I can say with certainty that Instant On is simply Asus tagging its name on Intel’s Rapid Start Technology, which is a motherboard feature that allows the computer to go from sleep to hibernation without the operating system knowing.
Why is this useful, you might ask, given that OS’s are already capable of such a switch? The usefulness lies in the ability to save the hibernation file in a disk separate from the one the OS is on, something that Windows certainly cannot do on its own. With this ability the hibernation file can be saved on a small SSD while the OS resides on a large HDD, which allows for much faster resume from hibernation.
So what exactly are the high performance and battery saving modes in Instant On? The difference lies in whether the computer will go into hibernation from sleep after a certain amount of time. In high performance mode, the computer only enters hibernation if battery is critically low. Below I launch the IRST Manager to show the settings Instant On applied:
In battery saving mode, it does so after a set interval. While the IRST manager is showing an interval of 15 minutes, I am not sure whther that is in fact the default Asus has since that was the value I set with IRST before I install Instant On. Asus might very well be assuming a default interval of 0.
So how useful is Instant On/IRST? That depends on the type of hard drive you have.
- For computers with only HDD the feature is useless, as the hibernation file needs to be written to the slow HDD anyway.
- For computers with large HDD and small integrated SSD, it is very useful. While OS hibernation could take 30+ seconds to resume, IRST only takes 10 seconds.
- For computers with modern large SSD, the feature is once again useless. Base on my testing, both OS hibernation and IRST take around 10 seconds to resume. While IRST is the faster one—and it is only faster if you switch the hibernation partition from the slow integrated SSD to the main SSD—the difference is typically within a fraction of a second.
Now that I have talked about the benefit of IRST over OS hibernation, I should mention that it also has a considerable drawback: SSD wear. Typically IRST is paired with an integrated SSD partition that is exactly the size of the computer’s RAM. What this means is that the same sectors of the integrated SSD are being written over completely every time the computer enter hibernation, making it more likely to wear out and requires expensive service repair. Yours truly experienced this first hand when his Zenbook UX32VD’s integrated SSD malfunctioned just after half a year of use, which was only resolved after a warranty service.
Juice Deaeration 真空處理果汁
Ever wonder why cheap orange juice tastes so awful and “natural flavor” is needed in basically all of them? Try deaerating orange juice at home and you will know why.
有否想過為何酒樓用的便宜橙汁那麼難喝，又為何多數橙汁都需要「天然香料」？在家嘗試為橙汁進行真空處理就知道了。
Extended reading 伸延閱讀：
http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-truth-about-orange-juice-in-boxes/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0023643803000410
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For this experiment we used Sunkist Navel oranges. Not as good as Valencia for making juice, but we had to settle with what we could get. |
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The deaeration process is conducted through off-the-shelve juice squeezer and vacuum storage bag. |
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Ask a friend to try the juice, both deaerated and not. Here we did a single-blind test. |
各位同學，其實大家上完econometrics係咪過一個暑假就原銀奉還？OLS以外的模型你們不懂很合理，但諸如dummy variable, heteroskedasticity與omitted variable bias都是很基本的東西。好些同學甚至連OLS coefficient及p-value的意義都不懂。
有系統地分析數據可說是經濟本科少數需要上學讀的內容，學不懂這科倒不如自行在家研讀經濟解釋，既省時又省錢。
Dear students, how much econometrics do you still remember after one summer? I know you have not learnt models other than OLS, but dummy variable, heteroskedasticity and omitted variable bias are all very basic. Many of you do not even understand the meaning behind OLS estimated coefficient and p-value.
Data analysis is one of the only few subjects in the undergraduate economics curriculum that demands studying in school to learn. You can pretty much study everything else at home by yourself.
閱讀風氣不再？
我的感覺是現在很少人在公共地方閱讀。以前坐地鐵、在快餐廳，總有人在拿著書卷，現在則只有拿著手機。理論上手機不一定令人減少閱讀—手機既有Kindle和iBook，網上也有大量免費讀物—但在香港我著實很少看到人們這樣做，有的只是打機、whatsapp、Facebook和看片。
人們喜歡做甚麼別人當然管不著，但最少對學童來說，光是閱讀學校要求的書本是遠遠不足。培養個人內涵以外，從功利的角度出發自學能力也是成功的重要因素。
On Promoting Veganism
如果我以右邊的漫畫來反對吃蔬菜，相信大家只會覺得我是瘋了。但有些素食主義者卻常以左邊的一類宣傳手法來反對吃肉。
在一個火雞能開口談論感恩節的世界，粟米當然也可以有眼耳口鼻。
火雞是生命，粟米也是。
有人會說火雞是較高等的生命，但人類的等級豈非更高？如果雀鳥可以吃粟米，人類為何不能吃肉？
我一向都覺得要推廣素食主義，最強理據當是資源使用效率與環境保護。訴諸道德根本行不通。
If I try to argument against eating vegetables with the comic on the left, people would probably find me ridiculous. Yet some veganism promoters still believe comics like the one on the right work.
Turkeys are as likely to talk about Thanksgiving as corns have eyes.
A turkey is a life, so is a corn.
One might say turkey is a much higher form of life, but then human would probably be even higher on the scale. If birds can eat corn, so can humans eat turkeies.
I always favor the environmetal efficency argument for veganism, for the moral argument really does not work.
以後特首作的決定若不依專業意見，再不合理都可以用「行會及 XXX 是兩個機構，不可能每次都有同樣的考慮結果」來做解釋。特首非民
So the Chief Executive, who is not democratically elected, can do whatever he wants, free to disregard professional opinions of statutory bodies as he wishes. Hong Kong is now a dictatorship in all but name.
Fix WP-United white screen/HTTP 500 error on WP3.6/phpBB3.0.12
I encountered the white screen today while uniting WP 3.6 and phpBB 3.0.12, which only appears when user intergration is turned on. The problem is caused by WP and phpBB both having a validate_email() function, causing PHP to throw a redeclare error.
Soluton: validate_email() is actually deprecated on WP 3.6, so you can simply delete or comment out the ‘validate_email’ function in [wp-includes]->ms-deprecated.php.
貪小便宜
這樣的事我親身經歷過—在台中的一家酒店坐升降機時遇見任賢齊，家母第一個反應就是「影相！」，完全沒考慮到人家一身裝扮明顯在放假中。還好同行家人都明白這是很沒禮貌，場面才沒有弄得尷尬。
上一代香港人貪小便宜的實在太多，真心希望我們這一代會做得比他們好。