Back to the Ex

Lance is no longer the 7 time TDF Champion. Is he now a 7 time ex-champion? Is he even a 7 time TDF participant? There has been a few retroactive title-stripping recently. Does it make sense? Can an NBA star get a court order to prevent an ex-gf from using the title soso's ex-gf? Would the court be more persuaded if the ex-gf was "enhanced" during the relationship? How about vice versa? If an heiress dated a star athlete but later find that the professional athlete status was achieved thru enhancement, can a certain title be "stripped"?



Thompson is no longer the CEO. Can he be retroactively stripped and not allowed to be ex-CEO? If your youtube video, at one time, held the top daily views title, but achieved that success using a promotional technique that was later deemed "unfair enhancement", could you be stripped of even a one-hit wonder title?



If Lance did not win the TDF 7 times, did he lose it 7 times? Does the disqualification put him in last place, or "did not finish"? In either case, can he claim that 7 time feat on his status page? Althought its not really a team sport but there are teams. What titles do the team retain. Can UCI dictate that the team deny Lance a "former team member" title? Can other teammates still have a profile status like "former team member of multiple TDF winning team" without specifying Lance or the year.

Golden Mission Statements

Service is our goal
...and we have the top goalie

Keep Paterno Statue

Joe Paterno's statue should stay as a reminder of what is possible when priorities are wrong. It should be a required stop for all visiting athletes to put their endeavors into perspective. It's representaion in the minds of decent persons is obvious now. There need be no asterisk or additional epilogue added to the statue, because the chapter with Sandusky should be re-told verbally from generation to generation. Keeping the shame fresh on everyone's mind is the best way it doesn't again tomorrow, day by day, one day at a time. Penn State and its extended community can return to greatness the rightful, honorable way--by admitting its mistakes prominently.

Experts - Where We Need Them, Where We Don't

Expertism can become an occupation on its own. Like celebrityism. In certain fields, we need professionials to passionately acquire as much knowledge and experience as possible to become experts. In others fields, we don't. We don't need experts high flying experts who may in the future, make it his/her crusade to save a dying field or technology.

Cancer research -- we need experts. Video game critics -- we don't. Geology yes. Campaign fundraising no. School teachers yes. Auto mechanic no. In some fields, we only need competency, not expertise. Farmers yes. Computer programmers and techs no.

Retarded Version Numbering

Which has more retarded version numbering convention: Video games or Java SDKs?

Weights and measure should clamp down on computer industry

Accurate measurement of weights have been recognized as important in trading and commerce for centuries. Ironically, it is only in the computer industry, where pinpoint digital precision is possible, that accurate measurement of data bytes capacity and usage are soooooooooo blurry. It started out simply due to convenience/laziness in the coindental closeness between the metric kilo and 2 raised to the power of 10. But marketers have exploited this fuzziness to incredible ranges and regulators should step in.

http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/

Back from Vegas

We went to Las Vegas over spring break. Vegas is offering more and more attractions outside of the strip. We even skipped some of the off-strip spots we visited in previous trips. I'm really a big fan of the Asian malls and food courts of Las Vegas now. Asian spots have really grown from the small Chinatown of 10 years ago. For outdoors, we drove to Valley of Fire which is a beautiful treasure at a reasonable driving distance. We checked out the new Steak n Shake at South Point, which is a kids favorite.

The dragon is coming: Dancers ready for cultural celebration | Recordnet.com

We took part in the parade and festival for Chinese New Year in Stockton.
The dragon is coming: Dancers ready for cultural celebration | Recordnet.com

China 2011

Took the family to China over winter break and had a great time. Only 10 days, but just enough for the kids to love the experience. Hit the major tourist spots: Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Terra Cotta Warriors, and the Bund. Ended up with a private tour for just our family. Special thanks to our tour guide in Beijing, Michael Zhang, for adjusting the tour to meet our needs. We were very lucky to encounter great weather (considering it was winter) and not only staying healthy but enjoying the food.  

What does bluetooth mean to Apple?

There are a bunch of bluetooth file transfer apps in the App Store. All of them scan to pair with iPhones, iPods, and iPads ONLY. They will not pair with Macs nor Androids. The first bluetooth app I installed immediately paired with a Mac using standard bluetooth pairing protocols. Seeing the same scanning popups in all the iPhone apps leads me to believe this is an iOS or device limitation, and not due to developer code. Does Apple consider bluetooth as unworthy as Java? Is Apple using their Goliath status to favor mobileMe/iCloud?