Camping

Awww... My roommate is going camping and I wish I could go too.

But at least some of my gear is going with him, like the sleeping bag, headlight and titanium spork...

Hopefully the gear will return nicely.

Dell desktop strange.

I managed to get my Dell to DDOS at startup.
I changed msconfig to kill some services and turned out I killed a required one. But it didn't start crashing immediately after changes.

I wonder if the Dell Windows 7 is locked down somehow. That could explain why the same changes work on my Acer laptop.

Ridiculous.

segmentation...

Segmentation problem
Once segmented, evaluate.

OR

segmentation as first level processing of visual data. output as tree, with observation parameters (HOW the environment was observed). With consistent observation method, assumptions can be made concerning meaning. (fair test principle)

AND

segmentation implemented as tree branching at many different points.

From thinking about Algorithms to thinking about AI

Thinking up algorithms.

This is the major aspect lacking in the CS curriculum in general. We are taught many examples, and while it allows some inductive learning, I don't think I have really mastered the art of writing algorithms. Sure we can understand them quickly after learning, but it's just amazing how great algorithms require a lot more thought to create, even if it can be stated in one A4 page.

We don't really know which path to go down and can only guess by experience. The rest appears to be plain hard work/luck/intuition. Following the frameworks of thinking will get you half the way, but there are intellectual hurdles that really differ in difficulty for different minds.

This all seems so similar to the P NP problem, where a solution can be checked very quickly, but getting to that solution takes exponentially longer.

In the context of programming, the issue is roughly equivalent to how some programmers always write less efficient code, use more memory/steps. Some people just don't look ahead so far enough to see the alternatives.

Refining and learning are integral parts of computer science. The only trick is to do that faster and more thoroughly and reduce repeating identical problems. And how do you learn faster? By making more, different mistakes while doing what you want to do. And that's probably the best thing a CS course should teach, especially to most students who are not gurus at what they do.

( Many CS students actually dislike programming and try to avoid such courses whenever they can, because let's face it - bugs can be scary and annoying. They directly mirror your thinking, of which they are a product of. They make you see what you don't want to face. I suspect most people don't want to see themselves as flawed and prone to error. It just doesn't seem to fit the self-image (and socially approved/generated image) of a professional, a "good engineer", or excellent student, or successful person. I find that too. It can be psychologically straining because your mirror image isn't what you want. )

The same philosophy should be applied AI. Instead of having to get the whole thing right from a top-down design to working prototype, working on efficient self-learning with minimal code should be the method. Allowing it to make mistakes and take chances, but having the capabilities to learn about itself and the universe. (And eventually defining for itself what a mistake is.)

But isn't this contrary to many applications that we want to use AI in, where we want them to be perfect, bug-less and infallible or else the mission fails? This is where the field of AI splits. On one hand we want predictable, correct behavior all the time, preferably proven algorithmically correct. On the other we want them to be as adaptable as possible and be autonomous and free, hopefully doing things we don't expect. I argue this division is mainly due to what we think the role of AI ought to be, what we want them to do and how we think about intelligence.

Do we want them to be like slaves to be commanded and made to serve, or free individuals?
(This has a lot to do with how we already see other people and objects in our environment. )

Yay, last assignment of the semester.

Having Complete the last programming assignment of this semester, I wonder what could be coming next.

Through these trials, I think most Computer science students have become better at coding and thinking accurately about practical problems. However, it's never going to be "enough" because the set of challenges are infinite and even though it's always those building blocks (eg. loops, recursion, types, parsing, data structures, algorithms), these sets themselves are infinite and subtle superficial changes in the problem lead to greatly different data structures and algorithms.

It's awe-inspiring.

I'm particularly happy with this assignment because it was really quite a group effort. I wasn't good at regular expressions, and this guy had studied it before. He taught me that, but he was also stuck on grammar rules. I figured those critical issues out (which were not even documented in assignment nor manuals), and we leapfrogged through to the finish line. I suspect either of us would have found it far less motivating and more troublesome if we did it alone.

That felt awesome and has defined a new standard/expectation of the software development process. I guess you make career decisions subconsciously then and there, whenever you are actually working on something challenging.

And soon, I will be doing the same in Singapore...

Keyboards and Typing.

I've realized that since studying computer science I've been unconsciously typing faster than before. I think it is like a 60% increase on average from around 40wpm.

And for some reason, the more I type, the happier I get. I enjoy the feeling of my fingers on a smooth light bouncy keyboard that sounds like rain on a plastic roof. I am particularly fond of DELL keyboards in general (but especially the newest versions, worn down by a semester of finger pounding by UST students). I dislike Lenovo keyboards because they have Chinese typing inscriptions on them that makes them really rough on the fingers with all the friction, and not being as crisp and light.

I like the thrill of typing quickly and subconsciously, especially when the code/English just flows.

Having said that I'm looking out for some better keyboard all the time. If it's really worth it, I don't mind having my own private USB keyboard.

Reading speed

After 1.5 years of college and 19 years of living experience of which I spent 5 years able to read sentences and paragraphs, I conclude there are only two speeds that people should read at.

1. Very Slowly
Reading so slowly (and out loud for comfort) that by the end of reading an incredibly difficult question, I figure out exactly how to do every step to solve it. Slowly is actually quick because you increase speed naturally while maintaining comprehension.


2. As quickly as you can:
For noticing particular things I want to think through. This can be at least over 10 times over the speed of slowness.

For reading the bloody newspapers. These days, most newspapers are generally full of blood-soaked news. I set the emotion behind and pick out the details very quickly.

Also things like facebook and slashdot comment sections. I find it sad that people can stare at their facebook walls for so long.

Other speeds are pretty much unnecessary and unworthy in the digital age.

Universal Grammar

While my mind is cooking on the syntax of Bison and Flex and scheme, I was browsing on the Universal Grammar.

Universal Grammar is a theory that argues there are common structural characteristics between all languages, and that human beings have evolved brain/mind mechanisms to deal with these structures quickly.

Right now, since I am working with parse trees, I would argue that the mechanism has to do with white matter, trees and hence grammar (To a male with a hammer, everything is a nail.). Here the definition of language is a subset that can be generated a grammar.

In defining a grammar, many substitutions are used. The trees are built by recursively substituting blocks. Computer scientists generally have to be brilliant at doing this on all levels, but they are not the only people who do this a lot. All definitions, sentences, words and all language grammars do this all the time. You can build trees out of all of this, and subtrees below that, and so on, until the trees wrap around themselves in loops and become graphs. (And then you end up with some ridiculous number like around 176,000km of interconnected white matter in my brain, which is around the earth three times.)

As animals with brains, we were born/equipped with many trees that when evaluated (or evaluate themselves), control behavior. These trees allowed increasingly sophisticated kinds of behavior, but they are usually hardwired and not highly adaptable.
As humans, something must have happened for us to be able to expose these tree building, extension, manipulation (eg. substitution operations), reading and evaluation, allowing us a higher degree of "self-manipulation" than arguably any other creature/thing (possibly except the electronic computers).

The problem now appears narrower and within current knowledge, as it is extremely likely whatever idea this is should already have been thought through and implemented.



To be Continued...

I think the trees are probably all preformed, but I suspect it is the ability to shift focus that makes the difference.

trees formed ->
initial hardwired focus directing programs controlling what to be conscious of / "pruned" ->
focus could be directed at the focus directing programs. How this could occur, not sure... ->
a model of the focus directing program can be produced. ->
the model allows organism to "hack" its own focus, enabling "self-interest" in something. -> Focus now has many degrees of freedom.

And then, we learn routines to jam symbols into words and manipulate them. How that is done remains to be seen.


...
I believe some people know this already and have better language to show it.

A mini tweet

This dead processor thing is one of those things that can make me really annoyed, apparently.

So unexpected and personal.

Life-Death wisdom

I think of days as a single lifetime. In the morning it is birth, in the afternoon it is middle-age, at 7pm it is retirement, at night the mind run itself out of power and stops wanting to interact with itself as energetically and blanks out. or the mind itself is tired of being in some hypnotic state putting on the Eugene act or HKUST student act or whatever act all day long and snaps out of it to retune itself to representing the universe in its default form.

What do I mean a lifetime? A state of self-consciousness that lasts until self-consciousness is not supported.

I think I think, therefore I think I am!

I think I think, therefore I think I am!
I think (I think, therefore I am)!

I don't think, therefore I am!
I don't think, therefore I am not!
I think, therefore I am not!
I think, therefore I am!

Getting in the mood.

Do you find it strange sometimes people find it difficult to get in the mood for something?

Is it the mind that's not in alignment or is it the task set at the wrong time? Which one should decide?

I'm not sure. The mind should be deciding what happens next everytime a decision has to be made. This means where the task is set depends on the mind. Putting that together, the mind is not in alignment with itself. (Assuming the mind can determine the task setting process)

Strange how the problem is gone after a bit of logic.

LOLOLOL!

Take a look at where those campaign contributions are coming from!

Notice where Mitt Romney is getting his money from! (Hint: All banks!!)

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contriball.php?cycle=2012

Some pretty cool test cases.

OMG

I met someone who did HKAYP expedition and Phoenix Peak on Lantau, exactly as we did, at around the same time. I thought that was pretty cool because she really didn't look like that type of person, but everyone can do it.

Which is somewhat a sad reminder, because one of my Dad's (and my) friends died quite quickly from septic shock (massive blood clots...) a few days ago, most likely and known to be due to the complications of cancer treatment. While he was in the terminal stages of cancer, he did his best to live.

I could go into the details but it was what I expected but never wanted to witness.

He was a dedicated hiker and photographer. I was planning future trips just recently.

OK, life is pretty weird.

One time my program works the next moment I face a bug I put in that is smarter than I am.

Stanford's AI course

www.ai-course.com

OMG LOL I don't know what to go for now.

Should I actually do the HKUST course or use this course, actually taught by the author of the textbook we'll be using??

It covers more topics too!

Pwned!

OK, I think I'll take both and have professor/TA help me out with both.

ReUnion

Meeting former classmates from SIS tonight was a wonderful feeling. (Not just because everyone got to see what each other was up to...)

It was so much of an affirmation. We talked and played with others that we would very rarely have met back in South Island School. I think we all felt a little closer to those people we didn't know so well before, because we were in different social groups. Looking back, that was a little lame but I guess that was part of the process...

(I had long dreamed of such a reunion a few years back, but I guess the vision was still ahead of its time. I'm glad I've now been in that vision.)

I wish we could have stayed a bit longer together but I guess we were tired, so we fell back into the woodwork we came out of, feeling a little more connected.

Dear Professor...

Dear Professor,

This course has been the best course I've taken in college so far. I now have an overview of science, art and innovation.
And in the world of structured outcome-based education, curiosity has been gradually replaced by school-enforced "discipline" or "if I don't do this (s)..." or "Is this on the exam...?"(s). Your course blew me away.

Now that I am heading back into the system I came out of for 4 weeks, I realize now what innovation, freedom of expression and life really meant and just why they are important. I figure that there is only one meaning of life and that is to live. I also found the meaning to I have the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. I either choose, or someone else will. If I don't make my idea work, someone else will make it work for their profit.

I think I'm going to miss this class, but then I also know that it's up to me how I want to live now.

Thank you for getting me to realize so much in so little time. I hope you continue to be passionately curious and creative. We live in interesting times.

Eugene.

POLL on Declaration of Independence July 4th 2011

Analysis:

Based on a Rasmussen poll, Ron Paul should be aiming to get at least a third of the total national vote, if not ALREADY.

With so many people who are seriously concerned with the future of the US of A and holding the declaration of independence to be true, there is great potential for the liberty movement.

If most people simply spread the message to a few others, the power is unprecedented.

The following article is from

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/june_2011/americans_still_agree_with_ideals_set_forth_in_the_declaration_of_independence

The upcoming Fourth of July holiday marks the 235th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption by the Continental Congress, and most Americans still agree with the central tenets of the document that declared the nation's independence from Great Britain. Whether the United States meets those lofty goals is subject to debate.

The Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, asserts that “governments derive their only just powers from the consent of the governed.” A new Rasmussen Reports national survey finds that 66% of American Adults agree with that statement, up 10 points from three years ago. Sixteen percent (16%) disagree. Another 18% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

But just 23% of Likely U.S. Voters think the government currently has the consent of the governed. Sixty-nine percent (69%) are at least somewhat angry with the current policies of the federal government, including 38% who are Very Angry.

Forty-five percent (45%) of voters agree with the following statement: The gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and politicians who want to rule over them is now as big as the gap between the American colonies and England during the 18^th Century.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on June 23-24, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Americans agree that “all men are created equal.” Eighteen percent (18%) do not. A year ago, 84% agreed with the statement.

Yet over half say America is not yet a land of equal opportunity. Americans tend to think their fellow citizens talk too much about race, but most agree that we have yet to achieve a level playing field for all races in this country.

Working Americans are more skeptical than ever that men and women are equally paid for comparable work, although women believe this more strongly than men do.

However, most voters (66%) continue to believe U.S. society is generally fair and decent.

Ninety percent (90%) of adults agree with the Declaration of Independence's statement that “we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Just four percent (4%) disagree.

But 53% of Americans now believe the federal government is more of a threat to individual rights than a protector. Only 47% think the U.S. system of justice is fair to most Americans, an eight-point drop from a year ago.

At the same time, voters appear less concerned these days with protecting individual rights when it comes to national security and public safety.
Men tend to agree with all of the Declaration statements more than women do. Eighty percent (80%) of men, for example, agree that the federal government derives its powers from the consent of the governed, but just 52% of women share that view.
Eighty percent (80%) of whites and 81% of Americans of other races agree that “we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” But only 63% of blacks agree. Similarly, whites and adults of other races are more likely than blacks to agree that “all men are created equal.”

There is little partisan difference of opinion, except with regards to consent of the governed. Seventy-three percent (73%) of both Republicans and those not affiliated with either major political party agree that the government gets its powers from the consent of the governed. Just 51% of Democrats agree.

Most Americans still believe the U.S. Constitution has a positive impact on American life and think it should be left as is. But a sizable number also feels the document does not put enough restrictions on government.

More Americans than ever see danger in a government that is too powerful as opposed to a one that is not powerful enough.

University

After 1 year of university, I conclude that the essential product of a university is not graduates or papers or research,
but the spirit people feel when they are in it.

What does your university feel like?

Dedicated CS students

The mentality of most Mainland CS students is just incredible. Most are experienced in at least 2 languages and there are quite a lot of people who have already written android apps. They do the most undergraduate level research and always want to do more.

It's awesome to know what capable CS students can do, because while I'm writing UI programs, they are writing GUI games.

Summer/Spring?

Who would have known that the chilly night yesterday would be the last night of winter?

Today the sun is out the fog has cleared and the clouds are puffy once again!

We await the first sound of thunder!

Bugs

Systematic bugs: Due to some misunderstanding of the syntax or grammar of the programming language.

Random Bugs: Your bugs that you didn't know about.
Defined as either problems WITH your thinking or problems that materialized from the process of turning thinking into code.

Problems with thinking just have to do with unclear thinking, or even misunderstanding your own thinking.
Problems from thinking to code have to be sorted out by making the process as transparent and traceable as possible without ambiguity, so that little issues all become apparent.

Debugging aids are not optional. They are actually necessary, yet in the coding frenzy we have to put everything down on the source files, we forget that we must be able to repeat all the thinking in its entirety. Now, some people are less prone to human errors, but given a long enough program, everyone will make errors.
Testing is useful only if you know what you're doing. While it closes the gap between actual results and desired results, it cannot be a substitute for transparency in the coding process.

Combining testing and the coding/documentation process gives you the ability to detect all types of bugs. If done perfectly.

Now, even documentation may fail, because even documentation may be wrong. In this case, we try to catch these errors early by debugging certain blocks of code completed. The time taken to find and fix the bug tends to be smaller in a smaller piece of code.

Printing everything out is a classical approach to detect run-time errors and if the program crashes, we get to know where it crashed.

I am trying to implement all this, starting with small coding projects.

These lessons were learned in a painstaking debugging effort, in which I know that these things are the minimum that must be done to make a program generally correct.