Finals

I have been preparing for my eight consecutive final exams these days. Therefore I probably will not be around to write articles until mid-May. If you are lucky enough not to be a college student faced with pending exams and papers (or you happen to be a genius in tackling them), you can entertain yourself by reading my past posts and other blogs listed in my Blogroll. Also try South Park if you possess the humor, starting with this one.

Use Proxy to Download Free Music

To further my post on March 30 about free music download from Google available in China, I now introduce you to a method to access these free clips using a proxy server when you are outside of China, smartly suggested by Nelson. Here is a blog post about how to set it up, and I would not repeat it. I tried with IP address 210.51.52.227 (port 8080), and it worked out quite well.

Something worth noting are that you have to use a server located in China, and you also need to know Chinese to read the Google China website (I don't know whether Google Translate works well here). One last thing: Don't expect this download to be speedy.

If you would like to investigate more on how to find http/ftp music download, also watch this video on YouTube.

Image by *iFatma.

Firefox Personas

Persona for Firefox is an add-on to Mozilla Firefox that allows users to install light-weight themes changing instantly at the user's command. It does not change the buttons' and toolbars' shapes and arrangement but only the background picture of the interface (under the default theme). If you frequently refashion the look of your Firefox and are tired of the heavy loads many themes exert on your browser, you should give Personas a shot.

The Persona I am currently using is Firefox B created by Mozilla.

China's Human Rights Plan

China released its first national human rights action plan on Monday.

The official Xinhua news agency said: “The government admitted that ‘China has a long road ahead in its efforts to improve its human rights situation.”’

I do not know how profound this plan will eventually achieve, but the admission of China's human rights situation by the official news agency is by no doubt a great improvement.

Quotes from the Last Lecture

The Last Lecture by Prof. Randy Pausch has been a most popular book worldwide for a while, and it has excellent reasons to be so. I am glad that I took time to read it. It gave me insight into life that may take decades for me to discover myself. As it is about life in general, I would like to recommend it to everyone.

Pausch, Randy with Jeffrey Zaslow. The Last Lecture. New York: Hyperion, 2008.

Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something. (p. 79)

Want to quickly dispatch telemarketers? Hang up while you’re doing the talking and they’re listening. They’ll assume your connection went bad and they’ll move on to their next call. Want to have a short phone call with someone? Call them at 11:55 a.m., right before lunch. (p. 109-110)

Take a time out. It’s not a real vacation if you’re reading email or calling in for messages. (p. 110)

Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think. (p. 111)

If you’re putting people on the moon, you’re inspiring all of us to achieve the maximum of human potential, which is how our greatest problems will eventually be solved. (p. 133)
My remark: That is called positive externality.

Complaining does not work as a strategy. (p. 139)

Meet over a meal if you can; food softens a meeting. (p. 143)

And talking louder or faster doesn’t make your idea any better. (p. 143)

When you’re frustrated with people, when they’ve made you angry, it just may be because you haven’t given them enough time. (p. 145)

Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other. (p. 151)

Hard work is like compounded interest in the bank. The rewards build faster. (p. 156)

I’ve always admired people who are over-prepared. (p. 160)

If I do something, what’s the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? (p. 160)

Honesty is not only morally right, it’s also efficient. (p. 163)

If you can find your footing between two cultures, sometimes you can have the best of both worlds. (p. 171)

If you want something bad enough, never give up. (p. 174)

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask, and it can lead to all your dreams coming true. (p. 179)

A Socialist Party

The popularity of socialism in U.S. is growing. Maybe it's time to have a Socialist Party there.

An old lady in a park

This was my answer to an in-class descriptive writing exercise.

It is late autumn. Withered leaves depart their year-long home, jubilantly dance in the air, and silently rest themselves on the ground, paving a golden road glistening under the bright red sun, surrounding the tranquil lake in a park filled with peace.

A lady in her eighties rambles across this golden road, with the help of her cane held in hand. Her forearm trembles with her walking stick when every step is made. The fallen leaves crack under her feet, moaning to the terminal of their brief life.

The wind breezes, lifting the leaves on the ground up in the air, while pulling more away from the dry and thin branches. The breeze also dishevels the old lady’s already ill-kempt silver hair; she shivers to the unexpected coldness, as does the slack wrinkled skin on her face.

She looks up, her brown eyes filled with fatigue. Her two lips are of light pink color. They open up, and close again. The lady tightens her dark blue long-sleeve, standing still as a sculpture.

The Helios loiters to the west, the sky darkening as it goes. The surface of the lake is now as golden as the roads covered with fallen leaves. The old lady is too tired to walk any more. She finds herself sitting on a park bench glowing with its newly painted bars. She closes her eyes, and breathes deeply to smell the fragrance of the sunset. She listens, enjoying the harmonious though sorrowful symphony of the wind and leaves.

She falls into sleep, with the ever bright sun fading away from the western sky.

Swapping the Currencies

China is walking their talk. Time reports:

In the past two weeks, China signed multibillion-dollar currency-swap agreements with Indonesia and Argentina that effectively allow Beijing's two trading partners to bypass the dollar as a medium of exchange. The deals followed similar swaps China has hammered out over the past six months with Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea. The combined value of the various swaps — which enable the central banks of China's trading partners to sell yuan to local importers to buy Chinese goods — is nearly $100 billion.

However, without free trading of the yuan and fluctuations of its value, it is difficult for countries to benefit from holding the Chinese currency, hindering the government's aim to make it a world currency. The yuan still has a long way to go.

Is voice mail obsolete?

Via Marginal Revolution. For some, voice mail is losing its allure.

Well for me, I hate talking to machines. Nowadays there are so many communication devices to choose from, and if it is not an emergency, people would probably send an email or leave a text message instead. But when they think the case is important enough to be made through a phone call, a machine instead of a person answering is probably not very pleasant to most. Personally I would rather people see the missed call from me, and call me back in person (if they think I am worthy for them to do so).

Is it possible that the oil price boom caused crisis?

Why not?
And if that is the case, OPEC owes the world even more.

Dale Carnegie Workshop: Time Management

Below are notes taken on a time management workshop offered by Dale Carnegie and held by the School of Business of HKBU.

Resources: Time, Cost, Quality
Priority: Study, Family, Future Opportunities, Girl/Boyfriend etc.
Proper Planning: Direction and Perfection

1. Define Scope: Should-be; 20% (of time)
2. Devise Plan: Goals, Action Steps, Cost, Timetable; 50%
3. Implement
4. Monitor, Modify, and Loop: Implement; 3 & 4: 15%
5. Closure
6. Evaluate
7. Celebrate; 5 to 7: Follow-up, Management; 15%

Get hold of your own time and your own life.

Book recommendation: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

GRE Vocabulary

It took me almost two years (June 2007 - March 2009) to go through all the GRE vocabulary in the Red Bible (a GRE vocab book that every test-taker in China uses). Now the mission is finally accomplished. Up to now I have learned the some 7,000 selected words in that book around eight times each. What I need to do in the future is to review and review and review. Try to keep a good memory until the day of exam.

Free Music from Google (A Public Good)

Google is now planning to offer legal free music downloads, this time only China. One may wonder whether Google will expand this service to the world. It is legal and free at the same time! Why not allowing all to enjoy such great benefit? Google has already changed the way people search, read, and probably even think. Why not the way to get music?

Quotes from the Conscience of a Liberal

Here are some quotes I made from Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal. The reason why it is such a short list is not because of the book is lack of insights (in fact it is full of them), but I usually do not have a marker with me when I read (I usually carry a book with me everywhere).

If technology and globalization are the driving forces behind rising inequality, then Europe should be experiencing the same rise in inequality as the United States. (p. 140)

Republicans cut taxes on the rich and try to shrink government benefits and undermine the welfare state. Democrats raise taxes on the rich while trying to expand government benefits and strengthen the welfare state. (p. 158)

The rest of the reason why the American system works as well as it does is that the great majority of Americans who do have private health insurance get it through their employers. This is partly the result of history – during World War II companies weren’t allowed to raise wages to compete for workers, so many offered health benefits instead. (p. 224)

I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it. (p. 267)

You’re a liberal, whether you know it or not, if you believe that the United States should have universal health care. You’re a progressive if you participate in the effort to bring universal health care into being. (p. 268)

Krugman, Paul. The Conscience of a Liberal. London: Penguin Books. 2009.

A Leap for Liberals

The State of New York will raise taxes amounting to $4 billion annually from millionaires in the coming three years, as New York Times reports.

'Blog-post'?

I've just discovered that 'spot' in 'Blogspot' is an anagram of 'post', as in a blog post. Did the founders of this service notice that?

South Park: The Economy's Only Son

This is the first time I truly understand the essence of a South Park episode. Here for the full video.

Why I am not going on an exchange program

As people have been asking me this these days, and sometimes it is difficult for me to recall all the reasons I thought up last semester, I now jot them down here.

1. I want to minor mathematics, which is crucial for my further studies. If I'm going on an exchange, this plan will conflict with #2.
2. I definitely do not want to delay my graduation; I don't want to be too old when I can finally commence my career. If I'm going on an exchange, this plan will conflict with #1.
3. I still have chance to receive overseas education in the future.
4. I do not want to again spend weeks adapting to a new environment while alternatively I can use this period to concentrate on my pursuit.
5. I hate to move around with my bulky luggage.
6. I currently have a girlfriend here. (Ignore this if you are not her. By the time I made the decision upon exchange, I had not even met her yet.)

Why the prices of textbooks in U. S. are so much higher than in Hong Kong?

Yesterday Elvira raised this question to me. In Hong Kong, we are blessed to have those international version textbooks costing around 300 Hong Kong Dollars each, substantially lower than the same textbooks sold in U. S. Exchange students from the States here are often surprised at the price difference.

As I googled on the topic, a paper written by Cabolis, Clerides, Ioannou, and Senft bumped into me. According to their research based on comparative data from book markets in U.S., Britain, and Canada, the price differences do not result from cost differences, but different market demands.

Textbooks are adopted by professors but paid for by students. This gives rise to an agency problem: one individual (professor) is acting on behalf of another (the student) without bearing any cost relating to his action. If one is willing to accept that professors in the US care less about how much students pay than professors elsewhere, then agency might explain observed price differentials.

Actually I have even encountered professors in my university saying that, only if you are rich enough to comfortably afford the textbook, there is no need to buy it.

Besides, copyright enforcement is also pointed out to be a possible explanation. I am not familiar with the situation in the three concerned countries in the research, but in Hong Kong, it is very common for college students to use photo-copied textbooks.

Although the data cited in the paper does not support the hypothesis of secondhand market playing a significant role, it could be an explanation to the difference between Hong Kong and U. S. According to the articles I read on the topic, secondhand markets for textbooks are very popular and common in the States; however, in Hong Kong, as I experienced, very few students would sell their textbooks after use (which may be a little more common, though, among the mainland China student community in Hong Kong universities). When buying a new textbook, if the student has the expectation of recovering part of the price paid after the use of a semester, he or she probably would care less about the price, thus pulling a higher markup in price.

Of course the tuition difference also explains. A typical three year college education (in the British system, equivalent to a four-year undergraduate education in U. S.) in Hong Kong would roughly cost only that of one year in America. When paying some twenty thousand U. S. Dollars for their annual education cost, a few hundred dollars for textbooks would be marginal towards American students.

Mathematics and Economics

Having written Statistics and Economics a few days ago, I never intend to make this a series of Whatever and Economics articles. However it just happened that today I made a comparison again between economics and another subject.

I used to think that in mathematics, unlike economics, there are some facts that need not be substantiated by assumption, e.g. one plus one always equals two; while in economics, no basic fact exists. Even the very fundamental descriptions are essentially assumptions. When we say that, by receiving more dollars, Tom would buy extra ice creams, we have to assume ice cream is a normal good, i.e. the increase in income raises the consumption of ice cream for Tom. (He can actually choose to consume less if the substitution effect prevails, basing on some assumption.) Actually most economic questions require models on much more complicated and specific assumptions than this example.

Nevertheless, as I was trying to explain my opinion upon religious beliefs to a friend today, I used the example of one plus one equals two, and immediately I found that this is so not a fact. Instead, it is an assumption, one that is so widely used and applicable when explaining most, if not all, questions that require an answer to 1 + 1, that in most cases no alternative assumptions would be needed. That is to say, the behavior of consuming ice creams could be so possibly divergent when different individuals are faced with an increase in income or consumption budget, but possibly no phenomenon requires an answer to one plus one, other than two, to be sufficiently explained.

Therefore it seems that both mathematics and economics are based on assumptions that are unnecessary to be true, and probably the same to any theoretical studies.

Photo by UniqueO Mania♥