Google Date Centres: inside the campus network room, routers and switches allow Google's data centres to talk to each other. The fiber optic networks connecting Google's sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home internet connection. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling. Image from Google, Caption from news.com.au
Google Data Centre, Georgia: These colorful pipes send and receive water for cooling Google's facility. Also pictured is a G-Bike, the vehicle of choice for team members to get around outside the data centres. Image from Google , caption from news.com.au
It was definitely a rarity for us non-Google employees to go inside the Google data centres to have a look-around, not any more, because Google has put their data centre on Street View and you can now move around quite freely in and out of the building.
And look what I've found in the building!!!
A Super Secret Stratgic Power usage effectiveness (PUE) Plan
Image from Google
A Stormtrooper from Star Wars with mini R2D2
Image from Google
Google staff get candies everywhere!
Image from Google
Table tennis and pool for relaxation
Image from Google
Very careful reminder
Image from Google
People with actual faces on Street View, not easy to find
Image from Google
Another rarity is this rare octopus that comes with a shell which turned up in the nets of a fishing boat off the coast of San Pedro last weekend. It is now staying at San Pedro aquarium and has attracted attentions since then. For more detail, do read the article by NBC.
Next up, researchers have found a rare Japanese Otton frog which uses its Wolverine-like retractable spikes for mating and fighting! Hm... so mating and fighting are similar stuff? Just as violent, maybe?
The Japanese Otton frog -- with Wolverine-like retractable spikes
Image from Mail Online
Sharp and Pointy
Image from Mail Online
Wolverine with retractable claws
Image from empireonline
I do think that this Japanese Otton frog cannot be described as "cool", that's for sure!
Green tea is good for health
Image from tumblr
Last but not least, WedMD Health News adds more clues to how green Tea can help prevent or slow the growth of prostate and breast cancer. Their findings show that Green tea, which is high in polyphenols -- an antioxidants that protect against cell damage, lowers the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) which is produced by the prostate gland. Another green tea extract called Polyphenon E, may slow down breast cancer by affecting substances called growth factors which are involved in the signals that tell breast cancer to grow.
Can you see the prostate gland?
Image from weisshospital
Care for a cup? Grab some this weekend and start drinking!
Vocabulary: rarity -- (n) [C or U] something that is very unusual, or the quality of being very unusual retractable --(adj) formal can be pulled something back or in
Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,100 ft
Image from guim.co.uk
There are definitely a lot going on these days, some extremely exciting, some you might not even notice, hence the title of this post.
First off, Austrian Red Bull jumper Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere at a world record height of 39,045 metres (128,100 ft) or just over 39 kilometres (24 mi) and landed on Earth's soil again safely. He took this risk-taking culture to a height never before!! It was absolutely breath-taking even watching the video clips, madness!!!
This jump really made his own jump from Taipei 101 look super easy!
Some people are asking why there is still gravity at stratosphere, well of course there is!!! Although less than a person is at sea level, Felix still experienced gravity at that height. Think about it, how can there be tides if the moon's gravity isn't affecting the movement of the ocean? There is still gravity even in outer space!! Not hard to see if you still remember this formula from secondary school,
Image from Wikipedia
Image from FOX
Second, America's favourite family The Simpsons is back on TV in the US for another season, but it was not always liked by everyone.
TheFW has an article titled 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘The Simpsons’, Fox television wanted to kill The Simpsons family in the early days, luckily, that never happened and now we can still watch this yellowish family today.
Image from Scott Olson, Getty Image
Former First Lady Barbara Bush didn't like the family that much back in 1990 and told People Magazine that The Simpsons "was the dumbest thing I had ever seen". What happened after that?
Image from FOX
The FW reports,
Soon after the interview hit the stands, the White House received a personalized letter from Marge Simpson addressed to the First Lady. Marge admitted her family wasn't perfect but she told Mrs. Bush that she still tried to instill humility in her children and “believed in my heart that we have a great deal in common. Each of us [is] living our lives to serve an exceptional man.” The letter so moved Mrs. Bush that she wrote a response apologizing for her remarks and complementing Marge for “setting a good example for the rest of the country.”
This 24-season Simpson's culture isn't any cartoon can compare!
Then as I was reading off some news from Google News, I ran into a really interesting website which talks about the things that people often missed out when they watched movies, and that website if ZergNet,
Image from ZergNet
It has many intriguing topics such as
10 Superheroes Who Really Don't Need Their Own Movie,
Top 10 Most Paused Movie Moments,
The 10 Biggest Movie Mistakes,
The 19 Best Movies That You Didn't See in 2011,
The 10 Most Gruesome Deaths In Film, etc.
Everything you really can't miss reading! If you want to get some topics for chats, this attractive website is the place to spend time on. Highly recommended!
Finally, in football gaming culture, there is Football Manager 2013 which will be on the 2nd November!! I have been waiting this since FM 2011 because I didn't play 2012, this upcoming version is definitely something I won't miss. Football lovers who want to taste the feeling of management, buying and selling football players, this is a game you can't live without!
That's all for today!
Vocabulary: first off / first of all -- before anything else stratosphere -- (n) [S] the layer of gases surrounding the Earth at a height of between 15 and 50 kilometres, which is not affected by the weather and in which the temperature increases with height breathtaking -- (adj) extremely exciting, beautiful or surprising madness -- (n) [U] the state of being mentally ill, or unable to behave in a reasonable way, also means awesome instill -- (vb) (-ll-) UK (US instill) to put a feeling, idea or principle gradually into someone's mind, so that it has a strong influence on the way they think or behave humility -- (n) [U] the quality of not being proud because you are conscious of your bad qualities
I am a total shark lover as many of you know, I don't eat shark fins or any other shark products, I educate others to love sharks and protect sharks, but how did all that love begin?
Originally written by Peter Benchley, JAWS was the novel that attracted then-27-year-old direction Steven Spielberg and turned it into a summer blockbuster in 1975. Audience around the world were horrified by the shark thriller and marked an extremely negative image of sharks in their minds like a scorch mark on the face.
Except for me. I just fell in love with sharks in first sight.
I just think they are extremely beautiful animals of the sea -- so powerful yet so gentle when they swim, so streamlined and smooth yet so rough and fearsome when hunting, so lonely yet so sociable, so complex their characters yet so unique in every individual; some eats seals, some eat whales, some eat human trash, some eat nothing but as tiny as planktons.
Not sure if Peter Benchley knew he had created love for sharks for people like me, I think most likely not, but definitely what Peter Benchley didn't know was that his story, after being blockbusterised by Spielberg, became the very root reason of decades of mindless shark massacre. He himself was extremely upset after he discovered that his novel and the movie he co-screenwritten brainwashed the world, thus he went on to write many non-fiction works to educate and advocate shark conservation.
Discovery Channel celebrated Shark Week 25-Yrs and one of the episodes How JAWS Changed The World talks about exactly how a single movie changed the destiny of an entire species of fish, both in good ways and horrible ways.
One of the few good ways not known to many, was that the movie which eventually drove many people to maniacal shark killing was also the movie that sprung up the occupation of marine biologist, thanks to the character of Matt Hooper. I also dreamed about becoming a marine biologist one day, I still do, but for the living, that dream has to wait.
Long-fin Blue Sharks
Image from The Fine Art Print Gallery
How JAWS Changed The World is a must-watch for anyone especially for younger generations. The future of the sharks, the oceans and human race depend on the them. The show tells many sides of the story by adding the latest scientific researches and findings on sharks, correcting many misconceptions and even unravelling mysteries about these apex hunters that has lived since the age of the dinosaurs. Highly recommended!
Footage seen at the end of every House M.D. episode
Image from House M.D.
Finally, I have watched the movie JAWS over 100 times in my life, sometimes twice a day when I was a child, this is how much I love sharks. But the last time I watched it was probably 15 years ago. It was only till yesterday when I watched it again that I found out exactly what every line in the movie was actually saying. To my surprise, I also discover the origin of the line "That's some bad hat, Harry!" which I hear every time when an episode of the drama House. M.D. ends.
Image from JAWS
And this is really cool! I never knew that this line was in fact from JAWS.
No Trading, No Killing.
Vocabulary: blockbuster -- (n)[C] a book or film that is very successful, especially because it is exciting a book or film that is very successful, especially because it is exciting scorch -- (vb) [I or T]to (cause to) change colour with dry heat, or to burn slightly plankton -- (n)[U] very small plants and animals which float on the surface of the sea and on which other sea animals feed decade -- (n) [C] a period of ten years, especially a period such as 1860 to 1869, or 1990 to 1999 mindless -- (adj) disapproving stupid and meaning nothing massacre -- (n) [C] an act of killing a lot of people advocate -- (vb) [T] to publicly support or suggest an idea, development or way of doing something conservation -- (n) the protection of plants and animals, natural areas, and interesting and important structures and buildings, especially from the damaging effects of human activity maniacal -- (adj) describes a cry or laugh that is loud and wild unravel -- (vb) [I or T]If you unravel a mysterious, unknown or complicated subject, you make it known or understood, and if it unravels, it becomes known or understood apex -- (n) figurative the highest point or most successful part of something
In today's lesson, my student Tommy asked me a nice question and it is worth a lengthy article on the English Playground.
In FORMAL writing, we often see the structure " In / At / Of / On / For / From ... Which", most of the time they are easy to understand when reading, but not so simple when one has to write like that.
Let's begin with the ACTIVE VOICE, since they are easier to understand. My examples will be casual ones for your easy understanding.
eg. ParkNShop is a supermarket which sells various products.
I guess no one will have trouble with this sentence.
1) ParkNShop is a supermarket in which you can buy various products.
In this case,in which is the same as WHERE, and we can understand this because we also say "in a supermarket"
2) ParkNShop is a supermarket at which you can do shopping.
Again, because we also say "at a supermarket", so we can use at which and it has the same meaning as where once again.
Thus, from the previous examples, we can easily see 1) and 2) are transformations of the sentences, "You can buy various products in a supermarket such as ParkNShop" and "You can do shopping in a supermarket such as ParkNShop".
I'm not promoting for ParkNShop, just use it because it sounds more familiar to our Hong Kong readers.
____________________________________
Moving onto "of which".
To make it obvious that I'm not promoting ParkNShop, here are some new examples,
eg. 3) There are many fruits for sale. All of whichare/isoverpriced.
You can see of whichmeans THEM or THOSE.Areis more common than is.
4) There are many fruits for sale. Some of whichare/is rotten. Areis more common than is.
Same as 3).
5) There are many fruits for sale. One of which is banana.
Same as 3) and 4). 6) There are many fruits for sale, of which the cheapest is banana.
Same as "the cheapest of those is banana."
____________________________________
Moving onto "on which","for which" and "from which",
The basic rule of grammar still stays, which means that on, for (in fact, with in, at, of)depends on the SUBJECT.
eg. 7) The day on which I lost my wallet was the day I went to do my grocery shopping.
Same as "that" or "which".
8) My desktop PC had been a tool and a friend for which I am grateful.
Same as "I am grateful for my desktop PC as it had been a tool and a friend to me".
9) The country from which I came was at war all the time.
Same as "I came from a country which was at war all the time".
A point I must emphasize is that this list is NOT at all exhaustive, other possible usage will hopefully be covered in another entry in the near future.
Vocabulary: overpriced -- (adj) too expensive grocery -- (n) [C](UK alsogrocery shop, US alsogrocery store) old-fashioned a grocer's from groceries [plural]the food that you buy in a grocer's shop or supermarket exhaustive -- (adj) complete or thorough
In my last article, I never mentioned the iPhone 5 camera flare problem, mainly because it was actually a really minor problem. It is a mistake in terms of hardware design but it is nothing that a software update (iOS 6.1 or 7) cannot solve. No big deal really!
But Apple decided to turn a small deal to a BIG DEAL.
Image from 9to5mac
No one can help Apple if they want to make a fool of themselves, taking photos at an angle or shielding light with your hand, what an irony!!! How to take good photos without good lighting? Long-term solutions, dude, not short-term palliatives.
So sorry for those guys who like to include the sun, bright light, reflections in their photos, because iPhone 5 is not going to allow that kind of photography. Light iPhoneography bye bye.
Image from Gizmodo
Now, getting people to pay big money for your sub-par iPhone 5, fine; denying and normalising the problem, bad bad bad; implying that the users are holding the phone wrong and shift the blames to the users, unforgivable!!!
A camera must be capable of taking any photos no matter where the user points the camera to, otherwise, it is simply unqualified. Asking the users to perform certain maneuver to avoid the problem is laughably ridiculous! How on earth can Apple even allow this kind of answers from their customer support? Don't they know this is going to earn them a very poor reputation? Why not just go into the root of the matter and say "we'll be rolling out a fix in the next iOS update very soon to remove the magenta flare"?
Another public apology waiting for Tim Cook.
Vocabulary: shield -- (vb) [T] to protect someone or something irony -- (n) [U] a situation in which something which was intended to have a particular result has the opposite or a very different result palliative -- (n)[C] formal something that makes a problem seem less serious but does not solve the problem or make it disappear sub-par -- (adj) worse than the usual or expected standard: normalize -- [I or T]to return to the normal or usual situation maneuver -- (n) [C]a movement or set of movements needing skill and care laughably -- (adv) from laughable -- (adj) silly and not deserving to be seriously considered
I used to have a strong stand as to why Android is better than iOS, and why Android devices are better than the Apple devices. I used to think people should all switch to Android devices, but now I'm happy to say, I no longer think the same. I have learnt to appreciate Apple more and the importance of having Apple in the smartphone industry. That doesn't mean I have switched away from Android or Samsung, I will still choose Android or Samsung over iOS or iDevices, but good things must be appreciated, and here's my new perspective in this technological smart mobile tug-of-war.
"People see what they want to see." -- Gregory House M.D.
If you remember that in an earlier article, I posted a video of Americans actually given an iPhone 4S while being told it was an iPhone 5 subconsciously thought the "new" phone was better, lighter and faster.
Some may think that is really funny to watch, but being capable of implanting this idea in so many people's heads, Apple had to do some miraculous marketing in order to reach this level of mindset altering. Creating Halo Effect is easier said than done, but Apple managed to achieve this with immense success.
The iPhone 5 has been mocked by many as being nothing special but longer and harder; the Apple Map was so terribly inaccurate that Tim Cook has to publicly apologise;
the design cannot be distinguished even if I look at the 4S and the 5 side by side, I even think the longer-yet-not-wider iPhone 5 looks laughable,
Which is 4S and which is 5? No cheating with the connectors!!!
Image from Locky's English Playground
The box of iPhone 5 is the best iPhone box design since iPhone! I have always disliked the earlier versions of box design, so dull, so flat, the phone's so over-enlarged, so non-minimalist, but I really like the iPhone 5 box this time as we finally see the entire phone at an angle, the shading, and the larger white background, truly minimalist for the post-Steve Jobs iPhone. Two thumbs up!
Good points must be credited.
Sharp's new 443 ppi 5-inch smartphone displays on show at CEATEC 2012
Image and caption from Engadget
But at the end of the day, why do I still choose Android over iOS? I'll reserve my answer for a little longer, but XDA Senior member Zedomax has some of my keys reasons (from 3:50) for liking Android much more.
And here's my answer now.
If you like giving more than taking or if you are someone who long for freedom, you will naturally like Android because Google Android allows sharing and the freedom of making changes as most of the codes are open-sourced. Everybody can own a copy of the software code and modify it, change it, make it fit your personally needs.
Various Themes for Android devices, install as apps
Image from Google
We Android users need not know anything about programming but yet we can do whatever we want, however we want with the Android devices we own with a few simple taps on the screen. When we go out to the streets, we compare our phones and see how UNIQUE they are in every aspects: icons, themes, layouts, sounds, live wallpapers, speed, even hardware such as metal cases and skins. We like to be different, we want to be different, we enjoy being different, and at the same time, we enjoy the right to be different. Android allows us to do all these.
Various Custom ROMs
Image from blogdoandroid
We Android developers hack our phones for love and for fun! We root our devices, play with customization, install custom ROMs, change kernels, select voltages, overclock them to push their performance to the maximum, and many more. We develop amazing ROMs, kernels, apps for the devices we love, always help out each others' technical needs and share our work with the Android community to create new software that has and will continue to rock the world! The most important thing is, anyone can be an Android developer and anyone can make a difference in the Android world because Google welcomes creativity at the base level.
Apple's doesn't.
Resurrection Remix Custom ROM
Image from Westcrip
Image from Naver LINE
We don't want limited creativity, or creativity that is build upon what is permitted by a company. We don't buy the concept of having just one way to create things -- the Apple way, we want the freedom to explore, the freedom to make changes to something we own, the freedom to simply say "NO!"
That's my answer.
I'm not saying iPhone is not good. I have grown to appreciate iPhone 5 more than ever in fact, because speed wise and design wise, it is really really good! No doubt about that.
I just think this argument between which is better should not go beyond the personal level.
I think iPhone users should love their iPhone for their preferred reasons and Android fans should learn to understand that love, sometimes, just doesn't need an explanation. The iPhone fans, on the other hand, should also realise that not everyone on this planet are satisfied with what has been presented to them while at the same time being told that "this is the best, you can't get anything better than this" and be controlled by that forever, because then there won't be any self-improvement, there will only be spoon-feeding and blind obedience.
Finally, as a summary, iPhone is good for most common users because Apple does a good enough job for those who doesn't need customization and are happy with the given default elegance, whereas Android phones are more suitable for advanced users who likes tweaking ROMs and kernels, adding new things to make his device truly unique.
Hey, the devices that you own really do tell your personalities, don't they?
Vocabulary: tug-of-war -- (n)[Cusually singular] a type of sport in which two teams show their strength by pulling against each other at the opposite ends of a rope, and each team tries to pull the other over a line on the ground implant --- (vb) [T] to fix ideas, feelings or opinions in someone else's mind miraculous -- (adj) very effective or surprising or difficult to believe altering -- (n) from (vb) [I or T]to change something, usually slightly, or to cause the characteristics of something to change easier said than done -- informal said when something seems like a good idea but it would be difficult to do laughable -- (adj) silly and not deserving to be seriously considered undeniably -- (adv) certainly true resistant -- (adj) not harmed or affected by something game-changing-- (adj) minimalist -- (adj) belonging or relating to a style in art, design and theatre that uses the smallest range of materials and colours possible, and only very simple shapes or forms
