春日

Ah, the makes me ! The air smells like freshly cut grass and the breeze feels like a cool silk scarf.

I wonder if the weather in England today was as great for the royal wedding—35 years in waiting! Though certainly not a fairy tale, it's an incredible love story, don't you agree?

Battle of the Brains

Congrats to 上海交大, the 2005 World Champions in the 29th annual ACM-ICPC. It's noteworthy that no American school (despite a large presence of nearly 20 teams participating) placed among the top 10 teams this year while no Indian team has ever won a gold medal. Canadian (Waterloo), Northern (KTH and NTNU) and Eastern European (Moscow and Wroclaw) teams have been consistently formidable in recent years. Could this portend a future trend in IT outsourcing?

Blogger Bugs

So I am not alone in experiencing recent problems with Blogger. However, it surprises me that Blogger is now considered as a utility. I have great sympathy and respect for the Blogger crew who have to endure unwarranted abuse while providing a free service for so many people from all walks of life worldwide. It's hard work.

La Vida Robot

An epitome of the Chinese adage—"人外有人，天外有天", this story of four underdogs quickly draws my encomia for their teachers, whose dedication is exemplary. While I applaud their achievement, I can't believe that these kids need cash donations to attend college in the US. There are so many generous scholarship opportunities available to international students. I think that talent alone is usually the only ticket necessary to the best private schools in America.

Ellipses

An ellipsis indicates an omission. However, spacing and punctuation guidelines of its usage are not clear. Hereafter until enlightened otherwise,

• I will place both a space before and a space after an ellipsis within a sentence. Example: I will place … within a sentence.
• I will retain whatever punctuation marks that precede or follow the omission for clarity and precision. Example: However, … clear.
• I will insert a space after an ellipsis and then a period if the ellipsis occurs at the end of a sentence. Example: I will … .
• If the words that precede an ellipsis constitute a grammatically complete sentence, I will place a period at the end of the last word and a space before the ellipsis. Example: I did. … I do.
• I will place no space between an ellipsis and parentheses, brackets, or quotation marks. Example: (… it …)

When in doubt, I will not use ellipses.

Memo to Self

I learned the following from recent news of the Pontiff's death:

camerlengo

the cardinal in charge of a papal conclave (to elect a new pope)

novemdiales

an official nine-day mourning period during which papabili (literally, popeable) may campaign for the papacy

Habemus Papam

We have a Pope.

In nomine Patri

In the name of the Father

I wish all my Catholic friends a good pontificate ahead.

Lucid Confusion

It is interesting to read the different responses to my problem report.

Believing that newer is better, I installed the latest cygwin release on Sunday as soon as it became available. I first noticed the bug after lunch on Monday. I then carried out some tests to verify that it's a bug in the release. I was (wistfully) hoping that others would've complained because reporting a problem takes some efforts. To my surprise, I found no report on this bug in the cygwin mailing list till bedtime. Reluctantly, I sent my report. Within minutes, CGF politely requested details. I was more than happy to oblige. Almost instantly, I was admonished (by someone else) for my bad report. Feeling slighted, I went to sleep. After getting up this morning, I was delightfully surprised to learn that CGF had a possible fix. I immediately installed the latest snapshot. However, to my dismay, the bug remained. Trying to be a responsible user, I reported again. Since I was haphazard in filing the report, several people then discussed the nuances of how to report a problem, despite that CGF announced another fix!

Lesson: always follow the guidelines when collaborating.

Clear Obscurity

Programming Perl makes me succinct. The more expressive a language is, the less keystrokes in coding.

REBEL

I first came to know the REBEL ensemble last spring when they gave a stunning performance of Vivaldi's works in the magnificent Kiggins Hall on the beautiful campus of Emma Willard School. Tonight I was fortunate to attend another concert by this enchanting group, named after the innovative French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel.

Aptly titled An Angel's Voice—The Legend of Farinelli, the program began with excerpts from Georg Friederich Händel's Alcina and ended with an aria from his Flavio. A countertenor (Derek Lee Ragin), accompanied by two violins (Jörg-Michael Schwarz and Karen Marie Marmer), one viola (Peter Bucknell), one cello (John Moran), one bass (Anne Trout), and one harpsichord (Dongsok Shin), delighted a rapt audience for over two mesmerizing hours with musical selections from Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Torelli, Johann Adolf Hasse, Riccardo Broschi, Tomaso Albinoni, and Nicola Porpora.

Without a conductor before them, I am fascinated by how the six instrumentalists communicated among themselves throughout the concert via a simple eye contact, head nod, and hand gesture here and there—all very subtle and precise. Their perfect coordination led to highly sophisticated and expressive strings, thus making a memorable night.

Assorted Smileys

A Summary of (My) Frequently Used Emoticons^*

Facial Expressions			Human Interactions
	(6)	Devilish		(?)	Age, sex, and location
	(A)	Innocent as an angel		(F)	A single rose
	(H)	Hot/cool		(K)	Kiss
	*-)	Thinking		(L)	A heart besotted
	+-(	Sick		(N)	Thumbs down
	8-)	Eye-rolling		(U)	A heart broken
	8-D	Seething teeth		(W)	A wilting rose
	8-|	Nerdy		(X)	Girl
	:'(	Crying		(Y)	Thumbs up
	:-#	Don't tell anyone		(Z)	Boy
	:-$	Embarrassed		({)	Boy hug
	:-(	Sad		(})	Girl hug
	:-)	Happy	Nature
	:-*	Share a secret		(&)	Dog
	:-@	Angry		(#)	Sun
	:-D	Grin		(*)	Star
	:-O	Surprised/shocked		(@)	Cat
	:-P	Tongue out		(R)	Rainbow
	:-S	Confused		(S)	Moon
	:-|	Disappointed/stern		:-[	Bat
	:^)	Don't know/unsure	Misc.
	;-)	Winking		(%)	Handcuffs
	<:)	Partying		(8)	Music
	^-)	Sarcastic		(E)	Email
	|-)	Yawning		(G)	Gift
Food and Drink				(I)	A bright idea
	(^)	A birthday cake		(M)	Instant messenger
	(B)	A mug of beer		(O)	A ticking clock
	(C)	A cup of coffee		(P)	Camera
	(D)	A glass of Martini		(T)	Telephone
				(~)	Film

^* Emoticons in each category are quirkily sorted by their respective ASCII values.