Happiness is good pill

Well I guess that can be name of a food dish in China. Wonder what it translates from...

I've been studying Chinese on the slow. 5+ weeks with 9 hours class a week.

Economics

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/spending-and-growth/

So Japans economy is growing because they are rebuilding their country. So their economy has "positive growth". Counties restraining themselves have negative growth.

Yes! So what? Seems economist always thinks spending more money its better. Is it? Well to grow there economy yes. But does it really mean the country and its citizens are getting richer, which seems to be the underlying assumption? Probably not... That would mean that collective wealth could be created by hmmm. Demolishing your own cities... Hmmm.

I think it's rather that some few people are reaping a lot of money and others are borrowing. Unless the government is printing money, which probably could be justified in this kind of case...

forth: max

Hmmm, in implementing MAX in forth returning the biggest of two number from the stack, there might be several solutions. The simplest and most straightforward is something like:

: max over over < if swap else then drop ;

Not using any type of if/branching/skip instruction it becomes more interesting. Using abs is one possibility http://www.retroprogramming.com/2009/06/implement-min-in-forth-without.html but abs is implemented often by branching (?) and isn't a very primitive first forth word. Instead one can use the fact that conditional less than "<" return 0 if false and -1 otherwise...

Using only simple operators I came up with this, it's kind of overly long but...

: max over over < dup 1 + rot rot * negate rot rot * + ;

3 4 max .

-> 4

4 3 max .

-> 4

I guess one could use < to implement abs similarly and use the simplier definition in the link above, but abs becomes:

: abs dup 0 < 2 * 1 + * ; 

77 3 - abs .

-> 74

3 77 - abs .

-> 74

ok, so then using this abs which isn't too fanicful define min instead (max require an swap somewhere)

: min over over - abs - + 2 / ;

3 4 min .

-> 3

4 3 min .

-> 3

--
.sigh

Minimaker fair in shenzhen

Hong Kong botanical garden and zoo

I like the pixelation effect off the grid fence of the American flamingos.

Old people in hk

Hong Kong is a strange place. Old people continue working. Most people work 6 days a week. Most singles wouldn't be able to pay for their own apartment. 30-40 square meters is normalish size for family upto four people.

A person from China, who by no means are rich commented on the fact that so many old people work in Hong Kong: shouldn't they be in the park walking a dog or something. In China you take care of your parents. The children are the retirement. In Hong Kong which on surface looks like modern society on many ways is seemingly stuck in the 50ies. People in China usually work only 5 days.

Cake

Giant Buddha

At top of the big stairway is the giant Buddha statue. Can you see it? At this time of year it is very foggy on lantau island. Tonight I'm staying over at a temple here. Had a delicious dinner made by the Vietnamese monk.

Shenzhen

Many people say they don't like Shenzhen. I think most are from Hong Kong. I think one can choose to think the worst of something if one wants to but I always enjoy...

Tea in the park

Just some day in Shenzhen. It's just s bus ride away... Some parts of hk is further away.

Freezing in Hong Kong!

All is relative...

Happy holidays - software engineering definition

So just now talked with a friend. He very busy at work before the holidays. Some Chinese business close for like 10 days...

"Yeah. Is funny. We work hard to finish something before period of time where nobody is going to use the result of what we have done!"

I remember one incident where we worked really hard and looking hours to finish something before end of June - the European part of project wanted it badly before that date. Delivering on time. I sent the result to the developer who wanted it. The automatic email response was that he had just gone on vacation and would be back a month later!

Wuhan, hubei

Not far from my hotel there is a street where there is a cluster of stores making gambling game machines. One instance caught my eye. The machine with a baby on front and a baby emerging from the innards of one machine.

As always waking around in China you see people making things! I think it's very exciting. You don't need to make everything in big factories, like in the west...

High speed trains in China

Over the last few years China has built high speed trail network including new stations. They might feel more like airports than old style train stations. There has been criticism that these are built while not needed. Somehow I doubt that. The trains I've seen are almost always full. Arriving at a station you might have to wait for a free train. All normal trains are full too, so the need is there. And the Chinese travel a lot. Often got like up to 30 hours on normal trains. The biggest issue is that high speed trains are expensive to take. In some cases like flying. On the other hand ticket prices are fixed. Either the ticket is available or not. You get what you pay for. Flying on the other hand is a gamble - you never know how much you're going to pay!

Btw the construction of train lines are happening faster than the plan. Because the put more money to it. In the West it seems opposite - its always delayed and cost more than expected.

Fire in the hall! Arsonist?

It's that time of year again...

Confusism/taoism and Buddhism burn papers symbolically. No worries. Just in the fire stairwell. Chuckle...

Business idea

... replicate bad translated Chinese signs and sell them in English speaking countries...

This sign I found cute and poetic. Wonder what the Chinese actually says?

Solution to earth's over crowding...

... Is civilization! As people get more "civilized" the birthrate goes down. This happens eventually also to immigration from less developed areas. This is interesting in as much that or society are growing because of agriculture "civilization" that feeds more becomes more efficient and whale feeding yet more people!

It's according to Bertrand Russell that following rules and suppressing our acting on inspiration reduces our zest (innate happiness). The opposite of zest is grey and boring and possibly calculated. And also lacking in communication with earth. When did city dwellers last escape their cities? People who visit Hong Kong, Singapore, London, nyc may think it would be limited to just stay in the city. But when it comes down to it most are pretty content with staying put once there.

People damaged by wars find it difficult to directly return to civilization. Unnatural. Or, ahum, very different from the mind while fighting wars. They're best rehabilitated by working in a farm. I wonder of this is just a middle ground of urban civilization? Just a preparation?

A friend I meet during my travels got tired from staying in hostels. At first he displayed on his blog the pride of being able to "work-on-the-road" doing consulting. In the end he worked less than before. Had more money than before and traveled to see different places! What was lacking? I think a bit of home longing, a bit of unstableness. Now he's back in his home country to "get rich" or at least try to start making a money making machine. In order to travel again. With less impediments?

I notice that very rich people like to live on already furnished places. Or even so. Really rich people may have very "nice" admirable homes fill of simplicity. People visit and say wow! But if one looks closely one notices that it is devoid of personal details...

I often feel at home in somebody elses lived in home. It's homey and personal. Wonder if one easily could travel like that? I guess bed and breakfast once was this, before becoming institutionalized. Apartment exchanges may provide the same, as in limited extent the couch surfing and airbnb but mostly they'd be lacking in that you are still a guest with the host present.

Sanya - Chinese Hawaii...

Well. It's warmer than Shanghai. But my hotel's bed is killing me. Too hard. I like hard beds. But this us too hard. More common in south China. So I'll move to a hostel tomorrow. It's not private and bed is small. But should be OK... Even though I'm only 300km from Vietnam/da Nang it seems impossible to go there, no ferry.

So will see where I go next. Many possibilities...

Possible to stay, but when your back hurts its difficult to think clearly first instinct is to leave. I could keep practicing my Chinese here...

Made me think of google...

... What do one miss the most? The food? The tech talks? Mostly the people. People who like doing things. Therefore I like hacker spaces...

Thinking about thinking

I'm thinking about to try to more practice not to think. Not to react blindly but more follow impulses. Take the moment when it happens. Some do it all the time, it comes natural. Others hesitate. I started hesitating. In creative terms that maybe could be called to be outside the zone. In Buddhist terms - not being present in the present moment. Not sure if this is so. Not sure if I do it more now again as I occasionally do more technical thinking. Does it supress other things? Is that what science and technical/engineering mind is? Maybe just my mind.

I'm aware.

I'll see if I can test this theory...

Over and out from Shanghai!