今年聖誕節連續數天的假期，其實都是拍拍燈飾逛逛街這些「例行」動作，不過比較特別的是今年我參加了 GBA 的 Christmas Carol 團。
今次的 Christmas Carol 是蠻趕忙的，主要是沒有時間練習，因為 Chivas 和向古巨狂呼兩個 Show 令到 Simon (團長) 無暇出譜練習。
Unix folklore: using multiple sync commands
There is persistent bit of folklore in the Unix world that you shoulddo several sync commands before shutting down or rebooting a Unixmachine. Even today, you'll see a lot of people following thisfolklore, generally using ' sync; sync; sync '.
People who do this irritate me, because they are doing it wrong and ina way that makes the whole folklore ineffectual.
The sync folklore dates from the very old days when Unix was primitiveand two things were true. First, the sync()
三字頭聽三字頭
今年其實沒有心情聽歌，已經很久沒有像以前一樣認真地聽一張唱片，更不會不停地聽同一首歌捕捉那首歌的感覺然後寫一篇感覺相同的小說，今年我只有在一個人駕車時才能較像樣的聽歌，不過還是有一張唱片是不必刻意感受
A thought about free software licenses
It's recently occurred to me that one way to think about the GPLversus BSD/MIT licensing issue is that they are embodying twocompeting bits of psychology: people want to share their work and haveit widely used, and people don't like being taken advantage of.
(Although it may be surprising, there is quite a bit of evidence thatwe are in some sense wired to feel strongly about 'unfairness' and topunish it, even at a cost to our own interests. Psychologists havedone
讀書的時間和空間
今年我讀過一篇很動人的訪問，就是以下由“網絡與書”總編輯郝明義訪問詹宏志的文章，我也一度是書不離身的人，但相比於詹宏志，我還是不夠勤力，也不夠認真。我欣賞他讀書的態度，也有著和他相近的脾氣──不喜歡問
災難
洪荒：毀滅，推倒重來。
沒有禮物的聖誕，公眾假期，凌晨五點醒來，電腦突然開唔到機。打唔到俾人叫幫手。一個還未下定決心做論文的人突然被剝奪做論文的權利，情況馬上逆轉為搶救論文檔案，可謂冰火五重天。經自行查
沒有禮物的聖誕，公眾假期，凌晨五點醒來，電腦突然開唔到機。打唔到俾人叫幫手。一個還未下定決心做論文的人突然被剝奪做論文的權利，情況馬上逆轉為搶救論文檔案，可謂冰火五重天。經自行查
火鳳燎原
一年將盡，回顧今年讀書成績，結論是買的多，讀的少，實在慚愧。
這一年是生命中最忙的一年，俗事繁多，壓力特大，有好多次幾乎撐不下去，加上身體不好，整個人都活在壞情緒中，沒有倒下去，是福大命大，但也十足驚險
Thinking about a closure confusion
Consider the following Python code, which is a very simplified versionof certain sorts of real code that people write:
ll = []for i in range(1,10): ll.append(lambda z: i+z)print ll[0](0), ll[8](0)
A lot of people writing Python code like this for the first timeexpect to see it print '1 9', when in fact it prints '9 9'.
What I think
你用甚麼中文輸入法？
從美國回流香港的同事見我霹靂趴喇在打中文，好奇問我究竟是用甚麼輸入法打中文字，難不難學。我理直氣壯地告訴她：我地廣東人呢o下，用o既當然係廣東話輸入法啦！然後她又問，不是應該學倉頡輸入法，才較正宗嗎？
卑微的事
世貿迄今，我眼紅過三次。
一是17日下午剛到示威區，一位韓農被擔架車抬出來，蓋著臉部。我吃驚：「點解要咁呀？咁少人！」
二，是14位人士第一次被提堂當晚，囚車走了，我們以為曲終人散。卻有一位韓國女示威者，
一是17日下午剛到示威區，一位韓農被擔架車抬出來，蓋著臉部。我吃驚：「點解要咁呀？咁少人！」
二，是14位人士第一次被提堂當晚，囚車走了，我們以為曲終人散。卻有一位韓國女示威者，