LDN x TPE

Coffee explorer Macau edition

2015-05-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

I've been exploring Macau, and I'm slowly coming up with a list of great coffee shops here. So I've decided to share them with anyone that is interested!

This is a work in progress, but I'm using the google "My Maps", so if you are visiting Macau, you can add it as a layer to your google maps and see where they are as you navigate around :)

The important point is that all of these places, you can order easily (or at least pretty easily) using English!

Stars are recommended places, X is avoid this place.

Link to the Map

A.I. Pushing Neural Networks

2015-03-28T00:22:00.002-07:00

Pushing neural network technology with further inspiration from cognitive neural science. Is copying the human brain really the future of artificial intelligence?

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/532156/googles-secretive-deepmind-start-up-unveils-a-neural-turing-machine/

As AI becomes more prominent in the media as something that is really happening, is easy to miss where it's really being used on a daily basis. But first, we should think what exactly where and what we call artificial intelligence. Back in the 70-80s-ish, the world went crazy for this idea of AI, and governments etc. Threw money at researchers who made grand promises of thinking machines, without really thinking what this would really entail to actually pull off. Needless to say they didn't succeed even remotely on any of those promises. Fast forward 40 years or so, scientists are still tackling some of the problems which were initially considered trivial, and even solved a few - although the solutions are indeed elegant they are far from trivial. Today we can look from the outside in at the world of machine intelligence and see AI still in research but more commonly being referred to in a much more reserved way as machine learning.

So from here let's look to see where machine learning is being used. Social media - every time you log on to post that picture of yourself last night getting "omg I was so drunk last night" a little machine learning algorithm is wittling away to learn your trends to better sell you pepto bismo.

Google translate, you may think that this is some cleverly programmed system which knows lots about the syntax and rules of every language. No, its basically a machine learning system which looks at lots of examples of existing translations throughout "the internet" and gives its best guess as to what that bizare status update by your international friend is really about and what you're missing out on.

But what's the point behind all this, well I put to you, our curent vision of thinking machines, is far from here. And if it does arrive, how will we use it?

Fiction has endlessly mused over this, I grew up with star trek the next generation, where data, the android who wanted to be more human, was continuously fighting for his rights to be seen as - for want of a better word - 'alive'. This is a conversation I've had with many a very intelligent person. At what point do machines become 'alive'. At this point I'm sure the more religious of you are throwing some doctrine at your monitor (iphone screen) screaming heresy. But please for a second have an open mind.

We as the inventor, engineer, scientist have an amazing power to create and destroy. But I mean this biologically. We do, create (potentially) a walking talking machine made of biomass, the thing that separates us from machine is the material we are made of. Many of us swoon and flail at the sight of an animal being abused (myself included). But this beast of flesh pales in comparison of intellect to (some) humans. Arguably they just act purely on instinct, with human traits simply imposed upon them by our own desire to have a relationship with something warm and cute. So we can say they lack intelligence.

OK OK I hear you say, but pigs are pretty smart and dolphins have a brain which is potentially more advanced than our own. But what about chickens? Here the meat eaters amongst us will say they are pretty stupid, so okay let's use them how we want.

So we can probably say, that chickens are "stupid" enough to do what we want with. But still... They are "alive".

How about insects, would we ever argue that the insect is alive? How about if I told you, there is a robot which is smarter than an insect. More cognitively development than an insect. That's not too hard to imagine right? (I will point out that really even today this does not exist).

So I put the robot and the insect together, and I ask you, are they both alive?

At this point I'm expecting you to be shouting no at your screen. Maybe even cursing my name to hell.

I won't blame you for saying that. But how about I give you a hypothetical situation. The reason why we say the insect is alive and the robot is not. Is that the insect is made from hydrocarbons and the robot is made from (probably) silicone and plastic.

Let's pretend for second that we can 3D print with organic matter (not so far fetched BTW), and some very talented scientists make the same robot using organic material. And it has the same if not better intelligence of the insect. Is it alive?

This is a question for philosophers to muse over in a few hundred years time when it will begin to really matter, for now it is merely a point of academtic intrigue.

I for one am on the fence, is consciousness something which is quantifiable and measurable and creatible. Or is it something more than the sum of it's part. And even if it is creatable, should we dare or care to grant this creation the same rights and position is we grand our organic counterparts.

Should we live in fear of this potential creation, or will we truely create the perfect slave?

Writing in Mandarin an e-approach

2015-02-20T04:05:00.003-08:00

Having recently upgraded my computer to windows 8, I also decided to figure out how to type in Chinese on my PC. I've been writing simple sentences for some time on my android device, but never really figured it out for my PC.

So let me explain some of the problems encountered and solutions I've found for these:

Typing with the Pinyin system but using traditional characters

So for me, by far the easiest method to use to learn Chinese has been the Pinyin system, it uses characters I already recognize and assigns symbols to the tones. But out of the box, not many Pinyin input systems allow for traditional character output.

Android

For my android device, I've tried many different input methods, now remember this is specifically for Pinyin with traditional character output. If you want to use simplified character output there are a lot more options with Pinyin input.

The best keyboard I have found so far has actually been the Google pinyin input keyboard, you can set it up so the keyboard will switch between languages with a single button press - which is very handy. Unfortunately depending on your device, you may have a stock keyboard which can get in the way of this (you can always solve this by rooting your phone to uninstall it using something like titanium backup, but I will not have anything to do with trying to explain to you how to root your phone so don't ask me^^ ).

Windows 8.1

So.... I played around a bit with this. And eventually thanks to this really great resource Pinyin Joe, found the perfect setup for myself.

First I wanted to have my OS switchable to traditional Chinese but also use the pinyin input. To achieve this there are two options. The second I found to be the best for me, but both have their merits.

Option one

Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR) language pack combined with Chinese (Simplified, China) language pack.

To do this, use windows key + s and search for language ("add a language" should appear). Click this and you should see the screen below.

From here click Add a language, navigate to "Chinese" and you will see three languages available. Install the two language packs:

Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR)

Chinese (Simplified, China)

This will allow you to have your OS in Traditional Chinese and be able to type using Pinyin.

Now we need to configure the input. return to the add language screen, and click on options for the Chinese (Simplified, China) 中文(中华人民共和国), then the options by Microsoft Pinyin Input.

You can see that there is an option for traditional Chinese character set.

The nice thing about this option:

It can easily switch between English and Chinese input by pressing shift or ctrl (I suggest ctrl or every time you make a letter uppercase you'll switch input) So you can pretty much never have to change your input method.

The input method "looks nice", see below, you can clearly see the available characters.

How ever this leads to the issue with this input method, you cannot specify the tone, so if the character you actually want isn't within the viewable list, you have to scroll to find it.

The bad side:

I don't know much about character encoding, but it seems there is an issues with the encoding method for traditional Chinese characters that this method uses. So it's actually better to use the Microsoft Bopomofo IME method. If you don't care about this and you will never actually have to send any documents etc to a business client, then the previous method should work just fine.

Asia bound.

2015-02-18T16:55:00.001-08:00

So, (next week) last week (I'm taking) I took a flight.

A flight that is quite possibly the beginning of the end of my current life. The beginning of a new one.

I will (should - fingers crossed (now confirmed!)) begin studying in Hong Kong for the next 4 years.

I don't know when I will go back home.

But I know that I will change, and my life will forever be enriched from this experience.

Seoul - sleepless city!

2015-01-30T05:47:00.003-08:00

There are many places that can claim to be cities which never sleep, but Seoul was probably the first place that really felt that way.

I visited Seoul for a few days to see some old university friends, and also to make some new friends. My buddy was starting his military service so I think he was definitely ready to show me the nightlife of Seoul during his last days of freedom... Lucky me!

許多城市都自稱不夜城，但首爾是首個讓我覺得名副其實的不夜城。
我到訪首爾數天，見了老朋友，也認識了新朋友。老朋友正準備當兵，幸運的我得以在他仍保有自由之身時由他當地陪，見識了首爾夜晚之美。

So what do I think of Seoul... I love it, probably on the list of my favourite cities, but not without a few caveats. So I was staying in a pretty international part of the city, next to a U.S military base no less, and certainly it had a real international vibe, especially while in itaewon - the so called international town. Here the population was easily over 50% international residents with lots of American accents to be heard. But even here there is a real feeling of knowing I'm a foreigner and us-and-them.

Overall It was a great time with many friendly people. Apparently when I try to say thank you it sounds very funny, because every shop keeper had a little giggle afterwards :D (maybe I'm just super cute)...

I digress...

So the first place I visited was a cat café, even with my unnatural love of the feline species, I've actually never been to a cat café, so I was pretty excited! And this place only slightly disappointed me... But not in the way you would expect. The cats were lovely, and they clearly really looked after the cats, but I guess I was hoping for a better actual cafe experience. Which to be fair is expecting a bit too much.

首爾在某些前提下，屬於我鍾愛城市名單內。我住在首爾較為國際化的區域－－離美軍基地僅數步之遙，在此人口大半是來自全球五湖四海的人們，美國腔四處可聞。即使這樣，我在這裡依然有種外來者的感覺。

我到埗後第一站就去了一家貓咖啡，貓兒被照顧得很好，也很友善，但或許我以一般的咖啡室要求去檢視這間貓咖啡，我想是我要求太多了。

CAT PICTURES

The cats... Were too cute, and being a cat owner for many many years I know the secret to attracting cats. While the other café guests were not having my luck, I ended up with two cats asleep on me... What's my secret... Well.. That's a secret ;)

Lots of toys and things for the cats to jump on

First of all this guy arrived, had a short petting and then fell asleep :D

Then this little guy joined for a warm nap!

I couldn't really move ^^

So this cat cafe (Y cat cafe) can be found here [Their website], just remember to take your shoes off before you go in. When I arrived I was greeted by very friendly staff, luckily they spoke English, but the system is pretty simple, just pay for a latte which costs around £5-6 (depending on current exchange rate ofc) and then sit with the cats!

They have some other rules about not picking the cats, no pulling tails... etc.... but its all pretty obvious. I think you can buy some treats for them but I wasn't able to riddle out how to ask for it - and to be honest I already had my two minions so I wasn't bothered :D.

He looks like he's part of my T-shirt hehe

Now enjoy some more pictures of the cats, tune in next time for talk about food and soju bombs.

Hello World!

2014-10-07T08:09:00.001-07:00