psychopyko

Reflection

2011-12-25T09:18:53Z

... we rarely take the time to pause, breathe, and think about what's working and what's not. There's just too much to do and no time to reflect.
~The best way to use the last five minutes of your day

Firstly... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Believe it or not, we are near the end of 2011. As the year draws to a close, it seems to be the time when we reflect on what has happened throughout the year - or at least I do.

A lot has happened in the past year for me - in some ways you can say it's been like a roller coaster ride. Some of the observations below are in some ways obvious, but I would still like to write them down here to share and to serve as a reminder for myself.

Things can change at a moment's notice - adapt to change when the unexpected happens
Appreciate what you have - don't take anything for granted
Friends are awesome - talk often, look after and care for each other
Take things as they come, don't worry too much - if it's happened, you can't change it; if it hasn't happened yet, it might not happen. Worrying won't do you any good.
"This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often" - Holstee Manifesto
Smile, be happy. Relax, enjoy yourself - not everything in life is all that serious, take time to have some fun

I feel it is quite beneficial to reflect on what you have learnt from things that have happened. The act of learning and reflecting on what you have learnt are two very different things. In my opinion, reflecting enables you to better understand what you have done right or wrong and allow you to improve.

Unfortuantely, I believe we rarely reflect enough - I tend to reflect sporadically, especially after major events. However, we learn and do so much on a daily basis, it seems like we should really reflect at the end of each day. By not pausing and taking time to reflect, it means we are more likely to repeat the same mistakes, or fail to repeat something we did right.

I am going to challenge myself to take 5 minutes each day to reflect over what has happened; what I have done during the day; anything I could/should have done differently etc, I challenge you too do the same.

Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Hope you will have all an awesome and memorable holiday with family and friends!

Puzzle is awesome!

2011-07-12T11:49:10Z

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... many CokeUnleashed coupons were collected to obtain the long sought after 1500 piece 'Coca-Cola' Puzzle. An unknown number of weeks later the long awaited puzzle finally arrived. Not long after it's arrival, two crazy friends took up the challenge to assemble it. After roughly five nights of sorting, colour matching, confusion and awesome fun the puzzle was completed Some photos for all to enjoy...

...if piecing together 1500 pieces wasn't enough, I was crazy enough to make a stop motion video. After approximately 5 hours, 270 photos later, some iMovie magic and awesome music knowledge from awesome friends...

Are we designed to detect cheating?

2011-06-11T12:23:41Z

If P, then Q. P. Therefore, Q.
If P, then Q. Not Q. Therefore, not P.
~Detecting Cheaters by Bruce Schneier

Detecting Cheaters has been on my "to read" list for quite some time now, but only got around to reading it a few days ago. I found it quite interesting, so going to give a rehash of it

Some of you may recognise the above as a 'logic statement', and to some extent it is fairly obvious. Associating the above with a concrete example may make things easier to understand.

If you forgot your keys, then you need to call the locksmith.

So in the example above, P='forgot your keys', and Q='call the locksmith'. Does that all makes sense so far? Let me introduce what is known as the Wason selection task. The concept behind this task is quite simple - you are shown four cards, each containing some form of information on each side (eg. one side will be about forgetting/remembering your keys, the other about the locksmith). The cards are placed so you see (face-up):

(a) Forgot keys
(b) Remembered keys
(c) Need to call locksmith
(d) Don't need to call locksmith

Your task is simple, determine which two cards you need to flip in order to confirm that the "If you forgot your keys, then you need to call the locksmith" statement is true. So, which did you choose, (a) and (c)? If you did, then you're wrong, but don't worry, you're not alone. (a) is correct. You need to check that if you forgot your keys, the other side of the card says "need to call locksmith". However, (c) is incorrect. The above statement puts no restriction on "you needed to call a locksmith, because of something", 'something' can technically be anything and the above statement still holds true. The correct answer is (a) and (d). In order to confirm the above logic statement, you need to make sure (a) is true, and (d) is true. (a) as aforementioned, and (d) because you need to check, if you didn't need to call the locksmith, then you didn't forget your keys; if the flip side of that card had 'forgot your keys' then it goes against the "If P, then Q" statement. In other words:

You forgot your keys. Therefore, you need to call the locksmith.
You don't need to call the locksmith. Therefore, you didn't forget your keys

Confused? Let's try again...

If you ate dessert, then you ate your vegetables.

So, how do you confirm this statement? How do you make sure that if your little sister is eating that delicious chocolate tiramisu, she ate her brocoli? Again you have four cards to choose from (I'll mix up the options a bit, and don't cheat by comparing with the above!):

(a) Ate dessert
(b) Ate vegetables
(c) Didn't eat dessert
(d) Didn't eat vegetables

Which two would you choose? If you were like me when I first read Schneier's post the answer might've just 'lept' out at you, (a) and (d). You want to make sure if your sister (a) ate dessert, she really did eat her vegetables; and that if she (d) didn't eat her vegetables she shouldn't be eating dessert! Now, did you get that right? or at least was that easier to understand?

If I explained things properly, then you really should've found the latter example much easier to digest. The reason appears to stem from the fact that the latter example is related to cheating. We seem to be more adept at figuring out if someone 'cheated', for example, if they ate dessert without eating their vegetables, compared to figuring out if someone called a locksmith or not because they forgot their keys.

What strikes me here, is that without any "training" we can easily distinguish one scenario from another, when logically they are equal. This seems to mean that we are designed to be able to pick out when someone is getting something they don't deserve or haven't earnt, I guess you can say we're all designed to keep the playing field fair. Interesting thing is, as far as I know this isn't the only thing we're hard-wired with. I remember in psychology, we learnt that humans can be taught to fear spiders more easily than say, a wooden chair. So somehow we learn to fear things that are potentially more dangerous to us more easily. Evolutionarily, this all makes sense. Making sure someone doesn't get all the benefits without doing the work. Making sure that we quickly learn to 'fear' what may potentially kill us. Though that makes me wonder, how many other things are we, as humans more prone to being able to accomplish, learn and execute?

Your inner voice?

2011-03-30T11:40:32Z

Not only could they not communicate, but they were left without a code to think in.
~ How Deaf People Think

This post is long overdue and thus it has been quite sometime since reading the article, but still something to think about. After reading this article, I realised that I had never quite thought of how one who has never heard sound would think in their mind. When random thoughts float around my mind, they are definitely quite literally a "voice" that is there blabbering away. It made sense that deaf people's inner "voice" would be how they normally communicate - sign language, but I still somehow find it mind boggling!

After reading the article, I thought to myself - what would I do if I did not have an inner voice? Would I still be able to think? I know this isn't the focus of the article, but the thought was probably triggered by the section about deaf people who were forced to communicate only via spoken language and therefore never really formed an inner voice. Luckily research has found that forcing deaf people to communicate exclusively with spoken language only is detrimental to their brain development.

It is good that with more knowledge people are (hopefully) not being forced to do something they are not naturally inclined to do. I for one cannot imagine not having an inner voice or some way to talk to myself and think in my head.

Windows to Mac (Part 1)

2011-02-10T11:39:01Z

Making the switch from Windows to Mac can be quite challenging. There are lots of small differences, enough to make it almost annoying to use a Mac. However, once you get used to using your Mac you'll probably find it odd when you go back using a Windows machine. So here are some hints and tips that will hopefully make your experience with Macs less frustrating!

Some common (but confusing) shortcut symbols

Using keyboard shortcuts efficiently is probably one of the most annoying differences you'll experience when you first start using your Mac. The drop down menus generally all have the shortcut combinations displayed, but the symbols can often be quite confusing.

(Command/Apple) - Think of this as the "Control" key for Windows.

(Alt/Option) - Think of this as the "Alt" key for Windows. The icon does sort of make sense... It's a path that is split... giving you an alternate option...

(Control) - Doesn't really map to a Windows key, just there so Mac can have lots of finger tangling shortcut combinations

(Escape) - Ok, this isn't a common shortcut key, but it does make an appearance every now and then.

Some useful, generic Mac shortcuts

For many shortcuts you can try replacing "Ctrl" (Windows) for "Command" (Mac) and it should still work. eg. ctrl/cmd+n (new), ctrl/cmd+c (copy), ctrl/cmd+x (cut), ctrl/cmd+v (paste). There are some shortcuts that are more Mac specific, here's a few that I find quite useful and you should be able to use them regardless of what program you're running.

cmd+space - Spotlight! (Super useful, I'll explain later)
cmd+tab - Switch between applications*
cmd+tilda - Switch windows within applications*
*Note: these both are equivalent to Window's "ctrl+tab", except Mac has the concept of an "active application" which is why you have "cmd+tab" to change your "active application" and then "cmd+tilda" to switch within the application itself.

cmd+q - Quits the current application
cmd+h - Hides the current application. Re-open the application by "cmd+tab-ing" to it, or select it from the dock. (I generally don't use this, but good to know if you accidentally hit this combo)
cmd+w - Closes the current tab (or window if no tabs) of the application, does not quit the application. (Should work for most applications)
cmd+shift+w - Closes the current window (ie. closes all tabs) of the application, does not quit the application. (Should work for most applications)
Note: Unlike windows, closing a window in Mac doesn't necessarily close (quit) the application. So hitting the red circle/cross on the top left of the window or using the shortcut combo will generally only close the window, not the application.
cmd+comma - Opens the properties/settings window for that application
ctrl+click - Simulates a right click (or if you're using a trackpad you can set two fingers to be 'secondary tap' under System Preferences > Trackpad)
cmd+alt+esc - Opens the 'Force Quit' dialog - similar to ctrl+alt+del in Windows.

Spotlight (cmd+space)

Spotlight basically allows you to quickly open any application, file, folder etc that is on your Mac.

Hit "cmd+space" and Spotlight will appear on the top right of your screen.
Start typing in the name of a application, file, folder etc you want to open.
See the results get displayed dynamically and use the up/down arrow keys to select what you want.
Hit "enter" and there you go!
Note: hitting 'esc' once will clear the text in Spotlight, hitting it again will close Spotlight

I've found Spotlight "learns" what applications/files you use most often, so you'll end up needing to type less

Another cool feature of Spotlight is you can use it as a calculator (eg. start typing in 2*21, you should see "2*21 = 42" appear as your first result). If you hit enter now, the calculator will open (unfortunately without the calculation you just entered) or hit escape twice to get back to whatever you were doing.

Mac specific applications

Many people will say that lots of software will only work on Windows, and they are probably right. However, you'll find that more and more programs are now compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Now, if Windows only software exists, there has to be Mac only software too right? Correct! So here are three Mac only applications that I find quite useful (all free of course)

Adium - A nice, simple instant messaging application that supports most of the common chat services (Google Talk, MSN etc)
Skitch - A cool screen capture tool that lets you take a shot of your screen (or part of it), draw/add text to it, and then share it online or save it to desktop (There is also a paid version available, but I think the free one is already super useful).
The Unarchiver - Somewhat like winzip/winrar combined - lets you expand compressed files (.zip, .rar, .gzip, .tar etc).
ps. if you still have a Windows machine, I recommend 7-Zip for expanding compressed files.

There is one other Mac specific application that definitely deserves a mention - Quicksilver. There are many people that will swear by Quicksilver, saying that it's super powerful and helps them use their Macs super efficiently - I've seen it in action and indeed you can do lots of crazy and cool stuff with Quicksilver. However, I found when I installed it, I never quite got past the "cmd+space, open file/application" use case, so I decided to just stick with Spotlight. Give it a go if you want, it's free too.

So that's Part 1 of my attempt to help those who are new to the Mac world. Part 2 will follow shortly (hopefully) and will contain similar random-ish pointers that appear in no particular order. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll attempt to help you!

Merry Christmas to all :)

2010-12-24T00:55:46Z

Believe it or not the end of the decade is just around the corner, in less than one week we'll be in 2011! So what has happened for you in 2010? Take a moment or two to think about it and I'm sure you'll realise tonnes has happened in the past 358 days. I know a lot has definitely happened for me this year, and being optimistic me, I would say most of it is all good

With only a few days of the year left, I think we should all relax and enjoy the last few days of 2010. Think of all the awesome things that has happened, the great people and friends you've met and all the amazing things you've accomplished. Albeit there may have been a few hiccups throughout the year, but let's ignore them and just think of the good stuff

So to all of you out there, I hope you all have a great Christmas, be sure to enjoy your holidays, relax, stay safe, be happy

Regarding Happiness

2010-11-06T13:21:51Z

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. -Wikipedia

Life is interesting and complex. There is a whole spectrum of experiences that come with life - good, bad, happy, sad and anything in between. It is this array of experiences that make us who we are.

As annoying and frustrating as down times are, they are not the be all and end all, in fact they are needed. After all, there is no meaning to 'perfect' if there is no imperfection. Happiness holds no meaning if there is nothing to complement it. This is not to say that we should always dwell over problems and sorrows; instead we should be optimistic and try to see the brighter side of things whenever we can.

There is always plenty happening around us, often so much is happening that we cannot acknowledge them all. So, be selective and concentrate on the ones that make you happy, the ones that you like. There is always bound to be something good that is happening; so don't go and make your life harder by looking at those that irk you, because as unfortunate as it is, they often come and find you instead. When they do find you, don't give up - smile, be brave, be optimistic - it won't last forever.

Being happy is one of the most important things in life. As much importance as society today places on material wealth, it doesn't matter how much material wealth you have, they don't mean much if you're not happy. Life is too short and precious to be wasted on our worries, so instead go and find something that you enjoy doing.

Smile, be happy

10/10/10

2010-10-10T23:23:35Z

So, today is 10/10/10... hurray for special dates! It's not everyday one can add a post because the numbers in the date is something different/special. It's 10-10-10, it's in binary AND it's binary for 42. Though not only is today 10/10/10, it is also October 10th, or Double Ten Day (雙十節/國慶日) which is Taiwan's National Celebration Day. Just thought I'd like to share that with everyone

ps. A longer, slightly less random (well maybe still random, but more well thought out) post is coming... it's currently in super draft form!

Clean hands? Paper towel please!

2010-09-21T14:44:12Z

Washing hands is something we all do on a daily basis. Whether you are at work, at home or when you are out and about, you are bound to wash your hands at least once in a day - I hope! So, what do you do after you finish washing your hands? Well, you have to dry them of course! We've all been told that bacteria strives on damp surfaces, so we have to dry our hands. Question is how?

Well, according to research you don't need those fancy hand drying machines that you might find in a shopping centre or at work, all you need is disposable paper towels! In fact, paper towels work better than those high-tech hand dyers - be it the traditional ones that blow warm air, or the cool looking and insanely loud Dyson Airblade.

...the use of paper towels consistently out-performed all the other drying techniques, especially with regard to bacteria left on the palms and fingertips. -Snelling, 2010

Not only do paper towels trump everything else, the study conducted by Snelling found that if you rub your hands while drying your hands with the warm-air hand dryers you can actually increase the bacteria count. The Dyson Airblade fares better than the traditional hand dryers at drying your hands and keeping bacteria at bay; but at the end of the day, paper towels are still the most suited for the job.

So next time when you've finished washing your hand, go and grab a paper towel. Or if none are available, look for a Dyson Airblade. If that is not an option either, go for the traditional hand dryer - remember to leave you hands under it for at least 30 seconds and most importantly, don't rub your hands!

Time is a funny thing

2010-09-03T12:53:06Z

"Time (noun): [mass noun] the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole." -Oxford Dictionary

Time is a funny thing. We, as humans, all seem to be aware of the concept of time. What time did you wake up? What time is dinner? When will the train leave? How long is the movie? We have units to measure time - seconds, minutes, hours, days etc. Despite these well defined units of measurement, I feel time seems to be a very flexible and almost completely open to interpretation...

Sometimes time seems to just drag on and on and that long awaited holiday seems to never come; sometimes time just zips past and suddenly a few years have passed; sometimes it feels like a few years have passed when in reality it has only been a few months; sometimes time just seems to not exist at all.

I assume (hope) that I'm not the only person who feels this bizarre effect of time and how we as individuals perceive it. At times, when I'm on the train, my mind wanders and starts to observe what other commuters are doing. I wonder how people have just perceived the same minute that has just passed by. It is the same minute, the same 60 seconds, yet everyone probably felt it was different - some may not have noticed the minutes ticking away; others may have been counting each second, waiting impatiently for the train to arrive at the destination.

It doesn't matter if it was a "fast minute" or a "slow minute" it was still a minute. I may not know if the previous minute for you was "fast" or "slow" but there are a few things that I can be certain that applies to everyone (at least at current time of writing). Firstly, everyone has the same amount of time in a day - whether it feels fast or slow - it is just how we use those 24 hours. Secondly, once something has happened it has happened - you can't change the past. You might be able to do something else to negate the action, but it doesn't change the fact that at that point in time you did whatever you did.

There are many theories about how our brain's perception of time can be influenced by the situation we are in. For example, some say, in a dangerous, life-threatening situation, our brain kicks into overdrive and is able to process more, thus making things appear to happen slower (gives you more time to react). This maybe true, however, I don't think it is just these raw, fundamental human traits that influence our perception of time. There is just something about the way our brain works - sometimes mulling over everything, sometimes not noticing anything at all. There is also something about how time works, how we have defined it, how we perceive it. All I can say is: Time is a funny thing.

ps. Yes, I am aware of the self-referential nature to time in this post, but given how ingrained time is in our thinking, I was unable to avoid it.