Fredish Smörgåsbord

根據APPLE LINKAGE網站轉述AppleInsider消息，IDC方面發表2009年全球Smartphone市場出貨調查報告，其中Apple方面出貨的市場佔比為14.4%，較2008年成長5.3%，而Apple的iPhone出貨總數量則成長了81.9%。

 

The world's smartphone market share in 2009.

Steve Jobs incorrectly addressed Apple A4 as a CPU. We're not sure was this to keep the mainstream press enthused, but A4 is not a CPU. Or we should say, it's not just a CPU. Nor did PA Semi/Apple had anything to do with the creation of the CPU component.

Apple A4: latest SOC that ARM added to its family of IP customers - not only with the CPU but with GPU IP as well

A4 is a System-on-a-Chip, or SOC, that integrates the main processor [ARM Cortex-A9, identical to ones used in nVidia Tegra and Qualcomm Snapdragon] with graphics silicon [ARM Mali GPU], and other functions like the memory controller on one piece of silicon - not unlike what Intel is trying to achieve with its future "Moorestown" Atom processor that debuted inside LG's Smartphone.

蘋果使用在iPad上的A4處理器不只是處理器，而是單晶片系統，上面包含Cortex-A9處理器、ARM Mali繪圖晶片、以及記憶體控制晶片等組件。

The Russian Sukhoi SU-27 has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (more than 1,300 mph) and a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than 1:1. In other words, it can accelerate while climbing straight up. It was designed to fight the best the United States had to offer, and it can be yours for the cost of a mediocre used business jet.

The former Soviet Su-27 is now price tagged for sale. Since it's so similar to the J-11 used by China's PLA Air Force, maybe the Taiwanese government should go for the two and ask for a 20% discount.

Well, we might be using J-11 soon. :P

前蘇聯一線戰鬥機Su-27的教練機版本現在已經買得到了，一架只要區區500萬美金。因為這款飛機跟中共空軍目前使用的「殲11」幾乎完全相同，也許台灣政府應該把目前美國人手上這兩架都買下來，看能不能打個八折。

天曉得，也許過幾年殲11就是我們的標準配備了。XD

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

Washington, DC

January 12, 2010

---

 

We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy. I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of internet freedom in the 21st century, and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.

Is it the ultimatum Hillary Clinton giving to China regarding Google's "we could pull the plug in China" claim?

對於Google在中國碰到的狀況，美國政府顯然站在Google這邊（相對於通常在商務糾紛方面盡量保持中立的態度而言），接下來就看下星期中國政府會說些什麼了。

It's the most stylish and feature packed Ford Focus model yet. Powered by a 2.0L 4-cylinder engine generating 155hp and 145 lb-ft of torque, mated to "a choice of manual or dual-clutch PowerShift units." Click here for first picture in gallery.

I used to like the older Focus's rear-wheel arch and the rounded interweaving lines of its headlights and radiator grille, but these signature designs seem to be missing from the new generation.

By the way, as real jet fighters are simplifying their cockpits to only a few MFDs (Multi-function displays), car designers today (I'd say US car designers) tend to make the dashboards look like the jets in the 1950s. Not for my taste indeed.

我以前很喜歡舊款Focus的後輪輪拱、以及由大燈和水箱罩交織出來的流暢線條，但這些特徵在新一代車款上似乎不見了。

現在的戰鬥機駕駛艙設計有越來越簡化的趨勢，改以幾個多功能螢幕來取代大量的儀錶和開關，但汽車設計師（也許多半是美國設計師）卻不僅喜歡把汽車儀錶版做得像飛機，而且還是1950年代老式戰鬥機的繁複風格。說實在的，不是很合我的胃口。

The largest sealed environment ever created, constructed at a cost of $200 million, and now falling somewhere between David Gissen's idea of subnature—wherein the slow power of vegetative life is unleashed "as a transgressive animated force against buildings"—and a bioclimatically inspired Dubai, Biosphere 2 even included its own one million-gallon artificial sea.

"The structure was billed as the first large habitat for humans that would live and breathe on its own, as cut off from the earth as a spaceship," the New York Times wrote back in 1992, but the project was a near-instant failure.

Scientists ridiculed it. Members of the support team resigned, charging publicly that the enterprise was awash in deception. And even some crew members living under the glass domes, gaunt after considerable loss of weight, tempers flaring, this winter threatened to mutiny if management did not repair a growing blot on the project's reputation.

The entire site was sold to private developers in 2007, leaving the buildings still functional and open for tours but falling apart.

[Image: Biosphere 2, photographed by Noah Sheldon].

以封閉空間模擬地球環境，希望為人類找出太空移民和其他人工環境解決方案的Biosphere 2（Biosphere 1就是地球本身），在熱鬧過一段時間之後算是功成身退，成了沒有人的廢墟；雖然它曾經試圖提供地球荒廢之後讓人類繼續生存的可能，但自己卻也模擬了地球荒廢之後的景象。

In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences was asked by the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to prepare a report to assess the scientific basis for projection of possible future climate changes resulting from anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. The Academy convened an ad hoc study group, headed by Jule Charney, to write the report. This report became influential for both policy makers and scientists, and is frequently cited as "the Charney report." It is especially useful as an outline of the state of climate models in the late 1970s, including some discussion of the largest unknowns in climate modeling.

A research report from 30 years ago which was said to be influential to the theory later called as "global warming". Need to take some time to read. However statistically a forecast with ±50% deviation is virtually useless, but it still worth reading for its forecasting premise and mechanism.

這篇寫於30年前的「Charney Report」研究的是空氣中二氧化碳含量上升時，對地表氣候溫度的影響，可以說是今天所謂「全球暖化」理論的先驅，有時間的話值得一讀。從統計的角度來看，正負誤差高達50%的預測結果實在沒什麼價值；不過這篇報告的重點並不盡然在於結果，而在於使用的前提和推論方式和今天科學家的說法有什麼異同。

As a consensus emerges in Taiwan on establishing closer relations with China, the thaw is calling into question the United States' deeply ambiguous policy, which is supposed to serve both Taiwan's interests (by allowing it to retain its autonomy) and the United States' own (by guarding against an expansionist China). Washington now faces a stark choice: continue pursuing a militarized realist approach -- using Taiwan to balance the power of a rising China -- or follow an alternative liberal logic that seeks to promote long-term peace through closer economic, social, and political ties between Taiwan and China.

This is in fact a manifest of US's attitude to remain as a global superpower while keeping tension with another "expansionist" nation. The thing is that Taiwan is only a counterweight in the pendulum game, and our leader and his lieutenants haven't truly realized that; at least they don't know how to play the survival game in a smarter way.

Foreign Affairs.com的這篇文章，已經很露骨的說出了美國在最近台灣親中趨勢之中的兩難問題：在繼續保持世界強權地位之餘，要利用台灣作為籌碼，繼續對抗積極擴張勢力的中國、還是在台灣傾中的過程中獲取利益。

然而，我們的領導者似乎不清楚目前台灣在美國這個「鐘擺」政策中的微妙地位，或者至少他不知道如何在這個縫隙之中以更聰明的方式生存、甚至以遊走兩大強權遊戲規則的方式來獲利。

However you choose, the tape measure is just one gadget that contractors / construction workers can't live without. That doesn't mean you have to use it for just measuring things, as this guy proves. Continue reading for the video.

This photo just solved my tape measure problem lasting years. Not the way they snap the keys, it's that I could use the keys to fix one end when I was measuring something...

多年以來使用捲尺的難題，光靠這張照片就解決了。:D

不過不是用捲尺拉鑰匙的神技，而是以前怎麼沒想到量長度的時候一邊可以用鑰匙壓著……。

We're huge fans of repurposing here at Lifehacker—squeezing extra and usually clever uses out of every day objects. Here's a look back at out some of the most popular repurposing posts from 2009.

While many "repurpose" ideas are not that practical or are just for recycle's sake, the examples shown in this Lifehacker article are mostly ingenious and resourceful. I especially like the "cat heaven" one, but unfortunately I don't have a cat.

這類生活小點子文章中介紹的方法，有許多不見得實用、難以找到材料、或者純粹只是為了「廢物利用」一下而已；不過這篇裡頭介紹的東西倒是都很有用、也不難做。我特別喜歡的是用層板做貓梯那一則，但可惜我沒養貓。