proposal = zero-knowledge proof

writing a proposal is like writing a zero-knowledge proof: convince the funding agencies that I can do the work I proposed without revealing the way to do it.

风水？

两个月前把床换了个方向，因为据说床要南北走向才有利于睡眠。咱不是impulsive吗，等不及周末沙和尚来帮忙，自己吭哧吭哧拖着床换了个位置。沙和尚当时就是不信阿，一个劲问自己怎么搬得动的。七，人家小宇宙爆发也是很惊人的。

结果，这个月真衰，又生病，又接连不断的有坏消息。ok，虽然有些是意料之中的，也是不爽不是?

所以我觉得风水被我搞坏掉了，昨晚上想起这个，心血来潮，把沙和尚从床上拖下来跟我一起搬床，换回原来的位置，美其名曰不然会提醒我想起来生病躺在床上的感觉。

希望这下风水会恢复，保佑我不要生病，多多拿到钱，阿门。

little miss sunshine

在stanford的时候去看了这部电影，小制作的，不过出乎意料的精彩。

影片讲的是一个loser家庭，和一个精灵般的孩子。喜剧，笑得肚子疼。最后一幕，我笑得眼泪都出来了，可是最后一刻，变成了辛酸。

影片有点贫嘴张大民的意思。太能让人理解了，是啊，大家都不容易，普通人，过老百姓的日子。那么多无奈，经济的紧张，各种无法控制的糟糕事情。怎么就这么衰呢？？衰到好笑的地步。

幽默是来源于别人倒霉的基础上的。但是这不表示我们笑的时候带有任何幸灾乐祸的成分。相反是一种无奈的，同情的，设身处地的理解。虱子多了不觉痒阿。已经如此的衰了，人反而乐观起来，反而微笑起来，像是对着上帝说，招全使出来吧，我看你还有什么新把式。

我今天收到了proposal review，declined，又想起这个电影。我知道那个proposal写得不好，而且一直没有抱任何希望。但是看到别人讲，什么你的都是都是incremental，follow mainstream，has no inovative ideas。还是觉得不舒服。我当时就不想交的，就是不愿意听这样的负面的话。

回到这个电影上，觉得，嗨，去他娘的，管他们怎么说，你想伤害我吗？我才是一点都不会被伤害呢！娃哈哈哈哈。

Blink

http://www.gladwell.com/blink/

It talks about our unconcious decision making process. Somehow we have the ability to pick up, form an enormous amount of information, something that is essential to make the correct decision. In terms of sensor networks (ok, bear with me to talk about research in the personal blog), it is "compressed sensing" in the brain.

Interestingly, I picked up the book in a hurry from the airport bookstore, within a "blink". The decision was wise. I didn't have that much time to read more and had to decide to buy or not to buy (it is not a cheap book, $30 including tax, amazon charges only $12 though). It certainly made my second flight from chicago to long island much better than the first half (during which I was reviewing papers. how un-fun is that?!)

I didn't know much about psychology. This book illustrates by a few examples that psychology is such an interesting field. It is experimental, like physics and chemistry etc. The consequence is simply fascinating. Think about it. One can just observe a few seconds of conversation between a couple, and then predict with 90% correctness whether they will remain married after 15 years. There are only four major parameters, or 1 most important parameter -- contempt -- that decides whether two persons in a marriage will eventually split or not. To computer scientist, this notion isn't surprising. It is data-mining, or regression analysis to statistician. Psychologiests call it think slicing. The surprising thing is that our brain, somehow, within seconds or miliseconds, can finish the whole data mining process (or l_1 minimization in compressed sensing) and come up with a (often wise) decision.

To researchers, we often say that someone has the "sense". Maybe this is it! The sense comes from what we have learned in the past research experience and our appreciation of beauty, which somehow gets compressed and processed in a part of the brain so that when there is something similar, our sense catches it and bingo -- the click happens.

The first half of the book is very interesting. The last few chapters become boring. It is a book like "freakonomics". It brings you revolutional ideas, accompanied with funny examples.