Recently a study on theories of interest has been all over internet. The study by Yale-NUS and Stanford examined implicit theories of interest, fixed theory and growth theory. Here is what the paper says and my take on them. Continue reading
Category Archives: Personal
Bilingual Numbers
The most interesting aspect of bilingualism is numbers. Counting numbers is such a fundamental skill that it is often used a tool to determine one’s native language. However, there is much more happening when a bilingual person counts. They can even count in bilingual numbers.
Touchpal keyboard alternative with slide down for symbols – Multiling O
Touchpal keyboard alternative
So you’ve been an Android user for several years and Touchpal keyboard seems to the best Android keyboard out there, with its killer feature – swiping down to input symbols. You can’t live without that feature, but you really hate the annoying ads in Touchpad that was recently introduced. Luckily, I’ve found the near perfect Touchpal keyboard alternative for you – Multiling O Keyboard. Continue reading
Making Myself A Better Person for Others in 2017
Reflecting on 2016
A lot of things happened this year. Internship, CS3216 and Donald Trump. Continue reading
Bye Facebook
Facebook has been a part of my life for the past few years, but now it is the time to say goodbye.
This is a rather sudden decision as I just felt the urge to do this as soon as possible. However, I will attempt to rationalize the decision.
- As a source of information, Facebook has done a good job in providing me with the latest updates on current issues, such as events happening in HK and Singapore. However, there are more reliable and convenient channels to obtain factual information, such as the BBC mobile app and local newspapers, so Facebook is not the best source for that.
- As a way to share my opinions and engage in discussion, Facebook was a good platform. However, I have realized that debates on Facebook tend revolve around groundless claims, without factual backups and substantiations, understandably due to the “fast-food” nature of Internet. I used to enjoy arguing in this style and win the debate by some sort of sophistry but later decided to stop such meaningless acts.
- As a way to connect with my friends, I don’t see Facebook helps, I do not really need to see their photos to stay connected, and most of the photos on Facebook are from “acquaintances” whom I do not care much. The messaging function may be something that I still use frequently, for people whom I do not have in Whatsapp contact. But I guess I just need a transition period before I get all my contacts to Whatsapp and WeChat.
All in all, the usefulness and reliance on Facebook is dropping for me. And I seem to have spent too much time randomly commenting on Facebook pages just to kill time. So why not take a break (hopefully a long one) and seek to do something more meaningful?
Bye Facebook.
[Solved]Sony Z3 Top Speaker Noise Problem
I have recently purchased a Sony Xperia Z3. There seems to be a strange problem with the Sony Z3 top speaker. Most of the time it produces a static background noise when I run any applications that has sound. The noise can still be heard even if I have muted the media volume. But there are occasions where the noise does not occur.
I searched online and found out this a common problem for Sony Z3, the solutions they suggested on the forums(tuning the equalizer settings) did not help me. I have also contacted Sony customer service and they responded that “It happens when you use applications that access Internet.” That seems logical enough first but I soon realized that sometimes the noise does not occur even when I am using the applications that access Internet.
When I tracked down the cases where the noise did not occur, I found out the root cause of it: The Alarm Volume.
Alarm volume setting in Sony Z3 sound and notification setting
This is totally strange but it is indeed the cause of the noise. Whenever I lower the alarm volume to below about 60% and reopen the applications, the noise disappears. The alarm volume is not supposed to be related to the sound inside the applications but it seems that Sony Z3 has a software bug that caused them to be linked.
Also note that the global alarm volume in the sound settings will be overwritten by individual alarm volumes that you set in the alarm application.
Alarm volume setting in Sony Z3 Alarm app
So in order to make sure the noise does not come back, you need to set both the global alarm volume and individual alarm volumes to below about 60%.
Staying neutral on Same-Sex Marriage
The news of Same-Sex Marriage a Right Nationwide in the U.S. has taken over the Internet.
While the two sides supporting and against it are arguing back and forth, what if I have no opinions on this and I just want to stay “neutral”?
Is there a true “neutral” position that one can adopt?
I begin by understanding the issue, marriage. By enumeration (which I will discuss further later), we have two options for marriage:
- Marriage between the same sex
- Marriage between the opposite sex
As we can see, with two options, there are no middle ground.
So to be neutral, we either allow both options, or allow neither of them:
- Allowing both options, we have the exact same stand as a same-sex marriage supporter, that is “the sexuality does not matter in marriage”.
- Allowing neither of them, we have no marriage and we lose the continuation of the human species, which is not what we want.
So now it looks like the same-sex marriage supporters’ stand is indeed the neutral stand, so what is the catch here?
We risk “going down the slope”. I have mentioned above that “by enumeration, we have two options for marriage”, but there was a hidden assumption there:
When we talk about marriage, we talk about humans.
What if we broaden the scope of discussion, and talk about same and different species, just like what we did to the same and opposite sex? There we have two options as well:
- Marriage between the same species
- Marriage between different species
I think at this point, it becomes pretty clear that in order to maintain neutral, we have to allow marriage between both same and different species.
So why not take this stand? The obvious answer is that this is insane. It crosses some (most) people’s limit. And that is exactly the problem here in the same-sex marriage. The idea of same-sex marriage crosses some people’s limit, just like the idea of marriage between different species. The neutral position differs from person to person due to their different limits.
For me, I can have my neutral position as “allowing marriage between both same and different species.” But this may sound crazy to many people so it might not be the best position.
So know your limit, and set the neutral position. Alternatively, you can push (or be pushed) beyond your limit and adopt a new neutral position.