Books to Improve Logic and Reasoning

1 Critical Thinking for Students
2 Art of Deception : introduction to Critical Thinking
3The geography of Thought
4 Argument: Critical Thinking, Logic, and the Fallacies
5 Paradoxical thinking: how to profit from your contradictions
6 Future edge: discovering paradigms

What do I use my mobile phone for?

Mobile telephony -- call out and receive calls, SMS

• call in and call out
• text and multi-media messaging
• video conferencing
• face-to-face conversation
• Skype calls

A wireless net surfing tool

• browsing
• email and online calendar
• transacting & e-commerce online

Personal organiser

• to-do list
• reminder

An e-reader

• RSS feeds
• e-magzines
• e-books
• ad-hoc PDFs
• Word/Spreadsheet/PowerPoint/Project Plan docs
• photo viewing

Media center

• Listen to music
• Radio/FM tuner
• Video
• Photo viewing

Camera

• still camera
• video camera
• snapshot ability

 At last an open platform that I can either experience other people's app or building an application on it.

世界杯冠军是那支团结的球队 -- 李承鹏

Referenced from Mr Li's Sina Blog post

就在法兰西更衣室乱成一锅粥，想起一段长长的气死法国人的笑话：教你如何辨认法国人。
问：如何称呼同时举起双手的十万法国人？答：当然是法国陆军。
问：法国人如何才能战胜英国人？答：需要在女性的统帅下（指圣女贞德）。
问：为什么法兰西第一帝国几乎所向无敌？答：因为他们的国王是外国人（拿破仑是科西嘉人）。
问：为什么在二战中德国用了三天时间才征服法国？答：因为当时在下雨。
问：法国人为什么会将自由女神像赠给美国？答：因为她只有一只胳膊是举起来的。
问：为什么法国人总是能在联合国那里获得很多投票？答：因为他们总是举双手。
问：为什么法国的战斗机都被命名为“幻影”？答：因为它们根本就不存在。
问：“马奇诺”在德语中是什么意思？答：欢迎欢迎，热烈欢迎。
问：谁能跟我说说法国国旗到底是什么样子？答：就是在一面白旗上涂上两条彩纹。
问：作为一名法国人的最大好处是什么？答：你可以在战争打响的时候就投降然后别人会帮你赢得这场战争。
问：为什么法国人在赢得了1998年世界杯冠军后会欢庆得如此疯狂？答：因为那是他们第一次在没有外部力量的帮助下赢得的一件东西，噢，对不起，我忘记了 齐达内是阿尔及利亚人。

法兰西军队和球队，在欧洲人眼里就是这样不堪，懦弱无能，喜欢内讧，崇尚投降，那些仅有的历史及现时的英雄不是女人就是外国人，拿破仑、齐达内、圣女贞 德。当然欧洲各国就爱这么互相讥讽，也不会上升到辱法或辱英、辱西的外交事件，何况其它国家也少不了糗事，比如英格兰队的特里前天也兵谏卡佩罗。但英国兵 谏失败得很干脆，他们对规则服从力更强，意大利的卡佩罗性格上也更像德国人，所以不像法国人把事情弄得那么吊诡。

法国队这次不像足球队倒像是法国议会，亨利、阿比达尔、阿内尔卡、加拉这些元老派与里贝里、古尔库夫代表的新生派形同水火，本来还可以有个埃弗拉作为中间 地带，可是他最后也莫乐其妙参加了战斗，好玩的是多梅内克，他忽而力保发克过他的阿内尔卡，说法国足协不该这样对待更衣室事件，还亲自念了罢训宣言书，忽 而就转身痛斥球员是低能儿，让法国蒙羞。多梅内克的吵架风格跟他的战术风格保持高度一致，这个风格就是没有风格，没有目标，没有规律。说实话，到现在为止 我也一直没搞明白整起事件到底是怎么回事，谁是内鬼谁是幕后谁力挺谁，谁又发克了谁，线索之复杂，很像一部悬疑黑幽片。比起法国队在球场踢得古板僵硬，缺 乏变化，他们在吵场却走位飘忽，变幻多端。

来源：(http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_46e7ba410100jhd9.html) - 世界杯冠军是那支团结的球队_李承鹏_新浪博客 也许法国足球其实是有三个足协的，一个叫法兰西足协，另一个叫克莱枫丹，还有一个叫普拉蒂尼，三股势力对法国队的控制力是惊人的，昨天碰到旅华法国青年朱 利安，就是那个中国话比中国人说得还溜的主持人，他说在法国人这两天见面不再是打招呼“阿鲁，喝咖啡了吗”而是“太不像话了，法国的脸被足球丢尽了”，在 法国人眼里足协就是由一帮优柔寡断的官员组成，他们并不想发生变化，也不想出乱子，只要总统别时不时打来垂询电话就可以了，当然他们还很腐败，很喜欢搞人 际关系和政治斗争，人人背后说人人，人人背后搞阴谋。当时我听得恍惚，觉得他是在说中国足协。

记忆中这是世界杯上第一次闹出罢训加罢赛，也第一次这么大规模的主力分裂，法国队这次踢的不是球，踢的是脸面，它跟朝鲜队形成地球的两极，一个自由散漫， 一个高度集权，朝鲜队是肯定不会罢训和罢赛的，更不可能出现兵谏。法国队在齐达内这颗大脑走了以后，就出现无数颗大脑，人人都想当大脑，最后就完全没有大 脑。我一直奇怪像克莱枫丹这样被称作天才摇篮的足球基地，为什么会培养出像齐达内这样的灵魂式人物，也培养出阿内尔卡这样的肌肉式人物，也不明白一向优雅 的法国人，为什么连续在世界杯上性格爆炸。比如四年前我的偶像，好男人齐达内一头就撞向了马特拉齐，八年前亨利与齐祖之间恩怨纠缠导致小组不出线，这一届 又是罢训罢赛……

想想法国队只要没有内部矛盾时就能够取得不俗战绩，比如1984年欧洲冠军那届，是普拉蒂尼、蒂加纳、吉雷瑟铁三角同盟，还比如1998年那届不仅先拿了 世界冠军两年后还拿了欧洲杯，就是这因为雅凯深知法国足球的臭毛病，扫除了才华模溢的坎通纳和吉诺拉，就是要树立更衣室以齐达内为核心的井然秩序。但漫长 的百年法国足球史这样的团结太少，仅此两届国家队而已。也别说2006年法国拿了冠军，这也是三千说客说动齐达内复出，才镇得住法兰西那些浪荡而散漫的家 伙。当齐祖退出，更衣室又是牛鬼蛇神万马齐喑了。

谁说荷兰足球才是内部矛盾最多的？荷兰人只是好表现而已。所以现在可以理解为什么马拉多纳宁招很山寨的古铁雷斯也不招萨内蒂，宁用贝隆也不用里克尔梅，有 时候为了和谐，就必须牺牲精英。看看今天凌晨阿根廷打希腊，能力不用说了，关键是过去四分五裂的队员们现在很团结了，进球后拥抱在一起的表情，就像一母所 生。

我在利物浦时见过正效力埃弗顿的尼日利亚后卫雅博，他骄傲地说：我回国，总统会派专车直接开进停机坪接我，还会派四个保镖一路站在车门外保护我，我在家里 喝酒时，房顶上都站在端机关枪的军人保护着，因为我们跟总统关系很好。凌晨，尼日利亚在无数次机会面前败在更团结的韩国人脚下，失去晋级机会，我跟尼日利 亚人郝歌一起在黄家李泡看的球，就是那个中国歌唱得比中国人还好的黑人，他十分郁闷地说：还是不团结，那些尼日利亚小伙子跟总统关系太好了，教练都镇不 住，有次米克尔不耐烦了，对教练说——听着，按我说的办，我给你付工资。

郝歌做出打电话的样子：喂，总统吗，我是队员啊，那个教练太不像话了，根本不行的/总统：是吗，好的，喂，把那个教练给我拿下。

就是这样，看来不仅法兰西，哪个国家都一样，国家队跟俱乐部不一样，俱乐部里得服从商业合同，给国家队踢球那叫义务。稍微团结一点的，世界杯上就会取得好 成绩，最近三十年你见过一边吵吵闹闹一边拿下世界杯冠军的球队吗？

Count the number of files in a directory in Solaris.

Command: ls -1 | wc -l
note, the first '-l' is numeric '1' while the latter is an alphabet lower-cased "L".

Example:
bash-2.03$ ls -1 | wc -l
      24

My World Cup Journey - continue..

South Korea vs. Greece

• Tipped SK to win and the result is Greeks lost dearly.
• Thought SK was one of the average participants in the tournament based on history, however, the result turned out to be Greece, once the EU Cup Champion, is definitely the weakest team so far. 
• Greece had no speed, no tactics, no technicians, and most importantly no clear mindset on what they were doing on the pitch. They were not only completely outpaced by the Taiji Tiger, but also rhythm-led throughout the whole match. 

Argentina vs. Nigeria

• Tipped Maradona's boys to win and result is they beat the African Eagles.
• Argentina didn't show a clear tactics during the match as they probably didn't have one. When you have several Maradonas on the pitch, the one thing you can leave behind is tactics. Don't know how far they will go in this tournament, but qualifying from the group doesn't seem unrealistic. 
• Nigeria played individual football, no team play at much. When you play individually and play an opponent like Argentina, you are meant to lose.

England vs USA

• Tipped USA to beat England, but the result is a draw.
• USA played a better football than the English. At least they played modern football with a role clearly defined for every one from the team and the execution was excellent. England salvaged a draw for having so many stars, nothing else.
• The English goalkeeper shouldn't be much to blame. He made a stupid mistake but also redeemed himself from saving a goal that could sink England all together. However, a mistake is a mistake, the world cup ball is not the culprit.
• Another fact I have observed is England is still the old England that has weak competitive mentality. When they lost a goal, everyone started playing nervously giving ball easily to the opponents. Well, no wonder they lost so many times in penalty shootouts!

Algeria vs. Slovenia

• Tipped Slovenia to win and they did win over the desert fox by one goal.
• It is worth remembering that Slovenia got their first ever world cup win yesterday thanks to Algeria.
• Algerian team is like a group of adolescent boys, running all over the place without a clear objective, having so much energy but no thoughts. Slovenia, on the other hand, played typical European football that held the play structure well and sealed the opportunity when it rised.
• Also I am not surprise Algeria got one man sent off. Again, adolescent males make stupid and unreasonable mistakes.

Germany vs. Australia

• Tipped on Germans and socceroos didn't disappoint me by losing to them with 4 goals conceded.
• It was a comprehensive win by the Germans over the Australians. I knew before the match that socceroos would have little chance to beat Germany, but didn't anticipate it was a four-goal cushion.
• Tim Cahill got sent off as a matter of fact, this guy didn't learn the lessons from the friendly against New Zealand. When you play bully football on the world cup stage (not A-League or EPL) in front of Latin or South American referee (Mexico in this case), tackling from the behind with two feet, you would expect a straight red.

My World Cup Journey

Four years on the roll, here comes again the world cup (you know which sport I mean here), in South Africa. June 12 to July 12, the spring festival for football fans all over the globe, let's enjoy!

Never believed before the cup and still not convinced today that South Africa would have the experience and capability to properly organize a global sport event like the world cup. The opening ceremony seemed already proving that. Well, everyone gotta have their first time and those excellent matches will eventually lure critics eyeballs away from the off-pitch.

Let's examine if my understanding of football and tipping ability still live to the promise today. Four years ago, my tipping earned me the fifth place in Viator' internal tipping competition. Today I am participating Macquarie Group's tipping comp with another 100 colleagues.

South Africa vs. Mexico

• Tipped a draw and the result is a draw. Like Mexico to win though.
• One of my all-time favorites, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, at the age of 37 helped organize the salvage goal for Mexico.

France vs. Uruguay

• Tipped Uruguay won but the result is a goalless draw. Still not believe France would have had the team morale to win, not because they lost to China in the pre-cup warm-up though.
• Both played crappy football without a clear intention to win. Understand why Uruguay would play defending football, but France was way too conservative, even when an Uruguayan was sent off. You can't make too far with this kind of tactics and guts.

Why is the cup important to me? Every four years marks a personal milestone for me. Four years ago, I was a young coder working in a ambitious travel technology company tipping the socceroos draw Croatia to qualify from the group stage. Four years after, I am working in the investment bank of the country, thinking over my own venture that is going to take place in a few months. When you are young, don't give up the opportunity to make progress, strive and develop yourself. Everyone has a gift, it is a matter of whether you realize a gift is not a gift until you take effort to uncover it. Four years is a good period range to check how your gift discovery journey is going. It is a balanced combination of micro and macro.