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If the Mac lineup at your local store hasn't been tempting enough for you to give apple your hard-earned money, perhaps a look at 25 Of The Best Home & Office Mac Setups will!

It's just a statement of taste, isn't it?

早兩天跑進戲院去看《天水圍的夜與霧》，一如所料是一齣滿有誠意的寫實電影，結局也不出所料地教我感到不安，總之沒驚喜，也沒有失望。從網上找來了幾篇影評，有興趣的可以看看。



《夜與霧》的編劇對於香港新移民的心理探尋是最尋根究底的；將阿玲的生活背景回溯到中國山村是頗具風險性的嘗試。

來源:http://chujihe.blogbus.com/

電影顯然盡量以克制的手法處理，迴避廉價煽情的考慮也路人皆見，而且對箇中人物的刻劃也清楚見到平衡思維──李森的兒子雖然是馬夫，但卻奉父至孝；李森對阿玲拳打腳踢兼性虐，但洗頭及建屋的場面卻流露出他的真心真意。 其實電影中的呈現也頗為中立，沒有故意的抹黑哪一方（對負責社工及當值警察的處理容或可以有異議，但卻可以肯定他們沒有“失職”。

來源:亞洲時報

《天水圍的夜與霧》表是探究數年前的天水圍滅門慘案，實講的是大香港主義滑落與敗亡。 李森半百的年紀正正就印證他代表著香港二代人：他們常如李森般訴說以往如裝修每日人工一千到一王四后之類的光輝過去，但到現在，他們已幾失去鬥志、不思進取、依賴老本。他們唯一能自負的機會就在內地人面前：大香港主義的核心就是看貶內地人，電影裡李森常借故貶斥內地妻子曉玲，說她「甚麼都不懂的鄉下婆」，一次近乎強姦的交歡，他迫曉玲向他說：「沒有你，我會有今日？」，這是李森用來增強自身快感，也是香港人在內地人建立威脅的霸權象徵。結束其實是一個恐怖的預言：窮途末路的二代香港人不願接受地位滑落的現實，許鞍華或其實告訴我們，悲劇來源或許不是錯在社工或警察，而因其實每個香港二代人身後都是一個李森，若果港人還不能放下身段，那麼「夜與霧」也只會不斷擴散，無可挽回。

來源:電影調教室

昨晚抽空把 iPhone 升級至 3.0 beta 5，也趁機解決了自 beta 3 開始用戶不能自行輸入供應商 APN 以 GPRS 上網的問題。Apple 自 beta 3 開始移除了 Network 設定中 Cellular Data Network 的輸入選項，據說是要避免用戶將 iPhone 解鎖後拿到非專利供應商試用 MMS 及 Tethering (即把 iPhone 當作 modem 給電腦分享連線) ，影響專利供應商數據服務的盈利，估計 Cellular Data Network 選項在 Firmware 3.0 正式推出之日很大機會也會被抽起。

解決辦法有二，一為自行改寫有關的 IPCC 檔然後傳回 iPhone，另為以 Apple 開發的 iPhone Configuration Utility 編寫 profile 檔，懶人如筆者當然捨難取易選擇後者。方法如下:

1. 下載iPhone Configuration Utility for OS X
2. 安裝後啟動
3. 在 Configuration Profiles 一欄中選取最後的 Advanced 分頁 (見上圖)
4. 以筆者使用的 Smartone 為例，只需在 Access Point Name (APN) 一項填上 Smartone-Vodafone，下面的兩項留空
5. 按位於左上角的 export 鍵， 選一個地方存好並隨便給它一個檔名 (我把它和 beta 5 firmware ipsw 放在一塊)
6. 把剛才匯出的 profile 檔電郵給自己 (gmail、yahoo 都沒關係，只要 iPhone mail.app 能開啟就可以。我想用 iPhone 的沒多少個會跑去用什麼 163.com、sina.com 郵箱吧?)
7. 以 iPhone mail.app 開啟上面所述電郵附件
8. 安裝 profile 並重啟
9. 大功告成! (見下圖)

* Please click to enlarge

歷時兩年的半工讀生活終於在不久之前告一段落，於是我抽了點時間讓我的 MacBook 保持競爭力...
OS X 10.5.7、Adobe CS4 Master Collection、Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3844、Windows 7 RC，全部重量級大作。

此外，據說剛推出幾天的 OS X 10.5.7 裡包含了優化 Atom 處理器的指令，有網友聲稱其 MSI Wind 的電池壽命較運行 10.5.6 時多出達 30%! 唔...也是時候重裝我的 Aspire One 了。

上映首日輕鬆的跑進去看... 看罷帶著沉重的心情和酸溜溜的鼻子回家。

《南京！南京！》 在大量詳細周密的歷史考證的基礎上，以中國民眾的抵抗意志和一位日本普通士兵的精神掙扎為主線，復原出70年前陰鬱冰冷冬天裡的死城南京。此片直接面對史實，是第一次在大陸電影裡出現大量直接的慰安婦場面。香港版海報在慰安婦的照片旁寫上 「直到最後，我們從未低頭。」，看過電影的就知道此話不假，慰安婦的畫面慘不忍睹，看畢心情十分沉重，但片中她們差慘絕人圜的遭遇和為國捐軀的情操實在令人動容。

題外話，我想我以後會多點下班後到百老匯電影中心看戲，原因如下:

1. 平日 9:45PM 果場幾乎必定有位，首輪電影話睇就睇
2. 架車可以唔駛錢泊街邊

We all know Windows users hate to see the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) that appears when something goes wrong with their hardware or their OS, recently during my quest playing with iPhone firmware 3.0 beta, I also ran into the painful PSOD (Pink Screen of Death) for iPhone.

In the past month, I had my iPhone 2G restored with a copy of Pwned 2.2.1 firmware, and successfully experienced various 3.0 beta builds including 7A238j (beta 1), 7A259g (beta 2) and 7A280f (beta 3) through the option-upgrade path. The hassle-free beta-testing experience came to an end as I downloaded 7A300g (beta 4) and tried out of curiosity to option-upgrade my iPhone as usual WITHOUT installing the required iTunes 8.2 beta, I was smashed hard into the infamous PSOD!

After hours of trials and errors and more digging on the net, I finally found a way to bring my 2-year old baby back to life, here’s what I did:

- Look at your iPhone and admire the beauty of the pink screen for one last time (hopefully)
- Have a copy of official firmware 2.2.1 handy (a Pwned copy won’t work, I tried)
- Plug your iPhone into iTunes and get it into DFU mode by pressing both HOME and POWER buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds, release POWER and hold HOME for 5 more seconds until iTunes detects an iPhone in recovery mode and asks you to restore it (In DFU mode, the iPhone LCD goes blank and iTunes detects it in recovery mode, if you see anything else displayed on your iPhone LCD, it’s not in DFU, try the 10/5 seconds trick again)
- Option-Restore and choose your 2.2.1 firmware mentioned in step 2
- Now you get an inactivated iPhone running 2.2.1 (Don’t be too happy just yet, it took me hours to get mine out of this stage! Hopefully this tutorial will make your day easier than mine)
- Trying to Option-Restore with a Pwned firmware was not possible due to an error 1600, QuickPwn for Mac did not detect the iPhone either.
- Now you need a PC, download and install QuickPwn for Windows and this time the same iPhone should be detected by QuickPwn on the PC version, follow the instruction to activate it
- By now you should have gotten your iPhone unlocked on firmware 2.2.1
- Try your luck with 7A300g (beta 4) again… (that’s what geeks like me do)

著名 web2.0 用戶主導網站 Digg.com 的 Creative Director Daniel Burka 在他的 Twitter 上發表了他在兒童聖經裡找到的一幅圖畫，上面記載士師記 15 章內參孫捉了 300 隻狐狸火燒非利士人的故事，竟然和 Firefox 瀏覽器的 logo 異常相似...

有關經文：士 15：4-5
「於是參孫去捉了三百隻狐狸，將狐狸尾巴一對一對地捆上，將火把捆在兩條尾巴中間，點著火把，就放狐狸進入非利士人站著的禾稼，將堆集的禾捆和未割的禾稼，並橄欖園盡都燒了。」

有口痕網友便說:

"Also, little known fact, the Philistines used Internet Explorer"
"一個並非很多人知道的事實, 非利士人當年用 IE (來上網)"

我差 D 笑死....

Received this email sent by a CityU faculty to student mailboxes. As a UofT alumni and currently a graduate student at this local university, I think I am in the right position to tell Mr. Mak, the gentlemen who wrote this email that, the teaching quality of CityU compared to renowned universities elsewhere, is night and day.

If the CityU council leave the quality of teaching staff as is, not only that it is not getting any closer to a world-class university, it will also continue to be a second-tier tertiary education institution in Hong Kong.

My 2 cents is, let's face it, make it a fair game and keep the evaluation scheme, teaching staffs who are not up to par better go! That's the rule of survival if they get a job in the private sector anyway, why should universities be any exception?

Dear Students and Colleagues,

As the Staff Representative in Council and in the Human Resources Committee, I have some comments on the recent issue on shortened staff reappointment, especially for instructors. Please refer to my Chinese statement attached.

The recent reappointments of instructors is hasty as 80% of 43 instructors either get six month temporary reappointments (20), or 1 year terminal reappointments (13) and one dismissal. It is to me a big vialation of the established staffing policy on reappointment (see pdf file in English).

This adversely affects the student and staff morale and quality of professional education which we have prime responsibility. The great concern was demonstrated in the two gatherings of over 1000 staff and students today. Given that Professor Richard Ho, the Provost and his committee has made such hasty staffing decision affecting a lot of students and staff, I don't think they have the credibility to review their own decisions. I call upon the President, Professor Way Kuo to set up a review committee himself to reconsider all the affected cases in this round of reappointment.

The bigger issue is whether CityU should go all the way to be a research university given our present resources and dual role of profesional education and applied research. Our students and staff need to have an open debate on this major direction as it affects our programme development as well as staffing. I hope that provides further thought on the present issue.

Yours faithfully,


MAK Hoi Wah
Staff Representative in Council
Assistant Professor
Department of Applied Social Studies

今早例讀澳門日報時看到了一篇文章，覺得蠻有意思，便scan 下來給各位看看。

我印象最深刻的是作者在文章裡說「儘管詩班的歌唱技巧不一定很高….. 心靈誠實、口唱心和的歌唱，感動來自上帝」。作為詩班員，我讀過後問自己， 我有時刻口唱心和的事奉神嗎? 答案很明顯: 不一定有… 有些時候會推說狀態不好，也有些時候會歸咎於歌詞不通順、歌曲不夠動聽，等等… 總之就「交不足貨」，這篇文章就如當頭棒喝，讓我好好反省一下自己的事奉態度。

以 Faces, Places 為賣點的 Apple iLife 09 帶來了多項新功能，Places 強調的 Geo-tagging 大家算是見識過了，那麼 Faces 呢? 顧名思義，Faces 不就是 Face-tagging 囉，一個叫你我他每一次拍照後都在 Facebook 拼命點擊滑鼠的玩意，不過這次不用每次自己 tag，iPhoto 懂得變從你以往 tag 過的面孔中尋找最合適的名字。

除了 iPhoto 09 以外，Google 的 Picassa 也提供類似的功能，不過根據 MIT Technology Review 的測試, iPhoto 的辨認能力較 Picassa 為高。文章連結可在這裡找到: Face Recognition: Clever or Just Plain Creepy?



MIT Technology Review 的地位就如 IT 界的 Harvard Business Review，如果閣下對科技資訊有濃厚興趣 (當然也要有點認識) ，這本雙月刊將能令你對最新科技發展瞭如指掌! 不想買雜誌的話，你也可以選擇訂閱它的 Twitter feed，足不出戶掌握最新科技資訊。

我常說 iPhone 2G 是最買抵的手提電話，撇除我是 Mac 粉絲這個因素，Apple 其實對我們這些老主顧不賴。推出了兩年，不但 firmware 更新不斷，配合 OS X 和 iTunes 等軟件，Apple 為我們帶來的新功能更是兩年前想也沒想過的。

今年一月團契退修營和幾位弟兄興之所至跑到浸信會神學院的天台去，隨手拿起 iPhone 來拍了一幀照片，最近把玩 3.0 beta 時打開 iPhoto 看看，呵... GSM-based locational service + iPhoto 09 竟能夠如此準確地標示出當時位於烏溪沙的拍攝位置!

以兩歲大兼沒有 GPS 晶片的老電話來說，不能再投訴了吧?

[太陽報 4 月 17日訊] 澳門再宣布大手筆派錢紓困措施，將向每名澳門永久居民派發六千澳門元。相比港府孤寒守財、遲遲不肯加碼紓困，港人無不羨煞連續第二年獲派錢的澳門人。立法會議員王國興表示，澳門紓困措施立竿見影，「落藥」力度遠遠大於香港，港府明顯相形見絀，預料港人怨氣必更沸騰。王國興認為政府有大量盈餘及儲備，六千元強積金注資卻叫打工仔「有得睇冇得使」，甚至連派糖也「一鑊泡」。

計我話，如果香港媒體都好似太陽報咁嘩眾取寵，唯恐天下不亂，香港就真係無救! 究竟太陽報 D 編輯同記者寫 D 咁煽情兼非理性既新聞頭條時，有無先用常識同媒體應有既良知去衡量應唔應該寫? 有無想過亂咁寫左出黎對社會所做成既影響?

香港有 700 多萬人，其中有 670 萬被定義為常住居民 (永久性居民數字我一時間搵唔到) ，假設香港政府照辦煮碗每人派 6 千，即係 4 百幾億! 4 百幾億呀老細，唔係 4 百幾蚊，你估特區政府識變錢架? D 錢咪又係納稅人既錢! 今年財爺份預算案估計年度赤字大概4 百億，如果再派錢即係 8 百億。響而家呢 D 零勾地、公司利得稅收入勢必大跌既環境，我真係唔明呢 D 下三流報章點可能仲要求政府派錢? 我唔係話澳門唔慘，但係澳門嚴格來說並唔係一個多元市場，政府收入和支出結構較香港簡單，要兼顧既野比香港少得多。

王國興議員話「澳門紓困措施立竿見影」，佢究竟知唔知澳門實際有幾「困」? 澳門得果 55 萬人，2009 年第一季失業率僅 3.6%，金融海嘯裁減既大部份係建築同酒店業外僱，其中好多係香港人。香港同期失業率高達 5.3%，叫政府每人派 6 千蚊，不如比 D 更有建設性既提議去創造職位吧啦! 王議員，唔該你下次做左功課先好講野，你每個月逗緊納稅人$65,263，做立法會議員做到唔經大腦、唔理三七廿一係唔係都鬧左先，咁你同維園論政 D 阿伯有咩分別? 點解你 deserve 呢份糧? 俾下面，唔好失禮自己失禮選民。

Thanks to generous beta testers and wise Google-searching, I grabbed iPhone firmware 3.0 build 7A280f (aka beta 3) the day it was released (April 14th, that is) and have been using it ever since.

Seems to me this version offers improved stability but lacking major changes, the most notable change to me (or was it a bug?) is that in this version, you may no longer edit the APN setting of your carrier in the “Cellular Data” menu. I have no idea about 3G iPhones but I had no problem using GPRS on my classic 2G. (shown in the screenshot above)

Having watched recently the DVD release of Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor and just 30 mins ago a re-run of the original Mummy on aTV World, there is one thing I need to be heard: Please bring back Rachel Weisz!

No offense to Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, but Mummy 3 was a piece of crap, and without Rachel starring as Evy has declared it crappy at first sight! At the end of the Mummy's third sequel, a clue has been given for a successor plot in Peru, where Evy's hopeless brother Jonathan moves from Shanghai to. Should there ever be a part 4, forget about the laughed-me-to-death Himalayan Yetis and bring Rachel back!

For those who also admire the charming actress like I do, rumor has that Rachel is going to play the new Catwoman in the next Batman flik! Now that's gonna be a sexy meow....