In our less confident times, a new ruler could find lots of literature
on just this subject, and one best-seller has become so famous that its
title has entered the language: 'How to Win Friends and Influence
People' has sold over 15 million copies, telling us all how to do
exactly what it says on the cover. But, strangely, nowhere in that book
does it mention one very obvious strategy that the power-brokers in
Imperial China of two thousand years ago knew very well, and practised
brilliantly: don't just 'say' encouraging things; 'give' your target a
hugely extravagant present.
...The Chinese still know that the best gifts are always the ones that only
the giver can command. In the time of the Han Dynasty, that was silk
and lacquer cups. Today, when China wants to establish friendly
relations, it still gives the present that nobody else can match - it's
known as Panda Diplomacy.
Source: BBC A History of the World in 100 Objects
Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. --Shawshank Redemption
2012年11月28日 星期三
A History of the World in 100 Objects: Episode 33 - Rosetta Stone
But, as so often in the British Museum, appearances are deceiving......
Over two thousand years ago, from the Mediterranean and the Middle East to India and China, these leaders found different ways of physically projecting their power and their authority. Today's programme is particularly fascinating though, because it's a special case. It's about a ruler who is not strong but weak, a king who has to bargain for and protect his power by borrowing the invincible strength of the gods or, more precisely, the priests.......
The Rosetta Stone was made in 196 BC, on the first anniversary of the coronation of Ptolemy V, by then a teenager. It's a decree issued by Egyptian priests, ostensibly to mark the coronation and to declare Ptolemy's new status as a living god - divinity went with the job of being a pharaoh. The priests had given Ptolemy a full Egyptian coronation at the sacred city of Memphis, and this greatly strengthened his position as the rightful ruler of Egypt. But there was a trade-off. Ptolemy may have become a god, but to get there he'd had to negotiate some very unheavenly politics with his extremely powerful Egyptian priests.......
Source: BBC Episode 33 - Rosetta Stone
Over two thousand years ago, from the Mediterranean and the Middle East to India and China, these leaders found different ways of physically projecting their power and their authority. Today's programme is particularly fascinating though, because it's a special case. It's about a ruler who is not strong but weak, a king who has to bargain for and protect his power by borrowing the invincible strength of the gods or, more precisely, the priests.......
The Rosetta Stone was made in 196 BC, on the first anniversary of the coronation of Ptolemy V, by then a teenager. It's a decree issued by Egyptian priests, ostensibly to mark the coronation and to declare Ptolemy's new status as a living god - divinity went with the job of being a pharaoh. The priests had given Ptolemy a full Egyptian coronation at the sacred city of Memphis, and this greatly strengthened his position as the rightful ruler of Egypt. But there was a trade-off. Ptolemy may have become a god, but to get there he'd had to negotiate some very unheavenly politics with his extremely powerful Egyptian priests.......
Source: BBC Episode 33 - Rosetta Stone
2012年11月15日 星期四
A History of the World in 100 Objects: Episode 28 - Basse Yutz Flagons
A feast with these flagons at the centre would leave the visitors to
these new rulers in no doubt at all that the people they were visiting
were sophisticated, international, cosmopolitan and rich.
Source: Basse Yutz Flagons
Source: Basse Yutz Flagons
2012年10月30日 星期二
A History of the World in 100 objects: Episode 20 - Statue of Ramesses II
"He very much understood that being visible was central to the success
of the kingship, so he put up as many colossal statues as he could, very
very quickly. He built temples to the traditional gods of Egypt, and
this kind of activity has been interpreted as being bombastic - showing
off and so on, but we really need to see it in the context of the
requirements of the kingship. People needed a strong leader and they
understood a strong leader to be a king who was out there campaigning on
behalf of Egypt, and was very visible within Egypt."
Source: A History of the World in 100 Objects-Statue of Ramesses II
Source: A History of the World in 100 Objects-Statue of Ramesses II
2012年10月1日 星期一
5 Days OCJP
說五天還真不是開玩笑的，因為我個人犯了個相當兩光的錯誤，去年就買好的考試券期限是2012/09/30，我一直天真的以為9/30前完成報名就好；殊不知是9/30前要考完，若選10/1以後的日期，報名送出時會說考試券限制9/30以前日期。我在周一大驚的發現這件事，驚惶未定中報名了周五的考試，之後就開始了每天下班念書的日子。
在不想浪費錢的心態驅使下拚著念，最後88% Pass，這五天來念書總時數約20小時，因為時間有限所以直攻OCP猛虎出閘題庫。如果能每題都完全弄懂、每題都實際去修改程式執行編譯，功力真的會大增；就算只是題庫全部看完，也可以全面了解JAVA的觀念，因為工作就是寫JAVA和JSP的，因此可以快速上手。我有看過所有題目，每題都有思考過才選答，考試當天早起再review約100題。後來證明這個極有幫助，考試的時候正好有不少考題都從剛看過記憶猶新的題目中出現，所以我想若當天早起review過所有題目應該會更厲害。
最大的收穫是增進對implements、extends和物件觀念的了解，至於一些需要實作的部分，如：thread, garbage collection等等就真的要去寫去執行，才會全面理解而不只是看懂而已。我覺得比較難的部分是拖曳題（完全沒出）和觀念題（就是那種敘述很長最後問你是缺少什麼特性的那種題目），觀念題舉例：http://magicloren.blogspot.tw/search?q=cohesion；還有要小心陷阱題，陷阱題就是消耗時間的題目，讓人認真地看完所有題目想出結果，挫折的發現答案竟然是Compilation fails or An exception occurs at runtime.，陷阱題舉例：http://magicloren.blogspot.tw/2009/02/129.html，
這篇文章對於陷阱題做了整理─SCJP考題中的陷阱，由於陷阱題的存在，建議還是做個題目了解題目的走向。
網路上有很多SCJP的244題題庫資源，我想考試時大部分考題都來自244題，我在猛虎多讀到的是assertion和很多map系列題目，含navigable map(SE 6)，以下整理SCJP題庫供參考：
報名網址：http://www.pearsonvue.com/oracle/exams/（這邊有報名指引），考場我是選資策會台北中心(Institute for Information Industry ( III ) )，在復興南路上，捷運大安站斜對面。要帶雙證件，其中一個證件要有英文姓名及簽名（我用身分證、信用卡），不清楚可致電考場詢問。建議15分鐘前到達考場，要驗證件、簽名及拍照，手續都完成可提前進場。考場提供一個上鎖的櫃子，身上不能有任何東西，進場是攜帶考場提供的一張Pearson VUE可擦拭重複使用的計算板及筆，若真的覺得不夠用可詢問是否多拿，我是一張還留1/3空間可用。
資策會的考場我猜有兩個房間，因為是周五報名的人不多，只開放一間，我是考12:30的，所以有很長一段時間只有我一個人在那一排大概6個位置裡；很怕干擾的建議挑平日第一場，後來就陸續有兩個人進場考試，這時候就會聽到別的滑鼠聲、書寫聲或是考生的思考聲。考試時間150分鐘，共60題，好像有最低交卷時限，我是仔細看慢慢寫，不確定的就mark起來回頭用Review去看，最後再用Review All全部檢查一次，用了2個小時左右。按下Finish交卷的時候馬上就知道成績跟是否通過了，之後就去櫃檯領成績單和簽退，若通過就可以快樂的帶著成績單離開。
在不想浪費錢的心態驅使下拚著念，最後88% Pass，這五天來念書總時數約20小時，因為時間有限所以直攻OCP猛虎出閘題庫。如果能每題都完全弄懂、每題都實際去修改程式執行編譯，功力真的會大增；就算只是題庫全部看完，也可以全面了解JAVA的觀念，因為工作就是寫JAVA和JSP的，因此可以快速上手。我有看過所有題目，每題都有思考過才選答，考試當天早起再review約100題。後來證明這個極有幫助，考試的時候正好有不少考題都從剛看過記憶猶新的題目中出現，所以我想若當天早起review過所有題目應該會更厲害。
最大的收穫是增進對implements、extends和物件觀念的了解，至於一些需要實作的部分，如：thread, garbage collection等等就真的要去寫去執行，才會全面理解而不只是看懂而已。我覺得比較難的部分是拖曳題（完全沒出）和觀念題（就是那種敘述很長最後問你是缺少什麼特性的那種題目），觀念題舉例：http://magicloren.blogspot.tw/search?q=cohesion；還有要小心陷阱題，陷阱題就是消耗時間的題目，讓人認真地看完所有題目想出結果，挫折的發現答案竟然是Compilation fails or An exception occurs at runtime.，陷阱題舉例：http://magicloren.blogspot.tw/2009/02/129.html，
這篇文章對於陷阱題做了整理─SCJP考題中的陷阱，由於陷阱題的存在，建議還是做個題目了解題目的走向。
網路上有很多SCJP的244題題庫資源，我想考試時大部分考題都來自244題，我在猛虎多讀到的是assertion和很多map系列題目，含navigable map(SE 6)，以下整理SCJP題庫供參考：
- 陳富國(Wells)-SCJP題庫244題
PS. 個人覺得解說比較詳細，但答案沒有隱藏，很容易不小心看到 - JAVA, SCJP 進修（共244題）
PS. 答案有隱藏，較適合做題目 - 黃彬華老師的244題題庫
- SCJP 5.0練習題（共180題）
- SCJP 6.0考古題解析 (1~150)
報名網址：http://www.pearsonvue.com/oracle/exams/（這邊有報名指引），考場我是選資策會台北中心(Institute for Information Industry ( III ) )，在復興南路上，捷運大安站斜對面。要帶雙證件，其中一個證件要有英文姓名及簽名（我用身分證、信用卡），不清楚可致電考場詢問。建議15分鐘前到達考場，要驗證件、簽名及拍照，手續都完成可提前進場。考場提供一個上鎖的櫃子，身上不能有任何東西，進場是攜帶考場提供的一張Pearson VUE可擦拭重複使用的計算板及筆，若真的覺得不夠用可詢問是否多拿，我是一張還留1/3空間可用。
資策會的考場我猜有兩個房間，因為是周五報名的人不多，只開放一間，我是考12:30的，所以有很長一段時間只有我一個人在那一排大概6個位置裡；很怕干擾的建議挑平日第一場，後來就陸續有兩個人進場考試，這時候就會聽到別的滑鼠聲、書寫聲或是考生的思考聲。考試時間150分鐘，共60題，好像有最低交卷時限，我是仔細看慢慢寫，不確定的就mark起來回頭用Review去看，最後再用Review All全部檢查一次，用了2個小時左右。按下Finish交卷的時候馬上就知道成績跟是否通過了，之後就去櫃檯領成績單和簽退，若通過就可以快樂的帶著成績單離開。
2012年9月25日 星期二
A History of the World in 100 objects: Episode 8 - Maya maize god statue
Nowadays we like to say 'we are what we eat', but for generations among the faithful, it's been equally true to say 'we worship what we eat'.
---
'Maize culture faces two new problems, one being the use of maize as a bio-fuel and the increment of prices, where it directly affects the Mexican population. The other problem being the genetically-modified maize, it's almost personally offensive - and religiously - that you are playing God, as it were ... it's just very sensitive. Especially when you take corn to be used for other purposes other than to be eaten or be worshiped, but rather to be put into a car - it becomes a highly controversial issue.'
So even today for some people it's unthinkable that maize, the divine food, should end up in a petrol tank. Well beyond Mexico, the idea of genetic modification of crops still causes deep unease, as much religious as scientific - a sense that the natural order is being disturbed, that humans are trespassing on territory that's properly reserved for the gods. In a very real sense, the Mexican maize god is still alive, and he's not to be trifled with.
From BBC
---
'Maize culture faces two new problems, one being the use of maize as a bio-fuel and the increment of prices, where it directly affects the Mexican population. The other problem being the genetically-modified maize, it's almost personally offensive - and religiously - that you are playing God, as it were ... it's just very sensitive. Especially when you take corn to be used for other purposes other than to be eaten or be worshiped, but rather to be put into a car - it becomes a highly controversial issue.'
So even today for some people it's unthinkable that maize, the divine food, should end up in a petrol tank. Well beyond Mexico, the idea of genetic modification of crops still causes deep unease, as much religious as scientific - a sense that the natural order is being disturbed, that humans are trespassing on territory that's properly reserved for the gods. In a very real sense, the Mexican maize god is still alive, and he's not to be trifled with.
From BBC
2012年9月20日 星期四
A History of the World in 100 objects: Episode 6 - Bird-shaped pestle
We're very familiar now with the idea that making food unites us, either
as a family or a society, and we all know how much family memory and
emotion is bound up in the pots and pans and wooden spoons of childhood.
These sorts of associations seem to date from around ten thousand
years ago; from the very beginning of cooking implements, roughly the
period of our pestle.
Beautifully Written
Source: A History of the World in 100 objects: Episode 6 - Bird-shaped pestle
Beautifully Written
Source: A History of the World in 100 objects: Episode 6 - Bird-shaped pestle