I wanted to force quit it but it did not appear in the Force Quit list. Restarting the computer is one solution but my experience tells me it should always serve as the last resort and in most cases, it shouldn’t be considered as a solution at all. So how?

I found that just two UNIX commands can easily settle the problem:-

First enter top in Terminal and you will see a list of running processes on your system (just like the Activity Monitor). Spot for The Unachiver and its PID.

Then, enter the second command: kill -9 PID

Problem resolved!

“好”事成双。>.<

There was once a belief:

Humans and only humans make tools – Men are the tool makers.

Chimps make tools too!

“We must now redefine men, redefine tools, or except chimpanzees are humans.” ~  Louis Leakey, as described by Jane Goodall in TED 2002.

In 1871, when Charles Darwin first presented his theory of humans and apes sharing a common ancestor, almost no one in the world agreed with him except his closest supporters. His idea raised fiercest furor among the theologians, who obstinately believed that God created humans in His own image. To them, mankind was unique, the only animal with a soul, little lower than the angels…

Undeniably, since centuries ago humans have been arrogantly claiming themselves to be the most superior living species on Earth with most developed complex cognitive functions. However, in Dec 2007, a research outcome presented by the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University has given a big slap in humans’ face. Humans have been proven to be inferior to chimpanzees when it comes to numerical memory.

Ai project, a research program started in 1978, is a research aimed at understanding the chimpanzee cognition through computer interface experiments. The principal subject, Ai (爱), a 32-year-old female chimp and her son, Ayumu (步), 8 years old, have been taught the ascending order of Arabic numerals from 0 to 9 and trained to perform a series of short-term memory tasks on a touch-screen monitor. In a memory test conducted by the research team in 2007, Ayumu (then 7-year-old) and another two young chimps stunned the humans with their superb memory in numerical recollection. The chimps beat a group of university students in recalling the replacement of numbers flashed on the computer screen. 

Ai, who learned all these tasks for more than two decades, has a more interesting character. She does not like making mistakes. Renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall mentioned about it in her TED Conference talk. According to Dr. Goodall, when Ai did not score well in her memory game, she desired for another attempt until satisfaction of her performance.

“She has already concentrated hard for 20 minutes or so and now she wants to do it all over again just for the satisfaction of having done it better. And the food is not important. She does get a tiny reward like one raisin for correct response but she will do it for nothing if you tell her beforehand.”, Dr. Goodall told the audience.

That’s what amazes me the most. And yeah, one of my new year resolutions is, I want to learn from a chimp. Hu hu ha ha

Struggling with her loss of brain functions, Dr. Taylor managed to get herself to the phone side, found her colleague’s contact and called him for help. Unlike normal persons, that was an extremely difficult process for her. She told the audience she spent 45 minutes to go through an inch thick of business card stack and finally found her colleague’s. However, she could not recognize any of the symbols on the business card. What she did was to match the symbol’s shape on the card with the one on the phone pad and pressed the matched digits one by one using her paralyzed right hand. When she finally got the number dialed, she realized that she could not decipher her colleague’s speech nor hers at all — her language ability was totally lost. Fortunately, her colleague sensed that she needed help and came to her rescue. She has survived the stroke.

As a brain scientist, Dr. Taylor knew well how the brain functions and affects the body. And she was calm enough to handle the situation. But think about your elderly parents and grandparents. How would they react if something similar happened to them? What if they failed to handle such critical situation by themselves? What if they were alone at home? What if they were unable to make a call for help? There are just too many what-ifs we can imagine, but if you love them, do consider the worst scenarios they could encounter and start taking safety precautions now.

A medical alarm system is designed to assist the elderly just in case they need immediate help but happened to be alone. Unlike the conventional panic buttons, BrickHouse Alert Tele-Assist features a fall alert detector that automatically alerts the emergency personnel that the wearer has fallen and cannot even push a button for assistance. The system is ideal for home. So if you have to leave your parents or grandparents alone at home, Tele-Assist can help you to watch over them like a live helper yet without interfering their activity.

Outdoors, the Mobile GPS connects the wearer to live help at anytime and anywhere in the world. The GPS powered bracelet comes with a two-way built-in speakerphone that can be used like a cell phone and call for help with just a press of a button. In an emergency, the operator can immediately see where exactly the wearer is and thus summon help efficiently. In cases of wandering, that the wearer does not know where he or she is, due to Alzheimer’s, alert is automatically activated when wearer wanders outside of the designated area. The operator will call the wearer on the bracelet and dispatch help if necessary.

Protect your loved ones like how they protected you when you were a child. You can give them more with the medical alarm systems. In the case that you can’t be there immediately for their rescue, help is on the way.

Most of the food in the restaurant are of Italian style and they are not cheap, as in comparing with the typical food price here. After skimming through the menu, I ordered a set of Italian pasta called Aglio Olio. 

It took a rather long time to get the food served. Just when I was about to eat, I realized something was wrong with the pasta. It looked a little too plain, something was missing. Oh yes, there was no broccoli on the pasta. I remembered I read about it in the menu. Feeling unsatisfied, I called the waiter and asked him where had the broccoli gone. He was rather surprised that he thought he had served up the wrong order. He took a menu to me and verified. I pointed the description of the pasta to him, which stated that the food was to be served with broccoli. He apologized to me and took the pasta back to the kitchen.

After a while, the food arrived. I saw no broccoli but only cauliflower. I looked at the waiter and said: “This is not broccoli. This is cauliflower and it’s different.” The waiter apologized and told me, ” I’m sorry, Miss. We only have this. Hope you don’t mind.” Lucky him that I was in a good mood and was pretty hungry then. I just let it be and didn’t push ahead.

Later, the waiter approached me with a serving of chocolate dessert and told me it was offered for free by the restaurant as an apology. Not bad. At least some degrees of sincerity was shown. I accepted. 

While paying the bill, I said to the waiter, “Just an advice for you. Broccoli and cauliflower are two different things. They are of different values in term of price and nutrition. If you continue to serve your customers like replacing the broccoli with cauliflower, you’ll get into troubles very soon. Cauliflower is much cheaper than broccoli. I know that.” He apologized to me again and told me their broccoli was currently “out of stock”. What a lame pretext but I didn’t bother to argue with him. 

That’s it. This will be the last time I pay patronage to this restaurant. The chef of this restaurant has no etiquette at all. First, he was trying to fool me by quietly serving the broccoli-less pasta, thinking that me as a first-time customer wouldn’t have realized it. Unfortunately, I did. Second, he was trying to fool me again by replacing the broccoli with cauliflower, thinking that I must be an idiot for not being able to differentiate between these two vegetables. Unfortunately, I did it again. I don’t know if I’m the first victim, but I suppose they will do the same thing to others during their “broccoli-short” period. Yet, I don’t think the others, especially youngsters will respond the same as me. Probably they won’t even realize it.

Anyway, I know someone who will definitely bang the table, give them a hell then cancel the order and leave. >.< I think I shall learn from him and scold like him next time, but it’s not easy at all. It’s not just barking like those typical obnoxious boors do, without brain.

Last time I would go for the cheapest shoes and not care much about the shoe’s brand and design. I felt that no matter how good the running shoes can be, it will still need to be replaced after some time of wear or some distance of run. So why spend so much on it? But running with a poorly designed and engineered shoes is likely to risk your feet to injuries that could lead to a disaster for you. I learned the lesson when the bunion on my right big toe was obviously worsening during my intensive half marathon training. It hurt whenever I put on my running shoes. My doctor had advised me to invest in a pair of good shoes that meet my biomechanical needs. The most important factors are quality, comfort, and safety; price, the last.

When a person recommends you to buy some big-branded shoes for they will improve your running performance, don’t take his words for granted. Not even if he is able to explain to you the strengths of the shoes in details. His feet are not equal to your feet. He and you do not run the same. So, the best is, you understand your biomechanical needs and running conditions, and you choose your own pair of shoes that suit you well based on your individual needs.

Basically, running shoes can be classified into three major categories: cushioned shoes, stability shoes, and motion-control shoes, according to individual’s biomechanical needs; and three minor ones: performance training shoes, racing shoes, and off-road shoes, which are designed for specific running conditions. Major manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Asics, to name but a new are well versed in designing and innovating the running shoes to provide greater comfort, stability, breathability, durability, motion control and lighter weight for different types of runner. However, there are no perfect shoes for everyone, although some shoes could be perfect to you. Despite of their high reliability, all these brands have their pros and cons in many different aspects. So, it is wise to do a thorough research before you decide to buy. Find out more information here.

As for me, I need roomy shoes with wide toe box, so that there is enough space for my bunion and orthotics. I prefer New Balance’s motion control running shoes for this reason. I’ve got a pair of New Balance W587 and I love it very much. It looks really plain but provides excellent comfort and stability. An advice for you anyway, if you plan to order one from the online stores. Do order a half size larger than your regular street shoes as New Balance runs small.

All in all, good luck in picking your own shoes.

Got sandwich?

Nowadays I prefer online shopping for its two main advantages: convenience and wide choices. Convenience in the sense that I can easily find a product in possibly less than a second, and I can shop at anytime I like. Shopping and placing an order in the midnight are just fine. Also, my choices are no longer confined to one or few shops. With a powerful search engine, I can effortlessly access to the online shopping stores worldwide and compare the price. Most of the price offered by the stores are reasonable, sometimes surprisingly cheap.

My last online shopping was few months ago, after I read about Nintendo’s new video game, Wii Fit. I was fascinated by its fun-and-fitness approach in getting the user to stay health-conscious. The game is not designed only for youngsters, but for anyone above the age of 3 years, provided he/she is physically fit for the activities in the game. I thought it is just ideal for my family, especially the seniors who dislike outdoor activities. I searched online and found a list of online stores promoting the product. After surveying the price, I think it’s worth investing in a Wii Fit as it is a lot cheaper than the conventional workout machines but more fun, flexible and multipurpose in exercise wise. I ordered one with price £69.00 and received the product in less than 2 weeks time. It is just perfect.

So how to make it in Gmail? Here is a trick for you.

First upload your images to Flickr (sign up an account if you aren’t a Flickr user). Set the privacy to Public.

Then download and install the social web browser, Flock.

Launch Flock and go to one of its homepages “My World”. Go to Friend Activity and click Flickr. You’ll be directed to the website. Log in and choose the image you wish to insert. 

There is an option bar appear on top of the image. Click Blog as if you’re going to write a blog entry. You’ll be asked to set up a blog account. You can ignore it (if you don’t plan to) by clicking Continue.

A blog editor containing your selected image will pop up. Now open a new tab in Flock and go to your Gmail account. Drag the image from the blog editor window to your Gmail message box.

Complete your email and send it. Your recipient will get your inline image mail like this:

Well, it does not seem a good solution but if you can’t find any, it is nevertheless an useful solution to embed image in Gmail rather than attaching it as a separate file. Other suggestions are welcome.