maxxworld

Hello Mr. Jobs,

I recently dropped my iPhone and the glass screen broke. I brought it to my local Apple Store (King of Prussia, PA) to get it fixed, and it cost me $299 (the same price I paid for the new phone back in September)!

I am a poor college student, and this price is too much for me. I do not mind paying lots of money for quality products and service. (In fact, I love it!) But $299 to replace a glass screen on a phone that works perfectly well otherwise? This is too much!

I do not understand why it would cost any more than $150 to replace a glass screen. And why does it cost more to replace the glass screen on a 16GB iPhone as opposed to the 8GB model? ($299 vs. $199). Does the 16GB iPhone have better glass?

I realize that I am receiving a refurbished different iPhone in place of by broken iPhone. But if I don’t get to keep my broken iPhone anyway, why should it cost more for 16GB iphone users?

I love my iPhone, and I spend money on the iPhone app store almost every week. I am a loyal and passionate Apple fan, but today my faith in this little-big great company has been greatly diminished.

-Maxx H Cho
www.maxxworld.co.cc

Walking into Essie Mae’s for a late dinner at 10:30PM is usually a dismal experience. The grill is off, and the cold lunch meats are already half-packed and ready to be put in the fridge. Of course, all the pizza and wings are gone, and for some reason the lazy staff isn’t frying up fries or fingers anymore. But severe limitations always yield the best creativity, and this is no exception. 

I ordered myself an egg salad sandwich (in whole-wheat bread, of course) with Jalepeno peppers and some sliced tomatoes- and voila! Perhaps one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. If you get the chance, you should try this someday. The creamy and savory egg salad goes perfect with the tart tomatoes and the spicy peppers. Mmmm.

So I had nostalgia for some old games like Lemmings and SimTower, but unfortunately, the Mac version of these games were only available for Mac OS 9. Being on an intel Mac with Leopard, it wasn’t possible to run these programs immediately. So I spent a good deal of yesterday and today trying to get an emulation of Mac OS 9 to work on my Macbook.

Sheepshaver is an open-source solution that emulates a PowerPC to run Mac OS 9 on an intel Mac, but like many open-source apps, they don’t make it easy. I had to track down various Macintosh ROM files of old PowerPCs, and also fiddle with a preference file in Terminal. o_O yikes! Nevertheless, I was successful, and I feel smarter for having done it. Here are some screenshots:

The legendary Mac OS 9 booting inside Leopard!

Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X side-by-side.

I even got Internet to work inside this thing.

As you can see, the visual style of this blog is much more streamlined and professional now. I really like the clean and simple look of this new theme.

But there are improvements to things you cannot see as well. The Wordpress backbone has been upgraded to the latest version, and the sidebar has been completely widgetized! Now, I no longer have to create my custom sidebar (with the twitter updates and all) every time I change my theme.

Neat.

I have observed something very curious about studying mathematics. Ideas that seem very complicated and hard-to-grasp at first seem to make much more sense a day or two later, even if I haven’t done any additional studying. For example, when I first read about simplicial homology, it was very confusing and frustrating. But the very next day, everything just clicked, and it all made sense. It is somewhat difficult to describe how this change happened, but nevertheless I felt very comfortable with the material after sleeping on it.

There are two possible explanations for this, and I have seen different mathematicians arguing for both. The first possibility is that you just get used to the material. As the famous saying goes, “You don’t ever learn mathematics, you just get used to it.” While that quote seemed somewhat crazy to me 2 years ago, now I know why such an aphorism exists. There really is a process that most math students go through, where even very complicated ideas suddenly become very comfortable after a day or two. Proponents of this theory would hold that, where as upon first learning one is concerned with the reasons and justifications for the new ideas and theorems, one begins to shift focus on the results themselves rather than the reasons for them as comfort settles in. And by shifting focus to the “what” rather than the “why”, the topic seems “easier”.

The second explanation is that your subconscious works out details while you are sleeping, hence you have really understood the material better the next day, even if you haven’t deliberately studied. Apparently Poincare was a big proponent of this idea, and hence he never worked on problems for more than short spurts at a time. I think I have also read somewhere that Einstein was sleeping almost 14 hours a day when he was working on Relativity.

I think both explanations are plausible, and a little of both are probably true. One thing is for sure: cramming for math doesn’t work. And studying for extended periods of time also doesn’t work. Frequent breaks are needed to solidify the material, which is exactly what I am doing right now.

The Swarthmore Christian Fellowship held a meeting today, where three of its members gave a personal testimony about God in their lives. I attended out of curiosity.

As I suspected, the talks themselves were incredibly personal and moving – but also lacking in evidence. Everytime a speaker used the word “God”, you could have replaced it with “aspiration”, “motivation” or something similar. In other words, while the emotions they were feeling were genuine, they are also identically available to the nonbeliever- except with the knowledge of truth that it’s only the workings of our very complicated psychology, not anything supernatural.

At times, I wanted to get up and ask point-blank “Do you believe that Jesus was literally born from a Virgin?” Afterall, isn’t that one of the most important aspects to being a Christian? And I suspect that their true beliefs about this is a complicated amalgam of wishy-washy, poetic, metaphorical certainty and faith. But in the end, it is a perfectly plain question with a perfectly plain answer- either Jesus of Nazareth was born from a virgin, or he was not.

One thing that struck me greatly was the kindness and candor of the people there. I have been aware of the very pleasant, but sometimes saccharine, kindness of Christians, but it struck me in a new way when I experienced it myself. It is all very pleasant and nice, and made me realize that many stay faithful for the wonderful community more than anything else.

But all that nice atmosphere, kind generosity, and genuine emotions have no bearing on objective reality. For that, we must turn to dispassionate testing and observation. I think the biggest “flaw” many modern American Christians have is mixing emotional conviction with truth. Just because you “feel” something doesn’t mean it’s true. It must be verified independently.

In the end though, these people are pretty harmless. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the religious in other parts of the world.

In my ever-ongoing efforts to combat procrastination, I have been observing how other efficient and productive people deal with stress and fatigue, if they ever encounter any at all. I have made some very interesting discoveries.

First, there appear to be a cultural difference of work ethic between Americans(that is, predominantly white academics types) and Koreans (including Korean-Americans). This difference is very subtle on some levels, but also vastly different on other levels. And this difference of work ethic is what leads to the apparent academic success of most Asian Americans in their teenage years. Interestingly enough, this work ethic that drives Asian teenagers to success is also what ultimately leads to their demise later on in life (most likely in college).

Put simply, there is a brutal efficiency and simple-mindedness with which Americans do work. There is an emotional detachment to performing the daily commitments that allows them to apply themselves day-in and day- out with comparatively less stress. The opposite is true for Asian-Americans. They tend to invest a lot of “mental energy” into even the most routine tasks. Every task is an emotional event, for good or for worse. This leads to better outcome at first, but also leads to quick burn-outs. It also results in initial greater physical productivity at the cost of greater mental stress.

This cultural difference permeates every fabric of the two societies. One of the most common conceits in Korean TV Soap operas is the story of the Underdog, who devotes his entire life to a certain craft, like brewing wine or studying law, sacrificing everything along the way, including his family, friends, and whatever else, and ultimately ends up as the CEO of a wine company, or a highly successful international lawyer. Implicit in all this is the exceedingly high mental investment into his goals. What I’m trying to say is, Koreans tend to have a “All-in or not worth doing” mentality. What do Americans say? “Take it easy, man.”

The end result is almost exactly the opposite of what one would expect. Where as in the Korean TV shows the “all-in” mentality leads to great success, in reality it leads to burn outs and failure due to too much stress. On the other hand, the American mentality of “Take it easy” actually takes you pretty far. Performing daily tasks with a somewhat emotional detachment allows one to be more productive with less stress.

My lesson from all this is that I’m going to try to “Take it easy.” But the trick is to only “take it easy” mentally and emotionally, while still applying myself physically with emotional detachment. In other words, perform tasks out of habit rather than out of necessity. This seems to be the best approach to maximizing productivity.

Reports from Taiwan suggest that Apple may launch next month a new iPod that looks, feels and works like an iPhone, but without the phone part.

DigiTimes, a Taiwan-based publication that often leaks details about local companies that make electronic components for companies worldwide, says Taiwan-based Wintek has won a large touchscreen display contract for Apple’s next media player.

If Apple does ship an iPhone-like iPod, it would likely prove popular. Millions want the advanced, multitouch interface of the iPhone, but balk at moving to AT&T, dumping their 80GB iPods for 8GB iPhones, or moving from a 3G phone to EDGE data speeds.

From http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9026900

When all those silly iFanBoys lined up for days to buy a 600 dollar phone with clumsy typing and only 1/10th the capacity of a regular iPod, I shall be basking in the glory of a REAL iPod that can actually store all of my music at once, AND also have the killer touch-screen multimedia capabilities of the iPhone. And, I won’t have to dish out close to thousand dollars a year to AT&T to use it. I shall have the last laughter.

I wonder if this iPhone-without-the-phone iPod will still have WiFi and a web browser?

My roommate is in the math research program with me. He is a physics and math double major, and is pretty smart. And he is Mormon. And he does not believe in evolution. What force, other than religion, could make such a smart man of science reject perhaps the most important and the most well-documented theory in the history of science? Religion.

It’s one thing to believe in something for which there is no evidence one way or the other, like God. Call it faith, if you will. But it is quite another to actively ignore evidence and believe in something which the evidence has clearly ruled out, like creationism. This is just pure stupidity.

It is sad that, despite the back-breaking efforts of so many scientists, faith and religion is putting people back in the 16th century.

Last Sunday, I visited a local Mormon ward (equivalent of a church) with my Mormon roommate. It was a ward composed mainly of the tenants living in my apartment, and the service took place inside a chemistry lecture hall on the BYU campus. I could not help but notice the irony of the fact that there was a huge Periodic Table of the Elements hung at the front of the lecture hall. I was curious as to why we did not have service at one of the gorgeous (or cult-like) looking Mormon Temples I had seen around town, and I would soon find out the sinister answer to this later.

So the service broke apart into 3 parts. The first part is the most similar to a typical Christian worship – singing hymns, doing congregational prayers, etc… And you can bet that during the prayers, I proudly kept my head up and kept my eyes open. I was proud to be the only person in the room who was not superstitious. The one different thing about a Mormon service is that there is no sermon. In fact, the Mormons don’t have a pastor. They only have a Bishop, which is more like a guidance couselor for the ward with a direct line to God. So instead of a sermon, they have “testimonies”. And this is one of the most brilliant brain-washing schemes I have ever witnessed.

Here is the idea: during Testimonies, any ward member is free to volunteer, come up to the podium, and deliver a “testimony”. They usually talk about how they personally experienced the love of God, how God helped him/her during the week, etc. And nearly every person who walked up to the podium started crying. Mormonism is not a passive religion, folks. It’s not like the typical Methodist who just shows up to church every Sunday out of habit. It’s a bonified cult. The most striking part about the testimonies was that EVERY person repeated the line “I believe in Joseph Smith the prophet, Gordon B. Hinkley the president of the church, a seer, revelator, and a prophet, and I believe that this is the only true church on this Earth.” Of course, no body ever explained WHY they believe these things. Only a repetition of “I KNOW this to be true” could be heard. Talk about faith.

This really is brilliant. Rather than have some authority figure (like a pastor) lecture you on why you should believe, they have your Peers do it. How much more effective this must be! And the self-riteousness of these people who walk up to the podium and do these testimonies. They must feel as though they are somehow spiritually superior for doing so. The whole ceremony is a total brain-washing tool, driven by peer-pressure and a collective sense of riteousness.

From my experience, the main difference about Mormonism in practice (as opposed to its theological backgrounds) to other forms of Christianity is its emphasis on Revelations. They claim that because they are the only ones in direct communication with God, they are the only true Christian church. All the other churches and denominations are wrong because they have fallen into “apostasy”. In fact, the president of the church is believed to communicate directly with god. And so the president has the right to say “God told me this, so we will now do this.” This is how Polygamy was started and this is also how it also ended. The current president is Gordon B. Hinkley, a poor old 95 year old man having to carry the burden of divinations from God. What a pathetic lie. And then there are the 12 Apostles, which are sort of like the 12 board members of the Mormon Church, and they are also expected to communicate directly with God. How bizzare is this? In the 21st century, here is a group of people who literally think that their leader really sees, hears, and talks to God. And they don’t mean this in a metaphorical sense.

The second part of the service is akin to a Bible study, broken up into little groups. I followed my roommate to his group. There was alot of unjustified claims and igonrant remarks made during this session, and I had to constantly stop my self from voicing my concerns. But at on point, someone said “I think Science is alot like religion too in that sometimes, it is progressed through revelations.” I couldn’t take this any longer. I spoke out and said: “I think that is a gross mischaracterization of Science. Science progresses thorugh EVIDENCE. For you to think that Science progresses through revelations like your religion does is to spit in the face of millions of scientists who devote their entire lives to objectivity and collecting evidence.” After a silence, they just moved on. I was fuming.

The third part of the service was a meeting among just the male members of the church. The females also had their own meeting. I will not get into the sexual discrimination practiced in Mormonism in this post. In the male meeting, or the “Priesthood” meeting, we talked about the practice of sacraments. Nothing too exciting there.

All in all, I got the impression that if you are inclined to be religious, Mormonism might be very tempting. There is something about it that really draws you in. Perhaps its the fact that the Book of Mormon places the Americas at the center of Chrisitian Theology. Or maybe its the claim that Mormons are in direct communication with God. If that was true, Mormonism would indeed be the only true religion. From an atheist’s perspective, this makes it all the more dangerous. There are things Mormons believe that not even a Christian would admit to believing in. It was Hitler who once said “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”

And as to why the service did not take place at a Mormon temple, the temples are apparently not for worshipping in. In fact, they are closed on Sundays. The temples are used for Baptisms, Endowments, and other Mormon cult-like ceremonies. An Endowment is a ritual similar to a Masonic ritual where Mormons learn a secret hand-shake that will allow them to enter heaven (I am not making this up). Also, you need a “temple recommend” to be allowed to enter a Mormon Temple. Furthermore, you dress in all-white robes called “temple garments” to enter the temple. Needless to say, all this is very cult-like.

If you have free time, go search for images to a Mormon Temple. It certainly looks very beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, to the point of being haunting.