上月在纽约出差的时候，突然接到朋友的越洋紧急电话：“快帮我看看还能不能买到一个I'm not a plastic bag! 他们宣布取消在中国大陆的发售了！”朋友的语气仿佛这是绝望中的最后一丝曙光，我自然着急地四处打听，但结论是令人沮丧的：早在发售的头几天就被抢空了。 抢购的队伍甚至出现挤伤事故。品牌方面就是以为顾客的安全问题着想，以防更多挤伤事故的出现而取消了在中国大陆的限量发售。这只风靡整季、把环保风刮遍全 球的帆布包，就是来自伦敦的著名手袋品牌Anya Hindmarch的杰作。

英国著名女星凯拉•奈特丽提着I’m not a plastic bag。

眼下正是塑料诞生一百周年，Anya Hindmarch与慈善环保机构“We Are What We Do”合作推出限量循环再利用购物袋I’m not a plastic bag(我不是塑料袋)，并以让人跌破眼镜的亲民价（５英镑）推出市场。同时，凯拉•奈特丽、瑞茜•维瑟斯朋、丽丽•科尔等明星提着I’m not a plastic bag的照片出现在各大报章杂志上，更是引发了夸张的抢购风潮。据说，有些销售点开市仅一小时便宣告售罄。随后，另一时尚品牌Marc Jacobs也凑来“热闹”，低价推出白色麻布Tote bag。一时间，各大奢侈品牌纷纷打出“反塑料袋”的旗号，推出兼具环保理念和时尚设计的产品。上周，据英国BBC报道，在甩卖季到来之时，“道德时装” 开始再度流行英伦。

     “道德时装”概念是去年秋季的伦敦时装周时提出的一个新概念。由于其强调绿色环保，因此，“道德时装”又被称为“绿色时尚”。核心概念即这种时装必须在“使用公平贸易产品”、“有机产品”及“循环再生的原材料”三项标准当中至少满足一项。

     以I'm not a plastic bag为例,环保布袋均为中国制造，成品通过海运抵达全球各销售点，品牌为此购买碳减排信用额（carbon credits）。1997年，京都议定书(Kyoto Protocol)架构下，对于签约国二氧化碳排放量均有规定，而每个国家再针对产业或个别企业制定排放额度，即碳减排信用额。排放量超出自身配额的企业 必须为他们额外的排放量购买碳信用额，同时排放量低于自身配额的企业可以出售他们的剩余信用额。通过允许碳信用额的买卖，难以降低排放量或减排花费太高的 企业可以为另一个企业付费实现减排，以此达致减少排放污染物的目的。

有“伦敦袋后”之称的设计师Anya Hindmarch

对于“道德时装”，批评人士并不给掌声。据英国环境、食品和农村事务部统计，每年英国有95万吨纺织品被扔到垃圾堆中填充地球，腐化分解过程当 中释放的有毒气体危害环境。批评家说，推出几个道德系列，能给商家戴上一个明亮的“绿色”光环，但这个道德系列与他们每年出售的时装总量来比，可能是九牛 一毛。有时候，公平贸易、有机棉花之道德也成了掩盖供应链其他环节不太道德的遮羞布。

     的确，我们无法否认，在对I’m not a plastic bag趋之若鹜的众人里，存在大量是冲着低价名牌包包去的时尚份子，让他们挤破头皮的动力恐怕并非环保。对此，Anya Hindmarch本人表示，无论人们是出于什么动机来购买这个环保布袋，只要他们使用这个布袋，就会成为“活广告”，把环保的信息传播到他们经过的地 方。对于大众来说，环保就是从小事做起的身体力行。

AD: blogbus 环保袋设计赛

Never mind strapping a flashlight to your head like an old miner, or around your ear like a Borg — this fiber optic light glove brings the light literally to your fingertips. Powered by a battery pack embedded in its wristband, the light source is also in the wrist band, directed by fiber optic pipes to either shine a shadow-free spotlight directly on your work, light up the entire glove in a diffuse floodlight, or both.

Besides being super-handy while working in tight/dark spaces, this could be a boon for night-side traffic cops or ravers of all stripes. We especially like the strategically-located controls, right there on your thumb within easy reach of your index finger. The tech used by this clever design concept might not be quite ready to be cost-effective just yet, but when it is, we’ll wear one of these on each hand.

Design Boom, via Gizmo Watch

Jungle: These two software I have used for my two papers.

Siemens Acquires innotec to Enhance its Software Offering to the Process Industries

Siemens has expanded its portfolio of industrial software with an agreement to acquire innotec GmbH of Schwelm, Germany, an international vendor of digital engineering software and services for the process industry. This acquisition will increase the global leadership of Industry Automation, a division of the Siemens Industry Sector, in the market for industrial software, making Industry Automation the first industrial equipment provider able to offer all sectors of the manufacturing and process industries system-wide solutions for integrating the entire production sequence and production lifecycle. The purchase price of innotec was not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to the agreement of the authorities. This move builds on the successful acquisition of U.S.-based UGS, an industrial software supplier primarily active in the discrete manufacturing industry. With around 200 employees, innotec is one of the leading digital engineering software vendors especially for plants in the process industry. As a result of the acquisition, innotec will become a subsidiary of Siemens AG, and for organizational purposes it will be assigned to the Industrial Automation Systems Business Unit.: "innotec is an outstanding technological supplement to our portfolio. It will make us the first vendor in the world that can offer the process industry an integrated software solution, from the planning stage of a production plant, through operation, right up to modernization,” said CEO Ralf-Michael Franke. “In the future, our customers in the process industry, like those in the discrete manufacturing industry, will be able to significantly reduce the time-to-market with coordinated Siemens technology." According to Franke, the innotec software complements Siemens' automation engineering products and services, such as its Simatic PCS 7 process control system and wide range of process instrumentation. Additionally, the sales expertise of the innotec employees, along with their long-established and close customer relationships with leading companies in the process industry, form a suitable supplement to the corresponding regional sales units of Siemens. "Our customers will continue to receive outstanding service and support in addition to the latest software technology. As a part of Siemens, we will provide our customers with a strong partner and investment security," said Stephan Rohleder, COO of innotec GmbH. IBM Announces Plans to Acquire ILOG ARMONK, NY and PARIS – July 28, 2008 ILOG® (NASDAQ: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364) today announced they have signed an agreement regarding a proposed acquisition by IBM of ILOG to be implemented by way of concurrent cash public tender offers in both France and the United States. Through this proposed transaction, IBM will combine its business process management (BPM), business optimization, and service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies with ILOG’s Business Rules Management Systems software. This will enable IBM to help clients deliver critical business information in real-time, allowing them to make better business decisions faster. The cash tender offer will be at a price of €10 per ordinary share and the U.S. dollar equivalent per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) based on the Euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers, amounting to an aggregate purchase price of approximately €215 million or approximately $US340 million on a fully diluted basis. This price represents a premium of approximately 56 percent compared to ILOG's one month average of closing share prices prior to July 28, 2008, and a 37 percent premium to the closing price of Friday, July 25.

博士开始近2个月了。总觉得自己的心态没有完全调整好。总是把读博士，搞的像是做项目一样，很心急，太过注重于时间轴。现在在项目的prototype制作的一定程度的时候，正如我的supervisor所料，我遇到了第一个理论上的障碍。
尝试从各种papers或是textbooks中寻找答案，虽然自己不知道如何正确诠释自己的关键问题。3，4天的理论学习后，我发觉自己确实在理论学习方法方面，存在很多问题。先是看觉得和问题相关paper，看完introduction还是满怀喜悦，信心十足，再接着看数学理论证明时，却是一头雾水，很多东西不懂。一般是到第3，4行证明的时候就卡住了。
在卡住的地方，开始转投testbook，想从中学习一点基础知识。testbook不像wikipedia，从每个topic单独看都可以，testbook从中间看（特别是自己不懂的内容）和看paper没有什么区别。只能从头看，不得不承认很多testbook写确实很好，看起来也很引人入胜。但是我一般用大半天时间，看了20页（一章），一本大约有200，300页，我就要放弃了。不是因为书不好看，而是因为静不下心，总是想着10月底的deadline。一本书看上10天，结果都还不知道能不能派上用处。而手边这样的书却有10来本。还有这么多paper。。。
平时在办公室里有时候会很吵，想着把书带到家里来看。可是现在证明这对我完全是错误的方法。在家里，在周末，我根本看不进testbook。看来下次要考虑去mannheim的图书馆了。

 
 

It’s interesting what you can find when you look around a bit on Google. I thought I’d look for a few new ebooks to read. I found 20 different ones that might be interesting to you. It never hurts to get a few different perspectives. In all cases, the first link is to a PDF file, the second link is to the site where it’s hosted.

20 Free eBooks About Social Media

1. The New Rules of Viral Marketing - David Meerman Scott
2. Marketing Apple - MarketingApple.com
3. Masters of Marketing - Startup Internet Marketing
4. Podcast Marketing eBook - Christopher S. Penn
5. Google Adwords Secrets - SEOBook
6. Get Viral Get Visitors - Stacie Mahoe
7. Marketing With Case Studies - Dynamic Copywriting
8. How to Write a Marketing Plan - Geisheker Group
9. SEO for WordPress blogs - Blizzard Internet
10. Social Web Analytics - Social Web Analytics
11. Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter - Geekpreneur
12. The Zen of Blogging - Hunter Nutall
13. What is Social Media - iCrossing
14. A Primer in Social Media - SmashLab
15. Effective Internet Presence - Effective Internet Presence
16. Introduction to Good Usability - Peter Pixel
17. Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program - CRM Transformation
18. We Have a Website. Now What? - Craig Rentmeester
19. Blogs & Social Media - PRSA
20. The Podcast Customer Revealed - Edison Media Research

Have any more that you’ve found online that you like? Share them in the comments section. And if you want to re-post the list to your site, by all means, please do! Just please be kind and link back to 20 Free eBooks About Social Media.

***Update I really love Brian Solis and all he does. He pointed out a few of his works that I would highly recommend these, as well:

• 
  The Essential Guide to Social Media
• The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations
• The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media

  Not sure if I’ll keep updating the post, but I figure Brian’s great works deserved attention. Feel free to keep adding your finds in the comments.

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最近看了一些C#和.NET的文章和例子代码什么的，感觉入门了，这里发些牢骚，还准备一个水桶装大家的口水，并用这些口水蒸包子。

做 C++ 11年，有些感觉，感觉语言不外乎语言（佛家曰：看山不是是山），很是自诩。做了这么久的C/C++，竟然是：蓦然回首,伊人却在灯火阑珊处。去年想过自 己设计语言，参考了D, JAVA, C#, Ruby, PHP, Python 等等，后来又觉得，语言本身不是很重要，重要的只是使用这些语言的人——程序员的接受程度而已。回过头来看看语言生成的目标代码（看看汇编实现）进行过归 纳总结，也有些发现，总的来说，高级的语言生成代码的时候会自动给程序加上一些实现，例如构造函数的调用，原来在C的时候要构造起来得显式调用，到了 C++则由编译器安排；又如模板，就是用一些特定的语法告诉编译器，生成按一定规则预先做一些代码；再说委托，最为本质的就是this指针委托的时候预 存、调用的时候放入EAX寄存器。 所以撇开语言语法，我们可以看到，高级的语言会自动给程序加上一些实现，也不外乎如此——这就是看山不是山的初级境界，希望以后能回到“看山还还是山”的更高境界咯，嘎嘎。

现在回到正题，C/C++与C#(或者Java)的比较就是圣人与巨人的比较，不具备可比性。你是想继承圣人的衣钵呢，还是想站在巨人的肩膀上？悉随尊便！

再看一点，你希望未来的语言为你——普通的程序员做些什么呢？有没有简单实现复杂逻辑的的语言啊？结果是，没有，如果你是总统，可以号召一批人为你做这 些，而不能指望语言能做这个。既然复杂逻辑不能简单实现，那么总可以稍微简化一些吧？那是可以的。只是稍微简化一点而已。现在大部分的高级语言并不具体的 简化某个领域的问题的实现，而是简化了编程本身。

所以高级的语言只能少许简化最终目的问题的解决，而大部分只解决了一些编程本身的问题。简而言之，语言是为程序员度身定做的，越高级，程序员越舒服，自学 成才的和喜欢利用别人成果的人越倾向选择这种；而一开始就看到最终解决问题的复杂性的人(戏称学院式程序员, academic programmer)则刚好相反，他们会选择语言的特性来简化最终问题实现的，而不是简化编程本身的语言，这样的语言或许非常难学，例如 LISP，CLIPS(C语言产生式处理系统)。

现在看来问题有点清晰了，最终问题的解决被分成2个步骤。第一步编程语言，第二步用此语言解决最终问题。而这2步按照目前的科技水平来说，存在一定的矛 盾，就是语言本身的进步会约束使用语言的自由度等因素进而对最终复杂系统的解决产生负面影响，因而对第二步有阻碍作用，难怪外国有风潮倾向于面向语言编程 的呢。


对于迷雾中的初学者，也是非常难以选择，这里我推荐一种选择方法及其晋级路径：
[] 如果觉得自己有天分的，能很好的驾驭复杂问题的人应该选择自由度大的语言，路径则是专这样的语言3-5年后涉足其他高级语言补充并积累最终问题（不是解决问题的方法），再学习底层以便更宽广的认识自己所学。往继承圣人的衣钵方向发展。
[] 如果觉得自己天分不足，又想使用别人成果的，就站在巨人肩膀，选择相对高级的语言，何况这些语言(C#,java)有非常庞大大的类库支持呢。路径则是学好相对高级的语言，认识API，从API设计者角度看问题，多看看搜集最终问题并进行归类，往平台架构方向发展。

Jungle: 要开始学编程了，呜呜。。。不知又要掉多少头发了。

by Donald Melanson, posted Aug 7th 2008 at 5:38PM

The Dutch town of Hengelo looks to be taking a rather unique approach to cleaning the air, with it now testing out a new type of "air-purifying concrete" developed by the University of Twente that promises to soak up the nitrogen oxide particles emitted by car exhausts. That's done with the aid of a titanium dioxide-based additive which, with the help of some sunlight, binds with the nitrogen oxide particles and turns them into harmless nitrates, which can apparently just wash away with the next rain shower.

The town isn't fully sold on the idea just yet, however, with it only paving half of a road now under construction with the so-called "green bricks" (pictured above), while the other half is getting paved with plain old concrete. They'll then take some air measurements from each section early next year and decide whether to continue paving the town green or not.

[Via Physorg]

“If we think this is only China’s moment, it’s a big mistake,” the famed composer Tan Dun said. “It’s the moment of the world.”

来自 Boston.com 和 The New York Times

麻省理工近日宣布：他们的项新发明将引发一场太阳能革命。然而，这次收到光合作用启发而产生的「革命性飞跃」并没有那么高深莫测，恰恰相反，它利用一种简 单、高效且经济的方法在没有太阳照射的情况下来进行电力储存。Daniel Nocera对记者说"这就是我们谈论多年的「涅磐」"，供职麻省理工学院的他同Matthew Kanan一起开发出这种全所未有的技术，即利用太阳能将水分解为氢气和氧气。这些气体稍后将在一颗燃料电池内进行重组。这个过程关键依靠一堆催化剂来实 现（一种由钴金属、磷酸盐及一个电极构成；另一种主要成分是铂），催化剂可以在正常室温和中性水（例如自来水）的条件下产生氢气和氧气。与此同时，他们还 开发出类似主要针对工业用途的解决方案，后者操作起来成本更大，而且需要在特定环境下进行。

"这是一个对人类未来发展有着巨大贡献的 重大发明，"伦敦帝国理工大学的光合作用学研究带头人James Barber评价「涅磐」时这样说道。Daniel Nocera也表示"「涅磐」技术的开发的确非常之伟大，因为他们开启了人类开发新能源的大门，让我们减少使用化石燃料的依赖。而这一切对改善全球气候问 题也起着至关重要的作用。" Nocera承认下一步的研究方向将会是如何此技术商业化，同样，他希望看到在未来的十年内燃料电池系统可以走进千家万户。点击下面观看整个视频。

  

德国执政的基民盟和在野的自民党政治家再次要求政府减少对中国的发展援助。他们指出，中国已经取代德国，成为全球第三大经济体，其外汇储备已接近德国政府 的巨额财政赤字。在此情况下，德国不应再继续向中国提供发展援助，而应将某些领域的合作引入正常的贸易和技术转让的轨道。德国之声记者报导如下。

叶宣