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Pluses and Minuses: How Math Solves Our Problems

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  Pluses and Minuses: How Math Solves Our Problems "Pluses and Minuses: How Math Solves Our Problems" by Stefan Buijsman is a thought provoking book about the role of Mathematics in our daily life. The book starts with examples of Google Map and Netflix to present that Maths is not only an abstract exercise in a classroom but also closely related with us everyday. Following that, it describes how human being interpret Maths and its development along the history in various cultures. The later chapters demonstrate about the history and applications of two advanced topics, Calculus and Probability. The last topic is about graph theory and explores its usage in navigation, streaming service, cancer treatment and social media. The last chapter is not only a conclusion but also rethinks the nature of Maths and how we correctly and mistakenly apply it in our daily experiences. While the book contains a few content describing Maths formula and theorems in this book, it primarily focu...

Event: Developer Productivity Engineering: What's in it for me?

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Manchester Java Community hosted another great session in Thoughtworks . The speaker is Trisha Gee , co-author of the renowned book Head First Java .  The speaker pointed out that the productivity of developers did not mainly come from individual developer themselves but from the organisation which offers productive environments or not. The factor includes work space size, quietness, privateness, any diversion or needless interruption. On technology side, productivity can be improved by consistency and reliability of builds. Very fast feedback can improve productivity and quality, thus increase revenue, reduce cost and improve brand. References: DEVELOPER PRODUCTIVITY ENGINEERING: WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? The 2019 Tidelift managed open source survey results Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams Software Productivity   The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement Improve the Performance of Gradle Builds CI fanout Netflix Pursues Soft DevEx Goals with Hard DevProd Metrics using Te...

Effective Java

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Effective Java is one of must-read books for every Java programmer. Certainly this book does not introduce Java syntax, it does not instruct what Java libraries or frameworks are popular. Instead it explains best practices of Java programming in detail. This book makes you how to code in Java like an expert. This book covers 11 topics as the following: Creating and Destroying Objects Methods Common to All Objects Classes and Interfaces Generics Enums and Annotations Lambda and Streams Methods General Programming Exceptions Concurrency Serialization The first three chapters talks about how to start Java code designs. Instead of constructors, you should consider other methods like factory and builder. Which and how you should implement common methods like toString, equals, hashCode. Some rules are actually parts of Object-Oriented Design principles. The next three chapters involves some key usages of Java: Generics, primitive types, auto-unboxing and Collections are commonly used and yo...

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

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Designing Data-Intensive Applications introduces diverse landscape of technologies of storing and processing data. It covers from fundamental concepts, distributed data and data processing. This book does not tell you what software or how to build a data related application. It rather talks about how data systems work and their design concerns. The book starts with non-functional requirements such as reliability, scalability and maintainability. Then it jumps data models which are associated with birth of NoSQL and ORM, thus query languages. The next chapter deeply dives into storage which is a common topics of traditional databases, e.g. Hash Indexes, Sorted String Tables, Log-Structured Merge-Trees, B-Trees. The topic is also extended to OLTP and OLAP, data warehouse. In the last chapter of the first section, it turns to topics of encoding formats such as JSON, XML and binary and dataflow services such as REST, SOAP and RPC. The second section is about distributed data. It starts wit...

正向教育家長和教師手冊

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今次介紹的另一本育兒「好書」叫做 《正向教育家長和教師手冊》 ,透過簡介另外五本《樂活kids正向教育故事讀本系列》的故事,從而介紹如何實踐「正向教育」。 這本書開宗明義說明「正向教育」是通過社會科學協助個人活出美好和豐盛,接著列出當中六種美德與24個性格強項,分別是 仁愛 仁慈 愛 社交智慧 智慧與知識 創造力 喜愛學習 好奇心 洞察力 判斷力 靈性與超越 對美麗和卓越的欣賞 幽默感 感恩 靈修性 希望 公義 團隊精神 公平 領導才能 節制 寬恕 審慎 謙遜 自我規範 勇氣 勇敢 正直 毅力/ 堅毅 熱情與幹勁 這本書的後半部便是逐一簡介另外五本故事書的內容,從而闡述一些性格強項,並建議如何在日常生活當中實踐。每一個故事簡介不但加插故事書的可愛插圖,而且附上「正向金句」,令讀者更容易理解故事寓意。 正如書中所言,「正向教育」的對象不只是學生,而且還包括教師和家長,好讓大家一同學習、實踐與身教。假如你是教師或家長,可以先自行細閱這本60餘頁的手冊,再向兒童共同閱讀那五本故事書,並從中引導及解說,相信可以令他們更加投入故事當中,倍添樂趣與得着。

父母見證.查經.歷奇

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學校著我們分享有關育兒的書籍,我們便選擇這本《 父母見證.查經.歷奇 》,在此向各位介紹一下。 這本書結集多位父母,包括上市公司主席、立法會議員、抗疫英雄、知名演員、單親媽媽等等,各自分享他們育兒的經歷,中間加插不同的聖經人物育兒成功及失敗的例子,以及從箴言與詩篇中得到有關育兒的啟示。 以下是我自己總結書中育兒要訣: 終身學習。沒人第一天懂得當父母,也沒人可以成為完美的父母。做父母的沒必要獨自挑起重擔,反而可以把重擔、擔憂交託給全能的神。在苦難中更見神的恩典。 以身作則。子女學習的對象不是父母的教材或訓言,而是父母待人處事的態度。在子女面前展現正確的價值觀,如聖經所言的「仁愛」、「喜樂」、「和平」、「忍耐」、「恩慈」、「良善」、「信實」、「溫柔」、「節制」 。學業反而是其次,如書中所言:「我未見過盡情發揮潛能的孩子會『揸兜』。」 坦誠相待。父母也有錯,也會遇上人生高低起伏。與其隱瞞子女,倒不如開誠布公,在子女面前展示如何改錯,或改變自己,或挫折中重新振作。 與兒同行。親子時間最寶貴,也讓父母明瞭自己的子女。子女都是罪人,會反叛。何時嚴正管教,何時放手,應該拿捏得宜。若要子女聽從父母,父母也應先聆聽子女的心底話,正如父神隨時隨地聆聽我們的禱告一樣,才能夠建立互信的基礎。 書中分享父母連同聖經人物有三十個家庭,每一個家庭的經歷都各盡不同。相信這三十個不同的經歷及心得,總會有一些與你自身的境況有所相似,無論你是信主與否,也許都值得參考或效法。

面對試探(男人篇)

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謝謝教會朋友送贈這本書給我,我也應當仁不讓,介紹一下這本好書 - 面對試探(男人篇) 。 這本書開宗明義就是講述男人在世所面對的各種試探,包括大男人、性慾、婚外情、濫權、貪財與強求完美,以及作為基督徒應對各種試探的「策略」。「策略」並不是世俗所以為的靈丹妙藥,而是如何在屬靈爭戰中依靠父神的寬恕與恩典。附錄講述如何站穩立場,擊倒試探的十二個「策略」,正正是本書的總結: 了解自己 在靈裡尋求更新 建立強健的生活環境 了解你的敵人 推動自己追求正確的生活 留心你的強項 將精力轉離試探 不要縱容你的渴求 培養良好的習慣 懷著一夥受教的心 逃離誘惑 鼓起勇氣 雖然這本書所講述的對象是男士(因為作者本身是一位男士),但是其所提及的試探、困難與罪,無論男或女都會遇到。不幸的是,在這個是非黑白顛倒的末世,你不單止沒可能獨個兒抵抗魔鬼的攻擊,而且稍一不慎便會潛移默化,沉溺於習非成是的大醬缸。 隨著時代「進步」,社會風氣逐漸「開明」。只要不犯法,就算聲色犬馬不但不再面斥不雅,反而堅守道德卻被斥責侵犯自由。例如:色情影片氾濫得連「四仔無格仔」都消聲匿跡;高舉自己接納丈夫的情婦,倒成為閨蜜;權力用到盡,獲讚賞做事有擔當。其它罪惡更不在話下,極致者更被視為人生的成就,身份的象徵。 跟隨主耶穌的我們,在地上應當作鹽作光。 你們豈不知不義的人不能承受上帝的國嗎?不要自欺!無論是淫亂的、拜偶像的、姦淫的、作孌童的、親男色的、 偷竊的、貪婪的、醉酒的、辱罵的、勒索的,都不能承受上帝的國。〈哥林多前書 6:9-10〉   不要效法這個世界,只要心意更新而變化,叫你們察驗何為上帝的善良、純全、可喜悅的旨意。〈羅馬書 12:2〉   當然我不是要對旁人口誅筆伐,畢竟自己也是罪人。在主耶穌的愛裡,不是追尋「應該」與「必須」的律法,而是寛恕與關懷。讓我們向親愛的父神禱告,祈求克服試探的勇氣、遠離俗世的平安、辨別是非的智慧。奉主耶穌之名祈求。阿門。

Socratic Selling

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One of my mentors recommended this book called Socratic Selling: How to Ask the Questions That Get the Sale to improve my selling and consulting skills which are quite applicable in various scenarios. The book's structure is straightforward. The beginning chapters explain the importance of socratic method, which is well known a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions. It highlights 3 socratic principles: Respect the customer, Help the customer think and Help the customer made decisions . The remaining chapters explain how to apply along the sales cycle, i.e., opening, advancing and closing. The opening aims at letting the customer speak what he wants in the underlying. The book advises a socratic opener structure, i.e. Say you are prepared . e.g. Mr. Customer, I'm prepared to talk about the Product, which we discussed on the ph...

The Loyalty Leap

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I read this book, The Loyalty Leap - Turning Customer Information into Customer Intimacy , due to my business. I found this book quite inspiring. If you are working for loyalty, you may find new insight and redirect your work. In summary, the author  Bryan Pearson shared his practical experience of loyalty program to explain what loyalty program is, why loyalty program is needed and how loyalty program is run. Loyalty is not simply about collecting customer data and offering benefits. There are considerations to guide you do the right things. Every enterprise is talking about loyalty, every CEO aims at loyalty but not everyone understands what it should look like. Loyalty is not a set of numbers or a couple of pay or gift but human behaviours as well as continuous growth of an enterprise.  The book starts with 3Rs of loyalty (maybe the author created), which are Rewards , tangible thank-you given and tailored to consumers, Recognition , appreciation to consumers' commitment t...

Good Microbit Guide

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I’m impressed with the HK local guide of Microbit. It clearly introduces microbit’s functions as well as explains the basic concept of computers and algorithms. I strongly recommend this book to schools and parents for STEM education.

給孩子的信

給孩子的信 by 親子王國Babykingdom Editor: 天窗出版社 ISBN-13: 9789881680860 Review: 本書是徵文比賽的結集,作者包括主持人,明星,歌星,南丫海難幸存者以至普通家庭主婦。雖然每人背景各有不同,每個家庭都是獨一無二,但是每位父母對子女的愛卻是同樣地無私奉獻。 縱然這算是一本輕鬆小品,畢竟照顧孩子從來都是人類社會的重要課題。正如其中一位作者母親所言:「媽媽瞇眼眺望,一對細小赤腳,初次踏進浩瀚大海,戰戰兢兢感受世道的深邃。」對孩子的期盼,也是對未來的憧憬,家書的文字竟也帶點兒哲學意味。

憂鬱病並不可怕

憂鬱病並不可怕 by 李子玉 Editor: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司 ISBN-13: 9789620430619 Review: 本書講述了患憂鬱病人的各種自身經過與心路歷程,患病的成因無不與童年陰影或與家人相處有關,而解決方法則醫藥與宗教並行,從而達至身心健康。 可能受訪者都是作者的友人,加上作者也是過來人,觀察角度與感悟未必全面或可以當作醫學實證(當然這也不是作者的意圖)。然而,就是因為受訪者與作者的關係,讀者更能深入窺探憂鬱病人不為外人道的辛酸,病人男女老幼貧富皆有,連心理學家也難逃魔掌。我們城市人習以為常的觀念與感受,可能也是憂鬱病的隱憂。 十分欣賞作者對待該病的態度:面對它,接受它,處理它,放下它。讓自己活在當下。

捕鯨之旅

捕鯨之旅 by 鍾偉民 Editor: 新穗出版社 ISBN-10: A000001552 Review: 捕鯨之旅是鍾偉民的詩集,當然包括其一鳴驚人的得獎作品-捕鯨人。這首是我最喜歡的詩歌之一,其激情熱枕一直震撼我心。另外,佳木斯組曲儼如一首真正的組曲,起首,發展,高潮,終章都有各自風格又同氣連技的節奏旋律。就算其它詩文之中也不乏佳句,令人不禁讚嘆他的精煉文筆與拔萃詩才。

狼八式 - 寫作與思考

狼八式 寫作與思考 by 鍾偉民 Editor: 皇冠出版社 ISBN-13: 9789882160828 Review: 鬼才鍾偉民出筆真是非同凡響。有別一筆文學評論,書中內容一貫幽默惹笑,直接了當,一針見血道出寫作的基本常識。雖然作者所言的不是什麼天大秘技,或是驚世絕學,但是反而是寫作最根根本本的技法與心態。當下的中文教育,既摒棄經典範文,又引入非人性的所謂中文教學,違悖邏輯思考與藝術的真善美。這本小品對現今中文教育確是當頭捧喝! 讀畢此書,可延伸閱讀如筆者所提及李天命的思考藝術與陳雲的中文解毒。 如 樓上[瞟客 Ivan] 所言,文筆那麼精煉的作家不再於香港投刊未免可惜。

花季・雨季

花季・雨季 by 郁秀 Editor: 海天出版社 ISBN-13: 9787806154892 Review: 從學生的眼界看出改革開放的中國的改變, 辛酸與希望

情之理 意之象 - 詩歌評論集

情之理 意之象 詩歌評論集 by 陳德錦 Editor: 匯智出版有限公司 ISBN-13: 9789628960712 Review: 本書分上下卷。上卷是一般評論,下卷是學術性的文章。上卷較淺白,點出一些詩歌的特質。下卷則較深奧,當中關於評賞能力測試與句群分析,對於詩人的創作確有啟發與指導作用。

未了

未了 by 麥樹堅 Editor: kubrick ISBN-13: 9789881935991 Review: 作者近日於文學創作獎小說組摘冠, 於是找了他近期的小說集看看. 稍讀幾篇已教人驚艷, 文字功力非常優秀. 例如, 作者從門鎖的角度來看透空間權力的角力確實對世事入木三分. 有幾篇在手法方面亦是創新有趣, 值得玩味. 夢迴的夢與扭蛋機, 斷續的結局, 宿舍的手提攝錄機的角度, 他叫黃國強&我是悉多蒙的外人與內心的雙向描述. 讀過這本小說集, 覺得作者的強項是抒情描寫, 從人物細膩的刻劃反映作者的主人翁或主題的感性觸覺. 例如差的秀珍的自白道出草根的生活艱難, 良心之吻的景佳的內心獨白反映新生代於社會流動停滯下的矛盾. 作者對於事物描寫得細緻入微, 確實匠心之作. 因此, 對那篇冠軍作品辮子的出版十分期待.

後殖民食物與愛情

後殖民食物與愛情 by 也斯 Editor: Oxford ISBN-13: 9780195488920 Review: 這本小說無論從內容, 意念與手法對我個人來說都十分新鮮。主說的線軸不是傳統的開首,發展,高潮,結局,至少不是明顯的那種。人物的關係也不是主流最終歸一。相信作者是為了呈現現實的世相:人與人之間既有獨立的故事,但也會與他人互動。我是我故事的主角,也可以是你故事的配角。書中每個故事都獨立成篇,但每一篇的人物又出現另一篇,呈現城市社會的形形式式。 小說主旨基本是回歸後香港人(包括回歸前來港的外國人)的心理與生活的變化,透過食物來呈現。每一個故事都有自己的主旨,第一篇跟書同名,可算是本書的主軸,後幾篇表達形形式式的意念,內容比較鬆散,直至溫哥華的私房菜與後殖民食神的愛情故事,用老薜的說話與體會來表達本書的主旨,最後一篇相信是一個簡單的小結。如作者所言,人物之後也會繼續自己發展的。 我個人較為欣賞個別篇章與回歸後變化的描寫,但是故事是鬆散與曖昧,教人難以捉摸。難道這就是香港回歸後的心態景況?

老殘遊記

老殘遊記 by 劉鶚 Editor: 世一文化事業股份有限公司 Review: 小時候讀過大明湖篇章。起初以為是遊記,讀過才知道是推理小說。如文中所提,作者頗欣賞福爾摩斯,可以能作者試圖以此定位,再加上個人的時事見解。 然而,當時西方文學定義的小說傳入中國始終不是很長的時間,作者的小說技巧還幼嫩,結構與主旨鬆散,更遑論成為推理小說,難跟福爾摩斯相比。當然,西方初漸,小說在中土剛剛萌芽,那樣批評似乎過於苛刻。 我反而欣賞本書的描繪內容,不但是風光景色,而且是官家交際,那些內容不是一般平民百姓所懂。作者文筆雅俗共賞,不但有助現代人窺見清代官場景況,而且對在中國做生意的交際也有指導性作用。

陋窗 - 香港散文新選

陋窗 香港散文新選 by 秋涼 Review: 該文選輯錄本港名家十多篇散文。文章中規中距,偶有共鳴章句,大致少有驚艷絕作。潘步釗的群犬可謂當中上乘佳作。誠然,本港文壇人才輩出,大出其右者不下數十,若以此十多篇論析本港散文概況,恐怕有失偏頗。