Wukong in London -- 悟空在伦敦

David Maister is a must-read -- 大卫.梅斯特是每个人的必读物

When I'm reading this entry by David Maister, I found myself couldn't help nodding my head all along. In fact, Passion, People and Principles is one of my favorite  blogs. Although David Maister is writing in the context of working in professional service firms, I believe most of his wisdoms are equally applicable in other industries as well, as long as there are seniors and juniors in a firm. I highly recommend it to be on every professional's (especially if you are a manager) rss feed reader.

Can't wait for his new book, "Strategy and the Fat Smoker" coming out.

在阅读这篇文章时，我发现自己情不自禁地边看边点头。事实上Passion, People and Principles是我最喜欢的博客之一。David Maister基本上是在写咨询公司的事情，但是我相信他的大部分真知灼见在其它行业一样适用--只要在公司里有领导和被领导者。我强烈推荐大家订阅David Maister的博客，尤其你还是头目的话。

实在等不及他的新书--"Strategy and the Fat Smoker"的出版。

Pre-project team huddle

  Joey directs the huddle 
  Originally uploaded by Boston Wolverine

Buy them a lunch, or invite them to a pub. The idea is to get everyone on the same page and get everyone to know each other.

What is the nature of this engagement? What are the deliverables? What is written in the Statement of Work? Who are the team members, and what role each is
going to play? What is everyone's experience and strength? What project activities are going to be carried out?

Answering these question before the team arrive at the scene will put the team in a much better position to successfully complete the engagement.

A pre-project team huddle is extremely valuable especially when most of the team members have never
worked together, or worked in the same settings (e.g. the type of project, team mix, and contract etc.)

A pre-project team huddle will also kick off the trust building in a relaxed environment. Trust building
is something team can struggle with when things get tough in the filed.

This is a lesson learned in the field.

Japanese restaurants are Leaner

You finished your meal, and would like to pay the check and leave.

 

At a typical American restaurant:

1. You asked a waiter for a check.
2. The waiter went away for a bit, and then came back to leave you a bill, and then went away again.
3. You verify the bill had no error, and then you left your card on the table.
4. The waiter came back to pick up your card and went away to swipe your card.
5. The waiter came back with your card and a receipt.
6. You signed the receipt and you were done

 

Totally 6 steps involved. There are overhead associated with each step. There are wait time for customers between each step. The wastes here are both for the restaurant and the customers. For the restaurant, they can not give your table to other waiting customers while you are waiting for the payment to be done (Remember the return on asset formula Return = Margin x Velocity ). The resource is not optimized either. The waiter taking care of your payment may get “distracted” by other dynamic customers request as well, which will certainly slow down your payment process, even when there are idle waiters. For the customers, you paid for the food and their service, but you still had to pay for their inefficiency with your time, which is very unfair.

 

You might say “come on, who cares how much time these steps take, it is just a couple of minutes” I agree with you that it is not that big deal when the restaurant is not busy. But when it is busy, you can be as unlucky as I was the other day at a busy restaurant. It took 10 minutes for the whole process to get done when all I wanted to do is to leave quickly because my parking ticket was expiring.

 

So what is the solution? Hire a dedicated person to take care of the payment? That is one solution. But that also means you increased your headcount, and the resource is still not optimized.

 

Let’s see what happens at a Japanese restaurant.

 

At a typical Japanese restaurant:

1. You picked up the bill and walk to a money drawer to pay. (A waiter at Japanese restaurant uses a hand-held device to generate the bill the moment you finish your orders, and dynamically modify it to reflect your additional orders if there is any. So the bill is always up-to-date)
2. Either a not-so-busy waiter spotted you moving to the money drawer and immediately understood your intention. He stopped what he was doing, and walked to the money drawer to swipe your      card. Or you are spotted by a very busy waiter. He just couldn’t stop what he was doing. This really-busy waiter would shout out a greeting which signals all other waiters that a customer wanted to pay now. A not-so-busy waiter caught this signal then immediately came to the money drawer to fulfil your payment request.
3. You signed the receipt and you were done.

 

From the above we can see not only the steps involved in handling a payment request are a lot less, which leads to reduced total overhead, but also it employs just-in-time resource management. The payment request is dynamically fulfilled by any idle waiter. Lean is about eliminating waste. These simplified steps and the just-in-time resource management help eliminate the waste here, that makes Japanese restaurants a lot leaner.

 

 

Test can not be an after thought 测试不应该是马后炮

I've been recently assigned to a project, where I need to write regression tests, i.e. unit, functional, and integration tests, for client developers. The project was already half way through, and I was told that the client developers were too busy with writing code to write tests for their code. So they wanted someone from ThoughtWorks to take care of it.

Before I took off from London, I checked out their code, and had a quick look. The first impression was that the code was highly coupled with external system (messaging, cache, and grid etc), and multi-threaded. But there were no tests for these aspects at all. A quick browse already revealed a few bugs. No wonder they are keen to have tests in place.

Three days into writing tests, it has quickly come to a point where it becomes so hard, if not impossible to write tests without changing the code. The problems make writing tests hard include over use of singletons (most of the major classes are singletons), complicated external systems get instantiated inside a class, rather than injected(often, more than three systems get instantiated in one class, it takes so much effort to mock out all of them, and yet still can not inject them.), overly layered, and complicated private method（me and my pair think it is a code smell if you feel the need to test your private method, your class is probably doing too much. To test a private method, you probably have to resort to reflection） . All these problems make the testability of the code very poor. Clearly the solution is architected without testability in mind. People think they should concentrate on writing code, and hire a test-writing expert afterwards, the problem will be solved. The truth is test can not be an after thought; otherwise the code will have no testability. I think it is one reason why TDD (Test Driven Development) makes sense. Again and again it has dawned on me, singleton is evil, it should not be documented as a legitimate pattern. It does more harm than good as a documented pattern.

My pair, Neal Ford, has realized this as well. He has offered to give the client a introduction to test writing techniques, before he leaves this project, in hope we could piggyback the idea of putting testability first. It will be our first attempt to sell the idea. And hopefully we can win people's minds and hearts over next a few months. This is the only way I can be of most value to them though.

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（更正了一个错别字，regression tests 应翻译成“渐退式测试“， 而不是“进退式测试”。两字差别很大，所以改正后重新发帖。）

最近我加入了一个新的项目。在这个项目上我需要为客户的开发者写”渐退式测试regression tests）”. 也就是由单元测试，功能测试，和集成测试多层测试组成的测试。我被告知客户的开发者们过于忙于写代码，以至于没有时间给他们自己的代码写测试。所以他们希望ThoughtWorks的人能把这个搞定。

 

从伦敦出发前，我快速的浏览了一眼他们的代码。第一印象是代码和外部的系统（messing, cache, 和 grid系统等）耦合度很高，并且是多线程的代码。但是这些重要的方面都没有测试代码。这样简单的浏览已经发现了数个bugs.怪不得他们像有些测试代码呢。

 

写了三天的测试后，很快就到了一个临界点---在不改他们的代码的前提下，写测试已经变得非常困难，如果不是不可能的话。使测试难写的主要原因有大量的singleton； 在class内部进行多个复杂的外部系统的初始化，而不是传递进 --要写这样程序的测试，先不提如何将这些“被依赖的外部系统注射“(dependency injection)进去, mock这些系统的代码就会非常繁琐；冗余的多层结构，和复杂的private method(我和我的搭档认为如果你觉得有测试你的private method的需要，这就是一个code smell. 因为这很可能表明你的class在做太多的问题。你大概必须要依靠reflection来测试一个private method). 这些问题使的代码的可测试性很差。很明显系统是设计的时候，是没有将可测试性考虑在内的。很多人认为他们需要集中精力写代码，在这之后雇一个写测试的专家，问题就解决了。可真实的情况是测试是不能作为马后炮的，否则代码就没有可测试性。我想这也是测试开发(TDD, test driven development)和理性的一个原因。同时一个再三的证明singleton是个恶魔， 不应该作为一个设计模版。作为一个设计模版，它的危害性大过了它的益处。

 

我的搭档，Neal Ford, 也认识到了这个问题。他已经向客户提出了做一堂测试代码写作技巧的讲座，希望讲座的同时我们可以推销将可测试性放在第一的注意。这将是我们的第一个推销尝试。希望我们可以在下面的数个月里逐渐赢得人们的赞同。只有这样，我的工作才能真正为他们带来价值。

 

Getting into cooking 学习作西餐

  squid with avocado and cherry tomato salsa 
  Originally uploaded by wukong 悟空.

When I first arrived in London two years ago, I was jobless. Asuka was working to support us, so I had to cook. I thought since I was in London, why don't I give it  a go to pick up some western cooking? I borrowed a few cookbooks by Jamie Oliver from my local library (one good thing about UK is the library is always free, and easy to sign up). The first western dish I made was roasted rainbow trout with thyme, and we liked it. The first success hugely encouraged me to carry on the learning. Plus as a China man, food is always a big part of enjoyment in my life.

Since then I have been cooking at most weekends, and getting more and more into western cooking. It turned out learning to cook not only made me eat well and healthy, but also over the course, has taught me so much about culture and language.  As someone from a completely different culture background, this is truly interesting and beneficial. For example, I now know roasted beef and yorkshire pudding is a traditional British food; the Spanish uses saffron to cook paella; Cambernet is a French cheese, and is often roasted;  and calamari is squid, and zucchini is courgette.

Over this xmas and new year, I'd made a few dishes, you can take a look at them at my flickr website.

As a city with a very high immigrant population, London is a fantastic place to get into cooking. The availability of all kinds of cooking ingredients, vegetable, fish, and meat is amazing. Nowadays, you can easily get a hold of ingredients of almost any major cuisine in a supermarket, or at your local ethnic shop, being it Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Vietnamese, or Greek etc. A large number of cookbooks get published every year in UK. The quality of these books are getting better and better each year. They consists of a good deal of pictures, so that you have a rough idea what your dish will look like before you decide which dish you'd like to eat, and many of them are written with the amateurs in mind. The truth is cooking is not that difficult as you might think.

So, when it is still not too late to make a new year resolution, why don't you make cooking one of them!

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两年前当我刚刚到达伦敦时，我是个待业者。明日香一个人工作支撑我们的生活，于是我就不得不在家做饭。我当时想既然我已经人在伦敦，何不尝试着学做西餐呢？于是我从我们家附近的图书馆借来了几本Jamie Oliver的菜谱书 （英国有一个好处就是图书馆总是免费的，办卡也很简单。）。我作的生平来第一道西餐是百里香(thyme)烤鳟鱼(trout)，我们都还满意。第一次的成功大大的鼓励了我继续学下去。再加上，作为一个中国人，吃饭是很重要的生活享受。

自从那以后，我基本上每个周末都会做饭，已逐渐变得对做饭越来越有兴趣了。结果我发现，学习做饭不仅使得我食的健康，美味，还教了我很多语言和文化上的东西。作为一个来自完全不同文化的人，这是很有趣和有益的。比如说我现在知道了烤牛肉和约克郡pudding是英国的传统食品；西班牙人用藏红花作Paella（一种用平底锅烹调的，西班牙海鲜米饭）； Cambernet是法国奶酪，经常烤着吃；calamari(意大利语)是乌贼;zucchini(美式英语)是西葫芦。

在圣诞节和新年期间，我作好几道菜。可以在我的flickr网站看到。

作为一个有着大量移民的城市，伦敦实际上是一个很棒的学习做饭的地方。能够找到的各种调料，蔬菜，海鲜，和肉类多的惊人。在超级市场，或是小的民族商店你几乎可以很容易的找到世界上任何一种主要的烹饪的调料，不管是日式料理，中餐，泰国菜，印度菜，意大利菜，越南菜，希腊菜，还是印度菜，等等，等等。。。每一年英国都有大量的菜谱书出版，而且质量一年比一年好。大多数书都有着大量的图片，所以在你决定在作哪道菜前，你已经知道做好后，你的菜大概会是什么样子。并且大多数菜谱书都是为业余爱好者而写的。事实上，做饭并不像很多人像的那样难。

趁现在还不是太晚做一个新年的抱负计划，为何不把做饭作为其中的一个呢？

Veil and Diversity 面纱和种族, 文化多样化

It is late in the evening. A couple of folks have left the pub, leaving the four of us still drinking in White Hart, downstairs of the office.

“It’s the first time the number of British (at the table) has reached 50%”, said Peter. Indeed, among the four of us are Paul and Vyv being British, me being a Chinese, and Peter being Danish.

“Working with so many foreigners has changed the way I see the world and how I perceive myself”, said Paul.

“Abosolutely”, said Vyv.

“But, it isn’t easy to come to UK ”, I said, “I had to swim in the ocean for two hours, and as soon as I got on shore, I discarded my veil.”

A laugher burst out.

It’s a rare scene. In the last 6 months, the team made of 20 something people successfully completed a British banking project. The team members are from 15 countries, including Denmark, poland, Australia, India, Greece, New Zealand, US, UK, France, China, Brazil, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Sweden. (See the team photo here). The client was hugely impressed by the quality of the work and people. To quote the client: "I've never seen so many smart, focused, committed and hard working people all together"。  

In ThoughWorks London office, there are approximately 150 employees with at least 30 nationalities. Each of us is deeply proud that the diversity is at the heart of our corporate culture.

In London, diversity in culture, race, religion and language is truly impressive. You see people with different skin colours, dress, religion and accent everywhere. The diversity has made London one of the most economically active, and knowledge condensed cities in Europe.

In the era of globalization and knowledge economy, increasingly corporate and governments have recognized the importance of diversity. In order to have a competitive edge, having a diversified culture, and a pool of global knowledge workers are the keys to the success.

However, diversity brings the challenges as well. Making people from different, often conflicting ideologies live in harmony, and helping the minority integrate with the mainstream society are not a cakewalk. History and recent catastrophic events show mishandling can lead to extremism and bloodshed

The hottest topic right now in the British media is if the muslin women should be banned from wearing a veil. Proponents of the ban argue that the veil is a symbol of taking women as personal properties; it hinders the women from fully contributing to the society and integrating with the society. The opponents of the ban insist it is a personal choice to choose to wear a veil, we should respect it. Tolerance and respect to a different culture is the cornerstone of the British society.

Among all the arguments, the dominant opinion, which also represents what I believe, is that wearing a veil creates a separation between those women and the rest of the society, and therefore prevents them from fully contributing to the society. However, I respect it as a personal choice, and I will fight to death for your right to choose to wear a veil. More importantly, why veil has become an issue, when there is a much more fundamental problem to solve, which is the stark poverty and low education in the minor ethnic groups.

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天已经很晚了。大家陆续走地只剩下我们4个人还坐在办公室楼下的White Hart酒吧里。Peter突然说这是第一次大家在一起喝酒的人中，英国人的人数达到了50%。的确如此，我们四个人中，Paul和Vyv是两个英国人，我是中国人，Peter是丹麦人。

“与这么多外国人一起工作已经完全改变了我看世界的角度，也改变了我对自己的认识。” 加入ThoughtWorks刚刚半年的Paul说道。

“绝对是这样”， Vyv说道。

“可是你知道吗？要到英国来可不是件容易的事情。” 我说。“我先在海里游了两个小时泳的。然后一上岸我就赶快把面纱(Veil) 扔掉了。”听到这儿，大家捧腹大笑起来。

这是很少见的一个场面，在过去的六个多月里，我们20几个人的小组在一起完成了一个英国银行项目。这支20几个人的队伍成员来自于世界上的十五个国家，包括丹麦，巴西，美国，中国，英国，波兰，意大利，澳大利亚，希腊，印度，新西兰，法国，加拿大，南非和瑞典。(这里有小组成员的照片)所以常常一起喝酒的人中往往没有或只有一个两个英国人，大多数都是我们这些外国人。项目完成的很成功，队伍的高素质给客户留下了深深的印象："I've never seen so many smart, focused, committed and hard working people all together"。

在ThoughtWorks伦敦办公室里，大概有着一百五，六十人雇员。他们来自于超过30个以上的国家。 我们每一个人唯有这样一个多样化的企业文化感到自豪。

在伦敦，种族，文化，信仰，和语言等多样化令人吃惊。公共和工作场所到处可见不同肤色，不同装束，不同口音和有着不同信仰的英国人和外国人。这样的多样性已经使伦敦已经成为整个欧洲经济上最活跃，知识工人最密集的城市之一。

在今天全球一体化的，知识经济的今天，越来越多的企业和政府已经意识到多样化是一个现代社会的基石，要参与全球竞争，多样化，充分利用全球人力资源是必须的。

但这样的多样化也同样带来了挑战。如何使这些来自不同，有时甚至是完全相反的信仰，文化背景人们在一起和睦共处，帮助少数民族，弱势文化融入主流社会是一个难题。处理不好甚至可造成流血冲突。

最近英国的媒体的一个热门话题就是由英国内相（Cabinet Minister ）Jack Straw引起的关于在英国的穆斯林妇女是否应该被禁止戴面纱(veil)。说是者认为面纱(veil)是对男权社会对妇女的迫害，把妇女看成私人财物的体现；妨碍了人与人之间的交流，阻碍了妇女更大限度的为社会作贡献；同时从心理上将妇女与社会隔绝开了。说否者认为戴不戴面纱是个人的选择权利，同时英国社会的基石是包容，种族，文化多样化，应该尊重其他文化的不同。

在昨天的BBC1的Question Time上大家做了很多激烈的争辩。其中的占了明显上风的一个看法和我的看法完全一致：我认为戴面纱给妇女融入主流社会，为社会做出最大的贡献带来了很大的障碍。但是戴不戴面纱是个人的选择自由，只要不危害别人，我就会誓死捍卫你戴面纱的权利。更重要的是，为什么面纱会成为我们的话题，但我们还有着更本质的问题要解决 -- 少数族群中的贫穷和低教育问题，这些才是我们真正应该花时间来讨论的问题。

badminton 羽毛球

"Are you good at badminton?"

"mmn, I'm not bad. I've been playing for a while. My wife bought me one two years ago."

"Oh, you must be good then. Was it a racket?"

"No, it was a XBox."

"....."

"你羽毛球打的好吗？“

“嗯，还可以了。我已经打了一段时间了。我太太两年前给我买了一个。"

"那你一定很棒了。是球拍吗？"

"不是，是XBox."

"....."

good good study, day day up

Asuka的博客 已经开通了。这个博客将是她学习中文历程的纪录，同时也是她练习中文写作，和纪录思考的场所。大家的评论将是她将此博客继续下去的动力。

Asuka's blog has made its debut. This blog will be the record of her Chinese studying journey,  a  place  for her  to practice  Chinese  writting, and to record her  thoughts.  People's comments will be the motivation  for her to continue bloging.

IT technology is also about humanity 信息科技也应关怀人性

Arguably, no technology like IT has had such an impact on our daily life, changing our lifestyle so drastically. Compared with 10 years ago, the easy communication and the easy sharing of information have enabled us to work more efficiently. However, I’d never thought the IT technology was also about humanity until I saw a scene in my recent trip to

Japan.

It was in a Japanese supermarket. A woman had a mobile phone opened and laid on a bookshelf. She was facing the mobile talking, with two hands frantically gesturing. No, she was not talking, she was using sign language --- I realized this when I got closer . There is a man on the mobile small-sized screen, talking, no, gesturing back. "They might be talking about what to buy for tonight dinner", I wondered. But how irrelevant it is, for me it was a touching scene anyway. I’ve been working in the IT field for a while. Seeing the IT is empowering people in their daily life, enabling people’s dream like this, with my own eyes, not in an exhibit, it was a truly touching and satisfactory scene. It truly made me believe IT technology is and should also be about humanity.

 

也许可以说，没有那一项科学技术像信息技术一样对人们的每天的生活有着如此大的影响，非常迅速的改变着我们的生活方式。和10年前相比，方便的交流方式和简单的信息共享是我们更加有效率的工作。但是直到最近在日本的旅行中看到了一幕之前，我从来没有想过信息技术也有着对人性的关怀。

 

那是在一个日本的超级市场。一个妇女对着一个打开的手机手舞足蹈的在讲话。不对，她没有在讲话，她在用哑语。我意识到了这个当我靠的更近了一点。在手机的小屏幕上是一个男子, 同样的在讲话，不，在打手势。”也许他们在讨论为今晚的晚餐该买点什么。”我寻思道。但是这有什么所谓呢？不敢他们在讲什么，对我来讲，这都是一个很感人的一幕。我在信息技术领域已经工作了一段时光了, 也看到过很多令人惊叹的事情。可是亲眼看到，而不是再展览中看到，在人们的日常生活中信息技术赋予人们更多的自由和力量，使人们的梦想变得有可能，是一个非常感人和令人满足的场景。这件事是我真实的相信信息技术有着也应该有着对人性的关怀。

卡尔 马克思之墓 Karl Marx sleeps in Highgate cemetery

卡尔 马克思于1883年在伦敦去世，被埋葬于坐落在北伦敦的Highgate陵园（Highgate Cemetery ）里。Highgate是北伦敦一个美丽幽静的小镇。Highgate陵园也是伦敦最著名的一个。我们乘上公共汽车，坐了30分钟的就到达了。

正值秋天，穿过一个红绿树叶点缀着的公园，很快就到了马克思的墓前。图中马克思的墓碑是1954年英国共产党（ British Communist Party）为他修建了。墓碑的最上方是他那句凡是80年代以前出生的中国人都会耳熟能详的口号，“全世界无产者联合起来“。记得从小学到高中，有关马克思思想的教育在各种媒体，日常生活和课堂里中无处不在。我清楚地记得小学和初中的教室里总是贴着马克思，列宁，斯大林和毛泽东的头像。90年代中后期后，中国的改革进入了高速发展的时期，马克思的名字很少再在媒体中听到了。

2005年的一天，在伦敦见到了马克思的墓，看到他的这句话，真让人恍如隔世的感觉。这种感觉，我想只有来自共产主义国家，经历过个人崇拜人们才能理解到。我们碰到一对悠闲散步，从墓碑前经过的英国恋人。看到我们两个人在诺大的一个陵园里，独独对着这一个墓碑凝视，好奇地停了下来细细打量起了墓碑。与他们攀谈了一会儿，他们才从茫然中意识到，这原来是一个对这个世界上的许多人有着非凡意义的墓。两个人分别掏出了手机开始拍照。

来之前，听人讲马克思的墓是许多大陆游客必来的地方。果不出其然，很快就有一群熙熙攘攘的中国人在导游的带领下来到了墓前进行拍照。然后又有来自东欧的一对母女。在这些人的感染下，Asuka似乎也意识到了马克思原来是一个很不寻常的人，一向对照相无兴趣，并从不愿意到陵园的Asuka竟然要求在马克思的墓碑前留影。可我心里明白，Asuka作为一个从小在资本主义国家长大的人，是和我有着绝对不同的感受的。她不过是好奇，跟风罢了。

离陵园不远，有着一个叫做Flask很有特色的传统风格英式酒吧---低低的房顶，木制长凳，桌子，熊熊的炉火，英制棕色啤酒（Ale），以及”星期天烤肉(Sunday Roast)”。同时还供应多种比利时和德国啤酒，这是在英国的酒吧里很少能见得到。关于Flask的照片，参见这里，这里，这里，和那里

很多人喜欢 VS 每个人都迁就 (A lot of people love VS Everyone tolerates)

从广义上来讲，我们每个人为之工作的公司都在创造着产品。那么我们应该给用户创造什么样的一种产品呢？Gmail的工程师Paul Buchheit 给出了他的答案。

It would be better to build a product that a lot of people love, than one that everyone tolerates, and so that was our goal.

(创建一个很多人都喜欢的产品要比创建一个人人都迁就的产品好，这就是我们当初的目标)

这真是google的风格。google每一件产品都是这样与众不同，体现出对用户的体贴入微的关心。我们都知道网络上的电子邮件系统（Web based Email）已经出现了很多年，微软的hotmail和yahoo都是代表。但是由于http协议和html的特点, 这些系统比起传统的桌面软件来界面要不友好的多。比如说任何一个操作，不管它有多简单，都是通过一个html按钮来完成。按钮按下去后，操作请求被送回后方的服务器，然后数据再有服务器从远方送回到你的浏览器中。一来一去，就慢了许多。再比如，尽管现在大家经常需要交换一些大文件和保存多年的邮件，这些公司都非常的吝啬，只给你很小的空间，如果你三个月不用，就会被关闭。当google开始做这些事，首先他们使用AJAX使界面变得友好和加强了使用性（比如，收信人的地址可自动填写，键盘便捷健（keyboard shortcut），邮件搜索功能，以及通过”对话”来组织来往信件等）让人耳目一新。

Gmail也还体现了google那句激动人心的座右铭"Don't be evil"(别作一个坏家伙)。google的一个理念就是在可能的范围内，总是试图为用户提供尽可能多的帮助。于是他们一下子就给了每一个用户2G的空间， 而且还在继续增长（当时大多数公司只提供4M）。他们还提供pop3邮件下载, 邮件转发，并且邮件地址永远属于你等等这些在传统的email提供商看来都是非常忌讳的功能。如果我们对比一下其它公司的服务，我们就更能体会到什么是"别作一个坏家伙"的含义了。

相信大家都看到许多关于google人的工作风格，企业文化的报道。看起来和我工作的ThoughtWorks很相似。李开复的近期的倒戈时给出的原因，更加印证了我的看法。我的同事Gregor Hohpe数月前离开了我们加入了google，很是让我们扼腕叹息。但是由于是google，又让我感到Gregor Hohpe果然是有着一个ThoughtWoker的本色，选择的是和我们文化相近的google.谈到google的企业文化，这是另一个话题，我会在今后的文章中谈到。

DivX is giving away for free

DivX is giving away the DivX Create Bundle for Windows for free. But you gotta hurry, cos it is only for today. For what DivX is, see here.

Google Talk

Google Talk 聊天工具已经出来数日了。今天才有空写写它。和Google的一贯风格一样，界面简洁但注重细节的友好，简单但高质量的功能。Google Talk 将聊天（由MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM 等为代表）， IP电话（由Skype为代表）, Google 引擎，以及Google邮箱整合在了一起。很明显Google Talk是Google战略中的非常重要的一块。如果Google Talk真能使多年的MSN Messenger用户倒戈，那必将给微软和Skype在网络搜索，网络邮箱方面带来巨大的挑战。而这些方面又是目前商业模式日趋成熟，大有钱图的领域。但我想Google还有很长的路要走，毕竟对一般的非IT呆子，如果你的联系人都不用的话，你是不会愿意转换的。但Google现在就像是聚集着呼啸山林的好汉们的梁山泊，充斥着绝顶聪明的呆子和充满着活力（Gregor Hohpe最近也加入了Google）。Google最擅长的就是做别人已作了多年的东西，但做的更出色。Google这两年出来的一系列桌面工具都是秉承了这些风格，充满“哇“惊喜（Google Earth, Google DeskTop Search, Google Map, 以及Picasa等）。让我们拭目以待。

眼见为虚与生死一线

2005年7月22日，Jean Charles de Menezes 被伦敦警察当作自杀肉弹在Stockwell地铁站开枪打死。自此引起的各种风波和争论至今无法平息。事件发生后，迅速就有目击证人描述出了这样的情况：Menezes穿这一件黑色的鼓鼓的夹克，在警察的追赶下，跳过检票机，警察在其跳上地铁后连开5枪将其打死。当天的伦敦警察的发言也多多少少的验证了目击证人的描述，称其是和恐怖袭击有密切联系起来的。随后的几天中，才发现Menezes不过是一个巴西籍的电工，完全和恐怖袭击无任何联系。这就使得很多人都困惑既然Menezes不是恐怖分子，为什么他会在警察的追逐下有如此反常地反应，以至于被有着”杀无赦”（Shoot-to-kill）授权的警察的枪杀。

最近的泄露到坊间的由“独立警察投诉委员会(The Independent Police Complaints Commission)“的报告描述了一个和目击证人描述的情景大相径庭的场面：Menezes穿的是淡蓝色的牛仔衣，在地铁站从容的拿起了一份免费报纸后走着进了站。只是赶着要上一辆到站的地铁时，才飞奔起来。警察将其紧紧夹住后才开的枪，而且是8枪而不只是5枪。这使得伦敦警察再次陷入尴尬的局面。

根据心理学的研究，人们在鉴别熟悉的面孔和不熟悉面孔时的差别是惊人的。研究表明人根据闭路录像来辨别不熟悉的面孔的能力非常糟糕，糟到比乱猜好不了多少的地步。如果录像的质量比较好的话，可以提高到2/3的正确率。相反，如果是熟悉的脸孔，即使是很糟糕的录像，正确率则非常非常的高。

BBC的网站上有着一篇“目击证人问题“的文章。 为中列举了6项使目击证人产生误识别的因素： 压力， 枪支，与他人交换意见，有意见导向的提问（leading question），媒体的报道，误解。其中引用立兹大学一位法学讲师的话说：“法庭早就对认识到了目击证人的目击证据是天生就不可靠的“。对于警察来说，对此有认识与否，有时就会取决于一个人的生死。

你还能眼见为实吗？如果你有过车祸的经历，这些可能对你并不难理解。很多人在保险公司的报告时，才发现当事人和目击者对事件有着不同的描述。

London under attack

On my way driving to Hemel Heampstead this morning, I heard from the radio that an explosion happened at Liverpool Street tube station, which was caused either by a collision of two train, or a power cable. Seemed like a random minor incident.

But when I got to the office, the news started coming in (BBC). Now it's apparent this is a terrorist attack. At the moment, central London is effectively locked down. Police is advising people to stay indoor, until hear otherwise.

When the attention is all on  G8 summit in Scotland, London is hit.