看了《金田一少年之事件簿：剑持警部杀人事件》后，本想先解决埃勒里·奎恩（Ellery Queen）的《荷兰鞋子的秘密》（The Dutch Shoe Mystery），但无意中发现我与我弟弟这几年来买了几本金田一的漫画，但有些还没看过。想了想，解决金田一的事件较为轻松，所以就先试一试他的事件吧。刚看完了《黑魔术杀人事件》，个人评价如下：

• 解谜合理度：还算合理。上网查了一下，有人觉得第二宗命案的手法不太实际，但我觉得还可接受。毕竟凶手有很充裕的时间布置命案现场，所以还是行得通的。
• 线索足够度（所给线索足以指出真凶及干案手法吗？）：要找出凶手是没问题，因为至少有一个决定性的证据能指出唯一可能的凶手。然而对于第二宗命案，真要争议的话我觉得其实还可解出其他的干案手法。（而在本格派大师如埃勒里·奎恩的作品中，你会有更足够的线索可让你仔细地排除其他一切可能的手法而找出唯一解。）而且书中对某个重要的线索似乎没交代清楚。（详情请读下一段落。）无论如何至少你找到了凶手后就基本上破案了。
• 解谜难度：30分。每个命案设定得还可以。作者把一个很决定性的证据隐藏得还好，但观察力强的读者应能找出来。然而解决金田一的案件的关键通常在于寻找那隐藏的线索或证据而直接破案，而通常无需经过较复杂的逻辑思考，所以一般上解谜难度不算大。

我自己的看过一遍后就大概知道其干案手法，但找不出凶手。然后对重要的线索再看过一遍后找到了凶手，可是还找不出第二宗命案的手法。在漫画里，金田一在解决该案时作者有暗示他解决此案的思路并因此破案，我从他的思路中想到了作者应该是想要使用某个还算有名的数学游戏的方法来设计此案，所以解决了此案。然而冤枉的是，不知是原作者没说好，还是我读的中译本翻译得不够精准，在漫画中，要使用该干案手法所需要的某个重要假设或线索并没交代清楚。我在此自言自语也不是办法，所以想知道细节的看官请用滑鼠选择以反白以下文字：（注意！警告！以下文字有透露一些剧情！）要使用该手法，那电灯的电线须钉着地毡但不可钉着地面！我看的翻译只说“看！电灯的软线被钉住了…似乎很早就钉上了…”，但没画上也没说清楚该电线是否也被钉在地上。而我想到的另一个较容易的手法是，凶手其实可在佈置凶案现场时先打开手电筒或另一盏灯，然后再拔掉魔术灯的插头，把电线简单地从地毡下拿出来再从其上面插回插座，再关掉手电筒或另一盏灯，就完成佈置了。如果你看的翻译不一样，或发现我其实遗漏了什么情节或线索，请告诉我。

另外也发现作者写了一个前言不对后语但无关破案的小情节。有一点剧透，所以真要看的话请反白以下文字：高远遥一看到金田一后，有说过连金田一也出现在这里，让他感到有点意外，还无所谓地说观众越多越好；可是解谜后却发现，其实是高远遥一在幕后硬要邀请金田一去的。你同意吗？

想先看完金田一的漫画，所以下一本应该也是金田一的案件。

My GNU/Linux box just hanged. It is actually my own fault as I tried to empty the swap partition (with sudo swapoff -a; sudo swapon -a) without realizing that I don't have enough RAM space! Anyway, if you have a hung X session, what can you do?

Note: I assume that you are using QWERTY keyboard. If not, convert the key sequence as described here [wikipedia.org].

• Kill the X session. Do this with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. This should bring you back to the X login window. You can't do this in Ubuntu anymore. If so, kill the processes in the current virtual console as described below.
• Kill all processes on the current virtual console. Do this with Alt-SysRq-K if you fail to kill the X session as described above. This should bring you back to the X login window.
• Reboot the system safely. Do this if you fail to reboot the system in the normal ways. To reboot a GNU/Linux system safely, use the following key combinations in sequence:
  
  1. Alt-SysRq-R. Take the control of the keyboard.
  2. Alt-SysRq-E. Send SIGTERM to all processes.
  3. Alt-SysRq-I. Send SIGKILL to all processes.
  4. Alt-SysRq-S. Sync all mounted filesystems.
  5. Alt-SysRq-U. Remount all filesystems in read-only mode.
  6. Alt-SysRq-B. Reboot!

You can memorize this magic sequence with "Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken", or simply "BUSIER" backwards.

• Press the 'magical' reset button! Frankly speaking, you almost never need to do this with Linux. (Although you may do this very often in some other operating systems.)

刚看完了天树征丸的推理漫画《金田一少年之事件簿：剑持警部杀人事件》。每次读推理小说或漫画时，如果案件的背景较为普通的还好，但若牵涉到非常无辜的人就会令我联想到一些真实发生的案件。凶手的行径令人发指，看得也让人情绪激动！这世界几时才和平呀？无论如何，金田一的案件常令人想起一些在处理上不太公平的真实案件，这也是它的可读性之一吧。对于此案，个人觉得：

• 线索足够度（所给线索足以指出真凶吗？）：非常足够。
• 解谜难度：15分。（满分100分。）每个命案的设定不错，蛮有想象力，但解谜方面就是有点简单。（说明一下：不是每个金田一的案件都很容易解决，但比较起来这案件算是较简单的。）凶手杀人时有点大胆及过度炫耀，却也容易暴露破绽，所以也很容易被精明的读者揪出来。善于解谜的读者可能破案后满足感也不大！说个不是暗示的暗示吧：剑持警部不是（也不可能是）凶手，哈哈！
• 解谜合理度：非常合理。

我看到一半时就认定凶手，所以许多谜题刚读完后就迎刃而解了。说真的个人对谜题的难度有点失望，但此漫画即让头脑轻松但也让人心情沉重，令人反思。下一部呢，想向高难度的本格派作家埃勒里·奎恩（Ellery Queen）的《荷兰鞋子的秘密》（The Dutch Shoe Mystery）挑战！我从这几年阅读推理小说中有一点心得，找到了一套让破案变得较简单的系统（不是一用就破案，还是要点想象力和推理能力的）。不过，破不了埃勒里·奎恩案件的方法都不是好方法，秀出来会丢人现眼！我还是得多读他的案件后再说。

I have just installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition [www.canonical.com] 10.04 Lucid Lynx on my Eee PC 4G (701) (Hardware specification [wiki.eeeuser.com]). In short, it works perfectly and flawlessly out-of-box!

This is a 2-year-old laptop with a 'slow' 900MHz Intel Celeron processor and a 'small' 4GB SSD. What else besides a good GNU/Linux distro can resurrect it?

Installation

• Base System. Download the CD Image of Ubuntu Netbook Edition [www.ubuntu.com] and prepare it on a USB stick. Install it.
• Better web experience.
  
  • Adobe Flash and Java Applets. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'Adobe Flash plugin' and 'Standard Java or Java compatible Runtime' (default-jre).
  • Compact Themes for Firefox. There are several compact themes for firefox [addons.mozilla.org] which are more suitable for devices with small screen. Install one.
• Complete Chinese support -- More Fonts and Input Methods. Chinese characters can be displayed correctly with the default installation. If you need more fonts and input methods, use System -> Language Support to do it. Support for other languages can be installed similarly.
• Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Filesystem Defragmentation, System Crash Monitor/Analyzer/Recovery, ... Not required and not available!

I have tested several laptop-specific features and they simply work perfectly out-of-box. E.g., the Wi-Fi, the webcam (use 'Cheese' to test it), and the Fn hotkeys (for controlling Wi-Fi, LCD, volume, etc.).

The PC was pre-installed with Xandros when I just bought it, but I was not used to its interface. I thus replaced the OS with Xubuntu. That time, Xubuntu worked fine but required some customizations to make the Wi-Fi and the Fn hotkeys to work properly. So I'm so glad that the latest Ubuntu Netbook Edition (10.04 Lucid Lynx) just works perfectly on it.

Things I have done to install my boxes with Ubuntu 10.04.

1. Installation

The installation steps for Ubuntu have been greatly and nicely improved and simplified over the years. Furthermore, its AMD64 version is very reliable and user-friendly too, so use it whenever possible.

• Base Ubuntu System. Download the Ubuntu CD image and prepare it on a CD or a USB stick. Install it. Check this [www.ubuntu.com] for details.
• Xfce. Xfce promises very responsive desktop experience. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'default Settings for Xubuntu' (xubuntu-default-settings), 'Meta-package for the Xfce Lightweight Desktop Environment' (xfce4), 'enhancements for the Xfce4 Desktop Environment' (xfce4-goodies).
• Better web experience with Adobe Flash and Java Applets. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'Adobe Flash plugin' and 'Standard Java or Java compatible Runtime' (default-jre).
• Google Chrome Browser. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'Chromium Web Browser'. If you hunger for the latest version (probably unstable), you can check this [ubuntuupdates.org] or this [code.google.com].
• Python. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'Python (v3.1)'.
• Wine for running Windows applications. Follow the instructions here [www.winehq.org].
• Complete Chinese support -- More Fonts and Input Methods. Chinese characters can be displayed correctly with the default installation. But you may need more fonts and input methods. Use System -> Language Support to do it. Supports for other languages can be installed similarly.
  
  • Support of Chinese PDF files. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'Encoding data for the poppler PDF rendering library' (poppler-data), 'Portable Document Format (PDF) suite -- simplified Chinese language support' (xpdf-chinese-simplified), and 'Portable Document Format (PDF) suite -- traditional Chinese language support' (xpdf-chinese-traditional).
• VirtualBox. Follow the instructions here [www.virtualbox.org] to add the repository and to install the package.
• Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Filesystem Defragmentation, System Crash Monitor/Analyzer/Recovery. Don't have them as you don't need them!
  
  • If you want to protect other platforms from virus infection, use ClamAV.
• Other useful applications: Medibuntu, VirtualBox, GNU Emacs, Gimp, build-essential, manpages-dev, conky, mc, k3b, geeqie, etc.

这两个短片很真实也很有意思，在此分享。

Everyone Knows Your Name 每个人都知道你的名字／无人不识你！

Online Sexual Exploitation - Bulletin Board 布告栏

(Part 1 is here if you haven't read it.)

Checked Again

A few hours ago, I connected my 'suspicious' Seagate 500GB harddisk to a motherboard of another computer. I fired up Palimpsest and checked the harddisk again. Oops, I got the same Last self-test FAILED (Read) error again. I repeated the test for a few more times and still got the same error.

I thought I couldn't do much with the harddisk already, so I started to shred [en.wikipedia.org] it. Why shred it? There were no sex videos on my harddisk, but these days you won't know how those weird people will make use of whatever irrelevant data you have in whatever ways beyond your imagination. So I just gave shred a few hours to do her job.

After shred-ing, I checked the harddisk again. I ran a self-test and re-ran both the short and conveyance self-tests for a few more times. Again and again, I got this: