偷工减料, 技术债务 =（Technical debt), material debt? => Technical and material debt.
some tries to distinguish this from Cruft (badly designed), so that technical debt can be view in a positive manner while the negative one is called cruft.
5/23/2024 Every time I hear news about attacks by the homeless in liberal states such as CA, incompetence in catch and release of criminals, victimizations of landlords, uncontrolled immigration, etc. I thought, these are major fails that Trump could have used against Biden in their upcoming interesting debates. So for more concern than fun, I posted this on FB:
I would advice consideration for Biden by both parties, even though both Trump and Biden are good at being in denial. Biden's health may not be able to withstand the pressure in the coming debates, especially the kind of arsenal Trump has against Biden's last few years of handling the country.
5/21/2024 Fundamentals by Mark Seemann. With all the frameworks and technological widgets, sometimes it may seem overwhelming to keep it, for tech folks. But the way around this is to master the foundations, or as Seemann called it, the Fundamentals. I think his article is worth a read because he has the same view as mine, even though it's not comprehensive enough for me. Also, since he's worked in the IT field in the 90s. I think the new comers post 2000 in the software developing industry are taking shortcuts that they don't really know what programming is. But they've gotten hired and paid wages higher than mine. I'm not jealous or envying their "success", because I see that as a problem, in the long run for companies that hired them (the reason we see lots of lay-offs these days: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Elon Musk's, etc.), and a broken personality - a very Epicurean one.
5/20/2024 Finally met the new neighbor (brothers: Yunnis and Yannis (Annis?)) who came after Joe left. I think there was maybe another family rented Joe's house between Joe and Yannis. The new landlord was probably some Chinese lady whom we never met. These two brothers kicked their soccer ball into our backyard today so they politely reached out in our Ring doorbell. They're probably around 15-25 years of age. I think there's probably a mother with them. Gave them the ball, we introduced each other. Apparently Willy was the first one who made contact with them. Nice brothers. Note from 12/23/2024: I found out that the young couple that moved into the blue house in front of us, that used to be owned by Adam, the young fella's name is Vinny.
Interesting article on going for interviews once a year even if you already are comfortable and satisfied with your current job. I think if I'm more disciplined and diligent, I would have come up with something like this. This certainly is a good idea, to keep oneself aware of surrounding opportunities. I don't think this is disingenuous because many companies do their own testing on their side via interviews as well.
This exercise seems to be a good way to learn the RUST programming language.
5/17/2024 TLDR's way to learn D3.js
5/14/2024 Mona Lisa Background recognized by geologist Ann Pizzorusso as in town of Lecco by the shore of Lake Como. The bridge on the right of the painting's background is thought to be the Visconti Bridge.
5/13/2024 Open Flagstar Bank Ready Checking account with initial deposit of $50+, maintain daily average $500+ for first 90 days, direct deposits $500+. $250 cash bonus will appear between days 91 and 104. I need to ask Tracy of NYGC about frequently changing direct deposits.
100,000 Stars. Cool Milky Way Virtual Model for Chrome users. It plays a movie zooming from our Sun to the galaxy.
5/10/2024 Online hardware store with best catalog website I've seen: MCMaster.com
Messing with world maps in webpages, github offers some cool toy.
MoonRay review: DreamWorks Animations' superb rendering software is free for all. The article also suggested best laptops to do rendering with.
Some insights into EV Cars experience in China. By Kevin Williams: I Went To China And Drove A Dozen Electric Cars. Western Automakers Are Cooked. I can see in the comments of the article that there are some jealous Westerners trying for some propagandas against this article.
5/7/2024 William Lane Craig's (WLC) May 6 2024 Podcast: Questions on Personal Causation, Time, and Christology, in an interesting one where someone asked a question against the Kalam cosmological argument (WLC's favorite apologetics method), that it does not proof a personal first cause, but opens for an impersonal first cause as well. WLC's response was by using Al-Ghazali's (or was he referring to Al-Ash’ari?) argument that FREE WILL is the only uncaused cause, and this for any to have a beginning, there must ultimately be a personal free will and not impersonal "cause" which would be in infinite regress in seeking for a prime mover. This reminded me just last week I told Steve at church that RC Sproul failed in his answer to the problem and origin of evil but assuming that free will is caused. Sproul was wrong in making causality as non-negotiable logical assumption. Nevertheless, WLC failed, perhaps as Al-Ghazali would too, in assuming that he could simply do away the other problem to his argument: "That it opens the possibility to an eternal universe", by just saying that an eternal universe would require a personal cause, without any explanation. So here the creator-creation distinction is required to properly answer the question. Towards the end of the podcast, WLC alluded that he's now researching on the dual natures of Christ in Christology, that he's trying to rationalize it. So I think he's more of a rationalist. We should be rational, but not rationalists.
5/6/2024 World's 1st 'tooth regrowth medicine' to be tested in Japan from Sept. 2024. This is of interest to me since I chipped a tooth last year, and having a harder than usual surgery on my right wisdom tooth (removal/cut of crown instead of extract).
Last Thursday, Steve from church asked me to watch this talk by Sproul on what is Evil, after some discussion on the pre-fall perfection of Man.So I finished it (1 hour video) in 20 mins - 3x speed on average, video and my comments below:
Nothing new, but one thing, either it is new to me or I have forgotten was Leibniz's take on evil: Physical evil (natural disasters, diseases), Metaphysical evil (anything by God - i.e. finiteness, creation, etc.), Moral evil. So, because creation is metaphysical evil, thus, moral evil is inevitable. The moment Sproul defined metaphysical evil, I already call it out as a logical fallacy: You do not put God even in terms of metaphysical, because of creator creation distinction. Sproul's critique of Leibniz on this is simply: well you can't blame it on God, all evil would be excusable.
Sproul brought up Rome's view of concupiscence. That in order to make an evil choice, one must have an evil inclination to that choice, allegedly quoting Jonathan Edwards' work on The Freedom of the Will. @31:00. Sproul then rejects it rightly on the ground that such inclination must be evil in itself. He then went on the consider the "alternative", which is making a the evil choice without any evil inclination. He wrongly concluded that it results in a choice that is not a moral action at all. A sort of an arbitrary choice. This shows that Sproul was still stuck at Rome's "inclination to sin". That inclination is a requirement in this argument. I posit that according to John 8:44, SELF, is not, nor does it need an inclination to make an ethical choice. The concept of inclination can be sound, but it fails by falling into irresponsibility, when applied universally, a want of SELF, which in man, should be united only to God's SELF/Will to be not wanting. To insist the need of some moral inclination, as Sproul does, is to insist on CAUSALITY, which is one of Sproul's 4 non-negotiable assumptions (I have another comment on this, calling it Sproul's presupposition, under the Entry of Ligonier Class: Apologetics I). However, Cornelius Van Til rightly states:
God cannot reveal himself in the realm of causality because this realm of causality is the compound of the idea of pure contingency and the impression of our own categories upon it ~ Cornelius Van Til and Eric H. Sigward, The Pamphlets, Tracts, and Offprints of Cornelius Van Til, Electronic ed. (Labels Army Company: New York, 1997). IS GOD DEAD -> What Do They Mean? -> The Help of Science And Philosophy.
I shall posit that WILL, human will that is, also cannot be revealed in the realm of causality. So WILL, is just as it is, WILL. Inclination is not a necessary condition of the WILL. Human will is only contingent upon or against God's will, outside of such contingency, there is no causality to human will, so it is neither inclined arbitrarily nor wickedly and not even goodly, it is only perfect or corrupted. Christ's will was and is a different kind: perfect perfection. A will that can choose good or evil (pre-fall will), is perfect nonetheless, just like the perfection in an infant (10 fingers, two eyes, etc.). A will that cannot choose good but evil (post-fall unregenerated will), is not perfect. A will that can only choose good and not evil (consummation), is the perfected perfection. Therefore, true impeccability is only found in union with God. Which is something all saints shall one day enjoy. Because of that, the will of a creature is itself a moral agency, you don't need inclination for that. How one explains this may also display the direction of one's own Christian culture - towards a choice of action that is either passive (the reliance of act - out of Role Model) or active (the will to act - out of Regenerated Self).
Sproul wants to conclude this: Evil is not good, but it is good that there is evil. Otherwise, it wouldn't be in a universe ruled by a perfect God.
The above quote is not surprising. It's wrong, but at this point, I'm not surprised by someone like Sproul or maybe even his mentor John Gerstner speaks it. As that's a classical approach, Thomist way of seeing a pantheistic world. It's also a play of word. "It is good that there is evil", depends. From our perspective, it is good. Not from God's perspective, for God is not tempted. We now can see that this "God is not tempted" is actually deeper than what most thinks. This is not just about you cannot get God into doing this, but the fact that whatever God does, "does', which is a word in an anthropomorphic sense for God, is inculpable, for that is the very meaning of "God". So, if the quote is seen in the right sense, that is fine, just a bit shallow because it's trapped in a pantheistic sense of God.
Sproul ended with he doesn't know the origin of evil, as Gerstner, according to Frank Turek, concluded the same by saying "mystery".
But I must be fair, it was a good speech delivered by Sproul overall.
Because of this, so, in a way, thanks to Steve, I once again tried to look up Stephen Tong's reference to Melanchthon's rebuttal against Rome when Rome accuses the Reformation of attributing God as the author of sin. In John 8:44, Melanchthon solved the accusation by saying that the cause of sin is the will of the devil and men turning away from God. I've tried to source this for a while, and now the search is finished: Apology of the Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon...Article XIII. (VII): Of the Number and Use of the Sacraments. #77: ...God is not the cause of sin...Article XX: Of Good Works.
Stephen Tong would call the failure in understanding that WILL does not require moral inclination/causality, the lack of Theology of Time, which according to him, is not taught in seminaries, unfortunately:
This field is unknown to me when it's introduced by Queens College Zoom hybrid on Etherium Nodes Blockchain coding and technology. The likes of Joshua Gottlieb founder of LendVest were present. Main focus of all these is on security.
A few starting point suggested:
To learn blockchain coding: https://cryptozombies.io/
https://code4rena.com/ where you can complete in blockchain coding to make money.
Other links are MEV pool scan using https://etherscan.io/
Recommended Patrick Collins' Youtube courses: https://www.youtube.com/c/PatrickCollins
Youtube certain has many information on this with the right keywords.
For some strange reason, my bluetooth device on the HP EliteDesk PC at home goes out from time to time (once a month or so). Normal reset won't work. It's the PC and not the connecting devices.
Cause known. The only solution that worked is the Troubleshooting Bluetooth feature in Settings > Troubleshoot.
I think from time to time, I came across some important soundbites from Stephen Tong and thought I could just remember it on the go. But I think it's important to keep a record of these short clips. Starting today: On Fallen Angels
Tong: "Fallen" is a term from physics (gravity). To be theologically accurate, the Bible does not say "fallen" angels, but angels who left their first estate. This leaving of estate/post, is an important concept and is applicable to us as well. Christ did not leave His estate.
To leave the estate, has to do with self, which is an utmost quality. Satan, not willing to live in his own estate, fell upward:
5/2/2024 This is certainly the fastest way to transplant nursery plants: https://www.facebook.com/reel/879029270903071
Pottiputki? long handled bulb/plant planter transplanter.
5/1/2024 Printing music with CSS Grid. I love writing music, I love doing this on the computer. Perhaps this is worth learning.
The South China Sea territorial debate:
I do find the chart provided by wikipedia interesting and funny, based on the map below, I have some adjectives for these countries. China (daring), Malaysia (playing fairly), Vietnam (going underwater like Atlanteans), Philippines (sea people), Brunei (pathetically funny).
Reading about the Fiji Islands, I only have one question: Am I allowed to bring my own transportation (i.e. inflatable canoe, etc.)? Assuming a boat taxi is not cheap and comes with inconvenient scheduling.
4/29/2024 A Brief History of Web Development: From Facebook's GraphQL to Next.js, etc.
4/25/2024 Photomolecular Effect claimed for evaporating water using light without heat in MIT.
I think this TikTok Ban is getting out of hand. Forcing ByteDance to sell. You think the Americans would learn their lesson after embarrassing themselves in the world with that interrogation of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean. I can't even tell if this is an ego thing or they truly believe that TikTok is responsible for China's invasion of U.S. But it certainly rekindles my motivation to watch that TikTok Interrogation again.
Someone's investigation on colors and culture.
To learn about web game engines and libraries with 2D & 3D graphics in Javascript.
Someone's take on the rise and fall of the LAN Party. Something people in the 2000 would be familiar with.
Someone spending 3 hours supposedly giving tutorial on Modern React: RSCs, Next.js, Shadui, Drizzle, TS and more
These Dodo Men did a random invite of a Denmark guy named Anton to visit Taiwan and now they visited Anton's home with the mother:
4/24/2024 Some good read on Ideas in Computer Science. Starting with history of Binary Numbers in the 1500s.
Socrates said it. Stephen Tong promoted it, mocking those who think they could live through life without mistakes by doing nothing. I do prefer CL Franklin's quote better. I do not remember exactly which sermon he said it in, but I heard it from his sermon series on Youtube while I was in Detroit. DL Franklin is a famous black pastor, famously known for his million dollar voice, as well as being the father of Aretha Franklin in Detroit.
To paraphrase Franklin: You cannot live a victorious life for Christ by doing nothing!
Many pride themselves of the comfort for staying out of trouble, running from facing possible challenges. They think they lived their lives by doing nothing. They forgot, that as Christians, we are also to live a victorious life. You cannot live a victorious life by doing nothing.
On my Samsung Galaxy HomeScreen, it used to be easy, go to Chrome, visit that url, go to settings, choose "add to home screen". But now, it seems that some sites have their own "app" version, such that the phone would detect this and replace "add to home screen" to "install app" instead. I had since copy pasted a list of my NJTransit links (for different stations) to a notepad on my phone and click the links from there, not the most satisfying, but I tolerated it for a long time. I tried setting the site to "desktop mode", still no help.
Now, thanks to some site, the trick to the solution is just to go offline (airplane mode) before going to the sites. This way the browser wouldn't be able to detect if these sites are app or not, and allow the default option "add to home screen".
Sunday School: The Israel of God. I can't help but wondering if the pastor's view was a mixture of Covenantal and dispensational (or remnant shadow of dispensational) theology: as sometimes there seems to be some creeping in of a bilateral ingredient of the/a covenant. Despite his desire to go fully covenant of grace. The true reformed understanding of God's covenant with man from before Adam to now and beyond is a unilateral one, not bilateral. There's no bargaining with God, so to speak. What God commands are what is to be of God's people, they are not conditions: as if if you don't do this, you are not God's people, if you do this you are. It should be more of a: God's people will do this or be disciplined to do this. Two very different thought approaches.
Sermon: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Mystic Sweet Communion
P: Church service is not about learning new things, but about the Gospel...
I would push back and say that it should be about learning new things, because God is rich in His Gospel, filling us new desire in seeking Him through learning and worshipping Him. God is beyond, not fathomable, so this learning is forever.
P: I'll be surprised that there will be members who disagree with your political views.
An interesting and good observation. I think it's healthy to be the case. However, I would focus on the word "surprised". It shows that this church doesn't fellowship well together, otherwise, it should not be a surprise, in true fellowship. This my own minor observation, because the surprise maybe for those who do not fellowship with us or outside of this church.
The pastor shared his "boringness", "weirdness" to indicate his eventual passion about worship. It sounded like a lacking in the understanding of general revelation. Willy even thought the pastor admitted his faults in his choice of words: "boringness", "weirdness", that the pastor was asking for help to make his life more interesting. A complete 180 degree turn in understanding the pastor, something common for those who have ears but do not listen (think: Becky Wang on Tim Keller's comment on LGBT - that she thought Keller was supporting LGBT).
Hymns to learn 4 parts singing: #264 Lift High the Cross, #347 The Church's One Foundation, #731 Doxology, #535 O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus.
Annual GM Meeting at end of service, financial report 2023 vs 2024 budget: For 2023, Facility rental really did help, about 12% of total income. SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Credits) also made about 2.7% of total income, the rest was from general tithes and offerings. Pastoral salary (30% of total 2023 expenses) raise is budgeted at 6%, which is decent as the average American annual raise is 3%-6%.
An overall view, I think it's healthy so far. The 2023 expense vs. income ratio was about 86:100. However, I think due to the church's lack of outreach, evangelism, it is not good to rely on givings from rich folks, if any. Most of the folks I know personally who are more active in a more Gospel-centered lifestyle are not rich. If that is so, this is a problem. As it is the same kind of problem with many American churches - their display of financial stability comes from some form of inheritance: grandfathering, loyalty, altruism (think Uzzah's lending hand) or otherwise.
There's 10% of total expenses for missions in 2023. However, these are mostly for supporting missions. That is fine, but since this church lacks its own outreach mission (we tried one last year), it is a problem. A church that doesn't evangelize is a suiciding church, this principle is not even about numbers. But having her own basic/general missions, it would cost the church virtually nothing financial wise (I'm talking about money for signboards, flyers, printing, which aren't even necessary most of the times). The culture has also affected this: It's either Seminary -> pastors/paid profession or not at all. No concept of volunteerism unless it's for some environmental/feast related cause. But this church does have a few into evangelism, which is good, I hope that spirit does not die down. Gospel supporting is different than Gospel centering. Gospel centeredness is more active than Gospel supporting, which alone, is just a self-justification to be complacent without going out to evangelize themselves.
The comfort in evangelism in today's condition (just believe, why think, why argue, why debate, etc.) is this: I get to tell people/new converts that "When you come to church, my church, church folks may not be as smart as you, but do remind yourself that God is certainly no dumber than you..."
