时间过得真快，转眼间奥运都快开始了。

1. Ann Arbor这边真是一点过年的气氛都没有，大家还是该干嘛干嘛。倒是Berkeley教授Luca Trevisan发了了一篇中文blog恭喜发财!。今天华人学生会有个晚会，可熟悉的人都不去，晚饭吃饱后也不想动，我也就没去。

2. 2007年的图灵奖获得者名单已经公布，Edmund M. Clarke, E. Allen Emerson, and Joseph Sifakis因为Model Checking的工作将共享25万美金的奖金。钱好少，还要三个人分...Model Checking我们组也有一个人做，属于逻辑那一块吧。图灵奖里做理论计算机的不算太多，毕竟计算机领域这么大嘛。还有位仁兄因为发明鼠标获得图灵奖呢。

3. Mihai写了一篇Introducing TCS? 安排一个两天的理论计算机介绍课程。不过看他所提的内容，实在不能说只是introducing。Mihai本人非同寻常，他去年9月份止就已经是5 STOC，5 FOCS，5 SODA，更让人郁闷的是他现在才二年级，而且已经打算毕业了。所以此乃境界之高下也。

4. Terence Tao的What’s new是我见过最好的blog，更新勤快，而且内容含量特别高。比如我最近要弄的一个东西，他的一篇blog文章就是很好的综述，Terence Tao回复留言也很积极，在大教授里面很少见。即便不看Terence Tao写的数学，他的两个系列Career advice和On writing也非常不错，一贯的数学家写作方式，一条一条分步骤特别清楚详细。前者讲怎么搞学术，后者讲怎么写发论文。

5. 牛人太多，自卑ing

6. 看了电影《集结号》。好久没有看国内的战争片了，这次还拍得像模像样，只不过对手还是像以前战争片中一样弱智，动不动就被人1v10+。什么时候中国能拍出像《兵临城下》这样的战争片，给对手足够的尊重？

7. 还看了《苹果》，一句话概括“很黄不暴力” 。另外，这个电影在国内被禁，据说是因为情色，不过我看是因为不够和谐吧，这个不是说情节，而是镜头。电影里多次出现雄伟的奥运大楼，另一边却是翻捡垃圾的乞丐，这不是对天朝赤裸裸的污蔑么。

© zhiqiang for 阅微堂, 2008. | 链接 | 10 条评论

魔鬼经济学中教育我们要对数据进行分析，揭露隐藏在表象世界下的真实世界。但是，对于数据的不同分析方式，会得出截然不同的结果，至少表面上看起来截然不同。

比如在上面的例子，表面上看起来女性报考者在每个系都受到了歧视，但真实情况如何呢？

为了简单起见，不妨将各系分为两大类，文科系和理工科系，

表格里面的 a/b=c%的含义为b人报考，a人通过，通过率为c%。

这个例子便显示即使数据表明在每个系，女性通过率要低于男性，在全校范围看来，女性的通过率也可能比男性高，这样看来，歧视女性报考者的说法就无法成立了。

上面是一个例子，显示出数据必须从整体来看。下面是一个例子，单从整体来看数据也是不够的。

某气象台号称它的天气预报整体准确率高达80%。你对这个数据有何看法？

似乎80%是足够高了。但其实不然。大多数人关注的天气也就是下雨和不下雨之分。任何一个人都能预测天气，达到90%以上的准确率，只需要总是预测不下雨即可（显然，在北京，雨天的概率要<10%）。

想想看，你是否被人用上面的两种方法忽悠过？

注：上面的例子和数据均为作者伪造，清华大学也从没有歧视女性之说，请勿用作其它论据。

© zhiqiang for 阅微堂, 2007. | 链接 | 14 条评论

Tsinghua ITCS Theory Day (I)

time: Apr. 11, 2:00-5:00pm

The Institute for Theoretical Computer Science in Tsinghua University has initiated a Theory Day program, a one-day public workshop to be held each semester. This program is intended to communicate some of the exciting latest research results in theoretical computer science, especially those carried out in China. The talks are designed to convey the essence of the work, not only to the experts but also to the computer science community at large. Whether you are a specialist in this area, you will find the program stimulating.

The Theory Day inaugural program will be this Wednesday. Three brilliant young scientists of our institute will share their research results and insights with you. They are Dr. Xiaoming Sun (who graduated from our Institute in 2006), Xi Chen (fourth-year graduate student), and Pinyan Lu (second-year graduate student). Xiaoming’s research interests include quantum computing, quantum information and classical complexity. Xi’s interests lie in characterizing the computational complexity of natural problems in Algorithmic Game Theory and Computational Biology. And Pinyan’s interests are in complexity theory, algorithms design and algorithmic game theory.

Tsinghua ITCS Theory Day (II)

time: Apr. 12, 2:00-5:00pm

The Institute for Theoretical Computer Science in Tsinghua University has initiated a Theory Day program, a one-day public workshop to be held each semester. This program is intended to communicate some of the exciting latest research results in theoretical computer science, especially those carried out in China. The talks are designed to convey the essence of the work, not only to the experts but also to the computer science community at large. Whether you are a specialist in this area, you will find the program stimulating.

The Theory Day program II will be this Thursday. Three scientists will share their research results and insights with you. They are Professor Mike Paterson (who is a Professor of Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom), Professor Mario Szegedy (Rutgers University) and Professor Ran Raz (faculty of mathematics and computer science at the Weizmann Institute). Prof. Mike Paterson’s research interests include graph theory. Prof. Mario Szegedy’s interests are in complexity theory, combinatorics, combinatorial geometry and quantum computing. And Prof. Ran Raz’s interests lie in Boolean circuit complexity, Arithmetic circuit complexity, Communication complexity, Propositional proof theory, Probabilistic checkable proofs, Quantum computation and communication and Randomness and derandomization.

© zhiqiang for 阅微堂, 2007. | 链接 | 1条评论