Skype causes HTML format lost when pasted to word 2010?

It was very frustrating when I found that my Word lost format of copied HTML contents. I did a lot of research on internet but found nothing helpful.

I checked the software I installed just before the first time I noticed the problem and caught Skype. I uninstalled it and now it is fine.

Is that you, Skype?

Configuring OS X Mail For Gmail

Configuring OS X Mail For Gmail

from http://jamietalbot.com/2011/07/26/configuring-os-x-mail-for-gmail-without-duplicates/

I’ve been using Gmail tied to my Google Apps account for the last couple of years and I love it. However, travelling around with intermittent Wi-Fi access for the last 6 months has meant there have been a couple of occasions where I really could have done with getting to email but haven’t been able to. I’d resisted the urge in the past to use a local Mail client, but with the big improvements to OSX Mail that came with Lion (in particular the full-screen mode that just lets it sit in its own space out of the way), I took the plunge and set it up this week.

Linking Mail to my Gmail account was relatively painless, with the following settings for the account:

Account Type: IMAP

Incoming Mail Server: imap.gmail.com
Username: {Google Apps Account Email Address}
SSL: Yes

Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.gmail.com
Authentication: Password
Username: {Google Apps Account Email Address}
SSL: Yes

Everything was up and running pretty quickly. The only major issue I had was duplication of messages. Each Gmail label is interpreted by Mail as a folder and so items that are labelled will appear once in the Inbox and once in the Label folder. As I label everything, that’s a pretty big issue. Plus, the “All Mail” folder that is created as part of Google’s Priority Inbox feature means everything is duplicated there as well.

Luckily, the solution to this is also straightforward. First, in Gmail, I visited Settings => Labels. There is a column specifying “Show in IMAP” and the simple solution was to uncheck this box for every single label apart from Trash, Drafts and Sent Mail. (Inbox can’t be unselected but that’s ok.) Next, I opened up Mail and gave it a few seconds to refresh the mailboxes. There were now only the 3 folders I’d selected. The final step was to tell Mail how to treat those folders. First, I clicked on the Sent Messages in the sidebar underneath my Gmail account, then clicked Mailbox => Use This Mailbox For => Sent. I repeated the appropriate steps with Trash and Drafts. After a couple of minutes, Presto!, everything is as it should be. The Inbox, Sent and Trash folders are exact representations of what’s in GMail and there are no duplicates on the machine, saving space and Spotlight results. The final step to unifying the two was to go to Preferences => Viewing and then check the option for “Include Related Messages”. Now the conversations are threaded by default with Sent and Received messages interleaved as expected.

The only slight drawback is that obviously you can’t view subsets of your messages by label on the client. That’s no problem for me though, as I rarely need to look at all the messages of a given label at the same time, and fast full-text search on the client makes it unnecessary.

By all accounts, IMAP support in Mail.app was pretty poor in the past. However, setting it up in the most recent version is a breeze. Now when I need to access archived information locked away in my email, I can!

微软拼音输入法的全角符号问题

在用微软拼音输入法的时候，在中/英文之间切换几次以后，总是自动变成输入全角符号，这样一来那个英文字母和数字就非常难看了。还好有快捷键可以用：

Shift+Space键可以在全角符号和半角符号之间切换

Ctrl+. 键可以在中文标点/英文标点之间切换。

increase font size in word

Select all text, use the shortcuts below, and you will increase the fonts of the whole paper. It works great if you want to keep their font sizes formatted differently.

CTRL + SHIFT + > to increase font size by 1 point

CTRL + SHIFT + < to decrease font size by 1 point

Bill and Steve

S: My doctor told me that I have cancer.

B: Oh, sorry to know that.

S: But I am not worry about it.

B: Why?

S: There is an app for it.

Bill and Steve

S: I am going to have my genome sequenced.

B: for what?

S: To find out why I am so smart.

Bill and Steve

Bill: Steve, what software should I use if I am interested in interactions of a set of proteins?

Steve: PREPPI.

B: Why?

S: It just works.

A, an and the

http://www.rensselaer.edu/dept/llc/writecenter/ascii/esl.txt

____________________________________________________________________________

                       "A," "An," and "The"
               An Overview of English Article Usage
          for Speakers of English as a Second Language

                          John R.  Kohl
                       The Writing Center
                      4508 Sage Laboratory
                Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
___________________________________________________________________________

The articles "a," "an," and "the" are difficult for many non-native speakers
of English to learn to use properly.  Some of the rules that govern article
usage are very subtle; only years of experience with the language will enable
you to understand and apply these rules.  However, Table 3 will help you
eliminate many errors in article usage from your writing.

In order to use Table 3, however, you have to understand two concepts:
"countability" and "definiteness."  These concepts are explained in detail
below. 

The last part of this handout  discusses article usage with proper nouns
as well as the difference between "a" and "an."  At the very end of the
handout is an exercise that you can do to test  your understanding.

COUNTABILITY

Countable nouns refer to people, places, or things that can be counted
(one dollar/two dollars, one house, two houses).  They [these countable
nouns] can always be made plural--usually by adding "s" or some other
variation of the plural ending (student(s), countri(es), child(ren).
A few words are the same in both the singular and plural forms
(deer, sheep).

Uncountable nouns often refer to food, beverages, substances, or
abstractions (meat, tea, steel, information); some uncountable nouns
(but not the abstract ones) can be made countable by adding a "count
frame" in front of them (two gallons of milk, six blocks of ice, a bar
of soap, a bunch of celery).

Unfortunately, there is not clear-cut distinction between countable and
uncountable nouns.  Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable
even without adding count frames.  For example, as an uncountable noun,
experience refers to abstract knowledge or skill that can be gained by
observing or participating in events.  As a singular or plural countable
noun (experience/experiences), the word "experience" refers to a particular
instance (or instances) of participation in events.  Similarly, the uncountable
noun "glass" is a substance made from silicates; "a glass" (singular) is
something you drink from; and "glasses" (plural) are frames containing lenses
that correct imperfect vision.

There are other exceptions to the countable/uncountable distinction as well. 
Moreover, a noun that is countable in your native language may be uncountable
in English, and vice-versa.  For example, "soap" is countable in Spanish but
uncountable in English.  However, as long as you are aware of these
differences they probably will not cause you much difficulty.
_______________________________________________________________________________

LEARNING HINT #1: The best thing to do is to memorize some of the
most frequently occurring uncountable nouns (shown in Table 1 below), and
to look up other nouns in a dictionary if you are not sure whether they are
countable or uncountable.  If your dictionary does not indicate whether
nouns are countable or uncountable, then you should consult another
dictionary, such as _The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary_.  This
dictionary is available for you to use at the Writing Center.

In the _Oxford_ dictionary, nouns are countable unless they are designated
by the letter "u."  If a noun can be either countable or uncountable (with
different definitions, as in the examples given above), then the uncountable
definitions are preceded by "u," and the countable definitions are preceded by
"c," as in the following example:

ad-ven-ture  n. 1 [c] a strange or unusual
    happening (The explorer told the boys about his
    adventures in the Arctic). 2 [u] risk; danger
    (Robin Hood lived a life of adventure).
______________________________________________________________________________

     TABLE 1: SOME COMMON UNCOUNTABLE ENGLISH NOUNS

1.   Food and Drink: bacon, beef, beer, bread, broccoli, butter, cabbage,
    candy, cauliflower, celery, cereal, cheese, chicken, chocolate,
    coffee, corn, cream, fish, flour, fruit, ice cream, lettuce, meat, milk,
    oil, pasta, rice, salt, spinach, sugar, tea, water, wine, and yogurt

2.   Nonfood Substances: air ,cement, coal, dirt, gasoline, gold, ice,
    leather, paper, petroleum, plastic,  rain, rubber, silver, snow, soap,
    steel, wood and wool.

3.   Abstract nouns: advice, anger, beauty, confidence, courage, employment,
    fun, happiness, health, honesty, information, intelligence, knowledge,
    love, poverty, satisfaction, truth, and wealth

4.   Others: biology, clothing, equipment, furniture, homework, jewelry,
    luggage, lumber, machinery, mail, money, news, poetry, pollution,
    research, scenery, traffic, transportation, violence, weather, and work


DEFINITENESS

A noun is "definite" if it refers to something specific that is known to both
the writer/speaker and the reader/listener.  (Note: You should memorize this
definition!)  For example, if Jane needs to drive somewhere, she might ask
her father, "May I use the car?"  She uses the definite article "the" because
both she and her father know which car Jane is referring to (the family car). 
But later Jane might say to her friend Bill, "I saw a funny-looking dog today." 
She uses the indefinite article "a" because she knows which dog she saw, but
Bill doesn't.

Table 2 below illustrates that there are four possible conditions involved in
this decision, but only one results in a noun that is definite.


TABLE 2: MATRIX OF DEFINITENESS/INDEFINITENESS *

                              Knows specifically what is being referred to?

                Writer/speaker        Reader/listener

Definite:   Can I use THE car?            Yes                    No

Indefinite: I saw A funny-looking
           dog today.                    Yes                    No

Indefinite: I heard that you once
           wrote A book about
           ecology.                      No                     Yes

Indefinite: I need to buy a new belt.     No                     No



*   adapted from Brown, R., _A First Language_, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
     University Press, 1973.


FIVE SOURCES OF DEFINITENESS:

There are five principal ways in which a reader/listener can know
specifically what a noun is referring to (that is, five reasons a noun
might be considered definite):

1. The noun has been previously mentioned.

 I saw A funny-looking DOG yesterday [first mention, indefinite]. 
 It looked like a cross between a Pekinese and a German shepherd. 
 When it saw my cat, THE DOG ran away [second mention, definite].

2. A superlative or ranking adjective makes the noun's identity specific.

 -  THE tallest girl in the class is 6'2" tall.  [There can be only
    one girl who is the tallest.] 
 -  Please read THE fourth paragraph on page 3.  [There can be
    only one fourth paragraph.]
 -  Today is THE most important day of my life.  [There can be only
    one day that is the most important.]

3. The noun describes a unique person, place, or thing.

 THE earth revolves around THE sun once every 365 days. [There is
 only one earth and only one sun--in our solar system, that is!]

4. A modifying word, phrase, or clause FOLLOWS the noun and makes it
 clear which specific person or thing you are referring to.  But not
 every noun that is modified in this way is definite; it depends largely
 on the situation and on what you can reasonably expect your listener/
 reader to know about.

 Do you remember THE girl who went camping with us?  [Using "the"
 here implies that there was only one girl who went camping with you;
 otherwise the clause "who went camping with us" would not be sufficient
 to identify the particular girl that you are referring to.  If there
 were two girls, then you would have to be more specific, saying perhaps
 "Do you remember THE girl from Iowa who went camping with us last May?"]

 John is reading A book about quantum physics.  [Here the noun "book"
 is modified by the phrase "about quantum physics."  But there is
 undoubtedly more than one book about quantum physics.  Therefore,
 to make "book" definite, we would have to add more information: "THE
 book about quantum physics that was assigned by Professor Jackson
 last week."]

5. The context or situation makes the noun's identity clear.  For example,
 you might ask someone to "Close THE door."  You would use "the"
 because it would undoubtedly be clear to both of you which door you
 were referring to.  Similarly, if you tell someone that you are going
 to THE library, that person will assume that you are talking about
 whichever library is most familiar to both of you--RPI's Folsom
       Library, for example.

 Again, you have to be sure that your reader or listener has the same
 context or situation in mind that you are thinking of; otherwise, he
 or she will be confused by your use of "the."  For example, one student
 wrote the following sentence:

  This magazine helps women analyze THE problematic situation
  and offers possible remedies.

 But this was the first time she had mentioned a problematic situation.
 Her readers were therefore confused because her use of the word "the"
 implied that they were already supposed to know which problematic
 situation she was referring to.

CHOOSING THE APPROPRIATE ARTICLE

In order to choose the appropriate article for a noun, you first need to decide
whether the noun is singular.  One way to determine this is to ask yourself
whether you could put the number "one" in front of it.  For example, you can
say "one experiment," but not "one knowledge" or "one examples;" therefore,
"experiment" is singular, whereas "knowledge" is uncountable and "examples"
is plural.

Table 3 below shows that if the noun is singular, you must use either "the" or
"a"/"an" in front of the noun, depending on whether it is definite (known to
both you and your readers) or not.

If the noun is not singular, then it must be either plural or uncountable. 
Table 3 below shows that article usage is the same for both plural and
uncountable nouns will use either "the" or "0" (no article) in front of the
noun.  Again, the decision depends on whether the noun is definite or not.

 Table 3: Choosing the Appropriate Article

1. Singular noun (one of something that is countable)
 Is the noun definite?
 YES: Use "the"
 a) The painting in the living room was given to me by an old friend.

      - "Painting" and "living room" are singular because we are
   referring to only one painting and one living room.
      -  "Painting" is definite because the following phrase, "in the
   living room," makes it clear which painting we are referring
   to (reason 4, above).  (However, it could be indefinite
   if there is more than one painting in the living room that
   the speaker could be referring to; in that case, the
                speaker would say "A painting...."
       - "Living room" is definite because it is clear from the context
   of the situation that the speaker is referring to the living
   room closest to where he and the listener are standing (reason
                5 above).

 NO:  Use "a" or "an"
 b) Eugene's lunch consisted of a sandwich, two cookies, and a can
      of soda.

     - "Sandwich" and "can" are both singular (there is only one of
   each).  They could be definite if the listener/reader had seen
   Eugene's sandwich and can of soda, or if they had been
   mentioned before.  However, the speaker/writer's choice of the
   indefinite article "a" for both nouns tells us that they are
   unknown to the listener/reader.

2. Plural or uncountable noun
 Is the noun definite?
 YES: Use "the"
 c) The technical reports that I gave you are top secret.  (plural and
          definite)

     - "Reports" is plural (note that it ends in -s) because we are
   talking about more than one report.  It is definite because
   the following phrase, "that I gave you," makes it clear to
   the reader/listener which reports you are referring to
                (reason 4, above).

 d) The wool that is produced in Scotland is used to make sweaters and
    other garments.  (uncountable and definite)

     - "Wool" is uncountable (you cannot say "one wool").  It is
   definite because the following clause, that is produced in
   Scotland, makes it clear which wool you are referring to
   (reason 4, above).

 NO:  Use 0 (no article)
 e) Long reports are difficult to write.  (plural and indefinite)

     - "Reports" is plural (note that it ends in -s).  The lack of an
   article in front of it means that the speaker/writer is
   talking not about particular reports that are known to the
   listener/reader, but about all long reports in general.

 f) Scotland's major exports are wool and oil.  (uncountable and
          indefinite).

     - "Wool" and "oil" are both uncountable nouns (you cannot
   say "one wool" or "one oil" in this context).  They are
   indefinite because they refer to these two substances in
   general, not to particular shipments of wool and oil that are
   known to the reader/listener.
_____________________________________________________________________________

LEARNING HINT #2:  One of the most common mistakes that non-native
speakers make with articles is using "a" or "an" with plural or uncountable
nouns (a students and a research would be incorrect).  But consider that the
articles "a" and "an" are derived from the word "one."  Thus, it is illogical
to use "a" or "an" with a plural noun, isn't it?  It is also illogical to use
"a" or "an" with an uncountable noun--After all, how can you have "one" of
something that is uncountable?

An easy way to eliminate a lot of mistakes is to look through your writing for
every occurrence of "a" and "an."  Then examine the noun that follows each "a"
or "an."  If the noun is either plural or uncountable, then you have made a
mistake, and you should refer to Table 3 to determine whether to use "the" or
"0" instead.
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
LEARNING HINT #3:  Often mistakes occur not because a writer has used
the wrong article (e.g., "a" or "an" instead of "the"), but because the writer
has used no article at all for a singular noun.  Notice in Table 3 that every
singular noun must have an article in front of it.
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
LEARNING HINT #4:  Notice that every definite noun takes the article "the,"
regardless of whether it is singular, plural, or uncountable.  Therefore, if
you cannot decide whether a noun is singular, plural, or uncountable, go on
to the next step and ask yourself whether it is definite (known to both the
writer/speaker and the reader/listener) or not.  If it is definite, then use
"the."
_____________________________________________________________________________

USING ARTICLES WITH PROPER NOUNS

So far we have been talking only about using articles with common nouns. 
The rules for proper nouns are more complex.

Proper nouns are names of particular people, places, and things (John F.
Kennedy, New York City, Notre Dame Cathedral), and for that reason they are
inherently definite.  Nevertheless, the definite article is not used with most
SINGULAR proper nouns.  For example, if you are referring to your friend
George, you wouldn't say "THE George and I went to a movie last night." 
The only times "the" is used with a name like this are: a) when you want to be
emphatic, as in "THE Elizabeth Taylor" (to emphasize that you are talking about
the famous actress, and not about another woman with the same name), and b)
when you are actually using the name as a common noun, as in "THE George
that I introduced you to last night" (the real meaning of this phrase is THE
man named George...").  PLURAL names, on the other hand, are always preceded
by "the": the Johnsons, the Bahamas, etc.

Singular geographical names are very irregular with respect to article usage. 
For example, singular names of continents (Asia, Africa), mountains
(Mount Fuji), and bays (San Francisco Bay) do not take the article "the,"
but regions (the Crimea), deserts (the Sahara), and other geographical
entities do.

Indeed, the use of articles with singular proper nouns is complex and hence
difficult to learn, as indicated by the examples below.  For this reason, the
best thing to do is to memorize whether the proper nouns that you use
frequently are used with or without "the."

EXAMPLES:
 State Street
 the Empire State Building
 Delaware County
 Great Britain
 the Soviet Union
 the University of Virginia
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
 the United Nations  (the U.N.)
 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
 (but "OPEC," not "the OPEC")

"A" VERSUS "AN"

This last topic is undoubtedly the easiest, because most non-native speakers
already know about the difference between "a" and "an."  They are simply two
variations of the indefinite article.  "A" is used before words that begin with
consonant sounds (a rock, a large park) and "an" is used before vowel sounds
(an interesting subject, an apple).
 
However, note that the choice of "a" or "an" depends on pronunciation, not
spelling.  Many words that begin with the vowel -u- are preceded by "a" instead
of "an" because the -u- spelling is often pronounce -yu-, as in useful ("a
usefule idea"), and uranium ("a uranium isotope").  In addition, in a few words
borrowed from French, the initial consonant -h- is not pronounced: an heir
to the throne, an hour-long lecture, an honorable agreement, etc.

A STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS

Keep in mind that native speakers of English seldom use articles incorrectly;
therefore, any errors that you make are very noticeable and distracting to
them.  That is why you should make an effort to use articles correctly.

Study this handout--particularly the "Five Sources of Definiteness," Table 3,
and the learning hints.  Memorize the definition of definiteness ("known to
both the writer/speaker and the reader/listener").  Then try the Exercise
toward the end of this handout; the correct answers are provided on the
following page so you can check your work.

In the future, whenever you write in English, you will need to proofread your
writing carefully and to apply the rules for article usage very deliberately. 
Then come to the Writing Center and ask a tutor specifically to correct any
remaining errors in your article usage.  With practice, you can learn to use
articles correctly--not only in writing, but also in speech!

REFERENCES

Brown, Roger.  _A First Language: The Early Stages_.  Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1973. (Folsom library  P136 .B7)

Celce-Murcia, Marianne, and Larsen-Freeman, Diane.  _The Grammar Book:
An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course_.  Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1983.
171-202.

Hacker, Diana.  _The Bedford Handbook for Writers_.  Boston: St. Martin's,
1991.  312-17.  (Available at the Writing Center)

Hornby, A.S.  _The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current
English_.  3rd ed.  London: Oxford U P, 1974.  (Available at the Writing
Center)

Master, Peter A.  "Teaching the English Article to Foreign Technical Writing
Students."  _The Technical Writing Teacher_ 13.3 (1986): 203-10.  (Folsom
library reserve  808 .T49)

Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. 
_A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language_.  New York:
Longman, 1985.  (Folsom library  PE1106 .C65 1985)

______________________________________________________________________________

EXERCISE

Instructions:  Fill in each blank with the appropriate article.  If no article
is required, put a "0" in the blank.  The nouns that the articles go with are
in italics.

1. _______ Decline and Fall of ______ Roman Empire
    (a)    (b)


2. ________ complexity of _______ problem of ______ decline and fall of the
    (a)     (b)        (c)
  Roman Empire is made evident by _______ wide variety of causes that are
                (d)
  emphasized in varying degrees by _______ different authors.
          (e)

3. Fortunately, ________concise formulation of Edward Gibbon serves as
    (a)
  _________ widely accepted basis for _______ modern discussion of
     (b)     (c)
  _________ problem.
     (d)

4. According to Gibbon, _________ empire reached its peak during _______
             (a)               (b)
  administration of ________ two Antonines.
        (c)

5. After that, however, ________ extent of ________ Roman conquest
      (a)        (b)
  became too great to be managed by _______ Roman government,
           (c)
  and _______ decline began.
        (d)

6.  ______ military government was weakened and finally dissolved as ______
     (a)                                                       (b)
   barbarians were allowed to constitute ______ ever-growing percentage of
         (c)
   ______ Roman legions.
     (d)

7.  ______ victorious legions began to dominate and corrupt _______ government,
     (a)            (b)
   weakening it at ______ time when it most needed ______ strength to overcome
                    (c)        (d)
   _______ other problems.
     (e)

_____________________________________________________________________________

 ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS TO THE EXERCISES

NOTE: The explanations refer to reasons given in the section on "Five Sources
     of Definiteness."

1. a) The -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modification: "of the Roman Empire").
 b) the -- singular; definite because of the preceding adjective:
 Roman.  This is not one of the five principal sources of definiteness,
 but in this case, "Roman empire" is very specific (especially since
 "Roman" is derived from the proper noun, "Rome"), and the reader would
 be expected to know that there was only one empire that is known as
 the Roman empire in English.

2. a) The -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modification: "of the problem...").
 b) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modification "of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire").
 c) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modfication: "of the Roman Empire").
 d) the or a -- singular; could be either definite or indefinite. 
 Even though a long string of modifiers follows the noun, the reader
 still might not be familiar with the variety of causes that the
       writer is referring to.
 e) 0 -- plural; indefinite because the reader has no way of knowing
 which different authors the writer is referring to.

3. a) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modification: "of Edward Gibbon").
 b) a -- singular; indefinite because there could be more than one
 "widely accepted basis for modern discussion of the problem" (the
 modification is not sufficient to make the noun unique).
 c) 0 -- uncountable; indefinite.  "Discussion" can be either countable
 or uncountable; here it is being used in the abstract, uncountable
 sense.  It is indefinite because there could be more than one "modern
 discussion of the problem" (the modification is not sufficient to
       make the noun unique).
 d) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned).

4. a) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned).
 b) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modification: "of the two Antonines").
 c) the or 0 -- plural; could be either definite or indefinite.  The
 writer's use of "the" indicates that there were two and only two
       two Antonine emperors.  Use of 0 would indicate that there were more
 than two Antonine emperors.

5. a) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following
 modification: "of the Roman conquest").
 b) the -- "Conquest" in this context is uncountable, meaning "the area
 or territory which was conquered."  Because the preceding adjective,
 "Roman," is derived from a proper name (Rome), it makes the following
 noun unique in this context.
 c) the -- singular; definite.  As in 5b, the preceding adjective,
 "Roman," makes it clear which government is referred to in this
 context.  However, note that in another context, it might be necessary
 to add a following modification in order to make the noun definite
 (e.g., "the Roman government of the third century A.D.")
 d) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned).

6. a) The -- singular; definite because of reasons 1 and 5 ("Roman
 government" was previously mentioned, and it is clear from the context
       that "military government" is also referring to the Roman government).
 b) 0 -- plural; indefinite (not previously mentioned, nor is there any
 other source of definiteness).
 c) an -- singular; indefinite.  There could be more than one group,
 other than the barbarians, who constituted "ever-growing percentages
 of the Roman legions"; thus, modification is not sufficient to make
       the noun definite.
 d) the -- plural; definite.  As in 5b and 5c, the preceding adjective,
 "Roman," is sufficient to make it clear which legions are being
 referred to in this context.  In another context, additional
 modification might be required to make the noun definite (e.g., "the
 Roman legions that invaded Britian in 6 B.C.")

7. a) 0 -- plural; probably indefinite.  The author is not necessarily
 referring to any particular group of victorious legions; moreover,
 even though "legions" have been mentioned before, "victorious
 legions have not; thus, the criterion of previous mention does not
       apply.
 b) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned).
 c) a or the -- singular; If we interpret "when it most needed..." as
 modifying "time," then "time" is definite because of reason 4. 
 However, most native speakers interpret both "at a time" and "when
 it most needed..." as adverbial modifiers modifying "weakening," so the
 the noun would be interpreted as being indefinite.
 d) the or 0 -- "Strength" can be either uncountable (the abstract
 quality of strength) or singular (a particular instance of that
 abstract quality).  So it is either singular and definite because of
 reason 4 (following modification: "to overcome other problems"), or
 uncountable and indefinite.  Both would be equally acceptable, so it
       just depends on how the writer is thinking. 
 e) 0 -- plural; indefinite ("other problems" have not been mentioned
 previously, and there is no other source of definiteness).

chain-termination sequencing

1, the basic idea of chain-termination sequencing and development of using labeled terminator, which is the main stream of current sequencing method, although is replacing now by NGS

2, see the right, labeled terminator could reduce four separate experiments into one

3, capillary eletrophoresis is the currently main method in readout.

Current chain-termination sequencing method has bad quality at the first 15~40 bases, and it also deteriorates after 700~900 bases.

[ref] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencing

Maxam - Gilbert Direct Chemical Sequencing Of Labeled, Single-Stranded DNA

[ref] http://bioweb.wku.edu/courses/biol350/DNAsequencing13/Review.html

postdoc fellowship

postdoc fellowships without GC requirement.
HHWF
JCC
DRCR
LSRF
K99
BW
AHA (is this one field specific?)
LLS

Neuroscience
NINDS

remove file extension

$file="file.name.extension";

$file =~ s/(.*)\./$1/;
##or
$file =~ s/\.[^.]*$//;

will return you $file="file.name";

rdesktop

check the help of rdesktop, it is possible to control the sound. I am using linux but rdesktop to windows 7 server. I play music and listen to music on the server:
rdesktop -0 -p - -r sound:remote -z -x l -a 16 -f -u ... -d ...

Things about GO annotation

1, Note that annotating to a term implies annotation to all parents via any path. Usually, an annotation should be the most detailed level in the ontology that describes the biology. However, sometimes, one cannot be certain about the level, then annotating with a pair of parent-offspring GO terms is recommended. Go even permits you annotate a gene product with conflicting terms if the biology is in controversial.

[ref] http://www.geneontology.org/GO.annotation.conventions.shtml

2, GoSlim is the cut down version of GO. Some detailed information is neglect in order to just give a broad overview. GoSlim could be curated by different users to meet their own needs. A perl script map2slim.pl was developed to help map Go annotation to the nearest parent GoSlim node.

[ref] http://www.geneontology.org/GO.slims.shtml

3, Pay attention to the regulate relationship.

change all text into lower case

tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' <> output.txt

the performance of naive Bayesian network

1, does more attribute definitely improve the performance of naive Bayesian classifier?
continue the example by assuming the first LR is derived from age, and the second from weight and the predicted value is the chance of a disease.

2, reference for feature selection
Learning Augmented Bayesian Classifiers: A Comparison of Distribution-based and Classification-based Approaches.
Feature subset selection as search with probabilistic estimates.
Scaling up the Naive Bayesian Classifier: Using Decision Trees for Feature Selection.
Induction of Selective Bayesian Classifiers.
Bayesian Network Classfiers


3, an interesting thesis on ml
Attribute Interactions in Machine Learning

4, ML book
Introduction to Machine Learning

grep multiple words from a file

it is very easy, just use -f option:
grep -f keywords_file target_file

in the keywords_file, put one keyword per line

something about Mycoplasma Pneumoniae

1, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae @ Uniprot
http://www.uniprot.org/docs/mycpn
# note that this place has a lot of comprehensive interesting documents

2, Annotation of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae's genome
http://coot.embl.de/Annot/MP/
and also the paper on NAR:
http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/17/3278
# note that this is hosted at Bork's group!
As you can see, Mpn245 is def and Mpn 246 is gmk here. However in their Science paper came out at Nov. 2009, they were wrongly mapped as Mpn246 -> def and Mpn 245 -> gmk
This takes quite a long time to figure out!

is it possible to get a more accurate time

is it possible to get a more accurate time?

edit 1:
I found another peace of code that does it

$start = (time)[0];

# script code goes here

$end = (time)[0];
printf "Elapsed time: %.2f seconds!\n", $end - $start;


edit 2:

Got another one.... this one shows something like "Elapsed time: 1.149333 seconds!"

use Time::HiRes;
my $start = [ Time::HiRes::gettimeofday( ) ];

## Your code goes here

my $elapsed = Time::HiRes::tv_interval( $start );
print "Elapsed time: $elapsed seconds!\n";

时事如棋局[zz]

by 路边@cchere

最近常看经济学人，华尔街日报，听NPR。总体感觉是：西方对中国实在是太重视了，而且往往是敌意的重视。比如：在华尔街日报的主页上“World”这一 栏目下，除了各大洲之外，只有几个国家单独列出，中国位居第一。大家可以去看看文章是正面的多还是负面的多。经济学人的网站上每两天就有一篇中国的文章， 而且连续几篇都是中美对抗的文章，这些也是经济学人网站上 "most commented"（最多读者评论）的。有兴趣的可以上www.economist.com看看爱国青年用英语大战普世群氓（有很多印度人在上面对我们 比西方人敌意对我们还深）。今天NPR也播了中国“蓝翔”黑客的报道，被采访对象沉重的说几乎可以肯定中国政府在背后操作。

从舆论上看，总体感觉是乌云压顶。但我反而觉得未来没有如此悲观。现在流行说下大棋，有趣的是奥巴马也凑趣地送给胡锦涛主席一副围棋。咱们今天就从下棋的角度说说。

我刚和我父亲学习围棋的时候，最苦恼也最无奈的是他对我用的“骗招和无理手”。明明是按照棋谱摆出来的一块棋，按棋谱，黑棋应该脱先他方，在别处落子，可 是由于我棋力太差，我父亲往往能在我的棋里面做活。后来他每在我棋里落一子，往往我要补三，四手才能保证做活，而他已经在其他地方开疆拓土了。对于棋力低 微的我来说，“骗招和无理手”的恐怖在于：我不知道什么时候是“骗招和无理手”，什么时候是真正的杀招，有几次我觉得自己识破了，没有理会而脱先，结果被 绞杀大龙。后来怎么办？在棋力提高之前只有采取保守的方法，保证两个眼成型，在无法阻止他打入占地的情况下争取让他少占。反正我和我父亲订的规则是只要我 能活100(后来涨到200直至平等对局）个子就算赢。然后慢慢提高棋力，他对我用“骗招和无理手”的时候越来越少了，后来偶尔我还对他用用，每每这时 候，我父亲都对我笑笑，我也对他会心的笑笑。（那真是美好的时光）

在国际政治的舞台上，无疑我们目前还是低手，美国是高手。最近的一系列美国对中国的挑衅，都可以看成“骗招和无理手”，他们的目的无非是希望自己的一手， 可以占据中国4手，5手来补救，一方面消耗中国的精力，更进一步，占据中国的实地。可是，美国基本上不可能绞杀中国的大龙了，有了核武器和实现军事现代 化，中国做活了一个眼。经济大步上台阶，另一个眼已经快成型，如果能完成产业升级，地区结构调整和金融体系完善，那么两个眼无忧亦。在然后如果能建立起强 大的文化影响力，我们反而可以对美国搞点“骗招和无理手”了。

如果美国在我们棋型未成之前强行绞杀大龙怎么办？我感觉这几乎是不太可能的，因为世界上毕竟并不只有我们两个棋手。最近美国一系列的动作：

对中国：对台军售，见达赖，Google事件，人民币汇率事件
对欧洲：和英国配合，炒作希腊国债危机，美元对欧元坚挺
对日本：丰田事件
对中东：伊朗核问题上各种手段都在尝试，目前效果不佳
对南亚：促印度和巴基斯坦重启对话；逼小巴对Taliban痛下杀手
对俄罗斯：撤除波兰和捷克的反导，袖手旁观乌克兰政局变幻。

而以上提到的各方之间互动几乎很少，至少目前不明显。其实单从美国的情况来看，美国是在和多个对手同时在下棋，这就是美国最大的劣势。美国是世界第一，而 且无论是为了内部凝聚力也好还是外部影响力也好，美国必须保持世界第一。而其他棋手，很多只是谋求区域霸权，或者在几个关键的战略点上有优势就可以。这样 美国这样一个一对一的下棋高手，在同时下多盘棋的时候精力必定被分散了，就像现在常常用来形容美军军力的一个词“over-stretched" ,给了其他各个棋手以可乘之机。美国现在的下法，就是对盘面好的，比如中国，着重关注一下；对盘面差的，比如俄罗斯，可以稍微退让少花点精力。但是如果美 国真的投入全部精力绞杀中国的大龙，成功与否另说，他在其他的盘面上恐怕会大量失地，就算赢了中国一盘，很可能输了整个比赛，这就是为什么英国杂志为什么 要一直兴高采烈地报导中美对抗的新闻，俄罗斯悄悄收起手里要出售给伊朗的防空导弹，作出一副痛心疾首的样子，更不用说印度同学了。但是真正的战略高手-美 国，怎么会轻易受这些二流棋手的挑拨去火中取栗。

其实作为一个世界警察，美国和中国没有你死我活的矛盾，那个以意识形态区分敌友，誓要把对方除之而后快的冷战时代已经过去了。平心而论，中国的现代化是人 类文明史上的一个重要进步，13亿人民不再谋求和某种意识形态对抗，而是求发展，求富裕，求文明，这对整个人类文明有了不起的进步意义。

在国内的同学可能有些会觉得美国寻求对伊朗制裁，是在和我们在伊朗的石油投资过不去。其实，每天接触西方媒体的话，就会知道，伊朗核问题对美国，对整个西 方世界，真的是如芒在背。对于一个可能有核的伊朗，西方世界真的是非常的忌惮和戒惧，在西方世界看来，伊朗以及类似伊朗的国家实在是比中国危险100倍。 最近在这个问题上，西方对中国的指责，仔细体会还有一种埋怨的情绪在其中：你中国现在也是文明世界的一员了，怎么还是把自己当做是个光脚的来捣乱呢？

从长期来讲，中国将和俄罗斯一样，与西方在怀疑中接近，在试探中合作，在舆论宣传对抗的情况下发展经济贸易。我们往往把西方想象成一个怀着长达10年20 年巨大阴谋的恐怖力量整体，有趣的是，如果看看美国，英国的媒体和论坛，他们往往把中国也想象成巨大的阴谋体，在西方忙于解决自身问题的时候悄悄地展开他 的阴谋，然后发出西方政府无能软弱短视的哀叹，这种和中国论坛的相似性可以让人哑然发笑。

基于目前我们棋型还不好，棋力还比较弱，我有几个胡乱的预测，没有太多的数据支持，大概就是每天读报听新闻一个多小时感觉出来的：

胡主席访美不会推迟；
中国对制裁伊朗投赞成或弃权票；
人民币年内开始升值，时间在10份参院选举之前；
希腊危机在今年内会持续发酵，既不爆发也不消失；
美国不会军事进攻伊朗；
中欧外交会加热；
中日会更靠近；

我知道看了前3条有人会骂，没办法，我们现在是低手，也不想美国用全力来对付我们。美国也做了些动动手指头的姿态，比如售台武器中没有包括战斗机，和达赖 会面没有公开允许记者采访，等等等等。从目前美国在战略收缩中依然可以向中，欧，日，印出招的情况看，他依然是全局下棋者，我们还没有这个能力挑战他，那 么只能在现行的棋局中玩下去。

围棋不是象棋，不是一定要将死对方，是棋厚棋薄之争，占地多少之争，是杀龙，占地，收官并存的游戏。这种看法，我觉得比象棋更符合当前的国际形势。

comment by wxmang@cchere:
说得好。我很早就说过中美都是打劫和做劫高手。台湾 113
就 是一个双方心照不宣的长劫。美国借此消耗我们注意力，牵制我们在其他地方的扩张力量；而我们是利用这个劫才理直气壮的扩充军力，是不是的唱唱双簧，抗议再 接触，再抗议；同时有了这个劫材，美国鬼子才不会再去刻意寻找一个我们可能更难受的劫材来遏制我们。阿扁第一次当选，当时我是很高兴的，我认为这下这个劫 材可以充分发挥作用了。当时我与一个某部委的一个司长在游泳池里讨论了很长时间，结论是最佳结果，比连战和宋楚瑜当选都好。
现在我们也有能力开劫了，周小川的关于美元地位讨论及特别提款权的讲话一出来，当时我就打电话问有关人员是不是找劫材，结果是双方一阵哈哈大笑结束谈话。