选择牛奶

很少写博客，找借口没有意思。但是，心里还是有一些想法时不时想要记录下来的。最近几个喜欢的博主都在挑战一个月内每天发布一条博文，我觉得这样玩不错。

今天再说说选择牛奶。我记得我写过 Wondermilk （万得秒）牛奶的博文，但是刚才搜索了一下我其实没有写过。所以我应该说今天说说牛奶的选择。

很喜欢的 Podcast ATP 里面有两个风格不同的 Geek。 Marco Arment 非常主观。虽然他也引经据典， 但是他完全不介意主观偏见。而 John Siracusa 则是个非常客观的 Geek，论证事情经常事无巨细。我这里沿用 Marco 的风格来主观的描述牛奶的选择。

我之所以很挑剔牛奶是因为我对咖啡 Geek 式的偏爱（我比较接近 Marco Arment 描述的那种咖啡狂热，但是我和他对咖啡做法持不同观点），我希望我可以同时具有品咖啡和烹煮咖啡的能力。这是一种手艺崇拜。做个比喻，我比较像摄影爱好者圈的器材派。所以我对咖啡豆子，烹调工具和手段，杯具，牛奶这些“器材”都很重视。从此大家也就知道我的水平了，属于玩票的水平，相当的业余（自谦）。

我记得我和一些 OpenParty 的朋友分享过牛奶选择的知识。现在常见的是超高温消毒牛奶和巴氏消毒牛奶。前者保存时间长，据称只杀死了细菌和酶，不影响牛奶的营养成分。而后者因为是低温消毒，只杀死了细菌，所以保存时间短。我优先选择巴氏杀毒的牛奶，因为口味好，体现本地自豪感（因为巴氏奶不适合长途配送）。

上面那段好短，没有讲清楚为什么。但是这是我的意图，因为这种借口不同意见者都可以找来一大堆支持自己的论点，我找他们有啥意思呢？微信上还有人传喝牛奶致癌这些事情，你说我能反对的了么？我比较朴素的相信科学世界观，而且相信不确定性，所以我也不太在乎谁的理论更站得住脚这个问题。我现在更相信我的舌头和嘴，因为经过相对长期的啤酒品评的训练，我对自己品味道还是有一些自信心的。

那么我现在如何选择牛奶呢？目前我最喜欢的牛奶排名如下（美国湾区）：

我不太喜欢的品牌是 Berkeley Farm 还有 Horizon，最后是 Trader Joe 的牛奶。Berkeley Farm 的牛奶带一股青草和酸的味道，而且非常稀，我受不了。Horizon 的牛奶带有很浓的香料味道（所以其实很好喝，但那不是奶的本味），而且他家是超高温消毒牛奶。但是我女儿很喜欢喝 Horizon 的调味牛奶，这也是我很讨厌它的原因之一（凡是特意迎合儿童的调味食品我都不喜欢，而且 Horizon 的儿童牛奶太甜了，非常邪恶）。而 Trader Joe 的牛奶喝起来和 Berkeley Farm 有点像。其实还有个 Costco 的 Kirkland 有机牛奶，那味道就好像有烧焦的东西放到了牛奶里一样，我的朋友没有一个喜欢的。我觉得我是个 Hater，用这么多篇幅描述我不喜欢的牛奶。

回到正题，为啥我会那样排名那些牛奶呢？我的基本思路是我很喜欢奶油味道重的牛奶，因为那是儿时玻璃瓶牛奶带的那种味道。其实这并非很自然的味道，可是我也没有喝过刚挤出来的牛奶。我不喜欢脱脂牛奶，所以可能就跳到喜欢加奶油的牛奶了。Creamtop 就是包装的时候上面附上一层奶油，这可以帮助牛奶保存相对长一点的时间（巴氏消毒以后低温保存也就是两周）。所以排名靠前的两个都属于 Creamtop。再有就是玻璃瓶优于屋型包装，屋型包装优于塑料包装。

其实上面说的这些还是扯淡，我之所以发现最上面三中牛奶是因为我发现 Blue Bottle 选择了这三种牛奶。Ferry Building 那家蓝瓶子一般选择 Clover 的有机牛奶。而 5th and Mission 那家很 fancy 的蓝瓶子 则选择了 Saint Benoit 和 Strauss 的牛奶。尤其是新奥尔良冰咖啡配 Saint Benoit 的牛奶那味道简直是完美了。

即使你的味觉不那么灵敏，尝一下我上面列的那三个最靠前的牛奶你基本上也可以尝出巨大的区别。Clover 的有机牛奶我个人觉得和万得秒 Wonder Milk 的牛奶味道很相似，那基本上是我对好牛奶划的线。这些好牛奶基本上都是没有使用人工荷尔蒙，Organic。Creamtop 的两款没有经过匀化（所以你会看到油花和沉淀，而且颜色会发黄），Clover 的则经过了匀化。他们都是巴氏消毒的牛奶，两款使用玻璃瓶（还要退瓶，挺麻烦）一款使用利乐包装。三款都是本地农场生产的。都被比较挑剔的咖啡师傅认可。在湾区这里，靠谱的咖啡店基本上都是用 Clover，但不都用 Organic 的。我觉得这写元素暗示了一些好牛奶需要具有的品质，希望它能帮助你找到适合你和你家庭的牛奶。

strauss and saint benoit milk

Good bye luke!

Hi Luke, I think that’s about 1 or 2 months after I heard your latest news. Hope you are all well in heaven! I’m sure your family miss you most, and I am just a very normal firends in your life; but I think I also miss you.

I wrote letters to you in dream, in my day dreams and when I’m drunk. I don’t know why? Maybe it’s because I used to admire you. Acctually I admire so much people, but I never let them now. I feel shy to let someone know that I’m a fan boy, say Steve Jobs. You are not as great as Steve Jobs I think, but you are great! I feel that my poor English expression limited my ability to express my feeling, but that’s what I’m trying to improve for very long time after I work with some people you know in ThoughtWorks, that’s a part of golden time in my life. OK, let me pour my feelings out now.

Back to 2007, I joined a team in ThoughtWorks studio. The guy who recruit me is Jez Humble and Hukai, you know those 2 funny guys, they are great. I was suppose to work in Cruise Control team, which was called Cruise team and later Go team. But the first job I did in TW is acctually in Mingle team, because both teams belong to Studio. I remember David Rice or Jen Marley introduce you to me. They said that you are great UX guy, and you can draw wireframe but also write html and css. That’s what I’m looking for when I join that company, being a cross-function specialist in team. And when I first talk with you I learn that there is a thing called wire-frame, which is a series of sketch shows the interation of UI. That’s great for a super junior developer, that’s the first time I learn that there is tool stimulate conmmunicate before something is deliveried. And with your wire-frame, I feel it’s quite confident to deliver a piece of UI without bother too much for a PS guy. But that’s not what blows my mind, when I see you doing a presentation in sprint planning, I was shocked. That’s the first time I see how a people showing off something before it’s implemented, that’s what we call lean nowdays. You play the magic which make us feels like watching a movie, imagine a hi-fi world with some black and white lines. OK, I shouldn’t make those moments magical, they acctually like old people told their life story, it’s quite plain and peaceful when it’s happending. I remember Jen told me that your time is precious, because you also have other things to do. You are a busy man.

It’s not far until I get a chance to see you face to face. That’s a away day of ThoughtWorks. It happens in Great Wall of China. I remember that you looks doesn’t match my imagination (I doesn’t see you picture before I see you). You are small, and soft. I remember you wear a red bennie, which is pretty special. I think I got lots of chance talking with you that day, because we talks a lot over skype. Beijing is my home town, so I want to share my knownledge of Beijing to you. And I think you like talking with me, which made me feel exciting. I remember that you mentioned that you like photography, and you did take lots of pictures on that day. My English is not very fluent at that age, and I think that’s not a barrier between us.

After we come back from Away day, you continued working for some days in Beijing office. I remember you shared that you must install a Parallel VM which running Windows, so that you can use a Powerpoint to draw wire frame. That’s the first time I feel respect about Microsoft, because you describe why Powerpoint is better to do wire-frame, and the Ribbon UI in Office 2007 is a big improvement in the industry. You show me how to do wire frame in powerpoint, and how utilize C&P which brings smooth experience for end user.

I didn’t see you after about half year after that. Then you come back to Beijing and did a cross team building. I remember Chris Stevenson also joined ThoughtWorks Studio, my impression for him is a purple monster (because he describe himeself like that after he got allergies). I rember that we have good time in Karaoke. I ordered “Can you feel the love tonight” to whole team, and you and Chris grabed Mic before me. But I got mic from you (thank you, you saw that I want to borrow your mic), so I can sing that song. Seems that’s the only English song I can sing in Karaoke, LOL. I remember you played tambourine instead, and you play very well; and you wore a red bennie with you. You did Jamming dance that day, that’s a suprise, you were fancy guy.

And after that I think I didn’t see you for another long time, I heard that you are starting a new business in Manchester. Then you become the head of Manchester businees in UK, that’s a big deal, I felt prod of you. Because I thought a UX pelple was also good at business is a miracle.

But I got another chance to see you in Beijing office. You were really busy at that trip. But you spent some time with me for Mingle project. I remember that we draw some wire frame together. That’s awesome! It’s like working with your star as a fan boy. I remember that I asked you how you make the looks and feel good in hi-fi design. You show me that you have a folder in desktop which includes lots of screen shots of different products and web-sites. You said those things inspire you when you want to create a hi-fi design. So you should find some feelings from heuristic brain storm, then you should find those elements in your design collection. Then you will find the graphic elements and colors for your new design. You mapped abstraction into details, so you have a practical plan to implement those designs. OK, that’s a big deal to me. I degist this for long time, and I think I do learn something from that.

After that, I didn’t see you face to face again. As far as I remember.

But skype and facebook notify me of your birthday. Year after year, I don’t remmber how much years is that. I thought I’m too normal a person in your life, you will forget me after some time. Because you are head of UK business then, and I already left TW. But you did remmber me, and say thank you for each greating. I remember that you poke me for my birthday too. That’s a weak relation, as a good friend looking each other across river. I enjoy that I know a good person like you. I saw you post lots of things about charity, like breast cancer run and some other thigns. And I saw you get merried and have babies. That’s great, I did that too. I feel that I know this is a serious life change, you were taking more and more responsibility.

In this year, I clearly remember that you joined a event “Live below the line“. I remember you have a tight budget to eat, and we can donate money for poor people who really live below the line. I feel proud of you. That’s a good sign when a adult play great social responsibility, some of my friends I respect also share this character. I do want to donate money at that time, but it’s a shame that I was busy working on something and I didn’t donate money. I will say that’s a lesson, I start donating money to charity a lot afterwards (In wholefoods, for children’s cancer, for lots of campaign in restaunrant and super market, and other place where I see someone need help). I feel much better then! Thank you for moved me.

But the next news I heard is absolutely sad!

When is that? I think I was 1 month or 2 months ago. I was super busy at that time. But I accidentally see Badri post something on Facebook, it says “Good bye Luke”. I think that’s not you, because you are health and at prime of your time. I see Badri’s word, it’s beautiful, I feel he is very sad. A friend of him passed away. I’m afraid, but I firmly believe that’s not you. But I leave a message said “Hope it’s not the Luke I know!”. And then I send some messages to other friend in TW circle to make sure it’s not you.

But next day, when I woke up. I sit on tolilet, I checked message. I saw Jiajun left a message, “No that’s the Luke we know, I’m afraid”, then she share a link from ThoughtWorks UK. I felt that my head is exploding. That’s super sad! I was under pressure on that days, but that message just make more even more sad. I know if TW post something that’s true.

I contacted Badri, I want to learn why you passed away, and what I can do for your family. I should say thank you to Badri, he said “Hugs!”, he said “We don’t know what we can do now. But please don’t write message on Luke’s facebook page. But you can let his family know that you feel sad about his passing away. And please don’t do anything before his family say they need help.” OK, I’m sadden in that mood for a while. I just feel it’s not fair.

And then 2 weeks later. I google your nane, I found that I even can’t type your name without google. I feel really sorry. I think no one should forget his/her friends’s name. That’s a shame. A man live in the world, and friends will always remember him/her. But I remember it now: Luke Berrett.

I didn’t leave any message on facebook which mentions you, or event not on twitter. I want to set a timeout for my memories, so that means it’s deepen in my mind. That someone cares about you even after you passed away. I know you family will miss you most, but we as normal friends in you life we also miss you.

When I google your news I learn that you was killed in traffic accident. But even more sad is that the accident is not very clear. They wanted witeness and the news. But you passed away, as a adult I know find the killer is not the most important thing. We should let you rest in peace. I feel shame that the god (sorry, but acctually I don’t have religion) chose a wrong one. But I know the human world is not fair, everyone has equal chance to be in heaven. The people who have beloved family should not have that earlier, because more living things suffer from that. But, but that’s the inifite possibility. I don’t trust logic, I just appreciate. I appreciate for friendship, for love, for every goodwill. I don’t want to say too much, becaus that’s out of my control.

I just keep living my life. But I occationally thing about you, especially I feel sad or under heavy pressure. I hope there’s karma, good people live good life. It’s just a silly hope. I know it’s not fair to you. I’m really sorry. But I do miss you as a normal friend. I have so many normal friends in my life, and I have close friends, I miss all of you. I’m just a simple emotional animal as most of human.

I was sick for a month. I have some illution that I’m dying. But I’m not, I have family, I need to live forever. Then I was very busy trasfer knownledge to my previous colleagues, since I’m moving to a new job. And then I joined a team, exciting, also was super busy. Then my wife sick, I was under pressure. I need to take care of my daughter, I worried about my wife, I won’t want to let my new teammates down. That’s not easy. But it gave me months of time to do reflection. It’s fortunate that I sill have a strong feeling that I should write those words down for you, for your family, for myself. I don’t want to express my sadness. That’s not how human live. We look up, we remember, we try hard to change the world!

So, luke, my friend, hope you have good day in heaven. Hope you family see you in their sweet dreams! Hope you blessed us, home you lessed eveyone live on the planet. But, Good bye luke! See you in heaven.

Your normal friend, Tin

Here is a picture of you, that’s the only 1 I can find (maybe more, but I’m poor on managing picture files).

SQLAlchemy gevent Mysql python drivers comparison

sqlalchemy-gevent-mysql-drivers-comparison

Compare different mysql drivers working with SQLAlchemy and gevent, see if they support cooperative multitasking using coroutines.

The main purpose of this test is to find which mysql driver has best concurrency performance when we use SQLAlchemy and gevent together.
So we won’t test umysql, which isn’t compatible with DBAPI 2.0.

Code is here. Thank you CMGS.

Result example

100 sessions, 20 concurrency, each session take 0.5 seconds (by select sleep)

mysql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 50.5239 seconds
mysql+pymysql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 2.6847 seconds
mysql+oursql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 50.4289 seconds
mysql+mysqlconnector://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 2.6682 seconds

With greenify ptached MySQLdb (mysql-python).

mysql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 2.5790 seconds
mysql+pymysql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 2.6618 seconds
mysql+oursql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 50.4437 seconds
mysql+mysqlconnector://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 100 (20) 2.6340 seconds

Pure python driver support gevent’s monkey patch, so they support cooperative multitasking using coroutines.
That means the main thread won’t be block by MySQL calls when you use PyMySQL or mysql-connector-python.

1000 sessions, 100 concurrency, each session only have 1 insert and 1 select

mysql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 1000 (100) 10.1098 seconds
mysql+pymysql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 1000 (100) 26.8285 seconds
mysql+oursql://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 1000 (100) 6.4626 seconds
mysql+mysqlconnector://root:@localhost:3306/mysql_drivers_test total 1000 (100) 22.4569 seconds

Oursql is faster than MySQLdb in this case.
In pure python driver, mysql-connector-python is a bit faster than PyMySQL.
use greenify or not won’t affect the testing result in this user scenario.

Setup

mkvirtualenv mysql_drivers_test # workon mysql_drivers_test
pip install --upgrade setuptools pip cython
pip install -r requirements.txt
python mysql_drivers_comparison.py

Test with greenify MySQL-python (on OSX with homebrew).

mkvirtualenv mysql_drivers_test # workon mysql_drivers_test
pip install --upgrade setuptools pip cython
pip install -r requirements.txt
git clone https://github.com/CMGS/greenify
cd greenify
cmake -G 'Unix Makefiles' -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$VIRTUAL_ENV CMakeLists.txt
make & make install
cd ..
export LIBGREENIFY_PREFIX=$VIRTUAL_ENV
pip install git+git://github.com/CMGS/greenify.git#egg=greenify # if you are using zsh, use \#egg=greenify
git clone https://github.com/CMGS/mysql-connector-c
cd mysql-connector-c
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$VIRTUAL_ENV/lib
cmake -G 'Unix Makefiles' -D GREENIFY_INCLUDE_DIR=$VIRTUAL_ENV/include -D GREENIFY_LIB_DIR=$VIRTUAL_ENV/lib -D WITH_GREENIFY=1 -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$VIRTUAL_ENV CMakeLists.txt
make & make install
cd ..
git clone https://github.com/CMGS/MySQL-python.git
cd MySQL-python
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$VIRTUAL_ENV/lib
export LIBRARY_DIRS=$VIRTUAL_ENV/lib
export INCLUDE_DIRS=$VIRTUAL_ENV/include
unlink /usr/local/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib
ln -s $VIRTUAL_ENV/lib/libmysql.16.dylib /usr/local/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib
python setup.py install
brew switch mysql [version] # brew switch mysql 5.6.15 on my env, brew info mysql to check which version is available on your env
cd ..
python mysql_drivers_comparison.py

If the greenify doesn’t work for you, you can use otool -L _mysql.so in your $VIRTUAL_ENV/lib/python2.7/site-packages MySQL-python folder. Can’t find otool even after you installed XCode’s command line tools? Follow this link.

I need say thank you to CMGS. He guided me how to install greenify and how it works, he also help me triage the issues I met (include the otool part). Make greenify and mysql work on OSX make no sense, you shold do it on your application server which probably will be a linux, hope you will figure out how to.

ThoughtWorks 将于 2014 年 3 月 8 日举行的第十一届 B’QConf (北京软件质量大会)

本 Post 是代朋友转发。

亲爱的软件业朋友们:

第十届B’QConf（北京软件质量大会）是否还在你的脑海回旋，爆棚的场面和激烈的讨论是否始终让你记忆犹新？

由ThoughtWorks中国和阿里巴巴集团共同主办，中国软件测试经理联盟协办的第十一届 B’QConf（北京软件质量大会）将于2014年03月08日如期举行。B’QConf 邀请IT测试及质量相关人员共聚一堂，一起分享经验，探讨话题，结识业界朋友。无论你是B’QConf的老伙伴，新伙伴，还是大伙伴，小伙伴，只要你热爱测试，关注质量，期待学习，喜欢分享，都欢迎加入我们的活动。

本期精彩话题：

  • 话题一：中小型项目的web性能测试模型

中小型项目的性能测试和大型项目不同。在时间和资源都有限的情况下，我们来聊聊如何选定性能测试指标，怎样设计性能测试用例，最终出一个什么样的结果，才对项目最有价值。

演讲嘉宾：孙弘 ThoughtWorks QA

  • 话题二：Android自动化测试实践

本分享将介绍针对Android手机app测试方面的一套自动化测试框架，该框架能解决一般Android系统上的自动化问题，原理以及使用方法。同时会根据结合示例讲解。

演讲嘉宾：赵婉萍（菁菁）阿里妈妈-无线

  • 话题三：虚拟机初探

日常工作中，对于多个不同的环境有需求，拥有多个物理机也不太现实。我们尝试利用虚拟化技术来解决这一问题。在一些调研之后，决定使用KVM来定义、管理我们的虚拟机，本话题会分享一些KVM上对于虚拟机的定义、配置和性能方面的一些经验。

演讲嘉宾：杨锐 ThoughtWorks QA

  • 话题四：大数据的质量监控和保障

分享将介绍大数据时代下分布式系统的监控和数据仓库，数据挖掘的测试方法和原理。

演讲嘉宾：李春元（春元）阿里妈妈-CNZZ

  • 报名：我要报名第十一届B’QConf
  • 时间：2014年 3 月 8 日 13:30 – 17:30 （现场提供茶点，水果，软饮。）
  • 地点：北京市东城区东直门南大街3号国华投资大厦11层1105室 （ThoughtWorks 北京办公室）

地铁路线： 2号线东直门站D口出，来福士商场旁边国华投资大厦

公交路线： 106，107，117，24，612，635等20多条公交车到东直门内/东直门外/东直门枢纽总站下车都可
自驾路线： 东直门桥西南角来福士商场旁边国华投资大厦

更多消息请大家关注 B’QConf的微博

Places to find essential new things

Had a discussion with friends this morning, about how to explore new things, learn new staff. Then I got a list for myself:

  • new.me digest email (daily)
  • zhihu.com and quora.com weekly digest email
  • HN (Hacker news), best realtime tech world aggregation
  • Github trends, place to find intresting ideas, or high quality projects
  • twitter geek list (not twitter timeline, you need pick your own geek list)
  • Techmeme, technology industry headlines
  • Theverge, for high quality reviews and news post with good quality of pictures
  • Reader (digg reader, feedly, or what-ever), baseline is you need to follow intresting people here

Some of my best coworkers and friends contribute those:

  • Lifehacker, for interesting howtos
  • ScienceDaily, Latest Science News
  • reddit, everything fun
  • google plus, depends on your circle quality and time you spend
  • Engadget

Recommendation for my coworker Stan

I wrote a recommendation for my previous coworker Stan on Linkedin, but another coworker said it’s not proper and too funny for this serious site. So I guess I should rewrite it, but I will leave it here 😀

To be honest, Stan makes me cry, I can’t catch up with him. But it’s a honor to work with his brilliant mind. He is kind, he didn’t call us dummy. He has great abstraction ability, which IMHO is the most precious skill a software craftsman should have. He has good sense on new technology, and he build his own sharp toolsets and leverage other folks in his team. One thing I think he may improve is, he doesn’t drink beer with us, so he will always be sober when we are drunk.

Compae redis and memcache as cache in python

I hate posting micro benchmark of library, it’s kinda stupid when they are not the bottle-neck. Now, I will hate my self 😀

The verdit is: using memcache and redis has similar performance. In our system, we use redis a fast data-structure store, so use it as cache save a moving parts.

  • cPickle 50000 rounds, used 1.61123394966
  • msgpack 50000 rounds, used 0.296160936356
  • memcached with pylibmc save/load 15000 rounds, used 1.68719887733
  • memcached python-memcached save/load 15000 rounds, used 3.92766404152
  • redis with hiredis save/load 15000 rounds, used 2.76974511147

Acctually we are using redis + msgpack now.

By the way, our new leaderboard service is based on gevent patched flask + redis + sqlalchemy tech stack. A aws 8 core instance give us 900rps, 1.5x throughput of a ruby version (with fiber and em) write by my ex-coworker @flyerhzm.

Draft letter to Caltrain office

I break the law by accident. This is a big deal for me. I definitely wrong in this case, but I also found there is some issue on Caltrain system. So instead of being down forever, I will write a letter to Caltrain office. My friend tell me this is like burn a letter to immortal, no one will read or reply. But I trust in goodwill, so i will open this letter on my blog. If you read this by accident, please learn that break the law is painful, you should train yourself not making stupid mistake, this will make everyone happy, and make a better world. This letter is just a first cut draft, I will correct grammer mistake and improve weired sentence accordinly in those days.

Hello caltrain officers,

I’m a caltrain commuter live in Hillsdale, I start using caltrain from last December, and I like it. Caltrain has cleaner cabin than BART and muni, and the passenger on it is more polite. My company sponsor us commute by Caltrain through clipper direct, and most of my coworkers has Caltrian monthly pass auto loaded.

But I got a citation recently, which make me . The story happends that on Jun 3rd, it’s a Monday, the first working day of Jun. I and my coworker was discussing a working topic of our current project, and we take on Caltrain together from Hillsdale. Then 2 conductors came to us, and check our ticket. We show our clipper card as usual, but it says no. And we notice that’s first working day of a Month, so we should tag on the clipper card. And explained this to the conductors individually, they just gave both of us a citation of fare envation. I haven’t argue, because I’m a adult. The conductor refuse to read our monthy pass online order (which we showed), that means we don’t have nothing to show as prove of payment.

I said this almost ruin my life, it’s because I break the law, which make me desperate. I’m a alien worker, so I’m new here, I tried to behave as a moral citizen, be nice to everyone, and be well discipline. But when I got this citation, this dream collapse.

But I don’t want to be depressed forever, I should tell you my feeling, and let’s figure out what’s the best way to prevent this kind of situation happend in the future. Which will make the world a better place.

The monthly pass is not a way to save money, I think the ultimate goal is to make our daily commute smoothier. Because buying ticket is a pain at rushing hour, so clipper is a express way. Paying monthly save most of us tons of time. I cherrish the intention. But comes to reality, there is a gap. Other commute system like BART and MUNI has clipper gate, so when you come across it you need to swipe the card. But caltrain only has that at SF’s 4th and king station, there’s conductor standing there to check our ticket. But other stations is open, and some station only has few clipper tagging machine. So most monthly pass commuter doesn’t tag at most of days in a month, only tag it at very first day. So the gap is the habit we use the public transportation, for Caltrain we didn’t tag daily, but for MUNI and BART we tag daily even we have montly pass. That means we need to remind ourself to tag on first day, which is not work precisly as a clock.

So I hope caltrain can give us a notification on those critical day (very first working day each month). The clipper has our email, most caltrain station has message board (LED screen), both of them can work as a reminder for us. Which will help us not making this mistake. For a system need good self-discipline a reminder will reduce stupidity very much.

The clipper direct allow us setting up a recurring order of monthly pass, I don’t know why it can’t pre-load them as those montly pass we bought from walgreen? If it load automatically, we won’t make a mistake like that, this will free us from having a pressure on loading monthly pass. In our case, we acctually paid for monthly pass. But the ticket checking machine failed to load the monthly pass information, which make us be in a situation of no valid ticket, and that’s breaking the law. Break law in this way is miserable, we don’t want to be a fare invader, that’s immoral, that’s make us hateful, and it’s shame to tell our children that we are fare invader. I mean when we paid, but failed to show that we paid, because we need a process to activate this monthly pass, this is inconvinient and seems trapping us to be a outlaw. Probably there are technical reasons or other reasons to make clipper work in this way, but please make it more friendly and make good people keep being good.

Because we commute on caltrain for months, we saw lots of scenario between passenger and conductors. And almost all conductors is friendly and helpful. I saw conductor explains to those foreigners who bought wrong tickets, and ask the buy it correctly next time. I saw conductor asking people using clipper card who forgot tag on to tag it at next stop. I heared from my coworker who got educated when they forgot to tag it on first day of month. All those stories told me that conductors are helping us from making mistake, and educate us when we are wrong. But when this happend on me for the first time, I got a citation directly. I’m not asking mercy on me, everyone is equal by law, I just diserve this punishment. But consider a goodwill, we should using the punishment to prevent intentional fare envision, but educate the others. This will keep us in faith of justice. I still trust all conductors on the train is helping us from making this mistake. But on the day I got this citation, I saw 2 conductors chekcing ticket, and that’s the first working day of that month, there are 3 guys got citation in same cabin, this seems more to a punishment than education.

I won’t argu if I’m guilty here, I suppose to talk about it with judge in court. I only want to ask for some change on this system to ease our commute, make our life easier, hope no one will break the law in this way. Would like to consider those actions?

  • Give us the choice to pre-load the monthly pass
  • Give us a notifications by email (for clipper direct user), or show us notifications on station’s display on first (work) day of month
  • Give us a covinient way to tag the card, especially a way to tag on the train, alternatively should give us tagging machine on each entrance of station. So tagging daily is smooth for monthly pass commuter.
  • Give us a channel to show monthly pass proof if we got cited in this situation, when we paid for the pass.

Thank you for read, I won’t be despress forever, I trust that caltrain will be better, and we will be more happy to commute on this transportation system.

Me,
Jun 9, 2013.

Output ISO 8601 format datetime string in UTC timezone

I hate timezone. Especially for python, since python’s timezone is not in standard library, I always need to install pytz. I know it make sense, since timezone db changes sometimes, and it make no sense to put it in python standard library. But this make life harder. Every time when I work on timezone aware datetime, it will #FML.

The formal way is name your timezone in config file, but for the case of output iso 8601 format datetime in UTC timezone, it’s not elegant to ask for this information. The tricky part is get your local timezone. Since timezone is not in system environment variable, so it’s kind of hack to let it work with small code footprint. I know I’m stupid, but let me post my solution here. If you know better solution, please let me know.

try:
    local_tz = pytz.build_tzinfo('localtime', open('/etc/localtime', 'rb'))
except:
    from .poorman_tz import LocalTimezone
    local_tz = LocalTimezone()


def isoformat(dt):
    if dt:
        return local_tz.localize(dt).replace(microsecond=0).astimezone(pytz.utc).isoformat()
    return None

The LocalTimezone is from python’s datetime document, just copy that section of code and you get this poorman’s implementation of LocalTimezone. Thanks my coworker Stan pointing me out the solution to build a timezone from /etc/localtime, also for this smart guy answer that stackoverflow thread. BTW: python’s datetime has microsecond information, I don’t need them so I replace them with 0, it makes the datetime string shorter.

品酒的好处

大约有2年品啤酒的经历，很喜欢品啤酒的过程。那么为什么要品啤酒呢？

首先要明确 饮酒 和 品酒 的区别。品酒应该是饮酒的一个子集，因为不喝下去完全闻味不是靠谱的品酒方式。品酒最大的区别在于为什么 (Why) 和如何做 (How) 不同，品酒的目的是分辨、欣赏、交流。

品酒是对模式识别的锻炼。模式识别是心智模式中的R模式，也就是一种基于图像的思维，模式识别是一种直觉。品酒必须要用语言记录，可以是和朋友在一起交流感受，或者写下来分享给更多的人。为什么品酒必须要交流呢？因为模式识别是R模式，但是人和人交流要使用语言逻辑，但是这种逻辑使用的是心智模式中的L模式。但是根据心智模型的理论L模式和R模式往往不能同步工作，如果一个人两个模式之间交流迅速和频繁，那么这个人表现出来就是 聪明。R模式和L模式交互有一种形象的表示法，我们管它叫做“比喻”。使用比喻能力强的人，我们一般说是文学能力强，但是其实更广义的说使用比喻能力强的人 聪明 。我们有一个更时髦的词叫“隐喻”，这是在各种专业能力中非常重要的一种基于直觉的技能，我们常说一个领域的大师具有的就是过人的直觉。或者说过人的 模式识别 和使用 隐喻 的能力。所以那本书说，幽默其实是一种使用 隐喻 的特殊能力，不管是使用幽默还是感受幽默都需要这种 隐喻 的能力。

如果大家读过酒评就知道为什么我说 模式识别 和 隐喻 了。这里举个例子：

花香显著，并带有新鲜果香：柑橘、杏桃、荔枝、麦香，些许糖香。深琥珀色片红，入口时的发泡感强烈，使酒体感觉轻盈。酒液有些浑浊，泡沫丰富有粘性。酒体的厚度中等，酒感稍若，具有相当的苦涩感。苦味强劲，有酸味的错觉。烧烤饼干，红色果香，榛果杏仁。回香中有花香，苦味显著。余韵甘苦带涩，有果香，麦香与啤酒花香。又有非常好的复杂度。

摘自《比利时啤酒——品饮与风味指南》

这里用到了很多的隐喻。经常交流的啤酒爱好者可以看到大家使用的不同隐喻，并把他们使用到自己的语言中。这个过程还培养了对味道细节发现的能力，因为经常品酒后对很多味道的轻微痕迹描述的能力会增强，所以就可以更好的发现原来不能描述的味道。这其实就印证了很多朋友学习中的一个感受，当你能够定义和命名一种现象以后，你在遇到问题的时候识别的能力增强了，最后解决问题的能力也增强了。在搞编程的朋友中，都知道 Martin Fowler，他就是以这种能力著称。

最后，我想强调我说的是 品酒 ，很多极端的品酒者品尝酒品后会吐掉，以防止对辨别能力的影响。我们需要强调这样的精神，不要陷入把饮酒作为简单的习惯的地步，那样很容易酗酒，结果是很严重的。要保持 Know How 的同时 Know Why，这样可以长期健康的品酒。

我目前品酒主要使用 Instagram，照下酒评和酒杯，可以观察酒体和泡沫。然后在评论里面写下对啤酒味道的品评笔记。我主要使用 #mahbeer 这个标签分享，这个标签下有很多非常棒的啤酒的分享。而查啤酒比较重要的工具是 Ratebeer ，上面有大部分你能喝到的啤酒的信息和众多酒友的评价。

附上我非常早期的一个酒评：

  • 使用的是和Duvel类似的高级蛇麻草，非陈年款，味道比较鲜明，微苦
  • 有麦香味，水果味收敛，味甘甜，回味发甜
  • 香味不太明显，不酸，也不太苦，没有特别突出的单种口感
  • 泡沫丰富，细密，泡沫很白，大约有酒体的一半高
  • 酒色金黄，略微浑浊（雾）
  • 有肉蔻的香味留下，酒通过喉咙感觉酒精刺激明显，留下微微的薄荷的味道
  • 酒后口内没有酸和苦的回味，说明酒不是很甜酒花量也不是很大

能猜到这是啥啤酒不？（是Westmalle Blone，一种修道院啤酒 Trappist beer，不过属于没啥特点的一种）