2008年9月24日星期三

American People: Are you going to be duped the third time?

I am against Bush Administration's 700-billion bailout plan. Here are my reasons:

1. The bailout is just a plan of "cash for trash" to help Bush's friends in Wall Street.

2. The US government can simply provide loans, with interest, to those financial institutions who need cash for liquidity. This way, these folks will still be responsible, and accountable, for the mess they made. But if the US government bought those junks, these folks would be off the hook immediately.

3. The Bush Administration have duped American People more than once, all in the name of emergency. Remember the PATRIOT Act (which has nothing to do with patriotism)? Remember the War on Terror (which is actually a war of terror)? How can American People trust this administration?

2008年9月7日星期日

Workshop: Writing for clarity and grace

[ Note: this was a writing workshop that I gave in CUHK. The slides of the workshop are available here. ]

Abstract: This is a hands-on workshop on English writing. I will show you some concrete examples of how different writing styles can have very different effects on your readers. For example, compare the following two sentences:

A) Better evaluation of responses to treatment modalities depends on the standardization of an index allowing accurate descriptions of learning disorder behaviors.

B) We could better evaluate how those with learning disorders respond to treatment if we could standardize an index that accurately describes how they behave.

Which one do you like better? Why? There are some principles that help you write in one style but not the other. Please come to the workshop and I will show you what these principles are.

Related Readings (Articles):

Felicia Brittman, The most common habits from more than 200 English papers written by graduate Chinese engineering students (PDF file here)

R.T. Compton, Jr., Fourteen Steps to a Clearly Written Technical Paper, IEEE Circuits & Devices Magazine, September, 1992 (PDF file is available here)

Related Readings (Books):

Joseph M. Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace

William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style

Michael Swan, Practical English Usage

Lyn Dupre, BUGS in Writing: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose

2008年9月2日星期二

推行電子課本不可頭腦發熱

( 註:本文曾於《香港經濟日報》上發表 ( 2008 年 9 月 2 日 ),題為《縱推電子課本、家長未必慳錢》。本網上版與《香港經濟日報》上的印刷版略有出入。)

筆者是電子書的擁護者,堅信「長遠來說」電子書本最終會取代印刷書本,問題反而是,所謂的「長遠」是指兩年、五年、十年、還是更後?

報載政府有意積極研究投放資源推動「電子課本革命」,逐步取代印刷課本,這也許是一件好事。但是,筆者也留意到一些支持電子課本的論點,存在着一些謬誤。

不用昂貴的紙張,不代表價格會下跌

明報社評說,「電子教科書出爐之日,就是家長減輕負擔之時」。這實在是一個美麗的誤會。無疑,紙張是印製教科書的成本之一,而紙價上升,導致印製教科書的成本上升。但是,成本並不是決定價格的唯一因素,甚至不一定是主要因素。紙價再貴,也有人印免費報紙派發,就是一個例子。決定價格的,是供求關係,以及市場開放的程度。教科書市場,是一個半開放市場,選擇教科書的,是學校和老師,但付鈔的,是家長。如某學校選了甲教科書,則乙教科書再便宜也好,家長也不能選擇,目前,家長唯一的其他選擇,是二手教科書 -- 以忍受並非簇新和略為過時版本(與教師手中的版本相比較)等不便,來換取較低亷的價格。而增加這等不便,以提高全新教科書的相對吸引力,正是出版商不斷改版的經濟誘因!

二手書市場將會被關閉

電子教科書無疑會有很多好處,但幾乎可以肯定的是,除非有政府等市場外的力量干預,全面使用某一本電子教科書之日,就是該本教科書的二手書市場關閉之時。何解?電子書者,軟件的一種也。而不同於傳統印刷書本以實物銷售為模式,軟件銷售是以用戶授權為模式的。除非有政府等市場外的力量干預,出版商不會主動做出損害自己商業利益的事,而授權用戶合法轉售二手書的。而當二手書市場被關閉,教科書價格上升的壓力,是會增加,而不是減少!

技術應中立、制式要開放

筆者認為,政府有意積極研究投放資源推動「電子課本革命」,必須堅守技術中立,制式開放等原則。但這樣又有可能會削弱參與廠商的興趣。怎樣在其中求取平衡?另外,是否應等待電子書在非教科書的自由市場讓廠商和技術公平競爭,汰弱留強,政府、家長、和學校才取「漁人之利」?又,電子課本是全球都會面對的機遇,香港作為一個相對小型的市場,應否爭取先於其他地區發展此種科技,理由何在?還是等技術成熟才開始應用?兩種選擇優劣如何?這些都是重要的問題。