Newsletter No. 416

No. 416, 19.4.2013 5 金國慶教授是計算機科學與工程學系教授,早年於加州理工學院攻讀工程及 應用科學,獲理學士學位。其後轉往加州大學洛杉磯分校深造計算機科學,先 後取得碩士及博士學位。 金教授的研究範圍包括機器學習、社會計算、網絡智能、數據挖掘及多媒體信 息處理,並發表了超過二百一十篇相關論文。他其中一項重要的專利,就是開 發了《維誠》系統,檢查不同來源文件的相似之處。 Prof. Irwin King is professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He received his BSc degree in engineering and applied science from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena and his MSc and PhD degrees in computer science from the UCLA. Professor King’s research interests include machine learning, social computing, web intelligence, data mining, and multimedia information processing. He has over 210 technical publications in these areas. One notable patented system he developed is the VeriGuide System for similar text detection. 心太軟 心很暖 Heart-melting Molten Chocolate Cake 「心太軟」原名molten chocolate cake-熔融 狀態的巧克力蛋糕,其特色是切開後會有熱 騰騰的巧克力漿如熔岩般流出,香港人冠以 九十年代國語流行曲名「心太軟」,着實貼切 不過。這款內心綿軟的甜品,也真能軟化食 者的心。 聯合書院思源館主理食物的龔嘉敏指出, 「心太軟」外脆內軟,流漿效果和頂部微塌的 火山口外型,其實是沒有把蛋糕焗至全然凝 固所致,是以焗製時間至關重要,不可稍有差 池。正因如此,每個「心太軟」都是即叫即做, 確保吃時熱烘烘的,濃濃的巧克力漿隨着微 脆外皮進入口腹。「心太軟」製作法並不難, 先把巧克力和牛油置雙鍋爐中,加熱融化,拌 入白糖、雞蛋,再加入麵粉攪和,接着把粉漿 倒進焗杯,放進焗爐焗製即成。能否做到心 軟又令人心暖,就要看掌廚者的細心了。 Molten chocolate cake is characterized by an oozing, lava-like chocolate inside. Hong Kongers named it xin tai ruan (literally, ‘heart too soft’) which happens to be the name of a Taiwanese pop song in the 1990s. Ms. Warisa Kung, chef of Si Yuan Amenities Centre, United College, said that to achieve lava-like chocolate inside a slightly crispy exterior, one removes the cake from the oven before it is completely done. This means the key to making a good molten chocolate cake is time control. That is why the cakes are always made to order, never baked beforehand. However it is not difficult to prepare this spectacular cake. First melt chocolate and butter over a saucepan of simmering water. Then mix with sugar and eggs. Sift in the flour and divide the batter into ramekins. Lastly put them in the oven to bake. Does the cake melt your heart? Well, it depends on the chef’s skill. The one on campus definitely does. 大數據的「4V」 The Four Vs of Big Data 分析機構如Forrester Research 曾歸納「大數據」(又稱「巨量資料」)的四個特點為「4V」:  資料量(volume)、速度(velocity)、多樣性(variety)和易變性(variability)。IBM則把最後一 個特點代以真實性(veracity)。 Some analysts such as Forrester Research and others have attempted to describe the dimensions of big data by a series of words that begin with the letter ‘V’, namely, volume, velocity, variety, and variability. IBM recently introduces ‘veracity’ to substitute ‘variability’. 資料量 Volume 企業每天每秒產生各類數量龐大的資料,隨時已超出TB(1 TB容量的電腦硬碟可以儲 存大約一百二十部DVD電影)規模而達到PB(1 PB等於1,024 TB)級別。有人說,一 個PB 就等如是長達十三年多的高清電視節目的內容。 Every day, every second, huge volumes of data are being generated by a variety of business and individual activities. An enterprise can easily amass terabytes (a one-terabyte hard drive can hold approximately 120 DVD movies), even petabytes, (a petabyte is 1,024 terabytes) of information. Some compare one PB to 13.3 years of HDTV content. 速度 Velocity 那是指處理資料的效率。大數據可用於市場預測或者揪出違規交易,所以能快速處理 資料非常關鍵,否則會失去先機或不能及時制止違規情況。 This means how fast the data are processed to meet demand. For time-sensitive processes such as catching fraud in trade events or marketing predictions, it is crucial that the data be processed fast to achieve pre-emption and stop irregularities. 多樣性 Variety 這是指資料的種類繁多,包括文字、監測器數據、影音、網誌文章等等。這些不同類型 的資料若綜合起來分析,可以提供新的啟示。 Big data involves any type of data, such as text, sensor data, audio, video, blog files. By combining a variety of data sets that would not traditionally sit together, new insights can be gained. 真實性 Veracity 真實性指的是資料來源變得蕪雜,這些資料本身是否可靠是一大疑問,如何確保這些 資料和根據它們所做的分析可信,就成為一大挑戰。 As the variety and number of sources of data grow, it is important to ensure the quality of the data so that people can trust the information they use to make decisions.

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