Revently.com Private Beta

8月29日凌晨第一封邀请信发出的时候，Revently.com内部测试上线了。很兴奋的一夜没睡着觉，就像迎接新生儿一样。

经过一个多星期的内测，发现很多问题，都在慢慢解决，也在慢慢的生成许多的新问题，很有趣，有意思的挑战。也许目前最大的问题在于地理位置的缺乏，但是我们相信面包会有的。毕竟各种网站都是从一个空架子开始搭建起来的。

从Google Analytics的数据来看，Safari用户第一，但是因为邀请的朋友都是Mac，所以不稀奇。但是这里面仍然有不少的IE用户。

为什么会拒绝IE用户呢？因为IE拒绝了我们，即使在发布的IE9测试版里面目前也没有发现IE9支持Geolocation。虽然桌面版的Geolocation存在着不少的偏差和拒绝服务，但是Revently依然在桌面版中实现这一功能，是为了大家能使用Laptop, netbook的时候也能享用到地理位置的更新。HTML5势在必行，我们欠缺的只是地理位置数据。所以在登录后的页面我们会提示大家使用Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox跟Opera等浏览器，他们都是原生支持Geolocation的。

非常感谢大家的帮助和关注，如果有任何的建议，请feedback我们。

下面的日子可能会很艰苦，但是，一切都是值得期待的。让我们共同见证Revently.com吧 ;-p

感谢 @bybyqian, @Mirabel, @coccalee, @sally, @mczhao, @beingwff, @Cathy, @afra，感谢你们的时间和测试数据，还有feedbacks，很宝贵也很有建设性。（排名不分先后，按注册时间来的~）

另外，非常感谢Revently的其他成员，@blueskin, @Rainy 感谢你们的付出！

周末去了平谷，小猴子爱吃桃。好大的桃，嘿嘿。这篇的图全部是©O2City，摄影师啊，专业级别的。桃就是硬硬的，清香清香的那种好吃。

原文请见：http://o2city.cn/?p=1866

Ruby On Rails 3

最近项目逼近，需要迅速搭建一个Ruby On Rails的环境，于是有了这篇Tutorial，主要以Mac平台为主。

在大部分的Unix based的操作系统都有Ruby的包，可以直接安装或者已经预装好了，这里要介绍一种比较容易管理的方法。使用RVM，Ruby Version Management，这样可以在一个系统下安装不同版本的Ruby，并且可以随时更改环境。

首先，你要确保你已经在Mac下安装了Development Tools，这样你才可以编译源码。如果没有安装，拿出你的系统安装盘，找到XCode，安装文件，直接装好就行了。

下面，我们就进入RVM的安装了。更多细节可以参考 http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/

如果你没有git的话，就用下面的命令吧，在Terminal中输入：（检查有没有git？在Terminal输入，如果返回路径就是有git了）

which git

bash < <( curl http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/releases/rvm-install-head )

mkdir -p ~/.rvm/src/ && cd ~/.rvm/src && rm -rf ./rvm/ && git clone --depth 1 git://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm.git && cd rvm && ./install

/Users/xxxxxxx/.rvm/bin/rvm

那么恭喜你，RVM已经安装完成。

那么下面我们来安装Ruby，目前Ruby流通的版本很多，1.8.x – 1.9.x都有，考虑到我们要使用Rails 3.0的框架，所以，1.8.7一下的版本就不需要考虑了。推荐用Ruby Enterprise Edition (ree)，这个版本的Ruby是在MRI Rubies的基础上进行开发的，基于1.8.x版本的，然后也打了了GC补丁例如MBARI，在运行效率上面有显著的提高，推荐的生产环境中使用。为了和生产环境保持一致，我们在自己的开发环境也使用这个版本就行了。在Terminal中输入：

rvm install ree

经过一系列的编译，你将完整的得到REE

ruby 1.8.7 (2009-12-24 patchlevel 248) [i686-darwin10.3.1], MBARI 0x6770, Ruby Enterprise Edition 2010.01

这个时候，你系统默认的ruby还是在

/usr/bin/ruby

rvm use ree --default
which ruby

/Users/xxxxxxx/.rvm/rubies/ree-1.8.7-2010.01/bin/ruby

那么这个时候1.8.7版本的Ruby已经安装好，并且成为了你这个用户下面默认的版本，如果你要查询rvm其他的命令，你直接输入rvm就能获得帮助。

下一步，我们需要安装RubyGems，是一个Ruby gem的包管理软件，在 http://rubygems.org/pages/download 下载最新的 1.3.7版本。解压缩后，进入目录，在Terminal中输入：

ruby setup.rb

which gem

/Users/xxxxxx/.rvm/rubies/ree-1.8.7-2010.01/bin/gem

最后，我们来安装Rails 3.0。到目前为止，Rails 3.0还是在beta中，所以直接在Terminal中输入：

gem install rails --pre

经过一段时间，Rails 3.0 beta4就安装好了。

测试一下环境，在随意的目录中，输入

rails new TestApp --database=mysql

就能获得下面生成的文件

      create  
      create  README
      create  Rakefile
      create  config.ru
      create  .gitignore
      create  Gemfile
      create  app
      create  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
      create  app/helpers/application_helper.rb
      create  app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
      create  app/models
      create  config
      create  config/routes.rb
      create  config/application.rb
      create  config/environment.rb
      create  config/environments
      create  config/environments/development.rb
      create  config/environments/production.rb
      create  config/environments/test.rb
      create  config/initializers
      create  config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb
      create  config/initializers/inflections.rb
      create  config/initializers/mime_types.rb
      create  config/initializers/secret_token.rb
      create  config/initializers/session_store.rb
      create  config/locales
      create  config/locales/en.yml
      create  config/boot.rb
      create  config/database.yml
      create  db
      create  db/seeds.rb
      create  doc
      create  doc/README_FOR_APP
      create  lib
      create  lib/tasks
      create  lib/tasks/.gitkeep
      create  log
      create  log/server.log
      create  log/production.log
      create  log/development.log
      create  log/test.log
      create  public
      create  public/404.html
      create  public/422.html
      create  public/500.html
      create  public/favicon.ico
      create  public/index.html
      create  public/robots.txt
      create  public/images
      create  public/images/rails.png
      create  public/stylesheets
      create  public/stylesheets/.gitkeep
      create  public/javascripts
      create  public/javascripts/application.js
      create  public/javascripts/controls.js
      create  public/javascripts/dragdrop.js
      create  public/javascripts/effects.js
      create  public/javascripts/prototype.js
      create  public/javascripts/rails.js
      create  script
      create  script/rails
      create  test
      create  test/performance/browsing_test.rb
      create  test/test_helper.rb
      create  test/fixtures
      create  test/functional
      create  test/integration
      create  test/unit
      create  tmp
      create  tmp/sessions
      create  tmp/sockets
      create  tmp/cache
      create  tmp/pids
      create  vendor/plugins
      create  vendor/plugins/.gitkeep

Okay，快速的搭建Ruby On Rails环境已经好了。

如果你还要安装Mysql数据库，请参考另外的文章：安装本地WordPress测试环境

转来了今年夏天最火爆的图。北航2010届毕业生的床单文化展。传说的12楼，13楼的学弟学妹们疯狂了一把。想当年，床单文化始于我们毕业的那一年，正好是这届学弟学妹们入学的那一年2006年夏天。这就是创意，北航学子的创意真是独特独特啊。当年我们楼只有一两幅，而且没什么犀利的内容。今年可算是百花起放！仅供欣赏。

北航兄弟姐们有创意快点展示了~~~，后面最新追加29日午夜版本，希望当成本夜世界杯的赛前小菜，好戏马上上演……

“预备”展览开始，请大家固定好各自眼睛。

仰望办证……多少人不是为了那纸文凭？北航仰望办证哥犀利探头

楼上风景收复台湾DOTA图

“牛X北航”！

我们还有仰望星空~~~看，“天上人间”

貌似折翼的天使成了新一代关键词，不过北航的单翼型飞行物也忒多了

这些不会也是支援西部的“优秀”大学生吧？带走自个行李就行了。

坐等广电总局、国务院、文化部、新闻出版总署、各大电信传播服务商……封杀

一千个眼里，有一千个床单背后的意思，这个意境大家自己悟……

限制级重口味……终极必杀床单，世界五百强“荣誉员工”凤姐口号现身。注：本床单仅代表个人意见，不代表北航官方学生言论。

文明离校，旁边的这位自恋情结异常严重。僧多粥少的结果。

各回各家各找各妈，北航，再见了

此床单宣告着毕业床单文化不单单是“撩骚”的男生们的独占舞台，同样也是巾帼们留下传奇的途径，此姐依然不再北航，如果因此帖成为传奇，这个床单没白费。以此共勉。

PS；路遇宾得爱好者，2.8的恒定光圈，羡慕中……期待他的作品

忘本单作者自行解释……

无兄弟不DOTA……阿迪版

“日控”也跳了出来，莫怪北航男饥渴，是男女比失调太严重……

来个主旋律“读书人”

………………

DOTA不愧为第一电游

依然“主旋律”

大家别当真……

世界杯最大的悲剧，不是法国雄鸡，亚平宁人的悲惨回家，不是淘汰赛大不列颠被德意志战车掠过，而是因为我们的离去……

严重怀疑这是校宣传部门“奸细”不排除“潜伏”的内线放出的挽救同志们的床单信

关键词屏蔽，关键词屏蔽，关键词屏蔽……

含蓄的北航女生……

汗一个，终现彪悍语，哥挺你们，希望此单能给你们带来三轮车+免费劳力

=================================================

敬请期待午夜闪灯版………………………………

又现“限制级”还是凉席，请18岁以下看客自动屏蔽或与监护人一同观看，谢谢~~~

绝对的午夜加强版，走在路上很抢眼

严重失调这一违背社会进步的现象会引起校领导会引起绝对的重视的，起码向综合性研究型大学上发展来看，这个的指南方向已经有了很好的铺垫

可口可乐公司果粒橙荣誉“赞助”

这个是他挂歪了……

很有味道

从头到尾张扬出彪悍的学风

声援107，新一点“钉子哥”横空出世！

坚强，坦荡哥

XXXXX，这个没评语了，就剩无语了……

供需失衡导致北航女生一直处于超高价位，自古以来都是买账不买跌，何况还是快要退市的货色……

16楼的哥们揭被而起~~~

学院的官方宣传——

＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋

先上个凉菜～～～

开口必言谢国家，大家以后记住了！

打开“翻墙”软件，正餐陆续到位～～～

后会有“妻”

本单版权归ＸＸＸ同学所有，期待正版解释

忽如一夜校歌来，漫山遍野仰望男

不知道下一代怎么折腾这栋楼……不过２０１０级的学弟学妹，崭新空白的的沙河校区等待你们激扬文字，涂抹床单

坐等正解

找到工作了……

床单培养诗人的沃土

有一个限制级，言辞越来越露骨了……

可惜凤姐眼光忒高……

防火防盗放学长……

SEE　YA！

给力，绝对力

在一个雄性荷尔蒙充斥着绝大多数的理工院校，两个的完美世界惨变为一个人和手以及“苍井空”们意淫的独欢。

求虐帝……

加入豪门的穷媳妇……

顿时，内牛满面……

We　Are　Together！

全景图……更新中

很喜欢这个设计，北航也有内秀的泛着点点精致的忧伤，一把小伞，些许玩具，轻飘这的中国结，１３楼最美的装饰品……

好了，今天的最雷床单得主……

正当我回味上一个的优雅时，顿时被下一个世界“杯”轰的外焦里嫩，彪悍的“Ｆ”ｉｆａ姐终于轰轰烈烈的横空出世，估计下一个丰胸广告的研发基地将落户北航研究生院。出没北航男生们小心了大尺寸“胸”器傲然……

＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋

这个明显为了赶工期，质量很烂，大家凑合看吧

“北航中巴车”

“圣寝”

又一ＤＯＴＡ迷

插播一个广告

北航学子太有才，个个都赛福楼拜

强烈建议这种传奇单应该挂上马赛克头像、背景、侧影等让“后人”有个最求的模样

这屋仁兄们应该集体去消协、工商局、食品安全局等检验检疫的　保障消费者的机构，谁敢生产假东西，给来一梭子

依稀记得之前有同学请假，理由——工会有活动……

看了前半句，徐志摩从坟墓中重生了，看了后半句，他又死去而来，他是来拿那个５００Ｇ硬盘的……

“代表二弟向伟大的“教育家”——空姐致敬，您对玉树的捐款，我们不会忘记”

…………………………………………………………关键词屏蔽

北航人，天空才是你施展才能的地方，希望大家把床单的上激扬文字的脑筋用来各自擅长的领域，２０１０我们已经创造了历史，还有更多的成绩等待大家去争取，与２０１０届毕业生共勉

莫生离伤空对窗，自有华年向天扬。离别是又相逢的开始，一人，一行囊。潇洒的奔向未来

温情篇……祝这位校友生日快乐

N年前的剩饭了，旧戏新唱，关键词屏蔽板作为谢幕联

此文转自于：http://juetuzhi.net/2010/07/bei-hang-chuang-lian-zhan.html

24小时华山

五岳归来不见山，华山归来不见岳

天下第一奇山，我终于有兴到了，6年的计划。又是今天空闲着，翻出两个月前本该发的文章。没有什么文字，全是图。全部都是Canon 400D拍的，我最大的本事就是能把单反机照出卡片机的效果，而把卡片机照出还是卡片的效果。

第一山

西岳华山

北峰

夕阳

日出中的月亮

混沌

看到那个小圆旦了吗？

日出来了

日

生殖器崇拜

传说中华山也有迎客松

连续唱完35首歌。把电脑拿出来给iPhone充电，发现这个KTV里面还能上网。于是翻出了这篇10年2月份写了一个开头的文章，继续：

过去十八岁/没戴表/不过有时间
够我没有后顾/野性/贪玩
霎眼廿七岁/时日无多/方不敢偷懒
宏愿纵未了/奋斗总不太晚

2010年是八零后第一拨人迈入30岁的一年。孔老二说过：“三十而立，四十而不惑”，到了这个而立之年，八零后的我们都立了些什么起来呢？也许这个“伟大”思想家也许没有预料到2000多年后的中国的三十岁的男人们，过得是如此艰难。“疑惑，不安，怀旧”这三个标签可以大部分的说明八零后这一代的问题。

什么是立？成家、立业。这是大家公认的30岁人应该有的东西。可是大部分同学们却还在为一个报酬较高的工作而奔波，北漂，上飘，各种飘着，不稳定、收入不高、生活环境差，远离家人却是我们之间流通的标签。房子，车，另一半？也许大家都是为这些默默的在奋斗着。但是

你献出了十吋/时和分/可有换到十吋金

虽然也有不少的同学不属于这些标签的范围内，但是据报道，80%的八零后还处于迷茫阶段，根本达不到三十而立。不是为自己开脱，也不是想逃避，谁都想自己事业有成，谁都想能够有一个幸福的小家，逃离漂泊的租房一族。古人未及弱冠就已经成家，他们有相对足够时间去完成三十而立。或许对于我们来说，三十而立是理想，要争取能够达到，不行也不要强求自己，压力太大反而有了反的效果。三十不行，就四十而立吧。

Updates:

其实我已经完全不记得当时写的时候的立意了，或许是想给自己找个借口，或许是看到周围的同学们发出的感叹。不管怎样，只有自己好好的计划接下来的Life才能达成目标。再也不要盲目撞墙了。

2010 - 2020

2000

十年前的今天，我刚好高一暑假。我的目标很简单，想去北京航空航天大学，今日的北航。

为这个目标，我也算努力，人笨点，多花点时间，也是能得到一些回报的。

2001

九年前，在我刚上高三的第一个月，我的生日那天，我敬爱的外婆离我而去。

她从小带我到大，可以说比我妈妈还关心我。

癌症，这个到如今人类无法攻克的难题。

2002

高考终于来到，我也侥幸通过。加十分就过了录取线，去掉那十分，我就是个落榜生。

这都是我外婆在天堂里保佑我。

2003

非典在北京爆发了，学校里面很和谐，大家玩得很开心，不用担心考试，学习。

只是大家都在小心的防备不要被传染上了可怕的非典。

那个夏天让我感受到了温暖的同学情。

2004

• 十年之前/我不認識你/你不屬於我
• 如果留下多一秒钟
• 我想我不够爱你
• 十年之後/我們是朋友/還可以問候?

2005

我颓废了一学期之后，朋友让我加入她的广播站。

很幸运的我获得了新生。

2006

毕业前的纠结。最终我离开了那个看似铁饭碗的事业单位。

因为我发现，我的个性根本不适合在那儿呆下去。

新的公司，让我觉得非常的开心。做自己喜欢的工作。

2007

还是这家公司，做着喜欢的工作。却发现，原来世界上没有一件事会让你一直喜欢下去。

因为都在变化，因为我们是人。

收获和自信心都在增长，我始终还是在接受。

2008

习惯成自然。开始有了自己的想法，却发现，自己的见识实在太少了。

以为很了不起的想法，却没想到别人早已经捷足先登了。

汶川地震和奥运会的悲喜交加，让我感到命运的不可理喻。

2009

The Year of Change. 改变在各个方面。于是我有了更深刻更深入的思考。

创业也许是我的一条出路。

我只想让以后的生活会更轻松一些。不必要为一些琐碎事情儿烦恼。

2010

The Year of Social Media!

从我成年来第一个十年结束。这个十年我还是属于学习，大学四年，在Tinselbird四年。

都学到各种东西，生活，感情，职业。我也能感觉到我的成长。

人生的方向？我已经有了明确的目标。

好好的策划自己的下一个黄金十年。

没有惊心动魄的战争，只有踏踏实实的专注。

Focus! Confident! Never giving up!

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

下一个黄金十年，我等着。

永字八法 - The Eight Principles of Yong

在Smashing Magazine看到一篇关于亚洲文字的文章。很了不起，中国的书法也被外国设计师们研究着。美丽的字体是没有国界的！（The beauty of typography has no borders. ）先把全文贴过来，我再慢慢翻译。永字八法（The Eight Principles of Yong） 。

East Asian Writing Systems

Obviously, the Chinese uses Chinese characters (where they are known as hanzi). But Chinese characters are also used in various forms in Japanese (where they are known as kanji) and Korean (hanja). In this section, we will look at four East Asian writing systems: Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

Chinese Characters

Chinese characters are symbols that do not comprise an alphabet. This writing system, in which each character generally represents either a complete one-syllable word or a single-syllable part of a word, is called logo-syllabic. This also means that each character has its own pronunciation, and there is no way to guess it. Add to this the fact that being literate in Chinese requires memorizing about 4,000 characters and you’ve got quite a language to learn. Fortunately for us, we don’t need to learn Chinese in order to appreciate the beauty of its writing.

Because many commonly used Chinese characters have 10 to 30 strokes, certain stroke orders have been recommended to ensure speed, accuracy and legibility in composition. So, when learning a character, one has to learn the order in which it is written, and the sequence has general rules, such as: top to bottom, left to right, horizontal before vertical, middle before sides, left-falling before right-falling, outside before inside, inside before enclosing strokes.

The Eight Principles of Yong

The strokes in Chinese characters fall into eight main categories: horizontal (一), vertical (丨), left-falling (丿), right-falling (丶), rising, dot (、), hook (亅) and turning (乛, 乚, 乙, etc.). The “Eight Principles of Yong” outlines how to write these strokes, which are common in Chinese characters and can all be found in the character for “yǒng” (永, which translates as “forever” or “permanence”). It was believed that practicing these principles frequently as a budding calligrapher would ensure beauty in one’s writing.

Four Treasures of the Study

“Four treasures of the study” is an expression that refers to the brush, ink, paper and ink stone used in Chinese and other East Asian calligraphic traditions. The head of the brush can be made of the hair (or feather) of a variety of animals, including wolf, rabbit, deer, chicken, duck, goat, pig and tiger. The Chinese and Japanese also have a tradition of making a brush from the hair of a newborn, as a once-in-a-lifetime souvenir for the child.

Seal and Seal Paste

The artist usually completes their work of calligraphy by adding their seal at the very end, in red ink. The seal serves as a signature and is usually done in an old style.

Horizontal and Vertical Writing

Many East Asian scripts (such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean) can be written horizontally or vertically, because they consist mainly of disconnected syllabic units, each conforming to an imaginary square frame. Traditionally, Chinese is written in vertical columns from top to bottom; the first column on the right side of the page, and the text starting on the left.

In modern times, using a Western layout of horizontal rows running from left to right and being read from top to bottom has become more popular. Signs are particularly challenging for written Chinese, because they can be written either left to right or right to left (the latter being more of a traditional layout, with each “column” being one character high), as well as top to bottom.

Different Styles

In Chinese calligraphy, Chinese characters can be written in five major styles. These styles are intrinsic to the history of Chinese script.

Seal script is the oldest style and continues to be widely practiced, although most people today cannot read it. It is considered an ancient script, generally not used outside of calligraphy or carved seals, hence the name.

In clerical script, characters are generally “flat” in appearance. They are wider than the seal script and the modern standard script, both of which tend to be taller than wider. Some versions of clerical are square, and others are wider. Compared to seal script, forms are strikingly rectilinear; but some curvature and influence from seal script remains.

The semi-cursive script approximates normal handwriting, in which strokes and (more rarely) characters are allowed to run into one another. In writing in the semi-cursive script, the brush leaves the paper less often than with the regular script. Characters appear less angular and rounder. The characters are also bolder.

The cursive script is a fully cursive script, with drastic simplifications and ligatures, requiring specialized knowledge to be read. Entire characters may be written without lifting the brush from the paper at all, and characters frequently flow into one another. Strokes are modified or eliminated completely to facilitate smooth writing and create a beautiful abstract appearance. Characters are highly rounded and soft in appearance, with a noticeable lack of angular lines.

The regular script is one of the last major calligraphic styles to develop from a neatly written early-period semi-cursive form of clerical script. As the name suggests, this script is “regular,” with each stroke written slowly and carefully, the brush being lifted from the paper and all strokes distinct from each other.

Japanese

A rather different writing system is Japanese, which is syllabic, meaning that each symbol represents (or approximates) a syllable, combining to form words. No full-fledged script for written Japanese existed until the development of Man’yōgana (万葉仮名), an ancient writing system that employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. The Japanese appropriated Kanji (derived from their Chinese readings) for their phonetic value rather than semantic value.

The modern kana systems, Hiragana and Katakana, are simplifications and systemizations of Man’yōgana. Thus, the modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts: Kanji, which is used for nouns and stems of adjectives and verbs; Hiragana, which is used for native Japanese words and written in the highly cursive flowing sōsho style; and Katakana, which is used for foreign borrowings and was developed by Buddhist monks as a shorthand. In Japan, cursive script has traditionally been considered suitable for women and was called women’s script (女手 or onnade), while clerical style has been considered suitable for men and was called men’s script (男手 or otokode).

The three scripts are often mixed single sentences.

As we can see, the modern kana systems are simplifications of Man’yōgana. It is interesting to see how they have been simplified.

Development of hiragana from man’yōgana.

Katakana, with man’yōgana equivalents. (The segments of man’yōgana adapted into katakana are highlighted.)

Korean Squares

Korean is itself a very different writing system. It uses Hangul, a “featural” writing system. The shapes of the letters are not arbitrary but encode phonological features of the phonemes they represent.

Hangul has existed since the middle of the 15th century (approximately 1440). But tradition prevailed, and scholars continued to use Classical Chinese as the literary language, and it was not until 1945 that Hangul became popular in Korea.

Jamo (자모; 字母), or natsori (낱소리), are the units that make up the Hangul alphabet. “Ja” means letter or character, and “mo” means mother, suggesting that the jamo are the building blocks of the script. When writing out words, signs are grouped by syllables into squares. The layout of signs inside the square depends greatly on the syllable structure as well as which vowels are used.

We won’t get into the detailed rules, but here is an example for inspiration:

Vietnamese Rotation

The Vietnamese writing system in use today (called Chữ Quốc Ngữ) is adapted from the Latin alphabet, with some digraphs (i.e. pairs of characters used to write individual phonemes) and nine additional diacritics (accent marks) for tones and certain letters. Over the course of several centuries—from 1527, when Portuguese Christian missionaries began using the Latin alphabet to transcribe the Vietnamese language, to the early 20th century, when the French colonial administration made the Latin-based alphabet official—the Chinese character-based writing systems for Vietnamese gradually became limited to a small number of scholars and specialists.

However, the Chinese philosophy still exerts a strong influence. The stylized work above is by painter Tran Dat, who introduced a harmony between the shapes of Chinese and Vietnamese characters. If you rotate the first image 90 degrees counter-clockwise, you can make out the Vietnamese words. It is meant to be displayed vertically so that it appears as ancient Chinese text at first.

Arabic

Here we’ll explore the beauty of Arabic, which has many styles and techniques. The Arabic alphabet was developed from the Nabataean script (which was itself derived from the Aramaic script) and contains a total of 28 letter. These 28 letters come from 18 basics shapes, to which one, two or three dots are added, above or below the letter. Arabic uses a writing system that we haven’t seen yet: an abjad, which is basically an alphabet that doesn’t have any vowels—the reader must supply them.

Contextual Shaping

The shape of these letters changes depending on their position in the word (isolated, initial, medial or final). Here, for example, is the letter kaaf:

Diacritics

The Arabic script is an impure abjad, though. Short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters, but short vowels and long consonants are not generally indicated in writing. The script includes numerous diacritics, which serve to point out consonants in modern Arabic. These are nice and worth taking a look at.

Alif as a Unit of Proportion

Geometric principles and rules of proportion play an essential role in Arabic calligraphy. They govern the first letter of the alphabet, the alif, which is basically a straight vertical stroke.

• The height of the alif varies from 3 to 12 dots, depending on the calligrapher and style of script.
• The width of the alif (the dot) is a square impression formed by pressing the tip of the reed pen to paper. Its appearance depends on how the pen was cut and the pressure exerted by the fingers.
• The imaginary circle, which uses alif as its diameter, is a circle within which all Arabic letters could fit.

Different Styles

Arabic script has many different styles—over 100 in fact. But there are six primary styles, which can generally be distinguished as being either geometric (basically Kufic and its variations) and cursive (Naskh, Ruq’ah, Thuluth, etc.).

Kufi (or Kufic) is noted for its proportional measurements, angularity and squareness.

Tuluth means “one third,” referring to the proportion of the pen relative to an earlier style called Tumaar. It is notable for its cursive letters and use as an ornamental script.

Nasakh, meaning “copy,” is one of the earliest scripts with a comprehensive system of proportion. It is notable for its clarity for reading and writing and was used to copy the Qur’an.

Ta’liq means “hanging,” in reference to the shape of the letters. It is a cursive script developed by the Persians in the early part of the 9th century AD. It is also called Farsi (or Persian).

Diwani was developed by the Ottomans from the Ta’liq style. This style became a favorite script in the Ottoman chancellery, and its name is derived from the word “Diwan,” which means “royal court.” Diwani is distinguished by the complexity of lines within letters and the close juxtaposition of letters within words.

Riq’a is a style that evolved from Nasakh and Thuluth. It is notable for the simplicity and small movements that are required to write in it, thanks to its short horizontal stems, which is why it is the most common script for everyday use. It is considered a step up from the Nasakh script, which children are taught first. In later grades, students are introduced to Riq’a.

Teardrop-Shaped Composition

Here is an animation showing the composition of the Al Jazeera logo:

Bi-Directionnality

When left-to-right text is mixed with right-to-left in the same paragraph, each text should be written in its own direction, known as “bi-directional text.”

Material Used

In case you want to try, you’ll want to know what material to use. There is a lot of typical tools, such as brush pens, scissors, a knife to cut the pens and an ink pot. But the traditional instrument of the Arabic calligrapher is the qalam, a pen made of dried reed or bamboo. “The traditional way to hold the pen,” wrote Safadi in 1987, “is with middle finger, forefinger and thumb well spaced out along the [pen's] shaft. Only the lightest possible pressure is applied.”

As for the ink, you have many options: black and brown (often used because their intensity and consistency can be varied greatly) as well as yellow, red, blue, white, silver and gold. The important thing is that the greater strokes of the composition be very dynamic in their effect.

A Few Techniques

The development of Arabic calligraphy led to several decorative styles that were intended to accommodate special needs or tastes and to please or impress others. Here are a few outstanding techniques and scripts.

Gulzar is defined by Safadi (1979) in Islamic calligraphy as the technique of filling the area within the outlines of relatively large letters with various ornamental devices, including floral designs, geometric patterns, hunting scenes, portraits, small script and other motifs. Gulzar is often used in composite calligraphy, where it is also surrounded by decorative units and calligraphic panels.

Maraya or muthanna is the technique of mirror writing, where the composition on the left reflects the composition on the right.

Tughra is a unique calligraphic device that is used as a royal seal. The nishanghi or tughrakesh is the only scribe trained to write tughra. The emblems became quite ornate and were particularly favored by Ottoman officialdom.

In zoomorphic calligraphy, the words are manipulated into the shape of a human figure, bird, animal or object.

Sini

Sini is a Chinese Islamic calligraphic form for the Arabic script. It can refer to any type of Chinese Islamic calligraphy but is commonly used to refer to one with thick tapered effects, much like Chinese calligraphy. It is used extensively in eastern China, one of whose famous Sini calligraphers is Hajji Noor Deen.

Perso-Arabic Script: Nasta’liq Script

The predominant style in Persian calligraphy has traditionally been the Nasta’liq script. Although it is sometimes used to write Arabic-language text (where it is known as Ta’li, with Farsi used mainly for titles and headings), it has always been more popular in Persian, Turkic, and South Asian spheres. It is extensively practiced as a form of art in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nasta’liq means “suspended,” which is a good way to describe the way each letter in a word is suspended from the previous one (i.e. lower, rather than on the same level).

The Perso-Arabic script is exclusively cursive. That is, the majority of letters in a word connect to each other. This feature is also included on computers. Unconnected letters are not widely accepted. In Perso-Arabic, as in Arabic, words are written from right to left, while numbers are written from left to right. To represent non-Arabic sounds, new letters were created by adding dots, lines and other shapes to existing letters.

Indic Scripts (Brahmic)

The Indic or Brahmic scripts are the most extensive family of writing systems that we haven’t looked at yet: abugidas. An abugidas is a segmental writing system which is based on consonants and in which vowel notation is obligatory but secondary. This contrasts with an alphabet proper (in which vowels have a status equal to that of consonants) and with an abjad (in which vowel marking is absent or optional).

Indic scripts are used throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of Central and East Asia (e.g. Hindi, Sanskrit, Konkani, Marathi, Nepali, Sindhi and Sherpa). They are so widespread that they vary a lot, but Devanagari is the most important one.

Devanagari Ligatures and Matra

Hindi and Nepali are both written in the Devanāgarī (देवनागरी) alphabet. Devanagari is a compound word with two roots: deva, meaning “deity,” and nagari, meaning “city.” Together, they imply a script that is both religious and urban or sophisticated.

To represent sounds that are foreign to Indic phonology, additional letters have been coined by choosing an existing Devanagari letter that represents a similar sound and adding a dot (called a nukta) beneath it. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters and linking them together.

In addition, a few other diacritics are used at the end of words, such as the dots illustrated below and the diagonal line, called virama, drawn under the last letter of a word if it is a consonant.

One interesting aspect of Brahmic and in particular of Devanagari here is the horizontal line used for successive consonants that lack a vowel between them. They may physically join together as a “conjunct,” or ligature, a process called samyoga (meaning “yoked together” in Sanskrit). Sometimes, the individual letters can still be discerned, while at other times the conjunction creates new shapes.

Here is a close-up of a nice ligature, the ddhrya ligature:

A letter in Devanagari has the default vowel of /a/. To indicate the same consonant followed by another vowel, additional strokes are added to the consonant letter. These strokes are called matras, or dependant forms of the vowel.

Thai Stacking Diactritics

The writing system of Thai is based on Pali, Sanskrit and Indian concepts, and many Mon and Khmer words have entered the language.

To represent a vowel other than the inherent one, extra strokes or marks are added around the basic letter. Thai has its own system of diacritics derived from Indian numerals, which denote different tones. Interestingly, like many non-Roman scripts, it has stacking diacritics.

Tibetan Mantras

The form of Tibetan letters is based on an Indic alphabet of the mid-7th century. The orthography has not altered since the most important orthographic standardization, which took place during the early 9th century. The spoken language continues to change. As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects, there is a great divergence of reading from the spelling.

The Tibetan script has 30 consonants, otherwise known as radicals. Syllables are separated by a tseg ་, and because many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space.

As in other parts of East Asia, nobles, high lamas and persons of high rank were expected to have strong abilities in calligraphy. But the Tibetan script was done using a reed pen instead of a brush. As for a mantra, it is a sound, syllable, word or group of words that is considered capable of “creating transformation.”

The use of mantras is widespread throughout spiritual movements that are based on or off-shoots of practices from earlier Eastern traditions and religions. The mantras used in Tibetan Buddhist practice are in Sanskrit, to preserve the original mantras. Visualizations and other practices are usually done in the Tibetan language.

Vajrasattva mantra in Tibetan.

Summary

So what should you take away from this article? We have seen that Arabic and Chinese calligraphy have many different scripts variations. From geometric to cursive to regular script, there is no such thing as one calligraphic style for a language.

Sometimes there is even no such thing as one script per language. This is why Japanese is interesting: it is written in three different scripts that mix nicely. The construction of the Korean language is also fascinating: characters are grouped into squares that create syllables. Writing systems are ultimately diverse in construction, which makes them so interesting.

Many languages also have various components that can be used in our typography. Arabic and Thai, among many others, have a large system of diacritics. Arabic has a decorative aspect. Ligatures are directly related to our Latin alphabet but can be quite elaborated in such scripts as Devanagari.

You could do a lot to spice up your own designs. Did you catch the red Chinese seal, which contrasts with the usual black ink. Have you thought of rotating your fonts to give them a whole new look, as Vietnamese calligraphers do? What about the Arabic teardrop-shaped writing? If you missed all of this, you have no choice but to scroll back up and take a closer look.

Bonus: How to Integrate These Languages on a Website?

Working with foreign languages in international design projects can get a bit tricky. Obviously, studying the specifics of the language that you are supposed to work with will help you better anticipate user’s needs and avoid embarassing problems or misunderstandings. Tilt.its.psu.edu presents general guidelines for integration of various international languages in websites. Below you’ll find references to specific pages that cover details for writing systems presented in this article.

• Japanese
• Arabic
• Chinese
• Devanagari
• Thai
• Tibetan
• Vietnamese

Via: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/05/18/the-beauty-of-typography-writing-systems-and-calligraphy-of-the-world/ By Jessica Bordeau @ Smashing Magazine

看到Linux on the iPhone这个小组的博客，今天Android也可以在iPhone 2G上面运行了，还是传说中的双系统。迫不及待的下载了iDroid的测试固件

打开ReadMe，大概看了看，觉得应该不太难，可以为了安全起见，我还是先进行iPhone备份操作。

10分钟后，备份完毕，下面开始把pre-built好的镜像放入已经jail break的iPhone。注意必须是破解过的iPhone 2G，其他的目前还没有pre-built的镜像，估计某些地方还不兼容，所以3G，3GS就再等等吧。

先把iPhone的Cydia装好一些lib工具，最近Cydia不好用，可以在wifi的代理里填入：119.70.40.101，端口：8080 这样就不会出现错误了。Cydia需要安装iokittools, coreutils, vim等。

装好之后，要获得zephyr_main.bin和zephyr_main.bin多点触摸的驱动，用root帐户通过ssh连接iPhone，在终端下输入：

ioreg -l -w 0 | grep '"Firmware" =' | cut -d '< ' -f2 | cut -d '>' -f1 | xxd -r -ps - zephyr_main.bin
ioreg -l -w 0 |grep '"A-Speed Firmware" =' | cut -d '< ' -f2 | cut -d '>' -f1 | xxd -r -ps - zephyr_aspeed.bin

在这里http://u.115.com/file/f3662717b下载更新好的固件，解压缩后替换iDroid的相应文件。一切准备好后，首先保证你的iPhone是已经越狱过的。

1. 在越狱的环境下，将ramdisk.img, system.img, userdata.img, cache.img, android.img.gz, 以及 zImage 放到 /private/var目录下。
2. 安装openiboot(需要X86 linux环境)
   1. 将你的iPhone进入恢复模式，并且连接到你的计算机
   2. 在Linux的终端里输入

      sudo ./loadibec openiboot.img3

   3. 使用Hold按键来选择控制台
   4. 按下Home键
   5. 输入

      sudo ./oibc

   6. 输入install
   7. 当出现“Done with installation”后就表示安装成功（一定要等到这个出现！）

由于loadibec 和 oibc x86 Linux编译通过，所以你的Linux环境中需要 librickrb, pthreads, readline。可惜我晚上没有X86的Linux，只能忘PowerBook心叹了。明天去公司搞，然后再更新博客。

• 五年前的这个月，苹果发布了OSX中最具革命性的版本，10.4 Tiger，这为四年前的1月的重要转型奠定了基础。
• 十年前，我就看上了Mac OS，那个时候还是9系统流行的时代。八年前，我深深的被Mac OSX的图形界面吸引了。
• 五年前，我买了我的第一台Mac，PowerBook G4 15′ 具体出厂型号不记得了，但是这个不是最高配，当时价格是19xxx，想当贵。当时的水货渠道让人很不放心，嘿嘿，不敢买。

PowerBook G4很NB，当时的配置还是G4 1.5GHz的，内存只有512MB，显卡是ATI 9700 64MB的，可怜的小硬盘只有80GB，当时来说已经足够大了，同时代的PC的标配硬盘只有40GB，而且还是4200转的，PB怎么也配备了一个当时的高速硬盘（5400转），而且声音及其小，几乎听不到。晚上的宿舍里，总是能听到同学的各种PC的硬盘声，我总能自豪的看着黄片，却是无声无息 :-p。

可惜，我的PowerBook在一个月的时候夭折了。有一天我早晨起来开电脑，发现在现白灰色背景 plus 黑灰色小苹果 plus 菊花后，就蓝屏进不了系统了。使用了各种方法，当时对于Mac的熟悉程度还很低，我估计那个时候使用的方法不怎么样。于是打了400服务电话，最后一致通过，我需要拿着PowerBook和发票去苹果的专业维修站（具体破名字不记得了，反正是在国贸那儿）去检测。当时那个不情愿啊，刚刚买回的东西，就要被拆开了，心疼。经过拆机几天后，人家打电话告诉我，主板坏了，要换一个新的，于是我的主板在一个月的时候就寿终正寝了。由于那是没有三里屯，那帮工程师的水平我也不好评价，不知道为啥，他们在装载新主板的时候没有更新我的序列号，导致我的System Profile里面的序列号从此丢失。

后来，在网上知道我换的那块主板简直是赚大发了，8000人民币，后来笑了半天，觉得值啊。值啊。后来才知道，不是我一个人赚了，2006年的时候，Apple出来说，这批次的PowerBook G4的主板都有问题，可以全部免费更换，我本来想再去更换一次，多赚8000块，最终还是良心发现没有去。

这只是个杯具的开始，我在买了PowerBook之后的5个月后，PowerBook集体更新到末代PowerBook，分辨率上升到1440*960，显存直接上128MB，CPU到1.63GHz，看起来这个升级有点鸡肋，但是对于当时的我是个沉重的打击。于是开始诅咒新的PB，希望他们这批也有这样那样的问题。结果没想到我的诅咒居然灵验了，在2006年1月的MacWorld我们敬爱的备受崇拜的乔教主居然宣布他要加入Intel平台，当时一阵晕眩，想起在用PowerBook以前的日子，在自己的Samsung Notebook上面安装PearPC版的Mac OSX 10.3，这下他居然要用Intel？还好，最吐血的不是我，是那帮末代PowerBook们，他们刚刚升级2个多月，这个噩耗估计让他们砸了苹果的可以。

于是，PowerBook变成了MacBook Pro，iBook变成了MacBook，IBM + Moto + Apple的PowerPC渐渐消失在人们的视线中，变通，融合，这也算Apple的一个进步吧。等了n年出不来的PowerBook G5，原来在10年前Apple就秘密的编译Intel版本的Mac OSX了。

重新再来。经过4年多的逐渐转换，渐渐的，Universal Binary对PowerPC的支持越来越少，越来越多的软件Intel Only，让我这个还在使用PowerBook的可怜虫越来越感到边缘人物的可悲。2009年的Snow Leopard，苹果宣布从此不在支持PowerPC，正式的给PowerBook送上了棺材…… Goodbye PowerBook！

这次的更新，我等了半年多。起因是去年十一的时候PowerBook突然又老毛病发作，自动休眠。我想杯具的一代就是杯具的典范，这个毛病在PowerBook上也具有通病，可是Apple从来没有发出召回的命令。主要原因是主板上的touchpad的一个温度感应器坏了，所以系统老是自动监测温度已经超过阀值，就休眠了。这是个小毛病，可是修理起来并不简单，要么就换主板，8000人民币，要么你就得当回电工，把那个感应器弄下来，并且还不能把主板搞坏了，不然就得不偿失了。为此，我找过各种解决方案，软件解决，把某个温度感应的kext内核disable掉，还有就是夏天的时候用水枕垫在下面散热，再就是用G4FanControl把控制风扇的温度降低，让风扇一直转，这个方法导致了我的PowerBook变成了噪音大工厂。等待更新的日子很纠结，一会纠结是否去买个Netbook用用，或者淘个二手的MacBook Air，或者直接买了986得了。还好坚定的等待过来了。

可惜，这次的更新有点让人感觉鸡肋。13寸的先按下不表，15寸的升级总算把Intel的i系列CPU带了进来，可是那集成显卡换成了Intel的HD，感觉有点鸡肋，nVidia的9400经典被打破，到目前为止也没有一个测评讲到集成显卡之间的对比。其他东西都没有升级，硬盘还是500GB也许这是硬盘容量的瓶颈，SSD依然还是没有成为标配，分辨率可以升级为高分的1680×1050，依然不是标配。17寸标配居然用上了i5，这将说明17寸将会淡出笔记本市场吗？还是17寸的升级不是在这次的范围中。相反看看13寸的升级，性能有了很大的提升，320M的集成显卡在显示核心上面和330M独立显卡的渲染单元一样多，虽然没有使用i3，i5等CPU，13寸依然使用了nVidia的主板芯片，这让最近老是被诟病的intel芯片主汗颜不少。这一切表明，过渡产品这个词非常适合这一次的升级。我相信，MacBook Pro系列也许将会有一个大的变动，可惜我不能再等了。5年一次的更新为什么总是让我碰到transition？也许吧，过渡就是我的杯具。

Anyway，总算快用上新的MacBook Pro了，我也算跨越了一个新时代。今年的wishlist也算完成五分之一了。

Thanks @bybyqian, @coccalee！

Updates:

上论坛看了之后我开始纠结了： 苹果不会升级4核8线程CPU。 此时升级只是苹果公司权宜之计，属于过渡性产品，因为众PC都升级i系列处理器，苹果迫于果迷压力不得已为之，反正从Intel花的钱也是从果迷手里赚回来。 苹果真正升级或者说脱胎换骨的作品将是2011年WWDC上展示的新型电脑，划时代的产品，原因之一是，苹果会首次使用自行研制的处理器。届时，苹果全线产品（当然包括iPhone）都是苹果自行研发，不再与第三方产生任何瓜葛。 当我获知这个信息后，我不再急着入手所谓的新款MacBook Pro了。(via Max.cn) 于是我便就纠结于13寸最低配和15寸最高配了

@bybyqian说：“每次升级都是过渡,要学会习惯,电子产品无止境.” 我也知道，可是就是纠结呗。“脑残通常都是这样子的.” 继续批判道。

一天一夜的纠结，我决定了，不管是什么产品，都是我想要的MacBook Pro啦！Hey, I will take you home soon! Wait a few days!

谢谢 @bybyqian 帮我从香港带回MacBook Pro 15 i7，还有那块小肥皂！嘿嘿，我终于买到了！