The nature of a System Analyst's job is that it is closely tied to operations. We not only analyse the system, we take care of the system and provide bug fixes and data patches as and when necessary. In fact, we spend more time patching the systems than analysing them at my side.
Raising forms to get permission to update database records when users make a mistake. Procedures to be followed only so that management has visibility of what we are doing. Routine tasks can be streamlined and automated as much as possible to reduce human intervention and hence the amount of mind-numbing repetitive work I have to do. For the rest of it, the nature is so ad-hoc that there is no way to cater for all and automate all such work. You still need an experienced human being to make decisions and judgments. Many such small investigations that take up a lot of time and sap much energy. Much as I dislike the drudgery of such work, this is the nature of the job that I am being paid for.
To think that I had doing mostly maintenance for more than 3 years when I hate the nature of such jobs. No wonder I feel numb, no wonder the future looks bleak. Too highly paid to make a switch to the kind of job I want to do without a significant paycut. I should do my sums and see how much of a paycut I can live with, once all this mad rush is settled down. Life sucks when you are chained down by finances.
I console myself with the fact that work is frequently "shit-management". You are hired only because there is work that the person who hires you do not wish to do it himself. And unless you are highly skilled (in which case it will be value-creation that your bosses are not able to do themselves), you are destined to do shit-management. Shoveling the shit that people in power do not wish to do themselves. Such is the fate of those who want to stay out of the power struggle. This description excludes those in power who relish the power they wield, who can control the kind of work they do. They are not shoveling shit. This also excludes those who create value.
When you create value, you will not be just another count in the statistics, but will be someone they depend on. You will then have some leverage and be able to negotiate your terms. Management likes to tell the story of 3 brick-layers, one who sees himself as laying bricks, one who sees himself as building a wall, and one who sees himself as building a cathedral. This is a good story to tell those you have hired to lay bricks. But more often than not, the brick-layer finds himself building a small divider wall on a crumbling building, or shoring up the poorly-built foundation that he did not design.
People shovel shit willingly because they get paid, because there is something they look forward to after work, because the consolation that they get from that something is worth the shit that they have to shovel. For some people, that something is their family that they love and provide for. For some people, it is their hobby or lifestyle that their "day job" is paying for. For some people, it is simply something that they do, because going to work is part and parcel of life.
What motivates you at work?
It is a blessing to be able to find such a job that can provide for your needs, and which you can work at willingly. In any case, shit-management is a useful skill that will come in handy all through life, because life is full of shit. Shit should be managed and controlled, rather than just endured, if the gems in life are to be unearthed.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Dengue-free zone
Dengue fever is on the rise, our standard measures to control the population of the Aedes mosquitoes are not working very effectively. Hence let me introduce a way to avoid being infected with the Dengue virus.
Stay near the ends of bridges of popular shopping centres in Singapore, such as Suntec City and HarbourFront Centre. There will be smokers puffing away just outside the exits during the opening hours, putting up a smoke screen that mosquities dare not penetrate. Where the mosquitoes cannot venture, they cannot bite you there and you cannot be infected. Let's not waste the efforts of the voluntary foggers who pump out smoke by sheer lung power.
My Science teacher taught us that insects get drowsy in smoke, as the oxygen content is lower. Unlike humans, they do not cough when they inhale smoke. They just slow down and lose interest. Yes, I may cough when surrounded by second-hand smoke from smokers whenever I am forced to walk through their smoke screen, but it may just save my life. Dying from tobacco fumes will probably be later than dying from dengue fever.
I may get desperate enough that I may want to join in. That is, if I find people around me dropping dead like flies. It may justify such desperate measures.
Stay near the ends of bridges of popular shopping centres in Singapore, such as Suntec City and HarbourFront Centre. There will be smokers puffing away just outside the exits during the opening hours, putting up a smoke screen that mosquities dare not penetrate. Where the mosquitoes cannot venture, they cannot bite you there and you cannot be infected. Let's not waste the efforts of the voluntary foggers who pump out smoke by sheer lung power.
My Science teacher taught us that insects get drowsy in smoke, as the oxygen content is lower. Unlike humans, they do not cough when they inhale smoke. They just slow down and lose interest. Yes, I may cough when surrounded by second-hand smoke from smokers whenever I am forced to walk through their smoke screen, but it may just save my life. Dying from tobacco fumes will probably be later than dying from dengue fever.
I may get desperate enough that I may want to join in. That is, if I find people around me dropping dead like flies. It may justify such desperate measures.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
The Myth
Watched the Jackie Chan movie last night after work. Must be getting old, or overworked. Found the 9pm show to be pretty late.
It was different from his usual city-based action flicks in that all the action took place in ancient tombs, temples or out on the battlefield. He's still wowing fans with his monkey-like climbing abilities, but there is a lot less of the super-fast fighting scenes now. And Jackie Chan had 2 female co-stars instead of 1. So greedy. Or just practical? One's from Korea, the other from India. Everybody is going towards India now, even Jackie Chan's movies. Citybank Visa's latest advertisement shows Richard Gere in India, probably to win over the growing Indian market. But Jackie Chan raiding an Indian temple, dueling with Indian pugilists and helped by a Bollywood starlet? He returns to China eventually and fights a Taichi master who did not give him the chance to use his usual props in street battles. So the India trip was just an arc from the main story.
Not everyone can create a legend successfully. Miyazaki's Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke were highly acclaimed but just did not strike a cord with me. Not the way LOTR and the Matrix did. Or maybe those films just raised the barrier so high that all films will always pale against them.
This reminds me of something my secondary school Chinese teacher said, "Shen Hua (Myth) is Shen jing ping ren jiang de Hua. (The nonsense spouted by mad people.)"
Oh, nice barge though. I also want to live in a house with a rooftop that can scroll back at the flick of a button.
It was different from his usual city-based action flicks in that all the action took place in ancient tombs, temples or out on the battlefield. He's still wowing fans with his monkey-like climbing abilities, but there is a lot less of the super-fast fighting scenes now. And Jackie Chan had 2 female co-stars instead of 1. So greedy. Or just practical? One's from Korea, the other from India. Everybody is going towards India now, even Jackie Chan's movies. Citybank Visa's latest advertisement shows Richard Gere in India, probably to win over the growing Indian market. But Jackie Chan raiding an Indian temple, dueling with Indian pugilists and helped by a Bollywood starlet? He returns to China eventually and fights a Taichi master who did not give him the chance to use his usual props in street battles. So the India trip was just an arc from the main story.
Not everyone can create a legend successfully. Miyazaki's Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke were highly acclaimed but just did not strike a cord with me. Not the way LOTR and the Matrix did. Or maybe those films just raised the barrier so high that all films will always pale against them.
This reminds me of something my secondary school Chinese teacher said, "Shen Hua (Myth) is Shen jing ping ren jiang de Hua. (The nonsense spouted by mad people.)"
Oh, nice barge though. I also want to live in a house with a rooftop that can scroll back at the flick of a button.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Smokers' toilet
There is a toilet with a window view which is frequented by smokers. I get pissed off when I see the window open with the warm wind blowing in. I think the smokers like to open the window and let the smoke escape so that they don't choke in their own fumes.
Now I have nothing against smokers, as long as they don't force me to breathe in their waste product. Some are very fine people in all other aspects, but like to adopt open air corners as their own smoking point. This is fine as long as they choose some ulu spot where non-smokers keep away from. I mean, if you are in the toilet, you have to put up with the stench of my bodily waste, but if you're out of the toilet, you shouldn't have to smell it. So why should I smell cigarette fumes when I did not choose to go near a designated smoker's corner? Why should I have to endure smokers who gather along bridges, at bus stops, who walk in front of me, who smoke in toilets?
Those who do not want to breathe in their own waste will open the window and start smoking, and neglect to close it back. Sure, the higher air-con bills are not your problem because your company pays the rental, so it is something cannot care less about. That's very nice of you. I don't like to pee in a warm toilet and come out sticky with perspiration, but I guess you cannot care less also.
Have the decency to go congregate on roof tops or multi-storey carparks to smoke please.
Now I have nothing against smokers, as long as they don't force me to breathe in their waste product. Some are very fine people in all other aspects, but like to adopt open air corners as their own smoking point. This is fine as long as they choose some ulu spot where non-smokers keep away from. I mean, if you are in the toilet, you have to put up with the stench of my bodily waste, but if you're out of the toilet, you shouldn't have to smell it. So why should I smell cigarette fumes when I did not choose to go near a designated smoker's corner? Why should I have to endure smokers who gather along bridges, at bus stops, who walk in front of me, who smoke in toilets?
Those who do not want to breathe in their own waste will open the window and start smoking, and neglect to close it back. Sure, the higher air-con bills are not your problem because your company pays the rental, so it is something cannot care less about. That's very nice of you. I don't like to pee in a warm toilet and come out sticky with perspiration, but I guess you cannot care less also.
Have the decency to go congregate on roof tops or multi-storey carparks to smoke please.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Quidam
This is the 3rd time that the circus is touring Singapore, the show that they are putting up this time is called Quidam. Deciding not to be a country bumpkin anymore, I tried taking my family to watch the circus. Not everyone was willing to go, but no matter, I bring whoever is willing.
The acrobatics were breathtaking, the feats of strength and balance stunning, and the clowns were hilarious. They even pressed a brave local girl into joining in the mime on stage (sound effects provided by their live band) and she gamely played along. Another girl and three guys were later pressed into another mime. I think the participation made the evening very much unforgetable for them. Especially the first girl whose hair was totally messed up at the end of the show. What a sweet temper. I think those clowns were experts at judging from a look whether the person could play along well with them.
The acrobatics were breathtaking, the feats of strength and balance stunning, and the clowns were hilarious. They even pressed a brave local girl into joining in the mime on stage (sound effects provided by their live band) and she gamely played along. Another girl and three guys were later pressed into another mime. I think the participation made the evening very much unforgetable for them. Especially the first girl whose hair was totally messed up at the end of the show. What a sweet temper. I think those clowns were experts at judging from a look whether the person could play along well with them.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
World Of Warcraft
I had an hour or so to spare, so I wandered around Sim Lim Square. There, I came across a shop selling WoW at WCG price! Just what I had been looking for! The fellow selling me the game wanted to give me a poster of the Orc, but since he also had the Night Elf poster, guess which I chose?
Installing the 4CD game took 45min, so pathetically slow. Blizzard tends to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator so that those with lower-end game machines can still enjoy their games. And what good games they make too! Even when designed for lower-end machines, they still rock. It takes a lot more than flashy graphics to make a good game, and Blizzard has got most of it right. Their games can be very very addictive. But installing the patch (1.7.1) was an obstacle to overcome. 230+ MB to be downloaded took me 3 hours over my maxonline connection. Blizzard says that a 56K modem is all you need to play this online-only game, but how are you going to download 230MB over a 56K link? I'm glad I'm a little above the minimum requirement.
And now let the much anticipated gaming begin once again.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
webhosting - again
Frustrated at my company's Internet applications failing yet again, I sent an email to my boss on how professional webhosting companies can provide more reliable service for a fraction of what our own guys will cost. The response from him? Interesting, any guarantees?
Oh yes, their SLA is high enough to satisfy ours. Their data centre is just as secure as ours, with disaster recovery, which we are still struggling with. For the price of half a man-day a month, we can get a dedicated server to host our lighter weight applications, whereas our own guys will charge in multiple man-days. With a dedicated server, we can install the necessary software packages to run our applications. I can already think of ways to test out the feasibility of this idea, migrating the less critical systems over first. There are ways to overcome our backend linkages with our internal systems. Data centres are a commodity these days, it is frustrating to be bound by our own inefficiencies and incompetencies.
While compiling a summary for the boss, I kept an eye out for a cheapo plan to host my own site. After all I do not expect to be making money from this, and so I should keep the cost low. The minimum requirement to fulfill my needs.
http://www.vdomainhost.com.sg/valuehost/vlite.php
$70 a year for my own domain name, 50MB of disk space and 5GB monthly traffic limit, multiple email accounts and subdomains should be more than enough for personal use. Only with gmail's 2.6GB (and growing) email space downloadable via POP3, the tiny email space available on this kind of hosting seems pathetic. Well you do get your own email address at your own domain name for people to send to. You can set it up to forward to gmail for storage, and send out from your domain name.
Mambo looked good as a portal tool, until I found drupal, with all the necessary features already bundled in without needing to go for extensions. But I suppose it is a question of whether to take the bare minimum and add extensions as you need, or take a tool with more built-in features so you need not spend time looking for extensions.
Overkill?
Oh yes, their SLA is high enough to satisfy ours. Their data centre is just as secure as ours, with disaster recovery, which we are still struggling with. For the price of half a man-day a month, we can get a dedicated server to host our lighter weight applications, whereas our own guys will charge in multiple man-days. With a dedicated server, we can install the necessary software packages to run our applications. I can already think of ways to test out the feasibility of this idea, migrating the less critical systems over first. There are ways to overcome our backend linkages with our internal systems. Data centres are a commodity these days, it is frustrating to be bound by our own inefficiencies and incompetencies.
While compiling a summary for the boss, I kept an eye out for a cheapo plan to host my own site. After all I do not expect to be making money from this, and so I should keep the cost low. The minimum requirement to fulfill my needs.
http://www.vdomainhost.com.sg/valuehost/vlite.php
$70 a year for my own domain name, 50MB of disk space and 5GB monthly traffic limit, multiple email accounts and subdomains should be more than enough for personal use. Only with gmail's 2.6GB (and growing) email space downloadable via POP3, the tiny email space available on this kind of hosting seems pathetic. Well you do get your own email address at your own domain name for people to send to. You can set it up to forward to gmail for storage, and send out from your domain name.
Mambo looked good as a portal tool, until I found drupal, with all the necessary features already bundled in without needing to go for extensions. But I suppose it is a question of whether to take the bare minimum and add extensions as you need, or take a tool with more built-in features so you need not spend time looking for extensions.
Overkill?
Monday, September 19, 2005
Night cycling
It was such a relief to be cycling again after a few months of busyness.
I never feel more alive than when I'm on my bike, feeling the strain in my body and pedaling towards my destination on my own power. I found myself laughing while coasting down a gentle slope, my cares left far behind. I passed an old army camp that I thought was disused, but the roads remain free of fallen leaves and the lights of the top level bunks were on. I finally cycled on the new road that connects Queensway to North Buona Vista Road. I made it to my new flat and found a bunch of young men training with a punching bag at the communal area. My new apartment remains mostly empty and very peaceful.
I'm easy to please, just give me a few hours to ride by myself on quiet roads where traffic is light. It releases stress and loosens my muscles. No need for therapy or massage to recover from the demands of work. No need for cars, gym or club memberships, or condos. My material needs are simple, but my need for personal space is huge considering I live in a city. Perhaps I will be easier to please if I migrate to a more laid-back country with more roads and shorter working hours.
I must make it a point to go ride around more often in future. I will probably live longer and life will feel like it is more worth living.
I never feel more alive than when I'm on my bike, feeling the strain in my body and pedaling towards my destination on my own power. I found myself laughing while coasting down a gentle slope, my cares left far behind. I passed an old army camp that I thought was disused, but the roads remain free of fallen leaves and the lights of the top level bunks were on. I finally cycled on the new road that connects Queensway to North Buona Vista Road. I made it to my new flat and found a bunch of young men training with a punching bag at the communal area. My new apartment remains mostly empty and very peaceful.
I'm easy to please, just give me a few hours to ride by myself on quiet roads where traffic is light. It releases stress and loosens my muscles. No need for therapy or massage to recover from the demands of work. No need for cars, gym or club memberships, or condos. My material needs are simple, but my need for personal space is huge considering I live in a city. Perhaps I will be easier to please if I migrate to a more laid-back country with more roads and shorter working hours.
I must make it a point to go ride around more often in future. I will probably live longer and life will feel like it is more worth living.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Mustafa
We went hunting for home appliances at Jalan Besar and ended up at Mustafa, where we heard the prices are cheap. Call us suah-koo, but we have never been here before and did not realise how much merchandise they can pack into so little space and still get them sold.
Several interlinked buildings where you can walk from the basement of one building and find yourself across the street, then take the escalator to the top floor and walk over another road to a third building before realising that we were on a bridge. Ok, the space is not so little. They must have started from one building and bought over others near it when they expanded. It was like a colony of mushrooms expanding from a core and occupying the spaces beside them. They sell all things from toiletries to gold to cars to airplane tickets. I have never seen toiletries and jewellery being sold so close to each other, and I have never seen a supermarket above a store selling clothes.
They have more variety of kachiam-puteh than I have ever seen in other supermarkets. Hardly surprising considering they are run by Indians. There is a Sony digicam booth just outside one of the buildings, curiously staffed entirely by Chinese guys. No Indians as far as I can see, no girls either. There is no food court or eatery inside the buildings, but no lack of prata shops along the streets outside. Not a place to hang out, but a place to get bargains. And they are open 24 hours a day. Maybe I will make another trip if I have a sudden craving for kachiam-puteh in the middle of the night.
Several interlinked buildings where you can walk from the basement of one building and find yourself across the street, then take the escalator to the top floor and walk over another road to a third building before realising that we were on a bridge. Ok, the space is not so little. They must have started from one building and bought over others near it when they expanded. It was like a colony of mushrooms expanding from a core and occupying the spaces beside them. They sell all things from toiletries to gold to cars to airplane tickets. I have never seen toiletries and jewellery being sold so close to each other, and I have never seen a supermarket above a store selling clothes.
They have more variety of kachiam-puteh than I have ever seen in other supermarkets. Hardly surprising considering they are run by Indians. There is a Sony digicam booth just outside one of the buildings, curiously staffed entirely by Chinese guys. No Indians as far as I can see, no girls either. There is no food court or eatery inside the buildings, but no lack of prata shops along the streets outside. Not a place to hang out, but a place to get bargains. And they are open 24 hours a day. Maybe I will make another trip if I have a sudden craving for kachiam-puteh in the middle of the night.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Testing frameworks
There is a new Java testing framework, TestNG, that is slowly replacing JUnit. I'm appalled at how out of touch I am with development work these days. I barely have the time to pick up JUnit as it is, and now developers are talking about how this new framework does not have the weaknesses of JUnit that I did not even think about? I have not used it often enough to notice the weaknesses much. I don't even know what JDK1.5 is all about, when we are still using JDK1.4 officially and really using just the feature of JDK1.2. Pathetic.
I seldom have the chance to get my hands dirty doing development work right now. My work consist of managing a few programmers and gathering the requirements, managing the versions, testing, answering emails, doing migrations. Unit testing is something I am not intimately acquainted with, though I need to know enough to guide my programmers. Therein lies the problem - how do you lead if you don't know? When I first joined the company, I was miffed by how little our managers really knew about Java, though that is the language we use, how unwilling they were to learn new things and try promising new tools and techniques that can potentially ease our burden. I find myself becoming more like them with the passing of time.
It takes something uncommon to go against the path of least resistance and to do a better job than is common. The uncommon had always been more interesting, and holds the possibility for improving on what we have. To be common had never appealed much to me, except those times when being accepted was more important to me than pursuing my dreams.
To be able to spend time doing hands-on development work and be paid for it will be wonderful therapy for me and will ease some of the troubles on my mind. To be paid the same rate as what I am now will be like a dream job to me.
Anyway, I really need to read up on what TestNG is all about and the weaknesses of JUnit that I did not really have the time to find out. I won't understand everything, but it is a jumpstart.
TestNG: Catch the Testing Fever
Test Framework Comparison
New features of JDK5
Under the Hood of J2EE Clustering
I seldom have the chance to get my hands dirty doing development work right now. My work consist of managing a few programmers and gathering the requirements, managing the versions, testing, answering emails, doing migrations. Unit testing is something I am not intimately acquainted with, though I need to know enough to guide my programmers. Therein lies the problem - how do you lead if you don't know? When I first joined the company, I was miffed by how little our managers really knew about Java, though that is the language we use, how unwilling they were to learn new things and try promising new tools and techniques that can potentially ease our burden. I find myself becoming more like them with the passing of time.
It takes something uncommon to go against the path of least resistance and to do a better job than is common. The uncommon had always been more interesting, and holds the possibility for improving on what we have. To be common had never appealed much to me, except those times when being accepted was more important to me than pursuing my dreams.
To be able to spend time doing hands-on development work and be paid for it will be wonderful therapy for me and will ease some of the troubles on my mind. To be paid the same rate as what I am now will be like a dream job to me.
Anyway, I really need to read up on what TestNG is all about and the weaknesses of JUnit that I did not really have the time to find out. I won't understand everything, but it is a jumpstart.
TestNG: Catch the Testing Fever
Test Framework Comparison
New features of JDK5
Under the Hood of J2EE Clustering
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Gay Swimming Pool
I had suspected for some time that the neighbourhood swimming pool I frequent is a gathering place for gays. Today, I had the fortune or misfortune (depending on how you see it) to confirm my suspicion.
I was on leave today and decided to go swimming in the afternoon. It is usually therapeutic for me to exercise, as the physical exertion is a good change from the usual mental exertion that my job requires. The water turned out to be disgustingly salty and full of fallen leaves and twigs. I swam only half the number of laps that I usually do. Along the way, I noticed that there was only 1 girl in the pool, the rest of the swimmers are all solitary males, one wearing his white trunks low enough that his butt crack is showing. Good grief. I know that speedos are low, but I don't usually see them so low at the public pools. Then again, I seldom swim here on weekday afternoons.
Showering in the common bathroom, I saw this guy behind me who was looking around. Ok, some times I also look around, but I'm either checking if anybody is touching my bag (potential thief) or ogling at me (potential gay). I thought he was normal. Until I finished my shower and walked away to get changed. Then I saw that he had been masturbating. I don't usually pay attention to how other guys wash their genitals, but I don't think they spend so much time washing just that. And they are usually not in an aroused state. Never mind, quickly walk away.
Public male toilets tend to be a bit "open-concept" and guys just get changed at the benches. A towel is usually all you have to protect your modesty. I took care to make good use of the towel to not to expose anything more than I have to when I got changed.
Then I realise that the guy next to me who is holding his handphone in his hand is looking at me from time to time. Shit. He's one of them! He's not sending SMS but using the camera to take photos or videos of that other guy masturbating in the shower! At least I don't think he's aiming it at me. I will whack the shit out of him if I catch him pointing it at me. They chatted after that. I don't know if this was prearranged or if they were just picking each other up. I don't think I really want to know also.
This is all quite disturbing. Fortunately, there is another neighbourhood pool I can go to. It will be nearer my new apartment, and it is quieter, the water cleaner. And I hope I will not find gays there.
I was on leave today and decided to go swimming in the afternoon. It is usually therapeutic for me to exercise, as the physical exertion is a good change from the usual mental exertion that my job requires. The water turned out to be disgustingly salty and full of fallen leaves and twigs. I swam only half the number of laps that I usually do. Along the way, I noticed that there was only 1 girl in the pool, the rest of the swimmers are all solitary males, one wearing his white trunks low enough that his butt crack is showing. Good grief. I know that speedos are low, but I don't usually see them so low at the public pools. Then again, I seldom swim here on weekday afternoons.
Showering in the common bathroom, I saw this guy behind me who was looking around. Ok, some times I also look around, but I'm either checking if anybody is touching my bag (potential thief) or ogling at me (potential gay). I thought he was normal. Until I finished my shower and walked away to get changed. Then I saw that he had been masturbating. I don't usually pay attention to how other guys wash their genitals, but I don't think they spend so much time washing just that. And they are usually not in an aroused state. Never mind, quickly walk away.
Public male toilets tend to be a bit "open-concept" and guys just get changed at the benches. A towel is usually all you have to protect your modesty. I took care to make good use of the towel to not to expose anything more than I have to when I got changed.
Then I realise that the guy next to me who is holding his handphone in his hand is looking at me from time to time. Shit. He's one of them! He's not sending SMS but using the camera to take photos or videos of that other guy masturbating in the shower! At least I don't think he's aiming it at me. I will whack the shit out of him if I catch him pointing it at me. They chatted after that. I don't know if this was prearranged or if they were just picking each other up. I don't think I really want to know also.
This is all quite disturbing. Fortunately, there is another neighbourhood pool I can go to. It will be nearer my new apartment, and it is quieter, the water cleaner. And I hope I will not find gays there.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
On branding, anniversaries and discounts
A common marketing practice is to give discounts during the anniversary month of a company. For example, during the 25th anniversary of a departmental store, they may decide to give a 25% storewide discount to thank customers for their support over the last 25 years. This helps build goodwill and customer loyalty, essential to a store's survival.
The recent decision by the government to retain the name "Marina Bay", after spending $40k to find the best name, was insulted by many parties as a waste of taxpayers' money. They claimed that any Tom, Dick and Harry could have told you to retain the same name, and would cost far less. They also questioned the effectiveness of this branding.
To me, one effective way to build goodwill and customer loyalty is to give discounts during the anniversary month. If a 40% discount is given on HDB flats bought during the anniversary month of August, there will be a stampede to be customers of HDB. Perhaps that would be too steep a discount, perhaps they can use this opportunity to sell off those unwanted flats that have been accumulating dust in the more ulu parts of the island. You know how retailers try to give steep discounts for old stock so they can free up their inventory space and get some value for their investments, far better than to let it rot. Even a 40% discount off the HDB loan for the month will be very welcome.
SBS and SMRT can also give a 40% discount for all rides during the anniversary month. ERP discounts is another way to help the man in the street get by. All of these are ways for the rulers to show that they care, by giving discounts through GLCs that will help the common citizen. But they did not do it during the recession years, and they will not do it now that the economy is picking up.
Help yourselves, they said. Lower the land pricing and the lives of the people will be easier.
The recent decision by the government to retain the name "Marina Bay", after spending $40k to find the best name, was insulted by many parties as a waste of taxpayers' money. They claimed that any Tom, Dick and Harry could have told you to retain the same name, and would cost far less. They also questioned the effectiveness of this branding.
To me, one effective way to build goodwill and customer loyalty is to give discounts during the anniversary month. If a 40% discount is given on HDB flats bought during the anniversary month of August, there will be a stampede to be customers of HDB. Perhaps that would be too steep a discount, perhaps they can use this opportunity to sell off those unwanted flats that have been accumulating dust in the more ulu parts of the island. You know how retailers try to give steep discounts for old stock so they can free up their inventory space and get some value for their investments, far better than to let it rot. Even a 40% discount off the HDB loan for the month will be very welcome.
SBS and SMRT can also give a 40% discount for all rides during the anniversary month. ERP discounts is another way to help the man in the street get by. All of these are ways for the rulers to show that they care, by giving discounts through GLCs that will help the common citizen. But they did not do it during the recession years, and they will not do it now that the economy is picking up.
Help yourselves, they said. Lower the land pricing and the lives of the people will be easier.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
No energy
Haven't been blogging lately. Too tied up and not much energy to reflect or write. Used to blog a lot more, but that was when I had little challenge at work and blogging was a hobby. Time there still is, but the energy has all been sapped up by my work and wedding preps.
When my mind was on blogging, I would tend to think in terms of what I can blog about. Things that happened will be reviewed in terms of how I can blog about it, how I would phrase it. Now that every hour of the working day is spent on following up, chasing people, servicing requests, tracking progress, checking to see if things can be done in parallel, I can hardly spare the brain juice to think of reviewing my everyday life.
I have collected the keys to my apartment, shortlisted the contractor, the design is almost finalised, the list of helpers starting to be drawn up, the indoor photoshoot over and the outdoor shoot rescheduled because of the rain, 2 of the 4 pieces of jewellery have been bought, and I did not record down any of it.
Perhaps I should have just spent 10 minutes a day writing down whatever I could, just so that it would be recorded somewhere and not forgotten. But that would not be very meaningful without some reflection, and is without joy, end up as another thing to followup on instead of something I enjoy doing. Meaningless. There are enough things to do as it is.
Sometimes I envy the bloggers who manage to take time out to blog properly despite their tight schedules. Though they do not get enough sleep, they will still squeeze in the time to write a short entry that is at least coherent and properly worded. Perhaps words come easier for them, or they are just more disciplined. Then there are those who have amazing amounts of time to do what they like to do. Lucky bastards. Or did they just choose the right jobs?
ICQ5 allows you to create your own status and messages. I have created a status that says, "At work: paying off my housing loan" and 2 colleagues have found it terribly amusing. I am going to be 29, and I will be bound for the next 30 years. And I will have perhaps 15 years after that to retire, more likely find some other job that I will enjoy doing. Perhaps I will finally get to write the whole day. If my CPF can stretch that far, or if I discover a talent for writing that people will pay for.
A person must have something to look forward to, whether or not it is realistic. Just don't dash your last hope. For now, it is to look forward to the day when I can move into my own apartment. I'll worry about my career prospects half a year later.
When my mind was on blogging, I would tend to think in terms of what I can blog about. Things that happened will be reviewed in terms of how I can blog about it, how I would phrase it. Now that every hour of the working day is spent on following up, chasing people, servicing requests, tracking progress, checking to see if things can be done in parallel, I can hardly spare the brain juice to think of reviewing my everyday life.
I have collected the keys to my apartment, shortlisted the contractor, the design is almost finalised, the list of helpers starting to be drawn up, the indoor photoshoot over and the outdoor shoot rescheduled because of the rain, 2 of the 4 pieces of jewellery have been bought, and I did not record down any of it.
Perhaps I should have just spent 10 minutes a day writing down whatever I could, just so that it would be recorded somewhere and not forgotten. But that would not be very meaningful without some reflection, and is without joy, end up as another thing to followup on instead of something I enjoy doing. Meaningless. There are enough things to do as it is.
Sometimes I envy the bloggers who manage to take time out to blog properly despite their tight schedules. Though they do not get enough sleep, they will still squeeze in the time to write a short entry that is at least coherent and properly worded. Perhaps words come easier for them, or they are just more disciplined. Then there are those who have amazing amounts of time to do what they like to do. Lucky bastards. Or did they just choose the right jobs?
ICQ5 allows you to create your own status and messages. I have created a status that says, "At work: paying off my housing loan" and 2 colleagues have found it terribly amusing. I am going to be 29, and I will be bound for the next 30 years. And I will have perhaps 15 years after that to retire, more likely find some other job that I will enjoy doing. Perhaps I will finally get to write the whole day. If my CPF can stretch that far, or if I discover a talent for writing that people will pay for.
A person must have something to look forward to, whether or not it is realistic. Just don't dash your last hope. For now, it is to look forward to the day when I can move into my own apartment. I'll worry about my career prospects half a year later.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Permanency
My old blog is gone. After months of inactivity, the hosting company has decided to remove it. I had wanted to copy out my entries and store them on my wordpress-on-a-thumbdrive but had not gotten around to finishing the job. 20% to 30% of the entries are now irretrievable lost. And it will not be long before I have forgotten those experiences myself.
Why do I blog? See Ah Lim's reasons for blogging.
I don’t know, but I guess I blog because I want to announce my existence. Because I feel that we human are so fragile, so fragile that we never know when we are going to die. Because I want my life to not go unnoticed and if I die tomorrow I know I had shared the good things, the bad things, and even the mundane things with someone, somewhere, out there. They might not remember, but at least they get to witness my life’.
On hindsight, maybe I should have paid for a single month of subscription, around SGD$5 and exported everything one-time when I decided to call it quits over there.
I blog for a sense of permanency. Kinda like I'm suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Maybe not that serious, but how long can a person retain all of his memories? What was I doing on this date? When was it when I last met up with a particular friend? What the heck did we do for anniversary donkey years ago? What was going on through my mind at that time? There is lots of information that will be lost forever if not recorded down. Sometimes there are things worthy of remembering, but it takes too much effort to write them down…
One way to overcome this is to become a cult leader and be worshipped by faithfuls who will record down everything I do and say. Or a celebrity who gets hounded by paparazzi, who will record every single foul-up for posterity. Or get indecently rich so that I can hire my own scribe to write it from a nicer angle. A more feasible (and much less evil) way is to wait for technology to advance enough so that I can run my own blog on a PDA with a integrated keyboard. Then I can bring it everywhere and record everything. The blog server must be web-based with a database that can be easily exported and saved offline. Current technology is still too slow and I hate to wait for computers and PDAs to respond. The price will probably drop to an affordable level within the next 2 years or so, but the speed must pick up.For now, what I can do is to get a camera phone, take lots of photos of lots of things that happen, upload them to a blog server running on my pc when I get home, so I can put minimal comments or keywords so the stuff is searchable. Minimal use of brainpower on those days (pretty common) when I go on autopilot after work. If only there is a simple way to record down everything that is happening, for searching later on, maybe years later. I have read about a project by this guy who was building a portable device to take photos every minute or so and record onto a 40GB hard disk.
That still doesn't solve the most important thing that I wish to record: my thoughts and insights, what I have learnt. Before I lose them to time.But sometimes what is the point of remembering everything? Inability to let go is a liability. I still don't attain to the heights that I wish to reach. I wanted to start a new life, but unable to let go of the past, I remain who I used to be.
Monday, July 11, 2005
The Engineering Mind - a danger to themselves
During the time of the French Revolution, many people were beheaded for "crimes against the state." One day, a Priest, a Drunkard and an Engineer were led up to the guillotine.
Before being placed in the guillotine, the priest requested the he be allowed to lay face UP so he will be looking toward Heaven when he dies. When the blade of the guillotine is released, it comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from the Priest's neck. The executioner takes this as divine intervention and releases the priest.
Next the Drunkard comes to the guillotine. He also decides to die face up hoping that he will be as fortunate as the Priest. When the blade of the guillotine is released, it comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from the Drunkard's neck So they release the Drunkard as well.
The Engineer is next, and he too decides to die facing up. Just before releasing the blade of the guillotine, the Engineer exclaims "Hey! I see what your problem is...."
NASA was interviewing professionals to be sent to Mars. Only one could go, and he couldn't return to Earth.
The first applicant, an engineer, was asked how much he wanted to be paid forgoing. "A million dollars," he answered, "because I want to donate it to my alma mater."
The next applicant, a doctor, was asked the same question. He asked for two million dollars. "I want to give a million to my family", he explained, "and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research."
The last applicant was a lawyer. When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewer's ear, "Three million dollars."
"Why so much more than the others?" the interviewer asked.
The lawyer replied, "If you give me $3 million, I'll give you $1 million, I'll keep $1 million, and we'll send the engineer."
A man drifting in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing altitude, he spotted a guy on the ground and descended to shouting range. "Excuse me, sir," he shouted. "Can you help me? I promised a friend would meet him a half hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man below responded: "Yes. You're in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field, between 40 and 42 degrees North Latitude, and 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude."
"You must be an engineer," responded the balloonist.
"I am," said the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you've told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost."
Whereupon the man on the ground responded, "You must be a manager."
"That I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going. You've made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you're in the exact same position you were before we met, but now it's somehow my fault!"
A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed "What's with these guys ..... we must have been waiting for 15 minutes!"
The doctor chimed in "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude! "
The pastor said, "Here comes the greenskeeper. Let's have a word with him."
"Hi George. Say, what's with that group ahead of us. They're rather slow, aren't they?"
The greenskeeper replied , "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."
The group was silent for a moment. The pastor said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."
The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."
The engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"
There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things
mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he
happily retired.
Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly
impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion
dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the
machine to work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the
retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the
huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a
particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your
problem is."
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The
company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service.
They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
The engineer responded briefly: One chalk mark $1. Knowing where to put
it $49,999. It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.
Before being placed in the guillotine, the priest requested the he be allowed to lay face UP so he will be looking toward Heaven when he dies. When the blade of the guillotine is released, it comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from the Priest's neck. The executioner takes this as divine intervention and releases the priest.
Next the Drunkard comes to the guillotine. He also decides to die face up hoping that he will be as fortunate as the Priest. When the blade of the guillotine is released, it comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from the Drunkard's neck So they release the Drunkard as well.
The Engineer is next, and he too decides to die facing up. Just before releasing the blade of the guillotine, the Engineer exclaims "Hey! I see what your problem is...."
NASA was interviewing professionals to be sent to Mars. Only one could go, and he couldn't return to Earth.
The first applicant, an engineer, was asked how much he wanted to be paid forgoing. "A million dollars," he answered, "because I want to donate it to my alma mater."
The next applicant, a doctor, was asked the same question. He asked for two million dollars. "I want to give a million to my family", he explained, "and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research."
The last applicant was a lawyer. When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewer's ear, "Three million dollars."
"Why so much more than the others?" the interviewer asked.
The lawyer replied, "If you give me $3 million, I'll give you $1 million, I'll keep $1 million, and we'll send the engineer."
A man drifting in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing altitude, he spotted a guy on the ground and descended to shouting range. "Excuse me, sir," he shouted. "Can you help me? I promised a friend would meet him a half hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man below responded: "Yes. You're in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field, between 40 and 42 degrees North Latitude, and 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude."
"You must be an engineer," responded the balloonist.
"I am," said the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you've told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost."
Whereupon the man on the ground responded, "You must be a manager."
"That I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going. You've made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you're in the exact same position you were before we met, but now it's somehow my fault!"
A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed "What's with these guys ..... we must have been waiting for 15 minutes!"
The doctor chimed in "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude! "
The pastor said, "Here comes the greenskeeper. Let's have a word with him."
"Hi George. Say, what's with that group ahead of us. They're rather slow, aren't they?"
The greenskeeper replied , "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."
The group was silent for a moment. The pastor said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."
The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."
The engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"
There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things
mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he
happily retired.
Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly
impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion
dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the
machine to work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the
retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the
huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a
particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your
problem is."
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The
company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service.
They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
The engineer responded briefly: One chalk mark $1. Knowing where to put
it $49,999. It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Changing a leopard's spots
... might be impossible, or maybe it just need more work.
Changing my blogging identity and making some effort to change my style is not just not enough, I am still not that different from who I was a year ago. Less angry, but still cynical and jaded. I cannot believe how much tension and pressure can be released through a simple 4km run after work, and the feel-good lasted 24 hours and made my next working day easier to live with. I can change the way I write, my outlook in life and my viewpoints, but the things that push my buttons remain the same. I am still who I am.
Having pioneered the use of blogs in my department as a communication tool for the project team, I was tasked to set up a wiki for knowledge sharing. I had previously set up 2 proof-of-concept wikis to demonstrate the benefits of wikis, but I had not bothered to really put in the content and made my pitch to the department. And so I lost to someone who was better versed in claiming credit, whether due or undue. By transferring my proof-of-concept into a linux server, he got a more reliable environment and sold the idea as his own. By setting up a new server, he could sideline the old and pretend it never existed and so made no mention of what has been done before this. Give credit where due, give respect where due, damnit!
There are many kinds of people in the world. There are techies who will give due credit when building upon other people's achievements. Then there are the management type who will build on it as though it was entirely their idea in the first place. The evil M$ type who buys over and absorbs within themselves with no trail of their history left behind. I hate playing these games. The only way to stay on top in the pecking order is to stay constantly vigilant and guard against bloodsuckers.
That time when boss was asking about the wiki, I had ignored the bloodsucker's request for help and presented my achievements directly to the boss. I could see the bloodsucker's disappointment and perhaps some fear of losing this chance to promote himself. And I can see his unease when he hears me telling people that I was the one who pioneered and set up the first blog and wiki, that I explained the concept and benefits, that the bloodsucker only moved it into a new server. He knows that his achievements pale beside mine, and he is not comfortable to be found out. I mean, if he has nothing to hide, would he fear being found out?
Such tactics can be used, but what for? If I'm still asking questions like this after a period of 5 years in this company, perhaps it is time to move on to a place I am more suited to, where I don't have to ask such questions. A place more worth striving for. Or perhaps I'm not using such tactics because I am not an imbecile with the pressure of a house, baby and a car to feed, so I don't find it worth resorting to such underhanded measures to stay on top.
Are they worth changing my spots for?
Changing my blogging identity and making some effort to change my style is not just not enough, I am still not that different from who I was a year ago. Less angry, but still cynical and jaded. I cannot believe how much tension and pressure can be released through a simple 4km run after work, and the feel-good lasted 24 hours and made my next working day easier to live with. I can change the way I write, my outlook in life and my viewpoints, but the things that push my buttons remain the same. I am still who I am.
Having pioneered the use of blogs in my department as a communication tool for the project team, I was tasked to set up a wiki for knowledge sharing. I had previously set up 2 proof-of-concept wikis to demonstrate the benefits of wikis, but I had not bothered to really put in the content and made my pitch to the department. And so I lost to someone who was better versed in claiming credit, whether due or undue. By transferring my proof-of-concept into a linux server, he got a more reliable environment and sold the idea as his own. By setting up a new server, he could sideline the old and pretend it never existed and so made no mention of what has been done before this. Give credit where due, give respect where due, damnit!
There are many kinds of people in the world. There are techies who will give due credit when building upon other people's achievements. Then there are the management type who will build on it as though it was entirely their idea in the first place. The evil M$ type who buys over and absorbs within themselves with no trail of their history left behind. I hate playing these games. The only way to stay on top in the pecking order is to stay constantly vigilant and guard against bloodsuckers.
That time when boss was asking about the wiki, I had ignored the bloodsucker's request for help and presented my achievements directly to the boss. I could see the bloodsucker's disappointment and perhaps some fear of losing this chance to promote himself. And I can see his unease when he hears me telling people that I was the one who pioneered and set up the first blog and wiki, that I explained the concept and benefits, that the bloodsucker only moved it into a new server. He knows that his achievements pale beside mine, and he is not comfortable to be found out. I mean, if he has nothing to hide, would he fear being found out?
Such tactics can be used, but what for? If I'm still asking questions like this after a period of 5 years in this company, perhaps it is time to move on to a place I am more suited to, where I don't have to ask such questions. A place more worth striving for. Or perhaps I'm not using such tactics because I am not an imbecile with the pressure of a house, baby and a car to feed, so I don't find it worth resorting to such underhanded measures to stay on top.
Are they worth changing my spots for?
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Advertisment
Sometimes it is convenient to associate one thing with another to achieve your objective. For example, something that brings good feelings can be associated with something that you are trying to sell. The good thing you are associating with it has very little to do with what you are selling, but the advertiser knows that associating them together helps nudge the potential buyer into opening his wallet. And as the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted.
KFC is known for deep fried chicken that is delicious, but terribly oily and fattening. Oily and fattening are 2 words that will never appear in KFC's advertisement, for they will only remind diners of what is bad about them. Instead, you will find other words such as delicious, finger-licking good and great taste. That is still ok, at least they are being truthful and attracting the customer with direct attributes of their product. But when they start mentioning that one of the secrets to a healthy lifestyle is to use fresh food in their ingredients, it seems that they are stretching it quite a bit.
Healthy lifestyle is one of the phrases I would not normally associate with fast food. When I eat fast food, I know that I am committing slow suicide, but I do it willingly and happily. They have found a way to overcome this stigma by linking their fried food to the freshness of the ingredients. How much of the nutrients in chicken will degrade in slightly less fresh chicken, I wonder. I only know that this is a more important issue in fresh vegetables and fruits, which are painfully lacking in a typical KFC meal. The only issues I know regarding fresh meat is taste, not nutrients. It takes a leap of imagination and creativity to link healthy lifestyle with KFC. Must have been one long brainstorming session.
Are there any who dig in happily thinking of the benefits to health that they are reaping from their deep fried fresh chicken?
KFC is known for deep fried chicken that is delicious, but terribly oily and fattening. Oily and fattening are 2 words that will never appear in KFC's advertisement, for they will only remind diners of what is bad about them. Instead, you will find other words such as delicious, finger-licking good and great taste. That is still ok, at least they are being truthful and attracting the customer with direct attributes of their product. But when they start mentioning that one of the secrets to a healthy lifestyle is to use fresh food in their ingredients, it seems that they are stretching it quite a bit.
Healthy lifestyle is one of the phrases I would not normally associate with fast food. When I eat fast food, I know that I am committing slow suicide, but I do it willingly and happily. They have found a way to overcome this stigma by linking their fried food to the freshness of the ingredients. How much of the nutrients in chicken will degrade in slightly less fresh chicken, I wonder. I only know that this is a more important issue in fresh vegetables and fruits, which are painfully lacking in a typical KFC meal. The only issues I know regarding fresh meat is taste, not nutrients. It takes a leap of imagination and creativity to link healthy lifestyle with KFC. Must have been one long brainstorming session.
Are there any who dig in happily thinking of the benefits to health that they are reaping from their deep fried fresh chicken?
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Seen on a car's windscreen
Be kind to animals, go vegetarian.
I've got a better one - Be kind to vegetables, don't eat. Be kind to your fellow men, stop cannibalism.
I like these better:
Baby on board
Child of God onboard
If you can read this you are too close
Sex instructor, first lesson free - you still win even if your lesson is lousy
I've got a better one - Be kind to vegetables, don't eat. Be kind to your fellow men, stop cannibalism.
I like these better:
Baby on board
Child of God onboard
If you can read this you are too close
Sex instructor, first lesson free - you still win even if your lesson is lousy
Sunday, June 26, 2005
They are among us!
I saw an Autobot today. The logo was on a black Hyundai driving towards Orchard Road. I have been seeing guys walking around in Decepticon t-shirts for months, but did not take them seriously. But there is a vehicle with that logo! Is there a secret war going on in the midst of us and we are just now aware of it? This is after all the year 2005, the year when the Autobots would win the war and reclaim Cybertron.
Will we be seeing fighter jets with Deception logos soon?
Autobots
Decepticons 
Will we be seeing fighter jets with Deception logos soon?
Autobots
Decepticons
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Get to know yourself better
Interesting quiz, found the link on Tetanus's blog. Go try it yourself.
http://quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx
That is simple enough and true enough.
Yep, though I don't believe in the one person destined for me, I believe I know a good match when I see one.
It's not just about BGR, but with friends in general. Either deep or nothing.
I enjoy my study days, but independence is much more important.
I know what I want alright.
Sigh. I'm trying. Half a year more and I will shoot for it. 30 years of housing loans. How?
Why is this so?
That sounds like me, or who I think I am. Maybe I should get someone to do a test that evaluates what they think I am. Forget it. See 2nd last point.
http://quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx
Your view on yourself:
Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.I listen. But good listener? Dunno.
The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.That is simple enough and true enough.
Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.Yep, though I don't believe in the one person destined for me, I believe I know a good match when I see one.
The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.It's not just about BGR, but with friends in general. Either deep or nothing.
Your views on education
Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.I enjoy my study days, but independence is much more important.
The right job for you:
You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.I know what I want alright.
How do you view success:
You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.Sigh. I'm trying. Half a year more and I will shoot for it. 30 years of housing loans. How?
What are you most afraid of:
You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.Why is this so?
Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.That sounds like me, or who I think I am. Maybe I should get someone to do a test that evaluates what they think I am. Forget it. See 2nd last point.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Link a song
I have heard it being said before that pop songs are not particularly creative, that they are too similar. I thought it was all bullshit, can't they tell the subtle differences between them?
And then someone comes along and managed to form a new song from 23 Chinese pop songs, using 1 verse from each song. The tunes link up surprisingly well.
http://flash2.1ting.com/znew2/200503/12/9.swf
It's amazing.
And then someone comes along and managed to form a new song from 23 Chinese pop songs, using 1 verse from each song. The tunes link up surprisingly well.
http://flash2.1ting.com/znew2/200503/12/9.swf
It's amazing.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Initial D live movie
The action is good, even when I was only 2 rows away from the screen. Even when I had to strain my neck for 2 hours to watch the movie. Drifting on Mount Akina is really possible! I had seen the CG version in the anime, but to watch real cars drift on the actual roads is something else altogether!
Live movie adaptations of such wildly popular comics can be roaring successes, or they can fall flat on their faces. The live action movie is a summarised version of stage1, 2 and the stage 3 movie. It retains the feel of the anime and doesn't take too much artistic license. The bored driving of Takumi, the excitement of the spectators at the races, the love story of Takumi and Mogi. Takahashi Keisuke has been dropped along with a few other characters and the idiocy of Itsuki takes on a life of its own. But it's still good.
There was a bunch of NUS hostelites from KR Hall in their windbreakers and shorts. There was a girl in the first row who kept exclaiming how handsome and cool Jay Chou was. Yes. he has his own page at Wikipedia too. Cool!
Live movie adaptations of such wildly popular comics can be roaring successes, or they can fall flat on their faces. The live action movie is a summarised version of stage1, 2 and the stage 3 movie. It retains the feel of the anime and doesn't take too much artistic license. The bored driving of Takumi, the excitement of the spectators at the races, the love story of Takumi and Mogi. Takahashi Keisuke has been dropped along with a few other characters and the idiocy of Itsuki takes on a life of its own. But it's still good.
There was a bunch of NUS hostelites from KR Hall in their windbreakers and shorts. There was a girl in the first row who kept exclaiming how handsome and cool Jay Chou was. Yes. he has his own page at Wikipedia too. Cool!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
It's a dog's life
In Singapore, it is generally not allowed to paste your own notices on the walls or pillars. If you paste a piece of paper advertising your service as a tutor, for example, you will get a call from your friendly town council asking you to remove it. You are not even allowed to paste over the noticeboards of the town councils, even if they have been bare for a long time.
Cold Storage provide noticeboards near their cashiers, and you are allowed to paste your notices on them. So the notices entertain shoppers as they wait in queue and the noticeboards fulfill their purpose in life, and people get a platform to post. It's much easier to post these days, with numerous forums, free classified ads services, your own blogs, webpages and all, but it's still amazing what you can learn sometimes.
"Jacky needs a new garden." There's a photo of a dog with its tongue hanging out.
"Find a new home for Blackie." Another dog.
Gosh, what's it about a dog's life? I have to work hard for the next 30 years to pay off mine, and it doesn't come with a new garden. Can someone find a new home for me? Four legs good, two legs bad, in another way.
Cold Storage provide noticeboards near their cashiers, and you are allowed to paste your notices on them. So the notices entertain shoppers as they wait in queue and the noticeboards fulfill their purpose in life, and people get a platform to post. It's much easier to post these days, with numerous forums, free classified ads services, your own blogs, webpages and all, but it's still amazing what you can learn sometimes.
"Jacky needs a new garden." There's a photo of a dog with its tongue hanging out.
"Find a new home for Blackie." Another dog.
Gosh, what's it about a dog's life? I have to work hard for the next 30 years to pay off mine, and it doesn't come with a new garden. Can someone find a new home for me? Four legs good, two legs bad, in another way.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
SPG unmasked
Sarong Party Girl has been in the news recently, her mug shot on today's Straits Times and she was interviewed over her nude photo posted on her blog. It was her own nude photograph, and her fans got to witness for the first time if she is really as hot as she claimed to be. What's ST trying to do, printing her URL on the national paper, inviting 13-year olds to look at nipples when they are allowed only after they reach 21?
I had stopped following her exploits for a while already, her romps with white skinned men getting boring after a while, though she continues to experiment and to try out new and unconventional things that can be pretty shocking. Such as her bondage games, her search for a sugar daddy and her nonchalance at letting neighbours see her almost naked. It was fascinating at first, but it got to the point that I was wondering, is this all that there is? Of course she would write more about her sexploits on this blog and stay away from other aspects of her life that would still be interesting (probably), but focus too much on one topic and it inevitably gets dull on the senses.
There are many other local bloggers who post about their more rounded lives that are more fun to follow than hers. You want a good and sensuous read? Try Tetanus, though he might not be posting as much in that category for a while. His writings are still heartfelt as ever. Fiona is back, the girl who is amazingly honest and open about her (much more balanced) personal life, complete with pictures of herself so that there is no way you will mistake her for someone else. Calm One has ceased to post at his blog. A voice of reason among the sea of hormonal teens. There are many more gems on the local blogging scene that are worth reading too. It need not focus on how cool you are and what morons everyone else is.
Xiaxue was on the Channel U chat show last night, hosted by Xu Zhengrong and Quan Yifeng, on the topic of pre-marital sex and the changing moral standards of the society (I think). She sat on the panel of youngsters who gave their views that they follow their feelings, they know their limits and are willing to bear the responsibilities of their actions. The older folks (20s to 402?) had a man who took a firm stand on keeping sex strictly within the bounds of marriage, to the point of being offensive towards the youngsters. There is a distinct gap between the traditional values with their restrictions, and the go-by-feeling-and-think-later attitudes of the young. The other 2 members on the "older" panel, a DJ and a teacher, are more enlightened and tried to find a balance between feeling and self-preservation.
Sometimes traditional values serve the purpose of preserving the society that lives by those values. Feelings can lead you to live a bright and spectacular life. It can also be brief if you are not careful and if you lack the necessary wealth, health and brains you need to enjoy and take care of yourself. Values can be boring, but they preserve the society so that the people can collectively improve their lives. Need the values be boring? I think Mr Brown is having lots of fun with his family, as is Faith.
I'll be getting married in half a year's time. It's not just a matter of following my feeling. It is also a path I have consciously chosen, because I believe that some things are worth working for, worth committing oneself to.
I had stopped following her exploits for a while already, her romps with white skinned men getting boring after a while, though she continues to experiment and to try out new and unconventional things that can be pretty shocking. Such as her bondage games, her search for a sugar daddy and her nonchalance at letting neighbours see her almost naked. It was fascinating at first, but it got to the point that I was wondering, is this all that there is? Of course she would write more about her sexploits on this blog and stay away from other aspects of her life that would still be interesting (probably), but focus too much on one topic and it inevitably gets dull on the senses.
There are many other local bloggers who post about their more rounded lives that are more fun to follow than hers. You want a good and sensuous read? Try Tetanus, though he might not be posting as much in that category for a while. His writings are still heartfelt as ever. Fiona is back, the girl who is amazingly honest and open about her (much more balanced) personal life, complete with pictures of herself so that there is no way you will mistake her for someone else. Calm One has ceased to post at his blog. A voice of reason among the sea of hormonal teens. There are many more gems on the local blogging scene that are worth reading too. It need not focus on how cool you are and what morons everyone else is.
Xiaxue was on the Channel U chat show last night, hosted by Xu Zhengrong and Quan Yifeng, on the topic of pre-marital sex and the changing moral standards of the society (I think). She sat on the panel of youngsters who gave their views that they follow their feelings, they know their limits and are willing to bear the responsibilities of their actions. The older folks (20s to 402?) had a man who took a firm stand on keeping sex strictly within the bounds of marriage, to the point of being offensive towards the youngsters. There is a distinct gap between the traditional values with their restrictions, and the go-by-feeling-and-think-later attitudes of the young. The other 2 members on the "older" panel, a DJ and a teacher, are more enlightened and tried to find a balance between feeling and self-preservation.
Sometimes traditional values serve the purpose of preserving the society that lives by those values. Feelings can lead you to live a bright and spectacular life. It can also be brief if you are not careful and if you lack the necessary wealth, health and brains you need to enjoy and take care of yourself. Values can be boring, but they preserve the society so that the people can collectively improve their lives. Need the values be boring? I think Mr Brown is having lots of fun with his family, as is Faith.
I'll be getting married in half a year's time. It's not just a matter of following my feeling. It is also a path I have consciously chosen, because I believe that some things are worth working for, worth committing oneself to.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
paperwork
Paperwork is killing my brain cells... minuting down the previous meeting... compiling lists of things to discuss for the next... calculating the remaining budget... followup on procedures... sending out change requests... getting manpower to photostat a book (cannot just delegate coz nothing will move. wah lau!)... chasing colleagues for their inputs and documents... chasing infra to recover the failed server...
life as a programmer is infinitely easier and more immediately satisfying... code and get it to run, pass a set of tests and your job is done... immediate gratification... more pride because you know you can deliver...
but life is never so simple... and he who is unable to manage will be managed... unless he lives as a hermit... and personal space is already getting more and more scarce... there is no other real option... but to learn to manage... it used to be kill or be killed... now it is manage others or be managed... the new jungle... which has been around for donkey years in fact... and is unescapable and unavoidable... all that a person can ask for is a respite from the pressure... not a permanent escape...
life as a programmer is infinitely easier and more immediately satisfying... code and get it to run, pass a set of tests and your job is done... immediate gratification... more pride because you know you can deliver...
but life is never so simple... and he who is unable to manage will be managed... unless he lives as a hermit... and personal space is already getting more and more scarce... there is no other real option... but to learn to manage... it used to be kill or be killed... now it is manage others or be managed... the new jungle... which has been around for donkey years in fact... and is unescapable and unavoidable... all that a person can ask for is a respite from the pressure... not a permanent escape...
Sunday, June 12, 2005
The problem with piracy
... is that you cannot be totally sure you are getting the right stuff.
A friend passed the soft copy of Harry Potter book 5 to me some time back, which I have started reading only recently. Towards the end of the book, it occurred to me that I should verify its authenticity by googling for it. I found a number of reviews and analysis on the plot and characters that you can find in book 5, which I did not find in my version. Hmmm.... looks like I have been reading a fan-fiction version of it, and a very well-written one too. Other than the explicit content, I have no reason to think that this is not the real stuff. Filled with adventures, rivalry between houses, heroism, desperation, history of magic, a trip to the ministry of magic, magical incantations, even a dueling club, a non-hardcore fan like me (or a twit like me) cannot tell the difference.
Looks like piracy doesn't pay does it? But who cares, this fan-fic is as good a read as the real thing, as thick and with as many twists. And I don't mind having spent the time reading the wrong book because it is as good. And I got it free. I also have the authentic version, verified against the hard copy in San bookstore. I will be reading that soon.
And it introduced me to the fantastic world of HP fan fic, which I doubtless will not have the time to explore. Just check out the romance category, which is filled with endless permutations of who will end up with who. Is it Harry and Hermione, or Ron and Hermione, or Harry and Ginny, or....
A friend passed the soft copy of Harry Potter book 5 to me some time back, which I have started reading only recently. Towards the end of the book, it occurred to me that I should verify its authenticity by googling for it. I found a number of reviews and analysis on the plot and characters that you can find in book 5, which I did not find in my version. Hmmm.... looks like I have been reading a fan-fiction version of it, and a very well-written one too. Other than the explicit content, I have no reason to think that this is not the real stuff. Filled with adventures, rivalry between houses, heroism, desperation, history of magic, a trip to the ministry of magic, magical incantations, even a dueling club, a non-hardcore fan like me (or a twit like me) cannot tell the difference.
Looks like piracy doesn't pay does it? But who cares, this fan-fic is as good a read as the real thing, as thick and with as many twists. And I don't mind having spent the time reading the wrong book because it is as good. And I got it free. I also have the authentic version, verified against the hard copy in San bookstore. I will be reading that soon.
And it introduced me to the fantastic world of HP fan fic, which I doubtless will not have the time to explore. Just check out the romance category, which is filled with endless permutations of who will end up with who. Is it Harry and Hermione, or Ron and Hermione, or Harry and Ginny, or....
Friday, June 10, 2005
Energy Fan Girls
Energy is a boyband from Taiwan. They held an autograph session at the shopping mall below my office. Their fans are the uniform-wearing variety. Not JC uniforms, more likely secondary, or maybe even primary.
These kids have a lot of energy. Some had been queueing up since Monday at the MRT station's exit! When I got to office at 9AM, I was amazed to find security guards making them queue up outside Coffee Club on the sealed-off road. After lunch, I fnd them sitting behind baricades at 1AM in the hot sun, some with umbrellas. I wonder if any ambulances had to be called in. Our building management conducted a firedrill the week before, and we were complaining about having to stand in the sun for 15 minutes around 10AM. The things kids will do for love. I hope none of them had piles from sitting for hours in the sun.
By the time I left the office in the evening, there was already a crowd in front of the stage. Finally moved them into air-con! Hope it's the same group that were outside, who got there earliest. If those who got there later went straight to the stage in air-con comfort, then it will be most unfortunate for the poor girls.
Boss was telling us that this is normal, that he also cut out photos of his idols and pasted them into his dunno textbook or notebook when he was their age. I was a little horrified. Somehow I had a little problem mapping his face to those adolescents and imagining him doing the same things. For the sake of retaining my sanity, I shall refrain from writing any more on this topic.
These kids have a lot of energy. Some had been queueing up since Monday at the MRT station's exit! When I got to office at 9AM, I was amazed to find security guards making them queue up outside Coffee Club on the sealed-off road. After lunch, I fnd them sitting behind baricades at 1AM in the hot sun, some with umbrellas. I wonder if any ambulances had to be called in. Our building management conducted a firedrill the week before, and we were complaining about having to stand in the sun for 15 minutes around 10AM. The things kids will do for love. I hope none of them had piles from sitting for hours in the sun.
By the time I left the office in the evening, there was already a crowd in front of the stage. Finally moved them into air-con! Hope it's the same group that were outside, who got there earliest. If those who got there later went straight to the stage in air-con comfort, then it will be most unfortunate for the poor girls.
Boss was telling us that this is normal, that he also cut out photos of his idols and pasted them into his dunno textbook or notebook when he was their age. I was a little horrified. Somehow I had a little problem mapping his face to those adolescents and imagining him doing the same things. For the sake of retaining my sanity, I shall refrain from writing any more on this topic.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Addicted to exercise
I'm an endorphin junkie. Strenuous exercising releases endorphins into the brain naturally and gives a good feeling. I almost always feel better after a session of running, stretching and working with some light weights in the gym.
I felt on top of the world. I felt at peace, confident that I can take on the world, that I can finish the projects tasked to me. I feel as though I can do project management and take on the politics and human problems that come with it. I feel like I can challenge management and steer the project to a successful outcome. Such high-induced delusions can be dangerous.
If I go to sleep now, I will wake up a very happy person. If only that state of bliss can last until Friday night.
I felt on top of the world. I felt at peace, confident that I can take on the world, that I can finish the projects tasked to me. I feel as though I can do project management and take on the politics and human problems that come with it. I feel like I can challenge management and steer the project to a successful outcome. Such high-induced delusions can be dangerous.
If I go to sleep now, I will wake up a very happy person. If only that state of bliss can last until Friday night.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Dead tree documentation
Spent half an afternoon poring over old documents to see if they are relevant to what I'm doing. Some of these things really should be properly scanned in and archived so that they will not be lost over time.
Hard copies tend to be locked up and kept by a single person who does not bother to read them. Centralised storage of hard copied tend to fall into disuse because it takes effort to approach the person in charge of storing the documents and searching through the dead trees. Keeping in soft copy on the network is the way to go, just as the Internet makes information much more accessible than the library.
Some people will say that the documents should be properly handled and stored, but try to discuss in detail about how to preserve and share them out and they will clam up and keep quiet. I believe very firmly that if something is important enough to you, you will do something about it. It's the acid test of whether something is significant enough to you that you preserve it instead of letting it drift away. Whether you really believe in what you preach, or if it is just propaganda.
Using students to scan them in is an option, but cannot be too chek ahk and make 1 person scan all of them in. It's too mind-numbing and demoralising. Perhaps 1 book each, or 1 day each, rotate among the students. It is all within reach, I'll see if they really believe in what they preach.
IT systems are never totally bug-free, that I can understand. But when you have bugs in your documents? In your hard copy?? A colleague opened his cabinet and found a beetle crawling among his papers. A living, breathing, crawling bug. All of us felt like fainting. Nope, it's not a bookworm, it's a bug. At least soft copied will not have beetles crawling around.
Hard copies tend to be locked up and kept by a single person who does not bother to read them. Centralised storage of hard copied tend to fall into disuse because it takes effort to approach the person in charge of storing the documents and searching through the dead trees. Keeping in soft copy on the network is the way to go, just as the Internet makes information much more accessible than the library.
Some people will say that the documents should be properly handled and stored, but try to discuss in detail about how to preserve and share them out and they will clam up and keep quiet. I believe very firmly that if something is important enough to you, you will do something about it. It's the acid test of whether something is significant enough to you that you preserve it instead of letting it drift away. Whether you really believe in what you preach, or if it is just propaganda.
Using students to scan them in is an option, but cannot be too chek ahk and make 1 person scan all of them in. It's too mind-numbing and demoralising. Perhaps 1 book each, or 1 day each, rotate among the students. It is all within reach, I'll see if they really believe in what they preach.
IT systems are never totally bug-free, that I can understand. But when you have bugs in your documents? In your hard copy?? A colleague opened his cabinet and found a beetle crawling among his papers. A living, breathing, crawling bug. All of us felt like fainting. Nope, it's not a bookworm, it's a bug. At least soft copied will not have beetles crawling around.
Friends in need
I'm very thankful for the new friends who keep volunteering to help me with my wedding preparations, and those who will ask from time to time how my preparations are. The old friends who called me up to offer to run through the activities with us, and those who are more than willing to help out when asked.
Some say it takes a crisis to see who your real friends are. I find that a wedding also has a way of drawing people nearer. People whom you otherwise won't have a chance to meet actually made an effort to travel to meet with you. Some are cool about it and gave the impression that they did not really want to be involved.
Perhaps those who have actually gone through it themselves are more willing to help, knowing how tough it can be for the inexperienced to go it alone. Hey, this is the first time we are doing it! But already I'm filled with admiration for those who have helped with numerous weddings already and are still more than willing to pitch in and help.
There are still lots of things that we need to do, and time is drawing nearer. Somehow we will manage to finish up, as countless others before us have managed to do. Perhaps we really should take a project management approach towards this and add in schedules, resources, tasks, stakeholders and all that stuff.
Note to self: make lots of lists when I get home. I need at least the milestones and key personnel also.
Some say it takes a crisis to see who your real friends are. I find that a wedding also has a way of drawing people nearer. People whom you otherwise won't have a chance to meet actually made an effort to travel to meet with you. Some are cool about it and gave the impression that they did not really want to be involved.
Perhaps those who have actually gone through it themselves are more willing to help, knowing how tough it can be for the inexperienced to go it alone. Hey, this is the first time we are doing it! But already I'm filled with admiration for those who have helped with numerous weddings already and are still more than willing to pitch in and help.
There are still lots of things that we need to do, and time is drawing nearer. Somehow we will manage to finish up, as countless others before us have managed to do. Perhaps we really should take a project management approach towards this and add in schedules, resources, tasks, stakeholders and all that stuff.
Note to self: make lots of lists when I get home. I need at least the milestones and key personnel also.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
The Truman Show
The library@esplanade has many titles worth watching. For $20 a year (and then some for GST and stuff), you get to borrow 4 audio-video items for a period of 1 week. If you finish earlier you can return and borrow another 4. Through this facility, I have watched a few good shows that I would otherwise have difficulty getting hold of. For example, to buy or download the entire Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles will need quite some cost, or effort, but I was able to borrow the excellent animation from the library. I will write about that another time.
Tonight's screening on my PC was The Truman Show, a 1998 production starring Jim Carrey. Now I had never been a big fan of Carrey, but the reviews of this show had been good. It took me a few years to get around to finally watching this, and I'm not disappointed. The story goes that this Truman Burbank person lives in a seemingly perfect world where people are nice to him and he is always happy. However he puts a few clues together and eventually realises that there is much more to his world than it appears, that there is a conspiracy around him. He sets out to discover the truth, which has been artfully kept from him for 30 years.
This is conspiracy theory and paranoia before The Matrix (1999). Will you brave storms to find out the truth for yourself? Will you risk losing everything you know? And what will you do, when "the creator" speaks to you at last? Or will you turn back and go back to the comfortable lie, as Cypher did in The Matrix?
Tonight's screening on my PC was The Truman Show, a 1998 production starring Jim Carrey. Now I had never been a big fan of Carrey, but the reviews of this show had been good. It took me a few years to get around to finally watching this, and I'm not disappointed. The story goes that this Truman Burbank person lives in a seemingly perfect world where people are nice to him and he is always happy. However he puts a few clues together and eventually realises that there is much more to his world than it appears, that there is a conspiracy around him. He sets out to discover the truth, which has been artfully kept from him for 30 years.
This is conspiracy theory and paranoia before The Matrix (1999). Will you brave storms to find out the truth for yourself? Will you risk losing everything you know? And what will you do, when "the creator" speaks to you at last? Or will you turn back and go back to the comfortable lie, as Cypher did in The Matrix?
Saturday, May 28, 2005
The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster
I'm not a Star Wars fan, but this guy (Matthew Frederick Davis Hemming) is good. He's definitely a fan. I like fan fiction. Episode 3 is already out. Looks like that was why he stopped writing.
http://darthside.blogspot.com/
You can find some additional material at the writer's website here. If you are really good, you can put content up for free and just earn from advertisements alone.
http://darthside.blogspot.com/
You can find some additional material at the writer's website here. If you are really good, you can put content up for free and just earn from advertisements alone.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Spam and phishing
Got a spam from someone who claimed to be M$. If you are an obedient user, you will save tha attachment and execute it, then click on the hyperlink(which I have removed) and be brought to a fake website where you will declare your credit card number and everything else, and have them used against you. That is, if you have worked out what they want you to do.
Download and lunch? Oh... download and launch!
They have added a rubbish id
--
id# 01667709099942331927
--
but their English is so horrid I cannot believe M$ will want to hire them.
This probably will not fool those who are running pirated versions of windows and who have never registered with M$.
Dear Windows user.
We strongly recommend upgrade your system.
Please, download attached file and lunch.
After installation is complete you must go to http://www.microsoft.com/update for next step.
Microsoft Corporation (c) 2005
--
id# 01667709099942331927
--
Download and lunch? Oh... download and launch!
They have added a rubbish id
--
id# 01667709099942331927
--
but their English is so horrid I cannot believe M$ will want to hire them.
This probably will not fool those who are running pirated versions of windows and who have never registered with M$.
Dear Windows user.
We strongly recommend upgrade your system.
Please, download attached file and lunch.
After installation is complete you must go to http://www.microsoft.com/update for next step.
Microsoft Corporation (c) 2005
--
id# 01667709099942331927
--
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Store Wars
Star Wars Episode 3 is out. People are going crazy over it. Here's a spoof of the orginial trilogy.
Store Wars, a fable about the organic food rebellion.
Amazingly well made, much better than Thumb Wars.
Store Wars, a fable about the organic food rebellion.
Amazingly well made, much better than Thumb Wars.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Distributed Hash Table in Azureus
I had been using Azureus 2.3.0.0 since it came out, and the DHT feature has been promising. Only that more people need to switch over to Azureus for it to be really useful. The network effect, you know. The more people join in, the greater the benefit.
Slashdot posted a link on the Azureus Distributed Tracker and Database and as usual, the comments by slashdot readers can be educational. But sometimes, they are just hilarious.
The new Bittorrent protocol was designed by the same developers who designed the original TCP/IP protocol in the 70s. But this new protocol has a decidedly "edgy" feel to it. Below is the "handshaking" procedure. There are a few similarities between it and SMTP:
[...]
It's good way to publish legitimate content. It's not a good way to distribute illegal content. First of all the torrent has a record of your peer IP addresses. So, all the lawyers need to do is have the peers listed in the torrent shut down -- then the torrent is useless. Sure, you could hide for a while using zombie windows boxes as your "master" peers, that's one level of indirection. But as they become unavailable you need to distribute new torrent files with fresh peer lists. Maybe that's not a problem, but it seems like more trouble than it's worth.
[... some dude has to come along and say something like this... ]
All this work for a less than honorable cause. Just think what could be if all this human effort had been channeled through a charity, say Habitat for Humanity, your local food bank, or teaching someone to read.
[... and earn a whole lot of insults ...]
I am SO sick of hearing this. The time you spent posting this to slashdot could have been spent handing out one more dinner at a soup kitchen. How's that?
Hmm. How does one use a deep fryer for evil? Open a KFC?
Oh what? Like YOU'VE never heard of a deep fried a baby. Sure, sure. All of those KFC and and french-fry lovers like to stand up and say that a ban would be against their best interests, but even they know the primary reason people get deep fryers is for cooking babies.
[...]
Either that, or I just have a headache.
[...]
Slashdot posted a link on the Azureus Distributed Tracker and Database and as usual, the comments by slashdot readers can be educational. But sometimes, they are just hilarious.
The new Bittorrent protocol was designed by the same developers who designed the original TCP/IP protocol in the 70s. But this new protocol has a decidedly "edgy" feel to it. Below is the "handshaking" procedure. There are a few similarities between it and SMTP:
[...]
It's good way to publish legitimate content. It's not a good way to distribute illegal content. First of all the torrent has a record of your peer IP addresses. So, all the lawyers need to do is have the peers listed in the torrent shut down -- then the torrent is useless. Sure, you could hide for a while using zombie windows boxes as your "master" peers, that's one level of indirection. But as they become unavailable you need to distribute new torrent files with fresh peer lists. Maybe that's not a problem, but it seems like more trouble than it's worth.
[... some dude has to come along and say something like this... ]
All this work for a less than honorable cause. Just think what could be if all this human effort had been channeled through a charity, say Habitat for Humanity, your local food bank, or teaching someone to read.
[... and earn a whole lot of insults ...]
I am SO sick of hearing this. The time you spent posting this to slashdot could have been spent handing out one more dinner at a soup kitchen. How's that?
People have lives OTHER than charity, as your presence here proves. As for this being less than honorable, that's the eye of the beholder. It's like the VCR, guns, or deep fryers. They can all be used for good or for evil. Just because they can be used for evil doesn't obviate they're good potential, nor should we ban them because of their potential for abuse.
Hmm. How does one use a deep fryer for evil? Open a KFC?
Oh what? Like YOU'VE never heard of a deep fried a baby. Sure, sure. All of those KFC and and french-fry lovers like to stand up and say that a ban would be against their best interests, but even they know the primary reason people get deep fryers is for cooking babies.
[...]
I sense a great disturbance in the force... as if George Lucas' bank account cried out in terror... and then... silence.Is it just a coincidence that this enhancement has come the day before the new Star Wars movie?
Either that, or I just have a headache.
[...]
Thursday, May 19, 2005
NUS got slashdotted!
Since when is anything that comes out of NUS cool enough to be slashdotted?
My bro-in-law and me were surprised to see this article about feeling poultry remotely via the internet.
My bro-in-law and me were surprised to see this article about feeling poultry remotely via the internet.
"This is the first human-poultry interaction system ever developed," said professor Adrian David Cheok, the leader of the team, who has been developing the technology for nearly two years.
"We understand the perceived eccentricity of developing a system for humans to interact with poultry remotely, but this work has a much wider significance," he added.
Just don't use it for remote surgery yet. Imagine if you lose your network connection after you have just pried open the skull. Gross. At least I know our hospitals won't be outshoring surgery to India or China anytime soon.Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Scared kena bomb is it?
Singapore is a very safe place. You cannot easily bomb the MRT stations because they have removed all rubbish bins. Terrorists won't have a chance to hide bombs in the dustbins and blow our stations to smithereens, but it is perfectly ok for them to bomb out the entrances to our stations.
You cannot easily bomb HDB Hub also, for the same reason that you cannot find any rubbish bins. How can they risk letting their HQ be out of action? How will couples buy their apartments from HDB? National crisis, man!
The best thing is that they have moved the mailboxes out of MRT stations and shifted them some distance away, so that terrorists cannot post timebombs! Ah, now I have to walk into the station to buy instant stamps from the SAM dispensing machine, then walk waaaayyy out to the mailbox and post my letter, a marked improvement over the old days when I could post the letter into the mailbox which is right beside the machine that sells stamps!
Maybe removing the rubbish bins give the cleaners some extra work to do as they need to clean up more litter. Don't think they will hire more people as a result, though.
You cannot easily bomb HDB Hub also, for the same reason that you cannot find any rubbish bins. How can they risk letting their HQ be out of action? How will couples buy their apartments from HDB? National crisis, man!
The best thing is that they have moved the mailboxes out of MRT stations and shifted them some distance away, so that terrorists cannot post timebombs! Ah, now I have to walk into the station to buy instant stamps from the SAM dispensing machine, then walk waaaayyy out to the mailbox and post my letter, a marked improvement over the old days when I could post the letter into the mailbox which is right beside the machine that sells stamps!
Maybe removing the rubbish bins give the cleaners some extra work to do as they need to clean up more litter. Don't think they will hire more people as a result, though.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Frappucino
Starbucks Frappucino is useless.
Starbucks is giving away a buy-1-get-1-free deal where you just need to print out and show them the advertisement and you will be entitled to a free drink once you buy a Frappucino from them. My colleague and I ordered one each after lunch. I was still as drowsy as before, the more-sugar-and-milk-than-coffee concoction did nothing to wake me up. I had to brew my own strong coffee to last me through a 4-hour meeting.
I'm a coffee fan, but only the strong kopitiam kopi for me, not the more-sugar-and-milk-than-coffee kind of frappucino, latte, and other "gourmet" coffee for me.
Starbucks is giving away a buy-1-get-1-free deal where you just need to print out and show them the advertisement and you will be entitled to a free drink once you buy a Frappucino from them. My colleague and I ordered one each after lunch. I was still as drowsy as before, the more-sugar-and-milk-than-coffee concoction did nothing to wake me up. I had to brew my own strong coffee to last me through a 4-hour meeting.
I'm a coffee fan, but only the strong kopitiam kopi for me, not the more-sugar-and-milk-than-coffee kind of frappucino, latte, and other "gourmet" coffee for me.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Playing truant
One of the polytechnic attachment students in my company has vanished without explanation for 4 days and counting. His supervisor here at the company has escalated to the supervisor in the poly, who is probably a lecturer.
Other than that, the team members are accepting it as a fact of life that students are generally not very responsible, and that playing truant is something every student does. That is one new thing I have learnt. Another is that taking toothpaste before seeing the doctor is one way to get an MC for fever. Seesh. I wasted my education when I could be learning useful things like this! They are not foreign talent for nothing.
Rashes is not a good excuse to stay at home without an MC. Worse, he did not even inform the supervisors and the company supervisor found out through other students who are also attached here. He should at least have the courtesy to inform someone in charge. Tsk. Kids these days. Of course the matter was escalated to the poly supervisor by his company supervisor. A local.
Other than that, the team members are accepting it as a fact of life that students are generally not very responsible, and that playing truant is something every student does. That is one new thing I have learnt. Another is that taking toothpaste before seeing the doctor is one way to get an MC for fever. Seesh. I wasted my education when I could be learning useful things like this! They are not foreign talent for nothing.
Rashes is not a good excuse to stay at home without an MC. Worse, he did not even inform the supervisors and the company supervisor found out through other students who are also attached here. He should at least have the courtesy to inform someone in charge. Tsk. Kids these days. Of course the matter was escalated to the poly supervisor by his company supervisor. A local.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Blogging in Hokkien
We already have hokkien posts in forums, emails, etc. So now it has come to blogs.
You need to be pretty proficient in Hokkien to understand this. I will give it a try later.
http://hokkienlang.blogsome.com/
You need to be pretty proficient in Hokkien to understand this. I will give it a try later.
http://hokkienlang.blogsome.com/
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Like Mt Kunlun in SG
Went to visit friends from uni this afternoon. We took the same course, they fell in love and got married. Today, made a trip to Pearl Bank to visit the 3 day old product of their love, a restless baby who looks every bit as long and slender as her parents.
We know where the parents live, but had never been up there. There is a staircase behind Pearl Centre (where Yangtze cinema is, that infamous cinema visited only by lonely ah pehs) that leads up to Pearl Bank apartments on top of the hill. The climb was a lot steeper than it looked from the bottom, and we were out of breathe by the time we reached the lifts at the top of the hill. No wonder she's so skinny! Rarely do you find housing at the top of steep staircases in Singapore. I have seen them in Japanese and Korean dramas, but never before in Singapore! What a romantic setting!
It gets better when you see it from the top. The hilltop apartments was in a peaceful and quiet world of its own, away from the bustle of Chinatown just at the bottom of the hill. With a few benches along the corridor that overlooked the greenery below, it looked like a good place for a boy to hang around with a girl just before sending her to her door. With the corridors linking the main apartment block to the nursery building, it was just a little bit like Kun Lun Mountain, in the midst of clouds, where halls are linked by narrow bridges hanging above steep ravines.
Back in the older days, civil servants had a lot of privileges. Some had pensions schemes that paid perhaps half of the salary they drew when they were serving the statutory board, and they continue to draw the monthly pension until they kick the bucket. Some had comprehensive medical schemes that took care of all medical expenses of their family members, even those that are not at all life-threatening, such as flatfoot. And there were lavish 3-storey HDB apartments with security guards that were sold only to civil servants, complete with a pond, rock garden, 1 lift for every 2 units (which we are getting now only after the upgrading). There is even a gate at the multi-storey carpark controlled by a security guard, operated via pushbutton.
The schemes they used to have were really fantastic. It is nothing like what we have these days in the private sectors, and the next generation will have it a lot worse. The previous generation lived during the boom times when property prices and personal networth keep going up. This generation can still make it if they watch their savings and buy the right insurances. The next? Life can be very unfair. It's not about working hard, sometimes. It's about being born into the right place at the right time. The difference can be like that between the subsidised exclusiveness of Pearl Bank and the commonality of Chinatown. Blessed are those born with their needs all taken care of.
We know where the parents live, but had never been up there. There is a staircase behind Pearl Centre (where Yangtze cinema is, that infamous cinema visited only by lonely ah pehs) that leads up to Pearl Bank apartments on top of the hill. The climb was a lot steeper than it looked from the bottom, and we were out of breathe by the time we reached the lifts at the top of the hill. No wonder she's so skinny! Rarely do you find housing at the top of steep staircases in Singapore. I have seen them in Japanese and Korean dramas, but never before in Singapore! What a romantic setting!
It gets better when you see it from the top. The hilltop apartments was in a peaceful and quiet world of its own, away from the bustle of Chinatown just at the bottom of the hill. With a few benches along the corridor that overlooked the greenery below, it looked like a good place for a boy to hang around with a girl just before sending her to her door. With the corridors linking the main apartment block to the nursery building, it was just a little bit like Kun Lun Mountain, in the midst of clouds, where halls are linked by narrow bridges hanging above steep ravines.
Back in the older days, civil servants had a lot of privileges. Some had pensions schemes that paid perhaps half of the salary they drew when they were serving the statutory board, and they continue to draw the monthly pension until they kick the bucket. Some had comprehensive medical schemes that took care of all medical expenses of their family members, even those that are not at all life-threatening, such as flatfoot. And there were lavish 3-storey HDB apartments with security guards that were sold only to civil servants, complete with a pond, rock garden, 1 lift for every 2 units (which we are getting now only after the upgrading). There is even a gate at the multi-storey carpark controlled by a security guard, operated via pushbutton.
The schemes they used to have were really fantastic. It is nothing like what we have these days in the private sectors, and the next generation will have it a lot worse. The previous generation lived during the boom times when property prices and personal networth keep going up. This generation can still make it if they watch their savings and buy the right insurances. The next? Life can be very unfair. It's not about working hard, sometimes. It's about being born into the right place at the right time. The difference can be like that between the subsidised exclusiveness of Pearl Bank and the commonality of Chinatown. Blessed are those born with their needs all taken care of.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Thank You For Being A Mother
A very touching tribute to his mum. Written by a very articulate 14yr old.
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/48980.asp
She persevered and found ways to nurture me. In the process, she has developed in me the ability to deal with whatever life throws my way.
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/48980.asp
She persevered and found ways to nurture me. In the process, she has developed in me the ability to deal with whatever life throws my way.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Why Google Scares Bill Gates
A very long, but insightful article from Fortune Magazine on why Microsoft is spooked by the rise of Google. Well worth the time if you are interested in IT super-companies.
Today Google isn't just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance.
[...]
Simply put, Google has become a new kind of foe, and that's what has Gates so riled. It has combined software innovation with a brand-new Internet business model—and it wounds Gates' pride that he didn't get there first. Since Google doesn't sell its search products (it makes its money from the ads that accompany its search results), Microsoft can't muscle it out of the marketplace the way it did rivals like Netscape. But what really bothers Gates is that Google is gaining the ability to attack the very core of Microsoft's franchise—control over what users do first when they turn on their computers.
[...]
Dozens of current and former Microsofties say that Google's success is causing a corporate identity crisis. Gates basically created the notion that success in software is a function of the IQ of your team, and for years Microsoft has prided itself on having the smartest employees on the planet. Now many of those overachievers feel as though they've gotten their first B. Google, not Microsoft, is the hot place to work for young engineers. Every month it seems as if Google hires away one of Microsoft's top developers.
[...]
Payne told Gates & Co. that he would need more than $100 million and 18 months to build his search engine; that he wanted the authority to pull the cream of Microsoft's brainiacs into the effort. And Gates? He asked almost no questions, interrupting mostly to suggest people in Microsoft who might help. "It was reasonably obvious to me that we were going to have to depend on ourselves, not our partners, for search," says Gates now. So when Payne finished, Gates signed off on one of the largest commitments for a new business in Microsoft history: Project Underdog was born.
[...]
Microsoft has a long, dramatic history of being a fast follower, rarely first in a market but ultimately providing the most accessible and practical solution, then outmarketing competitors. The company hasn't always played by the rules, but when it has gone after a market, it has done so quickly and aggressively. Current and former executives of companies like Apple, WordPerfect, Lotus, Novell, and of course Netscape can attest to that.
[...]
Trying to build a Google killer, however, has turned out to be truly humbling for Microsoft. The effort has taken longer, cost more money, and exposed more big-company problems at Microsoft than anyone imagined. As Payne predicted, targeted online advertising has indeed become a gold mine. Still in its infancy, it's one of the hottest sectors in high tech, a $5-billion-a-year market growing at some 40% annually. Yet no matter what Payne and his crew do, Google and Yahoo seem to do better. "I remember when [Payne's team] showed off their first prototype in early 2004—people laughed because it was so much like Google," says a former Microsoft executive. "We had copied them. That's not how you lead."
[...]
One reason Google has been rolling out so many new or improved products is that Schmidt understands that innovation is the only sure edge Google has. The moment Google allows itself to slow, Microsoft could overwhelm it.
[...]
Man... I wish my bosses are as focused on winning the battle. They have lots to learn from both MS's and Google's management and culture. Then again, these 2 giants hire the best people, managers and engineers included. We are hardly the best. We have lots to learn.
Today Google isn't just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance.
[...]
Simply put, Google has become a new kind of foe, and that's what has Gates so riled. It has combined software innovation with a brand-new Internet business model—and it wounds Gates' pride that he didn't get there first. Since Google doesn't sell its search products (it makes its money from the ads that accompany its search results), Microsoft can't muscle it out of the marketplace the way it did rivals like Netscape. But what really bothers Gates is that Google is gaining the ability to attack the very core of Microsoft's franchise—control over what users do first when they turn on their computers.
[...]
Dozens of current and former Microsofties say that Google's success is causing a corporate identity crisis. Gates basically created the notion that success in software is a function of the IQ of your team, and for years Microsoft has prided itself on having the smartest employees on the planet. Now many of those overachievers feel as though they've gotten their first B. Google, not Microsoft, is the hot place to work for young engineers. Every month it seems as if Google hires away one of Microsoft's top developers.
[...]
Payne told Gates & Co. that he would need more than $100 million and 18 months to build his search engine; that he wanted the authority to pull the cream of Microsoft's brainiacs into the effort. And Gates? He asked almost no questions, interrupting mostly to suggest people in Microsoft who might help. "It was reasonably obvious to me that we were going to have to depend on ourselves, not our partners, for search," says Gates now. So when Payne finished, Gates signed off on one of the largest commitments for a new business in Microsoft history: Project Underdog was born.
[...]
Microsoft has a long, dramatic history of being a fast follower, rarely first in a market but ultimately providing the most accessible and practical solution, then outmarketing competitors. The company hasn't always played by the rules, but when it has gone after a market, it has done so quickly and aggressively. Current and former executives of companies like Apple, WordPerfect, Lotus, Novell, and of course Netscape can attest to that.
[...]
Trying to build a Google killer, however, has turned out to be truly humbling for Microsoft. The effort has taken longer, cost more money, and exposed more big-company problems at Microsoft than anyone imagined. As Payne predicted, targeted online advertising has indeed become a gold mine. Still in its infancy, it's one of the hottest sectors in high tech, a $5-billion-a-year market growing at some 40% annually. Yet no matter what Payne and his crew do, Google and Yahoo seem to do better. "I remember when [Payne's team] showed off their first prototype in early 2004—people laughed because it was so much like Google," says a former Microsoft executive. "We had copied them. That's not how you lead."
[...]
One reason Google has been rolling out so many new or improved products is that Schmidt understands that innovation is the only sure edge Google has. The moment Google allows itself to slow, Microsoft could overwhelm it.
[...]
Man... I wish my bosses are as focused on winning the battle. They have lots to learn from both MS's and Google's management and culture. Then again, these 2 giants hire the best people, managers and engineers included. We are hardly the best. We have lots to learn.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
The jar, pebbles, sand, and coffee
I have seen variants of this story before, but it is always good to remind oneself of an important lesson. Especially when there are so many demands on a person's time.
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things --God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions--and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff."
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. "Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to ge t medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
What will your golf balls be?
God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions
What have I been neglecting?
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things --God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions--and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff."
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. "Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to ge t medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
What will your golf balls be?
God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions
What have I been neglecting?
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Sunrise replaces JPluck
I had been using JPluck for over a year to compress websites to plucker format and sync over to my Palm to read offline. Before that, I was using some other older version of Plucker editor to do the plucking, and I thought it was a nice leap to JPluck, which gives me more control over how I want my daily reads to be.
From sourceforge:
JPluck has been succeeded by Sunrise, which is faster, easier to use and contains tons of improvements over JPluck.
Yes, it does seem to be very much of an improvement over JPluck, which would sometimes hang and refuse to sync until I remove all the feeds and add them back in again one by one. I sure hope Sunrise will not give me the same problem.
I can now sync multiple documents at the same time, which is what I had wanted all along. These days, most people have the bandwidth to do that, and it is good that the software is finally able to make use of the bandwidth and get the job done faster. There are also nice little eye candy such as the pop-up message when a pluck has completed. I haven't figured out the link filter or XSLT filter, but the important is that it is easy to use right?
This is still version 0.41, but it is already pretty cool. I had to create a palmgear account to download this, which I'm skeptical about. Am I opening myself to spam? Sigh, give it a try lah.
From sourceforge:
JPluck has been succeeded by Sunrise, which is faster, easier to use and contains tons of improvements over JPluck.
Yes, it does seem to be very much of an improvement over JPluck, which would sometimes hang and refuse to sync until I remove all the feeds and add them back in again one by one. I sure hope Sunrise will not give me the same problem.
I can now sync multiple documents at the same time, which is what I had wanted all along. These days, most people have the bandwidth to do that, and it is good that the software is finally able to make use of the bandwidth and get the job done faster. There are also nice little eye candy such as the pop-up message when a pluck has completed. I haven't figured out the link filter or XSLT filter, but the important is that it is easy to use right?
This is still version 0.41, but it is already pretty cool. I had to create a palmgear account to download this, which I'm skeptical about. Am I opening myself to spam? Sigh, give it a try lah.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Azureus 2.3.0.0
Finally got it to work properly after it upgraded from 2.2 to 2.3. Ok, so it did tell me that it worked best with jdk1.5, but I didn't expect it to be unable to map to port 6881 when I was running it on jdk1.4.2! Figured it out after a while and its speed bounced back from double-digit bytes to the original double-digit kilobytes!
I like the swarm visualisation! It shows how your peers are connected to you. It shows how complete you are, how complete they are, whether you are connected right now, which way the packets are flowing (to you or away from you) and how fast. What I like best about Azureus all along, apart from that it runs on Java, is that its UI is simply the most informative! Not that I do much with the info, it just tempts me to keep staring at it while it downloads, and I do not perceive that I have been able to help it download any faster by my staring, but it's fascinating. Much more fascinating that watching paint dry, and not much more useful, really. But, hey, it's fascinating.
The distributed database and distributed tracking sound promising, though I have to wait for a tracker to die before I will know how well it works. Will it be transparent to me when the distributed tracker takes over? Will we finally be able to search for torrents and share files without referring to a tracker running on a known URL, such as bitcomet.com? Then we will finally be able immune from such attacks as the death of suprnova.
Of course, if you are already using Azureus, you would probably have been prompted to change already. If you are using some other BT client, give Azureus a try. I have tried BitComet, ABC, Shareza, Burst, and all fall short of the control and visualisation that Azureus can give me. It runs a lot more efficiently on JDK1.5 and hopefully resource usage is no and issue for me. It seems more stable on JDK1.5, less freezing while it garbage collects. Should have made the switch moons ago.
I like the swarm visualisation! It shows how your peers are connected to you. It shows how complete you are, how complete they are, whether you are connected right now, which way the packets are flowing (to you or away from you) and how fast. What I like best about Azureus all along, apart from that it runs on Java, is that its UI is simply the most informative! Not that I do much with the info, it just tempts me to keep staring at it while it downloads, and I do not perceive that I have been able to help it download any faster by my staring, but it's fascinating. Much more fascinating that watching paint dry, and not much more useful, really. But, hey, it's fascinating.
The distributed database and distributed tracking sound promising, though I have to wait for a tracker to die before I will know how well it works. Will it be transparent to me when the distributed tracker takes over? Will we finally be able to search for torrents and share files without referring to a tracker running on a known URL, such as bitcomet.com? Then we will finally be able immune from such attacks as the death of suprnova.
Of course, if you are already using Azureus, you would probably have been prompted to change already. If you are using some other BT client, give Azureus a try. I have tried BitComet, ABC, Shareza, Burst, and all fall short of the control and visualisation that Azureus can give me. It runs a lot more efficiently on JDK1.5 and hopefully resource usage is no and issue for me. It seems more stable on JDK1.5, less freezing while it garbage collects. Should have made the switch moons ago.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Gmail invites
I've been using Gmail for 4 months and I still don't have any invites to send out. Other people get 50 invites within a couple of weeks. Am I at the end of the invites chain and am not allowed to invite any new people? Browsing Gmail's support group (used to be bbs) shows that some simply aren't allowed to invite, some still have their stock of 50 invites replenished from time to time.
Gmail invites used to be a status symbol kind of thing, where those with invites to send are in the "cool" group, those envied by the masses who have to make do with miserly 20MB inboxes, or less. There are so many gmail users around that it is easier to get invited and so the status is much less than before. Some kind souls even give away the invites free! Check out isnoop.net.
I'm finally stopping all use of hotmail. I used it in the past because I'm using MSN messenger and it all ties in with the .Net passport. Hotmail sucks, the junk mail counts towards your inbox quota and so I get flooded every few days. Sometimes every day. The only reason I still log in to hotmail is to clear the junk, since I will get a prompt in MSN messnger telling me I have a new mail, and I will inevitably find that it is hotmail telling me that my mail quota is close to being exceeded. Sheesh. At least yahoo does not count spam towards my email quota, and gmail has no spam (not that the 2GB quota can be exceeded, anyway.)
Since I can sign up for a passport using my gmail account, I need not stay with hotmail any longer. Yippie!
Gmail invites used to be a status symbol kind of thing, where those with invites to send are in the "cool" group, those envied by the masses who have to make do with miserly 20MB inboxes, or less. There are so many gmail users around that it is easier to get invited and so the status is much less than before. Some kind souls even give away the invites free! Check out isnoop.net.
I'm finally stopping all use of hotmail. I used it in the past because I'm using MSN messenger and it all ties in with the .Net passport. Hotmail sucks, the junk mail counts towards your inbox quota and so I get flooded every few days. Sometimes every day. The only reason I still log in to hotmail is to clear the junk, since I will get a prompt in MSN messnger telling me I have a new mail, and I will inevitably find that it is hotmail telling me that my mail quota is close to being exceeded. Sheesh. At least yahoo does not count spam towards my email quota, and gmail has no spam (not that the 2GB quota can be exceeded, anyway.)
Since I can sign up for a passport using my gmail account, I need not stay with hotmail any longer. Yippie!
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Reading Harry Potter book 5
So I'm a bit slow, having caught up with his first 4 books and started on his latest book, The Order Of The Phoenix. By far the thickest volume yet.
Life gets complicated as the hero grows up. Harry is now 15 years old, hormones are raging, and his night time adventures no longer raise a chill in me. Instead, they make me all hot and bothered. Seriously, only 15 years old and so adventurous already? Our legal age is 16. Given that his fans are about his age, or younger, I think the very graphic descriptions are ... informative? Educational? I wonder if the kids will try it out.
I think I have watched only the first HP movie. There are 2 more right? Gotta find out what Ginny and Hermione looks like. The actors are going to have a good time when they shoot the 5th movie. Heh. I doubt the censors will let it pass with a mere PG rating, which is kind of silly for a kid movie, isn't it? Imagine 15year old fans having to wait until 18 to watch the M18 or age 21 to watch the R21 rating.
Life gets complicated as the hero grows up. Harry is now 15 years old, hormones are raging, and his night time adventures no longer raise a chill in me. Instead, they make me all hot and bothered. Seriously, only 15 years old and so adventurous already? Our legal age is 16. Given that his fans are about his age, or younger, I think the very graphic descriptions are ... informative? Educational? I wonder if the kids will try it out.
I think I have watched only the first HP movie. There are 2 more right? Gotta find out what Ginny and Hermione looks like. The actors are going to have a good time when they shoot the 5th movie. Heh. I doubt the censors will let it pass with a mere PG rating, which is kind of silly for a kid movie, isn't it? Imagine 15year old fans having to wait until 18 to watch the M18 or age 21 to watch the R21 rating.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Running along the road
Most people I know who run, run for health reasons. Some run to lose weight, some run to strengthen their body, some run to pass their fitness test. Few run because they love running. Now what if this healthy activity they engage in cause them other kinds of health problems?
Whenever I see anybody running along the road in the evening, I will shake my head and wonder how healthy they got. Running is an aerobic exercise, and aerobic exercices tend to draw air deep into your lungs. Along with the fumes and soot of the evening rush hour. Remember the advertisement about the box drawn on the road to show how much tar is sucked into a smoker's lungs in his lifetime? I think a regular runner who pounds the pavement during the evening rush hour will probably find his lungs coated with a layer of soot, and his bloodstream filled with fumes. Imagine all those fumes being sent into your brain when your body is deprived of oxygen and in a weakened state!
During the haze that struck earlier in the year, I took to running in the air-conditioned gym instead of on the running track. I don't have asthma or any other breathing difficulty, but I decided that I need not test my body's ability to deal with irritants. I would rather breathe in the filtered gym air that is slightly lacking in oxygen than to suck in the haze and powder-bathe my lungs. After the haze, I realised that running on the treadmill is different from running on the track. I could run farther while on the treadmill, because my legs are only keeping me in place, they need not work as hard because they are not pushing me forward. I could not run as far when I took to running on the track again. I'd better make it a point to run on the track while I can.
Whenever I see anybody running along the road in the evening, I will shake my head and wonder how healthy they got. Running is an aerobic exercise, and aerobic exercices tend to draw air deep into your lungs. Along with the fumes and soot of the evening rush hour. Remember the advertisement about the box drawn on the road to show how much tar is sucked into a smoker's lungs in his lifetime? I think a regular runner who pounds the pavement during the evening rush hour will probably find his lungs coated with a layer of soot, and his bloodstream filled with fumes. Imagine all those fumes being sent into your brain when your body is deprived of oxygen and in a weakened state!
During the haze that struck earlier in the year, I took to running in the air-conditioned gym instead of on the running track. I don't have asthma or any other breathing difficulty, but I decided that I need not test my body's ability to deal with irritants. I would rather breathe in the filtered gym air that is slightly lacking in oxygen than to suck in the haze and powder-bathe my lungs. After the haze, I realised that running on the treadmill is different from running on the track. I could run farther while on the treadmill, because my legs are only keeping me in place, they need not work as hard because they are not pushing me forward. I could not run as far when I took to running on the track again. I'd better make it a point to run on the track while I can.
Friday, April 22, 2005
My database schema does not cater for food
This came to my mind a few days ago when I was trying to recall whether I have tried the food at a certain stall. The memory was vague, and I was almost certain I had never tried buying from that stall, but my dear reminded me that I did not like it. I told her that my database schema does not cater for food. She laughed at how true it was. I can recall dialogue from a book or movie, I can recall theories and principles, I used to be able to remember a myriad of other useless stuff, but when it comes to food, it just slips my mind. And this is ironic considering how I like to try new stalls and new brands of toiletries, but I would have forgotten most of them before long. My mind is pretty biased towards some things, and food is definitely not one of those. For that, I need her to remind me. At least we compliment each other!
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Floating code factory
Came across this article on doing off-shore software development on a ship while browing slashdot.
Take a used cruise ship, plant it in international waters three miles off the coast of El Segundo, near Los Angeles, people it with 600 of the brightest software engineers they can find around the world (both men and women), and run a 24-hour-a-day programming shop,
thereby avoiding H-1B visa hassles while still exploiting offshore labor cost arbitrage and completing development projects in half the time they'd take onshore or offshore.
The engineer in me would love to work on such a ship for a while, churning out code from a floating base. The efficiency of such an arrangement, the chance to work focused and with committed people, and the unique experience that this will be. Something to boast about. It
will be a sweatshop, no doubt, but if I were a young and aspiring coder, i might give it a try. Life is simplified so you can concentrate on your work.
Check out their site: http://www.sea-code.com
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
A productive day
I had been very productive today. It is amazing how motivated an analyst can get from the disapproval of the users' HOD. But to be fair to me, it was also the culmination of several days worth of groundwork and preparation.
I have patched a live problem that I am not directly responsible for, managed a manager's expectation and basically got his approval to pursue another course of action, and briskly walked my user through the workflow in 15 minutes. There are still a lot of uncertainties that will become clearer only tomorrow, but the progress is still good so far. I enjoy my work when I can make progress. I am most upset when bogged down by bureacracy and managerial indifference. I guess that is pretty common.
I don't know how much longer I can stay in this line. It remains too much of a sweatshop kind of working structure, with the junior staff sweating away and the supervisors not bothering to pitch in and get the work done, which is of course not very good. One of my collegues told me to just forget it, work your way up and make a difference when you are on top. It remains a very distant goal because the top is saturated. I will just do what I can, learn what I can, and move when the opportunity presents itself. It is difficult to see beyond that.
Why am I willing to live with all these? Is it because I have just heard that ex-colleagues tend to aggregate around other companies that are similar to us, but are just as messy? There are those who do well, and those who just wind up in another cesspool. The cesspools make me think that this is not such a bad place to be in. One shit is pretty much like another, I suppose.
This year's performance bonus was the poorest I have ever had, and I blame it on last year's lack of opportunities. Not that I did not ask for things to do. Confused supervisors did not know what to let me do. They still don't know their priorities and can frequently be confused even now. I am learning so much from their mistakes. Just don't be too agitated by their lack of integrity, lack of vision, their inconsistencies, empty promises, etc etc etc. Next year's performance bonus should be good, considering the difficult tasks I have been assigned this year. Wonder if I will be around to claim it. I hope I would have found a better job by then, one so good that I am willing to give up the performance bonus. Won't that be nice.
I have patched a live problem that I am not directly responsible for, managed a manager's expectation and basically got his approval to pursue another course of action, and briskly walked my user through the workflow in 15 minutes. There are still a lot of uncertainties that will become clearer only tomorrow, but the progress is still good so far. I enjoy my work when I can make progress. I am most upset when bogged down by bureacracy and managerial indifference. I guess that is pretty common.
I don't know how much longer I can stay in this line. It remains too much of a sweatshop kind of working structure, with the junior staff sweating away and the supervisors not bothering to pitch in and get the work done, which is of course not very good. One of my collegues told me to just forget it, work your way up and make a difference when you are on top. It remains a very distant goal because the top is saturated. I will just do what I can, learn what I can, and move when the opportunity presents itself. It is difficult to see beyond that.
Why am I willing to live with all these? Is it because I have just heard that ex-colleagues tend to aggregate around other companies that are similar to us, but are just as messy? There are those who do well, and those who just wind up in another cesspool. The cesspools make me think that this is not such a bad place to be in. One shit is pretty much like another, I suppose.
This year's performance bonus was the poorest I have ever had, and I blame it on last year's lack of opportunities. Not that I did not ask for things to do. Confused supervisors did not know what to let me do. They still don't know their priorities and can frequently be confused even now. I am learning so much from their mistakes. Just don't be too agitated by their lack of integrity, lack of vision, their inconsistencies, empty promises, etc etc etc. Next year's performance bonus should be good, considering the difficult tasks I have been assigned this year. Wonder if I will be around to claim it. I hope I would have found a better job by then, one so good that I am willing to give up the performance bonus. Won't that be nice.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
blogging takes time
I'm spending too much time online these days, reading other blogs and writing my own. I have another blog that I post to frequently. The reason this blog is so neglected is that I'm still trying to find my own voice. At the ripe old age of almost-30, I'm still trying to find my own voice.
I never had a problem like this when I was an adolescent. Life was simple then. Study, work on my hobbies, learn about interesting stuff, go to church. My future was assured. Go uni, get a job in IT and I will earn enough to feed myself and pay for my hobbies. Life was simple and focused.
Start working and all the things I've never taken into account start hitting me. I try to adapt to new demands, learn new skills, grow in new dimensions. In the end I wonder who I really am. And thus there is a need to re-find myself.
Writing is a way for me to organise my thoughts. A discipline to focus my thoughts enough to form coherent sentences. What can be given form can be understood. Some time ago I have had similar goals with my previous blog, but unfortunately that was a public blog and there is much that I cannot write about. I think I will continue to maintain that, and this will be something else. I'll see how this new attempt works out. Perhaps by separating them I may achieve something I'm not able to achieve with only either of them.
I never had a problem like this when I was an adolescent. Life was simple then. Study, work on my hobbies, learn about interesting stuff, go to church. My future was assured. Go uni, get a job in IT and I will earn enough to feed myself and pay for my hobbies. Life was simple and focused.
Start working and all the things I've never taken into account start hitting me. I try to adapt to new demands, learn new skills, grow in new dimensions. In the end I wonder who I really am. And thus there is a need to re-find myself.
Writing is a way for me to organise my thoughts. A discipline to focus my thoughts enough to form coherent sentences. What can be given form can be understood. Some time ago I have had similar goals with my previous blog, but unfortunately that was a public blog and there is much that I cannot write about. I think I will continue to maintain that, and this will be something else. I'll see how this new attempt works out. Perhaps by separating them I may achieve something I'm not able to achieve with only either of them.
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