Tuesday, December 25, 2007

On Holiday....

Cuppa would like to wish all my dear readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I am currently staying in my hometown. Will publish more when I am back. :D

Friday, December 21, 2007

想加薪?看看这。。。

在网上逛看到的。。。

[转帖]:中国老板对员工要求加薪的回复

首先,就你提出来涨工资这件事,我代表公司和我本人,向你表示感谢。你的出发点是好的,也说明了你对公司是信任的,是有所期盼的。有了像你这样的员工,我们公司的未来就有了希望。就我个人来说,非常体谅你的心情,也很理解,将心比心嘛。只是,你的要求公司暂时还不能满足,这个,也请你多多理解。在公司有了更大的成绩以后,肯定会考虑到员工的福利待遇问题,这点,我绝对可以向你保证。

  不能说十多年来工资都没怎么涨,这个说法是不合适的。就我的父母来说,他们工作的时候才二十几块钱的工资,现在是农民的年收入也有了三千多,怎么能说工资没涨呢?我们国家改革开放取得了那么大的成就,怎么能说没有进步呢?举个简单的例子说,如果没有改革开放,你可能还在农村务农呢。所以嘛,还是要相信党相信国家,不要听到小道消息就动摇,要以官方的数据为准嘛。

  农民工的工资12年来涨了68块?这个,也许是真的,不过坦率的说,已经很不错啦,怎么说平均每个月也上涨了5毛多嘛,你看看现在城里有多少职工下岗?他们能拿到补助金已经不错了,我们国家那么大,花钱的地方多啊。多亏了我们的社会体制好嘛,不然,就他们的职业素质,在外国还不得喝西北风去!

  城里的情况更别提了,不能老盯着那些拿高工资的眼红,得看看人家遭的是什么罪。张朝阳的工资高吧,可人家干的你能干吗?杨利伟的待遇高吧,人家那是飞天飞出来的。咱们应该多看看那些普通的职工,他们的工资也不咋地,还得小心地跟老板处好关系,一不小心连工作也保不住了。为什么?竞争激烈啊,你嫌工资低,还有好多人盯着眼红呐!

  先听我说,我知道公司这几年发展不错,我也知道你这几年为公司做牛做马,有功劳也有苦劳,但是这不意味着就得给你涨工资嘛。你想想看,你的工资怎么说也是按时发放的,没有拖欠吧?你再看看隔壁建筑公司,他们的老板每到过年都要出去躲一段时间。你们扪心自问,我对你们怎么样?就是嘛。

  从我个人的角度来说,当然也是想给大家涨工资的,你好我好大家都好,谁不高兴?可是公司有公司的难处啊!公司是在发展,可是花销也大呀?各种费用在涨吧?水费电费每个月都在增加吧?公司效益不好的时候,你们的工资也是铁打不动吧?更何况还有很多额外的费用,公关费用多高啊,工商税务卫生都是钱,连 TMD在门口挂个牌子都有城管的来收费,什么世道!好好,咱们不发牢骚,不发牢骚,他们也不容易。" t& G! ]& Y*

  涨不涨工资,表面上是我说了算,但实际上,还是你说了算。你想想啊,如果公司真的缺了你不可的话,还用你来申请吗?公司主动就会给你涨了。给你说句讨心窝子的话,公司每年给市委书记的小舅子交的顾问费,不是每年都上涨吗?这还用人家主动提吗,是不是? ( V5

  别看现在的用人单位都要求本科研究生学历,不要误会,这不是说那些工作就非得什么学历的才干得了,水涨船高啊,现在满大街都是大学生,下岗的研究生一抓一大把,买方市场有什么办法?你看我们公司的那几个要长相没长相要学历没学历的女职员,能力就更别提了,虽然是因为领导的亲戚才到公司来上班的,但实事求是的说,干的也差不多。对大多数公司来说,没有什么大不了的职位,也没有缺了谁就干不了的职位,又不是研究两弹一星,缺了谁地球不照转呢?

  每个人都追求美好的生活,都不希望被社会摒弃,这不假,但这不意味着公司就意味着要给你涨工资啊。现在是市场经济了,什么都看供求关系,懂不懂?现在的就业形势你知不知道?就是了。公务员有国家财政管着,旱涝保收,公司谁管?哪一分钱不是从自己身上割肉啊?国家不是说了吗,要减小贫富差,在那么多人没有工作的时候给你涨工资,是不是意味着拉大了贫富差距呢?所以嘛,考虑考虑别人,人总不能自私嘛-----

  不能光看着有钱人有钱,也得看到人家所承受的压力。说不定什么时候就被那些刁民都盯上了,昨天还有报道说某个大款被绑票了,真闹心啊。钱是身外之物,要那么多有什么用?生不带来死不带走的,没有意思,把钱看淡一点,有利于平衡人的心态嘛。

  所以啊,年轻人,还是要脚踏实地把工作搞好,要以事业为重嘛。如果整天就想着待遇什么的,还能把心用在工作上吗?把工作做好了,工资的问题不用操心。公司就是你们的家,家里富裕了,才有你们,不,是我们每个人的事业!

  好了,就先说这些。你这个星期天加加班吧,把这个工程的标书弄好,别出差错。内部的关系我基本上都打理好了,咱们别在这些小事上栽了跟头。别忘了,把加班的公交车票交给会计报销啊。


这老板的回复可以浓缩为以下几点:
  1. 人才市场供过于求
  2. 要求加薪的员工并没有公司极为需要的技术或能力
解决方案:
  1. 努力自我增值,实行蓝海政策

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Don't Use The Latest Offerring

As there are a lot of hoohaa's recently on many users downgrading Vista back to XP due to a myriad of reasons. It seems Microsoft itself is doing the same on its own servers.

On Dec 15 the server was still running Windows Server 2008, but the next day it was seen running Windows Server 2003. Interesting!

Before we jump to conclusion, there are a few reasons why this could happen.

First reason could be there are a lot of servers behind the IP address (so called the server farm), and the servers are running a mix of Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and some 'unknown' OSes (it will be very entertaining if it were Linux...).

Or, is this plain negligence of the site administrators?

Or, the servers were just being downgraded to a better and stable old platform?

You decide.

Cat Family

This afternoon saw a mother cat brings along her four kittens. As usual, played with these cats.





Wednesday, December 19, 2007

On Mathematical Sophistication

Whenever you study a theoretical textbook, the author usually will specify what kind of mathematical maturity or sophistication he/she is expecting. Luce and Raiffa have the following say, which I find interesting and honest:

Probably the most important prerequisite is that ill-defined quality: mathematical
sophistication. We hope that this is an ingredient not required in large
measure, but that it is needed to some degree there can be no doubt. The
reader must be able to accept conditional statements, even though he feels the
suppositions to be false; he must be willing to make concessions to mathematical
simplicity; he must be patient enough to follow along with the peculiar kind
of construction that mathematics is; and, above all, he must have sympathy
with the method — a sympathy based upon his knowledge of its past successes
in various of the empirical sciences and upon his realization of the necessity for
rigorous deduction in science as we know it.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Look


This is a picture is in the context of rising food price, and I feel bad every time I look at it.

There are quite a lot of things I can think about by looking at this picture alone:

  1. The rising food prices, and the ramifications
  2. Why old people, specifically, this old lady, has such expression when paying for the food?
  3. What are the challenges ahead for countries that have agricultural produces, and those that don't?
  4. What are the nascent business opportunities, given food is more and more scarce and prices fluctuate much more violently?
All these can be independent essays by themselves.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

一只特立独行的猪. 王小波著

这篇散文我一年都会读几次,很有意思。

一只特立独行的猪
王小波

插队的时候,我喂过猪、也放过牛。假如没有人来管,这两种动物也完全知道该怎样生活。它们会自由自在地闲逛,饥则食渴则饮,春天来临时还要谈谈爱 情;这样一来,它们的生活层次很低,完全乏善可陈。人来了以后,给它们的生活做出了安排:每一头牛和每一口猪的生活都有了主题。就它们中的大多数而言,这 种生活主题是很悲惨的:前者的主题是干活,后者的主题是长肉。我不认为这有什么可抱怨的,因为我当时的生活也不见得丰富了多少,除了八个样板戏,也没有什 么消遣。有极少数的猪和牛,它们的生活另有安排。以猪为例,种猪和母猪除了吃,还有别的事可干。就我所见,它们对这些安排也不大喜欢。种猪的任务是交配, 换言之,我们的政策准许它当个花花公子。但是疲惫的种猪往往摆出一种肉猪(肉猪是阉过的)才有的正人君子架势,死活不肯跳到母猪背上去。母猪的任务是生崽 儿,但有些母猪却要把猪崽儿吃掉。总的来说,人的安排使猪痛苦不堪。但它们还是接受了:猪总是猪啊。


对生活做种种设置是人特有的品性。不光是设置动物,也设置自己。我们知道,在古希腊有个斯巴达,那里的生活被设置得了无生趣,其目的就是要使男人成为亡命 战士,使女人成为生育机器,前者像些斗鸡,后者像些母猪。这两类动物是很特别的,但我以为,它们肯定不喜欢自己的生活。但不喜欢又能怎么样?人也好,动物 也罢,都很难改变自己的命运。


以下谈到的一只猪有些与众不同。我喂猪时,它已经有四五岁了,从名分上说,它是肉猪,但长得又黑又瘦,两眼炯炯有光。这家伙像山羊一样敏捷,一米高的猪栏 一跳就过;它还能跳上猪圈的房顶,这一点又像是猫——所以它总是到处游逛,根本就不在圈里呆着。所有喂过猪的知青都把它当宠儿来对待,它也是我的宠儿—— 因为它只对知青好,容许他们走到三米之内,要是别的人,它早就跑了。它是公的,原本该劁掉。不过你去试试看,哪怕你把劁猪刀藏在身后,它也能嗅出来,朝你 瞪大眼睛,噢噢地吼起来。我总是用细米糠熬的粥喂它,等它吃够了以后,才把糠对到野草里喂别的猪。其他猪看了嫉妒,一起嚷起来。这时候整个猪场一片鬼哭狼 嚎,但我和它都不在乎。吃饱了以后,它就跳上房顶去晒太阳,或者模仿各种声音。它会学汽车响、拖拉机响,学得都很像;有时整天不见踪影,我估计它到附近的 村寨里找母猪去了。我们这里也有母猪,都关在圈里,被过度的生育搞得走了形,又脏又臭,它对它们不感兴趣;村寨里的母猪好看一些。它有很多精彩的事迹,但 我喂猪的时间短,知道得有限,索性就不写了。总而言之,所有喂过猪的知青都喜欢它,喜欢它特立独行的派头儿,还说它活得潇洒。但老乡们就不这么浪漫,他们 说,这猪不正经。领导则痛恨它,这一点以后还要谈到。我对它则不止是喜欢——我尊敬它,常常不顾自己虚长十几岁这一现实,把它叫做“猪兄”。如前所述,这 位猪兄会模仿各种声音。我想它也学过人说话,但没有学会——假如学会了,我们就可以做倾心之谈。但这不能怪它。人和猪的音色差得太远了。


后来,猪兄学会了汽笛叫,这个本领给它招来了麻烦。我们那里有座糖厂,中午要鸣一次汽笛,让工人换班。我们队下地干活时,听见这次汽笛响就收工回来。我的 猪兄每天上午十点钟总要跳到房上学汽笛,地里的人听见它叫就回来——这可比糖厂鸣笛早了一个半小时。坦白地说,这不能全怪猪兄,它毕竟不是锅炉,叫起来和 汽笛还有些区别,但老乡们却硬说听不出来。领导上因此开了一个会,把它定成了破坏春耕的坏分子,要对它采取专政手段——会议的精神我已经知道了,但我不为 它担忧——因为假如专政是指绳索和杀猪刀的话,那是一点门都没有的。以前的领导也不是没试过,一百人也这不住它。狗也没用:猪兄跑起来像颗鱼雷,能把狗撞 出一丈开外。谁知这回是动了真格的,指导员带了二十几个人,手拿五四式手枪;副指导员带了十几人,手持看青的火枪,分两路在猪场外的空地上兜捕它。这就使 我陷入了内心的矛盾:按我和它的交情,我该舞起两把杀猪刀冲出去,和它并肩战斗,但我又觉得这样做太过惊世骇俗——它毕竟是只猪啊;还有一个理由,我不敢 对抗领导,我怀疑这才是问题之所在。总之,我在一边看着。猪兄的镇定使我佩服之极:它很冷静地躲在手枪和火枪的连线之内,任凭人喊狗咬,不离那条线。这 样,拿手枪的人开火就会把拿火枪的打死,反之亦然;两头同时开火,两头都会被打死。至于它,因为目标小,多半没事。就这样连兜了几个圈子,它找到了一个空 子,一头撞出去了;跑得潇洒之极。以后我在甘蔗地里还见过它一次,它长出了獠牙,还认识我,但已不容我走近了。这种冷淡使我痛心,但我也赞成它对心怀叵测 的人保持距离。


我已经四十岁了,除了这只猪,还没见过谁敢于如此无视对生活的设置。相反,我倒见过很多想要设置别人生活的人,还有对被设置的生活安之若素的人。因为这个原故,我一直怀念这只特立独行的猪。

Sage: Open Source Maths Program

Heard of mathematica, maple, or matlab? All these are commercial maths program for manipulation of symbols, plotting graphs, crunching numbers, and other equally fun stuff under the sun.

Side Note: Excel doesn't count as a maths program, though a lot of people are treating it as one. It has its own merit though, as we will discuss below.

Sage is an open source mathematics software which has a grand vision of rivaling the commercial ones.

To recap the advantages of open source software (OSS), first it is free, both as in free beer, and also as in free speech. An added advantage that commercial softwares will not have is the source code for the whole program is available for your reading pleasure. This is a double-sided sword though, especially in situations when your simulation results don't agree with your theoretical results, and the dead line for submitting the conference paper is 3 hours away. At this time, OSS will burn you because as a graduate student, you are not only required to write the paper, you also need to have the ability to fix bugs in your program, in your computer, and those that crawl around in your office. If you have the source code for the software already, what excuse can you give to your professor except to open the window and jump from there?

Now, if you are using M$ products, the story is different: if we were using Excel, swiftly we can push the blame to M$: "Well, Excel just plots the results that way! It was a piece of shit because yesterday I tried to compute 1+1 it said the answer was 10!! " and remember to put on an innocent look. Here is a classic one for your reference. (obviously you won't tell your professor you were computing binary numbers the day before, will you?)



Personally I haven't tried Sage yet, but from the first look its features are impressive. One thing I particularly admire is the use of Python as the script language.

Take it out for a spin, for those lonely people who are boring bored enough to read my blog.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Is Years of Experience Important for Job Applicants?

There is an insightful article on this topic here. I think it applies to most jobs, though the article specifically talks about on software development.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Making Decisions

I am sick of all those terms like 'social contracts', 'people must be grateful', 'our tolerance is limited', etc.

Come on, get out from the coconut shell and look outside. Do you see Thailand? do you see Vietnam? Do I need to mention China, Russia, Romania, and India?

I am amazed at some people who are still harping on racial identities and discriminatory policies. Other countries already know what to do, start exploring the uncharted water, and drafting contingency plans for the arrival of digital convergence, escalating health care costs, graying of populations, rising raw material costs, and the rising sea level.

What is the parliament talking about? Air Asia's stewardess should dress more appropriately??

Really I don't know what else to say. Yes, this isn't new, but I am just pondering upon some key decisions. I am more and more disappointed.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Trivial Sunday Notes

I went to Tampines, which is at the east, for a walk. Had mixed rice for lunch, and found out the so called fried fish fillets were so over-fried that I couldn't really tell if it was fish, pork, beef, potato, or even just a piece of bread.

Note to myself: If I were to cook a dish, deep fried stuff will be the way to go.

It is a sultry afternoon, and Cuppa will need to cool himself down.

My 10-year old alarm clock died recently. May it rest in peace and reincarnate into a Rolex in its next life (if any). Meow.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

How-To-Talk-Like-a-Politician: Blind Talk

Introduction:
My apology for my readers for delaying the writing of this how-to series for so long. Counting using an advanced calculation apparatus, namely my fingers, it seems I wrote the first installment for almost 4 months ago. Should disappointed readers want to fume their frustrations, may I suggest them to throw Euro dollar bills (No US dollars, no ringgit), PS3, laptop computer (at least core 2 duo, 1 GB ram and a 8800GTX graphics card), or even a few pretty girls at Cuppa. I don't mind to defend the right to free speech with those gadgets and babes.

Today's topic is called "Blind Talk". In more plain word, it is 'bull-shit'

Examples:
1. "Our universities are competitive because we are still in the world top 5000. The slip is due to the ranking is calculated differently" - a politician commented on the slip of overall rankings in local universities

His point: As long as we are in top something, we are fine. Nevermind the slip, because it is the ranking committee's fault, not ours. However, it is trivial to achieve that aim, for any number n, we are assured of in top m by making m >= n. For example, if there are 400 universities and we are ranked 399, we are still in top 400!

2. "There are no discriminations in our country. There are a lot of doctors, accountants and engineers as well as rich people in those races. This shows the government treats ethnic Chineses and Indians fairly." - a politician commented on the recent strikes

His point: Ethnic chinese and indian must be on the edge of starvation or in extremely dire situation to show they are being discriminated, anything less than that doesn't warrant a complaint.


Now the more interesting part: Application.

How to Apply:

"Cuppa is handsome. This is a candid self-assessment, well, as candid as the BolehLand politicians say they are holymen"

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Top Three Characteristics of A Good Cat

3. It doesn't give anything a damn
2. It doesn't give anything a damn, including the owner
1. It doesn't give anything a damn, including the owner, except it is time to eat

Act like a cat

Monday, November 26, 2007

Cuppa's Broadband Era

With an interesting twist, broadband internet has arrived Cuppa's humble abode.

The story is initially Cuppa's housemate, Alfred, who is also Cuppa's landlord, didn't want to have Internet because he doesn't know about computer at all. However after knowing a girl abroad, Alfred was calling that girl on a daily basis and soon the phone bills were killing his wallet mercilessly.

Thereafter the need of VoIP was mounting, until a point Alfred bit the bullet to get broadband and a computer. Also note that he wants not only voice, but also video, therefore the calling cards are out.

The Cuppa Blog will be updated more regularly from now onwards (I hope).

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Good Boss, Bad Boss

All these years, I have had quite a few bosses. Their backgrounds are vastly different, and naturally their preferences and how they manage people are also diverged. To protect the guilty I shall not disclose the gender as well as the name of those concerned. Instead I will refer each of them as 'he' in the most non-sexist way.

1. Manage-Till-You-Die Type

Characteristic: Knows little or no technical knowledge but has excessive zeal to pursue the privilege and the title of a manager. He will try to exert his pressure until you recognize his 'authority'.

Typical Conversation between him (H) and his staff (S):

H: Can you give me an update on what your plan for this week is?
S: I thought I just updated you yesterday?
H: We have been in a churning* frenzy and basically my full time job is working on the MS Project and pressing you for updates from time to time to show that I am working
S: WTF...

* Churn refers to 'change'. 'Feature-churn' means changes in product features

2. Step-on-Your-Head Manager
Characteristic: Reasonably good technically, but has no consciences and treats subordinates as stepping stones and/or tools to achieve his personal goals. The consequence is you die or not is none of his business

Typical Conversation between him (H) and his staff (S):
H: I don't care, this project must be done and you must finish before tomorrow.
S: Since this project's delay is not the team's fault, can we claim for dinner for staying late?
H: Yes, budget is RM10 per person and you should not go out to eat. You should stay in office because the objective is to get the job done
S: I need a sleeping bag....
H: You can have a few rolls of toilet papers if you really feel cold in office

3. Do-All-You-Want Type
Characteristic: Just don't care, as long as you deliver

Typical Conversation between him (H) and his staff (S):
S: I will be off half day tomorrow because my pet ant is sick
H: Sure, go ahead, no worries
S: Btw, my project is delayed for 2 months because I spilled coffee on the only prototype board in office, burning the lab as well because electric short-circuits
H: Really? That is interesting

Note: This type of manager doesn't really exists...

Friday, November 16, 2007

Low SNR Articles

Recently I find myself become lazier or lazier, or in another perspective, more and more efficient.

I just give up reading lengthy articles with low signal-to-noise ratio.

Life is short.

To see what I mean by the above, I invite you to read this article on embedded design here.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Let's Be Very Very Paranoid

Recently there was a covert test on airport security in the states. The result shows the investigators managed to bring liquid explosives and detonators on board and this generated a lot of ammunitions for some politicians to push for higher military budget.

However how long can a nation pay for such unproductive expenses? Although some people may argue precautions must in place to protect the innocent, to prevent the re-occurrence of 911, and blah blah blah.

I just feel all these are really stupid. One end there are people who claim they defend democracy and police the whole world, while at the other end there are people who fight in the name of religion. And the fighting itself basically nullify everything these two camps stand for.

You don't invade others to get democracy, and you don't kill others to get to heaven.

Last but not least, you don't need to show others how to wipe your ass 'the correct way' in space to prove you are a developed country.

Crazy world.

The news on airport security is: Here

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Meeting of Four

YC's visit to SG marked the gathering the four handsome and available engineers.

This time the venue was Clarke Quay and the topics were as usual, on work, on beer, on women, and large doze of drowsiness.


Cherish the time we gather, as it's hard to predict where we are tomorrow. Let me finish sucking sipping my beer.

Thoughts of the day:

Malaysia's UTM is ranked 415 by THES and surprisingly some people are still 'satisfied' with the result, arguing there are over ten thousand universities in the world, and 415 is really not that bad.

Well, this kind logic will give UTM enough slack to slip down to 500 while still claiming to be in the top 5% universities in the world. Go ahead with self-congratulatory mode.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Sharpening the Saw

Today is a lazy Sunday.

Though I have a dead line to meet in 2 weeks, I try not to think about work today.

Instead, I am doing what Steven Covey said, "Sharpening the saw". In other words, I am doing things that normally I have no time to do, but nevertheless they do contribute positively to my productivity and overall well-beings.

A good example will be cleaning up of my humble abode. I swept and mopped the floor, and tidied up the stack of newspaper, purging the older ones for recycling.

A clean up doesn't limit to physical stuff; I also scanned my work computer for spywares and viruses, as well as ran the disk defragmenter to ensure disk access time is optimum.

Down to my heart, all these scanning and defragmenting are unnecessary taxes we pay for using M$ products. Some people may say why don't you use Linux/OS X/Solaris? Well, these OSes have their own problems. In fact, there are a lot of news that viruses and malwares are starting to targetting Mac OS. Why? Because the user base for OS X has grown so much that now it is profitable to write a malware for it. I believe we will live with M$ for sometime to come. Linux? Nay, it is a good candidate, but I don't see it as a viable main-stream OS contender for another 3 to 5 years.

A picture tells a thousand words:


No, let's not talk about politics today. What can I say anyway?

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Pay Debt With More Debt

On US monetary policy:

There are speculations on Fed's decision on interest-rate. Given the current uncertainty in the US financial market, a lot of people really think the Fed has to cut the interest rate further to give a boost the economy.

Though in the short term the interest cut may prove to be useful, but it also tends to let those bad debts to live longer and make the financial blackhole formed by shaky sub prime market. In other words, an interest cut is like borrowing money to feed the debts. To paraphrase Buffett, when the market confidence drops and creditors start demanding their money back, the financial tide is out. At that time we will know who are swimming naked. Heh.

On Malaysia:
It seems Malaysia is pushing its Bolehness to another level by setting up more and more free trade zone. On the surface this looks ok, we want to attract FDI, but wait. What is the main feature of a FTZ? A hefty tax incentive. By having so many FTZ, where are the government's income? We could argue those FDIs will bring job opportunities, but if a government plays its card properly, it really doesn't need to hit so low-ball to keep distributing tax incentives. After 50 years, where are we, really?

Oh, I am confused.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

What Does He Really Mean?

I always enjoy what Lee Kuan Yew has to say. All his talks are very well-thought of, intelligent, practical, and relevant. University professors may be intelligent, however most of the thoughts are not practical or relevant to the real-world. The fact he is a politician really makes him unique: how many politicians, past or present, who are comparable? I am not ass'ing up Lee, but just to be fair

Recently Lee was interviewed by Tom Plate and Jeffrey Cole and his talk has generated some stirs in Malaysia.

Lee: When [Malaysia] kicked us out [in 1965], the expectation was that we would fail and we will go back on their terms, not on the terms we agreed with them under the British. Our problems are not just between states, this is a problem between races and religions and civilizations. We are a standing indictment of all the things that they can be doing differently. They have got all the resources. If they would just educate the Chinese and Indians, use them and treat them as their citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us and we would be happy to rejoin them.
Most people don't care to read the sentence properly: Lee said 'If Malaysia would just educate the Chinese and Indians, use them and treat them as citizens' and that is the key to understand the whole statement.

If A, then B


If A is not true, it doesn't matter what B is.

Now is A true? So what are all the hu-ha's??

Other interesting thoughts:

Here is what he has to say on setting up of public policy school in Singapore:

Lee: I think that's an investment worth making because [students from the region] will go back and they will tell their media chaps and their leaders and say, look this country works because it's working like this: first, it's honest; second, it's rational; third, it makes decisions and follows through on those decisions. The decisions are made after very careful consideration of all options and consequences.
Immediate that points out what most countries in the world are lacking big time. Instead, these countries delude themselves by buying what advanced countries have. No, that is called masturbation, not advancement.

Full transcript of the interview here

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Remember Laika

Who is Laika?

Laika the dog was sent to outer space on Sputnik 2 by Russians on Nov 2, 1957. Though it only survived for a few hours in space due to overheating and stress, this experiment proved that living organism can survive in weightlessness for an extended amount of time.



Experiments must be done with clear objectives and plans. Sending Laika was to test the hypothesis living organism can survive in outer space. The subsequent experiments after Laika's trip paved the way to ISS, until our Sheikh could comfortably played gasing there.

Now my question is: What is next?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

拥抱我



对游鸿明印象并不深, 只记得大概十年前他的一首‘狂悲狂喜’的MV拍的挺好。

最近他发了一个专辑 《倦鳥餘花》, 里头重唱柯以敏的拥抱我,好的令我刮目相看。

那声线,那深情,那歌词。。。

套一句英文:“It blew me away"

拥抱我:

作曲:游鸿明 作词:姚谦

有些时候微笑是最好藉口
让爱的人贴在心口体会著
不需要言语解说一份默契在心中
片刻的交流在爱里遨游
有些时候眼泪只是小藉口
可以躺进爱人怀中找寄托
世界太大太寂寞只有这一个角落
片刻的温柔让心情解脱
拥抱我在悲伤的时候
你心事种种我愿意有相同的感受
拥抱我在喜悦的时候
你情绪所有我都梦寐以求
拥抱我
有些时候眼泪只是小藉口
可以躺进爱人怀中找寄托
世界太大太寂寞只有这一个角落
片刻的温柔让心情解脱
拥抱我在悲伤的时候
你心事种种我愿意有相同的感受
拥抱我在喜悦的时候
你情绪所有我都梦寐以求
拥抱我
因为在拥抱的时候有一种完全的拥有
是彼此的体温是彼此的心跳
是彼此的感动
拥抱我在悲伤的时候
你心事种种我愿意有相同的感受
拥抱我在喜悦的时候
你情绪所有我都梦寐以求
拥抱我

On The Way To Office

This morning while walking to office, I saw this boy. Wondering what he was up to, I walked forward...

Oh, an unfortunate lizard was wasted by this boy.

After playing with lizard, he jumped into the drain and looked at me

Monday, October 15, 2007

Cargo Cult Science in Malaysia

Malaysia once again over-stretches itself by sending Sheikh to space. Even though the minister argued bitterly Sheikh indeed is a really cosmonaut and not a flight participant.

"Because the Russians said so!", he claimed proudly.

However little did he realize even though the Russians call Sheikh as cosmonaut, but in terms of rank, Sheikh is flight participant (aka Mr. Tourist). This naming is consistent with NASA's classification.

What are the differences? Simple, everybody in ISS is cosmonaut by the nature of their physical presence. The rank describes their job scope. Our Sheikh's job scope is as a tourist. Period.


URL here (Click on the UK flag to read the English version).

On the surface, Malaysia looks like an advanced country, because it is doing what advanced countries do. For example it is making its own car (but of inferior quality and finally has to beg a Mat Salleh company to bail it out), having someone to walk both poles, having a lot of tall and big buildings, and sending someone off to space.

The key question: will Malaysia truly become an advanced country by mimicking what those advanced countries are doing?

What are the ingredients of being an advanced country?

What I fail to see is steps taken to stabilize the economy, drive down the crime rate, improve inter-racial harmony, and raise competencies in universities.

Why? Because all these are hard to do, and the yields are so slow and marginal at any given time that you don't have 'the moment' to jump up and down and yell "Malaysia Boleh!" We want instant gratification, we just want that short moment of glory. What do we do for the upcoming endless darkness after the incandescence? Don't care, let's just raise the tax, up the toll price, and let hell loose. Who cares?

An article by Richard Feynman comes to mind, the Cargo Cult Science. Relevant excerpt:

In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head to headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas -- he's the controller -- and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land. Now it behooves me, of course, to tell you what they're missing. But it would be just about as difficult to explain to the South Sea islanders how they have to arrange things so that they get some wealth in their system. It is not something simple like telling them how to improve the shapes of the earphones. But there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. That is the idea that we all hope you have learned in studying science in school -- we never say explicitly what this is, but just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and speak of it explicitly. It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty -- a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid -- not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked -- to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Even though Feynman talks about the way to do science, and the context of this blog is on how a country should be run, the essences are the same.

Change all occurrences of 'scientific investigation' to 'advanced countries' and re-read:

They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Technical Deep Dive of P1i

After some investigation, this phone is in fact a miniature computer.

First of all, it will be more apt to call it "a computer with phone ability": it has all the characteristics of a computer. A display, inputs, a standard processor (ARM9 running at 200MHz), primary storage: memory (128Mb), and secondary storage which consists of in-built flash (256Mb) and external flash (M2 card, max 4Gb). On top of that, it even has Bluetooth, GPRS, WLAN (802.11b only...), and the standard USB connection. So from any angle, this is computer-grade piece of hardware. Full spec of this phone can be found here (2.62Mb PDF).

How about software then? It has a pretty robust OS - Symbian OSv9.1 with UIQ3 graphical user interface. Symbian employs a micro-kernel-ism approach with the core kernel only keeps the minimal functionalities while other features are implemented elsewhere and interact with the core kernel through message-passing. This contrasts greatly with monolithic kernels like Linux and Windoze. However, this OS is coded in C++, which is something Cuppa Chai not familiar with.

It turns out Nokia is very keen to promote the Symbian + UIQ combo (Nokia has 47.9% stake in Symbian Ltd.). The result is Carbide.C++.

Carbide.C++ is an Eclipse-based IDE targeting Symbian-based devices. It even comes with a variant with much-reduced functionality (read: nearly useless for anything serious) for free. To produce something more useful, you need to pay at least US$450 and purchase the missing essential functions like on-device debugging and real-time profiling. Even more advanced version where you can work on the ROM and do kernel debugging is available at a whopping US$6000 price tag.

Familiarity notwithstanding, C++ can't prevent me from having a shot at programming this device. Well, this is what the free Carbide.C++ can do anyway.

Here you go.

My salute to all my fellow nerds in this world: Hello World

The Life of Having P1i

This is the third day I have my SE P1i, and let me write down some of my thoughts.

Some of my friends questioned my decision of getting such fancy phone, arguing 90% of the time we will only use it to talk and sms.

Reading documents on the go? "You must be kidding" they said with both mouth and eyes wide-open.

Truth be told I would have been in their camp just a couple of months back, saying "I can buy 4 phones with this price!"

However I know I can't keep running away from technology. Now ubiquitous devices is the trend and as a software engineer, the least that I can do is to understand, but not necessary to embrace it.

Ok, the above sounds cheesy.

I admit I want a new toy :P

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Bye Bye Moto

With mixed emotions, I announce the demise of my Moto Razr V3i phone.

I am not happy because this stupid V3i died at the time where there wasn't any phone on the market that I like. In order to replace it, I had to bite the bullet and chose one that I hate the least.

The symptoms of its ailing showed on last Friday, which I suspected was a sickness called firmware-couldn't-boot-properly, which led to complications like all-white-screen and slow-to-start.

An engineer I am, I was quick to give it the highly complicated operations of removing-battery-and-put-it-back and also removing-sim-card-and-also-put-it-back, hoping to save its life (Thanks to LY for suggestion of the latter operation). It survived for another 2 days until the following Monday.

It was a fine Monday morning, I powered on the V3i as usual, but it responded very slowly. The air was filled with ominous aura, foretelling the withering life of V3i. After trying all the methods I knew, the phone went from bad to worse and it couldn't even power down properly.

"Must be the stupid bootloader can't boot without a proper prior shutdown."

With that hypothesis, I painstakingly boot the device without sim card and let it shut down, to make sure the shut down sequences were done in order. It proved this indeed again pulled the V3i from the brink of dying.

Like a hunter in a treacherous ground, I trust no luck. With the gait of a well-trained innocent wolf, I dashed out my house, phone in hand and wallet in pocket. I didn't need much anyway. I reached down, yes, my undies was still on. Good.

Time was ticking, I went to a few places where famous hunter-gatherers meet and weighted the bargains. The games were abundant: Sony Ericsson, Nokia, LG, Samsung, etc. My mind had purposefully filtered out any combination of "Moto" or "Rola". No, these terms freak me out.

I was considering Nokia and went to one of the shops, but there was a sign caught my attention:

"Our shop has terminated the 7-days refund and exchange policy. Kindly please inspect your new handset before leaving the counter. Any issue after the purchase please proceed to the Nokia service center."

Shit, I heard Nokia is having quality issue, but I never thought it is so severe. I backed out and there was only Sony Ericsson. When looking at the selections, I was thinking to get T250i which costs S$200+, but the camera is only VGA.

I had been the ardent advocate of "a phone only needs to be a phone, no more", but I start to wonder will a multi-purpose phone can boost my productivity? With that in mind, with a big round of applause, please welcome the new member to my humble abode, Sony P1i!!!!

P/S: What happened to the dying V3i? I sold it, together with all its accessories, for S$70. It would be worthless in no time if I chose to keep it. S$70 is better than a piece of junk, in my opinion.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Extenting the Fox

Here you go, 200+ add ons for the Firefox here


Still using MS IE? You suck.

Let's Look At The Drain

If you have read more than one day of Malaysian newspaper, definitely you will always see our politicians (usually from opposition parties, those from BN are hibernating until the next election) in action: they are such a bunch of down-to-earth people in the sense they attend to matters as mute as clogged drains, burst sewage pipes, sunken pavements, or broken road signs. To make sure you know and see the problems, they will even pose by pointing to the structure in question, and of course, also make sure the photographers have filmed them in an unequivocal light.

Though this is already part of our (and their) daily lives, what does this imply to our societal health as a whole?

First, isn't these issues should be addressed by the individual municipal officers? Where are they, and why we must have high ranking MPs or state representatives to look at clogged drains? The most amazing thing is despite the glaring mis-steps and plain negligence, there is no one held responsible for the mess, and there is no change at all at the root of the problems. There is not even remedial steps taken, let alone heads rolling. If the government will take the step to fire a few of its useless staff (which actually comprises most of the staff anyway), I am sure those so called government servants will sit up and pay attention.

Second, when a country where those leaders are not addressing the real challenges, but only squabbling on making something tallest, biggest, or going on tour to watch belly dancing, or screwing other races for not singing the national anthems right, where is this nation heading? In Singapore, the government not only is able to identify the issues on hand, but it also looks pro-actively at all nascent trends. For example SG has invested like crazy in bio-technology 5 years ago, although the return of investment on this sector is hard to measure in near term, at least it has tried. Do I need to pan the camera back to our beloved government and see what it is up to?

I have had enough of 'setting up special committee' and terms like 'we will investigate this matter further'. Fine, after years of investigation, I can't see things getting better. With fuel price getting higher and higher, the inflation pressure hits hard on common folks. Salaries are depreciating in value due to inflation and the depreciation of the ringgit, further more, with falling foreign direct investment, job opportunities also shrink (FYI, Inventec withdraws from Penang now), I foresee the people will have to endure a double-hit: ever-increasing prices for almost everything, and sky-high crime rate in the months to come.

For those in Malaysia, good luck (trust me, you need that)

Friday, September 28, 2007

How To Charge Fees

I came across a post on how to charge for consultation fees and it is so funny and interesting that I can't resist to blog it. The text is here.

Interesting excerpt:

He (Author's friend) says, “If, when you tell them your rate, half the people don’t say ‘Fuck you’, you aren’t charging enough.”

It seems I am charging far too low for my salary. Shit.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Guide On Resume Writing For SW Engineers

Steve Yegge has an enlightening blog entry on how to write a technical resume properly here.

On one of the tips "Don't say 'Expert' unless you really mean it", what follows is an excerpt of it:

If you say you're an expert in something, many interviewers take it to mean you claim to have a bigger penis than they do, metaphorically speaking of course, and they're going to pull out their still highly metaphorical measuring stick during the interview and size you up. I employ this metaphor in its most gender-neutral possible interpretation, needless to say.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

VPost

[Updated: 26 Sept 2007]
Let me elaborate on how this works:

1. Customers will set up an account with vpost and they will be given an account number
2. When the customers order some merchandises, instead of entering their Singapore addresses, they will enter vpost's collection point address in U.S. and their respective account numbers
3. (Guessing) Vpost will send the collected parcels in batch mode thus getting a cheaper bulk rate
4. Once those stuff arrive Singapore, Singapore Post will relabel those parcels according to the account number and send them off.

Or in networking terms, vpost encapsulates the individual shippings into a jumbo shipment and reroute those shippings upon arrival. Tata

---------------------------
I just ordered some books from Amazon, and found an ad on my parcel from vpost

It claims to be able to offer reduced postage from US and Japan to Singapore by aggregating the shipments.

I haven't tried this service yet, but I found this is a pretty innovative and win-win business model. Plus, it is environmental friendly, too. :)

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Intel Reopens Jerusalem Chip Plant

This story isn't something extra-ordinary, but the following line caught my attention:

Intel's decision to reopen the plant follows additional tax benefits it would receive from its Israeli operations, the paper said, noting that the company plans to move some production lines from southeast Asia to Jerusalem.

In which southeast asian country Intel has production line now?

Interesting, no? ;)

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Jokes

These are classic Chinese jokes on conversations between cell phone buyers and sellers. :)

买家:请问欧版和行货为什么要分开卖?
卖家:因为粘在一起不方便使用。
买家:……
买家:老板,你说欧版质量好,还是行货质量好?
卖家:也许是欧版的吧!
买家:为什么?
卖家:因为我只见过行货有专门的维修中心。
买家:老板,这个手机的铃声怎么样?
卖家:绝对能响!
买家:掌柜的,这个手机的最大优点是什么?
卖家:可以打电话。
买家:哦!有什么缺点呢?
卖家:不能剃须。
买家:……
买家:老板,我同学说的,你们这里买的手机,即使从四楼掉下来摔坏了,你们也可以换的,是这样吗?
卖家:你们应该多关心一下这位同学,不要让他一个人呆着,多陪他说说话,参加一些集体活动。如果还不见有什么好转的话,可以送到医院观察一下。
买家:哦!
买家:老板,有巧克力吗?
卖家:有,德芙的,还有金帝的。
买家:我是说手机!
卖家:哦,经你这么一提醒我才知道我是卖手机的。
买家:老板,那你再给说说怎么分辨原装电池和组装电池。
卖家:你把电池扔到火堆里,原装的爆炸声音更响些。
买家:这么贵的手机,我还不如买个笔记本电脑
卖家:也对,我想你站在人群中,把笔记本翻开,贴在耳朵边听电话的造型一定很酷。
买家:有人吗?
卖家:不好意思,我只卖手机!
买家:老板,这个手机的通话质量好吗?
卖家:三星的一般都很好的。
买家:我已经买的好几部手机都不行,听不清楚别人说什么。
卖家:哦?
买家:你推荐我应该买什么?
卖家:助听器。
买家:老板,问你个问题。大陆行、港行、亚太行、欧行的,哪个质量更好?
卖家:都一样,行行出状元嘛!
买家:老板,有什么手机最耐用?
卖家:只有相对耐用的,没有绝对耐用的。
买家:为什么?
卖家:你见过谁家有祖传的手机?
买家:哥哥,你给我说说智能手机和非智能手机有什么区别啊!
卖家:就以闹钟为例,一般的手机到点就闹,闹得醒闹不醒不管,智能手机见闹不醒你,会打电话给你们单位领导请假。
买家:哦!
买家:老板,你们卖手机赚钱吗?
卖家:那是相当的赚。
买家:那一个月能赚多少?
卖家:你先买部手机,让我先赚点钱,把昨天的饭钱结了再告诉你。
买家:老板,我们这里不到快递,还有什么办法能更快送到吗?
卖家:你包个飞机,然后空投。
买家:有MOTO的998吗?
卖家:不好意思,我不是收藏家。
买家:老板,这个手机大概有多重?
卖家:60多克。
买家:哎!其他都好,我就是嫌太轻了。
卖家:你可以绑在哑铃上使用。

Decisions Made Or Not Made

Story 1:
SCO is nearly dead, now filing for bankruptcy and it blames Linux for its demise. Story here


Story 2:
US automakers in shit, really deep one. Most jobs now go to Asia and South America. Story here.


What do the above stories have in common? What is the lesson?

Complacency kills

Look, SCO was the king in OS in 80's, at that time MS was a small company with MS DOS practically not usable. That was the heyday of SCO with most backbone computers running Unix. At that time, the open source projects didn't exist yet, and Richard Stallment was still hacking happily in the MIT AI lab.

The problem is SCO just has been sitting in its laurel for too long, oblivious to the ever changing world outside. The computing landscape is changing very rapidly, and an 'Internet year', is arguably much shorter than a dog year, let alone a normal calendar year. When SCO finally woke up, it already in shit. Game over.

How about US automakers? They are not dead yet, but they are beaten so hard that they have to cut costs and move to places with cheap labors to survive. For so long US cars have been producing bulky and fuel-inefficient vehicles, and then the gas was dirt cheap and there was no competition, so everything was rosy and glory. But when the underlying factors (i.e. cheap gas and no competition) changed, it was thrown in shit.

What struck me was the quote of Mark Fields, president of Ford's North and South American Operations, on the current situation:

'It's a manifestation of decisions made or not made years ago.'

What is the remedy? I have no ready answers for that, but Steve Job has a very thoughtful pointers here.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Let 'Em Pay

What do you do if you want something that is expensive, but can't really pay for it?

Pessimistic Solution:
Think "I can't never buy it", instead get some wine and get drunk. Fine

Conservative Solution:
"I will start saving today and buy it when I am rich."

Think-Lucky Solution:
Go and buy a lot of lottery tickets, hoping to be lucky

Patek Way:
Go and buy it, and claim that your children will like it as well. What happens if your children don't like watches? Well, who cares? (at least Patek hopes you don't)

Here is the advertisement line from Patek Philippe, a very expensive watch maker

"You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation"

Right. It will be even better if my next generation will pay for the outstanding balance as well. Grin, I will get a dozen of these then. :P

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Kill with Environment In Mind

Russia recently successfully tested a 'dad of all bombs'. News here

What amazes me is the following excerpt from Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

"It [The bomb] is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb, and it will enable us to ensure national security and at the same time stand up to international terrorism in any part of the globe and in any situation."
I like the remark of 'It is environmentally friendly', which implies "I will kill you, but won't pollute the environment."

Thanks for keeping our environment clean.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Why University Sucks Nowadays

I came across a short article on the shortcomings of higher-education systems in UK.

He was a professor in a UK university, but after got fed up with the university system, he threw the towel and quitted.

Interestingly enough the points he delineated were strikingly the pain I felt while in graduate school. Among those:

1. The incoming students are vastly incompetent, and grades were everything according to them. I recalled I had a student who was on the borderline of 'A' and 'B', however his obsession of ensuring to score 'A' really pissed me off (for the record, he had been getting straight A's then). During the final score tally, he was a few points short of getting an 'A', and as an instructor I had 5 points to dispense for class participation. I decided to give him only 1 out of 5 and thus, he was given 'B'. He did make a lot of noise, but after an email from the grad office, he was silenced. I hope he would learn a lesson that grades aren't everything.

2. The need for papers. When I was doing my master's degree, I just felt very weird of the need to churn out papers, especially journal papers. Imagine a room full of highly-qualified, intelligent people and kept debating how much we should put in ("not too much, as we could put that in another paper" proclaimed one participant in the room) and what we should not discuss in the paper (usually weaknesses in the theory or thorny issues that were not tamed). Truth be told I highly suspect if those papers will be read by anybody except the authors and the reviewers. For myself, I doubt there was third person who ever finished reading my master's thesis. I and my advisor did and that is it. I am not even sure the rest of the committee members did.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Moto Hoo-Haas

A few months ago, I complained long and loud when I got my Motorola Razr V3i because it is such a piece of crap. I am not the lone unhappy owner it seems.

Recently a poll on Moto handphone owners reveals more than 75% of Razr owners will not buy Motorola handphone again. News is here.

Count me in please.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Warm, Wet, and Nice

I had a great experience with something wet, warm and thrillingly nice on Saturday.

When I first into her, I could feel the warm sensations rushed throughout my body, and I was sweating profusely. I tried even harder and harder, and .....

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I was covered in dirt because I was cycling through a lot of muddy terrains at the Ubin Island.

Ubin Island is 10 minutes of boat ride away from Singapore island and the beauty of it is it has nothing at all except trees, trees, and more trees. This is a god-send to me because I have quite enough of Singapore's shopping complexes, and this is a break that I need and appreciate.

I and Mr. Snail met around 10:30a.m. at Tampines bus exchange and reached the island around noon. After some strolls there, we got ourselves mountain bikes and rode around. Even though it rained that morning, but the afternoon sun was strong. I felt I was nearly baked under the sun.

We sped through ankle-deep water, mud-filled pavements, single-file bridges and rocky roads. The experience was very unique and fun. Though it would have been much more fun if there were a few more people. :P

The Granite Quarry, we were around 30 feet above the water level


Pose for a shot after hitting dead-end. Scratching my hand, mosquito is small but powerful...

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Information Overlow

When there is demand, there will be supply.

This rule applies for everything under the sun, including information.

Our ancestors realized the importance of information long long time ago.

Chinese even has a legend that when Cang Jie (仓颉) first invented the chinese characters, the whole world was shocked, gods and ghosts cried and the sky just changed color, because they knew humans would be able to access the sacred knowledge from then on. Of course this was a myth, if you are curious, here is the related Wikipedia link (In Chinese). And yes, the picture there really shows this guy has four eyes, I am not sure why, maybe they (the ancient Chinese) believed he was so special that he shouldn't look normal.

No matter in the East or West, literacy was used to be confined to the selected elite few and written articles were considered sacrosanct. But as education becomes more and more ubiquitous, the literacy rate goes up significantly every generation.

Now we are facing information overflow. The Internet is a giant hose connected to an unfathomable deep reservoir of information. No matter what kind of information, you can get them in tonnes. How to address the influx of seemingly overwhelming volume of data is a challenge for everybody.

In fact, information has the same characteristics as the normal tangible items like table, car, chair in the sense they are hard to get rid of from one's house. This observation is easily verified during a house-cleaning, how many times you paused at an item that you seldom or never used and thought "Maybe this will be useful later"?

Sounds familiar? Paul Graham has a good article on stuff here.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

MV Time

[Updated Jan 20, 2008]
The original link to youtube was broken. Fixed for you...

Shakira's Underneath your clothes. Nice song.


Thursday, August 23, 2007

Weed-Out Courses

Every school has a weed-out course. Weed-out course is the modern equivalent of rite of passage in universities around the world, and their sole function is to screw the newly incoming students, hard. Once you survive, you are in the clan.

For the department of ECE in Purdue, legend has it that deep down the dark alley of EE building where the study room is located, swamps of souls of students died of nerve breakdown for uncompleted assignments wander around, all of them would whisper these same words "ECE 201, ECE 202". Most probably in their next lives they turn to the dark side by majoring in liberal arts like accounting or economics, and from then on have a lot of time on their hands and later even become my bosses. Shit.

I heard this is the weed-out course for MIT EECS: 6.001

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Money Lost is Money Lost

I am referring to the recent CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) fiasco that has sent the global stock markets to roller coaster rides. Even central governments have injected a lot of money to increase liquidity and Fed even went further one step by reducing the main interest rate.

Here is my take:

Imagine there is a hole in your pocket and you lose money as a result. How much will it help if I offer to lend you money with lower interest rate? Definitely it will help, but in the end of the day, there is still loss which affects the bottom line.

In other words, there will be definitely a bumpy ride ahead.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Old Pictures

When organizing my data folders, I found some pictures that I took back in my college days. Enjoy...


MSEE...



Hovde Hall

Hill Top Apartment

Friday, August 17, 2007

Cry


Got this from my friend's blog. Think about this. It's deep.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Price of Theoretical Feature

How much can you pay for undefined feature? Ask Nokia

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

I Need A New Phone...

My landlord yesterday told me he had a hard time to reach me in the afternoon. He locked himself out the apartment and needed to get the house key from me. He called me multiple times for the whole day but in vain. Finally he drove to his sister's place and got the spare keys.

My phone was on all the time then. This doesn't seem like StarHub's problem because if there really were no coverage, he would get the standard message "The number you called is current not active...", he said there was silence of like 10 seconds, then the line was disconnected. I suspect it is my phone's issue. Similar issue happened a few weeks ago when my parents tried to reach me. I can't let this happen again.

Weird enough when my landlord told me this, my first thought was on whether she called but the call couldn't get through... I start to miss her (again).

Ok, now I have a more than valid excuse to ditch my Moto. ByeByeMoto. Ta....

Monday, August 13, 2007

How To Talk Like A Politician (Part II)

Given the recent turmoils in the little tea cup of Boleh-Land, it's so inspiring to see how some people are talking crap like politicians. Without further ado, we will start with the familiar price hikes.

Scenario - How to increase the price innocently:

Step 1 - Divide:

"The lorry is not set to carry only a can of milk, there is no reason for its (the milk) price to go up" - a Boleh-Land minister commenting on the increase of canned milk prices after the petrol price was hiked by a whopping 30%

His Main Point:
  1. The price of canned milk shouldn't go up because the lorry is carry 'literally hundred cans' of milk, thus the marginal increase in cost for each can is 'negligible'.
Point He Shunned:
  1. The price of canned milk has one and only one factor: the cost of transportation, and the increase in petrol will only affect people in only one way: in terms of transportation cost.
Step 2 - Compare:
  1. To drive home the point everybody in Boleh-Land is so damn lucky and blessed, we should remind everybody the 'hefty prices' people in other countries in UK, Japan, US are 'suffering'.
"Look, our government is sacrificing for the sake the people and we have subsidized enormously on the oil price. You don't believe? In Japan the oil price is X, in UK it is Y, and in Spain it is Z, where X, Y, and Z are all numbers greater than the oil price in Boleh-Land (after conversion of currency, of course). I wonder why those Japanese, Britons and Americans aren't flocking to Boleh-Land in droves, hey, Boleh-Land is soooo good and cheap, right?

Step 3 - Give an Innocent Look :

This step is entirely optional and the politician won't give you this look actually. Only the poor people who are screwed will have this look.




How To Apply:
This will be left as homework for the reader. ;)

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Open Source CPU

In a desperate move to boost sales and compete with Intel and AMD, Sun announced it will put its latest UltraSPARC T2, code-named Niagara 2 into the open source domain. Its official website is here.

Sun realizes if this architecture were kept private and customers had to sign NDAs, they (Sun and this product) will get more middle fingers than money. By letting people to use for free putting this IP (intellectual property) under GPL, it is a shrewd strategy that can net in people who won't consider SPARC CPUs in the first place.

If this move really gains momentum, Sun still can earn money in alot of different ways.

For example (not all examples are from mine, I read some off the net):

  1. Keep evolving the architecture such that for latest version n, all version m < n will be released into public domain. Version n which has more features/power/perks will have a (usually hefty) price tag on it. This pricing tactic is used by M$ on Vista, but the problem is customers just don't want Vista at all, despite the branding names like premium, basic, home, business, super-duper, etc.
  2. Sell related value added products like OS (Solaris, anyone?), customized interconnects, memory controllers, or co-processors. These are really money spinners nowadays
  3. Hoping to sell more unrelated products due to its increased popularity. This may not always work for companies that are in the quest to diversify their profiles. A famous fiasco is from Colgate venturing into the business of microwave meals. During part of the post-mortem of its failure, most customers conjured images of tooth-paste when seeing the word 'Colgate', and the problem was most people aren't too keen to have tooth-paste as part of the meal. Tata, Colgate fell on its face flat.
Tomorrow is a public holiday. Sigh... I am not really happy these days...

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Exit Strategy

Last weekend I didn't go out for long. Instead I spent the whole Sunday to clean my room, did some laundry, and relaxed at home.

There are things to ponder upon, and on that Sunday I was thinking on how I am going to plan for my professional life.

The first important question is: Do I still want to be an engineer?

If I do, then some other questions to consider:

  1. For how long?
  2. Where?
  3. Do I still want to dive deeper in my current scope, or I need to increase the breadth?
If I don't, what else I want to do to eke out my incomes? Financial analyst? economist? businessman? or even as a modern farmer?

Unfortunately in the real-world there is always a gray area. A problem that has a lot of solutions, but each of those solution has trade-offs. I recognize this is called 'life'.

With regard whether I want to continue as an engineer, at this stage I am more keen to establish an exit strategy. An exit strategy I define as a plan that decouples the money part from the work itself. In other words, upon the fruition of my exit strategy, I can work on things that fancy me with minimal consideration on how to sustain my family and myself. Before that, I still think working on my specialization will give me more ROI (Return On Investments). All in all, I still like to be a geek. :)

Moving to Singapore is a good start: I don't need to worry too much about things like crimes, idiotic politicians, and growth opportunities. How long will I stay here? I don't know....

Friday, August 03, 2007

A Robot With Big Gun(s)

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/httpwwwnational.html

Don't always assume robots are dumb :P

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Random Thoughts

  1. I have a friend working as unit trust agent back in Malaysia and we are kind of good friends. He peddled those funds to me a few times, and I was really at the edge of buying, until an incident that changed my mind: He has a younger brother who was still studying, however it seems his younger brother needed to foot his own bills and pay everything by himself (no sponsorship from the family). I know my friend has a very decent income both from his day-time job and the part time job as fund agent. When he mentioned his younger brother would need to fend for himself for school fees and he would spend money to travel with his girl friend, it left a really bad taste in my mouth. Honestly my friend had not done anything wrong, and I do think there are a lot of people acting the same way. I decide not to buy anything just because of that particular remark he made. Conclusion: Be more humane to your siblings or/and parents, you could earn my business
  2. What do you do when there is a stalemate in a relationship? My take is to try my best to resolve it, when everything fails, just watch it to fade. What can I do anyway?
  3. What do you do when you are dog-tired? Go home.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Monday, July 30, 2007

寂寞猫来伴

周末一早就被屋外的升降机警铃惊醒。

没心再睡下去,匆匆换了衣服就往屋外走。去到升降机坪看到原来是升降机故障, 把隔壁的老邻居给困住。 有个住二楼的阿姨说已打了电话给维修公司,可是等了半天依然苍蝇也看不到一只。我亲自再打了一通,然后跟那阿姨说我去买报纸,回过头时如果维修员还没来我再打。

早上的天气不赖,可是老天爷最近就常愁眉苦脸,就算不下雨也很难看到太阳。 回到去时老邻居已给人救出来,我松了一口气, 开始想这星期六应怎么过。

找蜗牛出来?打了电话给他, 洗着衣服。 约了时间我便往外逛。

不想找 girlie cat 了。。。他妈的,对她好就吊高来卖。 “唯小人与女子难养也“,孔夫子这老头儿几百年前肯定吃过女人亏,不然不会有感而发。后生小子岂可不慎乎?

这次我去找住斜对面的大黄猫, 他看到我可不得了啦,对我大声招呼,十分亲热,就只差没捧他主人的啤酒来请我喝。


哥儿们就应有哥儿们的玩意儿。 我找了一根短绳,放在地上做滚动状,大黄看到立刻眼放精光,野性大发,追着绳子又咬又踢,好几次差点就把我老人家的手指做了点心。

我拉着绳子在五脚基跑,而大黄在我身后追。跑了一回,轮我追他时,大黄却赖在地上装死猪,死拖硬推就是不肯跑。我没法,虽然不怀好意的想拖他洗个大澡,看看时间也不早,只能作罢。

不了解女人。。。 girlie cat 或。。。 那 girlie kak 我到现在怎都不懂。 无能为力。。。

ToDo

  1. To have ToDo...

Friday, July 27, 2007

How To Talk Like A Politician (Part 1)

Introduction:
This installment sets out to introduce the infinite wisdom of the politicians in a fictional place called Boleh-Land, where everything is possible, say, magically turning the capital city into Venice after moderate rain.

Example:
"The rise of police reports is due to Boleh-Land people are more crime conscious and more brave to report to the authority" - a politician's reply when asked to comment on the recent spike in crime numbers

His Main Point:
1. Number of crime rate has not increased, thus he pushed the accusation of "the crime rate has shot up" aside

Points He Shunned:
1. The question on the absolute number which is high in any measure. As expected, he did once again compare with other messier countries. "We are much better than country X where people need to hire gun men to protect themselves. You are very blessed as you have dedicated police force for you. You are still robbed and raped? Well, too bad, don't expect the government to patrol in front of your house everyday, OK? "

Now the more interesting part: Application. Note this application is something that I have seen or heard personally. Really no play play one. Ok, here we go.

How to Apply:

Scenario: The project you design has a lot of 'issues' and these bugs are found by the test engineer or/and customers. What do you say when confronted by fuming boss?

Steps:
  1. Before you start, shake your head slowly as if your boss has asked a silly question
  2. Stare in his/her eyes, and say slowly "No no no, you don't understand."
  3. "I didn't inject any new defects in the design. See, the test engineer and customer are more acquainted with the product after working extensively with me. Therefore, they have a deeper insight on the product and the issues just surface more quickly. There is no new defects."
  4. If your boss isn't convinced, say "In fact, these are new features that are yet to be documented. The specs are out-dated."
  5. Turn your face away from your boss and keep working, leaving your appalled boss on the spot to repent for the silly question asked.
Final note: Use at your own risk

Monday, July 23, 2007

On Pasir Ris


Pasir Ris is at the east side of Singapore, close to the sea.

Last Sunday I went to Tampines and casually hopped to the MRT and arrived Pasir Ris.

Right next to the MRT station are 3 fishing ponds: main pond, pro pond, and hehe pond.

These names are very interesting, especially the last one: hehe pond. 'Hehe' is the laughter which implies you will be happy if you fish there, 'for kids', I thought. The 'pro pond' sounds like a place that is very challenging and exciting. The fish could be very hard to catch.

I went closer to see and found out the main pond is the largest pond, followed by pro with about quarter of the main pond, and the hehe pond is only roughly measured 6' x 8'.

I was a little bit confused, pros should take more challenges, why the pond is getting smaller? Is there are only 3 fish inside? After some investigations it seems pros for this place like the easy way out and indeed pro pond has the same amount of fish like the main pond, with its smaller size, the density is way higher. The hehe pond pushes this to the extreme by literally stuffing the fish into the pond.

"Losers", I told myself. This place reminds me of an emperor in old days China. He was a lousy archer but liked to hunt anyway, so he ordered his soldiers to get some deers, confined those animals in a small place and shot them with arrows. However a loser he was, sometimes he still missed. Pissed, he asked the soldiers to hold spears to goad the animals closer to him. The hehe pond really reminds me of this emperor.

Hereby I rename the pond: Loser Pond.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Deep Slumber

I woke up early today at 6:45a.m. to jog in the Bedok Reservoir Park. It is refreshing to exercise in the morning and gives me a better sleep at night.

After shower and breakfast I went to work and saw this cat sleeping in a very cozy posture


Some people may think this looks like a dead cat. Nope, its leg was even kicking slightly when I took this picture. Wonder what it had in its dreams? :)

Thursday, July 19, 2007

They Didn't Study

After long nights of studies, you are in the exam hall and sitting in front of the test paper. Though the test questions look somewhat familiar, your brain isn't in the right mood to function and you are not sure how to answer.

OR

You just goofed off and didn't study at all.

What will you do?

Let's look how others dealt creatively when they are stuck in exams here.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

End of Day Thoughts

  • Bad Mood: I was not in a good mood starting from lunch. When the clock struck 6, I just couldn't sit still anymore. What was wrong? It could be the earlier company-wide meeting about our company's screw ups financial challenges, or it could due to someone somehow still decides not to talk to me, or the haze from Indonesia which struck Asia again, or my stomach was empty and I was hungry. The last reason was the culprit I felt. At once I stood up, rushed out the office, ordered a bowl of noodle and ate it as if I had no food for ten years. The noodle resolved my problem and everything is in order now. Now I just need to figure out how to get that girlie someone to talk to me....
  • On technology: I watched Linus' talk given at Google on git. Linus is not only a good programmer, he speaks quite well also. Git sounds a promising source control system. If you use cvs or svn regularly and find these tools are good, go ahead a take a look what Linus has to say. ;)

Monday, July 16, 2007

I Owe You What?

I read with amusement on the statistics of US trade deficit with China is growing at a whopping US$20 billion per day. Yes, it is per day. Now US is mired in a deep deep abyss of debt (trade deficit is debt, on top of the budget deficit for funding war in Iraq...).

Is China really the culprit causing US in such huge debt? Actually no, the wars that it has engaged are.

Why can't the countries live in harmony? Greed and fear? I don't know.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

iPod, You, Lightning Storm

A 37-year-old Canadian man was serious injured while he jogged in thunderstorm while listening to iPod. The detail is here.

I just came across an article which I feel obliged to post it here so that my dear readers: one who likes to cycle around in Korea and cause noise pollution at the same time by singing; and another one is also an avid cyclist who may still do cycling in Singapore with some media player possibly from her father (actually I am not sure if her father really gave her an iPod during her birthday, neither could I sure that iPod can store all music from her CDs)

Mathematically: E (iPod, you, Thunder storm) => (you, fried)

English: if there exist: iPod, you, and thunder storm, it implies you will be fried

Nah, no need to thank me, or what are friends for?

But if you really insist, do send me a Mac Book Pro and make sure it comes with 2Gb of RAM.

Additional cash or check is optional.