Sunday, April 29, 2007

What I Need, What I Want, and What I Think

I wrote the following roughly 2 hours ago, upon re-reading it, I decide to remove some paragraphs. Those statements are too negative, and don't convey what I actually feel. I will say I am looking forward to a more fruitful relationship. After all, that is my main reason of going to Singapore (I could have chosen the less cumbersome Hong Kong). But I can't deny I am quite beaten these days after seeing this is going nowhere and always goes back to square one. I can't describe how much heartache I have had.

==========
Curiously, these are different, and in some more extreme instances, they are mostly disjoint sets.

Many people are not aware the differences between these three.

What I need: This includes the essentials to survive: food, water, air, rest, family support, love, mental/emotional stability, financial stability

What I want: Encompasses the nice-to-have, but not necessary stuff: not-essential supplements, fame, wealth, social statuses

What I think: This category is more abstract and subjective. It is based on my own perception and understanding of myself, and is formulated by my mind on what I think I need and want. Please pay attention to the words in bold. Hi Descartes!

For so long I have been trying to mold people whom I come across with my world view, a good example will be my brother: I have been urging him to be more proactive in life and plan further ahead, however he has his own way to live his life. He could have avoided a lot of pitfalls and pain if he were to listen to my advices. But all in all, this is his life, as a brother I have done all I can, the rest is his decision.

In conjunction of starting another chapter in my life in Singapore, I am re-examining my fatigued self.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Google's Dilemma

Google is in the media spotlight again, but this time the coverage is not positive: A glitch in its personalized home page has caused a lot of users to lose their customized settings. Users are fuming because most of them spent significant amount of time to refine their pages (story here).

Following my previous post on Google and MS, this incident shows a centralized model that Google currently employs is having some challenges. My personal opinion is this will be probably one of the last few straws before Google finally dips its feet into the water of distributed computing.

What does this imply? I foresee Google will start to venture into downloadable applications so that users can use Google's applications (search, document + spreadsheet, etc.) and store the files offline. This is getting closer and closer to compete with MS head-on. I am very interested to see how this goes.

We will see. :)

Monday, April 23, 2007

Random Notes

Monday blue, today I aimlessly browsed many websites, some of those were related to my immediate objective: trying to rent a room near my office in Eunos. Now I am planning on the logistics of moving my stuff. Three year worth of stuff. Sigh...

The other websites I read were more random, but still useful. I came across a blog by one of my colleagues, and learned that recently (March 07) he was allowed to transfer to the Advanced Technology Group (ATG), which is a R&D group doing proof-of-concept, 'futuristic' stuff. This confirms my gut-feeling: my current group is drifting into insignificance, and its size is being systematically reduced. My departure is timely. However I have a debate in my head: Leaving is always easy, the hardest part is to stay on and fight against the odds. This, in turn, is balanced by the need to spend time on things that matter the most. Family ranks high in this regard.

From the blogs, I also realize some of my colleagues are party animals. Honestly I don't mix well with others. I can if I want to (tried and true), but most of the time I just found the conversations silly. However when at home I also stare at the computer, not particularly productive. Anyway, I have no intention to push myself to socialize more though.

If staying home is what I myself prefer, I won't crowd myself out of that.

Came across the list of victims of the Virginia Tech shooting in New York Times, saddened by the tragedy. The need for gun control is being raised again after being shot down countless times. Personally I don't believe this is the cure for violences. The root cause lies else where, and in fact, the society and the government should be examined as a whole. Controlling guns is more a band-aid solution.

The world is getting messier and messier...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

On Weakness Assessment

Sometime ago, F. Stream and I did strength/weakness analysis for each other. The feedbacks I got are not only insightful, but also right-to-the-point.

This is hardly surprising: we have known each other since ECE202 in Purdue and were roommates/housemates for quite sometime, he really knows the nuances of my characters.

Without concerning the possible embarrassment I may subject to, I will publish the list of my weaknesses:
1) Too caught up in your own world. Some times, people may be following their own conscience and their own code of conduct as well. Try to put yourself in other people's situation to understand what they are going through and what options they may have. What may be bad against you, can be just what is a rational choice to others. In such situation, you should show some understanding and plan your own response accordingly.

2) More active attitude toward life. Need a little bit of passion in work and life. Now that you have developed good listening skills and measured response skills, you can contribute more to your work and your life. Develop a passion to see things done, to change the situation into a better one. You only live life once, what are you going to do to make it more meaningful to you? You don't have to be a great hero or inventor... improve on the little things in life. Maybe you wanna improve your coding skills? Architecture skills? software processes? Social development (charity work, eg.)? Self improvement? Cook a new dish? Girlfriend?

3) Take Risk, Relax and enjoy life. Engineers usually have this problem: spend money on bare necessity and live 'efficiently'. I was like that too. But I realized that, some times, it's good to take a break, enjoy life, let your mind relax. Sometimes, even be willing to spend some money to do the things you like. Explore the things that you are poor in doing. Experiment with life. You might discover hidden talents or develop a healthy habit. Who knows? Take some risks, live an adventure.

All the above points are very valid (especially #1, and #3), and I am planning a mitigation plan for now. I expect the outcome to be an amalgam of my personal reasonings and the inputs I have got so far. In other words, I will scan, examine, analyse, consolidate, and re-program my own self accordingly. :)

My sincere thanks to F. Stream and all my friends who are kind enough to point out my weaknesseses. I understand how hard it is to write down such thing and I highly appreciate the inputs.

However, I fully realize my weaknesses are not limited to the three mentioned above, talking of self-improvement! :P

Saturday, April 21, 2007

War of Brains

Upon reading this title, you may start to think I am going to talk about brain drain, competition for talents, or even on information warfares. No, not this time. Instead, my focus will be much smaller and microscopic: myself.

The date of departure to Singapore is drawing nearer and nearer. My brain starts to kick into high alert mode to arrange for the schedules, plan things out, and try to optimize logistics. As you can see, all these require logical thinking, and naturally my left brain reigns all this while.

I am not sure how to frame all these, but I feel I have two 'personalities': one is a more linear-thinking, logical, engineer-like me, whom I call him by the name 'left brain', while another is a sentimental, cleverer, very moody, and (hopefully) more romantic twin whom I call as 'right brain'.

Starting from the date I interviewed until now, my left brain has taken over most of the thinking. Most probably I will need him for the first month or so when I am in Singapore, please forgive me if I appear harsh, linear, and not attentative. I am writing this using the remaining influence from my overriden right brain. This doesn't mean it is the end of my right brain, for those who know me long and deep enough, each of my brains will reign for some time, taking turns for vacations, so to speak.

Therefore when you see a sudden change of tone and mood in my writing, here the rightie reigns again. :)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Exodus

I am relocating to Singapore in mid-May. This shouldn't come as a surprise for some of you. For the rest whom I couldn't notify in person, I apologize.

Since this Monday, I have been repeating my resignation reason for at least 3 times, first with my direct supervisor, then this morning a senior manager pulled me into a room and we went through the same drill again, and in the afternoon the company HR called and I repeated the script.

The reason I cited was: "My girlfriend is in Singapore now, and I have heartache for having her alone there after travelling half of the globe, therefore I will go down to be with her." This reason effectively throws off all the standard management and HR negotiation strategies.

The managers could only say "Are you sure you want to go down just for her?" and hoped I would change my mind. I gave them a very firm, no-turn-back affirmative. What I didn't mention are the rising crime rate, the closer distance to my hometown, and room for growth.

This is a major decision I made in my life, however whenever I need someone to talk to, as usual, she remains silent.... [heartache]

Monday, April 16, 2007

Coffee

After not blogging for more than a week, finally I can sit down and write something.

I went to Singapore last weekend. The details I am too tired to put here now. Just put a photo I took while I was in Changi Airport:


While waiting for my flight....

Sunday, April 08, 2007

What Will You Do?

Suppose you are an artist, and you have just spent significant amount of time and effort to create a piece of digital artwork. A generous soul you are, you decide to put this artwork in public domain with a relatively liberal license.

A guy, let's call him Marcus, took your artwork into another project which is governed by another license. The problem is that license has terms that you disagree strongly. There is no monetary loss at your end.

Since you have the moral high ground by being able to prove Marcus indeed did 'borrow' most part of the artwork AND put it in that project without even asking for permission.

What will you do?

Possible choices:
  1. Ignore this matter, as you think legal matters are hairy in nature
  2. Send a stern email to project mailing lists which have thousands of recipients and openly accusing Marcus of plagiarism. Nailed him squarely by providing line-by-line diff's to show indeed Marcus copied intentionally.
  3. Send him and the project leader a private note explaining the issue and hope for a quick resolution
  4. Recommend Marcus to work for M$ as this is usually what has been done there
Choice #2 and #3 are both viable solution (actually #4 is also very valid...), though they have entirely different consequences.

The above is not a thought experiment. The story is as follows:

Recently, some Linux developers found out there code was in the openBSD code repository (news article here). The code in concern is on the device driver for Broadcom's wireless chipset.

Two factors contribute to this dispute: the effort that went in to the project, and the nature of openBSD license.

First of all, chipset specs are usually confidential and not released to public, and Broadcom doesn't have the device driver for Linux. Having no way to get more information about the chipset, those developers spent a lot of effort to reverse-engineer the Windows driver to learn the internals, and used that information to write a driver for Linux. This is not a trivial task that can be done over a weekend.

Moreover, the openBSD license allows the use of their code in closed-source projects (i.e. no source code will be released). The Linux developers are concerned that Broadcom may import their (more elegantly written) code back into its private code base.

The lead developer for the Linux driver, Michael, chose choice #2 by shooting a stern warning email to several well-populated mailing lists. Initially the openBSD lead, Theo, in an effort to soften the blow and save some face for Marcus, suggested the code was checked in by 'mistake'. However Michael and friends just didn't get it and produced all the evidences to prove their case.

The outcome is Marcus, the guy who 'borrow'ed the code deleted all the offending code he checked in and called for quit.

Here I don't intend to paint Michael as a villain. In fact, he is the one on both the moral and legal high ground because he does catch a copyright violation, and his effort may be lost if he doesn't act promptly.

That being said, empathy is absent in Michael's approach. In other words, in virtue of his legal position (i.e. "that guy really copied my stuff!!"), his sending the said email to thousands of developers around the world literally left Marcus no where to go. Putting yourself in Marcus' shoes, what can you do when there are solid evidences presented in public of your mistakes? Nearly all people will choose to run away from the public spot light and quit.

Plagiarism is indeed incorrect, but by exposing the person in question literally naked in public is a disservice. Remember, we are dealing with humans who have feelings. If I were Michael, upon seeing the post saying this was a mistake, I would offer Marcus the benefit of doubt by saying "Well, mistakes do happen sometimes. Let's move on to correct this." All in all, Marcus already acknowledged this mistake (though a 'careless' one) and offered to fix it. This way, not only the issue could be resolved much quicker, also everybody would take note of the EQ and forgiveness involved. The world is, unfortunately, not black and white. There are plenty of gray areas that we need to deal with.

In the end, Michael not only doesn't get the result he wants (that Marcus admits he copied the code), he also alienates a lot of people (I am one, at least).

I have a lot of thoughts on this subject because I am a software developer and I also have my share of mistakes.

The original mail exchanges in the mailing list is here. Sadly, the discussion turned into a comedy with name-calling and mud-slinging.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Microsoft is Dead?

Is Microsoft dead? Paul Graham thinks so in one of his essays here.

Here, 'dead' denotes'dwindling to insignificance', instead of going out of business. Graham listed 4 reasons:

  1. Google
  2. Ajax
  3. Broadband internet
  4. Apple
I am not familiar with the Ajax technology, therefore no comment. However I agree with the other three.

Personally, instead of proclaiming MS is a piece of (soon to be) dead meat, I will say MS still stands a good chance to fight back due to two factors: The first one is cash, as Graham noted in his essay, MS is literally flooded with cash. By buying some good startups, it is possible MS can regain the lost ground and fight back.

Another factor we need to pay attention is Bill Gates. Even though Gates doesn't devote much time into MS anymore, but if it goes in deep shit like what Dell is up to now, I don't see why he will not jump back on the driver's seat like what Michael Dell has done.

Some tend to dismiss Gates and attribute the rise of MS solely to luck: it was in the right place at the right time. We couldn't contest this hypothesis by reversing the time and put another guy, say George Bush Jr. as head of MS. The bottom line is: if I plan to invade MS territories, I won't neglect the movement of this man.





Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Simplify!

My desk is of maximum entropy nowadays: beside the usual LCD panel, keyboard and desklamp, I have tonnes of stuff that I always tell myself "I will clear that in a minute." I have been taken the definition of one minute so liberally that until now there are multiple one minutes on the table waiting for me to take care of.

Without the guts to face reality, I peep with the side of my eyes and here is a list of papers I need to take care:
  1. An article on relationship, "Studies and statistics: love potion number 'O'" by Janice Shaw Crouse, that I plan to read again. Among the statements I find interesting are

  2. "... there really is a love potion -- a miracle, God-designed chemical that is induced when a couple shares touch, closeness and/or intimacy"

    "We’re used to musicians singing and poets waxing eloquent about love, but it’s quite a jolt to have scientific researchers bluntly call love a “chemical addiction” between a man and a woman. In fact, they claim that the brains of people who say that they are deeply in love use the same neural mechanisms that are activated during the process of addiction; the affected brain areas are relatively small, but have powerful influence on deep emotional responses, one’s “gut” feelings."

    "The truth is simple: to love deeply and with greater enthusiasm, we must be highly discriminating about our relationships with the opposite sex. Oxytocin is instrumental in regulating the sex drive in both males and females –– it creates a natural feedback loop so that the more sex a couple has, the more they want. Sex with the right person (read husband/wife) produces a psychochemical cocktail that can yield absolute, unconditional and uninhibited love for each other –– orgasm causes levels of oxytocin to increase three to five times above normal."

    "The warning is equally simple: to casually “hook up” is to risk short-circuiting all future relationships. The chemical reaction that takes place during orgasm prepares the body and heart for a relationship. When the relationship does not develop, the person’s bonding ability and ability to trust is undermined. Further, the stress of an uncommitted mating produces the same effect. In short, promiscuity can destroy the long-range potential for sex.


    That is what a long term relationship means and for... Supported by scientific research :)

  3. A letter politely asking me to renew car insurance 3 months in advance, offering me a free travel mug
  4. A paper on MPEG compression techniques
  5. A book on Linux device driver programming
  6. A cup, with fresh water for my consumption. FYI, I will never allow any utensils with whatsoever leftover remain uncleaned for more than 1 hour. No exceptions
  7. A charger from my old Nokia 1110, don't know where to put it. It is still in working condition. Disposing it will be a waste, putting on the table for now as paper weight
  8. Some stray wires
  9. A stack of paper at the bottom of the heap that I am not sure if it's useful or not
The holy grail to tidiness will be to actively reduce messiness (aka entropy), however according to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy is forever increasing. As a law-abiding person, I decide to follow and let it increase. Hmm, how does my reason sound? ;)

Suddenly thought of a conversation with Mr. Snail this afternoon when discussing the merits of HD-DVD and Blu Ray. For the picture in picture feature, HD-DVD is using an XML file while Blue Ray uses an embedded version of Java language. After discussing the pros and cons, suddenly I asked him something like "We are too boring, not sure if any girl will bother to listen to all these?" Duh...

Monday, April 02, 2007

Wish List of An Ideal Phone

After using a few hand phones with different price tags and features, I still yet to find a handphone that really satisfies all my needs.

I am not asking for a handphone with satellite up-link, energy protection shield, ion cannon weapon, or a nucleus fission generator built in. In fact, my list is simple:

  • A battery that can last for at least 1 month without charging under light use (average under 1 hour per day)
  • Provides address book that simplifies searching, replacing, and making calls
  • Speaker with good sound quality and audible volume even in noisy places, and a matching microphone for hands-free use
  • SMS capability, which at least should support Chinese and English with decent input methods
  • A 3.2 MPixel or better camera that is simple and easy to use.
All these requirements are available in the market, the problem is these features just cannot be found in one handphone. I am sure many people will also have similar needs.

The last requirement would not have made it in if I were compiling the list last year. So far I always believe an item should be simple and should excel at what it is doing: a camera phone just seemed funny. However after using my V3i which has a 1.3M camera, though as shitty as the camera is, I still find myself using it relative frequently. Therefore I conclude a camera phone will sometime come in handy.

To Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, LG, whatever: if you want my money, produce a phone that matches the above specs, and I will instantly throw my money at you. No kidding.