Friday, October 30, 2009

I am Back

Phew, after two weeks, I am back to scene. In fact, I just got down from the flight only a few hours ago. However I am very much sleepless, though I got up at 4am this morning to catch the plane.

Again the reason is silly: I got a blank email again before my departure. However this time I have no way to contact her. Therefore whatever I can do, I do it here at my blog.

Good nite...

Friday, October 16, 2009

Cuppa is Away

I will be away for sometime and be back in early November. See ya. :)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

When Discrimination Kicks In...

This morning I saw my college friend online. He is an Asian now working in US and I told him nowadays most engineering jobs are gravitating to China because China has both the market and eco-systems for engineering.

He made a remark of "hoping to see no angmo in China". 'Angmo' is a derogatory term in Chinese, referring to Caucasians/Westerners. He said nowadays China is strong and (relatively) rich, so he doesn't want to see Westerners to 'snatch' the wealth away.

His remark left me in silence for sometime. I was quite shocked. To me, the western country that I am most familiar is US, and I had spent some of my happiest and saddest moments there. On top of that, the college that I attended gave me decent education and adequate exposure to the world. Though some people will argue that the foreign students did pay a hefty out-of-state tuition fee and therefore are entitled to the education, I beg to differ. The value that I got out is far far higher than the tuition fees I threw in, and I was glad I was educated in such fine university. To that end, I highly appreciate the opportunities given to me, though I am neither a Caucasian nor an American.

My stand on foreigners working in China is: it is a good use of human capital, and as long as the processes are fair and transparent, there is nothing wrong for somebody to earn a living in other countries. I really dislike people who cry discrimination at the slightest hint of difference in treatment, but with such deep-seated belief in protectionism.

Monday, October 12, 2009

On Blogging

I am not the first one among my friends to write blogs, and for now, I am one of the very few who still continue writing. YC has dropped and shut his blog down, FS's last post was in 2007, and the Soothsayer also seems to be MIA.

However I write blog not because I want to out-last my friends, neither do I want to earn money (i.e. no ads), nor to prove anything to anybody.

I can't explain why I continue either.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Work, work, and work

A few days ago a head hunter called me. She claimed she represented her client, a US MNC which wants to establish an RnD center in Singapore. She said my profile matches her criteria and asked if I am interested.

As you may know I am not a big fan of MNC, but, the phrase 'establishing an RnD center' caught my attention, so I just said yeah, it sounds cool and she promised to furnish me more info.

For the mean while, I am just daydreaming away. Family, family, and family. Where is that girl....? These two days I have been sentimental. Here I dedicated the following song to her, though I know she won't understand most of the lyrics..., but..., when has she ever cared to understand me....?

p/s: Please note this artist is blind, that explains his occasional weird facial expression...

Don't Want to Close My Eyes...

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Where is the money?

The world's real-estate and stock markets are bullish, which leads many economists and politicians to announce economic recovery is on track!!

But is it really so? Take Singapore as example, even though the government housings are controlled by regulations (for example, only married couples are eligible to purchase, and each household is only entitled to one unit, etc), the price is shooting up. These housings are commonly called HDB flats, where Housing Development Board is the body that governs the sales and constructions of them.

Nowadays, for a modest unit of 4-room flat, with built-up area of around 1000 sq. ft. buyers will have to dole out S$20k to S$50k of cash (this is called Cash over Valuation, CoV) to the seller, on top of the valuation which will be around S$450K. So the 20% down-payment, CoV and renovation costs will easy add up to S$100K, and we are not yet including the S$300K loan that will burden the poor couple for the next 20-30 years. I just wonder when do people in Singapore are so rich to the extent they can snap up flats just like it is free? Or there are some unseen hands interfere with the market? No one knows.

The next thing that intrigues me is the bullish sentiment in the stock markets. Take US stock market for example, with unemployment rate of close to 10%, what are the fundamentals that can support the rising prices? Where are all the money come from? There must exist some sources and I can only think of four: entities (business or people) in US, entities outside of US, non-US government(s), and US government.

Think about it. :)

Sunday, October 04, 2009

The Story of C, C++, and D

As programming languages evolves, we have seen the introduction of C++ over C. But wait, is 'evolve' the correct word to describe C++?

Choice of programming language has always been a pseudo-religious topic, proponents for language X will use only one and only one language i.e. X and the rest are either 'toy languages', or complain incessantly for the lack of features A, B, or C that exist for that particular language.

Case in point: C vs. C++, as recently someone in reddit asked about the merit of C++ in embedded systems. The result is predictable, soon the thread has been flooded with 400+ of comments, and it looks like 80% of people prefer C. C++ can only take a back seat with labels like 'obscure syntax', 'inefficient', etc. Though there are thoughtful responses, overall the discussion gives an impression a lot of language zealots who support C, never actually spend enough time to really learn C++ properly. What I mean is C++ was designed with specific design goals and problem domains in mind. If you treat C++ as a C with strong type-checking, then you (and presumably the C++ compiler) won't be too happy in the long run.

To make the matter even more fun, here comes the D language: some random reader has complimented this language on reddit and solicited for opinions. Again, language fanboys are up in arms, defend their beloved {c, c++, java, python, perl, whatever} and make their best shots to shoot down D. Personally I view D with reservations as it is still in a state of flux. Investing time and resource in an experimental language is pretty risky, let alone D is in a rather awkward position of having 2 'standard' libraries (Phobos and Tango) and two versions: D 1.0 is so-called the stable branch while D 2.0 is experimental.

For a beginner like me, I am confused. Since D 2.0 is different from the core D 1.0 language, to me learning D 1.0 doesn't really worth my time and energy. On the other hand, D 2.0 is still under development, and the best strategy is to sit and wait until there is a stable D language spec.

Ah, but don't forget C++ is also undergoing some major uplifting: the C++0x is not yet formally approved yet, therefore the 'x' denotes the year where this new spec is being approved. A lot of people think it would be 2010, so it will be C++010, or C++0xA in hex. However, C++0x so far only adds features and it doesn't have any major change that will affect the current C++ code bases.

Now, back to the question: if I want a programming language that is relatively stable and usable for my jobs on hand, what language should I turn to?

Too bad, I can only go for C. Therefore, I declare C++ sucks! D sucks! :P haha