My OpenSolaris is Up

Just a quick update I have my desktop running after getting it an Athlon II and a Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H motherboard. Yes, everything seems working for OpenSolaris 06.2009 and I will resume my technical blogging soon.

I got a blank email this morning, and it is my most familiar foreign object. Hmm....

Random Thoughts

I just implemented a Linux system call feature to toggle a gpio pin. There are other ways to accomplish that, I just want to revise about system calls implementation.

All these days I do on and off think about mak. This is damn weird and silly.

Rumor has it that Apple is going to introduce tablet PC. Oooh, hope it is not the exploding one like some iPods do...

Singapore is damn crowded and today it is hazy. Bad air quality

I am very tired now.

The Advent of Chiwan

Chiwan (pronounced as Caiwan, rhythms with 'shine one') is a new term that caught a lot of attention world wide. This term, coined by a newspaper in South Korea, refers to the combination of China and Taiwan, and hence the name 'Chiwan'. Some people refer it as 'Chaiwan', however since there is a district in Hong Kong is called 'Chaiwan', I think Chiwan is a better term.

Taiwan and China were not cooperating much last time due to different political stances, but the Mah government represents a new set of faces towards the communist country. Ties are getting warmer and a few trade pacts were signed. For one Taiwan has accumulated a lot of technical know-hows after decades of experiences designing high-tech gadgets for big names like Apple and IBM. China has a vast eager market and almost unlimited supply of cheap labors. The effect of the brawn of China married with the brain of Taiwan has sent chill down to splines of all the major economies. South Korea is among the first to feel the impact from this strategic alliances as it sees its export dropped.

I am typing this blog as an engineer in Singapore, and I am looking at the new dynamics with interest. What I am pretty sure is Singapore will be hit by Chiwan eventually. As the pool of engineering talent dries up because of lower pay, companies will have to move to places where the talents are.

While I was typing this post, there is news about Seagate to shut down all the operations in Singapore and lay off as many as 8000 workers.

I will say this is just the start of the economy crisis...

How to Send Binary File to Serial Port Under Linux

Recently I need to send a binary file to a device connected to the serial port of my PC. Under windows I can use the 'send binary file' in teraterm, how about under minicom?

The solution is simple, if your serial port is COM1:

cat [filename] > /dev/ttyS0

Or if you are using some kind of USB to serial converter:

cat [filename] > /dev/ttyUSB0

Note: The number could differ depending on your system configuration, it could be /dev/ttyUSB4 for example. To check what is the number, do a 'ls -l /dev/ttyUSB*'

The Dead Wood Syndrome

When a tree grows big enough, some branches will stop functioning, and they become dead wood. Similarly, when a company grows to a certain size, some people will stop contributing positively, and literally, they are also becoming dead wood.

For a company, the problem doesn't stop at the productivity lost from the dead wood employees. Due to the nature of dead wood, they will sap energy and productivity away from those good employees. 'Good employees' in this context refers to productive and contributing people in a company. Eventually the good ones will either feel overloaded or frustrated because of the under-appreciation from the management. In one way or another, they can and will find a better place to work .

What runs parallel with this is Gresham's Law: bad money drives out good.

I am witnessing the exact problem now in my company. The incompetent people are driving out a good engineer. This makes me to rethink my career path...

Love Story

Recently my colleague told me there is a song which is a hit called "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. He knows that because his daughters like it very very much.

The music video looks nice, mainly because Taylor is pretty. Lyrics-wise I have nothing much to talk about because it is the standard stuff. Nevertheless, it is still worth a look if you have nothing much to do.

Wishing Myself A Happy Birthday

Just come home from a drinking session with colleagues, however today I really had no mood to drink. It is July 4. For all these years, I never forget this day....

I like this song, its title is: wishing myself a Happy Birthday... Hope you like it...