Game On!

Moved to new blog

2010-06-10T21:26:00.001+08:00

http://blog.geeksphere.net

Bush version 3?

2010-05-23T17:34:00.001+08:00

“Countries like Europe”? Really?

Wow… and we thought he was way better than Bush, at least intellectually.

Getting more done

2010-05-16T17:03:00.001+08:00

Rather interesting video.

Avoid group decision making. The process takes way too long, and usually decisions made by a group are all about compromise and doing the safe thing.

Buy1Give1

2010-04-20T23:30:00.001+08:00

Very interesting and very powerful.

Lessons I realised I’ve learnt after reading the blogs of others.

2010-04-19T00:43:00.001+08:00

To those who are reading for grading purposes, the post for that purpose was actually done here.

I made the most amount of realizations from Adhiraj’s post.

I have a new-found belief (or so I think) in the importance of a right attitude to life.

Agreed, I believe that we have to have the right mindset to first stand a chance of succeeding in life. I firmly believe that to be successful, one has to play to win, and not play to not lose. One must have the winning mentality in them to even stand a chance of winning.

Quoting from Paul Dunn of Buy1Give1,

Watch your thoughts,
they become your words.

Watch your words,
they become your actions.

Watch your actions,
they become your habits.

Watch your habits,
they become your character.

Watch your character,
it becomes your destiny.

Our attitude, our character, our mentality results in our destiny. It is thus safe to say the future is in our hands.

Decisiveness: Absolutely essential. Our world is orders of magnitude more dynamic than a few years back. Which means a lot more decisions, some very critical. Just a few years to go and we'll be working men dealing with the systematic randomness of the world. It's necessary to get into the "habit" of making good decisions quickly.

Again, this reminds me of something someone else said. Forgot who tho. I think it was Mr John Yip from Awfully Chocolate, but I can’t exactly remember. Basically, it went like that.

Entrepreneurs make decisions with the belief that at least 70% of the decisions will turn out right. If you want 100% of your decisions to be right, you are better off in the civil service.

Over the course of the module, I’ve also seen some disagreements between members of other groups, and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from watching these disagreements, as well as from listening to Hoong An, it’s that washing your dirty linens in public will only increase the problems.

And going for the World Entrepreneurship Day and listening veterans like Alvin Lee share their views, I discovered other things about myself that I was never able to put into words before. I liked Mr Lee’s concept of silent defiance, and when Paul Dunn shared the quote

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”
-Albert Einstein

Alright then, off to sleep. Intensive mugging week ahead.

5 things I learnt

2010-04-16T11:22:00.001+08:00

It’s been a mindblowing semester. And I think I learnt more in this short 3 months, than any other 3 months of my life. 20 years young this year, and the future looks exciting, I can’t wait for the next day =)

Reflecting back on the start of the semester, and the first homework post, it’s seems that alot have pass since then, but yet, it has only been 3.5 short months. When I first entered CS3216, I had no idea what I wanted to learn, and the only reason why wanted to join the class(the REAL reason) was that it wasn’t the normal route =P. Really, I don’t like doing things normally.

At the start I mentioned that I wanted to learn what I did not know I did not know. And now, i believe I can say I’ve learnt alot especially related to business and networking(YES, in a computing module).

So as most of you know, I’ve been moving around, talking to outside people, and we plan to push Codename Penguin all the way. And I realised one very important thing that in hindsight that I did that was the right thing to do, that many people had ask me why the heck I did that when I don’t need the points, to join CCA’s, namely NUS Entrepreneurship Society(NES). I joined in out of passion, and I love doing what I did in there, and dots did connect. One thing led to another, and now I’m currently the Vice Director of Technology in there. And I thoroughly abuse this position. And because of this position that I received in NES, people seemed more willing to correspond and exchange contacts at networking sessions. I remember a biz undergrad at one of these networking sessions, and he was complaining to me that he couldn’t find anyone who was willing to exchange contacts with him. And that kindof started me thinking, I didn’t have that problem, so what was I doing right? Turns out that in hindsight, I’ve made a lot right choices, but I made most of those choices because of other reasons, because I followed my heart, and dots did connect. Sometimes, we just have to believe, and do what we want to do. Because of this project, I’ve been given the opportunity to network with more people than any other time in my life, and I found something else I like doing, talking to people. So I did learn one more thing about myself because of this module.

Second thing that I learnt, and Prof has been teaching this as well, but I couldn’t find a way to effectively put in in words, until I met Fredrick Haren, founder of Interesting.org and author of bestselling book The Idea Book. Basically it’s this idea of taking existing ideas and improving on it. Previously, I was very against copying other businesses, and I always thought I should be able to do better than that. In all honesty, Prof didn’t manage to convince that it was ok to copy others’ ideas. But after speaking to Fredrick, I managed to see things in a new light. And it was actually something that he learnt from talking to a HR person in China. It’s not so much of copyright, but rather, copying right. Most inventions in the world were because people existing technology, copied them and merge with other technologies to create new technologies. And that woke me up, if I could copy what other people have, repackage it, and add my own stuff on top of it, wouldn’t that make it mine?

Third thing that I learnt, people are amazing. You never know what you can learn from others, no matter who they are. Just because we are undergrads, does not mean that we are smarter than people who do not have degrees. A very thought provoking video(in cantonese) that prof shared on facebook a while and it left a very deep impression on me.

A rough translation of the final part of the video, which made me think alot.

Everyone is unique. We shouldn’t use our own standards to measure others, and we also should use what we believe is the best or right standards and force it upon others. And we also should look down on others because of our status and abilities.
Others may not have my strengths, but we cannot forget, do we have their strengths?

Thx prof, for sharing.

Fourth thing I learnt, connections are damn important. To do something big, we need to have the connections to the right people, and leverage on that. Don’t be afraid to ask, especially while we are still students. I remember Howie Lau, VP and GM of Lenovo ASEAN telling me this.

Meet as many highflyers and establish as much contacts while you are a student. Meet for meals and most of the time they will oblige. That opportunity disappears once you have graduated.

Fifth thing I learnt, life is not just about school. There is this saying in chinese, which is quite popular in China,

毕业等于失业

Many a times, the moment someone graduates in the moment he/she loses direction in life, Especially for those who cannot find jobs. School does not prepare them for this. But CS3216 does. Because we are not given a direction. The only thing that is told to us is to GO DO SOMETHING. The feeling of being lost and not knowing what to do can be quite thrilling at times. Sick, I know, but it’s fun =).

I’m quite sure that I’ve learnt alot more, but I guess every post has it’s end, and it’s time to turn my attention to the final report. Till next time.

Go screw yourself Apple.

2010-04-12T10:50:00.001+08:00

Had been planning to do this post for quite some time already, after they changed the new iPhone SDK. Brimelow, an Adobe Platform Evangelist, has written an excellent response to Apple’s move here.

Interesting quote from that post.

The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted.

---
The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone.

---
Many of Adobe’s supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company.

And the best line in that blog.

Comments disabled as I’m not interested in hearing from the Cupertino Comment SPAM bots.

As if their move to piss off developers is not bad enough, they have dropped to new lows(or should I say rise to new heights) in the art of pissing off developers.

Apple is now rejecting apps with the word Pad in it’s name. It is Apple's latest attempt to prevent people from using its trademarks in applications in the App Store in order to avoid any confusion over whether an app is created or endorsed by Apple.

ContactPad, has been around for quite some time and is currently on the App Store. However, when the developer tried to update his software, he wasn’t allowed to do so because of the word Pad. Email can be found here. Guess we won’t be seeing NotePAD or Star Wars PADawan =P.

Best comment on neowin.net I found so far that sums up the mood of techies and geeks on Apple’s new stance.

if (name.ToLower().Contains("pad")) developer.screw();

Greg from Tao Effect actually emailed Steve Jobs for his response to the mood in the tech world now from Apple’s move so far. The email train can be found here.

John Gruber actually did a damn long post here defending Apple. And he kind of shows the standard attitude that Apple fanboys have when their cult is criticised.

Cross-platform software toolkits have never — ever — produced top-notch native apps for Apple platforms. Not for the classic Mac OS, not for Mac OS X, and not for iPhone OS. Such apps generally have been downright crummy.

Really? The last I checked, Firefox which was created from the Mozilla app framework was quite top-notch =)

Guess that’s it for now =) Ciao.

What an eventful week.

2010-04-11T17:47:00.001+08:00

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of old ones.
-John Cage

First there was the 3216 presentation. Then there was the dinner with notable NUS Alumni. And the morning after the dinner was CS2100 mid terms 2. Thankfully, the crazy week is about to draw to a close, although next week seems to be just as crazy.

Going for the dinner was, in hindsight, the right choice. I was in a dilemma before, not knowing if I should sign up for the dinner. After all, CS2100 mid terms was the morning after that, and having totally flunked the first mid term for CS2100, I guess I had to do damn well for the 2nd mid term to get a decent grade for this module. And my friends were all asking me the same question, “You know that CS2100 mid terms is tmr morning right?” on Friday. At that point, I started to have doubts on whether I should go for the dinner, even if I didn’t show it. After all, if I didn’t score well enough for CS2100 and ended up failing it, I would not be able to do what I wanted to do next sem, which is kind of irritating. When I got there, it was still with a heavy heart, of not knowing if I had made the right choice, but I thought to myself, “Heck, I’m here already. Let’s make the most out of it.”

Turned out to be a good decision. Got to know Fredrik Haren, founder of Interesting.org, and author of The Idea Book. Bought a copy of The Idea Book, and he gave me another for free after having a chat for some time, and it’s kindof a cool book. 50% content, 50% notebook. And it’s not the kind of book you’ll lend to your friend cos it’s a notebook. I’ll do a review of The Idea Book once my schedule slacks a little. Finished reading it already, and boy it is inspiring. If anyone is interested in getting one, drop me an email.

Another person I exchanged contacts with was Mr Howie Lau, NUS Alumnus, now Vice President of Lenovo ASEAN, and council member on the SiTF. It’s kind of interesting how I starting meeting with SiTF council members after I first met with Mr Wong Loke Yeow, an SiTF council member himself and Regional Director & JAPAC Evangelist for ArcSight. After that I got to know Mr Frank Koo, Managing Director of Oracle Singapore, who is also sitting on the council of SiTF. All of them are pretty successful people in their own rights, and it was very interesting to hear their views on the IT industry today. And so the dinner ended, and I exchanged cards with a couple of other interesting people that I met and called it a day. After all, I had a huge sleep debt with a critical exam the next day, one that would make or break my semester.

With that optimism that I always have, I went into the exam, and I thought I did pretty well. Somehow, I realised I wasn’t optimistic enough when I checked IVLE for the grades =P

Guess things are starting to get back on track now. Time to push for a strong finish to the semester.

Apple bans Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone compiler, plus related applications

2010-04-09T09:13:00.001+08:00

Section 3.3.1 of the updated developer agreements reads as follows: "3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited)."Source

What the heck? If there’s ever a time for a company to adopt Opera’s crybaby tactics, I think this is it.

Adobe shld just pull Photoshop support from OSX and let Jobs suck on it =P. Maybe that’ll wake Apple up.

Pixels by Patrick Jean

2010-04-08T22:45:00.001+08:00

Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?

2010-04-06T17:25:00.001+08:00

"I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Archilles; Fortune hath not one place to hit me."
-Sir Thomas Browne

CEO Unplugged

2010-04-04T13:34:00.001+08:00

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
-Buddha

Went for CEO Unplugged on Tuesday, and it was a pretty interesting experience. Again, as with all these talks, all 3 speakers mentioned how important passion was, and all 3 speakers also mentioned that only we could make the right decisions for our own lives.

It was a rather interesting experience talking with Frank Koo from Oracle and SiTF and Julian Persuad from Google. Got to see things from the perspective of the people who are doing real stuff in the real world.

And I realised the *POWER* of being in a CCA. All I needed to do was to introduce myself as a Vice Director in NUS Entrepreneurship Society, and they would be more than happy to give me their name cards.

It made me realise as well that as a student, we have many advantages when talking to these high flyers. Telling them that you are a student after you have gotten their attention makes them super helpful/underestimate you. I’m now corresponding with both of them, both for penguin and NES side.

Kindof cool imo.

That’s it for now. Another talk to rush off to. Will blog more when I have the time.

Ip Man 2 Trailer

2010-03-31T11:06:00.001+08:00

One line that stuck in my head.

你认为分胜负重要，还是跟家里人吃饭重要。

Facebook Security and Privacy

2010-03-29T19:37:00.001+08:00

First thing he brought up. Opera doesn’t have much users, thus they do not get hacked as much, which reminded me of a recent coverage article on Pwn2Own.

Best quote from that page.

Gotta love security by obscurity -- am I right, Apple fans?

Security vs Privacy

Sometimes security can make our lives more private, our data is stored more securely. But sometimes, we have to give up our privacy for more security, which reminds me of the following quote:

Because one lunatic tried to blow up his joke of a shoe bomb on a flight from Paris to Miami, America's 800 million air travelers are ordered to take off their 1.6 billion shoes every year. Because a half-dozen Brits thought about trying to blow up planes using hair peroxide and Tang (yes, really), millions of nursing mothers were told to dump bottles containing thousands of gallons of breast milk into trashcans at airport security checkpoints. Never mind the scientists who said such plots couldn't work. And now, the most fearsome fear of all: the Paris-to-Detroit underwear bomber. Airport security is about to turn really ugly.

Do we give up our privacy for more security?

Aspects of Security

Malware
Network
Host
Database
Authentication
Cryptography
Social engineering

Which reminds me of the security seminar I attended last Tuesday. One of the speakers mentioned that 70% of all security threats were insider threats and that companies should actually look inwards first before looking outwards.

Another common point that both of them brought up was that security was only as strong as it’s weakest link. Which means that there is no point beefing up external security if your internal security isn’t there. And I believe Ash Singh brought up a very good way to counter this in last week’s lecture:

Create a great company culture.

Safari, Firefox, and IE8 hacked; Chrome left untested

2010-03-25T23:26:00.001+08:00

Day 1 of Pwn2Own over. Report here

Safari 4 on 10.6 Snow Leopard was the first to fall to a very familiar face, Charlie Miller.
…
Up next was Internet Explorer 8, which was successfully breached by Peter Vreugdenhil, a Dutch security researcher.
…
Nils from MWR InfoSecurity then successfully targeted and hacked Firefox 3 on 64-bit Windows 7 using calc.exe, though he claimed that he "could have started any process" to demonstrate the exploit.
…
Google Chrome was the only one left standing because no one even attempted a go at it.
…
There are bugs in Chrome but they’re very hard to exploit. I have a Chrome vulnerability right now but I don’t know how to exploit it. It’s really hard. They’ve got that sandbox model that’s hard to get out of.

Understanding the REAL World: Plenary Session with Local Entrepreneurs(Notes)

2010-03-24T11:01:00.001+08:00

Ng Chin Leng (SingaporeBrides.com; SingaporeMotherhood.com)

Wanted to harness Crowd-sourcing
Don’t live to regret. Rather regret failing, then to regret not doing and see others getting successful with same idea.
No business plan. If it earns, it earns.
No funding, so that in total control.
If fail, at least fail it our way.
Self-doubt creeps in after a while.
“Well-meaning” friends will encourage you to give up.
Don’t wait for things to happen.
Create your own opportunities.
Build you own market.
Being an entrepreneur is the most difficult thing to do.
Be prepared to risk everything and get nothing in return.
Be passionate about your dream.
When you succeed, the journey is just the beginning.
We only live once. No regrets.

Hoong An (HungryGoWhere.com)

Position yourself from a point that is interesting to the media. Position yourself to fit what the reporter is looking for.

7 reasons why you should not be an entrepreneur

You give up to easily.
- Businesses take 2 to 3 years to break even
- Success is about being at the right place at the right time – and most do not make it.
You have no business plan
- i.e.: you plan to fail
- Must have at least in mind what the revenue model is. And flexible enough to change it.
You plan too much
- Important to plan but be aware of the need to change plans when the situation changes
You hang around people just like you
- No soccer team wins with ten strikers or ten goalkeepers on the field at the same time.
- I rather work with people I can’t get along but are very good at what they do, then work with people I can get along with but are not good at what they do.
You cannot make decisions
- A wrong decision is better than a no decision
You have no working experience and no capital
You have no faith and do not believe in god
- There’s a limit to how much are grumbling your mama can take.

Tong Yee (School of Thought)

Knowledge
Empathy
Initiative

Ash (Interactive SG)

Hire Generalists early
Invest in Culture
Support customers maniacally
Avoid business plans
Persist through downturns
Accept imperfect data
Use your product
Make decisions swiftly
Cancel unnecessary meeting
Keep it fun
Ship then test

Web performance

2010-03-24T07:19:00.001+08:00

Guess it’s time to add another entry =)

The talk by Zit Seng, while very technical at times, was actually, quite interesting, at least for the geek in me.

I guess this is one of those things that proves that computing is actually not a science, but more of an art. It’s not something that everyone can master, in fact I would go so far to say that it cannot be mastered. The people just keep getting better, closer and closer to the perfect scenario, but ultimately, the way I see it, science is an art.

We think that science is just that, science, where there’s a sure work method to solve defined problems. However, as Zit Seng has shown, there are some problems that no amount of studying can solve, and there are some problems that only a skilled master can feel a solution to.

Went for a security seminar yesterday, talked to a white hat, and it’s really an art. So what’s so science about Com Science? It’s an art, and we make beautiful things happen =)

Random…

2010-03-19T01:43:00.001+08:00

Reminder to self: Don’t let your passion kill you.

Do what you love (no excuses!)

2010-03-15T13:49:00.001+08:00

Listen to your users like (?) said, absolutely. But giving a shit about your users is way better. People listen but they don't do anything. Doing something, answering those emails, giving a crap, caring, about your user base, that's what you need to do. You need to care about everything, and it starts with yourself. Look yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself, what do i want to do everyday for the rest of my life. Do that.

Legacy is greater than currency

This vid is just great. I might edit this post later with some of my reflections

On GWave(Project + Lecture)

2010-03-15T10:39:00.001+08:00

GWave project

Got back the results for the GWave project, and I have to say, I finally got the hang of ‘meeting requirements’, i.e. meeting the aspirations. Personally, I would think that the aspirations are actually a mood dampener.

That said, I’m glad to have been able to work with Bernard, Hung and Li Yen for the GWave project and I think we did a quite decent job. Something useful, and practical at the same time.

GWave Lecture

Next, onto the GWave lecture. I was surprised that only the video screwed up. I actually did a couple of other video conferences with people from overseas before on NUS, using LAN no less, and even the audio had issues. Guess they have special privileges for classrooms?

I think Pamela gave some useful feedback, and I guess I’ll have to keep some of the points she brought up in mind the next time, especially on the UI side.

The new features for Wave sound really exciting, but personally, I think that while it can be useful, the biggest issue that they have to overcome is the lag. I have a pretty powerful laptop, and a damn powerful desktop at that, and GWave never fails to lag both systems. I dread imagining how people using lesser systems survive the ordeal of using GWave. She mentioned that they were coming out with a new version that was less laggy, but honestly, I see no difference. Until they can solve the lag(and bad press as a result of the lag) within GWave, I do not believe that people will actually use GWave as it is now.

Honestly, the idea is pretty good, once you get over the lag. I might just use Scrummy for future projects, just to try it out. In my opinion it is targeted towards companies/developer teams more than just the average consumer, but as mentioned countless times, the lag is really unbearable.

And I still do not believe that the 800(?) participants wave that she showed us was for real.

Choices, choices, choices

2010-03-11T10:23:00.001+08:00

On one hand there’s this Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum, on the other hand there’s the Final Project Presentation for CS3216. Really tempted to go for KRMF. But then again, I have to go for CS3216.

Life’s about choices. And this is about one of the toughest ones that I’ve encountered so far. Normally, I wouldn’t give a second thought about skipping lectures/tutorials for such talks. But… I want to go for both.

Tough choice indeed.

Our world balances on a sea of debt

2010-03-11T07:27:00.004+08:00

Source

To begin, the experts must explain in the simplest terms how money actually works. Were one to ask the man on the street – or, indeed, most politicians and bankers – who creates the money that rules our lives they would reply “the State”. They would be wrong. It is true that governments create legal tender – the physical notes and coins that circulate in an economy – but that represents, at its highest, only 3 per cent of the total money in circulation in the global economy. It is the commercial banks, largely unaccountable and privately owned, that create the world’s money.
Indeed, even if Tommy were responsible for printing every note in circulation throughout the world his power to dilute the rest of our wealth would amount to only a tiny fraction of that of the real manufacturers of money. His activities and the activities of the bankers are, in essence, identical: the creation of money out of nothing.

…

The beauty of the scheme is that instead of earning interest on a single piece of paper our banker can earn interest on 10 such pieces of paper. Moreover, while charging interest on these 10 pieces of paper, he has only to pay out a reduced rate of interest on the single gold bar that has been deposited with him.

And this is exactly what happens.

Currently, the average fractional reserve requirements for banks amount to under 10 per cent, which means that for every dollar the banks have on deposit they can lend out at least 10 such dollars – virtual dollars summoned from nowhere – on which they charge interest.

…

But the system relies entirely, as do all Ponzi schemes, on the assumption of continued growth, hence its inherent instability. Once that growth is threatened the edifice collapses. Householders in Britain will appreciate such a phenomenon only too well: put up 10 per cent for a property and borrow the rest from the bank. That property’s value need rise by only 10 per cent and you have doubled your equity; if it falls by only 10 per cent you are wiped out.

An interesting read I found while searching around for ideas for how to create an game economy.

The question remains, since in the real world, cash is injected into the economy so damn freely, what should the model of our game world be? After all, people love money, yet at the same time, if there’s too much inflation, people will just quit the game.

Tough questions, tough choices.

Evolution of iPad

2010-03-04T07:41:00.002+08:00

Found this on Be Geek. Pure Win.

Microsoft shows off "Mobile Surface" - real world Minority Report

2010-03-03T06:51:00.003+08:00

HOLY CRAP!!!! This technology is just PURE WIN!

Can't wait for it to come out.

In other tech news, Apple is suing HTC for iPhone patent infringement. At least one of the patents relates to "Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image". According to the court papers Apple is seeking a permanent injunction that would stop HTC from selling devices in the United States of America.

A comment from Neowin best sums up my reaction.

Just wait. They'll next patent the idea of putting a key in the door handle then turning the key to unlock said door. Every door knob manufacturer in the world will be paying Apple to allow us the right to use their patent to unlock our front doors.

Charlie Miller: Windows 7 + IE 8 or Chrome provides safest computing experience

2010-03-03T06:32:00.004+08:00

Source
Extracts from an interview with Charlie Miller

Windows 7 or Snow Leopard, which of these two commercial OS will be harder to hack and why?

Windows 7 is slightly more difficult because it has full ASLR (address space layout randomization) and a smaller attack surface (for example, no Java or Flash by default). Windows used to be much harder because it had full ASLR and DEP (data execution prevention). But recently, a talk at Black Hat DC showed how to get around these protections in a browser in Windows.

In your opinion, which is the safer combination OS+browser to use?

That’s a good question. Chrome or IE8 on Windows 7 with no Flash installed. There probably isn’t enough difference between the browsers to get worked up about. The main thing is not to install Flash!

On the mobile side of Pwn2Own 2010, the big targets will be iPhone 3GS/iPhone OS and Android/Motorola Droid. Which one will be more easily exploitable?

They’re both pretty secure. I’d guess the iPhone because its been around a little longer and there has been more research done on it. So, its not that its necessarily less secure, its just researchers understand how it works better.

Can't wait for Pwn2Own to start =)

2010-03-02T06:12:00.001+08:00

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

- Benjamin Disraeli

Reflections on Chewy's talk

2010-03-01T16:11:00.002+08:00

Been a long time since I last blogged. Dying from workload and getting sick =(

Last monday's lecture/talk by Chewy was quite unique in the sense that there was no clear topic and he was sharing some of his ideas, instead of it being a bing advert session like what most of us expected.

He shared his vision of what he felt the retail and ad industry in Singapore should become. Personally, I do not think that what he said will materialise in Singapore, at least in the near future. I believe that the Singapore market is very different from the US market and the biggest problem most Western companies faced when coming over to Asia is to adopt the same blueprint that they have in Asia.

He brought up a couple of valid points tho, like how it was important to know your strengths and that people do not think like us.

I guess that's it for now. Got a damn bad headache now. I'll probably edit this post when I feel better.

Microsoft's wireless charging pad spotted, named uPad

2010-02-25T06:28:00.000+08:00

Engadget spotted the pad in the wild and claim it's a prototype device made by Microsoft Research Asia. The charging pad is named "uPad" and was produced in limited numbers as a souvenir for Microsoft Research Asia's 10th anniversary. It's not yet clear whether the device will be mass manufactured or released outside of Asia. Microsoft officials were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

Microsoft applied for a patent for the device last year which was spotted this week. According to the patent, devices can be placed on any side of the pad for wireless charging, inductively. The device will use the inbuilt accelerometer to detect which part is facing up to send the charge. The pad will also include an OLED screen to display information such as news and sports headlines and weather information.

Powermat devices currently offer similar features by using a combination of wireless induction charging, magnetic alignment and RFID handshake. Powermat offers replacement battery covers and batteries for devices such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and Nexus One. The technology works by aligning magnetic points to a desktop pad that completes an RFID handshake to determine the exact amount of power required for the device. The device is then charged using electromagnetic fields to transfer energy between two objects (inductive charging).

This seems kindof cool. But why uPad?

Interesting Vids

2010-02-24T07:19:00.004+08:00

Grabbed this quote and vid off Jon Lew's blog.

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you!

You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it.

...

Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!

I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is.

Couple more videos that I particularly find great here

Devotion to Duty

2010-02-22T17:32:00.001+08:00

Get Help!

2010-02-21T22:31:00.002+08:00

1. Usability vs Aesthetics (Is the interface attractive? Is it functional?)
The interface is functional to the large extent, and it's basically quite user friendly.
However, the colour scheme was not very good, and there were a few design flaws.
First the use of red in a dominantly blue Facebook site makes the page quite appealing.
Second, the buttons at the top of the page which are slanted at 45 degrees isn't very helpful too.
Overall, while the interface is working and is functional, there is a problem with the aesthetics, which may put off first time users.

2. Number of options / freedom given to user when posting a need.
Personally, I feel that the freedom and options given is sufficient to a large degree and the availability of the privacy settings is quite unique.

3. Cycle of interaction & incentives (Are the elements of the app engaging?)
I think this is the main part where the team got it wrong. It is in my opinion that when we help others, we do it because we want to do it. However, when money/incentives is involved, people start treating it as work and no longer put in so much effort.
The video below is quite enlightening on the power of incentives, or rather, the lack of.

I think that there is a major flaw in the implementation of the app in that it is overly ambitious. What I believe that they should have done is to first create a usergroup first. So, instead of making this for all types of problems, they could probably make it for programmers first, and once the core users are there, make various sections for different problems. Just my 2 cents worth tho.

2 Chinese Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks

2010-02-19T23:11:00.001+08:00

The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry.

Jiaotong has one of China’s top computer science programs. Just a few weeks ago its students won an international computer programming competition organized by I.B.M. — the “Battle of the Brains” — beating out Stanford and other top-flight universities.

Lanxiang, in east China’s Shandong Province, is a huge vocational school that was established with military support and trains some computer scientists for the military. The school’s computer network is operated by a company with close ties to Baidu, the dominant search engine in China and a competitor of Google.

...

“We have to understand that they have a different model for computer network exploit operations,” said James C. Mulvenon, a Chinese military specialist and a director at the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis in Washington. Rather than tightly compartmentalizing online espionage within agencies as the United States does, he said, the Chinese government often involves volunteer “patriotic hackers” to support its policies.
Source

If the chinese kids are really capable of doing such stuff, I think there's a great future for china.

This is so true

2010-02-19T22:16:00.006+08:00

2010 CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors

2010-02-17T07:03:00.001+08:00

This year's top 25 dangerous programming errors has been released. Just thought I'd share it here.

Link

Computer Chip Fail

2010-02-16T11:49:00.002+08:00

Where's my facebook?

2010-02-13T17:10:00.003+08:00

Apparently, tons of ppl are using google to find the facebook login page, and ended up on a blog with a post about facebook login. Read the comments, it's damn funny.
Link

Pitching session

2010-02-11T12:19:00.004+08:00

In prof's blog post it was mentioned that he felt it natural to "make the connections". Just read another post else on Leaders make connections, and felt inspired to come up with this post.

They are my field generals. Never forget that. They’ll be useless to me if they don’t feel connected to me. Always treat them with dignity.
~Lyndon Johnson

3 main things that I learnt from the session
1) When you do what you love/believe in, it fills you in from the inside, you get the energy, you are happy. At least that was what I got from Leslie, the redsports guy.
2) It's never too early to try, and it's never too hard to try. A food science(i think?) student was actually the guy behind www.module-review.com, quite unexpected, but I guess it just shows that anyone can do anything they want to do.
3) I still got alot to learn.

What's the most important thing that I learnt?
Frankly, I have no idea. The session merely reinforced my views and proved them right? Perhaps I cannot say that those are the things that I learnt, but rather, those are the things that I brought away from the session.

How will I apply these stuff to my life?
1) Keep on living the way I do, living life for the sake of having fun? I'm enjoying life everyday.
2) Take more steps forward, take more risks, and the dots will connect =P
3) Keep learning, keep an open mind. Learn fast and learn from everyone.

BizAsia Discussion 2

2010-02-09T19:17:00.003+08:00

The second panel was titled Overcoming Challenges in Starting Up, where they actually got 3 gurus to come and share their experience with us.
[edit]
this was actually a post i did a while ago before deciding it was ok enough to be posted.
[/edit]

Panelists
· C.B Chan, CEO of Goodrich Global
· Mark Cheng, Founder of Avelife Foundation
· Benny Lee, Managing Director of Benroth International Pte Ltd
· John Yap, CEO of Awfully Chocolate

I'll just copy over some of the notes that I took down and put in my thoughts at the end of the post.

Thoughts on entrepreneurship

Mr Benny Lee
Must have a passion
First few years is going to be real tough, you'll need the passion to pull you through
People have to be forced to do it

Mr Chan Chong Beng
Entrepreneurship as a way of thinking; mindset that can only be improved and sharpened by experience
No secret formula to success
Clarity; Clear Vision
Be prepared to go into stress of uncertainty
You are Responsible for the salaries of the people working for you

Mr John Yap
Entrepreneurship is overrated
Study hard join admin service o.O

Mr Mark Cheng
Passion is very important
Creativity
Expand horizons
Find one thing good and be damn good at it

Journey and challenges of starting up Avelife(NGO): Mr Mark Cheong

Since all are volunteers, cannot just sack.
Spend alot of time to find right person for right job. Saves from the problems.

On Recruitment
Foundation with umbrella of social enterprises
Right Person - Follow mission and vision
Do not let people with different motives/mindset in.
People who believe in it will sacrifice more.

Journey and challenges of Starting up Awfully Chocolate: Mr John Yip

Hiring problem across all industries
F&B have problems cos scrap the bottom, end up with foreigners which results in quota issues
All the ppl around will tell you that it is a bad idea.

Dun do just what everyone else what to do.

Small things allow them to stand out from the rest.

First stop was Taipei: Franchise
Copied SG blueprint and it worked in Taipei
Franchisee was full of fraud. Lost everything + a million dollars in legal fees

Logistics
Outlets in China
Insist on doing things the clean way, never do the under table way.

Hindrance in entrepreneur journey: Mr Chan Chong Beng
Dropped out of uni
Have to Mentally Strong
27 years; 4 recessions

Cashflow is biggest issue for startup
Focus
Spread risk, exposure to other markets means a crisis in a single market will not affect much

Culture Issues in Businesses: Managing Director of Benroth International Mr Benny Lee

Culture barriers
Catch the nuances is the hard part.

Main problem is how to get the foreign clients to buy your service?
Must have something unique, give people a reason to buy

Most difficult is to know what that guy is thinking

What is success?
Mr Benny Lee
Not to desire $$$
People who go out to make money end up collapsing
Good set of values
Give back to society

Mr Chan Chong Beng
No secret formula for success
You set a certain goal, you achieve it.
Success begets success.
The moment you have no more goals, you are not successful
Continuous goal setting
Balanced: health; financial; spiritual; family
If you cannot even look after your parents and siblings, how can you look after your employees?
If you get a few areas of importance correct, profits will enter.
Aim for value not profit

Mr Mark Cheng
Meet needs in kind

Trends and Challenges
Mr Chan Chong Beng
Entrepreneurship, have to be forced into it.
Today's children are soft.
Too many things given to young people today.
Parents will not encourage you to take the risk, take it as a challenge

There to make money, not to do political reform. Do not touch politics in other countries.
You are not there to do political reform.

Mr Benny Lee
Future of SG is very bright

North and South Korea will reunite in near future
East Asian community by Japan
Japan realise that if still align with America, they are screwed.

Alot more stress in business in future.

Mr John Yap
Future is very bleak.
Entering a world where money theories have gone out of whack.
Bulk of people will have the same skill set.

From equally blur in the past to equally informed now.
Question is, how do you gain the advantage?

Mr Mark Cheng
Social Enterprise is the future.

Advice
Cut through the crap, be honest

Mentorship
Can only give guidelines
Trust own intuition; inner feeling
If you wait for 100%, many times it will be too late
If you have a strategy, go for it.

NTU in the 60's only chinese, 2nd class citizens in gov sector
Forced to become entrepreneurs.

Never say die

Enjoy it. Doing it willingly and happily.

On Passion
Passion for living a good life
Passion to succeed (Satisfaction from seeing ppl believing in his vision)
Passion for making a difference.
Passion for people.

Don't let the passion kill you.
Don't be subjective or bias. It's just a business. Find the balance

Give staff chance to think of ideas, and give them money to start it in exchange for shares.
Build new entrepreneurs, expect them to do the same thing for their staff, to start new companies.

On Politics
Politics Is damn important

Anything you read is helpful
Understand political situations in countries

The people running China are very competent.

They have their own way of looking at things, and learn to appreciate them.

I think that the 3 gurus are highly successful and very worth listening to, and I'm glad to have made their acquaintance. One thing that I personally am very impressed with them is that despite the fact that all of them are highly successful in their own right, they insist that they have alot to learn. They insist that we may know something that they don't. Amd I think we all have alot to learn from them in this aspect.

Many a times, we let our self-confidence turn into arrogance and in the process, screw our own futures.

Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.
~Robert Cody

iPad vs...

2010-02-05T20:05:00.001+08:00

Upgrading graphics - So easy, a monkey can do it!

2010-02-04T12:53:00.000+08:00

BizAsia Panel Discussion 1

2010-02-03T23:52:00.002+08:00

I went for the BizAsia Panel Discussion yesterday, and I learnt alot of stuff. Just thought I might share it here. I don't agree with all the views tho, I'll just put what they said and perhaps we can have a discussion on it in the comments?

The first panel will based on what I can remember as I did not take down notes =(.
Panelists
* Wong Hong Ting, Founder of 2359 media
* Michael Cho, Founder of MyAdEngine
* Jeffery Tiong, Founder of patsnap
* Pranoti Nagarkar Israni, Founder of z!mplistic Inventions

One thing first. Hong Ting was actually a CS3216 student =).

Ok back to topic. They actually encouraged us to listen to this audio podcast so here it is for you to listen. =P If you can find the video please let me know too.

Some of the advice that these young entrepreneurs actually gave was that
1) Just do it. (A point brought up again in the 2nd panel actually and I'll type more about it there)
2) Sales skills are important.
3) Talk to as many people as possible
4) Let no one be irreplaceable. Have back-up plans for each member of the team if he/she goes MIA.
5) Everyone has advice. The hard part, is to pick the right ones.

On networking sessions, go in with an aim in mind, and decide who to follow up with later.

Have to find the balance between persistence and flexibility.

Learn quickly and learn from everyone. But choose which ones to listen to.

These were basically the main points that they brought across.
I think I'll blog on the 2nd panel later.

Facebook App Seminar(Part 2)

2010-02-03T00:00:00.001+08:00

After reading the comments, and getting my thoughts in order, i decided to add in an update of my thoughts on the Friends for Sale! app.

I think it's a sad day for humanity when the concept of selling and buying one another becomes viral. And accepted. And people are treating it as a 'so what?' issue. If you feel comfortable with the concept of owning another person, all that I have to say is, good for you.

But personally, I believe very strongly against this idea. It actually repulses me that people can actually be comfortable with the concept of owning another human being. Maybe I'm just too idealistic. Maybe I take things too seriously. But I think that this is getting unacceptable. We as a civilisation are losing our humanity. We have to arrest this slide before it gets worse. Before we as a civilisation dehumanise ourselves further.

Facebook App Seminar

2010-02-02T07:44:00.001+08:00

Ok, first post of the week, in fact a long time since I last posted.

It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
~Sir Winston Churchill

Alright, on to the Facebook App Sem post. I've gotta do the critique for the Friends for Sale! app, so here goes =P

So to summarise what the app does, basically only 4 things.
1) Buy friends
2) Sell friends
3) Give gifts
4) Wishlist

You kind of get this warped world that you can buy and sell your friends as pets o.O As a thinker, the first question I get is WHAT THE EFF FOR? Oh well, there are enough people out there with this kind of interest anyway, so I shall not comment on it =P

The team then mentioned that you know, they were damn creative. Most of the server intensive stuff (i.e. pics) came from FB while they only provided the platform for this app (i.e. game logic, processing power).

Damn smart imo. Use other people's money to work for you =P One step above making your money work for you.

The team highlighted a few other things as well, such as 7 sins and Maslow's Hierarchy. They also mentioned that there's user lock-in through the use of levelling and new features.

I don't think that's working. They've only gotten 4mil users and 600k DAU, and add in the fact that it is still declining, I personally feel that it isn't working.

To me, Friends for Sale is more like a craze. Basically, it peaks damn freaking fast, but goes back down just as fast.

2 Reasons
1) There's no value in the app. Buying and selling your friends may sound fun(not me though =P) at first but can it last? What is the point?

2) What features are there? REALLY? What is the point of playing past the first day? Take into account that it's not really a game and you'll get what I mean. Where's the UI? It tries act like a game, but isn't really a game.

Some people will disagree and say, "Hey, 4mil is pretty successful for a facebook app." I dun think so, especially if you have an app with 75mil users. 4mil is just mediocre. Maybe I'm too damn optimistic/unrealistic, but hey, in life all that's limiting you is yourself. You gotta aim to fight the best. And to be successful, you need to bring value. In one form or another. Wasting time is not a value.

I guess that's it for now.
Back to balancing the exp tables.

Amazon Web Services

2010-01-28T14:33:00.003+08:00

I guess this is a rather long overdue post for Monday's lecture.

One thing that I learnt/realised from the session tho, and that was brought up by the prof, is that you really get what you pay for. I think I'm gonna stick to either Azure or AWS once I start my company, and probably for my own personal hosting? Haven't decided yet.

On a personal note, I think while cloud computing may be the thing of the future, i personally don't feel that many companies will jump ship to it yet. For the next 2 years at least, I feel that start ups will form the majority of the customers for cloud computing, as they can actually save on the capital required to start a company. The bigger companies might slowly migrate over to cloud computing tho, or the idea that their information is in the hands of others would scare them. I guess this has alot to do with trust. And it kind of reminds me of the product cycle that Prof Tom Kosnik from Stanford shared last semester, there will be a period of time for the early adopters to try out this new concept before the bigger companies start to go in.

Would be interesting to see how the Azure vs AWS battle pans out.

Apple iPad

2010-01-28T08:54:00.000+08:00

Omg, apple just reached a new low in naming their products. Seriously, what were they thinking?

A comment taken off neowin.

oh dear, what a tragic name. It should only come in pink, and have a bold logo across the top "iPad - for all your feminine hygiene needs"

Frankly tho, it just looks like an overstretched version of iPod Touch. I'd rather get a netbook anytime with that money.

On Decision-making and Instincts

2010-01-22T22:51:00.003+08:00

This was actually on my "to-blog" list for quite some time and I guess it's time to stop procrastinating.

The inspiration for this post came from reading Seth's blog on Too much data leads to not enough belief.

Basically the main gist of the post is this,

Relying too much on proof distracts you from the real mission--which is emotional connection.

Personally, I believe that there is 2 brains in all of us, the concious and the sub-concious brain. The concious brain is the one that we use to think with, make decisions and so on. The sub-concious brain is the one that contains animal instincts and the Reticular Activating System, the auto-homing device of our brain. As long as we are clear on what our goals are, this sub-concious brain will actually auto-guide us towards that target or goal.

This is where the problem comes in.

Sometimes we cannot differentiate between emotions and instinct. And we end up making emotional decisions instead of instinctive decisions. And as a result of that, people start to distrust their instincts.

And they start believing that they have to think through all of their decisions, when what the problem actually is is that they are making emotional decisions, as opposed to instinctive decisions.

What's the problem with thinking through your decision then? Isn't that what everyone says is good?

Personally, I believe that the more you think, the further away you are from your goal. The first thing that comes to your mind is more often than not the fastest way to reach the end-game stage. The more thoughts that you have, the further you get from the shortest path.

As a human race, I think we have to learn to believe. And we have to learn to have faith. And we have to DARE to take the first step.

First phase implementation done. On to the next part.

2010-01-22T17:27:00.002+08:00

First part of the project done. Basic interfaces and functions have been completed. We did not follow instructions at all =P.
Haha.

Learnt lots in the past 3 days, starting from the CVWO meeting on Wednesday. One thing that I learnt was that I still have alot to learn. Apparently, in my enthu-ness to "save the world" as prof puts it, has kindof clouded my view of doing business and voluntary welfare organisations to simply doing good and creating value. Sort of overlooked the fact that there's this part in software development called "Legal Aspects". I guess I've to thank prof leong for bringing up this concept before I went into the real world. Thx alot Prof =). I told you I learn something everyday =P

This brings me back to something that I was saying before the start of this module. I'm here to learn what I do not know I do not know. And there's a hell lot of stuff that I do not even know exists.

Part of the issue is that most of us actually overestimate ourselves. There's a little discussion on this on Ryan's blog. Personally I believe that we have to be practical. Yes, we should not just look at what we do not have and beat ourselves up over it. But at the same time, we simply cannot look at what we have or can do and think that we are damn good. There is so much we have to learn, and I think that to improve, we have to first accept this. If a successful person like Mr Ong Peng Tsin can accept that we have to learn all the time (i.e. we do not know everything all the time), I don't see how normal people like us can think that we are that good.

Commenting on the discussion(comments) on the same post by Ryan, something about SG entrepreneurs not being able to enter do well in the Chinese market was mentioned. Personally I believe that one of the main reason is that Singapore is what I call a sandbox. It is a very safe and controlled environment where people are unable to experience what entrepreneurs from other countries are able to experience. Most of these life experiences are what I believe really matter in the real world and in this sandbox mode, they are not able to go through all these experiences.

Take corruption for example. How is one ever going to experience that in Singapore? And the thing is that because the inherent mindset of SG entrepreneurs are that corruption is bad, they fail to use it to their advantage in other countries.

Then think about the Indonesians and the Chinese. We have been exposed to it. We know how it works. We accept that it is there. And we use it to our advantage.

On the other hand, Singaporeans shun corruption and refuse to even touch it. 1 current example of culture difference and inability to resolve such issues is the current Google vs China conflict. When Lee Kai Fu was the head of Google China, he understood the need for building relations. When he left, his successors were not as street smart as he was, and did not place much emphasis on developing relations with the Chinese government.

And on leadership. I do agree that for some cases, leaders are very important. I am a subscriber of the Great Man theory, which essentially states that history is influenced by the actions of the few. However, I believe that in the current fast moving high-tech industries, yeah, you do need a leader, but in the best case scenarios, you have a group of leaders who work well together.

Take the case of the US in middle east for example. The US army has a structure, where you have to take orders from a leader to do stuff. The way the locals fight, i.e. Taliban, resistance fighters fight is that they have a single objective. The top brass does not tell them what to do, but rather what they are expected to accomplish. As a guy interested in military as well (well, i did say I was interested in everything), this is essentially the way the Chinese and Indonesian military is moving. Decentralisation can be a good thing, if you have people you can trust in your team.

One thing that I believe alot about management and team dynamics is this: the greatest team is the team where everyone trusts everyone else and while you might need a leader to make some of the final decisions, basically it's fluid enough that anyone can be the leader. One of the ways in which I choose teams to join is this. I have to trust them. I have to know that if I put my life in their hands, they will take care of it better than I take care of myself. That's how much I trust them.

And I personally think that this is the new way for start-ups to survive in the new century. Mutual respect is important. But definitely no compromise. Go one direction all the way. Not half here half there. Some people will have to give up their dreams along the way. But if the team dynamics is good, everyone will be willing to give up to chiong in one single direction.

One thing that I remember seeing somewhere.

Follow
One
Course
Until
Successful

Lecture 2 - Software Engineering

2010-01-19T22:10:00.000+08:00

My brain is overclocked. Seriously. The past 40 hours has undoubtedly been one of the most productive periods of my life. Well, 39hours 50mins as of now actually.

So, what did I learn from the lecture?

One word. Discipline. The whole lecture on managing complexity, giving the right ppl the right job, following certain accepted processes basically boiled down to 1 word.

Discipline.

To know what you need, and separate them from what you want.

To know what you can do, and resist the temptation to do things that you really want to, but not have the time.

To know what really has to be done, and not do what you REALLY want to do.

To know that it's a team effort, not a one man show.

To know one's own flaws, and have team-mates to complement them, and not try to do something that one can't do that well, and drag the whole team down in the process.

I think the issues of team dynamics has way more to it than simply getting the best programmers to work in a group. It's to get the best team of programmers instead. I think that the function of leaders are over-hyped. They don't really do that much. Really, all they do is to give orders. Nothing much actually. Unless you start talking about servant leadership, which is altogether another matter.

Anyway, I've hit the 40 hour 10mins mark already. I guess it's time I go to bed. Maybe I'll blog more when I wake up tmr.

A truly purposeful life

2010-01-18T10:42:00.002+08:00

I just recieved an email from a Buddhism mailing list and I thought it was really what we were talking about in CS1101S last semester, on finding the higher calling that excites us, and I thought I might just share it with everyone here, given that we had some discussions on purpose of life and success last week.

Please note that I am not trying to promote the religion or anything, it's just that I found the article quite thought-provoking (i.e. makes us think about our lives) and wanted to share it with everyone.

From Piya Tan

A truly purposeful life

The National University of Singapore Business School, in a recent survey, found that Singaporeans with university degrees or earn S$5000 or more a month are the happiest. Yet they are unhappy with their lot and enjoy life the least, compared to others who make less money.

This unhappiness, says the Straits Times editorial of the Sunday Times (17 January 2010) “could stem from their higher, unfulfilled expectations.” The high-incomers probably define their happiness as having fine food, fancy cars and fabulous homes. But this kind of happiness is only physical and external and, as such, very limited.

These “successful” high-incomers are generally dissatisfied and unhappy probably because they keep measuring themselves against others. Other people may be perceived to be “happy,” but in reality they, too, have their own issues.

Moreover, happiness is not a regular event like one’s work, meals, or toilet, and one’s circumstances often change. The point is that we are unlikely to be really happy if we define our happiness by others’ standards; for, it is a form of emotional dependence.

Many thinking Buddhists would also say that happiness has to do with our purpose in life. But first, we need to understand what “purpose” here really means. If there is any purpose in life, I would say that it is to grow. Understandably, this does not mean merely growing old, ending in death, as this happens whether we wish it or not. A very important purpose of life, in fact, must be to grow up, that is, to grow spiritually.

To grow in the spirit is to understand at least two important things. First, it has to do with happiness, which for our present purpose can be said to be a feeling of interconnectedness with everyone (especially those we love) and with everything around us.

Secondly, growing spiritually means that we see the physical world and material things are only means to an end, and not ends in themselves. Money, for example, is what money buys. What we buy or keep should be guided by necessity and wisdom.

An effective way of living happily is to have a wholesome purpose-driven life. Such a purpose can be merely instrumental (such as working hard to be able to bring happiness to those we love) or intrinsic, that is, being passionate about what we believe in and do. An intrinsic purpose of life must be a wholesome one because we enjoy doing it for itself. Not only are we happy doing it, but it benefits others, too.

We can never be truly happy by ourselves while others around us suffer; that is, if we are really wholesome beings capable of being moved by goodness and compassion. In this sense, we can be happy by being devoted to something bigger than our self.

This sense of something bigger than our self is naturally something that transcends the notion of a personal self. We first need to understand or at least accept that any notion of self is merely a limiting construct, a wall to keep others out of our lives. We begin to break down this cold wall by doing something as simple as giving up a seat in a train to someone who needs it more, or something more difficult such as switching off our phones in a study class and giving our undivided attention and respect to another (the teacher or speaker), or something much bigger like doing beneficial social work.

For me that bigger-than-self task is the Sutta Discovery translation work which I always look forward to after my daily duties of parenting, teaching and counselling have been done. It is a joyful adventure I always look forward to. And then there is the joy of teaching these Suttas to a Dharma-moved audience. And to know that there are others who are studying or teaching these Suttas themselves. For, this is the on-going education of our Buddhist community for their happy future.

My wife Ratna enjoys working with our children’s school’s parents’ association, getting more parents, involved in their children’s education and the school itself. She is also a very compassionate and effective mentor of ex-inmates from the Boys’ and Girls’ Homes. She is simply happy to see her mentees grow and progress happily. In fact, she is so good that she has been commended by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Yet, we all know that such happiness is the fleeting by-product of doing what we are good at, and enjoying it. We also know that this happiness is the fruit of a deeper happiness in the Buddha’s Teachings of emotional independence.

Emotional independence means that our view of success, our happiness, is not dependent on other’s praises, nor from financial gains, nor status and titles, nor fame. To be emotionally independent means to see our own inner joyful stillness, especially through the Buddha’s methods of mental cultivation.

The Buddha’s methods of mind-training bring us true happiness that is the profound peace and joy of the aloneness of our still mind. This spiritual aloneness not only dispels worldly loneliness (which arises through lack of inner peace), but also empowers us abandon our self-centredness, superstitions (dependence on succour from external sources), and self-doubt (that we can liberate ourselves from evil and suffering). This is fact is the first step on the path to awakening.

Piya Tan ©2010 100117

First week of Semester over... Second week to start.

2010-01-18T07:39:00.001+08:00

The first week of AY1 Semester 2 has concluded. And I conclude that I have done more in this one week than the entire of last semester. And now I understand why the seniors say taking CS3216 means u are essentially having a one-mod semester. Seriously, I haven't touched a single thing from my other modules yet. And I dropped one already.

Today, I'll have another 7 hour 30 mins break. Zzz...
10 to 11 : CS1231
6:30 to 8:30 : CS3216

As what Wang Chen said, this definitely does not feel like week 1. Oh well, this is just week 1. Looking forward to the rest of the semester. Just hoping that I'll not screw the other modules up too badly.

Google VS China

2010-01-17T22:01:00.002+08:00

Hack of Google, Adobe Conducted Through Zero-Day IE Flaw
Update: Microsoft has posted an advisory about the new vulnerability and issued a statement confirming that hackers breached Google and other unspecified companies using it.

The company indicated the flaw does not affect IE version 5.01 with service pack 4 and is difficult to exploit in other versions. The company also has so far not seen widespread attacks using the flaw, “only targeted and limited attacks exploiting IE6.”
Source

What was google doing with IE6 on their computers? They don't use chrome? Whatever happened to the "eat your own dog food" concept? Seriously. And being an IT company, why are they even using a browser released in 2001?

How Microsoft Figures into the Google-China Dustup
A former top Microsoft executive -- who unexpectedly quit his job at Google last year -- may play a key role in the impending cyberwar between Google and the Chinese government.
Source

Google denies leaving China, seeks negotiations

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Google Inc enters a second week of high stakes brinkmanship with China's government, amid speculation the firm has decided to pull out of the world's biggest Internet market over cyber-spying concerns.

"We have never seen a company take on the Chinese government in such a public and confrontational manner," said James McGregor, senior counselor to public affairs consultancy Apco Worldwide.

But it may backfire as signs emerge the firm has already damaged its prospects in China regardless of whether it carries out its threat to quit the country.

JPMorgan analyst Dick Wei said he thinks Google's relationship with the Chinese government is already strained and if the firm decides to stay, it could be subject to tighter regulations.

UBS analyst Wang Jinjin also believes Google's relationship with advertisers has been damaged as a result of the threat and that they will choose Baidu Inc over the firm.

On Saturday, Yahoo was dragged into the growing row after its Chinese partner Alibaba Group slammed its statements supporting Google.
Source

Google's Act Of War Against China
When China blocked Google's YouTube service a year ago, the company didn't utter a peep of complaint. Google didn't like the cost of all the bandwidth it needed to show video clips to Chinese who American advertisers weren't interested in. Then when Google's China president, Kai-Fu Lee, resigned last summer, no replacement was named. Google said it would consider servicing China from the U.S.
Source

A new approach to China
The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.
Source

So now they can't even agree with themselves what is happening?

Google likely to retreat from China
What I’m saying is that if the findings of Googles research on the hacker attacks against Google and 30+ other foreign companies are true and were indeed initiated by the Chinese government it is not a matter that you have some guy announce over night on a company blog, but something that is a matter of politicians and diplomats to take care of. Something that they will have to take care of VERY sensitively. What I am also saying is this: if there is one thing I've learned during my 4 years in China is that you don't win in China/or in dealing with Chinese if you threaten them. You can only win if you outsmart them (just like they will try to outsmart you). By outsmart I mean that you give them an option that will "save face" for them, a path that will lead to consensus and allow all parties to win somehow or walk away from the table without having the feeling that they've lost. However what Google did with their statement (and the implied ultimatum/threat) does not leave any option to the Chinese Government to save face from a Chinese perspective and only allows them to shut down Google in China. This is very unwise, unless it is indeed the goal of Google to close its doors (and possibly the doors of many other foreign businesses) in China for good. This is again to stress that I cannot imagine that anyone with experience in Chinese (business) culture, would have issued such a statement and how wrong I find it that the issues mentioned in the post (I dont doubt or deny that there are issues ...) have been attempted to be resolved in such a way.
Source

I think google has grossly overplayed it's hand. And I believe it will prove once again, if you try to force others to change by using threats, all that's gonna happen is that people will take an even more extreme stance.

Session with Mr Ong Peng Tsin

2010-01-15T23:14:00.000+08:00

Finally got time to actually sit down and blog, so here it goes.

Went for Mr Ong Peng Tsin's 'chit-chat' session yesterday, and learnt a hell lot of stuff. Actually, it more of reiterated some of my beliefs.

3 of the main advice about life that he had for us was
1) Learn all the time.
2) Figure out the right people.
3) Clarity - Be clear about the purpose in life. Key thing is to have regret minimization.

4 of the advice that was business-related was
1) To face reality
2) Denial kills companies
3) Be brutal about the truth
4) Integrity is of utmost importance

When the session first started, Prof having a very passionate discussion with Mr Ong. Just listening to the 2 of them talk was very educational already. I could seriously feel the energy coming out from them as they spoke.

Then we started having a dialogue session, and one of the key points that he brought up was that for start-ups, especially ICT startups, was that we do not build a plan that requires venture funding, as the chances of getting the funding is very low.

And then he mentioned the point about how he only wanted to get smart people who could work in teams to work for him.
So smart people were actually people who had the RAW IQ, as well as industry knowledge(or what I personally call street smarts), and they have to have the ability to question status quo, probe the limits, and realise that problems are not black and white most of the time. And smart people accept that they are not the very best, and seek to learn from people who are better than them in one way or another.

Then we moved on to some stuff about him, and his motto is to "Make a difference." His definition of success was to be able to achieve the purpose of his life, which is to make a difference. He also mentioned that we should not beat ourselves up, but instead look at what we have achieved.

And one thing that he mentioned that I found very similar to almost all the super-rich/successful people I have spoken to. He treats business as a game. Really, he said it. And everyone of the rich I have spoken to treats what they are as play. They have fun. And their goal isn't to make money or be successful. It is to make a difference most of the time. And they jump into things and do them because they think it is cool/fun.

Seriously, EVERY single one of them say the same thing(At least those I have spoken to). But one thing is for sure, they play to win, and not to not lose.

Dialogue Session in a while...

2010-01-14T16:30:00.000+08:00

Gosh, time passes so fast. It seems as tho it was just yesterday when we managed to get Mr Ong Peng Tsin to come down for a dialogue session. And the day is here already. Can't wait to learn =)

听君一席话,胜读十年书

Loosely translated,

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.

I'll post about the event later.

Quote of the week

2010-01-12T04:22:00.003+08:00

Don’t ask so much what the world needs. Go out and do what makes you come alive, because what the world needs most are people who have come alive.
~ Howard Thurman

First 3216 Lecture today

2010-01-11T07:17:00.001+08:00

In exactly 11 hours 30 mins, the first CS3216 lecture for this year will start.
In fact school is starting today.

Looking forward to it, and meeting all the motivated ppl around.

Game On!

Success

2010-01-10T16:45:00.002+08:00

Just felt inspired to share some of the quotes that have inspired me to live a better life. The first one, well, I've no idea where it came from, google didn't help either, so I guess I'll attribute it to all the books and materials I've read so far.

Success is determined by the number of people whose lives are better of because you lived.

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.
~George Bernard Shaw

Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.
~Walter Cronkite

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
~Albert Einstein

Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.
~David Frost

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.
~Christopher Morley

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
~Winston Churchill

Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enterprise Series

2010-01-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

Since CS3216 is entrepreneurial in nature, and I guess I would like this to be my professional blog, I guess I'll do the reflections on the event here.

First talk was by Dr Rahul from NUS on intellectual property although he gave a very detailed outline on intellectual property, one thing he said remains embedded in my mind.

Seek proper legal advice, you can't do everything yourself.

The third talk, which was by Mr Chow Yen-Lu of WholeTree technologies, and he gave quite a good idea of entrepreneurship. The 2 main points he brought across.

Entrepreneurial Journey

Wanting to explore
Willing to learn
Wishing to build
Being skeptical, and not accept status quo.
Take the path less travelled
Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Making your own luck

Perseverance
Networking
Flexibility
Focus
Turning every setback to advantage
Learning from mistakes

I think I'll post a link to my notes here once I've compiled them in OneNote.

Another talk that was quite informative was the one by DBS. Although lacking in energy like most corporate talks, there was information inside that was quite good.

Couple of stuff from the entire session after talking to ppl and the speakers,

Network = Net worth

Who you associate with determines what you become.

Change is inevitable, growth is optional.

You have to want to do it.

On Entrepreneurship and Creativity.

2010-01-07T08:14:00.006+08:00

I remember watching this video a while ago and yeah, since CS3216 is an entrepreneurial class in a way I thought I might just share it here.

Link

A trailer for the movie Imagine IT that was part of the video above, but I thought it was great enough to justify some space by itself.

Entrepreneurship is an extreme sport. You gotta get out and do it.
~Tina Seelig

Racist HP Computers?

2010-01-06T17:55:00.001+08:00

Something kindof cool I found recently on youtube. Basically the face recognition software on HP doesn't detect black faces.

Some random thoughts...

2010-01-05T22:51:00.002+08:00

Sometimes, I just don't understand how some people can do what they do. Is money all that matters? Is trust, integrity and reputation worth that 40 bucks?

For $39.99, Best Buy tries to convince consumers to let them clean out and speed up their newly purchased computers. In some cases, the study showed that customers were lied to and forced to take the optimization package, or else they would not be allowed to purchase the computer. When expecting to buy a specific laptop, one woman was told that she'd have to pay the $39.99 extra because they only had pre-optimized versions of the laptop she wanted in stock. Since the optimization was already done, she was told that she could not buy the laptop without paying the extra fee. This specific customer managed to talk her way out of it, but unfortunately, most consumers can't.
Click here to read the article.

It actually saddens me to see that the industry has actually hit such a low that they have to resort to such methods to make money.

I guess that's it for today, might post again some other time.

Mac vs PC(Spoof version)

2010-01-03T08:43:00.002+08:00

Was going through some of the videos I've watched before, found this one, and hey, it's actually quite true =P

Enjoy.

The woes of a Software Development Team

2009-12-31T12:35:00.005+08:00

Just read this article by Joel Spolsky, while going through the archive, titled, "The Iceberg Secret, Revealed."
Click here to read it.

Anyway, having gone to a couple of Computing for Voluntary Welfare Organisations(CVWO) site visits and talked to some of the people there, I realised that the rest of the world is nowhere near as IT literate as the computing students. Some of the things we simply take for granted is difficult to explain to them. Heck, I doubt the IT literacy of some computing students as well.

Straight to the point, here's the main gist of the post by Joel.

Important Corollary One. If you show a nonprogrammer a screen which has a user interface that is 90% worse, they will think that the program is 90% worse.

Important Corollary Two. If you show a nonprogrammer a screen which has a user interface which is 100% beautiful, they will think the program is almost done.

Important Corollary Three. The dotcom that has the cool, polished looking web site and about four web pages will get a higher valuation than the highly functional dotcom with 3700 years of archives and a default grey background.

Important Corollary Four. When politics demands that various nontechnical managers or customers "sign off" on a project, give them several versions of the graphic design to choose from.

Important Corollary Five. When you're showing off, the only thing that matters is the screen shot. Make it 100% beautiful.

Kindof true, now that I think about it, the non-IT people simply have no clue about how programming is like, and link fancy GUI to great program, and the IT people think that all there is to programming is functions.

Which brings me to my next point.

In another article which Prof Ben Leong linked on the official CS3216 blog, it was about why programmers were not paid in proportion to their productivity.
Click here to read it.
And I kindof agree with the last paragraph of that article.

The romantic image of an über-programmer is someone who fires up Emacs, types like a machine gun, and delivers a flawless final product from scratch. A more accurate image would be someone who stares quietly into space for a few minutes and then says “Hmm. I think I’ve seen something like this before.”

Actually, to put it in MY words, this is simply the art of being lazy. To put it simply, it's not about how well you can code, but rather, how well you know the current situation, such that you don't have to reinvent the entire wheel. Maybe you'll need to reinvent part of it to optimise it, but that's fine. It's about taking previous solutions and integrating it such a way that it solves today's problems too.

I think what programmers need to do is to change the mindsets when approaching the problem. When confronted with the maze(problem), instead of barging straight in, why not take a step back and see if there's another way to reach the end-game.

George Patton got it spot on when he said

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
by George Patton

Maybe it's time for the project team managers in the IT sector to start adopting this attitude,

Nokia vs Apple

2009-12-30T07:02:00.002+08:00

Nokia claims virtually all Apple devices violate its patents

Nokia began a legal fight with Apple in October this year when they announced their plans to sue Apple over the iPhone.

Today Nokia filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) saying almost all of the company's products violate its patents not just the Apple iPhone. According to Reuters, Nokia believes Apple's iPhone, iPods and computers all violate its intellectual property rights.

Nokia, the world's giant in the manufacturing of mobile phone technology, sued Apple in October for infringing patents on mobile phone technology used in the iPhone. According to Nokia the patent breach applied to all iPhones since its launch in 2007. Nokia accused Apple of "trying to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation". These alleged infringements, of which there were ten- involved wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption. Nokia have said that they hold agreements with roughly forty firms who use the technology which Nokia has worked hard to develop, including most mobile phone handset makers - allowing them to use the firm's technology. Apple however, have not signed any such agreement with Nokia and as such find themselves in this situation.

The ITC is expected to make a decision on whether to pursue the case by the end of January.
Source

I seriously hope Nokia wins this one. I'm a PC you see =P

Mobicast

2009-12-29T12:41:00.004+08:00

Rather cool piece of technology Microsoft's Cairo Lab has come up with.

A summary of what it is from neowin.net

Let's say there are two people recording video of the Macy's day parade with their cell phones. Mobicast will see that they're recording the same footage in the same place and will begin synchronizing their clocks with the server, comparing the streams, and aligning the frames based on image-recognition technology, to create a single, wider-angle video. In the midst of all this, the video is continuously streamed, live, to other phones and devices.
Read more here

What I hope to learn in CS3216

2009-12-28T11:04:00.019+08:00

My first 'homework' blog post on this shiny new blog =P

Just finished the required watchings. For those of you who just happen to pass by or are not in CS3216, the vids are embedded at the bottom of this post. I strongly recommend everyone to watch it.

The video "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." basically summed up the reason why I signed up for CS3216, and not take computer science as a major =P. Wasn't too keen on some of the modules in CS and by taking IS, i have the option to actually 'drop in' on the modules that I am interested in. Well prof, I hope this answers your question last sem on why I'm in IS =). Felt this way all along, except that I didn't know how to put it in words.

[edit]
After the latest email from UG office, I've decided to change over to CS.

3. Lifting of ABET- Humanity Requirement for CS students matriculating on AY2008-9 and after.

Currently, these CS students are required to take Breadth Modules and Unrestricted Electives from outside the Faculty of Science, Faculty of Engineering and School of Computing for their degree requirements. With this relaxation, students can now use Science, Engineering and Computing to meet their Unrestricted electives.

[/edit]

Now, on to the 'homework', what do I hope to learn in CS3216?

Frankly speaking, I have absolutely no idea of what exactly I want to learn. I just want to learn something that I didn't know I didn't know. =P
I'm one of those who firmly believe that 99% of the stuff out there are things that we don't know we don't know. And that's the important part. It means that we have alot to learn. I personally believe that what this means is that if we go in hoping to learn something, it's very likely we will learn that, and only that, and manage to decrease only what we knew we don't know.
Unless we keep an open mind, there is no way we can learn a decent amount of things that matter. But even if we keep an open mind, we are unlikely to learn everything, so I guess I'll make do with just learning as much as I can and live each day learning.

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
by Thomas Huxley

To be honest though, I look forward to working with all these motivated people from other faculties, and hopefully, be able to learn and understand the perspectives from which they look at problems, and other stuff, and maybe even be able to look at things from their perspectives in future.

Moreover, there are some things that cannot be taught. Teamwork, team management, project management, all of these have to be learnt through experience.

Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
by Oscar Wilde

Personally, I believe that everyone has something of value to impart to the rest of us. I think the late Randy Pausch was spot on when he said,

"Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you."

Ending off with a quote from Galileo.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.
by Galileo Galilei Italian astronomer & physicist (1564 – 1642)

The dots will connect one day. I know it.

The Last Lecture

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

WOOTS!

2009-12-26T07:02:00.001+08:00

Got into CS3216. Things are now falling very nicely into place =) Best Christmas gift ever.

Haha. Now it's time for the hard work to start. Looking forward to the coming sem.