So here it ends :D

It has almost come to an end of my CS3216 :D not gonna name this blog post "what i leant from CS3216" or stuff, thats freaking boring :D

Anyway, like i said in my PS and first blog, the reason why i took this course is becoz i think this course draws some of the best ppl around SOC ( ya... im saying SOC not NUS :D) and i wanna learn from those people and see what they are doing.

Now i look back at what i have done , i think most ppl i have worked with are inspirations. That is super awesome, (which i do not want to go into details on and on about it), long story short, i learnt so much from them and i have achieved what i want to achieve. But still not good enough :D I kinda have a feeling that things ppl do here are very constraint on sth... just a feeling without any reason... so i would really want to check out what north America is like... hopefully i can get my SEP application successful and bang! here i am Uwaterloo :D

Taking this course kinda reaffirmed my belief that university is all about meeting people. Somedays back some guy shared an article named you are the average among your best 5 friends. I kinda agree, in uni i should really meet more awesome people and try to raise my own level to theirs so i wont end up pathetic upon graduation :<

hmmm.... all in all.... i really learnt a lot from people in this course and this is like one of the very few opportunities that provides me with this kind of chance in NUS lah... So, everything is good . good good.

in the end... sorry for this blog entry being like super short :D but really for me , this course is all about learning from peers. Their resilience, attitude towards work, just so awesome :D

Some thoughts about Dustin :D

Final project presentation is interesting, all the teams have very interesting stuff :D but of course like always, they will receive confusing reviews , some like their stuff, some don't so...

Just as I was about to blog abt the projects, I saw this year's blizcon video popping on my youtube homepage, so i decide to take a look :D Anyway it turns out to be very interesting and there are actually some really good learning points.

Dustin is the game balance designer of Starcraft 2, and Starcraft 2 has been somewhat controversial coz terran race is said to be way overpowered. And Dustin has been under a lot of pressure and doubts. Many ppl say stuff like all he can do is designing red alert3 and things (which in gamer circle is regarded as a moron game :D ). In that video, Dustin introduced new units coming up in Starcraft2's new expansion and some new balancing factors added to the game.

There is a QnA session after the presentation, whenever some question on why terran is designed to be so overpowered, the crowd reacts like " hell yea" and Dustin stood there, was just so confident and answering all the questions like a bosh :D

I kinda admire this guy :D even though that i am among those who thinks Starcraft2's balancing has so much problem. Its the way he handles disagreements. He has so much confidence in what he has been doing, and it kinda make those who doubts him start thinking "well, am i the one that is wrong?" such a boss right?

From assignment1 and 2 reviews, we should have already known that, it is impossible to please everyone, some might think your ideas is ok, some thinks they are shit, but it is important, i think, for people to take in some pride in what they do. Have some faith in what they are doing. After all, if even yourself do not believe your idea is gold, how do you convince others.

Take in others opinions, but do not get easily swayed by them. And yea.... the course is like towards the end :D so i wish all my coursemates good luck :D and .... wish you all become bosses like Dustin.

Youtube haters pawned :D

Belated blog post :D

Anyway, last Monday's topic is rather interesting about facebook privacy. How do people manage to have privacy in this world of lots of social networks and things :D

It is rather interesting to observe that nowadays some of us choose to live a very very exposed life. You see people taking photos of them going almost anywhere. Some taken with phone cam, some with professional cams (though i never seem to understand why bother the trouble to hang out with a camera :<) , even photos of them clubbing :D kk .... hmmm

The topic kinda reminds me of a very interesting video i watched recently. Just some thoughts on how much information you can get from people's youtube account.

There is this australian chef channel, this guy teach people how to cook simple but delicious stuff. In one of his videos, he has like 5 pictures of topless men sticked onto his fridge. And a guy commented below saying that his two kids watched this video while looking for father's day recipe. And those photos on fridge offended him so much when the kids saw them :< He ordered the owner to take down this video or he will take legal action against him.

Well.... few days later the owner of the channel posted a video about his findings.... It seems that this hater has been following channels that features topless male models or gay male showing off their body and things... and what gets better is that he actually posted to one of the videos " wanna hook up? " And that is just so hilarious....

Throw away the fun part :< thing about this, what can we get about this guy from his youtube activities? he is a father of 2 boys , he is married but he is gay which may probably make him bicurious. That is like so much information about him.

Back to the topic, thinking about security and privacy, system security can be achieved through better coding , however, there is no kind of coding in the world that can guarantee protection of people's privacy. It comes down to the point that people need to know how to use social media to their benefits , how to behave responsibly, how to enjoy the most of it without worrying exposing their privacy and .....

Looking at the situation now, the technology is so mature, but people simply are not. And that is the reason why you see online games now have features like parental control or even require real life identification so that kids will not be able to play so much. The net is just flooded with all kinds of freaks and.... its just so dangerous :<

hmmm i used to go to the site whereby you live chat or text chat with random people. There was one night and i met a girl :D she said you are the first guy today not showing your penis to me :< and guess what.... she then showed me her boobs .... hope that is a powerful enough conclusion here .... LOL

fully recharged and ready to work :D

The past week I've been spending a lot of time on other modules to catch up with what I left :< Now Im more or less OK already and all the stuff due next week has been settled with :D So.... I can spend a butt-load of time on the new project.

:D

Dun really have anything to blog about related to CS3216 :< but I do have something else interesting ..... I have been following a few cook shows on youtube ..... and gosh.... you have no idea how much butter cream and cheese those guys are putting in their recipes.... It remind me of this show I watched "truth or dare" or sth? hmmmmm a medic was asked if fat ppl repulse him, and he said yes, and he added those people could have done a lot to help themselves. I guess its true. Jamie Oliver also criticized how American people eat. Like school giving kids sugared milk, working parents buy fast food for kids for almost every meal and things. Its just horrible.

So it comes down to the point... though i really enjoy the look of melted cheese on those mac n cheese and things, i dun think i wanna eat them :< at least more often than once a month? LOL

Midway reflection

Well, instead of what i learnt from the Monday session this week. I would really like to talk about what i have learnt from this module so far.

That is, sadly , I really really really really am not interested in web programming. Turns out that after the 2 assignments are done, I really could not care less about the final project. So i decide to do something else instead of coding.

Ya, I mean, thats it , im definitely not doing anything purely web-based in the future. Actually i kinda know it all along coz i like C and C++ over java so much so .... Guess it would be best for me to join a company to make big chunky game in C++ or even do some OS related stuff. So still i did work my ass of I mean, ya and i did learn some stuff.

Anyway, listening to what ppl have to say about their ideas, I went back to reflect on some idea that I had with a couple of friends. Which definitely violates the no porn no gambling policy of this module. But still, we definitely have a very one. Adult industry is on the rise, with modernization and materialization stuff , how should i put it hmmmmm bitches going crazy? Ya, more and more women are involved in this sector and society is putting more recognition into this kind of stuff . This is definitely a good sign :D

A few really close folks of mine and me, spreading all over the world :D will start working some stuff from next year onwards I guess, trying to bring a new era in adult entertainment world XD So please watch closely on news "NUS student making porn to the next level".

I kinda think that I would not blog about this course anymore..." have you been blogging about this course?" "well , not really" Anyway, in some sense this course is a huge disappointment. Ya, so, thats it :D

(case study 1) THIS IS THE QUEST! TO THE ISLAND OF TORTUGA!!!!

The title is totally random.... I mean... OK, just b4 i decide to do this , i found this Lonely Island creation, totally hilarious, and guys :D be sure to check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6CfKcMhjY&feature=relmfu

Since we are asked to do a blog post, i suppose this case study would be rather leisure :D so.... let me get started! read while listening to the awesome song plz !!!!

This app is actually quite a complete one. I would say quite concrete functionality. I can only spot a few, i wouldn't say mistakes, but rather disagreements in their UI element.

Top right corner has 4 tabs, like shown above. However, on the first look they are kinda cool. But actually it stands out of the page, meaning, well, they do not look like a part of the page, when everything is horizontal/vertical, it is not a very good idea to make slanted buttons. But of course, it depends on the page slide in/out movements also. if the pages slide in and out 45 degrees parallel to the buttons, then, maybe it will offset the uncomfortableness of the buttons, or even make it damn cool ! But now, for what i can see, there is a bit of weirdness in this page.

Moving on to next !

This is the page where the user upload his call for help!! This page has a problem, it has too much information! Its like filling up a survey, perhaps it would be nicer to have a setting section to handle certain settings such as how do you want your call for help's visibility to be and things. So this page will become a bit less wordy.

My team is actually making something like this for the 2nd assignment, actually a major problem of such app is that : how to get users to keep using it. For our app it is a bit like posting jokes and amuse each other things, so their is a fun element to it. However for this app, it is kinda serious, getting help from other people. If it is the case that people only come here to post their problem but they do not come here to help people, then the app will be pretty much dead. Thus it is crucial that a reward element is included in this app. In the given example, badges are rewarded to helpers, which makes a lot of sense :D so well done guys , whoever you are <3.

But even with this, its actually kind of hard to keep people interested in helping others. One thing a lot of ask and answer sites do is that, when you first register, you get some points. You set up bounty for ppl who answer your question, and the points can be used to some other stuff in other sectors of the website :D But for this game... there are no other sectors so....

Actually to be frank, facebook is not an evolving platform for apps anymore. Renren, with its much larger user-base and much more developer friendly environment has definitely taken over fb in terms of apps. There is actually a very cool model of app in renren, that is , for example, a pet game and a chess game is linked, where you can get your avatar for your chess game through playing the pet game. It is really a very cool model as it encourages growth of users for both linked apps :D Perhaps it would be super cool for this app to do the same.

Link with another game app say for example, you use the currency in that game to set up bounty for your question, people playing that game will want to help others in call for help app in order to get game currency. Things like this.

Another thing about this kind of app is that, well , the initial group of users is very important. Thus, for this kind of app, I feel it is crucial that it is release slowly to a group of really nice , helpful, resourceful guys first. Imagine if it is immediately released to public, some jerk may come posting stuff like need help to get my xxxx sucked blah blah. Even though admin can erase these postings very quickly, the damage is done. It is unlikely that a first time user will continue to use this app when the first thing he sees after registration is frustrating msg like that.

This is one of the issues that Im always interested in :D things like, even though the technology is ripe, people are not ripe enough to make use of certain technologies. The same goes to one of the groups that came to pitch on Monday. The one about changing the investment model. Really brilliant idea, but com'on.... I doubt anyone will do it because eventually :D the world is only getting more and more materialistic, people will only care about money more and more, that is the observable trend.

Ok, I was talking about pretty big stuff just now. I cant allow my thoughts to drift on XD , so this will be the end of my case study.

P.S. i know we have a week's extension.... but com'on.... its still within the deadline of assignment 2... so does it matter when i do it? ........

So thats the end of books?

So basically yesterday some fellow course-mates presented with us with an ipad app called PDF reader. Its a very handy app that allows ipad user to read e-books and annotate them while supporting some itune features. Listening to music while reading e-book, who doesn't like that :D Though some friends mentioned that there are free versions of pdf reading applications hence that people might not want to pay 10 dollars just for some minimal extra features. I personally think its a very good app.

First of all I would say the name is very good, "PDF expert" straight away tells you what the app does. I personally had some experience about that. I used to use bitcommet for ptop downloading. After I switch to mac, I started using Vuze. Even though these 2 apps works exactly the same, I find using Vuze more painful that bitcommet. In the end , I think the reason is that, well Vuze with its blue frog icon, does not make me so certain that its function is to download stuff :D

K, that was just personal preference :D

Secondly, i think being able to connect to dropbox adds an immense amount of advantage to this app. It become a really great tool to catch up with project-related readings. Those readings usually do not require very indepth understanding, so can just happily read on bus and annotate those things you are not sure or stuff. Really really useful.

Another thing that caught my attention is that prof and Joshua was talking about things like books are going to get obsolete. I totally agree that part of the reason we buy this idea or not is related to our reading habit. Honestly I hate reading on my computer so , ya, i dun think books are going to disappear.

But there is a second part to the story. Digress a bit here, this reason is totally unrelated to how good the tools are that we use to read ebooks. But rather, books carries some value that other electronic devices do not.

Imagine you walk in some guys room, he has like 3 whole shelves of books. Ignore the factor of look :D what will you think about that guy? And imagine you walk in some guys room he has like 10 computers connected to each other, what would you think? Even if people do not read books anymore, it will not be the death of books :D Coz there will always be ppl buying Shakespeare act cute ma :D So I think books will be with us for a long time lah.

Thats about all I have to say abt PDF expert :D ty all :D

Catch no ball

Was having fever during Monday's lecture, ya... but because its Microsoft, I still went. Windows phone... hmm i dunno. Actually I dun quite like this kind of stuff, animated tile and things, make me feel uncomfortable. I would rather stick with old class phone :D I just need it to text and call. And yes i know smartphones are really convenient.... just dun like them.... I mean iphone is fine, but the flashy tile thing is just too much :D Windows phone will not be the big thing, they overdo things too much, trying too hard to be more cool than apple and android.

Anyway I still catch no ball about mobile cloud app thing.... The way i see it now is basically like a game but you can pull the high-score board from your server :D Anyway, dear groupmates will inspire me :D

Nowadays internet becomes so damn fast and brought us so many changes :D some are good, some are fking bad, like starcraft2 no longer supports local area network mode. haiz.

Anyway even though im sick, still cannot get any rest for the 3 days , coz need to code like crazy for the facebook app .... after that is seminar after that is assignment 2 , mid term, final project.... I mean com'on , assignment 1 due 1st September, assignment 2 start at 29th August... can i catch a fucking break?

Im definitely going to hang at some island nearby during the Sept holidays, no one can stop me. Done with the complains, get back to work.

Price tag

Here I am sitting in com lab doing random stuff waiting for project meeting. The past 6 days are like HELL, I have at least coded like 60 hours in total trying to figure out php js stuff. Its only yesterday I suddenly had an epiphany and YAY! start to figure things out :D

Anyway I have been thinking about Monday's lecture. I realize a lot of people are talking about stuff like making money these days. OK, maybe I misunderstood. But things like NOC, people only talk about working in start-ups, high-techs overseas, not much were said about having fun. Say for exp, if I were to go to Israel, I would certainly care less about who I will be working with. I will definitely be more interested in their attitude towards their religion , what normal people think of Palestinian things like that.

There are so many interesting things around. There is kinda like a dilemma. My friend and I were talking about it last night. College is like the last period of our life that we can have a "free" life. Should we spend more of our time building up an impressive resume so as to have a higher-start-up point upon graduation? or should we spend our time exploring our interests? It is really hard to choose. I mean, com'on, I always knew I will be doing computer science, and im really interested in it. However, I figured , I might be doing it for the rest of my life. But things like theater, drama ,philosophy, sociology, those are very hard to explore alone. My time in NUS is the best time for me to find some mentor in these areas. BTW I took a philosophy module in my first sem, it is really a lot of fun :D and pretty girls :D

Then I kinda thought of a song by Jessy , called price tag
seems everyone's got a price
i wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first and the truth comes second
Just stop for a minute and smile

Are we focusing on too much about what we can get out of the things we do instead of the things we do themselves?

Things like CCA in Singapore.... really have to say SG is very fake in some ways (yea, generally its a cool place lah) . Why do students have to be really good in that thing already in order to join a CCA? Naturally people might not be good in things that they are interested in. Things like choir audition, guitar audition blah blah audition. Why cant a CCA have a lot of people who are actually passionate about what they are doing, instead of a bunch of people who just join in order to get enough CCA points for them to stay in campus accommodation? That is the reason I refuse to join CCA in NUS :D I kinda hate it when people do things like that.

I would fully attribute this kind of mentality of mine to the fact that... I have been living a life without having to worry about money :D lucky bitch I am .... scholarship a lot of money haha....

But anyway, after listening and reading stuff about how people make money, or build resume. I'm really fed up. This is not what I want :D I just want to work hard and make things that makes myself LOL. Filter keyword money / commercialize from now on :D

Wont lose my cool :D

I met Cedric in a maths calculus module last sem, he kinda told me all about how tiring CS3216 is. Like their team were doing project in Shears Hall and stayed through the whole night.

I dunno.... For me, that is hardly the stress of this module :D My group consists of 2 ESP guys, 1 chemistry guy and me.... I'm only a year 2 student, not only that, i made a terrible mistake! I really thought CS3216 is about IOS! Then i went self-studying IOS during the holidays ZZZzzz.... Now I have to pick up things from scratch. It is really really hard. I really think that, if this is an individual project, I would not care that much. But my teammates are really brilliant people, I certainly do not want to be the one that drag others down :D

That being said, I will be doing my best. No matter what the outcome might be, must have no regrets. Also must pay attention to my health stuff :D wake up early , eat a fruit then go to gym. Take a bath and go to class, followed by codecodecodecode.

That kindda reminds me of a song by Eminem " lose yourself "(who doesnt love the slim shady)

I certainly would not think awesome chance to work with great people "comes only once in my lifetime" :D still, lets lose ourselves in it.....

Get back to work !

CS3216 means this to me

So.... what do i expect to learn in CS3216 hmmm....

Ok well, it might be a little awkward to say that throughout my learning journey, I have never pictured myself to be the best in something. And I don't really wanna be the best. When i was little I thought I was just lazy. Later on I realized that :D I am the kind of person who does not believe in things like "sacrificing a little pleasure now in exchange for greater pleasure in the future". Ya.... nice excuse :D Anyway, it takes tremendous amount of effort to be the best in something. I always though, well, as a student, I do not have to push myself that hard, i deserve to enjoy life. So what I always do is that, i take the opportunity to know about those real awesome people, and figure out where I am lacking, then work towards them a little. Just to make sure I'm hanging fine.

I would say that is what I hope to achieve taking CS3216.

Of course if you ask every single student who has taken this module so far, they would say it is a great chance to learn about building a project, to learn about coding stuff. And it definitely is. Still, I kinda feel that :D there is really no rush to learn about teamworks and things, part of the reason is that, I always felt this kind of things come in natural. I'm an outgoing person, I don't really worry about that. Another part of the reason is that, anyway we will be taking internship and things soon, that would be a even better opportunity to learn about this kind of things.

The more important thing is, as a year 2 student, after one year of staying in SOC, I have some idea about where i am, or how good/bad i am. CS3216 is a really attractive module, there will be a lot of real awesome people joining it, it is a great opportunity to help me to place myself more accurately. And to figure out my strength and weakness.

That being said, I have a plan for myself in NUS :D First year to get all the fundamentals solid, second year to challenge myself and know where I am in NUS or to say in Singapore, third year is the year of internship and hopefully going to North America to see what people are doing over there besides drinking beer :D haha. 4th year hmm... Lets see how the first 3 years go.

Guess that is all I have to say about what i hope to achieve in CS3216