Replies to comments... ^_^

Wah, this is a surprise - and thanks for nominating my blog - ack, didn't know so many people read it....so embarressing.. ^_^ A small hint - my posts are super long and wordy so always scroll down to estimate what you're getting yourself into before starting...=)

Anyways, since people are now forced to read my blog, (and I have free advertising space...haha..) I'll just mention some blogs that I really enjoyed reading, so you all can read those too...

I was inspired by Yuming and Jiayang's blog to write about my own experiences, but I think their experiences are more touching and interesting to read than mine. They took alot of effort to write it up and I think its very worth reading, so do drop by there if you have time..

Sharon's last post was very touching also, but for some reason access is blocked..hm. BUT. If you have google reader you can still read her last post from there..haha.. ^_^ Reading Wang Sha's blog also impressed me alot, especially when she said this for her last post:

What have we learnt?

1. HTML, PHP, CSS, Ajax, ActionScript, SQL, Mysql, Flex, Microsoft Visual Studio, WPF

Four month ago, I knew absolutely nothing about them. Now I can use them to create something.

Wah I after I read that I think the Xiaonei team is legendary. I don't even think I will be able to learn as much as they did in the same time frame. :p

*****************************

Anyways, another reason I'm posting them here is because my laptop has some problem allowing me to post comments, and I've been wanted to leave comments on these people's blogs so I'll just leave them here..hahaha...hopefully you all read my blog...

*****************************

@yuming - Hee I always liked reading your blog coz I realize we think alike on some issues... Like how I cannot stand slackers who always do half assed work and say they need personal time - but I'm also starting to understand that life is not all about work and to tone down my perfectionist streak also... Which is why I was breaking down halfway thru the module also - I was so pissed I even ranted straight out on my blog...haha... ^_^

*****************************

@jiayang - Yeah, I agree that Singaporeans like to be comfortable..you have no idea how happy I was when Prof Ben mentioned it in class and I'm like finally someone agrees with me... And you are right about the scared to graduate part too - coz I had my chance to graduate last semester and then I was suddenly freaked out.. But now I'm not so scared, at least I'm more confident in my abilities and what I want...Same as you, graduating in 1/2 yr's time...Hopefully we'll get what we want when we go out in the working world! ^_^

*****************************

@sharon - For your computing friend..I think it just goes to prove that if you find your passion and head determinedly towards it, you will suceed in the end... ^_^ I was like you also, I never thought it was possible to deviate from the pri sch-sec sch-JC-UNI-work life track...

I only came to the realization too late in end of uni 1st year..that I have just been blindly following a path my parents charted for me. And I was very depressed also, because I deeply wanted to do art in uni but I always felt that I never really had a choice.. It was always too comfortable to strike out, I always had enough results to clear the next level of school... so I had no excuse to do art...

In fact I hated myself for passing my O lvls and A lvls, I wish I'd failed so I will be free to do what I want to do. Haha..I'm still feeling some of the regret now, but I've decided to make the most of my uni life and do as much design and art as I can... I did costume design for RAG, did hall decor, made posters, tried to be publicity head in all the ccas I'm in...and in year 2 I changed my major from literature to CNM so I will have more chance to do what I like.. Its still not art ART, but I'm happier here. ^_^

It was nice working with you for the Library Guide, I really feel lucky for having you as the person to liase with because I'm sure I can never find someone as nice as you..haha, like you were really trying to take care of me every step of the way..Don't worry, your colleagues were very nice also... ^_^ I think the class benefitted from you being in it also, especially your perspective on working life since most of us are still studying and we only have Prof Ben's word to go on..hahaha... I hope you'll find a great job that you love and pays well too! *hugz*

*****************************

@wang sha - Quote from her blog:“ I know nothing now but I hope I can make something when I finish this course.” Actually, I think we all know some things before we started the course. Its just that this course has forced us to find out exactely how much we know about the things we already know...by making us use our avaliable skills for actual projects.. Like how I've always been content with my level of photoshop skills but now I realize there is a higher level of photoshop (and illustrator..haha) skill to achieve, and I've increased my level of photoshop use..haha..I'm understanding more about the things I already know because I need to use my skills practically for this module.

*****************************

I'll just reply comments to my previous post here also:

@ jiayang - Yeah, its really been quite hard to shake off that "my work sucks" attitude - even when its nice I'll sometimes wonder if I remembered wrongly that I was the one who did it...haha.. >_< Hmm does tt happen to anyone else too?

@Toan. HAHAHAHAHAHA... *evil laughter*

@Jason: Thanks for remembering..and..PREPARE YOUR CAMERA... ^_^

@Su Yuen: Hmmm - I did try to de-code CSS during the first project, was consulting Chris Henry...haha but still quite FAIL leh.. (you can see my horrified post on it (http://mannie3216.blogspot.com/2009/01/all-nighter-madness-wei-man-vs-css.html) So I doubt I'll be an expert programmer if I'm forced to learn coding..haha..With illustrator its still an art thing, just different tool, so not as bad... ^_^ Thanks for sharing!

@Ben: =) Good wad, I push people to reach new limits and they are happy about it. Like you loh! But really la, I learnt alot from my NPCC culture - Discipline, thinking on your feet, taking initiative, and all that...^_^

@Hui Hui: THIS IS NOT EVEN 1/3 of what I want to say... ^_^ Oh ya, I watched the clip, yup, it was like that.. ^_^ Except I wasn't so fierce... ^_^ Good luck for your exams too!

Addendum

Something's screwing up my blogger account formatting but anyway the links to this sentence in the previous post can be found here:

It was insane. I couldn't believe it. I could replicate this and this in illustrator. Check out our app to see them man...

And btw, the title of the last post should be:

The Closing of a Chapter

thanks!

You know what?

I really wanted to do a mini webcomic strip for my last post. But that has to wait awhile since I'm currently rushing projects, presentation, reports, UI design and playtesting sessions for Module A due in 4 days, and then a final project (16 page magazine + 5 pg website) for Module B that I have ENTIRELY NOT TOUCHED this whole semester due to *ahem ahem*, all of which I BY HOOK OR BY CROOK HAVE TO FINISH IN A WEEK by 27th April because it makes up 100% of the grade.

We'll see whether I get so stressed up that I furiously draw a webcomic to relax or I finish my projects and furiously draw a webcomic to celebrate. So before that happens, I'm obliged to put a word in first. ^_^ Even if its just:

"COMING SOON, to a computer screen near you."

************************************************






Just kidding. I'll write a little more than that. Just to commemerate my survival in this sick module. Take this as the blurb you read at the back of a book before you read a comic. ^_^

(Gosh I just finished and realized this is super long, so just skim to the end - the bold part - if you don't have time..

If you don't believe me you can scroll down now and see.

See?

Now just read from the bolded part and come back when you have time - i.e. not pia-ing exams/projects.

Good Luck!)


Taking this module is like being in a state of extreme stress all the time and where you also have to think out of the box to survive. It reminded me of the atmosphere during Naruto's Chunin exam - both the written exam and the forest part (watch the episode on youtube, the link doesn't explain anything). The HunterxHunter exam too. ^_^

Basically to pass the exams, its half skills, half psychology - having the skills to do things, and being able to withstand stress and psych yourself up. Its about team management, trusting your team mates, knowing their skills and how to make everyone work together to achieve the same aim. Its trying to be one step ahead so you don't miss your step and die.

Its been a very hard module to get through, because of the speed of the assignments and the constant reshuffling of project mates. VC almost didn't manage to get a programmer on our team for project 1 because all the groups formed up so fast. But in the end Yuhan liked our idea and decided to join us so we didn't die.

For the presentation group Toan took the lead to get everyone together, and then I realized that I needed to take the lead to get the group for WPF, because I no longer wanted to be just passively waiting for someone to pick me. Its somewhate disadvantagous to wait, you might just get left out like in proj 1. And then you die. Besides, it is much harder to form a WPF group due to the restrictions. So I did up a table of who worked with who before and then went to approach people based on that... and then end up I'm the first to form a WPF group so everyone panicked and cemented their group that night too.

I was quite surprised though. I didn't expect such a reaction - in fact I've never been so active in classes before, its just because I felt that the class demanded people to be more proactive, and I've seen people in class being proactive, so I just tried it out. ^_^

That's something good about the class - by having proactive people in the class, it affects and changes the way other people think and work. You learn alot from people around you. And CS3216 is the only kind of class that allows proactive people to be proactive - just because it is so turbulent! Things move and change so fast, even passive people like me are forced to become proactive.

On hindsight, I realized what the first class was all about. The round of introductions was meant to be a stage on which we "sell" ourselves, so other people in class can have a better idea of who to pick for projects later on. Argh, totally missed out on that and brought a dusty old hand painted bag down >_<. It pales in comparison to what everyone else had to show; I was a little embarressed after that. Though it really did summarize me very well - literature, arts and crafts...old fashioned and outdated.

I really learnt a lot on the current state of technology during this class, especially during WPF...when I suggest ideas for our app and Dingyan and Hongting will look and me and say - "its been done, weiman. Go check out etc etc etc..." Den I'll *sian*. Plus they introduced me to new apps like Twitter...and showed me that you can actually control your powerpoint presentations through your handphone....etc etc etc - LOTS.

Things I've totally never thought were possible just yet. Technology that can improve my life and work alot. And this is going to sound super sua ku to you but when they hooked up my laptop to another keyboard and a monitor and taught me how to manipulate what's showing up on the monitors so I can work in comfort, I was super happy. ^_^

Oh, another thing about that 3 nights pia-ing WPF in Engineering Block. We were making an application, so that requires alot of icons. And icons look best when done in Illustrator because resizing them is easier and it looks much cleaner. When I started WPF, I did not know illustrator AT ALL. But it was my own personal standard that forced me to picke up illustrator... because I know in order to make the app look good it has GOT to be illustrator art. But time was running short...and I was very worried I wouldn't be able to pick up illustrator on time.

In the end, I stuck with the illustrator decision, sat down in front of my (happily modified) laptop-monitor-keyboard-thing, and started the "Learn Illustrator in 30 days" tutorials. In 4 hours straight, and with many delighted screams when I completed cool tutorials, I finished all of them...and I could use illustrator as I wish. It was insane. I couldn't believe it. I could replicate this and this in illustrator. Check out our app to see them man...Toan and Hui Hui's help were also invaluable during that period, since they were both illustrator pros. Nevertheless, I would have never imagined that I could manage to master illustrator in that short span of one week...I hated illustrator before this, because it is so hard to learn. I'll probably never have hauled my lazy ass around to tackle it if not for this module. This is one skill that I learnt during the course will be useful to me for my whole life..

I learnt that I had a social life too, when the module started interfering with it. YES I so do remember the Musical clashing with the pitching session. But as I said, it is important to me, and I will never regret choosing it over the pitching session. Not to mention I cancelled outings with my friends and even CNY visiting just to rush projects for this module. And like Yu ming I got frustrated alot with trying to balance work and life and almost broke down - there was only one previous incident where I was so stressed and that was when I was overworking myself for hall - I ended up hyperventilating then, and I swore that I'll never get so stressed up again, so I left hall. But that was after 1.5 years of overworking for hall, and I'm doing the same for this module I've only been in for 6 weeks?! That is so not making sense. I broke out in stress related ecezma too.

That was the wake up call - I had to relax, or else I'll really just collapse into a jumble of nerves. After WPF, which happily was the 1 week holiday, I lazed about all day, went out to take Watchmen pictures, and went out with friends. It was amazing - the eczema cleared straight away. It came back a little for the final project tho. =( But I believe I have learnt to manage my stress better.

Still, no matter how evil and horrendous the whole module has been, I agree with Prof Ben's methods. If you want to make someone learn, you put them through hell and high water. But you always watch out for them to help them out if they are really drowning to death.

I know this because I was in one of the top few NPCC units in secondary school. (Shot a .22 revolver then too, so I understand the Prof Ben shooting analogy during the last lecture. ^_^) It made me who I am today. As a cadet I had my fair share of hell. As a sec 4 NCO in charge, I learnt to make hell useful to my cadets.

I remember one incident during the Annual Training Camp where we make the cadets do drills in the dark, steal their rifles at night, call impromptu fire drills when they are sleeping + assorted hell. There was a company that was being punished, about 150 push ups by the end of the day. There was this Sec 1 cadet who did 150 push ups along with the rest, but she's got extra 25 to go because we stole her rifle in the morning. She was quite exhausted and she said, "ma'am, I cannot do any more." while still in push up position.

She was new, so she didn't know that in our unit, there's no such thing as "cannot". You never tell your seniors "cannot", because they can very well give you hell (i.e. +25 more) the moment you say that. So you try your best every time to finish up.

But there was sweat streaming down her face and it was really late at night, plus she had to do this herself, alone, so it was really difficult for her. Still, I believed she could finish it...if she still had the energy to speak, I'm sure she still had the energy for 25 more. My squadmate was next to me so she started to ask the cadet to stop and rest, but I interrupted her.

"No." I said. I knelt down next to the cadet, looked her in the eye, and told her "You can do it one. I'll count down with you."

So I counted down for her each time she did one more. 24...23...22...21... I could see her mustering all her will and effort for every extra one she did. It was hard. She had to slow down a couple of times. But I was always encouraging her when she paused - 9 more, only 9 more, come on, you can do it... - and in the end she did it. All 25 extra on top of the 150 straight. She was even able to stand up after that. And I could see that she was surprised at herself. I'd made her push beyond her limits and taught her that she could achieve more than she had expected.

When I left secondary school, she thanked me in a note. I was surprised that in the note she remembered the encouragement I gave her "when she thought she couldn't make it anymore" and not the part where I was being evil and insisted on giving her hell. Hahaha...

But I guess this is how things work out - it is what you've learnt that has made an impression on you, not the hell that you've been through.

That's what this module is like too, I guess. It is hell, no doubt about it. But its what you learn from hell that you remember the most.

I guess what I'll remember most is that I have learnt to believe in my ability to make a difference to this world. Before the module I'd always thought that I was too insignificant to make enough of a dent - I didn't believe in alot of things, and one of them was that I could ever be successful. My art isn't good, really, if you compare it to professional standards and I doubt I can even get a job by it. Which is a problem because all I ever wanted to do was to be a character artist, or a comic artist. My writing isn't that good either, which also is a problem because I wanted to be an author or a comic book writer. And then certain injuries prevent me from being a dancer. Seems like all I can do is be a game producer..a job that I don't really like, although I liked making games. And random sai kang like designing costumes and decorating hall dining rooms which I felt made a difference but no one really cared.

But things are different now. This module has taught me that there are people out there that can help me achieve what I want to achieve. The whole class is like a microcosm of the world - there are all kinds of talented people in it, I just have to go out there, find them, and persuade them that what I want to do is useful and meaningful to the world. And of course tell them how they can benefit from it. To try to do everything single-handedly is a fantasy, most people aren't talented enough or if they are, they don't have enough time to do so. You don't have to do everything yourself, and you don't have to feel bad that you can't do everything yourself. Because there are always people around who can help you - JUST ASK DAMNIT. And pick the right people to help you achieve your dream.

I've also stopped comparing myself to people much better than me. Chinese proverb time: "There will always be a mountain higher than the highest mountain you see." I've become more confident as an artist, because this module allowed me to work on my art a lot. In fact, my skill set for this module has always been artist artist artist, from project 1, to wpf to final project. I've learnt alot as an artist during this module, especially with regards to working with programmers. Learn how to use SSH and SVN in proj1 and final project respectively. Which I am very grateful for because it is actually practical. Like I learnt about how programmers put in artwork and now I try to keep naming conventions the same when I modify the art. At any rate, I am the best that I can be now, so all I need to do....is to move upwards. Faster. My art teacher told me he used to draw 100 drawings a day for a few months..and so he improved super fast during that time..

The holidays are coming. May is for that. ^_^ And then... I'll work on some stories, enter some competitions, draw, write, hopefully get published one day... I need to go out and meet more people... more people who share my dream... and perhaps everything will fall into place one day. ^_^

Now I believe in being ready when opportunity knocks on my door, and its time to start preparing. I might not succeed in what I want to do, but I have a back up plan, and I'm not worried if I fail.

Thanks Prof Ben for designing this module, its been an eventful and interesting semester. Its the people in class that makes CS3216 so different from other modules though, most of what I've learnt, I've learnt from my classmates and project mates, who showed me how ignorant I am, and time and again showed me different perspectives and possibilities. Especially Jason and his bots. I was just totally dumbfounded by that.

Last comment - I'm super impressed by the Xiaonei team...their perseverance and determination is admirable, and their presentation for the (Olympic scoring) group discussion was the best. I really loved the little sticker quotes they pasted on their poster too, it really cohered with what their application was about and made it more convincing. They really deserve the success they are having with My Campus, and I hope it just gets better and better for them. ^_^

Oh, and don't forget:

Confessions of a CS3216 Mugger

"COMING SOON, to a computer screen near you."

Good luck everyone for exams and projects!!! ^_^ This chapter closes, but the next one always begins straight after! ^_^

Security Talk

I liked Kai Er’s talk alot, because he explained the difference between security and privacy very clearly. While thinking about the differences between privacy and security, It never crossed my mind that better security may require privacy to be given up.

I had always thought that privacy is keeping things private, and security is to keep those private things from being public. So in that sense, security will never be able to invade privacy. However, since Kai Er’s definition of Security is “making sure that the program does what its supposed to do and not what its not supposed to do.”, or, in light of the luggage checks and surveillance camera example, protect people/information from external threats, higher security can lead to invasion of privacy in order to secure its parameters.

I prefer Kai Er’s definition of security, because it is a broader definition than mine and applies to more situations. ^_^

Another thing I felt was important is that “a program is only as strong as its weakest link” – very true. However, I especially like the part about social engineering, because no matter how good a program is, humans are always its weakest link.

So the best solution is actually to educate people and to encourage people to think and doubt more.. ^_^ Heehee.

Oh haha I remember Prof Ben asking Kai Er about Extensibility – for Kai Er’s product it was extending the product into other rfid readers and all that so that you don't have 2 spend extra resources 2 retrofit whatever you have. Prof Ben felt that its just basic common sense to work on a version that can be easily extensible from the start, and he was surprised to find out that this is not common practice. As a non-programmer, I’m not very sure about the specifics, but I understand perfectly when Kai Er said that when deadlines are coming, nobody really cares about the future, they just care about getting it to work now. I’ve seen this inefficiency happen several times in the many projects I’ve worked in – its not something that can be helped.

Other than that, I think Kai Er’s product is pretty cool, I wonder if it is available for personal use though? As in, you know how there are so many things to sign into – facebook, deviantart, gmail, etc etc every time I use the school computer – its such a chore. I wonder if it is possible to build a device that saves passwords in a secure format so that the public can use it on different PCs? Obviously it will be very different from the way the RFID program is build now, since it has to be customized for each client. How about a thumbdrive thing that can sense when you are trying to access gmail and inputs all the info for you? Of course, it has to be protected by a initial password when the user opens up the program, like the RFID program is now, but hmmmm does such a thing exist yet?

Haha. One thing I learnt after hanging around with tech geeks ( through WPF ) from this class: whenever I think of something new that is tech-ish, they’ll stare at me and say, “wei man. That is out in the market already.”

*Bleah*.

Entrepreneurial Talk

I’ve never seen myself as an entrepreneur, because I’m not the kind of person who likes to have lots and lots of money. A rudimentary knowledge of economics will teach you that people are beings that have a specific set of needs, but infinite wants – that’s what drives the economy – the ever changing “useless” fashions and trends. Personally, I’m tired of all the junk we make and throw away on a daily basis. It used to be that things were made to last for years, decades even. I still use the sofa my grandparents bought for their apartment 40+ years ago, and it is sturdy enough. Not like those flimsy Ikea chairs I bought a year ago which broke a few days back. And hand phones - people change them like changing underwear – its become a matter of habit to be trading in your old phone for the latest phone almost every month. (yes, you! ^_^)

It pains me to know that the resources used up to mass manufacture trendy electronics and senseless trinkets could be put to better use, like making cheaper laptops for the poor in India or Africa. I try my best to fight against the desire to own products that do not last, or whose value is determined by the brand name rather than its utility.

I would like to be one of the few people who cut out as many wants as possible from my life. In fact, all my phones are hand-me-downs - I would still have my old JC nokia phone if my mother doesn’t trade in my phones once in a while coz she say its too obiang.

The thing is, I don’t need alot and alot of money. Its my ambition to live in a one room flat that has enough space for my books, that’s about it. I don’t like unnecessary spaces, one room will be nice and self-sufficient. (I can imagine Prof Ben asking – “What about your husband?” Ans: WHAT husband?!?!) And the thing about entrepreneurship is, most people go into it for the money. More than half the speakers in the lecture theatre became entrepreneurs because they felt that it will bring them more money faster. (and of course they like to take the risk and has the strength to fail.) For the rest for did it for passion, I’m sure they worked at a office job for a while to earn some back up money and capital before quitting and working on their passion.

Not only that, entrepreneurs usually capitalize on people’s need for new good and gadgets that look new and cool but are not intrinsically different, so essentially they are helping to create more waste for the planet. Like last time I wanted to set up a clothing brand in secondary school... Because I like to sketch a lot I’ve got these set of cute but really depressing stick men figures that spout clichés, that I really wanted to get printed on T-shirts, stationery, accessories, bags, and stuff. But when I thought more about it I felt that it is just helping to perpetuate the consumerist myth of individuality. (i.e. people buy my clothes because they feel that it will make them different but in actually fact they are just duped into feeling different and cool.) It doesn’t change the world, doesn’t help people, it only “wastes resources”. So I dropped the idea.

Interestingly enough, the businesses presented are businesses that are more practical in nature. Trading information rather than goods – like ownskins, red sports, and hungrygowhere. I really like what hungry go where said, “Ask what people need then make something that addresses their needs,” because I believe that’s the way businesses should be made. It goes to show that “new technology is not the key in business,” because new technology gets copied amazingly fast. It is new concepts, new ways of arranging information, that is the key to businesses now, I feel.

There are several other points that I agree with the speakers. In order to set up a business, one must have the “idea, money, and people”. I know that because after JC my friend asked me to do some art for his start up and somehow I ended up trying to set up a business with him and some friends. I did my time giving out flyers in City Hall MRT. (yeah, those office people really look quite dead.) The whole thing fell apart soon tho – crappy idea, not much money, and people with wrong motives. So I can appreciate that advice very very much now. Especially the right people – I believe that everyone should come clear with each other on their motives and expectations of the start up before going into the details of the business. Because knowing your people/partner is the single most important thing even before starting up your business – you’ll have to suffer and succeed with whoever you’re saddled with – like being married like that. Divorces are ugly.

Another thing is that selling is one skill needed to be an entrepreneur – very true. I remember someone telling me this orientation game – in a room of about 100 people, everyone’s given 50 cents. Everyone is free to mingle and talk within the time limit of 30 minutes – to beg, borrow, or steal 50 cents from each other. When the time is up, the person with the most 50 cents wins the game, and everyone who doesn’t have a coin has to do a forfeit on stage. It amazed me that there are people who can end the game with over 20 dollars... Honestly if you can do that you can sell blind people spectacles. ^_^

And yes, of course, being an entrepreneur is all about learning to be in the right place at the right time, and all the hard work to make sure it happens. ^_^
The most important thing I learnt is actually the search engine optimization. I feel that it is the most useful and practical piece of advice I gained from the talk. While the rest of the things I agree with can only be experienced or learnt through experience, SEO is not.

Oh and lastly, Leslie’s words struck a chord in my heart when he said that there’s all these big MNCs in Singapore like Nike and GAP, but there is no really huge local brand. And part of his motivation for setting up Red Sports is to build something that is Singaporean, a brand that belongs to us. Yes, I believe in that too – creating a Singaporean brand that lasts. ^_^

Actually, after hong ting’s question I wanted to ask a even more evil question – if the entrepreneurs had anything they regret. Because starting up a business entails a lot of sacrifice and risk... But oh well, not able to. Ah, I ask questions very methodologically one, so I had to ask the “why you start out” before the regrets question.

ten facebook tips for power users

Tips include getting the old facebook layout back and how to stalk your friends. ^_^

:http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,161688/printable.html

Dialogues: Software Engineering, Zit Seng's Talk, More pia-ing in SOC 1

More PIA-ing in COMP 1.

Justin: "OMG- Eh Kian Boon! You must take a picture of this! Must have me in the picture too okay?"

-click- *flash*
-click- *flash*
-click- *flash*

Kian Boon:"Eh Wei Man you must put your hand here - den got picture of Wei Man's hand typing.."

-click- *flash*

Wei Man: "What the hell!?"

Justin: "Eh this is evidence of Extreme coding okay? Eh Boon I look horrible in this picture - Yuhan! Take a better pic!"

Yuhan:*click - * "Uh, did I take a picture?"

Justin: "What the hell did you press?!"

Kian Boon: "Ahem, that is Extreme Data entry okay, not Extreme programming. Eh, and stop laughing la."

-click - *flash*

Justin: "Eh, serious lah!"

-click - *flash*

Yuhan: "Nah, this one la, you both look very serious in this one."

Justin: "Okay, put on Facebook. Wei Man you go on putting data into myphpadmin arh, you've got to know enough to show prof ben by tmr."

*Wei Man enters data*

15 minutes later....

Wei Man: "Eh Justin, isn't there a way to do this faster? Like importing straight from excel?"

Justin: "uh..."

Yuhan & Bryan:"Yes! Can! No Problem!"

Wei Man: "Damn you, Justin!"

************************************************

So ends my first attempt at psuedo-coding (i.e. data entry into database). It seems pretty straight-forward after some coaching from Justin who helped label and and place the information in an excel sheet for me to refer to. Other than some exceptions with special conditions, I could do it without Justin's hovering supervision. Now only the question remains - will I pass Prof Ben's test? >_< style="font-weight: bold;">So, about Software Engineering...

After I left the class that day, I went out with a friend for dinner. We ended up discussing Buddhism -

He said, "The problem with people is that they have too many things in their minds at one time. All the different thoughts are distracting them from progressing with their lives and solving their problems..."

I said, "OMG! That's Abstraction!"

So of course he asked - "What is abstraction...I was talking about meditation... -_-lll" And I had to explain the whole thing about how there's this thing in software engineering where you hide all the distracting information and just reveal the parts that are important to you so you can concentrate on the important parts to think clearer and solve questions faster.

So *heh heh* Abstraction isn't a special case of SOC. ^_^ Its applicable to real life too..

Oh and just a note: Decomposition is actually one of my favorite methods of approaching a problem - I really think that the 5 principles taught in software engineering is applicable to many aspects of thinking and planning in life. ^_^

*******
Regarding the Scrum presentations, I was very impressed with Zihan's scrum-thingy invention because it sounded very efficient, and a very good solution to a production problem. Regrettably, it is only workable with a) a small group of bonded people, b) where everyone understood exactely what everyone else was doing.

The program that Zihan used, Track, works like the other production programs that I used in my company - Devtrack and Perforce - which I didn't have a chance to present. Devtrack tracks all the tasks that people are working on at the moment, allows people to update real time when they have finished their tasks, and allowed people to see how tasks are passed from one person to another.

The problem was training the huge number of people to all use the program when they didn't see any real benefit from it because it felt like just another time wasting administrative procedure. The other problem was that the project group was continuously expanding at the rate of about 2 people per week, so it was hard to get the synergy and bonding going because everything was in a constant state of flux. Unlike Zihan's committed group who knew each other (and their end goal) well, it was not easy to implement Zihan's system at my company, no matter how good the technology/method was.

I'm starting to believe that it is much easier to motivate and handle a small group than a large group. Even if its a large group, I think the big group should be broken up into small groups with a common goal so as to improve bonding and motivation to increase efficiency.. Its not so much the method or technology, its the people and the bonding that ultimately motivates and drives the project.

***
On Zit Seng's talk..I'm actually quite lost, but I was very impressed with his passion and how he made the talk interesting with stories. I think he's a very good speaker, just regret that I'm not well versed with the technical programming terms so I can't really understand what's going on - Hong Ting summarized it for me - basically if there's problems with the application, it can be a server problem, a network problem, or a programming problem within the app, so its really hard to figure out what's the critical problem and you have to do lots of testing. I got the part where its sometimes a programming problem with the app - just have to use abit of common sense to solve it.

I was very amazed when Zit Seng talked about the smooth logistics at the 80,000 over participant Networking session overseas, because I know from first-hand experience how hard it is to organize an event with just 100 participants and all the assorted problems that come with feeding, registering, and taking care of their welfare for one night. I would love to learn their secrets..

Reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend over the deplorable condition of student societies in NUS: He spoke of how overseas student organizations can handle 2,500 participants and invite distinguished guests for their yearly political events with no trouble at all, while the Singaporean version bungled up with only 300 participants. Is it a Singaporean thing, after all? To suck at logistics? Why? Has no one really bothered to ask for advice from overseas? Or we are just not committed to logistics and don't think they are important?

(Bah. At any rate, my own opinion is that student societies are too fleeting to succeed significantly.)

***

That about sums it up - sorry for the late post, I was rushing other modules with crazy deadlines too, working on 4 projects this semester, dying, dying, dying. But I blog long and I think hard okay, and I need like a space of 2 hours or so to properly sit down and think/blog - couldn't have planned it in during the last 2 weeks..>_< forgive me? ^_^

***
Random quote of the day: "Any good programmer will have the Ctrl+S syndrome" -Bryan

CS3216 final project proposal

Met up with project mates for final project proposal discussion today, for about 10 hours.

Previously, the whole game had been sort of a vague blob of cool stuff but today we ironed out the main issues and came up with the skeleton UI which cemented a lot of user interactions.

I like. I'm starting to get excited about our game because it promises to introduce a new "genre" of gaming into facebook games. I am excited because I can finally see the game happening with all the concrete goals lined out. And I'm excited because each of us are trying to push our own boundaries on the part that we are working on - trying out new concepts in storytelling, UI design, game play, and even programming!

And we know what each other are trying to do and we are similarly excited to see how all these will turn out.

This project promises to be very fun...it actually succeeds where NM/CS4343 doesn't. NM/CS4343 was intended for CS and NM students to explore a research topic of their own choosing by collaborating with others to create a 3D game. However, most of us were unable to get to know our project members well since CNM students don't really know SOC students and its hard to form groups where the team is made up of strangers. Also, SOC students are forced to do programming when some of them prefer to explore content creation. CS4343 is a very stressful endeavor because all my actions have to be squeezed into this set, immutable and narrow standard of evaluating my abilities for the module, and it is very hard to break free of working on the game just to "make the grade" mentality.

CS3216 has managed to circumvent these problems by allowing the class time to get to know their classmates better, and by allowing students to explore whatever they want to explore, and learn at their own pace.

I like. Can't wait to see our app blossom into something fresh, exciting, and playful.

Proof that We Can Change the World No Matter How Old We Are.

Get Help - Team Dynamics - On Discussion

Contents:

Section 1: Get Help

• Issues discussed: Is a Tutorial page necessary?
• Kent’s presentation
• Some issues I encountered when I tested the new Get Help application:
• On thinking

Section 2: Team dynamics – Vincent’s presentation

Section 3: Prof Ben's comments.

• Pt. 1 - Employee v.s. Employer
  
• Pt. 2 - Programmers = best project leader?
  
• Pt. 3 - Execution v.s. Idea
  

Other comments:

• On Discussion: A story. (this one must read! ^_^)

Section 1: Get Help

Issues discussed:

Is a Tutorial page necessary?

I liked this discussion alot, mainly Boa’s comment on “how to maximize the "get help call", How to post a help efficiently, how to give rewards, tips, etc.” This is sort of a pet concern of mine – teaching a new user the “tips and tricks”.

If we’ve got a good application, how do we teach people to use it well? The key word here is “well”. In this case, using the application well is to ensure that a) your call for help reaches the right people, and b) relevant call for helps reach you also. I had the same questions for the Xbox live presentation also – how can users effectively navigate the whole pool of information out there to get to (or publicize) the one that they need?

I don’t have a solution to that yet, but I’ll be thinking. ^_^

Regarding the need for a tutorial page, the general consensus the class reached was that the help page is necessary because all app makers should assume that users are stupid. YES. I agree heartily with that. Its always rule 1 when designing UI – ALWAYS ASSUME PEOPLE ARE STUPID. You can never go wrong.

Boon brought up a very good point on how different people have different learning curves also, and look for help in different ways. So I feel that any attempt to offer help should be a multi-prong approach – e.g. a sticky comment thread in forums, a help page, instructions for first timers, etc.

Kent’s presentation

I liked Kent’s presentation alot also. Some important points he brought up was that

a) A UI that is too attractive can be distracting for the users – Users tend to lose focus.

b) I love the step by step drop down menu, it really solves the selection flow issue and acts as a mini tutorial that slowly introduces each feature to the user.

c) However, my favourite point is this: “Encouraging users to interact to other user's posts.” I feel that it is like a ping pong effect, where user A reacts to user B and user B reacts back to user A and it goes on. I wonder if it is possible to make it loop? ( This is also why I think the recent addition of the LIKE button on facebook feeds is a fantastic feature: user's input is low, but return is high.)

d) Last point – the improvements in the rewards system: Kent is right that a personalized reward is a greater incentive than a reward that is automatically given by system. (Haha I actually read this point on Wenhan’s blog and that’s the point that stuck most in my head. Personalize the interaction between users for your app! It’ll make the reward/effect more special/unique/memorable)

Some issues I encountered when I tested the new Get Help application:

1. I could offer 9000000000000000000000000000000000000 pops, and click submit!

2. I went to my requests page, and realized that the app listed that I offered 2147483647 pops instead. Hmm doesn’t tally.

3. Hong Ting tried to help me, and I tried to give him my pops. Then – I realize cannot! =(

4. Cannot see my own "ask for help" offer on my dashboard!

5. I can’t remember who said this, but someone in class said that she was irritated with the spamming of stupid get help posts on the Get Help home page. I agree... Is there a way to sort out meaningless posts v.s. urgent posts?

6. Oh and really hate being forced to put a feeling for each post for help..can I don’t put a feeling and still ask for help? =(

On thinking:

Oops I think I made some pretty dumb replies in class – I can’t think very fast under pressure so I can only say that I got to the solution through thinking. However, its not as simple as just thinking - there's alot of steps involved. In fact I have to stress the importance of having a FRAMEWORK - i.e. knowing what you want to critique/think about.

For example, if my framework was on how to make the app prettier, then I wouldn't have come up with the problem and solution I mentioned in class. However, my focus was on utility, so here's how I discovered the problem:

1. I had a framework: I intended to get to the bottom of the utility of the application, because I believe that an application which optimizes on its functionality is the best application.

2. I tried to guess what's the best/unique points of the application - What makes the application what it is - and lump all the best points on the home page.

3. After coming up with the points, I improved the UI and tested it in my mind to see if it was true. I pretended I was a person who needs help in CSS desparately. (which was partially true...I desparately needed CSS help then...)

4. I discovered that I was unable to find out if people have responded to my call for help based on the improved UI that I suggested.

Section 2: Team dynamics – Vincent’s presentation

Some important points I got from Vincent’s presentation:

1 – Non-programmers can help programmers to define the problems so that programmers know what to solve.

2 – Find out the each person's strengths and weaknesses and try to find ways to compensate one person’s weaknesses with another’s strength within a team! I’d always considered the strengths, but always missed out on the second part of the point.

I find that it is easier to discuss strengths in a group, but harder to discuss weaknesses...People like to say that they can do things, but who says “Oh I can’t do this..and this...and this... can you?”

3 – Always find someone you can argue with and not get pissed with to be your project mate.

YES. I definitely agree. I haven’t found someone to argue with though...*sad*

Section 3: Prof Ben's comments.

Prof Ben made some interesting points also, things that I’ve never thought about:

Pt. 1: “As an employee, you have no choice who you are going to work with. That’s why its always the best to be the boss/employer.”

Hm. I’ve always been an “employee” position, and always had to work with people I don’t know. But I enjoy doing that sometimes, because its always a fun challenge to find ways to work with all sorts of people and see what kind of team dynamics come out from it. Its always a new challenge to work strangers and its always exciting (albeit stressful).

The WPF grouping is probably the only group in all my NUS projects that I’ve worked in where I’ve chosen who I want to work with, since I pulled in most of the team members. It was a totally different experience from all my previous projects. I didn’t have to worry so much because I trust my team member’s skills and experience, which is why I picked them in the first place. Plus they were all very motivated people so our team morale was always quite high, and its really a very happy experience working with them. Our skills also complemented each other’s and it is a much more relaxed experience than if I was just thrown into a group of people I don’t know.

So yeah I agree it makes a big difference whether you choose who you want to work with, or you are just made to work with several strangers. That comment made me wonder if I’m just satisfied with being an “employee” all my life. Hm.

Pt. 2: “Programmers with people skills make the best Project Leaders.”

Eh... well. That’s true. But there are ways to get around this. The three points that Prof Ben brought up – Programmers know better what tasks there are, how long each task will take, and what are the dependencies for each task – are definitely valid, but there is a system that producers use, called SCRUM, that allows non-programmers to schedule tasks for programmers.

I used this method in the Lucasfilm game division, when I was working as an assistant producer. Basically when we start scheduling, I went around all the programmers to ask them what tasks they need to do to reach a certain milestone in the game. The programmers give me a list of their tasks, including all the breakdowns into sub-tasks, as well as how long they need to finish each task, and any dependencies. I basically input this into Microsoft project and tell them if they need to finish their tasks faster if not they’ll over shoot the deadline or not. ^_^ Every morning there’s a programmer meeting with us producers, and we’ll go through with everyone what they should be working on today, check that they’ve finished their previous task, and ask if there’s any problems that they anticipate in today’s work. ^_^

But I always felt that if I knew some programming, it’ll be much better – at least I can better understand the programmer’s problems and suggest solutions/ know when they are just smoking. ^_^

(oh btw... Programmers out there might be interested in this thread on my facebook note: Are Programmers Like Road Sweepers? so far its got 53 comments with comments from programmers in Lucasarts, Gambit, Mikoishi, Google..etc. ^_^ Feel free to comment! Can't wait to hear your views too!)

Pt. 3: Idea v.s. Execution
I've been drilled over and over by my lecturers: Good ideas are worth nothing. If you don't execute it, it is as good as a crappy idea. I think Archunz's point summarizes it the best: One of my favourite lecturers in NUS said this: "An idea cannot be patented; or stolen. It belongs to no-one till it has been realized."


Other comments:

On Discussion: A story.

Yeah I agree that the classroom table arrangement is super not conducive for a discussion. I like to be able to see everyone’s face when they are commenting, so easier to address questions to other people. In Lit modules we usually sit in a circle to discuss.

I hope I didn’t sound too aggressive in questioning other people and giving comments... I was very much hoping to find someone who will argue with me about my points... but very sad, only met with silence. I expected a more lively discussion since I know our class is full of intelligent people and I can’t wait to find out what they think. =(

I really don’t like silence during discussion time. I used to be very quiet during discussions, because everyone else was quiet and I didn’t dare to speak up coz I was scared I’ll say something dumb and everyone will laugh at me. Then I’ll wait until someone else starts first. Occasionally if really no one talks after a couple of minutes I’ll venture a point or two but I’ll just shut up after that if everyone else continues to keep silent. Like quite embarrassing to keep making comments if everyone’s quiet.

But then I met this person who told me that he’s got the same experience in his classes, and he absolutely hated it. He said, “This is such a Singaporean thing. Everyone waits politely for everyone else to start the topic even though they’ve got pretty interesting things to say themselves. Its a pretty screwed up system of politeness that doesn’t benefit anyone.

If you go overseas, there is no such thing as allowing other people to speak first. People are always snatching to take the lead in answering questions. That’s how the world works what, no one waits for you to start, no one’s so nice to let other people take credit. Singaporeans should learn to be more confident about their own point of view and dare to speak out, or they’ll just lose to everyone else when it comes to being in the workplace.”

Then I asked him – What if what you say is stupid? What if its wrong? Isn’t it embarrassing?

He asked me, “Why should you be embarrassed about making your points heard in class? If you think they are valid, just say it! If you say something right, everyone can learn from it, and if you say something stupid, everyone can learn from it too. Better say something stupid in the class and learn from it than making the mistake in the workplace right?”

Hmm. Still I protested – “But if you keep answering questions, then everyone else will think that you’re trying to be the teacher’s pet or something. Then you’ll feel like other people don’t like you... =( *uncomfortable feeling* in class.”

He said, “So what? What do you care about what other people think? As long as you have important points to share and discuss, who cares what other people think? You’ll definitely learn from your comments in class, because your teacher will comment on what you said even if your classmates don’t. If you don’t say it, then nobody will learn anything new. Why will other people be unhappy if you give your point of view? They can very easily give their own point of view if they want to, so there’s no reason for them to be angry at you if they can’t conquer their own fear of speaking up in class. If everyone keeps quiet, it’ll defeat the point of the discussion, doesn’t it?”

I said... “True...but I know some people want to keep quiet about their thoughts because they think that their idea is so brilliant that they don’t want to let other people know. I always feel very sad because I want to know what those intelligent people are thinking about but they are just unwilling to share. But its not their fault to not want to share what, right? So maybe that’s why the class is so silent, because its is full of intelligent people...”

He said, “If some people want to keep their ideas secret because they think that their own idea is so good that it’ll give them an edge over the other students during exams, and not talk in class discussion, they wouldn’t be able to find out if there are any problems with their ideas, or further explore how far their idea can actually go. Its their loss, and its everybody’s loss if they don’t talk in class. The loss is so much greater if everyone in the class is intelligent and holding back because they don’t want other people to know what they are thinking.

Aiyah just say what you want to say la, how bad can it get? Anyway next sem its a different class altogether already anyways. Like people will remember you. Heck it la!”

GG. I really had nothing to say in return. If anyone can tell me counterpoints to his arguments, let me know.

It was because of this conversation that I try my best to give comments during discussions. It wasn’t easy, even now I still wait for other people to start first of “politeness” – its a hard habit to break. But once I start, I really cannot stop. Honestly I really love discussions. It is a great chance to find out what other people are thinking about the same topic, and a great chance to test my ability to provide counterpoints to substantiate my arguments on the spot. Its a great litmus test to see if my ideas are feasible or misguided, and for me, very fun. I’m used to addressing questions to other people during discussion in Lit modules, and I find it very sad that outside lit modules people rarely speak up in discussions.

I’ve actually held back alot – and this is what I hate about discussions where most people keep quiet – the discussion cannot progress, alot of time is wasted, I end up saying alot of things and not learning from what I say because no one is commenting on my ideas. Its always very demoralizing. Happily, our discussion got more lively near the end and I just wish we had less silence and hence more time to discuss. Perhaps the next discussion will be better? ^_^ Haha... more fun la, if everyone talks more. Den I wldn't fall asleep and will be motivated to write long blog posts like this. Easier to blog la, if got discussion. ^_^

Slow Down!

This post is for everyone out there who rushed CS3216 over the weekend.

This is a TED talk on how Slowing Down is important for people - i.e. US.

I caught this by watching Neil Gaiman's twitter.. ^_^ Gaiman's one of my favorite comic writers btw, it feels great to know what he's watching thru twitter (thanks HT for intro-ing twitter to me!)

You can start at 11.40 mins - he starts talking about HOMEWORK BAN there. ^_^

I totally agree with what he says of university undergrads here: "the lack spark, they don't have a dream". ^_^ Which is what this module is all set to change, right?

Get Help Assignment

Rough guidelines (which I'm not following exactly)
1. Usability vs Aesthetics (Is the interface attractive? Is it functional?)
2. Number of options / freedom given to user when posting a need.
3. Cycle of interaction & incentives (Are the elements of the app engaging?)
4. Other problems you think the team might have faced
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My own guidelines:

1. General comments on User Interface Design
2. General comments on Functionality
3. Analysis of vital aspects of the application
4. Resulting reflections on functionality
5. Other links
6. Conclusion
   

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General comments on User Interface Design:
I like the simple interface, though I think it can still be improved on. I've done up a rough sample of how I think the home page can be improved in terms of interface design:














(click to view full size ^_^)

1. I really disliked the slanted navigation bar at the top because it is hard to read, so I think putting them all horizontal will be more pleasing to the eye.
   
2. Having the Application title prominently on the home page will also help people to know what application they are at. Aligning the title with the icons also leads the eye gently towards the navigation bar icons so people will take notice of them.
3. Having a unified color scheme might be a good idea to unify design on the home page.
4. Make it clear to users the sequence of how to get help, by putting Step 1 prominently.
5. Some rudimentary instructions should be given on the page, so I've suggested it to be placed in the grey box under the type box so that it is not glaring but prominent enough.
6. Use the catchphrase "Get Help" consistently, even on the button, so people get used to the name and can remember your application.
   
7. Other options should be clearly labeled, so people know what kind of category of decisions they are making.
8. Different options should be clearly demarcated from each other so as to give a neater feel to the layout.
   

These comments are generic and can be applied to the other pages in the application also.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General comments on Functionality:

I thought improving the layout was the entire solution to the problem, but when I tried to imagine using the application, I came across some problems, even with the improved layout design above.

1. The "Get Help" button should be below after all the options, because the current design gives no clear sequence of selection. Users might be confused and click "Get Help" first, then choose the options.
2. After looking through the rest of the pages are about, I just realized that I totally missed out the Overview button on the homepage, as well as the new project and recommendation buttons. Those buttons are VITAL to the application, and definitely should be more prominent.
   

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analysis of vital aspects of the application:

Since I feel that user experience design and functionality are very closely tied together, discussing what makes the application work would help in discussing functionality design.

What makes this application work:
1. It helps to broadcast your need to other people who might be able to help you
2. It lets you know who needs help so you can help them
3. It encourages you to help others with a badge reward system and a statistics section.

Resulting reflections on functionality:

Since these 3 points are the most important fuctions of the application, I would suggest a radical re-working of the homepage to incorporate all 3 functions, something like this.















(click to view full size ^_^)

The homepage should feature prominently the three main "appealing" aspects of the application, in order to encourage ease of use.

1. Get help is the most prominent, as users need it most frequently.
2. I have minimized the "other options" into a button, when clicked, it will open up a drop down menu, allow users to select choices, then click Get Help. (I'm hoping the sequence of events is more logical using a drop down menue. ^_^)
   
3. I would suggest putting up the friend feed on the homepage (in an iframe), so users can see at once who needs help. The three options, recommend, help, and wish, are to be prominent on every call for help.
4. Lastly, the number of badges received should feature on the homepage also, to motive users to help others.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Links:

Since I have incorporated the overview page into the homepage, the other links on homepage should be:
1 - Leaderboard (Statistics)
2. - Projects
3 - Invite

SHUCKS. I just remembered, the user should get some feedback on the home page too, if someone agrees to help him. How come the proposal didn't state that at all!?

That feed should be on the homepage too, something like this:

Wei Man needs help with Adobe Premiere!
"Yilynn has offered to help you with Adobe Premiere!" [contact her] [thank her]
"Matthew has offered to help you with Adobe Premiere!" [contact him] [thank him]

This should be above the "Help Your Friends" section.

The Projects page could have a record of all the help the user has asked for and all the help that the user has received.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion

I feel that the application is useful and innovative way to get help, and will be very much improved by better user interface.. ^_^

Facebook pitching sessions 1 & 2

I didn't feel like I pitched well for the National Library Board Application that Sharon and I are interested in making. On hindsight, it should have been better, I should have organized it more and emphasized more on the main point:

Which is to provide a platform which improves the way people share information with their friends.

The library application is not meant to encourage people to go to the library, it is to let people know how the library can help them. It also encourages social interaction between friends through sharing of library resources (recommandations, etc).

After talking to Mr Wan, I realized that the library is trying to re-brand itself as an information hub rather than a physical repository of books. This is a very exciting move, and as a result the library has churned out a huge amount of blogs. videos, and events, all geared towards providing relevant and timely information to the public in different ways.

I feel these efforts must be better publicized and facebook might just be the solution for it. By connecting people through the books they read and have read, the Library Application helps people learn from each other and increase their knowledge of their interests.

Through the app, we're making it easier for someone to discuss his interest with his friends, and to find out at an instant what relevant events are being held by the library. This applies both to the academic researcher and the leisure reader. Anyone who reads books or even online journals from the library will be able to use this application well.

I was quite sad to leave early on Friday though, I would have loved to hear what the other pitches were. >_< Thanks Prof Ben for being considerate and trying to chase me off to go to the musical! ^_^ Its very much appreciated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pitching session on Monday was interesting - the one that stood out most, I felt, was Lut Games. I really like their concept, I believe it will be a cool game to play when it is complete. *Ahem* Its is, like Mafia Society, targeted at guys but using the same core appeal factors as Pet Society. I like the game alot. Zombies make everything cool. ^_^

As for APB, I've known of the campaign for quite some time already, but wonder if the rate of binge drinking has actually dropped due to the campaign. Or has the consumption of APB beer gone up due to the publicity? hmmm really curious as to whether the campaign is effective up till now.

For Jujups, I think that it is a very interesting concept - making it easy for non-designers to design nice clothes/mugs/cards for their loved ones. I've to mention though, that I feel Shapeways (http://www.shapeways.com/) allows customers to better customize the 3D aspect of the finished product. Not very sure what Jujups was pitching though - its business?

Response to Yuming's blog post

I'm having trouble posting comments on blogspot blogs - on firefox the word verification doesn't load up, and now on IE the word verification shows up as a red x. Hence, i'll post my reply to Yuming's post on the Monday pitching session here:

Lut's game idea is really cool, and they did mention that they want to model it on Pet Society in the pdf sypnosis Ben sent out earlier. I like the idea, very interesting.. it really encourages user interaction, though Hong Ting and I were wondering....

if you die as a person you become a zombie...but if you die as a zombie.....?? Wouldn't zombies outnumber people eventually?


As for NLB...

"The idea of a personal librarian seems to be cool. One possible feature would be to recommend books based on what I have read so far. However, the presenter didn’t sound too passionate in selling the whole NLB-on-facebook idea. In the end, it wasn’t really convincing and that NLB is just simply exploring."

I spoke to Mr Wan during the break, you are right, they are just exploring the concept.. Still, I think the both ideas that were presented during the pitching session, while interesting, aren't leveraging enough on the social networking advantage of facebook.

Stay tuned! I'll be pitching my NLB idea/solution on Friday! ^_^

- Wei Man

Graffiti's replay feature

I've been testing the Graffiti app for the "interactive" comic potential that the Graffiti team mentioned during the presentation, and I just realized something interesting.

I challenged Abel to a graffiti war shortly after the presentation, and his reply to me was a graffiti animation instead of just a comic. He actually made use of Graffiti's replay feature to make an animation instead of a static comic panel!

I only realized it when I accidentally clicked on the replay feature, and saw the "story" being replayed before my eyes. I was stunned.

This animation potential for Graffiti has never yet been explored, and I believe it can help a lot in encouraging interactivity between friends. Now instead of a piece of art, you can send a short film to your friend! Very exciting!

However, I think the application creators need to be aware of that and encourage that before it can catch on to be the next big thing. ^_^

Here Lies Love - User Interface Design

I just checked out the website for my hall's musical production, Here Lies Love. I found the user experience design very, very nice.. and surprisingly intuitive. Do check it out if you have time! I would love to have made this website! >_<

Advertistments

My friend just posted this on Facebook so I thought I'll share this with everyone... Inspired by Hui Hui's post on interesting marketing campaigns!

Oh, and I can put up the Macdonald's advert here too! ^_^ (check out my comment on her blog to see what I was talking about... ^_^)

Penguin Advertistments

This is a reply to Sharon's blog post on READ Singapore.

I saw these 2 advertistments for Penguin Classics in the latest issue of Navigator (available free at the ZoCard stands). I immediately took a copy back because I loved the advert so much!

If you can't recognize the people there, its Einstein (1st pic) and Shakespeare (2nd pic) on the left... Not sure if you can read the tag line on the book, but it says "There's no better company than a book."

Yes.

To have the opportunity to engage the greatest thinkers of the centuries in their prime, to laugh with them, cry with them, to feel their thoughts as if they were mine, to understand through their minds.. That is the reason I read.

Of course I tend to yell at them once in a while..like this afternoon, going through some Andrew Marvell poetry, I was muttering - "you sweet-talker you" (..he really is. All his poetry are about trying to praise women enough so they'll go to bed with him.) and by the way, I cannot stand Salman Rushdie, I will end up shouting at the book - "what the hell are you talking about?! This is ridiculous! Come on, stop trying to pretend you know what you're writing about. etc etc.." And also, Edgar Allen Poe's quite the drunkard and the jerk..I was reading some of his letters...can't help but say "My god..you're an utter jerk..."

....

AHem. okay. Back to the point. Yes, literature is very exciting and scandalous. And I don't know why its so hard to get people to read scandalous stuff. Like Donne's The Flea which is trying to persuade this girl to sleep with him. If I have a dirty mind I swear its all Literature's fault.

Okay, I'll put a stop to this rambling, this post is really just about the effectiveness of the two adverts. By reminding readers why they like reading and persuading non-readers that reading allows you to benefit from the great thinkers of their generation, I think its a successful ad.

p.s. This isn't my official post on what I think of Read Singapore and how I think it can be improved..I need some time to think about it.

p.p.s. more on my love of books here if anyone's interested.

i-flapp looking for games to add to their packages

Hi everyone - here's an email from the NUS Games Development Group president regarding a possible business opportunity in making games - check it out:

This email is mainly directed to those involved in GDG projects, but anyone in the GDG yahoogroup is free to read and respond to me.

I have recently been in contact with a company called i-flapp who is a pioneer in Application Mobility Technology.

They basically sell a technology called Apps-D (Application on Demand) which allows you to carry your preferred applications and software on the same flash drive as your data files. You can then connect your portable device to any PC and instantly be able to access your stored personal applications and data. You can refer to their website (http://www.i-flapp.com/products/index.aspx) to know more about them.

Currently, they are looking to add games to their packages, starting with any types of casual games for now. I am discussing the possibility of having GDG games featured in the company's packages as I believe it would be a good opportunity for you to gain visibility for your games.

Now I would like to ask all of you involved in the projects whether you would be interested in this opportunity for the games that you're developing. If you are, then please notify your producer and discuss with your team ASAP (if you are not part of a GDG team but are still interested to send in one of your personal games, pls notify me personally).

Of course, if anything is signed between GDG, your team and i-flapp, the contract needs to be respected, meaning that you will have to finish your game by the given date. Note that there is a possibility of gaining a percentage of the money obtained from the distribution of the i-flapps with your games on them too.

Thanks a lot!
Warm regards,
*Sharon*
NUSGDG President

Facebook seminar/presentation

Step 1: Pick one of the applications.
Step 2: Summarize important points of the presentation - about 3.
Step 3: Put down your original thoughts

Stuff from Ben's blog - to keep in mind:
1. Thinking about Implementation.
2. Learning to Identify Good Ideas.
3. User Interface Design and Interaction Design is Important.
4. Understanding the Curse of Success (Scalability).
5. It's okay to Steal (Ideas).

Facebook seminar/presentation blogging assignment

Causes

Points mentioned by the team:

1. Team’s suggestions for improving Causes:

a) Removing trivial causes;

b) Authenticating existing causes by attaching to the charity organization;

c) Introducing tax-exemption for large donors.

I feel that these are meaningful improvements but there will be some difficulties in implementing them.

Regarding the first point, who gets to decide if a cause is trivial or not? A appointed moderator will definitely get flamed for removing causes that can be trivial but people can be passionate about. (Like perhaps ht will flame the moderator for removing "ht needs to buy a lexus" cause. ^_^)

What about causes that don’t need donations, like “Stomp out STOMP for good”? Are those deemed trivial because it is heavily localized to a tiny country and is unimportant to the greater context of the world.

My solution to that is to include a few more categories into causes, such as "fun causes", "ridiculous causes", "selfish causes", or "protest causes" so that causes like ht's lexus and STOMP will be properly categorized, and might even boost the app's readership and members. After all, who wouldn't like to surf "selfish causes" or even post up some of their own? ^_^

Regarding authentication – true, it would greatly benefit individuals who are eager to donate to causes because it saves them the time to research on the organization and the authenticity of the request. An authentication process would allow users to trust the app more.

But it will be a lot of hard work to process all the causes, and who will do that? It can't be a random volunteer because a volunteer might just be "corrupted" and even set up some of his own fake causes. It has to be done by someone trustworthy, or at least a company, if only to have someone specific to blame if thing goes wrong. So who pays? It seems a little too idealistic to expect Causes users to pay for such a service, because I feel that the donors on causes are the "spur-of-the-moment" sort of users, who don't think through their decision much, and probably donates really small amounts each time. ^_^

Regarding tax-exemption, it is definitely a worthy suggestion because I feel that facebook donors deserve to get tax breaks as other donors do. However, disregarding the difficulties of implementing tax exemptions across different countries and their laws, I feel that this is not a very important improvement as large donors often do not donate through Facebook. As I mentioned I feel that facebook donors are people who donate little, often, and without thinking, and the resultant tax exemption would be negligible.

2. Team's suggestion to improve user interface and interaction:

a) Use games to attract and keep players/users interested in causes.

b) list top 5 causes of the category

I really like the games idea. An example that sprang to my mind was : http://www.freerice.com/, where the more you play the more rice gets donated to the UN. However, I realized that eventually it is the onus of the organization to come up with the game, not Causes... hmm.. I wonder if there's a market in making games like freerice.com for some causes and getting a cut of the donations for it...heh heh...

For the top 5 causes for each category suggestion, I feel that it'll definitely be a good idea after I surfed causes according to categories. I don't know how Causes rate their requests, but I seem to get pretty obscure and location specific causes right at the top when surfing the categories of causes.

3. Team's point on effectiveness of Causes as donating platform: Donations are very spread out – so while the app is successful, it doesn't make a big difference to the causes themselves

I agree with the team. I feel that while Causes has a large user base, most of the users do not actively support the causes that they join. People join causes because it is like making a statement - oh, I'm against world poverty, I'm against cruelty to animals. But after a while they forget all about it because it isn’t something that they think about everyday, or really wants to make a difference in.

I think the way to make Causes more prominent in the user's lives is really to implement the games idea that the team suggested. Or perhaps apps in Facebook can work together, for example "Cruelty to animals" causes can be linked to Pet's society, and in-game money earned by the player can be donated in the game to causes... or every purchase of an expensive pet trophy leads to a donation?

Other issues I feel are relevant to the application:

THE BAD: There is a duplication of causes, for example searching pets come up with 384 results, all to do with preventing cruelty to animals. There is alot of confusion for users who want to join or donate to causes. That said, it is a problem that facebook itself faces, for example duplication of groups (198 groups on appreciating Virginia Woolf, more or less the same). I doubt this problem is solvable... >_< Other Comments... I think the team spent a lot of effort for this presentation, and it was fun - esp. Prof Zhao Cong!

Geo Challenge: Love the part on the bots. Its always fascinating what people will do just to rise up in the leaderboards...By the way, the existence of bots had never crossed my mind until this module showed me the power of bots and bot-ing... *enlightened*

Graffiti Wall: I was very surprised that such a simple application had sponsorship from so many different companies. Thanks to the team for choosing this app, I had really underestimated the potential of simple applications before this presentation. I really enjoyed Abel’s comic too, it looked so fun to “play”.

Elven Blood: I like Kian Boon description of the business model: Take a successful app you’ve made, and duplicate it 3 more times. And it worked! ^_^

Oh but I think there's this point about ElvenBlood that really struck me when I was playing it - the game art is not made by the developers! The developers basically just asked for good artists to "donate" their art, so Elvenblood can help "feature" the art, so its a win-win situation.

Come to think of it, its fantastically easy to duplicate the other 3 games in this way since all it takes is some changes into the database (elves change to vampires/mafia, etc etc..) and the story right? Because art is the most time-consuming part of making a new app (assuming you've got the programming up already)... Elvenblood developers are cheaters!!!! >_<

Tired - rant rant rant!!!

This isn't my proper blog post for the assignment on today's presentations, because I'm just too tired to think after rushing all those assignments out for the facebook module.

Yesterday was the first time I had free time to myself since school started. Free time, as in I had things to settle and homework to do for other modules, but I had the time to sit down and actually think about those other things to settle.

The past 3 weeks were insane. I think I got rather depressed after awhile, when I had to skip an important friend's gathering I was looking forward to on Thursday night to rush the facebook application project due at midnight. And I know as the only artist my group needed me that night.

I had no weekends - if I wasn't working on the app I was worrying about whether I can conquer CSS in the limited time left. I ate 1 meal a day coz of the improper times I was working on the project. Luckily I still kept my weight.. ^_^

I slept/worked 3 overnights in COM 1 and 1 overnight in the PGP study room along with the rest of my team. The COM 1 sofas on the first floor are my best friends now. We usually leave at 10am the next day, after which we collapsed into bed.

I even came back to SOC on the 2nd day of the new year holiday to work on the app with my team. To my horror, I actually discovered Janus's group already there working on their app. And then Boa's group also. And some other groups also I think. >_<

I remember Janus happily waving a ang bao at me and asking if I wanted to eat the heh bee hiam he brought. *Speechless*

I'm thinking we must all be crazy.

One day I stayed till 9am and then realized that I had classes from 12-6pm that day.I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to go home to sleep for 2 hours before going to school again. At 11am I woke up, looked at my clock, thought of school = COM 1, and decided I'm so sick of school I'd rather just sleep some more. I'd been excited to attend the 12 - 3 seminar for NM4208 but if I go I'll just stone or even worse break down. Couldn't take it anymore..>_<

However, I had to drag myself out of bed at 2.30 for another important project meeting for NM4343 and then guess what... The project meeting was another 4 hours in SOC.

The first time I slept in SOC was for the nation-wide game design competition I helped organized, and I thought it would be the one and only time. Turns out life has surprises in store for me. >_<

I even had to quit my part time job for this module!!!!

ARGH!

THIS IS MADNESS!!!!

So much for module on improving social networking ..its entirely destroying my social life....

******************************************************

Which is why, also, that I've decided to go for this very important musical on 13th Feb instead of going for the Facebook pitching session. I had set the date to go for the musical way back in November 2008, and I'm very much looking forward to it. The head scriptwriter is someone I know very well and I wouldn't miss his work for anything, especially since the musical is running for only one night.

I would dearly love to come to the facebook pitching session to hear everyone's ideas on their final app, but enough is enough. I need to reclaim my life and make some proper decisions...>_<

p.s. Prof Ben, I was really alright when you passed by just now, even though I was covering my eyes.. ^_^ I was going through the presentation in my head and I needed to block the rest of the world out coz I get really stressed out over these things.

That said, I'm pretty surprised at my presentation today, I think its the best presentation I've given so far in my years of NUS presentations... no fumbling, lots of engaging audiences and stuff. Jimmy, Toan, and Yu Ming helped me alot when we were rehearsing! I really owe my presentation to their advice, and they know very well how I was panicking and hesitating during all our 3 run-throughs. I never could perfect my speech, without lots of "umm umm help...what should i say here..."and that was only presenting to 3 guys!

I think probably because I was cold and exhausted and nervous and just couldn't care the heck anymore, that I could give that presentation just now. I swear I had a splitting headache all through the whole thing, I just wanted food and sleep... >_<

All nighter madness: Wei Man v.s. CSS: Fight-to!

Wei Man v.s. CSS

Voiceover: "Fight-to!"

Round 1
Setting: SOC lvl 2.
Time: 24 Jan 4pm

Wei Man powers up with *teh tarik*!
CSS deals *unintelligible gibberish*!

flashing graphic: Wei Man K.O.

Round 2
Setting: SOC lvl 2.
Time: 25 Jan 2am

Wei Man summons *Chris Henry* with all Mana!
CSS *defenceless* against attack!

flashing graphic: CSS K.O.

Round 3
Setting: SOC lvl 2.
Time: 25 Jan 9am

Wei Man mana=0, hp low
CSS deals "unintelligible gibberish"x10!

flashing graphic: Wei Man K.O.

Game...Over....

*defeat music plays*

Wei Man's stats
List of attacks that deal 0 damage to CSS
Summon: Group members Yuhan/Justin/Kian Boon
Note: Just don't bother

List of attacks that deal minimal damage to CSS
Equip: w3schools website. Attack skill: Decode
Note: Usually takes too long to charge up before attack can be executed. Use only when feeling lucky.

List of attacks that deal maximum damage to CSS
Summon: Chris Henry - deals 9999 damage.
Note: Requires cheat code: *Chris Henry's number* Once again, luck-based attack, no sure kill.

Note:
Wei Man is a weak character against CSS with only minimal strength against HTML. When faced with any enemy from the "Programming Languages Gang" do not use her as an aggressive character. Keep her at the back of the party to heal your other members with *supper* and *laughter*. Put her in front of your party only when with faced with "Design Gang" members. Particularly effective against enemy Photoshop if equipped with Tablet Laptop.

Lect 2 - XNA, Silverlight, Imagine Cup, (090119)

Rant first - Obama is President!

Obama has been officially inaugurated as America's President today! His speech was as usual, inspiring, though less rousing than I would've expected. It felt good to have the opportunity to watch a historic event in my lifetime, an event that is inspirational and gives the world hope for a better future, after the slew of tragic historic events that has struck the globe so far. 9/11, tsunamis, SARS, the melamine scare, Lehman brothers collapse, the disastrous Bush administration...all historic, but all horrendous.

Change, is in the air.

It is unthinkable that someone who has a drug history in college, born of a teen mother and from a broken family, made to relocate in different countries during his childhood, not to mention African American(!), can ever become the President of the United States. But Obama has proven that sucess is only a matter of hard work and being prepared for it when the opportunity arises.

I just feel that the inauguration of Obama is a defining sign that the world has changed in fundamental ways. Only a world (and an America) that has changed can ever concieve of trusting and voting for a black president. Somehow, boundaries have been re-drawn, in racial politics, in communication media, and in global awareness. And these are a positive changes, changes that I believe everyone has to embrace in order to survive in this new world.

Perhaps we are one step closer to utopia, where people are judged by their abilities and not the color of their skin, or their accent, where one person can reach and convince many with the touch of a mouse, and where diversity is tolerated and inter-cultural exchanges encouraged and celebrated.

Forgive me, I am emotional about his inaugration, it is a defining moment in world history. This is the moment where the world changes. The hinge on which we turn towards a new era. This is the moment, like Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, that proves to the world that anything is possible.

Yes We Can.

______________________________________________________________

CS3216 - XNA

Yeah, I realized I inverted the order of things on this post, but I had to - it was fantastically exciting and inspiring to watch the whole thing live on CNA and AP online, while exchanging comments with a friend on MSN.

CS3216 lecture, however, was rather interesting. I'd known of XNA and Xbox live prior to the presentation, because I know the team that worked on Carneyvale Showtime, and everytime they achieve something great I feel really happy for them, because I really like the game and the art. Its a beautiful game, and its fun. I hope they win something in IGF 09! Oh, and if anyone out there has a Xbox 360, pls try Braid! My friend demo-ed the ending for me to see, and its a fantastic game, trust me. After seeing Zero Punctuation's review of Psychonauts , I damn gian to play tt too.. Too bad I don't have an Xbox.. ^_^ Oh, and try Portal!!!!

Well, there's one question I wanted to ask Yan about Xbox live arcade, but I couldn't think of how to express my question before he left:

As developers, we have an interest in getting people to play our game, if we put it up on Xbox live. Players must be able to find our game if they are looking for it, or chance upon it. So I wanted to ask how games are rated and categorized in xbox live arcade, and how Xbox live presents new games to players who are surfing the arcade.

This is important. Because if you are a developer and your game's good but isn't presented as the first few games avaliable, it might get passed over and not played just because it is not given equal "shelf space" as other games. Is there a way that xbox live is preventing that from happening? Like providing the 10 best in each category (puzzle, dating sims, etc), for example. Do they even have categories?

As the presentation showed, bad games can be displayed prominently as they are new arrivals. (uh, I thought the dating sim looked like a pretty bad game..i.e. a game I wldn't touch) So...is there a failsafe? Is there a reviews website? A search function?

I like the way deviantart.com manages user generated content. All new art is displayed on the homepage, and it is being constantly refreshed, like the xbox live "new arrivals" page. ( As an artist with a profile on deviantart, I'm sure I got some comments and favorites from my 2 seconds of worldwide fame on the "new arrivals" page.)

However, artists are also allowed to tag their artwork with names, e.g. red riding hood, and so on, so that users can search either the most popular art with that tag or the new arrivals for that tag. All art is also categorized, so users who are looking for anthro digital comics can go straight to their queries.

Anyways, I'm working on designing a 3d game w XNA in another module NM/CS4343, so I hope that works out well and we can post it up on XNA live arcade.. ^_^

______________________________________________________________

CS3216 - Silverlight

Ah...silverlight. After all that talk, I'm still not too sure about what its all about. All I remember is the deep zoom thingy that sounds dubious and that Yuhan mentioned is pretty much crapping on their part. I still really have no idea what WPF is all about.

And of course the Microsoft Surface - who can forget that! That's exciting. I'd seen similar demostrations during the Design and Technology exhibit at the Science Centre about half a year ago, and at ISEA 2008, and got the chance to play with them. Very exciting, and very fun! At the DAT exhibit I played with manipulation of images projected on the table surface (by a projecter on the ceiling) by manipulating physical objects such as cups and strings on the table. At ISEA I think I tried the ripples thing that MS surface showed. The ripples really wasn't fun tho. It got boring pretty fast. And what's the sense of the keyboard app? Two finger piano just isn't fun... >_<

I remember seeing a news clip on TV mobile on a shop in Taiwan..Hong Kong? which is already using the technology I saw in DAT to attract customers though. That was a few months back. I guess Microsoft surface is just upping the ante with the whole transferring files and pictures thing. That is pretty dangerous though, isn't it...allowing your pictures to spill all over the table.. very interactive though, and so much easier to transfer files.

Have I mentioned I hate handphones because I hate pressing those buttons? At least I'll have some easier interface to look forward too in the future. ^_^

______________________________________________________________

CS3216 - Imagine Cup

Ah.. possibilities. I really like the speaker for this one, I just wish she had more time to give her speech and to mingle around. She's such a proactive and positive person. The Imagine Cup looked amazing... Justin was like - aiyah, don't study liao la, let's just go for it.. ^_^

Hmm.. given the pace of the module, however, it seems like we can't really "enjoy" our speakers. After each lecture there's the rush to meet up for project meetings, and we can't really spend time with the speakers. Perhaps schedule it such that speakers end 15 mins early and we can all go out and mingle? The lecture room is so not conducive for mingling. ^_^

______________________________________________________________

CS3216 - Project 1

AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH....Our whole group spent Monday night after lect all the way till Tuesday morning 8am rushing out content for the facebook project.. Tired pictures on Facebook. It was impromptu.