Episode 2: MS

Am late for my blog update .... thanks to the no-day-no-night Assignment 1 working schedule our group have came up with. Been working my head off for the past few days and nights, with only a few hours of sleep sandwiched in between.

On Microsoft
A decade ago, Microsoft was like THE Company to take on the world. Today, much of its reputation has been swallowed up Apple, with another considerable fraction getting taken up by Linux.

In the recent years, Microsoft has been getting quite a bit of bad press all over the place, with issues such as security breaches and bug fixes. Tons of people out there literally despises Microsoft as a company.

What's wrong here ... i really wonder all the time. Is it real that Microsoft products are simply inferior to its competitors, or is the source of all these hoohahs limited to the marketing arena? I'm not a staunch fann of Microsoft, I do use Linux and carries around an Ipod Touch, but I'm just a little puzzled about the validity of claims such as "MicroSoft sucks".

Microsoft may have poor marketing skills, especially with this guy around:




Also, the first version of Vista is known to not be too popular ... with issues of premature release and all. However, are these negative aspects truely sufficient for us to overthrow the benefits Microsoft has come up with over the years? A surgeon may have his good name removed for prescribing a wrong drug by accident, but that doesn't mean that his skills are inferior to the rest.

I'm not sure if my doubt is founded, but I am pretty satisfied with my Microsoft products so far. True that there are small crashes here and there, but I choose not to condemn the entire company/product package for that.

We can only see how Windows 7 go.


XNA X-Box Live
The gaming industry is notoriously hard to enter, especially for people who graduated from a not-so-prestige University such as MIT. Its great that Microsoft has provided a platform for gamers to share their content freely. I'm not too sure of the profitability aspect, but what I do know is that it encourages innovation. As long as your product isn't too uncool, the system links you up with audiences and critics who'll be playing with your work.

How cool is that?

WPF
I believe that more can be elaborated on WPF, on top of what Apurval has talked about the other day. Interactivity aside, WPF allows designers and programmers to work concurrently on a same project. In simple terms, designers can work on thier own design files, and programmers have their own set of logic implementations. At the end of the day, WPF allows both parties to seamlessly combine the 2 components. If one party should update the software later without informing the other party, there won't be any fears of breaking the overall software.

This is a step that Microsoft has taken to emulate Apple to some extent, I believe. The same goes for their Deep Zoom feature. All along, I believe that Apple products has emphasized on style over substance. I'm not such if the logic and feature implementations are better than Microsoft's, but their product presentations are definitely world-class. That factor alone, has won over many avid fans and consumers to worship Apple products.

There has been alot of debates online on whether Silverlight is better than Flash. Both have their pros and cons I believe, (Flash's major con is that the programming can get super messy) but the major issue that will hamper Silverlight's entrance is that the market is already dominated by Flash packages. I once come across a file format who's trying to take over the PDF market ... I didn't really believe in it. Can the same be said for SilverLight? Then again, there have been multiple examples that the first movers in an industry may not be the permanent winners. We can only wait and see.

Episode One

Hurrah for Group 2!

We had our first meeting yesterday. Am very very delighted to find that everyone is so passionate and full of fire. So full that the meeting lasted from 6pm till 2am yesterday.

So much to do, so little time.

So much challanges ahead, so much more unknowns.

I sincerely believe that the best way to improve yourself is to constantly surround yourself with strong people, and take on seemingly impossible challenges.

Like Prof Ben mentioned, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

On top of that, I don't believe in being killed. I don't believe in dying. So long as one posses the right attitude, the right determination, and right passion, it's absolutely possible that he attains immortality. If he lacks the drive and all, then there's really no point to even embark on the journey from the start.

Seriously, it takes a lot to "die" from workload. By the way, I don't mean dying literally. If one truely tries, it's almost impossible for him to be killed by his challenges. A runner at a 10,000 man marathon may arrive in the 8325th place. He may not be within the best rankings, but if he does his best to complete the race with full effort, he is already a winner.

So what's the outcome?
He walks away a better man than he was yesterday.

I sense rough seas ahead, juggling between my work and CS3216. That's quite the way I like it. Some people actually thinks I'm insane (Especially my mama and my gf). Then again, measures of sanity among successful people are hard to come by (Think Steve Jobbs).

This is a hell of a ship, and we've got a hell of a crew.

D'Hatch Dae

Oh, and a pleasant coincidence.

CS3216 blasted off, on the very same day i turned 26.

I'm officially more than a quarter century old.

It's 14th January now, so hopefully I dun sound as if I'm trying to attract presents. =)

Take Off

Despite all the hoohahs and ravings about school reopening, I wasn't really in my top form on Monday, 12th January ...

I got home late last night ... so late that it's early. Took a cold shower to shiver myself awake, and then proceeded to my work desk. After working off some admin stuffs and checking out a few details about the class later, i decided to take a short power nap to energize myself a little. You just can't work well when you're yawning away every 10 minutes.

I settled myself down on the bed, set the alarm for 1.5 hours, and slept for 3 hours.

Woke up, saw my work half done on the work desk, panic-ed, and took another cold shower to shiver myself awake.

Then i remembered about the show-and-tell. In the videos of last year's featured show-and-tells, it seems that quite a bit of wacky stuffs are going on. I had the impression that it was going to be like one of those dull "When I grow up I'm going to be a fireman!" kind of self-confidence speeches that make kids look adorable. The videos are rather interesting, I must say. The last thing I'd expect will be for someone to bring along his pet birdie to make friends with the class.

So what's the one thing that caught my soul other than working, girls, programming, designs, and girls ... ?

Cooking.

Yay~even evil professors ought to have their hungry times i guess. I thought about making my speciality Dong Fen (Vermicilli) .... but decided that it'll be too messy to go around. I need something convenient and tidy...

Vermicilli

Meatballs it is then. My grandma's signature dish.

Meat Balls fresh from the Wok

Proceeded to buy ingredients, cook, pack, and then drove off to NUS for the take off.

The first lesson was mainly introductory. Seniors joined the class to give us their take of the module last year. The most used phrase during the session was probably "Sleepness Nights". Looks like I'm in for more cold showers. Despite the seemingly horrific workload, I find myself rather excited to begin this new chapter. More challenges, that's my breakfast of choice. Hell yeah. Prof Ben also shared a number of precious insights, both from his lecture and his admin assignments, as well as some quotes from a Confucious-lookalike. They are mainly philosophical, and thought-provoking in nature. Main questions to be answered ...

What do you seek to accomplish in your life?

You ready to make sacrifices for it?

Do you like meatballs?

Next was speed-dating, where the ice between the students were broken. Then came the show-and-tell. As expected, wacky and fun stuffs were presented. There's a G.I Jane in combat attire, armed with Machine Guns and a broken chin. There's a guy who actually did the Calsberg-bottle wind blowing music trick. There's a guy who hacked into Warbook and got banned for becoming an instant millionaire. There's a guy who got me considering painting my new laptop full pink. And to my pleasant surprise, there's a guy who topped off my meatballs with a dash of spicy Vietnamese dessert.

Had a great-time, had quite a bit of good laughs, and most importantly, got to know alot of great people. May sound politically correct, but I mean it. Never have I started any modules, with such a warm get-together with my fellow coursemates. My only regret was that I didn't manage to find minced chicken for the meatballs ... for some reason the nearby mart only carried pork that day. And for that, I guess I had created a moment of awkwardness when I announced that it's not halal.

To my readers : I'm really sorry for any unhappiness caused, promise that it won't be repeated!

Drove home, and find my facebook and msn bombarded with new friend requests and friend adds. w00ts!

Right on!

Chances like these don't come by often, and I'm darn glad as hell that I'm on the bandwagon this time. Thank you all, thank you TAs, and Thank you, Prof Ben.

So I find myself asking the question again...


Are You Ready for them sleepless nights?

Hell Yeah

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