Fair and balanced my ass.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Countering Laser Weapons: Some Screwed up Logic
I am still in the programming class and bored out of my mind so I am spending most of my time surfing the net.
I was just reading on Wired about the US and Israel working on defensive technologies against laser based weapons. What they are currently developing is the obvious solution, spray-on reflective or diffusive coatings for their missiles to prevent them from being shot down when other countries finally develop laser based weapons. I think the idea of developing new counter measures against new weapons to be an incredibly silly game of cat and mouse.
The article closes with the comment:
'In the end, the service suggests, it won't just be the military who benefits. The spray-on laser defense could protect "commercial airliners against worldwide terrorism and proliferation of ground-based laser weapon threats."'
So the people that go out to develop laser weaponry technology that has "worldwide terrorism" implication is supposed to heralded as the good guys for developing counter-measures for their own weapons. That's some seriously screwed up logic or some crazy spin.
Seriously, I wish these guys were honest with their intent. Something to the lines of "we want to be able to kick your asses with our weapons and have total impunity from whatever you have." At least that would be honest.
I was just reading on Wired about the US and Israel working on defensive technologies against laser based weapons. What they are currently developing is the obvious solution, spray-on reflective or diffusive coatings for their missiles to prevent them from being shot down when other countries finally develop laser based weapons. I think the idea of developing new counter measures against new weapons to be an incredibly silly game of cat and mouse.
The article closes with the comment:
'In the end, the service suggests, it won't just be the military who benefits. The spray-on laser defense could protect "commercial airliners against worldwide terrorism and proliferation of ground-based laser weapon threats."'
So the people that go out to develop laser weaponry technology that has "worldwide terrorism" implication is supposed to heralded as the good guys for developing counter-measures for their own weapons. That's some seriously screwed up logic or some crazy spin.
Seriously, I wish these guys were honest with their intent. Something to the lines of "we want to be able to kick your asses with our weapons and have total impunity from whatever you have." At least that would be honest.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The programming course I am taking is a joke
This is the second day of a 5 day C programming course at my company. There are 3 levels of programming starting from the very introductory level, intermediate and advanced level. Supposedly at this level, by the end of the program we are supposed to write our own fprint program.
This is day 2 and about 11 hours into the program... I have programmed for all of about 30 minutes on a microprocessor connected to a little robot that runs around a track painted on a board. I did this kind of stuff in second year university... almost 5 years ago. I am ridiculously annoyed with this course. A complete, utter, waste of time.
The other things is that some how the teacher for this course has gotten into the guts of assembly language without a good primer into the subject. I am quite certain that most of the other students in the course have no idea what is going on when it comes to the inner workings of assembly or how a microprocessor works. This is terrible!
The people that are teaching these courses, internally at the company are former employees that have started their own education company to teach the new recruits some basic skills. They charge about $600/week/person. There are about 20 people in the class. Doing the math, that yields, $12,000 per week or $48,000 per month! And I only paid $250 for a microcontroller course at UBC which is sufficient to dance circles around this class.
Hell, I have learned way more about programming on my own compared to what these people teach. I've found ways of interfacing programs directly into the Windows memory system, written automation programs, data analysis, a 2D differential equation solver and a monte-carlo robot position tracking system (a real simple one, albeit) over the past few years and I am some how in a class which is reviewing how to use *pointers.* And we have been doing this for the entire morning. If this were UBC, we'd probably have covered the topic in about 1.5 hours with far better depth.
In a sense, I am really happy to have gone to UBC, especially graduating out of the Engineering Physics program. I honestly have to say that surviving Eng Phys was a miracle. Even for me, I took more than the average course load and some how managed to graduate on time. There were tons of stuff I was learning at the time that I really never understood, until I started seeing their applications in research while in grad school. Simulation techniques that was in my head from a Electro-statics course was perfect for me to model electric fields for my research project as a grad student. The 2D differential equation calculus was rather useful for application to a multi-variable robotics course... where people were using complicated math packages to simulate an equation, where I did some really simple calculations in excel and was done in half the time it took everyone else... and yes, I even did find a use for my quantum mechanics (which I did rather poorly the first time around when I took the course) for an electron beam emission project.
I see application to the knowledge I learned everywhere and think the mathematics and physics I've learned is incredibly applicable, especially from the project experience I've had. I honestly have to say that there is nothing I have seen in Japan so far that comes remotely close to the educational experience I've had in Canada. Though I would no go far as to say that I learned nothing while in Japan, most of my learning came from the self-study I've done while working on research and project opportunities while over here.
I will have to remind myself that taking courses are not a real good use of time. The only problem is that I wonder if they wouldn't mind me taking a week out of work time to do some self-study to find new/better techniques of getting the job done.
This is day 2 and about 11 hours into the program... I have programmed for all of about 30 minutes on a microprocessor connected to a little robot that runs around a track painted on a board. I did this kind of stuff in second year university... almost 5 years ago. I am ridiculously annoyed with this course. A complete, utter, waste of time.
The other things is that some how the teacher for this course has gotten into the guts of assembly language without a good primer into the subject. I am quite certain that most of the other students in the course have no idea what is going on when it comes to the inner workings of assembly or how a microprocessor works. This is terrible!
The people that are teaching these courses, internally at the company are former employees that have started their own education company to teach the new recruits some basic skills. They charge about $600/week/person. There are about 20 people in the class. Doing the math, that yields, $12,000 per week or $48,000 per month! And I only paid $250 for a microcontroller course at UBC which is sufficient to dance circles around this class.
Hell, I have learned way more about programming on my own compared to what these people teach. I've found ways of interfacing programs directly into the Windows memory system, written automation programs, data analysis, a 2D differential equation solver and a monte-carlo robot position tracking system (a real simple one, albeit) over the past few years and I am some how in a class which is reviewing how to use *pointers.* And we have been doing this for the entire morning. If this were UBC, we'd probably have covered the topic in about 1.5 hours with far better depth.
In a sense, I am really happy to have gone to UBC, especially graduating out of the Engineering Physics program. I honestly have to say that surviving Eng Phys was a miracle. Even for me, I took more than the average course load and some how managed to graduate on time. There were tons of stuff I was learning at the time that I really never understood, until I started seeing their applications in research while in grad school. Simulation techniques that was in my head from a Electro-statics course was perfect for me to model electric fields for my research project as a grad student. The 2D differential equation calculus was rather useful for application to a multi-variable robotics course... where people were using complicated math packages to simulate an equation, where I did some really simple calculations in excel and was done in half the time it took everyone else... and yes, I even did find a use for my quantum mechanics (which I did rather poorly the first time around when I took the course) for an electron beam emission project.
I see application to the knowledge I learned everywhere and think the mathematics and physics I've learned is incredibly applicable, especially from the project experience I've had. I honestly have to say that there is nothing I have seen in Japan so far that comes remotely close to the educational experience I've had in Canada. Though I would no go far as to say that I learned nothing while in Japan, most of my learning came from the self-study I've done while working on research and project opportunities while over here.
I will have to remind myself that taking courses are not a real good use of time. The only problem is that I wonder if they wouldn't mind me taking a week out of work time to do some self-study to find new/better techniques of getting the job done.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The problem with people pushing their religon around
For the most part, I don't mind it if people are religious, if they believe in things like a God or have certain customs passed down because of their beliefs. Sometime is it the psyche of a people. I still remember the time I was in Thailand, where I made a wonderful friend that showed me around Bangkok.
She showed me all the beautiful temples and taught me all about the lives of the Buddhist monks. She invited me into a temple, where I had the chance to sit in prayer with the ordinary Thai people. I asked her what she would usually pray for, and she told me that she would pray for good health for her family and good luck for her friends. I was all good natured and I had a lot of respect for the kindness I found in the Thai culture. They never told me that their beliefs were the right way to life or anything but they were quite happy with their way of life nor were they threatened by the beliefs of others. It was incredibly pleasant learning about the culture of the Thai people.
Months later since I came back to Japan, I've lived a peaceful life, doing my own thing, minding my own business. But if there is something that annoys me, it would always be some western missionary in the street. "Free English lessons" they'd say, or they'd be even be more direct and tell me that "God loves you" and that I should come to their Church. The part that bothers me the most about all this beneath the surface, they are trying to push their beliefs on to other people, whether they want it or not. I think that's deceitful. Wasn't there a commandment in the bible that said "thou shalt not lie?" Well, I guess, the technicality is that they're not lying, par se, but they aren't really honest.
But the burning question that I have to ask, is what right do these people have to come in and try and change the beliefs of a culture and what right do they have to get offended when other people have beliefs different from them? I really do get quite agitated when people, especially Evangelicals, come out on to the streets to profess that believing in their religion will send you to a place of eternal happiness after death, where as otherwise, you are sent to a place of eternal hell. A friendly bunch of people, wouldn't you say?
I don't care what you believe in, as long as it doesn't infringe on the freedoms of others
There are states in the US that explicitly require people to be a practicing Christian to get into an elected office. I ask, then, what about the others whom follow a different faith? What right do these people have to tell others that they cannot hold an elected office unless they be a Christian? There are other parts in the US where Christians are battling against the Education system to have scientific theories like Evolution thrown out of the curriculum, or at least have it watered down and have "intelligent design" taught with the same level of footing that evolution has. If that was the case, I would think it would be equally fair to have the Muslim and Buddhist ideas of life taught in the same classroom. But to do so, would entice outrage and anger. Since when did religious tolerance get redefined to "You must tolerate our religion and we have the right to reject yours?" Somebody is trying to have their cake and eat it too.
But it goes further than this. Personally, I don't really mind what you believe in, so long as you don't infringe in the lives of other people (so long as they don't do likewise to you). I draw the line when people believe they have the the right to deny people of different faith into an elected position, or people of the same gender to get married or the decision use birth-control should they choose to. That, frankly, is none of their business.
The results of science are independent of religion
There are people out there who chose to not realize that the experimental results and conclusions that come out of the field of science has nothing to do with religion. The most important part of science is that the experiments are repeatable no matter who conducts them. Thus it shouldn't matter if a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddist or a wiccan decides to conduct the same scientific experiment-- they should all get the same result.
But the problem is, that for some religions, the results that come out of the scientific process is that it may contradict what they believe in and for that sin, those ideas are to be quashed. A man by the name of Galileo one thought that the Earth revolved around the sun. For that idea, he was held in house arrest by the church until his death. So I ask, is that right? Is that fair? For those think that was right, don't complain if others decide that it is fair to persecute others in the same manner for having different ideas. And yet still, the laws which govern the motion of the planets remain unchallenged. For those that do disagree, I suggest you throw out your satellite TV dishes and GPS systems and walk the walk.
The concept of the scientific method is to eliminate human bias to come down to objective conclusions.
Let's Be fair
I don't come down on other people about if their beliefs are different than mine. If my friends are Muslim, Buddhist or Christian and they don't get in the way of other people minding their own business or cause general unpleasantness then I completely don't mind. But cross that line, then don't start complaining when other people take issue.
She showed me all the beautiful temples and taught me all about the lives of the Buddhist monks. She invited me into a temple, where I had the chance to sit in prayer with the ordinary Thai people. I asked her what she would usually pray for, and she told me that she would pray for good health for her family and good luck for her friends. I was all good natured and I had a lot of respect for the kindness I found in the Thai culture. They never told me that their beliefs were the right way to life or anything but they were quite happy with their way of life nor were they threatened by the beliefs of others. It was incredibly pleasant learning about the culture of the Thai people.
Months later since I came back to Japan, I've lived a peaceful life, doing my own thing, minding my own business. But if there is something that annoys me, it would always be some western missionary in the street. "Free English lessons" they'd say, or they'd be even be more direct and tell me that "God loves you" and that I should come to their Church. The part that bothers me the most about all this beneath the surface, they are trying to push their beliefs on to other people, whether they want it or not. I think that's deceitful. Wasn't there a commandment in the bible that said "thou shalt not lie?" Well, I guess, the technicality is that they're not lying, par se, but they aren't really honest.
But the burning question that I have to ask, is what right do these people have to come in and try and change the beliefs of a culture and what right do they have to get offended when other people have beliefs different from them? I really do get quite agitated when people, especially Evangelicals, come out on to the streets to profess that believing in their religion will send you to a place of eternal happiness after death, where as otherwise, you are sent to a place of eternal hell. A friendly bunch of people, wouldn't you say?
I don't care what you believe in, as long as it doesn't infringe on the freedoms of others
There are states in the US that explicitly require people to be a practicing Christian to get into an elected office. I ask, then, what about the others whom follow a different faith? What right do these people have to tell others that they cannot hold an elected office unless they be a Christian? There are other parts in the US where Christians are battling against the Education system to have scientific theories like Evolution thrown out of the curriculum, or at least have it watered down and have "intelligent design" taught with the same level of footing that evolution has. If that was the case, I would think it would be equally fair to have the Muslim and Buddhist ideas of life taught in the same classroom. But to do so, would entice outrage and anger. Since when did religious tolerance get redefined to "You must tolerate our religion and we have the right to reject yours?" Somebody is trying to have their cake and eat it too.
But it goes further than this. Personally, I don't really mind what you believe in, so long as you don't infringe in the lives of other people (so long as they don't do likewise to you). I draw the line when people believe they have the the right to deny people of different faith into an elected position, or people of the same gender to get married or the decision use birth-control should they choose to. That, frankly, is none of their business.
The results of science are independent of religion
There are people out there who chose to not realize that the experimental results and conclusions that come out of the field of science has nothing to do with religion. The most important part of science is that the experiments are repeatable no matter who conducts them. Thus it shouldn't matter if a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddist or a wiccan decides to conduct the same scientific experiment-- they should all get the same result.
But the problem is, that for some religions, the results that come out of the scientific process is that it may contradict what they believe in and for that sin, those ideas are to be quashed. A man by the name of Galileo one thought that the Earth revolved around the sun. For that idea, he was held in house arrest by the church until his death. So I ask, is that right? Is that fair? For those think that was right, don't complain if others decide that it is fair to persecute others in the same manner for having different ideas. And yet still, the laws which govern the motion of the planets remain unchallenged. For those that do disagree, I suggest you throw out your satellite TV dishes and GPS systems and walk the walk.
The concept of the scientific method is to eliminate human bias to come down to objective conclusions.
Let's Be fair
I don't come down on other people about if their beliefs are different than mine. If my friends are Muslim, Buddhist or Christian and they don't get in the way of other people minding their own business or cause general unpleasantness then I completely don't mind. But cross that line, then don't start complaining when other people take issue.
Accepted to the Journal of Nanotechnology
2 years of study and experimentation was first written into an 80 page document which became my graduation thesis. I would make my first research conference debut at the 2007 Micro and Nano Engineering conference held in Denmark coveting an oral presentation slot where my research was presented to an international audience of professors and students.
Now finally, after 6 months of review and editing, my research paper has been accepted to the Journal of Nanotechnology; 2 years of work summarized into 6 pages. As of current, the last device I fabricated as a grad student has the lowest turn on voltage for an electron emission device (5V) in the world. I wasn't aiming for such a result, but as luck would have it, it's what I ended up with.
Not many masters students are able to have a research paper accepted into a research publication as the principle author, but I am quite happy to say that I did manage to get out of my masters degree with some tangible result.
Now finally, after 6 months of review and editing, my research paper has been accepted to the Journal of Nanotechnology; 2 years of work summarized into 6 pages. As of current, the last device I fabricated as a grad student has the lowest turn on voltage for an electron emission device (5V) in the world. I wasn't aiming for such a result, but as luck would have it, it's what I ended up with.
Not many masters students are able to have a research paper accepted into a research publication as the principle author, but I am quite happy to say that I did manage to get out of my masters degree with some tangible result.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Got money and want to leave the US? Prepare to Pay!
There is no doubt right now that the US is having serious debt problem. According to the US national debt clock as of July 5th 2008, the US stands to be in $9.45 trillion in debt. With an estimated population of about 300 million people, that's $31,000 per person. In other words, a family of4 carries a debt of $120,000. Imagine trying to pay off that kind of debt? For the average American I think that would be close to impossible.
There are many people in the US whom are dismayed with the current state of affairs, particularly with the currently rising debt and deteriorating economy (not to mention the low support with the current administration having an approval rate of about 27%). Suffice to say, the US as it stands right now is incredibly screwed and even if the general public didn't support the actions of the administration, the US government's debt and the economic catastrophe they cause is still the responsible of the average American citizen.
The question to ask is if this is fair for the average person to pick up the tab for the debt they didn't want or responsible for in the first place. The answer for most people is a resounding 'No.' So even if the current Bush administration draws to a cataclysmic end, the legacy of it's debt will continue for atleast a generation or few. For those that don't want anything more to do with this debt, there is a way out and that way is through renouncing their US citizenship.
The most common method of renouncing a US citizenship is simply by leaving the country and writing out the appropriate forms at an US embassy abroad. But for the most average US citizen, most people do not have any experience living abroad nor are most people readily in a position to take up a foreign citizenship. The people most likely able to do this are the most affluent, who do a lot of traveling or working abroad (this assumes that they are skilled to be in demand in an international market).
The US government is realizing through their poor management is that rich people want to leave, taking their money to greener pastures. So, just recently, the US has instigated a special tax (called HEART) to hit people emigrating out of the US (for both foreigners and US citizens) taking bringing out more than $600,000 in wealth (while the first $600k being tax free, the rest being taxed). If you lived debt free, sold your house and all your belongings (total assets more than $600k), be prepared to pay this new "exit fee" out of the US.
So if you became rich in the US, don't expect to get out with all of your wealth intact. If you don't have much money and don't want anything to do with the ballooning US debt, get out while you still can.
There are many people in the US whom are dismayed with the current state of affairs, particularly with the currently rising debt and deteriorating economy (not to mention the low support with the current administration having an approval rate of about 27%). Suffice to say, the US as it stands right now is incredibly screwed and even if the general public didn't support the actions of the administration, the US government's debt and the economic catastrophe they cause is still the responsible of the average American citizen.
The question to ask is if this is fair for the average person to pick up the tab for the debt they didn't want or responsible for in the first place. The answer for most people is a resounding 'No.' So even if the current Bush administration draws to a cataclysmic end, the legacy of it's debt will continue for atleast a generation or few. For those that don't want anything more to do with this debt, there is a way out and that way is through renouncing their US citizenship.
The most common method of renouncing a US citizenship is simply by leaving the country and writing out the appropriate forms at an US embassy abroad. But for the most average US citizen, most people do not have any experience living abroad nor are most people readily in a position to take up a foreign citizenship. The people most likely able to do this are the most affluent, who do a lot of traveling or working abroad (this assumes that they are skilled to be in demand in an international market).
The US government is realizing through their poor management is that rich people want to leave, taking their money to greener pastures. So, just recently, the US has instigated a special tax (called HEART) to hit people emigrating out of the US (for both foreigners and US citizens) taking bringing out more than $600,000 in wealth (while the first $600k being tax free, the rest being taxed). If you lived debt free, sold your house and all your belongings (total assets more than $600k), be prepared to pay this new "exit fee" out of the US.
So if you became rich in the US, don't expect to get out with all of your wealth intact. If you don't have much money and don't want anything to do with the ballooning US debt, get out while you still can.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Books vs the Internet
I am starting to find it quite hard to get a hold of quality information worth reading, recently through the internet. As I sift through a variety of social bookmarking sites, either I keep finding more and more garbage (which might be entertaining for the first little while but largely a waste of time) or news information which I highly doubt to be anything close to reliable.
If you want really unreliable information, go read the commentaries at yahoo finance, where by is it clearly impossible to have any idea about where the economy might really be going by reading most of the garbage put out by the pundits. Some people were going on for the past 3 months that the US economy is in perfect shape (minus the "little financial troubles" it was facing with the sub-prime loans and the faltering industrial base).
Reading the news is also another sore spot for me. There used to be a time where the news was about reporting important events or things that were genuinely relevant to the general public. Gone are those days to be replaced by 24 hour news channels that love to make a big deal about insignificant events. I could not give any less of a damn about Britney Spears checking into rehab or pundits on politically biased TV "News" shows having an axe to grind about some political or idealogical agenda, or etc. None of the information being broadcasted is nourishing information that provides to the well being of the general human being and therefore I find it largely useless.
So instead of the mainstream media, I look elsewhere where perhaps real or thoughtful information might be had. I look for essays or thought provoking ideas backed up with significant data or well constructed articles. Unfortunately, as of late, I am having trouble finding anything worth reading and I've broken down to buying a book to read... for the first time in a long time, which just arrived today.
There is something nice about reading a book. The ideas are far more complete compared to reading a 1-2 page article online. Short articles hardly provide for any depth of understanding. How am I supposed to understand anything about international relations in a 1 page article summarized by say "Saudi's promise to raise oil output to reduce oil prices." Surely the issues at hand are far more complicated then that and yet the general population is supposed to judge the actions of a nation based on a simple sliver of information. We have TV pundits and online pundits putting bits and pieces of these tid-bits of garbage to make one grand picture of garbage. As the saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out." But I digress...
The book I am reading is "Out of our minds: How to be Creative" by Sir Ken Robinson. Admittedly, the title does sound a little cheesy ("How to be Creative!?"), but Ken Robinson (I highly recommend watching his TED talk which is quite fascinating) writes about the current shortage of "creative" workers to further propel us into the future. He has a very good understanding of the problems in the current education system and it is worth a read. I have so far gone through 50 pages of the book and have been quite satisfied with most of the ideas and the background information he presents. Nothing of the sort that you'd find easily on the internet.
I think that is the new problem that the internet will face in the future. With access to countless billions (trillions??) of webpages, it will become harder and harder to find information worth reading now that anyone and their dog can post to the cloud that is the internet. Social bookmarking, which I thought were the wave of the future for democratically aggregating pieces of information worthy of reading, had now been replaced by the frivolity of the masses with continual up voting of trivial matters. I once used to love these sites as the density of well educated people that used to frequent them led to a higher density of good quality articles being posted. Perhaps it is time for me to look for smaller and better communities to find reading material from.
If you want really unreliable information, go read the commentaries at yahoo finance, where by is it clearly impossible to have any idea about where the economy might really be going by reading most of the garbage put out by the pundits. Some people were going on for the past 3 months that the US economy is in perfect shape (minus the "little financial troubles" it was facing with the sub-prime loans and the faltering industrial base).
Reading the news is also another sore spot for me. There used to be a time where the news was about reporting important events or things that were genuinely relevant to the general public. Gone are those days to be replaced by 24 hour news channels that love to make a big deal about insignificant events. I could not give any less of a damn about Britney Spears checking into rehab or pundits on politically biased TV "News" shows having an axe to grind about some political or idealogical agenda, or etc. None of the information being broadcasted is nourishing information that provides to the well being of the general human being and therefore I find it largely useless.
So instead of the mainstream media, I look elsewhere where perhaps real or thoughtful information might be had. I look for essays or thought provoking ideas backed up with significant data or well constructed articles. Unfortunately, as of late, I am having trouble finding anything worth reading and I've broken down to buying a book to read... for the first time in a long time, which just arrived today.
There is something nice about reading a book. The ideas are far more complete compared to reading a 1-2 page article online. Short articles hardly provide for any depth of understanding. How am I supposed to understand anything about international relations in a 1 page article summarized by say "Saudi's promise to raise oil output to reduce oil prices." Surely the issues at hand are far more complicated then that and yet the general population is supposed to judge the actions of a nation based on a simple sliver of information. We have TV pundits and online pundits putting bits and pieces of these tid-bits of garbage to make one grand picture of garbage. As the saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out." But I digress...
The book I am reading is "Out of our minds: How to be Creative" by Sir Ken Robinson. Admittedly, the title does sound a little cheesy ("How to be Creative!?"), but Ken Robinson (I highly recommend watching his TED talk which is quite fascinating) writes about the current shortage of "creative" workers to further propel us into the future. He has a very good understanding of the problems in the current education system and it is worth a read. I have so far gone through 50 pages of the book and have been quite satisfied with most of the ideas and the background information he presents. Nothing of the sort that you'd find easily on the internet.
I think that is the new problem that the internet will face in the future. With access to countless billions (trillions??) of webpages, it will become harder and harder to find information worth reading now that anyone and their dog can post to the cloud that is the internet. Social bookmarking, which I thought were the wave of the future for democratically aggregating pieces of information worthy of reading, had now been replaced by the frivolity of the masses with continual up voting of trivial matters. I once used to love these sites as the density of well educated people that used to frequent them led to a higher density of good quality articles being posted. Perhaps it is time for me to look for smaller and better communities to find reading material from.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Dealing with uncertainty
For the last 3 days, starting on Wednesday, I was on an orientation retreat; the HR team at Sony wanted to imbue the new employees with a sense of "character" of what Sony is. If there was one thing that I took away from the orientation was that the company was "unconventional," which might be a good thing for a Japanese company.
Sony does face some serious challenges right now. My opinion is that the company is stagnating and the current environment doesn't really breed creativity, nor does it seem like it gives opportunities for new ideas (from what I've seen so far), though the upper management people keep telling this is exactly what they want, but I some what digress from the title of this article.
Many of the new grads coming into the company, after this retreat seemed to have a lot of anxiety about their jobs. From one of the promotional videos we saw describing the company as having a long history of innovation, the new grads seemed to feel like they had big shoes to fill. I wouldn't blame them, especially coming out of the Japanese educational system, where encouraging creativity not is one of it's strong points.
For the majority of these new grads, working at Sony will be their first job and most of them are quite worried if the jobs they are given is something suited for them. I for one had a very crappy first job doing incredibly boring work, cutting clouds out of satellite images (I studied how long for a boring job like this!?) after my undergrad in Canada. On top of this, most of them aren't really sure about the kinds of jobs they would be really be suited to since they don't really have any working experience.
Personally, there's been a lot of uncertainty in my life. I would never have imaged that I would come to Japan to study nanotech, then getting hired off by Sony after graduating after considering that I started off with a really pathetic first job. In the future, I really have no idea what kind of work I will be doing and where I'll be working. But I think the most important thing is developing the skills to deal with whatever comes up. Say if you got fired tomorrow and knew that you could just setup your own little company or just hop ship to do other things, I think that most people would have very little worries.
Sony does face some serious challenges right now. My opinion is that the company is stagnating and the current environment doesn't really breed creativity, nor does it seem like it gives opportunities for new ideas (from what I've seen so far), though the upper management people keep telling this is exactly what they want, but I some what digress from the title of this article.
Many of the new grads coming into the company, after this retreat seemed to have a lot of anxiety about their jobs. From one of the promotional videos we saw describing the company as having a long history of innovation, the new grads seemed to feel like they had big shoes to fill. I wouldn't blame them, especially coming out of the Japanese educational system, where encouraging creativity not is one of it's strong points.
For the majority of these new grads, working at Sony will be their first job and most of them are quite worried if the jobs they are given is something suited for them. I for one had a very crappy first job doing incredibly boring work, cutting clouds out of satellite images (I studied how long for a boring job like this!?) after my undergrad in Canada. On top of this, most of them aren't really sure about the kinds of jobs they would be really be suited to since they don't really have any working experience.
Personally, there's been a lot of uncertainty in my life. I would never have imaged that I would come to Japan to study nanotech, then getting hired off by Sony after graduating after considering that I started off with a really pathetic first job. In the future, I really have no idea what kind of work I will be doing and where I'll be working. But I think the most important thing is developing the skills to deal with whatever comes up. Say if you got fired tomorrow and knew that you could just setup your own little company or just hop ship to do other things, I think that most people would have very little worries.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Will rent prices go down?
Given the current foreclosures in the US housing market and the state of the US economy, more and more people are looking toward renting as an alternative to owning a home. it would be interesting to see if rent prices in the US will go down, which is something that I've never really seen happen before.
Logically speaking, with falling housing prices, it becomes cheaper to buy a house and if one was a landowner, then it would be possible to rent a home for less money to encourage people to move in. Given this line of thinking, I would think that rent prices in the future to go down, which would be a good thing for most renters out there, though I would expect that it would require a move out of your current residence or a negotiation with your current land lord to get a reduction in rent prices.
Logically speaking, with falling housing prices, it becomes cheaper to buy a house and if one was a landowner, then it would be possible to rent a home for less money to encourage people to move in. Given this line of thinking, I would think that rent prices in the future to go down, which would be a good thing for most renters out there, though I would expect that it would require a move out of your current residence or a negotiation with your current land lord to get a reduction in rent prices.
I do better when I don't pay attention in class
I am in a microprocessor class right now; a course setup for the new employees that got into Sony to learn a little about microprocessor programming. The class level is more introductory than I was expecting so I am ending up having a lot of free time. As a result, I've brought a spare laptop and currently surfing the web and doing some misc reading while the teacher blabbers on about the fundamentals of electronics and microprocessor programming.
The interesting thing about this experience is that I fare better than the rest of the student that pay attention. I'm really just half listening to the teacher, just catching the main points about what he's talking about and then when it comes to doing an assignment, I just look at what needs to be done and go about doing it on my own. The good thing about not paying attention to everything is that it forces me to think on my own to solve the assignment instead of following some contrived program the teacher has setup to solve the problem. The fun part about thinking on my own is that I'm usually thinking a few steps ahead of the class and finding some bugs in the example code (which I've caught the teacher on).
The other good thing about thinking on my own in class is that I tend to be more creative than just listening to what the teacher has to say. I've been plugging the outputs of the microprocessor to a LED light display while making the lights dance around instead of just at the data through an oscilloscope. Apparently, I've gained some notoriety for not paying attention and going my own way at doing my own things.
On an interesting side note, I do believe that people become more creative when they do more thinking on their own instead of being told what to do, as that shuts down the creative process and hence I think the idea of managers telling employees to be "more creative" to be somewhat paradoxical in this sense. My 2 cents. I'd elaborate on it more but the lecturer just gave us a new circuit to build and I'm off to go build it.
The interesting thing about this experience is that I fare better than the rest of the student that pay attention. I'm really just half listening to the teacher, just catching the main points about what he's talking about and then when it comes to doing an assignment, I just look at what needs to be done and go about doing it on my own. The good thing about not paying attention to everything is that it forces me to think on my own to solve the assignment instead of following some contrived program the teacher has setup to solve the problem. The fun part about thinking on my own is that I'm usually thinking a few steps ahead of the class and finding some bugs in the example code (which I've caught the teacher on).
The other good thing about thinking on my own in class is that I tend to be more creative than just listening to what the teacher has to say. I've been plugging the outputs of the microprocessor to a LED light display while making the lights dance around instead of just at the data through an oscilloscope. Apparently, I've gained some notoriety for not paying attention and going my own way at doing my own things.
On an interesting side note, I do believe that people become more creative when they do more thinking on their own instead of being told what to do, as that shuts down the creative process and hence I think the idea of managers telling employees to be "more creative" to be somewhat paradoxical in this sense. My 2 cents. I'd elaborate on it more but the lecturer just gave us a new circuit to build and I'm off to go build it.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
A short hiatus from writing
I've been quite busy recently with work, participating in activities, exercising, reading and resting that I haven't had much time or energy left over to do much to keep this blog up-to-date. I will return to posting more frequently later on.
As of current, I have been somewhat tired and have not been in much of a mood for human interaction. As a result, I haven't been logging into any of the social network sites I used to frequent or any of my internet messengers as of late. Actually, I've started to find more solace in reading than I used to find in chatting online for some strange reason.
I attribute this to the many interesting and well thought out articles I've been reading online, offering compelling and well thought out ideas. I am starting to find normal conversation to be somewhat boring now that I can't seem to find conversations that "go anywhere." Perhaps my character is taking a somewhat of a shift towards "less talking and more action" but this requires some more exploration.
Anyways, I will probably have more to say (well, I have plenty) after I have some time to kick back and relax. But for the time being, posting might be a little bit sparse.
As of current, I have been somewhat tired and have not been in much of a mood for human interaction. As a result, I haven't been logging into any of the social network sites I used to frequent or any of my internet messengers as of late. Actually, I've started to find more solace in reading than I used to find in chatting online for some strange reason.
I attribute this to the many interesting and well thought out articles I've been reading online, offering compelling and well thought out ideas. I am starting to find normal conversation to be somewhat boring now that I can't seem to find conversations that "go anywhere." Perhaps my character is taking a somewhat of a shift towards "less talking and more action" but this requires some more exploration.
Anyways, I will probably have more to say (well, I have plenty) after I have some time to kick back and relax. But for the time being, posting might be a little bit sparse.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Knowing how to capitalize on a down market
The US economy is going into a recession. It's been pretty evident that things have been on the down turn for the last 6 months. First with the sub-prime loans, then the soaring gas prices and food prices (much as a result of the US inflating their money supply). What I should have been thinking about since the beginning of all of this is "what sectors are going to be hit in a recession?" and the answers would have been obvious. Anything and every industry that is has anything to do with "disposable income."
Starbucks is tanking, so is the auto industry. Airline stocks are falling and the tourism industry is taking a hit. I think upper end restaurant chains are going to tank, jewelry sales are going to plummet, consumer electronics sales are probably going to go down and more. If you know what you are doing, then shorting these stocks is the right move. Things aren't going to get better until the bad loans are cleared and banks have the confidence to lend money again. You should know that you're playing in a down market and the way to make money is by being a few steps ahead of the market.
Starbucks is tanking, so is the auto industry. Airline stocks are falling and the tourism industry is taking a hit. I think upper end restaurant chains are going to tank, jewelry sales are going to plummet, consumer electronics sales are probably going to go down and more. If you know what you are doing, then shorting these stocks is the right move. Things aren't going to get better until the bad loans are cleared and banks have the confidence to lend money again. You should know that you're playing in a down market and the way to make money is by being a few steps ahead of the market.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Friday, May 09, 2008
Like Poker, Investing is about *Not Losing*
On and off, I go through my bookmarks of the web to see how some notable people are doing after their moment of fame. One stock market trader that posts at High Probability Trading blog became exceptionally famous after a tirade of cursing after losing over $30k on a bad trade when the stock market tanked.
I have a mild-interest in watching people day trade, simply to see if there are people out there that are able read into the tea-leaves of the daily market to make a few quick bucks here and there with the ebbing tides of the stock market. It seems that the man at this blog can't seem to eek out consistent gains, though he consistently mentions that he has a "solid plan" to make money on the market and that some trades on the open market are "easy" to make money on.
If that were the case, why not stick to the trades that you are almost certain to make money on?
TV and the movies are horrible places to learn about anything that is a combination of luck and skill. They have this strange idea that the path to success can be summarized into a series of short episodes or a 2 hour feature film. Sure, they make it look like the main character goes through a lot, works hard and in the end gets a few almost impossible lucky breaks and lives happily ever after, but the reality of the matter is that life doesn't work like that-- you just can't expect to take wild swings at things expecting to eventually make a hit (you'll throw your arms out eventually)... but I digress...
Every risk you take should be calculated
The idea that continually taking risks without weighing the costs, hoping to make a hit is not a bright idea; it's also a cardinal rule in poker which few understand. Every risk that you take should be calculated-- weigh what the risk costs to take the chance and the consequences of you losing vs the rewards and the probability of you winning.
There is something in the world of probability called the "expectation value," which basically means that if you had a 60% chance of winning $100, then the expectation value of the outcome is $60. If someone told you that it would cost you $50 for you to have a 60% chance of winning $100 would you take it? I would! Over and over again, simply because the expectation value is greater than the risk I would have to bare. In the long run, I will also win out on the game.
The interesting thing about the mechanics of making decisions depends on the reliability of your data. In the case of the day trading guy, he seems to be able to pick out a few "good trades." If I were him, I'd stick to those trades and take the easy money if that is the case. I would be far more happier to know that I'm consistent at making money instead of having a string of good runs, then getting hammered by a series of bad runs-- the emotional roller coaster isn't worth
it. I'd be far happier to make 8 wins out of 10 versus 40 out of 100. That is the name of the game, especially when you've got money on the line.
Don't get the wrong idea that it isn't worth taking the risk to learn something new; because I highly recommend taking a chance on something new whenever you can. Just make sure that you're not risking more than you can handle.
I have a mild-interest in watching people day trade, simply to see if there are people out there that are able read into the tea-leaves of the daily market to make a few quick bucks here and there with the ebbing tides of the stock market. It seems that the man at this blog can't seem to eek out consistent gains, though he consistently mentions that he has a "solid plan" to make money on the market and that some trades on the open market are "easy" to make money on.
If that were the case, why not stick to the trades that you are almost certain to make money on?
TV and the movies are horrible places to learn about anything that is a combination of luck and skill. They have this strange idea that the path to success can be summarized into a series of short episodes or a 2 hour feature film. Sure, they make it look like the main character goes through a lot, works hard and in the end gets a few almost impossible lucky breaks and lives happily ever after, but the reality of the matter is that life doesn't work like that-- you just can't expect to take wild swings at things expecting to eventually make a hit (you'll throw your arms out eventually)... but I digress...
Every risk you take should be calculated
The idea that continually taking risks without weighing the costs, hoping to make a hit is not a bright idea; it's also a cardinal rule in poker which few understand. Every risk that you take should be calculated-- weigh what the risk costs to take the chance and the consequences of you losing vs the rewards and the probability of you winning.
There is something in the world of probability called the "expectation value," which basically means that if you had a 60% chance of winning $100, then the expectation value of the outcome is $60. If someone told you that it would cost you $50 for you to have a 60% chance of winning $100 would you take it? I would! Over and over again, simply because the expectation value is greater than the risk I would have to bare. In the long run, I will also win out on the game.
The interesting thing about the mechanics of making decisions depends on the reliability of your data. In the case of the day trading guy, he seems to be able to pick out a few "good trades." If I were him, I'd stick to those trades and take the easy money if that is the case. I would be far more happier to know that I'm consistent at making money instead of having a string of good runs, then getting hammered by a series of bad runs-- the emotional roller coaster isn't worth
it. I'd be far happier to make 8 wins out of 10 versus 40 out of 100. That is the name of the game, especially when you've got money on the line.
Don't get the wrong idea that it isn't worth taking the risk to learn something new; because I highly recommend taking a chance on something new whenever you can. Just make sure that you're not risking more than you can handle.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Machine Learning, Information Filtering and People
There is a lot of information on the internet now; billions upon billions of webpages. Some of the information out there is trivial but there is plenty of useful information out there. All that one needs to do it have a topic of interest and go off searching the internet to summarize the important details of a topic they need to know.
Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of good websites that summarize things very well. I usually end up finding myself surfing from wepbage to webpage looking for details, trying to confirm what I've learned. Quite often this ends up to be a very time consuming task. What if we could simplify this? What if we could find ways of going through large quantities of information very quickly, figure out what is reliable, what (seems to) make sense and then summarize it into a nice simple packet of information that we can digest quickly.
People as Information Filters
I've had a hypothesis for quite some time that people are information filters and the kind of information that is retained by the person is largely dependent on the character of the person. Now that I've mentioned the words information and character in the same sentence, I ought explain this relationship in more detail.
Though my experiences, I theorize that the character of a person is largely determined by the kind of information they find useful or interesting. As simple as this sounds, I think it is quite profound, as it isn't as stated often like this. If one were to think about it, the kinds of information that we find useful are the kinds of information that allow us to accomplish specific goals, albeit consciously or sub-consciously.
A person characterized as a thrill seeker will most likely find information about the latest scoup on cheap places for bungee jumping, white water rafting and the most exciting get-aways to be particularly useful. This person will obviously will have their eyes and ears peeled for information related to their interest, whether be it through magazines, clubs, newspapers or other forms of media. And I would be willing to go as far as to point out that the greatest source of information are other people with similar interests as it would be obvious that these people are also on the look out for similar information, digesting whatever pieces of data they get to summarize what they learn to actional pieces of data. You will often get the best information digest from other people that have done a fair amount of information and data collection, up to the point where they can anticipate the kinds of questions you will have and immediately fill you in on what you need/want to know.
I personally have to say that the best teachers I've ever had are the ones that know how to summarize information well, communicate it succinctly and be able to lead into the next important topic by anticipating the questions or the interesting points that arise from what was just presented.
I have found that dense exchange of well summarized useful and interesting knowledge to be rare and few. And I find this to be quite unfortunate, but this point is probably for a different essay at a different time, though I should point out that your best friends are likely to be the ones that share information that are the most relative with you... but anyways, I digress...
Machine: A man's best friend?
The old adage was that a dog is a man's best friend-- that you'd be able to send out your dog and have him fetch your shoes, slippers, a dead bird or the newspaper. But what if this time, instead of the newspaper, you had a dog that could surf the web and fetch you all the important things that you should/wanted to know. Imagine that.
Now, with the digitization of information, it has become easy for computers to digest digital representation of text-- in other words, you don't have to teach your computer have to read characters anymore (I still remember the first time I tried to read my elementary school teacher's handwritten comment on one of my assignments and I couldn't make heads or tails out of it)! Now with that problem out of the way, wouldn't it be interesting to see if we could give a computer some simple goals, have it go out into the internet and learn/find what you want to know and then summarize it for you.
What if you told your computer that you wanted to make gourmet food and have it come back at you and asked you what kind while providing a list of different ethnic cuisine. What if in addition to that, it went further to recommend certain dishes because of availability of ingredients based on your geographical region and the season. All of this relevant information would be nicely summarized into something that you can immediately act upon. This is what I believe to be the epitome of useful information (considering that most of information you get through the news and other sources are hardly actionable!).
Intelligence simply does not come from data!
Throughout my high school life, I realized something far more important than just learning what your teachers taught you, but rather more efficient ways of learning. In practice, I focused on finding more efficient ways of learning. I can tell you with certainty that effective learning does not result from wrote memorization. What is more important that just having information is developing relationships between pieces of information, like a puzzle, to create a coherent overview of the body of knowledge learned.
With the combination of having a wide breadth of knowledge and understanding how it fits together, it puts one in the desirable position of understanding the relevance of what they know to quickly understand how new information may fit into their knowledge or knowing how to respond to questions with the most relevant answers. After all, this is what tests are all about.
How do you teach someone/something to learn?
Now this is obviously the million (multi-billion?) dollar question (and if you know the answer, go start your own education company). There is no easy way to teach someone or something to learn. And I believe that the process of learning boils down to motive and objective. What I have found more important that instead of just teaching a subject, is to teach the underlying motivations behind why this body of knowledge was created because if a person could never find a purpose for what they learned, why bother learning it? I think that a topic should be as interesting as it is useful.
Motivating humans, I think, is a far easier task than motivating an inanimate object like a computer to do something. Humans have hard-coded biological objectives to survive and live a happy life. Obviously, by understanding the basic constructs of ourselves, it becomes easier to understand the relevance of information to ourselves. I should point out that the desire to be well informed is not just for survival, but also for entertainment. I don't know about you, but I find myself quite happy to discover or learn profound ideas (where I find myself running around to friends to tell them all about it... despite how little they may care sometimes :)
In order to develop an autonomous computer system capable of learning, it would be very necessary to hard code specific objectives into an artificial intelligence to give it the motivation to learn. Determining what those motivations should be will likely be a challenging topic, but I am sure that without them, a CPU made from silicon will have as much motivation to learn as a chunk of rock. And the same goes for students.
Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of good websites that summarize things very well. I usually end up finding myself surfing from wepbage to webpage looking for details, trying to confirm what I've learned. Quite often this ends up to be a very time consuming task. What if we could simplify this? What if we could find ways of going through large quantities of information very quickly, figure out what is reliable, what (seems to) make sense and then summarize it into a nice simple packet of information that we can digest quickly.
People as Information Filters
I've had a hypothesis for quite some time that people are information filters and the kind of information that is retained by the person is largely dependent on the character of the person. Now that I've mentioned the words information and character in the same sentence, I ought explain this relationship in more detail.
Though my experiences, I theorize that the character of a person is largely determined by the kind of information they find useful or interesting. As simple as this sounds, I think it is quite profound, as it isn't as stated often like this. If one were to think about it, the kinds of information that we find useful are the kinds of information that allow us to accomplish specific goals, albeit consciously or sub-consciously.
A person characterized as a thrill seeker will most likely find information about the latest scoup on cheap places for bungee jumping, white water rafting and the most exciting get-aways to be particularly useful. This person will obviously will have their eyes and ears peeled for information related to their interest, whether be it through magazines, clubs, newspapers or other forms of media. And I would be willing to go as far as to point out that the greatest source of information are other people with similar interests as it would be obvious that these people are also on the look out for similar information, digesting whatever pieces of data they get to summarize what they learn to actional pieces of data. You will often get the best information digest from other people that have done a fair amount of information and data collection, up to the point where they can anticipate the kinds of questions you will have and immediately fill you in on what you need/want to know.
I personally have to say that the best teachers I've ever had are the ones that know how to summarize information well, communicate it succinctly and be able to lead into the next important topic by anticipating the questions or the interesting points that arise from what was just presented.
I have found that dense exchange of well summarized useful and interesting knowledge to be rare and few. And I find this to be quite unfortunate, but this point is probably for a different essay at a different time, though I should point out that your best friends are likely to be the ones that share information that are the most relative with you... but anyways, I digress...
Machine: A man's best friend?
The old adage was that a dog is a man's best friend-- that you'd be able to send out your dog and have him fetch your shoes, slippers, a dead bird or the newspaper. But what if this time, instead of the newspaper, you had a dog that could surf the web and fetch you all the important things that you should/wanted to know. Imagine that.
Now, with the digitization of information, it has become easy for computers to digest digital representation of text-- in other words, you don't have to teach your computer have to read characters anymore (I still remember the first time I tried to read my elementary school teacher's handwritten comment on one of my assignments and I couldn't make heads or tails out of it)! Now with that problem out of the way, wouldn't it be interesting to see if we could give a computer some simple goals, have it go out into the internet and learn/find what you want to know and then summarize it for you.
What if you told your computer that you wanted to make gourmet food and have it come back at you and asked you what kind while providing a list of different ethnic cuisine. What if in addition to that, it went further to recommend certain dishes because of availability of ingredients based on your geographical region and the season. All of this relevant information would be nicely summarized into something that you can immediately act upon. This is what I believe to be the epitome of useful information (considering that most of information you get through the news and other sources are hardly actionable!).
Intelligence simply does not come from data!
Throughout my high school life, I realized something far more important than just learning what your teachers taught you, but rather more efficient ways of learning. In practice, I focused on finding more efficient ways of learning. I can tell you with certainty that effective learning does not result from wrote memorization. What is more important that just having information is developing relationships between pieces of information, like a puzzle, to create a coherent overview of the body of knowledge learned.
With the combination of having a wide breadth of knowledge and understanding how it fits together, it puts one in the desirable position of understanding the relevance of what they know to quickly understand how new information may fit into their knowledge or knowing how to respond to questions with the most relevant answers. After all, this is what tests are all about.
How do you teach someone/something to learn?
Now this is obviously the million (multi-billion?) dollar question (and if you know the answer, go start your own education company). There is no easy way to teach someone or something to learn. And I believe that the process of learning boils down to motive and objective. What I have found more important that instead of just teaching a subject, is to teach the underlying motivations behind why this body of knowledge was created because if a person could never find a purpose for what they learned, why bother learning it? I think that a topic should be as interesting as it is useful.
Motivating humans, I think, is a far easier task than motivating an inanimate object like a computer to do something. Humans have hard-coded biological objectives to survive and live a happy life. Obviously, by understanding the basic constructs of ourselves, it becomes easier to understand the relevance of information to ourselves. I should point out that the desire to be well informed is not just for survival, but also for entertainment. I don't know about you, but I find myself quite happy to discover or learn profound ideas (where I find myself running around to friends to tell them all about it... despite how little they may care sometimes :)
In order to develop an autonomous computer system capable of learning, it would be very necessary to hard code specific objectives into an artificial intelligence to give it the motivation to learn. Determining what those motivations should be will likely be a challenging topic, but I am sure that without them, a CPU made from silicon will have as much motivation to learn as a chunk of rock. And the same goes for students.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sub-pixel interpolation throwing off my eyes
I spent about $210 getting a new 19" monitor to run on my Linux box. The monitor I got is a Benq FP93G series monitor. I have so far tested the monitor using output both from my laptop and the desktop computer to find that I have mixed feelings about thus monitor-- the images don't come out as crisp as the images on my monitor... it maybe due to the fact that the surface isn't glossy.
The other problem that has been plaguing me recently is that I have yet to find a good way to turn off sub-pixel interpolation of characters on all the software on my Ubuntu Linux installation. Simply put, sub-pixel interpolation attemptes to smooth the display text to make them look rounder and smoother than what your average monitor might be able to show by shading some pixels gray instead of just using white or black to draw a character.
Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for me) is that I have very sharp eyes and when I look at sub-pixel interpolated characters, it actually gives me eye strain and sometimes a headache... as I am facing right now. I much prefer the screen on my laptop compared to the flat panel screen I am working off of at the moment.
I have already tried hooking the monitor up to my laptop (which runs windows, and I have sub-pixel interpolation disabled) and the text I read from the laptop is much clearer to me (though I still prefer reading text directly from the laptop instead of the monitor). I think sub-pixel interpolation might be good for monitors with a glossy surface since the pixels may do a better job of blending through a glossy surface. Unfortunately for me, the monitor I have is just a standard monitor without a glossy surface... as I used to be able to work on a monitor without glossy surfaces.
I am quite annoyed that things turned out the way they did and will be looking for a way to work around this problem as I cannot stand blurry text.
I have tried watching videos on my monitor and found no problem at all with the display quality. It's only a problem when I have to look at high contrast images.
The other problem that has been plaguing me recently is that I have yet to find a good way to turn off sub-pixel interpolation of characters on all the software on my Ubuntu Linux installation. Simply put, sub-pixel interpolation attemptes to smooth the display text to make them look rounder and smoother than what your average monitor might be able to show by shading some pixels gray instead of just using white or black to draw a character.
Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for me) is that I have very sharp eyes and when I look at sub-pixel interpolated characters, it actually gives me eye strain and sometimes a headache... as I am facing right now. I much prefer the screen on my laptop compared to the flat panel screen I am working off of at the moment.
I have already tried hooking the monitor up to my laptop (which runs windows, and I have sub-pixel interpolation disabled) and the text I read from the laptop is much clearer to me (though I still prefer reading text directly from the laptop instead of the monitor). I think sub-pixel interpolation might be good for monitors with a glossy surface since the pixels may do a better job of blending through a glossy surface. Unfortunately for me, the monitor I have is just a standard monitor without a glossy surface... as I used to be able to work on a monitor without glossy surfaces.
I am quite annoyed that things turned out the way they did and will be looking for a way to work around this problem as I cannot stand blurry text.
I have tried watching videos on my monitor and found no problem at all with the display quality. It's only a problem when I have to look at high contrast images.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
I type this from my Linux box
Back in my university days, I managed to salvage a 1 GHz computer from the dumpster. The PC box already had 512 MB ram and a video card. A few more weeks of checking out the dumpster later, I managed to find other scrapped computers to salvage a sound card, a network card and a 12 GB HD and I would have a fully working computer... which I ended up donating to a friend of mine that didn't have a computer at the time.
Well right before leaving university, he didn't need the computer anymore and I bought it with me to my new home where I bought a new 19" LCD to go with the system an installed Ubuntu (a very easy to setup Linux distribution) on the computer. The desktop looks something like this:
My Desktop while getting some music going.
The distribution comes complete with Open Office which is a suite complete with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation preparation programs. All of this comes free with the operating system and can be easily installed into other systems as well. Linux comes complete with programming tools, program editors with the option to add a whole slew of software for free.
The desktop side of Linux is becoming very attractive, especially for those with good video cards to go with their computer (though most of it is just eye candy... it's also very pleasing eye candy). The desktop is managed by a piece of software developed from the Compiz Fusion project, which was a project to develop an incredibly beautiful/slick desktop environment. Check out the following link for a video demonstration. It just goes to say that you done necessarily need Windows for a decent working environment. The best part of it all is that all of this software, and more comes for free and all the code on how to write these programs are publicly available should you be interested in doing some programming of your own.
Windows and the together already costs atleast $200 or more, then throw in any other software that you might be interested in and you are probably looking at $1000 more in costs for installed software on the computer. If you want an image editor, programming environment, HTTP server or anything, all of this can be had for for free just by downloading the software you want from an online software repository. Simple as that and you'd be saving yourself $1200+ in software that easy.
Though, I think the biggest hang up of using Linux is that there might be one piece of software that might not be available on Linux. Well fear not, there exists a piece of software that can interpret Windows programs and have it run on a Linux OS. That piece of software is other wise known as "wine." All one needs to do is install it and have it run the program of your choice. Simple as that.
I do have to admit that I am still a little uncertain of gaming on a Linux box with the standard titles out there, but I have heard from some people that many usual Windows games are playable through the Wine emulator software (and I heard that it runs fast enough that there isn't any significant slowdown of the game).
Most likely, I will be upgrading this computer later on (or rather rebuilding the whole thing) with much slicker hardware to take play around with the Linux OS. So far, I am quite impressed.
Well right before leaving university, he didn't need the computer anymore and I bought it with me to my new home where I bought a new 19" LCD to go with the system an installed Ubuntu (a very easy to setup Linux distribution) on the computer. The desktop looks something like this:
My Desktop while getting some music going.
The distribution comes complete with Open Office which is a suite complete with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation preparation programs. All of this comes free with the operating system and can be easily installed into other systems as well. Linux comes complete with programming tools, program editors with the option to add a whole slew of software for free.
The desktop side of Linux is becoming very attractive, especially for those with good video cards to go with their computer (though most of it is just eye candy... it's also very pleasing eye candy). The desktop is managed by a piece of software developed from the Compiz Fusion project, which was a project to develop an incredibly beautiful/slick desktop environment. Check out the following link for a video demonstration. It just goes to say that you done necessarily need Windows for a decent working environment. The best part of it all is that all of this software, and more comes for free and all the code on how to write these programs are publicly available should you be interested in doing some programming of your own.
Windows and the together already costs atleast $200 or more, then throw in any other software that you might be interested in and you are probably looking at $1000 more in costs for installed software on the computer. If you want an image editor, programming environment, HTTP server or anything, all of this can be had for for free just by downloading the software you want from an online software repository. Simple as that and you'd be saving yourself $1200+ in software that easy.
Though, I think the biggest hang up of using Linux is that there might be one piece of software that might not be available on Linux. Well fear not, there exists a piece of software that can interpret Windows programs and have it run on a Linux OS. That piece of software is other wise known as "wine." All one needs to do is install it and have it run the program of your choice. Simple as that.
I do have to admit that I am still a little uncertain of gaming on a Linux box with the standard titles out there, but I have heard from some people that many usual Windows games are playable through the Wine emulator software (and I heard that it runs fast enough that there isn't any significant slowdown of the game).
Most likely, I will be upgrading this computer later on (or rather rebuilding the whole thing) with much slicker hardware to take play around with the Linux OS. So far, I am quite impressed.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The importance of a good keyboarding posture
It has nearly been about 3 years since the last time I really worked on a desktop computer. It wasn't until a while back where I recovered a desktop computer from the dumpster at the University garbage disposal area that I decided to build myself a Linux box running the Ubuntu distribution of Linux to give it a try.
I like the idea of free software which is just as good or even better than commercial applications that is out there right now. Spreadsheets? Word processing and etc? There's open office. Need to do programming but don't want to shell out for the expensive Microsoft IDE? Linux has several nice options all available for free. You just can't beat that and I have also decided to try and learn more about the Linux OS and play around with what they've got here.
A long while back, I got used to working on a laptop keyboard. I still remember getting wrist cramps the first time working on the laptop just because I wasn't used to working on a laptop keyboard, though I don't have a problem with it now. The problem is getting back to the traditional keyboard. I bought a really cheap one a while back that doesn't support my wrists and found that almost after 30 minutes of typing, I was getting some mild cramping. There is just absolutely no way that I want to develop wrist problems in the future so I've opted for a better keyboard and changed my typing posture actually, my wrists don't rest on the table below or on the keyboard and I find this the most comfortable typing position.
Suffice to say that most of our activities revolve around using a computer and it would be simply crippling (in more ways than one) should we not be able to use a computer due to wrist injuries.
I like the idea of free software which is just as good or even better than commercial applications that is out there right now. Spreadsheets? Word processing and etc? There's open office. Need to do programming but don't want to shell out for the expensive Microsoft IDE? Linux has several nice options all available for free. You just can't beat that and I have also decided to try and learn more about the Linux OS and play around with what they've got here.
A long while back, I got used to working on a laptop keyboard. I still remember getting wrist cramps the first time working on the laptop just because I wasn't used to working on a laptop keyboard, though I don't have a problem with it now. The problem is getting back to the traditional keyboard. I bought a really cheap one a while back that doesn't support my wrists and found that almost after 30 minutes of typing, I was getting some mild cramping. There is just absolutely no way that I want to develop wrist problems in the future so I've opted for a better keyboard and changed my typing posture actually, my wrists don't rest on the table below or on the keyboard and I find this the most comfortable typing position.
Suffice to say that most of our activities revolve around using a computer and it would be simply crippling (in more ways than one) should we not be able to use a computer due to wrist injuries.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Finally, Internet
Been a while since the last post. Not having internet in the room does tend to slow things down, but finally, that has changed.
Internet in Japan is vastly superior to what I used to work on in Canada. Most apartments are now equipped with fiber-optic connections (usually shared) allowing me to go up to about 800 kB/sec (I am talking about kilobytes here!) on peak (when I am really pushing it) or easily to 200 kB/sec on a few downloads. I used to share a connection with my roommates when I shared an apartment and it would only cost each of us $15/month ($45/month total).
Since relocating to the company dorm, I have opted for a shared internet connection going for about $15/month. This time, it being shared with about 100 other people, I think. I decided not to bother with a dedicated connection to my room since I don't have any plans on using my connection that heavily and large downloads can be completed with the computer running while at work.
The cell phone carriers in Japan are working on putting together full coverage of high speed internet to the cell phones here. We are looking at about 250kB/sec on bandwidth... though the packet charges are going to be insane if people really start downloading hoards of material onto their cell phones. Phone carriers here offer a $15/month unlimited packet service to the cell phones in addition to the basic package plan. If I had it my way, I'd opt or the cheapest cell phone package and see if I can hack Skype onto a cell phone to make phone calls over the net. I predict that full-blown high speed internet to mobile devices will eventually be available to hand-held devices in the near future.
Work so far, has been quite good. I have lots of freedom to do whatever kind of work want and the organizational structure for my research team is very flat, making getting access to superiors very easy (especially for Japan). I have so far been supplied with a brand-new Sony laptop since my first day in the company. I have a few thoughts about working in large corporations but I will leave those for later.
Time to enjoy the internet!
Internet in Japan is vastly superior to what I used to work on in Canada. Most apartments are now equipped with fiber-optic connections (usually shared) allowing me to go up to about 800 kB/sec (I am talking about kilobytes here!) on peak (when I am really pushing it) or easily to 200 kB/sec on a few downloads. I used to share a connection with my roommates when I shared an apartment and it would only cost each of us $15/month ($45/month total).
Since relocating to the company dorm, I have opted for a shared internet connection going for about $15/month. This time, it being shared with about 100 other people, I think. I decided not to bother with a dedicated connection to my room since I don't have any plans on using my connection that heavily and large downloads can be completed with the computer running while at work.
The cell phone carriers in Japan are working on putting together full coverage of high speed internet to the cell phones here. We are looking at about 250kB/sec on bandwidth... though the packet charges are going to be insane if people really start downloading hoards of material onto their cell phones. Phone carriers here offer a $15/month unlimited packet service to the cell phones in addition to the basic package plan. If I had it my way, I'd opt or the cheapest cell phone package and see if I can hack Skype onto a cell phone to make phone calls over the net. I predict that full-blown high speed internet to mobile devices will eventually be available to hand-held devices in the near future.
Work so far, has been quite good. I have lots of freedom to do whatever kind of work want and the organizational structure for my research team is very flat, making getting access to superiors very easy (especially for Japan). I have so far been supplied with a brand-new Sony laptop since my first day in the company. I have a few thoughts about working in large corporations but I will leave those for later.
Time to enjoy the internet!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Another short update
I've now moved into the company dorm at Sony. Fortunately, I lucked out and got a room in the newer dorms and have a fairly spacious room. The rent I pay is $160/mo for the room plus $20/mo for the water and electricity is metered, so I expect to be paying about $220/month in total.
The starting salary for new grads in Japan is quite low where most people make approximately $30k/year. I hear, though, that salaries rapidly increase over several years to be on par with salaries in developed countries. I will be looking to see how things turn out on the financial end.
Laptop Woes:
It has been over a month since my ACER laptop has broken down. With the warranty being 1 year out of date, I am now running on the extended warranty I purchased. Customer support without the original warranty is terrible.
I have so far sent my laptop for repairs at the original store (Yodobashi), with them estimating a 3 week turn around for the laptop and that repair costs up to $850 will be covered. I know that my laptop has a motherboard problem and the last time I checked was that repairs was in the $600-$700 range. After 3 weeks of waiting, they finally quoted me with a repair bill of $1200 and that I would have to cover the additional $350 extra over the $850 coverage.
This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit.
I went to great lengths to figure out what company they sent my laptop to and requested that they give me the contact number so I can figure out why the repairs cost so much. Yodobashi refused my request and told me that they would relay my message to them and they also told me that laptop parts were expensive to justify the tepid explanation of the cost. I was furious.
I would have loved an audio copy of the conversation just to show how ridiculous the situation was. And at first, they told me that if I did the repairs anywhere else that I would be on my own, they've since reversed that position and that I would get store credit for the costs of the repairs.
When it comes to customer report, I am now going to take the stance of recording my calls using external software through Skype to have concrete evidence if I need to make a complaint. It's much better than just making arguments based on hearsay.
I have since sent out an e-mail to the ACER guys in Japan to get a quote on the repairs a few days ago and have yet to hear from them. The computer has been out of operation for over a month now and I am quite annoyed about it. Has this computer been a desktop, I'd have it up and running within a few days for a fraction of the cost.
Laptops are useless if they aren't reliable and repair fees are exorbitantly expensive. It would be very nice to have a website that could rate the reliability of the laptop sold to help the average consumer out on choosing a good company to buy from.
On another note:
The moving company that shipped my scooter from Sendai to Kanagawa busted something with one of my brake handles and I have no front breaks for the time being. I am going to have to get that repaired and see if the moving company can have it covered.
Ugh... headaches.
The starting salary for new grads in Japan is quite low where most people make approximately $30k/year. I hear, though, that salaries rapidly increase over several years to be on par with salaries in developed countries. I will be looking to see how things turn out on the financial end.
Laptop Woes:
It has been over a month since my ACER laptop has broken down. With the warranty being 1 year out of date, I am now running on the extended warranty I purchased. Customer support without the original warranty is terrible.
I have so far sent my laptop for repairs at the original store (Yodobashi), with them estimating a 3 week turn around for the laptop and that repair costs up to $850 will be covered. I know that my laptop has a motherboard problem and the last time I checked was that repairs was in the $600-$700 range. After 3 weeks of waiting, they finally quoted me with a repair bill of $1200 and that I would have to cover the additional $350 extra over the $850 coverage.
This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit.
I went to great lengths to figure out what company they sent my laptop to and requested that they give me the contact number so I can figure out why the repairs cost so much. Yodobashi refused my request and told me that they would relay my message to them and they also told me that laptop parts were expensive to justify the tepid explanation of the cost. I was furious.
I would have loved an audio copy of the conversation just to show how ridiculous the situation was. And at first, they told me that if I did the repairs anywhere else that I would be on my own, they've since reversed that position and that I would get store credit for the costs of the repairs.
When it comes to customer report, I am now going to take the stance of recording my calls using external software through Skype to have concrete evidence if I need to make a complaint. It's much better than just making arguments based on hearsay.
I have since sent out an e-mail to the ACER guys in Japan to get a quote on the repairs a few days ago and have yet to hear from them. The computer has been out of operation for over a month now and I am quite annoyed about it. Has this computer been a desktop, I'd have it up and running within a few days for a fraction of the cost.
Laptops are useless if they aren't reliable and repair fees are exorbitantly expensive. It would be very nice to have a website that could rate the reliability of the laptop sold to help the average consumer out on choosing a good company to buy from.
On another note:
The moving company that shipped my scooter from Sendai to Kanagawa busted something with one of my brake handles and I have no front breaks for the time being. I am going to have to get that repaired and see if the moving company can have it covered.
Ugh... headaches.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)