Friday, June 22, 2007

Futurology from the future

A very interesting school report from the future... I saw this in Wired - the September 2006 issue. Some of the terms and concepts used here are pretty cool and very realistic for the near future; like, "Podiobooks", "genetic" testing for admission into MIT and Stanford, "meatspace", varsity "Halo" teams, "smartpaper", and insulin transplants.

Interfaces such as this report card always intrigue me. They are always talking about digital paper but I don't know when the technologies will come down to a price that the average person can afford them (like cell phones today).

Note how (under Citizenship/Behaviour) it says "Frequently switches classrooms with her clone". Now there's an option no one would mind! Both clones could follow their individual interests - if there is such a thing as individuality within clones. I wonder if clones have souls? I guess we're still far off from this one though.

Procedural animation (under Art) is one of the most cutting edge computer graphics fields today, and it has been used to simulate elements like smoke, fire and water, and also rigid body dynamics - like movement of clothing, hair - not to mention character animation. So far it has been used in Quake III Arena, Spore and also in the upcoming Unreal Tournament 2007. I wonder what more they can do it with it apart from application in video games. The damnest thing - if I had opted to go to LA with my family, I could've attended this year's E3 - the annual trade show for the computer and video games industry. An old friend I ran into earlier on facebook told me he had extra invitations for it but people were willing to even pay up for them ever since they majorly downsized it this year, so I had to tell him to pass on the invite. Regrets, regrets!

This month I have had so many regrets, it's amazing. But it's true - attending a trade show such as this one could really have opened my eyes towards the opportunities this industry offers. I need help in deciding if I want to concentrate my major on Interactive Media - that includes a lot of game design and I find VERY interesting. My other options are New Media Studies [who wants to be a professor?] and Communication Management [aka spin masters; you know, Public Relations practitioners?]. But then I guess the first step for me should be installing a graphics card and a bunch of video games and then getting down to "analyze" the games, not buying a ticket to LA to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo [E3].

My pun of the day: while missing E3 is not a very major regret, it is still qualifies as a "major" regret.

Thanks AR for spotting this 2018 transcript and sharing it with me. (She was sure I would make a post about it if I saw it!)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Playing in my head, over and over again


[Video Link]

Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?

Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, don't help them to bury the light
Don't give in, without a fight.


Hey you, out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you, with your ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out

Would you touch me?

Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I'm coming home.

But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.

And the worms ate into his brain.

Hey you, out there on the road
Always doing what you're told,
Can you help me?

Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

University Health 'administration' Center

Yes, that's the unofficial name for UHWC [University Health and Wellness Centre]. So if you have any visa or administration-related documents that concern with your health status, just queue up there - all the people who are really sick and deserve more attention than you will wait for you. So staple those forms and start queuing!

If you're really sick, it doesn't matter if you're staff or student, or if you have fever or not. Rules are rules. Doctors have limited time, and it is not fair for a doctor to see a sicker patient who came in later than a perfectly healthy "patient" who just cares for the doctor's signature under "healthy" and not his/her diagnosis.

So at the beginning of each semester or even special term [as I recently discovered] there is always this bulk of people who need to get their health status verified and documents completed, even if they are in perfect condition. What's funny is that they can only get their checks done when they are perfectly healthy, otherwise their requirements for the student pass etcetera may not be met.

So my point with all this is that a sick person demands immediate attention from a clinic or hospital. Poor or unprioritized administration in government hospitals was tolerable in Pakistan since the government is not even half as rich as that of Singapore, but medical and health centres [mostly private ones] of the same repute and "standard" as UHWC have much better standards for patient care than UHWC does. For a clinic designated to a world class university such as NUS, this is utter shame.

Sick people need to be treated. Before they get sicker. Or before they start spreading their germs. Or before they miss another hour of work. UHWC operates 8:30 am to 6:00 pm [till 5:30 pm on Fridays], which means you are advised not to get sick at any other time. It does not matter if you purchased their "comprehensive" medical insurance plan, which is obligatory for us international students, you are only to get sick during these office hours. And if you do get sick during these office hours, it does not matter if you are working on an internship during vacation time or attending classes during semester time, you will still wait in queue for an hour or more, just to see the doctor's face. And these are no specialists, mind you! For anything slightly advanced, they will refer you to NUH [National University Hospital] which could charge you enough to make you homeless.

So it's a bad deal for everyone. For minor things like a chest infection, you have to miss hours of work [bad] or hours of lectures [worse]. For surgical things like a toe-nail surgery that come under "can do without, but better if done", you still have to pay for it as the insurance won't cover it. For allergies, they are considered to be "pre-existing conditions prior to entry to the University" and hence the medicines are not covered. In fact, any medicines that are more advanced than paracetamol need to be purchased. For people using spectacles there is nothing. Also, there is no explanation as to why Singaporeans only pay $60 while we pay $140 for the same services. [Actually, we get "Hospital and Surgical Insurance Scheme" that Singaporeans don't get, but it mainly includes SARS treatment that most people from "third-world" countries are resistant to (I don't even think it exists; it's just a good rumour), and I don't think charging us $80 extra for it is a fair deal.]

Oh, and women, you are not allowed to get pregnant while studying at NUS because your insurance won't cover any maternity care!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Similar Minds dot com

Advanced Global Personality Test Results
Extraversion |||||||||||||||||||| 86%
Stability |||||||||||||||||| 73%
Orderliness |||||||||||| 43%
Accommodation |||||||||||| 50%
Interdependence |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Intellectual |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Mystical |||||||||||| 50%
Artistic |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Religious |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Hedonism |||||||||||||||| 63%
Materialism |||||||||||||||| 70%
Narcissism |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Adventurousness |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Work ethic |||||||||||||||| 70%
Self absorbed |||||||||||||||| 70%
Conflict seeking |||||||||| 36%
Need to dominate |||||||||||||| 56%
Romantic |||||||||||||||| 63%
Avoidant || 10%
Anti-authority |||||| 30%
Wealth |||||||||| 36%
Dependency |||||| 30%
Change averse |||||||||||| 50%
Cautiousness |||||||||||| 43%
Individuality |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Sexuality |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Peter pan complex |||||||||||||||| 63%
Physical security |||||||||||| 50%
Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||| 64%
Histrionic |||||||||||| 43%
Paranoia |||||||||||||||| 63%
Vanity |||||||||||||||| 70%
Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Indie |||| 18%
Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic..

Orderliness results were moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.

Extraversion results were very high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

Trait Snapshot:
social, outgoing, worry free, optimistic, upbeat, tough, likes large parties, makes friends easily, rarely irritated, open, enjoys leadership, trusting, dominant, thrill seeker, strong, does not like to be alone, assertive, mind over heart, confident, controlling, feels desirable, likes the spotlight, loves food, social chameleon, hard working, concerned about others

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Sorry, no donut for you!














In my humble opinion, the error message above was not written by an engineer, programmer or any “techie” or “geek”.

Worldwide, or should I say, Web-wide, if you take a cursory look at any successful web-site, you may notice the intuitive interface, the friendly messages, minimal errors from the web-site, and hence low frustration on the users’ part. Corporations always seek to maximize their profits by expanding their user/consumer base more and more, but in the past they have always focused their efforts on the technical aspects of the computer industry. Recently, more and more profit seekers have realized the virtue in focusing about half their efforts on the “design” aspect – separating it from “function” to make their services more "user-friendly".

The lack of usability of software and the poor design of programs are the secret shame of the industry. Users are silent over this; perhaps they suffer from a complex – that they are not tech-savvy or web-savvy enough to overcome the challenges, but are they the ones to blame?

Any software engineer, software developer, computer programmer or coder always assumes a certain level of expertise on the part of users who will use the interface they develop. The irony is that they can never imagine how it would be like to NOT understand the technicalities like they do. What is “street smart” in real life is “web savvy” in the virtual world. Users learn by doing, by making mistakes and learning along the way. It doesn’t come naturally to them. But it should.

Our definition of a “programmer” is flawed. My desktop dictionary defines it as “a person who designs and writes and tests computer programs”. But what is design? What makes something a design problem? The irony I mentioned before is that these coders are aboard two ships sailing different ways. One ship goes to the world of technology, while the other one sails to the world of people and human purposes.

Consider a similar problem that we fixed decades ago – architects, not civil engineers are the ones trained to design public works such as buildings, road layouts, bridges or harbours. In most cases, you probably have had no trouble finding your way to the lift lobby in a building, or figuring out where to access the underpass to cross the road. Architecture and engineering are separate disciplines in their own right, even as they function as peers to each other. But in the course of the process of “designing, constructing and maintaining public works” (as my desktop dictionary mistakenly defines a civil engineer), engineers seek direction from the architect – the designer.

Design is not meant to be a subpart of computer science – or any technical field for that matter. In 2001, about the time the dot-com bubble burst, I took a diploma course from Informatics (Lahore) during my summer vacations called “Web design and development”. I passed it comfortably not because of my HTML skills or because I could easily handle Dreamweaver 3.0 (a web development and design tool), rather, it was because in our group project I designed the flow from screen to screen, and the layout of each web page. However, the certification said I was able to code in HTML, XML, CSS and that I was fully trained in iNet+! Today if I present this certificate to any employer, they would expect me to be well-versed in these technical aspects, when in fact, this is not my area of expertise.

The people who aspire to become interface developers or software designers – designers of any “techy” stuff in fact – all live a guerilla existence today. I’m not saying we might rule the world of technology tomorrow, I’m saying we will. Artists, entrepreneurs and other “idea persons”: together.

Okay, I got carried away there while trying to sound dramatic. My point is, we need our space - our own college degrees, our own communities and professional platforms. We need to create a professional discipline dedicated to us and our ‘cause’.

Currently I am working to launch a web-site portal of sorts, and my job description is that of a marketing internee – except that it includes web-site interface design. The web-site needs to be marketable, which is why interface design comes under the marketing umbrella. Being “marketing” I am separated from the so-called “I.T.” department because we have to work through the CEO to communicate with "I.T." and make changes. There is no direct coordination between the two departments since theoretically they are totally unrelated to each other, but in effect, they aren’t. So often I think how great it would be if we could communicate and coordinate like architect and engineer, sharing the thinking process as we discuss the various IFs and BUTs amongst us, but for now that is not happening.

Things like these need to change. And people need to realize this and change their attitudes accordingly. Especially engineers, professors, CEOs and any other technical persons.

Added note: Obviously the following error message is written by a technical person - notice how it doesn't even convey what kind of posting error the first one is until you get the second one - after guessing where the 200 character restriction may be. (The errors are for the labels for this post.)

Saturday, June 2, 2007

The opposite of hypersomnia

For most people, insomnia must mean being unable to sleep for multiple nights, at a stretch. That is "acute" insomnia. For me, it's a rather simple notion - being unable to sleep when I want to. Sometimes it is "chronic" and it can also be called "transient", only that it's impossible for me to be suffering from jet lag because the last time I flew on one was almost a year ago.

It usually happens when you have overslept the previous night, or when you last woke up less than 16 hours ago. What makes me most frustrated is that, like my "terrible" smoking habit, sleeping - a natural and necessary process - is also beyond my control. You could lie in your bed for hours at a stretch, tossing and turning; most of the times you realize your mind is racing. Thoughts would drift in, memories long forgotten would come rushing back, and you would jump from one point in time to another.

In order of them rushing in, the following thoughts could trigger your insomnia:

Things to do:
Assignments, submissions, designs and what not. Mostly the thoughts concern the "when", "where" and "how" aspects of these things. For me, when it happens, at least half of these things are overdue, and my thoughts could drift into any direction - from the different kinds of designs I have in my mind for a logo, say, to repercussions of not submitting it in time, to the number of people who may be affected, to what kind of actions they would take and what judgements they may pass about me and my performance in completing this minor task. Or what other designs I may use if all my design submissions are rejected for one reason or another.
Then there are those everyday chores like laundry - thoughts could concern the amount of clean clothes you have left and how long you can go on without another washing. Or cleaning your room - all the things you know you have in your room but have been unable to find them because everything is so messed up.

Money:
Payments that need to be made; the sources of your income and the expected amounts. For me it's also the amount of food I can afford to eat from outside and the number of meals I will need to cook based on the figures - and the amount of time cooking could take. These thoughts could take me to my grocery shopping list or to ways to make more money (apart from asking my parents for it).

Regrets:
This could be anything from your performance in the previous semester to the things you said the night before. It could be that email you sent to someone that should never have been sent. Or it could be the time you wasted doing something you didn't need to and could've spent time more constructively elsewhere.
My whole family is going to Los Angeles to attend a wedding and they have sent me all the visa documents - but I have decided not to go because I'm working on an internship in Singapore. Actually I mentioned the sacrifice I was making to my boss who said he could allow me to take a leave for a week or two; but then I realized I had committed to attend some important AIESEC events that will be happening at the same point in time as the wedding. I regret that I would rather stick to trying to be a man of my words than dump commitments and have a helluva time in LA. More regrets - Aesa is in Cairo right now and I could've been there for my internship because I was selected for it too, but for one reason or another, I didn't end up going. She's also learning Arabic - the major attraction for me to go there! I could also have decided not to do any internship or AIESEC work and could've gone home to see my family and friends who I miss so much.

The bigger picture:
After racing through all these kinds of thoughts step by step I would start looking at the bigger picture - when I graduate, when I get my job, the kind of woman I want to marry, the time when I get married, when I settle down, where I settle down, the number of kids I wanna have... From there it could all be about fantasizing about the "perfect" life I could have - the perfect house, detailed to the number of rooms and the size and everything. It could be about the kinds of businesses I want to venture into, or the novel I want to write, or the NGO I want to start. I could also climb a depressing note and think about the people who could pass away while I'm away in foreign land and how being unable to be there would kill me.

Random:
Other things that could make my mind race could be music, or stories from novels, movies or TV shows, or just from daily life.
But of course, having said all this, I am smart enough to know that if you are trying to sleep and failing miserably just because your mind is racing, you could distract yourself by turning on some music, or by counting sheep, or just by trying to stare into the void you see when you have your eyes closed. During semester one tactic that could be used is to open a course book and start reading - usually one paragraph is enough to put me to sleep. But sometimes what you're reading could prove to be interesting - stimulating the mind and working in the exact opposite way!

And by the time you get to all this, you realize that you need to be up in another two hours, or one, and that if you DO in fact fall asleep, there is a high probability that the sound waves from your alarm clock won't make enough noise to go beyond your ear drums. This is also the point when you start yawning and you're like, "finally!" For me, at this point, I usually decide the only solution for me is to stay up and make plans on living on coffee for the whole of next day - a plan that is always doomed to fail because I fall asleep at the same time my alarm starts ringing and I switch it off, just to "rest" for a few minutes.

I hate sleep.

If I could debate with God, I would ask Him to wire us in such a way that we don't require ANY sleep. Imagine all that you could accomplish if you had all 24 hours to work! I could take the Salsa 2 classes that begin in two weeks, and work full time during the semester.

And this is just one half of the story - of trying to FALL asleep. WAKING up is another story altogether! When I sleep, I mostly enter deep sleep, about which they say it's when N-REM [Non-Rapid Eye Movement] occurs and you don't have/remember dreams. I believe I have a dreamless sleep on most nights. The only time I remember my dreams are when I wake up in the middle of the night because of thunder, an uncomfortable sleep posture, or when I am sleeping with an injury [aka "active" sleep or "REM" sleep].

So I am considered to be one of those lucky people who can sleep anywhere - a train, a plane or even a wooden chair. On one occasion, I even slept while standing up. Someone in my family used to say that if I was sleepy, I could fall asleep even if I was nailed to the cross!

Now, imagine waking up from such heavenly slumber. Unless you have an alarm clock with two bells that ring loud enough to wake up everyone living on your floor, it would be impossible to wake up. I do have such an alarm clock, PLUS I always use my cell phone's alarm as a back up - and even then there have been days when I just didn't wake up. And when I did, I couldn't even remember if the alarm clock ever rang. Such is the story of my sleep.

You see why I say I want to talk to God about taking out the sleep function from human programming?

And I haven't even mentioned the biggest obstacle I encounter in my sleep management. Whenever I sleep, I sleep for 8 hours at least. It is near to impossible for me to wake up before 8 hours. And once I do wake up, I don't feel sleepy again for another 18 hours. But the way they designed the day is such that it has only 24 hours - not 26. This simple fact makes it impossible for me to have a stable routine. You know, like those "normal" people. That is why I am always stepping back every day - by two hours at least.

During the semester you may get away with living your life based on a 26 hour day, but when you're working on a 9 hour job [that also requires two hours of traveling everyday], you realize the importance of having a "proper" routine and living a "normal" life. One function participating in AIESEC performs for me is that it makes my normal university day filled with so many activities that it is like having that 9 hour job. I realize that to be successful in the working world, I need to learn how to live on 24 hour days, and if practice makes the man perfect, then practicing to do it should do the trick.