Finally the last paper is over. There”s only one thing left to do and that is the final year project. We still need to complete it, write the report and present it next Monday. I’ve just spent the whole afternoon trying to solder up one one of my module into a stripboard and it didn’t work. Now I have to remove everything and redo it again. 
I really hope we can make it in time.
Looking at how web applications are developing (thanks for HTML 5 and Google), it seems that web API are getting more and more common and even some newer web applications (or even desktop applications such as widgets) can be completely built on those APIs alone.
How’s this development going to impact the total performance and efficiency of the entire IT industry?
One thing that comes to my mind is dependency. If the main service were to have any downtime at all, all the services and websites using the API will experience downtime as well. Although Google seems to have shown extremely great uptime performance so far, we may never know.
By the way, just imagine this like a science fiction movie. An alien explorer has landed on a planet which was just recently destroyed by some war or disaster. All the computers in that planet uses cloud computing. So there’s no way to extract data from any computers which the explorer comes across even though there’s computers everywhere!
How’s cloud service going to overcome this problem?
Will be sitting for my finals tomorrow for Op-Amp and ASIC design 3 days later. Control Systems will be 6 days after ASIC design and our final year project presentation will be after that at an unconfirmed date.
Besides studying for our finals which we really have no idea what the lecturer had thought us so far, we still have 2 assignments to do for each subject, all due during the finals.
Please help us all if you exist at all God of whichever religion you are.
There’s always debate among people if this particular phone is better then an iPhone or not. It’s also very hard to figure out who’s actually an iPhone ‘fanboy’ or genuinely comparing the new phones to Apple’s handheld.
I just want to keep this short. Here’s my opinion:
There should be 3 different categories for phones. Smartphone, Multimedia Phones and entertainment phones.
Smartphones are supposed to be superior in handling tasks related to everyday life and work. Good sync-ability and very powerful contacts management together with tools for communication, connectivity and social.
Entertainment phones are fun phones. Despite the lousy array of connectivity, bad battery life, poor camera features… It’s still fun to use. You know what I’m talking about don’t you?
Multimedia phones are phones with extremely good camera, video, lots of memory, great music playback, etc. etc. and not so great when it comes to actually using it for work purposes although it still works.
Let me give you an example:
I’ll consider an iPhone an entertainment phone. I just don’t see what’s so special about it besides the multi-touch features. It has poor battery life, takes poor quality pictures, doesn’t even have led flash, can’t connect to any TV or PC properly, but it still generate the biggest amount of fans out there! That’s entertainment! Just like what TV did in the past.
For work purposes, it’s always Windows or Blackberry. Android is also one but works better in the cloud. Which I expect is the way the future is going to be but just not now as broadband services is still very limited worldwide if you live outside of countries such as US, Korea, Japan or Hong Kong.
Multimedia phones, just like my 5800, it plays music well, plays movies well. Has good battery life (compared to another more popular phone), connects to the TV and has a great PC suite to handle almost anything you need to manage in the phone. I’m voting for the N8 when it comes out though.
Changed to a new look. So far so good. The only thing looks wrong is the “Share This” plug-in.
Many of my relatives and friends has been asking me about the iPhone’s price and features since it’s availability in Malaysia. Many has bought the iPhone the instant it hit our shores.
To be fair, it isn’t a bad phone at all. There’s lots of cool innovations involved in the phone and very planned out way for the user to have a good experience with the phone.
However, ever wondered why Apple has been standing on top of the sales charts for the 2 years and why no company has come out with phones as good as iPhone yet? It sure isn’t because there isn’t any better programmers or engineers out there compared to Apple. But it’s because of patents. (You can check out the list here). Just look at Patent No. 7,657,849, “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image”. Yes, they can sue you if your design use any part of your touch screen to unlock your phone, forcing you to use other method, usually a switch.
Almost anything good or creative has been patented by Apple or can be argued as an Apple’s patent. Which seriously handicapped the wold of technology and give our mobile development a big speed bump. Just look at how little the smartphone has improved over these years since iPhone came out. Almost all phones are the same.
If you want to do something creative using multi-touch, do it on the iPhone and not any other phones! Any good new battery savings ideas are patented by Apple!
So no, Apple isn’t on top of the list because they are just too good. They are on top because they monopolized the market with patents.
It just doesn’t make any moral sense in what Steve Jobs Said about Adobe since they are doing just the same thing in a different form.
Now, if you’re one of the users who keeps on drooling over Apple products, you’re contributing to the slowdown of technological development. It’s a crime in my books since you’re giving Apple the money to tell us things we can not do in future.
Google has challenged the market with its Android OS which keeps on adding cool features with every update. It’s also open source and free for the phone manufacturer to use. Now that’ll help contribute to the technological world. Just take a look at the web now since Google started developing tools such as Chrome, Gmail, Calendar and Google Apps. All free, all ideas which are not patented, and all ready for more upgrades. It has strongly brought out the development of HTML 5 today.
I’ve been drinking coffee every morning ever since I’ve started college. Halfway through my working life, I started drinking coffee every morning AND almost every evening.
It’s probably one of the reason why I’m getting restless lately. I tried not drinking any coffee today. And Now I have a terrible headache.
I think I’m getting kinda bored with this theme I’m using for my blog now.
This is one thing I’ll have to add to my To Do list after my final exams are over.
Which means my list includes:
1) Paint the Room (White… BORING!)
2) Get the car Knocked & Painted.
3) Service Gear Oil and Brakes.
4) 2 Website project (Freelance Job anyone wants to take it up? 
)
5) Shopping for Bags, and other sports equipments.
6) Revamp this blog
Just a few moths ago, I borrowed a Microprocessor Startup Kit from my lecturer so that I can study it, learn how to use it and perhaps, implement it in my Final Year Project.
Just a few weeks ago, I took the kit to class and told my lecturer that I have no idea how to use the kit as I’ve never been thought how to program a microprocessor or micro controller before. Although the students are all very well thought about the internal workings of the microprocessor, we were never though about the external workings of it. We don’t know how it actually interacts with other devices and we do not know how to build a circuit for it if we don’t have a startup kit. We were only given rough ideas on how it should work and expected to know how to use it to the fullest a few months later.
The college didn’t care if we really understood the process of programming a microprocessor or not, they just keep track of who passes the programming subject and who fails.
Just a few days ago, I received my shipment of 2 Micro Controller and another startup kit. I just realized that I also have no idea how to program the darn thing. The circuit and idea for the rest of the circuit was all done but the most important part was this micro controller.
How do I write programs into it? How do I make it interact with other Micro Controllers? How do I make it communicate with the PC so that the PC can give commands to the Micro Controller? How do I send and receive signals on a single input/output pin with a string of data instead of just 1 bit of data?
By schedule, my group have until May to complete and present our project. That’s 2 and half months left. By estimation, we only actually have less then one month left since we’re also required to write reports, documentations, calculate the theories behind the technology and in between, go to work! We also have 3 Finals coming in May, 5 more assessment papers and office projects to complete in that short period of time.
If we pass all of this, we’ll get our diploma. A diploma where our projects requires more knowledge that even some of my Degree holder friends couldn’t help with. And this diploma, is going to be quite useless when I bring it with me for my interviews because it’s just a diploma and not a degree. Masters are getting quire common these days and all I’ll have is this diploma which I have worked really hard to get these 4 years and gone crazy trying to meet the requirements in the last 6 months of the course.
Like Steve Jobs would say: “I don’t see the value in this. But we can never connect the dots to the future, we can only connect the dots looking to the past.”
To me, I saw the dots connecting to the future when I took the course. I saw myself learning about things which I could use in my everyday life and in my work. True enough, looking back, the dots connected seems to let me be able to create some simple circuits and stuff. But the whole picture connected by the dots looks ugly. It looks as if education just wasted 4 years of my life. It looks like we could have learned twice as much if we were not rushed into exams and deadlines all the time.
Well, if you’re going to fetch school children to school, I hope this guy doesn’t teach them how to spell.
