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OK, Prof. Ben is chasing me for a blog and since I’m sitting here (at work, at this hour) waiting on a colleague, I shall write a short entry. I realized I haven’t been blogging for a while and my 105% honest excuse is that my manager went to Sungei Gedong Chalet (a.k.a. Reservist) so I was busy as hell covering some of his work.

So here comes the second last blog entry. Aheem… (clears throat)

I’d love to thank my wife, mother, father, etc. and of course Prof. Ben for inviting me to attend this class out of nowhere. I truly enjoyed my time and learnt a lot of things. Actually, I joined the class with the aim to learn anything, or what Prof would call “random stuff“, not to develop Facebook apps. I’ve actually had enough of Facebook apps back in 2007 where I worked in a small company dealing with some very first Facebook applications being made out of Singapore, although building an app for others and building an app for yourself is a different thing altogether.

So what have I really learnt? I’ve learnt that my English sucks after four years of being bombarded by Singlish in the local workforce. I’m actually struggling to write a proper blog entry every time.

I’ve also learnt that I’ve lost touch with the geek world. I didn’t even know what Google Wave was. I’ve never heard of Prezi, and I’ve never heard of DropBox. There’s probably about 100 other things I’ve never heard of that I found out during these 13 weeks.

I’ve also found out that damn NUS students can talk and present! Sorry lah, but to the outside world NUS students are either like nerds or CMI.

I’ve also found out that a year 1 freshie can actually learn ActionScript 3 build a Flash game within 1 week.

So there are super things that people can do that you’ve never thought was possible. But, now I know the power to create lies within, and I finally kicked myself in the ass and learnt how to build stuff in Flash. So, yes, I picked up a new language. Programming language, not French.

I also face new challenges trying to get things done. I think it’s a little different everywhere. Back in Polytechnic, it was either nobody cares, or maybe I cared too much. Yufen once said doing project a with me gave her “满足感多多，成就感少少” (great sense of satisfaction, no sense of achievement. Did I translate right?) because I practically wrote most of the code and we’ll all get an ‘A’.

Then at work you could K people ‘cos they either deliver the goods or get fired. It was the root of all evil at work. $$$

Then in NUS it was also different – everybody cared too much, but was too busy. Like Prof. Ben said, this is not the typical NUS class. OK, I buy his explanation.

So anyway, CS3216 is a weird class, but I guess it’s weird in the right way.

Back to work…

Before I joined the CS3216 class, I promised Prof. Ben I will do his homework, so I decided I should really do it. Here’s my critique. To save him the agony, I have decided not to write a thesis and keep it short.

Anyway…

So what is Causes?

Technical description. It’s an application in Facebook that allows a user to make a difference by donating to a cause.

Non-technical description. It’s something in Facebook that allows people to make a difference by donating to a cause.

Hokay, enough of rubbish. So Causes aims to solve some problems, and in my opinion it is well positioned to solve what is known as the Social & Economic Injustice.

Socially and economically, we have created great disparities of wealth. A minority of the world’s population (17%) consume most of the world’s resources (80%), leaving almost 5 billion people to live on the remaining 20%. As a result, billions of people are living without the very basic necessities of life – food, water, housing and sanitation.

If the top 20% of the world’s population is 1.2 billion, then I am quite confident that Facebook users are amongst the top 5% (~300 million).

The problem with traditional forms of donation

The problem with traditional forms of donation are that they lack public visibility and transparency on a global scale. NPOs depend highly on volunteers to do all sorts of things like donation drives to keep them alive. There aren’t many self-sustainable foundations like Bill and Melinda Gates around. And if you haven’t forgotten the NKF saga where the infamous quote on peanuts came about, it’s obvious that we don’t really know where the money goes.

Basic Concepts

• The Power to Make a Difference as a Social Media. This app basically demonstrates the power of social media and that it should not be underestimated. As of this writing, the Hope for Haiti Now cause has raised US$42,930 (S$60,617).
• The Power to Make a Difference as an Individual. Unlike traditional donations (I’m referring to the tin-can school boys and girls at MRT stations), this app allows you ample time to search for a cause that you think really matters (than somebody preaching some unknown cause to you), read all about it before you donate. The best part is that it shows you the total amount (transparency) and others who have donated (confidence).
• Transparency. This app seems to have done a good job by naming the beneficary organization (usually registered in the US) and by reflecting the total amount donated. However, the same old problem still exists – we don’t know where the money goes.

Technical Concepts

• Main Navigation. Simplicity is the key. The adaptation of the Facebook UI is great, making it look clean. If you haven’t realized, clicking on Best Of brings you out of Facebook to www.causes.com which completely copied Facebook’s top bar.
• Front Page. It seems like the front page of the Causes app has a similar concept to BOOMZcart. It recommends you potential causes and also shows the causes that your friends are participating in, but there’s some issues I observed.
  • The recommendations don’t seem to match any of my profile interests. Is it a targeted recommendation, or a random recommendation?
  • I see four causes, but they’re all the same person. It should show four unique friends instead.
• Individual Cause Page. In my opinion this has been very well executed by mimicking Facebook’s user profile page. It provides user interaction (via Home tab), sufficient details (via About and Impact tabs), network information (via Members tab).
• Browse Causes. Under the Find Causes navigation menu. It’s broken (returns empty page).

Food for Thought

• Show me the money. Beneficiary organizations should provide detailed breakdown of where the donation money went. I’m not sure if this information is easy to obtain as I’m not a US citizen.
• Real People, Real Responses. What if somebody from the Haiti earthquake came in and said, “Thank you for your donations. My family survived the ordeal.” I would hope this to happen.

P.S. Sorry I wrote this post in a rush and it looks abit random with broken sentences and such. Hope you can understand what I’m writing

So the second lecture was on Software Engineering. Big word and unfortunately means big problem. The class was introduced to Agile/Scrum which is a newer methodology compared to the old waterfall/spiral SDLC model that I was taught in school.

I used Agile/Scrum about two years ago in my previous job and my experiences were much similar to the ex-students who presented. I worked with teams from about 2 to 6 in size. Honestly, not many teams can get past 10 pax because of $$$. I must say 80 is an awesome huge group!

So here’s my observations:

• The common effort multiplier is between 2.5 to 3 not because people are slow or bad at estimating, but because they did not consider time taken for communication and other context switching overheads. However as the team gets better and better at estimating their effort this multiplier can go down to about 2. Don’t forget, Project Manager doesn’t do the actual work but still gets paid. So where does his effort go?
• The biggest problem with estimating effort is with companies billing by the hour. I was constantly questioned for high estimates (thanks to my 3x multiplier) because it ballooned the cost of a project and I was pressurized to push it down, but guess what? It always overruns, i.e. the original high estimate was correct.
• Agile works well with small projects too, just that you may not need to religiously hold the daily scrums, but the idea of having broken parts down into bite-sizes is the key to easing project management.

Wei Man is right. Geeks are bad at estimating effort, but we have to know what it takes to do something so that we can manage ourselves. Time, energy and life are finite and therefore our efforts are finite as well. If you don’t learn the skill of estimating efforts I can 100% assure you that you’ll overrun your projects. This is from a personal experience from not getting paid and even almost being sued.

***

On the documentation part, Prof. Ben is right. There’s a job market out there with people writing documentation. This type of job is called Technical Writing. If you’re good with language, maybe this is a job you can pursue. There’s not many of these companies around and their clients are usually huge (Aerospace, Military, etc.) so you get paid pretty decent. Not to late to change courses now.

Ayiah, what to do. I was already one hour late for a meeting with my teammates, but as the saying goes better late than never so I decided to park nearer to COM1 so I have a lesser chance of being knocked over by the NUS shuttle bus or errant drivers while walking up from Yusoff Hall.

OK, you know I’m lying. Truth is that I’m just fat, lazy and wanted to save 5 minutes of my time walking up a dreaded slope. So for that, I’ve paid my “fine” of $6.85.

Prof. Ben told me learning is never easy. I didn’t know he meant my wallet!

So meeting teammates was done over my “official lunchtime” and somehow every time I meet these folks, something interesting comes up. We ended up talking super enthusiastically about a potential gambling app but later found out that it was against Facebook’s policy.

Damn, otherwise we’ll be the next millionaires by the end of this course. Another fat hope dream busted.

Prof. Ben commented that I’m having fun in my previous post. Well, in fact, I really am! I enjoy chatting with my team mates and messing around with my assignment.

Actually if I put myself into the shoes of a student, I might not have done all these. Reflecting on myself seven years ago as a Poly student, I was too snobbish and competitive. I guess most students are like this, especially when they/their parents paid a fortune for the fees. Of course there are some others who couldn’t care less since they felt they were “forced to study”.

But I’ve learnt to lighten up a little. Let me share a short story.

I spoke to a friend A of mine who told me about this guy B whom he met many years ago. B was a very popular figure at many events and A always wondered why. He started to observe B’s actions – B would dress in jeans and tees when others were all dressed up, he’d talk cock at seminars and chat about irrelevant topics at business/networking events. At first, A thought B was an idiot and didn’t take things seriously, but yet he was so popular. A later made friends with B and found out that B didn’t really care what people thought of him and just wanted take it easy and have fun. A saw some light and started to take things easy as well.

Fast forward, A and B are currently successful businessmen.

Unfortunately, I’m not like any of them yet, but I’m starting to take things a little easier. I realize that doing so gives me a broader view of things. When I was a student, behaving the way I did only narrowed my vision as I was all out to impress… god knows who, but back then I was hoping it would be girls.

(Unfortunately, I got my equation all wrong and I found out that girls aren’t exactly attracted to snobbish geekguys.)

In my last introductory post on CS3216, I mentioned that I might get my nipples twisted off. Unfortunately, my wife read the blog entry and dutifully twisted them off with a full 360 degrees turn when I arrived home.

Ouch.

Hokay, just kidding.

***

Anyway, it was a great evening at NUS. I haven’t felt so much energy in people around me for a long time. When I spoke about the energy I felt from the people around me, Prof. Ben assured me this wasn’t the regular NUS. I was with the best of the best.

Since I only had a short 2 minute time slot and my nipples were at stake, I couldn’t talk too much. I hope some of you are reading this blog because I’m going to write a little bit more.

I’ve always loved to share and (hopefully) teach, just that I never had the real opportunity to. My dislike for the way local education works meant I don’t have a qualification and thus nobody would hire me to teach. I’ve had some short teaching stints while in Polytechnic, but that wasn’t real teaching – I was actually getting leeched off most of the time by the desperate people who just wanted me to debug their code and pass their assignments.

So I was silly to get leeched off, but such is the fact of life – there’s going to be people leeching people everywhere. You can choose to either be the one leeching others, or letting others leech on you.

Making this decision is important, especially if you aren’t out working yet because once you get leeched off, you’ll get sucked into this deep, dark black hole that continues to leech you till the day you die. No, I’m serious! Look around you how many people are working into their 60s. This is the effect of globalization and inflation.

Not many people get away from this black hole, I assure you, because I’m probably one of them. For those who do escape, I congratulate them. Because once you start working, you start having commitments, your expenses will balloon – peer pressure will make you buy that latest Gucci/LV bag. You’ll start having fears that you’ve got something to lose (your job/family/girlfriend/mistress/whatever).

***

I was chatting with a friend and I came up with a theory – there’s 4 phases we go through being screwed. Each weighs 25%.

• You’re 25% screwed if you gone out to work for a crappy company.
• You’re 25% screwed once you get married.
• You’re 25% screwed once you have kids.
• You’re 25% screwed once you’re dead.

So if you’re dead and not worked, not married, and have no kids, you died 25% screwed.

If you’re working, married and with kids, but not dead, you’re 75% screwed. Technically, you’re worse than the dead man.

Most people in this world die being 100% screwed.

OK, I’m just kidding. Getting married is a good thing, and please try to get married early. You don’t want to be a father of a 2-year old at the age of 55. Very tiring.

End of commercial break. Moving on…

***

So I’ll reiterate my point that the best time to be foolish and hungry is really in school when you have nothing to lose but time and some grades. Hey, you don’t need to get an ‘A’ in everything really, ‘cos nobody really bothers unless you’re planning to be a civil servant.

CS3216 is a really a great opportunity to share some of my experiences with so many talented people and I hope to learn something new from everyone as well.

See you next Monday! KTHXBYE.

Simi si CS3216?

Actually, I don’t really know (yet). I was invited to attend this class by Prof. Ben whom I meet the week before 2010. In fact, this is the first class I’m attending in 7 years, so it’s really time to relive some good old school days.

Working full time and joining a class that’s supposed to be for full timers is chargeable as attempted suicide. One clear sign is that writing this blog entry has to be done over lunch. I still don’t know if my wife’s going to twist my ears and nipples off for not going home early tonight.

Prof. Ben assured me homework is going to be hiong. I don’t know how hiong, but hopefully not as hiong as my driving during peak hours. Otherwise I’ll need to go next door to NUH for an occasional blood pressure test.

So, I’m wrapping up my Hai World post so I can eat my lunch. I’m looking forward to some fun. Be forewarned – I haven’t been in school for so many years, I cannot guarantee that I will not wreck havoc in class. I have a short list of things I wanted to do as a student, such as using a typewriter in class. (Prof. Ben, I know you are reading this.)

In case you were still wondering, CS3216 is a NUS module code. Don’t ask the part about the cakes – it’s a publicity stunt.

In the last few days of 2009, I was on leave and planned my days around meeting people. I made a point to take photos with all the people I’ve met and write about them. At the end of 2010, I will look back at this post to see if anything changed, and if we did what we said we wanted to do.

December 28, 2009

Primary School Friend - Xin Yun

I met up with Xin Yun. We’ve completely lost contact ever since Primary School days. Thanks to Facebook, we finally met around 12:30 PM at Sun Plaza after 15 years! We chatted over a burger and drink at Macs’ and recalled the silly things we did as kids – some of them I couldn’t even remember. This shows that females does have better long term memory. It was a 2 hour long chat. Before we parted, we had an agreement to meet up with the rest of the BBSS 6Q (1994) gang.

Secondary School Junior - Tian Yao

Later that day I went to NUS with Tian Yao to meet A/Prof. Ben Leong to discuss a personal P2P project I’m looking to build. We exchanged some interesting ideas and Prof. gave me some homework (!!!). Then we ate dinner at Marina Square and dropped by Yan Po’s house for coffee where the pics were taken.

Poly Friend - Yan Po

Tian Yao spoke about his job hunting process and I guess the last I heard was that he had joined NCS. Not that I would encourage him to, but the pay package seems decent. We’ll see how he’s feels about his job at the end of 2010.

Yan Po’s still doing pretty well in the job I’ve recommended. It’s something new and hopefully he’s learning more from it each day than his days as a phone operator in StarHub. He should (hopefully) get a VMware certification by the end of 2010.

December 29, 2009

Old IRC Friend - Kelvin Koh

This day started with an early lunch (11:30 AM) at Novena Square with Kelvin. We had lots of constructive discussions that I won’t publicly reveal, but a quick summary is to stop slacking and start doing something while we’re still young.

I spent the afternoon finalizing the curtains for my house which should be delivered sometime early this month, then I met up with Francis and Vanessa at Megumi Japanese Restaurant along Sunset Way for dinner. It was a treat to thank me and Yan Po for helping at an event. The wife was with us as well, to join the fun and awesome food.

Business Associate and Talk Cock Buddy - Francis Lo

Francis has big ambitions for 2010 as well and he’s aimed for a brand new car. His ambitions will be kept private and I won’t tell what car he’s aiming for yet… we shall see at the end of this year.

December 30, 2009

Old KHCO Friend - Edelyn Lee

It was a wet afternoon when I met Edelyn at around 2:00 PM. Actually, I can’t really recall how I met her except for hanging out during the 2004 SCO Mega Concert rehearsals. I drove over to Holland Village where we ate fantastic dim sum at Crystal Jade. Ede’s still pursuing her bachelors’ at NIE as a teacher and she’ll be attached to a school this year.

Poly Friend & Financial Planner - Justin Loy

I was 30 minutes late when I met up with Justin Loy for a swim at Queenstown. We barely went around the pool 4 times before we had to leave and meet up with Hanz at a coffee shop where they both had dinner. (I had to run for another event.)

Poly Friend - Hanz Guo

Justin Loy seems to be doing well as a Financial Planner at Prudential while Hanz’s having fun at Fujitsu serving the largest telco in Singapore. Both of them seem comfortable where they are and I wish them all the best in their careers this year!

MDC Folks - Moses, Jia Jing, Yan Hao

Of course nothing beats meeting a bunch of old friends from MDC. We met at 7:00 PM at TCC Clarke Quay and crapped over dinner. Most of them are still studying, with some graduating this year. Moses is on his way to further his studies, however.

MDC Folks - Tian Yao and Andy Chia

Of course, no MDC meeting is without the king of Pop Chinese Flute – Andy’s back in SG for good and he’ll be stirring up more jazzy dizi concerts.

So that’s all for 2009. It will be an exciting year ahead. Stay healthy and happy!