newbigi's Xanga

Wisdom from Penny Arcade

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:08:44 GMT

(Regarding the Think B4 You Speak campaign)

"Trying to regulate how people speak is a problematic endeavor. People sometimes try to assert that Information Wants To Be Free, when that isn't actually true, because information can't want things. It's a false corollary of something that is true, though - namely, that Communication Cannot Be Contained. A true corollary of this notion would be that People Will Say Things You Don't Like, And May Even Hate, a shard of schoolyard wisdom I previously thought well distributed." (Read Original)

If you think about it -- trying to regulate how people speak, is essentially censorship. (and American complains about China's censorship?) That's not the right way to go. The right way is to train yourself to not be hurt by anything anyone says.

We need to stop spoon-feeding the young generation everything and shelter them from every danger there is out there. (that's why younger and younger generations are more and more spoiled.)

Auto-protection mechanism

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:31:09 GMT

As we grow, does it usually mean enabling and cranking up one's auto-protection mechanisms more and more?

We actually get afraid more and more easily when we're older. We get more afraid of death, of uncertainty. We are only perceived to be more capable because of "experience". We learn about different situations and different things in the world, and we learn better how to handle everything from our experience -- but the more we do, the more we're afraid of the now-fewer uncertain things.

I noticed that these days I have a harder time to get back to sleep when I'm woken up (whether it's midnight by a phone call or some external noise in the morning). It seems that I'm afraid of falling asleep due to the fear of being woken up again (harshly) -- my auto-protection mechanism kicking in. That probably has some to do with stress too..

We also have an auto-protection mechanism emotionally. A person can only be hurt so many times before he covers himself with thicker and thicker layers of protection. I can't say all my experience from relationships have been bad and in fact some were extremely nice; but seeing where I am today (as a single person), I think it's fair to say the overall net result had been negative. And I'm also sure I'm also just another common man going through life, so I should speak for most. As we grow older, it's harder and harder to have true feelings for someone else. When we're 15, it might take us 2 days from meeting someone to grow feelings for them. When we're 25 (at least for myself), it might take years to open up. While your true heart is still weak inside, it's covered by layers and layers of protection, one thicker than the other, not letting anyone get to it with any ease.

Um... I don't know where I'm really going with all that. (I always have this trouble with blogging) I'm going to stop here and let you all think about it...

Monday, April 13, 2009

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:35:09 GMT

Here is a graph of the traffic level on a typical web application vs time of the day.

Now here is a similar graph, for highways traffic, for a typical busy highway like 101 on peninsula, or 880 on the east bay, or 50 in sacramento.

Now let's look at what a web app with a good architecture and system design can handle. The red line is what the system will be designed to handle.

(Note that for many good systems, the red line is much higher than that, even.)
Notice that anything lower would be unacceptable as it would cause congestion and down time during peak hours and you run into all sorts of negative things -- including pissed off consumers, people less likely to spend money on your service, you get less profit in general. It's bad. Very bad.

Now, let's look at what a typical highway is designed to handle in terms of traffic level; that is the red line.

Now, I only have one question about this. WHY?
If only the government departments architects are more capable and design better systems -- people would be happier, less grumpy, be willing to spend more money on the society because they can actually GO OUT at peak hours and buy stuff (thus stimulate the economy), cause less accidents (which are because people are angry during traffic), and infinitely more positives.

Sigh. Why are computer scientists always better at everything?

08/09 冬季滑雪全記錄

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:24:36 GMT

往年通常每去滑雪﹐都會寫 journal 記低。
今年可能太忙﹐又或者去過太多次﹐無時間寫... 現在一次過﹗

1. Dec 13, 2008
登場人物﹕Bigi, Benny, Deannie, Harris, Eva, Kaka (山上再遇上 Edmond, Patrick, Wilson, Ben, Nathan, Tip)
滑雪場﹕Northstar
時間﹕一日一夜 (星期五晚逗留)
由我發起﹐最初希望搞多人 cabin trip ﹐後來只有這幾個人。不過也好﹗
好的地方是多得 Benny 和 Eva 積極幫忙﹐Benny 廉價租車﹐及 Eva 給我們免費住 Hyatt 。
此行我終於開始練習 toe side 的技巧 (滑了兩年 snowboard 終於開始...)
滑雪後到 Thunder Valley 吃自助餐﹐亦不乏趣事...

2. Jan 24, 2009
登場人物﹕Bigi, Tommy, Florence, Clarence, Hao, William, Jake
滑雪場﹕Boreal
時間﹕兩日兩夜 (星期五晚至星期日早)
由我和 Tommy 發起。基本上多數功夫由我包辦﹐包括租車﹐駕駛(全程)...
其實頗為辛苦﹐不過好處是主要是滑 green 和教他們新手學滑雪﹐所以我都只是練基本功﹐
滑完後一天完全無疲勞... 亦多謝 William 給我們在他家 (Sacramento) 過了兩夜。
星期六晚餐是 Texas Roadhouse 扒房﹐很不錯。 (Elk Grove)

3. Feb 7, 2009
登場人物﹕Bigi, Jerry, Kat, Stephen, Alex Cen, Jolin, Eva, Andy, Jason Dere, Kenneth Yung
滑雪場﹕Homewood
時間﹕一日一夜 (星期五晚逗留)
再次是由我發起﹐由於上年去完 Homewood 後曾發誓要再去此場 (笑...)﹐因此再去。
今次沒有像上年般如入仙境的感覺﹐但都很不錯。住的酒店是 North Tahoe 名為
Cal Nevada Resort 的小店﹐非常不錯兼便宜﹐又有賭場。可以再去。(Eva 等人則住 Hyatt)
星期六晚餐是 Tahoe's Joe 扒房﹐都很不錯。(Roseville 附近)

4. Feb 28, 2009
登場人物﹕Bigi, Benny, Tracy, Candy, Brian Lin, Roger Kao, Candice, Echo Tam, Carrie, Brian Ho, Kenneth Chan, Deannie, Harris, Eric, 還有加入半日的 Denise, Mantong, Will
滑雪場﹕Diamond Peak
時間﹕一日一夜 (星期五晚逗留)
這個都算是今季的大型 ski trip 。由 Benny 發起﹐及差不多全數計劃﹐一腳踢。
絕對要多謝 Benny 的毅力。Diamond Peak 基本上是非常 beginner-friendly 的滑雪場﹐
可是對高手來說會悶了點。我個人認為很值 $37 的回票價。後半天我於這裡的 blue trails
獨自苦練 toe side 及 linking turn ﹐終於有些成果。
星期六晚餐去了 Sacramento 的 Mizu 自助餐﹐很不錯﹐比 Hokkaido 還好。

5. Mar 8, 2009
登場人物﹕Bigi, Eva
滑雪場﹕Kirkwood
時間﹕一日 (星期日一天 day trip)
事發於 Jerry 原本說那 weekend 可以去﹐後來 Eva 又上去及還有個朋友去﹐本來剛好
三四個人 day trip 。後來 Jerry 臨時甩底﹐Eva 朋友又無去﹐變成兩個人 ski trip...
這天正好前晚較鐘 (日光節約時間) ﹐睡得四個半小時又開車... (幸得回程時 Eva 開了個半小時)
話說我們全都未去過 Kirkwood﹐又傳聞 Kirkwood 乃 Tahoe 之最﹐因此決定去。
果然名不虛傳﹐此地確是滑雪聖地﹐唯獨不靠近泰河湖﹐無湖景看。
晚餐我們二人去了 Davis Fuji ﹐又是自助餐...

一季去五次﹗今年成績不錯...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:52:03 GMT

My brain works sort of like memcache. (Which is special because that's not how most people work.)

In memcache, you can't browse by keys. It's not like a database. It's hard to see what exactly you stored in memcache unless you know all the keys. There's no way to "list everything" like a "select * from table" in SQL. However, if you do know the key and pull data by the exact key, it can tell you exactly what is stored about it in great details and great speed.

That's how my brain works. I'm not very good at tasks that require me to list out things. In a meeting with coworkers that discuss specs, projects, etc. if I am ever asked the question "do you have any problems/concerns about it?" I am never able to come up with any answer. But if someone mentions "what about the database, can it handle it?" I can tell you the exact answer yes or no, and why or why not, in complete details. I even have the entire code base in my brain and can tell you exactly what part might not work in exact details.

Outside of work, this means I'm not very good at carrying out conversations. Dead air is my closest friend. If people don't bring up any topics, I can't think of any. The best I can think of would be "the weather is nice." If someone brings up a topic and any topic, I can probably go on and on about it.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:38:43 GMT

Snowboarding does feel pretty damn good. The soreness, tiredness, the cramp you get, and the feeling of getting your face stuffed with snow when you fall and roll, do make you feel pretty real and alive. On top of that, there's the speed element too. When you're better and can go faster while being able to control yourself, is a pretty cool feeling.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:40:29 GMT

今天我讓主人在機舖玩樂
恨他只有這　唯一的寄託
改天我為某段情占卜下落
願她可發覺　情感的線索
誰亦　可倚靠我去忘記曾寂寞
可是我未必會買到快樂
誰又想擴闊我帶來狹窄目光
無限個的我　無非變　幻覺
我價值　大細都因你
太迷我　你只跟我至死
我偉大　令世間景氣
我罪惡　在催生了劫匪
你安心　我可幫到你
你貪心　我可主宰你
你好心　我可給捐去　救天地

又一個四年

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:19:50 GMT

四年﹐通常是一個里程碑。
高中是四年長的。
大學也是四年長的。(至少我的是)

四年前﹐我剛拿到了Intel的offer﹐現在正輕鬆過完餘下的半年大學生活。
幾個月後﹐我就已經畢業四年了。
好像經過了不少。假如讀碩士和博士的話都也可能已經讀完。
四年來我有個三份工﹐各有特色﹐亦各給予我不同經驗。
經歷過大公司的滋味﹐在真正的 "美國" 地方工作過 (而非像bay area般的半亞洲人地方)﹔
也做了從很多年前dot-com boom時就想做的﹐開自己的公司﹔
接著也做到了兒時其中一個夢想 (和近年亦有想過的) 到遊戲製作業工作。

來到今天﹐我也蠻喜歡自己的現況﹐都算是夫復何求。
四年前﹐我做夢都想不到這些年內會經過我所經歷的所有東西﹐
(當時還想起碼會在Intel工作五年呢﹗後期﹐也都在想08年左右會搬回香港。
當然最終也沒有實現﹐而我也慶幸我沒有做。)
四年後﹐恐怕我現在都沒可能預計會在做些什麼。

說起來﹐我的兒時夢想可真多的是﹐又想設計遊戲﹐又想畫漫畫﹐
又想當歌手﹐又想做偵探和律師...
(假如能像側田一樣三十歲出道唱歌﹐還紅得起﹐也都很不錯﹗)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:23:55 GMT

Producers 和 managers 就好像是文官和軍師
而我們 developers 就是武將﹐執行實際的勞動工作
也就是說﹐一間軟件 / 遊戲開發公司就好比三國時代的一國
我們一間公司缺了那種人都不行
而我們每人就是一群忠臣們為君主打天下

我覺得我應該已是我們公司的 VP (諸葛亮的 equivalent) 所喜歡用的那位愛將
也就是趙雲
如果是這樣﹐這也不錯﹐成為五虎將之一員

Friday, January 23, 2009

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:51:13 GMT

近來看得好多漫畫﹐有時讀著漫畫家們所寫的手記﹐感想等﹔
覺得其實身為遊戲開發者﹐和漫畫家都有些相似﹔
我們兩者都是在創造小朋友﹐甚至大人們﹐喜歡的東西﹐
這個可以當是娛樂令許多人歡喜﹐
又可以令一些無自制力的人沉迷和影響學業/事業﹔
因此也像是做壞事...

同時﹐我們兩者都是一個小世界的"造物者"﹐
掌管虛構人物的命運﹐又操縱著讀者/玩家的情緒。

我小時候其中一個志願是要當漫畫家﹐
現在做了遊戲開發人﹐我覺得都算實現願望了﹐
我覺得自己都算幸福呀。