Bill Hung's Blog

Back to School 2022 - the School of Life

2022-01-15T08:20:00.019-08:00

2022.01.16 Nagoya

TL;DR: I've been blogging since 2008*. Why? Time to continue what I've been trying to do: to output my thoughts (from my brain) to a more permanent form of memory storage (this online blog).
* (Blogger.com account from July 2007)

Hey Future-Self (Bill Hung),

GROWING-UP

It's now the beginning of 2022, and I am turning 38 years old in less than 10 days.

Do you remember 20 years ago, I was just 18 and going to college? No? I don't remember either. You know, human brain forgets. So the only way to keep my thoughts beyond 20 years is to write something down.

So, what is it? What is the thought that I wish you to remember beyond 20 years later, when I am 58 and retiring? This year I am going back to school, and somehow learning from a school setting triggered a lot of old memories when I was in university. Those are memories that I have long forgotted during these busy 20 years.

LEARN WHAT?

This year I will learn to ...
1. Be a better person. More people are relying on me now.
2. Grow my technical knowledge. Programming for 32 years is still not enough.
3. Grow my management skill. Will help manage other people from now on.
4. Grow my financial skill. Time to take care of personal finance and family business.
5. Learn how to survive in the space age. A potential future world I never fathom.

WHY WRITE TO ME?

And the reason of wanting you (my 58 year old self) to remember these thoughts is that - I feel the experience of going through all those wonderful learning just to forget all about them is sad. At least if I write down my thoughts of experiencing these, you can imagine experiencing them all over again even you don't remember a thing. =]

I am making the text font bigger just for you to see.

>_n

2022.01.17

BOOK REVIEW

"Why We Sleep", by Mathew Walker

TL;DR: recommended if you cannot sleep regularly.

The author likes questions more than answers. The title is the question, and he spent 20 years to find the answer. He went to UC Berkeley and now doing online courses and videos in addition to publishing this book. The book talks about various research and findings on what we know about why we sleep. Despite sleeping every night for so many years, it's the first time I came across many of the ideas in the book.

Blog Renew 2021

2021-03-01T21:14:00.006-08:00

2021.03.02

I am gonna renew my blog. Lots of contents I want to post. Smart farming, Bosai (Disaster Prevention), AI, VR, AR, game dev. I am going to post to this thread for my effort on the blogging front.

2021.04.23

Decided will write about Smart IoT Farming too from April 2021. Publishing schedule undecided. Initially planned for once a month, but if not enough interesting content, I will refrain from publishing that month and roll over the content to the following month. Maximum 4 months of content dump if I suffer from writer's block.

TODO:

- DONE Add an picture to this post, maybe the robot profile icon pic.
(2021.04.23→2022.01.16)

Growing Lettuce 2019

2019-09-28T02:45:00.002-07:00

2019-09-28, Day 0

What?
Today I saw this sign at the local hardware store (called KCM). It's a kit for growing from seed to a tiny plant. The sign stressed the importance of temperature and water.

Why?
With the recent success of growing basil in a planter kit, I want to try my hands on growing lettuce. The plan goes well with my IoT (Internet of Things) project to connect sensors to the internet. Monitoring temperature and moisture will be a perfect way to mix farming with IoT technologies.

Why not?
It costed a bit over 3000 yen (30 USD) for everything including soil and seed. And now is the perfect time of the year to start seeding too. Let's not waste the perfect timing. I will try to write down what happens during this 1.5 month journey of growing lettuces for the first time ever.

____________________________________________

2019-09-29, Day 1

Starting with all these gears. These gears costed me 3,243 yen including tax.

Laid out the tray. These pots can turn into part of the soil when the root is grown; a bag of lettuce seed can be seen on the right.

I planted two seeds in each slot, 48 slots total. I poured 500 mL of water to them. There are two small holes in each slot, so I hope the water is not too much. Will update the progress of the lettuce in about a week.

After a month, finally the bud came out. Within this month, for three weeks there were no movement at all and I worried I missed the perfect weather to grow lettuce this year.

____________________________________________

2019-11-23, almost 2 full months

After 2 months, the greenly leaves were so fresh. I cooked the lettuce with my meal, so delicious. Big success.

Spouse Visa in Japan, my experience, 2019

2019-07-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

Spouse Visa in Japan, my experience

Bill熊 from 2019/7/6 to 2019/7/8 in Nagoya, Japan

I am going to get the necessary documents to apply for my spouse visa as the husband of a Japanese national. I thought I would write down my experience in case one day my experience can help out a fellow Brit. So here we go.

Necessary Documents

A search on google led me to the official website (English Link, Japanese Link) of Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The necessary documents are:

Application form (在留資格変更許可申請書)
Photo (one, 4x3cm) of the applicant (foreign spouse)
戸籍謄本 /kōsekitōhō/, more on this document later at (1)
結婚証明書 official documents from foreign government verifying the marriage, more on this later (2)
住民票 /jūminhyō/, resident registration (3)
documents showing the Japanese spouse has paid the city tax among other tax (4)
2 to 3 photos of the application with the Japanese spouse
passport of the foreign applicant
the official stamp, 印鑑 /inkan/ of the foreign applicant. This is necessary for official documents in Japan.

And of course, all documents in foreign language needs to have Japanese translations.

The three documents I am getting from the city office (=shiyakusho=市役所, but in my case, from the kuyakusho 区役所) tomorrow morning are highlighted in bold.

(1) 戸籍謄本: in which the official government site said it's "Documents certifying the personal relationship between the person concerned and the permanent resident concerned", but 戸籍謄本 actually can have other purpose too. This is one document I have to get it from my closest city office (区役所) tomorrow morning with my wife. This needs to be within 3 months of issue to be valid, and my wife has to be there personally. Luckily, the city office opens on Sunday once a month. The cost for this 戸籍謄本 is 450 yen in my case in Nagoya.

(2) 結婚証明書: For British nationals (and I heard from the staff American nationals too), since the British embassy does not issue any papers after the couple has been married. There is no need to obtain this proof from foreign government.

(3) 住民票: there's a specific instruction from the Ministry of Justice (an instruction that the city office often miss so we had to remind them several times). It's that all info except the "My Number" (個人番号) should be revealed. The staff at the city office made mistakes several times by hiding other fields or forgot to hide the "My Number", so made very sure you got the correct info revealed/hid before you leave the city office with the 住民票.
My 住民票 ended up to be two pages because revealing the commonly-called-name "通称の記載" required a separate page. I had my commonly-called-name registered officially, as my birth name on my passport is not what I used at work or what people call me with, so I registered the name I actually use. Registering the commonly-called-name can only be done once in a lifetime. So make sure you made no mistake registering that or you won't be able to change it.

On the actual date, the two papers (1) 戸籍謄本 and (3) 住民票 took us half an hour to get at the city office.

(4) Tax info: Getting the tax paid info was also done in the city office, but by a different department. In my case in Nagoya, I visited the tax counter on the second floor. The difficult thing was the time period the tax was paid. As I have recently moved to a new place due to marriage, my spouse hasn't paid any tax with the new address yet. July 2019 will be the first time in which my spouse will pay tax for the very first time as we moved to the new place in February 2019. The tax is paid annually as I understand.
Given we don't have the required full year tax (July 2018 to July 2019) at the current address, we called Ministry of Justice to confirm whether we need any tax info from previous address, the reply was affirmative. That means we had to travel to another city office, in our case - Gifu, to get the same full year tax info from July 2018 to July 2019.

(TODO tidy up, romanize) The required tax info are: 住民税, 県民税, 所得税 with info about 課税額 and 所得控除額.

(TODO Pic to be attached) Here's a picture of the form I got:

香港到着（日本語）2016

2016-10-28T08:35:00.004-07:00

こんにちは。イギリス香港人の熊ビルと申します。友人が香港に遊びにくるので、人生初めて日本語でブログを書きました。変な日本語かも知れませんけど、頑張ります。友達に見せたい情報を書きたいです。

役に立つ広東語

唔該　ン4　ゴイ1　　ありがとう。最初に声掛けときも

使えます。時々、
　　　　　　　　　　ン4　ゴイ1　サイ3 (唔該晒)もいいます

多謝ドォ1 ジェ4 ありがとうございます。本当に

ありがたい時だけ使います。

　　　　　　　　　　普通は唔該でよいです。
你好　ネィ5　ホゥ2 こんにちは。丁寧に挨拶する時の言葉です。

１は声調(tone)です、一番高い声調で発音してください。

オクターブ第8音のドー。

４も声調です、一番低い声調で発音してください。

オクターブ第１音のドー。
５の声調は第１音のドーから第3音のミーまで上げます。
２の声調は第４音のファーから第６音のラーまで上げます。

HK Express

まずは格安航空会社HK Express(リンク）の話ですが、東京や名古屋から毎日香港にいきます。日本時間午後5時頃から発、香港時間午後9時頃到着という感じです。

飛行機内の食べ物と飲み物は有料なので気を付けてください。

10月下旬の香港は結構熱いです。27－29度ぐらいでした。でも、飛行機では結構寒かった、コートとかジャケットとか一着を持ってきてください。

入国手順

飛行機で入国フォームで英語または繁体字で書いてください。

オクトパスカード（Octopus Card)

税関から出たらすぐ見えるHK Airport Expressという空港電車は一番簡単でホテルや都内の中心に行ける方法です（リンク）。2016現在はHK$100片道HK$180往復という感じです。Jordanに行くなら香港駅まで地下鉄に乗り換えのはオススメです。（リンク）

同じカウンターで香港のSuicaカード、オクトパスカードという電子カードを買えます。Octopusカードは香港ではすごく便利ですから、おすすめです。このカウンター以外は地下鉄の案内所にもOctopusカードを買えます。

香港地下鉄の地図も忘れずに。

空港食事

9時着くだから、ホテルに行く前に食事したいなら、下記二つの選択肢をおすすめです。

１．
香港のチェーン店Crystal Jade翡翠拉麵小籠包(ひすい＋ラーメン＋しょうろんぽう）です。

しょうろんぽうで一番有名の店です。

２.

香港ローカルなチェーン店Tai Hing太興です。
Bセットを食べてみたが、おいしくなかったです。他のは大丈夫でした。

香港SIMカード
最後は携帯電話のSIMカードのことでした。空港にある7-11に買えます。直接カウンターで店員に買えます。5日間と8日間のSIMカードがあるそうです。データも使えます。日本SoftbankのiPhoneなら必ず日本でアンロックしてください。iPhone 5S以上のモデルをアンロックしたら、日本でも海外でも使えるようになります。

私の両親が買ってくれたSIMカードはこのHK$48のSIMカードだった。$80をチャージしたら7日間でデータ無料です。

Life in the UK Test 2016

2015-03-31T04:05:00.001-07:00

Today I passed my Life in the UK Test, which is a test required for applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain (permanent residency), citizenship, or spouse visa. I would like to write an article about the experience before I forget. This article is meant to for people I meet in the future who are going through the same test, I hope my experience can ease someone's doubt about the actual test.

My test was scheduled for 9:30am at the PDA Training Centre at Lewisham, it was right next to the Lewisham Clock Tower and the Lewisham Shopping Mall. I arrived way earlier than that and hung around the Shopping Mall, where nothing except the Costa cafe was open.

The test centre opens at 9am, so by that time I went back outside the building and there were 4 other people waiting at the door. I rung the door bell, and the staff told me all phones need to be switch off before entering the building.

Once inside the test centre, they checked our proof of ID and address one by one. There were 2 test supervisions, a guy and a lady. It was actually my second test, and I mistakenly brought my passport for ID when I should have brought my BRP. You do need to bring the same ID as your registered, which I forgot was the BRP instead of the passport. Proof of address cannot be more than 1 month old as well, something to watch out for. I had to book another test when I couldn't take it because I brought the wrong ID. And re-booking right the test actually takes another month. Technically you can re-take the test in one week's time, but getting an available time slot in London may takes several week. Before I take my test today, I actually booked my 3rd test for £50 in case I fail this test, or brought the wrong ID again.

After we all put our belongings in the locker, we were allowed to take only the ID and locker key to the waiting room. We waited at the waiting room before the test, where there were 3 tables, each with 4 chairs (total of 12). There were 6 computers in the waiting room, with the PC saying "Take the B1 English test here". The test centre let you take the English test too, but I do not need the English test.

We waited until almost 10am, We were told by a sheet on the table that we should be in the test centre for 1.5 to 2 hours. A total of 10 people including me came for the test. I would assume the test date is fully booked, which may mean 2 people failed to show up. The test supervision then led us to the test room and there were 12 PCs there for 10 testers. So there are spare PCs if some do fail.

I noticed the PCs were made by Lenovo, and the monitor was made by HP. The test supervision had to put in username and password for each person to commence the test. The keyboard and mouse were wireless, so we can't see the supervision entering the password. I did wonder what happens if the keyboard and mouse runs out of battery.

I won't go into what questions were on the test, that's not the point of this article. All topics on the test are in the Life in the UK official book by TSO (tso.co.uk). The test itself has 24 questions, and you have to get 75% correct. That means 6 mistakes with fail the test. The system allows you to go back and check, or edit if needed during the 45 minute test time. The system also allows you to flag question for later review. In my case, I flagged 9 questions that I wasn't sure about the answer, so my success rate was actually 6/9=66%. The rest was very clear what the answer was, and they were all multiple choice answers with 2 to 4 options. There's even a usual mock test site called theuktest.com.

During the test, the screen frozen at the "Loading..." page, and I had to raise my hand for the test supervision to refresh the screen for me. That "Loading" freeze happened like 10 times. Maybe the whole test is actually going online.

20 minutes into the test, I've finished and triple check my answers, half of the 10 test takers had finished and left the test room. I raised my hand again and the test supervision told me to wait in the waiting room for 10 minutes before getting the result. If I leave the test centre without taking the result, I will have to take the test again. If I lose my original test result certificate, I will have to pay and take the test again.

The test supervision let me pick up my belongings and congratulated me on passing the exam. He also asked whether I need my English test, and he guessed I don't need it because I have a degree. "How did you know that?", I asked. "Because I've been on this job for too long.", he said.

Japan Matsuri 2012 in London

2012-10-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

Trafalgar Square, London. 2012-10-06
YouTube Link: http://youtu.be/-CO01DuAt4w

Taiwan 2011

2011-11-01T07:36:00.001-07:00

民國100年10月31日萬聖節

France and Switzerland Sep 2011

2011-10-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Mulhouse, France and Basel, Switzerland September 2011.
More pics below.

(Android 2.1) Review: T-Mobile Branded Pulse Mini

2011-09-20T15:31:00.002-07:00

Bill Hung holding the t-mobile pulse mini phone.

GOOD
-Only 20 pound for the phone and 10 pound top-up credit with 6 months internet, great value for money.
-small size, fit the purpose of jogging and recording my route with GPS
-very loud speaker and the FM radio function works
-watching youtube or SPB TV worked great
-comes with headphone+mic with a mute button, great
-charger that can unplug and becomes a mini-USB cable, similar to iPhone charger
-connect the phone to PC via the mini-USB cable will install a software that let me transfer some contacts

BAD
-There's no short-cut to turn off 3G, unlike some other android phone
-resistive screen, need to press a bit harder, but quite responsive in general
-battery only last around 2 days with 3G and GPS off

EXPERIENCE WITH ACTIVATION
I bough the phone with the 6 months free internet Pay-As-You-Go plan via t-mobile.co.uk on July 3rd 2011 for £29.99. £19.99 for the phone and £10 credit should go to the credit balance. The phone shipped in 2 days and I was surprised how quick the phone was delivered. I initially expected the £10 credit to be with the phone so I tried to send out text and call someone just to activate the phone. Didn't work. At that point, I verified the FM radio worked, camera worked, Wifi worked, speaker worked, and connect to USB on PC worked, and GPS worked. Then I tried crediting a t-mobile online account to see my balance, but had trouble logging in.
I called 150 from the pulse mini phone, and the recording said the call will be charged. Since I had no credit, the staff later told me the call would be free. The staff had to reset my account but then I was able to log into my t-mobile online account. But the staff wasn't able to find out what happened to my £10 credit. Even I quoted my reference number the staff still couldn't credit me the £10. The staff told me to use the top-up card that came with the phone, but I said the £10 should be on the phone without me topping up. Then the staff on 150 told me to go to a t-mobile store to top up and activate the phone and Internet. I took the suggestion and decided to go to a store to sort it out.
I put it off to go to the t-mobile store until today August 9 2011, to the store between Oxford Circus Station and Bond Street Station. The staff at the store couldn't help me and told me all he could do is to put money in the card. So I took the suggestion and top-up the minimum £5. Then I immediately got a text saying I now have £5 balance and my 3G suddenly started working. I sent a text "BA" to 150 and got the balance as £5. That means my £10 credit is still missing.
I sent an email via t-mobile.co.uk instead of calling 150 (charged), and the staff called me after an hour or so. I told him the story. The staff could see the history that no £10 credit was ever in my account and I didn't make any phone call other than calling 150. So he credited my account for the £10 that I should have had from the beginning. At the end of the call he told me my balance was £14. Wait. £10+£5=£15, not £14. He then found that the £1 was deducted because I used internet and I wasn't on the free Internet plan. The staff activated my phone and internet. I asked him, "so how are customers like me supposed to activate the free internet? I logged into my t-mobile online account and I didn't see any messages or buttons to click. And I didn't get a text telling me what to do either." The staff explained customers like me should send a text of "Free 6 month web" to 441 to activate the free internet. This was not obvious to me and I asked the staff whether I could get the £1 back. And come on, from the activation of 3G to that the phone call was merely an hour. The staff basically told me no, I couldn't get the £1 back. So now I ended up with a total balance of £14. And I asked, "so if after 6 months, I use the 3G internet, will I automatically get charged?" The staff confirmed I will be charged the max of £1 per day. Hmm... gotta watch out for this charge. =S

SPECIFICATIONS FROM THE INTERNET
CPU:Clock: 528 MHz
CPU: Qualcomm MSM7225
Dimensions: 57 x 106 x 14 millimetres
Mass: 110 grams (battery included)
Embedded:Operating;System: Google Android 2.1
RAM-capacity: 256 MiB
ROM+capacity: 512 MiB (accessible: 300 MiB)
Display-Diagonal: 2.8 "
Display+Resolution: 240 x 320
Cellular-Networks: GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS2100
Cellular+Data;Links: CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
Positioning;Device: Resistive Touchscreen
Expansion+Slots: microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash
USB: micro-USB: USB 2.0 client, 480Mbit/s
Bluetooth: Supported
Wireless:LAN: 802.11b, 802.11g
Built-in;Digital-Camera 3.1 MP
Battery;Capacity: 1150 mAh

Capcom Fight Club London 2011

2011-08-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

What: Street Fighter x Tekken UK Debut
Where: KO Gym at Bethnall Green London E1 4ET
3 hours queue just to get into the door
http://www.capcom-europe.com/blog/2011/08/street-fighter-x-tekken-still-making-uk-debut-at-london-fight-club/

Okinawa Day 2011 in London

2011-06-25T11:28:00.001-07:00

Google Guitar commemorating Les Paul

2011-06-10T00:12:00.001-07:00

Les Paul, the guy who pioneered electric guitar and multi-track music. Jianpu, or Ziffersystem (modified here), is a music scoring system very popular in China (originally from Germany). Thank you CiCi for the camera work.

Perhaps Love, in Jianpu (Ziffersystem)
G Major (1-7=GABCDEF#), modified 2011-06-10, original version here
5 9 8 7 8 9 8 5 3
3 4 5 6 4 5
5 7 8 7 8 9 8 5
3 5 4 5 6 8 9

Perhaps love is like a resting place
A shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort
It is there to keep you warm

Google Guitar commemorating Les Paul 2011

2011-06-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

Sweden and Denmark 2011

2011-05-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

Amsterdam 2011

2011-05-16T14:37:00.001-07:00

WhereAmsterdam
When
June 3rd to June 6th, 2011
How
British Airways return flight
How Much
£15.95 London Victoria Station to Gatwick Airport via Gatwick Express
£140.40 Return flight from London to Amsterdam. (There were under £100 flights, but not the best time)

Digital Piano Review 2011

2011-04-29T01:13:00.001-07:00

The First PlayStation Phone Launch 2011

2011-03-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Launch in London on March 31, 2011. I won a ticket to the VIP event after this video.
The theme of the party was Chinatown

e.on Eletricity Meter 2011

2011-03-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Free from e.on, the battery lasts 7 years according to the user manual. Wirelessly monitors and track electricity usage with a clamp and a LCD display unit.

Kendo Competition London 2011

2011-02-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

Went there to watch my friend Seyi compete(@5:41) @ University of London - Queen Mary Student Union 2011-02-20. It was a two days event with University students from all over UK

Barbican Cosplay Parade London Nov 2010

2010-11-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

Barbican Cosplay Parade London Nov 2010

There were Cosplay, Musuo Games, and Music there. At Barbican, London.

More below.

The flyer handed out to me at the door.

One cosplayer

The video game section

PS2, and 2 Xbox with Musuo games

My friend Miyo and Rie cosplaying as maids.

CaptionTube Subtitles Editing by YouTube+Google 2010

2010-11-07T02:07:00.001-08:00

Youtube's annotation editing is much better than caption editing. Now YouTube and Google App have this new caption editing site. I am using this to put subtitles to my video (again) now.

Speaking at National Taiwan University 2010

2010-10-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

[民國99年10月21日台灣台北]
I only found out that morning that I would be speaking at National Taiwan University (NTU).

The poster with me on it. I gave 3 talks, 180 slides. Given to 100+ people.

The place I gave talks was labelled number 23. Technically, it's National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

Here's the WIFI in NTU.

Hong Kong 2010 Oct.

2010-10-16T20:12:00.006-07:00

What Happened There FAQ

Missions: Trained my dad to be an IT expert and rehabilitated my mom from her stock market addiction
If you are here for my previous Hong Kong ariticle, it's HERE

Hong Kong Oct 2010

2010-10-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

What Happened There FAQ

Missions: Train my dad to be an IT expert and rehabilitate my mom from her stock market addiction
If you are here for my previous Hong Kong ariticle, it's HERE