Doughnut I/O

Serious Development on Chromebook Part 2 of 2

2020-04-23T08:01:00.000+08:00

It has been nearly 2 x 52 x 604800 U.E., i.e. 2 times 52 weeks or 2 years, that Doughnut embarked on the development journey on a Chromebook. So, why it took so long to complete this two-posts journey?

The answer, no IDE was matured enough. Yes, there was Eclipse Che but there was a lot of hoops to jump through just to make it work. Yes, there was gitpod but it caters mainly to javascript folks (not Java and Python, which are Doughnut's bread-and-butter languages). It was a pretty hard experience to replace Eclipse with something Chromebook can provide. Also, vim is also quite limiting.

But again, Microsoft's Visual Studio Code came to the rescue. Microsoft in 2010s is completely different to itself back in 1990s. It embraces open-source culture -- to the extent that it bought github in 2018. The Redmond giant also enable linux programs run natively (well, not 100% native but you know) on Windows 10.

However, VSCode was not officially ported to ChromeOS yet. And Doughnut's version of Chromebook is using an architecture VSCode is not built officially for. Thus, we went through the route of VSCode for Chromebook. Well, these builds were late (no offence to maintainer) and Remote Development Using SSH extensions I intended to use was not available for these builds until lately. Wow, ... what a journey.

But, all said and done. Viola, python development and java development is 95% similar to local development now (thanks to Google Cloud and the magic of public/private keys). There are still some gotchas in Java development but Doughnut aims to solve it himself when he has some free time.

Now, let me pronounce:

Chromebook can Dev.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1587600028.

Visual Studio Code (and Eclipse) Gotchas

2020-04-19T16:34:00.001+08:00

It has been some times that I am revisiting some Java + Spring action. I am using maven (not gradle). Here, I am going to rant about the Visual Studio Code (vscode) gotchas.

First, maven profile set in maven plug-in is not honored by the java plug-in. It is well documented here, https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-maven/issues/117.

There are only two ways to make it work. The first way to make it work is to meticulously changing activationByDefault tags from false to true or vice versa in pom.xml. It is a very error-prone method especially when we have multiple profiles. The second is to have a settings.xml, where we put activeProfiles tag, in the project directory and have the workspace overwrites .m2/settings.xml (the user default) with that settings.xml through: java.configuration.maven.userSettings properties.

As you may notice, both of them are not optimum. There comes a decision whether to have settings.xml in the Version Control System (vcs). It is a headache as it is against basic principles to include IDE setup (such as .project etc.) in the VCS.

Second, when one include a maven module with a profile, the classifier tag is not honored by the vscode's spring boot run (or debug). It gives me a very ugly exception called sun.reflect.annotation.TypeNotPresentExceptionProxy, which gives me no clue of what is happening. I have to kick out the classifier tag to make it work. It is so strange.

I guess these two problems are related because both concerns with maven profiles.

Actually, vscode uses the java plugin code-base for Eclipse. So, by extension this rant also applies to Eclipse.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1587283596.

Postgres Gotchas - the "pg_dump" and the "null" Value Fiasco

2020-03-20T14:42:00.001+08:00

PostgreSQL has been my staple since the year starting at U.E. 1262304000. Back then, the cutting edge version was 8.3.x. Today, it is 12.x.x. Whatever.

I learnt multiple lessons. I really loved the jump from platform-specific installed client to the web-based client. There was hiccups but, nowadays, we even dockerize the pg_admin client. What a breakthrough.

Long story short, I did the following:

SELECT L.A, R.B

FROM TABLE_A AS A

LEFT JOIN TABLE_B AS B

USING (KEY_1, KEY_2, KEY_3);

-- note that KEY_3 is all null in both tables

I ended up with R.B is always null ! How come !?

The answer is the way postgres is handling null value. In short, null = null evaluates to false.

Let's move on to lesson number 2. It is pg_dump ignores -n (or --schema) parameter for data.

According to the RTFM, -n is to specify the schema. However, it works only for the DDL of the dumps. The data portion, when there are two tables with the same name, it dumps the table in the schema it finds first.

What a weird gotchas!

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1584685653

Serious Development on Chromebook Part 1 of 2

2018-06-15T19:29:00.002+08:00

It has been several years that Google has attempted all cloud connected device/OS fiasco called ChromeBook and Chrome OS. Naturally, Doughnut is curious if we can do serious development on one such device.

First, definitions! When I say "development" it is not logging-in to either one of cloud9 (https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/), codenvy (https://codenvy.com) or codeanywhere (https://codeanywhere.com) and write "hello world" to call it a day. My definition of "development" is full-fledge Java, python, JavaScript and bash development (p.s. these are the languages I am using 99.999% of the time these days).

Yes, I know C/C++ but I'm no longer using them except for occasional nostalgia. Again, novelty languages such as Kotlin and typescripts are not going to test as, for the former, if Java is running, it's running and, for the latter, I assume it is part of JavaScript.

Now, let's get started. First order of business is to get a Chromebook. The Chromebook I bought was Lenovo Flex 11 (SGD 377.xx) from Amazon.

Build quality is great (for the price). Touch-screen is subpar but at this price, what can I ask more for? Also, I think I am so spoiled by the great quality of the first generation Pixel. Let me continue, sound quality is impressive. I had to look around for tap to drag option for the touchpad. Keyboard is good -- especially the key travel is quite correct -- but, here, I'm also so spoiled by the Thinkpad keyboards and Microsoft full-sized keyboard that I don't think the keyboard is great (just good).

Talking about keyboard, it is almost a deal-breaker. The lack of Function keys (there's a software option to convert the top row to Fn keys but you lose 'Esc') and 'Ins', 'Del', 'Home', 'End', 'Pg-up', 'Pg-down' is making me mad. I am not a 'Ctrl+C'/'Ctrl+V' guy -- I always do 'Ctrl+Ins'/'Shift-Ins'. Now, this keyboard is driving me mad.

Let's get back to the point. When I got my Chromebook in my hand, first thing I do is OpenVPN client (my office is intensively using that). Second thing was to use Secure Shell Client from Chrome web-store.

Viola! I get in to my office server. Vim is there. Node is there. Docker is there. Java is there. Anaconda is there. Great. Basic editor and running stuffs is checked.

I need to look for a proper IDE (I'll look into Eclipse Che and Jupyter Notebook/Lab).

Since I have some onboarding bonus on Alicloud, I started there (no need to say, I'm a first time user). Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), VSwitch and RAM turns up running in no time. Then, I spawned a Docker Swarm.

The only glitch I got was CIDR of docker swarm needs to be different to that of VPC/VSwitch. One of the defaults for VPC/VSwitch was 172.16.0.0/12 and the default for docker swarm was 172.20.0.0/16. After some binary calculations, I realized 16 is 0001 0000 and 20 is 0001 0100. When cut off 4 bits (12 minus 8 is 4) from left, both these addresses are the same. I changed my docker swarm address to 192.168.0.0/16.

Another glitch was with Google's SSH client. It does not work when your private key has extension. Mind you.

Good to see you again. Visit my blog as I intend to write more often.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1529060512

Non Sequitur

2013-03-12T19:13:00.000+08:00

U.E. 1363038166, I dreamt a dream.

I was back in my high school, as a student in his last high-school year preparing for upcoming matric exam (University entrance exam). It was a good thing; is there anyone, who does not want to re-live and make small (or big) changes to their youth years? I don't think so.

I realized I spent the whole summer and haven't started studying at all until late June (the exam is in early March but by my perfectionistic standard, I should be able to score multiple distinctions if I sit exam even in September). However, it was not what I was going to fret compared with the chance to re-live my youth and I also retained all my memory from this (real-world) timeline. I am always strong in mathematics (since I have a good education in computer science). I have an even better command of English and in Burmese now (except in spelling department; still not big deal since my younger-self's body can absorb spelling in a quicker time than my current-self). Similar to mathematics, I need less to worry about physics, chemistry and economics. Memorizing history (with dates), economics and geography would be a minor problem, wait ... a ...... sec, what year is it ? How come the class is not mine ?

There come the sad truth. I am, yes, a student preparing for matric exam but I am also a second-year drop-out from the medical school, whose parents bribe through the high-school to restart with the matric exam! That explains why there was a very few friends of mine in my class. I was in a timeline, in which I had wasted two years of my youth, which is unacceptabl to me.

What also occured to me was, two years after I finished my matric exam, the curriculum changed (no history, biology and geography if I choose to ... Bingo!) and the amount of stuffs I needed to learn for physics, chemistry and economics is huge (Yikes!). I retain my memory from the (real) timeline and missed the memory of the junior year of high-school!

Unacceptable! Totally unacceptable. Non Sequitur! Like Ensign Harry Kim of Starship Voyager!!! I started my adventure to correct everything and come back to my timeline ...

By waking up! A sad "by waking up". No alien! No spaceship! No adventure! I woke up. What a life, even my dreams denied me an adventure.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1363068651.

Bike to the Future -- Sugarboy's homage to Steven Spielberg

2013-02-01T23:15:00.001+08:00

Today, I was browsing YouTube videos and stumble upon this cool "Bike to the Future" short clips. It pays homage to many Spielberg movies including E.T., Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple, Jaws and many more. The jacket the bike guy wears is also a homage to a movie Spielberg produced, namely "Back to the Future." Enjoy.

By the way, please tell me what that robot in the future scene homages to. I just have no idea -- it looks like A.I but sounds like Star Wars yet feels like Minority Report. Anyone ?

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1359731567.

Red and Black : Really Les Miserables Entry for PhD Comics

2012-12-25T10:56:00.000+08:00

PhD Comics, the life or the lack thereof of grad-school, is running a grad-school edition of the famouse musical (it is made a movie too) Les Miserables. Here are the links to first three entries: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

... and the following is my entry (hopefully, Jorge Cham would choose to illustrate), which goes with the melody in the youtube video that follows (Cue starts at 1:50):

It is time for us all to decide to defend ours (thesis).
If we fight for our right to leave grad-school, it's now.
Have you asked for yourselve what's the price you might pay?
It's simply a game for rich(ly) funded profs to play ---
the colors on their faces are changing on defence day.
Red : they inked on submitted draft
Black : the dark of lab corridors
Red : the world's about to dawn
Black : the night that grads worked hard
Had you been there on the day, you might know how it feels.
To be strucked to the bones in the moments the questions asked
Had you been there on the day, you might also have known.
The whole semantics changed with just one verse of quest(ion),
and what was right seems wrong and what was wrong seems right
Red : I feel my soul on fire
Black : My professor is not there
Red : The color of failure
Black : The color of despair

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1356404214.

It's not Michael Jackson and this is not Thriller

2012-11-29T12:27:00.000+08:00

I have noticed a few musicians through YouTube (Megan Nicole, DeStorm and Lindsey Stirling). They even had performed together in some of their videos.

Now Lindsey Stirling has done it again. A violin piece probably inspired by Late Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Yet, "It's not Michael Jackson and this is not Thriller." [Run DMC].

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1354163169.

A Wonderful Mix ("Only if you were here" in Burmese Lyrics) from DJ Khun

2012-10-01T11:20:00.003+08:00

DJ Khun has done it again. A new wonderful extended mix from his studio -- available to preview for free (using in commercial works need to license it properly). Please note that Doughnut I/O does not own any copyrights. All rights reserved by DJ Khun. Here is the link for your enjoyment: DJ Khun - Nin Thar Shi Yin (Extended Mix) 128.mp3

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1349061644.

Humble Bundle 6 Has 4 More Titles.

2012-09-29T18:41:00.002+08:00

A couple of days ago, I posted the availability of wonderful Humble Bundle 6. Now, they add four more games to the already delicious ~~steal~~ deal.

The added games are:

Wizorb,
BIT.TRIP.RUNNER,
Gratuitous Space Battles, and
Jamestown

There is still 3 more days left. Hurry up and head to www.humblebundle.com to get your copies. If you have already purchased, you may have those four games automatically (if you pay more than the average).

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1348915266.

Samsung Has Done It Again

2012-09-29T18:18:00.000+08:00

I know, I know, I'm late in the game. Yet, Samsung has done it again, poking fun of iCrap-fans queuing for mediocre devices.

The main messages this year are:

S-Beam -- Samsung's implementation of NFC. It allows to send many objects (images, playlists etc) by touching phones
iCrap is no longer cool. It has become the phone mom and dad (read "old people") use.
WiFi-Direct -- allowing to send photos instantly.
4G and big screen? Old news.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1348913781.

Humble Indie Bundle 6

2012-09-22T11:15:00.000+08:00

Guess what? Humble Indie Bundle is back. This time, it is with the followings:

DustForce (as of now, pay more than $5.81 to get it)
Rochard
Shatter
S.P.A.Z
Touchlight and
Vessel

For Uninitiated, you pay as much as you want for the games (2 - 6). If you want DustForce, pay more than $5.81. You can even mandate how your money got splited between the six game developers, Child's Play charity, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Humble Bundle itself.

You only have 10 days plus. So just head straight to Humble Bundle and purchase. Many of the games are cross-platform (they work on both Windows and Mac as well as on Linux). Payment options include: Google Wallet, Amazon and Paypal.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1348283635.

Get 20GB Cloud Storage Free for 6 Months with a $0.99 MP3 Purchase

2012-09-20T17:26:00.001+08:00

Ubuntu was my Linux distro of choice (actually, I also like CentOS for its stability but Ubuntu is more stylish and it has an App-store).

Ubuntu One is a cloud storage facility that offers 5GB of free storage in a Dropbox fashion. Usually, 20GB with Music streaming edition is $29.99 for a year. With that plan, you can have a 20GB + 5GB Dropbox-like cloud storage and the ability to stream any MP3 from that storage for a year. Quite a sweet (but expensive) deal, isn't it?

Now, the thing's become sweet and cheap. With a purchase of an MP3 in Ubuntu Music Store, you get the above sweet deal for 6 month free. Since an MP3 is only $0.99, it is not a bargain but, a steal.

Head to Ubuntu One, sign-up and get the deal.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1348133055.

Black Mesa Is Finally Here

2012-09-15T10:30:00.000+08:00

It is finally here; The "Black Mesa", a non-Valve Source-engine-remake of the renown "Half-Life" is here. Here is the trailer:

My exposure to this artistic Half-Life series was pretty late. I was not an FPS fan. I liked Left 4 Dead but played only once. I only bought the Orange Box last Christmas because it is too cheap a bargain. Quite unexpectedly, I found the gems, Half-Life 2 and Portal.

Then I wanted to play the first Half-Life but somehow couldn't find the time. Gameplay footage on YouTube also made me disheartened because the original Half-Life is not built upon the Source Engine like Half-Life 2 and Portal are and the official port is also -- I think from the footage -- low-quality.

When I heard some die-hard fans are building "Black Mesa" -- the original Half-Life totally remade on Source Engine, I couldn't help but waited with enthusiasm. Now, the wait is finally over.

You can grab your copy at Black Mesa Website (you need a Source game -- Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, Portal 2 or Half-Life 2 -- to play). I am also trying to download Black Mesa now but these days, unfortunately, I am too busy to start playing. :(

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1347676088.

I Think There's a Logical Hole in This Jury Foreman Interview

2012-09-04T22:56:00.000+08:00

Today, I come across an interview with the Jury Foreman (the one who instruct Jury members) of recent Apple vs Samsung case in California. Here is a video:

My point is he said, "The software on the Apple side could not be placed into the processor on the prior art and vice versa. That means they are not interchangeable. That changed everything right there."

In my mind, if so, it follows naturally that since the software on Samsung phones cannot be placed on Apple's iCraps and vice versa, they also don't infringe Apple's patent. In other words, if some software that is not interchangable is not prior art (i.e. they are not the same thing), software that is not interchangable also does not infringe the patent of one another (i.e. they are not shameless copy).

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1346770465.

What If fstab File Has a Wrong Entry and Your System Won't Boot

2012-08-28T19:54:00.000+08:00

Last week, we carried out maintenance to our servers and upgraded our CentOS from 5.x to 6.3. In fact, maintenance actually means "complaining the vendor for a broken switch, HDD and RAM, which are eventually replaced" and upgrading means a clean install after shutting down our server clusters for a couple of days (we can do it because we have very few no mission-critical production stuffs running).

Our plan is to leave the data partition(s) alone and only formatting the system partition(s) -- root, boot and swap etc -- to install a newly upgraded CentOS goodness. Given that I was Doughnut I/O, I made a mistake. I edited /etc/fstab file and, as at least one of the entries was wrong, CentOS won't boot.

Before jumping to the solution (which, now, I have), a quick tutorial on /etc/fstab file for the sake of non-geeks happened to re-directed here by bad internet road-maps and/or pure horror of doing something to that file and desparate for solution, shall we? (The upcoming paragraph is in layman terms with a hint of clarity license -- like artistic license in history-based movies. Geeks may skip to the next paragraph.)

The file /etc/fstab is a text file, which records which partition is using which type of file system. In other words, each of the entries in /etc/fstab corresponds to a partition you have on your hard disk(s) and records the partition's file system. If you are a Windows user, I'm talking about C:\, D:\ and E:\ etc. Since there is a lot of ways to store (and arrange) the files in a partition, if we don't write it down somewhere, the dumb computer won't know how to handle the files in each partition. Hence, /etc/fstab. Therefore, when that file goes missing or has wrong entries, Linux system becomes unable to handle the files in partition correctly.

In CentOS (and in many Linux system), a wrong entry in /etc/fstab is often detected automatically and it won't boot (i.e. you see a black screen with some text without a mouse cursor). In CentOS, if you type the root password (akin to admin password for Windows users), it would give you a command prompt to fix the situation. Otherwise, the system restarts and gets to the black screen again.

Since /etc/fstab is a text file, a quick editing with vi (rudimentary text editor) would solve the problem. However, the file system is not mounted properly (you know, the main problem is the only guidebook to the file system is broken, so the system dares not touch the file system).

A not-so-quick googling revealed this page: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/cant-boot-because-of-incorrect-fstab-615693/. A forum member rpeter pointed out a simple command to remount the filesystem -- so that we can fix and overwrites the offending file back to disk -- as follow:

mount -n -o remount,rw /

Typing the above command in the command prompt allows me to edit and write the /etc/fstab file back to the system and I could smile again that day.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1346154658.

Sarcarsm : Enterprise D Bogged down by Apple Patent Violation

2012-08-28T10:34:00.001+08:00

Following closely the court verdict that ordered Samsung pay more than a billion dollar to Apple for patent infringement, I found a sarcasm piece on You Tube -- thanks again for a fellow Google+ user.

It totally nails the joke. Long live Android.

May, with the help of Jedi Council (Google), the Clone Army (Motorola) eventually be victorious over the greedy Trade Federation (Apple).

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1346121179.

Court Ordered Samsung to Pay 1.2 Billion to Apple

2012-08-25T15:40:00.000+08:00

The Jedi Council (Google) is in a big trouble as the greedy Trade Federation (Apple) cornered a legion of Clone Army (Samsung) on a distant planet (California court). Little hope can the Jedi Council expect from another legion of Clones under their direct control (Motorola) that started a battle against the Federation force lately.

Okay, enough with Star Wars anologies. In short, Apple won; Samsung lost. As an Android fan, it is a bad news -- there is highly likely that Samsung would transfer that 1.2 Billion it needs to pay to Apple to consumers, i.e. us (yes, Samsung would appeal but if it lost the appeal case, it'd need to pay).

In my opinion, there are two main important factors that kills Samsung in this battle: (1) design patents violations are easier to sell than those of utility patents and (2) its own product strategy.

First, Apple was using design patents to claim damage from Samsung -- in technology geeks' terms, Samsung products are too similar (visually) to those of Apple, which was sadly true (as I'd explain in the second part). Samsung was using utility patents to claim damage from Apple -- in technology geeks' terms, Apple's engineers didn't do their maths, programming, invention etc but copied those of Samsung engineers, which is more or less true but sadly, hard to explain to non-geeks (the judges).

It is because to check whether two products are visually similar is as easy as judging the book by the cover. A simple look to each thing once (and a careful read of design patent document) is suffice to have a verdict. On the other hand, checking whether two products are using same technology is even harder than judging the book by reading it cover to cover. Even with the best will of the juries, they may sometimes (accidentally) overlooks some facts, perplex by the lawyers of either sides or simply confused by jargon -- lawyers are often famous to be very good at confusing the juries by technical jargon.

Sadly, Motorola is probably basing its case against Apple on other utility patents.

In short, even with the best will (which I believe the juries had), they could tell that Samsung's products are far too similar to that of Apple visually but they couldn't easily tell Apple's product is using the same technologies as documented in Samsung's patents (even if they are violating Samsung's patents). It is no one's fault but a failure of Samsung's court-room strategy.

Secondly, Samsung's products are actually too similar to that of Apple's (and violate Apple's design patents) sadly because of Samsung's product strategy. I'm no Samsung insider but my theory is that Samsung positioned itself to catch (a) those iPhone users, who are sick of iPhone's feature (or limitations) and migrate to other platforms and (b) those users, who want an iPhone-like-phone but can't afford one (including those users who like to be different from the crowd).

This makes sense as, a couple of years ago, iPhone and Android was siphoning off Windows phone's (pre Windows phone 7), Blackberry's and Nokia's market share (market share of the three losers platforms). It does not require a rocket scientist to realize that, someday, market share of those three would be depleted. Samsung simply positioned itself to steal market share from iPhone in addition to those three from the very start.

But how did it does? I realized that (after using two Samsung's phone for almost four years) Samsung tends to make iPhone users feel home on its products rather than making Android users feel home on its products by (a) cutting-off Android features and (b) making its products' look-n-feel similar to that of iPhone.

For example, its TouchWiz (I'd prefer the term TouchNWait) UI is scrolling horizontally in the App Drawer rather than Android's default vertically. TouchWiz (even on ICS) can't sort the apps by name (or by anything); the apps appear in the sequence users install them. Scrollable widgets is not available on Galaxy S2 (Gingerbread). That's UI design that makes its phones welcoming those jumping ship from Apple's iCraps.

Moreover, on the physical-design-wise, Google advised to have four touch sensitive buttons (Home, Search, Menu and Back) for pre-ICS phones and no buttons whatsoever on ICS onwards yet Samsung's phones (except the first two Galaxy models) always don a physical Home button located at the center below the screen and two touch sensitive buttons all to make iPhone users at home.

Wait, what's so important about that Home button? Well, for iPhone, that Home button is the SOS button -- if you don't know how to exit from an app, simply press that button and you are out. Android home button also does the same and hence Samsung placed in the center (not following other Android OEMs' trends).

In short, Samsung has made sure that its Galaxy phones can be used like one would use an iPhone. In other words, one can ignore all Android goodness and use Galaxy phones like using an iCraps.

In my opinion, Apple's victory may not be directly applicable to sue/threaten other Android manufactures as no other Android phones is designed to siphon off iPhone market share.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1345880348.

If the Billionaire Super-hero is Carrying the Nuke away ...

2012-08-24T20:29:00.000+08:00

Question: there is a nuke, the Billionaire-super-hero and innocent civilians. What is the plan?

On the red corner, Mr. Stark ...

then, we'll eat Shawarma like kids.

... and on the blue corner, Mr. Wayne ...

and have statue of my suit built.

Wow! Batman owns it this time!!! :D

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1345811306.

I'm Not an Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process in Your Assembly Line

2012-08-19T23:54:00.000+08:00

Last week, I had been to Sentosa, the famous tourist attraction of Singapore. I noticed an important phenomenon, which would lead to bad reputation and no repeating customers. Many staffs have so-called "Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process-Attitude" (at least it is how I like to call this attitude).

I had been to the resort (relaxing and fun) island a couple of time across the time-span of 6 years. On my first visit six years ago, most staffs are smiling, helpful and very proud to serve the guests with passion. Shouting at a visitor's face (or gesturing a visitor without accompanied spoken words like waving hands to move) seemed a forbidden taboo and, even when they need to repeat some instructions (like safety instructions for some rides etc) in case I didn't hear or I misunderstood, they always did with a smile. I really loved the experience (island's attractions and staffs' hospitality) that I even bought an islander card (which allows free-of-charge entry/transportation plus some discounts on the island's attraction-entrance-fees).

From time-to-time, I noticed more and more staffs have their smiles disappear, have their passion gone and start shouting and/or gesturing the visitors. A sad phenomenon, indeed. What the hell (pardon my language) did happened to their once well loved hospitality?

The worst case of hospitality-flying-into-thin-air was during my last visit, when I tried to return home using the monorail in the evening. Understandably, there was a crowd and a staff was trying to pack as many passengers as possible into each car, just like those staffs in Japanese trains (not literally).

An Example of Train-staffs Pushing Passengers

(Sentosa was a mild case)

The staff was telling passengers to move away from the train doors (to give way for more passengers) after boarding, which was an understandable action. What is not understandable is he was shouting. Shouting, at least in many Asian countries, is regarded as a rude behavior. He was shouting at the face of the visitors.

To make the matter worse, he started knocking the glass window in front of me and gesturing me to move in. Allow me to explain the situation. The cars are like more than two meter wide. Therefore, when you have two persons standing side-by-side (even if they are super-fat), there is still plenty of room (at least a meter) for other passengers to get into the car. I had a pair of sole-feet therefore, I decided to leave that over a meter lane for others to move in and I stood near the door. See the figure below to understand the situation more readily.

An Illustration of the Situation

I'd even comply his instruction in case he popped his head in the car throught he door and speak while looking at me (with a normal/non-shouting tone) to move inside. Guess what he did! He knocked the glass window in front of me and gestured me to move inside (without any spoken word). How rude!!! In both Asian and Western standards, how rude!

Even in Naboo's Standard, How Rude!!!

I noticed the problem is not a localized one with the staffs with packing-passengers-into-the-car duty. Universal Studio Singapore (USS) was just opened back in 2011. Back then, the staffs, who helped visitors taking the photos with costumed staffs (like those people wearing like characters from Mummy movie franchise) are patient and really was helpful. They'd understandably tell you to move out if you are taking forever taking pictures with the costumed staffs however, taking forever back then didn't mean taking two shots of still photos. What has happened to them?

I hypothesize that this phenomenon is across industry, region and profession. To put it in simple terms, they are doing the same job everyday -- the train-packing staff is pushing passengers into train everyday, the photo-taking staff is arranging photo-shots everyday. For them, a visitor is just Another-Item-to-Process. If a visitor refuses to comply with their commands, they'd get angry and shout the visitor as, in their mind, the visitor is making their job harder or preventing them from getting their job done. In other words, the visitor is just an Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process. To make the matter worse, since they are doing the same job everyday, they know the optimized way to finish their job and started to command the visitors -- started to sound like an authority. Some staffs even told the crowd in the queue not to stand too close to them as they are shooting photos of other visitors -- which, in my opinion, is just a matter of showing off their authority.

However, for the visitors, Sentosa experience (or USS experience) is possibly once-in-their-lifetime experience. Everything is new and wonderful for him. He may not know the optimized way to take photos or ride the train back home. What he knows is he has paid a great deal of money and he's entering an entertainment complex, in which every staffs' first and only duty is to entertain him. That view clashes when the staffs start sounding like an authority. The question is how to combine the authoritive voice (for smoother operations) with entertainment undertone.

Another excellent example of this issue is with the staffs in "Monster Rock" attraction (even back when USS was first opened in 2011), which looks like an on-stage performance (a theater) with a more-or-less free-seating setting. For a visitor, a free-seating setting means he can choose any vacant seat and, most importantly, if he comes earlier, he'd be rewarded with the best seat (either front-center or back-center). For the staffs, to pack as much visitors as possible in the shortest possible time, the first visitor to appear must take the seats at extreams (right extream or left extream). When the visitors are told to move on, a clash of will occurs. The problem? The staffs' optimized way treat the visitor like an item on the assembly line and, when the visitor questions, the staffs regard the visitor as Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process and force him to comply.

For a credit to those hardworking staffs in Universal Studio Singapore, those staffs working with the animatronic dinosaur model (for the visitors to take photos) somehow master how to combine authoritive voice and entertainment undertone. They have a robotic dinosaur on a truck, whose non-organic nature would reveal to a visitor coming too close to the truck. They acted (and dressed like) a park-ranger who warn the visitors not to come too close or the dinosaur would eat them alive. Since the visitors are already willing to buy the fantasy (that the dinosaur is alive), they play along and comply.

Going back to the issue, I found the similar phenomenon in supermarkets and even some clinics. In an assembly line, making the parts follow an optimized way of working is fine yet, when people involved, optimizing become harder if not impossible. People has pre-perceptions on how the staffs would treat them (for example, most visitors assume USS employers are entertainers, not authority, making authorizing safety instruction difficult). If these pre-perceptions are violated (in order to optimize the work-routines), the entertainment complex (or supermarket or clinic) would get bad reputation.

There can be a lot of ways to avoid bad reputation. The management can rotate the staffs in different duty -- as a short-term solution. However, this may results in some staffs mastering in many different duties and start treating visitors as Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process in no time. The real solution would be to set up different incentives and different ways to measure work-done of staffs and communicate the staffs that the core-value of the entertainment (shopping/health-service) industry is to make visitors happy not to have more work done.

At least, I'd like to protest not to treat me like an Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process in Your Assembly Line since I'm a human being, not an item, who is worthy of respect.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1345391600.

I Will Never Take My Pencil out of Home/Office

2012-08-15T20:06:00.000+08:00

One of the publicly-aware traits of us, geeks, is absent-mindedness. There was even a movie titled, "Absent-minded Professor." (IMDB page of Absent-minded Professor)

I love pencils. I think every scientists love pencils. You know, a pencil does not need gravity (or in a strong gravity-field) to operate while a pen (a fountain pen or a ball-pen) needs. If we wrote something wrong, a pencil's output can be erased by an eraser while it is difficult to achieve the same feat for a pen. In short, I love pencil.

I lost two pencils in an amazingly similar way -- when the pencil available was not sharp enough, I took out mine and, after the writing-business, I forgot to put it back in my pocket.

The first one was during a wedding dinner of one of my friends. It was a Chinese semi-buffet resturant (a semi-buffet is when they serve the dishes you order and you can place unlimited orders at a fixed per-head price). Since the pencil they provided to tick the order-sheet was totally not writeable (why can't they sharpen the pencil, which is the important part of their business), I took out mine, ticked what I wanted, passed it to another friend, who sat beside me, who also give my pencil to the waitress thinking the resturant is running with Pentel mechanical pencils.

That pencil was a gift (along with an umbrella, I had lost) from my fellow scientist/blogger/big-sister. It is totally socially awkward to lost both of her gifts -- in the East, it can be interpreted as rudeness and not respecting one's friendship. :(

Today, I also lost another pencil. I was attending a conference, which offer free tutorials to students. I was trying to register some tutorials for my friend when they gave me a not-sharp pencil, to which my response was, "it's ok, I'd use my own." After filling out the form, I forgot to take my pencil back.

This is serious as I bought the pencil around U.E. 1020168005 +/- 10!. It is nearly a decade (more than 9 years) it has been with me -- high and low, serving me consistently.

I wasn't aware that I forgot my pencil until a facility staff pointed out that she saw my pencil and noticed it was kind of important (it is also rusty). The staffs told me an organizer of the conference collected all the pens and pencils there and kept it. Hopefully, when I go there for tutorials tomorrow, I would be able to find my trusty among the writing-tools she kept. (Since many of the organizers there are my fellow scientist-friends, I asked them for a pencil hunt with a precise description, "A blue Pentel mechanical pencil with a rusty steel clip."

Update on U.E. 1345352718. Around U.E. 1345079038, one of the event organizers return my pencil back to me. I thanks her a million time :D.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1345032303.

Anime-Inspired Dance and Music

2012-08-10T23:10:00.002+08:00

Guess what I've found on the Google+ today ? The perfect anime musics with anime-ending-like dance !!! Thank you fellow Google+ user, whom I have never seen in person before and I have shared (almost) nothing before. I love this.

In fact, I slept fewer hours these days. I was really really really tired. Yet, this video, this very video cheered me up. It cheered me up (although I don't understand any single Japanese words -- let alone its lyrics) to the point that I get up from my bed and share this with Doughnut I/O readers.

I have also found multiple videos on YouTube like this video.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1344611275.

Apple Is Going to Apologise Samsung

2012-07-21T16:16:00.000+08:00

We all know that the Fruit company is bullying smaller companies in courts -- not for damage or monetary gain but to monopolize the market stripping customers off their rightful right to choose.

Now, the UK judge ordered Apple to publicly apologize Samsung following the previous decision stating Samsung is NOT GUILTY (Samsung did not copy Apple's design). The apology must be visible on Apple's UK website for at least six months.

Android rocks !!! We are really looking forward to Apple apologizing all Android vendors.

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1342858503.

Red Pill or Blue Pill

2012-07-17T22:08:00.000+08:00

Looking back to 2000, we remember the first movie with bullet-time effect (the scene, in which camera shutter flicks so fast that you even see bullet flying slowly yet the characters moves faster than the camera shutter that they dodge the flying bullets), the Matrix. Today, I noticed something. Facebook is blue and Google+ is red. So I re-imagine.

"You take the blue pill. The story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe…whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill. You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." [Morpheus]

Knowledge Graph is Available in Asia

2012-07-17T14:03:00.000+08:00

When you search an entity (a movie, a person or a place etc), Google Search can now show a summary on the right side of its web-interface.

In the above figure, I was trying to find a 2000 movie called "The Matrix", using a single keyword "matrix". You can see a summary of the movie "The Matrix" shows up along with usual series of links in the middle of the page.

Google started rolling out this feature around May 2012 and today I noticed we can use the feature in Asia. Nice job.

For more information of Knowledge Graph, refer to its official site or the blog-post announcing it. Or glimpse the features in the following video on all Google Search features:

Or the video that introduce Knowledge Graph:

Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1342504910.