Su Sheng Loong dot com

Awarded the Best Group Project in Advanced IT Project

2011-06-11T09:27:00.000+08:00

My project group, Group G has been recently awarded the Best Group Project in CSSE3005 Advanced IT Project which is one of the School of ITEE's flagship courses. The picture was taken at the last lecture where our Head of School, Professor Paul Strooper announced and presented the awards, followed by the system demonstration by the best and runner-up groups.

Our group consists of six members and we are all from different countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and China. Every one of us was assigned a role and I was the lead programmer of the group. Throughout the semester we went through a lot of challenges and hurdles and it was certainly a valuable experience.

Security @ Suncorp IT

2011-04-03T09:08:00.001+08:00

Last Wednesday, in conjunction with the Career Fair at University of Queensland, an IT Security Advisor from Suncorp and UQ Alumnus, Ben Waugh had a presentation on IT security at the Social Science and Humanities library. I have always been very interested in computer security and ethical hacking (okay I need to stress on the word 'ethical'). So I attended the talk despite it was held at 5pm and I had tonnes of assignments due in two day time.

The presentation turned out to be interesting and informative. In fact, the speaker, Ben Waugh demonstrated on a test website how he could hack into some of the real world websites by exploiting the system vulnerability with SQL injection. It was certainly not something new to me as I already learned and tried such attack a few years ago. Actually I was expecting more hacking techniques such as session hijacking, cross-site scripting, man-in-the-middle attack, etc but I think he didn't have sufficient time and also there were some non-technical students in the hall.

Having said that, I had a good chat with Ben after the presentation while we were enjoying the free pizza. He was kind enough to give me some tips on how to perform well during the interview and he encouraged me to apply to Suncorp. His advice truly inspired and motivated me to work out my resume and submit the job application to the company. Unfortunately Suncorp does not accept applicants without permanent residency or citizenship.I guess I will send him an email soon and then cross my fingers...

Google Tech Talk at University of Queensland

2011-03-10T13:08:00.001+08:00

Wow it was so exciting! Indeed I can hardly calm myself down even though the event is already over. The presentation was awesome but what was even more fantastic was to have the opportunity to talk to the Google software engineers. I managed to obtain some useful advice from them as to how we should perform during the job interviews with Google. In addition, I got to know more about how the software engineers do things differently at Google.

There were two main topics - Disaster Relief Maps and scaling up Blogger. The first talk was delivered by James McGill and Ben Stewart, if I am not mistaken. The content was very interesting as I am currently doing an IT project which involves Google Maps API. The second talk was delivered by Andrew Over and he focused on how to make Blogger scalable. It was informative but I didn't manage to understand everything as I have not got much experience in distributed computing.

At the end of the tech talk, we had free pizza and some giveaways. Everyone just mingled around and the Googlers were very friendly and interesting. Before I left the event I took the opportunity to ask if I could take some pictures with Andrew Over and it was truly an exiting moment. Without any hesitation, he just said okay and he quickly went to put on his new Blogger T-shirt and then took the pictures with me! He made me felt so honored!

Hopefully I can become a software engineer at Google one day. This event has certainly motivated me a lot to study hard and to apply for job at Google. This is awesome!

Featured in UQ Press Release - HELP University College Students Excel At UQ

2011-02-24T10:59:00.000+08:00

Document link: http://www.scribd.com/full/49441094?access_key=key-2dkk223191xwtqr8d459

Make an Impact. Work at Facebook.

2011-01-23T18:28:00.000+08:00

Ever since I commenced my Bachelor of IT program few years ago, I always have a dream that upon graduation I will work at one of the biggest technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and IBM. I mean isn't it cool to be able to work on something that virtually every one in the world uses on a daily basis? Though it's really difficult for an ordinary fresh grad like me to be employed by these companies. I will continue to study hard and let's see how things go in the future.

In the eyes of a scholar

2010-12-16T22:58:00.007+08:00

This is an article about my journey to becoming a scholar. I actually wrote it during the study break which was more than one month ago. Now it is published on Afterschool.my which is a web portal to help secondary school students plan their higher education. Thanks Howard for inviting me to write the essay and also spending time on proofreading and improving my writing.

Original Link: http://afterschool.my/scholar.php

In the eyes of a scholar

Su Sheng Loong

From a secondary school in Johor Baru to a scholar reading Bachelor of Information Technology at the University of Queensland, Sheng Loong talks about his journey to fulfilling his dream as a software programmer.

There is a very well-known saying in Chinese – “no matter how poor we are, we must provide the best education for our children”. Proudly born in a Malaysian Chinese family, my parents have always wanted their children to undergo the best education possible. Completing my secondary school studies in SMK Sultan Ismail, Johor Baru, I began to realise that education has become an expensive commodity. Coming from a middle class family, I could not expect my parents to afford such dear tuition fees and living expenses. Moreover, it wouldn’t be fair if I am the only child who enjoys the privilege of studying abroad while my younger brothers have to study locally. More importantly, the cost for graduating from a renowned university can hardly be recouped within a short period of time, when investigated from the accountancy perspective in terms of payback analysis and return of investment.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not an accountancy student, though, I did study accounting as an elective subject for my SPM examination. As a matter of fact, I was a so-called “pure science” student back then whereby Chemistry, Physics and Biology were my core subjects. In addition to Mandarin, I decided to take up accounting with the belief that I would stand a higher chance to secure a scholarship having more subjects on my SPM result slip. My secondary school life was great and I eventually passed my SPM with flying colours – 12A’s in total! That moment was unforgettable. It seemed as though I was on top of the world and I could realise any dream that I have ever wanted.

In fact, I had already begun my A-Levels course in TAR College, Kuala Lumpur even before I had received my SPM results. At that time, I aimed to become an actuary, solely because I thought that being an actuary was cool, professional, well-respected and most importantly, very well paid and sought-after by big companies. It was all about supply-demand and market mechanism. Yes, at that time I was indeed a business student. I did accountancy, business studies, economics, mathematics and general paper for my A-Levels and the fees were waived because I was a Merit Scholarship recipient. That was the first time I truly felt how good it was to be granted a scholarship.

My A-Levels’ result turned out to be a bit disappointing, though I did obtain a couple of A’s. My application for the Actuarial Science course was also rejected by Nanyang Technological University. I was rather dismayed but I decided to look upon the bright side, talking about the law of attraction. One day at the office where I was working part-time, I had a deep thought and then I fired up my web browser, searching for the next-stop of my education. It did not take a long time until I discovered HELP University College, Kuala Lumpur where I was eligible for their Distinction Scholarship for the Bachelor of Information Technology program. I was overjoyed because I had been very interested in doing IT and I firmly believed this was the right path for me. Plus, if I could achieve outstanding results, I would have the opportunity to obtain the faculty international scholarship awarded by University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.

I had enjoyed every part of my studies in HELP. Apart from studies, I had often kept myself abreast of the development in the IT industry. During my free time, I was always keen on learning and improving my programming skills. There is a saying in the Linux hackers community – “Unless one loves what one does, one cannot excel”. Indeed, I have managed to excel in my studies at the college mainly due to my passion for IT and also the determination for getting a scholarship to finance my final year studies in UQ. As there was no clear criterion for the UQ scholarship back then, the only advice I had from my lecturer was for me to score as many A’s as possible and fortunately I did! With the impressive results I had and some help from the college, I was awarded the faculty international scholarship by the university.

It was daunting for me when I first came to UQ. The students at UQ are smart and hardworking. At the same time, the lecturers have high expectation and requirements upon the students. With English not being my first language, I found some difficulties in communicating with the Caucasians initially. Very often, I was stressed by the assignments and examinations. However, I have always reminded myself that I need to persist until the end so that I will not disappoint those who love and care for me. [In fact, I will be having the semester’s final examination very soon while writing this article]

Upon my graduation, I will most probably start my career as a software programmer in Singapore, the nearest city to Johor Baru, my hometown. Nonetheless, my dream is to own a successful business in the IT field. Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook has always been my role-model and his success story continues to inspire and motivate me. I hope I can be as successful as he is one day.

For those who are on a journey similar to mine, I would advise you to work hard and never give up no matter what. When times are tough and you are stressed, you should be grateful for what you have, then you will start thinking positively. We should learn to appreciate everybody around us, from our families, friends, teachers and God (if you believe in Him).

Lastly, I wish to take the opportunity to thank my parents. Although not highly educated, they have never failed to see the importance of education for their children. The hardships and difficulties they have been through during their youth constantly remind me of how fortunate my brothers and I are now. Even amid the financial crisis in the late 90’s and business being terribly affected, my father has not stopped providing the best he could for our education. Similarly, my mother has always motivated and encouraged me when I am depressed and anxious. In my eyes, they are truly the best parents in the world and I appreciate everything they have given to us.

Dossier

Name : Su Sheng Loong

Hometown : Johor Baru

School : SMK Sultan Ismail

University : HELP University College & University of Queensland

Course : Bachelor of Information Technology (2+1)

Scholarships :

Merit Scholarship (A-Level’s) (Tunku Abdul Rahman College)

Distinction Scholarship (HELP University College)

EAIT Faculty International Scholarship (University of Queensland)

Role model : Mark Zuckerberg

Quote : Always be thankful for what you have and never give up!

Hobbies : Basketball, Badminton, Blogging, Programming, Watching Movies

Hacker, Harvard Dropout, Facebook CEO and Time Person of the Year 2010 - Mark Zuckerberg

2010-12-16T09:24:00.000+08:00

Okay he doesn't look that nice on the magazine cover. Anyway Mark Zuckerberg is the Time's 2010 Person of the Year. I believe most Facebook users and IT entrepreneurs know who he is. If you've watched "The Social Network" lately in the cinema (or on your computer like I did), his character was portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, albeit the storyline was dramatized to make it more interesting (and make Mark more like an asshole).

Many young people admire his achievement of becoming a billionaire and successful web entrepreneur at such a young age. So do I. As a matter of fact his success story was one of the reasons why I chose to study IT. I am not saying by studying IT you can become the next Mark Zuckerberg. It's just that I reckon by becoming more tech-savvy one can have more advantages in terms of leveraging the cutting-edged technology to enhance and facilitate idea generation, product development, online marketing, etc.

Nevertheless, I have yet achieved anything other than scoring good results for pushing up my cumulative GPA at University. It's really time to do something big...

If You Spend Most of Your Day Visiting Google, Facebook or Twitter, You're Using Linux

2010-12-10T22:29:00.000+08:00

The article below is really an interesting review on the recent Linux and other open-source operating system development. In last semester, I did a course called "Operating System Architecture" whereby I had the opportunity to get my hands dirty by programming and hacking Linux kernel and some open source software. It was really an eye-opening course for me. Despite most of us are Windows or Macintosh operating system users, we have been using Linux indirectly since we often visit websites which run on Linux servers.

2010's 5 biggest Linux and open-source stories

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Created Nov 30 2010 - 2:43pm

The story behind the story is that Linux has become totally mainstream. You may not have a Linux desktop in front of you the way I do, but if you spend most of your day visiting Google, Facebook or Twitter, you're using Linux. That Android phone in your pocket? Linux. Your DVR? Probably Linux. Do you use a NAS (network attached storage) device for extra storage? Almost certainly Linux. Trade stocks? Yes, Linux again. You get the idea. Linux may be invisible, but it's also everywhere.

Still don't believe me? Look at the numbers and my first story of the year:

1. Red Hat, the billion-dollar open-source company

I predicted a few months ago that Red Hat would be the first billion-dollar open-source company. Though I was wrong with the timing -- I thought it might take more than a year -- it looks like Red Hat will become the first billion-dollar Linux company in 2011.

The new Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 is already getting customers, and the company continues to push the boundaries of Linux with its new Fedora community Linux. Red Hat is living proof that open-source companies can be as successful and profitable as any proprietary software firm.

2. The decline of Sun open-source software under Oracle

Someone recently asked me if I were sorry that Oracle had bought Sun. I'm not. What am I sorry about is the way Oracle has forced out so many of Sun's outstanding open-source projects and developers. In place of spin of their RHEL clone: OpenSolaris, Oracle gave us another pointless Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. Then there's how Oracle is handling -- or perhaps I should say, mis-handling -- Java. I could go on and on, but what's the point?

It's not that Oracle is anti-open source. Larry Ellison and company likes open source, so long as it directly benefits Oracle. When it doesn't -- and most of Sun's open-source projects didn't -- they're history. It makes business sense, but it's not how open-source development is meant to work.

3. Attachmate (Attachmate!?) buys Novell

If you believe Attachmate is really behind the buyout of Novell, I have a slightly used bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn you might want to buy. At the end of the day, Microsoft ended up calling the shots in this acquisition. I expect SUSE Linux to stick around, and Attachmate has said that openSUSE will continue, but in what form? I just don't know. I'm going to be watching this deal closely to see how it all comes out in the end -- but I don't have a good feeling about it.

4. Where oh where are the Android tablets and Google Chrome?

I really expected a small horde of Android tablets to have arrived by now to challenge the might Apple iPad. I was wrong. Android's developers ended up burning most of their energy on updating their operating system for smartphones and not for the wider screens of tablets. That's not to say that Android tablets won't show up at lower prices points. They will. It's just that the first models, like the Augen GenTouch78, were awful. But Android-powered e-readers, like the Nook Color, may actually be the first successful Android tablets.

Hey, Google: what about Chrome OS? You know, the Linux-based Web-browser as operating system that Google was working on? That project is taking a lot longer than Google first thought it would. In fact, don't look for Chrome OS now until 2011. And I'd been looking forward to it.

5) Ubuntu recommits to the desktop

For a while there, Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, was focusing on the server and the cloud. Ubuntu would love to give RHEL some competition, but the backers of this popular Linux distribution have also refocused on the desktop with the introduction of Unity as its primary desktop interface.

I'm excited by this development. I think Unity, which will also be Ubuntu's gateway into smartphones and tablets, will make a great way for users who don't know Linux to finally start using Linux. Unity may never be my favorite interface, but I'm an old guy who remembers the first interface wars as being between the Bourne shell and the C shell, not this new-fangled GNOME vs. KDE stuff. For people who don't care about Linux internals and never will, Unity may be just the desktop they need.

That's my list for 2010. For 2011, you'll need to visit me at my new Linux and open-source home over at ZDNet, though I'll still be doing a monthly column for Computerworld plus the occasional Computerworld feature and review. I look forward to 'seeing' you at both my Web homes.

Source URL

Final Results Released

2010-12-01T08:55:00.000+08:00

I had a big surprise yesterday night. We all knew that the results for the semester would be sent out from 12am onwards. For some reasons I received the sms at 11.45pm which was about 15 minutes earlier. I was so nervous that I didn't dare to look at the sms content.

After taking a big breath, I finally got myself ready to view my result. Thankfully I got grade 7 out of 7 (high distinction) for all the courses except Advanced IT Project which is supposed to be released in next semester. I was overjoyed and really excited about the result. Nonetheless I was a bit worried because the sms system is still on trial so the result might not be accurate, I thought. So I slept and early in the morning today I double-checked the University website on which the results were made available from 6am onwards. Confirmed, it's all 7's!

Throughout the semester I was very stressed out because I was always overloaded with tons of assignments. Besides, my classmates are really smart and hardworking. Thankfully I managed to get through all the hardships and difficulties. I really need to thank my family and friends for helping and encouraging me all the time. At last, thank god!

Comic Strip: How Internet Works

2010-11-24T22:24:00.000+08:00

(Thanks Peter Wong for sharing)

Finally the Long-awaited Summer Break

2010-11-24T09:03:00.000+08:00

Perhaps it's a bit too late to write this post now. As a matter of fact I started my summer break since last Wednesday. Finally I can have some rest and fun after the very first semester at UQ.

The first semester at UQ was daunting, tiring and stressful. I had in total 18 assignments submitted throughout the semester if I am not mistaken. Note that I was doing only four courses ('subjects' in UQ terms) and yet apparently I had assignments due every week, rushing for one after another. I went through a lot of frustrations, depressions, discouragement, etc. Having said that, I'd learned a lot from these four courses and I believe these experience and lessons learned will make me a better programmer in the future.

And now I am having a three-month summer vacation. Many people were surprised when I told them I am not going back to Malaysia this summer. How I wish I could go back - I want my Chinese New Year and 21st birthday celebration in my hometown! My parents insist me to stay back since I only study in Australia for one year and they've got their points. I can't help but keep ranting about how boring life in Australia is, especially when most of my friends are going to leave soon.

So I need a job, more precisely a three-month job. I've sent out a couple of job applications with my resume online but none of the companies has replied so far. I don't mind working any kind of work, as long as I am capable of doing it and it's legitimate. I just need some income to pay for the rental so I won't feel too guilty when asking for money from my parents.

Sometimes I just wish I could graduate soon so I can start earning money and be financially-independent. I am already 20 years old and I have yet achieved any significant things in my life. Bill Gates founded Microsoft when he was 20 years old; Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook when he was 19 years old; Linus Torvald created the Linux kernel when he was still a computer science student at University of Helsinki. I know these people are extraordinary but I hope I can do something big when I am still young.

Time to have breakfast...

七月俏佳人 - 关怀方式

2010-11-04T13:35:00.000+08:00

《关怀方式》这首歌算是大家都熟悉的一首歌曲，很的就以前我就开始听到这首歌了。让我最有印象的是这首歌是新加坡电影-《七月俏佳人》的主题曲，这部戏我很小的时候有看过，但是那时才五六岁，看不明白这部电影，但我感觉到这部戏很有意思。后来新加坡电台有重播这部电影，但我好像没什么机会看，所以一直都不知道故事的剧情。

直到今天突然心血来潮，想到了这首歌，也让我想要看这部电影，连忙上网搜了搜。可能是电影太旧了，找不到网站下载。还好后来在土豆发现了，感谢上载人！有点可惜的是视频品质不是很好，加上双声频，左边粤语右边华语，用耳机听都辛苦。然而，这部电影一开始，马上勾起我以前的回忆，开始慢慢地想起小时候看这部戏的剧情和画面。我一直都知道陈汉玮是男主角，但是我之前不知道原来女主角是朱茵！好漂亮哦！

故事里，男主角和女主角是从小就互相写信鼓励的笔友。男主角人在美国，家里很富裕，但从小患有严重的地中海贫血症。女主角身体健康，却没有一个温暖的家庭。有一天，男主角来到了新加坡，为了找女主角。。。

这部戏的剧情不算高潮迭起，也没有华丽和夸张的画面与效果，更没有一般爱情戏里面太过激情的画面。但这部戏很感人，剧情也做得很好，演员们的演技加上《关怀方式》这首歌真的让我感受很深。虽然结局有点让人遗憾，但却是另一种美，很有感觉。

要看的话，可以去这里--> http://www.tudou.com/playlist/playindex.do?lid=3703703

最后来个MV，在youtube找到的。

The Social Network

2010-09-20T18:46:00.002+08:00

My good friend Wai Yip aka Wyatt shared the trailer with me on Facebook few weeks ago. "The Social Network" is about the founding of the most popular social networking website - Facebook. I am very interested in the movie because I really like the success story of Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook and probably the youngest billionaire in the history. Plus who on earth does not use Facebook?

Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB95KLmpLR4

I used to have a big (and naive?) dream about becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg, owning a billion dollar worth website and company at such a young age. Nevertheless as I learned more about the technology and business world, I started to realise that things are never as simple as they appear. If you have read Mark Zuckerberg's profile you should know what I mean. He was already a programming genius during his high school and many software giants like Microsoft tried to acquire both him and the software he wrote before he decided to go Harvard University (and eventually dropped out).

I am not sure if I will have chance to watch it in the cinema but I am really looking forward to watching the movie.

Richard Buckland on Uni Stress

2010-08-11T10:20:00.000+08:00

If you're a stressed-out undergrad like me, watch this video and you'll feel much better!

Richard Buckland is a senior lecturer at UNSW. Though I am not a student from UNSW, I love his lecture series posted on Youtube.

This video clip was extracted from the original video at http://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=AXiqJaNcOI4 so I do not own copyright of the video.

This video clip is solely for education purposes.

Classic JPop - "Lion Heart" by SMAP

2010-08-02T12:26:00.002+08:00

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yip5DtHUU2M

English Translation

You're always my medicine box
How do you heal me?

Laughing beside me, look at that smile
And when you cry, tears really do fall

What's with this ordinary love?

To protect you, that's why I was born
You'll be amazed at how I stay by your side
Your sleeping face, my heart shivers, lion heart

If someday I have a child
I'll love him second best in all the world and tell him

Someday you'll meet someone
Just like I met your mother

Your past filled with the lies of false loves

I'll make up for everything, everything you lost
The warmth that taught me love
The unchanging morning is your tiny heart, angel heart

Your past filled with the lies of false loves

I'll make up for everything, everything you lost
The warmth that taught me love
To protect you, that's why I was born
You'll be amazed at how I stay by your side
Your sleeping face, my heart shivers, lion heart

Source: http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/7375/smap/lion-heart.html

A very old yet classic JPop song by SMAP. "Lion Heart" is the theme song of the classic Japanese drama "Food Fight" starring Kusanagi Tsuyoshi who is also a member of SMAP. I didn't really watch the drama because I was still a primary school student back then. But I love this theme song and if I have time I will watch the drama. Hope you enjoy the song!

Inception

2010-08-01T16:02:00.001+08:00

Yesterday night was my very first time to cinema in Australia. I went with Bryan and some friends from CCM club. We watched the very much anticipated movie - "Inception". I had been wanting to watch it because of the fancy and astonishing trailer. "The Matrix + James Bond" couldn't be cooler and more exciting.

Cinemas in Australia normally have free seating. So we all just went in on time, hoping to get the good seats. A witty Singaporean friend, Jeremy said it's time to unleash our Singapore-Malaysia "kiasu" (afraid of losing) spirit and "chiong"! But eventually we ended up in a long queue before entering the theatre. Fortunately we managed to get some good seats and I was sitting at the most behind seat.

Back to the movie, "Inception" was really nice, in terms of storyline, effects, casts, etc. Though I fell asleep for about a few minutes because I usually sleep early and it was already a bit late. Luckily I didn't miss much and I actually still managed to understand what was happening in the movie.

So is it worth the ticket? Absolutely yes. I hope there will be more mind-boggling movies like this in the cinema.

周杰倫 Jay Chou-好久不見 MV

2010-07-26T08:29:00.000+08:00

Just a song dedicated to all the friends whom I haven't met for a long time. Hopefully you guys are doing great now. Enjoy!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul26b4fwJpw

The History of Hacking

2010-07-07T14:42:00.000+08:00

Via: Online MBA

OMG, Facebook Badge Does Not Work!

2010-05-06T14:56:00.001+08:00

For the past few months, I noticed that the Facebook badge was not working on my blog. If you visited my blog in that period of time, you should have seen a broken image in my blog sidebar. Initially I thought it was the Facebook servers or my Linux operating system that caused the problem. Today I decided to search for the solution online and I found Naishe's blog post which came out with a short and simple solution to the problem. The problem is with the image URL given by Facebook. After tweaking the code a bit, it worked flawlessly for me and now my Facebook badge is visible again!

If you are having the same problem with your Facebook badge, just visit http://naishe.blogspot.com/2009/07/facebook-badge-does-not-work.html.

The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash

2010-05-05T22:49:00.000+08:00

Taken from: http://guim.co.uk/

Last Sunday I wrote an article to discuss whether the web would kill desktop application development in the future. Just a while ago, I stumbled upon a great article by Charlie Stross and it was titled "The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash". I have not verified his article with any reliable sources yet but I would agree with the arguments and rationale he presented in the article, which actually pointed out why the traditional computer industry is dying due to the PC market saturation and the proliferation of electronic devices with networking capabilities as well as cloud computing. Enjoy!

The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash

By Charlie Stross
There has been some ... interesting news from the tech sector this week.

Firstly, the Apple vs. Adobe vendetta gets even nastier, with a public letter from Steve Jobs explaining why Adobe's Flash multimedia format will not ever be allowed into the garden of pure ideology that is the iPhone/iPad fork of OSX.

Secondly, Hewlett-Packard are buying Palm, apparently for Palm's WebOS — with rumours of plans to deploy a range of WebOS tablets to rival the iPad — at the same time, they're killing their forthcoming Windows 7 slate, just as Microsoft are killing the Courier tablet project.

Finally, gizmodo (not, perhaps, an unbiased source in this regard given current events) have a fun essay discussing Apple's Worldwide Loyalty Team, the internal unit tasked with hunting down and stopping leaks.

It's probably no exaggeration to say that Apple's draconian security policies are among the tightest of any company operating purely in the private sector, with a focus on secrecy that rivals that of military contractors. But even so, the control freak obsessiveness which Steve Jobs is bringing to bear on the iPad — and the desperate flailing around evident among Apple's competitors — bears some examination. What's going on?

I've got a theory, and it's this: Steve Jobs believes he's gambling Apple's future — the future of a corporation with a market cap well over US $200Bn — on an all-or-nothing push into a new market. HP have woken up and smelled the forest fire, two or three years late; Microsoft are mired in a tar pit, unable to grasp that the inferno heading towards them is going to burn down the entire ecosystem in which they exist. There is the smell of panic in the air, and here's why ...

We have known since the mid-1990s that the internet was the future of computing. With increasing bandwidth, data doesn't need to be trapped in the hard drives of our desktop computers: data and interaction can follow us out into the world we live in. Modem uptake drove dot-com 1.0; broadband uptake drove dot-com 2.0. Now everyone is anticipating what you might call dot-com 3.0, driven by a combination of 4G mobile telephony (LTE or WiMax, depending on which horse you back) and wifi everywhere. Wifi and 4G protocols will shortly be delivering 50-150mbps to whatever gizmo is in your pocket, over the air. (3G is already good for 6mbps, which is where broadband was around the turn of the millennium. And there are ISPs in Tokyo who are already selling home broadband delivered via WiMax. It's about as fast as my cable modem connection was in 2005.)

A lot has been said about how expensive it is to boost the speed of fibre networks. The USA has some of the worst domestic broadband in the developed world, because it's delivered over cables that were installed early — premature infrastructure may give your economy a leg up in the early years, but handicaps you down the line — but a shift to high-bandwidth wireless will make up the gap, assuming the frequencies are available (see also: shutting down analog TV and radio to make room). It's easier to lay a single fat fibre to a radio transciever station than it is to lay lots of thin fibres to everybody's front door, after all.

Anyway, here's Steve Jobs' strategic dilemma in a nutshell: the PC industry as we have known it for a third of a century is beginning to die.

PCs are becoming commodity items. The price of PCs and laptops is falling by about 50% per decade in real terms, despite performance simultaneously rising in real terms. The profit margin on a typical netbook or desktop PC is under 10%. Apple has so far survived this collapse in profitability by aiming at the premium end of the market — if they were an auto manufacturer, they'd be Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Jaguar rolled into one. But nevertheless, the underlying prices are dropping. Moreover, the PC revolution has saturated the market at any accessible price point. That is, anyone who needs and can afford a PC has now got one. Elsewhere, in the developing world, the market is still growing — but it's at the bottom end of the price pyramid, with margins squeezed down to nothing.

At the same time, wireless broadband is coming. As it does so, organizations and users will increasingly move their data out into the cloud (read: onto hordes of servers racked up high in anonymous data warehouses, owned and maintained by some large corporation like Google). Software will be delivered as a service to users wherever they are, via whatever device they're looking at — their phone, laptop, tablet, the TV, a direct brain implant, whatever. (Why is this? Well, it's what everyone believes — everyone in the industry, anyway. Because it offers a way to continue to make money, by selling software as a service, despite the cost of the hardware exponentially dropping towards zero. And, oh, it lets you outsource a lot of annoying shitty admin tasks like disk management, backup, anti-virus, and so on.)

My take on the iPhone OS, and the iPad, isn't just that they're the start of a whole new range of Apple computers that have a user interface as radically different from their predecessors as the original Macintosh was from previous command-line PCs. Rather, they're a hugely ambitious attempt to keep Apple relevant to the future of computing, once Moore's law tapers off and the personal computer industry craters and turns into a profitability wasteland.

The App Store and the iTunes Store have taught Steve Jobs that ownership of the sales channel is vital. Even if he's reduced to giving the machines away, as long as he can charge rent for access to data (or apps) he's got a business model. He can also maintain quality (whatever that is), exclude malware, and beat off rivals. A well-cultivated app store is actually a customer draw. It's also a powerful tool for promoting the operating system the apps run on. Operating system, hardware platform, and apps define an ecosystem.

Apple are trying desperately to force the growth of a new ecosystem — one that rivals the 26-year-old Macintosh environment — to maturity in five years flat. That's the time scale in which they expect the cloud computing revolution to flatten the existing PC industry. Unless they can turn themselves into an entirely different kind of corporation by 2015 Apple is doomed to the same irrelevance as the rest of the PC industry — interchangable suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligable profit.

Signs of the Macpocalypse abound. This year, for the first time, the Apple Design Awards at WWDC'10 are only open to iPhone and iPad apps. Mac apps need not apply; they don't contribute to Apple's new walled garden ecosystem.

Any threat to the growth of the app store software platform is going to be resisted, vigorously, at this stage. Steve Jobs undoubtedly believes what he (or an assistant) wrote in his thoughts on flash: "Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe's goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps." And he really does not want cross-platform apps that might divert attention and energy away from his application ecosystem. The long term goal is to support the long-term migration of Apple from being a hardware company with a software arm into being a cloud computing company with a hardware subsidiary — almost like Google, if you squint at the Google Nexus One in the right light. The alternative is to join the PC industry in a long death spiral into irrelevance.

Let's peer five years into the future ...

LTE will be here. WiMax will be here. We will be seeing pocket 4G routers similar to the MiFi but featuring 50-100mbps internet connectivity. (Meanwhile, fibre-in-the-ground speeds will be mostly topped out at 50-100mbps, except where new construction in high-value areas has permitted the installation of gigabit and faster links.) Internet access will be increasingly mobile. Phone screens are okay, but a 7-8cm diagonal screen is too small for anyone aged over 40-45 to be comfortable squinting at: hence the market for larger pads/tablets.

The availability of 50+mbps data everywhere means that you don't need to keep your data on a local hard drive; it can live on a server elsewhere, streamed to your pad as you need it.

Apple is known to be investing heavily in data centres suitable for cloud hosting. There are persistent rumours that "iTunes 10" will be some kind of cloud service, slurping up your music and video library and streaming it out to whatever device you've registered with Apple. There's MobileMe for email, and iWork.com for office documents. There will be more — much more.

The iPad by 2015 will have evolved. There will be smaller models with 7"/18cm screens, and larger desktop models. Most importantly they'll be using newer processors, either a descendant of today's Atom CPU (remember, Apple's demand that developers only use Apple's compiler toolchain mean that Apple can shift the app store to a new CPU architecture quite easily) or Cortex A9 class ARM cores — dual core, 2GHz, and up, vastly faster than the current machine ... or vastly more energy-efficient at the same performance level. But where it will really shine — the value proposition that will keep punters forking over huge gobbets of steaming money, in the midst of a PC industry that's cratering — will be the external benefits of joining the Apple ecosystem.

If you're using an iPad in 2015, my bet is that you won't bother to have home broadband; you'll just have data on demand wherever you are. You won't bother yourself about backups, because your data is stored in Apple's cloud. You won't need to bother about software updates because all that stuff will simply happen automatically in the background, without any fuss: nor will worms or viruses or malware be allowed. You will, of course, pay a lot more for the experience than your netbook-toting hardcore microsofties — but you won't have to worry about your antivirus software breaking your computer, either. Because you won't have a "computer" in the current sense of the word. You'll just be surrounded by a swarm of devices that give you access to your data whenever and however you need it.

This is why there's a stench of panic hanging over silicon valley. this is why Apple have turned into paranoid security Nazis, why HP have just ditched Microsoft from a forthcoming major platform and splurged a billion-plus on buying up a near-failure; it's why everyone is terrified of Google:

The PC revolution is almost coming to an end, and everyone's trying to work out a strategy for surviving the aftermath.

Will HTML5, WebGL and Cloud Computing Kill Desktop Based Software Development?

2010-05-02T20:54:00.005+08:00

If you are not an IT savvy, you might not know what these three cutting-edge technologies are. I know we hate reading facts and theories with full of jargons and binary digits. So just sit back and watch the following video before we proceed to the main discussion.

Fascinating isn't it? Imagine you can now fire up your favorite web browser and run the FPS game right in it without any plugin like Flash, Java or Silverlight. This is the power of HTML5, WebGL, cloud computing, etc. I am not going to explain what each of the technologies is since you can easily google them up. What I want to discuss is will these bleeding edge technologies kill desktop software development in the future? When I say desktop based software I am referring to your MS Word, Photoshop, Media Player, Warcraft, Left 4 Dead and even Windows.

With the rapid growth of world wide web, more and more applications are moving to the server side and the users simply can access them from a web browser. I mean as a developer why bother to create desktop applications which can be easily pirated when you can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from the monthly subscriptions to your web applications which can hardly be cracked? Plus, the users would prefer to use an application without having to install the enormous size of files on the computer. I believe most of you have your web browser running when you log onto your computer and Facebook applications seem more appealing than the old-school mini desktop games to you guys.

Google is smart. In fact, Google has been promoting the concept. They claimed that operating systems are old and obsolete and they believe that powerful server side with thin or weak client mode of applications is the way to go in the future. While Microsoft has the widely-used Office, Google has the web based version of it, called Google Docs. While Microsoft Windows is so prevailing, Google has introduced its own operating system, Google Chromium OS (or Chrome OS) which is meant for browsing web applications. How can Microsoft ever slack while its opponent is trying to shift the market away to another platform?

Having said that, I believe it takes some time to make the changes. After all, the network coverage and bandwidth is still an issue, especially in many developing countries like Malaysia.

What do you guys think? Write down your opinion and we shall discuss.

Java founder James Gosling leaves Oracle

2010-04-11T20:55:00.001+08:00

James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, has resigned from Oracle, he announced in a blog entry on Friday.

Gosling resigned on April 2 and has not yet taken a job elsewhere, he reported.

"As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," he wrote.

Gosling was the chief technology officer for Oracle's client software group and, before that, the chief technology officer of Sun's developer products group.

In 1991, he led a small group of engineers in a project, then called Oak, to build an object-oriented programming language that would run on a virtual machine, which would allow programs to run on multiple platforms, such as television set-top boxes. This work evolved into Java, which took off in conjunction with the growing use of the Internet, thanks in part to its inclusion into the Netscape browser.

Gosling follows a number of other noted ex-Sun employees out the door since Oracle's purchase of the company was finalized in January, including CEO Jonathan Schwartz, and XML co-inventor Tim Bray.

Less than a month ago, Gosling had stressed the importance of Java to Oracle. "Oracle has certainly been incredibly committed to keeping Java and the whole ecosystem as strong and as healthy as can be," he said, during a talk at a Java symposium in Las Vegas.

But around the same time he also expressed dismay over the growing politicization of the Java Community Process.

Fellow ex-Sun alumni Bray tweeted that he was "astounded that Gosling held on so long."

Copyright IDG News Service\New York Bureau

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-04-10/java-founder-james-gosling-leaves-oracle.html

Want to Be Your Code

2010-04-02T09:28:00.001+08:00

This is the promo video for the launching of the latest Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 in China. I find it very creative and interesting compared to other IT teaser ads. Check it out!

Link: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTYwMjk0ODA0.html

How to Pronounce Linux

2010-03-28T14:05:00.000+08:00

I am a huge Linux fan and so you are, I hope. There are a variety of Linux distributions and you can find more information about them at http://distrowatch.com/. In the IT field, you always come across with many weird, peculiar, special names with different pronunciations and meanings. "Linux" is the typical example. My lecturers pronounce it as "Lee-Naks". Some of my friends pronounce it as "Line-Nuks" or "Line-Naks". Most of the time, I hear computer scientists and software engineers read it as "Lee-Nix" and they are kind of associating Linux with its ancestor, Unix. This has always puzzled me. So I did a quick search on youtube to look for the proper pronunciation and I striked the following video. In the video, you will learn how Linus Torvald, the father of Linux pronounces "Linux".

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAEsoKiZTvk

Google Summer of Code™ 2010

2010-03-23T14:59:00.000+08:00

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 successful student participants and 2500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
To learn more about the program, peruse our 2010 Frequently Asked Questions page. You can also subscribe to the Google Open Source Blog or the Google Summer of Code Discussion Group to keep abreast of the latest announcements.
Source: http://code.google.com/soc/

That should save me some time and efforts in describing the program. I actually stumbled upon Google Summer of Code last year. Though I was only a first year undergraduate student back then so I did not have sufficient knowledge and skills to participate in the program. Nevertheless, I have been waiting and anticipating for this year's Google Summer of Code.

The accepted list of organizations have been made available online. There are many well-established organizations and companies in the list and this is what makes me feel very excited. Apart from gaining hands-on experience in working on open-source project with great mentor, the monetary reward of USD5000 is also very appealing to me. Now I am selecting an organization and I will have to write them a proposal. Hopefully my application will be approved.