Again about Google DevFest 2010

Yesterday I had to leave an hour earlier from the Google DevFest 2010 event, as I have to  catch up with my wife, she was waiting for me for the second Antenatal Class. I missed the Code Lab, the Maps and Buzz T-shirts. Ouch. 5:30pm I had to leave while they ended the event on 6:30pm.

Flash back: After lunch time, there were some presentations on Google Apps, by Patrick Chanezon, followed by success story of people who developed applications for Google Apps. One from creately.com (http://www.creately.com). Another round from SingPath (http://singpath.appspot.com).

One thing that was missed a lot is the power points (aka power plugs). It was awful so many people carrying laptop and no power plug on the Connexis Theater. Almost everyone were running out of battery.

I just don't know why the crowd was kinda lacking enthusiasm to verbally respond to the speaker on stage with 'ooo's, 'aaaa's, 'yeah's, 'alright's and stuffs. Most of the time the crowd was silent.

Nevertheless it was a must-attend event of this year. I will attend the next event for sure.

 

Cost of not testing your solution will propagate and snow ball

Today I've a got a bit of relief at work, as we will have some free time for the next two days.

Today I will settle some things after the house moving. One of them is exchanging bulb. We need to replace 10 bulbs on the old rented house that has been damaged during our 2 years tenancy. The store didn't provide a testing platform for the bulbs, yet they provided one-to-one replacement guarantee. I bought 6 x SL twisted neon bulb, 2 x square-based SL neon bulb, 1 x 32w round TL neon bulb, and 1 spot light. From the 10 replacement bulbs I bought, one of them didn't really worked (defect). The store promised me for replacement when some of them are defect products. "Just don't throw the boxes, they said". Today is Monday, I bought the replacement last  Friday. Because I don't come to office on weekends, I have to postpone visiting the store to reduce cost (while losing time).

Hmm, even though I have one-to-one replacement guarantee, I still have to go down town to the store I bought from, and it's only just for this one bulb! For the replacement of this single bulb I have to go down town to the store near my office on off working day, pay the MRT (train) fare there, waste some time there, and then pay the fare for returning home again.

This event reminded the cost of not testing your solution thoroughly. Once it's rolled out, the impact wouldn't be just what you will feel at your coding room where you can simply fix, compile, and run again. The cost of replacement stuffs in production will create a huge snowball as it goes down hill. The issues, the delays, the lags will be propagated far.

Where as:

• we are not perfect -- we produce bugs
• the requirement guys are not perfect -- they produce defective or incomplete or inconsistent requirements
• our customers are not perfect -- they might ask us to do some impossible or contradicting stuffs

I believe it still better when we do test the right way before we roll out to production.

How to go to Perhentian Islands from Singapore

I found out that some people wanted to go to Perhentian Islands from Singapore. Perhentian Islands is such a nice place in Malaysia, reachable by half an hour boat from Peninsula Malaysia's east coast - which means it is easily reachable from Singapore through land transport.

I have been there in two trips, both are really memorable! One trip was for snorkeling with church friends from Kuala Lumpur (KL). The other trip I went there with group of friends from Singapore for some scuba dives. While geographically KL seemed to be nearer to nearest city (Jertih) than from Singapore, the road from KL to Jertih is not as nice as west coast expressway. My first trip which was from KL took around 8 hours bus ride (KL - Jertih). My second trip was direct from Larkin Bus Station (Johorbahru - JB) to Jertih.

If you are cost conscious like me and wants to take bus from Singapore, I would suggest that you take the bus from Larkin Bus Station (JB) to Jertih instead of travelling down by bus to KL followed by another bus trip to Jertih. From Larkin to Jertih took about 10 hours as I can recall.

From Jertih you can take cab to Kuala Besut, where the jetty to Perhentian Islands are.

Shifting house

Recently it has been quite hectic at work and at home. Especially when you have to do it at once.

We are shifting house these 1.5 weeks, got many things to shift over, including one digital piano plus stand, one keyboard (66-keys, not 104 keyboard) and one MIDI controller, one rack sound module. Oh, forgot that one baby cots. Lucky it's now near the end of house shifting. The same suitcases have been moving back and fro around times. It's just 2-3 blocks away movement but once a while in a year or two, I regret why I accumulate so much things. Carrying two persons' things alone took more than just courage and strength, it took perseverance as well.

Nevertheless it's almost over now! Today's evening will be the hand over time for the old house. A lot of things had happened in our rented house these 2 years. A lot of memories. There's a certain kind of sad feeling when you have to leave the place you have been living with for years. But it's time to leave... Time to move on with life.

It's interesting how you can find a lot of things you have in your cache when shifting house. I found my 2 small ocarinas I bought in Harbourfront some times ago. I missed their voices.

 

COTD: a Chinatown's Starbucks?!?

In UNIX systems, we have motd tool, which is "message of the day", usually a short announcement or greetings from the system administrator. Sometimes it's also "match of the day" when we are talking about sports. I'll have my version called cotd "cup of the day", probably writing these messages while taking a sip of coffee.

On my way to gym at OneGeorge Street from Chinatown MRT, I usually take this route: Chinatown Point - Hong Lim Complex - Fook Hai Building - Hong Lim Park - OneGeorge Street.

Somewhere at the Hong Lim Complex, something always catch my attention.

I decided to take a picture of it.