Pragmatic Revelations » Days in My Life

Embrace Life

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:16:11 +0000

It was a beautiful morning, starting with a cup of coffee and a few slices of toast, I began to read some articles on the Internet. The articles are related to my software project as well as some other stuffs regarding productivity and supplementary.

Among all I was reading, there was one that caught my attention, the one that I paused all my activities, and let it touch deeply into my heart. I can’t help to shed my tears.

This is the most beautiful and touching commercial I’ve ever watched. Besides the artistic and beautiful photography, the video portrays how beautiful life is and how fragile it can be. Take a moment off your work (yes, I know you are busy) to watch this video. I bet and I hope it will make you realize how beautiful our lives are.

Enjoy!

This is the new “wear your seatbelt” ad the UK is doing – started by a man not hired to do it, but because the cause is important to him, he came up with this idea, and now it’s being hailed across the world as a ‘beautiful’ commercial. And now the video has become so popular with the general public that people are forwarding it to friends/family on their own so quickly that it has spread all over the world in a very short time.

You can watch here too.

Today, Tomorrow and Todo

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:07:48 +0000

Last night, I was reading a blog post at Time Management Ninja (aka TMNinja). In “The Secret of Today Versus Todo“, what did you get done today is important. But sometimes it will not be the case. Someday, things just don’t work out as you wished.

For the past two weeks, I had been bugged by a silly tiny bug in one of my codes. Things weren’t moving at all. They were all still and my progress in a software project was stagnant. Before the bug was identified and removed, I could not move on to other tasks as they were highly dependent on the unit testing of that particular buggy code.

Yesterday, I finally managed to debug it and deducted 5 tasks. In actual fact, I only completed one task but deleted four. The four tasks which I deleted were no longer applicable because I completed one task which was dependent on the other four. I deleted them because they became obsolete.

So, yesterday, I completed one task that would allow me to complete more tasks today. In other words, imagine that we were traveling on a time machine to yesterday, it would be: today I completed one task and tomorrow I will be able to move on to other tasks. Confusing, isn’t it?

For a software developer, someday he/she will write many lines of code, perhaps a thousand. But someday, he/she will only write just one line of code or perhaps none. When the productivity is only one line of code for a day, is it too low? It is not. Sometimes, that single line of code will serve as a connector to many pieces of code together. That one single line that software developer has produced today, will allow many tasks to be completed tomorrow.

Praise yourself if you have got only one task done today because you will complete more tomorrow. The caveat, however, is that you do not make this an excuse for not having done so much today.

Catching HTML bugs with Safari 5

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:45:28 +0000

A bug in a seemingly harmless HTML code had been bugging me for almost 2 weeks. I was sort of yanking my hair while trying to trace the bug which messed up the HTML page. The debugging task was even harder because I work on a HTML template with an extension .THTML. The template does not only contain standard HTML but also tags which are only recognized by AWS (Ada Web Server) . This template file is parsed by the web application (I am developing), which has AWS library, before it is dispatched as raw HTML code to a browser.

In my design, I break down the HTML template into header, body and footer so that I can reuse the common codes in header and footer. That means, all the body templates are without tag. This missing tag disables the syntax-coloring feature of code editor, leading to a more laborious code reading.

Before this, I had gone through every line of html source code in the template file umpteen times. This “obscure” bug, if not removed, would throw a monkey wrench in my works. I browsed the Internet and read articles in hope that I would get some clues. So, I was reading a few articles about Extensions in Safari 5. Extensions are not really impressive to me as I do not need to add missing functionalities to my browser. Safari itself is more than enough for my daily browsing activities. Somehow, my curiosity had driven me to enable the Develop menu in Safari 5. After activating it, I noticed some debugging tools in the menu. I enabled the web inspector by selecting Show Web Inspector in the Develop menu (Figure 1) then navigated to the web page I wanted to debug. To use these debugging tools, the Develop menu must first be activated. Here is a simple guide to enabling the menu.

Figure 1

Safari 5 immediately detected two error messages as shown in Figure 2. These two errors were easily corrected. After removing these unmatched tags, my web page still did not show up properly with the intended layout.

Figure 2

Then I selected the Elements tab and it showed me the page source in debugging mode as shown in Figure 3. I instantly spotted the

tag which was supposed to be in the

tag.

Figure 3

I clicked on the little grey triangles in the left pane to expand the

tag and the

Transverse Myelitis

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:00:34 +0000

Just came back from the hospital after visiting my uncle. He has been admitted to hospital last evening. He was admitted to the General Hospital last Thursday and was discharged this Sunday. No conclusion from the GH.

His doctor came in when I was there. He said my uncle suffers from acute Transverse Myelitis.

Transverse Myelitis (TM) is a neurological syndrome caused by the inflammation of spinal cord. It is a complicated disease and takes times to eradicate inflammation. His doctor has done lumbar MRI today. They will do another thoracic MRI tomorrow to confirm clinical diagnosis.

Timeless memories

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:36:25 +0000

I used to have the desire which my ashes will be carried away by ocean waves and winds. This morning, I came across this website, Glass Remembrance, where a person’s ashes can be made into beautiful hand-made glass art.

I like to be preserved this way after my death. My children can have a portion of “me” in a nice decorative glass flower in their home, if they want to.

iPhone is good for business

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:55:46 +0000

As I promised earlier in an article that I would write about my experience of using the iPhone. Well, here it goes…

Mine is a 32GB Black iPhone. The specifications can be found on Apple website so I am not going to repeat them again here. I used a sleek Nokia 6300 before this so it took me some time to adapt to the bigger/wider iPhone. This is not really a problem to get used to, actually. So, let’s put aside the physical differences.

I had been looking into various smart phones by Nokia and Sony Ericsson before I settled for Nokia 6300 almost two years ago. Well, nothing is comparable to iPhone as I find today.

On the 4th day, I had already got a chance to take my brand new iPhone into action. I completed a task outside and needed to go back to my home/office. I usually made payment to my suppliers at the bank. Then I would go back home/office to scan and email my suppliers before they could send me the goods. This usually would happen a few hours later or in the evening because I have the habit of being cost-effective when running errands outside. With iPhone, I snapped a photo of the bank transaction slip with its built-in 3 megapixels camera and emailed the photo to my supplier immediately. By the time I stepped out the bank, my supplier had called me and confirmed receipt of the fund. Everything was done on the iPhone at the bank.

While the competition in smartphone market is mounting with Google’s Nexus One and Android enabled phones with attempt to take down iPhone, nothing has come closer to the 3 billion downloads of iPhone apps at Apple’s App Store.

I am using quite a number of applications for productivity and I find them all useful. I am able to check my schedule and make appointment, follow my to-do list, review some documents (PDF, graphics etc,) which my co-workers and I shared. More, I can email, facebook and tweet anytime, anywhere with the iPhone (the list goes on.) These tasks are a little over killed on a MacBook I can say.

When my dad was in the hospital a few months ago (I still had not had my iPhone then), I had been in and out of the hospital with my backpack. It was quite annoying trying to find a good spot where I could sit down, open up my 13″ MacBook and connect it with a 3G broadband. Sometimes, the seat had been taken by patients’ relatives. Most of the time, my MacBook and I became the attraction of bored people sitting around me. Some nosy people would peep at my screen. Checking and replying business emails had became a difficult task as my privacy was invaded. It was like houseflies buzzing around while you were eating your chicken pie. Were you able to enjoy anyway?

With iPhone, this scenario has changed a little bit. I am still able to communicate and do some light tasks without the need of my MacBook and houseflies peeping. I can add, modify or delete appointments and contacts on iPhone and sync with my Macs via MobileMe. I am also able to update my to-do list and sync with my Macs via WiFi later when I am home.

As a software developer, I spend most of my time at the keyboard spewing codes other than blogging, emailing, facebooking and tweeting. I would rather save this coding task on my Macs if there is any code editing app available for iPhone. When I am not at my desk, I would want to follow up with tasks like the reviewing of drawings/images (icons, logo etc), design and technical documents on iPhone.

The iPhone is handy during short discussion sessions (less than 15 minutes) with co-workers and clients. A relatively large MacBook would look clumsy in this situation.

I can also use iPhone as a remote controller to navigate Keynote presentation slides using Apple’s Remote. This app makes me look more professional (and well, cooler) when presenting because I need not walk to my MacBook to press a key every each time I want to change the slide. I can do it on my iPhone.

Well, the list goes on and on so long you have not run out of imagination of how to utilize your iPhone. I would never go back to Nokia or Sony or anything else except iPhone.

Good-bye 2009!

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:00:31 +0000

The year 2009 is not my favorite year. Despite of some happy moments, 2009 is a year of sorrow and suffering, at least for me. I have recorded enough all the happenings in 2009 and let the memory be the past. So, good-bye 2009!

Well, I have only one New Year resolution for 2010, to fully implement my MIS (Medical Information System) at client’s site before 2010 ends. Simple as that.

I got an iPhone

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:37:17 +0000

If you have followed my blog, you must be aware of how I criticized about iPhone and Apple’s aggressive strategy with mobile carriers in my article, “iPhone is in Malaysia!” I have also been going around telling customers and friends that iPhone is not as useful as it seems and is more a toy to attract young generation.

Well, I admit that I was wrong. I am developing a cloud/web-based MIS (Medical Information System) which enables patient to be able to view certain information and interact with the clinic/doctor from anywhere. Likewise, it also provides doctors greater mobility and still are able to care for their patients while they are away.

After reading articles (on Apple’s website) how iPhones help hospitals in the U.S. to provide better healthcare at lower cost, I decided to build the MIS with iPhone support. I based my decision on these reasons:

Ease of use. I have been toying/using around with an iPod Touch for a few months and I find that it is easy to navigate/use. iPod Touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone. You get what I mean.
Beautiful UI. Apple is well known for its brilliant UI (User Interface) in Mac OS X and iPhone OS. Nothing else comes closer to it.
Security. All applications must be approved by Apple and be signed with license keys issued by Apple. Apple’s iTunes Store is the only place to download applications. I can be rest assured to have less (or none) headache about spooky applications from unreliable sources. Of course, there are jail broken iPhones which do not play by the rules but I am not too worried about that.

So, I went ahead ordering one last week. Last night, I went to Maxis center to collect my 32GB Black iPhone. It is such a beauty.

Give me a couple of weeks mingling with it and I promise you I will write about my experience.

Nightlighting

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:48:21 +0000

Recently, I have been reading a little about women’s health while working on a software project. It is astonishing to know most of the facts about women and women-related illnesses. When reading about menstruation, I learned some terms such as menarche which means woman’s first menstruation, dysmenorrhea which is a medical condition characterized by severe uterine pain during menstruation.

Heredity, diet and health condition can affect a young woman’s menarche. This is something most parents with growing young daughters have overlook. Diet plays a very important part in young women especially teenage girls. Many teenage girls despite of having their menarche years earlier, neglects or intentionally limit their dietary intakes for body slimming purposes. This ignorance can seriously affect their reproductive system.

One most interesting fact I learned about menstruation is the term “Nightlighting”.

The word “menstruation” is etymologically related to “moon”. The terms “menstruation” and “menses” are derived from the Latin mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek mene (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and moon—reflecting the fact that the moon also takes close to 28 days to revolve around the Earth (actually 27.32 days). The synodical lunar month, the period between two new moons (or full moons), is 29.53 days long. — Wikipedia

In some traditional societies without nightlighting believe that women ovulate in full moon and menstruate in new moon. There are studies in both humans and animals where artificial lighting at night does alter the menstruation cycle. While none of the studies have suggested the lunar phase affects the ovulation cycle, bright light exposure in the morning stimulates more regular cycles.

Research also suggested that sensitivity of women’s cycles to nightlighting is related to nutritional deficiencies of certain minerals and vitamins. Again, balanced and healthy diet is utmost important to women’s health.

问心无愧

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:16:27 +0000

在这短短几星期之内，所发生的一却事情，都不是局外人所能理解的，包括当事人在内。这些变化有如风云难测。被人冠上莫须有的罪名，再加上这些人和周围的人的一极化思想，要做到问心无愧，谈何容易。

接下来的，不会只是一场暴风骤雨这么简单。现在最重要的是把手上的软件工程开发出来，抢先把一却安顿下来再说。

Making my dad proud

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:15:36 +0000

Perhaps this is the most difficult post ever for me to write. A mixture of emotion makes it even harder to start and it is impossible to write this post without shedding tears and touching emotion.

My dad has been admitted to hospital for 8 days. He has been diagnosed hepatoma with huge lesions in both right and left lobe, metabolic syndrome X (full house), and renal impairment. Last Saturday, sonogram confirmed his hepatoma and renal impairment are in the end stage. His doctor started him on hemodialysis last week and he was doing really badly with all the reactions: fever and vomiting. Today he did much better after his 4th hemodialysis.

Yesterday, he told my sister, Mee, and I his last wishes. We broke into tears and this was the first time I saw my dad crying. I did not sleep at all last night thinking a lot of things. There are many problems interwoven and almost impossible to resolve. 4 A.M. in the morning, this idea suddenly flashed through my mind. I wanted to present him the certificate which I earned after passing a professional examination.

Actually, I intended to present to mom and dad after I acquired all three diplomas. But I should do it now to cheer him up a little and to keep his fighting spirit burning. Although the doctors said he has 3 to 6 months to live, we think that dad may do better if he hasn’t given up. You see, our dad is a fighter.

So was my decision. I went to the hospital very early at 5:30 A.M. Came home for a short morning nap at 10:30 A.M. After lunch, I was out to send lunch to Mee and to pick Dmitry from school. Then I went downtown to frame my diploma and to do other chores.

LA got the kids ready and we went to the hospital around 8 P.M. Dad was having satay for his supper. He had been taking satay as supper for the last few days. Satay is his favorite food since young. I have his influence. After he was done with his supper, I showed my diploma to him and mom.

Well, what diploma is this?

To be honest, I am no longer particular at how people see me and when they ask me question like “Where do you graduate from?”

Today, I proudly announced to the world that I am a self-trained software engineer without any tertiary education. And the diploma I am having is the certificate (level 4) accorded by the British Computer Society (BCS) after passing the level 4 professional examination in April this year. After completing the diploma (level 5) and the professional graudate diploma or PGdip (level 6), I will be able to do my Master in some accredited universities in UK.

I have three very good reasons to pursue BCS diplomas:

My commitment to my clients for continual acquisition of new knowledge and skills in computer science and information technology.
To pursue further in the field of Computer Science.
I have proven to be able to achieve to some extent without a formal tertiary education in Computer Science. (I actually showed him my posts and photos giving seminars and judging university students’ final year project at http://adrianhoe.com and explained to him how some students and lecturers feared my questions when judging their projects. He jokingly said I like to scold them.)

When I told dad, he was very happy and gave me a thumb up. He also told me that he dreamed of me receiving my Master degree. And now I have to live his dream and take it further.

I wish he can see me living his dream and going further. I wish, I wish and I wish!

And I also like to thank mom and dad for their support as well as many those who have inspired me and given me the will to start studying again.

Explaining to dad (with his intra jugular catheter or IJC on his neck) that I have two more to go.

Dad told me that he dreamed of me getting a Master. Now I have to fulfill his dream and take it further.

With Rich and Nik on his bed.

With Mee and dad stroking Nik's head.

Nik, the little "Monster", was sharing his cheers.

Nik: What's up? Huh?

Dmitry was admiring the diploma with auntie Mee.

Night watch

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:50:15 +0000

Last night I was on duty to watch over my father at Hospital Pantai. Before my shift began, LA and I went downtown for a quick dinner and also to buy some satay for my dad upon his request. We were back to the hospital about 9-ish. Since my dad was very hungry, they did not take his glucose level. He finished his satay aout 9:30P.M.

About 30 minutes to midnight, the nurse came in to give dad some medication and his nebulizer. I told the nurse about the glucose level and she took the reading after everything was settled. I reminded the nurse to take note that the glucose level was taken post-supper. Then we tucked my dad to bed.

Half an hour later, he said he wanted to pass motion. I called the nurse to get help. Then there was some commotion. Two nurses and I helped my dad to get up the bed to sit on the commode. While waiting, the nurses changed the bed linen. Unfortunately, nothing had been passed out. Dad actually fell asleep around midnight.

Around 1:45A.M. this morning, he woke up again. He wanted to pee and to have some water. Then he went back to sleep. He was sleeping quite soundly that I could hear him snoring.

He woke up again at 3A.M. complaining his back was itching. He told me to rub some Betamethasone cream. He went back to sleep only this time he was sleeping sounder. Unfortunately, he was disturbed by the nurse again 5A.M. in the morning. The nurse took his blood pressure and glucose level reading. His glucose level was 6.5 compared to 13.5 at 11:30P.M. After the nurse gave him medication and empty his urine bag, he went back to sleep.

At 7A.M. another nurse came in trying to wake him up for a morning wash, I told the nurse to allow him to sleep. The nurse told me that there would be no student nurses today because of the Merdeka holiday. I replied without hesitation, “Then the nurse can do it. That’s what the nurses are for.” The nurse wasn’t quite happy getting a whack (literally) from me. She stood there for a while then took off.

As there were college students came to do their internship with me before, I really dislike the idea that businesses and company take advantage on interns as a damn cheap labor to do all sort of donkey jobs. I can imagine how these in-house nurses take advantages on training nurses and get them to do all sort of donkey jobs the in-house nurses won’t like to do. I think that nurse deserves a whack from me.

He woke up at 8A.M. to wash, took his breakfast and medication and watch the live telecast of Merdeka celebration on TV.

Mom, Mee and BS came so I went home at 9A.M. Before I went home, a nurse came to assist my dad to the washroom for passing motion and then gave him a morning bath.

Protected: Conclusion statement

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:00:27 +0000

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Irresponsible doctor on-call

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:18:23 +0000

Last night, I was experiencing pounding pain on my left eye which was radiating to the back and into my brain that caused headache.

I called ISEC emergency number and spoke to a nurse on duty. She advised me to go to A&E of a nearby hospital to have my eye checked. One of the factor could be infection.

LA took me to Pantai Hospital. After the medical officer had examined my eye, he rang the opthalmologist on-call, Dr. Lim.

From their phone conversation, we could tell that he was reluctant to come. After many times of persuasion and insistance by the medical officer, he finally agreed to come. But we were told that we would have to wait. What an arrogant bastard!

A doctor on-call is a doctor on night duty. He has to respond to emergency cases at night regardless of the parient’s condition. This doctor’s attitude was really irritating. WTF! After some thoughts, I decided to go home without seeing him. I did not want this irresponsible doctor to earn my money. Furthermore, my pain had subsided due to the paracetamol I took before we left home.

iPhone 3.0 Software Update

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:26:21 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, the iPhone 3.0 software update was official launched. I connected my iPod Touch to iTunes 8.2 and clicked Update. Unfortunately, iTunes said that the update wasn’t available at iTunes Malaysia store. I wasn’t very happy with the service Apple has provided. The update was supposed to be free but it would cost me US$9.95 to upgrade my iPod Touch to iPhone 3.0.

Here’s the screenshots (click to enlarge):

On this page, it says “iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod Touch – Already have an iPhone? Update it with new features, free.

On the other page, it says “Download software update. Only US$9.95.”

On the page found at Singapore site, it says “Buy now for $9.95″

I hate misleading advertisement. I checked various websites and found out that iPhone owners are entitled for free update but the iPod Touch owners are not. What the ….

I am not going to pay for the f&$@*?# update so I searched the web. I found one blogger from Sarawak has written a blog entry about this. I also found some links to download the free iPhone 3.0 here.

It seems like, according to dzimonotion, Apple has mistaken published a free upgrade for download but the link has been taken down later. Someone was quick enough to discover that and downloaded the free upgrade and sharing it now.

You can download the iPhone 3.0 free upgrade here or here is a torrent link.

After downloading, connect your iPod Touch and option click the Update button in iTunes (8.2 or later). Look for a .ipsw file and select. The upgrade will begin immediately. The upgrading process will take a while. Do not disconnect your iPod Touch. When the upgrading process is completed, your iPod Touch will reboot. Enjoy!

Now, I can connect a bluetooth stereo headset (I don’t have one now), I can do copy-cut-paste, etc. Check the Apple website for new features in iPhone 3.0 Update.

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about Apple’s business practice, Is Apple Dirty? Why iPhone owners are entitled for free upgrade? Why iPod Touch owners are not? Now, you judge.

I need a vitrectomy

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:35:46 +0000

This morning I checked in to the clinic and the doctor who replaced my doctor told me that there was a large tear and the water (vitreous fluid) had sipped into the tear. Retina detachment was forming and was progressive. He insisted me to seek expert advice from a VR (Vitreo Retina) specialist in Kuala Lumpur.

Upon hearing his comment, what I feared most had stricken down my spine. It was inevitable finally. What has to come, has come. I had to accept the reality. My mood swung 180 degrees.

We rushed home to have a quick lunch, called my mom to ask her to help MIL to take care of the three dinos at home. It was a public holiday tomorrow, so we had to rush to make it to the clinic before the clinic closes in the evening. LA drove and I guided her into KL and to the clinic at Mid Valley Mega Mall.

It was about 1:30 P.M. when we arrived at the clinic. The VR specialist confirmed the detachment area which was holding up by previous and fresh laser retinopexy scars. He strongly recommended vitrectomy to repair the detached retina. The story goes this way:

Last evening, we were told by the doctor in Melaka that everything was stable and the tear was held up by the laser and there was no detachment. But this VR specialist told me the other story. There was a big detachment area and fresh laser mark surrounding that detachment area. One question: Why did the doctor in Melaka give me more laser?

Obviously, (in my opinion) the doctor in Melaka had denied us the truth. I am damn f@$&#*? sure that he did not mention about any detachment in progress at all and what LA and I heard was that “Everything is stable but I just need (and feel better) to put more laser surrounding the blood vessel.”

So, I could wait to see if the laser marks would hold or the detachment would progress slowly until it would need a repair. I made the decision on the spot to be vitrectomized based on several reasons:

if the detachment has been progressive, it will eventually need a repair.
the longer I wait, the lower chance I have to have a better recovery because the longer the retina is detached, the retina cells will die and I will loose partial vision.
since I am already consulting a VR specialist and he can immediate vitrectomize my eye, why wait until Monday or so? It is a long weekend and God knows what will happen during the weekend.

So the decision was made. The doctor immediately picked up his phone and arranged for a vitrectomy procedure. The vitrectomy is done as out-patient procedure with local anesthetic. The entire procedure takes only about 30 minutes and I can go home after that.

The doctor took me to another room to take some photos of my retina. Here are some snapshots of my retina. The first photo was taken in March this year at an optometrist shop. The “X” roughly marks where the tear and detachment area is.

Taken in March this year at an optometrist shop

The photo appears to be cloudy due to the blood and debris in the vitreous humor

The white dots are fresh laser marks surrounding the detachment area (U shape)

After the photography session, they sent me to consult a surgery consultant. At her office, she explained to us what the procedure is and what I shall do after the procedure. I have to sit, sleep, stand and walk with my head facing down so that the air bubble in my eye will push against my retina. Not so bad though, I thought. At least better than the previous one (on my right eye) which I had to sleep only on my left all the time. While she explained to me, my nervousness struck me and sent me a great chill. I was shivering with very obvious tremor.

We went for quick lunch at Gardens and went back to the operation floor. I felt warmer with a sweater which LA brought along. It was 3 P.M. Not long after we arrived at the operation floor, the nurses got me ready into surgical gown. Very soon, a nurse came out from an operating theater and called me in. Why so soon? We were told that my procedure would be around 4 P.M.!

I went into the operating theater and was told to lay down on the operating bed. Then the nurse put on a blanket on my body to keep me warm. Not long after, the door opened and my doctor entered. He gave me a warm greeting and ditto. We started some conversation while he and his surgical team were preparing.

The doctor instilled two drops of anesthetic into my left eye. After a minute, he returned to give me a local anesthetic injection. He pulled down my lower eye lid and poke the needle into my eye. Ouch! He told me to breathe in and out for him while he performed the injection slowly. When it was done, he applied a gauze and pressed on my eye. After a while, a nurse took over. I began to feel numb on my left eye. Later, a nurse wrapped my face with an adhesive film and then cover the other eye of mine with a cloth.

After a while, the doctor came back and started to cut a hole on the film to expose my left eye. I could hear the sound of the instrument knocking on the table and some noises from some equipment. While the doctor was operating on my eye, we chatted. He is from a small town called Jasin in Melaka. He has two daughters. And the gas he is going to inject into my eye is Sulphur Hexa-fluoride (SF6) and it will only last for 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks for C3F8.

I did not feel any pain except some pressures during the surgery. With our conversation, the surgery was over very quickly. It seemed like only 5 to 10 minutes having a chat with a friend. The experience was much better than the cataract surgery I had in 2007. My body wasn’t tensed this time. Perhaps, I am more prepared after the two surgeries previously.

If you are curious about what the doctor did to me, click here. It is the same procedure without the scleral buckle thing.

After the surgery, we went over to Borders at Gardens to browse some books. We left for home afterward and arrived around 8 P.M.

I see a shadow

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:33:35 +0000

Perhaps, the worst nightmare, I have been expecting. After an afternoon nap, I woke up to see a shadow at the bottom of my left vision. It was not black or grey shadow but simply shadow which I could not describe. It was almost 5PM and I quickly told LA to give my doctor a call and hopefully still could catch him at his clinic. The doctor told us to check in his clinic and he would wait for us.

By the time we arrived at his clinic, all his staff had gone back after clinic hour. He was waiting in his office. After the examination, he told us everything was stable and nothing to worry about and he gave me another (4th) round of laser retinopexy. According to him, he felt better to give me another laser to secure the area surrounding the broken capillary which ruptured last Wednesday.

After the laser, he assured us again everything was stable and I would be fine. He sent us home and told me to check in again the next day for a follow up. He also told us that he would not be in so another doctor from Terendak Military Hospital would replace him.

Clearer vision

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:44:26 +0000

Today, my left vision has become very much clearer comparing to couple of days ago. This morning, I went to the clinic for a follow up and the doctor’s feedback was encouraging and calming. Everything is stabilizing and nothing to worry about but still more bed rest until I see his retina associate on next Monday after his holiday.

We went home happily and had a good relieve. LA and I had been in and out of the clinic for almost three weeks since I had PVD (Posterior Vitreous Detachment) and retina tear on May 18. I guessed, at least for this moment, nothing to worry about.

Veil vision

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:12:05 +0000

My left vision has turned yellowish and veil due to the blood and debris in the vitreous humor. I can see black shadow at the top of my vision which is actually remnant of the blood which has sunk to the bottom of my eye. It will take a few days for the eye to absorb whatever debris and remnant of blood.

Sedated

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:29:06 +0000

This morning went back to the clinic for followup of yesterday treatment. My doctor prescribed Xanax to sedate me. One in the afternoon and one at night for three days so that I could sleep better not to worry too much of my condition.

After lunch, I took one tablet and felt very relaxing and fell asleep very soon. For almost two weeks, I have had too much bed rest and it becomes quite difficult for me to fall asleep. Xanax has been a great temporary relief.

More floaters and bleeding

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:25:24 +0000

My vision became clearer and appeared to be very much better after the incident last Thursday. LA and I were relieved after my eye test and the examination. The doctor told us that my condition was stabilizing but not totally out of the loop yet. So, more bed rest. I felt quick sick with all the bed rest and lack of physical activities. My whole body was aching madly.

After returning home from the clinic, I sat at the couch talking to my mum. We were catching up what had happened in the family and the conversation was delight and relax. At about 3PM, I got up and went to the bathroom to take a leak. Then I got some drink and went back to the couch. Not long after I had seated, through my vision, I could see stream of blood oozing out. I knew I was having a bad tear and a blood vessel on my retina had ruptured. That’s why I could see a stream of blood was flowing.

LA called my doctor and rushed me to his clinic. On the way there, the bleeding did not stop and I was extremely freaked out. LA was freaked out by my worries. When we arrived at the clinic, the bleeding stop. At this time, the blood in my eye was enough to cloud my vision.

The bleeding stopped shortly after our arrival. After the examination by the doctor, he gave me another round of laser retinopexy to reinforce the area surrounding the blood vessel. The doctor ensured us the situation was under control and we could return home but to come back for a follow-up the next day.

More floaters

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:42:03 +0000

Yesterday, I went to the library to read some books. I returned home at about 6PM in the evening and a market surveyor from an established survey firm came knocking at the gate. I talked to him and accepted his survey. At about 7PM, my vision became worse. I was beginning to see curtain/veil vision. I knew my condition had just become more serious.

The market surveyor was taking too much time and when he was finally finished with LA about the survey, I told LA about it and we were worried.

We rushed to the clinic this morning and the doctor gave me second round of laser retinopexy. He said there was a large tear and required more laser to hold up the area to prevent retina detachment. He also said that there was no detachment as yet and not to worried. We went home after that.

Laser retinopexy

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:08:26 +0000

Monday morning, I saw a sudden influx of floaters at my left eye. My previous experience of retina detachment on my right eye immediately prompted me that I was in an emergency. Without hesitating, I called my doctor for his advice. He told me to lie down and not to move around so that the condition would not progress too fast. It was late morning and was too late to go to his clinic in Kuala Lumpur. His clinic closes at 1PM.

I quickly returned home and told LA about my condition. We decided not to wait until the next day so she quickly contacted some people and got an appointment with a consultant eye surgeon in the town.

She sent me to the clinic and then went to pick up Dmitry with grandma. While she settled down with the kids at home, I waited for examination.

After a thorough examination, the doctor told me that I had weak retina and the gel in my eye was liquefying and it was going to tear my retina. No tear had occurred yet but impending. He suggested laser retinopexy to seal off those weak areas to prevent tearing.

Laser retinopexy is a procedure using short pulses of green Argon laser to make tiny burns on the retina. It is like stitching the retina to the wall. I hate this part. To perform the procedure, the eye has to be dilated first. Then, the doctor will apply gel onto a ring and attach it to my eyeball. I have to set my head and chin steadily onto the apparatus. The doctor will manipulate the ring so he can look into my eye and to search for the area to be treated. Laser will be targeted and fired in short pulses. Some discomfort can be felt when the laser power is too high or at sensitive areas.

This time I did rather well although my whole body froze as stiff as a wooden log. I managed to relax by taking deep breath and talking to the doctor, but still, I let out “Ouch!” occasionally. The entire procedure took less than 20 minutes and I received over 600 laser stitches, according to my doctor.

The doctor advised against strenuous activities at least for a week until the doctor examine my condition again next Monday.

My previous research indicates that retina detachment may occur when the head is traumatized or with high-powered myopia and aging. But how does this actually happen? I have done another research and the finding is very interesting. Of course, this is also partly due to my high-powered myopia.

The gel in the eye is called vitreous humor. The collagen fibers of the vitreous are held apart by electrical charges. The collagen fibers clump together when electrical charges decrease during aging. The gel will also liquefy when the electrical charges decrease. A condition called syneresis (in chemistry, the extraction or expulsion of liquid from gel) occurred, allowing cells and other organic cluster to float freely within the vitreous humor. These floaters are perceived as spots or fibrous strands in the vision. Floaters are generally harmless. A sudden onset of recurring floaters may signify a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) or other diseases of the eye. A doctor specialized in this area is called vitreo-retina specialist.

My previous experience was due to ignorant. I hope my posts will give you an idea so at least when you see sudden onset of floaters in your vision, you can seek immediate medical attention to save your eyes.

Backup your Mac with AppleScript

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:45:50 +0000

All programmers are lazy. They want to automate tasks as much as they can. Because of this uniquely great habit, they have developed countless of useful software.

Ok. I am lazy. I have been using rsync to sync folders I am working on between my Macs. I have been using command line scripts in Terminal for almost two years and finally I have gotten lazy over the task.

The thing is, I need to execute the scripts in Terminal every time I want to synch my folders. Of course, I could simply use cron to automate the tasks at specific time but I ran the risk to cause havoc between the folders on different Macs. It is best not to cron the task.

So, I learned up AppleScript and after a ten-minute hack, I wrote a nice AppleScripts to do the job. It is quick and dirty.

set debug to false

with timeout of (30 * 60) seconds
	tell application "Terminal"
		set Window_Title to "Sync Documents"
		set Rsync_Cmd to "rsync -acrtv --delete
			/Users/username/Documents/
			username@xxx:Documents"
		set output_doc to do shell script Rsync_Cmd
		choose from list paragraphs of output_doc with prompt
			"Result:" with title Window_Title with empty
			selection allowed
	end tell
end timeout

Copy the script to ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder and save it as “sync documents.scpt”. Then launch Script Editor to edit username to your login name and xxx to your Mac IP address or computer name. This script will sync your Documents folder under your user home directory. To execute this AppleScript, at Finder, click on the script icon on the menu bar and select the script to launch.

rsync uses ssh. If you have not setup a password-less ssh login, you will need ssh-askpass in /usr/libexec. Unfortunately, it does not ship with Mac OS X. You can get it at Joe Mocker’s weblog.

Miranda

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:42:46 +0000

Finally, I have got an idea what name to give to my iPod Touch. It was named “Adrian Hoe’s iPod Touch” to make things simple. The hardest part was to find a name which implies its usefulness.

I have several reasons to buy an iPod Touch but I am not going to talk about them here. One most ostensible use of it is that I am no longer required to lug my MacBook (code-named Uranus) everywhere I go. Since it replaces the function of Uranus when it is not with me, I name my iPod Touch, Miranda, one of the five moons of Uranus. Miranda is the inner most and smallest moon of Uranus and is also referred to Uranus V.

Sports Day 2009

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:57:11 +0000

Today is the first time for Dmitry to involve in a sporting event organized by his school. We were up early and sent Richie and Nik to grandma’s. By the time we were at his school, there were many people already. We found a place to sit.

Dmitry took part in a multi-game and 4 x 50m event. His team was in 4th place thus he did not win anything but his old folks, LA and I won prizes in parents’ events.

LA won first place for threading a needle. She was the fastest of all leaving behind other mothers with a big gap. I won a second place for picking up a mineral water bottle using a drinking straw and ran 10 meters to the finish line. Both prices were bath towels.

The prize is not important. What important is to show Dmitry sporting spirit from his daddy and mommy.

Before the opening ceremony

Line up and get ready

In a multi-sport event

D was in action in 4 x 50m event

The organizer explained how to play the game

1, 2, GO!

Got tanned under the hot sun.

A passing star

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:30:49 +0000

February 6 was a gloomy day for us. It was devastating to hear two bad news on the same hot afternoon. A family member of LA’s friend has ovary cancer with metastasis to the other ovary and the liver.

Not too long after the first news, came another one. LA’s ex-colleague and friend, madam Chua, was admitted to Malacca’s General Hospital on the second day of Chinese New Year due to lung cancer with metastasis to the bone and brain. She was literally coma laying helplessly in the bed. She has no children.

Her husband is a hemodialysis patient. He collapsed with high blood pressure (200+Hg) after hearing the news. LA’s friends were trying to seek some volunteering help to assist in taking care of her.

I called up my friend, Benji, in Kuala Lumpur and he helped to pull together some church members in Malacca to help.

This evening at 1700 hours, we were supposed to meet up with Chua’s husband and other family members at the hospital to discuss with doctors to make arrangement to send Chua to palliative care unit. I rushed home and then we sent our children to grandma’s. We were late. On our way to the hospital, we received a call from another friend informing us Chua had just passed away a while ago.

We were shocked. When we arrived at the ward at 1730 hours, the nurse told us that Chua passed away at 1700 hours. We had lots of mixed feeling. It is certainly good for her because she no longer needs to bear the sufferings in silence and in her motionless body.

Nothing ambitious, worked as a clinic nurse for more than 10 years, a passer-by has just passed the pathway of life. Gone were her agonies and yesterday tales. Finally, peace she found. We would like to thank Benji, Pastor Paul, Dr. John and a few others who have lent a helping hand and prayer. Thank you.

We were at the hospital to help her husband and her niece until the caretaker arrived. On our way back, we went to a temple to pray for her. May her soul rest in peace.

Objectively Boolean

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:34:23 +0000

I was introduced to Objective-C in a workshop organized by Apple Malaysia about 3 years ago. Read my posts here and here. No real development using Objective-C after that.

One plain reason for me to pick up Objective-C again recently is to develop Cocoa and Cocoa Touch applications for the Macs and iPhone (and iPod Touch). Trying to having nonpartisan mind after so many years of using Ada (and away from C/C++ and variants) is a difficult task to comprehend. As an individual Ada developer (having my own opinion) I am finding C/C++ very compromising in many ways, for instance, readability of codes and safety. Although Objective-C has many improvement over C/C++, it is still lacking what Ada offers.

By syntax, Objective-C is still very much like C. A few obvious clues to tell if it is an Objective-C are the use of #import, instead of #include; the @ sign; the Smalltalk-like message passing syntax and several others.

The #include statement in C/C++ has many drawbacks. One which seriously affecting compilation efficiency is the repeating includes of same header files. With #import, header files are included once only throughout entire compilation.

One deadly pitfall I have encountered so far is the way Boolean type is implemented in Objective-C. C supports Boolean data type, bool, which takes on the value of either true or false. Objective-C has similar data type, BOOL, which is 8-bit number that takes on YES as 1 and NO as 0. If you unwittingly assign a 2-byte integer to a BOOL type, the result can be catastrophic. Only the lowest byte will be used for the value of BOOL. If the lowest byte is zero, for example, 4608 which its hexadecimal value is 0×1200, BOOL will be zero or NO.

Ada’s strong-typing disallows this to happen and thus saving, possibly countless hours of debugging. Personally, I like neither bool nor BOOL. I prefer Ada’s Boolean.

Unlike the dreaded C++, Objective-C does not support operator overloading and multiple inheritance. In Ada95, a restricted form of multiple inheritance is supported. In Ada2005, multiple inheritance is supported by new form of type called the interface type, similar to abstract tagged type with no components.

CNY 2009 Lion Dance

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:10:55 +0000

Last year, I took quite an amount of photographs without video. This year, I decided to take video and photographs to make some DVD home movie for the family. The video was actually taken by my niece, Lilian. Not bad for her first time taking video. Here’s a digest version of the vIdeo I made for my blog. Pay attention to the way the lion played with the firecrackers. Dangerous though, but never see this in the southern part.

Apple TV playlist

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:59:57 +0000

I have installed an Apple TV at my client’s office waiting area. His purpose is to educate his patients while they are waiting for their consultation. That is a brilliant idea as we had long and boring waiting experience when LA was consulting him.

The idea is to design different programs with advertisements and messages interleaved among documentary and his own educational videos for playback on different days of the week. And the most important thing is to allow the doctor himself to easily update his educational videos and advertisements anytime as he wishes from his new 24″ iMac.

After I installed Apple TV a few days ago, I realized it did not have movie playlist. After Googling for a while, I wasn’t alone. Here is a blog entry with the same problem. And I found out the Apple TV Software Update 2.3 allows movie playlist in iTunes to be seen on Apple TV. I downloaded the 2.3 update this afternoon, and after I activated the movie playlist in Apple TV settings, it is now able to play the movies in the playlist as desired.

I pondered why Apple did not ship Apple TV with new software update 2.3. It was released in November 2008. About the Apple TV software update can be found here.

Another ultimate experience

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:53:59 +0000

When LA birthed Richie, I was there with her almost the whole day in the labor room. That was the first awesome experience in my life. About three years ago, when LA birthed Nik, I was there with her in the operating theatre (OT). That was another more wonderful day in my whole life. I could hear her doctor cut open her lower abdomen (Caesarean section).

Almost a month after Nik was born, I suffered from retina detachment and had to undergo a surgery to repair it. That was myself experiencing the first surgery of my life. The experience was really awesome and I had some mixed feeling.

This afternoon, I had to test out some equipment in the OT while the doctor was performing laparoscopic surgery. Like the second experience, I had to put on the surgical gown and mask before entering the OT. Only this time I was with the doctor.

That's me in surgical clothing

Although the laparoscopic surgery was not invasive, it was thrilling enough to witness the live performance before my own eyes. At least, it has proven I have a strong stomach up to this level.

Back to the serious stuff. The purpose of the test was to make sure the process could be streamlined with Mac computers. Before this, the doctor’s assistant would have to push a rather big and clumsy caddy with PC, a LCD monitor and some other equipment from consultation suite to OT prior to every surgery. By using a Mac, they would no longer need the chunky caddy. A MacBook snugged nicely into a carrying bag together with the little device would perform the tasks.

The following photos showed the chunky caddy and my MacBook.

Chunky caddy and the Potato Computer (PC)

The sleek and sexy MacBook

New Toshiba Regza

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:46:44 +0000

Bought a new Toshiba Regza 37″ LCD TV from KL on Monday. Fixed it up yesterday and the kids were enjoying it while their two old folks working hard to meet and to deliver orders.

Mounted on the wall to save space

It costs me RM2,400 for the unit and extra RM100 for the wall mount. It is not a full HD model as I decided that we do not need one. Of course a full HD model will be nice to have for watching movies on Blu-ray disc. The player is still very expensive, more than RM2,000 and the original movies titles are also expensive. Unless till Blu-ray hack is widely available and the equipment and software prices have come down tremendously like the DVD, full HD is not our utmost priority.

A good head start

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:46:31 +0000

Happy New Year 2009 buddies!

It seems like a good head start for me. Everything I planned for today seems to be smooth sailing although I am having one problem which I do not know why it happens. I guess I will need to toy with it and/or hack it to learn why it isn’t behaving as it supposed to be. If everything is running perfect before end of this month, I will acquire an iPod Touch to proceed further. This will be my first wish on this very first day of 2009.

Happy New Year 2009!

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:00:23 +0000

This will be the last post in 2008. So, I am going to write something good and simple.

First, a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2009 to family, friends and readers. I also wish all of you best of health.

Secondly, eat more chocolate. It is good for your immune system and increases your brain cells. But don’t forget to brush your teeth after eating. Well, this is a fact which I learned from Dean Ornish a few days ago.

Third and so on, I have not got any clues to write about. So, I wish all of you a wonderful 2009 ahead! Cheers!

What a dinner!

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:59:26 +0000

After my karate class, I went down town to pick up my parents. The traffic was massive. Getting into town took almost 30 minutes and getting out of it took another 15 minutes. When we reached home, the two older boys were ready. Dmitry was wearing his new watch. We were going out for dinner on the last Sunday of 2008. I quickly took my shower then we left the house at around 1900.

Some days ago, our friend recommended a Hakka restaurant at Taman Merdeka, Batu Berendam. We were very eager to try out this restaurant.

We arrived at the restaurant around 1915 hours. It was quite well decorated and look clean. We went in and found a table. But the waitress gave us the menu rather late. We had to wait for about 20 minutes (or more) for the menu. The waitress was then quick to take our orders. She could speak Hakka. She is a da pu ke (大埔客). Apparently, she is the owner or the wife of the restaurant owner or the chef who is a hai luk feng ke (海陆凤客). I asked her to recommend some dishes. I ordered four simple dishes: braised pork belly, salt baked chicken, a vegetable and tou fu with basil and peppermint. These are the indigenous Hakka dishes. So, we were happily waiting for the food to be served.

The time passed minute after minute. We waited until 2000 hours still not sight of our food nor a pot of hot water we requested. Nowadays, we will bring our own good quality tea leaves to restaurant and ask for a pot of hot water to make our own tea. Finally, when I caught one of the waitress’ attention and asked her where was the pot of hot water, it seemed like she didn’t understand what I had requested. Anyway, the pot of hot water arrived without tea cups! Can you imagine making a pot of tea and drinking without tea cups?

I called the waitress and another waitress came. Obviously she is a foreign worker. This time, she brought us four tea cups. We needed five and she only brought us four. Hello! Does she know how to count? Worst thing was that, one of the tea cup had two baby cockroaches crawling on it! Yucks!

LA went to complain and to ask for new one. One good thing is that, Dmitry is now able to complain and make suggestion! He told me earlier that we should go to the other restaurant at Bukit Baru. The kids loves the food there and the service is good and the price is very reasonable. After hearing the fuss, he said, “See! I told you to go to the other restaurant.” Yeah. He was right but we never know if we didn’t try, right?

Alright, after some more minutes of waiting, the dishes finally arrived. It was almost 2015 and all of us were very hungry. The two younger boys were impatient. We dug in like backhoes. The foods were quite delicious though but talking about the service, sigh….

Four simple dishes took ages to come out of the kitchen. Can you imagine that? The workforce (waitresses) is very disoriented and unorganized. Everything is a massive lump of mess like the traffic in the town.

We filled our tummy and washed down with a few cups of Chinese tea. When the bill came, it was ridiculously expensive in our dining experience. The bill was RM62 for four simple dishes and the portion were not big enough for four adults and three kids! At the Bukit Baru restaurant, it only costs us less than RM60 for five adults and three kids with five dishes and we can go home with absolute satisfaction of our taste buds and tummies. This? I still needed a supper and LA desperately needed a supper, definitely! The supper cost another RM5!

This is our first time and also the last time to patron this restaurant. We thought we could have a nice and enjoyable dinner on the last Sunday of 2008 but unfortunately it turned otherwise.

Kids’ first karaoke

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:25:53 +0000

We were invited by LA’s sister and her husband to Su-Ann’s be-lated birthday celebration. We embarked to PJ around 1100 yesterday and arrived at her brother’s house around 1400. Almost all of LA’s family members were there. We had some light food for lunch then took a rest.

We headed to Neway Karaoke Box in One Utama at 1700. The karaoke box was huge. The lounge was big enough to fit in all 20+ of us. It was a buffet dinner with free karaoke. The food was very nice and everyone was enjoying and had a full tummy.

As for our boys, this was their new experience, a new one. They had no idea what karaoke was about. Dmitry was really enjoying singing with his cousins. He sang Beauty and the Beast and Reflection (theme song in Mulan). I would say not bad at all at his age. He could recognize all the words in the lyrics. He was good comparing to his old daddy. Ha.. ha..

Dietrich joined him for a few kid’s songs. Dominik roaming around and having fun with all sort of food. He really enjoyed the food and the noises there.

We left for Melaka at 2245 and touched base at 0115. The kids were soundly asleep after a fun karaoke and tummy filling buffet session.

A relaxing Christmas at home

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:11:32 +0000

First, we wish all our family, friends and readers a Merry Christmas.

We decided to stay home this Christmas. The main reason was recession and heavy traffic everywhere. The price of petrol had fallen to RM1.80 per litter causing everyone to start taking to the roads with this more affordable price. Our petrol consumption has become even lower because of the cheaper price and the driving habit we picked up after the price hike a few months back. We planned our outings and routes so that we hit the roads less often.

On Sunday night, we went to the Portuguese Settlement to see Christmas decoration. Nothing unusual, same as it is every year, but for the fun of the kids. It was a four days before Christmas and the traffic there already built up. Some silly-no-brain drivers were part of the cause of the traffic jam in the settlement.

We spent whole day watching movies and listening to Christmas carols at home. What a relaxing Christmas.

Oh yea! My wishes this time… you know, don’t you?

Kung Fu Panda

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:53:50 +0000

Just finished watching Kung Fu Panda with LA and kids. It is a really nice comedy with good meaning. My boys like to watch animation and Dmitry has been asking me many times, “Daddy, when can we watch Kung Fu Panda?” Finally, there it is.

The CG animation has brilliant colors and Chinese culture cleverly blended into it. I think it is the best CG animation ever that involves many great complexity. I am not going to talk or comment about this movie because it has been released in cinema sometimes ago. It is pointless for me to review it now. But one thing which has caught my attention is near the end of the movie. Po’s goose father Mr. Ping, tells him about the secret of the secret recipes of the noodle soup. Ping says, “The secret of the secret recipe of the noodle soup is nothing at all. There is no secret recipe.” (I hope I get the line correct, I am lazy to play the video again). Then Po realizes why the dragon scroll is blank. He then defeats his enemy, the much feared Tai Lung, with his determination and courage together with a little enlightenment.

The moral of the story, there is no secret recipe to become success. Courage, determination, faith, hardworking, persistence, strive and a little enlightenment are the secret ingredients of success.

Oh yeah, I forgot, a dream and a miracle are also secret ingredients in the secret recipe. So, dare to dream for a miracle and realize it.

For those who have not watched the movie, I strongly recommend to have a watch. You will certainly have a good laugh.

Busy

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:13:12 +0000

Dear family, friends and readers,

If you have noticed, I post less starting October. Perhaps some of you are wondering why. Yes, you are right, I am busy working on my research and the thesis. Please continue to check my blog regularly and all comments are welcome. I will check and reply comments and will write new posts when time and ideas sneak in. I will be writing selectively rather than random thoughts.

Thank you for your patronage.

Happy Diwali and a great start for Richie

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:05:24 +0000

First, our warm wishes to all our Indian friends a very Happy Diwali. Nothing special over the weekend and on the Diwali itself yesterday. Except we watched a Hindi movie, “Om Shanti Om”, on Sunday night. Yesterday, we visited Dmitry’s classmate and her parents who were celebrating Diwali. At night, we watched a Tamil movie, titled “BOSS”.

Today? Richie went to school for the first time to get him familiar with schooling life so that he can accustom easily when he starts his school officially next year. It was quiet at home with only LA, Nik and I. Nik was able to enjoy quiet moments without Richie bullying or disturbing him.

Against All Odds – The Rise Of An Industrious Country

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:40:55 +0000

It was two weeks ago, if my memory served me right, my kids were playing around the dining hall. One of them, took a hard-boiled egg and put it into a basket of uncooked eggs. LA was getting crazy about this. I heard the incidence and I came out of my working room.

“This is the great opportunity to show the kids about science I learned when I was in lower primary.”, the thought emerged quickly. At that age, I used to read science comics for kids published by a Hong Kong publisher. I never had any chance to use that knowledge. My mom would do the cooking and I did not mess around her kitchen so there was no chance to mix up the cooked and uncooked eggs. This time, my kids gave me an opportunity to show off.

I took the two eggs in my hand and LA gathered the boys around the dining table. Mom told D, “Look, daddy is going to demonstrate science.”

I took one egg at a time, stood it on its broader end and then spun it on the table, One egg would spin standing until it lost its angular momentum. The other egg couldn’t hardly spin on its end for a fraction of a second. The cooked and uncooked eggs had been determined. The boys, especially D, were astonished.

Well, what is the relationship about this egg tale and the rise of an industrious country?

I always believe in doing the simplest to the most complicated things with my own hands. The end result is not so important. The process of doing it and the knowledge I acquired is of utmost importance.

I am reading this book, “Against All Odds – The Story of the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Family That Created It”, by Yukiyasu Togo & William Wartman.

Sakichi Toyoda was an intelligent man who prided himself on what he had been able to achieved without benefit of education or family influence. He believed that a man didn’t need education in the theories and principles of science and that he could learn all he needed to know by working on machines with his own hands. His son Kiichiro had the finest training from his father.

To bring to the point quickly (I am not going to write a summary of this book yet but to complement a post and its comments here), Kiichiro perfected the automatic shuttle changing device which his father, Sakichi, invented for Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Company.

It was the unorthodox and bold spirit of Toyoda father and son that made Toyota one of the best known and largest auto makers in the world.

Just an appetizer to keep you going. I will write more while I read on.

归零

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:44:01 +0000

读了成彪登在新华网的作者文集，我对“归零”有很大的回响，也让我心中再次涌现了她的影子。读完文集，我热泪盈眶：

9月28日，神七顺利回家，举国为之欢腾。

从神七返回舱顺利落地的那一刻，一个词——“归零”立刻浮现在笔者的心头。在2005年神六完美落地后，航天员费俊龙、聂海胜异口同声地说：“所有的成绩都已经‘归零’。”而今，神七同样不辱使命，我们同样需要自信、自警、自强地对自己说“所有的成绩都已经‘归零’”，进而尽快回到那光荣而艰苦的圆梦历程上，继续向更高的科技高峰攀登。

从某种意义上说，航天产品研制的过程就是一个不断归零的过程。神七按计划成功落地，载人航天飞行的技术“归零”就同时启动，我们不仅要在这项系统技术上追求完美无缺，还要举一反三地消除前进道路上的每一个科技难题，在不断地难题“归零”、成绩“归零”中创造新的辉煌。

从差距到动力，中间需要一个“发现”——自我发现差距，产生奋起直追的内在要求。神七落地的那一刻就将成绩“归零”，就是要自我发现差距、内生前进动力。

神七回家日，成绩归零时。除了鲜花、掌声、贺辞之外，广大航天科技工作者又一次自信自强地站在新的起点，向着发射空间实验室、建立永久性空间站等更高更远的目标前进！

早在1990年代中，我的同事和我都一直难题“归零”，我们才有今日的成就。回顾十三年来我们经历的一番努力，心里别有一番味道。虽然，今天各自有所发展，我们还是把以前的合作永远铭记于心。令我最遗憾的是我的好友兼第一任女友不幸的在1998年车祸去世。我们在中四就认识。她也是一位电脑奇材。她最拿手的是彙编语言 (assembly language)。她写彙编语言程序简直是到了出神入化的地步。她也是我在中四刚开始接触电脑时的良师。1995年当我建议公司采用 Ada 为主要软件开发语言，她给了我很大的鼓励。她曾向我说过：“一切从头开始吧。从‘零’开始会更好。”

她给了我很好的启示。我把所有已开发完毕的软件系统拿来“归零”，以 Ada 从新开发。就这样，我一路发展下去。一有了成绩，我又一切“归零”，从零开始。周而复始。

1997年，全球金融风暴，也是她让我重拾信心，再次“归零”开始。1998年初，我的公司开始转型，迈向国外的时刻，她也考获博士学位，那时我们俩正是处于最颠峰状态。可惜造化弄人，1998年12月26日凌晨，我接到她爸爸的电话，听到厄闻，我顿时呆了。28日就是她的生日。我伤心了好几个星期。1999年1月30日，她爸妈从美国办完她的丧事回来，我见过了她爸妈。她爸爸给了我一样东西看，她的日记。看了过后，我很感激她。自从那时起，我就一直沉醉于工作、一切“归零”。

2001年，公司已经走向世界了，我也离开重组新公司，一切又“归零”。2006年，公司开发工程完毕，我离开公司了，一切又“归零”。要不是这“归零”、又“归零”、再“归零”，今天我也不会有这等思想。

今天我所做的一切，也是一切“归零”开始，希望我的孩子能够早日走出泥沼迈向世界。

Two more kids get pox

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:37:27 +0000

Well, Dmitry had recovered from his chickenpox and began schooling this Monday. Unfortunately, Rich began to get the symptom on Monday late morning when LA noticed some red spots and small blisters popping out on his face. By Wednesday, he had blisters all over his body.

And today, guess what? Nik begins to show symptoms. His outbreak is slow with fewer blisters. We are supposed to meet up with LY tomorrow but it looks like impossible. They are so afraid that their daughter (same age as Nik) may get the chickenpox too.

Well, all three of them have gotten their chickenpox.

Nassi-Shneiderman Diagram

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:44:58 +0000

I came across a highly influential graphical representation method of stating algorithm while I was reading books of system analysis and design. This method is called Nassi-Shneiderman Diagram or NSD. It was developed by Isaac “Ike” Nassi and Ben Shneiderman in 1972. Isaac also helped design the Ada programming language.

Many people claimed NSD to be very easy to read and understand, especially for beginners. This is probably quite true but maintaining NSD can be a problem for system designers. Unlike flowchart, NSD lumps all the symbols into one large block and does not use connectors between the symbols.

Contrary to flowchart which uses connectors, NSD provides a better structural approach of design where Goto should be avoided in structured programming. NSD provides simplicity and a compact overview of a program that can show some relationship nicely. NSD, in particular, provides visual aid and guides thinking about nested conditional structures.

Personally, I find that NSD is useful for rapid prototyping. It is quite simple and easy to draw a conceptual design before expanding into a flowchart. Modifying a stage or symbol in NSD is rather tedious compared to flowchart. On the other hand, after a careful and thorough investigation, I find NSD most suitable for structured system analysis, design and programming. NSD was designed with structured system analysis and design in mind as mentioned in the above paragraph, it has many advantages over flowchart despite of problem maintaining it. I think it is worth to study and to use it.

Here is an example of NSD and flowchart stating an algorithm to find a summation given by the equation:

If S > 100, then display k and tell the user that k is in range.

Hit the books

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:32:52 +0000

I have eight books to gnaw in 4 weeks but I only found one and bought it yesterday. So far, I’ve managed to gnaw one and half chapters of all eighteen in one book. The list of the books that I need to chew is growing. Looking at the list and the progress that I have made so far makes me a little worry. It is one mission impossible.

Some of the books are available as ebook but I prefer a hardcopy. Downloading of ebook pages are quite slow. The other drawback of the ebook is that I am unable to flip between pages for cross referencing. Hence, I would rather to invest in hardcopy books.

Local bookstores have limited titles. I believe Borders and Kinokumiya may have titles which I am looking for. I have to travel to KL one of these days to search for the books I need.

Pox Party

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:17:31 +0000

Hurray! Let’s have chicken pox party! Wait a minute… Am I going crazy? Who wants to have chickenpox? Huh… You see. In the past, parents would throw a chicken pox party when their children got chickenpox. The idea was to let other children to contract the virus naturally rather through inoculation. Once a person has contracted chickenpox, he/she will have immunity to chicken pox for the rest of his/her life. The only drawback is that person will have a chance to have shingles when the immunity gets low.

Dmitry has got chickenpox this morning. I didn’t see any when I had bath with him yesterday. So, the doctor gave him one week medical leave and advised him to stay at home. Nowadays people are so afraid to let their children to get chickenpox. This is a sign of overly protective. Children should not be sent back to school. But I personally think that why not as long as the children have no fever and as long as personal hygiene is taken care of.

Lets go spread some virus! He…he…

Algorithmic art

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:34:47 +0000

Jean-Pierre Hébert, a 68-year-old French artist, is an algorist. This is a name, proposed by Jean himself, for artists who create arts using unique computer algorithms. Apple featured Jean and his works in May 2008. You can read about him here so I am not going to repeating writing about him and his works.

When I was doing shopping alone this evening, the idea flashed in my mind. I could use Mathematica to explore algorithmic art. So, I sat down in front of my Mac and explored. Here’s my first piece of algorithmic art . It is not comparable to what Jean has done but is definitely a good start. I can’t call myself algorist yet because I created no algorithm.

The following examples are two very simple mathematics equations. The plots demonstrate that mathematics can be visualized as art.

And here is the Mathematica code:

ArrayPlot[
 Table[Mod[Abs[((2 x + I y/5)^2)/5*Pi], 2], {x, -36,
   36}, {y, -36, 36}]]

This is the first color algorithmic art which I accidentally stumbled upon while I was trying to plot a directional field. I modified the plot equation and added colors to it.

The Mathematica code:

ArrayPlot[
 Table[Mod[Abs[(4 - 2 x)/(3 y^2 - 5)], 2], {x, -36, 36}, {y, -36,
   36}], ColorFunction -> "Rainbow"]

Butterworth low-pass filters

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:14:07 +0000

I was reading about Butterworth low-pass filters since two weeks ago. Signal processing was not my favorite but this particular linear analog electronic filter had somehow captured my attention. I have interns working on some projects. One project uses Butterworth low-pass filters to process signal acquired from some sensors.

I have to verify their works using Mathematica on Mac OS X for data modeling. But there is a problem with this software. It does not have a built-in function of Butterworth low-pass filter so I need to build one.

The gain G(ω) of an n-order Butterworth low pass filter is given in terms of transfer function H(s) as:

where ω_c is break frequency.

The Mathematica code with break frequency normalized at 1 rad/s:


butterworth[w1_, w2_, o_] = 1/(1 + (w1/w2)^(2*o));

LogLinearPlot[
 Evaluate[Table[
   10*Log[10, butterworth[w1, 1, order]], {order, 5}]], {w1, 0.01, 100},
  PlotRange -> {-100, 0}, PlotPoints -> 100, ImageSize -> 400]
Export["butterworth.jpg", %]

Plot of the gain of Butterworth low-pass filters of the n-order 1 through 5.

The power of China

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:10:54 +0000

After watching the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic 2008, I wrote a Chinese post about it and the magnificent Olympic torch ceremony. Tonight, the world witnessed again China’s ability to stage such a huge magnificent show to the world.

One thing that caught my eyes was the double deck bus which then transformed into a stage. When I was young, I used to imagine to have a vehicle which could transform into anything as I wished. China has done it! It has become possible.

Both the opening and closing ceremony have attracted the world’s attention. The shows take a person’s knowledge and understanding of Chinese cultures and history. Without such knowledge and understanding, the shows were just merely gigantic stage performances, and nothing more than entertainment. The story went down the time tunnel from Qin dynasty to modern China. They told the spectacular transformation of China and its rising.

Writing a conceptual paper

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:00:40 +0000

This may or may not be the greatest invention or rather I will not call it an invention yet. I am thinking of how to write a paper to record the conceptualization of my idea which I talked about earlier. First, at this point, I can’t discuss my idea with anybody in order to protect my interest; that makes the writing more difficult. Second, I have nothing to prove so writing this paper is like writing a Sci-Fi novel. So, I need a different approach, may be.

I dug out my collection of conference proceedings yesterday afternoon, hopefully I could find some inspiration. Obviously, I haven’t.