Anyway, ya, this is another of Evil Prof’s module. This is also a morning module and I’m waking up for this module, I think this is a breakthrough/milestone for me! Waking up for a lecture, oh my tian!

The first hour was the typical Prof. Ben’s Star Wars intro and “Hear what your seniors have to say” section. 5 minutes ago he has just started bullet train-ing through Scheme! It’s going to be so exciting!

Eusoff Rag 1011 - Estrados - (Mexico)

Eusoff Hall clinched the Chancellor’s  Shield in Rag & Flag 05/06. That was also the year where an NUS float participates in Chingay, Singapore’s Grandest Float Parade during the Chinese New Year Celebration! But it was not Eusoff who went…

As history dictates, the following year Eusoff Hall went back empty handed in the Rag Competition.

AY06/07, a noob-looking short hair guy checked-in to Eusoff Hall. There he was, fresh out of STPM, accepted the offer to study Engineering Science in National University of Singapore, a university he hadn’t heard of until his brief visit a month ago. He chose Eusoff Hall as his choice of residency after watching an uplifting Rag Performance Video made for Rag 03/04, nicknamed “Scorpion Year”. But as he watch the video, he was puzzled, confused and deeply curious!?

He wondered why were there tears?

How is it possible for a person to be tearing and yet be delirious at the same time?

How did they do it?

Such magnificent mechanisms!

Such lively performance!

Such great energy!

He was curious!

He wants to find out why?!

He wants to be a part of “this”, whatever “this” is!

As soon as he foretasted a tinge of the adrenaline rush and the sky high emotions all around him as a Freshie RAG helper for RAG 06/07, he pretty much had his mind fixed on joining RAG the following year. He figured that the only to truly understand this “RAG thing” is to experience the whole process first hand. He thought to himself…

Wouldn’t it be great to be a part of this grandeur dream of making SOMETHING out of literally NOTHING!

Wouldn’t it be great to spend the whole three months of holiday doing nothing else but wholly focusing on ONE task?

Wouldn’t it be great to have someone make a GREAT video documenting every single bit of the precious memories throughout the process? Surely there will be a team of MEMORY CAPTORS equipped with the latest Memory-Capturing devices deployed in order to immortalize this splendor event, right?

With that in mind, he joined the RAG 07/08 team and began his journey of self-discovery!

Through RAG, he and a group of awesome friends dreamt the impossible, pushed themselves past their mental and physical limits, forged unwavering friendship bonds and most importantly he discovered that with earnest prayers and hard work, a HALF FLOAT was also able to win the BEST FLOAT Award!

Fast forward into the year 2010, he is no longer a boy, people called him Oldman 2.0.

He is astounded as to how far he has walked thus far.

He is satisfied as he had witnessed a dream come true!

He is happy that professional MEMORY CAPTORS do exist!

He is bliss that all the great memories of all the great minds are safely immortalized for posterity!

He is truly grateful to know that many generations to come will be able to experience what he’d experience in HALL, even if the HALL are to cease to exist.

He will never forget the blessings that he’d received by being a part of the Eusoff family:

A safe incubator for crazy ideas and freedom of expression.

A chance to learn from shit cleaning when it hits the fan!

A place where history are made, legends defined!

A safe house amidst the harsh world!

An opportunity to serve.

A home and a haven.

A chance to bless.

A chance to give.

Although I’m not the Rag Head, but as a MEMORY CAPTOR myself, I’m pretty sure that we wouldn’t be able to clinch all FOUR out of FOUR RAG awards if one more person decided to be selfish!

Thus, this little video is a small tribute to everyone who has helped made Eusoff Rag 10/11 a spectacular success.

Relive the moment! se-Eusoff! se-Hati se-Jiwa!

Eusoff Rag 1011 - Estrados (Static Display)

One Big Family!

EusoffWorks - the Memory Captors!

The fact remains that we are NOT in the United States of America. The society over here is just not that forgiving. Besides, I doubt the infrastructure here is ready to support such brave endeavours. But .. but… granted maybe what we need is just a jolt, maybe what all of us need is to have the first mover, maybe everything will change when a Eastern Steve Jobs of Eastern Bill Gates began hitting the newspapers headlines. I guess that’s what Prof. Ben is advocating throughout the whole semester.

So what have I learned after one semester crazy CS3216?

1. Social Passion – It’s through the many researches that I’ve done for the final project that I’ve discovered the book “Creating a World without Poverty – Muhammad Yunus“. Before this, I’ve always considered money as the source of all evil. Thus if it’s not because I need to eat to survive and to eat I need to use money, I will rather not use money at all. Ask me to venture into business where the end goal is to maximize profit? Nah… not in a ten thousand years. But It’s through CS3216 that I’ve began to see an alternative way of using money as the means for an end. The idea of Social Business is very compelling. The idea of it adopting a non-dividend and non-loss model is something that my conscience gladly accepts.  It’s like I’ve opened another door where it’s full of opportunities.
2. Video Editing Skill – After Effects
3. If you know what you are doing, it’s not too daunting to step out of your own comfort zone. Most often than not, people like me just need a slight nudge to start the motivated engine.
   1. Joined many competitions
      1. Microsoft Photo360 – PhotoSynth
      2. Imagine Cup Digital Media – Currently @ Round 2 “Prevention is better than Protection“
      3. Imagine Cup Software Design – Regional Semi-Finals “argora“
      4. Various Photography Competitions
4. Team Vision is crucial! Add-on to my previous teamwork principle of “It’s more enjoyable to work with a not-so-talented person who is equally passionate than a damn-talented person who is not as passionate”.
   1. Feelings aside, a real talented person can really mesmerize you with his/her ability, no joke.
5. Communications is crucial in a team project, especially when the project time frame is so short. Somehow, meeting up and talk in person can be more efficient at times.
6. rediscover my own passion – media as memory captor
   1. It’s truly fulfilling to be able to drive a stake in the writing of a part of history
7. how little I know about Software Engineering & Progamming (Yes, I’m a noob [but I was the Tech Guru back then... oh well, I guess all these are relative]
8. key lesson in leadership – putting a team together and making things happen
   1. The best person to be a leader is the person who brought the team together
9. Reaffirm my drive to challenge the norm – it helps when there’s a whole class of crazy people that tries to challenge the norm together with you. Oh ya, not forgetting the class mentor who constantly psycho all of us to step out of our comfort zone.
10. Reaffirm what I really like – to camp @ a place with a group of people all striving towards a common goal. I don’t mind living my whole life doing something like that! (That’s why I think work-life balance is irrelevant if work=life)
    1. Workoholic? Ha. maybe.
11. The prospect of Argora is incredible and I fully believe in its potential to revolutionise the world, finally breaking the language barrier.
    

    A community-driven online meeting-place with integrated translation support that facilitate people to seek and share social causes. A universal translation solution that combine the essence of Wiki, Blog, Digg and Forum. We strive to break the language barrier.

12. more? Many more… Some of it quite hard to put into words. Suffices to say, CS3216 has changed my goal bearings significantly. Ahoy adventure ahead!

Thank you Prof. Ben for such a wonderful experience this semester. Thank you TAs (KokWee, SuYuen, YanJie, YuenHoe, and Jason) for all the hard work, heartfelt thanks, I know it’s tough to be doing all the behind-the-scenes work. Thank you ZiHan and Chris Henry for the workshop session. Thank you all CS3216 classmates, I think I’ve found the perfect group of people for my mental acrobatics exercise. Stay tune.

After reading some of blogs post by fellow classmates. I think it’ll be good to cross-compare what have I learned to my first post for CS3216 “What I hope to learn in CS3216”

1. Programming
   1. comparing myself with my fellow classmates, I guess I’ve learned much less about programming. I guess it’s a side effect of my own doing as well. Every assignment I am so privileged to work with programmers that are a million times more ZAI than myself.  But having said that, I did gain a lot of invaluable knowledge about software development. At least I am able to understand much more jargon than before. I’m so proud of myself as I am able to understand the API manuals etc.
   2. Although I’m still lightyears behind in terms of being a real programmer, I am not ready to give up just yet. I’m considering taking CS1101S next semester, possible?
2. learn more about how to learn from learned people
   1. this hope of mine has been fulfilled 10 times over, with all the precious talks with REAL entrepreneurs and industry experts. Suffices to say, I’m now more equipped with tools that’ll help me learn better in my future endeavours.
3. build networks
   1. sandbox-network (thanks ZhiHan)
   2. thanks to my video skills, I’ve managed to cast my net far and wide
      1. Cs3216 classmates (that’s 40+ nodes to many more opportunities)
      2. Prof. Ben (major node)
      3. the many TAs (important nodes)
      4. *REAL* Entrepreneurs (crucial nodes)
4. collaborative social media platform
   1. sadly I didn’t manage to realize this idea of mine, but like what Prof. Ben have said, “Ideas are cheap, it’s the execution that matters“. So, probably after Imagine Cup, I should start executing my idea already!

Next up it’ll be Eusoff Hall Synth. Hold on for an immersive experience of Eusoff Hall!

This lecture tells us a lot about how vulnerable data can be. There are so many ways that our privacy can be compromised,  e.g. SQL Injection, Social Engineering, Cross Site Scripting, Directory Traversal (i’ve actually tried it on ~joshuatj on eusoff personal website, ha, it doesn’t work, woohoo!)

Security only as good as weakest point.

I like the analogy of the home where it has the most sophisticated security system but one window is left open. GG.

Basic Security Objectives

1. Confidentiality
   • Protect from eavesdropping
2. Integrity
   • Protect from modification
3. Availability
   • Protect from denial of service

“script kiddie” is an interesting concept, it’s can literally mean kids who use scripts/programs to hack.  OR according to Wikipedia, it is

“derogatory term used to describe those who use scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddie]“

Singapore has no Privacy LAW! Woohoo… the big boss can do anything to us, woohoo!

All in all, the PPT is gonna go into joshuatj-gold-archive, it’ll be really useful in the near future.

If you were to ask me to summarize the whole session, I’ll say “money”. Apparently other than Tong Yee who’s really out there to try to change the education system, the rest are entrepreneurs whose sole purpose of creating a business is to EARN MONEY! Ash says that “Sales solves Everything”. Hoong An says “Money solves everything”. Les is thinking how to monetize the many eye balls that he’s having now. Now I know that money is really important, but I think that there’s more to just money. Currently I’m reading Muhammad Yunus’ “Creating a World without Poverty”, I think Social Business is really something…

Why you should not be an entrepreneur -

HungryGoWhere Chief Evangelist Officer

—– some of the highlights

You hang around people just like you
- no soccer team wins with ten strikers or ten goal keepers on the field at the same time

Hoong An mention that he’d rather hire someone who is very good at doing what he does best rather than someone who he can get along pretty well. First of all, of course the best scenario is to have someone whom you can get along pretty well and he’s has very good technical skills. But taking this hypothetical situation, Hong Anh’s decision is to hire the more talented one. In this I have to disagree. For what it’s worth, if I really have to choose between the two, I’d rather work with people who I can get along well. I truly believe in the synergy effect. So does my father. The time and effort trying to convince a talented person who doesn’t believe in your vision might be better spend at tackling the business hurdles that’s ahead.

But maybe this principle of mine doesn’t really apply for a profit-maximizing business. But Social Business? It takes a passionate person to want to do social business.

You cannot make decisions
- a wrong decision is better than a no decision

couldn’t agree more

You have no faith and do not believe in God

Hoong An’s reasoning is that having a faith or believing in God can really pull you through the toughest time. I think God aside, it’s important to always believe in something bigger than ourselves. I think it’s an acquired-skill for a person to think that the world doesn’t revolve around him. Thanks to human arrogance.

Oh ya, I happen to be the official videographer for the night. The videos are in progress hang on… Most likely it’ll be uploaded to the CS3216 Facebook Group once it’s done.

Photo360 – Toa Payoh Sports Hall (Bubble Tea).

So Ban, YiWen and I am taking part in this competition http://tinyurl.com/photo360. Our team is called “Bubble Tea” because we love bubble tea!

It is a competition in conjunction with the upcoming Youth Olympic Games. There’s a most popular award through votes. Help us by first clicking this links
PhotoSynth Toa Payoh Sports Hall
PhotoSynth Asian Civilisation Museum
Then, please vote by “starring” the synth.
(You have to login to your MSN account to do so.)

By the way, PhotoSynth is free to use. You all should try, it’s quite cool.

walah… this is the most technical lecture ever… totally lost. I think the jargons are the culprit. Database locking? mod_perl? CGI? DTrace @@? ACK? Nagle? NAS?

Even TCP = Transmisison Control Protocol, in which I know the name, but I don’t think I know how it really works.

The gist:
1. Make fewer HTTP Requests

2. Put Stylesheets at the Top

3. the important “/” – prevent the browser from fetching twice!
e.g. “http://www.joshuatj.com/” is faster than “http://www.joshuatj.com”

4. Load Balancer = delegation of power. Load Balance server = front line minions.

It just mean that there are so many more things to learn. ESP turn Master in CS?