National Treasure: Book of Secrets

The original show, National Treasure, is about a hidden treasure with clues leading to clues leading to clues. The sequel to it, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, follows a similar concept, yet, somehow, I keep feeling that the first movie was better.

Why is that? I had thought that there would be a look more puzzles and riddles to solve before they find the treasure in the sequel, yet I was wrong. There wasn't much problem solving, instead, time was spent on a meaningless car chase, and the eventual dungeon crawl inside Mount Rushmore.

If you like puzzle-solving movies, you would be better off watching the first movie, National Treasure, or try The Da Vinci Code (don't think too much about the religious implications).

Official site for National Treasure: Book of Secrets
National Treasure (first movie) at Internet Movie Database

Impatience

What causes impatience? Why is it that some people cannot wait for results? Why are some people always rushing to make sure things get done?

I think it has to do with confidence. Self-confidence. When you have self-confidence, you are sure about the outcome, and you are able to wait for the results to happen. But when you are not sure of yourself, not sure of your own abilities, that is when you worry if you have done enough, and therefore grow impatient while waiting for the results.

And so those people unsure of themselves will always be in a rush doing things, trying to do more so that they don't fail. They think that the more they do, the less chance they have of failing.

Sometimes, it is not how much you do, but how well you do it.

My advice to those who rush? Take your time, learn patience. Your impatience only shows your lack of self-confidence.

7 random facts

Well, I have been tagged by wujimon, so guess I shall write something about myself, even though I have been writing about myself all along in this blog!

1. I originally started out with only one blog (this one), but ever since I decided to write about fishing and taiji, I decided to separate them into separate blogs so as to keep the themes of my blogs focused. Okay, at least the themes for the taiji and fishing blogs are focused... this blog is for my random thoughts.

2. I used to love eating fish, until I was about 3 years old... since then, I HATED eating fish. But ever since I met my wife, she has been slowly getting me to eat fish, and I have started to eat a bit again... My mum cannot believe it when I told her I am picking up fishing, since I hated fish and would not go anywhere near them in the past.

3. I speak Japanese relatively well, and have gotten JLPT 1, because I lived in Japan for a few years. That was also when I picked up Japanese calligraphy and iaido.

4. I started out with learning wushu (Chinese martial arts) in 1995, switched to taiji in 1996 (learning Chen style taiji), but stopped after a year and it was only in 2005 when I found my current teacher and started picking up taiji again.

5. I love old DOS games, which is why I keep blogging about them. I played Dune 2 on my computer for hours on end, until the monitor burnt out.

6. I like programming, and used to write simple programs just to pass time. Besides using programming languages like C, Java and Basic, I also did scripting in Perl, and also written MUD programs for Forgotten Kingdoms MUD.

7. I support open source, and started using Linux back in 2000, when I got a new laptop and tried installing Debian Linux on it. I then switched to TurboLinux, which had better support for Japanese (I was in Japan then), and subsequently switched to Fedora.

Now for tagging... who to tag?

I don't really have people to tag, and don't like chain mails and such, but just this once, I will tag someone.

Emanrohe, please write 7 random things about yourself!

Ultra high speed broadband

All of Singapore is going to have the infrastructure for ultra high speed broadband by 2015. By 2012, at least 50% will be completed. It is slated to bring broadband speed to 1 gigabit per second... compared to the 100 Mbps now, that's 10 times more.

But does that translate into faster surfing speeds? Will data be transferred faster?

Well... even if the network infrastructure is fast, you still need to think about the processing speeds of the computers being connected to that network. So if you are trying to access data from a slow computer, it will still take time before that information gets to you, even if you have HUGE bandwidth. In fact, what happens in such a case is unused bandwidth. It is like building a 10-lane expressway, when only 5 lanes will be used.

So while it may sound nice and cool, and seems like we are at staying ahead of the information highway, developing infrastructure is one thing. Making sure that you have the processing power to exploit that bandwidth is another thing that must not be overlooked.

And of course, what is all the bandwidth going to be used for?

Back in the days when bandwidth is scarce, people are innovative. They have to think hard to try and pack as much information as possible into as small a package as possible. Now, people think less about how to save bandwidth (since there is so much of it).

But is increasing bandwidth the way to go? Or should we be looking at developing the information to use that bandwidth?

Pearl Harbor

Today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place in 1941 on 8 Dec (Japanese time, but was 7 Dec in local Hawaiian time). So this is the 66th anniversary. The survivors of the attack still alive are all old now. But they still gather to commemorate the event and remember their fallen comrades.


War memorials are not about hatred. They are about honouring the dead, the people who fought for their countries, for their beliefs. People who answered the call when their countries needed them, and paid the ultimate price. We remember Pearl Harbor not for revenge, but so that the spirit of duty and loyalty will not be lost.


Read more about Pearl Harbor:
Pearl Harbor on National Geographic
A photo history of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor at Wikipedia

JLPT

Today is the day for the annual JLPT, which is short for Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

I didn't realise how popular this test is in Singapore, until I went to pick up my sister (she was taking the test) from the test venue. There was probably a thousand people coming out of the exam halls... wow! Japanese must be a real popular language...

But then... JLPT level 3 doesn't really let you do much... if you really want to work using the language as a selling point, you need JLPT level 1... or at least level 2, if you are not going to be dealing extensively with people from Japan. And then, language proficiency is not everything. The most important part is not the language, but understanding the Japanese culture. And that requires not just living in Japan, but actually a lot of interaction with the Japanese.

The Mystery Squad

Just like Encyclopedia Brown and Chip Mitchell, the Myster Squad is a series of books that I used to read when I was a kid. The concept is the same. A group of kids have gotten their hands into some criminal case, and used the clues available to solve the case. The clues are presented to the reader, who is challenged to see if he can solve the case, with the solutions provided at the end of the book.

What I like about these mystery solving books is that they make the reader think. They give the clues in the story, but have a short pause to allow the reader to review the case, and see if he can join the dots to make out the picture. So these are actually great books for letting children work their brains, instead of doing sums after sums in their assessment books.

A list of the books in the series

Way of the Tiger

Today is gamebook day. The Way of the Tiger is yet another series that I used to enjoy, although it is a very short series, with only six books. In it, you are a ninja from the Way of the Tiger, with various skills that you can use to bring you through the series.

This series even inspired games on old computers like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore.

Cover art of the six books in the series

Lone Wolf

This is yet another series of gamebooks that I used to spend time with. One of the key features of the Lone Wolf series is that it doesn't require a set of dice to play. Instead, there is this page at the back of the book with a whole table of numbers, and you are just supposed to close your eyes and put a pencil on the page to get a number.

As the last surviving Kai lord, you are supposed to let the rest of the world know that disaster has struck, and at the same time, learn the skills to become a grandmaster Kai lord, so that you can help to rebuild the order.

Project Aon, the source for online downloads of the books
Ksatria, developers of the next Lone Wolf game
Lone Wolf module at Neverwinter Vault for Neverwinter Nights
Another Lone Wolf module for Neverwinter Nights

Fighting Fantasy

One of the first gamebooks that I owned was "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" from the Fighting Fantasy series. This is a whole series of gamebooks, in which you role up a character, and play through the book using the rules. Each time you come to a decision point, you turn to a specific page to continue the story. And when combat comes, if you win (honesty comes into play here...) you continue the story from another page, if you lose, you get to turn to a page that tells of your untimely end.

Besides the fantasy setting, I got "Star Strider" too, set in a science fiction world. While the rules may be slightly different, they still follow the same concept of rolling up a character and flipping to pages based on decisions.

The beauty about gamebooks is that they allow me to play out my role-playing dreams without the need for a dungeon master. In a time when my fellow classmates were more worried about school results and spending much of their childhood studying for examinations, it was hard for me to find amongst my friends someone to play RPGs with. So gamebooks, and computer games, had to suffice.

Official site of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

Chip Mitchell

This is a series of books written about this computer whiz kid known as Chip Mitchell, who has surprising knowledge on computers (for a kid) and uses that knowledge to help solve mysteries. Again, this was one of those series that kept me going to the library for more, and you may still be able to find it at the local library in the children's section. It doesn't seem to be very popular, though, not like Encyclopedia Brown.

The Chip Mitchell books by Fred DIgnazio, on Amazon.com

Encyclopedia Brown

One of those series that I loved reading back when I was young was this series of books about a boy called "Encyclopedia" Brown. He is actually a very well-read young boy, and uses his vast knowledge to spot loopholes in cases and solve them.

Each book in the series is actually a collection of short stories, and each short story is actually a mystery, a case waiting to be solved. There are clues within each story, and the reader is challenged to see if they can spot the loopholes in the case and thus solve the case. At the end of the book, the solutions to each mystery is provided, which the reader can reference to see if they got the clues right.

I would really recommend this series to children, since it not only trains them to think, they can get quite a fair amount of general knowledge just by reading this series, since "Encyclopedia" Brown touches on many topics. It sure brings back memories just thinking about the cases...

Encyclopedia Brown at Wikipedia
A story about Encyclopedia Brown

Some links to pages regarding old games

A collection of links related to old games.

Jeff's Gameblog

TheAlmightyGuru.Com

The Midi Shrine

Beyond Classic DOS Games

Free PC Gaming Blog

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980-1983)

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 2: The Golden Age (1985-1993)

A History of D&D Video Games

A History of D&D Video Games - Part II

Pools of Radiance - Classic Dungeons and Dragons

Stu's Rusty Bucket

The Roots of Computer Roleplaying

The Return of the Condor Heroes (TV) 神雕侠侣

I found this on YouTube, just to share. Even before I read the novel, this was the TV series that introduced me to The Return of the Condor Heroes. It was only after watching this TV series that I got interested, and went on to read the novel, which was even more in depth. Though there are many screen adaptations, I still think the 1983 TV series by TVB is the best.

A search on YouTube reveals many clips of the series. And there are also VCD sets (and DVD sets too, I think ) available for sale now. You won't regret getting your own copy, these 24 episodes will keep you glued to the screen popping in disc after disc chasing the story.

Xi Shuo Qian Long Xu Ji 戏说乾隆续集

This is the sequel to Xi Shuo Qian Long 戏说乾隆, with Adam Cheng playing Emperor Qian Long, though with a different female lead.

What I like about this series are the theme songs. They truly express the show, the social divide between the emperor and the female lead.

Lyrics of opening theme Wen Qing 问情
Lyrics of ending theme Lai Sheng Zai Xu Yuan 来生再续缘

Xi Shuo Qian Long 戏说乾隆

Another classic Chinese drama series that I used to watch, this is about the Qing dynasty's Emperor Qian Long. I especially like the theme songs (link to Youtube below). The show has also been released on DVD, though the one with English subtitles doesn't seem to have a good review (something about the English translation being lousy). I guess that means our non-Chinese speaking friends won't get to enjoy this classic show.

The show is about Emperor Qian Long and his exploits, as he travels undercover to take a look at the real world, rather than the coloured version that he gets through his ministers attending court. At 42 episodes (for the first season), this is a long-running show, but it is interesting and will keep you glued to the TV watching episode after episode (if you have the DVD...) I remember having to wait through the week trying to find out what is going to happen during the next episode (they used to air only two episodes a week, if I remember correctly).

Adam Cheng portrays the part of the emperor just great. I guess it takes an experienced actor to be able to pull it off, since the part requires both charisma, wit and character. Angie Chiu portrays his love interest and does so quite nicely too.

Besides the first season, there is also a second season to the drama series. The two seasons are usually known as "The Legendary Chien Lung" and "The Legendary Chien Lung II" in English, while "Xi Shuo Qian Long" is the hanyu pinyin (aka romanization) of the Chinese characters 戏说乾隆, which is the title of the show in Chinese.

The opening theme song at Youtube
All three theme songs at Youtube
Watch the episodes online

Get Smart

Anyone remembers the TV show, Get Smart, about the fumbling Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, his beautiful partner Agent 99, and the evil nemesis organisation KAOS?

This TV comedy series used to air in Singapore back in the 1980s, and I remember watching every episode back then, enjoying the laughs from the fumbling spy, and being amazed that somehow, he still manages to save the day at the end of the show. James Bond is cool and slick, the ultimate spy. Maxwell smart is dumb and exactly handsome, yet he somehow manages to get the job done (although Agent 99 does help a lot).

The show also has a lot of spy gadgets, the most famous being the shoe phone, which is what we would call a cellular phone nowadays (just that it was built into a shoe). It was hilarious when the shoe starts to ring at the most awkward of times. And of course, the Cone of Silence that hardly works.

The show (seasons 1 to 5) is now available in DVD, so those who miss the old times can try to get their hands on a set for enjoying at their own pace back in the comfort of their homes.

And there is the upcoming movie too, scheduled to air in June 2008.

All you need to know about Get Smart
Youtube video of the opening theme
Another site on Get Smart
Official site for the Get Smart 2008 film

Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is still very much a popular game, even though it was released more than 10 years ago. It is a card game played between two players (called a "duel"), each with his own deck of cards (usually customised by the player). Each player gets to draw a certain number of cards from his deck, which he can then play out.

Creating decks was fun and required brains. First, you decide on a theme, an effect that you wanted to use. Then, you start adding cards that achieve those effects into the deck. Next, you add in supplementary cards to complement those main cards. And of course, you need to add in land cards, since they provide the mana that you need to play your cards.

I was introduced to the game by friends from Lothlorien. And I still have the cards from the older editions of the game, which right now could be worth a lot more than I can imagine. I don't play MTG anymore, since to play, you need to constantly keep your deck updated (there are many sets available, including expansion sets), which can be both taxing financially, as well as taking time to learn about the new cards and how to use them. Besides, it is hard to find time to play too.

But it was fun. And you didn't need that much time. All you needed was a deck of cards. The only challenge I had back then was in finding people to play with, since it wasn't catching up amongst my friends yet. Most of them had better things to do than spend time and money on game cards. Which probably explains why in the end, I stopped playing too. But for my computing project, I wrote a program to help me keep track of the MTG cards in my collection. Sad to say, that program has since been lost, as I didn't keep any hardcopy of the program listing, and the computer it was on has since been discarded.

The official MTG site
A promising MTG freeware game

Micromouse

I used to take part in inter-school micromouse competitions (organised by Ngee Ann Polytechnic) when I was still schooling.

What is micromouse? It is a small little robot that moves on wheels and uses sensors to "see" around itself. The competition is actually to see how fast a micromouse can get from one corner of a maze to the centre of the maze. This it does by using its sensors to draw a map of the maze as it moves around, and then deciding how best to move within the maze to get to the centre, based on the algorithm programmed into it.


The first few years were done using a custom program from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Basically, you don't really control the mouse much, except for defining the maze solving algorithm and parameters for movement. Subsequently, you get to control the micromouse using C, with a specially designed IDE that incorporates the required libraries to control the motor and sensors. This was when I started learning C programming. Before that, I was dabbling in BASIC, though I had tried to pick up C, but with little success.

I don't have those programs with me anymore, it has been more than 10 years since I took part in micromouse competitions. But the memories of staying back to work on the mouse, of time spent running it through the maze time and time again, of fine-tuning the movement parameters, and debugging the program, these remain to this day.

Micromouse Information Centre
Mobots
Ng Beng Kiat's Micromouse page
A micromouse maze solving algorithm

Calligraphy piece starting with 剛 and 毅

After seeking advice from my calligraphy teacher, she wrote me a sample, and I followed it to write the above. I guess it takes practice to be able to write well. It takes practice to be able to do anything well.

This will be a gift to one of my superiors to congratulate him on achieving a milestone.

DBGL: DOSBox Game Launcher

I have written about DOSBox before, because it allows me to play all those old DOS games that I so enjoyed in my youth. But unless you enjoy typing all those commands in, it is best to get a front-end to DOSBox that will allow you to choose the game that you want to play. One of such front-ends is DBGL (short of DOSBOX Game Launcher). It is based upon D-Fend, which unfortunately, is no longer being worked on.

DBGL works on Java, and allows you to create multiple profiles and even use multiple versions of DOSBox, as well as multiple configurations. So you can have different configurations to emulate older PCs or the newer ones (with better graphics and memory). And it is open source too!

Bilateral Trading Simulator

The above is a screenshot of the simulation landscape that I used for my thesis on bilateral tradings in a mobile environment. It was modeled after the Sugarscape model that was used by Joshua Epstein and Robert Axtell in their research on artificial societies. Their findings was published in the book "Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science From the Bottom Up".

As part of my final year requirements, I was required to write a thesis. My professor had originally intended for me to use my programming skills to help him develop a tool for multi-agent simulations based on what he read about Sugarscape. Using Java (which I picked up while writing this tool), I developed the Bilateral Trading Simulator, in which mobile agents move around in a landscape, harvesting resources and trading those resources.

Price is determined in one of four ways. It can be a global price, which is the average price that each agent is willing to pay for each resource. Or it can be a local price, which is the price each agent is willing to barter at with the agent that it is trading with. Or it can be a game of bargaining, in which each agent either tries to get a price most beneficial to itself, or succumbs to the demands of its trading partner. The last way to determine price is a global price that is determined using a logistics function.

I finished the simulator in 3 months, when I had 10 months to do my thesis, so I managed to persuade my professor to allow me to carry out simulations using the simulator and analysing the results. One of the findings is that when individuals exercise their bargaining power to influence the price of bilateral tradings, the artificial society as a whole becomes more efficient. I guess that gives us a reason to be selfish.

The simulator was also modified by a fellow student for his research in simulation of the immune system.

GIMP 2.4.1

For those who don't know, GIMP 2.4.1 is out. You can get it from the download page at the GIMP website.

Windows users will need to download it from here.

Mac users, please read this and see what suits your flavour.

Unix/Linux users, check out the binaries available. Of course, you can always download the source code and compile it yourself.

DNS-312H Network Attached Storage part 3

Please read this post for my experience with DNS-312H NAS.

If you have any questions on setting up DNS-312H, please feel free to drop me a comment on this post or the previous post, and I will try to help you. I have gotten it to work on Windows XP before, and it is working on Vista as well. Of course, it works on Fedora Core 7 too.

Being Prepared - Before it is too late

An article by me, published in the Forum page of The Straits Times in Sep 2005. This article subsequently made its way into some civil defence handbook.

"Hurricane Katrina taught us one thing, that it is never too late to be prepared. The Indian Ocean tsunami caught people off guard, without warning. But Katrina gave lots of warning before she hit land. Yet Katrina still managed to cause damage and loss of lives. One of the reasons could be due to civil defence, or the lack of it.

The United States has, or had, a civil defence programme. For a nation that was faced with possible nuclear war against the USSR, civil defence was taught and practised. But over the years, with no nuclear wars or major disasters hitting the US, people grew lax in civil defence. September 11 might have been a wake-up call, but with the focus on the intelligence failure and the subsequent military action, it never brought back the right attitude about civil defence. Katrina is the American's wake-up call for civil defence.

Civil defence teaches us that defence is our responsibility too. We must be prepared to do our parts, no matter how small, when disaster strikes, be it war or hurricane or earthquake. To this end, we have drills in which we practice what to do when the civil defence siren sounds, queuing for food with coupons in hand, tuning in to the radio to listen to announcements, etc. These little actions on our part will go a long way when disaster strikes.

We must continue to take civil defence seriously. Katrina, and the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, only reminds us of the consequences should we let down our guard. Only by maintaining the right attitude towards civil defence, will we be able to ensure that we stand the best chance against any disaster that hits our island nation.

Do you know what to do when the civil defence siren sounds? Do you know where the nearest air raid shelter is? Do you keep a portable radio at home with batteries? Is your kitchen cabinet stocked with an adequate amount of canned food? If not, maybe it is time to start thinking, for who knows when disaster will strike?"

The need for scholars

An article by me, published in Sep 2005 in the Today Newspaper's Voice section.

"40 years since independence may be a good time for us to relook at some of the systems that we have in place, systems which we implemented in the past that may no longer be relevant today. The scholarship system was introduced in the past to groom potential leaders. Promising youths are selected and sent overseas for an education, with hopes that exposure to a foreign country will enable them to bring back ideas to better Singapore. Without the ideas brought back by these scholars, Singapore would not be where she is today.

But should an organisation look at a youth of 18 years, with no prior working experience in the organisation, and decide whether he or she is going to be future leader of the organisation? Or would it be better to wait and track his or her performance over a few years before deciding
to groom these potential leaders for higher leadership posts? In other words, do we want to give out scholarships to 18-year-olds for them to complete their undergraduate studies overseas, or do we give the scholarships to 28-year-olds for them to pursue further studies overseas?

Some may say that giving scholarships to 18-year-olds gives potential leaders coming from a less privileged background a chance for undergraduate studies. I agree. We can change this to a sponsorship scheme, in which organisations can continue to sponsor those with potential for undergraduate studies at our local universities. I am sure our local universities are as good as universities overseas. After they complete their studies and work in the organisation, if they continue to show potential, we can then send them off for further studies overseas. Their experience in the organisation will also enable them to know what are the relevant ideas that they can bring back to Singapore. There will be less people wanting to break their bonds, since they were chosen to go overseas because they have shown their potential and their commitment
to the organisation. Our scholars would also be of sound character and possess the necessary qualities for higher leadership, since they would be chosen based on assessments given by superiors who have worked with them before. I would think this is a better investment of taxpayers' money.

40 years of nation building has passed. Is it not time now to look at existing systems and review their relevancy in the next 40 years ahead?"

Muso Jikiden Eishin-Ryu 無雙直傳英信流

Some may not know it, but besides learning taiji, and having a first dan in Japanese calligraphy (shodo 書道), I also have a second dan in iaido 居合道. So what is iaido, actually?

Iaido is actually derived from iaijutsu 居合術 (which was in turn a part of the bigger martial skill known as battojutsu 抜刀術), which is the skill of being able to quickly draw a sword, cut your opponent in that single draw, and then return the sword back into its scabbard. In feudal Japan, with its turbulent times, it was of course a very useful skill to have. But with peace, there was less need for killing, yet these skills trained not just the body, but also the spirit, and thus martial skills became martial arts, and their focus changed towards training the spirit, more than killing people. Iaido is the martial arts form of iaijutsu.

The school/style that I learnt is Muso Jikiden Eishin-Ryu 無雙直傳英信流, which traces back to its founder, Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu 林崎甚助重信. After learning the basic seiza 正座 moves, instruction moves on the the standing moves (like batto ho 抜刀法) and tatehiza 立膝 moves.

As with all martial arts, the important thing is to train the spirit, not just the body. Being able to perform all the moves correctly is not the ultimate goal. It is in training concentration, focus, being able to accept criticism, mental calm, etc. that is the goal.

In Singapore, iaido is non-existent, since there are no teachers here, much less say a dojo. I do have a few fellow iaido students in Singapore (they should be fourth dan by now), and maybe in the future, we may get together for some practice sessions.

A picture of my sensei, Esaka Seigan 江坂静厳.

A listing of iaido dojo in Japan
An article in Japan Times

A warrior's soul

After writing about iaido, I won't be doing justice if I don't talk about my katana, the warrior's soul. As Kimura Takuya's character pointed out in the movie Love and Honour, a samurai should not be away from his sword. I have owned this katana since the year 2000. Although I don't practise iaido these days, I still bring it out every once in a while, just to oil it and keep the rust at bay. Looking at it, holding it in my hands, it brings back memories of when I spent hours each day training in iaido. The urge to draw it out and practise a few moves comes everytime I touch my katana.

A katana is a warrior's soul. There is this special link between man and sword, that somehow just cannot be easily explained to those who never have this bond.

Miyamoto Musashi

For those who do not know, Miyamoto Musashi (also known as Shinmen Takezo, Miyamoto Bennosuke and Niten Doraku) is one of the most famous swordsmen in medieval Japan, towards the end of the Warring States Period and during the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He is famous not only because he was undefeated in duels, but also because of this skill in using two swords at once, his artistic talents as well as scholarly skills. Not only has he written a book on strategy, he paints too. And his swordmanship school of using two swords together survives today as the Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu school of kenjutsu.

Miyamoto Musashi is the true kensei, "sword saint". His life was devoted towards improving his skills with the blade, and in the end, he remained undefeated, dying in bed. A legendary figure in Japanese history, he has been portrayed in films and books, the most famous of which must be Yoshikawa Eiji's "Musashi". While the book seems to accurately portray the historical Musashi, there are actually some fictitious parts, such as the love story. But still, the action-packed novel, with the heroic duels, makes it one of my favourite books. And in the upcoming drama series "Heroes", there is going to be another character based on Musashi, Takezo Kensei.

He is also the model for my character Eldriz on the Forgotten Kingdoms MUD.

Service?

My wife was telling me about the security at our place today. She was trying to use the sauna 15 minutes before it closes, and the security guard in charge of the sauna facilities kept stressing to her that he wants to get off work on time (facilities open till 10pm), that he wants to lock up everything in time.

When my wife got out of the sauna, just before 10pm, all the lights for the other facilities were off, their doors were locked, and the security guard was waiting with his bag at his counter. I think it was plain rude. After all, if facilities are open till 10pm, it means people get to use them until 10pm, after which the staff comes in to clear up and lock up.

There was a short thank-you note in the papers today, praising the service at Tao's, a local restaurant. I have been there once, and while the food may not be the best in the world, their service is good, at least in Singapore. I guess this is because their boss (a good friend of my brother) personally interviews the staff to ensure that he gets the correct people. If you notice, his service staff aren't Singaporeans. I guess that says a lot about the kind of service that we can expect from fellow Singaporeans.

Calligraphy piece - 剛毅

My most recent piece of calligraphy, the Chinese characters 剛毅. I have also written a short phrase using these two characters, which I will upload once I have gotten my teacher's comments and have it framed up. The phrase is 剛勇似猛虎、毅然如古松.

Economy at the expense of the environment?

We were just told that while protecting the environment is important, we should not do so at the expense of the economy. Economic development still comes first, because we play only a small little part in damaging the environment. After all, we only contribute 0.2% towards emissions that harm the environment. This 0.2% is not going to save the environment, so if we have to choose between environment and economy, we should choose the economy.

Now, if everyone thinks like that, no one would bother to do anything for the environment.

The importance of basics

Getting the basics right is very important.

I learnt to drive in Japan. And I would say that the driving instructors there are very strict (or at least, mine were). They made sure that students learn the basics correctly. And they stress the importance of observing basic road courtesy, which they teach too. For example, students drive slowly compared to the rest of the traffic, so occasionally, when going along one-lane roads, they will get the student to stop at the side of the road and let the rest of the traffic behind overtake first.

So coming back to Singapore, and driving on the roads here, at first I found it horrifying that our road users are so barbaric. Most lack basic road courtesy, and don't even observe simple rules like signalling before changing lanes. Yet it is also because of the strong basics that I had, which allows me to continue to survive on the roads today, keeping to my basics and yet not be endangered by the dangerous drivers around me. It is only when you are strong in the basics, can you be able to adapt to the situation.

AD&D Gold Box games

Does anyone remember the good old days of the Gold Box series of AD&D games by SSI? The screenshots below must look nostalgic then.

The Gold Box series follows a model for computer role-playing games that was set by the Wizardry series. You see a simple 3D shot of the city/dungeon as you walk around, and a summary screen showing the names and hitpoints of your characters.

The deviation from Wizardry is in combat. Here, the Gold Box series allows you to mimic role-playing games that use miniatures. You get to move your characters around on a 2D combat map, directing who they fight and where they place their area-effect spells.

This is a series of games that brings back old memories of hours spent in front of the computer, getting from place to place, fighting scores of monsters and trying to complete the games.

Just for the record, I have played ALL the games in this series (including the Buck Rogers and Spelljammer ones). Yes, I am a big fan of AD&D, and played the Gold Box series because they were the first to appear for the PC. And with DOSBox, I get to relive those memories...

List of Gold Box titles (Wikipedia)

Fearless 霍元甲

This is a Jet Li film, based on the historical martial arts character Huo Yuanjia (霍元甲). While there are quite some discrepancies (see the Wikipedia entries) between the film and the actual life of the martial arts hero, this movie is not a history documentary. Jet Li was trying to send a message through this movie about martial arts.

His key message, I think, is that martial arts is not about learning a skill to defeat your opponent, but rather, it is a way to learn about yourself, and to improve yourself. It is about learning how to control yourself. As he said in the movie, "You are your greatest opponent."

A great martial artist is not obsessed with winning. Instead, he is merciful. And there is no greatest martial arts. No martial arts can be said to be better than others. There are only good and bad practitioners.

Old DOS games

Those looking for those old DOS games can check out the sites listed here.

Feedburner and RSS

I guess those who have been following my blogs probably have already noticed. Yes, I found out about RSS and Feedburner, and have decided to use these to make it easier for those who read my blogs to keep themselves updated. So feel free to subscribe to my blogs through Feedburner.

C

My favourite programming language is C.

Why? Because it offers power to the programmer, yet the code is not so hard as to be difficult to read. And of course, if the programmer includes comments, then source codes become all the more easier to read.


I even had a copy of the book "The C Programming Language", by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie (the guys who came up with C).

I wrote my JC computer project in C. It was a simple database program that allowed me to manage my Magic: The Gathering card collection. I didn't try doing graphics, sticking to a text screen interface, because back then, graphics was still quite complex in C, quite unlike the ease which it can be done in BASIC.

I also had to use it for my micromouse competition, which required participants to program the micromouse using C and a set of special-purpose libraries.

And when I got to university, the lessons on C were a piece of cake, since I was already very familiar with it, while the rest of the class was struggling. In the end, I took an advanced module in C programming, and managed to develop a program to solve the 0-1 knapsack problem using less than 200 lines of C code.

Sad to say, my thesis was done in Java, which was the language of choice for my professor, who was into artificial intelligence. But since Java is quite similar to C, I managed to pick up Java in a very short time, and produced an application that I used for my thesis research. Of course, given a choice, I would have wanted to do it in C.

I am still very interested in programming, just that I don't have ideas on what to make.


Some C implementations:
GNU Compiler Collection
Cygwin
MinGW
Dev-C++ (this is an IDE)
wxDev-C++ (this is an improvement of Dev-C++)
DJGPP
LCC
LCC-Win

LOGO

My very first program was actually written in LOGO. Back then, I was taking a basic computer literacy class, and the class used LOGO to give the students some hands on with computers. It used this LOGO implementation known as LOGO Robot, but I guess no one can tell you where to get this now.

LOGO is a very simple language, good for getting the kids interested in computers, since they allow kids to draw simple diagrams with very English-like commands. Of course, you can write more complex programs too, but that can be reserved for other programming languages, and it may be easier in those languages too. LOGO is more for simple graphics.

LOGO implementations:
Lhogho
FMSLogo
MSWLogo

Pascal

I only started learning Pascal when I got to JC, since it was part of the course syllabus. By then, I was already well-versed in BASIC, and had some ability to program in C as well. Learning yet another programming language was a piece of cake, since the general principles are all the same, just the differences in syntax and commands.


This is how Turbo Pascal looks like. Back then, programming was done mostly in DOS, and you didn't have the fancy IDEs and program development suites that allow you to drag-and-drop together a GUI. No, you have to type it in yourself. And that was what I did when I programmed an application in Java for my thesis.


Turbo Pascal's development has stopped. But if you are looking for something similar, try out Free Pascal. It is an open source implementation of Turbo Pascal, complete with IDE. You can find it for download at its website.

Why Pascal Is Not My Favourite Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan
Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal

BASIC

BASIC stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code and was the first programming language that I learnt. As I mentioned, before I got my first PC, I used to borrow books from the library to read about computers, and back then, some of those books would contain program code in BASIC. So before I even had a computer, I was learning to read programming code.

So once I got my first PC, of course I couldn't wait to try out some of those programs that I have read about. Imagine my surprise when my PC didn't boot up to BASIC like I was told it should. Eventually, I found out that only IBM PCs booted up to BASIC. Compatibles don't.

So I went to get a copy of BASIC that would run on DOS. And came upon BASICA. But it didn't really run. And now I know why. It still requires the BASIC code found in the ROM of IBM PCs, and compatibles didn't have that ROM.

Eventually, I got a copy of MS-DOS, and it had GW-BASIC included with it. And guess what? It ran! So I finally got a working copy of BASIC that can run on my PC. I happily proceeded to enter in those programs... only to find that they don't run, at least not 100% of the time. Why? Because BASIC comes in many dialects, and the programs that I read about in books were written for the BBC Micro, Apple IIe, and other older PCs. But I managed to find books with program code for the IBM PCs, and also learnt enough about BASIC to be able to convert some of the code into usable code that works on GW-BASIC.


Later, I came across QuickBASIC, which was different from the BASIC that I know, because now, line numbers are optional, and it is easier to create subroutines. Programming graphics was so much easier now, that my friends and I started experimenting with QuickBASIC code, creating our own screen savers and screen effects, such as text that slowly appears and then fades away.


Now, QuickBASIC has been discontinued, but there is an open source effort going on to create a free implementation of QuickBASIC, known as FreeBASIC. All I need is to find time to get back my BASIC skills...

Samurai Warlords

This is actually a mod for Medieval: Total War, which aims to provide something similar to Shogun: Total War. You can even see the similarities, since the game engine is similar in the first place.
The strategic map above looks so much like the one in Shogun: Total War. And the battle map below is also similar. By far, I think it is a very good re-creation of the older Shogun: Total War. However, instead of having 4 turns a year, this mod follows the 1 turn per year system in Medieval: Total War. So be prepared for a few generations of succession before completing the campaign.

Shogun: Total War

Shogun: Total War is the first game in the Total War series. The next game in the series is Medieval: Total War.

For those of you who have played Sword of the Samurai before, you will not be totally unfamiliar with the concept of play. Just like when you become a daimyo in Sword of the Samurai, you are presented with a map of Japan for you to plan your conquest. Similarly, you build up an army, but before that, you need to work on your economy. Unlike Sword of the Samurai, however, you have to conquer Japan fief by fief, instead of fighting a single battle against each daimyo.


And just like in Sword of the Samurai, you get to direct your army in battle, telling each unit where to go and who to engage. Skillful manoeuvring will allow even a smaller force to defeat a larger one, and you will need to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of your units. If you are a bit lazy, you can always get the computer to resolve battles automatically, though the results may yield more casualties, and even defeat.

Hmm, where did my army go?

Those were the days - PCs of old (antiquity?)

In the past, before I had my own PC, I was already very interested in computers, and would go to the library to borrow books about them. Even before owning a PC, I was reading about how to program, how to write simple games that would run on the PCs of those days. This post is dedicated to the PCs of old.

The above is a BBC Micro. It used to be a very popular PC, and had a lot of books written about it. Of course, I never had the chance to look at one before. It plugs in to a normal TV for display, instead of a dedicated monitor. You can connect a floppy drive to it. And back in the days of 300 bps modems, you can connect this to one of those too.
Another often written-about PC was the ZX Spectrum, which runs on a Z80 processor. Like the BBC Micro, you connect it to the TV for video output. And you connect a cassette player to it and use cassette tapes for storage.
Another common PC back in those days was the Commodore 64, commonly known as C64. There were books written about how to program in the C64's BASIC language, which got me interested in programming. Later, I found out that BASIC is a language available in many dialects, and there were differences between that used on the C64 and that used by IBM PCs.

The Atari ST is yet another computer that was mentioned by many books in the past. It was a competitor to the Amiga computers, in that it too had good graphics and sound, and was a good gaming PC during its time. But it eventually lost to the Amiga computers, which had superior graphics and sound.
The TRS-80 from Tandy was also one of the PCs of old. It was very much like a hobby kit, and was targeted at that market. There were books written about how to program using the TRS-80 too, which comes with its own dialect of BASIC. It can be connected to cassette players and floppy drives for storage devices.

I guess these are the PCs of old that I remember reading about. Those were the days, when PCs were still not very popular in the homes of Singapore, and these were the PCs that you read about in books.

Apple IIe

I wonder if many of those my age or younger will even have seen one of these before.

It is the Apple IIe computer. And I must admit that I have seen one, even touched and used one, before. By then, it was already obsolete, way beyond its time, but it still booted up and ran.

Before that, the Apple IIe was something that I read about in books. And before I got my own PC, I used to read about computers, borrowing books from the library on this subject. Many books in the past were written about how to use the Apple IIe, and how to even write your own programs and games that will run on the Apple IIe (and other Apple IIs).

But by the time I got to see this computer, many years had passed since I read those books, and I had gotten used to the IBM PCs, so I really wasn't able to figure out what to do with it. In the end, it sat there in a corner, just like it had for years before, collecting dust.

Amiga

When I was first looking to buy my first computer, one of the models that I looked at was the Amiga 500. Yes, Singapore was slightly behind times then, so this model only became affordable (relatively) when I was ready to get my first PC.

The Amiga series of computers were way ahead of its time. At a time when the IBM PCs were still struggling with DOS, and still using 16-colour or even 4-colour displays, the Amiga had 4096 colours, and a built in sound system that put the PC speaker to shame. It was a gaming PC, you can say, for its time. And it had a graphic user interface (GUI) that started to appear in IBM PCs only when Microsoft came up with the Windows series of operating systems (OS). And Windows was not standard packaging then, unlike now. No, you had to separately install Windows 3.0, which ran on top of DOS.

So why didn't I get an Amiga? Because the mainstream in Singapore back then was already the IBM PCs, and most software was for IBM PCs, rather than Amiga. So in the end, we decided on getting an IBM PC, instead of the gaming PC that would have mesmerised me with its superior graphics and sound.

My first personal computer - an AT clone

The very first PC that I ever had (or rather, that the family had) was an IBM AT compatible, basically an AT clone. It ran on an 80286 microprocessor, had only 640kb of RAM, and did not have a harddisk. Instead, it had two 5.25-inch floppy drives.

That was in 1990. Needless to say, it wasn't that great a PC, but playing Captain Comic and Test Drive on it brought endless hours of fun. And of course, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2.

Subsequently, we upgraded it by adding in a SoundBlaster sound card, and a small harddisk, plus gave it some extra memory. Eventually, we gave it a new CPU, an 80386 microprocessor. By then, the cost of upgrades was more than enough to get a new PC.

But those were the old days, when you needed to swap floppy disks to play games if you didn't have a harddisk. When games played in 4-colour CGA, 16-colour EGA, and there were few games that came in 256-colour VGA. When sound came from the primitive PC speaker if you didn't own a sound card. When you needed to boot up your system with a DOS disk before you can do anything at all. Those were the days.

Ran 乱

This is the famous Japanese director Kurosawa Akira's last great epic. It is set in medieval Japan, in the Warring States Period of Japan (Sengoku Jidai 戦国時代). The story is about an aging warlord who passes on his authority to his eldest son, thinking that his three sons will stay together and aid each other. Instead his youngest son, who knows the ambitions of his brothers, speaks out against his father's decision and was banished.

In the end, the eldest son drove his father out of his own castle, and the second son took the opportunity to kill the eldest and gain control of the clan. This drove his father mad, wandering lost in his own land. When the youngest son came to look for his father, brother ended up fighting against brother, and in the end, all three sons died, and the land was lost to neighbouring warlords who took the chance to invade their lands.

This is a great movie made in the 80s, with many samurai war scenes showing how battles were fought during that era. I especially like the cavalry charges, and how musketeers and archers hidden in the woods can be an effective tactic against a superior mounted force.

Ran in Wikipedia

Medieval: Total War

I like playing strategy and wargames, and thus, the Total War series of games by The Creative Assembly naturally appealed to me. Medieval: Total War is the second game in the series, after Shogun: Total War.

The setting is in the middle ages of Europe, with the game world extending into the Middle East and northern Africa. You control a faction, which is basically a kingdom, such as the Byzantines, the Turks, the English, etc. Each faction also belongs to a religion, either Catholic, Orthodox Christian or Islam. The Catholics and Muslims are able to send out crusades and jihads respectively, bringing their armies far further than their immediate borders.

Besides the strategic map, in which you manage your kingdom's economy and troop production, the main appeal of Total War games is the battle map. Here, you control units of your troops in battle against the enemy's troops. Each type of unit has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the battle map allows you to exploit the strengths of your units against the weaknesses of your enemy, such that even a smaller force may be able to win against a bigger force using skillful manoeuvre and superior tactics.

Of course, if controlling units in battle does not appeal to you, you can always get the computer to automatically resolve battles for you. In such a case, the computer computes victory or defeat based on numerical strengths as well as unit strengths and weaknesses, but does not factor in the human genius in manoeuvre and tactics.

There are also many mods available, which can be found at The Guild, a fan site devoted to the Total War series. They allow you to play using the game engine in different settings, such as during the Napolean war, Hellenic times, even the ancient world. There are also mods that add factions to the original medieval world and improve on the units.

So if you are a wargame/strategy game freak like me, this is something that you will not want to miss.

Survivor

I am sure there are some of you who watch this reality TV show known as Survivor. The motto is "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast".

A friend of mine was talking about career advancement today. He said something similar to the Survivor motto. Basically, you don't need to outperform your fellow colleagues to get to the top management positions. You just need to outlast them.

Passport

I went to collect my new passport today.

And realised how crowded it can be close to the holiday season. Yes, the school vacations are round the corner, and people are rushing to get their passports done so that they can go for that trip they are planning for.

So I ended up waiting for 2 hours, just to spend less than 5 minutes to collect my passport.

Anyway, the new biometric passport is valid only for 5 years (instead of the usual 10) and it comes with its own passport number, unlike in the past, when your IC and passport shares the same number. Guess that means having to refer to the passport everytime I fill in an immigration card...

Singapore Turf Club

I went to the Singapore Turf Club for the first time in my life today. My wife and her friends were performing Japanese drum for today's event at the Turf Club. I think it is the Sakura Cup, sponsored by Panasonic. So I took this opportunity to tag along and see what the Turf Club is like.

Firstly, the horses are great. The winners have this majestic look to them, they walk as if they deserved to win. Yes, those winning horses all walk with a certain grace and confidence. They have that "winner's look".

And of course, there is that magic of the race. When the race starts, you look at who is leading, you look at your favourite horse. And then, halfway through the race, you see your favourite catching up to the lead, slowly but steadily, and you start to think, "There's a chance!!" And you start shouting to cheer it on, until the results are set when the horses cross the finish line. Then, it is either joy or sorrow or frustration.

Going to the races is a great experience, even if you don't bet on them. Just go there and soak in the atmosphere, the cheering as the horses round the bend for the last burst towards the finish line. On this tiny island with few places to go for the weekend, the Turf Club is a getaway from the shopping malls.

My quilted blanket

My workplace has its air conditioner tuned to a very low temperature. And every once in a while, I have to stay over because of work.

My wife does quite a bit of sewing as a hobby, and has made a few quilted blankets in the past. We have a queen size one that we use at home, and she has made a similar one for her sister, as well as a baby-size one for her friend.

So when I asked if she could make one for me to bring to work, she agreed, and after 5 months (actually, she only spent about 3 months working on it), the final product is shown above.