Just a note to self, about the cars that my father drove (I think he owned most of them, though the earlier ones could have been shared with his brothers).
Mitsubishi Lancer
Mercedes Benz (model unknown)
Honda Accord
Mitsubishi Galant
Mitsubishi Sigma
Honda Accord
Mazda 626
Honda Accord
Toyota Corona
Toyota Corona
Mercedes Benz (model unknown)
Mercedes Benz 200
Given that he died young, it is quite something to have gone through 12 cars in that time...
Also, after watching Initial D and seeing how Bunta always passes a cup of water to Takumi, I also recall something. My mother has motion sickness but she never suffered when my father was driving. I think it might be because my father honed his driving skills making deliveries too. He delivered potted plants using a light truck, and my childhood memories include those of going on deliveries with him as he drove from place to place, trying to make all the deliveries in time without damaging the plants. This could be how he developed skills for driving fast without causing discomfort to those in the same vehicle as him. I myself never realised how fast he drove until when I was older, and sitting in the passenger seat, noticed him going at 100km/h down a busy public road.
Formula One driver Ayrton Senna passed away on 1 May 1994 during the Italian Grand Prix. I shall not go into the details of his life and racing achievements, since you can easily find a lot more information on Wikipedia. To me, he is the greatest F1 driver, and as today marks his 31st death anniversary, I thought it would be good to do something in memory of him.
So I got myself a LEGO set. 😅
It comes with six packs of LEGO bricks: five packs for the machine and driver (Ayrton Senna mini figure) and one pack for the display stand.
Three hours later, I managed to put everything together.
OMG! I went to visit my favorite blog talking about old CRPGs, and came upon this! Legend of the Red Dragon, back from the good old days of BBS door games. I can't remember the countless hours I spent playing it back in the 1990s, when I was calling into BBSs.
It seems you can play a rewrite of the original game today, via your browser (instead of calling into a BBS).
In 1984, Apple came up with this ad to promote its new Macintosh, which sought to break the market share that IBM had at that time. Drawing from the authoritarian world portrayed in 1984, it expressed a strong message that Apple was going to take on "Big Brother" IBM.
Fast forward to 2020, and Apple now has a significant share of the IT market with its various products and software for these products available through its App Store. So when it removed the popular game Fortnite from its App Store because the developers offered a way to bypass the 30% fee charged for using the platform, the developer of Fortnite hit back at this move with its parody of the same ad. Only this time, Big Brother is not IBM but Apple.
I don't use Apple products, but I do think that it is only fair for Apple to charge developers a certain fee for distributing products on its App Store, if the developers are making money from those software. However, it is the amount charged that can be an issue for debate. How much is fair, and how much becomes overboard? For example, PayPal charges a small fee for providing its payment platform. This does reduce my income from translation work when payments are made via PayPal. But there are few alternative platforms, and the fee charged is small enough to still be acceptable. For example, if PayPal were to charge a 30% fee for transactions, I don't think people will be using PayPal anymore.
How much is too much? I think the providers of online platforms deserved to be paid for the service they offer. And it must remain profitable but it cannot become exploitative. A 1% fee is a token sum that would be great for users but may not be profitable to providers. A 5% fee sounds like the normal rate. If the platform offers a unique service, people may even be willing to pay up to a 10% fee. Anything beyond that would be highly subjective. We all want to make profits, but making profits by exploiting the weak is akin to a form of modern slavery.
Just realized that it has been 14 years since this blog was created. I started this blog more as a diary of my thoughts and things I want to write about, which is why I never actively promoted the blog except when there is relevant information that may be useful to a larger community. So I am grateful to all visitors who somehow found their way here and to those who left their comments. Thank you for reading the ramblings of a geek.
Long, long ago, when I was still very young, I used to live in a housing estate in Singapore. Singapore's housing estates are communities of public housing with many apartment blocks and common recreational facilities that anyone can use. These facilities usually include a badminton court and table-tennis tables. Which makes these two sports kind of popular as something to pass the time. (There are also basketball courts and open fields for soccer too, but these were never sports that drew my interest.)
I vaguely remember my mother getting a couple of badminton rackets. This allowed me to play badminton, hitting the shuttlecock around to each other. But I remained ignorant about the rules of the game; I remained largely ignorant about the game except that the goal was to keep the shuttlecock in the air.
So when I started to visit the public library on my own (I think that was Primary 3), my curiosity and love of books came together and made me borrow some books on badminton. I learnt the rules of the game (which has changed since...) I also learnt the names of the basic serves, how to perform them, and things like drop shot, drive, and smash. And the desire to be able to replicate what was written in the books motivated me to practise. Which I did. And that helped me get better at badminton, enough for me to slowly improve over the years to be able to play it at a recreational level with friends as a social event.
A similar experience awaited me when I was in Primary 4. A friend of mine was in the school's table-tennis club, and I wanted to pick up the sport to be able to spend more time with my friend. Having no idea how to play table-tennis at first, I was really bad... I was more a spectator at those regular after-school (or rather, before-school, since we were in the afternoon school session) table-tennis sessions.
And once again, I turned to the public library and books to help me. Books taught me about the rules of table-tennis, about what is the difference between a topspin and a backspin and how to execute them (in theory). The different ways of holding a table-tennis bat, and different ways of serving. Books gave me the idea of playing against the wall; which was basically taking the dining table and pushing it up against the wall so that I can play against myself at home. Being able to practise on my own meant I could play a lot more, and I soon got a lot better, so much so that I could spend more time playing rather than watching when playing in school against friends. (Given the lack of tables and abundance of players, we took turns to play. Short games where the loser goes back into the queue while the winner continues to play against the next "challenger". The better you are, the longer you get to play, which serves as a motivating factor to improve your game.)
Today, I look back and feel amazed with myself. I realized that I have been learning many things on my own through books. Badminton and table-tennis are just two of the sports that I picked up on my own through reading. There are other things too, which I will find time to write about.
But the common skill is: self-learning via books. A skill which has served me well over the years, and continue to serve me well today.
Back in primary school, the days after exams were carefree days when we would still have to go to school, but were left more or less on our own as teachers were busy grading papers. The syllabus has been covered so there was really nothing to do except wait for the school holidays to come. So we did our best to spend time in school by... playing.
We would play card games and board games. Some would just chat away. Others would read a book (a very rare sight...) And chess was one of those games that we played. There was chess as we know it (played on an 8x8 black-and-white chessboard), and we also played Chinese chess. I knew how to play Chinese chess because my father taught me a bit when I was young, but chess was something foreign to me.
And so I did what I did best.
I tried to pick it up on my own. By reading about it, then trying it.
I followed that familiar pattern. I would go to the library and look for books on the topic. In this case, it was chess. So I borrowed books about the basic rules of chess, then books about the standard opening moves, and finally those that analyzed past games.
Basic rules because chess is a rule-based game, and the rules serve as the foundation for getting started. The standard opening moves are necessary because it prevents one from making simple mistakes as well as understanding what my opponents are trying to achieve. And analysis of past games because they provided me with a deeper insight into how the game is actually played and how to think ahead.
I never became one of the better chess players in class. Chess was just not my thing (I preferred Chinese chess), but at least I could hold my own against better players to give them a small challenge. It did give me a way to interact with other people in class, and further reinforced in me the self-learning technique that would prove useful to me as I continued my journey in life.
Long ago, when I first started on my Linux journey, there were two main options: Debian or Red Hat. I went with Debian. This was 1999, a time when installing any distribution of Linux was not as straightforward as it is today. And adding to that complexity was that I had a laptop; getting anything to run was a challenge as Linux back then tended to be slower in rolling out device drivers for the latest technologies. This was followed by language support (I needed Japanese input and fonts) so I eventually switched to Turbolinux, a Japanese distribution based on Red Hat.
As Linux development sped up, issues with device drivers and language support started to become better in the mainstream distributions, and I switched to Fedora Core. Fedora is also based on Red Hat, which explained the choice since I was just switching from one Red Hat-based distro to another Red Hat-based distro. Fedora came with the GNOME desktop, which worked well for me until GNOME 3 came along. GNOME 3's GNOME Shell just didn't feel right for me, so I started searching for an alternative.
In my search, I came upon Linux Mint. It offered the "traditional" desktop feel of GNOME 2 and Windows (yes, I was and still am a Windows user; dual booting was something I did and still do, even though the computers I use now are either Linux or Windows machines without dual boot). I didn't hesitate; I made the switch. Linux Mint is ultimately based on Debian, which brought me back to the world of apt after a long hiatus.
In my single board computers, I am using Ubuntu, Raspbian, and Armbian. These are all distros based on Debian. I am fine with the desktops offered by Raspbian and Armbian; Ubuntu, with its GNOME desktop, is still something that I struggle with. Good thing I use them headless, with almost everything done via the command line
on SSH, with the occasional X11 forwarding if I do need something with a
GUI.
I am still using Linux Mint today on my main "desktop" (it is a mini PC), and have my older laptop on a Windows/Linux Mint dual boot. I am likely to continue to use Linux Mint on new builds (I am hoping to get the time and resources to build a cheap DL rig with AMD + GTX 1660 Super), although Ubuntu MATE looks "attractive" too. I continue to dream of the day when I can fully ditch Windows, but since my current work requires me to use Microsoft Office, that is unlikely to happen for a while...
It has been a year since Inuka, the first polar bear to be born in the tropics, passed away (or rather, was put to sleep). And with his passing, the Singapore zoo will no longer have a polar bear.
His passing brought up a lot of emotions in me. Not because I am a polar bear lover. But because of the significance of the polar bear enclosure to me.
You see, my father was involved in building the polar bear enclosure at the Singapore zoo. Specifically, the landscaping part. Going to the zoo with him (via the side entrance) when I was young was part of my school holiday routine. He went as part of work; I went under the reason of "helping him". Of course, I wasn't of much help, but it allowed me to roam the zoo for free.
More importantly, it allowed me to spend time with my father, seeing him at work, learning important life and leadership lessons from him.
Those times with him, those lessons from him, they are all the more precious because he passed away when I was 20.
And so, every time I pass by the polar bear enclosure (and the komodo dragon one too), I would remember the times with him, driving around Singapore as he visited various work sites to check on the progress of work, buy and bring lunch to his workers, and took over their work while they ate. He never gave any formal lectures on leadership to me, never talked about his work much, but I learnt from observing him. The importance of being present, seeing things with one's eyes, caring for the people in the team, and persevering through hard work. As a preteen and teenager, I was attending excellent leadership lessons for free.
Those lessons have served me well over the years, especially when I was in key leadership positions.
My son saw tears welling up in my eyes last year, when we walked through the empty polar bear enclosure at the zoo. I tried to explain to him the reason for those tears, but he might have been a bit too young to understand.
I only hope he will grow up learning as much from me as I had from my father.
And if you are looking for the source code in BASIC, I found it in the archive of a forum post.
The link given is here, which leads to a ZIP file containing many BASIC programs. http://www.baudband.net/downloads/xt_games.zip
IBMSONG.BAS is under the GAMES directory of the ZIP file.
Enjoy!
Update March 31, 2022: I managed to use this program called bascat to extract the BASIC listing.
4 WIDTH 80 5 ON ERROR GOTO 9500 6 PLAY ("P64") 10 GOSUB 9000 30 B$=CHR$(2) 40 DIM N$(165) 50 DIM L$(15) 60 DIM B%(253) 70 X% = 165 80 FOR I% = 1 TO X% 90 READ N$(I%) 100 NEXT I% 110 RESTORE 790 120 FOR I% = 1 TO 15 130 READ L$(I%) 140 NEXT I% 150 RESTORE 960 160 FOR I% = 1 TO 253 170 READ B%(I%) 180 NEXT I% 181 PRINT "(Press any key to begin.)"; 183 IF INKEY$ = "" THEN 183 190 CLS 200 FOR I% = 1 TO 9 210 PRINT : PRINT L$(I%) 220 NEXT I% 230 R% = 1 240 S% = 1 250 B1% = 0 260 FOR I% = S% TO 165 270 C% = B%(I%+B1%) 280 IF C% > 0 THEN GOTO 310 290 C% = -C% 300 R% = R% + 2 310 LOCATE R%,C% 320 PRINT B$ 330 PLAY N$(I%) 340 LOCATE R%,C% 350 PRINT " " 360 NEXT I% 370 IF B1% = 0 THEN 380 371 LOCATE 21,1 372 PRINT "Transcription of music and lyrics from a copy of a copy... of 'Ever Onward,'" 373 PRINT "and program written by Alden B. Johnson." 374 RUN "MENU" 380 B1% = 88 390 S% = 78 400 CLS 410 COLOR 0,7 420 LOCATE 1,30 430 PRINT "Second Chorus" 440 COLOR 7,0 450 LOCATE 3,1 460 FOR I% = 10 TO 15 470 PRINT L$(I%) 480 PRINT 490 NEXT I% 500 R% = 2 510 GOTO 260 520 END 530 DATA MF T170 L8 MN O3 B4,B8,O4 D4,D8,O3 G4,G8,B4,B8,E4,E8,E4,E8 540 DATA ML E4.E4 MN P64,E8,F#4,E8,D4,E8,F#4,G8,A4,A#8,ML B4.B4.B4. MN P64 550 DATA D4.,B4,B8,O4 D4,D8,O3 G4,G8,B4,B8,E4,E8,E4,E8,ML E4.E4 MN P64 570 DATA F8,F#4,E8,D4,E8,F#4,G8,A4,B8,ML G4.P64,G4.P64,G4.G4 P64 MN,G8 590 DATA F#4,F#8,A4,A8,O4 D4,D8,O3 A4,A8,F#4,F#8,A4,A8,ML O4 D4.D4 P64 MN,D8 610 DATA D4,D8,D4,D8,D4,D8,D4,D8,D4,C8,O3 A4,F#8,D4. 630 DATA O3 D4.,E4.,F#4.,G4.,F#4.,G4.,G#4.,A4.,G4,A8,B4,G8 650 DATA A4,B8,A4,G8,E4.,ML E4.E4 P64 MN,E8,D#4,E8,G4,F#8,F#4,F8 670 DATA F#4.,F4,F#8,A4,G8,G4,F#8,G4.,F#4,G8,B4,A8,A4,G#8 690 DATA A4,E8,F#4,G8,A4.,ML A4.A4 P64 MN,D8,C#4,D8,G4.,G4. 710 DATA ML G4.G4 P64 MN,D8,E4.,F4.,ML G4.G4 P64 MN,G#8,A4,A8,A4,B8 730 DATA O4 C#4,C#8,O3 B4,A8,O4 ML D4.D4.D4 P64 MN,C8,O3 A4,F#8,D4.,E4.,F#4.,G4. 750 DATA F#4,F#8,G4,G8,G#4,G#8,A8,G#8,A8,B4,O4 C8,D4,E8,O3 B4.,A4. 770 DATA ML G4.G4.G4 MN 790 DATA"There's a feel-ing ev'ry where of big-ger things in store. Of new hor-i-zons" 800 DATA"com-ing in-to view. Our aim is clear: To make each year ex-ceed the one be-fore" 810 DATA"Stay-ing in the lead in ev'ry-thing we do. The will to win is built right in." 820 DATA"It will not be de-nied. And we will go a-head we know by work-ing side by side." 830 DATA"Ev-er On-ward, Ev-er On-ward That's the spir-it that has brought us fame." 840 DATA"We're big but big-ger we will be. We can't fail for all can see that to serve" 850 DATA"hu-man-i-ty has been our aim; Our pro-ducts now are known in ev'ry zone." 860 DATA"Our rep-u-ta-tion spark-les like a gem, We've fought our way thru and new" 870 DATA"Fields we're sure to con-quer too for the Ev-er On-ward I B M" 880 DATA"Ev-er On-ward, Ev-er On-ward We're bound for the top to nev-er fall." 890 DATA"Right here and now we thank-ful-ly pledge sin-cer-est loy-al-ty to the" 900 DATA"cor-por-a-tion that's the best of all. Our lead-ers we re-vere," 910 DATA"and while we're here, Let's show the world just what we think of them!" 920 DATA"So let us sing men, sing men, once or twice then sing a-gain for the" 930 DATA" Ev-er On-ward I B M" 960 DATA 3,9,12,17,21,23,28,32,36,39,45,50,55,60,64,68,71,74 980 DATA -2,6,9,12,17,22,26,29,34,39,43,48,53,57,61,66,70,73,78 1000 DATA -2,3,7,10,14,18,22,26,28,32,37,40,45,49,53,57,60,65,71,75 1020 DATA -1,6,10,13,16,20,26,29,33,37,40,43,47,51,55,59,64,68,72,77 1040 DATA -1,4,7,11,16,19,22,26,32,38,43,46,50,55,61,66,70,70 1060 DATA -3,8,12,16,20,23,27,31,35,40,45,50,54,58,62,66,70,75 1080 DATA -1,5,8,10,14,18,23,27,27,32,36,40,46,50,55,59,63,65,70 1100 DATA -2,6,9,11,15,21,26,30,34,37,43,49,55,59,63,68,72 1120 DATA -3,10,15,19,23,27,32,36,40,44,46,49,53,58,60,62 1140 DATA 1,4,7,11,16,19,22,26,32,38,43,47,51,54,58,61,66,66 1160 DATA -3,8,13,17,20,25,30,33,38,44,48,52,56,59,62,65,69 1180 DATA -2,6,9,12,18,24,28,32,36,36,41,46,50,53,56,60 1200 DATA -2,7,13,18,24,30,35,40,45,50,54,59,63,68 1220 DATA -1,5,8,12,17,22,27,32,36,41,46,51,55,58,63,67 1240 DATA -31,34,37,41,46,48,50 1250 END 9000 COLOR 7,0 9010 KEY OFF 9020 CLS 9030 DIM H$(9) 9040 H$(1)="In the legend of IBM, there are tales of a ritual frequently performed" 9050 H$(2)="long, long ago in sales meetings, far, far away. This ritual involved" 9060 H$(3)="young salesmen and centered around a small book of chants, or songs. It is" 9070 H$(4)="said that these songs were a source of great inspiration to the salesforce" 9080 H$(5)="as it prepared to go out into the world. Although this ritual is no longer" 9090 H$(6)="practiced, one of the songs has nevertheless survived, being copied and" 9100 H$(7)="passed down through generation after generation of IBMers." 9110 H$(8)="The IBM Philharmonic Computer presents:" 9120 FOR I% = 1 TO 8 9130 PRINT H$(I%) 9140 NEXT I% 9150 COLOR 0,7 9160 LOCATE 9,25 9170 PRINT CHR$(201);:FOR I% = 1 TO 30:PRINT CHR$(205);:NEXT I%:PRINT CHR$(187) 9180 L$ = CHR$(186) 9190 L1$ = L$ + SPACE$(30) + L$ 9200 LOCATE 10,25:PRINT L$+" IBM Rally Song "+L$ 9210 LOCATE 11,25:PRINT L1$ 9220 LOCATE 12,25:PRINT L$+" "; 9230 COLOR 15,0:PRINT"EVER ONWARD";:COLOR 0,7 9240 PRINT " "+L$ 9250 FOR I% = 13 TO 20: LOCATE I%,25: PRINT L1$: NEXT I% 9260 LOCATE 21,25:PRINT L$+" Written especially for "+L$ 9270 LOCATE 22,25:PRINT L$+" IBM Corporation "+L$ 9280 LOCATE 23,25 9290 PRINT CHR$(200);:FOR I% = 1 TO 30:PRINT CHR$(205);:NEXT I%:PRINT CHR$(188) 9300 COLOR 7,0 9340 RETURN 9500 CLS 9510 PRINT "This program requires ADVANCED BASIC; Please reload, using BASICA" 9520 END
Wow! I actually missed out on this story, but Usborne has made their 1980s computer books for kids free. You can download them here.
The books were written at a time when computers came loaded with BASIC, with each computer having their flavor of BASIC. A good bet if you want to run the programs in these books would be to find something that can run BBC BASIC, or a BBC Micro emulator. Or if you own one of these machines like the Apple II or Commodore 64, you can dig it out from the storeroom and see if it boots.
If you want to run BBS BASIC on a modern day machine, try BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 or BBC BASIC for Windows.
If you want to run these programs on a BBC Micro emulator, give JSBeeb a try. You can find its code at GitHub which includes instructions on how to run a local copy.
Try searching the Internet for emulators of other machines such as the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, the Apple II, and the TRS-80.
The neighbourhood is in the news again! The last time it was in the news too, and so full of heritage. This time, I learnt more about the long history that this particular road (Upper Serangoon Road) has. Good to know that they are going to do something to preserve the long heritage here. The old Simon Road market is gone (replaced by a condominium) but I hope the corner coffee shop (in the photo above) survives!
Back in the BBS days, when I was on Lothlorien BBS, I used to use this for my smiley.
B*)
Back then, I wore glasses. It was in the days of offline mail readers, like BlueWave. Fixed width characters, 80 characters per line, 25 lines per page. ASCII text, ANSI art. Those were the days.
I love books. I love reading. So much so, I became a librarian at my school's library. Because as a librarian, I was given the privilege of being able to borrow more books compared to the average student. And I also get to sort out books being returned by others, and I actually get to set aside those that interest me.
Looking back, it was a pity that I didn't do more as a librarian. All I did was man the counter to help people borrowing and returning books, and putting books back onto the shelves (properly sorted, of course). I could have done more, of course. If I were to become a librarian again, I would set up a small corner introducing books. Rotated weekly, a selection of books based on a certain theme each week. The librarian's pick.
I love to read. I still do. Even with e-books, nothing beats having a physical copy of a good book.
My neighbourhood was in the papers. I have lived in this neighbourhood for more than 22 years (still less than Sumiko Tan, who has been in this neighbourhood for more than 40 years). But I still remember the old market (shown in black-and-white) and the huge tree behind it.
After more than 20 years, my mother has decided to move out from the old house.
It is a nice, quite neighbourhood, though a bit inconvenient since it is quite a walk from public transport and shops. Still, it was the house in which I spent my teenage years, and a few years of my married life. So there are lots of memories to do with the house too.
This artificial waterfall was actually built by my father. So I have posted it to cyberspace, hoping to keep the memory alive.
All of us have dreams, if we work hard enough, our dreams will come true.
How many of us remember our childhood dreams? How many are still working on those dreams? How many are living different dreams? How many have fulfilled their dreams?
And not just about ourselves. What about our dreams for Singapore? What were our dreams for our Singapore? Have we been making progress towards fulfilling those dreams? Have the dreams changed?
Do we still share the Singapore dream?
The video below was aired in 1990, although the song was first written a few years before that. I still remember the video, and seeing it again brings back many memories, of childhood dreams, of schooling days, of inspiring teachers. It brings tears to my eyes.
Count On Me Singapore
We have a vision for tomorrow, just believe, just believe
We have a goal for Singapore, we can achieve, we can achieve
You and me, we'll do our part, stand together, heart to heart
We're going to show the world what Singapore can be
We can achieve, we can achieve
There is something down the road that we can strive for
We are told no dream's too bold that we can't try for
There's a spirit in the air, it's a feeling we all share
We're going to build a better life, for you and me
We can achieve, we can achieve
Count on me Singapore, count on me to give my best and more
You and me, we'll do our part, stand together, heart to heart
We're going to show the world what Singapore can be
We can achieve, we can achieve
Chorus:
Count on me Singapore, Count on me Singapore
Count on me to give my best and more, count on me Singapore
It used to be at Simon Road, then it shifted to Block 529 at Ang Mo Kio Street 52 for a while, before shifting to a coffeeshop at the corner of Upper Serangoon Road and Jalan Rengkam. But after a year of absence, when I return to that coffeeshop, the porridge shop is no longer there.
So sad... I grew up eating at that porridge shop. The owner is an acquaintance of my father too. And now, I don't know where it has gone.
I remember the time when someone sent me the lyrics to this song. It was endearing and touching at that time, a song with lyrics that could so reflect a person's thoughts. So close to heart.
I remember this song, which I love so much. Who would have guessed back then that the lyrics would again be so reflective of what the future holds?
An old song that I really like... never knew that I would have so much to do with the feelings in the lyrics back then. Maybe we are all influenced in small ways by the little things in life.
Please leave a comment if you are interested in commissioning a piece of calligraphy or want to purchase any of the calligraphy works I have posted on this blog.
