Rechargeable... but...

The whole thing about reuse and recycle and reduce is great. I mean, I am totally in for the idea to save the environment. But I think industrial standards have some catching up to do.

With the message of reduce-reuse-recycle in mind, I went out to get myself a set of rechargeable batteries and a charger, simply because I foresaw the need for it. I am using a wireless keyboard at home, and I saw the need to have a constant supply of batteries so that I can continue to use my keyboard. What better way to do this than to use rechargeable batteries? Everytime I run low on battery, I will simply recharge them. That way, I don't need to buy new ones. I reuse existing batteries, I reduce the amount of batteries that I use.

Imagine my surprise when I try to use those batteries... firstly, I found out that they won't fit into the keyboard. Somehow, they are slightly fatter than normal batteries. The bottom line is, they won't fit. Or even if they do, they fit so snugly, it was a challenge trying to get them out. And even if they do fit in, I found out that these rechargeable batteries are not the correct voltage. Normal AA-size batteries are 1.5V, but rechargeable ones are 1.2V...

So yes, the idea is there, to reuse and reduce, but until the industry can get its act together to make sure that these rechargeable batteries are a perfect replacement for the normal ones, we still have some way to go.

Dune, Dragonlance and Harry Potter - Tests

I overheard over the radio about the new Harry Potter movie. Something about the students at the wizard school having to take a difficult exam in their 5th year of study. This sounded so familiar to me...

Anyone read the Dragonlance series? If you recall, the wizards of the Dragonlance world have to take the Test of High Sorcery before they are able to become a Wizard of High Sorcery and join one of the three Orders (White for good, Red for neutrality, Black for evil). This test is difficult and challenges the apprentice to see if he has the capacity for attaining power in wizardry. Potentially, the apprentice may die during the test as it may expose him to dangers that requires him to use both mental, physical and magical abilities to his limits and even beyond.

In Dune, the Bene Gesserit also puts their acolytes to the test, in order for them to attain the status/rank of Reverend Mother. They are put through the Spice Agony, which involves taking a toxic substance and then changing it internally so as to remove the toxicity. Failure means death for the acolyte. This is a selection process to ensure that only the able remain within the order to lead and to train future acolytes. Just like the Wizards of High Sorcery. And maybe, just like the wizards in Harry Potter's world.

Slaves to our machines

In a way, we have become slaves to our machines.

Modern day technology has made life convenient for us. And we have grown to rely on that same technology so much, that we can't live without it. Technology sets the pace of our lives, and it is hard to keep up with things that move at the speed of light.

It is hard to find someone without a cellphone, and we expect to be able to contact anyone, anywhere, anytime. Computers have allowed us to save our work, so that we no longer have to retype the whole 200-page document just for minors changes on each page. E-mail has made time zones irrelevant; people can pass information to each other anytime of the day, and expect the other side to get it.

In short, technology has increased our work efficiency. They have either made the mundane tasks easier or irrelevant, or they have made communications time shorter so that more time can be put into productive work.

In effect, they have tied us to them. We are now stuck at our desks because people send emails expecting them to be answered immediately. we are tied to our phones because people expect to be able to contact us on a whimp.

Maybe we will become something as depicted by Frank Herbert in his Dune universe. Before the Butlerian Jihad, machines ruled the world, not humans. Machines control the lives of humans. Frank Herbert probably had a lot more foresight (or maybe even prescience, the central theme of his Dune books) than most of humanity heading down this road of enslavement to machines.

Machines need not rest. They can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But we humans cannot go on without rest. When our tools were simple, we set the pace of work. Now that our tools have moved on to become so much faster, can we keep pace with them? And when machines set the pace, who is the real master now?

Transformers (2007 movie)

Finally, after more than a week since it was released, we have watched the action movie "Transformers". Before watching it, my colleague told me that if I am a fan, I would be disappointed. So it was with a bit of apprehension that I went to watch the film, not wanting to waste good money and time on something that cannot live up to my expectations.

Well, not to say that my colleague is wrong, but the movie didn't disappoint me. Maybe I am not enough of a Transformers fan. Or maybe Transformers has grown since Generation 1. After all, it has been more than two decades since Transformers was first aired. And while it has stopped showing in Singapore for a long time, apparently, Transformers has continued to evolve in Japan, with new subseries appearing.

So while I was a bit upset that Bumblebee is no longer a Volkswagen Beetle, or that Jazz lacks the racing decals, or that Starscream is now a F-22 Raptor, and that Megatron doesn't transform into a cannon, these are just minor details. The important one is that Transformers stuck to the same concept. That these robots are able to take the form of common, everyday objects. And that is what they did. They took the forms of items common in 2007, rather than 1984.

One thing though, is that the transforming took a lot more time... Well, with the amount of time and effort spent on creating the computer animations for these robots, I guess the producers want to go into details and spend some time on showing the robots transform. That can be forgiven, I guess.

The plot was similar, sticking to the original. The war on Cybertron was brought to Earth because the Transformer were searching for something (energy in the original series, the All Spark, which is a form of energy, in the movie). The Autobots got help from humans, and the Decepticons were out to destroy. "No sacrifice, no victory" is something that kids must learn, so the movie, like the cartoon, does have some message to teach the kids watching it.

So yes, if you are expecting a remake of the original cartoon, you will be disappointed. But if you are willing to accept a few changes (evolution?) to adapt the movie for the modern day setting, then the movie won't be a disappointing experience for you.

07/07/07

Today is 7 July 2007, or 07/07/07. As part of the effort to go green and save the Earth, there was a concert today held worldwide to bring about awareness. And over TV, people were urged to wear green on this day.

Well, we did our part. I wore a polo-shirt with some green on it (I don't own any full green shirts or anything), while my wife wore a half-sweater top with green and white stripes. But looking around, we didn't really see many people out there wearing green. Guess the message being passed around on TV didn't really sink in.

As I write, the concert is still ongoing.

My wife and I are actually environment-conscious people. That was what prompted me to write to the papers in the first place. And we practice recycle-reduce-reuse at home too. We reuse any paper that is printed only on one side (all those property agents sending us flyers to sell our home...), we sort out our trash so that we dispose of those that can be recycled separately. We don't use the air conditioner as much as we would like to, instead using the ceiling fan, or just bearing with the heat a bit more. There is the rule of "no air conditioner before 10pm" and "setting the air conditioner to turn off 1 hour after we sleep". Saving electricity saves us money from a high utilities bill, that's for sure. But it also helps to save the limited resources we have on this Earth.

Now, if only the agencies involved can actually put more effort into this. In Japan, people are made to recycle because they are forced to. The rubbish truck only collects trash put into clear plastic bags, so that their contents can be seen. And if you throw away the wrong type of trash, it won't be collected. For example, if Monday is "plastic bottles day", if you leave your paper trash out, the rubbish truck won't collect it.

We Singaporeans are so concerned about efficiency, though, that we have grown impatient. It will be hard to convince Singaporeans that their trash can wait. I don't think we will understand. At the end of the day, people will just leave their trash out there, and if it isn't collected, they probably won't care, even if the smell affects everyone else. If we don't get what we want the moment we want it, we deem it as inefficient. Are we right? Or are we simply impatient, lacking the patience that comes with the civility of first world status?

I think we have a long way to go, before we Singaporeans as a nation can fully embark together on the path towards environment-consciousness and the real effort to go green.

Sick!

:(

Feeling sick today... caught a cold a few days ago, and still pressed on with work because there was an important event yesterday. The result? I woke up today feeling really sick, with my nose running away, my throat all sore, and having a slight cough. Not to mention the lethargic feeling. I went to see the doctor and got 2 days of medical leave. Apparently, the symptoms are getting worse, so the doctor told me to stay at home and have a good rest.

Calligraphy piece - 親

This piece of simple calligraphy was written by me, and given to my alma mater on the 10th anniversary of my class' graduation. Due to work commitments, I was unable to attend the function, where my fellow classmates managed to meet up with most of our former teachers. As a show of our appreciation, on behalf of the class, I wrote this piece.

Transformers - More than meets the eye

I wonder how many of you still remember this screen? This is actually the starting screen of the TV series (cartoon) Transformers, which starter airing in 1984. The tagline "More than meets the eye" best describes the robots' ability to shapechange themselves into everyday objects, such as cars, planes, etc. There is a whole line of Hasbro toys linked to this animated series. Not to mention lots of fond memories, spent in front of the TV screen watching the Autobots fight the Decepticons.

Right now, a movie has been made about the Transformers, though I have yet to catch it. While an animated movie was done in the past, only with the recent advances in technology is it possible to created a movie where cars and planes can transform into robots and back. The advances in computer graphics and animation has come a long way since the days of Tron.

"Autobots, transform and roll out!" We all remember Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, giving this order. Or the muffled, electronic voice of the Decepticon Soundwave. Well, it seems that we get to relive our childhood again, with the new film. And the animated series (seasons 1 to 4) have actually been released on DVD. Yes, I am going to the local video shop later to see if I can find myself a set.

将能ありて君御せざるもの勝つ

Today, I was going through some of my old stuff, and came upon this. It is actually a verse from Sun Tzu's Art of War, the original Chinese text being 将能而君不御者胜. It means that when you have able subordinates, then the path to victory is not to control them tightly. This verse was used by one of my Japanese superiors as his direction for the division. To him, the important thing is to allow us subordinates freedom in carrying out our work, while his job as a superior was to create an environment that facilitates us in doing what we have to do.

Being in such a position now myself, and looking back at his guidance, I can say that this is something that I want to use for my own division now as well. When responsibility is placed on our shoulders, we have a tendency to become control freaks, wanting to know everything that is happening and wanting to dictate everything so that everything happens as we want it to happen. But this takes away creativity from our subordinates, and turns our subordinates into machines that just carry out orders. It stunts their growth and development. We are leaving them no room to grow and explore on their own, for them to learn and gain the experience needed that they may one day move on to greater responsibilities.

It is important to let go, if not to let your subordinates learn and grow, then at least for yourself to have a clearer picture from an outsider's point of view. From there, you can provide better guidance than being in the thick of action yourself. And of course, leaving your subordinates to do their job means that you can have the time to do your job too.

Byakkoutai 白虎隊

This is actually a miniseries shown on TV in Japan. It is about a group of young samurai (18 years and below) formed as part of the effort to defend the Aizu fief during the Boshin War, which took place as part of the Meiji Restoration.

I won't go into the details of the TV show, that you can easily find out either by watching it (there is a DVD out there if you stay outside Japan) or by checking out the show's website. What I want to do is talk about some of the things that this show made me think about.

One of the teachings that samurai in Aizu is taught is that ならぬことはならぬ。This means that what must not be, must not be. Or, we must do what must be done. This is such a simple phrase, yet it sets out the importance of fulfilling one's duty, of having the moral courage to do what is right, of being willing to face up to challenges and not back away when the going gets tough. While some may say that such thinking is outdated in our modern world, a look at how youths are behaving nowadays, and I think, "If these kids are taught all these, would we have the social problems that we have now?" A recent piece of news has a kid from a famous school in Singapore beating up a bus driver. Should we condone such practices ("he is just a kid", "give the kid a chance", etc.) or should we teach the little one (our future generation, our hope for the future) to behave properly, to bear the social responsibility for his own actions?

Another teaching is that one should not cause one's parents to worry. No matter how old we are, we should be thankful to our parents. It is because of them that we exist. And thus, no matter what we do, we should not cause them to worry. While parents are inevitably worried about their children, as children, on our part, we should act in a way that we don't cause them unnecessary worry, that assures them that we know what we are doing, that we know the consequences of our actions, and we are acting in a responsible manner.

立派に死ぬには立派に生きなければならない。To be able to die in an exemplary manner, one must lead an exemplary life. Or, the manner that we live our lives will determine the manner that we die. We can choose to lead an honourable life, and die with honour and be remembered as a person of integrity. Or we can shirk responsibility in all we do, and die being remembered as a coward.

And the sun always appear after the rain. We should not give up hope even when things look grim. All we need to do is to bear through the rough patch, and we will eventually get to better times. The important thing is to persevere and not to take the easy way out by running away from our problems, or a sticky/tough situation.

Aizu produced many good warriors. And I think this could be because they devote time and effort as a whole towards educating their children. Not just sending them to school and teaching them to read and write. But rather, education in terms of inculcating in future generations the correct values. Education is not about learning a skill. It is about learning how to lead life, and includes the skills and values that we need. To produce people of calibre like those from Aizu, we should focus on educating our future generations in the correct manner. While having great engineers and cunning businessmen may bring about economic growth in the near term, to be a great nation, we cannot depend on having the tallest buildings or the biggest airports to survive in the long term. It is the quality of our people that will determine whether we can survive all challenges that the future may have for us.

Byakkoutai on Wikipedia
Fan site

Iwo Jima? Iwo Tou?

硫黄島can be read as Iwojima, or Iwotou, but apparently, from what I know, it was called Iwotou originally. Iwojima is the name given to it by the Americans.

So now, after all these years, it seems that Japan is going to use back the old, original name of Iwotou. So don't be surprised if you start seeing references to Iwotou in the future. It still refers to the same small island.

DNS-312H Network Attached Storage (part 2)

While the NAS didn't work very well back at my previous place (read my previous post), I did manage to set it up at my new place, and right now, it is being used as a central server to store our emails, as well as files that I want to be able to access from both computers. I haven't been able to set up my bookmarks to be loaded from the central server, though.

But with Windows Vista, there problem is that everytime I log in, I need to manually reconnect my network drive. Even though I selected the "Reconnect on logon" option, it is not able to log in correctly. I still have yet to find the reason why... but that is a small hindrance, compared to not being able to access the drive at all. If anyone knows how to solve this, do let me know!

Letter to forum - Thoughts on conserving energy

A letter to the forum page of the local newspaper, written by me and published.

"I recently went to a mega supermarket in the heartlands, and while the temperature outside was a hot 33 degrees Celsius, the air conditioners were making the supermarket much colder than expected. While the fresh food section may require such temperatures, I really wonder if the other sections of the supermarket selling electronics and fabrics really need to be so cold. Is it not a waste of energy to make buildings much colder than they need to be?

A Japanese friend of mine commented about the indoor temperatures in Singapore when he visited recently. The difference between the temperatures outdoors and that indoor is so great, that it is difficult to dress appropriately. Anything worn to suit the outside heat is too thin for the indoor's cold temperature, while anything worn to fight off the cold is probably going to make one sweat a lot more when walking outdoors.

In a bid to conserve energy, and do a little for the environment, the Japanese government has decreed that all government agencies set their air conditioners to no colder than 28 degrees during summer. Workers are allowed to dress down to suit the summer heat. They are not expected to turn up in suit-and-tie anymore; short-sleeved shirts will do just fine. Can we not follow suit and save some energy, and save ourselves from the dilemma of wearing jackets in a country which has summer all year round?"

Our new home - Moved in (part 2)

Here are some pictures of our new home. You can actually see it too at my wife's blog. Below is a shot of our living room.
And here is a photo taken of our first dinner after moving in.
Now, the challenge is to sort out all those things inside the boxes... and to find places to keep all my books, files, CDs and other miscellaneous stuff. This whole weekend was spent doing just that, and I am not even half done. Moving in was the easy part.

Star Wars, Dune, Taiji and the Condor Heroes

I was watching Episodes 1 to 3 yesterday. Phew, spent the whole day going through the DVDs, and was I tired after the movie marathon. Well, here are some more thoughts about the Star Wars series.

First, to do with taiji. "Fear of losing is a path to the dark side." This seems to be quite in line with what I have written in my taiji blog about being afraid to lose. And the more powerful you get, you become more afraid of losing what you have. This is something that we have to watch. The better we become, the more we must be careful not to guard what we have too closely. I recently learnt a lesson from observing a colleague. He was afraid to lose, and ended up losing because his plan was basically one to prevent himself from losing, rather than to bring about victory.

Okay, enough about taiji, if I need to say more, I will talk about it in my other blog.

A similarity with The Return of the Condor Heroes was found in Star Wars. Anakin Skywalker fell in love with someone older than he was, just like Yang Guo. They met when he was still a child, and she was nice to him, just like Little Dragon Lady (aka Xiaolongnyu) was nice to Yang Guo. And similarly, their unions were viewed to be wrong (a Jedi marrying a senator, compared to a student marrying his teacher). And of course, Anakin had his right arm cut off, just like Yang Guo. And both were proud, knowing that they were good in their skills.

And the Kamino that created the clones were like the Tleilaxu of Dune, specialising in making clones. The assassin sent to kill Padme was a "changer", like a doppleganger from Dune, able to shapeshift.

Seems like the movie really does draw a lot of inspiration from different places.