Do you know Java?

Object-oriented programming has been around for quite some time now.
And Java is undeniably the language/platform most widely heard of, for
the simple reason that even non-geeks eventually have to use the
technology while browsing the web. In case you do not know already:
most, if not all, of the social games offered by Yahoo! use Java.

Because Java is so widely used, a lot of aspiring computer scientists
or software engineers like to do a little something in Java so they can
claim they know Java in their resumé. I believe it’s really easy to
tell if somebody really knows Java though, even if they write down Java
as one of the programming languages they know. So here are things to
keep in mind while writing anything related to Java in your resumé, so
that you don’t sound like you don’t know what you are talking about:

1. Java is not really just a programming language. It’s a whole
   platform, consisting of 3 parts: the Java virtual machine, the Java
   language (syntax), and the Java API;
2. In my opinion, the 3 parts ordered in decreasing importance are:
   the Java API, the Java virtual machine, and the Java language (syntax).
1. You see, the power of the Java comes from the API (i.e. the
   huge collection of predefined classes, interfaces, and packages that
   accompany each version of the Java platform). If you don’t know how to
   use the API effectively, there is no point in knowing the language
   syntax because otherwise you would probably end up reinventing many
   many many wheels (stuff already in the API).
2. Second in importance to the API is the virtual machine. The
   problem comes from the fact that the Java virtual machine exists for
   many different platforms (Windows 32-bit, Linux, Mac OS, cellphones)
   and each implementation has its quirks and bugs. Once you have adapted
   your Java code to work on one platform, you may find the same code broken on another
   platform. So please remember this: “Write once, debug everywhere.”
3. Now you see how insignificant the Java language syntax is, compared to the API and the virtual machine.
3. This may sound rude to some people: the decision makers in the
   development and evolution of the Java platform are, ironically, quite
   undecided. They “like” to make changes from one minor version to
   another and some of these changes are either irritating or annoying
   (like the addition of typesafe enum only
   in version 1.5.0). Therefore, unless you are an important and longtime
   contributor to the development and evolution of the Java platform,
   chances are that you don’t know Java; at best, you know some version(s) of Java.

Given the above, the two general rules are:

1. If possible, don’t write Java in the “Programming Languages”
   section. Mention it as a “Development Platform” instead. There is a big
   difference between knowing the development platform and knowing just
   the language syntax;
2. Always state which version of Java you know (e.g. write “J2SE 1.4.2″ instead of “Java”).

Now, some of you probably have noticed that Java is listed among
my expertise on the left side of the blog. Why have I not included a
version number as I encourage you to? The truth is: I really don’t know
Java that well. I have just started working with J2SE 1.4.2 and I still
can’t tell the difference between this version and, say, 1.4.1. At
best, I know the syntax.

- SwordAngel

Source of Confidence

I think tonight I finally understood something: parents are not good
sources of confidence. Whenever you are about to start a new project in
life, you have to be extra careful and strong-willed when discussing
about it with your parents. Don’t ever expect them to pat your shoulder
and say “go for it” in a straightforward manner – if you need a pat on
the shoulder, go talk to your sibblings or friends instead. On the one
hand, parents give good advice at times. On the other hand, the very
same parents will always
try to
strip you of every single bit of confidence that you may have built-up
in anticipation to the new project. If they don’t bluntly say “you
can’t do it” in the present tense, they will at least bring out all
their worst memory fragments about you, in order to convince you how
immature or naïve, or what a failure you were, are, and will always be.
You can’t blame them. They love you and are afraid to see you get hurt in your new project.

So here are things to keep in mind when talking with your parents:

1. Listen to their advice because your parents have, after all, built up a couple of decades’ worth more wisdom than you;
2. Your parents will never
   understand completely accurately, even at the highest levels of
   abstraction, what you are doing or thinking because they lived your age
   a couple of decades ago. In other words: the way things worked around a
   22-year old in the 1970′s probably differs from the way things work
   around a 22-year old today, in subtle yet important manners. This is
   particularly true if your parents have not grown up where you are
   living now;
3. Your parents will always treat you like a baby. Don’t let them delude you: you have grown up no matter what they think;
4. As a result of items 2 and 3, before accepting as truth the aforementioned advice from your parents, you should carefully analyze its applicability in today’s context;
5. You can safely ignore the bad memory fragments that your parents
   bring out, for the simple reason that they are in the past and that you
   have grown up and hence changed;
6. Confidence is not something that you should try to obtain from
   other people. There is a reason why the term “self-confidence” exists:
   it comes from within yourself, not from other people.

- SwordAngel

Tired Engineers…

Yesterday the team of software engineering project worked the whole
day, from 10:00 to 00:00, on our task manager software project. Aliott,
Google Queen, and Dominatrix left at midnight sharp. We were supposed
to leave at midnight but apparently Timmy and Rostopher were waiting
for
each other to pack up, and I was waiting for the both of them to pack
up. Yes, we were all very tired. I finished making mock up web pages
and Timmy dragged me to try code some Java. And then Rostopher took
over, made more changes to the database schema and I spent the rest of
the time half watching half zoning out. We ended up leaving the school
at 4:00 in the morning instead.

This is what happens when you have 3 tired engineers working:

A Simple Guide to Student Mystification

It’s been a while that I have not presented more teacher survival techniques. So here is the third one.

Fine Print

The
name of the technique suggests small writing. It sounds pretty simple:
if you write small, then people can’t read. Unfortunately, that’s not
the whole picture. There are several important points to remember in order to effectively apply Fine Print:

1. Fine Print does not work on paper or in electronic form because
   then anybody can just use a magnifying glass or increase the font size;
2. Fine Print works on blackboard and whiteboard (until students bring binoculars to class);
3. A corollary to the two points above is to never distribute
   classnotes in paper and/or electronic form because it would defeat the
   purpose of Fine Print on blackboard/whiteboard;
4. Fine Print works best in a badly set up classroom, ideally a
   computer lab measuring over 40 feet deep (from blackboard/whiteboard to
   back of the room);
5. Depending on the subject matter, a bad accent in the teaching language may be helpful;
6. You need an excuse to use Fine Print, even if it’s a stupid one.
   Don’t tell the students that you are writing small just because you
   like it.

I will provide an example with a few photos later on.

- SwordAngel

Great Tutor K

Yay, I’m starting to tutor math tomorrow. The subject matter should not
be hard. After all, it’s secondary 1 (or grade 7) mathematics. Now I
need to come up with creative ways to teach this (apparently) boring
subject to a little girl. I have quite a few years of experience
tutoring English now. Let’s see how I do with math…

- SwordAngel

Firework

The feeling of being lost is certainly a strange one. It is definitely
not emptiness because you still feel that there is “something” that you
can, should, and want to reach; you simply don’t know where that
“something” is. It is also different from defeat because you have not
found or reached failure. If anything, this feeling should be close to
distress, minus the mental breakdown part.

So what should one do about it? I don’t know. In fact, I believe that
it is a good sign to feel lost. The path of life should not only have a
source and a destination, otherwise it would just be a straight line.
Now, would you rather doodle, or draw a straight line and stare at it for the rest
of the time?

I’m not very good with analogies because I tend to digress in analogies, but I’ll try my best here. Imagine a
map with lots of cities. You begin your journey by telling yourself
that you need to find the ideal, dream city, with the perfect
landscape, where you shall set up the most beautiful firework show in
the world. If you travelled and found the dream city immediately, then
only one city would enjoy your firework show, you too would only get to
watch one firework show. Fortunately, that’s not what happens because
you are lost and you don’t know where that dream city is. So you force
yourself to travel to numerous cities and try to set up a firework show
in each of them. Now the firework shows in these more ordinary cities
may not be the greatest in the world, but they are still fun to watch
nonetheless. Furthermore, because you have practiced so much at these
other cities that you can be pretty sure you’ll put up an even better
show when you finally find the dream city. Are you afraid that because
you will have set up fireworks so many times that at the end you’ll be
fed up with them? Well, first of all, if fireworks ever become boring
to you then perhaps you don’t like firework that much after all.
Secondly, when you travel among the cities, you don’t just set up a
firework show, watch, and then leave right away anyway. Whether you
like it or not, you have to eat, you have to find lodging, you will
walk on the street, and you will need to ask the people around you
about the best spot to set up a firework show. So why not take a step
back from the ultimate objectives of finding the dream city and the
greatest firework show, and instead try to let yourself get distracted
and savor every moment you spend searching and preparing?

- SwordAngel

New Beginning?

Some of you, the readers, were my comrades in arms in Lineage for quite
some time now. To tell you the truth, I didn’t enjoy the gameplay
itself, but only the bragging and ranting part. Some of you still read
my blog and wonder what happened to SwordAngel, even after my sudden
2-month absence. I stopped playing the game at the end of last semester
because of exams and that dad came over from Hong Kong to spend his vacation (he never liked me playing
computer/video games). Lineage has been like an emotional morphine to
me. Before I realized it, I lost the dependency and addiction to it by
the beginning of the winter semester. Instead, I began to open myself
to the people around me, even to my parents, with whom I have not
talked about anything other than school and work since 5 years ago. The
feelings that I struggled to suppress for 5 years simply bursted out
and I realized that there are people whom I cannot forget and that I
still miss. And a certain “she” was among them. So here I am trying to
see what I can do about it. Waking up from this 5-year cryostatis was
not pleasant; I went through a lot of up and down during the first month, and managed to bear
with it and sort out my feelings away from gaming. In any case, the end
result is that the SwordAngel that you have known in Lineage is no
more.

Last Saturday I finally gathered enough
foolishness/courage/guts/whatever-you-call-it to call “her”. I still
have her phone number from highschool because of the environmental
committee; I simply never called her. Well, anyway, I called and she
wasn’t home. The woman at the other end of the phone, presumably her
mom, told me that “she” was at work. Having been told when she finishes
work, I did some quick arithmetic and realized that she must be working
at least 6 hours on Saturday. That’s a lot compared to me, since I
had… 0 hour of work per week for the past 5 years. I did have a job
in Hong Kong last summer, but it’s different from having a job during
the semester. I believe it is more of a challenge to manage to keep a
job and do well at school at the same time. I felt like I fell behind
compared to her and got a bit depressed. So I discussed with my friends
Chris and Danny – believe it or not, but I have friends in real life – about whether I should get a job in order to get back
to her level before trying to contact her again. I knew that sooner or
later I will have to get a job, but my question was more about the
timing, to contact her before or after
I get a job. Anyway, we came to the conclusion that I should get a job
ASAP, but not to shrink the difference in level between her and me.
It’s always fun to discuss about this kind of stuff with Chris and
Danny simply because the observers are always the most sober. They see
stuff that I, being engulfed in the situation, fail to see. So, we
agreed that, on the one hand, if any girl likes me, she would like me
for the person that I am, not for my status. I guess reciprocal
thinking didn’t quite kick in; I completely forgot that I also like
“her” for the person that she is. On the other hand, getting a job will
help me build character and firm my self-confidence; it will also
reactivate my IB
mode and allow me to enforce better time management and better study
habits so that my grades climb instead of decline. And so…

I am in active job hunt now. I’m not going all out yet. I suppose 6 to 10 hours of work per week for a start.

I am really grateful to the people who helped me go through the past 5
years of confusion. FieldsofLove, BombSquad, Dlirk, Arathin, MissKat,
Banishing, ConBaka/WisBaka, W0LFW00D, Elutherin/Evermind, SAcRiFiCe, Tainted/ClassicGirl, just to name
a few… actually everybody in the Nash, DoM, and Classics pledges. I wish you all
the best in Lineage and in life.

And so this marks the end of my overdue account of what’s been happening in the past 2 months.

- SwordAngel