Sunday, August 29, 2010

iAmBack

Some time back, I mentioned the existence of an iPod Shuffle that I managed to get my hands on. gtkpod was working for it for a while, but it got too messy, because most of my music stuff is done on foobar2000, which is not really a Linux program.

Why foobar2000? Because it is awesome with a really small footprint, unobtrusive interface and the ability to play almost every existing audio format that we might want. Of course, it was annoying that I needed that iTunes program to talk to the iPod on Windows XP, and that's why my iPod shuffle has gone the way of the dodo, sitting in a corner gathering dust.

Until now.

foo_dop is a life-saver. Apart from the small snafu of requiring administrator access levels to do the hardware writing, it does a great job in syncing with the hardware from within foobar2000 itself. This means there is new life for my iPod Shuffle, as my running tool. Not because I like Apple products, but because it is sort of unobtrusive when one is running with little extraneous stuff. To be fair, the iPod Shuffle has a really small form factor, and is thus suitable for running with.

Heck, the built-in clip is just screaming to be used for running.

Now I have an excuse to run even longer, with more high tempo music to sustain me.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

0.0000000143%

One out of nearly 7 billion people. One out of nearly 3.43 billion males. One out of nearly 5 million Singaporeans. One out of nearly 30 thousand researchers in Singapore. One out of nearly 1 thousand computer science researchers in Singapore. One out of a family of four.

One.

I am just one person on this planet. Just this one person, nothing more, and hopefully nothing less. I am no nobility, nor important person in most contexts; I do not come from a rich nor industrious family. Neither am I particularly famous on my own, be it in financial terms or in raw power or even charisma.

If we were to look even beyond that of this planet we call home, the insignificance is even more staggering. We are just one tiny planet among the multitude of star systems, which are the tiny make up of the galaxies and superclusters and everything else. The total known count of particles in the universe has been estimated to be the eightieth power of ten, while even a normal human has at most ten to the fourtieth power of particles.

One.

No matter how we look at things, the sheer insignificance of a single human start to make one wonder---is it all worth it? Are all the things that we do really worth it?

In many systems, the concept of optimisation seems to be the order of the day. Most dynamic systems will optimise themselves to reduce their potential functions to reach a certain sense of stability, even if the transitions themselves are chaotic in nature. As far as science goes, it is tacitly assumed that the long term outcome of any system will be that where the potential function governing the system is at its global optimal. In some sense, this is codified in the second law of thermodynamics---a system in maximum entropy is taken to be at the most globally optimal configuration, because any other configuration requires an expenditure of energy to do work against the ``nature'' of the system.

But the same cannot be said for human life. Empirically speaking, it would seem to be the case that humans are working against entropy and seeking things that are away from the global optimal configuration of their world. These can be seen from the continual battle between societies and nature, with the creation of artificial domiciles that reside in man-made oases amongst the natural greenery, where the original inhabitants of the land are all but wiped out to satiate the ever-growing lust of space and novelty by humankind.

One.

Perhaps that tirade against humanity in general is too abstract to be comprehended by the mere person, the single entity whose numbers self-organise into the juggernaut known as humanity. Let us try to look at this from a slightly different perspective, but with a similar sort of insight that we are looking for. There are many things that the single person is unwilling to do, for instance, losing a job, or even losing a loved one to either diseases or some catastrophe, man-made or otherwise. But in the larger context, be it in the context of a company or even a country, the concept of ``for the greater good'' keeps appearing as a dictum, and armed with that maxim, sacrifices by the individual have to be made. So, for a company's overall performance, it might be that a single person needs to be fired for incompetence, but to that person fired, it would appear to be ``unfair'' that he/she be axed from the work force like that. To the company, it is exercising a global optimisation option, to optimise the benefit of the larger group that comprise the company, but to the individual, he/she wants to optimise locally, for himself/herself so that he/she can still be a part of the whole, whether or not it is ultimately successful in the global configuration or not.

A similar inductive argument can be made from the level of companies with some other higher hierarchical sytem, with the company playing the old role of the individual and the higher level playing the old part of the company, and ad nauseum. What is the point of it all, you might ask.

Humans are inherently selfish.

This is where my self-doubt comes in. I see myself as a hard core computer scientist, in the sense that I believe strongly that theories of computation are at the core of everything that comprises the universe. I also believe that in many instances, it is often a good idea to operate such that we perform a global optimisation of the system as much as possible to better use the limited resources that we have.

Up to this point, things are mostly idealistic.

And then I look at myself. As noted right in the beginning, I am just a nobody. If I truly believed in my ideals that things ought to be done such as to optimise the global system, then a natural deduction would be that my existence is meaningless and thus is a consumption of resources that produces no useful output. Within the reasoning that I had set forth, I should be thusly removed from the system to better allow other more useful components to get the extra resources to be even more useful.

But by that reasoning, almost all of the other people need to be similarly eliminated because almost everyone else is not contributing to the overall system in a meaningful way. Clearly there is something wrong with that reasoning.

I suppose that part of the problem comes from the human's selfishness/survival instinct, and part of the problem comes from the fact that we are not wholly conversant of the form in which the universal potential function looks like at our granularity. Physicists assume that the laws of physics work exactly the same in spite of the frame of reference/location within the universe, but even they have big issues predicting things that get increasingly local, as can be seen by the current irreconciliation between quantum theories that govern the most local of reactions and relativity that governs the massive scale interactions. If the physicists, who are claimed to be the explainers of reality, cannot figure out the equations that fully describe our universe at all its resolution, then how do we lay people and people of power can claim that what we are doing is indeed ``optimal''?

There's another thing that bears mentioning. In many cases, the potential functions used to determine the state of a system have an asymptotic form---the functions are deemed correct only when given what is effectively a very very long time, infinite in most cases. Unfortunately, this does not translate readily into our local frame of reference, simply because our own existence is often not a very long time. Thus, it might even be logically sound to deduce that we will never truly know what the potential function is. Put in another way, there is no real way of telling what the global optimisation strategy ought to be, because we do not even have a proper model that can describe the system under study.

Put even more simply, we are all operating on a basis of mistakes ever since day one.

In a somewhat roundabout sense, this helps reconcile my doubts of self-worth. While it is true that in the larger scheme of things, I am completely worthless like other people, but if I am happy enough to restrict the domain of discourse, then no one can truly find fault with me for dictating my own terms for a potential function and thus optimise it the way I want.

In short, I think I have justified to myself that being selfish is alright and it is indeed a natural part of being a human. Altruism is a fad and has little to no evidence to support that it is indeed something worthy of pursuit.

But that said, it will take me many a year to undo all that altruistic thought patterns and habits that I have been socially programmed to do over the last two decades of my life. While not going into yet another extreme, I think that this is probably what I need right now to reinject a sense of purpose into what has been a decline into obsoleteness.

World, watch out. I am coming back with a vengeance.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

長門 有希

And so I took the plunge.

I sunk in some cash to get a 長門 有希 figurine. I was deciding between Figma and Fraulein Revoltech, and the Revoltech seemed to have won the day.

No, I did not buy it from Japan; there's a nice dude selling them on eBay Singapore. I even managed to get two of her---one brand new in unopened box and one that was opened once that I can use for display.

But of course the question remains: why now? I suppose I just wanted to surround myself with things that make me happy. I have been a big fan of 長門 有希 when I first saw her in the anime 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Something about her stoic character, high intelligence and impossibly reliable ability to alter reality making me a really big fan of her. She is probably one of the deepest characters in the series, and her powerful sense of reasoning is one thing that I always look forward to when I was watching the anime.

Heh, I don't really have to repeat myself, for I have said something on this a long time ago. Alright, enough for now.

[Ed: And here she is, all geared up with her guitar to rock it out!]

Monday, August 09, 2010

National Day Parade...?

National day eh? I suppose I am around in Singapore during the times that August 9 comes around, and honestly, I've learnt to not take the National Day Parade (NDP) too seriously. The only segment in the NDP that I really enjoy a lot is the initial parade, with all the line-up of the uniformed personnel, and the whole guard-of-honour thing. That portion of the NDP feels more meaningful to me than all the other segments combined, which is usually the main ``meat'' of the show. Somehow seeing the uniformed personnel in formation feels more like a parade than a bunch of loosely connected mass-displays ever was.

Strangely this is something that is completely contradictory to what I used to like in the past---I used to find the parade portion boring and the mass displays portion more interesting. I suppose that tastes change over time, and probably when I was young, I didn't really understand the effort and meaning behind the parade drill, and of course the mass display segments were understandably more alluring due to their colourful combinations of sight and sound. Two-and-a-half years of national service later, I think I have learnt to appreciate what it means to have an armed force capable of providing contingents for a drill parade. There's this certain smugness that I feel each time I see the neat rows and columns of men and women in uniform---I think this shows solidarity of a nation much better than any other mass display can, but that's just my take.

As such, this year's viewing of the NDP over the television was no different from the others---I just watched the early segment of the drill parade and then tuned out to work on some other stuff that I need to do. Incidentally, the stuff I'm working on is related to work, so I shall not talk about that here.

After a year of procrastinating, I have finally procured a new bicycle to replace the boneshaker that I had since national service days. That machine was a second-hand wreck salvaged from Cash Converters a good seven plus years ago, and had undergone quite a bit of restoration works, and have survived at least 3 accidents that I know of. It's no longer that road worthy now (something about shot brakes, misaligned spokes and stuff like that), and so I have decided to get myself another machine that I can use to re-explore the neighbourhood once again, and to get some more exercise. And so I did.

Among the more important things that I did with it was to get it engraved and recorded in the database at the Police Centre as suggested in this circular. So I have a bike that is a little more protected against theft, which is always a good thing.

I never really liked running all that much. The lack of a view, the low stamina of mine, the relatively low speeds all make it a very boring and uncomfortable sport that is not fun. The one and only time that I could run more than 2.4km was when I plugged myself with some relatively high tempo music---I can understand why many runners need to have their music players with them before they can do any form of ``serious'' running.

Anyway, I think that I have digressed a lot by now. Have a happy national day.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Self-Inquiry to Sociability

So really, people terrify me to no end. I've been going on that path of knowledge discovery for so long that I haven't really figured out how best to interact with people not on a professional level. An irony considering the position that I am in, but it can hardly be a trait of mine if it didn't involve at least one contradiction, can it?

I suppose it is for that reason that I never really liked being in large crowds of people---it makes me feel very uncomfortable, sometimes even to the point where I have the sudden urge to be violent or to hide away and not be found. As I reviewd the past decisions that I have made and the things that I have experienced, I seem to have discovered one pattern: I barge into people's lives like the Kool-Aid Man barges into homes, often making people more than a little uncomfortable as I jar them out of their comfort zones rudely.

In retrospect, that's why my past relationships were failures too. Put simply, if I couldn't work out well in the normal social setting, why would it even work out for a more intimate one?

Unfortunately for myself, I'm not really that social in general---most times where I am social, I am on some kind of self-induced high/mania and have this odd pressing need to be extraverted, just like how that old MBTI test said.

But how then do I go about knowing more people on a more personal level?

Thursday, August 05, 2010

August Cometh

August. A month that promises much more work than before as things start to kick into full swing with all the projects ramping up to their actual speeds. Since Saturday, I have gone mostly cold turkey with coffee, and am surviving on a slightly less potent source of caffeine, namely green tea. Actually that isn't the whole story either, since I also consume other more ``herbal'' concoctions like the flower teas (hibiscus, chrysanthemum and chamomile). Surprisingly, apart from the massive headache induced partially by a nasal infection and partially by the withdrawal symptoms, nothing much came from it.

So what's new right? That's the question that everyone likes to ask. Nothing much at the moment, perhaps some new thoughts from introspection. Firstly, recall the previous post (and the relyric). The more I listen to it, the more I am convinced that it is highly descriptive of my general situation with regards to the relationship front with females. I do suffer from thinking that I'm matured enough to handle a relationship, and at least in the earliest cases, I did declare a commitment to love to the girl whom I was dating. What a fool I was. At least I started to wise up a little, especially from the last one---I used an alternative L-word that was more accurate in describing my feelings, namely ``like'' instead of ``love''. And of course, I definitely have my moments where the strong emotional need was what that drove me towards initiating a relationship in the first place. This is amply evidenced even in the semi-public entries of this blog, so I shall spare my own embarassment of bringing up the instances here. So what do these all mean? My choice to stay out of things like that seems to be even more justified than before---I think I'm starting to understand what Cui meant by ``knowing what I like first'' or something like that. In spite of my humble boastings of knowing myself pretty well, I think that even I have some places that I'm currently incapable of exploring alone, and perhaps that temporarily taboo place is defining what it is that I like in general, from my career path, to the type of mate I am looking for. I suppose these deep and rather subjective portions are sufficiently alien to me that I am unconsciously fearful to tread and explore. This is where having access to a therapist would be useful, but this place being Singapore, if I did seek a counsellor to talk about these things, it would probably end up as being yet another attribute for people to add stigma to.

Self-exploration. I suppose that's why these days I'm a little more introspective than before, as I consciously and unconsciously dig deeper into my psyche to discover all these things that have never really surfaced before. Perhaps once I can figure out what these things are, I will be in a better shape to get involved in relationships again.

Secondly, I got a Dingoo A330, a portable gaming console that works by having a ton of emulators on it. It's a nifty device with a decent battery life of around 8 hours (reported). Helps keep those compiling/simulation times less boring and stressful.

I'd write more, but I'm really tired and it is really late and it is a work day tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

动不动就说爱我

Another new album set that I had, and I found this gem:(Can't find the version that I have.)
动不动就说爱我——百合二重唱

离别后也没有什么会让我更难过的理由
只不过很想让泪水 痛快一次的泛流
每个人都错 错在自己太成熟
轻易让爱上心头 「让爱上心头」
动不动就说爱我 谁又量过爱多久
才能当作一生的承诺
留不留你又如何 一旦尘埃落地后
就让泪水洗清我伤口
是不是人都难免有感动得忘了我的时候
一颗心变得好脆弱 需要多情的温柔
每个人都错 错在自己无保留
轻易让爱上心头 「让爱上心头」
动不动就说爱我 也不问我要什么
给一个捉不到的承诺
留不留你又如何 反正你还是要走
只盼望别踩痛我伤口
For the translation, check out the relyric I wrote here. The relyric attempts to capture the story/lesson that this song is trying to tell.

Perhaps this is the song that all the women I have dated want to sing to me.