Month: May 2010

If there ever was a mouthful – this would be it. While listening to how the Cameron-Clegg partnership is turning out at No 10, I read that our government has committed to spending RM200 million to ‘Malaysianise’ various software used in the ICT industry. A couple of thoughts popped into my head.

One, how is the money going to be disbursed and which companies will get the contracts to do software localisation. I wonder if this would be a good avenue to push through Open Source Software (OSS) because OSS is inherently easier to modify than proprietary software. We can easily turn the entire user-interface into Malay if we want to.

However, if recent experience at work is any indicator, the effort will be more difficult than we can imagine. There is a lot of difficulty in translating software concepts into Malay due to the nature of the language. The words that we need to use are either very long or we need to use compound words when translating. That screws around with the user-interface that has been designed for English words in mind.

Two, what kinds of software would be consider for localisation. I wonder if this will just be limited to Windows and Office or if this will extend to everything. Or does the government actually want to actively encourage the development of local software indudstry by injecting the money into small local shops. The question then becomes one of re-inventing the wheel.

There is no reason to just be a jaguh kampung because nobody is going to use the software outside of our country. So, it would be difficult to justify to me. Unless of course these companies are just going to focus on developing and maintaining the software for local use and localise the software for outside use. Then, these companies are unlikely to succeed because there is little reason to choose to use them.

Anyway, while I think that it is a good idea for our government to take more interest in our local software industry but I feel that their focus is ill targeted. There would probably be better results if they chose to focus on building real software companies instead of creating a niche localisation industry. There is just too little growth potential for that.

Signing off from Hogwarth’s.

Since I am in KLIA now, and I am now with a new ultra-portable lappy, I got to test out the Internet connections here. Needless to say, the wifi in the restaurants and public areas are insufficient to cope with demand. I could not even get myself an IP address. However, the wifi in the departure gate is another matter entirely and that is where I am writing this now.

All the stewardesses are sitting directly opposite me, getting ready to go onto the plane. Their luggage bags seem to be of the exact same model. Maybe it is something that Emirates gives them. Yes, I like to fly emirates – they have much better service in their economy class than we do on MAS. At least, that has been my personal observation.

So, I will try to update this blog periodically while I am overseas. I have my new 8-hr battery life ultra-portable lappy and it will keep me happy.

I have been reading the issue surrounding the shooting of a local teenager, which resulted in his death in the arms of his friend, by our local police. The story then became extremely convoluted and nobody really knows what the truth but everyone sort of knows what most likely happened.

Regardless of what everyone says, I personally think that the police were wrong.

There are rules and procedures that need to be followed, not just for a police discharging his weapon, but even for a police to take it out of the holster. Police are given the authority to carry deadly firearms but with that authority comes the implicit trust that they will not discharge the weapons unnecessarily at unarmed boys.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Regardless of what the child may or may not have done, killing him was not the right thing to do. If he tried to run down the policemen as they claimed, the big question then becomes what the police were doing out of their car. Anyone who has watched any cop shows on TV knows that the standard thing to do is to stand behind your car and demand that the suspect step out of the car with his hands in the air, in order to eliminate any potential threat.

I agree that the police have a right to defend themselves and that the right sometimes means that they need to pull out their firearms and shoot someone with deadly force. However, the use of deadly force is rarely required especially in a country like Malaysia where regular civilians are rarely armed with knives, much less guns.

The use of force has to be proportional to the threat – otherwise it is an abuse.

I’m not trying to curse myself or anything, but this thought occurred to me today. I think that C will outlive all of us, and definitely outlive me. This came to me as I was watching Iron Man 2. In it, Howard Stark left Tony a legacy encoded in the structure of his creations, which Tony was able to decode. Now, I thought what language would be useful in encoding stuff that we leave behind – and I thought C.

You see, while there have been many computer languages invented over the years, the ubiquitousness of C has sort of ensured that it survived every other language. Many others have come and gone while C has remained. If we were to leave Java software behind, who knows if future computers and people would be able to decipher it or even run it. But I do think that future computers and people will still be able to read and decipher C for a long time to come.

That is not to say that the C today will be exactly the same as the C tomorrow. Just like natural languages, C will evolve with time.

I recently read a comment on how high academic achievers make better developers and I have to totally support the comments made. While others may argue that CGPA does not mean anything, I dare tell you that the people who make this argument are probably people who did not excel at school. That’s why they down play the importance of using CGPA as a measure.

While I will agree that CGPA is not useful as an absolute measure, I will say again that it is very useful as a relative measure. A high CGPA tells me just one thing about that person – that the person is obsessed. I may not know what the person is obsessed with, but I know that the person has desire, passion and love for something – whatever that may be.

It is not a measure of intelligence nor is it a measure of skill but it is a measure of someone who cares enough for something to actually bother to take an effort to excel at it. Now, those are characteristics that money cannot buy.

Personally, when I do my hiring, I actively look at the CGPA. I will not consider anyone who has a CGPA of less than 3.5 at all. It is a very useful cut-off point to use. While I may miss out on some real savants, I do not need geniuses who are unable to put their focus on achieving real-world measurable results. It is also a very objective filter to apply.

Of course, different schools have different levels of difficulty. So, it might be easier to say, get a 4.0 in a certain school than another. That is why I said that CGPA is a good relative measure, not an absolute one. They cannot be compared directly with each other. However, they are useful for comparing cohorts from the same school.

Finally, while a CGPA is not everything, it is definitely something. I will not just use the CGPA as my hiring yard-stick but I will definitely use it alongside my favourite yard-stick – sample code. Sample code tells me more about a programmer than anything else. It tells me everything that I need to know – coding skills, knowledge, expression, discipline, diligence.

Believe you me, code can really show all that.

As the video below illustrates, Google Chrome is literally: faster than a speeding bullet. Even faster than lightning!

I was at a church last weekend, during both Saturday and Sunday services, to help out with some volunteer work. In addition to my normal gang of volunteers, the church provided us with a number of their own volunteers. So, we had to explain and guide them on how to do the task.

At one point, I told everyone that they had to copy in the address details exactly as shown on the card, no ifs no buts. After that, I noticed that everyone had failed to copy the details exactly. I had to strongly remind people to copy the details exactly. I had already come to expect that, since I understand human nature pretty well and our inability to comprehend and follow simple instructions.

Selangor Darul Ehsan is not the same as Selangor and 19, Jalan SS is not the same as No 19, Jalan SS at all.

I even had to remind them to copy the gender exactly as it says on the card and not to assume that someone is male or female just based on appearance.