Sybreon Ones Nought

Why is everything so purple?

I’ve come to think that I lack a major life goal. You know, some sort of grand overarching plan (I’m not greedy enough to make wealth accumulation a goal). I feel like I need some sort of grand design that I can spend the rest of my life building and perfecting. The reason that I’ve been thinking like this is because I think that I need to further develop my existing skills, learn new skills and use them all (otherwise, they tend to atrophy).

Having some grand machine to build, would also give me something to focus on. Thus far, I have been cutting my chops on many little projects. It’s probably about time that I work on something a little bigger, that would benefit more than one (me) person in this world. I have devoted almost 20 years of my life to developing computer software and hardware skills. It’s about time that I did something useful with it.

A friend of mine has very ambitious plans, of the “change the world” variety. Personally, I’m a little more practical. I have a finite amount of resources and I’ll be happy to help on a much smaller scale. However, this would mean that I’ll need to identify an appropriately sized problem to tackle, which is proving to be a problem. So, the strategy that I’m taking, is to let the problem come to me.

Hopefully, the things that come to me will be useful.

This is just the most wonderful invention that I’ve come across in recent years. It’s called the Vilcus plug dactyloadapter and according to the website, it was created to solve the problem: Create an adapter for sticking fingers into electrical sockets.

Well, getting myself electrocuted on purpose isn’t something unknown to me. I have done it several times during my youth and I have lived to tell the tale. What can I say. We’ve all done silly things when we were young. At the very least, I can claim that it was educational.

I have always had a natural curiosity for all kinds of things. Just the other day, there were two big screen televisions and a camera sitting in the room that we used to do mark auditing. Being naturally curious, I walked up to it and toyed around with it. Little did I know that the room had been double booked for a tele-conference session. Since I had messed around with it, the technician wasn’t very happy. When he asked me why I touched it, I gave him the honest answer: it was sitting there (begging to be touched).

Since I was young, I’ve been curious about the nature of electricity. It played a role in every part of my life but I had no idea how it looked or felt like. So, I endeavoured to find out by conducting a series of little experiments, which involved exposing myself to a good jolt of 240V mains electricity. All I can say is that, it did not feel like anything else that I’ve ever felt before in my life.

When anyone asks me why I chose to go into double E engineering, I will relate my youthful indiscretions to them. The typical response that I get is one of shock and surprise. But honestly, I kind of liked it. This device is exactly what I need to get my fix.

I have found out that I am living in the same house as a few ball crashers! I have asked them about their adventures and it all sounds fairly exciting and interesting. This is May Week and there are so many Balls being held at the different colleges. So, it’s the busiest week in the year for the ball crashers.

The first interesting thing that I found out is that there are many groups of ball crashers working during this time of the year. There are some famous crashers that my friends have called the professionals. They are the people who go about crashing as many balls as possible and have all the necessary information to do so.

Information, that is the most important information that one needs to crash a ball. I was surprised to find that there are so many back doors into a ball and that these information were passed down from one generation of ball crashers onto the next. My friends had passed on some information to what they called noob crashers. You can always identify the noob crashers by the fact that they’re dressed in white.

Another tip that my friends told me was not to crash a ball with girls in tow. I can imaging how it might be difficult for a young lady in a beautiful ball dress, to climb over the walls and fences necessary to infiltrate a party. It may also involve trudging through the bushes and trees in order to avoid the ever vigilant guards who are working security on the grounds.

And the guards can get rather sneaky at times. My friends told me that they met a guard last night, who actually turned off his torchlight and tried to catch them in the dark. It was only when they heard the sound of someone moving through the bushes and decided to retreat, that the light came out. Then, my friends ran away as quick as they could.

The only punishment for getting caught crashing a ball is a quick escort off the grounds. This makes the punishment as £0 and the pay off, potentially worth more than a £100 per ball. This is no wonder why the ball crashers actually bother to try. It is a challenge with no risk and a decent pay off of more than £1,000 if they crash as many balls as possible successfully. However, there is a possibility of injury. A friend of mine hurt himself last year, as he was trying to escape from a guard. While running through the bushes, he tripped and fell. As a result, he hurt his leg.

I actually gave my mates a few ideas to crash a ball and they may try it tonight. I even told them that they should actually formalise this activity, have an underground ball crashers society or something. Information is the most important commodity when trying to infiltrate security. Inside information would be even more valuable. If you have a few friends who are on ball committees, the information gleaned there could be invaluable.

My friends said that the knowledge pool is a two-edged sword since the people working security could also use the information to plug the holes. My argument is that this is good. It is just a process of evolution which will result in the ultimate ball crashing strategy coming on top. You will end up seeing more elaborate schemes being hatched to defeat an ever improving security.

Exciting.

PS: According to my friends, Google maps comes in really handy when you need to scout out the location.

A recent news article says that our government is looking at adopting a system whereby motorists can buy a fixed amount of subsidised fuel each month and pay for the rest at market rate. Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the system includes providing Malaysian motorists with a special card for buying subsidised fuel. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad said that the present cash rebate system was not the perfect long-term solution, judging from the crowds of people rushing to collect their rebates. Shahrir said that as this was the first time the rebates were being given, there was plenty of room for it to be upgraded and improved upon.

All these important members of the cabinet, speaking on the issue, barely days after the fuel rebate system was kicked into service by the government, just does not make me sleep well at night. It clearly shows that this decision was rashly made without any sort of planning beyond the type that you do on the back of a napkin. However, that is not the main problem that I have with the whole idea of introducing a fuel card system.

Personally, I just see this fuel card system as a way for certain people to make more money. I do not understand why the government needs to issue a new card system for millions of citizens in the country, when everyone already owns the GMPC MyKad. Each and every one of us already has a smart card that holds our personal information.

Incidentally, with some foresight, our driving license information is already stored on these cards. The Road Transport Department (JPJ), is in charge of both motor vehicle registrations as well as issuing and renewing driving licences. Regardless of whether the rebate is per vehicle or per driver, the relational information between vehicle owners and valid drivers is already sitting in their databases.

On top of that, the MyKad is also tied to the MEPS system, which allows it to serve as a debit card. Therefore, the necessary framework for building a complete fuel payment and rebate system is already present on the card itself. As biometric information is also stored on the card, this can be used as an authentication layer and extra security level on the card.

There is seriously no need to build a completely new and independent system for this. Building a new an independent system would just incur unnecessary costs. It would mean that new smart cards would need to be issued. On top of that, an untested kludge would be needed to rebate someone on the fuel costs, extra to any present financial system already in place.

With the distribution of an extra card and payment system, I envision a new market cropping up for the sale and purchase of these cards. Assuming that the card allows certain amounts of fuel to be bought at below market rates, people who do not end up using their allocation of fuel will be able to sell their fuel balance to others, thus making themselves some cash. Assuming that the card has a total rebate value of RM625, anyone who needs a quick dose of cash could easily sell off the cards for RM500.

Either way, what happens is that the people who guzzle fuel, will end up abusing the system. What we actually need is a way to piggyback existing technology that is tested and secure. The MyKad already has authentication, payment and driving license information stored in it. The petrol kiosks are already securely connected to the banking networks through the credit card processing system.

Whenever fuel is purchased at the pump, the owner of the MyKad can be verified by visual inspection of the photograph, or by using a fingerprint reader. The license information can be captured along with the bank account information. These can be sent back through the banking network to the banks. The banks can then verify the information with JPJ and apply the rebates either as a discount on the payment or by debiting the person’s account directly, through the MEPS system which all the local banks tie into.

So, I don’t like this idea that is being bandied about. Period.

Alternative energy, especially renewable power, is an exciting area of work in engineering today. Everyone in the world seems to be interested in it. The trouble in the past, was that oil was extremely cheap. So, there was no impetus to push for alternative sources of energy. But the rising oil prices is changing all this and if it ever hits $200 a barrel, alternative energy technologies will be mighty cheap in comparison.

So, I was just thinking about things back in Malaysia. This is an interesting area of engineering research that I think our country could possibly contribute to. We have an abundance of sun, which is a practically infinite source of energy. Solar power is an obvious was to capture this energy. However, biofuels are another way to capture and convert direct energy from the sun.

Solar technology is fairly mature. The main problem in this area is efficiency. So, further research into this area would involve finding new materials or fabrication technologies to improve the conversion efficiencies. However, this is a high technology field. There is also another lower technology field that merely exploits the thermal energy put out by the sun. That is what’s used in many homes to generate their hot water, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Abundant thermal energy can be used for a variety of other applications.

The biofuel option is still in it’s infancy. As the world’s #1 exporter of palm oil, we already have an abundant source of potential energy. The key is to figure out how to harness this energy as a conventional energy source. However, palm oil isn’t the only potential source of biofuels. A lot of people are also looking at potential sources of ethanol. But there is a natural limit for any biological fuel source, that is the available land area. It is unlikely that any area developed as a farm, could double as anything else at the same time.

However, beyond developing technologies, we need to focus more on prudent exploitation. Land area is the limiting factor in either case and it would be useful to learn how to best manage a finite plot of land. Also, biofuel crops depend on the mineral content in the ground to grow. Therefore, the ultimate limiting factor will once again be the minerals in the ground.

I’m starting to believe in Stephen Hawking’s call for us to seriously explore extra-solar colonisation. It will ultimately, be our only salvation.

PS: It is now possible to build water pipes in silicon. This will allow us to construct solar cells that can convert photonic energy to free electrons, and convert thermal energy into steam. This can all be built on the same bulk silicon. It’ll also help to cool down all the solar cells that are being baked 12 hours a day, prolonging it’s lifespan and reducing maintenance costs.

After watching the semi-finals of “The Apprentice”, I was left wondering about one issue. In certain characteristics, I do identify myself with Lucinda, the person who got fired tonight. The reason that she got fired was because Sir Alan felt that she was not suitable for his organisation.

One of her interview questions struck a chord with me. She was asked if she was motivated by money and she said ‘No’. I have been asked this question before and I have also answered ‘No’. I know that it is not the right answer to give, especially if you’re dealing with a profit driven corporate environment, but that’s the truth. To me, money is not an end in itself, but only a means to achieve an end. Even then, it is not the only means to achieve any end. So, money does not have much motivational affect on me. Money is merely one measure of success and certainly not the most important one.

Another issue that the interviewers had with her, was that they didn’t think that she was a team player. She has spent her time as an external contractor, working independently. When she was put in charge of the teams, twice, she performed well and was liked by the rest of her team. But there were problems when she had to work under someone else and she had problems adjusting and there were complaints that she undermined the leadership of others. She was also considered an odd-ball, consistently side-lined by the others. This made her a little too zany for Sir Alan’s organisation and she was ultimately fired.

I have a similar problem myself. I have spent most of my life self employed, either working independently, or leading a small team. When I do work under someone else, I will have problems, if the leader is incompetent. I do not suffer fools gladly, regardless of whether they are above or under me. And what’s worst, I will make it clearly known that I feel this way. This is possibly the biggest problem, that makes me unemployable.

In my case, I’m very certain that I’d be able to positively contribute to any organisation, as long as I’m working under a boss who takes criticism well, even when it comes from under him, and with a team that’s open minded enough to accept odd-ballness. I have had my fair share of working under incompetent leaders, but it’s only the bodoh sombong ones who have a problem with me. When I attack a policy decision, I’m not attacking the person who made it. I think the trouble is that some people take things too personally. My straightforwardness doesn’t help matter either.

I don’t see anything inherently wrong with this. It just means that I am fated to try to find my own way in this world. Not everyone is born to be a team player. You have got to have some team leaders as well as independents. In fact, I’d argue that all kinds of people are needed in an organisation. However, it’s the practice of most organisations to hire like minded individuals to reduce the amount of internal discord and dissent, which is detrimental.

As a result, an inanimate object like a corporation, ends up acquiring a character. That’s how you can have things like a Chinaman Company, which is generally characterised by it’s extreme shrewdness. Thankfully, there are also other kinds of organisations, the kind that are not entirely driven by profit. However, whether or not these organisations are sustainable in the long term, is yet to be seen.

PS: Time to think of how to set up a Social-Technoprise.

We had a prolonged TehTarik session last night that lasted till 4.30am. During that time, lots of things were discussed and one of the things that came up was game theory. As the rest of us were not very familiar with it, we asked the economists to explain a typical game to us, the prisoner’s dilemma.

You can read the details of the game on wikipedia. The gist of the problem is this:

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: if one testifies (“defects”) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must make the choice of whether to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?

Each prisoner can either choose to defect (D) or collaborate (C) with each other without knowing what the other chooses and make their decisions independently. But that is a rather false assumption because the decisions will never be independent.

For this game, the typical argument is that if we assume that the other prisoner chooses D, then we have to choose D too, in order to ensure a 5 year sentence for us. If we assume that the other prisoner chooses C, then we have to choose D in order to ensure that we go free. But if we assume that both prisoners are rational, the outcome would be DD, which indicates that CD is a transitionary state and the problem will not converge on that state.

Therefore, the only two possible points of convergence are CC and DD. CC happens by direct choice of both prisoners, and is a potential irrational point of convergence. DD is a potential rational convergence by being forced into it due to the situation. CD is rather impossible unless one of the two prisoners is an idiot. And of these two steady states, CC ensures the minimal punishment between the two. Therefore, if both prisoners are smart, they will both choose CC.

I don’t know why, but this is the way that my head works. That’s probably why I usually give odd-ball answers when asked questions like this during interviews. This is also why I have always struggled with probability in school because I can never quite see the same outcomes as the mathematicians. Maybe I’m just an irrational person or the irrational idiot who chooses C.

PS: Obviously, I’m not an economist nor a mathematician. I’m just an engineer who likes steady states and hates non-steady states.

Oh, after reading the wiki article further, I do think that I’m not weird anymore. I can understand why I strongly support Open Source as much as I do. A similar dilemma is present in the Open Source model of development. Being the irrational idiot that I am, I choose to support the Open Source model. I’m just happy to know that I’m not alone and there are many engineers who think the same way that I do. Also, the Open Source movement is on a slow but steady way to world domination.