Buying a new computer? Heard of gigahertz and do not really know what it actually does? Fret not, today we have with us, resident IT expert from Nanyang Polytechnic's Diploma in Information technology, myself to tell you all about Gigahertz and what it does to prevent a giga-level headache.
Hertz is a unit to measure the number of times an action with a set interval iterates per second. Basically, the number of times something completes in a second, the actions are known as cycles. 2Hz would mean that for every second, a cycle will be completed twice. So 1Gigahertz or 1GHz would be one billion processor cycles per second. In very basic sense, a 1GHz CPU chip can process 1 Billion cycles per second. Naturally, one might think a 3GHz Intel Processor would out perform a 1GHz Intel Processor. Wrong, and I will tell you why.
Intel Pentium D 960 has a clock speed of 3.6GHz, clock speed is the frequency often marketed in advertisements. An Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 with a much lower clock speed of 2.4GHz actually outperforms a Pentium D 960. Clock speed is not everything, its merely the number of cycles per second. Imagine two boxers, Boxer PD can give light punches at a rate of 3600 punches per second but boxer CD is so strong that he can knock anyone out with one strong punch. CD would win since all he needs is one strong punch rather than many small little punches that might not even have an effect. Basically a Core2Duo Processor can do more per cycle than any other processors.
However, clock speed matters when two processors are of the same architecture. A processor micro-architecture is simply the way the electric circuits are arranged in a CPU. A better architecture leads to more efficient processing, hence more operations per clock, the reason why a 3.6GHz Pentium D CPU lost to a 2.4GHz Core2Duo. But a Core2Duo E6700 with a higher clock speed of 2.67GHz would perform better than a Core2Duo E6600, since they are of the same architecture. So clock speed matters only if of the same architecture.
Cores, Dual Cores CPUs are CPUs with the circuitry of two CPUs. Dual Core CPUs or even Quad Core CPUs are able to split the load amongst two processors or more. This allows easier multi-tasking and better performance. However, it only works if programs are programmed to take advantage of multi cores, older programs would only use one core, defeating its purpose. Fortunately, modern programs are usually designed to take advantage of dual cores to improve performance. Dual core computing is often touted as a necessity of modern life.
So please, do not buy processors simply because of its clock speed and review the entire product before buying. The CPU is not the only factor to making a good PC or laptop but various other components like RAM and Hard Drives as well. Stay tune for another edition of Random IT for more IT tips and advice.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The Topic: Public Intimacy
Please take a look at this, this and this, those are simply the tip of the iceberg on STOMP. Singaporeans are apparently bothered by the intimate act of others in public. Hey, its men and women, at the least its not a man kissing a man. If you don't like something, close your eyes or look away, its instant and they are out of your sight. I dedicate this post to a segment I call "The Topic".
Topic: Public. Public places commonly refers to public property, property either owned by the government for the people or places where the anyone can freely access. Such places can be the roads, streets, void decks or even shopping centres. The one advantage, or disadvantage, of public property is that its shared by everyone. Thus, by simply breaking a public bench, you are breaking everyone's bench and denying them the right to use their "own" bench. Its no wonder that many people will go ballistic when public property is damaged, its "their" property in perspective. If you don't want anyone to dirty your own toilet, then don't dirty the public toilet, its your own toilet anyway.
Topic: Intimacy. In this context, intimacy would be the state of being in a sexual sort of relationship. "Being intimate" would mean a couple being very close together performing actions to each other that one would normal reject. Examples of such actions are hugging, kissing, hand-holding and stroking various parts of the body, like the head. Intimate acts are often done in the comfort of one's own private property like their own home or restricted access areas like a hotel room. Intimacy is a common phenomenon amongst couple engaged in some kind of relationship. Touching is often the key component among intimate actions, this is extremely common among animals as well. Touching each other stimulates the nerves of our skin and makes us feel good. Being intimate includes copulation but being intimate does not necessarily mean copulation.
TOPIC: Public Intimacy. Public property is everyone's property and intimate acts are done in one's own property. Public property is one's property since he is part of everyone and performing intimate acts in public is being intimate in his property. thus, the only reason why someone would be bothered to see people performing acts of intimacy other than copulation in public. My theory is that people are jealous that a useless guy like him could get to kiss such a pretty girl. Not that they are pretty anyway, just an illustration. We are simply jealous that they have someone to kiss and touch, that's why we get hot and bothered. Those losers who post photos of other people engaging in a beautiful lovers relationship are mostly Geeks who have no girlfriend, like myself.
CONCLUSION: Ignore them people, with the start of every relationship between a man and a woman ends in a mutual assured destruction of both hearts. If you are bothered by them, remember that and be reliefed that it won't last long anyway.
Topic: Public. Public places commonly refers to public property, property either owned by the government for the people or places where the anyone can freely access. Such places can be the roads, streets, void decks or even shopping centres. The one advantage, or disadvantage, of public property is that its shared by everyone. Thus, by simply breaking a public bench, you are breaking everyone's bench and denying them the right to use their "own" bench. Its no wonder that many people will go ballistic when public property is damaged, its "their" property in perspective. If you don't want anyone to dirty your own toilet, then don't dirty the public toilet, its your own toilet anyway.
Topic: Intimacy. In this context, intimacy would be the state of being in a sexual sort of relationship. "Being intimate" would mean a couple being very close together performing actions to each other that one would normal reject. Examples of such actions are hugging, kissing, hand-holding and stroking various parts of the body, like the head. Intimate acts are often done in the comfort of one's own private property like their own home or restricted access areas like a hotel room. Intimacy is a common phenomenon amongst couple engaged in some kind of relationship. Touching is often the key component among intimate actions, this is extremely common among animals as well. Touching each other stimulates the nerves of our skin and makes us feel good. Being intimate includes copulation but being intimate does not necessarily mean copulation.
TOPIC: Public Intimacy. Public property is everyone's property and intimate acts are done in one's own property. Public property is one's property since he is part of everyone and performing intimate acts in public is being intimate in his property. thus, the only reason why someone would be bothered to see people performing acts of intimacy other than copulation in public. My theory is that people are jealous that a useless guy like him could get to kiss such a pretty girl. Not that they are pretty anyway, just an illustration. We are simply jealous that they have someone to kiss and touch, that's why we get hot and bothered. Those losers who post photos of other people engaging in a beautiful lovers relationship are mostly Geeks who have no girlfriend, like myself.
CONCLUSION: Ignore them people, with the start of every relationship between a man and a woman ends in a mutual assured destruction of both hearts. If you are bothered by them, remember that and be reliefed that it won't last long anyway.
Current Affairs: SDP Protest
Read it if you haven't
I have a number of things to say about this event. No, I am not going to criticise how "undemocratic" our country is. Our country has never been democratic, its a mere fantasy, we are even named the "Republic of Singapore". Its not like Singapore is called the "Democratic Republic of Singapore", the majority are probably emotional idealists who vote for who they like the most rather than who can be the better leader.
First, I would like to say to Mr Chee of the SDP: "Please install a brain". Protesting would not only make you look stupid, it will also get you arrested. There are many other ways to overthrow the ruling party, elections is not one of them, just look at USA, the "leader" in democracy. Democracy is an excuse, SDP is hence the Singapore's Excuses Party. However, if you protest, Singaporeans will simply think that you are a nutcase, namely "All talk No action". Singaporeans wants a leader that can act for them instead of sprouting fantastic fairy tale ideologies, like democracy. This is why we have the People ACTION Party as our government, they ACT instead of talk, so they are not the People Talk-only Party like the SDP.
Secondly, the officer that processes requests for a permit to protest has the easiest job in the country. Needless to say, stamping a big "no" instantly on every application, like when I type "protest" in Google, it states "0.03 seconds" to process. Plus, Mr Chee is protesting against "rising prices" in daily essentials. Please, when you know the officer will reject it, why continue to waste paper and drive the prices of bureaucratic forms up, forms are already expensive enough. I even think that the government has a machine that answers protest permit, needs no mind breaking algorithm, I can even write one with my eyes close. Cout<<"REJECTED"; //I did that with my eyes closed, really.
Thirdly, if you want to protest, quit once they threaten to arrest you. The government or the police or the Polivernment, might just give a warning to please protest happy hippies country aka the USA. "Peace dude", if the police just gave Mr Chee a warning when he stops as requested, it might notch Singapore's ranking from the bottom of some kind of political ranking up from last to second last.
Fourthly, protests are usually done in big numbers, not in twenties, it sounds young but do it in thousands. Protesting with such small number of people generally project an image of SDP as a group of psychopaths, which they inherently are. People do not want to vote psychopaths into office, it would be suicide to Singapore, look at what happened to America when they voted George W. Bush into office. Personally, I have never in my life even heard of protests with two digit numbers. Please, Singapore's image has already been damaged by Mas Selamat, we do not need a bunch of retards to spoil our image again.
Finally, I would want people siding the SDP to think for a moment. If the SDP wants to show that they are a party whom would benefit Singapore, they should produce results and not saliva. PAP has proven that they can maintain Singapore's prosperity, by looking at all the retard in the White House, we know that we need high-paying salaries to attract non-retards into our office. If we have poorly paid ministers, all the smart people would avoid politics and the retards like SDP members would be voted in and you readers would probably be using 56K.
There is no democracy in Singapore, democracy is a fantasy, democracy is a popularity fest and is the antonym to Meritocracy. We live in a meritocratic society, get skills and results or buzz off. Who wants to be a minister is not the question, its who can be the minister. Look folks, Meritocracy can not co-exist with democracy, choose one or the other.
I have a number of things to say about this event. No, I am not going to criticise how "undemocratic" our country is. Our country has never been democratic, its a mere fantasy, we are even named the "Republic of Singapore". Its not like Singapore is called the "Democratic Republic of Singapore", the majority are probably emotional idealists who vote for who they like the most rather than who can be the better leader.
First, I would like to say to Mr Chee of the SDP: "Please install a brain". Protesting would not only make you look stupid, it will also get you arrested. There are many other ways to overthrow the ruling party, elections is not one of them, just look at USA, the "leader" in democracy. Democracy is an excuse, SDP is hence the Singapore's Excuses Party. However, if you protest, Singaporeans will simply think that you are a nutcase, namely "All talk No action". Singaporeans wants a leader that can act for them instead of sprouting fantastic fairy tale ideologies, like democracy. This is why we have the People ACTION Party as our government, they ACT instead of talk, so they are not the People Talk-only Party like the SDP.
Secondly, the officer that processes requests for a permit to protest has the easiest job in the country. Needless to say, stamping a big "no" instantly on every application, like when I type "protest" in Google, it states "0.03 seconds" to process. Plus, Mr Chee is protesting against "rising prices" in daily essentials. Please, when you know the officer will reject it, why continue to waste paper and drive the prices of bureaucratic forms up, forms are already expensive enough. I even think that the government has a machine that answers protest permit, needs no mind breaking algorithm, I can even write one with my eyes close. Cout<<"REJECTED"; //I did that with my eyes closed, really.
Thirdly, if you want to protest, quit once they threaten to arrest you. The government or the police or the Polivernment, might just give a warning to please protest happy hippies country aka the USA. "Peace dude", if the police just gave Mr Chee a warning when he stops as requested, it might notch Singapore's ranking from the bottom of some kind of political ranking up from last to second last.
Fourthly, protests are usually done in big numbers, not in twenties, it sounds young but do it in thousands. Protesting with such small number of people generally project an image of SDP as a group of psychopaths, which they inherently are. People do not want to vote psychopaths into office, it would be suicide to Singapore, look at what happened to America when they voted George W. Bush into office. Personally, I have never in my life even heard of protests with two digit numbers. Please, Singapore's image has already been damaged by Mas Selamat, we do not need a bunch of retards to spoil our image again.
Finally, I would want people siding the SDP to think for a moment. If the SDP wants to show that they are a party whom would benefit Singapore, they should produce results and not saliva. PAP has proven that they can maintain Singapore's prosperity, by looking at all the retard in the White House, we know that we need high-paying salaries to attract non-retards into our office. If we have poorly paid ministers, all the smart people would avoid politics and the retards like SDP members would be voted in and you readers would probably be using 56K.
There is no democracy in Singapore, democracy is a fantasy, democracy is a popularity fest and is the antonym to Meritocracy. We live in a meritocratic society, get skills and results or buzz off. Who wants to be a minister is not the question, its who can be the minister. Look folks, Meritocracy can not co-exist with democracy, choose one or the other.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Boy-Girl Relationships
Look, a non-political title and its interesting too. Today, I will put my 2 cents about what I think of School Love or BGR as some would call it. Today's post will also be very neutral as I tend to be biased in my writing, especially issues I feel very strongly about.
A Boy-Girl relationship is the sexual attraction between a young male and a young female, technically before the age of 18 but commonly used to refer to love between students. It is completely natural for members of the opposite gender to feel attracted to each other; though it would most often be non-mutual. This feeling of being attracted is a natural biological mechanism installed on our sentient processing systems with the purpose of inducing sexual reproduction through the act of copulation. In short, "liking" is simply infatuation, just an urge to reproduce which young humans tend to mistake for a higher level emotion.
Being infatuated or being in puppy love is a device-level specie maintenance process is a feeling often confused with the mental-level emotion of love. Love is unconditional care and concern built around mutual understanding and extreme levels of trust. Infatuation however is simply a "feeling" that is frequently perceived as "love". Infatuation has a high likelihood of introducing "obsession" into the equation, which would lead to actions like stalking, harassment or intervention when a member of the same-sex attempts to communicate with the target in question. Such perceived feelings often create problems for the desired subject and diverts precious time and money from the infatuated into a cause often without benefit. Although genuine cases of true love does blossom during the course of study, the probability of such is certainly very low.
A boy-girl relationship can result in undesirable consequences, often ending in a situation where both sides experience an outcome of psychological trauma. Most students whom are infatuated would attempt to stalk, intimidate potential rivals, buy gifts, write love letters and help the subject whenever possible. However, if the subject turns down their "feelings", often they would seek to destroy anything related to said subject. In addition, both parties will be distracted from achieving their academic goals and often fail to report for their CCA; unless their CCA is the only way for them to meet. The worse part of this whole ordeal is that the probability of a negative "lose-lose" scenario is extremely high.
Participants in a student-age romance situation could have dire consequences in terms of the relationship between the subjects in question. A boy and a girl might be good friends whom have known each other for years and enjoy the same forms of entertainment. However, in a significant number of cases, such "friends" of dissimilar gender if engaged in a relationship might result in hatred instead of love. It is much harder for a boy and a girl to communicate when in a relation than when they were friends. Although if these "friends" of dissimilar gender could have a higher chance of developing "true love" if engaged in a relationship than ordinary couples, such a development could result in the end of a great friendship.
Though the idea of having a relationship while in the midst of being a young student has often been discouraged by demoralised elders, the benefits in the event that the relationships develop into true mutual love is of infinite unfathomable value. Having a lover meant a companion whom you could share your most inner thoughts with and lift your emotional burdens. A lover would also provide warmth and the cosy feeling when two humans hug or have skin contact. There would also meant that there will be someone whom can be trusted and bring happiness and joy to your life. However, those benefits are in the event that true mutual love exists between the two participants of a relationship. True mutual love is extremely hard to maintain in reality, it requires a immense amount of time, effort, attention, compatibility and serious amounts of luck.
BGR is a common element in dramas and novels, often it shows true mutual love or a devastated individual; usually the latter in reality. For those whom aim to reach the level of true mutual love, I only have a phrase for you: "I wish you a favourable statistical outcome".
A Boy-Girl relationship is the sexual attraction between a young male and a young female, technically before the age of 18 but commonly used to refer to love between students. It is completely natural for members of the opposite gender to feel attracted to each other; though it would most often be non-mutual. This feeling of being attracted is a natural biological mechanism installed on our sentient processing systems with the purpose of inducing sexual reproduction through the act of copulation. In short, "liking" is simply infatuation, just an urge to reproduce which young humans tend to mistake for a higher level emotion.
Being infatuated or being in puppy love is a device-level specie maintenance process is a feeling often confused with the mental-level emotion of love. Love is unconditional care and concern built around mutual understanding and extreme levels of trust. Infatuation however is simply a "feeling" that is frequently perceived as "love". Infatuation has a high likelihood of introducing "obsession" into the equation, which would lead to actions like stalking, harassment or intervention when a member of the same-sex attempts to communicate with the target in question. Such perceived feelings often create problems for the desired subject and diverts precious time and money from the infatuated into a cause often without benefit. Although genuine cases of true love does blossom during the course of study, the probability of such is certainly very low.
A boy-girl relationship can result in undesirable consequences, often ending in a situation where both sides experience an outcome of psychological trauma. Most students whom are infatuated would attempt to stalk, intimidate potential rivals, buy gifts, write love letters and help the subject whenever possible. However, if the subject turns down their "feelings", often they would seek to destroy anything related to said subject. In addition, both parties will be distracted from achieving their academic goals and often fail to report for their CCA; unless their CCA is the only way for them to meet. The worse part of this whole ordeal is that the probability of a negative "lose-lose" scenario is extremely high.
Participants in a student-age romance situation could have dire consequences in terms of the relationship between the subjects in question. A boy and a girl might be good friends whom have known each other for years and enjoy the same forms of entertainment. However, in a significant number of cases, such "friends" of dissimilar gender if engaged in a relationship might result in hatred instead of love. It is much harder for a boy and a girl to communicate when in a relation than when they were friends. Although if these "friends" of dissimilar gender could have a higher chance of developing "true love" if engaged in a relationship than ordinary couples, such a development could result in the end of a great friendship.
Though the idea of having a relationship while in the midst of being a young student has often been discouraged by demoralised elders, the benefits in the event that the relationships develop into true mutual love is of infinite unfathomable value. Having a lover meant a companion whom you could share your most inner thoughts with and lift your emotional burdens. A lover would also provide warmth and the cosy feeling when two humans hug or have skin contact. There would also meant that there will be someone whom can be trusted and bring happiness and joy to your life. However, those benefits are in the event that true mutual love exists between the two participants of a relationship. True mutual love is extremely hard to maintain in reality, it requires a immense amount of time, effort, attention, compatibility and serious amounts of luck.
BGR is a common element in dramas and novels, often it shows true mutual love or a devastated individual; usually the latter in reality. For those whom aim to reach the level of true mutual love, I only have a phrase for you: "I wish you a favourable statistical outcome".
Friday, March 7, 2008
Hard work alone is stupidity
Today, my team had to compete with other teams for the longest time in a single two storey parachute drop. Ours was one of the worse and yet we built many prototypes and tried different materials, arguably, we did the most work among all the teams. Nevertheless, we did a lot of work to build our parachute that didn't work too well. So I will now talk about hard work and working hard.
The title, "Hard work alone is stupidity", is a reflection of the real world. Hard work alone brings you no where, its like an investment. To put hard work into something is to invest time and effort, to simply put in lots of investment would not work. Like money, effort that were not properly allocated would simply be wasted. One common example in Asian countries would be "mugging" or rote learning(memorisation). Rote learning is basically learning by memory and repetition than by logic and understanding. Students in Asia tend to depend on memorising notes and textbooks than processing and interpreting the subject at hand. Thus, students are often seen "recording" their textbooks and scoring poor scores at the end of the day; often punished by their parents for not "working hard" when they did. However, many whom did not perform mass data recording managed to score distinctions in exams.
Effort, if allocated wisely could produce results beyond one's imaginations, like founding a successful company for example. As effort without planning is an unsound investment, planning without effort are simply plans. Effort is that which plans come into fruition and plans prevents effort from being wasted. Therefore, hard work alone is nothing but hard work with proper planning create new possibilities. That is why businessmen are richer than a farmer even though farmers work much harder than businessmen. This world relies upon intelligence and hard work, lack one and failure is inevitable.
In conclusion, one must both work hard and plan ahead. Many people waste their hard work on the wrong aspects of their goals while others who work solely and place little effort on the right aspects would succeed. This is life and its all about taking advantage of resources, hard work is nothing but a resource.
The title, "Hard work alone is stupidity", is a reflection of the real world. Hard work alone brings you no where, its like an investment. To put hard work into something is to invest time and effort, to simply put in lots of investment would not work. Like money, effort that were not properly allocated would simply be wasted. One common example in Asian countries would be "mugging" or rote learning(memorisation). Rote learning is basically learning by memory and repetition than by logic and understanding. Students in Asia tend to depend on memorising notes and textbooks than processing and interpreting the subject at hand. Thus, students are often seen "recording" their textbooks and scoring poor scores at the end of the day; often punished by their parents for not "working hard" when they did. However, many whom did not perform mass data recording managed to score distinctions in exams.
Effort, if allocated wisely could produce results beyond one's imaginations, like founding a successful company for example. As effort without planning is an unsound investment, planning without effort are simply plans. Effort is that which plans come into fruition and plans prevents effort from being wasted. Therefore, hard work alone is nothing but hard work with proper planning create new possibilities. That is why businessmen are richer than a farmer even though farmers work much harder than businessmen. This world relies upon intelligence and hard work, lack one and failure is inevitable.
In conclusion, one must both work hard and plan ahead. Many people waste their hard work on the wrong aspects of their goals while others who work solely and place little effort on the right aspects would succeed. This is life and its all about taking advantage of resources, hard work is nothing but a resource.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Pocket Monsters ポケットモンスダー
I had some free time, now I must spread the word of Pocket Monsters! We Pokemon fans have often been labelled and stereotyped as Childish, Pokemon is and never will be "childish". I am going to write an a post that might change your world view of the Pokemon franchise.
Pokemon is "child-like" because it appeals to kids who know nothing about the fantastic programming that has gone into the games. In each and every Nintendo handheld console, it has always been the Pokemon games that pushes the limits of the tiny machinery to its extreme. The amount of hard work on the programmers part is simply amazing, its no longer the artists that spend the hours in the studios in most Japanese games. Now, as someone who have been programming for the past 3 years, I truly respect the hard work those guys spent and people like you perhaps, seem to continuously call Pokemon a childish play thing.
The Pokemon flagship RPG games uses a very complicated Catching formula to determine whether the player is able to catch the desired Pocket Monster. Also, consider the Damage Forumla which were then affected by Damager Modifiers which are affected by the stats which depend upon EVs and IVs. Not to mention that many moves have their special calculation as well, like Hidden Power. Those things probably took years and lots of efforts to debug and perfect. Speaking of which, the programmers not only had preventions and workarounds in place to prevent any possible bugs, they also have cheats into conderation, take Arceus for example, they included the "???" type sprite to prevent a game crash resulting from cheating by changing Arceus to a ??? type Pokemon. I have not even mentioned the TIME function since Gold and Silver, a function rarely used by any game at that time, time allows events in the game to be more realistic like certain Pokemon appearing during the day or at night.
Many people think that Pokemon is an easy game but that's only the Single Player. In multi player games, one needs strategy and a properly trained Pokemon to win. Its not just the level but factors like IVs and EVs come into play and decides the outcome. Strategy is also a vital part of competitive battling, just look at this Startegy page for one of the 493 Pokemon around. Newer Pokemon games that few critics of Pokemon have played include Pokemon Contests a type of competition introduced into the system. Well, I don't think children's games like "Disney Sports" have such depth and not to mention, insane programming.The last game which I felt had superior programming was Roller Coaster Tycoon, written entirely in ASSEMBLY and fed with C++ to interface with Windows.However, I do agree that Pokemon has more tedious coding rather than breakthrough Algorithms. Nevertheless, Pokemon has pushed the boundaries of early handheld technology, especially the Original Gameboy. Japan Top game charts shows that Pokemon has always topped the sales charts for Nintendo products. Pokemon is indeed the main profit machine for Nintendo, that amount of money is definitely no child's play.
All critics of Pokemon who think that its "Kids-only" have only watched the Anime which was targeted at Kids, not the Games that are meant for a General Audience. Also, they often use the poorly made censored Americanised Pokemon cartoon as a way to distort the image of the Pokemon franchise. Even if the cartoon was terrible in English, this does not mean the original uncut Japanese Anime had the terrible squeaky voices. I have to pull out this banned clip that was aired in Japan to children to show how much fun comedy was withheld. Oh and definitely a lot of entertaining bits were lost in translation as well as the superior voice acting of the Japanese like this clip. Basically, the Japanese Anime targeted at a general audience (i.e. suitable for kids) but the Americans made it only for kids. But then again, the main flagship product of Pokemon are the games, flawed argument again, I suppose. The anime has nothing to do with the Games besides using the same characters, the story and the battle mechanics are totally different, in fact many game fans dislike how the anime diverge from the games.
Oh and religion has to meddle with my beloved Pokemon franchise. Religion always has to meddle with the stuff I like, and its just a fantasy, I guess they don't want Pokemon to take over their own fantasy; at least Pokemon does not come with caveman doctrines.
So now, can you guys appreciate what Pokemon really is and has to offer. Most children don't read much but they have to read to play Pokemon, its definitely helpful to improving one's language. The Japanese versions of Pokemon does not use Kanji so its easy for Japanese kids and novices to learn the language. The amount of tedious programming work and bug catchers is a mark of professionalism and workmanship not seen in many games (*cough*eagames*cough*).
Pokemon is "child-like" because it appeals to kids who know nothing about the fantastic programming that has gone into the games. In each and every Nintendo handheld console, it has always been the Pokemon games that pushes the limits of the tiny machinery to its extreme. The amount of hard work on the programmers part is simply amazing, its no longer the artists that spend the hours in the studios in most Japanese games. Now, as someone who have been programming for the past 3 years, I truly respect the hard work those guys spent and people like you perhaps, seem to continuously call Pokemon a childish play thing.
The Pokemon flagship RPG games uses a very complicated Catching formula to determine whether the player is able to catch the desired Pocket Monster. Also, consider the Damage Forumla which were then affected by Damager Modifiers which are affected by the stats which depend upon EVs and IVs. Not to mention that many moves have their special calculation as well, like Hidden Power. Those things probably took years and lots of efforts to debug and perfect. Speaking of which, the programmers not only had preventions and workarounds in place to prevent any possible bugs, they also have cheats into conderation, take Arceus for example, they included the "???" type sprite to prevent a game crash resulting from cheating by changing Arceus to a ??? type Pokemon. I have not even mentioned the TIME function since Gold and Silver, a function rarely used by any game at that time, time allows events in the game to be more realistic like certain Pokemon appearing during the day or at night.
Many people think that Pokemon is an easy game but that's only the Single Player. In multi player games, one needs strategy and a properly trained Pokemon to win. Its not just the level but factors like IVs and EVs come into play and decides the outcome. Strategy is also a vital part of competitive battling, just look at this Startegy page for one of the 493 Pokemon around. Newer Pokemon games that few critics of Pokemon have played include Pokemon Contests a type of competition introduced into the system. Well, I don't think children's games like "Disney Sports" have such depth and not to mention, insane programming.The last game which I felt had superior programming was Roller Coaster Tycoon, written entirely in ASSEMBLY and fed with C++ to interface with Windows.However, I do agree that Pokemon has more tedious coding rather than breakthrough Algorithms. Nevertheless, Pokemon has pushed the boundaries of early handheld technology, especially the Original Gameboy. Japan Top game charts shows that Pokemon has always topped the sales charts for Nintendo products. Pokemon is indeed the main profit machine for Nintendo, that amount of money is definitely no child's play.
All critics of Pokemon who think that its "Kids-only" have only watched the Anime which was targeted at Kids, not the Games that are meant for a General Audience. Also, they often use the poorly made censored Americanised Pokemon cartoon as a way to distort the image of the Pokemon franchise. Even if the cartoon was terrible in English, this does not mean the original uncut Japanese Anime had the terrible squeaky voices. I have to pull out this banned clip that was aired in Japan to children to show how much fun comedy was withheld. Oh and definitely a lot of entertaining bits were lost in translation as well as the superior voice acting of the Japanese like this clip. Basically, the Japanese Anime targeted at a general audience (i.e. suitable for kids) but the Americans made it only for kids. But then again, the main flagship product of Pokemon are the games, flawed argument again, I suppose. The anime has nothing to do with the Games besides using the same characters, the story and the battle mechanics are totally different, in fact many game fans dislike how the anime diverge from the games.
Oh and religion has to meddle with my beloved Pokemon franchise. Religion always has to meddle with the stuff I like, and its just a fantasy, I guess they don't want Pokemon to take over their own fantasy; at least Pokemon does not come with caveman doctrines.
So now, can you guys appreciate what Pokemon really is and has to offer. Most children don't read much but they have to read to play Pokemon, its definitely helpful to improving one's language. The Japanese versions of Pokemon does not use Kanji so its easy for Japanese kids and novices to learn the language. The amount of tedious programming work and bug catchers is a mark of professionalism and workmanship not seen in many games (*cough*eagames*cough*).
Does anybody know anything about the US elections here?
There was this skit I did in Communications Skill class, I used the names "Tom, Dick and Harry", a common way to represent "nameless and unimportant figures". I had to justify the names Harry with reference to Harry Potter and Dick Cheney as the Vice President of the United States under the Bush Administration. So here comes the scary part, most people do not know that George W. Bush's running mate is Dick Cheney. Well, I am not surprised, not everyone in Singapore knows their Deputy Prime Minister is.
So now in the current US election, many people I have talked to felt that its a battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the title of President of the United States. Actually, yes Clinton and Obama are in a battle for President but they are NOT the only ones. Currently, what they actually are fighting for is the title of the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. What does that mean? It means that now they are only choosing who they want to represent the part and not who will be president. Yes, winning the party nominee leads to being President but only if their party wins.
USA is a democracy with two major parties, namely the Democratic party and the Republican party. The democrats are often referred to as the liberals and the Republicans as the conservatives. Ha! Sure, you fellow kids who only care about Edison Chen's sex videos don't know that! Its a lot like in Singapore, PAP is like the republicans and the Worker's party is a lot like the Democrats, just that the democrats are a lot smarter and more powerful. Of course, that was just an example, PAP dominates everything here while in the US, its a level playing field. Bill Clinton, the president before Bush was a Democrat and Bush was a Republican. Ha! guess you kids who only know about Jay Chou don't know that!
So the Clinton and Obama fight that everyone here hears about is only the fight for the democratic nominee. What about the Republican Party? the Grand Old Party as its known only have old Christian white guys who want to put the ten commandments everywhere. I personally despise the Republican party, too evangelistic, all Singaporeans should hate them, they always try to make America a Christian theocracy. I have nothing against Christians but I have something against theocracies like Iran. Forcing religion into the government and schools is something everyone should fight against, all Singaporeans know what happens when religion is forced on a multi religious culture. Being Singaporeans who understand this basic principle of a Secular state, we have to a right to laugh at the pitiful Evangelists who think that they must place the ten commandments everywhere and add the word "god" into the pledge and national anthem or else they are oppressed. Religion plays no part in our country and we are able to live in harmony and happiness because no priority is given to any religion.
Those Republican guys want to force their religion or they will consider their religion "attacked". Its a sad thing really, they don't accept people of other religions and constantly "accuse" Obama of being Muslim for his full name is "Barack Hussein Obama. Obama is a Christian but I dislike how they must point out his "possible connections" to Islam. Even if Obama is a Muslim, I don't think it affects his ability to make sound decisions. Its as though as a non-Christian will not be a good president. John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic President was assassinated, this tells us something. That's why we must thank our Singapore government for teaching us to respect the religion of others. I have religious friends so I can understand but America consists of 78.5% Christian, it is difficult for them to learn what we Singaporeans learn: basic respect for religions and beliefs.
Obama's religion has been a talking point in the US elections, in Singapore it would be discrimination and you will be jailed. Our government works hard to protect our beliefs and strives to create a place where anyone is free to worship their own god and gain any position they are capable of. George W. Bush maintains that America is "one nation under god", no wonder minorities in US feel oppressed.
That's why by looking at the US elections and their discrimination, we learn to love our own country. People always say America is better, but I disagree and its very obvious once you study the general consensus there. America is a nice place but still, it does not mean that its better than Singapore.
A quick site about the Elections in the US
So now in the current US election, many people I have talked to felt that its a battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the title of President of the United States. Actually, yes Clinton and Obama are in a battle for President but they are NOT the only ones. Currently, what they actually are fighting for is the title of the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. What does that mean? It means that now they are only choosing who they want to represent the part and not who will be president. Yes, winning the party nominee leads to being President but only if their party wins.
USA is a democracy with two major parties, namely the Democratic party and the Republican party. The democrats are often referred to as the liberals and the Republicans as the conservatives. Ha! Sure, you fellow kids who only care about Edison Chen's sex videos don't know that! Its a lot like in Singapore, PAP is like the republicans and the Worker's party is a lot like the Democrats, just that the democrats are a lot smarter and more powerful. Of course, that was just an example, PAP dominates everything here while in the US, its a level playing field. Bill Clinton, the president before Bush was a Democrat and Bush was a Republican. Ha! guess you kids who only know about Jay Chou don't know that!
So the Clinton and Obama fight that everyone here hears about is only the fight for the democratic nominee. What about the Republican Party? the Grand Old Party as its known only have old Christian white guys who want to put the ten commandments everywhere. I personally despise the Republican party, too evangelistic, all Singaporeans should hate them, they always try to make America a Christian theocracy. I have nothing against Christians but I have something against theocracies like Iran. Forcing religion into the government and schools is something everyone should fight against, all Singaporeans know what happens when religion is forced on a multi religious culture. Being Singaporeans who understand this basic principle of a Secular state, we have to a right to laugh at the pitiful Evangelists who think that they must place the ten commandments everywhere and add the word "god" into the pledge and national anthem or else they are oppressed. Religion plays no part in our country and we are able to live in harmony and happiness because no priority is given to any religion.
Those Republican guys want to force their religion or they will consider their religion "attacked". Its a sad thing really, they don't accept people of other religions and constantly "accuse" Obama of being Muslim for his full name is "Barack Hussein Obama. Obama is a Christian but I dislike how they must point out his "possible connections" to Islam. Even if Obama is a Muslim, I don't think it affects his ability to make sound decisions. Its as though as a non-Christian will not be a good president. John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic President was assassinated, this tells us something. That's why we must thank our Singapore government for teaching us to respect the religion of others. I have religious friends so I can understand but America consists of 78.5% Christian, it is difficult for them to learn what we Singaporeans learn: basic respect for religions and beliefs.
Obama's religion has been a talking point in the US elections, in Singapore it would be discrimination and you will be jailed. Our government works hard to protect our beliefs and strives to create a place where anyone is free to worship their own god and gain any position they are capable of. George W. Bush maintains that America is "one nation under god", no wonder minorities in US feel oppressed.
That's why by looking at the US elections and their discrimination, we learn to love our own country. People always say America is better, but I disagree and its very obvious once you study the general consensus there. America is a nice place but still, it does not mean that its better than Singapore.
A quick site about the Elections in the US
Current Affairs: Mas Selamat
A few days ago, suspected JI terrorist leader escaped from one of Singapore's Maximum Security cells. Like everyone, I was very surprised and upset at our government. I have always believed that Singapore is the most secure and enforced democratic nation on our planet. So the manhunt has begun, yawn.
If you read the news, he escaped from the Whitney Road Detention Centre. Its quite near to the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, a lot of cute girls there. That aside, Posters were put up everywhere and a massive manhunt was under way. Well, at least the police were doing their job, in a desperate attempt to make up for their blunder. For the past few days, this news has been on the headlines, so I might want to talk about this.
So everyone is going around to look for this guy. I doubt anyone would be able that stupid to wonder around like that if he was a fugitive. Anyone smarter than a hamster would definitely hide in his safe haven and create some form of disguise. I can also definitely say that anyone smarter than a hamster would not even try to leave the country's tight border security. Singapore has a very small border and is very very difficult to penetrate, especially if you are a highly wanted priority fugitive. So I am glad that Singapore analysts come to the same conclusion as well. However, there is a critical flaw in this prediction. Namely, that we have to assume that Mas Selamat is smarter than your average hamster. However, he might have escaped simply because he is simply smarter than your average hamster. My sister's hamsters escape very often, so then now, who is not smarter than the average hamster? Not telling.
Hamster jokes aside, Mas Selamat is not the only person inconvenienced by the manhunt operation. According to this report, all land checkpoints were congested due to the thorough scanning and search for this guy. Also, just by being simply not around, Mas Selamat managed to scare the cute girls at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and their parents. Mas Selamat was also not the only person under fire for this incident, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng apologised for the "lapse in security" after the incident was announced.
Is this another repeat of complacency in History? Although I did a search and could not find any information about previous prison breakouts in modern day Singapore history, I will not talk about any previous escapes if any at all. The only information for any kind of prison compromise was on the official Singapore Prison's Website, "1963 Major Prison Disturbance". About the "repeat in history" earlier, remember World War II, Singapore was the impregnable fortress and we did get invaded. Similarly, we believed that our prisons and detention centres were the most secure in the region. We often laughed at the police and law enforcement of our neighbours like Malaysia and Indonesia. Comparing our police to those those around us is like comparing stone age men to our high-tech warriors.
No matter what kind of technology we have, as long as we are complacent, our neighbours will do a better job guarding their prisons despite their lack of new fangled prison technology. Mr Lee Kuen Yew often said that we must not be complacent, because he know that Singapore's fatal weakness is complacency. This "lapse in security" was due to pure complacency, nothing else. Which is why I refer to the WWII invasion as a "repeat in history", we believe that we are safe and secure but a break in happen, just that now its a break out by a terrorist. Guess its not "repeat" but an "alternated occurrence".
If you read the news, he escaped from the Whitney Road Detention Centre. Its quite near to the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, a lot of cute girls there. That aside, Posters were put up everywhere and a massive manhunt was under way. Well, at least the police were doing their job, in a desperate attempt to make up for their blunder. For the past few days, this news has been on the headlines, so I might want to talk about this.
So everyone is going around to look for this guy. I doubt anyone would be able that stupid to wonder around like that if he was a fugitive. Anyone smarter than a hamster would definitely hide in his safe haven and create some form of disguise. I can also definitely say that anyone smarter than a hamster would not even try to leave the country's tight border security. Singapore has a very small border and is very very difficult to penetrate, especially if you are a highly wanted priority fugitive. So I am glad that Singapore analysts come to the same conclusion as well. However, there is a critical flaw in this prediction. Namely, that we have to assume that Mas Selamat is smarter than your average hamster. However, he might have escaped simply because he is simply smarter than your average hamster. My sister's hamsters escape very often, so then now, who is not smarter than the average hamster? Not telling.
Hamster jokes aside, Mas Selamat is not the only person inconvenienced by the manhunt operation. According to this report, all land checkpoints were congested due to the thorough scanning and search for this guy. Also, just by being simply not around, Mas Selamat managed to scare the cute girls at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and their parents. Mas Selamat was also not the only person under fire for this incident, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng apologised for the "lapse in security" after the incident was announced.
Is this another repeat of complacency in History? Although I did a search and could not find any information about previous prison breakouts in modern day Singapore history, I will not talk about any previous escapes if any at all. The only information for any kind of prison compromise was on the official Singapore Prison's Website, "1963 Major Prison Disturbance". About the "repeat in history" earlier, remember World War II, Singapore was the impregnable fortress and we did get invaded. Similarly, we believed that our prisons and detention centres were the most secure in the region. We often laughed at the police and law enforcement of our neighbours like Malaysia and Indonesia. Comparing our police to those those around us is like comparing stone age men to our high-tech warriors.
No matter what kind of technology we have, as long as we are complacent, our neighbours will do a better job guarding their prisons despite their lack of new fangled prison technology. Mr Lee Kuen Yew often said that we must not be complacent, because he know that Singapore's fatal weakness is complacency. This "lapse in security" was due to pure complacency, nothing else. Which is why I refer to the WWII invasion as a "repeat in history", we believe that we are safe and secure but a break in happen, just that now its a break out by a terrorist. Guess its not "repeat" but an "alternated occurrence".
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