A Will's Life

Design Patterns

2006-05-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

Patterns are just capture of the common behavior of designs. One of the good things about patterns is that once identified and given a terminology then it will be easy to for developers to communicate. Another advantage is that if you cannot think of any good way for improving the design then you can start by going through the patterns that might be relevant. Of course in the good days you will be creative and come up with great ideas - some of these could be just a variation of a pattern - or maybe some could constitute a new pattern if you could identify it out in the first place.
I don't believe we should use patterns for the sake of using patterns (i.e. leave by pattern which I think some developers are being - bindly just using patterns), patterns should be something we go back to (like the rule of thumb) when we have trouble with finding a good solution.

At the end of Kent Beck's TDD book, Martin Fowler have a comment that says that patterns are half -baked, and the rest needs to be customized to your use - thus don't use patterns blindly.

Test Driven Development

2006-05-15T01:47:00.000-07:00

Read this book from Kent Beck recently, called Test Driven Development (TDD). There has been a lot of interest in the so called Unit Testing, where the developer are responsible for creating the test for the "unit" they are implementing. What a unit is is arguable but the general rule seems to be per class object for OOP development. TDD is an approach for developers to implement such unit test based on a "test first" philosophy. Create the test, get the test to work, then refactor to generalize the software and the test itself. Thus the programmer will be interleaving between development of the software and the test.
Kent's TDD approach is red bar, green bar, refactor. Red bar is when the test is not passing through thus the programmer should do whatever (dirty fix) to get the test to pass - that is getting to the green bar. Once the test is working then you have to refactor your code to work for the generalize cases (removing "duplication" is his term). I was amazed that this approach resembles my own natural approach to programming. The difference is that Kent is formalizing it into a discipline (habit) while I do this informally and without reusable test cases. Thus my testing effort during my programming was wasted. The hardest thing abut TDD is that you have to spend a lot of time thinking about the testes and also the need to refactor it as the program is refactored. I still have not tried the TDD but I have plans to try it out to see for myself how whether the effort to create the test is high and whether it is worth the effort.
Another of Kent's arguement is that TDD can help drive the design of your software (Object classes in particular) -- this is because you are getting your hands dirty and playing around with the object -- trial and error like style. Sometimes that is very true as there are times when you just cannot think of a good way to start thus the best way is just to start whatever - even if it is a bad design. This helps you to start thinking and find out the details of the problem. If the result happens to be bad then throw the code away - at least now you know what is better!
Software engineer is a discipline so it makes sense to discipline your habit of development - only if it suits your approach to programming. Everyone is different so do what you will but just make sure it improves the quality of your software.

Web Technologies - AJAX

2006-05-14T02:33:00.000-07:00

To date I am pretty outdated with what is going on in the web programming world where there are just a mixed of too many languages doing the same thing......same thing? Well, that was the wrong perception I have and reading up on AJAX gave me an insight of where the current direction of web technologies are heading.
The old world of web technology (web 1.0) I lived in was more about thin client - fat server approach where every change requires rendering a new page from the server. To improve on the features of websites, java applets or javascripts, was introduced that provided more work to be done on the client side (browser). All these technologies was to make the page feel more fancy and a better GUI. The current advance in web technology is to using the client-side script as a proxy that communicates with the server. This proxy will retrieve/send data from/to the server and minimize the effect of the change of data from the client's perspective i.e. client will not see a new page when only some data on the page needs to be changed. The objective is to make the page more like a desktop application - more responsive and smoother.
This all makes a lot of sense considering that there are huge computation power on the client's machine and that most of the time a web-page only need minor modifications to display a small change in data resulting from client activities. A great example is the popular Google maps where the page is pretty much the same except the maps change from user interaction.

If web service companies are to provide more diverse and powerful application services in the future, they will need more flexibilities and bridge the gap between desktop applications and web service applications. With Internet speed getting faster and faster, it is highly possible that server will only become a source of data and all the extra work done on the client side scripts.

I wonder if there will be a time when Internet is so fast and reliable that the browser will do nothing but redirect mouse activities and display images from the server. Thus the whole page is just an image that the server will understand. This is an extreme of thin-client and super fat-servers. This might be the way to go for mobile devices where the processing compatibility is limited. I don't think the responsiveness will ever be as good as client-side processing though.

Prepaid VS Contract

2006-05-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

Looking now for a new cell phone number. The choices are either a new contract plan or a prepaid account. The good thing about contract is that you get a new phone and good amount of calls per month ($40 ~ 300 minutes) - but you might not use that much at all AND you are tied up for 24 months. Prepaid on the other hand gives you flexibility as you can average out your use over months + you paid only as much as you call. But the disadv of course is that you will need your own phone + the call costs are higher (~25c per minute).

I am not a big cell phone user and don't talk much over the cell, so I guess I might be better off with a prepaid account and using my existing cell phone. The new phones that are out at the moment is not terribly attractive so I am quite happy with the current phone I have. I can always jump to a contract when my cell calls increase or I see a nice phone I really want.

The new Samsung from T-mobile is pretty good - thinner than motorola's but it doesn't have any cool features that interest me. Razor is always a good phone, it reminds me of the Startec X that I used to have (my very first mobile phone). That X phone was just great in terms of built quality but the interface sux as well as the features. At the moment there are too many people holding a razor........I see so many people holding one in HK, London, and even in Seattle. Looking for something that is less common......Sony's W600i has wonderful features but it is a bit too thick for my pocket......still looking.

Decisions

2006-05-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

Decisions Decisions Decisions. What differentiates people are the decisions they make and how they come to making the decisions. Lately I am forced to make some much decisions, big and small, simple and complex, easy and hard. Even small things like shopping for food can take a toll unless you know exactly what to buy and at what price. But if you narrow your choice to make a decision easy then you are missing out the world of things (e.g. the different type of food and the specials). To make a good decision, you need to gather information, compare the choices, and determine what is best at the point (e.g. what you feel like eating, the price of the items). Taking decisions to another scope, when you look for a new apartment, how will you decide? First gather information - suburbs, quality of apa, price, proximity to shops/buses/downtown/water etc. Then you fix your price range and preference list. Then you go around looking and comparing. Next you making the final choice -- IF it is still available. All this takes a lot of effort and time. I guess if your requirement is low and will just do with anything to avoid the hassle then yes EVERYTHING can be easy. But if you have requirements and want a optimial choice (well realistically a good choice) then there is a price to pay - especially when you don't want to regret on your decisions - regret is a mental toll in itself.
Even when you settled on the apartment, then you have to think about whether to get a land line, what internet package to get, what furniture or houseware do you need? And so on...........
What about decisions you have to make at work? Decision about your career? Decision about your financial investments? Decision about your 401k?

Everyday we have to make decisions, the more we have to make the more mental effort that goes into it. Sometimes I just come home and not what to "think" or use my brain -- turn on the TV and away the brain goes.

Decisions are just all around us, especially when you start growing up and become more independent. That is why childhood can be so sweet, my decisions to make, and no regrets!

Perl and Object-Oriented

2006-05-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

Lately at work I have been doing quite a lot of Perl coding (and reading other people's code). One thing I find is that Perl is a very expressive language, there is a lot of ways of doing the same thing, and rightly so because Perl is a scripting language design to be just that. Now when OO design has started to heat up (years ago) people have started to incorporate OO into the language. All these advantages of OO (encapulation, inheritance) require a lot of constrains which is kind of contradiction with Perl which is designed with very few contraint on the programmer and things are allowed to fail in run-time (a lot do!).
My current conclusion is that Perl should be left as a powerful scripting language and leave the OO stuff out to other languages which are much better at it. I feel that OO is best at the lower level than where Perl is at -- trying to pull OO up will just pull Perl down.

There are probably a lot of people that will go against me on this but at the moment, I am just not convinced of OO Perl.

Fedex weird tracking messages

2006-05-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Having blogged for a while lately, was busy at work and my intended move to a new apartment. The topic of this post is about Fedex tracking system. I managed to get a good deal for an external HDD from compUSA, they regularly have some manufacturer rebate and discounts that make an item very cheap for its spec. Anyway, the first round I forgot to put in my apartment number on the address so it got bounced back to the near by Fedex facility (another city). Now after I told them the apa# yesterday, they were suppose to deliver it today and the status on the tracking system indicated: Delivered - signature not requested. But I didn't get any notice from my apartment's management so it is starting to get scary. I called my apa's management and they told me that this message could have meant that the parcel is with the driver (or city's local storage) but might be delivered to us yet.
I am not sure what Fedex is doing but I think this status message is plain misleading and creates a lot of concerns about your package going missing. If I find that a package is missing I don't wait a few days to see what happens, I ACT NOW, straightaway as the earlier you act the more chance you have of finding out what happened (the trial is still warm!).

I really hoped that the parcel will come by tomorrow, it will ease my concern and also ease my storage problem............coincidentally my other external HDD (2.5in) case's USB connector fell apart, guess you get what you pay for (cheap case)!

H1-Bs

2006-04-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Was having a chat with my manager recently about H1-Bs and fast they are being used up. I was in US in December and found that the quota for the new year (starting October) has been exhausted already! That's only two months! It seems that it is easier for larger companies hire with H1-B since they are allocated a batch of them which is also used as soon as they recieved them (they normally accumulated a backlog of new hires waiting for the visa). Considering that the quota is only 65,000 for 2005 and that H1-B are used across all tech industries, it is very easily reached by the appetite of the US economy. Big companies like Microsoft, and Amazon really need the visas to fill up their new positions or refill turnover positions. Alternatives are to hire Canadians, Mexicans, and recently Australians where special work visas are available.
For small companies or startup, they are more reluctant to hire people that require visa sponsorship as there is a overhead cost for applications, and the high delay before the new hire can start work. Also small companies are less likely to sponsor green cards as it is also quite high in cost ($5000 application fee + lawyer cost).

It was lucky for me as the E-3 visa for Australians have just taken effect when I wanted to work in US. The cost for the visa is just a normal visa application fee (~$100-200) compared to the cost for H1-B ($500-1000). The speed for the application and paperwork is also quite fast - took me only about 1 month from getting an offer to starting work. However, I think your company's name, lawyers, and your qualifications will take a difference in how fast you can get the visa stamped.

Some people will argue against giving out visa to protect local jobs, but the problem is that there are limited local talents compared to large number of demand for them -- and there are limited talented people who are willing to relocate. The result is that you either rocket up the salaries (increasing turnovers), or you hire mediocre people - compromise your competitiveness, or you satisfy some demand from foreign talents. If you look at the salaries, and the cost companies are willing to endure to relocate them to US ($10k+ easily for the visa applicatons, lawyers, rentals etc), they are serious about getting in talented people. For jobs that does not need talented people, they are outsourced to India!

Auto Insurance

2006-04-20T22:42:00.001-07:00

Was looking around for auto insurance at the moment and it seems like my choices are quite restricited considering that some insurance company requires US licence or Social Security#. At the moment I have niether of both. Companies such as AAA and Progressive were willing to insure me but the premium is quite high, that is, nearly $900-1000 for 6 months with no collision coverage (for a 10+ year old car). Even though I have an Australian license for over 3 years and also over 25 years old, the premium is high as they don't recognize foreign licenses and that you have no previous insurance. They told me that it will take a year after you get a US license to get lower premiums. But I think it is possible to get a bit lower premium by first getting an insurance policy somewhere then get a quote with the situation that you are already on insurance -- they normally only provide competitive quotes this way!

Auto Insurance

2006-04-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

Best Job in America

2006-04-13T00:07:00.000-07:00

A friend forwarded me an article from CNN about the best job in America. Guess what? The top place is Software Engineer which was considered based on salary level, stress level, Ease of entry, and Interest. Somehow they seem to think that you get to do a lot of creativity stuff in software eng but in reality, most don't have much room to do creative things. But one comment they got right, it is not a job for everyone, especially if you do not like programming.
It is quite amazing how good the pay is for fresh graduate software engineers are compared to other engineering jobs. Software engineers get a head start in pay level but eventually they will lead to about the same level of pay for the top jobs.

On the flip side, CNN ranks job like Architect and Computer Scientist very low since they start with low pay, and takes a long time to get the pre-requisite for the higher earning roles (Architecture license and PhD respectively). The latter one I totally agree. Since the .com burst the research side of computing is not what it used to be anymore. There are still a high supply of PhD graduates compare to the limited opportunities in the industry. The academic positions (assoc professor) are the hardest to get into as the turnovers are very low and new positions are very limited. Competition is very fierce and even if you get in, it will take you quite a long time to get tenture. But for those with the passion for research, the hurdles will be enjoyable.

What is not on the top ten list seems to be well respected jobs like Doctors, and Lawyers. I guess the stress level and the "creativity" components pull them down. The perception of the best job would probably depend on what you properities are important to you. If you want respect, status, power, then software engineers should not be anywhere near the first place. For those with interest in software development and a good salary, it is indeed a great place to be.

Bad Documentation a Norm?

2006-04-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

Was talking with people from other software companies and it seems that bad documentation is basically the norm in the industry. It is either very outdated, or it is spread out in bits and pieces, or it is non-existent (close to anyway). However, it is good to know that I am not the only one frustrated about the situation. Amazon is using wiki quite a bit for "informal" documentations, and I heard that some parts of Microsoft is also starting to use it "informally". The wiki model is pretty good in terms of "informal" information that are contributed by the community. Wiki is written and updated mostly by the developers or the people with a direct interest on the topic, so it can be quite a useful tool. It should only be an "informal" tool, one that complements the formal documentation. The problem comes in when wiki's documentation becomes more relevant and update, and developers start to "depend" on it more than the formal documents. Wiki is a good tool but when used in the wrong way, it can cause bad habits across the development community.

Should Wiki replace formal docs? No! I hope not anyway. Trust developers to write documentations on their free will, is like trusting your kids to do their homework by themselves.

This raises another problem, the existents of too many documentation points where information is not consistently updated in either. That is, bits and pieces are updated here and there, and at the end it just becomes a nightmare. Putting the same piece of information on two places are just duplicate effort, and how many are willing to do that? This point is the missing link between formal documentation system and the informal documentation system. How can you cross organize information when it is updated on either one of the system? Maybe in the future some startup will come up with a great solution to the problem!

US Banking System

2006-04-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

Had a few run-ins with the US bank system lately and I am very impress by their system at all. Maybe I am just spoiled by the good systems in place in Australia and Hong Kong?
First issue I am having is with credit cards. It seems impossible to get a full credit card if you do not have any credit history. On the other hand, college students could easily get one (low limit) without prove of any capability to pay back.....maybe they are betting on their parents to pay back? Compared to someone with a job and decent salary but without credit history, are college students less risky? For someone a decent job, would a line of $500 credit be that risky to the banks? I just don't understand the logic, maybe the statistics is defying logic or maybe it is just the beaurcracy that is defying logic. Either way, I will have to be stuck on a "secure" credit card for a year at least (the ones where you have to place deposit).
The second issue is with their inter-bank electronic transfer system. Seems to me that they only offer two solutions: write a check or wire transfer. Wire transfer is immediate but cost a lot (someone transfer me an amount and I get charge quite a lot for it!) while check is a manual process that takes ages to liquidate. Why isn't there an electronic solution that takes a few business days but cost considerably less? Combining this feature with online banking, that's what I call synergy and improvement to money movement within the economy. Maybe I should look for a bank with *free* wire transfer.......but I feel sorry for the person on the other end that does not have *free* transfer receipt.
The final issue is how bad foreign American Express traveller's cheques are treated in US. It is fine if you go to an American Express branch but if you try to cash some from a bank, you will have problems. Especially if it is not written in US currency. I had quite a lot of bad experience with AMEX cheques at US Banks.......just got a few bounced lately.....don't recommend buying the cheques when they come over to US. Better to use ATM or credit card.

Rental Prices

2006-04-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

Did some more serious search for apartment (1-bed) prices in the Seattle area. It seems like a decent one in a good neighbourhood will cost about $600-700 dollars at least. The cost within 20-30 minutes normal traffic drive is quite consistent in this range. I guess it is realistic to try find one at about $650, preferrably one with a nice bathroom and decent facilities.

It was of a friend to drive me around the lake washington area this afternoon to check out the area. It seems that the Fremont, U-district, and lower Capital Hill area are a good choice. I personally like Fremont more as it has several good properties. One is that it seems like a relaxed but not "empty" neighbourhood. Second is that it is next to Greenlakes and also near the canal, two nice places to hang out in the weekends. Third is that it is there is a Burke Gilman bicycle trial that provides a dedicated road-space for cyclers from east to west - seems like a great exercise option, even would be good for jogging. Fourth is that there is quite a good number of buses to the downtown area. And finally, it is easy driving distance to the U-district or broadway which seems to be good places to hang-out at night.
U-district is also a good choice but it is just crowded with students, not something that you want unless you are still into the college life-style. Capital Hill seems to be the happening place for the young and the single. I prefer hanging out in the area rather than living there, similar to working in downtown but not living there. To an extent, Fremont seem to resemble more of my lifestyle in Sydney so I guess that is another reason I like it so much. Lets see if I could find a good deal in that neighbourhood.

Miss Call

2006-04-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Saw an ad of a Miata that sells at $5.5k. It is a 94 model with about 75k mileage with a clean title. Was planning to check out the car this weekend, but they sold it just on the friday. I guess that car was just not meant to be mine. The problem now is to look for another one that will look like a good deal..........the seconds market in Seattle is quiet at best.

Cost of Healtcare

2006-04-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

Was asking around before and not many people knows about the cost of visiting a doctor around here. The problem is that most people are still on the traditional coverage where the cost structure are not transparent to the patient. After doing a bit more homework, I found (via some healthcare provider website) that the cost of seeing a doctor typically cost between $50-$90 for a "mid-level" diagnostic or $60-120 for the "high level" ones - that is in the Seattle area (don't think it includes tax). But also found that they seem to charge more (150-20%) if you are new to the physician. So my previous guess about the cost was quite realistic.

The coverage of the in-network system for the HRA seems to be pretty good for both doctors and hospitals. Looks like there is nothing to hold me back from taking on this plan.

Perl & Pattern Matching

2006-04-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

Giving the level of exposure I have with Perl in my current job, I have decided to learn Perl properly from the root up. I used to just do simple things with Perl and work with modifying some other's script to do the job. I hardly ever write my own Perl from the ground up. I guess that is because most of my programming needs before are satisfied by C++ and shell scripts.

Was starting to read the Perl book written by Wall. It is quite interesting the approach they used to introduce Perl to the reader. They relate Perl towards natural human language and the techniques we use in our language. It is a different perspective that I have not seen before, reading so much C/C++/Java books. This approach does not have to be limited to Perl, it can be used to explain techniques used by other programming languages. One of the special thing Perl has that C++ does not is the why a variable can change context implicitly. This maps to normal languages where the meaning of a word depends on the context it is put in, and the interpretor will need to decode it from the context.

Pattern matching is another thing that I have really only touch the surface of - since that's all is needed to manipulate my research data. There is a lot of power in pattern matching to harness, but I am not sure how much of it I will be needing to use.........I don't really scan or manipulate data files that much. As people say, you do use it, you will forget it.

Buying a second hand car

2006-04-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

Have been looking at second hand car recently, and there seems to be some reasonably priced Miata on the market around Seattle. I plan to go check them out this week, maybe they are in good shape then my car headache will be over. The other alternative is to buy one from the bay area where there are more in the market, and transport it over to Seattle (cost about $600).

Now, been asking around on what to look out for when buying a second hand car, here is the tips:

1) Get the VIN from the owner and get a history check from carfax.com
2) Ask if the title is clean - never buy one with salvage or rebuild title - it means the car has been in a major accident that requires a major redo (half the price of the car's value).
3) When did they buy the car - if the period between buy and sell is very short, there might be problems with the car.
4) The reason for he is selling - see if his/her attitude is dodgy.
5) Blue book value (KBB)
6) Ask if there are any existing problems/defficiencies with the car e.g. cracks/scratches/mechanical/clutch - compare what he says with what you find - if the seller is dishonest you might not want to buy from him/her.
7) Check the bumper area to look for signs of accidents e.g. gaps, loose screws, out of alignment.
8) Check the engine area for any marks of spills
9) Ask for service history and whether they have any new engine, timing belt, clutch, gearbox
10) Check interiors - power lock/windows, air conditioner, heater, carpets, seats, window scratches, wipers, lights, radio, speakers.
11) Convertibles - water leaks or cuts on soft cover - and soft cover open close properly.

When doing price negotiation, look for weaknesses such as worn clutch/tires/brakes - those that need money to replace - and should be written off from the price. As far as I am concern, unless the price is very low, it can be up/down $100-200. It all matters!

Your impression of the buyer is important, as is their background, and why they bought the car. If the car drives great, seems good, and is reasonably price, it is a deal -- me realistic on price of course!

HRA vs PPO

2006-04-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Sat on it for the day and it is starting to sink in more. I read an article did a study to show that you should always sit on a decision for at least a day, and let the sub-conscious mind do the work in the background. The decision....................is to join HRA, since the top side is higher than the low. Here is the breakdown:

HRA deal allows me to visit 2-3 doctor visits before I need to folk out the another 2-3 visit as deductible. PPO on the other hand requires me to pay for the initial 2 visits before the co-insurance kicks in. If I really need to see the doctor 6 times (touch-wood) I would be about $200-250 worst off on a HRA. But if I only go to a less than doctor 3 times in the year, I am $300-400 better of on a HRA. Now since I don't visit a doctor very often (none in the past year) it seems that the probability plus the higher upside of HRA is more suitable for me.

In the worst case scenario, my maximum out of pocket expense of HRA is actually lower than that of PPO or HMO. So that is already an advantage.

The initial decision is now done, need to research about the insurance company and their in-network quality. After that, it is the finally choice.

Health Insurance Options

2006-04-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Health insurance plan is one of the hair-pulling decisions to make right at the beginning of employment, especially when you are new in US and do not have local information or experience to make a choice. Amazon offers a range of options to choose from but they are essentially variations of HMO, PPO, and HSA. I sound like an expert now don't I? Not each plan seems to be a deep hole in itself, very hard to get a clear idea of what they mean in different scenarios.

The benefit of HMO is that you do not need to think or do much paperwork in terms of insurance. There is no deductible and you only pay a small co-pay per visit. The downside of course is that you have to stay in-network, and there are no out of pocket maximum limit. That is, there is a possibility of going beyond $10k but it is only a very small chance - copay for inpatient hospital is around $500 so if you had to get out and in hospital every month, it will cost $6k - that is no extranomical amount. On top you may need to co-pay some visits to doctors or for medicine ($30-50 each time) which is not that costly. So $10k mental limit is amount right.
But I heard that they HMO people have to wait longer for services.

PPO on the other hand requires a deductible after which co-insurance kicks in. It is about 80-90% for in-network and 50-70% for out-network. The advantage is that you have the flexibility to choose the provider while having a upper limit for your out of pocket per year. Up front insurance cost, it cost lower than HMO but you will have to pay the deductible.

HRA is an interesting option. The company shares half the deductible and puts it down at the beginning of the year. Once you used it up, your part of the deductible kicks in, and after that, co-insurance similar to PPO kicks-in. Other advantages are that it has lower insurance premiumn, and that if you do not use part of the company's contribution, it gets roll-over to the next year (up to a certain limit?). It also has an upper limit for your out-of-pocket expense. The disadvantages are that your part of the deductible is higher than the deductible in PPO plans, and the medicine cost is fully pay for in deductible.

So which one will I pick? The headache is that I have not decided, but the HRA and PPO sounds better for me since I hardly ever see a doctor unless I have to, and also if something happens, I can afford the deductibles easily and there is also an upper limit that sounds reasonable. I guess if you are someone that gets the cold/flu quite often, PPO would be the way to go since the deductible is only 2-3 visits! Talking about visits, I was asking around colleagues and friends in US and they have no idea now much a visit to the doctor cost, the reason? The cost is never passed to the patient and is dealt with between the doctor and insurance company. This type of attitude will really just make the health care situation worst in US --- and I think Australians have the same attitude (the medicare is so good).

There is actually a website lobbying fully for HSA and providing the latest statistical information and arguements. There are a lot of arguements for and against HSA, one particular against is quite interesting. HSA seems to lure more young people and health people out of the current traditional health insurance thus making it more costly for the less healthy people that will stick with the traditional insurance. At the end of the day, it will just take the healthcare worst for US as a whole. I guess what it means is that, HSA is a way for people to avoid subsidizing the unhealthy people. HSA is recently pushed by the republicians (Bush) and I am not surprised. HSA really push to the basic of users pay approach and away from the subsidized approach - which can be seen in Australia. I guess that is the difference between a capitalist society and a socialist society........but how long will Australia remain so generous? Better welfare for all comes at a cost of higher taxes, this can easily be seen in West Europe. One arguement I like that is for HSA is that the raw cost of the service is handled by the patient, and as they become aware of the cost, they will hopefully not abuse the health coverage, and maybe even appreciate it more.

I believe that health care should be there for all, but unfortuately there are always people that goes to great length to abuse the system, this goes not only for patients, but doctors/physicians and insurance company as well.

Anyway, still deciding..........

Shell Scripting Mentality

2006-04-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

Was playing around with a lot of Linux command line tools recently. A lot of it I used regularly before but never took the effort to explore further into their hidden powers -- all these options are just too much until you need it. Now that I have the chance to work more on the high level stuff and the need to manipulate files more, you start to realise how much the tools can be used to help narrow down on your search/task - efficiency. This leads to my topic about shell scripting mentality. Shell scripting for me is just a way to get more out of the command line tools and for glueing them together. The objective is to get what needs to be done, easy and fast -- using what is already out there and putting it together. Rather than using libraries as in programming languages, you are using the tools that are themselves high level abstraction. So the mentality of shell programming has to be higher level then that of scripting languages such as Perl/Python. If you want more customization, want more control, want more efficiency then you will need to go down the level of abstract and use the suitable language.

First Bowl of Rice

2006-04-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

Every North East Asian will have their first bowl of rice very early in life. But when will they first buy a rice cooker and cook their first bowl of rice? Well, I am in my late 20s and that is not too late! Bought a rice cooker from amazon, just arrived yesterday. It is one of those primitive type with only cook and warm functions. The only disadvantage about it is that there are a thin layer of sticked rice at the bottom after cooking, but it is easily cleaned out.

I am thinking whether the First Bowl of Rice should be a metric for a person's maturity and independence.

Tonight I had this halibut fillet that I got fresh this morning from the pike's market. It was very tender and the meat is very smooth. I find the skin interesting though. I had a not so sharp knife that could pierce salmon skill wihtout much problems, but it was very hard to cut the halibut skin. I really had to cut the skin from the side and that also took some effort. But after cooking it, the skin was very easy to cut with the teeth. Overall, the halibut fillet was nice, but it lack a bit in taste. Swordfish steak had a tougher meat (guess it came from a big one), rougher in texture, and less tender. But swordfish tasted more (fishy) with great skin/fat.

Looking forward to tomorrw when I will try the fresh german sausage I bought today.

Web 2.0

2006-04-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

I must admit, 4 years in PhD and I am pretty much out of date with the whole Web Technology think and quite behind in terms of web services (being in Sydney also contributed). I have been hearing a lot about Web 2.0 and reading some articles about what it is. At the end of the day, it is just a new terminology for a group of trends rather than anything about "new" technology as there is nothing new about it. Web services? They are referring to XML + SOAP, a loosely coupled distributed system, using high level communication protocol, and focusing on interoperability rather than performance. This I guess is what the Internet needs at this stage as interoperability is what needs to be done in large scale services, performance is just the next priority. Components? They are just referring to middleware frameworks such as CORBA or .NET which use the same architecture for all the services. A more tightly coupled distributed system which put constraint on the architecture, and also improves performance - using lower level communication compared to XML. Objects? They are just programming language dependent logical objects.

Some people also perceive Web 2.0 as a new era of web technologies that are making big impact compared to the old era. Examples are like Google Page Rank, Social Networking, Bit Torrent, Open Source. Was reading an article on the "software development" magazine where the author refers Web 2.0 is a terminology for doing things right. I really don't agree with that interpretation. The perception of "right" changes over time and the changes are made by the movement leaders of the time. For example, the auther implied that Google is doing things right as a "Web 2.0" company. They are doing things perceived as being right because they are the current leader and setting the change of web services. Microsoft was perceived as doing it right 10 years ago when it releases Windows 3.1 and 95 which made more impact than Apple or IBM's OS, and should be given credit for bootscrapping the Internet. Microsoft was the company doing it right 10 years ago but they have lost leadership as they need to protect their core business, or as we say, the old kingdom. Google is the same, they are doing it right now, but in 10 years they will be just another big company, bog down in legacies, and trying to protect their old kingdom. The new startup will be the leaders that sets the change and moving the web into another era i.e. Web 3.0 - new technologies, new services, new poster children.
So Web 2.0 is not doing it right, it is just the current stage of the growing curve of the online world. And the companies that help set it is doing it right "for now".

Another interesting point the author rised was that "When you find PR firms promoting something as the next development platform, you can be sure it's not". But .NET is a Microsoft PR stunt, and they have the weight to promote it, and pushed it. The result is that it is already taking on in the enterprise IT sector, within Microsoft products themselves. It is in its own right, the new development platform. Java is still a significant development platform which has yet to die if ever. The open source initiated platforms are great, but they are also helped with PR stunts from IBM/Sun/Google and the like.

Blind following the bemused

2006-04-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

"Blind following the bemused" is a metaphor I have come across some time back but I cannot seem to find this when search through Google........not sure why? It is a metaphor about the irony of people following others that also do not know where they are going. This metaphor just pop up on my mind when I was going to lunch with my collegues. Some of them was out in front walking aimlessly while carrying on in a conversation, while the guys at the back was just following them.

It also reminds me of the everyday folks that are following the "trend" in speculative stock trading. The analysts and advisors are the bemused and the people listening to them are the blind.

Weather in Seattle

2006-04-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

The people living outside of Seattle and the people living in Seattle will have different stories about the weather in Seattle. Before I came, the stories I hear are the huge number of overcast days and also the large number of rainy days. The statistics are quite discouraging. On the other hand, once you lived in Seattle for a while, you will find that the overcast days in, esp in Spring like now, the overcast just means a lot of clouds but there it is still pretty bright in Seattle. The sunlight is just scattered by the cloud. It is not a beach going sunshine, but it is a quite nice relaxing weather, not depressive at all - like the greyish dull sky I see in Europe during the winters. I am starting to think that the overcast in Spring/Summer/Autumn would be quite good and the clear sky days even better. I am have bad feelings about Winter though.

Compared to Portland, I was told Seattle has less rainfall and less snowfall. Seattle has the Olympia mountain range on the west to block out the heavy clouds coming in from the Pacific. Thus the clouds that comes through to Seattle area is much lighter - thus the light drizzles of rain that occur very often. Technically, the rainfall is still considered rainy day, and bright overcast is still overcast.

Another interesting thing I head is that Vancouver's weather is worst than Seattles. I also hear about how good it is to live up in Vancouver and the high standard of living indexes, but I do not hear about bad weather. I guess they do not give weather too much weight in the indexes. Vancouver is only a few hours drive from here, so I am looking forward to go their more often and check things out. Maybe I can find some interest place around that part of the world.

My friend was telling me the price of housing in Vancouver is also very high. I was wondering how it could be so high if there is not much high paid jobs around the area? It seems that it is the overseas retiree that is pushing up the market, and not the local younger population. A lot of the young generation from Vancouver have to leave the city to find jobs in other places, and with the high cost of living, there is just no place for them unless their parent is supporting them. As everything knows, Vancouver is a hotspot for rich Asian migrants.

You might call me bias, but Sydney feels much better than Vancouver. We have great weather in Sydney, and a better job market. But the price of housing in Sydney is not cheap all these days. I guess that is the trend of the major cities in the world, the price of housing is just getting beyond the reach of the newer generation. These days it will take double income to be able to support the mortgage.

Cafe Umbria

2006-04-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Cafe Umbria is the name of the cafe I mentioned before. Had another run of coffee there this afternoon and it taste great. It reminds me of the cafe in UNSW that uses Lavazza beans, also taste great........one of my favorite cafe in Sydney. Guess I have found my little secluded cafe in Seattle. In the weekends, the place is more quiet and much more enjoyable. Just a good place to enjoy a latte and do some reading or work. In the weekdays they are pretty busy so I prefer the weekend. It is quite close to where I work so it is a good choice if I want some coffee.

Today I also bought some German Bratwurst (sausage) from a sausage shop in Pikes market. They sell a good variety of sausages that spans around Europe and Americas. German Bratwurst is suppose to be good so lets see how well this place makes them, if it is good I might try the other flavours more regularly.......so much to try. But the sausage ain't cheap either, it is about $6.5 per lb (about 4 links). Also bought some Halibut fillet to try out ($11.99 per lb). The swordfish steak I had last time was not bad, the best part of it is the skin and the thin layer of fat between the skin and the meat. The meat itself does not taste as good as salmon. Next round I might try the Chilean Sea Bass next time.

Started looking more seriously into buying a second hand car. Some people is telling me just to get a reliable car to get by, another is telling me to get a new car - hassle free. I enjoy driving and I want a car that would make it enjoyable. I am not really a civic or camry man, will settle for them when I have a family or when I am older. Now is the time to have fun and enjoy what the world has to offer. I do not really want to buy a new car either, not at this stage anyway. I needed a car to learn manual and care-free (do not need to worry about scratching or crashing it), also need to build up my credit rating to get better finance deals. So the deal is to find a fun drive car that is reasonably cheap. For a car with sub $9k price, with good reliability, lower mileage, 94-96 Miata seems to be the only option at this stage. Was looking at 240sx but they are all 150k milesage (the engine will be giving way), or 3000GT (heard it is unreliable). Seems that the other cars of interest are all $15k+ or so (WRX, s2K). The new cars like STi 2006 and the 350Z are all good looking and with great specs.

Emacs

2006-03-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

The second week into Amazon, and there is still a lot to learn and catch up on. Learning just the development tools would take a while, not to mention my team's own software. My team is called Website Core & Tools and our software is highly leveraged in Amazon. This also means that we will have to understand a lot more than our own piece of code. I guess this would be a great opportunity to learn about Amazon's web technology, one that supports the world's largest retail website. This is one of the main reasons I decided to join Amazon.

Other than that, I have decided, finally, to learn emacs seriously. Have been avoiding it for 8 years when I was using Linux/Unix. Why I didn't learn? Cause I believe that a good GUI development environment (like UltraEdit/VS) would be just as good as emacs. This is the era of GUI based productivity improvement so we should take advantage of the new found power of technology. I was able to do some good development using these editors while staying on nedit/pico in Linux for most of my academic years. Why I am learning now? There are several good reasons. First is that there is no good GUI software editor tools, but I get some good support on emacs. Second is that I want to learn some new tool, and emacs will be a useful one in the Linux environment....esp remote environment.

A typically topic came up when I was having lunch with colleagues, and dinner with friends from MS. The topic is about salary package and also about new graduates. The verdict is that current new hires are getting higher salary than 2-3 years go, I guess the job market is now recovering and companies just have to offer higher salary to grab the talents. The other factor is that their is now a "cold war" between the large .com companies like Yahoo/Google/Amazon, all of them are diversifying their business and testing out waters in new areas of online services. This also means they are hiring a lot of software engineers to do the job. Google is setting the standard by giving high salary packages to new hires, this puts pressure on the other big companies to offer something better.

Another proposition that came up is that they are willing to pay higher salary to pull in the talent but after they join the company, they will not be getting any good pay rise for years. The catch is that you get the high start, it will be amortized over your years in the company. This goes for all the big companies, and from what we hear from blogs - Google as well. If you think about this, it makes sense and also benefits the employee themselves as well. Not many professions have a starting salary as high as software engineers. Like many engineers as well, you will hit a ceiling ($150k-$200k for a Principal Engineer?) - you just cannot get rich by being an employee - unless the good old technology bubble comes back again - highly unlikely.

With this in mind, my philosophy is to enjoy life and not just for work. Your are just working at most to double your salary which probably just means a better house. Since you are spending most of your mature life at work, you might as well find a position that you enjoy and have interest in. At least this way it will make your life somewhat meaningful. If you want to make it rich, you will have to take the risk and become an enterpreur........and their goes all your free time and to some extent, your life.

Is coming to US/Seattle the right choice? Is joining Amazon the right move? I cannot answer that now but I will make sure I make the most of the experience, enjoy it if possible.

A Fine Sunday

2006-03-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

Had another day with quite good weather here in Seattle. Today I headed up to Pioneer Square and had a great coffee at a cafe near Occidental Ave. Remembered that I had one here two years back when I visited Seattle. Don't remember the name of this place (easily identifable by being across the street from a Starbucks), but it is one that have been around since 1986 and was opened by an Italian. This place is pretty quite in the weekend so making it a perfect place to relax and have a cup of good coffee.

On the way back I detour to near pikes market and grab this smoke salmon pate bread from a Polish bakery. This one is easily identifable by the aroma of the bread in a very small shop with a lot of people queuing for a piece. At around $4.25 a piece it is not cheap, but the quality is pretty good.

By the late afternoon the weather is getting cold again, I went back home and had some enjoyable time viewing the discovery channel. What is on today is about polar bears, and then a long series of episodes about Alaskian Crab Fishing - they claim to be the most dangerous job in the world with one man lost in sea every week of the fishing season. Dangerous but a good season could earn the deckhand $15-20k. A season is only from 5-7 days, this is because there is a quota on catches for the whole species (e.g. alaskian king crab) and once it is reached, the season stops. What grabs me is the shear forces of natural at the sea and what overwhelming experience it will be working out there.

Sales tax in Seattle

2006-03-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

Didn't know that Seattle's sale tax is so high until I went retail shopping today! A whopping 8.8%, I think San Francisco is only about 8.5%............and that place is considered one of the most expensive place to live in US. Did some research and the break down is: 6.5% state tax, 1.9% is Seattle City tax, and 0.4% tax for regional transport authority (guess the free ride in Seattle downtown does not come for free after all). On top of this there is a 0.5% stadium tax in King County in restaurant & bar, and 2% extra rental car tax. The recruiters and website tells me that the cost of living here is 30% lower than California......I only see the 9.3% income tax difference at the moment. I guess the houses are relatively cheaper than in bay area but they are NOT cheap, way over priced.

The good thing is that (I heard) Washington residents can deduct this sales tax amount from their income tax. So for me who is paying 25-28%, this would mean a discount of 25-28% on sales tax. Effectively the sales tax would be around 6.5%. The messy thing is in calculating this amount.

Was surfing around about tax issues and I hit on this blog about reasons for housing crash in the bay area (CA). I don't really believe it will be a crash, but a small decline is evitable. But what is interesting in my little research is that the median price of a house in the Santa Clara County is $650k, where as it is $400k in King County (WA). I guess that is where the other percentage in cost of living went. For foreigners that come to work here, like me, it doesn't really apply as the renting price has been relatively constant over the years. The blog also talk about rent versus buying a house. I always believed that if you can save voluntarily and can put time in diversifying your investment, you can do just as well renting as you would in buying a house in the long term. Spectulating in housing market in the short term is another thing all together.

Sunshine Saturday in Seatte (SSS)

2006-03-25T16:59:00.000-08:00

Today is a SSS (Sunshine Saturday in Seattle), an acronym I have now started myself after having two consecutive rare Saturdays in Seattle. A very pleasant day indeed. The picture of the cherry blossom I post out, well, it is a pity to see that the tree has reach the peak of blossoming and is now loosing the flowers......but a great day it is, too good to stay in the apartment. Pity I don't have a car yet, else I would have drove out of the downtown area and into the lakeside or something. Remembered that there were some good cafes around the Greenlake area.

Managed to get myself out of the house by lunch time, and had a decent coffee at a local cafe hear the pike markets. Surprisingly the barista there is very good at making the steam milk used for the Latte. In America, especially in places like Starbucks or Seattles Best, they concentrate only on the coffee bean and lacks discipline in training their barista "How to make steam milk 101". If you see a cafe that use a pitcher that is too big, or the barista uses a spoon to control the milk/or transfer the cream, then you better just go for a non-milk based coffee. Big pitcher implies they put priority into serving fast coffee rather than a quality coffee. Using spoon means that this barista is NOT a barista - just another part-time dude. Yes, I am picky with my coffee..........I guess that is because there are a lot of good local cafes around Sydney, just got spoiled. I see coffee as an enjoyable treat rather than a morning brain rush.

One thing I spotted is that this local cafe has far less customers than the near by Starbucks which is packed with tourist. I guess Starbucks did a great job in brand marketing and creating this "trendy culture".

Apart from a coffee treat, I also did some shopping at the shopping center in downtown. One thing I see is the difference between Macy and Nordstorm. In Sydney terms, Nordstorm feels like David Jones, pushing for personalized service - they dedicate a staff to follow you up. Macy on the other hand is the Myers where it is a nice place but with mid-end items. I see a big difference in terms of customers, where Nordstorm is drawing the crowd - even when there are not much stuff on special. The bags they use also say something about the shops too. Macy uses a plastic bag whereas Nordstorm uses a classy cardboard bag with rope handles - now that is what draws in the females. The result of this errand is that I got a Ben Sherman jacket which was on special at Macy-- very nice one, black with a trace of dark purple. Was shopping for a 7's jean but they don't stock it in Macy's. So ended up at Nordstorm where I found a good range of nice jeans from G-star, Mavin, to 7's. Found this bootcut 7's with the right size (29s are hard to find in US!) and the right length......and the right colour too! Found the cutting, style, and fitting just too nice........so I dig into my wallet and made the purchase. This purchase really hurts my wallet, but I needed a good pair of jeans.......I am one of those that wears the same pair for years and years and years. Now I have a great bootcut to go with my Dr Martens boot.

BTW, Ben Sherman's website is quite good! Hippy and creative, I like it!

On the way back home I dropped by pikes market to get some fruit & fish. This place is always packed with people in the weekends, rightly so as there is plenty of good cafe and a great view of the harbor esp in great weather. Just decided that while I am still living in the downtown apartment, I will make Saturday my fresh food's day. Today I got a fresh Swordfish steak and some beautiful green grapes. Not cheap in pike's market though.

Zonman

2006-03-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Driving at night towards Amazon's so called PacMed building (12th ave), it reminds me of Batman's Gothic City and the building where Batman lives. I guess if you map that to Amazon then there should be a Zonman inPacMed =D.
I do wonder why Amazon choose that building and one I can think of is that the building looks like a A shape, and also does have a good view of the Seattle business district. At night you can see the curve of redness from the traffic, and the dizzling lights from the office buildings.

Like most large & young technology companies, Amazon is trying to place a hip culture into the workplace. I heard that Microsoft also have their own internal campaigns to fire up their employees. Not to mention Google's own culture of not doing evil and Yahoo's Purple Cow. I think all these loses meaning when you are not some fresh grads in their early 20s. Maybe as you grow older it is harder for you to get excited about anything. Still remember way back in high school I get exciting about the smallest of things.

The first great thing I came across as a newly reinvented developer is the open source software called Synergy. It is one of the software that you always wanted but is never around. Well, here it is, for free too! Synergy is like a virtual KVM switch for your mouse and keyword. It lets you move you mouse from one machine to another over the network, without the need to press any keyword and without the need for physical hardware support. It even works between Linux and Windows machines. Now I have a development environment where I can just move to my Windows box seamlessly.

First week working in US

2006-03-23T22:36:00.000-08:00

Only been a week but it feels like a month!

Starting work in Amazon and the first week is just mainly reading materials and setting up my development environment. Also spent a lot of time kickstarting my new life in Seattle. Lucky we had a few days of great weather around here (see pic above, it is at the apartment complex I am staying currently).

Like any new person in arriving in US, I had to apply for SSN (you do NOT need anything from your employer to apply, just need a valid working visa and passport) but found out that I applied too early. The lady at the SS told me that I should have went after 10 days before I apply since it will take time for my entry through the US custom to be available for them to check. Now I will have to wait for upto 4 weeks for them to check through this "manual" process................now I know!

As for bank account, you do NOT need a SSN to open a bank account. Just as all as you have a passport and valid working visa then it should be fine. Also ask the HR about any deals they might have with the banks........as it might offer more services for free and also some fee waiver.
Heard that First Tech CU is not bad, and Washington Mutal offers some free foreign wire transfer........will look more into it later on. Just need to get paid first.

Other than that I have been roaming around the Seattle area, getting use to the area so that I can live a bit more smoothly. Managed to stock up a lot of food so that when my car rental runs out I can still live by for a while..........else can buy more expensively at Uwajimaya. This japanese supermarket is pretty great, got a lot of good Asian food but is a bit expensive comparatively.......you pay for what you get: quality!

On top of that, I also manage to get broadband access installed this week, faster than I expected. But the temporily broadband cost quite a lot, I am sure someone has made a cut out of it.

There is still so many things to look into........mobile phone deals, second hand car, another place to rent, rice cooker. Amazon has some great deals on mobile, just about deciding which handset to get and also the carrier. In terms of car, it is a big headache.....not only do I did to decide on the model, also have to worry about financing too. I know some people that got leasing for a new car without needing credit history (Z350 on 6-7%pa), but getting finance for a second without credit history could be a nightmare. Right now looking at getting a 240sx or a miata....should be a fun car to mess around with. Comparatively, seconds in Seattle has less variety and cost more than in the bay area.