The Dude abides.

Long Walk to Freedom

I’ve finished reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography: The Long Walk to Freedom. The book in itself was amazing. The burden he bore, to fight for freedom of all Africans (white or black) was extremely courageous and reminded me to some extent of the conversation of satyagraha in Orson Scott Card’s most excellent Shadow of the Hegemon:

“From the mention of Bose, the conversation turned to a discussion of Gandhi. Someone starting talking about ‘peaceful resistance’–never implying that anyone in Planning might contemplate such a thing, of course–and someone else said, ‘No, that’s passive resistance.’

That was when Petra spoke up. ‘This is India, and you know the word. It’s satyagraha, and it doesn’t mean peaceful or passive resistance at all.’

‘Not everyone here speaks Hindi,’ said a Tamil planner.

‘But everyone here should know Gandhi,’ said Petra.

Sayagi agreed with her. ‘Satyagraha is something else. The willingness to endure great personal suffering in order to do what’s right.’

‘What’s the difference, really?’

‘Sometimes,’ said Petra, ‘What’s right is not peaceful or passive. What matters is that you do not hide from the consequences. You bear what must be borne.’ ”

“‘That sounds more like courage than anything else,’ said the Tamil.

‘What happened to ‘discretion is the better part of valor’?’

‘A quotation from a cowardly character in Shakespeare’…

‘Not contradictory anyway,’ said Sayagi. ‘Completely different circumstances. If there’s a chance of victory later through withdrawal now, you keep your forces intact. But personally, as an individual, if you know that the price of doing right is terrible loss or suffering or even death, satyagraha means that you are all the more determined to do right, for fear that fear might make you unrighteous.’

‘Oh paradoxes within paradoxes.’

But Petra turned it from superficial philosophy to something else… ‘I am trying… to achieve satyagraha.’

…in the silence that followed, she knew that some, at least, understood. She was alive right now because she had not achieved satyagraha, because she had not always done the right thing… And she was preparing to change that… “

The Weekend at Cameron Highlands

I spent the weekend at Cameron Highlands, at the most excellent Father’s Guesthouse, for a weekend of hacking with Aizatto, Khailee, Khalid and Usher. Given the cheap availability of wifi Internet access, relatively cheap accomodation, decent food and comfy sofa’s, I was pumped to go crystalize some of the ideas bouncing around in my head.

Funnily enough, I received the same room as I was in previously 6 months ago. I wonder if they reserve certain rooms for Malaysians. It was raining a little which led to lower temperatures then expected. Next time, I’ll bring a sweater.

I got some code written up. It has become a force of habit for me to now determine the correct observation points to analyze the system and thus think through and work out the design of the various aspects of the code before actually sitting down and writing it; and even whilst writing it, to continually improve it, if proven necessarily. This had lead to slower developmental speed, but the overall quality of my code is much better. It’s particularly nice to see the various pieces fit together slowly and after several months of hacking, seeing it come together elegantly.

The code I wrote will be open sourced at some point when it is usable. Right now, I need to ensure the core design is resilient and well structured. However, I am not sure whether the code will ever make its way into a product as I built the software to solve a specific document management problem I have been having for several years now, although I can see how it can benefit others - hence the decision to open source it at some point.

Another positive thing I learnt in Cameron Highlands is the game gin-rummy, an amazingly addictive card game. I was losing constantly though, no doubt thanks to getting Happy (note the capital H) I was working out the parameters of the game really, with n-different people, how does one maximize the chance of minimizing losses given the inherent unpredictably present in the game? The skill of counting cards is a must when playing against experienced players as is the ability to switch strategies to throw off the others who may be counting my cards

I met Gabriel, an interesting geographer, from Switzerland. He had just finished his Masters and had cycled (on a bicycle, even!) all the way from Singapore to Kelantan on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. In 8 days! Amazing, I must say. We had an interesting conversation on the politics of Malaysia. Gabriel, if you ever make your way to Kuala Lumpur, my couch is available for your surfing

The trip back to KL was … very surreal I’ll leave it at that!

In any case, I look forward to having another hacking session at Cameron Highlands.

Managing Expectations

This post is dedicated to Jerie:

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really pissed. She told him “Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!”

The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.

Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Bob has been missing since Friday.

Smoking is Bad! (Part 1)

Friendship between the sexes

Friendship between Women:

A woman didn’t come home one night The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend’s house. The man called his wife’s 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it.

Friendship between Men:

A man didn’t come home one night. The next morning he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend’s house. The woman called her husband’s 10 best friends, eight of which confirmed that he had slept over, and two said that he was still there.