Next week is the end of the semester. From CS3216, I learnt various soft skills regarding creation of application, mainly from UI/UX and marketing.
Another skill which I do not expect to obtain in CS3216 is the real experience in dealing with a customer. In addition to that, the customer is not a tech person. The communication becomes a very tiring process especially when it comes to explanation and agreement.
In the past, I always hear rumors where in working environment, the non-tech customers/departments always think that tech team is a magic team who can create anything they want in no time. In results, they demand lots from us and take it for granted. When error or bug occurs, tech team takes the blame.
I doubted the rumors because working with the bunch of intellectual working adult (I assume), such unreasonable request will not be so rampant. However, I think I need to reconsider my stand on the rumors. There is indeed a very big communication gap between us and the other parties.
This comes down to the skill I obtain. We need to communicate in order to bring down the expectation of the opposite parties to avoid putting ourselves in worse position when we cannot deliver the intended goods in time.
Another 2 more weeks and that concludes my journey in CS3216. Alright, time to work now!!
Friday, November 6, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Tired...
I am extremely tired at this point of time. Everyday wake up to implement new feature and fix bug. My daily routine without lesson will be wake up, code, eat lunch, bathe, code, eat dinner, code, bathe and go to sleep. It is extremely tired. I am also traumatized by all the problems that are yet to be solved or solved, to the point where I had nightmare for some of those problems. Can anyone imagine one woke up in the middle of the night realizing some part of the code is buggy?
I also have hard time communicating with someone. As a comp science student (A sweeping statement here), I am very focused on objective and require a very specific and clear instruction to carry out my work. As such, those issues with very vague and unclear idea cracking my brain. There are like thousand and one ways to achieve certain goal and the decision is passed to me. If the solution is not the desired way, I need to change or even overhaul! Why can't you give me a clearer idea so that I do not have to worry out it!
Tired...
I also have hard time communicating with someone. As a comp science student (A sweeping statement here), I am very focused on objective and require a very specific and clear instruction to carry out my work. As such, those issues with very vague and unclear idea cracking my brain. There are like thousand and one ways to achieve certain goal and the decision is passed to me. If the solution is not the desired way, I need to change or even overhaul! Why can't you give me a clearer idea so that I do not have to worry out it!
Tired...
Sunday, October 4, 2015
First week into final project
We managed to get an external project through connection of an external pitcher. It is a travelling application where it applies UBER like idea. It is called Travez which is an application who serve travelers by helping them with their decision making and itineraries planning. The key point is to tap on local people who know a lot about attractions in their countries and get those people to serve the travelers through application.
This idea gave me a very strong impression that nowadays, more and more people have started to think of idea that make use of other to work for them. It may leads to good and bad depending on how the direction goes.
For good, more people can pick up part time job and earn through such simple job. It provides more jobs to those who face problem such as disabilities and incapable of leaving house. It also allow student to pick up easy part time job for their pocket money.
Here comes the bad thing. First, who is going to be responsible for such jobs, the company or the person? If something goes wrong, will the company bears full responsibility? Well, the company should bear most of the responsibility. Take Uber for example, if the vehicle gets into accident (*touch wood*), will be company compensate the driver and the client? I believe Uber should have some sort of insurance to cover those accidents but how about other similar out sourced businesses?
Next, how to pay income tax? Is the company going to submit income tax for those outsourced by the company? How about the quality of the company? Is the company going to control the quality through a very strict selection?
There are quite a number of problems before you can out source a business and get other to work for you and you wait for money to come in. I do not disagree with such method. It is innovative and interesting business model but there are more admin issue to tackle before this method works.
This idea gave me a very strong impression that nowadays, more and more people have started to think of idea that make use of other to work for them. It may leads to good and bad depending on how the direction goes.
For good, more people can pick up part time job and earn through such simple job. It provides more jobs to those who face problem such as disabilities and incapable of leaving house. It also allow student to pick up easy part time job for their pocket money.
Here comes the bad thing. First, who is going to be responsible for such jobs, the company or the person? If something goes wrong, will the company bears full responsibility? Well, the company should bear most of the responsibility. Take Uber for example, if the vehicle gets into accident (*touch wood*), will be company compensate the driver and the client? I believe Uber should have some sort of insurance to cover those accidents but how about other similar out sourced businesses?
Next, how to pay income tax? Is the company going to submit income tax for those outsourced by the company? How about the quality of the company? Is the company going to control the quality through a very strict selection?
There are quite a number of problems before you can out source a business and get other to work for you and you wait for money to come in. I do not disagree with such method. It is innovative and interesting business model but there are more admin issue to tackle before this method works.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
No time for rest
Yesterday is the submission of assignment 3 and it drained away 90% my "recess week". And right after this, final project proposal is due on the upcoming Monday and nothing has been finalized. Lets hope that we are able to get something done tomorrow or else it is going to be another suffering for us.
Meanwhile, I should start working on other modules. All the assignments are piling up due to CS3216. I have no time to cater to them even though I have spent about 15 hours per day working on the assignment (minus bathing and meal time).
I hope that the workload will go lighter after this upcoming week where many assignments and proposal due but from experience it is not going to work that way... T-T
Meanwhile, I should start working on other modules. All the assignments are piling up due to CS3216. I have no time to cater to them even though I have spent about 15 hours per day working on the assignment (minus bathing and meal time).
I hope that the workload will go lighter after this upcoming week where many assignments and proposal due but from experience it is not going to work that way... T-T
Sunday, September 20, 2015
"Recess" Week !! Woohoo !!
Yay, recess week!! This is what many will shout out with a happy smiling face. To me, I realize the truth of recess week for a computing student last year, the "Recess Week" is not a week for you to rest but a week for you to catch up and finish up your work. Lets take a look at CS3216, I will need to complete my assignment 3 by Friday and final project proposal by next Monday. Together with my 4 other modules which have two project proposals by next week and the week after, assignment deadline by next week and mid term exam on next Saturday (which mean revision!!). Yup, that concludes by recess week. So, to those "Yay" on recess week, enjoy your rest but not for me T-T.
My assignment 3 is building up steadily after my failure in assignment 1. I hope that I do not fail again this time. Meanwhile, we are still trying to contact one of the external party but the opposite does not seem to be very interactive as out of so much emails I sent, only 1 reply so far and it replied with regard to the first email I sent. As of today, no replies from the person (To be anonymous, I am just going to call him/her/them "the person") anymore. I not sure if the person found a team who will take up the project or the person just lazy to reply. However, I still believe it is a good manner to reply to emails that direct to you.
Time for a busy "Recess Week"! YAY! (T-T)
My assignment 3 is building up steadily after my failure in assignment 1. I hope that I do not fail again this time. Meanwhile, we are still trying to contact one of the external party but the opposite does not seem to be very interactive as out of so much emails I sent, only 1 reply so far and it replied with regard to the first email I sent. As of today, no replies from the person (To be anonymous, I am just going to call him/her/them "the person") anymore. I not sure if the person found a team who will take up the project or the person just lazy to reply. However, I still believe it is a good manner to reply to emails that direct to you.
Time for a busy "Recess Week"! YAY! (T-T)
Friday, September 11, 2015
Start of the another milestone
Last week marked the end of assignment 1 and 2. Meanwhile, assignment 3 is released for a week. Although the document says that we have 4 weeks to complete it (since it is until 25th September), the actual start point is after assignment 1 and 2 which is a week later. So, we are left with 3 weeks to finish it.
After a extremely painful experience in assignment 1, I have decided to set everything clearly and organised before the start of assignment. It is mainly on project admin issues. During assignment 1, due to the need of overhaul, the project admin were a big mess such as lack of check in of progress etc. This time, I have decided to bring all this up during first meeting so that we do not mess up the admin as we progress.
New idea is always the painful part. We need to come up with good idea yet feasible with given period of time. Some of the good brainstorming ideas were rejected because of the scale. In the end, we have decided to do a component of the large idea that I have in mind.
I hope that we do not suffer as much as during assignment 1 this time. Cheers!
After a extremely painful experience in assignment 1, I have decided to set everything clearly and organised before the start of assignment. It is mainly on project admin issues. During assignment 1, due to the need of overhaul, the project admin were a big mess such as lack of check in of progress etc. This time, I have decided to bring all this up during first meeting so that we do not mess up the admin as we progress.
New idea is always the painful part. We need to come up with good idea yet feasible with given period of time. Some of the good brainstorming ideas were rejected because of the scale. In the end, we have decided to do a component of the large idea that I have in mind.
I hope that we do not suffer as much as during assignment 1 this time. Cheers!
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Nightmare #1
This week has been a nightmare for me. It is highly due to CS3216 assignment 1 where our project was given a "yellow card" by Colin as not "interesting" application.
I understand the fact that our application has a number of loop holes in term of design and user experience. However, it gives me an impression that "Cool" and "Awesome" take up a very large part of an application. Let me explain why I think in such a way.
Firstly, given a very short time, we need to rush out a working product. My target is to create a small yet working and stable product. Therefore, our application may not have any really very "cool" features. Our application focus on add, group, collate and simple search photo. It seems very simple. Our front end is slightly lagging behind time. Hence, the feel of the application may not be that fantastic. It may not be able to deliver the intended function to the user. This is the first reason why I mean front end need to be awesome. Front end needs to be able to portray the features before the user will use it.
Next, I scanned through applications from other group. Quite a number of their application have fantastic design, they put in lots of hard work in designing their application. However, in less than 4 days away from submission, some of the features are still not available or still buggy. To me, 4 days is too short to implement features yet ensuring the features are free of bug but the module gives me an impression that it speaks otherwise. I am not sure whether the teaching team believes that the students are capable of fixing those problems in 4 days or it is meant to have some bug given a short period to produce those applications. In return, awesomeness and coolness can "cover up" the short fall of those bugs.
I hope that for the upcoming assignments, my doubt on "unimportant" backend can be cleared as I still believe without a strong backend, frontend cannot do much as well. It is like a fancy speech without content. Let's hope... it does not prove me otherwise...
I understand the fact that our application has a number of loop holes in term of design and user experience. However, it gives me an impression that "Cool" and "Awesome" take up a very large part of an application. Let me explain why I think in such a way.
Firstly, given a very short time, we need to rush out a working product. My target is to create a small yet working and stable product. Therefore, our application may not have any really very "cool" features. Our application focus on add, group, collate and simple search photo. It seems very simple. Our front end is slightly lagging behind time. Hence, the feel of the application may not be that fantastic. It may not be able to deliver the intended function to the user. This is the first reason why I mean front end need to be awesome. Front end needs to be able to portray the features before the user will use it.
Next, I scanned through applications from other group. Quite a number of their application have fantastic design, they put in lots of hard work in designing their application. However, in less than 4 days away from submission, some of the features are still not available or still buggy. To me, 4 days is too short to implement features yet ensuring the features are free of bug but the module gives me an impression that it speaks otherwise. I am not sure whether the teaching team believes that the students are capable of fixing those problems in 4 days or it is meant to have some bug given a short period to produce those applications. In return, awesomeness and coolness can "cover up" the short fall of those bugs.
I hope that for the upcoming assignments, my doubt on "unimportant" backend can be cleared as I still believe without a strong backend, frontend cannot do much as well. It is like a fancy speech without content. Let's hope... it does not prove me otherwise...
Monday, August 31, 2015
Review on Telegram
According to Group 5 which did a presentation on Telegram, I have slight fear for the security of Telegram. Based on the group's presentation, Telegram is a open source product where the quality control is not properly implemented in which it may leads to threats from virus and malicious data.
However, being an open source project actually exposes some of the security issues. In addition, chat application tends to contain important and sensitive during the chat. As a user, I definitely do not want my chat to be exposed to such threats. Although the developers should not be uploading all the important information such encryption keys or private keys information online during development, there are still some part of code that will provide the malicious hackers some information to crack the security of the application. Imagine if the hacker is able to make changes and redirect a copy of the message to himself, it will be very dangerous and insecure for the users.
However, I do agree that open source application does have its benefits. It is able to tap on the power of community to produce fantastic product. Therefore, if a good quality and information control are in place, the above worries still can be minimized.
Regarding UI/UX of Telegram, I do agree that less clicks sometimes make the application more user friendly but it does not necessarily true all the time. Assume a huge list of logo representing multiple functions in a single function page, the user can reach almost all functions in one or two clicks but due to lack of organisation among the functions, it becomes less user friendly. It is indeed the case for Telegram where the function is grouped in a long list. In other hand, a well grouped and organised function may require more clicks to traverse the categories before it can reach the actual functions but due to neat organisation, it may gain more users' supports. Therefore, I believe the simplest may not be the best.
The team suggested one marketing possibility that Telegram can adopt is to allow custom keyboard. It reminds me of messaging application such as WeChat and LINE. In WeChat, there are various animated emoticons where user can download them. Some of the emoticons require users to purchase before it can be used. This strategy has been implemented by many messaging application. Therefore, this strategy may lose its originality and may not be able to attract more users to use it or to pay for it.
One key reason a messaging application is dominated by a few major applications such as Whatsapp, Line, etc is the importance of users. Without a large user pools, those applications are nothing but useless application. It requires two parties to use the application at the same time in order to form a communication. Therefore, users tend to go for the messaging application with large users pool or the one with most friends. It is very hard for user to migrate to another messaging application if the targeting application has very small number of friends using it.
Therefore, I feel that the messaging application market is hard for new companies to enter unless there is a very strong breakthrough or innovative changes in the messaging application. If not, I will rather stick with the old application such as Whatsapp although it may be slightly worse off in term of design or functionalities.
However, being an open source project actually exposes some of the security issues. In addition, chat application tends to contain important and sensitive during the chat. As a user, I definitely do not want my chat to be exposed to such threats. Although the developers should not be uploading all the important information such encryption keys or private keys information online during development, there are still some part of code that will provide the malicious hackers some information to crack the security of the application. Imagine if the hacker is able to make changes and redirect a copy of the message to himself, it will be very dangerous and insecure for the users.
However, I do agree that open source application does have its benefits. It is able to tap on the power of community to produce fantastic product. Therefore, if a good quality and information control are in place, the above worries still can be minimized.
Regarding UI/UX of Telegram, I do agree that less clicks sometimes make the application more user friendly but it does not necessarily true all the time. Assume a huge list of logo representing multiple functions in a single function page, the user can reach almost all functions in one or two clicks but due to lack of organisation among the functions, it becomes less user friendly. It is indeed the case for Telegram where the function is grouped in a long list. In other hand, a well grouped and organised function may require more clicks to traverse the categories before it can reach the actual functions but due to neat organisation, it may gain more users' supports. Therefore, I believe the simplest may not be the best.
The team suggested one marketing possibility that Telegram can adopt is to allow custom keyboard. It reminds me of messaging application such as WeChat and LINE. In WeChat, there are various animated emoticons where user can download them. Some of the emoticons require users to purchase before it can be used. This strategy has been implemented by many messaging application. Therefore, this strategy may lose its originality and may not be able to attract more users to use it or to pay for it.
One key reason a messaging application is dominated by a few major applications such as Whatsapp, Line, etc is the importance of users. Without a large user pools, those applications are nothing but useless application. It requires two parties to use the application at the same time in order to form a communication. Therefore, users tend to go for the messaging application with large users pool or the one with most friends. It is very hard for user to migrate to another messaging application if the targeting application has very small number of friends using it.
Therefore, I feel that the messaging application market is hard for new companies to enter unless there is a very strong breakthrough or innovative changes in the messaging application. If not, I will rather stick with the old application such as Whatsapp although it may be slightly worse off in term of design or functionalities.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Week 3 O.o
Today marks the end of classes for this week. However, there are still lots of assignments to be done. In fact, those assignments have started to pile up as tutorial and lab classes have started this week.
While I am busy for coding assignment 1 features, assignment 2 suddenly comes by and demand a set of slides in Pecha Kucha style (What is that????). Believe me or not, the first thought that came to me was Kecha Wacha (google this for those who don't know). Although our team tried our best to follow the rules of Pecha Kucha, I still feel that we are using quite a few tricks to pass by the rules since the rules are not too restrictive in same manner. Therefore, I felt a little bit surprise when our slides are accepted, I guess it is expected for us to go around with some tricks.
Today also marks the start of 1 week countdown to the final deadlines. Although I believe our team has committed a lot to the assignment, I still feel that we are lacking in some expects. I hope that we can catch up and produce an almost complete product on Monday so that we can go around getting more user feedback on all our features and UI/UX.
Next week will be an extremely tiring week for me. One presentation, one assignment product submission, two release of assignments and two forming of project groups......MY SLEEP AND REST!!!!!
While I am busy for coding assignment 1 features, assignment 2 suddenly comes by and demand a set of slides in Pecha Kucha style (What is that????). Believe me or not, the first thought that came to me was Kecha Wacha (google this for those who don't know). Although our team tried our best to follow the rules of Pecha Kucha, I still feel that we are using quite a few tricks to pass by the rules since the rules are not too restrictive in same manner. Therefore, I felt a little bit surprise when our slides are accepted, I guess it is expected for us to go around with some tricks.
Today also marks the start of 1 week countdown to the final deadlines. Although I believe our team has committed a lot to the assignment, I still feel that we are lacking in some expects. I hope that we can catch up and produce an almost complete product on Monday so that we can go around getting more user feedback on all our features and UI/UX.
Next week will be an extremely tiring week for me. One presentation, one assignment product submission, two release of assignments and two forming of project groups......MY SLEEP AND REST!!!!!
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Week 2 of CS3216
Today ends my second week lessons for this semester. However, the workload of CS3216 is piling high.
I have finally formed a group for my second assignment. The grouping is rather rushing and I doubt anyone has the time to choose their teammates. It is mainly due to the fact that everyone is rushing their first assignment in which the mid report is due next Tuesday.
As for my first assignment, it has been a busy time coding the product. We managed to decide on node js and express framework as the backbone and angular js as the front end.
While I have experienced in node js and express framework last year during orbital project, my understanding node js and express at that moment of time is very bad due to the lack of experience in coding and developing software. Lead by Sun Wang Jun, I basically follow the online tutorial without understanding the techniques and terms used in the framework (aka copy paste).
While I have experienced in node js and express framework last year during orbital project, my understanding node js and express at that moment of time is very bad due to the lack of experience in coding and developing software. Lead by Sun Wang Jun, I basically follow the online tutorial without understanding the techniques and terms used in the framework (aka copy paste).
After one year of experience in coding and software development, I have returned to node js. With my current knowledge, I believe I am able to understand those terms used and not apply without understanding them (aka copy paste).
Lastly, I hope that I still can sleep well every night (SLEEP IS IMPORTANT) and not too worry about the assignments.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
CS3216 - Hope to learn
Hi, I am Mun Aw and this blog will be used to communicate/update? my status on CS3216.
As a CS3216 student in this upcoming semester, I hope to learn the best out of it. I enjoy creation as it gives me the satisfaction looking at the product. Therefore, in CS3216, I wish that I can obtain more skills in building and creating a software. As mentioned by CS3216's title, Software Development on Evolving Platform, I aim to learn the latest skill of software engineering and the technology. By the end of CS3216, I hope that I can produce a fantastic application which can bring my SE skill to a higher level through the creation process.
As a CS3216 student in this upcoming semester, I hope to learn the best out of it. I enjoy creation as it gives me the satisfaction looking at the product. Therefore, in CS3216, I wish that I can obtain more skills in building and creating a software. As mentioned by CS3216's title, Software Development on Evolving Platform, I aim to learn the latest skill of software engineering and the technology. By the end of CS3216, I hope that I can produce a fantastic application which can bring my SE skill to a higher level through the creation process.
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