ronny.haryan.to

I’m working on a school project this semester. The first half of the project is mostly literature review to get some background about the project topic, identify any open issues and try to propose a solution or research to be implemented on the second half of the project. The project topic is, tentatively, Context-Aware Mobile Applications. I will have implemented a working prototype by the end of this semester (around end of November).

The subject coordinator (not my project supervisor) mentioned that one of her students uses blog as a research aid. The student posts his annotations for the literatures as he reviews them. Towards the end he will then use these annotations to summarize, analyze and write a nice report. This seems like an excellent idea. The notes become available from anywhere with internet access, and it is shared with people so they can give comments and/or have discussion about it. An example of such blog is iclouds (choose “Literatures Reviewed” category).

I will probably do the same for my project, for literature reviews as well as progress on the project itself. I’m hoping to post as much as I can about the project as soon as I have the permission from my supervisor. I can only say that I will most likely be developing a mobile application that runs on mobile devices like a PDA, it will most likely be using the .NET Compact Framework since most powerful PDAs or smart phones nowadays use Windows Mobile as the OS, and from what I heard .NET CF is actually not that bad even though it’s from Microsoft. So I’ll definitely be doing something different this time.

Update: Found another blog that is used to record progress for research, coincidentally the topic is very similar to what I’m interested in.

I tried indoor rock climbing today. And it was really fun. Too bad I was not in a top notch shape, so it was harder for me to climb compared to my friends. My arms are really sore now, couldn’t lift a spoon or hold a pen properly. But I will definitely try rock climbing again.

Today I learned basic safety for rock climbing, how to wear and adjust the harness, how to use the clips, what a belayer is, etc. I’ll probably get a book in getting started in rock climbing.

Like they said, life is short, we should “play” more. Next up, winter deep sea fishing in July. *crossing fingers*

So I’ve been back in Sydney for one week now. It’s nice to be able to scratch some pending items off my todo list, after all I am the Great Procrastinator™. Anyway, upgrading my Gentoo system at home took about 2 days (yeah yeah I’ve heard all Gentoo jokes), because the system had been offline for almost two months. Kernel 2.6.10, Gnome 2.8.3, new KDE (I don’t bother checking the version), new Evolution, new Gaim, etc. Got a few glitches here and there, but nothing major. About 1 GB of total download.

I got a chance to upgrade this blog’s WP installation to latest version 1.5. But I’m still working on the theme, waiting for inspiration.

Dr. Phil:

Winners do things that losers won't.

Source unknown:

Winners make commitments
Losers make promises

Winners go through a problem
Losers go around it, never get past it

Winners say, "Let's find out"
Losers say, "Nobody knows"

Winners always have a plan
Losers always have an excuse

Winners say "There's a better way"
Losers say, "It's the way it's always been done"

Winners are always involved in the answer
Losers are always part of the problem

Winners know there is still much to learn
Losers want to be considered an expert
before knowing how little is known

Winners learn from their mistakes
Losers learn only not to make mistakes
by not trying anything different

“Mahjong???”, you said.

In general, there are two kinds of Mahjong game: the more popular four-player game Mahjong and the one-player Mahjong Solitaire. The original Mahjong game is a gambling game which is very popular in Hong Kong and in most Asian countries. I’m not interested in the original Mahjong game, personally I think there are just too many rules for it to be fun to play without gambling, as I’m not into gambling. Mahjong Solitaire, on the other hand, is simple yet intriguing. The version I play is GNOME Mahjongg. You can find other versions and an explanation on how to play the game in the Wikipedia article for Mahjong Solitaire.

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