Liuer Blog

Mysteriously Waking Laptop

2011-05-10T18:31:00.004-04:00

I always put my Windows 7 laptop to sleep when I'm done using it. On rare occasions, I've noticed it mysteriously powering up, doing something with the disk, then shutting itself off. I've always wondered if there was some kind of remote access waking the machine up to exchange some data. When I see it happening, I even check the webcam light to make sure it's not secretly taking pictures! :-)

Finally, I witnessed this behaviour again this morning. I don't know why I've never thought of this before - I checked the system log for entries around the time this happened. Turns out it was something called 'S4 Doze to Hibernation'.

Turns out this is a feature of Sleep. I've always thought of Sleep as Standby but it's not quite the same -- by default, Sleep will stand-by for 6 hours, after which it Hibernates.

I've always complained about the random time it takes to wake my laptop from sleep -- sometimes, it's instantaneous; other times, it takes forever. This feature would explain it. If it has to restore from hibernation, it would definitely be slower.

Thanks to this post for explaining the mystery and showing how to change the setting!

Point-and-Click Escape Games are Great!

2010-03-15T21:40:00.004-04:00

Point-and-click games are the ones in which you find yourself in a room or place, and have to go around looking for items or clues that will help you unlock doors or solve a chain of puzzles that would ultimately lead to your escape. I really enjoy them, and wanted to post a couple of resources that I've been using to find these games.

CTV's Kris Abel used to point one out every No Escape Friday. It looks like this isn't an active focus for him anymore, but it remains a great place to browse. Once in a while, he would also post a game that might not be filed under the 'escape' category but is still enjoyable, such as the recent Ugly American - Citizen Ugly.

Jay is Games is another great resource. On top of listing games, this site also hosts walkthroughs, which you can consult when you're really stuck in a game.

Try one... you might like it!

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T21:35:00.003-05:00

My apartment faces east and I was able to see the lunar eclipse from my balcony. It might be hard to see, but the lower left hand corner of the moon is being blocked out by the Earth. The silhouette you see is of the building across the street.

This was taken at around 19:12 MST on 2008/02/20.

Later, the moon turned a red-ish colour:

This was taken at around 20:19 MST on 2008/02/20.

New cars and track in Forza Motorsport 2

2007-12-11T01:39:00.000-05:00

New cars and the Road America track were just made available to download in Forza Motorsport 2. It's cool to be able to purchase and download new content through Xbox Live, but I think I'm not going to be able to keep track of just how much money I've put into this game soon! :-)

One of the new cars is the 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, which I attempted to drift for fun:

I like this shot because it shows a curved trail of smoke on top of the trail of rubber!

Police Recruit Graduation at Mewata Armouries

2007-09-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

Kevin graduated from CPS Class #169 on Friday at Mewata Armouries. I've never actually been inside before, so it was pretty neat. Too bad I only realized you can go upstairs for a better view after the ceremony.

The mayor was there, the press was there, ... so it was a pretty big deal. Congratulations Kevin!

Outdoor Paintball

2007-09-16T04:02:00.000-04:00

Johnson invited me to play paintball with his classmates and friends. It was my first time and it was pretty good! We went to an outdoor field east of Cochrane and played around four games.

What appears to be "plenty" of old tires and trees for cover quickly turns out to be inadequate for this beginner -- there never seems to be an appropriate "next cover" to move to.

Getting hit was actually not that bad, although I don't think any of my hits were from up close. One in the arm, one on a finger, one grazed my leg, and one in my back. It's all good.

For $52, I got camouflage coveralls (less worries about getting paint on your clothes and awesome for sliding and crawling around on the grass), paintball mask (gets hot, slides around on your face, and doesn't work all that great with glasses... but you need it), a gun (in this case a Level 2), and paintballs (400 for this price). Unlimited compressed air top-up's, free hot dogs, and free water/crystal-drinks.

Snowing Upwards

2007-09-15T04:39:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if everyone who lives in Calgary gets a chance to see this, so I took a video back in 2007/03. It shows snow "falling" upwards, which is pretty neat. This was taken from the 28th floor in a downtown building.

Trip Out East

2007-09-14T02:18:00.000-04:00

August 2007: Johnson and I flew out to Toronto to visit Rob and Jeremy. It was a week of hanging out, doing stuff, sight-seeing, good food, and most importantly -- good friends. Some highlights...

A Dodge Callebaut (Dodge Caliber) as a rental car (Rob also called out a Mitsubishi Galaxy [Gallant]). The Caliber sounded really weird when you give it more gas, until we figured out that it has a continuous-variable transmission.

I cooked lunch one day and no one was poisoned. Johnson cooked for us that night:

Johnson and I downloaded as many crappy demos as we could find on Rob's Xbox 360.

We went to see Jeremy win a hockey game at Rinx:

Drove to Montreal. Actually, we managed to drive right through Montreal by accident, and had to turn back to get to our hotel.

We stayed right by the Guy Favreau Complex, and thus was born Rob's favourite French phrase ever:

Went to Centre Island in Toronto:

Being challenged by the maze on the island:

Rob denies plugging up Jeremy's toilet:

Getting wet at Niagara Falls:

And basically, our whole trip was 'sponsored' by Starbucks... I'm pretty sure we had at least one a day. :-)

Accessing Digital Media from the Xbox 360

2007-08-26T21:18:00.000-04:00

Is your Xbox 360 hooked up to the biggest TV and the best audio system in the house? If so, you might want to browse the videos, pictures, and music stored on your other computer. I thought you have to run Windows Media Center for this to be possible, but it turns out you can just run something called TVersity.

Install it, then use the provided user interface to pick which files/folders are available for browsing.

Once you get this running, how will your Xbox 360 know that it's there? The Xbox 360 looks for a media server broadcasting its presence on the network. For this to work:

The Xbox 360 and your computer have to be 'on the same network'. I don't know exactly what this means (same subnet?), but basically, if both of these are going through the same router, you're ok.
The computer's firewall needs to allow this new type of network traffic. On Windows XP, these are called Exceptions. There're two exceptions:
- uPnP Framework (TCP 2869 and UDP 1900) - this entry's probably already there but might not be enabled yet
- TVersity Media Server (TCP 41952) - you have to add this port yourself

At this point, you should be able to browse media through the Xbox 360 Dashboard menus. Instead of picking Console, pick Computer. If all is well, you should then see something like 'TVersity on XXX', where XXX is the identity/name of your computer.

Good luck!

BBQ at Mahdi's

2007-08-12T20:13:00.000-04:00

Back in August, Mahdi invited a bunch of us over for a BBQ.

Thanks man!

Shooting Firearms in California

2007-08-12T02:06:00.000-04:00

When I relocated to San Bruno back in 2001, I had to write the driver's test to get my California driver's license. I often tell the story about how I was reading the driver handbook and came across a section in the book which had to explicitly tell the reader that it's illegal to shoot firearms at traffic signs. It was amusing to me as an outsider because it reflected, accurately or inaccurately, the kind of place I was moving to.

Anyway, I've told this anecdote so many times that I started to wonder if I just made it all up. Luckily, I was digging through things in my study a few days ago and found a copy of the California Driver Handbook 2000. There it is on page 29:

Parallels between Harry Potter and Naruto

2007-08-11T16:59:00.000-04:00

Some weeks ago, I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Possible spoilers about the movie ahead!

Towards the end of the movie, Dumbledore and Voldemort duel with high-level magic spells. It was pretty exciting. I remember sitting there and being strangely reminded of this fight in Naruto between the Third Hokage and Orochimaru. It was awesome because both were using high-level jitsu's.

So I looked it up, and it seems I wasn't alone in making that connection. Thought I'd share a couple of pages I came across:

An analysis about the two worlds and the parallels between many of the characters.
A forum post which draws parallels between Orochimaru and Voldemort, with theoretical discussion about who would win in a fight.

Neat stuff!

Finally Purchased a Xbox 360

2007-06-23T20:01:00.000-04:00

Recently, my friends executed their evil ploy of giving me a video game for a game system which I don't own. The game was Forza Motorsport 2. I played the original so much on the original Xbox that I just had to play this one, so I finally bought a Xbox 360 last night.

I hooked it up to my LCD TV and found that the TV was capable of doing 1080i, which looks very nice. Love the wireless controller (you should've seen the mess of cables when there're four of us playing Halo 2 with headset splitters!). Not sure why the 20 GB hard drive came with half the capacity already used up, but whatever (apparently, there's space reserved for emulators and CD databases).

Forza Motorsport 2 has been great so far! You can "feel" and hear the tires as you speed through the turns. There is now a 'photo mode' where you pause the scene and can freely place a camera to take a shot of the action. To get that photo onto your computer though, you have to go through a two-step process:

Upload the photo from the game.
On your computer, download the photo from the website (by signing in with your Live ID).

The picture above is an example. It's one of me attempting to drift my first career car (1990 RX-7) through a corner. Whee!

Authoring DVD's on Windows

2007-05-29T02:08:00.000-04:00

Kevin brought over some edited video footage on his laptop. Our goal was to put that on a DVD so that he can just pop it into anyone's DVD player. Since my computer has a DVD burner, this should be a piece of cake, right?

Apparently not. Even though my machine came with Roxio Creator Plus (Dell Edition), it only allowed me to make data and audio discs. Windows XP comes with Movie Maker, but that only does video editing. To get that video onto a DVD, put in chapters, make DVD menus, and so on, I need DVD authoring software. This is probably where Mac owners laugh and point to the iDVD that comes with their computer.

After a lot of searching, I came across DVD Styler. You can drag-and-drop your video clips (MPEG or VOB) into it, then slap some text buttons onto the main menu page and assign them to play the different clips. I followed the PDF guide and quickly created a simple DVD.

When you're ready to make the final DVD, the tool creates an ISO file. This is an image file which Roxio (and probably most programs that come with your burner) can burn to a disc. I popped that into my DVD player and it worked!

So far, I've only played with short low-res video clips, so I'm not sure whether there's anything to watch out for when working on bigger projects with this tool. When I have the chance later, I'll definitely try it out.

ThoughtBoarder Kicking Horse

2007-02-08T02:04:00.000-05:00

ThoughtWorks had its annual snowboarding trip at Kicking Horse again this year. We had four condo units for three nights. It was great to sleep in, play Xbox 360, and spend some time on the hills with my co-workers.

There were so many cameras around this time that I barely took any pictures. Check out these huge icicles just outside the front door of our "party house"!

Or how about this amazing view from the top -- mountain peaks jutting out of a sea of clouds!

Photos from Johnson's Birthday

2007-01-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

Johnson and Erin celebrated their birthdays at the Toad and Turtle. Here're some pictures from that night!

Zoolights

2007-01-07T01:47:00.000-05:00

Every year, the Calgary Zoo is decorated with Christmas lights. This year, Kevin invited me to check them out with his family and Sylvia, and I got to take some photos. Since they're all night shots, lots of them turned out too fuzzy, but one of them turned out pretty well.

Nutella Hot Chocolate

2006-12-02T20:01:00.000-05:00

I have half a tub of Nutella left and wanted to make something with it (other than eating it straight... yum!). A quick recipe search turned up instructions for making hot chocolate out of it (recipes like this one).

Finally tried out the recipe today. It isn't bad at all, but is somewhat too sweet (or maybe I just prefer a Mocha to hot chocolate now). Actually, it reminded me of the hot chocolate I had at Max Brenner back in New York.

BlockBuster Not Renting Out New Gaming Systems

2006-11-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

While renting a couple of movies from BlockBuster, I asked the clerk when the Nintendo Wii would be available for rental. He told me that because many people don't treat rental systems well, BlockBuster is not going to make the new generation of systems (I guess that means Wii, PS3, Xbox 360) available for rental.

This is bad news for me. As gaming systems get more expensive, renting a system would be a great way to do a test-drive before making a big investment. That's how I decided to get a PlayStation way back when (rented the system and Final Fantasy VII from BlockBuster).

What does that mean? I guess you better make sure you have friends who are willing to splurge on new systems when they come out! :-)

Stumbling Across Music

2006-11-22T02:17:00.000-05:00

It's strange -- I don't have a favourite artist or genre. It's pretty rare when I hear music that I actually like. That's probably why I only own 15 or so music CD's, which I've been told, is a low number.

It's not all one type either -- I've got lounge, ballads, soundtracks, ambience, etc...

It's also interesting how I stumble across music. Just a few weeks ago, my friends mentioned a new game coming out called Gears of War. I watched the TV commercial and got hooked on the song that plays throughout (seriously, it played in my head any chance it got during the day). I found out that it's a version of Mad World featuring Gary Jules, so I now have a copy of the Donnie Darko soundtrack, a movie which I haven't even seen yet.

The Internet is Awesome for Travelers

2006-11-10T18:58:00.000-05:00

I'm staying at a hotel near New York's JFK airport tonight. There's a restaurant here, but I felt like taking a walk and getting a deli sandwich. The hotel's located in some sort of a residential neighbourhood though, so it wasn't obvious where I could find a deli.

The hotel comes with free wireless internet, so I whipped out the laptop and fired up Google Maps. I punched in the address of the hotel, clicked on Find Businesses, typed in deli, and bam! -- there's Annie Mini Deli about five blocks away. Now, I'm back in the hotel room with a delicious roast beef sub and coffee!

What did we do before free internet access and online services? I guess one would have gone down to the lobby to ask the concierge. I wonder if such a request would have yielded directions to the same little neighbourhood deli though. Hmm...

New York: Third Weekend: Saturday

2006-11-05T00:08:00.000-05:00

Took the subway downtown and came out at Wall St. Since it's the weekend, downtown was pretty quiet. Huge financial institutions lined the street, exactly as I had seen in Die Hard with a Vengeance. :-)

I went to the New York City Police Museum, which showed uniforms, medals, weapons, and so on.

Since I was close to the water, I took a walk. You can see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, but since I've been there before (when I was young), I didn't go again.

At some point, I started walking away from the water and came across a church cemetary. What was neat was seeing pumpkins left over from Hallowe'en. The combination of pumpkins and the head stones just seemed cool.

Next, I got to Ground Zero (World Trade Center site). Now, it's pretty much a big hole in the ground. At one corner, folks got their pictures taken with some members of the police force. A little further down at the fire hall, visitors eagerly took pictures of anything related to the FDNY (fire department).

It was a cold and windy day, so I warmed up in the walkways of the financial center buildings. From there, I found myself by Hudson River again, so proceeded to walk uptown. Along the way, I came across the Irish Hunger Memorial. It interested me because it was an elevated garden platform in the middle of this urban jungle... and it totally reminded me of this level in Halo 2 called Terminal. Man, I miss playing Halo 2.

Back in midtown, I walked by Nintendo World at Rockefeller Center and was surprised to see a huge line-up outside the store. It turns out they're lining up to enter the store to try out the upcoming Nintendo Wii system. It looked like you could try out some baseball game where you use the controller as your bat. As much of a video game fan I am, I didn't line up (hard to believe, isn't it?!?).

Late afternoon, I hooked up with Dan, an ex-colleague of mine, to see an NBA game at Madison Square Garden -- NY Knicks played the Indiana Pacers. The basketball game itself was so-so (Knicks lost), but the game was interspersed with a lot of interesting side-shows like kid talent displays, city kids, cheerleaders, etc... Plus, we got a free hat out of it!

On my way back to the hotel, I decided to check out where Dave & Buster's is located in Times Square. Right next door to it is a McDonald's, whose lights rivaled those of the one found on the strip in Las Vegas (I think?). Also, across the street was a line-up of people going to see Al Green! That'd be a good show... I know Al Green from watching Ally McBeal way back when.

Drycleaning Rocks

2006-11-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

I've always washed and ironed my own work clothes. Recently, because I'm on the road for 6 weeks straight, I got them drycleaned instead. OMG, my shirts look and feel so nice! I don't know if they starch the shirts or something, but they certainly look very sharp! Thank you, Symphony Cleaners on 49th!

New York Subway Tips

2006-10-23T23:00:00.000-04:00

There're many train lines with different colours, and letter or number designations running through some of the same stations, so it's intimidating to ride the first few times. Basically, if you're illiterate, you're screwed. If you don't know whether you're heading 'uptown' or 'downtown', you're screwed.

Fortunately, there are maps at every station to help navigate this complex system. Here're guidelines I made for myself:

Find the station you want to travel to. Look below the station name. There, you will actually find the designations of the trains that will go there. For instance, 42 St Bryant Park has the letters B, D, F, V under it. Those are the trains that will actually go there. I didn't realize this all through my first weekend here... it's a wonder I actually got to where I wanted to go!
Now, you just have to figure out what connections you need. Don't assume that you just have to cross the platform to make a connection! Sometimes, you have to go up/downstairs. Sometimes, you have to walk to another station to make the connection. This is where reading signs is extremely important.
You also have to read some other signs. Some trains run differently at night or on weekends.
Have a map with you! I picked up a tour pamphlet in the lobby and it shows the stations in Manhattan, and has been really helpful for the places I went. I think you can get a full map at one of the bigger stations.

Having said all that, I have yet to get lost, so it's not all bad. Just be patient, and good luck!

Interesting Perception of Canada

2006-10-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

During my haircut in Manhattan this morning (at 07:30... can you believe that?), the barber asked where I'm from and I replied, "Calgary, Canada."

Barber: "How far is that from here?"
Me: "About 4 or 5 hours flight."
Barber: "That far?"
Me: "Calgary's in the west. It's north of Montana."

The barber's co-worker overheard this and explained to him, "It's French Canada that's close to here. American Canada is further."

The co-worker continued, "It's easier to get into Canada... as long as you have $50,000, you're in. They have a lot of wood-working jobs up there, right?"
I thought about it and commented, "Yep, there probably are."

For those who don't get it, the term is usually English Canada. This is definitely the first time I've heard it referred to as American Canada.

Why did this happen? Are we not putting in enough effort to portray an accurate image to the rest of the world? Interesting...

Compass Directions in Manhattan

2006-10-22T23:39:00.000-04:00

"East" in Manhattan is more like "east south east". If you look at a subway map here, it looks like uptown Manhattan is north and downtown is south, but it's actually a little off from compass north-south. Check out Manhattan Island on a street map.

It makes sense though because it's more convenient to think this way based on the layout of the Manhattan Island.

New York: Second Weekend: Sunday

2006-10-22T23:19:00.000-04:00

Living on 45th St is awesome. This afternoon, I simply walked "east" (why is "east" in quotation marks?) and hit the UN Headquarters!

Anyway, after going through a security checkpoint, I took a guided tour of the UN Headquarters. The "earphone" from which delegates listen to near-real-time interpretations in different languages is neat - you just hang them from your ear.

The neat thing about this place is that it's UN territory. According to our guide, we technically left the US when we went into the UN. Wow!

The mosaic on display is put together from many, many glass pieces. Neat!

Outside, there's the spherical sculpture which is a gift from Italy, and up the road a little bit is another interesting piece consisting of pillars and a ball.

When someone mentions Broadway, you'll likely think of Broadway shows. So, since I live so close to the Broadway theatres, I decided to see the late show of Avenue Q. Pretty funny stuff with muppets! This show is doing for muppets what South Park is doing for cartoon kindergarten kids (that should give you an idea of the kind of show this is).

Working in New York

2006-10-22T13:30:00.000-04:00

I'm on a 6-week project in New York until mid-November. Since I can't upload files to my webspace outside of the Shaw network (grr!), I thought I might as well try out Blogger Beta.

New York: Second Weekend: Saturday

2006-10-22T12:23:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I thought I'd go further out of Midtown Manhattan. I took the subway north all the way to 207th St to see the Dyckman Farmhouse, the only farmhouse on Manhattan Island. Not much to see here.

I walked south on Broadway towards a subway station. On the way, I saw a section of the shops where all of the signs were in Spanish! I didn't realize you could find this in New York.

A little further down, I saw another one of those "Don't Honk" penalty signs. Just the other day at work, because the building was so hot, we decided to open a window. Let me tell you, nobody obeys that sign.

I was on my way to The Cloisters and came out at the 190th St subway station. Amazingly, they've got someone operating the elevator! I seriously didn't think that job existed anymore!

After a stroll through Fort Tryon Park, I got to The Cloisters. It's a fairly nice place with a view of the Hudson River, and has these inner court yards, one of which has a cafe in it.

Working back south, I got to the Guggenheim Museum. I got a look at the inside, which has a pretty neat design. It was really crowded and expensive by the time I got there though, so I kept going.

Back in midtown, I went to the Sony Building, which had a gigantic Spider-Man blow-up inside. Nice!

You can see the Sony Wonder Tech Lab for free. It's a pretty neat setup... mostly for kids, but there're some cool things in there, like these chairs with stereo speakers mounted at ear-level.

Went for dinner at RUB BBQ on 23rd. I had the "Burnt Ends Dinner", which has fatty beef brisket ends charred with sauce. Yum! Even the sides were good - onion strings and beans.

Before heading back to the hotel, I stopped in Times Square to see how busy it is on Saturday nights. There were so many people and so much slow-moving traffic! It's like Vegas... bright displays lighting up the streets.

There's a 3-storey Toys "R" Us, complete with its own ferris wheel. And a Hershey's store which I'll have to come back to visit when I'm not already full from dinner.

Since it was on the way, I stopped at the Rockefeller skating rink.

Photo set at Flickr.

New York: First Weekend: Sunday

2006-10-08T22:54:00.000-04:00

I'm staying right by Fifth Avenue and it seems to be the dedicated parade route. When I started out this morning, the road was already closed off for some parade (the staff at one of the stores guessed that it was Hispanic Day parade). [The next day, the Columbus Day parade would be held on the same road.]

Went for the NBC studio tour. I didn't find it that interesting, but probably because it was similar to the CNN tour I took in Atlanta two years ago. Anyway, I did get to see the set for Saturday Night Live, and learned about the careful measures they have to take with makeup and sets for high-definition TV.

Took the subway to Chinatown. You should've seen the oceans of people overflowing the sidewalk! Make sure you read the map before you get out of the station - I had trouble finding Chinatown coming out of the one of the Canal St stations.

Just north of here is Little Italy. The weather was really warm, so outdoor Italian dining lined both sides of the street.

From there, I walked all the way to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Now that the weather's warmer, I actually saw a few folks dipping their feet into the water in the fountain. I half-heartedly followed the walking tour in my AAA tour book around the neighbourhood.

At some point, I realized that I was only a few blocks away from the waterfront on the west side. So, I found myself in Hudson River Park. There're bits of green space on the piers and you can see people taking the opportunity to lay on the grass.

Next weekend, I'll be going to Toronto! I'm staying on the east-side of the continent to avoid the long flight home.

New York: First Weekend: Saturday

2006-10-07T14:35:00.000-04:00

After getting my first look at Rockefeller Center, I stopped at Pick a Bagel by Carnegie Hall for lunch. Try the toasted sesame bagel with sundried tomato cream cheese -- yummy!

I took a walk through the southern parts of Central Park. You can see pedicabs, horse-drawn carriages, and large lawns with people having picnics and playing frisbee tricks. There were even roller-skate dancers complete with DJ's playing tunes!

Central Park is huge, and one thing I would do next time is to rent a bike to check out the rest of the park.

That night, I went up the Empire State Building. The line-ups were enormous! It probably took 2 hours just to get into the elevator. Then, you don't even get to the observatory yet -- you stop on the 80th floor for pictures and picking up the audio tour. The actual observatory is on 86th (you can pay more to go up to 104th). You can also pay more to skip all the line-ups. Fortunately, the night was clear so I got some pretty good views of the city from up there.

Current View of Software Development

2002-01-05T05:10:00.000-05:00

Note: This post is imported from an old Geocities page of mine dated 2002/01/05.

I say "current" because this is subject to change as I learn more about the field.

I think if you ask developers what the worst part of development is, they will most likely say, "Modifying someone else's code." Notice that most developers have no trouble with creating new software. The problem perhaps lies in the way programming is taught -- syntax and techniques are emphasized, but maintainability is rarely taught. Teaching programmers to comment their code makes it more readable, but not necessarily more understandable.

Making code understandable is extremely important:

In XP (eXtreme Programming), the code is the design. The argument is that the rate of change in design documents usually cannot keep up with the rate of change in code. The most accurate state of a system is in the code.
Code is a medium to store knowledge (Armour, 2000). More than a product, code stores what the developer has uncovered about the domain.

Software rarely stays stagnant (fixes, patches, new versions) so chances are high that you will end up having to modify someone else's or your own code. Have you noticed that even if only two weeks have gone by, it still takes some effort to re-understand what you wrote? :-)

How do we make code understandable? I'm constantly learning more about this. A good start is to read up on XP, Refactoring, and Design Patterns. XP advocates that code should be as simple as possible and no more. Refactoring gives techniques and ideas on how to rework code so that it remains understandable. Design patterns provide the terminology to describe the way your objects interact with each other. All these strive to make intentions clear in the code.

Do you have to use OO? As long as your code is easy to understand, who cares? There is an appropriate place to use each tool. OO is especially useful in larger systems at least as a packaging mechanism. Polymorphism is an added bonus. Procedural programming still lives -- many times, I think of the code within a class to be procedural (is this accurate?).

I hear this many times -- in literature, students read a variety of essays and novels. From this process, they pick up hints of what constitutes good and bad writing. In software, students rarely get the opportunity to read code. That's not entirely true... I think most people can pick out badly written code, but there's little agreement on what is well-written. If I had to pick the characteristics of well-written code, I would pick code where (1) the intentions are clear and easy to grasp, and (2) the code is reasonably efficient.

References:

Armour, P.G (2000). "The Business of Software: The Case for a New Business Model", Communications of the ACM, 43(8).
Gamma, E., R. Helm, R. Johnson, J. Vlissides (1995). Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, Addison-Wesley

Importing a Vehicle from Canada into the US

2001-08-21T05:31:00.000-04:00

Note: This post is imported from an old Geocities page of mine dated 2001/08/21.

Are you relocating from Canada to work in the States, and planning on bringing your car with you? Here are some things you might want to know.

I drove my 1997 Plymouth Neon with me, and here is my experience. I'm offering this as an informal guide, not as the hard rules. If you have questions, please check with the proper authorities.

Important! When you cross the border, you will need the "Import Compliance Standard" letter from the car manufacturer. Inquire with the manufacturer ASAP, and have it faxed to you (mailing would be too slow). This letter simply states what emission standard the car conforms to. If you don't have this letter when you cross the border, they might not let you drive through.

In California, you will have to deal with the DMV. They have a website.

You have to register your vehicle within 20 days of starting work. To register the vehicle, it will need to be smogged (emissions test). To do this, you have to call the Bureau of Automotive Repairs (BAR): 1-800-952-5210

Explain you want to register your Canadian vehicle and need to have a state referee verify the vehicle and smog it. They will make the appointment for you. You might want to get an oil-and-filter change just before bringing it to the appointment. After they verify the vehicle, you will get a BAR sticker on the car. After passing the smog test, you will get a smog check certificate.

Next, make an appointment with a close-by DMV (you can make appointments online at the website). You can fill out the form beforehand.

At the appointment, make sure to have the import compliance statement, Canadian registration, and valid insurance. Someone will have to go verify your vehicle. When they take down the odometer reading, you will have to convert it from km to miles (1 mile ~= 1.6 km).

Note: if you acquired the vehicle within 90 days of bringing it into the US, you will be charged extra use tax on top of your regular registration fee, unless it's a gift/transfer from a family member.