steve kwan user experience designer

Resume

(August 25th, 2004)

I updated my resume to reflect the advances in my career. There are still other places on this website where I list MINISIS Inc. as my current employer; I will try to find time to change that.

Birthday, etc.

(August 25th, 2004)

Yes, I know I haven't updated in a while. Get on with your lives.

A summary of what's been going on:

• August 21st was my birthday! Sarah and I went over to my folk's house to celebrate. I got what could best be described as a collaborative gift between my relatives: they all got me IKEA gift cards. Obviously they listened to my suggestions. My room was practically barren, save for the piles of unfolded laundry and unstored gizmos on the floor. I got a nice new bookshelf from IKEA, which, in addition to supporting books and CDs, also has a drawer that I'm using to store miscellaneous stuff.
• I cleaned my room. Perhaps this doesn't sound like a big accomplishment, but if you don't think so then you obviously haven't seen my room. Thanks in part to the bookshelf, I was able to put away a lot of stuff that I didn't have room for before.
• I've been getting acquainted with my new job at Eloquent Systems Inc., and familiarizing myself with their products. I've already fixed a bug, found a workaround and have generally kept myself busy.
• I picked up a wicked new video card (a Gainward Ultra/2100, with an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 chip and 128MB memory), which has been giving me a few problems. The graphics are good, but unfortunately I keep getting crashes when I try to play FarCry. I suspect it may be an issue with the hardware, as the crashes are pretty nasty, but I'm not sure yet.
• I've continued work on the new Eloquent Systems Inc. website.
• I've resumed my gym activities and have been getting disappointed looks from the trainers, presumably because of my absence.

If you've talked to me online, then perhaps some of this is not news to you.

Well, as of this writing it's pouring rain and it's pretty late, so I think I'm going to bed now. I have plenty to keep me busy at work and home, so my posts might not be as frequent.

Bug bites

(August 20th, 2004)

I fixed my first code bug at Eloquent Systems Inc. (ESI) today. I look forward to more in the future (but not too many more!).

I'm also working on a revamped ESI website. What do you think?

Eloquent Systems

(August 16th, 2004)

Today was my first day with my new employer, Eloquent Systems.

Apparently I made a good impression early. On Friday I got a bit excited and threw together a mock-up for their website, which impressed Merv (the CEO). I personally want an opportunity to overhaul their site, and although there's going to be enough stuff on my plate already, I'm still really eager to get to work on it.

©

(August 15th, 2004)

It has come to my attention that there has been interest in using my vacation photos for graphic artwork.

Let me make something clear: my pictures are not copyrighted. You will not be sued for using them in your work. I don't care if you manage to sell a picture of me in front of the Parthenon for a million dollars; you won't see me asking for my share.

I don't intend to stop anybody from using my pictures, nor could I even if I wanted to. To paraphrase Naomi Klein, there are some things in this world that just don't want to be owned, such as information. We've seen time and time again what happens when people try. Some people insist on clinging to the age-old concept of laying claim to things for personal security or profit; information just isn't one of those things you can tack your name onto and expect people to let you keep for yourself.

So if you want to download my photos and distribute them as part of your artwork, go nuts. Just try to make me look good.

Doom 3

(August 14th, 2004)

I just finished Doom 3, and man, was it quite the game.

While far from being the best game I've ever played, it has amazing graphics...the screenshots do not do it justice. It's been said before, but if you want to fully appreciate this game, you have to see it in action.

The lighting is scary-realistic. This is the first game I can think of where the enemies seem to be part of the game's environment, rather than simply painted on top of it. For example, Painkiller has excellent graphics, but the enemies just look awkward; while they are rendered in tremendous detail, because of the lackluster lighting they just don't fit in with the world around them. In other words, Painkiller still looks like a video game. In Doom 3, on the other hand, the lighting is so effective that the enemies blend right into their surroundings. Being a horror thriller, this level of detail makes Doom 3 pretty scary. When an Imp ignites a fireball (see the image below) and the entire room flickers from darkness to orange light, it's quite terrifying. When you turn on your flashlight to find an enemy staring right at you, it's also terrifying. Most of Doom 3 is pretty terrrifying. The game comes with a card advising you to play the game with the lights off and the volume cranked. While that might sound like a pretentious note to put into your game package, it really does makes a scary game that much scarier.

Painkiller Photo taken from GamersHell

Doom 3 Photo taken from GamersHell

Doom 3 is finally out on the shelves. Now I'm wondering if Half-Life 2 is going to be able to raise the graphics bar even higher.

Goodbye MINISIS, hello Eloquent!

(August 13th, 2004)

I've been sparse with the updates lately, so here's some big news. Today was my last day with MINISIS Inc. Monday will be my first day with my new employer, Eloquent Systems.

Other than a promotion and more money, I'm hoping that this new job will prove to be an opportunity to establish myself as a programmer of importance. My ride with MINISIS Inc. has been fun, but hopefully Eloquent Systems can make my career that much more successful.

Photos are up!

(August 8th, 2004)

My photos from the vacation are up in my gallery.

Back home

(August 6th, 2004)

And here I am again in Burnaby, after a long vacation through Greece and Europe.

I got back yesterday afternoon, then hung out with Sarah and crashed. I'm taking today off, and going to work for one more week at MINISIS next week. Then, off to my new job.

I've got a ton of photographs, and I'm currently preparing them for this website. Takes a long time to update my gallery.

It was a great vacation, but I'm glad to be back home. I was away for too long. As much as I enjoyed the trip, by the time I returned to London I was really looking forward to the end. On an unrelated note, London has some of the most amazing museums I've ever seen. If museums around the world were as impressing as the ones I saw there, then maybe I wouldn't view them as so boring. (probably not a good thing for me to say, because I make museum software!)

Anyway, glad to be back. You might have noticed that my site was down briefly while I was gone and my e-mail was unresponsive. These problems have been addressed. Additionally, the usage section of this page doesn't seem to be working properly; apparently my Apache logfile is too large. I'll have to look into this later. In the meantime, check back periodically for my vacation photo gallery.