steve kwan user experience designer

My apologies if that image offended you.

(January 29th, 2005 - 5:32PM)

But somebody had to do it.

Photoshop is fun.

(January 29th, 2005 - 1:00AM)

iPods suck

(January 27th, 2005 - 10:13PM)

So I bought an iriver H320 the other day.

Why an iRiver? Why not an iPod, like the rest of the spoiled rich kiddies? Everyone else has one. According to CNN, the Apple iPod accounted for 92.1% of the hard-drive music player market in October 2004. So why aren't I jumping on the bandwagon?

Below are my five main reasons.

5. The iPod isn't the best product on the market.
Sure, they've got a shiny marketing image, but their product just isn't the best on the market. One big knock against the iPod for me was that it doesn't have an FM tuner. I was thinking about going with an iPod, but I like the radio and I just couldn't convince myself to purchase a product that doesn't have one.

People kept telling me, "Sure, the iPod doesn't have an FM tuner, but you can always buy an extension!" Call me crazy, but if I'm spending upwards of $500 on an MP3 player, I'd expect it to have the features I want. And I don't think asking for an FM tuner is a big thing. On top of that, it doesn't even look like the iPod has an FM tuner extension.

And since when did the absence of design become design? What's with Apple's big white shiny products? I have a feeling that Purgatory must look like it was designed by Apple.

4. Apple thinks you're stupid.
It sounds to me like Apple's ultimate goal is to produce interfaces that have only one button. They still use one-button mice.

3. Apple interfaces suck.
I really don't think the iPod's "touch wheel" is a good idea. If you guys don't know what I mean, one version of the iPod has a large circular button on it that you are supposed to slide your finger around in order to navigate through songs. I suppose this passes for a "clever" interface, but I didn't find it that straightforward. I've heard the touch wheel has been removed in newer versions of the iPod, so maybe this complaint is invalid.

2. Apple is a losing team.
No matter how you cut it, Apple just ain't a winner. Remember the Macintosh? What happened to the Macintosh? Ten years from now, will the iPod have met the same fate as the Mac?

1. I hate Apple.
Maybe this is being unreasonable, but I just don't like Apple. They're too shiny and preppy. Their image irritates me.

Anyway, if you're thinking of purchasing a hard-drive based MP3 player, I'd recommend the iriver H320. I haven't had mine for long, but it's been great so far! The interface is really great and the battery life is impressive. Check it out.

I had an interview with this guy.

(January 24th, 2005 - 8:34PM)

How do you do, Mr. Hardt?

What's funnier: the name or the picture?

Music makes the people come together

(January 22nd, 2005 - 12:31PM)

I added a music section to my website, where you can download some free tunes I've found prowling the Web. The artists listed there are not uber-famous rock stars, so it wouldn't kill you to support them instead of Justin Timberlake.

Funny line of WebGENCAT code:
IF SEXIST THEN

It took me a second to figure out that SEXIST probably means something like "string exists."

Who are you people?

(January 22nd, 2005 - 12:54AM)

So according to my usage tracker, I'm averaging 168 visits per day. That's pretty impressive, but there's one thing about it that's a bit scary:

I don't know 168 people.

So who is coming to this site? Even factoring in my MP3 problems earlier this month, that's a lot of visits.

Could you people at least sign the guestbook so I know who's visiting? :D

The BCIT Union Strike

(January 21st, 2005 - 9:23PM)

A bit of background: the support workers at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) are striking for higher wages. This affects me as I am currently taking part-time courses at BCIT (in addition to being a graduate). I recently signed up for a course, and my first class, which I paid $600 to attend, was cancelled due to strike action.

Obviously I'm not happy that my class was cancelled. However, that doesn't mean I blame the support workers. If they feel they are being underpaid, I don't fault them for taking action to raise their salary.

This is not just a failure on the part of the support workers. This is a failure on the part of both the managerial and support workers, as they should have worked an arrangement out before students became affected.

It's easy to take the attitude that these union members don't deserve the money they want. However, it's important to remember why unions exist: to give workers a fair chance against their employers. I'd guess that most people speculating on the BCIT labour situation don't really know what it's like working there.

Do the support workers deserve more money? I don't really know, but I don't fault them for attempting to better themselves and improve their living conditions. These support workers are ensuring that BCIT's management remains in check, and I think that's valuable enough to merit a strike.

Trying to write off these union strikers as support workers unworthy of more money is a really unfair attitude to take. I have had the benefits of a good education and I have a good job. However, that doesn't make me better than anyone else. I am well aware that I had many advantages in my education that others didn't, and that is likely the sole reason I was able to get through BCIT. Other people, who are more intelligent than me, may not get the same opportunities and therefore may wind up with lower-paying jobs.

I fully realize that support and administrative work is difficult and requires a great deal of skill. It is anything but an "unskilled" job. In fact, in many ways it can be more difficult than "skilled" labor; after all, if support work is so easy, why are support workers always so miserable? If these support workers think they're worth more money, I don't think I'd disagree.

It's likely that tuition fees will be raised to accomodate new support salaries should they be increased, but again, I think it's a worthwhile investment.

Funny link

(January 20th, 2005 - 1:52PM)

Wall hacker!

(Thanks to Fark.com for the link)

The plan

(January 19th, 2005 - 7:30PM)

So I think James cornered the rat.

We suspected it was downstairs in the closet, so we closed the closet door. It looks like it might be stuck down there now, as we haven't noticed any new droppings around the house.

But now we have to kill it.

We were going to get an exterminator, but now that we think we've cornered the rat, we're going to try taking it out ourselves.

Here is a sketch of what I think the rat looks like.

Here is how we will kill it.

As the schematic below illustrates, we will place a mouse trap in the closet with the rat. If there's only one rat (which James suspects), one trap should be enough.

The plan is brilliant. Victory is ours.

A bit more clarification

(January 19th, 2005 - 9:28AM)

So I'm not living at my place anymore. I'm staying with my folks until the pest problem gets resolved. The landlord has called in an exterminator; someone has to synchronize with them to determine when they'll show up. I also gave my notice (I don't want to deal with problems like this, or with leasing the entire house), so I'll be moving probably at the end of February. If anybody's looking for a roommate, let me know.

I had my first Human Interface class last night. I'm hoping I can learn something valuable in this class that I can apply on the job, but I've got a sneaking suspicion this might wind up being a "fluff" class - that is, a class that costs time and money but has no real educational value.

By the way, if any of you are software developers, please don't use poor variable names and then reuse the variables, like this:

TEMP = GETSOMEVALUE(SOMEPARAMETER)
VAR = TEMP<2>
TEMP = TEMP + 5
VAR = TEMP

Also, it's REALLY not necessary to pass the same information into a function four times, as I've encountered at work. Granted, the data being passed in wasn't exactly the same each time, but it was more or less so related that it could have all been derived if only one value had replaced the four being passed in.

For example, change:
MYFUNCTION(FOO,FOO,FOO,FOO)
to:
MYFUNCTION(FOO)

Makes life easier for the rest of us programmers.

Rats!

(January 17th, 2005 - 9:53PM)

I think I have a rat problem in my house.

One of my old roommates mentioned he thought he'd heard them at one point, but I just ignored him. Perhaps a bad idea, because I saw something that looked like droppings in the house.

I'm going to call up my landlord and get this resolved STAT.

Send in the clowns

(January 16th, 2005 - 11:59PM)

I just got back from a SLiPKnoT concert with Michelle. I'm not a drug user, but I really smell like one at the moment. It's amazing how pot smoke sticks to your clothes.

The opening acts were Killswitch Engage, who weren't bad, and UNEARTH, who were.

Metal isn't really my thing, but I was pretty impressed by SLiPKnoT (That capitalization is irritating). They had great "stage presence," as Michelle put it. Personally, I was just impressed that eight (+/- a few) guys in clown suits were able to operate together so well.

Not that I have a sudden urge to rush out and join a fan club or actually buy any of their albums, but I don't feel like I wasted money on their show.

ACM?

(January 15th, 2005 - 3:52PM)

So I signed up for the ACM a while ago and still have not received any issues of Communications of the ACM in the mail. Grr.

Divyesh, Ryan and Sarah came over last night. I only had three beers, but I woke up with a bad hangover. Must be getting old. :(

You know what irritates me? The HTML <font> tag.

Things I hate

(January 13th, 2005 - 9:14PM)

• People with unreasonably long MSN names.
  Here are some of the MSN names of people on my list:
  • Amrit_ are you drinking 1% milk b/c you think you're fat b/c you're not you could be drinking whole
  • Matty IT'S A BOY!!!!!<:o) ...back in '82...i used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile...
  • negs(f). .. "They patiently wait for u to pick them like its a prize. &They finally begin to realize, you aint shit."
    
    
• McDonald's.
  What is it that I'm supposed to be "loving?" Justin Timberlake sings about it, but I'm not really sure what it is. Isw it the gigantic ball of McJunk sitting in your tummy after a delicious $5 McMeal?
  
  
• Everybody Loves Raymond.
  "Raymond" is another thing I'm supposed to be loving. But I don't. And I'm not convinced that everyone else does, either.
  
  
• The name "Floyd."
  The only cool Floyd was Pink Floyd. Other than that, people named Floyd are (probably) lame.
  
  
• Queen Latifah.
  She was semi-okay in Chicago, and since then she's been in a ton of lousy movies. I can't stand her.

Happy Tuesday

(January 11th, 2005 - 10:49PM)

After a stressful Monday, I had a good Tuesday today - both at work and after.

Monday was a long day. We had one of our design meetings at work, which was unusually tiring and conflicted. Amazing how hard it is to bring a group of people on-board with the same plan.

Today, on the other hand, work went smoothly, I went out with Divyesh after, and then went to the gym.

I guess frustration is natural when involved with software design. We do a lot of revision and planning at work. If I had to pick a software life cycle to describe Eloquent's practices, I'd either say Spiral or eXtreme.

I admit that I like the word "spiral" more: it sounds like a classy, clever design method. It reminds me of this. On the other hand, "extreme" reminds me of this.

Thanks to eBaum's World for the link.

Thanks to the Spiral guy(s) too.

Steeeeerike!

(January 10th, 2005 - 6:57PM)

So after paying $600 to BCIT, I found out that they're going on strike. Lovely.

I will be pissed if I don't get reimbursed for class time missed.

RIP Pucca

(January 7th, 2005 - 10:07PM)

I came home the other night and found Pucca had passed away.

It's amazing how much you can miss a little rodent.

House of Flying Daggers

(January 7th, 2005 - 10:07PM)

I saw House of Flying Daggers with Richard, Divyesh and Ryan. Call me dense, but all of these high-flying martial arts movies seem really similar to me. What's with all the medieval Asian epic martial arts movies? I suppose it's the new hotness since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's success.

House of Flying Daggers was good, but I really would have liked to see more realistic action sequences. It's fine if the fight scenes are a little exaggerated - that's expected - but if you watch the movie and see the flying daggers, you'll know what I mean.

All the same, it wasn't bad. Since there isn't much else in the theatres right now, if you're going to see a movie, you could do worse than House of Flying Daggers.

Arr, matey

(January 4th, 2005 - 1:31PM)

So stevekwan.com has received a whopping 19,828 hits in this month alone.

While that was encouraging at first, I soon realized that most of these hits were to my /mp3 folder, where people were leeching songs I was storing on my Web server. That folder has since been deleted.

Books that suck

(January 3rd, 2005 - 8:27PM)

I read a lot of books; some of my latest are Tongue Fu! and Security Warrior. Tongue Fu! is a communication book recommended to me by Sarah. It's very good. Security Warrior is a lousy tech book written by a couple of Linux nerds. It's really bad. Aside from the fact that I read the two books in a short time frame, they don't have much in common.

Nothing is worse than spending a ton of money on a technical manual to find out it's written by a bunch of egotistical Linux nerds. It's like getting a new roommate and finding out he's a crazy terrorist. What a disappointment. If I'm going to spend that much cash on a book, I expect it to be written by professionals. Security Warrior is not a professional book.

If you're into Linux-hacking and don't understand the merits of non-open technologies, perhaps you'll enjoy Security Warrior more than I did. But then again, if this is your kind of book, then you're probably an unemployed/unemployable anti-establishment nut and don't have enough cash to foot the ridiculously expensive bill for this book.

The above was a one-sided, anti-nerd rant. I openly acknowledge that it's possible I'm completely missing the point and Security Warrior is actually a great book. However, I can't recommend this book on any grounds I can think of. If you want to learn about secure programming, there are better books (Writing Secure Code). If you want to learn about securing Linux, there are better books (Building Secure Servers in Linux). Security Warrior boasts, "this is the only book to discuss reverse engineering for Linux or Windows CE." <sarcasm> So if you ever need to reverse engineer open-source software or figure out how Windows Solitaire "Mini" works, this is the only book for you. </sarcasm>

By the way, if you haven't already made a donation to support the Tsunami victims, you really should!

Season's Greetings

(January 2nd, 2005 - 9:48PM)

Hope you had a great holiday season.

I haven't updated in some time. I've been working on a lengthy post and I wanted to put actual thought into this one.