Back of the Envelope

Vertical spreads

2011-06-24T16:20:00.002+08:00

A common options strategy is a vertical spread. A bullish call spread is called a debit spread because funds are deducted from the account, while a bullish put spread is called a credit spread. Examples for AAPL July 11 options strategies:

Sentiment: Bullish-Neutral
Strategy: Credit spread
Long 300 Put, Short 310 Put
Breakeven: $309.24
Max profit: $76
Max loss: $924

Sentiment: Bullish-Neutral
Strategy: Debit spread
Long 300 Call, Short 310 Call
Breakeven: $309.35
Max profit: $65
Max loss: $935

Note that the strike prices are the same, regardless if they're call or put options. Personally I prefer credit spreads because if the strategy is successful, the options expire worthless so I don't incur commission fees. This is not a trade recommendation and is only an explanation of some basic trading strategies.

TRON: Legacy

2010-12-30T11:12:00.001+08:00

TRON: Legacy was one of the more interesting movies of 2010. The following are some themes which were explored and contains spoilers, so be warned.

References to the Christian religion

Kevin makes CLU in his image, just as God made Man in His image. Man rebels against God, just as CLU rebels against Kevin. Man was supposed to be perfection, just as CLU was supposed to be perfect in his world. In the Bible, Man tried to reach the heavens by creating the Tower of Babel; CLU tries to reach the outside world through the portal which is a beam of light shining skywards. The Light Transporter with its captured programs on board, serves as a metaphor for Noah's Ark.

References to Eastern philosophy, Taoism (duality), Sun Tzu's Art of War

Kevin does not engage in open warfare with CLU. When CLU tries to exert his "will" on the world, he upsets the cosmic harmony which runs counter to Taoist philosophy. When Kevin and CLU merge, the world ends because they are a natural duality i.e. Yin-Yang, passive (Kevin) vs aggressive (CLU), matter and anti-matter, male and female, so on and so forth. Thus it is meaningless to think of Kevin or CLU as independent forces of good or evil, for they are inter-dependent.

Biology & Evolution

Isomorphs are life-forms discovered independently and were not Kevin's (God's) creations. The existence of isomorphs are possible because organisms governed by simple rules are able to exhibit complex, non-random features (cellular automaton). When Quorra gets wounded she is restored to health by manipulating her "code", which is analogous to DNA/gene therapy (the movie even uses a double helix, duh) which repairs "damage" to the genes. Programs placed in the games are expected to "evolve" (self-modifying), with the best ones facing off against the champion Rinzzler.

Perfection

CLU's singular mission is to achieve perfection by ridding the world of imperfect beings. Most cultures place undue emphasis on youthfulness as perfection, which is why CLU appears as a human male in his prime. Even Quorra (played by Olivia Wilde with her nigh-perfect symmetrical features), except for her quirky hair-style and mysterious "tattoo" on her arm which marks her as an isomorph.

MINI Habitat Singapore does not perform Preventive Maintenance

2010-12-22T10:05:00.005+08:00

Both the driver and passenger sun visor hinges on Eve's R56 MINI were worn and were close to breaking. The passenger-side was replaced under warranty while we were told that that we had to wait for the driver-side to be stocked, which would be outside the warranty period.

When we sent it back for servicing (for a leak from the oil filter), we were told we had to pay for the visor despite being assured that it would've been replaced at no cost to us.

Additionally, they told us that the engine mounts were worn and had to be replaced at about $1000, despite having no prior indication that they were due for replacement.

Download the audio where the service manager states clearly that MINI Habitat does not perform preventive maintenance.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2348098/MH3%20audio.mp4

If that does not sound ludicrous to you, then consider the implied message. e.g. if your MINI develops a crack on the windscreen, and as long as you can see through the windscreen and the elements do not hinder your driving, MINI Habitat will not replace it. Or maybe one of the brake rotors develops a severe crack from normal day-to-day driving and they do not replace it because technically it can still perform its function. Until it suffers a catastrophic failure and breaks, sending your car spinning into the armco.

Of course I understand parts exhibit accelerated wear-and-tear from atypical activities like racing, abuse or just plain high mileage. But Eve's car is driven daily on Singapore roads for work purposes. It's not like she's out to win the 24 Hour Le Mans. The other point that I'm unhappy about is that the wear on the engine mounts were undetected since the last servicing, which was about a month prior. Either it wasn't checked then or the wear significantly worsened since that time. Which is the more likely explanation?

My family has 3 Saabs which is also under Trans Eurokar but we've never had any problems with the workshop servicing. So let me make this clear: I'm not bashing Trans Eurokar.

As a customer, I have no complaints about the MINI. In fact I feel the car drives very well and is comfortable enough for long-distance touring. However the after-sales is worse than amateurish. At least with amateurs you're dealing with people who are trying their sincere best to solve your problems.

I will not recommend this car unless you have access to trustworthy professionals who specialize in it.

Land of Lisp book review

2010-11-11T12:13:00.005+08:00

Land of Lisp is an intermediate-level book that teaches Lisp by way of game programming. Interspersed with light-hearted illustrations, LoL is a real page-turner and is one of the most interesting programming books I've read. Important Lisp concepts such as macros, higher order functions and generic programming are clearly explained. One whole chapter is devoted to Lisp being applied to Domain Specific Languages, which is highly applicable and relevant to modern web programming. Along the way, the author also teaches fundamental concepts such as recursion (although not as much emphasis on this as compared to Scheme, for example), code reuse (the "Don't Repeat Yourself" principle), functional programming, closures, basic algorithms like MiniMax, depth-first search and a whole lot more.

Because the author assumes the reader has a basic grasp of his operating environment, setting up a Common Lisp implementation (editor/compiler) is not covered in detail. If that idea is too daunting for you, then you may wish to refer to the beginning chapters of Peter Seibel's Practical Common Lisp or David Lamkin's Successful Lisp as a starting point and come back to LoL when you're more comfortable with how things work.

All in all, I would say, "buy this book!". Highly recommended.

Back to the Mac

2010-10-14T10:26:00.001+08:00

On 20 October, Apple is going to let the world know what they have planned for OS X 10.7

My wild-ass guess is that Apple is going to let the apps from iOS run in a sandbox environment on OS X 10.7, which really shouldn't be that hard to do since development code runs on emulated iOS devices. This would broaden the reach of the iOS ecosystem and would effectively give Apple direct insight into how people are actually using their Macs, via analytics. It would then be able to serve relevant ads.

As seen on HN

2010-10-13T10:04:00.000+08:00

1993: if
1998: "if" too slow; use "case".
2002: "case" too slow; use Boolean algebra.
2006: Boolean algebra too slow, use arrays & pointers.
2010: Who wrote this shit and what does it do? Rewritten to use "if".

By edw519.

Reasons for continued existence of 3GS

2010-10-08T10:51:00.001+08:00

asymco's Horace Dediu has an interesting take on the continued existence of the iPhone 3GS; essentially it is still being kept around so as to "steer adoption of the iPhone 4".

The iPhone 4 is clearly better from a hardware angle, the only downside is price (natch). But I think the 3GS is still around to serve 2 main purposes:

1) Reduce supply pressure of the iPhone 4. Even as iPhone 4 production ramps up and months after its launch, there is still widespread shortage worldwide. Whereas a potential customer might be sitting on the fence with regards to a purchase decision, the existence of a 3GS provides a low-cost "gateway drug" to get into the iOS ecosystem of App Store, excellent web browsing experience etc.

2) Preserve value of the iPhone brand. Many new iPhone 4 owners have upgraded from n-1 (3G or 3GS) and the continued sale of n-1 by Apple itself means the depreciation cost of n-1 phones is minimized. Owners with carrier contracts can upgrade to the next n+1 device at minimal outlay of cash with the proviso of extended carrier contracts (24 months in this part of the world), which is not necessarily onerous outside of the US. This strategy allows the iOS apps inertia to snowball.

Speed Download and GameTrailers

2010-10-06T19:52:00.001+08:00

If you ever wanted to download the QuickTime HD movies on GameTrailers, and if you have Speed Download, you're in luck. Just copy the following file, name it "gt.sh" or something, give it execute permissions (chmod 755 or whatever), then just run it in the shell with each raw GameTrailer URL HD link as the arguments.

If you don't have Speed Download, you can still use curl to download the files, albeit at a much slower speed; just change the last command to pipe back into /usr/bin/curl instead of sdcli.

Enjoy.

Blackberry PlayBook

2010-09-28T18:10:00.003+08:00

So Blackberry has revealed its iPad competitor, the PlayBook. Without access to the SDK, these are some of my thoughts:

1) It's running on QNX RTOS or some flavor of it. QNX has a long history in the embedded space and it's nice to see that Blackberry management does not fall victim to the "not invented here" syndrome.

2) It seems the primary application platform will be Adobe Flash/AIR and Blackberry OS 6 as the secondary, maybe as separate mode. Probably that means developers will use the Adobe toolchain and write code in Actionscript, with a backend compiler based on LLVM targeting a VM which runs on QNX or is a module within the kernel, or even a hybrid.

3) Specs-wise it looks good. Power management is unknown however.

The PlayBook will only be launched in 2011... I think this is a credible iPad alternative. However my long term bet is still on iOS devices because Apple still has the edge on content delivery.

"Antennagate"

2010-07-19T16:56:00.003+08:00

So the tech press and bloggers are offering their analysis and meta-analysis about "Antennagate".

Ignoring the fact that these dying publications' revenue model are based on selling more dead trees (or garnering more pageviews in the case of bloggers) and thereby have a vested interest in making mountains of molehills, let's concentrate on their reasoning ability (or lack thereof).

First, some numbers. Spencer Webb, who actually designs antennas for a living has done some independent measurements on his own, and calls out Consumer Reports on their flawed methodology.

From the article, Mr Webb makes some interesting observations, which I shall summarize and include some points of my own.

1) The iPhone 4 is markedly better than the iPhone 3GS at uploading/downloading if both phones are used without covers. Remember this.

2) When both phones are held in the so-called "death grip" (full grip), the iPhone 4 on average is still better than the iPhone 3GS, but with a greater variance as compared to the 3GS. In other words, you may or may not get worse performance in a full grip.

3) What this means is that if you're a current iPhone 3GS owner and have never had problems, it's likely you will not experience problems with the iPhone 4 either, even with a full grip.

4) Assuming that cell tower reception is poor, changing to a half-grip or simply not bridging the iPhone 4's antenna gap may be able to improve the situation significantly. This is what Steve Jobs meant to say.

5) Since the press has decided to make an issue out of it, Apple decided to give out free bumpers up and refund the cost of bumpers for those who bought them, until 30 Sep.

6) With regards to "analysts" jumping on the "less than 1% delta vis-a-vis iPhone 3GS per hundred dropped calls" data point and thereby claiming Apple is playing the numbers game, remember point 1. The iPhone 4 has better reception than 3GS, which means where you could not even make or receive calls with a 3GS, an iPhone 4 can, albeit with a weak signal. Would it be such a surprise that the call subsequently gets dropped?

As can be seen, the large majority of the charges are not backed up with good reasoning whatsoever.

As to why Steve Jobs appears to be defensive about all this, have you ever questioned a Japanese salesman about his company's product quality? You might as well insult his mother. Same thing here.

LeBron's move to Miami

2010-07-12T23:34:00.001+08:00

OK so LeBron's going to Miami. Charles Barkley thinks it's a bad move. Bad move? Charles is a compulsive gambler, meaning... he doesn't make rational decisions.

How often does an opportunity present itself where 3 of the most promising young players are on the same team? The last time there was such a powerful trio would be the 60s Lakers of Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.

Let me put it this way:

Suppose you have an offer to start in the All-Star Game. Suppose this position is permanent. Would you turn it down for the sake of "loyalty"? Or to "prove a point", that you can "go it alone", be a "man's man"?

Basketball is still a team game. You take every opportunity you have to win it all. That's all that matters at the pro level. Anyone that says otherwise is either plain jealous or hypocritical. Recreational basketball is a different story altogether.

These guys are aiming for the stars. It's an experiment that just might make the NBA interesting for me again.

Cause of DBS's banking failure?

2010-07-07T10:40:00.015+08:00

DBS, one of the largest banks in this part of the world, experienced massive outage of its online banking and ATM facilities on Monday.

The timing of the failure is interesting, because 5 July 2010 does not seem to be a significant date. So what could've caused the problem?

I have no inside information but the following:

1) The payment card industry (PCI) has data security standards (DSS). Version 1.2 of the standard called for the switchover from SSLv2 to SSLv3, on 1 July 2010.[1][2][3]

2) According to the CNA article, the bank discovered the problem at 3 am. As it turns out, 3 am is exactly 99 hours from midnight, 1 July 2010.

My conjecture is that the terminals have a "heartbeat" and would attempt to connect to the back-end systems on an hourly basis, but would be unable to do so since the protocol switchover happened on 1 July 2010. The data structure logging the re-connect attempts then ran into a buffer overflow when 4 am rolled around since 99+1 = 100.[4] If this exception is left unhandled then it would cause the system to halt.

If this was indeed the root cause of failure then the band-aid fix would probably require a reconfiguration of the terminals to use SSLv3 or TLSv1.2. The real solution is to improve test coverage and perform a code review. At the operations level DBS would have to audit its processes to ensure compliance in future.

[1]http://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/pcifaqs.php#18
[2]http://blog.zenone.org/2009/03/pci-compliance-disable-sslv2-and-weak.html
[3]http://www.rapid7.com/vulndb/lookup/sslv2-enabled
[4]The offending data type is probably a numeric fixed-point packed decimal declared to 2 decimal places, a.k.a. PIC 99 in COBOL.

iPhone 4 FaceTime vs HTC Evo video calling

2010-06-23T09:52:00.000+08:00

Reminds me of this.

More FUD / linkbait

2010-06-22T18:21:00.000+08:00

Mashable and Consumerist are reporting that evil Apple is tracking your every move just because you are coerced into agreeing to the new iTMS terms.

First off if these journalists actually did their work they'd realize that Apple has an opt-out page right on the agreement itself that allows you to opt out.

Secondly, Location Services are required for things like the GPS to work. When Location Services are in use, you will see an arrow cursor on the top right of the screen. You can disable Location Services by going to Settings>General>Location Services. If you're really paranoid, then switch the device to Airplane Mode, in which case there will be no network connectivity of any sort.

Microsoft and Apple quarterly results

2010-04-23T11:31:00.000+08:00

Microsoft's 3Q results
Apple's 2Q results

Microsoft's net income over 12 months was about US$4 billion. Apple's was US$3 billion over a QUARTER. And this is the period before iPad was available for sale, whereas Windows 7 has been out on the market for some time.

Adobe should learn from Apple

2010-04-13T10:24:00.003+08:00

So there's a huge flap about Section 3.3.1 of the new iPhone 4.0 SDK agreement. The summary is that Apple doesn't want Flash on the iPhone and set out in legal language to prevent it from getting onto the platform, and a lot of other 3rd party tools are receiving collateral "splash" damage.

The takeaway from this is that Adobe really should've learned one of the operating principles at Apple: secrecy. Do not pre-announce products. It could've developed the iPhone-target feature furtively and sprung it as a surprise announcement on CS5 launch day. Of course Apple still wields veto power over app approval in the App Store, but by then it would have to be on the defensive and contend with irate Flash developers. Adobe would've made money from sales of CS5 and rightfully lay the blame on Apple.

Of course, if Adobe pursued this strategy, the losers would be developers, so it pays to do one's homework. Not everyone who insists on freely-available (as in: free of any entity's control, freedom to tinker, gratis etc), development platforms or languages is entirely insane.

Nicholas Carr writes about The iPad Luddites

2010-04-08T10:54:00.001+08:00

Nicholas Carr writes about The iPad Luddites.

If it were possible to reach as far back as the introduction of the GUI, I'd be willing to bet that the same thing was being said by people who were most familiar with the CLI.

"What is this GUI thing? What is it good for? What can it do that can't be accomplished by the CLI?"

And it would be wise to see how that played out. And the more rational among us would see that there would be certain situations where a CLI or a GUI and now a touch-based interface would be the appropriate means to accomplish certain tasks.

iPad and content

2010-04-07T23:04:00.006+08:00

Scott Rosenberg thinks the iPad is the equivalent of the CD-ROM in 1994 for the media industry. In summary he thinks the iPad, while a nice device hardware-wise, is not going to revitalize the media businesses that the iPad is (supposedly) pitched at.

I disagree and here are my reasons why.

Optical drives i.e. CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/VCD/Super VCD/BD-ROM and their ilk have been around a long time. They continue to hold vast quantities of useful content, and free and commercial software are still primarily distributed using them. Content owners/producers were able to extract value from this tight integration between the content itself and the physical media. In other words, MS Word or Adobe Photoshop, for all intents and purposes, IS the CD-/DVD-ROM that came in the box. The requirement of a valid serial number is tangential to all this.

Three things conspired to change the situation rapidly. First, better computer hardware meant that it was now possible to transcode content from one medium to another in a reasonable amount of time. Second, user sentiment and pressure began to grow for mobile and unfettered consumption of media regardless of the underlying device. Third, the unabated development of the Internet into a low-cost distribution network with relatively cheap access fees pretty much ensured that there would be a ready audience of customers who were ever-ready to consume, and store, previously unimaginable quantities of information. Thus the content was forcibly divorced from the media upon which it existed, and there was much gnashing of teeth.

The knee-jerk response was Digital Rights (Restrictions?) Management. The content owners disregarded the mathematicians and insisted on initiating a war that could never be won. True enough, we are currently in a pitched battle and after years of expensive litigation, there is still no clear victor.

And this is where the iPad fits in. The iPad really is a compromise; it is a ceasefire treaty offered to both parties. iPad serves up content in a few ways. The obvious way is through web browsing as it is conventionally practiced. Aside from the lack of Adobe Flash, Apple effectively has no control over how the Internet is experienced by the vast majority of the population. The second way is through the App Store. Applications acquired through the App Store can be paid or free. Either way, additional content can be purchased through the App Store. It is essentially a frustration-free subscription model that can be processed in the form of micro-payments over an arbitrary length of time, yet the end-user is still able to influence the terms of consumption. The fact that iTunes Music Store is the #1 source of music in the US means that this model is not only workable, it is the winning formula.

Because only iPad runs iPad software, technically speaking, iPad does mean "vendor lock-in" and CD-ROMs "all over again", but only for content meant to be consumed on iPad. The fear-mongering pundits are claiming it’s the end of the world because they know an iPad-optimized app will beat any run-of-the-mill-browser-based one, in terms of native features, responsiveness etc, and so posit a false dilemma. You are either an iPad developer or you are not and thus you are morally reprehensible because, via a series of non-sequitur arguments, you are somehow causing the Internet to be restricted.

But as explained earlier, iPad really offers choice. Choice for the content owner/producer, and choice for the consumer. And that is why I think iPad really does have the potential to change the media industry for the benefit of both parties.

Where is the moral outrage at Google App Marketplace?

2010-03-19T12:30:00.007+08:00

Some very outspoken and prominent developers[1][2] are openly lambasting Apple for having a "closed developer ecosystem" that is "detrimental to the fundamental God-given right of 'freedom'" with the iPhone App Store, yet Google gets a free pass with the Google App Marketplace.

Here are some policies of the Google App Marketplace Program:

The Google Apps Marketplace Program Policies play an important role in maintaining a positive experience for Google Apps vendors and users. These policies also help us curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide this service. We ask that everyone abide by these standards so that we can all enjoy the Google Apps Marketplace. Violation of these policies may result in the denial of Google Apps Marketplace access, disabling of your application, removal of your listings from the Google Apps Marketplace, being blacklisted from uploading future listings, or deletion of your Google Account. These policies may change at any time, so please check back here from time to time.

The rest of it is pretty much legalese boilerplate that is no different from what the App Store asks of you as a developer i.e. no illegal/objectionable/offensive/infringing material.

BTW to get listed as an app vendor, you have to pay a non-refundable US$100, about the same as being on the iPhone Developer Program. Actually it's worse than the Apple App Store cut.

In general, we ask to share revenue on the total amount your customer ends up paying you for your application and related add-ons. Exactly which revenue is subject to revenue share?

1. Revenue from software installed into Google Apps, whenever they begin paying you (e.g. after any free period).
2. If you charge on a recurring basis, we ask that you share revenue on a recurring basis.
3. Revenue from items that are priced per unit of usage (e.g. per GB, per minute, etc)
4. Revenue on upgrades to your product, including:
1. Plan upgrades, like Standard to Premium
2. Additional users
3. Feature upgrades, like additional GB of storage

Note that these are additional fees above what you already pay for when using Google App Engine which has already factored the computation/storage costs for the application instance based on usage. In essence this policy states clearly that you are allowing Google to stiff you twice. And you have no avenue for objection because, according to the opening clause, you must abide by the policy or your app might be pulled from the Marketplace.

So what is exempt from "revenue" share? One thing jumps out. Ad revenue. But if you go down this path, you are playing right into Google's game because you have very little control over how and what ads are going to be shown in your app. It might very well be an ad from a competitor.

So how is it that the Google App Marketplace and thus by induction Google itself any more "free" as compared to iPhone as a platform?

[1] http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/03/15/Joining-Google
[2] http://diveintomark.org/archives/2010/01/29/tinkerers-sunset

Why Flash will never be on the iPhone or iPad

2010-02-05T13:23:00.000+08:00

Since his return to Apple, Steve Jobs has been played out twice in public. The first time was when IBM dropped the ball with PowerPC. The second time was when Eric Schmidt was on the Apple board and started getting ideas about Android and world domination. Steve is not going to allow Adobe to do the same thing with the iPhone and iPad.

If you understand this, then you will understand why Apple developed its own A4 chips to power the iPad, has its own stores and datacenters, its own mobile advertising company etc. Apple wants to control 100% of its destiny, as any business should. How many corporations can say that today, with widespread outsourcing in the name of "shareholder value"?

Steve Jobs is an angry man. And because he is rich, he cannot be swayed by the promise of money.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

About iPad

2010-01-29T12:28:00.001+08:00

Pundits pitting the "netbook" versus the iPad are totally missing the point. Yes, a "netbook" has more ports, cameras, built-in SD card slot etc. But the iPad is not meant to be compared with a full-fledged laptop, just as a "netbook" is not meant to be compared with a full-fledged laptop. A proper laptop would be far better at conventional computing tasks then either of these devices.

Can a "netbook" or even a laptop do something like Brushes? A Wacom Cintiq 12WX alone costs more than the iPad.

The iPad runs iPhone software. For a user, this means instant-on, fast and responsive apps that you know and love on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

From an ideological perspective the iPad runs on Mobile Safari which offers the best web surfing experience on a mobile device, so most web apps are covered. Look at web usage analytics for mobile devices. iPhone OS devices account for a far larger proportion than their actual market share. It doesn't have Flash support, but it does support HTML5.

If it were available 2 years ago, I would've bought it for my mom instead of the Macbook Air she has now.

That's what the iPad is. It is a Macbook Air-killer. It does everything the Macbook Air does, but with a smaller form factor and much lower price without all the pitfalls of traditional computers such as weekly security updates, viruses etc.

So the summary is, if you were never in the market for a device like the Macbook Air, even at the reduced price of US$499, then you would not be interested in the iPad.

The worst kind of hypocrite

2009-12-23T10:12:00.009+08:00

John Gruber posted a link to Google's blog about "The meaning of being open". With all due respect to friends working at Google, I would have to agree with Gruber. The blog entry is a steaming pile. Lots of factual errors to mislead the non-technical reader.

I'm just going to pick out a few paragraphs in the article cos it's just too lengthy.

Another way to look at the difference between open and closed systems is that open systems allow innovation at all levels — from the operating system to the application layer — not just at the top. This means that one company doesn't have to depend on another's benevolence to ship a product. If the GNU C compiler that I'm using has a bug, I can fix it since the compiler is open source. I don't have to file a bug report and hope for a timely response.

This is true only if software exists in a vacuum, which is extremely rare these days. Additionally, even if you have the full source code, Ken Thompson (the co-inventor of UNIX) proved 25 years ago that you cannot trust source code you did not write yourself.[1] Basically Dr Thompson showed that it's possible that a bug or trojan horse will not reveal itself even if a full code audit is performed. And it is also able to self-propagate so that successive copies of itself retains this... "interesting", behavior.

While we are committed to opening the code for our developer tools, not all Google products are open source. Our goal is to keep the Internet open, which promotes choice and competition and keeps users and developers from getting locked in. In many cases, most notably our search and ads products, opening up the code would not contribute to these goals and would actually hurt users. The search and advertising markets are already highly competitive with very low switching costs, so users and advertisers already have plenty of choice and are not locked in. Not to mention the fact that opening up these systems would allow people to "game" our algorithms to manipulate search and ads quality rankings, reducing our quality for everyone.

Many problems with this paragraph alone. Google's domination of the online adverstising industry is all but complete and is pretty much the only game in town, having also just acquired Admob. So the "switching costs" angle is a strawman argument. The "think of the children" angle is also a red herring, disingenuous and an insult to free software developers everywhere. Essentially, he claims that open source code is high quality code, except Google's own closed source search and ad products, where opening it will reduce its quality. But isn't that the point of "open source" in the first place?

Open will win. It will win on the Internet and will then cascade across many walks of life: The future of government is transparency. The future of commerce is information symmetry. The future of culture is freedom. The future of science and medicine is collaboration. The future of entertainment is participation. Each of these futures depends on an open Internet.

Except that Google doesn't practice what it preaches and censors web search results. Especially in China.[2][3]

[1] http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=358210
[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4645596.stm
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google

Predictions for Apple 2010

2009-12-01T15:19:00.000+08:00

1. Greater integration between desktop binaries and web apps. Customers can share documents, photos, music etc with automatic synchronization. Apple makes money from MobileMe subscription service (i.e. access fees) and from content creation i.e. you need iWork or iLife products to produce content, but it is free to view. Content creation is still on local hardware because that's what drives hardware sales but also because there is no need to complicate things with managing network connectivity/remote procedure calls.

2. With storage abstracted, as a paying subscriber you can access any of your content on your iPhone/iPod/Apple TV/desktop/laptop. This means you can have your entire iTunes library, video library etc streamed onto your Apple device.

3. TabletMac will be another device that runs on iPhone OS/CocoaTouch API framework. Exclusive content deals means Apple will either allow content providers to target ads to specific Apple customers, or get the MobileMe subscribers to underwrite an ad-free experience. Use App Store as reference revenue model.

4. New iPhone will check all relevant feature sets i.e. better performance, battery life etc.

5. Further tinkering under the hood with OpenCL and Bonjour networking, building upon what was available via Xgrid. Ability to donate spare CPU/GPU cycles from any Apple device so that all computationally-intensive tasks can be sped up just by bringing the device to within wireless network range.

App Store download stats

2009-09-29T10:41:00.002+08:00

On June 17 to June 18 last year, Mozilla set a new world record for most number of downloads in a 24 hour period for Firefox.

According to stats supplied by Apple and as reported by AppleInsider:

#####

Since it first opened 445 days ago, the App Store has seen an average of 4.5 million downloads per day. In the last 80 days alone, that total has accelerated to nearly 6.3 million each day.

For comparison, in its first 365 days, the store had an average 4.1 million downloads per day. From April to July 2009, that pace increased to 6.3 million each day.

#####

If this growth rate continues, by the end of 4th quarter 2009 App Store downloads will exceed the world record set ON A DAILY BASIS.

Safari on iPhone OS 3.1 SunSpider Javascript benchmark

2009-09-17T13:29:00.006+08:00

My iMac is 39.4x faster at SunSpider. :P

============================================
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
--------------------------------------------
Total: 16213.8ms +/- 5.3%
--------------------------------------------

3d: 2537.6ms +/- 11.8%
cube: 889.4ms +/- 15.1%
morph: 797.2ms +/- 4.1%
raytrace: 851.0ms +/- 15.8%

access: 2070.6ms +/- 15.2%
binary-trees: 268.2ms +/- 21.0%
fannkuch: 571.8ms +/- 19.6%
nbody: 1007.6ms +/- 16.9%
nsieve: 223.0ms +/- 41.1%

bitops: 1035.4ms +/- 3.3%
3bit-bits-in-byte: 176.0ms +/- 0.9%
bits-in-byte: 220.2ms +/- 0.9%
bitwise-and: 200.6ms +/- 1.0%
nsieve-bits: 438.6ms +/- 7.5%

controlflow: 142.4ms +/- 1.0%
recursive: 142.4ms +/- 1.0%

crypto: 965.8ms +/- 1.9%
aes: 289.6ms +/- 2.6%
md5: 340.6ms +/- 2.1%
sha1: 335.6ms +/- 1.9%

date: 1413.4ms +/- 15.4%
format-tofte: 501.6ms +/- 1.1%
format-xparb: 911.8ms +/- 24.0%

math: 2101.2ms +/- 2.3%
cordic: 682.0ms +/- 2.5%
partial-sums: 1015.2ms +/- 3.0%
spectral-norm: 404.0ms +/- 1.3%

regexp: 1722.8ms +/- 1.0%
dna: 1722.8ms +/- 1.0%

string: 4224.6ms +/- 2.8%
base64: 497.2ms +/- 1.0%
fasta: 672.0ms +/- 5.0%
tagcloud: 1016.0ms +/- 0.9%
unpack-code: 1161.6ms +/- 5.2%
validate-input: 877.8ms +/- 7.0%

Webkit r47948 with Snow Leopard SunSpider Benchmarks

2009-09-02T23:05:00.007+08:00

Last year October WebKit was the undisputed leader when it came to running the SunSpider benchmark. How does it compare with the latest nightly build of WebKit under Snow Leopard?

============================================
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
--------------------------------------------
Total: 411.6ms +/- 1.8%
--------------------------------------------

3d: 52.8ms +/- 2.6%
cube: 16.2ms +/- 3.4%
morph: 20.0ms +/- 4.4%
raytrace: 16.6ms +/- 4.1%

access: 40.2ms +/- 3.4%
binary-trees: 4.8ms +/- 11.6%
fannkuch: 16.0ms +/- 5.5%
nbody: 11.2ms +/- 5.0%
nsieve: 8.2ms +/- 6.8%

bitops: 22.0ms +/- 6.9%
3bit-bits-in-byte: 3.2ms +/- 17.4%
bits-in-byte: 7.0ms +/- 0.0%
bitwise-and: 4.8ms +/- 21.7%
nsieve-bits: 7.0ms +/- 0.0%

controlflow: 3.8ms +/- 14.6%
recursive: 3.8ms +/- 14.6%

crypto: 22.4ms +/- 6.3%
aes: 12.4ms +/- 5.5%
md5: 5.4ms +/- 12.6%
sha1: 4.6ms +/- 14.8%

date: 54.4ms +/- 3.5%
format-tofte: 26.4ms +/- 4.2%
format-xparb: 28.0ms +/- 3.1%

math: 37.4ms +/- 3.8%
cordic: 9.8ms +/- 5.7%
partial-sums: 19.4ms +/- 3.5%
spectral-norm: 8.2ms +/- 6.8%

regexp: 22.4ms +/- 5.0%
dna: 22.4ms +/- 5.0%

string: 156.2ms +/- 1.4%
base64: 16.0ms +/- 5.5%
fasta: 30.8ms +/- 1.8%
tagcloud: 34.4ms +/- 2.0%
unpack-code: 45.8ms +/- 2.3%
validate-input: 29.2ms +/- 3.6%

So, with all hardware remaining the same, the only changes are Snow Leopard and the WebKit build. I've gone from 745ms to 411.6ms. That's a speed bump of 1.8x. Not bad at all!

Removing Duplicate Contacts in iPhone 3GS (iPhone OS 3.0 and later)

2009-08-13T09:08:00.005+08:00

Duplicate contacts exist on the iPhone because it was told to sync with multiple sources of data. This is not a bug.

Most people only want a single repository of contacts so everything is nice, neat and orderly. In order to achieve this, the trend is to store everything in "the cloud" and make use of data synchronization services such as MobileMe, Google Sync etc. So the cloud database has to be the most current, up-to-date version of your contacts database.

Back up your iPhone and restore it to its original state. This will clear all information from it.

First, you might want to make sure that your Address Book (Outlook for Windows users, or whatever you chose to store your contacts) is the most updated version.

If you are a MobileMe user, first go to System Preferences>MobileMe (Control Panel>MobileMe for Windows users), choose the Sync tab, then ensure that contacts, calendars etc are selected.

Now connect your iPhone to iTunes, and choose the iPhone device within iTunes. Make sure that "Sync contacts" is NOT selected in iTunes. There will be a message to the effect that "MobileMe will now synchronize contacts over the air". This is what you want. Under the "Advanced" button, make sure that the option for "wiping the iPhone the next time it is synced" option is checked. Did I mention you will lose data on the iPhone if your MobileMe contacts database is not the latest?

When you're ready, hit the Sync button and everything will now be synced against your MobileMe database. Assuming that you have followed the steps correctly, you will no longer have any duplicate contacts, and any edits and updates performed on the iPhone, on your Mac/PC or even on a web browser with MobileMe contacts database, will all be in sync.

Flaming Lamborghinis (not the drink)

2009-07-16T13:55:00.005+08:00

Recent Top Gear episode was poking fun about Lambos catching fire, which I noticed as well. I don't think it's coincidence when cars from one make consistently catch fire and have their pics posted on the web, despite accusations of schadenfreude etc. It's like Qantas repeatedly having "incidents" which do not obey the Law of Averages i.e. statistical anomaly, hinting to a deeper problem.

Anyway was going through a Lambo forum and happened to read about an owner who saw smoke coming out from the engine bay area. Registration required so I copy-pasted the relevant post of the diagnosis:

#####
My engine smoked once when my E Gear fluid burped a bit on my manifold.

This happend at a hill climb event and I had just parked and walked away and over the PA a voice said "would the owner of the yellow Lamborghini please return to the car as smoke is comming from the engine" When I got back about 50 people were standing next to it expecting to see a bonfire.

I have also had the oil on the manifold thing when trying to top the oil up. Stupid place for the filler on the new lp.Anyway hope your situation turns out OK and is not major.

#####

Got word today from the dealer. Turns out YelloMurci that it is the same problem you had. For some unknown reason the Egear fluid decided to leak onto the manifold. They are going to clean it up and drain a little out, and hopefully that resolves the issue. They also stated that E-Gear fluid is flammable so its a good thing I was close to home and shut it off. I definitely will be keeping a fire extinguisher
in the car from now on just in case. Thanks everyone for your replies and comments

Now the question is: how is this not a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen, considering it is a fire risk?

iPhone and Features

2009-06-23T11:34:00.006+08:00

Apple announces that 1 million iPhone 3GS have been sold in 3 days, easily beating "analyst" predictions. Considering the current economic climate, that is no mean feat.

Lots of pundits have weighed in on the iPhone, and as usual, the naysayers have been focusing on the lack of features in comparison with other smartphones. We've been down this road before. I've only been saying this for the trillionth time.

It's NOT the features. It's how Apple designs its products to get things done. It's the HOW, not the WHAT. That's its competitive advantage. You can have the fanciest shit on the planet but if no one knows how to get to it or is used only by Bob and his dog, said feature might as well not exist.

Here, have a look at these stats from Flickr, a Yahoo-owned photo sharing site.

According to Flickr:

These graphs show the number of Flickr members who have uploaded at least one photo or video with a particular camera on a given day over the last year.

The graphs are "normalized", which is a fancy way of saying that they automatically correct for the fact that more people join Flickr each day: the graph moving up or down indicates a change in the camera's popularity relative to all other cameras used by Flickr members.

The graphs are only accurate to the extent that we can automatically detect the camera used to take the photo or shoot the video (about 2/3rds of the time). That is not usually possible with cameraphones, therefore they are under-represented.

The iPhone line is clearly heading into orbit. Hell, the iPhone is even threatening to displace the "Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi" in the "Most Popular Cameras in the Flickr Community" category! This is a proper DSLR with more features than any existing smartphone! Why is this happening? As a smartphone maker, can you pack more features than this DSLR in your next smartphone offering? Do you still think "features" are the most important criterion in judging the success of a product?

Windows 7 "XP Compatibility Mode"

2009-05-07T11:55:00.000+08:00

After the less-than-stellar adoption of Vista, Microsoft's plan to gain wider market acceptance for the forthcoming Windows 7 is to enable a "XP compatibility mode".

PC Magazine tested the beta and here's what they had to say:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346464,00.asp

What I find particularly so Microsoft-like is their insistence on doing things back-asswards. Here's the relevant quote:

>>To install XPM, you'll need the right combination of hardware and software. Your hardware must include a CPU and motherboard that supports Hardware Virtualization Technology, sometimes known as VT-d, AMD-V, or Vanderpool.<<

Most likely this is to do their hardware partners a favor. Virtualization technology has been around for a long time and there is simply no need for hardware support of virtualization. All the "features" that are mentioned were already found in Connectix Virtual PC, way before it was acquired by Microsoft.

So why would I need to buy new hardware to use Windows 7 for its crippled "XP compatibility mode" when a Linux box or Mac running Parallels/VMWare/Virtualbox (freeware) can run a full, actual working copy of XP? This is progress?

It gets worse.

>>Your operating system must be Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.<<

There is no sound technical reason for this arbitrary limitation.

>>With both downloads, make sure to download the 32-bit or 64-bit version, depending on whether you're running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7.<<

Again, no sound technical reason for this because VMWare for example already supports 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems regardless of what platform the host is on.

Why would a rational person buy Windows 7 for its crippled "XP compatibility mode" when you can go the opposite direction i.e. install Windows 7 as a guest operating system in XP under VMWare?

Privoxy

2009-04-01T10:04:00.011+08:00

Finally got sick of all the internet ads and stupid animations and got round to installing privoxy. It makes the web usable again. AdBlock is good but it's FireFox only, and these days I use Safari or Chrome. Both AdBlock and Noscript do not have enough fine grain control over the web experience. Here's what Privoxy can do, from its README file:

In addition to the core features of ad blocking and cookie management,
Privoxy provides many supplemental features, that give the end-user
more control, more privacy and more freedom:


    *  Can keep outgoing connections alive and reuse them later on.

    *  Supports tagging which allows to change the behaviour based on client
       and server headers.

    *  Can be run as an "intercepting" proxy, which obviates the need to
       configure browsers individually.

    *  Sophisticated actions and filters for manipulating both server and
       client headers.

    *  Can be chained with other proxies.

    *  Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at
       http://config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/). Browser-based
       tracing of rule and filter effects. Remote toggling.

    *  Web page filtering (text replacements, removes banners based on size,
       invisible "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-up windows,
       etc.)

    *  Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and user
       settings to reside in separate files, so that installing updated actions
       files won't overwrite individual user settings.

    *  Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration
       files, and a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax.

    *  Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).

    *  GIF de-animation.

    *  Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).

    *  Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).

    *  User-customizable HTML templates for most proxy-generated pages (e.g.
       "blocked" page).

    *  Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.

    *  Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
    
    *  Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
       configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.

After installation it goes from this abomination:

To this:

No, this is not an April Fool's Day joke.

Note that the silly Shockwave animation that took up almost a full 1/4 of the page has been filtered, as were the Google text ads ("Honda Jazz Reviews" and the other one beside it). All it took was one regular expression rule match for each.

http://www.privoxy.org

Note for Mac OS X users: Current stable release is v3.0.12, you can compile this without any difficulty. However do take note the "hide-forwarded-for-headers" action has been deprecated and changed to "change-x-forwarded-for", you must update all action and filter files or privoxy will not work.

GTR high speed acceleration

2008-12-19T10:22:00.002+08:00

Essentially the GTR is a fast car not only because it has a wide spread of torque, dual clutch transmission, great aero, AWD etc, the gear ratios are really close and biased for low-speed i.e. under 100 mph, which is where almost all driving is done. Makes perfect, logical sense since practically everyone will be driving under 100 mph anyway.

Been looking at some accel figures and the car really starts off strong but beyond 100 mph it starts to slow down quite a bit as compared to its contemporaries.

Acceleration of various cars going 60-130 mph

Second to last graph, the Stage 1 GTR takes 7.8-4.5 = 3.3 seconds to get from 100 to 120 mph. By way of comparison a Z06 tested by C&D takes 11.0-8.3 = 2.7 seconds to get there. A ZR1 takes 2.4(!) secs. From 120 to 130 mph, GTR takes 10-7.8 = 2.2 secs, Z06 takes 1.7 secs and ZR1 takes 1.9 secs. Slightly longer, most likely due to gearshift.

So taken in totality 100 to 130 mph, GTR takes 5.5 secs, Z06 requires 4.4 secs and ZR1 needs 4.3 secs. In a short sprint, choose the GTR. In an all-out pedal to the metal autobahn stormer, stick with American muscle.

Leno reviews his Corvette ZR1

2008-12-11T11:52:00.002+08:00

This is the car I would like to own if I'm still living in the US. I really like the C6 shape.

Disgustingly quick and fast Evos

2008-12-04T14:48:00.009+08:00

APC's Evo 2 lays down 7.97 @ 176.96 mph in Australia. Full frame and AFAIK no nitrous. Respect.

Here's their website. And old time slips in the 8.0x range.

Based on my regression analysis of 1/4 ET from 1000' times from 3 years ago, here is the outcome.

	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3
Actual 1000 ft (s)	6.799	6.825	6.862
Predicted ET (s)	8.078056	8.1078	8.150128
Actual ET (s)	8.077	8.108	8.162
Residual error (s)	0.001056	-0.0002	-0.011872

And here's the prediction for 1/8 mile vs 1/4 mile trap speeds.

	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3
1/8 mile trap speed (mph)	137.95	137.45	134.73
Predicted 1/4 mi trap speed (mph)	176.7176782	176.0575569	172.4664974
Actual 1/4 trap speed (mph)	176.26	175.51	173.14
Residual error (mph)	0.457678179	0.547556946	-0.673502563

Here's another Evo 2, piloted by Mike Reichen going 221 mph in the standing mile. In 2005 Road and Track ran a standing mile test and their fastest car, a Hennessy Viper, did 210.2 mph.

Did Nissan supply GTR ringers to American motoring press?

2008-12-03T14:30:00.005+08:00

One thing that always bugged me is the inconsistency between what the press publishes and what the public sees and experiences. In my own testing on our local dyno the GTR lays down about 390 whp, time and time again. Yet the American press keeps insisting that it was higher than that. I was skeptical and preferred to stick with my own experiences until I came across this article on Car and Driver.

According to the article and their supplied test sheet, their car went 11.5 @ 124 mph. This is not unexpected. The fine print is that their test facility's elevation was 4200ft!

Now the question is, how was their test car obtained? Was it through Nissan USA or purchased off a dealer lot?

Update: Thanks to MT who supplied a link to Car and Driver's position.

What I'm not happy with is that they didn't have the journalistic integrity and balls to grill Nissan on why they were supplied with what is undoubtedly a ringer. Basically the rest of the article just white-washes away this fact, spin control.

Obstruction of justice

2008-11-28T10:30:00.004+08:00

New Paper reports a concerned parent performing "investigations" into daughter's accident. I'm not sure if the dad knows that he's perverting the course of justice (obstruction of justice in US legal terms).

Update: Tip of the hat to Axl who found the background on this. The incendiary headline does not help matters.

Toyota Premio

2008-11-13T13:08:00.006+08:00

Been driving a Toyota Premio[1][2] lately and I think it's pretty nice... mid-size sedan between a Corolla and a Camry. It has 1.5L, 1.8L and 2L engine configurations and the one I drove is a 1.5L (1NZ-FE), rated at 81 kW or 110 PS @ 6,000 RPM. Peak torque 140 Nm (14.3kgm) @ 4,400 RPM.

On the road price of about 62K. Leather, keyless entry and reverse camera, only problem is the touch-screen display is in Japanese and Japanese radio band. Lots of cabin space and in the trunk. I'm impressed with the fuel economy though, 16.3 km/L mixed (the onboard computer stated 15.9 km/L)... it's due to the CVT. Main complaint is the rear drum brakes. But I would still recommend this car.

[1]http://toyota.jp/premio/
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Premio

Occam's Razor

2008-11-12T14:34:00.003+08:00

So Tim sent a link that claims North Korea digitally doctored a photo to prove that their leader is in good health. It now turns out that Scientific American actually bothered to seek an expert's opinion and he is of the opinion that the photo was unlikely to have been faked.

Sometimes we think too far ahead... why would North Korea bother to do this since Kim supposedly has body-doubles anyway? It would be far easier to get a double to stand in for him in the first place.

Greed and iTunes Music Store

2008-11-02T10:58:00.007+08:00

When iTunes Store first debuted in 28 April 2003, it took them 8 days to sell 100K songs.

The one billion song milestone was reached on 22 February 2006, or 1301 days since the store was launched.

For the period between 22 Feb 2006 and 6 Jan 2007, or about 318 days, 1 billion songs were sold. Now, between 27 Feb 2008 and 19 Jun 2008, or 113 days, another billion songs were sold, marking the 5 billion song milestone. That is exponential growth. To put that in perspective, Firefox set a Guiness World Record for most software downloads in 24 hours... 8,002,530 in 24 hours or 5,557 per second at its peak.

iTunes Store is moving 6,145 songs per second every day, and is still growing.

If the projections hold up, the 6 billion song milestone was passed sometime in late September 2008.

Yet at approximately that time period, the RIAA was asking Apple to increase the royalty fees for each song sold despite making 70 out of every 99 cents[1][2]. Apparently earning US$4,300 per second was not enough for them.

Webkit aka Safari Version 3.1.2 (5525.20.1) vs Minefield aka Firefox vers 3.1b2

2008-10-28T19:47:00.009+08:00

Update: The current Webkit nightly r37894 is even faster than Minefield when it comes to the SunSpider Javascript benchmark.

TEST                   COMPARISON            FROM                 TO             DETAILS

=============================================================================

** TOTAL **:           2.03x as fast     1511.6ms +/- 3.7%   745.0ms +/- 0.4%     significant

=============================================================================

  3d:                  1.07x as fast      142.4ms +/- 2.5%   133.4ms +/- 0.8%     significant
    cube:              1.27x as fast       62.6ms +/- 3.6%    49.4ms +/- 3.8%     significant
    morph:             *1.55x as slow*     33.2ms +/- 4.9%    51.6ms +/- 1.3%     significant
    raytrace:          1.44x as fast       46.6ms +/- 1.5%    32.4ms +/- 2.1%     significant

  access:              2.66x as fast      182.2ms +/- 18.6%    68.4ms +/- 2.1%     significant
    binary-trees:      5.17x as fast       47.6ms +/- 1.4%     9.2ms +/- 6.0%     significant
    fannkuch:          5.68x as fast       89.8ms +/- 38.1%    15.8ms +/- 3.5%     significant
    nbody:             *1.15x as slow*     31.2ms +/- 1.8%    36.0ms +/- 2.4%     significant
    nsieve:            1.84x as fast       13.6ms +/- 5.0%     7.4ms +/- 9.2%     significant

  bitops:              1.36x as fast       53.2ms +/- 24.0%    39.2ms +/- 2.7%     significant
    3bit-bits-in-byte: *3.00x as slow*      1.6ms +/- 42.6%     4.8ms +/- 11.6%     significant
    bits-in-byte:      -                    9.8ms +/- 44.3%     7.2ms +/- 7.7% 
    bitwise-and:       -                   13.4ms +/- 53.9%     8.8ms +/- 6.3% 
    nsieve-bits:       1.54x as fast       28.4ms +/- 16.6%    18.4ms +/- 3.7%     significant

  controlflow:         8.71x as fast       36.6ms +/- 1.9%     4.2ms +/- 13.2%     significant
    recursive:         8.71x as fast       36.6ms +/- 1.9%     4.2ms +/- 13.2%     significant

  crypto:              1.50x as fast       65.0ms +/- 10.7%    43.4ms +/- 1.6%     significant
    aes:               2.54x as fast       34.6ms +/- 2.0%    13.6ms +/- 5.0%     significant
    md5:               1.53x as fast       23.0ms +/- 27.3%    15.0ms +/- 0.0%     significant
    sha1:              *2.00x as slow*      7.4ms +/- 9.2%    14.8ms +/- 3.8%     significant

  date:                3.55x as fast      265.6ms +/- 0.4%    74.8ms +/- 0.7%     significant
    format-tofte:      4.73x as fast      148.4ms +/- 0.7%    31.4ms +/- 2.2%     significant
    format-xparb:      2.70x as fast      117.2ms +/- 1.4%    43.4ms +/- 1.6%     significant

  math:                *2.02x as slow*     50.0ms +/- 5.0%   100.8ms +/- 0.6%     significant
    cordic:            *1.45x as slow*     24.2ms +/- 9.2%    35.0ms +/- 0.0%     significant
    partial-sums:      *2.91x as slow*     17.2ms +/- 6.0%    50.0ms +/- 0.0%     significant
    spectral-norm:     *1.84x as slow*      8.6ms +/- 7.9%    15.8ms +/- 3.5%     significant

  regexp:              6.15x as fast      237.4ms +/- 0.6%    38.6ms +/- 1.8%     significant
    dna:               6.15x as fast      237.4ms +/- 0.6%    38.6ms +/- 1.8%     significant

  string:              1.98x as fast      479.2ms +/- 6.5%   242.2ms +/- 0.7%     significant
    base64:            1.04x as fast       20.6ms +/- 3.3%    19.8ms +/- 2.8%     significant
    fasta:             3.91x as fast      134.6ms +/- 22.6%    34.4ms +/- 2.0%     significant
    tagcloud:          1.30x as fast      112.8ms +/- 0.9%    86.6ms +/- 2.4%     significant
    unpack-code:       2.90x as fast      160.0ms +/- 0.5%    55.2ms +/- 1.0%     significant
    validate-input:    1.11x as fast       51.2ms +/- 2.7%    46.2ms +/- 4.4%     significant

They weren't joking when they said Javascript performance has been improved. Safari Version 3.1.2 (5525.20.1) as a comparison.

============================================
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
--------------------------------------------
Total:                 3082.4ms +/- 0.2%
--------------------------------------------

  3d:                   375.2ms +/- 0.4%
    cube:               122.2ms +/- 1.1%
    morph:              129.8ms +/- 0.8%
    raytrace:           123.2ms +/- 0.5%

  access:               486.4ms +/- 0.6%
    binary-trees:        63.8ms +/- 1.6%
    fannkuch:           230.8ms +/- 1.0%
    nbody:              135.4ms +/- 0.5%
    nsieve:              56.4ms +/- 2.5%

  bitops:               425.4ms +/- 0.7%
    3bit-bits-in-byte:   62.6ms +/- 1.1%
    bits-in-byte:        94.4ms +/- 1.2%
    bitwise-and:        164.2ms +/- 1.6%
    nsieve-bits:        104.2ms +/- 0.5%

  controlflow:           82.6ms +/- 0.8%
    recursive:           82.6ms +/- 0.8%

  crypto:               221.6ms +/- 0.5%
    aes:                 73.8ms +/- 0.8%
    md5:                 74.0ms +/- 0.0%
    sha1:                73.8ms +/- 0.8%

  date:                 265.8ms +/- 0.5%
    format-tofte:       122.6ms +/- 0.9%
    format-xparb:       143.2ms +/- 0.4%

  math:                 417.4ms +/- 0.6%
    cordic:             161.2ms +/- 0.6%
    partial-sums:       179.6ms +/- 0.9%
    spectral-norm:       76.6ms +/- 1.5%

  regexp:               199.6ms +/- 0.3%
    dna:                199.6ms +/- 0.3%

  string:               608.4ms +/- 0.5%
    base64:              89.2ms +/- 1.5%
    fasta:              167.4ms +/- 0.8%
    tagcloud:           122.4ms +/- 0.6%
    unpack-code:        123.8ms +/- 0.4%
    validate-input:     105.6ms +/- 1.1%

My setup: iMac 2.4 GHz/4 GB RAM/OS X 10.5.5

Download the latest Webkit nightly builds here.

Download the latest Minefield nightly builds here.

So it seems the Webkit nightly is now about 4x faster than Safari. :D

Let the gloating begin

2008-10-24T10:51:00.002+08:00

So Apple recently announced their quarterly results and the iPhone is an unprecedented success, firmly entrenched as a viable portable computing device. John Gruber at Daring Fireball and various other Mac-oriented websites are roasting the "analysts" and "experts" who got it so wrong.

Here are some quick thoughts:

1. The App Store. This is the real killer app. Building on Apple's vast experience in online music delivery, installing software couldn't be simpler. Until a competitor understands this and offers a much better alternative, Apple will own this market. It's only a matter of time.

2. Android will not gain mainstream market acceptance. Android is great for tinkerers or people who demand total control of the phone. But since each handset maker can implement their own interface and applications, there is no coherent vision to tie everything together. This makes it hard to market the product well, and also leads to many technical and support issues. The only way for these licensors to differentiate themselves would be based on price, and we know where that leads to.

3. Every engineer should have this Einstein quote on their minds: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Adding features should not introduce undue complexity, especially when proposed feature is not essential, used infrequently and/or yields insignificant value.

4. Blindly copying features without understanding the context will lead to grief. HP introduced the TouchSmart PC to great fanfare, it is not the first attempt at a touch-screen PC and still has nothing to show for it. Why? HP does not offer any compelling application that demands the use of a touchscreen. Also, it is terrible from a usability and productivity standpoint; I've got to get my hands off the keyboard and mess with the screen just to do something which can already be accomplished with a mouse and keyboard. Put another way, HP chickened out and did not have the courage to completely remove the keyboard and mouse. Not that I blame them, having your hands over a display for prolonged periods of time would be tiring. A multitouch interface on a small portable device on the other hand makes perfect sense because you are constrained by size, weight and ergonomics decisions

iPhone Cupcakes

2008-09-19T08:24:00.001+08:00

iPhone Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by nickbilton

Not very fond of pastries but I'll make an exception... :D

So you think you're fast?

2008-09-17T02:30:00.002+08:00

Looks like a C6 Vette... makes me want the ZR1 even more! :(

This week's reflections

2008-09-10T15:41:00.003+08:00

Two unrelated incidents: the FIA's decision to penalize Lewis Hamilton and some stupid Indian reality game show host physically assaulting a contestant made me really angry. Mainly because I'm male and men are driven to solve problems. Since I'm not in any position to fix these problems it only fuels my anger.

The only positive takeaway is the realization that I strongly value justice over honor.

Cobra vs. Python

2008-09-06T11:04:00.001+08:00

No brainer

NINPT alpha

2008-08-07T13:42:00.005+08:00

Things to do:
1. Latitude and longitude decoding from 64-bit double float (IEEE 754)
2. Scrubbing and data binding
3. Port view scaling, zoom
4. XML parser
5. Search by data point (option to use regular expressions)
6. General bounds checking and exception handling
7. Axes synchronization
8. Tons more!

0.0008 seconds

2008-07-30T09:28:00.004+08:00

Benny Solis of North Hollywood, Calif., won his third Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup race of the season on Saturday, winning a thrilling battle with Argentina's Leandro Mercado by a mere 0.0008 seconds after 17 exciting laps.

Source: Red Bull AMA US Rookies Cup 2008

Hat tip to Le for sending the original link.

Developers: iPhone is the gateway drug to OS X

2008-07-12T09:05:00.006+08:00

The eminent Walt Mossberg is interviewed on the iPhone 3G and really nails it.

The iPhone is not a smartphone. It is a powerful portable computer that makes phone calls.

So it does not have a builtin keyboard? There's always Bluetooh connectivity. This presents a market opportunity for an entrepreneurial 3rd party to come in and make one.

The problem with traditional handset makers is that they view their business as primarily selling hardware, and hardware design is fixed very early in the phone's product cycle. This "fixedness"; this inability to adapt, infects their very core philosophies.

Software is virtual, and can easily adapt.

What does Darwin say about adaptability and natural selection?

So how does all this figure into Apple's grand plan? iPhone developers are enticed to the platform by the sheer number of iPhone users. And the iPhone APIs are extremely similar to OS X APIs by design.

This means an iPhone developer who programs in Cocoa Touch can become an OS X developer with slightly more effort, and vice versa. So there's that recurrent adaptability theme again.

Nokia is taking steps to address this hardware-software divide by buying up Symbian but it does not have all the pieces to the puzzle. Microsoft Windows is still the dominant platform and they have no reason to give up their control to Nokia to fulfill this integrated vision. So while it is the right move it may be too little, too late.

Walt Mossberg interview 1
Walt Mossberg interview 2
Walt Mossberg interview 3

Dress code

2008-07-06T23:13:00.005+08:00

Read the Sunday Times today and there's this incredibly stupid article lambasting Singaporeans for "dressing down". Basically the points it raised were about "respect", and... er... trying to impress others.

Dressing down, unless the circumstances demand it, should be the way to go since it is more environmentally friendly. In Japan the government has actively encouraged everyone to forego the usual business attire of suit and tie in the summer months, to lower energy demands. Every time you fight entropy, you will lose. Physics dictates it. Refer to the Second Law of Thermodynamics if you don't believe me.

Besides, a person should not be judged solely by the way he looks, but by his actions and the way he conducts himself. Can't even begin to count the number of assholes I've met who expect special treatment just because they're in designer clothes.

Hubris

2008-07-05T23:29:00.007+08:00

Ben is going to flip at this one. Now I know what he really means by "Chinese Cultural Chauvinists".

Was browsing through Prof Terence Tao's blog on career advice when I came across this comment on his blog. Here it is, in full:

Hi!陶教授，my English is limited,I think I shoud express myself in Chinese.If you have interest in my opinio,you may ask friends to translate it.
我是偶然看到有关你获菲尔茨奖的消息，中国国内民众反应很大，都为你骄傲。当然，我们也知道，你认为自己首先是一个澳大利亚人，但这并不妨碍中国人对你的映象，因为我们需要的是一个心目中的榜样与楷模。在网上，我看到不少有关你的正面评价，这是个好现象。
汉字是一种象形字，不同于世界上其它国家的语言。一种语言的诞生可以说是源自于这个民族的一种文化的承传需求。你对中国的文化知之甚少，难以理解它的内涵，但我相信，像你这样的头脑，一定可以在短期内学好中文，那时，你可能会发现，中文带给你的远远要超过你现在所想像的。据说，人在学习汉语和字母语言（for instance English)时，大脑的左右半球工作状态是有些区别的，你若感兴趣不妨查一下有关资料。
说这么多，无非是想建议你有机会学一下中文，我有一种感觉，你学了中文会获益菲浅的（抱歉，我是个喜欢凭直觉做事的人）。
打扰你了，谢谢你抽出时间看这段话。

The summary, in English, is that this person feels that Prof Tao would benefit greatly from learning Chinese because of its history and the (dubious?) use of both of the brain's hemispheres.

Maybe this "Kristy" character should learn English and concentrate more on her own career instead of lecturing a child prodigy/genius (Dr Tao won a Fields medal and MacArthur awards among many others) about the Chinese language.

Sales Guy vs Web Dude

2008-07-03T00:12:00.003+08:00

Saw this funny screencast of what an IT administrator really does at work all day. :)

On the main page, try to log in to the "Linux" machine and reboot. You can do this by killing init. i.e. at the prompt type "kill 1". You will then be rewarded with the segment of the video where he actually reboots the web server. :)

The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences

2008-06-13T23:35:00.004+08:00

Via ben:

The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Logical/Mathematical

You like to work with numbers and ask questions. You learn best by classifying information, engaging in abstract thinking and looking for common basic principles. People like you include mathematicians, biologists, medical technicians, geologists, engineers, physicists, researchers and other scientists.

Logical/Mathematical

96%

Intrapersonal

71%

Visual/Spatial

71%

Bodily/Kinesthetic

61%

Verbal/Linguistic

57%

Interpersonal

54%

Musical/Rhythmic

43%

Yamaha vs Truck fatality captured on video

2008-05-20T11:09:00.002+08:00

Ride and drive responsibly...

Corner weighting

2008-04-16T11:25:00.003+08:00

My car has been corner weighted... props to Shaun for driving my car around to the various shops to get it done. So here we go:

FL: 435kg
FR: 444kg
RL: 287kg
RR: 284kg
Total: 1450kg inclusive of driver

Left side: 722kg (49.8%)
Right side: 728kg (50.2%)

Cross weight FL-RR: 49.6%
Cross weight FR-RL: 50.4%

Front-rear weight distribution: 60.6%

These measurements were taken BEFORE anything was done, so it would seem pretty perfect as it is!

Ethics again

2008-04-02T14:00:00.008+08:00

VAGSG is experiencing a crisis as a unilateral plan for the forum to be split according to marques revealed some sore points. Besides smacking of high-handedness, it turns out that some of the moderators went on a trip to Finland that was sponsored in part by commercial entities, which was not made known to the forum's members. The main beef the members have is that VAGSG is proclaimed to be free of commercial interests. So the lack of transparency has hurt their credibility.

A similar incident happened a few years ago when SGEvoClub had a club trackday, and one of the former moderators questioned the incumbents about how the leftover funds were used. The ill-will and animosity persists to this very day, leading to apathy and distrust. What had been built up over the years was severely set back by a single event that was supposed to promote friendship and understanding.

The point is not to vilify or commend either side. But to show that these are very real problems that have been around for a long time yet most people are insufficiently equipped or experienced to face them.

My view is that all these enthusiasts sites will inevitably turn commercial. Since everything has to be justified and above-board, a person cannot be expected to do all this out of his own free time with no monetary compensation. It is just not worth the hassle. That is why being a forum moderator is considered one of the worst jobs known to humanity.

Why I don't surf forums much anymore

2008-03-19T13:39:00.002+08:00

Two posts in a day, woohoo I'm on a roll.

Anyway I don't surf forums much anymore. Mainly because the signal-to-noise ratio has gone to hell and people who don't know any better are contributing their worthless input in a topic they do not have an iota of knowledge about.

In summary, the people who make the most noise get noticed. The undisputed champion is "Big Al", who has got to be the most annoying motherfucker on the planet, bro. I'm not hatin', bro. It's just that if you need to use "bro" in every sentence, you will start to be retarded, bro. Kind of like "Big Al" and how he's always sucking on David Buschur's dick, bro. Maybe he's gay, that's why he likes to use the word "bro", bro. I'm not homophobic by the way, bro.

And talking about David Buschur... I have respect for the man's accomplishments, but not for the things he claim or say. Like claiming 600 whp on a daily driver with pump gas is sensible because there exists an example car that has got "high mileage". Dude, 9000 miles on a car is not high mileage. Thanks to you I now have customers who expect 600 whp on pump gas with high mileage, which usually means about 60,000 miles on the clock in this part of the world.

Long ass post

2008-03-19T11:57:00.007+08:00

For the most part, working in the aftermarket tuning industry is rewarding and interesting, not because it is pays well (it doesn't). It is all about putting in one's maximum effort in everything, and when everything comes together as planned, enjoying the fruits of one's labor. Hopefully having some fun along the way.

In a way it's like being a medical practitioner; you visit a doctor when you're ill and seek his medical advice. Most of the time all goes well; you recover from your illness and the doctor goes on to treat other patients. Thus being a doctor is seen as a noble calling because the spirit of medical ethics guides their actions.

A tuner has no such luxury because there is no such thing as a Hippocratic Oath; it is widely perceived to be a shady profession to begin with.

A doctor is allowed to make bona fide mistakes due to illnesses having similar symptoms, but this standard is not applied universally. As long as word gets out that "XYZ did (or did not do, as the case may be) ABC to so-and-so's car" and it "blew up/stalls/causes babies to cry" then it's automatically assumed that the tuner is incompetent and/or negligent.

Whether it was actually a mechanical fault, driver error, a FUBAR engine build from some famous machine shop or the stars in a portentous alignment, are totally incidental to the playing of the blame game.

Whether the intent to propagate such "information" is malicious or not, is beside the point. To a tuner, his integrity is everything. He must absolutely stand by his work because it is a service, not a product that can be held or admired.

That is not to say that the customer isn't allowed to complain. The customer is definitely allowed to complain insofar as he feels that he is not receiving the attention that he deserves, and rightly so. On the other hand it is an entirely different thing altogether when the tuner tries his best yet the customer is planting seeds of FUD in the other customers, friends, even to the employer! As it is, a tuner's work is difficult (yeah I know it looks easy, but that's just because I make it so haha ;) without having to deal with this kind of bullshit.

Anyone who plants FUD, whether intentional or not, cannot be in my circle of trust.

Urinal etiquette

2008-03-04T12:15:00.003+08:00

According to Ananova a man has been sentenced to community service after punching another man twice for breaching urinal etiquette. I believe the female judge was mistaken. There is an universal unspoken law among men not to breach urinal etiquette at the risk of bodily harm. It can be described as (courtesy of a poster on digg):

RULE 1: When presented with a row of empty urinals, choose one on either end.

RULE 2: When arriving at a row of urinals with one or more occupants, choose the empty urinal which is furthest from an occupied urinal.

RULE 3: Always make sure to have at least one space between occupants.

RULE 4: When unable to comply with Rule 3, check to see if a stall is available.

RULE 5: If there is no stall available and you must stand next to one or more other occupants, keep eyes forward (or on your own activity) at all times. It is also appropriate to stare up into empty space. In no event should you look toward the other occupants, unless they're suffering from an obvious medical issue that requires immediate attention (such as a heart attack/stroke) or they're on fire. If they are on fire or suffering a medical condition, never make eye contact with their package. Note that it's okay to pee on the distressed occupant in case of fire, but only in the area of the flames. While peeing on the inflamed occupant, be sure to announce that you're doing this for their own good.

RULE 6: Peeing in the sink is NOT acceptable.

For those with a pea for a brain, here is the Flash game that explains everything.

Moral dilemma

2008-02-20T08:48:00.001+08:00

A few days ago, Sam went to a bank to exchange small bills to larger ones. The bank made an error and he received two $1000 bills for $1,100, leading to a windfall of $900. Later in the day the bank realized its mistake and tried to recover the money.

Would you return the money? Would it be legal to keep the money? If the error was $900,000, would you still return it?

Google Trends

2008-02-15T12:42:00.008+08:00

Google Trends takes a sample of search terms that are used on Google and some interesting data can be gleaned. Normalizing for population, the following search terms are paired with those where it was most searched i.e. term vs country

1. "macbook air" - Singapore (by far)
2. "edison chen" - Singapore followed by Malaysia then Hong Kong
3. "sex" - India (by a large margin)
4. "drugs" - Philippines
5. "rock n roll" - New Zealand with Australia close
6. "penis enlargement" - South Africa (no comment)
7. "God" - Philippines
8. "richest" - Nigeria (incredibly large margin)
9. "satan" - Turkey
10. "recession" - Singapore
Bonus:
11. Nissan GTR - Australia with New Zealand a close second

Singapore leads in terms like "wealth", "fortune", "dynasty", "Louis Vuitton" and is usually in the top 5 with related terms like "finance", "economy", "stock market", "money laundering" etc.

Regression analysis of 1/8 mile vs 1/4 mile trap speed

2008-01-24T16:40:00.000+08:00

Using data collected at dragtimes.com, a regression analysis of 1/8 mile vs 1/4 mile trap speed was performed. Chosen vehicles were Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Subaru Impreza WRX and STIs as they are AWD, have forced-induction, are about the same size and weight and present similar frontal areas.

Based on 100 observations, significance F is 2.3*10^-114. P-value was less than 0.05 thus we are forced to reject the null hypothesis.

y = 1.32024246643736 * x - 5.40977006570778; where y is predicted 1/4 mile trap speed and x is observed 1/8 mile trap speed.

Detailed graphs found here.

Building upon the LRT formulas as put forth by Jeff Lucius, we can estimate horsepower given the equation:

hp = (mph / 215.39)^3.3135 x weight (lbs)

Torque values

2008-01-18T11:57:00.000+08:00

Why is it so difficult to get high torque values out of a 4 cylinder engine? Can't we keep increasing the boost assuming that fuel quality is not a problem?

A piston's acceleration does not follow a sinusoidal waveform. Plotting instantaneous torque with mean torque vs crank angle rotation, a 4 stroke, 4 cylinder engine would typically experience almost 4 times more than mean torque values at peak and almost 2 times below of mean torque through each cycle of rotation. On a dyno this is averaged out. On the other hand an even-fire V8 or V12 would go through lower extremes through its own cycle.

This is why I believe it will not be easy to get "torque monsters" out of 4 stroke, 4 cylinder engines as compared to V8s and V12s with similar swept displacements. It ultimately comes down to engine design and materials.

Apple price gouging

2008-01-17T10:08:00.000+08:00

Using current spot exchange rates of SGD 1.43 to USD 1, the MacBook Air 1.6 GHz at USD 1799 should be priced at SGD 2573. Yet it is going for SGD 2988 here, a USD 290 premium. That's 16% of the retail price! If that's not ridiculous enough, the 1.8 GHz model is USD 3098, but in Singapore it goes for SGD 5088 or USD 3558, a mind-blowing USD 460 difference!

Moral of the story: buy your Apple products elsewhere.

0 to 160 km/h test

2007-12-17T15:57:00.001+08:00

0 to 160 km/h test
Originally uploaded by crufty

Bought a RaceLogic PerformanceBox recently and have been having some fun with it. It measures vehicle performance using GPS. Overall the hardware is pretty decent, although the software is a little clunky and could be better. For instance, the main icons and menus take up 1/5th of the screen real estate.

Anyway here are some tests done on an full-weight Evo 8. Figures include gear shift times:

130-160 km/h: 2.17s
120-150 km/h: 2.10s
110-140 km/h: 2.3s
100-130 km/h: 2.15s
90-120 km/h: 2.08s
80-110 km/h: 1.92s
70-100 km/h: 1.85s
60-90 km/h: 1.79s
50-80 km/h: 1.80s
40-70 km/h: 1.72s
30-60 km/h: 1.38s
20-50 km/h: 1.33s
10-40 km/h: 1.30s

4th gear:
140-169 km/h: 2.31s
130-160 km/h: 2.15s
120-150 km/h: 2.07s
110-140 km/h: 1.98s
100-130 km/h: 1.96s
90-120 km/h: 2.06s
80-110 km/h: 2.58s

GT35R, no alcohol/nitrous/race gas/water injection, 1.7 bar boost, street tires.

Spam Sieve statistics

2007-12-05T14:59:00.001+08:00

Sick of spam? If you're a Mac user, you might want to check out SpamSieve. Have been using it for years, and it's one piece of software I would gladly pay good money for. The author regularly updates the software too. Below are some statistics accumulated since my last reset in 2005.

###

Filtered Mail
2,351 Good Messages
23,698 Spam Messages (91%)
31 Spam Messages Per Day

SpamSieve Accuracy
15 False Positives
202 False Negatives (93%)
99.2% Correct

Corpus
571 Good Messages
1,307 Spam Messages (70%)
91,175 Total Words

Rules
676 Blocklist Rules
982 Whitelist Rules

Showing Statistics Since
11/22/05 18:47

"Right" way vs "a(ny)" way

2007-11-30T14:04:00.000+08:00

Surfed upon this link via Reddit, comparing different cultures and methods of doing things.

It still blows my mind how different Japan is compared to the rest of the world. The attention to the most minute of details, pride in their work, professionalism, sense of duty and honor etc is so deeply ingrained in their consciousness, it's no wonder senior executives would choose to end their lives than to suffer the ignominy of being tried and convicted of white-collar crimes.

Underwater Fireworks

2007-11-21T11:29:00.001+08:00

EJ257 dyno

2007-11-20T15:19:00.000+08:00

Dotted lines represent the projected torque and power values using linear regression if there was no clutch slip. Data are unaltered as produced by the dyno machine and input into Excel for analysis.
The original chart is here.

According to the graph, peak power is at 5718 RPM. Assuming ideal conditions, a 2.5L engine would flow about 530 cfm of air at 1.1 bar of boost pressure... about 366 crank horsepower. This compares favorably with the 290 PS measured at wheels, and sounds pretty reasonable for 4WD drivetrain loss while also taking the clutch slip into account.

Dyno Dynamics: some math

2007-11-20T01:49:00.000+08:00

How torque and horsepower are derived from measurements recorded on a Dyno Dynamics:

Calculated torque (Nm) = Tractive Effort (N) * Roller radius (m)
Roller speed (RPM)= (Vehicle speed (km/h) * 1000) / 60 / Roller circumference (m)

Torque at wheels (Nm) = Calculated torque (Nm) / (Engine speed/Roller speed)
Power at wheels (PS) = Torque at wheels (Nm) * Engine speed (RPM) / 7020

Example:
Roller diameter: 0.217m
Roller circumference: 0.681726m
Vehicle speed: 130 km/h
RPM: 5417
Tractive Effort: 7866 N

Calculated torque = 7866 * (0.217/2) = 853.461 Nm
Roller speed = 130 * 1000 / 60 / 0.681726 = 3178.207 RPM
Torque at wheels = 853.461 / (5417/3178.207) = 500.734 Nm
Power at wheels = 500.734 * 5417 / 7020 = 386.4 PS

HKS Supra with his mouth

2007-11-14T13:59:00.001+08:00

That Integra sounds just like the real thing! :)

The Tuner Market is Dead

2007-11-14T12:04:00.000+08:00

Kent’s aforementioned entry brought up the age-old argument that people need to stop buying cheap parts. For those of you who didn’t read his entry, he basically says “People who buy the cheap parts ruin the market and hurt the industry as a whole. People need to be educated about high quality product because if they learn about why a product is high quality then they won’t want the cheap stuff anymore.” For a long time, I too was an avid believer and supporter of those ideals. But recently, things have changed. In order to explain what my beliefs are I must first define “The Tuner Market” as what most people see as our aftermarket industry. Whether you modify your car for street, show, drift, drag, road race or time attack, you’re a part of the “tuner market.”

Very well-written article and I agree with most of his points.

Cal physicists make a radio 10,000 times thinner than a human hair

2007-11-13T15:50:00.000+08:00

Physicists at UC Berkeley say they have produced the world's smallest radio out of a single carbon nanotube that is 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Professor Alex Zettl led a team that developed the minuscule filament, which can be tuned to receive AM or FM transmissions.

The first song it played? "Layla" by Derek & the Dominos. Eric Clapton's unmistakable guitar riff can be heard on a scratchy recording of the nanoradio's output posted by Zettl online.

Skyline launch

2007-11-12T13:27:00.001+08:00

Gotta show the GTR some love too :)

NGD test

2007-11-12T12:47:00.000+08:00

Your Score: Pure Geek

39 % Nerd, 65% Geek, 30% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek.

It's not that you're a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don't really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren't quite mainstream. Perhaps it's anime, perhaps it's computers, perhaps it's bottlecaps, perhaps it's all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don't quite consider yourself "of that crowd." Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal.

Which, you are.

Congratulations! You're the one on the RIGHT!

###

So my self-assessment was spot on. :)

Via Sandbox

Supra From Hell

2007-11-11T09:56:00.001+08:00

This one's for you Ben!

Sandbox: Meme, meme, meme

2007-11-05T16:05:00.000+08:00

Via Ben's Sandbox: Meme, meme, meme

According to the meme:

i. Grab the nearest book.
ii. Open the book to page 123.
iii. Find the fifth sentence.
iv. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
v. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

Here's what I've got:

This state is detected by a third pair of piezoelectric elements 3-3'.

View from Aqa Hotel, Nagano, Japan

2007-11-04T16:55:00.001+08:00

View from Aqa Hotel, Nagano, Japan
Originally uploaded by crufty

So I'm back from Japan! And I love it!

In Japan, humanity coexists with Nature in harmony. Everyone is extremely mindful of the impact of their actions on the environment. I've been to a lot of developed countries where the government pays lip service to eco-friendly initiatives, but Japan in my mind is far ahead of everyone. I didn't even go specifically for sightseeing but the panoramic views took my breath away. I'm equally impressed by Nature's majesty as well as human ingenuity; from the humbling peaks of faraway mountains to the massive bridges spanning large expanses of water... it is in a word, magical.

Japanese people are extremely polite and disciplined. They have a very powerful work ethic, even so-called menial tasks such as arranging travel brochures do not escape their attention to detail.

By extension the country is astonishingly clean. Temples in Asia are notoriously dusty affairs but those that I've seen in Japan are polar opposites. There is no dust under the eaves. There are no cobwebs in forgotten corners. It's so mind-blowingly amazing it has to be seen to be believed. Yet for its cleanliness, some people still spit on the streets to clear their nasal passages and everything still goes on with nary a raised eyebrow! It's exactly this sort of juxtaposed incongruity that has me bewildered.

Tokyo residents generally are over-dressed. The weather was perfect, in the low 20s, yet everyone has a jacket on. Except for the crazy schoolgirls with their impossibly short skirts. Don't ask me how they keep their rear ends warm in the height of winter. I seriously have no clue.

Japanese love white cars. And big Mercedes-Benzes, like the S500 or the E55. Oh and the MkIV Supra and the Mazda RX-7, pretty amazing considering that these cars have been out of production for many years. Tons of them. Evos aren't very popular there. I've seen at most 10 cars, of the various generations. The Subaru Impreza doesn't fare significantly better, most are in the rally blue but I did catch sight of an S204. Porsche seems to be doing very well. Saw 2 Ferrari F430, a 360 Challenge Stradale and a handful of Lamborghinis. Just one yellow Corvette C6 Z06.

OK I'll stop for now. Maybe more in the next entry. In the meantime the photo collection is up, and I'll be adding comments and descriptions as I get more time.

2007-10-27T20:52:00.000+08:00

Heading off to Tokyo in a while... be back on the 3rd so take care everyone.

Ferrari FXX Supercar on racetrack and driven hard!!

2007-10-27T11:12:00.001+08:00

Almost loses it at the 2'42" mark

Ferrari FXX - Michael Schumacher

2007-10-27T11:04:00.001+08:00

Vid of Michael Schumacher's unique black Ferrari FXX @ Magny Cours with Zinédine Zidane as passenger.

Crash settled for US$4.5M

2007-10-24T23:07:00.000+08:00

The first post on this blog was about a high-profile car crash, and the responsibilities of drivers on trackdays. So it seems 2 years on, the deceased passenger's wife sued everyone, and won. Porsche was named as one of the defendants for creating a "defective car" as it did not have electronic stability control which contributed to the crash.

Tragicomedy

2007-10-22T11:30:00.001+08:00

According to the BBC the deputy mayor of Delhi was killed while fending off marauding wild monkeys. The article proposed a solution: "One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques." Whereupon a digg reader commented:

"And then they'll train gorillas to go after the langurs. Pretty soon they'll be dodging [lions] that are fighting rhinos."

Direct to DVD... Animal Planet: The World at War Edition.

353.7 PS at wheels

2007-10-18T18:26:00.001+08:00

353.7 PS at wheels
Originally uploaded by crufty

A returning customer came in yesterday to have a set of GSC stage 1 cams fitted on his Evo 9. To our pleasant surprise they did not give poor vacuum under low loads as would be typical of aftermarket cams with aggressive overlap. This means idle quality is stock-like.

This set of cams is superior in every way to the stock cams; there was no loss in torque, and there was significant increase in power in the entire rev range after 3600 RPM.

After reprogramming the ECU the car eventually made almost 40 PS at wheels more than when it came in at the same boost levels, and on the same petrol.

As a frame of reference, a 2.5L WRX STI with 265 PS at crank does about 210 PS at wheels on this dyno.

Update: Due to the an input error in the dyno's gear ratio calculation, the measured torque is underrated by 5.8%! Horsepower remains the same. The corrected peak torque figure measured at wheels should be 441 Nm @ 4422 RPM.

Age of the Amateurs

2007-10-15T12:46:00.001+08:00

One of the side effects of the explosive growth of the Internet, combined with the powerful functionality of search engines like Google, is the widespread availability of specialized information for a minimum investment of time or money. Taken to an extreme, this has led to the resurgence of the armchair expert.

Today, the ubiquity of software to reprogram one's engine computer is a reality. However the old adage applies: a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Recently I had the dubious distinction of having to explain to a testy individual about following advice from dubious sources. This person was trying to rescale the MAF resolution by changing the A/D counts and other related parameters by a fixed factor. However he quickly turned defensive when the obvious was pointed out: there was incomplete information as to whether the MAF sensor would still respond with a linear voltage given the increase in mass airflow. Whereupon this person quickly accused me of being disrespectful, discourteous, sarcastic etc. The typical Singaporean knee-jerk response to someone who holds a differing viewpoint. Possibly because he is now charging $140 per tune, whereas the market rate for a professional tune is anywhere from $500 onwards, with $1000 being the average. i.e. monetary interest in appearing to be correct at all times.

A relevant section from John Mandel's "The Statistical Analysis of Experimental Data" is appropriate:

#####

The methods of statistical analysis are intimately related to the problems of inductive inference: drawing inferences from the particular to the general. R.A. Fisher, one of the founders of the modern science of statistics, has pointed to a basic and most important difference between the results of induction and deduction. In the latter, conclusions based on partial information are always correct, despite the incompleteness of the premises, provided that this partial information itself is correct. For example, the theorem that the sum of the angles of a plane triangle equals to 180 degrees is based on certain postulates of geometry, but it does not necessitate information as to whether the triangle is drawn on paper or on cardboard, or whether it is isosceles or not. If information of this type is subsequently added, it cannot possibly alter the fact expressed by the theorem. On the other hand, inferences drawn by induction from incomplete information may be entirely wrong, even when the information given is entirely correct. For example, if one were given the data of Table 2.1 on the pressure and volume of a fixed mass of gas, one might infer, by induction, that the pressure of a gas is proportional to its volume, a completely erroneous statement.

Table 2.1 Volume-Pressure Relation for Ethylene, an Apparently Proportional Relationship

The error is due, of course, to the fact that another important item of information was omitted, namely that each pair of measurements was obtained at a different temperature, as indicated in Table 2.2. Admittedly this example is artificial and extreme; it was introduced merely to emphasize the basic problem in inductive reasoning: the dependence of inductive inferences not only on the correctness of the data, by also on their completeness. Recognition of the danger of drawing false inferences from incomplete, though correct information has led scientists to a preference for designed experimentation above mere observation of natural phenomena.

Table 2.2 Volume-Pressure-Temperature Relation for Ethylene

#####

Just as one may be inclined to seek medical information on the Internet, it is still prudent to visit a licensed medical practitioner so that one's ailments may be properly diagnosed and treated. Would you let a "doctor" treat you just because he has read some medical books and charges a low fee?

The age of the amateur is upon us.

Howard Jones

2007-10-15T03:59:00.001+08:00

Heard a familiar ditty while in an arts & crafts shop with zeenie & ww on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Wondered if it was Howard Jones and the dynamic duo couldn't confirm; can't really blame them cos they would be all of 7 and 5 respectively when the song made its debut. Anyway here it is, still pretty good synth pop after all these years:

Like to get to know you well
Like to get to know you well
Like to get to know you well
So we can be one
We can be one together
Repeat Chorus
Together we can cast away the fear
Together we can wipe away the tear
Together we can strip down the barriers
And be one
Don't wanna talk about the weather
Don't wanna talk about the news
Just wanna get to the real you inside
Repeat Chorus
Don't you think now is the time
We should be feelin'
Just wanna simply say
Won't let you slip away
People wanna talk about the future
Don't wanna linger on the past
Just wanna reach to the real you inside
Forget cold glances and rejections
Leave the things that separate
Build on a trust that we can stand on
Repeat Chorus
Finding all are insecure
Opening the same door
Leaving out a stubborn pride
Seeing from another side
Repeat Chorus

Stock Evo 9 injector lag time vs voltage

2007-10-06T11:38:00.001+08:00

New Supra MkV spotted at Nurburgring

2007-10-02T12:51:00.001+08:00

Props to BK who sent me this link... sounds like a V10. Shaun thinks it's either a V10 or an even-fire V6 or I6 without turbo.

Ken: you see the big fat "Play" button? Click on it and the video will play. :)

Tales of integrity Part 2

2007-09-29T12:37:00.000+08:00

Continuing from the previous post, and as it turns out, the rumor was absolutely unsubstantiated. Interestingly enough, it was eerily similar to my own experience.

Perhaps some day, someone would be patient enough to provide some insight as to what drives such demented individuals from spreading lies and FUD.

On the other hand, I've heard of people who offer free retunes if they do not improve upon a customer's car. The idea is that if this person does not increase your car by X horsepower from the baseline run, you don't have to pay anything. Such actions are operating on shaky ethical grounds and casts a long shadow on the professionalism of the industry as a whole.

First, the con artist usually owns the dyno facility, thus he is able to influence the base and subsequent dyno runs. Second, the con artist has full access to the ECU. This is akin to stealing someone else's intellectual property and passing it off as one's own. Even if the owner has full knowledge of such shenanigans, the con artist may not have a full appreciation of the situation as to why the car was not running at optimal states e.g. retarded spark advance at certain map points to avoid knock until the cause of the problem is determined. And thus it would appear that the "tuner" and the customer are both at fault.

So it seems that some customers are playing the tuners against each other, to great effect. And some tuners have no sense of professional ethics. Perhaps it's time that the tuners themselves get organized to settle such disputes and minimize these sort of situations altogether.

Tales of integrity (or lack thereof)

2007-09-27T12:08:00.000+08:00

Mud-slinging and FUD has always been part of the aftermarket performance industry. Lately I've been hearing about how someone is passing off open source software as proprietary software. As an outsider to this situation, no clear conclusions can be drawn as I've also had disputes before; it's all part of the game.

Several years ago, I had the "pleasure" of having a so-called "friend" buy an aftermarket ECU from me at cost price, inclusive of the tuning etc. He was very pleased with the results and didn't seem to be dissatisfied at all, despite the typical teething problems with having a custom calibration done from scratch. When everything was completed he claimed that his finances were in disarray and so gave me a post-dated cheque of 1 month.

Within the week I started hearing rumors passed behind my back about my "poor job" done on the car; upon receiving this info I contacted him to enquire about his car, even going so far as to refund the cheque if he's not happy with things. He insisted that everything was OK but the rumors continued to persist. In the meantime I began to collate information about what he was saying behind my back, with SMS and MSN logs as proof. As this is going on remember I could not cash in the cheque!

Even after cashing in the cheque, the offer to refund the sum still stood, yet this person declined to come and meet me like a man, preferring to cast aspersions from behind a veil of deceit. It's unbelievable that this is how a so-called devout Christian behaves.

It's OK though. I rest easy at night because my conscience is clear. On the other hand, he has reason to fear, since I know where he lives. :)

FM2

2007-09-19T11:36:00.001+08:00

Out of 700+K (and counting!) players world-wide. Need to work on the Exhibition Rollup next.

WMSC's flimsy case against McLaren

2007-09-15T15:40:00.000+08:00

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not an F1 fan. At the rate things are going, I don't know if I want to even know what goes on in F1 anymore.

This is the WMSC's decision against McLaren (pdf) Some excerpts:

###

8.4 McLaren has made detailed submissions indicating that none of the information received enhanced the McLaren car. McLaren has suggested to the WMSC that unless “actual use” and a demonstrated and itemised performance advantage can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e. to a criminal law standard of proof), the WMSC is not permitted at law to impose a penalty.

8.5 The WMSC rejects this suggestion. The WMSC has full jurisdiction to apply Article 151(c) and stresses that it is not necessary for it to demonstrate that any confidential Ferrari information was directly copied by McLaren or put to direct use in the McLaren car to justify a finding that Article 151(c) was breached and/or that a penalty is merited. Nor does the WMSC need to show that any information improperly held led to any specifically identified sporting advantage, or indeed any advantage at all. Rather, the WMSC is entitled to treat possession of another team’s information as an offence meriting a penalty on its own if it so chooses.

8.12 The evidence leads the WMSC to conclude that some degree of sporting advantage was obtained, though it may forever be impossible to quantify that advantage in concrete terms.

###

So if a Ferrari waterboy were to tell his counterpart at McLaren that Kimi is using the Port-A-Potty before the race, the WMSC can take action. Excellent reasoning.

This is a witch hunt, plain and simple. Let's say a competing golf club manufacturer somehow managed to get hold of the technical plans behind Tiger Woods's clubs. In all other respects these competing clubs are within the specifications laid down by the rules. Would the PGA apply sanctions against this company? Ludicrous isn't it?

Another example. In other team sports such as American football or pro basketball, there are offensive and defensive playbooks which are crucial to a team's continued success. These playbooks have been known to go MIA but you don't see the sport's governing body coming down hard on the suspects. The same standards should apply in this particular case.

If Ferrari were to lose confidential information due to a disgruntled employee, then they should keep their own house in order before laying the blame on others. Unfortunately this is the reality of the world we live in; we look to blame others instead of looking at ourselves first.

AEM 50 psia (3.5 bar) MAP sensor

2007-09-14T00:01:00.000+08:00

AEM 50 psia (3.5 bar) MAP sensor. Product id: 30-2130-50. Polynomial trendline (R²=1):

y = -0.0012x² +85.036x -42.509; where y (kPa), x (V)

What 1001 bhp REALLY looks like

2007-09-11T17:08:00.000+08:00

2007-09-10T20:53:00.000+08:00

Found out recently that that a law enforcement officer cannot compel you to provide identification unless you're reasonably suspected of having committed a crime. So if you're minding your own business and a cop comes up to you and asks for ID, you are within your rights to just provide a name and address. You do not have to show him your IC. If you provide an overseas address, then you may be placed under arrest until it can be verified. (CPC, Sec 33-3).

Taleban 'getting Chinese weapons'

2007-09-04T12:40:00.000+08:00

That's the headline of a recent BBC news article. Sure hope it's not anything like this mortar:

Evo X gear ratio comparison

2007-08-16T23:51:00.003+08:00

Assuming the Evo X is running 245/40/18 and the Evo 8/9 are running 235/45/17. Theoretical top speed:

	Evo X SST (6 speed)	Evo X 5 speed	Evo 8/9 6 speed	Evo 8/9 5 speed
1st	58.1	64.4	63.7	67.3
2nd	89.6	94.3	95.3	96.1
3rd	121.0	127.3	129.2	129.8
4th	160.5	167.8	168.4	171.0
5th	210.5	241.6	213.4	246.3
6th	273.8	N/A	267.3	N/A

Figures are in km/h with 7000 RPM limit.

Graphically:

Another day, another dyno run...

2007-08-06T20:24:00.001+08:00

304 PS at wheels

Nothing serious today. Just a straightforward tune-up. The car has the basic mods (intake/exhaust), boost controller, bigger injectors for safety. Cams, head and bottom end are still stock.

Boost is between 1.5 to 1.6 bar from 3500 to 6500 RPM, whereupon it drops to 1.4 bar.

Final numbers are 376.6 Nm @ 4000, 304.2 PS @ 6583. All figures are at wheels.

Analysis: 90% of peak torque is available over 34.6% of the rev range. 80% is available over 53.8% of the rev range.

Fun-filled dyno day...

2007-08-02T23:54:00.000+08:00

Continuing the Valentine's Day tune... the same car went on to make 465 HP on the same dyno in March.

Somewhere between then and now, the car had new mods. ;)

Today was the day we found out just how effective they were. And this time we went to a Dyno Dynamics dyno, which reads notoriously low. A stock 2007 2.5L STI driven straight from the showroom will read 210 PS at wheels on this.

So the car is set up on the dyno and a small crowd gathers. The operator makes the base run and the line goes off the charts. No kidding. The operator has to rescale it to the 500 PS range and it shows 422 PS at wheels. Double that of a stock STI.

Next I get to work trying to bring up the mid-range and upper end... then we run into problems. It seems the injectors are running out of flow at the top, so it's back to the workshop to swap out for 950cc injectors.

After some time and it's back on the dyno. We make another base pull and now it's down to 310 PS at wheels. DAMN! The owner almost had a heart attack... :> He thought the momentary lean condition earlier in the day had hurt the engine.

So I get right to work with the new injectors... and in the next run the car immediately makes 422 PS again. That's how accurate this dyno is. We make a total of 16 pulls and it was accurate down to 0.1 PS every single time. Eventually we had to stop because the clutch was starting to slip... but it was a fruitful day since we managed to bring up the mid-range by 60+ PS at wheels... all this on 1.6 bar boost and 98 RON.

Click for larger view of the actual dyno sheet.

Here is the same data of the run but re-formatted as an Excel graph. With the wider x-axis the drop-off from peak torque does not appear as exaggerated. And this is where things get interesting: a reflashed Evo 9 does between 305 PS to 315 PS at 6500; this car is doing that at just 4700 RPM! From 4500 to 5000 RPM, the car gains an additional 108.8 PS at wheels! :) The torque stays above 460 Nm between 4750 to 6500. So when this car gets a full head of steam, it doesn't let up because the gear ratios are right on the money.

Torque and HP for the umpteenth time

2007-07-15T01:51:00.000+08:00

I don't know why supposedly intelligent gear-heads would state that "HP sells cars and torque wins races."

If this were true, F1 cars would have turbo-diesel engines and 40 speed gearboxes.

Perhaps the misunderstanding arises from the failure to understand the importance of the width of the power band and gearing. For race applications, you want as much torque to be developed as late as possible, for as long as possible. Why? Simply because horsepower is a function of both torque and RPM. So a high torque value at a high RPM will yield a higher HP figure. And if it's broad enough, you can make use of gearing to produce the desired torque at wheels.

Radical SR8LM

2007-07-15T01:10:00.000+08:00

Radical Motorsports announced the Radical SR8LM on 1 July, a 2.8L normally-aspirated motor producing 455 bhp with a rev limit of 10,500 RPM.

"Gotcha!" I hear you say. "Didn't you previously have a blog entry that stated 300 whp from a normally-aspirated 2.4L is improbable in the local context? So how do you explain a 2.8L engine doing almost 100 bhp more?"

Let's do the math.

Since Radical doesn't post up the power graph, let's assume peak power of 455 bhp is achieved at 10,000 RPM. This would yield a torque of 239 lb-ft at that engine speed. 2.8L is 171 cubic inches, so BMEP is 211 psi. Well within reason. By the way, Radical suggests an engine rebuild interval of 30 hours. This engine is not meant to be driven daily.

So logic prevails. I stick with what was stated previously and would require a lot more convincing that a daily-driven, locally built and tuned 2.4L normally aspirated engine revving to just 8000 RPM is capable of 300 whp.