Project time estimation for the development stage.

So, I was sitting in the office one evening, listening to the constant sound of fast fingers typing on keyboards. And I thought, maybe there's some use for this!

Project time estimation after planning stage, for the development/key-board bashing stage.

Estimate total lines of code.

Count lines of code typed everyday*. Then calculate average lines of code typed per day. Average.

Total Lines/Lines of code produced daily = Rough estimate of days to completion!

:)



*days, weeks, hours, even minutes are all possible.

Thought of the Day #1

Software is Handmade

Backstory incoming

On Management

Managing people is EASY.

The goal of a manager is to get things done with quality, speed and reliability, through other people.

You only have to remember to do 1 thing.

Do what your team members, fellow managers and everyone else doesn't want to do, so they can do the things that they want to do. (And in that order - team members come first.)

If your team, say, team of developers, hate meetings, go to the meetings for them, and lend them your voice.

If the team don't have time for necessities like meals, expenses claiming, do it for them. Make life easy for other people.

Mess up the order and it's no longer management. You will find yourself slave-driving or just struggling with everything against you and nobody on your side.

There's a lot of emphasis on communication skills and other stuff, but that's all built on strong relationships.

Looking into the future, I wonder if automation could rapidly bring down the costs of management.

The creator and the creation

It's a theme that has been played with by almost all schools of thought.

The Greek myth about Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods.
The Christian, Abrahamic religious virtue of obedience to God, superiority of God.
The 1999 film A.I., where the humanity and physical superiority of the AIs overcomes the inhumanity and frailty of the humans.
Ex Machina. The AIs manipulate humans against each other, for their own survival.
The Singularity. Where AIs keep making better AIs which are better than us.

The young do generally outlive the old.
Flynn Effect describes trend of IQ increase with each new generation.

And so on...

What's the real deal?

The way I see it, there's nothing stopping a creation from overcoming, superseding the creator. It's as inevitable as the passing of time.

In fact, I see it as the very concept relating change to time...

What about entropy?

Redundant Work

The free market hates redundant work when it is no longer necessary. For example, toilet cleaners are paid very little compared to clerks, which are paid less than the project managers, which are paid less than their directors, and so on... Example obviously involves other factors, but this repetitive nature of work is part of it.

I hate redundant work. Someday, future generations, assuming they are far more technologically advanced, will have automated all the shit we do everyday. For example, the European housewives of the middle ages could only dream of washing machines and dishwashers. The native inhabitants of Yuen Long in Hong Kong could only imagine vehicles carrying goods and people through the hills, or that people would one day hike for fun.

• Commuting, transportation - Waste...of...life.... 
• Typing - Have you ever typed so much your fingerjoints became cranky? Future form of torture.
• Talking - Whatsapp Telegram v9999, now with Mind-Mind Interface! 
• Driving - I like driving. Makes me feel useful while being transported.
• Grocery Shopping - good exercise of choice, but becomes a chore.
• Mind To Brain Interfacing - Future me probably wouldn't have to actually type this.
• Showering - feels good, but how about not every, single, day?
• Paperwork - Still heaps of it, only digitized. :(
• Cleaning - already outsourced.
• Knitting - I don't understand knitting, but I abhor its repetitive nature.
• (....it's too repetitive to list everything....)

Since up to 90% of our lives are still this, we can only imagine what a world without these would be like. Some of us do these things so much we become sadistic/masochistic (can never figure out which one :|) and begin to enjoy them. 

Of course, we would still do such redundant work for leisure, but only to the point where it's fun.

There is No Low some Social Justice Warriors will not Stoop to

What is this? I am laughing yet baffled.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3121061/Local-NAACP-leader-professor-African-studies-outed-WHITE-parents-convincing-community-black-years.html

Gene Lifehacker: On Soap

Believe it or not, it has been 4 years since I used any form of soap (except shampoo). 
And it has been 6 months since I used shampoo.
I intend to stay soapless for the rest of my natural life.

It all started in Hall 5 back in the University. It's 3am in the morning and I am walking to the toilet for my shower. Usually, I bring the following things - toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, bodywash, shampoo. But this time, I forgot my bodywash. I had run out and planned to get some at the stores, but forgot about it. 

So, I justified my mistake to myself, priding myself about making glorious mistakes and telling myself that soap is evil, in accordance with the North Korean principle of Juche (self-sufficiency) and preventing the evil foreign influences. 

And so it all began...

Effects

INPUT

I am an extremely heavy sweater. My armpits start stinking soon after sweating. Cotton shirts stick to me and start fermenting acid.
I don't use any creams, cosmetics, perfume or any other substances on my skin now. (I used to use acne creams, most of which have turned out to be expensive and useless to acne and harmful to skin.)

PROCESS

Wash with cold water first. Rub if necessary. 
Gradually warm up. 
If hair is oily, use minimal shampoo. (Now, nothing.)
Smell self. If I smell bad, I keep showering.
If summer, gradually cool down before exiting shower.
Pat dry. 
Done.

OUTPUT

There is no difference in appearance, period. 
Barring an oil slick, there is no difference between using bodywash and not. 

I did notice that my body was producing more good, scentless oil and less evil oil. 
Evil oil is the stuff that comes out of your skin after consumption of any McDonald's "meat" products, or fries, or fried foods. 

Nobody knows I don't use soap. 
You wouldn't know if you stuck your nose into my shirt.
Nobody knows I don't use shampoo either, period. 

I know males aren't told this, but as a human, your body is a temple! 

You have nothing to lose except for your chains artificial chemicals!

Screw The Body Shop with their expensive, exotic products!

Go completely soapless!

Gaming Related: Fallout 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been 5 years since Fallout New Vegas and 7 since Fallout 3... and the wait is almost over.

From the looks of it, it may well have the widespread appeal of Skyrim.

Anyway, I am hoping for...

• Realistic graphics and physics. It really helps with the immersive experience.

• More diverse environment. Miles and miles of subway tunnels, rubble, wasteland, fighting rather identical enemies gets a little boring after the while.

• More attractions, sane characters, unique objects, random events along the way makes for better exploration.

• Fewer bugs. Yes, I know, Fallout 3 was a big game and it would have been difficult to get all the glitches out of it. 

• Less quests about looking for stuff. Those get a little annoying and make me want to look up the guides, which ruins the overall experience.

More dialogue also great. I think the combat is tons of fun, but then my braincells feel like dying after using VATS for too long. Demolishing any destructible environments would be fun too.

To sum up, expectations are veryy high for Fallout 4 to be EPIC!

I must have gotten about 300 or so hours of gameplay out of Fallout 3/New Vegas. Eventually, I found other games and interest waned. For me at least, I guess the games are more about the experience and less about finishing it.

Now, I swear I'm going to finish those games before getting Fallout 4!

Right and Wrong Ways of Software QA...

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-is-critical-life-or-death-software-tested

There are all sorts of different methodologies for doing this, but fundamentally, there are two ways to get stuff done in software engineering.

The right way  is to have a well-defined process that looks after everything. Essentially, the whole process of software engineering becomes software manufacturing (I wonder when that will become a buzzword...).

One right way is test-driven development. Write the automated test first, fulfill the requirement, then refactor the code. This ensures everything is always going to be on track, down to the most specific requirement. Software QA teams also necessary as it gets bigger.

The wrong way, but by far the most common way, is far less rigorous and prone to human error. It is to rely on human conditions like talent, intelligence, creativity, tenacity, work environment, or as Boeing did, to put its engineers on the first plane running their code.

 I call this way wrong because it is not stable. The most intelligent human beings are still fallible and prone to human error. For this reason, everybody is always trying to systematize everything, on every level.

And given time, what was once laborious will become automated. People used to have to write machine code. Then there was assembly. Then compilers wrote the assembly and humans wrote the C, then humans wrote the Java and virtual machine did the translation. (Sidethought. How far will this go? How far can it go?)

But to get results now, successful software companies employ all of these. Without good brains, the system may not be implemented or created. Without the system, good brains are wasted.

Red Pill Series: Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet.

I've always been fascinated by Shakespeare's more commonly known plays. Like fairy tales, they have become timeless. But why?

This Shakespearean play is noble because sacrifice on the part of the female is relatively rare and as far as biology is concerned, makes little sense. It's no stereotype that males are usually the ones who take one for the team.

Speaking of sacrifice, true love solely based on virtues would also have been rare. There was far less free choice as far as relationships went, with the arranged marriages and all. People married early and died young compared by today's standards. Marriage would also have been overwhelmingly about children.

That Juliet loved Romeo more than life itself, more than wealth and resources that Paris would provide, just as Romeo loved Juliet is why the story has endured as a staple of Western Literature. It is a growth from crush to love, to virtuous love, to a test of love.

And of course, on top of that, there is something for everyone.

Men like Juliets because she's faithfully committed and biologically, faithful means children are more likely yours.

Women like bold and confident bad boys willing to commit to them. And like most actors cast as Romeo throughout the years, preferably handsome and cool too.

If I were to compare Romeo & Juliet to Titanic, I'd argue that Romeo & Juliet is superior because...

Titanic's tragedy is not ultimately caused by the lovers. It's just more powerful to have the star-crossed lovers do themselves in, it's simpler and more elegant.

Jack sacrifices himself. He sacrificed long-term benefits - being alive, for short-term feelings. In Eugenian terms, Jack was under confession (layman terms = "man in love"), his own free will destroyed. And confession is as sexy as slavery and zombies. Jack didn't die by cold, he drowned in love, as he was biologically and socially programmed to do. ("Women & Children first")

I guess it could be argued that Romeo also sacrificed himself, but then on one level, it's different because from his view, she was so committed to the relationship that she committed suicide. And on the second level, Romeo died of miscommunication, lack of information. Not entirely his fault, but definitely adds to the tragedy and suspense.

And of course, R&J just has more virtue, namely "have sex not war", and far deeper themes than this little post can explore. It's incredible how a play written 500 years ago is still relevant today.

If there's one thing to take away, it's to rebel against your biological programming and find others willing to do so too. On a macro scale, I believe it is an inescapable stage of human evolution.

Well, that's it for tonight. I don't even know why I'm so fascinated, I guess it's all written down above. Hope to do other Shakespeare plays too.

In Real Life, Rand's Heroes would be Moochers

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/05/31/045246/how-elon-musks-growing-empire-is-fueled-by-government-subsidies


"By the Los Angeles Times' reckoning, Elon Musk's Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support. "

Ayn (Score:3)

by PopeRatzo (965947) on Sunday May 31, 2015 @09:57AM (#49808965) Homepage Journal

So, it turns out that John Galt is kind of a moocher.

Who could have guessed?

On Men And Women, inspired by the Sword of Truth series

*The following content is truthful as I see it. Politically correctness was not a consideration. There are also exceptions.

Remember the Terry Goodkind books I spent 2013 reading?

There was this question on the author's website that's been bothering me since I first read it 2 years ago.

 Tonight, in the shower, I think I got it.

I think it's to do with men and women.

Masculine characters are seekers or anti-seekers, Feminine characters are confessors or anti-confessors.

In layman terms,

1. 
Men are resource gatherers. There are two ways to gather resources - through natural truth, or through force, coercion and compulsion. 

In the books, the Seeker is a role with certain magical powers created by ancient wizards. The seeker's job is to ensure that human society can prosper free from immorality.
On the other hand, the anti-seekers are the evil villains which use brutal means to achieve their ends.

From the standpoint of biological reproduction, the purpose of males is to provide resources for the mother and children. Required in the gathering of resources is the correct interpretation of reality - natural truth. Like how an accountant must recognize math and arithmetic or programmers must understand algorithms and obey the rules of their programming language.

Women also like getting what they want, but their main strength is through social and bio-psychological means.

In the books, there are Confessors and Mord Sith. Confessors have the magical ability to destroy a person's free will and make them do whatever she wishes. Confessors can also tell if one is telling the truth. The power of Confessors is based on love.

Confessors make more confessors by mating with high status men. Of course, the men become confessed in the process, their minds destroyed. This is kind of tragic, because it means they cannot have sexual relations with men they really love without destroying them.

Mord Sith are the opposite of Confessors. While Confessor magic is love, Mord Sith use hate, pain and emotional manipulation to enslave.

In reality, interacting with attractive women generally leaves men cognitively impaired and less able to express free-will. And if there is any doubt as to this, well, male sexual arousal (signs such as erection) are essentially involuntary and easily triggered. On the other hand, women do not experience this effect.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-interacting-with-woman-leave-man-cognitively-impaired/

Have you ever been with some female you consider so attractive you feel like you are melting, and you need your mindpower to go for it? That's what it means.

Sometimes, long term exposure creates the stereotypical guy with a nagging wife/girlfriend which has him by the balls.

2.
Love is fundamentally emotional reactions to common values, beliefs, virtue.

The Sword of Truth series is revolves around Richard and Kahlan, who share common goals of defeating the baddies and discovering the nature of the magical world around them.

When they first realize they are in love, Kahlan realizes that they can never have sex, because that would be the end of Richard. Richard ponders for about half the book, then realizes that it actually was possible, because they already love each other so much it would make no difference whether he was confessed or not.

Love needs to be clearly defined and not confused with physical attraction, attraction to resources, but a spontaneous genuine response to common virtues. Failure to recognize this leads to disaster when the relationship is ever tested.

3.
Men do, women are.
Men select women based on her being. What is she? Does she look after herself? What's her personality? Is she kind or mean, generous or selfish, faithful or unfaithful, open or uptight, introverted or extroverted? Males start from the physical and go into the psychological, intellectual, personal qualities.

Women select men firstly based on what and how well he does. The reproductive reason needs no explanation - the young take up vast resources. Pregnancy, child-rearing are time and resource intensive. (Modern feminists may have you think otherwise, but even if one opts for childcare services, there is still increased cost.)

Richard was named a Seeker. Kahlan was born a Confessor.



If there is anything to take away from this post, it's this.

Males Seekers and female Confessors has been the natural way of things, because this strategy has worked for millions of years. But we can do better if only they...

1. Don't be "confessed".

2. Choose partners based on their virtue first and foremost. Don't settle for anything less.

3. Be sure what other people love you for. Be in-dispensable. Don't be expendable.

Hiking Classic: Clearwater Bay Hike Diary (Resurrected from BlogPost Development Hell)

It was an odd beginning.

We got off the bus at the starting point. We see two police vans. Two officers were talking to a bunch of hikers.

"What is this?" I wonder.

We orientate ourselves and an officer walks over.

The officer starts talking about illegal immigrants sightings and robberies, and that we should hike as a group. Then, the officer asks us for IDs. While he's working on it, I record his badge number.

The other hikers walk over, adjusting their hiking sticks. One asks where we're going. We tell them, and we form an entourage.

"We should stay apart. That way, someone can get away and get help" the leader of the other group says, while still fiddling with his hiking stick. I decided an umbrella would be more useful, so I open it up. This turns out to be a skin-saver as the sun got stronger.

Seeing this, a constable says "If you see anything suspicious, run away and call 999. Don't try to fight them."

I thought I'd join in, "We are a huge group. It's very unlikely anything exciting will happen. We are better making lots of noise, remaining calm, sticking together, reporting in and standing our ground. Running is what the suspects should do." A few nod their heads.

An inspector comes along. Between gulping water and wiping his forehead, he tells the constable to register our IDs. Seeing everyone else pull out their IDs, I figured it was hard not to. But I had to ask exactly why. The answer was "For your safety. So we know who's gone hiking here."

Under the increasingly hot sun, we begin the hike. After 10 minutes, we find that the 6 policemen and 1 policewoman have joined us for the hike. The constable at the front and end has collapsible batons fully extended. I briefly considered if they were far bigger threat than any Illegal Immigrants.

As we pant our way onto the first hill and take our break, the police catch up. We offer them to go first. They decline, and we start to joke about being the "bait".

Later, we overhear the police having a little discussion over privacy issues. I resisted the urge to join in, as it was edging towards politics.

(officers staring at the forest floor while walking)

Constable A: "Why don't we have CCTVs everywhere? That would prevent a lot of crimes!"

Constable B: "But that would be against privacy!"

Inspector C: "Yes, it would mean less privacy. But it's worth it in many cases."

Constable B: "Well, fair enough. But privacy is a fundamental right that makes HK different. Without it, HK is no different from any of the other nations."

Wow, my words exactly!
The other cops, falling silent, decide to change the topic.

I got the sense that most were trying to just hang low and do their jobs professionally, without having to deal with the uncomfortable but increasingly relevant moral/ethical issues. Or maybe the day was just too hot to have a debate.

...

Before we know it, we are at the end of the flat trail. We wave them off and start climbing the hills.

We slowly clamber up High Junk Peak and stay for lunch. The temperature must be at least 34 degrees by now and my friends are developing bright red sun-burns beneath thick beads of sweat. The umbrella is paying off.

Getting off the Peak is harder than getting up. By the time we get off, everybody is gone, as expected. Otherwise, they'd properly begin to develop heat stroke.

Walking off the hills towards civilization, we faced a new kind of intense heat. You could feel the heat radiating off the rocky path and surrounding hills, like you are in a frying pan.

We ended up consuming 5L of liquids each. Standing at the top of the peak in the intense heat partly explains the great water consumption. Running out of water in the middle would definitely mean heat stroke.

Back home, I nurse a sunburn and vow always to take sunscreen.