wilson@IHPC

Final Week

2009-02-25T10:08:00.014+08:00

23 February 2009

I updated the OS for the MacBook Pro which I'm using while working on the presentation slides with the rest on Leonard's iMac. We practically spent the day working on the presentation slides and testing of the applications to work on the MacBook Pro which You Hock is using.

24 February 2009

Didn't go to IHPC today because we have our Major Project presentation. For me, I had to do 2 presentation for my projects - 1 for Lightdraw & 1 for my own project, FlexCam.

25 February 2009

In the morning, only Leonard and I were here because Ryan and You Hock were having a presentation in school. So when we arrived, Ming Hong showed us the new lasers he bought. The new lasers are stronger than the older ones, which means that Lightdraw would have a better chance to work on the 3 x 2 tile display. After we tested the new lasers, we modified the presentation slides that we used yesterday so that we could use it to do the presentation to Terence and Kevin.

After lunch, Ryan and You Hock returned to IHPC and together, we did a presentation for Terrence and Kevin. Besides both of them, there were other IHPC staff who came in and listened to our presentation. We presented to them on what we have worked on for the past 4 months. They gave us their feedback on the applications which we developed and were also pleased with our work. We told Kevin about our plan to test the 3 x 2 tile display after the presentation and he agreed.

While we were setting up Lighdraw at the 3 x 2 tile display, we were informed that there was a demo going on. So we kept the equipments and returned to our lab. Kevin then asked me to try reformatting the MacBook Pro which I'm using to Mac OS X Leopard. He managed to get a disc image from one of the staff and I researched on how to reformat from external hard disk. Managed to find a tutorial and these are the steps that I did:

Restart MacBook Pro

Hold onto the alt/option key at the grey screen

This steps is actually to bring the MacBook Pro to its 'BIOS' mode, so that we could specify the boot device. However, when I did that, it prompted me to input a password. Kevin and I were unsure of the password and tried to find another way on how we could reformat the MacBook Pro.

Kevin then found another article online, and we tried it. These are the steps that we did according to the article:

Find Disk Utility

Select on the external hard disk and click on the Restore tab

Drag the Mac OS X installer imager to the source Textbox

Drag the mounted external hard disk onto the Destination texbox

Click Restore and wait for the files to be copied

Go to System Preference and select Startup Disk

Select your external hard disk and click on restart

When we restarted the MacBook Pro, everything seemed fine. However, the installation failed after I select the installation language. An error message which popped up displayed this message, "Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer". Perhaps its because of the MacBook Pro's chipset?

Kevin was there when we tried to reformat, he asked me to do more research on how to install the OS X Leopard onto the MacBook Pro. So I spent the rest of the day researching on how to install the OS X Leopard onto the MacBook Pro.

26 February 2009

I researched on how to reformat the MacBook Pro and found others with the same problem. Here's a link on how this person manage to solve this problem. However, the solution isn't really feasible as the person simply purchased a new CD from the store. So I decided to take a break from the research and help out with the testing to make Lightdraw work with the 3x2 tile display.

We had some problems calibrating as Lightdraw crashes when it tried to calibrate. So we seek help from Ming Hong. He managed to fix the problem and we got it to work. After calibration, we tested the screen with the new lasers which Ming Hong bought and we found new problems with the screen. The surface of the screen is not entirely flat. It is a little slanted on the top and bottom part on the screen. Nonetheless, we still managed to make Lightdraw work on the 3x2 tile display to a certain extend with the new lasers.

We gave Ming Hong a treat for lunch because he had helped us a lot during our time here as interns. We were not able to treat the rest for lunch because they were busy.

When done with lunch, we discussed about the poster design for PSRP and Leonard volunteered to design the poster. We had a photo-shoot with the rest of the team for the article we wrote a few weeks back. Once the photo-shoot was done, we had a 1 to 1 feedback session with Kevin and Ming Hong where they asked us for feedback and gave us some advice on how we could improve ourselves.

After the feedback session, we sent Daryl from Corporate Comms some pictures to be used for the article. We also planned out the new video we want to do for Lightboard, which is to be used for our presentation at the PSRP award. Once the plan had been finalized, I went to look for Cheng Teng to get help with the video shoot for both the 3D visualizer application and LightBoard. However, he was busy and we were unsure on how we should film the 3D visualizer application. So I went to look for Kevin to inform him about the situation. He then told me how the 3D visualizer application is to be video-ed and I went to inform the rest. However, the 3D visualizer application needs to be able to load 3 models for the video. So You Hock worked on getting the 3D visualizer application to load 3 models while the rest of us worked on the PSRP presentation slides.

27 February 2009

In the morning, we were trying to do the video shoot for the 3D visualizer application, however, we faced some problems and the video shoot had to be delayed until after lunch.

For lunch, Kevin gave us a nice treat at a French restaurant where the "seniors' interns" had their last lunch. So it's sort of like a customary thing between Kevin and the interns that worked on Lightdraw. During lunch, we had a great talk about what are our plans after finishing our attachment and other stuff.

After lunch, Leonard and I did the video shoot for the 3D visualizer application while Ryan helped You Hock to reformat the MacBook Pro. After the video, we wanted to do the video shoot for the Lightboard. However, when we wanted to do the video, we realized that Lightdraw couldn't work on You Hock's "fresh" MacBook Pro as there were some stuff we had to install to get it running. Here are some pictures we took when we were doing the video shoot for the 3D visualizer application:

We also handed in our time sheet for the month of February and returned our Fusionopolis temp pass. In a blink of an eye, 4 months have passed and this marks the end of my internship stint at IHPC. During this short span of 4 months, we had learn loads of stuff, be it technical or interpersonal. I truly enjoyed working here at IHPC for my internship.

And before I left the building, I received a farewell gift from JTC:

How nice of them. =P

Reflection for the week:

It's kind of like a joyful, yet reluctant feeling on our last day of work. Joyful, because our internship is ending and we are going to graduate in a few months time. Reluctant, because we know we would miss the times we had working together at IHPC. Nonetheless, we know that we are different from the first time we stepped into IHPC. All of us had grown wiser and more knowledgeable. We also do understand about our strengths and weakness through the feedback session with Kevin and Ming Hong.

Thanks to these people, we had truly enjoyed our time here at IHPC.

PSRP Week

2009-02-19T11:07:00.014+08:00

16 February 2009

When I got to work, I found out that there were some problems with the 3D application - missing linkage between patches. So I went to correct the problems before having a discussion with Kevin on the powerpoint slides for PSRP(Polytechnic Student Research Program). So we worked on the powerpoint slide for then entire day before going over to school to get Dr Eng's views on what we are going to present.

17 February 2009

Told Kevin about Dr Eng's approach to the PSRP presentation, however Kevin feels that we did not do a good job conveying the message properly. So we edit the slides with Kevin's help and we continued to work on our presentation with Kevin's help for the entire day.

18 February 2009

Didn't go to work today as we had a photo-shoot for our Project Show and presentation for PSRP.

The presentation didn't really go very well because I felt that we did not do a good job conveying the message clearly. However, Dr Eng said that we might still have a chance of winning because out of the 10 engineering projects, only 2 projects were standing out. So now it has to depends on the judges if our project would be able to win.

Nonetheless, it was a good experience doing a presentation because of the research element. Normally in school, our presentation were just based on a format. However, in this presentation, we had to describe about our thinking process and how our application could help solve a problem. The toughest part of the presentation was to try to use the simplest term to explain to the judges as they might not have any IT background.

19 February 2009

We went down to Marketplace to get some food while the lab was being vacuumed. After returning to the lab, we did a presentation to Kevin on what we presented at the PSRP. The way we presented was worse than how we presented yesterday. I think I offended Kevin a little by interrupting his conversation with Ming Hong with my random thoughts. After the presentation, I sent him my SIP report for review and apologized to him about my mistake and rudeness before lunch.

After lunch, I worked on modifying the codes for 'Rotation' because since we are using laser, the 'trackmouse' properties of the patch cannot be used. I wanted to do the rotation like how I did the 'Scaling' function. However, Ming Hong explained to me that rotation and scaling works differently. So did some research on how to do rotation and came across this website which teaches me how to calculate the maths for 3D.

While researching, we received news that our project got selected for the PSRP award. It was a surprise for us as we felt that we did not do very well in terms of presentation. It was a total mood changer. So we broke the news to Kevin and he was happy for us. We'll definitely have to work harder on our presentation skills.

After breaking the news, I went to look for Ming Hong and asked him whether we could apply the formula to our application. He said that it was unnecessary for the formula because we are just computing the value for x and y rotation. So he explained how he intend to make the model rotate. Helped out with the testing of the application while he was working to compute the new formula. At the end of the day, we managed to make the model rotate. However, the rotation wasn't working as what Ming Hong expected. I guess we could finish the prototype for the 3D application by tomorrow.

20 February 2009

Leonard and I started working on our presentation for Lightdraw next week. While working on the presentation, I also help out with the testing of the rotate function for the '3D Visualization' application. We went to NUS for lunch because Ryan and You Hock needed to submit their documents for their university application.

After lunch, we spent the day reformating our computers while You Hock and Ming Hong worked on the '3D Visualization' application. I continued helping them to do testing while waiting for the MacBook Pro to be reformatted. Initially, I had problems trying to reformat because I wasn't able to use the disc provided by Kevin. I asked Kevin about it and he explained to us about the difference in the chipset - 32bit and 64bit.

It turned out that the MacBook Pro I was using is an older MacBook Pro which runs on a 32bit chipset. So Kevin passed me another disc. This time, it worked. However, after finishing the reformatting process, I found out that I had installed the Tiger OS instead of the Leopard OS because the look of the desktop is different. Here's how my desktop look like after the installation.

I tried to install the Leopard OS with other disc that Kevin passed me. However, the installation failed because there's a problem with the disc. Kevin told me not to worry and he'll try to find me the CD and pass it to me on Monday.

Reflection for the week:

It had been a roller-coaster week for me here at IHPC - rushing to complete applications and presentations. Thankfully, I'm glad that our hardwork had paid off as our project was selected to represent Temasek Polytechnic for the PSRP(Polytechnic Student Research Programme) in 2 years running. We really got to thank Dr. Eng and Kevin for their help.

Although we had won, we didn't feel really elated because we felt that we did not do well enough during our presentation. As Harold mentioned, "You don't want to just win, you want to win with style.".

That's the mentality that we all should have - "If we are going to do something, we are going to do our best. If not, I rather we not do it.".

Integration of 3D Application

2009-02-13T00:16:00.009+08:00

9 February 2009

I worked on integrating with Leonard's menu patch. Managed to integrate successfully with his part before lunch. However, there were some enhancement to be done. Here are some picture of the integrated 3D application:

After lunch, I changed my desktop's wallpaper. Here's the website I got my wallpaper from. It checks the computer's resolution and generates the wallpaper image accordingly. Here's how my desktop looks now:

Done with customizing my desktop, I modified the codes for 'Moving' function and passed my part to Ryan for integration. While integrating, I continued working on enhancing the 'Functions' Menu'. Bernard then brought a few guys to upgrade the projector. Before the 5.30pm, I managed to finish my enhancement and passed ryan the latest patches for integration. I also tried to help Leonard with his function with You Hock.

10 February 2009

I worked on the 'Clear All' function of 'Whiteboard' application with You Hock. We completed the function before heading down to Marketplace to grab a bite as we skipped breakfast to work on our application. We resumed work and tried implementing a new function for the 'Whiteboard' application - creating a new marker when a laser is shone on the screen. Before going for lunch, I showed Kevin my progress for the 3D application.

During lunch, we discussed on what are our next plans. I was tasked to work on the interaction with more than 1 models. Kevin also gave us advice on what we should do when applying for university.

When we were back at the office, I worked on the interaction with more than 1 models while the You Hock and Ming Hong worked on 'Whiteboard' application's new function. Before the end of the day, I allowed the scaling and rotating on the second model. I also helped out with the testing of the 'Whiteboard' application.

11 February 2009

When I got to work, I tried to improve the rotation function by disallowing the auto-rotation of the models. Managed to finish the rotation before we discussed on how we should we present to Mr Yeak tomorrow when he arrives. After the discussion, I added a new function to the 'Function Menu' - make the menu button unable to be selected while a model is moving/scaling/rotating. I managed to finish disallowing the moving and scaling button to be selected before lunch.

After lunch, we practiced for how we should present our work to Mr Yeak when he arrive for the rest of the day.

12 February 2009

I did the write-up for TP IT project show with leonard in the morning till about 9.30am before going through a dry run on what we are going to present to Mr Yeak later. After going through 1 round of dry run, we went back to do our tasks. Leonard and I managed to finish the write-up before lunch and emailed it to Kevin.

After lunch, we cleaned up the lap in preparation for Mr Yeak's visit. Kevin then came in to gave us feed back on how we could improve the project write-up. We did another round of dry run before Mr Yeak came. Kevin started by introducing him to what Lightdraw is about and what we had been doing here at IHPC. We showed him the 4PP, Puzzle application, the 3x2 tile display, the Whiteboard application and what we are currently doing.

After the demonstration, Mr Yeak went to the meeting room with Kevin and Ming Hong while we continued doing our work. I edited the project write up and after finishing, I continued working on the 3D application. At the end of the day, I managed to finish the interaction with 2 separate models with the mouse. Here's some picture of the application:

13 February 2009

We had a discussion on how long we have to complete our tasks before we end our attachment. So I was task to work on the 3D Model application while Kevin helped us with the IT Project Show write-up. So before lunch, I managed to set the initial position when 2 models are loaded. Kevin also passed me his version of the IT Project Show write-up.

During lunch, Kevin told us how different is being at work and at school. In school, we usually have the group mentality while at work, it is important to make decision by not getting affected by others. He also told us a few of his experiences at work.

After lunch, I went back to the lab and continued working on the 3D Model application. I managed to solve the rotation problem with Ming Hong's help before passing my part over to Ryan for integration. I read through Kevin's version of the IT Project Show write-up and made some changes before sending it to Kevin for the final review. However, he was busy filming the video for our applications. So he asked me to submit the write-up without the images. After submitting the write-up, I went to help Ryan with the integration. We managed to integrate successfully and I continued working on enhancing the 3D Model application - resetting the models to the initial positions when loading. I managed to finish that feature by the end of the day with Ming Hong's help.

Reflection for the week:

It has been a busy week for me at IHPC, rushing the 3D Model application while doing TP IT Project show's write-up. What I had left an impression in my mind this week is not the technical skills, but the conversations we had during lunch. Especially the one about the differences between school and work life.

In school, we often hang around our friends and make decisions to follow our friends even though we may not feel like it. The reason why we do that is to fit in. And it is a mistake to bring this mentality to the work environment. This is so because at work, even though we have teams/groups, we are still individuals with our own way of thinking and doing things.

As Kevin said, I too find it important to have our own stand. So the things I've learnt his week would be very useful, for both in school and at work in the future.

Development of 3D Model App

2009-02-06T10:02:00.010+08:00

2 February 2009

We discussed about using different macro patches instead of array in Javascript. After much debate, we decided to continue working with the Javascript. So we worked on the matching algorithm till lunch.

After lunch, we got help from Cheng Teng. After awhile, he went over to help Ryan and Leonard because they had problems loading the models provided from him. So we went to compare the codes we did in the application with Lightdraw's. We then realized that we missed out one line of code. Added that line of code in and it was working. We finally made progress after so many days of trying.

The application now allows multi-user support. However, if there were 2 pens on the screen and the first pen got idled/removed, only the second laser is able to select the remaining pen. So we discussed on how to solve the problem and concluded to check the 'moving' patch.

Not long after, Kevin came in and told me that I'll start working with Ryan and Leonard on the 3D model application until You Hock and Ming Hong finished the multi-user function before I return to work on the 'Toggle' and 'Idle' function. We continued to work on the multi-user function for the rest of the day.

3 February 2009

After the usual breakfast routine, I installed Kineme 3D plugin with the help of Leonard. After the installation, a pop-up appeared informing me that the trial period would only last for 1 more day as Leonard had installed the plugin before.

I then started to explore what functions could the plugin do and tried to load a model. The Kineme 3D object loader could support different model formats such as .FBX, .DAE, .MD2, DXF, .OBJ, 3DS. However, I was unable to load. Ryan then advice me to restart the computer because he had faced the same problem before. I restarted the computer and the model is then able to load. Here's the model I loaded:

I managed to make the model rotate before lunch. After lunch, I tried making the model move. However, I need to know the model's initial size. So I went to look for Kevin to inform him to inform him about the plugin trial deadline and his suggestion on how to move the model before his meting. He said he would discuss with Ming Hong about the plugin and he asked me to find out if I could set the model's size to 'Fit to Screen'.

I went to help You Hock with the testing of the 'Whiteboard' application before researching on how to fit the 3D model to screen.

After much research, I found out that in Kineme 3D object loader, there's a Normalize function which would set the model's size to fit the screen's size. I then continued working on trying to move the model for the rest of the day.

4 February 2009

I continued working on getting the model to move. I decided to implement an easier way of moving the model - moving the model to where the mouse is clicked. I then asked Ming Hong about what Z-axis rotation is about because I need to change the rotation axis of the model once it is moved. He explained it to me and then I went on to complete the 'Move' function.

Kevin then came in and we showed him our progress. After showing him, I found a cool function in Mac which works like using the remote computer in Windows before heading for lunch. Here's a screenshot:

After lunch, I tried to load the Rolls Royce model. However, it wasn't able to load because my version of Kineme has expired. So I tried using the iMac to load. The iMac's version also expired while trying to load the model. So we went to look for Kevin and informed him about our situation. He went to discussed with Ming Hong and bought the Kineme 3D plugin. We then registered with the serial key provided.

After registering, Kevin taught me a Mac shortcut - apple+tab+q to quit applications because I was attempting to close several applications. After registering, I tried loading the Rolls Royce model again. This time, it took more than 10 minutes and not yet done. So I decided move on and revert my model back to the skateboard to work on the scale function.

Before we left, we saw a very pretty sight of a rainbow from Kevin's desk. Here's a picture of the rainbow:

5 February 2009

I tested the loading of 2 models on the same application after breakfast because Kevin mentioned about getting the 3D application to work with more than 1 models at 1 time. Quartz Composer is able to load more than one as one of the examples that came with Kineme3D could load 3 models. Here's a screenshot of the Quartz Composition:

This means that I have to modify the codes for the 'Moving' function. I guess I'll modify it after I'm done with the 'Scaling' function. After finishing the 'Scaling' function, we left for NUS because we had to attend a talk there. At NUS, we saw Cheng Teng's project.

6 February 2009

I continued working on the 'Scaling' function when I reached the office. Not long, Leonard requested the 'objLoader' plugin as he wanted to test how fast could a ".obj" format model load on it. Before lunch, I managed to scale the model. What's left is only to compute how much to scale down.

Bernard invited us for lunch at level 5 because it's IHPC Chinese New Year Celebration. Here are some pictures I took during lunch:

After lunch, Kevin informed us that we were not suppose to be at the lunch as we were interns and we do not have the same benefit as IHPC's staff. We sent an email to him to apologize and will consult him if we before we do anything.

After apologizing, I asked Ming Hong on how to compute the scaling. He taught me how and I implemented the formula. Once again, this situation showed me how important mathematics is. I managed to finish the 'Scaling' function at the end of the day. I'll integrate my part with Leonard's on Monday.

Reflection for the week:

In a blink of an eye, it's the final month of my attachment here at IHPC. I've truly learnt a lot for the past few months. This week is no exception. I've learnt more about 3D modeling by working on an application to manipulate the model. Normally, to manipulate a model based on pure coding itself is tough. Luckily, we are working on Quartz Composer which provided us an easier platform to manipulate a 3D model.

I've also discovered a few other interesting functions on the Mac with the help of Kevin and listening to some podcasts.

Chinese 'Niu' Year Week

2009-01-30T14:11:00.006+08:00

26 January 2009

No work today as it is the first day of Chinese New Year.

27 January 2009

No work today as it is the second day of Chinese New Year.

28 January 2009

When I arrived, Ryan informed me that I'm working with You Hock on the 'Whiteboard' application and that I'm using the MacBook Pro instead of the iMac in the other room. So I brought myself over to the other room and started customizing the MacBook Pro. Here's how the MacBook Pro looks like:

Not long after, Kevin came in and brief us on what we are to do - an individual article and to listen to a few podcasts from iTunes. I took some reference from Ryan and You Hock and started working on the article.

Kevin then help me printed my article and all four of us read out our articles to Kevin and Cheng Teng. They gave us comments and decided how we should write an article for the IHPC's newsletter. We decided to use Leonard's article format and add in our individual experiences. Leonard and I would work on the article together. However, Leonard also had to work on the 3D application with Ryan. So we decided that Leonard would work with Ryan, and if I had any questions about the article, I would go ask him.

At the end of the day, I managed to finish editing Leonard's article by re-phrasing his sentences. I'll add the individual experiences tomorrow when I get back.

29 January 2009

When we got to the lab, we had a discussion with Kevin, Cheng Teng and Ming Hong about our project plans. We first discussed about the progress of the article. I told them that I'm done with editing Leonard's article, and what's left was just to add our individual experiences. We then discussed about what podcasts we had listened to and we found how useful the podcasts were. Finally, we then discussed about our applications. The decision was to have You Hock and I work on the 'Whiteboard' application with Ming Hong, while the rest work on the 3D application with Cheng Teng. As soon as You Hock and I finish the application, we'll join the rest to work on the 3D application.

After the discussion, I continued to work on the article. At lunchtime, we went to buy plants to add some color to the lab. Here's how our lab's plants look like:

So after decorating the lab with the new plants, I continued working on the article. I managed to finish around 4pm and emailed kevin. Then, I joined Ming Hong and You Hock to work on the 'Whiteboard' application's matching function.

30 January 2009

We continued working on the matching algorithm and managed to do it for the single user. So we tested an realized that the image for the white marker is not displaying when selected. When debugged, I found out that one line of code was missing. By noon, we manage to fix it.

I didn't join the rest for lunch today as I need to fix my LG monitor. After lunch, when the rest came back from lunch, we tried to get the 'Whiteboard' application to go multi-user. Did some testing and it wasn't working as well as we expected. So we spent the day working on the matching algorithm for multi-user.

While working on the matching algorithm, we found out about Quartz Composer persistent memory.

Reflection for the week:

Though it has been a short week at IHPC, I still managed to learn something new - podcast. I found how how useful it is to keep me updated about the latest global news. Besides being updated on the latest global issues, I'm also able to learn new things by listening/watching the podcasts. Few of the things that I've learnt from listening/watching the podcasts are new words and functions on the Mac.

Article Writing Week

2009-01-21T10:25:00.007+08:00

19 January 2009

We brainstormed on how to write the article as soon as we reached. There were 2 type of styles we were discussing about - an interview style and from a third-party view style. After much discussing, we decided on using the interview style. Once decided, You Hock and I went to do a "photo shoot" for Kevin's Lightdraw paper while Ryan and Leonard start working on the article. Here are some of the pictures we took:

After we were done with the "photo shoot", You Hock went to work on the "Drawing Board" application's multi-user function while I joined Ryan and Leonard to work on the article. We used Pages, a word processor and page layout application developed by Apple Inc., to do the article.

As we were unsure if we could use the interview style for the article, we wanted to ask Daryl from Corporate Comms. However, he wasn't at his desk when we went. After lunch, we went to Daryl's desk to try our luck, but he's still not back. So we went to ask Kevin instead. He said we could try and just show him the draft when we were done. We also borrowed the MacSpeech Dictate CD from Kevin as we wanted it.

MacSpeech Dictate, a speech recognition software for Apple Macintosh computers, was fun at first, but it grew to be quite troublesome as the computer might not generate the word that was spoken due to pronunciation. So we went back to the old-school way of typing the article for the rest of the day.

20 January 2009

We continued to work on the article when we reached. We then discussed and decided to try doing a third-party view style instead. So we took what we have done yesterday and converted it. Before lunch, Daryl came in and passed us some rice crackers and mandarines.

After lunch, we continued working on the article. We managed to finish it and passed it around to see if there's anything we need to add on before sending it to Kevin. As Leonard was busy helping Kevin, I went over to help You Hock with the multi-user function.

Not long after, Leonard read the article and said that it was fine. We then sent the article to Kevin for review before the end of the day.

21 January 2009

During breakfast, we were discussing about creating animated gif pictures in Adobe Flash. However, Bernard taught us a neat trick which is easier and faster. By using video editing softwares, we can achieve the same result. I've never thought of such a way.

After breakfast, I continued working on the multi-user function with You Hock. Ming Hong also helped us with this function. In the javascript, we use the "parse" function to try convert string to number. After much research, we found out that only a "+" sign was needed to convert a string to a number.

When we were done making the changes, Terence came in and we showed him our progress of the "Whiteboard" application. After demo-ing, Kevin told Terence about the plans for our new project - 3D model application.

At lunch, You Hock and I left as we were required to head back to school for a feedback session with the school's Director.

22 January 2009

I tested the overlay function in Cocoa with the newer version of the "Whiteboard" application. Everything was working fine except for the same problem; the application is unable to toggle off. After testing, You Hock continued to work while I went to pack my area for Chinese New Year.

After lunch, we spent the rest of the day working on the multi-user function.

23 January 2009

Did not come to work as I had my National Service Medical Check-up.

Reflection for the week:

This week was mainly spent on writing the article and working on the multi-user function.

Writing an article is totally different from the reports I'm used to doing in school. Especially writing an article based on personal experiences. Initially, we thought it would be simple as we are blogging regularly about what we have been doing here at IHPC and how we feel. However, it is not as simple as it seems. Nonetheless, it is still something new I've experienced here at IHPC.

Quartz Composer Whiteboard Application

2009-01-14T16:59:00.019+08:00

12 January 2009

As soon as we reached the office, Leonard showed us a very neat Mac trick. And no, I'm not going to reveal the trick here. On the way out to have breakfast, we were approached by Daryl from Corporate Comms to write an article for IHPC Newsletter: "Powering Discoveries!". We were asked to write about our experiences here in IHPC and the project which we are working on. We need to submit a first draft by the 22 January 2009. I guess we'll have to start drafting the article soon.

After lunch, I helped Leonard and You Hock with their testing before heading back to fixing the Cocoa application's toggle function. However, the result was still fruitless at the end of the day.

13 January 2009

Helped out with the testings of Ryan's, Leonard's and You Hock's features: "Drag and draw" & "Creating new pen". We found some problems when tested. The drawing for the pen did not follow the laser and the pen was unable to drag out of the palette after it is being created. We managed to fix the drawing part before lunch with the help of Ming Hong.

After lunch, we managed to fix the dragging out of palette function before showing Kevin our progress. Here's how our application currently looks like:

Kevin gave us comments on how we could improve the application and what are the plans after that. I've also told him about my problem with the Cocoa and he said that Ming Hong would help me on that. After the discussion, You Hock went for his video shoot as he missed the video shoot last week.

Once You Hock was done with with his video shoot, we continued working on the application. Ryan and You Hock worked on touching up the version we showed Kevin to create a working demo-able version while Leonard and I designed the new pens, eraser and palette in Photoshop Elements.

I managed to finish designing the eraser by the end of the day.

14 January 2009

I discussed with Leonard on how we should design the new pens when we reached the office. We then agreed to switch the design of the pens and eraser. So I used the design I completed yesterday and used it as the pen while Leonard designed the new eraser. We managed to finish designing the pens before lunch and exported them to ".gif" format. However the images are distorted.

After lunch, I edited the pen images with Leonard's help. Here's a before and after picture of the pens:

As soon as we were done, we showed the images to Kevin and Ming Hong on the large display.

Ming Hong commented that we should smoothen the edges of the images. I guess we'll smoothen the edges of the image tomorrow.

15 January 2009

After the usual breakfast routine with Bernard, I helped Ryan with making the new palette slide in when the application is toggled while Leonard and You Hock worked on their task. Ryan and I managed to complete the patches for making the palette slide in before lunch. Here's how our patches to make the palette slide in looks like:

After lunch, we first tested the sliding palette with the mouse and it was successful. We then moved on to test the sliding palette with the laser, but the result was not as expected. Ryan and I seek help from Kevin and Ming Hong and we managed to solve the problem.

Ming Hong also commented that the image for the palette is too big and Leonard went to crop the palette image. After Leonard crop the image, we went to re-position the palette. After the re-positioning the palette, I helped You Hock check the positioning of the trash bin, eraser, colors and brush size and testing for the rest of the day.

16 January 2009

As soon as we got to the office You Hock and I discussed on what we had to do while Leonard starts on writing the article. You Hock and I decided that we should finish up the smaller features before making the major ones. We managed to change the image of the pen when dragged to the palette, disable the toggle function when a pen is being dragged or is drawing and disallowing the pen from changing size, color and mode when it is drawing before lunch.

We wanted to change the codes for the "Drag and Draw" function but were unsure on how to go about doing it as Ryan went for his NS medical check up. Luckily, he came back by noon and was able to help us on that.

Since Ryan is back, I went over to help Leonard with the article. We decided that we should refer to past articles on the newsletter so that we could get a brief idea on how we should go about writing it. Hence, we went the the receptionist to ask for the past newsletter issues. Here's a picture of the issues we received for reference:

After reading a few articles, we realized that what we had written was totally of a different caliber. So we spent the rest of the day researching on how to write an article.

Reflection for the week:

This week have been spent on making enhancement and changes to the "Whiteboard" application in Quartz Composer. In the process of enhancing the application, I realized that by improving the application's visuals, it would make others want to try the application - like how the desktop for Microsoft Windows 7 looks like a Mac. I would definitely keep this lesson in mind for my applications in the future.

On a side note, I found out a really cool "hidden" feature in Safari. In Safari, you could do this:

Cool huh? =P

Video Shooting Week

2009-01-07T09:55:00.023+08:00

5 January 2009

Helped Leonard and You Hock with their testing after having breakfast. Once their testing was done and their functions was working fine, we started integrating our parts together. We only managed to finish integration a few hours after lunch. Tested the integrated application and found some problems because we forgot to copy a few patches while integrating. We tested it again to make sure it was working fine. Here's a picture of our testing:

After making sure the integrated version was working, we showed the application to Kevin. He seemed please with our progress. We then went to see what Ming Hong was working on. He used iGlasses, which adjusts and manipulate the webcam's video settings, to make Lightdraw work with iSight. I guess the setting up for Lightdraw is just going to get easier.

We then made plans for the next phase of the "Drawing Board" application. Here's the plan:

Drag and draw within the pen(Ryan)
Transparency of the images(Leonard)
Dragging a pen out of the palette(You Hock)
Getting the Quartz Composition to work in Cocoa(Myself)

As Leonard and my part for this phase seemed to be the easiest, we would be helping the others once we are done with our parts.

On a side note, Kevin agreed to let my build my DIY PC in the lab tomorrow. Will be heading down to Sim Lim Square tomorrow to purchase the stuff needed.

6 January 2009

I tried to run the integrated Quartz Composition in Cocoa, but it is still unable to compile and run. This was the same problem which I faced last week when I tried to run the Quartz Composition of the 'Toggle' function. Tried to get it working before lunch, but it was fruitless.

At lunch time, we headed down to Sim Lim Square to purchase the parts to build my PC. And the rest of the day was spent on building the PC. These are the stuff we bought:

When we got back to the office, we started fitting all the parts together. Here's a before and after picture:

And the finished product:

Kevin almost jumped when he found out that we only installed Windows XP on it. However, it was a good experience as I never really got so close to the hardwares in my life until today.

To Kevin:
Don't worry Kevin, I'll install Linux and stuff once I'm done installing the required hardware drivers and softwares. As for the Mac, I'll get one before I get into university. =)

7 January 2009

We tried to find out what new products was introduced at Macworld 2009 and this is what Leonard found:

Initially, we thought it was true and was commenting how it was easier to use a keyboard to type instead until Bernard told us that this video was a hoax. It turns out that the video was made by The Onion is an American "fake news" organization, which publishes satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news through an entertainment newspaper and website.

After watching a few more videos made by The Onion, I continued with what I left of yesterday. Leonard came over to help me as his part was done and we managed to get the Cocoa application to build and run. The coordinates for the Quartz Composition in Cocoa was off and tried to fix it by changing the initial window position of the cocoa application.

With the help of You Hock, we managed to set the initial window position of the cocoa application. Here's the code we used in the Cocoa application:

NSRect screenRect = [[NSScreen mainScreen] frame];
screenRect.size.width = 1400;
screenRect.origin.x = 1680;
screenRect.origin.y = 0;

We continued to test and found out that there was a problem. The integrated application was able to toggle on, but not off. I guess we'll have to find out the problem tomorrow as we had to go to the pantry for our big boss, Terence's birthday celebration. At the celebration, You Hock was asked to sing. Here's a video of him singing:

After the celebration, we went to take a video for Lightdraw. For today, we shot the clip for the ease of setting up Lightdraw and Ming Hong's "White Board" application. Here's a sneak peak of our behind the scenes:

8 January 2009

I changed the wallpaper of my iMac(I guess I've caught the Chinese New Year bug) when I reached the office. Here's how my iMac looks:

Once my wallpaper had been changed, Ming Hong came in and gave us a quick mathematics lesson on matrix and how it is applicable in application development. I never thought these maths formula could be applicable in real life situation when I took my mathematics lesson in school. Nonetheless, I've still learnt something new today. =)

After the quick mathematics lesson, I continued the checking for the Cocoa application. The toggling value changed, but the image of the pen and palette is still there. I discussed with Leonard and You Hock on how to solve the problem. They suggested that I ask Kevin on how to solve the problem. I guess that's what I would do when we get back on Monday as Kevin and Ming Hong have a meeting tomorrow.

Helped Leonard and You Hock with the testing of their parts before heading out for lunch. After lunch, we integrated our parts together. Around 3pm, we continued our video shoot with Cheng Teng on the applications which worked with Lightdraw - Cooliris, Puzzle game and 4 Player Pong. When we were done with the video shoot, we asked Cheng Teng to send us the footage as we wanted to create a behind the scenes video(it should be fun and amusing).

After the video shoot, we continued with integration before calling it a day.

9 January 2009

When I arrived at the office, Kevin asked us to pack the room as it was messy after the video shoot before heading for his meeting. So we packed the table and did the checking for the new palette position. During lunchtime, Kevin came in and told us about a power shutdown later in the day and we were given the day off.

We decided to head down to Temasek Polytechnic Open House because it has been awhile since we have been back to school. At the open house, my final year project we being used. Here's a picture of my project's booth:

Reflection for the week:

This week at IHPC has been a very fruitful week for me. I've learnt stuff such as building a PC and more about Cocoa. I've also experienced the feeling of being in a video shoot as it was my first time taking a video.

On building my own PC, it feels like I'm back in school for my Computer Architecture lesson when we "operated" on the school's computer. However, it was just a minor "operation" compared to the one here at IHPC where I went to the shop and get the individual computer parts and putting the parts together. It was also my first time installing the Windows OS onto a computer. It was really a great experience and would definitely help me to cherish my computer more. However, I still feel that I have to read up more on the different hardwares in the market and how it affects the performance of the computer(as mentioned in last week's post).

Video shooting-wise, it was my first time taking a video and having a "cameraman" and a "director" instructing us on how we should position ourselves and what we should do in front of the camera. I'm sure that this experience is not what any other IT interns would get to experience and am truly grateful to have my internship here at IHPC doing Lightdraw.

Bye 2008, Hi 2009

2008-12-31T11:35:00.009+08:00

29 December 2008

I tested the toggle feature(mouse version) in Cocoa as soon as I reached the office. However it does not work as the Cocoa application doesn't read the mouse position from the Quartz Composition. Ming Hong said that perhaps mouse events are needed to be passed over to the Cocoa application. After much consideration, I decided to just work with the OSC version because the last time when I tested the 4PP(OSC version) on Cocoa, it was working.

After lunch, I ran the Cocoa application on the Mac Pro. However, the Cocoa application was unable to build. So I wasn't able to test it. I then decided to move on to the next feature, idle and remove. I used the stop watch patch as the timer. The idea for this function is when the laser is off the object, it will be in an idling state. After 30 seconds, the object will be removed from the screen.

I worked on this function and managed to finish it at the end of the day. I guess I'll do the testing tomorrow when I get back to the office.

30 December 2008

As soon as I got to the office, I integrated the idle/remove function with Ryan for testing. The integration took up most of the morning and when I finally tested, the function was working well. However, it interfered with Ryan's trashing/removing function.

After lunch, I went through the patches with Ryan and we managed to solve the problem. After a second round of testing, we found another problem. The thrashing/removing function only hides the object from view, not removing it. So the rest of the day was spent googling on how to remove the object.

31 December 2008

It's a half day today as it is the last day of 2008. I spent the day researching on how to remove the object. However, I wasn't able to find any helpful information. I guess I got to think of another idea on how to prevent the object from getting selected after it is removed from the screen.

1 January 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2 January 2009

First day back at work for the year 2009! Kevin and Bernard is also back from their leave.

We updated Kevin with our progress then headed back to do our own stuff. I brainstormed on how to prevent the object from being selected after it is removed from the screen before going for lunch.

After lunch, I started to implement my idea on how to prevent the object from being selected after removal from screen and tested it. It was working fine. We then stop our work for a moment to discuss about how we were going to do the integration. However, Leonard's and You Hock's feature only near completion. So Ryan and I went to help Leonard and You Hock on their feature for the rest of the day.

Reflection for the week:

Moving onto a new year, the things I've done here at IHPC is still the same. However, the things I've learnt here at IHPC is just priceless. For example on the last day of 2008, besides the research done, I've also learnt about hardware interfaces and how it affects the performance of the computer.

Quoted from Harold, "What differentiates good programmers and programmers is their knowledge of hardware." This sentence made an impact on me as my knowledge for hardware isn't strong. I guess I'll start reading up about the different types of hardware and their functions.

Christmas Week

2008-12-23T09:27:00.006+08:00

22 December 2008

It's either the Monday blues or it's the holiday season that made me feel rather lazy when I reached the 'working space'. Still, I managed to kick-start my engine and started working on the feature which I am assigned to - to toggle the application on/off.

I needed to get some help from Ming Hong as his 'Drawing Board' application is similar to ours. However, I found out that Ming Hong wouldn't be back till tomorrow. I guess I'll try to figure it out how he manages to toggle his application and ask him tomorrow.

I fiddled with Lightdraw and Ming Hong's application, I realized that Lightdraw was actually using X11 and when the application launches it uses OSC. I tried to figure out how he manages to change Lightdraw's mode to OSC when his application launches. You Hock then told me that one method was to use the application to set Lightdraw's mode to X11 first before launching.

After lunch, I went to help Ryan on his feature for the rest of the day.

23 December 2008

I asked Ming Hong about how his toggling logic work and he told me that his application was built on Lightdraw, using its memory. Therefore, there wasn't any mode switching. After asking, I went on to work on toggling the overlay. In the process of doing, I've also taught the rest how to store a variable by using the Maths patch as Quartz Composer itself was running on a while loop, which makes it almost impossible to store a variable.

Not too long after, I managed to complete my toggling feature and Ming Hong came in and taught us a little about 3D graphics before going for lunch.

After lunch, I tested my feature on the big screen with X11, which was working fine. I tried testing it with OSC and found out that the OSC receiver patch wasn't working as well as the coordinates for the laser could not be read. After debugging with Ryan, we realized that we forgot to copy 1 patch. Before we finished our day, we tested our applications and are pleased to say that it was working fine.

24 December 2008

It's Christmas eve and we are here for half a day. I tried to integrate my application in Cocoa, but it could not be loaded. So I re-did the Cocoa application for the overlay which took up the rest of the half day. I guess I'll test the Cocoa application on Monday when we get back. At around 11.15am, we went to the pantry for a mini-celebration before leaving. It's going to be a long weekend!(Yay)

25 December 2008

Merry Christmas!

26 December 2008

We were given a day off by Kevin!(Woots)

Reflection for the week:

It has been a very short week for me. Luckily, I managed to finish the toggling feature(I will feel bad if I didn't). I had also learnt a little about 3D graphics, which is pretty interesting.

Overlay in QC/Cocoa

2008-12-18T09:40:00.010+08:00

15 December 2008

We did our dry runs when we got to the office. Kevin arrived at 11.30am and we discussed about the "Drawing Board" application before we presented to him. Kevin gave us comments on our presentations and a few more tips before going for lunch.

After lunch, we collected the stuff from SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 from Kevin's desk and brought it back to our "working space". After bringing back the stuff, I studied the Overlay example to see how the overlaying is done in Quartz Composer for the rest of the day.

16 December 2008

It's a rainy day today, which made most of us pretty sleepy. We started the day by having breakfast in the pantry, where we met Kevin and his parents. After breakfast, we went back to our "working space" to continue researching on the overlay. Before lunch, we had a short discussion with Kevin regarding what we would be doing on Friday. It was decided that Ryan, Leonard and You Hock would be presenting to the kids while I toggle between the applications.

After lunch, Ming Hong got a call that the Lightdraw at Fusionworld had some problems. So we went there to get it fixed. After troubleshooting, we realized that the projector's setting was changed. Ming Hong adjusted the projector's setting and the application was working fine.

Went back to our "working space" to continue researching on the overlay. After much research, the overlay is actually done by making the application's window transparent. At the end of the day, I managed to find the codes to make the window look transparent in Cocoa. Shall implement the codes tomorrow.

17 December 2008

Reached the office as usual and continued with the overlay. We managed to make the application's window background to be semi-transparent and set it to full screen upon running before lunch. This was done with the help of this website.

After lunch, I tested the application to see if I could load a OSC-based Quartz Composer application in Cocoa with my 'CaterpillarOSC' application. However, it isn't working as expected. So I did some research and found out that I may require an OSC framework plugin to be added to the Cocoa application. Found the plugin from this website and downloaded it.

I tested the application again by loading another OSC-based Quartz Composer application, '4 Player Pong', in Cocoa to test it. This time it worked. However, the positioning of the application is off. So I guess we have to revise the positioning of the application.

At the end of the day, we were able to make the 'Overlay' application to be on top of all the applications by specify the window’s level to NSScreenSaverWindowLevel. We were also able to set the position for the Quartz Composer application in Cocoa by setting some properties in Cocoa.

On a side note, I've changed my wallpaper and the dock's position. Here's a picture of my new wallpaper and the overlay running on it:

18 December 2008

We planned for the 'Whiteboard' application when we arrived and here are our assigned tasks - Leonard is in-charge of the palette design, Ryan is in-charge of dragging the image, thrashing, idling and removing of image, You Hock is in-charge of integrating the application with OSC, the drawing and erasing while I am in-charge of toggling the application/overlay on and off. However, Leonard and I would help both Ryan and You Hock once we are done with our parts.

After the planning, we went ahead to do with our individual task(s). I brainstormed for ways for toggling the application and managed to come up with 2 ways before lunch. First way is by using Apple's hot spots, but we have to toggle 'Lightdraw' to X11 mode in order to make use of the hot spots. The second way is to assign a small space in the corner of the screen to just toggle the overlay. I guess I'll have to wait for Ming Hong to be back so that I could get a brief idea on how he toggle his 'Drawing' application.

After lunch, we experimented with out of body experience. However, we did not get the expected result. So we googled for some experiments and learnt more about the out of body experiences. Here's a video on one of the experiments:

A short while later, Kevin came in and informed us that all of us needed to present tomorrow instead of the initial 3 person. So we spent the rest of the day doing dry runs of the presentation and set up the applications needed for the demo.

19 December 2008

It's Friday and IHPC has a Project Reachout 'Back-To-School Celebration' with Beyond Social Services. Kevin came in early to pass us our name tags and taught us how we should present to them. We also received the schedule for the day, the first demo is starting at 10.15am. This timing was earlier than expected because the past demo are mostly after lunch. Luckily we did our dry runs for the presentation yesterday.

The kids reached around 10am and were seated in the Visualization Chamber Hall.

We demo-ed from 10.15am to 12.15pm(Kevin did most of the talking) and helped the kids with their crossword puzzle before going to the pantry for lunch. IHPC ordered McDonalds and it was delivered in a huge box. It's my first time seeing McDonald's Delivery delivering in boxes.

After lunch, we helped to transport the gifts for the kids down to the seminar room in level 15 and arranged them. We ushered the kids to the seminar room and the staff began distributing the gifts to the kids before watching the movie 'Surf's Up'.

We headed back to our lab because we wanted to rest. After the movie, the kids came back down to the Visualization Chamber Hall to take a group photo before heading to the pantry for tea-break. And this was how we spent the day.

Reflection for the week:

This week has been a rather fruitful week for me. I've learnt how to adjust the windows properties in Cocoa and even did an overlay in Quartz Composer. However, what left a better impression on me was what we did on Friday.

Unlike in secondary school, which community service was a compulsory thing, we hardly get to do community service work in Polytechnic. Luckily for me, I've done some community work through my 3 years in Polytechnic. This would be the first local community work as the community work I've done so far in my Polytechnic are overseas. One of the volunteers told us that we were very lucky to help out as this was a 'once-in-a-year thing'. I guess we are. We were also able to make use of this chance to work on our presentation skills by practicing and trying to pick up more tips from Kevin.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 Week

2008-12-12T09:01:00.012+08:00

8 December 2008

No work today as it's a public holiday. Selamat Hari Raya Haji!

9 December 2008

Met up with Kevin after breakfast to discuss about our plans for this week as Kevin, Ming Hong and Bernard would be busy with SIGGRAPH Asia 2008. We would be working on our presentation slides as well as brainstorm for our new application. Leonard and You Hock would be learning Quartz Composer too.

After the planning, we received the installation disc for iWork and Microsoft Office for Mac so that we could work on our presentation slides. After the installation, we went over to try out the Smartboard to get inspiration for our new application. Here's a picture of what we drew on the Smartboard before going for lunch:

After lunch, we watched videos on Steve Jobs on iTunes because Leonard did not watch it with us the last time. We were told to take note especially on how Steve Jobs present. Here's on of the video we watched:

Passed my Quartz Composer notes to Leonard after watching the video so that he could start picking up Quartz Composer as soon as possible. We then brainstormed for our new application for the rest of the day. Will share what we had brainstormed on our new application to Kevin next week after SIGGRAPH Asia 2008.

10 December 2008

We worked on our presentation slides for the entire day. I decided to use Keynote instead of Microsoft Powerpoint because:

I wanted to try out Keynote.

I prefer the animations in Keynote to the ones in Microsoft Powerpoint

Keynote is not as complex as Microsoft Powerpoint

Had some trouble of getting used to Keynote as it was new to me. However, I managed to adapt to it quickly as it was pretty user-friendly. Here's a sneak peak at my presentation for Monday:

11 December 2008

Attended SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. It is the first ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia. There were lots of projects there, mainly animations and visualization. I guess I'll let the pictures do the talking:

12 December 2008

Worked on our presentations for the entire day. I finished doing my presentation slides before lunch and did a dry run of our presentations. After the dry run, I realized that I should prepare a script. Wrote my script and practiced it for a few times before we ended our day.

Reflection for the week:

It had really been an eye-opening experience for me at SIGGRAPH Asia 2008, experiencing some of the technologies which I haven't had the slightest idea of. I had learnt quite some stuff about computer graphics such as rendering of 3D models and how NVIDIA® Quadro® is build for providing better rendering in Adobe® Creative Suite® 4.

Presentation-wise, I've chosen to use iWork Keynote to Microsoft Powerpoint. Keynote provides better animation, visual effects and is user-friendly. The animation and visual effects from Keynote would help in my presentation by allowing my listeners to remember what I had presented better.

On a side note, I think I'm becoming more a an Apple fan after using the iMac for almost 2 months. iMac's OS have always kept me amazed. Here's a screenshot of the interface which amazed me:

The UI for Mac is simply good. It's no wonder the UI for Microsoft's latest OS, Windows 7, looks exactly the same as the Mac's UI.

Completion of 4PP(4 Player Pong)

2008-12-05T15:16:00.008+08:00

1 December 2008

Arrived the usual time, but was unable to access the office because the time I reached was not within 'office hours'. Luckily, the pantry auntie saw me and opened the door for me. So I continued doing with the scoring feature of 4PP(the short form for 4 Player Pong). Not long after, the rest arrived. I asked them if they had any problems accessing the office, and they said no. I test my card again during lunch and it works fine. So I guess that our card could only access the office after 8.30am. I guess I need to go find the person in charge to change the card's timing.

For the rest of the day, I worked on checking which paddle has the last touch of the ball.

2 December 2008

In the morning, Ryan and I set up Lightdraw using You Hock's MacBook Pro so that Ryan could continue working on his part.This is because Leonard and You Hock needed the Mac Pro for the 2x3 Tile Display. We used the DV cam instead of the webcam because the webcam is not able to change its settings. After setting up, I continued working on the score function for the rest of the day.

3 December 2008

Showed Kevin our progress for 4PP and continued to work on the score function till lunch. As I was not progressing much due to the limitations of Quartz Composer, I decided to ask Kevin for help. So after Kevin finished his meeting, he came over and taught me how to debug my application by displaying the value. With Kevin's help, I managed to finish the score feature. I also proceed on to display the winning message. You Hock and Leonard suggested that I make the winning message flash. So I managed to make the winning message flash by the end of the day.

4 December 2008

Ryan and I integrated our parts together as soon as we arrived in the morning. We managed to integrate our parts successfully before lunch. Bernard and Ming Hong also tested it before we head out for lunch.

After lunch, Ryan and I help You Hock to set up Lightdraw at the 2x3 tile display as Leonard wasn't here due to his National Service medical check-up. After setting up and testing You Hock's work in the 2x3 tile display side, Kevin called us over and shared about how he presents his work. He also showed us how Steve Jobs influenced him in his presentation by letting us watch a video on how Steve Jobs presented.

After the sharing, Ryan and I showed our integrated 4PP to Kevin. Kevin gave us some comments on how to improve the gameplay. Ryan and I agreed to make the changes and finish it by tomorrow.

5 December 2008

Ryan and I worked on the changes agreed yesterday. We started by doing the display score function. I displayed the score in front of the paddles as suggested by Kevin. However, Leonard and Ryan suggested that the game would look better if we display the score in the 4 corners and use the paddle colors to identify the scores. So I did as what they suggested. While doing so, Ryan and I discovered a bug in our application, the score for the blue paddle was wrong. Spent the whole morning debugging and we managed to solve the bug before lunch.

After lunch, we worked on getting the game to start once the laser is shone on the ball. We managed to finish this feature by mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day compiling the applications needed for SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 Conference next week. Here's a picture of our final application:

Reflection for the week:

I've learnt how important it is to know how to debug, regardless of the IDE and programming language. For example, if I knew how to debug in Quartz Composer earlier, I could have help Ryan on his part and finish the whole application faster.

I had also picked up quite a handful of tips on how to do a presentation. Apart from what we had learnt in CMSK(a module in school) and the practices we had after every module, what Kevin shared with us would help me in how I am going to present in the future - less words on slides, more talk.

4-Player Pong in Quartz Composer

2008-11-26T09:42:00.012+08:00

24 November 2008

Met Kevin while I went to collect the keys to open the "working space". He had returned from the Conference in the US and passed me some souvenirs he got for us. These are what he brought back for us:

Rested at my desk after opening until the rest returned from breakfast. I did not join them for breakfast as I was feeling unwell. I continued with the sample application to get a better idea of Quartz Composer. Managed to get the sample application to work the the Lightdraw through the OSC receiver.

After finishing, I helped Ming Hong in setting up the new DV Cam. Here's our new DV Cam:

We had some problems in getting it to work after setting up. So we requested help from Cheng Teng. After fiddling with the camera and its settings, we were able to get it working with Lightdraw before lunch.

After lunch, I continued working on the '4 Player Pong' on Quartz Composer while Ryan tried to modify the existing Lightdraw application,'Coverflow Gestures', for the rest of the day. The interface of the '4 Player Pong' and the modification of the 'Coverflow Gesture' application were done by the end of the day. Here's the interface for the '4 Player Pong' on Quartz Composer:

25 November 2008

Joined the rest for breakfast today as I was feeling slightly better. Continue to work on the '4 Player Pong' after breakfast. Studied the javascript patches on the examples I had downloaded and tried to do something similar, but was unsuccessful due to the difference in versions. So at around 11.30am, we started setting up the applications we needed for the demo to Kevin before having lunch.

After lunch, we went to check whether the applications we needed were there for the demo. So around 2.30pm, Kevin came over and we showed him the applications we did for the past weeks. We also gave him an update on our progress so far. As soon as we finished the demo, Kevin brought us to visit Fusionworld, a state-of-the-art technology showroom by A*STAR. It's a very cool place. We visited there to check the set up for Lightdraw, so that You Hock and Leonard could get a rough idea on how to set up Lightdraw on the 3x2 Tile Display. We've also tried the "legendary touch table". Shall not comment on it much. Here are some pictures I took there:

We got back to our work after the tour of Fusionworld. Ryan and I struggled getting the javascript to work for the rest of the day. I hope we could get something to work by tomorrow.

26 November 2008

Breakfast as usual with the rest before heading back to work. I was studying the applications I downloaded and decided to work with the existing patches in Quartz Composer instead of javascript. So by lunch time, I was able to get the ball to move.

After lunch, Bernard and Ming Hong brought us to visit the 'interns level' on level 14 before going to the sky gardens. Level 14 is totally different working environment from the environment we are in. After visiting level 14, I do really feel very lucky to be here working on Lightdraw. And Bernard have been joking about sending us to level 14 if we are unable to complete our tasks on time. Oh wells. Here are some pictures we took there:

Went to look for Kevin to give him an update on our progress after touring the building. Then we continued doing our work. Having some trouble to give the moving ball a constant speed after changing directions. The codes we used in the C++ version of '4 Player Pong' does not work nicely here in Quartz Composer. So I worked on getting the ball to move in a constant speed after changing direction for the entire day. However, I was still unsuccessful at the end of the day. Hopefully, I could complete this task by tomorrow and start doing the collision-checking between the ball and the paddles.

27 November 2008

Kevin and the rest are having their company retreat, so we were left to do our work by ourselves for the rest of the day. I tried getting the ball to move in random directions before lunch, but was unsuccessful. This is due to LFO patch not accepting negative values.

We had lunch by ourselves at the Dover Market nearby. The chicken rice there was great. Headed back to work after lunch. I decided to move on to working on other functions as I do not want to spend too much time on developing the '4 Player Pong' game because we still have other applications to work on. So I did the collision checking between the ball and the paddle for the rest of the day. Managed to check the collision for 1 paddle successfully at the end of the day. Hopefully, I could finish my part of the application by tomorrow so that Ryan and I could integrate our parts together.

28 November 2008

I continued with the paddles' collision checking after breakfast. Managed to finish the collision checking before lunch. On our way out to buy lunch, we 'upgraded' our visitor's pass to a temporary pass(woots!). We packeted our lunch back from the hawker centre opposite Fusionopolis as the weather wasn't looking good.

After lunch, I tried to pause the application after the ball went out of bounds. Did some research, but wasn't able to implement it at the end of the day. Will do it by Monday. Kevin and the rest had a demo on Lightdraw and the 3x2 tile display to the JC students at 2pm. After the demo, we ended the day by having a meeting to update Kevin on our progress so far and the plan for next week.

Reflection for the week:

This week has been quite a struggle with the Quartz Composer. Perhaps I'm still not used to visual programming. Hopefully I'll get used to it by next week. I had also discovered a few things about Quartz Composer, like Quartz Composer is running on a while loop and some limitations like being unable to store a variable after generating a random number. However, all programming languages has its own limitations and we are taught to work around those limitations(at least for me as my Major Project is done in a programming language not taught in school). The journey here at IHPC has been very fruitful so far, and I hope that I will get to learn more in the next few months.

On a side note, I tested out something on the iMac after reading about it on Digital Life. We could actually play 'Tetris' on the Terminal. Here's a screenshot of it and the steps taken:

Steps taken To Play Tetris on Terminal:

Open Terminal(duh)

Type in 'emacs' and press Enter

Once it's loaded, press Esc

Type 'x'(At the bottom of the screen, you'll see M-x)

Type tetris and press Enter(you are ready to play!)

Steps Taken to Exit Tetris on Terminal:

Press Control-X

Press Control-C

Hope this helps. Enjoy!

Working with Quartz Composer

2008-11-18T17:12:00.018+08:00

17 November 2008

First day of the week again. Kevin is not around as he flew off to the USA for a conference. I started of the day by having breakfast with Bernard opposite Fusionopolis. After breakfast, I tried to make the 'Pong' game start when a laser is detected instead of pressing the spacebar. It doesn't work because Ming Hong said that it is due to the 'cvWaitkey()'. So I used the 'usleep()' method instead of the 'cvWaitkey()' and it worked fine. Ming Hong also showed us a video from a website. Here's the video:

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo

Cool huh? Click here to find out more. Bought lunch from the 'Market Place' after watching the video as it was raining. After lunch, I worked on getting the paddles to move smoother; I reduced the movement to just 2% of the canvas's height. It seems to be moving a lot smoother compared to the last version. However, Leonard commented that the movement seemed a little slow. So I guess I'll fix that tomorrow or something.

Ryan spent the entire day trying to make the paddle move towards the laser while Leonard and You Hock worked on the 3x2 tile display. Here are some pictures of them working on the 3x2 tile display:

By the end of the day, Ryan only managed to make the paddle 'teleport' to where the laser was shone while I managed to read up on 3 chapters of the Quartz Composer notes given by Kevin. Shall try to complete reading and doing the tutorials on Quartz Composer by tomorrow so that we could start working on the application in Quartz Composer.

18 November 2008

Had breakfast with Bernard in the morning again. However, we were joined by Ryan, You Hock and Leonard. After breakfast, I started to do the tutorials for Quartz Composer. I followed the tutorial closely and managed to make my composition into a screensaver and a QuickTime Movie. Here are some screenshots of my work before lunch:

Continued on the tutorials after lunch. Managed to create 3 Cocoa applications based on the tutorials. The first example was fine, but I faced some problems on the second example. After I completed the second example and ran it, the example did not work properly. So I tried re-doing but still faced the same problem. So I decided to skip and move on. So by the end of the day, these are the Cocoa applications that I did:

So I'm left with the last 2 chapters of the tutorial. Shall complete it before lunch tomorrow and start fixing our 'Pong' game before converting it in Quartz Composer.

19 November 2008

Had breakfast with Bernard and the rest again today. After breakfast, I continued with my final 2 chapters of the tutorial. Had some difficulties with the first tutorial because the tutorial did not really give very clear directions on where to find the example files to edit. Managed to find the file and complete the 2 tutorials before lunch.

Wanted to continue fixing our 'Pong' game after lunch. However, I encountered some problems because the function I did 2 days ago, doesn't seem to work. The game does not start when it detects the laser. I still needed to press a key on the keyboard before the game starts. Ming Hong tried to help by using the Lightdraw's key listener for Mac. The game starts when a laser is shone, but is unable to exit because the key listener does not read from the keyboard(according to Ming Hong). At the end of the day, we decided to revert back to the previous version and ignore the laser problem. We had to move on to the Quartz Composer soon. Will start working for the 'Pong' on Quartz Composer by tomorrow.

20 November 2008

Met up with Bernard and the rest for breakfast in the office again. After breakfast, Ryan and I wanted to test and fix the 'Pong' game. However, we were unable to test it because there was a meeting going on. So I tried to get Lightdraw to work with one of the example provided in Quartz Composer. The example application was working fine with the X11, but I would like it to work with the OSC to enable a multi-user mode. With reference from the 'Clouds Multi-User' application, I tried doing it but was unsuccessful when tested.

Had lunch after testing and was asked by Ming Hong to try fixing the existing Quartz Composer's applications to work with the existing Lightdraw. He explained to me what was the difference between the old and the new Lightdraw. Here are the differences:

blobCount now sends an int of 0-12 instead of 1-12
hold now is a string type instead of a boolean

After understanding the differences, I tested the Quartz Composer applications with the new Lightdraw. The 'Clouds Multi-User', 'Teapot 3D' and 'RollsRoyce 3D' application are working fine with the new Lightdraw as they do not require the hold function. So I spent the rest of the day studying the 'Fusionworld' application. Hopefully I could fix it by tomorrow before lunch as some kids will be coming over in the afternoon.

21 November 2008

Arrived early, but did not have breakfast with Bernard as he already ate. So I continued to study before modifying 'Fusionworld' application to make it work with the new Lightdraw. Before lunch, I managed to finish modifying the application. Waited till after lunch to test it. The application works with the new Lightdraw(yay!). However, only the 3D models are not displaying properly. The images and videos are all working fine. Ming Hong and Cheng Teng tried to see what was wrong, but was unsuccessful.

We decided to leave the application as it is and set up for 'Bring your kids to work day', where those working in IHPC could bring their kids to work for a day. The applications used for showing Lightdraw to the kids were:

Google Earth
Cooliris
Puzzle Game
Drawing Board

Here are the pictures I took for the day:

After the demo, we had some light refreshments in the pantry. After having our fill, I continued working on the sample application. By the end of the day, I was still unable to get the sample application to work with the OSC. I guess I'll continue with on Monday and get it to work by Monday.

Reflection for the week:

Learning a new programming language is never a simple task. Although we were given tutorials and notes, the best approach to learning a new programming language is still hands-on.

So my week was spent on learning the Quartz Composer, a node-based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" and Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" for processing and rendering graphical data(taken from wikipedia). Picking up this programming language is no easy task as "codings" are kept to the minimal. However, I managed to understand it rather quickly as I was given notes and tutorials on it. Moreover, help is easily available online.

I've heard that interns here have a 'special' floor in Fusionopolis where all interns are assigned to that level. However, Ryan, Leonard, You Hock and I are thankful that we were not on the same 'special' floor as them because we get a chance to experience more things than them.

Making Pong Multi Player

2008-11-13T08:30:00.014+08:00

10 November 2008

Upon reaching, I switched on the iMac and ran Linux on it. After some time, I realized that there was a problem with the mouse. The single click in Linux became a double click, which hindered me in doing my work in Linux. At first, I thought that something was wrong with my mouse. So I switched mouse with Ryan and Linux still gave me the same problem. With that, I conclude that there's some problem with the Linux OS.

I then switched back onto the Mac OS and did my work on it. After awhile, Ming Hong said that he had to modify the Lightdraw codes, so we had to wait for him to complete. Read up on some news while waiting for him. Ming Hong did not take long to modify Lightdraw and passed us the new Lightdraw and the codes for his laser-matching algorithm.

We worked on integrating with our current application with the new Lightdraw for the rest of the day as there were several lines of codes that we needed to modify. By the end of the day, we managed to integrate with the newer version of Lightdraw and added in the codes for laser-matching. We will test out the laser-matching function tomorrow.

11 November 2008

Kevin informed me that Ming Hong would not be here for today when I went to take the keys for the 'working space'. So when the rest arrived, I told them the news and we had the same response - "today is going to be a tough day".

Tested the laser-matching after informing them. However, it did not work as well as I expected. So we tried to debug it till Kevin arrived to check on our progress. He informed us that he would be going to the United States for a conference for a week and told us the plans when we are done with our application. Leonard and You Hock would be working on the 3x2 tile display while Ryan and I would be working on an application in Quartz Composer. This means that Ryan and I have to learn how to use the Quartz Composer. Kevin then demo-ed to us the Quartz Composer as none of us had used it before. Here's a screen shot of the Quartz Composer:

After the demo, Kevin left to do his work and we returned to do ours. We struggled throughout the day trying to get the laser-matching method to work.

12 November 2008

Kevin gave Ryan and I some notes to read up for Quartz Composer. Upon receiving, we went to print the notes. Not too long, Ming Hong came and helped us with our application. Within half an hour, our '4 Player Pong' application could be work with multiple lasers.

However, things are not looking so good for You Hock and Leonard as their application is more complicated. You Hock seemed stressed after our application could work with multiple lasers. Tried to get him to relax and stuff while we tidied up the codes for our application.

After tidying up the codes, we had lunch and went shopping for fruits at 'Market Place'. Learnt quite a bit about fruits from Bernard. Did some testing to check if there's bugs after lunch. Harold then came over and took a peek at our application. He commented that the paddles are rather jumpy and if it moves smoother, our application would be better. We found a few bugs fixed. I guess we will get it done by tomorrow. Here's a picture of Ryan testing out our application on the big screen:

13 November 2008

Read a few pages of the Quartz Composer notes that Kevin gave us yesterday. After reading a few pages, I decided to save the notes for the weekends and started to fix the bugs on our application. By lunch, our application was running fine. However, the paddles are still jumpy and we will have to fix that soon.

We bought instant noodles and potato chips for our lunch from 'Market Place' as it was raining heavily. After lunch, Bernard brought us to see our department's computer cluster and the computers which are powering the 6 projectors for the 3x2 tile display. After the visit, we had a 'lesson' on how the computer cluster work and its architecture. After the short lesson, Bernard demo-ed to us how the 3x2 tile display work.

After the 'lesson', Ryan and I tried to enhance our application by adding sound and changing the winning message for the rest of the day.

14 November 2008

It's been a month since I've been at IHPC, time really flies fast. We started our day by presenting our applications to Kevin, Bernard and Harold and got some comments on how we could improve our presentation and applications. We had also learnt the 2 main important things for Lightdraw is the ease of use of Lightdraw with the applications and the visual effects of the application. Here's a picture of Kevin testing out Leonard's and You Hock's application, the 'Puzzle' game:

Ryan and I were told of the change of plans for us - to develop the '4 Player Pong' game on Quartz Composer first before the blackboard application. We then had lunch at Holland Village and I was taught an important lesson about responsibility and how different it is at work and in school.

After lunch, we were informed that we were supposed to demo our applications to Terence, our department's Programme Manager. So all 4 of us made changes to our applications after the comments we received in the morning. I then proceed to write down the enhancement we need for our application on the whiteboard before presenting our applications to Terence. The presentation went quite well, and Terence gave us his feedback on our applications and how we could improve on it. We also told Terence about what we had learnt so far in IHPC and our plans for the next week weeks.

After Terence left, Ryan and I discussed on what we are our plans for next week. Once the plans were finalized, we went to bind our Quartz Composer notes before calling it a day. It was our first time operating the binding machine, but things were fine as we managed to bind the notes successfully. It was a great and fun experience to operate the binding machine.

Reflection for the week:

I had truly learnt a lot at IHPC in the past 1 month. Apart from just programming language, I had also learnt other stuff such as how to choose a fruit and how to operate the binding machine. We were also given important lessons on how one should be responsible and true to oneself from experiences shared by our supervisor and colleague during lunch.

Even though we had numerous chances to practice our presentation skills in school, we had learnt that presenting during work is totally different as we have to maintain a certain level of professionalism and be prepared for the presentation. I hardly prepare much for presentation in school. However, it is different here as we only need to present our application and have to explain while doing it, which made me realize how important it is to be prepared. I will definitely bear this in mind and will not make the same mistake twice.

Apart from all these, the weeks here at IHPC has been very enjoyable and fruitful.

When Pong Meets OSC

2008-11-03T23:36:00.027+08:00

3 November 2008

Monday blues! Got to work early and had breakfast there while reading up on YouTube in Wikipedia. Then started to work on the '4 Player Pong' game. Soon after, Ming Hong came in and told us that Kevin and him had to attend a seminar and won't be around till Wednesday. So there won't be any progress report or disscussion till Wednesday, which means more time to do enhancement to our application before trying to integrate it with Lightdraw.

Had lunch at Crystal Jade today. Most expensive lunch so far during the internship. I guess it should be fine to have lunch at such a place once in a while as we just received our first paycheck.

Headed back to Fusionopolis to continue with our work while Kevin and Ming Hong went to attend their seminar. We did not have much progress because I struggled with understanding the Mathematics calculation for the speed and angle of the ball. However, I manged to fix the bug with the help of Ming Hong during his tea-break. Took a short break and went to the pantry. Here's a few pictures of what our pantry looks like and the view from it:

By the end of the day, the bugs for the ball is fixed and I have also managed increase the speed of the ball after a certain number of hits. Ryan also managed to make the yellow paddle work with the mouse, which is great news. Tomorrow will be the integration with Ryan's part and more enhancement to our '4 Player Pong'.

4 November 2008

Kevin and Ming Hong are busy as they had to attend a course and seminar respectively. So we were left on our own for almost the entire day.

Managed to reflect the ball back to the previous paddle after a number of hits was done in less than 15mins after I reached the 'working space'. Waited for the rest to arrive before I tried to integrate with Ryan's part. As there were some changes and modifying of the codes to be done, we were only able to finish integrating it after lunch.

Took a short break after the integration. During the break, a friend of mine started asking me questions about Linux in aMSN. So I did some research regarding the questions and found this really good website for on Linux. Here's the link for it.

Went back to doing our application and tried to integrate sound into the game using the irrKlang library. By the end of the day, we managed to add the sound in. However, there was like a 2-3 seconds delay when the sound was supposed to be played. I guess we will just ask Kevin for his suggestion when we meet him tomorrow.

5 November 2008

Tried to do the winning message before Kevin came in, but was unsuccessful. So we showed him our progress and what we intend to do. We had also asked him about the sound thing, but he said focus on the OSC and get it working with Lightdraw first. Completed displaying the winning message before lunch. After we finished our parts, we played with the 'Drawing Board' done by Ming Hong. So this is what we drew:

It's the first time we interns had lunch by ourselves. For the past 2 weeks, we joined Kevin, Ming Hong, Harold and Bernard for lunch. However, they had to attend a farewell lunch at Harrys. So You Hock, Leonard and I went to lunch at the Dover Hawker Center nearby. Ryan did not join us as he felt unwell. We had chicken rice there as it was recommended by Bernard. We shared half a chicken and had a plate of vegetables, and we paid like only $4 each! Plus, we had free servings of rice and it tasted good.

Bought congee for Ryan and we got caught in the rain. Ran all the way back to Fusionopolis. Passed Ryan his congee and went to dry ourselves. Rested for a little and we went back to doing our applications. Managed to edit the OSC makefile with the help of You Hock. We had also made some changes to our source codes, with the help of Ming Hong, as some codes did not run on the Mac. In the process of changing some codes, I've learnt that by adding in a few lines of codes, we could make the compiler choose which lines of code to compile in both Mac and Linux.

By the end of the day, we had discovered that our application wasn't running with OSC. I hope that we will be able to integrate our application with the OSC smoothly.

6 November 2008

Tested our application with the OSC when I got to the office. To run the application in OSC, we first have to start Lightdraw. It did not run as smoothly as expected. So we had to modify the codes for our application. Time passes quickly whenever we concentrate on a task. Before Ryan and I know it, it was lunch time.

Went to have lunch with Kevin and the rest at Holland Village. During lunch, we were discussing on social and environmental issues. It was pretty interesting to listen on other people's views on such issue.

Created a C++ class after lunch to store the coordinates of a laser with the help of this website. I also managed to set the starting position of our application to the top left corner as Lightdraw takes in the coordinates of the screen instead of our application. This was done after a quick Google search, and here's the link for the site.

After we told Ming Hong our progress, he suggested for us to use an array of cvPoints instead of the trouble of using a single class. So we changed the codes and commented out the class I created. By the end of the day, our paddle was only able to move upwards. I guess it's all part of my wishful thinking that the integration of our application with the OSC could be done in a day. Hopefully, we would be able to integrate our application and the OSC by tomorrow.

7 November 2008

Reached the 'working space' early today. However, I was feeling rather unwell and rested till the rest arrived. When the rest arrived, we began to work on our applications. Ryan and I tried debugging and realized that we are unable to print out anything when we used the 'cout' function. So we used the 'printf' function and we were able to debug it finally. I've also found out that the 'printf' function could do formatting while the 'cout' function could not. Here's an example on how to format using the 'printf' function:

printf("Here is a number %d and a %s word.\n", number, pointer);

%d %s are the printf format identifiers

Here's a link on the other available printf format identifiers.

After testing and modifying the codes, Ming Hong suggest that we slow down the speed of the application because the our application speed might be faster than what the OSC could receive. So we tried slowing it down and we managed to make the yellow paddle moved.

We then help Ming Hong to clear the projector room to make way for our new projector. While the people where bringing in the new projector, we continued working on our application and did the checking for the collisions between the yellow paddles and the others. After finishing the collisions check, we tried running it on Linux. However, the application did not go well because the screen positioning of our application was different. Kevin suggested that we take a break and had our lunch at VivoCity.

After lunch, the installation of the new projector was done. Here's the pictures of our old and new projector:

Old Projector

New Projector

We waited for Ming Hong to change the settings of the new projector before we tested our application on it. And by the end of the day, we managed to make the other paddles move and checked the paddles collisions with just a single laser. So it wasn't wishful thinking after all.

So by next week, we would be able allow our application to support multi-lasers and invite Mr Yeak over to show him our progress.

Reflection for the week:

This week had been a very productive week for me as I had learnt alot about C++, OpenCV and even the C++ compiler. I'm getting pretty used to typing the codes in the text editor. It feels just like when I was in my first year in polytechnic when we used to do write an application, and only finding out that we forgot to add a semi-colon or close a bracket during compilation. I guess I have been spoiled by the IDEs these days as they would prompt what are the methods/functions available after we entered a '.' and just choose from the list.

I have also been more adapted to travelling from east to west. Spending my time during the journey to keep myself updated with local and world news. After spending so much time with Kevin and our collegues, I found out that by keeping myself updated with the news(this week is about Obama, of course), it is easier for us to find a topic to talk about.

On a side note, I think I would install Linux on my laptop in the future for development purpose.

4 Player Pong Game

2008-10-28T00:10:00.011+08:00

27 October 2008

No work today as it's a public holiday. Happy Deepavali!

28 October 2008

Back at work from a long weekend. Felt quite sluggish at first. However, I managed to set myself back to my 'working mode' and read up on the notes that Ming Hong passed to us last Friday as soon as I reached the 'working space'.

When Kevin arrived, we presented and shared our ideas which is supposed to integrate with Lightdraw. Kevin also injected new ideas and we settled on doing 4 games - Pong, Scrabble, Memory Game and Sudoku.

However, there is a change of plans after lunch. Instead of doing 4 games, we would be doing just 2 - Pong and a Puzzle game. Ryan and I would be working on the Pong while Leonard and You Hock would be working on the Puzzle game. We were then given time to do some research by ourselves. I manged to find some open source for Pong, but the source is written in Java. So I guess I have to study the codes and convert it into C++.

While searching for the source codes, I've also learnt how to unzip a '.zip' file in Terminal. Ming Hong and Cheng Teng came in the mid-afternoon and taught us OpenCV and how to create a simple Makefile and the concepts behind it. Our brains were then being overloaded after so much information. By the end of the day, we have managed to use OpenCV to create a window and draw a rectangle in it. Here's a picture of my rectangle done in OpenCV.

29 October 2008

As soon as we reached the office, Ryan and I started to work on the UI and tasks for today. Here's a screenshot of our '4 Player Pong' game.

As soon as we had finished the design, Kevin stepped in and we showed him our progress before he went for his meeting. I worked on generating the starting positions and size for the paddles and ball while Ryan worked on moving the paddle. We were so engross in our work that we had a late lunch. Before lunch, Ryan was able to make the paddle move up and down by using the 'w' and 's' key on the keyboard.

After lunch, Ryan and I integrated our work. Ming Hong then taught me about the OpenCV Time class and how it can be used in my '4 Player Pong' game and in Lightdraw. By the end of the day, I was able to move the ball in just 1 direction.

30 October 2008

Continued working on the ball as soon as I reached. Researched about the Random class in C++ before adding it to make the ball move in random directions. Around 10am, Kevin came in and checked our progress. Both teams are progressing well.

Soon after we walked over to NUH for lunch. To our surprise, the food there is even cheaper than our school's food! The bottled drinks there only costs $1! Leonard and I had Japanese food while Ryan and You Hock had chicken rice. We then went to the bookshop to stock up on some snacks before walking back to Fusionopolis.

We continued our work till about 3.45pm when Ryan had to leave for school to give a presentation about 'Imagine Cup' to our juniors. I then integrated our parts together before continuing to work on the '4 Player Pong'.

By the end of the day, I managed to check for the collision between the ball and the yellow paddle.

31 October 2008

Did the scoring function and checking of which paddle last collided with the ball before Kevin came in to check on our progress. Learnt about the Sleep function when I asked Ming Hong how do I like paused the application when the ball goes out of bounds. The sleep(int i) would pause the application in seconds while waitkey(int i) would pause the application in malliseconds. Ming Hong also shared that some programmers would use like loops in order to pause an application. However, this is not really safe as the looping depends on each computer. If the computer is very powerful and has high performance speed, the loop would be done in milliseconds while a very slow computer with low performance speed would take like minutes - which is not very ideal.

Around 10am, Kevin came in to check and also recap on what we have learnt so far in IHPC. We continued on our work after the recap session. I continued to check the collisions between teh ball and other paddles and managed to finish it before lunch.

After lunch, Ryan and I intergrated our work. After the integration, I discovered some bugs for the collision and spent the rest of the day trying to fix the bug while Ryan tried to get the paddle to move according to the mouse movements.

Reflection for the week:

This week at IHPC has been a short, but interesting week. I have learnt a lot about C++ and OpenCV and its functions. The working environment at IHPC is pretty similar to school. Perhaps it is just the second week; Kevin and Ming Hong are still 'spoon-feeding' us.

Learning to work with others is another experience I had here at IHPC. In school, I am usually the one who does most of the work and help others. However, here in IHPC, I am the one who is being helped. I am thankful for the help received.

I had also learnt how to trust my team-mates and the people working around me. No matter how different the way how Ryan and I 'coded' our work, at the end of the day, we are still able to understand each other's work through peer teaching(which is taught in school).

Here at IHPC, we interns are on the same page. Regardless of our cGPA in school, we are all learning something new each day.

To end things on a happier note, Happy Halloween!

The 'Official' First Week!

2008-10-23T00:24:00.020+08:00

The eSIP system for TP is alittle weird. We started on the 15 Oct, but we could only enter in our entries from the 20 Oct. Plus the 200 words limit is like quite little for us to describe what we had done during our attachment. I am sure that I am not the only one who complains about the 200 words limit per day.

20 October 2008

I reached the building early, as usual. So I waited for the rest at the pantry as I read up on C programming. Headed to our 'working space' and met up the rest. Speaking about our 'working space', here's how it looks like:

After alittle while, Kevin came in and we discused about what we had researched on Friday and in our spare time during the weekends. During the disscusion these are the things we shared with each other:

What are Compilers?("a must-know for Computer Science/IT student", as quoted from Kevin)
What is Open source?

We were then told of what we were supposed to do today - to continue on what we have been doing last week. So after the discusion, we continued with our tasks. We burned a DVD with the Linux ISO file on the MacBook Pro. However, due to our lack of understanding with the MacBook Pro, we actually mounted the ISO file onto the DVD instead of buring the ISO image onto the DVD. Wasted like 3 DVDs. After receiving guidance from Kevin and Ming Hong, we managed to burn the Linux ISO file successfully before going out for lunch.

We then installed Linux onto the PCs after lunch while watching the movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley".

http://www.gearcritech.com/images/review101205_posv_t.jpg

I managed to learn more about who is Steve Jobs and Bill Gates from this movie. I've also managed to find out how Personal Computers came about and lots of other interesting stuff - such as the relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

After the movie, we then proceed on our tasks. By the end of the day I managed to:

Install the Linux OS onto the PC
Install MSN messenger onto iMac
Install MSN messenger(aMSN) onto Linux

21 October 2008

The day started with me opening my 'working space'. I then proceed to turn on the Linux PC which I used the day before to write my first C++, "Hello World", Application and run it on the PC using Terminal. Kevin then soon arrived and we went through the steps we took to install Linux onto the PCs and the problems we faced. The important step that Kevin focus on was the partition step and explained it to us why it was important. We were also given a brief history and the differences between Linux KDE Desktop environment and Linux Gnome environment. We were then assigned to research on the Linux Directory Structure, the Terminal Commands and to install OpenCV onto our PCs.

After Kevin left to do his stuff, we then research and studied on Linux Directory Structure. Here's the overview of Linux Directory Structure:

http://www.debianadmin.com/linux-directory-structure-overview.html

We then went on to search and download the OpenCV installer on the Linux PCs and installed it using Terminal. Here are the steps we did to install OpenCV onto Linux:

Go to the folder which contains the tar.gz file by using the 'cd (directoryName)' command
Extract the tar.gz file using the 'tar -zxvf (filename)' command
Go into the extracted folder
Configure the file by using './Configure' in Terminal
Compile the file by using 'Make' command
Enter SuperUser(SU) mode by entering 'su' command and entering the password
Install the file by using 'Make Install' command

By installing OpenCV this way, I've actually managed to learn what is actually going on in the back-end whenever I install a program/application. By then end of the day, I'm kind of hooked onto using the Terminal to extract and install file rather than just using the extractor with the GUI provided in Linux.

22 October 2008

I woke up alittle late today, but I still managed to reach the 'working space' on time. The morning was practically spent on going through the steps to install OpenCV and what does each process do. We also discussed about Linux Directory Structure, the commands in Terminal and was also given a brief introduction on what a Virtual Machine(VM) is and how it works.

After Kevin left to do his work, we then installed VMWare Fusion on our Apple computers. VMWare Fusion is a desktop software which provides similar functionality for users of the MacIntel platform, along with full compatibility with virtual machines created by other VMware products(extracted from wikipedia).

Once VMWare Fusion had been installed, we then installed Linux and some applications such as aMSN(a Linux version of MSN messenger) and OpenCV on the Virtual Machine. I had also managed to modify the sudoer list via the terminal. These are the steps I took to modify the sudoer list:

Go to the sudoer list directory using 'cd /etc' command in the Terminal
Log into a superuser(SU) account
Open sudoer list via a text editor using 'nano sudoers' command
Add my user into the sudoer list by editing the file
Save changes made and exit the text editor

After modifying the sudoer list, Kevin then brought us to attend a talk in the auditorum. However, we only managed to attend the panel discussion about "Is the Pace of Science & Technology Moving Fast Enough to Meet the Needs of Growing Cities" as we had something on after our attachment.

23 October 2008

I reached the 'working space' a little late due to a traffic jam. Ryan was already there before I was. Not long after, the rest arrived and Ming Hong, our colleague who is also working on Lightdraw, taught us about the Text Editor function in terminal. We were then assigned to get our webcams to work with the Linux in VM.

After lunch, I decided to reformat Linux in VM as I felt that I had installed to many unnessersary files and driver. Ryan and I then tried to configure iSight to work on Linux till then end of the day. However, we managed to get the Logitech webcams to work in Linux. These are the steps we took to install the Logitech webcams:

Installed livna repository for Fedora 9
Installed Gspca package using 'Add/Remove Software' application
Installed unicap, an application which uses the webcam, using 'Add/Remove Software' application

On top of that, we also managed to get the Logitech webcams to work in Lightdraw with the help of Ming Hong. However, Ryan and I still wasn't able to allow iSight to work in Linux. I hope we would be able to do it by tomorrow.

24 October 2008

As soon as I reached, I tried to get the iSight to work in Linux as it was supposed to be done by yesterday. However, something was wrong as I could not use the 'Add/Remove Software' application in Linux. I was prompted with 'database disk image is malformed' error. I tried searching online on ways to solve it but it was unfruitful. So I reformatted the Linux on the VM for the 2nd time in 2 days.(I am very familiar with installation process of Linux by now)

While I reformatted the VM, Kevin gave us a detailed explanation on how Lightdraw works with the OSC and X11. After the explanation, I managed to get iSight to work on Linux.(Yay!)

We then tried to run Lightdraw using the iSight but Lightdraw doesn't run as well when using the Logitech webcam because we can't set the Auto-Exposure properties of iSight. Ming Hong said that he would try to solve this problem and Kevin seemed happy with our progress.

During lunch time, we bought some stuff at MarketPlace as there is a mini-celebration for Deepavali later in the day. While heading down to MarketPlace, we caught a glimspe of some robots. Here's an interesting robot that caught our attention:

After lunch, we were assigned to brainstorm with simple applications to run with Lightdraw. We were told to choose between GTK+ and Qt to develop our application in. So we brainstorm till 3 plus in the afternoon as the office had a little 'Deepavali party' in the pantry where we were treated to snacks like pineapple tarts and some 'kuehs'. We ate some snacks before heading back to our 'working space' to continue brainstorming for our applications till we knocked off. I guess we have some work to do at home for this long weekend.

Reflection for the week:

These 5 days in IHPC had surely taught me a lot. From setting up Virtual Machines and knowing how the IDEs work behind the scenes, which are not taught in school. Thankfully, we were taught how to learn independently through subjects like CSAD(full PBL module), which is a very useful life skill that would help me through my attachment.

On side note, I think I'm beginning to be slightly 'anti-Microsoft' after using too much of Apple computers and the Linux. =P

My First 3 Days

2008-10-19T02:38:00.003+08:00

15 October 2008

It's my first day at Institute of High Performance Computing(IHPC). My dad drove me down to Fusionopolis to make sure that I was on time. Met up with Ryan, Leonard and You Hock at the lobby before making our way up to the office.

We met up with Janice from the Human Resource department to settle our documents before meeting up with our supervisor, Kevin. We were told that there were many departments in IHPC and we are in Advanced Computing(Visual) department. We were then brought to our "working space" and got our assigned computer. Ryan and I got an iMac each while Leonard and You Hock took the MacBooks. We were then given time to familiarize with our computers as none of us had actually used an Apple computer before.

After we familiarized with our "working area" and computers, we were then brought to somewhere in Holland Village for lunch via a shuttle bus service.

A formal introduction was done after lunch as we met up with other people from the department. We then were given a tour around the office before being assigned some tasks to do while Kevin and the rest are preparing for some interviews with the media.

These are the stuff which we are suppose to research about:

Linux and its distributions
Linux OS
Linux community
OS Licenses GPL/BSD
Mac OS
Linus Trovalds
Richard Stallman
Bill Gates
Steve Jobs
Compilers
Open Source

Managed to read about Linux OS, its community and its distributions before knocking off. On a side note, the people at IHPC are nice and fun. I'm sure we will learn and have a lot of fun along the way.

16 October 2008

Second day at IHPC. I arrived quite early, so I waited for the rest in the pantry while studying for my SAP exam which is on the following day. After the rest arrived, we continued our research as Kevin said that we would have a discussion on what we have read on so far. So I managed to read about Linus Trovalds and Richard Stallman.

At 10am, Kevin came over and discussed with us on what we had managed to read about so far before giving us a lesson on Linux. We then had a clearer view on what and how Linux came about thanks to Linus Trovalds. After the quick "lesson", Kevin then showed us how a Linux OS looked like and our next assignment is to install a Linux OS onto the computer. We were also told that we are supposed to split ourselves up into 2 groups and each group would be working an different platforms for Lightdraw - one group on Linux, one group on Mac. However, all four of us wanted to try working on Linux as we were interested. So we drew lots to see who would work on which platform. Ryan and I would be working more on Mac while Leonard and You Hock would be working more on Linux. We had lunch after drawing lots.

After lunch, we were then told to download the Linux OS(Fedora 9) and burn it onto the DVDs given. While downloading, we are suppose to watch a movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley", to give us a better insight on who Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are. However, due to an unexpected media interview, we were unable to watch it and plans were pushed back. So we continued with our research for the rest of the day before knocking off.

17 October 2008

Third day of my attachment and it is the grand opening of our attachment building, Fusionopolis. Nothing much happened as Kevin and the rest are busy with the grand opening. So as a compensation, a picture of the building.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/2442357893_fc0f51f8c8_o.jpg

Since Kevin was busy, he gave us a day off (lucky us). Ryan, You Hock and I headed to Clifford Centre in Raffles Place to take our SAP exam. All 3 of us passed! The day off we got was well worth it.

Reflection for the week:

These 2-3 days at IHPC feels like an orientation for me. It's for me to get used to the environment and people at IHPC. Luckily for me, the people around me are friendly and are willing to help whenever I have any questions or doubts. Having the SAP examination this week is also quite stressful as I have to pick up new things on the job as well as study for the SAP examination.

However, thanks to the 'intensive' training received in the block mode, I've managed to pass the examination and also aquire new knowledge. I would say this is only the beginning of a new phase in my life. =)