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.
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