My Rambling Thoughts (2024)

Jun 2024

QuickBASIC 4.5 holds a lot of nostalgia for me. But I am unlikely torevisit it. The language has too many issues and limitations.

• Limited operator precedence
• No short-circuit logical operators (VB added AndAlso and OrElse)
• SUBs and FUNCTIONs are separate
• Parameters are passed by reference (BYVAL was added later)
• No data pointers (not needed for most part)
• No function pointers (limits flexibility)
• TYPEs (structures) cannot contain arrays

Some QuickBASIC enthusiasts have brought it to modern times: QB64 andFreeBASIC.

May 2024

Microsoft released QuickBASIC 1.00 in 1985. This was BASIC brought up tomodern times — compiler, proper SUB-routines and no more line numbers.It was the successor to their BASIC Compiler (v5.36 released in 1984).

QuickBASIC 2.00 (1986) introduced multi-line IF statement, supported fararrays and had an IDE.

QuickBASIC 3.00 (1987) introduced SELECT CASE, DO-UNTIL, and CONST.

QuickBASIC 4.00 (1987) introduced user-defined TYPEs, recursivesubroutines and supported CALLs to subroutines written in other languages.The IDE intepreter uses p-code.

QuickBASIC 4.5 (1988) was the last release.

Microsoft continued to work on their BASIC compiler. BASIC Compiler 6.0was released in 1988. It supported OS/2 and bundled QB 4.0 as its IDE. (Itis not known if this was called BASIC PDS 6.0.)

BASIC PDS 7.0 [Professional Development System] (1989) was the "ultimate"BASIC on DOS. It supported far strings, overlays, expanded memory (EMS),ISAM (database) and tons of "professional" libraries. It has limited OS/2support. 7.1 (1990) added full OS/2 support.

(Some of the above may be wrong because I don't have direct experiencewith them.)

As a language, QuickBASIC 4.5 is about as good as it gets. PDS 7.0 addsicing on the cake by "breaking" memory limits:

• Far strings so that they are not constrained to 64 kB (strings are big memory users)
• Overlays to save code space and allow more memory to be used for data
• EMS so that up to 16 MB of memory is available (practically means "infinite" in those days)

P.D.Q.

We cannot talk about QuickBASIC without mentioning P.D.Q. (Pretty DarnQuick). It poses itself as a "revolutionary concept" and claims to makeQuickBASIC both smaller and faster than C.

It is a replacement library — you link to it instead of the defaultQuickBASIC library. It achieves its claim by omitting "bloated"functionality and by being written in assembly language.

Is it smaller and faster than C? Only if you pick the correct benchmarks.

P.D.Q. is very ambitious and does accomplish what it promises. It is ableto do so because all functionality in QuickBASIC are provided by functions— though you need to reverse-engineer to some extent.

In 2018, Gene Buckle bought the software assets ofP.D.Q. and released it as public domain. P.D.Q. was something I read in amagazine. Now I can finally see it for myself!

May 2024

GW-BASIC was getting long in the tooth by the late 80s. Line numbers werelong out of vogue. GW-BASIC also has only rudimentary flow control and doesnot support structured programming.

QBasic replaced GW-BASIC in MS-DOS 4.00.

QBasic 1.1 is smaller because it is compressed using PKLite. Its uncompressed size is 257,824 bytes.

It is not known what's the difference between them.

QBasic is a stripped down version of QuickBASIC 4.5 (released in 1988).The main differences:

• QBasic is interpreter only. QuickBASIC 4.5 is both an interpreter andcompiler
• QBasic interpreter is slowed down (about half as fast?)
• Single source file
• No external library support

Still, it has the same state-of-the-art structured BASIC language asQuickBASIC 4.5.

QBasic is mostly limited to 64 kB data except for dynamic arrays, justlike QuickBASIC.

QBasic was last released with Windows 98. It still runs on Windows XP,but not Windows Vista as it dropped support for 16-bit DOS programs.

Unfortunately, QBasic came out when the world was transiting to Windows.GUI became the default after Windows 95 came out in 1995 — no onebooted to DOS anymore.

May 2024

BASIC stands for Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Butwhat does GW stand for? Although it is probably someone's initials, thesemi-authoritative answer from Microsoft is Gee-Whiz.

These are generic versions from Microsoft. (Unsure about 2.00.)

The first version is 2.00, released with MS-DOS 2.00. The predecessor ofGW-BASIC is BASIC-86.

3.20 supports EGA graphics modes (screen 7 to 10). None supports VGAgraphics mode.

It is easy to find 3.23, the last version. Earlier versions are rarer. Itis not known what's the difference between them. Judging by the file size,there should not be much difference.

Microsoft open-sourced GW-BASIC in May 2020. It is the first version from1983.

The open-sourced code is 8086 assembly code. It is generated from amaster meta-assembly source (not open-sourced) that can be cross-assembledfor several CPU architectures. This should be from earlier BASIC that isported to 6502 and Z80 (among others). I'm not aware of GW-BASIC on anythingother than the IBM PC.

os2museum managed to assemble the code (only workswith MASM 1.06) and got a size of ~50 kB. He found two close matches, oneolder and one newer. The newer one was 55.5 kiB and was version 1.20. It hadover 6,000 bytes of OEM code.

GW-BASIC 2.00 at 80 kB is pretty large, considering it is written inassembly language. Granted, it is not optimized assembly (since it istranslated from a meta-assembly source), but 80 kB is still large.

To reduce run-time code footprint, GW-BASIC could have been modularized:graphics, high-level graphics (LINE, CIRCLE, PAINT, DRAW), floating pointmath (single, double precision), high-level math functions (SIN, COS, TAN)and even the interactive editor.

But it does not really matter because GW-BASIC programs are "tiny": thecode, data and stack fit in one 64 kiB segment.

Soft limits

To run bigger programs, they can be split into parts and CHAIN'edtogether. This is effectively the overlay technique.

GW-BASIC supports calling subroutines written in machine code. They canbe outside of GW-BASIC 64 kiB memory — by running a TSR(Terminate-and-Stay-Resident) beforehand. They can add new functionalitymissing in GW-BASIC. They are also blazing fast — so don't complainGW-BASIC is slow! :lol:

Unfortunately, this technique is extremely unportable.

GW-BASIC supports only 16-bit integers. This is a big limitation.Single-precision floating point numbers has 23-bit significand (and 1 signbit), so they can be used as 24-bit integers. This is usually sufficient.

Hard limits

GW-BASIC has some limitations that are difficult to work around:

• Only near arrays (arrays can be very large)
• Strings can only be up to 255 in length (not an issue usually)
• Only near strings (another big memory user)

May 2024

RX-78-2 1/144 Best Mecha Collection Revival

Coming Oct 2024, 1,320 yen (S$11.50).

Bandai Spirits has announced a magnificent rebirth to mark the 45thanniversary of both the iconic Gundam series and the GunPla model kit. Fansof the franchise may be interested in the revival of the 1980s RX-78-2Gundam model kit under the "Best Mecha Collection" GunPla lineup, which hasbeen updated to meet the needs of modern builders. This time it requires noglue, paint, or tools to assemble, as opposed to the original version, whichrequired all three.

Color me interested... until I realize the legs are not very articulated.Basically it can only be in a standing/walking pose.

Apr 2024

I have used Pilot G-Tec-C4 pens for a long time.However, I switched to Pilot Juice Up 04 last year.

I originally bought this pen for my son. I decided that G-Tec-C4 was toofragile for him. But this pen worked so well that I ended up using it formyself. One downside is that the ink does not seem to last long. The pencasing is robust and can last 3 or more refills.

Prior to this, I let my son use Pilot Juice 5. Istarted with the 0.38mm version and it seemed to spoil easily. 0.5mm workedwell.

Juice 5 was okay, but Juice Up 04 was better — and looked moreclassy. :lol:

Mar 2024

I said I was not going to buy FansToys Ultra Magnusand probably not their Optimus Prime either.

I'm going to take that back. They look so gorgeous!

I already have four Optimus Prime. Looks like I'llhave a fifth. :lol:

FansToys Ultra Magnus (Margh), despite being a whiteOptimus Prime wearing armour, does not look blocky atall.

I almost got XTB Ultra Magnus (Commander Stack)previously — it was an impressive figure too — but its arms wererather long.

I sold my MP-22, but got THF-04 (KO of MP-22). I'm wondering to keep itor sell it.

But I have to be careful. FansToys is master at photography. Some oftheir products look fantastic in photos, but turn out to have somelimitations in actual products.

Mar 2024

Why do my HDDs like to fail in March? Ubuntu 24.04 is coming out nextmonth. This means I got to install 22.04, then upgrade to 24.04.

It was the same case 12 years ago — I had to install 10.04 and thenupgrade to 12.04 later.

My file server was "stuck" at 18.04 because I started with 12.04 and atthat time, while 64-bit OS exist, I expected them to co-exist "forever" andI could just use 32-bit with PAE. I also didn't expect to use more than 4 GBof memory.

But the switch flipped around 2015. Every major OS started to obsoletetheir 32-bit version. Ubuntu 18.04 would be the last 32-bit version —with no upgrade path.

Since U18.04 would be supported for 5 years, I could put off upgradinguntil 23.04. That time had come and gone.

There is a tutorial to convert 32-bit Ubuntu to 64-bit. I thought oftrying it on a cloned HDD, but never did.

I always put off installing from scratch because of the additional setupI needed to do. Now that my HDD died, I no longer have a choice. It turnsout my worries were overblown.

As usual, I installed the server-only edition, then ubuntu-desktop. However, this time I forgot to use the--no-install-recommends parameter.

After that:

• Installed VNC. vncserver no longer exists, I use TigerVNC instead.
• Installed samba. The existing conf files can be used almost as-is.
• Installed apache2. Enable ssl and rewrite. The existing conf files can be used as-is.
• Installed PHP (now 8.1.2) and extensions (php-curl, php-gd,php-mbstring, php-sqlite3, php-xml).
• Installed SVN. The existing conf files can be used as-is. The existingSVN repos appear to work as-is (after changing its user and group id).
• Installed Deluge (bittorrent). Copied .config/deluge. The torrents don't show up. It turns outU18.04 is using Deluge 1.3.15, U22.04 is using 2.0.3. Deluge 1.3 torrent.state file must be converted to 2.0 format. Luckilysomeone provided a Python script online.
• Thunderbird is working fine once I copied .thunderbird.
• Fixed the Ethernet network name as eth0.
• Enable crontab one by one after checking they still work.
• And some minor touchups.

It's easier than I expected.

Versions of key packages:

Using snapped version is Ubuntu's new strategy to keep frequently updatedapps (with large dependencies) up-to-date.

Mar 2024

My file server is using the Asrock N3150-ITX m/b andresides physically in a In Win BK 644 Micro ATX tower(300W).

The m/b supports four SATA3 ports. It also has a PCIe 2.0 x1 slot and ahalf-size mPCIe slot. Half-size = 26.8x30 mm.

The casing has room for two 3.5" HDDs and one 5.25" drive bay.

I'm wondering if I can boot from the mPCIe slot. First, it is nota mSATA slot. It is also a good thing that it is not, otherwise it wouldshare one of the SATA controllers. I want mPCIe + 4 SATA ports, not mSATA +3 SATA ports.

From what I google, there are almost no mPCIe SSDs. Even if there were,they were long obsolete (i.e. too small). mPCIe is now replaced with M.2,specifically type M for NVMe SSDs. (Type B for mSATA.)

There are mPCIe to M.2 type M adapters. Due to space constraint (onlyhalf-size, remember), I need the adapter to have a flex cable. Typical M.2SSDs are 2260 or 2280 (meaning 22x60 mm or 22x80 mm). Shorter ones exist,but I prefer lower chip density.

One concern is that mPCIe is only x1. I'm guessing the version is 2.0, sox1 is 500 MB/s, which is plenty fast.

NVMe SSDs use x4 (since M.2 provides it), they are said to work with x1too — though slower.

The most important unknown is, will the system boot from it? Some say itwill if we enable network boot.

If it works, I can use a small SSD (say 1 TB) to be the boot drive andput /home on it. The spinning HDDs will store purelydata.

Mar 2024

Changes over the years:

I decided to simplify the partitioning and do away with /var, /var/log and /var/tmp.

The partitions were laughably small in the past. :lol: They are now sized to be inline with modernexpectations.

I'm not sure if I should have two data partitions or not. The intent isto separate short-term and small data (e.g. downloads, manga, music) andbig-and-mostly-static-data (e.g. pics, shows).

Mar 2024

Mechnical HDDs seldom fail outright. Ignore the warning signs at your ownperil.

Clicking sound. This is the most obvious sign. If you hear this, copy thedata out asap. The HDD is on its last legs.

The HDD is running hotter than usual. We don't normally feel the HDDphysically, but the OS should report abnormally high temperature usingSMART. The reason for the increased temperature is that the HDD is retryingits operations.

Abnormal slowdowns, like super-long pauses when loading or saving a filewhen it used to be instantaneous.

General slowdown, as in it takes longer to copy files. Read speed dropsfrom 100 MB/s to 40 MB/s. The OS drops the SATA link speed from 6 Gbps to1.5 Gbps.

SMART attributes such as Reallocated_Sector_Ct,Current_Pending_Sector, Offline_Uncorrectable andMulti_Zone_Error_Rate are non-zero and rising.

Mar 2024

pri and omega2 have to bereplaced because they are failing.

omega2 started to fail first. I was unable to copysome files into it. A few days later, I observed the same for pri. Both drives failing within days of each other, socoincidental?

pri has been in use for almost 12 years! I wanted toretire it in 2019. The original plan was to clone pri todata2 and use the latter as the primary drive. I nevergot around to doing it. I ended up not using data2 atall.

omega2 failing is somewhat of a surprise. It is only3.5 years! Can it be used if I mask out the "bad sectors"? But its high MZER(Multi Zone Error Rate) is giving me pause.

I bought pri2 back in 2021 but didn't get to use it.I finally put it into use.

bignum is a SMR drive. When I bought it, I didn'tknow about SMR drives. It is fine for archival data, but not as ageneral-purpose drive.

Feb 2024

I got 4 new chargers recently:

• Samsung 25W PD 3.0 travel charger (USB-C), $12.00
• Samsung 65W 3-port charger (2x C, 1x A), $15.06
• Lencent GaN3 65W travel adapter (3x C, 2x A), $32.73
• Baseus GaN5 65W 3-port charger (2x C, 1x A), $29.26

I have enough chargers already, just "itchy hands" to "modernize" some ofmy older ones.

Notice a trend? All but one are multi-port 65W. The power is split45W+20W when charging multiple devices. 45W is bare minimum for chargingnotebooks.

These compact chargers have a simple power splitter. When multiple portsare used, one port will get most of the power (e.g. 45W), other ports willshare the remaining 20W. You don't get 35W+30W or 25W+25W+15W. Always checkhow power is distributed for multi-port chargers.

On the left are two Baseus GaN chargers. The one on top is a GaN2 Pro Quick Charger that I bought in 2022. The one atthe bottom is a GaN5 Pro Fast Charger. The old one workswell, except it has US-style plug head and is very loose as a result. Thenew one supports more quick charging protocols as well (e.g. PPS).

The Baseus 65W charger is pretty expensive. I saw another brand sellingat $21 (at its lowest point)!

The Samsung 65W charger is surprisingly cheap and compact, but there is acatch — it charges at 65W with PPS only, otherwise it is limited to35W (20V 1.75A). Hence, it is not suitable for notebooks as most don'tsupport PPS.

The Lencent travel adapter has 3 USB-C ports and two USB-A ports. Onlyone USB-C port supports 65W. When used together, the power output is 45W(C1), 15W (C2+C3) and 12W (A1+A2). It's not clear, but I believe C2+C3+A1+A2add up to either 15W or 20W.

I may get another 65W travel adapter if it costs around $30. The usualprice is $40+. I have 3 multi-port travel chargers, but they are all 28Wonly (with one USB-C port at 15W).

With these, I have enough 65W chargers! :lol:

(I also have four 65W notebook chargers, but they are rather big.)

Will I get 100W chargers? They are big, heavy and expensive.

The answer is, maybe. ;-)

Feb 2024

My collection has shifted from Masterpiece to Legends. I'm not abandoningMasterpiece entirely, but I will be much more selective.

I still plan to get these:

• FT-21 Berserk (Blitzwing)
• FT-30D Viper (Fireflight)
• FT-30E Jester (Slingshot) + combiner parts (Superion)
• FT-31E Bandit (Deadend) + combiner parts (Menasor)
• FT-61 Inquisitor (Scourge)
• FT-62 (Chromedome)
• XTB Constructicons (1/5 completed)

I plan to complete FansToys Aerialbots. It'll be my one and only Superionunless there is a much better one — which I doubt will happen.

I'm not that interested to complete FansToys Stunticons. I already haveDX9 Menasor — one is enough. It may seem like awaste with 4/5 completed, but that 1/5 costs ~S$350.

I may not continue with XTB Protectobots — it is 2/5 completed. XTBtook their own sweet time that I'm not really interested anymore.

I don't plan to get FansToys Constructicons (much less MMC) — heyit is Devastator Wars again. There was a time I couldn't imagine notgetting a FansToys figure if it existed. Times have changed.

Will I buy Masterpiece Combaticons? Let's see.

Buying FT-62 implies I'm interested in the other 3 Autobot Headmasters. Idoubt I'll be interested in Autobot Targetmasters, though.

FansToys showed off their Ultra Magnus. I'm notcertain if I will get it. Their UM is a white "OptimusPrime" wearing armour, so it implies they will do OP too. Will I get it?I'm not sure — I already have 4 Optimus Prime!

I'm also getting more selective with Legends figures. I'll skip them ifthey are not up to expectations. No placeholders! :lol:

Some recent examples:

• NewAge H55 Hughes (Powerglide)
• Dr Wu MS-36 Sand Leopard (Sandstorm)
• XTB-mini Fuzz (Streetwise)
• DX9-mini Vasili (Doubledealer)
• DX9-mini Murphy (Chromedome)

NewAge Powerglide was too panel-ly.

Dr Wu Sandstorm had a disappointing buggy mode andwas a little too short. Dr Wu is coming out with Broadside, another long-wished-for Autobot triple changer.Let's hope it is better.

XTB is releasing Protectobots in Legends size — even though theyhave not finished it in Masterpiece scale. I'll take a wait-and-see approachand see what Magic Square and NewAge come up with first. I don't intend toget more than one set.

DX9 is coming back! Their first release was Doubledealer. I skipped it because it was post-S3 and mostpost-S3 designs don't appeal to me.

Their second release Chromedome is decent in botmode, but the car mode is terrible. I still prefer the age-old MFTChromedome. There is also a preview image of Brainstormin plane mode and it looks very stylized. This implies I will skip theentire series. Sorry, DX9!

I'll skip KOs, especially OSKO (Oversized Knockoff). I somewhat regrettedgetting the OSKO of MST Stunticons, especially at its initial price of 75%the MST set. It later dropped to 50%!

The KOs are cheap (if 50% of the original figure), but their quality isone notch down and their size don't fit in my collection. They are fine asone-off figures.

Feb 2024

I managed to sell all the Transformers figures I put up except for two:

• MakeToys MTRM-11 Meteor (Starscream)
• MMC PS-01A Sphinx (Mirage)

Selling on Carousell is like fishing. You got to waitfor an interested party to come along. Selling cheaply does not help much,unless we are talking about 75% off — everyone loves a deal.

I've re-listed them at rock bottom prices (they were already the lowestin the market). Let's see if they sell this time.

I sold off LG-10 too — I don't need so many Arcee.

I've put these up for sale:

• MP-28 Hot Rod
• MP-30 Ratchet
• DX9 WiP Dinobots set

XTB has announced their version of Ironhide. I mayget that. For Ratchet, I may wait for FansToys.

When I got the DX9 Dinobots in 2019, they were "good enough". I thought Iwould keep them even after MS or NA released their versions. However, theengineering has improved by so much! The DX9 versions look so dated now.

Feb 2024

There are three selling points of EVs. First, they are green. No tailpipeemission, so no pollution!

But that's just one side of it. It turns out it is extremely pollutingand hazardous to mine the materials that make up the battery. But that'ssomeone else's problem.

However, even without tailpipe emission, EVs are heavier, so they wearout tyres and road faster.

The second plus point of EV is their simplicity. This is from the pointof the manufacturer. No engine, no gearbox, no messy oils and fuels. Theyjust need a motor, a charger and of course a super big battery.

The third plus point is low cost per km! Generally, it costs 25% (per km)if you charge at home, 50% if you use a commerical charger, compared topetrol. But this advantage is negated in Singapore due to the high EV roadtax — to make up for the loss of petrol duties.

The cons of EV all come from battery limitation: big, heavy, range,charging.

First, there are just not enough charging points. There will never beenough. If you have a dedicated charger (i.e. landed property), it worksgreat for daily commute. Shared charging? Not so much — you got tomove the car after charging.

Second, it takes too long to charge. A super fast charger can charge to80% in 20 minutes, and that gives you around 300 km. It takes 5 minutes torefuel an ICE car and that gives you 600+ km.

Waiting while charging is one thing. As the EV population grows, waitingto charge will become common. You have to be in the car and cannot goelsewhere.

One thing that is coming up is of course battery lifespan. All batteriesdegrade. The usual claim is 80% capacity after 10 years. It sounds prettygood, until you realize it does not start at 100% — it starts at 110%or 120%. Yes, manufacturers over-provision. After 10 years, there is no morebuffer and battery capacity will seem to drop very fast.

As a result, an old EV (above 5 years) has little second-hand value asthe battery needs to be replaced and it is a huge expense (> $10k).

The biggest problem with batteries, specifically lithium batteries: fire.

Lithium battery fire is impossible to put out.

Lithium batteries are susceptible to fire at two times: charging andpuncture. It is rare, though never say never, for a battery to ignite on itsown.

So there are 3 things to look out for:

• Don't park near an EV
• Don't park near an EV charger
• Accidents may puncture the battery

Even if the battery is not punctured, its structure may be compromisedand needs to be changed.

Finally, for EV, it is crucial to learn how to open the car doormechanically — in case power is lost. If not, and a fire breaksout...

Feb 2024

Goh Jin Hian has been found liable for US$146 million (S$196 million) inlosses as director of now-insolvent marine fuel supplying companyInter-Pacific Petroleum (IPP).

Mr Goh JH is the son of ex-PM, Mr GCT.

Generally, directors are not liable for their company losses, but notwhen they breach their directors' duty.

What happened?

In June - July 2019, IPP drew on its US$156mil trade financing. However,at this time, it was already "insolvent". The claim was that as itsDirector, Mr Goh should know its financial situation and stop thetransaction.

They had to mention two points:

• Mr Goh showed a lack of knowledge about the business
• He held 36 concurrent directorships during that time

Why was Mr Goh sued alone? Was he the only director? Did he "sign off"the loan?

Moral of the story: you can be a sleeping director until the companywants to take on more loan!

Feb 2024

I saw crystal golden taels for sale at a CNY bazzar. They looked likesuitable gifts for my son's class, since I forgot to prepare presents forhis birthday.

The problem was, he has 40 classmates, so costs quickly add up.

TaoBao to the rescue!

These taels vary from 1 cm to 12 cm in length. The smallest ones (1 - 2cm) are normally sold in bulk (say, 100) and are used to fill up crystaltreasure bowls for Feng Shui.

If you want a standalone tael, it needs to be at least 4 cm. Too big isalso unwieldy, so a good size is 4 - 9 cm.

A quick search shows that they are sold in lots of 10 up to 6 cm only.Bigger ones are sold individually. A single 6 cm tael costs 3.5 yuan(cheapest one that I found), but a lot-of-10 costs 28 yuan.

(*) In lot-of-10. (**) In lot-of-50.

There is a sharp jump from 6 cm to 7 cm. It is partially because they areno longer sold in lot-of-10.

Their weight add up quickly — shipping doubled the price. In theend, each 5 cm tael (x40) costs me ~$0.65 and 6 cm tael (x10) ~S$0.85. If Ihad time, I could have shipped by sea and saved 2/3 on shipping — each5 cm tael would cost ~$0.50.

Feb 2024

paperbackdetectives.webflow.io was where I foundThe Adventures of the Black Hand Gang.

Interestingly, the second entry, Get A Clue, is aseries of books written by Julian Press — son ofHans Jurgen Press (author of the above book). Onlyfour books were translated into English.

They were published in 2008 and were long out of print. I managed to findtwo "new" ones on Amazon and one "very good" one on Amazon UK at sane prices(i.e. ~S$15 each before shipping).

(For the Amazon ones, I should have shipped them to ezbuy warehouse.Shipping doubled the price of the books.)

I didn't manage to get the second book, Operation GoldenScepter. It is available on Amazon, but it is either too ex (>US$100!) or the condition states "Pages can have notes/highlighting".

Jan 2024

The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang

How do you find a book you don't know the title of and you don't rememberanything about it other than a few illustrations inside?

It's impossible, that's what.

My brother borrowed this book from the library and we liked it very much.This is a "find-the-clue" style book. There is text on one page and anillustration on the other page. The text will ask you to find a clue in theillustration.

The problem with the library book was that someone already marked theclues. I vaguely recall I skipped much of the book to avoid knowing theanswers. This book can only be attempted once. Once you know, you know.

I was planning to find a pristine version of the book in the future, Iguess? But I quickly forgot the name of the book. :lol:

For a long time I thought I would never be able to find the book.

It turned out I was not the only one looking for "long lost" books. Manypeople are searching for books they read when they were young, and othersoffered suggestions. After a few false leads, one of them matched.

The key thing was that most of the books people were looking for werefrom the 90s (these young punks...). This book is from the 80s at the least.It turns out this book (the English edition) is from 1977.

I managed to buy one in "good condition" from Amazon UK for 28 pounds(~S$49) including shipping. (From experience, 'good condition' for useditems on Amazon means acceptable.)

Is the book worth $49? No really. But for nostalgia, yes. It has been along 40 years... this book is back in my hands once more.

I finished the book in less than an hour. There are 60 puzzles spreadover 4 stories. Some are disappointingly obvious, but some are"challenging". I put it in quotes because this book is meant for 8 to 12years old. Adults will have no problem solving the puzzles — justthink logically and take your time. As I went through the puzzles, long lostmemories surfaced in me. The puzzles felt familiar. I had gone through theentire book before!

One downside of the book is that if you are stuck, you cannot proceed.The reason is that the answer is written on the next page.

Jan 2024

It was so ingrained in me that the Ez-Link cardreaders do fare deduction that it did not dawn to me that it simply do notwork that way for SimplyGo.

SimplyGo simplifies the card readers. They just send the card id and taplocation to the backend server. The backend server does all thecalculations.

This vastly simplifies deployment, because now you don't need to downloadthe latest fares and logic into all the units — which can take days toroll out.

The problem is that the reader is now unable to show both the fare andremaining amount, because it does not know the fare, nor is the remainingamount on the card!

After a huge public backslash, LTA backtracked and will allow ez-linkcards to be used. I believe they are looking for a solution that can showthe fare and remaining amount, i.e. match existing functionality.

Of course, they must mention that it costs $40 million to maintain theold systems and is our fault for not embracing new technology.

So, is it possible to display the fare "instantly"?

It changes the game totally. Right now, the taps are sent asynchronously,probably in batches. This can be seen by the fact that it takes a fewminutes to update in the app. That is when the server receives the info andprocesses it.

During peak hours, the server can take 10+ minutes to process. It is nota problem.

To change from an asynchronus batch-mode operation to a synchronusreal-time operation? (Real-time as in end-to-end processing must finish in0.5s or faster.)

It changes the game totally.

A batch-mode server can clear, say, 1k transactions per second. Even ifthere's a rush of 10k/s for 10 seconds, it'll eventually clear them. For areal-time server, it must handle the peak with some spare capacity, soperhaps 20k transactions per second. The hardware and infrastructure neededis entirely in another league.

I don't think it can be solved with reasonable cost.

One mitigation is to install displays that show the card value as well asthe trip history.

Update: someone wrote in the press to ask why he was able to tap out witha different SimplyGo card and that he was charged max fare twice— one for the card he used to tap in and the other for the card heused to tap out.

This shows that there is no local processing for SimplyGo at all. It justcaptures the card info. All processing is done at the backend. It cannoteven tell if the card has been tapped in.