Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Why not just turn arch0-0.com into something even cooler? Something like a social network? That would definitely be awesome. So I have decided: I'm transforming arch0-0.com into a website about the art of web designing and coding, which would be base on the model of a simple social network. I'll be adding Facebook log-in and other awesome features to it. It is probably going to take me some time to develop. Stay tuned!
Monday, February 04, 2013
I find it funny when people simply jump to the conclusion that I possess a low level of academic ability as I dropped out of school. After they realize that the school I attended is one of the top national ranking schools and I didn't conduct too bad in the last examinations before dropping out in my own volition (some even consider my performance superior due to the number of subjects with grade A), their antagonistic feeling towards me vanishes and what's left is a deep sense of compassion and disappointment. I must have been misguided and, without further contemplation, arrived at an arbitrary decision to get the hell out of the current educational system that is basically based on a fast-food model.
The truth is, dropping out wasn't an arbitrary decision. It was something I'd been planning since I enrolled in the school. Before you start to make any assumption about the school, I shall state that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is, as a matter of fact, a perfectly fine school. The staff are very caring and the vice principal even interdicted me from dropping out (I did it anyway) because she was worried about my future as a non-graduate with almost no degree. But it would worry me more had I stayed any longer in the school. My neurons now and then discuss about going to college at the age of 18, and yet in school I was two years older than my classmates, which had to be traced back to the fact that I'm not a native English speaker and I was studying abroad in Singapore.
When I first came to Singapore I could barely understand English. (I wasn't taught much of it beforehand) I had to swallow the only pride a 12-year-old had and register as a Grade 4 student in an elementary school when I was already Grade 6. And I still carried the risk of being expelled if I took too long to familiarise myself with this foreign language, whose linguistic structure is so much different from the one I used in China where we draw weird-looking symbols on papers and make seemingly irrelevant sounds as we read them.
As I became more and more conversant with this new language, the language barrier started to collapse and I was able to gain access to more information in the library and on Internet. I began learning things that intrigued me, for instance, how to design a website, instead of focusing on memorizing all the possible data that would be "tested" in examinations such that I could stand a chance to retrieve the true academic identity I deserve. In Grade 8, I started reading books about programming and was amazed by how interesting it is. That was when I decided, it was time. I left the school, and left the country (and saved my parents a lot of money).
It's been about 10 months since then. I wouldn't suggest anyone to try dropping out and studying things they like alone at home but I'm glad I did it. In these 10 months, not only have I improved my linguistic expressions by reading many books, from Stephen Hawking to Hunter S. Thompson, I have finished up the entire A-Level Mathematics syllabus, gotten the hang of programming in Objective-C, Java, Javascript, PHP and Python and learnt about quantum mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, computer science and many other interesting things from reading Wikipedia, listening to BBC podcasts, watching lectures on iTunes U, taking courses on Coursera, etc.
When I first came to Singapore I could barely understand English. (I wasn't taught much of it beforehand) I had to swallow the only pride a 12-year-old had and register as a Grade 4 student in an elementary school when I was already Grade 6. And I still carried the risk of being expelled if I took too long to familiarise myself with this foreign language, whose linguistic structure is so much different from the one I used in China where we draw weird-looking symbols on papers and make seemingly irrelevant sounds as we read them.
As I became more and more conversant with this new language, the language barrier started to collapse and I was able to gain access to more information in the library and on Internet. I began learning things that intrigued me, for instance, how to design a website, instead of focusing on memorizing all the possible data that would be "tested" in examinations such that I could stand a chance to retrieve the true academic identity I deserve. In Grade 8, I started reading books about programming and was amazed by how interesting it is. That was when I decided, it was time. I left the school, and left the country (and saved my parents a lot of money).
It's been about 10 months since then. I wouldn't suggest anyone to try dropping out and studying things they like alone at home but I'm glad I did it. In these 10 months, not only have I improved my linguistic expressions by reading many books, from Stephen Hawking to Hunter S. Thompson, I have finished up the entire A-Level Mathematics syllabus, gotten the hang of programming in Objective-C, Java, Javascript, PHP and Python and learnt about quantum mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, computer science and many other interesting things from reading Wikipedia, listening to BBC podcasts, watching lectures on iTunes U, taking courses on Coursera, etc.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
I've never been a huge fan of Facebook, but I don't dislike it, either. I just don't see the point of spending too much time on it, as opposed to those who have too many friends to care for or too many things to share with their friends. These days I'm pretty busy due to my hectic schedule so I don't often log in to the new Facebook account I created recently. The only reason why I started a blog is because, well, I feel like expressing myself a little bit now and then and I believe it is always great to have a personal website. It gives you the privilege to write anything you want on the Internet and, interestingly, also provides the opportunity to be nailed down by search engines like Google, especially when you mention something like, Sorry Facebook, it seems like I just modified your design of the Like Button entirely because it simply stinks from a designer's perspective.
Sorry Facebook, it seems like I just modified your design of the Like Button entirely, because it simply stinks from
a designer's perspective
a designer's perspective
Anyone who has experience with Facebook Social Plugin would know that it comes in many types. The most well-known one is the like button. To implement it on a website, instead of just assigning a particular URL to the href attribute of an anchor in the same way as how the share button can be implemented, an iFrame of another domain has to be generated by Facebook and the like button would always be imprisoned inside that domain. This indicates the like button can't be modified by any means outside the iFrame. The reason why Facebook chose the iFrame implementation is probably because clicking the like button directly generates a Like Event in Facebook, unlike clicking
a share button which only triggers a window to superimpose on the screen, and thus Facebook has to be extremely careful with the like button to avoid anyone from misusing it (such as creating a window.onload function that executes a click event without the user realizing it).
But it is still possible to violate the regulation and customize the like button.
I don't see anyone one doing it though. A search in Google would suggest that nobody had announced about sucessfully doning it so I'm probably the first one to do that. Here you go. It is not really something astounding like the supernova but it is pretty rare so check it out.
Despite the fact that the original like button can't be modified directly, there is an indirect way to modify it. That is not the most fun part to work on though: one just needs to style the iFrame with CSS3 and transform it into a transparent event trigger in the ideal size before setting the image of the customized button as the background of the division in which it is contained. The most fun part to work on is to create the illusion that the button responses to real-time Like Events just like the original one, which is impossible by Ajax means. Ajax calls to a different domain are prohibited because of the Same Origin Policy. And there is no way to interact with contents inside an iFrame. The only solution is to introduce another button and show only the "pull" section of it. What's fun about this is that it brings another issue to the table: the iFrames are not labelled. So this makes it necessary to create a timeInterval function to detect the emergence of iFrames as they will be only generated by Facebook's Javascript and the time it takes to "emerge" can't be determined.
But it is still possible to violate the regulation and customize the like button.
I don't see anyone one doing it though. A search in Google would suggest that nobody had announced about sucessfully doning it so I'm probably the first one to do that. Here you go. It is not really something astounding like the supernova but it is pretty rare so check it out.
Despite the fact that the original like button can't be modified directly, there is an indirect way to modify it. That is not the most fun part to work on though: one just needs to style the iFrame with CSS3 and transform it into a transparent event trigger in the ideal size before setting the image of the customized button as the background of the division in which it is contained. The most fun part to work on is to create the illusion that the button responses to real-time Like Events just like the original one, which is impossible by Ajax means. Ajax calls to a different domain are prohibited because of the Same Origin Policy. And there is no way to interact with contents inside an iFrame. The only solution is to introduce another button and show only the "pull" section of it. What's fun about this is that it brings another issue to the table: the iFrames are not labelled. So this makes it necessary to create a timeInterval function to detect the emergence of iFrames as they will be only generated by Facebook's Javascript and the time it takes to "emerge" can't be determined.
