In the light of reent events, I can no longer remain silent about this issue except to the few I know. I must speak out and make my voice be heard. In the modern world today when the information is at your fingertips, the temptation to copy and call someone's work your own is great. Before I tell you the two events that triggered my expression, allow me to confess that I have been tempted before, but I have resisted and won the battle. This, in turn, causes me to fail with honor rather than succeed with guilt when I really don't know the material.

The first event came when my English teacher described the teachers' subscription to a service called turnitin.com. It checks your paper against many others to see whether one has plaguarized their work or not. I mourn for the deaths of Trust and Innocence as we must descend this low and treat everybody as if they are criminals. As a matter of fact, it feels that a principle America was founded upon has been destroyed. It is not "innocent until proven guilty," but rather the exact opposite!

This next event is relatively complex, but I shall do my best to describe it. In a Computer Science assignment, we were provided with a Java bytecode file* and we are to write a program using that to make fish come up in a certain sequence and pattern. Now, in the next part, we were provided with the program to do that (in a different pattern) while you write the program that draws the fish provided with these parameters, thus turning the tables. Anyways, from the first keystroke I pressed in making this second part, I know the fact that it is liable to mass cheating. Sure enough, my fears came true -- many students decompiled** the file they were given on the first part, copied and pasted it, and called it their own. As a result, the teacher decided to nullify the grade. Therefore, that made me lose the 100 that I rightfully earned by more than three hours of my own work in SDLC***.

Because of these incidents, I feel wronged, if not indignant. For those of you doing this now, please understand that it is unethical, you are harming yourself in the long run (to put it nicely), and your day of justice will come. When you do come to this udnerstanding, I encourage you to deviate from this and come clean.

* A Java bytecode file is essentially program instructions converted from a format readable to humans to one readable to Sun's Java Runtime.
** Decompiling the program means to render a bytecode file (or any program file) readable by humans. This is usually done to find out how something works and is also called "reverse engineering."
*** SDLC is the Software Development Life Cycle. It is also known as the "waterfall cycle." Here's my own version: 1) Understanding the request; 2) Thinking about how to go about meeting that request; 3) Writing the code; 4) Correcting any errors that may have been produced; 5) Optimizing the code (if there is time); 6) Turning it in

27 January 2004
[u]Rebates: An Economic Necessity?[/u]

Back in the age of economic corruption in the United States, rebates have earned themselves a bad connotation via the railroad companies. Nowadays, some swear by them while some swear at them (because they don't deliver). I asked myself one day whether they are necessary or not. My response came in two-sided...

Initially, I thought that they are unnecessary because they only raise costs. If the product will end up costing so little, then why not just take it right off the sticker? Additionally, we can slash the cost further by eliminating the overhead involved in processing rebates! The loss of jobs can be compensated with the demand created by the consumers buying the product and requesting installation services on it in some cases.

After a while, I realized that my thoughts were somewhat short-sighted. What I did not think of was the fact that the facilities for manufacture cost a lot more than the cost to run a rebate processing center. Furthermore, if there is too much consumer demand, a quick depletion of our natural resources can occur. The corporate level consists of three words: Better profit margin. After all, there is a possibility that someone doesn't bother with this kind of stuff... why not just pocket the money for other things and reduce the loss?

No matter what, rebates are here to stay. If you want to earn a few extra bucks, you better earn it by working for it. It's a simple task, just filling out a form and making a few copies. Moreover, you should be thankful that the initial price (I call it the "sticker shock" price) is there because it discourages people who buy things willy-nilly just because the price is low and leave those with a true need empty-handed.

Being the nice guy I try to be, I gave my little brothers the benefit of a doubt in regards to their schedule. BIG MISTAKE! When the babysitter came to take over, they got yelled at for deceiving me. It seems like they are not able to take care of their schedules. Therefore, it looks like I'll have to exercise the authority I'm entitled to and start banging them into shape.

On the flip side, I need to work on myself because I keep on falling asleep when I'm not really supposed to. I'm going to fix this TOMORROW!!! The one thing I did right today was doing all my work right after I got up. I proceeded to do video editing and some tech support over instant messaging. After I did my batch of videos, I realized that I forgot to do some volunteering service. I rushed to the school to recover one hour of service. It was not much, but it's better than breaking my promise.

When I got back, I worked on my web site for NYLF. The six rolls of film are still waiting to be developed... :( Meanwhile, my big cousin keeps on saying how I spend too much time on the computer. I did all my work, so why are they taking away the only play time I have left? :( Remember... this is summer, and your brain is supposed to be on low-power mode! :P

I came across an interesting forum post on one of the sites I frequent today. In a nutshell, it was about how common sense has disappeared from many people. If anyone wants to see it, please use TIG Messenger to request it.

I'm still improving myself, and I might lose a few things in the process... :P

This morning is just the same as Saturdays during my school year -- and that's sleeping late! I know this is bad, but I'm working on it... :P I start off the day with working with my little broters in their reading. I made them give me small summaries of what they read. I had to do this because I can't give them the benefit-of-a-doubt, which I can't give because my little brothers are constantly being yelled at for not doing their work. It upsets me a little because I don't like to see people getting punished. The babysitter came in and took over everything for me, so I went to pick up my books.

When I went to school, I realized that they were taking pictures for the school ID's. I rode all the way back home to dress up nicer (it was worth the effort) and returned. I no longer looked like a dork in the picture, but that handsome Sunny I know I am (just kidding).

After I got back, I did some academic work and then had lunch. Today's lunch was fried rice. I took a long nap after the lunch and then did my SAT stuff. I proceeded to plop down in my chair and start editing videos. I want one of those egronomic chairs, but they're too darned expensive! As far as my project is going, I am doing pretty well at snipping unnecessary parts. Cutting down 7 hours of tape into 4 hours is not a very easy task, but it is certainly something I need to get through. Anyways, at this rate, I think I'll be able to finish all of it by the time I get back into school (boo!).

I had SAT courses for two hours. They gave me a great "welcome-back" greeting and then did the work just the same. After dinner was more video editing and posting on the Internet.

Tomorrow: Volunteering, video editing, academic work, SAT work, web site design...