I did not throw in saying anything about the iPhone until now, instead I digested anything that has been said. I laughed when I read comments about the iPhone not having an SD-card (why? it has 8GB! of memory). Instead of just watching the keynote, many hurried on criticizing, "reviewing". I even read one of those "reviews" saying that "too bad [the bluetooth] has no EDR". Huh?!
I've seen all the suppositions that were made about the software before Steve Jobs said the phone is (almost) locked down. Right from the demo it was obvious that iPhone's software makes use of Core Animation. Which is one of the features of Mac OS 10.5. It clearly runs Leopard. All the comments about being "stripped-off" are useless and pointless for now. If it does not have the command X, can you call it "stripped-off" ? If it's compiled for ARM (or as some rumors say, XScale), is it "stripped-off" ?
The main point that everybody should have remembered from the keynote is what Steve Jobs said: "Cocoa", "Desktop-class applications". Desktop class applications are possible because of these software technologies - Cocoa, Core Animation, Mac Os X, etc...
Now, after Apple confirmed that it controls the software, it may seem obvious why Steve emphasized widgets. I agree with Apple's decision to keep application development under strict supervision, as long as they don't abuse it. I also think that giving more slack to widget development would keep the developers close to the iPhone. I, myself, am not a big widget user of fan. I only keep and use several of them on my Mac, like a calendar and a couple of clocks, the thesaurus and weather. And for long time I did not understand why Widgets+Dashcode are heavily advertised in Leopard. I can only hope that widgets will be an important feature of all the hardware Apple is preparing, and Dashcode is the development platform for all of them. It seems logical and with sense.

There are several things missing on the current "smartphones" that iPhone adds in. Amongst them, a big screen and complete communication package: Bluetooth, WiFi, Edge. I am not one of those nit-pickers not satisfied by the lack of 3G. EDGE it is sufficient for where the iPhone is intended to be launched this year. I am almos sure that in 2008, when iPhone will hot the Asian market, a new version with 3G will exist. With all the current capabilities of the iPods and the new ones iPhone adds on, with all the accessories that are or can be, the iPhone can become the "swiss-army knife" of mobile computing, with limitless possibilities. And about this possibilities I want to write a few lines, trying to peek on what the iPhone I hope is really designed to be.

As an example, I remind you one iPod accesory that maybe is not taken too much seriously: the camera connector. How many carry around a laptop to copy the pictures off your camera? (listen to music, watch a movie...) With the beautiful photo interface that iPhone offers, managing photos becomes a beautiful experience. Just go on with your camera, fill it up and transfer all to your iPhone. Future versions of the software may even include basic photo tools to make your corrections on-the-spot. You are ready to send your picture directly to your home server, e-mail to friends, blog or whatever. I am not talking about the phone's camera, because I am talking about real photography here. The storage on the iPhone may be a little low for now, but next year we might also see improvement on that.

As many has already hurried to point out, there are not office applications for the iPhone. This was one of the things the iPhone was very criticized about. The way I see it, this is just software. It can come tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Further more, an Internet connection is enough for you to make use of one of the online office suites, like Google Docs or the excellent ThinkFree Office (if Java will be available in Safari). My point is that this can be available in time. And combined with the iPhone may result in something spectacular. Imagine a presentation, where the projector is connected to an iPhone accesory that communicates with the iPhone using Bluetooth of Wifi. You would just have the iPhone in your hand, conduction a presentation, using your finger to highlight some data and so on. Although I think wireless projectors are already a reality.

I do not consider it necessary to examine the iPod part from the iPhone. It is extraordinary, though I'm not sure if I have seen something like a search bar. The only thing that worries me so far is the battery time. 16 hours of mp3 playback are impressive, but I have to remind you that this time probably is just that: playback. If you add on some album browsing, I'm afraid the time goes down to maybe half. If you also include the phone part in the equation, you see that the battery time is not very good. I really hope in the future they will improve on that.

Although the iPhone is not perfect and, as any new product, lacks in software and accesories, I believe it will be a total success. It provides enough to satisfy a large "marketshare" and has tons of possibilities. I can only hope Apple will not go wrong with their policies and try to have way too much control over the user. Other than that, I am eager to be amazed.

EDIT: some things to add:

iPod has TV-OUT, so it's reasonable to assume the iPhone will also sport one. I also can think of a VGA adaptor/connector, such that you can connect it to your monitor. Plus that the answer to the question: "Can I pair it with a bluetooth keyboard" may be "Yes" and you can see further uses.

Well, I managed to get Vista installed on my MacBook Pro. It was quite a hassle, I will tell you later about why (and how).

Right now I would like to share with you what I learned recently: Windows is actually an application!!! Really!

And, like many other Windows applications, THE "Microsoft Windows" application may crash!

If you are one that arrived here by searching after "photon", "plugin", "universal binary", "intel mac", "iphoto", "export", "movable type", "macbook", "mac", "mac os x" - than chances are you want a universal binary of Photon.
You can find it here.

Here is the e-mail I just sent to the SoC dean and secretary:



Hello,

I was not aware that not participating in the feedback exercise will result in 5 days postponement of the results. Nevertheless, I would like to provide some feedback for the QE exams - if this thing is possible.
The main thing I would like to point out is the lack of interaction between SoC and the graduate students. The only (online) places (at least that I know of) students can access this information is the modules' websites and the (relatively new) PhD Corner. We have Prof. Wei Tsang Ooi to thank for the updated information on the PhD Corner and the CS5202 module. However, things are different for CS5201.
Like other graduate students, I got the information for CS5201 from the module site:
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs5201/Quals/
Also, additional information is available at:
https://mysoc.nus.edu.sg/admin/general/info/graduate/phdgp_currQE.htm
(the file can be found at: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/graduateprog/CS5201.pdf).
Please pay attention at:

D. Logic and Formal Reasoning: The students will be tested on the fundamentals of logic and deduction as well as their use in computer science. In particular, they should have an in-depth understanding of proof systems and semantics for propositional and first-order logic. They also need to develop basic understanding of program verification, Floyd-Hoare logic as well as modal/temporal logics.

Reading Materials

D. Logic and Formal Reasoning: Logic in Computer Science by Huth and Ryan, Cambridge Univ Press 2nd Edition, 2004.


After receiving the QE results I was a little puzzled about the Logic question results (as I was about the questions also), and I asked other students about it. Some were also puzzled about it, but I also found out from a fellow graduate that I have been reading all the time the wrong book! As it turns out, there is a (updated) page for the CS5201:
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~abhik/CS-QE/

where there is no "Logic and Formal Reasoning" at all:

D. Logic and Artificial Intelligence: The students will be tested on the fundamentals of logic and deduction as well as their use in computer science. The students should be familiar with the syntax and semantics of propositional and predicate logic, and be able to do inferences in such logics with a good understanding of the concepts involving unification, forward chaining, backward chaining, conjunctive normal form, resolution (completeness of resolution and resolution strategies). They also need to develop basic understanding of program verification and Floyd-Hoare logic.

Reading Materials

D. Logic and Artificial Intelligence: Relevant portions of "Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach" by Russell and Norvig, 2nd Edition, 2003.


Well ... I guess that explains why the QE question was entitled "Logic and Artificial Intelligence" (I did not gave it much thought in the middle of the exam).
I'm sorry my e-mail got so long, it is not intended to be a complaint (if I would want that, I would have applied for a review). However, I would like a better interaction between the school and the students. I would like that at the next exam I will not have to read "Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach" to find out after the exam that the book was changed again. Even though there is almost no posting from the students on PhD Corner for example, this does not mean that we do not read it. If information is updated, the official module page should be the first place to post it, not some duplicate page that nobody knows about.

In the end, I must also point out that some subjects were not so well formulated - for example the Architecture question was using a notation different from the book and the Operating System question was somewhat assuming that we know the unix manpages in depth.


With respect,
Marian Mihailescu,
Graduate Student, SoC, NUS.

P.S.: A Happy 2007!


On 29 Dec 2006, at 11:02 AM, Jane Lim wrote:

Hi,

This is because you did not participate in the feedback exercise. Hence, you will only be able to access results via the internet five days after the release of the examination results.

regards,
Jane