The sun is setting. But it will be more than five years from now. When the time comes, we will have a long cold winter, because none is even trying to replace it now. By mimicking, you will never shine as bright as the sun giving us a warmth.

2012 Toyota Camry

I had a chance to see a couple of 2012 Toyota Camry's in person the other day at an undisclosed location. And I didn't like them.

The new model looks like a boring car from 90's. The exterior doesn't have any flair any close to those of 2011 Ford Focus, Hyundai Sonata or Elantra, which I consider as the new direction in automotive exterior design, which ironically the retiring Camry started back in 2006. It is destined to flop. I am never a kind who buys any mid-sized sedans, but I would never drive this Camry, even if I were given for free. Only if it came with a life-time supply of free gas, I would think about it. All in all, I can see Toyota will lose its ground in this segment in the US, which apparently is not too good for my friends and myself.

Client-side Web

CNET: The great JavaScript debate: Improve it or kill it?

All in all I enjoyed the article. There's no doubt that the current JavaScript needs to evolve or be replaced. I can't really choose which option now, but maybe more towards a replacement?

I use more jQuery than pure JavaScript nowadays. I love its way of DOM object accessing. And I consider it's more of a new language than an extension. So, I don't care learning a new language for a JavaScript replacement or two. Because most of the JavaScript usage is DOM manipulation, the way jQuery is structured makes a lot of sense. And I even wish there would be a native jQuery engine instead of background JavaScript translation.

Speaking of the article, I have a bit of opinion on the last two paragraph on the third page, though. -- It is not about the "platforms [...] closed, vertically integrated, and proprietary" vs. "the open, standards-based Web." As the author suggested, apps in the former is "purpose-built". Depending on the purpose of each project, the client-side technology should be picked. Write-once-and-run-anywhere is too much to wish for at this moment, considering the current clients vary in their processing power and power consumption. Developers should be flexible and not to be afraid of writing in multiple platforms. Besides, it would be a key for your job security.

Social Sites

CNET: Facebook time is tops abroad, with Singapore No. 1

I still don't like socializing at sites like Facebook. To me, it seems cold and emotionless. It seems to reveal another sides of people, which is good in a sense, because some people may feel a relief from the real-world activities. But that is the biggest reason I don't like to be at those social sites. I just prefer to be the same me anywhere. I don't want to act differently between in the real world and on the Net. I don't want "friends" on the Net who I never see and talk to in the real life. I prefer one-on-one connection rather than friends of friends of friends of... are all friends. And I don't want to see a lot of people doing any of these I don't like.

To some I may look old school. To another I may look anti-social. I don't care. I just want to care more about the closest friends, when it really matters.