I feel old :(. Asides from the fact that I can’t sleep more than 3 hours daily, also, lots of random reminiscing does help in making one feel old.

So, Zybler, cfgt and I were talking about back when in 2001, when we were in the national programming finals in Malaysia. Then somehow the conversation turned to our projects, and that was when I realized that our projects were way ahead of their time in concepts. Here were what we did (and my rationalization at that time of the products)

• Blogs
  I’ve said this many times already. 2 of the finalists wrote similar stuff - publishing tools to write your diary and your thoughts online.
  At that point, I thought: What a dumb idea. Who wants to write diaries and let people view online? DUMB!!!
• Auction + Search
  This was Zybler’s project. He wrote a bloody nifty context-based search system for an online auction (something like what Google recently implemented).
  At that point, I thought: Auctions online? Who is going to buy expensive stuff that they never seen before? Auctions need to be done live.
• RPG Battle System
  This was cfgt’s project. He created an interesting RPG battle system (not based on D&D, or d21) from scratch. I think a similar system was later implemented in the newer Final Fantasy games.
  At that point, I thought: Whoa.. cool. I get to press the space bar a lot of times!
• Second Life
  That was my project. I wrote something called IRL 3 (In-Real-Life v3). The system emulates the real world. You get to have jobs, have a partner, build your house, etc. The only thing though, was that… it was in text. Currently, Second Life builds on the same bloody concept, except its been used for plenty of business purpose as well.
  At that point, I thought: If internet speeds ever improve, I’d make it 3D. Virtual Reality is the future (hence my nickname then was VirtualSystems)
• Web-based Calendar
  This guy, X-), wrote a web-based calendar, something never heard of before in 2001. Of course it lacked the AJAX niceties, but it felt pretyt much like Google Calendar.
  At that point, I thought: Why would I even use a calendar to plan? I don’t even plan my day!
• MathML
  I also remember that there was this guy (he ended up getting third place), who wrote a program that utilized MathML to do maths. It was awesome (coz at that time, I was only 14, and have never seen complicated math programs). Also, IINM, he also had a portable version of that program on his PDA. Matlab currently uses MathML to do maths.
  At that point, I thought: Whoa… awesome. Math looks fun.
• Music Humming
  There was this group of finalists, called Vaporware who wrote a very nifty piece of program. It notates MIDI notes on a notation program, just by you humming into the mic. It was working like 70-90% of the time. To this date, no one ever sold such a product yet. And the guys who programmed it.. well, it turned into vaporware.
  At that point, I thought: Damn, this guy is gonna win the competition. Damn Damn Damn!

Of course, that was until wkKay came along and blew the rest of us out of the water. I still remembered, he set up his computer quite late (or was that Zybler), and he brought in 3 computers, a Lego Mindstorm webcam, and a printer. And of course, his project just pwned all of ours. it was a simple concept, but nevertheless, extremely useful for businesses, especially the cyber-cafe businesses.

I also remember the late nights playing Age of Empires II with the rest of the finalists, and hiding random Age of Empires sprites in my program.

I would love it if wkKay, Zybler, cfgt and I could get together and work out something really cool in the near future.

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