Small Thoughts, Big Ideas

Visited the Small Thoughts, Big Ideas exhibition held at The Arts House today and I really enjoyed it.

It is a fringe event of the Singapore Design Festival 2009 featuring 15 industrial designers and well, their designs. I particularly like the "Park your Day" calendar, which resembles Singapore parking coupons. Definitely uniquely Singapore. Another one I like is the TeaStick which is basically a redesigned teabag which can hook onto the cup, saving the trouble of coiling that rope that comes with conventional teabags. But then, you won't be able to "fish (diao hur)" anymore~ Some of the industrial designers were there to present their works as well.


Really like their poster presentation as well. I guess it is one thing that engineers can learn from industrial designers.

The exhibition will be on till 29 November 2009.

last day at work

Yesterday was the last day of my temporary assignment. I bet I must be the first few in my graduate cohort to tender :P

I got this job through a blogger friend of mine, and I'm grateful for this opportunity. It was definitely not career, but working in a SME (small and medium enterprise) was really an eye-opener. The company is an IT related company, and I was the only mechanical guy (and non-computing guy) around, so all day I hear Martian languages. At the beginning I was doing some marketing related stuff, then later on I was involved in some research project. Really, don't underestimate SMEs, they actually have very impressive clientele.

The working culture is also quite fast-paced, and the people there are very dynamic. They do task like coding, product development, business development, HR, finance, marketing, etc. Work aside, they are very nice people too. Although I was just a temp, they treated me to a Japanese restaurant for a sumptuous lunch on my last day.

So, what I want to say is, don't rule out SMEs in your job option. You may pick up something new there.

super glue warranty

I was looking at the packaging of the Yamayo super glue (those 50cents ones from bargain shops, elephant sold separately) and it says "2 years warranty".

Erm, what is there to warranty about? A product that is selling at 50cents also has warranty...

But I must say these super glues are very handy lifesavers, especially when your shoe's sole come off at the middle of nowhere. Mine came off at the road junction yesterday. The other time the Father's came off at the airport, but of course they don't sell the super glue at 50cents at the airport.

booking engineering

I don't stay glued to books during meal time or bed time, but I do enjoy some light readings during rides on the MRT or when waiting for things to happen (ie, meetings).

If you stroll down a little, you will see this bookjetty widget I have placed on the right sidebar of my blog. First thing first, I don't earn a dime from the widget. It is just a spot for me to share with everyone books that I find good reads. And on many occasions, coursemates and friends have talked to me about the books that I "put" there, discussing about the content and examples in the books, or asking me where can they get the books. I really like these kinds of sharing.

I'm a stingy bugger and seldom spend on books, so you can most likely find those books at public libraries, if not your institutions' libraries.

So are you sharing your reads too?

kitchen bot

Recently I've been reading and hearing a bit about kitchen automation. How's the thought of having robotic arms doing the cooking and dishwashing in kitchen, and truly liberating the women (and men like me) from the kitchen? I seriously think it can make great FYP.

One recent clip I saw showcases the prototypes from Panasonic.



I wonder if it is cheaper to develop such automated kitchen robots, or to train a chimp to do the honour.

You may also be interested in the ramen robot and dessert machine.

if you can do a better job

Last night I happened to catch a bit of the football match between the red shirts and the yellow shirts. I'm not a diehard football fan, but you don't need to have played FIFA to know what is a good pass and what is a bad pass. Definitely not the most enjoyable of matches.

Whenever I tell myself to be less unforgiving, I will ask myself this question: "If you are so good, then you go and take their place lah!" I am pretty sure any of the 11 on the pitch plays better football than me (maybe even on FIFA).

But it isn't difficult to counter that. Take consumer goods for example. You may complain about how inferior this $50 mobile phone is, but if I throw you $50, can you make a phone half as sophisticated? I bet you can't even mold its plastic case. But the thing is, there are alternatives, and if you can afford it, you can get a better phone. Same thing goes for football. If you can afford to watch better standard matches, go ahead.

Such is market force. If you want supporters, do a better job. It doesn't matter if people can't do it themselves, cos there are others who can.

massive violation

I saw a whole crowd of people violating traffic regulation by crossing the road when the red pedestrian light was on. The cars were at a red light too.

Not sure if you are aware of it, but in Singapore, those pedestrian traffic light with the button on the pole, will remain red until the cow comes home, if no one presses the button.

So it's an interesting social phenomenon. People furthest away from the pole assume that someone nearer to the pole would have pressed the button, and/or are too lazy to check if someone has pressed it (a red light lights up beside the button if it has been pressed). While those nearer to the pole just don't know that they have to press the button. A lot of assumptions, a lot of ignorances.

I wonder if you can plot a graph with x-axis denoting distance from the pole, and draw some conclusion.

repairing the tape measure

I had this cute self retracting tape measure that doubles up as a keychain. But lately it refused to retract, so the mechanics boy in me decided to open it up to try repairing it.

Opening it up wasn't an easy job since the parts were not only snap-fit but also glued. Inside I saw some plastic parts had already fractured (definitely not due to me opening it up). Then I tried to reload the clock spring but I overwound it and it sprung open into a mess. Anyway its edges were quite sharp too. So in the end I gave up and the tape measure keychain ended up in the bin.

Lesson: some products are not meant to be repaired. Either they are not designed to be so, or it is just not economical to repair. These tape measure cost something like $1?