quote of the day

Please take note that you are not allowed to increase the size of the real estate on the A4 helpsheet through the use of additional stick-on, or "Post It", notes.
-- Prof Poo Aun Neow
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, NUS

elephant pump

Saw this interesting video at Engineers Without Borders.

Built by an organization called Pump Aid, the Elephant Pump actually comes from a 2000 year-old Chinese design! Using basic materials and simple design, the Elephant Pump can bring fresh underground water to the people in Zimbabwe. This is how it works.

With my lousy fluid mechanics, if I ever join this kind of project the most I can only help mix cement...

products and processes

I observe that when people talk about academic performance (at least at my level) they will link it to our junior college; whereas for conduct, character and behaviour, they will link it to our secondary school.

The other day when I went to see Tuan Seng (aka A/P Chew) to get back my test paper, LipTon (the famous 1 out of 6) was in Tuan Seng's office discussing about his test marks. When Tuan Seng knew that both LipTon and I were from the same junior college (in fact same class) he got the (wrong) idea that people from my JC are good at maths. -_-"

Yesterday I was talking to the twins from ME2 and we were talking about our batch of old boys from our secondary school (we were from the same secondary school, somewhere along Bukit Timah Road). We conclude that most of us have become "堕落". There are quite a number of my sec sch's old boys in ME2 and most of us are just the average Joe. Maybe none of us make it to Dean's List =P. Classic example of "小时了了, 大未必佳".

But people always say that boys from Chinese schools have good characters. Come to think of it, most of the ME2 guys who came from my secondary school have neat short black hair, presentable attire, no piercings, although I must stress that these are by no means indicators of good and bad, maybe we are just not trendy. On the other hand, old boys from this secondary school situated next to the cemetery are quite happening =P Again, happening is a neutral term.

Seems like it's not that wise an idea to send your kids to branded secondary schools. Or is it?

7-eleven and wet socks

What do you do when you are outside and your socks are wet?

Some people go to 7-Eleven and use their microwave oven...

The microwave causes resonance in the water molecules trapped in the wet socks and so...

gosh why my sandwiches smell of stinko socks!?

mta 2007

to the precision engineering type... MTA 2007 is here~

Held on 28-31 March 2007 at Singapore Expo.

You won't see me there cos I don't have a business card!! (although I'm the Head of Department of Crappy Engineering...)

Click here for more information.

thief scream catch thief

There's a Chinese saying "贼喊捉贼", which literally means the thief screams "catch thief".

Today's ME2114 - Mechanics of Materials II test was another of those screwed-up-held-at-LT tests. This kind of thing had to happen again. The same dear friend of mine continued to happily punch on his calculator and continued to write after the lecturer had said "stop writing". I didn't want to be too frontal, so in a playful tone I said "why you still writing?" but he didn't take the heed.

A leopard really can't change its spots huh?

I was only one line away from my final answer, nothing complicated, just one line, but I put down my pen when the lecturer announced time's up. The fact that I could have taken extra time is not the point at all. I remember during a test in Sec 3, a classmate insulted my mother just because I pulled away his paper when he was still writing after time was up. I wonder why I (or he) did that.

You think this is shocking? After people have submitted the paper and came back from the washroom, this gang of phantoms to my extreme left (note: phantom cos I've never seen them attend lectures at all) was still writing! So I told the above-mentioned dear friend of mine that those guys were more powerful than him. Guess what he did? He walked over and told them to stop writing! What's more, he went to the lecturer and told him about that group of people.

It hurts more to see your friend do bad things than to see strangers doing similar acts. I really dunno if I should distance myself from him. It really hurts.

my turbo

Okay you all saw the words above. Exam is less than a month away and this time round I'm starting my turbo earlier than last semester. Last semester I started my turbo one week before my first paper. This semester, 6 modules really feel like 6 modules and I need a little bit more headstart. In case you dunno how powerful my turbo can be, I could finish one semester worth of notes+tutorials within a few days.
(to 麻坡的华语:我的turbo也很够力)

Blog updates will become irregular. And when I say irregular, it can mean many days one entry, or one day many entries. -_-"

(wondering what a turbo is?)

singapore national barista championship 2007

The Singapore National Barista Championship 2007 is here!


Date: 29 - 31 March 2007
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm (29 & 30 March); 10.00am to 2.00pm (31 March)
Venue: Suntec Convention Centre Room 208 & 209
Admission: FREE

More details HERE.

Maybe I can compete with my Special Crappy Blend.

destressing effect

Some of my coursemates like to read my blog 'cos it has destressing effect.

I scored 44 out of 100 for my ME2142 - Feedback Control Systems test.

Feeling better now?
=P

table hog

Just imagine it's peak hour and you are doing homework with your group of friends at the canteen, with people standing around hunting/waiting for empty tables.

Now, how about imagine your lunch break is ending soon, yet you still can't find a table, and you see almost a third of the canteen filled with aliens doing homework with no sign of food on the tables at all, and no sign of them leaving anytime soon since it looks like a whole lecture group of morons rushing assignments last minute.

There are appropriate places for studying and there are appropriate places for eating. Just because of this cohort of insensitive university students, I had to buy sandwiches and eat inside a lecture theatre.

I wish I bought a bowl of curry chicken noodles and spill some curry onto their precious assignment (or laptop, just like Mr Bean). Pig head would be too extreme.

quote of the day

liau: 看身材要盖脸
chow: 是盖自己的脸还是她的脸?

(Chinese,
liau: look at girl's body must cover face
chow: cover my own face or her face?)

song dedication

This song is dedicated to Ng Lip Tong of NUS ME2, for sharing with everyone how he was 1 out of the 6 who got full marks for his MA3501 - Mathematical Methods in Engineering test out of 445 students. Similar scenario happened one year ago for MA1506.

The Department of Crappy Engineering would like to congratulate him on his achievement.
(anyway anyone interested to see my JC class photo? Lip Tong was my classmate)

letter from iwo jima, i mean sweden

Today I received a Class A Prioritaire mail from Sverige! Ok let me rephrase it, today I received a Class A Priority mail from Sweden!

It's always exciting to receive mails in the letterbox with your name on it, except bills and those on government service type. Even more exciting when it's from oversea. =) Just imagine the envelope having flown across half the globe before reaching you, every square inch of the letter just seems so special. (and the envelope has the words "Paper from recovered beverage cartons" It's like, so cool!)

It's one of the oversea companies that I've applied for internship. Sigh, I have like 3 big foreign companies with positive response and now I am taken by a local R&D organization...

Sigh, maybe next time.

quote of the day

Chio bu reading crappy blog

Was at Nexus today where ping.sg stole the show, thanks to clapping tree. Will blog the details later.

Anyway, all I want to say is, we saw this really chio lady with a equally chio macbook going to ping.sg and she pong chillicrap's blog. And she actually stayed at his website for quite some time.

WAH CIAO. Lady, why waste your time on craps? Come my blog better.
If you prefer crap, I can crap with you too.

(See, this post is crappy enough)

Maybe crappy blog attracts more chio bu readers. I should crap more.

Posted by DK on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 4:33 PM

The Department of Crappy Engineering will look into this matter. Any inconvenience caused is not regretted.
Thank you for your precious feedback.

(this is a human generated message. No signature is required)

50 years of 帝女花

This year marks 50 years since the Cantonese opera piece 帝女花 was created. It's a very sad story about 2 lovers ending their lives together after their kingdom was invaded. Hmm Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet?

Original version by 任白 here.

lecture paparazzi 2

Someone has been playing with his/her camera phone in LT7... again.


Leeched from he and himself.

nus mcdonald's meal

Today I did something crazy during lunch time.

I went to canteen, bought a 扣肉包 (some fatty meat pau), went into McDonald's, sat down, and ate my 扣肉包.

"ba la ba ba baa..I'm lovin' it".

simple but difficult question

What do you do when you see a good looking person from the opposite gender?

faculty of arse

Do you know that arts and social sciences are two different things? So it's technically wrong to call a psychology student or sociology student or political science student as arts students. You should call them FASS (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) students.

But FASS Fac sounds so weird, like fuss fact or fast fat, somemore FASS already has a F for Faculty inside, calling them FASS Fac seems wrong. Remove the F, call them Fac ASS or ASS Fac.

That's worse, fat ass? Should substitute with a nicer word that has the same meaning... hmm... Arse Fac sounds perfect! You won't go wrong calling them Arts Fac. Ok we are back to square one.

*NB whenever I walk past AS5 I always thought the letters outside the building looks like ASS. What an artistic name. =P

finished watching pumpkin scissors

Just finished watching the last episode of the anime Pumpkin Scissors (パンプキン・シザーズ).

Originally a manga of the same title by Iwanaga Ryoutarou (岩永亮太郎), Pumpkin Scissors talks about a small section in the army, the Imperial Army State Section III, in their missions of providing post-war relief to the needy people of the Empire and battling corruption.

I'm a bit disappointed with Gonzo the publisher. At 24 episodes they are leaving the story hanging. Nothing was said about how the secret society was dealt with eventually. Sometimes I just think it's Gonzo's style to leave things dangling, as seen in previous animes such as Full Metal Panic. (although Last Exile and 「戦闘妖精雪風」 were quite nicely closed up) Some of the scenes were quite dumb too, like when they got ambushed by a sniper, they could still stand there and talk cock... -_-" But dunno why I still obediently waited for each episode every week. Some of the scenes actually provided quite a bit of food for thought, like the relationship between nobles, soldiers and commoners, or how a father gave up drugs for his daughter. The contrasting peace-loving/cold-blooded split personality of big sized Corporal Randel Oland was quite interesting too.

One anime completed, now I can concentrate on study! Oh is there a new title coming up?

quotes of yesterday

uncle: 来后面的你要吃什麽?
wei chuan: 柠檬鸡
uncle: 柠檬鸡要加什麽?
wei chuan: 加蛋
uncle: 加什麽蛋?
me: 王八蛋

wei chuan and I queuing up at chicken rice stall.

It's like you know the person has AIDS and you still want to have sex with her lor!

me lecturing hj. You can ask what good thing hj did.

really happening bus ride

I got the shock of my life this morning when I boarded bus 151 plate number SBS2696E. The interior of the bus was converted into a pub, with sofa and bar! It's actually a theme for the Nokia 5300 advertisement, so the interior was red and white. Aww if only I have a camera phone...

...but I found this in sgforums:

It's one of the best bus rides I have, no one invading my space, no one kicking the back of my seat. But I pity those standing passengers =S cos there are really fewer seats than the normal bus.

Are you going to just wait to board this bus?

EDIT: check out the official site!

world day of sleep

Today is the World Day of Sleep!

Let's celebrate this day by:
a) sleeping during lecture;
b) sleeping during office hour;
c) sleeping during lunch;
d) sleeping with your good friend;
e) just sleep!

Are you having enough of quality sleep?

boulderactive 2007

The NUS Bouldering Championships is here again!

23-25 March 2007
Atrium@Orchard (Dhoby Ghaut MRT)

Check out the Women Categories for some hot actions ok!

Visit HERE for more details.

fundamentals of mechanical craps

a refresher for Prof Fuh's part of the ME2101 - Fundamentals of Mechanical Design lectures.

This is cedar. Cedar-1, cedar-2, cedar-3...



Phase Shift -- space ship. Space ship of 90 degrees...


This is Arnold. Ah-one minus Arnold equals...

song of the day

伤痕 by 林忆莲
Someone in ME2 uses this song as his/her ringtone. He/she forgot to turn the phone to silent mode during lecture this morning.

Didn't know there are others who like Sandy Lam =)

climbing diapers

To my beloved Yishun Climbing Gang:

Sorry for not being able to join you guys last Saturday for climbing. Was having diahorrea (as some of you already know) and didn't really want to have falling rocks craps happening (and thus endangering the live of my brave belayer, whoever he/she might be). Meder was suggesting me to wear diapers, but then my climbing harness wouldn't fit.

Just realize there's something known as canyoning harness that has a protective cover at the bottom. Hmm...

And this is how rockclimbers get attached.

happening bus rides

On the way to school...
I realize bus 151 doesn't stop even if you have pressed the bell but didn't stand right at the exit.

On the way home...
I saw this couple in that famous-for-abortion-Junior College uniform. The girl was seated near the exit, the boy standing just beside her. The girl's hand was searching for something inside the boy's pants front pocket. Dunno if she had found what she wanted to find.

partial solar eclipse

There is a partial solar eclipse today starting 00:38:26 Universal Time and ending at 04:25:00 Universal Time (Singapore is +8), but...

... Singapore is out of the way.

watched letters from iwo jima

Just watched Letters from Iwo Jima (硫黄島からの手紙)

I've watched Flags of Our Fathers before this, so it's kind of interesting to compare how the same battle is told from different perspective. (although both are Hollywood films -_-", and Flags of Our Fathers seems to have other objectives)

In my opinion it's quite a sad movie, the Japanese were as good as fighting a lost cause. There were no reinforcement, no escape, just sit tight and fight back the Americans as they poured onto the island of Iwo Jima. I wonder was victory ever in the mind of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (栗林忠道, played by Ken Watanabe) Like Admiral Yamamoto (山本五十六), Kuribayashi opposed to war with the Americans, but both ended up facing off with the Americans.

Nowadays war movies are getting more and more ideological.

precision engineered pepper dinner

Okay it's actually I had Pepper Lunch Express for dinner at Junction 8's food court.

I ordered pepper beef rice and while waiting for my food, I saw the manager scooping rice into a metallic bowl and placing it onto a electronic weighing scale. He looked at the figures and bit by bit added rice into the bowl until he was satisfied with the number. Very much like what you see in some Chinese medicine hall.

Now do you call that quality control (or quantity control)? Dunno if they want to make sure they don't give too much rice to customers, or too little.

The thick hot plate was interesting too. I wonder did they calculate the change in entropy when customers mix and stir the food on the hot plate.

stress induced diarrhoea

Went to see a doctor about my diarrhoea and he said it's stress induced.

I've learned induced stress in Mechanics of Materials, but stress induced? Let me connect up the strain gauge and wheatstone bridge and calculate the stress. (oops, I connected the wrong lead wires=P)

Thanks everyone for your concern! I've received encouraging pat on the back, a reader offering to help me buy medicine from Chinatown, another reader saying my blog is a scatological obsession (what the, I just happened to have a diarrhoea!), and a lot of people want me dead just because my butt takes up one space at the lecture theatre.

Please, if I die, it just means someone is going to take my place on the left half of the bell curve. So you should pray hard that I live long long.

lecture theatre litterbug

I know sometimes we may be forgetful, but I've seen this guy from ME2 leaving his rubbish behind in the lecture theatre more than once.

It's like he left his carton of soya milk right on the seat where he sat on. Can't be a slip of mind right? They should have sent him to Environmental Engineering or attach him to SembWaste to collect rubbish for his internship/attachment.

Felt a bit bad when I hinted to a girl about her friends' rubbish when they were already out of the crime scene and clearly not her fault/business. It seems to take a lot of courage to tell your peers to pick up their own rubbish.

Unless I wear the Ministry of Environment uniform.

toyota's human touch

New idea for our Mechanical Engineering's Automotive specialization project.

drug abuse

Normally you can't take drugs with soft drinks.

So that day I went to NUH's pharmacy to get some Ultracarbon (no, not some super hero, just charcoal) and after that I conveniently found a bench at nearby Medicine School to take a few pills. I was taking it down with a bottle of 100 Plus (or was it H-two-O?).

A lot of passing-by Medicine students were giving me that "what-the" look.

麻坡的华语 in NUS

Someone said he saw 周车轮 in NUS Mechanical Engineering year 2...

He usually sits near the left aisle in the centre portion of the LT.

oopz, I think he's in my lab group...

parents go to (your) school

Other than graduation and/or when you did something nasty and your teachers want to see your parents, have you ever brought your parents to your school (and show them around)?

Within this month I have brought my parents to NUS twice (once was for concert). And since I entered NUS, I think I have showed them around the campus no less than 5 times. And I haven't graduated. And I haven't done anything nasty in campus so much so that the school wants to see my parents.

I remember when I still had to wear school uniform I used to dislike my parents walking me to the bus stop to see me off to school or go into the school compound walking side by side with me. Guess it's the menatality of wanting to appear mature and the fear of being laughed at or something.

I don't know why I like to show them around campus. Maybe I'm really proud of NUS? Oh if you are wondering what is there to see in NUS, then try NUS Museum, it's quite interesting. Law School is quite nice too. Of course a cup of cheap nice coffee is the best.

To be honest I am a bit scared of bumping into people I know and they start all those lame craps. Then my parents will know how crappy their son is.

"I see your true colours shining through..."

white day

Happy White Day (ホワイトデー or 白色情人节)! Guys, don't forget to return the Valentine's Day favor and give gifts to your loved ones~
As for me, I am giving out free chocolate ice cream served in white toilet bowls.

quote of the day

千金难买春头泻
-- traditional Chinese medical saying

(thousand gold also cannot buy diarrhoea at the start of Spring
-_-")

from chin-up bar to toilet bowl

You are not going to believe this.

I think I overexerted while doing chin-ups on my newly installed chin-up bar, and I sort of pulled my abs. Somehow, my digestive system is affected and I am having diarrhoea now. This is so crappy.

I survived today with a bit of sandwiches and a bottle of 100 Plus, only to end up in the toilet bowl a few hours after consumption. Clever me tried to replenish my glucose by adding mountains of sugar in my coffee from Science canteen, then I realized coffee is laxative. -_-"

Soon I'll have to drink 100 Plus from a needle in my arm.

st patrick's day parade 2007

Yesterday afternoon went to Singapore River to see the St Patrick's Day Parade.

It was quite a sight to see the Irish community in Singapore celebrate. People were dressed in green and many were spotted with those cute big green hat. Some were rowing dragon boats in Singapore River with cans of Guinness stout in hands =P

The parade started at the New Parliament House and marched across Cavenagh Bridge, ending at UOB Plaza. Along the way the Singapore Police Force Band and St Joseph’s Institution Pipes and Drums played pieces after pieces. The wind pipes were nice~!Although only a short distance, but it was still quite a happening event.

If not because I had to rush to NUS for the concert, I would have enjoyed a can of Guinness at the parade =P

三月天 - 征

After going for NTU Chinese Orchestra's 「南大云音 2007」 (Transient Reminiscences 2007) last weekend, today I went for NUS Chinese Orchestra's 「三月天 - 征」 (March Odyssey). So that's 2 Chinese Orchestra concerts on 2 consecutive weekends.

Held at NUS's University Cultural Centre, the concert was part of the NUS Arts Festival 2007. Although I can say it's in my home ground, but honestly I enjoyed the NTU's concert more than NUS's. Not really about the orchestra itself, but more of the experience. The audience.

Thanks to the superb acoustic engineering of UCC, any noise from the audience was easily amplified. There were groups of girls mumbling and giggling away, immature freaks making noise with their tongues, then one girl from Bioengineering and wearing the NUS polo-tee kept talking and talking and only kept quiet when she finally fell asleep. Then the usual ringing handphones and even a woman who raised her voice in classic mainlander Chinese accent. I wanted to call the usher but she was nowhere to be found.

You don't need a lousy performer to ruin a performance.

(by the way I also saw averii and her muggerhood. They were taking photos inside the concert hall! During the break, that is.)

shooting a bosch

Yesterday I was using my father's Bosch power drill to drill holes on the wall to mount a chin-up bar.

It was like squeezing the trigger of a rifle and firing at full-auto mode.

Somehow got the feeling the drill causes more damage than a gun.
Just look at the misaligned holes -_-"

(the Germans make the finest power tools. They also make some of the best firearms in the world. Sausage and beer?)

double back bra strap

I realize girls don't double back their bra straps...


This is like so dangerous, imagine a factor 2 fall... eek!

I think I haven't done vertical climbing for too long... My Yishun climbing gang has switched to climbing on Sundays, but I prefer to reserve it for my family. Sigh. And my Safra Adventure Club membership is expiring end of this month.
Went to NUS rock gym yesterday and hanged out for one hour -_-"
A bit disheartened to be climbing so lousily, normal holds also cannot grip, but at least I completed one flash comp route with the year 1 guys.

Argh I want to be on belay again!.

cheating cover-up rule

A friend of mine from NUS Chemical Engineering was accused by his professor of cheating in test, just because he skipped a few steps and used the cover-up rule when solving partial fractions. He went to reason it out with the professor but was told to write an explanation letter as to why he should be awarded the marks.

I think this is quite screwed-up. The test took place in MPSH1 (multi purpose sports hall), and those who have taken test/exam there should know how far the columns are apart. How to cheat? (want to cheat also must take test in LTs lah!) The professor must have sniffed in too much chemical and just anyhow fix an excuse to deduct my friend's marks. (since most probably the prof himself didn't mark the papers but his graduate students did)

Those who should be penalized, ain't penalized.
Those who shouldn't be penalized, are penalized.

费玉清 and wrong number

During dinner yesterday, a stranger called on my handphone. I picked up the call and it was a man who had obviously dialled the wrong number. Shortly after I went back to the dining table that freak called again, and I rejected the call. Called again, reject.

The 4th time he called, I pressed the answer button, brought my handphone right next to my radio's speaker, and let that freak have some 费玉清's song.

That worked. He never called again.

earthquake in nus

At around 12 noon yesterday at NUS engineering canteen, a bowl of wanton mee was seen shaking...

Someone was stirring the noodles.

From what little I know, no one in NUS felt the Sumatran earthquake, must be 'cos of the superb architecture and engineering of the buildings in NUS =)
Not sure about NTU though =P
(and Ngee Ann Polytechnic evacuated the whole school right? =S)

Actually tremors are common in NUS, especially when some insensitive freaks shake their legs during lecture, causing the whole row of seats to vibrate. Should evacuate the whole lecture theatre the moment you feel your seat shaking.

mahjong injury

I think I pulled my forearm from playing mahjong on Sunday... -_-"

Played around 6 圈 (6 rounds), 3 番起糊, and I can almost use the word "slaughter" for that game. One guy lost $700+ while another girl lost $400+. Where did the money go? My brother's and my drawers =) Actually I didn't win that many rounds, just one 清一色自摸爆棚 and a few smaller ones, while my brother had one 九张落地 and that guy had to pay $256 in one go for everyone, that sort of contributed to him losing $700...

We only played chips, no real cash, if not I think my hands cannot move by now.

crappy mrt ride

Have you ever experienced the need to poo while on a MRT?

Last night after dinner at a family friend's place at Sembawang, I was on my way home on the MRT when nature called. Ok I have a weak stomach and stomach ache is common, but this one was quite crappy. Every time the train reached a station I wanted to alight and use the station's toilet, but I endured. The long stretch from Khatib to Yio Chu Kang must have felt like some cross-Atlantic flight... Finally I endured 4 stations and managed to release the load back home. It must have looked like the Niagara waterfall.

This kind of mind over body isn't easy. At Ang Mo Kio Station I saw a kid wetting his pants. All of time to see a kid wetting his pants when I was holding back my crap!

Sometimes I wonder, why don't they build the station toilet inside the station, ie after going into the gates and stuff? I know some countries' train stations have their toilets near the platform, so you don't have to buy a new ticket after pooing.

But then, what if you are not taking the train but need to use the station's toilet?

waiting for eclipse

I know it's a bit too late to say this now, but there is a total lunar eclipse later near dawn. (dawn as in sunrise, NOT a girl's name)
I have waited for 6 hours past my bed time, with 2 more hours to go...

Should I continue to wait?

*UPDATE*
I didn't wait, I went to sleep and woke up in time, but too bad the moon was too low on the horizon so couldn't see a thing. Furthermore it was cloudy... by the way today is 元宵节!

南大云音 2007

And so it was 2 days in a row of me making trouble with NTU. The word is 踢馆 in Mandarin or 踩場 in Cantonese.

Went to NTU Chinese Orchestra's concert「南大云音 2007」 (Transient Reminiscences 2007) at Singapore Conference Hall just now. If you think it's weird for a NUS student to watch NTU's performance, how about seeing my fellow NUS ME2 coursemate and lab partner Carrotcak and my year 1 common engineering classmate Margaret at the concert? And the first thing I said to Carrotcak was "lab report 做了没有?" -_-". What's more, one of the stage crew was wearing a NUS Chemical Engineering "high pressure" T-shirt!

Funny things did happen. While playing the drum piece 《鼓乐III》 a drummer hit the drum so hard that the drum slid down its stand! Actually I knew it was coming cos I could see the drum sinking deeper and deeper with each beat, then bum! Tsk tsk tsk, safety factor not included. And they replayed their first piece in the programme list for encore!

I have no musical background (or is it background music?) but I could see that they put in lots of effort in the concert. At least you can't see cute NTU girls when you play Hugo CDs on your CD player =P

anpoo's protege

I received this interesting email in my NUS mailbox:

Dear all,

The note below is self-explanatory. If some students did do things that they should not have done, I can only say that the tutors, Prof Subra and myself will be greatly disappointed.

For those who have sensed, or suspected that some of their classmates have "do anything" for extra marks, I can only say that do not feel too distressed. In the end, it will be those who are not honest with themselves, who do not make efforts to improve themselves through hard work and perseverence but give way to their own weaknesses and do wrong things who will lose out in the end. Developing a proper character is one of the most important things that will determine your success in your later lives.

The contribution to the final marks for this examination will not be high, at most 10%. The primary objective of the mid-term test is to, in a way, "force" students to do their revisions so that they will be better prepared for the final examination. Those who did not put in the effort to study but rather try to cheat on themselves by to get thos "extra marks" will only be fooling themselves.

In the grading of the mid-term test, the below comments will be taken into consideration and a lookout will be done to detect blatant copying of answers without proper or incorrect working.

And those "honest students" who studied for the test should not feel "penalised". If you have studied for the test, you should feel penalised. Rather, I am sure you will be the winners in the end.

For those students who had succumbed to their weaknesses, I would urge you to take stock and reflect on what you have done. And I would hope that you will learn something from this and do the right things in future, not only for the sake of the name of NUS graduates, but more importantly, for yourself.

Regards,
ANPoo

-----Original Message-----
From: An ME2142 Student
Sent: 28 February 2007 23:03
To: Poo Aun Neow; Velusamy,S
Cc: Rebsamen Brice; Fu Guo Ming, James; Xi Xuecheng
Subject: ME2142 Midterm Exam Issues

Professors and Tutors,

I must be honest that I was quite irritated during and after the exam with the way that many students I believe were dishonest. The exam itself I thought was very fair although challenging because of time. When so much pressure is put on us, some people will do anything for extra marks.

Some students in front of me started the exam right as they received it and behind me I heard whispering of answers. After I handed in my exam and made my way up the stairs, I saw many many students conversing and changing their answers since all of the answers were easily change-able on the front page and the way to find out what version of the exams we had was told to us (at the bottom of the page). Some in the back were even still revising their exams. Afterwards I talked with two other students who felt the exact same way about it.

I understand that the exam has already been given and I do not know what can be done about this, maybe you can think of a solution. For the final exam, and for future years I think a better system could be worked out. I think that this is most unfair since the course is curved and honest students that did study hard should not be penalized for this. Even if the mid-term does not carry a large weight of the final grade, I do think it's the principal of the matter.

Thank you, I hope that I have not offended in any way; I just wanted you to be aware of what sometimes students may see.

Sincerely

"我是警察"

active vibration interview

And so I went for my internship interview today at SIMTech.

How was it? ermm, from the point of view of someone who wants to get the position, it's smooth; from the point of view of someone who has other plans and wants to opt out, well...

At the start of it the interviewer told me the interview could finish in 10 minutes, ended up we chatted for half and hour! The project I got selected for is structural design & analysis of an active vibration isolation module. I itchy fingers went to read up more on it this morning and to my horror, it's electronic stuff! But stupid me went to read up on it, so when the interviewer asked me what I knew about the project, I could tell him quite a bit and he seemed pleased. (remember, I wanted them to reject me, not to get selected...)

So I told him straight that circuits and feedbacks and anything to do with electrical current is my weak point. Then he saw that I know how to use SolidWorks, so he asked me what have I built. Urinals and toilet bowls. =_=" And then he happily sketched out the drawing of the isolator module and asked me for opinions and stuff, and I felt like being treated like a real engineer. Too early liao.

Then I told him I live very far, my grades very lousy, I'm only in year 2 (the other person competing with me is in year 3. I saw the interviewer's list of his modules taken was much longer than mine) Since I wasn't keen on the project, so there was little pressure on my part, and for the whole interview there were lots of laughters from both the interviewer and me.

All da best to those still waiting for response!

no-slip condition

In fluid mechanics, no-slip condition means the velocity at the wall is zero;
In crappy engineering, no-sleep condition means my eyelid keeps twitching.

I seriously need 7 hours of absolute vodka sleep everyday or I'll be zombified. The worst thing is I don't know how to sleep during lectures.

career 2007

to my beloved comrades in Engineering:

If you are still hunting for self-initiated VIP, you should try CAREER 2007 at level 6 Suntec Singapore from 1-4 March, 11am to 8pm.

Oh man I'm so jealous of you all... tomorrow someone at NTU is going to hear my craps.

revision during test

Wow I outdid myself again! Can you believe I actually learned more during the test itself than 6 weeks of lectures!

Yesterday's ME2142 Feedback Control Systems test was open book test, so we were allowed to bring our notes and etc into the test venue (which was LT7). Then one question was asking for damping ratio, and I was like, what on earth is that? So I happily flipped my notes, search search search and found ζ the damping ratio. I don't recall the lecturer saying anything about it (what do you expect from him), but I was like reading up half a semester of stuff within 45 minutes.

Anyway I heard there were people cheating in the test. And there were a few jokers standing at the collection point looking at everyone's answer...