changi's looking glass

Within a period of 1 week, I was at Changi Airport twice: once at the arrival hall and once at the departure hall.

I was at the arrival hall receiving someone when I saw the cleaners wiping the glass panels. I must say they did a fantastic job, the glass panels were so clean that they were like mirrors. Usually when you are receiving someone at the arrival hall, you would look through the glass wall to catch your someone walking out from the immigration and duty free shop, past the conveyor belt and towards the glass door (if he's lucky, the custom check). Yah all those wave wave actions... But one thing... can you look through a mirror?

Then at the departure hall, pretty much the same thing, once the person you are seeing off has gone past the immigration counter, you can hardly see him/her. Maybe it helps you to just say bye and leave, rather than still hanging around there and looking at your someone shopping inside the departure hall =P

Try dimming the light, or try not cleaning the glass.

thank you for doing the survey

hey people, thank you so much for helping out with the online survey!

I manage to receive 103 results, and I'm in the process of processing them now. =P

(ok, sorry to those who wish to see me administer the survey face to face =P)

quote of the day

his part cannot move *giggle giggle*
- SQ and Janan gossiped about me while I was behind their backs talking on the phone about component parts cannot move

Met up with SQ (from NTU EEE) and Janan (from NTU MAE) for lunch at Wakashachiya at Central yesterday. The variety there is a bit disappointing, but their specialty the curry udon is like really thick!

The previous time we met was during June vacation. Everytime we meet up there will be lots of craps to talk about. We talked about our good old days in ODAC, then about Janan's recent trip to Hong Kong with his coursemates. I was quite impressed that he really went to all the cool places there. (ooi, I was the one who recommended the roasted goose to him) He actually saw the fireworks at Disneyland on his departure flight from Hong Kong! Oh we also talked about aircraft engine, how GE and P&W combine power to fight RR. Then about hybrid car, how some vehicle has to switch off air-con when going upslope... etc

Then we moved to Billy Bomber for some chocolate and coffee malts. Another super thick liquid =S. Janan was talking about some NS experience while I was sipping water from my glass, then suddenly he became high and slap hard on my arm. The water spurted out and I sat there stunned with eyes wide open...

Sugar rush.

a powerful blog makes me powerless

There was once dusty said he wanted to post my photo on his blog, then I told him me posting his photo on my blog is going to have more damage than he posting my photo on his blog. Sounds cocky of me. But we were just crapping in the lecture theatre.

Having a Page Rank of 3, a lot of people arrive here from search engine. Sorry if you get the wrong engineering theories or incorrect formulas here. Some people search for blowjob or zaogeng also end up in my blog. Sorry, this blog is going to disappoint you.

Having readership also means I have to watch every alphabet I type. It's like walking in minefield, one wrong step and you blow yourself up. That's not a good way to become lame. Even if I write things with a light heart, it may still offend people. It really hurts me to know that my post has offended others, pissed others, hurt others. Cos that has never been my intention, albeit me not being the most innocent person on earth. No amount of apology or justification or explanation from me is going to help.

I think I just can't write about human beings in this blog. The only moving things I can write about are machines.

12 hours nap

After dinner yesterday, I went to take a nap. When I woke up, it was 8am this morning.

Must be too exhausted after one week of slacking.

It kind of reminds me of my secondary school days. I used to do homework halfway, then went to take a nap on my bed with the desk lamp still on and foolscap paper full of equations and calculations lying on my desk. The next thing I knew, it was the next morning.

This time round it was engineering drawings lying on my desk.

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
- Ecclesiastes (ch. V, v. 12)

9 sigma for finding girl friend

There was once I was chatting with a Vietnamese engineer about finding girl friend, then I told him I adopt a 9 sigma test. He was like, wow, 6 sigma is already like 99.9997%, then 9 sigma would be... 100%?

I don't really know much about process engineering. The sigma test is a way to quantify defects in manufacturing process and sort of help to monitor quality. The sigma is the same sigma we see in standard deviation of normal distribution curve. So for 6 sigma test, they will have 3.4 defective parts per million opportunies (DPMO).

If I run a 9 sigma test, it is as good as not accepting any defects at all.

A girl from NUS Business keeps saying I'm too fussy.
I think so too. Should I switch to 1 sigma test?

quote of the day

(over MSN)
titus: are you specializing?
siu hang: nope
titus: you have no interest?
siu hang: i want to generalize

I feel like I was lying to others.
And to myself.

I'm going to make my own magic potion.

when famous japanese comedian bumps into chillycraps

Famous Japanese comedian Zenjiro (ぜんじろう) and robot PaPeRo from NEC Personal Robot Research Center was in NUS for a public lecture and demo on Tuesday.

PaPeRo is a prototype personal robot designed to communicate with humans and is the first robot that can translate Japanese to English. Its development has the intention of it living together and interacting with human beings in daily life. Teaming it up with a comedian is actually for developing its sense of humour -_-"

I was having project meeting on Tuesday, so couldn't attend the talk. Somehow, our project meeting was held right outside the lecture venue.

Zenjiro-san came out and asked me for the direction to the toilet.
I pointed him to the one with pink coloured door.

logo of technologies

|

I realize that Singapore Technologies' logo is quite similar to United Technologies'.

UTC is one big company that is parent to other big companies such as Carrier, Otis, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky. Otis is the person who invented the elevator in 1853; Carrier invented modern air-conditioner in 1902; Pratt & Whitney started making aircraft engine in 1925; Sikorsky built his first helicopter in 1909.

Oh, ST Engineering is 40 this year.

project freakout

Some weird things are happening to me recently.

Yesterday after project meeting, I was walking towards the bus stop when I found my right hand dripping blood... I still dunno where I got the wound.

This morning before project meeting, I was walking to the project meeting place when I saw bird shit on my shirt. Again, I dunno where I got it from. The shit was dry.

Then after project meeting, I saw a tear hole on my pants. It was too close to my "protected area" for comfort. I dunno where I got the hole from.

There are always things that can't be explained.

beverage phobia

There are some beverages that I die die also cannot drink.

For example, I can't drink root beer. It taste like Chinese medical oil and there was once I had fever after drinking root beer.

Then recently I bought a jar of Farmland chocolate hazelnut coffee by Unico Japan. When I opened the lid and took a sniff, I knew something wasn't right. It smelled like the shisha that I blame for my alcohol poisoning.

I went on to further testing, made myself a cup of the hazelnut coffee. That's it, it was that same artificial fruity taste that I so fear. (I have phobia of shisha and fruity second-hand smoke also) I sneakily poured the remaining toxic down the drain without anyone seeing. For the remaining of the day I felt like vomiting.

Now my potential captors know what kind of POW treatment to give me.
(by the way I had some Martini Asti last night. Find it too sweet)

Ad:

happy maf

It's Mid-Autumn Festival today, Happy MAF!

Full moon symbolises reunion and Mid-Autumn Festival is the day for family reunion when you eat lantern and play mooncake while looking at the round round moon. Hope to see the jade rabbit tonight =)

Every year during Mid-Autumn, one thing that I'm concerned with is the mooncake container (do you call it a tin or a can?). Don't test me about its manufacturing process (that one can ask Prof Seah), but one thing I know is it's made of metal, and I find it quite wasteful that after we have finished with the mooncakes, we just throw the container away. I do reuse a few of the containers to keep small small stuff like nails, but how many containers can I keep?

Actually I think the waste management companies have magnets to sort out the rubbish and recycle the metal. But isn't it more efficient if the mooncake companies buy back the tin from us and reuse next year? Hey afterall the cover designs are the same every year!

this is sick

Although I'm not a control freak engineer, but it got me excited when I saw the blue rectangular block with white wordings (big SICK word) above the exit door of a bus.

That's a photoelectric safety switch from SICK, a famous German company that produces sensors. It's the thing that prevents the door from closing when someone is alighting.

Oh I've seen the SICK LMS200 laser measurement sensor on many robot designs as well, usually mounted as the robot's head. During internship I was playing with the robot, kept blocking its way and made it go in circles.

So we've got many sick robots and sick humans running around.

getting personal

A few observant readers told me that my blog used to be quite personal, then along the way it became less personal and more technical.

Somehow as my blog became less personal, I find it uncomfortable to talk about personal stuff. Things like how weak I am, how evil I am, how mean I am, how stupid I am (oh that I'm quite willing to share) etc etc... and there are things that I find it inconvenient to say, things like how Titus' project group tried to kidnap me or how hj can tell who is horny and who isn't...

Sometimes after writing some personal thoughts, I will have the urge to delete the post away. Or sometimes some unpleasant things happen, in the heat of the moment I really want to blog it down, but after awhile when my pressure gauge goes down, then I don't find the urge to write it anymore.

Is it right?

asia’s first women’s triathlon singapore 2007

Went to help out as safety kayaker in Asia’s First Women’s Triathlon Singapore 2007 at East Coast this morning.

I signed up for it not because it was an all-women's event, but it's something I can do and something I like to do. C'mon, the competitors were swimming in the water and I was above water in my kayak, the only way to see their sporty figures was to capsize and do an eskimo roll. No thanks.

The weather wasn't as nice as during OSIM Singapore International Triathlon 2007. The drift was quite strong which created problem for both the swimmers and the kayakers. We had to put in extra effort to go against the current. And I was in a single kayak this time round (first time for me since I got my level 2 cert some 6 years ago) Then at about 10am, it started to rain heavily. Visibility dropped tremendously and the rain was so heavy that when it hit your body you could feel the pain. Even when you swung the paddle you had to fight with the wind.

I escorted the last swimmer all the way to the end of the swim course. I am really impressed by her determination to continue in spite of the bad weather and hostile condition, and I was with her throughout. Blue capper 14X, I salute you!

don't underestimate me

If you want to judge me by my CAP score,
then you have made a terrible mistake.

A couple of months ago, a German engineering company headhunted me. But then, they made a mistake too. They thought I have just graduated.

My Plan A was screwed 3 years back, luckily or unluckily; my Plan B and C were screwed recently. So now I will work on Plan D.

Honestly the specialization thingy affected me quite a bit. It's like I was cooking dinner and I over-fried the fish and tried to boil broccoli without water. My pillow was dry last night though, cos before I went to bed I came up with Plan D.

There must be a reason/reasons why the department put certain criteria for the program. Maybe they think you can't handle the load? Maybe they want to maintain the quality of our engineers? Maybe, maybe, maybe...

Now even without being enrolled into the specialization program, I can still opt to read those modules, just that when I graduate I won't have the specialization cert. C'mon, I have a living example right in my house. My brother graduated with mechatronics cert, now plays with material science in an aerospace company.

"I get knocked down, but I get up again".

engineers can't dream

Today is Engin Day in NUS. Ironically it's also my saddest day so far as an engineering student. My CAP score is not good enough to get me into the specialisation I want. Ironically this afternoon I was enthusiastically reading the related books at the book store.

It is like everytime I have a dream, I always end up being denied. I only have myself to blame.

I really feel like crying. It is all showing on my face such that my mother asked me what went wrong during dinner.

I think tonight my pillow will be wet.

how not to get traffic to your blog

I'm speaking from the receiving end. Leaving your blog address all over other people's comments pages or bloglog and telling them to visit is NOT the way to get traffic to your blog. Sometimes it pisses me off that I'll just delete the comment away.

It's like a dog peeing on any pole that is in its way.

Write comments that are from your heart and related to the entry. If others are interested to know more about you, they will click on the link to your profile which will link to your blog. Now that brings traffic.

The most you can do is to use seductive profile pic like my little kid.
(phew, most of my readers are nice)

incidents of the day

1. During ME3162 Manufacturing Processes tutorial this morning, Prof Seah took out a banana from an envelop and started eating in class.
   Then he crapped with me about soluble fibre and composite material.


2. I was doing my work at a study bench outside LT6 with a friend of mine. Tomorrow he's meeting up with a girl whom he doesn't like but who likes him. I raised my voice a little and said "Can you stop tempting her?"
   Then a passerby stopped suddenly, turned around and looked at us for full 5 seconds.


3. Celebrated Jack's birthday with a slice of pink strawberry cheesecake. I handed the birthday boy a small plastic fork, then the rest of us with big forks.
   


4. An engineering girl asked me to take off my pants to see how long my legs are.
   I should have asked her to take off hers as well.
   (there's something called FIFA Fair Play)


5. I gave Alvin a birthday present 2 weeks in advance.
   


6. I was boarding the bus when this guy cut in front of me and stepped onto the bus. I glanced at him, then he stepped back down and said sorry to me. I didn't even say a thing.


7. When I reached my block, I stood there at the lift lobby grinning from ear to ear for no particular reason and forgot to press for the lift.
   

monkey engineering department

zhane saw a monkey at NUS Engineering Block EA yesterday.


Now you know what does ME Department stand for?
(photo by zhane)

I need your help!!

Hi people, I'm doing a project on gender discrimination in workplace. If you are currently employed, please help me do a short 5-minute survey.

DO SURVEY!

Thank you!
(write something in the comments page so that I can thank you individually =))

lego engineering

One thing about plastic is that it is non-biodegradable.

So when I opened up my box of LEGO which I haven't touched for some 10 years, they still looked new. (the less scientific half of my mind was having images of slimy molten plastic in the box. eek. Plastic deformation?) And so I was happily playing with my LEGO on my bed and when my mother saw it, she had that smile at the corner of her lips whole evening long.

I think a box of LEGO makes a better toy than a video game console.

Those doing the in-house design project, maybe you should go to the LEGO shop and take a look. Afterall an engineer should know when to use commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions.

By the way, although LEGO bricks look pretty low-tech, its manufacturing process is of high precision. Its rejection rate at the factory is 0.002%. And there is no LEGO factory in China.

growling professor hidden dragon

Yesterday we were having project meeting with the prof, then halfway through I heard someone's stomach growling in the dead silence of the lab. Struggling to keep myself from laughing out, my eyeballs scanned each of my groupmates for any telltale sign.

I was 80% sure it came from the prof (who was sitting just beside me) Maybe he was hungry for ideas from us.

Growling stomach, hungry professor?

toxic soup

Have you eaten those mini hot pot or seafood soup with that pathetic flame below that dies off in under 1 minute?

I think putting the small fire there is totally pointless. Do you think the flame really makes a difference to your soup? Yes! You are breathing in noxious fumes from the fuel while eating your favourite seafood soup.

My guess is that they use hexamine fuel which is the same kind of solid fuel tablet you use for camping (not the rocket booster type of solid fuel). According to the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) of a famous German solid fuel brand Esbit, it says "keep away from food" and "may cause sensitization by inhalation and skin contact", and if ingested, may cause "kidney damage".

Judging by how I saw the canteen auntie hold the solid fuel with her bare hand and pick up the ingredients for my seafood soup, I think I won't buy from that stall anymore unless I need some "sensitization".

patchy light pole

If you have knocked into a street light pole before, you must have noticed that the pole is full of patches. In material science term, those are actually grains in the polycrystalline material. In this case the material is galvanized steel.

In Singapore, most of the poles are made by a Malaysian company LYSAGHT under the brand LYCORPOLE, which makes poles for quite a lot of clients in Asia Pacific region.

Sort of reminds me of patches on old people's face.. =P

kopi-chilly-o

Kopichillyo
[kopi-chilly-oh]

Have you ever wondered what is inside the paper cup that chillycraps brings to class (almost) everyday?

It's 50% kopi-o (black coffee) and 50% coffee with milk. The ratio used to be 0:100 in year 1 and 25:75 in year 2. You can predict what will happen in year 4.

(This morning I was explaining to Alvin that engineering canteen's coffee tastes richer because it has engine oil added.

more coffee illustrated here)

ello boss

There is a saying that "Everyone is everyone's boss" and I think it's quite true. You always hear the food stall's boss calling customers boss.

Alvin is in my project group and I'm in Alvin's project group (i mean, there are 2 different groups). During his project group meetings, I always play a fool. But then, even during my own group meetings I also play a fool.

Last Friday supposedly there's a project group meeting, and all the members were present except the leader (ie, Alvin). So I gave him a ring and my first line was "(in Indian accent, minus the shaking head) ello boss! Where are you?"

When I told him there was a meeting, his reaction was "Your group or my group?"

老板, 要不要 special?
(boss, do you want special?)

neutral party

Early in the Sunday morning and my family had to quarrel during breakfast.

My mother was unhappy that my brother had been out the whole day yesterday and only came home at midnight. On the other hand my brother claimed he knows what he is doing and blah blah blah... Then drag to my brother's breakup with his ex and his foolish acts and blah blah blah... Then slowly it dragged to buying stocks and things like why he never sell when the price is high or why she buy when the price is high and blah blah blah...

No one's eyes were dry.

I'm the peacekeeper. On one hand I told my mother that my brother is close to 30, on the other hand I told my brother that mother was worried.

I'm also the neutral party. I don't buy stocks. I've seen far too many cases of family breaking apart because of money matter. I've never had girlfriend, and so I also don't have ex. And other than lessons, I usually reach home earlier than anyone in the house.

You see, no matter how old you are or how smartass you think you are, you are still a naive kid in your mother's eyes. She couldn't sleep whenever we are out at night and she knows right to the dot the time my brother reached home.

But they are quite united whenever I'm the target.

public waning system

There was an island wide Public Warning System Exercise today. So did you turn on the radio when you heard the "Important Message" signal at 1205hrs?

If you didn't, then you should think about this: when a real threat comes, it's not going to tell you it's not just an exercise or a once a month affair like pms.

Now let me play you the different signals:

• "Alarm" Signal. This is sounded when an air raid or shelling is imminent. Move to a shelter immediately.


• "All Clear" Signal. This is sounded when the threat is over. You can come out from hiding (try blasting this at Osama bin Laden)


• "Important Message" Signal. This is sounded to alert the population to an important broadcast on the radio. Tune in immediately to any local FM radio station. (I think they should include this in TV Mobile)

It just takes a little bit more of effort to make Total Defence a part of our life. (come to think of it, I remember I couldn't hear the signal when inside a lecture theatre the other time)

selfish brother

I think in my brother's eyes, his brother is a selfish person.

Today my brother is taking the level 1 climbing course. He asked me to lend him my pair of climbing shoes cos he doesn't want to wear the ones at the climbing centre (that have been worn by hundreds other users). I refused, cos climbing shoes are not like normal shoes, they actually grow into the shape of their owner's feet. So if you let others wear your personal pair, it is like asking a prostitute's son to look for his father. Then he said wear 1-2 time will deform meh?

Next, if he brings a pair of climbing shoes while the other trainees don't have their own, won't it be very extra? Then he said not everyone's brother is a climber. Wow, so he has told everyone that his brother climbs.

And then, it's just a level 1 course, I don't think a pair of climbing shoes is necessary. Why didn't he ask for my harness as well then?

I'm a bit pissed. Maybe I should have lend him my climbing shoes and let him spoil it, so that I can buy a new pair.

excavator does the rowing

Although I'm not a civil engineering student, I always find construction equipments very cool. Even my desktop wallpaper is full of bulldozers and excavators.

Now have you seen how people in China use a excavator?

To row a barge on the river!

stocks

Lately my family is into buying stocks. It's like every other minute they are talking about stocks, the only topic during dinner is stocks, during office hour my mother would call my brother on the phone to check on prices, even when I'm doing lab report my mother also wants me to check the prices... it's kinda sickening.

I don't really participate in such discussion. But being an engineering student, I think our knowledge in the relevant field can help in buying stocks. For example, when they build Integrated Resorts, we know what are the related industries; When they decide to have Formula 1 racing, we know what infrastructures are needed; When oil and gas company wants to set up steam cracker facility, we.... buy biscuit.

I'm so affected that sometimes I can't help checking out the candlestick graphs on SGX while in school. Oh if you have seen me simultaneously using 2 LCD screens in Bloomberg-style, I was just blogging. (I only do that when the lab is empty)

laughing at old technology

Yesterday someone was laughing at my 5 years old Canon PowerShot A40 digital camera.

I'll bring you more laughter.

My Osprey Helios 20 backpack is 2 years old; My Nokia 3120 mobile phone doesn't have a camera and is 3 years old, and so is my pair of Brooks shoes; My Teva sandals are 5 years old, and so is my beloved Nalgene bottle; My Casio fx-991s scientific calculator is 14 years old; All the dictionaries in my home are more than 20 years old; and this human shape shell which my soul clings on to is 24 years old. (and everyone else at home is more than 24)

If an old piece of equipment can perform equally good if not better than brand new ones, then why bother going for new ones? You don't build a new nuclear power station everytime you want to switch on a light bulb, do you? It's exactly this kind of peer pressure that is bringing some of the problems in teenagers. I don't see any shame in making do with what you have.

Since everything you have is new, I suppose your girl friend is new too? Anyway the guy who laughed at me, his memory card was full after taking only a few shots, then he had to ask me to take photo with my old digital camera.

By the way I have a young Nikon D40 digital SLR camera, but I don't see the point of bringing it for such industrial site visit.