taiwan quality china price

Saw the line "Taiwan quality, China price" while searching for stuff online.

Hmm, looks like the industry still doesn't buy the one China policy.

So, is the product made in China or Taiwan? Or somewhere in between?

culturally shocking project meeting

siu hang: can you help me check the price for [...]
yi hui: cannot, I'm checking friendster now

Jack, who is the leader of another design project group, sat in for our design project meeting cos it wasn't time yet for his own meeting. Then our group was like lazing around, reading newspaper, looking at girls on facebook or friendster, talking crap, playing with handphone, eating Mac...

I dunno if Jack got culture shock or not. I always thought he set quite high standard for his group.

Then when I said "let's call it a day", everyone was like "NOOOOOOO! CANNOT!"

oopz. They must be halfway loading the girls' profile page on facebook.

why i don't drive

Recently there were a few people asking me why I don't drive. Ok, I don't drive, I can't drive, and I won't drive. My family had been bugging me for it also. But why learn driving when you are not going to drive anyway?

Although my blog is blowing smoke everyday, but I love the environment. Why increase the carbon emission? And what's wrong with taking public transport? Even if your fantastic eco-car has zero carbon emission, you are still going to take up road space. Not very nice to be one of those whom I curse and swear at during traffic jams.

If I really am driving, I think this car is cool...
The Kärcher ICC 1. It is definitely environmental friendly and doesn't take up much space. Don't you find it cute?

leading the suppliers on

Bumped into her after lab today. Somemore it was at the bus stop that she doesn't usually go. Right, just as I thought we should talk things out face to face instead of behind the computer screen.

Let's just say I was stupid enough to get led on.

But then, can't blame her for leading me on, cos I do this kind of thing all the time also. I always disturb suppliers, tell them that I am interested in a particular product and ask for quotation or more specifications. 90% of the time I won't be buying the stuff. But, I am genuinely interested in the products that I enquire about, whether I end up buying the stuff or not.

I wonder do the sales representatives get the false hope of a new purchase order from me everytime I enquire?

quote of the day

She was by no means a virgin!!
-- Mrs Indira Pant
Human Resource Management Unit
School of Business, NUS

Was discussing about the Alligator River Story, then dunno why all the words "hymen" and "virgin" and "horny" all come out when the class talked about Abigail.

Hello, HR lesson leh!

revoke your S/U

It's time to rebel revoke!

For NUS stalelies (if you are not fresh, you are stale), this week is the period for the one-off online revocation of the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option.

It's open from 00:00 on 29 October 2007 to 23:59 on 2 November 2007.

The page is here.

(Somehow, I can't log in...)

teh peng

Was having lunch with Alvin at Clementi's Varinice coffee shop. Before we went to buy our food, Alvin ordered teh peng from the coffee auntie. We were eating eating, but the teh peng didn't come. We finished our food, the teh peng still hadn't come. Then we heard someone from another table order teh peng. We almost peng.

Next we saw the auntie will a glass of teh peng on her tray and asking us whether we ordered teh peng or not.

Alvin kept quiet.

His expression was priceless lor! Then we saw the teh peng sitting at the counter for the remaining of our time at the coffee shop.

So, acting dumb is a useful skill.

开门放狗

That day I was at the void deck waiting for the lift, then this auntie came and asked me in hokkien something like "you bahru move in?" Hello, I have been staying there for more than 10 years... either I'm really low profile or something. Then later ended up that auntie exited at the wrong floor -_-" Now who's the one bahru lai?

Another day, I was tending to my plants at the corridor, then my neighbour opened his door and his dog came running and barking towards me. I was like what the... luckily the owner shouted at it before it got close, if not...
Anyway definitely I stay there longer than the dog. Do I really look like a bad guy?

There goes my self image of being a boy next door.

x-ray yankee zulu

Collected my foot's X-ray on Friday. Nothing new, maybe different envelope. AH, TTSH, NUH, MMI, all the film look the same. Do I need to collect all the envelopes from every hospital in Singapore?

Actually I have more or less accepted the fact that it is not going to heal and will stay with me for the rest of my life (unless, well, I amputate it). But I don't intend to let it interfere with my life. And so, I have started a little rehab on my own a while ago (physio didn't work). And of course, doing crazy things like walking to school is just a way to test my limit. Nah, I'm not suicidal or self-destructive.

I have the honour to talk to 2 adventurers face to face before, Khoo Swee Chiow and David Lim. Both of them are forever testing their limits. If you have seen David Lim close enough, you can see that even walking takes a bit of effort for him, who suffers from Guillain-Barre Syndrome. But that didn't stop him from pursuing what he wants.

Maybe it's like tensile testing, the only way for me to know my strength is to break something...

japanese av cover

I was browsing browsing then chanced upon this good stuff...




The *meow* very cute right?

enter a personal problem here

(ok I hate having low air pressure in my blog, so let's screw the unhappy things)

Do you know that taking care of yourself and your well-being is also a responsibility of a team player?

So you know the crap about me didn't sleep on Thursday night and setting fire on my calories on Friday morning and skipping lunch on Friday afternoon, so basically it wasn't that bad that my exterior still resembled a homo sapiens.

But but but, during HR project meeting I was like sleeping most of the time, occasionally shocking my group mates by raising a point or two. (I sleep with eyes open and pay attention with eyes close) During design project meeting half of my brain circuit was fried, but I'm really glad of my competent team, they handled/smoked the Prof well.

Hmm... professionalism? Maybe...
It is easier said that done to keep your freaking personal problem to yourself. Mind over heart and not heart over mind huh?

bleh

I think I over-burned the calories and I skipped lunch...

didn't know it feels so disgusting.

wrong equation or wrong reaction

Couldn't sleep the whole night. Lying on bed, tossing around.

Actually the outcome wasn't much of a surprise to me. First time, there wasn't any chemistry. Second time, a bit more. Third time, things went messy.

Maybe somewhere in the circuit there was an open circuit, therefore an input doesn't create any output. Maybe a wrong op-amp was used, thus a negative feedback was resulted. Maybe I have used the wrong input signal.

If you can't fit a bolt into a hole, either you change the hole, or you change the bolt. Or you change both. Forcing a bolt in just damages both the bolt and the hole. Like what a research scientist once said, "there is no mechanical problem that can't be solved." Is BGR like mechanical problem?

Now I feel like I have been bluffing myself all this while.

(anyway to my dear friends, I'll be fine. Just let me burn some calories and kill some muscles)

sc1101e revisited

It felt very funny to sit in for the lecture for the module that you took some 4 semesters ago.

Today I decided to look for Suzuki-san who was having SC1101E Making Sense of Society lecture at LT7A. So there I was, reading my disgusting Materials Science notes and listening to Prof Tan Ern Ser talk about "Power and the State".

Learning seems to be more fun when you don't have to sit for exam (or do project). Not forgetting a whole lecture theatre full of pretty girls =P

manufacturing popcorn

Prof Rahman was showing us a video clip during yesterday's ME3162 Manufacturing Processes lecture, then somehow everyone got high with the video's starting music...

That's the 1969 music Popcorn by Gershon Kingsley.

Retro!

project meetings

1. Kept playing Girly Man and Barbaric Game on the laptop during HR project meeting. We have non-Chinese in the group, so English songs only =)


2. Was having design project meeting at EA. I looked out of the window and saw Tata at the bench on the opposite side. I pushed open the window and woohoo-ed at her, then I turned around and saw all my groupmates standing at the window with face sticking to the glass and looking at Tata. I turned around again and saw Tata change seat with her back facing us now.


3. Was doing CADding in the computer lab. The moment I have my hands on SolidWorks I can't quite stop. So in the end I found my groupmates crowding around me and waiting to go home -_-"
   Anyway I was late for dinner at home.


4. My group leader wants everyone to slack but my groupmates don't let him.
   

ended up somewhere

I made the wrong turn and ended up in NTU... no lah!


Reached NUS Entrance A in 2 hours 46 minutes, pretty close to and within my estimation of 3 hours. Didn't take any technical break throughout the walk, only stopped over at Esso to refuel with Mars bar. The weather was nice with cloud cover, only drizzled a little when outside Singapore Polytechnic.

The feeling was very funny, it's like I kept seeing buses that could bring me closer to NUS. 74, 165, 151, 95, 96... all whizzed past me along the way. Some people just like to take the tougher path huh?

Now imagine school kids in some parts of the world have to walk 10+ km to school everyday. Ain't we fortunate?

chilly expedition

Ok it's not an expedition, but just a walk to school.
Later in the morning I will be walking from my home in Ang Mo Kio to NUS. Conservative estimation of the road distance is 12km. Although my old fracture is giving my foot problem recently, but I'll give it a try. Let's see if I can reach NUS Entrance A in under 3 hours. (sounds too much huh?)

With the latest in satellite technology, you can track my progress on google map...

Want to donate money to my charity fund? (nah, this is not a fund-raising)

Let's hope the weather is nice and I can make it to lecture on time.

regards from skf

After writing about SKF this morning, I received an email from SKF's Communication Director!

Dear Chillycraps,
I just spotted your blog on "bearing in mind" and good students shall be encouraged! So if you would like to explore even more about SKF and how we help industries to reduce friction in their machinery or our contribution to the development of industrial energy efficient solutions. Then let us know and we can send you information material that adds to your insight and should not make you "dizzy".

Best regards,
Susan Pak
______________________
Communication Director
AB SKF

I feel so impressed~!
ok good students, do you have any question to ask? =)

bearing in mind

(ok this entry is half a year late. Wanted to write about it when we were learning ball bearings last semester)

This year marks 100th anniversary for SKF, a Swedish manufacturer of bearings. In 1907, Swede engineer Sven Wingquist invented the first self-aligning ball bearing. With that he founded Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF).

Ball bearings come in all sizes, they can be as small as your thumb or as tall as a human. If you read SKF's catalogue you will just go dizzy. Bearings are almost everywhere, from your computer's ventilation fans to ferris wheel and turbine in power station. You can even find a bearing on moon when the Apollo 11 crew left behind a camera there in 1969.

And if you are not aware of it, ball bearing reduces friction, increases machine efficiency, and in the process saves energy and the environment!

oversea sweetness

I received an oversea SMS from joyce telling me don't sleep too late.

This is so sweet, it's getting diabetic!

drinking beer with straw

That day I saw an uncle drinking beer from a straw at the void deck. It's those big 500ml can. I was like covering my mouth not to laugh out, cos he really looked like a kid sipping soft drink or something. =P

Anyway is it true that if you drink alcoholic drinks from a straw, you get drunk more easily? Why is it so? Something to do with fluid mechanics? (yeah yeah, conservation of mass, smaller area faster flow velocity...)

If you are interested to know how drinking straws are manufactured, this page describes the extrusion process.

coating technology

The latest volume of The MISUMI Voice talks about coating technology and I find it relevant to what we are learning in our course.

4 samples of linear bushings of different material underwent the complex corrosion test including 1 salt water spray test (5% NaCl, 35 C), 2 dry (at 60 C), and 3 wet (85% relative humidity at 50 C). The result is as follows:


As we can see, after 168 hours the first 3 samples have visible corrosion while the fourth one with Low Temperature Black Chrome plating (LTBC) seems unaffected.

In a crapshell, LTBC is a plating technology which uses electrochemical reaction below 0 C. The product has no hydrogen embrittlement, no tempering required, improved hardness/elasticity ratio, no frictional peeling and it's the most resistant and the most effective rust protection plating achieved by all conventional methods.

Sounds cool?

quote of the day

project is about learning to work with different people

including jerks
-- yuka

report crapping

ok I'm totally sick and tired of proof-reading and editing the HR project report. Where on earth do you see reference 9 in the last paragraph and reference 60 in the paragraph before that, and mysteriously there is no reference number 30-40?!?! And the Singlish, argh!! Yes it's National University of SINGAPORE, so you use Singlish in your project report??

I'm supposed to be on strike, but why do I still bother about the project? Just because tomorrow is the deadline for report submission and I don't want to screw the group up?

No pride. That's why the girl say I no guts, cos I did not heck care like I wanted to.

chillycrappy riddle

A girl said I have no balls.
Another girl said I have no guts.

Who am I?
(hint: a male blogger)

my sugarcane brings all the boys to the yard

Just now I was having dinner at People's Park Complex. There were these 2 sugarcane stalls side by side, one stall had a girl showing every possible square inch of her synthetic breast (aka fake boobs) and touting every passer-by. She really reminded me of the betel nut girls in Taiwan. The other stall had a honest-looking man, also touting.

I happened to be seated at the table right in front, and I didn't pay attention to the girl. She must be damn disappointed I didn't ogle at her. Anyway cocky me walked to a stall some 50 metres away to buy drink, self-service somemore. The more you tout, the more I won't patronise you.

Anyway from my observation, the honest-looking man seemed to have more business thanks to his sincerity. Milk and sugarcane don't mix.

october sky

Have been looking for this movie for a few years (serious! at least 5 yrs) and finally found it last week. How apt it is to watch the story exactly 50 years later, same month somemore.

The story is about Homer Hickam, a high school kid in a small mining town who was inspired to build rocket after the big hoo-haa about the Soviet Sputnik satellite. Along the way he faced many obstacles, as the norm was kids grow up to become miners like their fathers in the town.

In the end, there was the touching scene of Homer's father pressing the launch button of his rocket. Later Homer Hickam became an engineer at NASA.

(do you know that I almost started a rocketry club in my secondary school? In the end the school scraped the idea)

friday lecture

1. The 3 people at the row in front (ie titus, snoookems and tata) kept turning their heads back. It was so obvious they were hunting for someone interesting.


2. hj was telling me kimmy just flew off to Japan, but I told him that kimmy was there for quite some time, "unless she bluffed me". Then the 3 people in front turned back in unison and exclaimed, "you mean she bluffed you?!?!"
   Wrong channel.


3. I suddenly received a sms from jy asking me "eh who's the gal 2 your 10 o'clock 2 rows down? Wah lau how come so low cut today? Dunno her name?"
   Yeah I know her name. But why ask me...


4. Halfway through the lecture wl suddenly called out my name from across the aisle, saying "I know who liao! The pink colour one right?"(then point towards joyce)
   Yeah I know joyce, but why out of the blue...


5. To create dramatic effect, I slouched all the way down in my seat after hearing wl. Then snoookems ,who was sitting just in front of me, turned back and almost choked on her drink after seeing (fill in the blank).
   Hello, who would slouch with legs closed? Ok she didn't see anything. I hope. I was wearing bermudas.


6. hj dropped his pencil case off the desk onto my side, then he tried to retrieve it in a very awkward position, with his head just above my thigh. I was like pushing his head away and screaming "ooi, unnatural!! 377A !"
   He could have asked me to pick the pencil case up for him.


7. titus and snoookems were gossiping about mp (aka converse girl). Actually jack everyday talks about her. I think a lot of people are paying attention to her rather than the lecturer.


8. I saw 2 people reading my blog on their laptop in the lecture theatre. This is bad...
   

robotic leg

Recently I have been taking bus during peak hour and most of the time I have to stand for the bus ride. My once fractured foot is giving me problem and sometimes the sharp pain almost drives tears out from my eye socket.

Maybe I should have chosen specialization in Biomechanical Engineering. Next time if I need to install robotic leg, at least I can either make one myself or at least know how to maintain it. Crap.

ok lah, feeling quite negative recently.

But if Mark Inglis who has lost both his legs can climb Mount Everest, why am I whining here?

I actually thought of training for marathon again, pushing the limit, but think better not. I don't want to end up having to use a Gundam leg...

thinklab got sound

It was a quiet morning at the ThinkLab. The sounds of the laser printers, the photocopiers, and people busily typing away on the keyboard....

Then suddenly we heard singing. Everyone strained his/her neck in the direction of the acappella. We saw a girl with earphone on, happily singing away in her own world. Everyone had that smile on his/her face and went back to his/her own business.

Then I heard someone farted. I was trying to convince myself that was from the chair's hydraulic.

airbus a380 evacuation

Ok this clip is uber cool, it shows a test carried out on the Airbus A380 to evacuate 853 passengers and 20 crews out of the plane in under 90 seconds, with only emergency lightings on inside the cabin and 8 of the 16 exits blocked.

They did it in 77 seconds. How often do you see passengers cheering after they have alighted from a jetliner?

naked consultation

Can you imagine a fully naked undergrad talking to a fully naked professor about academic stuff?

I was chatting with Prof Seah in the changing room about the industrial design project.

We talked cock also.

pinging botak jones

Last night we had a ping.sg gathering at Clementi Botak Jones.

It was my first time at Botak Jones and man, the food was shiok! I had a cadjun chicken which was basically, chicken, but I managed to lick my plate clean. The service was great too, it's like restaurant service at coffeeshop. We were waiting for all pingsters to arrive before they deliver the food, but think along the way some miscomm, so some of the food was delievered early. So, the botak staffs helped us wrap the food up, and they gave us freshly fried fries to compensate for the "oxidised" ones.

The pingsters present were great too! We had aaron, daphne, felix and gf, uzyn, beconfused, chillycraps, jzin, miccheng, dhope, arzhou, xizor, eatyourmaths and jacktan. Cracked a lot of craps, like how we wanted to blend uzyn's iphone and miccheng's ibook into idust, how arzhou cracked a joke and only he himself laugh (then jzin said we laugh at him, not laugh with him) And eatyourmaths thought I'm 19! All of our jaws ached from overlaugh =P

Don't ask me how the chilli sauce ended up in front of me.

(check out the photos by daphne, jacktan and aaron. Thanks aaron for organizing!)

distress on bus

This morning I was on bus 151 to school and found a seat at the last row. There was this man at the corner who seemed like he wasn't feeling well, then suddenly I saw him shaking and hand on his left chest, face wet with perspiration. A lady went forward to notify the bus driver while a few of us tend to him. When we asked the man if he's ok, he said he's ok. But obviously he wasn't ok. Then we made space for him to lie down on the last row and the task fell on me to keep a look out on the man. Every few bus stop the driver would look back to check, and I would give her the thumbs up to drive on. When I asked the man which stop he was alighting, he said NTU -_-" Ok he wasn't ok.

When the bus reached NUS, I suggested him to see the doctor, but he declined. So I insisted to walk him to his destination, which was engineering workshop 2. He looked much better after alighting from the bus and taking in some fresh air.

He is a lab officer in the power electronics lab.

(I feel so helpless again. Luckily the man is alright)