live feed of the last day of 2007

Not going out for any countdown events (and get squeezy with other people)? Then watch it live here at Department of Crappy Engineering!

Live feed of Marina Bay area bought to you by M1.
(don't blame me if it doesn't load properly. Pressing F5 may help)

Oh and happy new year in advance!
*EDIT: I didn't know night mode is so jialat*

stress analysis of toilet bowl

Today I'm going to conduct a stress analysis of a common ceramic toilet bowl with the help of COSMOSXpress, which comes with the standard SolidWorks software.

This is the toilet bowl selected for this study.

We are only interested in the green portion, since the water inside the water tank is definitely cleaner than the liquid in the highlighted part.

Now here comes the problem. COSMOSXpress only allows you to exert force on the whole plane and not a point load. What it means is, it assumes your butt is so big it can cover the whole highlighted surface. Not very likely.

And this is the stress distribution under von Mises criterion. Surprisingly the highest stress is located near the water tank. But anyway this analysis is not accurate.

Conclusion: screw the toilet bowl. Not very funny when you are sitting on it and then it explodes.
No lah! I mean, get another finite element analysis (FEA) software. There is always limitation to tools and now I'm telling you, your toilet bowl won't explode under normal usage.

me technical electives

It's time to bid for modules again and below is a list of Technical Electives (TE) offered by NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering for Semester 2 AY07/08. Fellow mechanical types, take your pick~

• ME3221 Energy Conversion Processes
• ME3231 Compressible And Unsteady Flow
• ME3241 Microprocessor Applications
• ME3251 Materials For Engineers
• ME3281 Microsystems Design And Applications
• ME3291 Numerical Methods In Engineering
• ME4212 Mechanics Of Thin-Walled Structures
• ME4213 Vibration Theory And Applications
• ME4225 Industrial Heat Transfer
• ME4231 Aerodynamics And Propulsion
• ME4246 Linear Systems
• ME4253 Biomaterials Engineering
• ME4255 Materials Failure
• ME4261 Tool Engineering
• ME4262 Automation In Manufacturing
• ME4284 Micro Sensors & Micro Actuators

Undergrads from other faculties, if you are thinking of taking ME modules as Breadth, let's put it this way: if it is that easy, they would have called it       (insert another department's name here)      

thai thai story

I better wrap up my Thailand trip before the boredom drags into next year. And I also need to blog my normal entries.

• Someone said I have the Street Directory look, but I didn't know the effect worked in Thailand. I was walking in the outskirt of Chiang Rai city at night when a super duper cool Mitsubishi Pajero pulled over and a Thai girl (not tiger) came out and asked me for direction -_-" I had a map in my pocket though.


• The Thais have this clasp-hands greeting. So when you meet someone and clasp you hands, it will be returned like a salute. There was once I was sitting at the back of a tuk-tuk with my hands clasped and chin resting on it, something like the deep thought look, then I saw another driver removed his hands from the steering wheel and clasp his hands at me... What if that was a motorbike?


• The Thai language sounds like hokkien to me, cos I don't understand hokkien. (ok, some Thais can speak teochew, but that doesn't help. Tell me if they can speak cantonese) I don't know the Thai language, maybe the only word I know is ka fae, which is coffee. So when ordering food, I had to point point at the food. When I pointed at the chicken hanging at the stall, I was so worried the hawker would give me one whole chicken...


• Bargain is a must at night market. I was at a T-shirt stall and I asked for the price of a Red Bull shirt. "200 bahts. What price do you want?" "100" Then this Caucasian woman beside me stared at me as if she was thinking "wtf, I just paid 300 bahts for the same shirt..."
  

ok end of story. For more on my Thailand trip, you can see my narcissistic photos at my photo blog.

i came, i saw, my pants split

This holiday I have been doing quite a bit of home-improvement, playing with rivet gun, screwing things (not people), hammering nails, fixing stuffs.

So just now I was sawing a wooden plank with a hand saw when I heard some tearing sound... couldn't be from the wood since my hands weren't sawing already... then suddenly I felt a cool gush of air from "behind".

Some materials (such as those found on your shorts and pants), you don't need to saw it to split it.

puma passenger on tiger airways

Flew on an Airbus A380 - 60 = A320 for my Thailand trip. =P

It was my first time flying Tiger Airways (while wearing a Puma T-shirt) and somehow it didn't feel as comfy as the other 2 budget airlines I flew before. I was wondering will the passenger in front mistake my leg for the armrest and keep pressing my kneecap for the buttons...

But the sound of the International Aero Engines V2500 turbofans was sweet music~ Oh and during this trip I learned that there are 2 auxiliary power units (APUs) at the rear of the aircraft to provide, well, auxiliary power.

Trust me, I had enough of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics.

sleeping with bugs

Of all the people you have slept with, have you slept with bed bug before?

I remember the time when I was serving my national service, there was once we were cleaning up our bunk, then my bunkmate dropped my mattress on the floor and guess what, dozens of black creepy crawlies came running out from my mattress! When we squashed the bug, what came out was blood. Gosh, how long had I been sleeping with those blood-suckers? I swear I changed my bed sheet every week, but still...

And so, we left our mattresses under the hot sun and that did the trick.

Read more about bed bugs here.

post sponsored by Bed Bugs Guide

php and ruby on railway tracks

daphne: what is PHP?
chillycraps: erm is it puay hiao pai?
daphne: that's BHB!

Met up with a few pingsters last night.

Actually I was meeting otc they all for movie, but cos I last minute pulled stunt and decided to attend, so they didn't book my ticket, so I decided to pull stunt again and look for daphne and nicole's gang, who by then had already finished their dinner. So there I was, eating tuna petite at Starbucks and listening to the computer engineers and computer scientists talk about some alien languages.

singaporean from golden triangle

One of the sites I visited during my recent trip to Northern Thailand was the Golden Triangle. Basically the Golden Triangle is the place where the boundaries of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, something like the triple point of water. You can just swim across the border (which is the river), and if you can make it alive in the strong current, no one bothers, don't need passport.

Oh the Golden Triangle is famous for opium.

On the way back to Chiang Mai along the highway, got stopped by 3 checkpoints manned by soldiers armed with M-16A2 rifles and not-so-cute doggies. At the first checkpoint I had to empty my backpack and the soldiers were like examining every piece of stuff inside, unrolling my clothes, etc. But they were very polite and that's the nice thing. Second checkpoint onwards, the driver was telling the sentry something blah blah blah singapore and the soldiers let us off without checking.

For a while I was proud of my nationality.
(just don't bring in the Temasek Holdings stuff or they may be pointing their weapons at us)

release of result

The examination result for AY2007/2008 Semester 1 is out. You can view my result online here. A SGD5 administrative charge applies. All offline request will not be entertained.

quote of election day

When dog's barking,
it doesn't bite.
-- a signboard in the temple compound

Last Sunday was Thailand's election day.

A temple happened to be a polling station. (or is it a polling station happened to be a temple?) Saw the Thai people queuing up with identity card in hand, waiting for their turn to mark the cross on the slip of paper. It must be meaningful to be voting under the watchful eyes of Buddha =P

Thailand has an election law that says no alcohol is to be sold from Saturday 6pm till Sunday, so you can't find any Chang Beer or Singha in the fridge anywhere. I bought a bottle of Mekhong (Thai whiskey) on Friday night though =P

I wonder how many of us vote with a sober mind...

sawadee crap

I'm back from my 5 days short stint in Northern Thailand~

It was great to break away from the complicated city life of Singapore and soak in the relatively rural and simple countryside of Northern Thailand. Went to places like Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Golden Triangle, Mae Salong, etc etc.

Walking alone in the streets in the cold dry morning air, going to wet market, eating breakfast at road side hawkers. It's very interesting, if you are the stall's first customer of the day, the stall owner will wave your money around his/her goods as a good charm. Early bird like me had the honour a couple of times.

And the girls there are simply pretty. I mean they look pretty in the simplest form, don't need no make-up or accessories. You see them helping out at the stalls or doing marketing or going school... they don't look like they are scheming type though. In Singapore the most you can see cute boy (aka me) at the wet market. Oh and guess what, the stray dogs there are nicer than the pet dogs here =P

I think I have bored you enough, more about the trip tomorrow.

i'm back and merry christmas

I transit transit then somehow ended up in Singapore...
no lah, I make it back on Christmas! (feel kinda cool)
Shall talk about my trip more when I have tidied up my thoughts. Still haven't gotten used to touching my keyboard after 5 days away from keyboard.
Oh and Merry Christmas to you all! Ho ho ho... I wonder should I open up the rubbish chute for Santa to come in?

quote of the day while away from keyboard

I was sitting on the steps when a Portuguese girl dropped a coin. I helped her pick it up, then she dropped a coin again.

In Portugal, there is a saying that when a person drops something more than once, it means the person wants to talk to you.
-- Portuguese coin-dropping girl

Day 2 AFK.

afk

/afk

Hi guys, I will be away from keyboard for the next few days, so most probably there won't be any updates unless my itchy fingers manage to find internet. I'm only bringing my backpack (+ some underwear inside) along.

In case I don't make it back by Christmas, then Merry Christmas in advance!
In case I don't make it back by New Year, then Happy New Year in advance!

Darn, I'm in the process of finding back my blogging feel after exam and now I have to pause again...

or anyone wants to guest blog here while I'm away?

cheat code

UP + DOWN + LEFT + RIGHT + A + B + C

I was quite tired today, so I took an unusually long nap in the afternoon. When I woke up, my parents asked if I was being cheated by a girl. -_-"

Of all questions why suddenly ask this kind of thing?

Maybe because a few days ago I was telling them that a cousin of mine said our family line is not suitable to do business, cos we are too easy to cheat. Looking at what happened to my other cousin and my brother, I guess it's in our DNA. Maybe with the exception of myself, we are just too nice, naive and foolishly straightforward. Can you find anyone else better to take advantage of?

I can't stand betrayal. Even the slightest of betrayal. It's like even when I play a game of Risk, if my ally turns around and attack my land, I swear I will fight him till the last of my soldier. And I will remember for life what he did to me. If it can happen on the game board, it can happen in real life.

Honestly, girls, if you want to cheat me, let me know beforehand so that I can prepare mentally and emotionally for you to cheat.

I wonder if I use cheat code in games, am I equally evil?

designer bread

Can you imagine "sliced bread" making it to top 50 designs?

Was browsing through issuefifty of the newdesign magazine and to celebrate the 50th issue, they have the fifty:50 list of the most influential, innovative or inspirational stuff. This is what they say about the bread:

Behold sliced bread - shaped for performance and engineered for easy use. Before its introduction the act of sandwich making was fraught with peril. A knife could slip and blood could be shed. And, just think of the crude, unslightly aesthetics caused by the ragged edge of a blade and an amateur cutter. Today, modern society is the beneficiary of beautiful sandwiches and perfect toast, uniform in thickness, made easily by even the sloppiest of five year olds. Be inspired, life is good.

Sometimes the smallest simplest things around us aren't that simple before.

The newdesign magazine is available at the Central Lending Library.

going out with kids

Went out with the Suzuki sisters (Yuka and her cute but vulgar younger sister Yuki) and Yuki's male friend. Part of the reason why I went out with them is here. (btw I am NOT tandoori chicken. I'm another food)

Imagine a 24 years old me going out with one 20 years old girl and two 15 years old kids. The thing about going out with kids is, you can't possibly chat with them things like "Straits Times Index today how much" or "what do you think of Kevin Rudd taking office" or "what is your view on the Kyoto Protocol"... the 2 of them were like beating each other with balloon or swinging around in the once-broken-considered-sold section of the department store. I wonder did I bore them today. Maybe I should have joined in their fun (and get scolding from the big sister Yuka)

Anyway the older 2 of us (ie Yuka and me), whenever we saw benches or something in the shopping centre, we would run to it like how The Simpsons rush to the sofa. But hey we had been walking around Orchard in circles the whole afternoon!

What was I doing when I was 15?

treb challenge

Anyone from NUS ME Department taking part in next year's Trebuchet Competition?

I'm not taking part in the competition this time round, but here is a little game that may be of help in your design of the trebuchet: the Trebuchet Challenge by GlobalSpec.


There are 3 challenges in this game, namely distance, accuracy and power. You can tweak the projectile mass, launch angle, counterweight mass, counterweight height, wind, and even gravity! If you incorporate the correct settings in the actual trebuchet design, maybe you can whack the professor (aka target) onto the ground and cause some permanent head damage (PhD).

Will ASME scold me for spoiling market?
(click here for video of this year's competition)

sharp r-298h(s)

I bought a new toy yesterday! Tada! The Sharp R-298H(S) microwave oven!

What's so special about this microwave oven? Well.. it uses microwave... duh! Ok it has a stainless steel body and a touch control panel which has so many buttons that it resembles my scientific calculator (I always make fun of my friends' Sharp calculator, calling it "Blunt". I use Casio. No my calculator doesn't have touch keys) It looks so complicated, I'm still more used to the old-style timer knob on my old microwave oven. I still live in the analog age.

Anyway, my new toy is nothing compared to wokkingmum's new Sharp AX-700V, which is like 10 times the price of my R-298H(S)!

bowl needed

Some of you may know that I have a weak stomach.

Remember the time when I was holding back my crap during a train ride? Now I have 2 more scenarios for you to think about:

1) You are at the supermarket with a trolley full of stuffs. Now nature calls...

2) You are at a business dinner and the host insists to put a piece of oil-dripping roasted duck onto your plate. After "politely" swallowing down the duck, nature calls...

urgggh!

arcade paparazzo

Let's say, I was at the arcade with a cute JC girl, then there was this strange guy who kept aiming his camera at us....

ermm.... ok I'm thinking too much =P

fuse and fuels

My microwave oven broke down the other day while I was preparing dinner (really, I wasn't doing some experiment). So I opened up the case and guess what I found? A dead lizard! Must be the poor fella who short-circuited my microwave oven. =P Anyway the fuse was gone-case.

So I went to Home-fix to get a new fuse. I approached the staff (an auntie) for assistance.

"Hi, I'm looking for fuse"
"Which calibre are you looking at?"
"erm 5amp"
Then she led me to the shelves and arrived at.... FUELS!
"We have big ones, small ones..."
"erm I'm looking for fuse, not fuels..."
"HAHAHAHA" We had a good laugh. =) Maybe she was suggesting I screw the microwave oven and switch to gas stove.

Anyway kids, don't open up your electrical appliances. Kor kor here is not specially trained, but that's his problem.

my virgin loan

Today I borrowed my first book from NUS library for the first time in my 5 semesters in NUS.

What's more surprising is, it's vacation time now.

What's even more surprising is, I was borrowing the book for my friend from UNSW civil engineering.

There goes my first time. Let's hope he won't bring the book back to Australia, if not I'll skin him into softshell crap.
(I always tell people there's an Engin Library and an Arts Library in NUS. They all don't believe.)

20 cents daylight robbery

The other day I was at a cafe for tea break, I went to the drinks stall, grabbed a canned drink from the fridge and paid at the counter. $1.20.

After walking about 10 steps, I walked past a vending machine (which is inside the premise of the cafe) and accidentally looked at the price tag.... the same canned drink cost $1.00.

What the... Why would they do such thing!! 20 cents labour cost?

10 steps for 20 cents cheaper, so if I ran a marathon (42km) then I would have gotten the drink even cheaper?

gardentech 2007

Went to GARDENTECH 2007 at HortPark yesterday.
(HOT park, wahahaha)

You may wonder what "tech" is there in gardening. But I saw lotsa high-tech toys there, such as chainsaw, hedge trimmer, lawnmower, tractor, crane, pressure washer... (ok pretty low-tech) Looking at the Hiab crane reminds me of Mechanics of Machines. Eek. Now calculate what is the velocity of the crane arm =S

HortPark itself is a bit disappointing, maybe cos it's still relatively new. In fact the Nursery House at the back looks more interesting. (the nursery is for young plants, not for kids that kind of nursery. Please I'm not a paedophile)

camwhore craps and ping.sg t-shirt launch

Went for the Ping.sg Official T-Shirt Launch cum Bloggers' Gathering last night held at Essential Brew, and hey it was fun! Really nice to see the old pingsters again and meet new ones at the event. Beats shouting at the shoutbox whole day long.

We crapped, ate, stripped the boss, worked part-time coolie (to carry the T-shirt), fought with toy hammer, had lucky draw (which I won), drank with underage kids, camwhored... like this:

Photo by claudia. Thanks for the great shots! More photos should be coming in, so do check out ping.sg for more photos of hot bloggers!

Kind of wish I interacted more with the pingsters. I think I missed out the group at the right side while making my rounds. But there's always next time and so looking forward to the next gathering =)

More post-event posts:

• claudia
• simplyjean
• uglyfatchick
• jzin
• brokenshardz
• any body else?
  

what is your ambition

I remember when I was in kindergarten or primary school, the teacher would ask what do you want to be when you grow up. Some say want to be astronaut, some want to be scientist, some want to be policeman, some want to be ninja turtle, et cetera et cetera...

I have never heard of any kid wanting to be engineer.

And I think if the kid's vocabulary is good enough, he/she would say "what the *beep* is an engineer?"

Suddenly I also have no idea.

+j or -j

See the spinning girl above? Let's not talk about her nice sexy body, but do you see her rotating in the clockwise direction or anti-clockwise? (or in Cartesian coordinate, +j or -j direction?)

It is rumoured that whether you see her spinning in which direction determines whether you use your left brain or right brain. However, the New Scientist had a different explanation on it.

Actually I know how to choose which direction the girl is spinning in. The trick is, you need to scroll down a little such that you only see her from hip down. Then slowly scan your eyes down along her legs and.. somehow you can choose to see which direction she is spinning in.

Does that mean I can choose which side of my brain to use?
(apparently some dirty-minded brains claim that they can see the girl's nipples. hmm..)

the cute, the geeky and the bossy

I was watching Engineering TV when we were talking in the shoutbox about the above titled.

First someone said he wanted to blog something geeky, then next I said sometimes geeky guys turn girls on. Then a girl said either the guy really knows his stuff, or he acts like he knows his stuff but he's cute. Then next someone said the girl he knew was empty... blah blah blah.

Here comes the main part. Hope this doesn't sound too gender biased, but if you are a guy, can you stand girl / girlfriend / wife being smarter than you? I have no issue with anyone being smarter than me, there are lots of them on this planet. What I can't stand is girl being bossy. (actually I can't stand guys being bossy too)

I had this female friend, she's like everything also wants to teach you, instruct you, tell you what to do, when in fact you are either already doing it, have done it, basically you are well aware of what to do. It feels like you are already screwing in the screw when she tells you things like "hey you need a screwdriver for it." duh! To be honest, it's an insult to my intelligence (if there's any) and my self-esteem (this I have a bit).

Is this the result of people making too many fool-proof stuff that they start assuming everyone around him/her is stupid?

Engineering and domineering ain't the same.

chilly at smu

Had a nice bottle of chilled Paulaner at SMU's Ice-Cold B's last night. Somehow I just like to disturb the other universities. =P

Not sure about NTU, but NUS only has Tiger Beer (I might be wrong, may have root beer too), while at SMU, they have Paulaner, Asahi, Stella Artois, Tuborg and Hoegaarden (but no Tiger). The snacks are a bit disappointing though, so you may want to consider sneaking in some from the nearby convenience stores. SMU student card holders enjoy 30% off (*terms and conditions apply), while if you are chillycraps, flashing your NUS student card entitles you the discount too.

And maybe the waitresses there will start talking about financial accounting with you. Sadly they don't offer engineering at SMU.

engineering undergrads say the darn'dest things

This afternoon I was having kopi session with Edwin at Raffles City's Ya Kun Kaya Toast.

Whenever this NUS mechanical engineering undergrad meets this UNSW civil engineering undergrad, we would talk about beams, pillars, trusses, stress, buckling... Today Edwin even mentioned a finite element analysis (FEA) of the World Trade Centre and how the building was constructed around a core in the middle.

Across from our table, a man with white hard hat was sitting there drinking coffee. He was constantly looking at us, and when he got up, he accidentally kicked his stool down.

I think our conversation had unnerved him.

talking about more exams

A while ago I saw an entry at 工程兒女 on Chartered Professional Review. And in the midst of exam period, hj sent me information on Fundamentals of Engineering Examination. The CPR is the examination for Chartered Engineer (CEng), while the Engineering Examination is the examination for Professional Engineer (PE) registration. To read about more exams while I was struggling with my own exam, dot dot dot... -_-"

Looking at the Fundamentals Of Engineering Examination (Mechanical) which is a 6-hr paper administered by Professional Engineers Board Singapore, topics include Control and Instrumentation, Dynamics and Vibrations, Fluid Mechanics, Mechanics and Materials, Manufacturing Technology, Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer... It is as good as lumping 4 years of BEng (Mechanical) syllabus into 6 hours! (but after reading the info, I realize how relevant some irrelevant topics in our syllabus actually are. I always thought they are irrelevant)

These professional titles are more than just suffix to put behind your name. Something like with great power comes great responsibility. Imagine human lives and properties are involved. Now I wonder is exam result directly related to quality of our engineers?

Wow, I've used the word "exam" 11 times in this post.

i'm back

It's 5th December and...

I'm back!
ただいま!
Saya dah balik!
我回来了!

This close to 4 weeks of not blogging was a torture for me. Past semesters' exam period saw the number of post skyrocket, while this semester I tried to experiment a bit by not blogging at all, and the effect was equally extreme.

The time saved from blogging was wasted elsewhere. I think with blogging, maybe I could exercise my brain somemore. Too bad I already said I would stop blogging, like Julius Caesar said "the die is cast!" (NOT die casting) Just wanted to keep my words and the promise to myself. Oh I have been laughing at bloggers who said they would stop blogging during exam period but ended up still blogging =P

And I cheated a bit. I didn't update my blog but I updated my twitter. And my previous post's comments hit 100! What the... someone said with all the comments I could form a few blog entries. Oh and someone said I must have saved lotsa entries under draft. No lah, craps must be served fresh and hot.

Now I forget how to crap.
But exam is over. At least.