when giving direction

I realize that when you help someone with the direction, you also have to see who is asking.

I remember there was once I was at Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange when this lady asked me what bus to take to Ang Mo Kio McDonald's. I told her it is just a few minutes walk from the interchange (in fact it is just beside the interchange!), but she insisted to take a bus. So I told her to take a pick, almost any bus can take her there (just don't take to the end and take back the same bus back to AMK).

Another time I was at the bench outside Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library in NUS when this guy asked me how to go to Central Library. I pointed to the shuttle bus stop opposite the road and ask him to take the bus, but he said he wanted to walk there. So I told him to follow the yellow corridor. *shrug*

On Monday I was waiting for bus at Bukit Timah, then a man approached me for the direction to Thomson Road. That stretch of the road doesn't have bus to Thomson, so I directed him to the next junction where there are buses going to Thomson. The walking distance is about 10-15 minutes walk. Yes, I told him to walk. He looked like he can walk.

(do you remember I walked to NUS from home before? It's easier for me to tell you how to walk to destination than to take bus)

priority dating

I'm revising for my EG2401 Engineering Professionalism (lame title) and there is this topic on intellectual properties. When registering for patents, trademarks and design, there is something known as priority dating.

What is priority dating? It is like when you go out with girls, you act intelligent and tell the other guys that you have priority dating this girl, and ask the other guys to get lost. Yeah I wish. (this doesn't work if the other guys are engineers or lawyers)

Priority dating means when you register for your IP (not IP address, duh) first locally then oversea, the oversea registration office will backdate your effective date to the date when you apply it locally if you apply within a certain period, thus providing protection for whatever crap you want to register.

I still want the other version of priority dating.

good luck

oh before i forget (i almost forget what paper i have today),

good luck for your exams!

quote of the day

Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery,
and Today is a gift.
That’s why we call it the Present.
-- anonymous

Treasure your gift.

aids and kiss on mrt

Yesterday I was traveling on the MRT, standing near the door and leaning against the glass. Then there was this couple standing right in front of me. In a loud voice the woman demanded, "why would you pay to have sex, then you get AIDS, then you die? You are paying to die... [blah blah blah]" Then all the words like "prostitute", "condom", etc...

Then the couple suddenly french kissed, hugged, kissing on the neck, etc etc, for 70% of the train journey.

Why do people always perform these not-safe-for-kids stuff in front of me?

Anyway, the guy just has to pay a little more to get condom. Seems like he was on a budget.

reasons to date an engineer

The reasons why engineers make the best lovers are infinite, but here's a few:

• The world does revolve around us, we chose the coordinate system
• We know how to handle stress and strain in a relationship
• We have significant figures
• Projectile motion: do I need to say more?
• We know how to apply the right head pressure
• We have taken classes on the motion of rigid bodies
• We know it's not the length of the vector that counts, but how you apply the force
• We know how to dissipate heat due to friction
• No "couple" enjoy a better "moment".
• Engineers do it to specification.
• According to Newton, if two bodies interact, their forces are equal and opposite.
• WE KNOW THE RIGHT HAND RULE!

Taken from facebook.
How come all seem to have hidden meaning...?

postcard from hungary

Woohoo, I just received a postcard from hj who is now having fun at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. The postcard reached just in time before my first paper. =)

Send my regards to the ME ppl back in S'pore bah.

Köszönöm and may God bless you!


the picture on the postcard is of a female's belly button.
I wonder if she's hot...
The only thing I know about Hungary is Hungarian Dance.

cockroach and clinic

Yesterday I was at the clinic, then saw this overturned cockroach on the floor, legs still pedaling hard in thin air. A small kid was kicking it all over the place, then I saw him kick it into a consultation room. -_-"

Questions:
How did the cockroach end up in the clinic? (it.. crawled in)
Why was it still alive? (the doctor had saved it)
How did the kid manage to enter a consultation room? (he.. walked in)
Why wasn't his mother stopping him? (*shrug* go ask his mother)
Why was I at the clinic? (got chair, can mug)

material science question

Hello material science type, I have a little fun question for you guys to try. Please refer to the diagram below:

Identify which phase the material is in. (ferrite, austenite, cementite, or pearlite?)

Answer: it isn't even an iron carbide system. It's a marble stone table!
Ok, now don't bish me up.

Happy revising!

quotes of the day

yk:(via sms at 11:38am)
u want ur notes back? If not I recycle already :-D

yk:(via msn at 6:40pm)
lol ur hr notes can sell for 10 cts
hahha
to karang guni

(actually he sold it together with his own notes)

I passed my HR notes to yk since I took the module last semester and yk is taking it this semester.

"HR" is not some sophisticated acronym for some engineering stuff. If it was my engineering notes, I would have wanted them back by hook or by crook.

toilet pumps kissing on bus

This afternoon I was on the shuttle bus. At the last row, there was this couple french-kissing for almost the entire journey...

They were like suction cup on glass. Wrong, more like 2 suction cups sucking on each other. Better still, 2 toilet pumps.

I kind of wonder the fluid mechanics involved. Must be turbulent flow. And how come they didn't suffocate?

together in design

Attended the Together in Design: Industry and ME Seminar and Appreciation Tea this afternoon. Surprisingly no attendance was marked for this "compulsory" function.

The guest speaker was Dr Milton Tan, executive director of DesignSingapore Council. If you are not a hardcore designer / design engineering type, you would most likely find the presentation dry. In fact, I find little relevance to our design project. More like for the students from School of Design and Environment (SDE). But I think the presentation was great, both the content and the style.

Saw some familiar faces from the industry and caught up a bit with them. I need my own name card.

Oh, and today I was approached to take up a design project. Ummm... I'm still considering...

And the tea reception was great. Maybe the best I have in NUS so far.

prata, sugar added

Yesterday morning I was having breakfast at the Roti Prata House at Thomson. So I was about to pour some sugar onto my plain prata, and then...

the container's lid came off and all the sugar rushed out like avalanche as I watched in horror! I got myself a white mountain of sugar on my prata. New variety after the ice cream prata eh?

So what happened was, it wasn't a sprinkler. It was just a jar which you have to open the lid and scoop out the sugar with a teaspoon. The teaspoon wasn't there.

Lesson learned: do an equipment check next time. Check that all screws are tightly fastened (if there is any screwthread, that is. There wasn't. The lid wasn't a screw-on. It was a screw-up)

some seminar leaflet

I received this seminar leaflet in my NUS inbox.

What's with all the bombs and finger-pointing? Is it just my computer or the one who typed it out really typed them out?

Anyway to fellow coursemates, I think it's a good idea to attend this tea session. (or rather, it's a bad idea not to attend). You won't know what stunt Prof J Fuh will pull this time round.

And don't you want to hear our new HOD speak?

finding shear centre

I think I'm like forever stuck with shapes.

Yes it's so late in the semester and I still have project/assignment due.

For this Mechanics of Thin-walled Structure question, I'm supposed to find the shear centre of the cross section. The funny thing is, in the lecture notes my lecturer uses totally different conventions from all the well-known mechanics textbooks. (something like, one uses equivalent, the others use equilibrium. Nvm, the force is out there)

Any mechanics type out there has any clue?

(btw, nich told me a dirty joke regarding shear centre. Engineering dirty jokes are usually quite high tech / high class)

i-listen-to-complaints

I thought I have the street-directory look, but apparently I have that i-listen-to-complaints look too.

I was waiting for the shuttle bus to Bukit Timah Campus. This service's frequency is 30 minutes during off-peak hour and I just missed the 2pm bus. Shortly a girl came to the bus stop and apparently she was waiting for the same bus since all the other services had arrived by the dozens by then. From time to time she walked to the notice board to check the schedule and stuff...

After about 20 minutes of waiting, she looked at me and I looked at her and seemed like she could guess I was waiting for the same bus. So she asked if I was waiting for that service BTC1, then went on to ask/complain how come the frequency and the schedule doesn't match. *shrug* According to the schedule a bus was supposed to arrive at 2:09pm. 2pm + 30 minutes is not 2:09.

When the bus finally came after 25 minutes of waiting, the girl said "thanks for listening to my complaint".

She was kinda hot.

vip withdrawal

Just saw an email in my NUS account regarding Vacation Internship Programme (VIP) withdrawal. It's something about students withdrawing from the allocated company cos they have found their own vacancy outside the faculty's placement.

By right this doesn't concern me as I have already fulfilled my internship last year. But I remember during my time, I was not able to withdraw from the faculty's placement although I had found external companies to take me in. They told me they would fail me if I withdraw from the allocated placement.

All I can say is, time is changing for better. Anyway I have learned a great deal from my internship, so not much loss. *shrug*

how bolts and nuts are made

I've always wondered how bolts and nuts are made. Saw this video clip taken from Discovery's Science Channel which talks about how bolts and nuts are manufactured.

Manufacturing processes and material science stuffs like rolling, forging, heat treatment, tensile test... things that we have learned in lectures.


Engineering is so fun when you don't have to sit for exam.

press bell for emergency

This morning I was on the bus, then this auntie in front of me wanted to alight. She looked at the bell button for a moment, hesitated, then went somewhere else to press the bell.

Above the button was the safety hammer, below the button was a sticker that read "For emergency use only".

I wonder what will happen if I press the bell.

stupid cash deposit machine

Yesterday I went to use the Cash Deposit Machine at Yusof Ishak House.

By right, you can insert "any combination of S$10, S$50 and S$100 in cash slot" but "Please straighten your notes and do not insert crumpled or folded notes, or more than 100 bills per deposit" (© 2007 DBS Bank Ltd)

But somehow I only inserted 10 pieces of the same value notes, and the machine rejected my moola. In the end I had to insert one piece at a time, which was pretty dumb.

Do I have to iron my notes straight?

(oh and the machine peeled my ATM card's skin off. Urgh!)

hazard at botanic gardens

I was at the Botanic Gardens.
I lay flat on the big grass field,
looking up at the big blue sky.
I closed my eyes, and relax...

This was the first time in many months that I felt so relaxed.

Then some kids came rolling down the slope and crashed into my head.

!@#$%^&*

spraying stout: guinness vs murphy's

Yesterday my mother bought back some roasted duck for lunch, and what goes better with roasted duck than alcohol? We had some Guinness stout and Murphy's stout, so might as well sample both and compare.

First my brother opened up the can of Guinness and the black liquid came spraying out. His white shirt became half black. Then I told him, cannot open like that. I slowly pulled open the ring of the can of Murphy's.... at first it looked ok, then the white foam came oozing out from the small opening, then the process became uncontrollable and I had to pull open the ring fully. The stout shot out and got my brother again. Now his shirt is full black.

Guinness is better. (although Murphy's shot further)

internship opportunity

It seems like this year's internship market is quite competitive. Many of my friends still can't get an internship secured.

I have an internship opportunity with me here at Department of Crappy Engineering a Japanese company. It is a big company that manufactures manufacturing machines (-_-"). The factory is at Tanjong Gul, transport is provided, work starts at 7:30. Allowance is the lowest recommended amount by the university.

Interested applicant, please send me your real name via contact[at]chillycraps.com and I will feed you with the details. Only successful applicants will be notified.

design project designed & projected

The final presentation yesterday can more or less mark the end of the 1 year long industrial design project. (erm, there's still completion tea ceremony, but...)

It all started some 2 semesters ago when I got saboed to be the group leader. As you can imagine, how disastrous it could be with me as the leader. Luckily I have a great team of groupmates each with speacial power.

Here are some interesting facts that you may/may not know:

• almost every meeting started with updates on Gundam


• 5 of us were from the same secondary school and 5 were from the same junior college


• all our parts were manufactured oversea


• we were one of the few groups if not the only group to be dressed in casual attire for the final presentation. Long sleeve didn't blend well with spanner and machine oil.


• we were one of the few groups if not the only 2 groups to be doing logbook this semester


• I actually knew who's our prof-in-charge before the list was out


• this one actually my group didn't know: all this while I had been skeptical about our design. Luckily my intuition was wrong. hush, don't tell nobody.


• the university still owe me money

coffee water from tap

Yesterday when I reached home, I turned on the water tap and what came out was coffee (colour) water! You will think I should get high since it's coffee, but no it wasn't coffee, but some yucky mixture with dunno rust or mud smell. I didn't test its taste though.

What happened was, the town council had just changed the water pipes and mains in our block (and filled the water tanks with coffee).

I'm not into fluid mechanics but let me try. In a real pipe flow, the velocity at the wall is zero, thus all the sediments got deposited there and stayed there. When they changed the pipes, they had to switch off the supply and let out the remaining water inside the pipes. Air took over the volume. Then when they turned on the supply again, the water came rushing into the empty pipes under pressure and push all the crap inside the pipes.

My toilet's water tank was filled with "coffee".

So next time after they have changed your pipes, let the water run for a while before using.

easySafe - Your unique key to security

FAST easySafe is the only hardware cryptography product available in the market with unique features. It protects all sensitive information in your computer, external hard disk, USB flash drive, SD card and etc.

Although the design is compliant to FIPS 140-2 standard with PKI technology, FAST easySafe, as its name implies, is rather easy to deploy and use as compared to other sophiscated security products that require dedicated IT specialists for deployment and maintenance.

Fast And Safe Technology Pte Ltd (FAST)

FAST easySafe can be purchased at the following locations:-
*E2000 shop at Funan #05-02.
*Tec-Drome Technology at Sim Lim Square #05-78 and #06-74.
*IMM Challenger L2-49.

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what lecturers don’t want

The other day during GEM lecture, a coursemate was eating from a plastic container while the lecturer was teaching. The lecturer stopped and told her that it wasn’t nice to eat while he’s teaching, etc etc.

Other than sips of coffee, I myself have eaten in lecture before, but not chicken rice or noodles that sort. I remember my timetable was crazy last year with no lunch break on a particular day and I had to munch on sandwiches while the lecturer was talking. Now I imagine I’m standing at the front of the lecture theatre and seeing people eating, really isn’t quite nice sight. (but then again, whether I am eating or not, I look equally un-nice)

-------

Another day during FNA lecture, a student was recording the lecture with his handphone. The lecturer went up to him and confiscated his handphone. -_-" (I thought confiscation only happens in secondary school)

Since any Tom, Dick and Harry can walk into the LT and listen to the lecture, I thought, is there any privileged content in the lecture? But at the start of the semester, the lecturer had already clearly stated that no recording is allowed as the lecture is the intellectual rights of the lecturer. Since the rule was set, no excuse eh?

Actually I have recorded lectures before. It was a History module, and there were no lecture notes. Not wanting to miss out any important points, I used my MP3 player to record. I wasn’t the only one though. And the lecturer actually suggested we put our recorders right at the front of the lecture theatre for better quality.

-------

Seems like I have done the wrong things at the right time.

segway rmp

Mechantronics and design type are going to like this.

Check out the video clip of Segway's new RMP (Robotic Mobility Platform) debuting at RoboBusiness 2008.

What is special about the RMP is its omnidirectional wheels! From the video I thought it was purely sliding but apparently you need to produce the motion in that direction in order for it to slide in that direction.


MAKE @ RobotBusiness 2008 Segway RMP - video powered by Metacafe
It's like seeing a crab walk straight.

(some photos at Make:)

nice 156 driver and stupid 151 ntu bus

Nice 156 driver

This morning I was waiting for bus 151 at Bukit Timah Road. When one finally came, it was filled to the brink. Then a bus 156 cut in in front of the 151. The driver opened the door and asked if I would like to take 156 since 151 was full (note: 156 goes to Clementi. When you are in a rush and 151 is nowhere to be seen, you can take 156 and change to 96 to go NUS) Naïve me actually thought the 156 bus captain was going to -5 from the number and made it 151… That was nice of him, but since I was not in a rush, I thanked him and continue to wait for the next 151.

Stupid 151 "NTU" bus

Aha, 151 finally came, and while boarding when I saw the weird floor pattern I knew it was another stupid bus. The NTU ad bus!!

First let’s not talk about why NTU would want to advertise on a bus service infested with NUS students. But the interior of this bus is equally stupid as the Nokia bus! All the seats are arranged in the axial direction against the walls, and there is this big patch of empty area that says “No Standing”. And the TV kept babbling about “anti-you anti-you…”. Anti who?

seems empty cos the bus was 2 stops into NUS by thenDid they purposely put this ad theme on 151 to bring inconvenience to NUS students, or was it true reflection of the design skill of NTU? (since it’s their ads, they must have endorsed it)

EDIT: darn I kena the NTU bus twice today. Round trip eh? I heard the "NTU NTU" so many times I think when people ask me which university am I from, I will answer "NTU"

train incident

There was an incident at Choa Chu Kang MRT station yesterday.

I was on the MRT train travelling towards Jurong East when the train was like stopping every few inches. Over the PA system the pre-recorded message of “Due to a train incident, this train is delayed” was played repeatedly. I could guess something unfortunate happened.

By the time the train had crawled to Yew Tee station, initially the driver told the passengers to alight and transfer to shuttle buses. The auntie sitting beside me asked her son what the driver said. The son said he didn’t understand, only understood the phrase “your attention please” -_-“ Then he told his mother everyone had to get off the train. As the train doors opened, the driver quickly said that the train would continue on to Jurong East. The mother scolded her son “eh you don’t bluff me leh!” -_-“

I guess my train was the first few if not the first to go though Choa Chu Kang after the incident. So as the train entered Choa Chu Kang station, I could see many police officers at the platform, cordoning off the area with the tape, and staff with rubber gloves having just cleaned the area. The scene was just right behind my window. The platform floor was still wet. (don’t complain NPNT. The photo I took was kinda disturbing)

Sigh.

I wonder when are they going to install barriers at station platforms.

weird advertlets impression

I discover some very weird stats in my Advertlets account. Look at the screen shot:

On 3rd and 4th April the impressions seem exceptionally low. Then look at my Google Analytics:

On the above 2 dates I had more than 200 visitors to my blog per day.

Some sale/discount/promotion going on?

pingster indian food gathering

Went for the ping.sg Indian food gathering at Taj Samudra Restaurant at Little India. On the attendance list we have daphne, champagne, malique, rinaz, uray, ironicgamer, jzin, arzhou, and chillycraps.

We had Indian food (duh!) buffet style which cost about $12.75 per pax.

I can only make out the fork and spoon in this photo
jzin was first to reach. He thought he got the date wrong cos he was early.
I kept teasing him about the nutritional value of each food. Check out his blog for his profession.
left to right: uray, daphne, jzin, arzhou, champagne, ironicgamer
heeee...
is it the food or did malique see something?
He only slept at 3am+ this morning and I was so glad to see him =)
rinaz had a sexy voice cos she contracted sore throat from the clinic. How ironic -_-"
We asked if she could take spicy food and she was like, (with puzzled face) "spicy?"
The aircon was out of order, so it was kinda hot inside the restaurant. jzin resorted to fanning himself with edible stuff
oopz. Someone noticed the (act)cute one
Overall the food was good. Malique took the last of the fish which he thought looked like char siew. They have gulab jamun as well and it was so sweet and nice! The lime juice wasn't sour enough though.

Oh daphne asked the waiter for ice, then we saw a deliveryman carry a big bag of ice cubes on his shoulder entering from the front door. -_-"

When is the next gathering?