rsaf open house 08

Went to the Republic of Singapore Air Force Open House at Paya Lebar Air Base today. This was my 3rd or 4th time going to the RSAF Open House. The previous time was when I was in secondary 1 or 2.

Maybe the waiting and missing the aerial display spoiled my mood quite a bit, but was quite happy to get up close with some of the newer hardwares that I haven't touched before. The AH-64D Longbow Apache, Hermes 450, F-16 Block 52+ (the Conformal Fuel Tank (CFT) and Litening pods rocks)... And now that I'm in an engineering course, I had an eye for some details. The engines, the undercarriage... I kept looking at the behind and under the aircrafts I was like an engineering pervert.

Oh, don't ask me why the Black Knights ain't black.

quotes of the day

Hey what's that!!?
-- Danny, Chief Barista of Geek Terminal

I was wearing my Starbucks T-shirt.
*shrug* I do wear NUS t-shirt into NTU.

笑, 笑多一点
(Chinese, "laugh, laugh more")
-- A girl at the bus stop who was also wearing a Starbucks T-shirt.

Her friend kept giggling after they saw me.

Had a very satisfying Saturday today. In the morning met up with the tech65 crew and fellow bloggers nicole and dk at Geek Terminal. Their funny conversations could have filled up one blog. Then in the afternoon, had some shopping and dessert with hot blogger girls rinaz and mintea. Happening huh, Monday went out with 2 engineering girls, Saturday went out with 2 blogger girls.

coffee, milo, or espresso

The other day I was with a coursemate at a cafe in campus. He came back from the counter with a plasitc cup of brown liquid, and I asked if it was Milo (please, nothing yucky). My coursemate went on to share with me something interesting.

He said, when you are dating a Japanese girl, there are 2 drinks you shouldn't order: milo and coffee. Milo makes you seem childish and immature, while coffee says you are boring. Then what do you order? Espresso. Espresso is classy.

ORLY?

I do feel that people who walk around with icy drinks do look childish, and my almost-daily intake of coffee could be the reason for my boringness. But why do we give up our favourite drinks just to pretend to be someone whom we are not?

Afterall, my engine runs on coffee.
(this post is written at Geek Terminal after a cup of cafe mocha
and btw, the picture is a parody of the outdoor brand "Life is Good")

back in ntu

It's final year and I always hear my coursemates happily talking about where their Final Year Project (FYP) lab is. Where is my FYP lab?

It is at the other university.

Some one year ago I was working there. To be exact, a research institute located inside NTU. And today I was back. Same place, same building. My old boss was gone though. So much has changed in NTU. There are new batches of girls ^^, new buildings, and Canteen A is gone. ARGHHH!! No more wind blowing away your styrofoam plates or flying soup in your face.

Went to Block N4 to look for fellow blogger Nicole and went to have lunch at NIE Canteen. Tried to be funny with the western food uncle by asking him to pour mayonnaise on my spaghetti. Have you heard of the "NTU Ayam Penyet incident"?

To enhance my next journey to the west, I shall listen to this song.

human factor, human error, human problem

Yesterday our project group was brainstorming for ideas for our Human Factors in Engineering and Design module. Obviously, the project has to incorporate elements of human factors inside.

We came up with many possible ideas, and realized that most of the time at the end of the tunnel the problem lies with the human and has to be solved by the human. Many a times, the design looks impressive on paper, works fine in simulations. But when you put in the human into it, it fails. A system may work perfectly in one society, but it may fail in another. Cultures do play a part. It is like, in some cultures, disturbing others in public is seen as wrong, but in others, people blast music, lean on poles, etc, and don't feel wrong about it. Like that how to apply?

And when things happen, we always hear "human errors". Is it the user's error, or the designer's error?

At the end of the day, human is the biggest engineering problem.

crispy visit

I just came back from a visit to CRISP (Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing).

As the name suggests, CRISP takes care of remote imaging, sensing and processing. -_- Basically, they play with satellites and related stuff, such as spotting hotspots (NOT the WiFi hotspots) in the region. They are situated at Block S17, Faculty of Science, NUS. When people's umbrella aren't flipped, there are 2 satellite antennas in campus.

I was lucky that during the visit, a satellite flew by and they downloaded the data. From the screen (not the satellite image) you can really see the satellite dish rotating.. I always thought they are fixed! And they showed us this gigantic cassette tape that was used to store the data.

Ok, end of report.

patriot game

I happened to be at Dhoby Ghaut when the Hippo buses carrying our Olympic silver medalists passed by.

I may not be the most patriotic person on earth, but I took the clapper sticks and cheered on with the crowd as the open deck buses crawled pass. I know recently there are many talks about foreign talents, imports and such, and I do have my views on it, but how about put it this way: I was not only cheering for the table tennis girls, but also the rest of the Team Singapore.

An old man came to me and asked what was I doing. Then he asked was I being paid to cheer. Then he asked do I have a share in the S$750k award money. "拿, 你要不要?" (in Chinese, "do you want?") I shoved the clapper sticks to him, and he ran away quite quickly.

I thought the Olympics period would be a good time to teach Total Defence.

there are many young engineers

I really like this video from Norwegian aluminium company Hydro, and their tagline "There are many young engineers. We can't wait till they grow up." When I saw the train go 360 I was really wide-eyed. O_o


There is another version, of kids remote-controlling a motorcar.

Ok, I haven't met a Norwegian kid.

silver jubilee crap

On August 25, chillycraps (the shell behind the blogger) celebrated 25 years of existence on earth.

Thank you for all your well wishes on sms, on facebook, on plurk, and in class. And thank you for the mini celebration in campus, fellow engineering friends hj, otc, ivan, aravin, tata and xin!

And after that guess what, I went shopping with the 2 mechanical engineering girls. They were hunting for shoes, clothes, accessories, lingerie @@... The way they shop can get quite analytical, like doing drop test on shoes (ie, taking the shoes from the rack and dropping them on the floor to try out), then analyze the pressure on the high heels, the stress, the strain, points of weakness, material strengths... even for lingerie. -_-

After going into the bra shops with them girls, I realize "booster" is not limited to rocket booster. No, they didn't get me a booster.

silence, i queue you

Sometimes I seriously think people queue up just for the sake of queuing.

The other day I was at some carnival or something. I stood one side, waiting for the parents to finish visiting the booths. Then a woman came to me and asked me "你这里是排什麽的?" (in Chinese, "what is this queue for?") Firstly, there wasn't any queue. Secondly, I just feel amused.

It's like, got queue, will queue.

There was once I was in campus queuing up for welfare stuff, then I heard someone asking what was the queue for, and someone replied "heck lah, just queue".

Sometimes I wonder, do people queue just because others are queuing? Do they think that just because there's a queue, the stuff must be good stuff? I still can't understand the queue at the durian pancake stall, the donut shop, or the curry chicken noodles. The iPhone 3G's queue I can understand though.

I don't like queues. That's why you always see me eating vegetarian food in canteen.

Singapore Fireworks Celebration 2008

Did you catch the Singapore Fireworks Celebration 2008 at Marina Bay? If not, I have recorded a 10-odd minutes clip from last night's Korean Fantasia.


Singapore Fireworks Celebrations from chillycraps on Vimeo.
Not taking into account the amount of money burned or the pollutants produced, watching fireworks has always been a joy. Some people make wishes, some oooh, some aaah, some clap, some cheer. Seeing the colourful flowers in the night sky kind of gives the feeling of hope, although the smoke most probably won't make your stomach full. And hearing the kids cheer, makes you feel happy too.

And pyrotechnics is professional engineering stuff. I gave up halfway calculating the trajectory. But I love the powerful shockwaves.

private barrier gate

Yesterday I was at Marina Square food court watching the Singapore Fireworks Celebration 2008, and I saw some Singapore style selfishness.

The outdoor eating area of the food court has 2 rows of tables, separated with one single walkway in the middle. So there was this woman across from the aisle, further from the parapet wall. When there were people standing in the walkway, she would tell them to move away so as not to block her view, very similar to what I saw on National Day. One guy told her off saying it is public place. Kudos.

What's next, she shifted her chair into the walkway, just like in the photo.


That basically cut off the human traffic in the single only walkway. When people wanted to cross over, she would tell them to make one mighty big detour inside the air-conned area. Worse, one family was cut into 2, the mother and the son on one side, the father and the daughter on the other side of the chair. Was that Berlin Wall or 38th Parallel that separated families?

I so wanted to *accidentally* pour my curry chicken noodles onto her back.

bird over bird's nest

I haven't had the chance to talk about the Beijing National Stadium, aka Bird's Nest. Using/wasting a horrible 45000 tonnes of steel, it is definitely some engineering project. Before the Beijing Olympics closes this Sunday, let me show you some nice satellite photos taken from GeoEye.

Taken on August 27, 2006, they are still building the nest.
October 7, 2007, the nest looks more complete.
July 19, 2008. Before the opening ceremony, can you make out the scroll and the elevated stage?
August 18, 2008. The field events have started. Can you see the flame on the roof? (just a red dot)
Satellite image is not just Google Earth.

red dot for crap

A few days ago a coursemate of mine was suggesting me to take part in red dot design award. I seriously think he was joking.

Red dot design award is an annual design award given to good designs. There are 3 categories, namely product design, communication design and design concept. Sometimes you can see some consumer products proudly display the logo in their brochure, so you can see how prestigious this award is. And, looking at the list of award winners, there are lots of big brands, ranging from sofa to iphone to Lamborghini.

Although I'm in the product design specialization, but it's not what you think it is. I think the industrial design guys from School of Design & Environment will do better job.

There are engineers who know design, and designers who know engineering.
And engineering student who talks crap.

tumbler how much

This has happened a few times since the semester started, at both Science and Engineering canteen.

I went to the coffee stall, filled up my tumbler with coffee, went to the cashier, and the cashier would ask me "how much?"

Huh?

Where can you find cashier asking customer how much?

Ok, actually the cashier didn't know how much to charge me cos she didn't know how much had I filled. Canteen coffee usually comes in 3 sizes just like Starbucks, and I usually pay for the largest.

But you save the 10cents surcharge for paper cup, and do a part for environment at the same time.

(why is the batmobile called tumbler?)

quote of the day

Don't worry about the expression here.
It will come out in the tutorial problem.
-- Prof Wong YS
Department of Mechanical Engineering
NUS

You know, when you spend too much time working with metals, you get a lot of ironies.

plurk vs blog

When the site is not down, the plurk monsters really take the cake from conventional blogging.

Some call it microblogging, plurk is like the chimera between twitter and blog. You have the interaction that twitter lacks, and the timeliness at the tip of your itchy fingers that blog lacks. The official punchline is "your life, on the line", and surely it runs in a timeline style. (but going by the rate the site is down, their life is on the hangman's rope) You can gossip, you can rant, you can bitch, you can talk in Arab, or crap in your favourite native language. If you want some private small talk with your hullabaloo clique, there's always the privacy option.

Each user has a karma point, which changes according to your activities in plurk. (NB: karma point does not reflect actual karma of user) After attaining certain karma level, you can have additional options such as choosing your monster or using new emoticons. More exciting than redeeming your stuffed toys at arcade huh.

While my blog seems to be getting less and less personal, my plurk is getting more and more personal. In fact you can see the uglier side of me there, most of the time.

Tempted? Take my invitation and earn me a star!

skribit

If you scroll down a bit and look at my far right most sidebar, you will notice a new widget with a froggy, the skribit widget.

While blog hopping, I came across some blogs with this widget. This toy allows readers to suggest titles or topics for the blogger to write about. Very helpful especially when the blogger runs out of topics, which is not uncommon. Also, readers may want to hear the blogger's view on certain issues. Of course, it is vulnerable to abuse, such as anonymous asking you to write about your adventure on bed last night, stuff like that. I also wonder if it will affect payperpost direct, since you don't have to pay the writer a dime to write.

*shrug* I'll give it a try for the time being. My sidebar is getting messy.

sticking your legs

I was snapping photos of pretty girls in LT20 (nah, I don't) when I caught this:


Don't worry, no one's foot got stuck.

Being a territorial animal, I feel that it is not quite right to stick your legs to the row in front. Who knows what have your feet stepped onto. Mud, dog shit, man's pee (trust me, you will always find urine on the floor of the male's toilet. Some men drip). And now you stick your feet to the armrest. How hygienic. Now imagine scrubbing the urinal or shitty toilet bowl with your bare hands.

And I have no idea how some people sit in the lecture theatre. They can slouch until their knees are pressing against the seat in front. Eh, this is not like primary school when you eat in class and want to avoid your teacher's prying eyes. And they had to keep shaking their legs until I could see my tumbler (coffee, not batman!) shifting under the vibration.

If those were my friends sticking out their legs, I would have drawn on their shoes with a marker pen.

how to handle engineering problem

When I need to move from one level to another in campus, sometimes if it's just a few storeys I'll just use the staircase instead of the lift.

So today I was at Engineering E1A when I wanted to go from Level 4 to Level 3. I walked down the stairs and this is what I saw...


Other than the questions of the choice of materials or the design of the handle, most importantly how do I get out from that pull door? Through the small window I saw some girls walking along the corridor at Level 3, and I almost wanted to bang the door or scream "HELP!" to ask them to open the door from the other side. That would seem stupid. Now, what if it was emergency and you can't open the exit door?

So in the end I walked back up, went to adjacent Block EA, and walked down one level. Come to think of it, I could have just waited for the lift.

quote of the day

Project is very important.
It is the difference between A+ and A.
-- Assoc Prof Naresh Kumar
Department of Industrial & System Engineering
NUS

mature audience

Went for my first lecture for IE5301 Human Factors in Engineering and Design yesterday evening. 6pm to 9pm, urgh!

The class has a very interesting mix of students. We have PhD students, MSc students, and the few of us BEng kids. There are Singaporeans, Belgian, Americans, French, Swedes, Chinese, and other nationals. There are full time students, part time students, working adults, slacking kids. There are males and females.

First lesson and we had to form project groups. It was like those group dating or matchmaking session, everyone sitting there waiting to be picked up or something. Then clownish me made the first move, stood up, and made my way to my fellow BEngs from ME4 Product Design. MALES! Ok lah actually I wanted to work with more diverse people, people with different backgrounds, different experience, different gender. =P Then realize that working with working people may have problem with project meetings, since they work in daytime and I slack in daytime. So in the end I'm in a group with 6 fellow ME4 undergrads. All MALES!

Oopz, I sure sound desperate, but hey this is human factors!

kukup revisited

Went on a little trip to Johore on Sunday. Destination: Kukup.

First took MRT train to Jurong East, then switched to the yellow bus which went by the Second Link. Alighted at Gelang Patah and changed to a cab to Kukup. After lunch took a bus to Pontian, then from there switched to another bus to Larkin. Then took SBS Transit bus to downtown Johore Bahru (that sounds weird, but I have bus concession remember?), had dinner, and came back to Singapore via Causeway. I seriously think my map marking is wrong.

This was my second time to Kukup since Secondary school time when I went on a geography field trip. Yeah, field trip also had seafood lunch. So I had seafood lunch again at Kukup (duh, you go Kukup you don't eat seafood?) Kukup is a fishing village in the Straits of Malacca, and there are about 70 fishfarms there. I went onto one of the fishfarms, played with puffer fish and other sea creatures, then went to walk around the village itself. The village is built on wetland, so when it is low tide you can see crabs and mudskipper around. Surprisingly you can see rats too. The lifestyle there is really casual, you see houses with doors opened (not for YOU to enter though), kids cycling around, it is just something that you can't find in urban Singapore.

I need to learn some Malay words so that I can crap with the locals.
(I will be uploading the photos onto my photo blog soon)

nus freshmen recognition guide 08/09

Following the annual practise, it's time to publish the NUS Freshmen Recognition Guide AY08/09! Come to think of it, now I can't really tell if the person walking in campus is freshie or stalie...

Continuing from the previous edition:

16. They tell you they are year 1. (this one you can't miss)
17. Pronounce CORS as C-O-R-S.
18. There is a saying that if a guy walks around campus with dyed hair, most likely he's a freshie. My observation kind of confirms this.
19. Erm, do you think only freshies wear NUSSU T-shirt?
20. (anything to add on?)

hell in canteen

The other day I was on my way to meet my coursemate for coffee at Engin Canteen (officially called Techno Edge. What a name that few people use), then suddenly I received a SMS from her. "Hell". I was like, what the hell?

Then she went on to explain, she was at the lowest deck. Engin canteen has 3 decks. So if the lowest deck is hell, I presume the middle deck is earth, and the top deck is heaven? I usually eat at the top deck. And the staff area is in the lowest deck. Hoho.

Being in NUS for my 4th year, I have seen many changes to the canteen. First the kway chap stall is gone, next the Japanese food stall, and now the noodle stall is close shop. Is the soya bean stall closed as well? Then inflation is hitting us with the coffee increased by 10 cents, sandwich increased by 20 cents, chicken rice increased by 30 cents.

The mynahs still remain the happiest.

151 on double deck

A few days ago I received an email from the university saying that SBS Transit now has double decker buses running service 151. I couldn't quite believe it until I saw one on the way to campus yesterday, and sat inside one on my way back. Sitting is believing.

On my way to school I was in the single deck Scania K230UB, with a friend from NUS Civil Engineering who specializes in transportation. Then we saw a double decker 151 Volvo B9TL overtake our bus. That sure opened my eyes. So I was doubting if the double decker can make the turn at Yusof Ishak House's tight roundabout, or negotiate the slope, or go past Engin Bridge... centripetal acceleration, centre of gravity, torque... I was stupid enough to doubt the mean machine (if not the planners).

My lesson ended at 6pm, somewhat the peak hour. If the K230's lack of seats in the design is a pain in the arse, then B9TL will give you some comfort. The joy of looking at pretty girls sitting opposite you at the lower deck, is simply irreplaceable.

hole of the day

Have you seen a hole with thread?
--Prof Wong YS
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
NUS

I mean, no thread how to screw?!

Ok, some of the juniors didn't know what a tapped hole is.

quote of the day

me: ooi, I tell you first hor, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to chase you.
cute NTU girl: why won't I think of that?

Let's just say that the 2 of us talk weirdly all the time.

This time round, we met behind bars. At the MRT station.

Should I have tapped my card and take the train with her?

you are your gpa

Yesterday I had a meeting with my FYP supervisors. I have 2 supervisors, one from NUS and the other from an external research agency. So we were talking and talking about my project, then suddenly the external supervisor popped this question: "what is your GPA?"

GPA. Grade point average. Not GTA. So when I told them my CAP (NUS' version) which is nowhere near an astronomical value, I guess the supervisors must be thinking "oh darn, why did we choose this dumb fart".

Wait, what has grade got to do with the research project? Honestly they are not researching on whether grade point has an effect on research result.. are they? Then why ask? Why don't they ask, what is your father's occupation, what is your underwear size, what is your marrital status, how much allowance do you have....

I never like it when people label others using grades and result. Does it make anyone a lesser person?

quote of the day

You have a few GOES.
Not the 7th month ghost...
-- Dr Liew SC
CRISP,
NUS

Dr Liew was telling us about Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) during GEK2503 Remote Sensing for Earth Observation lecture.

The lecturer started the lecture by showing us a short clip from the movie Enemy of the State and went on to say how much of the satellite camera scene was untrue. Then the rest of the lecture was kinda dry, showing us a list of satellites all the way from the fifties and their capabilities.

There were a lot of cute girls in the cohort though, but mostly came in groups (which means very hard to make the first move. But I did see a guy making the first move...) And of course, there was the usual moron who kicked the back of my seat. Why must this happen all the time??

chillycraps in 65bits

Episode 83 of 65bits podcast is up, served chilled.

Listen to my magnetic resonating voice here.

Coincidentally, I was born in the year of 83.

partyworld after lesson

Went to Partyworld yesterday with the Business girls after lesson. Happening right, after school sing karaoke...

We actually wanted to go sing karaoke some months back after exam, but somehow didn't. Anyway it's the first week of semester, so if we don't play now, then when?

My throat wasn't feeling that well yesterday but nevertheless I had much fun. I was like choosing all the crazy high pitch songs and killing my throat in the process. The 2 girls actually prepared songlists but both ended up forgetting to bring. -_-"

The girls will be graduating end of this semester, I wonder when will be the next karaoke session...

(somehow the rooms in partyworld are a bit retro... if not sleazy =P
and don't get the wrong impression. I only go karaoke once or twice a year)

quote of the day

Do you want to have a break first?
Not... breakfast.
-- Prof Wong YS
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
NUS

Today's ME3261 Principles of CAD/CAM was my first lecture of the semester. Was quite surprised to see quite a number of year 3 students in the lecture theatre. Seems like there are quite a lot of brave souls who choose not to follow the department's recommended semester schedule, and have decided to take technical electives (TE) in semester 5.

I think lecturers in ME Department are efficient. First lecture and Prof Wong has gone into the second set of lecture notes.

And ME students are super motivated. First lecture and already staying back to ask question after lecture.

call 999

Last night I was sleeping when I suddenly heard the sound of water gushing in the corridor. I think someone's water pipe bursted. Then I heard a female voice saying "faster call 999"

-_-"

This is not like you bumping into fugitive, or the HDB flat is going to collapse just because of a bursted pipe, why call 999?

There were times when I did need police assistance, but I usually call the neighbourhood police post's number. That way, it doesn't have to go through the call centre and jam up the lines.

Have you called 999 before? (no, I'm not encouraging you to abuse it)

crapping in 65bits

Today I was a bit backside itchy, so I went down to Geek Terminal and sat in for the 65bits podcast recording session by Tech65.

Tech65 is a team of very passionate geeks who do g33k talk. (I told Jerrick I'm more like a creep than a geek, and that I came from the zi-char stall) Their podcast uses easy to understand language, not those rocket scientist jargon that you think they use. I'm sure you can find stories that will interest you, from latest gadgets to latest widgets. Got geek porn?

If you are lucky, you may catch my voice in one of their future episodes. If I am lucky, you may not hear me crap. (think they will cut my "going to loo" portion) I'm not going to be a spoiler by revealing the topics.

Oh, 65bits is 1 more than 64bits, "because 64 just ain't enough."

first day of semester

It's the first day of the new semester.

Took the same crampy bus to campus.

Had a nice swim at Sports & Recreation Centre.

Queued up for the free diary at Central Forum and got cut-queue right before me.

Had white chicken rice at Engin canteen. Stall auntie told me the chicken rice is now 30cents more expensive. She went on to say today everyone seemed to order white chicken rice.

Went to computer lab to do some self-directed learning. Realized Autodesk Inventor is very different from AutoCAD. But will go back to SolidWorks anytime.

Bumped into many friends, both from ME and EE. A simple "take care" meant a lot.

Had dinner at Arts. Tofu sold out.

Went for my 6pm lecture. When I reached the venue, the lecturer was inside and he said today's lesson was canceled, cos he had to fly to Washington tonight. He could have announced via IVLE or something. It's a M.Sc module, so I wonder what if some working students took a cab down just to see the lecture canceled...

Had a bad headache. Maybe it was a good thing that the night class was canceled.

That's day 1 of semester 7.

national day observation

Yesterday I was walking around in the Bay area, trying to immerse myself in the joy of National Day.

At One Fullerton, this was what I saw. The police had systematically cordoned off the place into zones for easy crowd control. Running parallel to the shore was one zone, behind the fence was another. So some of the foreign workers were standing there, just like in the photo. Some locals (I guess they are locals) were sitting on the ground behind the fence.

"Excuse me!" The local called out loudly to the standing foreign workers, waving them away from blocking their own view of the Bay.

If it was inside a cinema, I can understand. But public place?

no french toast in my mailbox

Yesterday when I opened my mailbox I saw this strange foreign looking email.

Monsieur chillycraps

(supplier's name) restera ouvert tout l'été!
Vous pouvez nous faxer vos commandes au (number).
Au mois d'août exceptionellement le service commercial fermera le vendredi à 12h30 au lieu de 16 heures en temps normal.

En collaboration.

erm.. I was too quick to think "what the" before I saw the English portion below.

(supplier's name) will stay open during all summer!
Please carry on sending your orders and enquiries by fax at (number) or email us at (email address)
Please, note that on Fridays, our sales departement will close at 12:30 AM instead of 4 PM.
Enjoy your summer!

Wow cool, my French supplier's office has shorter working hours on Friday in summer!
Can we have that in Singapore, since we have summer all year long?

national day and birthday

Today is Republic of Singapore's 43rd National Day, and I would like to say

Happy National Day!
I don't really like to use the phrase "happy birthday", maybe it does sound lively, but I am not sure which other country wishes national day this way. Or imagine another country's president calling our prime minister and say "ello, happy birthday to your country!" Or do we hear the national day speech with the phrase "happy birthday"? Sounds... weird.

And looking back at the birth of this nation some 43 years ago, it was something like involuntary pregnancy, being forced out of the federation into an independent sovereign state. But the 43 years of nation building that Singapore has taken, is definitely worth celebrating.

Majulah Singapura!

exploring rivers on bike

I just came back from a small day cycling trip on my road bike, traveling along one river and returning from another river.

I started off from Ang Mo Kio, following the Kallang River. Passed by Bishan opposite the SMRT depot, then Bradell, then Potong Pasir and crossed over Jalan Toa Payoh, Kolam Ayer (where I played with the Archimedes screws), Geylang Bahru, Boon Keng, reached Kallang. I had lunch across Kallang MRT Station at a prata stall, then I moved on. Following the Kallang Riverside Park, then crossed Nicholl Highway to Republic Avenue. That's where I passed by the Formula 1 pitstop (no I didn't go into the pitstop. Don't need any tire change or fuel up myself) After F1 pit building I went below the Singapore Flyer, then Esplanade. That's Singapore River, another river.

From Esplanade I followed the Singapore River, up to opposite Boat Quay alongside Asian Civilisation Museum (didn't wave hi to Raffles though), then to Clarke Quay. From there I crossed over River Valley Road to Dhoby Ghaut, crossed Orchard Road and traveled along the perimeter of Istana on Cavenagh Road. Then crossed Bukit Timah Road and went behind KK Hospital, followed Thomson Road, then Marymount Road, and back to where I started. Phew.

When I reached home, the Meiji chocolate ice cream was like the sweetest moment of my day.

My neck hurts. My groin hurts. I'll rather walk/trek next time.

stonehenge clock

Mechatronics type may like this video.

Meet Stonehenge, a robotic digital clock from Norris Lab. It uses a robotic arm to manipulate number cards in the digital clock. You have a set of 14 cards each with 2 numbers on each side, some in the storage and some in the display group. The robotic arm is able to retrieve, flip and place the card at the appropriate position. Most importantly, it's a clock.


Just see how much time it takes to change the time, before the minute is up :P
Mechatronics is always not my cup.

shutdown improperly

Lately I have been quite absentminded. Sometimes when I want to shutdown my computer, I click the Start button, Turn Off Computer, and expect the computer to shutdown on its own. Then I walk away doing other stuffs. When I return, expecting to see a black screen, I would be shocked to see the computer still at the screen shown and hearing the exhaust fan still turning. Ah, I forgot to click the middle button. (but I always remember to log out properly after using the computers in campus. Not very nice to have strangers using my account to surf porn.)

I don't really like electronic stuff. Can't we just pull the power cord?

possible conman outside nus

Just now I was at Dover Vista Park opposite NUS Medicine School and I met a possible conman.

He approached me and said he's a night guard at NUS and needed me to accompany him to the ATM machine to draw money for his dinner. I just "orh"ed him and walked off.

He wears a blue turban, thick beard, missing front teeth. About 60-70 years old. Not known to carry any weapon (at least he didn't show me any)

Beware.

library war

(I'm not talking about the Japanese anime of the same title 図書館戦争, which I did enjoy watching)

I'm not sure if you have experienced this. You want this particular book from the library, be it public library or your university library. You check the online catalogue and find that someone has borrowed it out. But you want the book quite badly.

So you either check which branch has stock, or if you don't want to spend the traveling time and money, you keep going back to the online catalogue and check if the person has returned the book. Usually the online catalogue shows the due date of the item, but you still keep going back to the page to check, hoping that the previous borrower has returned the book early. And if the previous borrower extends the loan, you really feel like cursing and swearing... (who says people who read books can't be rude?) This happens even with the 2-hr loan reference books.

To save the trouble, you can always reserve the book with a small fee and collect from the counter. But that kind of spoils the fun.

Then, you can't help wondering, how come there are other homosapiens who read this kind of books. Over the last weekend the whole AutoCAD collection was wiped out.

modules taken

*EDIT: my recommendations on modules are available HERE*

Saw that many people have been searching module codes in Google. Maybe I'll list down the modules I have taken in NUS so far, and if you need any notes, I can see if I still have them with me.

Engineering

• EG1108 Electrical Engineering
• EG1109 Statics and Mechanics of Materials
• EG1413 Critical Thinking and Writing
• EG2401 Engineering Professionalism
• MA1505 Mathematics I
• MA1506 Mathematics II
• MA3501 Mathematical Methods in Engineering
• PC1431 Physics IE
• PC1432 Physics IIE
• CS1101C Programming Methodology
• HR2002 Understanding HR In The New Economy
• IE5301 Human Factors in Engineering and Design
• MT4003 Engineering Product Development
  

Mechanical Engineering

• ME2101 Fundamentals of Mechanical Design
• ME2103 Engineering Visualization & Modeling
• ME2113 Mechanics of Materials I
• ME2114 Mechanics of Materials II
• ME2121 Engineering Thermodynamics
• ME2134 Fluid Mechanics I
• ME2135 Fluid Mechanics II
• ME2142 Feedback Control Systems
• ME2143 Sensors & Actuators
• ME2151 Principles of Mechanical Eng. Materials
• ME3101 Mechanical Systems Design I
• ME3102 Mechanical Systems Design II
• ME3112 Mechanics of Machines
• ME3122 Heat Transfer
• ME3162 Manufacturing Processes
• ME3261 Computer-aided Design and Manufacturing
  
• ME4212 Mechanics of Thin-Walled Structures

ULR

• FNA1002X Financial Accounting
• LAM1201 Malay 1
  
• SC1101E Making Sense of Society
• SSA2208 Singapore's Military History
• GEK1003 Introduction to Political Science
• GEK1513 Wireless Communications: Past, Present and Future
  
• GEK1520 Understanding the Universe
• GEM2501 Electric Energy - Powering The New Millenium
• GEK2503 Remote Sensing for Earth Observation

coffee survey

Hey you coffee lovers, I'm just curious what is your favourite coffee place in Singapore. Share share leh~ And if you don't mind, tell me which flavour is your best cup?

like barca jersey

After 3 years of blogging I finally received my first Google Adsense cheque, and I have donated a small portion of it to UNICEF under education.

It's nothing much, the portion that I am saving up is way larger than the portion that I have donated, nothing like the previous time. But I still feel that I should give back a bit to the world, and donating to charity organizations is easy!

And I am counting you in for the donation, as without you reading my blog (and, well, clicking) I won't have the advertisement money. Thanks!

street direct tree

For someone who is quite ya-ya about his sense of direction, I'm quite lost when it comes to direction in places where I have spent substantial amount of time in.

For example, once in a while I would be walking in the neighbourhood and someone would ask me for the direction to Block XXX, and I couldn't answer. It would be very embarrassing if I said I've lived in the neighbourhood for more than 10 years. But if you ask me where are the supermarkets and wet markets, I can answer.

Last Friday I was in campus, walking from Dover to Engineering. Along the way a girl asked me for direction to Block E4. I couldn't recall where in Engineering is E4... but I knew it was there (duh), so I suggested walking her to the place. Ended up it is the Singapore MIT Alliance office. Oh she's a new post-doc student and we had a nice chat along the way =P

And then today, I was outside LT7A when a girl asked me the direction to LT7A. So I told her to go to the lift lobby, go to level 3, walk out turn left blah blah blah... then Dr Chee beside me pointed across and said "LT7A is just there lah!" Erm... I realized I just gave the direction to LT7, not LT7A. And to say this is my 4th year in NUS Engineering...

Argh, where's my kitchen? Where's my toilet? How to go?

Related plurk

thanks for your votes

Voting for the Singapore Blog Awards ended on 31st July. To all who have voted for my blog,

THANK YOU!
Hope you will win the lucky draw for voters.
Now it is up to me to further embarrass myself for the remainder of the contest. =P

urine and nano-technology

I'm not sure about female's washrooms, but some of the male's washrooms in malls have urinals that do not require flushing. (not an excuse for faulty auto-flush sensors) I suspect they have applied a layer of non-wetting surface treatment to the urinal walls, so that the urine won't stick. But personal experience tells me, the urine stink does stay. X_x

Non-wetting, or hydrophobicity (can be hydrophilicity though), or lotus effect, seems to be the popular thing nowadays. Even one of the final year projects in NUS is on non-wettable surfaces, which a friend of mine is doing. Peter Forbes used one chapter to talk about the lotus effect in his book Gecko's Foot.

Let's start with the lotus. A little experiment, next time you go to the lotus pond, pull down your pants and pee onto the leaf. You will observe that the liquid moves around or slip off like pebbles. You may think cos it's a smooth surface, that's why the water slips off so easily. Nope, in the nano scale, the lotus leaf is super rough, with tiny structure that makes dust stick better to water than to the leaf itself, thus the self-cleaning effect. If not why are lotus leaves so spotless in the muddy pond?

This effect has inspired scientists and engineers into developing new technology for our use based on the lotus effect. Things like water-repelling glass, self-cleaning paint, have been commercialised. If only my home's windows are self-cleaning, that would save me so much cleaning time, especially when a cocky bird drop its shitload there.

Come to think of it, toilet bowl can be flushless too. Anybody wants to try?

design project dinner

Last night I went out for dinner with my last year's design project groupmates. It was also their last day of internship. Coincidentally, our juniors in year 3 are now forming groups and choosing projects for their ME3101 / ME3102 Mechanical System Design.

So we talked about internship, talked about modules, talked about FYP, talked about profs, talked about (and visualised) how our design would fail terribly.

Overall the design project was a good learning experience. You were presented with a real life problem, and you needed real life solution. And along the way of finding real life solution, you were met with more real life problems. What supplier office no pretty girl, what hardware store auntie scold...

Of course, there were some cruel stuff in the design project. Not talking about conducting tests and simulations on human beings, but one thing I still don't feel comfortable with is the grading. You have 1 bell curve within each group, which means some will get A, some won't. Generally speaking the group leader will get the highest grade (that's why a groupmate said my grade was free one), but it's not a de facto thingy. I know of groups whose group leader didn't get the best grade.

Whatever it is, I was lucky to be with my group. One year ago, they pushed me onto the chopping board. I ain't complaining.

(btw, any headhunter wants my groupmates' names?)

parents do tell lies

The other day I was on the MRT train, and this kid opposite me was running around. His mother caught hold of him, pointed to the ceiling and told him "if you naughty, camera catch you". I followed her finger and looked at the ceiling. Hey, that's no camera, just the air-con vents!

Parents tell all sorts of lies. What police catch you, soldier catch you, flower eat you, lollipop is spicy, coke is poisonous, etc etc. Even once I was in the lift and a boy was playing with the button, the mother also pointed to me and told the kid "later kor kor scold you." Ooi, you want to lie to your son don't have to make me the bad guy right?

Have you ever been cheated by your parents?

forestlove

*WARNING! Please turn down your speaker's volume*
Trust me.


Ever wonder how is it like to make love in the forest?

Join Greenpeace in making love with the forest against illegal logging! Read more about it here.

Now I feel like hugging a tree.