waffle and junior

A few weeks ago I was poking my nose into Arts canteen's waffle stall when someone patted me from behind. It was Samuel, my junior from ODAC (outdoor activities club) days. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into him in campus, since he's studying in the other university. He's also working at an outdoor equipment supplier, and is actively involved in the local adventure racing scene. I really admire his passion for the outdoor, when I'm still stuck with my climbing and kayaking which pretty much depend on my mood. We had a long chat standing in front of the waffle stall. I didn't buy the waffle.

Yesterday I was on the way to Arts canteen to get the legendary waffle when I bumped into LCC at a study bench. LCC is from the same batch as Samuel. Although LCC and I always communicate via blog, I seldom bump into him in campus. We had a little chat while waiting for his laptop to shut down.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I feel that my junior batch couldn't get along well with my batch, and I couldn't get along well with my batch too, but I can get along well with my junior batch. Fine, going by how much an antisocial organism I am, had I been in my junior's batch, very likely I wouldn't get along well with them. That's the funny thing about fate.

Oh back to the waffle, I did manage to buy the waffle yesterday. It was heavenly. I think waffle is one food that you won't grow sick of.

Plain waffle goes at 80cents.

formula 1 singapore grand prix

The first Formula 1 night race was held yesterday at Singapore's Marina Bay Circuit.

Coming from a Formula 1 noob, I think the race was quite dramatic. All the crashes and stuff, the most scary scene was at Scuderia Ferrari's pit. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa drove off from the pitstop before the pit crew could remove the fueling hose, so the red F2008 was speeding off with a torn hose dangling, with Shell fuel splashing out.


I almost went WTF when I saw the poor pit crew fell.

This is another case of "human system integration". When you look at other teams, they have a lollipop man holding up a lollipop sign in front of the car signalling it to go. In Ferrari's case, they use an eletronic light signal. Wadeva, it's a communication breakdown that cost the guy to drop from 1st to last.

Still dare to go to Shell stations? (and the uncles driving Renault vans have reason to look down on Ferrari and Merz on the road)

chillycraps or [insert real name]

I introduce myself differently when I'm with different groups.

But that's not some identity crisis or personality split. When I'm at bloggers events or gatherings with online people, I introduce myself as chillycraps; when I'm with "real life" people, I use my real name. I thought I'm very clear with that.

Then it suddenly struck me. Is it impolite if someone introduce him/herself with his/her real name, and here I am giving weird name like chillycraps? It was when someone asked if my surname is craps or my father's name is craps, then I began to ponder if it's my fault that my father ended up in the loop.

I have my reason for staying anonymous as much as possible. Let me share with you a little phobia that I have. Everytime I receive some unfamiliar mails that have no markings or logos on the envelopes except some PO box number, my first reaction is "what trouble did my blog stir again?", "another investigation?", "lawyer's letter?", "so they decide to charge me?"

If you already know my real name, I think it's meant to be known to you. If you don't, I think my dear readers won't mind.

neighbourhood war

That other day I was hanging my laundry behind the kitchen to dry, when water began to drip from somewhere upstairs like heavy rainfall.

This wasn't the first time water was dripping from upstairs, but it was the first time it dripped so badly. Even a wet mop won't drip like that. So instead of going upstairs to bring justice to the tenant, I went downstairs to the ground floor. I looked up, no wet laundry, no dripping mop. Just wet wall. Seemed like someone was washing his windows when there were clothes hanging downstairs. I had to rewash my clothes.

This time round I didn't do the screwing. I let others screw. I shot an email to the town council. Later on the same day, the town council distributed letters to my column "educating" tenants about not dripping water and stuff.

I am less than optimistic. The letters were in English. Those who drip are ah pek.

new comments box

Ok I've changed something with the comments box again. At first this blog had comments page instead of comments box, ie that standard boring Blogspot comments page. Then I switched to pop-up comments box after feedback from some readers, saying they prefer the pop-up box.

But I've always wanted wordpress-style comments form, right at the bottom of the individual entry page. Now you have it.

Blogger in Draft never fails to impress me.

What do you think of the new comments form?

where's the screw up

Yesterday I was at a birthday party. The host bought a bottle of wine, but forgot to bring the wine opener. You know, it is like those moment when you have a bottle of beer but no bottle opener. So I offered to go out to buy, and the host's mum drove me out.

I went straight to the supermarket's wine section, thinking that they would put the related stuff together for convenience to shoppers. But no, there was no wine opener to be seen in the row. Only bottles and bottles of wine. Hmm... so next I went to the hardware section. I thought I'm the supermarket regular but I still couldn't find the wine opener. It was moment like this when you open your mouth and ask. The cashier reluctantly told me to check the party section. There it was, wine opener alongside charcoal and barbecue stick.

I find it weird. Fine, you drink wine when you go party, but is wine opener closer to wine, or closer to party? (don't ask me why they put condom together with candy)

The layout design of supermarket sure involves human factors.

sq's birthday

Yesterday I went to my friend SQ's birthday party at Aloha Loyang Chalet. SQ and I were both in outdoor activities club (ODAC) during junior college.

The ice cream birthday cake
The birthday boy preparing the ammunition...
... and set his cake on fire.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was the only ODACian present. Most of the people there were SQ's university hallmates. There was a limit to how much I can talk crap with little girls while barbecuing marshmallows, so I ended up turning my attention to the birthday boy's parents, :P which was when I felt the generation gap between me and people of my age group. Cantonese aunties and uncles, beware of chillycraps!

I was surprised that SQ invited 2 of his JC teachers Ms Undasan and Ms Cheong. Their conversations were totally beyond me. (and I thought my conversation with the parents was intellectual enough) Ms Cheong gave us a lift back, and the car passed by the JC. "The unholy ground". Oh well, even the 2 of them have left the school already.

Happy Birthday SQ~! (hope you don't mind the Toysrus stuff I bought you)

spectacularly bespectacled

With the Formula 1 closing in, some of you may have read through background information about the teams, the drivers, and the cars. The man and machines.

Now meet Sebastien Bourdais, driver for Toro Rosso. Besides wearing a helmet on his head, he wears his glasses too when driving the STR3 running on Ferrari engine.

The point I'm trying to make is, the glasses shouldn't stop us from doing things that we like. I rock climb with my glasses, I kayak with my glasses, I trek with my glasses. Ok I don't normally swim with my glasses.

Let's see how he performs in the night race.

life captured

The Department of Crappy Engineering is privileged to have exclusive access to video of Oscar nominated director Mike Figgis talking about the short film "Life Captured"


Mike Figgis on Life Captured from Lifecaptured on Vimeo
To celebrate the launch of the C902 Cyber-shot, Sony Ericsson has teamed up with Mike Figgis in this pioneering short film made of mobile phone photos taken by people like you and yours truly here. Doesn't it sound fun?

The film will premiere on 2 October.

my new goggle

Went to try out my new toy the Arena swimming goggles at the Sports and Recreation Centre this afternoon.

Before that all along I swim without wearing goggles. The problem with that is when your eyeballs are soaked in the pool water for a long time, they get irritated. Some people cry when they get irritated. Usually I swim in the morning before my lesson, so for the rest of my day I would have red painful teary eyes. People thought I got dumped every few days.

Swimming with goggles is quite a different experience. Although previously I did swim with my eyes open underwater, even without goggles, but now I can see more clearly. Too bad today there weren't any girls in the pool :P

Oh, it was a bad idea to swim after a heavy lunch of chicken cutlet from the Science canteen.

(the goggles is at $19, cheapest on the rack)

there's only so/too much you can do

When you are doing group task or group work, what is your priority? Is it getting the job done, or making sure that everybody does his part?

I always have this dilemma. You know you can get the job done yourself, but you will end up hugging everything by yourself. So you let your group mate do the job instead. Somehow you can guess that you'll do a better job than him/her, but you don't feel like having a free rider/loader. So you give him the task nevertheless. End up, the delivered product is far from expectation. Then even unspoken, you feel that you could have done a better job yourself.

So how?

Is it a case of waiting for disaster to happen in exchange for fair distribution of workload?

z printer

This morning I was quite pleasantly surprised when I received an email from Z Corp. How did they know my email address?

Anyway the other time when I was at Singapore Science Centre's Digital Design Studio, I saw this toy: the Z Corp ZPrinter 450!


This guy is a bit different from my university's Objet Eden, they use different techniques to do rapid prototyping. One of ZPrinter's selling points is its ability to print different colours on the same object.

Now here's a video clip from the manufacturer.

By the way, I'm doing a related term paper. Sigh.

he drank yili

Don't you feel a taste of irony looking at the poster now? (i know milk contains iron) Yili was a sponsor for the Beijing Olympics, Liu Xiang advertised for Yili, Liu Xiang quit the race, now Yili's milk contains toxic melamine.

By the way, the caption says "Yili quality, Olympics standard".
I wonder did the cover-up date all the way back to the Games. The Beijing Olympics began less than 2 months ago.

The recent milk scandal is of interest to me cos, afterall quality control should be of interest to engineers, somemore now it's also a case of production / supply chain problem. The food problem in China has come a long way, with fake liquor, fake cooking oil, fake salt... There is a saying "everything in China is fake, only the fake things are real". I hope that's an overstatement.

When I buy food I always have the habit of checking the package for the country of origin. Chinese brands that I have never heard of, I won't spare an extra second looking at it. But some foreign brands do have plants in China. For example, a lot of the Japanese snacks are manufactured in China. Anyway, even if the food isn't processed in China, the raw materials could be.

On top of feeling sad for the affected babies, I do feel for the honest milk farmers who did nothing wrong but still got affected. Just look at the photos of them having to pour away the milk.

Argh, and I was thinking of trying Yili's ice cream. Maybe then I will become Liu Xiang.

this hot wheels is cold

I felt quite disappointed when I saw Hot Wheels' Grand Prix series of die cast toy cars. Basically this series you have the Formula 1 race cars from the different teams, namely Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and Williams. The body arts are impressive, you can see every single sponsor for the different teams (I love aigo's), but Hot Wheels use the same body for all the teams! You see, different team's racers have their unique shape. The nose, the wings... but Hot Wheels conveniently just use one model and print different colours onto it! I hope the kids won't spot it.

Anyway, think Toysrus is selling it at S$9+.

Oh and while I was at Toysrus, I saw this mother and son. The mother was telling her son to choose only 1 toy which is below S$10. I myself was having a hard time finding a toy below 10 bucks.

department store story

Last night I had this very nostalgic topic on plurk, about the department stores in Singapore.

Do you remember there used to be Oriental and Emporium dotted all over Singapore in the new towns? I remember it was such a nice place to walk at night after dinner. It really was your neighbourhood kind of department store.

Do you remember there were Yaohan at Plaza Singapura, Thomson Plaza and was it Parkway Parade? The Japanese fish shaped pancake.. hmm.

Then there were Daimaru at Liang Court and Junction 8, and Seiyu at Bugis Junction. And how can I forget about Sogo?

All these had gone into history.

Did I miss out anyone?

how crayons are made

Have you wondered how crayons are made?

I saw this video clip, which was taken from a Sesame Street episode in the 70s.

Come to think of it, do kids still draw with crayon nowadays, or do they use photoshop?

Somehow now I want to see how cigarettes are made.

tactical gear

I used to be a military nuts, going crazy over military hardware and stuff. On my bookshelf there's actually a product catalog from Blackhawk Tactical Gear.

This brand sells military and law enforcement equipments ranging from apparels to bags, basically the whole outfit to make you look like a real Navy SEAL or Police SWAT. You may think that it is not very applicable to our local context since our soldiers are quite well equipped, but I've seen regulars using products from this brand. Hydration pack, webbings. And those wargaming / paintballing or outdoor type, you may find something you want there. Sometimes you just want some durable gear.

moronic railway traveler

I was on a crowded MRT train just now and this guy was leaning against the grab pole. Being the bastard that I am once in a while, I grabbed the pole near the guy's head level, and rested my forearm on his shoulder. The advantage of being tall.

As the train entered Newton Station, I wondered how many newtons of force was my arm exerting on the man's shoulder.
Seriously, if the train wasn't crowded, I wouldn't mind even if you did a pole dance.

growth dividends divided

Yesterday when I received the envelope with the words "Growth Dividends" I was quite excited, thinking that I would be $800 richer like what the newspaper says.

Either I didn't read properly, or the newspaper is really clever in the choice of words.

The letter says of the $800 odd, $500 has already been paid. -_-" So on 1st October I will only receive $300. So, $800 is the total amount I will get for the whole of year 2008, not overnight boom $800 more.

I find it amusing. If the amount has already been paid and received, why announce it again and make it sound like they are giving you again? (fine, like I said, it could be my reading problem) Imagine you tell a kid "I will give you 3 lollipops today, but this morning you ate 2 already right?"

I am not complaining.

quote of the day

Can be exam question.
Nah I'm joking.
But joking doesn't mean cannot come out in exam.
-- Prof Wong YS
Department of Mechanical Engineering
NUS
during ME3261 Principles of CAD/CAM lecture

So, is it going to come out in exam??? -_-"

elevators don't jam brake

This morning I made one observation about the elevator at my HDB flat. If it is decending, it takes more than 2 storeys to decelerate and stop. I was at level 6 and when I pressed the button, the display showed that the elevator was at 8. It didn't stop at my floor.

I believe it is some safety feature or comfort design. Imagine a bus is passing by a bus stop and suddenly someone (aka dreamer) presses the bell, and the bus driver steps hard on the brake (he shouldn't have) and all the passengers fly. In the case of the elevator, a sudden deceleration will cause the squashing kind of discomfort to the passengers. You can work out a force diagram and calculate the total force experienced by the passenger. Of course the one at the lobby won't feel a thing.

But then, it is not some high speed bullet lift in skyscrapers. It is just a slow elevator that crawls between 1 and 13 storeys, why can't it just stop within one floor's distance?

free credit card

I was kinda surprised when I received a credit card mailed to me. I did not apply for any credit card.

I didn't know that application for credit card is so easy nowadays. Even someone like me who has zero income is creditable enough to have a card walk to the house on its own. Well, with the help of Mister Postman.

Some friends were saying that if you have used the AXS station, they sign you up. That I did use.

I don't need a credit card. Other than my tuition fee, I don't borrow money. I only eat rice drink coffee, why do I need a card? So I was looking at the terms and conditions attached, looking for the section that says termination or something. They say must cut the card into halves and return to the company. Har? Like that also must rob me 26 cents of postage?

Kind of reminds me of those companies that send you their product, and tell you to either send back the money, or send back the product if you don't want to buy it.

For a while I thought they were giving me free credits.

bus observations

1. Last night after my night class, I was on the cramped bus home when I saw a familar face in the bus. That's my secondary school's Science HOD, whom taught me chemistry in Sec 4. It felt funny to be on the same boat, I mean, bus. On the same bus I saw another old boy of my alma mater, one year my senior. I only know his face, I don't know him personally. He was also looking at the HOD with some funny look. I didn't call out to the HOD.


2. On the same cramped bus. The bus was already filled to the brim by the 2nd stop. Some people at the bus stop were being turned away and told to wait for the next bus. Then at the 3rd stop, no one was alighting, but the driver still pulled over and opened the entrance to let more people squeeze in. You mean traveling one stop's distance can increase the bus's capacity, or can compact the passengers' size to accommodate more? Then the driver opened the backdoor and let people board from behind. They got free ride. The SBS Transit driver was so kind.


3. This is today. You know the aisle near the back of the Volvo Olympian double decker bus is quite narrow right? So this girl was standing in the aisle and chatting with her 2 friends who were seated. There were empty seats as shown in the photo but the girl didn't sit so as to chat more easily. This man from the back wanted to pass through and alight, but the standing girl was blocking the passage. So this man told the girl to sit down so that he could pass. Sometimes I can't stand people who "refuse" to sit down too. It's not about you taking the seat or not, it's about you choking the passageway.
   

calculative commuter

Recently the Public Transport Council has announced the public transport fare adjustment. This kind of reminds me of the conversation I had with my friend/coursemate yk.

The other day yk was asking me if I would be going to campus on the next day. I said no, cos my concession had expired the previous day. Of course it wasn't a valid reason, you mean concession expired then don't need to go to school? It was just that I had no lesson on that day, that's why I didn't go to campus. His concession expired a few days after mine.

For a commuter I am quite calculative. Before buying the monthly concession I would actually take out the calendar and count how many days will I be going to school within the month. Changing bus and alighting at different stops will have an effect on the total fare too. It works out to be about 13 days minimum before you can offset the price of the concession pass. Now with the fare adjustment, I think I will have to recalculate the formula.

I guess buying the monthly concession is a good thing. It forces you to go to school, and deters you from skipping class. (since you have to make the 50+ bucks worth it) Or you can take the concession and travel around Singapore like mad.

minor changes

Ok I've made some minor changes to this blog. There is the new header banner and the RSS guy on the side bar. My feed is now full feed, no more 100 words summary. Then there's the mobile version, which, strictly speaking, is borrowing Google's stuff. Somehow it doesn't work on my own S60 browser. -_-" Skyscraper ad is now white instead of the previous gray, blends in better with the whole blog but stands out less, so I predict a slight drop in Adsense revenue. Anyway...

So what do you think of it?

mooncake usb

It's the 15th day of the 8th Lunar month. Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

Have you gotten your mooncakes? I guess it is still not too late, since today I saw shops selling them at discount price. Trust me, they will be cheaper tomorrow onwards.
Ricky from HKYMS shared about a 4GB mooncake thumbdrive.
4GB is how many yokes?

lantern night and innocent kids

Last night I went to the Lantern Night at Bishan Park, organized by the Grassroots Organization. The guest-of-honour was the Prime Minister, so you can imagine the security guys dotted around. He didn't wave at me though :P

What caught my attention though, was the performance on the stage. They were having a game for children, so close to a hundred kids rushed onto the stage, the oldest of the kids was in her 70s. It was the freeze game, in which they would play the music and everyone would dance, then when the music stopped, you were supposed to freeze. So one by one, the participants got disqualified.

Having dozens of kids jumping on the stage must be a problem for the engineer, anyway.. So with so many kids, it was taking too much time and eating into bed time, so the emcee decided to break them into 3 groups. Within each group, one person moves, whole group gets disqualified. It kind of reminded me of days in disciplinary group, one for all and all for one. Each is not only responsible for yourself, but also the person next to you, and the next. I mean, they are only less than 12 years old, do they have to go through that now? And another funny observation, those who got disqualified earlier, were crowding around the stage and pointing fingers at those still on the stage and who moved an inch. It was like those white terror era when neighbours tell on others and no one can trust anyone.

Screw the prize, now I have second thought on becoming a kid again.

web hosting rating

I realize that there are a lot of sites that do web host rating and reviews for web hosting services.

A few days ago I wrote about one, here is another one, Web Hosting Rating. It is quite similar to the previous one I talked about, they have ratings, rankings, awards, reviews. I compare the ranking list in both sites and interestingly they differ, not by much though. Even looking at the awards under each category, the choices are different. Maybe users can compare on their own and make their own choice.

When it comes to the individual review page, this site is quite detailed in the sense that they clearly and neatly list out the features of the particular web host. Everything is clear in a glance.

Now, I'm still undecided if I should get web hosting.

fan blowing ceremony

If you have watched the opening and closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, you might have noticed how straight (and weird) the flags flew. I suspect there were air outlets or leaf fans in the flag poles. Not some new toys, since I remember seeing the same phenomena during the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony. From the shape of the flag you can almost visualise the flow characteristic of the air flow. Kinda fake, I think the Apollo 11 crew did a better job on windless moon.

Recently I saw this USB powered flag that comes with fan and spotlight.


USA -USB from fi5e on Vimeo.
Toy for our next National Day?

rice experiment

Since I didn't go to campus today, so somehow I had to settle lunch myself. I don't really like to go downstairs and buy, nor was I in the mood to cook noodles, so I decided to cook rice. If you have experience cooking rice for one person, you will know that using the rice cooker isn't that ideal as you will end up getting rice crackers at the bottom. So I did a little experiment. Don't need sophisticated equipment such as nuclear powered rice cooker or such.

Take a container, add one cup of rice inside (depends on your appetite), add water until the water level is about 1cm above the rice (again, depends on your taste. Some men like to eat soft rice). Fill a pot with some water, put the container of rice inside, close the pot's lid, cook.

If you have a pot with transparent lid, you can see how the rice absorbs the water as the temperature increases. I'll leave the explanation to the material scientists or some thermodynamics guys with specific heat values, but after some half an hour or so, your rice is cooked!

Reminder: it's plain rice. Don't expect some magical taste from it.

bumpy times

Dunno why recently I keep bumping into old friends. JC friends, army friends, former colleagues, former projectmates, coursemates. Most of them I haven't seen for a long time, while others, can be a matter of weeks or months.

The first word seems to always be "AYE!" (not the acronym for Ayer Rajah Expressway), then we would start chatting on the spot. Or it could be a SMS that says "I'm behind you." The other day I was at a foodcourt and I bumped into my army friend. He's about my age and he already has a pretty wife and a cute daughter, makes me envy. Then another time I met my internship friend, who has graduated, inside the MRT train, and another one from the same group at the shopping centre. How coincidental can that be? Then other times I bump into coursemates at the canteen or corridor who are taking different modules, and we would chat up on school stuff, gossip about lecturers, bitch about profs...

Oh, there was once I was waiting for bus at the bus stop, and this guy stuck his face on the window (almost like kissing the glass that type). When I felt like he was looking at me, I realize that's my friend.

So have you bumped into any old friend recently?

web hosting rating

I realize that there are a lot of sites that do web host rating and reviews for web hosting services.

A few days ago I wrote about one, here is another one, Web Hosting Rating. It is quite similar to the previous one I talked about, they have ratings, rankings, awards, reviews. I compare the ranking list in both sites and interestingly they differ, not by much though. Even looking at the awards under each category, the choices are different. Maybe users can compare on their own and make their own choice.

When it comes to the individual review page, this site is quite detailed in the sense that they clearly and neatly list out the features of the particular web host. Everything is clear in a glance.

Now, I'm still undecided if I should get web hosting.

stupid bus service

This time round I really don't know how to write the complaint to SBS Transit. Their feedback form has a field for bus plate number. If the bus didn't come, where to find the number?

I waited 30 minutes for my bus. Not talking about donkey hours, it was peak hour 6pm. The bus stop I was at has 3 route services. I watched dozen other buses come and go and still no sight of the one that I was taking. Don't give me the nonsense about "road condition". The bus stop I was at, is the second stop along the route, right after the starting bus terminal. And when the bus finally came, by the 3rd stop it was already packed to the lowest step at the entrance.

What's this? First day running bus company? Don't you have forecast? Don't you have process planning? Or you guys are busy counting coins?

On the contrary, SMRT never fails to surprise me. With their weird frequency, I didn't expect a bus to come, but a bus came.

I really wonder does the Land Transport Authority review the quality of bus services regularly? It's time to reconsider the operating rights of some routes.

solidworks innovation day 2008

SolidWorks lovers, this is an event that you won't want to miss:


SolidWorks Innovation Day 2008

17/10/2008
13:00 to 17:00
Merchant Court Ballroom Level 1

Swissotel Merchant Court
20 Merchant Road
Singapore 058281

They will be talking about SolidWorks 2009 and COSMOS 2009, and some presentation from the customers. Too bad I have lesson during that slot, can't go.

Find out more and register here.

EDIT: I realize this month is September. I thought it's October already

chillycraps on mypaper

Out of the most random of some quantum weirdness, I appeared on Tuesday's mypaper.


So now my face is in the dustbins all over the country.
Ding dong, next station, landfill.

pressure vs performance

There was once I saw an article in the magazine talking about the relationship between pressure and performance. It says that you get optimum (or peak) performance when you are under a certain level of pressure. When pressure gets too high, performance drops. When perssure is zero, performance drops.

I think it makes sense. I mean, I have personally experienced it.

I came from a secondary school where tests were every week business, and failing a test is a normal thing (cos the standard was set too high). Everyone studied hard cos every class pitted against one another and the class's rank was displayed during weekly assembly. On a macro scale, you don't even need 5 fingers to show my school's national ranking. There was pressure, no doubt.

Then I went to junior college. It is a neighbourhood JC. If I was a blown-up balloon during secondary school, then someone was letting out the air during JC. I began to slack, and didn't do tutorials (which is a bad habit I carry with me to university :P) I failed my preliminary exam.

And now I'm in university. No one will force you to hand in homework, no one will take attendance for lecture. You can guess where I stand in the graph. Hohoho.

Lesson? Watch the gauge, maintain the pressure.

*p.s: my prof just pumped me some pressure. He wants to meet me for FYP updates*

your blog is your resume

The other day I was having a cool conversation with fellow blogger Walter, who mentioned something about people offering jobs by looking at your blog and not your resume. Then my friend Alex also told me about some financial firm contacting him after reading his blog.

Come to think of it, your blog can be the key to your career path.

Of course, you need contents. Insightful views, points, words that portrait your qualities that the organizations are looking for. It is like scientists or scholars publishing research papers, or designers showcasing their portfolio.

Writing chillycrappy contents won't land you anywhere, especially when you bitch a lot, rant a lot, or keep providing the wrong engineering formulas. Oh well, the ministries did look for me. That's a different story though.

(photo courtesy of dk)

mooncake engineering

This coming Sunday is Mid Autumn Festival. Have you gotten the mooncakes yet?
Come to think of it, the mooncake making process is pretty much mechanical. You have a mold, with the whatever desired shape and engraving. You jam the required flour and paste and egg yoke inside, then you stamp the part out. It's a net-shape manufacturing process, so you don't need milling or lathe machine for it. Automation has come into play in recent years with mass production, so I wonder how many mooncakes are still handmade with those wooden molds.

I think I saw one such mooncake making machine in google.

web hosting geeks

Be it for your blog or your online shop, have you had a hard time looking for a good webhosting? I had that before. I was thinking of hosting my blog and try out other platforms, and man I couldn't quite decide. You look at their price plan, what server they are running, etc etc. Being low on budget, I didn't want to make the wrong move and be stuck.

So there is this site called Web Hosting Geeks, which provides reviews and rankings for various web hosting services. They have different categories such as budget, email, e-commerce, and they state down the different features of the hosting services. Quite detailed in my opinion.

Still, the list is so detailed, it's hard to make a choice :P

went climbing

Went climbing this morning with Alex, who overslept and pia cab down to the wall. I want to feel pissed also cannot.

Somehow the place was quite empty this morning, when Sunday is supposed to be peak period at the wall. There were like only 2 groups there, so we were pretty much free to choose which lane to climb. If you have the strength, that is.

It has been a while since I last climbed, but I did enjoy today's climb. Did crazy things like doing a super duper high step until the butt can get cramp, and I was trying to grab the wall contour with my fingers when I slipped and fell 3 panels down, then dunno why I couldn't stop laughing hysterically.

And I am still the lighter end of the belay system.

(oh, I was just pulling up my pants in the males toilet/changing room when a girl popped in. ARgh!)

outrage of modesty

A few days ago I received this email from the University:

Dear Students

SECURITY ADVISORY – OUTRAGE OF MODESTY

An outrage of modesty of a student in NUS reported on 2 September 2008. The incident occurred when the student was travelling on an internal shuttle bus in Kent Ridge Campus. The culprit is described as follows:

-Between 25 and 30 years old
-About 1.70 m tall
-Medium built with fair complexion
-Short, straight black hair
-Was last seen wearing a plain white polo T-shirt and blue jeans, and
-Carrying some books.

The alleged molester was last seen taking the lift to Level 4 at Central Library Building after alighting at the Central Library bus stop around 1.50 pm on 2 September. Campus Security would like to seek the assistance of anyone who witnessed the incident. Please contact us directly at DID: 6874 1616.

We would like to advise students and staff to take note of the following preventive measures for use both on and off campus:

a. Always be alert and attentive to the surroundings. If you suspect that you are being followed, remain calm and proceed to the nearest crowded area. Call Campus Security or the Police to seek help

b. Avoid travelling alone at night. If you need to go out at night, arrange to go in a group

c. Sit close to the aisle when using public transport

d. Remain alert, do not nap or sleep while travelling on public transport

e. Alert other passengers or seek help from the driver if someone is making you uncomfortable or touching you inappropriately

f. If your assailant is armed, do not try to resist as this might provoke the assailant further. Be calm and try to remember any distinct features of the assailant

You are strongly encouraged to report strangers who behave suspiciously to Campus Security at 6874 1616 or the Police at 999

I was at the computer cluster and heard many people pointing at one another saying they match the molester's description. Ok, NUS students are so vigilant.

But wait, don't you think that some detail is missing? Is the molester a male or female? I don't see any he/she/it in the email. Hmm... Like that how to catch? Ok, maybe the gender is a tough question nowadays, since some girls have short hair and some guys have long hair.

As for the security advice, I can't really agree with point c and d. If everyone sits close to the aisle, then who will sit inside?

singapore blog awards ceremony

Just came back from the Singapore Blog Awards Ceremony and man it was fun!

Ok ok, I shall stop acting blur, since you guys will want to know who are the winners. Here goes~ Don't bother doing a Ctrl+F+chillycraps.

Congratulation to all the winners!
Was very happy to meet up with my blogger friends (although most of them I meet like quite regularly) and also meeting new friends. I think our group was the loudest and maddest in the whole function room (doesn't mean loudest voice wins). Oh I think it is also the first time they see me NOT in my T-shirt and berms and sandals. Rare...

Other than standing one night (which is not the same as one night stand), the event was cool.

And a shout out to my beloved readers, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!

face your manga

A while ago I was tagged by fara but the site was down. So now here it is~


Picture 1: the classic WTF face of mine. Usually only happens during project meetings, but no guarantee it won't happen elsewhere.

Picture 2: I don't wear my glasses when I sleep. A *nice* dream can make me grin though.

Picture 3: aha, the desperate guy sees a cute girl in campus! No action taken.

Want to join in the fun? Let me know and I will link you back here~

orly in lecture theatre

This is one observation I made during lectures.

There are some students, when they come in late from the front door of the crowded lecture theatre, first thing they do is not finding an empty seat, but rather, look at the projector screen. And as they proceed up the steps, their head remains glued to the screen. Had they been an owl, I can imagine a 180 degrees turned head. And the way they move past other students into empty seat, is better than the horses in the Olympics equestrian event. I mean c'mon, they can cross obstacles without looking!

Rather than staying glued to the screen, why don't they hurry into an empty seat and not block (and distract) others in the process of walking in?

the dreamliner man

I just want to share with you an article in The Seattle Times on Boeing 787 Dreamliner's programe head, Pat Shanahan. I really like his way of putting it that the shopfloor people are the ones "doing the work that pays your salaries".

So engineers, have you stepped out of your air-conditioned office and visited the shopfloor today?

airplane seats hack

I'm not talking about hacking the airplane's inflight entertainment system (or the navigation instrument), but something more mechanical. No, not the engines.

Saw this video about jamming the seat in front using a zip tie. Nothing complicated.


How To Keep Motherfu#%s From Putting Their Seats Back from fi5e on Vimeo.
Two short comings I can think of is, you can't use the tray table, and what if both seats in front recline?

Hardcore budget airlines travelers, you can try using cable tie. Ok, it doesn't sound too right.

ink sucker

Some of the lecturers like to distribute their lecture notes in PDF format.

So I was printing my notes with my Canon iP1000. Happily at the end of 100 slides (6 on 1 page), my relatively new ink cartridge was empty. -_________-

Other than blaming myself for not printing the notes with the campus' laser printers, I wonder why does my lecturer use black for all the slides' background, and why must he save it in PDF format. If you are not aware, PowerPoint slides in ppt format can be printed with the background and text colour automatically adjusted to the-other-black-and-white. Adobe Reader just doesn't give this freedom.

Yes, my lecturer presents his slides using MS PowerPoint during lecture, but goes through the trouble to convert them into PDF format. Why? To prevent infringement of his intellectual properties? I have no idea. He's not my first lecturer to do this, but is the first lecturer to give us black slides. I have had other lecturers who do the extra work of distributing printer-friendly version of the slides/notes though.

Have notes still complain. Try hand copying everything.

vulgar quote of the day

Wednesday, 2:30pm, gum lan.

There is a cafe in the faculty called Olive Cove, which has somewhat become our project group's meeting place. One groupmate asked what is olive, another replied "橄榄", which is the Chinese word for olive.

橄榄 is pronounced as gan3 lan3 in Mandarin.

Then the groupmate asked what is gum lan.

gone workshopping

Was at the Singapore Science Centre's Digital Design Studio helping out in a workshop.

"Start your own podcast!" was a workshop organised by A*STAR, Science Centre and Tech65 as part of science.08. I mean, who is a better candidate to teach podcasting than the very people who do podcast every week? Ok I am not a podcast person (I procrastinate though), and I'm guilty as hell that today was my first time playing with iTunes. And I was a helper at a podcasting workshop. Great. "chillycraps, the toilet is clogged!"

But through this workshop (and the pre-workshop prep I did) I have learned quite a bit about podcast. Things like recording your own podcast using Audacity, looking for interesting podcast on iTunes and ZENcast...

And it was heartening to see the participants constantly taking down notes on what was being taught. Want some notes too?