2 eyes better : fujifilm finepix real 3d w1

Nowadays we hear a lot about 3D. 3D movies in cinemas, 3D televisions from different brands in the shop, you don't even need to wear 3D goggles with newer models of 3D TVs. How about 3D camera? That's less common.

Some time back I got the chance to put my trigger-happy fingers on one: the Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1. (ok that's a mouthful). Coincidentally Vol 25 of the otona no kagaku (大人の科学) ran an article on it. The W1 doesn't resemble a digital camera at all, more like those portable media player. But when you slide that cover down and reveal those 2 lenses, you know it isn't a simple toy. Not to be confused with a twin lens reflex camera (of which I own one), the 2 lenses on the W1 allow it to capture a view from 2 different angles. With the help of the 3D LCD monitor, your left eye, your right eye, and your brain, you get a 3D picture floating in front of you.

Of course, I can't show you the effect with this 2D blog of mine (try crossing your eyes. Better don't), but with 3D digital viewer and 3D printing (again, not to be confused with rapid prototyping), you can see the 3D effect without wearing goggles or crossing eyes or any funny action.

There is a newer and lighter version the W3. Wonder when will 3D camera penetrate the masses like how digital camera did.

quote of the day

trainer: at my block the CCTV camera is outside the lift.
trainee: Maybe your area the people pee outside the lift.

on display

The photograph I took with my twin lens reflex camera was on display at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Can you see the Singapore flags in the photo?

You can view the previous time a photo I took was on display at Musée de l'Elysée or you can view my other photos at my photoblog.

problem solving with brute force

I was travelling in the lift with the girlfriend. When we reached the destination floor the door opened a few centimetres and stopped there. Me being me, tried to troubleshoot by pressing the door open and door close buttons, no response. Pressed the floor button, no response.

Then the girlfriend gave the door a good kick. It opened.

So who says brute force can't solve problem?

As my old grandmother used to say, 'Anything mechanical, give it a good bash.'
-- Commander Colin Maud
The Longest Day

life innovation by japan's robot technologies

Went to see the Life Innovation by Japan's Robot Technologies at Japan Creative Centre.

If you are expecting to see Gundam or Mazinger Z, you are on the wrong frequency. Co-organized by top Japanese companies and research institutions, the exhibition showcases some of their projects on robots and their possible integration in our daily life. I was quite intrigued by the PaPeRo from NEC. It is a prototype personal robot that can communicate with human beings. For example, when I tell it to dance, it will do a few dance steps. If I greet it, it will greet me back. If you tickle it it will itch. According to the exhibitor, you can programme the PaPeRo to monitor your kid, play with them, do task, etc, so it can act as a babysitter if not a playmate for children.




The exhibits from other companies seem interesting too, but I didn't have the chance to learn more about them. The exhibition is on until 8 October 2010. I think kids will like some of the cute robots there.

market garden in the workplace

When I started work at my current company, I found myself in this situation: I have 6 men officially under my charge, all of them older than me (the youngest is older than me by 8 years) and all of them more experienced than me.

I describe myself as being air-dropped into the zone. It is a tricky situation. Like it or not, it is natural that some people will think they have been to university and acting almighty, while on the other end of the spectrum, some people will think that they have seen enough storms and weather to sail the ship without the captain. The former being a yaya papaya and trying to pull rank is an instant turn-off, while the latter is more understandable and accepted norm.

I constantly remind myself to be sensitive in such delicate balancing act. I have to rely on the coworkers' support in simple things like locating an old case file or simpler things like what is the photocopier's password. On my end I do itch about improving work process, like just the other day I used a line of equation in a spreadsheet to save up a few days of their manual work. I also try to empower them, give them task ownership and the deserved credit and recognition for their work while I just "advice" and "assist". I share information. I just feel that when I help them, I am helping them to help me.

I am still learning this art, and hopefully I can make it a better working experience.

world carfree day

Today is World Carfree Day. On this day, motorists are encouraged to put aside their cars and take public transport.

I've always been a supporter of public transport (cos I don't drive, I can't drive, and I can't afford a car. That's besides the point). But if we decrease the number of cars on road, where do the people go? Public transport. Can our public transport support? That's a good question. There were times when I board the train at the very first station and I couldn't find a seat.

When we tell people to give up something, we must make sure the alternatives are ready to take on. Of course, that is subjective. Our Mr Goh waited as long as one hour for bus. Last time policemen wore shorts.

quote of the day

colleague: what is PE?
me: polyethylene.

Professional Engineer lah, duh! And he calls himself a professional...

please grow some personality

Ok I can't take it anymore and have to bitch about someone. This kind of post has been missing from here for a while.

I have this colleague at work who joined our company one week later than me. He just graduated from the other university with a second upper honours (wow. He made no effort in hiding it. He announced that he has a 2nd upper in a self-introduction on his first day of work) in another field of engineering.

I thought since we joined the company around the same time, we can figure the rope together. I was wrong.

He began to be irritating. He said he hasn't seen my self-intro writeup and wanted to see it, which obviously he hasn't since I joined earlier than him. So I told him to try asking for the CEO's self-intro. He is thankless when I share work info with him, and he sends email via the work account for the most trivial of things such as who was the one calling me on my office phone. Fine, fresh grad.

He seems to have no idea of his own. On many occasions during lunch he would follow me everywhere I go in the hawker centre or food court, as if he is my humble servant ready to take my tray of food. Then once when the other colleagues went to buy lottery, he also blindly followed their heels into the shop only to realize it is a lottery booth. As if that is not irritating enough, in the conference room his imitating skills continue. When I lean forward he also leans forward. When I lean back into the chair he does likewise. His response time is always within 2 seconds, you call that coincidence! Then lately he has been adding colleagues on Facebook, he also has been adding whatever apps that I have on Facebook (thanks timestamp for verifying my claim). Talk about having a personality! Is he insecure or what?

If you look at his profile it is very impressive (until you can't believe the real person is like that). 2nd upper honours, chairman of this, chairman of that, internship with MNC, calls himself a motivated professional.

I thought I am the only petty one, but apparently I am not the only one in the office who has similar opinion.

Now I need to find ways to purge my psychological instability.

soap box derby at singapore g1

Went to watch the inaugural Singapore G1 at The Float @ Marina Bay. Organized by the Singapore Environment Council, this Green Grand Prix aims to encourage the development and use of green technologies in transportation in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. The interesting thing is, the F1 (the REAL Formula 1) is happening one week later on the same track as the G1.

I was there specifically for the Soap Box Derby. It has been running in the United States since 1934 and now it's making its Asian debut in Singapore. Ok, basically you pull the soap box car up a platform, sit inside, and gravity will take care of the rest down the ramp. I'm not sure how much engineering principles have been put into it by the teams, (ie aerodynamics), but I did see lots of WD-40 cans. Engineering education starts young! :)

There were 30 schools participating, each having to assemble and decorate (aka, zhng) their soap box race car. At first I thought the teams were racing the cars in their original livery as seen in the webpage, but I was pleasantly surprised to see substantiate decorating of the cars by every team. It was also heartening to see the cheerleading teams supporting their school. The race itself is already meaningful in sort-of starting engineering education young in secondary school, it also helps foster the school spirit. The organizer has been very thoughtful in providing NEWater to spectators as well.

Click on photo to enlarge.






Let's hope the G1 will be a regular thingy.

success through failure

I recently finished reading the book Success through Failure by Henry Petroski. Judging from the title, you can guess that Petroski talks about building success on failures, from the design and engineering arena that is.

He first talks about the evolution from Plato's Cave to PowerPoint slides that we are so familiar with today. He next talks about bigger scale things such as the space shuttle programme, tall buildings and the evolution of bridges. Somehow I feel that some of the stories do not fit well into the "success through failure" theme. For example, do we really classify Carousel slide projector as a failure? Personally I won't, but more like an improvement to PowerPoint slides. I guess due to Petroski's background in civil engineering, he has allocated more attention into the portions for tall buildings and bridges, which he generally writes better in.

There are many familiar case studies popping up, such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Citicorp Center and Columbia Space Shuttle. He also mentions the more recent collapse of World Trade Center Twin Towers. In the book I found out many things that I didn't know of before, such as actually some buildings were tested against the crash of airliner, but not really the resulting fire. There is also this 30-year pattern of bridge collapsing, something to do with generation shift of engineers. Fingers crossed.

While the chaptering can be a little confusing and disorganized, I do agree with his point that we should build on failure and not totally on past successes. Just like in school, it is better to fail early in the internal tests than to fail in the national exam.

no aircon cannot move

I recently encountered two occasions when the bus's aircon broke down. The most recent one happened yesterday.

I boarded this double-decker bus at Braddell towards Serangoon. The moment I was on the bus I could feel the trapped heat inside. So I went to the upper deck hoping that things would be better, and indeed it was cooler upstairs. As the bus moved along, a lady from the lower deck complained to the driver about the broken down aircon. So the driver stopped and checked. He came upstairs and asked if the aircon was fine, and everyone upstairs said it was fine. The driver went back down, and continued driving. In the meantime he contacted the control centre about the issue. A few minutes later he stopped the bus, came up and asked if we want to switch to another bus, but everyone upstairs was alright and urged the driver to drive on. Some passengers commented that the frequency for this bus service is quite long, and it was just a bit more to the nearest MRT station where most people would be alighting. The driver drove on for a few minutes before stopping again, announcing to the whole busload that the control centre wanted everyone to switch to another bus behind. Grumble grumble.

I don't understand, if the passengers can bear with it, why can't someone in the control centre miles away bear with it? This is not like encouraging suicide. Anyway there were enough seats upstairs to accommodate those on the lower deck to come up.

That brings to another point. Are we seeing less and less non-aircon buses on the streets? I personally don't mind non-aircon and in fact prefer natural ventilation and cheaper fare. Nothing beats the feeling of sticking your elbow onto the railing and enjoying the cool wind blowing at your face, not that pair of aircon nozzles that resemble testicles.

Seriously nowadays our buses are powered by aircon.

alarm for tea break

It was about 3pm. Halfway through the lesson, the trainer's handphone rang.

"Hello?" He picked it up. He didn't say another word into the phone. He promptly hung up, and said to the class, "Tea break."

Apparently his colleague called and jio him for tea break.

I ain't complaining.

wall street: money never sleeps

"Money is a bitch that never sleeps" says Gordon Gekko.

Went to catch the premiere of the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps at The Cathay yesterday.

Directed by Oliver Stone and starring Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf, the movie is a sequel to the movie Wall Street of 1987. Ok, I haven't caught the 1987 version, so I'm not sure how much am I missing. The 2010 version revolves around the 2008 financial crisis and how the main characters play the money game on Wall Street. Gekko wants to get back to his daughter, while Jacob Moore wants revenge on the guy who caused his mentor's death. And so, the 2 traded.

If you've missed the first movie (which was some 23 years ago), you'll probably be clueless about the legendary image of Gordon Gekko. Oh I read somewhere that many people went to become traders after watching the first movie. The movie is definitely an adult movie, not saying it has sex scenes (in fact, nil), but the topic is dead serious, albeit there are snippets of humourous moments. If you love money and enjoy watching the stock market going up and down, you should be able to connect with the film. If not, it feels draggy and you wonder how can they bring down a company overnight. At 133 minutes, the movie IS long. I do find the linkages weak between the relationship thingie and the main theme of the movie, and thus it doesn't seem to fit well. The climax isn't obvious, and the surprises don't wow the audience. However some may like the way the Wall Street game is being played on screen.

If I can get hold of the 1987 Wall Street and compare the 2...

Thanks omy for the invite!

zero energy building

Some time back I visited the Zero Energy Building @ BCA Academy.

Environmental friendly buildings that boast low emission, low carbon footprint and sustainable designs are getting more and more common, but what makes the ZEB @ BCA Academy special is that it is the first of its kind in South-east Asia to be retrofitted from an existing building, a 3-storey former workshop to be precise. The significance of this is that it demonstrates that existing buildings can turn environmental friendly without, well, pulling it down.



From the exterior, there are plants planted vertically on the walls to shade from the sun and also to lower the indoor temperature. I would say that the plants are not easy to maintain, cos I've seen some projects elsewhere with dead plants on similar wall fixtures. The roof is extensively covered with solar panels for power generation. With photovoltic cells getting cheaper than before, I would say they will become more easily available and used more extensively. However... just look at the gloomy sky in the photo.

In the top right photo, do you see those red chimneys? Those are solar chimneys that suck warm air out from the indoor and create a convection current for ventilation and cooling. In the bottom right photo, between 1st and 2nd floor there are fixtures that resemble flue from restaurant. Those are in fact mirror ducts that bring sunlight indoor by reflection.

Now come to the bottom left photo. Those are not sound speakers from the computer but rather, personalized ventilation system. I was actually involved in its development back in university, so to see it in its developed form, does feel good :). To put it simply, it is an aircon outlet that you can adjust its flow like how you adjust your speaker's volume.

If you have the chance, do visit the ZEB to see how buildings can be greener.

what the fork

Today a few colleagues and I went to this hawker centre for lunch. This colleague bought his food from the soup stall, but think he forgot to take the fork. So he went to the nearer chicken rice stall, which is right next to the soup stall, and took a fork from there. Just as he was about to settle down back at the seat, the auntie from the chicken rice stall screamed after him. "HARLO HARLO!! (blah blah blah)" Think she was babbling something to the degree of "you cannot take the fork from here if you didn't buy from us" Everyone from the long queue at the chicken rice stall looked at the scene.

The colleague went back to return the fork. He seemed quite affected. The sight of the chopping knife didn't help at all.

From the point of view of the customer, if you have bought your food from some faraway stall and you forgot or picked the wrong cutlery, it is not unlikely that you pick up a new set at the nearest stall instead of going all the way back to the stall where you bought from. However from the position of the stall owner, especially in hawker centre where they don't pool their cutlery and utensils and have to buy and wash their own, it doesn't make sense to provide you a service that you didn't pay for.

Had my colleague put the fork in his mouth, problem solved.

crossfire on bus

The design of the front entrance of our public buses is such that there are 2 card readers, one on the left and one on the right, for passengers to tap their card when boarding the bus. Some buses even have a hand rail in the middle of the entrance dividing it into 2 lanes.

Some funny people, when they are clearly on the left side, like to cut into the right lane when your foot is already up on the bus, and tap the card on the card reader on the right, even when the left lane is empty. I have no idea what is their rationale, maybe they've watched too much Formula One racing in which the leading driver prevents the one behind from overtaking. Or, they just don't want the bus driver to see the card reader's display when they tap their card.

Have that been in a live firing range, those people would have had their asses shot up for crossing lane.

There is no rule saying you can't cut into other people's lane, and you don't get fined for that (yet), but it's just irritating. By the way, today I just saw someone who squeezed to be the first to board the bus, only to ask the driver for direction and jammed up the long queue behind.

national engineers day 2010

Went to take a look at the National Engineers Day event at *SCAPE. Organised by the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES), the National Engineers Day aims to promote engineering to students.

On display are some of the engineering projects and innovations from both local and oversea companies. Also there are local tertiary institutions' project work. To be honest, when I was an engineering undergrad I had never taken part in any of those projects, but that doesn't mean you can't if you are enrolled, and I must say there are other projects that are no less exciting than those on display at the event. The universities and polytechnics have also set up booths there ready to attend to any enquiries pertaining to engineering courses. While their webpages provide a lot of information on the courses, I do think that it is beneficial to find out more face to face and clarify, especially for students who are preparing for their "O" Level and planning their path. Some of the newer players like Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) are there too.




I would say the objective of the event is meaningful, especially in grooming the future generation of engineers for Singapore to take on the torch. However I do find the location a little weird. The venue seems to pose some limitation to the layout, and as such, it doesn't feel very comfortable walking through the exhibits. Maybe they can do it similar to Singapore Science Festival at a shopping mall where there is more open space and more human traffic flow.

The exhibition at *SCAPE will be on until 7 September.

gundam fiesta 2010

Went to the Gundam Fiesta 2010 held at Compass Point. There is simply no excuse for a Gundam fan not to check it out.

Other than the same old Gunpla booth, this year's Gundam Fiesta feels quite different from last year's. For a change there's a giant RX-78-2's open palm on the stage, although I would prefer Zaku's head anytime. Of course, the big Unicorn wasn't there last year. I kind of prefer last year's as it was really like an exhibition showcasing the history and storylines of Gundam, whereas this year, there are just Bandai kits on display stand and only a few dioramas. Maybe cos this year isn't 30th Anniversary.







It feels like the emphasis is on the model kit. Afterall, they earn when people buy the kits. I guess it is more for the model kit enthusiasts but not so much for the Gundam story fans like me.