Monkey See Monkey Do

Bean's Busty Beach Babes Reloaded

2007-04-13T23:34:00.000+08:00

Wow 15 hits yesterday. If I promote this on ping.sg and I can almost hear the google adcents piling up. Ka-chink! Now if only I actually had google ads.

Inspired by the runaway success, I hereby present Bean's Busty Beach Babes Reloaded. Enjoy!

Bean's Sentosa Babes Reloaded

For those who persevered

2007-03-26T01:22:00.000+08:00

I present: Bean's best of sentosa siloso beach babes 25 Mar '07. Dedicated to all the lifeguards who were on duty. Enjoy!

Bean's Best of Siloso Beach Babes

WTF?!?!?!?

2006-05-03T17:51:00.000+08:00

It's amazing what a wikipedia entry on a heartland estate in this country can turn up.

Regarding the contest over Cheng San GRC in the 1997 GE:

The vote was deemed too close to call such that the PAP thought it necessary for ministers to visit the polling stations on voting day. The opposition later charged that the PAP had violated the law which prohibits politicians from being in the vicinity of a polling station but the Attorney-General found no impropriety on the part of the ministers as the law only prohibits politicians from the vicinity of the polling station but not in the polling station itself.

ただいま (revised)

2006-04-09T14:55:00.000+08:00

お久しぶり。Long time no blog.

Japan. Finally got a chance to visit. And whet my appetite for more.

First impressions.. Japanese seem humble yet proud. Proud of their language, country, culture. Even using their own year numbering system (based on the reign of emperors) for a notice at the airport. Yet humble to one another, even to stranger gaijins. Parts of it were as neat and tidy as their disneyland, not a single leaf out of place, even more extreme than Singapore.

Attack of the kawaiis. Somehow all products have cute line-drawn mascots. Even the inflight video (which very gently informed passengers of dos and don'ts) was an animated comic drawn on lined paper. Akihabara (秋葉原) was full of girls in maid costumes.

Mount Fuji. TV or poetic descriptions pale in comparison to the real thing. But we were freezing inside the bus as we rode up to the 5th station (9 stations in all, only lower 5 accessible by car).

Sakura. A little disappointed? Somehow the colour is not as brightly pink as it appears in photos, but a more subtle shade of pink.

Crazy transport costs. At every highway toll station or carpark, the bus had to pay like $30-50 worth of fees. It cost SGD 2000+ in toll charges to drive from Osaka to Tokyo. A 1-hour taxi ride will set you back about $500, and I don't mean yen. Shinkansen costs $25 for 1 short stop.

Shinkansen. AWESOME! Tried to take a photograph of a passing train but was blown away. When I recovered from shock, the train was gone. There was a smart girl who took a video of it though. Top speed: 300 km/h

Flight there was very eventful. Someone fainted on board, but apparently there wasn't a single doctor on board, in spite of the stewardesses' pleas for help. And still a couple of hours before touchdown. Hope that guy was ok.

Ramen. Only had a chance to try out a couple of shops. The one near my hotel was pretty decent, but the one at the airport wasn't too great. Abit disappointing, I think even Ichibantei in Singapore can easily beat those 2. Oh well, better luck next time.

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹). Picked up Kafka on the Shore at Narita. Am currently hooked on it. At this rate when I finish it I think I'll pick up the original Japanese edition as well. Or maybe the untranslated edition of his new novel, After Dark.

Regrets.. no time to visit Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, back alleys of Akihabara (where bleeding-edge stuff like invisible cameras and other prototypical tech resides), Ginza, Sony tower. But perhaps graduate studies there will fix that.

And wow so many things I missed this last week.. Apple allowing users to dualboot windoze, Anthony Leggett visiting NUS, and OMG the Big Red cannon sitting in front Fleming House (the house I was in) at Caltech was swiped by some MIT kids pretending to be "Howe & Ser Moving Company" and transported all the way to the East Coast?! "Howe & Ser Moving Co. is an accomplished national moving firm known for its excellent customer service. It has been described as, "assertive, low-key, and really willing to go the extra 3,000 miles to ensure a bang-up job." I guess they finally started to get a little upset about the "MIT" T-shirts that Caltech people were distributing at MIT's Campus Preview last year.

Disturbing 9/11 documentary

2006-02-07T12:39:00.000+08:00

Or is this old news? Click on more videos for more.

What is the meaning of life?

2006-02-05T15:48:00.000+08:00

Not feeling suicidal or anything, but recent events have set me thinking about what it's all about. Is it about learning physics? Or aiming to become a 20 kilobucks/month tenured full professor (ie. my boss)? Is it becoming another cog in the wheel? In particular, a cog in the homo economical system of singapore? Or perhaps getting married and give unborn kids the gift of life so that they too can ponder this point? Or end up as cogs as well? Or what?

Please, feel free to leave your take on this.

pari

2006-01-20T17:15:00.000+08:00

versailles
triomphe

Airline recommendations anyone?

2005-12-27T00:12:00.000+08:00

Wee Kang is not supported under Temasek Proj but he is a bright person and he is working with Berge on some cryptographic projects. I believe the money will be well spent since he is a Singaporean and as part of our mission, we need to promote a local pool of talents.

Ahh, nothing like being on the receiving end of some affirmative loving action. The only other singaporean in the lab speaking out for me. Almost makes me wanna cry.

Oh I'm going for this quantum information processing workshop in paris from 16 to 20 Jan, in case anyone's interested. Soap wanna chill? We could freeze our butts off together. Should be snowy n nice rite?

Anyway, so I'll need to book some plane tickets. Anyone got any recs? Not SIA cos Singapore Airlines service and attitude towards singaporeans sux. They have negative action towards singaporeans. And the legroom in economy is horrible. I was thinking Air France but legroom doesn't seem so much better. Scandinavia's "economy extra" has extra good legroom but comes with a price. Not sure if they'll sponsor that. The grant is so cheapskate, I get $60 a day. That's about $30 Euros. And I gotta look for a hotel below $200 a nite, which is a little challenging. My beloved fatty got so much more $$$ (340 per day) for going to jerusalem. But i guess it's more dangerous there. Then again paris also got riots also these days. Like ms JY says, so much for european utopia soap.

Oh and K. Eric Drexler will be giving a talk in NUS on Jan 12 (confirmed). He was a populariser of nanotechnology. Did anyone actually read Engines of Creation? He really influenced Diamond Age and Singularity Sky. Anyway I read an article saying he was broken and broke after getting shot down by nobel laureate Rice (of buckyball fame) and having his agenda twisted by chemists for their own ends. But it's amazing NUS actually got him to come over. Is he alive again? Or maybe NUS just has low standards. I'll go find out.

OMG I'm done

2005-12-18T17:48:00.000+08:00

Berkeley & MIT, here i cum.. I hope. And I can't believe u applied 2 so many zillion places leecongee. Same to you quandric. Hats off to the 2 of you. 2 was painful enough 4 me. Stopped at 2, dun need the gahmen to tell me 2. And it's must be even more painful 4 u quandric, seeing all your effort gone to waste.

And soap when r u finishing your masters? Cum n join me n gideon at MIT lah. If I get in. Even sihui is there. It will be just like old times :D. We can hop over to Boston U to hear Shelly Glashow talk about how proud he is of that fact that BU is a no-string-theorist-zone. Pride man. Just like how LKY must be feeling about communists in Singapore now that u're gone.

R comes after P. Yes, I mean ~~restecp~~. No ~~respcet~~. Argh u know what I mean. Respcet. Gotta give me some d00d. Yes I mean you Soap and Ms JY. After all, I'm living w/o sex. Or perhaps you/others would call it "living". But Singapore is such a fine country, there is no difference between living and "living", lah. Fug I'm getting into the silly annoying angmoh habit of putting a comma before the lahs, lah. Argh n0000000 st0pit they're destroying our way of life, lah. Err I mean "life". Ford save us please, lah.

OK time for some seditious comments b4 I sign off. No disrespec to the gals but u're rite soap I must agreed that I haven't really been impressed by that many chicks in physics. I mean there was this pretty not bad one from amsterdam who came to visit but her research ain't that impressive IMHO. But I must say she strongly impressed upon me her refusal to wear interior frontal support. She's a hacker, though mostly *BSD. I guess chix either have no aptitude or interest in physics or neither.

Oh yah and Singularity Sky is awesome. And Fire upon the Deep. The good thing about becoming Algernon/Charlie Gordon is that one can appreciate good stuff over and over again. And so is Kubuntu Dapper Drake 2nd Preview. Even Anansi Boys and Elements of Information Theory are good. I must be in a generous mood.

Full Sedition Ahead

2005-11-18T22:58:00.000+08:00

Hah. Those silly ang mohs from Quantumlahlahland. They're so weak. Ok lah, u gotta give them credit. They can sometimes use their 'lah's in the correct places. But give them durian and they still run away. Almost everyone complained that my durian sweets stank up the lab. In the end only the singaporean prof appreciated them, so i gave the whole pack to him.

And those Indians. When it comes to a row between Pakistan and the Brits, they would rather root for the Pakis. It is amazing. And I thought they're like on the brink of nuking each other. One Indian explained it as them uniting against their former colonial master. How many of us sgers would side with the Malaysians in a standoff between them and the Brits?

And it is sad. I hear that these days the science olympiad teams in JC r made up of PRC PRs and such. What's the point of getting medals like that? Where's our pride? Just like badminton and ping pong. Sigh. In my time we p0wn3d the PRC team with pure singaporean blood, at least for chem olympiad. We made them cry.

Ok better end off with a couple of less seditious comments. Or maybe not. Seems like Paul Erdos, that famous mathematician who all other mathematicans r proud 2 be connected to (ie. have a low degree of separation a la friendster, except links are not between friends, but between pple who have authored papers together), was a regular meta-amphetamine user. OMG. Performance-enhanced theorems. But apparently he was not hooked. He made a bet that he could stay off it for 1 month, and he collected. But he is said to have told the other guy, "You've set mathematics back for a month!"

Paul Dirac, the guy who came up the idea of positrons, thought that physical 'constants' could change in time. And some 80 years later, there's tantalizing evidence to suggest that his claims may not be that far off. If so this would rule out some string theories. Which is great news. [I hope it rules out most if not all string theories, they're more like religion than science as they cannot predict anything. Or rather, they can 'predict' anything.]

Are we in the Age of Failed Dreams?

2005-11-14T22:25:00.000+08:00

Inspired to make these lists after re-reading Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. I almost forgot what an incredibly awesome book it is. Ranks right up there next to the likes of Dune. And I realized I need to get my hands on the Vinge collection, and also reread A Fire Upon the Deep. Hopefully will write a review later. He is an amazing guy, a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence at San Diego State university and a multiple hugo award-winning author. Mini-spoiler: the humans in the story have been crawling around their neighbourhood of the galaxy at a paltry 0.3c. They think they know what cannot be achieved (faster than light travel, antigravity, immortality, aliens within visiting distance). But, like the reader, they're in for a big surprise.

Anyway here are my lists. Things that are sometimes reported in Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, Discover, Popular Science etc. But never seem to come of age. Are they failed dreams? Time will tell.

Physical impossibilities?

Time travel to the past (would violate causality - make effect precede cause)
Faster than light travel (In Eintein's framework of relativity would lead to time travel)
Fundamental limits of computation (amongst others) erasure of a bit of information always leads to dissipation of kT ln(2) of heat. Computation will always cause the processor to heat up, thus putting a limit on the amount of processing power that can be packed into a finite volume.
Quantum no-cloning theorem: it is impossible to make a perfect copy of an unknown quantum state. This is basically what makes quantum key distribution secure.

Failure of imagination?

A theory that reconciles quantum mechanics and gravity/general relativity (half a century after einstein's failed initial attempt and still no success)
What is the "Dark Matter" in the universe?
Why are there 3 space and 1 time dimensions?

Engineering limits?

Viable fusion (always a decade away?)
Superconductors for power distribution, transportation (ditto above)
Optical computers (what happened to them?)
Realtime portable translator devices for spoken language
Artificial intelligence at least as good as humans
'Von Neuman' automata (robots that can scavenge for parts to build copies of themselves; there were plans (ideas?) to build a solar farm on the sahara desert with such robots, whatever happened?)
Nanotech machines of non-biological origin
Large-scale coherent quantum computers

Biological wet dreams?

Life extension; immortality
Tissue and organ regeneration

Economically infeasible?

Supersonic jets
Economical launching of payloads into space; cheap space travel; fast travel through space
Colonization of mars and other planets
Ubiquitous automation of menial labour

Just can't seem to find?

Magnetic monopoles
Aliens who use radio

bean is back

2005-11-14T16:58:00.000+08:00

Finally, managed to try the tuk-tuks at great peril to myself and mom. Wanted to do something before the Calypso show. Their public train system seemed rather expensive.. 30 baht to get from the show venue to our hotel while a taxi cost 60~70 baht (assuming the driver doesn't get lost; but it wasn't really his fault cos our hotel was in a more ulu place). For 2 persons or more it makes sense to share a cab already.

The show was quite eye-opening. I couldn't really see the adam's apples in alot of the dancers. As I feared there were victims taken from the audience. Luckily I escaped. A girl was randomly tossed onstage; she was so embarassed she just kept running around and hiding her face. A guy was kissed by a male performer in a geisha costume, but he was quite sporting. His lady friend couldn't stop laughing.

But damn! I could have sworn the announcer/emcee was a typical guy. Until he (she?) took off his suit and started strutting his stuff. From then on I took nothing at face value.

A couple of gripes about the show. The music and voices were all recorded. The performers didn't sing, they didn't make music, they didn't quite dance really, just strutted around for the most part. They carry paper drums and pretend to beat them. And I think some parts weren't too nice, like when they bared all for a few seconds. It just cheapens the show. All in all, it can't even hold a candle to cirque. For 1000 baht (~41 SGD), I expected more, considering that cirque tickets start at 80. Overall, I think abit overrated and expensive. But it was an eye-opener, and the japanese tourists seemed quite entertained.

I have a couple of regrets. The roadside noodles and massage. My parents weren't adventurous enough to try the street vendors. I feel like I have to babysit mom. She gets upset if I want to try something crazy. About the most adventurous thing we did was ride in Tuk-tuks. Nothing compared to crashing korea with the gang.

Btw, does anyone know why our customs seems so efficient? I've never been stuck at our customs before. Or for that matter even seen a large crowd gathered there. But LA and BKK suck ass. And BKK had even more rows than ours. I wonder why. Is it superior scheduling, so that flights don't all arrive at the same time and disengorge a flood of passengers? Or is it simply ultrafast turnaround time? Or maybe I've just been lucky?

bangkok beaning

2005-11-13T15:59:00.000+08:00

Man the 'medium' strawberry smoothie was gigantic. And the ang moh sitting next 2 me looks like a young Richard Gere.

Wow met another singaporean who also flew here for physics GRE. His wife bore an uncanny resemblance to sihui, both behaviour and appearance. Are all physics types like that? He said he thought it was easier than all the previous ones. Argh and I didn't quite manage 2 finish 90%. Looks like 990 will be a dream of rainbon.

Only saw a couple of monks up to now. Shouldn't have worn shorts to the Grand Palace, had to wear longs over it to show respect to the King. Almost kena heatstroke. The dimunitive Emerald Buddha was the object of much prostration. The King even changes the Buddha's costume. He's got a summer, rainy, and winter frock.

Next stop, MBK (Mah Boon Krong) mall. Doesn't look like it from the outside, but dwarves all Singapore's malls in comparison inside. Both me and dad collapsed after walking a couple of levels, but mom as always had steel shopper legs. Food was extremely cheap and good, but shopping prices weren't too good.

Wanted to try taking the BTS (their version of the MRT, but more like LRT in capacity) around. But ended up cabbing around. And the frequency of the trains seems awfully low. Haven't tried the Tuk-tuks (open-air diesel trishaws) yet, but it could be dangerous breathing in all the exhaust. The city is pretty polluted. Can't see anything alive in the black canal water.

Lots of Chinese here. Especially teochews. Just outside the hotel, Dad ran into a teochew shopkeeper. His wife looked Thai though. And also teochew cabbies. Dad asked him 2 bring him to a drag/transsexual show tonight, and I'm being dragged along. Sigh.

There r too damn many 7-11s here. 4 within 3 blocks of the hotel. Concentration is even higher than in my neighbourhood in Jurong. Perhaps dat's y the director decided to feature a 7-11 in the movie Noi Na. During the temple tour I heard one of the guides telling the angmohs that long ago when they had visitors they would offer them tea. But now it's cookies and coffee or beer. Hah. I'm glad I never liked coffee or beer.

Attacked by a Pole

2005-09-03T13:27:00.000+08:00

Was having lunch with a Pole from my lab. Without warning,

"Do you like the PAP?"
"Err.."
"Did you vote?"
"Err.. I don't need to, there's no opposition in my area."
"I see."
"So you don't like the PAP?"
"Well, that's not important. What's more important is whether you like them."

Touché.

Later,

"How bout u? How's the situation in Poland?"
"I would say we have about 8 major parties."
"OMFG!!! 8 parties??? Did I hear right?"
"Yes."
"OMFG." Can't believe that so many parties can exist in one place.
"Anyway, our president has resigned and joined an opposition party."
The mind boggles.

Speaking of Poles, I represent 50% of Singaporeans in the NUS QIT Lab. Rest being Germans, Poles, PRCs. Yes there r only 2 of singaporese there. Even though they call it Quantumlah. The other guy's not even real, but a Malaysian convert. So I'm like the only born-and-bred Singaporean there. Not a very good representative, as I've been quite sickly the past month.

If not for HK or me, I think we can forget about the "Singapore" in the "Singapore protocol". It would be more like "Assembled in Singapore from imported parts."

Poor Bruce

2005-08-28T17:11:00.000+08:00

Yep he got conned big time. Good job, SWF organizers. Thought that Neil Gaiman and Cory Doctorow were gonna be in town. But Neil Gaiman is no-show and Doctorow isn't here yet. So he was kinda depressed while giving his talk yesterday, and had to drown his sorrows in alcoholic stuff immediately after.

Talk-wise, I generally didn't really like it. Talk about design. But he seemed to be rambling, like this post is in danger of doing. He's getting lost/stuck in his latest novel, been spending like 3 years (?) on it already. I think he should stick to shorter pieces. Bicycle Repairman and Taklamakan were excellent short stories. But he demoed this really cool-looking spectacle case that can unfold itself 360 degrees and close on the other side. Although he said that was an example of a bad design. Forgot to ask him 2 let us (me n soap) play with it after the talk. But he was in too much of a hurry to go somewhere n get drunk anyway.

And he was way too obsessed with RFID tags. And barcodes. And WiFi. And also making stuff biodegradeable so that humans can be sustainable. So Soap said "So your vision of the car of the future is a horse with WiMax wired into its brain and improved propulsion, suspension and digestive systems? Oh and RFDNA."

Bruce was saying it's better to know you have no privacy than to believe in a false sense of privacy. At that moment I couldn't control my giggles cos Soap was recording him in realtime with his pinhole camera connected to his Rio via wires sticking out of his bag. Too bad his mike setup didn't work so there's no audio. And that idiot refuses to tell me his blog addy. Speaking of wires sticking out of his bag I'm amazed people actually dare to sit 1 seat away from where he left his bag (with wires sticking out of it) while he was charging his Rio elsewhere. Also during the Q&A I went to the restroom but left my bag on the seat and nobody stopped me. :P

Speaking of restrooms, the Pod has got a cool one dudes. Specially designed for exhibitionists like soap, with the walls all made of glass. The transparent kind. Nice view too. That applies to the rest of the Pod as well.

Also got to meet Hominids (awesome novel!) author Robert J. Sawyer. He's a cool dude. He also has strong issues with 51% of the americans who voted. Gave soap a lecture on why it is fair for us to watch the ads on TV and read those on google. Heh, vaguely resembles him getting lectured by Mrs Ong.

And afterwards Ah-Chew's dessert on Liang Seah. Lots of kawaiis. And this tough guy parked his car next to where we were sitting and I guess we were staring at him too hard.. after he walked a distance he kept glancing back towards his car, lol! My sesame paste was ordinary, but soap sez his ice-cream with red bean p0wn3d. Will have 2 try that next time.

PS. Btw, I notice that Bruce has discovered tomorrow.sg. And he likes the Konica ad.

Did I hear someone say...

2005-08-23T22:15:00.000+08:00

...wakeboarding?

Nope, not me. I wish.

Not me, but a friend. Notice she's about to lose her balance. And fall.

That's me :)

hopefully next time i can try something like the pro above :)

Malaysia Boleh?

2005-07-22T22:57:00.000+08:00

Ok at first thought I'd regret coming here with my Dad, but I guess it's not too bad after all.. for a tourist trap.

The Genting resort is an archetypical example of an integrated resort.. Imagine putting JEC's Snow City, Marina Square's United Archery, Wild Wild Wet, California's Knott's Berry Farm all in one place, and throwing in a casino and an indoor roller coaster for good measure. Not to mention a vertical wind tunnel in which one can skydive without bothering with details like parachutes. (And Ella from S.H.E. did it, kudos.) And the Xtreme show was awesome. Made up of many acts like motorbike stunts (the best, 4 bikes zipping inside a small sphere), acrobatics, dancers, clowns and the whole works. Oh yes that reminds me to catch Cirque du Soleil back in sg.

Too bad it is a little inaccessible. An airport or landing strip here would make it complete. Is that why it's not quite as crowded as sg's malls even on a friday night? We'll see how saturday nite turns out.

Btw I think this is a not a bad place to bring your girls, if she doesn't mind the long bus ride. Not that this advice would be too useful for most of you guys reading this. (Is there even anyone reading this? But I digress.) It's really not that sleazy at all, contrary to my expectations. Kawaiis everywhere. Even the pub is pretty wholesome, plays wholesome live music like lemon tree. Good for the whole family. I think those malaysians they did something right this time. Free wireless broadband internet almost everywhere too. Too bad I haven't got a laptop, so I gotta shell out a few bucks for the cybercafe.

K think i better head 2 bed now.. gonna try that vertical wind tunnel tmr.

Soap is back!

2005-07-21T18:44:00.000+08:00

Soup! Icq 159861005. Spam him, I think he wants some.

Soap!

OMFG

2005-07-18T13:06:00.000+08:00

Battle Angel Alita. James Cameron. 2007.

CLEAR LEAVE LOH!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-07-11T22:25:00.000+08:00

Inspired by Tuck's ORD LOH!!! post, here's my CLEAR LEAVE LOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! version. Note the liberal use of !!!'s, unlike the Tuck who's so stingy with his.

Yes there wasn't much fanfare 4 me either. Juz quietly left the office today with my fatty. Still have alot of junk on my desk, gotta come back to reclaim my books n return the PCs.

Ok so my time is mine from now till 1st Sep, until I become my prof's RA/slave in NUS. Damn, what should I do with all that free time on my hands? Go babewatching on sunset bay? Finish up some of those books that have been crying 2 be read? Go thru a few more spindles of anime/jdrama? I'm open to suggestions :)

Olympics voting saga: Arrow's Impossibility Theorem or just politics?

2005-07-06T22:08:00.000+08:00

Yes poor french. Cos the silly amorix left early, and do u think the amerixans would ever vote french? Would you like "freedom fries" with that? Adieu. Oh and Singapore made billion$$ in the proce$$. Good job!

Surfer's High

2005-06-05T19:30:00.000+08:00

Quite exciting. And embarassing. Man that babe in the black bikini was good. And I don't just mean her figure. Sorry guys, wish I had pictures or a video to show here. She was making circles around a coupla tough looking brown hunks. All meat, no skill. Heh, at least they got meat. After many tries I managed to actually move a tad faster than a crawl. But the board was bigger than I remembered; not too difficult to balance on it even for a guy like me. But my half-remembered bits of technique were way off. I couldn't feel the force; my body was too weak to solve this dynamical control problem in realtime. Wakeboarding was easy compared to this.

Since I couldn't tack into the wind, and both current and wind were coming from the same direction, I drifted to the next breaker. Ended up carrying the board and sail back. So n00b.

Cafe at the beach had nice music. Very relaxing. Too bad their seats didn't have backs. After all that back strain it'd have been nice 2 sit back n relax. And I found out that my back strain was because my posture was wrong. Listened to someone talk about her love of fast cars and racing. Too bad that didn't really appeal to me. My thoughts were quite offtopic; mostly spaced out looking at the blue sky and the clouds. Shikamaru is the man. Oh I was wondering for a few moments if the aerodynamic lift force (beam reach, or sailing at right angles to the wind) could be stronger than simply catching the wind (running, or sailing in the same direction as the wind). Anyone know?

Forgot to mention that I met Baolun there. We were in ASP together, transferring antibiotic resistances from some E. coli to others via plasmids. Yes YL, I was once a microbiologist. But I soon turned away from the Dark Side. Anyway he's done with his dentist training, gonna start practising soon.

Oh and during dinner the girls were saying they were sooo tired (they really were, could hardly carry their boards back). But when one mentioned the great singapore sale, the other was like let's go after this! Hello?!?! When they say they're tired, they really mean 'tired except if there's a sale going on'. Just like when they say they're full, they really mean 'full but dessert goes into a different stomach'. デザートは別腹だ。

The Farce Side

2005-05-28T23:43:00.000+08:00

A Lost Hope? - Perhaps not.

The Saga Begins - The Bard tells the tale. Starring Obiwan as Lead Singer cum Guitarist and Palpatine the Pianist. mp3

Darth Side - Memoirs of a Monster

Store Wars - "Search your peelings" Will the Organic Rebellion succeed?

Stahwahz - "Wah si lin lao peh." Thanks Power98.

Do leave a comment if you know of any more good ones. Thanks.

PS. Hope I didn't hose your bandwidth again spoon. Thanks and do let me know if I did :P

PPS. Oh and isn't it amazing how there are spoofs of every episode except the second. Is it just me or is everyone else trying to forget that it existed? Glad I'm not alone there.

PPPS. A Lost Hope and Darthside were done before episode III was released, and Saga Begins before episode I. With all due respect, the emperor is apparently not the only prescient one around.

Annyong haseyo!

2005-05-27T20:12:00.000+08:00

Food

Mmm.. spicy food. Kimchi at every meal. Even eating at roadside stalls didn't give us tummy aches. How brave we were. Getting lunch from a shophouse which doubled as the owner's sleeping quarters. And stir-fried seafood dinner from a roadside stall.

Koreans love their greens. Bimbibap is mostly mountain veggies with rice or barley (sometimes with a bit of meat), and it's surprisingly good. But they're no wimps when it comes to meat either. In Jeju, a seafood paradise, one can still find barbequeued bulgogi (beef, not intracellular structures). And the super 30-course meal that almost burst our stomach linings for only 20 USD each.

Buildings

The palaces and temples really reminded me of the Forbidden City. But the interiors were furnished Japanese-style, with mattresses and mats on the floors of the bedrooms and studies. The ondol heating system is quite ingenious. Concrete floors heated from below by burning wood or charcoal, so that the floor and bed are warm, but the air is cool and not stuffy. Oh and the roof arches were frequently adorned with mini statues of various transformations of the Monkey King.

Oh and there wasn't any burning incense in the buddhist temple. We visited it on Vesak Day here, but the Koreans had theirs earlier, in April.

Natural sights

Jeju island is basically one big volcano. Korea's version of Sentosa. Only it's 3 times the size of Singapore. Lucky us, it was dormant while we were there. Oh yeah and the North Koreans didn't nuke us either. Hurray! Anyway so there was the whole package - fertile soil, lava columns, lava caves, calderas, crater lakes. Ms Lian would be proud of us. Bunch of physicists, chemists and EEs on a geography field trip and reminiscing about the good ol' times.

Decent waterfall on the island. Place where an emperor from China was supposed to have scoured for an elixir of life. When he couldn't find it, he scrawled his name on the rock wall and left in a huff.

And man that lava cave was cold. And wet. Yidong commented that the dimensions of the cave were very dubious - around human size. And the marks on the walls were suspiciously straight and horizontal. But then doesn't flowing liquid maintain a nearly horizontal surface? But he was still very suspicious of the near human proportions of the cave.

Mountain

We decided to spend a day hiking up the central peak, Mount Hallasan. Ended up choosing the most challenging but scenic route - 8.7 km, 4 hours each way recommended timing, with an elevation change from 570 m to around 1500 m. Garang right? My 21-day OBS instructors would have been proud. Except that this time we didn't have 20 kg backpacks. But that didn't stop me from wheezing and feeling extremely winded at the top. The lower portion of the trail was filled with very annoyingly sharp and jagged rocks that threatened to kill us if we took our attention off the ground. And my knee and ankle joints were aching all the way down. Started up at 9:30 and back on the ground at about 5:30.

People

Koreans are generally extremely friendly and helpful people. Random passerbys would direct us to the correct bus terminals. Cabbies who were booked would help us dial for other cabs. And when our friend who returned to Singapore earlier didn't have enough cash to pay for the bags he had deposited earlier (didn't want to lug them around), the baggage guy lent him 30,000 won (about 30 USD) just like that. Luckily the rest of us managed to find him the next day and pay him back.

The people are always moving about in a hurry. Pedestrians will run across the road at a crossing if the light is about to change; people will push you out of the way in the subway stations. Drivers have a lead foot on the gas pedal. In the mornings, stragglers can be seen checking their watches and running.

But man, a lot of the Koreans are damn fit. Especially those we saw on Hallasan. And mind you, they weren't all young either. Alot of them were middle-aged and above, it was amazing. They had more endurance and stamina than us NSFs. The aunties and uncles were still walking when they reached the foot, while we all just collapsed on a bench nearby. And we suspect the young ones playing soccer on the field had their daily walk up the mountain earlier. Who needs ICT/reservist? Not them.

Language

Perhaps not surprisingly, on the occasions when English failed us, my novice grasp of Japanese came in handy. Especially for talking to waitresses in restaurants. And communicating with older folk. Like finding out how long more we had to go on the hike up Mt Hallasan. Or asking for the price of goods. But I must say my Japanese is really rusting away. Only realized a waitress was using broken Japanese and that I was replying in kind after the exchange. An immersion in Japan will do me much good. But surviving on English and Japanese means that even after the whole trip I only know 2 Korean phrases, 'Hello' (Annyong haseyo) and 'Thank you' (Kum sa hap ni da).

Internet

Free internet at our guest house and at the airport. Free wifi for Spoon.

TV

There was a TV channel dedicated to Starcraft. It was fun and scary to see the pros play. The mouse cursor teleports around the screen. Don't see it in transit, only where it stops. There were also alot of educational channels - learn chinese, geography and physics from TV! Good stuff, we should have that here too.

Regrets

Hexagonal lava column site. When lava cools and cracks, it forms almost regular polygonal (mostly hexagonal) column structures due to the physics of cracking. Contrary to what some chemists may believe, it has nothing to do with the crystal structure of the solidified lava. But didn't realize we could see that there until we were about to return to the mainland.

Demilitarized Zone. Didn't have time for that.

Paragliding (gliding with a parachute) and snorkeling/diving on Jeju island. Think the others weren't too keen on these.

Oh well. Until next time.

Lucas, there is still good in you. I can feel it.

2005-05-27T12:25:00.000+08:00

Apart from a few shortcomings, I felt the magic again.

In spite of the recycled lines from later episodes, uncannily familiar sets (think Obiwan retreating from 'Annie' on a narrow beam), repeated lectures on points of view (“from my point of view you're evil!”). In spite of some plot threads coming together too neatly (Chewbacca, anyone?). In spite of the mostly unoriginal soundtrack, where the few original pieces were mostly forgettable (is John Williams is losing it?). In spite of the overly showy, flashy and unrealistic lightsaber duels. In spite of some superfluous lines ("I saw your ship land." "Luke" "Leia" Lucas, sometimes less is more.)

“Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.” Right right. To that I say, “Sweeping statements are no good.” And besides, didn't you Masters think that Annie was lost for good? Yet his son managed to turn him.

I couldn't bring myself to like the first one even after seeing it a second time. I was hoping that when I watched it again I'd form some kind of cheesy emotional attachment to it. But I didn't. The second one I generally try to forget I ever saw, and I think I've been mostly successful. Until this one came along.

Was it the one-liners by Anthony Daniels? (“I feel so.. helpless”) Was it because that annoying digital cretin had his speech functions removed (rejoice!)? Was it the fulfillment of the prophecy by The One? Or is it just the soundtrack that conveniently lapses into the score from the next episode?

It may well be.

I could care less what happened to the Trade Federation or even the Republic. But I was attached to Annie. And wondering how Windu would come to his grisly end. And how Annie would end up in his new all-black suit with polypropylene mask and coloured green and red buttons. Along with the change in his point of view. And the contrast between the blackened, charred guy clinging on to his own life, while the perfectly healthy girl in white losing her grip on it while creating 2 others was pretty good. Even the midwife droid that was making gurgling sounds couldn't quite ruin it.

Anyway, one of my friends was complaining about how they dragged the ending. You know, the parts where they delivered the babies and mindwiped the droids. I thought it wasn't too bad. At that point I didn't quite want the movie to end anyway. But if they wanted to tie it all up, they should have showed how C-3PO and R2-D2 ended up with the desert karanguni caravan. Oh well. Can't have it all I guess.

Thanks, Lucas. Now you only need to remake the first two. Or maybe just the second one. Actually, an episode VII may not be too bad, if u can keep this up :) May the Force be with you.

さらば友よ... それでもオレは信じてる！

2005-04-26T22:43:00.000+08:00

*Cue ominous track from episode III or V*

R.I.P

He Who Must Not Be Named For My Own Good (And Probably Yours Too) Strikes Back. Not the 1st time, and surely not the last.

Are you racist?

2005-04-19T21:17:00.000+08:00

Me too. Ya'wl mah niggahs. I'd like to take this opportunity to come out of the closet about my being a ~~25-year-old housewife~~ i mean bigoted, short-sighted, racist pig. I can't stand anyone - not chinese, malays or indians of all colours. Not even chickens, except maybe when deep fried to a crisp.

But i'm not alone k? After all just look at the new yakitate! japan ending. CG of a black guy in an afro moving to some grooves. If that's not racism, then I'm a tree-hugger. I mean, if it was supposed to look good, are they claiming stupid CG can dance as well as humans? And if it was supposed to look bad, are they making fun of black people? However u look at it, it's pure unadulterated racism. Whoever made that, those guys r so dead. They better start running - racism is soooooo not tolerated here. Yeah just hide in japan you racist pigs!!! Dun ever let us catch you here!

Oh and btw guys I didn't write this ok. Some script kiddie hacked into my account. I know man. The internet is such a dangerous place. Even my cunning old fox cries out frequently for security updates. And with a login like 'hackmepls' and a password like 'p0wn3d', it was only a matter of time before the inevitable. Nope, not written here. Oh wait you mean to tell me I left my admin password blank? Damn. Dat sux. Thanks 4 letting me know. U guys r too kind, u make the net so safe! I get a warm and fuzzy feeling all over here! Gee thanks! Love & peace!

Barely Legal(?) Videos

2005-04-13T23:40:00.000+08:00

The Hot Uncensored Jamie Han and MML Action videos are finally available for download! Hurry come get them b4 the server gets shut down or just melts from the heat! mml.mov contains that scary d-word. mml2.mov contains even more iterations by MML himself.

Thanks to acidflask from whom i heard abt the KRMF and Jamie Han, chat-moyen for digitising some clips from the CNA video special, n spoon 4 providing hosting space. Hope this doesn't cause a server meltdown spoon. Or get your site banned.

Oh and for folks on windows who don't want to install quicktime, there's this quicktime alternative which uses the free and open source media player classic. Highly recommended.

Btw, does anyone know if that guy has set up a blog or something? And I don't mean MML.

need a linkroll

2005-04-09T17:43:00.000+08:00

but before that, will have to make do with this:

another rotflmao link, courtesy of chunhui

what's in a name?
W.E.E.K.A.N.G.: Wireless Electronic Entity Keen on Assassination and Nocturnal Gratification
B.E.A.N.: Being Engineered for Assassination and Nullification
F.A.R.N.Y.: Functional Android Responsible for Nocturnal Yelling
B.O.B.: Being Optimized for Battle
B.O.L.E.H.T.A.H.A.N.: Being Optimized for Logical Exploration and Harm/Transforming Android Hardwired for Assassination and Nullification

How many darwin awards does this deserve?

Les Horribles Cernettes, the first rock band on the web! Full of High Energy Girls!
for the confused, this wikipedia link may enlighten

and lastly, the probability of greatness:

Recently we discovered (cond-mat/0212043) that the majority of scientific citations are copied from the lists of references used in other papers. Here we show that a model, in which a scientist picks three random papers, cites them,and also copies a quarter of their references accounts quantitatively for empirically observed citation distribution. Simple mathematical probability, not genius, can explain why some papers are cited a lot more than the other.

During the “Manhattan project” (the making of nuclear bomb[sic]), Fermi asked Gen. Groves, the head of the project, what is the definition of a “great” general. Groves replied that any general who had won five battles in a row might safely be called great. Fermi then asked how many generals were great. Groves said about three out of every hundred. Fermi conjectured that considering that opposing forces for most battles are rougly equal in strength, the chance of winning one battle is 1/2 and the chance of winning five battles in a row is (1/2)^5=1/32. “So you're right General, about three out of every hundred. Mathematical probability, not genius.”

via quantum pontiff. Fermi is pure genius.

It Never Rains but It Pours

2005-03-31T23:39:00.000+08:00

Athlon 64, Crazy cab drivers, honest/dumb look, rich people, How to block the new generation of popups, all this and more!

First post in a while. Had a sudden burst of inspiration last nite. Just when I felt like posting, blogger went down. Can you imagine the odds of that happening?

Yesterday I was tasked to build a number-crunching system. So I went down to sim lim to scout and gather intelligence, as I haven't been keeping up with all that stuff. I was looking around the shady shops trying to decide which not-too-shady shopkeeper to approach. Really miss superpet, the staff there were very knowledgeable and didn't try to con me.

In the end I asked this shop on the 6th floor (where sp used to be). The guy said he built systems but no AMD. He was about to direct me to HWP across the floor when this other guy spoke up. Turns out he didn't really work for any of those guys but he just built alot of Athlon 64 systems for CPIB or something like that.

So he brought me to a couple of shops to assemble the components for the number cruncher. Except that neither of them were the same shop that his namecard says he was from.

In the end I settled on this system:

Athlon 64 Socket 939 3500+ @ $683 w/ mobo
Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra Mobo w/ dual RAID + SATA
Corsair CAS 2.5 512 mb (x2) for 1 gig dual channel @ $196
El cheapo ATI Radeon 9250 gfx card @ $80 (so I won't be too tempted to run half-life 2 or warcraft in the office)
Maxtor 80 GB SATA (x2) for RAID 0 @ $216
LG 8x DVD Burner for burning office videos @ $128
HEC power supply (pretty good experience with their case) + casing + lots of fans @ $235

and last but not cheap,
Windoze XP Pro SP2 @ $235

defintely earns the title of the most worthless buy. Wouldn't be getting it if the number crunching programs weren't running on windows. This microsoft tax is almost as bad as COE. Except it's more brilliant cos it reaches out to the entire world whereas COE only affects a tiny island whose citizens don't really speak up much anyway. At least the open source advocates are putting a dent in the windoze/msoffice tax with firefox, openoffice, thunderbird, linux etc.

On the ride home, the taxi driver was putting the darndest ideas into my head. Mostly the usual complaints except for this one theory that stood out most. You know how cars are impossibly expensive, and some minister encouraged people to bike a while ago or something like that? Well he's saying they want more people to ride bikes so that more will get killed on the roads. I get the idea that this is some kind of crazy social engineering program - poor people ride bikes and get run over by crazy drunk drivers, more organ parts for transplants for people who can afford it. Also I thought when one dies one's organs are not up for transplants unless one has signed and agreed to that before? But apparently that's not the case for road victims. And the driver said he's been monitoring the number of cyclist deaths and there's been more than 10 in a period of 7-8 months. Scary. Ndru1 is right, these cab drivers usually have very interesting things to say, there's so many times I had interesting or just crazy conversations with them back when I was giving tuition.

Funny how he said he was telling me all this good stuff cos I looked like the honest sort and would be conned and eaten alive and spat out by others outside. And that guy who was helping me pick pc parts also said the same thing - he couldn't bear to see me cheated by other people. Yep, instead of letting others cheat me, y not do it himself. I can totally understand since my momma used to say she'd rather cane me herself than have the teacher punish me.

Actually I think he did give me some pretty good pointers. Like making sure that the sticks of RAM had the same batch number so I'd have no problem doing dual channel. And checking for (the absence of) screw marks on the motherboards and cards to make sure they are new. One motherboard did have a very obvious screw mark. Lucky me, my mobo wasn't screwed with. i hope. why did you close down superpet? hmm i shld ask that sim lim regular about what happened to them. sp was so popular, so recommended, i wonder what could have gone wrong.

Anyway, you rich people who live in marine parade and orchard road and boat quay, you guys just paid more for less. Gosh there r (were?) so many rich kids reading my blog. (I ought to rename it the Singapore Tatters or Monkey Tat Monkey Too.) Anyway that geologist from nus quoted in Today said that seismic waves get dampened by solid rocks in the west, but not the sedimentary foundation in the eastern and central areas. Westerners and northerners, rejoice!

The following instructions were mostly lifted from http://www.petebevin.com/archives/2005/03/10/firefox_popups.html (get linkification!)

If you're like me you probably love Firefox for many reasons, including popup blocking. So I must say I was more than mildly surprised when recently I saw some popups actually get through.

It turns out that some clever people figured out that you could launch popups from flash (evil, evil flash) and other plugins, penetrating firefox's armor.

Fortunately, you can get around it by:

1. Type about:config into the Firefox location bar.
2. Right-click on the page and select New and then Integer.
3. Name it privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins
4. Set the value to 2.

The possible values are:

* 0: Allow all popups from plugins.
* 1: Allow popups, but limit them to dom.popup_maximum.
* 2: Block popups from plugins.
* 3: Block popups from plugins, even on whitelisted sites.

I have mine set to 3 so not even a fly can get through. But keep yours to 2 if you actually click on those flash thingies or play some silly games. And wow I'm amazed if you actually got all the way here. Lucky you, the most useful thing in this post was right at the end. Give yourself a pat on the back!

Lost post

2005-02-02T23:36:00.000+08:00

Instead of learning some nonabelian gauge theory, today I was sent out on dispatch. My mission? To purchase pressure gauges. Wika-branded, made-in-Germany pressure gauges. Yes, mock me. I'll show you gauges. Don't think just because u're made in Germany u're damn big fug. So what if u're made in germany? After all u only cost less than $20 a pop. Almost as cheap as a China lock. It's common knowledge what happened to that China lock that tried to mess with me. Big mistake. Chose the wrong guy to cross man.

Anyway saw a lot of planes flying around in the Ubi/Macpherson area. Couple of fighters with big payloads. And also one of those green camouflaged propeller planes with a Singaporean flag on the tail - was it perhaps returning from Aceh? All coming in slow - probably for a landing at Paya Lebar. No one was staring at the planes besides me.. I guess the residents must be pretty accustomed to it. Here in Jurong we only get to hear the annoying sonic booms from those Tengah takeoffs, have never seen them fly so low before. Too bad by the time I thought to whip out my cameraphone, they were gone.

Last nite was trying to explain my part in this to a friend. Her name was Alicia, and my alias Bean. In these quantum communication scenarios the communicating parties are usually named Alice and Bob, and the eavesdropper Eve. Actually these days we badminton kakis have all been calling one another Bob. I started it on a whim, but maybe it had more sinister origins. Anyway it has caught on and now we're all Bobs.

After that I chatted with a fellow physicist who's now bonded to a* and working on sinister biological problems which he assures me is actually physics in disguise. When I sent him the link above his response "4 pages... for PRL??? Congratulations!!" really amused me as I had just read this post about the benefits of the 4-page limit by a quantum information theorist. Specifically point 3.

[I have been wondering where this post went as I distinctly remember typing it up. Turns out I canned (drafted) it instead of publishing :p. No I wasn't abducted by aliens, nor did I experience any 'lost time'. Except maybe for the time spent in ns.]

2005-01-30T13:01:00.001+08:00

Woohoo look he's pointing at my name!!!

2005-01-30T13:01:00.000+08:00

Hello boss. In addition to the pot-belly, he also has a great sense of humor.

The best years of my life spent thusly

2005-01-26T21:44:00.000+08:00

Wake up. Hit snooze. Repeat. Break out of loop after a few cycles with some difficulty. Brush. Wash. Eat. Leave. Run after bus. Get on bus. Long bus ride to nowhere. Get off. Sneak into office. Get called to lab. Saw stuff. Drill holes. Make connectors. Make switches. Pour oil into long tubes. Get hands full of transformer oil (yummy!). Pour glycerine into long tubes. Get hands full of glycerine too (fun!). Lightly sizzle brain and gonads with rf till golden brown. Break for lunch. Return for more repetitive testing until brain shuts down. End the afternoon with a bang (big sparks, exploding inductors or resistors). Take a break. Surf web. Try to keep awake in cubicle. Knock off. Long bus ride home. Eat. Rinse, rest & repeat.

Nooooooooooooooooooo

2005-01-21T21:21:00.000+08:00

why did I switch? Should have gone for the wireless deal with maxonline 3k instead. instead got baited by the mini's siren. sigh oh well hindsight is 20/20.

Today's memorable quote

2005-01-13T23:28:00.000+08:00

"Since this gate has trouble faithfully implementing the identity operation, I guess one could say it has an identity crisis."

- Gerard J. Milburn, who together with Knill and Laflamme showed that universal quantum computation is possible with single photon sources, linear optical networks, photon counters, followed by postselection and feedforward [Nature 409 (2001)]

Btw I should point out this freshly compiled ebook which has been described by its author as "Quantum Computing for Dummies". EE/CS types might want to take a look, it looks like a pretty decent introduction. Even has examples in C and Java it seems (which puts me at a disadvantage since I know neither).

In the spirit of the current workshop allow me to serve up this mystery link.. The accompanying story is very nice too, worth a read in my opinion.

PS. My apologies Jiahao if I told you about that b4. Hope u enjoyed the quote at least :)

3rd Asia Pacific Workshop on Quantum Information Science

2005-01-11T23:36:00.000+08:00

Inspired by Jiahao and M. Nielsen, here are some memorable "quotes", but don't quote me:

"I hope I don't fall asleep before the audience does. At the very least, we can fall asleep at the same time."

- Daniel Greenberger (of GHZ fame), as he was about to begin his lecture.

"Since I am from the Perimeter Institute, I will now talk about the isoperimetric problem."

- Karol Zyckowski

"This is the bestest protocol for quantum key distribution."

- Berge Englert, on what he refers to as the "Singapore Protocol"

And Hans Briegel's explanation of why the cluster/graph operators commute really reminds me of this gem from Anthony Zee's book:

"Yeah, it is reminiscent of what distinguishes the good theorists from the bad ones. The good ones always make an even number of sign errors, and the bad ones always make an odd number."

2 wrongs make one right.

song brothers = gay bengs? amongst other things

2004-12-28T21:32:00.000+08:00

should I get this colour? can't believe this is the only colour they have stock of. argh i'm so buay song those song brudders. someone should sell 不爽 drinks next to their shop. i think i'll do it myself if i become unemployed.

and i can't believe the email foobar wasn't taken. couldn't even get the userid f00b4r1337 on steam (half-life 2). seems like none of the current singnet subscribers r real nerds. well singnet, i hope u're prepared :)

and speaking of hl2, i want to complain. godawful 5 cds? couldn't they afford to print a dvd? no in fact it would probably have been cheaper to press 1 dvd instead of so many bloody cds. and the compulsory windows xp-style product activation, and OMG more than 1 hour decrypting the files (i have a hyperthreading 2.6 GHz P4) after i thought the installation was complete, and another year updating the files via steam. all these anti-piracy measures don't stop the pirates from doing their thing - bittorrent downloads were available ever since it was released. it just annoys the hell out of legitimate paying customers. was i a fool to have bought the original? ok please don't arrest me 4 thoughtcrime if you ever read this ghim. and the post below too.

anyway, valve, did you forget it was your fans who created the phenomenon that was counterstrike from the original half-life? and day of defeat? natural selection? hello, anybody home? and so far i'm not that impressed. sure the water looks good, but dude i've been stuck with a pistol for a while. even the crowbar took a while to get to. i was reduced to throwing barrels at the guards for the darndest time, and the guards weren't too amused.

oh and did anyone ever have a casually tossed out commment or joke come back 2 bite them in the ass later? couple of nights ago at the end of colleague's wedding dinner i was (jokingly) asking someone living in the east to drop me off at changi prison. today i got a call from someone asking me for tuition for her daughter (thanks for the lobang Mrs. Lim!). while i was taking down the address, she said, "If you're taking cab here, tell the driver it's near changi prison." Ho, ho, ho. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

w00t!

2004-12-24T16:12:00.000+08:00

woohoo!! lockpicked my way into my room today!

When i got home dis afternoon after a half-day and it was burning hot so i decided 2 take a cool shower. but alas when i tried to get into mah room 4 some change i was out of luck - room was locked. Dug in the drawers for the keys but could only find keys for the other rooms. I was stuck outside dripping in a towel.

That's when I decided to put my l33t l0ckp1ck sk1lz (more like my vague memory of the MIT guide to lockpicking) 2 some good use.

First i needed 2 get meself some tools - rummaged thru dad's toolbox. Found some screwdrivers, pliers, wire, and a penknife. I'd need something to supply the torque - first i thought of using a pair of thin screwdrivers in a "chopstick" fashion, but I knew someone with psychomotor coordination like me couldn't do it. Something like the "pliers" used to pluck chicken hair would work if the ends were sharp - hey isn't that scissors?!! Found a pair and they were quite suitable. Pliers also worked but needed to be opened wider (as the handles are further apart when it's closed) so more unwieldy.

Next I needed the pick. A small section of wire did the trick. Tried to bend the end into the ideal pick shape but couldn't bend off a small enough bit.

OK charge! After a few attempts I realized the lock had 2 rows of pins - at the top and bottom.. had to scrape both of them. Hmm this isn't really a beginner's lock. Didn't get it for quite a while and got a bit frustrated.

Yappari was it impossible for a unpractical guy like me? Noooo I refuse to give up - I want to show that even armchair theorists can DIY!!!! Last time all those mechanical and competitions I joined like amphibious vehicle and widget sorting all failed.. and parents also laff @ me 4 being a klutz.. i must overcome the stigma of my past!!!! ok i digress.

Went back and examined the other keys more closely. And realized that the pins only had 2 states - up or down. There weren't any graduations in between. A couple of implications - there were fewer possible combinations for the pins. Also I could be rougher with the pick since there was a large distance between an up pin and a down pin. And almost couldn't believe it when the lock turned! I did it!!! Yatta!!!!!! Woohooo!!! Looks like my time spent in DSO using heavy metal tools for real men wasn't wasted. Nothing like this to make one's Christmas eve!!!!

And to share my joy with everyone I just had to blog this. Oh and also to do a theoretical analysis :) Take that you brand-x-made-in-china-pin-tumbler-lock! I 0wn j00!

PS. Lockpicking kept bringing certain analogies to mind. One inserts something long and hard into an orifice and slides it in and out, rubbing it against the grooves. And a climax is reached when the knob turns. Nothing like surrogate sex on christmas eve :D

PPS. Even not getting my ipod mini in time for xmas can't ruin my mood now!

Merry Christmas! Btw title link goes to the toolz i used. How fitting that the pic is now on a MIT spun-off photosharing site. Ho, ho, ho!

夜真中の一言

2004-12-13T01:52:00.000+08:00

まったく、こんな理由で眠れないなんて、めずらしいなあ。物理や数学のことを考えじゃなく、あの日のことを思い出すと、胸がすぐにトキドキする。これってもしかして恋かなあ。自分でもよくわからない。

でも困ったなあ。あの子が好きのはもう一人いる。しかも僕の仲間だ。またドラマみたいのもんになっちゃった。どうせ僕にはこんあことばっかり。昔も友達の彼女が少し好きになった。知ってる子はあまり少なくて、ほとんど男の友達が紹介したんだ。だからこんあ酷いめになる。

こんなバレバレの告白を書くのは、何をするき？日本語の練習にも成らない。おそらく誤りが多すぎて、昔の先生を見ると、きっと泣き出す。あーあー、俺はいつも他人をこまらせるばっかり。

でもなあ、これを書いたら、気持ちはすこしでも落ちずいたんだ。何をすればいいかまだわからない。でも今はもうねられるらしい。他のことは明日考え。じゃあ、お休み。

Whoa who's that pro dude? ;-)

2004-11-18T23:29:00.000+08:00

Ladies, please feel free to leave compliments, fanmail and other assorted positive comments. Apologies but men need not apply.

1984

2004-11-12T14:19:00.000+08:00

Surprised Bush can read? Maybe Rove or Cheney have been reading him some choice excerpts at bedtime, like

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength!

Argh, I can't stand how our government like immediately congratulated and endorsed him. Argh argh argh.

Open Source, Singapore

2004-11-11T16:36:00.000+08:00

Skinning Gmail with a Custom Stylesheet Just too cool.

IE 2 Firefox Switch Ads Yep, Apple-style.

Firefox Launch Party in Singapore!!! I can hardly believe it myself. Anyone game?

And last but not least, Mindef is switching to OpenOffice:

In October, Mindef revealed that it is turning to the OpenOffice application suite rather than updating Microsoft Office which, according to Cheok Beng Teck, the director of the office of the ministry’s chief information officer, could not justify the high cost of the additional features in Microsoft Office 2003. OpenOffice will not replace Microsoft Office 97 that were installed on 5,000 desktop computers but will exist alongside it, providing a little bit more options for users to utilise on the packages that better suit their needs. The move will be extended to all of Mindef’s 20,000 desktop computers by March 2006.

Inevitable. After all, how can expensive compete with free? Just like how MS used to undercut their rivals (Wordperfect anyone?) by offering something cheaper and "good enough" (ie. having the common features that people use), now MS is getting it done back to them. When Mindef, the branch of the Singapore government that has no shortage of cash decides to migrate to OpenOffice, surely the time of MS's demise has come. They probably figured that the cash that they saved can let them feed a couple more BGs or get a couple more shiny new fighters. And that's not forgetting what they saved from future forced "upgrades".

Americans' Apologies

2004-11-11T14:34:00.000+08:00

Thanks guys, for letting the rest of the world know how you feel! Can't speak for the rest, but I sure appreciated it!

Also, some interesting correlations between the mean IQ of voters and the winner of that state's electoral votes.

Firefox 1.0 out!

2004-11-10T11:44:00.000+08:00

Torrents here.

And if u're not satisfied with the startup time, MooX has some super-duper Intel or AMD optimized builds here, which I'm sure will blow you away. But I haven't tried them myself.

A Paradox

2004-11-07T13:56:00.000+08:00

In the (albeit belated) spirit of Halloween, I shall unleash a physical trick-or-treat on my poor unsuspecting readers. Score one for American cultural imperialism. Mwahahahaha!

Now we all know that an electron and an anti-electron can annihilate each other to liberate a blinding flash of light (ok I exaggerate). Can it produce just a single photon of light? No it can't, because we can always find a frame of reference in which the electron and anti-electron have zero total momentum. But a photon knows no rest - it has non-zero momentum in any frame of reference. So this process can never occur, right? But why can't I just write down a momentum A for the electron, B for the anti-electron and C for the photon, where C = A + B? Then, at least in this frame of reference, this reaction can occur, right? So where's the catch?

Bodily Physics

2004-11-07T13:53:00.000+08:00

Need to solve pdes in real-time with incomplete knowledge of initial conditions to achieve stable control of a dynamical system with much more than 10^23 degrees of freedom? No sweat. Simply plug in a human. Just look at gymnasts and ice-skaters. Even insects like bees and dragonflies can do stunts that put fighter pilots to shame and leave the military technologists dreaming (and drooling). So the body is incredibly good at doing physics right? My opinion is no. Why, you ask? Because physics is not just about solving pdes. I mean, sure, it's great to be able to solve problems that will have supercomputers chugging away for days, but that's just computational power. But hold it! Isn't physics computation? Or just computation that is physics? Well, computation is an inherently physical process since computers must obey the laws of physics. But if physics is computation, then it definitely isn't deterministic. Because physics isn't. There are no right answers - sometimes it comes up with A, but it could just as well come up with B. Yes, it appears that [insert your favourite God here] plays dice. On a metaphysical note, maybe that's why the world starts going to hell when people try to look for easy answers. Oh wait, I almost forgot, some people don't believe in reality anyway. Just look below.

Reality-based community

2004-11-07T13:26:00.000+08:00

NYT reporter Ron Susskind writes about his meeting with a senior advisor to Bush:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

Nothing like a good rallying cry.

Jock Day

2004-11-06T18:03:00.000+08:00

Waah my arms. First wakeboarding, then baddie with Transen Lohk. That scumbag kept cheating and smashing at my face. Anyway it's nice 2 take a dip in the pool to cool off after all that sweaty stuff. Oh boy I'm so proud of myself. Makes me feel like Lee Congee. Can u imagine, a PES E version of congee?

During the wakeboarding I kept hearing a sound like thunderclaps. At first I it was dry lightning but someone noticed the sound coming from the water. I peeked over portside and saw some bubbles with amplified sound. Seems like cavitation.

Anyway, not trying to be un-humble, but I think physicists can be good at physical stuff. After all, shooting a hoop is just calculating a trajectory under a uniform field. Wakeboarding and windsurfing = solving Navier-Stokes with your body instead of your head? Ok maybe not so complicated. But the body seems to be able to figure it out faster. My balance was ok, but arms were a little weak.

Btw, Transen, Steve & Zi are having delusions that that can pick up chicks by playing badminton. Someone bring them back to the reality-based community.

I can't believe this

2004-11-03T01:39:00.001+08:00

Good job, Bush & Co. You claimed you were looking for WMDs but yet you opened up sealed nuclear caches and didn't bother to leave behind a single trooper to guard them. Come, come! Not just the conventional good stuff like HMX and RDX, but help yourselves to the nuclear material as well! Make your own dirty bombs with it!

Now the world will be just that much safer.

Science. Reads like science fiction. Reminds me of same.

2004-10-29T13:13:00.000+08:00

I would have been less surprised if someone had uncovered an alien.

Says Peter Brown, a palaeoanthropologist and one of the authors in the paper.

Giant rats, dwarf humans, and waist-high pygmy elephants. Darwin would have been proud.

Fallout (giant rats), Hominids (alternate anthropological history), Speaker for the Dead, Startide Rising & Uplift War (hidden species), Think Like a Dinosaur (smart dinos), the adventures of Miles Naismith Vorkosigan (smart cretin) come to mind. And whoa they released a port of Fallout 1 & 2 for OS X in 2002.

There and back again

2004-10-18T13:28:00.000+08:00

OK, back where I started.. too concussed in Beijing to go hunt 4 an internet cafe. Shop, eat, sightsee, sleep.. that basically summarizes my last 5 daze. Found the food court here in HK airport this time.. had slightly better fare.. Alrite gotta run to catch my flight now, update again at home.

Greetings from Hong Kong

2004-10-12T15:49:00.000+08:00

I stand typing this at a cafe in the airport transit hallways.. First thing I did was download and install firefox on this win 98 PC. Gives me a sense of security, but I guess some enterprising guy may have installed a keylogger on this machine anyway. Oh well.

The char siew noodles at the cafe weren't very good.. Anyway I dun think I shld keep my parents waiting.. Too bad can't access the usb drive otherwise could try uploading some pics of the airport, heh.

Btw JH, I guess I'll find out abt those 'dragon girls' soon enough :p

Clickfest. Linkmania. Take your pick.

2004-10-09T22:28:00.000+08:00

It's award season. Not just Nobel Prizes, but also Hugo Awards (reader-voted) for science fiction & fantasy, as well as the Rolex awards for some very deserving people doing good stuff for the community, wildlife or the natural environment or a mix.

"Hurricane reveals message from above" - foobar.

Researchers use photoluminescence spectroscopy. Could be very useful for Singapore/DSO. From scienceblog.

Also from scienceblog, but slightly older news, though already slashdotted (3 days after appearing on scienceblog), tiny mechanical switches outstrip magnetic storage. Punch cards, Difference Engine, Victorian steampunk, what else is new?

Does the macroscopic 4-dimensional (3 space, 1 time) universe we observe necessarily result from the assumptions that 1) cause precedes effect and 2) Einstein's special relativity holds? Actually, they used 4-dimensional building blocks (!!!), but contrary to intuition the everyday world we observe does not necessarily result. Only when they put in those 2 assumptions above did it appear. From crumb trail. Will comment if I manage to get a copy of the paper.

Dulce et decorum est?

2004-09-30T22:40:00.000+08:00

OUR GRAVES IN GALLIPOLI
E. M. Forster (1922)
Scene: the summit of Achi Baba, an exposed spot, looking out across the Dardanelles towards Asia and the East. In a crevice between the rocks lie two graves covered by a single heap of stones. No monument marks them, for they escaped notice during the official survey, and the heap of stones has blended into the desolate and austere outline of the hill. The peninsula is turning towards the sun, and as the rays strike Achi Baba the graves begin to speak.
FIRST GRAVE: We are important again upon earth. Each morning men mention us.
SECOND GRAVE: Yes, after seven years' silence.
FIRST GRAVE: Every day some eminent public man now refers to the "sanctity of our graves in Gallipoli."
SECOND GRAVE: Why do the eminent men speak of "our" graves, as if they were themselves dead? It is we, not they, who lie on Achi Baba.
FIRST GRAVE: They say "our" out of geniality and in order to touch the great heart of our nation more quickly. Punch, the great-hearted jester, showed a picture lately in which the Prime Minister of England, Lloyd George, fertile in counsels, is urged to go to war to protect "the sanctity of our graves in Gallipoli." The elderly artist who designed that picture is not dead and does not mean to die. He hopes to illustrate this war as he did the last, for a sufficient salary. Nevertheless he writes "our" graves, as if he was inside one, and all persons of position now say the same.
SECOND GRAVE: If they go to war, there will be more graves.
FIRST GRAVE: That is what they desire. That is what Lloyd George, prudent in counsels, and lion-hearted Churchill, intend.
SECOND GRAVE: But where will they dig them?
FIRST GRAVE: There is still room over in Chanak. Also, it is well for a nation that would be great to scatter its graves all over the world. Graves in Ireland, graves in Irak, Russia, Persia, India, each with its inscription from the Bible or Rupert Brooke. When England thinks fit, she can launch an expedition to protect the sanctity of her graves, and can follow that by another expedition to protect the sanctity of the additional graves. That is what Lloyd George, prudent in counsels, and lion-hearted Churchill, have planned. Churchill planned this expedition to Gallipoli, where I was killed. He planned the expedition to Antwerp, where my brother was killed. Then he said that Labour is not fit to govern. Rolling his eyes for fresh worlds, he saw Egypt, and fearing that peace might be established there, he intervened and prevented it. Whatever he undertakes is a success. He is Churchill the Fortunate, ever in office, and clouds of dead heroes attend him. Nothing for schools, nothing for houses, nothing for the life of the body, nothing for the spirit. England cannot spare a penny for anything except her heroes' graves.
SECOND GRAVE: Is she really putting herself to so much expense on our account?
FIRST GRAVE: For us, and for the Freedom of the Straits. That water flowing below us now --- it must be thoroughly free. What freedom is, great men are uncertain, but all agree that the water must be free for all nations; if in peace, then for all nations in peace; if in war, then for all nations in war.
SECOND GRAVE: So all nations now support England.
FIRST GRAVE: It is almost inexplicable. England stands alone. Of the dozens of nations into which the globe is divided, not a single one follows her banner, and even her own colonies hang back.
SECOND GRAVE: Yes... inexplicable. Perhaps she fights for some other reason.
FIRST GRAVE: Ah, the true reason of a war is never known until all who have fought in it are dead. In a hundred years' time we shall be told. Meanwhile seek not to inquire. There are rumours that rich men desire to be richer, but we cannot know.
SECOND GRAVE: If rich men desire more riches, let them fight. It is reasonable to fight for our desires.
FIRST GRAVE: But they cannot fight. They must not fight. There are too few of them. They would be killed. If a rich man went into the interior of Asia and tried to take more gold or more oil, he might be seriously injured at once. He must persuade poor men, who are numerous, to go there for him. And perhaps this is what Lloyd George, fertile in counsels, has decreed. He has tried to enter Asia by means of the Greeks. It was the Greeks who, seven years ago, failed to join England after they had promised to do so, and our graves in Gallipoli are the result of this. But Churchill the Fortunate, ever in office, ever magnanimous, bore the Greeks no grudge, and he and Lloyd George persuaded their young men to enter Asia. They have mostly been killed there, so English young men must be persuaded instead. A phrase must be thought of, and "the Gallipoli graves" is the handiest. The clergy must wave their Bibles, the old men their newspapers, the old women their knitting, the unmarried girls must wave white feathers, and all must shout, "Gallipoli graves, Gallipoli graves, Gallipoli, Gally Polly, Gally Polly," until the young men are ashamed and think, What sound can that be but my country's call? and Chanak receives them.
SECOND GRAVE: Chanak is to sanctify Gallipoli.
FIRST GRAVE: It will make our heap of stones for ever England, apparently.
SECOND GRAVE: It can scarcely do that to my portion of it. I was a Turk.
FIRST GRAVE: What! A Turk! You a Turk? And I have lain beside you for seven years and never known!
SECOND GRAVE: How should you have known? What is there to know except that I am your brother?
FIRST GRAVE: I am yours...
SECOND GRAVE: All is dead except that . All graves are one. It is their unity that sanctifies them, and some day even the living will learn this.
FIRST GRAVE: Ah, but why can they not learn it while they are still alive?
His comrade cannot answer this question. Achi Baba passes beneath the sun, and so long as there is light warlike preparations can be seen on the opposite coast. Presently all objects enter into their own shadows, and through the general veil thus formed the stars become apparent.

Holy Shit

2004-09-29T23:36:00.000+08:00

Thanks "Toby".

Links sure travel far in the blogosphere. There sure ain't no such thing as a "time_to_live" or "max_hops". As if having an indirect link thru jh thru mrbrown wasn't bad enough, now Sintercom. It's all your fault lah u google-ad-whore jh!! They'll have discovered all my (barely legal?) photos by now. It's all over. A "dishonourable discharge" from the civil service at best, unimaginable horrors at worst. Somebody pray for me.

Morbid Thoughts

2004-09-28T23:22:00.000+08:00

Last night they replayed good ol' Jurassic Park. It's interesting how they think 10,000 volts is enough to keep out dinos, when I regularly crank up the voltage to 20 or 30 kilovolts in the lab. And that's before putting it thru the transformer that can bring it up to megavolts.

So I can easily become a baked bean. OK at least it'll be quick. Maybe not the carcinogenic effects of garden-variety chemicals nor the mutagenic effects of ethidium bromide. Fine. But probably not painless though. And a baked bean is still a baked bean.

Ghostly Blue Glow (Actually it's more like Purple)

2004-09-28T23:09:00.000+08:00

Dielectric Barrier Discharge?

Lights on

I should try a longer exposure tomorrow.

Heaven's Wrath

2004-09-25T13:42:00.000+08:00

This is what happens when one votes for Bush.

Hopefully they get it right this time, and the punishment is rescinded.

Animation Galore!

2004-09-24T21:14:00.000+08:00

In coming months, anime's three most prominent directors will release major films in the US. Oshii's Innocence will hit theaters in September. Soon afterward, Katsuhiro Otomo will debut Steamboy, an Indiana Jones-style adventure that takes place in an alternative Victorian age where turbo unicycles and pressure-powered jetpacks battle for supremacy. Then Hayao Miyazaki will deliver Howl's Moving Castle, about a teenage girl who flees a curse by hiding in a gigantic mechanical castle that prowls about on insectlike legs. In addition, Disney will issue three older Miyazaki films on DVD early next year, two of which have never before been released in the US.

Hopefully they make it to Singapore as quickly. There's also another movie, Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (literally: Beyond the Clouds, the Promised Land) by Makoto Shinkai. He's a brilliant "indie" animator who made a 5-min short (Her and Her Cat) all by himself, and also a 25-minute piece, Voices of a Distant Star, with only a few helpers. Can you imagine, he and his wife even did the voices for the protagonists themselves! Although they also made another version where they had others do the voices. Can't wait for his latest animation.

Party's party Irrational Exuberance

2004-09-24T01:03:00.000+08:00

Oh forgot 2 mention I was reminded of Caltech Dining Services. They serve some really ~~bad~~ inedible food during the term, but throw a party every year with really good stuff. And it's made by the same chefs who serve us during the school term. Once in a while, they will organize some food fests where we get a selection of delicacies.

Moral of the story: it's ok to serve crap most of the time, as long as u please the joes once in a while.

Come to think of it, that's like my approach to my NS obligations now.

------

Party. Babes. Men (and women) in white.

But where's JP when you need him? I can't help but think it would have been perfect if he was around to show off his gr8 sg workout moves on the dance floor.

Oh well. At least EY had the enthusiasm. Perhaps I didn't have enough alcohol, or just can't groove to the beat. Just grinning (and probably looking like an idiot) the whole time.

Somehow, when everyone started chanting, "...PAP rocks! PAP rocks!...", scenes from Orwell (1984) kept leaping into my mind. Alcohol makes me morbid? And I was wondering why I was there subjecting myself to all that blatant mindwashing. Until I looked around and saw the hot babes grooving to the beat. Dude I didn't know they had so many in the party. Makes me almost want 2 join, heh.

So I hung around and enjoyed the view for a bit. Oh and I shook hands with the PM! Very gian! And I got to see the cool Mr. Lim Swee Say up close. And ran into LCB, who tried 2 recruit me into his party.

The PM was surrounded by lots of gyrating babes. He went up on a narrow platform with lots of party babes who danced to his tune. Being a PM has its perks :)

Can't believe I let them chop that lightning symbol on the back of my right hand. Was just amused the whole way. A little too detached and rational, not quite partying mood. But still quite interesting. And a smoke-free Zouk was awesome. Shirt doesn't smell of tobacco and nicotine. Free drinks, smoke-free party, babes. What's not to like?

Oh and a couple of memorable "quotes":

"PAP is 50 years old. But most of you here are much younger." Very astute.
"I don't think this is the time or place for a 3-hour speech." The audience concurred.

Damn I shld have whipped out my mp3 voice recorder. Then could have captured some soundbites. And I need a real camera. Should have grabbed a canon at Comex.

----------

Oh and I forgot to mention I noticed quite a few guys who looked sharp and had this wire running from their right ear down their neck like Agents. Pointed at the cord of one who was probably part of LSS's security detail and he turned his head around pretty fast. Quickly faked nonchalance :P

caustic.soda: rage against the a*star machine

2004-09-19T02:55:00.000+08:00

title link caustic.soda: rage against the a*star machine
see also caustic.soda: science in singapore: future or farce?

i found out that i actually had alot of things to say, plus the fact that haloscan limits my comments to 1000 characters which was rather annoying, so here:

(do first read jh's 1st post above for context though)

More chilling facts: the A*star million-dollar bond only begins to depreciate in the 3rd year of service.

It's interesting how singapore claims that they can accept failures in entrepreneurship, but are simply unwilling to take any risks in science.

actually perhaps it's not so surprising. after all, a*star is a statutory board of MTI, not MOE. their sole raison d'être is to make money for singapore. contribute to singapore inc via the bottom line. nurturing true researchers not included.

alot of faculty from caltech hail from relatively 'unknown' colleges. and i bet some of them had less than stellar gpas as undergrads. but they're all exceptionally brilliant in their fields.

being a product of the singapore system, i must admit to focusing abit too much on grades myself, at the expense of learning. spent too much time making homework impeccable (which made up quite a chunk of the grade) which i could have used to read more broadly or deeply on the subject. plus the fact the score doesn't scale scale linearly with the time spent - to get 1% more points, one needs like 100% more time/effort. as if the homeworks and courses weren't difficult enough to being with. so what if i end up with a good grade, i don't feel like i have learnt as much as i could have. but it's no use regretting it now.

anyway nilsinelabore i don't think it's so nice to snigger at the poor scholars. not all of them can afford to leave like jh and yk. quite a few were probably misled. probably most knew about financial aid, but not all schools have need-based aid for international students. and i bet more than some of those dsta scholars will be in for a shock when they find out what dsta actually does (defence technology management/procurement). hopefully they can find places in dso.

breaking bond is all nice and good, but not serving ns? good luck coming back to visit your family, unless they also migrate with you. but how about relatives? friends?

anyway it's not surprising with all these policies the best and brightest are leaving for other shores. i know 2 brilliant singaporean techers who r not coming back. one on his way to tenure and the other, who received multiple offers from the likes of goldman sachs, doing RA and grad school. (to their credit, they both finished their ns.) and there was this math genius. IMO gold medalist, "I'm not the smartest in my family". His parents were from singapore. gotta love "foreign" talent. singapore seems to be an antithesis of google - instead of making the brains come knocking on the door with brilliant ads, they drive them away instead. why look so hard when u're driving away what u're looking for in droves everyday?

Firefox 1.0 Preview Release

2004-09-14T23:29:00.000+08:00

Get it here. Or click the nice big button below.
Read the press releases here.
Why firefox? Here's why.

Help spread the love here.

Oh, and before I forget, here's where you can accessorize your blog with cool foxy buttons too. Now now, I wouldn't want my dear readers to get jealous and upset over some nice and shiny buttons, would I? :P

Double Whammy

2004-09-14T21:39:00.000+08:00

A few days back, while passing through the DSO carpark on the way to Cintech for lunch with some colleagues, I saw a two cars with the license plate 4313 parked side by side. Hmm, what's the chance of that happening, I mused 2 myself. Being an operationally-ready non-combat clerk, I quickly (using my Quickpockets perk) whipped out my trusty old Casio fx-3600 (Take that you silly TI-toting Americans!) and plonked down in the middle of the carpark:

(10000)(9999)......(9901)
(10000)(10000)...(10000)

Before my colleagues got back from lunch, out came 0.60856596. Which means the probability of 2 cars having the same license plate in a group of 100 was 1-0.60856596, or 0.391434035. Man they should give me a Mr. Quickcalculator award like the singaporean girl who PM Lee said got the world record for SMSing.

Anyway, so the probability of that happening was just slightly under 40%. No big deal. Like the chance of finding 2 people with the same birthday in a roomful of 23 or more to be better than half.

DISCLAIMERS:
1) I assumed there to be 100 cars in the carpark, which looked like a pretty reasonable assumption to me. Of course being a theoretical guy I did not actually bother to count.
2) Don't believe everything you read! But being such a discerning blog reader, you already knew that didn't you? :P

Soon to be a Qitter, lah!

2004-09-13T22:22:00.000+08:00

Met up with Prof E today. Heard that the HoD got a fit when he saw this:

Subject: Success!

Hi,

I just received a letter from the commission saying that they approved my bond transfer to NUS. Can't wait for ORD now. Thanks for all the trouble you and and HoD went through for me!

me

which Prof E kindly forwarded to him. Heheh. Turns out he was against bond transfer as he assumed that the dept would have to fork out $400,000 to 'purchase' me. But in the correspondence which Prof E received from PSC, there was no mention of transfer of monies from NUS to PSC. In fact, they mentioned that NUS should keep them updated of my posting, so that they can calculate the proper liquidated damages should I decide to zao. So I think the HoD won't have any more grounds to object. Prof E will let him know after he cools down abit. And to top it off they mentioned a "5-year bond", so evidently I still get my 1-year NS discount (which I was abit too embarrassed to ask Irene about) even as RA. Yatta!!!!!!!

Old Cock...

2004-09-11T01:01:00.000+08:00

but still good.

Singaporeans Demanding ‘Minister Idol’. Especially Simon's comments.

EDB to Build Lucasfilm Studio, Death Star. Couldn't be better.
NB: Link fixed.

Confirm, Guarantee, waiting for Chop

2004-09-09T01:09:00.000+08:00

When I saw another "on gahmen service" letter waiting for me, my heart skipped a beat. I immediately tore it open and saw "the remaining period of your 6-year PSC scholarship bond will be transferred to NUS upon your ORD in Aug 05", "We have informed NUS and they would contact you soon", and "They have no chance to survive make their time." Pulse resumed beating.

Perhaps I was needlessly worrying after all. I just hope NUS doesn't contact me telling me to look for a job elsewhere.

In other news, 2 people just told me that the grilled fish at the hawker centre near my place is good. To think I've never tried that stall myself. Apparently they were both willing to travel long distances to eat there. It's amazing.

Oh and the dry fried hor fun at queenstown centre (between the commonwealth and queensway MRTs) is good. Went for a sermon at this "Fisherman of Christ" at the behest of a colleague. Was 1 of only 3 unsaved souls there. Managed to stay awake until nearly the end. Was harassed by this really persistent "counselor". Anyway I think the pastor used a really unfortunate choice of metaphors. When he said "the all-seeing Eye of God" the image of Sauron's Eye leapt into my mind.

Anyway was wondering abit about the patriarchy of Christianity. God is portrayed as a fatherly figure. In the parable of the prodigal lost son in the book of Luke, the father is like a personification of God. Jesus is male, and so is his Dad. But can't help wondering about where his Mom went. Especially after having read Da Vinci Code - the Magdelene conspiracy etc. Is there a reason they suppress Mom? Perhaps having a a loving and forgiving Dad packs a stronger emotional punch? Mom's love is unconditional after all.

And when he started on the "relationship with Him" immediately 7 habits leapt to mind - Effectiveness is all about relationships - your relationship with yourself, family, friends, etc..

Well it's not really that I don't believe in the idea of a creator. I can appreciate how beautiful the universe is, and it's hard to fathom how something so intricate could have arisen from a void. But, to quote Jodie Foster in Contact, "There's no data either way." And it's hard to buy literally into any particular religion's point of view. And the speaker was talking about how someone would "lay down his life for the Lord". At that point I was thinking fanatics, suicide bombers and jihadiers, but I guess he probably meant something more benign like volunteering or something.

The (Posting) Saga Continues...

2004-09-07T22:50:00.000+08:00

Argh. Counted my chickens before they hatched.

My lab head just told me today that the physics HoD said he didn't want me to transfer my bond to NUS. In retrospect, it's so obvious. The signs all fit together now. How the prof was so eager to take me, yet took such a long time to get support from the HoD. How he wanted to meet Irene to ask if I could go to nus to do research without transferring my bond. But both Irene and me went away with the impression that it would be ok to transfer in the end. And now that's what the commission thinks I'll be doing too. And how there's no reply from the prof after I emailed him about the favourable interview outcome and PSC's decision to transfer me to NUS.

Great.

Anyhow, perhaps the Commission's decision will override the HoD's opinion on the matter. After all, 9 old men outvote 1, right? Furthermore, it's bureaucrats and businessmen versus a lone academic. But the academic could remain stubborn. Apparently, he's against transfers because he's had some bad experiences with transferred scholars in the past who didn't pan out. But so what? Past performance is seldom indicative of future performance, and heck, that wasn't even my past performance. Once again, my fate is in the hands of a few old men. What's new? Except they're on my side this time. All but one.

Interestingly, my current supervisor in DSO was the HoD's student. Maybe I should ask him to put in a good word to his old advisor for me. Also, his classmate is now a lecturer in NUS, in the same group that I'm (hopefully) joining, which goes to show (yet again once more) how small Singapore is (or is it just the NUS physics department?).

Links

2004-09-07T22:38:00.000+08:00

By Hokkienpeng For Hokkienpeng
So You Want to Learn Japanese

Shamelessly ripped off from jiahao.

Oh well, it's only another 4 more years at most. After all, things can't get any worse, can they?

2004-09-07T01:39:00.000+08:00

With the Crystal Methamphetamine Ball I keep for such occasions, I can predict those of you who continue to invent apologies for this government will tell me that logic, responsibility, coherence and competence don't matter a damned bit & never will again, because 3,000 of the 300,000,000 people living in this country were killed by an elusive enemy three years ago, and that for some mysterious reason the current inept administration should be further rewarded for failing to catch the culprits, failing to make this country safer from either similar or new-fangled attacks, failing to remove the Taliban and Al Qaeda from Afghanistan or Pakistan, failing to win an elective war that had nothing to do with those who launched a war on our shores, and not only failing to make a dent in the Islamic Terrorism movement but in fact creating millions upon millions of ready new converts who now have a massive wrecked state in the center of the Middle East as a home and training base for decades to come, along with a very new and real reason to attack us on every flank that makes Bin Laden's flowery historical rhetoric seem quaint by comparison.

I just can't figure out how anyone can look at our post Sept. 11 leadership and see anything but a smoking heap of tragic failure, and yet that seems to be the only thing the Bush loyalists have to offer as a concrete reason to re-elect this administration. Why? Is Losing the new Winning?

Shameless lifted from random($foo). Thank FDR for causing the 2-term restriction to be put in place. Otherwise even God can't save America after Bush is done with it.

回到过去 lyrics

2004-09-07T01:05:00.000+08:00

一盏黄黄旧旧的灯时间在旁闷不吭声
寂寞下手毫无分寸不懂得轻重之分
沉默支撑跃过陌生静静看着凌晨黄昏
你的身影失去平衡慢慢下沉
黑暗已在空中盘旋该往哪我看不见
也许爱在梦的另一端
无法存活在真实的空间想回到过去
试着抱你在怀里羞怯的脸带有一点稚气
想看你的看的世界想在你梦的画面
只要靠在一起就能感觉甜蜜想回到过去
试着让故事继续至少不再让你离我而去
分散时间的注意这次会抱得更紧
这样挽留不知还来不来得及想回到过去
思绪不断阻挡着回忆播放
盲目的追寻仍然空空荡荡
灰蒙蒙的夜晚睡意又不知躲到哪去
一转身孤单已躺在身旁

Deluge of Gmail Invites

2004-09-06T23:24:00.000+08:00

Phew that was a mouthful. Anyway the good folks at gmail have been topping up my invites to 6 everyday, so much so that I can't keep up with giving out the accounts now. Everyone else experiencing the same? I smell an official rollout of gmail round the corner.

Btw if anyone wants an invite, just leave a comment.

In black and white

2004-09-05T23:29:00.000+08:00

Still rejoicing

Thanks, Mr. Postman

2004-09-03T09:40:00.000+08:00

They sure took their own sweet time. I don't mean you, Mr. Postman, I meant the commission et al. The suspense was beginning to kill me. I emailed Irene yesterday and she said she didn't know my outcome but the mail had already been sent out. Last nite I got home and found that the commission had granted me my wish. Yay. And there was much rejoicing. Cube hasn't heard of the NUS option b4. Wow I didn't know the Astar million-dollar bond doesn't begin to depreciate until the 3rd year. Anyway I celebrated by watching lots of Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre last nite (bought the dvd of the new series cos I missed the earlier eps). But they wanted YL for MAP instead of letting him go Astar. I guess I should consider myself fortunate, being able go where I prefer most. Good luck to the rest of you who have yet to interview.

And so does Gmail

2004-08-30T01:22:00.000+08:00

Too cool

Firefox rocks!

2004-08-28T13:24:00.000+08:00

Firefox + Linkification = Good Stuff!! Even truncated links can't make my day!
Add in a dash of Webmailcompose and Gmailnotify, and it's almost an Ode to Joy.

The Aftermath

2004-08-27T22:06:00.000+08:00

Not too bad i suppose. Was quite a nervous wreck at first. Ran into Yinloon there. Wished him luck as he went in but he didn't seem to notice (prob abit nervous/distracted himself)

Opening volley courtesy of the chairman:

"I understand that you got some money from your university."
"Yes."
"But the figures I have here don't quite add up."
Aside to myself: "No sir I did not appropriate the money they gave to me, nor did I needed to."
"Err, let me explain..."

Actually he started out by asking about my medical condition and I told them all I knew about my kidney. Makes sense now that YL says he's a doctor by training, not just any old PhD.

After the chairman passed me to this Mr. I-can't-remember-his-name 2 guys to the left, who asked me more about Caltech, and things like "So you eat and breathe physics?", "so you don't want to be considered for the MAP at all?" I really should pay the psychologist a visit and thank him. He's done such a good job brainwashing & prepping them. Or maybe I should give myself a pat on the back for putting him to sleep that time. Good job, bean!

But then he asked me about what I wrote in my feedback form about a BS from Caltech being at least as good as an Hons from NUS and probably a Masters. Explained I learnt that from seeing the curriculum of a colleague who was doing a part-time Masters at NUS. Oh well. That probably didn't go down too well with board members present who graduated from NUS. And later, triggered yet another minefield when I said I wanted to do my PhD overseas cos "Right now the impression I get is that a PhD from a prestigious overseas U is probably better than one from NUS, especially if I'm thinking of employment in NUS after my PhD. Oops again. Sigh. I guess a lawyer's (esp one from Microsoft) skills would have been handy then.

Then back to Dr Chew to close up for the killer(s). "What do you think of the HMO?" "What's dat???" Mental note to self - must really properly 'thank' Yinloon for this one. If u're reading this, gee thanks!!!

And the follow up "Did you have any friends in Caltech? Do you have any friends here? Do you feel disadvantaged being an only child? Do you feel like you have lost out?" Err.. I thought the psychoanalysis was in the other session sir. Right, so I only have a handful of close friends. Maybe sometimes I don't feel as social, I'm probably more reticent than if I had sibs, less communicative etc etc but so what? What do you mean by 'lose out'?

"Do you interact with your colleagues, hang out with them after work?"
"Yes I go KTV with them sometimes." Did I look like such a loner on my psych profile?
"You what???"
"KTV"
"So you go there and sing?"
"No I go there to break the glass."
"What?"
"Just kidding. I meant to say I tried my best but despite my valiant attempts.."

I enjoy a quiet read. But doesn't mean I don't feel lonely sometimes. Like now. Especially blogging on a friday night. Yes yes I know Habit 1 - Be Proactive - awareness that one is the "programmer", in charge of his own program. But even Covey admits it's hard to fight against genetic and social programming. And it doesn't help that YL is attached, that we met up with his friend J who is newly attached, that EY just called me to tell me about his romantic dalliance, that DY is so hot he gets gfs like it's nobody's business. Actually that's all none of my business. I hope I didn't offend anyone, and if I did don't take it to heart cos even the psychologist said I have zero political inclination aka tact etc.

Anyway the Chairman also asked about my long term research plan, and I had to say I didn't have a step-by-step one. Beyond doing RAship at NUS for a couple of years, going back 2 US for further studies, and coming back to finish my bond as a postdoc. Started talking about how next year's World Physics Year. Saying I'll probably organize some activities to promote physics to youngsters. But stumbled abit.. not too prepared for that. Oh and Mr. Rex Anthony Shelley suddenly opened his mouth and exclaimed,"You know you'll have to teach as well in NUS." The chairman then asked if I was prepared to spend my entire life doing research. I said my interest should be sustainable for at least 10 years. Then that led on to me blabbing about how "you never know what you're gonna get in research" and how Einstein spent like 9 years in blind alleys before getting general relativity right and I was about to continue to Feynman and his dry spells when someone opened the door wheeling in more caffeine. Chairman then asked if I was looking forward to ORD and I said yes of course dude. He asked why, aren't you having a cushy NS job in a nice air-con place? I said yes but I'd really appreciate the pay increase from below to above subsistence level. Chuckles all round.

Seemed like alot of bloopers but it was generally smiles, chuckles sometimes. Just like how Cheryl Fox has bad hair days, the Commission has good mood days too. Must be the PM's rally speech. Or Comex. Or WOMAD. Thank you PM. Thank you Comex. Thank you WOMAD. Hopefully I'm not counting my eggs b4 they're laid. Oh yes read more post mortems here and here.

First Post!

2004-08-27T21:57:00.000+08:00

Hello world? I blog, therefore I am? Flamebait? Trolls of the world, unite? Hasta la vista, baby?