LED map is arriving at SMRT (finally)

last weekend SMRT extended an invitation to me, to preview the system they are in the midst of introducing to their rolling stock - STARiS. Today is the actual preview. In a nutshell, it's a LED-ed version of their system map, envisaged to be installed above every train door.

due to PR restrictions i'm unable to show photos, but the engineering sample is close to HK MTR's version, but some features altered or in my opinion, missing.

the 2 hr session was an introduction to the people behind the scenes, plus gathering of feedback for their ES. As i liked the HK MTR's way of implementation (and the ES implementation had some differences), i suggested a number of feedback which kept the discussion quite well occupied =x

suggestions included
- reducing clutter on the LED map
- the color scheme, right down to the size of font, station numbering, "door opening" signs
- a different LED color for interchanges, such as City Hall, Dhoby Ghaut
- blinking of the (entire) available lines to transfer to, when a train reaches an interchange

the bulk of the debate went to the "door opening" sides, on the LED map and the scroller that is something close to the one installed on the new trains. I was more interested in making the LED work more interactively.

introduction is a long way though, not in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Odex brouhaha - how SingNet is done in, again.

it's time again to highlight the recent public interest in the Odex court order to force our big 3 ISPs to release subscriber data, based on a simple item - the public IP address tied to a customer during a certain period of time.

Odex was really happily getting money out from scared Singaporeans that were with SingNet and StarHub until it failed in its attempt to fleece Pacific Internet's subscriber data. With the unprecedented court judgment to reject Odex's request and the subsequent loss during appeal, the Odex's financial motive and legal rights are brought into question.

the limelight was inevitably shone onto the other 2 ISPs - SingNet released subscriber information without sending lawyers to argue in the courts, while StarHub tried but failed.

Article's quote - "Online attacks against SingNet intensified after District Judge Earnest Lau published in his written judgment that "for the SingNet case, the orders were made by consent." He also said SingNet did not even appear in court. Different judges had ruled in all three cases."

how much can you trust SingNet to protect YOUR identity?

if you are unaware, SingNet has breached subscriber identities in the past. Together with Ministry of Home Affairs (yes, our very own government ministry), SingNet unlawfully intruded into 200,000 subscriber's computers, by the technique of "port scans".

there are 65,536 ports in our typical systems that are open to the Internet at large. Microsoft was still with Windows 98 sans the "Windows Firewall", and everybody was not well educated in using packet filtering programs such as firewalls in 1999. SingNet's mistake was a serious issue.

singaporeans are meek and obedient - so this Odex and MHA incidents are expected to fade away.

although i'm a long-time customer of SingNet for 8 years, these privacy concerns are putting me off. It's sad to see so many similar management directives slipping through silently - StarHub managed to increase their CableTV charges despite wide criticisms, SMRT/SBS Transit got away with their fare increases despite poor service quality as well. And the latest news that went unreported by our very conservative SPH - Temasek lost £150m after it invested in Barclays in July 2007.

how much can Singaporeans tolerate? Your guess is as good as mine.

Government linked CEOs and senior management have a job to do, and every Singaporean expects the best from them - to put it harshly and as-a-matter-of-fact: i'm entitled the rights to ask for the best from PAP/GIC/Temasek. The 5 years of mandate is not to be taken for granted, please.

Article's quote (SEC info on Pacific Internet) - "SembVentures and MediaCorp Investments Pte. Ltd. ("MediaCorp Investments") are subsidiaries of SembCorp Industries and MediaCorp Pte. Ltd. respectively. Both SembVentures and MediaCorp Investments are effectively controlled by Temasek, the principal holding company of the Government of Singapore. In addition to having the ability to indirectly control the Group, Temasek also indirectly controls SingNet and StarHub - the Group's principal competitors in Singapore."

note: Pacific Internet's shareholders have changed since the article was published.

sch's busy

i don't want, but it's so darn necessary to stay in sch to do my work. Together with trying to keep the CS3214 team working well i'm getting stressed. I'm grouping with a group of 07 freshies for CS2250, which can spell disaster if they decide to extend their honeymoon season or work on the major assignment online. No joke guys, if you're reading....

you know you're still in honeymoon if everyone around you seems to be slacking. Still water runs VERY deep, especially in the campus.

a straw poll done last year found some of my friends change their words in just 1 semester. Especially the poly batch. From the really energetic and pompous "oh i will do it i will aim a CAP of 4 or 4.5" to the lethargic "argh if i can just get by i'll be thankful"... the feelings just get drawn along these lines as time passes by.

it's only week 3 and the load is like -.-. The nonsense will get worse all the way to late Nov.

zmzm... get the degree and that's it. No more studies... unless my close ones give me the support (read: $).

window shopping and AHM

yes, as foreseen earlier i decided not to go for AHM just now. But i woke up earlier planning to go down to Marina to find them. But i ended up reading the STI and forums, in the end when they finished running i was only on the bus to Woodlands Interchange. =x

i'm still telling myself to work on my fitness... let's see.

training programme for 2 months
Sunday night: ~4km
Monday night: weights, 3 sets of 10
Wednesday night: ~4km
Thursday night: weights, 3 sets of 10

this training programme shall start tomorrow. I hope will see this thru. And my IPPT window is closing in less than 3 mths time... die liao.


saturday was out with JY to shop for a portable hard disk. I'm always the late guy, so this wasn't an exception. Such a poor image i'm projecting... hiak.

we decided that DIY is quite a hassle, so went for the ready made ones. Remembered reading that Seagate's FreeAgent Go comes with the useful Ceedo software, so recommended that for her. At least it's better than the glossy surface of the WD Passport that is really prone to even minute scratches.

after that was dining at Thaiexpress, then met her friends Yuhui and Suzhen (spelt it right?). Really didn't go shop for a long time, especially gals' fashion... Zara's prices were rather expensive! It's like a big fraction of my allowance =x

there was so much to talk... about so many things! The only problem was my nagging headache.. and her flu. I didn't tell her about the headache though. Went home, took my medicine and was in bed soon.

visit to NUS PGPR, ingrown toenails - ouch!

the team mates all left early due to commitments, and Kelvin and i had to stay back to help Wang Yu convert his Lenovo to Windows XP. Of course the typical 'say-or-suggest' was so easy, in the end we spent 2hrs+ to download hardware drivers and get the OS working well -.-

Wang Yu suggested going to Prince George's Park Residence (PGPR) for a meal, so off we went. I was rather interested to have a look at PGPR, because the accom is so condo-like from the outside, just without some perks. Nearly died of shock when Wang Yu told me there are about 30 blocks in total - the NUS statistic listed 2854 single rooms. 10% are airconditioned with private bathrooms ($110/wk), 20% with basins ($65/wk), and the rest with only communal bathrooms and kitchens ($60/wk).

Looks class huh?

The sign in green is NANYANG SUPERMARKET! -.-"

Nice facade facing the sports facilities

Kelvin and Wang Yu

from what i gathered from my friends, PGP is less social-friendly compared to Hall life. One even said, upon reaching the place most just shut themselves in the room and don't talk to their neighbours. Suspicious glances can be even exchanged! This is quite a far cry from other experiences such as the orgasm sounds made by couples as they make out in their rooms, the need for 18 pack condoms... etc. zzzz.

nvm... back to toenail topic.

i have a problem of ingrown toenails since donno when.

if you want to continue reading my gross way of removal, read on.

there's always the edge where the nail grows in, then it's difficult to remove using the nail clipper - i use a metallic ear-digger's rounded end to pry the offending edge out, then using the clipper to pull that end off my nail.

still remember almost 5 years ago in Cambodia (YEP trip), i forgot to bring the ear-digger along. Then my ingrown toe became so painful because i couldn't easily remove the offending edge. Plus the daily walking, it was real bad. Then while playing basketball in sandals someone stepped and grazed on that toe, causing it to bleed profusely! And it caused an infection and the doctor suggested me to surgically remove the nail back in Singapore. OUCH! I diedie didn't want, and carefully washed my toe and attempted to cut away the infected nail. Since then, i paid more attention to this problem.

recently with my busy schedule, i forgot to trim my toenails. When i used the digger on the nail, it was so painful i had to keep prying and prying. Luckily the nail's edge came off, pulling some skin along - excruciating pain.

i'm sorry if my removal method put you off =x



SMRT has invited me as a Friend of SMRT to preview a new feature on the trains - i'm guessing it's very close to what Hong Kong's MTR is offering on their trains; A system map at every door, where every station is indicated with a LED (next station or transfer point). I hope SMRT can do better.

100th post - as a sick man

yipee, i have just taken my medicine. Before i go to sleep, just a short post.

Wednesday night lecture - GEK1531 Cybercrime

LT25

Carl's Jr Vivo

my flu just refused to go away. On tuesday my nose was running all day, luckily i pulled myself to do all the routine stuff on that day itself. Then on wednesday, the flu caused a sore throat, which caused my tension headache to visit me. By the time GEK1531 ended, i lost all my appetite for food. Even standing straight is a problem... Zhangwei should know.

on thursday, the symptoms kinda remained with an extra member - itchy cough! I decided, just spend some money to see a doctor. After a really looooong wait, he told me my immunity is low, thus he suggested Vit C tablets. Fine, just take it and poof off.

however i hate taking medicine, unless i have to. CS3214 is taking its tolls on me, so the medicine is a must so i can keep that module (and the rest) in good momentum. However i shall try to step up my immunity the natural way... by exercising.

5 medicine, 2 of them drowsy. OMG...

also wrote a long email to team members explaining my lethargy during the past few days. Administrative matters can kill...

this is also my 100th post, sadly feeling unwell now.

to those who are expecting me to turn up for AHM this sunday.... i'm sorry i might have to be a pilot (guessed you know what meanng). I cannot risk it by running 21km under a persistent flu, then suffer downtime for a few more days, and thus throwing my 8 credits CS3214 into the sea. It's simply suicide both ways - my life and studies. My CAP is too low to take up nasty surprises now...

good night peeps.

校花校草 comes to NUS!

actually the filming started early at Central Forum, but Steve and i were sitting inside a tutorial room slacking away... it's worse for me as my flu kept coming back.

steve was looking forward to see Fiona Xie while we were making our way out to Central, however i'm not a big fan of hers, so...

i got a pleasant surprise when i saw Dawn Yeoh!!! Omg... she's really pretty =x

Frankly... the contestants are not very representative of NUS' quality =x

Rehearsing for the actual camera take

Dawn Yeoh! =)

flu is killing me. I think something is wrong with my fitness level now... i was much better in the army with all the runs and workouts.

PLEASE ZM! PLEASE DISCIPLINE URSELF TO EXERCISE!

how come i sound so loud... like tammi? =x

ahm07, school

went to collect the AHM racepack on Sat, and oh it wasn't a racepack. It was a plastic pack.

sheesh.

The shirt. So so la.

That's the package - the thin piece of plastic underneath the stuff

reached sch 45 mins earlier than required, was quite a feat! =x spent the time at Science canteen eating my favourite noodles, then creating a Google Group for my project.

the next 2 hrs was on project discussion, and 3 of us went to Arts Deck for lunch. Expecting to see eye candies, but nil! Maybe it was due to the poor location we sat at... just beside the plate collection rack.

met Alvin Pang on the way back to COM1, and it's a coincidence all 3 of us knows him - Zhangwei, Waixin and myself. He has put on weight, and i certainly hope he is getting on fine.


later on the night i made some progress in the itinerary planning - the 6-7 day HK programme is 75% confirmed, the 25% remaining is on New Territories (Sha Tin and Sai Kung) and Southern HK Island (Ocean Park, Aberdeen, Stanley).

i still have 1 day of Macau and 1/2 day Shenzhen to plan too, but i shall do that after my exams.

and this sentence serves to remind myself - send email to Studiostudio to enquire on rates. Keep forgetting.... oh no.


was reading someone's blog when she mentioned about her past. Curious, i really turned back the pages. Like a mirror, the words reminded me the amount of damage i caused to her (another her). The resulting change that was happened next was beyond anybody's control. Like the father told me, she is headstrong that she'd listen to no one, maybe me. But since i lost her then, everything just spun off the control.

i'm finally getting courage to face the cold hard facts. I'm finally willing to move these memories to the back of my head, which is fairer to myself and herself. After all, she is attached for sometime. I'm still finding.... to no avail. ha...

the first visible change is friendster. What's next? Let time decide.

品冠 - love songs aplenty

since there isn't much to blog about, i went onto Youtube and started searching.

these songs made me feel sad, ponder and luckily happy also... i found 品冠's songs pleasing to my ears. 明明很愛你 is especially nice, while 後來的我們 is oh-so-true.

these sentences are the ones that captured the essence of the songs imo:

the past:说还是朋友或许只是一个假象... 仿佛都在避开某一些地方, 在人群中都走得特别匆忙...

the current:可能你从来没感觉到, 最好你永远感觉不到

the truth:够真心才是最厉害的武器


品冠 - 後來的我們



越过那条长街在转弯,
那是以前我常来的地方,
碎花窗帘和干净的窗,
你一直希望对面是一片海洋,
*后来听说你一直想搬,
太多寂寞在屋里一直烧不完,
在别人面前我们总显得大方,
说还是朋友或许只是一个假象,

后来的我们一直都遇不上,
仿佛都在避开某一些地方,
在人群中都走得特别匆忙,
怕一不小心就(会),
认出对方,
后来的我们又被谁而遇上,
忍痛去旧的伤,
终于能原谅,
才明白眼泪只是一种行囊,
而我们都是彼此幸福的转站.

也许在某一天,
某个街上,
无意中擦肩,
感觉到对方,
我们继续自然,
不会有人看穿


品冠 - 无可救药



暗恋是一种礼貌
暗地里盖一座城堡
然后再当你的警卫跑腿和小猫
随时你要我重关电脑
随时你要我随传随到
买面包 鸡排和水饺
你每次对着我笑
你的笑里面有毒药
我看着你出了神还丢掉了解药
可能你从来没感觉到
最好你永远感觉不到
爱上你越来越无可救药
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才慢慢体会到
幸福是被爱的人需要
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才狠狠决定要
就爱吧 就唱吧 就不逃
你每次对着我笑
你的笑里面有毒药
我看着你出了神还丢掉了解药
可能你从来没感觉到
最好你永远感觉不到
爱上你越来越无可救药
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才慢慢体会到
幸福是被爱的人需要
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才狠狠决定要
就爱吧 就唱吧 就不逃
爱你到无可救药
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才慢慢体会到
幸福是被爱的人需要
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才慢慢体会到
幸福是被爱的人需要
一天一天越来越无可救药
一生一次爱你到无可救药
我才狠狠决定要
就爱吧 就唱吧 就不逃
爱你到无可救药


品冠 & 梁静茹 - 明明很爱你



梁: 有多少人在旁边 我们都视而不见
彼此却忍不住多看几眼 感觉强烈

梁: 已经微笑的放电 已经暗示到极限
没勇气的人犹豫的瞬间 幸福就飘过面前

品: 我平凡无奇而你 像灿烂星星 让我担心

合: 明明很爱你 明明想靠近

品: 但是你的身边有人捧花总是拥挤
我凭什幺一一打被情敌 敢大声说要做你的唯一

梁: 我的唯一

合: 明明很爱你 明明想靠近 (明明很爱我 明明想靠近)
为什幺还要浪费时间不把你抱紧
(为什幺还要浪费时间不把我抱紧) 够真心
才是最厉害的武器 (够真心 就是最厉害的武器)
我会拼命让你更满意 (你要拼命让我更满意)

梁: 讲配不配太俗气 说爱不爱要问心
爱由我们自己决定不必理 跌破谁的眼镜

much updates

once again i'm feeling constipated after many days of not blogging here. Let's see.... what did i do these days?

CS3214 project
the module is heating up everyone even as this is only Week 1. CH briefed the whole lecture group on Tue, and i was busy settling the admin matters for the group. Such as drawing up a unified (Kelvin likes this word) timetable, then arranging with CH on the days we are available for consultation. Due to tight constraints and we were trying hard not to come sch at 9am every Monday, CH worked out a plan where he would be our advisor and created another timeslot just for us. Many thanks to him for that.

we have to meet him next week, and clarify the business domain. The project specification is 35 pages long, and there are 10 modules. We took 3 hours just to discuss 2 modules (!).... bong.

that's not all, week 3 will require us to deliver the use case diagram and descriptions, gantt chart, etc.

i think i try to settle my admin matters first. IVLE8's community is still not up, really bad. Have to turn to Google Groups for project coord instead.


Server disaster
i bought a Aopen motherboard from naro at VR-zone, hoping to migrate to the built-in VGA card and DDR2 RAMs that i've been keeping as spare.

This is the board. $120!

The screw-on heatsink fan for the CPU. Interesting..

after 2-3 hrs spent on taking out my old Asus workhorse and putting the replacement in, the rude shock came - my Promise Ultra66 RAID is causing the board to hang, and my Pentium M just cannot be overclocked to 133*16=2.13GHz, which Asus did without a fuss.

luckily another kind soul was looking for the Aopen, and was willing to purchase from me at the bidded price plus the price i offered for Celeron M 350 ($20). Again i was full of gratitude for that, because without his offer i'll have to bear a resale loss.

the real disaster was the Turbo setting in the Asus BIOS to enhance the overall performance. I didn't realise the DDR RAM was overclocked beyond the maximum latencies, thus creating memory errors and then broke my RAID 1 setup twice. Nearly lost my data.... *sweat*

time to examine a backup solution. Maybe a mobile drive to do backups every month.


Citibank disaster
i feel compelled to agree with many people's remarks that Citibank = Shittybank.

they gave me a card PIN for use at their ATM and iBanking. I subscribed to e statements, so i was hoping to go online and retrieve my spending and the payment due date (to me this was important - don't want to pay any interest).

first problem was they didn't register my hp number for the compulsory OTP (One time PIN). Which meant i couldn't access every damn thing online.

second problem came after the first was solved; the View Statement feature returned a blank page. It was like this until the 13th, when the feature came on fine (now i know 13th is the generation date).

a third problem is not really Citibank's fault, but i couldn't add a Citibank payment shortcut to AXS's eAssistant. How dismal is that when they are supposed to work hand in hand... otherwise put them together under Citibank's booth for what?!

now, they sent me a paper statement. So did they remember i said no to paper statements (and their $1 charge)?

RAHHHHH!


Dinner and fireworks

let the pictures say everything!

Yes, the desserts were worth dying for...

The sake offering

Handrolls, but i doubted many came for this

Ala carte - kinda ex

I'm going back to try this

What does Shabu Shabu mean?

YUMMY. Too bad we had our desserts in open air... melted fast

Swensens? Hmm.

Hot soba with fried chicken - my order

Jiahao's order - Salmon sabu... note the boiling water on the top left

HK's order - Seafood toji

My Macha Kurian and Strawberry Kakigori (HK)

JH's Macha Kakigori

That was the syrup

Cheers~

The crowd started building up to watch the fireworks across Raffles Ave

We beat the crowds by choosing a strategic place. lol

after the buzz ended, we headed to toilet before going to take buses home.

i saw that a cubicle door was ajar, so went to open. Then saw a guy looking back at me, shocked as though i just robbed or raped him. So i apologised, since i thought it was my fault.

then he still gave that 欠打 look. Almost wanted to ask him whether there's a prob not. Nevermind, waited him to come out, i went in, remarked 'close the door la' and slammed the door shut.

when i went out he still had the 欠打 look. Knn, is he a wussy or simply unhappy someone just outraged his modesty? Crap.

张惠妹 - 如果你也听说

this is a pretty sad song, but it's worth a listen. Are YOU, YOU or YOU part of the song?

我发现站了好久
不知道要往哪走
还不想回家的我
再多人陪只会更寂寞
许多话题关于我
就连我也有听过
我的快乐要被认可
委屈却没有人诉说
夜半信仰丛白剥落
拿掉防卫剩下什么
为什么脆弱时候 想你更多

如果你也听说 有没有想过我
想普通交朋友
还是你依然会心疼我
好多好多的话想对你说
悬着一颗心没着落
要怎么附和 舍不得 又无可奈何
如果你也听说 会不会相信我
对流言会附和
还是你知道我还是我
跌跌撞撞才明白了许多
冷漠的人就你一个
想到你想起我 胸口依然温柔

许多话题关于我
就连我也有听过
我想我宁可都沉默
其实反而显得做作
夜半信仰丛白剥落
拿掉防卫剩下什么
为什么脆弱时候 想你更多

如果你也听说 有没有想过我
想普通交朋友
还是你依然会心疼我
好多好多的话想对你说
悬着一颗心没着落
要怎么附和 舍不得 要无可奈何
如果你也听说 会不会相信我
对流言会附和
还是你知道我还是我
跌跌撞撞才明白了许多
冷漠的人就你一个
想到你想起我 胸口依然温柔

如果你也听说 有没有想过我
想普通交朋友 还是你依然会心疼我
跌跌撞撞才明白了许多
冷漠的人就你一个
想到你想起我 胸口依然温柔
如果你想起我 你会想到什么

gentlemen, start your engines

school has been quite usual so far - usual as in i have been the same, being late for everything.

there was the CS3265 (Econs in E-commerce) lecture on Monday, which i was late for 20mins. Then the lecture ended 15mins after that -.-" And no further lectures after.... roarrrr.

and just now, i went down Bugis to deal with somebody - he has probably gotten a good deal because i sold him 4 sticks of 128MB SDRAM and 4 more 20-40GB of hard drives for only $20. But i wanted to sell them off for some time, so considered that a long wish done. Now, because of that deal and lunch at Simlim i was again late for lecture, this time for CS3214.

i undertook the admin matters for this project, and barely 12hrs after the lecture i sent out 3 emails already.

to all project mates who are reading, let's live, eat, shit and watch sunsets and sunrises together for the next 3 months - if we do not get to this extent, then prepare to get C or D for this module of 8 credits!!!!


i'm going to put all my heart matters on hold... so disappointed when she wanted something in her personal message, but it's only for that pair of eyes that she's interested in. Unknown to her, such secret messages are hurting and misleading me. And that bugger, are you blind? Can't you see someone is waiting in the background? At least make yourself clear rather than making someone hanging in mid air for months and years.

no malice intended!

good morning peeps, it's indeed unusual my posting is done in such early hours of the morning. After a few phone calls here and there, i decided to clarify matters.

let's skip the events prior to this post, and let's just say that i have a couple of unexpected visitors over here, and i'm quite surprised.

i value the freedom of speech on the Internet, and i believe i have been fair in my words online so far. I don't rant for no reason, so wherever convenient, i try to structure my thinking in writing too.

although my blogging atmosphere is by and large personal and cozy, i do listen to feedback and improve. However, this line will soon apply (i didn't say this, it's from another blog i read):

My Blog My Says. Kindly press Alt+F4 if it sores your eyes. Thanks

the rest of the events are strictly confined to coffeeshop talk - join me at Blk 211 (upon invitation only) for a series of kopi-casts.

aquaria shopping at Qian Hu

went out for lunch with GY and Shuhui, decided on Ichiban at cwp's basement. I had not went there since April last year, and it was refreshing in terms of its sushi offering.

i might be dining more often at Ichiban in future!

Wenqun came over to join us towards the end of the lunch, after which i suggested going to Qian Hu. Thanks bro, he decided to spend some time with us before fetching his girl from PS.

One of the 2 galleries

Much news articles on Qian Hu

The goldfish corner

Qian Hu's prized arowanas (not this tank)

Gouramis! Remember the pearl white kissing fishes?

Oscars - the big eaters

The delicate discus - CD players anyone?

One of the marine tank for sale - $1500!

The nice open air cafe to chill out

So chilling that we need ice cream - i'm down with flu, so lemon tea was enough

New inhabitants for my tank - cardinal tetras and rasboras

spent a damage of $35 on the fishes, a new fish net, a Eheim cleaning brush for my filter pipes and finally 3 pieces of Eheim Ecco white filter media. The filter media is expensive ($11 for 3).... no choice.

spent another 1 hour cleaning the Eheim filter, and the water flowrate is back to normal!

while in the car, we discussed about 3 people - his [snipped on request], his present, and someone related to his girl. Friend, time to do what's best for you (and her). I'm glad you realised a gem is beside you, treasure her and never forget what we've told you during our kopi!

sacrifices should be solely for your one and only (PS: sometimes, good friends are worth a sacrifice too. hahaha)

and you're right, i'm aware she had a terrible idea of me ever since that breakup - she might be trying to be an empathic friend of her, but i don't owe her any apologies nor explanation since she is an outsider, somebody whom didn't know the situation well until it ended.

i know this is going to burn bridges, but i'm not Mr Nice Guy all the time. And futhermore i'm pretty pissed that her judgement has affected you in another light now.

judge a person for whom he/she is, but make qualified judgements.

rush hour 3

to prevent myself from being a spoiler, i won't say too much la.

however, i thought it was a mild comedy, turned out to be a good laugh throughout the show. The actions are quite alright, maybe kind of mild too.

i liked the dialogue between the old master and Carter -

Tucker - who are you?
Master - you
Tucker - not me, you
Master - yes, i'm you
Tucker - are you deaf?
Master - no, you is [sic] blind
Tucker - you (point to his disciple)
Master - yes
Tucker - no, not you, him! What's your name?
Disciple - me
Tucker - yes, you!
Disciple - i'm me!
Master - yes, and i'm you!

there were a few scenes that were cut, such as Jackie saying "just checking the size" before the Polanski put on his surgical glove and said "Welcome to Paris"!

and Tucker introducing himself as the new costume designer, and then asking the girls to 'take off all the clothes'. The part after this was snipped, too.

i must say Zhang Jingchu (张静初), known as Soo Yung in the film is quite pretty! Born in 1980, she is natively from Fujian, China.

Another lady to die for.... !?

national day spending, friday horror

i thought i was going to spend a leisurely day at home watching the parade, the fireworks.... nope.

my mum jumped on the eve when my brother came back from camp, and the washing machine made its last breath. It made so much of noise that signaled its last useful use after a good 11 years 4 months. Then the 七月初一 is on the Aug 13 (my mum is very ban tang about this; no new purchase during 7th month).

So the whole family went out to shop for a new one, and i decided to get a new DECT caller too. My caller ID and the Sanyo phone has been here for 9 years, and recently the reception problems are quite bad.

I guessed it lost too much screws after the 5-6th year

My new Fisher&Paykel washer, washing capacity of 7.5kg, and very water efficient.

My new replacement, however the Caller ID stays

we split the bill, and i paid the lion's share of the combined purchase. Now people, don't say i'm rich or has extra $. I don't have kz!

my fish tank has also given a huge overhaul as i left it standing for 3 good months - no feeding, no cleaning, no pruning of plants. When YX came by, he said "you're really busy, because you have not been cleaning your fish tank for so long - the plants are so overgrown". Sigh...

armed with a gravel cleaner to remove dirt, i remembered walking at least 10 times back and forth to wash my filter, another 5 times to top up water and clean my accessories such as CO2 reactor, thermal heater, etc.

the whole overhaul took 2-3hrs, and i have not even cleaned my external Eheim filter for this operation, as i'm missing the pipe brush and sponge filter.

only 30% of my hair grasses remained after 3 months. However, only 6 fishes remained - what a good way to reduce plant and fish load =x


Fri horror
the workshop was to be concluded with a mini project - designing a Leave Management System for the CS3214 project. Before even getting down to the coding, we were already stumped by the use case and class diagrams, modeled in an OO aspect.

the road down is tough.

anime downloaders - $3,000 fine knocking on your doorstep

$3,000 is just a starter sum.

especially those friends on SingNet, please please please start to worry if you've been frequent downloaders of such stuff. StarHub friends - no worries, your time will come.

- Hardwarezone Forums: Kena Odex Letter
- Hardwarezone Forums: I need help... ODEX knocked on my door
- Sample letter (not sample actually. Someone got this shit)

there are some postings that mentioned the possibility of Odex dropping the case - the letter is not a legal demand, but $3,000 to bury matters under the carpet - wow, given the economic boom everyone is ready to be milked?

if you're rich or you know a lawyer, you can try to exploit this loophole. It is pretty plausible, considering the way how IP works on ADSL (SingNet). It's pretty much dynamically changing all the time, provided you turn off/on your modem/router frequently.

if you're hell on breaking the rules, turn on encryption in your BT program immediately. But if they impersonated the tracks and seeders, then.......

that being said, if i receive this letter i'm going to explore my options. Since i don't do anime at all.

Singaporeans are living in a land that has been enjoying 4 good years of growth,
the economy is at its peak.
Too bad we have unscrupulous entrepreneurs lurking to cash in, apparently still being law-abiding.

improvement on Portfolio, module bidding goes cranky, chilling out

Studies and Customer Portfolio
i missed the workshop for a few days now.... i'm sorry mates. I'm aware of this problem and will need serious work on this attitude of mine.

Kay found a simple bug in my Customer Portfolio application - a simple malicious exploit by entering '&' in my text fields would break it and cause an Error 500 -.-"

so i introduced a simple method to substitute illegal characters such as &, *, <> to legal ones, such as '&'etc.

and then adding exception handling into my processing JSP to gracefully catch Error 500s, then print out a stack trace.

the next and hopefully final bug fix is reducing the success of SQL Injection techniques by using PreparedStatements. These are all nice and good-to-have foundation to be used for CS3214's airline project.



NUS CORS goes crazy for gems
i have no idea why, but students always like jewels from NUS, the GEMs.

GEMs = General Education Modules.

while my batch has a slight edge since we aren't freshies anymore (our funds in our general account are around 1100 points), we have those ultra old birds who show hand by placing their fortunes into the GEM they're after.

most GEMs are oversubscribed by tens to hundreds of places, and the highest bid point across all the GEMs in this round (2A), can be as senseless as 2300 points! And that happened unfortunately to the GEK1531 that i'm bidding for!!!

how to match the bid when i have only 1100 points!? Can freshies even take the heat with measly 350 points in their coffers?

anyway, i got the module. Will only know the exact damage when the next round opens, since all successful bid deductions are based on the lowest successful bid offer. I walloped 1011 points before the bid went into closed mode. Sounds confusing eh? It's alright. Only those in the game will understand the pain.


Chilling out
actually it was just a makan and kopi session. Saw Pasta de Waraku at Marina Square; it is interesting, but i have to try it to know whether it's on par with its sister restaurant.

The BBQ chicken was quite nice, but tasted kinda over marinated

New spinoff from Waraku, the Japanese restaurant you'd die for a meal

The price is might be a shocker to some. But if the standard is equally good.....

went to Millenia Walk's coffeebean for my favourite ice chillies, while doing the 2nd installment of travel planning with HK and Simon. The list is more comprehensive than last week's, but it is also messy. Will have to sort them out later.