How Much Do Rankings Matter?

In this year's THES-QS World University Rankings 2007 of the world's top 200 universities, there have been several large changes from last year - the different grading criteria leading to the large shifts in positions of several top universities, including our beloved NUS and NTU.

33= 19= National University of SINGAPORE Singapore

69 61= NANYANG Technological University Singapore
73 77 University of ILLINOIS United States

NUS dropped from 19 to 33, and NTU dropped from 61 to 69. UIUC made slight progress from 77 to 73. (Darn! I should have stayed in Singapore instead of freezing my butt off for 3 years.)

Just last year, NUS was proudly embracing the honor of being the top 20 universities in the world. In fact, as of today, the reference to the 2006 rankings is still on its front page!


Then today's print edition (it cannot be found on the web edition) of 早报 quoted NUS President Prof Shih as saying that the reputation and stature of universities are built over tens, even hundreds of years, and should not be change significantly over just one year. He also reportedly said that NUS would not be taking this year's ranking seriously (article to come). This reminds me of Gold 90.5FM's slogan "Hear only the good stuff!" How typically Singaporean to welcome and applaud only glowing praise from others while downplaying negative reports or criticism.

The same 早报 report also stated, however, that the judging criteria have also changed, so the change in rankings should not come as a surprise. Another accusation pointed out the fact that QS is a British company and this year's report had UK universities occupying 3 of the top 5 (up from 2 in 2006). It's also notable that UK's UCL leap-frogged from 25 to 9 while traditional American powerhouses Stanford and UC Berkeley dropped from the top 10 into the 20's.

How reliable are University rankings anyway, and how seriously should we view them? In Singapore pre-tertiary schools (primary, secondary, JC), standardized tests like PSLE, GCE 'O' and GCE 'A' levels can be used for meaningful comparisons. In this respect, the rankings are meaningful and easy to understand.

At the university level, things get more complicated. The lack of standardized examinations and curriculum make for difficult objective comparisons. Rankings can only be based on subjective measures like opinion polls, where people in industry are asked to rate universities, and faculty are asked to rate other institutions. To inject a slight measure of objectivity,

• the percentage of faculty with PhD's,
• the amount (proportion) of money spent on research,
• the number of papers published (the scale of the conferences at which these papers are presented also matter),
• the number of references from papers published by other institutions

are also taken into account. At this level, results can be influenced by manipulation of numbers without much significant real world benefit to improve a university's ranking. For example, more 'popular' or productive research programs can receive more funding and administrative support, never mind if the papers produced are too esoteric, impractical, or too common-place.

Take a look at America's Best Colleges from the US News and World Report, where the methodology is heavily based on opinion polls, where college deans are asked to evaluate other schools on a scale from 1 to 5.

All that said, the usual wisdom applies - rankings should NOT be taken at face value - people should think about what they are looking for in a university, performing independent research to evaluate the schools. This applies to high-school graduates choosing a college, PhD's looking for research/teaching jobs in university, government agencies or venture capitalist evaluating schools for giving grants/funding, companies looking for academic partners for research collaboration, equipment or monetary donations, etc.

It is important to look at the specific area of interest when choosing a school. For example, a university that is ranked 73 (overall) may actually have one of the best engineering programs in the United States, being consistently in the top 5 among Electrical Engineering and Computer Science programs and being one of the feeder schools of fresh engineers to companies like Intel, AMD, HP, Texas Instruments, etc. It may also have one of the best Agricultural or Mass Communications departments. Or a relatively unknown university in California may have one of the most exciting solid state electronics research departments in the world.

Unfortunately, in 'meritocratic' Singapore, (good) rankings matter most, bad rankings are ignored, and objective evaluations fall by the wayside.

Welcome to Singapore!

Update: I just found this report, linked off Wikipedia, by the Shanghai Jiaotong University (上海交通大学) that puts UIUC at #26 in the Top 100 universities in 2007. Check out their ranking methodology. It's interesting why our Singapore institutions did not quote this report at all. NUS and NTU are ranked #110 and #329 respectively. You can download the full list here.

Personality Assessment Quiz

Imagine you are on a trip around the world in a hot air balloon, when suddenly the balloon starts to sink, as if something on board is overweight. Given a choice, which of the following would you jettison?

1. Camera
2. Clock
3. Luggage
4. Lamp
5. Tin cans

Submit your answers! To be announced in the next (few) installments.

Weekly Updates

Weekly Reports

Don't you just think writing weekly reports is a drag? It is a necessary evil at work, where doing so maintains your chance of survival in the company, but how about in daily life? If your life is so drab, uneventful and boring, what is there to write about, and what business is it of everyone else in the first place?

Fortunately, this is one of those weeks that comes with some discoveries. I haven't been out in a while, and I think it is time for me to catch up with my surroundings and what's happening around me since I am rather free these few days.

Change is the Only Constant

I would like to continue on my time-capsule theme by sharing these pictures of the construction going on in Orchard Road. If this blog is still around when the buildings are half, and fully complete, then I can further post photos of the same scene at those times. Does anyone know what they are building there?

This is taken at the corner of the junction outside Borders and Orchard Boulevard

This is taken from Paterson Road in-between Orchard Road and Orchard Boulevard outside Borders.

Harris bookstore beside Popular at Orchard MRT is closing. Everything is going for 20% off store-wide. There are still some good books there - grab them while you can. It's rather surprising to see them closing shop, but maybe, just maybe, rents are too high (this is Orchard MRT no doubt), and they are selling mainly mainstream books. It make more economic sense to move the business elsewhere and let more profitable/popular businesses (like Popular?) take over the place.

Hmm ... I am wondering, is the rent there really expensive?? Just beside it, there is a discount fashion and shoe shop with hardly any decoration to speak of (is the money saved from lack of decoration the reason why that shop is able to last for so long while other hippy looking shops like Harris are closing??)

Moving Back in Time?

Saw this article in today's 晚报 (yeah yeah, I read such trash)。

Exorbitant prices of bread and ice-cream at a time when the economy is supposed to be booming.

All of a sudden, prices are escalating like crazy - from oil, to flour, and now ice-cream? I was looking for something to eat on Friday night in Chinatown, and settled for my favourite Pad Thai at the edge of the food street. A simple Pad Thai dish ($8) and a Lemon grass drink ($3) costs $11! The place is one major tourist trap! I let it go because I was glad to be satisfying my craving for my tasty 泰式果条, but this is really ridiculous! I miss the good old days when coffee or tea costed 3 cents and a bowl of noodles went for 5 cents.

我的战利品

今天在逛商场的时候看到了几张光碟，结果忍不住就买了整套《咏春》（2007）（上下集）连续剧。真的不敢相信，我竟然买了谢霆锋演出的作品 （这下糟了，肯定得罪锋锋的粉丝了）。那其实也没什么关系，因为我把它当作买给我老爸看的。

精明的读者们就会发现为什么还有一份《杀破狼》的电影光碟呢? 对了！真聪明！那是因为昨天在电视上看了一遍，而且觉得里面的动作场面蛮精彩的。 这张光碟还是未经删剪的呢！一回家就看了，果然是由一些镜头是电视版所没有的。

由此可以看得出我对武术动作片还挺感兴趣的。我本身也学过一年多的咏春拳， 很惭愧得自己还不能成什么气候。应该开始继续练习啦！

Totally unrelated plug: die die must buy Straits Times on Thursdays, throw away all other sections except Urban (cos my friend is in the editing team).

Reflections

I've been carrying my baby around ever since I got it (because it is so small and light!). Many a time, I come across some nice scenery and had a sudden inspiration to take pictures of these places.

No prizes for guessing where this was taken. This is the night-time version of a similar photo taken a couple of years ago. It's very 'interesting' to compare photos of the same place after some time.

Notice how good the partial reflection is at hiding the photographer (me)? I am nowhere to be found!

Here's another photo log of Tiong Bahru estate, which has recently been featured on the Monday, October 29, 2007 edition of "my paper" (我报) for it's attractive yuppie charm.

TiongBahru	WoBaoTiongBahru

Coincidentally, I snapped the photos the previous Sunday, when I passed by the place on the bus on my way home. I suddenly had an urge to take a few pictures of the place/neighborhood where I spent 2-3 years of my early childhood! A lot has changed - the place I used to stay in has been torn down, with only an open field in its place.

Anyone interested to visit Tiong Bahru for the traditional yummy porridge and yuppie style cafes?

One of the antennas atop Mount Faber has Christmas lights! Here are some shots fo the antenna and my neighborhood from my floor. I encourage you step out to take a look at your surroundings from another angle - gives you new perspectives - this also applies to real life when dealing with people and emotions.

Celebrity Blogs

Spent my entire weekend waiting for a mobilization that never came (which is just as well 'cos i really don't want to lug all the stuff to and fro). What matters is that we are well-prepared.

My attempt to sleep before midnight this Sunday evening has been thwarted yet again, this time by a woman no less. :-) Well, I know how some of you might interpret this, but no, I am not that lucky, even though I secretly (what an oxymoron) wish for it to be a recurring 'problem' :-P.

I visited for the first time ping.sg (linked off tomorrow.sg) for some news feeds. From there, I chanced on a blog which had links to various celebrity blogs, the first being that of Live the Dream babe host Andrea Fonseka and I just clicked the link almost by reflex.

Knowing full well that people do NOT put their innermost feelings on their blogs and you can never draw any conclusion about a person's character from reading their blogs, I have to say that Andrea comes across as a rather sensible girl. Hence I would recommend her blog as a celebrity blog worth reading.



Alright, time to hit the sack, otherwise I may get the sack for getting in to work late. Good night!

Meanwhile, I'll drop another bait to whet your appetite - my favorite female singer Joi Chua 蔡淳佳 - listening to her has such an amazing calming and soothing effect on me, every time. She appeared on local TV last Sunday, and she was really beautiful, absolutely stunning!




P.S. ECE Alum Dinner on Wednesday, 31 October 2007, 7pm, Carlton Hotel

P.P.S. I've updated my books entry several times over the weekend too. See if you can catch the difference!

Talented People are Busy

I've been subscribing to Dilbert since 2003. (Hmm, I did a lot of things in 2003) Anyway, notice something interesting about this strip - notice who Dilbert is talking to - the garbage guy is enlightening Dilbert about the real workings of the world. What is Scott Adams' underlying reasoning for using a garbage guy?


Any ideas?

My New Car

On my way home just now, I was escorted by an orange-yellow Lamborghini. In a demonstration of my appreciation, and also to suit my playboy image, I've decided that my next car should be ...

2005 Lamborghini Gallardo Coupé

No offense to Lamborgh owners out there, but the company really made a reputation for itself as a car for rich playboys because of their decision not to get involved in the racing business.

I don't go for the latest and greatest. I'll settle for something slightly modest and mature. I just hope it is low enough to go under the barriers in the multi-storey carparks (heh heh .... siam the parking fee) :-)

Nature Shots

Here are some nice shots. I have some skillz yeah?

Printeet!

I'm doing a plug (voluntarily) for a friend who runs an online extension to their printing business. Click on the title of this post, or visit the "You shoot it, We print it!" (the caption had input from me :-)) link by the side.

I like combining the wonders of modern Internet technology with traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. The technology is there, and the possibilities are endless. It really takes an open-mindedness and a forward looking attitude to make these things possible.

Companies should really take full advantage of all this booming technology to improve their business processes. The era of running your business and operations on spreadsheets has passed, but sadly, so many companies are still using methods from 20 years ago.

What is the winning combination? Just remember this acronym: N.O.T.I.T.!

Need, Opportunity, Technology, Imagination, Talent.

I'm a Cubist

09-Nov-2007: Sob, sob ... my cheapskate cube broke already. I shall put this on my X'Mas wish list - a smooth durable Rubik's Cube!

History, MyStory, Literally

Books are a luxury these days. The only reading I've been doing is on my computer. Technical datasheets, Request for Comments, TR-069/TR-098, PDF copies of the Linux Journal, Linux Man-pages, Wikipedia, news websites, blogs, the list goes on.

When was the last time I actually read a book from start to finish? I cannot remember the number of books I've picked up from the library only to return them, having only read as much as BEFORE I checked them out.

Besides Unix Network Programming, DHTML and CSS, TCP/IP Illustrated, Python Cookbook, Singapore Street Directory (*gasp* does that count???), what REAL books have I read? I'd better write them down now than to struggle to remember them when my memory starts failing.

Most recently in 2005, I remember reading 3 out of 4 installments of Dan Brown over a few months. The daVinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress. Particularly, I started daVinci Code during the outgoing flight on a business trip to the US, read it through my jet-lagged induced insomnia in the hotel, and finished it on the flight back a week later.

In 2004 2003, a (former) colleague recommended Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, saying I would be able to identify myself with the book. I feel very flattered that he thought this way. Atlas Shrugged, with it's classic question "Who is John Galt?", was one of the hardest books I've ever read. I would bring it to the office and read it everywhere.

The book cover shows Atlas (a Greek Titan made by Zeus to hold up the sky after losing a battle with the Olympians) buckling under the weight of the huge book title. What would happen if people of ability - or Atlas - went on strike? The result is tantamount to the sky falling down! And the world as we knew it would end! I shudder at the thought of such a possibility.
Here I am with Atlas at Rockerfella Center in New York in July 2007. Thank goodness he's still holding up. :)

I bought two copies of the book in total - I left the first one in the elevator or something and I could not find it since. When someone asked me which character I liked most in the book, I could not readily answer. Now I have realized that I really like Eddie Willers. He is the epitomization of the common man who makes an effort.

I do not claim to be John Galt, Hank Rearden, or Francisco d'Anconia - I am not worthy, yet. I am Eddie Willers - I TRY.

To see why I really like the book, why my friend thought why I would really like it, why I feel that it really captures the mindsets of most people in the world, even up till today, read the following excerpt:

"I'll count to three," she said. "Then I'll shoot."

"Wait! Wait! I haven't said yes or no!" he cried, cringing tighter against the door, as if immobility of mind and body were his best protection.

All around me, I see people with this mentality, especially at work. If you can understand the above, and appreciate what it means, then we can be best friends or even soul mates, really. If you also enjoy this book, please get in touch with me. Managed to influence other friends to read the book, and I am very happy that they did.

To illustrate how impressed I am with the book and its ideas, (I have updated this portion of this entry close to ten times, but that's just the beginning) I have two computers at home - the laptop is called JohnGalt (aiding my creativity, engineering, and productivity) and the Linux server desktop is called Dagny (always reliable, never whines, never letting me down, plus she looks sexy to boot).

I encourage you to read this book too. I could never find it in the library, but you should be able to get a copy at one of the many used bookshops in Singapore. I bought mine from San Bookshop at Suntec. You can try Sunny Bookstore in Far East Plaza too.

Oh, and did you know, former United States Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is a Randian?!

Update: A film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged has been scheduled for 2008 (finally after years of delays). Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will be starring! Both Pitt and Jolie are Rand fans as well, can you believe it? (If only all Dagny Taggarts in the world looked like Jolie!!) Check out the reports at AmericanHeritage and variety.com.

Besides technical material, I've had an affinity for detective thrillers (推理小说) because of the logical reasoning element involved. But of course, often when I read books with the intention of trying to guess whodunit, I fail miserably because the author never reveals enough to let you deduce the twists in the stories.

I forgot when I became a fan of John Grisham - I read A Time to Kill - it reminds me of the same racial themes in To Kill A Mockingbird which I had read in secondary school. I cannot recall what I read about the book by now.

I have Sherlock Holmes among the other detective novels I have read, or are in my possession.

During my later years in primary school, I had a fabulous gift from my aunt and uncle - something that my parents could never afford for me - The Charlie Brown Children's Encyclopedia. You would be wondering what kind of freak reads ENCYCLOPEDIAS!!! Yep, I was that freak. I was freaking engrossed with the series then. I can't remember right now, but within a year, I had polished off all 15 volumes of the encyclopedia. They make for really, really good reading! With all this knowledge, I managed to ace all my science tests and was able to answer secondary school geography test questions that I have never studied for!

Another manifestation of my freakish behavior came in the form of me bringing along a pocket dictionary everywhere I went. My dad bought me "The Little Collins Dictionary" on August 14, 1986, 2 days before my 10th birthday. (I remember this because it is still on my shelf, and I just opened the cover to see that I have written the date of purchase on the first page!) I looked up every word I saw that I was unfamiliar with. Such was the thirst of learning. I also made a goal of reading a few pages of the dictionary each day, but regrettably, that did not last very long.

I started reading the Lone Wolf series of game books in primary school on the recommendation of my cousin, and I got hooked ever since. Over the years as soon as a new copy was released, I would open my kitty, carry $5.50 in coins to my favorite hangout Times the Bookshop in Specialist Center to buy the book. All from my own saved pocket money (50 cents a day).

I finished the last few books up to the 20th and last book in the GrandMaster series "The Curse of Naar" during my army days when I was hospitalized for a week at NUH due to tonsillitis. By then I was a already an invincible GrandMaster - breezing through all the combat situations without even needing to pick from the RNT (Random Number Table). I also had more gold coins, potions and weapons than I could ever use. :)

I still have all 20 volumes lined up orderly on my bookshelf!

There is now a Lone Wolf revival movement, and Joe Dever, the author of the Lone Wolf series, has agreed to open-source his works under Project Aon!

I owe my writing proficiency in English to reading Lone Wolf books. I was still in Primary Three, and my english composition scores were barely passable, like 23, 24 out of 40. After reading these, my scores increased significantly to 33, 34 and even 35! Ironically, I felt that I have reached a plateau after that, and my english proficiency never really progressed from my primary three level. :-) (Does this entry look like it's written by a primary three student?)

Lone Wolf, obviously, were not the first books that I started reading. Like many other children of my time, I started on Enid Blyton, moving on to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (*gasp*). Reading these books were sort of fun, but they were not really useful in improving English proficiency. The whole school was practically reading these, and I didn't see them (nor myself) getting anywhere. I guess, maybe, that my limited maturity at this point (I was only 7 or 8 years old at that time) didn't allow me to really learn from the books.

I'll stop here and post this entry. If you are in my generation, I hope you will find it memorable, if not interesting. Next time, I hope to write about my trials and tribulations of learning the Chinese language, and my experience with an old game that has recently returned to popularity: the Rubik's cube.

How Many Days A Year Do You Work

I was 'prompted' to make this calculation to prove that we are indeed slackers who are paid more than we are worth:

• 52 weeks a year
• 5 days a week
• 18 days of annual leave
• 11 public holidays
• 14 days of medical leave
• 14 days of hospitalization leave
• 30% each day spent chatting, idling, and sitting on the bowl

=> ((52 * 5) - 18 - 11 - 14 -14 )) * (100-30)%
= 142.1 days (39%)

And I have not applied the theory of Monday blues and Friday moods, which would practically reduce the effective number of working days a week to only ONE (Wednesday).

Not to mention that lots of extra money that goes into, and the frequent flyer miles earned from company sponsored business trips that translates into personal free tickets. Mileage claims, entertainment expenses, overseas travel allowances, hotel stays, transport claims, medical/dental claims, etc., all come into the picture.

See how fortunate we all are - and you dare ask for a raise???

Joke of the Day - Procrastination

A: I have a problem.
B: What is it?
A: I'm prone to procrastination.
B: What are you going to do about it?
A: I guess I'll take care of it later ...

__________________________________
Yahoo! Movies - Search movie info and celeb profiles and photos.

http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/

It's a Rainy Morning Today

Could not catch a cab. The bus took a long time.

What to do?

Quote of the day: "maybe she's like chocolate...sweet on the outside, nuts in the inside. "

You go girl!

今天在7-11里的一本杂志上看到了一张熟悉的面孔。原来是我的大学学姐。这就是真正的女中豪杰！

Welcome the new additions to the family

Came in by VPost this morning. Bare, no case, no card, but soo small and cute.

Visited Comex over the weekend with my brother in law. (Yay, no women and kids in tow :))

Anyway, I bought a Brother DCP-130C for my scanning and printing needs. My mum is making enough noise already. She wants to print her recipes.

Out of sheer vanity, I got myself a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 4GB ... am I satisfied? Maybe ... but it can be better. :-P

Heh, there is a real addition to the (extended) family. Sophia biaomei's Darell is having his first month celebration and Baby Shower this coming Sunday (tomorrow). It's interesting cos this is the first time I have heard of the baby shower concept. I'm sure my 'baby' will have lots of fun with baby Darell. I'll post them here, or on Picasa maybe.

From left to right: Aunt Anita, Rachel, Aunt Mabel, Mum, Cat, Aunt WaiChing, Edmond (Cat's boy), Yvonne (sis).

My item on Alangaaram should be around 11:30am tomorrow (Sunday) at Radin Mas CC.

I've 'completed' the scheduler for our own TR-069 ACS (I am open to business opportunities). More info up and coming in Comsul.

OK lunch time (it's 3:40pm now)!

Alangaaram 2007

Come down for Alangaaram 2007 at Radin Mas CC this coming Sunday. I'll be there ...

Shopping List

1. Nokia E65 for its WLAN, connectivity features, VoIP, camera (wish it was 3.2MP), and slim form factor. (Maybe getting in November.)
   
2. Canon MP160 All-In-One for basic printing and copying. (Update: I got the Brother DCP-130C instead because at $98 it is much cheaper than even the MP145 which was supposed to replace the aging MP160 and MP180).
   
3. Canon LiDE600F for power scanning abilities, fast, lightweight and film scan for archiving all the old photos. (I haven't got this yet.)
   

Buying Good Camera for Cheap

BuyDig was recommended by a friend for digital cameras, camcorders, etc. Prices are quite low according to what I have seen. They offer a free shipping option too!

Amazon, is quite good too. I found the lowest base price there, but including shipping brings the cost higher than BuyDig.

Most American online retailers do not ship outside of US, but things have now changed with vPostUSA! Take note of shipping charges (quite reasonable), insurance and custom GST.

Happiness Is ...

... being able to give your team members a promotion

... being able to give your team members a pay rise

... being able to treat your friends to a nice dinner

... being able to feel like you are adequately compensated for your contributions at work (not quite there yet ...)

Policy Forum @ Tanjong Pagar GRC

YOU ARE INVITED!

The Radin Mas CC YEC will be organising the Policy Forum @ Tanjong Pagar GRC,

Topic: "Working / Living Overseas - Home away from Home” on

Date: Saturday, 12 May 2007
Time: 1.30pm - 5pm
Venue: Zouk, Velvet Underground
17 Jiak Kim Street
Singapore 169420

Guest-of-Honour: RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State for Education

Programme

1.30pm Registration & Lunch
2.45pm Arrival of Speakers
2.50pm Arrival of Guest-of-Honour (GOH)
3.00pm Tanjong Pagar GRC PAYM Policy Forum Commences
Opening Address and sharing by GOH
Sharing by Guest Speakers
3.45pm Dialogue with Panelists (GOH & Speakers)
4.30pm Reception
5.00pm The End

Target Participant: Working youth age between 25 and 35 yrs old

The organising committee invites you and your friends to join us in the forum
You may RSVP your attendance by 08 May 2007. E-mail on contact:

Ms Tracy Tan

Deputy Constituency Manager, Radin Mas CC
Tel: 62735294 Fax: 62730768
Email: tracy_TAN@pa.gov.sg

We look forward to seeing you on the day.

Vacation Photos

Take a look at the photos from my trips here:

New Mobile - Samsung X210

My Philips Xenium9@9c LCD display conked out on me right after I landed in Newark at the beginning of my 2 week US+Carribean business trip.

Upgrading my handset on my current phone contract is not an option, so I went to get myself an X210, simple, no frills phone for the new year.




Thanks to ST for the standby phone loan while I was choosing the new handset.

Virus Removal

Was bothered by a virus that I could not seem to eradicate with avast! free antivirus. I am not linking to it because it is not good! I switched to ClamWin antivirus and found the following:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\e1.dll: Worm.Stration.XL-6 FOUND
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ipv6rasm.dll: Worm.Stration.XL-5 FOUND
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ipv6rasm.exe: Worm.Stration.XL-4 FOUND
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ssdprasa.dll: Worm.Stration.XL-2 FOUND
C:\WINDOWS\system32\tlntqedw.dll: Worm.Stration.XL-1 FOUND
C:\WINDOWS\system32\vdieasyc.exe: Worm.Stration.XL FOUND

Try as I might, I could not remove the files, until I found Unlocker from The Free Country.

ClamWin is not a on-access/realtime scanner. Combining it with WinPooch makes it so. There is reportedly a Firefox extension to do the same thing.

Here are some more links:

• Unlocker
  
• ClamWin
  
• WinPooch
  

X'Mas Presents

Got this Sudoku device from Toys 'R' Us as a xmas present to keep myself occupied on the morning train ride. A pity it does not have a backlight so that I can play with it in dim lighting conditions (but that is bad for my eyes).


Jerome doing a solo. Picture taken and printed courtesy of uncle Park Woon.

Family photo with Sis and Brother-in-law.

Taipei 2006

In Taipei for the TR-069 plugfest organized by the Asia DSL Forum. Here are some pictures to share:

Taipei 101. 91st floor outdoor viewing gallery. It's only about 6 degrees, and it is raining. I was the only visitor atop at that time.

In the stairwell of the same floor. I am really not bluffing!

Signboard of the DSL TR-069 plugfest.

Aztech's booth. I was the only representative.

From the bottom, looking up.

All I Want For X'Mas ...

1. Digital Camera - Panasonic FX01/50
   
2. Mobile Phone - LG Chocolate / Samsung Ultra-12.9
   

Rotterdam IV

Bought a pair of Adidas running shoes over the weekend. It's about time, since my Nike Skylon was literally falling apart after 5 years and I really needed to get rid of the no-shoe excuse to procrastinate from running. My New Balance 1023 was also 1/2 size too small, resulting in awfully painful toes after 5 minutes of running/walking.

It has ClimaCool to keep your feet cool and Pro-Moderator to prevent over-pronation, even though I am flat-footed, I don't over-pronate, at least judging from the wear pattern of my shoes. Anyway, I'll be fitting in my support insoles.

Take a look! Gimme your comments if you have any.

Fedora Core 6

Fedora Core 6 arrives on 2006-10-24, 14:00 GMT

Enuff said!

Aztech V500DS

Skype Gear has this review of the dual-mode Skype0DECT combo from Aztech. Interested parties can approach me.

As with all Skype ‘dual mode’ phones, this phone gives you the choice of either using Skype or your regular phone line to make calls. If you have more than one handset, you can even use Skype to make a call whilst your son/mother-in-law/partner/cat/goldfish is calling using the landline.

One inaccuracy though. The phone in the picture and the description in the article is actually a HS315-S1, which uses a USB dongle attached to the PC installed with Skype software. The V500DS has Skype built-in.

Here's the press release.

IPPT/Cardio/Shoes

IPPT

Had to retake my IPPT before my birthday, failed running as usual. Booked a test for August 8 at Maju Camp. Really need to work on cardio every two days and strength conditioning in between. Crunches, pushups, lunges, and stair-climbing are in order.

Cardio

Took a tumble while jogging today, it happened near the end of my 20 min run. The running track had ruptured where a tree root had grown underneath. My foot caught on the protruding section of track as it was taking off.

Landed first on my right hand (badly scraped) and rolled over on my left shoulder (bleeding but the skin did not break). The guy next to me just took one glance and went back to minding his own business. (So much for caring Singaporeans, I guess.)

Getting up, I examined my now bleeding right palm and looked over my scratched left shoulder, brushing off the sand and gravel on my left arm.

Deciding that the little bleeding was not going to kill me, I decided to complete my intended 20 minutes on the track. I managed to run another round, sprinting past the accident spot until the end of the straight stretch, by which my stop watch was at 21 minutes.

I didn't really expect that I can keep jogging for 20 minutes straight, but I guess slowing down the pace helps. I would try to extend it to 25 minutes and then to 30 minutes the next two times.

Shoes

Got a new pair of Hush Puppies (at 20% discount). Being highly traumatised from my experience with tight-fitting shoes (those that feel fine when you first wear them and then kills you near the end of the day), I was extremely skeptical when the salesgirl gave me size (EUR) 41 and even suggested that I try 40!

I agreed that 42 was too large, but I still have reservations about size 41. They feel and walk fine in the shop, but I really don't know what will happen after I have been wearing them and walking around for the whole day.

She managed to sell me a box of shoe cream/grease for polishing my new shoes (because I asked). I hurriedly paid for the items and got out of the shop before she started to sell me socks, insoles, etc.

After comparing with my existing pair of Polo shoes, the Hush Puppies are SLIGHTLY larger. Hope this pair of Hush Puppies wears nicely.

Commencement

Phew! Finally graduated from the Master's program! I was presented on the first day of Commencement week. Security was airtight. MM Lee and PM Lee where present. Their arrivals were not announced.

I would say they overdid the programme. The graduands had to sit through 3 hours of proceedings for their 10 seconds of exposure on stage. The bulk of the time was taken up by talks, accolades, and lectures by VIPs, and a choir presentation. (I want to go toilet!)

Me, right after the ceremony. (Courtesy of Matty)



Class of SMACS2005/2006.




With Juliana and Esther after collecting our SMA certificates.

Graduation

SMA Spring 2006 results are out; this is my best semester ever, including my undergraduate days. Will successfully graduate with my MS(CS) on July 6, 2006.

I've managed to achieve a respectable overall result for the whole course. Have something nice to embellish my resume with as well - a nice surprise. The effort I have put in has been worth it. I hereby thank my family and relatives for their support, encouragement and tolerance during this past year. Thanks also to all the classmates who have so selflessly rendered their assistance, participated in discussion, provided encouragement, etc. Do we only get to meet in the classroom and not outside?

Will post photos of the commencement ceremony when I get the chance.

Starting work on July 10, 2006. But I wanna watch the world cup finals!

Finally some good news. Record profits in many known years, a step in the right direction. Despite the shortcomings (which still exist) we are going somewhere. Keep it up!

P.S. Just don't forget the bonuses. :)

Deliverance

hallelujah! Finally SMA is over. (On May 19th in fact.) We have submitted our last report on Parallel Computing on the 25th, and along came a huge sense of relief.

It's a wierd feeling, like hysterisis ... transitioning from highly strung to slack in an instant. The feeling takes some getting used to.

Going to take a well deserved break this June. Colleagues please do not ask me to return to work yet. Lemme enjoy my fleeting moment of tranquility before being drawn into a vortex of dates and issues.

Meanwhile, travel buddies anyone? London, Paris, Rome?

Have ... to ... run ...

From yester-year

It's been a long time!

Left: Mug shot taken for ECE291 class.

Right: River crossing during army.

Many things

Sophia biaomei gave birth today by C-Section. Damien Oh weighs 2720g at birth. Welcome to the world. Congrats Sophia & Anson.

Another revelation: Miss Good biaomei changes bf again. Quite impressive though, while never short of suitors, the last one lasted 4 years. 4 years of Tiffany's and what not... sigh. Her mum seems to like this new one.

Reviewing my posts since the beginning of this blog, I'm surprised that I actually wrote quite a lot in the beginning during 2003. Then came 2004, 2005 and into 2006, the number of posts dropping year after year.

Then again most of my posts are small snippets of everyday life, not the kind of thought-provoking, philosophical commentaries to be expected of a top notch author. And recently I had to commit atrocities like posting my geeky security logs, leave a failed attempt at inserting chinese characters (???) on the blog, writing about past entries ...!!!

Alright, I am supposed to be busy this past year. My relatives have been commenting why this course is taking so much out of me. Blame it on the SMA tradition of raising the bar ever higher. I just hope I can find enough in me to bring me through this one more month. Grrr.....

Got a call from IHPC... dunno what they want me for. I'm even supposed to prepare reference letters!

You just have to look longer ...

I simply have to blog about this. The best solution for remote (and local) development and debugging.

For Java, we have Eclipse. I would like to use Eclipse for C/C++, but alas, the quality of Eclipse/CDT is way lacking. In comes BVRDE

I could have found this a year ago if I had searched a few more pages of Google. This just shows that my Google skills are still not up to scratch

Give BVRDE a try!

Lyrics - 岁月留情 - Jacky Cheung

Ever wonder why, when you SSH into your Unix/Linux workstation and view manpages, use curses applications, etc, the display seems to be garbled?

This is because of a font misunderstanding between your terminal program (mine is PuTTY) and the ncurses package. Ncurses now uses UTF-8, so make sure your terminal program is set to interpret the incoming character set as UTF-8 instead of the default ISO-8559-1. In Putty, this should come under Window->Translation in the settings dialog for a configured session.

March 25

I've caught up with the hype and installed Fedora Core 5 (released March 20). Thanks to LUGS, the Averse mirror is back up. I lent my DVD to someone else, and so wrote the boot image to a thumb drive, booted from it and did a network installation from my other machine, on which I have mounted the DVD ISO on a webserver.

After a few false starts (not enough space for upgrade, cannot find repository data, etc), I finally got the installation process underway and went to sleep, and by morning, it was done! Not bad for 3-4 hours work.

Looking forward to trying out Xen on it. There is a lot to keep up with since much has changed since Redhat 9!!!

I'm getting keeping the filesystem of RH9 which I have painstakingly built-up over the months in a separate directory. I can chroot to the RH9 directory, mount proc, mount --bind /home ... and all should still be fine! I hope, since I have not tried it out.

Need to reinstall a lot of things, like updatedd, rlocate, etc, gosh.

Try out the OpenWRT source code! It is cool!

TELEWORD Solver

Wrote a teleword solver just for fun over the chinese new year.
TELEWORD
Works with IE for now. Yet to find out why Firefox doesn't.

Connection Marathon

Managed to connect for 503 hours straight. Need evidence? Look here:

End of Semester, Starting a New Phase

We had our last final Machine Learning examination on Thursday morning, and we had lunch at steamboat after that. Here are the satisfied faces after the very fulfilling meal. (Never judge how much a person can eat by his/her build - another lesson learnt)

I'm not a big fan of steamboat buffets because I can never eat so much. But well, this is the end of the semester after all, what we have been looking forward to for four months. Phew.

When are we going for karaoke? Sorry that I 'duahed' everyone the last time ... I really slept too late. Next time just go there and start without me, I'll catchup. Apologies again. :)

Also bought a cool aluminium hard disk enclosure (at Storage Studio, slightly overpriced) and DVD-RW drive (a $69 bargain at VideoPro's new showroom).
Too bad the 250GB capacity hard disks are out of stock. The perils of shopping close to the weekend, and during X'mas season at that. I'll try again on Saturday, after I sort things out in school.

Started my first day (orientation) of internship at Encentuate on Friday. Feels wierd becoming an intern especially after working for five years already. Man, it has been that long! It is quite cool to experience how another company operates, it opens up a whole new perspective, very enriching experience. Apparently my project is quite highly sought after, not to mention being quite expensive too (cos of the equipment involved). *Pressure*.

Got a pair of Creative 1700 headphones, not too shabby, heh ... has a long 1m extension cable.




Wow, I'm spending a lot of money. :P:P

Went browsing around at Best Denki, looking at DV Camcorders. There was a guy promoting JVC models, but he was enthusiastic enough to discuss esoteric features like Canon's (and Sony's) AV-DV passthrough with me, although, like virtually all salespeople I have talked to, had no idea what I was talking about at first. This one is good though, he was patient enough to listen, and really understood what I was saying.

The new Canon DVD camcorder did not have the passthrough function, apparently, so he kindly let me plug the power into one of the DV tape models to browse through the menu screens. I finally found the setting "AV-DV recording (on/off)" while in VCR mode. Sweet success!

Also saw the spare battery for my wireless headphone at Best Denki, but it costs a whopping $30, so I decided against it for now. Need to amortise the spending.

Plan to go back to school Saturday morning to clean out the waste paper, scan handwritten notes and burn stuff to DVD.

USB2.0 drives finally works on my Linux machine! Had to use a 2.6.12 kernel. USB development has stopped on the 2.4 series of kernels, so even the 'latest' 2.4.30 cannot make it.

Made a Knoppix 4.0.2 LiveCD a few days ago and booted from it. Viola, the USB drive worked with the EHCI-HCD driver! Wonderful! But I've been afraid of migrating to a 2.6 kernel, which is rather unfamiliar territory. Since I am running a RedHat9 system, even though I have already heavily patched to keep it up-to-date, the system and some initialization files (namely /etc/rc.sysinit and /etc/modules.conf) also need some tweaking to get them to support a 2.6 kernel.

Instead of trying to compile a 2.6 kernel myself (which takes a terribly long time, by the way, even on my Pentium4 3GHz with HyperThreading), I just copied the kernel and modules from the Knoppix CD's Live filesystem! Guess what, it actually works! (Well, but not without some adjusting of configuration files of course).

For those who are in the same boat as me, here are some useful links.


http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html
http://kerneltrap.org/node/3106
http://www.mobydisk.com/techres/linux_2.6.1_kernel.html
http://www.linux-sxs.org/upgrading/migration26.html

The Knoppix 2.6.12 kernel has now replaced 2.4.30 as the default kernel in my Grub configuration.

Found this new NDAS technology while looking for an external drive enclosure http://www.ximeta.com/technology/ndas/index.php, looks rather promising since it includes both USB and NDAS. NDAS skips the overheads of TCP/IP and CPU processing, even allowing RAID configurations and unlimited expansion options. It comes standard with Gigabit Ethernet too (you can't do any fast file transfers with Fast Ethernet anyways)! The case by Sarotech is going for S$179, seems a good buy. A 250GB drive is also going for the same price ... hmmm cheap cheap ... but getting both will set me back by another $400! Not to mention that I need to get a replacement DVD writer.

Hmm ... I'll make this my X'Mas wish list! :P

Bummer!

Wasted a lot of time today doing anything but work. This is very destructive. No one who expects to succeed would lack this kind of discipline.

Heard this from the prof while watching AI lecture video ... "Eating your own dog food..." what does it mean?

It means to use your own software that you write on a daily basis, just like your end customers would. Joel's Definition

Finally cleared my Machine Learning lectures! The next one will be out pretty soon, and there is still so much homework and readings to catchup on.

Ganbatte!

Secure Your Machines Folks!

It's interesting how many times you are being hacked daily when you have a machine connected to the Internet via broadband ... Here are some logs ... hopefully this will guide some readers to secure their own machines and remove those simple logins if you really want to leave your machine connected to the Internet.

[Edit: This entry is a bit too long. Trimming ...]

 Authentication Failures:
    nobody (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    root (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 18 Time(s)
    adm (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    apache (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    mysql (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    games (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    mail (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 6 Time(s)
    news (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    ftp (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)


Failed logins from these:
 adm/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 apache/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 ftp/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 games/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 mail/password from 65.122.184.1: 6 Time(s)
 mysql/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 news/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 nobody/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 root/password from 65.122.184.1: 18 Time(s)


**Unmatched Entries**
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user guest from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user webmaster from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user oracle from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user library from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user info from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user shell from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user linux from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user unix from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user webadmin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user guest from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user master from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user webmaster from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user user from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user username from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user username from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user user from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user danny from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user sharon from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user aron from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user alex from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user brett from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user mike from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user alan from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user data from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user www-data from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user http from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user httpd from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user backup from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user info from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user shop from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user sales from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user web from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user www from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user wwwrun from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user adam from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user stephen from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user richard from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user george from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user michael from 65.122.184.1 -- By GOLLY! George Michael!  

Another Quote

GREAT SPIRITS HAVE ALWAYS ENCOUNTERED VIOLENT OPPOSITION FROM MEDIOCRE MINDS - ALBERT EINSTEIN

Quote of the Day

Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you need is someone who'll take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

The Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? Assignments and deadlines? These times are even worse than the toughest working hours that I've ever had. Three subjects, totally new, without prior background, not enough time to get familarised. How to find the strength and discipline to carry on? Argh! Help me!

Today marks the end of deadline week, and is also when I had slept the longest for a long long time. There is a deadline every day of the week for many different subjects. Compiler project and paper discussion, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence. Not to mention having to go back to camp for pre ICT briefing, and my deferment is still pending after 3 months! I want to stay in the SMA program, but if I am forced to go for the ICT, I'd definitely fail the program. Just hope my CO would get around to processing my deferment soon enough.

Kudos to classmates who have been patient and helpful, without you, I would not have made it this far. You know who you are! Thanks to all the good friends who have been supportive and encouraging. Apologies to the people I have neglected, I feel really bad, and I hope to make it up.
Some tell me to be more modest, some tell me I should love myself more. Looking back, it's all the same, just that people are looking at me from different perspectives. I'm a confused man.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF MARRIAGE

COMMANDMENT 1
Marriages are made in heaven. But so are thunder and lightning.

 

COMMANDMENT 2
If you want your wife to listen and pay strict attention to every word
you say, talk in your sleep.
 
COMMANDMENT 3
Marriage is grand -- and divorce is at least 100 grand!

 

COMMANDMENT 4
Married life is very frustrating.
In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens.
In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens.
In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.
 
COMMANDMENT 5
When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure
of one thing:
Either the car is new or the wife is.
 
COMMANDMENT 6
Marriage is when a man and woman become as one;
The trouble starts when they try to decide which one.
 
COMMANDMENT 7
Before marriage, a man will lie awake all night thinking about
something you say.
After marriage, he will fall asleep before you finish.

 

COMMANDMENT 8
Every man wants a wife who is beautiful, understanding,
economical, and a good cook. But the law allows only one wife.
 
COMMANDMENT 9
Marriage and love are purely matters of chemistry.
That is why wife treats husband like toxic waste.

 

COMMANDMENT 10
A man is incomplete until he is married. After that, he is finished..

Leaving MIT

Typing this from Boston. We are 3 hours away from departure, bringing an end to 3 weeks of life at MIT. We've been to many places, done many things, spent a lot of money, and we wish that we had more time to do more things!

However, it is time to pack up our overflowing luggage and exhuberent feelings to return home, to get on with a life that we are all happy to take a break from.

We'd be landing in Changi airport late Sunday night. So see you on Monday! Luckily there are no lessons! Hee hee.

SMA Plug

Six graduate programmes will be offered by SMA for a July 2006 intake.

Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) is collaboration between NUS and NTU in Singapore and MIT in the US. SMA offers DUAL DEGREES: either a Masters degree from MIT and a Masters degree from NUS/NTU; or a Masters degree from MIT and a PhD from NUS/NTU in addition to direct PhD degrees to be awarded by either NUS or NTU.

SMA Graduate Fellowship Benefits:
· Full support for tuition and fees at MIT and either NUS or NTU
· Monthly stipend of up to S$2500
· Roundtrip airfare between Singapore and MIT
· Living allowance of up to US$6000 during residency at MIT

Study Burnout

Spent so much time revising the chapter on normalisation and decomposition. Managed to finish going through the notes and understood them with reinforcements from the textbook and help from my classmates. But some doubts still remain. I guess these must be clear through practising with questions and working through the assignments.

Had not touched the project yet. Was so obsessed with the normalisation and decomposition that I didn't do anything else. My lack of background in databases is killing me. I am falling behind everybody else.

Almost didn't want to eat. Couldn't get to Funan like I originally planned because I could not finish the damned studying in time. Left the lab at 9:30pm and went to Tiong Bahru.

Went into LJS wanting to try their Spicy Lemon Baked Fish. Already had a stressful day - and guess what happened? The Spicy Lemon Baked Fish comes with a soft drink. I said "regular" Coke, only to realise later that I was being charged 30cents more. "Regular" is the MEDIUM capacity drink; "Small" is the actual smallest size! Come on! Can everyone standardise on the convention!!! Alright, my fault ... I cannot expect the staff to remind me that regular is the medium size and it costs more. Nevermind that this is a very common mistake made by customers.

I paid, the drink came, and I was told to take a seat, presumably while the main course was being prepared. So I went to take a seat (expecting to at least be called or have my order brought to me once it was ready, since there were no more customers), and took out my notes to study, examining the difference between the text and the lecture slides - text book says a BCNF decomposition of R with X->A violating BCNF goes into R1=(R-A) and R2=(XA), while the lecture slides say R1=(R-X⁺ )∪X and R2=(X⁺). In fact, I managed to analyse that both are in fact valid methods - BUT my order STILL has not arrived.

After deciding that even if they had to catch the fish from the tank and cook it, it would be done by then - anyway, IT IS FAST FOOD isn't it - I went back to the counter, and in no friendly tone, ask if my order was ready. The supervisor said "yes" and tried to confirm with me my order, saying something that I couldn't make out what it was. True enough, the fish was on the kitchen window, cooling off. The sup plunked on the tartar sauce and gave it to me.

"Was I supposed to come get it myself?!" "Umm ... no". He pointed to the girl who took my order, standing in front of the counter ready to go home, "you forgot." She giggled, yeah right, like it is very funny. No apologies, no explanations, NOTHING.

Very good service, LJS! Very good indeed! (I am being extremely sarcastic here). Instead of a bell that people ring for good service, put up a LOUD buzzer that people sound for bad service. That will tell you if you are doing well or not!

The gliding support of my mouse has fallen off and gone missing.

Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse is next on my wishlist. The Logitechs are more expensive.

Been looking for a new handphone. Possible candidates are the Nokia 3230 or the Nokia 6020.

Cool!

Just came back from SMA Orientation Day 1. Tiring, even though the whole day was spent inside the Lecture Theater.

We met our classmates, got our rooms and workstations, got shown around the place, not too bad.

Have to be at the video conferencing lab at 7:30am tomorrow! Gosh, what time must I wake up to make it there? I'm never going to make it man.

Kenna suan 3 times by Yuet Ying today, insinuating that I didn't know how to read instructions properly, and that I'm a latecomer. She's right about the late part though. Hope to be able to change it.

Hmm, cool. It seems like nobody reads my blog, muahahaha. Which is well, so that my identity would not be compromised.

My last day of work was last friday. I'm on 'paid' leave until end of July, which is well too!

Popped by the Microsoft Embedded Seminar yesterday. Met some old friends as well as new ones. Of course, being a free seminar, there's nothing much to be learned from such events except the opportunity to maintain, if not expand your industrial network. If I were not on leave, FAT chance that I would be able to attend. I know the company only too well.

Starting SMA Orientation later today at 8:30am. Have to wake up at 7am. Hope I can drag my lazy bones up.

I hope the team holds out fine without me. I may be over-estimating my importance to the team, but I believe they would be able to sort things out on their own.

New Photo Album

I've got a new photo album at MyPhotoAlbum.

Feel free to look browse some photos from my recent trip to the US, as well as some photos that I have taken of my niece and nephew.

Hmm ... does direct linking work?


Well, it should, but MyPhotoAlbum happens to be hosted by FortuneCity. Hmm ... do referrers work in a link, or in Javascript?


Enjoy!

Job Interrupted

I've just received news - I've been admitted to the highly competitive (28 students were accepted for the Masters program out of a total of 700+ applicants) and intensive Singapore-MIT Alliance program for a Masters Degree in Computer Science. The program comes with a full scholarship and a tuition subsidy. The best of both worlds, studying at home in NUS with the prestige of a MIT certificate. There will be a Summer Conference in Boston starting mid-July. I'm really looking forward to learning much from the program and going to Boston.

Many thanks to the people who have encouraged, informed, supported, and helped me in one way or another. There is no way that I could have done this without these wonderful people. Keng Peng for introducing me to the program, and believing in me. Sam for giving me the push to go ahead with the applications. Boon Pang being such a great help for coordinating the completion of evaluation letters at UIUC. Profs Lockwood and Lumetta, Hon Kit and Tony for writing glowing evaluations. Ms Komathi, Profs Wong (Sorry Prof Wong, I didn't manage to see Prof Hwu when I went back to UIUC earlier this month) and Hsu at the SMA for being so kind and accomodating. Dixon and He Jun for your support, encouragement, and reassurance. Thank you all for believing in me!

Will be putting my job on hold for a year until I finish the course. My boss is kind enough to hold the post for me until I get back. Ultimately, we realise that it is a win-win situation for both the company and myself, because we both get to benefit from the extra insights that I will gain from this intensive, enriching course.

Singapore Tourist Guide

(Something that I wrote in an email to a friend. Rather useful, I must say!)

I don't want to waste your time and mine. I just found this comprehensive
site that is absolutely great http://www.visitorsingapore.com/

Meanwhile, here is a summary of my recommendations. Hope you find it useful.

Getting around in Singapore:

1. Get an EZlink card from the airport. This allows you to take the MRT and
bus services all around Singapore. You can top up the card with cash at all
MRT stations. The MRT passes by most of the major attractions and
sight-seeing places in Singapore. You can simply take the MRT along the
whole line to explore the island.

2. Get a Mighty Minds travel map with details of the bus and MRT services
around Singapore. This is available in any bookstore like WHSmith or Popular
Bookstore, 7-Eleven, convenience store, etc. Just ask!

3. For more details about the bus services, simply get a copy of the bus
guide from any ticket sales counters during their opening hours. You can
also try the bookshops.

Communication: If you have roaming enabled, you might be able to make local
calls directly once you are connected to the Singapore network.
Alternatively, pre-paid SIM cards are available from Singtel, M1 or Starhub
shops located at various places around the island. You just need to provide
your name and show some ID like passport. It is a very cost effective way to
call in Singapore.

Chinatown is the early settlement of the Chinese migrants into Singapore. It
is not much different from the other Chinatowns in other places. It will be
interesting to see how the place has evolved over the years

Sim Lim Square and Funan Center are the computer and IT centers of
Singapore. Nowhere else is there a greater concentration of computers and
peripherals. Must visit places for any IT fan!

Take a stroll, and enjoy the breeze along the Singapore River and watch the
much touted Merlion in its splendour, en-route to The Esplanade (durian),
which is the cultural performance center of Singapore. Besides a wide
plethora of cultural and musical performances, there is also speciality
shops as well as an arts library to suit all tastes. Beside it is a
two-storey night club called Embassy, famous for its transparent glass
celing on the first floor. :) Marina Square will be your next destination.

Shopping is never complete without visiting evergreens like Raffles City,
Suntec City, as wel as the shops along Orchard Road. You can start off at
Suntec City after walking over from the adjacent Marina Square, and if you
survive the ordeal, you can walk via CityLink Mall (yet another shopping
stretch) to Raffles City. After Raffles City, you can walk out and start off
towards Dhoby Ghaut, located at the east end of Orchard Road. Both sides of
the mile-long Orchard Road are filled with shopping centers, shops, and
restaurants! Walk all the way up to Borders bookstore, and further up to
Forum Galleria where there is a huge Toys'R'Us. You better stay at the
Shangri La, cos that's where you will end up at the extreme west end of
Orchard Road, so you can get your well deserved rest!

Holland Village is the expatriate locale in Singapore. There are a wide
variety of restaurants, pubs, and massage parlours (decent ones) for you to
explore. It is located between the Ghim Moh and Commonwealth MRT stations.

East Coast Parkway is the most popular destination for locals and tourists
alike to swim, barbecue, cycle, jog, rollerblade along the south eastern
coast of Singapore. Of course, there is also a wide variety of seafood there
for visitors to recharge after a hard day of playing!

Newton Food Centre, located just outside Newton MRT, is a wildly popular
tourist attraction for a wide range of local food fare. Have Indian murtabak
while dissecting a fried stingray, and washing that down with freshly
squeezed sugar cane juice. Simply delicious.

If you haven't had your fill, or feel that the touristy Newton Food Centre
is not to your liking, then the next destination is Geylang. Despite having
a main reputation as a red-light district, it is also the local food
capital. Just keep to the main road and do not venture into the side roads.
:)

Sentosa is the most popular offshore destination located off the Southern
tip of Singapore. You can get there by cable car from Mt Faber, taking in
the magnificent view of the south side of Singapore as well as the southern
islands. Notable attractions include the Underwater World and Siloso Beach.

The Night Safari is one of the foremost places that any visitor to Singapore
should visit. It houses an interesting range of nocturnal animals, showing
you their life, and behaviour up close. http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/

The Jurong Bird Park is a 20.2 hectare open-concept park. It is the largest
in the Asia Pacific and one of the finest bird parks in the world. Its
collection of more than 9,000 birds from 600 species is among the largest in
the world. The Park specialises in birds from Southeast Asia and the more
exotic and colourful tropical birds. http://www.birdpark.com.sg

The Singapore Science Centre was established for the purpose of:
- displaying exhibits illustrative of the physical sciences, life sciences,
applied sciences, technology and industry, and
- promoting the dissemination of knowledge in science and technology.
http://www.science.edu.sg

Little India is where the early Indian settlers lived in the early years of
Singapore as a British colony.
http://www.littleindia.com.sg/stb/stb_index.htm

Shenton Way is the business and financial hub of Singapore. Along it there
are many banks, financial and business institutions. Visit it during office
hours to experience the hustle and bustle of the earliest and busiest
business district of Singapore.
http://www.visitorsingapore.com/photo_gallery_shentonway.htm

Boat Quay / Clark Quay has a bustling nightlife scene. A string of pubs and
restaurants along the Singapore River spoils the visitor for choice. Sunday
mornings will see a flea market with peddlars selling their excess or old,
valuable wares.

Definitions

From the Sharpie permanent marker FAQ:

Question: I purchased a marker that stated it was waterproof, but when water came in contact with the writing, the ink smeared. Why is this?

Answer: Within the writing industry, a marker is defined as waterproof if the writing is still legible after it comes in contact with water.