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[ July 2008 ] | |
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TCHS 4O 2000 [4o's nonsense] alvinny [2] - csq - edchong jenming - joseph - law meepok - mingqi - pea pengkian [2] - qwergopot - woof xinghao - zhengyu HCJC 01S60 [understated sixzero] andy - edwin - jack jiaqi - peter - rex serena SAF 21SA khenghui - jiaming - jinrui [2] ritchie - vicknesh - zhenhao Others Lwei [2] - shaowei - website links - Alien Loves Predator BloggerSG Cute Overload! Cyanide and Happiness Daily Bunny Hamleto Hattrick Magic: The Gathering The Onion The Order of the Stick Perry Bible Fellowship PvP Online Soccernet Sluggy Freelance The Students' Sketchpad Talk Rock Talking Cock.com Tom the Dancing Bug Wikipedia Wulffmorgenthaler       |
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bert's blog v1.21 Powered by glolg Programmed with Perl 5.6.1 on Apache/1.3.27 (Red Hat Linux) best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution on Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Mozilla Firefox 1.5+ today's page views: 286 (63 mobile) all-time page views: 3402973 most viewed entry: 18739 views most commented entry: 14 comments number of entries: 1228 page created Sat Jul 19, 2025 20:27:50 |
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- tagcloud - academics [70] art [8] changelog [49] current events [36] cute stuff [12] gaming [11] music [8] outings [16] philosophy [10] poetry [4] programming [15] rants [5] reviews [8] sport [37] travel [19] work [3] miscellaneous [75] |
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- category tags - academics art changelog current events cute stuff gaming miscellaneous music outings philosophy poetry programming rants reviews sport travel work tags in total: 386 |
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- outings - They Like To Eat I never thought that I'd spend an afternoon watching people eat, but since occ wanted to scope out the competition and needed a few lackeys as backup, that was exactly what happened. 
It's the big leagues! (main photo credit occ) Not knowing better, we punctually arrived at Robertson Quay at 4pm, to be greeted by local competitors doing their thing as a warm-up for the main event. Two burgers in ten minutes was par for the course if the MC's shouts were anything to go by, which truth be told would be slightly disappointing. Heck, even I could scarf down a couple in double quick time if I were sufficiently hungry. With occ understandably disinterested at this level of mediocrity, we whiled away the time playing Dai Dee over 7-Eleven Slurpees/Big Gulps, sitting at the table of a yet-to-be-opened food establishment, until it actually opened and a smiling employee dutifully smiled at us. The stars of the show finally turned up at six-plus, and we actually walked right by the legendary Takeru Kobayashi (official site) while moving to higher ground, though none of us was aware that it was him at the time. His rival for the day would be Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, who bested him just three weeks ago at the hallowed Nathan's hot-dog eating championship (and last year too). Oh sure, there were a few Singaporean challengers up there, but they didn't have much of a prayer; No shame in that, though - they were up against the true greats. 
Kobayashi on the left, Chestnut on the right, impressive announcer (who seems to be the same one as at Nathan's, or at least they share the same hat) in between (main photo credit occ) The announcer deserved his own trophy for his bagful of puns - I don't remember many, but some of these that I found on the Web wouldn't be out of place: "Ladies and Gentlemen, it's really close... it's a real dog fight! They're the Four Horsemen of the Esophagus!" "The emotions are raw, but the hot dogs are cooked!" "He's the Clay Aiken of Bacon!" The actual ten-minute event wasn't a close-run thing, as Chestnut, despite being foreordained by Nostradamus himself, couldn't keep up with Kobayashi's satay-swallowing pace as they ran through 1kg skewerless containers of the barbecued meat (N.B. The title "Masters of Mastication" is something of a misnomer, as true pros don't waste much time on chewing). Kobayashi was unstoppable with his patented "Kobayashi Shake", and he eventually polished off nearly five-and-a-half kilograms of satay (not including the fluids he drank to aid swallowing) to Chestnut's just over four kilograms, almost impressing occ. 
"Good job guys, dinner's on me!" (photo credit occ) We then had dinner at Funan, which led us to more deeply appreciate Kobayashi's talent, and a fired-up occ was eager to begin his conditioning with fifty sticks of satay but couldn't locate any sellers. Competitive eating does have its dark side too, but it would be criminal to let such potential wither. Bush Economics 101 A classic Tom the Dancing Bug strip (click to enlarge): 
(When apples are relatively cheap, consumers substitute oranges for apples by buying more apples than oranges - this causes the price of apples to rise and that of oranges to fall until a new equilibrium is reached) RIP Randy Pausch It appears that Prof Pausch, who was referenced a couple of blog posts ago, has passed on. I doubt many would have known him but for his famous Last Lecture, but he is certainly worthy of his tributes online and off (of which I have borrowed two here) for that alone - "Would that all of us could pack so much life into such a short time/The world is a lesser place without him, but we are greater for having had him to begin with."
- outings - Tis' time for the usually-annual 4O gathering, which garnered 21 attendees this time round - not that many of us pursued studies overseas, after all, with edchong a notable conscientious objector for unknown reasons. occ organized it at Marina Square's Seoul Garden, with an impromptu bridge session at an unused cosy corner at the City Hall MRT station beneath a security camera thrown in: 
Not illegal OK (photo credit Alvinny) There were more varieties of chicken than one could easily shake a chopstick at (Bulgogi, anyone?), and speaking of chopsticks, they really could have enhanced customer satisfaction with longer ones that put hands out of reach of splattering oil - they do have custom tools to lift the hot plate and change the soup bowl, after all. I think I managed to get the hang of cooking chicken by the end of the session, if a lack of diarrhoea is any indication. Speaking of diarrhoea, NS medic kkok advised never to use that as an excuse to geng, since it is easily verifiable with a gloved finger up where the sun doesn't shine. Headaches remain the best excuse, but being the honest lads we are, I don't think we need to know that. Resident U of Michigan grad jysw had a lot to say about our alum HCI, where I presume he's been helping out. Particularly funny was an incident he related about a rejected applicant's mother insisting that her son had a hand-timed 11s in the century sprint "recorded by his headmaster", in an effort to get a reconsideration. No dice. (N.B. the first thing that sprang to my mind was this guy, and even he only did a 12.41s run to smash the national 13-and-under record, and to give some perspective the all-time British U-13 record is a comparatively modest 11.86s) To be fair, entrance to HCI isn't exactly easy (with a PSLE cutoff of about 260), keeping in mind that PSLE scores themselves aren't absolute by far; Interestingly, even getting the maximum possible raw score doesn't guarantee a perfect 300 - for details, refer to the linked article. We had invited some of our old teachers, but in the end only our trusty math teacher turned up. Shouldn't be difficult to spot here: 
With PhotoshopTM, who needs to learn how to sketch?
I seriously should get about breaking blog posts up into smaller tidbits instead of letting them clump together. Significant visit of the week was to the McKinsey offices at the Centennial Tower (near Suntec), as our CVWO prof had kindly arranged a session with some of his contacts there to give us a quick runthrough on time management and résumé writing. Their conference room was equipped with an Avaya phone through which one of their number conferred freely as a disembodied voice - pretty neat! The next main bit of good advice was to follow the time management matrix from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a book which I had read but not really taken to heart.  Source: Elemental The idea is not to do unimportant stuff (everything in Quadrants III and IV), and reduce Quadrant I by pushing them into Quadrant II. Only problem is that the boundaries between "true recreation" and "time wasters" is blurry... The third gem was the "Two Minute Rule" - if something can be done in less than two minutes, just do it now. Makes sense most of the time, since rescheduling it would likely take a large chunk of the time needed to just finish it. As for the curriculum vitae, the major things I caught were that it should be no more than one page (as in one side of a page) long, since HR people typically spend just seconds scanning through it, it should be focused (not much choice with a single page), and that any format used (e.g. chronological) should be consistent; I'll get onto that too, soon. Second Last Semester The CORS Schedule is out! Let's see what remains for my undergrad career - the FYP, two level 4000/5000 Computing modules and a Life Sciences module (LSM) for my main degree, and six Level 3000+ Economics modules for the other one. So for this semester I'll probably grab two out of the three from Comp and LSM, and leave the last one for the final semester. I've been waiting to take Game Development with a friend for quite some time, so that's fixed together with the FYP. So: CS4101 Honours Project (No fixed lectures/tutorials, but certainly will burn time) CS4213 Game Development (Lectures on Tue 2-4pm at COM1/204, Labs: Mon 10-12pm/12-2pm, Tutorials: Wed 3-4pm/4-5pm, Exam: 2nd Dec evening) Is that my two day week gone? Wait wait relax relax *takes deep breaths*... Computing labs are often optional for help to be sought if required, yep. So that's only Tuesday and Wednesday accounted for. Surprisingly not that many Level 5000 modules available in this semester, and of the remaining lot the most appealing is probably CS4243 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, with lectures on Monday nights and labs on Monday or Thursday afternoons, 2-4pm or 4-6pm (exam 29th Nov afternoon). For Life Sciences, I've already taken Genes and Society as a GEM, and LSM1304 Microbes, Environment and Man has lectures twice a week (Mon/Thu afternoons, exams on 28th Nov afternoon). LSM1301 General Biology looks promising with lectures on Tuesdays or Fridays 12-2pm, and some labs on Wednesdays (exam on 29th Nov afternoon), but is not a default recommendation to fulfil the Life Sciences requirement (bonus: edchong says was a reasonably slack, mug/flip textbook module). I guess I'll have to ask about this. Now for the three Economics modules - EC3312 Game Theory & Applications to Economics is a sure pick that I've been looking forward to, and it slots in neatly on Wednesday mornings 10-12pm (exams on 26th Nov morning)... but has tutorials only on Thursdays and Fridays. Why? Why must this happen to me??? Can't take EC4101 Microeconomics Analysis III this semester due to a non-negotiable examination clash with CS4213 either, and I don't really feel like taking macro if I can help it. EC4332 Money and Banking II sounds good, though - lectures on Mondays 10-12pm, with tutorials on Mondays 2-3pm, 3-4pm or Tuesdays 12-1pm, 1-2pm. That is, if I go the Monday route. CS4101 CS4213 LSM1301 EC3312 however means a Tue/Wed/(Thurs or Fri) week, which is still pretty good and allows me to indulge in game theory. EC3304 Econometrics II is out due to a clash even if I desired to take it. EC3341 International Economics I is a conundrum - it sounds interesting enough, but its lecture starts at 8am on Tuesdays. That isn't so bad by itself, but the tutorials would then be either 8-9am or 9-10am on Wednesdays. Ah well. Sacrifices have to be made. Early examination on 22nd Nov though. EC3361 Labour Economics I also lies within my sphere of interest, sort of, and has lectures Thursdays 10-12pm and a lot of good tutorial slots (Wed 4-5pm, 5-6pm and Thurs 2-3pm, 3-4pm), so I guess it's in. Late exam on 5th Dec afternoon however. So, ideally, I'll be in school from 8am to 4pm on Tuesdays for three lectures (EC3341, LSM1301, CS4213). Wednesdays hopefully will start at 9am (not 8am again, please!) with the EC3341 tutorial (what's it with industry and early mornings?), then flow into game theory with EC3312 till 12pm, a LSM1301 lab from 12-2pm or 2-4pm and finally the CS4213 tutorial at 4-5pm. Thursdays will then start with a relatively late 10am EC3361 lecture, followed by an EC3312 tutorial from 12-1pm or 1-2pm, and the EC3361 tutorial at 2-3pm if possible. CS4101 CS4213 LSM1301 EC3312 EC3341 EC3361 it is then, leaving Mondays free for long sleep-ins after any EPL Super Sundays, and an early weekend beginning on Fridays. Brilliant! Now hopefully nothing disrupts my cunning plan, like LSM1301 not being allowed to fulfil the Computing LSM requirement, or thousands of bid points coming crashing out of the blue... Wet Wet Hamsters Also, I've been spending quite a bit of quality time with the hamsters. In response to an opinion roughly paraphrased as "who the hell names their hamsters Ham G. Bacon and Fish F. Chips???", I have to say that according to name-stats.com, Bacon was ranked #1041, Fish #1377 and Ham #1617 in the 1990 USA census for last names. Not that many Chips around yet. (Interestingly, when the Straits Times did a feature on unusual names, stuff like Sandy and Woody came up - I'm rather sure these are not that common, but not that rare either, or have I been misguided by certain celebrities using them?) But back to the hammies. Being quite a conscientious owner if I say so myself, I did my own reading up on hamster care, and the consensus on baths was: DON'T. Not with water at least, give them sand. I naturally passed on this advice to my grandma, who just as naturally didn't let it get in the way of Maintaining Hamster Hygiene And Getting Rid Of That Hamstery Smell. I only found out recently that she had been giving them regular soap-and-water rinses (with a professional hairdryer session thrown in for free), but since they are still far from dead I guess things turned out all right. One thing I've got to say, a soaked hamster must be one of the most pitiful looking creatures on Earth, maybe second only to a shaved hamster. First impression: Pinkish rambutan with brown spines.  Uh oh.
I realise that I have not managed to blog on many topics which I had planned to, as the holidays fly past. Euro 2008 is long over, and the Spanish probably deserved to win, with Torres bursting past Lahm embarassingly easily; Nadal won Wimbledon in a final that was destined to become an instant classic - I missed the first two sets, but assumed it was curtains for Federer, who was already down 6-4, 6-4. Then he survived the next one 6-7, and another one 6-7, and my allegiance began to shift - was the indefatigable Nadal getting beaten at his own game? The quality of tennis was quite transcendent in any case, with both players more than capable of making unbelievable shots under pressure. I lost count of the number of scratching-the-edge winners played with the match on the line, which tells a lot about their confidence in themselves. More is on the plate with the Olympics coming up, but in the end sports has to be put into some perspective, hur hur. None the least by a certain Cristano Ronaldo (who, it must be remembered, is younger than yours truly), ostensibly a poor slave - who are we to question the President of FIFA, who just happens to be a honorary member of Real Madrid, that prince of clubs whom would liberate a downtrodden footballer who has the misfortune to earn in a week of kicking his heels, more than what many might in a whole lifetime? While the accusation of slavery is ludricious, the legendary Pele's welcome rejoinder that "...if you have a contract then in any job you have to finish the contract." is also not entirely accurate. There is in reality always another option, which is "... or face the consequences.". These consequences are generally pretty well-defined whenever a sufficient amount of money to attract lawyers is concerned, and although what may be legally okay is often morally frowned upon, one can't really ask any individual to discharge more than his legal responsibilities. So what are the options here? The best scenario for United is for Ronaldo to suddenly forget all about a move to sunny Spain and follow on where he left off last season, which does have precedent - he looked rather likely to move after his bust-up with Ruud and the World Cup incident with Rooney, but was persuaded to stay both times. Another possibility is that United decide that an unwilling slave is not worth the effort, and allow the sale to go through, certainly for a huge sum of cash - fifty million pounds is not out of the question at all. United however will have well-founded reservations about this; Firstly, they will probably need quality replacement(s), and there aren't many of those around - their owners are likely to jack prices up knowing that the buyers are flush with cash, and the transfer window rapidly closing. More importantly though is that it suggests that they are a less powerful club than Madrid, which is certainly not an image they would want to be stuck with. Beckham and Ruud were different stories altogether, as United were quite willing to release them (and they were going past the prime of their careers). Not so for Ronaldo. So, if Ronaldo wants to leave but United refuses, what happens? The worst would probably be him intentionally playing in a disinterested way, but that would completely ruin his reputation. Ferguson could then stick him in the reserves, but if I am not mistaken Ronaldo would still be entitled to his hefty pay packet for the remainder of his contract. Bottom line is, if United refuse to let him go, Ronaldo has no right to play for any other club for the next four years, and if Ronaldo refuses to play well, United can't make him. It is up to them to do the sums and figure out if playing hardball is worth it. As for the legal situation, Ronaldo deserves little sympathy - he agreed to the terms freely, he lives with his restricted options; It's that simple. 
Anyone ever heard of this brand??? Got around to getting a new router, after this antiquated model (circa 2000) hung on me as I tried to access the web interface for router settings. It was a good excuse to shop around for a shiny new one, and I was leaning towards the Linksys WRT54G series before discovering that it would be too tall for my modem/router rack. Most of those I surveyed had a D-Link, and the D-Link DI-524 looked good to me. Was a little frightened off by by some of the reviews, but a bit more research revealed that every router has its own horror stories. In the end I found out at Sim Lim that it had been obsoleted anyway, and thus got the sleek new D-Link entry-level router, the DIR-300: 
Setting it up was straightforward enough - ring up a normal broadband PPPoE connection, then plug in the router and arrange the cables as per the instructions given on-screen by the easy install guide. Ah, for the days when the average home user had little chance of getting a router running on his own. The wireless connection works too, thanks to tests by the laptops of csq and smk. Csq also happened to win the best-basketball-uniform-ever award: 
Got lost on SOC route (photo credit Alvinny) Well not really, just that he got mobilized. Wonder when it'll be my turn, not anytime soon I hope.
- programming - Must thank smk for introducing me into the world of tabu search (which I had until now only superficially known from the A.I. module, but not explored). Dunno why a Chem Engineering FYP feels so much like a Computer Science one, but then many fields boil down to math and logic... I tried to arrow the hamsters to settle this, but after they screwed up the neighbourhood generation I had to take over again. Darn things aren't earning their keep. The Pet or Snack meter shifts further to the right. More updates soon...
- changelog - + hamsters - changelog v1.08d --------------- * glolg is now trackback and pingback enabled. I must admit I was still rather confused (and not too concerned) about the concept of trackbacks when they were all the rage several years ago, but now certainly slightly older and perhaps slightly wiser, writing Perl servers for these frameworks wasn't all that hard. Hint: Implementing a trackback server doesn't need any non-standard Perl libraries, while pingback only needs LWP:Simple for link verification (though I suppose one could cheat a bit and omit that). Another leg up on Blogger! I mulled over refbacks for a while, but decided against it for now since there seem to be no established standards, and the vast majority of link checking would be wasted processing power (unless a specific refback url were provided). Some other time, maybe. With glolg now geared to approach industry-standard quality, I felt it was the right moment to recruit more contributors to the project - and two out-of-work unfortunates presented themselves:
The tripling in size of the glolg Development Team will help increase the professionalism of the code, and accelerate release cycles, freeing me from being bogged down in the technical details. Thus, expect more "normal" blog posts in the near future.
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