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Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 - 22:09 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

The Big Three Zero


It *could* yet all come true...


So that's the twenties done with. Kinda anti-climatic. Nando's with the family at JCube (didn't realise it was situated next to the ice skating rink) to mark the occasion, because I appreciate good advertising. As for goals for the next decade, acquiring a chinchilla has gone high on the list:


To test out educational theories, that's why



Productivity In Practice


(Source: xkcd.com)


...which is a big part of why I'm also hesitant to package experimental code up too nicely (to the resignation of my long-suffering advisors). By the way, more warnings on automation taking over and middlemen being squeezed out, so the new breed of workers had better double down on solving problems - like the two-body one.

Dropped by another A*STAR seminar on GPUs, this one quite blatantly being pushed by Nvidia, who are certainly ahead in the marketing department as compared to AMD. As for actual technical improvements, there's Unified Virtual Memory on the new Kepler line, which sounds exciting until one realises that it doesn't actually reduce GPU-to-CPU latency at all (but that's probably asking for too much). Other than that, I was shocked to discover that life science researchers can spend months simulating proteins, which put my own waits in perspective.


My Precioussss...

A Tesoro Durandal keyboard, and SteelSeries Kana mouse (Dota 2 edition), justified as... um... work expenditure (really)! Well, some years ago, I couldn't figure out why anybody would ever pay over about S$30 for a keyboard, and thus got the most budget Logitech I could find (that looked like this, minus the ornamentation), and only later discovered that to save space, the navigation keybank was arranged as two columns of three, rather than three columns of two.

This might not have been too trying for regular users, but for someone who hits the insert/delete/home/end keys regularly, it started off frustratingly (particularly as my lab keyboards all kept the regular arrangement). But yeah, I saved a few bucks. Thinking back, this must have been one of the worst corners that I tried to cut, without even mentioning the number of times that the batteries ran out at inopportune moments. I'll stick to wired peripherals from now on.


You get what you put in...
(Source: Tumblr)


In contrast, the Tesoro's built like a tank, with a pleasing solidity (it had better, for the price) and crisp feedback (there are different classes of switches! Who would have known?) As for the mouse, well, the RaZer was beginning to have problems left-clicking. Can't fault their look and feel, but for some reason they haven't held up particularly well, hence the brand change. And, ah, free Dota 2 item and mousepad.


The line, however, is drawn at S$59 gamer tees



What's The Mata

"We should keep Fabio simply for spare Rafael parts"

- RedCafe (not about Mata, but merited a mention)


You can't make this up - after summoning the spirit of 1999 to take the League Cup semi-finals into penalties, United managed to score exactly one of their five. With central midfield crying out for reinforcement (as it has for years), and Anderson finally put out to pasture, the club has backed Moyes with a record 37 million pounds for... Juan Mata.

Don't get me wrong, the guy's good, but don't we like, have Kagawa? Meanwhile, a 32 year-old Carrick looks forlornly to his left and right (no, Fellaini doesn't look like a midfielder to me any longer, and Phil Jones never was one). Looks like it's down to Juan man to save United's season...


But hey, no pressure
(Source: RedCafe)



Fresh From The Forum

With The State's Times' "journalists" largely resigned to toeing the line, it has been left to readers to do their job for them - months after the "landmark announcement" and no real critical assessment by the press later, one letter-writer finally took it upon himself to explain that broad banding would instead lead to more competition (as mentioned)

There has been a suggestion to introduce some through-train primary-to-secondary schools, which would be a remarkable U-turn if it comes to pass, but again the number one question would be: who gets selected for admission, and how (and will this eventually wind up to become an all-the-way smooth ride to college, for the privileged chosen ones)?

One could hold that such complaints are cheap, since they are being made whether the government is attempting to change; perhaps. Sure, kudos for the effort, but as again previously pointed out, education itself is probably not the cause of it all. Though, given how decades of authoritarian control has (self-admittedly) produced a paucity of true talent in the areas where it matters the most, one can only wonder at the point of fixating on maximizing assessment scores.

Refer now to another timely forum piece, "Rising rents hurting businesses", for that - namely, that we are transitioning into a full-blown rent-seeking economy (with the acquiescence of the authorities, who are after all the majority landlord). Forget all the fancy statistics - why are citizens working longer for less housing and more crowded public spaces, for instance?

These are the questions that should be emphasized on, but won't, because it is becoming more and more apparent that there is no way out but to pile more bodies in as the band plays on Sampan 2.0 - but given our mostly mercenary selling points, we will likely get what we advertised for. Are the incessant infrastructure breakdowns (all of them isolated, mind), need to stagger days (and working hours) off, and police-state measures a symptom of... overcrowding?

Cannot be! Because... because out of ideas, bo bian liao (and this survey covering labourers whom mortgaged the farm and went into debt to come over, says so!)



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