Cambridge University Malaysia Singapore Association organized this event last Saturday, the 30th of January which is essential and asian food festival where the society gets to prepare unique Singaporean dishes for everyone to come and enjoy.

I’ve signed up as a helper for the food festival since early last term. So that very much grants me “free” entry to the event, which by itself costs £7 for members and £11 for non-members, not that actually was part of the agenda! I was rather clueless when I placed my name down to help. The day started out with some supervisions in the afternoon (yes I know it’s a bummer to have supervisions over the weekend). Little do I find myself prepared for the daunting task ahead to prepare dinner for well over a 100 guests.

Cumsa Asian Food Festival 2010

Food’s out

More cooking to do!

Nonetheless, that Saturday afternoon was spent preparing Chicken rice, as well as cooking all the chicken. Chicken rice is one of the main courses to be served for the event, which goes hand in hand with Pak choy (vegetables) with other local dishes such as Bak ku teh (pork rib spices soup), Loh bak (black sauce meat and eggs), as well as Laska. There were also appetizers, servings of the famous rose syrup bandung as well as bobochaha for desserts. I opened the place up in the late afternoon so that phase 2 of cooking can be done at the hall venue, where they have a kitchen which we can use too.

Besides cooking the rice and chicken, the hard part was myself doing most of the cooking for the vegetable dish, which easily saw me through over 25-30 packets of Pak choy and having to separate, wash and cook over 100 stalks of the vegetable. I guess that will keep me away from it for sometime. We did encounter quite problems ourselves too, such as being unable to reheat the rice, so it was quite a pain to serve all the guest cold food, particularly the rice. But I think everyone received that as OK, with no complains as I know of.

Chicken Rice!

Laska

Bobochaha!

The event was a success, and the guests were all generally happy with the food from the feedback we get as servers. The same can’t be said for all of us though. Sadly, we ourselves as organizers literally have nothing to eat from mid afternoon onwards to late. It’s not until about 10pm where the guests start leaving where everyone started to have dinner.

Well not that we actually prepared dinner for ourselves, but rather savaging-ly dined with whatever food is left in the kitchen as well as those collected/cleared from the guest tables. Not that was bad, but hey at least we get to try what we cooked! We had enough food leftover for everyone (with excess to spare) mainly from the bulk of the leftovers from the last few dishes where many guests could not finish, coining out the term “serve the dishes you want to eat, last”. Much of the the leftovers were all meats and rice, not to mention some half eaten bobochaha, which wasn’t too much of my liking contrary to some who just slurpped them all. There were no left overs of the vegetables I’ve prepared too- they were all wiped clean!

Looking back at what we had prepared, that was really quite some feat we had pulled out, not to mention the number of bowls of food we all went into making for the all the guest. We have pretty much have each other to thank: the committee and the helpers for a job well done.

It interesting that such technology and capability already existed ages ago, but no one seemed to put it all together for the consumer. Apple seem to always get that right, this time they are doing it again with a new slate tablet computer called the iPad.

At first glance, it looks like an over sized iPhone, which the distinctive bezel, form factor and home button. It’s not running the full workstation-capable version of OS 10 contrary to much speculation, but rather a portable-enhanced version of OS 10 which is largely similar to the interface on the iPhone, for a larger screen. It comes in 2 favors, Wi-Fi or one with additional 3G in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB capacities on flash drives.

The fun device seems to cater for a void in the market which tries to be neither on both ends, namely a phone nor a work-capable computer. If you need an, it will only truly shine for it’s wireless capabilities and size, so it will be wise to get the one with 3G. Otherwise, it will just be a regular slate with no noticeable selling points. To me, the iPad seem to fit into the market for people looking to have a device around the house for quick access to emails and the internet, but not much one being a full-fledged computer, something which might rival the iMac or iBook. So technically it’s in a class of it’s own filling the void between the iPhone and the iMacs.

Though multi-touch may be a selling point, capacitive touch screens are good for gesture based commands and navigating menus. Not exactly that impressive for writing, something a tablet must be good at. Capacitive touch screens are just simply something notorious for precision. Moreover, I don’t see a need for a slate, being a tablet user myself for almost 5 years, having used on screen digitizers (wacom penabled screens) on convertible slates as well as traditional pen based drawing tablets (intuos4) from wacom, I find the lack of precision of the screen a big turn down for a promising product- It is just not as practical as I’ve expected it to be too. In short, the precision offered on dedicated tablets is very important and is something I don’t see the iPad fitting well into my needs as a student who needs to use a tablet for lectures as a student, let be precise enough to take down notes or do drawings accurately on.

The iPad is after all, a fun product not intended for work. Like, the iPod touch bigger brother. An expensive toy.

Hardware-wise, it does bags 10 hours of battery life. But big no nos will be the lack of a user-replaceable battery and a small resolution XGA screen- You can’t really call the slate an internet machine with a screen resolution of 1024×768! The 1Ghz A4 processor of the iPad is adequate, despite not being as speedy as most mainstream tablets on the market now. This apple designed processor is largely tailored to the basic needs of the device and OS, thus would be adequate for the basic functions it aims to serve, don’t expect it to be much of a production computer though.

The really cool thing I like about it is that it can run literally all iPhone apps on it out of the box, so that will allow many users to port over from existing iPhone platform and also establishing a good base for the new product to grow on.

I can’t deny that the device is indeed very pretty, but it will never be powerful enough to be justifiable to do descent work as a proper computer or for school, etc, yet too big to conveniently carry around as a portable device. It’s trying to be something, but not really found it yet. Anyway, with apple aggressively promoting the iPad SDK since it’s launch, it will be fair however to give it some time for iPad dedicated apps to grow on it where it’s functionalities can be truly realized. But for now, and for me, I will be putting my money for the next gen iPhone maybe coming out in June, that will be a better choice.

Video of the iPad at the click:

I had this problem with iTunes previously, but solved the problem by reverting the program, so I am posting this here in case anyone who experienced the problem on a same setup can get a solution here.

After updating iTunes on my PC to the spanking new 9.0.2 64-bits to suit my current system platform, I kept getting numerous errors whenever I try to install new apps on my phone. The system will just fail an app install each time and will demand a phone restore each time I plug the phone back into the sync cable. Bad!

Also, what you will get from iTunes will be a myriad of irritating, yet not very helpful error messages only the person who wrote the program knows about. I mean who knows error codes man? So much for user friendly apple software!

Seemingly, the programs are not installed at all on the phone, but with the icons showing on the springboard. True enough, launching them will crash you back to the homescreen. iTunes will simply just hate your iPhone (Latest firmware 3.1.2) and treat it like some foreign virus, demanding it be cleansed with a restored backup each time after plugging your phone into your PC.

I’ve heard about file permission errors in the iTunes music directory. Sometimes, R-clicking on your iTunes music folder C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes and unchecking “Read only” under “Properties” will help.

In the end, it turned out that it’s an iTunes program error with the 64-bit version. Apparently, the latest iTunes 9.0.2 64-bit does not work on my setup running Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate. Force installing (the installer will recommend you to install the 64-bit version) the 9.0.2 iTunes 32-bit version makes everything work like a charm.

What other cooler way to mark the end of the university’s 800th anniversary celebration with a cool and ambient lightshow held at night with fire art performances? Apparently, the whole stretch along Cambridge King’s parade street was closed for much of the night’s last week for the event, consisting mostly of laser and light shows. The crowds are evident as well- with the roads packed and queues to the event snaking out onto the streets.

People passing by during the evening will be delighted with much of a treat- Lasers and life performances by the Fire Troupe, consisting of fire breathers and eaters. There was much to see. You will be greeted at entrance to the event with a splash of animation projected onto the senate house. The white walls of the house made an ideal projection surface for the myriad of lively and brightly animated features seemingly “painted” onto it’s walls.

It’s no other painting either, each animation segment is uniquely different and animated to tell a story about the university’s rich history, intentions and foundlings of the university as a global world leader in education with an alumni of 85 Nobel Laureates. Notable figures shown will also include Issac Newton & Charles Darwin.

Woot projection!

Transforming the senate house

Animated pictures & text

The event saw a tour around the King’s college grounds, demarcated by thin green electro-luminescent strips lining the path taking us towards the college chapel and along the river Cambridge. There, another set of animated projections were displayed on the chapel and adjacent building walls. Ambient sounds were played throughout the tour path, giving the area a rather upbeat feel despite the dark eerie setting required for the projections to be effective. The place was packed almost bumper to bumper, as remarked by some: “This is the amount of traffic King’s will get the whole year in one day!”. The tour ends with a globe laser display at the green towards the gate exits, painting the global outreach Cambridge have in education as well as constantly echoing the slogan “transforming tomorrow”.

King’s college chapel

The crowds

The lasers at the end

The show was great, but otherwise not really much an eye opener. However, it actually gave me a chance to tour and see King’s college in the night- something I’ve not had the opportunity to do so. “Apparently it’s the same as what they did for the opening ceremony last year as well” as exclaimed my seniors. Nonetheless, everything was rather new for me and I guess something worth-wide to mark the end of 800th years of achievement. I don’t think we may be seeing another celebration as big as this, well for a long time to come.

Caught Avatar 3D yesterday afternoon at the Vue Cinema in Grafton shopping center. Yes I know it’s been a month since it was released and everyone had already watched it, let be some even 2 to 3 times, so this rant is not new. But I had not really been watching movies very often these days, let be even only major ones over the yesteryear. But when I saw the trailer to the show last year I told myself that it’s a show I will definitely have to watch.

And I did, and was blown away by the show. At the end of the show. I was lost for words, far beyond thinking ages since I’ve left a theater after a show feeling so captured, so memorized- I was torn beyond words to even describe how good the show was. Let be even forget about the high ticket price (despite it already heavily discounted at £6.95) I paid to watch the show in 3D. The experience the show provided was even worth more than the price. It was a show which I left the theater still overwhelmed, it’s just that fantastic.

One thing I like about adventure, sci-fi shows is that it immerses the viewer into a whole unique world given it’s rather bizarre ecosystem, told over a brilliant storyline and fantastic soundtrack (which I can’t stop listenng now) which amazes audiences at every corner of the planet Pandora. Well though as saying goes, sex sells, but I think the skimpy sexy Na’vis are just part of the main attraction in the show.

The show also blends in the world of nature, science and technology as an insight to a world as envisioned by James Cameron himself. All brought to life true a new frontier and setting a new benchmark for 3D and animated CG films (including human motion tracking film) since Final Fantasy, the spirits within wowed us almost a decade ago. And you need not to be an animator to enjoy the film by the polygon!

Avatar, though only 4 years in the making (since 2005) the story was actually written in 1995 over a period of 3 weeks, after James was done with the Titanic. It was set for a 1999 release, but CG and film technology was not mature enough to make the film as he envisioned it to be, until now. James is not done with Pandora just yet- A sequel is confirmed by himself and it’s rumored that the sequels could look at the interior of Pandora, possiblity introducing us more of the ecosystem as well as Pandora’s marine life. Apparently James Cameron has a whole underwater landscape mapped out. Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) have signed for a trilogy. With rumors of the return of RDA’s Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and Secops’s Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

“Avatar” earned it’s place in the record books as the most successful and highest grossing Sci-Fi movie in history, I won’t be surprised if this show gets an award this year for Best picture and I believe they will, deservingly. For me, this masterpiece will get definitely get a place in my video collection when it releases on Blu-ray or DVD.

It snowed throughout last night, what better way there is than to spend the day before touring UK with a snowy white Christmas here in Cambridge? Whoohoo! *fluffs* It had been about 8 and 14 years (if I remember correctly) since I last played with real snow. And it feels just like the morning of Christmas like a kid again. Snow was quite an eyeopener for my course mate, Jeff, with his virgin encounter with snow, nevertheless he quickly got quite acquainted with the white fluff from another world. Had some minor snow fights, rolling snow balls, snow angels and touching up a snowman. Maybe I might raise the notch up next time with a fort fight. But hey it’s not really Christmas without the snow right?

The town really looked different decked in white. Spent much time in the afternoon exploring the town all covered in white. It gets real dangerous when the snow starts to harden, leaving a layer of thin ice on the road which is a real hazard to vehicles, particularly bicycles as well. Even walking on the pavement is really a cross-terrain challenge or speed and balance! It snowed sometime around this time of the year last year, but not so soon, so apparently the weather was quite a surprise as it was last year as well. Seems that the winters are getting colder and whiter here so as those who stay here exclaimed!

Took some cool pictures of town, including a new panorama I’ve included in my photostitch page.

Saw Jeff off at the coach stop in the afternoon, pushed and helped him lock his bike at the rail station about 1.5km away for his planned return journey. He will be heading up to London to meet the gang beforehand today. Later do I know that the walk back to college is not a smooth-going as I thought! Smooth-going in a literal sense- the pavements are just too slippery to walk! And I went “Sploosh!” on a sidewalk which looked like a small puddle, but underestimated the depth (my whole shoe literally went under…). Oh yea, saw quite a number of people slipping and falling over ice on the streets today as well (tries hard not to snicker), hilarious! You can get traction by walking on the snowy pavements which will only wet your feet! Reached back with wet socks after walking 6km in total and man, it was a full leg workout alright! Like a long balancing act man, despite it being a walk. It’s almost like walking the whole distance on a balancing beam!

I will be leaving to Wales tomorrow morning through London, meeting the gang all directly tomorrow afternoon in Cardiff.

I hope I will be able to find time during my travels to sneak and update here and there, as we do get Wi-fi on the buses and trains. For now, I did better finish packing my stuff. I will be back in Cambridge after the new year!.

Had some problems with my bank a few days ago. Apparently I was charged like 3 pounds from my account without any notice, clarified that with that at the branch and was told it was a stray bank charge and they immediately refunded the value in full. Scary!

Banks are different here and the bank’s online facility is quite unique from that back home in Singapore as well- yes we have to key in the bank pin and password each time you log on, the catch is that you are not allowed to enter the password in full, but rather key in 3-4 characters from your long passwords and pin based on their character position, mental!

And yes, the secure card reader don’t seem to have much use either. Why don’t they just use those 256-bit pin verification dongles? Buying stuff online works through the same verification method as well, but is not that “secure” as I expected it to be. Tried to purchase my oyster card online via the transport for London website, but the website kept telling me that the transaction was unsuccessful and to submit another. I assumed that I was not charged and the transaction didn’t go through due to a verification problem (you have to key in passwords, pin numbers, have the correct address etc), but my bank statement didn’t state otherwise- I was charged the full value of £23 (£20 value + £3 card value) each time even for a failed payment and was refunded only 2 times automatically from the website.

The bank representative explained little of the workings here on their debit cards, apparently every charge to a card successful or not will be treated as a point of sale transaction, only where the payment is verified where the card be actually charged. Go figure! but my bank balance don’t seem to be saying so!

I have to be more careful buying stuff online now, all these rouge charges are getting hard to keep track on!

It’s important but not Urgent!
With term ended a week ago, had about a whiff of freedom and lots to procrastinate, well so as it had been now. I remembered dreading the long days in lectures and supervisions of the previous term, always hoping for some breather off so I can consolidate and get work on track. Then I discovered what weekends are best used for. Well, till I wished they were longer as well as I never had enough time to get backdated work done and they always just end up in a viscous cycle, piling up almost no end in sight. That had to stop, one day. Then suddenly comes this offset of freedom.

Just like the fun and lightness of the new ice skating fair ground on Parker’s piece, this holiday felt strange, a direct contrast so unreal- no nagging alarms, dragging myself to make breakfast everyday in the dark and cycling at break-neck speeds to the department in time for lectures hoping not getting hit by traffic along the way. Go figure, well that’s life of a typical Cambridge university student.

Come to think about it, I had not actually got anything academic done till date. Spent much of the early week getting chores and dated freelancing projects settled. At least that is all done with a load off my chest so I can focus. It had been sometime since I’ve trained my brain to work on a schedule and I guess it’s not too late to get myself onto a stringent routine. So school work is next.

Holiday plans
Oh yes, I will be staying over in Cambridge for much of the holidays, most people I know will be heading back home for Christmas, but that’s something I find unjustifiable, let be costly for just a short 6 week vacation. On the contrary, I will be spending Christmas over with Aunt Jenny’s- she’s an old family friend in Hampshire who invited me over to spend Christmas with her family. Went around hunting for some gifts in town after sending Christmas cards home at the post office. After much consultation for an appropriate gift, finally settled for a niffy box of chocolates and a bottle of wine for them.

Now all I have to do is decide on my mode of transport there. I am very much torn between choosing the coach or train to get to Farnborough through London. Initially, I wanted to take the train to King’s Cross and London Underground my way to Victoria station or Heathrow to catch a connecting coach to Hampshire, it’s being the fastest and cheapest solution. The underground is cool, but I’ve not actually seen much of London myself, and I don’t want to pride myself having traveled London, but only in the tunnels!

So yup, that will be the coach for me there and keeping my options open for the underground trip back, which may not be a bad idea after all- I will be spending the new year’s and the countdown in the heart of London thereafter. Yay!