I remembered arriving at RJC in the afternoon for my Cambridge interview, wanting to get there early with time to relax, I took a bus and alighted somewhere around upper Thomson where I took a very short cab trip to RJC itself. The cab driver actually told me that the venue is a short walk away, but he drove me there anyway, so the fare was essentially just surcharge haha.

When it was my turn, the interviewer will actually come out and invite you in, very warm and welcoming indeed which lightened the anxiety- well, a little. In the interview, he told me that I came from a rather interesting background, I was the first person who came from a non-Junior College background which was rather refreshing. So he asked me about what we do in Polytechnic, what we do learn (as polytechnics are essentially considered an institute of higher learning), etc then he asked me about the awards I’ve got.

Then he went on asking me about the Motion simulator which I built in Polytechnic for my final year project, which I wrote about in my personal statement. So I explained it to him how it works together with a sketch and details of it’s axis of motion and the various components which made it tick. So that was pretty much the icebreaker which kept me rather comfortable in the dimly incandescent lamp lit room.

Then next was the question part. As I understand that many students will still be taking the interviews and tests over the coming months, and in the interest of the Director of Studies (DoS) and other candidates, I will not post the exact questions my interviewer asked, only a general picture of what to expect.

There were a series of maths questions which he wrote on a piece of paper, each with increasing difficulty. The first ones were done without a hitch. If you did C3 or C4 maths, let be Mathematics and Further Mathematics at ‘A’ levels in Singapore, you should not have much of a problem getting through the question at all. I had some problems with the last one, but the last question is of course usually planned the hardest where the interviewer will come in and help you out with it. So he kinda nudged me in the right direction at times when I strayed off and eventually we got the solution!

Then came the very general engineering questions where anything under the sun could be asked. I like this part of the interview as it actually allows you to expand on the question from almost any aspects and build on it using the theories you know (or at some points, maybe an educated guess will help!). Then it can just lead to anything else which in-turn leads to you explaining another question/theory. For this part, I can say that you can’t “learn” the thought process, it’s more like testing your raw unlearnt knowledge and your ability to apply what you know in very strange unfamiliar situations. Thereafter, we also talked about my Defence science scholarship on how it will sponsor my whole academia in Cambridge.

My interviewer really made me feel that Cambridge is the right place for me. I was really enjoying myself in the interview and just before you know it, opps we are out of time.

My interviewer opened up for questions. As defence Research & Development will be part of my chosen carrier path, I asked him about the undergrad research opportunities we can take as a student, as well as the Engineering competitions in Cambridge we can participate and contribute to the the university as a student, like the Eco-challenge Solar Race held in Australia next year (which Cambridge will be participating in as well) and the Formula Student, very interesting indeed.

Due to time constraints, I only asked these 2, though I also wanted to ask find out more of the Stimulus project/program I read on the internet which allows undergrads to help out students in need and promote the interest in learning, just like what I did teaching students in Medan Indonesia before.

Initially being the only Polytechnic student in the Singapore race for Cambridge, I thought that I will lose out to the bulk of the ‘A’ level students who are applying for their places in Cambridge as well- considering that they are all still very fresh in their ‘A’ level syllabus with the examinations currently on. But I guess the test the interview will give will tax you far than anything you can learn (or regurgitate) from the textbook, which I feel is very fair indeed.

With the anticipated interviews finally over. It is more than 1 hour after my interview and I am still all jumpy from the adrenaline, maybe I should expend that all out with a 10km run later, at the same time test out my new Nike Luna Racers!

Just came back from the Thinking skills assessment test at Hwa Chong JC. Just as anticipative as I was to receive the news of the test and the interview about 2 weeks ago, I can’t help but realize that the days do come by very fast and in no time, I am actually done with my TSA and my Cambridge interview only a few numbered days ago. The only thing on my mind these days is to focus on the interviews and stuff, so mind me if I am particularly disconnected these days.

The TSA is a 90 minute long test with 50 MCQs consisting of an even 25-25 mix of problem solving questions and critical thinking questions. Having done the sample papers on their website, its worthy to note that for Singapore applications (and though not shown on the TSA website), we have an additional 30 minute essay component on top of the already mental 1 and a half hour TSA itself- typical and rather similar to that of the Oxford TSA in comparison. My practice attempts were satisfactory, scoring about 70% ish and completing one of the sample 3 essays in half and hour. It was not until the post-revision with the answers that I see the bigger picture- I tend to fair better in problem solving questions, and there is a trend that I tend to get 2 out of the 7 types of critical thinking questions wrong or skipped simply because I just take too much time to get them done.

If I could do away with those questions I do badly in statistically (which in the sample, takes up about 5 of the questions in the test), I could actually put more time into those questions I could potentially score better in. So my strategy was to finish the first 20 questions I can answer straightway in the first 30 minutes, that leaves me 2 remaining blocks of 30 minutes to handle 15 questions each where the more time consuming critical thinking questions can be tackled. So that kinda helped, as there are no rules in place in the order of the questions you can do, though it is recommended to tackle the paper sequentially for the best mix of critical and problem solving questions. But ultimately, it is the final score out of 50 which still counts at the end, so that makes it pretty much said.

Some questions were a no-brainer and you can get the answer within seconds, some on the other hand requires little bit more time- like taking ages to answer a simple but irritatingly long manual multiplication/division question (no calculators are allowed) or watching not to let your mind run all over the place when thinking of assumptions. For critical thinking questions, reading the question after the excerpt helps as it allows you to determine what type of thinking question it is, saving you the need to re-read again.

I managed to answer about 40/50 questions. Surprisingly no one I see in the 300 odd strength hall managed to finish the paper on time at all. But I was confident that for every answer I put down in ink there was a 70% chance of it being correct (a balance between the slow but “in the bag” tactic or the “try and hit all you can” tactic), for me it was definitely not the latter. So that gives a rough estimate of a 60% score including the 0.2 probability of my other randomly filled answers being correct.

Glad there were no ambiguous questions as I encountered in the sample paper, which actually kept me rather worried and the implications of raising it to the examiner if I were to encounter on in-test. One instance was one a sample question asking for the rental fee to rent a bike for few hours, though the correct answer is just a simple summation of the product of 2 multiplications, I got it wrong as I added the refundable deposit fee into my chosen answer as we know, bike rentals in Singapore irregardless of hourly or full day rental all require a ($50) deposit or equivalent, so it pays to know abit of the assumptions. Knowing the conversion of some imperial units helps as well.

The single short essay was abit of an achilles heel for me, with 30 minutes to choose your question, get all your points, arguments and counter-arguments out and pen them down literally leaves you no time to even breathe. The writing task gives candidates an opportunity communicate effectively in writing, organising ideas and presenting them clearly and concisely. There will be a choice of three essay questions, on general subjects related to your course of study that do not require any specialised knowledge. So what you get is essentially a universal question sheet for all the subjects offered, and you are to answer one of the 3 in your section. Answering a question not related to your course if of course asking for a disaster. I wrote about 1 page and a half, more than what I expected, so technically I was just rushing to get my content out in a continuous scribble as the clocks menancingly (and mercilessly) tick away each precious minute in front of the crowd.

I never had time to fully read or edit what I’ve written, but I was glad I managed to put forward all my required points together with a fully structured 4 paragraphed essay comprising of an intro, 2 points and a complete conclusion respectively. Given that, I can’t accurately gauge how well I do for this part, neither I can conclude from the allocated time say that it will it have a third of the overall weightage as compared to the 50 MCQs.

Whether the TSA is used in the consideration of Cambridge applications is still largely a tale of its own. There had been myths of the TSA still under evaluation on whether it will form a reliable and predictable statistical gauge for ‘A’ level leavers being offered conditional offer based on expected grades. Whether that holds or not, I guess it’s for the admissions to know and for us to find out come January.

I guess my chance to either get or break my chance in entering Cambridge will depend on the last crucial one-to-one 30 minute interview next week wish me luck!

Bringing out the engineer in you
I believe The Radical motion simulator project was a subject of interest for my of my juniors in the Singapore Polytechnic doing their FYP now. It been about 5 months since I graduated from SP as a Mechanical engineering student in Singapore polytechnic (SP), but that didn’t stop the fair bit of feedback I constantly get from my visitors, representatives from other educational institutions as well as commercial enquires from the public.

Furthermore, this project sparked interest of quite a few students researching to major in the Engineering field, and I am glad to be a mentor to this handful of prospective students considering engineering as a major (it is an interesting and fun field). It just make my day to share and light up these individual interests in the field of Engineering- making it hip and trendy to as opposed what people think of it (Engineering is not a boring field juniors!).

Personally, I never thought it to take so far off to be considered a case study by itself. This project was mainly kept secrecy at the request of my project supervisor while in development, so I never had a chance to share my experiences of the project which may prove invaluable to anyone out there looking to learn more about the project, especially for final year project students not to mention the story behind my project and the team behind it. However, since now it was featured to the public, papers and on TV during the Singapore Polytechnic Spinnovex Senior’s final year project earlier in February in this year, hey it’s no longer a secret anyone.

The simulator was featured just last month as a highlight in the Singapore Science center’s “Formula 1 Science of speed exhibition” so you might catch it there in action if you were there. So without further ago, finally got the time to actually sit down and write an entry about my final year project which was really the pride and joy for my team, the polytechnic and myself.

The finished simulator

Cockpit area and screen

Our display booth on the Feb 08 exhibition day

The radical project
This simulator was created with my team of 3 over a period of 14 weeks from scratch to finish (including testing, so technically we had like 12 weeks to build with 2 weeks to test). So without further ado, I will introduce my team members who put through the whole project thick and thin, the project will be never near what it was it it weren’t for them and their efforts.

Team Radical Members (previously known as Team Radicurl)

Lee Khowming
My course and classmate in my diploma in Engineering course. He has a technical education background in secondary school, which makes him a rather good fabricator when it comes to putting up pieces of the simulator together. On top of this engineering diploma, he is a diploma plus student who took a minor in computer programming, so that helped alot in lightening the software programming load (including the endless code debugging) where I could delegate my time to design refinement and the directional plans for the team. He is very loyal & focused to the team’s need & extremely hard- working- a very positive force to be reckoned, though sometimes you have to help point the force in the right direction at times.

Danson Han
Danson Han is the electrical guy in the team, having built and raced a mini solar car himself in this general elective modules, this guy is just one electronics guru- He can solder and fix up any electric problems as fast as a gun-slinging sheriff.

He is very much responsible of most of the electrical and lighting systems. This car crazy and racing fanatic is also our chief game analyzer and test driver who feels very much at home in school given the need to test the platform with lots of PC racing, flight and computer simulation games. This feedback were invaluable in the development and refinement of the project itself. After all, what’s better than coming to school everyday and having your job playing games everyday right?

Shaun Chng
Well I no picture needed here! My role was very much the driving force and chief engineer of the project. I was the team leader and mainly responsible of the design, concept, putting together all the design requirements and feedback from my lecturer and team on Pro-engineer CAD. I was also the one responsible for all the multimedia content as well as ensuring quality, it was a fairly hectic job which I strangely enjoyed doing. As I was fairly more experienced with designing and inventing contraptions, I have my side role there as a mentor for my teammates and teaching new things out of the book as well free-rein delegation and guiding them on their tasks if they needed any help, I picked out many new skills in soldering as well as metal work myself.

It’s a whole team effort working hand in hand and learning from each other. It’s this closely linked bond of teamwork and knowing the strengths and weakness of each of which really made this team go.

How it stated out- A car/boat you want? why not everything?
The project started out from a list of current industry need and school projects. One of the items was a force displacement motion simulator. We were allocated that as we initially highlighted to our supervisor that we wanted to build a twin seater amphibious electric Eco-racer, something like cross between a boat and a car with electric regenerative abilities- a clean energy vehicle, but we can only stick to the industry projects and that was the closest one we could see in relation to.

The build process
Planning took a rather long time, a 360 degree rotating simulator was a rather cool idea to start off- minus the possibly of simulator-induced brain trauma. The 360 simulator was something my team including myself were very excited about. But there were many restrictions our project supervisor had in place for us- especially the ones on the compact size and weight he wanted, which was puzzling as that actually added to the project complexity and cost, which we had only a mere $6000 SGD in total. Later do we know the true meaning in the later of our project what our supervisor actually meant.

Some of the engineering drawings

One of the many assembly drawings

Our rapid prototype model

Trade-offs
So after almost a hundred hours on the drawing board, Pro-engineer CAD, material selection, finite element (stress) analysis, rapid model prototyping and 5 major design revisions later, we settled for a 4 degree of motion cockpit mounted on 2 axis with an intermediate coupling superstructure holding the top and base together. This will give it 50 degrees of rotational freedom for both the pitch and roll axis.

We used pneumatics for mechanical actuation in place of the favorable electric linear actuators due to cost and time constraints (our calculated force requirement will require a shipment of electrical actuators from Germany taking 8 weeks), so we settled for large 63mm dia coupled to Festo pneumatic 5/3 middle closed maxi valves who had their stock in their Singapore warehouse.

How it works
Ok since you know it runs on pneumatics (air power, the same stuff which opens and closed bus doors), everything which goes on was rather straight forward, and there was no turning back. With our planned an prototype model in place to confirm all the dimension and a serious lack of time, all the mounting points and component housing were all welded and pre-made to fit the dimension specifications of the cylinders and required components even before they were delivered. Then as everything made, it’s just putting them all together like a giant plastic model piece. The dual PC setup (ethernet-networked), the 24 volt, 12 volt power supply units, as well as the central relays and power distribution unit to run peripherals such as the monitors, speakers, lighting and cooling systems. Since many of the items are custom made to fit, we saw ourselves spending quite alot of time in the workshop fabricating custom mounts and brackets to get everything all in securely in place given the forces they may encounter on a moving simulator.

You can view more on how it works, in the promotional multimedia video I’ve created for the project below:

Murphy we have a problem!
There was a brief dark moment 3 weeks before the deadline during testing where a stray current shorted the whole simulator, that caused quite a major overhaul to find the source of the short, which was later traced to a burnt IC chip in our custom built USB-pneumatic control board for the valves. The incident taught us not only much on Murphy law, but also on effective cable management (which we overlooked) and catering for troubleshooting as well.

Homerun
It’s simply great pleasure having to see all your conceptualizations, drawings and work come up to life day after day. Each day is simply just a challenge of it’s own as the deadline draws near. Simply just seeing your project rise from the nada to something which makes people go “wow” at the end of the day simply makes it all worth it- and man we were finished, on time as well! We made few minor touch-ups and refinements on top of the usual testing just before the exhibition. We even sourced a budget but authentic blue Sparco seat to finish it all up, that included an air- compressor which we loaned within campus. Thereafter was the planning phase for the exhibition booth management, so that included the creation of promotional items such as brochures, our team video, posters, setting and planning up of booth, etc. So there was always work to do. The big day finally came!

Spinnovex Exhibition!
The simulator was actually kept small and compact so that it can still be used in the confines of the exhibition area. Later do we fully understand the space requirement. The exhibition was the thing we had been looking forward to even before we started the project, the dream of showcasing out pride and joy. The exhibition was an eye opener, yet a very tense moment for me and my team given any new problems we could possibility face in the heat of the exhibition given the last shorting incident.

The endless crowds

University visitors

Crowds love us

Moreover, it was also the first time which our simulator prototype underwent a stress test- 3 continuous days of operation for the public with riders always getting in and out (with at any one time a long queue) which was really test of the simulator built and design. Prepared for anything, we were ready with spare parts and always on standby for any problems, which unexpectedly, do occur- There was once where our compressor had condensation problems and some minor electrical problems, but we always got them all repaired on the spot with minimal downtime (most 10 minutes). The event tent power supply was rather quirky as well, as they were running on off-site diesel generators rather than the mains, so the occasional blackouts and unsteady current for all the projects at the main exhibition tent took quite an electrical beating as well. Glad ours went through without a hitch.

We’ve got some trade visitors on exhibition day, some from Japanese universities as well as some from New Zealand. It interesting to note that few university professors who came to the exhibition were surprised at the size and complexity of the project, also considering the 14 week timeline and tight budget to get it all built from scratch. Many were commenting that this project even exceed what some university students do even on their Final year project (and we were only diploma students).

Actual life video at Spinnovex

Project judging
The project judging lasted the 3 whole days of the exhibition, where judges will pop by randomly at planned random times during the day in the public and industry visitors to ask questions and a demonstration of the project. They can catch you at anytime, even during lunch. Luckily our simulator was always up and running without much downtime, so that didn’t hinder us much one bit. The press was around as well and interviewed few of the project groups as well. I was even featured in the Channel News Asia’s “Emerging Asia” programme for the project as well!

At the end of the judging round the bronze and silver awards were given out, the awards signify the tele-ed votes from all the judges over the whole exhibition duration and is award to the best project showcase. To our amazement my project came in the Gold category!

What I learned from this build
This project simply just sets a new milestone in my contribution to the polytechnic and this new engineering design course which many jokingly say “I helped build”. This engineering design course when I studied on my last year of specialization was still a rather new course, which never really saw the light with a disappointing intake my engineering design, but it was through my recommendations (e.g use of software, multimedia etc) and contributions to this new course which propelled it beyond it’s infant stages to what it is brimming with enrollment today.

I can’t deny the project is not perfect- the were few areas that were no built the way we wanted, some LEDs in the lighting system blew, the rear surround speaker don’t sit straight, even the boarding steps and wires were duct-taped instead of drilled or cable tied, but it is what that works effectively which matter. The project really made me overcome the perfectionist in me.

This project also taught me few rather new thing sin life, is that you can lose the battle to win the war. Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices in light for the good. Minor things like staying in school from 8am to 9pm every day, even coming back during public holidays and weekends just to get the project finished are just part and parcel in the darkest weeks of our project. Though our project is nothing within international standards, I am glad that we produced an engineering creation built within our own steam and ingenuity- and that is what we were proud to accomplish at the end of the day.

It simply just made the engineer in me and it will always be my passion. I am glad my project will be a continued source of motivational for anyone looking to study in the engineering field.

As the hot scorching sun dawns upon all runners in the early morning of Sunday, it simply just paints deja-vu of the race last year at the Changi Exhibition center. Was that a Mirage? I can say that is is almost like an exact duplicate of last year’s race, which I gave a rating of 8.5/10 for a highly satisfying race.

Terrain
The thing different for this year’s race is that the start and end line actually technically at the same point, but the place is open to an extent, allowing runners to join the race rather easily. The starting part of the race is new, going along side the chalets and open straight tarmac area before actually hitting the open trail, which is essential just an open field with a track around it. The relief is generally all flat throughout, except for some minor gradient visible on the runway straights, all other parts of the course are perfectly flat also considering the fact that almost the whole area was actually built on reclaimed land.

Race start.
The starting trail is still very much easy to run on, it’s so open and clear, offering views of the east coastal area. But the run there seemed much longer than what I expected it to be, maybe it could be the lack of shade which made it felt longer. Though the terrain there is nothing to what we can expect in a Macritchie trail, at least the shades in Macritche made it less of a torturing experience. Just as every trail run (just like the expected one at this year’s AHM), sand and rocky surface is an area simply asking for injuries and possible sprains so it pays to watch your stepping on uneven ground or as and when you are overtaking people as well. Good thing it was sunny though, so the trail remained exceptionally firm and solid, if it rains, then it will be likely to be a revisit of the Bedok “mud run” in the 2006 wave run where everything including shoes, shorts, shirts will be muddy or splattered.

Open top trail and road
And just when you thought that after 4km of the trail part, the thought continuing the race back into the main road run (aka the mirage area) is just a whole new experience with the sun again. This waterpoint is a favorite for many and glad they have lots of cool 100 plus ready on flow throughout the race. Possibly anticipating the possible heat problems faced by runners, there were also adequate number of first aid tents and marshals lined up along the route to cheer runners on, even in the heat. The marshals did quite a good job in motivating runner who simply just come and go, at the expense of themselves standing under the scorching sun throughout the whole period under the run. Commendable indeed.

Upon reaching Changi coast road, this is where the 15km runners go left, while the 10km runners to right, either way, runners will find themselves in the changi beach park area with the route heading to the beach. A main concern for this part of the race was the questioning of many runners have on the flag off times of 7.30am for the 10km & 7.45am for the 15km respectively, where the 15km runners merging with the 10km runners at Changi coast road will add to some considerable traffic. Though I personally didn’t see much change in traffic, it’s sometime worth rasing, particular for the slower 10km runners who suddenly become overwhelmed by all the front 15km runners.

The beach part is actually very much the same as it was last year, with a short nice shady road (well that is not exactly a trail as opposed to what it was last year) before hitting the rather short stretch of sand. For this part, there are 2 choices to go fast on the sand- stay at either ends of the width of the sand part- you just need to run near the sea coastal line where sand damp but firm sand resides or the upper part of the beach where with some rather inviting flat sandy areas on the bank tops. You have to watch out for uneven ground and tree roots sticking from the bank as these plant roots on the upper parts of the beach actually holds the soil firm, allowing it to the bear of weigh of runners without crumpling or sinking, that is provided if can get through the barriers on some areas of the course. The sand area is thankfully shaded by a large extent.

Home run
Here is now or never, the run end with the turn back into the exhibition center taxiway road with a short perimeter run along the coast before catching the finishing line in the distance. I remembered seeing quite a few student marshals all burnt out from their marshaling, man, the race must be hard on them! After crossing the line, the only thing on my mind was a cool drink and that very enjoyable air-con in the event area which I really enjoyed cooling down in last year.

The running route as follows:

10km – 4km Trail + 0.6km Sand + 5.4km Taxiway / Road
15km – 4km Trail + 0.6km Sand + 10.4km Taxiway / Road

Post-race management
The post race was excellent, air-conditioning was turned on all round which was a real welcome to runners looking to cool off after the hot race- coupled with a cool drink, doing cool downs in the big open areas of the exhibition center is something to look forward to after the race. There were lots of outdoor shelters and 100-plus umbrellas for those who wanted to acclimatise for awhile after finishing before entering the air-conditioned environment.

Amazingly, there was no queue at the baggage collection and you can get your bag within minutes. You will be sure to catch the crowd if you leave on the peak period immediately after the race. Transport organization was rather good. love the adequate car park spaces, shuttle service to the remote area as well- The organizers have plenty to stick to their guns after last year’s successful transport management, so with that we see the same favorite free shuttle service out of the area as well to pasir-ris bus interchange as well a the morning paid shuttle service from 8 MRT stations all round Singapore. Though crowds are inevitable, the open large areas of the exhibition center gave runners lots of post race breathing space as well as much needed areas to relax. The best recommendation to beat the queues before and after the race is to arrive early and leave late, given that you will not experience much jam when arriving and leaving.

Other interesting points of note:

• Was there gold at the startline? Runners were sprinting from the startline! (Or were their feet on fire?)
• There were few student marshals who laid flat on the side of the road near the Changi coast road area, they are fine they are just overwhelmed by the heat, though many runners thought they were casualties!

Overall
From many feedback I’ve got, it seems the Home team did it again with a good race twice on the same venue this year again. The Realrun team never disappoint with this year’s run. There are of course areas beyond the organiser’s control such as weather, but at least it didn’t rain! Good race! I will recommend next year’s year to all.

Results:

Every visit back to SP now is always like a treasured moment- something I do not do very often much as taking it for granted for everyday when I was a student there. Whether it is saying meeting my lecturers and student officers there or catching up on happenings around campus, it seems that things are very much different from what it was previously seen as a student and the contacts you make will go a long way.

Infrastructure wise, it seems that much has changed around the area now, especially with the new rebranding efforts around the campus. From the new signs flaunting outside every corner of campus, to the new improvement works around the area such as Food court 1, food court 2 and now, food court 3. The campus is really taking quite a major face lift bit by bit. Food court 3 was particularly interesting as it will be the 2nd and next food court to be air-conditioned. Also considering that the only food tendants there being KFC and Pizza hut (who already have their own enclosed air-conditioned area), the new food court spots new relocated dedicated washing areas previously where the garage area. Presumably all the eating areas will be open and shared between Pizza hut as well as KFC just like those 3 in 1 KFC-Pizza-Taco bell restaurants we see in town. The area might offer new glass windows all round and views of the pool area. With shared air-conditioning, the popular book shop as well as the stores lined along FC3 will definitely see open door policies from now on.

Happened to drop by Track training over one the active days. Training is still all largely focused on specific training for events, especially with the IVP currently on. You can still make out the few distinctive groups training all round the track, each having their own dedicated space around the track area for their respective group training.

I can say that training is rather more focused now, and the degree of specialization offered by each of the coaches for specific events is far better than what it was previously done with only one coach. So rather than having training like a jack of all trades, now we can see the team doing more events than what it can do previously such as more field events like discus, high jump an javelin- events we didn’t even consider doing many years back. Everything looks promising and I believe we can seniors can leave it in the hands of the current coaches and juniors too.

Got a new ASUS WL-600Gg wireless gateway DSL router today at Sim Lim to replace my old 2wire 1800HG which went “kaput yesterday” after a good old 4-5 years I say. Looking around, I am surprised at how low the prices of networking equipment now. Back before 2000 I remembered paying a premium for home networking equipment. That was before wireless networks became mainstream, so wireless equipment were only available at a premium price- the equivalent price of high end wireless-N routers now.

For me, wireless-N is currently more of a market gimmick, a gimmick I see many of us won’t be fully ultilizing considering that even most conventional regular broadband speeds (let be DSL) in Singapore do not even break a sweat out out regular-G wireless. A basic home gateway with an in-built DSL modem, wireless-G+wired 4 port router and firewall will only set you back a descent $80 now. I remembered paying about $150 for just an ADSL router and $170 for a basic Linksys 4-port wired router almost 5 years ago. Man do prices fall fast!

I got my Asus-WL 600G with a high-gain antenna after a haggle to $129, the device is largely an all-in-one device- ADSL modem, 4 port wired and wireless-G router, with the usual bits such as DCHP, firewall, traffic/gaming bandwidth prioritization, web GUI etc. The main selling point of this baby is the VOIP capability, media streaming features as well as an in-built USB print server (no multifunction printer support though), FTP server, NAS with external USB drives and Webcamera function with a hack to the Linux Kernel. Since it runs on Linux, it will be possible to find a port for SANE to allow network scanning, let be run a bit-torrent server to save direct to the NAS. If I were to say, get all these in bits years ago, it would have costed easily a $600+ bundle, though it won’t exactly be fair to say so considering relative improvements in manufacturing capabilities and components over the years, not to mention competition.

Setting up out of the box was a breeze, unlike ISP provided hardware with pre-configurations (who needs those anyway), the Web GUI were all intuitive and assessable, I was able to set up my DSL login, password, as well as my home SSID and encryption keys within 10 minutes and I next I was uploading some photos and here typing this post.

The main let down of this product I see will be the power adapter, which I could see, be the first thing I will see which will fail in the years to come. The power adapter looks cheap is really very different in contrast to the excellent built and quality from the main router unit itself. Presumably this one is sourced by the importer here in Singapore who have to include the adapters locally in the sets due to regional requirements. It’s just irritating that manufacturers put so much technology into their systems, only to let them be fueled by incompetent technology.

Other than that, I am loving my new router!

Received an unexpected email from “Singnet” Today, apparently without a doubt (even without the obvious spelling errors), though this E-mail is obviously a hoax, I do not know how many people are fooled into thinking it is genuine. It reads:

In addition to my previous article on phishing, lets dissect this email headers to raise the truth and origin of this email- and you should whenever you see a questionable email, or one which asks for personal details, though it may seem to come from a legitimate source.

So lets take alook at the headers, you can view it by right clicking email and selecting properties or options in your mail program.

The first part looks completely OK, the server which pulls this email from the singnet server into my singnet account is valid. The return path is the email which your email program will automatically use as a reply address, since it’s placed at helpdesk@singnet.com.sg, it appears to be a legitimate email.

*Note that I replaced @ with [at] to prevent indexing of the phisher’s email here.

However, clicking on reply will create a message with a reply to the email helpdesk [at] j- mail .info which is obviously not the same email which it is sent or perceived to be sent from. Do note not to trust what you see on the “reply” box as sometimes it can be a formatted name made to look like an email address. You will understand what I mean sometimes when you reply to an email and you see like “John Tan” underlined in outlook rather than johntan@someemail.tld, this is the case where the phisher can replace “John Tan” with “helpdesk@singnet.com.sg” while the email is still sent to the phisher’s email helpdesk [at] j- mail .info hidden behind the name for example.

It seems that the email was sent from a server with a university of Berkeley web email account running the squirrelmail webmail software, presumably from some unfortunate soul who had their student email account hijacked by this phisher. The sender details are as follows:

True enough, the sender’s IP 128.32.61.106 originates from California Berkeley contrary to a Singapore IP and origin- area where it should be sent from instead. The sender masked the email to the helpdesk email and return/send path helpdesk@singnet.com.sg while it’s actually sent out from Berkeley’s own smtp server at smtp-out1.berkeley.edu (smtp-out1.Berkeley.EDU [128.32.61.106]).

Going abit further, we can tell that the attack was sent via a web browser interface via HTTP which can only mean port 80, through automated or manual means. And through the problematic email account (account “mdnoerper”), this will allow the Berkeley administrators to trace the source of the problem and plug the phisher.

Then many will come to ask, what those phishers can do if they take control of my email account? Well despite the obvious fact of the possibility of your bank account being emptied to some Swiss account if you respond with your details to bank phishing emails, taking control of your inbox may allow a hacker to take over a server for their own use if they manage to execute any Trojans within the email storage itself. Otherwise they can always use your email for spamming or sending out more phishing emails and having you accountable.

I hope this will shed more light on phishing emails. Remember surf smart, mail smart, it’s a rough digital world out there.

Received an unexpected email from Cambridge University today. I’ve passed the first phase of selection and being called in for an Interview! Here is part of the message they have in their reply.

Based on the details, there will indeed be 2 sessions held on 2 separate days, one being strictly a test day (TSA), where candidates will face a 90+30 min test with 50 MCQs and an essay. The second session will largely be a face to face interview with their college representative. So I guess it will be a casual face to face interview without any tests.

This is however, contrary to what I learnt previously about the interviews all held in a single taxing session- with an interview being held immediately after the test. Given that, that is where candidates have to explain the questions in the interview itself (only where the interviewer can grade your thinking skills and assessment).

I’ve read up quite abit on the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) on Cambridge website and from what I know it’s more of a test focusing much on testing your “unlearnt knowledge” but I am still skeptical on simply going for the test “as it is” and maybe not doing any justice to myself by not preparing extensively for it. Moreover, was told too my by lecturers that going through my curriculum and prepare beforehand will help a considerable bit, not to mention confidence as well.

I guess it’s time to hit the books for some revision every night, otherwise I think I will be putting myself at a disadvantage to eh mainstream ‘A’ Level students. I guess I will temporaily put all my full-time freelance jobs on hold from this weekend onwards so I can concentrate more on preparing myself for this big day.

If you have anything to share with regards to what I can expect in the test and interviews, feel free to share your tips. You need not have to been through it yourself!