Thats the headline on BBC news today, in contrast to the celebration, announcement & stuffs yesterday at home about the Olympics, which is to be held at London on 2012.
Sad.
Luckily the damage is not that severe, with AL-Qaeda taking responsibility to all shit they had done. What they get to gain for doing such things? Blinded by religion? Or just an excuse for their personal hates & wrongdoings? I bet no religion in this world teaches to kill, cause pain & suffering to others…
Dumb…
Got some time to rest at home after the morning event. Then its Dom again for a weekend movie. I didn’t manage to catch Inital-D with the group last week, so its War of the Worlds this week. I was at orchard ahead of meeting time as I got tried of slacking at home in front of the comp. So I dropped by early to Lucky Plaza to check out whether the Motorola HT820 is in store, obviously no. Then its Wisma orchard Sony Ericsson showroom to check out my next possible phone, the Z800i, but its whoa huge, but I like the motion eye concept though, Sony just does it in style, something Samsung don’t. Afternoon movies is on at our usual Lido Orchard, this time its KFC over Subway, haha 400 over 250 calories.. but after a bialthon.. nah!
Thoughts on War of the Worlds
I think is one of the lowest budget films Steven Spielberg ever made, with so much CG to cuts costs & such. Overall if you love thrillers or movies which focuses purely on nothing but destruction, War of the Worlds is just for you dude. Furthermore atmist the destruction, it brings about the very true behavior of human nature, rather disturbing at times of crises though. Brrr… Contray to what we actually experience from heroic real-life figures in scenarios such as the 911 incidents. Anyway, getting attacked by aliens on the global scale is not something we experience everyday though, so such dirty & selfish behavior in the movie could be a result of prolonged distress & anxiety, which is still disturbing. I just wish that we humans would life in harmony with the absence of such nature. For you aliens out there with extra inter-galactic terrestrial Internet or so & are reading this blog from, where ever you are, STAY at home & MIND your own business. Or the MIB will kick your asses…. *DUH* As the saying goes, high emotion= low intelligence, its a balance you see! All in hand, you can’t expect much from Amblin films, where it like always.. ohhhh E.T…. ohhhh…
Final Thoughts
I just gotta get hold of one of the deatomiser ray guns & shields the walkers have, they are just too cool! & come to think about it, the show just look exactly like scenes in Half-life 2, with walkers & stuffs…
After a rather “fast” meal we decided to drop by hereen to check out clothes & stuffs. Amazing, they are retailing the Motorola HT 820 at $279 there, abit expensive from the expected $219. After a short debate on buses, traffic & so, we decided to walk from orchard to Marina Square partly as Dom wanted to lose some calories & considering that traffic is indeed very bad in the city area cos of the road closures & national day rehearsals, (we ended up walking faster than the traffic anyway). Marina Square had definitely undergone quite a Major makeover, not to mention its new foodcourt on the upper floor. For $3.50 I can get a mini wok crispy noodle with a serving portion for 1 1/2 persons – perfect for high metabolic people like me. Its actually quite hard to come by stores which actually serve more on the plate than what they pictured on the signboards… which I LOVE.. haha PORTIONS! my favorite. However, the opposite is most of the time true… *sob* There was an ultra long queue for the roosted duck rice, like 20 people or so.. whoa now thats popular… maybe should drag mum & dad to try out the food there someday.
With road closures around city hall, it looks like the Queen of England or George Bush is in Raffles City man- Security is just super super, tight you can walk 5m-10m without passing cops on prowl outside & inside, with mp5 sub-machine guns & such, not to mention hidden snipers & lines of police make-shift tents, with enough accessories, stun guns & torchlights, etc enough for a small army. They are even using the same Pelican brand of torchlight I use in the Army. A good choice & a true sign of quality *grins* Security checkpoints are also evident inside & outside the building not to mention the lines of barricades, concrete obstacles & police vehicles lining the whole perimeter of the complex. Yea the Olympic committee is something not to be reckoned with, especially with our country’s reputation at stake- where security of the VIPs are concerned. Even Hilary Chilton is dropping by soon, haha to much security to handle? panic!
Dom wanted to go to the esplanade library to borrow some DVDs before heading home & man is the national day rehearsal, irritating- not only I have to out up with planes & helicopters making so much noise overhead everyday but they just have to close our roads & divert our buses- to the extent that even all bus services from Nichol highway have to merge & share the same existing bus stops at Peninsular Plaza, & man did I mention that it is PACKED? The authorities should do something about crowd management there.
Interesting day? & man I am tried, did I mention I ran a bialthon this morning? whew! 😆
Its a nice sunny day for a biathlon. Met up with ahlong & the rest of the Track members at food court 5 before preping ourselves for the event ahead… 80 over people participated in the biathlon which made out 23 teams, divided into 2 groups (leagues). Where the first league (comprising of the 1st 12 teams) will compete 1st, followed by the remainder in the 2nd league thereafter. Overall timings for both the 400m swim & 3.3km run would determine the placings & winners.
Teams are made out of 4 people each, each too having a disabled member within the team. The 400m swim is primarily for the abled-bodied people as most of the disabled particupants are unable to swim. The run is the interesting part where we have to stick together thoughout the 3.3km run & no team member is supposed to be more than 4m apart from each other, exceeding would lead to a disqualification. Furthermore team timings will only stop when the last team member crosses the finishing line. My team, Team 03 initially we finished 3rd in our league, with high hopes of getting a top 3 placing overall, but later was pushed back due to better timings achieved from teams in the 2nd league. Overall we have of “disabled” member Safiy to thank. Personally being a young 11 year old, its quite a feat for him to run 3.3km with us. We got 9th position overall, with medals & goodie bags for everyone. Our team trophy goes into the hands of Safiy to keep & treasure, our man of the team.
Track & field overall cringed various top 10 positions, including 2nd place, not bad overall. Coach should be proud of us. Cheers to Issac our siao-on regular infantry officer, who just can’t stop pitying himself for being “very old or the oldest” in the team, otherwise he’s a good motivator for the team: “Pain is temporarily, Glory is forever!” (pictured left in group pic) Chun Boon our undergrad (center, top in group pic) who, together with me kept pushing Safiy throughout the run, trying to make the run fun & enjoyable by occasional playing “catch” with him during the run to speed him up. & lastly Safiy (center. bottom on group pic) our MVP! you all rock!!
I guess today’s lesson of electronics is one of the most messiest. But otherwise one of the most fullfilling as we actually get to tinkle with integrated circuits (ICs) on the breadboard (aka circuit board) & get them to work & function as we want them to be..whee! Buttons, switches, leds, lcds… So we are not far of into building our own gaming computer out of some wires, logic gates, some cardboard, glue & a cat… hehheh, but otherwise a major step towards our knowledge in electronics. Our teacher, Mr “ah kao” gave quite a few obvious hints on whats coming out for our upcoming semester test, such as this practical. Better revise more on this chapter & stuffs. Aim to score a distinctions dudes! ahahaha “all your marks are belong to me!” wahhaha *lightning strikes in background*
Track training today focuses mainly onto categorising us into our running specialties, namely on the long-distance runners. We got on a rather relaxing 5x1000m run with short rest between, much better than last tuesday’s 10x400m @ no more than 1:40 per 400m. We were pretty much scattered by last tueday’s training, furthermore if it weren’t for coach to keep roaring into campus today with his bright yellow Mitsubishi EVO & eating a packed KFC meal in front of us while training.. argh! tempations! He is not much the fat blob over there at the stadium, but he pointed out quite a few potential runners for 1500m, 4x400m & so on after heartily observing us doing our lap runs together with his Zinger burger. He saw in me being a long distance runner, able to go easily for 10,000m events without a hitch. Ok, but does this means I have to run more?
Oh yea, there are lot of events coming up for the year heres some of them:
- SouthWest CDC Biathlon (2 more days)
- West coast Youth Challenge Run
- New Balance Realrun (Sentosa)
Hello CCA points!
I’ve always wanted to type in a entry closing my period served in the army with a concluding post of my time there. Finally found the time to get this done.
Overall, alot of people always enter the army feeling down of tough times ahead & so. But personally, the army is actually not as bad as it is thought to be by many, including me. I expected super ultra training the moment I stepped into BMT. But instead, training is rather managable, way below the “super ultra training I’ve expected” You can say I was “happy disappointed” as I was actually prepared for a “hell week” or such. As the SAF practice progressive training, yes training actually gets harder as you progress, but so as your fitness so its a very smooth transition to greater intensity training & before you know it you can run 1/2 marathon non-stop, take part in relays or easily get 10mins+- for a 2.4km run. Things I’ve never thought I could do before I’ve enlisted. Further training went on to prep me for my military profession which includes 40-60km foot topographic missions in full battle order, back-to-back reconnaissance missions lasting one full week (allowing us to effectively lose about 3-5kg at the end of the day.. whee!).
It is also in the army where we cultivate habits we never thought any civilized person out there would do like sitting, flopping or lying on the dirt to relax, bashing through forests without hesitation, eat, sleep or do our business in the jungle, despite being sweat soaked to the underwear & beyond, with camo all over. Even in the dirtiest, stinkiest sweatiest conditions, we can just fall asleep instantly in the wilderness on command, its a way of life- army life.
Though many asked me about staying/signing on in the army, maybe I would only even consider if I am an officer, where pay is a very attractive thing. Otherwise as a specialist, I find not point besides able to earn approx $2.1k basic starting pay with free medical & food provided, not to mention for a trooper. Furthermore my area of expertise & comparative advantage in terms of skills I can contribute to society lies outside the barbed-wire laid fences of the army. Such as the market for designing & engineering where more opportunities & challenges lie.
Recalling my relatively short 2years 4mths in the army, heres a quite detailed list I’ve compiled on my service to the nation. Memories, memories…
“Check below link for a complete list of my personal memorable events, achievements & stuffs in the army.
Whee! Heres the juice:
Hi All!
Thanks for your participation! Just a gentle reminder…Date: 2nd of July 2005 (Saturday)
ReportingTime: 9.00am
Venue: Singapore Polytechnic Swimming Pool
Registration Fee: $5
Contact Person: Amelia 96864138/ Liza 94761462Things to bring:
- Swimming Attire
- Running Attire
- Sports Shoes
- Sunblock (optional)
- Extra clothing
- Toiletries
- Indemnity Forms
- Registration fee $5
- And a Smile 🙂
Just pop by our registration booth on Saturday! 🙂
For those who are under 21 years, please remember to bring the indeminty form with your parent’s signature.If there should be any queries, please feel free to contact any of the above contact persons.
Cheers,
Amelia
See you there folks!
I have always longed to run a company on my own, maybe its the desire I have in my blood to be a boss of my own. So after some long homework, gone down to the ACRA at international plaza in the morning to do some enquires, consulting & preprep work for my registration & administration for the design company I am starting, called DESIGNO SHINGJI. The person who attended to me seemed suprised though- a 21 year old in front of her with high hopes to set up & run a company, contray to the usual crowd of business people she would usually see aged 30+ to middle aged people do. The company name is derived out of my middle name Shing Ji, from my full name.
This company aims to focus on 3 main things: innovation, design & engineering (INDENEERING, pronounced in-de-neering, you can call such design engineers “indees” a suspected derived “callsign”) in creating design on one of a kind industrial product designs from the mouse you are holding in your hand right now, to the cars we drive in the future. Till I finally get the rest of registration done up & the business finally running, its still pretty much a one man army now as things are still starting up so till I get myself known & get more cilents, then thats where the fun part starts, expanding!
Met Cous Gordon at around 6.30pm at Shawhouse Jade, its one of the few hangouts outskirt of town where we are sure to get movie tickets for the hottest blockbusters no matter what the occasion. I remembered catching LOTR on opening day here with the theater only 2/3 filled there while all cinemas along Orchard are like full-house for all time slots till the following day.
For dinner, we doggie bagged subway-wiches which we smuggled into the cinema to eat. Overall, this movie I guess compliments all the other batman movies & fills the gap by focusing on the birth of Batman, just like SW, Episode III. I think this is one of the best Batman movies ever made to date. Not a bad show overall (& I think it can even provide good competition head on with Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds) no wonder its like No 1 in the US & SG box office for about a week now. All in hand, I just wanna drive home the tumbler vehicle… & like jump from to roof to roof on our HDB flats… vroom, vroom.
Hung out for some coffee at the nearby Bugis coffee shops before taking 197 home around 11pm+. Amazingly is the number of new steamboat stalls along the beach road area, maybe should drop by there to try someday to try.
If I am not wrong, Initial-D opens today islandwide, you definitely can’t miss it with the trailers running on loops on TV mobile, sure bores anyone to death on the bus. But I haven’t caught Batman begins yet!
Busy busy busy, though mid-week (or kinda) I guess the highlight of this week is struggling with some indigestion from the buffet last weekend… strange never had this indigestion feeling before, maybe the food there is bad or something.. yuck! Even during training, I can feel my stomach growling at almost every other step on my runs… Mmmm gassy! Not to mention releasing enough methane gas over the past few days to sustain maybe a small BBQ or sort. Its just whoa… long! ahem… for the record dudes! But otherwise to the benefit of others, its amazingly, odorless.
Dad & Sheena kinda got some stomach discomfort too or sort, so its official that the bug was caught from a dinner we had together or sort, with all possibilities pointing towards garden hotel’s buffet. Mum was rather helpful at recommending indigestion tablets for us to try on top of charcoal & whatsoever “diarrhea” medication. Being a rather solid veteran with indigestion tables herself, she always up promoting its effectiveness. Then she would go on hagging about intestine problems, vitagen & IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) in Singapore, stuffs I think, she read up recently from the latest issue of Straits Time- Mind Your Body. Despite this, my other personal feat for the week is that of catching up & going for makeup lessons I’ve missed last week at school, while I am on leave for ORD clearance at camp. Feels suxxy getting up earlier than the rest, to slave additional hours in the lab before lectures or tutorials…
I’ve got homework to do!! argh!! time, precious must not argh! wasste… Personally sundays are actually my untouchable days, otherwise a “family day”. A day spent relaxing by the pool, clocking my new competitive swim time & to catch up with unfinished work if needed or just relax on lazy afternoon in time for the work day tomorrow…
Line up of activities for the week:
- Friday: Meetup, dinner & movie (maybe batman returns) with cous gordon, sure friday.. ok, subs on for dinner then. Eat fresh!
- Saturday: Track & Field gathering at Sentosa, so its maybe lunch with mum & gang, then poof! to Sentosa for the afternoon, hope it would be sunny! whee Beach Volley! Frisbee! Kayaking!
- Sunday: (TBC) Dom wanted to watch Initial-D, then maybe lunch/dinner thereafter so I guess sunday may be free for it, furthermore I still own him money for cine tiks from the last meet, so hes more of less up my neck on this. This one would be free for him, ahem I mean on me!
Looking back, I didn’t say it won’t be fun, but it is packed! Busy busy busy…
Haha yea, its a universal celebration. Its amazing how my parents can think of such ingenious ideas such as squeezing in all our celebration events into one, at the same time, (I think) having an excuse not to have so many dinner celebrations. The dinner was at our “lao di fang” (old place) as mum suggested, Garden hotel – a place where my mum once worked as a teenager. Its still around & she met some of her old friends, who are still amazingly still working there like for 2 over decades since mum left the place. Old times, old friends, new catching up.
As we expected mum kept bragging about the times she worked here on this ancient land, which department/area she worked, how the building was improved/ extended/ renovation/ reworked till its present state. Blah blah blah. The food there is not bad, with free flow of lobsters & white wine. If you are a person who loves lobster or can’t get enough of tempura, this place is for you. The buffet has an international spread, with a relatively large spread including a steamboat section, very value for money!
The funny thing is their “payment on seating policy” – strange for the waiter kindly approach you suddenly with the bill, then its like: “umm I didn’t call for the check sir…” as I thought. But its their restaurant policy, asking you to foot the bill once you’ve seated. Ummm as I thought: are you all still gonna provide service once we paid? & so as they did… Moreover, their desserts rock! & I simply love their cream puffs, not to mention the choco coated ones, yummy! even the self help ice-kacang & ice cream are good.
The only thing that needs improving is maybe the need to isolate the food to an area as food serving areas are actually like spaced out on a 50 square meter area, walking from area to area for different cusines. The Jap & local cusines are located near the lobby, while the western, seafood & desserts in the coffee house & BBQ food by the pool side. All over the place! But its good for digestion anyway.. walk walk. Its a good dinner for 3 events. Till then lets not give mum & dad another chance to hold such mega-all-in-wonder events again. Its just too convenient!
And there I was, driving off to camp after school, drivin’ off to camp after school – one last time! Whee, can’t believe the day had finally arrived when I get to officially be out of the army. Haha bye bye guys, bye Sungei Gudong camp, bye armour, for now… Mmm cos once armour always armour? ATW, you all had been a nice bunch. Especially on my last few walks around company line where everybody, all the troopers & officers alike, pounced up upon seeing me on me: SERGEANT Shaun!! ORD loh! thanking me & wishing me all the best for my ORD while some actually queued up to shake my hand, as NSFs one last time. The feeling is so unreal, but otherwise, actually real. While I didn’t walk out of camp after my admin clearance, as I drove into camp, I can just imagine shouting out & punching fists in the air once people step out of camp gate this very last day of service. After showing our newly posted camp MPs & RPs our new Pink ICs upon exit that is! ORD Loh!
And so this marks a new phrase of life for me, & new challenges lie ahead. Many asked me what are my plans ahead, I will always bleakly reply, “carry on studying loh.” But I guess that pretty vague as most of you regular readers here would know that I am actually schooling in Singapore Poly presently, doing my diploma in Mechanical engineering, something I would want to do in University as well. While being unable enter local universities to do my degree, (which I am actually supposed to do but set back due to my lousy grades at “A” levels). I however, got accepted in various universities overseas, such as Monash & RMIT universities in Australia, I guess the education system there is not very result orientated, which I prefer, not like the drone muggers -attack of the study clones in Singapore.
But as it turned out to be, neither me, nor my family can afford the annual $25000 fee for 5 years on a engineering-design double degree program, not to mention the same 4 years for a single engineering degree. Yes I am aware of study loans, but looking on a broader picture, I do not want to tie my parents in on a debt. Furthermore if so, I would wish to repay parents the school fees after my degree, knowing that is actually too far fetched & expensive for me, its not worth even considering. My plan is to study 2 1/2 years for my diploma on a scholarship & enter NUS to further my engineering profession. Though lengthy, its the best I make of currently & is the most cost effective choice, as fees are not only subsided, but overflowed with bonuses by possible scholarships. Oh well, till then I guess I would end today’s entry here, dinner’s arriving heard mum got an ostrich surprise… Mmmmm
As we all know, one of the main features the x50v has is the ability to output video (or mirror) its display onto computer monitors or projectors. Perfect for students like me offering presentations at school or projects. However, that’s one of the main problems we dell consumers outside USA face- lack of accessory variety. Living in Singapore, literally all dell hardware here are limited to what Dell, Asia pacific (DELL AP) have to offer. As quoted by a Dell AP staff on the phone, “sorry, we do not stock the vga cable for Singaporean customers & it is so for all the Asia Pacific countries we are responsible for. However if you have relatives or friends staying in the states, you can get them to purchase it & ship it to you.”
Darn! No presentations for me? so as I thought.
Then there’s always the site pc-mobile offering third party alternatives. It came as a surprise- I didn’t expect them to come out with x50v accessories as they usually specialise in handphone accessories. Pc-mobile is a hong kong company, popular for notoriously adding a 3.5mm audio jack to almost any mobile handsfree in the market so that high quality headphones can be used for music instead, which I too, ultilise. (& a guess this site is widely discussed about by forum members here too)
Upon order, basic non-expedited airmail delivery took about 4 working days. The VGA cable is on the left, the cable on the right is an additional retractable USB sync cable I purchased with the intent for use on my axim as a PnP storage device for storing homework & stuffs.
Price factor
PC-mobile is retailing their version of the VGA adapter for $28.50USD compared to dell’s official VGA cable for 79 bucks, a steal? maybe.
Built
The unit is relatively solid & well constructed, the male port which plugs into your axim is made from a very smooth light plastic (not rubberised like the dell’s official plugs) and the metal connectors make a small rattle when given a shake, giving it a kinda hollow feel, but otherwise ok.
(various photos pictured together with USB sync cable)
The retractable USB sync cable (PRX50) & VGA cable pictured togther.
Like dell’s cable theres a seperate power plug where you can use to power your device during a presentation. Its a 5.4+v type port, so it charges your Axim even when its ON during your presentations.
Testing/video quality
Upon hooking up to my viewsonic VE155b test monitor, of course without using any third party software with mirror mode on (portrait) the monitor displays the PPC 640×480 screen centered on the monitor.
One thing to note is that your PDA will run VERY SLOW with mirror mode on. Text input have delayed input response, together with menus. You need not have the vga cable plugged to experience it, just turn on mirror mode in your x50v settings for the feel.. laggy!
So this pretty much limits the x50v to basic PIM & the running of programs utilising very little processor load. No large screen gaming or doddling dudes!
Conduits Pocket slides/Pocket slideshow
The highlight of VGA out is presentations right? here how it looks like in portrait mode:
Strangely though, both pocket slides & slideshow are unable to detect any output in “settings”, limiting me to a mere vga res out on the monitor.
However, with third party programs such as clearvue, you can range the output from 800×600 to even 1024×768.
Maybe someone who used the dell cable with clearvue can shed a light on this case. Can the cable be detected on your side too? I believe it should be the same (not detectable) as the cable serves to only transmit vga data to your monitor. Detection for Pocket slides, etc if I am not wrong is only for use with programs such as margi-presenter-to-go or generic VGA out cards which uses the flash slot instead where hardware detection is eminent for function.
BetaPlayer 0.096
Playing a test Xvid video at 30fps (400×300), strangely with intel 2700G decoder enabled, live video is only shown on the monitor, nothing on the x50v’s screen. There is an obvious visible drop in frame rate, otherwise still watchable video. Selecting Xscale decoder option, yields opposite results. However, selecting the “Raw frame buffer” option allows me to play video on both screens, but with great reduction in frame rate & occasional freezes/jumps on the video.
You can download a test video I took (save target as, about 2.3Mb Xvid compression) in raw buffer mode. Though its captured at 15fps on my powershot, but you can more of less see the differences in PDA & monitor frame rates & the noticeable long pause somewhere in the middle of the video.
Landscape Mode
This is when your monitor recognize the output from your PDA is reverting its display to 4:3 landscape VGA, thus utilizing all the monitor screen estate:
Initially the picture displayed in the screen sticks out of the edges of the monitor with some of the right edges covered, this is so if vga cables/pins are of lower quality & they would distort/shew images formed on the screen. But as it turned out to be, my monitor image is just mis-aligned & an auto-adjust on the monitor pops the whole display back on center, showing all edges. Not a problem.
The missing PDA video playback is the same for Windows media player as well, only video is played on the monitor, but with relatively smooth playback. Guess processor load is too much to even render video on the PDA screen.
Powerpoint slides look excellent in landscape mode, though still in VGA-res output mode. As shown on this test powerpoint presentation file I cooked up in 5 seconds…
Battery Life
I guess that due to similarities & make of the pc-mobile’s & dell official cable, battery life differences between them would be negligible in this case, even if you consider different quality cables & materials used. Battery life is tested to be approx 2 1/2hours on the 2200mah battery I am using from 100% charge to the appearance of the “main battery very low” message (4%)
Conclusion
The plus point of purchasing dell’s official bundle is the inclusion of clearview software, which allows you to output video at desired resolutions. That’s a software plus, hardware wise both products are very similar, with reference to this review. I guess price is the main selling point of the pc-mobile cable, being about 3 times cheaper. Furthermore I am sure there are other cheaper & alternative software to clearvue, which in turn allows any x50v user to ultilise the power of vga output at a great bargain.
Pros
- Low price & quality build
- Conforms with Dell’s OEM design.
- High software & hardware compatibility.
Cons
- No bundled software, especially for presentations.
