First 2010 Post… In March
Mar 2nd
Busy busy year. Had no time to update and frankly been squeezed out in every way possible way. It has been an extremely quick moving year and I’ll attempt to round up every less sensitive information around me, right here.
Studies – Semester 2’s Summary
Back to school and 4 economics modules
I’m taking 5 modules as usual, 4 economic centric modules (3 core + 1 elective) and 1 elective module to cover my final faculty exposure requirement. Basically, the modules I’m taking are:
- EC2101 – Microeconomics 1 [1 Bid Point: Preallocated]
- EC2102 – Macroeconomics 2 [1 Bid Point: Preallocated]
- EC2303 – Foundations for Econometrics [1 Bid Point]
- GEK1018 – Economic Issues in the Developing World [300+ Bid Points]
- EL1101E – The Nature of Language [1 Bid Point]
It’s hard to compare the workload of this sem to the last. Last sem I was highly preoccupied with covering content for GE1101E and SN1101E which yielded very positive results for me. This sem, none of my modules are content heavy but rather concept and practice heavy. If no one has told any ‘A’ level / poly kid who want to be an economics major – Economics in NUS is a whole bunch of Mathematics. I have never manipulated more formulas and graphs as I have done right now. It’s frankly not that hard, comes across as a little shocking in the first few weeks but it gets much better in the end. EC2101 is really basic, EC2102 is made to sound ‘cheem’ but its doable, EC2303 is ‘A’ Level stats which I did not do in my ‘A’ Levels but that’s where I’m catching up now. GEK1018 is a god sent module if you are updated on current economic issues and have studied a particular region in the world marked as developing. That’s where I have reaped the benefits of SN1101E. Very good complimentary module. EL1101E has nothing to do with English but linguistics on its own. It studies the structure both in letter and voice of any language, pretty interesting but can be technical at times.
So here I am facing my mid term exams and I will be doing 3 of them (EC2101, EC2102, EL1101E) in these 2 weeks. Hopefully I can do well in all of them. I’ve cleared some projects, etc so I’m looking to clear this to get some breathing space.
My modules are basically afternoon modules so I have avoided the 8am fiasco of last sem’s mathematics slots. I still do have an 8am slot but the rest of the days allow me to have some late mornings. Sleep. Damn bloody deprived.
IT – Screens and More Screens + Thoughts on Fermi
Add the Samsung T260HD to Dell's Ultrasharp 19" and a future Fermi card...
Have a pretty much dived into the display area early this year and trust me it is the greatest factor in increasing productivity when using the comp.
First up, I got a Samsung T260HD for a really low price which offered a 1920 x 1200 resolution, a big upgrade over my Samsung 2232GW (1680 x 1050). 2 documents side by side is great. I don’t game much and frankly although people swear they have a greater gaming experience with a bigger screen, I don’t feel much of a change but yet again I have no time to fully immerse myself in it. Productivity and work wise. Awesome.
Second, I took my 6 year old Dell UltraSharp 19″ monitor and rotated it to portrait orientation (1024 x 1280). Put it to the left of my T260HD and voila, even better productivity. I’m getting news feeds, updates, social networking on that screen together with running Outlook there while doing my main work on the T260HD. Again no gaming gains because I’m not running a dual screen gaming setup, but productivity wise… awesome. (And free!)
Fermi is finally going to be released in end March 2010. About time too. It has been an insane wait for nVidia’s challenge to ATI’s 5xxx series. My graphics card is a good ol’ 8800GT (3-4 years old now) which holds up really well even now running 2 monitors. The G92 infrastructure is nothing short of impressive but nVidia’s GT200 series have not been able to better innovate on it. You get increased clocks, more cuda cores, better memory (and more) but not a quantum leap. I’m hoping Fermi does different. I skipped the entire GT200 lineup due to that. Save up the cash for a better product. ATI’s 5870 is tempting but I’m waiting on Fermi to deliver a good challenge to ATI and I’m looking to see how their product performs with the premise of better drivers, PhyX and Cuda support. Hope my 8800GT hangs on for a wee bit more. Most of my tech friends have warned me that 8800GTs are dying at the moment as it has been around for a bit too long in a tech cycle.
Football – Trauma and Topsy Turvy-ness
Get Well Soon Ramsey
This season must be the most exciting season for neutrals. There is no runaway leader at this point. Arsenal as much as they have been patchy this season – can still challenge for the title at this stage because Chelsea and Man Utd have not been consistent on their end. More upsets, more underdog wins mean only 3 points separate the top 3. The race for 4th place is also interesting with Liverpool, Man City and Tottenham close in that department. Interesting topsy turvy season. Anything can happen.
On a sadder note, Aaron Ramsey suffered what is the worst injury of the EPL this season so far with a broken leg. It looks like a clean break of 2 bones at the calf area and many football fans feel for him. He’s only 19 and its hard to say what the long term effects are. Arsenal fans took to him because of his talent and more importantly his feverish work ethic and how he was perfectly balanced in both offense and defense. The good thing is he seems to be keeping well and the support of both the team and the fans have encouraged him to quickly recover and be back on the pitch. You can follow him on Twitter – @aaronramsey1. I’ve verified with trusted UK sources and yes, that is his account for sure. I won’t label Shawcross as a villain but come on, don’t go down 2 footed with a high sliding tackle and say – ‘I never meant that’. Learn to control your legs a bit maybe? Recklessness. Gah.
CNY – Taking too much time
Tiger Year - Where has the time gone?
This year marks the longest preparation and celebration of Chinese New Year for my family. The spring cleaning of the entire house took nearly a month. We cleaned out like nuts and scrubbed nearly every surface available. Then came the celebrations, we had like extra visits to our place and that means (pre cleaning, preparation, hosting, post cleaning). Trust me its tiring as hell and although it is great to meet relatives and old friends, it was draining on my end and it affected my time for other priorities a lot.
NUS’s pretty deviously placed the term break on the CNY holiday week. Really a lot of time lost which again explains why the early 2 months of this year have come and gone so quickly.
Endnote
Some site building..
I will be updating more frequently but before I go, here’s a shout out to 2 small sites I’ve done for corporate customers. Have a look and send me some feedback. Frances Beauty Clinic & Will Events.
Till then, take care.
2009 – The Year In Review
Dec 30th
This blog is over a year old already and it is still alive which makes this a new blogging milestone for me. I remember hitting up a post like this before 2008 ended and here is 2009’s edition. Time really flies.
2009 was a largely satisfying year with few hiccups
What Went Right
- Studies: I’m very happy with my performance in Sem 1 in NUS, a 4.4 CAP on first try is an encouraging point to start off with. Hoping to push on further. Getting into good groups for all my team based assignments.
- Geekish: Core i7 Desktop and an incoming Core i7 laptop. Having all my systems run efficiently with no hiccups.
- Soccer: Arsenal is probably doing the best they have done so far in comparison to the last 4 years. Verminator was simply a revelation at the back. More than replaced Toure. Song is maturing into a sold DM that we lacked since Flamini left.
- Health: My sinus operation in 2008 made things better. I seldom had flu or cough this year.
- Family: Improved ties
What Went Wrong
- Studies: Taking Maths as a breadth. Mathematics is not difficult but I was not consistent in the first half of the semester causing me to plunge nearly 80% of my time into Maths during the second half to make up. If you want to take Maths in NUS, you have to bear up with double number of lectures, quadruple the workload and quintimple tests and exams. CAP would have been higher without it.
- Geekish: Loss and theft of my laptops.
- Soccer: Adebayor not being shot in the leg yet. RVP’s injury.
- Health: Lack of Sleep. Slight ringing in my ears when I am sleep deprived. I am eating way too much. Need to cut down.
Aims for 2010
- Studies: Pushing my CAP to 4.6 with better time management now that I learnt from my mistakes in Sem 1.
- Geekish: No more losses and thefts please. Better physical security measures. ATI 5870 or GT300 when Fermi actually lanches.
- Soccer: Either the EPL, CL or FA Cup would be a nice bonus. No more injuries please.
- Health: More sleep! (yea right) Better diet (has to be right)
- Family: Stronger ties
Here’s wishing everyone Happy 2010 and may the year ahead be a generally smooth sailing one (gotta be realistic).
Some Desktop & Cloud Tinkering
Dec 23rd
I have been posting a couple of apps on Twitter/Facebook in regards to Cloud services and desktop management. It’s amazing how such little apps can really spruce up your window/desktop/files/synchronization needs. I’ve added more here, so have a look.
Outlook Syncing without Exchange
Outlook Synchronization Without Exchange Server
Syncing outlook data files and folders is a pain without exchange or Google Apps but it is doable. My method may not work for everyone but here’s how it goes for me. I manage 5 email accounts (personal/business/school/work/etc) on my outlook account and am using shared calendars.
Emails – I receive all emails via POP usually and what I do to ensure I have the same mails on both my laptop and my desktop is to get my laptop to never delete mails from the server and set a 3 day gap for deletion on my desktop. It’s a workaround that has been really smooth so far. Point is, you have to ensure both computers get the mails within 3 days of each other.
Sent Emails – I use the free version of Easy2Sync for Outlook to ensure both laptop and desktop Sent Mails folder is in sync. Very important if you are tracking emails.
Calendars – I mentioned Google Calendar Sync before and both my computers sync from Google. All changes, new/deleted entries are drawn from Google and updated to both computers. Syncing to Google has its benefits. You can share your Outlook calendar (synced to Google) to other users since they can add it via Tools > Account Options > Internet Calendar. Just give them the private URL of your Google calendar (Ical)
Contacts – I use the free version of OsaSync which is a little troublesome to setup but does the job perfectly. I used to try Soocial but their Outlook plugin is pretty unstable.
Mirror'it easily
Files Synchronization
Documents – I use Allway Sync to ensure both computers have the exact same documents folder
iTunes – Allway Sync again. 2 folders are kept in sync. The Music folder under your user folder and the folder where all music is stored. The good part is both iTunes are perfectly identical and you can sync your iPod on either without have issues.
Backup - Allway Sync dominates. I sync to both an additional hard drive and my NAS.
Dropbox - Simple and easy like stickmen
File Sharing
DropBox. Perfect solution. I covered this in my last post. Downside is uploading speeds in Singapore is crap but there’s no work around to this, unless you launch your own satellite, plug in your own transmitter and…
Deskspace in action
Desktop Enhancement
Multi Desktop Management – There are tons of freeware to manage multiple desktops. I ain’t using any of them and went with Deskspace instead. Beautiful and works great. You can customize just about everything possible (default launch locations for programs, different desktops and different widgets for each desktop, etc etc)
An Alt+Tab Replacement – One thing I envied about OS X is their style of switching windows. Aero Flip and the improved Alt+Tab thingy in Windows 7 couldn’t cut close to that. But thanks to Switcher you can do exactly what the Mac Fanatics are preaching… on Windows Vista/7. Oh the blasphemy.
Folder Customization – Rainbow Folders allows you to colour folders in Windows easily so you can mark folders out.
That’s all for now!
The Law of Equilibrium & Singapore’s Future
Dec 17th
To some the merlion faces its front, to others the back is all they see
When you are a month plus away from hitting 23 (damn) you start to think about your more immediate concerns like a job and stuff. I am at the last stage of my education. Graduate in 3-4 years and move on to a good job. But this rat race is something so difficult to shake off and I wonder if it’ll ever be gone.
The central problem to this is comparable to communism and capitalism, and the fact that there is no stable mixed solution. The so called ‘mixed’ solution is a point constantly sliding between the two depending on the mood and sentiments of the ground.
I am not so sure if I want to remain in Singapore. This place is getting really highly saturated with over 5 million people in this little island. Geography explains spatial movements and one of the factors is over population. True we might not have hit the limit yet (I wonder how many storeys the tallest HDB building would have then) but people on the ground are starting to feel the squeeze.
That is just a superficial concern for the non-claustro centric. But things just get worse (if you’re the ground) or better (if you’re higher up the leadership ladder) when you look at education and jobs. The free market economy works on greed – what is termed as covetousness, a sin maybe but still the basic building block of every advancing economy.
That’s the issue isn’t it? If you want to be the best you need a country of likeminded people, striving to be better than others. You need competition, call it healthy competition, etc. Healthy for the economy but not really for your personal health. So that is how the rat race starts. Be better, study harder, work harder, work longer hours, outsmart, out-think, out-maneuver and before you know it, damn the best years of your life just flew past and you are staring at retirement (and then death).
Take it on the flipside, it is even more dire. No reward for being better, no competition, everything is back to the bare minimum level of accepted living conditions. Err, cough, communism. (But hey, life is on a much slower pace and there’s more space to relax)
The common solution is to run the country on a free market model and intervene to help the bottom-most group. In Singapore, we modify it a bit and encourage working by helping out those who are working from the bottom most strata. But as with every system, this is far from perfect. What we have bred is a bunch of elites who see the rest as leechers.
The funny thing is you can’t blame them. They have put in thousands of hours (and cash) into education and their careers. They get taxed and income is redistributed with the poor. Won’t they feel like they got leeched? They are not the government, they are the upper class who won’t really care about the rest of the country bar themselves and their families and it is perfectly understandable why they do so.
On the hindsight, the poor did not have the opportunities nor the means to attain such dizzying levels of income. It is not fair to them. So how do you fix this?
You don’t. Life is not fair, equality is an ideal, if not a joke.
In the long run, the problem will either boil over or the country would just adapt to change. Those less interested in the rat race and more interested in the non-dollars-and-cents measurement of the quality of life would move out of Singapore.
The highly competitive will stay and the competition level will reach to grand new heights / insanely retarded heights (depending on who you are). Bottom line, Singapore will continue to rise as a stunning ASEAN country in any category that can be measured with dollars and cents.
The goal of Singapore was set in stone way back. The Singapore story was that ‘our forefathers worked (extremely) hard to build what Singapore is today’. The story implied in my view is ‘you better do the same (and better) to keep Singapore moving up the ladder, of course benefits will trickle down as well’
If that’s your kind of thing, Singapore is the place for you.
If not, you’d be thinking along my lines and wondering if this miracle island is really a haven for you.
Everything balances automatically in the end.
Post Sem 1 and the 24″ Question
Dec 6th
Exams are over!
Mugging is over!
I just finished (4 days ago) my first semester in NUS. It has been 4 months of hard work and ups and downs but mostly things have been great. I have not seen enough of uni to make much comments but there is generally no real difference from ‘A’ level life with the exception of more freedom to make or break your sem. I think what is most important is to take modules that you like and have an interest for. I took 4 of that and enjoyed all of them. The 1 module that I took (for the sake of a sense of completion) without interest in was one that I had to drag myself through the paces in. I’m really looking forward to the next semester where I would be doing level 2000 economics modules tying up with the completion of my faculty, GEM and SS requirements. Much of my second year would then be freed up for me to focus on the deadly important level 3000 modules for economics which I hope to spread between two sems. It has been an interesting semester and I am looking forward for more of that next sem.
Holiday Plans
Design work again for the hols
So I have about exactly a month of holidays to enjoy before the next semester. Due to my aforementioned loss of my laptop, I would be working fulltime for much of December for pocket money amongst other needs. Not much leeway for self Christmas presents which used to be a hallmark of past Christmases. Doesn’t matter much because I’m happily blessed in my current state. Besides working, there would of course be things like going out and hopefully a chalet which is still in the works.
Of course I have begun a short return to the World of Warcraft and am levelling up a new toon on another server. WoW is really ezmode in levelling compared to 3 years ago when I was slogging through with my warrior. I have a druid and paladin now and it has been a breeze so far. Not much hope of me reaching 80 by the end of this month. Depending on how sem 2 goes, I might continue playing casually as I am now doing.
The 24″ Monitor Crave
One day... After I upgrade the GFX
I think the largest IT crave that I have had for months is that of a 24 inch LCD screen. My 22 inch is doing great but the extra resolution offered by a 1920×1200 screen would boost productivity and entertainment by a lot. It is hard to look back after being able to put up 2 full sized A4 documents next to each other on a single screen. I don’t understand why people get the 1920×1080 24inch screens handicapping themselves of 120pixels vertically.
I was really tempted to get a 24″ at the end of this year but would put plans on hold due to various reasons most of which is down to my graphics card.
I am running a 8800GT which is 3 years old but still a real gem of a card nevertheless. I am holding out for a DX11 card be it ATI’s 5800 series or nVidia’s yet to be announced GT300 series. Looking for a really good value card like the 8800GT has been. I have not seen any card from the GT200 series that match peformance for value in the way the 8800GT has done. With both companies facing wafer problems and prices being driven up due to the lack of supply and increasing demand, it would be smarter to hold out for a DX11 card next year when hopefully nVidia enters the fray and ATI begins its price drop strategy. Whichever the case, a 24 inch screen has to come after a graphics card upgrade and at current status that has to wait due to industry conditions.
Cloud Services
The cloud is upon us
During the mugging period, I took special interest in cloud services during my times of procrastination. Here are some of the tools I use mainly for two roles – syncing and online backup.
Google Calendar Sync
Extremely useful if you have two or more computers running outlook and you want your calendar in sync. You can also access your calendar online via google if needed. Works extremely efficiently.
Xmarks
Syncing Firefox bookmarks with Internet Explorer is really easy with this. Better still Xmarks stores with encryption your saved passwords in Firefox. Xmarks more or less serves as my Firefox and IE backup in terms of bookmarks and passwords.
DropBox
A gem of a file syncing program. You get a 2GB account with unlimited bandwidth and a maximum single file size upload of 350MB which is more than enough even for my huge PSD and AI files for my design work. Every computer that you install dropbox on and link to your account has its dropbox contents sync. The best part about this problem is using dropbox in tandem with your friends. Files are quickly shared and anyone who updates the file will cause the updated file to be propagated throughout so everyone has the latest updated version. I use it more for file sharing rather file backup but it has been performing impressively so far. If you wish for more storage to begin your account with, drop me a PM on facebook and I can help you start off with 2.25GB instead of 2.0 =)
That’s all for now and I hope to enjoy my hols and make it productive one.
A Crazy Week of Studies & Windows 7 Launch
Oct 23rd
Studies
The final lap is in sight
I’m just really glad the week is over. 3 tests and a project though the project was pretty easy and I had a very co-operative group. Thursday must have been my most hardcore studying day as I just completed a Maths test and a South Asia test. Both of which I am positive and optimistic on. So that leaves me with 1 more project, 1 more Maths test and then the finals. Really glad the end of the road is in sight and I can focus better that way. This semester has not been too difficult but just tedious, especially when you want to put your best in every thing you do. I have to say that the left behind or least regarded module is my maths module basically because it commanded too much effort needed for a L1 breadth module. I’m going to make the best of it and see how things go. Economics, South Asia, Geography and my GEK module have been pretty smooth sailing. There’s a lot of reading and analysis to be done but I enjoy that far more than sitting in a corner and doing bloody mathematical sums (I don’t understand how most of the world like that!). So I’m going to take a break today and just relax before starting my final exam preparations next week.
Windows 7 Launch
7 is here to stay
Hats off the Microsoft, the Vista lesson really taught them well. I believe the Windows 7 launch has been the largest since the launch of Windows 95 which at that point in time was a revolution in terms of its GUI. Windows 7 doesn’t provide too large a graphical change from Vista because Vista was in fact the supposed revolution. Vista was a rushed product that was not optimized. I was part of the rush and I remember splurging $300 on the OEM fresh installation copy of Vista Ultimate. Got myself burnt there. In every software development cycle, especially in that of an Operating System, code optimization is key as other programs run on top of it. The role of an OS is massive an any flaw would be multiplied in large degrees if you (MS) screw up one bit. That was the lesson MS learn from that.
Many critics argue that Windows 7 is simply what Vista should have been. They are right. But let’s not cry over split milk and hope that MS would give it to you free. Mac’s Snow Leopard is no different, seasoned Mac users have given feedback that SL was simply a service pack as well. For those who skipped Vista, Windows 7 would provide them with an experience so optimized I actually got a Pentium 2 PC running faster than it ever had. I swapped my OS from Vista to Win 7 on my laptop and got the same result, with better battery life and really quick boot up and shut down times. Programs run faster, etc. I’ve never been enthusiastic over an OS till 7 because it was heartening to see a much em battered company like MS and a product like Windows being finally given the embrace it rightly deserved.
MS took a very different approach with Win 7 due to the Vista backlash. It listened to the consumers a hell lot more. To have 8 million willing beta testers tells you something, especially those who campaign for Ubuntu and Linux. Windows 7 was built for the consumer with great input from the consumer and that is what a free market economy is about. The Vista lesson would prove to be a boon for the software consumer market as MS is now seeing a massive turn in fortunes with a better product and…
… A really awesome marketing approach. Steve Balmer is no Steve Jobs. He sounds dead and boring but the entire publicity machine does not run on him unlike the case of Apple. Apple has a cult leader but when he goes, you can’t be sure the company can progress in the same manner continuing a tradition of Mac cult loyalists. I would not go into the Windows vs Mac debate because most arguments have not shown the capability to delineate that fact the Windows should be compared to the Mac OS and not Mac on the whole and arguing with a cult faithful is of no use. The facts speak for themselves. Apple’s closed approach in their OS will hurt them if it has not already been. People are running Windows on Macs and that resonates loudly in market share echoes. MS did what it had always left out, use software and push hardware. That was what Mac was always about. The deals that MS managed to pull off with HP, etc are incredible. SGD$1,500 approx for a desktop, laptop and a netbook with a router setup is nothing short of insane. To be frank the very laptop I’m using now costs way more than that. And the best way they coined it, get 3 PCs for the price of a Mac and it works a damn lot faster too with better compatibility.
Microsoft got both its product and marketing approach right and the crowd has responded. The beauty of the free market economy is that if you suck, you’re out and with the tables now turned, consumers watch what Apple’s next move would be.
A Hectic Update
Oct 18th
Studies
Studies on the express lane
It’s been a long while since I last blogged. Things have heated up in school pretty much. I have at this point completed 2 projects 1 term paper 5 tests 1 debate and am facing another 3 tests this coming week (and yes, 1 project as well). There are still more tests, projects and of course the final exams which would be in a months time. Which idiot told me uni life was slack? Considering I’m only taking 5x Level 1 modules, I can expect this to be four times as bad in the coming years. Pretty happy with how the results have been showing so far but the amount of time put into school work has rivaled whatever effort I have placed in school before.
IT
My laptop is now a Studio 1450
I lost my HP laptop. Yep, within 5 mins my entire laptop was stolen. I was down for like a week. You know how it feels like to lose $1,850.00 for nothing. Well, not to cry over split milk, I have replaced it with a Dell Studio 14 which is a slight upgrade over my HP ProBook 4310s. Better CPU, GFX, Stronger Battery Life, Back lit Keyboard, Sweat resistant palm rest, tougher build, slimmer charger, better multimedia controls, brighter display. Everything sounds nice except for one thing. It does not have a hard disk indicator light. Yup, zilch, I never thought that was possible. I had to install a software end hard disk indicator to work around it. But besides this rather small yet irritating missing component, this laptop has been working absolutely great. I have Win 7 Ultimate (x64) running on it really smoothly. And am using the MS Presenter Notebook Mouse 8k with it. Managed to cut $100 off the price by importing it from the U.S. The reason for my loss of the HP ProBook was down to carelessness caused by me leaving around cause I couldn’t keep the laptop in my sling bag. So to ensure I do not lose another big bunch of money I got a Targus Wanderer backpack where I can dump all my school shit in together with the laptop. I’m not going to lose this and I will personally ******** the person who took my HP ProBook if I find him/her.
Football
Keep this consistency going boys
On the brighter side of things, Arsenal have been going on smooth after 2 defeats in Manchester where they were frankly the better team. I think there’s one thing to learn from Utd and that is losing big games do not really matter. United took only 1 point from Arsenal from 2 league games last season but were yards ahead because they could kill off the small teams. Something that Arsenal could not do. That part seems solved. The Verminator has been a massive addition to the squad and Song is finally showing some promise. Early days yet, but encouraging nevertheless. Actually I’ll trade the EPL title for breaking Adebayor’s legs (into multiple parts). Seriously.
Back to WoW
Not my screenshot, but very similar
On the gaming end, yes I have returned to WoW and am primarily playing on a new server (goodbye dragonblight) on recommendation by some of the friends who first showed me the game 3 years back. Rolling a druid since they need one but I might shift my warrior over some day. No real time to play it yet as my studies are hitting its most feverish point.
In short I can’t wait for the hols, I want to end this semester well and enjoy my hols. Goodness knows if I am able to post here before dec. If I’m not, here’s saying I’m still alive and I really want to get to dec.
Adjusting to School
Aug 22nd
It has been 2 weeks of lectures in NUS. And more or less I’ve gotten used to the routine of rushing in between lectures, revising and preparing for them, maximizing free time in between at the library and facing a continual bombardment of adverts on the walkways, in lectures and in my email. A run down of the modules I’m taking
EC1101E – Economics (Planning to Major – CORS Bid 1pt)
Everything still seems ‘A’ levels like except it is categorized slightly differently. I’m watching the keywords used by the lecturer and noting the changes to curriculum structure to ease the assimilation. EC1101E also seems one of the lightest of all my modules this sem.
SN1101E – South Asian Studies (Faculty Exposure – CORS Bid 1pt)
Extremely content heavy especially if you did not take a study of history in South Asia. Nevertheless, one of the more interesting modules. Currently covering the political aspect of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan (hey they all came from the same colony!). To be frank I’m quite unsure how the assessment style is like but I’m covering content as much as I can (101 readings to do for this module) and cross analysing to see how far I can dig into each topic.
GE1101E – Geography (Faculty Exposure – CORS Bid 1pt)
The most entertaining lecture so far. Dr. T. C. Chang is good on stage. I bet he must have taken Literature or Linguistic Studies before. It’s a fun class but workload wise it does seem the heaviest as it requires 2 projects and a field trip or two. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good group. Let’s just say that we’ve people crashing this lecture just for entertainment. That’s how fun it is.
GEK1500 – Geekland (General Education Module > Science – CORS Bid 318pts)
Highest points I spent for a module (ok considering the rest were nearly free lol). Interesting especially for IT freaks like me. It goes to a semi advanced level and is an eye opener for non IT tuned people. It does provide an extra technical background for those who are… like me ><. Interesting so far and there’s nothing much to do. The stuff taught are easy to remember, probably because of my interest.
MA1301 – Mathematics (Breadth Module – CORS Bid 1pt)
Heaviest in terms of time in lectures (2x 2hr lectures and 1x weekly tutorial) compared to the rest. I took this not out of interest but rather as a prerequisite for my Econometrics that is a core module for Econ Hons. (Keeping my fingers really crossed). It aims to cover H2 Maths in 6 months. Pace seems to be slow as the lecturer is rather occupied with taking the class quickly through A. Maths level topics. So pretty easy for me now and it really helps to get the 2 years of NS rust away. Lecturer does put in a lot of work in providing extra exercises and frequently communicates via IVLE.
There you go! All the modules I’m taking and such. Tutorials are starting next week and there is pressure to put on a good class performance as it is graded. Going to have to thicken my skin and give it a good shot.
I’ve been doing a lot of moving around these 2 weeks. Sometimes you wish everything and everyone was in one place.
I must say I have been happy these two weeks for various reasons. I’ve never felt more independent when it comes to learning and the self driven desire to go out and get myself immersed deeper into the subjects makes learning a hell lot more fun. There are also many even more important reasons to be glad about which I will not elaborate. Things are settling in pretty well and I hope things get better and smoother as the time continually flies by.
(BTW, in response to my troubleshoot post last week. The real problem for my main computer is the bloody SATA cable. Somehow, it got damaged. Changed it and everything has been working awesome).
Till the next time, adios!
Troubleshoot
Aug 14th
It’s been a busy week especially in terms of troubleshooting various issues with my devices. Don’t take this wrongly, everything else is going fine and although I had some issues of which I cannot discuss here, everything was resolved well. =)
M1 Sunsurf Goes Rogue
I finally made the switch to M1 from a Singtel Corporate plan. Finally got to use all my student benefits like unlimited SMS (hell of a saver), free campus calls and very importantly 3 completely unlimited calls to 3 M1 friends. =) Well, the switch wasn’t without it’s fair share of hiccups. Actually, just one. I was unable for some reason to use M1’s Sunsurf Mobile to receive GPRS packets. Not that it mattered to most since nearly every M1 subscriber could use MiWorld GPRS instead. However, my E71’s GPS feature required Sunsurf for its AGPS signal. AGPS is deadly important for one to be able to lock down his position quickly as it takes roughly 10mins to do so for normal satellites. Well, long story short, I spent more than 10 calls with their technical support people which were friendly but not too knowledgeable. I tried everything on my end to get it up and running but to no avail. It was only at the 2nd visit to their IMM centre that they realised that they did not activate my M1 Sunsurf service on their backend. All’s resolved now and I’m back on full mobile capability with a much much reduced bill.
RAID0 – In DisArray
I feared for this to happen and by golly it did happen soon enough. Apparently my Raid0 setup met St Peter due to a software fault. I had initially thought my 2nd hard drive had failed but after relaying arrays everything was fine. Raid0 is indeed fragile so I’m keeping my watch for this. The shit part about crashing is restoring full capability quickly. I have all my files and documents backed up so I’m not losing anything much but those little things like the list of programs I install, preferences, extensions, bookmarks and all are lost. Not large articles but still irritating to say the least. Gonna rebuild my Win 7 setup slowly.
First Laptop – My HP 4310s
Woot! Finally a laptop. I’ve been through so many laptops helping friends to repair, etc that I was not that excited when I first used my HP ProBook 4310s. I’d say everyone including Apple has taken a page out of Sony’s Vaio series and have keys spaced apart. The keyboard feels great, screen is bright and sharp and the touchpad traction is superb. Build quality threads a fine line between solid and classy looking. I went for the maroon version cause that’s the matte one. I can’t imagine leaving all my fingerprints and palm marks on the black full gloss version. The laptop is speedy with a top end T9600 processor (2.8Ghz C2D). I was amazed to find out that the discrete graphics (ATI Radeon 4330) could handle TF2 smoothly on high settings. The only drawback is the hard drive which to be fair is standard issue for all notebooks. It’s a 500GB 5,400rpm drive that cannot compare to my RAID0 7,200rpm drive setup on my Core i7 but yet again that isn’t a fair comparison. One thing to watch out for is that the bundled HP applications is pretty much bloated. If you can go without fingerprint log ons, forget about installing the security suite. It bogs the system down a lot during startup. I’m still having fun with logging on via running my finger on the device but when I grow out of that, HP’s security suite goes outta the box. It just feels good that I can do my work anywhere I want and be productive on the go. Oh yea, McAfee Internet Security 2009? Resource hog. Period.
Another Bundle of Updates!
Jul 30th
Hit the Ground Running
No False Starts
Registration is done. Laptop is set (HP ProBook 4310s as decided earlier). So what’s left is bidding for my modules and prepping myself to put in 10hrs on school work per day. Not going to be fun but I like the idea that this is entire course of study is driven by motivation. I think in the end, the things that last the longest and becomes most prevalent are things driven by self will. Not something forced down your throat or whipped into you. Gonna be camping in the library a bit and putting all those research skills into good use. Fingers crossed, this is the final lap, I’d better sprint.
Work
Work = $$ = Food
I think every guy has been trained in the army to NOT talk about army secrets to others, even your spouse. So same here for work. I’m down to the final days and am trying to wrap up my work. Doesn’t feel good to leave things undone and handed over to someone else (to clean your shit) cause that’s exactly what happened to me in Army (tks ah Alex, & Rockey ><). Financially wise, I’m in a pretty safe position as my expenditure isn’t high at all. I’m probably a boring person that doesn’t buy new clothes, etc but well it keeps my pockets secure! =P Oh yes, I’m a sucker for food but thank goodness uni food is REALLY cheap. $1.50 for a FULL Western Meal.. Woohoo! Who knows if I would continue working when I’m studying. Still getting freelance offers from individuals and companies and if required I might continue at my job on an ad-hoc or project basis. Just see how things goes. My priority is to get my uni life flowing smoothly.
Goodbye Toure
King Kolo - A Distinguished Service Rendered
Most Arsenal fans didn’t feel much when Adebayor left. I’ve covered that before so I ain’t beating on an old horse again. But Toure is a world of difference. This is the chap that put his body on the line for the club. He’s loyal but well, performance wise he dipped quite a bit after Sol Campbell left for Portsmouth. Wasn’t an ideal partner for Gallas. Frankly, I thought Thomas V. was brought in to replace Gallas since the later is 33 years old and would be hanging his boots up in a season or two, or five if he changes his last name to Bergkamp. It looks like its Gallas + Thomas V / Djourou with Djourou taking over Gallas when he leaves. I hope Wenger brings in replacements in defence. We’re pretty well built on the final third, but where is that DM? Maybe he’s putting faith with Song / Denilson and the command that Thomas V. brings might be the final jigsaw. Then we need our attackers to learn to track back and defend. I think some Arsenal fans have forgotten that Henry, as graceful a striker he was, tracked back almost all the time to help in defence. We need to see players like Walcott, Arshavin, RVP, Nasri, etc do that more often. No use waiting upfield for the ball when your opponent is tossing it behind you. Well goodbye King Kolo. Even if we don’t miss you for your performances (tbh you’ve dipped a lot), we’ll miss your dedication and loyalty to the team. All the best at teh Citeh.
Let Go
Careful Careful...
I think I’m guilty of needing things around me under control. I was a single child in the family so I had my toys, my room, my anything neatly tidied and categorized in a manner coherent to me. Some people think I have OCD thanks to that. When planning big events or running various organizations, I have things planned to the final detail, tagged into various sets of categories (read: categories of categories) and have everything rehearsed x times with y trial runs. I’ve realized multiple times that it is very unhealthy because you cannot do that to another human being. If your safety comes from having everything calmly under wraps, you’re going to be a sad man in this volatile world. I’ve to learn to balance everything with good organization while embracing the need for surprises or even shocks. It’s hard to maintain a balance, I’ve to get that ingrained in me within the next 3 years or the years after would be worse. C’est la vive~
The Need to Upgrade
Not Me! (Yet)
It’s like an addiction. Geek addiction. There’s always something you want to improve, something you want to add, something… damn it. I was pretty excited about my switch over to Win 7 running on a Raid 0 setup. It runs really sweet but a few weeks later I’m thinking, what’s next. Frankly, there’s nothing else to upgrade besides another 6GB of DDR3 RAM (taking the total to 12GB), a DX11 card (which is not even out in production yet and would cost an obscene bomb on launch) and a 24 inch monitor (so I can give my mom my 22″ and my mom can give my dad her 19″). The 24″ is gonna need a 1GB GFX so everything is bottlenecked there. It’s a bit sad huh? Guys tweak cars at this age. I’m tweaking PCs. Oh well, at least I’m saving the dough! One day, I’ll have a room with slide out wall sized screens, a speaking voice controlled AI assistant.. Alright enough geeky indulgence.
