Back Home

Well, just to do a little updating on da blog. Anyway, i am back in Singapore. Yup, i'm Singaporean born and breed. and proud of it. Its good to be back somewhere familiar... The year abroad was really about change. And change is always exciting.... Actually, nothing much has changed. London, apart from the surface, really isnt very different from Singapore. people are people be they English or Singlish... we are all, afterall, urbanites in a globalised society. Sure things are different. Lifestyle too may be different. But life itself hasnt changed. London may be 7 time zones away, but it doesnt feel far from home. I still do what i do. I still like what i like. I still am what i am. London hasnt changed me, not yet at least. Anyway, great to see friends, family and familiar faces. cheers!!!

Well, back in the comfort of home... I can finally watch TV, and more importantly cable, once again... and HDTV is here!! maybe i already got it before i left for london, but i cant remember... haha... but only got a few channels... what a waste... and the quality difference is actually quite visible... surprisingly... i initially thought that the difference would be subtle... well, its not very very very obviously... but after watching half an hour of hdtv and then switching back to the normal channels... the difference is really quite stark, extremely obvious... kinda like the difference between VCD and DVD... its kinda sad to think that not all channels have upgraded...

Another surprise is a new desktop... with the fabled windows vista... haha... cool... i finally get to see/use longhorn for myself... and honestly, other than some gimmickry, and nicer looks... its not much different from the XP... its still runs the same... feels the same... so just for its sleeker looks, it may not be worth its buck... some say it copies the OS X... i say it copies the XP... but its ok... i dun like macs anyway... went to the mac store on regent street before i flew back... and honestly, it was big, airy, nice, beautiful and erm... a little too white... ipods, imacs, ibooks and iTV all look the same... i went on to try the imacbook... and was quite sad that the double tap function on the mouse pad doesnt work... i actually had to move my thumb into an unusual position to press that one single button below the mouse pad to click the icon i want clicked... anyway, i should not judge mac based on that encounter, but it disappointed me after just 10 secs... i did see one thing that i really liked though... i am not sure what it is called... iSomething... but it is a flat screen LCD with the CPU behind it in a flat layout... looked really cool... kinda like a tablet laptop PC with the screen facing out... only a lot bigger, sleeker and whiter and ready to hang on a wall... cool... i think it will look great on my wall... haha... the ultimate desktop replacement... anyway... back to vista... for me, the coolest thing about it is the voice recognition. its quite good... with the occasional mistakes... but it works fine... although its not quite up to standard when it comes to dictating... with the inevitable dictation mistakes and correction needed... i think it will be faster to type... maybe its my singlish accent... i dun know... but for simple commands it is great!.. say if i am going thru my e mails... and i decide to open firefox... i just say "open firefox"... and firefox is up and running... going to the start menu to open firefox is no longer necessary!!... and instead of clicking that small little live messenger icon... i can just say "open messenger" and done... cool!.. surprisingly not much mistakes/misunderstanding here... but there are problems with effective voice recognition... for example... do not listen to the radio when voice reg is on... do not surf websites/blogs which have loud music when voice reg is on ... and do not watch downloaded tv shows when voice reg is on... or unwanted voice commands will be perceived by the comp... programmes will be opened and closed without your consent!!!... but it is still cool... kinda like barking commands to your obedient dog... hahaha

ok... apart from TV and PC... i have been meeting up with good old friends... living the life... talking about life... and have done a fair bit of shopping for clothes since many of them are still in london... GSS comes just when i needed it!! haha... God is good... everything planned out perfectly... haha... anyway... i am planning to buy and build a model battleship... i feel kinda too old for it already... but it will be cool... hopefully i can find a yamato-class battleship... the baddest ship with the biggest guns of WW2... i think it still holds the record of having the biggest naval guns to date... anyway... hopefully i can get down to it... its been years since i wanted to get it done...

cheers

well, i will be back home in like another 4 days? yup, haha... great!! cant wait to see how much singapore has changed. i bet it has...

was packing... and now my room looks like really empty... doesnt feel like my room anymore. having boxes lying around is really foreign... its sad to see my room in such a state. but cant help it...

and all the security stuff about heathrow is like not good for health... it just paranoia... its so unpredictable... so i guess i will just have to play safe and be there early... and i hate not knowing what to expect... haiz..

it reminds me of a personality report... where the biggest point it made that i disagreed the most is that it said that i work better around rules... which at that time seem like absolute bullshit... b'cos i hate rules... i always felt that rules are there as a restriction... as a limitation... but now that i think about it... maybe i was wrong then... maybe the rules that they referred to has got nothing to do with the usual connotations like school rules and regulations and the strong arm of law... but more like unwritten rules... like expectations... and in that sense, maybe i do work better with rules...

well... the thing is... rules are there to set boundaries and limits... and that should impede growth and my potential right??.. logical?? so how in the world can i work better with rules? well, i guess that although rules tend to restrict... they also liberate in a way by setting, and more importantly making known, the boundaries... in the sense that now that i think about it... i think that i am more comfortable when i know what is right and what is wrong... when i know the limit and boundaries... when "the mine fields have been clearly marked out"... it just give a sense of confidence... i guess... knowing what is and isnt expected of you and everyone else... yup... it thereafter gives you the freedom to explore those boundaries before you start pushing the boundaries... and maybe, for me, not having rules or any known expectation is kinda like treading in uncharted waters... knowing that you may accidentally make an unknowing mistake... which sux... bcos, by not knowing the rules... i would naturally take a more cautious position... and this is what will impede my potential...

i guess i wrongly dismissed that personality report... and now that i know it... i guess i can try my best to put it into good use... by doing my best to identify the rules and expectations first before engaging in stuff... it will be my resolution... even though its not new year... i just hope that i will remember what i wrote here on this post... because like many other good things in life... they somehow always manage to drift into the background... and disappear forever... hopefully this one doesnt... and it wont if i work on it...

blog

hmm.. decided to change the look of my blog a bit. got bored with the old look. hope it doesnt look too winterish... cos is summer already... haha...

anyway, less than a week before i arrive in singapore. now i am passing the time by watching friends and packing...

just a thought

anyway, about all these post on the electric car and stuff... i really do not want you to think that i have become an environmentalist. although caring for the environment is good and really important and responsible, i think that using green technology for its novelty is stupid. its just that with rising oil prices, its now time for alternative fuels to take main stage. so to me, the main plus point of green tech is not just environmental, but being economical and more importantly, being sustainable economically in the distant future.

was just thinking about this, as in burning fossil fuels like causes global warming and stuff. but if you think about it, all these fossil fuel comes from plants and animals of a long-gone era and basically, they got their carbon based fuel stuff from carbon dioxide in the air too. so burning fossil fuels will simply return the carbon dioxide into the air. sure the temp will rise greatly. but i think that life on earth will survive. to think about it, a higher temp will encourage cold-blooded animals to thrive and it kinda seems that maybe thats why those huge cold-blooded reptiles called dinosaurs used to thrive. hmm... but i can be wrong... anyway, maybe what killed the dinosaurs is global-cooling cumulating in an ice age, "the day after tomorrow" style. and not an asteroid. and maybe in an ironic twist, global warming will bring back large reptilian populations like giant komodo dragons and the monster croc. etc... while killing off the mammalian species like us humans... well... just a crazy idea... that does make some sense (to me at least). but dun trust an engineering student on such an issue... yup... just trust that when global warming does hit... better air-conditioning technology will be on the way!! hahahaha.... just joking...

cheers.

the rebirth of the electric car

well, i cant really fully express/explain myself with the chatbox... but i feel that i should tell everyone why i believe that electric cars and more specifically, battery electric cars will take off... firstly, you should know that at the beginning of automobile history, both electrics and gas cars were on the road... both were very inefficient and very expensive vehicles for the rich... in fact... for a time, there were more electric cars than there were gas cars... then henry ford revolutionised car production with the "factory line" and mass production, and all of a sudden, gas cars became much cheaper than electric cars. technological advancement in the internal combustion engine also improved much faster than battery and motor technology. oil was also very abundant then. and the rest is history.

however, as oil prices increases and that the internal combustion has shown no signs of change/improvement other than getting bigger, gas cars will get more and more expensive. global warming is also an issue and i foresee more tax incentives for zero-emission cars like electrics than there already are. I also see more taxes on carbon-footprint in the future.

on the other hand, with technological improvements like the CPU, out-running brushless DC motors, super-capacitors and the lithium-ion polymer batteries etc.. electrics now make a lot of sense... economically and environmentally as well...

some cool features of electrics are that other than washing the car and changing tires, there is really no oil to change, no filter to clean, no servicing needed... when the car breaks down... just call a mechanic or electrician or whatever... if anyone owns cars... you should know how irritating and costly it is to send a car for 100/500/1000 hour servicing... doesnt it sux to have to send your car to the mechanic when it is still working fine? that stops when you drive electric...

also with regenerative braking, your range on the electric car extends by up to 30% with no extra charge... instead of braking to produce heat... you brake to produce electricity... your motor is also generator... which means better for the flora and fauna too.. also, there is no idling on an electric... when your car stops... the motor stops... no waste of energy... which is great for start stop driving in the city... like singapore... or london... or any city...

that said... everyone knows that the car industry is very very slow when it comes to electrics... and you cant blame them... its a total shift of paradigm for them... of all the electric supercars that i showed you... none were made by car giants... although one was made in collaboration with lotus... in fact one of them, the wrightspeed X1 was built in silicon valley!! this is the stuff of high tech electronics... dun think of cars as mechanical things anymore... think of it as mechatronics... mechanical-electronic devices... thats how big a paradigm shift electrics are... so if you want to buy a cheap mass produced electric... it might take a while... although car makers are looking into it... i have given examples... also expect new players in the car market when electrics kick in... actually, there already are new players in the market... but they are kind of the high-end side of the market... so if you planned to buy a ferrari... why not consider a tesla roadster instead... afterall, it goes from 0-60 faster than a ferrari 360... looks cool too... the poser-value/smug-factor of an electric super car is higher too... haha... buying an electric super car just reads 'i am rich and i care for the environment too'... how smug is that!!... haha... ok... thats not exactly a plus point... but it just illustrates the poser-value...

other than buying an electric car, there are many (in the US) who are building their own electric cars or converting petrols into electrics... because electrics are really simple (if you are not looking for high performance or breaking speed records)... connect batteries to motor and connect motor to wheel... thats about it... its basically just a larger version of the common remote control car you got on your 9th birthday... the development of the in-wheel motor is also interesting and i think thats what the future should be... check out the hy-wire by GM or the mini QED's in-wheel motor by PML... with the motors in each wheel themselves... there is no longer a need to house an engine... and this will revolutionise car design... also more space for passangers...

anyway... i could go on... but its getting too long for a follow-up post...

cheers