the lastsplash

The answer: Eight. ho ho ho! It's the festive season again!

The following is an entry on my Statcounter that caught my attention, It belongs to the set of IP addresses registered under IDA (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore) and there are 20 returning visits so far, which is a really flattering thing. I wonder who I know is working in IDA now. Maybe the reader is not someone I know. He/She can be somebody who have stumbled upon my blog while searching for information on his/her boss (I mentioned about Mr Chan Yen Kit in one of my entries as he delivered the convocation speech for my cohort). Suddenly it struck me! Could it be that IDA is tracking my blog? Did I write anything remotely close to racism or anti-government? I hope not. *keeps my fingers crossed* I mean I should have known better than to write something of that content. I think it is more likely for me to say it verbally than posting on my blog. Afterall, each entry is of paragraphs which I carefully compose. I may not be politically correct all the time but I'm cert...

Have you ever missed someone but don't know how to say? And everything you say sounds so childish or stupid, but just not sincere? Try explaining, when you can't express. I did just that!

They are showing "The Sphere" on Ch 5 now. I think it is either the 3rd or 4th time they are have it on Ch 5. And it will be 5th or 6th time if you count the times they showed it on the now dysfunctional Ch I as well. The Sphere is a gigantic spherical alien object found in a spacecraft at the bottom of the sea. What it can do is equally facinating and frightening (can't tell you more on what it does without giving away the plot). I have no intention of doing a review of the movie here, but I will recommend it to everyone who enjoys sci-fi movies. However, don't worry if you missed this movie again , they will probably show it again a few months later! That is how goooood this movie is! heh heh . Don't be deceived by the 2 outta 5 stars ratings it got from most movie critics! Putting the jellyfish, giant squids, submarines and big golden sphere aside, let us come back the land, nice and dry. We were at Chinatown today for 十字路口 to celebrate Justus' birthday. I...

I was reading Ms Juneberry's blog almost a month ago about making decision and taking the path you think is appropriate despite others' opinions. She added only another entry since then, life must be hectic for her! =P Anyway backtracking... after the recent events in my life, I do agree with what she said in that entry. It is especially true for people who are hungry enough for success and dare to dream. Let me share with you a very motivating story I heard from a friend tonight. Once upon a time, a little boy and his grandfather were carrying a camel across the desert. When they came to a bridge, the ladies who were washing clothes at the river laughed at them and said that they should ride the beast. So they rode on the camel and continued their journey. At the second bridge, another group of ladies were washing clothes scowled and said that the beast should not have to carry the weight of both of them. So the grandfather got off and led the camel with a rope until they reac...

The discussion on, Cross Fire 针锋相对, a forum-styled programme on Ch U, this Monday, was about whether a degree is necessary for one to be successful in Singapore (eh... or something along that line... lol). Two of the guests are successful businessmen, while the other two are graduates, one of them is the Superstar contestant, Shi Xin Hui. Anyway, I managed to follow their opinions although I did not quite get the topic for that episode. One of the businessmen, Mr Eddie, commented that graduates and interns in their companies do things step by step, according to instructions. And the interns (doing their PA) are usually quite slow. He added that most of them are usually incapable of producing extraordinary results, which is quite important in the field of marketing. According to him, degree merely shows that you have the IQ, but only people with high EQ have the real talent. In short, to be successful in Singapore, a degree is not a necessity. I do agree with him that most graduates, es...

Except for the obese Indian lady in purple, sitting beside me, on Seat K13, in GV Bishan Cinema 4, at 1830hrs, who was digging her teeth with a hairpin (no, not implying anything nor attempting to make a seditious remark, purely factual and disgusting !), it was an entertaining movie. I must confess that I have never read a single Rowling book, neither am I a big fan of Potter, so hopefully my short review will be a fair one - based completely on the movie itself. I must say this is the best of the series so far (yes, for the movies, I have watched every single one of the last three in the series). The CG is still fantastic! I love the blue goblet flame. More mythical creatures - dragons and unicorns. There was less of scenes of charming children with magick and trickeries. There were more of emotional ups and downs, moments when I was touched by Harry's little victories and cheers from his friends, and moments when my girlfriend shed some tears for Cedric Diggory. But despite all...

My girlfriend commented yesterday that work seems very happening for me, everyday on the move, and always work late, while she usually goes home on time, and this made her feel very slack. I wanted to tell her there was no need to feel that way. Luckily she added that grass is always greener on the other side. I think she's not the only one. I sometimes also tend to compare my workload with my colleagues, tho' I never mention it openly. Although I do work OT once or twice per week or go to sites, when I do work late, those guys are usually there too. And on those days when I leave on time, they work late too. The comparison does not end there. What about when I go breakfast and coffee, but they seem to have no time for it? Well, I realised recently that it was simply because they had theirs at home. And then there is the comparison on type of work we do. They seem to be involved in the designing work with the latest technology, while I pretty much followed my boss' orders f...

After all that hype surrounding broadband through the power rails, we are still waiting for the technology to reach the mass. And while IDA is tapping into Wimax to provide islandwide Wi-Fi coverage, another exciting technology to provide broadband is being developed. Although there is no proof of concept yet, the initial research and theories sound really exciting! Nethercomm is developing a way to use ultra wideband (UWB) signals to transmit data at broadband speeds through natural-gas pipes . Yeah, the same pipes that supply our households with gas for cooking . It is an infrastructure that is already available in most, if not, all homes. This is how it works: UWB is a developing communication technology that delivers very high-speed network data rates, but at higher power levels it can interfere with other wireless signals. By adapting UWB radio transmitters and receivers to send wireless signals through natural gas pipes, the problem is resolved. This is because the pipes are bur...

I am pleased to announce this is my 110th post !!! (Since 22 Feb 2005) WOOHOO~!!!! -throws confetti, pop the champagne- Okay, okay, you must be wondering why am I announcing on the 110th and not on something like the 100th post. Well, I read from an acquaintance's blog announcing her 100th post, and I wondered whether if I made it to the century mark yet. I checked, 109. So this works out to about 12 entries per month, or 3 per week. Not too bad hor ? In one of my early entries, "Good Things in Life" , I did a sort of review on Mozilla Firefox. It was mostly about the the advantages on using some of the extensions. The user experience so far has been great. I can solely rely on it for all my web browsing / e-banking / e-shopping etc. As I mentioned then, the wonderful feature is the Tabbed Browsing. Ben Goodger, the lead engineer for Firefox (and working in Google), did some usability studies on the tabbed browsing feature. Some of the results can be found on his weblog ...

I struggled for two weeks, and finally popped the question (No no no, not the billion dollar question of the lifetime aka "Will-You-Marry-Me"). In fact, the person whom I asked the question was my boss. A VB program kept giving an error message and I tried to debug it myself. After several days of looking at the code, recreating the jars, reconfiguring some properties files, the error persisted. I tried the old jars, the new jars, none worked. And the test beds were not available for testing. It error never occur before, why suddenly so? I was afraid to be deemed incompetent if I asked my boss. I wanted to try all possible means to debug. Afterall, often we leave out the lil' details and make silly mistakes. Even tho' I continued with other work, this problem hanged in my mind. It'll not be long before it comes back to haunt me, eg. being tasked to investigate by further looking into the code without any clue where exactly to look or what to look for. Then I was p...

Happy 3rd Anniversary dear! Just to have a minute or two of your 感动, its worth every single cent and effort. Once again, thanks for your love, care, and tolerance! And the present!!! A bottle of Gianfranco GF Ferre from HK!

I wonder how many people have crossed my path and what they are doing at this moment? Those who I had once talked to, worked with, hurt, loved. Those who helped me. And those who I had added to my phone book, email address book, Friendster and HI5 lists, ICQ and MSN contact. Especially the latter group of people who had been inactive for awhile and not corresponded to me in any other way. I had met them in schools, at work, or during the friendlier days of the cyberworld. Most of them are at their end of the spectrum. And the little connections that had brought us together were long gone. I feel that something is to be done. But what? Delete the entries from my address books and lists, and traces of them from my life? Contact them and enjoy the awkward silence? Or simply ignore them? Have they become invalid entries in my life, waiting to be forgotten completely? I watched this anime OVA last night entitled "Hotari: Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau". The main character is a humanoid r...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz! I always thought I'm more like Eeyor. But how can anyone not agree with the fact that I tend to talk too much? ha ha. hmmm. Accurate test ...