the lastsplash

Some people just choose to speak only, and not listen... 我们在浪费青春。。。

By the way, I would also like to announce to the world that I had just finished one paper, as someone else did . Heh heh. One more paper to go. Examinations are dreadful, no matter how many you have taken before. Amazingly, I finished the paper within an hour. That was because I did not know how to do 2 outta 5 questions (40 marks). There was no way I could have bs in any way. So I sat there till the last minute, trying to fill up every blank lines with some words. As the professors always say, "How to give you marks if you don't write anything?". I wonder why some students could write so much. They used both pages and were writing till the last minute! Only one side was printed with lines leh , ie. just give one page answer will do, correct? Anyway back to fire-fighting, tomorrow onwards till next Wednesday. 12-hour shifts here I come...

I found the following entry while I was blog-surfing. Apology to the original author if you find this entry offensive. My comments isn't to criticise your reaction but to offer an opinion from a guy's perspective. Your reaction is totally understandable... "i cannot zzz cos i m damn irritated now ... is there anything so urgent tat you need to send me 5 smses within 10 min??? n keep calling every hr?? if i miss a call i will return when i see it .. but if u repeatedly call so many times n i dun even bother to return a single call .. pls be clever enuff to noe tat i probably dun wish to speak to u .. pls STOP calling me and checking my whereabout ... cos who r u to interfere ... i dun even report to my parent .. let alone u being a very normal frenz .. n stop pestering me to go out wif u ... I WILL NEVER EVER AGREE EVEN WHEN I M FREE .. maybe u din noe tat u r really PISSING ME OFF... dun force me up the wall one day n say those harsh words to u .." From the looks of i...

Below are the " Top 20 Replies By Programmers to Testers when their Programs Don't Work ". In fact, I think it should be extended to "Replies to Users" as well! I extracted these top 20 from the blog, "Under the Sun" (some folks at Digg.com said this is a blogspam and other similar entries existed long ago, but who cares!). Personally, I have used some of the replies before and I want to post it here to share with the rest of the like-minded programmers friends who haven't been spammed by it before! #18 and #1 are my favourites. Heh heh. What's yours? Well, actually most of the time, I will ask them "what exactly did you do before it crashed?". Sometimes its not a bug, but a "user-problem" or its a new "feature". ha ha. Seriously, if its a bug, we must fix it. If it isn't, we must educate the users. At the end of the day, we must think how come our program doesn't stop it from happening. =p And here th...

I did this test sometime ago, hope it still stands... thought of sharing it with everyone since I saw Juneberry posted her results on this test. Maybe I will do more tests and post the results here... it is one of those things you do when you have exams... =p What's Your Best Quality? See What Makes You Stand Out From The Rest leslie, your best quality shines through in how Honest you are The fact that you're an honest person who values the truth and is sometimes willing to make sacrifices in order to uphold it really draws people to you! But that's not the only thing. Your answers on the test indicate you're a smart person who is more able to understand complex concepts than many other people are. You are a hopeful and optimistic person who tends to look on the bright side of life, too. In...

Mr PCB aka Mr Cheeze-Pie did it again! Today he threw his weights at my Project Lead. We were at another site at the western side of the island fighting fire . Mr PCB demanded the presence of our deployment OIC at the other site at the eastern side of the island. Apparently, two engineers supporting them full time is not good enough for him, an observer. And when my PL travelled more than 38km to the other site to see him, Mr PCB can't be bothered to talk to him and ignored him. Did I mention he just wanted my PL's presence, not that he had anything to tell my PL? Thank goodness I am on study leave for the next few days, no need to see the black face of Mr PCB. I suspect he is going thru menopause, mid-age crisis, needta seek attention and throw his weights around. I pray for the colleagues, will be back suffering with them again really soon after my first paper.

Every user was very nice. Everyone keen to learn, and talked to us politely. In fact, I enjoyed very much answering to their queries and helping them familiarise with the system. The satisfaction for a developer to interact with the end users, so many of them, who wanted to learn more about the system you developed, is tremendous. All, except one. He was not an end user, just an observer at the site. His surname starts with 'P' (think Singapore most famous contractor with yellow boots and curls). Let's just call him Mr. PCB in short, for P*** CH** B** . *censored* I was happily teaching my users some of the features of the system. I turned my head and there he was, Mr PCB looking at me in his stern face. He had a slight resemblance of Ah-Bian , probably he thought that he was someone of that stature too. He said to me in a commanding tone, " You are xxx engineer right? Please tell your friend to put down his bag. You are not going anywhere. " and something with t...

Somebody oiled the two lifts of my block. Yes, oil! From the doors, to the panels, the buttons, to the walls, the two lifts are completely covered with oil. I wonder if this is a new way to clean the lifts, I have never seen it before in my life. The oil was left on the lifts since Saturday, and I don't think the cleaners are going to remove it. Perhaps its an innovative way to get rid of lizards in lifts by making it too slippery for them? I recognized the smell and colour of the oiled lift panels and buttons, as they reminded me of oiled M16 rifle parts, such as the bolt carriage, barrel, etc., from NS days. Or maybe, just maybe, its a new way to utilise the most valuable resources of Singapore. From Tekong, " Recruit! Oil your rifle! I don't want to see any parts not oiled! " ... " Recruit! Clean your rifle! I don't want to see any oil! " ... to my block, " Recruit! Oil the lifts! I don't want to see any parts not oiled! " ... " Rec...

After more than one year, I finally have the $ for studio graduation photos with my family. Tho' its not like really important to have one, I think it makes my parents proud to see our family picture, with their children in graduation gown, hanging on the wall. It's a feeling difficult to describe with words. Putting two children thru university isn't easy at all. Thank you daddy and mummy! So now, when will I have the $ to go for my graduation trip??? Or do I have to postpone it to a "retirement trip"?

I'm the 469,082,184 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >> That's top 7.81% of the world's population on the Global Rich List . I don't think that figure means I am rich, but rather it implies that I am living in a country with one of the world's highest cost of living or there is a damm big gap in the annual income of the real rich people and the rest of the world. $ is never enough around here.

Yesterday, I overheard an American lil' girl (bout 7-8-year-old), at the Orchard library, telling her friend, "It is SO COOL! You must go. It is SO COOL! There are hotels, beaches, pink dolphins. It is SO COOL! You can get there by bus or on cable car. The pink dolphins ..." She was really excited and sounded like she really had a wonderful time. Probably you'd have guessed it by now, the place she was talking about is Sentosa. Never know it actually appeal to kids as a "COOL" place. It must really be cool, kids don't lie right?

I don't know if I am being too childish to whine about it, but... DAMM WHY DO THEY ALL GET TO GO ALL THE TIME EXCEPT ME! NOT EVEN ONCE! AND MY REQUESTS ARE CONTINUOUSLY BEING REJECTED! oh man, now I am feeling a lil' better.

A few of my friends had been sharing some jokes on their blogs recently. I thought maybe I can share one of my jokes as well... My colleagues and I went to the recreation room after lunch. They played the table soccer, while I rested on the massage chair to relieve my stiff neck. I picked up the remote and pressed on the power button a few times. On, off, on, off, no movement. I pressed the buttons to adjust the leg rest level. Up, down, down, up, up, and down. No movement. I pressed the buttons to adjust the back rest. Up, down, up, up, and down. No movement. I pressed the buttons for the different massage programs. 1, 2, 3. No movement. I continued to punch a few more buttons. Still no movement. Then suddenly, the man sitting in massage chair beside me turned to me and said, " I think that is the remote control for my massage chair you are holding ." No wonder no movement lah ! I was punching the buttons of the remote of someone else's massage chair all these time. Ha ...

I woke up thinking I was in Genting Highlands . With the upcoming IRs, and now, this, I think very soon our neighbours may just feel threatened by our new tourist attractions. =p

In another attempt to go cashless, Kopitiam Group is rolling out a biometric system of payment at its food courts . That is, you simply just need to scan your thumb print to make a payment for your food. Of cuz, you'll need to sign up to register your print in your system and top up some cash value. This seems like a brilliant idea of great convenience. No need to carry another card, simply press your thumb, " beep beep ", thats it. However, if you think a little more, what are the implications of using this system? Essentially, it is a systematic collection of fingerprints of the public by a private commercial organisation. " Patrons concerned about privacy and security issues related to the scanning of their thumbprint can use any of their fingers instead ." From this statement itself, I am sure they already know the long list of implications of the system. Is there actually any difference in privacy and security implications between using other fingers and th...

Many have seen this. I thought you may wanna be "wowed" too. ;0p

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Solutions at sg.edu.nus.5208.midterms. //stacktrace omitted Crash! Boom! Bang! ... TWANG! As the C/C++ folks will put it, I tried to enter into one of my ISR aka bullshit. Unfortunately, I hit a coredump. Congrats to myself, midterms over, time to move on!

I read about the "upgrade" on Junxian's blog . This is certainly good news! Although the initial startup was difficult, the following three years were tougher. I am glad that Junxian held through to enjoy the fruits of his perseverance now. Thank you for keeping FOC alive! And thank you to every volunteer who helped along the way.

Thud ! I took the fall like a man and stood up approximately 3 seconds later. I smiled at myself in hope to cover up my embarrassment. Two helpful passerbys came over to ask if I was alright. I said I was ok. The truth is I was still abit shaken by the fall which I laid flat on the floor. Not exactly taking a Saturday afternoon nap on the pavement. It was one occasion which I was thankful that I have a big butt. And of cuz the moral of the story is to walk carefully on your toes instead of heels on a rainy day, especially when the ground and shoe soles are as smooth as tofu or *ahem* my butt.

I had my first taste of mugging in the pod at BiCL. It wasn't good at all. Had backache after awhile. The open tables were all taken up, I had no choice. Tried to blog outside for the 2nd time, but the net connection was way too slow. Note sure if it had anything to do with the pod itself. But its okay, I am blogging live in NUS from one of the seminar rooms. And its much more comfortable here. Tables, chairs, air-con, peace, and the only distraction the laptop in from of me. Despite losing count of the number of exams I had taken my whole life, I still hate them that much and feel nervous about taking them. Its really tough to juggle "mid-term-exams" and "endless-OTs". Mid-terms exams can take study leave one or not? Sigh sigh. Btw, the previous post was a milestone 200th entry. Congrats to myself for generating that much crap to the world wide web.

She set off in a jet plane ten hours ago. Now, she is half way around the world, and only half way to her destination. A lil' part of my heart is there too, on the journey with her right now. Right here waiting, dear.

" Its a mistake to come back ." Overheard a conversation between young men on the bus. Reading it in the papers is not as real as hearing it yourself. Apparently they were newly returned scholars who just joined my company for less than two weeks. As they continued to complain about having to work in Singapore and raved about buying condominiums instead of staying in HDB flats, and possibilities of going overseas if they have the chance, I wondered if our government had made the right choice. Academics and leadership, what else matter? Perhaps being humble and appreciative of what the society has given them should be one of the criteria. Of cuz, these are probably a few black sheeps. But the money and job can definitely be given to someone more deserving and less arrogant. I suggest those who are well to do and think they are very smart and full of themselves to get scholarships from some overseas universities, instead of local government. No point regretting coming back when...

Just passed a certification exam. I was thrilled when I first got the result. In the past weeks, I had been struggling to cope with studies, work and this. It was a great relief. Then, reality set in. I realised that with such lousy score, it was worthless. Another benchmark of my incompetence.

No Monday blues for me today cuz I am on off. My mum asked me, " Why take off ?". And I replied, " Cuz if don't take the off, then I will need to return it ." Well, I think I was sort of rude to my mum to give that kind of reply. But I felt it was too troublesome to give that elaborated reply - " I'm taking off to study for SCJP ". She'd go, " What's SCJP ?" and " Why take SCJP ", and " How much it cost to take SCJP "... and on and on. I thought only teenagers face that kind of problem? When you grow older, you don't talk much to your parents anymore mah , of cuz should not have such problems? I guess I am still my Mama's boy. Although I am definitely not a Mama's boy . Anyway, the cool thing about being on off is that I am actually at the new Bishan Community Library (BiCL) right now to do my studying. Decided to try some " live blogging " after I saw a student doing that at one of the ...

I was discussing with my girlfriend the other day that there should be some kinda video camera on the bus on the train or bus that zooms onto some inconsiderate Singaporeans, displays them on the screen and request them to move in or whatsoever over the PA system. I don't think we'll see something like that anytime soon. But guess what, there is a blog that documents these rude Singaporeans with using their camera phones. I encourage you pick up your phone when you see any rude Singaporeans next time, snap a picture of them and submit to this site. Embarrassment is one way we can deter these rude behaviour. No way to embarrass them if nobody see these pictures, so I think it'll be good to forward the link to your friends too. Perhaps some people may say we should not be too concerned with these people and just let them be, or we are making a mole hill outta thin air. I think that actually it just takes everyone to make a small conscious effort to be considerate and make a ...

Today I discovered the greatness of my organ . It is not too big , but it is certainly amazing . I think my female colleagues are afraid of its power . My good friend, a male colleague, also showed me his concern. ha ha . The amazing organ is none another than my nose . I started sneezing since I arrived in the office this morning. The loud and powerful sneezing went on and stopped during lunch time. It resumed after lunch and stopped again during tea break. Then it stopped when I left the office. I had sporadic fits of sneezing at Orchard later. In particular, inside Kinokunya, inside Isetan, and along a stretch of Wisma Atria. Then I made an observation - I started sneezing whenever the temperature dropped below a certain threshold level which I can no longer control. I felt like sneezing when I was in an air-con environment. However, I had to sneeze and when it was really cold. Can you see how amazing it is? My nose, is the amazing Human Thermometer! Besides being able to whistle wh...

I enjoyed one of the most wonderful shopping and dining experience today. Is it due to the effect of "Four million smiles welcome the world" - the S2006 starts next week. My girlfriend and I had dinner at Ngee Ann City Coffee Club , outside Kinokunya. The captain promptly led us to our seats with her brilliant smile . Our food also arrived promptly after we ordered. We had Prawn Garlic Pasta , Chicken Baked Macaroni , and the famous Muddy Mud Pie ! The following picture of the mudpie is courtesy of Shernyl's "Pieces of Me" . I don't have camera phone with me lah , due to my job lorh . =( Comparing with the shrimp linguini and baked pasta from Swenson , NYDC , Delifrance , Pastamania (in decreasing order of tastiness), Coffee Club offers the best. Mmm yum yum , my girlfriend said she'll go back for more of the linguini (there is a picture of it here from a post in June last year), we are probably going to try the Lobster Linguini the next time. Going...

Last Wednesday I sat, stood, sat, stood, and sat again. At one point, my girlfriend was sandwiched by two pregnant ladies. For the record, I gave up seats to three pregnant ladies on the trains in two days, and two of them within the same ride! That explains why my girlfriend was sandwiched by two. And their smiles actually made my day. In fact, one of the ladies actually called out to me and thanked me when we alighted at Jurong East. She did not take things for granted, and showed her appreciation. That touched my heart. Some people may be hesitate as they are afraid that it'll be embarassing if the lady is not pregnant, just overweight. While some fail to let the lady know that the seat is for her, and someone else take up the seat. I have met those situations before. I think as a rule of thumb, no matter she has just boarded or has been standing there for a long time, as long as it is within five seconds from the time you see her, you can give up your seat and approach her dire...

Just saw the news clip on TV about pamphlets from the Suntec travel fair being littered all over the Suntec-CityLink overhead bridge. Isn't that just so typical of those few inconsiderate Singaporeans? I guess most Singaporeans will do the same as those people interviewed - dispose when they find a bin, dispose into recycle bins after they get home, or simply reject the pamplets. I personally prefer the latter method, especially when I am near the MRT stations. The lil' more considerate Singaporeans will not throw these pamphlets everywhere, they will throw them into the rubbish bins, even when the rubbish bins are already overflowing . That is a common sight along underpasses, especially the Yishun MRT Station-Northpoint underpass. Well, at least they are making an effort right? Yesterday, at Orchard MRT station, I was quite surprised to see the creativity of Singaporean at work, when it came to disposing rubbish. Some ingenious Singaporeans had decided to use the empty Today...

I had to blog this down because I feel very very TL. Not even the inconsiderate commuters can beat this. The thing I am very very TL about is The NUS Graduate Studies Module Registration System. I was told module registration was on a first-come-first-serve basis, no need for bidding like the undergraduates. Unfortunately that was not the case. I was surprised to see that the only module offered by my programme was already full when I first logged on to register. I wondered if there was some under-table pre-module registration. Anyway, I was not so bothered by it, since that module wasn't my first choice. I happily registered 2 modules (planning to take 2-3-3-2 in the two years). In Week One, I attended the two modules, but only one of them had been registered, the other was still processing. Later I found out that only programme core modules were registered automatically, and priority were given to students who registered to modules from their own programme. And yes, my programme ...