The new rule states that a planet not only must orbit the sun, but must be large enough to assume a nearly round shape. Also, it must "clear the neighborhood around its orbit."
Pluto, whose oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, did not meet the new requirement and thus reducing the solar system to eight planets.
It was either they kick Pluto out, or introduce more into the solar system which includes Ceres, the largest asteroid, Charon, Pluto's largest moon and 2003 UB313, an icy body more than twice as far from the Sun as Pluto and a little bigger.
And so the decision was to have Pluto kick out and form a new category for these smaller "planets" called Dwarf Planets...
Weird rules.. why re-catalog our solar system into the "giants" and the "dwarfs"? Even in the universe of planets and stars, there's elitism, promotion and demotion, meeting requirements and getting into the top list. Life's kinda hard all around huh?
Read more: Here
Technorati Tags: Pluto, Planets, Dwarf planets, Solar system
Sometimes, I really think too much. A simple math problem can result in a whole afternoon of redoing the same question a few times when I already got the answer (it just seems quite dubious to me), flipping through past sem notes to verify I indeed got the method right (seems like i lost my confidence??) and pulling of hair in frustration over nothing at all it turns out.
Sheesh, what the hell is wrong with me??
Ever thought of investing in some stocks but dun have the capital or not that keen in taking the risk? Here's your chance to see how well you do in the stocks market without forking out a single cent and even stand a chance to win some attractive cash prizes.
Philips Online Electronics Mart System (POEMS) allows you to invest in one or more stocks from SGX and 50 component stocks in Straits Time Index with virtual cash of S$80k or S$100k (if you register before 27th Aug).
Be top in the ranking in terms of your total realized profit and walk away with the prizes.
Oh ya, this is only open to students from participating universities (nus, ntu, smu, sim).
Find out more or register: Here
My mum asked me some accountancy related question just now with regards to her job. I was like, "Erm ok i try mum but if you have yet to realise I am engineer, not accountancy trained hor."
Then i remembered something Yeow said. Because my mum and Dad are both accountancy trained, I should have an advantage if I were to take up an accountancy degree. (Actually i doubt so..)
Also, I have been hearing stuff like accountancy graduates sure have job one and pretty good starting pay somemore.
So why am i in engineering? lol
No lar, just kidding.
The dinner on sunday after Jared's house gathering was great. And soon Jared will be heading for the US for his university education. Jevon, Si Qi and Tim will also be heading back to France and UK respectively to continue their studies.
The gathering thus marks the end of this vacation.
Having a meal with great friends has always been a wonderful experience. As such, i don't mind spending more than I should be on a meal with a group of good friends in a gathering as I am always thankful for having friends around me and no amount of money could buy me such an experience. And it has been all these efforts to meet up and keeping in touch that the years and distance didn't come between us.
Perhaps, I am just too sentimental. But the next time we can all meet up again is going to be another year, another hectic and crazy year may i add.
Then i thought of some of my friends back then in JC. We were inseparable then. Now, we hardly meet up. Some were perhaps too busy with work/school. Some just drifted apart and lost touch. Perhaps it's the lack of maintenance on my part. Perhaps our interests just don't match anymore, our ideas don't agree and opinions differed.
Then i thought of my secondary school friends. Some of their names remained vaguely in my memory, while others became blurred. Some I still see them around once a while, but it's just "hi" & "bye". Some I think I couldn't even recognise anymore. Sheesh. Has it really been such a long time?
Perhaps I am just thinking too much, by my lappy listening to some melancholy music ringing down my eardrums, with some problems hanging at the back of my mind, drifting slowly into a lonely night. Because thats what people do, we think too much when we are alone.
I was quite amused when I saw a post on the cs1101c forum asking why his program doesn't work. I looked at his program and spotted this line among other not so fatal errors:
#include <studio.h>
Erm studio.h?? lmao!
Pandy had his mad rush day on monday, mine is on fridays. Well, at least yesterday wasn't much of a mad rush, but its still quite a rush. Lesson began at 9am while I was caught in a traffic jam along clementi road and that translated into a 15mins loss of vital information about the energy bands theory of EE2004. Immediately after the lecture at around 0945, its another rush from engine to science for gem2900 class. The lecture? Slack! Dismissed 30mins earlier, thought we could rush back to engine and have a quick lunch, but the crowded internal sardine buses shattered all hopes.. Got to LT6 just in time for EE2005 lecture and began a rather relaxed lecture on amplifier circuits. And the end of this lecture concluded our day. Woah imagine on days with labs, there will be more rushing man. Sheesh. But anyhow, we went over to arts canteen (thats when tstar saw me i suppposed, heh) for our late lunch. Oh, why arts, i hear you ask. Go figure.
Btw, after which, the 2 jeres and I went to sim lim where the 2 of them got a seagate 80GB 5400rpm external hard drive for only $128 from video-pro shop on the 4th floor. A pretty good deal, i must say. Definitely a better deal than the one at the science bazaar which was like $179 for 80GB, sheesh. Why so much storage space? Aiya for videos lar. (what kind of videos, i hear u ask again. heh)
The picture kinda reminded me of an ex-platoon mate, Ohm.
Edmund Tham (sleeping beside Ohm) :
"Well what th-?! Why is there so much hair around my bed??"
New feature of Stats Counter: Visitor map.
(Click to enlarge)
Looks like Mitch has been reading my blog from Australia? Or is it Dom? Heh.
And, stats counter revealed that many people are still viewing my 1st tomorrow-ed entry: Funny Exam Answers, either from blogs or search engines(mostly). lol
I got a platoon mate back then in my army days called Winston Chan and he has always been known as a fast drinker who can glup 1 litre of water (the green army bottle) down in less then 10 seconds. He performed this talent of his a few times in front of our platoon, the most recent one during the ict not long ago. Well, we considered that crazy enough already.
However, Winton if you happen read this, I am sorry to tell you that your record has been broken. Some crazy japanese guy did a 1.5 litres in 4.88 secs.. Crazy shit, i still cant believe the entire 1.5 litres went down. Neither did the audience, who were equally stunned. Check out the "wtf" look on their faces at the end of the clip. Hilarious!
Went for the micron industry talk just now and now I am more interested in the industry. Have always been interested in the microelectronics and semiconductors industry, so wanted to find out more. Micron deals with DRAM (dynamic random access memory) which provides high speed data storage and retrieval, NAND flash memory which is an excellent storage solution for mp3 players and thumbdrives where data is retain even if there is no power, CMOS image sensors and many more exciting new technology.
Micron requires electrical, electronics, mechanical and materials engineering trained personnel. They mentioned the 4 qualities they look out for in their applicants: Initative, Critical thinking, Independent-learning and Team-player. And doesn't necessarily have to be 1st class.
Check out their internship programme: Here
And their scholarships: Here
Now, I am slightly more motivated to study harder for EE2004 (Electronic Devices) and EE2005 (Electronics). Heh.
Technorati Tags: Micron, Semiconductor, Electronics
Wanted to blog about it yesterday after I got home at around 7pm but tiredness took me and i fell asleep almost immediately when i saw the bed... Thats what you get for not having enough sleep the night before a 8-6 day. And not only that, we (jere, yeow and myself) ended up running around looking for our LT in an unfamiliar fac after getting into the wrong class for ST2334... and also not forgetting to mention: shopping for textbooks. It was a tiring first day.
Somehow I cant tune my brain back to the normal sleeping hours. You see, back then in the holidays, sleeping hours were from 3-4am till 10-11am. So when I decided to force my brain to shut down at 12am the night before, it refused. And in the end, I only manage to sleep at 3+am and waking up at freaking 6am for a 8am lecture.
First lectures were usually on the module organisation, go through some admin stuff, what to expect, the grading system and perhaps start getting into the first topic if the time allows. Yet, the first ST2334 (Probability and Statistics) lecture was really one of a kind lar!
It was a 2 hrs slot, from 4pm to 6pm. He did not really cover much by the time we went in (we were late remember? see above), just going through some of the things to expect for the module. And then he went on to this long discussion on which tutorial slot we would prefer as he's still keeping the options open in view of the fact that some were not able to make it for all the current slots. After which he decided he should just speak to those who were affected, which was only 5 of them.
By then its almost 5pm and just when we thought he's going to start the lecture proper, we were dismissed! The purpose of the lecture was mainly for settling the tutorial stuff, I recalled him saying. Holy crap, we RAN for your lecture hello? Why dun he just start the first lecture, then we wouldn't need to rush at the end of sem or something. There is like 1 hr left lor. Then again, I think about it and realised, hey its a science module! Its different from engine, they have no need to rush their modules crazily like ours. Yes, that makes perfect sense now.
Oh and have i mention that studying/attending lecture/even walking around in science fac is undoubtedly more relaxing than in engine. There is this homely feeling like as though we were back in our hometown or something. I mean there are locals here! Not just a few groups of them here and there, but everywhere, hell lots of them. Yeah!! Home sweet home! (Read: It kinda reminded us that we are indeed still in Singapore and not in erm China or India.)
Ok oops sending out the wrong signal here, mugineers engineers, we will hang in there no matter what ya? All the best for the new semester!
"A waterspout - commonly known as tornadoes over the sea - has been spotted off the coast of Sentosa, spooking many who were spending a lazy Sunday on the beach. "
Read the rest of the report from Channelnewsasia: Here.
Waterspout developed as a result of warm water heating up the air from below causing the air to rise.
As the air rises within the unstable atmosphere, adiabatic cooling causes its temperature to decrease. When the temperature reaches the dew point, the condensation gives the waterspout its rope-like appearance.
Contrary to popular belief, waterspouts do not suck water into its central core. The core consists of a condensed water vapour.
Source? Nus' GEK1524: Living with fluids, part 2: The role of fluid mechanics in our weather system. Take this, its a great module. Heh.
Technorati Tags: Sentosa, Waterspout, Tornado
(Via LancerLord)
Rather addictive game: Dungeon Escape!
Must be quick with your mouse clicks. Go try!
And so it begins, at the threshold of yet another semester.
Second year of uni, yet it seems like i have achieve nothing much out of it. Patience and faith, my friend..
Hope, it's still the main source of my motivation. Yet, I am losing it..
Was giving my student some math problem to do. The typical primary school kind which ask how many chickens and cows are there when given the total number of animals and legs. He got it wrong and I realised he simply divided the total number of legs by 4 and declared that as the answers for both chicken and cows! I thought he was just trying to take an easy way out or something, but this is what he replied, quite seriously actually:
"Chicken not 4 legs meh?"
I hope he was just kidding..
Round 2A was over yesterday and by now most people would have gotta all their modules. Well, i did, with ST2334 costing 1 point and GEM2900 costing a whopping 301 points. Sheesh it was a 100 points increase from the end of opening bidding. As a result and unfortunately, yeow and yicai did not manage to get the module. On the other hand, Jere and BK manage to secure it. Haiz, I have hardly any general points left now.. I am sure next sem i am so going to lament about the idiot who planned the 250/750 point split again..
However, on a more cheerful note, I got all the modules I intend to take up this sem and this is how I want my timetable to turn out after the tutorial and lab bidding next 2 weeks:
(Click to enlarge!)
Mondays and fridays are going to be very hectic, while alternate tuesdays are quite relaxed and wednesday will be alright during no-labs days and thursday will prolly be for swimming/running/slacking around for that 3 hours gap.
Oh by the way, Jere and Yeow, my lab plannings with you guys earlier on wasnt correct. For week 8 and 9, I realised there is no 2-5pm slot for EE2011's EM1 and EM2. So i decided to switch the lab slot for EE2011 to Friday 2-5pm instead since we have no 9-12 slot available..
So for the labs it's going to be something like this:
I am so so going to die for 2 fridays.. continuous 8 hrs..shucks..
On another comforting note, my exam timetable for this semester is quite friendly. Quite evenly spread out, unlike last sem where we struggled with 2 papers in a day and another right in the following day. And furthermore, I might be s/uing 2 modules (the gem and the ss) depending on the modules also but will s/u at least one of them, so i guess it should be quite alright.
Oh yea, and good luck for all those who have yet to get all your modules; round 2B ends today at 1700. I know Yi Cai is still looking for his 5th module, well, if worse come to worse, come take ST2334 lar, 1 point only nia.
Had a BBQ lunch + dinner with the signallers yesterday at Jackson's house. The idea came from Jevon and was organised by Jian Cheng, Pandy, Jevon and myself in an effort to get the whole platoon together before the ppl studying overseas return for their studies and the local ppl beginning our another 4 months of hell school life. It was fun doing the planning despite some disagreements in the choice of food here and there.
We ordered the food from BBQ Wholesale which offers a wide range of marinated bbq food and other accessories. Check out their huge list of items here, and with such affordable price, parties can now be hassle-free yet economical. We have 15 people and each only have to fork out 10 bucks to enjoy a whole day bbq with otahs, satays, chicken wings, chicken chops, sausages, sambal sotongs, stringrays, fried bee hoon, drinks and beers. The only downside is that the food comes in packet and the quantity of each packet is fixed and therefore does not allow for flexibility over the choice in quantity.
Oh yea, the fried bee hoon was cooked on the day itself by Jevon, Tim and myself:
Jevon, the great chef, in action, cutting some of the ingredients which include carrots, hotdogs and lettuces.
Frying the bee hoon.. looks kinda gross at this point of time..but..
the end product looks darn good ya?
And of course it taste great! Everyone fighting to get their share here, trying hard to keep their drool to themselves. =)
Another great cook in action, Winston Chan bbqing the chicken wings here.
Other than bbq, we also had badminton games as well:
Tim here trying to use his telekinetic powers to force his opponents to miss. (but he failed, heh)
Jinx and Jared.
"Hey, you hit that!"
"Nono, its closer to your side! You hit that!"
"Are you sure??! Let me check!"
The shuttlecock flew right in between them as Jared lean over to check. The two of them watch in discontent as the shuttlecock touches the ground with a cheer of victory roaring at the other end of the court.
"Its the wind lar..", one of them hissed.
Ok no more photos after this cos I began my cooking and eating and having fun. =)
The rest of the activities include playing card games, piano, majong, watching NDP and Singapore Idol, more bbqing plus eating and just sitting around drink beer and talk cock.
Yea it was a great platoon gathering and we might make this an annual event, provided Pandy dun mind all the inconveniences we have brought to his family and the mess we made in his house. Heh.
Technorati Tags: bbq, bbq wholesale, badminton, bee hoon, gatherings
Jared Bok is a platoon mate of mine who wrote this book starting from his army days and only published it recently. The book is called "The Itinerant" as shown in the picture to the left, and is based on the genre of mystery and sci-fi. According to him, he wrote the book because he wanted a sci-fi book without the usual story templates of those commercially selling fiction.
I have finished the book and it was an interesting and exciting read. Actually, I intended to leave the reading till sch starts so as to fill in the void in those inevitable long hrs of bus ride to nus. Yet, it was really a difficult task for me to put down the book once the story began to unfold! I just can't seem to stop reading when there's so much mystery and suspense surrounding the main character, Byrne.
A synopsis of the book provided by the author himself:
"Byrne has been wandering the globe since the day he can remember. Driven by an inexplicable restlessness that prevents him from settling down in one place for any significant period of time, he wanders aimlessly from town to town without knowing why. It seems like this is going to be the norm for the rest of his life until one day things take a turn for the surreal.
His most recent landlord winds up dead, subject to a mysterious ailment known as the Dry Death.
He meets an enigmatic man who offers him a job – a job that seems too good to be true.
His body starts exhibiting some rather unusual changes.
He comes across a strange and elusive lady who seems to be avoiding not just him but his employers as well.
As the strangeness starts escalating day by day, Byrne will discover that there are more links to all these events than he initially thought, and in his quest for the truth, he will find not only his fair share of secrets and hidden agendas but the very reason for his itinerancy…"
So, how do you get the book?
The book is published by a self-publishing company lulu.com. and the direct link for the book is right here.
Preview the first chapter of the book for free here and if you like it, do not hesitate! Grab the PDF version which costs US$0.69 and that translates to only about S$1. If you prefer the hardcopy, the print version costs US$10.67, which translates to about S$17. However, do note that transport costs of about S$10 needs to be added to the print version for delivery to Singapore.
Once again: The Itinerant by Jared Bok
Technorati Tags: Mystery, sci-fi, Itinerant, The Itinerant, Jared Bok, lulu, book
(Click to enlarge!)
ST3235 Statistical quality control
ST2: Tutorial: SAT 2200 - 2300
Someone please tell me its a printing error. I cant imagine any students (or tutors for that matter) going to school for just an hour tutorial on sat(?!!) and wow what a great timing, 10-11PM. Sheesh..
Omg.. I realised I was just being overly paranoid when I said Nation Building was hot when the bid points was going beyond 1000. I just found out from a friend just now that, FNA1002X Financial Accounting was the crazy shit, sold last night for 2810 and 2700 for the 2 lecture slots and almost half of the bidders were not able to get this module. Now thats really hot! And with a highest bid points of 5250 and 5001, that just goes to show once again just how insanely abundant and valueless engineer's program points are.
Now now, who is the fool who planned the 250/750 (general/program) point spilt for us? =(
Initially I thought Nation Building in Singapore (SSA2204) is one module I could secure with a few points or so (actually I was hoping to get it with just 1 bid point) and not having to worry about being outbidded, I was so darn wrong. In case you are wondering how come I can bid for a ss (singapore studies) in this round, this module is protected for engine students so that we wun have to suffer the fate of getting completely thrashed by using our pathetic general points (read: only 250 points per sem) against other nus students. There are only 20 seats available for this round and they were already more than half filled with an ugly highest bid point of 500 greeting me the moment i got in yesterday. Towards the end of the open bidding, that number jumped from 500 to 1000 to 1500 with 24 people fighting furiously for 20 seats. Sheesh, engine students all so generous with their points one.
The thing about having such a high highest bid point is that it generates a substantial amount of fear into the rest of the bidders, pushing the min bid up as a result. It was reasonable at the beginning but people started throwing in their points in fear of getting outbidded, thats when the highest bid grew ridiculously high and hell knows whats it's like in the middle, so the best bet is to go with the flow. So even though the minimum sucessful bid was rather low before the close bidding, it will certainly not stay that way. I forsee the min sucessful bid to be in the range of 200 - 400 and I wasn't prepared to throw away such points on this module prior to the bidding. But then again, as someone aptly puts it in msn just now(for engine students only), aren't program points meant to be wasted?
Take back the field!
