An Update

Hello, I just realised my blog is rotting as I haven't touched it for a super long time... so now better shake it up a little bit, wipe off the dust.

Finished my FYP in early July, then off to ICT for 2 weeks, then started looking for a job. Looked around for awhile, then managed to get a job at ST Electronics (Info-Software) as a Software Engineer. It has been 3 weeks since I started working there, and I'm really lucky to have great colleagues around me, to help and guide me. Really fun and friendly folks, happy to be in the team!

Got my FYP result, and got only a credit grade... quite disappointed, as I thought it would be a definite distinction. Really put in quite alot of hard work, together with my team. I feel responsible as I led them in the project... a bit sad. But good thing is all my team members have already found a job before the results got out, and I would say I'm happy for all of them. Haven't got time to meetup with them for a meal, should have one before Beng and Guowei fly off to japan to work...














My dear sweetheart celebrated my birthday with me by surprising me with a steamboat feast on the actual day after work. Needless to say, the both of us had a great time stuffing ourselves with all the delicious mushrooms, shabu shabu, prawns, veg in miso soup goodness!

In the weekend, she bought me a super yummy piece of Tiramisu from Galbiatti's in Rail Mall as my birthday cake. It seems to be our favourite cake as I bought this cake for her as her birthday cake too.

Thank you, honey! I really enjoyed the birthday treats, and the super weekend spent with you. I love you! =)

Icekimo

Tucked away in a quiet corner in Sin Ming, off Upper Thomson road is a little, cool ice cream parlour called Icekimo.

All too often, we see the overrated and overly expensive ice cream brands in our shopping centres, and sometimes it is just too much to spend for a small, nice little cup of ice cream. What's more, Icekimo closes at 11pm! This is really great, for Singaporeans that go around finding food at this time of the night.













Plus, Icekimo sells a variety of local flavours like Durian and Champedak (like Jackfruit), my personal favourite. I have never in my life tasted Champedak ice cream until I found Icekimo. The first time I stepped into Icekimo, the name on the small plastic label struck me, and immediately I wanted to find out what it tasted like. It was heavenly! I personally recommend this.













There is nothing like a trip to Icekimo to end a day, and best to share this joy of eating wonderful ice cream with your loved one. Today marks 9 months together since I first met Eunice, and the reason I want to write about this place today is because this was where I brought her on our first date. A wonderful first date that will remain forever in our memories, only to be etched even stronger by the taste of ice cream and that magical twinkle in her eyes... I love you honey :)

Rating: 9/10
Hunt Date: 25 Sep 08
Location: 8 Sin Ming Road, #01-03 Sin Ming Centre

Geylang Lor 17 Dim Sum

On outings to Geylang area, parking is always a problem, especially when its during the peak hours and also even during supper time. However, a little bit of frustration is always worth it when you know you will be having some great Dim Sum very soon!!!

The shop is air-conditioned, although many still sit outside. And the crowd tells the story of the food. Dim Sum for 2 comes up to about 20 plus, close to 30. Well, that's for us, we food gurus are really big eaters, and once we opened the pages of the menu, I had to stop Eunice from ordering too much hehe...

That night, we ordered Siew Mai, Prawn rolled in cripsy strips (not too sure of the name... look at the pictures OK? write a comment for us if you know the name!), Deep Fried Fish (the one with the mayo), Cripsy Crab Legs, Fried Dumplings.













I give the Dim Sum a rating of 7.5/10.
Hunt Date: 20 Sep 08
Location: Geylang Lorong 17

Round Island #2 Trip Log, 29 Dec 08

Hmm... yeah, I forgot to log this down. And time really flies... the trip took place in December!!! And now its already almost May.

See photos of the trip here. The photos are arranged in chronological order, for ease of reading and viewing.

This trip wasn't planned thoroughly, though we had thought of having this ride for quite some weeks before it happened. The setup for the ride was simple: Because Dean and I live near each other, I rode to his place and we proceeded down to town, where we will meet Ivan. As Ivan live in Tampines, he rode down to town alone to meet us.

I really have to apologise to my fellow brothers for losing the trip log... I really couldn't find it. Luckily we still have photos haha... next time somebody else should do the logging... everything I do meh? Log, blog... tedious leh! (Hmm... I shouldn't KB so much for now, after losing the thing.)

Dean and I reached Dhoby Ghaut MRT on time, at noon. We had to wait an hour before Ivan reached... hmm nothing new haha. Then Dean and I decided to go wait for him at our favourite Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee shop. We had our noodles after Ivan arrived.

Next, we cycled up the hill and reached Mount Emily park. A small park, but lots of shade from the huge trees there. Goofed around a bit before we descended the hill, and went to the Rochor beancurd shop, our favourite Dao Hwae shop. It was here that we made our impromptu decision to ride into Sentosa.

After finishing our Dao Hwae, we then proceeded on through the Chinatown area, and reached Capitol Tower. Took some interesting photos there, and one with Dean trying to swim in the drain... hehe... Next we went on Keppel Road and carried on to Sentosa.

We stopped at the gateway just before the admission toll gates, and took some photos. We were thinking... will we actually get to enter Sentosa FOC since we were on bikes? Yeah right! Like there is ever a free lunch. We cycled past the toll booths, but there was still a booth at the side of the road further down the road, and the guy inside was like waving us to stop. I at one point felt like making a run for it... but then thought, nah... we were on bikes, too easy to catch us on the way in. So we paid our entrance fees dutily.

We made our way to Siloso beach, and took some photos at the rocky shore near the car park. It was near sunset time then, and I must say, it felt really good to enjoy such a wonderful day, riding with my buddies again. We proceeded in-land to find a trail, but failed... any trails we found were only fit for walking. We then proceeded out of Sentosa. Took some more photos on the gateway bridge, then stopped again at Vivocity as it started to rain. After doing the necessary water proofing, we simply headed to Seah Imm Road FC to have our dinner.

After a sumptous meal, we then headed back to Dean's place by taking the long West Coast Highway route, but taking a shortcut by cutting in hong leong gardens and crossing the AYE overhead bridge to clementi side. This is where I split from the two of them, heading home for a comfortable hot shower before joining them at Dean's again. That night was really great, Dean drove us out to have supper at Boon Lay place FC, just next to Boon Lay shopping centre. We had the famous nasi lemak. I was surprised because the stall attracted long queues even though it was a weekday night! We then went back to Dean's and watched Tropic Thunder before crashing into deep sleep...

Always great to ride along side my fellow musketeers, looking forward to our next one!

An Abstract Model of a Cat

Picture (a).











This is an abstract model of a cat. It has all the basic features of a cat: A head with 2 ears, pair of eyes, some whiskers, a nose. Four legs, and a tail (Not visible in picture (a)).

To implement a specific breed of cat, simply adjust the size of the eyes, the nose, add some whiskers if needed and change the fur colour as required.

A thing to note is that this abstract model misses an important feature: a mouth. Because all breeds of cats have mouths, I have decided to add in such a feature. Therefore, an improvement was proposed and a mouth added to the final and improved version of the abstract model, as showed in picture (b).



Picture (b).

Bruce Schneier on Security

10min video on security from an expert. Could be useful for your 358 exam revision...

Application Threat Modeling

Check this out, could be useful for 358 AS3...

Application Threat Modeling

View more presentations from Marco Morana. (tags: risk management)

Disconnectedness in a connected world

I write this in the hope that maybe I can talk some sense into you before you click. Yes. Before you click 'send' to pass on that e-mail.

Some questions to ask yourself, what exactly are you reading? Do you really believe you will suffer from bad luck if you do not pass it on to 10 people? Do you really believe you will receive a free laptop? Who is at the receiving end of the CC recipient list? Could it be somebody who is being sabotaged to drown in the countless flooding e-mail replies?

I am astounded by the fact that there is a long line of people who pass on chain mails... I wonder if it is maybe they have too much time on their hands? Or maybe they think its fun? Maybe they are simply disconnected.

This disgustingly long line of chain mail distributors tells us that they are disconnected. The brain from the clicking finger, that is. Yes, the Internet is free. Your bandwidth is of unlimited usage. But please do not complain when your internet experience slows down, because you are contributing to it. Don't complain of receiving so many junk mail when you are in fact a perpetrator as well.

How much is your time worth? Your value of time may be worthless but other people's worth per unit time could be much more. To me, there is no excuse for being gullible, inconsiderate and ignorant at the same time. This is a big problem with the Internet. All of you are behind your monitor screens typing and clicking away happily as the "people" factor gets pushed out of the equation. People start to get rude with one another, do stupid inconsiderate things and treat it with a simple click.

If you want to be a part of technology, then keep up with it (which includes being responsible) or else go fly a kite.

Valentine's BBQ

On the night of Valentine's day, Eunice and I had a mini-BBQ at my place, away from the crowd and over-charging restaurants. We absolutely love mini-BBQs like this, and saved quite a bit too...

Looking at the food we had, my mouth waters again haha... just take a look! We had halibut fillet marinated with lemon chilli sauce, black tiger prawns marinated with sambal chilli, otaks, saba and chicken wing mid-joints marinated with kikkoman sauce, taiwan sausages & marshmallows!
















The mini-BBQ was a great success, and I really enjoyed cooking and eating with Eunice :) I love you hun! Looking forward to our next mini-BBQ hehe...

伍佰-忘情歌MV

I dedicate this song to my dead PC haha... really like the music that comes from this wonderful piece from 伍佰.

sudo

Comic from xkcd.com

Welcoming the CNY

It was a great CNY period, as I went around visiting and for the first time, I went around with Eunice to her grandma's place and great grandma's place... and I met alot of very friendly people. All her family were very warm towards me, and treated me as one of the family. I felt very pleased that I was received so well =)

Surprisingly, this time I didn't eat alot of goodies during all the visiting, but it is after the visiting period that I am stuffing my face with all the goodies... all the leftovers at home haha...

Hmm... right now, still in the CNY mood, abit quite hard to get back into sch mode but i'm moving along haha.

Happy Mooo Year people... may all of us be prosperous and happy!

Google Chrome

PC vs Mac... Spoofed!

year++

Hello people, I wanna use this opportunity to reflect on the past year's events and talk about what I'm thinking for the new year ahead...

2008 was a year of mixed feelings, or maybe I should say at first I thought it would be a bad time after having ended a 2 year relationship. But then I (again) realised the importance of having friends and family, and appreciating them. My good buddies were always there to lend a hand and listen and talk with me when things go wrong. And no matter what happens, my family will be there for me.

What was a sad end to a relationship eventually led to a turning point in life for me, as I found someone whom I now love so so so much. I met Eunice in July, and since then I have never regretted meeting and knowing her, nor have I regretted loving her with all my heart. Having her makes me feel so fortunate and happy, its truly a wonderful feeling. All the time we spent together, it was truly the time of my life. I am grateful to have her, and thank her for loving me. I wish that we can be together for eternity...

I have been working hard at sch and having my hard work pay off really feels good, I think that my interest in computers is something I can do for a long time to come. Hopefully I can find a good job and start earning money to repay my parents for bringing me up all these years and paying for my education.

2009 will be a year that I truly prove my worth, to be able to really earn a living for the first time. Going out to work, earn my worth and get ready to do the things I really want to do. I hope the economy will not be so bad when I get out from sch in july. For now, 2 more modules and a FYP to complete first hehe.

I wish everyone a happy new year, and may your goals and dreams become reality.