tutorials

Stepped into Wednesday's OneOneZeroOneS' tutorial to be surprised with a 'micro-quiz'. After the quiz while going through the tutorial I realised I made a mistake in one of the three questions, and although the 'micro-quiz' would not be graded, I still felt rather upset that I got such a simple question wrong.

First OneTwoThreeOne tutorial was demoralising. Stepped into a room of mostly non-Singaporeans fully confident of their answers, while I sat in one corner praying throughout the entire duration that the tutor would not call me up to present my answers.

Argh.

to keep her flag unfurled

I was reading through the hordes of Facebook comments on VJC's move to establish its own 6-year Integrated Programme, which was perceived by students and ex-students of Victoria School as an act of 'breaking away from her roots', when I saw this comment:



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I don't blame them actually; I myself still feel more attached to AHS than VJC, what's more VS has some hundred and (sorry how many?) years of history, so its understandable that they are not happy about VJC becoming a direct 'competitor' to VS. It does feels weird when the day comes where VJC faces VS in some competition, and both schools sport similar school logos and anthems.

I think the close relationship between VS and VJC contributes to the overwhelming school spirit that VJC has come to be famous for, among other things. However it is the same affiliation, coupled with VS being a boys' school, that is limiting VJC's ability to provide a good through-train programme that can compete with those offered by the top schools. I thought a good solution is for VJC to set up a secondary school section for girls, while VS provides the guys for VJC's six-year programme, but I have no idea why they will not implement it.

Interesting how schools today operate more like commercial companies that have to constantly come up with ideas to attract 'customers', even if they meant stripping all their past heritages and traditions.

Maybe all these will not be happening if the founders of Victoria had set up a girls' school a hundred years back haha, but whatever it is, no Marine Parade Junior College please. I like the name Victoria.

the simplicity of complexity

I was stuck at this particular problem on recursion for a very long time, and when I finally got it, the code was so simple and elegant, I wanted to kill myself because I felt so stupid why I could not think of it earlier.

Recursion has the powerful ability to make one feel like a complete idiot when the answer is revealed.

I need to spend less time to derive answers, for the luxury of time will be gone once the tutorials start.

first day

First day in school went quite well for me; GEK1506 lecturer was interesting, though I think we have to form groups soon and the only friend I know already has enough friends to form their own group. Haix.

Ran into many familiar faces during my entire duration in school from Science to Computing to Central Library to home.
1) Orientation mate at Science canteen.
2) This guy whom I think had crossed paths with me many times back in National Service whenever his team was attached to my unit.
3) Senior at Computing.
4) JC friend, although this was a pre-arranged meeting rather than a coincidence.
5) National Service friend A at Computing.
6) National Service friend B first at Central Forum, then at Central Library.
7) National Service friend C at Central Library.
8) National Service friend D at Central Library.
9) JC friend at Clementi MRT Station.

Lol.

Today was also the day technology went wrong for me.

The first incident occurred when my school account was rejected when I tried to log to the school's unsecured wireless network, while two friends tried theirs and worked. I approached the School's technical service, where the personnel tried to smoke by saying that I was rejected because the IP addresses available had all been leased out!

She guided me to configure my laptop to log on to the secured network instead, which worked [which was what I ultimately wanted to do as well], but it did not solve my problem of me being rejected on the unsecured network!

Finally I made a guess that it might be because my password was too...secured haha; I thought my password combination of letters, numbers and symbols was an overkill, so I changed my password to a more ordinary one, which worked! Well I don't know if the problem really lies with the password, because it doesn't make any sense, but at least its solved now and it doesn't bug me anymore. Haha.

The second incident occurred when my ATM card was repeatedly rejected by Transitlink's Add Value Machine, without any reasons given. When it finally worked later, I came to the conclusion that the previous attempts failed because my ATM card was bent. Haha.

Its lessons again tomorrow; being still rather new to the environment I still feel quite lost; hope I can get used soon.

While googling the word 'coincidence' just to make sure I had spelled it correctly :p I came across this interesting article: 20 Most Amazing Coincidences. Very unbelievable in my opinion.

开学了!

Now that orientation is over, this week marks the start of lessons. After two years of National Service its time to hit the books again. Not sure how I am going to fare after two years of brainless activities; hopefully I can get into the mood quickly.

Module bidding went well for me; three modules have already been pre-allocated, leaving space for two modules which I got at 1 point each. 5 modules at 5 points, good start! =D

The bad thing about pre-allocation is that to avoid all the bidding wars I have to accept whatever they give, and so I could not get the four-day school week that I had hoped for. In fact my timetable is screwed up pretty badly haha.

CS1101S Programming Methodology: My first gamble, instead of the more ordinary CS1101. I thought that instead of going through all that I have already learned in JC, perhaps I should go for something that I have not learned before. Scheme promises to be tough, and at first glance I did not understand most of the technical terms in the lesson plan. Haha. Hope my gamble will turn out well.

CS1105 Computing and Society: From the module title, it sounds very much like all the essays that I have written back in junior college. Haha.

CS1231 Discrete Structures: The third module I was pre-allocated, instead of MA1521 Calculus for Computing which I had hoped for. CS1231 is taught by the School in the first semester, and the Maths department in the second semester, and apparently the Maths department teaches the module better.

On the other hand its a good thing that I take my maths module in another semester, because right now I am still undecided on whether I should take a minor in Mathematics, from which I can choose to take MA1102R Calculus instead of MA1521. Now I can gauge where my intelligence level stands first before I make my decision. Haha.

Initially I intended to take two General Education/Singapore Studies modules, but I was afraid I could not outbid the returning students, so I bidded for LSM1302 Genes and Society in the protected Round 1C. I made the correct choice to do so, but I have not mentally prepared myself to take a biology related course in the first semester. Lol.

GEK1506 Heavenly Mathematics: Cultural Astronomy is the last module I bidded for. Taking it out of interest, although as time went by this module became one of the very few that I could bid at 1 point as the bids for other modules started escalating skywards. This module is also the reason why my Tuesdays and Fridays start at 8am haha. The price to pay to conserve my points now.

Finally after days of procrastination I dragged myself to the bookshop opposite my house to buy stationery that has mysteriously gone missing. It had been more than two years since I last stepped into a bookshop! I have always loved shopping in the bookshop, because of the wide variety of things offered, low population density due to the large shop space, the lack of aggressive salespersons, and the nice smell of books haha.

First lecture kicks off tomorrow at 8am! I wish myself good luck!

le kua simi

Its National Day!

National Days were much more happier days for me in the past. No lessons, just going to school for celebrations, watching the National Day Parades on television, while waiting for RSAF's fighter jets to roar across my window, and seeing the distant skies light up at night as the fireworks were let off.

Then the studio apartments came up opposite my house, and blocked the view to the fireworks. Not long after the NDPs are shifted to Marina Bay, and the fighter jets no longer fly across my window.

Before 9/11 and the SARS outbreak, I'm quite sure security and temperature checks weren't top priorities then. Now, not just at NDPs, X-ray and temperature scanners are common sightings at all major events.

Maybe I'm older now, I'm more aware of what is happening around me, and I find that things are not as good as they should be, people are not as happy as they should be, I am not as happy as I should be, and I'm not exactly in the mood to celebrate anymore.

So now National Day becomes another ordinary day for me, just that the broadcast of the parade and the news bulletin that comes on earlier at 5.45pm instead of the usual 6.30pm adds a little difference to the usual programming.

This year's parade is surprisingly refreshing however; perhaps because there's more singing and music than dancing. Would have hoped for more fireworks though.

Whatever it is, I still wish her a happy 44th birthday and 国泰民安.

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The movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra reminded me of the Command and Conquer universe, with all the soldier suits and advanced weaponry, while the story itself reminded me of Ironman and the controversies around the weapons industry. They made the major battle scene between the underwater marine crafts looked more like a dogfight in the air instead, and I found it interesting how the Japanese ninjas fits nicely in the movie where it was set in the future with all the weapons and technologies.

Overall I liked the movie; gave some space for imagination.

my ultimate social experiment

After hearing many horror stories about how one would end up lonely and all in university if one never attended orientation, I decided to sign up, albeit with utmost reluctance, with the hope that I find at least one person to go to lectures and tutorials with, look after each other's things during lunch and dinner, and do projects together.

Unfortunately by the end of orientation, I haven't found any.

Different people are taking different majors; those taking the same majors are taking different modules; and those taking the same modules are taking different lecture groups and tutorials. Therefore I conclude that the chances of us seeing each other again will be rather low.

On the other hand, maybe I never try hard enough. Ha.

Not to say that there was no use attending orientation. In every sense of the word, I did get myself rather 'oriented'. At least I now have a slight sense of direction when navigating around the different places.

The games planned by the School were indeed mild by the university's standards, especially after I saw and heard about orientations by other faculties.

The orientation ended with Rag Day today. My first Rag Day experience was not from the grandstands but from the tent that housed the participants' belongings; for some reason I somehow became involved in the School's float. I would have liked to watch from the grandstands, but staying at the tent had allowed me to catch up with my sleep.

[Reminded me of how my Army Half Marathon experiences were not of those as participants but as organisers. Interesting why I always seem to get the short end of the stick lol.]

Having being involved in computing since secondary school, I have met plenty of like-minded people at different stages of my life. After some time, our paths diverged, and it never occurred to me that we would ever meet again. Even better, it never occurred to me that these different people that I have met, and the different people that these different people have met, would all converge and become friends with each other one day.

Below as follows:

1) A friend, not a close one though, from my CCA in secondary school. Never in same class, went to different junior colleges, and now met again studying in the same School.

2) I have a friend, A, whom I met in my active unit during my National Service. He has a friend B, whom he met during his Basic Military Training days. A, B and I are now in the same School. In addition, B and I have four common friends, C, D, E and F, where C and D were my classmates in secondary school, and E is a good friend of my friend F. B, C, D and E met in their unit during National Service. During orientation, B was in the orientation group where F was the group leader.

3) One of my group leaders who is a friend of A in secondary school.

4) Three seniors, one from my CCA in secondary school and two from two different CCAs in junior college, are now all studying in the School. Now they are friends with each other.

5) This guy in my orientation group who is in the Computing class as my three gay friends in their junior college.

6) This girl in my orientation group who is a friend of the sister of F.

Some statistics should be drawn up next time!

All in all, I consider it a feat that I managed to attend so many days of orientation; felt rather guilty to have skipped two of the days, but I'm not ready for everything yet.

backtracking

I recall Seagate once said Singapore was an excellent place for their hard disk business, because of its strategic location, high education levels among her citizens blah blah, and manufacturing costs constituted only a small portion of their total costs, so Singapore, despite being an expensive place to work in, was no problem to them.

HAHA.

Perhaps National Day is coming; or perhaps 2000 seems too big a number to be comfortable with; the media decided to carry in the same news bulletin, the new Integrated Resort at Sentosa will hire 8000 people by the end of this year. Good move.

Please continue to love Singapore!



Genuinely a good video.

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Not too long ago our dearest Government published the criteria to be selected as a scholarship holder under their prestigious Public Service Commission, and one point they stressed on is to say the truth, not throw out all the politically correct answers.

I wonder what if I say, "I have no interest in working for the Government. All I want is your money to sponsor my studies so that I can study for free!"

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And so China just experienced a once-in-a-lifetime full solar eclipse. Ironic how China was the place where the old stories of 天狗食日 came from, and now the entire country got all hyped up over the Moon covering the Sun and throwing entire cities into darkness in minutes.

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Google's way of explaining recursion. Short, sweet and brilliant!

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The singer. Not bad a song I feel.

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My All-in-One printer which I had won from a quiz back in JC days has a funny problem which I hate: Regardless of the operation, as long as any of the four colours [black, cyan, magenta, yellow] is empty, the printer will refuse to do anything. Not even scanning. -.-

So when my printer refused to print my black-and-white forms which I needed for registration because my colours were empty even though I had a full black cartridge, I turned to the Internet for help.



Apparently light sensors are used to detect the ink cartridge levels; so when I pasted black tape over the translucent portion of the cartridges, the printer was tricked into believing that the cartridges was full!

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I'm getting very drained out from orientation. I need rest very, very badly.