Binary Binching

Seems like time is moving at an accelerated rate and before you know it, a year have already passed. 2009 will be a year that I will never forget. It is the year where I learned that if you want something really bad, just go for it! And with enough persistence and with God’s will, you’ll get it! It was a year when I learn that I can push myself to the breaking point and come back sane. This was of course with the help of loved ones, encouraging me all the way through. And I’m thankful that I have them by my side.

It was the year that I started my full-time job as a Systems Engineer, writing kernel drivers for embedded communication chips in an R&D firm. It was the year that I learn - no matter how much you think you know, there are still things which are unknown to you. Learn and soak as much as you can. Then use the knowledge wisely to help you solve the problems you face everyday.

As I look forward to the year ahead, I thought of the resolutions that I should accomplish by the end of the year. Kinda like a short-term goal. Sitting at Starbucks a few days ago, Mer and I decided to come out with our new year’s resolution – something tangible so that we will know what we should work towards to. Here is my 2010 resolution:

1. Get a driving license.
2. Save $10,000 by the end of the year.
3. Learn and master at least one new programming language.
4. Be more proactive.

And on top of that, I really hope that I can get my award-winning photo by the end of this year. What is an “award-winning-photo” you might ask? Budding photographers are always trying to get that awe-inspiring photo which brings them up to the next level. I’m still in search of that particular photo – a photo that not only shows the beauty because of the angle or lines or colours or perspective. But one which has a composition that tells a much deeper story than what the eye can perceive. The “break-through” photo.

I hope 2010 will be a wonderful year for everyone. May all of you accomplish what you’ve set out for this year. Cheers.

Fir.

Sometimes in life, certain things happen for no particular reason (supposedly) other than to make you miserable and shitty at that point in time. Hence the term - shit happens. Not wanting to be a plagariser of any sorts, the origin of the term shit happens was actually depicted in the movie, Forest Gump.

Not to sidetrack. The sole reason for this post is actually to illiterate that there have had been lotsa "shit happens" moment in my daily life lately. Of which I can't seem to recall any except the incident yesterday.

For the most part of Season 8, Smallville have been a lil slow and abit boring. Probably due to the fact that Clark has just began his vigilante job and there haven't been much baddies to fight. However, the past few episodes were building up to something BIG. Brainiac's son is back. And IT has kidnapped Chloe to the Fotress of Solitude which is now infected with Brainiac.

The ironic thing is that the Fotress was build by Jor-El for his Son, Ka-El. Now it is used by Brainiac as a fotress for his Son. Ironies.

Anyway, the shitty thing is that the season is just about to hit it's climax! Then I checked the date which the next episode is going to be aired. Ho' and behold! Damn it la!!!! It will only be aired in January!!!! How eff-upped can things get?!?! Freaking 6 weeks from now!!! That's like 42 days ++ without knowing what's gonna happen! Phuck! It better be worth the wait!

Smallville is known for this kinda stunt. Oh well! Shit Happens!

I woke up today feeling slightly tired and lethargic. I don't know why but I suddenly feel like I should stay at home and just lie in bed, wasting the day away. I suddenlt have the urge to read Homer's Iliad. Well, I can't explain my lack of enthusiasm on the tasks that I've set myself to do today. I mean, who wouldn't be enthusiastic in decrypting tons (22 files to be exact) of C codes that are so messed up and which lack proper code-comments. Going through them is a bitch because I have no idea what some of his defined function do! If these files are like year-one lab source codes, I won't be complaining at all. But these files are freaking long, with 1000+ lines on the average, per file (maximum I saw was 3000+ -- gulps). Arghhh!

I think today will not be a fruitful day. Shucks! This hopeless feeling sucks. I'm starting to feel that I might not be able to complete my FYP. Boohoo!

Employees of Lehman Brothers in Asia were nervously waiting to hear their fate on Monday as the loss-making U.S. investment bank stared at potential collapse.

Asia, where Lehman employs about 3,000 staff excluding the India back office, has proved a sweet spot for the U.S. bank as it made inroads into new markets in the region.

'The situation is quite fluid. We haven't heard anything from New York,' a Lehman executive in Singapore, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivitiy of the situation, told Reuters by telephone.

'I guess we'll have to wait for the marching orders.'

The Wall Street bank had expanded aggressively in Asia in the last two years, ramping up foreign exchange and investment banking operations in Singapore, Hong

Kong and Mumbai.

It was also planning a bigger presence in China where it recently advised Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), which teamed up with Alcoa, on its $14 billion purchase of a stake in Rio Tinto.

For many employees, communication early on Monday was made more difficult because of a holiday in Hong Kong and Tokyo -- the bank's larger offices in Asia.

'Everyone is anxious about what is going to happen,' said another Lehman staffer in Singapore by telephone, adding management had circulated notes to staff last week in the face of growing employee concern and impatience.

At Lehman's Singapore office at the downtown Suntec Tower, only a trickle of staff arrived for work, dodging reporters' questions.

At a nearby coffee bar, two Lehman staffers said they had been called at 6.00 a.m. (2200 GMT Sunday) to be at work at 7.00 a.m.

Asked whether it was business as usual, a Lehman trader contacted by telephone told Reuters: 'What business is there? There's nothing to do. All I've heard is what's being reported on the news.'

Uncertainty also prevailed in Australia, where Lehman entered markets last year through the acquisition of local brokerage Grange Securities for about A$120 million ($98 million).

Earlier this year, the company moved to a new office tower in Sydney's central business district to accommodate its expanded team.

'The negotiations are still ongoing ... basically we don't know where we stand,' said one of the bank's Sydney-based employees. 'Say, for example, there was a filing for Chapter 11, where would that leave all of us ... probably we stand behind other creditors.

'The only thing we could do here is just sit until we hear something more definitive. And almost certainly that would have to happen, I would have thought, before New York opens.'

Michelle Sprod, a Lehman spokeswoman in Sydney, said the firm was declining any comment.

MERRILL SALE

The seismic shakeup in the U.S. financial system could also see Bank of America buying Merrill Lynch & Co Inc , said a source briefed on the matter -- a move likely to be closely watched by Singapore sovereign fund Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] which has injected more than $5 billion in Merrill since December and would have had an around 14 percent stake.

A Temasek spokesman declined to comment on reports that Merrill could be sold.

Merrill Lynch spokesperson in Sydney, Danielle Mapes, said: 'We're not commenting at this stage'.

Last month, Temasek said it saw value in banking stocks in the United States and Britain and could invest more if an opportunity arose.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), the bigger of the city-state's two sovereign funds, had also bought significant stakes in UBS and Citigroup.

Source: forbes.com

And to think that Merrill Lynch has been giving recruitment talks in NUS (the next one will be in two days time), how bleak can the near future get?

After a long break from running long distance, I must say I've nearly gotten back my running form. There were times along the race where it is so so tempting to stop and take a breather. But I know that if I did, I would find it even more tiring to continue running. And the race markers were at the 2km, 6km and 9km - hence, it's kinda difficult to gauge where the mid-point of the race was.

The point where the tiredness kicked it was somewhere after Central shopping centre (about 7+km?). I nearly wanted to stop but I decided to push on to the next drink stop. Towards the end, especially after the 9km marker, the lure of walking was so strong! But it was kind of stupid to stop then because I've already ran like 9km without stopping and there was only several hundred meters left! So I ran - till I reached the finishing like at 58 mins flat! haha..

I broke my personal best of 1hr 4mins (but that was an all-terrain run which included a torturous 2km beach trail). Overall, I think the run was well organized. I had fun and most importantly, it's for a good cause.

I met a few people at the race whom I know. For most part of the event, I ran a lonely race. haha.. Well, here are some pictures from the race. Sadly, I have no pictures of myself. LOL.

My race tag


The sea of reds


At the starting line

P/s: The results are just in - I'm ranked 1000-ish for the race. I must say, there were some really fast kids out there! LOL. Geez.. I'm getting old.

This coming week starts the end of some things which have been, in my opinion, a bad/unhealthy habit. Some things just have to change, hopefully for the better. And I'm adding certain routines in my lifestyle to keep it at a balance. Lastly, tomorrow marks the day where I need to start putting more effort at my school work and spend less time idling or surfing unnecessarily (Goodbye EDMW. . .).

One of the few things that I'm changing in my lifestyle is keeping junk food away as much as possible. I'm not saying that I'll shun Macs for the rest of my life (I doubt I have that kinda persistence) but rather, I'll keep the weekly visits to maybe a fortnight or once in a blue moon when the craving appears. I have been treating my body like a theme park all my life. I guess it's time to have a slight change.

Honestly, I hate routines. I have never been a routine-freak and time-tables just don't make sense to me. Although routines kind of makes you more efficient in some sense but I find it a little suffocating at times. But I think I need certain routines and I have to trick my mind to follow such routines. For example, one of my "must dos" in my lifetime is to run a full marathon. As some of you folks would know, marathons aren't a walk in the park. You've got to train to run a full one or suffer the after-effect of a 42km walk (I hope to run it full). Hence, I need to start running to train myself for the marathon. Therefore, I've set some goals to trick myself to follow these running routines. Wish me luck!

And finally, it has just sunk in that semester has already started. Work is piling up at the moment and a quiz is due next week! haha! It's my final year in school and I guess I'll just make full use of it to make mistakes and learn as much as possible. Please do not mistake me for being "academically kiasu". Rather, I see it as fulfilling my part as a student looking for knowledge.

It'll be my last year as an undergraduate and it has been a damn fun roller coaster ride. Now I'm sort of at the last several kilometers of my undergrad marathon. I have not yet seen the finishing line but I know it is drawing near. I still have several hurdles to overcome before the grand finish. Let's say I know of the existence of these hurdles but truthfully, I have no idea how high they would be.

A while ago, I managed to get some work going planning my time-table for the semester. Other than my final year project (FYP), I have three other modules to clear. After the disappointing withdrawal of Advance Operating systems, I had to change my module choice again! Thus, this semester I'm taking EE3207 (Computer Architecture), EE4214 (Real-time embedded system) and LAC1201 (Chinese I).

Of all the listed modules, I'm definitely looking forward to doing EE4214. From the looks of past year module syllabus, it seems that the module combines embedded system with Linux. Reading up on embedded system requirement these days, a lot of developers are moving towards embedded linux systems because they are free and well documented. If I'm not wrong, we'll be looking to use uLinux for our project. Embedded linux systems for the win! haha..

Computer architecture is still alive (contrary to some believe that comp. architecture is long dead) with parralel programming and multi-core vs many core processor systems. I'm looking forward to this too!

I have long delayed my undertaking of the LAC1201 module. Well, since NUS provided free Chinese lessons, why not?

Lastly, my FYP balloting results are just in a few days ago. Luckily for me, I managed to get my second choice and I must say it's an interesting topic which I am looking forward to do! hurhur.. My topic is - Wireless Car Communications with an Embedded System. Basically the project about communication between vehicles using mobile wireless communication devices. I'm going to e-mail my professor in-charge soon.

Wish me luck for the up-coming semester! My holidays was spent beautifully with Mer and my PC. =x

I met a few friends for coffee the other day and out of nowhere, the topic on birth control came into our conversation. We talked about the more common types of contraceptives like condoms, pills and anti-pregnancy patches but somehow we didn't find that they would be convenient in the long-run next time. Especially so if we and our future wives do not want to have kids.

For example, condoms are generally the most convenient contraceptive (not forgetting the multitude types and variety of flavours on the market) to use, but we wondered whether using condoms could be a hassle in the long-run. We did also talk about morning-after pills and anti-pregnancy patches. However, we reasoned that such contraceptive methods could actually do more harm then good; given that there could be a chance that going childless will not be long-term (who knows that a couple could just change their minds one day). Who knows what harmful hidden effects of these pills and patches would bring to an unborn child in the womb on top of the side effects the females usually get using the aforementioned contraceptive methods.

Tying up the female's tube seemed to be an awful choice too, since there could be a possibility (even if it's a small chance) of wanting babies in the future. Thus popped the question - how about vasectomy?

Vasectomy is a surgical process whereby a surgical cut is made on a vessel which carries sperms during ejaculation. Guess what, everyone around the table cringed at the thought of steel touching our balls. LOL.

Unlike the process of tying the fallopian tube, vasectomy has a 70% chance of being reversible. Thus, one who undergo vasectomy could go for a vasovasostomy to allow him to reproduce again. Although the chances are high, majority of us gave the no-no. We gave several reasons to our stand. For example, there is a fear of erectile dysfunction as one of the side effects from vasectomy. On top of that, even though it is a minor operation, most of us fear the pain of the post-op (it was unthinkable). Someone is cutting your balls open for God's sake!

Eventually, we all agreed that it was an "all-or-nothing" decision. If you don't want to have a child, stick with the choice forever (unless one does not mind adopting a kid). Therefore, most of us concurred that tubical ligation (i.e tying the fallopian tube) is the way to go!

Thinking back on our conversation, I felt that somehow we guys were quite selfish in concluding to that decision. Tubical ligation is an irreversible process while there is a large chance that the effects of vasectomy can be reversed. It cost more for the wifey-s as opposed to the hubbies. However, I can't deny that fear is one of the biggest barrier for men to even consider vasectomy as a feasible contraceptive method.

So what do you guys think?

I'm not sure how many of you had read his inspiring book "The Last Lecture" or watched his video of the last lecture (link). If you had read or watched his lecture, you'd know that the world has just lost an extraordinary man.

The Last Lecture is a book written by Dr. Pausch of his "last lecture" which he had given to his students and fellow lecturers at Carnegie Mellon University, after he had been diagnosed with a rare case of liver cancer for the second time. Since he had several month of good health left, he decided to give a customary last lecture which was inspiring to many.

In his book, Dr. Pausch wrote about fulfilling childhood dreams which left me touched to tears. How many of us have gone so far from what we dreamed of when we were young because of barriers? And he talked about the importance of having a dream, the brick walls that will prevent us from achieving these dreams and how these brick walls are meant to prove how badly we want something.

Towards the end of the book/lecture, he actually revealed who the lecture is meant for. It wasn't directly meant for his students or the people present on that day - his last lecture was meant for his children, who he had left today in his death.

My favourite quotes from his book.

But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

Be good at something, it makes you valuable.

People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.

It's not about how to achieve your dreams; it's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the dreams will come to you.

Rest in peace Randy Pausch.

It's that time of the year again. Let me give you a clue.




It's an abbreviation which starts with a letter 'C'. Pain in the ass and irritates the hell out of most students.

And do you guys from CPE realize that there are so few modules offered for this semester; especially the level 4000 modules? To add to that, I'm really bothered by the time-tabling of the modules. Why on earth would you offer a level 4000 module, which needs a preclusion of a level 3000 module, both in the same semester?

Yes, I'm feeling very frustrated now. Argh!

So you guys know the answer already?