The Open-Source Conversationalist.

End of the SIP!

2007-09-13T00:43:00.000+08:00

2 weeks have passed since the end of the MP/SIP period, and finally a break to update this heap.
While the work is still in progress, I have the freedom to complete it at my own pace. (In the local vernacular, Own time, Own target.)

Every day, I come home with headaches due to that mess. The colour coding hardly works out, (Red-X0-X15 Inputs, 24V DC, 240V AC(!) Blue-0V, Black-Switch 1-5, White-Lights 1-5. Green-Earth, via Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker.(ELCB))
and on Monday, I had a close call with the Reaper, as the circuit breaker sparked spectacularly (Connected to the mains, switch off.) while I was checking the connection, and annihilating the fuse in the plug (and fulfilling its task to protect.) You kind of get used to mortal peril when your previous duties involved going close with a circular saw in the process of rending a Tempered Steel rod. Wire organisation via trunking has not helped, as it confines the mess into a tight column.

__________________________
| Power Start Emergency |
| Stop |
| |
|Med. Select Quantity GO! |
|_________________________|

You'd be surprised at the number of people who think this layout is too difficult. Even after I applied the labels. The box was to designed to minimize errors in usage, as it is impossible to select more than one type of med, through the 2-state twist switch, and the 1-5 pad, which allows one quantity to be selected at any time.

The Blue, Greed, and Red buttons are big, obvious, and very clear on their intended usage.

The problem child of the lot.
I spent a long time struggling with this thing. The problems solved from this point-Stepper motor breakdown, powering issue, the previous group messing up the COM wiring, software issues, and general meddling by unauthorized people.

Other than that, the machine needs just a couple of weeks for it to be good to go.

In other news, Derrick at Thermonuclearexchange.com successfully pulled me into Everquest 2 recently, also contributing to my absence. The world of Norrath is packed with interesting quests, not to mention endless dungeon crawling. I have 3 characters, Amaveram Vas'vayrr (37 Dark Elf Shadow Knight) Donohov Blake (26 Half-Elf Monk) and Gorby Glasnost(5 Gnome Warlock, last name TBC). I'll blog further on these guys tomorrow (or at least this week, once I poke through LU38).

By The Dolphin

"I can't keep this together,
And I might lose this year.
I can't get through December,
And you know all my fears.

Someplace, somewhere behind me,
I walked right through the truth.
Truth is that you're the one thing,
That always pulls me through."

----------------
Now playing: Yellowcard - Cut Me, Mick
via FoxyTunes

10th Week OF MP

2007-06-29T22:50:00.000+08:00

10 Weeks, on hindsight, seemed to slip by ever so quickly. The project in question is woefully behind schedule, as programming and wiring of the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) comes together slowly. The stepper motor is in a void, while the hardware, after a little testing, proved to be as handy as a soggy paper cup. In addition, some wise guy ninja-looted the bag of wires meant for the project, while no big loss, was a major annoyance. At least, in today's experiment, the power supply didn't catch fire, which my 'work gloves' would be hard pressed to protect me from.

Outside the lab, I got a Nintendo DS Lite. (Enamel Blue casing) Being my first up-to-date console since the verenable Game Boy Color, and used for the first week or so to play Phoenix Wright games (Objection!) and Nintendo Touch Golf (6.5 meters to the pin. Oh dear, I've left it short. -throws stylus-). The DS is a really decent console, and in my opinion, beating the PSP, despite the PSP's greater power due to creative use of the DS' various components (Microphone used in PW to dust for fingerprints, Touch screen in every game, Second screen for various data, Hotel Dusk actually requires you to close, then open, the DS to flip an item over.)

Sorry for the lethargic sounding entry, the work is physically and mentally draining.

By The Dolphin

"Tall, and tan and young and lovely, The girl from Ipanema goes walking, And when she passes, each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"
When she walks she's like a samba that, Swings so cool and sways so gentle, That when she passes each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"."

Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto-Getz/Gilberto-The Girl From Ipanema

Conversational Topic #8 - "A break from your scheduled programming..."

2007-05-12T23:54:00.000+08:00

Having recently (Or maybe not so) restarted school, assignments are flying in all over. It's time for the Major Project, and my assigned project, the Automated Medicine Dispensing Machine II, (read:WTB>1xSolution PST) and between scrounging up scraps designing the thing, and playing de facto leader of a 3-man team, time for proper, old-school thinking is scarce. Therefore, this week's is brought to you by a stupid-acting blogger, and fatigue.

--Ripped from Thermonuclearexchange.com--

5 things you didn’t know about me:

1. I'm a sugar addict.
Yup. I eat sugary treats in astronomical quantities, and consume sweet drinks with near-impunity. Hinting at this tidbit of information is the fact I usually have candy on my person, and gets jumpy when I don't.

2. I may forget a face or name, but not a conversation.
My memory is woefully poor (Common knowledge), but I tend to remember conversations wholesale, whether on phone, typed, or old-school vocal. I usually surprise people by bringing up snippets of conversation they had once. (Verified on MSN Messenger with chat logs)

3. Plush toys are not only for girls or children, you know...
Since young, I get easily distracted by plushies. Till today, a majority are displayed on a shelf in my room. It's not that much of being a sissy if I think they look cute... Right?

4. I don't trust any one with a "M.B." Postfix on their name.
I dislike doctors. I distrust doctors. I get borderline paranoia when doctors are involved.
It does not help when 5 of them in life have not identified that grey patch near my lungs. Nor does it help when the medical orderly broke the syringe when taking a blood test. Not good was the time I got slight Bronchitis due to a mis-diagnosis.

5. I actually try to be sociable.
I said TRY, right? I like having lots of people to talk to. However, I tend to shy away from new people, so it's a pretty stupid way of getting things done in any way.

So that's it, expect more of this kind of posts throughout the MP period.

By The Dolphin

"We do it in the dark, with smiles on our faces.
We're dropped and well-concealed in secret places.
We don't fight fair.
With smiles on our faces.
We're dropped and well-concealed in secret places.
We don't fight fair."

Fall Out Boy-Infinity On High-The Take Over, The Break's Over

Conversational topic #7-"Me, me, me."

2007-04-02T00:05:00.000+08:00

A popular plot device in stories, (Particulary awful romance ones) involve two characters being "Alike", or even "virtual twins". Even in video games, such as the Hitman series (Returned to Hitman 2:Silent Assassin for my entertainment.), Mr. 47, the protagonist, has to fight clones of himself, (Mr. 17 in Hitman 2:SA, his "brothers" in Codename:47), and evil twins have been used in various tales as a cliché protagonist to "complicate" otherwise simplistic plots. (The MSG of bad stories, so to speak.)

However, people's fasination with a person out there that would be a virtual carbon-copy of them would never cease. The idea of meeting someone like that is a tantalizing idea, an idea often a result of the aforementioned sources. Having someone that can read the thoughts off your head as if, and preferably, their own thoughts would do wonders in idea communication.
Such a pairing would be capable of simply reading the others' body language by comparing to what they would do.

The downside is many people's supposed doppelgangers are hardly alike. Simply said, people are meant to be different, for nature's sake (see Natural Selection). Consider the math. There are 24 distinct chromosomes in humans, containing 20,000-25,000 genes, amounting to a near 3 billion (3,000,000,000) base pairs. Simple probability would show that you would have a better chance winning the lottery multiple times in a row. Factor in enviromental considerations, such as upbringing, education, and even age, would make the task of finding someone approximately similar a herculean task at best, and a fool's errand at worst.

Even so, people have won the lottery multiple times before, not counting fraudulent claims. So it's hard to dismiss the idea of a good twin of yours running loose in town.

By The Dolphin

"Can you take this lonely girl, and pick her up from off the ground?
Cause there's no pride to be found, when you follow sheep around.
Have no future here, no future, for us in this town.

Because it's not enough, now we're growing up;
We're giving up, we're moving on.
Because it's not enough, we're growing up, we're giving up;
And I won't hear what you say so...

Save your sympathy, who do you think you're fooling?
Everything is dead; now you welcome me,
To a town called Hypocrisy."

Lostprophets-Liberation Transmission-A Town Called Hypocrisy

Conversational Topic #6 - "Countries don't have friends, they have interests..."

2007-03-19T23:40:00.000+08:00

Being an avid follower of history, I often read up all sorts of historical developments, and one thing I've seen so far that remains constant since the 1st century, and flares up even today-whitewashing of pasts.

While most of the powers-that-be in charge of countries declare themselves inpartial and honest, the base human instinct of being the victim and gross exaggeration comes into play, and not just by dictator-run lesser economically developed countries. One example would be the annual China vs. Japan diplomatic firefight. Both countries have long collective national memories, and significant pride. This results in the usual bickering over war crimes in World War 2. While China has a point, (See the Rape Of Nanking, and the chemical and biological incident at Changde.) it too has been guilty of blanking out numbers and data in unfavourable situations(The Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square protests.) Personally, I feel while China has a right to demand an apology, it has little right to read the riot act to Japan on correcting history. Pot, meet kettle.

While such actions draw much condemnation (If they are ever proven/caught), it would always occur. Anyone who has handled young children would know they do not need to learn how to victimize or exaggerate to swing people to their side. When manipulated skillfully, leaders would use the same techniques to sway public opinion to their cause, even with baseless or otherwise callous accusations. (See Joe McCarthy, Ayatollah Khomeini) Such individuals are rare, to the fortune of human society in general. Having too many people who are good at Demagogy could mean some major problems.

By The Dolphin

"He pauses shaving and he tells himself that he is the bomb,
She has her curlers set, her credit cards are paying the funds,
He's not that old, I've been told,
She goes out every day ,
She goes every way...oh yeah!

And they don't even care at all

She's open waiting for more;
And I know he's only looking to score,
And it's way too unhealthy,
Often they've typically,
Been starved for attention before."

Blink 182-Enema Of The State-Mutt

IT Show 2007

2007-03-12T23:39:00.000+08:00

-This post has been marked for journal purposes.-
Although I have not been updating my blog the past 2 weeks, this week I have a good excuse, having gotten a part-time job at the IT Show held at Suntec City, selling BenQ Projectors. Much of the work is strenous, both physically (Imagine standingwalking about for 9 hours, getting 15-20 minutes to scarf down some food during lunch and dinner), to mental (Trying customers, assault on well-being from being in front of Pioneer's sound-and-movie setups).

For most part, the customers who came were decent folks, even those who were just curious about the projectors. However, there are those you just wish you could murder them as an example to others. The 'best' offenders involved the clueless-"Do you make digital photo frames?" to the incredibly cheapskate-"How about you reduce the price by $200, and give me a free screen...?"
and even a visit by the "Avatar of Retardicus, from the pantheon of the mentally-infirm deities"-"Can i get a smaller projector (Currently size of an A4 paper, weight 1.3kg) for under $1500? (Ours costs $2,699)"

Being paid on a commission on top of a rate, selling machines took utmost importance. The first day was great, selling 2, although just getting the hang of things. Day 2 netted 9 projectors, including an epic 4 projector order from a certain organization. Day 3 was poor, with only 1 sale, while ending on day 4 with a respectable 4, for a total of 16 projectors.

One discrepancy I found was the sales between weekday (11) and weekend (5). One reason I accounted this is that while traffic increased, most of the people belong to the "unwashed masses" who came looking for something cheap, i.e. under $400, and asking things as compatibility of their Starhub Cable Vision(SCV) 'box', as opposed to the lunch-and-dinner crunches of the weekday, with business-types who had done their homework come and discuss
deep details such as Lumens and DVI usage.

All in all, I'd not recommend too many such experiences such as this-I still can't feel my legs.

By The Dolphin

"Tell me why can't you see, it's not the way,
When we all fall down, it won't be too late.
Why is there no reason we can't change?
When we all fall down, who will take the blame?"

Sum 41-Chuck-No Reason

Conversational Topic #5 - "Cacoethes scribendi"

2007-02-24T00:29:00.000+08:00

As some of you know, I have a disposition towards writing. I like describing events of my own creation with my style, a odd mixture of detail and sarcastic humor, despite receiving an engineering education (My math is terrible). I can't seem to get the "bad habit of writing" out.

Even without paper or a computer, the blank look I put on when commuting or otherwise bored usually hides a little game. I take some objects around me, and craft it into a short story. The story would be influenced by my mood, varying between Greek Tragedy-like stories or a brainless story with mildly entertaining moments. This results in a near-arrogant belief that I can judge any plot with decent accuracy, as after discarding many bad tales of my own creation, I find certain themes in recent-day stories... cliché.

While I'm all for re-using certain old gags or plot elements, people realise the similarity soon enough. By the same token, people know when they see something fresh. Some writers in popular fiction, or even some TV shows, are guilty, in my opinion, of disregarding this. While old ideas are proven, beating a dead horse like this would not get you much in the future, I assure you.

Anyway, I'll try to write on this blog when I'm too lazy to drabble on about whatever that comes up during the week.

By The Dolphin

"Cover up with make up in the mirror,
tell yourself, it's never gonna happen again;
you cry alone and then he swears he loves you.

Do you feel like a man when you push her around?
Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end,
as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found."

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus-Don't You Fake It-Face Down

Conversational Topic #3&4-Belated Valentines' Day, Singapore Budget '07

2007-02-20T01:33:00.000+08:00

I apologise for being late this week. My usual blogging has been distracted with Anarchy Online levelling, and obsessively listening to the Barenaked Ladies' new album. As such, I'll post now.

The week has been eventful, to say the least. 14th was Valentines' day, a non-event candidate for deletion in my opinion. I spent it grinding 150,000 creds in AO, while listening to people with their materialistic day out with a significant other.

While I have long numbed to being heckled for not even pretending to look for a date, and I fully support others' day out with someone who is important to them, do you really need a day for the service-industry to instruct you on what to do, and those who only want the attention, do you need that boost to your ego by having someone buy you stuff?

The next day, ironically, was the announcement of the Budget '07. The statement itself was impressively worded, and clear on what the Government's position is,although personally, I have to disagree on a few points.

The GST hike, and the supposed relief, is a sticking point. What would $500 or so one-off payment do to a family living on $2k monthly? While it's meant to "tide over" the inital increase, there would be no further allevation of this cost through a take-home pay increase, or lowering of a cost of living. It may only be a few cents increase an item, consider a week's groceries costs a family of 4 about $200. The $16 extra from GST rolls to nearly $756 annually. That sure overhauls the offset amount. (Above is an approximation and should not be considered a hard number.)

This was added in addition to a reduction in corporate tax, but I question the motives, as the GST has proved itself to be a steady way to fill Government coffers.

And on Sunday, the Chinese New Year kicks off. I'm content to attempt a study of Engineering Math 3 and eat whatever New year goodies that come my way. As I have a sweet tooth bordering on addiction to sugary or savory treats, The former suffers in favor to the latter.

That concludes this XL-sized post, I'll enter another entry on Friday, promise.

By The Dolphin

"I can't believe that you'd believe that I would fake it,
Wait - unless you count the things I said when we were naked;
Run, run away from everything we'd ever hoped for,
I can't believe that this is what people elope for."

Barenaked Ladies-Are Me-Wind Me Up

Conversational Topic #2-Morality Vs. Success Rate

2007-02-03T00:43:00.000+08:00

I frequently pride myself on a form of twisted morality. Morality being, of course, what's right and moral and what's wrong and immoral, based on whatever point of view I have on a subject.

Now, this fantasy angel-or-devil decision process on whether I really should replace someone's sniffing salts with concentrated ammonia cooperates with the real world, i.e. I don't commit crimes, and vice versa, but I found a new way these things become mutually exclusive.

My projects are often challenging, epic sized wonders with the group lumping a hearty helping of labor on me, as the designated "wunderkind" of the group. (The author discourages such crazy talk)
Thus when time is up for the projects, the temptationto cheat grows. It's not hard to call a senior classmate who had done it for "Consultations", or to blatantly copy en masse.
The option to follow morality and do it myself, it would result in possible overwork and successive failures.

Even in other areas, such friction occurs. my school has guys who are arguably the most boorish and chauvinistic people I've seen, being popular with the fairer gender. My own moral compass tells me that such behavior is unacceptable, although I admit my own opinion is now considered archaic, seeing the difference between Uncompromised Morals and a "Great Success! High Five!"
------

Sorry about the slow updates, been busy. I'll post the story for Creative Writing soon after grading, and I pack it into a .pdf thing. I'm writing that tomorrow.

By the Dolphin

"Last night I had a dream about you,
In this dream I'm dancing right beside you;
And it looked like everyone was having fun,
the kind of feeling I've waited so long."

Daft Punk-Discovery-Digital Love

Pixel Monster

2007-01-20T00:05:00.000+08:00

A noun used to describe an excessively pixellated image of an object that renders it unrecognisable. This effect often occurs from an image recording device of unsuitable quality, or user error.

1) That webcam is bad, it makes me look like a pixel monster.
2) Bill is bad at photography, all his subjects turn into pixel monsters.

This snappy phrase was formed in conjunction with Anxtraphyl/Derrick over at Thermonuclear Exchange. Lacking a suitable phrase, he asked if my webcam "Would make him look like a pixel monster". Ever since, this phrase has gained currency as an inside joke among friends, poking fun at grainy images.

The above definition was originally submitted to UrbanDictionary.com, but was rejected on the basis of insufficient popularity and utility of the word. (I think, but I feel the word is uproariously funny.)

This resulted in an image crafted by both co-creaters of the term this afternoon.

An obvious spoof of the Gameboy game Pocket Monsters(Pokémon), we based this off a famous glitch of the game, where the monster involved resembles what we felt was the epitome of pixel monsters.

Pokémon and Gameboy are trademarks of Nintendo, please don't sue us, we're poor enough as it is. (Missingno isn't copyrighted, it's a glitch!)

By The Dolphin

"I spent my high school career, spit on and shoved to agree,
so I could watch all my heroes sell a car on TV.
We've got the obvious scene, we'll show 'em what we all mean."

My Chemical Romance-The Black Parade-Disenchanted

Conversational Topic #1-Projects

2007-01-13T16:07:00.000+08:00

An absolute lack of content has plagued this blog for a while, and it continues to date.
Usually, I would have an idea at the beginning of the day, only to have it lost between C programming and The purpose of a Thyristor, and would recover by evening.

However, ever since school restarted, a salvo of project demands have arrived, further hampering time and energy required to post. This set-up results in having 5 different assignments due within 168 hours, which often results in a comedic situation of calling someone at 3am and getting an answer "You too, huh?". This situation could be remedied by proper organisation. (Large, fabrication-style projects called in last, smaller, less time consuming ones earlier.)

Having a few projects myself (MTNPROJ,PEDRIVE,CKTCS,ORGCOM,Creative Writing.) Having the lighter projects done early would be a benefit, as it would be less tiring. However, last semester's lineup proves the theory is flawed, with 4 big-ticket projects, nullifying the advantage of staggered deadlines.
------
That's the first of the rant/topic posts of the year, after many complaints.

By The Dolphin

"I got to tell you that he waited all his life,
For someone like you to come make the wrong things right.
I know he didn't have the answers all the time,
But you can't tell me that you've never told a lie."

Yellowcard-Ocean Avenue-Twenty-Three

Open-Source Conversationlist.

2006-12-21T00:57:00.000+08:00

Some of you might wonder since the last update about this "Open source thingy".

To explain, I like talking, as anti-social as I may seem. Or I may actually like the sound of my voice, but that's besides the point. One of my 'abilities' that I'm proud of is the ability to converse on a wide range of topics. Some of you who have experienced this would probably know I could keep up on discussions of history, and switch to something as mundane as cooking.

This post is starting to sound boastful. However, as sort of a practice to my writing and linguistic skills, I plan to converse on a topic I come across weekly, from a conversation or anything that gets my interest.

Where did I get the name from? I just came up with it. At least this blog isn't proprietry, right?

//End of Explanation

On the personal side, I've been shopping for presents. It's going good, and I plan to finish by Friday.

Look at the price of that thing! I knew L'arc En Ciel wasn't cheap, but that's robbery!

By The Dolphin

"You can go you can walk you can run you can hide away,
then you´ll hear me say, it´s only love.
All the time that I cry that I die that I lost in you,
I´d always trust in you, it´s only love."

Groove Coverage-Cover Girl-Only Love

DevCon '06

2006-12-17T22:45:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to add this one yesterday, but I was a little tired.

Here's the blow-by-blow of the day, with pictures. Some may look pixel monster-ish, my phone camera isn't that good.

The event was held at Microsoft's premises, and to be honest, I joked this would be "Nerds:The Gathering", to choose the least profane.

A copy of Vista RC1 from the freebie bag.

View from pantry window.

Corridor to Auditorium.

The Keynote Speech was somewhat interesting, although slightly cliché with declarations of "The New Wave of computing".
The next talk I attended was one of one of Microsoft's new ideas, Microsoft Cardspace. An innovative idea in identity, although the use of the word "non-proprietry" was a contrast to the developing company, with a reputation of fierce protectiveness of their products. After that was a demonstration of Windows Vista. The demo was impressive, especially the Aero GUI. My only problem with Vista was having context-search and smart auto-file management, where does the file really reside? Another question for another time, I guess.

Lunch at the pantry, the aftermath.

The second half of the day was slightly disappointing, although the talk on creating Robotic Applications using Microsoft Robotics Studio was of great interest to me. Having selected a Robotics option in school, and having experienced a different syntax of C for every microprocessor encountered, having learn just C#, and being able to run on various platforms, make the Robotics Studio an interesting proposition. The last 2 talks/demos, one of Windows Mobile 5.0 and the other of XNA, Microsoft's gift to the small time game designer, were mediocre at best, XNA due to lack of info and WM 5.0 because I have no clue.

Overall, the planning and execution of this Convention is relatively poor, due to frequent changes to the programme, but the content of the majority of the talks has shown Microsoft's .NET framework and various software's capabilities, now and in the future.
For further pictures, my photobucket at left.

And that's it. Next entry, I'll explain about the "open-source conversationalist" thing I've come up with.

By The Dolphin

"Her eyes are open like a book,
Her fingers stroke her hair to look.
A moment feels so out of place,
Cause we're left standing in disgrace.
Paint your fingernails at night,
Style your hair in the bathroom light.
Hatred never looked this good;
Whoever thought it could?"

Lostprophets-Liberation Transmission-Can't stop, gotta date with hate

Term Test & Weekly Stuff.

2006-12-14T22:10:00.000+08:00

As of 1030 this morning, my term tests were done. Emath and PEDRIVE were complete disasters, while Orgcom, Netfund and CKTCS should hold their own.
Now being a de facto holiday period, I doubt I have much time to rest. A review-presentation of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is due, as well as preliminary designs for the Mechatronics Design Project, and some research of Letters of Request and Acknowledgement. It's pointless, but As The Great Lecturer-Liege Requests, It Shall Be So.
Having little to complain about these days, the next post would be on DEVCON 2006 (lol at DEVCON (Developer Convention) as compared with DEFCON(Defence Condition)). It's all day on Saturday, so I'll post pictures and talk about them.

By The Dolphin

"Last night I had a crazy dream,
You were everywhere it seemed.
You were filling up my soul,
Doin' everything to make me whole.
Read about you in the Sunday paper,
Saw your face on the evening news.
When I woke everything was gone,
And I remembered we were through."

Hootie & The Blowfish-Looking For Lucky-Get Out Of My Head

Starting Over.

2006-12-03T00:24:00.000+08:00

Like a recurring villain that just won't die, this blog is back, and I'm as lazy as ever. Some of you have seen my last, disasterous adventure with making a skin (I didn't know I typed the colour hex wrong at that point), so I'm heading back to a template for starters; plus all the older posts have been removed, as I felt like it.
For updating, I'll try once a week if homework permits, and if I remember it.
Life has been stressful, and study is finally beckoning to me, unlikely as it is. (Bad marks were good motivation to stop sleeping.)
My story was lost with the 20GB HDD that died with all hands, but I'll post stuff they make me write in Creative Writing if I have to type them out.

By The Dolphin.