Went to watch Ice Age 2 with dwin, chris, zq, timo and a couple of dwin's RI friends yesterday.

Unlike Finding Nemo, Ice Age 2 doesn't really have a touching storyline, or much of a story at all. The Earth is now heating up after the ice age and the ice dam that holds back a gigantic reservoir of water is going to give way. All the animals have to head up the valley and board a boat to save themselves from the impending flood. Sounds a little like Noah's Ark. Well, of course they succeeded, but the many jokes on the way were really funny. The squirrel's determination is also worthy of respect, though it was hilarious to see the extreme measures he would go to just to get his hands on an acorn.

For those who just want a light movie with lots of laughs, Ice Age 2 fits the bill.

I don't think many people will understand this post, since it will be full of technical jargon.

Script-Fu is the scripting language used by GIMP. This allows tasks in GIMP to be automated.

Some of you may know that Sony cameras have a multi-burst mode. At least mine does. What it does is to take 16 pictures in quick succession, saving them to a single 1280*960 file, with each image having dimensions of 320*240. When played back on the camera itself or on Sony's Picture Package software, the small images will play back like a slow motion recording. I dislike having extra software on my computer, so I've never installed the picture package software. Creating animated GIF files in GIMP is easy, so I thought I'll just cut out the individual mini pictures and paste them into 16 layers and save it as an animated GIF.

This process is long and tedious. The manual method means I would have to select a 320*240 area at exactly the right coordinates 16 times. Then I would have to copy and paste it into a new layer each time. Next I would have to put in the timings in parantheses in the layer name. Actually, the last step is not really necessary as the save options allow a default value to be set, but then that would be an extra step during the save process.

So I thought I'll explore what Script-Fu can do. Using google, I found a couple of webpages giving the basics, such as where to save the script files and how to register scripts in gimp. They also mentioned the Script-Fu console and the procedure browser, both included with GIMP. The procedure browser was very useful, allowing me to find the necessary functions with minimal fuss. There were also very detailed descriptions.

In the scripts folder, I found a Selection to Image script that required no additional parameters, and contained a wonderful template for my own script. The copy and paste operations were already inside. I took quite a lot of the copy and paste code there and modified it for my own purposes. Script-Fu isn't exactly intuitive, especially with its mathematical operations and while loop condition structure, but by referring to examples, I was able to figure out how to get my block of code to loop.


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This picture seems to only work in IE with Zonealarm turned off.

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I saw an advertisement in today's Recruit section. It said:

3 sales asst needed for a camera shop. Completed NS. Experienced / without experience. Walk in interview: 304 Orchard Road, #B1-18 Lucky Plaza. Pls call: xxxxxxx Name

I called the number and the guy picked up. I asked him about the working hours, terribly long. I asked him about off day, 1 day per week. Next I asked him about the pay. He said, and I quote:

"Experienced or not?"

"No"

"Bye bye." Unquote.

I was totally shocked at his rude and unprofessional behaviour. First of all, his ad said that even those without experience can try, but as soon as I told him that he immediately wanted to end the conversation. Nor did he even try to be nice about it. He could have said something like "Sorry we want those with experience.", but he didn't even bother with that. He just said "Bye bye.", very fast, with the "I'm no longer interested, stop wasting my time." kind of tone.

I don't think I'll ever want to buy anything from that shop, even if they do treat customers in a better way. Anyway, finding the name of the shop is easy, just google the address.

Just got back from platoon cohesion at a chalet in aloha loyang. Paid $10 for a plate of beehoon and 3 sausages from the barbeque, haha. Met up with my platoon mates for the first time since I ORDed. Didn't really mix with the new guys. They're mostly poly people and we haven't worked with them for very long, so don't know them too well.

In the end we all gathered into a room and just played bridge. Clement wanted to make the loser drink vodka but none of us drink, so he left the bottle in the room. The specs were hunting high and low for it, then they finally found it with us.

It was expensive to pay $10 and eat so little food, but well, it's the company that matters.

Saw a report in the Straits Times today about the Chelsea-Fulham match, and Mourinho's reaction to it. For those who are not into soccer, what happened was that Chelsea lost, and they had a goal disallowed for handball. Mourinho's argument was that the goal should have stood because the referee didn't see the handball. He went on to say that everyone is against his team and referees will make decisions against them just because of who they are.

This is kind of like blaming the teacher for disqualifying you from the exam because you were cheating. However, since someone else ratted on you but the teacher did not witness it, you should not have been disqualified, even when there is conclusive proof of your guilt. Now just about anyone would agree with me that it is an absurd argument. After all, you cheated and got caught. It doesn't matter who caught you, you have to face the music. How can it be acceptable just because no official saw the incident?

Contrast this with Roma's midfielder Daniele de Rossi. The ball hit his hand and entered the goal. The referee gave it to him, but he went to the referee and told him it was a handball. The goal was then disallowed. This kind of action really takes true courage. It's good to see that there are still people who believe in integrity and sportsmanship, and who understand that winning isn't everything.

As the manager of a major club in the EPL, Mourinho should display better sportsmanship. If his team loses, he should accept it gracefully instead of blaming everyone around him. He should encourage his team to play sportingly and with integrity. This would set a fine example for others to follow. He would earn a lot more respect this way and give a good impression of "The Beautiful Game" to others.

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The full picture for my dusk header pic.

I've wanted to do this entry for some time, since my ORD actually, but haven't got down to it yet. When NSFs are serving, this is the ONE date they really look forward to. It is the day they get back their pink ICs and complete Singapore's unique rite of passage from boys to men.

This may seem strange, unbelievable and cliched to those still serving, but those who have completed their service may share the same feelings as me. After all, it does not seem possible that anyone can actually have some fond memories of NS. It is supposed to be a period of time when one is treated like dirt, free labour, and expected to do things that seem like superhuman feats to those who have never been through it.

Everyone starts NS by doing some form of BMT. This is the stage where everything is uncertain and your world has been turned upside down. People don't usually yell at you and punish you for every little mistake, but BMT is where it happens. Suddenly, guys who have lived in comfortable homes all their lives are expected to live in the jungle for 7 days and eat preserved food from little green packets without eating utensils. It is a time when everything is a novel experience and if you keep an open mind, life in BMT can be bearable and interesting. At this stage, the focus is on training and the real side of army life is not yet known to the recruits. This is the stage where a young and "selfish" civilian is first exposed to the meaning of teamwork and camaraderie. There is no room for selfishness here, and I think it shows the nicer side of humans when they will go out of their way to help their mates who may be struggling.

After training is complete, unit life beckons. This is the stage where we are supposed to hone our skills through first hand experience and use. At least, I suppose that is the original intention of putting us in units. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. In addition to performing duties expected from us as a result of our vocation, we did a lot of extra work that is never mentioned in recruitment talks. These range from being somewhat related to national security to tasks that are simply meant to make people look good. We were also used as odd job labourers, cleaners, technicians, carpenters, contractors etc etc. Cupboards to be moved to the bunks? Oh, let's get so-and-so company to do it. General visiting? Everyone does area cleaning. The drains are uncovered and thus dangerous as people may fall in? We'll get some people to saw up these boards and make drain covers. Large scale event? The signal platoon will handle the PA system. Permanent PA system to be moved? Oh the signal platoon will be able to rewire the system for us. Logistics inspection? We'll get the guys to shift all this stuff to another part of the camp. Commander unable/unwilling to type a report? One of the guys with better english and computer knowledge can help.

In addition to all this, there was still actual military training to keep us fit, although most of it was just to meet quotas and requirements. The rest of the time was free time, there was actually quite a lot of it, many of us brought books in to read and to enrich our minds.

While this kind of unpredictable life and physically tiring life may seem like a nightmare to some people, there were certainly happy times amidst all this drudgery. These are the times that made my NS life a lot more enjoyable and the work a lot less boring. The friendships built by the "forge" of active unit life are strong and the long hours spent together brought those in my platoon closer together. The happy times we spent in bunk discussing all manner of topics, from maths to physics to religion to computer games to literature, griping about our latest unsavoury task, dwin poking others, chris getting bullied, all these helped me get through an unpredictable 2 years in the unit. There were some who left us for "greener" pastures, but there is certainly truth to the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side." One of those who left for a clerical job told me he had the best times of his NS life with us.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I feel that what you get out of NS depends on your attitude to it. If you think it's a terrible place you desparately want to leave, if you try and skive and do as little work as possible, you may be the most relaxed and the one with the least responsibility, you may have the most afternoon nap time in your platoon, but you will also gain the least from the NS experience. It will truly be a waste of time for you.

On the other hand, if you show initiative and do a good job when assigned tasks, you will get more work and responsibility, but you will also learn the most. It's painful to see everyone else resting when you're doing work, but while it may not be obvious, you are the one getting the most out of your time in NS.

For me, NS has been a roller coaster ride. It has been an enriching and interesting experience that has taught me to push my limits and achieve more. I have also made many friends who shared this journey with me. I have met many people from all walks of life and got to observe how they work and handle subordinates. From personal experience, I know what it is like to be under superiors who do not fully consider the implications of their instructions. I have also learnt why people say "ignorance is bliss". However, this is an attitude that cannot hold in the competitive outside world.

Some may think that since I seem to love NS so much, why don't I sign on? Many issues in life cannot be expressed in the simple colours of black and white. This is one of them. I cannot say whether I liked it or hated it. There were happy times, and difficult ones. I do not consider NS a total waste of time, it has been an eye-opening experience and I do not bemoan the "loss" of my 2 years.

ORD loh!!!

I've added another dusk pic to my little store of header images. If you visit between 6pm to 8pm during an odd second, it'll display the East Coast Park one. If you visit during an even second, it'll display my new one. Refresh and see :)

Went back to camp today to collect my pink IC. Nothing has changed. I got my forms from OCPA relatively early, then went to S2 branch to get S2's signature so I could complete my clearance and collect my IC. Went up to the branch.... and the door was locked. Ok, nvm, so I went back to bunk and read through the Classified Ads which I had brought for just such an eventuality. At 9am, I went up again, a sgt said S2 will be in at around 10 am. So I went to the emart and spent the rest of my credit before going back to bunk again.

This time I finished reading and old copy of the "Today" paper and took a little nap before going down the 4 storeys of my block and up to S2 branch again. This time I was told to come back after lunch. So I went back to bunk and read the 2 latest issues of Time magazine I had brought along. By the time I had finished, it was around 1120. For our HQ company, lunch is a 1.5 hr affair starting from 12pm to 1.30 pm. During this time, the whole block will more or less shut down. It is nearly impossible to do any admin stuff during lunch time as no one will be around. Although I had expected a wait, I didn't expect such a long one, so I was already out of reading material. Instead of just sleeping for 2 hrs, I decided to the library, but popped into the branch again to see if S2 was back.

Now I was told that he was away and may not be back today. However, after a phone call, the clerk told me he would be back after lunch. Phew... or I would have made a wasted trip today. I went to the libraray anyway, and used up the final space on my card. Got back to camp around 1.15 pm and thought I'll try my luck. Naturally, the branch was locked. So I went back to bunk to find my mates again. Read a few pages of my newly borrowed book, then went back one more time to the branch. This time I caught S2 as he was walking up the stairs to his office. At long last, I managed to clear the last bit and get his signature.

Next it was down to S1 branch to collect my IC. Didn't know I had to get a few of those signatures near the bottom of the list too. Saw my BMT mate there, and whatever he asked a clerk to sign I gave to the clerk to sign too, hahaha. I totally don't know who those people are. After waiting for some time, it was my turn to get my IC. Signed a few forms, got the testimonial, IC and some info booklet. After 2 yrs and 2 mths, I've finally got my pink IC back.

As with most things in life, there's a good side and a bad side. While collecting my IC means I've finished my full time NS service, this also marks my transition to the 3% unemployed in Singapore's workforce. No more monthly pay, gotta find a job soon, if anyone knows of any openings, please inform me, haha.

Who says you can't be in 2 places at once? haha :)

I've finally got the whole list of them into a Word document. Couldn't think of any way but to do it manually. At first I tried playing a game then typing in the quotes as I researched each tech. After doing this for some time, I realised today that it's all in the built in Civilopedia. Just finished typing them all out in a nice table format.

It was already pretty crowded when I went there on Thurs. Collected lots of brochures and saw quite a few things I wish I could buy. However, most of them are either not worth the price or aren't necessary at the moment.

Checked out the Canon Powershot A530 camera. I thought it would be a nice improvement over the 510 or 520, but the flash charging time is just as long and the aperture and shutter priority modes are no longer there. There is a manual mode, but only 2 aperture options.

IT shows are not very good places to try cameras if you don't already have something in mind. It's real crowded and the display areas are totally packed. It is also likely that someone else wants to try the camera when you are still busy exploring the various options. Then you'll feel pressurised by the salesman who wants to show the other customer the product. However, they do have some superb offers. While the price may be slightly higher than at other shops, they give away LOTS of free stuff that more than makes up for the slight price difference.

In the end, I only bought some Sepom 4R photo paper. I've already printed 1 photo and it looks pretty good, much better than when I printed the same thing on plain paper. Yh bought the paper too, so we swopped packs, now each of us has 1 pack of glossy paper and 1 pack of matte paper. Not sure what the difference is though, haha. The only problem is that 4R doesn't have the same aspect ratio as a digital photo, so the edges will be cropped if I want a borderless print.

Samsung is selling laser printers for $99, if you're one of the 1st 10 customers on that day for that model. Not likely to be me. Anyway, for those who are interested, the next model only costs $169, real cheap for a laser printer. They also have a 15" LCD monitor for $299. There really are some incredible offers at this IT show.

Phillips has a very nice product, which I feel is quite overpriced. It's a digital photo display. It's like those photo frames where you put a printed photo in, except that this one is an LCD display. You can transfer your pictures in and it'll display them, it also has a slideshow feature. It can last 2 hours on its battery, but can also be powered with an AC adapter. However, it costs $399, which I feel is quite steep for a little LCD screen. Oh and it also has a 170 deg viewing angle, pretty good.

Went again on Saturday, before going for the performance again. Actually I went with yh to see what the coordinator post the Picture Me shop at Suntec was about. Unfortunately they were looking for females, so too bad. Since I had some time to spare we went to the IT show again.

Thanks to Chee Hui's tip, I managed to find Chris selling Dopods at his booth this time. Business seems pretty slow at his corner.

There was a massive human traffic jam at the overhead bridge leading to CityLink mall, it took me 15 mins just to cross over. The escalators on both sides were all stopped, and there were people walking up the down escalator on the other end. Terrible.... no wonder the bridge was so crowded. It would probably have been much smoother if they just kept to the correct side.

Finally got my FFIs done, after 2 postponements. At least we were informed the 2nd time round so we didn't make a wasted trip. The waiting time was quite long, although the actual examination was very short.

After the FFIs, I had to rush off to Kallang Theatre, where I'm doing backstage work for a performance of Ali Baba and the 21 thieves by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan. It's quite an interesting experience, although all I'm doing is the projected backdrop, so I just press N to advance to the next powerpoint slide. The pictures were all provided, but I had to crop out the black bars and resize them to fit the powerpoint.

So far, 2 performances are over, and the last one is on Sunday, which is today actually. It's pretty tiring and I can't see much of the show from my backstage angle, but this is a really interesting point of view to watch a performance from.

Yup, that's why I've been coming back so late for the past few days. Been bugging my dad to let me have the car but he still won't, haha.

Check out this strange bird that flew past my window :)

My dad was trying to use depth of field to really make a subject stand out. For those who don't know, this is the technique where the subject is made to stand out by keeping it in sharp focus while the background is blurred. This prevents the background clutter from drawing attention away from the subject.

Unfortunately, my little point and shoot camera couldn't quite do it. Although the aperture was already at its largest setting, the background was still relatively clear. Here's the original pic.


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After some editing in GIMP, which simply involved selecting the bird out then blurring the background, I get the picture below.


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The background is now nicely blurred while the bird remains in focus. I also did another one without the string, but that one looks fake because the bird then appears to be defying gravity.


Irritatingly, blogspot's photo upload isn't working at the moment so I've probably wasted more space uploading pics which I can't access and can't delete because they don't offer any image management tools.

Just went cycling with some of my platoon mates at East Coast Park. I think this is the first time I'm exercising since I did SOC in January. We started off near the Macs and cycled all the way to the airport runway near the SAFRA resort. The group who went faster managed to reach SFT. It's great to finally get some exercise, especially as it's in such a nice environment. This definitely beats running circles around camp. Kev got a lot of exercise too, haha, he skated all the way with us, though ch and I pulled him along for some parts, or else he would have been left far far behind.

After that we went for dinner at parkway food court. Like all good democracies, we couldn't make up our minds on where to go for dinner, but finally decided on that food court, mainly because it had air-con. We were all quite hot after the long ride.

After getting home, dwin asked me a maths qn, not because he doesn't know how to do it, but just to let me try. Sadly, my maths is getting really rusty and it took me a long time and lots of hints from zq to work this one out.

The question was first to find a nice simplified expression for 1/(1*2) + 1/(2*3) + 1/(3*4) +...
Each term is basically 1/[n(n+1)] which is 1/n - 1/(n+1). When it is all summed up, all the intermediate terms conveniently cancel out, leaving 1 - 1/(n+1).

Ok, so that's part 1. Part 2 is to find the sum of 2/(1*2*3) + 2/(2*3*4) + 2/(3*4*5) +...+2/(1997*1998*1999) + 2/(1998*1999*2000).

My first instinct was to write a program to solve it. After all, there's an obvious pattern and the number of terms are finite. In Java, the exact code would be

double sum=0;
double n=1;
for (n=n;n<1998;n++) {
sum += 2/(n*(n+1)*(n+2));
}
System.out.println(sum);

and in a couple of seconds, the program will compile and give you the answer. How wonderful.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's what they were looking for. The examiners would probably want a nice answer in a very precise fraction, and I wouldn't have my java compiler in a maths exam.

After many hints from zq (ok he basically told me the answer), I figured out that I shouldn't split it fully into partial fractions, but instead express it as 1/n(1/(n+1) - 1/(n+2)). The 2 can be multiplied back later.

This gives 2 * sigma[n=1,1998] {1/n - 1/(n+1)} - sigma[n=1,1998] {1/n - 1/(n+2)}. The 2 in the second term cancels out the denominator you would get by splitting 1/[n(n+2)].

If you write out a few terms for each sigma bit, you would realise that the terms cancel out. The first one is an exact duplicate of the 1st part of the question, so you get 2*(1-1/1999).

The 2nd halfway is a little trickier, but nearly all terms still cancel out, leaving (1+1/2-1/2000).
Thus the final expression is 2*(1 - 1/1999) - (1 + 1/2 - 1/2000).

Simplified, it gives 1/2 - 2/1999 + 1/2000.

While this answer is very close to the one I got from my java program, it's not exactly the same. Shall have to ask dwin if the discrepancy is due to rounding errors or maybe my answer is wrong. If anyone finds any errors, please inform me, thanks.

For those who want to know, the answer given by my java prog is 0.49999974962456195.
Calculating a decimal number from the fractional expression in java gives 0.499499499749875.
So the difference is 0.00050024987468695.

Went to a chalet for William's bday party cum ORD celebration yesterday. Thought I would be later than my class but surprisingly I managed to get there before them. Apparently they got lost on the way.

DC and Yim brought along a very sophisticated sound system. It's better than the PA system I used in camp. They even brought a wireless mike, which was very useful when William gave his bday speech. Luckily they kept it down, or everyone would have been partially deaf by the time they left. Also got to play around with his canon SLR. It really opens up so many possibilities as compared to my little Sony DSC-S40. All the settings can be manually adjusted, so artistic effects are much easier to achieve. Went for a walk along the boardwalk to find subject matter for photos. It was fun to adjust settings manually instead of relying on auto modes to do everything. However, no matter how good the camera is, the composition of the shot is still much more important.

Had a good time catching up with my JC classmates again. William's bday speech was very humorous, as he went through the various stages of his life, highlighting some events that made it memorable, like my class' constant bridge playing, haha.

Happy Birthday William, and thanks for a great party!!

I seemed to have spent quite some time this week designing stuff for people. Chee Hui was so taken with the plane picture that he wanted to use it for his blog's header, haha. Since the original had the wrong aspect ratio, I did another one for him with the files saved from Timo's project. Luckily he isn't as picky as Timo, only requesting me to shorten the pic 3 times as he had estimated the length wrongly. You can see it at his blog here. Hope you like your new header!!

Tweaked the template again. There are now 4 header files for morning, noon, dusk and night. They'll change according to the time of day, so come back and visit at different times to see the different headers, haha.

FFI timing has finally been confirmed, at least for now. It's next friday, hope there won't be any last minute screw ups this time, my ORD date is coming up.

The previous pic looked too much like a neon sign taken off a Las Vegas hotel, so I copied tlc's example and I'm now using a picture as a header instead. Still doesn't look as good as his, maybe because it's too thick, I'll see if i can find more pics and make more, then can put in a random header function too.

Timo wanted me to design a template for his "Under Construction" webpages. He wasn't happy with my first effort, which was a photo of some scaffolding with some words across the top. Dwin gave me the idea of using a plane then some caption like "Launching soon", so I found this toy plane in my house, then took a picture of it as well as picture of the road I can see from my house.

It took a long time to select the plane out from the background then paste it onto the road picture, but it looked too fake as the plane gave the impression of hanging in mid-air, so I drew in the shadow using a technique I just learnt from a photoshop book. I got the shape of the shadow by shining a light onto the plane and trying to copy its shape.

After all this painstaking work, he told me the plane looked too dirty. haha, the plane is over 10 years old, of course there'll be a bit of dirt on it. But noooo, Timo wanted it to have a fresh coat of paint, so I used the Clone tool and tried to clean up the black spots without making it look too fake. I spent most of my afternoon doing this whole thing and finally got the following picture.



The plane now looks like it's on the ground and the half torn sticker can't be seen anymore.

After ALL this work, he tells me he doesn't look this design and sends me some sunrise pictures, so I spent the evening doing another one for him. He dictated all the text and positionings himself, then at the end of it, he said it didn't look nice, but that wasn't even the end of it. After wasting most of my day doing pictures for him, he did his own with PowerPoint, then complained that when he saved as jpg, it looked blur, so now he wants me to replicate his PowerPoint slide as a jpg using GIMP!!! Personally I liked the sunrise pictures better than his creation. And after all his talk about catchy slogans, his final one was a plain and simple "Work in Progress". grrr, I would have used that if he hadn't told me to find some subtle and profound phrase with double meanings.

So to all my platoon mates, if Timo asks you to do something, please think twice or you'll end up spending your whole day making endless changes to your work. haha. For another case study on working with Timo, refer to Dwin :)