Saturday, March 29, 2008
ACJC Fun-O-Rama
Today I had the chance of going to the ACJC Fun-O-Rama fund rasing event. It's a bi-annual ACJC thing and this is probably my 3rd time here. The stalls are rather standard though, same layout, not much difference in games and food offered. Still a family-oriented event.
I was here before for the first time when my seniors invited me, the second time was when my peers invited me, now I am here for my sibling! haha.
Anyway, this new stall really caught my eye, talk about uniqueness from Kenny Rogers! It's a whole cow being roasted! Oh man.
The annual all-time favourite. The dunking machine to dunk your favourite love/hated teachers.
Now this is amazing. I don't know how the ACJC peeps managed to get this deal or this quotation, but they managed to get a full-fledge Ford GT supercar here on display!
I am too old to play any of the games, but it was an interesting day though.
Posted by MK at 3:32 PM
Friday, March 28, 2008
Watercooling all over again
Warning - This is a tech-intensive/watercooling-specific entryToday I had the chance to go to SLS/SLT to pick up a few components here and there for another project I am working on, at least with this trip today, I am able to keep my mind occupied and happy without dwelling on my uni applications.
I spent some time walking around SLT for a while because I just miss this place! I miss all the garage junk at Kaichin where my imagination and wild creative juices can really run free. Plus most of the shops have changed but I found some really powerful 120mm fans with high cfm being sold there! Oh man! I can really put those into my next computer system, especially those 200mm 25W fans!
After SLT, I scoured SLS in search of several highly specific components that none of the usual shops offered. Because of all the searching, I found 2 interesting shops worthy of mention.
Apparently Skylet stocks full Swiftech and thermaltake watercooling kits and parts, but all at exorbitant prices. The MCW60 gpu waterblock was going at $99! The MCP655 pump was at a staggering $149! The copper gpu ramsinks was going at $39!!! Insane.
Never mind about that, I saw a shop at level 3 selling the Swiftech H2O-220 Compact liquid-cooling system and the Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra Plus, going at $499!!! It only has a 2x120mm MCR-220 radiator, some clear tubing, MCP655 Pump, Apogee CPU Water-block, MCRES Micro Reservoir, Smatcoil, Hydrx coolant, and mounting accessories. It doesn't even have the gpu and chipset blocks. Is that worth $500?! Still its interesting to see shops at sls other than stuck-up Uvnium offering watercooling kits.
Another shop was at level 3, PCThemes and that shop was selling all sorts of PSUs! ALL the way to ThermalTake Toughpower 1500W!! And to think 1000W, 1200W are complete killers, here I see a 1500W one. Really very very interesting. I can think of all sorts of crazy ideas for my next rig.
Talking about my next computer system, here's a minor update about my current rig. The Thermaltake setup was pretty easy to do, but the high-flow Z-pattern of the waterblock offers really lousy performance, I have managed to keep my temps below 50-degsC because of my semi-custom reservoir setup but I've hit a overclocking wall of 3.8Ghz. I am pretty happy with the 3Ghz plus speeds, but disappointed I am unable to go any further. Plus I am displeased with the DD Maze4, it can't take the extra overclocking heat from my 8800GT and now it's all screwy and temps are hitting the sky.
Maybe if I have free time tomorrow or sometime next week, I'll be bleeding my system and taking out my gpu and re-lapping my maze4 gpu block, but what a hassle that would be! I suspect it's got bad contact with the gpu die or else I wouldn't be getting such lousy temperatures. If it still doesn't work, then DD Maze 4 really sucks! I think my experience with DD has been lousy so far.
It's my first water-cooling setup, and I've learnt a hell lot! I am totally against pre-made kits now. The DD Maze4 really sucks man, can't even keep my gpu cool under load. Now I've learned my lesson. Next blocks I'll be going for will be EK fullfaced water blocks for my GPUs
Never mind about all that talk now. I have no money to build the rig anyway. I'll just bleed my system and maintain my 8800GT for now, hopefully that works.
Tomorrow is 29th March 29, 2008, Earth hour is from 8-9pm, and my computer will be off during that period.
Posted by MK at 9:57 PM
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
I didn't get it
I am waiting for several pieces of news, so far it has been bad.Airborne: Rejected
Duke : Rejected
XXXXXXXX XXXXXX : Pending
XXXXXXX: Pending
XXXX : Pending
XXXX : Pending
Both rejection letters were one of the most beautifully and meticulously crafted go-to-hell letters I've ever received saying that you were outstanding and your applications were impressive, BUT or HOWEVER or UNFORTUNATELY, due to...
Commandos were involved in the damn Mas Selamat hunt and the instructors were not available to take any external candidates, because of that, there will be no external candidate participation for this batch. I am so seriously disappointed.
Duke said that 20,500 applicants applied for 1,630 slots.
Am I going to receive another 4 more disappointments?
Posted by MK at 12:14 PM
Sunday, March 23, 2008
For those who play or have played the game "Crysis", I am very sure you built your own gaming rig in an effort to play this demanding game.You will find this video really funny.
Zero Punctuation
Posted by MK at 7:21 PM
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Interview with Yale ASC Alumni
I went for an interview with Yale's local asc today. Basically it’s part of the applications for entry into Yale, an procedural interview with prospective students seeking entry into Yale.The interview was arranged as a meeting at a common F&B locale, and that itself was not highly unusual and the interview was a rather informal one, in front of a coffee shop. It was okay, considering this place was in the heart of the CBD.
I was present at the location early, and I had gone there expecting to be grilled but what I received was a man who was 10minutes late! That was okay, but my interviewer didn't even know anything about me! I always expect the interviewer of this sort to be a person in position and has gone through a portfolio of me all ready to ask questions.
But what I got was that he knew zilch, and asked even the most basic of questions like my last school of study. He didn't impress on sight, asked very basic mundane questions, dressed in simple striped office shirt toting a briefcase and an umbrella.
So this is a graduand of Yale? Apparently later he said he has a PhD as well. A PhD holder working in CBD? A office pencil pusher? Some PhD eh..
After asking me some basic questions, he went on about how hard it is to get into Yale, and that maybe NUS is not such a bad place, he ended up telling me what to do! Plus he said why choose Yale? Did you look at the other universities? Yale is a more liberal arts school, are you a liberal arts kind of person? Plus he had that condescending maybe-you're-not-good-enough to get into Yale because-i-am-from-Yale tone. He was telling me, with my academic interests I should do a post-grad studies for my field of study as undergrad level is pretty shallow. All I could really make out is that he doesn't really think I'll qualify for Yale. After 30 minutes, my impression of him went from bad to worse, I mean what kind of interview is this?!
I don't even really even want to go to Yale, just wanna go to cmu. From the looks of it, Yale and Cornell will be rejecting my applications soon. But I am already half expecting that. Did I truly think that I can get into the top 10 universities in the world?
Sigh. I don’t need someone to tell me I am not good enough.
Posted by MK at 10:42 PM
Thursday, March 20, 2008
MK2008 worklog
My new rig worklog is up! I've posted almost-step-by-step photos on how I worked on my new computer. And feel free to comment! Idea's generated could go into my next project. =)VRzone Forums
You can either view it at that forum above.
Or download the pdf file here.
MOD2008 Worklog
Special thanks to YKL for helping me host the file.
Posted by MK at 11:23 AM
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
AIRBORNE!!!
Today is one of the days where you go "why did I ask for this" kind-of-days.. Today I went for my Airborne selection at Hendon Camp. (Home of the commandos), where we were put through a fast-and-furious pace of several physical tests. It's basically the first physical fitness test to weed out the weaker ones and though I was physically psyched up, mentally I wasn't.The test was quite insane, we were fighting with the commandos, Gurkhas and NDU for places, the fittest of the fittest in the SAF inventory and the moment you fail one station, you're out. The requirements weren't hard, the standard sit-ups, push-ups, chin-ups and a 2.4km run, but everything to be done in full combat attire, the Long-4. Not the PT-kit that you're all accustomed with when training. It was crazy, we were competing with other commandos, NDU and Gurkhas, and the Gurkhas are like Ferrari's with legs.
By the time I had finished the run, I was completely exhausted, I remember a long long time ago I came here for the commandos selection, I breezed through the physical tests, but I didn't make it because I was myopic, but that was a good thing too, I am now not doing so bad in the Airforce. But that was almost 5 over years ago, when I was still young and energetic. Now I am old! And slow! Too much paper work and pushing pencils in the office has made me weak and to think all these people here are the best of the best from their respective units that's why their respective units have pushed them for this Airborne course.
This physical test today for the Airborne selection was just completely exhaustive. There's this aura of decrepit sense of "toughness", like the air was harder to breathe, the 2.4km route was definitely longer and all the commandos around me looked as if bullets will bounce off their torso. Don't get me wrong, not everyone were commandos, but everyone represented a high level of fitness from their respective units to even be able to get here today, but people were dropping like flies at all the static stations.
Though the requirements weren't tough, the method of testing was harsh and grueling. You gotta do ultra-standard-commando-style chin-ups and push-ups, (cut my everyday regime by half and you got an idea), and every time you do barely right, the instructors will go "NO COUNT!!", straighten arms and everything else..
The minimum requirement for the 2.4km plus run was 12.30mins. I barely made it below 12mins, guess the long-4 really restricted aerobic movement. However many clocked below 11mins or so, those people here must be clocking under 8 or 9 minutes for their regular IPPT 2.4km timings.
People back in my unit I am one of the fitter ones, but after coming to Hendon I am but a mere weakling! How disappointed they will be or even think if I told them I didn't make it! 8 in my whole unit applied, 4 got it, 2 failed the selection, 2 more to go. That's just me and another one of my guys representing my unit for this Airborne. 4 of us came here, only 2 made it for the first round of selection.
After this, priority will go to the commandos, NDU and Gurkhas, then only 40 slots will be allocated for the rest of us, mainly almost a hundred of us, ½ of us will be kicked out first, then they will look at the scores and select the 40 fittest. Of all of us that applied, the 192nd Airborne, only 40 will get in, and out of this 40, not everyone will pass the course and get the coveted badge.
I used to think the Airborne badge was the easiest to get compared with the Jungle Survival and the Combat Skill Badge. Now I think otherwise, the number of hurdles and obstacles we have to get through was taxing enough, definitely done to weed out the weaker ones.
When I was running the 2.4km+ route, I was wondering, I am so close to ord, why do I want to put myself through this?! Isn't it just a jump!? Okay, that was wishful thinking, the Airborne badge is really a prestigious thing, just how many NSFs can even dream of getting it?
Can you imagine if you are considered fit enough and good enough in your unit to be considered for the Airborne, then once you're here you find out that you're not cut up enough for it? The people here are damn fit. If you think I was fit, oh man you should see the people here at Hendon, they're aren't really human. The commandos, NDU and Gurkhas are really tough.
If I hadn't spent all my time in unit pushing pencils and paper, maybe I would have stood the slightest chance.
I have gotten through the first level of selection, only 2 left in my whole unit! If we don't get in man, we've got no face. We've got a reputation to live up to man. The commandos of the army are here, the commandos of the Navy are here, so are the police, and I am an ADA! Commandos of the Air-force, are we not good enough for the real commandos!
If I get in, hooray, 3 weeks of training, being whacked left-right-and-centre all over again. If I don't oh well. I don't think its because I wasn't fit enough, more like I was lucky enough to get into the 40 slots allocated. This will well be the epitome of my physical fitness in the 2 years of my NS cycle. The summation of my physical fitness all tested today.
But the people here are really fit. Commandos man! It's Hendon camp all over again.
Completely exhausted now. Sigh. Discouraging day.
Posted by MK at 3:28 PM
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Visit to the museum
Today after duty, my parents and I went to the Singapore National museum where the Greek masterpieces from the renowned Louvre museum, Paris were on display. It was a very informative and interesting visit and I took lots of photos!
Presented for the first time in Southeast Asia, some 130 exquisite pieces of marble sculptures, terracotta figurines and gold jewelry from the 5th to the 1st Centuries BC will bring to life the story of Athens.
There was this interesting giant led/fibre optic display at the main hall... Was a hit attraction with the families...
After the Greek gallery, we headed to the Singapore History Gallery, where it was basically a long path going through Singapore's roots to where we are now, from the founding of Temasek, to the growing up years, to WW2 and the dark ages of the Japanese occupation, to post-war independence to industrialization to the city that we are now today.
We were given this really cool full-screen audio-companion that would talk to us like a guide throughout the whole tour, and you can choose what you want to listen to wherever, whenever.
This picture may seem nice, but it's without flash! Ultra-long exposure of 15-seconds, ISO-800.
Old Japanese machine-gun
I didn't have a flash diffuser with me, so the flash was kinda irritating.
It was all a very unique learning experience, and what surprised me was that even on this weekday, there was still a significant number of people visiting this museum! Families, parents, children, other students etc. It was not like it was crowded or anything, but it was not as devoid of people as I thought, and the whole place has been renovated and retrofitted with advanced exhibits, not like perplexing audio-interactive exhibits, but more like subtle audio-companion, visually stimulating exhibits, wide exhibition area and subtle warm lighting.
Exhibits on yesterday's heyday cameras for all you camera buffs out there!
The damn flash again, anyway without a tripod, it was impossible for me to take this on long-exposure and even high-ISO, low aperture modes were a problem, so the flash was a better choice. This is a picture of a portable out-door camera in the 50's.
Textiles and linen in those days..
I thought this pair of shoes were pretty cool in the contempory section. You probably didn't notice it, the next shot shows the support on macro.
Cool little legs supporting the shoe!!
We also visited other small galleries showcasing other unique Singaporean signatures, like fashion in the 50s to the 70s, film, theatre and the arts and Singaporean signature foods like laksa, satay, mee pok, hainanese chicken rice and “tuk-tuk” cakes.
Lunch was a splendid fare at Novus, a small café-restaurant in the museum.
Pumpkin soup.
smoked-cajun chicken in wholemeal bread.
Coffee Frappe.
Can't help but take a pic with the wine cellar.
I had a pleasantly-tasting Cajun chicken sandwich and a chocolate coffee frappe. I feel so much like a socialite today! Visiting expensive areas with no time-limit imposed, just genuinely relaxing and visiting interesting exhibits at our own leisure and indulging in a nice pleasant lunch.
The last exhibit at the main entrance was a hit with children and families, mainly magnetic utensils stuck onto a metal wall.
Thats the end for today. =)
Posted by MK at 9:52 PM
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Airborne here I come!
I had a fitful sleep, tossing and turning in bed, though I was exhausted and tired, I couldn't fall asleep. I had a weird disturbing dream, and the weather just got more and more chilly.I think now that my new water-cooled computer is finally up and running, there isn't much I can do about it now. It's almost permanent and will be a real hassle if I were to change parts. Except for the hard-drives and ram though. Since computer parts constantly change and prices drop so fast, I think it's too expensive and time-consuming to just keep upgrading. Since parts now need to be complimented, I had to actually get a new motherboard just to accommodate my 8800GT graphics card and a new processor along with it. So guess this rig will be permanent for now.
The performance of my rig has been disappointing. Yes, I managed to clock to 3.8Ghz, but anything above that was quite unstable. I don't dare to push my Vcore above 1.4v, and I think the 8800GT DD Maze4 water-block cannot conduct heat away effectively, maybe the internals have already corroded, but I doubt it's the connection between the copper and the chip, since the board is already starting to warp, it's got Artic-Silver5 and the w/b is lapped. Just a little bit of over-clocking and temps hit 70 plus again, the 8800GT is also unstable at 750mhz, 1100mhz for the rams and 1700Mhz for shaders. Anything below that was fine, but temps hit sky-high.
Or maybe it's just my single-120mm radiator being unable to take the extra heat-load. I added blue-ice, managed to bring the reservoir temperature down to 25 degrees with max-fan speeds and got my final 3Dmark06 score of 15k+. 2Gb Crucial BallistiX PC-8500 rams running at 4-4-4-12 latencies.
Performance is so-so, looks like it'll be like that for now. If I go overseas to study, I won't be working on another rig till 4 years from now. Sigh. Looks like I've hit my thermal wall even with blue-ice. But I am starting to design my next new rig! The idea is still conceptual for now. My idea is to use the vortex reservoir as the centre of a swirling “volcano”, topped up with a small-form factor fan on the top to give the effect of flames, behind the volcano reservoir will be the 3x120mm radiator, also with crepe paper and red-orange illumination to give the effect of flames. All components will be fully water-cooled, the casing sprayed granite-grey, with black, and red-orange streaks to give the effect of lava.
Clay and silicone will be used to make the effect of solid rock, and of course with fading moving-leds below to give the effect of flowing molten lava. The internals of the casing will feature a chilled-water reservoir to be pumped to the CPU and SLi GPUs, it will be illuminated red, and there will be flickering flame bulbs to give the illusion that the casing is on fire inside. How exciting! If I stay in Singapore and study, then I'll go about making this grand new volcano rig.
If I go overseas to study, “hopefully”, then I won't be making a new rig for another 4 years. But a lot of things will change from now and it's hard to say for now. But this is an idea I am quite excited to work on as a really cool project.
I envision all the top-notch parts will cost at least a cool $3000 now, not including the water-cooling parts and delivery, plus all the extra stuff like switches, bulbs, clay, leds, custom reservoir, and stuff. Probably at least another $1-2k. Total $5k? Seems reasonable. But with $5k I can buy 2 JetCat turbo-jet engines and a bicycle now that would be really cool as well!
The day was relatively relaxed, I took my own sweet time to go to Plab from home, and apparently one of my understudy's screwed up the morning, it wasn't really his fault though, just that he didn't handle it very smoothly or effectively and the tonner left camp after 7am. Because of that I was slightly implicated. Never-mind about that, it's a small thing that I shouldn't dwell on, but naturally someone up there was only concerned about covering his own ass.
I didn't do anything at today since the new officers were taking over, so I just sat there supervising the whole thing, in other words, merely watching the guys do their training and only intervening if something went wrong. Which came soon enough, today's operation had a slight twist, some of the guys needed to go back to camp and the initial plan was to utilize 2 civilian vehicles.
The problem is that we have over a dozen people to move, and that wasn't feasible so I intervened and got the tonner to go back to camp instead. Why must I be the one making all the decisions? But its good to make firm decisions and get the thing done fast. The rest was a breeze and after that I was told that only 3 out of 5 of us we selected for the Airborne course. The MO certified us fit for that course and that was a relief.
Airborne here I come!
Posted by MK at 9:14 AM
Sunday, March 9, 2008
American-Centric video
I've got this video to share, introduced to me courtesy of Eun =)It's a video satirizing the American-centric warfare from WW2 to Iraq, see if you can spot the relevancies, such as the kamikazi sushi, to the 9-11 tower attacks, to war in iraq and IEDs. =) Why hamburgers? It's an American icon. You must have a very open inferential mindset to perceive this.
The person who drew it is very free man...
Posted by MK at 8:28 PM
Saturday, March 8, 2008
ITfair 2008 and new rig updates
Despite knowing what to expect, I went to the ITfair 2008 at Suntec, and braved the crowds. This year's crowds was far denser than previous years, but of course, with prior preparation and research on the floorplan, the positions of the booths, it was a very simple mission. A quick-in-and-out precision bombing.Get in, get the stuff, get out.
So from SLS I finally managed to get the final stuff to complete my new rig! Whoo!
Got 2 x 1Gb Crucial Ballistix PC-8500 ram, OCZ XTC cooler and 2 x Ace UV chipset coolers. Plus a 4x4 super-bright led array to mod my reservoir.
Plus managed to get my much-wanted Skythe Kamameter and got the Microsoft Reclusa keyboard from the ITfair.
It's a pity that I couldn't get the Razer Diamondback 3G because it was all sold out, no doubt geeks like me have rushed to get it on the first day, oh well, I'll just use my Razer ProClick 1.6 for now.
The nice blue glow of the Reclusa, made in conjunction with Razer.
My new twin BallistiX PC-8500 Rams!
Fitted the new OCZ XTC ram cooler, and hooked it up to my Skythe Kamameter.
My all-new updated rig with the new Kamameter!
UV-glowing interior.
Side shot.
The meter shows fan-speeds and temperatures of up to 4 fans and temperature probes.
Together with the white-glow with my Leds installed into the reservoir. =)
Happy.
