time's busy again

mon-wed

I finally managed to get the xscale compiler working, after removing some conflicting compilers from my ubuntu OS. It's now time to learn to program this thing and to make something work. My lab people and me should be moving to our new I²R lab near kent ridge hall next week, where i would get my very own imote2 and cables to test my programmes with :)

tue-thur

Besides that, my CS2103 module has started and hahahha, the project is on sudoku. We've formed our groups. Looks like i'll have some fun time programming again! Time to revise my pointers! Managed to finish my first assignment well before time. faced a lot of error with regards to pointers. oh.. and i spent one whole night downloading visual studio.I was so desparate to increase the download speed that i was about to turn off encryption to increase download speeds :P hahaha,but ended up using dev c++ :P

thur-fri

And to add to thatt... my USP freshman camp's OGL training camp was this thurs and fri. So, i went down on thurs night to stay over at block ADM! hahah, we had fun in pulau ubin on the next day. Luckily, my OG OGLs volunteered to go back to nus to keep my sleeping bag and stuff safe :) Thanks to them, i can come back home in the evening to prepare for the BBQ and NYJC LTC training camp the next day! And this brings us to Saturday!

Sat-Sun

Went down to nyjc for ogl training. hahah, i dunno about the 'profs' (the teachers are called profs in Hogwarts theme) but i felt quite disappointed with the turnout, 2/3 of the peeps. And we had bbq later on, which was left with 4 ppl! hahah, but a bit more people came in to add to the numbers later la...and we had fun playing with the fire with liquid fuel! hahha, faw and nick added to the entertainment, painting a world of terms and concepts, faw bought the food. hahah, i was going mad calling and sms-ing him before he came over la! hahah! I should try to stop this habit of sms-ing and calling ppl like crazy when i'm in crisis-like situations. it's a newly picked up habit. Pics of the bbq are on facebook!

Laptop Battery care tips!

My laptop's battery was super spoilt at the end of a year's usage. Just a month ago, it only used to last ~2 mins under power saver mode!! my goodness... Luckily, the technician agreed to get a new one for me while i sent my laptop in for reformatting.

The problem was that i use my laptop as a desktop replacement a lot of times and as a result, it remains connected to the mains even though it is fully charged. There were a lot of websites with tips on this but this is a short one that i came across:

When using a laptop as a desktop replacement the battery should not be left in for long periods of time. The laptop will over time discharge the battery. Remove the battery,making sure that it is charged to 50% and store it in a dry, warm place. Ensure that it is wrapped protectively and nothing will be dropped on it.

The battery should be re-installed every 3-4 weeks and allowed to fully discharge. Leaving a battery in storage for longer than this without using could cause the battery to fully discharge as the circuitry of the Fujitsu battery itself consumes power.

Leaving a battery in a laptop while using an electrical outlet for long periods of time will keep the battery in a constant state of charging up and that will reduce the life cycle of the battery.

and this was taken from http://www.itsbattery.com/Fujitsu-laptop-battery/

And it is pretty much what the rest of the websites that i've come across say. I guess the macbook has some technology to stop the battery form charging when it is fully or nearly fully charged up and yet connected. But for those of us who own dumb laptops without the nerves to keep their battery healthy, these tips have the potential to extend the lifespan of the battery by months or even years :)

Marie Digby-Feel

Marie Digby, one of my fav singers, youtube phenomenon, just released a new video for a relatively new single-Feel do take a look! It's just wonderful :) Loved it from the beginning!!

Feels like I spent all this time talking to walls
Feels like I gotta let go of the way it was before
Are your really there? Are you made of stone?
Am I talking to someone or am I here all alone

[Chorus]
Are you alive, don't you feel, feel, feel?
Show me you're here, show me your tears
Don't your feel, feel, feel, feel?
Show me, hold me, speak up and tell me something
Change my mind before it's too late
Are you alive, show me you're human
Can't you feel, feel, feel, feel?

Seems like you're stuck in a daze, slipping away, away
I'm sick of trying to reach you, can't you say what's on your mind
Baby we're losing the race to far behind, behind
Tell me that I'm not the only one who can try, who can fight the wall

[Chorus]
Are you alive, don't you feel, feel, feel?
Show me you're here, show me your tears
Don't your feel, feel, feel, feel?
Show me, hold me, speak up and tell me something
Change my mind before it's too late
Are you alive, show me you're human
Can't you feel, feel, feel, feel?

Sometimes the words they don't get through
What really speaks is what you do
Open up, let me inside, just wanna find you

[Chorus]
Are you alive, are you, are you?
Show me you're here, show me your tears
Don't your feel, feel, feel, feel?
Show me, hold me, speak up and tell me something
Change my mind before it's too late
Are you alive, show me you're human
Can't you feel, feel, feel, feel?

Whoa, wake up, are you dead?

starting to get busy

Surfing on thurs was a total blast! the wind was strong frm the start, blowing towards the shore. So, we found it hard to get out into the sea. Some were just left spending their entire time on the shore. I managed to get out a bit, but not far. The technique i had been using wasn't proper and so, it wasn't good enough for me to balance in those strong winds, so i had to put both feet behind the foot of the mast (the stick supporting the sail). Managed to get some practice with this. I'm wondering whether i should go for the windsurf camp. Nah.. guess not.. it's gonna be from 21st to 23rd july. My exam is on 31st july. better be studying.

and my nose is runny now. I had to have a good supply of tissues at lab on friday. I'll be working on lab everyday next week too, except on 25th, when i have usc ogl training. And i managed to initiate some stuff for the LTC prefects group and luckily there are now ppl to help me out. Thanks nick and faw and eve and inez!

And looks like my holiday is over too, the coming week is the last week that i'm left with, before my module starts.

so much for sth so Tiny :P

had trouble waking up today. I didn't run this morning cos i didn't want to wake my parents up, my dad slept v.late :P anyway... reached lab at 11am and had a meeting with the prof and others. I got to know the ppl in my lab. They are pretty nice ppl, dependable :D but yea.. engin ppl can't really be THAT cheerful, can they?

Spent the whole damn day trying to install TinyOS into my cygwin. And when i got to the installation part, it was 6plus ald.. really felt like going home. Yup, so i didn't get to help outin rag..half my mind wanted to spend abouta hour in chatter but i couldn't find Ian's no in my hp.. got to go load it in so that it's easier to keep in touch.

Tentatively, for htis holidays, i'll be working to install sensors in the engin canteen to monitor the crowd. I havent worked out the details of it yet. Before those come in, i have to get the sensors working and play around with them to see what they can do. I'll be working with TinyOS on Gumstix and OpenCV for motion/face recognition. that's all for now! OH, i helped my mom buy a EEE pc for herself at the PC show. a pink one. so cute!

rag and ISM

helped out at rag a bit on saturday morning and then went down to the PC show with my parents... I didn't manage to run during the weekend :( Also, i'll be starting work on my ISM on monday and my module starts on 29th June. The topic of my ISM is not really decided as of now, but i'll be doing some practical work on wireless sensor applications and networks + a report.
other updates... I might be going back to india for a few days at the start of august. and i'm off to sleep now! :D busy week ahead.. I have to go figure out intel mote 2 and openCV library :P and.. next log in into facebook will be on..wednesday night! or whenever i need to reply mail..

reformatted

my laptop just got re-formatted :(
The plan for now is for me to get the apple's 13.3 inch macbook pro and this laptop will pass on to my dad. All my data is stored safely in the family harddrive (1TB!).
And I hope i can delay this till august, when i'll be able to get one from the school. That is, if the school gives a ipod touch free. or else, i'll just buy from the online store, and save up the extra 200 bucks or so. In that case, i'll be forgoing the microsoft office, which can be gotten easily and the apple's 3 years warranty for 1 year instead.. oh well... maybe it's worth the wait.. yea... but the ipod touch may change my mind about it :P

training my self discipline

okay.. after thinking and contemplating for a while, i realise that i need some more self discipline in my life. So, i'll be running every morning like i did yesterday and no facebooking. The 2nd one is easy.. my comp is going for a re-format. I'll still be checking my mails @ sch... YAY!

trying to get back to morning runs

After trying frantically for a few days, i finally managed to wake up and go down for a short run at about 6am yesterday morning :) hahah! I was supposed to go down at 530, actually, but it took some time to get myself out of bed. I ran around the neighborhood for abt 15mins before coming back to shower and go to school. But when school starts and if i have those 830 lectures... i'll have to catch a bus at 7 and that means i'll have to get up to run at...530 should be great! wow! i'll try to implement it...And i still remember the times when i used to live in yishun. I used to catch the first or second bus to nyjc to come and do my running before the flag-raising.. but it's so difficult now!!

WWDC 09

These are the essence of the updates.

Laptops:

The battery of the 17 inch macbook pro now comes to the 15 inch, together with SD card instead of the express card slot. There are price cuts for all the models of laptops air, pro, macbooks. The macbook to get the smae unremovable 7hr battery and SD card slot, new high-color display, firewire 800 port!! back-lit keyboard!!! and so, this 13-inch gets a rename to be a macbook pro too! and new intro prices: 13-inch: $1199, 15-inch:$1699, 17-inch: $2499, air:$1499

Snow Leopard: meow!

New softwares for snow leopard include a new safari, quicktime (this one is brilliant!, can now edit videos!). And the expected microsoft Exchange support integrated well into mail, ical and address book. impt thing-it requires Exchange server 2007.

$29 upgrade for leopard users!! COMPARE THAT TO THE VISTA, MAN!

available this SEPTEMBER, a month before windows 7.

iPhone:

100 new features incl: cut copy paste, work across aps, UNDO, developer API,MMS,  cocoa touch support, spotlight!, ability to rent movies from iTunes, using iphone's internet connection on computers, FindMyIphone, in-app purchase, P2P support for games, push notifications, 3MP camera with auto/tap focus & 30fps video, voice control, built-in digital campass, Accessibility suport, Nike+ support

the original iphone 3G(free software upgrade to the new OS,) is $99(8GB) 

the new iphone 3GS: $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB

prices are for AT&T with contract

coming to singapore in july 09

packed weekend!

It started to with class outing on saturday morning:

Everyone was late, but we had a hearty meal at the foodcourt and the attendence was ALMOST 100% of those invited! And throughout the day, i really regretted not bringing a camera! I didn't get tot ake any pics during the outing or the cocert later on during the day =( oh wells.. but we had the most emo class outing ever!! hahah, pics should be in fb soon :P We went to the super hot sentosa beach and walked around... played, chit-chatted. Whoa.. the not-so-active ppl are all getting more and more interesting sia! cool! And i was thinking.. we wouldn't have got to hear all those gossips if we hadn't had the enormous amounts of time we had at the beach! hahah! yea, it's all good after all. HAHA! Next time, ice-skating! hahah! I'm molten now...need to freeze back :)

and THE CONCERT! my gosh! it was superb lah! My first concert at The Esplanade (okayy.. not counting the musical) was spent with me in that majestic concert hall, AT THE FIRST ROW! my gosh! It was really wonderful la! being just in-front of the stage, looking up at each performer as they come by. And i was super excited to see my own friend perform on stage! Gosh! I think i have a lot of stage fright! I could feel the adrenelin in me when she was performing! But she was totally cool throughout her song! should be seasoned ald... And the magic show kept my eyes glued to the stage. Some girl went into a box on a trolley and disappeared!  haha! just a few meters away from me! and.. for the first time, i envy another JC for having such an excellent culture and tradition!

and windsurfing taday started off with rain.. we all had to wait for a while! and then, there were periods of strong (to me) and light and no winds. And the strong winds were really strong! can go fast =) hahah, i think i'm gonna sign up for a windsurf competition in aug. I'll be upgrading to a 4.5 or 5 meters sail next time, i'm used to 4m ald..good luck to my back :P what a weekend!

facebeeok quiz continued

ppl! i'm back to post more on the last few questions:

5)	Choose the WRONG ans: I've walked/ran from ___ to ___ WHEN THE SUN WAS DOWN I like this question! simply put, the journey between the starting and end point must be made by me, on foot, and the whole journey must take place when the sun was down! And.. you are supposed to pic the wrong one. which means i have made 4 out of these 5 journeys on foot, when the sun was down.
a)	NUS to my home in Serangoon This one was crazy, but i did it! yes! started at 12:20am and reached home after 5 hours and took a bus back. just last month! look at my facebook photos for Homegoing albums or this blog for posts titled 'homegoing' on my adventures!
b)	Esplanade to East Coast park This was was during Shears bridge run (it started at esplanade) when i missed the sunrise@east coast cos i reached east coast too fast! *sobz*
c)	NUS to Orchard Road This was what i ended up doing when i got lost. I was trying to walk home from my room in PGP.
d)	my room in PGP, NUS to Subway@ NUS   i never did this... hahah, although i love subway meals.
e)	NUS to vivocity used to be my regular running route :P

6)	Wnich of the following place have i not stepped in so far?
a)	New Zealand ref to the ques in previous post!
b)	The phillipines went there for a overseas CIP during last summer
c)	Africa, where my uncle lives for > 10 years now yes, i've never gone to africa before. He came over to india once, when i was there, so yea... but his wife and little boy are out of contact with me :( would be great if i can go there, maybe climb kilimanjaro?
d)	Jurong Island,Singapore (an industrial place) this was just to throw ppl off! I went there for some research centre open house!
e)	Japan took a module last year, last summer indeed, that brought me to japan. In fact, i've been there 2 times ald! yup!

7)	How many facebook accounts do i have? This one is a tricky ques! just one of my friend knows the ans, although she didn't do this quiz. Yup, i have a second facebook account, but i use it for testing how my friends see my wall and to adjust my privacy settings. And also to play around with block and ignore features!
a)	1
b)	2
c)	3
d)	4
e)	5

8)	Which of the following URLs is not being used by me?
a)	lyogal.blogspot.com this is mine! i chope-d the url for its nice name!
b)	1yoga1.blogspot.com   hmm, not mine. i wonder why i haven't chope-d it :P
c)	amiable-yoga106.blogspot.com this is the address of my previous blogger!
d)	y-o-g-a.blogspot.com the one you are reading now...
e)	yoga-go.blogspot.com a wierd one... but guess i thought the url was nice.. so yup, i chope-d it :D

YaY! That's all for my very tough facebook quiz. I'll go do a easier one! so that there is a nice bell curve :)

facebook quiz

okayz.. .this is a post explaining and talking about the answers for my facebook quiz. I must say that iam quite impressed with how my frens did, cos the options are really close to each other. And some may, for eg,  actually apply to the Yoga in sec sch but not Yoga in JC :P

1)	In my primary school, I _________?
a)	was in EM1 (the top stream)
b)	got into trouble 4 spoiling the projector screen
c)	got into trouble 4 spilling paint water into pond
d)	loved missing my meals
e)	never got into a fight!

Okayy.. this one was to make the entire quiz fair to my primary school frens. though it is a tough ques, even for them. Let's explore the options:

a)	was in EM1 (the top stream) well, i wasn't smart enough... hahah, still climbing up te ladder. I just came in from India, remember? I was still adjusting to the new environment and curriculum.
b)	got into trouble 4 spoiling the projector screen  yup, this happened :( and i remember everyone around my went ohhhhhorrrr! and i had to face that Mrs Bala who threatened me by telling me that i had to pay up several thousand dollars :( ended up, the news didn't even get to my parents la..
c)	got into trouble 4 spilling paint water into pond hahah, no.. but i got into trouble for spilling paint onto the toilet mirror though.. did it for fun, cos there was nobody around!
d)	loved missing my meals eh.. not yet. I was still a fat boy who loved his food.
e)	never got into a fight! nopes.. refer to the ques below.

2)	In my primary school, I ___________
a)	argued with a teacher  no... although i felt unfairly treated. Thinking back, i still do feel that i was unfairly treated :( poor me...
b)	tried to bit somebody's arm   yes i did! dun rbr why but yes i did!
c)	stayed up overnight for doing a project  nope.. i didn't =( dun remember losing much sleep in pri sch.
d)	was class monitor! hahah, no, pradeep. But i was given the 'Star Pupil' award during the last year. Got sabo-ed by class.
e)	none of the above! next!

3)	In secondary school, I ____________ (everyone HAS to get this one right)
a)	Went to Incredible Indonesia to relax!!!!!!!!!!!!!
b)	Went to Exotic Egypt for a field trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!
c)	Went to Awesome America for holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
d)	Went to Native New Zealand for a field trip!!!!!!!

Okayy. I would have ranted about the wonderful times i had in new zealand to most of the people i've met. hahah i never went to any of the other places. so, no need for much explanation here :P I was one of the lucky ones among 40 kids who got to go over for ~ a week? yup.. sec 4, i think...

4)	In secondary school, I _____________
a)	programmed a millionaire game with graphics
b)	ran 21Km with the principal
c)	never stayed overnight in school
d)	never got into detention

Ah.. this one... There was this  IT/Eng Lit/Librarian teacher in yishun town sec who was my good friend. hahah, seriously,if i were him, i would have found yoga super irritating la. but i even managed to invite his family over for my birthday once. 

a)	programmed a millionaire game with graphics hahah, that taught me BASIC language (That's actually that name of that language) He got his Amiga computer over to the library for me to do some work on the old softwares. And out of it, i cranked up a mini 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' game with questions, choices and so on. I remember that my code was super long. Well, that computer should be back in Canada now, where he was from.
b)	ran 21Km with the principal  I did run quite frequently with the principal, Mr Tan Teck Hock but nah.. it was not that long. hahah, Tricky question, eh?
c)	never stayed overnight in school This one is another tricky one. Cos i used to stay back till super late in sch. ~10pm before i went back home. To those who knew the Yoga in sec sch, would remember this and convince themselves that the security guard would have never let me stay overnight. hahah, there were actually some camps during which i stayed overnight =)
d)	never got into detention  Got into detention once, for not doing my Bio homework. But i remember that it was together with the head prefect! hahahh, funny n nice guy! it didn't affect my conduct though.. i dun remember getting a single 'good' or 'fair'  in my last few 'sems'. =P

okay folks, that's all for now! I'll do the other questions in the next post. sleepy ald! zZZz

back to running and wind-surfing!

about a week ago, my feet got scratched by some litter in the sea... now it is recovered! I finally managed to wear shoes to school yesterday! was a bit painful la, but the wound looked better afterwards. So, yup. Today, i applied some more of the oinment that the doc gave me and went down to gym at abt 330pm. did some weights training, 100 sit ups. and i tried running! hahah, the wound a bit painful again, but yup! the wound is well on its way to healing. There is the black and hard thing on top which is starting to peel off :) making way for new skin! 

I guess i'll go sign up for windsurfing too, this sunday! 

oh, and i went down to some old folks' place to help out this sunday afternoon. Quite interesting! Would love to go back again this sunday, if i dun get the windsurfing slot.

the pre-cs2103 saga

As i said earlierr on, i was about to register for cs2103 yesterday. I logged into the system which was very similiar in interface to cors(but not cors). It was weird that there were no modules for me under the 'regular' title. And in fact, cs2103 appeared when i chose 'breadth[' from the drop down menu! But i didn't realise this mistake at first and just chose the module and tried to get it. This was when another problem occured. The system didn't recognise tha ti had satisfied the pre-requisites of the module! So, there i was, on my way to school, calling up the admin manager fo the school of computing. She claimed that that have to get to my own faculty to tell them to get the registrar;s office to recognise that i had indeed satisfied the pre-reqs.

But when i finally went down intot he office of ECE to talk to them about it, they told me that a girl had just came in with the same problem.  The lady told me that i should go to the registrar;s office myself but later gave me a name in SoC to contact by e-mail. So, i sent this person an e-mail, but there was no reply for several hours. Now remember that i was in quite a hurry, since the first round lasts only for <2days. 

So, i went down to the registrar's office myself and for those who have been there before, it would have been obvious that it is not a 'walk-in' kinda place. I was lucky that it was the time for the freshmen to go into this place to submit their acceptance letter (i helped eve do tt in the morning! :) This meant that the door was unlocked for everyone! I went in, and after talking to the person in-charge of cors, i found out that he really wanted to help me (i'm yet to thank him and i should!) 

I sent him a detailed mail about what heppened and he sent it to the relavant ppl. And boom! it was okay in the morning! YaY! And now i've got the module! hahahh! went down to central library to slack and borrow a book for it.