I Want A Gearbox

Ever since, I saw the game trailer for Gears Of War (GOW) for the XBox360, I am deeply hooked on it. The concept as well as the gameplay is truely top-classed. If Halo is claimed to be THE reason why people buy XBox (which explains why Xbox is called Halobox), then GOW is the reason why people will be buying XBox360. Couple with news that Microsoft may slashed the price of their console by half when Sony roll out their Playstation3 next year, the Xbox360 will be known as Gearbox. GOW's makers, Epic Games, confirmed news that there may be a PC version of the game. But that may take too long for me plus console convert games are still not as good as the console original. And even if it is good, the hardware requirement may be staggering = money to upgrade PC. Like this, I might as well buy the console itself. Hence, I will propably wait for Xbox360 price to go down. In the meantime, you will find me standing outside those PC shops fighting with kids to play on the Xbox360 demo/display set. :p

P.S. For those eagle eyes, ya I have added the Xbox360 as one of the things to get on my desire list on the right. ^_^

Yawning On The Job

This guy is gonna get it when his superior sees this. Taken from ChannelNewsAsia website. Link here

Happy Holidays

To all my friends, Happy Holidays...

Volunteer Service @ MINDS

I join the company volunteer program today. Initially, my main motive is just to fulfill the 8 volunteer hours stipulated by my company. IN the end, I got a totally different view. The volunteer program I was in required that we visit one of the MINDS centre in Hougang. MINDS is a non-governmental organization, which takes care of the well-being of the intellectually disabled in Singapore. The focus of MINDS is to help the intellectually disabled and their families, helping the disabled to overcome their disabilities and integrate back to our society. Something which I can connect to as my aunt is suffering from down-syndrome.

For our program, each of us is assigned one of the disabled for a trip to the nearby hawker centre and Heartland mall for lunch and shopping. Although, this is quite normal for us, it is a exciting experience for those with intellectual disabilities. Upon reaching the centre, we are given a short briefing of the program follow by a tour of the centre. The centre got a main contract worth more than a million dollars from Singapore Airlines (SIA) recycling earphones used on the airline planes. They also have contracts with Popular Bookshop (pasting price tags) and various embassies (folding immigration forms). These works may be boring for an average normal person, but it is stimulating and enjoyable for them. The idea behind these is to allow the disabled to have something to occupy their time and work for an earning, rather than staying at home doing nothing. IN the process, they can learn to be independent and thus slowly be able to be integrated back to our society.

My assigned partner is Irene, who is a young chatty girl. She is quite a friendly and cheerful one but loses her focus quite easily. We have an enjoyable time and talk a lot. We walk a lot and explore the area. For people like her, they seldom have anyone to talk to other than their "colleagues" at the centre or go out alone. Everything they do and have is decided by their parents or siblings. Hence they are happy and excited when they see us and when we allowed them to make their own decision in the food to eat and the things to buy

At the end of the day, everybody had a very enjoyable time with their fellow disabled friends, where some were relunctant to see us go. As they waved and say goodbyes to us, it really bring a tear to the eye. They are so friendly, innocent and forgiving. Let's hope our society can do the same to them too. Click on first photo to see more photos

And Now The Weather Report

Hazy... The weather is really bad these days with the haze in Singapore reaching an all-time high in years. No thanks to the lack of control in forest burning in Indonesia. Just to show how bad it is, see the photos below I taken of my place in the morning.

Updated: Now my wife's right eye is infected and swell up quite badly. I also have a flu and a sore throat. This haze is making everybody sick.

Without the haze.

With the Haze. See the difference?

One Big Wireless "Hotspot"

Our Prime Minister just announce plans to implement free wireless broadband in all public areas. Although this signals a way forward for our country, I have a few concerns. Firstly almost every household have their own wireless network. How can we ensure that the network access we having currently are from the free one or our private line? On a broader view, with such a large scale implementation, there will be a lot of technical issues that need to be iron out before it can work smoothly. In addition, the large number of wireless signals in the air competing for free bandwidth as well as the number of users, I don't expect the speed will be high. Lastly, as one VR-Zone forumer points out, with the island congested with the signals from the mobile/pager network, the 3G network and so many different comms networks, not forgetting the TV and radio frequencies, we are "really bathing in coherent radiation." All these radiation more or less will have some effects on our biological and psychological health. We are really going to be in one big "hotspot".

Went Botak Today

My colleagues and I went to Botak Jones today for lunch. I saw this American food stall being recommended on Channel 8's HDB Tai Tais. When we reach there, there's a long queue for it and we were told there is a 45mins - 1 hour wait for our order. But I'm glad we waited for it. I order a giant chicken sausage set meal and when my order came. I tell you, they really meant it when they say giant. The sausage is HUGE! And the food is just like the American way, Sinful. :p We had a wonderful lunch and had a great time. It is a nice break from the tense working environment.

A Change in My Blog

After much thought, I have decided to close this blog for good...

Haha! Gotcha! Yes, there a change in my blog, name change that is. Decide to change the name to something more suitable. The idea came about when I was listening to the song, Semi-charmed life by Third Eye Blind. Felt this is more appropriate for the posts I put up here. Other than this, everything else will remain unchanged. :)

Lunch @ Equinox

Proof of "I'm There"

After slogging it out for the past few months, my colleagues and I are rewarded for our hardwork by the management with lunch at Equinox. We are very surprise and excited by the as Equinox is quite a high class restaurant. I tell you, the view up there is breath-taking. You can see the entire central business district, Esplanade and Suntec City from up there. And I thought the view I had from the balloon ride is amazing. However the lunch buffet is so-so only. Does not justify the $70 per pax charges. The food variety is quite limited and other than the foie gras, nothing special. All in all, a good relaxation from the hectic work schedule, especially coming after last week's rewards where we are given free A1200 and L6i (our project) phones by our software manager for all the effort and OTs we put in our project. Click on the photo above to see more photos of the Equinox lunch.

My New Toys From Motorola

Where's the Wood?

I like to see the mod (geek translation: modifications) people made on their casing. I came across a project by this guy who saw a section out of his Ikea cabinet so that his PC window can be viewed. Much to his as well as mine surprised when he saw the interior of the cabinet board. !!! Not even plywood, just cardboards. Imagine we are paying more for less. So better think twice when you shop at Ikea next time.

And we thought it's plywood inside

A Silly Thought

I had a silly thought that other day during my project meeting. I look at the sole of my track shoe and wonder how they come out with this design. Do they design it based on some studies on the foot movement or just design it in an artistic way? Hmmm... Hehe, yes, I was bored at the meeting :p