print purge

The Canon Pixma IP4200 printer finally died. It had 1.5 years of refilling and 2 years being hooked up to a continuous ink system. I liked it because of the duplex and disc printing value adds. Though I think having a CIS killed it because we lost track of how much we were printing apart from the signs of dying - squeaky noise and skipping lines.

However, before that I had the pleasure of a chance meeting with a friend. With a few dollars of print credit left and the intriguing option of transparencies, something interesting was produced.

But alas, the print quality wasn't all that great. It would probably be a good enough distraction if stuck on a car window.

I thought that the combo of Canon inkjet and CIS has been a good compromise so I got the Pixma IP4700 printer from MSY and another CIS from Rihac in Ascot Vale. Due to my negligence, some time was wasted by walking in the wrong direction from Ascot Vale station.

From Life is a series of distractions

The nozzle count has increased - there's an extra row of stuff on the print head as well as the nozzle check printout. It's faster and a little quieter, otherwise very much the same winning formula. There's a bit of an oddity where it doesn't keep the silicon tubing straight and bludgeons it into the cavity for printhead storage when it's doing a print run. The noise isn't nice but it straightens up after a sheet. Hopefully resticking the arm will help with that.

Anyway, the more interesting part is trying to flog off the old CIS kit, which is perfectly operable.
I didn't have high hopes when I saw the condition of the refilled cartridges at a family friend's.

From Life is a series of distractions

Though the photo doesn't show it well, the colours are way off and virtually dry. However it turned out to be completely fine and produced a pass in the nozzle check.

From Life is a series of distractions

Quite a robust printer.

expectations

After coming back from an evening with extended family, I have been made more aware of my own expectations. I do expect people to keep their word, though it seems less and less likely to occur nowadays. Having an 'evening' blow out by 500% of the expected value to conclude at 4AM is something I frown upon.

Though it was a totally new experience, I don't believe that I am much for the better having undertaken it. Christmas light displays, McDonalds after midnight and Kings pool and arcade gaming machines among others. They seem like poor excuses to stay up for the sake of staying up and spending money recklessly (my own arbitrary definition).

This kind of lifestyle doesn't appear to give any indication of being able to look after oneself well and also lacks discipline.

I do hope to experience something 'else' while on exchange, free from the constraints of life in Melbourne whether it be distance/transport or family, however, I hope I don't have to compromise values that I feel are important. Some things will probably just be reinforced, such as my non-mainstream or non-existent sense of fun.

There is the chance that I might find myself completely at home in that everything is work and fun doesn't exist. Or it might be that fun is for work or work purposes at least - even in the slightest manner for making new business contacts. Shit, my great uncle just spoke in his sleep. Scary because I didn't turn on any of the lights and he's in the lounge room.

Anyway, I'll get around to addressing other topics as they come up. Hehe that means making a list like yours Sam!

Overseas banking/Evolution and Christianity reconciled over 100 years ago?

Comparative Student 'going-away' banking
	NAB	CBA	WBC	ANZ	SGB	HSBC	Market
Monthly fee	-100 (0)	0	0	3	0	0
Card provider	VISA	MC	MC	VISA	VISA	EFT only
Card Overseas
Pay for something	2%	$1+2%	3%		2.50%	$1+1.1%
Cash withdrawal	$4+2%	$5+2%	$5+3%	$5+3%	$5+2.5%	$4.5+1.1%
Telegraphic
Rates 10/12/09	6.9323	6.9216				7.0228	7.0559
Fee	22	22				20

I suppose the card fees are not that useful without their respective foreign currency exchange rates. Plus at each branch they said it's not available until you see the entry on your statement. Lame.

Anyway, recently I read Dawkins' God: Genes, memes, and the meaning of life by Alister McGrath - a professor of historical theology at Oxford University. It does seem like it's more about bashing Dawkins' bashing religion rather than putting forward religion but anyway... here's some of the points I took out:

1. Various people in history were to blame for the ills of religion and anti-religion - not the movements as a whole (yeah, people always screw up things... take humans out of the system and it'd be fine)
   
2. religion needs to keep changing with the times and McGrath says that the modern church is compatible with natural science (but where to stop with the picking and choosing/reinterpretation to fit?)
3. In Victorian England, people were turned off Christianity because of the idea of everlasting hell
4. In 1887, a few decades after Darwin, the Bishops of Carlisle, Bedford and Manchester said natural science was okay with religion - it's in the same sphere but in different planes or so. (But people can't agree so we've still got sentiment against evolution...)
5. People can rationalise many things into others... Shoehorning as it were. eg Benjamin Warfield thought that biological evolution was quite magnificent and so it must've been guided by devine providence.
6. Some stuff is unexplainable and does not need explanation - just leave it. (Well that's what I do when I'm lazy and my circuit or code just happens to work after a while.)

Still, an interesting response to Dawkins' stuff.

Luggage expedition - end of Target Box Hill

My dad wanted to buy the Tosca one from Harris Scarfe for $119 but I thought that even that 'special' price was a little too high for my usage patterns. We went around to two other smaller stores but the prices were quite ordinary there as well. So... I was greeted with this:

Oh, and Box Hill Dick Smith is renovating: no more electronic components anymore. :(

Anyway, they had some very random clearance tags around the place. The highest 'special/clearance tag density' was probably around the home entertainment/electrical area. I thought this was surprising since things like DVDs, media players and digital cameras can be moved to another store quite easily. hmm

This one caught my eye, but alas, I felt I needed to spend a little more... haha. It was tempting though!

At home I've finished Saints Row 2 about a week ago. It's a computer game rather like GTAIV. However, it doesn't seem to have any light-heartedness about it. Everything is so serious - especially the violence. The controls aren't great. It was an alright filler while waiting for the next GTA. I would have marked Saints Row 2 as a more dangerous game than Fallout 3, which was initially banned. At least in Fallout 3, there's more background story to distinguish it from 'real life'.

so obvious now... kinda

Having a strange conversation amongst my co-worker and immediate manager go from going abroad-passports-visas-citizenship-politics-international diplomacy-Transformers 2(this my my fault), I found a plausible explanation for at the end of Transformers 2 and how the Americans got waved through the Egyptian border crossing. Since the Egyptians allow the USA to conduct their extraordinary rendition, they're all in bed with each other at the government level, so there's some agreements to encourage this kind of treatment. On the other hand, they are an Arab country and support Palestine strongly, so the people are kinda not so with it. Hmmm.

safe passage to the future

Daniel C. Dennett brings up an interesting scenario:

Say if you really wanted to live and experience life a few centuries ahead… what would you do? Perhaps you would build a freeze chamber to preserve yourself. Maybe it’d be something like the one in Futurama. But what happens if the power goes out, or there’s an attack or looting? Family members are going to be useless – they don’t really care about you after three generations anyway.

So instead of having it in a fixed-position, you’d build a robot. Something self-powered and can get out of danger’s way. Preferably it can find more sources of energy by itself and also fix itself.

However, you are frozen and can’t control it directly. It will need to be programmed so it can work without instructions in real-time. The program would have the goal as to keep you alive and it would learn new ways to do this. Of course, if it doesn’t survive, it won’t be learning. There’s also the risk of other robots doing exactly the same thing, because everyone else also wants to skip a few centuries.

The learning that it undertakes might change its behaviour to something vastly different from what you had planned. There’s no opportunity for you to correct this behaviour.

I think it's a good analogy.

blogging-procrastination urge gone

Without anything to procrastinate from, it seems like I'm not as inclined to post crap up here.
I'm about to get into a mini selling-spree... liquifying surplus assets in anticipation of some expenses abroad.
Ebay selling listing fees are gone for the moment: save a whopping thirty cents!
Hopefully my DivX player fetches a little.

poor kid

I thought you needed awesome vision, ie no glasses for the airforce but maybe he's getting sympathy points that way... Note the colour of his tie between the two articles. At first I thought they had made a mistake with the school name because I read The Age article first.

The Age

Herald Sun

Backup PDF.

premium public transport

I think I've discovered 'premium' public transport today by catching the 623 bus from Carnegie to Glen Waverley. The old bus driver was rather angry and screamed at a cyclist for blocking his bus lane path and liked to brake suddenly but the rest of it was good.
Air conditioning was actually used and the bus was not smelly. The general appearance was very good with a special ribbed flooring for the path from entry to rear exit. Seats were very plush with the majority being two-seater/one large person bench seating. There were some weird seats placed over the wheel cage where you'd seemingly have your knees at your chest level.

I also got the feeling that the train sounded different today.

Hmm, I found out today that my great uncle and great aunts have been weeding the garden for us. Way to chillax in Australia dudes!

random post-exam bus happenings

Two individuals ran in their own awkward fashions in opposite directions. They slowed to pass each other (as though there was danger of collision) and subsequently increased their pace. Total distance was 3 bus bays.

Validator broken - saved $1.01!

On the bus, a dude using earphones asks his friend something along the lines of you didn't have a shower this morning, right? Really loudly and in Mandarin. >.<

feminism is responsible for my employment

Here it goes:

1. rise of feminism
2. 'equal' rights and all
3. more females going for careers
4. careers taking priority over producing children
   
5. more families started later
6. increase in demand for IVF treatment
7. increase in demand for IVF lab equipment
8. increase in production of IVF lab equipment

Even better for the owners who saw this trend... they must be awesomely rich.

In celebration of this insight, I'm going to bake a cake tonight. Well, not really in celebration - the slab of butter that I bought for my cous cous is going to go off soon and I need to use it. Cous cous is pretty awesome... like the pasta version of 2 minute noodles.

[yeah, I'm procrastinating for my exam on Wednesday]

by demand

No longer a $upa bargain... they've gone CRAZY!

Excuses: crap phone camera + taking a photo at 8PM...

For own reference (readers ignore):

500g satchel; 353mm x 220mm
3kg satchel; 405mm x 310mm

pre-exam holiday [clean-up]

1. I went to see a lovely Japanese animation film, Ponyo, that started on Friday evening and ended on Saturday morning. :O such a random viewing time. As always, films bring up a wide range of issues - in this case some of them might be, but not limited to: respect for elders (or can we view all adults as children pretending to be adults?), standard of female driving (crazy cliff-top driving!), human-induced environmental damage, dominion of animals/Ponyo-creature.
Drunk people getting angry at taxis.... hmmm

2. I think we have too many spoons in the household....

3. Replaced 4 slightly bulging capacitors and then we can record again on the TV hard drive recorder box! If only there were more easy problems like this...

4. Does anybody else have the same wear patterns? o.O

Edit: I thought this one is relevant as a matching photo...

the real unit evaluations sem2 2009

ECE3091 Engineering Design
I suppose this unit is intelligent design... But what is intelligent design? After seeing a hovercraft cobbled together from household materials and second-hand parts, it doesn't seem all that purpose-built. Plus it's still going to fail some times...
I suppose just like how humans don't work that well underwater, in the extreme cold and heat, neither do hovercrafts. (yeah, lame link in I know)
Seems like disproportionate work for 6 credit points. Still, fun while it lasted. Fun while people were jealous of our speed. :P Happy before the air con was switched on. =/


Systems Thinking
Kinda got lost in between the youtube videos with the message we're all screwed to varying degrees since 30ish years ago and the causal loop diagrams. Luckily it's an open-book exam. It seems like it might have been just me but the lecturer wrote that I didn't actually answer my individual essay question (funny realisation after I compared somebody else's). But he was nice enough to give me enough marks from the presentation, referencing stuff...

MGC3250 Management in small firms
reading about statistics and facts about small business
pretending that you're an accountant with 2 years' foresight for a fictional small business
Seems odd but not a bad level three unit that you don't need to think too hard about - more 'creative' work.
Would have been good to work with somebody else for the fictional small business but commerce students aren't really handy during the week.
Playful contempt towards the elderly tutor floods the tutorial room. x_O

MGC3450 Managing conflict
This one goes around in circles, but the lecturer said it would. Everything is connected to every other topic in the unit. It's good in that it emphasises personal development and scenarios rather than chunks of theory. Role play can be a bit weird in a class full of internationals. Quite a worthwhile unit for its randomness.

Things learned/obtained this semester

From design

• ignore demonstrators - they haven't been through it. They may likely send you up the garden path.
  
• persevere - from above
  
• design is a lot about stealing ideas and implementing them as best you can
• more confidence in random electronics
• more of a practical 'can-do' attitude (from previous point) 
• just because you bought two of something is not a good enough reason to use two
  
• reassurance that cramming as many components into a small piece of stripboard is quite alright (especially when the groups that ordered PCBs were disappointed with the no-show)
• simplicity can work quite well
  
• Being 'adult' is merely the best imitation of what you think an adult is...
  
• use of IDC connectors, header pins (now I have some wacky ideas about using right-angled stuff)
• Don't bother perfecting something when there's other random factors involved... try to think those up first? ie broader thinking
• 哎呀!! 丢脸. Air conditioning can increase friction on a garbage bag by 9 times! Playing by the rules of the game suck when the rules are made up on the spot.
  
• Fruit smoothies are quite refreshing as an early evening stimulant (Not that I've spent money on anything else)
  

From work into design

• How to properly use solder wick (zomg; >half my DSE solder wick has oxidised and is worthless)

From design into other units

• worse time-management
• more procrastination for reports
• more all-nighters
  

a rush

I left this one way too late...

Absolutely ridiculous. My time management seems to have completely gone this semester.

I seemed to get through the wordy part of the report alright. I still got bogged down because Jewel of the Crown was aired on ABC2 on Sunday night. However, part of the report was to make cash flow, profit/loss and balance sheets for a fictional business and two years in advance. So I went to sleep at around 3AM to tackle the task in the morning.

Unfortunately, I managed to drag it out so I was trying to better fudge numbers at 12:45. I had to catch my 1:15 bus to make to the 2PM tutorial where it was to be handed in. Of course something had to go wrong... Since I had copied it out into MS Excel, it no longer fit properly. ah well. Scaled it down to squinty font and whacked it in the appendix. Now this is where the jogging pays off I suppose, except that the bus was delayed to my stop so it was totally unnecessary.

Later in class I find that at least one of my classmates also did a dodgy with the balance sheet in that they took the difference number and shoved it back up so assets, liabilities and owner's equity all plays nicely. It's always nice to talk about how crap a task has been done together with other people. I find out that they went to MacRob, same year level. Well, a lot makes sense now. heh.

What is ECE3091 Engineering Design?

What is design for that matter? A bunch of components bound with a few dabs of once-molten metal alloy then precariously balanced on a foam board... hmmm. Question to be revisited after final demonstration next week I suppose. Do come~ it's at Monash Clayton Building 72, room 132-133 Wednesday 21/10/2009 9AM.

 It's a video... :O

From GEM media

Anyway, this came something like second in the time trial (automatic pass/fail 70% of unit). There's a few competitors in the same Picasa folder. I also got the interesting comment that my MOSFETs look fake.

Also had an interesting situation where 40 minutes before the presentation for the hovercraft, my teammate tries to eat a big muffin and locks his jaw. Not being medically trained, I googled the situation and even got a reasonable remedy.. but he just goes off to the campus medical centre. So we end up covering his part. bah

And now I'm just listening to Michelle Branch - Paper Pieces while I have a 15% and 30% assessment due Friday and 25% due Monday. Here's hoping I can get my all-nighter average up to D.

-I was pleasantly surprised that I got a C for my 1700 out of 2500 case study analysis. The only comment was "wider reading would have resulted in a higher mark". Yeah, I'm probably not going to do wider reading at 4AM >.<

the community

I ordered three Platinum Preppy fountain pens from overseas - they're cheapo ones at about $4 each. (The refillable converter cartridge costs more than the pen) They write really well but the lid starts cracking after some time. So I thought... why not google it?

And there we go; heaps of people have had the same problem. It turns out that a bit of electrical tape is all that's needed to keep it from drying out. I reckon it's pretty awesome how the internet can spread even this kind of information through the community.

deep stuff

I discovered that at work there are no fewer than eight different teas and coffees, including four of those fancy instant flavoured coffee drinks (like French Vanilla or was it Creme). Maybe they've worked out that they can tempt the employees into drinking these stuffs that they get better productivity... or I suppose they could be nice (a bit too convenient for my liking although it does appear to be the case).

Anyway, onto deeper stuff: I took some photos at Nunawading after catching a delightfully delayed Springvale Road Smartbus. The run wasn't too bad after Waverley Road but Glen Waverley is a mess with the construction work. Total delay was about 15 minutes.

Nice ancient train

Deep

Deep again

Good one! Compare the tentative introduction date of Myki with the demolition of Nunawading Station.

that other kind of semester

Damn... the bus is so good when there's no school kids and uni is officially on break. It makes me not want to make the most of my Ps, which I was rather late in getting anyway. (The other factor is that I have a monthly ticket.) Not so sure if there's enough patronage to make a rail line out to Monash in any direction. It doesn't seem worth it for something that is well-used for 26 weeks in a year. Apart from getting my Ps on Monday, it looks like it'll be 4 days of 5 at the labs perfecting the hovercraft.

My exam timetable is looking quite awesome though - a bunch of relatively low-value exams spread out ridiculously nicely. Only a diagram could do it justice.

random interactions

I'm now kinda wondering... whether I look too FOB or something...
After work I decided to catch the 889 instead of the 900 that failed me horribly last week. This time a random Chinese dude started talking to me at the bus stop. He was nice enough though and he didn't even try using English. Perhaps I'm dressing too strangely... but my 70 yuan sand-coloured jacket is so nice and windproof. =/

Also, student elections are annoying. But they weren't too bad when I carried an open hot pink umbrella with one hand and a regular lamb kebab in the other, walking briskly through campus centre. Only one guy tried to stop me but I mouthed (yea couldn't be bothered using voice) "no".

When I got back to Box Hill I walked out via the fruit market. There's a new fruit shop. An Asian girl was at the outside stall saying 'salad' once every three seconds. She stopped saying it when I got near and then resumed once I was a few metres away. hmmm

water bottle paradox

It seems as though the time of the day helps a lot... I've managed to get back up to 9.56km/h.

The cool air in the nature reserve was quite nice - well worth forfeiting the extra [necessary?] sleep.

With the lack of taps around on my path, I thought I'd try carrying a drink bottle around, especially since it's getting warmer and I'm trying not to walk any of the 11km.

But, it of course introduces extra mass and I find myself stopping more to take a drink (haven't perfected drinking on the run yet).

So it might actually help me in keeping hydrated but also disrupt my running to an extent where it affects my speed.

Oh and of course traffic lights are an annoyance.

I might try a causal loop diagram since they're all the rage in one of my units.

I thought about what a physics teacher/year level co-ordinator said once about time management, going to the gym and outdoing workmates etc etc.. seems like the escalation system archetype. From memory, I think he was at three divorces with five children so that might not be the best path anyway.

Shock!

MGC3450 tutorial was all Asian by 10AM. (The only non-Asian excused herself just before 10AM)
My superannuation got pwned - I obviously had too much fun choosing wacky risk profiles for the pitiful amount that I had...
Same day delivery for Farnell actually does work!

epic bus fail

After work... which was a nice intro loading 5 small PCBs...
the delayed 5:44 900 bus to Caulfield decides not to stop for me. (This happens to be at a Smart Bus stop too!) They decided to stop about 100 metres ahead, which I didn't particularly feel like going up to in the rain. It was so epically late that I had already missed my connection. So instead I joined two other people on the following 5:59 service. Bummed around under the Law library until it was about time...
waited..
   waited....
6:23 733 bus to Box Hill decided to show up at 6:45. I probably could have made it back faster by going to Blackburn first.
Heh... must be a sign that I'm not supposed to finish that essay early that's due tomorrow.

strange sensation

I just had the strangest sensation where I picked up my tube of toothpaste and felt that it wasn't mine.
I went off to interrogate the sister about it... there were two tubes of exactly the same size and brand. Her explanation: my tube is the ugly one. And the other sister uses even stronger chemicals in an upright container. Ah well...

An experiment / Life is like The Sims

I thought I might type this one up before the next experiment.
Interactions: people and alcohol
Anyway, the contributing factors were:

• 1 red wine
• 1 sparkling wine
• 1 Carlton draught beer
• 1 water (residual beer since above glass reused)
• 1 raspberry and vodka
• 1 white wine
• 5.5 hours of sleep
• 6 class hours on that day

Observations:
Unsteady in stance. Tendency to use others for support.
Unsure if content of speech was more free. Still had the same, really bad, lame jokes.
Mistakes recorded - mentioned Japan instead of China when talking to Mr Chong.
Attempted moving various limbs to music in a small group. (This is where it begins to tie in - it's obviously a Sim action.) Others came along but did not participate.
Followed suit in parting hug (not used to that; might not ever do that again).
Made some wrong assumptions about which pocket particular items were in. (very important)
Felt a pulse-rhythm at my neck at nearly 2AM.

Findings:
Probably not cost effective for me to get properly drunk.
Did not wake up with clichéd headache.
Unsteadiness seemed to vary during the course of the night - sometimes it was decreaing. (Could be  that I had been standing in the same spot for too long.)
Could still walk in a straight line and demonstrate that to friends.

Some of those might have been a result of a self-fulfilling prophecy: that is, I will what I expect to occur. 

I did get the feeling that when unsure, think of what a Sim would do... From moving around, pretending to dance and even meeting new people. I thought I even had the little ++ and -- bubbles when agreeing with someone or disapproving of someone else. Life is so definitely based on The Sims...

design fun

Submitted the design specification document at 16:59. It was due at 17:00. What an awesome week! Not....

I have been informed that some people cried after receiving feedback at the milestone demonstration.

It was also funny watching a girl in the lab spin around on her swivel/wheely chair while talking to herself.

looking forward

Looking forward to some supplementary sleep... scheduled for after 5PM Friday. I had a sampler this evening... a whole 1.5 hours. Twas awesomesauce.

Very thirsty after waking up; drunk three whole cups of water.

stressful times

Stressful times in design seems to have brought about that weird behaviour learned at MHS... It's kinda homo but seems to be accepted and even imitated... then again, electrical engineering is a bunch of dudes anyway.

I got an unexpected reaction and carrying-on from when I emailed someone about items they had borrowed a few weeks ago... It seems rational that one would attempt to collect debts after a certain amount of loan time has elapsed... After all, we don't work during summers to buy parts for other people's projects (well at least I don't :S)

I had a look at the next few weeks in terms of assessments and new-found employment. It seems like my weekends need to be productive now. :O That will be a challenge.

fun day in week 8

I won't complain again about Dick Smith because it's probably an assumption now that what they have is all crap and I've blogged about it before. I only go there because So I'll skip straight to the MGC3250 lecture at 12 noon.

This lecture was the second of two about accounting in small firms. We spent 45 mins on the first 4 slides (of 25) just on accounting terms. The tutor was 'guest lecturer' for these. It did seem a bit more pleasant and I even said something in class for once, near the end. hehe It was also fun (and worrying) watching my classmate struggle to stay awake. Her elbow was slowly slipping off the flip-out desk as she oscillated back and forth. The coffee candy I gave her had no effect. Yeah, these people are doing management and not accounting for a reason!

I stuffed down an orginal Higgo burger then found my design classmate to go buy some extra parts. Our battery holders had melted from the heat of freshly-recharged batteries. Also found that neither Jaycar nor Altronics stock 92mm fan accessories. Fantastic.

We came back to get sensors working to something 'good' and start on the next document. I reluctantly agreed to go to the lecture which turned out to be a good initiative from aforementioned classmate since those who showed up get to demonstrate the milestone completion a bit later.

EWB-MCCO head wanted a group of us to help out with a solar panel display. So we stuck around as he made the phone calls to try to work out what was happening. I'm not sure whether it was sarcastic or not but it did feel weird that my suggestions got a 'good idea' response. Particularly when they were along the lines of 'message the person and lets go to the labs for now; we can come back when they're ready.' (instead of waiting around aimlessly in a foyer). So that was around 5PM.

Brought up the ridiculously heavy wooden frame with not much electronics in it at all... Opened up the crimp with a staple remover, stripped the wire with cutters (bloody thick), then recrimped with a tool attached by security wire to a trolley. Very much a hack job. All the doors were locked by that time so everyone had fun going around. I ended up catching the 7:18 bus. Which was delayed. :( And nobody seems to have bothered using the second part of my status update as a lame joke. :(:(

remission

I went for a jog for the first time in about two weeks. Last weekend it was too wet and cold and then today at 9AM it was too sunny already. Lame.

My average speed has dropped to 8.25km/h. Probably should have restricted my pace more in the first 15 minutes. Bum.

I also had to walk a bit which was included in the average but I should have better discipline than to do that.

apartments and noses

I had some driving practice today - 40km over 90 minutes with the parents.
First stop was A&G books in Carlton. Converted one book from ten into cash. Huzzah! They were mostly my cousin's abandoned books anyway.
Second and main stop was future apartment block in North Melbourne. To me it was essentially a shopping trip so I kinda zoned out. Looking at the displays set up... it seemed kinda like a small prison to me but yea...
Having a new-found appreciation for noses following a certain MSN conversation, I began in inspect visually the noses in the room.
With n people in the room and n-1 being some sort of Asian, there really was only one nose to look at.

Apart from not having the skills to do justice for my tabletpc, the nose was.. well-proportioned, not upturned and a bit pointy at the end. It belonged to the doorgirl who wasn't interested at all in these apartments and referred people to the Asian sales execs after about three sentences. It wouldn't be too hard to push further than three sentences given that all the info was around the walls or could be learned from listening. Plus it wasn't like it was beyond her abilities since she's studying a degree in business. She did however ask what my weekend was going to be like, which I probably should start to answer in a more interesting way other than talking about assignments. She obviously had something interesting to do because she bolted at 3:57.

The drive back was lovely... crazy roundabout at Flemington Road X Royal Parade, traffic jam in Richmond along Victoria Street and a flashing lights 40km/h zone in Balwyn that nobody adhered to.

stretching my luck

I went for a soldering job on Tuesday. I didn't think I did that well given that I soldered a component too high and then upside-down on my next attempt. But it seems to have been enough. The interviewer let slip that somebody else from my class had applied since they mentioned the hovercraft. So here's hoping that induction on Thursday will be alright.

It's kind of weird in that I've been spamming random positions since winter break for things that I thought I'd be better suited for, eg: computer technician stuff or even boring warehouse stuff... but then this one comes through unexpectedly. It does seem more useful than the others for later life. So I didn't get what I wanted but instead got something that looks like it will work out better. Weird.... life...

I may have overstretched my luck with a very dodgy managing conflict essay. Even though it's a fun unit with roleplays, the theory isn't always linked so strongly to the practice. Hopefully my feeling is wrong.

Oh yeah, woke up a bit too late as a consequence of trying to finish off that essay. Ended up getting to class at 11:20 instead of 9:00. Wasn't really hungry at all (couldn't even be bothered finishing half of breakfast) but my eyes were dry. Weird stuff.

a different kind of time commitment

Well, it seems like I'm going to find out soon exactly what I meant when describing the difference between management units and other more analytical units in general. Since I'm doing three of the former and one of the latter, it really is quite a different semester for me. No tests at all. 2500 words due Friday. Essay currently does not exist. Fun fun. Design project... I have an idea of what I want the code to look like and am hoping the team pulls through with the hardware. Plenty more essays dribbling until end of semester. Exams are low value this time though - 40%-50%.

Placeholder

While I'm thinking up some original content, please click on the ads for my financial benefit. (It could benefit you too!)

Moved junk from http://leastworst.spaces.live.com/

miscellaneous

My MAXX (Target) shoes cracked and the bottom has separated from the foot compartment (or whatever it's called). Went to Rivers at Knox and they actually had their catalogue items, unlike Forest Hill. $20 a pair so it's a bit more expensive than the Target ones. I also forgot to use my Rivers card but it wouldn't have been worth it anyway. Minimum spend of $2000 to get a $100 voucher...

Also... how about using lost property to hand over stuff to people you don't usually meet. A description of the item shouldn't be too difficult for them to receive.
Maybe stashing things at libraries could work too. Just put it under a shelf and give them the call number. Even better, put it inside a not often read book if it's a document.

What does it mean to be busy?

I loathe to say that I'm busy to others. Maybe I feel that the term is overused. I'm not really sure whether my situation is ever worthy of being termed 'busy'. This semester I do seem to have a bit more on than in the past but it still doesn't seem legitimate to call that 'busy'. (let alone including busy procrastinating) I also like to refer to the idea that if something is important enough, time will be made for it. After all, it's only life...

Life is based on The Sims

Future Topic:
Life is based on The Sims

Update:
It has been delayed and is now expected ... whenever.
Connex apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Follow-up to public health system

I got my arm checked out today. It was ridiculously punctual.
9:20 -> 9:35 x-ray
10:20 -> 10:10 consult
For the x-ray it was another student on placement, this time from RMIT, although I don't think she did all that much. The professional lady gave me a lead shield for my lap/crotch/items in my pants pockets... which I didn't get last time. hmm
Lots of people getting wheeled past x-ray had heaps of tattoos on.
The doctor said it was all good with my arm in terms of movement and all. This doctor actually showed me the fracture on the screen. He was saying how appointments were going fast today because surgery was cancelled and there was another doctor helping out. Hopefully it wasn't anything bad that caused the cancellation.

Had some extra time since my class was at 2PM so I went over to Centro Whitehorse. Wasted some time by asking the lady at the gadget shop for an earphone adapter for my I-mate Ultimate 8150 pdaphone - it seems impossibly hard to find. Then had calamari bento upstairs. I didn't really like the taste of the soup. Asked about it; turns out this is Miso soup. Then I shook it up a bit and discovered the tofu bits... trippy.

Contemporary Gift Co-ordination Statistics

An introduction: internet banking transfers are quite commonplace now and can aid in group gift co-ordination. However, there is limited information that can be carried with the transfer. Usually this is the transfer description. Often on Ebay, the username or auction number is preferred. In this case, names are quite useful. Apart from that, something could be done with the actual transfer amount, such as the amount of cents being related to something.

The Internet Tfr portion represents successfully labeled transfers. Internet Tfr Issues were mislabeled and took some extra correspondence in order to find the payer.

A pretty good result for prepayments. Internet transfer issues came up from labeling, which hindered the tracing back of funds to the payer. Internet transfers are good in that you don't even have to greet the person on the night! oh wait... :P I mean, less money carried on your person to avoid losses. Yeah, that's it!

odd contentedness

I feel strangely content this semester with my 3 commerce/1 engineering combination. Perhaps problems will be revealed later when my fate is largely sealed before these lowly-weighted (40-50%) exams or non-existent exams. Or it might be that the content is more interesting... conflict, systems/sustainability, small firms and actually building stuff in design. 

annoyance

When I take a seat on the 5PM bus, I have certain expectations. I usually get to nod off and not have to endure consciously the torment of the trip. Not so this time. To my horror, I hear two people talk quite loudly in the double seat behind me. (I am occupying one of the double seats directly behind the rear door) After I stop trying to fall asleep, I discover that they aren't in fact talking to each other at all. Both are having rather loud, separate conversations on their mobile phones.

Yes, I really do need the sleep. :(

public health system

I had a follow-up for the elbow fracture at Box Hill Hospital:
X-ray appointment 9:00AM - Actual 10:20ish (I fell asleep and thought I might have missed my appointment)
Fracture clinic 10:00AM - Actual 12:30ish

The X-ray attendant, a Monash student, wasn't in any hurry plus she hinted that she frequents the Hargrave library after asking about my studies. Quite a pleasant young lady. The doctor was in a hurry but was quite cool about it all, perhaps going with the line that the less time he spends on me the more time for lunch. He 'guessed' that the fracture was somewhere around 'there' on the image (I suppose it's a good thing if it's healed enough to be virtually undetectable).

I suppose the most interesting part of that trip was talking to the booking clerk. She has a son who also went to Monash for mechanical engineering and now works for Holden. Apparently he tried a slam-dunk and broke both arms/wrists and had those plastered up. Well, I'm pretty safe from that with my stature.

Later in the day I went for traditional treatment (which I don't think is treatment at all). It consisted of accupuncture and blood-letting. Blood-letting might be good in theory, but their method couldn't possibly reach the blood inside. Accupuncture.... not enough information. These things especially don't work for me because I don't believe in them like a proper placebo should be.

Hmm.

about time

85 days, 3 hours, 12 minutes, 34 seconds since boot
Perhaps time to reboot the router. It seems to be missing a lot of pages on first attempt.

Also, fractured radial heads in elbows suck. harumph

Savings

Well, I downloaded 838MB from a Monash computer today. I'm pretty sure most of it won't be going towards the quota but it was worth a shot (was seeing 4MB/s).

• VMWare Server 2
• VMWare Player
  
• Paragon Backup 9 (apparently I have a legit free serial)
  
• Radeon graphics drivers

Date	Time	Type	Number	min:sec	$
24/06/09	1:55 PM	Free SMS	614xxxxxx85	00:00	0.00
23/05/09	9:50 AM	Standard Call	04xxxxxx33	00:03	0.56
22/05/09	5:15 PM	Free SMS	614xxxxxx83	00:00	0.00

Challenge complete - no expenditure for one month. muahaha
But it looks like I have too much left over:

$18.62

Saturday 15 August 2009

It'll have to be rolled over then. hmm

Savings follow-up:

24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	HTTP Browsing	off-net	107,765,417	0.592710
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	HTTP Browsing	on-net	1,742,486	no charge
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	Generic Non-Established TCP	off-net	77,022	0.000424
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	Generic Non-Established TCP	on-net	86,343	no charge
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	https	off-net	1,196,690	0.006582
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	https	on-net	151,069,598	no charge
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	Binary over HTTP	off-net	8,348,232	0.045915
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	Binary over HTTP	on-net	643,427,011	no charge
24-JUN-09	Faculty of Business & Economics - Students	ca-web-9030.lib	GMail	off-net	1,031	0.000006

Useful phrases

I thought some of these might be useful, but hey - who knows?

Monash net surprise

10-JUN-09

Faculty of Business & Economics - Students

dyn-118-139-8-180.its

Binary over HTTP

on-net

211,009,731

no charge

That means they cached:
Far Cry 2 patch
Crysis Warhead patch
Arcsoft's Total Media Theatre 3 trial

funky...

Thanh's mobile challenge

The Challenge
Keep mobile phone service expenses at or below 68 cents for a continuous 30 day period.

To address the challengee's key points of concern:-

• no callbacks after prank/buzzes
• address book culled to reduce temptation
  
• alternatives ready with SMSPup balance at 311 points

I've used $2.25 during February 2009 so I think this is doable.

Quote from challengee deliberately removed from context:
 lol, doesnt matter hu's it is, as long as it tastes good :P

I googled...

Control Lecturer:

What is the correct definition?
If you don't believe this - what I'm telling you - you just google
you just google 'damping ratio'
right?
natural frequency pop up
I tried last night
I was wondering, I tried last night
I googled very late alright - 1 AM
I googled last night
you just go to website

This funny man also revised a lab sheet and in the process removed the credit to another dude. But it wasn't something worth taking credit for - 1 hour of copy-paste.

He also sent out an email to the class at 00:40.

Schelling's Answer to Armed Robbery

A man breaks into my house. he hears me calling the police. But, since the nearest town is far away, the police cannot arrive in less than fifteen minutes. The man orders me to open the safe in which I hoard my gold. He threatens that, unless he gets the gold in the next five minutes, he will start shooting my children, one by one.

What is it rational for me to do? I need the answer fast. I realise that it would not be rational to give this man the gold. The man knows that if he simply takes the gold, either I or my children could tell the police the make and number of the car in which he drives away. So there is a great risk that if he gets the gold, he will kill me and my children before he drives away.

Since it would be irrational to give this man the gold, should I ignore his threat? This would also be irrational. There is a great risk that he will kill one of my children, to make me believe his threat that, unless he gets the gold, he will kill my other children.

What should I do? It is very likely that, whether or not I give this man the gold, he will kill us all. I am in a desperate position. Forutnately, I remember reading Schelling's The Strategy of Conflict. I also have a special drug, conveniently at hand. This drug causes on to be, for a brief period, very irrational. I reach for the bottle and drink a mouthful before the man can stop me. Within a few seconds, it becomes apparent that I am crazy. Reeling about the room, I say to the man: 'Go ahead. I love my children. So please kill them.' The man tries to get the gold by torturing me. I cry out: 'This is agony. So please go on.'

Given the state that I am in, the man is now powerless. He can do nothing that will induce me to open the safe. Threats and torture cannot force concessions from someone who is so irrational. The man can only fless, hoping to escape the police. And, since I am in this state, the man is less likely to believe that I would record the number on his car. He therefore has less reason to kill me.

While I am in this state, I shall act in ways that are very irrational. There is a risk that, before the police arrive, I may harm myself or my children. but, since I have no gun, this risk is small. And making myself irrational is the best way to reduce the great risk that this man will kill us all.

Found in Parfit's Reasons and Persons

inverse link between midsem test marks and unit scores

I think I'm satisfied that I got a low-ish mid semester test mark for one of my subjects. It should mean that I'm less likely to screw up the final exam. I've converted a 36/40 test mark into a 56 unit score. Conversely, I've converted a 6/15 into an 82 unit score. Well, that's the plan anyway.

火气 and other theories

Does anybody have thoughts about 火气 and related theories? The ones that go something like you eat too many fried things then end up with a cough. Then countering that with something 'cool' like herbal teas that come in a convenient cube package.

True/False/Don't Care?

Communications

A brief rundown: my perspective on modern communications methods

Instant Messaging
+ can get an instant response
+ offers some privacy
+ appear offline can mask the fact that one spends far too much time on the computer while staying 'connected'
- others may expect an instant response
- growth of spam messages linked to viruses
-requires the involvement of a conversation

Group Instant Messaging
+ groupness
- useless messages clog up the flow
- conversation can move at a ridiculous pace
- adds a disporportionate amount of useless bytes to message history

Facebook* Wall
* or other social networking site
+ good for suggestive propagation ie. I think everyone should know but I'll just tell one person and let everyone who wants to know eavesdrop
+ wall postings can become unposted
+ largely reply in own time
+ doesn't need much involvement
- public
- requires effort to censor
- latency in censorship

Facebook Status
+ forum thread-like in nature
+ allows for group conversations
- sometimes it's best not to aware of that information; ignorance is bliss

Facebook* Mail
+ perhaps less spam than other mailboxes
+ allows for compartmentalisation of friends/ don't let them clog up important mailboxes
- semi-redundant if email is primary
- adds steps from email notification - link - reply in webpage

Email
+ handles attachments
+ suitable for large amounts of information
+ respond largely in your own time
- can get messy if there are multiple issues dealt in one message
% stacked Gmail conversations make it easy to sort through messages

SMS
+ affordable (esp with free SMS services)
+ possible to reduce ambiguity
+ still possible to communicate in noisy environments or where a call would be unacceptable
- slower text input
- difficult to insert mathematical symbols
- unsure about message delivery success
- people tend to forget to reply if they read it then put their phone away
% stacked SMS conversations in Windows Mobile 6.1

Telephone Call
+ more likely to be an instant response (or no response at all)
+ natural voice input (no encode/decode to text)
+ additional information trasmitted (much easier to be successfully sarcastic)
- costly
- doesn't work in noisy areas

Postal Service
+ good for onward sharing of p2p data/ other physical goods
+ cheap if using uncancelled stamps
- takes some effort and materials
- delay in sending

Video link
+ better for verifying identity
- bandwidth/quota requirements
- perhaps you don't really want to see them

In person
+ more likely to get instant response
+ can transmit physical goods
+ unlimited duration
+ shouldn't cost any money
+ suitable for more complex ideas
- they might not want to see you
- more difficult to organise
- people can get annoying quite quickly

awareness fail

1) The middle-aged asian lady stops her sports 4WD on the side of Station street for a while (she looks kinda small in that car and a bit lost). The road was wet from the rain earlier in the morning. She then decides to head out but stops in the path of a car heading in the outer lane at normal speed. Fun with horns and wet-weather braking.



2) An older asian lady stands at the 291 bus bay but looks at the 293/295 bus in the bay 10 metres away. She also seems lost or deep in thought, calculating the merits of each option. Another asian lady tries to get past her with a shopping trailer, travelling in the same direction as she is facing. She runs over the stationary lady's foot due to a lack of space.  It takes her about 2 seconds to realise that her foot has been run over and she has an annoyed expression on her face.


3) Vehicle 1 has a bunch of young asian female students. Vehicle 2 is a ute. Vehicle 1 hesitates, then turns out when vehicle 2 takes off. I suppose both thought it was somebody else's problem. Vehicle 1 still made it out before vehicle 2 came in.