before i forget

just before i left sg, i changed the wheels and rubbers on the e90... he's sporting 19" chrome/silver bbs ck with yokohama advan sport 235/55s

and coming back to sydney, i had to send the integra for a oil service.. got an appointment made, and got it in for servicing. and zomgwtf, the mechanic calls and says the rear pads and rotors are metal on metal, needs replacing, and the cv joints are busted.. needs replacing...

in the end..

minor service $55.00
oil $36.40
oil filter $14.40
fuel injector cleaner $15.00
wiper blades $30.00
misc $10.00
rear pads $130.00
exchanged cv joints $360.00

one servicing cost me $650.80... gst .. $65.08.. total $715.88

sigh.. i'm submitting the invoice for claims from the warranty provider. hope i can claim most of it!

it's official

a whole bunch of people who've taken info5991 last semester that i know, well, those with adequate english facilities and language skills have all gone on to do research projects this semester. me included.

i've gotten my supervisor, and i've gotten my project. hope it turns out well. i'm doing the same topic with winly, my indon groupmate from 5991 last semester. he's a smart guy, so it'll be fun working together.

Emerging Vehicular Technical and Service Environments (12/18 CP)
This project is related to the major Multi-Channel Content Delivery research project of the Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). The CRC is due to commence operation in October 2007 and this project will assist in its start-up. The project will study and analyse technical and business trends in vehicular ICT environments. The project is not about core automotive technologies, but rather addresses new and emerging in-vehicle sensors and wireless networks, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and networks, vehicle-roadside communications and networks, and their capabilities and possibilities for the provision of new services to vehicle users such as context-aware navigation and traffic congestion avoidance. Potential convergence with other in-vehicle technologies such as digital radio, mobile telephones, etc, should also be considered. The project will entail a review of literature from relevant journals and conferences, of material available from vehicle manufacturers and related technology providers, and from relevant standards groups. It may be possible to interview representatives of industry partners in the CRC who have an interest in in-vehicle technologies and service provision. A final report and presentation will provide a summary and analysis of emerging vehicular technology and service environments. It will try to predict future trends and identify significant technical and research issues.
For students interested in future research it will be possible to enlarge the project to 18 CP by inclusion of research questions, such as hypothesis testing regarding technical factors in service take-up. The Smart Services CRC intends to offer PhD scholarships commencing in 2008.

anyways, people have been talking about going for a phd. i'm hesistant. don't ask me why.

decisions decisions

projects.. which should i opt for?

my preference is this one...
Quality-of-Service Requirements of Dynamic Information Systems (18 CP)
The Internet has become crucial to the working of the Australian economy and society. Nowadays, about 70% of the Australian population is using the Internet. Many of them are unaware that most of the time they access cached data with no guarantees on the data freshness or consistency. In this project, the student shall analyse the workload and the Quality-of-Service requirements of large dynamic web-sites in Australia. The aim is to get an understanding of the size, usage and the quality requirements of today's Internet usage. The focus is on dynamic web information systems, those where the information presented on a web page is personalized and retrieved from a database. The student shall conduct a survey of large Australian websites (top level domain '.au') from different vertical markets that typically serve a large number of concurrent users with dynamic content. We want to analyze them with regard to their underlying web- service infrastructure, their Quality-of-Service requirements, and their workloads such as number of concurrent requests and update frequency.

Skills needed: Information Systems, knowledge/experience with web databases of advantage
Suitable majors: Databases, Ecommerce

but the supervisor for that project is trying to recommend me to do
Performance Evaluation Framework (12/18 CP)
Performance evaluations are an important means to gain an understanding of the behaviour and the scalability of applications and algorithms, both in industry and research. This project shall develop a Java framework for performance evaluations of client-server applications that encapsulates all performance measurements and client simulation aspects, hence enabling developers to solely concentrate on the application-specific code. The framework shall be capable of precise response time measurements, scalability evaluations, and throughput measurements by using multi-threading and precise timing functions. The system shall be easily extensible with own benchmark functions and completely configurable via an XML configuration file, so that well-defined, reproducable evaluation runs can be easily set-up, run, and maintained. This project can build on our previous experience in this field. While the 12cp version of this project will concentrate on the software development of the framework, the 18cp version shall further evaluate the precision and overhead of the framework using the TPC-C benchmark (with a good chance for a research publication).
Outcome of the project: upon completion, the student will have gained practical experience in multi-threaded Java programming, XML parsing, and software development using the TRAC project management and the Subversion version control systems. In addition, the student will develop knowledge in large-scale performance evaluations, UML, and client-server programming. As this project involves intensive programming exercises, it is recommended that the applicant has sound Java programming experience.

Skills needed: Sound Java programming experience; experience with multi-threading and XML of advantage, but not necessary
Suitable majors: Software Engineering, Computer Science, Databases

how how how...

back

in sydney. the place is such a mess. 2 girls alone in a house and i thought it'd be neat and tidy. but i have the 2 messiest cousins in the world. work too hard with no time to clean up the place. unbelievable!

10 days, then my cousin moves to her own apartment, then i can clean up this place proper. it's cold. but having come from the warmth of singapore, the cold is refreshing. only thing i don't like is not being able to get away from the cold for awhile. back home you could get away from the heat by going into a mall, or turning on the a/c.

school's starting. mon - thur 6-9 lessons. and wonder when ibm will return with news. be it good or bad. some news would be good.

Now for someone to sing it

"I am Ong Ah Tee living in Kampong Chai Chee Life used to be simple and HAPPY I worked hard in my STUDIES I learned A-B-C, and everything from 1, 2, and 3.
Primary school was quite easy I passed PSLE Then I went to SECONDARY The subjects include HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY Physics, Biology and CHEMISTRY After O levels I went to JC I was quite LUCKY This is a small humid tropical COUNTRY Surrounded by unknown potential ENEMIES Boys turned 18 must go to ARMY for the tour of duty After that we may continue our Studies The girls can just sit back, relax, and watch TV They come to this world only to "Chia Liao Bi"

No one lives on free meals or depends on CHARITY I want to take up IT, but I had no money to go to University or Poly So I went to work at FACTORY Working hard to earn a little lousy SALARY After CPF and INCOME TAX, I have just enough money to buy ROTI and ride in MRT.
My bosses show me no SYMPATHY
Mumbling over my shoulder daily : "HURRY, HURRY and HURRY !"
Accusing me of always trying to get MC
But my sickness was due to over stretch OT Going home after midnight by TAXI And they pay me only bus fee My collogue likes me because of my honesty and can easily bully They said I don't know how to carry.

I Park-Tor and became STEADY
Finally had to MARRY
I lost money holding Wedding Dinner PARTY Cheeky friends donating only cheap PANTY After marriage, nothing was EASY In one year, I became DADDY I can't support my family and our BABY Being tied down for life to repay
2 rooms HDB and rising monthly utilities to PUB My bank account has NO MONEY POSB balance is almost EMPTY DBS wants to charge me EXTRA FEE Insisting that "Nothing is FREE!"
So I moonlight as KARANG GUNI
Many times I want to jump into the sea to MATI But that is not EASY My wife cries: "Who is going to support me and our BABY?"
So I can't MATI.

I went to seek assistance from the MP
His reply was simple and easy:
"Vote for me, vote for me, vote for me".
He never tells me any convincing Policy.

Before, my MP said "Vote for me, we give you sweeties".
Now, they want to increase salary, because "You voted me".
They claim they made good economy for our country.
They benchmark themselves using GDP.
They said, "To get the best man, you have to pay high fee"
otherwise, they will join MNC.

Next will be the GST.
My boss say "no" to increase in salary,
It's really make me worry.
Our Health Ministry said let GP set their consultation fee.
If the GP charges high fee, don't let them see.

No money, how can healthy
If fall sick, can only mati
In hospital, can afford Class C.
I don't mind all nurses are aunty,
But only one doctor to see
No money for operation, I Tan Si."

finally... results are out

Course Name: Master of Information Technology
Results for Academic Year: 2007

Semester 1
Alpha Digit Unit of Study Name Mark Grade
COMP 5138 Relational Database Management Systems 69.0 Credit
INFO 5990 Professional Practice in IT 80.0 Distinction
INFO 5991 IT Professional Services 94.0 High Distinction
INFS 5000 Business Information Systems 77.0 Distinction

TO MAKE A WOMAN HAPPY....A MAN ONLY NEEDS TO BE :

1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO :

44. give her compliments regularly
45. love shopping
46. be honest
47. be very rich
48. not stress her out
49. not look at other girls


AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO :


50. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
51. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
52. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT :

53. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes


HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY :

1. Leave him alone

Today the car was fitted with




and



Went to SLS after a long half day at the workshop, and got a screen protector for the new K810i, a rubber sleeve, cooler half spheres for the laptop, a radio transmitter for the iPoo, and 2gb m2 micro memory stick.

tired and sleepy now.

big clash for my subjects next semester, 4 subjects, 2 on wed same slot, 2 on thur same slot, so i dropped 2 subjects, switched my major, took up another 2 altogether different subjects, but it's a 4 day week now instead, with classes monday thru till thursday, 6-9 everyday. better than having clashes.

time passes so quickly. 18 days before i go back.. :|