One of which, is mine:

Introducing, the TI-84 series of graphical calculators — the world’s most overrated.

It’s fat, ugly, slow, ancient, and expensive.

You see, we were told to get ourselves a graphical calculator since the day we stepped into Swinburne. But getting one could set us back about 600 bucks. And so we persevered throughout two semesters of Math in Foundation using our faithful Casio fx-570MS from the days of SPM.

Everytime we’d find a way to solve different Math problems using the fx-570 (when it is thought that only the TI’s can solve them), we’d pride ourselves at how we manage to save 600 bucks — yet again and again. I must say I’ve discovered a lot about the abilities of the fx-570 more than I’ve ever knew in Form 5. Like I never knew it does matrices!

Of course, we all know it draws boobies rather well:

=D

Unfortunately, even the faithful fx-570 couldn’t hold up anymore in degree-level Math.

We had to get a calculator that draws what the fx-570 couldn’t draw, other than boobies — graphs.

Thanks to Kiam, we managed to get used TI-84 Silver Editions for merely 450 bucks each rather than its original sub-RM700 price. And so we reluctantly joined the rest of the class tapping away on the TI-84.

There’s a reason why I never really liked the idea of getting a graphical calculator such as the TI-83/84 series — the price just doesn’t justify what we’re paying for.

Other than its outrageous pricing, the TI-83/84 series calculators are down right dinosaurs in today’s age. They’re absolutely bulky and inferior to the say, iPhone — the real gadget of today’s age.

Get what I mean? It’s so huge it feels awkward to hold it with a single palm.

I need not remind you of what the iPhone is capable of, albeit being at a (much) smaller size. It’s a cell phone, mp3 player, internet browser, camera, video player, touch-screened, and another 1001 features with its support for Apps — including, yes, graphing.

Heck, imagine graphing apps on the iPhone!

And the TI-83/84? It’s..a.. calculator, and a uh, *fumbles through the TI-84 guidebook*.. one that draws graphs. =\

Heck, it doesn’t even draw graphs well. Thanks to its 15Mhz processor (psst, the one in the iPhone runs at 620Mhz), it draws graphs a painstaking pixel-by-pixel!

In all it’s fat glory.

I haven’t even gone into comparing the technical specs of the two gadgets which would leave you wondering just what the engineers over at Texas Instruments are doing.

Okay I’m aware of the huge price difference between the two (~RM700 for a TI-84 Silver vs. ~RM2500 for the iPhone 3G). I’m aware that it’s cruel to pitch the 2004 TI-84 against the 2007-released iPhone. I’m aware that few gadgets out there do if ever, come close to rivaling the iPhone in its features-to-size ratio.

I just wanted to point out that the TI-83/84 series calculators could either be slimmer given the limited functions it performs. Or, it could have more features given it’s humongousity.

Oh well, I guess that’s enough bashing.

If there’s one thing I like about the TI-84, it’ll be this:

Woots! Block Dude rocks! =D

Apparently, in Malaysia, you’re screwed big time if you report a thief. You get accused, slammed, and grinded for publishing a story telling of what a thief does as thief.. stealing things. For what’s worth, in the end, you get detained without trial as a mere reporter.

And the thief.

Oh boy did he got away.

He got a little slamming and grinding. He also got an easy three-year house arrest. He gets to keep the things he stole. He was caught stealing again.

But wait, where’s the arrest?

Just who, is wrong here?

Wow.

Research report is done and over with, which leaves the IT 2 web site project and the dreaded finals.

Well I saw your raised eyebrow on that IT 2 web site project thingy. So here’s a screenie of what I’ve been working on:

Okay, I’ll just name your reaction the inaudible wow.

As you can see, this time we’re working on Sport Utility Vehicles. Another spur of the moment idea of a topic when we saw two other groups each working on sports cars and another on something along the lines of economical cars.

So you see, we really suck at thinking of topics to do.

And no, that is not how our website currently looks like. I didn’t leave my blog unattended for a week for nothing now ey? But the design isn’t quite done yet. That’s the problem with wannabe web designers like me. There’s no such thing as completed work.

I find it really hard to lay back and say, “OK, that’s done and lets call it a day.” There seem to be problems in every corner no matter how hard I improve on things. And when that happens, its back to the drawing board and the cycle continues. Gee, I’ve really got to stop working on the designing part and get on with the wordings. =(

On a related note, while doing research on SUVs to be included in our website, I saw my lust grew for her.

The Porsche Cayenne. Look at her, all wet and ready.

Is it just me, or she is sexy?

“How are you doing?”

The storm vanished into thin air as Ms. Cynthia appeared beside me to check on my progress. A mess of scribbled algebraic functions, numbers and workings came into focus as I peered at the stack of foolscap paper on my table. Intergration, pfft. The reality wasn’t any better.

The air-conditioner above my head on full blast threatened to freeze the gears in my head grinding to a halt. My head weighed twice as heavy and felt like it could fall thump on the table any time. Then there’s this constant throbbing going on at the temples so bad, that you feel that urge to bang your head repeatedly against walls.

My sanity is at stake.

That’s Engineering Mathematics B for you.

I figured a little break would do.

Semester two feels soou tough. I don’t know, perhaps its because of the rather laid-back three-subject Summer Semester we had before this. Or it could be just that semester two subjects are just more challenging. Or was it the lectures that made the difference?

The language and IT subjects were okay, if not bearable. At least they don’t pose the danger of getting flunked, only that burden of semester-long assignments they require of you.

But oh boy, the Math and Physics subjects are a whole different story.

Picture by Julie Auriemma.

There are Finite Math lecturers who’d just mercilessly cramp three bloody mind-boggling subtopics in an one-hour lecture. Leaving you gasping for air not even ten minutes into the class. Then there are Physics B lectures which I simply cant keep up.

Lecturers just love to explain concepts in long-winding ways so complicated nobody ever understands. Of course, it is only the ultimate goal of an educator to get the point across to his students in the most comprehensible way possible. But no matter how hard they try, at the end of lectures you’d just find it hard not to say, ‘Huh.?’

To cook up a lame analogy, if you’d ask them for directions to the cafeteria next door, they would draw you a world map, point at the Himalayan region with a thud, ask you to scale Everest’s peak and back down, make your way under Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, swim across the Atlantic, get sucked into a fourth dimension off the coast of Bermuda and poof, you’re at the cafeteria next door.

Make no mistake though, Swinburne’s got great lecturers. There’s this obvious effort by the University to woo in quality lecturers, complete with PhD. certs or Masters in qualifications. And the lecturers we have are brilliant, they know their stuff and they certainly have the passion to teach.

Mind boggling Engineering Math B lectures.

The Math and Physics subjects of semester two has got to be the toughest stuff yet.

Not-any-better-if-not-worst Physics B lectures.

Notice how both lecturers share the same hairstyles. They are walking testaments of what these subjects could do to you. Period.

If it helps, I have a Finite Math test coming up tomorow. Shove me a question and all I have in mind is a Large. Void. Blank.

*Gaspeth.*

Why? Cos last week, my 2-year-old 160GB external hard disk drive decided to freaking die. Dragging along with it 6 years worth of about 15,000 family photos and my freaking 50GB mp3 collection I had since 2002.

Now who wouldn’t freak out?

Nothing worked. I tried everything a human could think of to revive the ticking hard drive, sending it for professional data recovery was obviously ruled out due to high-cost, I scoured online forums for solutions but nothing worked. Until I remembered awhile back reading of a proposed method to revive a dead HDD by, drumroll please… FREEZING IT.

Finished laughing? C’mon. I was desperate, okay? And yeah, it was proposed that by literally freezing your dead HDD in a freaking real household freezer, a dead drive would come back to life. Now how cool (pun not intended. XD) is that?

So I decided in desperation to try out that wacky idea, but first, on our late Sony Vaio’s dead HDD (well it died awhile after I rescued all data off it in that post). Since its dead and worthless, might as well be my lab rat. =D

It was pointed out in the drive-freezing discussions that they have to be secured in a ziplock bag before condemning them into the icy-cold hell our daily seafood and meatstuff experience each day.

So I dug around and found these Tesco resealable food bags my dad got in KL awhile ago.

Perfect. Just what I wanted. So I stuff the old drive into it, zipped it up airtight and secure to prevent condensation, and dump it into the freezer.

After waiting impatiently for 2 hours, I took it out. In the discussions, suggestions for the freezing duration varied from an hour to a whole week. I thought an hour might be too short, so maybe two will do.

I took the drive out from the ziplock bag, wrap rolls of tissue around it, plugged it into my laptop, lo and behold.. nothing happened. It was still an icy-cold dead drive.

So much for that urban myth eh. I ended up getting more desperate and decided in a rash to proceed with another freezing attempt, this time — on the real thing.

This is it. 6 years worth of priceless memories caught on camera in that metal case. This either works, or risk the drive getting wet out of condensation and causing fatal short circuits, condemning the drive and everything in it forever.

I had no choice.

Try it, or its just a dead drive with nothing you can do.

This time, I took no chances, I left the drive in the freezer overnight and into the morning for a whole 15 hours.

Next morning, I repeat everything I did with the old drive only this time I was extra cautious, and used a kitchen towel to get rid of all that nasty condensation.

I powered up everything, sat there and prayed.

For what felt like forever, it began clickety clicking. Then after about 5 minutes, it miraculously hummed to life. OMG.

Vista detected it immediately. But unfortunately none of the recovery software I had worked, PC Inspector etc. refused to load at all, even Explorer itself crashes. I had to resort to using the old and faithful command prompt to do all the copying.

With that, I repeated the freeze and rescue cycle for everyday in the past week. Each time, the icy cold drive gave me about 3–4 hours of copying before it warms up and start its clickety clicking again.

To date, I had recovered some 11GB of photos and 21GB of mp3s and counting. The mp3s were OK, but a minority of the photos were corrupted. I would put the figure at about 95% on recovery rates.

Still laughing? =P

Next time you have a dead drive, you know what to do. =D But of course, you need not be like me and go through all that trouble, for a better advice from me would be to BACKUP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA WEEKLY. No wait, I should grab a mirror and shout that at myself. =\

———————

Edit: I realised that in a hurry to finish the post I kinda forgot to cover two things. First was how the first freezing attempt didn’t work. My deductions would be that that old drive was screwed up beyond repair (psst, I found it among a stack of stationery) but if the mechanics inside were still intact with all that knocking, then the short duration of freezing could be blamed. Maybe a mere 2 hours isn’t enough to do the magic. =P

Second is how the whole freezing thing works. It definitely sounds far-fetched as a fix for dead hard drives. I’m no hard disk dude and have no idea of the physics behind this trick but I’ve read a detailed explanation by an engineer about the freezing trick somewhere. Can’t seem to find it anymore though. =\

Okay, with greaat relief, we finally have our third and final oral presentation behind our backs. What a bloody relief it was. Preparing for it was like hell, and hell I mean.

Our presentation group had ah siat, ah piaw and me. Our topic was the question ‘Did man really land on the moon?’ and as you may already got it, we planned to dispute the Apollo moon landing missions in the 1960’s. Gosh, I’m already having this phobia of mentioning or reading or typing the words, ‘Apollo’, ‘missions’, and the ‘moon’.

Yes, it was a free topic. So why did we bloody chose that topic? Truth is we were inspired by one of the topics our seniors did which went along the lines of the ‘conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks’. Ah Piaw then had this brain fart and said hey! why don’t we talk about man never reached the moon? We blindly agreed and little did we know, we started digging our bloody graves from that very moment.

So once the topics were finalised, there was no turning back. Oh boy.

I certainly had seen arguments about the U.S faking the Apollo missions on the internet prior to ah piaw’s brain fart. I thought it may be pretty interesting and that’s why I agreed to that suggestion.

So we went on the quest to find out the truth. Information on this topic were not hard to find. In fact, there’s an abundance of personal websites (take note, personal websites) debating on the fact that the Apollo missions were a hoax. Yet, that’s the problem. They weren’t credible sources.

And the more we bloody deepen our search, the more we were bloody convinced that the Apollo moon landings were real. At one point, we were so freakin demotivated to go on with that topic. I even thought of trashing our topic for a new one, but time didn’t permit. Bloody hell.

I mean, make a Google search on ‘moon hoax’. Go read any of those random moon hoax personal websites probably written by wannabe conspiracy theorists or just bored individuals. Come back and tell me if half of the questions they raised were credible. Sometimes it was just so obvious. There are times where I come across one of their arguments and could just rebuke it right from the back of my mind. It just takes bloody common sense!

In the end, we decided to go on anyway. Picture this, we will be convincing a class load of people that the US of A never went to the moon when we ourselves are bloody convinced that the U.S. DID go to the moon. Now how hard is that?? Put it in other words, we will be presenting a lie. And if Ms. Lee reads this we’re really done for.

And due to the rather serious and highly technical nature of the topic, preparation for the points and slides took too bloody long. On the big day itself, we skipped every freakin class before the 4.30pm Oral Comm. presentation.

Demotivated and under prepared. The end result was as expected by anyone of us, a disappointment.

Now if you’d ask me if man really landed on the moon, believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen the answer is yes!

Pardon the wordy post, you’ll know I’m frustrated when you see me babbling this much.

See that huge burst of traffic to my blog? That’s what I call the Catscity Clique Effect. =D

I know, it’s already a week since the bloggers’ meet, but seriously, life’s been so busy ever since. Of course, it hadn’t got anything to do with the meet; it’s only that the college term is reaching its exam season.

And when I mean busy, I mean busy.

Next monday would be our 3rd and final Oral Comm. assessment. This time it’ll be a three member team presentation with power point slides, 15 minutes, free topic, and lots of nerves. And that, currently, is our top priority, for there will be scripts to draft, witty phrases to brainstorm, slides to design, portfolio to be typed and lots and lots of brainjuice to be consumed.

Not to mention the tests heading our way these few weeks, they’re so many of them I won’t even bother to list them out here but it’s crazy. Sometimes you’d just wonder when will the brakes apply.

But for now, and for the following weeks to come, it will be full-force ahead.

Anyway, September, for me and for perhaps a lot of you too, is the birthday season. We just celebrated Dad’s last Friday.

Taka as usual. XD

Then it was Jeffrey’s the next day, held at his house.

He invited so many people, a good half of the guests that night were strangers. Now that’s rare for a popular guy like me. XD

Oh well, life goes on.

So does the Swinburne campus expansion construction going on next door.. Despite being rumoured to be 2 months behind schedule.

Tonight is the night most of us would celebrate the mooncake festival. Kids are running around the neighbourhood with their lanterns as I type this, really makes me recall the times when I was one of them. Times have changed, my parents are out, sister’s having tuition and I’m here, bloody blogging.

Gosh, I feel so old. Now where did I keep those bloody lanterns..

Every darn morning I wake up, I’ll be greeted by some smoky smell. And gee, look out the windows from here, everything’s so-darn-murky. Visibility is like somewhere around 1KM in estimates. Seriously, I — not only me — we, have been inhaling Carbon-filled air in through our respiratory system with every single breath TWENTY-FOUR HOURS a day and SEVEN days a WEEK! Imagine having to breathe in smoke for the whole day! You get so used to it you don’t even remember how fresh air smells like. Did you even know that exposure to polluted air with an API reading of 200 is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day? Hell, what is this? A nicotine party?

A check at the DOE website says Kuching’s API reading for the day is now 124, with Sibu, Sri Aman and Sarikei topping the list with API readings nearly hitting 200. Visibility is recorded at only 800m for the city.

Every time you stare out into the murky horizon, anger fills up as you silently curse those ****** culprits for causing all this haze. Our clothing smells like barbecue minus the aroma. I’m having a mild sore throat with all those polluted air running through the trachea every second, and my eyes, dammit, are getting sore which makes me feel sleepy. Hey! I got an important Malay mock exam to sit this afternoon, and hell don’t I want to be going through that while choking on polluted air.

ARGH! All this haze crap is really getting on my nerves now. Seriously, what the hell is everyone doing? Are we all friggin blind? One could die if he or she stands out there if not from the heat, it would be from inhaling excessive heavy metal polluted air. STOP BURNING ALREADY, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! BASTARDS!

First, exams. That’s all you hear in my blog. And yes, you heard it again, ‘cos they’re starting next week. Yea, dammit, next week! Man, It feels like it was just last week when we had our first semester exams, and now there’s another one to face.. The months just keep speeding by without mercy, with only just 3 months or so to SPM. Not to mention the mock exam we’re gonna face in September. And there’s nothing more welcoming than having Biology and Chemistry papers on the very first day of the coming two-week exam.

Second, it would be about our hopeless school magazine. Few weeks ago, En.James presented us with his ‘bare’ version of the school magazine during our first meeting, complete with his self-designed fancy, watchyourmacallit borders, frames, bevels and ugh, awful colours. And the cover, the cover! It was absolutely horrible! Members of the sidang redaksi sat there, staring at the LCD projection, holding back our puke.

Now, I saw all these as more work for me. You see, I was appointed the head of graphics for the magazine panel a few months ago and was actually responsible for the graphics in the school magazine. But my usual ‘responsible’ old self had not even lay a finger on any graphic work in the magazine. As a result, En.James resorted to designing everything all by himself. You may think that he did so because I didn’t offer my help, but no, he was reluctant for me to edit or replace any of those masterpieces he had all over the mag even after I asked. But I thought about it, and as I flipped through the previous edition of the school mag, I found this page where the sedang redaksi was introduced to the readers, complete with their photos and titles just below it. And I found this guy who’s name I can’t remember who was, at that time, the head of graphics and I remember saying to myself, Gee, so this is how that guy who is responsible for the utter ugliness of our school mag looks like. Hey! Now I wouldn’t want anyone to say that to my photo when this year’s issue gets published now right? So, gah! I HAD to intervene. Because my name would still be published as the head of graphics in the magazine even though none of the work is actually done by me. Just to make it clear once more, I wanted to intervene for the sake of my name, for I would care less about the well being of that publication.

So, me being a little more responsible than my usual self, insisted that I re-do the cover deisign and various other parts of the school magazine. Surprisingly, En. James agreed to consider my proposals and told me work on a few and present them to him. Ah, there is hope! That is, if I had the time to work on any of those graphic work, which obviously time is what I don’t have. And my, that Pn. Polin had to approach me every single bloody day of the past week to nag me on the progress of the graphical work. She even went to such lengths as to threaten me, sort of, perhaps a less negative word should be used, saying something that sounded like ‘We would only give certificates to members of the sedang redaksi who are really committed and do their job well. If we find that you aren’t completing your tasks, then no cookies for you.’ I replied that comment with a forced smile. Hey, I don’t need certificates or cookies so don’t tempt me with them. I may not have a cabinet full of certificates but I do have plenty of cookies in my kitchen. In fact, there’s a packet of Julie’s Vanilla Flavoured sitting right next to my keyboard as I am typing this.

With all due respect to my teacher, I promised that I would deliver. A promise that I am struggling to keep until now. With the approaching exams, there is simply no time for me to sit down and brainstorm for ideas for designs. Even on the rare occasion where I do struck an idea during my routine morning bath, I would not have to time to produce them in Photoshop. Oh well, at least Pn. Polin extended the deadline for the proposals to the week after them exam so I can worry less about that problem now.

Well thirdly, I was approached by the prefectorial board for yet another addition to my stack of to-do-lists. I was asked to help in designing the invitation card for the coming prefects’ night which where supposed to be a night of appreciation for us seniors. But oh well, I wouldn’t be picky on that. I accepted the job without thinking twice. Now thinking back, I regretted the fact that I actually did accept that task without thinking of my time problems. Well since I had promised to deliver, I tried my best to squeeze out a few ideas for the invitation card but to no avail. At last, I met the four-day deadline with nothing to propose. Luckily, Eddie being a brilliant friend, understood my situation and suggested that he would ask his own prefects to start work on the invitation card on their own. But I felt sort of guilty for not delivering and stated that I would still try my best to work out a few ideas but just in case I hadn’t got the time, the prefects would have to design the card themselves. Phew. Now that would be one thing less to worry about right now.

Blimey, what a long post. To be really optimistic, I guess I should be grateful for the faith they have in me to deliver in terms of graphical work. Thanks, really, to all of you who think so. Well, guess I should just stop here. Oh, and wish me luck in the exams!

Now if you hadn’t know, this year, our classroom is strategically placed on the ground floor. That’s just great cos we don’t have to friggin climb all the way up to the 2nd floor (where 4 Atom’s classroom is) all the grandpa’s and grandma’s in our class just couldn’t afford to do that every friggin morning.

Our class is also easily the nearest to the school exit, the nearest class to the parking lot, the nearest class to the science labs, toilets, you name it. Imagine the convenience. Why the hell would we want to shift up to 4 Atom where it’s further away from EVERYTHING?!

It is also the largest classroom, with ample space in the back and front of the class, with not three, but four fans spinning happily from the ceiling. Better still, it even has a small room (or store) attached to it where we would often hold crazy parties. Being the only class situated on the ground floor of the North wing, we enjoy quiet math lessons, free of noise from neighbouring classes.

And now our principal comes along and tells us we have to switch classrooms. Their reason? Well, apparently, 4 Atom has 50+ students in their class. Although they’re seating fine in their present class now, the problem arises during exams where they have to sit spread-out. And that is when ‘they run out of space’. The easiest solution, according to the administration, is to have them to use our classroom, which could accommodate that big-ass class.

We suggested that they only use our classroom when they need it, which is during exams. But that wouldn’t suffice. Later that day, it was decided that we would have to abide by the orders to switch classrooms, effective after the Chinese New Year holidays. Crap.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Either take back that order or we will launch a full-scale demonstration against the school office! Seriously though, I really hope the admins would reconsider that move. We really don’t wanna move!

*Edit: It’s been confirmed, first thing when the school reopens, we will be studying in 4 Atom’s classroom. The classrooms’ decor and notice boards have been ripped clean and we’ve gave it a last look before heading home today. Guess we would just forget about it while we enjoy our Chinese New Year hols.
Sigh, good things just never last.