La Vida Robot!

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot.html
One of the best Wired stories I've ever read.

The glow of a lightbulb (电灯泡)

How does it feel to live with a couple? Does one feel constantly left out or does one comfortably tunes them out in time? I wonder about this sometimes, watching q's and d's behavior in the house. It must be irritating to have us around, living in our own little world at times and trying to be part of theirs at others. I do wish we can live like cool Friends-style housemates, being comfortable with one another's quirks and not being awkward over something as simple as who's using the coffee table at a particular time. E.g. Person #1 is sitting at the coffee table, watching TV and sees Person #2 coming towards the table with a bowl of noodles. A sudden urge for over-the-edge politeness gets into Person #1 and he/she retreats from the coffee table, ceding the entire big-enough-for-four table to Person #2, just because it is the _polite_ thing to do. Argh! Real friends don't do that! In a real friendship, #2 would go, "Hey, mind scooting over a little?" and #1 would scoot over unhurriedly and reply, "That smells good! Mind if I try some?" Which got me thinking about why things are still awkward in the house... and that leads us back to the original question: Is being single and living in a house with a couple irksome? I dunnoe. It's good that d moved in, so that q has a companion to 'even the odds'. Let's work together so that it won't end up being the couple against the singles : )

Ole ole ole ole, ole, ole, ...

World Cup dreams
The best local production I've seen in a while. Sure brings back a lot of memories. I long for the day when I will be reunited with my soccer buddies...

Canadian bagels

Recently, I learnt that Canadian bagels (Montreal, the bagel capital of the world, to be precise) are the best! Believe me, no bagel made in the USA can possibly compare to one of their Canadian counterparts. Maybe it's the honey, maybe it's the wood-fire oven, maybe 'cos they aren't mass-produced and true to the original recipe, but they are GOOD. Slightly sweet, soft, best when freshly toasted. Wonder why they don't make 'em like that here. Thanks yx!

ESC SF 2005

Took a break for the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco. Pretty good stuff - seeing what's out there and how people market their products. Also manned a demo booth for two days, talking to curious attendees and anyone I could snare from the crowds. It was nice watching how the marketing people schmooze and mingle with just about anyone, spinning all the engineering work into marvellous-sounding sales pitches. Now that's a skill to learn...
Anyhow, getting a chance to see one's project all the way from the drawing board to the conference booth is very satisfying.

Nature red in tooth & claw

Nature red in tooth & claw,
originally uploaded by bagelfire.

A little morbid perhaps, but the relentless quest for survival in the natural world never ceases to amaze me. Within a shallow tidepool in Half Moon Bay, hermit crabs fall upon an injured shore crab. One would usually expect the little hermits to be harmless, gentle creatures but you should have seen their ferocity in this case.

More on Datou

I realize that I neglected to mention what Datou likes to do when he is not enjoying the moonlight with Pei Tze and what he does for a liviing. The most accurate information I have actually dates back to the summer of 2003, before we graduated. Throughout the years, Datou has been a 文武双全 kind of person - working hard and playing hard. When he is not doing geeky stuff on his computer, Datou likes to run, play basketball and take part in outdoor activities like hiking and camping. Some of my best memories are of our camping trips. There are few things better than relaxing around a blazing campfire after a long day of trekking over hills and valleys, across rivers and through forests. Hopefully when he has time, we can go camping again, eh, Datou? Even though the Singapore military mandates that Datou should not undertake any strenuous physical activity, he can complete a 10km run with ease. And when the lift to his flat breaks down, he relishes the 22-storey dash up the stairs. During normal working hours, Datou is a security specialist at the IDA (Infocomm Development Authority) of Singapore, helping to plot, oops, I mean, to plan the current and future manipulation, sorry, progression of IT security and infrastructure in Singapore. If you own a cell/handphone or use the Internet, chances are you have already benefited from his work. Nowadays, Datou is looking into how data-mining, a pet topic of his which he spent countless hours on at Stanford, can help cyber-security and improve life for people on the planet. This is actually a pretty interesting field which I'm sure he'd be happy to discuss with anyone, given the chance. When he is released from his 6-year incarceration, we plan to form a startup and save the world with our technology (and get to live comfortably in the process)!

大头Bighead

Who is Datou? He is a simple, honest boy from the small town of Jurong East in Singapore. Datou was born with a prodigiously large head, an attribute that was to be both a blessing and a hindrance (more of the former than the latter) to him throughout his life. For example, in his younger and more tentative days, the fact that his head consisted of 60% of his total bodymass allowed strangers and new classmates to easily break the ice by making fun of him. Having an easy-going nature (besides, what can he do?), Datou always responded with a smile and some lame attempts at humour, which earned the ready affection and respect of his peers and elders. Fortunately, nowadays his head has ceased to outgrow the rest of his body and Datou looks more proportional (just take a look at pictures from his younger days and you'll see). Of course, a considerable head mass comes with a considerable intellect; Datou is indeed a brainy boy, excelling in many geeky disciplines such as math and computer science. But what never ceases to amaze me is his religious faith and continual quest for spiritual development. If there's one person I know who embodies all of the good things about Christianity, it is Datou. And if the meek shall inherit the Earth, then you can be certain that one of them has a _big_ head. He is, like all of us, an ordinary person who faces choices between right and wrong, good and evil at all times. And the simple yet remarkable thing is that Datou takes the trouble to find out what the right thing to do is, and he does it for the benefit of the people around him. Although he can be headstrong (no one is perfect lah) at times, I'm sure that in the days to come, he is destined for great things, in his career, as a friend, a son, a husband and a father(that is a little scary to imagine). The next time you see Datou, don't be shy - approach him, ask about his head, and you will find that this short paragraph does not even begin to describe all his redeeming qualities and the wonderful person he is.

Geeky geeky

Anyone who has laboured long and hard over a problem will appreciate the journey taken to the final goal/solution. After working on a demo for the past few months, I am finally seeing a concrete system take shape, one that can not only be appraised by engineers but also by non-techie folks, like my mum. It is amazing how much the people around me know, 'cos without their suggestions and expertise, most of it would not look like what it is now. In fact, I have little clue about how most of the final solution was implemented : )

The teeth of wisdom

I wonder how many years does it take for us humans to evolve away from wisdom teeth.... Having extracted two of them last Friday, I can attest to the fact that trying to prevent the food that you're chewing from migrating to the sides of your mouth (where the molars are) is very challenging indeed. Feeling stitches on your gums is also a strange sensation.
And after having porridge for the past four days, I never want to see any watery, soupy food again! Give me a nice deep-fried chicken drumstick!!!
Like what yx says, you never miss the simple yet essentials things like your molars until you lose the use of them. Thankfully, it's temporary.
Here's to all wisdom teeth sufferers - hang in there!