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Shaun’s Technology Predictions in 5 years time

Shaun
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Shaun’s Technology Predictions in 5 years time

Had sometime, so I guess I got kinda carried away typing up a “short post” on technology changes I would expect in years to come, the end result is this post.

Looking back, technology had really progressed amazingly fast over the years, not to mention price downs as well. I still remembered having paid $75 for a 4MB memory stick back in 2000, the equivilant for that price now is a 4GB SD card or 1000 times the storage capacity. Man! technology now, tomorrow’s old. With that I here is my predictions for technology in Singapore in about 5 years time:

Lifestyle Changes, Trends & Gadgetery specifics

  • Infra-red protocol will replaced mainstream by wireless Bluetooth protocols hitting at least 1Mbps
  • USB charging will be the mainstream format for consumer gadgets
  • Most households can have the option for additonal 2 USB ports per power socket for charging purposes
  • 10 Megapixel camera phones will be the norm, on top of 20MP Digital cameras with HD Video recording norm
  • The fine line between MP3 Players, PDAs & Ultra-portable PCs (UMPCs) will fade. In preference for All-In-One computing ultraportables
  • Petrol Kiosks will have Hybrid car replaceable batteries as standard & so are selected LPG topup hotspots
  • People will start being arrested for trying to use their Stove LPGs to power their Natural Gas Cars
  • Your air-conditional, stove, blender or even toaster may come Wi-fi “ready/enabled” and able to be remote controlled globally
  • LCD screens will be so cheap to produce, its cheaper than their CRT counterparts (as presently) & will be used in many structural aspects from static, bus to taxi advertising
  • OLED/OLCD & Hi-Colour 64-bit LCDS will take the new luxury center stage as Plasmas/LCDs today.
  • >200″ LCD screen manufactured (100″ Current) used in low power immersive billboards/projector alternative
  • Digital Wi-Fi radio will start forming its root on the Wi-Max network, with radio stations named after their ip address (e.g Power Radio 202.14.168) instead of the frequencies (e.g 91.3FM)
  • Car radios, Hi-Fi sets and radios will have media card slots as norm.
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Remembering 9/11

Shaun
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Remembering 9/11
2007 Sept11

If actions speak louder than elegy, it tells you where we are that the team coverage on the eve of the 6th anniversary of 9/11 alternated between General Petraeus’ performance on Capitol Hill and Britney Spears’ performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Osama returned to prime time, only to be mocked for his “impotence” and apparent need for Grecian Formula. A New Jersey community that lost 100 people that day has had to delay expansion of its memorial because fundraising fell short. September 11 falls once again on a Tuesday, we are six years away from the fire, and wondering what that means.

A USA Today poll found that more than two thirds of Americans view 9/11 as the most memorable news event of their lifetime. Far from pressing it neatly between the pages of a heavy book, to be retrieved only on special occasions, the day in memory has gained in power and urgency. Nearly one third said the event changed the way they lived – which is up from 18% five years ago, as though it was possible to see the change, or at least safe to admit it without having to swat away charges that “the terrorists win” if you do anything differently…

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Money money happy!, advertise with Adverlets.com!

Shaun
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Money money happy!, advertise with Adverlets.com!

Advertlets.com – Blog Advertising in Asia!”
Earn by blogging! Interestingly, Adverlets not only provides cheques in the mail for your blog Ad earnings but rather cool stickers and badges as well! Money money happy! advertise with Adverlets.com!

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Mizuno Creation 8 – Heavy! Considering Polar RS400SD

Shaun
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Mizuno Creation 8 – Heavy! Considering Polar RS400SD

Did another short 15km run yesterday evening with my old Asics DS trainers. This time it actually felt easier to run with the lighter shoes- the Mizuno is too packed with so much technology inside it simply just too heavy for running (>more than 300g). True the Mizuno have much better cushioning than my almost- disfunct DS trainers, but frankly I didn’t tire out as much as I did on last Wednesday’s run on the same route.

Now I am coming to realize why I felt so tried on the legs so prematurely on my half marathon few weeks ago. I am having second thoughts of wearing the Creation 8 for my year end marathon… or should I stick to my old trusty trainers for just one more marathon? Well it did serve me well for my last year’s marathon but I wonder is it still up to the job, having clocked about 1000km under it’s belt already.

Gadgets ahoy!
The holidays are drawing to an end at the blink of an eye, with only 2 weeks left. If it’s not 3 more days till the release of last semester’s results which is borging me out (man! and I never thought that day will ever come so soon) it’s my current home fixed like phone line is getting stuck and engaged everytime since I extended my internet broadband contract.

Moreover, yes you should know that I am living my days now without a proper watch, or simply say just strapping on anything I can find around the house which looks like a watch and can go on my wrist. I found one of my old Casio digital watches, Baby-G and G-shock I used since primary school, (yea plain good old Japanese technology). Only that the one I wore for my morning swim today not only tells time but acts as an airplane horizon gauge thereafter with it’s watch face half-filled with water!

Polar RS400sd Running Computer

I would be setting my sights forward for a watch by Polar, namely the RS400SD running computer and mainly as I need a form of distance measurements for my runs.

It costs about $715 on a standard detail price in Singapore and about $550-$600 (plus taxes) if I get it from Amazon.com through VpostUSA. Noticeably, Polar’s warranty is international and contrary to worries of Polar Singapore not accepting warranty repairs from watches purchased overseas, I’ve heard of runners having free repairs locally even they’ve brought their Polar Watches from US. So that may just justify the option to get it out of the country. The RS800SD is just too expensive for me at $900+ whats more, the black RS400SD looks way better than the RS800 with the black face and finishing, or maybe it’s just me towards black or darker coloured watches or gadgets. Along that line, that is also on of the reasons why I am getting the Nokia N95 8GB Black as my next phone as well (damn impulses!).

The NewBalanace realrun always have polar as a sponsor for the events, so I would be looking forward to the Polar discount voucher included in the goodie bag which I would actually utilise use this time round.

Running Mileage for the week
Redhill/Tanglin Alexandra Canal Route: 15.1km (WC8) – Wednesday
Redhill/Tanglin Alexandra Canal Route: 15.1km – Saturday
32 Laps Continuous Swim – Sunday
Total Mileage for week: 30.2km
Total 2007 Accumulative Mileage: 681.35km

Digital Image archiving and retrieval of the future

Shaun
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Digital Image archiving and retrieval of the future

(Show more to view video) Some fancy image manipulation and retrieval program, this is technology which revolves with more people using it. I guess the idea of taking flickr sets to reconstruct 3d architecture is simply amazing! I think the demo is running off a standard conventional laptop, so we might be able to all more optimized photo galleries in the near future.

More on the bump >>

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Excellent Ban Leong Repair and Customer Service

Shaun
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Excellent Ban Leong Repair and Customer Service

Well, got some time now to blog about some flashbacks early this week, particularly getting my ‘ol computer speakers repaired.

And yup, got my 6 year old Altec Lansing 4.1 speakers repaired at Ban Leong Service Center in Ubi. It’s wired connector was damaged due to wear and age, otherwise everything else is ok. Actually I almost set my mind on getting a new set for about $200, but most speakers these days do not have the power or “offpph” we get from speakers of the yesterday, which are all discontinued now.

Speaker sets you get in SimLim with the highest power rating, (excluding those with THX ratings) in RMS are not even half of my current one, and all like neutered ducks. What’s more, the sole distro for Klipsch Speakers are not bringing in the Promedia Series anymore, bummer. I really do not want to throw away this speaker set due to just a minor fault (which ironically actually rendered the whole set inoperable though). So I called the sole distro and repairs for Altec Lansing, Singapore last Wednesday in Ban Leong Pte Ltd and was tended by a guy called Franky, who I came to know is their speaker guru.

Apparently, my ATP4 model is old and they have no spare parts, then he asked since it’s a connector problem, then they can replace it with their current spare parts, and thankfully they have the 8 pin connectors in stock!

They told me to bring it into the service center which I did on the following day (Last Thursday). Moreover, I was also told that last week being Comex week, they will have most of their staff including himself at Suntec the whole show period. So they won’t be able to get it repaired the next working week, which is ok on my side. So I will be expecting a call say… the following Tuesday or Wednesday after Sunday’s Comex.

Who knows, got a call 1st thing on last Monday morning telling me the speakers are repaired and all working. Collected it on Tuesdays. The repairs only cost $25 with 2 connectors replaced, very reasonable instead of dunking this old $200 speaker set which is actually still in working condition.

I’ve got my sound and bass back, every thing’s all working like new again! Kudos to franky and the service crew at BanLeong! cheers for a job well done!

Team Radicurl – Final Year Project

Shaun
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Ah yes, the thing going on in the minds most of 3rd year students in SP have to be the Final Year Projects, aka FYP. While most had already started theirs since last semester, mine will officially start the next being a full-time 1 semester dedicated to FYP itself. Had been doing some team planning, administration and stuffs. My project initially started as plans to design and build an air-powered car, allowing the 2 seater to reach top speeds of about 70km/h with a mileage of 10 times of that of normal cars with with half the emissions (if we are using a petrol air compressor) and zero emissions for an electrical one.

But if we want to save the world from consuming itself from global warming we have to do it another day- we scrapped the air-car project after being told to do the SP projects (SP meaning “special projects”) allocated to my team of 3. The project was namely stated as a “Force displacement gaming simulator”. So after some planning and research, here are the preliminary designs for our project:

singapore poly fyp radicurl 004
Our simulator
singapore poly fyp radicurl 006
Driving seat
singapore poly fyp radicurl 011
Our work areas

Little technical gragon. It generally works using electrical linear actuators connected to a light steel/aluminum frame at 3 points using articulated C-brackets, providing pitch and roll motions on 2 axis. It will be hooked up to a workstation linked to servo motor controls to drive the 3-4 horsepower linear actuators with about 500mm of travel each. Tentative for games, we have Microsoft Flight Simulator X, EA’s Formula 1 Season, together with few SEGA arcade and Need For Speed Series for exhibition purposes. Flaunting the displays are 3×20″ 4:3 monitors juiced by a Matrox Triple HeadToGo and Creative 5.1 surround speakers for sound.

Stratasys FDM 3D Printer

Prototyping Hiccups
I actually wanted to send it for prototyping in the SP Rapid Prototyping Center (RPC) last week, but the name “Rapid” can be deceiving- With 3 of 4 of the FDM machines down, it takes 1 week to get 2 of the 16 model pieces done on the Stratasys machine. The arrogant technician there, given “higher order” and “more reputable” externally paid projects to do even wanted to BILL us for our job based on man hours! It’s like almost saying that we are wasting his time on us just because FYP don’t have much value. As absurd as that sounds, what do we pay school fees in the thousands for?

We highlighted that to our supervisor who only placed the prototyping on hold and pushed forward into more result-orientated moves like getting a $199 Saitek Joystick and Racing wheel so that we can do game testing for the platform on the school’s Quadro-based Dual Core Xeon workstations. And who says you can’t play games in school?

Bumping the runs and gadgets!

Shaun
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0
Bumping the runs and gadgets!

The holidays had been on for about 2 weeks already and come to think about it I had not blogged anything under the sun yada yada yada lately, so why not?

Shaun AHM 2007

Health and Fitness
Noticeably, with the exception of the recent Sheares bridge run, you may know that I had not been running regularly these days. Not to mention not attending training back at school either. *gets chased by coach and ducks a thrown whistle & clipboard*

I guess the break from sports during the exams had really taken a toll on my training schedule and the habit seems to stay even when it’s over now!

Moreover, it’s more difficult to maintain my pacing for extended distances past 15km at a go, it just looks like the wall will just drop on me any moment. Then for many at that moment stopping to walk would be the next best feeling to an orgasm.

Looks like it’s back to square one again. Must reformat my brain back to running mode and set the pace and training for Standard Chartered Marathon or it will be a disastrous 42km run.

So whats the least I can do, but go for a 15km jog today? Not I fully understand why I love running – contrary to it being perceived as a strenuous physical sport (which would be the last thing people would actually do when tried) running is actually a good way to wake yourself up and distress yourself mentally. Had not felt so good in ages, would be planning another 15km run again on Friday.

Running Mileage for the week
Redhill/Tanglin Alexandra Canal Route: 15.1km – Wednesday
Redhill/Tanglin Alexandra Canal Route: 15.1km – Friday (Planned)
30 Laps Continuous Swim – Sunday (Planned)
Total Mileage for week: 30.2km
Total 2007 Accumulative Mileage: 681.35km (Planned)

Misc Gadget stuff
Ah yes few days ago, my watch finally succumbed to it’s injuries and fell apart in it’s glory – 5 pieces! Even the army’s way of using black tape to put things together won’t work for now!

Oakley Watch Pieces

Come to think about it, recalling, this 4 year old Oakley watch had been through alot with me, from up thousand of meters in the sky to hundreds of meters under the sea, to mention taking scars from my natural quarry climbs and bashed in Medan Indonesia. The thing which I cherish most would be it tagging along with me for my first marathon and running along with me for over 1500km of runs to date, always faithfully timing and counting laps, it still even have my last half marathon timing on it’s screen!

Only thing that it seems to slide off my wrist whenever I try to put it in place… At least it’s still a functional pocket watch now!

The RS800 suddenly looks very appealing to me…

Ulu Pandan/Sunset Lane Canal Running Route

Shaun
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Ulu Pandan/Sunset Lane Canal Running Route

The Ulu Pandan/Sunset Lane Canal jogging route is part of the series I will be sharing as part of my favorite running route in the central and southern Singapore.

Ulu Pandan/Sunset Lane Canal
As ulu as the name may sound (no pun intended) this running route is part of the park connector line of tracks which are planned to be linked all round Singapore. It generally employs the pavements built along side service canals to provide inter-connectivity between regions. The Ulu Pandan route is no exception as a starting point towards the western park connectors.

Route (5.18km external park route)
For my runs within the area, I usually use the canal route as part and the highlight of a longer round-about route starting from Singapore Polytechnic’s Sports Stadium (note the running track south of the route), towards Bouna Vista MRT and encircling the route back up from Clementi Road towards New Town Secondary before ending back at the stadium. The total distance being 5.18km per loop as shown below.

Sunset way Canal Route

You can jump to the route for planning on Streetdirectory.com here

Terrain
With the exception of the generally flat canal route, the circle route are generally a sloping in most other parts with 2 traffic crossings in total. Exiting and turning left from the SP sports stadium will bring you along Dover Road (towards Fairfield Secondary direction), turning again on the first left from a long downhill towards Dover Avenue will greet you with a 100m long 15-20 degree uphill.

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Advertlets Blog Ads Network, putting the ‘Bling’ in ‘Blogging’

Shaun
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Advertlets Blog Ads Network, putting the ‘Bling’ in ‘Blogging’

You may notice that I am running a new ad campaign from Advertlets.com. Here are some highlights on what this rather interesting blog advertising network offers.

Advertlets

Advertlets.com is an Asian blog/weblog advertising network that offers the remarkably sensible proposition of targeted, unintrusive advertising on user’s blogs and website that benefits the online advertising need of clients as well as the general blogger’s community together with their readers.

Bloggers get advertisements relevant to their readers, allowing readers to be better engaged and catered for, which is ultimately in line with advertiser’s interests- making every of their advertising dollar and message count.

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Alexandra/Tanglin Park Connector Running Route

Shaun
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Alexandra/Tanglin Park Connector Running Route

Alexandra/Tanglin Park Connector
One of my favorite central urban running routes to date, this route brings you through the breathtaking and calming estates of Alexandra and Prince Charles road alongside a canal in a straight forward closed (and no-brainer) route. The track was opened by Mr Lee Kuan Yew around 2006 and is often frequented by the residents around the area.

Bridge from Delta Sports Complex
Park Connector Entrance
General Purpose Trail

The route is built on an old canal in line of the park connector plans in Singapore and is not totally inaccessible but rather sheltered/covered so you need to find it on your first, the general rule is spot the canal and you are there. You can access it mid-span from Delta Sports complex, taking the overhead bridge over Alexandra road. Alternatively you can access one end of the trail from Tanglin Road – Crescent Girl School (Near Tanglin Regency condo) or the other end at Delta/River Valley Road (Near Domain 21 condo) where you will be both greeted by the park connector’s map showing the full route and span of the connector itself when complete will span and be connected to various other park connector’s within Singapore.

Route & Terrain (5.67km external park route)
My 5.67km route starts off from Tiong Bahru Park making my way West towards Redhill MRT before circling up towards the cross junction in front of Tanglin Regency and heading East till using the overhead bridge crossing in front of Delta Sports Complex. From there you will find yourself mid-span on the park connector canal route.

Alexandra Tanglin Park Connector
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Tiong Bahru Park Running Route

Shaun
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Tiong Bahru Park Running Route

Tiong Bahru Park Running Route
Tiong Bahru Park had been around for a long time even with it’s previous face-lift and the introduction of Gan Eng Seng Secondary next door, taking a large chunk of it’s old land area and introducing a dedicated soccer field. The place started off as left over land from a sewage plant only to converted into a dedicated park a long time back. If you live in the southern city area, you definitely won’t give this little park a miss, being the only one real park connecting the centrals and filling in for residents of Prince Charles Road, Redhill, Delta and of course Tiong Bahru itself.

Route & Terrain (1.2km external park route)
The “new” Tiong Bahru Park has a rather simple idiot-proof layout, with a prominent perimeter loop span both ends of the park.

Tiong Bahru Park Standard 730m Loop
If you want to make of the longest distance in this small urban park, run the perimeter which will give you close to 730m in the standard loop (White Line).

Tiong Bahru Park Standard 730m Loop
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