Archive for December, 2005

Ammo Tech Week 1

Published
by
Zz85
on December 27, 2005
in Interesting Stuff, NS and WebLinks
. 0 Comments

On the first day finding my new unit,
a) I went to a wrong road
b) I went 2 rounds along that wrong road (but happen to met a friend)
c) reached the correct road
d) but went 2 rounds in that area because I could not entrance

Quite a bad start? I almost never learn from 2 weeks back when I had a bad start of the week where i took 2 taxi trips, Monday back home, Tuesday to camp, which added to about 30 bucks.

So a new place, new environment, new people to know and new stuff to learn. On Job Training will take up my first few days.

Here is a chance where I get to see many new faces again. Different people, different characters, different behavior, but overall most very friendly to us new men.

A new environment means new lifestyle too.. Some time is needed to learn it and adapt it. Well, as our OC says the best thing that might be learnt here is learning human relationships.

So there are Men and there are “Bosses” too.. The biggest of them all, OC gave us an interview, we told him about ourselves, and he tell us about himself. The most interesting part is he tries to infuse good attitude in us. Phrases like “I cannot change someone’s character, I can only change someone’s behavior” were used. I agree to almost all of his views, example,
We all have a purpose here and a job to do
Cant work without a good attitude
If we cant change the facts, we should live with it
Get the most out of our 2 years in NS
Try to take up courses
Smoking is not good

It was interesting watching him talk to all the men, and how he motivates them, and even change my view like how you should use English which I thought were just small things..

On the forth day was our Cohesion Day.
We played CrossFire PaintBall at SDC (Singapore Discovary Center)

This got me instructed on this sport and here are a couple more links.

Here is TAG Paintball at OCC at Yishun, the only other place in Singapore you can play paintball (bigger, painer, and slight more expensive too)

Stress Relief Paintball Flash Game

Howstuffworks “How Paintball Works”

Well.. so far so good for the start.. More things are coming.. example Guard Duties (I got Chinese New Year Day 1)

DIY: My external DVD burner

Published
by
Zz85
on December 24, 2005
in Interesting Stuff and Technology
. 0 Comments

Just in case the title confuses anyone, following is just how I turn my internal dvd writer into an external one which I can bring around.

Items required:
1. DVD Writer
2. External 3.5″ Harddisk casing

You might have seen this idea in my previous post. I bought a black samsung 16x dvd writer for SG$85. Its a powerful combination, it can burn cdrws, and dvd+r/-r and dvdrws with DL(double layer) storing about 8.6GB on the dvd. you can buy 10 4.3 DVDs for about $9, which gives over 4GB per $1 spent, or 20cents for 1GB of storage. this makes it the cheapest storage IMHO, esp lessing the gaps if you are coping large files.

The idea came when I want to lend the drive to my brother but didnt like to hassle installing it(struggling with the pc, casings, screws, cables and confined space). Then the thought
“if I have a external burner”, followed by
“oh that would need extra power plug”, then
“that same disadvantage of my external 3.5″ hdd casing over 2.5″ hdd casing”
“oh wait.. dont the connectors of a 3.5″ hdd and a cd/dvd drive the same??”

TATA.

But an advice if you are trying this, you better have usb 2.0 connection. it seems that it likely to hang on a usb 1.1 connection. If hopefully it works,

USB 1.1: 12 Mbps which is 1.5MB/s which means a 10x on CDs, over 50mins for a full DVD
USB 2.0: 480 Mbps = 60MB/s == >52x on CDs, which should pose any problem at all.

Here are some photos.

Benchmark

Courtesy to Teddy Blue for loaning his PC for testing and photos.

Existing timestamp: December 04, 2005 @ 22:01

O Perfect Love

Published
by
Zz85
on December 17, 2005
in Music
. 0 Comments

A (tution) teacher of mine always hold some sort of a party or concert and prize ceremony for her students at the end of each semester.

As a graduated student, I was invited a couple of times to play a couple of songs for the kids, oh well, students i mean. The past few times it was for students from Family and Student Care Center. Not sure what happen though, I got really excited about playing and so I did an arrangement of a hymn so my cello, piano friends and me could play it.

Ignoring the wee hours of midnight, it took me a few hours, but I churned out some music, well with a piano (only tapping it softly), some paper and pencil, a PC, which of course I make use of the LilyPond software, equipped with my favorite lilytool for jedit, and a little help from noteworthy composer, the earphones, and the printer.

So the piece is “O Perfect Love”, and well its really isn’t much of a arrangement, except I “rearranged” the parts to form something else. Its far from good, but here’s the midi, pdf, and the source file if you care.

If you want to know more about this hymn, read more about it at cyber hymnal. Its was a tune to another hymn, and came the “O perfect Love” lyrics which makes it suitable for a wedding. And yes, my brother told me once to play this piece for his funeral, as he wants it to be a joyful occasion.

So much for the publicity of a little work I have done. Its sure to get huge criticism once I show this to the experts.

Update: So we indeed manage to play this song.. And, here’s a practice I recorded, which wassnt that bad by my standards, that we come together playing interestingly after all of us have not touch our respective instruments for some time. There’s the super compressed ogg and wma formats, whichever your computer can play.

Parting ATT-12

Published
by
Zz85
on December 16, 2005
in Memories, NS and Photos
. 2 Comments

Well, after 12 mental challenging weeks, countless of assessments, battles with the Z monsters, learning, adapting & dealing with one another, its time to go. Its been fun getting to know each other, and the experiences learnt hopefully will not be forgotten.


As usual, I start out from home early in the morning. Here I see the sunrise.
Continue reading ‘Parting ATT-12′

Ammo Command Dinner

Published
by
Zz85
on December 16, 2005
in Memories, NS and Photos
. 0 Comments

Location: Crown Palace, Yishun
Event: Ammunition Command Anniversary Dinner
People: ATTs


Continue reading ‘Ammo Command Dinner’