Wanna See a Pencil Disappear?

Posted by HELiX

When The Dark Knight was released, it saw screens in a record number of theaters - 4,366.

When the first numbers came rolling in from midnight shows, record #2 was in the books — $18.5 million is the highest midnight opening of all-time.

And by the end of the first day, The Dark Knight sets one-day record of $66.4 million.

Came the weekend and just today, The Dark Knight has taken in $155.34 million for best opening weekend ever at the box office.

And I’m one of those guilty.

Sure, I loved the The Dark Knight but soaring to #1 of all the movies ever created is a bit…

Comments(0) 6:43 PM 7 July 2008

Why We Hate SLA

Posted by HELiX

Streetdirectory.com - You’ll be lost without it™

Well, I have been.

You see, Streetdirectory.com had to take down it’s maps after losing a copyright suit with the Singapore Land Authority. That’s quite some time ago, but the site continues to operate… for some reason.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand these Government agencies. SLA’s website states that its mission is to enable the full use of land information for better land management and creation of new business opportunities. And that they are operating on the core values of Nation First, Always Delighting Customers, blah blah blah.

So that’s right. You’ll achieve that by taking down the best street directory service in Singapore.

And then attempting to make up by providing another map service on your own site, which looks seriously ugly and lacking in features.

So when you thought everything was settled and we’re lost for good, SLA decides to make an complete ass of itself by doing the same thing to Google.

It’s a smart thing to do. Mess with an multi-national company with a market capitalisation value of US$179.07 Billion, which is on-par with Singapore’s nominal GDP of US$171.95 billion.

In April 2008, the country’s government claimed that the ban stemmed from a dispute between SLA (Singapore Land Authority) and Google over copyright issues. SLA alleged that the satellite images on Google Earth are direct copies of real geographic features in Singapore and infringe upon the organization’s copyrights.

Comments(0) 9:57 PM 7 July 2008

I Can’t Believe I’m Resorting to This

Posted by HELiX

Hello Readers!

Today, I

[ ] had a great time
[ ] had an uneventful day
[X] am having a total yawn
[ ] am seriously considering suicide

in

[ ] school.
[X] my home.
[ ] National Service.
[ ] this tiny island almost seemingly sneezed out of Fried Green Elephant.

I had

[X] char siew rice
[ ] sushi
[ ] omelette
[ ] jelly juice drink
[ ] spiders

for

[ ] breakfast
[ ] brunch
[ ] the meal between breakfast and brunch
[x] lunch
[ ] dinner
[ ] supper

today.

It was

[ ] wonderful
[ ] much better than I expected
[x] so-so
[ ] horrendous
[ ] reminding me of how my feet taste like
[ ] inedible + unprintable

because

[ ] I eat it almost everyday.
[X] the school’s canteen is that boring
[ ] my Mother forced me to eat it.
[ ] I was rushing for school.
[ ] it entered my mouth uninvited.

The people I talked to today

[ ] are the just the best.
[ ] think they’re the best.
[X] best have another think.
[ ] are complete, utter morons whose very existence on Earth is proof that the devil exists.

The weather is

[ ] raining here
[ ] just like my oven set to the highest temperature
[ ] Venusian
[ ] out of its mind
[X] sunny in Mexico

and I

[ ] love my bed.
[ ] feel great.
[ ] miss you, __________.
[ ] want to stop global warming by switching off my monitorrrrrasadavaevsvavsfasfabrbsbbdfgdfg
[X] need to get back to my work.

So,

[X] come and join me.
[ ] thank you for reading this.
[ ] see you soon.
[ ] I love your cat.

Comments(0) 7:59 PM 7 July 2008

Change

Posted by HELiX

Just felt that I should update this a bit.

Few things.

First, I won’t be joining the school’s publicity video competition which closes this coming Friday. Much to everyone’s disappointment and some’s delight.

Sure enough, I have made two of the most memorable videos this year, and this competition is almost aimed at drawing me out with its description of:

The ACJC Publicity Video Competition has been organized for the video-making/editing/shooting inclinations we know you possess (we saw plenty of it on show during Funorama this year, and in many other videos before and since!).

But there’s just so much time to Prelims. It’s a 2 minutes video, and considering how my 1 minute videos took about 2 or 3 days each, I just don’t have that enough time to kill.

And then I also considered the prize money factor because I’m just mercenary like everyone else including non-profit organisations. That is how the human mind works. $200 worth of vouchers for the top prize. Not enough for me…

And then I also consider how the planets are not aligned.

So expect yourself to be entertained by videos that load up from powerpoint when they display them for voting later this year. No fast pace narration, no Hitler, and best of all, no HELiX Productions logo at the start of each video.

…

In other news, I have this sudden urge to redo my blog redesign after quite sometime with it. I used to change blog design once every few months, but ever since the current one burned over two weeks of my time last October, I decided I had enough.

Almost a year later, enough has been depleted to nothing, so I’ll thinking of something refreshing.

The banner is unique; it’ll stay.

But the simple table-like layout for the content below it is quite crappy and plain. That will change.

And I’m looking to redesign my lab page entirely, and finally add in the Tesla Coil and Laser projects after more than year later.

Comments(0) 12:06 AM 7 July 2008

Happy Youth Day

Posted by HELiX

…Fine, I stole the title but what else could describe this day?

I watched my first full-length match of tennis on television yesterday, and I suspect that it discouraged me from watching any more.

The Wimbledon Championships finals, and for the 3rd year running, it’s Federer vs Nadal again. World number one vs world number 2. How sweet.

So The Straits Times stated that the match would start at 8.30pm, and I dumped everything I was doing aside and took over the television from my Dad.

Ah, it was raining in London, like how it was back I was there a month ago. Stupid British weather.

And so the match was delayed… and delayed… and delayed… by more than an hour before the rain finally stopped and the match began.

The Wimbledon particularly interests me because of its grass courts. Being the only Grand Slam on grass, Federer is supposed to have an advantage, and the oldest tennis tournament in the world, strict traditional guidelines remain. To the point where they actually painstakingly trim the grass to exactly 8mm in height for optimal playing conditions.

Also, in order to preserve the playing condition, they have to pull over a cover over the entire court whenever there is a slight drizzle because wet grass isn’t that fun to play on.

Because of that, things like this get spawned:

The first set was quite straightforward. With each player winning all his service games, but unfortunately Federer lost one of his and never recovered. So Nadal picked up the set at 6-4. Second set, pretty much the same, and Nadal found his way to another 6-4 victory.

As the match is best of 5, Nadal only needed one more set to win, ending Federer’s 5-year winning streak. And, eh, Federer needed to win every single set remaining to win.

What’s interesting to note is that Federer has ever done it done. Thrice, in fact. Coming down from 0-2 sets to win 3-2.

And so begins his struggle to make his fourth recovery. Both players were very evenly match, and basically the games went 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4, 5-5, 6-5, 6-6 and finally forcing the set to end with a tie breaker.

Somewhere in the middle, the rain came again and the match was suspended for about half an hour.

Even through the tie breaker, which was supposed to force a player to win, they were doing the same thing, going from 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and up. At one point, Nadal was leading and just needed to another point to win the championship. But it didn’t happen — Federer sealed his first set after winning the tie breaker.

So it was 1-2.

Then came the fourth set, which was pretty much a repeat of the third set, but the tie breaker was dragged even longer. Nadal had his 2nd championship point and screwed up again. Federer won the set.

2-2. Seriously what the hell.

And finally came the last set, with both players draw with two sets each.

And when you think they’d want to end the match quickly after it’s into the 5th set, they practically did the same thing, again. Went up to 6-6 and stood there.

The rain came, AGAIN, and the match was suspended, AGAIN.

As the last set won’t have a tie breaker, they played on and by some luck, Nadal got two games to win the championship 8-6 in the final set. Through that he actually had 4 championship points, what a loser.

I feel so happy to be biased.

All in all, it was the longest men’s finals ever, clocking in well over four hours of gameplay. And 8 hours for us audience, because the match lasted from 8.30pm to 4.30am with all the suspensions and everything. In that time, I could have nearly watch finish the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

Tell me I can find another sports match which lasts that long.

…

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Comments(0) 3:22 PM 7 July 2008

Epic Fail

Posted by HELiX

Comments(0) 7:33 PM 7 July 2008

ACS(I) Astronomy Camp

Posted by HELiX

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Comments(0) 1:44 AM 7 July 2008