Have you checked your digital footprint?

Technology has sometimes gotten so scary yet most people dun realise it at all, at least before u read this of cos. Someday this week I watched an episode of Get Real! now hosted by Cheryl Foxx. She shown how normal users have left much of their personal information on this World Wide Web without even knowing it. To demonstrate she got a few IT-savvy students from Republic Poly(i think) to look for a long lost fren of hers. They have lost contact for about 20 years and all the info she gave to the students was her name, full name, nothing more nothing less. All it took the 5-6 students was about an hour or so and they found out info like her email, blog, her frens, marital status, address, telephone number among the many stuff. So with the phone number Cheryl called her long lost fren and true enough it was her.

What this show is that the WWW is not secure, at all. Many times we leave your digital footprint behind which in the end leads back to us, be it that harmless application for some freebie or u posting that ad on the classified. While most stuff the students managed to dig up are harmless, there are actually unscrupulous people who sell account info like password and stuff to equally unscrupulous people who buy them for purposes like fraud. So the next time u leave behind that phone number or address on the internet, think again.

Today I had an experience how easy it is to track a person through the internet, with just a name many information can actually come up, of course email, frens and blog would be among the most easily found. Anyway all this is NOT done by me, but by a fren of mine(I shall not say who) but he definitely did not have any evil thoughts going through his mind while he's doing it. And all he did was to goggle the name, imagine how easy it is man.

Ok genug genug, it means enough enough in german. My german tutor likes to say that in class all the time to get us to stop what we're doing. I realised the Spring O from Old Chang Kee turns out to be quite delicious, its just like the normal spring roll but thicker, more kick in it. Try it when u have the chance.

Before i forget, mi recre archery has gone on to a new level, 18m range. Gals have a little problem with this range cos u can see/hear some arrows hitting the ground instead of the board. Fundamentals and equipment really play a significant role at this range, i once shot a slightly curved arrow(its a little defective) and i saw the arrow suddenly changed course in its last 5m hitting the adjacent board instead, as if its a homing missile man. Archery is getting more fun, but its not really physically demanding, maybe next sem i shall try something else, either floorball or tennis.

Having plans to go Berkelah Waterfalls in Malaysia this Dec prob the 2nd trip (27-29) with the nus rovers since the first trip to Ophir with Colin and Chonghao was quite good. Anyone else wanna join in?

Freecyling... Pass it on

Just a quick post before i go to bed becoz i'm having mi regular 8am german class tml. 3 days ago after reading on an article abt freecycling i decided to join the yahoo group and see what's its all about. Basically freecycling is all about having its members giving its unwanted stuff to other members who might need it instead of chucking it into the bin or letting it end up with the garung guni. Its better than recycling in a way since it actually extends the life of that particular product since other members take up your offer becoz they have a use for it. So as soon as I joined the group i've come to realise that 80-90% of the post are request for items they need, not many offers are avail, though there are some real good offers like suitcases and women clothes and stuff. So taking a quick glance on my shelf I spotted the perfect item for an offer, my A'Levels Phy and Chem TYS. I'm not gonna need them anyway might as well pass it onto to someone who might need it. So within one day i got 2 offers for it, so thanks to Colin for choosing the lucky one and the books are gone now, more space for me! yeah~

Anyway after the adventurous hike up Mt Ophir with Nus Rovers, there are plans to take on a more fun yet less challenging hike(my body ached for a week after Ophir!) to Berkelah Falls this Dec and really looking forward to it. This time there's more ppl i know who r going and any frens still interested do contact me.

Has been quite some time since I last blogged, I'm typing this post at NUS' engin PC cluster right now. I'm doing some revision since there's only a 1hr lecture today, might as well do some work in campus than sleeping at home.

Started a facebook last week due to reasons I cannot recall but I find it rather interesting and interactive. In contrast, friendster looks so dead, lifeless. I find Warbook which is a game within Facebook rather interesting, reminds me of the game Archmage I used to play back in secondary sch. It getting more fun when u get up the ladder and fight it out with other people while u and ur frens help each other out, girls would probably find it boring but guys are just a sucker for games like this. Currently I'm playing this game with elson(lv 12) and Ben(lv 9) while new players have just joined this game, welcome Jon and vignesh. The more the merrier man.

SEP application for next academic year has just opened, I wanted to choose Uni of Karlsruhe which is slightly south of Frankfurt as my top choice as Karlsruhe is a small uni town, its much cheaper but it also attracts lesser people from going there as well. I would most probably choose to go Munich instead since the ME dept itself has 5 places there, if I get it, I'm more likely to survive in its all-german hardcore mech engin modules. Did I mention that germans take great pride in their mech engineering and mech engineers enjoy elitist status there, at least that's what i hear from a senior who just came back from germany exchange.

11/02 is going to have a steamboat dinner at Parklane Bugis this sunday, apparently at least 10 people are going to turn up so i'm looking forward to meeting them since the usual ones i meet in NUS are the engin ppl, jihui, chonghao, tionghan, jingsheng and hanlun and colin is the only one i meet outside so this sunday would be a great time to meet the rest of the class.

Oh, i heard this poll result through the radio today.

If a meteor is gonna to obliterate Earth tomorrow, what are you going to
do?

Most people chose to spend their time either having sex or with their loved ones, that seems normal since one should enjoy to its last. But what puzzles me is that some people actually chose to commit thef in their final moments of their lives. What the heck are you gonna do with all those money and valuables when there's no more Earth tomoroow? Maybe these people just wanna try something they were prohibited to do all their life in this final moments. How strange.

The packet of life

Today I finally went to donate blood while they were having the usual blood donation drive in NUS. I must say the experience is a lot better than I had expected. Its probably becoz they injected some anesthetics on the arm. I once had a high viral fever while serving NS which resulted in them putting me on a drip. The lousy medics inserted the thick needle into my arm 3 times since the first 2 failed terribly. NO anesthetics were used during the process.

Back to topic, I dun even feel a thing during the whole process, the only pain you will feel is the finger prick on blood testing and the initial injection of the anesthetic but that needle is very much thinner than the one used to draw your blood so no fear. In about 15 mins the whole drawing process is over. After that donors get to have some refreshments in the resting area while watching a movie. They were showing 300 while I was there and the refreshments include milo and other juices, food like apples, Oreo cookies and other biscuits. It was also nice of them to give first time donors a cert as an appreciation. I left within an hour from registration.

I hope those who still have some apprehension on donating blood would feel less apprehensive on donating blood after reading this and go for your first blood donation.

Prison Break season 3

Its finally out, the all new season of Prison Break. So far 2 episodes have been aired and I must say the story is still going strong despite 2 seasons already.



*********Beware of spoilers**************

Now it turned out that its all a ploy in getting Michael to the Sona Prison in order break out a guy the 'Company' wants, James Whistler who has been hiding in the sewers in the inmates run Sona Prison. Most of season 2 survivors have also gathered in Sona, which includes, Bellick the former prison guard, T-Bag the ruthless killer and Alex Mahone the FBI agent with a dark past. Chances are some if not all the other characters were brought here to assist Michael in his mission in order to save his chic girl Sara and his nephew LJ who both been kidnapped. Somehow there's a feeling Sara hasn't been kidnapped since up to now the 'Company' hasn't been able to produce a photo showing Sara under their custody, so they probably only got LJ. Then you have Lincoln who has been exonerated from all charges in the US helping Michael from the outside to save his son and most probably Michael's good fren Sucre would help out with the condition of exonerating all his charges as well. This is just getting more and more exciting, what secrets does Whistler has and is Michael going to go after the Company next?

2LT Wang Changxiong

Everytime when someone calls me on the phone, asking for this person, I always quite wary. You dunno wad business they will have for you calling u all of a sudden. So today I received one such call, and as expected its not something good. So now I'm probably the first OC who is a 2nd Lieutenant(yes, i haven been promoted). The PCs under me probably have a higher rank than me. I always thought they will post me to a unit after I completed my Armour Officer Advanced Course or at the very least give me a post of PC since I haven't complete my PC tour. But stunt of all stunts, making me an OC.

Behold.......The iPhone!

Well well, I'm not really the kinda person who would get a top of the line tech gadgets for myself, at least not when it was just unveiled. But as I blog here right now, there's 2 iPhone sitting on my table. They're not really for me, but of course I could keep one for myself since I did paid for it. The iPhone is too irresistible for me to keep my hands away from it, so I played with it for a little while and here is my review.

1. The iPhone's screen is darn huge, its like a PDA but slimmer, much slimmer.
2. SMS using the qwerty keyboard on its large screen and its still quite easy to hit the right key using your fingers.
3. It has a goggle map function, YouTube shortcut(still works after unlocking) and a organiser that can list your schedule in a neat manner(Colin would prob like this)
4. Docking station and adapter is ridiculously small, think tic tac box
5. Camera is pretty clear for 2MP, tucked away in the corner of the phone but takes plenty of skill if u wanna do self take
6. Volume of the phone is a little soft, maybe becoz i have set the settings right
7. The SIM card slot takes a little skill(and a pin) to open but once u get the hang of it, its okay
8. Haven't tried out the ipod functions but shldn't be a problem since its the main draw
9. Can surf the net using wifi either in landscape or portrait format by turning the phone, yes it can detect how u hold it
10. Though it has a 3.5inch screen, view webpages can still be problematic tat's why it allows u to zoom in
    
11. It also allows u to get weather updates, maps and google earth via wifi
12. Best of all, u can still run most of the functions w/o a SIM card
    

All in all the phone packs quite a punch considering how small it is, it even boast functions like wifi, GPS, YouTube plus an iPod. I can see why its the latest craze all over the world. So if anyone considering to get one can contact me. I'll give u a friendship price.

This is from the net lah, but it actually tells u the dimensions of this baby

The docking station on the left and adaptor on right
iPhone on the left, in box are the earphones and USB cable
Correction pen from my table to show you relative size of iPhone

I hope u can see the word Starhub on the top left