Notes from the Lab

I've been learning programming using C through one of my courses this term. I initially thought that it would be a wearisome course. But right now, I actually find it quite fun (or maybe it's because it has only been the first few introductory classes). The course encompasses three, one hour lectures and a two hour lab class every week. However, the pre-lab exercises are pretty exhausting (the second took me a good 4-5 hours to complete), and there's a bothersome weekly quiz, not to mention both a written midterm and final examination! The tricky thing is that we will be required to write all the C algorithms for a given question, but we don't get a chance to test it out on a computer.

Here's a snapshot of what I've been doing this week:

(click to view full-size)

It's a really simple program created using Dev-C++ that converts a force in Newtons to pounds. I believe that I'll have to construct much more intricate programs sometime in the future.

I heard from a friend who took the course last term that the course gets progressively harder through the weeks, and that it gets real harsh near the end of the term. I certainly hope that it doesn't turn out to be the way he described it as, fingers crossed.

T'ang

Like Sound Through Water

I nearly thought my US$249.99 Ultimate Ears earphones was in need for an RMA request after I carelessly allowed a drop of water to collect on the internal components of an earpiece itself. Fortunately the water evaporated over time and the earpiece became usable once again.

Here's how it happened.

As usual on a weekly basis, I removed the silicon eartips of my earphones for a regular rinse under the faucet yesterday. Normally I would wait overnight till the eartips dried before reattaching them to the earpieces. But yesterday, I was feeling a little hasty as I wanted to use them right away. Well, I paid for that dearly.

I briefly rubbed the silicon eartips against my hand towel and connected them to the earpieces. Alarmingly, I discerned that my right earpiece's sound was noticeably louder and more profound than the left. Specifically, it was the high frequencies such as the clash of cymbals that seemed washed out. At first I thought that it was due to a lose cable connection, but after detaching and reattaching the cables, the result was merely the same. I removed the earpieces and shone them over a flashlight, and there lay the cause of the hindrance. It was a tiny water droplet residing inside the plastic canal of the left earpiece which routed sound waves from the armatures to the outside.

"Water + electrical components = recipe for destruction," I imagined.

The next logical step was to dry the earpiece of course. I placed the left earpiece face down above my computer fan as the heat and gentle air currents will help dry the earpiece out. After at least 6 hours, I tested the earphones again and alas, the sound came out crystal clear once again.

This is the short story of it though. I actually did much more than that, like using the ear-wax removal tool to be sure that there are no solid (or semi-solid) pieces of junk obstructing the canals :)

So, always remember kids: always be sure to dry your hands before you handle electronics. Well, that's one lesson I should've known years ago.

Phew,
T'ang

New Year's Post

2008. It has been a wild ride that’s for sure: 2008 was the year in which I moved to Canada; 2008 was the year in which I attended a high school; 2008 was the year in which I enrolled into a university; 2008 was the year in which I met the most Caucasians in my life; 2008 was the year in which I attempted to loose my Singlish accent and vocab; 2008 was the year in which I was finally freed from the ‘short-hair policy’ of Singapore; 2008 was the year in which inexpensive and good food was no longer accessible to me; 2008 was the year in which I got tired of English songs; 2008 was the year in which I was no longer required to wear uniforms, and the list goes on.

Now, onto my New Year’s resolutions.

I don’t think I'm a person who progresses through a list of aims and targets. I remember those days in primary and secondary school where our form teacher will force us to pen down a list of resolutions (especially our grades) on the first day of school every year. I would just write anything and everything I could think of and then chuck it aside, never to be revisited again. So, I’ll not be filling this area with phrases labeled 1,2,3 and so on. I guess my life is shaped by whatever that comes my way. Of course, there are the ‘standard’ goals of doing well in school, making new friends, staying healthy and sort. But I feel that these have come to a stage where I would say, are customary.

And so, I shall be meeting 2009 with a sense of optimism.

Bring it on!
T’ang