Network Security & Hacking (Science Month '09)

Update: We have only 11 registered participants so far. Please encourage your friends to sign up. The show will still go on even with a single audience.

FREE ADMISSION
PRE-REGISTRATION NEEDED
Date/Time: 8 Sep 09, Tuesday/ 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Target audience: Secondary School Students
Venue: Ngee Ann Poly, Blk 8 Level 4 Room 3
Objectives of the workshop:
To safely surf & test downloaded software
To choose an RF channel for home WLAN
To hide data using Stenography
To communicate with remote servers, switches and routers.

The highlight is a hands-on online competition called King-of-the-Hill .This is a multi-player online game where participants charge up a 'hill' by telnetting to the router/switch in front of them. Their progresses are beamed live onto the projector for the audience to cheer them on. The first to reach the top of the hill is the King-of-the-Hill. Prizes will be awarded to the first five winners.

Contact person: Mr Low Chee Kin
Send an email to lck2@np.edu.sg to register for the workshop. Registration closes on 3/9/09
Click here for the full list of events during Science Month '09.

Painted Skin

In the movie, Painted Skin, a lady ghost catcher had a precious sword that could only be unshielded from its scabbard by the right person. Nobody could do it. Not her or her grandfather. Not by strength alone. It piqued our curiosity: Why? Who could do it? What power does it have? An aka King Arthur.
When the answer was revealed, I was all ears. I liked its explanation: the sword could only be unshielded by love not hatred. In a desperate act to save her love, the ghost catcher was able to remove the sword and used its effects. The sword even loses its power when wielded by another person.
Painted Skin was adapted from the original Chinese Ghost Stories (聊斋志异). The author, Pu Song Ling, was way ahead of his time.

One particular lunch I had in Australia

While watching the 44th National Day Parade, I was reminded of a lunch I have had with a Caucasian in Australia. I worked for a short period of time in Sydney in 1995. One day, I was having lunch at a cafe and a total stranger came in and sat opposite me. We started talking, after he realized that I was from Singapore. He started to berate Singapore for all the stereotype that the Western media wanted their readers to believe – no freedom of speech, no chewing gum, no smoking, no picking of flowers, no littering; he went on and on.
At the end of his ranting, I told him that as a child, I stayed in a 1-room flat with four other siblings, my parents did not have much expectations of us. In 1995, I owned and stayed in a executive apartment, drove my own car, a graduate and a decent job. I attributed the transformation for the better to our government and I have great respect for them. I gave him some examples to show that the Singapore government has foresight. After I finished, he did not utter a single word.

Iron Man

We watched Iron Man yesterday and left feeling good about it. I was expecting a WWII type of setting given that I knew about it when I was a child. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the story was transplanted into our modern day world which would relate better to the younger generation.
The protagonist’s change in attitude was told in a convincing manner. He started off as a cocky and over-confident man who believed that ‘there is peace as long as he has the bigger stick’ to the realization that his weapons were killing those he sought to protect.
His ability to escape was due to his engineering skills – it gave a feel-good effect and it certainly resonance with the engineers out there.
As he was perfecting his suit; it gave the impression that he was on his way to invincibility. I was beginning to wonder what surprise they could churn out to make us want to root for him. The story could well degenerate to what happened in X-Men evolution: The Origin of Wolverine. I remembered my son’s comment on the latest X-Men installment:
“How exciting it is to see an indestructible man grunting his way around?”
Iron Man outdid itself when it came up with a more powerful enemy in the form of his business partner who stole his technology and he had to fight with a his old and depleted power pack.

Ip Man

After watching the movie, Ip Man, I said, “I enjoyed the movie.”
My eldest son retorted, “But there is no quotable quote.”
I replied, “Well, I liked it when he said, ‘There is no such thing as being afraid of one’s wife, only RESPECT.’”
The next day, I suddenly recalled a funny exercise (a physical exercise for the physically challenged) my wife taught us. It so happened that this son was just beside me. I asked him to do the exercise. He promptly followed my instructions which was quite unusual given his character. It was so funny to see a lanky fellow like him doing that exercise but I had had to put up a straight face.
At the fourteen count (my wife said that the exercise is to be repeated fourteen times), my son sprang up to me, our faces almost touching each other and said cheekily, “There is no such thing as being afraid of my father, only RESPECT.”
Both of us broke into spontaneous laughter.

Keeping Toman as pets

About two months ago, my son was drying his school shoes on the window sill and one of the shoes dropped into my fiber glass ‘pond’. The freak accident decimated my ‘colony’ of shrimps and with it my pride and joy. The last time something like that happened was many years ago when my wife’s orchid dropped into the same pond. The pesticide in the pot of orchid killed almost everything in the pond, notably my daughter’s school of guppies.
A perpetual optimist that I am, I see it as an opportunity to start something new, something different. I decided to keep snakehead fish or Toman. They are well known for being hardy. I have always enjoyed watching a particular Toman in NP pond (outside NP Convention Centre). Every time, I pass by the garden, I would detour and try to look for it.
My good friend, Quek SK, bought me three snakehead and they have been with me for one week already. I am very happy with them for they are such active swimmers bring much life to my pond. I have no qualm about eating them when they are bigger but my family protests to no ends.

Comment from Quek SK:
In America Toman is a pest not pet.
You have foresight. Spore is trying to reduce food imports thru fish farming.
If every household do what you do Spore can be self sufficient in food.
This morning I saw a toman at BT hawker aquarium fish shop.
About 2.5 inch.
Best Regards, qsk

Update:
My wife booted the snake-head fishes out of the house after they gave my children nightmares. The Tomans swam in the middle section of the water. They were not interested in surface food like flaks or worms at the bottom of the pond. The only food they went for were other fishes. The way they attacked other fishes was so vicious that it upset my wife and that sealed their fate as well.
There goes my Toman dinner.

Project Nutz 2009 (24 July)

Click here for more photos.
By now, you would have probably heard that we were beaten to second place in the Project Nutz 2009. Even so, we can hold our head high. Four out of the seven original first team runners could not make it this year for one reason or another.
We refused to be brow beaten. We kept faith in our division. We dug deeper to unearth the hidden gems. With efforts from different quarters, we managed to gather not one but two teams to compete in the race. The made shift team of Chew Jing Yuan, Ong Teck Soon, Ong Meng Tiong, Lim Hock Chuan, Low Chee Kin, Tan Wei Lian and Ng Kee Wan (in running order) ran their hearts and lungs out and better last year record with a timing of 39’ 12”.
Team 1 was built on the foundation of the second team which played a very important role of providing a safety net. We are also very happy to note that an ECE student team led by Chun Yang, ex-President of ECE Society, came in seventh while Cai Yin from AE came in fourth with the Dragon Boaters in their respective categories.
Special thanks to Dr Lim, Nancy, Peng Guan and Kok Fai for coming down to support us. Last but not least, the members of the team 2: Yang Chee Yun, Hang Kim Yam, Hee Juay Jiunn, Teo Tat Lee, Chia Yong Poo, Goh Lay Kuan and Ng Beng Kiat.