Just handed in my thesis. A bit of an anti climax feeling really. No surge of feelings like "Yay ! Finally !". It is more of a "Hmm .. so that's it ?".
A good bulk of the hard work was done last weekend. After my discussion was read through and deemed to be of acceptable standard by my supervisor, I could feel that it's over. From Tuesday to Thursday, all I did was to tie up some loose ends. A pretty calm end to what could have been an insane rush.
That's what I was expecting and hoping to avoid initially. So, I guess having that in your head helps to push you a little bit, trying to avoid what could have been a major disaster. People have been telling me stories and sharing personal experiences of what the last day feels like. ~14 hours of sleep for about 2 weeks, panic, rushing to meet the 5 pm deadline, students on the verge of insanity.
Really appreciated the help I got from my supervisors. Their proof reading and their comments helped my thesis writing to no end.
Later, I will be going to grab a meal with LC at our favourite Thai restaurant as a mini celebration for me. Hers is due next week. I will be doing her proof reading in the mean time.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
PennySim - best invention since ERP, ERP gantries and cashcards
Finally, after some hardworking googling and forum scavenging by yours truly, we heard of this miracle known as PennySim. This service is provided by a company called Pennytel which was introduced to me about a year ago by JB who is currently studying in Tasmania at the moment. This company operates in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and a few other countries of no concern to me.
Initially, LC was resistant to changing to pennysim. I had to be the guinea pig first. After some persuasion and demostration of how great it was, she agreed to let me apply and set it up for her. Now, she loves it so much that she refuses to change back to the old service she was using.
So, how does this PennySim work? It is a actually a sim card that you can slot into any handphone. Almost any phone made in the last 5 years will work with this one. We are charged $8 per month to maintain this sim card on top of any call charges. The plan I am on gives me 8 cents per call back to Singapore.
8 cents per call? That is absolutely right. No typo here. Not 8 cents per minute. It's 8 cents per call whether you talk for 1 second or 2 hours (that's the limit imposed by Pennytel but I am not complaining here). 8 cents per call is dirt cheap. On top of that, pennysim users have free calls to each other. That cuts down our phone bills big time.
Pennysim works like this. Using your hp, you make a call back to pennytel (free) then from there, you dial the international number you want eg: my home. Pennytel will connect both sides using VOIP. I made a tiny diagram here to show that.
Your hp ---(Free call to pennytel)---> Pennytel ----(VOIP to your singapore home number)----> Singapore home
So far I have been using this for a few weeks. The call quality is excellent (especially to a landline), cheap and idiot proof. I am loving it.
For my Singaporean and Malaysian friends, Pennytel has branches in both countries but they do not have PennySim at the moment. So, it is currently not as good as the Australia unless you happen to own a smart/internet enabled phone capable of using the Pennytel applications they have there.
Therefore, PennySim > ERP
Initially, LC was resistant to changing to pennysim. I had to be the guinea pig first. After some persuasion and demostration of how great it was, she agreed to let me apply and set it up for her. Now, she loves it so much that she refuses to change back to the old service she was using.
So, how does this PennySim work? It is a actually a sim card that you can slot into any handphone. Almost any phone made in the last 5 years will work with this one. We are charged $8 per month to maintain this sim card on top of any call charges. The plan I am on gives me 8 cents per call back to Singapore.
8 cents per call? That is absolutely right. No typo here. Not 8 cents per minute. It's 8 cents per call whether you talk for 1 second or 2 hours (that's the limit imposed by Pennytel but I am not complaining here). 8 cents per call is dirt cheap. On top of that, pennysim users have free calls to each other. That cuts down our phone bills big time.
Pennysim works like this. Using your hp, you make a call back to pennytel (free) then from there, you dial the international number you want eg: my home. Pennytel will connect both sides using VOIP. I made a tiny diagram here to show that.
Your hp ---(Free call to pennytel)---> Pennytel ----(VOIP to your singapore home number)----> Singapore home
So far I have been using this for a few weeks. The call quality is excellent (especially to a landline), cheap and idiot proof. I am loving it.
For my Singaporean and Malaysian friends, Pennytel has branches in both countries but they do not have PennySim at the moment. So, it is currently not as good as the Australia unless you happen to own a smart/internet enabled phone capable of using the Pennytel applications they have there.
Therefore, PennySim > ERP
VOIP Woes
VOIP? What the hell is that?
To be honest, I haven't even heard of this thing till about a few years ago when skype came along. Till today, I still don't understand the underlying details of how it works.
Definition from wiki: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.
This doesn't mean much to anyone at all. To put in simply, VOIP is the technology to make phonecalls using the internet. It does that by transmitting your voice as data through the internet (imagine uploading) to the receiver. At the receiving end, the data is converted to an analog signal that we can hear. (This explanation sounds pretty good, but anyone well versed in VOIP can feel free to correct me)
Why am I suddenly interested in this? Well, right now that's what I am using to call back home.
I remember last year (2008), where LC and I had to buy a calling card. Walk down to the public phone. Insert 50 cents into the damn phone and make a call home. It doesn't sound like a great deal to you but imagine standing there at night with strong winds and temperatures below 10 degrees. It is not fun. On top of that, if the receiver on the other end decides not to pick up the phone, we hang up and the 50 cents is gone. Very frustrating. A few times, I feel like wrecking the damn phone.
After that, we tried a few other methods to call back home.
Our internet service provider gave us an VOIP account but we found that the service is quite expensive. To make matters worse, our phone has a weird dial tone 95% of the time we want to make a call (though we can receive calls without issue). I suspect it is a problem with the damn phone but I am too poor and lazy to fix it.
We also tried calling home using our computers. It was quite horrible. I always remember instances of LC and me screaming into the webcam mic while the other party says, "Huh huh? What did you say." Frustrating. It is cheap though. But the background noise and poor call quality is unbearable.
To be honest, I haven't even heard of this thing till about a few years ago when skype came along. Till today, I still don't understand the underlying details of how it works.
Definition from wiki: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.
This doesn't mean much to anyone at all. To put in simply, VOIP is the technology to make phonecalls using the internet. It does that by transmitting your voice as data through the internet (imagine uploading) to the receiver. At the receiving end, the data is converted to an analog signal that we can hear. (This explanation sounds pretty good, but anyone well versed in VOIP can feel free to correct me)
Why am I suddenly interested in this? Well, right now that's what I am using to call back home.
I remember last year (2008), where LC and I had to buy a calling card. Walk down to the public phone. Insert 50 cents into the damn phone and make a call home. It doesn't sound like a great deal to you but imagine standing there at night with strong winds and temperatures below 10 degrees. It is not fun. On top of that, if the receiver on the other end decides not to pick up the phone, we hang up and the 50 cents is gone. Very frustrating. A few times, I feel like wrecking the damn phone.
After that, we tried a few other methods to call back home.
Our internet service provider gave us an VOIP account but we found that the service is quite expensive. To make matters worse, our phone has a weird dial tone 95% of the time we want to make a call (though we can receive calls without issue). I suspect it is a problem with the damn phone but I am too poor and lazy to fix it.
We also tried calling home using our computers. It was quite horrible. I always remember instances of LC and me screaming into the webcam mic while the other party says, "Huh huh? What did you say." Frustrating. It is cheap though. But the background noise and poor call quality is unbearable.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
First post
Yes. Like the title says, this is my first post. People usually talk about why they set up this blog etc etc in the first post. Mine is no different.
I set this blog up as a place to air my views (whether you agree with it or not is another thing), have a digital record of all the wrong things I said or assumed and to let family and friends have a peek into my head. So, this is as close as most people can get to reading me like an open book.
I had a pretty tough time deciding my blog url. Below are a few names that came up but didn't make it and reasons why I didn't choose them.
1) Brainjuice.blogspot.com - that sounds pretty disgusting and automatically churns up images of crushed purple lobes with equally slimey fluids
2) Whateverfitsin.blogspot.com - that just sounds wrong, this was actually suggested by LC. I thought it sounds like I enjoy stuffing things into random spaces
3) Viagrasalesman.blogspot.com - self explanatory
4) Minghao.blogspot.com - some other minghao took it before I did, damn
5) Fruitbarsandcolourfulgummies.blogspot.com - while I admit I enjoy eating them, putting them as a blog url is really too gay for a 24 yr old guy.
Hence, I decided on selfcontradict.blogspot.com which sort of fits me because I tend to do that to myself all the time. And as a science student, you do that more often than anyone else.
I set this blog up as a place to air my views (whether you agree with it or not is another thing), have a digital record of all the wrong things I said or assumed and to let family and friends have a peek into my head. So, this is as close as most people can get to reading me like an open book.
I had a pretty tough time deciding my blog url. Below are a few names that came up but didn't make it and reasons why I didn't choose them.
1) Brainjuice.blogspot.com - that sounds pretty disgusting and automatically churns up images of crushed purple lobes with equally slimey fluids
2) Whateverfitsin.blogspot.com - that just sounds wrong, this was actually suggested by LC. I thought it sounds like I enjoy stuffing things into random spaces
3) Viagrasalesman.blogspot.com - self explanatory
4) Minghao.blogspot.com - some other minghao took it before I did, damn
5) Fruitbarsandcolourfulgummies.blogspot.com - while I admit I enjoy eating them, putting them as a blog url is really too gay for a 24 yr old guy.
Hence, I decided on selfcontradict.blogspot.com which sort of fits me because I tend to do that to myself all the time. And as a science student, you do that more often than anyone else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)