make a gas with centralization

One of the worst things that can happen while cooking is to run out of LPG gas. Yeah, the bottle grows legs.

Previously when you want to order the gas, you have to call the shop, tell them your unit number, tell them what size you are buying, ee ee oh oh, then the shop will call the deliveryman, then the deliveryman will deliver the bottled gas to you. Sometimes it took hours before the deliveryman came, and sometimes you could see the deliveryman drinking coffee at the coffee shop downstairs while you are waiting for the gas. So to remove some of the extra loop, we asked for the deliveryman's handphone number and from then on we ordered gas from him direct. Still, he had to take his coffee break, right?

Recently they have centralized everything. Call it merger or pooling of resources, or pressure from a particular taxi company that sells gas (or the other way round). So now when we want to order gas, we call this call centre. All I have to say is "I want gas" and they know your unit number and the size that you want, thanks to caller-ID (It's pretty stupid, which household will order those man-size bottle?). And within minutes, you can see the blue bottle at your doorstep, with the deliveryman of course. Their efficiency can match calling 999.

And so, that's the advantage of centralization.

what are our unions doing?

Nowadays when we flip open the newspaper, almost every other day we see words like "layoff", "retrenchment". This reminds me of a report in the October 29 issue of Professional Engineering magazine:

JCB workers cut own pay to save 350 jobs in UK

Thousands of production workers at JCB have taken pay cuts to save jobs at the firm.

More than 2,500 members of trade union GMB have voted in favour of working shorter weeks to stop 350 people losing their jobs at JCB’s seven UK plants.
GMB entered talks with the construction equipment manufacturer after news that the company needed to reduce output at its UK factories by 19% because of a downturn in orders.

The move reduces the number of redundancies to 150 instead of 500. As a result, staff stand to lose £50 a week and will work 34-hour weeks for a minimum of six months.

JCB chief executive officer Matthew Taylor said: “The ballot result shows the tremendous unity among the JCB workforce and a great team spirit, which we applaud.

“They have looked after the needs of one another, rather than the needs of the individual and that is to be commended.”

Keith Hodgkinson, GMB organiser, said: “I am delighted we have been able to save 350 jobs.

“The vote shows the social solidarity of trades union members in action.”

While we always think that trade unions in Europe like to go on strike and cripple the countries' economy, but they fight for the workers.

Now what are the trade unions doing in this part of the world? Are they doing enough? Have they done enough?
(and does anyone recall the particular incident involving pilots of a local airlines?)

Kunio Okawara will be in town

Hey Gundam fans out there, Kunio Okawara (大河原 邦男) will be in Singapore this Saturday (November 22) at the Anime Festival Asia 08.

Okawara is a mechanical designer for Japanese animes, including the famous RX-78-2 Gundam. He's like, THE man for mecha designs. On a sidenote, my first Bandai Gundam model was the High Grade 1/144 RX-78 Gundam, that was when I was 8 years old.

The one-day ticket to the AFA08 is S$5. Anyone going?

google sketchup 7

Google has recently launched the new release of Google SketchUp 7. For those of us who can't afford a CAD software, this may be a good point to start CADding.

One of the new features is the dynamic components. As seen in the clip above, the software is smart enough to add steps to a flight of stairs, or add racks to a bookshelf when you extend its height. Smart features may be the way to go, but somehow I still prefer to have some manual control over things I draw. Even with conventional CAD package I seldom use the mirror function or the pattern function. Guess it's just personal preference.

Here is another clip.

I'll take some time to play with it.

presentation slides

Now that the semester is coming to an end, the whatever project presentation should be completed by now.

I don't really like doing presentation. Other than the fact that I have stage fright, preparing the slides can be a pain in the ass. On one hand you want to include information in the slides, on the other hand you don't want to bore the audience. But then, I guess doing presentation is part and parcel of being students and perhaps, engineers.

A while ago SlideShare held a World's Best Presentation Contest. I looked through some of the slides and really, there are things that we can take home, be it presentation style or knowledge presented. Just slides and, wow.

Let's look at the winner for technology category.

us�able

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web2.0 internet)

Some of the still slides are more entertaining than youtube clips.

chicken where got so big

I was at the Food Safari at Suntec Singapore yesterday. Erm no, I wasn't part of the exhibit.

So I was at the döner kebab stall, waiting for my chicken kebab. I overheard a son (primary school kid) telling his father that it's chicken, and guess what the father said?

(in Mandarin) "Wait long long,
chicken where got so big?"

-_-"

I wonder how many children in this world are mis-educated in the same way.

where to stop

The above is a satellite image of a bus stop, with a bus in the bay.

Now imagine the bus is not there. When you want to flag a taxi or when you want to drop off from a car, do you go to the cross on the left, or the cross on the right?

The thing I observe is that, when another vehicle stops upstream, it blocks the bus from entering the bus stop. And if so happens a bus cuts in at an angle leaving its tail blocking the vehicle, you can't turn out. Kudos to those with taxi meter ticking. On the other hand, if the vehicle stops downstream, not only does it allow the bus to enter the bus stop and do whatever loading unloading business, most of the time the bus driver is able to make calculation and maneuver the bus out even with another vehicle in front. And if you are trying to flag a taxi, downstream usually provides better view of vision.

Ok, this is coming from a bus commuter and not taxi commuter. Maybe they have another point of view.

bdsm education

Today's my paper ran a report on a video clip of an ACJC student being tied up and stuffed with food for her birthday "celebration" [2008, November 14, A4] I haven't seen the video clip itself, but base on what was being reported, it sure sounds like BDSM. Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism.

Maybe because I'm a nerd or because I came from the so-called nerd school, I have never seen such things happening. So I was pretty shocked when friends from other schools told me that they did things on unpopular classmates such as throwing their school bag out of the window, pouring everything out from their pencil case and make them pick them up, etc. Do you guys really do this kind of things?

Maybe they really wanted the birthday girl to have an unforgettable birthday, but they surely had gone overboard. An overdose of porn maybe? Now, how do we put the society's future on them?

And somoeone said it's "part and parcel of growing up". Huh? What's next? Syringe and pills? Campus shooting? Even the worst kind of treatment I went through in the army, they treated us with the basic respect for humanity.

The paper reported the principal saying "that the student was prepared for the celebration, and that there was no malice or bullying involved." Did the principal just tell everyone that her students practice BDSM willingly and openly? Isn't that like, worse?