Macs work out of the box... so do zelPCs
My bums itching at home in KL.
I'm learning to cook - previously useful for avoiding the buttery in Cambridge, now moot considering the compulsory meal plan in Carnegie Mellon, iron clothes, read up on books ... and the like...
But I know that as I lifted my pencil on the 20th of November 2007, I heaved a sigh of relief that it would be the last exam I would have to sit for about a year. Granted that 4 months of research in IMRE made the year worthwhile, I figured that I'm bored from bumming around. Nuff said. And that took one month! Apparently under a similar experiment, nitroglycerin loses stability after a week of unemployment. Guess I'm patient enough then.
Earlier this year, I made an emergency computer after the Whitebox computer bought in 2004 refused to resume from Hibernation. Yes folks, 10 pushes under my lovely 'supervision' and that stinking white old cow refuse to wake up from its terminal sleep. So considering the fact that THAT NASTY COMPUTER had sprung surprise after surprise on my previous trips to KL, (How 'bout a laundry list of exhausted motherboard CMOS battery, a blown power supply etc.) I set myself the task of building one MYSELF to replace it.
It worked.
It would have worked a lot better if I had an original Windows XP CD (our old printer had no Vista driver available, so my new Vista installation just collected dust). With all the hardware installation, the driver overlaps soon started crippling the computer's ability to function. Hence it is a little slow when booting up. Apart from that, it works great.
What's inside:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66 GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB)
Coolermaster Hyper TX2 CPU cooler
OCZ Freeze Thermal Grease
2GB Cosair XMS2 DDR2-800 RAM (5-5-5-18 latency)
320 GB Seagate HDD
Abit IP-35E motherboard
Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 (256MB GDDR3 RAM)
Samsung 20x IDE DVDRW drive
Coolermaster Centurion 5 ATX Tower Casing with side transparent window
Coolermaster Extreme Power 380W (real power, not like the lousy rubbish they stuff in cheap OEM computers. Lest you think it won't blow up, look back a few lines.)
Windows Vista Home Premium (OEM 32 bit edition)
sounds good.. I'm trying to decide if I should make some to sell on Ebay. Or If you like what you see here, feel free to offer a price for my machine. Or if you have a new desktop computer in mind and want to see what price I can quote vs. the big players like HP/Compaq/Acer/Dell etc... just reply to this post. I'll try to think of something to suit every need...
...sure beats bumming around at home and getting bored!
Count my Blessings
More than anything else, guess I still owe God a lot of thanks for the wonderful things he has given to me.
It's been 2 tumultuous weeks since I first bid a sad farewell to Cambridge. Kind of embarrassing when I was like telling people around me where I was going for university. Whether or not they wax lyrical at the sound of Cambridge, it sure beats getting asked what kind of fruit I'm going to (for those of you whose eyes missed the last post, I'm now going to Carnegie Mellon, which can't even boast succulent cuisine - it's voted the top 10 colleges with the least edible food by the Princeton Review!)
At least the Carnegie Mellon University Singapore Students' Association did mention that we'll be seeing more Starbucks and B&Js than we'll see in our sunny island (or at least more than I get to see), courtesy of a compulsory dining plan. Still the rest of the food is supposed to be rather mediocre *will have a pleasant surprise if it's not* Ah well, it's a sacrifice after all - I'm sure the other 2 universities, Cambridge and Cornell, which I wanted to go to would be able to boast far better food. Then again I'm going to Carnegie Mellon for its Electronic and Computer Engineering Course - it's like the second best after MIT, being tied with Stanford (yes, the ranking says computer engineering, but then, Carnegie Mellon only offers Electrical and Computer Engineering) - the link doesn't require a password unlike the previous case.
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/enps05_brief.php
So thanks be to God then, who guided me since March 27th last year in my hunt for the right college. Coming fresh out of a finallist interview for the Stanford Club of Singapore Book Prize, I was so high on cloud 9. For almost 9 months afterwards, STANFORD! and Die Luft Fehreit Weit (As the Wind of Freedom Blows) became my rallying cry as I marched through the SATs and A levels. The first disappointment came on December 15th when I was booted OUT of Stanford with a nice terse email.
And then came the good news from Clare College in January that I got into Cambridge. So happily thinking that I would be in Cambridge, I set about applying to A*STAR brandishing my Cambridge letter. So happily I got through both rounds 1 and 2. And then came the process of telling everyone that I got into Cambridge, dreaming of punting down the River Cam (and dunking someone special inside!) and exploring Europe.
BUT as previously mentioned, the carpet got pulled away too soon. Had to junk that dream. Nevertheless, as the figments of my imaginations of Cambridge fell away, Carnegie Mellon came back to the fore. Carnegie Mellon, the 'nemesis' of my former dream school (It gained a one up when its robotic-controlled SUV "The Boss" edged out Stanford's "Junior" during a DARPA competition with $2 million as prize money). Oh how interesting life has become. Thanks be to God once again for leading and guiding me through this tumultous path.
No Cambridge for Old Man!
Alright folks... I'm not going to Cambridge.
Someone once told me Cambridge has no clearing admissions in July, simply because virtually everyone they make the offer to accepts it! (ok.... everyone except for the Ivy-league applicants)
So here I am... rejecting Cambridge.
Bye Clare College! Bye punting down the River Cam! Goodbye to stopping by in Abu Dhabi en route to UK and getting my favourite Lebanese Bread! Bye to the opportunity to tell the world that I'm a Cantabridgian! And above all... bye to the one on one Cambridge tutorials. Needless to say, I'm really gonna miss YOU from across the pond!
This news was certainly most sudden. Guess it was my fault for not telling A*STAR that it was a 4 year course. Oh well, best not to dwell too much on it. The other problem of course, is that Carnegie Mellon is too good an alternative to Cambridge!
Yup, for you people who suspect me of mental insanity by passing up Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon isn't bad. It's been voted the 2nd in the US for Computer Engineering by the U.S. News and World Report, alongside ex-crush Stanford (I want to do Electronic and Computer Engineering). They are THAT good. Just that they're really unknown. When I said I was going to Cambridge... everyone went ooo and ahh. And now with Carnegie Mellon, I get people asking me what sort of fruit it is! Ah well, guess my ego was getting fatter than my prosperous waistline! Carnegie would really fit the bill in lowering that while not compromising on my education.
Alright... so my journey to the land of the free starts on August the 16th, instead of September 30th. There goes 1 and a half month's worth of summer. On the bright side, I can do shopping for winter clothes when I get there instead of having to buy it in Singapore (should save a kg or 2 in check-in luggage). Just hope that they have enough 'Asian-sized' outfits for me!
It's really too bad that they get a bit prescriptive on the freshman welfare with the banning of cars! I would have thought a carpool / car journeys with a few buddies would be an apt way to form bonds, but I guess the Tartans had different ideas. Guess I'll have to wait one year to get my Honda Civic/BMW 3 Series/Volkswagen Golf (all used of course, unless any reader feels earnestly compelled to sponsor a flashy, new ride for me).
Those of you with longer memories might remember me considering NUS after my 2 years in NJC (National University of Singapore and National Junior College respectively, for you foreign readers). After all, they both have National as the first word! However, given this opportunity courtesy of A*STAR, I guess it's too good a chance to pass on, given the quality of Carnegie Mellon as a whole.
