16. At least. Sixteen! That’s for academics!

It’s not a big building. There are only just 4 storeys (and one basement). It’s not a maze. It’s just a rather longish building. There are only two stairwells. But it seems, some academics need, or believe they need, 16 directional signs to locate a single room on the 4th storey of the building.

The excessive numbers isn’t so much because the directional signs started from the wrong building. The wrong building, because it seems it is preferred to take the elevator up three storeys, walk a long way, then climb one storey up the stairs, mostly in air-con comfort. As opposed to starting from the correct building, walking mostly along a corridor with no air-con, to take an elevator directly to the 4th storey.

That’s not the reason. The signs are just excessive. Like, for example, the above directional sign was put at a point along a narrow corridor that turns to the right. There is no where else to go. No doors. No forks. No junction. It is a mandatory right-turn. Is someone expected to get stuck trying to find an alternative to the obvious?

Or some other sign that points towards the stairs, but before that there is a door to the Gents. So add another sign to point again toward the stairs. Would someone be left wondering if their destination was through the Gents?

The most complicated thing in NUS is finding the right building. Not finding a room once you’ve got the right building.

Hmm, I wonder which way to the PREVIOuS Workshop? We need some signs…

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Not quite riches. But it’s amazing how in a little over a week, all this mess is going to turn into something that actually does look nice enough to be paraded around in a sort of competition. That is going to become a float for NUS Rag Day which, this year, is going to fall on the opening of the inaugural Youth Olympics Games.

The campus is bustling with orientation programmes right now. Week 0, which is the official freshmen orientation week, starts next week. But the noise, particularly when some student groups take their activities rowdy indoors, is starting to cause the peace to be disturbed.

I came across something that is quite funny. One student group had been practising their dance in a certain space, with their loud music upsetting the quietness of the work space of some staff. The said space had to give way to some renovation works. Loud music was replaced by loud hammering, knocking, drilling, etc. You know, the renovation noise. The noise was also upsetting the quietness of that work space of those same staff. I asked them, which do you prefer, the music or the renovation noise? Their immediate answer: renovation noise.

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One of my favourites in NUS is the Carbonara pasta at Megabites. It’s one of the foods that I will go back to if I’m in the mood for something more than mediocre for lunch. It’s actually not like their pasta is really that great, but it certainly is of “pass” standard, something I can’t say for many other foods in NUS. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been eating too much in NUS that I’m getting really bored, and it doesn’t help that the usual kakis have changed alliances and travel out of campus for lunch.

When Megabites first opened in NUS, I had two thoughts at my first visit: 1) The prices were reasonable, they could put the western food stalls at the canteen out-of-business; 2) They are so slow, they could go out of business themselves. I believed that 2nd thought would be a serious problem for them. I looked at their cashier and observed the “rate” at which they were collecting money. Compare that to the rate at, say, the western food at The Terrace collects money. The latter has only two staff, while Megabites had easily over 10 employees, and presumably other operating overheads that were much more costly.

They are still in business, though, after all these years. The food is reasonably good. I still find the service too slow. Good for them.

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Verdict on the Laksa Yong Tau Foo: Pass. That means, will probably come again. (I don’t sprinkle stars so generously…)

It’s the new stall at The Terrace, the NUS canteen that is probably more commonly known as “Business Canteen” (although it is now at least half as much associated with “Computing” as well). The Laksa gravy is quite tasty, and hot (spicy) enough. There’s this interesting hae bee hiam in it… I’m not sure if it comes in the Laksa gravy or with the vegetables I ordered. But the hae bee hiam certainly made the Laksa Yong Tau Foo yummy. In fact, I think it now beats The Deck’s Yong Tau Foo stall. The latter’s standard has fallen significantly the last year.

It’s been a while since I last wrote something about food. I thought to mention this discovery since I’ve been quite disappointed with much of the food in NUS lately, and then also sadly abandoned repeatedly by the usual kakis who have been venturing all-around for better catch.

This Yong Tau Foo stall, although new, has already been open for about 2 weeks. I’ve seen the stall but hadn’t want to try it previously because the selection of items was quite limited. It’s almost like you might have to repeat some of the Yong Tau Foo items because there is so little to choose from. Hopefully it’s just them wanting to go slow as they start-up.

The Terrace used to be reputed to have nice food… that is until 3+ years ago when I started coming over to the canteen on an almost daily basis because of various projects. At that time, I started to realize that there was only actually just that 2 or 3 stalls that I ever eat at. The canteen wasn’t as great as it was reputed to be.

Hopefully, that’s changing. Several stalls have changed. The “Authentic Korean” stall has opened, not tried, so no comments, but despite the long queue in front of it today, it didn’t look appetizing enough to me.

The changing of stalls isn’t just happening at The Terrace, but also at other canteens around NUS. It looks we’ll have plenty of new food to try this coming semester.

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When Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was launched last year, one of the things that caught my attention was its support for Exchange 2007. It would have meant better integration for Mac users with a corporate Microsoft Exchange-based calendar and directory service. But alas, when I finally got Snow Leopard installed and tried to get my Mail.app setup, I realized the nitty gritty details. It’s Exchange 2007, not any Exchange, and it turns out that the Microsoft Exchange I have at work isn’t 2007.

Oh well. So it was back to the old way of configuring Mail.app, using IMAP to access the Exchange server. It works well enough to read emails, of course, and that’s the most important thing. Just no calendar and no directory. It would really have been nice to be in “sync” with the corporate dictated collaboration platform.

But wait… it seems we now do have Exchange 2007! A comment posted on my Mac@NUS page pointed out that the configuration has changed. I checked it out, and yippee, we now really do have directory and calendar integration. So now I can be aligned to the corporate direction to adopt Microsoft technology for email, calendaring and directory. It’s not that I like Exchange very much, but at least I’m now not incompatible with the rest of the organization.

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I figure that anyone who uses a smartphone like the Nexus One is going to have a 3G data plan, so being able to hook onto a wireless network isn’t going to be so important. But anyhow, I thought I’d just make a small little community contribution by sharing how to configure the Nexus One phone (I suppose just about any Android 2.0/2.1 phone will work the same) to connect to the NUS wireless network in, well, NUS. But first, credit goes to the information posted in Answers@Comp. The GUI isn’t enough to get the config done.

Ok. What do you need? For folks who have not rooted your phone, you are out of luck. You will have to. As mentioned, the GUI doesn’t do what is needed. We need to get beneath the hood. So, before you go on, check that:

• Your phone is rooted.
• You have the adb tool (from the Android SDK).
• Your phone has USB Debugging turned on (under Settings, Applications, Development).
• You are comfortable with “vi”.

So here goes. It’s really quite simple. (I think the difficult part is really in the above.)

1. Connect to your phone over USB and run the adb shell (adb shell).
2. Edit the file in /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf and append the text from the block below. Put in your NUSNET userid and password in the identity and password lines. Save the file.
3. Stop and start wifi.

ap_scan=2
network={
ssid="NUS"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
eap=PEAP
auth_alg=OPEN SHARED
identity="<nusnetid>"
password="<password>"
phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
priority=2
}

You should be able to connect to the NUS wireless (NUS SSID) network now. This NUS SSID is encrypted so your communication can’t be easily eavesdropped by other wireless users. You have the added benefit of auto-login. (The NUSOPEN SSID requires web-based captive portal logon, and the communication is also unencrypted.)

Update: You may want to add ap_scan=2 at the start of your wpa_supplicant.conf file to connect to hidden NUS SSID.

Update: The NUSNET userid now needs to be in domain\userid format (e.g. nusstf\comabc or nusstu\a01234567) because something got seriously mucked up recently.

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I recently visited the NUS Bukit Timah Campus. I was there for a whole day meeting. As I walked around in between breaks, I saw the beautiful internal courtyard. This one in the photo is what they call the Upper Quadrangle. It was a picture like it was somewhere else other than in Singapore. Big open space, surrounded by oldish buildings, with absolutely nothing else visible on the skyline. There aren’t many tall buildings in that area, so that isn’t anything else to see in the distant from where I stood.

The view from where I stood was very unlike that of what you’d expect to see in Singapore. As it was also NUS vacation time, there was hardly anyone else around on the campus. At 10am in the morning, everything was practically still. It must be quite nice to be working there. It’s near town, MRT is not too far away, so it is quite conveniently located.

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I’ve been joking about this beer garden in NUS for some time, even before construction actually started. After many months of waiting, this timber deck overlooking the valley behind Kent Ridge was finally ready. When it was officially completed… surprise, surprise, a variety of beer was served in its opening event.

It really has quite a nice view of the trees on the slope of Kent Ridge. But knowing the weather in Singapore, and the general dislike of the hot humid outdoors of most Singaporeans, it won’t be surprising that there will be little use of this beer garden. At least not in the day anyway.

I was surprised that our students were so shy to come out for this event. They had to be encouraged to join the festivities. Perhaps it’s the heat. Free food and free beer aren’t enough attractions.

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It’s funny that I should have something to post about the NUS Rag and Flag this year, because I was not actually involved in any way. But something prompted me to write about it. Behind all the glamourous front of Rag and Flag, there is something about student behaviour that comes to light. No, it is not something dark and sinister. It’s their recklessness, indifference, and lack of civic-mindedness that I feel is unbecoming of undergraduates.

Rag and Flag is a significant event in the undergraduate calendar, and it certainly is the culmination of all their orientation activities. Sometimes you’d think it is okay to let down your hair a little, let them have some fun. But there is always the tricky thing of finding the right balance.

Take for example the noise levels. If you are going to be engaged in noisy activities, take it outdoors, particularly if it is going to go on for an extended period of time. However, for the want of free air-conditioning I suppose, some orientation groups conduct their activities inside the common areas of enclosed spaces, where many other people are working. Not just staff members who need to work, but also other research students whose calendars work differently from typical undergraduates.

The repeated reminders to lower their noise levels fell on deaf ears. I was telling my colleagues, how do you expect to contain their excitement. The nature of the activities is such that the noise is unavoidable. What is basically wanted is for the students to get out of the building.

How about safety? I saw how a fire exit door was being obstructed by tons of float building paraphernalia. This was a group trying to seek shelter from scorching sun. Sure, find a shade somewhere to work, that’s perfectly alright. But have they thought about the repercussions of blocking a fire exit door? That it is also against the law? Oh, and if they didn’t know it, surely after repeated reminders by staff members, they should surely have understood? But no, again everything just fell on deaf ears. I saw another case where a fire engine access road was obstructed (although in this instance I don’t know if they had been granted special permission to obstruct the fire engine access for their activities…).

I have not yet seen the aftermath of this year’s Rag and Flag. But in previous years, the rubbish has always been a problem. One day, it is float building paraphernalia. The next day, it is rubbish for someone else to clear.

There was one incident that I want to share. I was involved in an A&A project (i.e. renovations in layman terms). The contractor had a large dumpster to dispose of renovation debris. Really convenient, it was filled up with float building junk right after Rag day was done. The students probably cannot be bothered about it, but it does cost money to dispose of junk. The contractor complained. I tried to mediate and talked to the students in-charge of the group that built their float nearby. They denied responsibility. Okay, we weren’t about to start pulling out video surveillance and carry out forensics on rubbish. But we did have to work out some settlement with the contractor.

All these seem to reflect the mentality of a child who just wants to have the “fun” part, and expect someone else to deal with the “not fun” part. I expect this is not representative of the undergraduates in general, otherwise we would really be in trouble.

Enrolling into a university is a step toward adulthood. It is at this point that we expect undergraduates to start acting as responsible adults. Perhaps you could say orientation is too early a start. But I think there are certain things like fire safety that should never be compromised.

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This week is what’s known in NUS as Week 0. It’s freshmen orientation week. The week where everyone (students, that is) are still having fun. The campus, surprisingly, is not as crowded as I had anticipated it to be. We were able to find seats during lunch, even during the peak lunch hour. But there was one place that was unusually crowded, and that was one place that I had to visit.

It’s the University Health Centre. It was really crowded. There was a super long queue to get to the registration counter to get a queue number. You would have thought that the crowd might have something to do with medical check-ups for new students. But now, there was a separate queue for “pre-admission medical check-up”, and there were no one in it. I re-read the sign a few times to make sure I did not misunderstand where I was supposed to queue. Nope, I made no mistake. The super long queue was for seeing the doctor. Sigh.

It took me all of 25 minutes just to get a queue number. Such a terribly long wait. Even the queues at polyclinics seem to move faster. I don’t know why so many people were at the health centre.

Yet, places like the canteen, bus stops, etc were hardly any different from the holidays. Oh, there were many more students around, of course, but they’re mostly seen occupied with float building or other orientation activities.

A funny thing that they are doing at the bus stops: People holding up placards informing bus passengers to board from the front and alight from the rear. They seem to have been engaged by the internal shuttle bus service operators. I think they were trying to correct a behavioural problem in NUS where passengers alight from both the front and rear, and also board from both the front and the rear.

Perhaps NUS should just consider using trams or trolleys, where the vehicle has no walls. Anyone can hop on or hop off anywhere along the whole length of the vehicle. It would make getting on and getting off so much easier.

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