First IPPT in SISPEC

One week have passed, but training haven't really started. Can't say much about our training schedule & stuffs due to "security reasons", but seems like all book outs days are on Saturdays! Damn. And the food is horrible! I begin to miss the Tekong Cookhouse already.

We had IPPT yesterday morning, getting a Pass is as good as failing, since both have to stay back on Saturday for extra PT. Most of my section mates were aiming for a Silver, saying Gold is impossible bla bla bla. This kind of mindset is just not right for a future commander if you ask me. Heard of the saying "Aim for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars."? (Pls don't be lame and come tell me the nearest star is how many lightyears away) As for me, my only aim is for gold, nothing else.

So, 5 points for sit-up, 5 points for chin-ups, 5 points for SBJ, 4 points for shuttle run (3rd attempt after fouling twice), I'm on my way for gold! The route for 2.4km run was a difficult one, as there is a up slope section plus a U-turn. Wearing my own Nike Air running shoes did help, more on the mental side I would say. Though i missed gold by about 3~5sec, I'm happy to have clocked my best personal timing, for that i check-out!

Specialist Cadet Trainee

Most of your should know about it already, but I will still talk about it anyway. The picture above is the new SCT rank (Specialist Cadet Trainee), it looks like a 3SG rank cut into half, or rather three slanted bars to make it sound nicer, whatever.

First day in SISPEC is purely parade, feels like a second POP if you ask me. With new rank comes new responsibilites, I'm not too sure what they are at the moment. All I know is, allowance is $90/$20 over Private/Corporal ranks respectively. See the pay structure below:

source: mindef

GeForce GTX 285 & GTX 295 Specifications

GeForce GTX285 & GTX295 Specifications

The performance crown is back to Nvidia once again, with the introduction of GTX285 & GTX295. Built on 55nm process, GTX285 is factory clocked at 648/1475/1240Mhz (core/shader/memory respectively). Despite the higher clocks, power consumption has been reduced by almost 30%, or 53W, vis-à-vis GTX280.

The specifications of GTX295 is rather interesting. Each of the two GTX295 cards can be better described as "GTX270", somewhere in between GTX260-216 & GTX280. You will be surprised if you thought it would be just another power hungry monster. It turned out that GTX295 merely eats 53W more than the old GTX280. Lastly, it's Quad-SLI ready, MSRP is rumored to be US$499. Later we will see how it benchmark against Radeon HD 4870X2.

Product	GeForce GTX 280	GeForce GTX 285	GeForce GTX 295
Process	65nm	55nm	55nm
Core Clock	602Mhz	648Mhz	576Mhz
Shader	1296Mhz	1476Mhz	1242Mhz
Shader	240	240	480
ROP	32	32	56
TMU	80	80	160
Memory Clock	1100Mhz	1240Mhz	999Mhz
Memory Bus Width	512-bit	512-bit	2x 448-bit
Memory Size/Type	1GB GDDR3	1GB GDDR3	1792MB GDDR3
TDP	236W	183W	289W

Bali Vacation: Panoramics

Panoramics of Bali Volcano
(click to enlarge)

Bali Vacation Part3

If you think Bali is purely a beach resort place, then you are very wrong. FYI, this island is about 8 times the size of Singapore, and today (though I'm not really interested) we are going to see the Volcano...






Some temple, we almost mistook it as the one with Holy Water...






There's the Volcano. Long story short, we skipped one of the main temples because the tour guide told us that "the local villagers are dangerous"







Rice terrace, one of the places of interest... I can't wait to go back to hotel







We were very fortunate to have such good weather, for now is monsoon season & "by right" raining everyday.





Lunch the next day:






Starter + Main + Drink, guess how much the above cost?

S$7+ only








Bali Bombing 2002 Memorial








Finally a shop with CUSTOMERS!

Quiksilver products from 50~80% discount, whee~







AGAIN, another meal @ the Rp 40,000 grilled tuna place...
I had Sirlion steak this time, taste average






Goodbye Bali~






Hello Singapore~

AMD Athlon X2 7750 & Phenom X4 9350e Specs

AMD Athlon X2 7750 & Phenom X4 9350e Specifications

Model	Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition	Phenom X4 9350e
Socket	AM2	AM2+
Core	Kuma K10	Agena K10
Revision	B3	B3
Clock Speed	2.7GHz	2.0Ghz
Hyper Transport	1800MHz	1800Mhz
L1 Cache	2x 128KB	4x 128KB
L2 Cache	2 x 512KB	4x 512KB
L3 Cache	2MB shared	2MB shared
Process	65 nm	65nm
64-bit Support	Yes	Yes
Virtualization Technology	Yes	Yes
Instructions	SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A	SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4
Voltage	1.2V~1.25V	1.1V~1.5V
TDP	95W	65W
Temperature	73C	?

CPU-Z screenshot of the AMD Athlon X2 7750 BE





CPU-Z screenshot of the AMD Phenom X4 9350e

Bali Vacation Part2

Breakfast: banana pancake at the hotel







FREE wifi at half the restaurants, I like...







Fish & Chips for lunch.
Turned out they used tuna, interesting choice...







Went to look around the place, its disappointing to see most shops are selling mass produced souvenirs... And walking from hotel to the shopping centre, we passed-by 7, yes SEVEN, D&G outlets -.-







Road is blocked for some rituals.
We were advised not to take photo from the front..







Gosh, look at what computer the travel agency is using!

Big-o-CRT, printer running on printer ports & no USB ports, antique







Lunch @ another wifi-enabled-restaurant







Huge Ripcurl outlet, no sale, no discount...







Back to the Rp40,000 place for dinner, had mixed grill this time round...

Bali Vacation Part1

Taxi straight to hotel, winding through narrow streets in the darkness..

No need to bargain, prices all listed out black & white at the airport taxi service counter, which is a good thing.







Welcome drink @ the hotel reception







Lokha Legian, the hotel is only about a year plus old, according to our taxi driver...







Some Hindu ritual going in the morning, hotel staff told us that they were celebrating for the full moon or something like that...



Looking for lunch after getting conned 200,000 by the money changer fucker. Screw those "Authorized Money Changer" signboards. I would advice others to change their money at the airport, hotel or banks, you can't beat those magician-money-changers...



Rp 40,000 is only about S$5.70, sounds reasonable, decided to give this a try...







Better than you can expect from a sub-$6 meal




Slack in the hotel room reading Dan Brown's Angels & Demons for the rest of the afternoon...






Cabbed here for dinner...







Nearby restaurants were pretty expensive, but... PizzaHut??







Turned out dining at Bali's PizzaHut is a totally different dining experience as compared to Singapore. The waiters & waitresses were very friendly, "You can call of me if you need anything". They even ask how we find the food after our meal.

Clark Quay Meetup

Finally get to meet up with Wong & Jacob...

Unfortunately, Ah Long & Seb were un-contactable






Wong taking photos like a mad tourist,
showing off his newly bought camera...






The place was very quiet, everybody is running Marathon ya?
Anyway, we settled for a ramen restaurants which is said to have a long queue every night..






My $12, non-spicy ramen..
Disappointingly, I'd say instant noodle taste better @ 1/10 of the price







Some ang moh clowns/jugglers walking around, is there some event going on?







Had some snacks at the basement...







Candy making similar to the one seen on Discovery Channel,
that roll of sugar is enough to last me for a life-time!

While, Wong, armed with his camera, makes full use of his 8GB memory card.







Tourists enjoying a hell of a ride,






they zoomed past a few feet above our head...







Hmmm, time to update Google Earth







Can you tell which are the photos that were taken with Wong camera?