Anyway, something embaressing happened @ VJ today after the ONLY windsurfing trip of this semester. Went back to VJ for western since it was a weekday, only to find that it's some sports day... All of a sudden, all the teachers became very friendly with me. As if they were THAT close or knew me that well back when I was a student. All the attention because of my punk hair.. Oh well, the school system tends to be abit myopic anyway... Uniform constraints you from being receptive to novel ideas.

That's not the point. So there I was, buying western when I met JH. And the conversation went like this:
JH: HZ!
HZ: Fwah! wat u doin here too?
JH: Lookin for tutors... u?
HZ: blah blah blah...
(At this point of time, HZ notices JH's 3 other friends around her, and he notices one quite cute looking gal in VJ 'house' T shirt - since when did we HAVE a house tee? never mind...)
HZ: Fwah, your tutor look very nianqing (youthful)..
(JOKE LAH! Cos she's quite cute and really looks quite young mah, but anyway, knowing me, I like to tok kok)
House shirt cutie: Eh, which batch are u from?

SO.. as it turns out, that very 'nianqing' lookin tutor whom i thought to be her friend turned out to be the real deal after all! So paiseh! haa... Quite an amusing situation lah... Embaressing moment of the day sia!

Check out the airhead-blooper-of-the-day! Don't ask me why I notice such stuff. I mean it's just so glaringly obvious! And don't try to pretend that u didn't see it too. 'Cos you did! Haa... Hey, I've nothing against such hippish attitudes with regards to the liberation of the triangle-fabric, but there's just something about her that's so... bimbotically repulsive. I guess she's sorta like the epitome of ladies in SG in general who knows that they look gd. The air's really thin up there...

Woah! I'm now another sucker to the Gmail testing system!

Does this mean I can be sued for saving porn to that account? Store my MP3s? Damn I didn't read the damn agreement. Well, fuck that. I'm sure alot more people are already doing what I wanna do. Right now, the only use I can think of with a useless email that u CAN'T delete is for online storage! whoo hoo! Bwahahahaha...

So anyway, exams hell is finally over. Had my celebration beer, and jumped on the O.C. bandwagon after a nice hot afternoon at the pool! The sun was really nice and sizzling, makin the pool nice and warm... Got my tan going once again! Let's hope I can keep this up. Really feel like surfing tomorrow. Or should I do it on Fri instead? Fwah! Feels so Guuuuud to be spoilt for choices!

Yeah. Back to the O.C. I think the hollywood smokescreen is beguiling us impressionable asians with their airy fairy lifestyles. No doubt, the show's intriguing, but 17 yr olds don't have the know how of throwing vices parties the way they do! Plus Marie Kate and Ashley are 17. These actors are fucking college man! Just like how I may still cut it if you ask ME to play a poly undergrad or JC student, but to play a secondary school kid is just taking it too far. Nonetheless, still a good watch if you ask me. Great soundtrack, good setting and great scenery and most of all, jude hot babes! Well ok.. the Marissa is a fine lass if you ask me, but that's about it.

Oh yeah. Before I forget. I've witness the demise of a jude babe to anorexic shit (and it's not even anorexic chic here. LY was anorexic chic, but this is just not the case). Somebody ask that gal to eat more food instead of surviving on honeydews man!

*Spoiler ahead* I've just watched like THE saddest episode of Friends (last season dunno which episode). The story goes like this: Rachel falls in love with Joey (and vice versa), only for Ross to find out in the worse possible way (rd: unannounced) Chandler reveals to some kid that he's adopted, and Phoebe nearly gets to be 'given' one of the triplets that she surrogated a few seasons back. And there was no canned laughter. All 100% really entertained audience. Well I chuckled along just to seem normal but I really felt like crying inside. It's never really about 2 people, isn't it?

Everyone in the show today just wanna show some love to the people that matters most in their hearts but they can't. They just can't. Because sometimes the filter lanes just send you to a place where u just can't. Life is a journey, but you ain't riding a car. There's no turning back on this urban express.

I can't because I dunno who's that one that matters most. Or maybe love itself is a journey too. This is not one where people should do it for 'fun'. When you start to ponder about why you are even making this trip in itself, is it really better, having loved before than to not love at all? To have loved before entails the passing of the ending, who gets hurt then?

Well I guess what the show is saying is that sometimes love just ain't enough to save the day.

Allelujiah! Amitabha! Allah Akbar!
Pretty white boy in skirts just pleaded guilty a few days back. Not a very surprising turn of events I must say. I mean what do you expect? A man of such stature admitting to his folleys at the 1st instance. What would his followers think? It's like the atheist waking one day to find that there's really a god. Suppose there really IS a god ("Ya, there really is a god unnoe... According to.." Shut up, you blind faith twit), and you use mass support, science, etc to EASE this concept to people, would that make it easier to accept? Similarly, of course he'd need to ease his folleys slowly into the hearts of people, instead of dropping it down on them like a bomb. At the same time, he may very well get lucky in the process too! (but what do you expect of a judicial system where the chief justice YPH proudly BRAGS that 1/8 appeal cases gets their sentences lightened. Yes, you may be 'just' your honour, but how 'fair' are you? COndescending obnoxious pig. But that's another story) Well if it's REALLY for the love of god, stop preaching for him. YOU (and I) are not a saint. True followers don't call themselves anything. When you give yourself labels so that you can be closer to him, you cut the rest of the people off to him. So why don't you evangelists stop singing songs and selling christ like a product and build some REAL houses and schools for the needy off India and Mongolia. Self-serving-in-denial hypocrite.

I'm an idiot. I really am. I LOVE experimenting on myself. Operant or classical conditioning, whatever. But this time it just failed totally. Any smartass realistic pragmatic FOOL would know better than to gamble on your academic grades just for the sake of "trying out" new methods. And the verdict today says: good old hand written notemaking still beats lousy high tech typeouts anyday. So what if it looks good and saavy? The modality effects still exists - exam scripts are not typed out but written. And I can still remember it now!! XML! There's nothing much the lecturer wanna 'kelong' if you don't do 50% of the paper. That's like 30% of the overall grade. Revised projection? C for cog it is. now how to compensate for that by gettin a B+ in bio is still a mystery to me. FTFF!!!

Just had an interesting discussion with terr-neh-neh-neh today. The way aNUS is structured, it seems like there's an underlying meaning to the kind of grades you get in aNUS. The implications are as follows:

If you get a CAP of -

4.5-5.0: You are damn smart and damn hardworking
4.0-4.5: You are quite smart and damn hardworking
3.5-4.0: You are damn hardworking but a tad stupid.
3.5: You are smart but a lazy ass
3-3.5: You just haven't got it up there, haven't you? But at least you tried
3.0-3.5: Plain stupid. It's a good thing you worked your butts off coming this far.
<3.0: What exams? Classes exists for the sole purpose of being cut! I'm preoccupied elsewhere!

Me? I'm a lazy ass tryin' to climb up the ladder.

Woah! Don't know why I just feel SO DAMN tired. There's really a heat wave going on here man. And my MSN just keeps flashing non-stop. Well, me first day of exams and I've already cleared TWO papers. Here're MY aim for grades this sem and the realistic postulation in paranthesis.

Psycholing : A (B+)
Cl Translation : B+ (B)
Cognitive : A- (B+)
Bio Psych : B (C+)
Employee Management: B+ (B-)

Seems like something right out of year 1 sem 2 right? Well, it really could have been worse. All is not lost until the day I give up! C'mon! Let's awake from this sombre slumber and pick up the pace!!

And so it has begun.

Should it be comforting to know what you don't know, or should i be at the stage of knowing what i didn't know? At least they're open books for the 1st 2 papers. I MUST succeed!

Pray to the unorthodox!

I think it's a year 2 sem 2 thingy. I've just about almost given up everything to do with the lousy Bio Psych module... BUT I MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! It's essential! Just that I REALLY hate memorising stuff... TMD! TMD! Tamade! Too much detail!

But anyway, check out the recent CD-Pro2 craze... That's what i call alternative marketting!!
To be watched in this sequence - Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
MTV intermission
Part 4
Part 5

...and some wannabe who just can't beat the real thang:
I mean what sort of nick is "blanka"??? Passe.

Whoo hoo! My First Grade 'A' essay of the semester (not that I've alot to write, and it's only 600 words, but still...)! It's MY blog and i can flood it in anyway I want! haha!

Will the field of artificial intelligence succeed in getting computers to think like humans?

By John McCarthy�s definition, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is �the science and engineering of making computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable�1. Can machines think in the first place? This is best explained in Alan Turing�s 1950 paper, Computing machinery and intelligence2. By his definition, a machine is considered intelligent by human standards should it pass the Turing Test3 � an �imitation game� in which the computer seeks to confuse the human judge by distinguishing it from a human through a series of questions and answers. Turing himself proposed that 30% of the machines with about 119MB of memory would be able to past that test by the end of 20004. Since 1990, a Loebner Gold medal5 and $100 000 grand prize have been awarded for the computer system that passes the Turing test.

The prize is still up for grabs.

However, all that is set to change with the integration of three current scientific trends: Genetic engineering, Nanotechnology and Robotics (GNR). The rationale is simple: research in bioengineering investigates the plausibility of replicating our neural-networking system; computer technology seeks to integrate that knowledge into machinery; and nanotechnology packages that complexity to manageable proportions.
Gordon Moore, former Intel CEO in the mid-1960s predicted that processor speed doubles every twenty-four months (later adjusted to eighteen months) � Moore�s Law6, a statement that holds true even today. The applicability of such a prediction seems to carry on with the recent advancements in nanotubes7-8 � elongated carbon molecules with superconducting properties akin to silicon. Progress in this field would solve the problem of packing voluminous algorithms of computing technology to practical proportions.

It is not entirely a bed of roses however. As Bill Joy, chief scientist at Sun Microsystems pointed out, �the potentials of GNR are so powerful that it will surely threaten the essence of life� 9. Formulation of strict ethical guidelines and control measures to prevent any form of abuse in technology from blowing out of proportions may impede the progress of AI reaching the intellectual capacity of humans. Such is the complexity of the biosphere that, as Crichton in his book, Prey cautions, we cannot know in advance the repercussions of our actions10.

From the biotech scene, we are still unable to explain how the brain circuit REALLY works amidst numerous brain researches and mental models presented. We may be able to map out the circuits, but nobody really knows how it works11. Enter the unlikely hero the software engineer � he comes in designing what a brain OUGHT to do12. Leveraging from recent achievements in Multiagent Systems, or Distributed AI (DAI), we have overcome one of the major obstacles in the field: the evolutionary mechanism. Armed with the basic principles of pattern recognition and through interaction with the environment and other agents, the agents are now able to adapt and learn13.
In the timeline projected by Kurtzweil�s Spirit of Machines14, the last 50 years have seen an explosion of GNR developments at breakneck pace. The latest breakthrough � the Creative Machine� by Thaler, is capable of generating useful random activity (noise) by triggering some of the network connections and hence developing creativity. In contrast to old-fashioned AI, where large databases of information and rules are input, the machine formulates its own and develops new ones15.

Innovation, learning, adaptability and evolution � traits once exclusive to humans or other bio-organisms, are now slowly being reproduced in computers. It is only a matter of time before these machines achieve human intelligence. Once this safety net is breached, superintelligence would follow at light speed in a positive feedback loop16. Whether all these are the precursor to catastrophic doomsday predictions is another issue. To quote from Walt Disney, �If you can dream it, you can do it.�

References
1McCarthy, J. (4 April, 2000). What is Artificial Intelligence? KurtzweilAI.net, Archives, Article 0088. Retrieved March 15, 2004
2Turing, A. (Oct 1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, New Series, Vol 59, No. 236, 433-460.
3The Age of Intelligent Machines: Can Machines Think? KurtzweilAI.net, Archives, Article 0099. Retrieved March 15, 2004
4Turing Test, Wikipedia (updated 11 March, 2004). Retrieved 15 March, 2004
5Homepage of the Loebner Prize, (1 December, 2003). Retrieved 15 March, 2004
6 Kurtzweil, R. Turing�s Prophecy. KurtzweilAI.net, Archives, Article 0272. Retrieved March 13, 2004
7Adams II, T. A. (26 April, 2000). Physical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes, The Nanotube site. Retrieved 15 March
8Nanotubes turned into superconductors, Technological Review (July 13, 2001). Retrieved 15 March, 2004
9Kurzweil, R. (19 Nov, 2001). Are We Becoming An Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the 21st Century. KurtzweilAI.net, Archives, Article 0351. Retrieved March 13, 2004
10Crichton, M. (2002). Artificial Evolution in the 21st Century. Prey, Introduction, ix-xiii. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
11Softky, B. (17 October, 2003). Software engineers - the ultimate brain scientists? The Register, Software, Article 33463. Retrieved March 15, 2004
12Softky, B. (20 October, 2003). Design patterns for a black box brain. The Register, Software, Article 33486. Retrieved March 13, 2004
13Sen, S. (1997). Multiagent Systems: Milestones and New Horizons. Trends in Cognitive Science, vol. 1, no. 9, 334-339.
14Hesman, T. (25 January, 2004). The Machine that invents. Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, News, Science and Medicine, Story. Retrieved March 13, 2004
15Kurtzweil, R. (1999). The Age of Spiritual Machines: Timeline. KurtzweilAI.net, Archives, Article 0274. Retrieved March 13, 2004
16Bostrom, N. How Long Before Superintelligence? KurtzweilAI.net, Archives, Article 0168. Retrieved March 15, 2004

I think people whom u don't meet for a long time but are able to confide in mutually are your soulmates. I've just met one (of 2) of them today, and it's scary how her problems are so shockingly like mine. I mean it's as if hearing yourself speak about your own dilemnas right next to you and then trying to give your own solutions to it. At the same time, you wish you could tell your part too, but that would just be saying the same thing twice now wouldn't it? It's been along time since I've felt so intellectually stimulated and excited.

"The passing shower ushers in pockets of sun rays that washes away our woes and cast new light on issues." - or so is my advice. I LOVE the after shower view in my room.

Corny joke of the moment:

Q: Wat did the ah beng linguist order at the drink stall?
A: AL-veolar with lemon.

Very farnee meh?