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Anticlimax

Published
by
acroamatic
on Sunday, 21 September 2008
in Personal and Tech
. 3 Comments

I received my new refurbished iMac on Thursday. As you can see, I unboxed it and fired it up.

What happened after the fancy Welcome clip?

Nothing.

There are a few things to fill in to set up OS X.

At Select a Wireless Service, the computer froze.

So, I restarted and tried again, this time choosing no network. The computer froze.

I unplugged the wires, plugged them back in (just the power cable and keyboard), tried again. Same result.

Time for Google. I found two similar cases - one which seemed to resolve itself, another one (also a refurbished set) which is unresolved.

Since it was late, I didn’t try reinstalling the OS.

I called AppleCare the next day, and the support guy asked me to do everything that I’ve already tried. He also asked me to do what I was intending to do anyway - reinstall the OS.

Still hung at selecting a network (whether I choose no network or my home wireless network).

After all that trouble, support guy 2 (I had to call back after the reinstallation and got a different guy) concluded that my iMac was DOA - Dead On Arrival.

Not a good advertisement for Apple, eh?

(Photos follow.)

Continue reading ‘Anticlimax’

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School Days at SJI

Published
by
acroamatic
on Monday, 15 September 2008
in Heritage and Personal
. 8 Comments

Wish I could go up to the dome

Ordinary Guy wrote a post about SJI, where he studied in the late 70s.

The first thing that a student had to brace himself was the incessant noise from the traffic during lessons. SJI was bordered by busy Bras Basah Road, Waterloo Street and Queen Street shown in the map below. It was a challenge to both teachers and Josephians to rise above the roar of engines and honks from impatient motorists especially during peak hours, to steer our concentration during lessons.

By the time I studied in SJI, the school had already moved to Malcolm Road. During a camp in Secondary 3 (1992), Brother Michael Broughton brought us around the derelict old building (just before it was closed off for restoration and conversion to the Singapore Art Museum).

He told us stories about his school days and the history of the school. We went up to the attic and even up to the dome! Sadly, I have no photos of that very exclusive tour.

The story which stuck in my head was about the bomb that fell in the main courtyard during World War II. The school was used as a hospital during the war. While it was derelict, grass had grown in circle from the courtyard, corresponding to the bomb crater. Amazingly, no one was killed from the explosion. A piece of shrapnel got lodged in a grandfather clock, which was on the 2nd storey. I believe this clock is now in the administration building at the current SJI premises.

I have to admit, my memory of the story may not be 100% accurate.

Even though I never studied in old SJI, I have great affinity for that building. I used to pass by it every day on the way to school - Saint Anthony’s Boys’ School a short hop away on Victoria Street - telling myself that one day, I will study there.

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Lighting Test

Published
by
acroamatic
on Friday, 12 September 2008
in Sports
. 1 Comment

Night lights

Stamford Road lit for the F1 race in Singapore, Singapore Recreation Club behind the lights.

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Snakes & Devils - A History of the Singapore Grand Prix

Published
by
acroamatic
on Thursday, 11 September 2008
in Heritage and Sports
. 2 Comments

Snakes & Devils - A History of the Singapore Grand Prix

I attended a talk by Eli Solomon on Sunday at the National Library. He talked about his book, Snakes & Devils - A History of the Singapore Grand Prix.

History of the Singapore Grand Prix? But it hasn’t even happened yet, right?

Well, the F1 race hasn’t taken place yet, but there was racing in Singapore in the 60s and 70s.

Eli gave a very vivid account of the characters involved in the Singapore Grand Prix over the years. It was a very different age, very far removed from the modern day pinnacle of motorsport (and its accompanying circus) which is about to descend here.

SGP was Formula Libre, libre being ‘open’ or ‘free’. So, you brought whatever you had and you raced.

Open-top single-seater cars vs regular road cars were the norm. You’d think that the person with the most expensive car would win, but this was not the case.

The race distance for SGP was 60 laps for most of the years - it was reduced in the latter years - and that was a punishing distance, requiring total concentration over the 4+ kilometre circuit. Race drivers needed endurance and stamina, just as they do now.

Safety was nearly non-existent for both drivers and spectators. The race averaged a death a year, part of the reason the race ended.

Eli also screened some never-seen-before footage from participants from an Australian team. Fascinating stuff as they recorded their trip, not just the race. Wish I could show it here. It really should have been bundled with the book.

Speaking of books, I believe Today reporter Ian De Cotta is about to launch another book on the Singapore Grand Prix.

Photo (top): Rodney Seow’s race suit. He was the last Singaporean winner of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Photo (below): Author of Snakes & Devils, Eli Solomon.

How could I forget? Why Snakes & Devils?

If you can make it out on the photo, there is a series of corners known as The Snakes, leading up to Devil’s Bend hairpin, where the current entrance to Lower Peirce Reservoir is located.

Snakes & Devils - A History of the Singapore Grand Prix

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Stripped

Published
by
acroamatic
on Monday, 8 September 2008
in Sports
. 6 Comments

Stripped

My revving up to the F1 race series of posts gets off on the wrong foot. I had planned to write about a talk I attended about the old Singapore Grand Prix. That will have to wait for another day.

I am on the verge of giving up on F1. Perhaps the night race will the last race that I watch.

Why?

Over the entire time I have watched F1, there has always been a sense that everything is tilted in favour of Ferrari.

When they are in breach of the rules, they get off with a slap on the wrist.

When other teams fall afoul of the ‘laws’, the book - no, the entire forest - is thrown at them.

(Yes, the examples are cited are quite different, but note that Ferrari got away with breaking the rules scot-free and McLaren were slapped with total points deduction and a totally unprecedented £100 million fine.)

But these are not the only examples, there have been numerous racing incidents which attract race stewards’ attention. The outcome almost always is:

  1. If Ferrari were the transgressors, no action is taken.
  2. If Ferrari stood to benefit from a penalty to another car/team, then the penalty would be meted out.

So, last night (Singapore time), two laps from the end, Lewis Hamilton straight-lined a chicane at the last corner, allowing him to overtake Kimi Raikonnen. If he had stayed in front, he would definitely have been given a penalty for gaining an unfair advantage.

Instead, he slowed down, making sure his car was physically behind the Ferrari. Then he made another - this time successful - overtaking move on the start-finish straight.

Even before the race was over, I knew that they stewards would be investigating this. True enough, they did. And as I suspected, I woke up this morning to the news that Hamilton had a 25-second penalty imposed for gaining an unfair advantage in his initial overtaking attempt at the chicane which he drove straight through.

How far behind Raikonnen was he supposed to have dropped back? He was close enough to attempt an overtaking move (that’s within 0.3 seconds) when he went straight through the chicane instead of following the curves. Was he supposed to drop back to more than 1 second behind?

Utter nonsense.

Oh, and Raikonnen didn’t even finish the race because he eventually spun and crashed on his own accord. Hmmmm… if Hamilton had not tried to overtake, he would have won!

Is that was the F1 administration wants? No overtaking?

Yes, no overtaking of scarlet red cars that are leading the race.

Incidentally, football has left a sour taste in my mouth lately too. I just haven’t been interested in watching matches lately. Perhaps it was the Olympics which distracted me initially. Perhaps it was the Ronaldo nonsense. Whatever the case, we shall see if I’m all hyped up for United v Liverpool on Saturday.

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