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Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 3

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Day 4

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Day 5

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Day 6

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Day 7

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Day 8

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Regards,
Han Yang
Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Day 08* - LA

We visited NBC Universal Digital in the morning. In common, everyone felt that this is the most not-very-interesting section in comparison with the rest, especially yesterday, the whole day we had fun at Universal Studio. However, at least, we knew something: history of NBC (their logo changes after periods. And if you looked carefully, the latest logo is quite creative), the way they arrange lights in a stage to make a TV show (it’s look a bit messy to me, or there were some order maybe), etc. They would have a live show in the evening as we shew them prepare the outdoor stage. It would be better if we could attend the show, then our attitude regarding this section may improve a bit.

We dropped at Farmers Market in the afternoon, went around and had lunch. The Brazilian food is quite nice. The interesting thing was that they didn’t charge us base on the number of dishes we taken. They charged us by weighing the dish with all the foods on it (except the dish itself, of course).

We arrived at Fox Interactive Media (a.k.a FIM) about 3pm. Before coming here, I thought that Fox was a film studio just like Universal, as I only saw their logo at the beginning of some movies. I didn’t know that myspace.com belongs to them, I didn’t know that they had many other products as well, and they also need more IT staff at the moment. Lots of privileges included a house in Beverly Hill are given to you when joining them. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead to apply for the job!.

We went to “99 cent” super market after the buffet dinner. Surprisingly, everything is only 99 cent each, for example: 2 bottles of water is 99 cents (I spent 2 dollars for them in the hotel yesterday). Actually, almost all the items are clearance-sale items from other stores. They are 100% new, only out of fashion.

We walked to the hotel after that, packed our luggages for the returning trip tomorrow.

(* late posts)

Regards,

An
Ngee Ann Poly

Day 9

Woke up this morning at about 6. Was chatting with Teng Yang until 2am earlier on and wasn't exactly intending to sleep, but somehow darkness and a nice bed makes it a conducive environment to do so. Oh well, 4 hours of sleep. So when I woke up, I realised that people had MSNed me, and I'm half-awake trying to figure out what they're saying, since the brain can't really function that well in the morning.

We were driven to the airport at about 10am, and due to LAX's highly inefficient system, we were very slow at the group check in, but at least we were able to board on United Airlines on time. So, there isn't a personal in-flight entertainment system, so must plan certain things to do. So I got out my Physics homework that CCK had set for us. Many thanks to Shu Wen (sat beside me), Manek (sat across the aisle) and Eddy (sitting in front of me) for the help in Pro Physics qns / PT / Kinematics 9.1. What was really hilarious was when Manek was teaching me, cos there were people constantly walking along the aisle, and the teaching was constantly interrupted.

Ok, so on the plane, there was this random American movie, and then Spiderwick Chronicles, Definitely Maybe, Hannah Montana and the Suite life of Zack and Cody. Spiderwick Chronicles I watched before, so nothing new there. Definitely maybe was definitely, or maybe a bit touching at certain parts. Of course, there's the complicated love life of the main character, being ditched and being rejected at marriage. And since United gave such lousy headphones, I used my phone ear phones instead which had the nice paddings for the ear. However, the jack wasn't a best fit, so I had to place my hand to hold the jack there, so that audio could play.

Food wise, there were pretzel snacks shortly after take off. And then lunch was served within an hour - teriyaki chicken, with extremely overcooked/uncooked hard rice, chicken ham salad, some random bun and a really sweet cake. And at the 8th hour of the flight, there was CUP NOODLES! WTF. And the flight attendants were basically going around with hot water. I'm so sure lorh. I haven't eaten cup noodles for so long that i can't even remember when was the last time I had it. And dinner was quite good, it was served at the 13th hour of the flight, 1 hour before touch down. Food wasn't too bad. Pasta, fruits, cinnamon glazed donut and some raspberry shortcake.

Currently, I am in HK airport waiting for my return flight to Singapore. Just a bit longer, say in 5 more hours time, I will be back in Singapore already?


Samuel Swee

Epic wombat movie

Wombat and kiwi busy many day, work on this movie. We think the term is "video-blogging". Movie epic, big and all about wombat and kiwi. Hope you enjoy this big big movie.

Day 8

Today is the last day in LA before the entire group flies off back to Singapore tomorrow. Breakfast was rather cold - waffle, croissant, choco chip muffin and porridge. I just realised that you need to microwave the cold food to eat. Anyway, just as I was leaving the breakfast room, the staff just brought in the milk, so I took one and left it in the fridge.

Our first stop today was National Broadcasting Company. Notice that their logo is a peacock with 6 coloured feathers (the divisions of the company) and it is facing to the right (looking forward to the future). Basically, in NBC, there's no photography, so I'm gonna have to rely on words to describe my experience at NBC. So, we first watched this video about NBC, and that it and Universal Studios were one entity. "So we own Universal and Universal owns us". And then we had a tour of the various sets such as the Jay Leno show. We saw how some of the effects were created like that of in Heroes. There were wigs, masks and props lying around. The personnel there were all very familiar and friendly with one another, and was wishing our guide happy birthday. There was also this poster showing how they created the set for the Ellen Degeneres show, really interesting. And as with every studio, they showed us how they did their filming, with the help of CGI.

We then left for Farmers Market for lunch. The food there is excellent. I got myself a lasagna for $7.95 inclusive of tax. It wasn't too bad actually. In fact, I wished we had more time around there so can eat more food :D And there was also the fresh fruits stall where I got myself strawberries for $1.49. And also pistachio nuts for my grandfather for $5. And then before lunch, me and Clement walked about and went to a bookstore barnes and hobbes i think, and i got myself 2 fiction books and gift cards. $15.66 and 15 minutes spent there.
After lunch, we were to get to Fox Interactive Media. However, due to our good habit of being early, we were there 25 minutes before schedule. So we ended up stoning outside the building taking abstract photos and playing with water.

At 2.30pm, we entered the building, once again no photos. The whole place is a nice and comfortable working environment, and the guide is really a nice person! They even have their games room to play when things get stressful, plus they get to eat at their cafetarias for free!
For Dinner, we went to this place called Hometown Buffet. Arh, another buffet for dinner, but nevertheless, I still know how to control myself.
Dish 1: White Baked Fish, Popcorn chicken, cheese bread (or so I think it is - top right), mashed potato and potato salad.

Appetizer: Vegetable soup with added corn from the salad bar :P
Dish 2: Long beans, some vegetable, coleslaw with potato salad on it, beef slab, white baked fish and olives in the middle. Dish 3: Baked white fish, corn, sausage roll and olives.

After the buffet, we walked over to a 99-cent store to do our last shopping spree. So as usual, when it comes to shopping, I can't really control myself. So I went to get 3 gift cards again. It seems that I have more than 10 gift cards. Then we went to Albertsons supermarket. Where I happily got myself some chewing gum. Whee, lots of gum! And hershey chocolates! It's rather cheap compared to Singapore, since one big packet here is $3.49, and the currency is in our favour. Walked back with Clement and Mrs Chor to the hotel after that. I hate walking under the bridge when the sky is dark, gives the eerie feeling.

Expenditure for the day:
Books bought $15.66
Lunch Lasagna $7.95
Strawberries $1.49
Pistachio $5
99-cent store $9.24
Albertsons Supermarket $15.47
Total: $54.81


Samuel Swee

Day 07, in LA

We began our day with a "cold" breakfast. The breakfast at this hotel is similar to the other one at Comfort Inn, though here offers more variety than the latter and colder (everything need to be heated before serving). After breakfast, we set off to Universal Studio and a whole day of fun awaits us! However, we did some detour to the Staples Stadium (stadium of LA Lakers), before we went to a street where there are many stars on the street floor, which is what I have seen on TV before. We went around the place, taking photos together with people dressed up as some Hollywood characters such as Catwoman, Spiderman, Charlie Chaplin, Supergirl, Zorro etc.

During the trip from the hotel to this street, based on what I have seen so far, I would say that LA is more developed than SF. There are more buildings in the city compared to SF, and there are many others that are being constructed.

After this Hollywood lane, we left for Universal Studio. I must admit that before coming here, I thought we were visiting another company as like before. However, this exceeded all my expectations as it is a place of entertainment. Being a place of entertainment, they're actually a business as well, making use of technology to enhance the visual and sound experience; I wonder how much money they earn per day.

The place is so wide that maybe the whole hill belongs to them! The studios here are also very versatile to an extend that any type of scene can be created here. I also feel that this is one of the most creative place too. Why? In order to make any special look real, they have to create their own props and equipments, which are not similar to what we’ve ever seen before, etc. For example, to create the airplane crashing scene, they've used 500 different effects! This also somehow explains the reason why film production costs so much and amounts to millions of dollars.

Here, we went to quite a few places that we had marked out before hand. We went (actually everyone) went on the Universal Studio Tour which was quite insightful as they showed what goes on behind-the-scenes. Also, the Water World show was also very nice with real actors from some of the well-known movies and TV serials. Shrek in 4D and Terminator 2 in 3D are also very nice too. I wonder how they make such 3D effects that looked so real.

The roller coasters rides we took in The Mummy and The Jurassic Park are quite exciting though not really scary, as we could not see anything much while we were moving fast. It was the same thing as just listen to the sound in a ghost movie.

The last place our group visited was the House of Horrors. There was nothing so special here, though the only thing that surprised me was when a stranger lady that I mistook for my group member jumped into me as she was frightened by the displays.


Regards,

An
Ngee Ann Poly

Day 6-New horizon begins

Reached comfort inn at 7:30. Everyone deeped into sleep trying to recover after the long wonderful night before. Surprisingly,when the alarm clock rang, it took everyone less than 10 minutes to get up and be ready for breakfast. Usually, they need more time to prepare, but today is a special day, a new journey begins.

Today, we will leave SF and depart to another city. Looking back at the hotel, everything just flashed back in my mind about the time we had in SF. All the places i visited, the joy that i had, the new experience that I gained,together they appeared clearly on my mind. It's wonderful to be here to enjoy, learn and experience new things. "SF, im leaving now" said Jacqueline, one friend of mine. I believe it is also what every individual one of us wanted to say after 3 enjoyable days here, in SF.

The sadness of leaving SF is quickly replaced by the excitement. We are heading to LA, one of the most well-known city in America for its reputation in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, internet content, video games and recorded music. Our knowlegde will be widen tremendously when learning and observing what currently are happening in one of the world's centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade.

In the midst of travelling, we stopped at Gilroy. Ladies have their best day in the trip. We went to shop! Almost all the popular internationally brand's stores are located in this area. But what really matters are the price of the products. It's obviously less expensive and more updated models than what are available in Singapore right now. Now, instead of thinking what to buy, we started to think what not to buy. Everyone has a nice day to wander around and make up their mind what suits their needs best. However, due to time lacking issue, most of us did not have sufficient time to visit all the stores. Therefore, we have to rush in order to possibly purchase we are really interested in. It seemed to be chaotic and hassle for those who really wished to check out all the available stores. Even for me, though i only visit four or five stores, my lunch ended up eating MacDonald in the bus. Sigh, it's fast-food and burger again. Since when i got tired of burger i wondered. Basically, there are no differences between MacDonald in Singapore and America.They did a good job to maintain the original taste of the burger which explains why there are so many customers around the world enjoying their product. Nevermind, I am happy for my new stuffs =) . In fact, most of us had a nice shopping day.

After leaving Gilroy, we spent the rest of the day in the bus. It took six hours for us to transit from SF to LA. It's kind of bored after all. Six hours on the bus made me feel more tired as i could not do anything but sitting and waiting for the time to come, the time we arrives. Every now and then, we can enjoy the varied mountain scenery randomly. I have to admit the time spent on the bus was not totally useless as a matter of fact. We enjoyed the scenery, mountains, valley, lakes, and farms along the way.It explained how beauties of nature in America attracts more and more visitors coming here to enjoy their vacation. The nature takes it course automatically in beautifying the landscape in one of the biggest country in the world, how amazing !

Six hours is long enough for us to feel tired and hungry. It's time for dinner. After reaching LA, we had the wonderful time at the restaurant nearby. It was an international buffet meal. We had a chance to try and enjoy various kind of cusine in different parts of the world from Japanese sushi to Chinese fried rice and so on. We really enjoyed the dinner with abundant food to fill our empty stomach after such a long day.

After dinner, everyone was too tired and sleepy to plan to go out. All we wished to do is check in the room, watching T.V along with drinking a cup of hot chocolate and enjoying the coolness of the climate at night. Afterward is a good rest,and preparing for tomorrow.
Tomorrow will come with more joy and fun!!

Thank for reading till the end =))) ,
Bui Huy Quang Vu(Ngee Ann Polytechnic)

The future is infocomm. Be a player

Hello! This is big wombat! Whee, nice green grass! Yum!



~

Big wombat is eating, so small wombat shall talk about where small wombat and friends go today. Today went to Apple. Big apple can fit many many wombat and kiwi, outside and inside also have nice tasty grass for feed wombats. Their place is built on infinite loop, so wombat run and run, round and round the big circle, until wombat very tired, and never reach the end. Wombat wonders whether that is good design or not. Wombat see tasty shiny black thing in apple store, think it call iPod touch. Wombat think flavour is nutty and sweet, but thing is quite big, so wombat not eat very many.





After Apple, go Plug and Play. Many of wombat's students came here to try start glorious company, make big money.



Then wombat walk up big tall hill, tiring but okay for wombat because wombat can run 1km in 90 seconds. Kiwi fly up hill! The wind at top was strong, nearly blow away kiwi, so kiwi hide in shelter of rocks. Nice cloud cover hill top, so cannot see wombat.



~

Yay, kiwi wombat.
Wombat kiwi wombat whee.
Grass green and tasty.

Kiwi kiwi bird.
Wombat wombat eat green grass.
iPod tasty too.

Kiwi fly kiwi,
Wombat eat nice grass tasty,
Apple feed many!


Signing off,
Wombats and kiwi.
Translated by Siheng (Hwa Chong)

Day 5 in Sans Francisco

No one gave a morning call. Surprise surprise.
Usually, someone would make a call to check if we have woken up or not. Well, not today, for one reason or another.
But we woke up on time anyway!

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Present day:
Mother: What is "Apple"?
Child: It is a fruit.

In future:
Mother: What is "Apple"?
Child: It is an American multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing consumer electronics and closely related software products.
Mother: ...Wow~


I supposed the above would have given readers clues to say today is "Apple Inc. Visiting Day"!

We are having a trip down to Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarter, located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. We reached our destination earlier than what we had expected- there were a few more minutes left to 10am.






While waiting, Benjamin, who would be giving us a presentation about Apple Inc., unfortunately got into a little accident and he called to say he would be 45 minutes late. To make full use of the time, there was a minor change in plan. We decided to head towards the Apple Retail Store for some products and accessories. For Apple fans, that would have been much of a paradise. Apple products everywhere, from pencils to mugs to shirts to softwares to iPod to... There are just too many things to look at and just too many things that would make an Apple user's heart beat with excitement. Even for non-Apple users, they were awed by the cool technologies and accessories that they ended up getting some products from the shop itself. (Oh, you should look at their happy faces when they did their purchase. The feel of satisfaction! The products are worth the amount they paid for! Time to show off the cool Apple products to friends! Woohoo!)




After which, we attend the presentation.


Benjamin, a Singaporean working for Apple Inc., gave us a brief, and informal, insight about Apple Inc.. "Create innovation in the 21st century" is Apple Inc.'s policy. We learnt that they are trying to nurture leadership in info-technology. Also, they are trying to have the "1-to-1" which means each student having one computer/laptop in their journey of education. This is to allow students to have the chance to use technology. At the same time, it is to allow the teachers to think about how they can use technology in their class to bring across more enjoyable lessons. ("Teach how to analysis rather than just teaching it.") Then, Benjamin shared with us some of his past experiences about his jobs and about the products. Before the presentation, Benjamin could not start up the projector, which we had to view his slides in a little cinematic iMac screen. When the projector was finally working, Benjamin had already gone through most of the slides. It was really funny. Talk about "It's better to be late than never". The presentation was really interesting- hearing stories from someone who works for Apple and coincidentally, is a Singaporean . Anyone motivated to work for Apple in future? Anyone?
(And the super comfy office chairs we sat on added bonus to the presentation.)


We were late!!! A stop at the fastfood provide us with a quick lunch!
Some people ate at Subway's. Some ate at In-n-Out Burger. For us, we went to In-n-Out Burger. (We can find Subway in Singapore. Let's try others.) I got a Double Double, which is just a double cheeseburger. It was delicious. The patty was juicy! And there was a lot of cheese. Yummy~ I didn't have the chance to take a picture of the burger for my hunger consumed the fact that a picture should be taken to show the yummy-ness of the burger. (Licks lips)


Next stop, Plug and Play Tech Centre! Plug and Play is a company that has over 150 startups working closely with one another and build great companies from ideas and dreams. They also provide value added service that help turn people's dream into reality by helping them start up new companies in relationship to other companies that are overseas. In summary, the company provides funding, provides university programs and services, has international relationships and hold events and also strategic partnerships. Jub,the cool guy, and Berlinda,the pretty lady, told us more about the company on what they do, what they have done, and what they are planning to do while they bring us on a tour around the company. A small area in the office with a door marks a "company". It definitely gave new companies a chance to have their own workspace/office to do their work until they can be independent. We saw flags and banners with the name of the company hanging around the area. We also saw two masks: "Hmmm, we are thinking about something big..." Then, we met a Singaporean who works in a company named Kiyari, who is being helped by Plug and Play. He told us that there are actually a number of Singaporeans who approached Plug and Play before to help them with their new company. How cool! I wish to have a company of my own too!


Visiting to the company is over. Time for sightseeing! (Cheers) We went up the Twin Peak in the coach.

The air in the bus started getting colder as we went up the mountain. After that, we see fog outside the window panels. FOG! It is not often that we get to see thick, white fog in Singapore. But we get to see it now. It is definitely unique sight to us. Nearing the top, we had to get off the bus. The air was C-O-L-D. It could be compared to the cold environment we experienced at the Golden Gate Bridge. Hugging our jackets, we looked down the hill. What we saw took our breath away! The view was just too beautiful to describe in words. We get to see the whole town, the sea, the hills at the other side of the town, the fog, the blue sky and the wild birds gliding through the air. It just looked as if we were staring at a piece of painting. To get a better view, and to get to the really top of the hill, we had to climb some stairs. It was no easy job. The wind blew hard at us, tempting us to get back to the bus instead of going to the top. However, we carried on. The effort did paid off, for we got a even better view! And we could felt even colder air! And there was this sense of satisfaction! And... It was time to get back down. Back to the bus for some warmer air! And did I mention, Mr. Patrice did not bring his jacket out today? But he climbed to the top in his polo shirt and this fact is worth mentioning! (Of course, he dashed down and back to the bus soon after.


On our way to Lombard Street, we passed by a town named Castro where some people have rainbow flags hanging outside their house. This is to tell others that either the couple staying in the house is homosexual, or that the household supports love between homosexual. Curiosity got the better of us as we looked out of the window and we so happened to see two men holding hands and walking on the street. A pair of homosexual couple. Let's just give them our blessings for they have found their love.


We were told that in the past, many tourists visits Lombard Street and the residents did not like the ruckus made by the vehicles and coaches. Hence, there is a ban to say that coaches can only bring tourists to the foot of the hill and that for the rest of the street, they had to carry on on foot. We had no exceptions and we too, left the bus and walked up the very steep road. It felt as though I am climbing Bt. Timah Hill, but a lot more chillier. As we walked upwards, we see houses that look so cute and beautiful houses. The air smelt clean and the flowers, blue, purple and white, were in bloom. Upon reaching near the end, most people would stop to have a picture taken. Of cos, so did we!


We had to walk down the hill to get to our bus for the next destination. It was so much easier walking down as we are walking towards gravity. Physics rule applies.

Since we are near to the Cheesecake Factory, we decided to drop by the place to get some really delicious cheesecakes. There were so many types of cheesecakes to make our mouths water. (Drools) We had to queue for the cakes. Therefore, one can imagine the number of customers there.



We went to Powell Hyde to take the cable car. Unlike the cable cars we see moving in the air, the cable cars here refers to miniature trains that works on cables, carrying people from one place to another. We paid USD$5 to get a ride on it. It was fun! We went up and down the hills while seeing the "driver" pull the handle to activate the cable car or stop it. We saw cars that are parked on the steep slope and that made me wonder if that is dangerous or not. Anyway, some of us had more fun by standing outside the car and holding on tightly to the bars while the cold wind blow straight at us. How exciting! The ride ended at Fisherman Wharf.


We took a short bus ride to the Fisherman Wharf and some of us went to the souvenirs stores. The shop keeper gave us 10% discount. How sweet of him. Mr. Patrice went in and bought a nice jacket. It was quite cheap and lovely and it is reversible.

Last stop, at a Chinese restaurant. They served the food really quickly and the food was really good. The standard could be compared to what we had yesterday. With a full stomach, we had to make our way back to the Motel. Have to pack our luggage, for tomorrow, we are checking out.


.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Regards,
Jacqueline Chai,
Ngee Ann Polytechnic

June 12-Day 4

Breakfast:

I guess i can't find any new words to describe this session again, but the news of today is, we were the first group to get ready for the bus. Anyway, it's always good to be punctual!


Barclays Capital Investors:

It's another one hour ride before we stood in front of the magnificent building of this well-known financial giant's base, which located at downtown San Francisco. After the concise presentation given by Barclays, we had the basic background information and how its business processes: Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC which has an AA long-term credit rating and a balance sheet of over US$1.8 trillion. With a distinctive business model, Barclays Capital provides large corporate, government and institutional clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs. Barclays Capital has the global reach and distribution power to meet the needs of issuers and investors worldwide.

Besides presentations, the trading game we played soon after was the fun part of the day. We were the red team and consisted of two traders(Han Yang and Vu), two middle officers(Jacqueline and me) and a book keeper(An), which were role played by students. We had lots of fun and even Mr.Patrice, the runner, who ran back and forth to assist us playing a better game enjoyed the whole process equally. Our strategy was to sell as many shares as we could and make money out of the sales. The result wasn't so bad, we turned out to be No.2 in a-four teams competition.


While we were eating lunch hosted by BCI, we learnt a lesson in the BCI's IT department leader Tim' s short presentation. We were impressed by his words on "choosing a job of our interests" and "life is a learning process". In the end, we managed to take a couple of group photos with hosts before we left BCI at 2pm.


NASA:




After the trip to BCI, we had a good time in AMES RESEARCH CENTER NASA RESEARCH PARK before our plan of a tour in Stanford University in the late afternoon. The instructor of NASA told us many interesting stories about universe and galaxies. Meanwhile, his sense of humor made us feel at ease when we were asking questions, as we could absorb new knowledge but didn't feel the pressure from such a legend like NASA.

We found shopping at NASA Gifts Shop was a totally fun experience. Although we were reluctant to walk under the boiling sun shortly after we came out of the shop, the famous sunshine of California truly made our afternoon heat up!


Stanford:


Stanford University, founded in 1885, is recognized as one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions, with one of the most renowned faculties in the American nation. It is generally recognized as the origin of silicon valley and many of the world's famous IT companies. Only when we set our feet on its campus, we could feel the desire of learning and the innovative spirit . Two first-year Stanford freshmen from Singapore showed us around the campus of Stanford. Although we didn't have plenty of time, we could still feel how does school life in Stanford look like everyday. We have been to school's bookstore,too. All the attractive souvenirs made us want to stay there a bit longer in campus. However, we had to catch our bus before sunset.

Dinner:

ly, it's the best dinner ever since we came to USA! Ten different yummy dishes with the fourth NBA final game between LA Lakers and Boston Celtics on going at the dinner time made our evening in SF more colorful. Here we go, tomorrow we will visit Apple!!!!

Regards,
Chen Kun
Ngee Ann Polytechnic

One small paw for wombat

Haiku can be fun
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

Barclays and Stanford
No tomatoes for dinner
Grass green and tree tall

Kiwi on the bus
Watching grass growing outside
San Francisco rocks



~

Okay, that was kiwi. Now I will tell you about what we did today! We went to Barclays. It was a big investment company, bigger than many big wombats. I took photo with sculpture outside their building, here it is!



Here we played stock trading game. My company bought many big and small stocks, and made a lot of money.



After that we went to NASA. We took lots of photos with me and small wombat and kiwi. Big man told us many interesting stories. One of the things we learned was that the first wombat on the moon said, "one small paw for wombat, and one big leap for wombatkind." Here it is!



After that we went Stanford, small wombat will tell you more.

~

Hi! Small wombat is me. Small wombat think Stanford is nice place. Small wombat used to study here, got double PhD here. Big place, take wombat many minute to walk. Maybe wombat can cycle, or dig tunnel for train so wombat can travel fast.



Many other smart people come from this place. Small wombat meet some of them when wombat work on invent nuclear weapons, think it called Manhattan Project. Do big experiment, write long paper. After that big bomb go boom. After work, burn paper in big fire, because boss say, wombat must keep some thing secret. Wombat think fire hot, ow. Wombat not put paw in fire again.

Tomorrow we go apple. Wombat think maybe apple nice to eat.

Signing off, Wombat (big), Wombat (small) and Kiwi
Translated by Ben & Siheng (Hwa Chong)

June 11-Day 3

Breakfast :
Once again, we woke up as the alarm clock suddenly rang at its horrible tune. We washed up, picked clothes and rushed down to the lobby to grab ourselves breakfast.It seemed toasts and syrup are still my favorite... Anyway, everybody got used to this kind of fast pace breakfast, with small nice talks now and then.



Autodesk lab :
It took us around one hour or so to reach Autodesk Lab, which locates at San Rafael. Frankly speaking, we were impressed by the sublime views along the way: blue sky sparkling with tiny houses and airplanes flying across our heads. Ms. Amanda Collins, Senior Marketing Manager for Autodesk presented this vital, innovative company to us. Amanda shared with us vision of the company:Technologies to create digital models and workflows that help to visualize, simulate analysis. What's more important, experience ideas before it becomes reality!


It was quite exciting to take a close look of Autodesk's proud Multi-touch wall with our own eyes. And what's more, we even had our hands on this really cool stuff for some time. Watching lava jumping back and forth, we felt our hearts were beating harder and harder. The concept of multi-touching also enlightened us on the way of designing the user interface and making life easier for everybody. It matches the four digital trends clarified by the company itself: Digital Life, Globalization, Industry Boom and Climate Change.


After 5 minutes ride, we went to the other part of Autodesk for lunch. Different from the other times, it was a traditional American meal with stuffed chicken, home-made salad and many more dishes which I couldn't tell the names. When everybody starts eating, designer Jose gave us a vivid presentation on the importance of design and how to corporate design with engineering and marketing departments in a company. As we realized how crucial communication is and he went on to explain that Autodesk Lab is actually meant to research on the new technologies for the future with a time span of more than several years. Interesting!


It matched what HP had suggested days ago, we are doing things for the generation of tomorrow. Oh, gosh, I nearly forgot to say, the lunch was really tasty with all knowledge we absorbed in one hour's time.

Computer History Museum:

Wow! It's museum again! What's new this time? Let's follow the way of our great docent Roy Mize, he tried to reveal all his stories of computers with us.

There are over 600 unique artifacts, from rare slide rules and mechanical calculators to the earliest one of kind computers, vintage PCs and exotic supercomputers. Visible Storage represents just a small portion of objects in the Computer history Museum's collection, which is the largest in the world.

On exploring a-five-decade-long history of computers, we learnt from Mr.Roy along the way of touring as well. He said:" When you step out of the campus, you haven't done your studies yet. It's just your beginning! " With an age of 74 years, he still taking courses now and then to charge himself, so what could stop us from this endless learning journey?

We took a fine group photo with Mr.Roy before we called a day, everything was just like the sunshine in California, delicate and peaceful.

Dinner:
I know that not all of us enjoy the traditional Chinese food as much as I do, but a dinner with six different dishes gave us enough energy to recover from tedious trip back from well-known San Francisco Bay. Short conversations during the dinner time was also a way make us feel close with each other.

Shopping Mall:
Shopping is all about fun! We managed to spend one hour and a half in a shoping mall near Comfort Inn, the motel we are staying. Not everyone of us bought something inside the mall, but we had a good time there, though after which we had some troubles of finding the way back home...


It's another day there waiting for us!Come on!


Regards,
Chen Kun
Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Kiwi bird

Kiwi is pleased to present you with an amusing fact:

If you repeat kiwi over and over again and say it without spaces, it sounds like this:
kiwikiwikiwi
which sounds like:
wikiwikiwiki

A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. For example, the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in businesses to provide affordable and effective intranets and for Knowledge Management.

Kiwi today went to Autodesk! There, kiwi got to see a multi-touch wall which costs US $160,000, enough to buy millions of kiwi fruit. The wall must be quite big, because kiwi can't reach the top and must fly. It allows people to grab objects and throw them around the screen using their hands. Kiwi wanted to try, but kiwi cannot reach.



Autodesk gave us autolunch. Kiwi is sad, because his friend chicken is on the plate.


Then kiwi went to the Computer History Museum. Here, kiwi got stuck in an infinite loop. Kiwi think that kiwi think that kiwi think that kiwi think that kiwi think [bzzzzt, kiwi see insect and fly away]

Kiwi! Think!


Kiwi also saw some very old memory. This was one of the earliest implementations of RAM. Nowadays memory comes in sticks, like cigarettes. But memory used to be very big.


This is the CRAY-2, which was the fastest supercomputer around back in 1985. It could do 1 to 2 gigaflops.



Nowadays, supercomputers can do teraflops. But kiwi can still only do 1 flop.




Signing off,
Kiwi!

SMALLL WOMBATTT

THIS…IS…WOMBATTTTTTTTTTT {small}

Wombat woke up. Saw many waffle. Waffle nice. Waffle big. But waffle bigger than wombat. Wombat made friends with waffle. But waffle had to leave so soon. Wombat made friend with egg, toast and milk too. But they all had to leave so soon );

Wombat took big big bus to HP Labs. But different bus, blue bus. HP guy said, “No wombat, no photos.” So wombat hide in bag. Can hear, cannot see );

Wombat heard there was some microchip thingy. Maybe wombat can wear one of those next time. Tell people about wombat. Where wombat come from. And most importantly, WARN PEOPLE OF WOMBATTTTT.

Wombat went to Hewlett and Packard’s office rooms. Very big. Big enough for many many wombats. They have garden too. Good for wombat to run and jump around in. Packard was Secretary of Defense. Maybe he can teach our warrior wombats how to fight.

Then wombat went to Intel. Which stands for Integrated Electronics. Here, wombat took many many photos! Here is a photo of wombat!

Here is many many more wombat photo, because wombat like Intel.

Ow! Pipe small! This crunch!

Okay, wombat make post card. He send to all his friends. If you have post card, you are wombat friend. Otherwise, wombat may make friends with you, if you not leave too soon.



Wombat paws tired of typing. Tomorrow kiwi post.

¡ıı ʎɐp

Today we visited HP Labs and the Intel Museum.

In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel after a good nights' sleep (or lack therof). Breakfast consisted of coffee, DIY waffles, more coffee, more DIY waffles and an apple each (to keep the (medical) doctor away).


Not-so-shortly (I cant write "longly") we left for HP Labs. HP labs is the division of HP that does Research & Development on technologies that reach the public only 10-15 years in the future. We saw many exciting things (and, for some reason, a stuffed animal allegedly called a wombat). From using an ordinary touchpad as a writing surface to printing extremely high resolution photos to a plate of cookies that was effectively demolished in a matter of minutes, we truly enjoyed this eye opening experience. After that, we enjoyed another bodily aperture (mouth) opening experience (Lunch).

We then moved on to Intel Museum. In there, we got to (ab)use electronic kits while learning more about electric circuits. We moved on to looking at the origin of the intel microprocessor, and the fruits of the revolution that it brought about. We even got to make our own set of e-postcards and to see yet another implementation of a motion detecting game. After "horsing around with photobooth" (to quote a certain person whom you should be able to identify) we bought various souvenirs and left for the hotel.

On the trip back to the hotel, we stopped by the great mall where we greatly enjoyed ourselves browsing through a great collection of shops and greatly eating the great food that was present in great amounts. After greatly enjoying the great food and otherwise greatly enjoying ourselves (and causing you great pain due to the great number of greats in this great paragraph), we headed back to the (great) hotel room.

We really enjoyed ourselves going out today!

BTW, What good is unicode if you cant abuse it?

Link to External Blog Post: http://mattanmusings.blogspot.com/2008/06/day-2.html

10 June - Day 2

Breakfast@Hotel:
Our bodies woke up with shock from the alarm radio suddenly playing at the preset time (0700). Grudgingly, we dragged ourselves awake to wash up and headed down to the lobby for breakfast. The breakfast was not bad; waffles (self-made), coffee, toast was what I had. There were many other choices such as bread with multi-flavored fillings, cereals such as corn flakes and drinks such as milk and orange juice.

HP Labs :
For this tour around HP Labs located in Paulo Alto, Mr. Carl Chow, Visit Manager for HP, was our guide. Unfortunately, we had to surrender any equipment capable of photography or videography to the receptionist, hence there's only a few photos outside of the building. Mr. Chow went through what HP is about ("Simplifying technology experiences around the world"), what HP has to offer to both the consumer market and the corporate markets, and the frameworks that the company works on. In regards to these frameworks, there is 2 that the company sticks by: Company Strategy & Operating Framework. He went on to explain that HP Labs is actually meant to research on technologies for the future with long term goals (5-10 years timeline). He also mentioned that HP Labs had just recently reshuffled their management and categorized all their researches into 5 main themes, in which 23 research labs across the world are also divided by this themes. In the past, only 2 to 3 researchers were attached to a past, however, with this new consolidation, there are more researchers working on the same project instead, hence moving from small projects to generating a high impact research that may change IT forever. For example, memresistor is the new fourth passive circuit element that came out of this lab. Also, he mentioned that HP helps companies to maximize the efficiency and power to cool data systems with e-generators and sensors which helps to cut down significantly power bills used for air-conditioning.
He also demonstrated a few new technologies that they had, for example Indigo is an printer ink that would bring better picture quality for press; Memory Spot, a tag that utilizes elementary RFID concepts, which can contain large amount of data in it; Cable Tracker for telecommunication companies to track unplugged or faulty cables; Free Pad, a program that came out of HP Labs India that reads strokes on the trackpad as characters hence making it like a transcriber; Polynomial Texture Mapping, a black dome with controlled lightings to show details on items that cannot be seen in normal lightings; HALO, a real-life video conferencing technology.
We were also brought around to HP founders' original offices, which was next to each other. Right outside their offices, was their first product: Model 200c Audio Oscillator.
Lunch at the cafeteria at HP Labs was fantastic! The burgers that were there was SO DELICIOUS! After lunch, we moved on to Intel Museum.

Intel Museum:
It was quite interesting at this museum as we began our tour of the museum first with practical on schematics and circuitry where we played with Lego-like pieces to build a complete circuit based on the given schematics. After which, we were guided around the museum by Regina who told us of the history behind Intel, which was derived from "Integrated Electronics", and not "Intelligence" as commonly believed. She also talked about Moore's Law, a statement made by one of the founders of Intel, that "the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years", the very first product that Intel was approached by another company to make chips for. She went on the explain that the chips are made on silicon because they are semi-conductors which mean we can control the electricity that flows through it as compared to insulators or conductors, and that they are made in very sterile environments that everyone in the labs have to wear bunny suits before going in. Also, all ground in the labs have holes in them and are color coded to ensure air flow through them.
As with all museums, there is a souvenir store that sold products ranging from notepads to USB hubs, and from mugs to clothing, almost all with Intel logo stamped on in. There was also an Artificial Intelligence Bot (AI Bot), known as Arty, at the museum that could answer questions thrown at it. From Intel, we moved on to Great Mall for a dinner.



Great Mall:
It was free & easy time! Great Mall is a large one storied shopping area which many boutique retailers selling clothes, electronic equipments and shoes. We had our dinner here which was quite alright.


Regards,
Han Yang
Ngee Ann Polytechnic



Reference:
http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/index.htm

Wombat conquers San Francisco

Hi! My name is Wombat! (the big one)


You might think being a wombat is easy. Wombats don’t need to take block test! Wombats don’t need to work. They just sit around, dig holes and chew grass all day.


But wombats don’t always have it easy. Sometimes, life sucks! I spent 15½ hours stuffed in a cramped, stuffy bag flying to San Francisco, living in abject terror of being mistaken for a bomb by Customs and blown up. In Narita, the Japanese custom officer says, “No parsonal effects” but I only know about cinematic effects, special effects, and the Leidenfrost effect. I asked my friends Small Wombat and Kiwi and they don’t know what is a parsonal effect either.


In San Francisco, we boarded a bus and travelled for a long long time. In the bus, I jumped on Wei Quan. I think Wei Quan is scared of me!



I went to The Tech museum. There we learned about earthquakes, silicon chips, genetics and space travel. My friends built a little house, but I was too big to fit in. Here are my friends in their little house! Say hi!

(Small wombat): Hi!



After the Tech museum, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. I call it the GG bridge, because jumping off the bridge will mean that you are GGed.





Small wombat and I at the GG bridge!


We went for a walk on the bridge. Wombats can go quite fast. Did you know that a wombat can accelerate to 30 miles an hour and hold that speed for 90 seconds?


On the bridge, kiwi saw many birds in the water below.



He wanted to fly down and join them. But it seems that we are not allowed to jump off the bridge. I don’t know why either. Do you?



Then we went for dinner in Chinatown. Luckily there is lots of fresh temperate grass in San Francisco for Small Wombat and I. Kiwi had some nice tasty insects.


Today we are going to HP labs. I think maybe Small Wombat will tell you about it, because my paws are getting tired. Bye bye.

Day 1!

Day 1 was a slack one :) Traveling for a grand total of 1 hour (from 7.15 am to 8.30 am, the 9th of June), arriving in Silicon Valley on the same day that we left Singapore although the actual traveling time was about 12 to 13 hours :)

First day visit was to the Tech Museum. Lots of cool exhibits in that museum, interactive exhibits (you can make your own roller coaster ride then ride it, choose a team and then start sleighing with it). Quite suitable for young children in the primary levels, but still was a 2x Singapore Science Centre experience.

After that visit, we took a trip down to GGB, the Golden Gate Bridge, icon of San Francisco. You know the bridge that everyone has a picture of in their mind when they think of San Francisco.

Dinner at 5.30pm, then back to hotel room. Passed by the WWDC 2008 centre, saw that everyone was leaving cause it was ending. Due to the fact that it is still summer here, the sun only started setting at about 9pm US time...

9 June 2008 - Day 1

Changi Airport T3 (Singapore) to Narita Airport (Tokyo):
Excitedly, all of us boarded the plane UA804 (Boeing 777) that was to send us to Narita Airport where we would make a transit to another plane bound for our destination - San Francisco. Overall, the plane ride was alright, with a slight complain of the cramped leg room we had on that plane. The ride being 7 hours long was hence, quite uncomfortable as I had to keep shifting my legs around. The food was quite alright, which was a pleasant surprise, as I had previous incidents with horrible airplane food.
We had no time to walk around Narita Airport as we only an hour to spare, and the transit security checkpoint was quite a long wait.

Narita Airport (Tokyo) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO):
At Narita Airport, we transited to another aircraft UA838 (Boeing 747). This plane, as it was an older model unlike the first aircraft, did not had a personal in-flight entertainment system LCD display. But the leg room on the Economy Plus seats were much more generous. The food was also quite good on this plane, though some of my group mates disagree. We arrived at San Francisco at around 9am local time.

San Francisco International Airport to The Tech Museum:
We boarded a bus that took us directly to the Tech Museum located in San Jose. There were many exhibits on display and all of them were divided into 10 sections with 5 each on the Lower and Upper Level respectively. I found the museum to be quite entertaining as it was very interactive as visitors were issued a ticket with a barcode that we could use to play with the different exhibits around the place.
As compared to a old fashioned, boring museum, this keeps visitors intrigued throughout their whole experience in this museum. Also, the staff were very friendly especially with Carl.

After walking through the exhibitions, we had lunch at the cafe at Ground Level. The food proportion was huge! My team member could not even finish a children's meal! It was also interesting to see that they made their french fries together with the skin attached. It not only enhances the taste, it also provides much more nutrients and fibre.

Since it was free and easy till 2:30pm local time, my group together with Paul walked around the neighborhood in San Jose, where we met a friendly San Jose police officer on a stallion in a very sceneric pathway with a very beautiful blossom of pink flowers. What went even interesting was that he stopped to take photos and joked with us. What a cool cop!
Also, nearby to this "park", there was a mini water fountain display where children were enjoying themselves in it; which added on to the scenic view.

Tech Museum to Golden Gate Bridge:
Along the way, most fell asleep due to the jet lag taking effect on our bodies (me included). When we arrived, we were awed by the majestic sights of this bridge. Though it was slightly chilly at around 16.6°C, there were many tourist, like us, walking on the bridge to experience the sights and sounds of this die-die-must-try place. It was quite a busy bridge as there were quite a number of cars that passes through here. Also, there were quite a number of cyclist around. The scenery is awesome and it can't really be described here, you'll have to try it for yourself.

Golden Gate Bridge to New Sum Hong Kong Restaurant
From the Golden Gate Bridge, we proceed to have our dinner at New Sun Hong Kong Restaurant which is located in Chinatown. The food, I have to say, is FANTASTIC! Unfortunately, the burgers we had at Tech Museum were quite fulling, and we did not quite finish the food, but we did a take away for the remaining food to be enjoyed at the hotel. :P
After dinner, we went to a supermarket at the street just behind the restaurant to grab some necessities such as drinking water.

En-route to Comfort Inn, we passed by Union Square where all the branded merchants were next to each other. Surely a shopping haven for branded goods? We also passed by the convention hall for WWDC '08 (for those uninitiated, it's Worldwide Developers Conference by Apple). I wished I was in there to hear the release of USD$199 3G iPhone though. Oh well, we'll be visiting Apple on Friday anyway. =)

On a sidenote, I noticed that on the trip around San Jose, many shops and buildings proudly hang up the US Flag on flagpoles. It would be wonderful to see sights like these back home.

Han Yang
Ngee Ann Polytechnic