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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

Preface

The National Infocomm Competition (NIC) is organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), together with the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), Ministry of Education (MOE) and the industry. This competition aims to excite, inculcate interest and raise exposure in infocomm among students, so that they will

ultimately choose infocomm as a career.

In the 2007 NIC, 20 students from Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institution and Ngee Ann Polytechnic competed against 2,500 from more than 100 schools, to emerge champions, winning for themselves a knowledge acquisition trip to Silicon Valley, USA,

The trip is organised by IDA and the winners are scheduled to travel from 9-18 June 2008 where they will visit and learn from leading infocomm and digital media companies.