Per Ardua Ad Astra

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) wrote an epitaph for Newton:

"Nature, and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:

God said, Let Newton be! And all was light."

Sir John Squire (1884-1958), perhaps uncomfortable with Einstein’s profound thoughts, added:

"It did not last: the Devil howling ‘Ho!

Let Einstein be!’ restored the status quo."

Such was the uncomfortable shift in paradigm that followed Einstein’s theories in its heyday, and the immediate reaction to it. We shall now return to where we left off, and see how Einstein overthrew the ideas that were in place since Newton.

Previously, we have shown that acceleration and gravitational force are equivalent and indistinguishable. Locally (in a small region of space time), the principle holds. But there are exceptions and now I’m coming to it.

Put yourself back in an elevator holding 2 balls held as far as possible from each other by your hands. Also imagine that the elevator, the ball and you are now much bigger than normal (say, at least 100 times bigger?). Ok? Good. Oh, and put that elevator in orbit around the Earth.

Now, imagine the elevator coming to a complete stop as it orbits the Earth. Oh, and let go of the balls you’re holding. As you stop, you start falling straight down, towards the middle of the Earth (yes, you start floating again). As you are so much bigger now, you’ll notice something peculiar. As you fall down, every single point in the elevator falls towards a point at the very center of the Earth. Hence, the distance between the two balls decreases over time! So, there is a difference between being in a state of free float and not influenced by gravity!

However, this effect is only noticeable if you’re large enough. Here, we have seen that gravity exerts a distinct, nonlocal effect. In other words, the reference frame you are in must cover a sufficiently large region of space time for gravity’s effect to show up noticeably (you must be large enough, and some time must pass as you fall). This effect does not disappear from one reference frame to another (and enable you to distinguish whether you are in a gravitational field or not), therefore this is the true manifestation of gravity!

From Newton’s view of gravity, the aforementioned effect is due to variations in gravity, much like the stretching and squeezing of tides as there is a difference in the direction of the Newtonian gravitational force at the locations of the two balls. Furthermore, as gravitational forces are stronger towards the Earth, any solid but deformable object would be stretched vertically as it falls! These subtle effects (squeezing and stretching) are known since Newton and explain the phenomena of tides (hence called tidal forces).

So Newton says "Tidal effects result from variations in gravitational [forces]." Einstein says "Tidal effects result from gravity itself." to Einstein, gravity in the Newtonian sense does not exist, and hence there is nothing to vary.

Gravity, as we know it is now obsolete.

Then, what is the more correct view of gravity? If it is not a force, then what on earth is it?

P.S.: I realize that the introductory portions of each part I’m presenting are essentially repeats, but I know that there would some among you who would have already forgotten the points of the previous chapter. After all, if I repeat it sufficiently, it’ll eventually get into your head. In the meantime, please bear with my laborious ‘story-telling’.

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity."

-Albert Einstein-

If only summarising relativity would be so simple.

From Part 1 we have summarised how time dilation, length contraction and mass increase happens at relativistic speeds. By using the Lorentz gamma factor, we can calculate exactly how much of the spatial dimension is ‘converted’ into the temporal dimension in our 4 dimensional space time. In other words, the length of the object in the direction of relativistic travel decreases by the same factor as the increase in the passing of time in the reference frame. Analogically, we can use plasticin (or Play-Doh), when squeezed in a dimension, it automatically increases its quantity in the other 2 spatial dimensions while retaining the same volume of space. In this analogy, the volume of the plasticin is space time, and the squeezed dimension time, and the other 2 dimensions, the 3 dimensions of space.

I would like to point out here that although space and time are relative, space time as a whole is an unvarying quantity. The same applies to momentum and energy and a host of other physical quantities. The compound value (call it momenergy if you want) is the same! This is the reason why Einstein did not really like calling his ideas having the notion of relative attached to it, which is potentially misleading and highlights only the ‘relative’ part of his theory which is only a constituent part of the whole idea. He sympathised with a group of scientists, who lobbied to have the name changed to the ‘theory of invariance’ but failed because the ‘theory of relativity’ already stuck.

Moving on, we have seen how Newton describes gravity is a mysterious force that somehow instantly reaches out across an immutable, unchanging, universal, 3D space to influence distant objects.

Einstein was aware of the contradictions between gravity and relativity in 1907, but he only began to think seriously about the problem in 1911, when he moved to Prague from Bern (where he was working at the patent office). He realised that there is a close relationship between acceleration and a gravitational field.

Now, on to another Gedankenexperiment. Imagine that you are in an elevator at the top of a tall building holding a ball. Yes, your feet stays where they were, on the floor. If you release the ball, if falls to the floor with an acceleration of 9.81m/s^2. Now, if I cut the cable holding the elevator, the elevator, you and the ball enters a state of free float as it falls down the elevator shaft. Yep, apparent weightlessness.

Now, in another situation, I load you, the ball and the same elevator and blast you into outer space, far away from any objects that can exert significant gravitational influence on you. The elevator is ‘upright’, with the floor pointing towards the ‘bottom’ of the spaceship. Once there, the rocket engine turns off. What do you feel? Yes, apparent weightlessness again! Then, I ignite the engine for another burn, this time firing it in a way that it accelerates the spaceship and everything in it at 9.81m/s^2. Oops, sorry to interrupt your zero G party there. You fall back to the floor of the elevator, with the ball.

Ok, thought experimenting is over. Comparing the situations that I just asked you to imagine, could you tell me that there is any way that you can distinguish the exact moment after I ignited the rocket engine to fire with a = 9.81m/s^2 and when you are still connected to the cable on top of the elevator shaft? Besides that, could you distinguish the exact moment after I turned off the rocket engine in outer space, and the moment after I cut the elevator cable back on Earth?

The answer is, in most cases, you will not be able to distinguish any difference. All your experiments, will behave the same way in both elevators when they’re accelerating or held by a cable on Earth, and likewise applies to when you’re in outer space, of falling down on Earth. What about the exceptions? I’ll go there later.

This inability to differentiate the situations leads to the Principle of Equivalence. It states that ‘No observer can determine by experiment whether he or she is accelerating or is rather in a gravitational field’.

To digress a little, this principle helped solve a problem in physics along the way. All this while, inertial mass and gravitational mass is the same. In other words, the m of an object in F=ma and F=GMm/R^2 is the same in two different equations, yet in Coulomb’s Law, you do not use mass but charge instead. So, why does inertial mass and gravitational mass of an object assume identical values but not for ‘electrical mass’? Before this, it is just assumed that inertial mass and gravitational mass are the same although charge is not related to them. As experiments showed that they are identical, physicists just assumed it to be so without any explanation.

As it turns out, acceleration by contact force (rocket engine) and gravity are indistinguishable according to the principle of equivalence. So, this means that inertial mass and gravitational mass are the same, a different way of interpreting the principle of equivalence.

Back to where we left off. Now, the idea behind General Relativity is to extend the Principle of Relativity to all reference frames, inertial or not. But as you can see with the elevator on Earth, gravity is ‘present’ when you’re still hanging on top of the elevator shaft, but suddenly disappears when I cut the cable and you fall down the shaft. As the force of gravity does not appear in all reference frames, Einstein reasoned that it can’t be one of those deep, underlying, objectively real aspects of the world. In general relativity, a phenomenon should be real only if observers in all reference frames agree about it. Therefore, a phenomenon that’s present in one reference frame but not another can’t be objectively real.

So what is gravity?

Jason, I think I’ll start before you finish, to save a bit of my time. So I’m starting off with a summary of special relativity and move on from there.

By essentially extending on the principle of Galilean relativity, by changing ‘laws of motion’ to ‘laws of physics Einstein showed that the speed of light, c is absolute in all reference frames, he demolished the impractical ether concept.

Then, using the Lorentz contraction factor-independently proposed by the Dutch physicist H.A. Lorentz and Irish physicist George Fitzgerald in attempt to explain the null result in the Michelson-Morely experiment-Einstein showed how length contraction occurs in conjunction with time dilation and mass increase as an object approaches relativistic speeds.

In establishing the theory of special relativity, Einstein concluded that there is no way for an observer to determine whether a given frame of reference is at rest or is moving at constant velocity in a straight line. Thus, the laws of physics must be the same in different inertial reference frames.

After completing the theory of special relativity, Einstein then proceeded to tackle the general case of motion, where reference frames can be accelerating. Additionally, relativity is already compatible with Maxwell’s laws of electromagnetism but not Newton’s law of gravity. From special relativity in 1905, Einstein would spend his next 10 years in formulating his theory of general relativity.

Newton’s theory of gravity says that gravity is a mysterious force that instantaneously exerts itself in influencing distant objects. This contradicts relativity, as nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Additionally, the concept of instantaneous requires the existence of universal time, which was abolished in favor of absolute time…

The news has been spreading like wildfire around the community sites and I missed out on the initial wave. The upside was that the scans from the magazines and wiki is up and running by the time I noticed, so everything is laid out nicely, without the need of having to wait for the information to be posted.

Oh, if you’re not an RTS gaming fan (that stands for Real Time Strategy) you can probably stop reading now.

Now, for the rest of you who’s still with me it’s going to be a pleasant surprise!

So, which is it? Who’s going to come up with a new title? For those who know me well enough, you should have guessed by now. There’s practically only one line of RTS that will get me excited, and yes, you’re right! Command and Conquer is still alive and kicking! A full decade later, they’re still running! Thankfully, it’s not a continuation of C&C: Generals but a return to its original storyline. I don’t have anything against Generals actually. Yes, it provides some nice game play and all that, but the storyline isn’t tied in to the larger C&C universe.

See, after the initial disappointment with the ‘announcement’ for C&C: Red Alert 3, there has been little cause for joy in the community. Actually, I’m also rather disgusted with the idea of RA3, because of the flop that they call RA2. I’d rather go back all the way to plain old RA instead of that seemingly childish game that succeeded it. After all that, I only went back to the sites to see some cartoons, war stories, new maps or the occasional updates about other RTS games. And today, Christmas has come early!

Ok, the new working title for the upcoming game is called C&C3: Tiberian Wars. It’s basically what was promised long ago by Westwood, when Tiberian Sun came out: ‘We’ll be back with a sequel’. Now, Westwood got swallowed by EA and then Generals came along and went, and finally the promise is apparently made good. This time, it’s an official announcement with a press release! Plus, some magazines have gotten their hands on some pretty nice stuff.

Copyright EA Games

The story is post Tiberian Sun (duh!). Set in 2047, 17 years after the events in Tiberian Sun, Tiberium infestation has worsened since then. NOD has managed to evolve into a superpower status from its humble terrorist group beginning and has overall territorial ground control in the Yellow Zone, areas where a majority of the world’s population live in and Tiberium infested. The Global Defense Initiative exerts ground control in the Green Zones, areas that are still relatively Tiberium free. But that’s only 30% of the Earth. Yellow Zone is about 50%, and the Red Zone, the remaining 20% (it’s uninhabitable due to advanced Tiberium infestation). In the tenuous state of truce, GDI actively sought ways to reverse the Tiberium infestation. NOD, in their perverted belief of the Tiberium (remember Kane’s prophecy?) decided to prevent the research from succeeding. So, in March 2047, NOD launched a nuclear attack on the GDI space station Philadelphia and launched a full scale attack on GDI ground forces. That’s where the ‘Welcome back Commander’ part comes in.

Frankly speaking, it’s still in early stages of development, and all these stuff might just get tossed out in the end but I’m hoping that they’ll keep the storyline. Basically, the game is using an upgraded SAGE engine (the same one used in Generals) so we’ll probably don’t need significant upgrades to our PCs to play it. Even in early development stage, the graphics already looks great! As for the Tiberium, they actually gotten help from scientists at MIT to research Tiberium down to the molecular level! Hell, wouldn’t that be fun? Applying science to games? Yep, that’s how detailed they’re trying to be. Game play and units? Too early for anything definite, but the stealth tanks, mechs and mammoth tanks is in! Hooray! I wonder if hoping for a Mammoth Mk III isn’t too much. And yes, full motion videos are back! But nobody knows if Kane will be back. We’ll have to see about that. Oh, before I forget to mention it, there’s a third faction! Top odds are currently on the Forgotten, and then the Scrin.

For more info, there’s scans of the feature article in PC Gamer here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

It is projected to be released late 2007 so it’s going to be one long wait before it’s released. Must start praying that the release will be in conjunction with term holidays! But at least it’s some good news. Haven’t had much of it lately.

Returned to work yesterday after a 2 week hiatus, and had the pleasant surprise of seeing Fatin there. Long time no see! But too bad I just came off my break that time, so can’t talk so much. Working is somewhat liberating compared to the dreary business of studying you know? All you need is to settle into a routine, and keep your wits around you. That should pretty much settle it by working at Starbucks, IMHO.

Actually, the hiatus was supposed to be only one week, but extended by an extra week as the workshop didn’t finish working on my car till the day after I was supposed to turn in my work schedule for the second week. At least I got the whole car repainted now. For those who already knew, I didn’t get the car scratched all over in that accident too, so stop trying to figure out how I did that while creating a 3 car pileup. It already required the external bodywork for some while now, and that accident merely expedited things.

And for those of you that didn’t know, now you do. After all, the people who probably know up till now are those who I usually give free rides to and my fellow partners at work. As for the rest, it’s not usually my custom to go around announcing to people “Hey, I crashed my car the other day into 2 other cars! Cool huh?” Besides, it doesn’t make for a cheerful conversation.

The fact about the accident is this. I screwed up. Plain and simple. Yes, it was so careless (and I’m so painfully reminded of my clumsiness) on my part. No, I wasn’t daydreaming! Short story is, I came, I saw the car at the side, and I crashed into the car in front, and repeat once more for another car in front. Just when it was soooo close to home! Luckily, I was far below the threshold of causing serious damage, but the damage caused was quite considerable still. The Wira at the front most, got a bump on the bumper, the Kancil in the middle both bumpers, and my car, shortened by 5 inches. I was going at about 50kph at that time, so my car absorbed most of the damage (thank God for that!). As for me, I emerged from it all unscathed, except for my bruised ego.

So much for my so-called ‘competent driving’.

Of course, it gave me quite a scare (just thinking about my crash, and the one that happened in December do give me the shivers occasionally). Not that close of a shave, but it’s enough to remind you of your own mortality. Next time, I’d better take care not to repeat that particular instance of ‘tunnel vision’ again. At the very least, I found out why that place is so accident prone (right in front of the junction on the left as you come to the flyover that leads to USJ2/3). And I’m sooooooooo very very very thankful that there are still nice people on the road.

Just to be very safe, I’m driving under supervision yet again. It’s a bit overcautious on my part, and there’s no problem with my driving, under nominal conditions, but I’m taking out extra insurance, to be careful. I want that to be the first crash, and the last one for this decade, or maybe one or two more decades at least. And for those who are willing to do so, please do break the record! It’s ONLY 3 cars.

Now, I just hope I get to put this behind me ASAP, and get back to driving without some jitters.

As for work, I’ve thinking about calling it a day. My parents want me to stop a long time ago, and my obstinate self prevailed. But, during the 2 week break I started thinking again and I think this decision will be final. I’ll be stopping in May, probably after they roll out the latest promotion. I’ve practically tried out and experimented with most of their drinks anyway. FYI, they’ll be having this new summer promotion, and it has something to do with pentyl ethanoate mostly. So far, I’ve only heard of 2 new drinks and a new muffin. And for those who were despairing about the departure of rhumba chips, despair no more! There’s a replacement on the way, so just wait and see. The new promotion starts from the 28^th and lasts through May, and June too if I’m not mistaken. For some of you overseas, I think the promotion has already started though, so this is not going to be much of a surprise.

Then, I’ll probably get back to revising. With less than 6 months to prepare for University, I’ve only finished revising Mathematics so far! And what about Physics, and learning Further Maths?!?!?!! Not to mention shopping (for electronics of course), settling my bank account with the HR Dept, and ’summer cleaning’ the pigsty of mine that I sleep in.

Ok, it’s starting to degenerate into random babble here, so I’ll just end here for now. Maybe tomorrow, when I can think properly.

Yes, the moment is finally here! Mac runs on Windows XP and Mac OS X!!!

Yes, that’s old news. But this makes it sweeter! Rather than using Boot Camp, use Parallel! Then, you can switch OS on a Mac just like switching users on XP! Familarity and ease of use of XP + graphical benefits of Mac systems = lots of drooling on my part!

Maybe it’s because of the LCD monitor. But I’ll be getting one soon enough, and then I’ll see if that’s the case.

Unfortunately, nobody can say for sure if running XP on Mac systems would translate into nicer graphics. So much for my daydream for now. At least it’s closer to reality now. Now, just one or two more dreams come true, and I’ll be the happiest person on Earth!

Ever since I started playing with an eMac G3, and then an iMac G4 I’ve always been enthralled by the graphics. I still remembered the first time I found it sitting in the AJ library. It was usually the unoccupied one most of the time! Perhaps everybody thought it was for aesthetic purposes, or too intimidating to use. So finding a PC in the library to use is very easy for the first few months. If it wasn’t for the incompatibility with Windows in the past, and the one button mouse, I would have gotten a Mac a long time ago, instead of the P4 3.0GHz HT. But now?

Macbook Pro with Intel Core Duo anybody? If there’s one selling for cheaper than RM6,000, it might just seem worth it. Unfortunately, the cheapest one is currently selling at about RM7,200. Plus, I don’t have an iPod to complement it. I already have a 2GB Mp3 player after all. Wait, if they come up with the iFlea that plays far more than just ONE song (and minus the crap accessories that they have in the ‘advertising’ video) the I might just get the set. hehe. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Google iflea and watch the video.

I haven’t been continuing with my general relativity stuff (not that my general audience would make a big fuss about it), and nothing much outside cyberspace lately. Instead, I’ve been frantically trying to find a suitable replacement for my venerable CRT monitor that could be justifiably called a relic in the computer world. See, it has served my family for 7 long years, and I think it’s time to say "You’ve served long enough".

It’s not that I’m retiring it because it’s old. It’s just that the display has been displaying sporadic transient fluctuations in the x-axis. And only God knows how much that has hurt my eyes over the past 2 weeks. Oddly enough, my dad didn’t even notice it at all! Well, maybe that’s a sign that I’m now spending more time on the PC than him, and that is a scary thought. I’d better cut down on PC time soon. Anyhow, the fluctuations are getting to be too much, because I can’t stand having my text doing stretches occasionally. That really gave me the woozies.

And so, after a few days searching I thought I’ve found a good successor. Dell is offering a 17" 1707FP monitor at RM799 and the 19" 1907FP monitor at roughly RM900. Panel is Samsung made, and it comes with a 3 year warranty. The online reviews all gave them great scores. So, for a TFT LCD monitor with better than average features, great design and a low price, what am I waiting for?

With credit card in hand, ready to make a purchase I decided to stop by and make a few last minute checks at some review websites. Apart from the 10 out of 10 user reviews I’m getting, I decided to dig in deeper. Ok, so the submenus in the monitor are hard to reach, somebody wished that the power on button has a blue glow instead of green, the panel might not be Samsung made, you might have to live with a dead pixel or two, bla bla bla. Wait, let’s rewind. The panel might not be Samsung made? Turns out that Dell is actually manufacturing the monitors using 2 panels, one made by an unheard of company which is significantly lower performing than Samsung’s panels. That explains the disparaging comments by some users. And oh, it seems that Dell would not give a replacement monitor if you only have less than 6 dead pixels. And that, scuttles the potential deal I was about to award to Dell, at least temporarily. But there goes the few hundred ringgit potentially saved in rebates.

As I still have to face at least a few hundred hours more of facing the monitor, I couldn’t settle for something less than monitors with just fair ratings. That’s because I have a set of eyes that are not 20/20 (20/80 is far more realistic figure). Furthermore, I’m fortunate enough to come from a middle income family, so I could afford to pay for something better. Quality is not something I’m very willing to compromise on, especially when it comes to ergonomics for my tortured eyes. But that still doesn’t mean that I can go for something that has all pros but only one cons which is high price. Well, at least the investment can reduce the bad stuff I have to contend with. I thought Dell was a pretty good choice, but like they always say ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’.

Looks like I have to buy the monitor the old fashioned way, by going to a brick-and-mortar store. At least I also can get to hunt for a replacement for my O2 hands free. My dog chewed it to pieces a few weeks ago, burning a huge hole in my pocket. I need a cheaper price than GBP19.99 for that one.

Previously, I mentioned about going to the interview. And because we’re short on time and wanted to get it over with, ZG and I just went to McD for lunch. Of all the food stores they have at Bukit Bintang, McD?!?! Well, it was awfully convenient, and Starbucks for lunch is a bit too much, even with 30% off. And so I had that grilled chicken foldover, fries and orange juice for lunch (the healthiest and most filling I can think of at that time).

So what’s the big deal?

Today, NewScientist decided to go and talk about fast food! Of all days, when I’ve just had one of their meals?!?! Unfortunately, the study did not include Asia, where the regulations are much more lax! So, the bar chart is practically useless for those of us in Australasia. That’s just fodder for the overimaginative mind!

Fortunately, I don’t visit fast food franchises that often. But the occasional visits never stop. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and pray that those occasional visits shall have no long term cumulative impact?

At the very least, I didn’t go to KFC for lunch.

I was having problems in logging into Friendster lately, to the extent of being ‘locked out’ for almost the entire week. And I guessed the cause of the problem correctly. It seems that it’s not a good idea blogging on FriendsterBlogs using both Opera and IE together. Why such redundancy? See, IE automatically displays my blog in RichText, while Opera displays it in HTML. So, when I need to manipulate and to add extra tags into my HTML code, I need Opera. IE’s for instant preview and text editing. The arrangement is quite stupid, I’d admit that, but it’s much easier reloading one browser while editing the other one. You would have noticed nothing unusual about my blog post layout, because it has been painstakingly modified to looking ‘normal’. =)

Anyway, I had my NTU ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship interview today. The interview was scheduled to be 20 minutes long, just like the Oxbridge interviews. And as interviews go, it overshot (I can’t give an exact estimate, but it was between 30-40mins). Turns out that aside from wanting to know how your mind ticks, they were actually trying to advertise NTU! Yeah, how bland. I won’t go into the specifics of the interview, but the advertising. Ok, so you have simulators, going to build a hangar, nice partnerships with those big corporations, and even building your own satellite in addition to another already in orbit! I got a place in their hotly contested Aerospace Engineering course, and that’s from an institution that received 10,000 foreign student applications annually. And to top it all off, you pay only about $12,000 annually in total expenses and only have to work with a Singapore registered company for 3 years. Plus, one out of 2 graduates gets hired before graduating!

Sounds nice?

Now, we’ve heard about the things that are said, now what about the unsaid parts? Time to apply a little bit of TKS. You’ll have to get pushy to squeeze the details out (I went too far off and into sensitive issues I guess, because I was politely told off by the Dean) but this is what I think is the flip side of the story. Part of the reason why my questions are a bit off the mark is because they ran out of the brochure specific to my first choice as a priview, so that’s partly their fault. As such, I can only draw on my knowledge of the industry in general (and I stopped getting to read Flight International for a few years now, so any technical knowledge I do know is outdated, forgotten or not detailed enough).

First things first, NTU is quite a decent institution in the SEA region, although I think NUS still reigns at the top. And yes, NUS does not have their own full fledged aero course yet, just a minor specialisation module in their Mechanical Engineering course. Aside from that, working in S’pore and the tuition costs and all are quite ok, and the quality that you’ll get out of there is much better then almost anywhere else in SEA. Note my emphasis on the SEA region. As for the 10,000 figure, I would like to know how many made NTU their first choice, country of origin and number of students actually entering after being offered a place. The 1 out of 2? That isn’t unusual, especially in fast growing sectors. Plus, I’ve heard of much better statistics.

On to their facilities and achievements. To study aerospace, we’ll definitely need simulators and computer models (no sane professor would ever let his students build an untested model and then fly it!). Plus, you can always buy Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and install it on your home PC!

Partnerships with big corporations? I noticed that companies like Boeing & Lockheed Martin (US), BAe & Airbus (Europe), MiG & Ilyushin (Russia) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries missing from the list. NASA, ESA, Rosaviakosmos? Dream on.

The hangar? I think most aerospace students go to the airport, but at NTU, you can go to the one they’re going to build soon. Before you go ‘Ooo, airport in a campus!’, I have to warn you of this : Runway not included. All I’ll say is that without a runway, wouldn’t that take the space out of the aerospace engineering? Wanna go for test flight? Go to the airport.

What about that satellite? As I’ve already suspected from the start, it’s not a full fledged satellite, and as I’m told, not fully-home-grown. Our Measat definitely won in terms of size, but lost in terms of amount of parts ‘Made at Home’. The one satellite is called a minisatellite here, same as the other one currently in construction. Our microsatellite TiungSat was also partly home-grown too. I’m no expert and lacking time to fully analyse the differences here to provide a clear cut breakdown. Basically, it’s definitely a laudable attempt at building a home-grown satellite. Note this : ‘The X-Sat spacecraft design and development is being provided by the DSO National Laboratories.’ Cheating! DSO National Laboratories is military! Plus, most of the satellite is to be constructed by those electrical and mechanical engineers. What about aerospace engineers? My guess is they build the thrusters and engine that powers the satellite in orbit. That’s all.

You’d ask, do you get to launch it? Design the rocket, launch it and put it in orbit? That’s aerospace engineering too right? Hahahahaha. Dream on!

They expect us to be smart enough for scholarship consideration, yet dumb enough to swallow their advertising blindly? Oh come on, you’d gotta do better than that! Well, that might be a sign of how desperate Singapore is to grab people. We shall see how it all turns out.

Yes, the title reflects the archaic way we portray the campaign to win the heart of the desired fair maiden, or the dashing knight.

And yes, we speak of it in militaristic terms such as besieging a castle, artillery bombardment, etc etc etc (maybe it doesn’t happen to you, but that’s the kind of nice people I have around me). We’re now in the Information Age, and yet we still think like people from the Stone Age? At least back then, all you need is a club, and the strength to wield it. Then all is settled. Too bad that isn’t exactly an accurate reflection of how it really was back then, but maybe they were craving for that kind of simplicity too.

I had some chat with a couple of friends today, and they all couched their statements to reflect the existing battle lines, and the strategies that are employed in place to win the day (and heart). Well, a day isn’t enough to detail the entire battlefield plan, so it mostly focused on the initial stages. If you had to ask, they’re obviously single (or else this post would never have happened!). Let’s start from the beginning (and I’ll try to fill in the missing parts, while keeping it phrased in battlefield terms throughout).

At the beginning, you sight the potential target and immediately start assessing your options. Or, the clamor for war is started by your Cabinet (close friends). This is where the initial reconnaissance begins (if your fellow conspirators have been doing their homework well enough, you can skip this part). Then it’s time to draw the lines, prepare for ‘combat’ and entrench yourself. Of course, usually this phase is done quietly, unless some outsiders caught wind of the plan, and start spreading rumors.

Moving on, it’s time to engage the ‘target’. On casual terms, it’s called dropping hints. But on paper, it calls for huge sieges and artillery bombardment or maybe air strikes. Usually, most people stick to warfare styles of the medieval ages or the world wars. I guess the war on terror terminologies hasn’t made quite an impression yet. It’ll be very funny to hear that ‘the guy’s been trying a ’shock and awe’ campaign ever since he met her’, don’t you think? As for ‘winning hearts and minds’? That’s implicitly acknowledged already, I think. ‘Decapitation strike’? I’ll take it that you’re trying to remove an obstacle in your way.

That led me to wonder, since the description of the act was so impressive, did the actual effect avow the other side equally? Maybe to you, you’re firing away with your weapons of war, but the other side is completely oblivious to everything! Something like firing a cannonball and a drop of rainwater falls on the other end. In conclusion, I think that a siege is not practical. You are better off sending an emissary to communicate the terms of war (to drop the hints in a more direct manner than superficial acts) and/or employing psychological operations to sway their opinion.

You’ll say ‘That’s easy for you to say, hypocrite!’ Ok, I was equally guilty of using the terms once, even to the extent of planning a war, Troy style. That was in the past, however. In its most current form, my entire strategy is now based on diplomacy and covert ops/psyops. Wait, what about that Troy war, you ask? After some bravado in suggesting the idea and actually planning to put it in practice, a cooler head prevailed and I called it off before any damage was caused. Best to start off with a clean sheet before I screw things up further. In the past, too much public furore messed things up thoroughly for me, effectively dooming the whole thing from the beginning. Miscommunication woes? Been there, done that.

In the end, I’m doing things mostly in the dark. All I can say is that it’s both good and bad. You don’t have everybody giving you different directions, and nobody to give you a whack when you’re doing things the wrong way. And since you have to gather intel on your own, you have to grope around in the dark (tripped and fell before, but haven’t gotten bitten yet). I guess things are quite well at the moment, when you’re trying to start a long distance relationship from same neighborhood. I’m still pretty much in the dark, if you’re wondering where I am at the moment. Wait till I light a match, then I’ll tell you. Been on and off, on and off. That gives you a high at one time and a low on the other. And it’s coming to another off again…and silence again.