Under the Southern Skies: September 2007

Bad police(man)

Today when i was eating my (very early) breakfast while watching TV, i was astonished by a very horrific news: a policeman tasered a woman 7 times during 4 minutes. Just to let you know, a taser can give up to 50.000 volts of electricity, enough to electricute somebody with shocking pain, but not deadly (despite the fact around 200 people died from tasers for the last 7 years). The TV news showed the video footage of the incident repeatedly, making me feel sicker and sicker as i watched it. The woman was a bit drunk at that time, but as far as i know from the news, she did not do any aggressive physical actions. All she done was just refusing the policeman's order to step out of a vehicle she was in, with a simple "No."

This appalling behaviour of a policeman in the US adds up to the common brutality of policemen i know that've been done in the past few weeks. Just yesterday, police officers in the US were reported to have tasered a uni student after he allegedly raised 'innappropriate' questions during a forum. Early this month, NSW police were acting brutal towards us sydneysiders! Yup, there were reports of some photographers pushed to the ground during APEC, and a father of two being detained for almost a day simply because he tried to cross a street before a motorcade was about to pass by. This makes me hate policemen. Sorry.

As for policewomen, i haven't quite experienced nor witnesesd any of their misconduct. Hmm... there was even once a policewoman who kindly told me not to walk through dark and quiet alleys as they can be dangerous, especially there in Kingsford.

Pantai

Semestinya aku bersyukur sekali ya, dua tahun terakhir ini bisa tinggal di dekat pantai. Gak dekat2 amat sih, pantai Coogee yg terdekat itu mungkin 3km jauhnya. Tapi dari Randwick, 1km dari rumah, laut biru membentang sudah bisa terlihat, mirip background blog ini. Oya, background blog ini adalah pantai Manly, sama2 menghadap timur, ke Tasman Sea katanya. Kadang kita gak sadar betapa indahnya bumi ini, parahnya lagi, aku. Baru menyadari keindahan pantai yg, halah, cuma 10 menit dari rumah. Mungkin setelah lebaran nanti mau bener2 nyobain snorkeling di La Perouse, cari cumi2, terus berenang mengapung2 naik turun di ombak besar nya pantai Bondi, atau nyemplung dan berenang di laut super tenang di pantai kecil apa itu namanya yg dekat Watsons Bay? Oh iya, pengin ambil foto bawah air juga. Kamera tahan air sekali pakai yg kubeli dulu smp skrg blm dipakai2... Anyway... i think that's enough daytime dreaming for the time being. I better finish my stupid conference paper.

Illusions

A couple of days ago i read a book titled "Quirkology". It's a book about our silly unconsciousness that we barely ever realise exists. One example from the book says that most people's old memories CAN BE manipulated by simply mixing some 'fiction' with truth from the past. An experiment was made, according to that book, by showing old photos from a person's past to him/her, and adding one manipulated photo that actually never existed. BUT those people eventually were able to 'recall' that moment on the fictitious manipulated photo.... silly huh? This reminds me of a terrible movie (well it's actually a great movie, i was just disgusted of how evil a man can be), "The Prestige". The power of a magician is not in his/her ability to do magic. It's actually the skill of illusions. Magicians are experts in creating illusions. They take advantage of our weakness as described in the Quirkology book. So, beware... this very world can be an illusion bwahahaha.... (urip iku mung mampir ngombe, as javanese people say)

Buka puasa: Breaking fast? Opening fast? Ifthar?

(This isn't an iftar, but looks like one)

It's a bit hard to know exactly what words suits best to describe the Indonesian words "buka puasa" in English, especially if you were not raised in an english speaking country. I've noted some words that people here use, which has the same meanings as "buka puasa", which are: "eat", "break your fast", or "open your fast". The words to describe a gathering of fasting people who break their fast, which we at home call "buka bersama", is "iftar", or just simply "dinner". Speaking of iftar, during this Ramadhan i would try to come to these 'free' iftars at Uni. Even though the food does not always go along with my eating preferences (javanese cuisines, with lots of rice, veggies, not too spicy, but yes, sweet ;-D), may God bless all those generous people who donated these free food.

How late i realize

I'm using cadence(R) to do all my circuit simulations. And i am using the cadence 90nm generic process design kit library for it. And... just recently i have realized that working with such submicrometer technology nodes requires more caution: most of the secondary effects that you thought would not affect so much turns out to be ... affecting so much. Far out. (sorry can't swear in this blog)

Anyway, currently i'm looking at velocity saturation and mobility degradation effects on MOS transistors, and how do they affect EACH OTHER, and how would it affect the way i calculate Vds in velocity saturation...

Wish me luck.

Songs with Sydney in their Video Clips

Here are some songs that i like, apart from the fact that they sound okay, they also has video clips featuring Sydney... :-)

This one is Melanie Horsnell - All I want is love... the lyrics of this song includes words like "harbour bridge", "george st", and "L90" bus... I knew this singer from iTunes Australia when it gave a free track from her album. Never heard her through radio, though...

Damien Leith - Night of My Life. Australian Idol 2006 Winner! I think they took this clip around Surry Hills? Or Pyrmont? Or Ultimo? Somewhere near the city like that i guess, from the looks of it...

Missy Higgins - Steer. This video clip is notable for its usage of a Toyota Corolla CS, just like mine :D. Parts of Sydney city high-rised office buildings and a scene from inside a cityrail train can be seen here.

Kasey Chambers - Nothing at all. I think this song didn't came to be a top hit, although occasionally this track from her newest album did air on the radio quite often last year... Places i can recognize here is Hyde Park, and somewhere near Bondi Beach...

Did i miss anything else? There's another video clip, well, okay, a commercial, with Sydney in it. Qantas - I still call Australia Home, yes? Hmm... what else?