Singapore Last Rainforest

Deforestration is the crisis that the world is facing nowadays. People cleared away the forest for urban development and there is not enough tree left in the world to absorb the carbon dioxide. The consequence is devastating. The temperature of the world is increased and it cause the global warming. The ice from polar area melted gradually and the sea level rised which threat the people living around coastal area.

I was visited to Mac-Ritchie nature reserve, which is the Singapore last rain forest last sunday. Once, Singapore was covered with rainforest but now only three percent of rain forest left as a nature reserve.

The first sight of the journey was quite impressive. There is a big lake at Mac-Ritchie Park where I could see a lot of people canoeing.



After we pass through the lake, we entered the Mac Ritchie forest. The forest was so dry and the scene around is not so impressive. But I didn't touch the nature for so long that I felt different.

We walked in the forest around one hour but there is very few thing to look around. We saw some wild flowers and a monkey. When we get out from the forest, we saw the tarmac.

We saw a lot of monkeys along the tarmac. They stay at the roadside peacefully since there is nobody to disturb them.

Then, we went into forest again at the other side. The journey was uphill that time around. I felt very tired climbing up the hill. Finally, we reached the most impressive point of the journey which is tree top walk. The bridge is connected between top of two hills.

From the bridge, we can see the panoramic view of the forest and part of the sea.

After the tree top walk, we walked downhill. There is a stream there but not much water flowing in the stream. Finally, we reached the area around Singapore Island Country club and took the transport to go back home.

17 years ago

I still can recall the memory from 8 August, 1988 which is 17 years back from now. I was only a primary school student. My mother asked me not to go to school on that day. We were sitting in our living room and listening radio for breaking news. Finally, state radio announced that all universities and schools were closed for unlimited time period.

We were very happy. From that time on, we had encountered the new experiences for another one or two months which we never dream before in our lives. Nationwide demonstration was broken out. Police could not enforce law and order anymore. We need to make weapon to protect ourselves from any invader. We prepared spear and knife to get ready to fight. All grown-up men formed a group to watch the surroundings. When there was a sound of hitting iron (which is an alarm like siren), we took our weapon and got ready for the battle.

Once, there was an unrest in prison, we could hear the sound of gunshot from morning until night. Now, it have already passed 17 years. But, it still remain in my memory like it was happened last year.

Why are there so many standard?

Sometimes, I was sick of no standardisation in Industry communication system. There are so many standards to communicate between devices. No common standard is currently available. It look like a lot of people speaking different languages in same house.

TCP/IP is like English language. Now most of the device can communicate with TCP/IP. However, we need module to convert TCP/IP to other standard. It look like looking for translator wherever you go. The main problem is that it is expensive to implement TCP/IP communication on low-cost devices. RS-232, RS-422 and RS-485 are common but they are very slow compare to the current speed of processors and controllers. There are some standard like Profinet, DeviceNet, CAN (Controller Area Network) and ModBus but all devices cannot support all these standard. Some brand try to promote their proprietary standard but I think it is not easy for proprietary standard to outlaw open standard in Industry.

For me, I like TCP/IP. It is fast enough for systems those are presently available. It is also easy for me to find the info about TCP/IP.

Weekend Shopping

I was going out for shopping in the weekend. I was not go shopping for the clothes this time but purely for the books.

Saturday, I went to Computer Book Store in Funan. I intended to buy some books on Visual C++. I was lucky and I found two books that I wanted long time ago. They are written by an Indian Programmer. It is really nice and cheap. The titles are "Visual C++ Projects" and "Visual C++ COM and Beyond". It only costs me S$41 for two books.

Sunday, I went to Borders. I just went there to make price comparison with other bookstores. Computer books in Borders are quite expensive. Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 6 was only $85 in Computer Book Store. But the price in Borders in $99.

I found piles of Books on the floor. It was "My Life" by "Bill Clinton" in paperback edition. When it was first published, it cost $59 in hardcover. Now the paperback only cost $29. I decided to pick up one book since I think autobiography of former American president should not be missed and the price is quite affordable.

Luckily, Borders have some events that day and I got 20% discount for that book. Now I am start reading "My Life". I will talk about it later.