Podfics

Intro

I’m doing a podfic for Of the River and the Sea fanfic. I got full permission from Aleycat4eva to post it on AO3 and a wordpress blog by pm-ing her.

I’m doing this mostly because Of the River and the Sea is my favourite fanfic out of the thousands I have read, and I feel that putting it in podfic form makes it accessible to loads more people (busy people who like to listen to audiobooks, lazy people and blind people.)

It also helps me be more eloquent (practise at enunciating my words clearly.) and get better at editing audio (Adobe Audition CC).

It’s awesome that I finally have an opportunity to use my new mic.

How?

So I got permission from aleycat4eva by PM-ing her on fanfiction.net.

Next, I did the recording and editing. – Using Adobe Audition CC.

Finally, I hosted my podfic on Internet Archive before embedding it in AO3.

It’s interesting that even now, AO3 doesn’t really have much support for podfics. AO3 is much better than fanfiction.net which only supports text but is is rather annoying to have to host my file on a separate site and fiddle with embedding html to post my podfic. Hopefully in the future there’ll be way to directly upload the file on AO3.

So to embed my podfic, I found this awesome LJ post which provided the CSS and after I modified it slightly, I finally got a working version of my first ever podfic up!

PS: There is support for soundcloud’s player on AO3 so I might switch to that in the future.

PPS: My cover art on AO3 comes from DA, this image by Helene Le Heron & kim-e-sens.

Links

So here’s the link to chapter 1 of my Of the River and the Sea fanfic.

It’s also on Internet Archive:

So play it and tell me what you think?

If you are curious how I do it, here’s a link to the post about my podfic setup. (coming soon)

Meanwhile, here’s the link to part 2.

SUTD Acceptance Tea

9:30 AM to 1 PM

I am going on a tour of the campus led by an enthusiastic student, so in order, we visit the following places:

1. The Library
2. Cohort Classroom
3. Fab Lab
4. Dorms
5. Multi-purpose room (for the Tea)

Did you know their Library doesn’t have books? They have 330,000 books and articles online. – convenient huh. – the library does have material samples so students can see the different stuff they can create things with for their projects, they also have a multitude of spaces for collaboration: whiteboard tables, enclosed group cubicles, open spaces ~

The Library is directly connected to the Classrooms.

There were lockers near the classroom area though I heard they are generally not in use.

So the classroom setting generally merges 2 long tables together, the classroom has whiteboards in all directions along with many projectors and there is even a smart board. It’s air-conditioned, quite large and very clean.

I later learnt from an alumni that only fresh mores have their own classroom, but we can usually leave our things there quite safely as the classroom is by card access – though the safety of your stuff is still your own responsibility, of course.

Next, on to the Fab labs. Here there is a room full of 3D printers of various kinds on the right and a work space with all sorts of machinery on the left. Students have access to the lab regardless of the pillar they choose (Awesome!) as long as they take a half-day course which they can sign up for easily at the start of term.

On to the dorms, the lighting for the corridor is off during the day to save electricity. There are meeting rooms interspersed throughout the dorms apparently. They have bicycle locking areas on the first floor.

The rooms are doubles for all fresh-mores, the have a single bed – the mattress is quite hard, so I’m going to buy something soft to cushion it – a desk, closets and laundry closet. There is kinda a line between the room so it is definitely possible to divide the room exactly into 2 if needed.

Didn’t see the showers but they are cleaned by the school.

I asked an alumni later, he told me that you can bring your own fridge as long as it holds a maximum off 50 litres. Though there isn’t really much space to place it. My robot vacuum is fine. There’s not really any rules which is awesome- no curfew, no dress coffee unless you are in the fab lab and you can go home whenever you want.

Finally the tea.

It was rather informative, the employment rate is rather low compared to other unis but the starting pay is higher by a significant amount.

Students gave their professors an unprecedented rating of 100%.

The student culture seems to be of the – Can Do! And innovate! Type which is great – I got this from how each batch of students bring a new set of clubs and the easy access to the fab lab – students actually have a sheet online the they actively contribute to in search of the cheapest source of materials – a student actually made his own electric hoverboard and uploaded the data online for other students to do so (they did) which is really impressive really.

Exchange programs seem rather competitive but that’s fine with me. They have some programs with Stanford and Berkeley but generally, exchange with MIT and Zhejiang

There is also an Olympic size pool on campus along with a rather decent gym, loads of dance studios – apparently they have an active dance scene – a running track and 2 sports halls.

I saw quite a few cafes and the cafeteria but apparently the food on campus is… Not so good. I could cook my own, bring some from home or buy from the surrounding area so it’ll be okay for me.

EDIT:

I have been studying in SUTD for almost a year now.

(planning to write an overview of my experience soon, will include pictures.)

Comment below if you have any specific questions you want me to answer.

University Offers

Quick Intro

I received offers from SUTD, SIT and SIM GE.

I actually applied to 7 Unis, the ones stated above, NUS, NTU and SIM & SMU but I withdrew from the latter 2 when they shortlisted me for an interview as I feel that the first 3 would have better computer courses.

The Universities:

Singapore Institute of Technology -Digipen

So for SIT, I received an offer for Digipen’s BS in Computer Science and Game Design (though in the interview, it was suggested that I could switch to the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation which is considered more challenging as I would be developing the game engine instead of the games.)

I really like the curriculum for both courses in Digipen and the fact that I would have several games under my portfolio when I graduate though I don’t really like the facilities of SIT as much as SUTD’s.

The course costs $27,800 (tuition) but with other stuff, it works out to $36,330.

Time period: eight semesters of 15 weeks each – 4 academic years. Starts in

Acceptance deadline is 1 June 2016 – The latest.

Singapore Institute of Management – Global Education

While for SIM GE, I received an offer for Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Creative Computing by Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. – 2 links here!

This course sounds interesting, and the application fee cost about $99 so I looked up the brochure.

The course costs S$38,000.00 (est.)

Time period  Sep 2016 – Jun 2019 (FT). – 3 years – shortest

Acceptance deadline is 13/04/2016 – The earliest!

Singapore University of Technology and Design

This is the one that I think I am going to pick (after discussing with my mom.) as it has the newest facilities, good location, has a curriculum designed by MIT and an MIT-exchange trip.

However it also has a compulsory 1 year dorm stay for freshmores – sounds fun but kinda scary at the same time, especially since it’s a double. – The curriculum is more general studies during the first year so I am a little worried on whether I will be learning as much as if I had chosen one of the other courses above.

It also begins the earliest in May.

I plan on going into ISTD –  Artificial Intelligence track. we only get to choose at the end of freshmore year. 

There’s a ton of elective that I am interested in though – See my Quora answer of the electives I am interested in here.

The course costs S$12,400 per year for me as a Singapore Citizen (non-inclusive of the S$4,134.00 for compulsory dorm stay from May 16 to Apr 17) – I worked everything out to be $54848 with 8 terms + all the misc fees +compulsory dorm stay of 1 year.

Time period: 3.5 years (8 terms)

Acceptance deadline: 27/04/16.

In Conclusion

I am mainly worrying about the curriculum of SUTD being up to par as that of Digipen with one year being delegated to non-specialized studies but I would also like to know more about the student culture of both, the professors, what the lessons are like and which degree is worth more in terms of future career and being able to get a post-graduate degree @ somewhere-good.

I don’t really know much about SIM GE’s Creative Computing course so I doubt I will go for it, especially with such an early deadline for acceptance.

I am going for tea with SUTD (mom and grandma are coming with me) so I’ll update this post then, I have a list of questions for them…

Here is part 2 of this post: Acceptance Tea @ SUTD – My decision for uni.

Best Robotic Vacuum

Quick Notes

Okay, so I am getting a robotic vacuum for my dorm room which has hardwood floors, a tiny amount of floor space and a reasonably uncluttered layout since I have yet to move in…

So my personal pick is the Neato Botvac 80 Robot Vacuum. It may not be the best model or most efficient model but it is reasonably good, has nearly all the functions I want and most importantly, it is cheap ლ ( ◕  ᗜ  ◕ ) ლ. – It can return to it’s home dock to charge itself, I can set a schedule and it works well, better than most other vacuums.

An Overview of Robot Vacuums

Neato and Roomba are the classic brands. They are great!

Roomba is more famous

There are also hybrid vacuums that do mopping but they don’t really tend to do so well… Especially if you have pets, they might wipe poop all over the place – An image horrifying enough to me that even though I don’t have pets, I’m definitely not getting a mopping bot.

Bobi by bobsweep is said to be a great improvement over Bob (it’s predecessor)

It is small, cute and can find it’s way home to charge itself. It even follows a schedule!

But it seems to have no sense of direction – it bumps it’s way through life – it’s mopping function is pathetic and it’s not that powerful a vacuum.

Conclusion?

Neato is the best!

So which Neato?

The best of the market – aka the best vacuuming bot you can get – is the Neato botvac connected.

This is the one vacuum to rule them all!

It is also $800 officially – but $700 on Amazon-. .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·. The expensive robot of my dreams will just have to wait till I actually have money.

So 2nd best = Neato botvac D series which is an improved version of the Neato botvac series (cnet says it’s not really improved but reviews from amazon says that the bin is larger, the suction power is greater and it is just generally more awesome.)

For students (moths fly out every time I open my wallet.), You might want to look at the Neato botvac 80.

In Summary of Neato,

Okay so the numbers 80, 85 are just about what extra stuff is included and hence not really that important.

The botvac connected has a wifi app (and is $200 more expensive because of that and some improvements like vacuuming in rows & columns.)

The botvac D series is slightly better than the botvac series (without a D) but about $100 more expensive.

Skim to here! Summary Below

Hence I think the Neato botvac series is a fine purchase for those who need to save some money but are still too technologically inclined (read: lazy) to mop their own dorms.

For those who want the cutting-edge technology – the ultimate best – I suggest you get the Neato botvac connected which is only $700 on Amazon.

I think Roomba’s navigation is too erratic – thus it is slower and doesn’t clean as throughly.

PS: Did you know that Neato is actually cheaper on Amazon?

Sources

I prefer to watch user review videos as I find the official videos are incredibly unrealistic.

This is the absolute best comparison between Roomba and Neato.

cnet has a great page for robot vacuums, I particularly recommend looking at their spread which compares the efficiency of the vacuums in sucking up sand, rice and hair from thick carpets, thin carpets and hardwood floors. Though I suggest referencing Amazon reviews too, as their review of the Neato D85 overexaggerates the lack of improvement from the Neato 85. In a nutshell, look at this sheet but read the article with a pinch of salt.

If you just want to compare between Neato bots then use this it gives a great comparison between the different features.

This list was actually pretty okay (not in terms of ranking but in terms of feature comparison.)

 

EDIT:

After about 6 months, the Neato basically died which is really pathetic for a $600+ device. It was a rather good vacuum but I have since found far better ones. Like the Japanese vacuums that vacuum and mop rather effectively (which I am currently using)

So I really won’t recommend getting the Neato.

Best Way to Learn Code

Learning how to code is the newest trend, a trend that is probably going to stay considering we use tech more and more nowadays.

I have been trying to learn to code, I’ve bought dozens of Udemy courses, read programming books and taken tutorials.

The problem is Udemy courses spoonfeed you in an unproductive manner while being completely unengaging,  programming books can’t keep up with the constanly-changing updates and tutorials don’t explain concepts well.

Honestly, they don’t really work. Not for the purpose you intended. Sure you might learn how to make an app, or even several apps but you would only be able to do that. One-trick pony and all that.

To really understand how to program – the mindset, the way code works – and to be able to learn more on your own, you should take a computer science course!

Of course, I do have a recommendation: CS50 by Harvard.

It is AWESOME!

The starting bit is incredibly easy (Scratch!) and the lectures are entertaining, they provide shorts and sections for the technical stuff and a walkthrough teaches you how to think.

The teaching style is completely different from most Udemy courses. They don’t just teach you how to do x in a specific way. They teach you the concepts, the way to apply it and let you work out exactly what you want to do on your own.

I find that their teaching method allows for the information to really stick in your memory – which is the point of learning, ain’t it? – and I actually understand what I am doing – For once XD.

It is also set-up really nicely,  the later problem sets are coded in a cloud environment they provide for you so you don’t have to fiddle with the messy bits and can just get right to it.

There’s also plenty of support, from other students taking the course on reddit and glitter ~

I really recommend trying this out ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶ even if you aren’t really interested in learning to code, it’s still engaging to watch the lectures, the lecturer is awesome!

PS: You can take the course on edx for free! But if you want a verified certificate then you can take it for $90USD  (I think this would look rather good on an uni application, if you are applying for computer science)

PPS: They also have a Youtube Channel , an iTunes U course and their own site.