Flying R/C models

I have always wanted to fly R/C models ever since I first saw a R/C plane in action about 25 to 30 years ago in my home town. The plane was red in colour and the owner flew it in a golf course. In my home town, golf courses can be used for more than just playing a round of golf. It was also used as a army helicopter base. I am not kidding. Anyway, ever since then I always wanted to fly one of these things but never got the chance to.

About 1 year ago, I wanted to get a full-fledged helicopter but decided against the idea as I read and heard many stories about people giving up flying R/C helicopters as it is really very difficult. It is harder to fly a R/C helicopter than a flying a real one! During this time, I also tried flying a coaxial R/C helicopter. It was a Lama but I cannot remember the brand. A co-axial helicopter is one where there are 2 main rotors, each one of them rotating in the opposite direction in order to counter the spinning effect of the other. It does not come with a tail rotor and thus it is a lot more easier to control but even with feature, it was really difficult to fly the helicopter.

A few days ago, my sis in-law supprised me with a remote controlled helicopter for my belated birthday present. Actually a few weeks ago, while shopping in the weekends, I wanted to get one of these flying toys to try out. They are not too expensive and they are a lot easier to fly than a 4 channel helicopter.

Anyway, back to my helicopter which is Picoo Z helicopter and supposedly the smallest in the world. This helicopter is not radio controlled. The control of the aircraft is achieved by infrared technology. On the controller, you will find 3 LED which emit the IR waves to the helicopter.

It is quite fun but I think the left-right trim controls are a bit out of whack. I can't seem to get the entire body of the copter to stop spinning. So I have to compensate with the Left control and I push it to the max while air borne! I tried flying it indoors and it can fly all the way to the ceilling. I have yet to take it outdoors. I think it is a bit difficult as smallest draft can send the helicopter out of control - not that I have a lot of control of it in the first place!

Then today, I saw this in a shop today.

It is from Wowwee - the same company that brought us Robosapien (which I wanted to get but did not managed to). Notice the controls? I think it has the "Robosapien series" designs.

It comes in 2 colours - blue or green. The controls are pretty simple - 1 for trottle and 1 for steering (left and right). The dragonfly comes with a rear rotor which helps to stabilize the dragonfly while inflight. Its body is made out of polystyrene. The wings look fragile and on them are printed some graphics of circuits and electronic components. (I thought that made the already cheap looking craft look even cheaper). It is battery powered by I think 6 AA bateries. It is not very expensive - it costs S$99.

I think I got bitten by the flying bug already. I think my childhood desire of flying R/C models is finally coming true. I have already searched eBay for flying RC models and got my eyes set on 2 of them - one of them is 7 channel helicopter (which can do acrobatics - for 7 channels I certainly hope so) and the other one is a true ornithopter which is really good as it does not require any rotors for it to fly! I am really keen on the ornithopter.

For a start, I think I have got to get one these $99 dragonflies for my kids. Right for my kids.

Earthquake in Singapore

There was an earthquake in Sumatra which measured 6.6 Richter Scale . It happened in this morning and the tremors were felt in Singapore about 11:55am. I heard from people who have experienced earthquakes before said that before the earthquake happens, animals will behave strangely. Dogs will be barking, insects (like cockroaches, centipedes, ants) will come out crawling from their dens etc.

In my office, which is normally very quiet, saw a sudden burst of live. My colleagues were all coming out from their cubicles and talking about the tremor. People who hardly spoke a word in the normal course of their days, suddenly became so vocal and animated.

Apart from the burning question of how come animals can sense such impending disasters, do you see the similarities between the behaviour of critters and my colleagues?

Till my next post.

Fouk yous?

What does it mean? What language is this? What dialect group? If research is done on this what demographics will it uncover?

Here is another shot...

Notice how clean the toilet bowl is? How about if I told you I found this in toilet in a government building?

Interesting isn't it?

By for now (pun intended).

When shit hits the fan

Today I attended a meeting to discuss some plans for a project. The people who attended the meeting were consultants, system integrators. The meeting did not go smoothly. There were cynical remarks that progress of the project was awful and work delivered was lacking in substance. This project started early last year and is supposed to go live late this year. Honestly speaking the project team is running out of time and it appears the project team members are singing to a different tune now. Last year, team members (some are stakeholders) were more receptive, less figure pointing. But now as time slips by and deliverables are not met adequately, some team members revert to "it is not my problem, it is yours", "I like to cover my ass", "I am too busy, you handle this piece of crap" mode.


Frankly, I think the project was not managed properly. A lot of time were wasted last year. Seems like a all to familiar sight with projects. That is what happens when shit hits the fan.



See you till the next project status meeting crap-o-rama.

Headache

My house-help wants to migrate to another country. She wants to earn more money for her children and also go back to school to further herself which is good thing. I don't want her to go as she is very helpful around the house but on the other hand she MAY get what she want to achieve in that country. There is no guarantee and if she does not like it there then she really is in a fix. A plus point is that she is with her mother in that country so she can get some support.

But the hassle of getting another house-help, the application process, the training, the learning curve, the initial phase of adapting to a different environment...

Headache. However nothing is confirmed yet.

Fingers-crossed...

Selling hamsters?

I read in BT some weeks ago that there was this guy who bred and sold hamsters as a source of passive income when he was a school student. How can breeding hamsters be a source of passive income? I am not disputing his story but breeding hamsters must be pretty laborious. I just cannot see how it can be treated as a passive income. For your information this guy has "arrived" i.e. has achieved financial freedom at an early age. Well done!




By the way, there is a site on achieving financial freedom which can found here http://ultimatefinancialfreedom.blogspot.com

Generic consultants anyone?

I am writing this because of my experience working with consultants. I term "generic consultants" as consultants who do not have a specific skill set. They have pretty good management skills and presentation skill but that's is about all. They are "asked to be" consultants in areas where they may not have any prior experience or working knowledge. Sad to say, most consulting firms operate this way. They will put a person who is experienced in say, JDBC develoment (a techie) in a process management project (e.g. re-engineer the process of a retail line of business in the oil and gas industry). For those of you who are in this industry and think I am not making sense in this example, I apologize but these are just examples which I made up. Just examples.
The poor sod (the techie) will not have pre-requisite skills to handle this assignment but that's is just too bad for him (and the project). So what this guy needs to do is to bull shit his way through. Sometimes, the bull shit does not pull through and the client will lose confidence in this person. Generally, it will make the whole working relationship between the consulting firm and client a pretty bad.
Let's face it, not everyone has all consulting skills. A consultant is supposed to be a person who knows a lot more than the average guy on the street about a particular subject matter. That's why people "consult" these "consultants"! So why consult someone who knows less or just marginally more? The answer to this is simple, "don't hire these consultants".
Look at this another way, imagine you have a BMW and you want it serviced. Would you take your BMW to a mechanic who has experience in servicing Daewoo motorcycles (BUT who can present fantastic looking Powerpoint slides on how to service a BMW and what Garner has to say about the trend in servicing BMWs over the past decade) or a mechanic who has the real working experience and skill in servicing BMWs? I think the choice is clear.
Don't get me wrong, there are some projects where these consulting firms delivered sterling results. And that's because they got the consultants with correct skills and experience in these projects.
I don't blame the consultant. I blame the business model. Personally, I do not think firms like these can continue operating in this manner for long. Sooner or later the user community will wise up and view such generic consultants with a whole jar of salt. Consultants are specialists not generalists. Enough said.

Till my next post.