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Swift is the modern programming language behind many apps that run on modern Apple platforms. I thought it would be nice to bring a small taste of it back to Apple’s early days, the Apple II. It was Apple’s first mass-market series of machines, initially released in 1977 with a 1 MHz MOS 6502 CPU. I built SwiftII , a Swift-flavored mini development environment for the original Apple II…
The Creative Midi Blaster MB-10 recently entered my retro-collection 33 years after its first release in 1993. Seeing that there isn’t much detailed information about this device on the internet, I decided to do a review followed by a teardown of this device. I will also take some sample audio recordings of it.
After 2.5 years of sweat, tears and lack of sleep, I’m a Master Graduate loh! I just graduated with a Master of Science degree in Computer Engineering from NUS College of Design and Engineering (CDE) Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department. Before I embarked on this master degree program, I actually did not know what the experience will be like as I did not know anyone taking up…
Ever thought of running a local Large Language Model (LLM) on a vintage PC running DOS? Now you can!
If I were to tell you a PC has a floppy drive, optical drive, Sound Blaster card, serial, parallel and PS/2 ports running DOS, you would think I’m referring to a machine from the 1990s. But my very modern PC built in 2024 possess these characteristics! I recently built myself a PC as my previous desktop PC was insufficient for my current needs. I decided to build one with the ability to…
The Thinkpad is arguably the one of the most iconic and consistently long-running laptop brand in the world today. Back in 2008, Lenovo released the Thinkpad X300 to critical acclaim. Being released shortly after the first Apple Macbook Air, plenty of comparisons were made between both machines as both were extremely slim machines at that time. I first heard of this book online entirely by chance…
When one thinks of modern technologies like Thunderbolt, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and modern CPUs, one would associate them with modern operating systems. How about DOS? It might seem impossible, however I did an experiment on a relatively modern 2020 Thinkpad and found that it can still run MS-DOS 6.22. MS-DOS 6.22 is the last standalone version of DOS released by Microsoft in June 1994. This makes…
When one thinks of designing an Application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip, one would typically imagine a very high production cost, lack of access to tools and individuals can’t really do this unless you work in a company or academia. Thanks to Tiny Tapeout , these barriers are broken down and I managed to have a chip that contains my own design. I sent in a very simple project but…
I have amassed a respectable collection of retro-PCs in the several years I have been engaging in my retrocomputing hobby. As part of this hobby, I regularly acquire vintage expansion cards from others. Testing these newly-acquired cards will require me to frequently disassemble my properly set up retro-machines which is a hassle to do. To reduce the repeated handling of these old and relatively…
HDMI is a relatively modern video connector we take for granted on modern PCs and monitors. Now vintage PCs can join in the fun too with a native connection to modern HDMI monitors without any additional adapter. (A production run has been made for this board. You can contact explit[at]mailbox[dot]org if you wish to purchase a unit.)
A new 386-based palmtop recently appeared on Aliexpress and was covered by sites like Tom’s Hardware . My curiosity was stoked and I quickly snapped one up.
With the recent attention on ChatGPT and OpenAI’s release of their APIs , many developers have developed clients for modern platforms to talk to this super smart AI chatbot. However I’m pretty sure almost nobody has written one for a vintage platform like MS-DOS. This client now supports Hugging Face API, Ollama API and text to speech (TTS) capability. More info on TTS is found at the…
During my volunteering with Repair Kopitiam, I noticed that an experienced coach had a tool that could plug into a socket to determine if the socket was wired up correctly. Fascinated by this, I wondered what such a tool was and how does it work?
I have recorded and published dozens of in-cockpit flight videos ever since my PPL training videos to the present. For a long time now, I have received many questions on how are these videos produced. Therefore I decided to write this blog post to address these questions as the video production and editing process is not as straightforward as it may seem.
I finally received the Framework laptop, said by many to be one of the most repairable and modular laptops made so far. Tons of professional reviewers and Youtubers have already given their opinions and made teardown videos. Instead of mimicking what has already been done, I decided to put myself in the shoes of an ordinary layman and share my thoughts from a personal usability perspective. A…
So another year has passed for me. It really didn’t feel that long ago that my previous birthday just passed. As many older people have told me, once you hit your 30s, one does not bother counting their ages any more. I can concur with this. I think it’s more important to measure things now by what was done and learned and my goals going forward rather than just counting numbers.
Singapore’s COVID vaccination programme has been doing very well by worldwide standards at 76% who received 2 doses since 16 Aug 2021. Forgive me for stating the obvious but I’m part of this majority group. I’m considered fully vaccinated as I’m more than 2 weeks past my second shot. Still, I don’t subscribe to the mentality that that should be the end of the story…
Private leisure helicopter flights operating in Singapore are a rare occurrence compared to planes. So when a helicopter ride opportunity presented itself to me recently, I immediately said YES! The machine is a privately-owned Robinson R22 Beta II manufactured in 2004 registered as N783SH. It’s a 2-seat light helicopter that is commonly used for primary flight training. While doing the…
A faulty aircraft avionics Narco DME 890 came into my hands recently. As this instrument was destined for the trash bin, I was given free reign to do whatever I wanted with it. What better way to do it than to conduct a teardown! Before commencing a teardown, I have to go through some theoretical concepts of the basic operation of this device.
The first computer I used as a kid was a 486 PC back in 1995. My family upgraded past it and it was disposed of. However very recently, someone in the local tech community donated a 486 motherboard to me. This gave me an opportunity to relive some of my childhood! In the spirit of giving back to the online community that I have learned a lot from, I decided to write this blog post to share my…
Seletar Flying Club (SFC) in collaboration with MAJ Aviation recently upgraded one of its aircraft, a Cessna 172N (N5748E) to use a glass cockpit. As an SFC member, I had the privilege to learn about this new system and fly on this upgraded aircraft. In this blog post, I’ll like to share my learnings when transitioning to this system. Prior to this, the aircraft I have flown including those…
A faulty aircraft radio model Bendix King KX-155 recently came to my hands. As a private pilot of light General Aviation aircraft for about 2 years, I have used this model of radio in almost all the planes I have flown but never really looked at what goes on behind the scenes. I decided to take this opportunity to do a teardown of the radio to inspect what are its major components to learn how it…
My grandmother who lives with me and my family passed away at home recently. In the ensuing days, my family and myself went through a wake process that took a few days but felt like many months of work went by. This was not my first time attending or helping out in a wake, but it was the first one that I was heavily involved in since the departed involved a close family member in my home. Although…
With the recent release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (FS2020), many videos have been shared online. However, few have been made on Singapore. Of those that do, most players fly from Changi Airport and to the city area which are off-limits in real life and they hardly use any real-world procedures. In reality, General Aviation (GA) for visual flying within Singapore is limited to Seletar…
I’ve been working in a Chinese tech company for some months now. I realised I needed to improve my command of technical Chinese rather than taking the easy way out of using the English terms when communicating with my Chinese colleagues. The only way to improve is to use it more often but technical Chinese is rarely utilised and understood outside the working environment of a Chinese tech…
This is the last of the 3-part book-review series on the Air-conditioned Nation series of books written by the academic Cherian George (CG). Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation Essays on the politics of comfort and control (2000) Singapore, Incomplete: Reflections on a First World nation’s arrested political development (2017) Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited: Essays on Singapore Politics (2020)…
This is the second of a 3-part book-review series on the Air-conditioned Nation series of books written by the academic Cherian George (CG). Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation Essays on the politics of comfort and control (2000) Singapore, Incomplete: Reflections on a First World nation’s arrested political development (2017) Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited: Essays on Singapore Politics (2020)…
I have heard of this term “air-conditioned nation” for more than a decade but I never actually read the book where this term originated from. Now, I finally did. The “Singapore: The Air Conditioned Nation” book was initially published in 2000 by the academic Cherian George (CG). Over the span of 20 years, he published 3 books. Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation Essays on…
I recently got my hands on an old unserviceable aircraft transponder from my flying club. The tinkerer me was obviously very curious on what’s inside this piece of equipment. What better way to find out then to do a teardown! Aircraft Radio Corporation (ARC) RT-459A Approximate size: 16.5cm x 29cm x 4.5cm
I get a lot of flight requests from friends ever since I got my PPL last year, on average once every other week. At the same time, I have questions posed to me on the safety and environmental concerns of General Aviation (GA) within Singapore. Some questions were posed to me in shall I say, “less than respectful” tone. Let’s put things in perspective, the following is what I…
I recently purchased a new-old motherboard. It’s a motherboard released in 2020 but not the usual you would expect of the latest motherboard released this year that support the latest CPUs and connectivity options. This motherboard supports a CPU first released in 1979 (Intel 8088) and comes with historic connectivity options like serial and parallel. When I first heard about the earlier…
Migrating my blog to a static site has been on a backburner for several months for me. Given the recent circuit-breaker or “soft-lockdown” in Singapore, I found the time to finally take the plunge. I took the opportunity to change the theme during the migration. I initially started with WordPress* as it was a common Content Management System (CMS) then (and still today) and it was easy…
The costs of flying General Aviation (GA) is a question I get asked a lot ever since I started taking up my family and friends. I had this question too as I needed to plan my frequency of flights for personal budgetary reasons. It may seem to be a simple question but the answer can be quite complex owing to the myriad of regulations and cost structures. While tabulating the numbers, I thought to…
During iOSConfSG 2020 , I was asked by the organising team to give a Singapore quiz as part of my emcee role. I was given sufficient notice period to come up with these 16 questions but I felt I could do better if I didn’t wait till the last minute. Nevertheless, I hope you’ll will enjoy them. Quite a few people told me they liked it so I think it went okay but there were some…
In October 2019, my company SP Digital held an internal hackathon. My colleague Subhransu and I worked on a whacky idea of writing a brand-new Windows 3.1 app which was an OS released almost 30 years ago. The idea we chose was a Slack client. After all, Slack clients exist for most platforms but I’m certain one does not exist for Windows 3.1. A few months later in Dec 2019, I would join the…
I was in the market recently for a new phone as I had to give my previous Google Pixel 2 away to a family member in need of one. With the emphasis these days on sustainability and environmentally-conscious purchasing, the Fairphone 3 came up at the very top of my research. From the marketing words of this social enterprise, “Recycled and fair materials”, “Modular and repairable…
I was the emcee in GeekcampSG 2019. I asked a total of 66 trivia questions in the effort and excuse to give out leftover plushies from the previous Geekcamp 2018+. These questions spanned topics from Singapore, Science, Fiction, Computing, Retro-tech and miscellaneous general knowledge. Topics I feel would appeal to a stereotypical geek audience and someone like myself. Try to see how many you can…
A private pilot once told me “when you write about your private pilot experience online, be prepared to be deluged by plenty of people asking you about your experience and picking flight schools”. I initially didn’t believe him, but after writing many blog posts on this topic , I’m forced to concede after receiving many direct messages. After interacting with more than a…
Today marks the last year of my 20s. My true age has always surprised people whom I just met. Yeah, I’m actually not that young already. So stock take for what was an amazing year for me!
3 years ago, I tore down the NDP 2016 LED wristband as I got one during the Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) Preview. 3 years later, I got another one during the NDP preview held on 28 July 2019. Board internals Band in original condition So time for another teardown!
I told a friend I was heading to Malacca over the weekend. Asked how I was going there. Car? Bus? Train? Don’t tell me boat? How about PLANE! Seletar Flying Club (SFC) had a navigation trip planned for Malacca and back on 13 July 2019. For this trip, I had a “heavily-subsidised” backseat ride on a modern air-conditioned Diamond DA-40 . I will then fly the return trip on SFC’s Piper…
Having obtained my FAA PPL earlier this year , I decided to join Seletar Flying Club (SFC) to maintain my flying proficiency and to also rent aircraft to bring friends and family up to the skies. Before I can rent SFC’s planes to fly others, I have to complete a checkout flight with the club’s instructor to familiarise myself with SFC’s planes as well as the Singapore’s…
If you asked me 2 months ago whether I would be a conference emcee, the answer would be a clear no. But here 2 months later, I managed to pull off being the conference emcee at GopherconSG 2019 . Making the initial welcome address to the audience before passing over to the Conference Chairperson Sau Sheong.
Ever since I got my Private Pilot’s License (PPL) , my friends have inundated me with many aviation questions. So I decided, why not compile everything into a blog post? With my PPL, I only have the lowest-rated license among the many others higher up the chain, instrument, commercial, airline etc so I’m actually least qualified to answer them but I’ll try the best I can. Many…
This post continues from Part 1 of my Private Pilot training journey. This part details the flying portion I did in San Diego, USA. It’s divided into the following sections: Arrival in San Diego Waiting for TSA clearance Exploring Montgomery Stage 1: Train for Solo Stage 2: Train for Cross-Country Solo Stage 3: Prepare for Check ride Final Checkride Conclusion What’s next
I finally got my Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Private Pilot Certificate or Private Pilot License (PPL)! It seems so surreal, but I can actually fly a plane with my family and friends. This journey was almost a year in the making which I made immense sacrifices in time, money and much more. With my San Diego Flying Training International (SDFTI) instructors Charles and Luke on the Cessna…
2 weeks ago, I put my life on hold in Singapore to come over to the birthplace of aviation to achieve a life-long dream to fly a plane. As expected, learning to fly a plane is nowhere near as simple as just taking up car driving lessons for example. Behind the videos I have posted on social media so far of my practical lessons, hides the countless hours of mundane but very important theory lessons…
The last primary keyboard I’ll use in my life might be the IBM Model M. It’ll probably last me the decades to the day that keyboards should become obsolete. - Kheng Meng, 2018 I just had to start my blog post with that self quote ^^^ but I’m pretty confident it’ll hold true for me. I have owned several keyboards so far and I have to say the Model M with its legendary…
What is the oldest x86 processor that is still supported by a modern Linux kernel in present time? I asked the above quiz question during the Geekcamp tech conference in Nov 2017 during my emcee role . The theoretical answer as you can glean from the title of this post is the 486 which was first released in 1989. I determined that fact from this article where support for the 386 was dropped in Dec…
Yay, conference emcee achievement unlocked! Just completed my solo emcee role at GeekcampSG 2017 ! With this I have completed the double trifecta of doing the roles of emcee, speaker and Engineers.SG recorder at both tech conferences and meetups. Preparation for this role was quite a long time coming for me. I volunteered to be the Hackware meetup emcee for about 6 times to prepare for this. Even…