Keith Neo Kian Seng

Educational Ladder

During my younger days, I study in Bedok South Primary School, before going to Dunman Secondary School, commonly known as High School in other countries. After my high school, I went to Temasek Junior College, one of the top 5 junior colleges in the country. Just after I finish my junior college, I was enlisted to do my National Service, a compulsory participation for all male species who grew up in Singapore, for the next two and a half years. I spent the following four years in university, pursing a degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Eventually, I graduated from University of Strathclyde in 2003. Currently, I am doing research for Hamilton Institute, as part of my work towards a Ph.D. degree.

On Computers - Novel on a Laptop Murderer

I received my first Personal Computer in 1993, which was a 486DX2-66MHz. It was the years of MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) and Windows 3.1. No one from younger generation would know what exactly is a 486, not to mention 386 (the previous generation of x86), MS-DOS or Windows 3.1, as the Intel Pentium and AMD seems to be riding the wave now. From then, I "learnt" more about computers actually by physically dismantling the parts and components myself, and fix them back together. I have changed electronic components including, from RAMs and Harddisk drives, to motherboards and power supply. It wasn't really too difficult, when dealing with Desktop PCs. From time to time, I made upgrades to the PC myself, hoping to increase the speed of the computing system. Of course, as time goes by, systems just get obsolete no matter how much upgrade you do to it.

This has brought about me owning my next computer, an ASUS Pentium II 233MHz laptop in 1999, the time when I enrolled into University. During that time, my laptop was considered as the art of the technology, where Pentium III wasn't even existed. This laptop lasted for 2 years, and due to unforseen circumstances, before it was damaged. Laptop was critically important to me that time, because first of all, I was overseas in the United Kingdom (UK), and having Internet access is crucial. Secondly, as an Engineering students, most of the work is done on computers. Though it is always nice to have access to computers at the computer labs, sometimes working through the night is just too inconvenient, without a computer.

Since then, my second laptop was purchased from Compaq in 2001 (then, Compaq has yet to merge with HP), which is a Pentium III 750MHz. I am quite satisified with this laptop, since it was an improve in speed and storage capacity compared to the previous one. The only thing which I do not really like about it is that this laptop does not have a PS/2 port. Compaq manufacturers placed more focus into USB ports, and thereby leaving out any other ports. Well, I could make use with a mouse, but it is never easy to use a touchpad and navigate through some programming and designing tools, such as Labview or MATLAB. In another word, I have to get myself a cheap USB mouse, viz., from eBay. Sometimes, people are just human and accidents are natural phenomenon which happens just in a flash and people have to accept it. The lifetime of my Compaq laptop was just only a glancing one year.

Feeling remorsed about "murdering" my past 2 laptops within a period of 2 years, I totally feel guilty about having to get another new laptop again. Still overseas and especially in 2003, which is in the middle of my final year, laptop is just critically important as there are Final Year Project (FYP) to do and the report to type. My FYP will require me to use simulation softwares, i.e. Labview and MATLAB. It is a total handicap without a laptop. Eventually, I decided not to take the risk on a new laptop, and go for a used laptop. In fact, it is not as bad as it seems, I got a used DELL Pentium III 500MHz, which is a few steps backward from the Compaq laptop. However, that wasn't a concern anymore since time is precious and money is limited, I have to settle for something that is at least helping me to pull through the final year, and which it did.

A used laptop is always as good as new when it's functioning well. Unfortunately, a couple of months after graduation, it started to give severe problems. In the midst of working on the laptop, the system would just hang and it was a total nuisense and frustration whenever works were not saved! Perhaps, fate is meant to be for it to serve me through the final year and not beyond. Finally, it decided to give up. In desperation, I had to make a purchase order for a new laptop, and that time I was looking at DELL Factory outlet. Considering the situation that I am working on data crunching research work in Gaussian process, I got myself an impressive brand new DELL Mobile Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz laptop. Making a promise to myself, I have to maintain this laptop and make sure it last for at least the next 3 years. Well, now is 2006, it has served me well for the past 2 years. I am certainly very delighted and happy with it, at least up till now.

In a short period of 7 years, I have used a total of 4 laptops, on average 1 laptop every 1.75 years, strongly justify that laptops have very short lifespan - especially when it get laid on my hands.