Keith Neo Kian Seng

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Personal Interests

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Euphonium

Some Of My Personal Interests

I have several hobbies, both usual and unusual. Most significant one that I have is with the musical arena during the time when I was in my younger days. After all these years, I must have felt really proud to have some musical knowledge. I'd love to play the piano, but I never get to learn, on the other hand, I picked up other musical instruments instead.

Apart from music, I picked up skills like computings all by myself, either through hands-on experimenting with hardwares, kicking around with codes in the softwares or from books and online references. I must really thank the "Father of the Internet" who brought about Internet revolution to the world.

Besides, I enjoy touring the world myself physically, rather than virtually over the broadband highway. Taking lots of photographs and aiming to sharpen my skills had lead me to purchase my very first own auto-focus "non-digital" camera in 2001. Ever since the technology has changed, the world is approaching into digital age - Digital camera.

Trumpet

Symphonic Band

I have been in symphonic bands for about 10 years. First of all, I have never expected myself to be in the band, nor joining the band was my choice. It was during my first year in secondary school (High School), that I was introduced into the musical arena. It happened to me that every students are required to select an extra-curriculum activity to participate. My initial choice was Badminton. I had initially went to audition for Badminton, but never made the grade to join the team. Since I was denied the chance for my initial choice, I had to search for alternative. It was then, Mrs. E. K. Lim, my form teacher, introduced me to playing in the band. Hence, this is how it all started. During the first 4 years, in high school, I was an Euphonium player (picture of the Euphonium is shown on the top left) and a student conductor for the last 2 years. After leaving High School, I decided to switch to playing Cornet/Trumpet (image shown on the left), and have been playing Trumpet for the last couple of years. I was part of the Temasek Symphonic Band during my two years of Junior College (JC) and Nanyang Technological University Symphonic Band (NTUSB) at a later stage. Until 2001, I have stopped playing in a band, due to work commitment. Sadly speaking, I relish those times of being back together with several other band members again.

It is also through Band that I met several people and made friends. One of them is Dr. Bruce Gale, who also plays the Trumpet. However, not to be mistaken, his PhD is in Political Science and not music. He has created a website, The Concert Band, which I find it pretty impressive. I used to help out at the Salvation Army in Singapore, during Christmas period, for carolling (band). Another good friend of mine, Tay Kai Tze, an oboe player currently pursuing his music degree in Australia. We used to hang out at one of the 24 hours Pasir Ris coffee shop for a wee night chat.





Computing

Computing is another hobby of mine. I don't really specialise in programming, like hackers do, but I do simple programming. Web design is also part and parcel of my interests. Personally, I can claim myself to be worthy of the title The Laptops Killer. Reasons can be found here. These are some of the web skills that I used when creating web pages and server:

Apache TOMCAT
Java Server Page (JSP)
Active Server Page (ASP)
Simple PHP Language
HTML Language (including DHTML)
Simple CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

In terms of computational programming, I have used the following tools:

MATLAB (The MathWorks Inc.)
Labview (National Instruments)
C/C++ (MSVC, Borland, GNU GCC)
J2SE (Java Software Development Kit)

Recently, in early 2006, I have decided to start building up my personal web page. It was only through one of the best, if not the best, Free Web Hosting around, which has inspired me to create a dynamic site. The domain on which this webpage is hosted on, as you can see, is on Hostmatrix.org server. Credits to the management, especially Allan, whom has been fabulous in maintaining the web server and keeping the web hosting free of advertisements (The Google advertisement you'd probably notice on my site now are set up by me, and not by the server). Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch! By allowing members free hosting, members in turn has obligation to remain active to the forum set up by Hostmatrix. This is actually a small price to pay for an excellent service. Check out the Free Hosting Website if you are interested to join the group.

Photography

When it comes to photography, I just love and enjoy taking photographs. During the years when I was younger, I never had a camera, though my father used to have one, a Konica brand, which was won during a competition. The camera had served us for a long time. In fact, I am not sure if my Dad is still using it now. There is one time during my trip to Australia with 2 fellow army friends, Woo and Yeo, I borrowed the camera from my Dad and, at the same time, a SLR camera from my aunt. Basically, I had 2 cameras, though looked professional, but not sure if I am doing the right thing. I knew for some reason, the SLR camera will be very useful for taking distant images, and in which Australia has so many beautiful sceneries.

It was not until 2001 when I first purchase the first camera of my own. The brand is Vivitar, which I absolutely had no idea of it. One of my friend, Sean, recommended me this piece of magnificent image capturing device when I was about to embark to Scotland for a long trip. So far, it has served me well until now. Though these days I have not been using it as often as I would, it is still serving me with quality good images.

As much as I love technology, I am also a traditional person when it comes to using camera. I like digital cameras, however I would still prefer the traditional type of camera when taking pictures that are more memory-deserving. But, I am not willing to be defeated by this, so I bought myself a wonderful toy, Traveler Digital Camera DC-5080, from Aldi. Not to be mistaken, Aldi does not manufacture digital cameras, instead there was a sale one particular Thursday, when I had to queue up in the morning before 9am to purchase the camera. I believe the stock had totally sold out in less than 2 hours' time. After using it for a couple of weeks, I am actually very impressed with the quality of the camera. The image is crystal clear, especially in daylight open environment. Furthermore, the ability to capture movie clip (video and audio) is just great for me to record myself, save these files, then send via email to my contacts.

Traveler Digital Camera DC-5080 The brand, Traveler, may not sound convincing in the first place. In fact, after doing some research over the Internet, I realised it is also known as Medion in Germany. Many users who purchased Traveler digital cameras have claimed that it is of excellent quality, with images known to be impressive, except for one particular model, DC-3000, for which many felt it was not of a good make.

Features and Specifications:

  • 5 Megapixels
  • 1.7-inch LCD Colour Display Screen
  • 4x Digital Zoom
  • Movie and Sound capture (in MPEG format)
  • Webcam with Table Tripod
  • SD card support, with up to 512MB and internal 32MB memory
  • Li-ion battery with power unit/charger

With so many of these features embedded in a single device, which I paid for at a price of €79.95, how can one resists the temptation of this small slim (and it is extremely slim) and light weight digital camera.

There are a couple of disadvantage of this camera, but they aren't too much of an issue. For instance, the camera uses its very own Li-ion battery. In the long run, one may find that if the battery needs to be replaced, it would be difficult to get a replacement for this digital camera. In another word, 'AA' or 'AAA' size battery would definitely be a plus point, since users can purchase it anywhere. Secondly, this camera is capable of capturing both image, video and sound. However, it does not support playback with sound. It is only when you transfer the file to your PC, will you know how does the movie sounds like.

On the contrary of the battery issue, one of the main reasons why a Li-ion is used is because of the lightweight that it gave to the camera. Henceforth, I am willing to trade convenience for weight.

Images

Traveler DC-5080

Front view of Traveler DC-5080

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