Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Nuclear Reactor

There are many arguments on this topic recently, mostly surrounding "to build, or not to build" question, especially when the reactor in Japan went out of control after the earthquake and tsunami strikes.

As an Investment
Well, let's not look at the bad part yet (such as nuclear waste, radiation, etc). Among many types of power generator (solar, wind, tidal, etc), it turns out that nuclear reactor has the highest return based on initial investment. Also, surprisingly solar power generator is giving a pretty bad return on investment. In another word, when you want to use the minimal money to make maximum electricity, nuclear reactor is the choice (and selling the electricity basically means money).

That is also why, nuclear reactors are build one after another in the whole world, because they are the cheapest way out for electricity.

Technology Required
To build a nuclear reactor is not like baking a cake, even Albert Einstein, the person who build the famous formula E=mc² once said that it is impossible to extract the nuclear power from the atom (he was right for some time, until World War 2 where tons of research were done to build the atom bomb).

Well, nuclear reactor are based on nuclear physics, which based on quantum mechanics. The fact is, quantum mechanics is not something everyone can understand easily.

Nuclear Reactor in Malaysia
Now, let's 'try' to build a nuclear reactor in Malaysia. The first problem come into the mind is - nuclear physic experts. From what I know:
  • There are no courses for 'nuclear physics' or 'quantum mechanics' in the local universities.
  • I can hardly find any books regarding 'nuclear physics' or 'quantum mechanics' in the local bookstore.
  • There is nobody I know that have any interest in this field.
So what does this means? This means the basic knowledge for Malaysia to build a nuclear reactor is at ZERO.

Well some may said "if we don't have any experts, then we just import them!". Yeah right, you're being so naive. Don't forget money matters all, if you were to import experts from outside, get ready to pay them a sum that make them 'interested' to work for you. And this just violates what I said in the early part - nuclear power is cheap. By hiring expert from outside, you're making the investment having way lesser return, and thus investor won't be interested in building a nuclear reactor, and in the end? Government pay for it? Using the money tax from your pocket?

To Start Things Up
Building a nuclear reactor is indeed the economical way out for energy crisis, provided you do it correctly. If the people above are really interested to do so, please, at least start by building some nuclear physics courses in the tertiary education, sending people who capable outstation to do research and learn (WARNING: NOT sending some idiotic minister people to go visiting other country's nuclear reactor).

So, having enough local experts in nuclear physics takes 10 years. Sending the experts to learn from other country takes another 5 years. Planning and building your own reactor takes 5 years. Handling people who protest against the construction expect a delay of 5 years. So I won't be agreeing building a nuclear reactor in Malaysia for another 25 years time, until I see Malaysia are truly capable of doing so. Now it's just a dream.

End
If you expect to throw bunch of tax payer's money to hire bunch of people from outside to build a nuclear reactor, I certainly hope you do not ended up building a nuclear bomb in your own country.

P/S: Yes I admit I'm a nerd that enjoy reading difficult stuff such as nuclear physics and quantum mechanics...

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

If man and woman were computers

You know, when guys (especially computer guys) sit around and bull shit they can really come out with many nonsense...

If man and woman were computers

Processors
Woman - Intel Quad-core processor, they can really multi-task with ease.
Man - Intel Atom processor, not only slow, doing multiple task at one time causes blue screen.

Memory
Woman - 8TB hard disk with 15,000 rpm.
Man - Only DRAM is found, refreshes whenever it is powered off. Capacity is limited, information overloading results in memory dump and blue screen.

Network Speed
Woman - Extremely fast.
Man - Depends on type of information that is transferring, sometimes stops completely when transferring works to do.

Application Installed
Woman - Movies, drama, work, horoscope, all sort of things you can think of.
Man - Games and you-know-what.

Monday, March 07, 2011

It's My Belated Day

Had my belated birthday celebration with family :) Sister bought me a Baskin Robbin ice cream cake...


Yea, I know it was well-designed just for me...


And the poor cake, got poked by 24 candles...

Trust me, having 24 candles on a small ice cream cake was a bad bad bad idea, especially when...


You're using these kind of candles.

And finally, my birthday present from sister. From the external packaging we could've guessed what's inside (there aren't many product in a prism shape!

Thanks sis, greatly appreciate it :)

Thursday, March 03, 2011

It's My Day

Officially 24th now, birthday wishes starts to sway between 'growing big' and 'getting old', which sooner or later going to be the latter.

Anyway, want to thank my dear for taking one day leave to accompany me on today. Went watching 'I am Number 4', using my sister's premier voucher. The show is not bad, considering there aren't any better show recently (and 'King's speech' is not my type of movie, so no, I don't care those Oscar judges love it).

Decided to went high class today, so we had our lunch in Sushi Zanmai.


My favorite salmons in a big dish.


Dear's scallop-grill-something.

Hell, I blame my camera for taking such a clear picture and making me feel hungry when I'm writing this post, damn.

My birthday present, where the box outside and the gift inside have no relation entirely *faint*.

And this is my cake of the day, a mango cheese cake from Delicious. The cake is not bad actually, but I guess it don't mix well with the sushi we had earlier =/

Lesson of the day - Don't mix Japanese food with western food, it spoils the latter.

And thanks everyone who wishes me through the Facebook and SMS, greatly appreciated!