Wolf Can Fly, Too

First day in the lab.

First day doing experimental work.

Well, the first time since undergraduate, I guess. Experimental research is very different from the computational ones. You see, when you are doing experimental work, something breaks, then it would take weeks to have it fixed, and you are pretty much screwed; for computational research, if something breaks, it just means that you have wasted the past few weeks doing nothing of value, and you are pretty much screwed, but the good thing is that it will only take a few hours of hard work to fix what was wrong, and get going again. Conclusion? Don't screw up, you can't afford screwing up.

Anyway, I went into the water tunnel lab today. It is actually not much different from a wind tunnel, you just substitute air for water and fan for pump, just that simple. Since neither me nor my undergraduate slave (yes, I have a undergraduate working for me) have much experience in experimental work, the first project was to setup a few visualizations. That means taking good looking pictures that are cool to see but not of much scientific value. Well, it turned out that both me and the undergraduate are busy this afternoon, me with the orientation (umm...well, I read it as "free food")and my slave labor with...I don't know, something.

Well, we managed to get something done in the morning by using the CNC foam cutter to cut out a block of foam with the desired airfoil contour (too technical? It's just a block of foam that look like a wing cross section). Well, I found out that the foam block was too thin and too buoyant to stay in the water with the correct positioning. Just a minor glitch, but since my access request was not processed yet, I had to leave early, and the remaining work is left there for Monday.

Now for the update. Well, the past few days was relatively easy. I spent most of yesterday trying to get my cell phone working. It does work, but at limited location. My phone only works on the GSM1800 network, which the second and third largest network uses in Singapore, but for some reason the largest network Singtel (which I got my SIM card from) uses both GSM900 and GSM1800. That means I can only use half of the network available to Asian/European phones, no signal for me in the lab, and very limited signal for me in the dorm. The solution now is to either switch phone company after this, or ask my dad to bring his old phone with him next time he flies here. Neither will cost me a dime (it's pre-paid card, you use it, you put more money in it or just leave it empty). I might call M1 or StarHub tomorrow and ask about their network setup, just to make sure.

I actually have some free time on my hand yesterday, but somehow decided to sit around and do nothing instead of updating my blog. It must be the weather...or it might just be me being lazy. Well, I will try to keep updating every chance I get.