Electrifying Stats

"Don't stand under a tree when its raining, or when there's lightning!"...
We used to hear that when we are young. That still holds true now....

However, a year or even just months later, you may hear parent's telling their children: "Don't listen to your iPod when its raining!".

What's a phenomenon and deemed as a music revolution has lately become a target of nature. It has become an electrifying experience for a few users. And thats not about the tunes either. Rather, its related to rain and lightning.

Recently, according to the newspaper, a Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums, and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player's wires. And furthermore, it wasn't even raining, but only a storm in a distance.

"Yikes! more hazards" may be one pertinent thought now. A questionable thing is that, if electronics was to blame here, why is this happening only to iPods? Last summer, a Colorado teen also ended up being struck by lightning when he was listening to the iPod while mowing the lawn.

In fact, any of these could happen to anyone bearing an electronic device on them. And frankly, everyone would have at least one on them nowadays. Maybe they were the tallest in the area? I don't by that argument. What I can accept is that now, with the huge success of iPods, majority of the people own one, whether its an iPod, mini, nano and so on. (Sadly, I don't have any of them). Thus with such a large sample, the chances of lightning striking a person with an iPod is very high.

For all we know, its just an unfortunate accident and a case of bad publicity for it.
However, I guess its best to err on the safer side and keep that music player in your bag or pocket (if you feel safe enough) when its raining, lest it becomes too electrifying to handle.

Time and GTD

Time is really a luxury which sadly I fail to have.... the day inches nearer but I aren't moving that much nearer. GTD (Getting things done) is something that I must do but to do that I need that luxury to do so.

Why why why.

Limited by the hours of day, the rising and setting of sun.
Limited by a saddled brain.
Limited by the very things I am suppose to do.

Yes, I know that:

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible(Arthur C. Clarke)
However, is it possible? Rules are set. You can't change time. You can't do the impossible of extending time. The sun cannot be stopped from rising neither can it be stopped from setting. Freezing it is out of the question.

Looks like thou has to find another way.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. (Benjamin Franklin)

Squander not time, as the significant event is near.

Cherish the present, and look forward to what is inevitable.
(GenSephyr)

"There Is No Explanation" is an explanation

I was replying to a thread in STOMP forum when these thoughts suddenly came to me in my reply.

The phrase "There Is No Explanation" is, in itself, an explanation (GenSephyr)

Sounds weird? After thinking about it, you'll come to realize that it is quite true.
In one's life, there are countless experiences and sights we have seen, smelled, felt, heard etc. However, with each of these, a reason is sought. Questions like "why is that happening?" is always asked, especially by the young ones.

Whenever that question is asked, whether to ourselves or someone, the explanations given comes from one's experiences. More often than not, these explanations have scientific or religious backgrounds. However, what about those that aren't explained either by our religious or scientific reasonings or, taking it further, can't even be explained when you Google it or put it through some other search engines like Yahoo or Windows Live Search?
At that juncture, the answer to yourself would be "there is no explanation (for now)".

Let's take this out of context and give an example.

For example, in a Mathematics question. The teacher tells you that "a x b = |a||b|sinӨ" (its in the topic of vectors). You ask, how the formula came about. The teacher answers that it is too complicated to answer.
At this point, in order for you to accept that formula, the explanation behind the formula (for the student) would be "its too complicated to know".

Take this case above and put it in the previous context, wouldn't the phrase "there is no explanation" which is similar to "its too complex to know" be the explanation for the unexplained?

Don't know if I make sense here but, I'll just end here with you in thoughts (or maybe not)...

Blogging Code of Conduct should be a Guideline NOT Mandate

I guess this is something we all know this will come sooner or later...

In the Straits Times Digital Life Section (May 8, 2007, Page 31), an article titled: "Do bloggers, and readers, need a code of conduct" is very apt and pertinent.

I for one has asked myself this when I first heard about the drafting of the blogger's code of conduct over at blogging.wikia.com

Indeed, there are now threats being made via anonymous comments and also the intolerable advertisements post via the blog's comments system or some chat or tagbaord system on the blogs.

However, the question is, why do we need one? The allure of blogs is its openness, "anonymity" as well as it free-flowing nature. Any comments are posted and aired. Would this code of conduct then turn against the very foundation which blogs are built on?

In this digital age, the internet is used as a personal haven as much as a business tool. With the increasing affluence of the people, and the ease of internet use nowadays it is no wonder some sort of code of conduct is need. That is however, usually covered by a country's law.

However, there has been an increasing need to put some sort of guidelines for blogs. Blogging has seen an exponential increase these few years. With many companies also moving into the blogging scene. With such a trend, and the simplicity of opening up a blog, it is no wonder that many incidents are also happening which are related to blogs.

The online nature of blogs has exposed itself to the internet pits. The list includes (but isn't limited to): flaming, Bias comments, Unwarranted accusations and so on. And with the increasing use of blogs as a media for information, the question on the privacy of one's sources also come into play.

I personally feel that the code of conduct is definitely a good thing to have. However, knowing the nature of blogs and being a blogger, I think that it shouldn't be something made compulsory. Anything made compulsory especially on the web always have an effect of turning people off. Whats more, the web usually presents a snowball effect on the simplest of things.

So in conclusion, I do welcome a "code of conduct guideline" but not a "code of conduct mandate".

Paradox

There are always somethings which is just paradoxical

Like the sentence on Wikipedia: “This sentence is false” (The liar paradox).

A paradox is an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox)

There are many experiences that results in a paradoxical situation that one may not be able to describe or put in words. It just seems so awkward and sometimes confusing.

Another example would be: “If truth does not exist, the statement ‘truth does not exist’ is a truth, thereby proving itself incorrect.” (Nihilist paradox taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes)

Sidetracking.. ok.. actually still on topic....recent events followed by a reflection lead to me to conclude with this quote....

“We have to (learn how to) Let Go in order to Hold On (to something)....” (GenSephyr)

Paradoxical? Ironical? But quite true if you think about it... Many of these quotes depends on how you see it, or from what “angle” you look at it.

(N.B. and disclaimer: If you find any quote here in this post anywhere else (which is recognized to have been said by any person long time ago) but not cited properly, ... inform me so I can do the relevant citation or changes to include proper citation to the correct person... but for now, I take credit for the last quote about Letting Go... )

in-turns and more

In-Turns... My period as an intern has officially ended... I shan't discuss much about it as the report has yet to be handed up... Like a company's FY status, I shan't reveal it first....

Well as usual, since I've been "working" for sometime and thus didn't update here as much as I could, I shall have a slightly longer post. Categorized of course... So that you may skip parts of no interest...(or probably all.. LOL)....

Lets go GP-style from big to small, starting with: On the News

Well watching the news sometime ago, it was announced that the national museum is now reopened... Like the National Library, it is really revamped and I hope to go there once again... Although I can't remember the last time I've been there already....

Another piece of surprising news was that the gov feedback unit has also revamped itself and officially launch blogs as a means to communicate and gather feedback from the masses... It can be found at http://www.reach.gov.sg/... However, with the attitude and mindset already driven deep into Singaporeans, it remains to be seen whether the blogs will actually gather any momentum.

The lack of momentum can be attributed to few reasons...

1. People have their own blogs already...


2. Going through such an avenue with strong association with the government presents some concern...


3. There is this "hold back and look-see" attitude powering many Singaporeans, driven into our mindsets through generation: "What are the consequences of voicing out?"....


4. Sure... there is a increase number of people voicing out.. but what continues after the thought stated in point 3 would be: "what are the benefits of doing so?"

With such concerns, it would be sometime before the site would actually take off...

Another much awaited news would be the island-wide wifi network that is free for 3 years as well as the workfare bonuses... I am in no position to comment on the workfare bonuses... However, on the issue of wifi, it marvels me, or rather, it failed to marvel me (I can't really decide) that the take-up rate has been so high, when broadband penetration rate in SG is only 58.9%. It goes to show the power of something being "free".

Free? I go "yar sure"... This is something I don't really think is sustainable without some form of revenue... As what I learnt the past few weeks, or you can put it down to plain common sense, company's exist to make money... (with the exception of non-profit charity organizations)... there must be some way to gain back... Either at the end of 3 years, you'll be charged a nominal fee, or you start getting some form of advertisement the moment you connect to the network or while you roam on the network... Oh well.. only time will tell...

On the Technology side

Intel has launched quad-core chips... and definitely a power user's dream. Now there is a jungle of chips out there.... getting very confusing... With AMD and Intel's different naming systems as well as 32-bit and 64-bit versions of processors, and with Intel having the old Celerons, Pentium M, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 HT, to the newer Pentium D, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme (quad-core), Core Solo... and the list is growing.... Ouch.. my head hurts..

Not to mention Vista has been officially gone into RTM and also released to VLK clients. Likewise for Office 2007 which adopts the OpenDocument format as well as finally has a plugin which supports export to Adobe PDF format.

On the Personal Front

Got a web-development project.. and boy.. my head is throbbing over the implementation... I am venturing into somewhere I've never been... that is adopting the use of a Database (MySQL) and also the use of a preprocessor (PHP)... Ok.. PHP not much of a problem as I am quite strong in the presentation part which uses XHTML and CSS, but there is much to be learnt on the logical layer... And with plugins to a certain system which has to be developed to control the forms and Database, this "one-man-show" seems a bit daunting and a headache... But then again, looking "ahead" at least I got a push to learn what I would otherwise put off: about Database f(x)...

Training has also restarted and we are supposed to have our eyes on the National Schools Tournament. And talking about that, I still haven't get to see the Direct-School-Admission Students... Well... Better start doing the attendance list...

and oh last but not least....Happy Feet!!!

Wow! That shooting star is going up! Thats GST!

GST is going up again... and by GST, I meant Goods and Service Tax, not Greet, Smile and Thank. If the latter was true, it would have been great...

I don't know, but I guess its another cycle of increment. I guess we should be used to it already since that time when it was increased from 3% to 5%. Now it would be increased to 7%.

It seems to be a legal way to "take from rich and give to poor" theory. However, one question would be: "What would happen to the society's middle class". We are neither here nor there. We don't qualify to get the benefits and also not rich at all.... So in my view, it seems that the middle classes are the ones that bare the full brunt of such an increment.

Its a vicious cycle. In the market, consumers would ultimately be the one to suffer. Picture this..... If price of materials increase, manufacturing cost increase, and thus, product cost increase and then this amount would be passed on to consumers.

One point to note. There is a snowball effect along that price pathway. When materials increase in price due to GST, in order to cover cost, manufacturers have to increase the price. And in addition to this price, there is still GST. and this would continue increasing until the final party to get the goods.

It was argued in the radio that hawker stalls may also suffer quite a lost. Although there is an increase in GST, hawker pricing aren't as price inelastic as other goods. A small increase in pricing of the food would turn even the most frequent customers away. Actually especially frequent customers. They may feel that they have been paying that amount for years and an increase is unacceptable.

To conclude, I think that any increase by the Government will generate alot of arguments and views... But ultimately, I guess a persons view is will still be bias towards their own backgrounds in cases such as this.....

News Article: Abolish Homework

This article appeared in today's newspaper (The Sunday Times, November 12,2006, page 24) , about a new call in the US to abolish homework....This age old question never fails to come up after some time....

A group is saying that children are doing more homework but there is no evidence that it adds to the learning experience... It is also said that the correlation between homework and academic achievement is more visible as one get into a higher level of education...

And I guess the education system here in SG is somewhat similar in terms of homework load. Though they are sure moving to a teach less learn more method, which means more work/research to be done at home, which equates to more homework...

I believe that the homework problem can be seen in all countries especially those with a very established education system... Well its been done for so many years and there is nothing against it. There is also nothing that says that it is bad. In fact I guess I must agree there is a certain degree of usefulness in homework. There are some subjects which needs alot of practice.

However, the situation whereby homework is increasing is not new. Compared years ago, homework load has definitely been increasing. I believe that it is now more prevalent that subjects covers more depth and thus, would translate to more work....

It is stated in the article that a study had suggested that the amount of homework be based on a child's age, example would be a first-grader 10 minutes of homework, second-grader 20 minutes. etc. This led me to think about it....

What if it is implemented in SG? well, I guess a few things would come up.

For one, if it is implemented according to age, what about those who are older than the mean age for that level? For example, a 19 year old can be in secondary school...

Second, 10 minutes of homework? Yea right... if each teacher would allocate 20 minutes of homework, and taking an average secondary student who takes 8 subjects, this would add up to about a 160 minutes of homework. And a Secondary 3 student is definitely higher than 2nd grade.. not sure what grade though... I think its 5th or 6th grade... If the time allocated to homework increases , the total amount of time allocated for homework would also increase proportionately.... Wow!.. Huge number...

Again, moderation is the key... One man's meat is another man's poison... Though some may be against, I think there are some who likes doing homework... Though I aren't one of those, but I find that it helps and thus will still do so... (p.s. Moreover, there are reprecussions if we don't do, and I'm not referring to grades... ok maybe grades too as it counts into our "daily quality of work" marks..)

The concerns that the group is bringing up definitely deserves a second look. However, I really don't think it is wise to totally abolish homework...