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[ November 2007 ] | |
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TCHS 4O 2000 [4o's nonsense] alvinny [2] - csq - edchong jenming - joseph - law meepok - mingqi - pea pengkian [2] - qwergopot - woof xinghao - zhengyu HCJC 01S60 [understated sixzero] andy - edwin - jack jiaqi - peter - rex serena SAF 21SA khenghui - jiaming - jinrui [2] ritchie - vicknesh - zhenhao Others Lwei [2] - shaowei - website links - Alien Loves Predator BloggerSG Cute Overload! Cyanide and Happiness Daily Bunny Hamleto Hattrick Magic: The Gathering The Onion The Order of the Stick Perry Bible Fellowship PvP Online Soccernet Sluggy Freelance The Students' Sketchpad Talk Rock Talking Cock.com Tom the Dancing Bug Wikipedia Wulffmorgenthaler       |
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bert's blog v1.21 Powered by glolg Programmed with Perl 5.6.1 on Apache/1.3.27 (Red Hat Linux) best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution on Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Mozilla Firefox 1.5+ today's page views: 110 (21 mobile) all-time page views: 3403478 most viewed entry: 18739 views most commented entry: 14 comments number of entries: 1228 page created Mon Jul 21, 2025 07:06:40 |
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- tagcloud - academics [70] art [8] changelog [49] current events [36] cute stuff [12] gaming [11] music [8] outings [16] philosophy [10] poetry [4] programming [15] rants [5] reviews [8] sport [37] travel [19] work [3] miscellaneous [75] |
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- category tags - academics art changelog current events cute stuff gaming miscellaneous music outings philosophy poetry programming rants reviews sport travel work tags in total: 386 |
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The two harder papers have gone by in a flash, before I could really begin worrying about them. An email today inviting us to check our tutorial attendance scores gave me a right shock as I got just one of ten possible points despite attending all the sessions and presenting a solution, which led to me shooting off a query to the lecturer immediately. It turned out that I was not the only one in that boat, and an admission that the call to check our scores was premature was swiftly forthcoming. All's well that ends well here, but incidents like this make we wonder about the frequency of scoring "accidents" - refer to Mr. Chong's experience. Come to think of it, it isn't really that unlikely for someone in the scoring chain to sum them up incorrectly or mistype a digit when going through hundreds of scripts (as my data entry stints indicate). Perhaps it might be good for the university to go after ISO certification for a less than 0.00001% failure rate or something? I have to declare here that my all-time all-round favourite comic strip is Tom the Dancing Bug (TTDB). Not to take anything away from TOOTS or Sluggy or any of the other superb works out there, but Tom's just... versatile. And very insightful. And ironically sarcastic. Attentive readers may recall that TTDB has been featured before. If so, send for a probationary AAAAA. Some nice guy has posted a complete catalog of links to the TTDB archives up to September 2005, and I've enjoyed a few happy hours reading them up to November 2004. Without further ado, my Top Ten favourites, in some particular order: #10 - Expectations Shaping Reality Wondered why novels get predictable? #9 - ...And Ultimate Reality And why people sometimes have the urge to behave strangely? #8 - Doublespeak Ah, the right to satire and to (deservedly) denigrate their leaders by name without fear of hamfisted lawsuits, the keystone of American democracy and what made their nation great. #7 - When you're high enough, actual correctness is optional Actually, Bush is classified as a cheap target by most cartoonists for being so easy to hit. TTDB appears to be equal opportunity, though, and Clinton wasn't spared in the earlier strips when he was still in office. #6 - On the epic potential lurking within every being Aw, isn't the ego a wonderful thing? #5 - The Greatest Superhero Superman and Jean Gray, eat your hearts out! #4 - The Impossible Squad When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. #3 - The Day The Written Word Died Never thought of the parallels between the literary and music worlds, didja? Come to think of it, walk into a library and one has full access to any book, absolutely free of charge. Okay, so the comparism isn't totally fair, since most people won't undergo the hassle of scanning or photocopying books to keep them, while with music there is zero inconvenience. But it does suggest why the perceived threat of filesharing may be grossly exaggerated. #2 - So true that it is so funny and so sad at the same time My fav superhero reminds me of why I'm no fan of Organized Religion (in Civ 4 it's a different matter, the 25% increased building speed is quite useful). Unfortunately, the comic actually fails in exerting any influence - staunch adherents won't think it's funny (or are incapable of placing themselves in allegory), and the rest probably don't think it's a joke. While conceding the fact that humans are a bunch of contradictions (hence everyone being a hypocrite, Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous" having some application after all), most religion demands the systematic acceptance of contradictions to a ridiculous extent. I mean, once people get it into their heads that their vision of God is the only true one, there isn't much wiggle room in interfaith dialogue. Imagine all those pastors, priests, abbots, imams, rabbis and whatnot smiling at each other while privately thinking "Well, in the end I'm probably going up (by Grace of God) and you're probably going down, but it's just too bad" - and that's if they are sincere in their beliefs. #1 - The tale of the Holy Land in eight panels Much the same theme as #2, but so spot-on it deserves to be examined twice. For all that is said of humility being a virtue, often precious little can be detected in the most passionately aggressive evangelical movements. One of the things about Organized Religion is that it can be easy to get into, but difficult to leave (think: underground societies, only instead of turning your back on your brothers, you're turning your back on God Himself. How could you??). Fancy dancing the Pariah Pariah Sakura? I suspect many don't have the strength to. I'm waiting for the Manchester United-Sporting Lisbon reversible jerseys. This way, the players won't have to put in an order for new togs from the kitman when they switch (Ronaldo, then Nani, then...). Not all that impressed with Miguel Veloso, but we may soon see how it works out. Back to books...
What am I doing blogging instead of mugging mindlessly? Well, it appears simple to convince oneself that one comprehends the subject matter as taught after going through the notes and some questions, though it remains to be seen whether those concepts can be applied as quickly in the heat of an examination: "...At a time like this, even the bravest warriors shook with fear. One could say they were 'scared', but this was completely different from ordinary fear. It was not that their wills were shaken; when they trembled, it was because they were making the change from everyday life to the life of battle. This took only seconds, but in that instant a man's skin turned to gooseflesh as purple as a rooster's comb..." "...All of that aside, it was said that the instant of meeting the enemy face to face was terrifying. Heaven and earth were dark even at noon; You could not see what was right before your eyes, you could not go forward or retreat, and you were only jostled and shoved around on a line of ready spearheads..." - Taiko, Eiji Yoshikawa Must protest - why aren't there critters like this bouncing around at NUS? (Actually, a pack of stray dogs appear to have taken up residence on the bare patch next to the University Hall, so that's better than nothing I suppose) Tonight, EPL resumes, and we've got Arsenal vs. Wigan, Bolton vs. Man Utd and Derby vs. Chelsea among others. Arsenal are a very paltry 1.07 to the win, United are 1.35 and Chelsea, 1.20. Bolton aren't exactly Derby yet, and a 20% overnight interest rate compounded for a year is... eighty thousand trillion trillion percent or thereabouts. Okay, that's not exactly relevant, but this is about as much of a sure investment in punting as things go. $100 on Chelsea to beat Derby (at 1.20)
- + epl tales - 
- current events - The final report for CS5340 Uncertainty in AI just got completed, so there's just one optional lab assignment remaining for CS3212 Programming Languages, which should help in revision anyway. From prior experience, trying out past year problems instead of just reading them helps more, so I am not sure if Reading Week is well-named, but whatever. Two modules are already over - UROP will be recorded as IP (in progress) for this semester, while Uncertainty in AI effectively has replaced an official final examination with two earlier examinations, which are done. Again, the two Econs modules don't count towards my Computing CAP, and I think I won't really fail even if I took the finals right now. That leaves Programming Languages (quite a tough nut) and Management & Organization as my real concerns. Local stuff: After the infamous "insensitive, not bullying" Brit idiots picking on an old trishaw uncle video, there's the "Ang Moh versus girl" incident. The second is admittedly a one-sided account, but together they may be indicative of a worrying syndrome which Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong identified as "cracks in Singaporean society". The figures are there - an increasing number of new immigrants are accepted each year (over 70000 last year, as stated in the linked article), and while I personally do not mind more people - the more the merrier, right? - there is a price to be paid. Transport crunches and increased property prices may be problems, but I would say that the biggest fears are probably over integration and jobs. Cultural incompatibilities aside, there may be a perception that some PRs view Singapore merely as a temporary stepping stone. This may be politically incorrect to suggest, but there, I've said it. Alas, this is the age of the global citizen, and it is the prerogative of any human to change his nationality as he sees fit, pending the acceptance of his chosen host of course. The government can no more than a private entity determine beforehand which prospective new citizens are "peaches", the real deal, and which are the "lemons", or country-hoppers, and in the case of the especially skilled, bright or rich, no government has a hold over them anyway. Hence the unbonded scholarships to graduate students probably in the hope that at least some will sink their roots here. The hunt for talent is the same everywhere in the world. But few Singaporeans would begrudge a Nobel winner the chance to be one of us, or even just reside here as a Permanent Resident, I gather. The trouble arises when citizens feel shortchanged due to the perceived advantages of PR-ship as compared to full citizenship (here's a partial list of pros and cons) since it appears that PRs can enjoy most benefits of citizenship without the corresponding obligations, with National Service oft stated as an example, and see "talents" that are not really that special happily come in and enjoy them. Of course, the "ask not what your country can do for you..." line of thought says that one is unworthy and unpatriotic even to consider it in such terms, but in practice it is a two-way relationship. When people identify deeply with the ideals and hopes of a country, the will to defend it comes naturally. If they do not, then they don't. Expanding on the NS gripe, it is a common complaint that employers often see the liability as an inconvenience, and for good reason. Imagine that you've installed someone in a critical position, and then out of nowhere during the busiest period of a project, boom - recall. Why not take an approximately equally qualified foreigner instead? This can be chided as an excuse by losers, but there is some reason in it. So, if a major goal of National Service is to foster togetherness, why not a couple of weeks each year for new male PRs to enjoy buddyhood too? Of course not the full course, perhaps a PES C version or something. Or, if they are reluctant to directly help us defend them in interesting times, some short courses in useful skills at the Civil Defence may turn out to be very helpful. In short, the dilemma is of PRs being "us", but not really "us". It may be a surprise, but citizens may not make up even two-thirds of the population, and it appears that they are lumped together with PRs as "residents", which helps the impression that the distinction is not even important enough for a separate category, especially in matters of job statistics. This is neither new nor unique, though. For instance, in the USA, "...each new wave of immigrants was treated with contempt and hostility by earlier immigrants who feared for their jobs. The Irish, for example, would often refuse to work with Poles and Italians. Later the Poles and Italians were equally hostile to Mexicans..." (Source: Norman Lowe's Mastering Modern World History, p. 380). And to top it off, Singapore is one of the newest countries existing, both in terms of significant habitation and in case of official nationhood. Assuming a generation takes twenty years, even a person who can trace his ancestry back to Raffles' founding is at best a ninth-generation "Singaporean", with most people probably rather less. And our forefathers were all "quitters", remember? But if we do not yet have the glue of history to bond with, it is hardly our fault. And as for jobs, the complaint is that FTs drive wages down. For blue-collar locals who perform relatively unskilled jobs, this is a big problem since one pair of hands is as much as good as another. Two hundred Singapore dollars a month, say, may be a big deal in developing countries where if remitted could feed a family, but it sure doesn't go far here. This also permeates through to some extent up the ladder. Why try to come up with two thousand bucks for a local coder when his position can be happily filled for a thousand? The sad reality though is that I do not see how the country can protect most of its industries to any large extent. For all that might be said about favouring citizens, lower cost is lower cost, and each dollar saved is a dollar added to the profit column. This is as much a case of cannot as will not, for competitiveness' sake. No EPL this week, only Israel doing England a huge (and perhaps undeserved) favour by upsetting Russia 2-1 at home. They probably also did the English economy a huge favour, as Euro 2008 without the perennially overhyped Three Lions would take a substantial financial hit, to the tune of three billion bucks. Sure makes the £50000 Mercedes prize for Omer Golan, who scored Israel's winning goal, by a British bookmaker pale in comparism. It appears that spoilsport Israeli officials are preventing him from collecting the car (worth half a year of his salary), but meanwhile he basks in the adulation of all England, including but not limited to the titles Sir Omer Golan OBE MBE QVC, a pint in Watford anytime, two offers to sleep with him and on top of all that being said to be "an all-round great chap", on Wikipedia minutes after his goal. Not a bad consolation. That really, really rubbed it in for the Scots who had seen Italy dump them out with a header from a horrible free-kick decision. Page 28 of today's New Paper had a slightly EPL-related bent as columnist "Dr Money" Larry Haverkamp, also a lecturer at SMU, shared the findings of some top projects with readers. The gold medal went to a team who discovered by regression analysis that higher team salaries in the NBA made absolutely no difference to their win/loss record. My curiousity piqued, I set out to duplicate their findings. First step was to find out the NBA team salaries for the 2006-07 season. This was easy enough, the Americans seem transparent on these things. Then the win-loss records (82 game regular season), which obviously are publicly available. It remained to plonk the data into Excel, whip up a nice chart and apply the Regression tool:  Note the nearly horizontal line of best fit, which confirms the students' findings. The Mavericks did have by some distance the best regular season record with the second highest wage bill, but the top spenders by far, the New York Knicks, threw three times as much money as the Charlotte Bobcats and ended up with exactly the same (losing) record. In the end, the San Antonio Spurs won the Finals while having a very average wage bill, with the third best regular season record to boot. Their Finals opponents, the Cleveland Cavaliers, were no big spenders either. Dr Money commented that "a wonderful extension to this study would be to see if it applies to football as well." So be it. Full financial figures were more difficult to come by for the EPL, at least without paying fifty pounds for the information. The top six wage bills were stated in the highlights, however, and they are Chelsea (who else) at £114m, Man Utd at £85m, Arsenal at £83m, Liverpool at £69m, Newcastle at £52m and Spurs at £41m (though one may ask Spurs if it was money well-spent, given their results so far). It is easily noted that the top three spenders have won fourteen of the last fifteen EPL titles (the exception being Blackburn, then amply financially supported by steel baron Jack Walker), so this hints that money is a big factor, unlike in the NBA. Some Googling turns up a relevant research paper, the figure on the last page reproduced here for convenience:  As suspected. Almost all clubs out of the Big Four spent about half to at most two-thirds of what the Big Four spent, and none of them approached the Big Three in points. The obvious reason for the discrepancy is that the NBA is a franchise and draft system while the EPL is free-market capitalist, and if I were told to make this a project I would dig further.
- academics - RTS AI Video, with the current demonstration strategy being to gather in the middle and then spread out to mop up when the other side is virtually eliminated. Nothing too fancy, but there's one more semester to work on it: Newcastle found themselves caught on the back foot against Sunderland yesterday and didn't remotely look like winning, so I'll reevaluate their strength. Liverpool also left it till very late against Fulham, though Crouch did hit the bar once. Crouch also won a penalty by tripping over himself just outside the penalty box, probably winning himself a nice comfy bench seat and well deserved rest. Woefully short odds of less than $0.30 to the dollar for United vs. Blackburn and Chelsea vs. Everton, and the remaining Sunday games are all too finely balanced on paper - other than Spurs at home against Wigan, but then again when have Spurs performed as well on grass before it is processed? They have to come good about now... $50 on Tottenham to beat Wigan (at 1.40)
- academics - Gilbert's First Law of Project Progress: The probability of completion somehow is effectively one. It was made bearable by Financial Economics having the dual attractions of mostly being common sense and of being immediately and practically useful. Beginning with no-brainer returns calculations, it dipped into stats with variances but quickly moved on to optimal market portfolios and the Capital Asset Pricing Model, though some arguments appear hopelessly dated. For instance, Sharpe in 1963 suggested that it was "not trivial" to compute 4950 covariances for 100 stocks, and "large number of estimates cannot be computed with any reasonable degree of accuracy". Forty years have seen computational power move on from vacuum tubes and transistors at the cutting-edge, however, and an unoptimised script in Perl (hardly the most efficient language) breezed through a million calculations in Internet Explorer without so much as squeaking (some results in the report above), so the lesson here is it pays to know when some statements no longer strictly apply.
However, seen from another viewpoint, this is a slow bleeding - clutching, say, Creative Tech shares close to one's chest in the vain hope that they rise back to anywhere near their $60 peak in 2000 (now $6+) is probably not a wise idea. Best to have dumped them at any local peak and hitched a ride on some other performing vehicle. Why sell winners and hold on to losers? So now it's just the ORTS UROP project. Look out for a preview video soon. Random videos: Fifteen lateral passes lead to a touchdown in college football (the football with helmets and shoulder pads). And I thought we were downright cocks for doing it on the basketball court. Super Mario Bros II completed in eight and a half minutes. My cousin had this game on his console donkey years ago, and I never got anywhere on it. Another week of small gains going into Round Twelve. $1175.70/$1250 so far, and only three games on tonight. $20 on Newcastle to beat Sunderland (at 2.32) - That's high! $20 on West Ham to beat Derby (1.97) - Plumping for another away win, with good reason. $10 on Fulham (+1.5) vs. Liverpool (2.10) - Are Fulham Derby or Besiktas in disguise? Maybe, but at better than even money I think they're worth a try.
- academics - Title says it all. Upkeeping all my regular commitments takes up a couple of hours each day, and recently I've made the mistake of trying to learn warmongering in Civ 4. Cultural or Space Race victories on Noble difficulty with shiny wonders plays right into my builder's heart, and in contrast raising huge armies to smash face cramps my style (and has often proved fatal in RTS). Quite a bit of time wasted there... Home stretch of the semester coming up, and somehow or other I've managed to settle the requisite assignments as they come. Haven't been able to open up much breathing space, but at least there's only: One EC3333 Assignment 5 (just done!) One CS3212 Lab 8 (done!) One CS5340 Assignment 3 (half done, continuing) One MNO1001 Teamwork Analysis II (three pages!) Two MNO1001 One-pagers (not at all hard, but...) One MNO1001 Final Project Feedback (more misc stuff) These are the biggies: One EC3333 Project Report (due 9 Nov) One CS3208 Report (due 12 Nov) One CS5340 Report (due 16 Nov) So here's the plan: Watch Arsenal vs. Man Utd, then clear out the non-biggies by about noon tomorrow. I hope. Ate a $93.25/$100 last week after it all began so well with United thrashing Boro and Sunderland getting a late equaliser against Fulham, but Liverpool struck first and Arsenal could only level it out. $1163.95/$1250 total. $50 on Aston Villa (-1.5) vs. Derby (at 2.10) - Derby away always worth a look. Against them. No offence, no offense. $50 on Tottenham to beat Middlesbrough (2.10) - Spurs surely can't be that bad. Post-managerial change rebound is due.
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