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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+ entry views: 35 today's page views: 121 (9 mobile) all-time page views: 3242146 most viewed entry: 18739 views most commented entry: 14 comments number of entries: 1214 page created Mon Apr 7, 2025 06:28:04 |
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Memory And Other Matters My home PC had been lagging oh so surreptitiously for some time, and furthermore began to insist on giving out the dreaded one-long-three-short-beep POST warning at boot. Initially, pressing the buttons in the right way could solve the issue, but it got to the point where only opening the case each time and applying pressure on the graphics card sufficed. It was only when I checked the System properties upon a hunch, and learnt that only 2GB of RAM was being recognized, that I knew to unseat and swap both RAM sticks, and bask in the performance difference that an additional gigabyte makes. No more waiting when alt-tabbing! [N.B. Despite 32-bit XP and Win7 only allowing about 3GB of RAM to be addressed, and the common advice (especially in the case of DDR2 if dual-channel mode is to be used) not to mix sticks of RAM with different capacities, 1.5GB sticks are strangely not to be found...] While on the subject of PC repair, another maybe-useful tip is what to do if one accidentally knees the DVD drive tray clean out of the drive itself (very possible if the casing is on the ground). Answer, through trial and error: apply pressure upwards while pushing the tray back in (there seems to be a hook or something). It goes without saying that this works only if the tray isn't broken. Gained access to a spanking new dual-screen system in the equally-new (ok, re-retrofitted tutorial room) lab last week, and became a believer in the (up to 44%!) increased productivity that it proffers. One suggestion to Microsoft, though: perhaps the cursor could snap to the Show Desktop button at the bottom corner of the left screen. I realise that the WinKey+D keyboard shortcut works too, but there's a certain simplicity in just flicking the wrist down and right. And a last word on computers - they've recently (alright, not quite) been tasked with grading essays in some secondary schools here. While they do identify technical errors well enough, I'm not sure that they actually bother with the content at all - one could conceivably submit a passage on a completely unrelated topic, and reap an Excellent score (not that it's too hard to achieve anyway, looking at the review) Lazy Lazy Snapping Moving half a step sideways to the computational photography module I've been taking (ironic since I've never been into photography, despite knowing a disproportionate number of people who are), I couldn't resist giving a sneak preview of one of the many techniques covered, after coming across a photo on edchong's super-top-secret-classified blog. Lazy Snapping is an "an interactive image cutout tool" that "provides a better user experience and produces better segmentation results than the state-of-the-art interactive image cutout tool, Magnetic Lasso in Adobe Photoshop". Basically, images can often be divided into the foreground (or "subject", often people) and background, and much of Photoshopping requires the extraction of the foreground, so that they can be deviously manipulated into another scene (remember Iranian missle tech?).  Original foreground markup (Source: I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you) edchong very kindly provided a markup of the foreground (in yellow) in an Arsenal team photo, at the same time expressing his admiration towards a certain player. Since he didn't provide the background markup as required, I've done it for him. I've taken the liberty of removing the wrongly-marked-up i, because let's not be selfish here.  With background markup The algorithm itself first clusters the marked-up colour using the k-means method, and then assigns each pixel to the foreground or background depending on the likelihood energy dependent on colour (so pixels of the same colour as that marked as foreground are more likely to be classed as such), and prior energy, based on colour differences (so the boundary between foreground and background is more likely to be where the pixel colour changes dramatically). That's more or less about it, and those interested in the math can refer to the paper proper. On to the results:  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm It seems like someone didn't mark up the faces and details properly. Too bad. Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) holds true for most procedures dependant on user input. More on other interesting things that I've learnt, when I get more time... Tax Tax Tax A couple of days ago, the Finance Minister explained the latest Budget, responding in particular to the request from an Opposition MP to lower the GST, and waive it altogether for basic necessities. Some history: GST was most recently hiked in 2007 to 7%, ostensibly to "help the poor". (To this, the most apt rejoinder I have come across is "Sure you can give the goodies or offsets, but why break a man's leg and then give him crutches to wobble on..."). Let the nitpicking begin. As I mentioned back then, GST is usually a regressive tax, i.e. the poor pay a larger proportion of their income to it, as compared to the rich. However, in the above article, the GST was referred to as a "flat tax" and "not a progressive tax". How accurate is that?  Helping The Poor™ since 2007 (Source: TODAY online) Eyeballing the figures in the given table, the 11th to 20th percentile (in terms of household income) pays about S$1200 in GST per year, and the 81st to 90th percentile, about S$3000 (or roughly 2.5x). From official statistics, the corresponding income ratio is nearly 4.8x; this ratio is smaller comparing the 11th percentile to the 41st percentile (about 1.9x expenditure, 2.2x income), but still exists. Therefore, I would feel that, assuming the above measures are relevant, the GST is more rightly termed a regressive tax (as expected) than a flat one, undesirable as that may sound (it is indeed perfectly "flat" as a percentage of expenditure, but I'm not sure if that is the context which matters). However, the main point is that the overall system is indeed progressive. What has been taken by the GST hike has been more than returned in terms of other benefits. Therefore, GST to help the poor could actually be true! But why break legs and give crutches? Well, GST is straightforward to implement, for starters - seven percent of (about) every transaction belongs to the government, with extras for certain goods (e.g. cigarettes, liquor) when imported. The interesting part is the benefit end of things, and how they are structured; the blue columns in the graph above represent one-off transfers. Take them out, and the entire set-up immediately looks rather less generous. Next, in what form do the permanent transfers take? For example, Workfare was cited, and let's see: "...a major component of WIS goes towards building up their CPF assets while a portion of WIS is paid in cash to help employees meet their immediate needs", i.e. yes, the benefits do accrue - where they can't easily be touched. Moreover, it is not directly stated if stuff like training is given a monetary value and included in the benefits column - a more detailed breakdown would be nice. Enough has been said here about the CPF, and despite its apparent unpopularity, I do think it has its place. I prefer some (even if forced) responsibility, instead of spending beyond one's means (though that often goes over well with the populace) and mortgaging the future. Again, it's all about the balance, and hopefully the authorities get it right. A Singapore Without Borders? About a week after my observation about online presence for bookstores, it was announced that Borders had gone bust, and in large part due to partnering with Amazon from 2001 to 2007 - who probably didn't have their best interests in mind (since the two were natural competitors). However, Borders appears to be staying put for the meantime. Yay. Fowl Play They should write it into the Rules of the Game: If an owl lies on the pitch, it is a foul to jog over and kick it, even if you're curious to know if it would fly (apparently not, as it turns out). As fouls go, however, that has nothing on a certain Brian Carrasco: They need to start giving out points for creativity. Speaking of rules, how about some Baskettenmintehfootball? Accounting time... P$1376/P$1950 in pretend punting so far. Well, there's always this week. P$50 on West Ham to beat Stoke City (at 2.15) - Hammers getting better, not so Stoke P$50 on Wolverhampton Wanderers to draw Tottenham Hotspurs (3.15) - just sounds right P$50 on Manchester United to draw Liverpool (3.10) - obviously won't mind being wrong... Next: In Another Class (Part One)
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