Biggest Discoveries of 2005

From
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,69909-0.html?tw=rss.technology

10. Moony probe
9. It's not a lemur
8. Ten planets or eight?
7. Little fluffy comets
6. Big soft dinosaur
5. First neuro-cybernaut
4. Rocky exoplanet
3. Microscopic microbots
2. Dogs and chimps and rice, oh my!
1. It's getting hot in here

Is that a vacation job or free labour?

From the Straits Times Interactive
http://www.straitstimes.com.sg/storyprintfriendly/0,5578,361748,00.html?

Dec 29, 2005
Is that a vacation job or free labour?

I WISH to highlight a practice by a local restaurant chain which appears to use students on vacation as a source of free labour.

My daughter, who had just completed her O levels, applied for vacation work at Fish & Co in Parkway Parade. She was told the pay was $4.50 per hour.

Happily, she started work on Dec 5, working a five-hour shift for five days. However, near the end of her shift on Dec 10, she and some others were told their services had been terminated. Nothing was said about outstanding pay.

My wife accompanied her on Dec 23 to ask about the outstanding pay. They were attended by one of the staff members who told them new employees, whose services are terminated, should have served a minimum of 24 working hours to get paid. If they failed to clock the minimum hours, they would not be paid a cent. She told my wife that our daughter had clocked 23.5 hours of work.

The staff member said all new hires were told of this 'condition' before starting work but our daughter says she was not.

When my wife asked to see documentation of this, the staff member said it was done verbally. After my wife said she would report the restaurant to the Manpower Ministry, the employee called her head office. She later told my wife that our daughter would be paid $1.80 an hour as she was still under probation. Again, $1.80 an hour for new hires under probation was not mentioned before she began work.

Fed up, my wife and daughter left.

Although the amount owed to my daughter is relatively low, about $100, I am disappointed that students who simply want to earn some money during their vacation are treated in such a manner.

My questions are:

# Is it legal for the restaurant to have this employment condition? If so, why not have new hires sign some form of documentary proof?

# If the restaurant really feels our daughter is not fit, why make her work for 23.5 hours before terminating her services?

Mohamed Hanafi Mohd Noh

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access.

2 More Days

Another 2 more days...

• To welcome New Year 2006.
• To hang onto No. 9 for 2005 in ASP and not get overtaken.

Happy New Year Soon...

KPO or Gossiper

I think I am both.

Moving Towards Transparency

I am moving towards transparency.

Bad Feeling

I really really really have a bad feeling in me.
This is the worst feeling I ever experienced.

Hope things turn out to be fine.

Kukup Trip

Just came back from Kukup trip.

New Year's Day to be a second late

Scientists will insert a "leap second" onto the end of December 31, by tweaking their atomic clocks, the world's most precise timekeepers, so as to be consistent with the Earth's rotation.

Leap seconds are inserted because atomic clocks tend to go slightly ahead of the Earth's rotation, largely because the rotation of the Earth has been slowing down.

It will be the first extra second in seven years. The first leap second was added on June 30, 1972, according to NIST, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Above extracted from
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/26/content_3969840.htm

So Proud of Regine

This semester is Regine's best. 1 A-, 2 B+ and 1 S. So happy for her :)
Maintain merit.

New Belt

I have got a new nice belt!
Gift from Regine and so must treasure.

The 10 Commandments of Microsoft Access

From the microsoft.public.access.formscoding newsgroup:

And it came to pass that the cries and lamentations of the Access newbies were heard on high by the gods of the Database, and their hearts were moved to pity for their followers. And they opened their mouths and spake, saying: "Nevermore shall the young and innocent wander witless on their journeys! We shall provide guidance to them, yea, and to all who wish to seek the paths of wisdom." And they caused these commandments to be written and placed before the eyes of those seeking enlightenment.

So heed the words of those who have come before you, and keep these commandments in thine heart as thou dost create thy Database application. If thou shalt only follow these commandments thy burden shall be made light and thy path shall be made straight.

1. Thou shalt design normalized tables and understand thy fields and relationships before thou dost begin.
2. Thou shalt never allow thy users to see or edit tables directly, but only through forms and thou shalt abhor the use of "Lookup Fields" which art the creation of the Evil One.
3. Thou shalt choose a naming convention and abide by its wisdom and never allow spaces in thy names.
4. Thou shalt write comments in your procedures and explain each variable.
5. Thou shalt understand error handling and use it faithfully in all thy procedures.
6. Thou shalt split thy databases.
7. Thou shalt not use Autonumber if the field is meant to have meaning for thy users.
8. Thou shalt not copy and paste other people's code without at least attempting to understand what it does.
9. Thou shalt not use "SendKeys", "Smart Codes" or "GoTo" (unless the GoTo be part of an OnError process) for these will lead you from the path of righteousness.
10. Thou shalt back-up thy database faithfully, working not on thy Production Database, but on the Prototype Copy, as it is right and good to do.

Thus spake the gods of the Database, and blessed be their names! And Blessed, too, are those who contribute to the Access Newsgroup - giving freely of themselves to serve those who hunger and thirst for knowledge and understanding!

Contributors:
Andy, Mike B., Marshall Barton, Fred Boer, Sandra Daigle, Dirk Goldgar, Kevin, Eric L., Hugh O'Neill, Hsherriff, John Vinson

My Top 10 Best Products of 2005

The top 2 happened to be my top few too!
I think I will come out with my top 10 one day.

All Products Listed by Ranking

1. Experts-Exchange IT Solutions Collaboration Site
2. Google Gmail Web Mail
3. QuickPost Experts-Exchange New Question Auto Notification
   
4. Mozilla Firefox Web Browser
5. Visual Studio .NET 2003 IDE .NET 1.1
6. Visual Basic 6.0 IDE for Visual Basic 6.0
7. MSN Messenger 7.5 Internet Messenging Program
8. Google Search Engine
9. MSDN Library Microsoft Technologies Documentation
10. NJStar Communicator Chinese Input
    

The 100 Best Products of 2005

The top 2 happened to be my top few too!
I think I will come out with my top 10 one day.

All Products Listed by Ranking

1. Mozilla Firefox Web Browser
2. Google Gmail Web Mail
3. Apple Mac OS X Version 10.4 (Tiger) Operating System
4. Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router and Notebook Network Card Wireless Networking
5. Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW 24-Inch Wide-Screen LCD
6. Alienware Aurora 5500 Performance PC
7. Seagate USB 2.0 Pocket Drive Portable Hard Drive
8. Skype VoIP Service
9. Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT Digital SLR Camera
10. PalmOne Treo 650 PDA Phone
11. Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Antivirus Antivirus and Firewall Software
12. Mysoft Technology Maxthon Browser Plug-In
13. Rio Carbon Midcapacity MP3 Player
14. Webroot Window Washer 5.5 Utility
15. Maxtor H01R300 Shared Storage Drive Network Hard Drive
16. Google Search Engine
17. Netgear 54 Mbps Cable/DSL Wireless Travel Router Model WGR101 Travel Router
18. OnlyMyEmail Pro Spam Filter
19. Sony PlayStation Portable Handheld Gaming Device
20. NVidia GeForce 6600 GT Graphics Board
21. APC Back-UPS RS 800VA 120V Uninterruptible Power Supply
22. 2BrightSparks SyncBackSE Utility
23. Moon Software Password Agent Password Manager
24. HP Officejet 7210 All-in-One Multifunction Printer
25. Winternals Software ERD Commander Data Recovery Software
26. Ubuntu Linux 5.04 Linux Distribution
27. Epson PictureMate Photo Printer
28. Mozilla Thunderbird E-Mail Program
29. Cloudmark Anti-Fraud Toolbar Browser Security Plug-In
30. Vonage VoIP Service
31. Cloudmark SafetyBar Spam Filter
32. Adobe Photoshop CS2 Image Editor
33. The New York Times on the Web Web Site
34. Apple ITunes Media Player
35. Seagate USB/FireWire Hard Drive External Hard Drive
36. Canon CanoScan 9950F Scanner
37. IRiver IFP-895 Flash-Based MP3 Player
38. Valve Half-Life 2 PC Game
39. Samsung HL-P5063W Rear-Projection TV
40. Tor Privacy Software
41. LG Flatron L1981Q 19-Inch LCD
42. Dell 3000cn Color Laser Printer
43. BlackBerry 7100t PDA Phone
44. Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro USB Memory Key
45. Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ Internal Hard Drive
46. Compaq Presario V2000 All-Purpose Notebook
47. Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Media Player
48. Canon Pixma IP4000R Inkjet/Photo Printer
49. Best Software Simply Accounting Accounting and Personal Finance
50. Orb Media Streaming Service
51. Flickr.com Photography Site
52. Dell Inspiron 6000 Desktop Replacement Notebook
53. DirecTV HD DVR HR10-250 HD Receiver and DVR
54. ACD Systems ACDSee 7 Photo Organizer
55. Dell UltraSharp 1704FPV 17-Inch LCD
56. Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom Digital Camera
57. Qnext Instant Messenger
58. IBM ThinkCentre A51p All-Purpose PC
59. SightSpeed Video Instant Messenger
60. Wikipedia Online Resource
61. Cerulean Studios Trillian 3.1 Instant Messenger
62. CMS 80GB USB 2.0 ABSplus Notebook Backup System Portable Hard Drive
63. Nikon Coolpix 7900 Digital Camera
64. Contour Design RollerMouse Pro Mouse
65. Adobe InDesign CS2 Desktop Publisher
66. Shuttle Computer XPC i8600b Small PC
67. IBM ThinkPad X41 Ultraportable Notebook
68. Adobe Premiere Elements Video Editor
69. Dell Axim X30 PDA
70. A9.com Search Engine
71. Toshiba RS-TX20 Digital Media Server DVD Recorder
72. Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5 Burning Software
73. Plextor PX-716UF Rewritable DVD Drive
74. Casio Exilim EX-Z750 Digital Camera
75. Apple Mac Mini Small PC
76. Google Desktop Search Desktop Search Tool
77. Mitsubishi LT-3050 30-Inch LCD TV
78. Apple IPod Photo Large-Capacity MP3 Player
79. Dell 3300MP Projector
80. FileMaker Pro 7 Database
81. Sunbelt Software CounterSpy Anti-Spyware Software
82. Six Apart TypePad Blogging Tool
83. Acronis True Image 8 Backup Software
84. Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
85. Brother HL-5140 Monochrome Laser Printer
86. Apple ITunes Music Store Music Downloads
87. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Web Site
88. Opera 8 Web Browser
89. Copernic Desktop Search Desktop Search Software
90. Motorola Razr V3 Cell Phone
91. Delphi MyFi Satellite Radio
92. PDAapps VeriChat Standard Edition Mobile Instant Messaging
93. Sonos Digital Music System Streaming Media Device
94. EMC Dantz Retrospect Professional 7 Backup Software
95. Garmin StreetPilot C330 GPS Navigation Device
96. Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 2.0 Portable Speakers
97. Logitech Z-5500 Digital PC Speaker System
98. Antec P160 Desktop Case
99. Corel Painter IX Paint Program
100. Citrix Online GoToMyPC Personal Remote Access

EE Kinder Surprise

What will they give me this time?
The first time I got a T-shirt from them but I lost it at home!

1,000,000 Mark

I finally reached the mark!

ORD LOH

wahaha

Shiokness

The shiokness comes when I managed to answer a programming question without knowing the language and not having anything required installed to test. Purely code out the logic from examples and by instinct.

More than half of Asia's software illegal

The biggest culprits were Vietnam which topped the list with a piracy rate of 92 percent, followed by China at 90 percent, BSA said in the study which it commissioned research firm International Data Corp. to carry out.

New Zealand's piracy rate of 23 percent was the lowest in the region, followed by Japan's 28 percent. Australia was at 32 percent and Singapore 42 percent.

[All above extracted from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/182612/1/.html in parts]

I doubt it will get any better soon.

Rank High for Quick Answer

Some statistics provided by the always excellent reporting service by expert ameba.

For each of the below, click on "Quick Answer" column to sort.

January 2005 - November 2005 Statistics
Ranked 23rd for a I-took-23-seconds-to-answer question
http://www.eeqp.com/stats/2005/mra2005_01_11.html

January 2004 - December 2004 Statistics
Ranked 25th for a I-took-27-seconds-to-answer question
http://www.eeqp.com/stats/2004/mra2004_01_12.html

I am pleased.

Correction To Below Posting

It is only visible to FF users.

NHG Polyclinics Unexpected Alert Box

Click on any of the listed polyclinic will give you a "what" alert box.
http://www.nhgp.com.sg/Default.asp?cid=15142

5 days to ORD

hiek hiek hiek

Poem to Promote Bush

Below is a poem happen to be found inside a Pakistani's English language textbook having the first letter of each line spelt out "President George W Bush". The anonymous poem, called The Leader, is seen as a praise for the president. This textbook is due to be reprinted next year.

--
Patient and steady with all he must bear,
Ready to meet every challenge with care,
Easy in manner, yet solid as steel,
Strong in his faith, refreshingly real.
Isn't afraid to propose what is bold,
Doesn't conform to the usual mould,
Eyes that have foresight, for hindsight won't do,
Never backs down when he sees what is true,
Tells it all straight, and means it all too.
Going forward and knowing he's right,
Even when doubted for why he would fight,
Over and over he makes his case clear,
Reaching to touch the ones who won't hear.
Growing in strength he won't be unnerved,
Ever assuring he'll stand by his word.
Wanting the world to join his firm stand,
Bracing for war, but praying for peace,
Using his power so evil will cease,
So much a leader and worthy of trust,
Here stands a man who will do what he must.
--

Especially Sleepy

Cannot figure out why am I so sleepy this afternoon. Going back to sleep again.
真贪睡。

Do You Surf in Toilet?

Interesting but it would be better if there are hard facts.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/181986/1/.html

Extract
--

"A significant number of Americans use the computer connection in the bathroom," said Jeffrey Cole, of the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.

Since people were unlikely to be surfing in the bath, or while brushing their teeth, Cole said he had concluded that many of them went off into cyberspace while on the throne.

23rd SEA Games Medal Tally (Finalized)

COUNTRY	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
PHILIPPINES	113	84	94	291
THAILAND	87	78	118	283
VIETNAM	71	68	89	228
MALAYSIA	61	50	64	175
INDONESIA	49	79	89	217
SINGAPORE	42	32	55	129
MYANMAR	17	34	48	99
LAOS	3	4	12	19
BRUNEI	1	2	2	5
CAMBODIA	0	3	9	12
EAST TIMOR	0	0	3	3

Difficult Project

Just received the most difficult project ever experienced in my entire lifetime. All bless me.

Freelance Project Ethics

Will
1. ANY desktop based projects in ANY programming languages.
2. ANY web based projects in ANY web programming languages excluding CGI.

Won't
3. School projects.
4. Design intensive.

Latter rules supercede former rules.

So PLEASE don't tell me to do school projects! I was once a student and so am able to identify them.

Back to Books From Tomorrow

DOT NET

Wes is 100

I wonder did Wes time it correctly and made sure the director of EE is number 100 himself.
http://www.frappr.com/ee

Who Wrote Amazon.com Search Engine?

Go to http://www.amazon.com and do a search on laserdisc. See what they return. So lousy.