Plans for 2008's vacation

A few things I need to do before I'm going back home

- Prepare Resume and Cover Letter by visiting Career Service Center
- Finish reading Code Complete 2 Book
- Basically prepare for next semester's subjects
+ Basic understanding of XML
+ Working on JSP with Eclipse
+ Revise skills in CSS and XHTML
+ Java and C ++ revision

- Finding companies offering internship in Australia
- Build a website for my own

Picked-Up Article

And finally, some real-world applications of Computer Science that might be relevant to teenagers

Here are some activities that teenagers might be familiar with, listed alongside some associated challenges and what concepts in Computer Science address these challenges:

Surfing the web

• When you type in words on a search engine's web page, how does it give you back the results so quickly? (search algorithms, parallel computing)

• How does a search engine company go about indexing and storing information about the billions of webpages online at a given time, especially when pages are constantly being created and deleted? (web crawling, data mining, databases, parallel computing)

Playing computer games

• How come modern games look so rad, with all of their cool 3-D effects, and how can it all be rendered in real-time as you are playing and constantly changing the in-game environment? (computer graphics)

• How come the in-game enemies seem to be 'smart' and able to learn from your actions? (artificial intelligence)

• How is it possible for you and dozens of other people to play online simultaneously and still have the game feel responsive most of the time? (networking, client-server architecture)

Downloading music and movies (legally, of course)

• How come filesharing programs like BitTorrent can perform so much faster than simply downloading from a website? (networking, distributed algorithms)

• Isn't it astounding that when you download a file, it always arrives at your computer intact in pristine condition, even though it had to travel through thousands of miles of unreliable copper wires? (reliable networking protocols, error detection and correction)

• How can high-quality photos, audio, and video be compressed so much (1/10 to 1/100 of original size) without losing much quality? (lossy compression algorithms)

Shopping online

• How can you be reasonably confident that nobody will steal your credit card number while you are shopping online? (network security, cryptography)

• How can the retailer keep track of what items are in stock and report the results in real-time on their website? (databases, web programming)

• How can the retailer accurately predict what other items you might like to buy based on what you've recently bought? (artificial intelligence, machine learning)

Using your latest awesome cell phone

• How come cell phones can now be used for so much more than simply making phone calls ... back in my day, we just used cell phones as, well, phones (programming for embedded devices, networking and communications protocols, wireless networking)

• How can you effectively navigate around the options and even browse the web on that tiny screen on your phone? (user interface)

Neurotically updating your MySpace and Facebook pages and stalking other people's profiles

• How come it's so easy and enjoyable to simply browse around and get lost for hours on these sites? (user interface)

• How can these sites recall, store, and visualize interesting social networking relationships? (databases, search, visualization)

• What steps do these sites take and what options do they provide to you to ensure that your privacy is maintained? (security models)

Traveling on an airplane

• As modern planes become more and more automated, with more of their subsystems being controlled by software components, how can you feel safe flying on a machine where a single software bug could jeopardize hundreds of lives? How can we find difficult-to-squash bugs and give guarantees that software is functioning correctly? (software reliability, program analysis)

• How do air traffic controllers manage to constantly direct hundreds of planes while under high-stress conditions? How can computers aid them in doing their jobs so that passengers can enjoy safe and timely flights? (user interface, communications, networking)

• When purchasing tickets online, how is it possible for the computer system to search through millions of possible combinations of routes to give me the best deal on my tickets? (algorithms, search, parallel computing)

• How come the self-check-in kiosks are so easy to use and much more efficient than waiting in line for people to check you in? You just swipe a credit card, and you're all set! (user interface, networking, databases)

Source: http://www.stanford.edu/~pgbovine/computer-science.htm

Paola Antonelli: Design curator

Just watch her talk at TED recently.

Her topic about design has amazed me with interesting ideas from many designers.

And this is amazing website which I've ever seen.

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

Plans for next year

- Become ACM memberships
- Working on a projects about software
- Finding information about bank industry
- Improve communication - > Professionals

Google Ambassador Program

Google Ambassador Program

All of the Google Ambassadors for 2007-08 have already been selected and contacted. Students who are interested in applying for the 2008-09 academic year should visit this site again during summer 2008 to apply.

The Google Ambassador Program rewards hard-working engineering students by allowing them to take a study break on Google. Google ambassadors identify opportunities to order pizza for their computer science peers, most often around project deadlines or exams. Ambassadors are Google’s main point of contact, and responsible for making the program successful at their university. Take a look at some of the hungry college students Google is feeding!

The study break you’ve been searching for

Ambassador responsibilities:

• Representing Google at your university for the academic year.
• Organizing study breaks for up-and-coming software engineers who are toiling away in computer labs late at night.
• Impressing your friends with your Google gear!

Ambassador requirements:

• Computer science major or related fields
• One-year commitment
• Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible
• Excellent study habits and pizza-eating skills
• Ability to recruit other pizza-eaters, and keep them happy, one pizza at a time

Program Specifics

The spirit of the Ambassador program is meant for smaller, spur-of-the-moment venues. Whether you are coding in the labs, prepping for an all-nighter in the department lounge, or conducting a meeting with a specific CS club, Google wants to support hard working computer science students. We also want to make sure that you don’t go hungry or study on an empty stomach.

Ambassador benefits include:

• Leadership role
• Exposure for your university at Google
• Free food
• Google gear
• Admiration from your CS peers

Please note that this is a volunteer position, and is, quite simply, a fun way for Google to support that great things you do all year long.

How to apply

Applications will be opening later this year. Please return shortly for more details on how to apply and for participating universities.

Link: http://www.google.com.au/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=studentsau.html&sid=ambassador

IT Falculty news

Oracle Information Night 13th August 6pm Intercontinental Hotel

Posted by annam on 2008-08-06 13:39:33.191236 [Current Until: 2008-08-30 00:00:00]
Oracle are having some information sessions for IT grads on 13th August at 6pm at the Intercontinental Hotel in the city. There will be food and beverages. If you would like to go please rsvp sharon.lim@oracle.com

Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company.

The *Oracle Graduate Development Program (GDP)* is an excellent platform for promising graduates to launch themselves into the corporate world.. The 2-year program consisting of orientation, formal training, project rotations in the core lines of business, and finally job placement. The formal training is a combination of structured development programs on soft skills and functional competencies via various delivery formats.

You will have the unique opportunity to gain hands on experience with leading technology and the chance to work with partners and customers from a diverse range of industries across the world.

Come to learn more about the program at one of our information sessions *VENUE DETAILS* Date 13 August 2008 Venue Hotel Intercontential SYDNEY Corner Bridge and Philips Street Sydney, NSW 2000*

Time 6-8pm Drinks and canapes will be provided

*Disciplines required:*Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs in Commerce/Engineering/IT

To apply, email your resume and academic transcripts by31 August 2008 to campusrelations_au@oracle.com

Please RSVP by 11 August 2008 to sharon.lim@oracle.com if you are planning to attend the info night

IT Traineeship (UNiSyd)

IT Traineeship Position Summary

Under supervision and direction, perform routine field activities associated with installing, maintaining and servicing electronic products onsite. May include audio/visual systems in addition to multi-vendor systems, hardware, software and operating systems. Usually handles basic, non-complex products and/or problems, referring more complex problems to higher level technicians. Able to install and repair desktop products in a controlled environment and has some knowledge in software. Some peripheral skills may be applied. Workshop* work in PC cleansing and preparation, also asset and inventory of PC refresh and rollouts.

Download the IT Traineeship Brochure 1.3MB

Key Responsibilities and Outcomes
Role Purpose

The majority of the work activities of the Desktop Support / Workshop* role is performed in a more directed environment. Assignments range from repair activities, which include replaceable unit swapping, image loading, and unit testing using a detailed script. Some basic troubleshooting duties.

• Position handles NBD, Basic Desktop calls, installing and servicing PCs, and PC peripherals and/or electronic equipment
• Takes basic service calls and performs incident specific activities as directed by Help Desk, Service Desk or script
• May perform routine installs, moves, adds and changes as part of a directed team.
• Performs desktop image loading, unit diagnostics and replaceable unit swapping
• Runs diagnostics and performs module replacement on PCs, printers and peripherals
• Performs preventative maintenance activities on certain products
• Maintains a high degree of professionalism in actions, demeanour and dress
• Ensures customer satisfaction throughout.

Key Activities/Tasks

• Investigate and resolve incidents
• Record quick (tap on shoulder) incidents
• Update clients on incidents
• Update incident records
• Escalate issues to TL’s and other managers
• Identify and escalate non supported hardware and software to TL’s
• Identify and escalate recurring issues
• Utilise Peregrin for knowledge management, to record incidents and to get tasks
• Update database with changes
• As directed by TL and SLC, perform maintenance tasks such as backup, disk sanitisation, installations, project tasks, network monitoring, restorations, network administration, cabling, installation and configuration of desktops, transferring of files
• Resolve incidents relating to desktops, laptops, PDA’s printers, starlight, desktop and laptop builds
• Installation of third party Defence applications
• Update asset database
• Ensure adheres to Defence security policies.

Family Business

I just come up with a idea. What if my family's business is more innovative.
The first thing:
All the documents will be digitalized so that my parents can keep track of profits, debt, inventory. In addition, based on the those they can predict a new trend, therefore they are able to apply the best strategy to increase sales.
--> Computers , software to manage inventory.
Besides, if my family's business is cooperated with other competitors in the same industry. That would be a smart move to expand the market. Also it helps update the technology which is a bit old-fashion in my family's company.

Academic Development

Pronunciation:
Problems:
Phonology:
+ Diphthongs
+ Final consonants
Word Stress:
+ Syllables are stressed correctly often.
Sentence Stress and intonation
+ Intonation is too marked
Word linking is sometimes present
Content word stress is used effectively ( quite often)
Chunking of thought groups is used effectively ( quite often)
Action Plan:
- Focus on diphthongs
- Make note of words which cause confusion
- Practice conversation ( 30 min every day) -> say it out loud
- Keep watching TED since its guests are usually good communicators

Helen Fisher: Anthropologist; expert on love

Link: Helen Fisher

Bio:
Anthropologist Helen Fisher studies gender differences and the evolution of human emotions. She's best known as an expert on romantic love, and her beautifully penned books -- including Anatomy of Love and Why We Love -- lay bare the mysteries of our most treasured emotion.

What happens to a person when they fall in love?

The first thing that happens is that your beloved begins to take on what I call “special meaning.” As a truck driver once said, “The world had a new center and that center was Maryanne.” Then you begin to focus all your attention on this special person. You can remember tiny things he or she said or did--and you dote on the things that you adore. You feel tremendous elation, euphoria, ecstasy when things are going well and terrible despair when things go wrong. Real mood swings. You have a huge amount of energy, too, so much that is it often hard to sleep. But most important: you can't stop thinking about this person. You obsessively think about him or her. And you yearn, indeed crave, to win emotional union with this sweetheart. Sure, most people would like to go to bed with a beloved; and they can get very jealous if they think this person is with another. But even more important than making love, they want this person to return their affection, to respond, to call, to write e-mails, to go out with them--and reciprocate their passion.

Did you find any brain differences between your male and female subjects?

Many of the same brain regions became active in both sexes. In fact, men fall in love faster than women do. But we did find some gender differences: Men tended to show more activity in brain regions associated with the integration of visual stimuli, and with penile erection. Women tended, instead, to show more activity in regions associated with emotion, attention and recalling memories.

Actually, these gender differences make pretty good evolutionary sense. Ancestral men needed to see if a woman showed visual signs of youth and health, signs that she would bear him healthy babies. And when a man saw a good reproductive partner, it would have been adaptive for him to become sexually aroused--to start the mating process. But a woman can't “size up” a man just by looking at him. A woman needs a good provider and protector. So an ancestral woman needed to remember all the things a mating partner had done for her, what he had given her and what he had promised. No wonder women in love evolved the tendency to activate brain circuits for remembering. In fact, women still remember many more of the details of a love affair than men do.

Why only scan the brains of people newly in love? Does that mean that love changes over time?

Yes, love does change over time. We have all experienced this. But this study tells us much more about how this happens. Our subjects who were in longer relationships showed activity in some additional brain regions, areas associated with the processing of emotions. We don't know what this means yet. But I think someday we will find that as true love progresses, brain circuits for thinking rationally about the relationship become more active, and brain areas that generate that tremendous passion begin to relax so that the craving slowly subsides, replaced by deeper, calmer, less urgent feelings.

So you would probably say that romantic love evolved in human beings, right? How did that happen? Why do we love?

I think that the precursor of romantic love, animal attraction, evolved long before human beings—to enable all mammals to focus their mating energy on specific partners, thereby conserving courtship time and energy. In fact, many became attracted immediately – the forerunner of love-at-first sight. But I think this brain system became much more elaborate after our first forbearers descended from the tress of Africa some 4 million years ago. With the evolution of pair bonding and male/female attachment, both men and women began to develop a more complex system for choosing a mate: romantic love. Then, the courtship process became even more intense (probably about 2 million years ago) and the brain circuitry for romantic love took its modern form.

Why do we love? I think romantic love evolved for many Darwinian purposes. Children who fall in love are practicing for life's greatest challenge, choosing an appropriate mating partner. Those of reproductive age fall in love to start a breeding partnership. People who divorce and fall in love again are beginning yet another potentially reproductive relationship. And older folks who fall in love have found a kindred spirit with whom to share the problems (and joys) of aging. In fact, we were probably designed to fall in love with more than one person during our lives, largely so that we would bear children with several partners and thereby increase genetic variety in our lineage.

Why do we choose one person rather than another?

Why him? Why her? There are many, many forces that play a role in who we fall in love with. Timing is important; you tend to fall in love when you are ready, particularly when you are lonely. Proximity is often crucial; we fall for people who we interact with. Both men and women are excited by individuals they regard as mysterious. And most fall in love with someone of the same ethnic, social, religious, educational and economic background and with a similar amount of physical attractiveness, a comparable intelligence and parallel attitudes, expectations, values and interests. We gravitate to people like ourselves.

But most important is your “love map.” We grow up in a sea of experiences that sculpt our romantic choices. Our mother's sense of humor; our father's interest in politics and music; how those around us view honor, justice, loyalty and politeness: thousands of subtle forces build our individual interests, values and beliefs. So by the teenage years, each of us has constructed an unconscious catalogue of aptitudes and mannerisms we are looking for in a mate. Then when we meet someone who fits within this “love map” and they begin to flirt, the interaction may trigger the brain chemistry of romance and we fall head over heels in love.

How does romantic love affect the sex drive and feelings of attachment to a partner?

I think these three basic mating drives -- lust, romantic love and attachment -- are very interconnected in the brain. For example, dopamine, the chemical associated with romance, can drive up levels of testosterone, the hormone of sexual desire. This is probably why you become so interested in “making love” to your beloved. The sex drive does not always trigger romantic love, however. Most liberated contemporary adults have had sex with someone they were not in love with. But you can begin to copulate with “just a friend” and then fall madly in love with him or her-—probably because elevated levels of testosterone (associated with the sex drive) can elevate levels of dopamine and norepinephrine.

Romantic love has a more complex relationship with feelings of attachment, that sense of calm and security one can feel for a long term partner. Generally some of the chemistry of attachment can suppress the elation and passion of romantic love. This is probably why it is hard to keep that intense passion alive as the relationship becomes more stable and long term.

How can one keep romantic love alive in a long term marriage?

Do novel things together. Novelty drives up levels of dopamine – the chemical associated with romantic love. And if you and your partner are both interested in sex, make sure to keep this part of your relationship alive.

What happens in the brain when people are rejected in love?

We have begun to study this. After we put 17 people into the brain scanner who were happily in love, we put 20 young men and women into the scanner who had recently been rejected by someone they adored. It was tough to do. I felt such anguish for each subject. Anyway, we don't know yet what happens in the brain when someone has been “dumped” because we are still analyzing the data. Nevertheless, I suspect that we will find that some of the same dopamine pathways in the “reward system” in the brain are involved—-because people don't give up loving easily. We may also find activity in brain areas associated with anger and depression.

You say that romantic love is a drive. Does this mean that we have no control over our feelings?

I think you have to treat romantic love as an addiction. When you need to expel someone from your mind, first you need to throw out all the cards and letters. Don't call. Don't write. Avoid the places where you may run into him or her. Keep busy. Do novel things with old friends or new people. And exercise. Exercise can chance brain chemistry in healing ways, as can sunlight. Some people are helped by antidepressant drugs or “talking therapy” or both.

You reveal that unrequited love can lead to stalking, homicide, suicide, depression, and high divorce and adultery rates. Does this mean that health care professionals could medicate to prevent any of these? Should they?

This is a hard question. Yes, I think that health care professionals can medicate people to help prevent crimes of passion. They already do. And these medications probably help. I think crimes of passion occur, at least in part, because dopamine activity in the brain has become pronounced, making the jilted lover obsessed, energized, focused, motivated, and often enraged. And high levels of dopamine are probably driving down levels of serotonin, reducing impulse control as well—-thus setting up the abandoned person for violent behavior. But let's not forget that people are all very different. And they grow up with different childhood experiences; they have different values and beliefs, and different ways of handling stress and rejection. So, luckily, a great many of us seem to be able to weather the agony of rejection without violence or long lasting depression. But, yes, I think antidepressant drugs and talking therapy can help people in the throws of abandonment.

How about your own love life? What are the advantages of knowing about love? Are there disadvantages? Does dissecting the biology of romantic love take away some of the mystery and passion of being in love?

Well, I have loved and won and loved and lost. I certainly know the ecstasy and despair of romantic love. But I think that learning about romantic love has given me some advantages. I certainly feel more informed, and for reasons I can't explain, more secure. I can anticipate some of the behavior of others and I have some tools to deal with various situations. And I know more about how to trigger love and how to make it last. Disadvantages? Well, perhaps I am more realistic, if you want to call that a disadvantage. But one thing I am positive about – knowing about love will never kill the passion.

If romantic love is an urge that has evolved over time, what is the future of it? Will it change?

The feeling will never change, it's too deeply embedded in the human brain. But today more and more people marry for love. In our hunting/gathering past, many wed for love; they were free to marry whom they chose. But as our forebears settled down to farm some 10,000 years ago, more and more marriages became business ventures done to exchange property or make political alliances or social ties. Romance could not be stifled. The rich took concubines; the poor still wed for love; and many probably fell in love with the person that they married. But with the growth of trade and cities and the Industrial Revolution, men and women fled farm life to live in towns. And as family obligations lessened, more began to wed for love. The steady entrance of women into the paid workforce has intensified the desire to pick a partner for one 's self and today more and more men and women practice what the Chinese call “free love.”

Just a quick remider of what I am doing

I just try to list the projects which I am undertaking now
I try to prioritize them in order of importance
- Preparing and planning for next semester
+ Studying Network: LAN, TCP/IP
+ Database: ideas of database, acquiring new skills with Access, so I can design a app for my family business
+ Application Programming: try to have brief view of what I am doing in next semester, grasp ideas of whose subject and then practice
+ BRM: will ask sub. coordinator for further info. (subject outline)

- Improve English, especially pronunciation ( for conversation and presentation) and writing ( reflective journal and case study, business, report)
- Finding a job and working volunteer
- Building up list of questions used in interview and try to answer

Others:
- Critical thinking
- Join one club
- Play sport ( swimming, basketball)

Interesting topic:
- Web searching

Book I am reading : Google Story

PostgreSQL camp

PostgreSQL DBA 8 Certification Training CertCamp

Date: 2008-08-20 – 2008-08-24 (This is a training event)
Location: Sydney, Australia

ATTEND THIS POSTGRESQL CERTCAMP & GET A FREE iPOD Video!
Register 3 or more candidate(s) for the same class and all three gets a FREE new iPhone, call us for more details!

To Master IT, Learn IT from the Masters!
100% satisfaction & certification Guarantee.
CertFirst Trainers are experts and specialized in their given domains. All our PostgreSQL trainers are also certified in Linux, PostgreSQL DBA and as well as in many other leading technologies. CertFirst uses nothing but the best equipment, A+ grade classroom with the state of the art labs that includes dual core processor computers with minimum of 2-4 GB RAM. For quality assurance purposes, average class size is limited to about 6-8 students.

Course & Exam Objectives & Outline

I. Getting Started

1. Installing PostgreSQL
Compiling and Installing PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix
Post-Installation Setup
The PostgreSQL Windows Installer

2. Creating a Database and Testing the Server
Initializing a Cluster
Creating a Database
Starting the Database Server
The psql Client
Startup Failures and Client Connection Problems

II. Basic PostgreSQL Administration

3. Overview of PostgreSQL Architecture
Configuration Files
Physical Storage and File Layout
Tablespaces
System Catalogs
Logging Parameters

4. Roles and Privileges
Roles and Their Attributes
Privileges
Role Membership

5. Security
Securing TCP Connections with SSL
Create Secure SSH Tunnels
Client Authentication
Encryption Options

6. Backup and Recovery
Overview of Backup Methods
Performing an SQL Dump and Restore
Filesystem Backup

7. Maintenance and Monitoring
Routine Maintenance Tasks
Monitoring Database Activity
Monitoring Disk Usage

8. Client Connections
pgsqlODBC and OpenOffice
Windows ODBC and Microsoft Access
Perl DBI

III. Advanced Administration Topics

9. Performance Tuning
10. Continuous Backup and PITR
11. Warm Standby Servers for High Availability
12. Asynchronous Replication with Slony-I
13. Procedural Languages
14. Contrib Modules

Prerequisite knowledge
This course requires students to have understanding of Linux fundamentals as well as SQL.


Corporate on-site:
For a group of 5 or more it may be a cost effective and convenient for corporate to outsource the whole program to CertFirst Professionals to come and bring the training at their own location. This course is available @ your site for as low as $9,500 for a group of 5 candidate(s). Price includes course-ware, classroom lab set up including hardware & software can also be provided at no additional cost for the duration of the training program; client only pays for shipping and handling. Contact us for more information

Education and Government Institute(s)
CertFirst offers special discount pricing for all Educational and Govt. Institutes.

CertFirst Integrated CertPak:
The most cost effective and the convenient way to study and prepare at your own convenience. CertPak comes with the best resources to study for the exam including Official Study Guide and the exam prep tools with many other certification exam prep tools.

My most creative moment

Today, during the time taking shower, I've just realized that shower time is most creative moment. I come up with many ideas which is very important for my study.

So, I should use this time more efficiently. I dont know if this is a quirky things. But Archime came up with a great ideas when he was bathing. So strange!

Road To Success - Beginning

Just take name of a book about Bill Gates, who is the most powerful man in IT industry so far, as a name of my series of thought I come up with.

The aim of this entry is important because it will set the outline for my ideas. In other words, all my thought will be shaped and expressed freely in these entries . On the other hand, it also helps me focus on my finding career path and identifying the interesting projects which could benefits to my family, my job and society.

I begin with recent ideas about Database

As far As I know, database is a integral part of most business, from banking, commerce , education and even government management. The use of database and the degree of applied database vary from organization to org. However, I just focus on the need of database application in Vietnam , where I am studying.

Vietnam with the lack of experienced database administrator and the use of database application leads to the low efficiency in management. They really need an insight into the importance of database. For example, dealing with managing the citizen of VN government will be much easier when they apply database to the great extent. They could manage the information of popularity in much more effecient way.

Austrilia, their focus on business process and internetworking results in the lack of database management. Most graduate are choosing internetwork or business as their majors.

Based on this view, database section in IT industry will be more beneficiary for whom undertake this course.

11:54 PM
July 09 08

Just a joke :-)

Subject: Computer Hard and Software:
Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system>activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.

I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0. Please help!
Thanks,
A Troubled User. (KEEP READING)

______________________________________

REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem that men complain about.
Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.
You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.
The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.
Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2. However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag, Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0! WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Best of luck,
Tech Support

How to Photograph Fireworks

Summertime evokes timeless images of fire hydrants spraying water into the air, ice cream trucks rumbling down neighborhood streets...and Fourth of July fireworks illuminating the night sky. This year, you can capture a slice of summer forever with your digital camera by photographing a fireworks display.

It's not hard to do: Equipped with a few photo tips and the right camera, you can take amazing fireworks of your own.

Fireworks Photography Basics

The secret behind capturing fireworks: Use a slow shutter speed, so you can record those dramatic, colorful light trails as they explode through the sky. That also means you'll need some sort of camera support to capture a steady, unblurred shot.

The best way to stabilize your camera is with a tripod, where it can sit motionless through a long exposure. In a pinch, though, you can always try to brace yourself against a tree or a building, or hold the camera atop a monopod or walking stick.

If you have a digital SLR, here's another trick to avoid camera motion: Consider buying a shutter release cable (usually a $50-to-$70 option); this will allow you to snap a photo without physically touching the camera.

If your point-and-shoot or advanced point-and-shoot camera has a fireworks mode, go ahead and enable it--it will automatically adjust the camera's various settings for long-exposure night photography.

For the most part, I find that the preset fireworks mode achieves good results--it turns the flash to off, sets autofocus to infinity and exposure compensation to off, bumps down the shutter speed and aperture, and lowers the ISO.

Advanced photographers are better off going with long manual exposures for more creative control.

Some point-and-shoots may lack a fireworks-specific mode, but may still allow you to manually adjust the settings. (Most digital SLRs lack a preset fireworks mode entirely.) In those cases, set the camera to its lowest ISO setting, which will minimize the camera's tendency to generate distracting digital noise during the long exposure.

You should also turn off automatic focus and set the camera's focus to infinity, so it doesn't search helplessly for a subject in the dark when you're trying to start the exposure. No manual focus control? Try using the camera's landscape mode, which also sets the focus to infinity; the low-light environment will encourage the camera to shoot at a slow shutter speed by default.

If you can control the aperture setting on your point-and-shoot, dial in a low f/stop, somewhere between f/8 and f/16. That will help prevent overexposing the scene during the long exposure and avoid light "blooms" coming from the explosions in the sky.

And finally, choose a slow shutter speed--anywhere between 1 second and 16 seconds can work, depending upon the amount of ambient light and how many fireworks are in the sky. The longer your exposure, the more fireworks you'll capture at once, and the longer your light trails will be. So you might want to start with a shutter speed around 1 to 4 seconds and see if you like the results. For really long exposures, try covering the lens with your hand or the lens cap between bursts to avoid over-exposing the picture.

Digital SLR users have an easier time, or at least more options, in picking the right settings for fireworks. Throw the camera on full manual mode, preselect your lens's focal length (unless you're using a prime lens that has only one focal length, the aperture will change every time you adjust the focal length), dial in a low aperture opening, and pick a slow shutter speed. Most SLRs also have a "bulb" mode, which leaves the shutter open for as long as you hold down the shutter release. You can use it to take exposures as much as 30 seconds long. If you go for super-long exposures, you might want to cover the lens between fireworks.

Semester 1 Reflection

Communication for IT Professtionals
Grade Avarage: approx 75%
Content:
Comment:
Information Systems
Objective
- Understand how IS are used in business to support the work that ppl do
- Apply problem identification skills to define info. requirement and analyze business processes
-Employ concepts of stakeholder participation, usability evaluation, work flow modelling and design, and collaborative work practices in IS design
-Explain basic theories of teams and work in a team to create a product
Appriciate that there are diff. system development methodologies and contrast the life-cycle and prototyping approaches
-Use report writing and presentation skills effectively
-Demonstrate continued and self-reflective learning
Topics:
The Role of ISs in Organisations
- How organisation operate and how ISs support their operation and add value
- Management and operations and their respective info. needs
- Business processes and work flows and how these can be modeled
- Technologies used in information systems
Information systems and people
-Stakeholder, users and their needs
- Usability evaluation
- Systems to support collaboration and knowledege sharing
- Theories and practices of team work
System Development
- Systems development life cycle
- Prototyping
-Analysing user needs and specifying requirements
- Design approaches
Learning and Info. Systems
- Setting and IS
-Using ISs for learning
Grade Avarage: approx 65%
Comment:
- Team Performance: Lack of communication between team member, often put off work and not plan well for assignment-> contact tutor or lecture one week before ass. due
- Presentation : not speak clearly, not planning well before giving speech
- Writing assessment: don't know how to write a report properly
- Multiple choice: not focusing on keywords.--> Improve reading and take note


Web Systems
Objective:
- Explain the role of OS, and manipulate its structure such as processes, file systems and memory management using Unix based scripting
- Describe and make use of distributed applications on the internet
- Identify and explain the role and function of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and their components
- Design and implement a website
- Identify and explain the role and function of the main components of a computers
Topic:
Operating System ( focusing on Unix)
- file systems and file manipulation
- scripting and regular expressions
- processes, threads, piping and redirections
-memory and process management
The web and Human Interaction
- web page development
- the Web, web services, Human Interface and Human interaction
- web services definition and description
The Internet and the web
- The internet infrastructure and components ( Routers and TCP/IP protocol suite)
- The web and its components( web sever, web browsers, search engines)
-Client-sever network interaction
Computing theory
-Representation og info. -binary, ASCII, Unicode
-Processing and storage of information
-Coding paradigms - assembler, complier, interpreter
Comment:
- Unix skill is still not sufficient--> practice regularly
- Web design not sufficient --> cant create my own website --> suck!

Grade Avarage: 82.5%
Content:
Comment:
Programming Fundamentals
Grade Avarage: approx: 95%
Content:
Comment:

Introduction to Collections

A collection — sometimes called a container — is simply an object that groups multiple elements into a single unit. Collections are used to store, retrieve, manipulate, and communicate aggregate data. Typically, they represent data items that form a natural group, such as a poker hand (a collection of cards), a mail folder (a collection of letters), or a telephone directory (a mapping of names to phone numbers).

If you've used the Java programming language — or just about any other programming language — you're already familiar with collections. Collection implementations in earlier (pre-1.2) versions of the Java platform included Vector, Hashtable, and array. However, those earlier versions did not contain a collections framework.

What Is a Collections Framework?

A collections framework is a unified architecture for representing and manipulating collections. All collections frameworks contain the following:

• Interfaces: These are abstract data types that represent collections. Interfaces allow collections to be manipulated independently of the details of their representation. In object-oriented languages, interfaces generally form a hierarchy.
• Implementations: These are the concrete implementations of the collection interfaces. In essence, they are reusable data structures.
• Algorithms: These are the methods that perform useful computations, such as searching and sorting, on objects that implement collection interfaces. The algorithms are said to be polymorphic: that is, the same method can be used on many different implementations of the appropriate collection interface. In essence, algorithms are reusable functionality.

Apart from the Java Collections Framework, the best-known examples of collections frameworks are the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) and Smalltalk's collection hierarchy. Historically, collections frameworks have been quite complex, which gave them a reputation for having a steep learning curve. We believe that the Java Collections Framework breaks with this tradition, as you will learn for yourself in this chapter.

Benefits of the Java Collections Framework

The Java Collections Framework provides the following benefits:

• Reduces programming effort: By providing useful data structures and algorithms, the Collections Framework frees you to concentrate on the important parts of your program rather than on the low-level "plumbing" required to make it work. By facilitating interoperability among unrelated APIs, the Java Collections Framework frees you from writing adapter objects or conversion code to connect APIs.
• Increases program speed and quality: This Collections Framework provides high-performance, high-quality implementations of useful data structures and algorithms. The various implementations of each interface are interchangeable, so programs can be easily tuned by switching collection implementations. Because you're freed from the drudgery of writing your own data structures, you'll have more time to devote to improving programs' quality and performance.
• Allows interoperability among unrelated APIs: The collection interfaces are the vernacular by which APIs pass collections back and forth. If my network administration API furnishes a collection of node names and if your GUI toolkit expects a collection of column headings, our APIs will interoperate seamlessly, even though they were written independently.
• Reduces effort to learn and to use new APIs: Many APIs naturally take collections on input and furnish them as output. In the past, each such API had a small sub-API devoted to manipulating its collections. There was little consistency among these ad hoc collections sub-APIs, so you had to learn each one from scratch, and it was easy to make mistakes when using them. With the advent of standard collection interfaces, the problem went away.
• Reduces effort to design new APIs: This is the flip side of the previous advantage. Designers and implementers don't have to reinvent the wheel each time they create an API that relies on collections; instead, they can use standard collection interfaces.
• Fosters software reuse: New data structures that conform to the standard collection interfaces are by nature reusable. The same goes for new algorithms that operate on objects that implement these interfaces.

Google, behind the screen

Call Number :338.761 Goog
A film made by SBS

Google Personels:

Vint Cerf
Marissa Mayer
Franz Josef Och
Adam Smith
Chikai Ohazama
Nikesh Aora

Other people interviewed in the film

Brewster Kahle - Internet Archieve
- Open Content Library
Google Services:
Google Moon

Issues:
- Monopoly
- Privacy - Google store users' data ( keyword, websites..., Gmail )

Anti-Technology Technologies?

"A story from the NYTimes about metering internet traffic caught my eye. I thought the exchange of information over the Internet was supposed to be a good thing? Couldn't we use technology more constructively? For example, if there is too much network traffic for video and radio channels, why don't we offset with the increased use of P2P technologies like BitTorrent? Why don't we use wireless networks to reduce the traffic on the wired infrastructure? Such technologies often have highly desirable properties. For example, BitTorrent is excellent for rapidly increasing the availability of popular files while automatically balancing the network traffic, since the faster and closer connections will automatically wind up being favored. Instead, we have an increasing trend for anti-technology technologies and twisted narrow economic solutions such as those discussed in the NYTimes article, and attempts to restrict the disruptive communications technologies. You may remember how FM radio was delayed for years; part of the security requirements of a major company includes anti-P2P software, as well as locking down the wireless communications extremely tightly — but there are still gaps for the bad guys, while the main victims are the legitimate users of these technologies. Can you think of other examples? Do you have constructive solutions?"

Just an interesting article i picked up from slashdot.net .

Podcast

I just find a new fanstatic way to study. That is learning through using podcast uploaded by famous Uni such as Stanford. With this way of learning, I hope my knowledge can be broadened to no limit.

This is the link :

http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browsev2/itunes.stanford.edu
http://www.plus.maths.org/cloud/ptag/tag_id/342/computer+science
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/skip-the-tuition:-100-free-podcasts-from-the-best-colleges-in-the-world
http://www.oculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html

Assignment 4 CITP

Introduction

In recent years there has been a growing interest in open source software and open

source content development initiatives

The technology software has become a major concern of computer ethics recently. With the development of communication devices and the improved telecommunication infrastructure, the Internet emerged and has been using around the world. Therefore, the distribution of software and cooperation on the Internet are technically getting easier and faster. Open source software development in the Internet opens a new possibility for software developers which allow them to practice programming over long distances. Since software is considered as a result of intellectual labor, this new technology supports intellectual property by providing more powerful and more efficient ways to create and disseminate computer softwares. Thus, new challenges to understanding of intellectual property have been brough with the development of Open Source Software. That is distribution of software with source code which is made available for others to study and improve (Coar 2006 Source Code Definition).

OSS movement caused by a cultural attitude of oppsition to the restrictive rights under intellectual property laws in US academic. Then it was particularly opposing to firms in using the operating system UNIX developed at Bell Laboratories as commercial purposes. In 1985, Richard Stallman established the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a non-profit organisation dedicated to the development of Free Software. However, some parts of the FSF community considerd the limitation of ifselt; therefore, Open Source Initiative lead by Bruce Peren and Eric Raymond was established to promote OSS on a realistic view in 1998 (Henley and Kemp 2008 p78)

Recently, many big firms such as IBM and Sun Microsystem are strongly supporting OSS movement. For example, IBM established a Linux Technology Centre to work on developing OSS which now employs more than 600 Linux kernel developers (Charlson, 2007). Also, in 2005 Sun open sourced its operating system with the OpenSolaris project and it continues to employ hundreds of software engineers to work on OpenSolaris (OpenSolaris FAQ). Besides, a considerable number of software developers are giving freely their contribution to OSS. SourceForge.net, a repository of open source projects, lists more than 178,467 projects and more than 1 millions registered users (SourceForge). Consequently, this phenomenon gives much attention to researchers in the field.

Open source software is making a large impact on many aspects of society in the ethics in computer professionals. Since producing software is a business in which computer engineers

develop the software for the profit of the company; yet Open Source Software appears to be not. Accordingly, the question of individual‘s motivation to contribute their works in OSS community has been extensively researched. Potential explanations are the motivation to build up ones’s reputation by gainning recognition for their ability was associated with enhancing one’s career prospect (Hars and Ou 2002, Lakhani and Wolf 2005); the motivation to learn and enhance their skills (Lakhani & von Hippel, 2003,Ye and Kishida 2003). Lastly, altruism has been argued as one of the primary intrinsic incentives for OSS developers (Wu et al. 2007). However, ... It is obvious that the values ones might get out from OSS in realation to the various private benefits compesate the OSS developers for their private cost of programmings. More importantly, there are different levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations relevant; therefore, it is vital to understand and to evaluate these motivations.

Altruism

Altruism has been argued as the primary intrinsic motivation for OSS developers. ‘‘Altruism . . . is a natural part of human nature [and] . . . is exhibited in some manner by everyone’’ (Ozinga 1999 cited in Wu et al. 2007 p. 234). The context discussed about the altruism in the OSS community is the helping behavior of knowledgeable people who want to share what they know with the community.

Pure altruism and reciprocal altruism must also be mentioned as important motives for publishing the source code of one’s software. With its promotion of computer users’ right to use and redistribute to some extent computer programs, OSS is regareded as a social movement based on fundamental democratic principles (Richard Stallman 1999 cited in Britzer et al. 2007 p164). Apprently, OSS developers would like to help others, and also at the same time give something back to those who assisted them. Another branch of altruism of OSS developers can be seen as reciprocal altruism (Wu et al. 2007 p254). In other words, OSS paticipants who contribute freely their work into a projects have a belief that other programmers investing efforts in related problems will also make the resulting solution publicly available.

However, altruism is to some extent a motivation of OSS developers. Hars and Ou’s empirical study (2002 p6 ) suggests different levels of altruism as a motivator, showing that only 16.5% of the respondents ranked altruism as high (6 out of 7) or very high (7 out of 7), whereas peer-recognition and human capital enhancement are ranked with 43% and 88% of respondents respectively. Additionally, Lakhani and Hippel (2003 p931) observe that in providing answers to questions asked in the Apache system, there is about 2% of the knowledge providers are responsible for about 50% of the answers to questions posted on the help system and 50% of the questions are provided by 24% of the knowledge providers .This means that only few individuals are engaging in helping others. The findings from these empirical research lead to understand that software contributors are more focused on what they may gain from others in the community and may also have in mind the implications of their contribution on their career prospects (Lerner and Tirole, 2002 cited in Lakhani and Wolf 2005 p6).

Self-development

The second motivation of OSS developers is self-development through learning from others in the field, and enhancing their abilities and skills. Ye and Kishida (2003 p1) argue that the intrinsic satisfaction for developer obtained by learning in OSS community is one of the driving forces that motivate developers to get involved in OSS projects. One reason behind this is easy accessibility of source code when it becomes open for every software developers, containing the knowledge and creativity in there. It then is providing the learning resource that attracts developers to participate in the OSS community. Thus developers are able to learn from the system, from each other.

Futhermore, developers may be motivated by learning through exploring or doing new OSS project (Ye and Kishida 2003 p7). In the first form of learning, learners attempt to overcome an existing problem. For example, LarryWall created Perl a tool to automatically generate webpages because he ran into a problem he could not solve with existing tools. In learning by doing new OSS projects, developers have the oppurtunities to apply their existing knowledge by undertake practical tasks of a project, thus deepening their understanding of a certain field and improving their programming skills.

Participants also improve their programming skill through the active peer review that is prevalent in OSS projects (Raymond 1990; Wayner 2000 cited in Lakhani and Wolf 2005, p7) Improvement programming skills, an extrinsic motivation related to human capital improvement, was a close second, with 41.8% participants saying it was an important motivator (Lakhani and Wolf 2005, p 12). Linus Torvards started Linux partially because he wanted to learn more about the architecture of Intel 386, so he develops an operating system for it.

In addition, most developers who start an OSS project are obviously master programmers; therefore, their systems could be the examples of excellent programming practice. The skill and knowledge embedded in those systems are legitimately offered to developers since they are freely distributed. It is just similar to the way that ones learn to write by reading literature, thus reading existing source code of expert programmer is a powerful way to master the programming practice.

Despite self-development plays importatnt role underlying motivations of OSS developers, this is still insufficient for explaining why OSS developers contributing their work freely and making the programming publicly available and for free. Accordingly, there must be other factors explaining the OSS phenomenon.

Gaining Reputation

One of the main motivations of OSS developers is gaining reputation within the OSS community. This motivation involves developers’s desire to establish their reputation and to gain recoginized for their ability. A number of researchers have argued that gaining a reputation within a OSS community is an important incentive for developers (Lerner and Tirole, 2002; cited in Bitzer et al. 2007 p.161). Furthermore, building up reputation through OSS appears to be an instrument in enhancing developers’s career prospect since they might have the oppurtunities to demonstrate their capability and skillfulness in programming

OSS developers establish their reputation by obtaining recognition from their peers. Raymond (1999, p 384), a very experienced participant in open source projects, describes in his paper that open source software development style allow its programmers to receive constructive feedback about the quality of their contribution. Through the process of receiving opinions from users on their

products the developers are able to notice that how their works are appreciated. This might encourage the authors spending additional effort to improve their code.

Similarly, Lakhani and von Hippel (2003) present results from case studies at Apache, the most popular web sever software on the Internet. As Apache is a relatively complex software program, a field support system is created to assist user having difficulties with the program. Books, online journal, and an online collection of answers to frequenly asked questions are sources of technical help for Apache users in addtion to Usenet help forum. The possibility of gaining reputation and related benefits through helping users is considerable because the identity of providers can be preserved through their e-mail addresses or user names to the answers they post( Lakhani and von Hippel, 2003 p.937 ).

Since the reputation of OSS developers has been built strongly within the community, this will become an effective way to advertise one’s skillfulness and capabilities. Hars and Ou (2002, p4)

argue that the achievement in open source project can provide participants a higher marketability than others to the commercial software employers in the competence of IT industry. This argument of self-marketing appears to be fitted to the most managers’s recuitment of software developers. With the wide range in programming skills, it is obvious that vendors will recognize

the value of the individuals who have a record of producing succesful software. This suggests that the IT firms’ role, along with the presence of paid participants, is increasingly important by providing resources for the OSS communities (Lakhani and Wolf, 2005 p17).

These evidences indicate that the perception that participation enhances one's professional reputation is a significant predictor of individual motivation. They are also consistent with prior research, providing additional evidence that building reputation is a strong motivator for OSS developers. These researches also provide weak evidence that OSS developers who enjoy helping others provide more helpful advice. One potential explanation for the weak influence of intrinsic motivations may be due the monetary rewards having influence on OSS developers.

Websystem Tut8

Week 9 tut

1. On a linux machine run ifconfig and observe the output. How can you restrict the output to just one interface?

2. There is a command line tool that can be used to retrieve a particular web page. What is it and test that it works by retrieving the page start.it.uts.edu.au

wget

3. Some of the common ports used by various protocols have been discussed in the lecture. Find what ports the following are used on: Display Support Protocol, Quote of the Day, Trivial File Transfer, Network Time Protocol, NetBios Name Service

Command : netstat –anpe (in linux)??????

dsp              33/tcp    Display Support Protocol

dsp              33/udp    Display Support Protocol

qotd             17/tcp    Quote of the Day

qotd             17/udp    Quote of the Day

tftp             69/tcp    Trivial File Transfer

tftp             69/udp    Trivial File Transfer

ntp             123/tcp    Network Time Protocol

ntp             123/udp    Network Time Protocol

netbios-ns      137/tcp    NETBIOS Name Service    

netbios-ns      137/udp    NETBIOS Name Service    

netbios-dgm     138/tcp    NETBIOS Datagram Service

netbios-dgm     138/udp    NETBIOS Datagram Service

netbios-ssn     139/tcp    NETBIOS Session Service

netbios-ssn     139/udp    NETBIOS Session Service

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. Using UDP, programs on networked computers can send short messages sometimes known as datagrams (using Datagram Sockets) to one another. UDP is sometimes called the Universal Datagram Protocol. The protocol was designed by David P. Reed in 1980.

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. TCP provides reliable, in-order delivery of a stream of bytes, making it suitable for applications like file transfer and e-mail. It is so important in the Internet protocol suite that sometimes the entire suite is referred to as "the TCP/IP protocol suite." TCP is the transport protocol that manages the individual conversations between web servers and web clients. TCP divides the HTTP messages into smaller pieces, called segments, to be sent to the destination client. It is also responsible for controlling the size and rate at which messages are exchanged between the server and the client.

4. Before non text files can be sent over email they need to be encoded. There is a program on charlie that can do this (note: it is not on the linux machines in the labs). Pick a non text file and use this program to encode it (you may want to use redirection to save the output to a file). View and compare the contents of the original and encoded files.

MIME - Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions

5. What is one of the main advantages of using SSH over other protocols such as ftp and telnet?

More secure because users’ information is encrypted when it’s sent over the Internet.

Cisco Sales Work Opportunities

isco Sales Work Opportunities

Posted by elaine on 2008-05-12 10:01:48.847891 [Current Until: 2008-05-30 00:00:00] Can you please request your high potential students/candidates who have or going to achieve CCNA and CCNP certifications during their school graduation, to email me their resume at zafkhan@cisco.com ? I will call them to conduct their interviews. I appreciate your help and support. Regards Zafar P.S : The job require both CCNA and CCNP certifications. The person should have passion to work in Sales organization. Cisco Sales Associate Program (CSAP) ,in case you are not, it is graduate hiring program in which we hire college graduates with four years of engineering or computer science degree as Associates Systems Engineers (ASE), provide them extensive training and guarantee them a job a Systems Engineer (SE) in Cisco Sales organization in their country of citizenship after they graduate from the program successfully. During the CSAP program they are paid in full as Cisco employees with full benefits while they are being trained. Details of program are listed under (click on Associates Sales Engineer) http://www.cisco.com/go/sap Today the program is one year in duration and we provide CCNA and CCNP training in-house.We are planning to reduce the program duration if we can hire college graduates having CCNA and CCNP certification while they were completing their degrees. During hiring , I will look for followings attributes in candidates - Passion to work in Sales as Systems Engineer - 4 year college degree in engineering or sciences - Willing to relocate to Amsterdam or USA for the duration of program (6 to 12 months) and going to back to home country for job after graduating from CSAP program. - Leadership skills, a team player and have good communication skills. If your college/university produce CCNP certified people and they have 4 years degree , I will willing to partner with you to hire them into Cisco. Every year , I hire about 225 graduates from all over the world.

Chap 6 - Linuxgym

2)List cut
Create a file called "names.txt" containing only the first column of

/usr/local/linuxgym-data/census/femalenames.txt

in its existing order. Ensure that there are no other changes to the data.

A :

cat table.csv | cut -f1 -d,


6)Grep and regular expressions
Create a file called "natmat.txt" containing, IN THE ORIGINAL ORDER, only the lines of

/usr/local/linuxgym-data/census/femalenames.txt

starting with the string 'NAT' or 'MAT'. Ensure there is no extra white space in the file "natmat.txt".

Q:
egrep '^NAT|^MAT' /usr/local/linuxgym-data/census/femalenames.txt > natmat.txt

7)Name frequency
Create a bash script called namefreq.sh which takes one argument - a name. The output should be the FREQUENCY of that name's use, which is the entry in the second column of /usr/local/linuxgym-data/census/femalenames.txt

For example

./namefreq.sh ANA

will return

0.120

and nothing else.

Q :

#!/bin/bash

grep -w $1 ./table.csv | cut -f2 -d,

Single file word detection
Write a bash script called gender.sh which takes one argument - a name. The script should print "female" if the word appears in the file /usr/local/linuxgym-data/census/femalenames.txt, and "male" otherwise.

Hint: Redirect grep's stdout so it doesn't get printed, or use the grep "quiet" option.

A:

#!/bin/bash

grep -q $1 ./table.csv

if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo female
else
echo male
fi

Rich Picture

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=257790

Part 2: 3 Representing your experience of complexity

3.2 Complexity and rich pictures

This section is mostly concerned with thinking about your rich picture and the complex situation it depicts.

There are lots of ways of drawing a good rich picture and very few ways of drawing bad rich pictures. So my next strategy in supporting your learning, and your experience of this complex situation, is to propose a number of checks you might use to ensure you have not fallen into the trap of the less-effective rich picture.

Although my discussion will focus on rich pictures, I am also talking about the complexity the rich picture represents. I am using the task of generating a useful rich picture to illustrate the process of experiencing and capturing complexity.

Trap 1: representing the problem and not the situation

This trap is one of the most fundamental mistakes you can make in systems thinking. There are lots of metaphorical phrases in English that can entice you into the trap. We can talk about ‘the nub of the problem’, ‘the key issue’, ‘the basic problem’, ‘the real difficulty’ and so on.

Like all traps, once it has sprung, it can be very difficult to get out. The trap seriously limits one's ability to think about the situation in its full complexity. This is precisely because, by identifying every problematic feature as stemming from one single interpretation of the problem, you limit your possible ways of dealing with the situation to those that might be answers to this single problem. You have imposed simplicity on the situation, which does not reflect the very complexity that makes it problematic.

In contrast, one of the reasons this case study seems to be complex is precisely the difficulty of identifying anything that could be described as the key issue. It seems to be a tangle of interrelated key issues.

The whole point of a rich picture is to represent all you can about the situation. To identify the problem within the picture, or to include only the elements that seem problematic, is to prune out potentially important elements of the complexity.

So, the check for avoiding this trap is to ask:

• Does this rich picture represent the situation or is it just my interpretation of what the problem is? Does it include all the features noted as problematic?

Trap 2: the impoverished rich picture

A distinguishing feature of rich pictures that turn out to be useful seems to be they are just what they say they are, rich. If I take usefulness as the criterion, the useful rich pictures are the ones bursting with interest and activity. They don't seem to tell a single story, there are lots of stories going on simultaneously. They reveal stories you didn't consciously build into them.

How is such a rich picture to be achieved?

Use everything you find in the situation. This means incorporate everything you know about the situation. Either put things into the picture as you re-read the description; or make lists of the protagonists, the organisations, the structures, and then put them into the picture. Include people as well as the roles they inhabit.

Indicate the connections. Where the structural entities you listed above have connections and relationships between them, indicate what they are. There are all sorts of ways of doing this, especially if you ask yourself about the nature of the connection. You could use physical proximity (or distance) or representations of the nature of the connection (hearts, daggers drawn, telephones, deafness, walls of silence). Lots of people quite unconsciously use visual metaphors in their everyday language. (‘Every so often they drop a bombshell on this department.’ ‘We're swamped with memos.’ ‘We're drowning in paperwork.’) Talk to yourself about the situation and you may pick up clues about how to represent features of the situation. Arrows and lines tend to be less useful but they're not forbidden. Don't force the images, use the ones that seem to come naturally. There is no library of approved symbols.

Use all the geographical locations, if this is relevant.

Use all the processes. Include all the changes, and activities. Include impressions as well as reported facts.

Some people use computer clip-art to draw rich pictures. It rarely works in my view. Some essential quality seems to be missing. This quality might be ownership or engagement or it may be the very act of sitting at a computer keeps the activity at a rational level – it does not allow for the impressions and half-formed awareness to express themselves through the act of making marks directly on to paper.

The check for avoiding the impoverishment trap is to ask:

• Have I included everything I know about the situation in my representation of it?

Trap 3: interpretation, structure, and analysis

If you deliberately impose an interpretation or analysis on your picture, you preclude the possibility of seeing other, potentially more interesting, features later. Remember the rich picture is a representation of the complexity. If you structure that complexity, you are no longer representing it as you experience it. You also lose the possibility of using the drawing process itself as a means of encountering the complexity in all its fullness.

The trap takes a number of forms. Beware of representing events in their chronological sequence, either explicitly or implicitly. Also, organisational structure may take over and become the structure of the whole picture. Elements of other diagram forms may creep in. (Systems maps and influence diagrams can be quite a temptation.) Watch out for the temptations you are susceptible to. Artistic abilities, if you have them, can represent their own temptations – they too can be a part of the structuring trap.

It may be inevitable that interpretations suggest themselves as you draw. Stop yourself thinking ‘this is really about …’ One way of stopping this is to jot the idea down somewhere – not on your picture – in the form of a question. Once you've written it down, the idea is much less likely to keep popping up as if it were trying to ensure you won't forget it.

So, the check for avoiding this trap is to ask:

• Is this rich picture telling just one story or is it rich enough to suggest lots of stories about what's going on?

Trap 4: words and wordiness

I have seen some effective rich pictures with lots of words in them but they are quite rare in my experience. More often, lots of words make the rich picture less rich. Part of the later use of a rich picture might include looking for patterns. Words inhibit your ability to spot patterns.

If you do use speech bubbles, use what people say, not your interpretation, unless the bubble is about some general attitude. Examples might be ‘Aaagh!’, ‘Help!’, ‘Oops!’ – the sort of things found in comic books.

The check for avoiding this trap is to ask:

• Do I have to do a lot of reading to see the relationships between elements in the picture?

Trap 5: the final version trap

Ironically, the biggest mistake you can make, having got this far, is to assume your picture is finished. New realisations will crop up. Add these to your picture as you appreciate more and more of the complexity.

So, the check for avoiding this trap is to ask:

• Have I had any new insights about the complex situation since I last added something to this picture?