Google your way!

I simply love Google.. I search with Google (be it text or graphic), I email with Google (the disk quota is generously and tremendously spacious - never had to delete emails) and now I work with Google.. Working with Google? Yes.. and no.. I don't work for Google..ha ha.

Ever tried Google Docs? No? hmm..Here's what Google Docs can do for u.. it allows u
1- to upload your word document, spreadsheet and powerpoint file
2- to create your document from scratch and save it as doc, publish as pdf, zip it
3- to share and invite others to view or edit your doc
4- to email your file and many more

so basically you can keep and store your files and do document editing online. Having said that, this comes to your rescue in the absence of your thumbdrive.

There are many advantages.. namely
1- u could access your doc anywhere on any computer (as long as accessible to the Internet) without bringing along your thumbdrive, particularly for doing printing task (if done at different place)
2- it reduces greatly the possibility of the virus threat to your thumbdrive.
3- u could do sort of file backup here.

So, do your docs store your docs with Google Docs!

I hate reading my emails when....

1- the title of the email is irrelevant..or against the content
2- the size of the email is huge, due to file attachment. When I see this email, I simply DELETE it.

To those who like to share things in email......please...remember this :
People read emails (read: company emails) with specific purpose - to get updated news, make announcements on activities related to the organization, in shortest word length..

Thus, sending out big files containing pictures, audio, video etc will only consume people's time.. even worse, every single one of us has the exact copy of the file.. and summing the bytes together, that really takes a lot of our email server disk space! That's why some of us easily get '..exceeded disk quota..' message quite frequently. In addition, when people start to like the file and they download it to their storage drive, that will only consume disk space.

To those who like to share things in email ..please.. :
Stop sending out attachments.. just provide us with a LINK. that will do! Even better upload to your blog and invite us via a link to view the 'whatever it is that u think interesting n funny n worth sharing'.

And if possible, maybe we could suggest that the IT Unit provides a location[folder] in the server where everybody can share their files of interest... One advantage is that we can have a growing collection of multimedia files for easy browsing and retrieval.

Qualitative Data Analysis

includes all non-numeric data - words, images, sound etc - found in such things as:

• interview tapes
• researchers' diaries
• company documents
• websites
• developers' models

It is the main data or evidence generated by case studies, action research and ethnography.

Quantitative analysis can be used on qualitative data. For example, you could:

• count the number of times a particular word or phrase occurs in some text
• count the number of words or pages allocated to different topics on a website

Source:

Book- Researching IS and Computing, Briony J Oates, 2006

Defining Quantitative Data Analysis

Quantitative data means data or evidence based on numbers.

Examples of numeric data include:

• number of people expressing satisfaction with an organization's IT help desk
• a company's annual turnover for each of the last 5 years
• time in seconds to process a data file
• number of characters in a computer animation
• number of people accessing the Internet for more than 20 hours per week
• number of hot links on a website

The idea of quantitative data analysis is to look for patterns in the data and draw conclusions.


Source:
Book: Researching Information Systems and Computing, Briony J Oates, 2006

Data gathering

During my progress presentation last week, I was asked about the data gathering ie, the source of the data.

So I told the panel I'd be using the established data from the TRECVID benchmarking collection, year 2006 data. However, I was also asked to consider our local data so that we have results of analysis to do comparison, etc. ... so, since my area is in specific domain, I have to go through certain procedures to obtain data from sources like National Broadcasting companies.

For now, I learn this:- to test the data, consider local context and the benchmark corpus.

my MP4

Again, I pampered myself by getting an MP4 player.. initially I was looking for a digital device that could do voice recording for a very long period, say 10- 30 hours. However, since my research is very much related to video, then I decided to get a complete package. So this MP4 not only it allows me to record voice, but also plays audio and video files. Furthermore I can also read txt. and .pdf files from this device. Amazing ha..

So, just like my hp, anywhere I go I bring my MP4. It especially benefits me when I attend meeting with my supervisors and when I do presentations. In both situations, I just place my MP4 on a table and there goes the details. Back at home, I only need to replay and remember... Believe me, it is an excellence choice in particular for students like me hmm.. And I would also like to suggest all students to get this voice recorder, especially for those lazy note takers, it's a worth buy!!

Leganya, dah lepas presentation pagi tadi..

fuh, lega bila dah lepas presentation pagi tadi.. presenting progress report ..

so, my next step of action is to focus on the experiments on chosen datasets.

Why do people do research?

Source: Briony J Oates, Researching IS and Computing

You might be embarking upon a piece of research because you have to - you must carry out a piece of research in order to pass your course and get a qualification or doing research is part of your contract. But doing research because you have to is probably not a sufficient reason to keep you motivated when the going gets difficult. So let's consider some other reasons why people do research.

1- To add to the body of knowledge
2- To solve a problem
3-To find out what happens
4-To find the evidence to inform practice
5- To develop a greater understanding of people and their world
6- To predict, plan and control
7- To contribute to other people's well-being
8- To contribute to personal needs
9- To test or disprove a theory
10- To come up with a better way
11- To understand another person's point of view
12- To create more interest in the researcher

If any reader would like to get a detailed explanation on any of the above, please reply and I will elaborate as per the author's note.

-Just a knowledge sharing session-

Pelajar cemerlang 5A UPSR

Di kampung saya ada seorang pelajar ni, A. Keluarganya bukanlah berada, dan A adalah anak sulung. Menariknya, A ni tak pergi pun tuisyen kat luar ataupun kat sekolah sebab biasanya kalau kat sekolah tuisyen sebalah malam, dah rumahnya memang jauh nun di hujung kampung. Nak dihantar diambil, bapanya tidak mempunyai kenderaan.

Jadi setiap pagi A berjalan kaki lebih kurang 2 km utk ke sekolah. Dan setiap pagi itulah juga A tidak berkesempatan untuk diberi duit belanja sebagaimana pelajar lain disebabkan kesempitan hidup keluarganya. Pernah diceritakan oleh A yang ibunya menangis sambil berkata, "Mak mintak maaf hari ni kerana tak dapat beri duit belanja sekolah..". Tapi A tetap cemerlang di sekolah. Peperiksaan percubaan beliau dapat 5A dan UPSR betul dapat 5A. Pada saya, A memang anak pintar. Cuma saya terkilan sekiranya kepintaran A tidak dipertajamkan ke peringkat yang lebih tinggi melalui persekitaran elite dan bestari dek kerana ketidakmampuan beliau mempersiapkan keperluan untuk ke sekolah sebegitu..

Ibunya pula saya lihat sentiasa tabah dan pasrah. Tidak pernah meninggi cakap, sentiasa merendah diri dan kelihatan tenang. Saya sentiasa terfikir, mungkin ketenangan itulah kekuatan A dan ibunya.

Tujuan saya menulis coretan ini hanyalah untuk muhasabah diri sendiri. Kadang-kadang ada ketikanya kita alpa dengan kehidupan kita.. dan dengan membuka mata dan memerhatikan perjalanan hidup orang lain ada ketikanya di kala itu kita tersedar.. kita mungkin dapat belajar sesuatu dari mereka.

What is a research?

We do research everyday. It is a particular kind of everyday thinking.

Here is a piece of research - dealing with a puncture

Research Task in Everyday thinking

• Identify a problem - How can I deal with my punctured tyre?
• Gather data - Obtain prices of new tyres
• Analyse data - What is the cheapest?
• Interpret data - That's more than I want to pay. I need more information.
• Gather more data - Is it reparable? Obtain prices for tyre repair.
• Analyse the data - Can it be repaired? What is the lowest cost? Repaired vs new tyre?
• Interpret the data - Repairing is possible. Will cost 20% of a new tyre. Repair
  rather than replace means I can still afford to go out on Saturday.
• Draw conclusion - Get it repaired at Tyres-U-Like.
  
  Source:
  Briony J Oates, Researching Information Systems and Computing
  

Satu Transformasi Digital

Menjelang raya puasa yang lepas, banyak jugalah kiriman ucapan selamat hari raya melalui telefon yang diterima.. antara banyak-banyak tu ada jugak yang tak leh dibaca.. kenapa? sebab ada yg hantar MMS, ada attachment lah, image lah.. students lah yang kebanyakannya hantar MMS, yelah handphone diaorg pun lebih canggih dari kita..

Bila terima msg dan tak dapat baca mestilah terkedu gak.. terpikir jugak, selama ni ingatkan guna handphone untuk setakat dapat buat panggilan dan terima pangilan tu dah memadai dah, tapi skrg ni satu keperluan lak handphone yang ada 'xtra functions'.. perlu jugak nak hantar gambar, bunyi dan video.. perlu jugak ada handphone yang ada 'camera', boleh ambik gambar dan video. Perlu juga nak rakam suara.. Perlu juga ada MP3, MP4 player..Perlu juga ada access ke Internet, ada Bluetooth, ada GPRS, boleh guna 3G.. keperluannya ada.. paling penting, semua keperluan ni boleh didapati hanya dalam satu handphone..

Jadi, pada pendapat peribadi saya, sudah tiba masanya untuk kita sama-sama mendapat manfaat daripada kecanggihan teknologi sedia ada. Dan kemajuan teknologi ni pulak adalah hasil daripada 'research and development' penyelidik-penyelidik hebat yang sentiasa melakukan misi penambahbaikan dari masa ke semasa. Bukan kemahiran menggunakan alat ni sebenarnya yang kita nakkan, tapi lebih kepada usaha untuk merapatkan jurang digital dan perkongsian ilmu digital.

Harga hp? hmm, tepuk dada tanya selera... lebih canggih lebih mahal.. bergantung kepada banyak aspek contohnya berapa megapixel untuk kamera, berapa 'memory storage' dan banyak lagi lah..

** Artikel ini bukanlah untuk tujuan promosi, hanya perkongsian pengalaman sahaja **

Ada Apa Pada Nama....

Salah seorang jiranku baru melahirkan anak. Memandangkan ini adalah bayi sulung bagi kedua-dua keluarga, jadi dalam pencarian nama tu, banyaklah dapat nama-nama cadangan.. semuanya cantik dan molek.. akhirnya, pasangan ini dapatlah nama yang diidamkan.. bukan 1, bukan 2 tapi 4 nama yang diberikan kepada anak ini. Terbelit jugalah lidah nak menyebutnya satu persatu dengan lancar. Nama anakku pun boleh tahan panjang, tapi yang ni lagi panjaaang nama.

Aku berkesempatan bercerita kepada orang tuaku pasal jiranku ini. Satu komen daripada ayahku membuatkan aku terdiam. Katanya, 'Nama ni biarlah yang baik dan mudah disebut. Janganlah panjang sangat dan susah disebut, nanti kesian orang nanti nak sebut nama kita masa nak baca TALKIN.....'

Cuti raya dan raya sakan

2 minggu sebelum raya aku dah balik kampung. Dan 2 minggu selepas raya baru aku pulang ke Shah Alam. fuh.. seronoknya bercuti raya.. memang sakan la aku cuti.. sampaikan buku yg ada dlm beg langsung tak keluar dari beg... lepas tu apa lagi, bila dah balik Shah Alam, masa nak jumpa supervisor, terketar-ketar le jugak.. apa taknya, kerja tak siap.. haha padan muka..

So sekarang ni tengah berhempas pulas tengah siapkan research proposal untuk present kat kolokium tengah bulan Nov ni.. harapnya masa kolokium tu dapatlah input sedikit sebanyak untuk baiki proposal.. jadi masa 'proposal defence ' nanti (next sem) I would be well prepared..

My Streamyx

at last... I managed to get streamyx installed.

It's been quite some time since my last posting.. but I can assure you (my loyal readers), now that I have a so-called 'guaranteed on-line connection', I will be a daily reporter.. 'towards my blog my diary' mission!

I have lots of real life stories during the fasting month, raya events and lot more.. though they are histories now, well, histories are what make us today kan..