Law of large numbers

• more sample, lagi accurate
• overall result akan menghampiri mean --> so, variant individual result akan menjadi kurang penting..  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_large_numbers

In probability theory, the law of large numbers (LLN) is a theorem that describes the result of performing the same experiment a large number of times. According to the law, the average of the results obtained from a large number of trials should be close to the expected value, and will tend to become closer as more trials are performed.

http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/law-large-numbers/4947717-1.html

statistical concept holding that the greater the number of units in a projection, the less important each unit becomes. Group insurance, which gets cheaper as the group gets larger, is an example of the principle in application; actuarial abnormalities have less influence on total claims.

mathematical premise stating that the greater the number of exposures: (1) the more accurate the prediction; (2) the less the deviation of the actual losses from the expected losses (X - x approaches zero); and (3) the greater the credibility of the prediction (credibility approaches one). This law forms the basis for the statistical expectation of loss upon which premium rates for insurance policies are calculated 

Related law: "The Law of the Few"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point

"The Law of the Few", or, as Gladwell states, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts."[3] According to Gladwell, economists call this the "80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the 'work' will be done by 20 percent of the participants."[4] (see Pareto Principle) These people are described in the following ways

• dalam case ni, individual result kadang-kala menjadi pemangkin yang amat penting
• see also: chain reaction buzzword

Mother of All Demos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos

The Mother of All Demos is a name given retrospectively to Douglas Engelbart's December 9, 1968, demonstration at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC) at the Convention Center in San Francisco, in which a number of experimental technologies that have since become commonplace were presented. The demo featured the first computer mouse the public had ever seen, as well as introducing interactive text, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, hypertext and a collaborative real-time editor.

Engelbart, with the help of his geographically distributed team, demonstrated the workings of the NLS (which stood for oNLine System) to the 1,000 computer professionals in attendance. The project was the result of work done at SRI International's Augmentation Research Center.

Dec. 9, 1968: The Mother of All Demos, By Dylan Tweney - This Day In Tech, Wired.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/12/1209computer-mouse-mother-of-all-demos/

1968: Computer scientist Douglas Engelbart kicks off the personal computer revolution with a product demonstration that is so amazing it inspires a generation of technologists. It will become known as “the mother of all demos.”
...
But Engelbart went beyond merely demonstrating a new input device — way beyond. His demo that day in San Francisco’s Brooks Hall also premiered “what you see is what you get” editing, text and graphics displayed on a single screen, shared-screen videoconferencing, outlining, windows, version control, context-sensitive help and hyperlinks. Bam!
...
While most computer scientists concentrated on making computers smart (artificial intelligence), Engelbart was interested in how computers could make humans smarter, or what he called augmented intelligence.
...
The initial inspiration for Engelbart’s life work came in the mid-1940s, when he was an electronics technician for the U.S. Navy. Looking at a radar screen, and perhaps inspired by Vannevar Bush’s groundbreaking essay “As We May Think,” Engelbart imagined a radarlike display that would let people manipulate symbols and concepts instead of merely monitoring bogies and blips.

Sun Tzu and the Art of Business

http://www.suntzu1.com/content/six_strategic_principles_for_managers/

1) Capture Your Market Without Destroying It
2) Avoid your competitor's strength, and attack their weakness
3) Use foreknowledge & deception to maximize the power of business intelligence.
4) Use speed and preparation to swiftly overcome the competition.
5) Use alliances and strategic control points in the industry to “shape” your opponents and make them conform to your will.
6) Develop your character as a leader to maximize the potential of your employees.

Mari banyakkan membaca buku

Berapa muka surat patut kena kita baca setahun? rasa based on aku punya study, world average dalam 8-15 buku setahun:

• 800 - 1,500 pages per year ( if 8-15 books; 100 pages per book )
• 2,400 - 4,500 pages per year ( if 8-15 books; 300 pages per book ) 
• 4,000 - 7,500 pages per year ( if 8-15 books; 500 pages per book ) 

More info:

• http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128752
• http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/bm/newsgeneral.php?id=501972
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_books_does_the_average_american_read_per_year
• http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1948/How-Americans-Spend-Their-Time-READING.html

Incorrect system clock on heavy load server

http://www.faqs.org/docs/linux_admin/x2804.html
The Linux software clock is not always accurate. It is kept running by a periodic timer interrupt generated by PC hardware. If the system has too many processes running, it may take too long to service the timer interrupt, and the software clock starts slipping behind. The hardware clock runs independently and is usually more accurate. If you boot your computer often (as is the case for most systems that aren't servers), it will usually keep fairly accurate time.

"Game Mechanic" for Website

• http://mashable.com/2010/04/07/funware-game-mechanics/
• http://blog.meatinthesky.com/good-game-mechanics-in-your-web-app-are-good
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_mechanics?wasRedirected=true

how to make website enjoyable:

1. Points -> bagi reward kpd user 
2. Leaderboards -> eg top 10 on anything 
3. Badges -> eg giver recognition to customer, power user, gold, silver, etc 
4. Challenges -> eg buy  x get something 
5. Levels -> reward based on stage 
6. User-to-user referrals -> utilize social network (facebook,twitter,mailing list) to broadcast 
7. Get good retention to increase pageview 

skimming & scanning - fast reading

• skimming: quickly identify the main ideas
• ada yg kata bukan reading tapi search techniques
• pelbagai cara:  eg. spiral, zigzag, top-down, summarize, intro/title/conclusion, etc
• teknik lain: "scanning" sekiranya sudah tahu apa yang hendak dicari

ref:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading#Methods
• http://42explore.com/skim.htm
• http://www.westone.wa.gov.au/k-12lrcd/learning_areas/english/english1a/exploring/exploring_d.html
• http://www.school-for-champions.com/grades/reading.htm

Shy Extroverts

http://matrixpsychology.blogspot.com/2009/08/marriage-and-career-what-do-you-want-to.html

Shy Extroverts
love chatting but are wary when they do not know the people around them or do not know what is going on. They are often in the background because they tend not to put themselves forward. Examples in public life are hard to find and include Gerry Robinson, Louis Walsh, Felicity Kendall (Barbara Good from the Good Life) and Rory Bremnner

B
observant, curious
mischievous, wary
supportive, empathic
cooperative, warm
lateral thinker, intuitive
people-focused, shy

Red light is used to preserve night vision

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_purpose_of_the_red_lights_used_in_submarine_control_rooms

What is the purpose of the red lights used in submarine control rooms?

Red light is supposed to be easier for the eyes to transition to darkness. Red lights are also used on the bridge or pilot house of boats and ships. It does allow you to regain your night vision quicker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red

Red light is also used to preserve night vision in low-light or night-time situations, as the rod cells in the human eye aren't sensitive to red. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision

In biological night vision, molecules of rhodopsin in the rods of the eye undergo a change in shape as light is absorbed by them. Rhodopsin is the chemical that allows night-vision, and is extremely sensitive to light. Exposed to a spectrum of light, the pigment immediately bleaches, and it takes about 30 minutes to regenerate fully, but most of the adaptation occurs within the first five or ten minutes in the dark. Rhodopsin in the human rods is less sensitive to the longer red wavelengths of light, so many people use red light to help preserve night vision as it only slowly depletes the eye's rhodopsin stores in the rods and instead is viewed by the cones.

Ibid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibid.

Ibid (Latin, short for ibidem, "the same place") is the term used to provide an endnote or footnote citation or reference for a source that was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote.

Example

4. E. Vijh, Latin for dummies (New York: Academic, 1997), p.23.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p.29.

The reference in no. 5 is the same as in no. 4 (E. Vijh, Latin for dummies on page 23), whereas the reference in no. 6 refers to the same work but at a different location, namely page 29.

Ukur jarak guna ibu jari

• Measuring Angle and Distance with your Thumb
  http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/bodyruler_angle/

• Angle Cards - A "business card" for measuring angle
  http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/anglecard/
• How to Estimate Distances
  http://www.almanac.com/outdoors/distance.php

Bimmer vs Beemer

http://www.bmwccbc.org/misc/tech-and-trivia/bimmer.html
Bimmer - proper accepted slang for BMW cars. Most people don't know this.
Beamer/Beemer - proper accepted slang for BMW motorcycles. You will hear this term used incorrectly by many people.

p/s: tapi, aku lagi suka guna slang beemer atau bmer sebab ramai yg guna walaupun salah... heher  

Tabiat membaca Malaysia meningkat

Masyarakat Malaysia sudah mula amalkan tabiat membaca,
Rencana Berita Harian 16/3/2010
http://www.bharian.com.my/articles/MasyarakatMalaysiasudahmulaamalkantabiatmembaca/Article/

Pelbagai kempen nampakkan hasil apabila 38.8 juta kunjungi Perpustakaan Negara berbanding hanya 19.7 juta empat tahun lalu.
...
Walaupun sejak empat tahun kebelakangan ini menunjukkan ada peningkatan jumlah membaca buku daripada 12 buku setahun berbanding dua buku setahun sebelum ini, ia masih belum dapat memaparkan hakikat dan suasana keseluruhan tabiat terhadap budaya itu.
...
Dilihat secara rambang, orang ramai yang membaca di tempat awam termasuk dalam pengangkutan awam masih rendah berbanding di negara maju lain yang sudah sekian lama menjadikan amalan membaca sebagai aktiviti lazim tanpa mengira lokasi.

Greek alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE.

The Greek alphabet is descended from the Phoenician alphabet, and is not related to Linear B or the Cypriot syllabary, earlier writing systems for Greek.

Αα Alpha, Ββ Beta, Γγ Gamma, Δδ Delta, Εε Epsilon, Ζζ Zeta, Ηη Eta, Θθ Theta, Ιι Iota, Κκ Kappa, Λλ Lambda, Μμ Mu, Νν Nu, Ξξ Xi, Οο Omicron, Ππ Pi, Ρρ Rho, Σσς Sigma, Ττ Tau, Υυ Upsilon, Φφ Phi, Χχ Chi, Ψψ Psi, Ωω Omega

Copyright Expiration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Copyright subsists for a variety of lengths in different jurisdictions. The length of the term can depend on several factors, including the type of work (e.g. musical composition, novel), whether the work has been published or not, and whether the work was created by an individual or a corporation. In most of the world, the default length of copyright is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years. In the United States, the term for most existing works is a fixed number of years after the date of creation or publication. In some countries (for example, the United States[48] and the United Kingdom[49]), copyrights expire at the end of the calendar year in question.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works

• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_does_a_copyright_on_a_song_expire

Copyright Expiration - When Copyright Protection Becomes Public Domain, By Mary Bellis, About.com Guide
http://inventors.about.com/od/copyrights/a/expiration.htm

Can birds fly in the rain?

FLYING IN THE RAIN - Those Amazing Birds
http://www.norcalblogs.com/birds/2010/01/flying-in-the-rain.html

Birds are waterproof. Their feathers, made of protein similar to our fingernails, have interlocking barbs to make them both flexible and water resistant. Feathers overlap one another like roofing tiles to make the bird both aerodynamic and water repellent. Birds also have an oil gland at the base of their tail which they use to put a waterproof coating on their feathers.

So birds do fairly well during a rainstorm, at least for a short time.

Can birds fly in the rain?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070420144714AAPFJk8

YES, birds certainly can fly in the rain. Their feathers are oily and repel water.

How do birds keep dry in the rain?
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_birds_keep_dry_in_the_rain

Birds keep dry in the rain becuase their feathers have a certine oil on them.Water just slides past the oil leaving the birds nice and dry

bibliophile (book lover)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliophilia

Bibliophilia is the love of books. Accordingly a bibliophile is an individual who loves books, especially "for qualities of format." A bookworm loves books for their content, or otherwise loves reading. Bibliophilia is generally considered to be an incorrect usage; but some would merely call it a recent one. The practice of loving or collecting books is dubbed bibliophilism, and the adjective form of the term is bibliophilic. Also, a bibliophile may be a book collector. 

Bibliophilia is not to be confused with bibliomania, an obsessive-compulsive disorder involving the collecting of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged, and in which the mere fact that an object is a book is sufficient for it to be collected or loved.

Geoengineering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoengineering

The modern concept of Geoengineering (or Climate Engineering) is usually taken to mean proposals to deliberately manipulate the Earth's climate to counteract the effects of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions. The National Academy of Sciences defined geoengineering as "options that would involve large-scale engineering of our environment in order to combat or counteract the effects of changes in atmospheric chemistry."

Bill Gates's Hidden Dreams of Geoengineering Revealed --Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/bill-gates-geoengineering-passion-revealed

Bill Gates has already proven his interest in geoengineering schemes with his earlier co-patent filing for reducing the intensity of killer hurricanes. So perhaps we're not too surprised that Science Insider has dug up the Microsoft chairman's past projects on altering the Earth's climate, ranging from filtering carbon dioxide to reflecting sunlight via brighter clouds.

Murphy's law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law
Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".

It is used as either a purely sarcastic musing that things always go wrong, or, less frequently, a reflection of the mathematical idea that, given a sufficiently long time, an event which is possible (non-zero probability) will almost surely take place. Although, in this case, emphasis is put on the possible bad occurrences.

http://www.murphys-laws.com/

How Pair Programming Really Works

petikan dari "How Pair Programming Really Works" by Stuart Wray
http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/2010/0110/W_SW_PairProgramming.pdf

As a dictionary defnition, I’d say that pair programming is a technique in which two people sit down, literally side by side, and write a pro-gram at the same computer. When Kent Beck originally coined the term, he described two programmers working at different levels of abstraction Laurie Williams and Robert Kessler made this idea more concrete, using the metaphor of one programmer being the “driver” and the other the “navigator.” In this metaphor, the driver controls the keyboard and focuses on the immediate task of coding, and the navigator acts as a reviewer, observing and thinking about more strategic architectural issues.