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Entries from July 2008

GTD Flowchart

July 31st, 2008

Tags: Life Skills

Another flowchart on GTD

Hipster PDA

July 30th, 2008

Tags: Life Skills

Ever wondered if there’s a way to do GTD without notebooks and digital equipments? Well, there’s hipster PDA!

with only a pack of cards in hand, there’s always a Hipster PDA!

AM PM

July 29th, 2008

Tags: Current Technology

Amplitude Modulation and Phase Modulation…

picture credit: wiki

 

24. Indulgence

July 28th, 2008

Tags: Religion and Philosophy

From Tau De Ching

Straighten yourself and you will not stand steady;
Display yourself and you will not be clearly seen;
Justify yourself and you will not be respected;
Promote yourself and you will not be believed;
Pride yourself and you will not endure.

These behaviours are wasteful, indulgent,
And so they attract disfavour;
Harmony avoids them.

Spread Spectrum techniques

July 27th, 2008

Tags: Current Technology

2 major types of Spread Spectrum are:

  • Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
  • Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

vocab

July 26th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

words…

  1. veracity - unwillingness to tell lies 
  2. Corinthian Column - n classical architecture, a column decorated at the top with a mixed bag of curlicues, scrolls and other lavish ornamentation.
  3. assault - close fighting during the culmination of a military attack 
  4. intransignent - 
  5. obscure - not clearly understood or expressed; “an obscure turn of phrase”; “an impulse to go off and fight certain obscure battles of his own spirit
  6. thwart - a crosspiece spreading the gunnels of a boat; used as a seat in a rowboat 
  7. forfeit - something that is lost or surrendered as a penalty
  8. rescind - To cancel a contract
  9. flagrant - onspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
  10. denuded - stripped of all vegetative cover as after a severe disturbance such as a landslide

Complex question

July 25th, 2008

Tags: Religion and Philosophy

Complex question presupposes a hidden meaning. types of complex questions include…

  1. loaded question
    E.g. Are you still beating your wife? 
  2. buttering up
    E.g. Would you wanna be a nice girl and pack up all your toys? 
  3. Legitimately complex questions (not a fallacy)
    Who is the Queen of England?
  4. Illegitimately complex question
    Who is the King of France?
  5. Implied Dilemma (not a fallacy)

vocab

July 24th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

some more words…

  1. acuteness – keenly perceptive
  2. muse – a guiding point/poet
  3. syllogism - A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion
  4. tenous – long and thin
  5. liturgy - A prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship
  6. gargoyles - a carved stone grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building
  7. dirge – mournful hymn
  8. engender - To bring into existence; give rise to

vocab

July 23rd, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

some more words…

  1. gall – bitterness of feeling
  2. connoisseurs – experts in fine arts
  3. preclude – to make impssoble/exclude
  4. mitigate - To moderate (a quality or condition) in force or intensity; alleviate.
  5. ratify - To approve and give formal sanction to; confirm
  6. unfettered – to set free
  7. inscrutable – difficult to understand
  8. perspicacity – acuteness of perception/understanding
  9. Occidentals – Western Christian 
  10. fathom – to comprehend

Normal Distribution

July 22nd, 2008

Tags: Science

Normal distribution/Gaussian distribution has many applications.

All normal density curves satisfy the following property:

 

 

  • 68% of the observations fall within 1? of the mean, that is, between ? – ? and ? + ?.
  • 95% of the observations fall within 2? of the mean, that is, between ? – 2? and ? + 2?.
  • 99.7% of the observations fall within 3? of the mean, that is, between ? – 3? and ? + 3?.
  • Almost all values lie within 3 standard deviations of the mean.

 

Thales Theorum

July 21st, 2008

Tags: Science

 

Thales’ theorem states that if A, B and C are points on a circle where the line AC is a diameter of the circle, then the angle ABC is a right angle. Thales’ theorem is a special case of the inscribed angle theorem.

The converse of Thales’ theorem is also valid; it states that a right triangle’s hypotenuse is a diameter of its circumcircle.

vocab

July 20th, 2008

Tags: Sweska Shares

some words…

  • codify – to systematise
  • veto –  to forbid/prohinit
  • underlay – to support
  • supplant – to displace
  • disingenuous - Not straightforward or candid

‘who’ vs ‘whom’

July 19th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Who

  • answers the subject of the question
  • the answer of the question should be the object form of pronoun
  • E.g. Who wrote the codes? He wrote!

Whom

  • answers the object of the question
  • the answer of the question should be the subject form of pronoun
  • E.g. By whom was the window broken? By him!

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‘each’ vs ‘every’

July 18th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Each

  • means is one by one. 
  • Each can be followed by a verb. E.g. Each soldier received a medal.
  • Each means two. E.g. She was wearing a bangle in each hand.
  • Each can be followed by ‘of’. E.g. I spoke to each of them.
Every
  • Every is an intermediate of each and all, meaning a group. E.g. Every composer …
Verbs with each and every are always conjugated in the singular.

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usage of ‘one of’

July 17th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

there are many ways of using one of:

  • singular verb: one of, one of the, only one of, only one of those
  • plural verb: one of those who, one of the things that

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participial adjectives

July 16th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

When a verb in the participle form is used as an adjective, it is called a participial adjective.

There are 2 forms of participial adjectives:

  1. -ing (present participle): cause of the feeling.  E.g. The drink was refreshing.
  2. -ed (past participle): receiver of the feeling. E.g. I feel refreshed.

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Subordination and Coordination

July 15th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

In English, there are 2 ways to join a sentence: Subordination or Coordination.

Subordination is used for emphasising one part:

Time:  when, whenever, after, as, before, once, since, till, until, now, that, while, as long as, as soon as.
Concession:  though, although, even though, if, while.
Contingency:  if, once
Condition:  if, in case, as long as, unless provided that.
Reason:  because, since, as long as.
Result:  so, so that.
Comparison:  as, just as, as if.
Contrast:  while, whereas.

Coordination is used for equal emphasis:

and, or, but, yet, nor, for. 

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‘rather than’ vs ‘insead of’

July 14th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

What is the difference between rather than and instead of ?

Rather than suggests preference or choice

Instead of suggests replacement.

Use of relative pronouns

July 13th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

Relative pronouns are: that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why.

This table (OWL Purdue) summarises the usage of these pronouns…


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Subject and Object form of Pronouns

July 12th, 2008

Tags: Culture and Society

There are 2 forms of pronouns:

  1. subject form: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
  2. object form: me, you, him, her, it, us, them
These 2 forms are not interchangeable.
Wrong: My sister and me wanted to take a hike!  Right: My sisyer and I wanted to take a hike! 
Wrong: Mike ran after Jack and she.  Right: Mike ran after Jack and her.
And there are some rules on where to use which form:
  • Use subject form: after to be verbs.
    E.g. It is I. It was they. It is she.
  • Use subject form: after than and as.
    E.g. Chuck is taller than I (am). Dolphins are known to be smart as they (are).

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