Wow! A few weeks ago I submitted NUT live cam web site (managed by Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory NUT) to EarthCam. And just today, I received an email...
+++Start+++
EarthCam is pleased to announce that your webcam has been chosen as one of our Top 10 Cams.
The Top 10 Cams are chosen each week by EarthCam based on quality of image, uniqueness of content and overall technical achievements in webcam technology.
We encourage you to add an official "Top 10 Cams" award tile (or a text link that fits the style
of your site) to your website so your visitors can appreciate this award you have received and see your camera in the context of the winners list. You can access your award tile here
Go to see the complete list of winners.
Please review your description... if you would like more information about your webcam included on the site, please send us an email.
Congratulations!
+++End+++
FYI, please note that, I submitted NUT Live Cam to promote NUT and not in any way to inform them that I am the owner of NUT live cam site.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Be 'GREEN', check-out this 'bolt-on' Hybrid System!
Owning a non-hybrid vehicle, but somehow interested to get hold of a hybrid with the desire to be 'Green'. Well, now that is possible!
Connaught, a small-scale auto manufacturer based in the UK has developed a 'bolt-on' Hybrid System. This auxiliary 'mild hybrid system', known as Hibrid+, has been tested on Tesco's Ford Transit Cargo Vans.
Connaught Chief Designer, Geoff Matthews expects a reduction in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of between 15 and 20%—and possibly 25%—depending on the cycle, traffic conditions, and driver. Servicing of the Hybrid+ system is required every 30,000 mi (48,000 km).
Read More Here
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Real time Monitoring of nanoGrays. 柏崎刈羽原子力発電所/リアルタ
Please click this link for the realtime info.
I hope the monitoring works well enough to tell the real story!
FYI: The standard unit of radiation dose rate used in environmental monitoring is nGy/h (nanograys per hour). One gray is the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation, corresponding to one joule per kilogram - one nanogray is one billionth of a gray. (source:jaea)
I hope the monitoring works well enough to tell the real story!
FYI: The standard unit of radiation dose rate used in environmental monitoring is nGy/h (nanograys per hour). One gray is the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation, corresponding to one joule per kilogram - one nanogray is one billionth of a gray. (source:jaea)
'KANBAN', a JIT philosophy
The problems of Inventory control (Piston Rings) has been revealed after the ChuetsuOkiJishin last monday.
Read more about this here
Anyway, if you have already noticed, there is a book in our lab entitled 'THE TOYOTA WAY'. Please find the book on the rack just behind Ishihara san's desk. Some details on Kanban is available in the book, you can start with page 23.
Read more about this here
Anyway, if you have already noticed, there is a book in our lab entitled 'THE TOYOTA WAY'. Please find the book on the rack just behind Ishihara san's desk. Some details on Kanban is available in the book, you can start with page 23.
SUV airbags
A few blogs back, I wrote an article on SUV (4WD) accidents.
Recently, there is an interesting development on Airbags for SUV.
FYI, the fatality risk for pedestrian is 2.5 X higher in SUV impacts than other regular cars and most regular cars that are in collision with SUV also suffers. As for that, a special airbags for SUV are being put to test. These are 'New Front Edge Airbag' and 'Bumper Airbag'. These are very special and not the normally known type of airbags. Please check here for full story.
Recently, there is an interesting development on Airbags for SUV.
FYI, the fatality risk for pedestrian is 2.5 X higher in SUV impacts than other regular cars and most regular cars that are in collision with SUV also suffers. As for that, a special airbags for SUV are being put to test. These are 'New Front Edge Airbag' and 'Bumper Airbag'. These are very special and not the normally known type of airbags. Please check here for full story.
.nyc TLD?
For us in GII, it is common to hear ccTLD, gTLD...But, how about cityTLD? Have you ever heard of a so called "City Top Level Domain".
Imagine having .tyo (probably .tyom - we need good abbreviation for this) for Tokyo & Tokyo Metropolitan TLD and .kl or .klc for Kuala Lumpur & Kuala Lumpur City, respectively. Not only these two, for all major cities in the world too.
Can you imagine the prospect of our Crawler and LIM regarding this matter?
New York City is pushing hard to acquire its own cityTLD. Please read more info on .nyc
acquisition campaign here
Imagine having .tyo (probably .tyom - we need good abbreviation for this) for Tokyo & Tokyo Metropolitan TLD and .kl or .klc for Kuala Lumpur & Kuala Lumpur City, respectively. Not only these two, for all major cities in the world too.
Can you imagine the prospect of our Crawler and LIM regarding this matter?
New York City is pushing hard to acquire its own cityTLD. Please read more info on .nyc
acquisition campaign here
"REINTERPRETING The Concept of Malay values and attitudes"
It really opened up my eyes just now, when Mikami Sensei mentioned about 'reinterpreting the concept of Malay values and attitudes'. He was actually suggesting to me that, look at Malay values and attitudes from the perspective of 'objectivity' rather than 'subjectivity'.
I will again search for literatures on Malay concept and attitudes, but this time looking at their functional purpose especially towards achieving organizational objectives etc...Anyway the established list of concepts words are shown here.
I will again search for literatures on Malay concept and attitudes, but this time looking at their functional purpose especially towards achieving organizational objectives etc...Anyway the established list of concepts words are shown here.
- Apologetic
- Generosity
- Relationships
- Cooperative
- Good Manners
- Respect for elders
- Faith in God
- Harmony
- Rituals
- Family oriented
- Loyalty
- Self respect
- Food/Ceremonies
- Not aggressive
- Sincerity
- Formalities
- Patience
- Tolerance
From Dahlan (cited in Muthaly et. al 2005:200)
Muthaly, S., et. Al. (2005). Malaysia: ASEANS's cultural mine. Retrieved
January 10, 2007 from www.vuw.ac.nz/~caplabtb/m302w06/Malaysia_ASEAN.pdf
An extract on "Connotative Meanings" from a paper
I was reading a paper passed to me by Robin Sensei. The title is "The Pragmatics of Connotation", Journal of Pragmatics 39 (2007), pp. 1047-1057. Written by Keith Allan. Here I would like to provide an extract of some important points that is very related to my research and might be useful for you too.
"...connotative meanings are related to Speaker’s real-world experience, they will vary from
community to community to a greater extent than denotative meanings. Insulting comparisons of people with animals rely on certain conventionally ascribed behaviours, i.e. on encyclopaedic knowledge, experiences, beliefs, and prejudices about the animal. These pragmatic effects attach to the animal name and endow it with the potential for figurative application to humans that are thereby ascribed similar behaviours. There are semantic constraints such as that names of female animals can normally be used only in naming or addressing women and male homosexuals: e.g. a cat is typically a "vicious and/or scratchy woman"; but a pussy is used (mostly in America) to insult a male for being "effeminate, homosexual" and occasionally of a female for having a "weak character" (it is also slang for a femme "lesbian who adopts the feminine role"); a bitch is a "(usually nasty) woman held in contempt"; a vixen is a "cunning, perhaps sneaky, woman"; cow and sow don’t differ much, they generally denote a "woman disliked, who is typically doltish" – and there are connotations of being fat, too, cf. the commonly used fat cow/sow. Some animal names are typically used of men: mongrel, cur or swine denotes a "vicious, nasty fellow, held in contempt" (comparable with cat and bitch of women); a fox denotes a "cunning man", compare vixen ( foxy lady is a compliment to the sexiness of a woman); a bull is for a "big, often rather clumsy, man"; stallion, goat or ram can be used of a "horny/randy man". Figurative extensions like animal names applied to humans seem to rely on the pragmatic effects of their connotation to a greater extent than on sense or denotation. Note that although connotation is distinct from denotation, it is to some extent dependent on denotata as the objects of knowledge or belief."
I believe that the modification of standard Malay word into a new spelling variety, I called it Evolutionized Malay, has many reasons. Not only to achieve simplification or economization, as normally argued by almost everybody, another would be for the "spoken-style" mode. And another important factor is about expressing feelings or suggesting "some" ideas by means of spelling alterations. My point is 'Expression', which has strong relationship with the connotation of words that are purposely written in a non-standard spelling within computer-mediated communication (CMC).
"...connotative meanings are related to Speaker’s real-world experience, they will vary from
community to community to a greater extent than denotative meanings. Insulting comparisons of people with animals rely on certain conventionally ascribed behaviours, i.e. on encyclopaedic knowledge, experiences, beliefs, and prejudices about the animal. These pragmatic effects attach to the animal name and endow it with the potential for figurative application to humans that are thereby ascribed similar behaviours. There are semantic constraints such as that names of female animals can normally be used only in naming or addressing women and male homosexuals: e.g. a cat is typically a "vicious and/or scratchy woman"; but a pussy is used (mostly in America) to insult a male for being "effeminate, homosexual" and occasionally of a female for having a "weak character" (it is also slang for a femme "lesbian who adopts the feminine role"); a bitch is a "(usually nasty) woman held in contempt"; a vixen is a "cunning, perhaps sneaky, woman"; cow and sow don’t differ much, they generally denote a "woman disliked, who is typically doltish" – and there are connotations of being fat, too, cf. the commonly used fat cow/sow. Some animal names are typically used of men: mongrel, cur or swine denotes a "vicious, nasty fellow, held in contempt" (comparable with cat and bitch of women); a fox denotes a "cunning man", compare vixen ( foxy lady is a compliment to the sexiness of a woman); a bull is for a "big, often rather clumsy, man"; stallion, goat or ram can be used of a "horny/randy man". Figurative extensions like animal names applied to humans seem to rely on the pragmatic effects of their connotation to a greater extent than on sense or denotation. Note that although connotation is distinct from denotation, it is to some extent dependent on denotata as the objects of knowledge or belief."
I believe that the modification of standard Malay word into a new spelling variety, I called it Evolutionized Malay, has many reasons. Not only to achieve simplification or economization, as normally argued by almost everybody, another would be for the "spoken-style" mode. And another important factor is about expressing feelings or suggesting "some" ideas by means of spelling alterations. My point is 'Expression', which has strong relationship with the connotation of words that are purposely written in a non-standard spelling within computer-mediated communication (CMC).
Brief Introduction to Semantic Differential (SD) Analysis
A second investigation in my thesis was measuring the type and level of expressive properties of Standard Malay (SM) and Evolutionized Malay (EM) words by utilizing Semantic Differential (SD) analysis. The expressive properties here are known as connotative meanings which are often perceived as a suggestion, hint or idea to readers. Such connotative meanings are different
than the normal meaning or the literal meaning of a word. Here, I will briefly show what SD analysis is all about.
Most : Slight : Neutral : Slight : Most
Aggressive _____:_______:_______:_________:________ Non Aggresive
Figure 1. Part of the 5-point bipolar adjective scale for one adjective pair.
Figure 1 shows part of the evaluation sheet of the 5-bipolar adjective scale. The Aggressive - Non Aggressive bipolar adjective pair is presented here as an example. The same kind of scale was used for all 15 adjective pairs. As my study was to evaluate the type and level of connotative meanings for Malay words, all words written in the survey instruments were in Malay language.
More about SD analysis can be found here.
Sweden opening up an Embassy "In-World' aka "Second Life"
"Second Life is an exciting development of the
virtual world. A country that wishes to show that it
at least has the ambition to be at the forefront of
development of course has to be in it"[1]
Swedish minister of foreign affairs, Carl Bildt
The 30th of May, Sweden will be the first country in the world to
open an official Embassy within Second Life, the online 3D multi user
environment owned by Linden Lab. The project is initiated by the
Swedish Institute[2](a culture and marketing department of the Swedish
ministry of foreign affairs, and according to the official blog even
Sweden's "road warrior for peace" the minister of foreign affairs as
well as former head of state, Carl Bildt, himself will attend the
opening[3]. But what happens when a specific mode of representation is
transferred to a new context? In this case a building for bilateral
governmental representation is transferred to a private corporation.
/Linda Hilfling - MA Media Design Student Piet Zwart Institute ,
Rotterdam, May 2007
R e f e r e n c e s:
-----------------------
[1] From Carl Bildt's personal blog from the 30th of
January 2007. The blog entry was Bildt's response
after for the first time acquiring the news about the
Swedish embassy in Second Life via a BBC-news article.
The entry is called 'Heja Olle Wästberg" and is aimed
at the director of the Swedish institute Olle
Wästberg:
http://carlbildt.wordpress.com
olle-wastberg/
[2] Official announcement by the Swedish Institute,
Jan 2007:
http://www.si.se/templates
[3]
http://secondhouseofsweden.com
second-house-of-sweden/
The word "INFORMATION" in your language?
I wonder what is the translation of the word "Information" in your language?
For Malay, nowadays it is called 'informasi'. Yes...it is noticable that such word was influenced by English* language or probably adapted from English language into Malay vocabulary. But originally, the Malay speakers have been using their own word, that is 'maklumat' and even less than 10 years ago, many Malaysian uses the word 'maklumat' rather than 'informasi'. My point is...at least in Malay, such very important word, "Information" also has its corressponding word written in Malay. Also in Nihonggo, the word 情報 （じょうほう） is Information. The question is, have you ever thought or maybe found any language that are using exactly the same variety such as the word "information" used in English.
Also, how about looking for the translation of the word "DATA" in your language?
I am curious, if an original version of the word 'information' (or 'data') are not found in a language, can we assume that...the language community doesnt deal with 'information' in their daily life???
Translation of the word 'information' in several languages**
Arabic: مَعلومات
Chinese (Simplified): 信息
Chinese (Traditional): 信息
Czech: informace; vědomost
Danish: information; oplysning
Dutch: informatie
Estonian: teave
Finnish: tieto
French: renseignement, information
German: die Information
Greek: πληροφορίες
Hungarian: felvilágosítás, információ
Icelandic: upplÿsingar
Indonesian: informasi
Italian: informazione
Japanese: 情報
Korean: 정보
Latvian: informācija; ziņas
Lithuanian: informacija
Norwegian: opplysning(er), orientering, informasjon
Polish: informacja
Portuguese (Brazil): informação, informe
Portuguese (Portugal): informação
Romanian: informaţie; ştire
Russian: сведения; информация
Slovak: údaj, správa, oznam, informácia
Slovenian: informacija
Spanish: información
Swedish: information
Turkish: bilgi, haber
*- 1387, "act of informing," from O.Fr. informacion, from L. informationem (nom. informatio) "outline, concept, idea," noun of action from informare (see inform). Meaning "knowledge communicated" is from c.1450. Short form info is attested from 1906. Info-mercial and info-tainment are from 1983. information. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/information
**-information. (n.d.). Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/information
For Malay, nowadays it is called 'informasi'. Yes...it is noticable that such word was influenced by English* language or probably adapted from English language into Malay vocabulary. But originally, the Malay speakers have been using their own word, that is 'maklumat' and even less than 10 years ago, many Malaysian uses the word 'maklumat' rather than 'informasi'. My point is...at least in Malay, such very important word, "Information" also has its corressponding word written in Malay. Also in Nihonggo, the word 情報 （じょうほう） is Information. The question is, have you ever thought or maybe found any language that are using exactly the same variety such as the word "information" used in English.
Also, how about looking for the translation of the word "DATA" in your language?
I am curious, if an original version of the word 'information' (or 'data') are not found in a language, can we assume that...the language community doesnt deal with 'information' in their daily life???
Translation of the word 'information' in several languages**
Arabic: مَعلومات
Chinese (Simplified): 信息
Chinese (Traditional): 信息
Czech: informace; vědomost
Danish: information; oplysning
Dutch: informatie
Estonian: teave
Finnish: tieto
French: renseignement, information
German: die Information
Greek: πληροφορίες
Hungarian: felvilágosítás, információ
Icelandic: upplÿsingar
Indonesian: informasi
Italian: informazione
Japanese: 情報
Korean: 정보
Latvian: informācija; ziņas
Lithuanian: informacija
Norwegian: opplysning(er), orientering, informasjon
Polish: informacja
Portuguese (Brazil): informação, informe
Portuguese (Portugal): informação
Romanian: informaţie; ştire
Russian: сведения; информация
Slovak: údaj, správa, oznam, informácia
Slovenian: informacija
Spanish: información
Swedish: information
Turkish: bilgi, haber
*- 1387, "act of informing," from O.Fr. informacion, from L. informationem (nom. informatio) "outline, concept, idea," noun of action from informare (see inform). Meaning "knowledge communicated" is from c.1450. Short form info is attested from 1906. Info-mercial and info-tainment are from 1983. information. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/information
**-information. (n.d.). Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/information
Road Accidents in Malaysia- 4WD vs Smaller Vehicle
I was reading an online newspaper about a fatal accident happened in a small town in Malaysia today. Three person from a family killed on the spot. Head on collison, involving a car and a 4WD vehicle aka Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).
SUV is considered a safe and convenient vehicle perceived by many people from my home state, that is Sabah. This is because, Sabah roads are not as good as in Peninsular Malaysia, where the big city named Kuala Lumpur is located. As for that, many people owns 4WD although the market price is considered quite expensive compared to similar capacity vehicle. However, "Road Tax" is a lot cheaper in Sabah (East Malaysia) compared to Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) - most roads in Sabah are not sealed with tarmac.
OK...my main story is actually about road accidents- which involved SUV vehicles.
SUV vehicles are built with bumpers that are positioned higher (from the road surface level) than other non SUVs. So what is the point of having a BUMPER? It triggers my memory of having read an article about the purpose of bumpers fitted on a vehicle, (I was around 7 yrs old at that time). Most vehicle have steel, rubber or plastic bumpers. Some even fitted with 'shock absorbers' (Nissan Sunny 130Y, 1980s car) and also filled with foams in order to absorb the impact of any collision. I think SUVs are not designed based on this basics, not only the bumpers are not the same height as other vehicle, but also it is made of very hard steel.
Just imagine when an SUV collided with the lateral side of a car, not only the car has to absorb more energy from the collision, but at the same time the SUV bumper will penetrate into the car and could cause severe injury or maybe fatal incident.
Another thing is about the higher tendency for SUV to roll-over. The height of SUV is relatively higher than others, this would increased the Center of Gravity (CG) for SUVs. And this, will promote to higher possiblity for SUVs to roll-over. This is a very dangerous situation, it is even worst with the stiffer body an SUVs have. Tilting and rolling over on other smaller sized vehicles could occur, the rolling SUV with its weight and stiffer body could easily "sandwiched" a smaller sized cars . Again, smaller cars have to absorb the impact of such collission.
I have my experience driving many types of SUVs, there are many not-so-good experiences...however, with some tips from many SUV owners, I did learn many precautions and I will keep it as a good practice when I purchase my own SUV in future.
SUV is considered a safe and convenient vehicle perceived by many people from my home state, that is Sabah. This is because, Sabah roads are not as good as in Peninsular Malaysia, where the big city named Kuala Lumpur is located. As for that, many people owns 4WD although the market price is considered quite expensive compared to similar capacity vehicle. However, "Road Tax" is a lot cheaper in Sabah (East Malaysia) compared to Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) - most roads in Sabah are not sealed with tarmac.
OK...my main story is actually about road accidents- which involved SUV vehicles.
SUV vehicles are built with bumpers that are positioned higher (from the road surface level) than other non SUVs. So what is the point of having a BUMPER? It triggers my memory of having read an article about the purpose of bumpers fitted on a vehicle, (I was around 7 yrs old at that time). Most vehicle have steel, rubber or plastic bumpers. Some even fitted with 'shock absorbers' (Nissan Sunny 130Y, 1980s car) and also filled with foams in order to absorb the impact of any collision. I think SUVs are not designed based on this basics, not only the bumpers are not the same height as other vehicle, but also it is made of very hard steel.
Just imagine when an SUV collided with the lateral side of a car, not only the car has to absorb more energy from the collision, but at the same time the SUV bumper will penetrate into the car and could cause severe injury or maybe fatal incident.
Another thing is about the higher tendency for SUV to roll-over. The height of SUV is relatively higher than others, this would increased the Center of Gravity (CG) for SUVs. And this, will promote to higher possiblity for SUVs to roll-over. This is a very dangerous situation, it is even worst with the stiffer body an SUVs have. Tilting and rolling over on other smaller sized vehicles could occur, the rolling SUV with its weight and stiffer body could easily "sandwiched" a smaller sized cars . Again, smaller cars have to absorb the impact of such collission.
I have my experience driving many types of SUVs, there are many not-so-good experiences...however, with some tips from many SUV owners, I did learn many precautions and I will keep it as a good practice when I purchase my own SUV in future.
My first 'say' in my first own BLOG :)
This is my first blog...yea, I mean my own... Anyway, I have posted few articles in my official blog page before...
I will fill this blog with articles pertaining to my passion and interests. I believe that as this blog blooms with many useful information, I will be practicing my writing skills quite a lot at least by putting my idea or perspective in 'textual' form.
My dream is to be able to provide information that are useful for everyone and I hope that it will be useful for you too!
K...CU Later
自分のＢＬＯＧですが、いろいろな情報書きたいです！
あと。。。一番のＣＯＮＴＥＮＴＳは私の趣味です！
じゃ。。。また ねええ！
I will fill this blog with articles pertaining to my passion and interests. I believe that as this blog blooms with many useful information, I will be practicing my writing skills quite a lot at least by putting my idea or perspective in 'textual' form.
My dream is to be able to provide information that are useful for everyone and I hope that it will be useful for you too!
K...CU Later
自分のＢＬＯＧですが、いろいろな情報書きたいです！
あと。。。一番のＣＯＮＴＥＮＴＳは私の趣味です！
じゃ。。。また ねええ！
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