Things about opencourseware......

It actually starts with University of Tübingen in Germany.

It only became popular with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare at MIT in October 2002...

It was made able thanks to advance of internet technology, such as server, bandwidth etc.

Till now, not so many University offer its courseware content free online....

Most of the university that offer OCW(open courseware) was based in America....

Even so, content shared is still limited.... ( i.e. video lecture limited to certain course and certain lecture only )

For some course( like humanities or socialogy) , open discussion in class still the best way to learn.

Non of Uk top university offer open courseware to the public....

今夜失眠， 浅谈南北大道。财政赤字，公积金局， 火红的股市。

如果你是政府， 想要为人民建造一条道路， 可是财力有限（只能建半条）， 又不甘愿举债( 等于导致预算案赤字 ）。
很自然的选择， 是委托私人财团去建路。

如果你是私人财团， 接到这个委托， 你当然要做一个模型来预测是否能赚钱。 问题一， 相同的例子并不多。
问题二， 当时路上的汽车数量有限， 会使用道路的人群也有限。 问题三， 关于大道使用量的增长充满着不确定性。

于是， 必然的， 政府必须给私人财团一些担保， 以让它们能够赚钱。 这些担保包括了， 低息贷款， 初期成本补贴， 后期的盈利保证等。

可是问题来了， 一， 如果要确保能够盈利的话， 为什么政府不干脆接管?
(答案， 以多国国营企业的效率表明， 这在操作上有很大麻烦。 ）

那政府能不能成为南北大道公司股东， 分享红利？
答案：政府已经这样做了。 国库控股20%， 国库控股独资子公司马友乃德40%， 公积金局10%。 所以当政府赔偿南北大道， 或者人们缴大道过路费时， 其实是从自己的右手把钱转给自己的左手。

关于财政赤字。
97年后， 政府连年财政赤字。

一些数据，
马来西亚的GDP估计为4000亿美金（08年 wikipedia 数据）
政府支出2000亿令吉(09)。赤字GDP的4。8%， 那大概是700-800亿零吉。

国家银行显示国债为3500亿零吉左右。 换句话说， 每个马来西亚人负债1万四千零吉左右。
其中， 公积金局总投资3400亿， 其中960亿在政府债卷， 1370亿在私人债卷上， 另有880亿投资在股市上。

债卷的利息， 这几年一直在稳定下降中， 一方面是国家银行利率政策使然， 一方面是存款增多（比如公积金局的）。 所以决定公积金局投资报酬的， 是股市。

所以你知道在综指跌倒800点时，政府为什么要成立Value Cap 救市吧?

关于火红的股市，
从三月800点到现在1200点， 马来西亚的经济并没有好转（9月出口和入口都下跌了20%).
可是，
1。M3的货币来到了9300亿。
2。 公积金存款增多， 投资股市是一个必然的选择。
3。 银行利率低落， 相比之下， 股市提供的年利率回酬就是一个更合理的选择。
结论， 和今年年初做出的不同， 股市长期走稳， 直到市场发现和现实（股息， 经济指标）相差太远时。

最后， 关于公积金局，
当公积金局的存款数额上升率比通货膨胀+经济增长快时， 投资回报率下跌是个必然的结果，
能承接投资的， 剩下三个安全的地方。
政府债卷， 私人债卷， 以及股市。

于是， 要吗， 政府继续财政赤字， 制造更多债卷，
或私人界发行更多的债卷，而这取决于大范围的经济增长。
或股市持续增长。

潜台词，
一， 游资过剩
二， 短期间内政府收缩赤字， 实现财政盈余是不可能的。
三， 政府， 公积金会继续支撑股市， 经济。

One of the few times, we are better than Singaporean, ( one of the few times only....)

There is these two economists called Raymond Fishman and Edward Miguel.
They had written a book name Economic Gangsters---Corruption , Violence and the poverty of Nations. .

They tried to find some ingenious way to measure a country's culture against corruption, for example, giving some people from the country with a law break immunity and see how will they act according to it.

The measures, taken for UN diplomats in highly congested New York city, to see how much parking violation the Diplomats from each country commit.

As a results, our neighbour Singaporean , ends up with 3.6 violations per diplomats.
While we, Malaysian, proudly commit violations of 1.4 per diplomats.

Although the corruption index for singapore is -2.50 during time of measures and Malaysian is -0.73 ( the more negative the better ) .

And, skipped the money if you want to bought the book as it just academic reports only.... :)

My experience in building own PC III ( the building process )

like i said on my previous post , all my parts came at Friday, 9 October. Which was the date i built my own desktop for the first time.

I started with the casing, where installing an extra fan on side panel , the Power Supply unit, and the Optical Drive were quite Easy. Then i went out to see my personal tutor.

After back from tutor meeting, i resume my work by installing the Hard disk first. However, i became more careful as the components i started to handle is easily destroy by Electro Static Discharge.

Next, i opened up the packing of processor and Motherboard, and start by lifting the seal of the processor socket on the motherboard. Carefully , i put the processor inside the socket, but when it came to closing the cover for the processor, i became hesitated as i need to apply a force, which might damage the processor. But then , i thought, (the processor) is underwarranty by the way, hence i did it.

The CPU heatsink and cooler dont take me much time and effort, as i simply keep the 'warantty' in mind when putting it in place.

Same happened when installing my RAM, as i done it 3 years before, i knew i had to push the Module in the Socket so that the RAM gripped firmly by the motherboard.

Installing my Motherboard Bundle to my casing, would be a little tricky, as the screw holes on the motherboard wont allign to their counterpart on the casing without using a force to hold them.

Installing my Graphic Processor Unit onto the motherboard however, nearly scared me off. As the only thing that connect the motherboard and GPU, and hence hold the GPU from falling/Bending due to its weight, was the tiny little PCI-E 2.0 socket.

Next came the most annoying part, connecting the cables, and did some cable management to avoid obstructing the air flow.

last, when i wanna put my side panel back to casing, the problem arose when i realized i cant connected the power cable to the fan. I had to unscrew the fan, plug in the power cable first, then screw it back to the side panel.

And yeah, after installing the OS things blah blah blah, the system is kicking and running with a Virtual Mark score of 13300.

PS : i would like to try overclocking after 2 or 3 years.
PPS: So, if you wanna built your desktop and dont mind be the white rats, give me a call,
PPPS: If you have the patient to read till this point, i would like to invite you for a HD movie-time in my room, ;p

My experience in building own PC II ( choosing the parts )

First thing came to my mind was Graphic processor Unit, which will handle the graphic and determined the gaming experience i will have. For these, the top of the line model like Geforce Gtx 295 or ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics as introduced before are just way too expensive for me. While the cheaper option , like Geforce Gtx 220 or ATI Radeon HD 4770 wouldnt delivered the power i want. So its actually narrow down to a choice between Geforce GTX 260 core 216 and ATI Radeon 4870. With price and performance both similar, its actually a choice between the Green ( Nvidia ) and the Red ( ATI ) . However , the Green that run cooler and draw less power got my vote.

The sites that i look for reviews were Anandtech and Tom'shardware.

Second Choice was made between still pricey DDR3 platform or cheaper but getting obsolete DDR2 platform. With higher frequency, DDR 3 do offer some although slight performance bonus. My concerned would be with computer component obsolete fast in 3 or 4 years cycle, DDR2 may be phased out within next few years. Upgradewise, Replacewise, i had no option but DDR3. The one i got from Novatech was 4GB DDR3 1600mhz C7 from G-Skill which costed me 80 pound. For whom who didnt know, C7 was the latency of the RAM, which determine how long it counts per cycle. Therefore, lower is better and the lowest one you can get now will probably be C6. Another thing to look at is the voltage they draw, as far as i know, low voltage like 1.60-1.65v was essential for the system to run stable.

Third choice was about the processor, the central processor unit. Not an offence to AMD fans but, i ruled out AMD processor earlier as Intel do Dominated the Desktop CPU market. At first , it was a choice between intel core i7 and Core 2 Quad, where the expensive i7 and its even expensive motherboard ( cheapest 140 here) set me aback. However, the upcoming intel core i5 promised a better performance than Quad core but significance less expensive than i7. Where i waiting for it as stated before. Ordered one from Novatech , and get a Asus motherboard for 100 pound as well.

The Optical drive, and internal Hard disk would be just a matter of personal choice. As the existing brand on the market have similar price point and performance.

As for Casing, i will need a good one which offer good airflow but not too expensive. Where Antec 300 would be my choice.

Last but not list, was the Power Supply Unit. I wouldn't want to risk damaging the whole system by buying some cheap but low quality generic PSU, and i cant affod to buy those powerful 1000w + branded Psu as they cost too much. ( You wouldnt buy a 300 pound PSU just for a 600 pound system, would you?) . Initially i would like a Modular PSU for good cable management inside the casing, but the price difference between Modular and Non modular is quite significance. ( 15 pound for same Watts from OCZ). So i finally Grab the OCZ StealthXtreme 700W PSU.

Afterall, the parts left were just accessories which was a matter of personal choice. I grab a set of cheap speaker ( i cant roam in my room now... ) , a keyboard, an Edimax wireless adapter for networking, and a Belkin Toolbox for assembly.

Box of processor
Graphic processor unit

Motherboard

Power supply unit

My experience in building own PC...

Ok. In October 2009 i had successfully bought and built my own desktop. So this post just merely share the experience.

I shall start from choosing parts first...

The first thing i looking for is full HD ( 1080p) widescreen monitor. Full HD means the monitor must support resolution up to 1920x1080 . Initially i came across this nice 23" acer x233 hb model, unfortunately, the monitor only come with vga input. Hence, i started looking around in Amazon, looking for some widescreen monitor price below 200pound. There were some nice monitor from LG, Acer, and Viewsonic, Until i came across this BenQ G2420HD model, which support DVI and HDMI input at a low price like 160 pound.

Then, i started wondering wether i can get better deal on internet. Hence, i googled it out, and came across oyyy.co.uk which sell it below 150 pound( the cheapest option i could get). Ordered on Friday choosing free delivery services, they shipped it out on next Monday with DPD , where DPD delivered it on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the DPD guy messed up my address so the parcel signed return by the wrong guy. I had to call them again on Wednesday, where they finally handed the parcel to me on Thursday. Which is better than my friend's experience with DHL. However, i didnt realize the model came with vga cable only! which is a shame that oyyy.co.uk people shud indicate this.

Next thing i considered was wether i should built the base unit myself, or ordered it on online dealer website. After surveying around, i found 3 websites offer competitive price for custom built computer, thats desktop option,pc specialist , and cougar extreme. Desktop option offer a good price with good component, but after i searching around for customer review in pc advisor forum, it seemed their customer service was in doubt. Pc Specialist offer cheap price for more reliable customer service than desktop option, however, 10-13 working days just too long for me as anything could happened. Cougar extreme on the other hand, carried with great reputation though a little bit pricey than the other two. However, they dont have the power supply unit that i want. So i figured i better built myself which can save me 50 pounds over buying from cougar extreme, where the money could be use to buy window 7 for 30 pound.

After a bit survey, i decided to bought my part from Novatech. Ordered on Tuesday, their people called me on wednesday to clear some debit card issue. They shipped it out on Thursday where i got it from Parcel force on Friday. Which is Good!

To see what comes to my mind when choosing my components, please kindly read the next post.


The comparison between my monitor and my laptop lcd monitor, noticed how small my laptop's one is....

One of us.... ( Jpa and non jpa scholar look inside)

Just to spread the message....


ChenChow Yeoh 04 October at 17:07 Reply
Dear all JPA Scholars,

Hope that all of you are doing great at any corner of the world.

I have just come across this info that one of the JPA Scholars - Yeoh Yen Kee, SPM 2007, who was supposed to go to Czech Republic to study medicine, had to forgo her dream to be a doctor, due to leukemia.

Currently, she is waiting to do bone marrow transplant, and her family is in need of donation to fund her medical treatments.

You can get the info at http://helpyenkee.co.cc

Hope that you can donate or help to spread the words around.

Thanks.