Test 2 Dates

The following are the dates for your upcoming Test 2:

• IT102/CS1201 - 5 August 2008 (Tuesday)
• IT204 - 7 August 2008 (Thursday)
• IT203 - 11 August 2008 (Monday)
• IT206 - 13 August 2008 (Wednesday)

You should know what time and where they will be held. Be on time.

Following Simple Instructions

Are our youths so completely hopeless? Can they not follow simple instructions that have been given to them again and again?

Case in point - my current IT102/CS1201 students.

I have given them very specific instructions on how to submit their lab assignments to me through e-mail.

• I have given them the instructions in class (repeatedly, week after week after week).
  
• I have also given them the same instructions on my web page here.
  
• I have also given them instructions again through e-mails when they make mistakes while e-mailing me their first lab assignments.
  

Yet, a number of them are still making stupid mistakes when submitting their lab assignments. And this is pissing me off. Really, my patience is wearing thin.

Shall we look at my instructions and see if they are really so impossible to follow? Let's see:

1. Submission dates of the respective lab assignments will be given in class.
2. Please submit no later than 5 pm on the day of submission to my hotmail account: phfoong@hotmail.com. Late submissions will NOT be accepted (read ZERO marks); unless you have a very good reason. Please don't tell me that your dog ate your computer...
3. Each lab assignment is to be submitted in ONE email. Attach all your .cpp files ONLY to that ONE email. The subject of the email must state the lab number that you are submitting.
4. Include your name and student ID in every email that you send to me.

What? Only 4 steps to follow? You must be kidding me? It takes more steps than that to make myself a bowl of instant noodles!!! And some of these students drive themselves to college??!! No wonder road accidents are at an all-time high. How do you expect them to follow the huge multitude of traffic rules when they cannot even follow my simple instructions?

20 Spillover Effects of the Petrol Hike

It is certain that there will be spillover effects on the Malaysian population as a result of the recent petrol hike. Here are 20 effects that I can think of:

1. Energy price hike (this has already been announced by the government, of course)
2. Food price increase (even though the government is subsidizing the essential foods)
   
3. Transport service fee increase (lorries, buses, airplanes, taxis, etc...)
4. Public transport nightmare (as more and more people will use the inadequate public transport system)
   
5. Products containing oil or oil derivatives will increase in price (detergents, soap, etc)
   
6. Grocery price increase (higher costs like transportation and plastic packaging will cause even groceries to shoot up in price)
7. Cinema tickets go up (cinema halls will cost more to cool with the energy price hike)
8. Healthcare to cost more (ambulance will cost more to operate, energy price hike will affect cost of running a hospital)
9. Poverty rate increase (the borderline poor will be re-classified as poor with more things becoming un-affordable to them)
   
10. Increased crime rate (robberies, thefts)
11. Family ties will suffer (parents are under stress to earn more, thereby reducing the time that they can spend with their family members)
    
12. Purchasing power of consumers will fall (less visits to the mall)
13. Food and beverage industry will suffer (more Malaysians will eat at home)
    
14. Entertainment industry will slow (reduction of cinema-goers and concert-goers)
    
15. Domestic tourism will suffer (consumers will try to save on un-necessary trips)
16. Companies may need to cut jobs - possibly causing increased unemployment?
    
17. Car sales go down
18. Possible economic downturn
    
19. Political instability (the government has certainly lost popularity with this move)
20. Loss of foreign investments (political instability in the country might scare off investors)
    

I believe all of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, I'm no economics student. So, I might have missed out quite a few. What else can you think of?

Petrol Price Hike

Unless you have been living under a rock, by now you should know that the Malaysian government has drastically increased the price of fuel. Most people (myself included) already expected a fuel price hike sometime this year, but I don't think anybody expected this huge a jump.

Before the general election, they promised that there will be no increase in fuel price (I didn't really believe that nonsense anyway, did you?).

Two months after the election, you hear them saying that will have to review the fuel subsidy. About the same time, some other government official also said that the government has no plans to raise fuel prices. By this time, most people were expecting a fuel hike soon.

Then on 2nd June, we get news that fuel price may rise come August. Still OK, we still got two months to prepare. And two days after that? BAAMM!! Our Prime Minister hit us with the mother of all bombs!

What the hell??!! Why does our government keep doing that? One moment they tell us, "No-lar, we're just reviewing the subsidy only, maybe in August will increase". The next moment, they say, "Tomorrow all fuel prices will increase by 40%! It's for the good of the country!".

I really cannot understand why they have to announce something so important at the eleventh hour and create chaos in the country. How will the people ever live normal lives if the government keep dropping bombshells like this?

Remember the general election? "No elections yet. Don't listen to rumours-lah". The next day - "Listen up everyone! The whole country will go to the polls this weekend." So, if you had a wedding event planned for that fateful weekend, you might as well kiss the event that you painstakingly planned ONE YEAR ago goodbye. Everybody you know will need to exercise their voting rights - so, the only ones who will be attending the most important event in your life will be you, your wife-to-be, and your relatives who are too young to vote.

But I digress.

I really wonder if our government thought it through before they implemented the fuel hike. Have they actually performed a study to see how this hike will affect the lives of the average Malaysian? Did they really think the country was ready for such a whopping increase?

Is our public transport system ready to handle it if suddenly 20% of all private vehicle owners suddenly decided to use the public transport to travel to work? Our public transport system which cannot provide a consistently punctual service even now?

The domino effect of this sudden move will be seen very soon. In fact, I heard that some school bus operators have already informed their clients that they have to increase their fees starting Monday.

How will the average Malaysian cope? If I ever find out how, I'll let you know.

Lecture Slides Added to Site

I have added some slides that I use in my lectures to my website.

At the moment, I have only completed adding slides for IT104 Internet Technologies. I have also started uploading slides for IT102/CS1201 Programming Methodologies with C++. Although, you can only see 2 slides now, more will be added soon.

I'm using 4shared.com to help me facilitate this sharing of files. It's a very good way of storing and sharing files online. I have found that the user interface is very clean and intuitive. You'll learn how to use it in a jiffy. Moreover, it's free to sign up and you'll immediately get 5 GBs of storage space online! The only catch is you need to login to your account every 30 days or they'll delete all your content. A pretty small price to pay for such a good service, don't you agree?

However, if there are any problems with downloading the files, please do let me know.

The Beginning of Another Semester

Today, the May 2008 semester begins.

There will be an orientation today for the new students. So, all my classes will only commence tomorrow.

If you are confused with everything that is happening (i.e. subject registrations, classroom clashes, classrooms packed like sardines, lectures cancelled even though they should be on, lectures starting without you, etc), don't fret - I'm just as confused as you! Let's just hope all these things get fixed real soon.

Exams Are Over!

By now, most of my students would have finished sitting for their examinations. I do not know if they still have their Religious/Moral Studies exam paper to take, but I know for a fact that the sitting for my papers have ended.

In fact, I have been steadily marking exam papers for a few days now. I should be marking them now, but I've decided to take a short break and just write abit. Just a little distraction for me. It's exhausting work, I tell you...

Well, dear students. How was it? Too easy (I believe most of it is!)? Or too tough? Either way, you should take the time to relax now and go have some fun. Do not worry about the results yet (some of you have started asking me about it already...). All will be revealed in due time - and according to my calculations, sometime around the end of May or maybe early June. Don't quote me on that though. Only the Exam Unit will know.

Ok, enough of ranting.

With my trusty red ball-point pen and an almost empty strip of Paracetamol, I now go back to the pile of exam papers on my desk...