Dreamboard Endroid in Celsius

Unfortunately, the details are a little tricky, but I’ll explain them as carefully as I possibly can below.

Step 1 – Install OpenSSH

OpenSSH allows you to log into your iPhone as if it were a computer, and tinker around with the files on it. Go to Cydia, search for OpenSSH, then install it.

Step 2 – Log on to your iPhone

If you have a terminal program installed on your jailbroken iPhone, you can use that to log on. Do so, and go straight to Step 2b. Otherwise…

• Make sure your iPhone is connected to a WiFi network, and you have a computer with a terminal program (ie, a Mac or Linux machine, or a Windows machine with the right software installed) also connected to the same network.
• Find out your iPhone’s IP address. To do this, go to Settings, then WiFi, then hit the blue arrow to the right of the name of the WiFi network you are connected to. You’ll see the phone’s IP address listed in a table. It will probably be 192.168.something.something or 10.1.something.something.
  

  My Phone's IP Address

• Open a terminal and type ssh root@<your IP address>. For example, I typed ssh root@192.168.1.4 because my IP address was 192.168.1.4
  
• If you’ve only just installed OpenSSH, your password is alpine.

Step 2b – if your password is alpine, change it

The very first computer virus for the iPhone took advantage of the fact that many people don’t change their password after installing OpenSSH. To change your password,

• Think of a password that you know you will remember.
• Type passwd
• Enter your new password
• Enter it again to confirm you typed it correctly

Step 3 – Change Farenheit to Celsius

The files that control what you see in the Endroid layout are in the folder /var/mobile/Library/DreamBoard/Endroid/Widgets/HTC. You can see them by typing

cd /var/mobile/Library/DreamBoard/Endroid/Widgets/HTC
ls

There are only two files, an html file, a css file and a javascript file. There’s also a folder containing the images. If you’re an HTML or Javascript guru, you can have lots of fun here. If not, what you need to do is change line 132 of functions.js from

url="http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss?u=f&p=";

to

url="http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss?u=c&p=";

Spot the difference? The ‘u=f’ becomes ‘u=c’. Now, the iPhone doesn’t come with any of my favourite text editors – nor even any of my less favourite. However, you can make the required change via these commands :

mv functions.js original-functions.js
cat original-functions.js | sed 's/u=f/u=c/g' > functions.js

Dreamboard Lock Screen Fixed

And you’re done! The first command moves the original functions.js file to a safe place, and the second command goes through that copy, changing every ‘u=f’ to ‘u=c’ (there’s only one) and writing the results back into functions.js.

If your phone doesn’t immediately display temperatures in Centigrade, try using it normally for a little while. Maybe lock the screen, check your email, whatever. If something goes wrong, you can always restore the original using the command

mv original-functions.js functions.js

Or, since you’re poking around in your phone, perhaps you’d also like to….

Step 4 – Change The Date On The Lock Screen to Day/Month/Year

By default, it shows Month/Day/Year, so the date of this blog post looks like 2/17/2012 instead of 17/2/2012. This is easy to fix. Enter the following commands :

cd /var/mobile/Library/DreamBoard/Endroid/Widgets/Lockscreen
mv Lockscreen.html original-Lockscreen.html
cat original-Lockscreen.html | sed 's/Date/QWERTY/g' | \
 sed 's/Month/Date/g' | \
 sed 's/QWERTY/Month/g' > Lockscreen.html

This makes a copy of your Lockscreen.html, then swaps the HTML fields <dateDate></dateDate> and <dateMonth><dateMonth>. Have a look at your lock screen (if need be, unlock then lock again) and see the happy result!

Again, if something goes wrong, you can restore the original Lockscreen.html via

mv original-Lockscreen.html Lockscreen.html

Sugar Subsidies - Bad or Good?

The Malaysian government subsidises a number of goods, to keep the prices at certain levels. Unfortunately for them, commodity prices have risen in recent years. So, they announced last week that they would increase the sugar subsidy to compensate. They were quick to say that the decision is to “ease the people’s financial burden,” and is nothing to do with the fact that there’s an election coming up.

However, that’s just silly. If they really want to “ease the people’s financial burden,” they should completely scrap the subsidy, not raise it.

Imagine, if you will, a sugar consumer we shall call Rakyat. Suppose Rakyat earns $1000. He pays $200 in tax, and gets to spend the other $800 on whatever he likes. One thing he likes is sugar, so he spends $10 on sugar at the subsidised price of $1 per bag. The remaining $790 he spends on other things. He has chosen this spending pattern to make him as happy as he can be, under the existing tax and subsidy system.

Suppose the government scrapped the subsidy. Rakyat might be sad, at first, that sugar is more expensive, thinking that his sugar bill will now be $5 more. The government will save $5, which means $5 less tax they need to collect, so they give a tax refund. With the $5 now back in Rakyat’s pocket, he can, if he wishes, subsidise his own sugar. Or, he can do anything else he wants with the cash. In summary :

• With the subsidy, Rakyat gets 10 bags of sugar (for $10), and $790 to spend on other things, and this is the best he can do.
• Without the subsidy, Rakyat can still get 10 bags of sugar (for $15 now), and still have $790 to spend on other things. He would be just as happy as before.
• Alternatively, Rakyat can decide not to subsidise his own sugar, and spend the $5 on something he wants more than those last few bags of sugary sweetness. This will make him happier than before, happier than possible when the subsidy existed.

So, Rakyat will be happier, with less financial burden, if the government lowers taxes instead of raising subsidies.

Now, some caveats. Rakyat is not just one person. He is a whole citizenry of 28 million. Some of these pay no tax. Some consume no sugar. An individual citizen can’t always re-create the effect of a subsidy by carefully spending their tax refund. There are four groups of people

• Those who get more from the tax break than they lost through the subsidy, These will be truly happy campers. They can make up for the lost subsidy (if they wish) and have cash left over.
• Those, like Rakyat, for whom the tax break equals the subsidy. As we have seen, these people are also better off with no subsidy.
• Those whose tax break is not quite enough to compensate the rise in sugar prices, but by cutting back on sweets, still find themselves better off than before.
• Those who enjoyed the subsidy so much, or who paid so little tax, that they really are worse off after the subsidy is removed.

There’s no policy that pleases everyone, but it’s not correct to say that the subsidy “eases people’s financial burden.” Instead, it shifts the burden from one group of people to another, making the rakyat (citizenry) economically worse off overall. The only sensible way to justify the subsidy would be to identify those it helps and those it hurts, and try to prove that the needs of the former outweigh the needs of the latter.

As a final word, note that we got this conclusion without considering the harm excess sugar consumption has on a person’s health. The same argument could apply to many of the other products the Malaysian government subsidises, including petrol and rice, and to the completely subsidised water Selangor residents have enjoyed since the opposition won that state in the 2008 election.

Firstly, place your garlic and ginger in the thermomix and chop them for 7 seconds on speed 6. Do remember to scrape them down in the thermomix jug. If not they will stay at the side of the inner thermomix jug and not being cooked properly. After that, add your oil and sesame oil in and cook for 100C for 3 minutes on soft speed. Next add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce into thermomix. Cook it for 5 minutes at 100C on soft speed. Once the sauce is ready pour it into a bowl.

Now I will show you how to cook the rice. Do not wash the the thermomix jug which you use just now to make the sauce. Use the same jug and put in 900 of water. Weigh and wash your rice . I use about 400g of jasmine rice.Insert the basket of rice and cook it for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 4.  Your rice will have the fragrance of the sauce once it is cooked. I cook the rice together with my fish and tofu which are in the varoma . But I remove the tofu out from the varoma tray(upper tray) after 10 minutes of steaming.  I place the fish in the varoma receptacle(bottom tray).  Once the food is ready, remove the salmon from the varoma receptacle and place it on the plate. Pour the sauce over the fish and tofu and garnish them with spring onions.  Enjoy your salmon and tofu with your steamed rice.

Steamed fish and tofu with thermomix

This morning, we had roti paratha for breakfast. My family loves them. Since it is hard to find the authentic roti canai in Perth, we will normally just have the frozen ones which are good and less oily. You can find them in the frozen session of the Chinese oriental shop. It claims that it is trans fat free and it has no artificial preservatives. Trans fat is found in deep-friend fast foods and process foods which is made with margarine or shortening. I will normally buy the value pack which is cheaper. There are 25 pieces of roti paratha in the pack. We will eat then with dhal which I make in my thermomix. I will soon show you how to make dhal in thermomix later. All you need to do is get a packet of roti paratha straight from the freezer. Please do not defrost the roti pratha because the dough will get too sticky and you will find it hard to panfry it. You do not need to use any oil to panfry it. Then peel of the plastic layer from the roti paratha and place the it in a pan or a wok. Pan fry both side of the roti paratha until it is golden brown. Make sure the pan is not too hot because it will be burnt if the pan is too hot. When the both sides are ready, scoop up the roti paratha and place it on a plate and enjoy.

Roti Paratha

Today I decided to clean in the inner part of my electric thermo pot. The last time I cleaned it was two months ago. I will clean it regularly because I do not want to have any discolouration like dark brown patches in the inner part of the pot. I use about 80g citric acid to clean the inner pot. You can also use lemon juice. I bought my citric acid from this website- http://www.2brothersfoods.com. 100 g of citric acid cost me only $1.00. 80 g of citric acid is about seven tablespoon. Firstly I make sure that the mesh filter at the bottom is attached to the inner pot. Then I pour in 80 g or citric acid into the pot. Next, I add water until it reaches the maximum water level mark. Make sure you mix the citric acid and the water well. After that you close the lid and press the select cleaning button for about 3 seconds until you see the 98C lighted up. Depending on the model of the thermo pot, my thermo pot takes about 50 minutes to clean. Once the cleaning process ended, there will be a flashing light on the 98C. Once the flashing light appear, unplug the thermo pot and remove the lid. Then pour the water out via the “drain’ mark. Add water into it again until the maximum water level mark and then pour the water out. Repeat this process at least twice to remove the taste of citric acid or lemons. Now you will have a clean thermo pot.

M2 : Is it Christmas?
Me : Yes, it’s still Christmas for a few more hours. Then it’s Boxing Day
M2 : (after a pause) Is it June?

Then, a few days later, M1 is looking at his new Chemistry Set. M2 arrives…

M2 : (looks at the Chemistry Set)
M2 : (looks at me)
M2 : I’ve played with all my toys.
Me : That doesn’t mean you get to play with your brother’s.

Nice to see him mastering the art of subtlety.

There are many people like you. Although distance learning has been around for centuries, the rise of the internet has suddenly made the whole concept much more attractive. You would be treading a well-trodden path!

This article explores some of the pitfalls and promises of e-learning, distance learning and online education. My hope is that you will be able to make a choice that is right for you.

Distance Learning Terms

First, lets understand what some of these words mean.

• Distance Learning means that the learner is geographically far away from the educational establishment. Distance learning existed well before the internet – indeed, well before the computer was invented! For example the University of London’s External System has been granting degrees via distance learning since 1858. Students receive study materials by post, and sit exams at designated testing centres. Students doing distance learning are often called External Students.
• E-learning means that the teaching and learning make use of electronic resources, perhaps instead of, perhaps as well as more traditional books, lectures, notes and tutorials. E-learning doesn’t have to take place over the internet, or even use computers – a student watching a calculus video, or listening to language tapes is also engaged in e-learning. Likewise, e-learning doesn’t necessarily involve distance learning.
• Online learning means learning experienced through the internet. Usually, when we hear online learning, we think of distance learning mediated by the internet. Even then, there is a world of difference being able to interact with tutors in real time through webcam chat, or just being able to download lecture notes from a website. However, both could be claimed to be “online learning”.

Why Study Online?

Online study has a number of advantages over traditional modes

• You can study whenever you like – you don’t have to attend lectures and tutorials at pre-set times. This flexibility is great if you have work or family commitments, but can also set aside the odd hour or three each day (or big chunks of your weekend) for study.
• You can study wherever you like – when I did my Masters with an Australian university, I wasn’t in Australia. In fact, I never set foot in their campus the whole time I was a student! This means that your studies will not be interrupted if you have to move cities, for example. You don’t have to commute to lectures, or pay rental on a student apartment.
• This means, of course, that you have a much wider choice when it comes to selecting a university or college – instead of just the ones in your city, you have the whole world to explore.

Of course, there are also disadvantages

• Online learning needs a lot of self-discipline. If you are attending classes, your whole environment and schedule remind you every day that you are a student. Once you enrol in an online degree, you are still in the same house, same family, same circle of friends. Unless you remind yourself all the time, it’s easy to forget you are a student – and that’s a sure path to academic failure.
• Typically, online learners have other commitments on their time. Is your family willing to support you in your studies? Will your boss give you time off to sit for exams? Can you be sure of their support for the whole time – that you will be a student?
• Prospective employers are sometimes skeptical about the quality of an online degree. Degrees earned online – and the universities offering them – might be seen as second-rate.
• Even when the ‘net is at its best, online communication falls short of good ‘ole face-to-face discussion.

My own reasons for taking up an online course were very simple. I wanted to further my knowledge, earn an academic qualification from an Australian university, but I didn’t want to quit my job in Malaysia. I had the support of my family and employer. Online learning seemed the perfect choice. Even so, it wasn’t easy.

What To Consider Before You Enrol

Before you enrol in an online course, you should think carefully about why you want to do it.

• Do you just want the knowledge, but don’t really care about the degree?
• Do you just want the degree, but don’t really care if you learn much?
• Do you want both learning, and a degree to prove it?

If you are in the second category, I should warn you that a good degree will require hard work – and learning. Yes, there are “diploma mills” – non-accredited universities who essentially just print a scroll for you when you pay your fees. And yes, there are also accredited universities which impose minimal standards on their students. Be warned, however, that good employers are not easily fooled by this sort of nonsense. And even if someone does bluff their way into a good job with a lousy degree, their lack of knowledge will more often than not become quickly evident.

If you are in the first category, you may be able to get what you want without paying a cent.

• Many universities and colleges are putting their courseware online for anyone at all to download. Notable initiatives are the OpenCourseWare initiative by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT’s plan is to have all courseware for all their courses available online – and Apple’s iTunes U, which collects together similar resources from many different universities around the world. So if you are keen, just download and start studying!
• Even more universities and colleges allow people to audit their courses. This doesn’t mean you prepare a financial report! It means you attend the lectures like a normal student, perhaps even do the coursework, but you are not graded on what you learned, and the effort doesn’t count towards a degree.

Most of us are in the third category. After all, when it comes to getting a job, the diploma may unlock the door, but the knowledge keeps the welcome warm. So, here are some points you need to consider.

• Have you spoken to the important people in your life about your plans to study? Your family, friends, employer and co-workers can make or break your self-improvement efforts. Get their support before you begin. When I first thought of pursuing my Masters online, I realised my job would have kept me too busy. I shelved my plans. One year later, my circumstances had changed, so I took the plunge and enrolled.
• Do you have self-discipline? Typically, if you are considering taking an online course, you have other demands on your time. Are you able to balance your studies with the rest of your life? Are you able to plan your study in advance so as not to be caught out at exam time? Is an email enough to prompt you to action on something important?
• How long will your course take? Are your circumstances likely to change in that time?
• How much will your course cost? Estimate the costs of books, computing equipment and anything else you may need to fork out. Can you afford the cost? Can you persuade your employer to pay for part or all of it? Is it tax-deductible?
• Is the university or college well regarded? Does their online learning programme have a long track record? Unfortunately, the best universities have been the slowest to start offering their courses online. However, it is possible to find good universities which have successfully graduated several batches of students from their online or external degree programmes. I’m always skeptical of so-called university rankings, and recommend you take them with a pinch of salt. However, they are useful as a rough guide to university quality.
• How will you interact with the lecturers? What support will be provided for you as an external student? How will you interact with your classmates?

I don’t want to discourage you from pursuing your course online. I pursued my Masters online, and I can honestly say it was a 100% worthwhile experience. Let me tell you about it.

In the end, I got my Masters, a good solid grounding in the fundamentals of computer science, and a new job where I need both Mathematics and Computer Science together. Altogether a very worthwhile experience.

To keep such opinions out of politics, it is necessary to ensure that politicians with extreme views can only ever obtain minority support. The extreme opinions of small motivated groups therefore need to be drowned in the centrist apathy of the majority. This ensures that any successful politician, who by definition has catered to the majority of voters, in fact caters to the centrist majority of the population and not merely to a core of highly motivated non-centrist individuals. This way, our leaders are forced to check his or her extreme views at the door before they enter the corridors of power.

For example, to ensure that extremist political views like mine do not gain too strong a hold on a country’s politics, it is necessary to ensure that those who firmly believe no one should vote also make their voices heard at the ballot box. This can only be guaranteed through compulsory voting. Only then can the two extreme views cancel out, freeing the country from the tyranny of enforced political participation.

M1 : Dad, change the colour!
Me : I can’t, I have to draw a card.
M1 : (plays)
M2 : (thinks) (plays) Yes! Yes! Yes-i-yes! Yes! Yes-i-yes! Yes-i-yes!
Me : All right, time for bed.
M2 : Noooooo!!!
Me : Look at him, crying away, even though he won!
M2 : Nooooooo!!!!!
Me : All right, we’ll have one more game, and then, after that, whether you win or lose, you…
M2 : I will cry like mad!