Not all came to class yesterday, but I thought if maybe the whole class would attend this morning's session, I'd like to bring the camera this morning and snap a few photos.

I completely forgot about bringing a tripod... *sigh* But by looking on the bright side, that would mean MORE PHOTOS! Hihiii~ These are a couple of the photos we AI-ans took (I'm too lazy to post all of them out =P):

This class was one of the best classes that I've ever taken. Hmm.. I never had a short-semester (we call it intersession) classes that was not both fun and educational. Alhamdulillah... They're not a waste of the larger amount of money I paid (in comparison with what we usually pay during normal semesters). So I wanted to keep some memory in the form of digitized photos for this class.

I don't know about everyone else. But to me, it was a fun photoshoot... for the 6 of us, at least! ;P

I am petrified.

Why?

1. My Reading and Research [English subject] report was MESSED UP (particularly because of something I wouldn't want to bring up here). I carries 40% of the total marks. And I just found out that 2 of my classmates failed. I could bet that the whole class weren't expecting that. And as for me, I am completely horrified to check my results after knowing about that!
2. My exams schedule was a NIGHTMARE!! Seriously, try having to face 6 papers crammed into ONE week! Believe me, you'll feel the agony.
   
3. The last time I checked my results during intersession period (May-June), I ended up crying because I didn't manage to get the Dean's List (DL) award. And that was also the only DL I missed of all 6 semesters of my Diploma.
   
4. I liked the fact that I am now capable of managing my own finance. My parents praised me for being independent, which means not asking them for money. I want to keep my JPA scholarship so BAD. If I lose it, my confidence and pride will go with it.
   
5. I need good results to boost up my confidence and mood for a good headstart this coming semester.

I have a tab on my Firefox. It says 'http://istudent.uit...p/resultv2/main.asp'. I've already entered my student number and IC number. All I have to do is to click 'Semak'... I have been staring at it for about 2 hours before I'm writing this...

...

I'm pulling myself together...

...

still trying...

...

trying...

...

failed.

...

My parents are away from home. They went for their dunno-th honeymoon. I dunno who to talk to. I tried calling my Sayang for some spirit-boosting talk. He's still asleep.
(Dang, did I just admit that I've been trying to wake him up by calling him several times? I'm such a baby!)

Well, there's always tomorrow. I can still bother him when he's working! =P

Note: My first ethics assignment.
(Word Count: 886)

The origin of video gaming stretches out from as early as 1947 with the creation of a device called the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device. It simulates a missile firing at a target using 8 vacuum tubes and contains knobs to adjust the curve and speed of the missile. Small targets were drawn on a simple overlay and placed on the screen because electronic computer graphics are not yet invented during that time. Now, video games are fused with Artificial Intelligence, so that the computer would determine the game player’s pattern of play, learn his strategies and hence, the computer will attempt to defeat the player. Next, the method of interaction between the game and game players has developed dramatically. Now, video games are integrated with controllers equipped with the technology of motion control such as DualShock, which sends a vibration feedback to the game player. In addition, nowadays there are also portable video games that we can fit into our pockets. But as the youths embrace video games as one of their main source of entertainment, I worry about the risks and consequences on their social life and also their health. Sure, playing video games is fun and releases tension and boredom, but it has also its drawbacks.

Hard core gamers would isolate themselves socially from other people, and they could be confused between fantasy and reality due to the real-like gaming experience thanks to the advanced graphics and audio technology, which might cause a change in behaviour. I’d like to emphasis on the likeliness of the gamer to exhibit aggressive behaviour due to the frequent exposure of violence during playing games. These days, video games are usually based on violence, aggression and gender bias. Gender bias, in this context, refers to games usually portray women as weaker characters that are helpless or sexually provocative.

I watched a documentary once, about the relation between violent video games and aggressive behaviour, there were alarming findings made by researchers, that young juveniles commit murders were being driven by video game playing. They seem to lack of compassion and feels that violence is normal. Youngsters who see a lot of violence would see that violence is the most effective way to solve conflict.

I have experienced gaming a lot myself. I used to play PS2 after my SPM exams. I played a game called ‘Need for Speed: Underground 2’ quite heavily and became rather good of playing it that I really wanted to finish the game. And I did after a week of unorganised sleeping time and meal time, that sometimes when I close my eyes, I could see the visuals of car racing that was portrayed in that game. When I finished the entire game, I determined that it is the first and the last time I will be addicted to any video games.

Now, I worry for my younger brother and nephew, who are now addicted to playing games on the computer. I would nag them a lot about using the computer for educational purposes and how games could affect how they behave and that there is no point of playing games that makes mass murdering look cool. There was a case on news about 18-year-old Devin Moore kill people because of a game called ‘Grand Theft Auto’ (GTA) dated June 19, 2005. His attorney said, "What we're saying is that Devin Moore was, in effect, trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator.” Murder simulator - that what I would also describe this game, GTA, that both my younger brother and nephew love playing. This game gives people the thought that it is okay to shoot police officers, it is okay to steal and destroy other peoples’ cars and it is okay to pick up a chainsaw and massacre everybody that gets in your way. This game also shows the nightlife of people in Miami, with prostitutes walking about the streets asking people if they want their “service”.

Do we want our future generation to become less humane and corrode them morally by exposing themselves and let them “be” people who deal drugs, steal cars and mass-murder others? Kids nowadays who see people get shot and see blood scattered everywhere don’t feel anything anymore. They have lost their compassion and fear towards violence. They feel that it is normal.
Many other video games have this same effect on other youngsters as well. Parents should mind what their children are viewing and playing. Nowadays there are lots of media that promote aggressiveness being produced and easy to be reached by the mere hands of our youngsters with the existence of the Internet. People who are responsible in producing these materials would do simply anything to sell them. Do they care about our future generations becoming less humane? No is the answer.

That is why parents should set in their mind that not only in video games that there is violence, they should also be cautious on what movies, music and other medias that their children are reading, watching or listening. Let’s face the fact – there are parents who never mind of what their children get their hands on. They must not wait until their children become monsters that they come to their senses. As we all know, prevention is definitely better than curing.

News Reference:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/17/60minutes/main702599.shtml

Note: This is my ethics assignment. :p
(Word Count: 1,283)

Bullying is simply a deliberate act of causing harm to other people. There are a few ways of how a person can bully another: verbally, physically or manipulation of certain things. Cyber-bullying is a type of bullying under manipulation of the information and communication technology. It has started since even before the Internet was made available to the public. People often associate cyber-bullying with kids, preteens and teens. It has to be them on both sides of cyber-bullying, or at least it is initiated by them. When adults are involved, it is just cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking. There are records of kids killed each other and committed suicide due to this issue. It may take place to the level of misdemeanour cyber-harassment charge. But if the child is below 18 years of age, he/she may be charged under juvenile delinquency. Why do kids cyber-bully? When we relate them together, we often hear that these kids are influenced by the feeling of anger, revenge or frustration. There are many reasons on why these young bullies perform such misdemeanour. Some do it for mere fun or because of having too much time in their hands and lots of gadgets to play and explore with. Some do it by accident and kids are known to do something without thinking. Some do it because of ego and they like the feeling of being the tough guy or girl. Some think that they’re doing the right thing by standing up for other kids. These kids could use almost all types of technology against their target. These manipulation of technology for bullying intentions include text messaging, phone calls, blogging, instant messaging and interfering with web pages and sites. The most significant technology being used for cyber-bullying nowadays would be through social networking and instant messages (IMs). There are two types of cyber-bullying that they could carry out, which are direct attacks and indirect attacks. Direct attacks are acts of cyber-bullying direct to the victims, whereas indirect attacks (also known as attacks by proxy) are the ones using other people to attack their victim, with or without the consent or awareness of the accomplice. On top of that, because indirect attacks usually involve adults in making the attacks, it is actually more damaging to the victim. Technologies can be used to terrorize, stalk and prey on unsuspecting individuals. These problems resulted in a jumble of newspaper articles on paedophilia activity (any sexual activity between an adult and a child, which includes sexual urges, fantasies, and behaviours), cyber stalking and cyber-bullying. These stories later have resulted in a wave of moral panic and there are requests and demands from concerned parents and others to regulate these technologies and to protect the children and other victims from these predators. Predators use the Internet to search for potential victims, win their hearts, set up a meeting and lure them to a trap. This is a scary fact of what has been happening since the emergence of the Internet.

The first time I used the Internet, which was somewhere in the year 1997, I have been exposed to ICQ – the most popular instant messaging service in my group of friends at that time. Afterwards, I found IRC, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Ever since I was exposed to the Internet, I have received direct sexual messages, like people asking what was my “inner” size was, or have I cyber-sexed before. I have also received a harsh comment from an angry, anonymous reader of my blog at Blogger.com. I immediately asked for advice from my trusted friend (whom is quite an expert in IT) and by following his advice, I deleted the comment (to avoid myself reading it again and get upset unnecessarily), turned off the anonymous comment feature (I never thought it was important before) on my blog and went on writing other posts and receive comments from people that have Google account. I was glad that I took all the necessary actions and the emotional pain didn’t last more than a week. Those incidents lead me to realise the importance of education and awareness of how technology may affect us. Even though I have yet received threats from other technology users, I have read a lot regarding cyber-attacks on children. This creates fear within me for my siblings and friends who use technology in daily basis. Because of my previous experiences with the Internet, I usually advice my younger siblings and close friends about the danger of cyber-attacks whenever I see them using this media.

Cyber-bullying is a very complex area and there are actually many issues to consider. As this issue arise from the lack of monitoring and control of these technologies, I wonder if the obligation of monitoring and stricter controls is the solution to this problem. Whose rights would be protected and whose would be violated if this solution is executed? If the authorities regulate such technologies, we might protect the right of our youngsters but violate the rights of involved companies and organisations of the technology. Controlling technologies might even infringe the privacy of youngsters. If certain authorities or organisations (such as school boards) interfere with these technologies and restrict youngsters’ access to them, parents would be furious and claim that the authorities violate their children’s freedom of speech. I’m not saying that this problem cannot be resolved at all nor this issue can be fully resolved. In fact, parents play an important role on preventing and protecting their child. In my opinion, this problem might be reduced if the following are taken into action by parents:

1. Parents must first and foremost be the first teachers of their child and educate them about what is right and what is wrong, and promote awareness in cyber-bullying to their child.
2. Parents should take this matter seriously but never become overacting. Usually parents tend to overact when they know their child is involved in cyber-bullying. That is why children usually avoid telling their parents about it. Thus, parents must always be supportive to their child while monitoring their actions. They must remember that children are very vulnerable to cyber-attacks even though those attacks are verbal. The mental and emotional pain could affect their child very badly and it could be lasting. It is important for parents to be friends with their child to encourage the child to be open with their parents about anything.
3. Parents should let the school counsellor informed about this problem so that he/she could keep an eye on their child.
4. If private contact information was intentionally or unintentionally disclosed to the Internet, this matter must be brought to the police immediately for proper investigation. Printed proof regarding attacks are very helpful.

Besides parents, children need to be addressed of this issue by the school or perhaps the community. Having a cyber-bully awareness campaign is a good idea of getting children together and this is important to help them understand that bullying really hurts them and other people. We must make them understand the term “don't treat others the way you don't want to be treated”, which is also a way of telling them “treat others the way you want to be treated”. Children should also grasp the fact that keeping private information is important. They need to be educated that it is not okay to hurt others and don’t be silent if they know that their friends are suffering because of cyber-bullies, even that they are afraid. Once they heard of any sign of cyber-attacks, they should report it to their superiors (e.g: their parents, teachers, siblings, etc…).

Empowering ethical attitude in everybody is the fundamental step towards a better community in this digital era.

I have to develop an intelligent system for my final year project. This coming semester I have to make a proposal on my thesis. From the very start, I had trouble on choosing a topic. I'm always like this. Indecisive, because of fear of choosing a wrong choice and forgoing the better choice. Well, I have to sacrifice something, but I have to really think about the choices I have. Their pros and cons...

So, my artificial neural networks lecturer messaged me and asked if I have a supervisor already or not. And he said he has this project title - "Online Thesis Supervision Using Data Mining Technique". And the one I came up with was very vague - "Speech Emotion Recognition Using ____ Technique" (Please fill in the blanks). Haha... I have yet determined a technique to be used for it. *lazy grin*

Well, wish me luck on making a decision on my project title! And that obviously will require a massive amount of RESEARCHING over and OVER again!

I'm quite meticulous on the condition of my studying area. Currently, I have to really have to study to the extreme for my coming exams because the fact that all six (yes, six [6]) of my final exam papers are all crammed into just 8 days. Hence, I almost do not have gaps between my papers. *sigh sigh sigh*

So, in order to maximise my inputs for my review of all 6 subjects, I need my study area to be tip-top! These are the things I need:

1. A good typist chair – the most important thing, ever, that I need whenever I study! It’s to prevent back and neck pains during the hours and hours long of studying.
2. My laptop – I'd listen to some classical music while I'm studying. Sometimes I refer to digital notes and past semester exam questions. Also, I’d look through the Internet to find answers I can’t find in books. My notes, assignments and projects are all stored in here. I'd simply DIE without my laptop!
3. Calendar – I need to keep track of assignment/project deadlines and how much time I have left until my next paper during this week.
4. Abundant of stationeries – I want to be the type of person who’s always prepared, just in case. People still call my pencil case “Poket Doraemon”!
5. Water bottle – It’s always summer here in Malaysia. But sometimes it gets so hot that I – a native Malaysian – could not bare the heat. So I have to keep a bottle full of water near me and drink plenty of water so that I don’t get dehydrated easily. I also placed a bottle of body lotion nearby my desk. If you can see, it’s on the orange striped box.
6. Post-its , cue cards and highlighters – essential items to make these cute notes! (The cue cards are actually plain coloured name cards, which I bought at Jusco for just RM4.50.)


7. A bit of entertainment – sometimes, I play my sunset coloured guitar in order to reduce stress.
   

So let’s hope I am always in the mood to study.

CGPA is just a number but I know I have the potential of getting 3.50, or perhaps more, when I am at my best! It really gets me when certain things keep holding me back from doing my best. I know blaming the past is not going to make me feel better about my performance this semester. I need to let go of the past and concentrate on the future… I want to achieve my goal, that is to get first class (CGPA 3.50) when I graduate next year, insyaAllah!