The following Infographic is a series of statistics that shows the direct correlation between achievement and economic status in both Australia’s and the international school systems.
Do you think the achievement gap is directly related to social or economic status?
For more details and discussions, you guys can do it here. Thanks Titus for sharing this informative infographic.
If you encountered the following error while trying to install or update a Windows Store App, don’t worry! Today, I am going to share the solution with you.
Error Message 1: Trying to install or update an app in Windows Store (for consumers)
Something happened and this app couldn't be installed. Please try again. Error code: 0x80070057
Error Message 2: Unable to run your own source code (for developers)
Unable to update the package manifest. An unexpected error occurred. (HRESULT: 0x80070057)The debugger was unable to find the registration for the target application. If the problem persists, try uninstalling and then reinstalling this application.
Solutions to error code 0×80070057
Step 1: Run “Windows PowerShell” as administrator (must run as admin)
Due to security restrictions (?), there is nothing much that you can do as a regular user. Therefore, you must run the Windows PowerShell as an administrator.
Step 2: Edit the command accordingly and run the script, the following is an example.
get-appxpackage -name *pennyaday* | remove-appxpackage
Step 3: Run “wsreset” in the Windows PowerShell
WSReset is a tool which resets the Windows Store without changing account settings or deleting installed apps which are safe for your computer.
–
After doing the above three steps, try to download & install the app from the store again, it should be working fine now.
I learnt how to solve this problem via a post by Pocketables, how to fix Fruit Ninja (any other broken app) on Windows 8.
Yes, the #2030Effect. Are you experiencing it?
Understanding that the projected population of 6.9 million citizens is an important factor for sustaining Singapore’s economy, to ensure that there will be enough professionals to work by then and thus generate sufficient revenue for the government to continue to subsidise the elderly citizens (by then, there will be even more, due to aging population) of the country.
Well of course, please take the above with a pinch of salt, as they are my own humble opinion which is not exactly prove, and it is totally summarised.
Back to the topic, are you experiencing it already?
This morning, I was totally stuck at MRT station, and literally watched 4 trains pass by me (and each time, I did move closer to the entrance) before I could barely squeeze myself into the 5th train, without any extra space for my foot to adjust itself.
The entire trip was unpleasant. I see many people sweating, and quite a handful of them sighing (I assume that they might be late for work, or lost their extra buffer of time that they planned for breakfast). What can be worst for Monday blues?
This is the worst ever #2030Effect that I have seen. When I went up the escalator at my nearby MRT station, there were a number of SMRT staffs ushering us, the passengers, all the way to somewhere near the entrance of the last cabin. No joke.
I really hope that the transportation issue in Singapore can be improve. It’s only 2013, and I dare not imagine how things will be in 2030.
I’m sure most locals had already given up their thoughts about taking a walk at Chinatown during CNY period, due to the unbelievable crowd every year.
We can give up on shopping at Chinatown (unfortunately), but we can’t give up on taking MRT public transport. COE and ERP are implemented to make things better on the road, but THIS is not going to turn things any better.
Being an ordinary Singapore citizen, I don’t have a concrete solution to the matter, but I really wish that our government could improve the current situation. We can’t afford to let it turn any worst, it’s already bad enough.
I want to share a useful site that I sometimes used during my free time to practice on Java and Python programming languages, CodingBat. The programming questions given on the site returns immediate feedback to your answers, telling you which test cases went wrong and which were correct.
As such, it allows people to practice and solidify their understanding on respective programming concepts. The best thing about this site is that the questions are short and sweet, yet test on the understandings. It is unlike those assignment questions that you do in school, which (sometimes) pointlessly forces you to repeat chunk of no-brainer codes which does not help in your understanding towards the programming concept. The questions on CodingBat are straight to the point and yes, it makes you think.
For a start, let’s try a simple Java question.
We want to make a row of bricks that is goal inches long. We have a number of small bricks (1 inch each) and big bricks (5 inches each). Return true if it is possible to make the goal by choosing from the given bricks. This can be done without any loops.
makeBricks(3, 1, 8) → true
makeBricks(3, 1, 9) → false
makeBricks(3, 2, 10) → true
Here to share three “one-liner” reasons as to WHY your startup failed even though you successfully imitated the live examples of successful business models.
No, you imitated their business models correctly, don’t doubt yourself. The problem does not lie in your execution, it just happen to be so.
Start-ups which tried to imitate a successful business model is unable to correctly & accurately identify the exact combination of resources that made a company succeed. Despite being able to determine the strategic resources that the company possessed and due success to, it is not enough.
This term is to describe situation when resources cannot be easily obtained, or readily bought over. In a nutshell, while some strategies or methods works perfectly at a particular time and environment very well, it may not necessarily work as well elsewhere, even if you directly copy and paste them over.
For example, take a look at Silicon Valley. It is what is it for it is what it is. Many countries tried to build similar infrastructures, outlooks, and concept – but how many of them actually succeeded in bringing it to the level Silicon Valley is today?
This is very straight-forward. To put it simply, you are at where you are right now, all because of your “path” – it determines the decisions you made due to your environment, maturity, influence, everything. It cannot be copied. For instance, look at Harvard University. It has a long history, blah blah blah. Even if you employ all their staffs and use the same strategic plans as them, it doesn’t guarantee success. You can never imitate their “history”.
Think about it, when you feel regret about any decisions that you made previously, and wish that time will turn back, please don’t. Because even if time really rewinds to the very moment when you have to made that decision (that you regretted today), you are going to make that same decision again.”
Because you made that decision due to your environment, maturity, influence, and everything about you at that very moment.
No matter how many times time rewinds for you, nothing will change. That’s life.
Understanding that there are many different ways to sort data in C# programming, and most people would just use a way that they are comfortable with and stick to it. I would like to share the method which is considered the simplest way for me in particular, that is, the BindingSource sort.
Skip the following chunk if you are not interested in syntax,
[ComplexBindingPropertiesAttribute("DataSource", "DataMember")]
public class BindingSource : Component,
IBindingListView, IBindingList, IList, ICollection, IEnumerable,
ITypedList, ICancelAddNew, ISupportInitializeNotification, ISupportInitialize, ICurrencyManagerProvider
Read more on MSDN.
Users are able to utilize this feature depending on what is the object being linked to the BindingSource as its DataSource. Simply use the ‘SupportsSorting’ property to find out whether a BindingSource with current DataSource supports sorting.
if (bindingSource1.SupportsSorting)
{
bindingSource1.Sort = "dept";
}
Similarly, users are able to make use of BindingSource.Filter capability, an example would be the following,
bindingSource1.Filter = "dept = 'Accounting'";
Windows Azure Media Services is now generally available and will be free-of-charge until 18 February 2013. After which, users will be charged according to their usage, read more at http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/
Media Services offer the flexibility, scalability, and reliability of a cloud platform to handle high quality media experiences. It includes cloud-based versions of many existing technologies, such as ingest, encoding, format conversion, content protection and both on-demand and live streaming capabilities.
Microsoft has launched a Windows & Office U-Crew programme! Eligible for all NUS undergrads who have the enthusiasm in evangelizing Windows 8 and Office 2013. Check out the attractive incentives!
Register now at http://www.microsoft.com/singapore/u-crew/
P.S. – Application is open to students from ANY faculty. 
Skype for String is an experimental version of Skype which doesn’t require any direct connection to the internet. It allows users to communicate with friends for free, without even having the need of having a computer or mobile device.
Skype for String works via a natural form of peer-to-peer technology that allows voices to travel over long distances without electricity, as shown in the following picture.
In order to use it, you only need to get ready a set of cups and strings with a minimum length of 5 mm. However, for the best results, we suggest using a Skype certified set.
If you have not realized at this point of time, Skype for String is actually an April’s fool day joke played by Skype. It brings us back to the olden days where we uses a string and connect a paper cup on each end and talk to each other like a telephone. It is often used by schools as a science experiment that demonstrate how sound travels.
If you are interested to read up more of how the entire Skype community (including users) played along with the joke and pranked those not-so-IT-savvy users, read them up in the Skype for String community
Imagine Cup 2013 Russia: Brain Games Challenge is a new thing in Imagine Cup over the past few years – it is a monthly trivia quiz. The top scorer for the month will win USD $1000. In addition, all participants who have done the quiz get to stand a chance in winning a lucky ticket for a free trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, at the world stage!
I still remember how touched I am when I was in Cairo, Egypt, where the world stage is in the middle of a dessert. Okay, back to Brain Games Challenge, the concept of the quiz is not based on coding. Every month has a different topic. For instance, this month, the topic is innovation. Currently, the first quiz is “Ancient Inventions”, focusing on history of computer, web, and beyond.
You will be given 20 minutes, and you have to complete 6 rounds of questions. You just have to get one question wrong and you have to start all over again.
Participants are recommended to use search engine though. Go and try it !
Are you willing to pay $100 USD just to send a message to other Facebook users that are not under your “Friend List”?
It is a new policy implemented by Facebook. A little bit of background: during December 2012, Facebook introduced this $1 USD charge for people to send message to people who are not under their “Friend List”. The rationale is said to be a mechanism to determine whether the $1 USD charges will actually reduce the spam that were taking place on the social media website.
As for people who has large number of followers (which I am also not sure how large is large), for non-friends to send them message, the sender need to pay $100 USD instead. An example of someone with large number of followers would be the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Personally, I felt that there are two edges to this policy. Of course, the positive side would be that the objective of the policy is met and the Facebook messaging system becomes much cleaner: there will definitely be lesser spams; especially those that like to send random (pointless) messages to people that they don’t know (e.g. sending a hilarious video to Bill Gates) just for entertainment sake. Is that few seconds of entertainment worth the cost of $100 USD? People should really think twice.
As for the negative side, which I believe that Facebook regarded it as a minor issue (or else I don’t think they will still implement it nonetheless) – the policy will impose restriction on people who want to make new friends online. It incorporates a “don’t talk to strangers” mentality on Facebook users, which would potentially make the social media community less friendly than before. Personally, I wouldn’t mind receiving a greeting message from a stranger who is in a common group with me (perhaps we attended the same event and met each other there).
In my humble opinion, I think Facebook should just continue to improve the anti-spam system that they were using previously. In fact, they have been doing great using their social cues, such as by analyzing the connections between friends (network) and also, some special algorithm to identify spam messages. Frankly speaking, I was rather satisfy with the messaging system’s ability to detect potential spam messages and forward them from my “Inbox” folder into the “Others” folder.
Trying out posting blog entry via email.
The feelings of walking past a long stretch of elderly citizens who are doing workout early in the morning is great! It was so motivating and encouraging! I shall go for a good run this evening too, no excuses to be lazy!
Cheerios!
First of all, wish everyone a belated happy new year 2013! I have been busy working lately, so busy that I haven’t been posting for a month!
To welcome the new year, I have created a new blog using the WordPress.org engine! Along with a totally new Layout and new URL, http://kongwenbin.azurewebsites.net/ ; I shall be lazy and not register a domain 
And yes, as the URL have hinted, this blog is hosted on and powered by Windows Azure! Please don’t mind me for fully utilizing my cloud subscription resources
In this new blog, I am going to blog about anything under the sun. Yes, no longer just technologies related stuffs! I am dying to blog about my experiences in my life, be it a fun day at the beach, a horrible day in school, or even an exciting day having fun outside! I just want to share
Tomorrow is the first day of school in the whole new semester! Despite being a senior undergraduate student in National University of Singapore (NUS), it is going to be a whole new experience for me starting tomorrow, as I will be travelling to school everyday!
* For the past semesters, I have been staying in school as a student in Tembusu College, under the U-Town Residential Programme.
I realized that it’s getting late and I should really keep this post from going any longer. Till I blog again!
LAH!nguage™ is a simple, fun, edu-functional application that aims to serve two purposes.
It helps non-locals and other visitors to Singapore familiarize themselves with the intricacies of our unofficial national language, thereby promoting greater social integration into our multicultural society.
It also empowers local students who are more familiar with Singlish than business English with the ability to codeswitch such that they are able to adapt to using proper business English when required.
The easy-to-navigate categories make this application your best friend in Singapore, when you’re on the go! So enjoy learning, lah.
LAH!nguage is one of the award winning app (4th) in Dream.Build.Launch Hackathon 2012 held by Microsoft Singapore.
Features
PennyADay is an app that calculates and display the amount of money you could potentially save using time value of money via easy-to-read charts.
Simply set the number of years you wish to save for, enter a daily saved amount and intended rate of interest and you’re all set!
Users can also save the adjusted settings to a CSV file and/or share it with their friends.
Features