Saturday, September 24, 2005
Strange numbers

In today's Straits Times Forum,

Ex-link system highly reliable

...About 4.1 million transactions are processed successfully each day, with the system achieving 99.9 per cent reliability.

Cases of wrong deductions have decreased from 0.27 per cent to 0.006 per cent from last July to July this year...

One or two cases of lost communication between driver's console and reader are reported each month...

Director, Corporate Communications, Land Transport Authority

If I didn't get this wrong, 4.1 million successful transactions and 0.006% wrong deductions implies that about 246 deductions are wrong in a day, which is more than 7000 cases in a month!

The system is 99.9% reliable, eh? That means 0.1% of unsuccessful transactions for every 4.1 million successful ones a day. That would give us about 123000 cases a month!

Strangely, only 1 or 2 cases of lost communication (lost communication can obviously be considered unsuccessful transaction) are reported. This is weird.

"Beep! Beep! Uh-oh, the machine is not reading my card! Awesome, I'll just pay cash even though it's more expensive. I just love the sound of coins!" And then the same thing happens for the next 123000 people for the entire month before one guy says "Uncle arh, your bus machine not reading my card leh!"

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Yiheng made 5:18 PM

2 Comments:

Interesting stats. I wonder if they realize what you calculated. I remember reading somewhere that even though 80% chance of winning is equivalent to 20% chance of losing, people are more likely to bet on it if they hear the former.
By  Anonymous, at 3:41 PM  

You raised an interesting point man. The next time an officer gives me saikang I'll tell him I only have 20% chance of completing the task without errors.
By  Anonymous, at 6:46 PM  

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Friday, September 23, 2005
Advent Children

I finally got to watch Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children today. It is DAMN COOL!! It might be confusing for people who are not familiar with the Final Fantasy VII game though. I don't know why they don't want to release it in theatres. I bet they would earn a lot more money that way.

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Yiheng made 10:20 PM

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Thursday, September 22, 2005
吾明 1/3 ......(unicode-UTF8)

伍子胥是春秋时期楚国人。年少时，好文习武，勇而多谋。伍子胥的祖父、父亲和兄长都是楚国的忠臣。后来，父亲伍奢和兄长伍尚被楚平王杀害，伍子胥逃往吴国，发誓必报杀亲之仇。

伍子胥在吴国结识大军事家孙武，两人帮助吴王阖闾，先兼并了临近几个小国。公元前５０６年，吴王阖闾拜孙武为大将，伍子胥为副将，亲自率领大军，向楚国进攻，把楚军打得一败涂地。那时，楚平王已经死去，伍子胥便刨了他的坟，把平王的尸首挖出来狠狠鞭打一顿。

吴王阖闾回到吴国都城，把第一大功归给孙武。孙武不愿做官，便回乡隐居去了。临走时，把毕生所学写成《孙子十三篇》，送给伍子胥......

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Yiheng made 12:08 PM

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Sunday, September 11, 2005
Google Earth

If you have not heard of it already, Google Earth is a program that allows the user to look at satellite pictures of virtually anywhere on Earth. It is quite addictive in a way. I keep trying to find places I have been to. Generally, it seems the resolution is poorer for forests and mountains but better in big cities.


This is my secondary school. Quite big eh? I lived here for a while too.


I prepared for 'A' levels at this place.


The neighbourhood in downtown Toronto I lived in while I was pursuing my degree. The big shaded area belongs to the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering in the University of Toronto.


Some people have pointed out that Google Earth is a security threat since terrorists can find hidden military installations. I think if one really wants to find military bases, you don't need Google Earth. Google Earth does make it a lot easier though. The resolution is so good you can clearly identify individual helicopters some places.

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Yiheng made 1:56 PM

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Monday, September 05, 2005
Pulau Semakau

Here's a picture my father found when he was organizing some old photographs.
This is Pulau Semakau in 1972, when my father visited the island with some of his friends. It wasn't a landfill then and people lived there, I think. Pulau Semakau is supposedly still pretty nice, although I have not been there personally. Check out these pictures at wildsingapore.

Update: I have posted more of my father's photographs of the place recently here. (3rd June 2006)

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Yiheng made 9:27 AM

1 Comments:

Wow, that's a great photo! I'll add it to the list of links from wildsingapore. Thanks for sharing!
By  Ria Tan, at 4:40 PM  

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Fashion?

Diaper-like pants are in.

How weird.
I guess I will never understand fashion.

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Yiheng made 9:00 AM

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Saturday, September 03, 2005
All about socks

About a month ago, I read about this in my sister's blog. Being a person who does thing systematically, I also have a preference for using my things in rotation so that they will wear out at the same time, although I would not go to the extent of making labels like that.

But is there any logic in doing so? Mingde came up with this, which isn't as general as I hoped but it's probably cuz he's lazy and the equations get too complex if you introduce a lot of variables.

Damn! And I thought wearing my T-shirts in rotation wears them out slower.

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Yiheng made 11:53 AM

1 Comments:

socks got more sense den t-shirts eh... with socks u can make sure tat both sides are juz as old and not left side old and rite side new tat kinda thing mah... hehe
By  feathers, at 10:15 AM  

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