HlaMin

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  • Confusion & Superstition

    Confusion & Superstition

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    • Some people confuse Correlation with Causation.
    • Some people are superstitious and associate Bad Luck with specific signs and events (e.g Solar & Lunar Eclipses).

    Correlation

    • In Probability and Statistics, one has to determine if two variables have positive, negative or zero correlation.
    • Two variables are said to be positively correlated if both go up and down together.
    • Two variations are said to be negatively correlated if one goes up when the other goes down (and vice versa).
    • Two variables are said to be zero (no) correlation, if there is no significant trend.

    Confusion

    • Some confuse Correlation with Causation.
    • Correlated variables may or may not be related as “Cause and Effect”.
    • For example, we hear, “My friend has lung cancer. He does not smoke.”

    Does Smoking cause Lung Cancer?

    The early experiments show some correlation between Heavy Smoking and Lung Cancer.

    There are several parameters in Smoking

    • cigar, cigarette, e-cigarette, cheroot
    • frequency
    • quantity
    • deep inhalation
    • second hand smoke

    Superstition about Eclipse

    • Solar and Lunar Eclipses occur every year. There are Total and Partial Eclipses. We cannot see all eclipses from a place. Some occur in places we cannot see.
    • Some are superstitious. They fear when there are Eclipses.
    • Eclipses are natural phenomena. They do not cause bad events to happen.
    • “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
  • Law

    Law

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    National and International Laws

    The “Law of the Land” differs with countries.

    There are some International Laws for use by the nations.

    US Laws

    Members of the Congress — House of Representatives and the Senate — vote to pass a new Bill (of Legislation).

    POTUS (President of the United States) may sign the Bill into Law.

    The President may veto the Bill. The Congress needs a sufficient majority of votes to overturn the bill.

    British Laws

    The British introduced laws including Penal Code and Civil Code.

    Several Burmese attended Temple Inn in the UK to become Barristers. Technically, they were called to the Bar and they could use Bar-at-law in their name tags and cards.

    French Laws

    Some Burmese studied Law at the University of Sorbonne (in France).

    Law Professor

    Sir Arthur Eggar was an early Law Professor at the University of Rangoon. He is the Founder and Life time President of the Rangoon University Boat Club (RUBC).

    U Kyaw Myint served as a Justice in the High Court & the Supreme Court. He presided the Tribunal for trying Galon U Saw. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Rangoon University. His students include Guardian U Sein Win, Sao Hso Holm (Mong Pawn Sawbwa Lay) and U Mya Thein.

    Law Classes and Practice

    In the old Education system, law classes (e.g. for Bachelor of Law (BL)) were conducted early in the morning. It was common to see BA BL and BSc BL holders.

    In the new Education system, LLB and LLM were offered.

    Some practitioners take exams for RL (Registered Lawyer) and HGP (Higher Grade Pleader).

  • Neikban & Neikban Zaw

    Neikban & Neikban Zaw

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Neikban

    • Neikban is the Burmese term for Nibanna (in Pali) and Nirvana (in Sanscrit).
    • It is rendered as “Liberation” or “Enlightenment”.

    Neikban Zaw

    Neikban Zaw
    • It is the pen name of my beloved spouse. She wrote articles for the Dhammananda Newsletter. I have re-posted some of them.
    • Some volunteers for Dhamma activities also call themselves “Neikban Zaw”.
    • Some associations for Dhamma activities may be called “Neikban Zaw Ah Phwe”.

  • QWERTY Keyboard

    Background

    • Sholes invented the mechanical typewriter. In order to prevent two keys stuck after hitting them rapidly, he designed the QWERTY layout.
    • Business schools and companies trained “touch typing” with the QWERTY keyboards.

    Ergonomics

    • In the English alphabet, e is the most frequently used vowel, and t is the most frequently used consonant. To hit them, a touch typist has to move a left finger.
    • This led to claims that the QWERTY keyboard is not ergonomic; not suitable for efficient typing and It could cause tendonitis and similar medical problems.
    • Computers (desk tops laptops, pads, …) continue to use QWERTY because most people do not want to change their habits, and retraining is costly.
    • Numerous attempts to replace QWERTY were not successful.
    • Many computer users are not touch typists; some use the “hunt and peck” method using two fingers. They do not care about the ergonomics of the keyboard.
    • A few use ergonomic keyboards either with QWERTY layout with two sections (e.g. laid out in V-shape) or with non-QWERTY layout (e.g. Dvorak)

    U Khin Maung Zaw (EC76) wrote :

    In the early days, one of my leads really like Dvorak keyboard and used it on his desktops. One day we had an issue with one of the servers, and needed to logon to it to troubleshoot the root cause. [This was before the advent of the remote access.]

    Even though we had the admin password, no one could logon to it, and the lead was on vacation for couple of weeks. We decided not to rebuild the server as it had some unique applications running on it and the issue was livable, waiting for him to come back. [He was the last person to logon to that server, so we assume he might have changed the password without telling the team.]

    When he came back to work, we told him about the server, naturally he logged on to it to investigate. We asked him what the new password was, he denied he changed it at all.

    Then we discovered he changed the keyboard to Dvorak while using it but did not switch it back.

    The directive was issued across the board not to switch the keyboards on any servers, across all company data centers.

  • Salary

    Salary

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Terms

    • Base Pay : Used for calculating pension, etc.
    • CLA : Cost of Living Allowance
    • Pay Scale is specified as S – A – M where
      S : Starting Salary
      A : Annual Increment
      M : Maximum Salary (also known as Bar)

    Typical Pay Scales (six decades ago)

    • Tutor or Demonstrator : 200 – 10 – 300
      Typical CLA = 97
      Starting pay is 200 + 97 = 297 Kyats
    • Lecturing Tutor : Gets 100 Kyats additional;
      Starting pay is 397 Kyats
    • Assistant Lecturer (AL) : 350 – 25 – 700
      Typical CLA = 89
      Starting pay is 350 + 89 = 439 Kyats
    • Lecturer : 800 – 50 – 1200
      No CLA
      Has access to staff shop
      Can spend 10% of salary at the staff shop
    • Professor: 1300
      No Annual Increment
      No CLA
      Has access to “staff shop”
      May be eligible for a house in the Campus

    Changes

    • CLA was abolished
    • Tutor gets a Starting Salary of 320 Kyats
    • Assistant Lecturer gets a Starting Salary of 450 Kyats
    • New positions and/or scales were introduced

    Examples:

    • Gazetted officer: 450 scale & above
    • Engineering Instructor: 450 – 25 – 700 [“new” position]
    • Assistant Lecturer: 450 – 25 – 700 [“new” scale]
    • Lecturer: 800 – 40 – 1000 [“new” scale]
    • Associate Professor: 1000 – 50 – 1200 [“new” position]
    • Professor : 1300 [“old” position and scale]

    Observation

    • A hybrid system (Professor, Associate Professor & Lecturer) was adopted instead of the more common system (Professor, Associate Professor & Assistant Professor)
    • Some departments saw
      Gyar scale: 500 – 30 – 800 [“new” scale]
    • It took longer to get promoted.
      e.g. An Engineering Instructor needs to become Assistant Lecturer (with no visible increase in pay) before becoming Lecturer.
    • The pay raises due to a promotion were no longer substantial (especially with the high cost of living and the decline of the purchasing power of Kyat).
    • Several sayas who were Lecturers (when I was a student) retired as Lecturers.
    • Several sayas retired as Assistant Lecturers. In contrast, one saya became Associate Dean in Thailand.
    EE Sayas
  • Palindrome

    Palindrome

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Definition

    • A palindrome reads the same when read forward or backward.
    • There are word palindromes, numerical palindromes and musical palindromes.

    Examples

    • The earliest palindrome supposedly occurred in the Garden of Eden. MADAM I’M ADAM and the reply EVE
    • Napoleon Bonaparte is the first Corsican to attend the French Military Academy. He rose to be an Emperor. He supposedly lamented : ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA .
    • There were two early Canals (Suez and Panama) to shorten the sea routes. The degree of difficulty was not the same. It took meticulous planning to build the Panama Canal. It gave rise to the palindrome :
      A MAN, A PLAN, PANAMA
    • There are palindromes in languages, music and art. The Pulitzer Prize winning book on Escher (Painter), Godel (Mathematician) and Bach (Composer) discusses threads that are common to Maths and Computer Science, Arts and Music. One such thread is a palindrome. For example, a musical composition (which is a palindrome) can be played from the front to back, and vice versa.
    • There are numerical palindromes.

    101

    • It is a numerical palindrome. It reads the same forward and backward.
    • Value of “One hundred and one” in the Decimal Number System.
    • Value of 5 in the Binary number system.
    • Introductory courses are usually named “101” e.g. CS 101 for an introductory course in Computer Science.
    • In California, USA, there is a highway named 101. Several companies in the Silicon Valley along Highway 101.
    • District 4 of Toastmasters International was divided into District 4 and District 101. Most clubs that are located near Highway 101 were assigned to District 101.

    1001

    • It is a numerical palindrome.
      It reads the same forward and backward.
    • Value of “One thousand and one” in the Decimal number system
    • Value of 9. in the Binary number system
    • Read “1001 Nights”.
      Scheherezade outwitted a king who killed his wives after their first night together by telling him a different story every night for 1001 nights (and supposedly gave birth to some children).
    • In early 2018, I started posting “Trivia”. Completed 1001+ posts in time for my birthday in August, 2018

    Feedback

    • U San Lin (“Maung Lu Pay”, M87, USA) wrote :
      Wonderful job. It’s best 1000 trivia I ever read. Thanks Sayar.
      Best Regards,
      San Lin
    • Saya Dr Myo Khin (C70, Japan) wrote :
      Dear Ko Hla Min,
      Your endless selfless towards the RIT is highly appreciated and please do not stop this meritorious deed.
      May Lord Buddha bless and keep you and your beloved family. Sincerely and Best Regards,
      Your childhood friend
      Myo Khin
    • Winston De Penha (SPHS63, Australia) wrote :
      I’ve read all your Trivia posts.
      Hope you remember me.
      I was your classmate.
    • Ashin Pannagavesaka wrote :
      Parent #1: My son’s only four and he can already spell his name backwards.
      Parent #2: Oh? And what’s his name?
      Parent #1: Otto.
  • Methodology

    Methodology

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Top Down

    • Approach starts with the Design Requirements and then decide on the intermediate and final steps to get the design implemented.
    • Used some software projects.
    • May also be used in the writing of a book. One first decides on the structure and contents.

    Bottom Up

    • Used when one has a set of bases, foundations and libraries.
    • Building blocks are then assembled and refined to develop a desired product.
    • May also be used in the writing of a book. If one has written posts for a long time, they may be used as a basis for further development into an e-book or printed book.

    Middle Out

    • Approach is used to develop several software.
    • Uses a hybrid (part Top Down and part Bottom Up). It is important to make sure that the two parts meet properly.
    • In the context of publishing, a group of writers and editors can come up with a Design for the book, use existing material as much as possible and try to bridge the gap with new material.
  • Album

    Album

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Photo Album

    • Many years ago I received a photo album as a present.
    • During our younger days, photos were expensive. It costs about 25 – 50 pyas per photo.
      There is a base cost for processing a film roll, and extra cost for printing reasonably good photos.
    • One may waste money due to overexposure, underexposure, blurred photos (for taking moving objects with a low ASA or DIN).
    • I did not take many photos. So, my album was not full. I decided to use it as a Scrap Book.

    Scrap Book

    • I pasted some of my publications (poems and translations) from the newspapers (e.g. Guardian, WPD) and magazines (e.g. Forward). I added some captions.
    • A few years back, I tore off the pages and scanned them. I posted some of them in my Facebook pages and my personal website.
    • As time and energy permitted, I provided details of the photo.

    Memories

    • Ko Benny Tan (M70) told me that his parents brought thousands of photos (taken out of many albums to save weight and space) to the USA. With such wealth of material, it is easy to share memories with the descendants.
    • Thanks to sayas, alumni, friends and readers for sharing rare photos and memories.
    • I now have several digital photo albums in my Facebook pages and in my personal web site.
  • Decline of Trust

    Decline of Trust

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Younger Days

    We were delighted to know that most doors (e.g in some parts of Yamethin) were left open at night. It was an indication of a high level of trust among people.

    Much later

    We saw guarded windows and doors (with multiple locks) in most places. It might indicate a deterioration of trust among people.

    No Exception for USA

    Trust also eroded in the USA. In addition to the locks, there are security cameras and recording systems to deter vandalism and thefts.

    In some places, car windows are broken to take away valuables in the car. Restaurants place signs “Do not leave valuables in your car”.

    Misplaced or Lost Item

    Back in the days of our parents and grand parents, one is sure to get back a misplaced item.

    My friend Patrick remembered that his father left a hat at Rangoon Turf Club and he found it untouched on his preferred seat the following week.

    Trust worldwide

    Around the world, more people lost trust in banking corporations and investment firms after being hit by Ponzi schemes, scams and variants.

    The use of simple passwords has given way to longer pass phrases that are harder to crack.

    Login to computer systems prefer multi-factor authentication (e.g. bio-metrics). The computer sends back a code to be used for verification. Even then, no system that has a “back door” is safe forever. It may be safe for a specified period of time.

    Companies track the activities of their employees. Essentially, no one is to be trusted fully in the modern age with a gazillion of malicious schemes.

    A different view of trust has evolved. People check feedback (e.g. on Yelp) to decide if a product or service is trustworthy. How much does an average person trust a room-sharing service or a ride-sharing service or a friend on an Internet Chat.

    Zaw Winn wrote :

    When the Trust is directly proprtional to Loyalty ;

    When Loyalty is directly proportional to Contentedness ;

    When Contentedness is directly proportional to Sufficiency ;

    When Sufficiency is directly proportional to Abundance ;

    ….

    Trust is readily available.

  • Which -ist are you?

    Optimist

    • looks at the bright side of things
    • sees a glass as half full
    • treats challenge as an opportunity

    Pessimist

    • looks at the dark side of things
    • sees a glass as half empty
    • does not embrace challenge

    Realist

    • performs Reality Check
    • asks if water has been poured in or out before deciding the degree of fullness or emptiness
    • determines which challenges are worthwhile e.g. give a good Return On Investment (ROI)
    • appreciate the Prayer of Acceptance : Grant me the power to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference