HlaMin

Blog

  • U Sein Win

    Saya U Sein Win is the younger brother of Dr. Tin U (MS. RCH) and Dr. Saw Lwin.

    He was a top student at the University of Michigan.

    He served as Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering. When EE Department was “formally split” into EC (Electrical Communications, AKA also known as EcE and Electronics Engineering) and EP (Electrical Power), Saya served as Professor of EP.

    Saya is an absent minded Professor. He married late. One day, Saya drove Sayagadaw to Bogyoke Market. He taught (or discussed with) his students for quite some time and [almost] forgot to pick up Sayagadaw.

    He served as Technical Advisor for UCC. He worked closely with U Win Htein (GBNF, Purdue University, EE at PWD) for the design and maintenance of the Electrical Systems (including Motor Alternator, Diesel Generator, Air conditioning …) at UCC.

    He served as Line Judge at the RUBC (Rangoon University Boat Club) Regattas. He stays fit by swimming regularly (even when he was visiting Singapore on a business trip). He managed the RIT Swimming and Water Polo team.

    He has a vast knowledge. Saya Dr. San Hla Aung (C58) remembered Saya U Sein Win discussing about Civil Engineering and other subjects.

  • Veda & UCC

    Veda & UCC

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Myint Sein

    U Myint Sein (GBNF) is my childhood friend. He became the Principal at BARB (Burmese Astro Research Bureau). He asked me if I can help him to speed up some Veda processes (e.g. generation of a Natal Horoscope).

    I assigned two students Ko Win Latt and Ko Zaw Tun and supervised them for the Veda projects.

    Ko Win Latt owned a computer and was also an excellent programmer. Under my supervision and with the guidance of U Myint Sein, Ko Win Latt came up with three versions. He named them WinHoro V3, V6 and V9.

    V3 produces the “basic” horoscope with Yathi (Rasi), Bawa and Nawin (Navamsa). It is also known as “Tri Cekka Zatar” referring to the three parts. It takes some time (a few minutes to an hour) if done manually.

    V6 produces a better horoscope.

    V9 produces the best horoscope.

    WinHoro was implemented using BASIC (an interpretive language).

    BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was designed by Professors Kemeny & Kurtz for use with the Dartmouth College Time Sharing System (CSS).

    Bill Gates and Paul Allen implemented “Tiny BASIC” for the MITS Altair. They co-founded Microsoft.

    BASICA, GWBASIC and variants became a popular language for microcomputers and PCs.

    One needs expert knowledge to “interpret” a Zartar. Ko Zaw Tun used Prolog (language for Logic Programming) to implement the Bedin Rules. He tested his program with several sets of data. He was surprised when his program said that “the Two Year Old is a rich person (possibly a Millionaire)”. He thought that there must be a bug. It turned out that the Two Year Old is a grand son of a wealthy Sawbwa, who decided that his grand son should inherit his wealth.

    Sad to note that my good friend U Myint Sein is now GBNF. It was good news and bad news for his son, who was back in Yangon to take examination for Master Mariner. He was present at his father’s last journey.

  • San Myint Thane

    Sammy asked his brother in the USA to send him some books and a tool kit for use in his Final Year Project. His interest was on microprocessors.

    The book by Klingman discussed “Hardware Software Duality”.
    Klingman said that “Any hardware can be implemented in software. Any software can be implemented in hardware.”
    There are trade-offs to consider whether to use hardware, software, firmware or a combination.

    The concept of Duality can be found in Mathematics and Logic.
    The “Line-Point Duality” says that “Two intersecting lines determine a point. Two points determine a line [which passes through both]”. In this Geometric aspect, Line and Point are duals.
    De Morgan’s Theorems in “Set Theory” and “Boolean Algebra” are duals.

    Sammy and Kelvin used the microprocessor tool kit and ran demo on the assembled microprocessor.

    Sammy spent some time at UCC while waiting to migrate to the USA.

    His mother wanted him to get married and was willing to find suitable candidates, but Sammy set the requirements too high. She must be young, intelligent, and able to play Classical and Modern music. Finally, by applying some “Relaxation Techniques”, Sammy became a loving spouse and a caring father of twins.

  • History

    I love history (History of Computing, History of Myanmar Engineering Education …).

    Why should we study History?

    Saya Dr. Than Tun said, “So that one would not be stupid or dumb.”

    There’s an old adage, “History repeats itself”.

    A historian presents facts. He should not give his opinion.

    The historian from Smithsonian said, “There is no single correct history. There are often multiple competing histories.”

    I am grateful to my spouse, who said “You should pay back to your alma mater and your country.”

    Saya U Tin Maung Nyunt said that I should record my oral stories and put them to print for posterity. Sayamagyi from UCSY asked me if I could help for a commemorative issue of the 30th Anniversary of ICST/UCSY.

    My beloved parents said, “Any thing that’s worth doing is worth doing well”.

    I have shared my memories about the early days of Computing in Burma. I hope that the readers will help “fill in the blanks” and correct errors and inconsistencies in my posts.

    Collectively, we can turn the posts into a reasonably good document worthy of printing (or at least publish as an e-book).

    The readers should suggest topics that I should add or elaborate.

    Dr. TOKM wrote :

    When we conducted the Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Study, the data analysis was from me at UCC. Ko Ronnie Myo Min and many UCC staff helped us with the data analysis.

    The next project we did was “Risk Approach in Delivery of MCH Care”. We did a prospective study on the risk of mothers dying during pregnancy and child birth. As the outcome was measured by “relative risk” and “absolute risk” it was much easier to analyse the data.

    Our team used 1MB handheld Sinclair computer for our study. Our team did not have monitors nor printers. Your nephew Peter (Khin Tun) worked out RR and AR on Sinclair, read the result on Saya U Tin U’s old TV and copied out the results by hand. Peter still had a copy of the final report. I left my copy at home and got lost.

  • National Foreign Language Center

    NFLC

    There is a National Foreign Language Center (NLFC) at the University of Maryland (College Park).
    It used to provide free (or limited) access to Federal employees and eligible educators to study languages (e.g. French, Chinese, Arabic).

    For a number of years, it chose from among the languages used by minorities to add introductory level courses to its library.
    One year NFLC decided to develop Listening and Reading Comprehension for basic Burmese.
    It sent request to professors, scholars and Burmese associations to help with the project.

    I was accepted to be the Language Advisor for the Burmese project.
    The Listening Comprehension consists of broadcasts (e.g. Win Pe Lwai Eik).
    The Reading Comprehension consists of short articles (e.g. Ayotha Pyinnya Wun U Po Kyar).

    Specific fonts and browsers were needed to read the script for the Listening and Reading Comprehension.
    English translations were provided. My task was to ensure the quality (e.g. correctness of the translation).
    Exercises were provided.

    As a contributor to the project, I had access to LangNet.
    NFLC no longer offers free access. Individuals and groups can subscribe to its courses for nominal fees.

  • Parts of Speech

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    English

    In our younger days, we were taught that there are eight parts of speech in the English language.

    A Noun is a name of a person, place, thing, or concept.
    A noun may be classified as Proper noun, Common noun, Collective noun or Abstract noun.

    A Verb usually describes an action or a process.
    A verb may be Transitive or Intransitive.

    Instead of repeating a noun several times, we may use Pronouns.
    A pronoun stands for a Noun.
    Grammar books will give classification such as Person and Number of a Pronoun.
    When we speak, the first person is the one who speaks; the second person is the one being spoken to, and the third person is some other being referenced.
    If there is only one person, we say it is singular. If there is more than one, we say it is plural.
    In English, the term “You” may be both singular and plural.

    There are Modifiers.
    An Adjective usually modifies a Noun or Pronoun.
    An Adverb usually modifies a Verb.

    There are Connectors.
    A Conjunction (such as And or But) connects two parts of a Sentence (which is constructed using the parts of speech, and makes “complete sense”.)
    A Preposition adds information such as position (e.g. in, on, upon, under) and time (e.g. before, after).

    There are words to express Mood (e.g. surprise).
    They are also called Exclamation or an Interjection.

    Notes

    There are two techniques :
    Synthesis (combining the parts of speech)
    and
    Analysis (breaking down into the parts of speech).

    Pali language has only four parts of speech.

  • U Pe Maung Tin

    Sayagyi U Pe Maung Tin was Professor of Pali and Burmese. He proposed to have Burmese as a separate department. His students include

    • ICS U Sein Tin (Theikpan Maung Wa)
    • U Thein Han (Zawgyi)
    • U Wun (Minthuwun) 

    Myanmar Sar Mi Thar Su had unveiled Sayagyi’s bust in the RU Main Campus.

    He also served Principal of Rangoon College.

    Two Sermons

    U Tha Win requested Sayagyi to translate into English the two sermons that Buddha gave to his five disciples at the Deer Sanctuary.

    • Dhammacakkapavattna Sutta is the first sermon delivered to the five disciples.
    • Anatta Lekhanna Sutta is the follow up sermon given to the five disciples.

    Note : Hemanwunta Sutta given to a celestial is considered as Buddha’s second sermon.

    Saya U Aung Zaw (UCC) sent me an early version of the book. It has three columns :

    • Pali
    • Burmese
    • English (translated by Sayagyi).

    Dr. Kyaw Tint (Science Scholar for Physics) has an old worn-out copy of the book. He had typed a few verses and posted on his time line. Hope some reader has a good copy that is easy to scan.

  • Qualifiers

    To differentiate people with the same name, qualifiers — prefixes and suffixes — are used.

    Some in the government service has a serial number as the suffix. e.g. U Maung Maung (6)

    One singer called himself “Twante Thein Tan”. Another had a bigger name “Myanmar Pyay Thein Tan.”

    U Zaw Min (EP70) decided to have a career change and a name change after he arrived in the USA. He is now known as Zaw Min Nawaday or Zaw Nawaday.

    Some did not know why Saya U Thein Aung (Met72) was called “Myodaw Thein Aung”. They were not aware of the Zat Mintha.

    One wonders if having long names would resolve the name conflict. e.g. Cartoon character named Khin Maung Thet Cho Oo.
    What happens if a name is too long to spell or pronounce?

    • My boss was named Surapol Dasananda, but most called him “Dr. Das”.
    • My colleague was named Suttipong Kanakakorn, but most called him “Nick”.

    Some have several qualifiers e.g. Mingun Sayadaw & Tipitaka Sayadaw

  • Character Codes

    A character in a specified language can be coded as a string of bits (binary digits).

    In the early days, English was the primary language used for communications in most parts of the world. The English alphabet consists of 26 letters. 5-bits (which can represent 32 symbols) are need to represent (a) upper case characters (b) lower case characters.

    5-bit, 6-bit, 7-bit and 8-bit character codes were developed and used. Some early standards include (a) 7-bit ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) (b) 8-bit EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code).

    With the wide spread use of computer technology, Character sets for the various languages were developed. Some languages (notably Chinese) require long bit strings.

    Fixed length coding gave way to Variable length coding. The most used characters in a language are represented as one byte and the lesser used characters are represented as two or more bytes.

    Unicode aims to have standard character codes for the languages. There are formal and informal institutions to help develop, propose and approve new Unicode character sets.

    UTF is a Unicode Transformation Format to transform Unicode characters to fit the specified length (e.g. UTF-8, UTF-16).

    Standards may be (a) De Jure (set by law) (b) De Facto (set by common usage). Standards must be followed for Compliance.

    Recommendations, which should be followed, can cause variations in the implementations.

  • BE Intake of 1964

    Three Intakes

    In November 1964, there were three intakes under the New Education System :

    • 1st BE (Class of 70) : corresponds to I.Sc.(A) in the Old System
      The controversial ILA (Intelligence Level Aggregate) was used for admission
      400+ students (probably 450) joined.
      Zaw Min (Nawaday) was admitted as Roll Number One.
    • 2nd BE (Class of 69) : corresponds to I.Sc.(B) in the Old System
      Total Marks were used for admission
      300+ students (probably 325) joined.
      Hla Min was admitted as Roll Number One.
    • 3rd BE (Class of 68) : corresponds to First Year Engineering in the Old System
      About 200 joined 3rd BE.

    Update

    • Some students left before graduation.
    • Some took Sabbatical and took slightly longer to graduate.
    • Most are now retired or semi-retired.
    • Sad to not that several have passed away.
    • Recent GBNF from the Class of 68 include U Saw Win, U Zaw Win (Cyril) and Sayama Daw Mya Mya Than.
    • U Aung Min (M69) and team provide updates for the Class of 69.
      As of September 2021, the GBNF list has 113 members.
    Thein Maung (M69, GBNF)
    • U Ohn Khine (M70) and team provide updates for the Class of 70.
      As of September 2021, the GBNF list has 111 members.
    U Wara (Win Paing, ChE70, GBNF)