HlaMin

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  • Neikban Zaw (3)

    A Question an an Answer
    • The article “A Question and Answer” was published in the Dhammananda Newsletter many years ago.
    • “Neik Ban Zaw” is the pen name of my beloved spouse.
    Article by Neik Ban Zaw

  • RU Centennial (2)

    BCS

    • ICS gave way to BCS.
    • BCS exams were administered by PSC.
    • Rosie Gyi (Mai Khin Nyunt) posted about her father U Khin Maung Gyi BA, BCS, BL
    • The comments mentioned two other BCS : U Sein Maung (father of Austin) and U Maung Maung Kyi.

    Old (some rare) Photos

    • Prome Hall Soccer Team (winner of Inter-Hall tournament for two years in the early 1950s)
    • Final Year Engineering Students in 1948 and 1949 (taken at their Reunion at Inya Lake)
    • Soccer teams
      Which played friendly match with a visiting Indian team
      Which won the Merdeka Tournament
      Which won tournaments at various levels
    • SEAP Games
      RU Athletes who represented Burma in the Second SEAP Games in 1961
      RU Belles who carried the Placards of the competing nations in the Fifth SEAP Games in 1969
    • RUBC
      Independence Day Regatta at Kandawgyi in 1948
      Four brothers and cousin (who are all Past Captain and Gold)
      ARAE Champions in 1958 and 1960
    • Some Sayas who are GBNF
      Saya U Pe Maung Tin
      Saya Dr. Maung Maung Kha
      Saya U San Tha Aung
      Saya Mr. Kangyi (English)
      Saya U Kaung Nyunt
      Saya U Wun (Minthuwun)
      …
      see Albums

  • Feature

    Requirements

    During the design phase, the product manager and the developers categorize the requirements as

    • Must have
    • Nice to have.

    During extensive testing and often much later, bugs (of varying severity) show up. Some subtle errors are dubbed “features”.

    Facebook

    In group photos with Yours Truly, Facebook would tag me as my brother. The error might be due to the

    • Imperfect facial recognition system
    • Unintentional tagging by some user hitting the wrong key when asked to tag
    • Guesstimate (“guess estimate”) algorithm to “match” faces and names (in the post)

    I would often get friend requests from questionable Facebook users.

    • There are several who belong to 50+ groups.
      Not sure whether they are Robots, Spammers or People with lots of free time
    • The meaning of a friend (e.g. A friend in need is a friend indeed) has been “downgraded”.
    • Some have no photos and bare info on their timeline / profile.

    The “View As” feature contributed to an opportunity for data miners, hackers and crackers.

  • Computing Aids

    • Abacus
      2-5
      1-4
    • Calculator
      Electronic
      Graphical
      Mechanical
      Programmable
    • Computer
    • Logarithm
    • Slide rule
    • Tables

  • Trips

    With Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi and Ko Ivan Lee in East Coast of USA

    With Sayagyi U Aung Khin, Ivan and Fred in Windsor, Canada

  • The Buddha and His Teachings

    Author : NARADA MAHA THERA
    VAIJIRARAMA, COLOMBO
    First Edition : 1964
    4th Enlarged Edition : 1980

    Introduction

    Part I : THE BUDDHA

    1. The Buddha — From Birth to Reunciation
    2. His Struggle for Enlightenment
    3. The Buddhahood
    4. After the Enlightenment
    5. The Invitation to Expound the Dhamma
    …
    12. The Buddha’s Ministry
    13. The Buddha’s Daily Routine
    14. The Buddha’s Parinibbana (Death)

    Part II : THE DHAMMA
    THE TEACHINGS OF THE DHAMMA

    15. What is Buddhism?
    16. Some Salient Characteristics of Buddhism
    17. The Four Noble Truths
    18. Kamma
    …
    35. The Way to Nibbana (I) — Morality
    36. The Way to Nibbana (II) — Concentration
    37. Nivarana or Hindrances
    38. The Way to Nibbana (III) — Insight
    39. The State of an Arahant
    40. The Boddhistta Ideal
    41. Parami — Perfections
    42. Brahmavihara — The Sublime States
    43. The Eight Worldly Conditions (Atthalokadhamma)
    44. The Problems of Life

  • Local Talent

    The English section of BBS (Burma Broadcasting Service) had a program for Local Talents.

    • A typical session is allocated 15 minutes.
    • An individual or a group can sing or play about five songs.
    • A typical remuneration is 45 Kyats per session.

    Groups and Individuals

    • Dream Makers (Reggie Ba Oo, Eddie Ba Oo, …)
    • Immanuel Four (Members of the Immanuel Church)
    • LPJ (Love Peace and Joy) (Victor Khin Nyo, Thein Tan, …)
    • Playboy (Thann Naing, Tommy Kyaw Naing, Kyaw Naing, …)
    • TAMPS (Tin Aung, Austin Xavier, Mra Tun, Pierpont Morgan and Sydney Sann Aung)
    • Shamrock Boys (Nyi Nyi and Myint Soe)
    • Win Sisters (Joyce Win [Nwe Yin Win], Hilda Win)
    • Super Star (Peter Ba Thein, Han Ngwe Tun [Raymond], …)
    • The Wild Ones (Paw brothers, …)
    • Victor Ohn Maung
    • Ricky Zaw
    • Andrew Kong
    • Saya Des Rodgers

    Some people (e.g. Thein Tan, Reggie Ba Oo) played on more than one group.

    A few own a set of Guitars (Lead, Rhythm, Bass, Steel, Hawaiian, 12 String, …), Percussion, Keyboard.

    Several later turned professional.

  • Convocation

    • Graduation ceremony is known as Convocation.
    • Rangoon University holds the ceremony at the Convocation Hall.
    • In the early days, the Prime Minister of the Union of Burma serves as Adhipati (Chancellor) of RU, attends the Convocations and also deliver speeches.
    • RU has Adhipati Lann (Chancellor Road).

    Commencement

    • In the USA, the graduation ceremony is known as Commencement.
    • In some universities, the Commencement ceremony is held in the open (e.g. Quadrangle).
    • Steve Jobs was invited to give his Commencement Speech at Standford University.
      It covered three key events of his life.

    Gyogone Campus

    • In 1961, the Faculty of Engineering of Rangoon University moved to the Gyogone Campus.
    • It was named BIT (Burma Institute of Technology).
    • Saya U Yone Moe (Retired Chief Engineer of Burma Railways) succeeded four Interim Deans (Dr. Htin Aung, Dr. Tha Hla, U Po Tha and Dr. Maung Maung Kha).
    • When RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology) was established under the new Education system, Saya U Yone Moe became the Rector.
    • The Convocation was held at the “Aw Bar Lann” (known for the thunderous applause).
    • Thanks to those who took the photos.

  • Where are you?

    Most were my classmates at SPHS. Hope they are alive and well.

    • Alfred Lunn Maung
    • Anthony Lourdes
    • Aung Kyee Myint
    • A S Soni
    • Bernard Taylor
    • Bo Kyi
    • Bo Ni
    • Caesar Yang
    • Chu Pu Thein
    • Dicky Chan
    • Dicky Kywe
    • Edmund Ba Thin
    • Edward Chow
    • Edward Hla Shwe (1)
    • Edward Hla Shwe (2)
    • Freddie Tun Lwin
    • Gallant Leong
    • George Leong
    • George Stevens
    • Han Kan Paw
    • Han Nyunt
    • Han Thein
    • Henry Wong (Than Win)
    • Herbert KCL
    • Hla Myint
    • Hla Saing (Tommy Saing)
    • Htyan Lye
    • Jerry Hin Hwa
    • Jonathan Swamy
    • Khin Maung Htay
    • Khin Maung Khine
    • Khin Maung Kywe
    • Khin Maung Lin (Saw Lin)
    • Krishnan Lal
    • Leslie Tun Yin
    • Malcolm Maung Maung
    • Maung Maung Thaung
    • Maung Maung Thaik
    • Michael Oo
    • Michael Su
    • Nay Lin
    • Orlando Thein
    • Patrick Das
    • Patrick Ni
    • Peter Myo
    • Peter Pe (Aung Kyaw)
    • Richard Lim
    • Richard Pe
    • Robert Chan
    • Robert Kyi (San Maung)
    • Robert Myint Win
    • Ronnie Hla Maung
    • Sammy Bi
    • Sean Young
    • Sein Nyunt
    • Sebastain Law Kee
    • Stanley Shwe Gyi (Thein Lwin)
    • Sydney Khant
    • Teddy Thaung
    • Than Htay
    • Tin Ni
    • Tin Win (1)
    • Tin Win (2)
    • Tommy Aung
    • Tommy Chit Maung
    • Tun Tun Aung
    • William Mya
    • William Win Kywe
    • Win Maung

  • UCC and Burmese

    This post covers basics of Burmese typing, spelling, and word processing.

    Remington produced typewriters for English.

    Olympia was commissioned to produce typewriters for Burmese. The “red” keys were used to type vowels; the carriage did not go forward. The “black’ keys were used to type consonants. Back-spacing for half a step was necessary on the “standard” edition to type “tha gyee”. Manual dexterity was needed to type some “pa sint” characters. the “office’”edition had extra keys.

    IBM produced Selectric typewriters. “Golf” ball-like character sets had to be installed/replaced.

    Wang Computers provided word processors for various languages. Ko Htay Aung worked at Wang for a while on the “Burmese” language project.

    Burma Research So

    ciety (BRS) used transliteration for its publications. For example, “k-o-l” combination represents “ko”. The scheme was used on Macintosh.

    UCC had projects to do Burmese word processing. Saya Myo supervised a project for Ma San Yu Hlaing for “collation” (needed for sorting). Saya TAG and his team (Ko Htay Aung, Ko Soe Myint, …) worked on Cromenco System Three for printing and processing. U Soe Win and team worked on Calcomp graph plotter.

    Chinese characters were input on the early systems using (1) large tablets (2) three corner method (3) Romaji, …

    The evolution has seen various type face/font families, keyboard layouts, Unicode support, …

    We miss the days when we had type perfectly or reasonably well on typewriters using messy carbons.

    Also, planning to cyclostyle double-si

    ded printing (odd numbered pages first, then repeat with even-numbered pages).

    Burmese Language Commission bowed to higher authorities to revise the spelling at least two times.

    Fines were imposed on authors and publishers spelling the established way. (e.g. “ta”) instead of the preferred way (e.g. “tit”) despite the scholars pointing out the old inscriptions at “Bo ta htaung” (not “Bo tit htaung”) pagoda.

    CTK (Children’s Treasury of Knowledge) project was delayed to correct the spellings.

    It was not easy to write in those days without facing censorship. It was taboo to quote “Dhammata” poem (by Ananda Thuriya). It was a crime to write about the “setting sun”.