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My PMP exam study plan

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My company starting to put more emphasis in project management. They try to avoid having the employees to work insane overtime, having forever slipping the project schedule and most important of all, minimize the risk of the project. They even start a new project management career leader in addition to the normal technical and management career leader. Project Management Professional (PMP) is the credential for project managers, it’s very common in construction, utilities and software industries. It is relatively new to semi-conductor industry and it is slowly getting acceptance. It would be an asset for me to have the PMP credential.

The PMP exam has 200 MC question and it is 4 hours long. There are expensive preparation course out there to help you pass the exam. In my opinion those prep course are a waste of money, unless they are paid by my company. I am expert of writing open exams. I have aced in TOEFL, SAT, GRE, GMAT, P.Eng exam The PMP exam is not that difficult compare to other open exams. Probably about the same level as the P.Eng practice exams on legal and ethics. The official PMP textbook is really boring and the content very confusing. Reading it is a waste of time because you won’t remember a thing. There are lots of prep books out there. I am using the one written by Andy Crowe, but I think any the prep books can get the job done. Studying the prep books won’t teach you much about project management, but it can help you pass the exam.

I applied the PMP exam last year and I have been procrastinating to schedule my exam date. My application is about to expire, so I finally schedule my exam on the last available date. It gives me only one month to prepare for my exam. There are 10 knowledge area in PMP exam. I have to study 3 chapters per week. It took me 2-3 hours to study one chapter. The work load is not too bad, I only have to study a few hours every other day. The prep book comes with a mock exam and a 1 week trial for an online exam database. I will save the mock exam and the exam database access until the last week. I think my study schedule is pretty good. I don’t want to span my study over a long period of time, since I may forget what I learned a few months ago. A one month study plan is just about right.

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Verifiable

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Verifiable is an online visualization tool. You can upload statistic or data and use the flash web client to plot charts interactively. Its function is similar to plotting charts in Excel, but it’s free and it has a pretty sleek user interface.
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動漫

One Piece 海賊王

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這個聖誕我放了兩個星期大假﹐沒有出外旅遊是閒磨在家中﹐結果有幾天全拿來看了「海賊王」漫畫﹐一口氣煲完五十本感覺很暢快﹐很久沒有這樣放縱自己了。這套漫畫連載至今有十年﹐多年來我一直對它興趣缺缺﹐反正它不是我特別愛看的類型。就在這第十個年頭﹐「海賊王」終於擊敗「龍珠」﹐成為日本史上最暢銷的漫畫。「龍珠」當年總銷量有一億四千多萬本已是很跨張﹐但「海賊王」竟然能突破一億七千多萬本﹐而且可見的將來還會繼續連載﹐讓我也想見識下日本第一漫畫有到底什麼魔力。

當初我不太接受「海賊王」﹐其中一個原因是它古怪的畫風。人物造型有別於一般漫畫﹐手長腳長腳趾畫得像蔬蕉﹐面相奇特卻又掛著個西瓜笑容。看了五十多集「海賊王」後﹐我反而愛上作者尾田勞一郎的作畫。他的人物畫得很有性格﹐不似其他漫畫般倒模出來。不論是主角或路人﹐每個人的造型也有心思。漫畫背景也一絲不苟﹐讀者細心留意的話﹐會有很多有趣的發現。不似某大牌漫畫家般﹐竟膽敢拿草稿來刊登﹐面部特寫佔去大半格﹐背景也省得懶畫。

「海賊王」是很王道的冒險故事﹐有打鬥有笑料﹐熱血爆棚﹐歡樂滿點。當中不乏少年漫畫經典台詞﹐天下最強﹐最尋夢想﹐面對強敵永不放棄﹐一定要保護同伴等等。故事是一個以大海賊時代為背景的公路電影﹐主角路飛要去偉大航道尋找海賊王的寶藏﹐途中遇到各式各樣的人和事﹐聚集了一班志同道合的伙伴﹐打倒越來越強的敵人向前邁進。一個冒險完了展開另一個新的冒險﹐故事看似不可能會完結﹐新角色層出不窮。雖說劇情也有在緩慢推進﹐但故事實在太多超展開﹐我已經放棄了去翻查伏線是否合理。反正這是一套很「龍珠」的漫畫﹐不必要苛求嚴緊的故事﹐反正熱血沸騰看得過癮﹐沒有空餘腦袋去思考反駁劇情。

這套漫畫最難得的地方﹐是連載了五十集還未出現疲態。其他長篇連載漫畫﹐除非故事性很強有完整的劇本﹐到了後段大多不停拖戲﹐或者作者畫來畫去只在重覆自己的公式﹐強如「龍珠」也逃不過的虎頭蛇尾的宿命。「海賊王」每個新冒險單元都讓讀者有全新驚喜﹐不得不佩服作者天馬行空的想像力。漫畫連載了十年﹐偉大的航道還未走到一半﹐恐怕沒有一百集也未到大結局。「海賊王」電視版四百多集﹐故事大部份與漫畫重覆﹐想看也有心無力。不過倒可以找劇場版來看﹐大部份是外傳原創故事﹐路飛一行人柴娃娃地冒險﹐從海上來回到海上去﹐可以無聊時看套輕鬆娛樂一下。

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Y2K Bug Ten Years (Plus Six) Late

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It would be interesting to find out what is the bug that causes the six years difference. Maybe it is just a stupid typo. The character 6 and 0 looks quite similar if you use a very small font.

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Daily Scribble

How to write a good history essay

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Pat is taking a course in Canadian history and has to hand in a final essay. She has read all the textbook and all the reference papers, but she still have no clue how to write a good essay. She summarized all points from different historians, but she could not figure out how to meet the essay requirement, assess and contrasts the points from those historians.

I think writing an history essay is just like writing a philosophy paper, probably all undergrad level academic papers come from the same mold. For a history essay, first you give a brief summary of the historical event, what had happened and what is the result. Then you quote different historians to offer different explanations on why it happened and what is the consequences of the result. Usually the easy way out is pick the perspective from the historian you like, cite some minor events to backup his theory, and cite some other minor events to go against other theories. At the end of the essay, you conclude by saying historian A is right, historian B and C are wrong, and that’s it. I know nothing about the Riel Revolution, but after reading just Pat’s summary, I manage to BS an outline for an A grade essay (I think).

The historical event in the essay is about some European and native Indian mix-blood decedents rebel against the Canadian federal government seizing their land and the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) has a monopoly in fur trade. At the end the federal government gave in and respect their properties rights. Historian A uses Marxism theory, the revolution is a typical class struggle. The government and the HBC are capitalist exploiting poor rural farmers and hunters. Historian B claims there are two groups of mix-blood decedents, those mixed with English and those mixed with French. The revolution is just the extension of the England-France war with the French mix-blood rebel against government while the English mix-blood wants to assimilate with the government. Historian C gives a toned down version of Historian A’s view, instead of claiming class different is the problem, he claims cultural different causes the problem. Historian D does not offer any theory, he just record some anecdote of certain English mix-blood family. It really does not matter which theory you choose to defense, I am sure you can find reference in D’s material to support or against any of A,B,C’s view points.

I think besides becoming a philosopher, I also have the potential to become a historian. Writing history essay seems pretty easy, it’s like ordering fast food, combo A + B + C. First pick a historical event, then pick a social theory and link them up by citing minor events. You just need to claim your theory is better than any other theory in explaining why the event happened and twist some facts to make them fit your theory.