Using Wikipedia to cite?
The last time I searched information using Wikipedia is during my poly years. I would occasionally search for information I need and most of the searches linked to Wikipedia.
But I learned something at that time. 5 years ago, I couldn’t trust Wikipedia for it’s content, even though it seems credible.
The main reason was that the information stated can be modified as and when it is required. Hence how credible can a “modifiying” content be?
This article, here, shows that students CAN indeed rely on Wikipedia. Although banning is a bad idea, but students (in the name of successful learning development) should use their own judgement on whether the information stated can be trusted or not.
Most of the time, it can useful. I cannot give a NO to the information given. However, to find out if the contributor is of a reliable source is another question.
How can one be sure if the information is accurate? Do more research. Books are the best. Because books uses a lot of citations from other sources to complement it’s content. Wikipedia does that too, but sometimes, people are just plain ignorant and tend to oversee that the content were interlinked with other sources.
So the question is, is Wikipedia good for citation?
My humble opinion would be no. To aid the development of learning, students should do more research. Although Wikipedia has most of it’s content correct, sometimes, more research means more learning, and more learning is ultimately what we need.
Banning of students to use Wikipedia? I would say no. Students should be taught on how to compare such findings with other findings and make out a comparison chart. That should add up to the learning process.
I have not used Wikipedia in 5 years already. Maybe I should drop in sometime to see what major changes they have gone through.
Rapsodi Remix
I’m currently watching Rapsodi Remix shown on Suria.
As per usual, the presense of Suhaimi Yusof spiced up the whole atmosphere. He makes a good host no matter what kind of shows he hosts on. I’ve always enjoyed his hosting abilities.
I must say, I’m pretty impressed by the standards of our current local talents. But I’m still sceptical, how far can they go?
They have artiste like Hady Mirza, Allif Aziz, Maya Rahman, Haryani Hassan Bakri etc, and I have yet to see how far their success can be.
If just hoping for Singapore alone, I doubt these young stars can reach the stars. I’m very sure that Singapore is doing a lot for these young talents to feature into international grounds but I have yet to see that happening.
I hope the Asian Idol starting tomorrow will change how the Asia sees Singapore’s talent.
Personally, I liked how Allif Aziz does the Hip-hop remix of Ala Canggung, it was simply refreshing. But it reminds me of the all time favourites rendition by Too Phat and sounded so much like Ahli Fikir, so I still think there’s much to improve on.
But I think it’s a bit biased, because the show’s ground in Singapore. So whenever the names of Hady Mirza, Allif Aziz and Maya Rahman is spoken, the crowd goes wild. What about the incredible talents from Brunei Darussalam? I think because the crowd knows them (recent stars) so it’s pretty common that they will jump crazy upon hearing their names.
Like all the other Rapsodi series every year, it has always been a huge success, and the response was well received. I hope it continues this way, either way it’s good for both Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
Random Stuffs
I was feeling a little random when I woke up today. I went on to google and searched for “what are people searching in search engines” and I found a link to Google Hot Trends. I wanted to do this after a heated discussion with my girlfriend yesterday night about what people are looking for when they are online.
So as for now, I found a few interesting searches:
- Washington Monument Height
- First Supreme Court Justice
- Do Almond Grows On Trees
- Once Upon A Christmas
- Racist Test
- Mall Shooting
I wonder what kind of information are they looking for when searching for these.
Microsoft PowerToys: Image Resizer
Back in camp, I saw a friend resizing images like nobody business.
So I stick out my busy nose, and asked him “how’d you do that?”
He said “download a Image Resizer tool from PowerToys”. So I went home later that day with a smile on my face, cause I got a new toy to play around with.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
In this topic, I’m particularly looking for something to help me resize my images (just take a look at my images I posted previously) with ease. Most of the converted images were around 60kb, and is ideal for sharing across the internet. I do not recommend resizing for a professional editing picture, because the quality is greatly reduced.
So download Image Resizer, you can find it on the right side of that page.
By the way, I’ve only tested this on Microsoft XP, I’m not sure if it’ll run on any other operating systems including Vista.
Usage is fairly easy. You just locate your image, right click, and choose “Resize Pictures”. Then you can choose whichever format you want, or you can even specify your own. The best thing about this little software is that it allows bulk converting without even running a high-memory program.
Most of my pictures in this blog is resized using that. How cool is that? And each picture is only around 20kb so it uploads in a breeze.
You should give it a try too.
Fishing Trip
Tomorrow I’m going fishing again!
Spring Cleaning
There’s no Spring here in Singapore, but I’m doing a spring cleaning…
US Gun Rampage
So everyone heard the news eh?
Cheers from Singapore!
