My supervisor is back!

I came to office today to do some online stuffs..actually plan to do pilot searching on online databases..but half way doing it, I checked emails and there was email from emilia. Urmm alamak..she is now back to work after long leave to oz. As expected, she suggested for a meeting, well..next Tuesday seems to be good to her (but not to me!) huhu I've yet to revise and finalize the write up on protocol review before submitting it to her. Alamakk im running out of time now..huhu need to chio!

Finally…203/155 Beach Rd

I have been very busy and headache lately thinking about choosing an apartment to be rented. My contract with Princeton end by 4^th August and Zaidah (my flatmate-to-be) is coming back here to Auckland pretty soon. Last week, I have viewed 3 apartments, which located at the Beach Rd, Kingston Rd and Symonds St. Of course there are pros and cons on each of the apt. If you want it perfect in terms of location + beautiful view + fully furnished + large living hall + free use of gym, sauna and pool, then you must ready to spend more money J The rate for such apt is approximately range between $360-$400pw.

After think and think and think deeply, finally I decided to choose the apt at the Beach Rd. I hope Zaidah will like it too. Yea.. of course after Istikharah too, I called Andrew (the agent) to confirm my application. My justification to Zaidah, if this one is not her preferences, then we can have a try for about a few months. Later, we can move to other apartment of better facilities and view. Hehehe..

Another thing about renting apartment in the city is that, you must be ready with the so many type of fees incur. It is normal to spend almost about $2k or even some apt may require 2k++ which inclusive the bonding fee + advance rental fee + letting fee + GST some more as part of the move-in cost. Hmm..mmg cekik darah la diorang nih..Tensen jer bila enquiry psl move-in cost. Jarang jumpa yg takde letting fee or gst etc. but that is the fact living in Auckland.

Why I choose that apt? As I said, ada pros and cons… Major thing is the living hall + kitchen. The living hall is quite big, with tv, sofa and dining table. Memang menawan. Hehehe Tapi slack dia..jeng jeng jeng… tak surprise lah klu citer sume, hmm korang kena dtg sendiri tgk klu nak tau..eekkekek. Overall, the condition is great, comes partly furnished with fridge, oven, washing machine, dryer and dishwasher. Ape2pun…bersyukurlah dgn apa yg ada..Syukur Alhamdulillah akhirnya jumpa jugak apartment harap2ny ok lah duk situ. So, InsyaAllah I’m moving next week!

Statistical Power and the First meeting with co-supervisor 

It was a rainy day, so I decided not to go to the office early in the morning. I remember that today I have a meeting with Prof John Grundy at 2.30pm, so it would be just nice to come to the office after the zuhur prayer and have lunch there. The whole morning I sat down spend time on reading this article “A systematic review of statistical power in software engineering experiments” by Tora Dyba et. al (2005). The result of the study is really surprising to me as a new researcher. It shows that statistical power of SE experiments falls substantially below the acceptable level. Statistical power here refers to the probability that a statistical test will correctly reject the null hypothesis (Cohen, 1988). According to Dyba et al. (2006), “A test without sufficient statistical power will not be able to provide the researcher with enough information to draw conclusions regarding the acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis”.
Therefore, I was thinking that all SE researchers in the world should look into this matter seriously or at least to have a standard convention of statistical power on SE empirical research. One of the implication highlighted in the review was that the importance of the statistical power is seems to be underemphasized in experimental SE research. InsyaAllah, this will be one of the major aspects in the coming experiment next year. I am indeed grateful to have study this review at early stage before I come up with the design of the experiments.
Oh..sorry dear the original story is accidentally deviated.. hehe..Too much excited about statistics. Back to the meeting with John, hmm…John is a very nice Professor, humble and talkative..ehehe I even have to interrupt him whenever necessary ..hahaha.. He suggested having a meeting together with Emilia when she comes back from OZ. And, not only that, he also invited me to attend the supervision meeting with his other postgrad students which is conducted on every Monday. Huuhu… boleh tak klu tak pegi?? Isk..isk… malaih nye aku nak present report kat group tuh..I know their research stuffs are related to visualization and tools, none is empirical stuffs. Huh mcmne nak jawab nih….
He asked me to email him about my decision whether to join or not. He seems very much interested in the Pair Programming and other Agile stuffs. Lega jgk la aku dia suka proposal tu and the hypothesis I proposed. Alhamdulillah.. I also told him that I was doing the SR now, specifically on the review protocol development. He has a lot of brilliant ideas, and he look forward that I will be developing certain tools besides the experiments. Of course I do interested in tools development since my interest lies very much on programming. But then, my limitation is that, to put the priority on the design and running of the experiments which should have proper planning and strategy. I never do any of this before what more to conduct an empirical research, but yeah “there is always the first time for everything!”. May Allah makes this ride easy for me till the day of the viva exam. Ameen.

Half day tour @ Auckland Domain/City

I am happy yesterday to accompany a couple from Albany (Chea and hubby) for a visit to several interesting park/place in this central AucklandJ. We firstly went to the Auckland Domain where the famous (urm femes ker?) War memorial is located. It was interesting though to take some photos around with the naked trees as background. I just noticed that there was a Wintergarden inside the domain. Huh quite funny why they named it so. Yeah everyone knows that winter is a common season here. Since now itself is winter, the scenery there was quite plain. Chea suggested that we should come again during the spring. InsyaAllah if there is opportunity to have one, I would love to visit and of course the one at Botanical Garden. We passed thru the Duck pond (I’ve been here before as well) but this time we’re lucky to take photos with the many pigeons fed by a family of Maori. Of course, we also took picture of those beautiful-fatty white Swan. hehe cute dan gemuk betul angsa2 tuh..yg si gemuk kaler putih tuh comey abis….eheh
Since the admission to the museum is not free, so we decided not to enter the building. It costs you a five dollar fees per adult (written there for donation), but still we’re thinking may be we will have it later, at least once before going back home for good hehe.
However, it is a must to take some pictures with the museum as background. It looks really nice like the one you see in the postcard. The museum building is really huge and its surrounding view was stupendous to be seen from the green grass:
We proceed to the Parnell village next just after the domain. At Parnel, you can see various classic and antique shops lot such as Chocolate boutique. Yeah, the price is also beautiful hehe.. tengok saja lah...huhuu.
“Kak Ema, what else to see??” Chea keep on asking me this question. Huhuu..yeah of course there is nothing much interesting to be seen here in the city. But not to disappoint them, we went to the Sky City tower just to have a look what is being offered there. The Sky Jump activity is indeed amazing but crazyy man..ya lahhh you gotta pay 200 bugs just to make yourself jump all the way down for the distance of 192 meters from the top of the tower. Keja giler jgk la..huhu.. menakutkan tgk aksi sorang mamat tuh...kitorang yg excited lebih2…huh jerit beriya kat bawah tuh, as if rase macam org tuh bakal jatuh atas kepala kitoang..hahaha..lawak la plak. (Sorry deh.. x smpat amik gamba. Next time ok!) Again we also did not enter the tower since the admission fees is 50 dollars. Mahai lahh… tak perlah…next time..huhu
Since we already had our lunch at Albert Park before came to the sky city, so next, we plan to walk to the ferry building to see sailing boats there. It was actually not far from the Britomart Transport Center. Finally after taking some photos, we sat down for a cup of coffee and hot choc at one of the café inside the downtown Westfield.
To end the tour, we took a free bus (this is the best and only “free” thing in city huhu) to the University. Penat dah tulis. That’s all reporting from the 18G2. Below pic is me at the Domain area :)

:)

kelakar giler..adeiii!!

keh keh keh... semalam petang dpt fwded email dari cik lin..kelakar giler...adeii sampai nak tido pun aku bleh gelak bila teringat. Ni lah dia bendanye yg buat aku gelak tak renti2: Desperate students during exam

ha ha ha..ada gak benda kelakar bleh tengok2 time tensen..

Time Management Tips (By: Sidi Faraz Rabbani)

1) Always ask Allah to bless you in your time
2) Always start things in the name of Allah
3) When starting, have the active realization of ‘la haula wa la quwwata illa billah’ (There is no ability nor power except through Allah)
4) ‘From the excellence of one’s Islam is to leave that which does not concern one’, said the Prophet (PBUH). Thus, leave anything that is not obvious worldly or next-worldly benefit. When choosing between beneficial matters, choose the most beneficial.
5) Consult a good time management book.

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Must Read::Four keys to successful action

“How often is a small action made tremendous through its intention, and how often is a tremendous action rendered small through its intention.”
-Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak (God have mercy on him)

Read more at : http://www.deenport.com/ufind/jump.php?dpid=15&t=op&link=
http://www.islamicamagazine.com/issue-19/four-keys-to-successful-action.html

Hari ni dalam sejarah..Hujan lebat + windy lagi...first time aku rase jalan terhuyung hayang kena tiup angin...huhuhu seb baik tak melayang betul...
hari ni rombongan en hussin KPT dtg ke Auckland utk sesi temuduga, so aku pegi je la jumpa diorang kat Langham hotel.. Lps tuh bawak gi makan kat Ayuthaya... Lps tuh, aku jalan kaki balik ofis, sbb nak bwk balik kerja2 tuh kunun nak buat kat umah mlm ni.. Skang ni dah 5.34pm...hari dah gelap...tapi aku still tak bleh balik umah lagi...im stranded here becos its too windy out there..Ujan pun still blum berenti lagi...

Esok..nak jumpa John Grundy..co-supervisor ku yg baik ati tu...terharunya dpt email dia..huhu apa aku nak borak esok ek?? Hari ni aku dpt feedback drpd emilia, so okay la aku kena buang secondary questions tuh.. Actually mmg pening la nak refine and revise research questions nih.. It is damn difficult.. Aku tak sabar nak setelkan bab formulation of review questions ni..sbb the rest of the stories will depend very much on the questions. I still have another 2 weeks to complete the protocol for the review. So far it goes fine...except the one on how to synthesize the evidence.. Aku pening la tak tau nak guna ape, ie cara apa.. if meta analytic is applicable, then I must figure out how to plot the studies using forest plot etc. But if not, then I must find out ways to tabulate ie to summarize the findings such a way to conclude pros n cons of all included studies...Kdg2 rase letih dan busan gak...but what are the choices that I have... I have no other option but to go thru this... May Allah gives me all the strength that I need at the moment..Ameen...

Why research is sometimes boring to some people?

- May be the topic that you’re researching is not your area of interest. Susah la idup klu cam tuh..huhu.. morale of the story is “buat-buat la suka dgn topic tuh..”

- You need to read, read, read and read. Reading papers undoubtedly is very tiring and boring activities..huhu. No escapism unless you’re truly doing theoretical stuffs or pure qualitative research in which your own and only resource is your brain!! Thus, less papers.

- In addition to read, you must also write, write, write and write. So, if you’re kind of person who hate writing, then you’re in big trouble. To research, you must love read and write (macam C program pulak…haha..) Why one need to write? People write to convey ideas and in doing research, you need to tell others about your findings etc.

- The outcome of research takes years to be materialized. If you’re kind of fast person, you will definitely boring tahap gaban because you will never get the result unless you had gone through the experiments and data analysis (if related), or perhaps to run simulations or prototype to prove your hypotheses besides forever reviewing related literature. Bosan tau…

- External factors could also contribute, perhaps the type of supervisor you’re having as well as the environment (people in the office, klu ada mcm “pelangi” ‘best fren’ kak yati tuh, huhu kena sabo je la)

Then, what is the best part about research??

- Having doing research, you will eventually involve in writing a lot of papers for conferences or publishing your paper in journals (berangan dulu tak per..hehe..). So if you’re lucky, your paper will get accepted and you’re ready to fly to US or Europe….yuhuuuu best…!! (this also depends on support from the supervisor + department lah)

- You can do your research at your own preferred time, tak perlu pegi ofis selalu kalau byk distraction (sibuk ym, sibuk cek email etc..). Once a while, you need to get disconnected and focus on your research (so far, it works for me). In relation to this, you must be able to identify the best time that you can highly concentrate on your study (ie. Whether you’re type of morning person, or night person, or weekend person, or ape2…sukati korang lah)

- You will get recognition in the area you’re working on once it is published. Ada jgk la benda nak tambah kat list of publication dlm CV tuh..hehe

- Habis PhD, balik negeri and berkhimat lah untuk negara. Ilmu dan bakti anda diperlukan untuk mendidik anak bangsa..Semoga kita semua mendapat pahala dan rahmat berlipat ganda dari yg Esa.. Ameen..

Ahlan wa sahlan:: Kak Aida and Akmalia

Kia Ora! Welcome to Auckland City of Sails to kak Aida and Akma..Semoga gembira dan selamat menjalani kehidupan baru di sini… (huhu aku pun org baru jugak..ekeke)

Terharunya ada orang nak buat gathering utk mengalu2kan kedatangan kita..ahaks.. terima kasih diucapkan kpd penganjur dan semua yg terlibat.. J

Yeah see you all on this Sunday…