Reinstalling Windows 7 Pro on a Dell Precision 3510

Company gave me a hand-me-down Dell Precision 3510. Takes literally minutes to boot up. When I press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, it takes literally minutes to give me the logon screen. I type in my username and password. Again, tens of minutes pass by before I get the desktop. With huge icons. IT doesn't want anything to do with it, and tells me to blow it away.

Tried to see if I can restore the laptop to a proper state. Boot up and press F8 to access the Advanced Boot Options menu. Click on "Repair Your Computer". Windows then loads some minimal files to boot up. Choose your language, log in as Administrator, and then you're presented with a choice of System Recovery Options. System Restore is not going to help as there were no previous restore points. System Image Recovery also won't help as no backup system image was created or found. So looks like we'll have to use the Dell Factory Image Restore option (usually the last item on the list).

The tool then goes about reformatting the hard disk and flashing the stored factory image from the recovery partition. In my case, the restoration always fails at the 63% mark. I guess the factory image is borked. Next up, the Dell OS Recovery Tool.

With this software, you simply provide the service tag, and it will download the appropriate Dell recovery image and burn it to a USB stick (at least 8GB) that you provide. Boot up the laptop, press F12 to change the boot order, and select to boot from the USB stick. In my case, the USB prep kept on failing. The tool would start writing the downloaded 7GB image. During the last few seconds (after half an hour or so), it would complain that something has changed and starts the process again, ad infinitum.

After half a day of trying, it was only after I switched to a SanDisk USB stick that the burn completed successfully.

Next problem. According to this, I was supposed to install Windows on the primary partition, but Windows says no. "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only installed on GPT disks." Simplest solution is to delete all existing partitions - OS, Recovery, Primary. Another way is to convert the MBR disk to GPT.

1. Press Shift+F10 to bring up command prompt.
2. Run diskpart command. 
3. "list disk" to list disks.
4. "select disk 0" if disk 0 is the one you want to install Windows on.
5. "clean" to wipe the selected disk.
6. "convert GPT" to convert the selected disk.
7. "exit"

This time you should be able to install Windows successfully. Just be aware that during the restart, remember to remove the USB disk, so the laptop will boot from the hard disk.

How I Got My AWS Certification

Gives me something useful to do while idle and looking for a job. I mean, how hard can it be?
Entry-level AWS certification is the Certified Solutions Architect - Associate. Next level up is Professional.

Read from somewhere that the best way to go about this is via A Cloud Guru's course from Ryan Kroonenburg. Apparently, they used to host their courses on Udemy, and I guess business was so good that they decided to launch their own platform and host their own training videos. The 2018 course on ACloudGuru is $99. If you've bought the course elsewhere, you can transfer it to your ACG account and have access to their updated content. So I went to have a look at Udemy and guess how much is the ACG AWS CSA - Associate course? Currently going for a discounted price of $15! I guess you already know what happened next. Paid for my first Udemy course, and ported it over to ACG.

So I spent the next few days and weeks and months watching the video lessons whenever I have free time. Content is basically Powerpoint slides with Ryan's voice in the background providing additional commentary. First few sections are a bit dry, as we had to go through the intro, some history, overview of AWS and its major components, setting up a free-tier account, etc. Best thing about the course are the lab exercises. For the more complicated topics, we get video recordings with step-by-step explanation - spinning up your first EC2 VM, how to properly set up VPCs, implementing HA, etc.

Once I finished the course, and typed up all my notes, the next step is to take the certification exam. Concerned that the mock exams included in the ACG exam might not be enough to help me pass, I turned to online resources like AWS' own practice exams, Jayendra's Blog and WhizLabs. The latter's exam package costs $20 and gives you:

• 7 sets of 65 unique questions each (mock exam)
• 11 section tests (165 unique questions)
• explanation for every question
• unlimited access

As I don't like to over prepare, I didn't even take all of the practice exams. Did a set of 65 questions once. Didn't have time to do the sections tests. I also downloaded some sets of review questions and plugged them into Anki on my phone for constant review. (Quizlet also have some sets for AWS.) Once I got them all down pat, I took the actual certification exam. Aced it in one go.

Movie 2018.08.22 - Crazy Rich Asians

I've got the ebook, but haven't had time to read it, so watched the movie knowing nothing about it. Of course, except for the usual FB hype as to which actors are in the movie, why it's such a big deal in Hollywood, etc. etc.

To be honest, it was better than I expected it to be. I thought the movie is going to be an extended YouTube video of how the fuerdai spend their hard-earned wealth - the extravagant parties, the exotic vacations, the flashy cars, the one-of-a-kind luxury items, etc. Yeah, it has a bit of those, but surprise! - it actually has a story.

Crazy rich Nick brings poor professor girlfriend Rachel to meet the family, without telling her how wealthy the family is. Mom Eleanor disapproves because she thinks she's not good enough - not a real Chinese. Grandma disapproves because she feels she is the reason Nick is hesitant to come back home for good and take over the family business. All the girls disapprove because she is competition. To fluff up the movie a bit more, we have a crazy rich bachelorette party at a private island resort, a crazy rich stag party on a container ship, a crazy rich wedding at Chijmes, and a crazy rich engagement party at the Marina Bay Sands. Throw in an extramarital affair to add more drama.

In the end, Rachel managed to use game theory (or was that reverse psychology) to make Eleanor change her mind about her and bring about a win-win outcome. Nick proposes to Rachel with Eleanor's own engagement ring, and everyone lives happily ever after. Well, everyone except for unfaithful Michael who lost his golden ticket in Astrid.

Long-Term Learning

Nowadays, it's not just what you learn, it's also about how you learn it.

Ideally, we should be learning by doing as the retention rate is better. However, there are times when we simply need to remember a lot of things in the shortest amount of time. And this is done by rote memorization. I still remember cramming for exams using index cards, memorizing facts and formulas to get me through. Do I still remember them now? Of course, not.

How about learning languages? Well, there's an app for that. A lots of apps, actually. For vocabulary memorization, you can't go wrong with Memrise. For grammar, sentence structure, syntax, context, etc., get Duolingo as a supplement.

For everything else, you can make use of flashcard-based learning systems like Quizlet, SuperMemo or Anki. If you're not sure which one to use, try Quizlet first. Lots of study sets to choose from (or create your own), and usage is pretty straightforward. Select a study set, answer one question for every term, repeat until you get everything right.

For long-term learning, you might want to look into SuperMemo and Anki for their spaced-repetition algorithms. Spaced repetition makes use of an individual's forgetting curve - resurfacing a question just when you're about to forget it for maximum recall.

SuperMemo has been around for a loong time, and its algorithm now on its 17th iteration (SM-17). SuperMemo is not free though. It ranges from $10 to $60 depending on which version (algorithm) you get. Anki, on the other hand, is open-source and free. That said, I believe it implements the older SM-2 algorithm with a few enhancements. Quizlet now has SR as part of Plus offering, but that's $15 per year.

I'd say try out the free apps first and upgrade if you think you need something more.

Book 2018.08.06 - Automate This

Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World by Christopher Steiner is what it says it is. It tells the story of how algorithms infiltrated Wall Street, and how they eventually started taking over almost all aspects of our lives.

Most of the stuff mentioned in the book we already know:

• how algorithms made possible high-frequency trading (HFT) in the stock markets
• how Google, Netflix, and dating sites make use of algorithms to make uncanny suggestions
• how music labels and movie producers predict pop hits and box-office blockbusters before they are released
• how algorithms are outperforming chess players, music composers, game show contestants, poker players, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, radiologists, sports writers, etc.

There's one thing which is new to me though. When you call customer service, and the automated voice tells you that this phone call may be monitored or recorded for quality and training purposes, what do think is happening? I used to think that such calls are being recorded in case there is a disagreement, so management can go back to the recorded call and check who said what.

What is actually happening is that when you call, a bot listens in to the conversation. It is listening to your tone of voice, how you structure your sentences, what specific words you used, etc. It determines your "personality" within thirty seconds, and advises the call agent on how best to interact with you. Better still, the next time you call, the bot will be able to identify you, and route your call to an agent that best matches your personality traits for a faster resolution time.

The numbers don't lie. Data scientists took 1500 phone call recordings for a group of 12 customer service agents and crunched the numbers. When a caller gets paired with a agent with a matching personality, calls lasted for about 5 minutes with a 92% resolution rate. Matched with a "wrong" agent, calls lasted twice as long and the resolution rate drops to 47%.

With bots and their algorithms take over a lot of jobs (self-driving vehicles!), everyone should start thinking about getting into programming and computer science. Until the day bots start writing their own code.