Barely a month after Apple releases its voice application, Siri, Google retaliated by pushing its own voice application to the public. The name of the application is simply called the “Google Voice Search”. The publicity comes through the form of a few videos of Australian Google researchers trying to explore the boundaries of Google Voice Search. The videos are done in a way that they demonstrate Google Voice Search’s ability to correctly identify words correctly after going through various mediums.

Of course, to display the adaptivity of the application, they have invited questions from Tourism Australia about the questions people would like to ask in the middle of the desert.

The second test was done as the first ever Google Voice Search in the Great Barrier Reef. That is done through a transducer, a device that receives digital signals (from the underwater microphone) and translates them into sound waves for the phone. I wonder what happened to the shark question.

As usual, they have invited a few other questions as well.

It is great to see that Google has stepped up its game in the voice application niche of the mobile business. However, I would like to point out that the videos only prove that the application manages to determine a broad range of different English pronunciations. It shows nothing about a user friendlier application like the Apple Siri does and does not convince me that the Google Voice Search works flawlessly in normal operating conditions (anywhere other than the desert or the ocean).

Also like the name suggests, Google Voice Search only takes you to Google search page. It is not intelligent enough to show you the answer you want based on your questions alone. Only certain questions such as weather or stock would appear without the need to press on the Google search page.

As of now, Apple is still ahead with its voice application in terms of user friendliness. To be able to answer your questions (taking into account of the previous questions you have asked), personalization and be able to throw out images when needed is indeed a great feat for a mobile application.

Perhaps Google saw more than that, perhaps Google saw the inability for Apple’s Siri to perform under conditions where sound waves are not perfect. As shown in many videos and especially demonstrated in this Simi parody.

Then again, Google was the one who announced their voice search application first on 14th June 2011. Apple felt a huge threat and decided to release a beta version of Siri and charging their customers for it. We will continue to observe and see what these giants have under their sleeves.

As a university graduate myself, I always wonder why my tuition fee was so expensive. Especially when I studied overseas where every dollar I spent was equivalent to 3 dollars back in my home country. Also, there is this saying, “you use only about 5% of what you learn at university” which gets everyone with a right mind thinking, why attend university at all if you don’t apply the things you have learnt?

The mainstream media have got most of us into this fairytale story telling us that if we do not graduate with at least a degree, we do not get a job. Well, that is just one side of the story that appeals to only the employers, not the students.

Here are why our university and college education do not appeal to you students and is definitely not worth your parents’ hard earned money.

University Education is Nothing near Advanced Technologically

If you plan to take engineering and hope to get hands-on experience with high-end manufacturing machines. Think again, you might want to double your tuition fees to take up postgraduate studies instead.

If you plan to take commerce with the hope to graduate with all the skills needed to success in trading and investment, you will fail miserably because in university they teach you nothing about diversifying your portfolio. They teach you to diversify your portfolio in stocks, which makes you a loser every time the market crashes.

If you plan to take IT courses, prepare to meet lecturers who have no idea what they are teaching.

If you plan to take law and medicine, you graduate working your heads off with companies that pays you dirt.

Either way, by the time you graduate, all the things you have learnt is outdated and you will have to re-learn everything when you join a corporation.

It’s All About Business Mate

Very few universities actually promote real, practical, hands-on education. Education is now an industry, your vice-chancellors care not about your welfare as a student. Even if you’re excellent in your studies at postgraduate level, they hire you just to keep you as a tutor and pay you enough (you don’t want to be earning only enough your entire life) so that you can produce more papers to promote the university. Yay free advertisement.

Highest Inflation on Your Tuition Fees

Believe it or not, the inflation in the university and college education sector is one of the most inflated industries in the world. I did a search while I was surfing around the other day and found this.

I then checked this graph with the CPI index of Australia and learnt that the inflation in education even higher than the inflation in healthcare!  So I have come to a conclusion that this graph represents most of the universities and colleges around the world. So much for the importance of tertiary education.

Do you know that the money I spent studying in Australia can be used as a down payment for about 3 houses back in my hometown. Can I buy 3 houses in the next 4 years as a university graduate working for companies that pays me dirt? Very unlikely.

The Ever Growing World Wide Web

Every second, data as big as the Library of Congress is transmitted over the internet. You can imagine the whole library swooshing around the world in the network cable. Almost everything you need to know is available on the internet. In fact, most of the assignment given to you in university or college requires the use of the internet to complete them.

Why would you still need to pay a huge sum of money to the education institutes to tell you things that can be easily searched from the internet for free?

What Can We Do About This?

I guess we could form a union and go on a strike on hopes that the universities will reduce the tuition fees, which sounds extremely impractical and dangerous. On top of that, going on a strike is also something done by a person who has no control over anything; to simply put it, a university graduate who is being kicked around in the society.

So what are our options?

A few months ago, I met up with a friend called Fred at a cafe. Fred was complaining about his expensive tuition fees, he said that he should have taken his friend’s suggestion before he entered college.

His friend’s suggestion was this. Instead of paying a lump sum of your university savings to people who teaches you a lot of impractical crap, spend those money on your first few businesses and professional courses.

US’s average annual tuition fee is about 25,000 USD, a university course is usually 3 to 4 years depending on which degree you are taking. Fred’s friend suggested that you spend 20,000 USD on a new business and spend the rest attending courses that will enhance your professional skills.

Most of the time, your first business will fail. But keep in mind that you have 2 more years of savings to work on and usually you learn a tonne after your first business failure. Pool them together with the knowledge you gain from the professional courses you attend, I am sure your second and third (if not your fourth) business will be a success. That is when you will have control over your life.

Please bear in mind that I am not exactly advocating these kind of ideas. However, I believe it is something worth trying out if the universities and colleges keep on jacking up their education fees.

I know all these hype about Three introducing iPhones have already died off. But here is a little enlightenment for those who still has a little faith in Three. Wholla! Three brought in iPhones for their mobile cap plans!

Here is a little info about their cap plans for the iPhone 3G(S) (Taken from Three website)

As usual the table means the $39 cap plan would require you to pay additional $10/mo if you want the 16GB iPhone (total $49/mo) and additional $14/mo if you want the 32GB iPhone (total $53/mo).

This is by far the cheapest iPhone you can find in Australia. The cheapest one was from Optus which only gives you $50 credit, which doesn’t make any sense at all since it is so little.

However, cheap comes with a huge price tag if you surf too much internet with your iPhone. 150MB and 250MB (from my point of view) is not enough at all. It is still however, more than what Optus offered a year ago.

It took 1 exact year for Three to introduce their “cheapest” iPhone. This smells like corporate game to me.

Anyways, visit Three iPhone Website for more info about their cap plans.

The Formula 1 race started in Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia 2009 with the KERS drivers doing all the actions.
The Ferraris started the race with super soft, coupled with KERS system, quickly got up to 3rd and 5th place for Massa and Raikkonen.

Button got the perfect start of the race, securing his line to the first corner. At the end of lap 3, button is already 4 seconds faster than second runner Sebastian Vettel. In the mean time, Hamilton in the super soft used his KERS effectively at the back end of the race.

In lap 10, Kimi Raikkonen lost 2 places to Rosberg and Rubens in lap 10 due to the super soft tyres graining very badly. Apparently, the super soft tyres were bad choice made by the teams, so the Ferraris and Mclaren had to come in a few laps earlier just to change their grained tyres.

Nico Rosberg’s plan to pass the Ferrari was compromised as he was delayed in the pits in lap 16. Both Massa and Kimi passed him as he comes out of the pits.

Nakajima spun in between turn 3 and 4 on lap 17. Jenson Button from Brawn GP went into the pits as soon as he gets the news and surprisingly the safety car comes out only after Button leaves the pit.

As the race restarted, everybody tackled first corner cautiously except for young Piquet who spun off the racetrack due to the cold tyres. Massa were unable to overtake Sebastian Vettel for P2 as Lewis Hamilton went up to P11 pushing Timo Glock back with his KERS. Jenson Button lose all his built-up lead to Vettel.

At lap 34 Kubica is chasing down Vettel but unfortunately was unable to overtake the charging Red Bull and went into pits at lap 39. Raikkonen also went into the pits at lap 39.

At the closing stages of the race, Hamilton went into pits at Lap 44 and came out right in front of Massa. Massa was unable to follow him while Kimi Raikkonen spun at lap 45 and recovered without any damage. On lap 47, Massa Slowed down and retired.

Button’s pitstop at lap 47 was awful as the main fuel hose failed. Ross Brawn commented that the Brawn GP guys were just taking it easy. He did not lose his position but Vettel was just right behind him.

At lap 52, Rubens Barrichello entered the pits from P3 place dropping to P5, this allowed kubica to chase up with Button and Vettel.

Nico Rosberg is struggling for pace and lost his place to Barrichello who has a less bumpy road on his side of the track. Trulli also passed Nico Rosberg at Lap 54. After awhile Hamilton overtook him again, Nico Rosberg was struggling with his graining soft tyre.

With just 2 lap remaining, Sebastian vettel went too deep and was aligned by Robert Kubica. They bumped and both of them crashed into separate walls after a few meters of driving.

Safety car was deployed and comes into the pits at the end of last lap as Jenson Button wins the Grand Prix in Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia without any mistakes.

Rubens Barrichello finished a lucky second, along with three drivers who started at the back of the grid, Trulli (P3) from Toyota, Hamilton (P4) of Mclaren and Timo Glock (P5) from Toyota.

Race Results

As a conclusion to the race, like most of the drivers expected, KERS is extremely useful during overtaking. We’ll definitely be looking at more cars with KERS in Malaysia.

Formula 1 Qualifying session 2009 started out in Melbourne, Australia with a blast! Every qualifying sessions was breathtaking. In the end of the day, Brawn GP savoured their first and second with only 1 second separating them from 10th place, Mark Webber.

Albert Park Qualifying 1

Never once in formula 1 where every teams were restless in qualifying 1. Even Mclarens and Ferraris were restless, in fact, they were struggling. The only team that is not struggling this weekend is Brawn GP.

Both STR Ferrari and Force India along with rookie Sebastian Buemi failed to advance to Q2. Lewis Hamilton struggled pass Q1 but had reported to have a gear problem in Q2.

Albert Park Qualifying 2

As Lewis had retired from the qualifying, the other 14 runners fight for the first position. Until a point where the first 9 runners were only 0.2 seconds apart! This is how competitive every team is.

Both the Mclaren Mercedes did not pass through Q2. Surprisingly Fernando Alonso did not advance to Q1 despite the confident talks last week. Kazuki Nakajima failed to advance as well.

The weird thing is Nick Heldfeld, the only BMW Sauber that is mounted with KERS, did not pass through as well. Does that mean that KERS fitted engines were outperformed by cars without KERS?

Albert Park Qualifying 3

The pole shootout was superb. Both the Brawn GPs were on their league of their own. Jenson Button will be starting from pole position with his 1.26.202 qualifying time alongside with his teammate Rubens Barrichello, just 0.3 away.

Racing genius Sebastian Vettel will be starting at 3rd position followed by Kubica, Rosberg, Glock.

The Ferraris will start at 7th and 9th position with Jarno Trulli in the middle. Australian favourite Mark Webber will be starting at 10th position.

Qualifying Standing

The chart has been overturned. Midfielders in 2008 are now up front and front runners 2008 will stuck in midfield in Melbourn GP. Tomorrow’s race at 5PM local time will be extremely interesting.

Update #1: Unfortunately for the reigning champion Lewis Hamilton, he has been dropped back 5 places. His gear box failed this evening and he will be starting at 20th place at the end of the grid.

Update #2: After the post-qualifying inspection, both the Toyota F1 cars were found to have some sort of “degree of freedom” with their aerofoils on the spoiler. Thus both Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli will be at 19th and 20th position. Hamilton has been pushed up to 18th from the grid. I guess this is what Martin Whitmarsh calls it “Damage limitation”.

KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), a system implemented this year (2009) that enables a Formula 1 cars to store energy whilst underbraking and can produce up to 80 horsepower for 6.6 seconds every lap in a press of a button.

The teams spend the 2008 winter building and testing their KERS system in their Formula 1 cars but how many teams will show up with KERS?

Here are the lists of Grand Prix Calenders and updates of who’s using KERS and who isn’t.

1. Australia, Melbourne
2. Malaysia, Sepang
3. China, Shang Hai
4. Bahrain, Sakhir
5. Spain, Barcelona
6. Monaco, Monte Carlo

Australia, Melbourne

Teams Starting with KERS

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. Scuderia Ferrari
3. ING Renault F1
4. BMW Sauber F1 (Nick Heidfeld)

Teams Starting without KERS

1. BMW Sauber F1 (Robert Kubica)
2. Brawn GP
3. Panasonic Toyota Racing
4. Red Bull Racing
   
5. Scuderia Toro Rosso
6. AT&T Williams F1 Team
7. Force India F1

BMW Sauber will have Nick Heidfeld drive with KERS in Melbourne because he’s an extremely light person (58kg) and is able to balance in the car even with the extra KERS weight. Robert Kubica will not benefit from the extra 80 horsepower (for 6.6 seconds) in Australia because of his gigantic size compared to Heidfeld.

Other teams think their not-enough-research KERS would only make very little difference to the time due to the extra weight of the system. They also claimed that KERS is expensive and unsafe and still need more testing to finalize it.

Malaysia, Sepang

Teams Starting with KERS

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. Scuderia Ferrari
3. ING Renault F1
4. BMW Sauber F1 (Nick Heidfeld)

Teams Starting without KERS

1. BMW Sauber F1 (Robert Kubica)
2. Brawn GP
3. Panasonic Toyota Racing
4. Red Bull Racing
   
5. Scuderia Toro Rosso
6. AT&T Williams F1 Team
7. Force India F1

China, Shang Hai

Teams Starting with KERS

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. BMW Sauber F1 (Nick Heidfeld)

Teams Starting without KERS

1. Scuderia Ferrari
2. ING Renault F1
3. BMW Sauber F1 (Robert Kubica)
4. Brawn GP
5. Panasonic Toyota Racing
6. Red Bull Racing
   
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso
8. AT&T Williams F1 Team
9. Force India F1

As you can see Ferrari dropped their KERS in China mainly because they wanted to play safe. In Malaysia, the team discovered problems regarding the KERS from Kimi Raikkonen’s car where the system melted.

Robert Kubica from BMW tested KERS on Friday practice. He wasn’t happy with KERS so he did not use it in qualifying.

Will update when there are any changes.

Bahrain, Sakhir

Teams Starting with KERS

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. BMW Sauber F1
3. Scuderia Ferrari
4. ING Renault F1

Teams Starting without KERS

1. Brawn GP
2. Panasonic Toyota Racing
3. Red Bull Racing
   
4. Scuderia Toro Rosso
5. AT&T Williams F1 Team
6. Force India F1

In Bahrain, the teams with KERS will reuse their KERS again because of the long straights available in Bahrain. The KERS users all have improved in qualifying as you can see, except for BMW.

Spain, Barcelona

Teams Starting with KERS

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. Scuderia Ferrari
3. ING Renault F1

Teams Starting without KERS

1. BMW Sauber F1
2. Brawn GP
3. Panasonic Toyota Racing
4. Red Bull Racing
   
5. Scuderia Toro Rosso
6. AT&T Williams F1 Team
7. Force India F1

Monaco, Monte Carlo

Teams Starting with KERS

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. Scuderia Ferrari
3. ING Renault F1
4. BMW Sauber F1

Teams Starting without KERS

1. Brawn GP
2. Panasonic Toyota Racing
3. Red Bull Racing
   
4. Scuderia Toro Rosso
5. AT&T Williams F1 Team
6. Force India F1