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Kicking Academic Procrastination away!

Bhina Patria — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:00:06 +0000

Procrastination, there’s something strange about this phenomena. Sometimes I observe that students felt a little bit “proud” about this term. Sometimes it’s so “inspiring” for them… so they start to put it as their identity. I can see it in their IM status. Also in some social network service (like Friendster, Facebook or StudiVZ), they have some groups of people revered them self as a procrastinator… Yes it’s you! You don’t have to raise your hand. I know you… .

Don’t ask me why… I don’t know the answer, maybe because it’s sound so nice: procrastination… procrastination…

Procrastinating is basically delaying to do something that you should do until the last minute, if not totally abandoned them. There are some classifications of procrastination; one from Sapadin (1997) summarized it very well. According to Sapadin there are six styles of procrastination: the perfectionist, the defier, the dreamer, the crisis-maker, the overdoer, and the worrier. If you have access to the book, go and read them, it’s worth it! Next time I will post an article discussing these styles, if I’m not procrastinating again… just kidding. You know I already healed, right?

Academic procrastination is referring to procrastination which occurs in academic setting. To mention some examples: cramming all night before exam, asking for extended time for delivering paper, delaying cleaning that horrible dormitory room, delaying grading students paper (in the case of professors), etc. Sounds familiar right? This habit is really a huge problem in academic live, according to William Knaus, 90% of college students procrastinate. 25% of them are chronic procrastinators who end up not finishing their study or dropping out.

Actually everybody procrastinate for certain reason. like having too many things to do or a matter of priority. But most of us procrastinate just because feeling lazy; not motivated or just set the wrong priority. As it gets more chronic it could lead to feeling of guilt, depression and low self-esteem. Why did I mention about the wrong priority? As we know beside studying students usually also work somewhere for some extra pocket money. I observed that sometime students get so enthusiastic with their job and put their study aside. Maybe they argued that their job is so important, they can earn enough money not only for pocket money but also for supporting their live, and they start to belief that their job is more important than their study. One fact that I want to say is that the younger you are when you graduated is the better. A lot of graduate study confirms this fact. If you graduated there will be more opportunity out there: more challenging job, more salary, further education, etc. So stop delaying to graduate just because you belief than your condition now (as a student) is already good enough for you. Like Anthony Robbins said: don’t settle less than you can be!

OK now the important question: how can we kick this habit away? Here are some tips that I pick from here and there. Not really scientifically proven. But most of them work for me.

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If Linux is really that good, why people keep using Windows?

Bhina Patria — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:42:37 +0000

Last week one of my friend asked me, “If Linux is really that good, why people keep using Windows?” It’s really a good question and I think a lot of people out there have the same question. In this post I don’t want to list how Linux is better in a lot of areas compared to Windows because it will be such a long post. Just take a glimpse at http://www.whyLinuxisbetter.net/, this site summarized some reasons for you to try Linux. Instead, we will discuss why changing behaviour (and keeping them) is difficult for lots of people. We will discuss this with NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) approach and with more specific example on the difficulty to move from Windows to Linux.

This post is not an attempt of attacking Windows. Because I think Windows (still) has certain point over Linux. And I am also still using Windows for some working-related issue. So my point is I am not against Windows!

First I would like to take you to NLP environment. What is NLP exactly? You can find the global description about NLP here . One of underlying principle of NLP is the map is not the territory and people react based on the map - not the reality.

This epistemology by Alfred Korzybski prostulate that there is no such thing as objective experience. People do not really react or behave according to the reality, but in fact they react based on beliefs they have built over time about reality. Just one example: 1 hour felt like just 15 minutes when you enjoy something. But with the same time it might felt like 2 or 3 hours or even forever when you are in a boring class with a boring topics and boring professor . See my point? The time is the territory, it’s the same for everyone but how each people react to it is varies. Each people react by the map on their prior belief. So how can we take this to further application?

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Pengantar QTAFI

Bhina Patria — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:08:25 +0000

QTAFI (Questions, Tables and Figures) adalah suatu aplikasi yang dikembangkan untuk mempermudah pelaksanaan survey. Dengan QTAFI kita bisa dengan mudah membuat kuisioner, membuat lembar data di SPSS dan mempermudah proses analisis data dengan SPSS. Aplikasi ini sangat cocok bagi mahasiswa yang akan membuat kuisioner ataupun fakultas atau universitas yang akan mengadakan survey penelusuran alumni (graduate survey atau tracer study).

QTAFI adalah aplikasi yang berbasis makro. Bentuk aplikasi ini berupa file dokumen berekstensi doc (seperti dokumen yang biasa kita buat lewat MS Word), hanya saja terkandung makro QTAFI di dalamnya. Untuk menjalankan aplikasi ini tentu saja MS Word harus sudah terpasang di komputer kita.

Saya mulai menggunakan aplikasi ini sejak tahun 2003, pada waktu itu aplikasi ini membantu pelaksanaan survey penelusuran alumni di UGM. Sejak saat itu saya terlibat dalam pengembangan QTAFI dan online.QTAFI (QTAFI berbasis web) walaupun hanya sebagai tester setia . Sampai saat ini pengembangan aplikasi ini terus berlanjut, terutama untuk versi online yang sudah sampai pada versi 2. Saat ini puluhan online survey secara bersamaan berjalan di server online.QTAFI2.
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International Congress of Psychology 2008 (ICP 2008)

Bhina Patria — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:51:04 +0000

Hi there! Some of my friends said that my blog is… well… how should I say this.. Not expressive, not personal enough, too heavy. They said that I should put more pictures, tell something more about my self, a little bit show off or something .
I don’t know why, I just can not write like any other blog out there. I can not open my self too big in this blog, it’s just too scary for me ha3.. I guess it’s just not me. However, today I want to share one good news with you all.

It started with a comment in this post from Carmen. She informed me about ICP (International Congress of Psychology). Then I just search for my old paper and without any consideration (about the quality of my paper ) I sent them away. I already forgot it when suddenly last week there was this email from ICP that said it is accepted as a poster for the congress. Yay!!!
A little bit sad though.. not accepted as oral presentation, but I think it’s good enough for now . And after I think about it, with poster there will be more people have access to my paper compared to oral presentation.

Thank you to ICP committee for embracing this paper. Thank you for my parent, Mom I love you so much! Thank you for my producer, my song writer and most of all, thank you to the people all around the world who have been touched by my song… Wait… wait… WAKE UP! This is not Grammy Award!!!

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Factor Analysis on the Characteristics of Occupation

Bhina Patria — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:25:41 +0000

This article is basically ripped off from Field’s Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows with some minor subjective interpretation from me. So if you have access to the book just read it instead of this article. It is really a good book for you who want to learn SPSS and statistics. Highly recommended book !

Factor analysis was first used in 1904 by Charles Spearman, a Psychologist
from United Kingdom. Spearman used factor analysis in his models of human
intelligence. With factor analysis he developed theory that variety of cognitive test
could all be explained by one single factor which called g factor. Later on Raymond
Cattell, psychologist from US, used factor analysis in most of his research on
intelligence which lead to the development of his theory on Fluid and Crystallized
Intelligence. 16 Personality Factor (16PF) test is also one of Raymond Cattell’s
research results based on factor analysis.

Factor analysis is quiet different to other statistical analysis method. Many
statistical analysis methods are used to investigate the relation between
independent and dependent variables. In contrast, factor analysis is used to study
the patterns of relationship among many dependent variables, with the goal of
discovering something about the nature of independent variables that affect them.
The tricky part is that those independent variables were not measure directly. Thus
answers obtained by factor analysis are necessarily more hypothetical and tentative
than is true when independent variables are observed directly (Darlington, 1997).

Factor analysis in psychology is most often associated with intelligence
research. Nevertheless, the use of factor analysis can be observed in other domain
of psychology such as personality, attitudes, etc. The trait theorists in psychology
have been used factor analysis to measure personality traits. The Extraversion-
Introversion and the Neuroticism traits by Eysenck and 16 Personality Factor
questionnaires (16 PF) by Cattell are some of the examples of implementation of
Factor Analysis (Field, 2000). Furthermore, factor analysis is used widely in other
social sciences, education, business fields, biological science, etc.

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Menggunakan Wine untuk menjalankan aplikasi Windows di Linux

Bhina Patria — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:15:57 +0000

Wine adalah suatu program loader yang memungkinkan pengguna Linux untuk menjalankan aplikasi Windows di Linux. Untuk menggunakan Wine tentu saja kita harus memasangnya terlebih dahulu. Jalankan perintah

# urpmi wine

Selanjutnya Wine akan terpasang, kemungkinan beberapa pustaka harus di pasang terlebih dahulu tergantung kondisi mesin Linux Anda. Wine akan terpasang di bawah direktori home Anda: /home/nama pengguna/.wine/.

Selanjutnya jalankan perintah konfigurasi Wine:

#winecfg

Akan muncul kotak dialog untuk mengkonfigurasi Wine sesuai dengan kondisi partisi Windows dan Linux di komputer Anda.

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Studentenmobilität

Bhina Patria — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:00:01 +0000

Mobilität bedeutet Bewegung mit einem bestimmten Ziel. Viele Leute sind in Bewegung, wenn es um Ausbildung geht. Viele von uns sind internationale Studenten. Internationale Erfahrung sind sehr wichtig für Studenten. Akademische Leistung, Fremdsprachenkenntnisse, kulturelle Bereicherung, persönliche Enwicklung und berufliche Auswirkungen, in diese Bereichen findet man den Vorteil des Studiums im Ausland.

Fremdsprachenkenntnisse

Der Lernen einen Fremdsprache ist die führende Motivation für ein Studium im Ausland. Studenten werden ihre Fremdsprachen verbesseren, weil sie sie täglich benützen müssen. Die Sprache des Gastlandes und die Sprache des Studienprogramms sind wichtig. Zum Beispiel: wenn man in Deutschland studiert, aber die Unterichtssprache Englisch ist, natürlich wird man ihr Deutsch nicht viel verbessern.

Kulturelle Bereicherung
Studieren im Ausland bietet die Möglichkeit an andere Kultur kennen zu lernen. Studenten weden ein besserer Verständniss für andere Ländern haben, Verständnis der politischen Perspektiven und Toleranz für unterschidliche Standpunkte.

Akademische Leistung
Studium im Ausland hat auch einen positiven Einfluss auf die Akdemische Leistung. Studenten erfahren verschiedene Lehrmethoden im Gegensatz zu ihrem Heimland. Studenten haben die Möglichkeiten, besser entwickelte Einrichtungen (z. B. Labor) zu benützen.
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Memasang Mandriva 2008

Bhina Patria — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:41:02 +0000

Saya membuat tulisan ini untuk ikut meramaikan “Worldwide 2008 Mandriva Linux Installfest” yang dilaksanakan hari ini (17-11-2007). Sayang sekali saya tidak bisa bergabung dengan teman-teman lainnya. Informasi tentang Installffest ini bisa ditengok disini.

Pertengahan Oktober yang lalu Mandriva mengeluarkan generasi terbarunya, Mandriva 2008. Mandriva 2008 mengusung kernel 2.6.22, KDE 3.5.7 dan GNOME 2.20. Selain itu OpenOffice.org 2.2 dan Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6. juga tersedia dalam edisi ini.

Kita bisa memilih Mandriva One (live cd), Mandriva Free, dan Mandriva Powerpack. Untuk pilihan yang terakhir tidak gratis, kita harus membayar 39 Euro. Saya mencoba Mandriva One, seperti yang sudah di perkirakan sistem ini berjalan sangat lambat, terutama karena komputer yang saya gunakan terlalu tua. Selanjutnya saya coba mengunduh dan memasang Mandriva Free 2008. Berjalan cukup lumayan di komputer dengan 128 MB ram. Proses pemasangannya bisa Anda ikuti pada gambar-gambar dibawah ini.

Setelah booting dari cd, pilih pilihan Installation. Sayang sekali gambar layar pada tahap awal ini terlewatkan. Selanjutnya akan muncul pilihan bahasa.

Karena sedang belajar bahasa jerman, untuk pemasangan ini saya saya pilih bahasa Jerman (Deutsch).

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Mentransfer data dari SPSS ke R

Bhina Patria — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:24:40 +0000

Cara paling mudah untuk mentransfer data dari SPSS ataupun aplikasi lainnya ke R adalah dengan mengubah dulu data tersebut ke format teks (ASCII). Untuk SPSS caranya cukup mudah yaitu dengan klik Save > Save As.. kemudian pilih Tab delimited atau Fixed-ascii. Lewat SPSS syntax bisa dengan perintah:

WRITE OUTFILE=’C:\lokasi berkas\test.dat’
TABLE /ALL ..

Hasilnya berupa berkas yg berekstensi dat (*.dat).

Untuk percobaan, data yang dipakai di artikel sebelumnya saya buka dengan SPSS kemudian saya simpan sebagai berkas teks dengan nama berkas test.dat.

Untuk membuka berkas ini di R, jalankan perintah:

> test <- read.table("D:/test.dat",header=T)
> test

Perintah Header=T berarti baris pertama dari data akan dibaca sebagai nama variabel.
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Memasukkan data di R

Bhina Patria — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:45:18 +0000

Pengguna SPSS pasti akan sedikit canggung ketika pertama kali menggunakan R. Hal ini disebabkan karena R yang berbasis konsole tentu saja tidak seperti SPSS yang menyediakan tampilan tabel data pada awal tampilan. Di R kita harus membiasakan diri untuk tidak melihat tabel data kita (walaupun hal ini bisa dilakukan di R).

Untuk perkenalan dengan R kali ini kita akan belajar bersama-sama cara memasukkan data di R berikut cara mengedit data. Misalkan kita memiliki data sbb:

Dalam R jalankan perintah:

> coba <- data.frame(nama = c("Abie", "Budi", "Cici", "Dudu", "Eci"),
gender = c(1, 1, 2, 1, 2),
nilai = c(9, 8, 7, 9, 9))
> coba

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