Podcast of JetBlue Pilot's Conversation With Ground Crew

With all the talk about blogs being worse than pr0n, it's not really difficult to pick out examples that show precisely why this is just plain wrong and bizarre. Blogs provide a function that the MSM can't because it simply...well, can't. Here's one example.

I've just noticed this podcast at Mike Gilbert's blog (he's the Lead Program Manager of Microsoft Flight Simulator) of a recording done by the podcast's creator (also a pilot) between the Jetblue pilot Scott Burke and ground crew. Burke had to land his plane with a faulty landing gear at Los Angeles last week; he was in total control of the situation, and did a careful Level One diagnostics just as Lt. Data would, and averted disaster. And he was so calm; it's scary.

Now this is the reason why pilots are so highly paid, I heard someone say before. Not because they can fly a plane (because it isn't really that impossible for a lot of people), but because they are paid to handle an emergency. Handling emergencies is hard work. For me, I just press the 'panic' button.

Anyway, Mike goes on to say:

[The podcast] highlights the incredible level of competence, training and professionalism of commercial air transport pilots. It also provides a counterpoint to traditional media coverage of the event that almost without exception overplayed the disaster potential. I'm not sure what makes me more sad: that news organizations feel they need to add their own drama to the news or that the American public seems to accept (and believe) it.

What makes me sad (OK, mad) is that I know many in the MSM still think of blogging as some sort of fringe activity where weird and irresponsible people come together and have their virtual powwows.

The thing is, we won't be able to hear the pilot's conversation if not for blogs and the podcast technology. Yes, there isn't much fact checking, simply because you can listen to an unedited version of things, and do your own fact checking, which in this case probably involves comparing the MSM's account of things with 'reality'. Anyway, the next time another pilot saves the day, I'd be looking for the up-close-and-personal story, from the blogs.

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I Love Op-Eds II (The One About pr0n)

Due to an occupational hazard, I treat everything that I read in the newspapers, even the serious stuff, as satire, unless shown otherwise. So, this Op-Ed came along today in the Straits Times titled "Porn? No, blogs bug me more", and I thought to myself, cool, a satire on blogs, should be interesting...

Porn? No, blogs bug me more
With inaccurate and inflammatory postings on the Internet, how do we keep kids from believing everything they read?
By Carl Skadian, [writing for the column] fatherhood

THE past few weeks have thrown up another worry about children and the Internet, as if parents don't have enough on their hands.

I'm talking about blogs.

As a journalist, I'm naturally wary of blogs already, mainly because bloggers are wont to throw accuracy out the window. That's because checking facts seems to be the last thing on bloggers' minds unlike, say, mainstream publications which, for the most part, do their darnedest to make sure what they publish is accurate. [1]

For bloggers, saying what they feel like saying seems to be de rigueur, consequences be damned. Now, blogs have generated much controversy, but what happened here about two weeks ago takes the cake.[2]

Just in case you missed it: Three people were charged with making racist comments in their blogs. They allegedly made seditious and inflammatory remarks about Malays and Muslims. [3]

In one particularly galling incident, one among the three allegedly admitted to being 'extremely racist' in one of his entries online. That just about did it for me and blogs. I'm glad the authorities hauled the trio to court. Hopefully, doing so will send a message to like-minded folk in cyberspace that they'd better start putting the brain before the mouse.

As far as I'm concerned, blogs are possibly the worst things about the Internet. Sure, pornography and other stuff rightly furrow the brows of parents, but the things some bloggers say go far beyond the pale.[4]
...
After news of the charges broke, some members of the blogging community made comments that seemed far from the realm of common sense to me.

Here were three people charged with making inflammatory statements - in a society where being tolerant is constantly drummed into us, no less - and other bloggers were worried about what the incidents bode for freedom of speech...

I was happily reading, reading, reading until I came to [1]. Wow excellent! This guy is writing for the MSM and biting at the hand that feeds him. True, bloggers can miss a fact or two, but have we forgotten that the MSM, with its arsenal of resources to do its own fact checking, often gets it wrong? Yes! I like him already... (I was still thinking in the satirical mode.)

Then I got to [2], and wonder what 'previous controversy' blogs have generated before. Oh well, it's probably some plot device to link it to...somewhere.

So I reached [3], and laughed out loud. He's having some fun with this because there's really nothing 'seditious' about this incident. (The relevant parts of the Sedition Act aren't really talking about being 'seditious' in its usual sense.) Nice going...

When I came to [4], I told myself... hmmm... wait a minute... something is NOT RIGHT! Is he saying that pr0n is really better than blogs?! Oh my goodness!! This whole Op-Ed is not satire! And my head nearly exploded.

To Carl: Have you ever surfed pr0n before? Not in my wildest dreams can I imagine someone comparing pr0n with blogs, and actually putting pr0n on top, no less! How could this have happened?! Carrllll!!! What sort of blogs have you been reading?!!

Carl goes on to talk about more serious things about racism and how he doesn't understand how anyone could use 'freedom of speech' to defend these guys, and how he has to keep his kids from believing what they read in blogs (and hopefully in the MSM too, I might add!!)

The thing that bothers me more at this point in time is not just 'freedom of speech', but 'freedom of information'. To what extent do we, as bloggers, journalists and members of the public, really know what's going on? According to this (12 Sept entry), there just might be more than meets the eye.

In other news, the recent 'students get censured because they 'flame' their teachers on blogs' issue is most interesting. Xiaxue's account is worth a look... And at the front page of Livejournal, there's a feature called 'It's cool to blog in school'...

Update (!): Hui Chieh has done yet another superlative roundup.

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I'm The Guy...

I'm the guy who writes this.

I'm the guy who's mostly forgotten what's happened in childhood, apart from the time when the dog scratched his eye and almost made him blind. And the time when the wardrobe cabinet came down on his head, threatening the same.

I'm the guy who's been caned for getting 80% in a school test, and henceforth vows never to do that to another human being, ever.

I'm the guy who was made a Prefect in primary school, only to wonder to himself whether the badge he's wearing had a typo and that it's supposed to read Perfect.

I'm the guy who had zero marks in a further math test, and who felt a sense of peace indescribable by any mathematical equation; this seditious streak has got him into trouble several times since.

I'm the guy who got most of his breaks from good teachers. I'm the guy who decided he'd love the written word from a single encouraging comment the literature teacher wrote on an assignment.

I'm the guy whose ideas about faith puts him in no man's land.

I'm the guy whom you once loved.

I'm the guy who wonders about why God has forgotten so many, only to be told that it's an irrelevant question.

I'm the guy who wants to keep a duck at home.

I'm the guy who sings hymns to himself when he's walking to the bus stop.

I'm the guy who has a phobia for the wedding banquet because he reckons half the guests are unwilling, and the other half are strangers.

I'm the guy who still drinks water from the tap in the toilet.

I'm the guy who happened to chance upon Mt. Juneau, and decided to climb it, only to fall back a quarter way up because he didn't have enough water, enough time, enough sunlight, enough backup plans, enough GPS, and enough guts.

I'm the guy who doesn't smoke, and yet would like to learn how.

I'm the guy who dropped out of college after four years; and to his horror, realises that it had to be done.

I'm the guy who speaks Chinese, thinks in English, counts in Chinese, prays in English, and pronounces the names of Japanese cars in Japanese.

I'm the guy who wants to love you, yet knows that the only way to do so, is not to.

I'm the guy who visits the zoo once a year.

I'm the guy who's sobbing his heart out tackling this meme.

I'm the guy who can tell you that the scent of the brochure in today's mailbox is the same as that found on the inside back cover of the children's magazine D'Light published 20 years ago.

I'm the guy who dies a little when he can't blog about some things because he knows the authorities are reading.

I'm the guy who makes it a point to watch all the movies about infidelity that's out there, for the divorce stats aren't really funny any more.

I'm the guy who holds solitude to be sacred. As when solitude that's accompanied by a lovely woman.

If this guy is me, and that guy is Mercer, who, then, are you?

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My Experience With The iPod Nano

I'm happy to report that my experience with the iPod nano has been great so far! I've just been to the AppleCentre at Borders for the third time in two weeks, and I haven't touched a single nano yet! Hyper^ger went with me, and she also didn't dare touch even one demo set. It looks even more wonderful than words can ever describe. But I'm reminded of the Ring...

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship... :)

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I Love Op-Eds

There're two interesting Op-Eds today in the newspaper Today. One's titled "Free speech: Are you responsible enough?" from 23 year old Timothy Tang Nam Yen.

There has been much confusion over what can — and cannot — be said on the Internet... People who do not practise self-censorship are often the ones who create civil unrest. These people are often seen as threats to national security and the law stands by to keep them in line...
...
As soon as a blog entry is posted, the key words can be picked up by search engines worldwide... For youth who wish to discuss controversial political issues, I feel they should not do so in online forums or on popular blogs, as they may still come under the ambit of local laws governing the Internet...
...
However, they should be encouraged to do so in real-life group discussions. This would encourage greater responsibility and civic consciousness (since they have to own their opinions, unlike online where they can remain anonymous or use pseudonyms)...
...
In short, the questions for readers to ask are: Is freedom of speech in itself truly constructive? Or does one also need to practise self-censorship before engaging the public with one's possibly controversial views? And, if self-censorship fails, does the Government have the obligation and right to keep individuals in line?

Read the full article here.

This op-ed is as funny as it is scary. It's funny in that Timothy feels that folks should discuss politics in 'real-life group discussions'. I guess he's right since most Internet discussions are not real-life hahaha! Even Dubya Bush thinks so too. There are so many different Internets, each one residing in its own parallel universe LOL! The other problem is that to do a 'real-life group discussion', one has to apply for a permit, and the only four or less people (I think) can sit at a table to avoid been labeled an 'illegal gathering'. So, yeah, there might be logistical problems in taking this approach.

The scary thing is the last part about the failure of self-censorship and whether the government should keep folks in line. It's abundantly clear to me that at least one person should be afraid, very afraid.

Yes, you guessed it: Timothy Tang Nam Yen. Unfortunately, self-censorship is clearly absent in him from the contents of his letter. He suggests legislative measures upon others, and sent his political letter to the newspaper to get it published, for the purpose of engaging the public with his possibly controversial views! He should have censored and stopped himself, putting his letter quietly back into his drawer. I do wish Timothy the best; I won't want to see the government exercising its obligation and right to keep people in line! (But maybe that's a good thing, for people like him are often the ones who create civil unrest.)

The other nice article 's titled "Still room for bloggers", read it here. There's a discussion about blogs that need to be registered with the authorities if they seem to be 'political blogs'. Naturally, one would ask what such a blog might look like, as compared to a 'non-political' blog.

... MP Zainudin Nordin, a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Information, Communications and the Arts, offers a distinction. It is one between opinion and advocacy.

"If the Government were to launch ComCare to help the needy and someone said the scheme was rubbish, well, that's his opinion. But if he said, 'Let's all gang up together and demonstrate against it', he's standing for something. He's politicising it," he said.

His viewpoint is reflected in MDA's Internet industry guidelines, which state that web pages that promote political or religious "causes" are automatically licensed. An echo of this approach is also in the Government's view of "crusading journalism" as unhealthy. While blogs are online diaries, the MDA told Today that with regard to political content on websites, "current rules applicable to the media will continue to apply". In general, that means nothing which is against "public interest or order, or national harmony or which offends against good taste or decency"...

I took a full three minutes looking at MP Nordin's response, and I'm still unsure what he meant. How does anyone realistically 'gang up together and demonstrate against it'? And isn't a person who says that the ComCare scheme is rubbish also standing up for something? He's standing up for his opinion that the scheme is rubbish!

I don't know leh, that's why I love local Op-Eds. They keep my mind occupied throughout the day with such interesting brain teasers... ;p

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The Weather In Singapore Is...

I was just reading mrbrown's entry on 'the climate of fear' in Singapore. I kind of agree this climate actually exists here because just yesterday, a visitor to this blog emailed me and we started a gmail conversation. Janice (not her real name, her real name is Lisa Lim) told me she wanted to comment on my entry but didn't dare do so, for fear of being 'blacklisted'.

Her fear is understandable. I just went The Weather Channel and found out there really is a climate of fear here (click for bigger picture).

The interesting thing about weather is that it's not only a 'top-down' process (earth's tilt, volcano eruption, ocean currents...), it can also be very much influenced by 'bottom-up' factors (man-made pollution, excessive CO2 emissions, too much logging etc.)

I think the climate of fear can be very much reduced if the Singapore Protocol is signed by citizens ASAP. This will reduce, within the next five years, the number of self-fulfilling fearful prophecies by as much as 50%. It's pretty astounding, if you think about it.

The only question is: do we have the will to do so? I don't think we have much choice. The climate of Singapore depends on it. We must act, now.

Update (!): Hui Chieh predicts that more people would be interested in this weather report as another blogger has been found to be sediActious today, Friday. Interesting enough, the Weather Channel has proven to be quite prescient on this matter... For my other (more conventional) writeup on interpreting weather, click here.

Update (!!): Via the forums, The New Paper reports that "Gan faces seven counts of promoting ill-will in Singapore under Chapter 29 of the Seditious Act." ;p

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Musical RENT Playing In November: Still R(A)!

I read with joy that they they're bringing in the musical RENT for the second time this November.

"BROADWAY's smash hit musical Rent will play at Kallang Theatre again this November. Singapore will be one of the stops on its 10th anniversary tour. Most of the cast and crew of this Pulitzer Prize and Tony award-winning musical will come direct from New York, including its 1996 original creative team of director Michael Grief, choreographer Marlies Yearby, costumer designer Angela Wendt and lighting designer Blake Burba.

The La Boheme-like show was penned by the late American composer Jonathan Larson, a protege of Broadway meister Stephen Sondheim. Sadly, Larson died of a brain aneurysm a day before the musical opened in New York in 1996. Its plot revolves around a group of artists struggling to pay their rent. Along the way, issues such as the plight of gays and Aids are explored with grace and good humour..."
ST Life/Time To Pay The Rent

RENT first played in Singapore four years ago. One of the more interesting things that happened was that a few days before opening night, the National Arts Council stuck a R(A) sticker on the show. I wrote about this then, and the bad news is... it's still restricted to under-18s this time round!

I don't mean to be seditious, but seriously, take away the sticker, please?

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A Couple Of Bloggers-Forumers Charged Under Sedition Act

This is a very disturbing development. From CNA:

SINGAPORE : For the first time in Singapore, two bloggers have been charged under the Sedition Act for making racist remarks.

They are 25-year-old Nicholas Lim Yew and 27-year-old Benjamin Koh Song Huat.

A subordinate court was told that both their blogs had content that cast aspersions on the Malay community...

Now we all know how ambiguous these sorts of things can be (remember the scholar?), especially in the context of online content like forum posts and blog entries. I wonder what the real story is.

I also didn't know at first what 'sedition' meant, I only knew it's quite a serious thing. But strangely enough, as SGInk points out, there's something amiss about the definition of this Act. Sedition actually means words or actions that make people rebel against authority, 煽动判乱的言论或行动. 'To cast aspersions on' means to attack the reputation of someone.

In the meantime, Gabriel's advice is good: stick to infantile stuff!

Update!: The CNA article as now been updated and expanded, but the 'cast aspersions' part has been removed.

It now reads:

Twenty-five-year-old Nicholas Lim Yew and 27-year-old Benjamin Koh Song Huat are being accused of posting racist comments on an online forum and on their blog site.

They are both being charged with committing a seditious act, by promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between races in Singapore.

They were not represented by defence lawyers and were granted bail of S$10,000 each...

Hmm... what happened to their lawyers?

Update (!!): I have been looking around GoogleCache and found some blogs that talk about the upsaid.com blog (now deleted). Seems to me if we want to catch bloggers with racist entries, there are many, many more to go around. Personally, I do hope that there are sufficient grounds for this conviction. If not, well... In the meantime, HuiChieh has a comprehensive roundup. And Mr Miyagi has just Todayed me. Well, at least it's better than the last time I was quoted in a newspaper talking about, of all things, pr0n.

Update (!!!): One more blogger has been found to be SediActious. Mr. Wang urges all to keep things in perspective. Things are not as bad as they look.

Update (!V): HuiChieh rounds them up.

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Rockson's Barbaric Yawp

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world...

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nonetheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
~Walt Whitman/Leaves of Grass/Song of Myself

Ephraim Loy is on the roll! The last time his letter appeared in the ST Forum, he suggested that bloggers should be educated by the authorities about what should or shouldn't be blogged; naturally, some took notice. Last Friday, the forums editor published (with wicked glee over the imminent backlash, I'd imagine) his letter of complaint about this magazine called Lime promoting Rockson's blog. He thinks that it's not good for young people to be exposed to this sort of thing. (mrbrown has the context.) Now Rockson has probably one of the most vulgar local blogs, but strangely enough, it has serious social consciousness oozing out of its HTML code. So if you feel you've had enough warning, go here.

Rockson reminds me of Whitman, America's greatest poet (at least to me, because he's the only American poet I kind of read on and off). Whitman's stuff was vulgar to his contemporaries because they didn't like what he wrote. Whitman celebrates things that once were vulgar, like the human body (I Sing The Body Electric), boring things like 'blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering, tin-roofing, shingle-dressing... (A Song for Occupations), preaches joy and optimism and encourages curiousity (Song of the Open Road) and doesn't follow the usual 'academic' rules of poetry.

It's useless to be vulgar just to shock people. Except maybe in places like the army where this is appropriately used in the systematic taming of soldiers. But I think Rockson uses the course devices he's so good with to 'shock', and then, to 'tell'. And to tell his story with a rarely seen passion around these places. What Singapore needs is authenticity, and he provides plenty. I'm looking forward to Ephraim's next letter to the newspaper. ;p

Perthling virgin undergrad has more (via tomorrow.sg). Further reading: America's Poet: Walt Whitman, National Geographic, December 1994.

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The Beauty Of An Ambiguous Colon

From DailyKos

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iObjet d'art

Apple just announced the upcoming iPod nano (which probably refers to an iPod that is very small) and I think if I were a competitor in the MP3 player market, I'd probably just close shop and sulk at the bar hehee...






 



A few weeks ago, I got the iPod shuffle as a freebie, and was thinking whether to open the nice packaging to use it, or sell it at the forums because an iPod mini (discontinued today) was probably more suited for my purposes. (There is no display nor a quick way to directly go to a specific song in the shuffle.) After a few days of deliberation, I thought, what the heck, let's give the shuffle a try. Boy was I glad to take that plunge. It's like product nirvana, a sense of that wow! It's no longer just a product, but of form and function, and emotions, all exquisitely brought together in the most harmonious way. And it doesn't even feel it 'exists', it's as light as air...

 



This reminds me of the product design of the Palm PDA. Since its inception, Palm's people, many of whom came from Apple, had to find ways to battle against a behemoth like Microsoft. Palm, Inc., at that time wasn't really a big company compared to Bill's company, and what they did was totally unintuitive and unconventional. They came up with design guidelines that collectively came to be known as the Zen of Palm (really fun 44-page pdf!). Part of it was marketing fluff, of course, but there's no denying that the spirit of the guidelines in general saved Palm from total oblivion in the beginning and even today. Yes, there are times when folks argue that this zen thing is the wrong way to go, and they might be right in the dubious execution of some Palm products. But generally, I think the philosophy still holds, and aspects of it can be seen in the iPods.

For example, the guidelines emphasize a crazy obsession to simplicity. Now, how one arrives at 'simplicity' is quite interesting.



The shuffle achieves this by limiting functions. Going against conventional wisdom, the shuffle doesn't give customers what they want. You can't tell what song is currently playing, nor can you navigate to a specific song. (There are ways to circumvent this limitation. One can arrange songs in a pre-determined order on the computer first before transferring the music to the shuffle.) Another way is creating the illusion of simplicity, in the sense that loads of features are hidden cleverly, revealing only the correct ones when the need arises. This is when superior user interface design really shines, as seen in the other iPods.

So, is it good to limit features in the shuffle? Folks are limited in the sense that they lose the ability to choose their songs in a quick manner. There is a school of thought that suggests this might be beneficial. Increased choices might lead to decreased happiness, according to some researchers. I can't read the whole article so I'm just guessing... one explanation is that it's frustrating to have too many choices, as can be seen quite clearly in Creative Technology's MP3 player lineup. 



Well, it's great if you can find the product that you really want. But for a n00b like me, it's highly depressing. Of if you have too many girlfriends or boyfriends, and you need to choose... man, that sucks lol.

Another explanation is that it's not really about limiting choices/functions, per se. It's really about the fact that another person (the product/user interface designer) has already chosen what he thinks you'd want, leaving you with the best combination and presentation of features and functionalities.

But you ask, how does the guy know what I want?! I'm not sure, I just think the iPod designers are geniuses... ;p

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Taipei and Hurricane Talim

We stayed in a hotel for the first week in Taipei because my mum felt that the family home was too old and unsafe. The nice hotel in the city had at least one awesome sign.

After a week in Taipei, I decided to extend my stay here for another week. My parents left for Taichung to visit a doctor there for the next few days and I checked into Taipei Hostel. The rate for each night was S$25, so it was still OK.

Initially, I wanted to find a place near Hsimenting, the place that teens and young people like to go to and which was near the family home. My Taiwanese friend Mavis told me that in some small hotels there, one might get a knock in the middle of the night, with someone offering special services. Wow! Lip my stockings!

Mavis took the day off on Tuesday and we went to Dansui River; took a boat across and cycled for a few kilometers to the ShihSanHang museum that showcases the archaeological findings of an ancient Taiwanese culture almost two thousand years old. Very impressive stuff. At Bitan south of Taipei, paddle boats were getting evacuated. Mavis told me that a hurricane was going to hit Taiwan tomorrow. I didn't have a clue until then because I hadn't been following the news.



A typhoon is a hurricane that appears in Asia, while a hurricane is a typhoon that occurs in the North Atlantic. I prefer to call them hurricanes because the word appears meaner and stronger. I had one experience with a Taiwanese hurricane. Ten years ago, I'd spent 15 months in a place near HsinChu working for a military contractor. We had to paste ducktape on the windows in case they break...

Anyway back to the 21st century, I thought, what the heck, I should move back to the family home instead of staying at Taipei Hostel and paying unnecessary money. This is my dad's family home (both my parents were quitters from Taiwan, my dad became a Singaporean eventually). Our family came here regularly during the June holidays many years ago, and these visits were probably the only happy childhood memories I had. So on Wednesday morning, I checked out of Taipei Hostel and checked into the empty home on Wednesday afternoon. Because all my relatives had already moved to the States, it's quite dilapidated.




The rain started to fall in the afternoon, and they came in waves. The wind picked up gradually, and if you didn't know how to maneuver your umbrella, you might as well throw it away. Which was what happened to so many abandoned umbrellas along the roads. I listened to the radio for the latest updates, and it was announced that there would be no school and no work on Thursday. The authorities had expected hurricane Talim to be a force not to be trifled with. (I later learned from Mavis that department stores, KTVs, MacDonalds and 7-11s would still be open.) The other directive was to stock up food and water for a few days. I decided to prepare for this warning by going to 7-11 and buying two two-litre mineral water bottles and a loaf of bread. The bread was for Thursday's breakfast.


Hurricane Talim was projected to hit Hualien (on Taiwan's east coast) at 2am Thursday, 1st September. As a mark of respect to this awesome force of nature and also to make sure that I could escape in the event of a failure in the structural integrity of the ceiling, I didn't sleep that night until 3am. The funny thing was as the evening progressed, the winds seemed weaker. Still, there were periodic strong gusts of wind and I could see that some metallic thingys at the construction site next door had already collapsed.

The building was standing its ground, but it was still somewhat scary though. A sudden great pressure difference between the inside and outside could easily take out a window, or worse, the entire plate of the ceiling tiles, I reasoned accurately or inaccurately. I spent the night marvelling at the spectacle of invisible power, and watching the news where TV reporters at Hualien were trying to sensationalise the already quite sensational night by standing outdoors and giving exciting and wet field reports. One reporter couldn't even stand properly in the strong winds. Those guys were nuts! (But they're fun to watch!)

The next morning, the news was that central Taipei had fared quite well. Unfortunately, there were six deaths and more injuries in other places caused by floods and falling debris. Talim was blocked by the Central Mountain Range (screenshot from Google Earth) and the hurricane had spilt into two parts. The section at the higher altitudes continued on to mainland China, where she claimed many lives subsequently in the coming days.

I left the apartment the afternoon. The rain had almost stopped falling; I was more worried about loose projectiles flying at great speeds. One thing that had always intrigued me was the haze in large cities. Taipei has this haze that just won't go away. I had always thought that it was due to pollution. But what I saw in Alaska told me that this needn't be the case. Haze or fuzziness in the air could be due to inherent weather conditions. To find out the real story, I decided to visit Taipei 101, temporarily the tallest building in the world. The hurricane would have blown pollutants in the air far away, and if it was still hazy, the pollution account would be weakened. The trees had been bent by the winds...

Oops, the place was closed.

Even without going up the observatory, I could see that the air was still a little hazy, so I reckoned pollution need not be a cause of the hazy conditions in Taipei skies. I went back the next day.

The following is actually a screenshot from SimCity4.

An NBA star was there too; I had no idea who he was.

The 101 skyscraper was beautiful! It's looked like eight huge Chinese takeaway lunch boxes stacked up nicely! (I later learnt that the official account is that it's supposed to represent a tall bamboo. I like my account better.)

Anyway, I hope I can return to Taipei and do interesting things someday. This place is chaotic, but it has its charms. My feeling is that a newcomer here might absolutely hate it. But give yourself one week, and you might not want to leave. Or not. The guidebooks on Taiwan more often than not refer to Taiwanese as the most hospitable and warmest people. Guidebooks sometimes get things wrong, but I believe they are right about this. The funny thing is that in other countries I've visited, there are very nice and beautiful buildings, but not so nice people inside. Taipei seems to me the opposite. Old or quickly worn out new buildings, but relatively beautiful and unaloof people inside. Maybe I'm biased to a certain extent and have lowered expectations; I don't know.

Another fluffball thing is the 'cuteness' of women here speaking through their noses (like how Chinese cartoon characters speak). They don't do this to seduce people, it's really quite natural. LOL That's another thing about the Taiwanese. They're natural. And the service at restaurants, shopping centres is just great. Folks talk to you like they talk to their own grandmothers, informal, but professional, and non-descriminating. No doubt there're plenty of bad people around and things can be very bad in some areas, but the variation is great, so one can find excellent stuff here too. I like the variability here.

We've all heard about the chaotic Taiwanese traffic. It is still happening now, but this time I had a different perspective. Taiwanese drivers are one of a kind. I'd recommend all tourists to sit at least once in the front seat and zoom through Taipei. A health warning for folks with weak hearts is appropriate here. The skill of the driver will certainly impress you, simply because you will not meet with an accident, I hope. It's a little like Formula One; you just can't figure out how anyone would survive in those tough conditions. Anyway, at first I reckon that folks were bad to drive so madly across town, but this time, I realise that sometimes, there's no road rage involved, strangely enough. The taxi driver I had was smiling when someone else cut abruptly into his lane. It's all taken in stride. Ironically, because there're so many scooters zooming around, so motorists need to heighten their senses and not take anything for granted. Still, there are those who won't dare drive in Taiwan; perfectly understandable.

To all tourists, treat the red lights as a guide. The old joke is that to be able to cross the road successfully and safely, just follow a dog that's doing the same thing. No motorist would want to hit a dog. I'm no longer that afraid to cross the road this time. Crossing a road would mean turning cars won't care and might cut across you. But they are so good that they can estimate exactly when you'd be in the car's path, and they would stop accordingly. This is one assurance I didn't have before. Your mileage may vary. Please be careful at all times!

I took the bus and it's now much improved. There's this scrolling display and it tells what the next stop is. Never get lost again!


The MRT is also now very convenient. As usual, I continued my usual MRT observations to see whether folks outside trains waited for those inside first to alight first. If there're lots of people in the train going out, those outside would wait. Sometimes, if there's not a lot of people alighting, they won't. But those outside didn't insist their way, so it was still quite good. And people liked to queue up...

Overall, I'm not sure what's going to happen to Taiwan. Despite the oppression from across the Straits, things seem to be still going OK. So I'm still quite optimistic...fingers crossed...
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Glacier Bay And College Fjord

tbc

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Inside Passage, Alaska

tbc

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Vancouver

Vancouver is the start of our cruise. My family and cousin's extended family from Hawaii are booked on the wonderful Island Princess. We arrived three days earlier before the ship set off so had some time to explore the city and Victoria Island.

tbc tbc tbc tbc tbc





fsdfasdfRead the entire entry. [testtest]

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National Day Astronomy

On this Singapore's 40th National Day, does anyone have any concerns about the crescent moon in our flag? LOL :)


Logo of Tomorrow.sg, designed by Xiaxue.

The geeky flag designer's worst nightmare: Scalability!

Anyway, I'll be going off tomorrow on some cruise to nowhere, so there'd be probably no new entries for the rest of the month...

Update (!): I was just watching the Parade after missing it for a few years, and was quite astonished by the song 家 (Home) from Dick Lee, MuZhi and Kit Chan. It's goooood! Not pretentious, not teenybopper (unlike this year's song.) The English version doesn't really work, though. This seems very comparable to I Still Call Australia Home, and is probably even better...woohooo!

Update (!!): Rockson has a somber entry on the fireworks display (warning: very course language.) This guy is a gem, I tell ya...

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Oasis

It has been years since I've sat at a cafe to read a book and sip drugs. The quiet Starbucks at Far East Plaza has closed and is now replaced by a Subway. I love that place; a tiny, quiet, out-of-place that few people know existed. The walls are curved so one could just hide behind them or the strategically placed pillars, and disappear. It's an oasis in the midst of noisy and crowded Orchard Road area.

So I walk around to see if I can find another similar place to have some Ice Mocha. I need a quiet place. And I think I've found it, as I'm walking around Wheelock Place tonight; the rear entrance of Borders, the CoffeeBean. I've walked there countless times but have never really noticed it. The large area at the bottom of an atrium isn't crowded tonight. I order my five dollar mocha. The vortex of energy created by the curve-moving escalators seems to swirl anti-clockwise, much like a tornado. Funny thing is, sitting there feels like being in the eye of the storm; it's absolutely calm.

The coffee-sipping patrons already there are all in pairs. The chair in front of me screams its emptiness. Yes, I don't have a date. I am my own date. With the book I have with me tonight.

Two fluffy seats away, a couple snuggles; the lady with a white top and short shorts is saying something to her spouse, into his ear. She's almost nibbling it. This goes on for about ten minutes, maybe more. I read my book, the chapter ends with a poem by Neruda.

Body English
We speak in tongues.
My mouth to your ear.
Your ear to my mouth.
We speak in tongues,
Use body English.
Mouth to mouth.
Heart to heart.
Parts of speech.
Each.
Our every slip of the tongue is graceful.
Our best syllables are silent.
We speak in tongues.
Our skins make conversation.
Talk to me.

Two secondary-school kids move up the curving escalator. She lifts his chin up, touches his face with the back of her fingers. I smile at them, their young love that knows no heartache.

A couple diagonally in front of me seems more stressed up; they look uncomfortable. The guy gestures with his hands, the woman sits passively, as if listening to some bad news. Is he breaking up with her? Or is he just a confidante trying to beat some sense into her?

Another attractive couple gazes into each other's eyes. They aren't holding hands. Maybe they are just friends. To have friends like that is just wonderful; love, per se, for its own sake.

A new pair drops by, a perky woman with a very short flowing skirt, and her bald friend. They sit right in front of me. She distracts.

Nonetheless, I will finish my book today, at this oasis that costs five dollars. I should do this more often. And you may take the empty seat...

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Uniquely Singapore Postcards: Can Win Prizes!

So here's the latest fun thing that was found in this morning's papers: spam your overseas friends with pre-paid postcards from the local tourist bureau, and you might win yourself Metro vouchers or possibly a free trip to Singapore for your friend!


All the postcards will be quarantined by Singapore Post until after the draw, and following that, they will be sent to your friends. Moreover, you need to include your NRIC number on the postcard. To your uninitiated friends, they might just wonder, what's the deal with putting your Social Security number on a postcard?

Can we start doing things for its own sake, and not to get the extra 'benefits'? haha I used to have this postcard exchange thingy going on in my personal homepage many years ago. If anyone wants a postcard from Singapore, just email me your snail mail address, and I'll send you one. And no, I won't be sending Uniquely Singapore Can Win Prize postcards (unless you insist in taking part in the lucky draw LOL)

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Uniquely Incongruent Singapore

I was looking at HuiChieh's newspaper cutout on the PM's interview about how he doesn't really mind folks engaging with the government in problem solving, but shouldn't question fundamental policies unless they are taking part in elections, and I wondered how far we've come these 40 years...

The same incongruity hit me when I read a newspaper report a few years ago about how Singapore aims to become an 'international media hub' when the reality is that there isn't a single mainstream, reasonably critical and independent media here in Singapore. (Eatcake has related thoughts on the media too.)

And I look at the grand new National Library and wonder about the disconnect; how come folks can come here and read all the wonderful books they want, and yet they can't speak up after they've finished reading?

I think this isn't just about government policies (a convenient label), it's really about mental oppression. And it's one of the worst possible things to dish out to people.

I've always have great optimism for Singapore. But this optimism is often unnecessarily dampened by remarks from the authorities! LOL I think despite the complaints about ERP, public transportation and so on, they are not indicative of the real grievances of people. I think people only want to say what they need to say, and not have their spirits crushed in the process. This isn't really hard to achieve, is it? Of course not! Which democratic country under high heaven disallows citizens to question important policies? Probably only Uniquely Incongruent Singapore.

When will this trend be reversed? Your guess is as good as mine...

PS. From one patriot to another... PM Lee, in case you're reading this, I hereby state that I disagree and question your policy stated in the interview! I think it's absolutely harmful to the well-being and continual progress of the country! Not everything in life needs to be tested in elections, if there's any in the first place. 大人三思啊！

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Review of BAK2u Loss Recovery Service

Originally written for SPUG.

You probably know what this feels like. Having just misplaced your PDA, you rush back to where you might have dropped it, only to find an absence accompanied by that unmistakable, heavy sense of helplessness. All you can do is wait... knowing that you probably won't see your gadget again.

A new service called BAK2u might just be the thing you need to help you recover your lost property. Let's say you've lost your Palm; it is not easy for a person who picks it up to immediately know who the owner is, and this is where BAK2u comes in. The service includes labels that you stick onto your device. On the label is a number and website for the finder to go to and report the missing device. The finder only needs to log into the website or call the toll-free number to report the loss, making recovery much easier than if no such label is found.

BAK2u labels are sold in packs that cost SGD$9.90 each. Each packet contains two labels of different lengths (5x2cm and 6.5x1cm). After applying the label onto your device, you will not be able to peel it off and re-adjust the positioning and alignment, so be sure to get it right the first time.







Next, we go to the BAK2u.com website and register our label. Each label is valid for three years.



Click on the Activate Label link...



If you haven't created an account before, you'll be asked to fill in your contact and credit card details.



The last step involves filling in the serial number and any interesting characteristics of your device. You can also specify any additional reward for the finder.





Does it work?
You can use the labels on your mobile phone, PDA, MP3 player, digital camera etc. If someone finds a lost device, he or she won't be able to contact the owner without some sort of identification on the device. With the label in place, a finder would have no trouble calling the toll free number printed on the label to report the loss. Loss reporting can also be done through the Internet.



When it is confirmed that that finder has found the lost item, a courier will meet the finder at his or her convenience to retrieve the item. Now, this is what I really like about the service. I think it might be the tipping point for a reasonably good Samaritan to decide to return the device rather than to keep it for himself or herself because of the 'difficulties in trying to return it to the owner' self-justifying excuse. There is no cost or hassle for the finder to do the good deed. In addition, the finder will also be rewarded with a S$49.90 gift pack (5 packs) from BAK2u.

Is the price worth it?
The price for two labels is S$9.90. Now, I do realise there are those who don't believe that any finder would return lost property, especially expensive gadgets! I think that's a fair point. Then again, it is also not totally impossible that there are nice people around who would want to return lost property, and that would be virtually impossible without some sort of identification or labelling on the device. Bottomline: Without any identification, the probability of loss recovery is almost zero! So I think for the price of a Big Mac meal for a label that's valid for three years, it's very well worth the price.

When a lost item is successful found through BAK2u, the owner pays BAK2u an additional service fee of S$49.50 plus shipping charges and tax. If the item is found locally, the shipping charges will be the local courier fee. If the item is lost and found overseas, the owner can choose to have it couriered by DHL International; the delivery cost would depend also on the weight and size of the item.

Although the extra fee seems costly initially, the cost and benefit analysis is straightforward: the cost to replace a lost item will almost always be more than S$49.90 plus shipping anyway. Factor in not only the inherent price of the lost device itself, but also the cost of not recovering important and sensitive information that resides in your gadget, and the need for a small investment in labels becomes compelling.

I have one slight complaint with the adhesiveness used for the labels. By design, the labels, while strong, can be peeled off by a persistent bad guy who picks up the lost item. Now, this is due to customers' requests so that if the labels are not needed in the future, no ugly marks will be left behind. I'd prefer the adhesiveness of the labels to be strong enough to leave behind some 'residue' if it's really torn so that a bad person would think twice before reselling a found item. I'm told this might be considered future revisions of the product.

Other than that, for the purposes of identification and loss recovery, the BAK2u serves its purposes well. The website is intuitive, and more importantly, a good Samaritan will be provided with just that needed extra push to return a found item.

Discuss here.

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New Blog: Recovering Christians

I've started a new blog called Recovering Christians, hopefully it can become a community blog eventually. :)

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Getting Married At The Zoo

I was just looking at Cowboy Caleb's call for help to get more information on the workings and protocols of a Chinese wedding ceremony, and it got me thinking of the kind of wedding I'd like. Not like it really matters because I don't even have a partner to marry and I've real doubts about the institution of marriage itself, but just for the sake of wondering aloud...

I once attended an acquaintance's wedding at a huge open space/void deck, and hundreds of people were invited. Seriously, I can't imagine going through that myself; I figured the groom knew personally only about 10% of the guests. The rest were neighbours and friends of friends and total strangers. These people were only there because traditions dictate they should attend the function.

My ideal wedding would be a simple affair at the Botanical Gardens, or maybe one held at the zoo. And I would also ban everyone from bringing gifts and red packets. So I'd print on the invitations: PLEASE DO NOT BRING GIFTS. ALL GIFTS AND RED PACKETS WILL BE FORWARDED TO THE NKF. JUST BRING YOURSELF AND ENJOY THE FREE FOOD AND ELEPHANT RIDE.

So probably you can imagine my angst at the current state of things, primarily on the issue of 'the market value of gifts'. What is this, the stock market of best wishes? Today VOCC (Value Of Close Colleagues) is trading at $60, POTN (Price Of The Neighbour) is going for $40, COIR (Contributions Of Immediate Relatives) is moving at a six-month high of $80 and projected to climb even higher next week, and MSFT (Met Someone For Tea) is trading for a peanuts $30. I think gifts are fine; it's just this whole business of feeling that state of despair when a wedding invitation is received and one doesn't really want to go because of the bonus monetary hardship that attending it entails. There shouldn't be any feeling of sorrow when attending a wedding! The other thing is the quantification of good wishes. Frankly I don't care if anyone even brings gifts to my wedding. Your voluntary, unstressed and happy presense alone is a far, far better gift than I could ever hope for, or could ever deserve...

Of course, there's the other economics consideration. Given that the venues for weddings cost money, there is a purpose in these sorts of calculations, to achieve a not so unfavourable outcome in the bookkeeping. So one would constantly look at the balance-and-loss sheet and hope for only a slight loss, if not to break even. I really don't like this sort of thing. It's a wedding!, not a 'my friends should help me cover my losses' activity.

But when all is said and done, traditions still matter to a large extent (maybe the article HuiChieh points out can save me lol) I wish Cowboy will eventually find the information he needs and plan the perfect wedding!

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BlogConII@Hideout And Related 感想

So there was a much smaller con at Hideout last night. Managed to get two Kilkennys at half price, haven't had that for around three years, so that's good. But before that, met my ex-gf in the afternoon before wandering into a library that's along the way and deciding to pick up a book on the I Ching but managed to find two instead (fascinating stuff, I should talk about it in a few days.) Went to Macs to get some sidedish, reading the books, and waiting for Angela and later Stephanie...

Hideout is amazingly tiny (compared to the pictures), but it's the perfect small place. But the end of the night, it was filled with bloggers, otherwise ordinary people who've graciously decided to write and share their wisdom and themselves on the Internets. Met Tym and her husband Terse. Now Tym is one blogger that I distinctively remember because I had stumbled onto her gripes page (back then in 2000 it probably wasn't called blogs) and read the whole thing until 3 in the morning. So that's pretty surreal to meet the author! Also met RamblingAlcoholic, MailOrderBride. Other folks were were there included YewJin and friend, La Idler, YanYing, Angela (longgg hair wahahaa! :)), Stephanie, Yuhui, Eddy, Kelly, Chin, AirHole, BigFStarStarStar, UrbanMaleBitch, mrbrown, miyagi and SarongPartyGirl who arrived just as we were leaving...

I've been involved with another online tech community, the SG Palm Users' Group, and I learnt early on that the tech/PDA business is really just a sideshow, a nice excuse, for the actually objective of networking, and that was one approach I adopted in managing the forums. So I think early on, the folks behind SPUG really encouraged online people to meet offline both for the advancement of the community (it's far less likely for forum flamewars to occur if folks actually met), and to increase the perception of 'reality' (as compared to anonymous nicks). This in turns encourages emotional investment (in the sense that thoughtful people who contribute their expertise know that there're other clever people whom they've actually met listening to them.) The value-add lies, not just the technical stuff behind the initial raison d'etre, but the things that might result from this. For example, there have been two couples who're married partly due to SPUG related opportunities (I myself met my ex-gf from the SPUG IRC.)

The local blogsphere is also on a similar path, as it should be. But there's a difference: the main activity of blogging isn't a sideshow, it's part of the actual show! Bloggers who go for meetups already have done one thing: mass disclosures of their personal lives. Which is what I sense (maybe it's just me), a feeling of respect and honour among thieves that fills the air at Hideout. Or maybe, it's just because I'm a little drunk... So I think this development bodes well for the blogging community. For a start, the amount of free material and wisdom to be had is just quite extraordinary. I've just had a glimpse of RamblingAlcoholic's stuff... I know I'll finish reading his entire blog in the next few days LOL

PS. The lovely cover version of Sade's Your Love Is King is actually not done by Guy Sebastien but by Will Young, found in the soundtrack of Bridget Jones...

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Blog Terrorism: Xiaxue Hacked

So anyway, the terrible news today was that Xiaxue's blog was hacked and entries and thousands of her email were deleted from her email account. Now, Streetdirectory.com.sg was also hacked yesterday, but somehow I don't feel much sympathy for them. But Xiaxue's different. There's so much material inside, in the form of personal diaries, that it's a personal space (and not merely a commercial website.) Even worse was that last Saturday, she explained at the library one reason why she started her blog was because the girlfriend of her old boyfriend threw away her paper diary. So by putting up her stuff online, no one would throw that away. According to CowboyCaleb, the bad guy will be caught.

I'm researching how to backup blogspot entries, it doesn't seem entirely straightforward. The default instructions for doing Blogger backups aren't good enough; some variables need to be tweaked further...

Update (!): Rather than use the default backup template that seems to be missing some things, I'm using the following. Substitude "[","]" with "<", ">". Have fun with template tags! Where's MyBloggerSQL when you need it?!

[Blogger]
TITLE: [$BlogItemTitle$]
[BlogDateHeader]
DATE: [$BlogDateHeaderDate$]
TIME: [$BlogItemDateTime$]
[/BlogDateHeader]
-----
BODY:
[$BlogItemBody$]
--------
[BlogItemCommentsEnabled]
[BlogItemComments]
COMMENT-AUTHOR:[$BlogCommentAuthor$]
COMMENT-DATE:[$BlogCommentDateTime$]
COMMENT-BODY:[$BlogCommentBody$]
--------
[/BlogItemComments]
[/BlogItemCommentsEnabled]
[/Blogger]

Update (!!): Another blog, WonkyTong, was hacked yesterday, using the blogger's own computer, by her colleague. Truly bizarre and criminal. I was just saying to Angela, these folks probably don't feel a thing, there's no empathy...

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The Singapore I Want

Over at the SPUG Forums, there's an interesting thread going on titled The Singapore I Want. I said,

The Singapore I want:

Is a Singapore where all the folks can move out the MRT before the folks outside start to walk in.

For some reason, I believe that if we can do this, Singapore would be an entirely different place compared to now.

Anyway, I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Immediately increase your quality of life by intentionally holding yourself back from going into the train when others are rushing in. Then, slowly stroll in. I've always tried this when it's feasible to do so, and the feeling's heavenly...

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NKF Peanuts Abhor A Vacuum

Why is it not a complete surprise to me that someone's wife has now stepped into the fray? Mrs Lee Hsien Loong (Prime Minister's wife) has just written a letter "Charity still saving lives and still needs support" and it takes up almost half the ST Forums page today.

On the issue of CEO pay, I believe that even charities ought to be managed professionally. How else can we extend high-quality and impactful services, including specialist educational and therapy support, to those in need? After all, we do not expect CEOs of publicly funded hospitals to be poorly paid, do we?...

I would not begrudge Mr Durai proper and well-earned compensation and bonus. He probably earned less than what he would have earned if he had continued in his profession as a lawyer...

Yes, some of the things that Mr Durai has allegedly done rather raise a questioning eyebrow or two. Some may have crossed the line of proper conduct in respect of conflicts of interest as well. If so, they should be corrected...

Many drops an ocean make, and many hands will lighten the load. On my part, I will continue to donate to the NKF and other favourite charities."

Full article here. I think essentially, what Mrs Lee is arguing for is not much different from what Mrs Goh is talking about too. But now it's put in a much nicer way and is more convincing. My hats off to the behind the scenes people. Very well done...:)

More from SingaporeAngle, HeavenlySword, SingaporeInk.

PS. The idiom isn't exactly correct when applied to peanuts. Most peanuts like vacuum. That's how the peanut pack keeps it shape and its freshness. But when one cuts the packaging, all the peanuts fall to the bottom because air has gone inside...
From TalkingCock

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Bloggers.sg BlogCon: ST Reporters Got Tired And Yawned

Today (Saturday) is the Bloggers.sg event to be held at NTUC at the Esplanade. I'll be helping out at the event, so see you there!

Sunday Update (!): When I saw this in this morning's papers, I literally LAUGHED OUT LOUD!


Click picture for bigger picture. I believe I know what the reporters are talking about. At the event (I was the guy ferrying the microphone around), I was standing next to one Chinese blogger/明日 editor and a reporter approached him to request an interview. He then asked the blogger if he had a blog, and the blogger said 'no'. No?! Wahahaaa... He's only saying 'no' because he didn't want to give you a quote to run with, that's why! I wonder how many people said 'no' or were reticent to give comments when asked the same question. No wonder it's such a big YAWN for the ST reporters and the bloggers seemed so 'guarded'! Which reminded me of...

"I won't be your monkey."
~Daily Show's comedian Jon Stewart, responding to his hosts on CNN's Crossfire who suggested he wasn't as funny as they thought he'd be.

So anyway, in the morning, fellow volunteer Angela and I went to Woodlands library to attend the morning session where Xiaxue (Falling Snow), mrbrown and Preetam were speaking. I wanted to attend as she's the most popular local blogger and also due to the fact that she mentioned 'editorial integrity' in big, bold letters in one of her recent entries. Any media person who believes in these two words gets my vote LOL. A third reason was because the target audience of her speech were parents and teachers, and I was most intrigued to see what would happen if this demographic of people actually went to her blog and read what she was writing! Anyway, I thought Xiaxue did well in her speech, and already has made at least one parent understand the need to let the kids blog freely. All in all, I think she's a nice person, has that 'X' factor, and she's been very kind to Angela before... Too bad there wasn't enough time to get more indepth into her presentation topic, but good stuff from hers and mrbrown's presentation... We were late for the blogcon and left before the third presentation from Preetam...

There were about 15 volunteers at the afternoon session at the NTUC club next to the Esplanade. Han has the pictures; I'm in picture number four talking with Gabriel. It was electrifying to touch his rebonded hair (with permission, of course.) It's really very smooth and straight. You should try it sometime.

The legal panel was good. My only regret was that it was too short, which wasn't really anybody's fault. I'd have no problem listening to legal interpretations of blogging for hours on end hehe... I thought Daniel the lawyer was pretty objective in his explanations, and didn't really take the 'oh you better don't blog sensitive things' sort of scare-people advice. He mentioned the spirit behind the defamation laws, and what possibly might constitute defamation and what might not. I managed to squeeze in a question for them about disclaimers, and Daniel's opinion was that disclaimers alone are not a good defense if the intent to defame (or basically to go really overboard) is apparent to reasonably intelligent people. Personally, I still think when all has been said, the grey areas regarding interpretations is just so wide that it's very difficult to pin down exactly whether a certain piece is defamatory or not.

The session on blog technology was useful for me as well. I'm really not into RSS, but maybe I should consider implementing/using it. Again, the session could have been longer, but it's very difficult to please everyone since everyone's expertise and proficiencies were different.

Overall, I thought the event went as well as I thought it would, given that this was the first time that a conference like this has been organised, and having it run like it did was no mean feat.

A few of us volunteers later went to Marina Square to have some dinner before coming back for the free drinks; Angela, Stephanie, Yan Ying and Yuhui. One thing about the NTUC club is that the service is very good. La Idler later told us that's probably because they didn't have much business and were probably very happy that they even had customers. At 11.30pm, not a single person had started dancing at the dance floor. Poor DJ, play techno music, yet no one wanted to dance. Yuhui has a longer writeup. Other people I met included Chin, Eddy, Kelly, YewJin, MercerMachine...

Hopefully we'll have this again next year. I think mrbrown and miyagi are quite excellent moderating panel discussions. mrbrown can really talk to a newbie about technology, as seen during the morning session. These guys have no airs about them, and were very nice... In the meantime, I guess regular drinking sessions at Hideout isn't a bad idea at all hehe...

PS. I want to take this paragraph to talk about Kenny Sia who also flew first class from Malaysia to attend the blog. Kenny, you remind me of the chimpanzees at the Singapore zoo during the 'pay money to take a photo with the monkey. Peanuts not provided' attraction! Lots of people wanted to take pictures with him, he just seems like a photo prop and was very patient with everyone. If only he got a dollar from each person... Yeah, and I also saw SPG who has written quite a long entry.

Me, Eddy and Kelly.

Angela and I.

Me and _unidentifiedhotbabe_ . My attempt to have the same face colour as Guan Yu has been quite successful!

Update (!!): Tym has a much better explanation for the big yawn. As usual, the MSM doesn't quite get it. :) More from RamblingLibrarian, an angry Anthony, Mr. Wang, the Associated Press (whose reporter didn't yawn), Cowboy Caleb who reminds the journalists that the Blogcon wasn't meant to be a Mardi Gras, LindaChia who probably saw the same reporter (she calls him the bugger from Sunday Times) I mentioned in the beginning, and Airhole who didn't entertain a reporter's request for photos. More trackbacks from Tomorrow.sg .

Update (!!!): Confirmed by TinkerTailor in LindaChia's entry, the photo taken by Postmaster-General of the reporter I mentioned in the beginning of this entry is Shawn Woo, one of the reporters who wrote the story. Finally, checks and balances, right of reply, say one wrong thing and you're in trouble! modus operandi of blog journalism's answer to MSM LOL!

Update (!V): Tuesday's supplement which focused on the bloggers at the blogcon was much, much better. More from Tomorrow.sg .

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NKF Saga: A Watershed In Local Court Case Reporting!

他中计了! (Please don't sue me, my personal unreliable opinion only.) NKF CEO finds himself A Few Good Mened after he's forced to reveal his salary ($25,000 a month + 12 months bonus = $600,000 a year) during cross examination in the latest interesting defamation case of the National Kidney Foundation against the Straits Times' owners. The NKF "is taking issue with a Straits Times article by senior correspondent Susan Long published on April 19 last year, which stated that a gold-plated tap had been installed and later replaced in the private bathroom in Mr Durai's office suite."

So yeah, Mr Durai has forgotten that his opponent is a media empire, they naturally control how the news is reported. Secondly, he has enough skeletons in his own closet to warrant letting the matter rest. But no, he has successfully sued two people who said he traveled on first class in 1998, and won the court cases. And he wants to continue this winning streak by suing the newspaper.

Now, as things stand, maybe Durai's last resort defense is going to be this: if we don't pay good people well, there'd be corruption! If this really happens, it'd be too funny, for it's MM Lee's lawyer Davinder Singh who is going to counter this argument LOL

Anyway, another interesting thing is the way this news story is reported. Obviously, since the newspaper is the defendant in the case brought on by the NKF, they decide to be as objective as possible, including printing almost an entire page of verbatim court statements. Isn't this just wonderful? Let's hope that other defamation suits can result in similar treatments in the future, especially the more 'interesting ones'...;)



So the next thing people are going to wonder is how come the Board (according to Durai) approved of him travelling in First class when he's only supposed to travel Business. (His explanation was that he used the same monies for SIA Business to exchange for First class in other airlines.) A quick check reveals that Mrs Goh CT is the patron of NKF (she walked out halfway through the proceedings), and also Prof. Chia, my favourite ACS principal! I don't think they were so unaware of these sorts of ethical slippery slopes to allow for such things to happen. Maybe there's yet more to come.

Now lets hope that with more disclosures and increased transparency, the money would go to the folks who need it more... More from tomorrow.sg .

Update (!): The NKF has dropped the untenable suit at the end of day two...

Update (!!): In day two of the trial, more was revealed, including the underestimation of its reserves to last for 3 years (instead of 30-40 years), the overestimation of the number of patients it's helping by about...uh... 50% (if I'm interpreting it correctly), revelations of conflicts of interest with another member of the Board, and the access to a personal Benz for him and his wife (not really of material importance but good cannon fodder for Singh nonetheless!)

Ms Goh Chok Tong (wife of ex Prime Minister and current Senior Minister) has been photographed together with Durai at the end of the trial. I'm still trying to understand what the pictures editor was thinking when he or she chose this particular justaposition of the two persons... (Click on the picture to see bigger version.)

"She [Mrs. Goh] said it did not make sense to her to attack an organisation which helped the sick. All the NKF had wanted from The Straits Times was a retraction, she said, but the case had been extended to question NKF's transparency and 'expensive things'.

'Why make a fuss out of it?' she asked.

She said she would continue as patron, and added: 'I have complete trust in the NKF and Mr Durai.'

Asked if Mr Durai's annual salary and bonuses were 'excessive', she replied: 'For a person who runs a million-dollar charitable organisation, $600,000 is peanuts as it has a few hundred millions in reserves.'

I think even if that was what she really felt, this is turning very quickly into profoundly disastrous PR, and not just for Durai. I wonder what the real story behind all this is...

Anyway, I can't believe I'm linking to such a vulgarious blog, but Rockson's analysis is simply brilliant (adult material). (I really like the airline seats part.)

Update (!!!): The entire Board, the CEO and the Patron has stepped down. I wrote in the forums yesterday that I'd have prefered the CEO to hang around a little longer.

I don't agree that Durai should resign at this point in time. He ought to remain as CEO for as long as it's beneficial for the national consciousness to debate the issues that has surfaced: transparency, high pay, peanuts, ivory tower viewpoints, entitlements etc. This does not just pertain to this particular charity organisation, but should also touch on the rest of the national governing machinery. (I'm sure expensive things are not only found in NKF office.) If Durai is gone, we'd quickly forget about the rest of the related issues...

I think the only way to salvage 'image' is to have the organisation say something like "we regret this...Durai was wrong...we need to reexamine our policies", but so far, nothing of that sort has come out. This suggests to me that the folks with the organisation still sincerely believe that there's nothing wrong with what there're doing so far. The ends justifies the means. There are strong arguments to justify this point, depending on what worldview one subscribes to.

The NKF managament will continue to think this way unless there are clear indications of 'spoilt votes' in the upcoming shows. If Durai goes, people would say "ok lah, he's gone, but the patients still need our help, this is the time to continue supporting the NKF, so I'm going to call the number, maybe can win a car also."...

I don't think Singaporeans would stop giving if NKF can't salvage its image; there are alternative places to contribute. I just think this is an excellent opportunity to open up the debate. The idea of winning the car as a final end to me is as, or more, insidious to the national fabric and cohesiveness than theatrics concerning gold taps, all things considered...

Luckily, I don't think Singaporeans are letting the matter rest so soon. I dare say some sort of psychological barrier has been broken both in the population as well as the folks in the Straits Times. Thursday's forum page dealth entirely with the saga, most expressing 'strong views'. The first forum letter with the title "Flabbergasted, appalled, disgusted by revelations" ended with the challenge "Am I going to be sued now, NKF, for speaking my mind?"

For the first time ever, forum letters seem to have become adversarial, passionate, honest! Would staffers take this opportunity to break free from political correctness and ride on their new found freedom from the past few days? In Friday's Forum, Mrs "Peanuts, No Fuss" Goh was not spared as well. I think Mrs Goh was sincere in what she believed in, because that's the worldview she subscribes to. Also, the CEO and Board have not stated they did anything wrong (because so far, everything is legal).

Anyway, I'd hope that in this drive for transparency in charities, other things should also be made more transparent. As someone used to say, 'where's the money?' I think it's all part of the importance of disclosure when public monies are involved. Where's the money, how much do you have, how are you going to spend it?

Anyway, what saga is without a movie tie-in? Watch it now!! (via mrbrown, please don't sue, similarity to similar persons is entirely coincidental .)

Update (!V): More reactions from the local blogsphere; Mr Wang (court room proceedings tutorial, auditing charities and more from the Act, bits and pieces), HuiChieh (links this saga back to the Xiaxue Doctrine, Technorati victory of NKF over the evil Karl Rove, links and a reproduction of the news article that started it all.), CEO Tan of NTUC Income talks about transparency and reveals how much he earns. And almost 7000 blog entries on this story.

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