Reminds me of someone. Don’t ask.

Yes Australia is now the most obese nation.

And you thought the US will never be defeated.

Someone remarked that Australia has one of the fastest 2.4 km run timings in the world.

A country of extremes i guess.

iPhone killer, iPod killer. How often have you heard these terms? Have these ‘killer’ devices lived up well and true to their predictions?

Phones like these are great, of course. They do pretty much what the iPhone can do. But wait, it runs Symbian. Isn’t that the same OS run by hundreds of mobile phone models? So if it can ‘kill’ the iPhone, shouldn’t it have happened long ago? 

Matching the iPhone specs and beating them (like cutting your weight by six grams) doesn’t make you a killer. For those who are so quick to slap the label “iPhone-killer” or even “Blackberry killer” are missing the point. If you remember, many of the iPod killers of yesterday have killed themselves. Some ate themselves. Remember the Zune? Oh you’ve never seen anyone use one? 

I have a name for these killers. They are green apples. They look good but taste sour. Best taken with a pinch of salt.

I can’t say I totally agree with what was said. I didn’t buy the iPhone so Singtel can kiss my ass. In fact I’ve nothing against Singtel. 

Ok, something about Singtel irks me. 

If the MDA has anti-monopolistic regulations, why is Singtel the launch customer for the iPhone 3G in Singapore? In Australia, Optus, Vodafone and Telstra all brought the phone in the same day. Talk is cheap. It’d be good if talktime was cheaper.

Addendum: The irony is that I bought my iPhone from Singtel’s other company – Optus. But as I type this my phone is on the way to unlocked bliss (that annoying 10 working day wait).

“You smoke too much, drink too much, and the only exercise you get is sex!” – heard on Californication. For some reason this line popped into my head as I was sitting around, doing nothing. It kinda reminds me of my life here. Well not that I’ve been getting any sex, and mind you, I do go to the gym.My days here are spent waiting and waiting, waiting to get a flight done, waiting for progress. And the longer the wait is the harder it gets. I just want to go home really, with my license. 

Hi all I’ve moved to my own domain

Pahang Street 3

Originally uploaded by so-wrong.

Upped the contrast and saturation to particular colors, so the foreground now stands out more.

Agony is when, in your urgency to take a dump in the comfort of your own toilet, you take the wrong feeder bus.

Thank goodness, I’m making up for my mis-convenience this evening.

1. Intel’s Robson project will put NAND or flash memory chips on all its desktop/mobile systems. NAND memory is the memory used in your iPod nano’s and compact flash cards. Unlike the RAM you’re familiar with, data stored in NAND chips are not erased when you shut down. This will allow commonly loaded applications and O/S components to be prestored in the flash memory. Result? Your computer will boot in something like 6 to 10 seconds, and common applications take mere milliseconds to load. This will not only make older computers look really sloooooooww, but also improve battery life, since NAND memory consumes much less power than HDD’s. This technology is slated for release early next year.
2. Intel released its first generation of dual core processors without including Robson. I reckon they did so for Apple’s sake. Chances are, we will see an update on the Core series of processors to include Robson. Note that changes to Intel’s architecture now affect both PC and Mac users, since they are both (almost) in the same camp. It is unlikely that Intel will license exclusive processor technology to Apple, since Apple makes up a relatively small part of Intel’s chip business. However I am not ruling out the possibility.
3. Windows Vista: Unless you’re techno-phobic and feel safer with the familiar XP. It’s worth to wait for the release of Vista. Then you’ll have Vista pre-loaded on your PC.
4. 802.11n: The new standard in Wi-Fi, will be featured in new Intel chipsets.
5. 802.16e or WIMAX will deliver a linear broadcast range of up to 50km. However real world tests show results of around 5 to 8 km, given line of sight is usually not guaranteed. WIMAX will likely eliminate the trouble of finding wireless hotspots where it is available.
6. Intel is in the midst of a chip architecture revamp dubbed the Intel Core microarchitecture. This takes technology found in the new Core Duo and Core Solo mobile processors, and will transcend its entire span of processor types, from mobile processors to servers. So if you’re buying an Intel based desktop, you should wait. Scheduled for released in the 3^rd quarter of 2006.
7. Intel will feature quad-core processors for it’s new rage of high end desktop processors. Apple’s Power Mac’s – to be renamed Mac Pro – will probably be the first new desktops to feature this chip.

So unless you urgently need a new computer, it is better to hold. Chances are that if you purchase a new computer now, you might it incredibly obsolete in a year.

Pahang Street sans couleur

Originally uploaded by so-wrong.

The same photo, in black and white. Lacks clean whites though.

Pahang Street

Originally uploaded by so-wrong.

I want to climb the walls and touch that concrete.

Still waiting impatiently for my invites from Writely, Riya, Crazy Egg, and Google Page Creator. Wish I had signed up earlier.

OH MY! Life is so unfair! What did I do wrong to be born a server in this day and age? I could have been a nice simple bicycle that people happily rode around on all day. But no, I’m stuck inside this metal case serving web pages instead. I never even see the light of day and all I can hear is the rush of the air-conditioning!
Well, no more! I’m relaxing here with a cup of tea and a biscuit until someone shows me some love and attention.

It never takes them long to fix me when I kick up a fuss so check back in a few minutes and I’ll be chugging along merrily again.!

Signed,
The WordPress.com web server
(WordPress.com – where even the machines have life!)

Heard off The Dan and David Show, science historian George Dyson says that “Google allows users to behave like neurons in the sense of making the links….it digitizes everything, indexes everything and lets people leave trials to them. In 20 to 30 years people would have linked the meaning between things, in the same way the brain works.”

Hovering around this idea, Wiki’s and other social webs are stronger semantically linked data structures. But on the other hand, google works on a much larger scale, in the sense that it’s record of all searches probably covers every concievable human thought, well ok, excluding cultures with limited access to the net. And of course, a large part of the search being porn.

But how amazing.

Reasons NUS shouldn’t make students pay for it’s mistakes and luxuries:

The most posh toilets in NUS are found nowhere else but the famed University Hall.

The new university hall is purely for administrative staff, has no student services.

Sheares Hall was torn down to make space for the new university hall, which has little or no need for a central location, since it has no student services.

There’s a champagne gold E-class parked everyday at the grand driveway, which again, brings us back to the point of why a building with so little traffic needs a grand driveway.

It is ok for some big shot’s car to be parked illegally, while students’ cars are clamped everday for parking in red lots.

Is it a coincidence that a security guard stands around the car? Doesn’t he have a post?

Should we be made to pay for extravagant mistakes?

Flasher 4

Originally uploaded by so-wrong.

This is what happens when you toy around with remote flash. White balance (or the lack of) is purely unintentional, but intentionally left untouched.

Found this nifty piece of software that automatically searches for related news, pages and wikipedia entries while you view a website. Best part is that it’s only 1MB. Download here.

One of the things that always irk me, and will probably continue to in the days to come, is the Singaporean obsession with passing off. Especially when it comes to one of my perpetual obsessions – cars, I find it hard to tolerate the sight (and noise) of those who pretend to be what they are not.

I give you examples:

1) Fake M3’s: Making your car look like one may deceive the average Singaporean into thinking your car looks ’sporty’. But think again, the average Singaporean doesn’t know what an M3’s distinguishing features are. And for those who know, they’d probably be able to tell the difference. Fitting 4 tailpipes, chrome vents, M3 style rims and an M3 badge you purchased from IMM, is not going to make much of a difference. Because your car makes a horrible noise while you floor the pedal and the Merc cab whizzes (silently) past you. And your narrower than M3 track is a dead giveaway too. By the way, to the owner of the decibel sans horsepower car, your choice of colors are really bad.

2) Fake WRX/WRX Sti’s: I believe you may have topped up a few thousand to have your car fitted with WRX-esque bodykit, and gold rims. But do you know what that air scoop really does? Yes, while it may help cool your humble 1.6 litres, a trained eye will peer under your scoop and find that all important intercooler missing. So if you really have to fake it, perhaps take the cooling fins from an old air conditioner and place it under that gaping hole. And for the ill-informed, the real deal comes with a limited slip rear differential, which is smooth on the outside, and doesn’t come with fins, like those on a 1.6TS.
After spending thousands on Brembo brakes and other bits to make your car look and sound like the real thing, really, you could have just bought the real thing instead, or save the money, for you kid’s education. It’s more worthwhile

If I had my way I’d paste “fake” or “wannabe” stickers around those badges. If I were the editor of the car magazine I’d have my readers send in photos for a “spot a fake” contest for a prize. Yes, if I had my way, the world will be a better place.

Lately I’ve been wishing I had one desire,
Something that would make me never want another,
Something that would make it so that nothing matters,
All would be clear then

But I guess I’ll have to settle for a few brief moments,
And watch it all dissolve into a single second,
And try to write it down into a perfect sonnet,
Or one foolish line

‘Cause that’s all that you’ll get,
So you’ll have to accept,
You are here ,
Then you’re gone

I believe that lovers should be tied together,
Thrown into the ocean in the worst of weather,
Left there to drown,
Left there to drown in their innocence

But as for me I’m coming to the final chapter,
I’ve read all of the pages and there’s still no answer,
The only words before I know will soon come after,
It’s the only way it can be.

So I stand in the sun,
And I breathe with my lungs,
Trying to spare me the weight of the truth,

Seeing everything you’ve ever seen was just a mirror,
Spend your whole life sweating in an endless fever,
Laying in a bathtub full of freezing water,
Wishing you were a ghost

But once you knew a girl and you named her Lover,
And danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summers
But autumn came,
She disappeared,
You can’t remember
Where she said she was going to

But you know that she’s gone,
Because she left you a song,
That you don’t wanna sing

Singing: I believe that lovers should be chained together,
Thrown into a fire with their songs and letters,
And left there to burn,
Left there to burn in their arrogance

But as for me I’m coming to my final failure,
I’ve killed myself with changes trying to make things better,
But still ended up becoming something other,
Than what I had planned to be

All right!

Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers,
And laid entwined together on a bed of clovers,
And left there to sleep,
Left there to dream of their happiness.

A Perfect Sonnet – Bright Eyes

Starhub’s running trials on a new smart tv service, employing a thomson DVR recorder, and running on OpenTV’s middleware. Interested applicants can sign up here.

I wonder if they’re going to deploy any copy-protection. This reeks of DRM, or possibly something worse.

Urrggh

Originally uploaded by so-wrong.

Now somebody please explain this?

A tiny portion of the LCD (the top one not the back one, thank goodness) on my d70 started dimming. I could either blame it on the Made In Thailand, or convince myself it’s time to invest in a good camera bag system.

CRAP, according to David Berlind, stands for Content Restriction, Annulment and Protection. It is actually DRM, Digital Rights management, or unaffectionally known as Digital Restrictions Management. For a load of what crap is, watch this video.

Apple recently announced it’s new Apple iPod Hi-Fi. To the uninitiated it’s just like a boombox, or a set of speakers for your iPod. Not very different from Bose’s SoundDock, it comes with a dock for your iPod. In a keynote address launching this new product and the Intel based Mac Mini, Steve Jobs said that this product reinvents the home entertainment system. This has quite a couple of serious implications, as pointed out by Berlind. It means that Apple is invading a realm once dominated by traditional CD’s. Jobs is not just bringing mp3 based music into the living room, but also apple’s DRM technology. Which means apple is trying to drive out other traditional home entertainment companies with it’s DRM. So assuming music on the iPod is legal content, (not quite the case in Singapore yet), you have no other choice but to play only music purchased from Apple and placed in an iPod.

On another note it means that the techie-icon with tacky turtlenecks has established a mainstream in the home entertainment realm, and is moving on to bigger things.

Gates isn’t letting up on the competition either. Microsoft’s Origami project may be more than just a portable media player.

It came to my knowledge that Korea is the number one broadband nation in the world. Which brings the topic to the government’s constant bragging of how much we are on the cutting edge of technology. Majority of Singaporeans, I believe still feel that broadband rates in Singapore are still on the high side. I believe the problem lies in the oligopolistic practices of Singapore ISP’s, particularly Singtel. The ex-government linked company owns most of Singapore’s fibre. Competitors often have to face unfair competition and pricing practices for the use of Singtel-owned infrastructure, which is probably why the only real competition in the broadband segment comes from Starhub, which has its own cable infrastructure.

Which brings to mind WIMAX. It allows data to be transmitted wirelessly up to ranges of 50 km. What is more you don’t need a line of sight to establish a link, unlike 3G. Plans to incorporate WIMAX capabilities into future smartphones are already underway, so you can see how promising this is. A year ago IDA announced that it allocated licences to 6 ISP’s to provide WIMAX to the masses. Given there are only 2  3 (sorry Pacnet!) ISP’s today, there will be 3 new ISP’s to make their debut here with WIMAX.

The question: can these 3 new ISP’s compete without facing unfair practices? The answer really lies in IDA’s ability to ensure that they do not go the way of Pacnet. Exhorbirant license fees are not a good way to start, to quote – $100 million for a 3G spectrum license. While it is beyond our investigative capabilities to determine if this is justified at all, there are indeed many (obvious) ways that IDA can lower costs. By inviting tech companies to use Singapore as a testbed for WIMAX, perhaps we can reduce to cost of implementing WIMAX, or even enjoy cost savings on infrastructure.

Speaking of broadband, the local scene for pay-TV isn’t quite bright either. With Starhub ending its monopoly last June, we have yet to see a second provider. What’s more, it is probably difficult for a second provider to enter, since Starhub as already been around for years, and has established pretty much a strong foothold on the island’s TV networks. It is not so hard to imagine the new provider going to way of Mediaworks either.

In short, Singapore is far from liberalised when it comes to broadband and TV. With a confusion of acronyms like MDA and IDA issuing licenses that are more restrictive than conducive, Singapore’s talk of becoming Asia’s IT hub is more fluff than substance. I believe pay-TV should be like the internet, or at least, like Video On Demand. We should be able to watch programs that we want to, not have the networks decide for us.