Thursday 31 March 2005

of nus 28th march 2005

This video was caught during a Math lecture at NUS. [video via Zhiqiang's blog]

The story goes like this. There was this guy who liked a girl in the class. Cui Wen's her name. Their maths lecturer sportingly helped him declare his love for her. Now she's popular. Is she happy? Check her blog to find out.

For NUS students, see the webcast here. Spike will identify which one to see. Need to have student account to login though.

Update: Zhiqiang has pointed out that the video link above does not work. Sorry for that. Damn-width problem. He has uploaded the video to a new site. You can see the video at his blog.

of happy 4/12 fool's day

Happy April Fool's Day to all.

Sleepy. Going to bed now.

- April Fool's Edition of the Carnival of Vanities: by Eric Berlin [via Instapundit]
- The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time
- The Fools Day


Speed limits to be raised from 1 April [via cna]

Updates:
- boringboring: Not boingboing. [via boingboing]
- Go Hug Yourself: Not Go Fug Yourself. [via Go Fug Yourself]
- A whole list of sites fooling around: from Jorn Barger [via Robot Wisdom]

of stuff n such - 31.03.05

AwareFashion: Clothes that sense your digital and social environment. [via Smart Mobs]

Drum|head: A percussion instrument developed by Murat Konar. See video here. Must see! [via We Make Money Not Art]

Creative Muvo Mix: Canadian shop advertises the Creative Muvo Mix as "It also features Shuffle playback so you can enjoy your favourite songs in random order everyday" [via engadget]

Chicken chicken chicken: Struggling with your thesis? This award-winning thesis can help you leh. [via MonkeyFilter]

Dog Condoms: Solves problem of dog overpopulation. If men can condom it! So can we! Woof! Woof! [via MonkeyFilter]

James Wirt's Colouring Book: Adding his own words to crappy clip arts.

Zoomquilt: Hit the flash and start zooming. It's endless! [via A Whole Lotta Nothing]


Dead already, still need to pay? [via boingboing]

of ladies with good looks but hor...

Check out Korea's Pop Group, Lady. Comprising four foxy sirens.
Take a look, pretty or not?
[via Spirit Fingers]

Wednesday 30 March 2005

of avril lavigne

Someone took the photo below during Avril Lavigne's concert in Japan. The photo was published in the Hong Kong papers to promote a one night concert in HK.


"日本最高" on her arms

Some confusion as reported by tian and in boingboing. They had thought that she had written "日本最高" on her arms in during the HK concert.

I hope she will write "新加坡最高" on her arms on 2nd April at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Event: Avril Lavigne Bonez Tour
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium
Date/Time: 02 Apr 2005 8.00 PM

of nus turning 100

Didn't know our highly-ranked university, THE University of choice amongst Singapore's JC student (I gladuate from polytechnic one, that's why didn't go U), will be hitting the century mark. Who is studying at NUS now? DieHardX shares with us what you can look forward in the University's Centennial memento.
"The official day NUS is celebrating its 100th birthday on the 25th June, 2005. Each member of the 40,000 campus community can look forward to receiving a Centennial memento – a Centennial mug, in the bright University colours of blue and orange. Sounds like Tiger Beer to me."

of pronunciation and speak good english

Learnt a lot reading posts about nouns and prounciation.

re-minisce writes:
"... and yet we have, in large letters all over EVERYTHING else from a yacht to an entier street, the inspiring phrase, "Uniquely Singapore."

The point being that you can't put a noun after an adverb... at the very least make it an adjective."


[via infernoxv]

In another blog, Calm One writes
"It's "proNUNciation", not p"roNOUNciation". N-U-N, not N-O-U-N. "ProNOUNce", but "proNUNciation""

Check out the long list in the comments section.

of robogames 2005

RoboGames 2005 was held at San Francisco State University from 25th to 27th March. The competition has ended but I couldn't find the results in the internet. Maybe someone who knows the results can let me know.

Singapore has sent a team (Team NP EngBots) from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Alpha Centre. The Centre has also fielded a team in last year's event and they went on to become the champions for the 500g Mini-sumo category.

A search was made at Builder's DB. It showed that the team fielded 18 robots. I hope they had done well.

Other links:
Thomas Hawk has taken some photos during the event. [via boingboing]
Laughing Squid also has some posted in his Flickr account.


On to another Robots competition.
The 7th ROBO-ONE was held in Tokyo from 13th to 20th March. This Japanese site contains videos and photos. Watch some of the videos here, here, here and here.
If you're interested, Robot Dreams by isobe is a good site.

Update: The results are out. Thanks IZ. Congrats to the Ngee Ann Team.

of blogger's up?

Posted by Jason
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
"We're currently in the process of rolling back a bad kernel upgrade that has significantly impacted the service. Restored app servers are coming back online and all should be repaired by the end of today.

Update: The rollback has been completed and performance is starting to stabilize across the appservers."


That explains this and this.

Well the downtime was long just now. Kept seeing this:


Update:
Posted by Jason
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
"We've had to rollback to an earlier build this morning in order to fix some outstanding publishing bugs. This has had stability implications which we are now in the process of addressing.

Update: These problems have now subsided. We are in the process of preparing a new build which will include an additional performance enhancement as well as a fix for BlogThis."

of stuff n such - 30.03.05 (Part 2)

Mobile Gadget Form Factors: by Russell Beattie. Russell has a very good article about all the different mobile gadget form factors. [via James Seng's Blog]

Enhancing Transportation System via Bluetooth by Malaysian students: alerting motorists when the light they’re approaching is due to turn yellow. Malaysia Boleh! [via engadget]

A Better Tomorrow II Trailer: It took me a while to understand what Yinghung Bunsik was. Watching the trailer reminded me of the pah go li days. [via Bedazzled]

iPodlounge Buyer's Guide 2005: The Free Guide to All Things iPod [via DannyBunny and Cowboy Caleb]

iPose: A modeling contest at the University of Arizona. Contestants pose with strategically placed iPod shuffles. [via tuaw]

Look Up More: The crew from Improv Everywhere took over every window of a building for an impromptu dance performance. Fits their tagline (We Cause Scenes) [via Curbed]

Drum Machine: Enjoy this flash movie. Pump up the volume! [via Monkey Methods]


"Please No Conversation, No Saliva" [spotted by littlecartnoodles]

Tuesday 29 March 2005

of yahoo! 360 invites

Report posted in CNet News on Yahoo! 360
"Yahoo began inviting people into its social network, 360, today, though some uninvited guests received "404" errors. More on the social network later."

While some encountered 404 errors, others got pissed. But if you're still interested in Yahoo! 360, Monkey Methods has some invites.


My own 404 pic

Update 1: Check out this and this. They've already started using it.

Update 2: ball.of.yarn got invited. Read what he has to say.

Update 3: La Idler gets a response from Mike La Rotonda, Senior Product Manager of Yahoo! 360°.

of stuff n such - 30.03.05 (Part 1)

Fantastic Four Movie: Premiering in Singapore on 7th July 2005. Watch trailer here. [via The Superficial]

Beware of Fake ATMs: Thieves are now installing fake overlays on ATMs. [via engadget]

3D animated ads: Advertisement that floats in the air. ImagePro 3D from special things. [via We Make Money Not Art]

The rise of camera phone snaps: This picture shows the growing trend of camera phones. [via Ion and Smart Mobs]

PodBuddies: iPod-themed collectible figurines. Some of them can even be used as iPod stands. [via iPodlounge and tuaw]

The Cannibal Flesh Donor Program: As a flesh donor, you agree to donate your body...for human consumption, .... Check out their FAQ.

Cat Shoots Owner: A man cooking in his kitchen was shot by one of his cats. [via My Way News]


How The Mighty's Pecs Have Fallen [via Defamer]

of is my notebook slow or is my head impatient?

Is it due to my slow P3 "Intel is still inside" 700Mhz notebook? Or am I getting impatient?

When using Blogger :-
- press to "Edit posts", takes ages.
- Save as Draft, takes ages.
- Save as Draft, can get server error.
- After getting server error, went back to discover lost my newly created post.
- Publish Post, takes ages.
- Publish Post, always gets stuck at 0%.
- Use Firefox, still slow.
- Use IE, still slow.
- Want to comment other blogs, takes ages.

I wait until my armpit grow spider web.

Anyone experience this sloooooow behaviour since Monday?
What the happening?

Update: This post took 2 minutes to think and type. It took 5-7 minutes to publish.

of golden point award 2005

"The Golden Point Award is a biennial writing competition organised by the National Arts Council and sponsored by the Press Foundation of Singapore and Singapore Press Holdings. The award seeks to encourage literary talents to strive for the highest level of literary skills, and to promote a conducive environment for creative thinking and literary expression in Singapore. It is the only national writing competition in Singapore which promotes the art of creative writing in all four official languages."

[more]

Interested? Download the application form here. Closing date: 23 May 2005.

Check out the advertisement in today's Straits Times(Page 4) and also at Singapore Writer's Festival website


Who wants to be a sexywriter?


Update: buttermilk was faster than me.

of stuff n such - 29.03.05

Depressed Annan close to quitting over UN scandals: The United Nations secretary-general is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future.[via TimesOnline]

Amazon Knows Who You Are: It received a patent recently on technology aimed at tracking information about the people for whom its customers buy gifts. [via Wired News]

Micro$oft to rename media player-less Windows: OS to be called Windows XP Home/Professional Edition N. According to Micro$oft, they had considered other names like Windows XP Not Incorporating Windows Media Player. Can we have shorter names? [via CNet]

Hand Roll Piano Keyboards: Flexible keyboards. A Chinese product from Tianyu Technology Co Ltd. [via i4u]

Swimmers on swingers website: Our local swimmers had their images posted alongside scantily-clad female models on Singapore adult website, Club Mojo. I wonder who discovered their images on that website. [via TodayOnline]

Ukai: or cormorant fishing, is a traditional method of river fishing that has been practiced in Japan [via MonkeyFilter]

Mustache March: A silly little idea/project where every guy at a company grows a mustache during March. Their tagline says "Just Grow It!". And their logo looks familiar. [via MonkeyFilter]

Monday 28 March 2005

of blog till feeling groggy

I was blogging early early this morning when I felt groggy. Eyes felt like popping out! All because of this: Earthquake, measuring 8.7, hits Northern Sumatra.

Well, I didn't react much after feeling the tremors. My only thoughts were "Fwah kaoz! I've been surfing too long. What has blogging done to my head!". I didn't bothered also partially because my considerate neighbours staying upstairs had decided to use KungFu Hustler to test their home entertainment system...in the middle of the night!...at 11.30pm! All the cling clang cling clang kaboom bang had already made my windows vibrate.

But half an hour later, I went to USGS' website to check if anything had happened. Apparently, nothing was reported at that moment. Then I decided, enough of surfing for the day. Then I went off to bed.

This was the first time I experience tremors from an earthquake. This morning, some expert over the radio said that this tsunami is likely to be a non-destructive one. 8.7 is big! Let's just hope nothing severe has resulted in the shake-up in Indonesia.

Updates: What others are blogging
- Tremors felt in Punggol… by Faith-T
- Newsflash! Tremors felt in Punggol! by mr brown
- Another Earthquake Hits Northern Sumatra by Cowboy Caleb
- god bless by orgasmic hamsters
- oh no, not again by aGentX
- Breaking news by Mr Miyagi

Updates: What others are blogging part 2
- SHAKEN AND STIRRED by Pok Ku
- Aftershock by TV Smith
- 8.7 earthquake near Medan: by Jeff Ooi
- earthquake again?: by Lucia
- Shiver me timbers... by Ah 9
- Earthquake at Indonesia by Jim
- Earthquake! by Mandrake
- IZ has a few posts on the quake

Quake: 'Bloggers are morons' by Jeff Jarvis. At least not according to Instapundit.

of mortuary

Just now at NTUC Fairprice

Lancerlord: Excuse me, may I know where I can get NTUC vouchers?

Cashier: You can get at our office.

Lancerlord: Where is your office?

Cashier: You walk that way. On the right side.
* Cashier points in a general direction *

Lancerlord: Is it beside the fish section?

Cashier: No! No! Near the mortuary one.

Lancerlord: Huh? More what?

Cashier: Mortuary! Mortuary!

* Lancerlord walks away, not knowing what the hell the Cashier had just said *

Finally I found the office, after asking another staff for directions.
Before I entered the office, I saw the section that displays this


Mortuary! Mortuary
Lancerlord puts palm on forehead

of p.blog 28.03.05


Breakfast at Tiong Bahru Market


I was bored. Did this short sequence with my Stikfas figurines


2 identical Nokia 7260 in M1's advertisement. Straits Times 26th March 2005.
The phones are at the top left and right extreme corners


No Entry. Fire Engine Access.
Is this sign for vehicles?


LancerLad: "A lift in the lift"
We were teaching him to say "A leeeeeaf in the lift"

Sunday 27 March 2005

of olivia ong

[via aGentX]

Olivia Ong is set to make a splash on the global music scene.

According to Taufik, Olivia sang the National Anthem at the 2006 Fifa World Cup Asian qualifying rounds in Japan last year.

aGentX has some sample songs from her debut album in his blog. Soothing music. I was listening to them while blogging. At least it didn't make my heart go POM POM TIAO!

of 2005 photobloggies voting

Voting for the Photobloggies 2005 Awards
closes in 15 hours
closes in 1 hour
closes in 37 minutes
has closed!

Go vote.
Winners will be announced on 30th March 2005.

Nominees under the "Best South East Asian / Indian Photoblog" Category:

- Odds&Ends
- digital-alchemy
- Point and Shoot
- iz reloaded phoblog
- Shutterbug

Place your votes now!

of stuff n such - 27.03.05

DIY WiFi Antenna: "Bottlenet". Low-cost WiFi antennas implemented in Mali. [via Engadget]

Go to the cinema and star in the film you're about to see: Toshiba’s digital cinema at Expo 2005 [via We Make Money No Art]

Odeo: "discover, create, and subscribe to fresh, independent audio content for your iPod". In its beta version.

Singapore @ Expo 2005: Check out Singapore's Pavilion at the Expo

Soccer Videos: Here and here [via MonkeyFilter]

"Ask me what my t-shirt says in Chinese": Ha! [via Peking Duck]

Create Your Own South Park Character: Have fun!


My very own South Park creation

Saturday 26 March 2005

of yahoo! 360

First look at Yahoo! 360 by Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester.

Charlene Li reviews Yahoo! 360 (which will be out soon) and gives her insights on Yahoo's latest service.
"Central to the whole service is the concept that you want to communicate and connect with the people that you already know, rather than try to meet new people."

But Danah Boyd of Corante blogs:

"I also think that it makes much much more sense connected with photosharing and i really wish that they would wait on this product(360) until Flickr is connected with them(Yahoo) - there’s going to be so much overlap and confusion."

Sign up here to be on the beta waiting list.

Yahoo is will be also upgrading all free Yahoo! Mail accounts to 1GByte to match Gmail's.

of boom in singapore blogs

Mr Brown discovered that Shel Israel has mentioned Singapore blogs in his blog. Shel mentioned in his blog that the blogging scene in Singapore has boomed rapidly.

This I think is partly because Singapore households are very much internet connected. Try looking up Blogwise or Technorati, the list of Singapore bloggers is endless.

I like surfing the internet. It was through surfing the internet that I learnt about blogs. Before I started blogging, I was using the usual search engines, looking out for news related in technology and politics. This is my fourth month into blogging. During those 4 months, I was exposed me to the various services (like Technorati, Feeds,...) to help me search for stuff faster and easily. Now I know news somewhat faster than what will be reported in the local papers. For example, like the Banksy's adventure recently. It happened 2 days ago. It was reported in today's Straits Times and News on Five just reported it a few hours ago.

But mind you, to me blogging can be very addictive. I blog what I read, feel and think. Since pool of information get to me earlier than the local mainstream papers, I put whatever is there in the internet into my blog. I am still learning the techniques in blogging, so I take a long time to prepare and write my posts. Therefore I do get the usual complaints from my wife like "Blog again!" or "Still blogging ah!". Ha! I think she an understanding person. Right, hun? :)

of stuff n such - 26.03.05

Grafedia: Grafitti written anywhere, then linked to images, video or sound files online. A project by John Geraci. [via boingboing and engadget]

Mountain Tree House: Nice house [via A Whole Lotta Nothing]

Toshiba's 4GB 0.85 Inch Hard Drive: Going into production in April. And I heard Nokia going to come up with some phone that contains a hard drive. [via Gizmodo]

Gapingvoid: Blog by Hugh "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" Macleod.

The Ring: Watch this video. Don't know whether to laugh or feel scared. [via seanbonner]

Toilets of the World: Photos of toilets that Bob Cromwell has encountered during his travels through various countries.

Update:
Enter your name to see a friendly message. NSFW. [via agentX]


Arlington Pediatric Clinic logo [via boingboing and Fark]
Better not let Dr Gabra-ji see this

Friday 25 March 2005

of wmd

Want to go to the WMD carnival later? No, not Weapon of Mess Destruction. Women Makes A Difference!

Other WMDs discovered, proliferating in the web
- Well Being Management Department, a department in the Ministry of Manpower
- War on Mass Disease
- Waste Management Department, a department in the National Environment Agency
- Web Monitoring and Documentation: to monitor and provide online documentation for the UN human rights meetings
- World Movement For Democracy: an organistaion promoting democracy
- World Marriage Day: Second Sunday in February
- W.M.D.: A UK band
- Wildlife Mangement Districts: a zoning system that meets the management requirements of wildlife in Maine

of my own transparent screen

Since getting to know of Transparent screen/desktop, I've been trying to make my own transparent screen.

It's not as good as the ones here, here and here. If I've got time, I try to improve on it. Meantime, this is what I've done.


Updates:
Flickr group for transparent screens. Thanks to mr brown.

Other transparent screens:
Jim's blog
Insaintly.yours
mr brown

of stuff n such - 25.03.05

The PEZ MP3 Project: Want to fill your PEZ dispenser with music?

EnterActive: A project by Electroland. LED lights, on walkways and the side of the building that respond to the presence of visitors. See video [via We Make Money Not Art]

Hackers Tilt PowerBook for Tricks: One of the hacks is to realign the window so it always points up, no matter how you hold the laptop. See video. [via Wired]

Show Me Your Wounds: Disclaimer - This site has gross things on it. Don't look at gross things if it upsets you. Go to google.com and search for "pleasant" [via dooce]


How to really confuse your party guest?

Thursday 24 March 2005

of kids ministers say the darnest things

"The ministry is not anti-gay...We're interested in stopping the spread of the human immunodefiency virus. The people who will benefit most are the gays, since they're spreading it from one to another" - Words from Dr Gabra-ji, talking to some grassroots leaders.
"I looked down at the crowd, and among them, there are four to five chaps who are probably HIV positive and will die in four to five years." - His thoughts when he was presenting an award on stage at a ceremony last week

Chief Executive of Fridae.com, Dr Stuart Koe, said the gay community was "a little bit confused because the minister keeps contradicting himself"

Update:
Everybody has A.I.D.S. posted at Sintercom
'Dr Balaji, Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts: by Singabloodypore
Heartbroken: by naif

of gay thang again?

[via fridae.com]
S’pore authorities refuse permit for AIDS fund-raising concert
A fundraising concert organised by a Singapore Christian support group to promote HIV awareness has been given the axe by licensing authorities citing that the event would be “against public interest.”

This is what is posted in affect05's site, stating its objectives.
affect05 is a charity fund-raising concert in benefit of Action for AIDS (AfA), Singapore. The objectives for the concert are 2 fold: to raise funds for AfA and to promote awareness and understanding of AIDS problem in Singapore to combat this deadly disease.
No where in the website did it mention that it is promoting anything that is "against public interest"

Sigh! Need not speak more. Maybe should let the Dr and Co. attend some awareness/appreciation courses like this one here

What others are blogging:
One More Thing by popaghandi
The ‘L’ Word by Cowboy Caleb
Gay Concert kena shafted by littlecartnoodles
Concert Banned Due To Gay Artiste?... by TriplePeriod
Things I am studiously ignoring by buttermilk
Our Government has Done It Again ! by Happy Life in Singapore

Updates:
No excuse to not know you have AIDS by mr brown
Welcome to the A-Star red State by Mr Miyagi
It’s The Magic HIV Positive Story Hour by Cowboy Caleb

L = gahmen L-Cube L-Squared

of wet toilet door handles

Rusty is from New York and in his recent post, he blogged about jet lag. But in the later part of his post, he mentioned a typical scenario of toilet hygiene.
I hate it when the paper towel dispensers won't give you enough paper towel. My hands are wet, man! Don't be stingy with the dry stuff. In Singapore, they refuse to dry their hands after washing them. I'm serious; every single person in the University would wash his hands, fix his hair, and walk straight out the door with his hands soaking wet. I feel like, if you're leaving the bathroom where you've just been holding your pen----->is, you don't want to be seen with dripping wet hands. This apparently doesn't affect them, however, and it leaves those of us with a dry-hand preference being forced to grab a napkin to open the soaking wet door handle, like I was some sort of OCD nut or something.
He has highlighted a very serious and important hygiene problem. I think I have to admit it is quite a common sight to see wet door handles in many public toilets.

Sometimes after answering each call of nature, washing my hands is a definite chore. Most times I'll dry my hands with a toilet paper or use the dryer. Sometimes I'll just use the good old Levi's. Yes, I'm not a very hygiene person also! But most of the time (90% I should say), with my hands dried, I'll encounter wet door handles upon exiting. So being a not so hygiene person, I'll still open it with my dry hands. Then my hands will be wet again. So what you think I'll do next? Right! Wipe my hands on my good old Levi's.

But seriously how to overcome this toilet etiquette? It'll be difficult task.

Wednesday 23 March 2005

of stuff n such - 24.03.05

The Credit Card Prank Part I: Also see Part II. How far one could go with their signature on credit card purchases? Some signatures are farnie! [via Meta Filter]

This is Good For Licking: A group-pooling of tongue licking photos. Totally unrelated to this. [via dooce]

Sand Art: Hold down the mouse button and create your own sand art.

Self-lighting Cigarette: Strike the cigarette to get it lit. An invention by Israeli company Gashbam Enterprises. Another link for smokers out there. [via Engadget]

Skyline Ratings: "This listing ranks cities by the visual impact of their skylines...Each building is assigned points based on its floor count"

GoogleX is back?: "Roses are red. Violets are blue. OS X rocks. Homage to you." [via tuaw]

The Riddle - not pr0n: Definitely one of the hardest riddle available on the internet. [via Cowboy Caleb]


What you see is not what you get. [via Waxy.org]
Update: Transparent Screens

of art attack

Got this via Jason Kottke.
Banksy Hits New York's Most Famous Museums

Very daring guy! UK artist, Banksy, sneaked into 4 of New York's most prestigious museums and installed 4 pieces of his works.
Dressed as a British pensioner, over the last few days Banksy entered each of the galleries and attached one of his own works, complete with authorative name plaque and explanation.

You can visit his site here to see 4 of his works that he placed in the museums.

Got this from his site
The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a bi-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit. - Robin Banks aka Banksy


Other links with regards to his works and public stunts:
Banksy: London, Turf Wars and Ghettos: This is a collection of his graffiti taken all around London, Brighton and Bournemouth.
Guerrilla artist in statue stunt by Ian Youngs (BBC News Online entertainment staff)
Banksy's exhibition closed because of 'legal problems' by Ananova
Cow covered with Andy Warhol's face from anecdotage.com
Natural History Museum exhibits an unnatural specimen by Guardian

Other blogs
Banksy, Hafftka and Hanging Your Art Publicly by Capn Design
graffiti continued (or: designated riot zone) by restraint.org

of sexyblogger till nose bleed

Wow 1 day didn't get to surf internet and there are so many posts already. Talk about blogroll meltdown. I know what it means now.

All the posts I read today are photos of sexy people sticking their tongues out. Wah all so very sexy! If Xiaxue can do it, so can we. I see all the "I'm too sexy for my blog project" related posts till my nose bleed! Sexy sia!


This is kind of unsexy. CMI!

of can you de-value me?

A call I received this afternoon.

Phonebanker: Do you have a few minutes to spare?

Lancerlord: What is it regarding?

Phonebanker: As our valued customer, we are pleased to extend our value-added service to provide a free financial planning consultation for you.

* Lancerlord interrupted *
Lancerlord: Hang on, sorry ah? I believed that I have cancelled my card with the bank 2 days ago.

Phonebanker: Let me check...you are right sir but you have another account with us.

* Lancerlord scratch head. No idea how on earth there's another account *
Lancerlord: But I've cancelled that as well. * Lancerlord telling lies. Bad boy! *

Phonebanker: Erh? But as our valued customer, we like to provide this free...

* Lancerlord interrupted *
Lancerlord: Ya but my accounts have been cancelled. So...

* Phonebanker interrupted *
Phonebanker: Being a valued customer, ....

* Lancerlord interrupted *
Lancerlord: Can you de-value me? I am not interested!
* Too tired to talk. Don't know what I am saying. *

Phonebanker: Oh ok. If you have any service of our service, feel free to contact us.

Monday 21 March 2005

of browncast, broadcast and papercast

First Mr Brown released his browncast, then Mr Miyagi encouraged all to broadcast. Now this guy is doing Papercasting.

[via CNet]

of stuff n such - 21.03.05

How To Blog: by Tony Pierce. [via Mandrake]

Cropless Crop Circles: Sand crop to be exact. The site shows photos as well video of the creation [via MetaFilter]

Do I Need A Jacket?: Tells you if you need to wear a jacket at various countries based on weather conditions [via MetaFilter]

Chain Reaction Game: Objective of this game is to get a chain reaction of tiles. Give it a try.

UK professor concludes: cellphones don’t cause gas station fires: A professor studied all 243 gas station fires from the past 11 years that were supposedly sparked by cellphones and determined that not a single one was actually caused by a handset. [via Engadget]


An iPod for your Pooch? [via tuaw]

Sunday 20 March 2005

of straits times boh free liao

Mr Brown released some figures on the number of subscribers to Straits Times Interactive. Now that it is not free, it's a huge difference compared to back then. Total so far 2171 subscribers.

Assuming all the 2171 subscribers applied for the $120-a-year subscription, then that adds up to (2171 x $120)=$260K for a year.

Back then, they must have been thinking (280000 x $120)="Fa Da lor"!

of yahoo actually does acquire flickr

Got this off FlickrBlog. It's finally confirmed that Flickr has been Yahoo'ed. There had been a lot of speculations about Yahoo's aquisition of Flickr (or Ludicorp, the company behind Flickr) recently.
Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr
"Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp."

Yahoo is also going to release its upcoming Yahoo! 360, which is a service that sounds identical to Flickr.

Other links:
Yahoo! bought Flickr! via boing-boing
There's rumors on the Internets: via MetaFilter
ichris.ws calls it Yuckr.
Photo Matt calls it YaFlickr.
Om Malik calls it Flickr-hoo.

Update: Image showing various companies

of cycling

LancerLad is able to cycle on his own now. Sort of. He uses mostly his right leg to peddle. Left peddle is hardly used. We tried to teach him to peddle with both legs continuosly but he still wasn't able to understand.

He's getting pretty daring too. He's able to cycle down an elevated step.


Got myself a Stikfas figurine earlier in the day. Just got it fixed up. Now my fingers are wee bit sore.







Palm Sunday

of stuff n such - 20.03.05

Creative Zen Neeon: An upcoming 6GB MP3 player from Creative? Maybe. [via Gizmodo]

Don't say 'blogger' to US Immigration: Jeremy Wright, a Canadian blogger, claims he was harassed and strip-searched by US immigration officials when he told them his profession was "blogger." [Source: boing-boing]

Fried Doughs from Around the World: A site that shows authentic fried breads and desserts from around the world. What does Singapore have?

Sand Art: Creative. Artistic! All using sand. [via MetaFilter]

Dance Monkey Dance: A flash animation taking a look at human behavior. [Source: screenhead.com]


Sunday Qualifying


Sunday Race Day

Saturday 19 March 2005

of blogads blog reader survey v2

Blogads has done another blog reader survey
But remember also that the blogosphere is all about biases and conversations and boot-strapping and not waiting for some authority-- a newspaper editor or university dean or foundation officer or venture capitalist or government agent -- to tell you something but figuring it out yourself, and, finally, about sharing fragments of imperfect data with peers to arrive at some useful collective knowledge.
Blog reader survey March 2005

[via Joi Ito]

of stuff n such - 19.03.05

Xbox with New Replacement Cords Still Dangerous: The XBox blow even with new cord... [Source: xbox-scene]
Update: After cable recall, Xbox's still frying [via xbox-scene]

Parking Spots: Have fun with your camera and toy car. [via Jalopnik]

iBod: Portable photo technology puts Playboy's sexiest models at your fingertips. NSFW. [via tuaw]

The Cellphone Gravestone: Gravestone, made in Israel [via Engadget]

Bust Up Chewing Gum: Gum that can help enhance the size, shape and tone of the breasts. Here's BBC's report. Also see Cowboy Caleb's post "Would You Also Like A Magic Pony?" [via Cowboy Caleb and Popgadget]

LED Underwear: Made by a Polish company called Puff Buff [via GNR8]


Breakfast at Ya Kun


Saturday Qualifying

of those were the days

Ah 9 has compiled a list of stuff from the good old days. Have a look at his post.
"Remember the kids playing police and thieves at early HDB void decks, playing Hide and Seek (bi-bi).. with area of play ... the whole HDB block from 1 to 12 storey. Played zero point? Five stones? One leg? ?

Remember "Long Chiam Pas!", "Choot Ho Be!", "Oh Peh Som!", "4 by 4!" (when you need to divide your gang of 8 into 2 groups of 4, each will show either the palm or the back of the hand after shouting 4 by 4, when there are equal number of palms and back of hands shown, the persons showing the same side of the hand are group together, and the whole point is so that you can play "peng lia chat")."

Friday 18 March 2005

of body mass index

I was at NTUC just now and I was greeted by a small crowd gathering in front of a machine that was placed at the entrance.


A queue so early in the morning? Got what offer?

The machine measures your Body Mass Index. Or as Mr Miyagi calls it, the Blubber Mass Index. It is one of the many machines that the Health Promotion Board has installed around the island. Free for all to use.


The BMI machine

Being a typical Singaporean and because of all the hype from the recent report in the papers, LancerLady and I took our measurements.

My BMI is just below the healthy range. The chit churned by the machine says that I "may be eating less food than what my body needs". I am also "at risk of developing nutritional defiency and osteoporosis".


BMI=18.31

What to do? I eat moderately, I think. But I think I also belong to the group that chiak liaw bee!

Other links:
Singapore Warns of Health Risks as Obesity Grows by Reuters
Hundreds turn up at BMI machines islandwide to check health risks by ChannelnewsAsia.com
Fatheads

of pronunciation

LancerLad's pronunciation is still not there yet.

"Na-nana"

"Oc-po-pus"

of police and cars

In today's Straits Times,
Fast Wheels For Cops
"The traffic police called for a public tender to replace some of their highway patrol cars in January and are close to deciding which car they prefer.

The Straits Times understands the tender...drew bids from Volvo, BMW and Skoda. Subaru, with its rally-winning WRX, was the only Japanese contender.

Observers reckon the WRX has a fighting chance because its bid is believed to be the lowest, at around $52,000 apiece. The passenger car version, including taxes, duties and COE, is retailing for just below $100,000.
In another report,
SUVs added to police security escort
"THE Police Security Command...has bought three Volkswagen Touaregs to beef up its fleet of escort vehicles."

These reports may sound nothing fantastic to a some countries, just so because they already have them. But to some other countries, these news are peanuts. Just so because their police force are equipped with monsters like this, this, this or even this!

At the end of the second report, it mentioned that such "upgrading" moves have "raised public ire in the past".

Well my views are: Spend as you like. Just make sure the policemen handling those Rexes behave themselves too. Don't end up like this.

Oh! Or better still. Perhaps the police could adopt this approach which I have mentioned before.

Thursday 17 March 2005

of stuff n such - 17.03.05

Gizoogle: Enter Keywords or a full URL to translate a webpage. Maybe NSFW.

Flickr Postcard Browser: This application lets you browse Flickr's huge image database, by searching for tags (keywords). Flickr Postcard Browser use the real world metaphor of a set of postcards shuffled onto a surface.

amaztype: Enter any word into amaztype and watch it build the word using books it has searched.

Turtle TV: Contains videos featuring turtles as actors.

All The Quickies: This quickie is definitely Safe For Work! Very useful list.

Loo literature: Now there's a story behind each roll of poo poo paper. Now you can read in the toilet. How appropriate. [via Popgadget]


Guo Tie. Yummy!

Wednesday 16 March 2005

of stuff n such - 16.03.05

White Horses: This is an article about the infamous White Horse System of the SAF. Has anyone who is/was a medic in the army seen a white horse logo in any medical records? I've seen it before in some person's medical records and that person is some very high ranking officer's son. Does it symbolise that the person is a white horse? [Source: Sintercom]

Pimp My Firefox: Tune your browser "to your needs and taste" [Source: Kuro5hin]

Video Blog of the Mad Vlogger: Posted as "Awful Link of the Day" at SomethingAwful.com

Toshiba develops detachable display: "Toshiba has developed a detachable display that it claims will combine the convenience of a Tablet PC with the computing power of a notebook PC, and that could be available in about three years." [Source: ComputerWorld.com]

Turn any string into ransom-note type based on found images: Enter any text you like to create ransom-note styles. If only I knew there is such a tool, I wouldn't have photoshopped my lancelord letterings. [via boingboing]



Levi's, I like.

Tuesday 15 March 2005

of p.blog 13.03.05

These photos were sitting in my Flickr account for a few days already. Had been busy with work that I totally forgotten to post them.

Taken at the "Chuch"


"All personnel must vacate these premises by 10.30pm. CHUCH gates closed at 11.00pm"


"No Entry, No Parking"
This sign was pasted on a wall along a corridor.
My head kept looking up, down, left, right and center; Watching out for cars.



Taken at a shopping centre


"Storewide 50%. On selected items only"
Spotted by LancerLady. "On selected items only. So not so storewide lah!"


Thai food for dinner

of hot new bar freezes patrons

Got this from wsoctv.com [via Fark.com]
Hot New Bar Freezes Patrons
"The new hot spot in Singapore is leaving patrons in the cold.

The bar's big draw isn't so much its drinks or location but the temperature inside. The bar in the sweltering city contains a decorated, industrial-strength freezer that keeps the temperature between 28 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's cold enough to keep the staff wearing heavy coats and ski caps, and patrons get a 10 percent discount if they show up in winter wear.

There's also a "chiller" room, where the temperature is a more normal 64 degrees and an outdoor area for those who can't stand the cold at all.

The idea is so popular the owners plan to open another one soon."

That is all that was reported. Is there any mention of the name of the bar in the report? I'll post more if I have more details.

of selling our names

In today's Digital Life articles on spamming.

Article 1: "It's up to you"
"Even with the anti-spam Bill expected to be tabled in Parliament in June, there's no reason for you to be complacent. It's still up to you to tell the spammer to stop sending you unsolicited e-mail messages......

......And here's a piece of news that will be good for some, disappointing for others: Those companies that compile and sell names and contacts of people - like e-mail, home or office addresses as well as telephone and fax numbers - won't be affected by the proposed anti-spam law. They can continue to sell their databases."

Article 2: "Raise your hand to opt out..."
"While no official figures exist, 1st Emperor Marketing director David Lim estimated that there are about 40 firms here that collect names for sale, from large established firms like DP Information Group to small one-man operations creating CDs of e-mail addresses at home for sale. He estimated that 'thousands' of such databases are in circulation here.

Mr Lim's company began selling these databases two years ago and 'five to 20' products are sold monthly.

At last week's IT Show 2005, CDs of such products were available from $60 per disc, each of which had tens of thousands of e-mail addresses."

There are companies that compiles a list of names for sale?

Just last Sunday, LancerLady received a phone call at home. The person asked if anyone in the household applied for credit cards. LancerLady said no and the fellow asked if she was sure and that someone in the family didn't apply for any cards recently. After LancerLady repeated denial, the person went on to ask specifically if "your husband didn't apply for XXXXbank Mastercard?". LancerLady wasn't sure what the person's intention was and replied "No". Then the person hung up.

This was just one of the few wierd unexpected phone calls we receive over weekends. There are more of these calls, ranging from insurance to real estate agents.

Got this off TechDirt.
Why Pay To Be An Identity Thief?

Monday 14 March 2005

of gun safety

Gun Safety Video: This video shows a cop giving a gun safety lecture to a group of students [via Hugi]

"I'm the only one in this room professional enough, that I know of, to carry this koch 40......Never play with guns. See how accidents happen? They happen......"

of the 2005 bloggies

Results for the 5th Annual Weblog Awards are out.

In the Best Asian Weblog category,
Xiaxue (Winner)
Weblog Wannabe
Noodle Pie
Tokyo Times
Popagandhi

Congratulations to all! Everyone's a winner.

Friday 11 March 2005

of stuff n such - 12.03.05

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith Trailer and Teaser [via IZ]

Chan Brother's 3D Hong Kong Singles Bash: "We'll Help You Find a Roommate of the Same Sex" [via littlecartnoodles]

Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career: Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers [via Waxy]

The Digital Sharapova Experience: This is "the place to get exclusive access to Maria Sharapova’s active lifestyle." [via engadget]

Uncyclopedia: Uncyclopedia is a "free encyclopedia of politically incorrect non-information" and "full of misinformation and utter lies". Try searching "Singapore". It states "Singapore is also famed for producing large numbers of whiny bloggers. Singaporeans are reputed to make up more than 70% of all asian blogger users."

Just how nerdy are you?: Did this test at Anna Neo Chee Nah's blog. I'm a Mid-Rank Nerd. Her's a Low-Rank Nerd! How can? 天啊!

I am nerdier than 74% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

of roti canai in space

Got this from ke-winn

Roti Canai and Batik Spacebound: [Source: The Star]

"By 2007, the first Malaysians will be launched into space and they will be taking with them a piece of home – batik and roti canai.
National Space Agency (NSA) director-general Prof Datuk Dr Mazlan Othman said the astronauts could exchange culture and food with their foreign counterparts, as they would be spending six to eight days at the International Space Station.
We will have a programme called Batik in Space and we will also launch a programme called Roti Canai in Space to see how we can bring Malaysian delicacies up to the space station.

We will research ways to bring our astronauts' favourite food into space."

BBC also carried the report: Malaysians plan Asian space food

Amazing! I hope teh tarik makes it too and see how they can tarik in space. If Singapore does the same wonder what we'll call the programme. "Mee Pok, Tah(Dry), Mai Hiam Cheo(No Chilli), in Space"?

of unparliamentary language

In today's Straits Times, "NMP chided for bad language in House"

"A FOUR-letter expletive and another impolite word blurted out in Parliament earned new Nominated MP Ong Soh Khim a stiff admonition yesterday for 'dishonourable conduct'.

The mechanical engineering academic was apparently heard uttering the word 'shit' once and 'rubbish' several times at the close of a debate on the Education Ministry's budget on Tuesday."

In the report, it highlighted a previous case of a "then-opposition MP" using "unparliamentary language" and listed forbidden words like 'shit', 'rubbish', 'talk cock', 'bastard' and 'asshole'

It's tough to be an MP in Singapore. If I ever speak in parliament, most probably I'll not touch on manpower issues or issues related to income. If I did, the session may end up like this:

Lancerlord: Good morning Mr Speaker, my question is directed towards income. The garbage man takes home an average of XXXX dollars a month. The amount is deemed too low. All that just to collect rubbish...

* Speaker slams the table. Calls the session to a halt *

Lancerlord: Oops! I'm not supposed to say rubbish right? I forgot. Oh shit! I also cannot say shit right. Shit! Shit! Which bastard assholes came up with all these cock rules?

of what the happening?

Couldn't comment on Blogger. I think the problem occurred right after lunch time.

At first I thought it was the browser. Tried Opera, Firefox then no choice resorted to IE. Still dead end. So I blamed the freaking internet setup at work. Then I decided to give it a try when I get home.

Now I'm at home and still cannot. Kept seeing this message.

B for
Bin Chow Chow
Buey Tahan
Buey Song
Bang Balls
Buey Sai Comment
Boh Lee Yew
Baka Yarou
Boh Bian

Update: Bloglines also down?
Update: I'm able to post comments now. Looks alright so far.

Wednesday 9 March 2005

of is AIDS problem, a gay problem?

Senior Minister of State for Health, Dr Balaji Sadasivan, is at it again.

In today's Straits Times article "Gay parties may have led to sharp rise in new Aids cases", it says that

"THERE was a sharp rise in new Aids cases last year and it could be linked to a popular annual 'gay party' on Sentosa, Dr Balaji Sadasivan said yesterday, quoting an unnamed expert...

Dr Balaji said an epidemiologist - an expert in the spread and control of diseases - had suggested to him that the spike might be linked to the Nation parties held every August on Sentosa...

He added: 'However, this is a hypothesis and more research needs to be done."

So is AIDS a gay problem? It is definitely not entirely a gay problem. There are many other causes and I think the gahment should tackle them in all aspects.
And since the Dr says that the gahment should not be making "sweeping statements that misinform the public" and they have "never targeted any of its Aids campaigns at gay men" and they "should focus on education", I believe the gahment is doing their best to tackle the AIDS problem and not just link the sharp rise in new Aids cases last year to a "popular annual gay party on Sentosa".

Oh BTW should it be AIDS or Aids? I thought it is an acronym. I dunno, I need to be educated.

What others are blogging:
IZ: Gay Party = HIV Increase?
Mr Brown: Singapore National Education Part 106 (Point 28)

Update: New links
AIDS is a Gay Problem, hip-hop hooray! by Cowboy Caleb
Hypothesis: Aids MAY be spread by gays breathing on you!!! by Mr Brown
Two-thirds of AIDS sufferers may say Straits Times is spot-on by Mr Miyagi
Gay party blamed for HIV surge by Singabloodypore
Things you all should really read by The Wah
S'pore Health Minister's Comments on HIV Surge and Gay Parties Draw Criticism by Silvia Chan posted at fridae.com.
Press Statement On S'pore Minister's Remarks Linking HIV Surge To Nation Parties by fridae.
S'pore Gay Group Offers Other Possible Reasons For HIV Surge Among MSM by People Like Us posted at fridae.com
The Dr's Speech in Parliament posted at MOH website.

dr balaji does a backpedal by AcidFlask
Synonym - GAY:HIV by Popagandhi
orgy of sensationalist dumbfuckery by buttermilk (Ha! What a tagline)
The logic of “Family Values” and “Nature” by Wannabe Lawyer
Asia By Blog compilation of news in the region by Simon World

of pretty and cardboards

Last night, LancerLady was watching "二分之一缘分" on TV when LancerLad shouted out.
LancerLad : "That jie jie so pretty!"
* LancerLad pointing at Rui En on TV *
LancerLord: "How you know she is pretty?"
LancerLad : "Uhh...She buy so many nice nice dress."

Hmmm....LancerLad has good taste. Not bad for a kid approaching 3 years old.


:Graciousness


Over the weekend, we went to the Fairprice Homemart and Office 1 located at the previous HDB building off Bukit Merah.

In the clothes section, I spotted a mannequin with very sharp fingers. Sharp tallman to be exact.


Finger licking good

At Office 1, we came across very unusual pieces of furniture from Malaysia. All made from cupboard. Even shelves were made from kitchen towel rolls.


Coffee Table


Bench


Just failed to take a shot of LancerKid's teeth again. He already has 2 growing. Now he's 8 months. LancerLad started teething later at about 13 months, I think.



Qoo Qoo