Author: Grievous

Commentary – Sharing an opinion on the Internet

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It was an innocuous question posted on Plurk by Vandalin:

You see a man and woman arguing on the street, and the guy starts grabbing the girl and shaking her around. Step in / don’t step in?

It was my basic assumption from the question that the two are in a relationship. As such, I had posted my reply that I will not step in. My participation in that plurk would have been just that much, until I decided I should explain my reasons for not stepping in (perhaps more than once) – People have to live with the consequences of their choices. The girl would have to live with the consequences of her choice of the guy. Since she has chosen this guy, this is part of the package. Among the responses to the Plurk, there was another person who also took a similar stand as mine (though without being as detailed in her response) and yet got no flak at all while two other people also mentioned they would not intervene, with one jokingly suggested that the couple may just be doing this deliberately for some reasons.

Why my rather thoughtless comment created a maelstrom which soon I get sucked for I really have no idea. I can’t help but feel I was picked on and singled out, after I was subsequently told by a friend that the entire group of them were already acquainted with one another from the already once notorious Cowboy Bar – which at some point in the past was an online wretched hive of scum and villainy. But if you asked how I felt about the entire event, it was like I had stepped on some dog poo and then the dog poo ensured I was engulfed in a foul stench for the entire duration it stuck to me.

However, I must admit I did not expect the comment not to sit well with some female plurkers. I should have expected it since my female friends would have expect me to offer help if they are in that situation. However, there is a distinct difference between friends and strangers. Either way, one particular female plurker who objected to my reasons simply said she had expected that I should help because I can, regardless of how silly or stupid it will make me look. I am expected to act right there and then because I won’t get a second chance – if something happens. She strongly objected to my stand that it was her own problem and no one should do anything based on the ‘conditions’ (or available information) stated in the original question. The other female Plurker thought it was appalling that there are still people who believed like I did. (When was the last time she got out to the real world?)

It was then alluded that I am the kind who felt that if a woman is violated, I would blame her for wearing a short skirt or exposing clothing. It was an amazing and insane extrapolation from a comment I had made, and yet they could not, and obviously has not, done the same for the situation described in the question. For e.g.

  •   – the girl might be a shop lifter, the shopkeeper caught up with her and so he turned her around and in his rage shakes her, demanding to know where she had hid the item; or

  •   – the guy could be a brother, the girl is on high on drugs. Desperate, the brother was turning her and shaking her to try and wake her up; or

  •   – the guy was begging the girl not to leave him after she made the decision to break up; or

  •   – the girl could be a prostitute who stole the money of her client while he was showering, and the guy is now confronting her after he caught up with her.

It also doesn’t matter that some women will not leave some scum even after repeatedly hurt. Granted we’ll never know what is going on unless we asked, but I was answering a question based on the known conditions. As far as I am concerned, if it happens in the public the girl will call for help if it is needed. When she hasn’t or wouldn’t call for help – even when I give the guy a stare for his obviously ungentlemanly actions – then it warranted no further action until some form of physical violence has occurred, for e.g. slapping, or the throwing of a punch. It was also an indication that she could handle it alone. On top of which if she doesn’t know how to shake the guy lose and seek help, then it was obvious to me that she didn’t need it. If there are other guys who believed it warranted action, that is fine by me, and everyone is free to choose whether to help or not.

The exchange with these two female plurkers isn’t bad at all, after all their objection was understandable. It was the comments of some of those who joined later, and start poking fire with nothing meaningful to contribute to the exchange other than to throw insults and comments meant to pick a fight that was the real nuisance.

What transpired in that plurk (and some other online arguments) reminded me once again that to local netizens just expressing their objection is not enough, they want to deny me my views completely. While doing so they also expect my complete submission no matter what my reasons and justifications to my views were. The more I say, the more they can expand on it to ‘justify and confirm’ the superiority of their stand, their self-righteousness and their pre-conceived low opinion of me simply because I do not share their views, and will not do what they think is the right thing to do. Perhaps it has got something to do with our education system

Such occurrences, makes me wonder at time whether it is worth it at all to share an opinion online since some people apparently allows no different opinion other than their own simply because they think your opinion is stupid or unacceptable. It doesn’t matter they weren’t the one who asked for opinions in the first place, and no one has even cared to object to them. It also suggests to me why online opinion can be so single-sided against our government gahmen while election results – even in Single Member Constituencies – turned out drastically different: pro-gahmen or even neutral opinions are simply shouted down and drowned out until those who shared them can’t be bothered anymore.

It was simply nothing more of an exercise of ‘conform or die’. For my entire life, I have never backed down from a**holes like these and I always choose to go down fighting even in spite of whatever names and labels they can conceive. The irony is that they wouldn’t even see themselves as some kind of cyberspace terrorists while they were enjoying their cyber-bullying. Of course, knowing that they could take things as far as they can without any real life repercussions, embolden some of these trolls to be as nasty as they could. Until the day their real life and identity gets splashed all over the Internet with their online action tied to it, will these online cowards finally know fear.

It once again reminds me why the gahmen has never held Internet opinion with in high regard. Our elected leaders may have been elitist, but rightfully so, after looking at the very childish behavior of some of the netizens, such as those I have encountered above.

Thoughts After Watching Terminator Salvation

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Watched Terminator: Salvation some time back at GV Plaza Singapura with simplyjean.

This is the fourth installment of the Terminator series, the story is set in 2018 – 14 years after John Connor escaped to Crystal Peak, a military base built into the Sierra Nevada mountains, which allowed him to survive Judgement Day, the nuclear fire unleashed by Skynet which basically ends human civilization as we know it.

I won’t be talking much about the details of the movie, but rather I would touch on what I considered gaping holes in the storyline. First of all, it appears that in the movie, Skynet has sort of figured out the relationship between John Connor and Kyle Reese and thus Kyle’s importance. How Skynet get all the pieces to put together to figure that out is beyond me.

Next, there appeared to be relative ease for John Connor to capture machines and infiltrate Skynet bases. At one point I believe he plugged some kind of USB-looking device into the ‘service port’ (I really think it’s an USB-port or even a Firewire-port) of a Skynet robot bike and hijacked it. He also did the same when inflitrating Skynet in San Francisco. Now, why would a computer evermind built machines with service ports that the equipment of the human resistance can interface with? It almost suggest to me that Skynet will not and cannot completely exterminate the humans, but would be keeping some around for maintenance and / or research. After all, our computers and military equipment all needs maintenance and replacements parts. If they do not already fall apart after several years, they would need to be replaced as a matter of upgrading. Frankly, it would be impossible for both Skynet and the human resistance to maintain a high tech war at all, considering just how much damage has been done after Judgement Day to manufacturing capabilities. It really makes one wonder how Skynet puts together its state of the art army and how the resistance keep all those A-10s, Black Hawks and laptop computers working. It would really have been more logical for Skynet to settle into a symbiotic relationship with the humans in its own area of control just like the Matrix.

So, if Skynet is exterminating all humans and not enslaving any as retainers or slaves, then it brings us to the next mind bogging aspect of the entire Terminator story. Skynet, the computer evermind, has not only achieved sentience but also has the intelligence of a super (or evil) genius. That’s like striking 2 jackpots in a row if it happened all on its own and if not, cursed be the person(s) who programmed the AI. This computer has not only taken over a large part of the US military network, it has also mastered science and technology to research and upgrade its army, military tactics and strategy to pursue its ongoing war with the human resistance and also understands logistics to keep its army in good order to find and exterminate the remaining human population. Not to mention Skynet knows how to mine resources, and then transport it from the mines to the manufacturing plants to put its army together. I won’t even ask how the other nations of the world got their own asses kicked and allow Skynet to maintain dominance on Earth since they are unlikely to allow the US to plug into their military computer networks. Skynet must have also been a super hacker!

Finally, I must say that Skynet, in spite of its immense genius – since it actually even come up with ideas like masquerading its Terminators as humans – did not learn anything about ‘head hunter’ operations that the US or Israeli military employs against their enemies. John Connor repeatedly makes public broadcasts and it would be insane to assume that Skynet doesn’t pick those up and triangulate on his position. While Skynet has even infested lakes with robotic eels or snakes to kill humans, why hasn’t Skynet launch a nuclear missile at Connor’s bases, or send out unmanned drones like present day US Predator UAVs to take him out is beyond me.

Frankly, while the movie maybe quite enjoyable, we should all just enjoy the movie and then forget it. You know I won’t and can’t openly discuss obtaining the film through piracy, so I’ll suggest just buying a DVD and then gather as many people and watch it together.

A different reality

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I joined the workforce in January 1995, and it’s been almost 14 years since then, where I moved from the manufacturing sector into IT Support. I learn over the years, that some colleagues remained colleagues, some I choose to forget the moment either they or I leave the company, some are extremely good drinking and / or partying buddies yet terrible colleagues, and some become good friends where we share ideas and talk about almost everything under the sun. In my world, everybody is let all the way past my defenses until they have proven themselves to be scheming, self-centered or conniving little a**holes.

So it was not long ago, I had a discussion after work on the way to the Clarke Quay MRT station with one of my colleagues and a friend over the matter of two other colleagues who are at loggerheads with one another. He then told me that he wasn’t surprised that has happened since these two other colleagues stood at the opposite of the spectrum. One is friendly to almost everyone, while the other has on one occasion mentioned, “There are only colleagues, and friends.” Meaning, these two categories are mutually exclusive of one another.

It was sometime later when I did a recap on that conversation, when I suddenly remember not too long ago I had tried to add another colleague (not the same one who made that comment) to Facebook, and I received an interesting reply that goes like this:

Ey, sorry. Just have this weird policy of not adding current collegues to facebook. Nothing personal however. 🙂

And thus I am ‘inducted’ into the stark reality of some people’s worlds. A reality in which existing colleagues are never considered as friends, and colleagues and friends are mutually exclusive. A world in which they compartmentalise different sections of their lives and keep them from one another. While there is nothing wrong with such a view, it comes into conflict with mine. While I would not openly and actively object to people living by such principles – they are of course entitled to it – there is nothing to stop me from subjecting them to their ‘realities’ based on my definitions and understanding of it.

I may never know who else lived by these principles, but those who are known to live by them will now be subjected to my understanding of such a ‘reality’, where under my scope of work they are nothing more than a ‘client’ and nothing else.

A ‘client’ is less than even a colleague, since I defined colleagues as not a person working in the same company but only those in the same department. Since I am in IT Support, a ‘client’ would therefore refers to any user who calls us for support.

While their view may work to compartmentalise their lives and keeps them from getting hurt or backstabbed by other people, it also cuts the other way. After all, it is of no surprise why no one else would treat them better than a colleague (or in my case a ‘client’). They can blame no one but themselves for not making an effort for making it better.

I do not have to object to it, but only choose to subject them to the principles they swear by. Now, they can just die by it… quietly. Don’t complain if I treat them terribly along with the usual IT Morons I already despised.

Die, by the very sword you wield.

Recommended Reads:
ZDNet Blogs – Apple Faithful: Arrogance Is Not a Virtue, and Why I Will Never Buy a Mac
凉心栈: 为老人做得足够吗？

Commentary – It’s Just A Device

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Every month, manufacturers probably release some new mobile phones or the upgraded model of a best seller. Following that will be the media hype on both conventional and social media. Every one of these products will be touted as being feature rich and a productivity enhancer to the user. Both your audio and video senses will be bombarded by advertisements emphasizing on these features. More often than not, the device is made to look cool, and all of them are designed to make you want to get the device. But do you really need it?

Looking beyond all the hype from the media, you will notice that all of them are short on user experience. Very rarely you get a live example of a real user talking about how the features on the phone have been a productivity enhancer. That is not surprising, given the fact that everyone of us have very different needs and applications for a particular feature.

Take for example the ability to install applications onto the phone. From my experience as a Blackberry user, I discover that the traders would love to get onto their Blackberry applications such as Bloomberg, or Reuters, which feed live market data to their handset. Meanwhile, other users might want Instant Messaging programs (for ease of contact with their friends), or time-killing games for keeping them occupied during their daily commute. Since the Blackberry is given to users in the office (including myself) for work purposes whether we liked it or not, it really would make no difference had it been a phone running on Windows Mobile or some other OS, as long as we still get to read our mails on the go and it won’t be a pain in the butt installing or using those applications. Surprisingly, in spite of the learning curve in using a Blackberry, over time we have grown to like the device we have been given, even though originally we hated being given a device that keeps us within the easy reach of work matters.

From this experience, I realized that no matter how many features a device has, they are often useless when they are not used. A device is thus only ‘good’ or ‘superior’, depending on how easy it is for us to use that feature. For example, if it takes User A four steps to get to a feature while it took you only 1 step to get to it on the same device, then to User A, the interface would be ‘stupid’ while to you, this is the best device in the world available. In fact, even though a certain device may contain certain advanced features, has anyone given much consideration as to just how often one would use those features and whether those features alone would justify the cost? All that, without even considering if it is doing better in the features already available in other phones!

That brings me to the point – it’s just a device (or gadget, whatever you want to call it). It really doesn’t matter who the manufacturer is. What really matters is how (well) you use it. Never let people hoodwinked you into believing one device is cooler or greater than the others because who manufactured / used it. After all, when you strip away all the emotions and all the hype, it is really just another device even though you can delude yourself you are experiencing your superstar or idol, or being much more superior than the average joe out there when using a particular device they endorse. (Is there someone out there who only eats a particular brand of ice cream cone because JJ Lim endorses it? I doubt it would taste better than the rest.)

To emphasize my point, take for e.g. the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm. The Blackberry storm definitely losses out as far as the browser is concerned, even though both didn’t sport a full fledged browser themselves. In short, netbook computers would be the closest mobile device you can think of to do some of the things you can do on a computer. Still, the Blackberry will win hands down in the email feature, the ease of application deployment, and even implementation of security – a legacy from generations of Blackberry phones in the market. The Blackberry Storm may also lose out being an entertainment tool – as a music player or a game device, but then the Blackberry Storm is originally built as a PDA phone with Enterprise email solution. Even for the iPhone, if the only features that can be said as superior is the browser and being a music player, then one might as well just get an iTouch (essentially, an iPhone without the phone), and I shall stop here without going further into asking just why an iTouch (or other iPods) is much superior than the products Creative manufactures, or even the Zune in certain key performance indicators – such as sound quality. In fact, if the iPhone is to be touted as some kind of game or music device, then how is it more superior in those features compared to a NDS / PSP, or the Walkman series of phones from Sony Ericsson respectively?

Consumers today are so overwhelmed by the media and feature rich devices that many are no longer buying equipment based on their needs. Very often we get queries from friends as to what to buy and none of us are any the wiser. Most often than not some people will suggest to buy what is cool while they are short on specifics on why one should buy it. In the end while some may live to like what they bought, some become an utter nuisance by continually calling up their friends to find out how to use certain features. Some may even experience the pain of re-learning how to use a certain feature which used to be a breeze on the previous device.

Based on the fact that every product out there is just another device, as a consumer one shouldn’t be too concerned with what features the device offers (most offered more of the same), but be more concerned on how those features can meet one’s needs. For example, browsing the web on the go would mean having the phone’s browser displaying the page nicely and a large screen is important. Being able to store lots of media (music or video) or install programs would mean large device memory, and preferably expandable as much as possible. Many devices comes with fixed memory, like 8MB or 16MB etc and then ‘obsolete themselves’ on the release of an upgraded model. Such devices should not be considered if possible – all the more so if you are an advocate in saving the environment and the Earth since they actually exploiting the Earth’s dwindling resources and contributing to more waste.

Once you have short listed the few phones that meets your needs (and also your budget), the next thing you should do is perhaps go down to a shop (or borrow a friend’s) and try them out. Find out whether they meet your expectations and also how easy it is to use those features. There is no use of having a device with a convoluted interface, which requires you to jump through multiple hoops of fire before you can get the feature to work. The next best way to do this would be to look up on the web responses from users who already own such a device, or videos on Youtube demonstrating them. In other words, there is no need to rush in and be an early adopter, for all you know the device might even be buggy and unwieldy.

It is also necessary to find out whether it is easy to port certain information from your current phone to the new one, if you store them on the phone memory instead of the simcard. As far as I know, user information portability has always been a pain. Even though both devices might sync with Outlook or a comma separated value (.csv) file, there is no guarantee you will not need to resort to some wizardry, or make certain modifications before they are imported properly.

Finally, after deciding on the device, you might want to check whether it is cheaper to switch to another telco, and whether they are freebies that will come with it. Simply put, damn the hype, fxxk the media, be yourself and not follow the herd.

Recommended Reads:
FoxTwo’s Ramblings: Why All The Hype About iPhone?

Commentary – Where did this news go?

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The following 2 articles were posted around 6th June, slightly more than one week ago.


Article on Zaobao
Article on OMY.sg

A translation of the Zaobao article is as follow (courtesty of Fiefie):

About midnight of 6th June 2009, the police sent 8 anti-riot vehicles to a foreign workers dormitory in Choa Chu Kang as about 100 foreign workers were involved in a riot.

According to Lianhe Wanbao, they were informed of the riot at the Choa Chu Kang Foreign Workers Dormitory near midnight when about 100 foreign workers were suspected of fighting after getting drunk and the situation quickly went out of control. The police then dispatched 8 anti-riot vehicles to the scene. 6 were wounded and 8 arrested in this incident.

This shocking and bloody incident happened at about 1205am on the 6th of June 2009 and ended only around 2am. The place was Foreign Workers Dormitory No. 2 along Choa Chu Kang Murai Farmway.

An eyewitness said, “I heard that a few foreign workers were drinking at the canteen stalls and creating a scene after getting drunk. After being confronted by other workers, a fight broke out after disagreement. The situation then rapidly went out of control and the place was a total mess. After that, more joined in the fight and there were about 100 people involved in the fight chasing around, pandemonium ensued.”

The dormitory houses about 5000 foreign workers, facilities included a barber shop and various shops, plus a canteen of which there was a stall selling only alcohol.

I first noticed this piece of news on Zaobao’s Twitter. But what made these two old news pieces interesting was that I was unable to find their English equivalent, be it on any other SPH English papers (The Strike Stooge Times, The NewPaper LewdPaper and Today) or even CNA. Much less, foreign news agencies like AFP or Reuters.

I have waited a week to put this up because I wanted to give more time for the English articles to get onto the search engines. Perhaps my skills with search engines is getting rusty, or my RSS feeds are not intensive enough, this piece of news seems to be sucked into an information black hole. Many people I asked, who didn’t read the Chinese evening tabloid – Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报], are completely unaware of this incident.

Was this piece of news deliberately kept off our national daily for some unknown agenda? Was it done to prevent an outburst of negative sentiments against foreign workers or the setting up of dormitories? Or is this yet another example on just how hopeless the Stooge Times is? Do note I have talked about the possibility of this happening before.

If any of you has read anything like this on the Stooge Times (or any other SPH papers), or CNA, please direct me to them just so I can convince myself that I need to do something about my techniques with search engines.

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