Category: Others

Random Discourse – Credit Card Fraud

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This is the only indication that something was awry on a Saturday afternoon more than a month ago (see picture). I was a little puzzled why I am getting these SMS when I am not making any online purchases. After all, I only receive similar SMS when making online purchases with my HSBC card.

Anyway, I logged in to my account and found no transactions so I ignored them. However, I start getting calls from ‘Unknown Number’ for the next 2 hours. As such calls (or those showing up as ‘Private’ on my phone) are normally from agents trying to introduce fund transfers, new insurance policies or a new credit card / credit line, I generally just ignore them. I was thinking to myself that these companies are getting so desperate they even work on Saturday afternoon. In fact, I even received one such call on Sunday.

When I was at work on Monday, these calls continued and I finally decided to answer one of them during lunch with the most hostile tone I can imagine. I had enough of these incessant calls and was ready to ‘reward’ the hapless soul on the other end for his persistence with a chewing out.

When the guy identified himself to be from HSBC (and not ‘on behalf of HSBC’), I was a little alarmed since the banks typically do not do sales calls on their own. All the more so when he further identified himself to be from the security department in charge of credit card fraud. It is not just because of the SMS I have received over the weekend but also because con men are also known to impersonate bank staff. I made a mental note not to give to this person my card security code or any codes if more SMS were received. I am certain that if they were con men, they would want some of these information to complete the transaction.

The guy (I can no longer remember his name) then asked me whether I had made 2 Internet purchases made a few days ago with my card. The purchases are over US$250 and over US$450 respectively and in fact were made to purchase very different items (including female handbags). That’s almost US$1000! When I confirmed that I haven’t made any of these purchases, he then asked whether my last transaction was to a certain gaming company in Germany (which I did make). By then I decided that the guy is probably genuine because he has not asked me any personal information yet and in fact, he was actively providing me information that is confidential. If he wasn’t genuine, then he must be a very sophisticated hacker / con men trying to lure me into a false sense of security.

In the end he told me that my card will be canceled and no funds will be released for these two transaction. He informed me that a new card will be sent to me in a few days and only then did he do the usual identity verification (IC number & date of birth).

This must be the season of Internet credit card fraud because a few of my friends also recently report fraudulent transactions and they only detected them after checking their statement. They had a pretty hard time convincing the bank that they didn’t make those transactions and to get those charges waived. Fortunately for me, this is the second time HSBC has caught fraudulent transactions on my card and I thanked the bank for its proactive action. Perhaps I should really do fewer purchases online…

Random Discourse – Steve Jobs

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Steve Jobs passed away a few days ago at the age of 56. I abhor and am immune to idol worship so originally, I don’t really care. In most cases, I ignore the comments and the outpour of grief. I didn’t care when Michael Jackson or Elizabeth Taylor died so what’s the big deal, really? And I certainly agreed with the part that says – “One die, Thousand cry. Thousands die, no one cry.” on Robert’s blog post.

On Twitter, I put “Steve Jobs” into the exclusions on Twitterfall so I can be spared of the “echo chamber” – i.e. the ‘1 tweet repeated a gazillion times’ phenomenon. On Facebook, I began to appreciate the new Facebook improvements because it automatically lumps posts with similar content together and so Steve Jobs related posts won’t flood my entire page and pushed my friends’ updates off the screen.

Even though I try to isolate myself from this, some comments did get through and they reminded me why I really detest Apple fanbois. I had originally refrained from writing anything, but after a long struggle I gave in to my urge because I have to respond to comments I completely disagree with. For e.g.:

Steve Jobs will always be a bigger man than Bill Gates can ever be.

Interesting. I read that Steve Jobs refused to participate in ‘The Giving Pledge’ to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. He also shut down all of Apple’s corporate charity donation programs. Now consider the work of the Gates Foundation, many which will bring a change to the lives of people who didn’t have the Internet or never even seen or heard about any of the i-Devices. In short, the Gates Foundation possibly brings life changes to some people for an entire lifetime (like Polio vaccination) while all the i-Devices are forgotten and replaced at the most in 3 years. I won’t say Steve Jobs didn’t give to charity since I don’t know. But I doubt it wouldn’t be anywhere comparable.

I am also quite amused that the fanbois would be giving thanks to Steve Jobs for giving them all those ‘life changing’ i-Devices even though technically they had paid for the products and so in reality he had really gave them nothing. To put it in an analogy, I appreciate life giving water but I will not think very much of the bottle that contained it. In fact, a friend showed me a comment where someone said if he hears anyone criticising Steve Jobs, he will ‘punch that person in the face’. Well, I hope whoever got punched will punch back harder, and with more blows to wake him up since I wondered whether he would have done the same for his own father.

It is also amusing that some had taken the news of Steve Jobs death as if God Himself has died. Well, the God I believe in rose from the dead and the appeared to many people and rose to heaven before their eyes. Make that comparison when Jobs come back from the dead and do something more original than iResurrect, alright?

Now, there’s another group of people who are equally irritating. Even when I detest Apple fanbois I think there is no need to rub it in. If one felt Steve Job’s death was of no relevance at all – comments like “it is amusing to watch the reactions of the iDiots over the iCon who did an iDie” is as distasteful as those like the hypocrites of Westboro (see below).

Personally, I would have felt elated if people like Mah Boh Tan kicked the bucket since he has screwed my life directly in more ways than one. Yet, I don’t feel the about Steve Jobs even though I disliked Apple – primarily due to Apple’s fascist, mindless, unthinking and dogmatic fanbois, and also what I considered to be unscrupulous, anti-competition business practices. As this New York Times article put it: Today there is no tech company that looks more like the Big Brother from Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial than Apple itself, a testament to how quickly power can corrupt.

This is where iTunes comes to mind. While I have told some people that I had to admit that iPod and iTunes changed the way that people consumed music, because consumers are no longer ripped off by record companies producing CDs. Indeed, paying US$0.99 for a song is way better than paying US$10 or more for a CD. However, I disliked how the Digital Rights Management [DRM] in iTunes limit where and how I can listen to music which were already paid for. Whatever the reasons for DRM, I really don’t give a flying damn about the argument how piracy would kill creativity etc when I looked at how some artists waste their lives away while living in extravagance.

Regardless of the above, I am reminded that the Apple ][ was the door of my entry into the computer world. I remembered the days when I played Taipan, Autoduel and even Ultima IV on an Apple ][ compatible that kept me company for years. I even learn my first programming with Basic on it, and actually wrote a small program that stored all my contacts – complete with sorting and editing feature! Sadly, the only Apple product that has made the greatest impact in my life was a creation of Steve Wozniak, not Jobs.

In spite of my dislike of Apple, I also have to admit that the iPhone brought new life to touch screen phones / PDAs because before that, touchscreen phones are far less responsive and very much lemons. Today, we don’t even need a stylus to use a touchscreen phone and Internet on the move has become more or less a reality as long as there’s cellular or a WIFI connection.

None of these would make me respect Steve Jobs though. In fact, his apparently lack of participation in charity and philanthropic efforts does not endear him to me at all. Surprisingly, I found a reason to respect him and let me quote from this article:

In the name of protecting children from the evils of erotica – “freedom from porn” — and adults from one another, Jobs has banned from being installed on his devices gay art, gay travel guides, political cartoons, sexy pictures, Congressional candidate pamphlets, political caricature, Vogue fashion spreads, systems invented by the opposition, and other things considered morally suspect.

From the perspective of IT support and administration, I can understand why he wants to keep opposing systems off his systems. It’s the same as why I want to stop users from installing anything they used at home onto the PCs in the office. And as someone who is against promoting and celebrating homosexuality, I can most certainly appreciate his stand on sexual morality. After all, it has always been my stand that while I can accept as a friend anyone who has decided to be homosexual, it doesn’t mean I have to endorse that choice or decision.

For all that’s worth and though I didn’t think so originally, I’ll give credit to Steve Jobs for the Apple he created and the marks it has continually made in consumer electronics and personal computing, and for being uncompromising in his stand on how the devices are used.

Rest in Peace, sir. The world may probably not see someone like you again for a long time.

Recommended Reads:
Chillycraps : An apple that changed the world

Tech Review – BlackBerry OS6

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BlackBerry OS6 is finally available to non-touch devices like the 9700 Bold 2 in Singapore some time last week. I have been dying to get it loaded onto my Bold 2 since the Torch was released, for the simple reason that it comes with the new WebKit browser. Once Ridzuan mentioned on Plurk he was installing OS6 on his BlackBerry, I immediately proceed to Starhub’s download page via BlackBerry’s site to obtain a copy.

Other than the fact that it took a little bit of time downloading it, upgrading over the previous version was a breeze for me, though I am not really sure whether it was really a quick install or I was simply too busy doing other things to keep track of the time that day. Once it has completed booting up, the BES [BlackBerry Enterprise Server] Activation kicked in on its own to reactivate after a while. After that, I began to explore the features.

BlackBerry OS6 has added two main new features, such as ‘Trays’ and the ‘Universal Search’ – which allows me to quickly search items on the device to find what I want. This is way better that the previous versions of the OS, in which searching for items can sometimes be a real pain.

However, I start experiencing some odd issues the next day. For the whole of the next morning, I was forced to repeatedly restart the handset because it always appear to be busy loading some thing – a little timer icon keeps appearing (much like Windows’ annoying hourglass). The set’s performance became so sluggish to the point of being unusable and I had contemplated wiping it using Javaloader to reload the previous OS version. I checked the remaining space and I ruled out a memory leak issue because that number remained fairly stable. However, the set miraculously recovered in the afternoon and it has since been behaving. I have no idea what caused that period of sluggishness, since I had made no changes on the set to make it go away.

The browser is nice, and now there are separate icons for the BlackBerry Browser and the Internet Browser (at least for this version for StarHub, since Ridzuan informed me that there was only one browser icon on his). If I recalled correctly, the user has to go into the options to set it so the handset ‘knows’ which browser to go through in the older version. It took me a while to understand the difference between the two, and that is the BlackBerry Browser loads data through BES (or BIS, depending on what the user subscribes to). In the case of the BES, it allows companies to block out undesirable sites and grant access to the company’s intranet on the handset. My understanding is that all data going through the BlackBerry Browser is via the BES (or BIS), and thus ‘free’ for a user with an unlimited BlackBerry access plan.

On the other hand, the Internet Browser loads sites via the ISP instead, and if a user is not careful he will incur a whole load of data charges. This simply means anyone can buy a BlackBerry and use it without the push mail services, though I wonder what is the point of doing so. However, please do not just take my word for it on this matter and make sure to check with the telco. I will not take any responsibilities if anyone incur a large phone bill as a result of the data charges! (I also noticed that the WAP Browser icon is missing and I don’t miss it, since it is my opinion that WAP is obsolete.)

I put the webkit browser through the Acid3 test and it scored a nice 100/100. That was way better than the one on the previous OS which scored just 92 (and even better than that Windows Phone 7 one on the Samsung Omnia7 which never gets past 12/100). It also has tabbed browsing which means I can open several pages and toggle between them. Unfortunately, there is one thing about the browser I didn’t like – and that is I keep getting the message that some sites are too large to load and the tab has to be closed which became very annoying.

Even so, I liked the OS way better than all the versions before. For those who are supporting BlackBerry smartphones in the corporate, it will take a little getting used to. As far as I am concerned, the items under the ‘Options’ icon has changed rather drastically. My recommendation is to get OS6 on at least a set used by those providing support simply to learn how to navigate around it and guide users over the phone.

The following are some screen shots I took from the handset using a 3rd party software… and talking about that, will Research In Motion [RIM] put in that nifty feature which allows me to just press a few buttons and capture the screen like the iPhone iCrap? I thought that would be neat!

[portfolio_slideshow]

Random Discourse – 2010 Recap

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My pick for the top 10 news for the year 2010 (not in order of importance or significance)m and my opinion…

~ * ~

1. Mas Selamat ‘returns’ to Singapore
Malaysia finally ‘returned’ Mas Selamat on September 24 this year. I wondered whether they only did so after they had ‘phiak-phiak-ed him raw and shoot inside’ a few times.

Mas Selamat probably revealed very little useful intelligence to both Singapore and Malaysia, but what really amazed (and even amused) us about his ‘return’ is the revelation that his brother and niece harbored him and somewhat assisted in his escape to Malaysia. It is most shocking that the ISD didn’t keep tab on his family members and if I am not wrong, they even talked about the difficulty to keep tab on them. Meanwhile, they have the manpower to mount a manhunt in the jungle that lasted several days.

The incompetence and failure of Wong Kan Seng Kenna Sai is so glaring and instead of committing hara-kiri at the Padang resigning from his post to atone for his failures, he is made co-ordinating minister for National Security.

Is it a wonder why I (and even my old mother) don’t feel safe anymore?

2. Ming Yi’s Jail Term and Release
It is mind-bogging why his jail term was cut from 10 months to 6, considering the fact that his actions (along with those of TT Durai) has caused a drop in confidence in charity organisations among the general public. That means it will be harder for charities to raise fund and indirectly that means it will be harder to help those in need.

It is my considered opinion that laws and punishment for such ‘white collar crimes’ to be reviewed as there is an obvious disparity in punishment compared to some other crimes. I recalled there was once I was at the subordinate courts to ensure a friend don’t jump bail, and one of the person charged for stealing 6 packs of rice and was sentence to several years in jail. That’s not mentioning that a maid who had sex with an under-aged boy was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Frankly, whatever lingering sympathy I had for Ming Yi is gone after reading about an allegedly extravagant ceremony held in honor of his restoration as abbot. Though the temple has come clean on the amount spent, the question on whether it was necessary lingers.

This has no doubt further outraged many people who already felt that the sentence was too light and it reinforced my impression that Ming Yi is not repentant. In fact, one outraged individual commented that he will be ‘sending a pink G-string’ before the year is out, probably with regard to Ming Yi’s questionable relationship with accomplice Raymond Yeung.

Unfortunately, I no longer remember where I read that so I can’t share this hilarious comment with everyone.

3. City Harvest Probe
The investigations initiated by the Commissioner of Charities (COC) are apparently still ongoing, since there has been no further news on this matter since May. I wouldn’t comment much more on the matter itself directly until the investigations are over. In fact, even if some people are charged when the investigations are over, there’s not really much to talk about until a court of law has passed judgement.

While there is nothing much revealed by the authorities, what is interesting are some of the facts uncovered by the main stream media – such as the extravagant lifestyle that ex-pastor Ho Yeow Sun enjoyed in Los Angeles, the businesses run by ex-pastor (now businessman) Kong Hee, and the apartment(s?) the couple owned in District 6. It almost appeared that pastoring a church is in itself a ‘good business venture’, though I would be happy to see ex-pastors Kong and Ho ‘give until they hurt’.

What is even more interesting, however, is the reaction from what some considered its strongest ‘rival’ – New Creation Church – which immediately initiated internal audits of its own and released reports in an all too apparent attempt to stave off attention and criticism to itself.

Whatever the outcome of the investigations are, a ‘religious corporation’ is the worst of organised religion and the next worse thing to religious politics.

4. Pastor Rony Tan called up by ISD
The pastor of Light House Evangelism was called up by the ISD after he made some rude comments about Taoists and Buddhists.

First of all, it is common knowledge that Christian teachings held all other religions to be false. Most religions are exclusive. Even though different religious might agree that there are similarities in what their deity or founder teaches, few religions (if not none of them) would say: “If you do not believe in what I teach, check the opinion of *this other deity*”

I would have objected if someone deliberately go into a church and make a fuss about what is being preached in there. But posting the video online on a public site like Youtube is unacceptable. In fact, even when it is said within the congregation, there is no certainty that all attendees are Christians and that certain non-believers wouldn’t be offended. It does the Christian Gospel no good to preach a message that in any way denigrate the beliefs of another person.

My personal opinion is that while we as Christians may rejoice the turning of one man to God, we should not condemn those who has not. Often it is the actions and words of Christians that drives another person away from the Grace of God.

The messenger is the message. Let us be the salt and light as Jesus has commanded.

(There was a follow up attempt during the Chinese New Year period on the pastor’s alleged ‘homophobic’ remarks. I am tired of the activism of certain individuals pertaining to the matter of homosexuality. It annoys me that they had apparently spent their Chinese New Year holidays – a Chinese holiday dedicated to the reunion of the family and family celebration – to purposely look for videos of the pastor’s sermons to make a fuss. There is a difference between finding a remark offensive in a video and deliberately looking for videos containing offensive remarks.)

5. Orchard Road ‘Flood’
Before June 16th and July 17th this year, Orchard Road has not been flooded since 1984. If I recalled correctly, an article published in 1990 on one of the local papers even boasts that Orchard Road will never flood again.

What was really infuriating and disappointing wasn’t the fact that one of our major tourist attraction was flooded, but the fact that there was little accountability from those in charge. An excuse for the flood was found for the first incident in June 16th, but that was soon proven wrong when Orchard Road again flooded on July 17th. As if to rub salt on an open wound, SIngaporeans are told that ‘no engineering will solve the issue’.

Yep. No words of comfort for the poor shop owners who suffered loss in terms of material and business, and not even an attempt to pacify us with the usual ‘give the government gahmen time to evaluate the situation and to come up with a solution’ excuse. We are simply told nothing can be done about it. Are we expected to just shut the fxxk up after that?

It is high time that the Tali-PAP remember that the people are their bosses and they are not our overlords. If there is no humility in this gahmen nor any desire to serve the people, then it is high time (at least to me) that this gahmen be taught a lesson at the ballot box.

Never say no to your bosses!

6. The passing of Dr Goh Keng Swee
One of the founding fathers of our nation passed away after a long battle with his illness. In fact, since Lao Lee said that Goh single-handedly negotiated for the separation from Malaysia in spite of his wishes to remain in the Federation, I would have considered Dr Goh (and not Lao Lee) to be the Father of our young nation!

Much has been revealed about Dr Goh after his death. One of the things that touched me most was his dedication, sincerity and humility. Dr Goh was the son of a rich Malacca family, yet he would climb flights of stairs during the election campaign into slumps to shake the hands of his voters. It was even reported that he went to China as an advisor for absolutely no renumeration, a far cry from the money-faced mini$ter$ we have today.

You will be missed and long remembered, O Father of Singapore.

7. The passing of Mdm Kwa Geok Choo
Her contribution to the survival of our nation by having the Water agreement written into Malaysia’s Constitution will not be forgotten as well. But it is not just for this that I will remember her.

Though I have never met Mdm Kwa, I have read the many accounts of the lady who is the wife of Lao Lee. None of it is negative. These accounts include those of an older man who recall the story of Mdm Kwa joining a queue at a post office, and my friend’s experience as a guard during his NS in the Istana.

All of these accounts present an image of a humble person. Mdm Kwa’s refusal to flaunt her position as the wife of a Prime Minister has earn my respect regardless of my disdain for some of the old man’s recent remarks and comments.

Rest in peace, Mdm Kwa. You are a role model for the consorts of all future Prime Ministers. You have set a standard that remained unsurpassed to this day.

8. Resurgent Secret Societies
While the murder at Downtown East maybe shocking to some, it is not new though it has been a long time since I read about teenage gang fights. The last one I recalled was when I was still a secondary school kid – where someone was stabbed to death in Liang Court. That was a good 2 decades ago, at least.

It is my considered opinion that we should put all of these delinquents to death if possible. The next alternative would be to lock them away for as long as possible and throw away the key. The reason is simply personal, because I get phone calls from my nagging mother these days for just being out late. It has given her the impression that law and order has deteriorated very badly. Frankly, I am almost forty years old and I certainly don’t appreciate a ‘curfew’ and nagged like a young teenager.

So, kill these bastards all and let God sort them out. I wouldn’t even care about the means employed.

9. Wikileaks
I have always considered the invasion of Iraq to be unjust. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. While the video released by Wikileaks showing the murder of civilians and a reporter demonstrated the callous disregard of lives by certain elements in the American military, it is questionable whether the release of the video was any good at all. I don’t recall any of those personnel were punished, but it definitely outraged the Muslims all around the world and will definitely endanger the lives of US military personnel still engaged in the Afghan conflict.

Beyond that, the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks is nothing interesting. It would have been more interesting had it been just celebrity gossip or ‘secrets’. While these cables may have caused embarrassment to some countries (even Singapore), it reveals nothing more than what some of us already known. In fact, had the same things been said in the coffee shop, it would be nothing more than gossip. It is my considered opinion that the revelation of this cables has done absolutely nothing to contribute to greater transparency in the operation of gahmens. Above all, it would have worsen relationships between certain countries and might even have stalled and set back certain diplomatic initiatives.

As a result of my negative view of Wikileaks, I mused in a Plurk that China’s Great Firewall (GFW) technology is better employed not to wall around users, but to wall around undesirable content instead. One person vehemently opposes this. His opinion was that no one should decide for anyone what information should reach the general public and it is up to readers to form an opinion. He may have a point since I don’t really care whether some people want to taste poison to decide for themselves whether it would be lethal or not. Then again, I suspect I would be denounced even for just saying this since who am I to even decide it is ‘poison’ in the first place?

Either way, Wikileaks is great for advertising certain products. For e.g.

Wikileaks… Leaks can be terrible and disastrous. Buy only this brand of condom / sanitation pad / diapers! No leaks! No leaks at all!!

10. Property Market Cooling Measures
The gahmen has taken action twice this year to cool the property market so I would not go into the actual details.

However, it has been a long time since Singaporeans feedback complained about the skyrocketing property prices, even if they might not have pin the blame on foreigners back then. The matter of a rising COV (Cash Over Value) is an indicator of this problem and the matter was brought up in a ‘coffee shop talk’ organised by the Young NTUC in September last year. Back then, mini$ter Grace Fu said the COV is not a matter of concern because COV has statistically remained flat at zero for long periods. Certainly, the gahmen is almost like the grizzly bear which has just awaken from hibernation, as only now has it finally heard and reacted to the groans of the people.

Mah Bow Tan Mabok Tongue and the Tali-PAP gahmen can say that rising property prices is a great thing as it increase the value of the asset owned by Singaporeans. But as a person who still have about 12 more years of housing loan to pay off, it really doesn’t matter a lot to me whether property prices are going up or not. After all, where am I going to live if I sell it off to cash in the profits? But I am definitely concerned about housing prices because it will be increasingly difficult for our next generation to own one.

Without a home to call their own, what else is there for our citizen army to defend? Are we to defend a place where foreigners live in luxury in a time of peace but flee when trying time approaches? It is curious that the gahmen has taken measures to address the two main gripes of Singaporeans this year – the broken immigration and the housing policies. In fact, it is even giving money to full time NSmen (NSFs) and Operationally Ready NSMen (aka reservists) as an ‘appreciation of their contribution’ to the country.

Some of them maybe pacified by these measures. But to me, it is too little and too late.

~ * ~

The above sums up my choice of the top 10 news for the year 2010.

Samsung Omnia 7 – Dislikes

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After using the Omnia 7 for a month and a half, these are the main things I don’t like about it (in order of most dislike to least dislike)…

  1. No cut and paste.
    So, after I read a page I like, I can’t cut and paste the link and email to my friends or post to Facebook like I did on the Blackberry Storm. I can’t figure out why Microsoft released it without this feature when this was the most laughed about thing about the first generation iPhone! (Rumor is that this will be fixed in the next update in February.)

  2. No Chinese text input.
    Duh! 他奶奶的微软，为什么没有中文输入法?!

  3. Can’t customise the ringtones / alerts / alarm ringer.
    It’s not the default ones are great at all. At least Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s default ringtone are nice. At least give me Windows’ startup.wav, can?

  4. Browser fails acid3 test.
    Doesn’t even get past 12/100 while Blackberry Bold 2 scored 100/100. So… fix that!

  5. Can’t directly manage contacts on phone.
    It is far easier to manage a contact from the mail client it pulled the contacts from.
    Doesn’t anyone writing this program ever have friends on Windows Live Mail having more than one email address? Try linking two Windows Live Mail contacts…

  6. No multi-tasking.
    If I switch to another app and back, it will reload everything. I.hate.waiting, geddit Microsoft?

  7. Fussy about the video format.
    Only plays .FLV and .WMV files, and even so some of them can’t be loaded to the device for unknown reasons.
    And it is rather ‘painful’ converting all those videos I downloaded from the Internet so I can watch them on the MRT.

  8. No file manager.
    Come on, even if you don’t allow me to open them on the phone, at least allow me to use it as a storage medium!

I wished it had Google Map too… but that’s not a dislike, just something I wanted because I liked it better than Bing Maps which came with the phone.

Recommended Read:
Chillycraps: Last Flight of the Harriers

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