Category: Info

The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition

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I went to the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition last Friday (4th Sep). There weren’t much of the scrolls I see except some fragments and personally I would say it would be better called the ‘History of the Bible Exhibition’ instead.

After clearing the entrance we are shepherded into a small room where we are shown a short video – talking about the invention of writing – from Sumerian cuneiforms to Egyptian hieroglyphs and then to the alphabet. It also talked about how inscriptions are first placed on stone blocks, then to tablets and finally to animal skin parchments, papyrus and then paper. In it is also the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and how they are used to verify the other translation of Bibles we have today.

Following that, we are led upstairs to the exhibits which are displayed in 3 different rooms (or halls, or whatever you like to call them) and each section is dedicated to a part of the history of the Bible and a guide will give you a brief account of history of the Bible in that room. In the first room contains some fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls, and also the Holocaust Survivor Scroll. In this room, a brief historical background of the Second Temple period and the Jewish Rebellion against the Roman Empire between 68 – 73AD is given. You will hear about the tragic end of the Jewish defenders of the fortress at Masada, and how the scrolls were destroyed and then left in their sorry state. At the end of it you will understand how the fragments are pieced together and also the scientific methods which are used to identify and confirm that each fragment is placed where it should belong.

In the second room we were then given a brief account on how the English Bible came about, how the printing press make mass publication possible, and how the other language then proliferated. There are several copies of the old Bibles in different languages on display in the room – and some as as huge as bricks and some going as far back as the reign of Edward VI.

Going on to the third room, are the display of the works of the main figures of that led to Protestant Reformation, for e..g John Calvin, William Tyndale, Martin Luther etc. There is a brief talk on how each of these figures contributed to Protestant Christianity and the theology that were passed down to us in the modern church today.

This is why I said it would be more aptly called the ‘History of the Bible Exhibition’ instead. There isn’t very much of the Dead Sea Scrolls you will see here and frankly I wouldn’t expect the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem to allow all of their most important relic to be taken away and put on display elsewhere. Even so, I am surprised that photography (though without flash) is even allowed. That is the reason why I will be going back for another viewing, because I would like to take better photos of some of the displays.

The following is photos of some of the displayed items I took using the Blackberry Storm.

Coffeeshop Talk – Show Me the $$$

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I attended yet another “Young NTUC’s Coffeeshop Talk” on 3rd September. This is the second I attended, with the first one more than 6 months ago. The guest of honor this time is Ms Grace Fu (Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education).

The talk started off with an introduction to the mission (and / or vision) of the Ministry of National Development, and an explanation of each of the points. This include examples – like the Pinnacle at Duxton, the Southern Ridges Walk, plans to diversify commercial activities to the Kallang River Basin and Jurong Lake area (with success at Tampines) etc. In general, it explains the MND’s role as not only being a ministry of building houses, but also one with a plan to make Singapore a more attractive place. The introduction then ended with a multimedia presentation of development of Marina Bay and what it will look like upon its completion.

After which, the audience is invited to ask questions. Surprisingly, there were no questions about the MND’s mission and also the Marina Bay development. The first question asked revolved around the ever increasing COV (Cost over Valuation) and what the government gahmen plans to curb it, and whether more gahmen help is in place to keep housing affordable.

If I have gotten Ms Grace Fu’s answers right, it is her opinion that the days of ‘afforable housing’ that our parents know of is long gone and we can stop thinking about it (not her words but what I understood). The minister further mentioned that the gahmen has no intention to further raise subsidies as a result of the increase in COV, other than to very specific groups of needy people. Josephine Yeo (MP, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio GRC) elaborated further that she is against increasing subsidies because that will only encourage people to go for even larger, more expensive housing and driving the cost up further (something I agrees with very much). Someone else also mentioned that curbing COV with legislation only encourages under-the-table transactions which will not help with the situation very much.

The minister reminded everyone that valuation of flats is not something controlled by the gahmen and the COV is a result of transaction done between buyers and sellers. She mentioned that we could go through records of transactional prices and see for ourselves that COV has almost remained at zero most of the time, and at times even negative (i.e. flats are sold below valuation). It is my opinion that the minister seems to be in the opinion that control of the COV is in the hands of the buyers. In short, buyers should walk away from over-paying too much over valuation. On top of which, she mentioned that the gahmen has to allow prices of flats to appreciate, as matured estates with more amenities will fetch a higher price by default.

I do not necessary agree with the minister on her argument that the ‘regulation’ of COV is in the hands of the buyers, since my perception is that while Singaporeans may walk away from such a deal, certain cash-rich foreigners may not hesitate to pay above valuation which in the end fouls up everything for us. In fact, I have always been under the impression that prior to Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997, some Hong Konger’s were paying way above valuation causing property prices to spiral upwards. In effect, there’s only so much Singaporean property buyers looking for a roof over their head could do.

The questions then moved on to the matter of the Ethnic Integration Policy (Ethnic Quota, or ‘EIP’ for short) maintained in HDB estates. It was asked why the quota is so strict, and why it can’t be eased as it was noted that some flats were left empty for years, and not sold even though there are buyers of certain races who want a flat in a particular area. One pointed out that it is a waste to leave the flat unsold until another buyer which meets the racial quota comes along. In answer, Grace Fu reminded all that it is national policy that an MP be representative of all races instead of their own. As such the EIP is also to prevent the appearance of townships with a heavy concentration of a particular race. As far as I am concerned, the minister basically gave text book answers and didn’t quite answer the whole question, though everyone understands the necessity of the EIP.

At this point of time a poll was taken on whether the attendees think it is just our luck or good planning that should Singapore recover quickly from the present recession. There is no surprises here, with a result showing 13% on good luck, and 87% on good planning. I didn’t place my vote, since I am in my opinion that it is both good luck and good planning. After all, our economy is so geared for export that we are the first in Asia to enter into recession not long after the Credit Crisis hits the U.S. There is of course no surprise we will rebound quickly once consumer confidence is restored in the U.S. However, I must admit that the steps taken to limit the damages from this crisis, such as Jobs Credit, is pretty good planning in a way.

Finally, a quick poll on taken whether one would be upset and disappointed when their children send them away to an old folks home when they are old. This eased the ‘tension’ on the matter of housing, and surprisingly the results were pretty close – with 52% saying they would, while the remaining 48% saying they wouldn’t.

The main topic brought up with regard to this poll, was whether legislation is necessary to enforce filial piety and the taking care of parents, why children would take their parents to home etc. From what I gathered, I think there is not so much an objection to people sending their parents to homes, but rather, the dismay that some people actually then abandoned their parents there and also not pay the homes for the services. It is almost certain most people are against legislation enforcing a matter of morality and I for certain is against the gahmen taking up the role of an arbitrator in moral issues. It is however clear, that there are no objections on using the already in place Maintenance of Parents Act to obtain payment from those who abandoned their parents to old folks homes.

Other topics involved the reasons in why some children would take their parents to old folks homes, from the lack of day care centers which is easy for their parents to travel to and also those who are afraid allowing their elderly parents to roam around causing social problems, such as losing their way home. After all, the two-child policy results in smaller families with only two children or less, and their own work commitments would make it difficult to take care of their folks at home. This reminds me of the situation of the mother in Jack Neo’s ‘Money No Enough 2’, and I can understand the helplessness and the lack of control over their situation.

The session rounded up after this, as it was running late (almost 9:30pm) on a Thursday night. Surprisingly, the matter on religious harmony was not touched on even though I noticed a poll was prepared for it and the minister did not touch on her other portfolio – Education.

All in all, I am still encouraged by such talks. While it may not necessary help us understand gahmen policies, not to mention that I may not always agree with all of the explanations and answers, it does help me understand more about what fellow Singaporeans think, and indirectly their reasoning behind the choices they made.

Recommended Reads:
Gerald Giam: 76-year old cardboard lady in Singapore
Nathan’s Toasty Technology page: Graphical User Interface Timeline

Anti-Social Media: Blocking Responses of Irritating Plurkers

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You have un-followed someone, and even put that goon to the block list. Yet, you are unable to get that goon’s responses from your friend’s Plurks. And that loser takes every opportunity to irritate you to no end.

Fret no more! If you are a Firefox user, salvation is here. From now on you will never see any response about the idiot again.

This is how you can put an end to that nuisance once and for all.

  1. Install the Greasemonkey add-on. Just click on the page here, and then just click the ‘Add to Firefox’. It is pretty straight forward.


    (If the link doesn’t work, just go to Google and search for ‘greasemonkey’.)

  2. Once you are done, restart Firefox so the Greasemonkey add-on will take effect. You are now set to install the ‘Block Plurk Users’ script. Just goto this page and click ‘Install’. Again this is quite straight forward.

  3. Now, login to Plurk, and find a Plurk in which the asshat has made some comments. For e.g.

  4. When you mouse over the name of the asshat, a ‘down arrow’ will appear. Click on that arrow, and a new option now appears – Block from Replies.

  5. Click once on it and the click ‘OK’ on the message box that asks: ‘Are you sure you want to block *asshat’s name here* from replies?’

  6. Hit F5 to refresh the Plurk page. Then return to the Plurk which formerly contains the asshat’s comments. It will now be out of sight, and out of mind for good.

    It will remain so until you clear the cookies in your browser.

Now, enjoy the peace and quietness. Ahhhh…. ignorance is bliss. And you can use this thing on me too, if you can’t stand me at all.

Blackberry Storm – Second Look

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The replacement Blackberry Storm which RIM sent from their HK Office actually arrived one week after I bricked the original set. I had managed to obtain it during the Vesak Day weekend for a second look.

It doesn’t look very much different from the previous set except this set has some East Asian language support – except for Japanese. Even though it maybe a fact that the Japanese has more superior 3G handsets, I find it odd that this Storm has no Japanese language support. Perhaps, it was just left out when it left the factory.

As a result of my previous experience, I find this Storm much easier to handle than the previous set. In fact, while it takes a bit of getting used to (which is the same when you moved from a Blackberry with a scroll-wheel to a scroll-ball one), the interface and performance is not as atrocious as what I have read. Basically, I failed to understand the bad reviews and comments I keep seeing in Twitter or in blogs about the Storm. While it may not be an iPhone killer and it may not live up to the performance expectations of some Blackberry users, it is still a beautiful set.

Anyway, on demand by some friends that I made some screen shots, I downloaded JL_Cmder (a javaloader utility) a while ago to capture them directly off the Storm instead of taking photos of it. I even deliberately touch some buttons so it will light up when the screen shot is captured. Enjoy!


OS Version
Wallpaper & Keypad
Main Screen #1

Main Screen #2
Phone Dialer
Browser in Portrait Mode

Zoom In (Portrait Mode)
Browser in Landscape Mode
Full Keyboard

Switching Languages

“Bricking” a Blackberry Storm

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After previewing the Blackberry Storm at Geek Terminal – courtesy of Paddy Tan from Bak2u – I was itching to get my hands on one for more detailed ‘testing’

After some hassling, a friend who obtained a Storm overseas finally agreed to let me have a go at it. After picking it up at the MRT Station, I happily swapped out the simcard from my office-issue Blackberry 8820 once I returned to the office. I definitely didn’t like the design of the simcard slot and I wished RIM had design it like the Pearl or the 7290s. It is damned difficult to remove the simcard inserted in the Storm. Even the iPhone comes with a little hole where a pin can be inserted to eject the simcard!

Anyway, in spite of my earlier perception, the Blackberry Storm is just about as large as the 8820, with one notable difference. The USB slot that the Storm use is different from those of its predecessors since the 7290. That means, after upgrading from another Blackberry model to the Storm, the old USB cable can no longer be used, unlike the old ones where it is interchangeable between the 7100, 7290, 81xx, 870x, 88xx etc. That shouldn’t be an issue since it’s the standard mini-USB cable, not some proprietary cable that Sony Ericsson is very fond of using. I would skip the specifications since they can be found on RIM’s website.

So after putting in the simcard and the battery, the Storm (like all Blackberry handsets) automatically powered up. Just like the any other Blackbery, it still takes awhile to initialise and power up. Once the handset established a connection with the M1 mobile network, I look for the Blackberry browser icon and fired up the browser. The first site I visited was of course my own blog. I had to see for myself how that compares to the browser on the iPhone.

Compared to the 8820 where the blog loads oddly, with certain parts appearing where they shouldn’t, the Storm loaded it much like my desktop browser would, albeit in a minimised state. As far as appearance is concerned, it doesn’t look very much different when loaded on the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone where finger gestures zooms in or out, on the Storm you tap the screen once to zoom in, and if I recalled correctly, it isn’t as easy to zoom out. I would admit that definitely wouldn’t appeal to iPhone users at all!

Anyway, I wasn’t very familiar in navigating on the Storm’s browser, but after awhile I did found out I could toggle it show a little pointer which I can move around with my finger just like I did with the scroll ball on the 8820. The actual Plurk page failed to load properly, but the mobile version worked, though I have no idea why it came up in simplified Chinese mode just like any other mobile phone – a problem that does not exist on the 8820. Sadly, the original OS that RIM installed on this particular Storm did not have Asian language support so I could see zilch when some plurks appeared in other languages.

Back to the main screen of the Storm. The arrangement of the icons also looked a little different. I have yet to figure out how I can hide or move the icons. I found out that Instant messengers are now assigned to its own sub-folder, while applications goes to another. This is very unlike the older models where everything is loaded on the same screen and you can rearrange them as you like.

I tried downloading some programs and I am not sure whether it’s just psychological, but everything seems to install faster. Installing Bloomberg Mobile, Windows Live Messenger and Facebook were all under a few minutes. That’s comparable to the 3G Blackberry 8707.

The Storm comes with what I called a ‘feedback’ capacitive touchscreen. For the uninitiated, that means you have to actually press on the screen itself to activate something. This is unlike the iPhone where just tapping the icon will do. I originally disliked this feature while my friend Alex loved it. He mentioned that prevents him from activating the wrong icon since touch screens he has worked with, have the tendency to ‘misinterpret’ his touches and activate things even when he didn’t want them to. I begin to appreciate this feature after that.

Sending a message is not as easy as the other Blackberry models. That is perhaps the reason why most people say that the Storm is slow. The touch screen is at times not as sensitive near the edges perhaps because of the way it is designed. Surprisingly, this is also where I actually start to appreciate the Storm’s ‘feedback’ touch screen, and understand the point my friend Alex raised. The reason being that it reduced my errors when typing since I can now see what lights up under my fingers before I press on it. After a while one would notice that when the wrong letter or number (such as the keys ‘f’ and ‘g’) keeps lighting up when touched with one thumb, using the other thumb will do just fine. I am sure some people would hate that but that has reduced my use of the backspace key and prevents me from ‘over-stretching’ one thumb to the other side of the screen. I suspect that would actually reduce the risk of dropping the set.

Still, I didn’t quite like the on-screen keyboard because it covered up much of the screen when entering text in landscape mode. The on-screen keypad in portrait mode isn’t much better, because it isn’t as easy to use as that of the Pearl or the any other mobile phones. These are some of the things I definitely hope that RIM will fix in a new OS release!

Of course, there’s one thing I definitely hate about the Storm. At times, when just slightly tilted, it changes from portrait to landscape or vice versa. Then at times I actually had to shake the damned thing so that it becomes aware of the change of orientation. Also, it will continue to do this even when the device is locked, and I personally think that is a waste of energy.

My take is that the Blackberry Storm is quite adequate for users like me who uses it to browse the web, or reply to messages and SMS infrequently. It should also meet some of the basic multimedia needs – like taking quick photos, storing music (there’s a slot for a mini-SD card) etc. I am quite sure users who like things fast will definitely hate it.

Anyway I did not have the chance to try out intensively the other multimedia features though the few pictures I took in low-light mode with the camera are quite bad. I wished I had uploaded them before I ‘bricked’ the device. [Note: To ‘brick’ a device simply means rendering it completely inoperable while attempting to update it.]

So how the hell I ‘bricked’ the Storm? I decided I wanted to find out how Chinese pinyin text input would look like. I also wanted to see how well does it support East Asian languages on the display so I downloaded the latest OS release available to one of the telcos in Singapore. Yep, it doesn’t matter they just had the Storm available on that same day [24-Apr-09]!

Just like I would upgrade the OS of any other Blackberry, I checked that the version of my Desktop Manager is compatible with the Storm, happily fired it up and selected what I want to install. All went well for the first stage, in which the Storm would restart for the first time.

Desktop Manager patiently waited for the Storm to signal that it’s ready for Stage Two, which never happened. After several minutes, it timed out.

On my system, the USB detection for the Storm goes up and down every few minutes. When I unplugged the Storm to check, and I found it is stuck in perpetual reboot mode (starts up -> white screen -> error too fast for me to catch -> repeats).

For the next 4 hours I attempted to recover the device with articles obtained from RIM’s official knowledge base. None of which worked. By then it was 5am in which I was so exhausted that I simply knocked out after crawling to my bed.

The next day I informed my sheepish friend. I assured him I hadn’t tried updating with some hacked, beta or leaked OS. Because he obtained this set overseas, he was also concerned that RIM might consider the warranty void and refuse to replace it. After contacting RIM, it appeared that they have come across such issues before and without much fuss offered to replace it for free as long as we pay to ship ‘the brick’ back to them.

While all is well, I am a little concerned with this because updating the OS on the Blackberry has always been hassle free. I had updated at least 50 or so Blackberry handsets from ancient 7730s to 8820s. Articles on the RIM knowledge base would resolve any issues as long as I looked hard enough. I really hope this is a one off case, because users might get even more frustrated with the Storm if they are already frustrated by the interface.

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