Month: June 2009

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.

Commentary – Hopeless SPH

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The caption in Chinese reads: Helicopter hovering at low altitude caused public to suspect it to be part of ongoing anti-vice operations (Taken from Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报])

The pathetic level of journalism in our Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) newspapers just never seem to get out of the cesspool it is in. From biased reporting on the Opposition Parties and their members, to the one-sided and seditious articles written during the AWARE issue, to the kind of idiotic readers’ letters published on the short-lived STREATS free-sheet and some times even the Straits Stooge Times Forum page, the SPH has not only successfully positioned itself as a stooge for the government gahmen but also succeeded in presenting to the world that Singaporeans are ignorant and idiotic. Thank you very much, especially to the Stooge Times because foreigners reading our so-called national daily puts us all to collective shame when some of the more idiotic comments are published for all to see. It amazes me that it never occurred to the Editors allowing those letters to be published make us wonder about their general intelligence level as by allowing those articles to be published would mean a certain level of endorsement.

Thus, I had generally avoid criticising the tabloid like reporting in the evening Chinese tabloids like Shin Ming [新明] and Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报] even when I know a lot of those articles published – especially those on the Entertainment column – we should all read with a pinch of salt. After all, my friends and I do find those articles hilarious and entertaining and there is nothing wrong about it. We all needed something to laugh about. However, I had not expect it to go the same way as our English papers – making us all look like idiots. Thanks to this particular caption, now even PRC Nationals or any foreigner who can read Chinese will be laughing at Singaporeans’ ‘collective ignorance’.

I have a high regard for my fellow Singaporeans and certainly, even while some might have misconception about what these helicopter overflights are about, most of us would have known they are a part of our National Day Parade (NDP) rehearsals. While there is an ongoing and persistent operation against the street walkers in Geylang recently, most Singaporeans are also aware that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF), which are under the Ministry of Defense (MID) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) respectively, have a separate chain of command and very different roles in the security of this country.

Thank you very much, SPH, for your relentless effort in making Singaporeans looked like they couldn’t even tie their own shoelaces or feed themselves without someone helping them.


Recommended Reads:
StraitsBlogs.com: 六四断想

毋忘六四

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一九八九年六月三日，当时的我再过两个多星期就十八岁。

而在六月三日的晚上到六月四日清晨在北京发生了骇人听闻的惨剧 – 开往北京天安门广场的中国人民解放军向手无寸铁的学生和人民开枪。天安门那晚发生的事，我是到了第二天晚间新闻才知道的。

一直以来，我个人是非常亲中的，但是我一直无法认可和赞同中国政府当年的做法。不只我个人不赞同，就连当年三十八军的军长 徐勤先，也抗命并且拒绝执行所谓的 “戒严任务”。在军事法庭审讯期间，这位军长非但没有认罪，还说了: 人民军队从来没有镇压人民的历史，我绝对不能玷污这个历史。 这一个铁铮铮的汉子，就因为如此被关押了五年！

中国政府称这为一场暴乱。这二十年来仍然不承认那天所犯的罪行，连死亡数字都含糊其词，甚至还曾称天安门广场上没死一个人。但是如果真的如此，为何有群可怜的母亲建立了 天安门母亲 这样一个网站，苦苦追索大屠杀的真相？难道说死难者门都是城外被杀的暴徒吗？

二十年了过去了，虽然中国的经济发展有目共睹。但是，在新中国成立一个甲子的今年，中国政府这时更加应该放下这个历史包袱，不要再继续以文革式的手法或者以这二十年来的经济成果来掩埋当年真相。应当平反六四，为六四的死难者和给中国人民和全世界一个合理的说法来。不要再让这一事件继续撕裂世界的华族社群！不要谈到南京大屠杀就理直气壮，讲到六四就成了缩头乌龟！

让真相大白！大家毋忘六四！

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