It’s finally raining now in the afternoon of the second day of this Lunar New Year. I think this must be about one of the hottest ever Lunar New Year. It’s been so hot I already feel uncomfortable the moment I step out of the house to go anywhere. So thank goodness it is raining now. Oops. It seems it has stopped. But well, hopefully that brief shower cools down the ground a little, otherwise it feels as if the whole of Singapore was a giant frying pan.
Google just launched yet another new service this week. It’s basically a Twitter-like service called Buzz. Not everything Googles jumps into actually takes off really successfully, so it is still to early to say how Buzz will work out. However, at some point, it starts to get horrifying how Google is everywhere. Steve Jobs, at a recent Apple company town hall meeting, made Google out to be evil. Is Google going to be the Skynet of Terminator fame?
This is a UOB ATM encountering a “system problem”, spotted recently at a crowded shopping centre in Singapore. The machine is basically a PC running a flavour of Windows. I’m just trying to figure out what Windows it is, and I’m guessing it’s probably Windows 2000. I’m slightly familiar with these things, so it is not surprising to me that they run Windows, even a fairly outdated version of Windows. In fact, I still wouldn’t be all too surprised if they ran OS/2.
It looks like SingTel Mobile has mucked up again. In the late afternoon, I found that my mobile phone had no signal. After rebooting, it seemed to be okay. So perhaps it was my phone. Then my colleague noted that he had no 3G data connection on his SingTel Mobile line. Later in the evening, for much of my trip home, my phone again had no signal at all. When it did, it had no data. Eventually, I got to find out that people have been calling me and were not able to get through. The callers were not on SingTel Mobile network and they got a network busy message calling my phone.
I’m sad to say, Linux still isn’t quite ready for newbies. Although I only had a few simple struggles with my latest Fedora 12 installation, I cannot imagine how a computer newbie is going to handle such challenges. Granted, Linux is probably more suited for the “power user”, many people in Linux-land try to evangelize the idea that Linux can be used by just about anybody. To this end, I think Linux might be going in that general direction, but it’s still a long way getting there.
If you think students hogging tables to study at fast food places is bad, this is worse: Students hogging tables to play cards. I suppose you don’t call it gambling if money doesn’t change hands, but many places just outright ban playing cards too simply because they consider it equivalent to gambling. Of all places, this is happening at MacDonalds.
Today I woke up to be greeted by a rather contradictory headline in our Straits Times paper. Civil servants will not get a bonus this year, but they will get a one-time payment. Hmm. Aren’t bonuses like one-time payments too? It is not like you get it every month, and it is not guaranteed or the same quantum every year. So what is the real difference between a “bonus” and a “one-off payment”?
Obviously this is the kind of joke only for IT people, particularly the Linux people. It’s a case of a post sent to the wrong mailing list which quickly developed into a series of hilarious follow-ups. I myself had a good laugh when I sifted through the email I received from the list this morning. Someone posted to the Fedora mailing list about the worsening mileage he was getting on his Toyota Prius. He realized quite immediately his mistake. But other funny people on the list followed-up with serious-sounding Linux advice.
I’ve just noticed that Shingz has become the top searched phrase that led to my blog, some 14 times more so than the next phrase. As a word on its own, it’s in number two place. In fact, if you just search for shingz right now on Google, the number one entry in the search result leads to this site. Oh my, I am riding on the popularity of Boomz and Shingz, and the success of Ris Low’s brand of English.
You’d have expected that an upmarket retail shop like that of Tag Heuer would be a picture of perfection. Neat, pristine and clean. Especially in a display cabinet which is not exposed to dust, fingers, and other sorts of intrusions. Yet, as I walked past, something just caught my eye: a smudgy fingerprint on a mobile phone in the display! Somehow, it stood out so clearly under the intense halogen lights. It almost seems like the fingerprint was planted on purpose, as if it were in fact part of the display.
I think we had 11 oysters each, from The Line restaurant at Shangri-la Hotel. It's a big buffet with plenty of food.
Lunch at Lerk Thai some weekends ago.
