Anyway, I’m taking a step back to reflect on things that are happening. It’s one of those things that you start thinking about on the first day of ICT, because life suddenly slows down to almost a standstill.

The last couple of weeks has been very hectic. I was traveling a bit, trying to clear some work in time for mid-year review, and before the start of three agonizing weeks of ICT. We are short staffed. More things are being added to our todo list, and at a faster rate than we can clear them. Certainly not an earth shattering problem, and surely something we can deal with. That’s me with my positive thinking, but not everyone seems to agree with me.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to take a little plunge into WordPress 2.6 beta 2. Lo and behold, I didn’t find anything new, at least not something that I can immediately tell visually… other than the version number printed in a footer somewhere. That’s what tech people are like eh. Go for the cutting edge, just because the changelog lists something remotely interesting. Fortunately, the upgrade to 2.6 beta 2 has been painless, unlike the upgrade to 2.5 that broke a number of things. Another thing I’ve done is some reorganization of the static pages.

I’m back to using a Sony Ericsson M600i for this ICT. One of the most annoying thing about the SAF forbidding camera phones being brought into camps is that, what other decent phones can you get your hands on? The poor NSFs and regulars… they are stuck with prehistoric relics. At least for NS men, we just endure the inconvenience for a few weeks a year.

The iPhone 3G is due out end of this week — 11 July. It seems some crazy people in the US have caught on to what Singaporeans like to do. They have started queuing at the Fifth Avenue store in New York City. It seems New Zealanders will be the first to get their hands on the iPhone 3G (Vodafone will launch at 12:01am on 11 July).

The iPhone 3G won’t be available in Singapore until a little later though. There’s lots of speculation about what the price and phone plans. Optus has announced the iPhone 3G pricing in Australia. Optus is owned by SingTel, which will be the first to introduce the iPhone 3G in Singapore. The Optus Australia pricing could be an indication of the launch price in Singapore.

Okay… enough ranting for today. Time for Warcraft 3, then early night, then to camp again tomorrow morning.

Update (14 July 2008): Upgraded to WordPress 2.6-RC1.

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Ok, phones without cameras aren’t so rare yet. But let’s move along a bit. 3G is getting more prevalent. People like me want to web surf (with a proper HTML web browser), download emails, etc. No camera is fine, but can we still have all that?

Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed to find a mobile phone with 3G yet without camera. For most phone manufacturers, moving to 3G is almost synonymous with camera function. For my recent ICT, I managed to get my hands on a Sony Ericsson M600i. It had 3G, it had a reasonable web browser (not as good as those Nokia’s though), and it is actually quite sturdy and hardy enough to withstand rough use.

The armed forces should consider to make the M600i a standard issue. Com’on, the army needs mobile phones. I cannot imagine how we could get things moving without mobile phones. For example, just simply trying to get 100+ reservists to fall in would have been a monumental task had there not been mobile phones. I don’t think you want to scream your lungs out shouting, or run around from bunk, to canteen, then to e-mart to search for people?

Out in the field… do you want to setup Tele-J, carry around signal sets, or just use a compact and handy mobile phone? Ya ya, mobile phone signals can be jammed and intercepted. But the same applies with signal sets eh?

The 3G army can perhaps think about how they can capitalize on modern technology that is easily and readily available. The modern mobile phone has high resolution cameras that can be used to send back real-time images and video of the battle ground to HQ for intelligence analysis. GPS can be used to help track troop locations in real-time, and help troops to navigate unfamiliar terrain (yah, no more topo needed). SMS/MMS can be used to broadcast instructions more quickly and efficiently. The 3G can also be used to carry IP data services to connect computers and other data communications equipment.

I think intelligence and communications are of quite strategic value in fighting any battle. Perhaps in addition to SingTel, M1 and StarHub… there could be a MINDEF network to serve the armed forces users. They could operate a combination of fixed base stations as well as mobile roving base stations that can be deployed flexibly wherever needed.

Think about it.

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