has got to be this driver. He claims that the driver of the car in front is inconsiderate as the driver drove the car into the bugis junction crowded taxi stand “like he has done it many times before”.

What does that mean? Who in the right frame of mind will complain and say “like he has done it many times before”? How the hell does the driver know that the other driver has done it many times, and how, from looking at the car, does it look like that driver has done it many times before? Puzzling.

Another point to note that the driver took the photo behind the wheel (note the car bonnet). Is he considerate? The worst thing is that he is doing the same thing as the driver in front. Furthermore, he is using his handphone / camera to take the photo, while being behind the wheel.

Wow. I’ve just found the most inconsiderate driver in the world!

I guess Stomp doesn’t have any editors. There is no editorial standards in Stomp. I guess they are in a dillema. If you edit and kill stories, then it isn’t citizen journalism after all. I think this proves one point: Why normal citizens can’t be journalists.

Following numerous parents complaints in the PSLE Maths paper this year, our top student this year in PSLE scored an aggregate of 294! This is by all means high. After all, the top students are normally around the 280s range. If someone can get 294, it means it is not difficult at all. Or is it?

Well, we now know how the exams work and next year, we can have a perfect score for a student in PSLE! This is how we can do it, together as one Singapore!

Firstly, after the exams, all the students who took that maths paper MUST cry. Their parents must write letters to The Straits Times and complain about the difficulty. They can say things like their son was demoralized after finishing his paper, or that their daughter refused to eat her meals because of severe depression (oh she couldn’t do part c for 1 question!!).

Following that, have reporters interview people to find out the difficulty of the tests. Have headlines like:
1) Retired teacher took 2 hours to solve 3 PSLE maths question with the help of a computer.
2) A professor in literature took 20 minutes to complete 1 PSLE maths question.
3) The top pupil last year, who scored 294, actually scored 50% for the examination, during her battle with chicken pox and claimed that is was hard.
4) JC student took 4 hours to complete the university-level paper.
5) The Dean of Mathematics ‘s 1 month year old daughter couldn’t do the paper.

Wow. What a big hoo haa that it. Perhaps, we may manage to moderate it such that the top student can get 300! Isn’t that wonderful? We can then brag to neighbouring countries! Wow.

I’m so amazed, I puked.

Pedra Branca is an interesting piece of island. In fact, it is so vital to us that the Straits Times keep publishing this little box explaining that Pedra Branca is all about sovereignty. Well, I do follow my news, though perhaps not as much as some news enthusiast. After like 2 weeks of Pedra Branca debate, I’ve made my stand.

Allow me to be a little patriotic. Pedra Branda is Singapore’s!!!

I do not know whose land that is, because land changed hands so many times that its quite difficult to say whose is whose. However, I do feel that Singapore should continue having this little island because I find doubts in Malaysia’s arguments.

One thing that has been troubling me is that Malaysia actually published maps detailing Pedra Branca as Singapore’s till 1979 (if I never remember wrongly), where they suddenly placed it as part of their territory. That is one thing that they never answered properly. Why the sudden change? Its like your neighbour saying that part of the pavement is yours to place flowerpots, but suddenly she declared that it belonged to her.

Another point is that, if the land truly belongs to Malaysia, then why does Malaysia have to continually lie and distort facts? Perhaps lie is too much of an exaggeration. Then, why do they distort facts? I say distort facts because they have been shown to partially quote texts, and selectively removing certain portions in the text that were damaging to them. In short, its like that radio advertisement where you hear all the good things. Your son is a bad boy. His friend is different. John is a good boy. See what I mean?

If you have seen today’s papers, you would have realized that they wanted to make it seem that Pedra Branca is much nearer to Malaysia by using a different camera lens, so that the background appears bigger. That is cheating, I say.

I do agree very well with our DPM. We should be arguing based on facts and reasons. We should not be doing such underhanded things just to win. I’m just disgusted. I do hope Singapore wins.

Its time for another Odex moment! The wonderful Singapore company who bonded the anime community against them, strengthened their will not to buy their products, and even generated a whole new T shirt asking “Have you been Odexed?”, has created another funny piece of shit.

As we know, Odex is cracking down on illegal anime downloaders in Singapore, but now, from an Anime forum, someone has commented that he/she received a letter from BayTsp (the tracking company hired by ODEX) for copyright infringement. The problem is, he/she has never lived in South East Asia, much less Singapore, in his/her entire life!

Wow! Odex is now trying to Odex the WORLD. Perhaps SS will now go around in US forums declaring that he double 6ed many US citizen.

Odex – The best Singapore Jokes Company

I wrote a post a few days ago talking about the owner of the money in the Nuffnang account. In that post, I wrote that perhaps Nuffnang can let us have a way to donate the sum of money to charity. Thus, those of us who have a little sum of money in our banks but do not want to cash out, or are unable to cash out, can utilize this sum of money. In fact, it would be great if everyone can exercise this option, so bloggers or celeb bloggers can choose to donate like a certain sum of their money.

A few bloggers, Harry (of why nuffnang will fail fame) included, asked about how we will know Nuffnang donated that sum of money. Well I thought about it and maybe the boss would like to look at this and see if it can be implemented. However, I do not know if this donation suggestion will be welcome by the community.

This is how it will work:

1) Nuffnang has already held several public events
Nuffnang is no stranger to limelight. They hold public events, movie sessions and what have you with celeb bloggers and normal bloggers. Since they are used to being in the center of attention (like now), they can jolly well hold a high profile charity event where they present a cheque to a specific charity. In this way, we know that sum of money is donated, and we know how much it is.

2) Transparency is a must
To have transparency, I propose that Nuffnang reveal who the donors are, or rather, their blog addresses. In a public statement released on the Nuffnang’s website, they can put up this list, followed by how much each individual donated, and show that the tallied amount equals to the money donated to charity. Hence, bloggers who donated can check the website to ensure that the figure they donated is correctly expressed in that website. Since Nuffnang is not a large company, perhaps they will not have resources to engage auditors to audit such accounts. Us bloggers will have to do our own audit. If everyone is satisfied that the sum is correctly represented, then it is sure that the money is donated to charity. The only problem will arise when someone realize that his sum of money stated is less than the actual sum donated.

3) Voting system
Those who donate can vote to say where their money will go to. I propose that the number of votes given be proportional to the amount of money donated. For example, every $5 donated gives you 1 vote. If you donate less than $5, you also get 1 vote. But $7.50 gets only 1 vote. This allows those who only have $5 or less in their account to donate. When you donate, you can vote which charity you want to donate to. The majority wins. It is only fair that those who donate more get their say in where the money goes. Furthermore, I feel that as long as the money went to a decent charity, I will not care too much.

What do you all think? I feel that for this to work, the PR efforts must improve. In fact, if their team is willing to take this up, they must show a high level of transparency.

Oh. Perhaps this can be made into an annual thing. Like every anniversary of Nuffnang, they will donate the sum of money to charity. By the way, it also bonds the community of bloggers together.

It seems to me that Nuffnang has recently done a very well job in getting people to speak up about the good points about Nuffnang, so much so that I wonder if a blog is a place for personal opinion or a place where things could be rewritten to make the story different. I just read a blog entry (shan’t mention it here else someone will probably scold me).

This person used to write that he will never talk about Nuffnang on his blog ever again, but yet, after meeting the boss personally, started writing about Nuffnang again and twice too. One of the entries are his personal opinions on why nuffnang will NOT fail.

After reading it, I just felt that it doesn’t seem credible or factual to me. In fact, I wonder why someone who publicly declared never to write about Nuffnang again, will break that declaration. This is not a personal attack but it is my own personal opinions on the post.

The post mentioned why nuffnang will NOT fail. Below are the reasons and my opinions:
1) Celebrity Bloggers
The claim is that there are celebrity bloggers who are doing their selling advertisements space on Nuffnang and not in Advertlets. Hence, companies who want to have those blogs to feature their advertisements. Yes, that may be true, but it does not guarantee that Nuffnang will NOT fail. My reasons are simple. The bloggers may switch sides. It happens all the time. People go to where the grass is greener. It just have to depend on how they feel. In fact, just having celebrity bloggers and no normal bloggers will make the whole system a failure. After all, if you only have celebrity bloggers, then how can you call yourself Asia’s Number 1 community for bloggers? You have to add the word “celebrity” inside.

2) Ardent Supporters
This is highly questionable. How many bloggers actually goes to those events regularly? I know for sure the celebrity bloggers are asked to go to those events, but is that it? Many of Nuffnang’s bloggers are probably sitting on the fence, and in fact, it seems that plenty of bloggers have their share of criticisms. There seem to be more criticisms than praise. As such, how can one call them ardent supporters?

3) Good system
As far as we can all see and read, the system is not good. From what I have read, emails go unanswered till 25days later. In fact, the customer service system sucks to the core. Much have to be done to win the hearts and minds of the bloggers. You can’t call it a good system when there have been so many problems.

Let me declare, I am not against Nuffnang. I feel that it is difficult running a new business, especially one that interacts with bloggers, who hide behind their blogs and unleash hell. I do commend Ming for his endurance and I do hope that things could be done to improve its image. I am just wondering why propaganda is spread like this, when it sounds like unobjective thinking.

There are many things to improve,and let us as bloggers give Nuffnang suggestions to improve and hopefully they will take them up. Let us be unbiased when we comment.

P.S. I’m really sorry for missing this out: The blogger actually said that he will not write about nuffnang unless really necessary. So sorry for this.

Examinations are around the corner for university students. For NTU/NUS students, recess week starts this Saturday, and in 1.5 weeks time, the final examinations for the semester begins. For the other students in Singapore, for example, the O’s and the A level students, they are probably finishing their exams, if they have not finished.

Since the examinations is drawing near, I have been trying to mug or, in layman’s terms, study in a hardworking fashion. I try the past years practical exams in the hope that I can get used to it and get a decent grade. However, sometimes I wonder why we have build a culture such that mugging is seen as uncool, nerdy, or something to be undesired.

I have to ask, whose business is it that I mug? If I tell you that my aim is never to give myself room for regret, what will you think? Why does people have to make mugging seem like a sin, when whether I mug or not is ultimately my own business. In fact, I mug with friends, and I ask friends to school to study together too. Now, why do I have to be the one that is pointed out as mugging for the examinations when everyone else is probably doing the same?

Its pretty simple: People either mug and accept that they mug, or they pretend they do not and they mug at home. Else, the probably are too slack to care.

The question: Does being slacker than me give you the right to come and tell others that I’m a mugger and that I’m like some kind of freak? Hello? If you want to slack, you can jolly well do so. If I manage to finish my work on time during my practice sessions, that is a merit and should not be made to sound like something freakish.

I do put in effort in my studies and I hope I can do well for them. I happen to enjoy doing what I am taking this semester and I have a little programming background. Despite that, I have not been haughty and I have tried my best to help my peers when they have problems.

I just cannot stand it that we built a culture against mugging. I cannot stand it when I have to pretend and laugh around at those jokes on muggers. I mean, I mug, and I spend time with friends. I enjoy my rest times, and I enjoy my serious times too. There is a time for everything, and I’m already quite balanced.

My stand: If I feel that you are not honest with me, and seem to have a problem with me, I will put up my own defense against you. I will also not be honest with you and I will vehemently deny that I have started any mugging sessions or did any past year papers. If you are honest with me and are willing to study with me, I will share with you everything that I know and I will help you as you help me.

Something in 1 GUARDS Alpha says it all: For I know that my brothers depend on me, like I depend on them. So join me brothers, for he who fights along with me this day shall be my brother.

So, my friends, are you like my brothers? You have not fought with me in NS, so you can’t be as close a brother as my NS buddies, but can you be one? If you are a true buddy, I will treat you truly too. But if you ever make me irritated with those mugging bullshit, or lie to me that you did not mug when you obviously did, I will treat you like shit.

Point made.

Has it occurred to you the number of morons we have in Singapore? Whenever I want to laugh, I make a trip down to Stomp. Trust me, the things Singaporeans do are really funny. In fact, Stomp has shown us how effective our education system is.

I say, lets just stop all the Civics and Moral Education lessons, all the Hao Gong Ming (Good citizen) (is it still being taught) and what have you. Its obvious that its not working. Just check out the link above.

This person saw someone’s handphone drop off. This person then saw another guy picking up the phone. This person then noted that the guy actually alighted with the phone, instead of returning it to the owner. This guy had the guts to Stomp and complain that no one helped the poor guy.

Irony to the maximum. In fact, such a case would be a good usage of the word irony, and can be used as a teaching material in beginner literature. Judging from the angle the photo was taken, this man can very well be near the sleeping man. He could have done something, but he did not. But he has the courage to send it to Stomp.

Oh wow. What a great place we live in.

Just a few days ago, I commented in a blog to say that I am disappointed that Nuffnang does not have this policy to give the money to someone who have decided to leave Nuffnang. The boss at Nuffnang says that he is working on a policy that allows one to use the “money” as “points” to win something. I do not think that policy is great. Someone commented that if they allow people to take 25 dollars out (instead of the usual 50), there will be no end to such requests.

My point is: Does arguing that there will be no end to such request justify not doing it? Just because people are going to withdraw money, does that mean you should not allow them to cash out when they cease to be members? There will be no end to customers complaints. Does that mean you as a company have to stop all customer feedback collection? This argument is flawed.

I have something to ask. The money that is there in your account with Nuffnang, to whom does it belong to? We can liken this as to a owner-agent-tenant situation. I have a house with an extra room (or space) and I let XXX company lease out my room to YYY tenant. YYY tenant pays XXX agent, who then pass me the money, after they take a slice of commission. Does this sound logical? In this case, we bloggers lease out space for advertisement. It may not worth plenty, but its worth something. We rent out our space for Nuffnang who links advertisements to us bloggers. In this instance, doesn’t the money in the account belong to us?

Now this question must be solved and answered. Its the key to everything. If the money is rightfully ours, why should we not be able to withdraw it out and spend it, no matter how little the sum is? Is it that money accumulated to $50 is considered our money, whilst money not accumulated to that amount is not? That is a wrong method of thinking. No matter how much the amount, it is ours and ours to keep. Nuffnang has already taken their slice of the pie.

Now that we have agreed that this sum of money is rightfully the blogger’s, then why should it be so that Nuffnang is keeping it, just because it hasn’t reached $50? Well, there could be policies for this and this is what I recommend:

1) Allow bloggers to cash out once they terminate their agreement with Nuffnang and stop the advertisement. This provides a relief to bloggers who are skeptical about Nuffnang and encourages others to try out their service.

2) Have a penalty system. Currently, if you reach $50 and want to cash out, Nuffnang takes $1 for postage and administration costs. Never mind that we wonder why the $1 is not in the slice of the pie that Nuffnang has already taken. Nuffnang can impose a fee of $5 for adminstration costs. Surely, it does not take that much time to write out a cheque? This acts also as a reward for people to continue serving Nuffnang ads till they reach $50 before they terminate their agreement. This also allows people who have less than $10 in the account to think twice before asking for the money, since the end sum is probably very little.

The main purpose of championing for this to be implemented is for those that have reached about $30 in their account. These people can enjoy the $25 that they get. They can buy a new cd or a new book and even pay for 1 year of domain name costs.

Instead of hoping that bloggers would one day rejoin Nuffnang to get their money back, Nuffnang should come out with ways to make it seem sensible to join Nuffnang. For Advertlets, people will continue to serve the ads because they see the money coming in day by day. Never mind that it takes a long time, we have time and we are willing because we see results.

Now, I wonder if Advertlets allow us to cash out before we reach the minimum withdrawal sum. Can Advertlets clarify on this? It will be a great PR strategy to announce their policy.

I read with interest on the entire hacker saga. This hacker, named Zhao Ke, is one of my coursemates. I do not know him personally and I will not recognize him if I ever saw him around in NUS, but I am disgusted with his actions.

For those who do not know what it is all about, this Chinese hacker, in a bid to find out if he his results are superior to that of his RJC classmates, hacked into RJC’s server to download the information from a teachers computer, only to be caught by the technician.

I wonder why he couldn’t have asked directly. My own logical reason is that he is too snobbish in real life such that he has little friends. As such, his classmates would not converse with him and hence would not tell him their results, even if he asked. Why would I say that? I guess its obvious that his ego and desire to be the best is up in his head.

He has an NUS scholarship and is reading a double degree in Engineering and Economics. Yes, I would agree that he is smart, but his character and integrity is lousy. He was fortunate enough to be only fined $15000, and he even went on the papers to declare that he is penniless, and that he may opt for jail to cut down the amount of fine. What does this seem to me? An appeal to pity. And it is a wonderful appeal to pity because he managed to get loans from strangers, kind strangers who lend him a helping hand in his time of need.

Has he gotten any punishment? In a way, since his fine wasn’t really paid by him, he wasn’t really punished. Slightly, perhaps, but is it adequate? Its not up for me to decide.

However, I feel strongly that his NUS scholarship should be revoked. I must state now that I am not jealous that he got a scholarship, in case people start to leave comments about that. A letter was sent to the Straits Times forum, and I quote this:

As to the call by some netizens to revoke his NUS scholarship and the convening of a NUS disciplinary board to look into the case, it would be useful to keep in mind what a judge said recently: ‘We don’t want a youthful mistake made out of folly to stain a person or forever damage a person’s future prospects.’

To err is human, to forgive divine.

I laugh. Should we apply whatever judges say in every single situation? No. No doubt its a youthful mistake, he is young of course. However he is not that young in that aspect to be pardoned for his mistakes. A person his age who commits carnal connection with a minor (less than age of 16) is liable to be punished in jail, and he may not even be of adult age (21 years and above).

Does it stain or forever damage a person’s prospects? No. The only stain that is given is the fine imposed on him. Taking away a scholarship does not stain someone. Potential employers know of your criminal record, not whether your scholarship was taken away or how many scholarships you were awarded. Why would it stain? Why would it forever damage someone’s prospects? The criminal record does that, taking away a scholarship does not.

Whilst I would agree that to err is human and to forget is divine, let it be known that we have our laws in our country for a reason: some errs have to be punished, and some errs are impossible to forget.

Why do I say that I feel strongly that his NUS scholarship should be taken away? Well, a scholarship recipent has to fulfill certain conditions. Naturally, he has to be smart. No scholarship would be given to the bottom of the cohort, will it? No doubt he is smart, but the other conditions include having good character and integrity.

Now, surely you would agree with me that his actions of hacking into a server shows how lousy his character and integrity is. Even NUS takes a strong stance in integrity and character. We have been warned time and again that copying a Lab report is a serious offence and can lead to expulsion.

Surely, hacking (a criminal offence), is much more serious than copying a lab report, which is not a criminal offence? Since it is an offence of a more serious nature, surely the punishments should be more severe? Considering that copying the lab report can lead to expulsion, surely his actions deserve an expulsion?

However I am not advocating that he be expelled. He has been fined and punished (slightly). Let us be divine (quoting from the source above) and not expel him. However, since he has committed a serious offence that is not in line with the university’s standards of conduct, surely, he cannot be allowed to continue receiving a scholarship. If he is allowed to continue his scholarship, then the respect for scholarships recipents would be damaged. The value of getting the scholarship would be diminished since you now need not fulfill the standards of good conduct and integrity to be awarded a scholarship.

Hence, for all the reasons I stated above, I feel that the hacker should be punished by taking away his NUS scholarship. I would say the same thing if anyone else committed the same offence, not because he is a Chinese national, bear that in mind.