Saturday, March 31, 2007
The Future Is Dismal -vwv

Here is the Intelligent Nation 2015 video, IDA's vision of Singapore in the near future. I think it's been around for a while but I only saw it today.

Frankly, the future doesn't look very appealing. Instead of people who talk on phones while driving, we will have technology that enables people to drive while video conferencing. Children will visit the zoo to look at computer screens rather than animals. Shoppers can no longer read store directories and must rely on some kind of GPS device to find their way in a shopping mall. Everything becomes voice activated - good luck to the mutes. Everyone will constantly be colliding with each other because everyone is looking at his own personal display (whether hand held or worn) instead of where he is going.

Worst of all, the annoying beeps and the nausea-inducing flashing holograms that haunt you wherever you go are enough to drive anyone insane.

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Yiheng made 10:26 AM

7 Comments:

The iN2015 was created as a 10 year Masterplan, which probably seemed like a long time ahead at that time. Well, the good news is it's only 7 more years to go, and I highly doubt any of that is going to take place. If the impression that the video gave you was that it was messy, you are very right. The IDM masterplan is also quite messy and I can't see how anything might come out of it.
By  Soqcrates, at 9:54 AM  

NTT Docomo 2010 vision is only 3 years away and their video looks more high-tech and elegant. I'll be very impressed indeed if they make those paper thin holographic displays cheap enough for widespread use.
By  Anonymous, at 12:14 PM  

that's just being plain disparaging. there's nothing wrong with holograph projection screens on car windscreens, it's quite useful no? and visiting the zoo. i mean please la, of course you have the option of looking at the animals or the screens, if you choose the screens then too bad right? voice activated... technology will always benefit a majority of people while leaving those who are unable to cope behind, there will always be people who are unaccessible to tech, as long as the tech benefits many, i don't see anything to worry about. if your reasoning goes, the telephone is such a pain in the ass, good luck to mutes. and everyone colliding with each other; my god.

considering you guys are the creme de la creme, i wonder if our money was well spent.
By  Anonymous, at 7:37 PM  

I think the anonymous person makes some sense.
But you got to admit though that theres some problem with virtual reality taking over our world. I mean kids too have a choice between tamagochi and real life pets. But it would be pretty disturbing if we all go for ultra-realistic tamagochi some days into the future, and abandon our pets.
I also felt a bit tempted to remain anonymous....but nevermind.
By  Anonymous, at 8:41 PM  

No Anthony, Anonymous' comments don't make sense. What does being 'creme de la creme' have to do with offering our views of the IDM industry? Furthermore, we were passing critisisms at the iN2015. I thought internet trolls only flamed people who were SUPPORTIVE of govt policies.
By  Soqcrates, at 12:00 AM  

I think the high tech gadgets are too far fetched and won't happen anytime soon for the next several years, or at least they won't gain widespread usage.

It took many years for the price of LCD panels to become almost equal to that of the CRT equivalent and ultimately, affordable by the masses .
So ditto for those holographic displays as shown in the video.

on the other hand, OLED screens seem to be more plausible in gaining widespread usage due to its flexible (can be rolled-up) nature and cheaper manufacturing costs.
By  Anonymous, at 4:59 PM  

For those people who are not comfortable with technologocial advances, i could only say too bad. Everyone must learn how to accept changes .
By  Anonymous, at 5:05 PM  

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Saturday, March 17, 2007
Random Picture -vwv

Some children have no fear. The cockatoo would have sent some adults I know running for cover. This picture was taken when some relatives visited my place two weeks ago. The little girl is my father's father's brother's son's daughter's daughter.

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Yiheng made 4:15 PM

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Sunday, March 11, 2007
Upgrade! -vwv

I finally got around to upgrading the operating system of my old G3 PowerBook from OS 9 to OS 10.3. After having it for almost 7 years, it's getting quite hard to prevent Death By Obsolescence.



I really like the bronze translucent keyboard. They don't make these any more. Too bad the hard disk is still a pathetic 6 GB and the OS takes up 2 GB already. That's not even a quarter of the capacity of my iPod. Speaking of which, here's the latest member of the family.

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Yiheng made 1:09 PM

3 Comments:

whoa. aren't you extravagent. Don't you already have an 5th gen IPOD?
By  Soqcrates, at 11:43 PM  

The nano is not mine. Why the heck would I need two MP3 players for?
By  Anonymous, at 8:58 AM  

lol!! That's his pressie for mommy. He wouldn't choose red for himself loh.
By  feathers, at 12:09 AM  

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Weekend Activities: Sa Chen Piano Recital -vvz

For my 元宵节 activity, I went to the Sa Chen Piano Recital at the Esplanade. It was one of the last events of the "Huayi" Chinese Festival of Arts.

Attending this piano recital was a difficult decision for me. I couldn't find anyone else interested and I just watched Titoudao the day before, so I'm afraid I might suffer from "theatre fatigue" (not to mention two shows in one weekend is a significant financial blow). But I'm glad to say that this was the best decision I've made this year.

It was such a captivating performance that by the intermission, I've officially become a Chen Sa fan. And I got her autograph, whoohoo!! Could've taken a photo with her too but unfortunately, I had no camera with me. I'm so inspired that I'm going to go back and practise Chopin waltzes again. I didn't realize I've been murdering the pieces until now.

If she ever comes back to Singapore to perform, I'm definitely going again. To think I almost missed it as the tickets were almost sold out. My seat was pretty good too and it only costs about 40 something. Compared to people who paid a few hundred bucks to see Rain, I think I got a damn good deal.

P.S. Here's a video clip I found of Chen Sa playing some pieces. Can just watch the last 30 seconds, too much talking in front.

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Yiheng made 10:10 PM

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Weekend Activities: Titoudao -vvz

I watched the re-staged play Titoudao on Saturday with Shuquan and Jiangzheng. I consider this a tried-and-tested show to invest my money in because it won multiple awards in the DBS Life! Theatre Awards and the talented Pam Oei reprises the title role.

This should be quite a nostalgic play for the older audiences. I have never played in a rubber plantation or run around with other children singing nursery rhymes in some Chinese dialect, so I can only imagine what that was like. At least I still have my father to teach me the games he played in his childhood. Children nowadays are missing out so much. I hope they enjoy their tuition, ballet lessons and drama and speech classes.

It is unfortunate that street wayang has withered in recent decades. It is also ironic that while Singapore aims to be an artistic and cultural hub of the region, its policies are partly responsible for the decline of such traditional art forms. How can one not find it difficult to appreciate Chinese opera if one grows up in an environment that discourages dialects? Even now, I am pretty sore about not being able to watch Hong Kong shows in Cantonese. (We can watch TV shows in Korean and Japanese but not Cantonese?!) And I remember even Mandarin was taboo in my primary school days. Only languages with immediate economic value is allowed.

In any case, it was an enjoyable play. As a bonus, I got Beatrice Chia-Richmond's autograph too. There are many memorable scenes, such as the getai performance, Titoudao fights the tiger and the second last scene where Ah Chiam does Sun Wukong, Nezha and the Yang general. I highly recommend watching this play, especially for young couples who spend their weekends wandering aimlessly in the shopping districts of Singapore. The play will be on till the end of the month so it's still not too late to book tickets.

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Yiheng made 9:17 PM

2 Comments:

yeah! and When couples start getting tired of wandering around aimlessly on the streets on weekends....they get married
By  Soqcrates, at 11:40 PM  

The good old days when couples still dated in Har Paw Villa.

"So...YOU WANT TO GO TO HELL?"

Best pickup line ever!!
By  Soqcrates, at 11:41 PM  

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Friday, March 02, 2007
I am a Greater Mind! -vwv

First, some free advertising for my employer. Hopefully, someone high up is reading my blog and gives me a big raise for this.



The words are rather small but it says "DSTA Scholarship - For Greater Minds". I don't usually read ads but it's not everyday that you see your once nerdy-looking ex-classmate who resembled your art teacher take up half the cover of the newspaper. I think she actually looks better in person though. Anyway, I went on to read the smaller text below:

Are you the Greater Mind we seek? Can you decipher the code above?

If yes, take up the DSTA Scholarship and unlock your Greater Mind to realise its fullest potential...

Code. Now that caught my attention. So I looked at the picture again and there it is.



Now, this looks like the ASCII code of common English letters in hexadecimal. Unfortunately I did not memorize ASCII or Unicode or have any such tables with me, so I just attacked it the old-fashioned way - statistical analysis and intelligent guessing. And this is what I got: "Inspired to be a Greater Mind We are waiting for you".

I hope this is not what the Army is using for encryption, otherwise we are screwed. And since I managed to decipher the code, I am a GREATER MIND! Wow, what a cool title. I wonder who came up with the term Greater Mind. It immediately reminds me of those collectively-conscious hive-minded alien species, like the Zerg from StarCraft or the Borg from Star Trek.

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Yiheng made 10:33 PM

2 Comments:

Congrats...looks like DSTA employed the right person after all. It probably takes someone as quirky (or bored) in the organisation to come up with something like this. Having a 'Greater Mind' sounds alot better than being a 'Futurnaut' which was what they advertised themselves to be the last career fair (shivers). I loved the way the HR speaker referred to the anti-air guided missiles system as 'that missile thingy'
By  Soqcrates, at 2:10 AM  

Wah, I haven't heard the term Futurenaut for so long, you still remember haha. You must have Greater Memory!
By  Anonymous, at 12:47 PM  

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