Life For Rent

For the unintiated, there are raging fires ongoing now in the state of california. The entire San Diego county has been evacuated literally along with hundreds of thousands of residents. Some described the fires as a perfect storm due to strong winds and dry weather at the moment as California experiences record low rainfall this year.

Among those evacuated, include Titanic director James Cameron, and Grease star Olivia Newton John. Among the buildings evacuated was the exclusive Promises rehab centre which hosted Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.

It is during times like these that I really appreciate Singapore. Sure it is a small country and we are so protected from natural disasters. In fact I think if we were to venture out, the first casualties from earthquakes, typhoons, terrorist attacks, widespread flooding/fire, etc, will probably be us. We are so well contained and safe in our little well here led by a government that’s brilliant in some ways yet complete idiots in others. There is no one perfect country or government though and I gotta say, ours is no where near the worst of the lot so I should be thankful indeed. Every country and house has its own rules. Abide, or leave.

I realise I have a very low tolerance to noise when I am trying to concentrate. At work I plug in my earphones and tune to the radio. The noise from people all around bothers me a hell lot. Thank God for radio and MP3s. There were some who asked me how radio stations work, during my stint as co producer and presenter with perfect 10 98.7FM quite a few years back. I gotta say back then even I was quite impressed with the technology. Cause 10 years ago, DJs had to be on hand to play CDs throughout and it was quite a mess. When stations began the 24/7 broadcasts, DJs had to stay back after 2am just to play CDs. It was a totally boring job! I still remember perfect 10 had the program “Say it with music” from 10pm-2am and Kate Reyes was the resident DJ then and how she used to complain it was so totally boring to do all that after 2am. Couple years later, the studio shifted from the basement to a higher floor where you can actually have daylight.

Here are a couple interesting facts:

- the music is all in the computer system, with databases located throughout the building. It is shared among stations and yes, 2 stations can play the same song at the same time and it won’t crash. The OS is not by microsoft…

- ever wondered how DJs can talk into the intro of the track before the vocals come in? in the past DJs had to estimate when the vocals come in. No longer! Technology has it that our monitors actually tells you how long is the intro before the vocals set in. Say the vocals come in at 10seconds, it states 10 seconds with a green bar, turning to orange at 5sec and then red at the last 3, just in time for the DJ to wrap up.

- there are 2 main buttons, Play next (red) and play next fade (green). I can’t remember the exact labels now it has been such a long time.. but as the name suggests, red button will cut away the existing track and hit the next. Fade will fade current to bring in the next. Most of the time we use the green tab. When we stop the whole playlist for talksets, we use the green button to start the next track. The system is smart enough to know if it isn’t playing anything at the moment, the next track comes up as if you hit the red. ie there is no fade in.

- VT (voice track) is the most interesting thing we have. The music director normally has all the playlist and commercials all pumped in. DJs used to have to go in during weekends to work. Now there is no need and it does save the radio stations the cost of hiring part time DJs. Say today’s friday and I have a slot to do tomorrow, Saturday from 4-8pm. There are no roving reports to do that require my physical presence in the studio. I used to be around during Jive drive, 4-8pm weekdays. We do have a jam packed set but what we do is to do a VT (pre record). Say I want to come on after the third song at 1609hrs, I just add a VT after the song and do a recording of what I wanna say. The best part of it all, the timing is all synchronised. I can record a show for tomorrow now, and say it is 6pm and it will be 6pm when it goes out tomorrow. when we are not doing a live show, we set the system on automation. What this does is, at every turn of the hour, it will kill off any track playing and start the next track which is the first one for the hour. In that case, every hour is synchronised. I don’t know if this is the case today but if you listen to radio during off peak hours see if it does happen. It doesn’t happen often though cause there is not much a need to do a synchro. The only scenario is, I am doing a live show now, and in 4hrs it is a VT and not another live DJ. In that case I need to activate automation so that everything is synchronised.

There were cases where we decide we wanna finish a 4hr show in 30mins. Not the whole show though cause during drive time slots, we need to do live traffic reports so there is no way around it. But it does buy me sometime so I can record the next day’s show. So the 4hrs I am in doing my show on Friday, I can do my next day’s show too. It is a very cool technology. Matter of fact, you cannot really tell if the program is on VT or live. I can put on calls, sound effects etc. The only thing I cannot do on a VT set is traffic and weather since I cannot predict the future can I?

My co host likes to do impromptu work. I like to prepare for my programs. Ultimately, I end up providing him most of the stuff too. Trivia, info, gossips etc. Usually I draw out a big plus in the middle of a big sheet of paper. 4 sqaures represent 4 hours. Each hour we write down what we need to do. Sometimes we have compulsory stuff to do, eg games where prizes are won and what time, traffic, news and all the major stuff. And then we put in the fillers. Fillers are what we may use to fill up gaps when there is nothing to do. Most of the time we love games shows, or trivia. Cause we usually sell them a long time before. Say I plan to release an interesting trivia at 6.45pm. I begin selling it first thing in the hour itself. With each talkset you entice the audience to stay tuned. That is the whole point. We want people to stay tuned. Why? Ratings. And more importantly, ratings that affect the price of commercials aired in the time slot. And commercial is, $$ of course. One of the DJ’s duty is to sign this list of commercials aired over the shift. We look at the monitor, see if the commercial is played and then sign the form to acknowledge the commercial went out. What should be done actually is to view the list and ensure the commercials are all cued in and sign the commercial as they are played.

There are a few phone lines in the studio. The main line, eg 66911987 (2 lines), a secondary line used to call out, and a private line for internal use. The secondary line is used when we need to call out to another presenter for roving reports. Roving reports are like when a presenter attends some event and files on air reports over the station. They also use this line to call in, as this is the line that is connected to the system. Both this, and the main lines have caller ID so beware if you intend to call for malicious reasons! I don’t usually like to answer calls from the mainline and there are reasons to this, so I leave the lines busy. There is this button on the phone console that hangs all lines but keeps the secondary line available. And yes the phone does ring, when the on air button is not depressed.

We have 2 comps, one connected to email/webcam and internal traffic updates etc, and the other for internet surfing if we need to find stuff online. We also have a TV. Some like to watch CNA, some like MTV. I am usually too busy to look at the TV, but I do keep it tuned to traffic watch so I can see live traffic on the roads.

We do have 3 cd players, brought over from the good ole days. We use them when stuff like interviews come in CDs, or when we use cds for our music background (music bed) when we go on air, or if the system hangs we throw in a CD right away! If the system hangs and the silence lasts for a x number of seconds, the contingency plan kicks in automatically.

Essentially it is really easy to operate. There are only 2 modes when turning on the mikes. PGM and REC. (program and record). If we want to take a caller and record the conversation, we put it all into REC and it stores in the system and we can play it back later. Anything on PGM comes out live. So yes you are right, all VTs are done in REC mode.

Why are radio deejays (DJs) carry the same term as music DJs? The original DJ actually refers to the people you see playing in nightspots and all. Radio DJs, and it is just a guess, assumed the same term cause their tool of work is also a pair of headphones. We do have our own mike covers, for hygiene purposes.

So that’s the studio for you. A lot of work goes behind the scenes though, when we do production for commercials, trailers etc. We have this effects room and yes, DJs do all the work themselves. That is why they are termed producers/presenters. They not only produce and present their own shows, they do it for clients and for the station. It is all about $$.

Class 95, Perfect 10, and Yes 933 are next to each other. P10 and 933 share the same main door while Class 95 is the first one you’ll see through the class panel from the lift. The floor structure is such that, if you need to go to the toilet, you go right to the staircase, and the gents is one floor up, and the ladies is one floor down.

I did learn a lot and it was a good experience totally. Glad to have gone both sides of the DJ spectrum though I’d say I do better at other things. It has always been just a passion and it will remain one, not a career. I had very good mentors too and it was a blast learning from them all!

I had a rather interesting conversation with my colleague today on religion. A little background on him. He is indian by descent. He wasn’t brought up in a strict religious family though. His uncle took him to churches when he was young and although he is supposedly hindu, he keeps a bible by his bed. Interesting!

He asked what I thought of the time when a couple gets married and have kids. If they belong to different religion, how do they handle that in terms of ‘guiding’ the kids? There are some religion that’s pretty strict and straight forward in the ‘terms and conditions’.

I won’t go too much into what we discussed but what I did say was, as adults, one has to remember that when attached, you are no longer single. Hence, no more me myself and I. You gotta take the other party’s position into consideration. Not so much of compromise per se, but rather, respect. It is 2 people in a couple, and when you have kids, it is 3, then 4, etc. Not an easy task. Honestly, as a kid I don’t remember following instructions like the holy grail. Honestly, what do you want me to believe, if you tell me as a Christian (for example) one has to be loving, forgiving etc, but the very next minute I see them quarrel and fight. Kids observe a lot and they do learn through actions. I prefer to feel, kids learn more through action than what the parents say. I also prefer to feel, religion is a personal thing. The child has the right to decide what he or she wants to follow. Sure we can guide, but should we force? No. But of course loads of religion will disagree with me on that. That things have to begin young and all.

I grew up during my primary and secondary school days in Cat High. Not once did I ever think I may follow the catholic’s way of faith. Today it dawned on me though, that perhaps their teachings are what I am more comfortable with.

Why did i backslide? Simply because I didn’t feel comfortable where I was. I have been preached upon, that I can only marry a fellow Christian. I have a duty to ‘save’ those who have not accepted God. ‘They’ critisized other religion. I quote “It is a sin for people to worship idols, and xxx religion has an infinite number of idols to worship, how sinful!” OVer the years there have been countless number of people who stand on the streets and invite strangers to their churches. And when faced with a rejection, they go “You’ll burn in hell!”

Have we been taught not to judge and critisize? Who are we to critisize another human being? There are loads of contridicting areas and I am not sure if that is what I want to do. Maybe subconsiously I have been afraid to challenge my faith. Never at all till today, did I consider that I may join another religion. Of course we do not join one and decide to follow ‘rules’ selectively. In one particular religion, you see a lot of them do that. There are so many’do nots’ and they end up being selective. What is the point anyway?

A religion should be very ‘you’. Only can you accept the teachings and feel comfortable following it. I had more stress attending sunday school than going for tuition. I have been putting this aside since I was 14 so it has been a while. Can you be in a religion where you question the actions of your fellow mates? In the past i’d say yes, cause to me a religion is a relationship between me and God. Not me and those in the same religion. I faced more negative sentiments than positive ones and it is quite a struggle. Hypocrisy. Judgemental. And what not. I told myself I don’t want to be like that cause I don’t like them.

Admittedly I do not know a lot bout other religion, such as catholicism. But am I ready to challenge my own faith, something that I was born with literally?  You can see why I said earlier, a person should be able to choose his or her religion. Denouncing your own religion, or the people in it, or both, is a rather painful and tiring experience. It questions everythin you have learnt. It demands to know, is this the way things should be?

AS for my colleague, I ended off with my own opinion, that I don’t think it will be a huge problem when the time comes. People change, mindsets change. Even if your partner declares now that it is ‘okay’, there is no guarantee that will stay then. The reverse is true. I rather worry bout what is my next step rather than plan the ending. Even if your winning stroke is perfect, you may never get anywhere near cause you forgot about the obstacles that are nearest to you right now. So the worry is redundant I feel. He wasn’t worrying I believe. It was just a thought. I honestly feel when the foundation is strong enough, there is nothing 2 people cannot discuss and agree upon after finding some ways to accept and respect each other’s wishes.

To me, the greatest gift to give to a child, is to be able to let him be himself and enjoy what and who he is. Only when that happens, can a person be happy. Isn’t everyone’s wish to see their children happy? I suspect so, but there are lots of things that they ought to consider. Kids are not stupid. They are born with a brain that can think, eyes  that can see, ears that hear, and emotions that they can feel. They say action speaks louder than words. I do agree. Less preaching, more actions will help.

I will probably never face the scenario where I have to face a partner of a different religion and enforce the ‘rules’ upon the relationship, and then onto my kids. I have respect for every religion (sometimes I feel my religion is more of a cult than anything) as long as they are true to what they say, what they believe, and what they preach. Going to sunday school does not imply you’re a Christian. It is a committment to attendence, but not to God, or yourself. I do see quite a few people in my course of life who changed drastically for the better after conversion to Christianity and I am very happy for them. I do believe their connection to God is true and pure. All religion teaches one to do good, yes that’s true. But it is up to the individual to make out what is being said in the teachings. Humans are such that, quite a few will do dirty work in the name of their religion. It is sad and gives other believers in the same religion a bad name. No religion I know teaches killing as an acceptable way of life, other than or survival reasons. But to say, ‘for me to survive, you have to die’ is totally warped.

While I am respectful to religions across the board, I challenge my own. The irony of it all. I have indeed lost my way along the way. I do want to find my way back, but if it is to the path I once was, then I don’t want it.

It should come without surprise that if there is a repeal377a, there will be one that goes against it. A new site has sprouted out, www.keep377a.com

Someone will ask me, if I am sure I want to publicise such a site. Why not? I can argue for both sides if I want and be impartial. It is a choice for me if I do want to comment, regardless of the notion. But debates with terrible points are worse than hearing a fingernail running across a chalkboard. Oh but these days you guys have whiteboards instead in school eh? Times do change. If blackboards never gave way to whiteboards, would we have been living in the past?

As for the site, I did go in and take a look and see what their argument is about. I can understand what they are protecting and I do agree with their arguments to a certain extent. It is sad to see the one and only law supposedly, that defines what we can or cannot do in our own private bedrooms is used to define what we want or do not want. In the above website, they do state that what homosexuals do in private is up to them, but there are family values etc etc. Forgive me, but I still fail to see what family has to do with what I do in my bedroom. Additionally, it still failed to answer my question. Why have a section in the penal code, when it is not going to be enforced? I dare say, enforcement of any kind needs to be considered carefully. That includes raiding gay spas and all. There are serious implications and major outcry potentially.

Minister Mentor Lee will not allow any racial riot. But did he consider, there could be a sexual orientation riot? A riot that may split the nation? Does he see that coming?

Moving along, South Africa has become the 5th country to permit same sex marriages. This is after Netherlands (first, in 2001), Belgium, Spain and Canada. The only state in the US that permits it seems to be Massachusetts. Foreign same sex marriages are recognised also in…surprise surprise.. Israel. I found some very good material online about such issues. Just google ‘same sex marriages’ and you have enough info to read to last you the entire year.

Why did S.Africa decide to allow same sex marriages?

“Having had rights denied during the apartheid era, which lasted for more than four decades from 1948, the country wanted to ensure there was equality for all, including those who were gay or lesbian, South African Constitutional Court judgeAlbie Sachs said yesterday during a panel discussion on family law at the International Bar Association’s conference here.

‘Because of apartheid, the majority knew what it was like to be discriminated against because of who you were, not what you’ve done,’ he told The Straits Times.

‘And people who suffered discrimination could understand how others would feel.’

During the panel discussion, South African lawyer Zenobia du Toit outlined the legal developments marking those changes. In 1996, South Africa became the first nation with a Constitution that forbade discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

This formed the basis for subsequent court decisions on issues like allowing same-sex partners to jointly adopt children. In November last year, a law on same-sex marriage came into force.

Asked about a bid by some groups here to get the Government to repeal a law criminalising gay sex, Justice Sachs said he did not have advice for Singapore.

But he explained that in South Africa’s case, the Constitutional Court declared the sodomy law unconstitutional because it ‘invaded the protected rights to equality, to privacy and to dignity’. ”

Hmm… guess what I am thinking? Singapore is ahead in so many things compared to other countries. Should she be ashamed she is behind S.Africa? No disrespect to the country of course. We are, in this area, behind all 5 nations. Perhaps we are not ready. Perhaps that is why so many have left the country for another that respects, appreciates, and treats them the way they ought to be as an individual, not as a male (or female), as a homosexual (or heterosexual), as a white (or a black), a a single (or divorcee).

There are many countries who respect the folks who clear their garbage bins every day. Every job is a respected job. To be frank, I don’t think we look at our bin clearers and bus drivers the same way here. It has a lot to do with culture here perhaps. Where we were born, bred, and thought to fight to be the best and look down on everyone else who isn’t at your level. How gracious.

I have finally received my NFC(near field communications) phone that allows me to tap everywhere (literally) for payment and info. It is a SE interface and I am soooooo not used to it. I can’t get a message out for nuts, but I gotta admit their T9 dictionary function is cool once you get used to it. It works differently from the one in Samsung. Let’s see how this one goes… I do get discounts off my mobile bill and all. Tomorrow I am going to get my new line at the starhub corporate roadshow. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to get a number that I like.

There has been a flurry of mails to the ST forum on the 377a issue. The bashers had their day and today the supporters came out in full support. While I still maintain an objective and neutral point of view, I think these 2 writers did bring up very valid points:

Why is one law ‘archaic’ and not the other? 
MS LIM Poh Suan wrote that repealing Section 377A of the Penal Code – a law criminalising gay sex – would threaten the family unit and ‘lead to the disintegration of our social fabric’ (‘Removing Section 377A threatens family unit’; ST, Oct 16).
She forgets that gays are part of a family unit and many parents, siblings and other relatives – who are concerned that the law would discriminate against their gay loved ones – do support the call for the repeal.

In some ways, it is similar to interracial or inter-religious marriages – I have witnessed parents who were initially disapproving coming around after they got to know their child’s partner and see the sincerity and realness of the relationship.

Section 498 of the Penal Code, which makes it an offence to entice, take away or detain a married woman with the intention of having illicit intercourse with her, will be repealed.

One may argue that repealing such a law would signal to society that adultery is acceptable, and this would threaten the family unit and children especially – more so than Section 377A, as it is applicable to all families.

The Ministry of Home Affairs explained that Section 498 concerns an archaic offence which is no longer relevant in today’s context.

How is it that Section 498 is deemed ‘no longer relevant in today’s context’ but Section 377A is still relevant?

Tan Yen Ling (Ms)

–
IN HER letter, Ms Lim Poh Suan implies that gays destroy family values. I would like to correct that view.

Family values are challenged when there is infidelity between husband and wife, when parents are too busy working to take care of children, when parents inculcate the wrong values in their children, when family members do not learn to think.

A family is not broken up just because a friend, a neighbour or even a relative is gay. It is absurd to blame parenting failure and family problems on external forces and the Government.

Repealing Section 377A is about love and compassion, and seeing all people as equals.

Let not religious dogma deny fellow Singaporeans their right to exist.

Chua Chee Hiang

–

I honestly do not see the link between homosexuality and family values. Some may feel, acceptance equates to rewriting the books. I find that absolutely absurd. No one is asking anyone to write in books for children that homosexuality is natural, is good is blah blah blah. Who is to judge if it is a right or wrong thing? It is a sexual orientation. Is being born of a certain race a choice, and can be argued along the lines of right or wrong? I really question the intelligence of some of the forum writers. Give me a good argument and I will happily debate, to the point of acceptance. Else I will just respect the view as one belonging to the individual. But when you give me an argument like ‘it affects family values’, how is it related to decrim. 377a. It is NOT even about accepting homosexuality. It is a decrimminilization. Which part of 377a will imply it is okay or not okay to be a homosexual? Did these people even know what 377a states? I am sorry if you’re reading this but if you belong to the above group of people, you ARE an IDIOT. Family values me ass. If you’re so god and righteous, please fidn solutions to family violence, divorces etc, before poking your nose around what I and other feathered friends of mine do in my own bedroom. I still maintain, what I do in my bedroom is none of anyone’s business. Not yours, not the government’s. And it is STUPID for the government to have a rule or something in the penal code BUT do NOT actively enforce it. Might as well throw the code away. And that is my argument. For now. Bring it on people, for those who have something to say. I will not delete any comments for better or worse.

People are always afraid. Did you know that Pluto is not considered one of the planets in this solar system? It has been mentioned for the longest time in books, our solar system is made up of the sun and 8 planets of which pluto, being a dwarf planet, is part of it. Not so, as people found out. The contraversy remains to this day. Our science centre did write an article about it, and one of the reasons why things do not change is because they do not want to re-write books and astrology material. You can find arguments that support pluto being part of this solar system and those that are against. But the fear of accepting what is unknown, one that challenges our believes and facts our ancestors brought down to us is a damaging one. We move 1 step ahead with technology, but go back 10 steps due to refusal to explore and challenge our own mindsets. Admitting there are only the sun and 7 planets in our solar system is sorta deemed openly admitting our forefathers were wrong. There is a major screwup among astrologers. It is NOT a mistake to admit one is wrong. It is a SIN to hide a fact out of ‘face’. Think about the Da Vinci code. Agree, or blasphemy?

Moving along to something more light hearted, this article tickled me. I wonder what people will think when the person’s asked what he did to get himself in jail with a reply like “I drank someone’s blood”.

Drunk man drank blood at HK hospital 
A HONG Kong man who knocked back two vials of blood after a drinking binge has been jailed for two months, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Li Man-yiu, 29, told a court on Monday that he was ‘extremely thirsty’ when he staggered into a hospital on Sept 13 for treatment for an injured toe, the South China Morning Post has reported.

Surveillance cameras showed Li ‘walk up to the laboratory counter, take three tubes containing blood samples, drink the contents of two and then dump the vials in the lift lobby’, the Post added.

When he realised that the vials had contained blood, Li rushed into a toilet to throw up.

The court accepted that he had drunk the blood under the influence of alcohol, but jailed him after he pleaded guilty to theft, the report added.
 

Some people were asking me why instant messaging (IM) applications like MSN or ICQ are not permitted in my corporate environment. I work in a financial institute, where the information we store digitally is worth a darn lot of money. Back at my ‘home’ base, IM is permitted but users are required to abide by the rules on information security.

However in a financial institute, there are a few main reasons why such software is not permitted.

- Legal/Compliance and security breaches

There are regulations and standards (such as US’s SOX) that require the company to maintain and protect data integrity. There are legal and security risks involved. IM can be a significant risk, for most casual chat sessions include rumours,jokes,gossip etc that are potentially disparging. Secondly, confidential information may be mentioned through IM sessions. Other legal issues include scenarios such as, a customer confirming an order via IM. If something goes ‘wrong’, who can prove the order or instruction? The logs, if any at all, may not be admissible in court. If I told my broker to sell my shares through IM and for some reason it is not carried out, do I have any recourse? Maybe, but chances are not good. You can also have a scenario where I make fun of a rival institute with my colleagues. These defamatory remarks can, and will put me and the whole company up for legal action. The consequences? I may go to jail, but the whole world will hear of this case and you can imagine the implication it has on the business and brand of the company. And what about viruses and trojans people encounter so often through IM? An attacker can ‘plant’ a program into the victim’s system and potentially crawl through the entire network. After all, many attackers are motivated by money, and they go for information that is valuable. How valuable is a military or financial institute’s information? You’ve guessed it.

- Additional IT support

Installing applications can cause other applications to malfunction or ‘crash’. It has happened often enough and IT staff has to spend that extra time to attend to it. Loss of productivity during downtime can also be sizable. Eg, a staff in SGX installed an untested chat messaging software and caused the proprietary analyst’s application to crash. Imagine the impact during trading hours.

- Excessive utllisation of network resources

When people download media files/install programs, CPU/RAM and network bandwidth is affected. If there is a business need, that’s justifiable.
- Productivity issues

Naturally and obviously, if you spend more time chatting than working, and it happens across the organisation, the cost of lost productive is very significant.
So, unless there is a business need to (and so far I have always been able to find work arounds as solutions so there hasn’t been a need to), IMs should never be allowed in a corporate environment. It is one of the policies that I advocate to my customers. The whole idea is to give the bare minimum to the users for their daily operational needs. The less things you have, the less things will be ‘messed’ up, the less IT department needs to manage, and the less chance of a security breach. This also includes rights, so users never have administrator rights unlike what we have on our home desktops. If I manage to hack into your desktop, I assume the same rights as you do, ie administrator rights. I can do ‘anything’. Without that privileged rights, there is a limit to the damage I can do. Windows Vista is one of the OS where admin rights is not granted by default.

So there you go. We have our defenses up against intruders, but it takes just 1 careless employee to mess things up. I can have the best alarm system in my house. State of the art systems. Biometric verfication, laser beams shooting everywhere to detect motion.. etc. But if someone from within opens the door and lets an intruder in, all defenses are useless. In today’s climax, information is highly valuable, and it is one of my jobs to protect my customer’s information.

Moving on, I am gonna trade in my phone and subscribe to a new number this friday at a starhub road show catered for my company. I’ll circulate the new number soon enough. I wanted to get the samsung U series phones that look pretty but after reading about all the problems users’ have encountered, I guess I will get a $0 phone on a 1 year contract. Maybe next year we will have better phones to subscribe to. A lot of people told me to get a Dopod or an O2 with all its functionality. I really hate the size, I do not use the applications so I don’t see the point? What I do love is the GPS software installed. It will help a lot, even in Perth when I visit next year. But I decided since I cannot make up my mind, I rather not spend a cent (in fact I will gain a hundred or so bucks for trading in my D900 phone) on any phone till I have decided what I need.

Has anyone wondered why we cannot keep large dogs in a HDB flat? Besides the space needed, it is about the people living around you. You need to be able to carry your dog in lifts if people who are adverse to the animal travel in the same lift. HDB is not going to permit it anytime soon since people are STILL complaining about dogs. Condos, although much smaller, do not have such strict regulations. It appears to be the scenario where if you don’t like your neighbour’s dog, then you move or you file a complaint to the condo committee. There are so many things involved when you stay in a HDB. But the HDB executive condos, built by private developers look interesting.  I’ll look at it sometime when the time is right. I’ve a drafted plan on my future investments and milestones, but will assess these goals in stages.

Alright, back to work!

I have finally got my subscribe link to work, so if you’re lazy and you rather get my posts in your email, click on the subscribe link on the left! Kuddos to princess rach.. I think for a non techie she’s quite alright already. I’ll be putting her blog on the blogroll (links) soon so if you want yours in here, drop me a note too! Meantime… her blog is right here!

My boss said I did a good job today on handling a particular case of a user being caught for giving his account and password out to another colleague to use. Don’t ask me how I found out… but basically we had to approach this carefully with tact. How do you tell a user (a non security inclined person may not understand the implications of sharing accounts, let alone it being a serious violation of company policies) what he he did was wrong in a nice way, and getting him to change his password and not share it again? The reason he gave was that a new colleague just joined and it took a long time for the account to be set up. Meantime work had to be done hence he gave the new colleague the password. Here is how my reply looks like:

Hi xxx,

Thanks for the advice.

I understand the frustration of not having an account created in time, however sharing of personal accounts is against our policy. The account owner is responsible for the confidentiality of the account password and accountable for all actions performed under the account.

You may like to change your password (highly recommended) and refrain from sharing it to anyone else thereafter, colleagues included. For quicker account creation, you may like to seek helpdesk’s assistance. They will be happy to escalate the case as priority as far as possible if you make known the urgency of the task.:)

Do let me know if I may be able to assist any further.

Have a great week ahead!

Warmest regards,

Mark I. Lee
xxx

What kinds of message did I intend to send across, so that the message is more receptive rather than offending the user out right?

- Sympathy. I began by showing I understood why he did it, so that I do not appear to be ‘telling him off’.

- Reinforce our policies, and why we have the policy. When you understand why there is a rule, it is more receptive and people see things your way instead of the conventional ‘you can’t do it because we said so’ style.

- Offer what he needs to do now. Inform the user how to remediate the situation. No one wants a scolding. People want solutions. This is a corporate environment, not a kindergarden school. We treat everyone with respect and dignity.

- Offer suggestions to his initial problem. He couldn’t get accounts up in time, not that he didn’t try or that he wants to share his account on purpose. Guide the user to what he can do to fix the original problem.

- Show signs of ‘it is fine you won’t be arrested’ and things will be all good IF he complies. You don’ tell someone what to do, you advice. When I do need someone to comply, I use the term ‘highly recommend’ as a subtle hint that he has to comply, like it or not. He is already caught. Further violations may have more serious consequences. End with a note that nothing personal was intended and it is all work and I respect and trust he will comply. Do not go “I will be monitoring you for the next week to see if you comply”. Once again, we are all adults. Tell someone nicely, and you’ll be treated well in return without hateful eyes. Being a ‘policeman’ is not easy. Sorta like auditors. No one likes auditors literally. But work is work and someone has to do the job. In a team of 10 people, you will find some who rub others the wrong way, yet another can ‘sweet talk’ and cajole the user into submission willingly. That, my friends, is what soft skills are about. Everyone can pick up technical skills. But not everyone can be good dealing with people. With some guidance and sensitivity, it is not that hard. I did not have anyone teach me, but I merely put myself into the person’s shoes. If i do not appreciate someone doing that to me, then I do not do it to someone else. I certainly do not appreciate someone telling me off, unless the person is my superior.

The user responded that he’ll follow what I recommended so the case is closed and everyone is happy.

The tactic I employ is, sympathize rather than critisize. Even if it is so obvious the other deserves a lecture. Give people the benefit of doubt. The real bad guys, aint gonna be ‘caught’ so easily. While ignorance is not an excuse, we prefer enforcing compliance rather than prosecution. At least where I work.

Work work work. We cannot work 9-6 non stop right? I can’t. My eyes get tired and my butt aches. A walk and breath of fresh air is important to me. Relax the mind a little so that you can continue being efficient when you get back to work. A 10 min break is good enough to me. While a power nap is not recommended during working hours, a walk downstairs/getting a drink is truly invigorating. Which brings to mind, how do we tell when someone is skiving and being unproductive? If I surf websites online, does it imply I am idling? Not so actually. Not all the time at least. I do not mind people taking time offs when they need, or a short break here and there. As long as you have work at heart and you aint skiving intentionally attending to personal stuff more than the amount you work. When there is work to be done, I expect it to be done. In good time too. When it is time to play, play. We have busy periods and lull periods, and there is nothing wrong taking a little longer at lunch or tea break when your work will not be affected. Tom Hodgkinson wrote the following in his book titled How To Be Idle. ‘The true idler wants to live a good life all the time, not just on Saturday nights, and the real lesson of hedonism is that we should attempt to enjoy all moments, not just those ones when we are out of our heads. Time should be savoured, not endured.’

How true. The way I see it? Race through life, and you’ll only make it to be the first to reach the end of it.

The online petition for gay rights have made it to the news. I urge those who are in support, to take a look at the site. If you decide to sign it, good for you! While the effectiveness is questioned, I am heartened to see some names from well known backgrounds adding a signature. Do it quick cause you have till Oct 19th. View it at www.repeal377a.com

Additionally, I was going through some corporate computer based training that we have to do from time to time. On personal conduct, discrimination against race, color, nationality, gender, sexual orientation and the rest are not to be condoned. There was another term they used and I associated it to transsexuals. I think the culture is there seriously. But it is up to the individual to follow the culture and I cannot expect everyone to be opinion less about sexual orientation. Honestly, how many of us can say we are free from racial prejudices? If many of us are racist to a certain extent, should I expect things with sexual orientation to go so smoothly?

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AN ONLINE campaign urging the Government to repeal a law criminalising gay sex is gathering support with many backers signing in their real names.

The campaign, via an open letter to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at www.repeal377a.com, has collected over 2,200 signatures since it started last Friday.

The site’s spokesman, Mr Alan Seah, said the online letter was set up by ‘about 20 concerned individuals’ – some gay, others straight – who felt the section of the law is ‘discriminatory and not good for Singapore’.

Under Section 377A of the Penal Code, it is a crime for men to have sex, whether in public or in private.

Those signing the letter were asked their real names, voting constituencies, jobs, and companies they worked for. These details, which did not have to be disclosed, were then published online.

While most chose to stay anonymous, the 40 or so pages of signatures include many people who included their names and those of their employer.

The signatories range from multinational company executives to engineers and teachers. Probably the most senior corporate figure here to sign the letter up to now is Nets (Network for Electronic Transfers) chief executive officer Poh Mui Hoon. Ms Poh, who signed in her personal capacity, declined to be interviewed.

Software giant Microsoft’s finance director for Asia John MacLennan, 43, said he signed the petition because he felt the law was unjust. Mr MacLennan, who is gay, is a permanent resident here.

A gay 31-year-old Singaporean government scholar working in an elite statutory board said he did not believe there would be repercussions to signing with his and his employer’s name.

If that happened, ‘so be it, I have enough credibility in my area of work that this would not be an issue’, he said, although he declined to be named for this story.

Another signatory, research assistant Low Soo Mei, said she signed because she felt sad that her homosexual friends should have to ‘live in fear that they can be prosecuted (under Section 377A)’. Ms Low, 25, is straight.

While pleased at the positive response, gay activist Alex Au acknowledged that ‘online petitions don’t have a very stellar history of effectiveness’.

He applauded those who put their real names to the letter, noting that there was significant ‘social and institutional discrimination’ against the gay community and those who supported them.

For the same reason, it was ‘understandable’ why so many chose to stay anonymous, although this clearly hurts the campaign’s credibility, said Mr Seah.

Another boost for the campaign is coming from celebrities such as Pamela Oei, Hossan Leong, Beatrice Chia and Mark Richmond, who are making a rap song to raise awareness. The song will be uploaded to video-sharing website Youtube within the next few days.

The creative industry has traditionally been one of the gay movement’s stronger supporters.

The letter will be taken offline on Oct 19, and the names of the signatories consolidated and sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, said Mr Seah.

Came across this article in the ST today and I think it gives a pretty good layman advice . In my course of work, it is clear that the best way to convince someone what could happen, is to show how it has ALREADY happened. The famous “it won’t happen to me” line will just add you as a statistic to the list of ‘hits’ eventually.

“YOUR bank account might contain thousands of dollars, but in the black market, information on hacking into it is worth only about US$300 (S$440).

Credit card data goes for even less: Cyber thieves sell such details for just US$1 to US$6.

And information about your life, from birth date to credit card and identification numbers, sell for only up to US$18.

Welcome to the world of organised online crime and the underworld economy, in which details stolen by hackers are traded for a mere fraction of their worth.

Symantec and McAfee, two major security companies which distribute computer software that prevents hackers from accessing your computer, have been studying cyber crime trends, including identity theft, phishing and e-mail fraud.

Personal information can be obtained online by hackers in various ways – by installing key loggers onto your computer that track keyboard button movements to uncover passwords; or by using bots or programs installed in a computer to give control of it to an unauthorised user remotely. A large number of these computers can then be used to launch cyber attacks onto others, or to harvest confidential information stored within.

Symantec tracked how information stolen is being traded, and details of the study show the blatant disregard hackers have for sensitive data.

Details of an online banking account with at least US$9,900 in it is worth only US$300 on the black market.

A list of 29,000 e-mail addresses costs just US$5, while a verified PayPal account fetches between US$5 and $500, depending on the balance in the account.

And for all those World Of Warcraft players out there, details of an active gaming account nets a hacker US$10.

When one considers that black markets normally trade such information in bulk, it means that hackers are constantly on the prowl for more ways to get more data to sell.

Although illegal, it is a lucrative business.

Just look at New Yorker Shiva Brent Sharma, who at the age of 20, amassed a cyber loot of US$150,000 before he was nabbed in 2005 for identity theft.

He bought stolen credit card accounts online and managed to transfer large amounts of money to himself. He once stole US$20,000 in less than 36 hours.

And while such crimes have generally been assumed to be concentrated in Western countries, there is evidence to show that Asia is fast becoming an attractive target.

‘Online users in Asia assume they are not being targeted, but hackers don’t care which country you live in. Everyone is a target,’ warns McAfee’s marketing director for Asia-Pacific, Mr Allan Bell.

A Symantec study found that an average of 15,447 active bot-infected computers per day are in the Asia-Pacific region, which makes up 29 per cent of the worldwide daily average of 52,771.

According to Symantec’s consumer product marketing manager for Asia-Pacific, Mr Phil Hickey, 95 per cent of all online attacks are targeted at ‘unsuspecting home users’.

He said: ‘It goes without saying that criminals can buy all kinds of goods and subscribe to all kinds of services at your expense.

‘But it’s even more worrying to think that your identity can also be used in fraudulent activities, to provide a ‘cover’ for criminals.’

Protect yourself

DESPITE the ever changing methods hackers use to get information, the ways to protect your computer have not changed much.

Never download anything from an unverified source, never share sensitive information via instant messaging systems, and avoid storing such data on a laptop, which is easier to lose.

And while it might be attractive to download free anti-virus software, there is an advantage in using all-in-one security programs, including those provided by Symantec or McAfee, which include anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spyware and other useful tools in one handy package.

Symantec’s new Norton 360, for instance, prevents phishing by actively verifying the origins of a website to ensure that the sites visited are not fraudulent ones created to obtain private information.

Another security tip is to always remember to update software definitions to ensure your computer is protected against the newest hacker programs.

Beware, too, of lulling yourself into a false sense of security.

A study by McAfee and the United States National Cyber Security Alliance discovered that while users felt keeping their computers safe was important and had taken steps to do so, the facts proved otherwise.

A large percentage of those surveyed owned expired anti-virus software, disabled firewalls and less than half of them had anti-spyware software. And for those who did, less than half actually installed it.

So which half are you? The half that has thousands in the bank, or the other half who stands to lose everything while a hacker makes US$300?

 Got this mail internally. Who is interested? Keppel club is holding its own fest in early Nov at a cheaper rate ($28 for guests). As always, beer is chargable. Seems like the rule for oktoberfest. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Yes yes, I am ill indeed. Came down with a bad nose and throat. To be precise, no it is not a flu. Remember I said flu symptoms are severe? High fever of more than 39 deg C, and symptoms can last more than a week. A cold is more likely and hence the term ‘the common cold’. Mild symptoms… runny nose, weakness, low grade fever.. etc. A lot of people are sick these days. The official diagnosis is upper respiratory infection. Infections can be viral or bacterial in nature, and no it is not always true that you can tell a virus infection from a bacterial one from the color of your phlegm.

I played this game of ghettopoly. It is a totally warped game of monopoly. You deal with whore-houses, liquor stores and drugs. I think it is quite fun with a change from the squeaky clean monopoly. It is evident that somehow, it is clear that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I tend to get extreme with opinions when I am ill. Perhaps not really extreme. An everyday opinion just that I tend to be more vocal in words when I am ill.  I went to my old ‘me myself and I’ link on my own website on sillypore and re-read what I replied to queries that came my way when I was younger. I do realise I have not updated the contents for a long time!

Extreme views… hmmm…I have always advocated the term “everyone has a price”. Yes, in monetary terms, it means everyone is cheap. You and I , we are all cheap. Don’t believe so? Imagine the ugliest person in the world. Would  you sleep with that person for 100 bucks? Hell no way! Would you do so for 10 million bucks then? Hey it is just one night. Do it and get it done and over with and when you are done a million bucks await you. A lot of people don’t even make that money in their lifetime. I can increase that amount to a point where you stop saying no, and pause for a while. That is proof on its own. You, have a price.

Now, would  you kill your mother for 100 million bucks? Probably not. She has a price too and it is probably not worth all the money in the world. Now what if I said, you gotta bump off either your mom or dad. One and one only, no other alternative.  One is going to have a higher ‘price’ than the other.  Price, as my lil sis says, is relative. What i say is, it does not have to be monetary. It is about fair value. The question that assesses that will be when you ask “is doing xxx worth 10 million?” When you do such an assessment, you calculate the fair value. An animal has a price. Look at those in pet stores, and those in animal shelters. There are lots of stuff in humans that are pre programmed. It is human nature. I am no saint, and yes maybe I’ll sleep with the ugliest person for x amount. I don’t think I am a whore, but it is just sex. So many people come all righteous with me on it. I respect their decision but seriously I think they’re dumb. (rich get richer poor get poorer).  Does such an act constitute to selling myself out? Many won’t mind hurting oneself for that sum,  but would rather not hurt anyone else. Guilty conscious for the rest of your life is a terrible thing. You won’t be able to sleep, nor spend the money happily anyway. But if it is for yourself, it is a different story right? Exactly. You are CHEAP! So am I. So is everyone else.

We look at people living the privileged life in envy. Not all of them have their riches from hand downs you know. (rich get richer poor get poorer).  I now question, is your dignity/integrity/virginity and all the ‘ty’ worth 10 million? Name your price and if I can match it, will you do whatever I say?

Don’t dwell on it too much though. After all it is just one of my personal thoughts.Learn to appreciate the simple things. Things money can’t buy. You can buy a friend but you can’t buy a friendship. Appreciate the finer things in life. Things that are not man made that come with a price tag. It will be an excellent reprieve from our everyday lives. How much different as a kid and as an adult we are? A lot. When you have to fend for your own you begin to agree that talk is cheap. For someone who says “I won’t sleep with xxxx for yyyy dollars” you’ll reply with “What if I increase the sum 10 fold?”. Watch their reaction. We’re not so different from each other aren’t we? After all, we were once made the same, supposedly.

Now, aint that a comforting thought? If someone calls you an idiot, everyone’s an idiot too!

Ah… my biopage link… Me Myself and I. How apt.