Watched the rally yesterday night. PM Lee touched on the issues as expected - growing economy, casino, success of YOG, foreign talent debate, HDB prices and change of educational structure. And of course to many - the $9000 given to NSmen in CPF.

Well to be honest I dont think $9000 is a very big amount. Neither is it small, however, we still do not know if it would be put into the ordinary or special account and whether it can be used for other purposes other than furthering education and buying HDB flats.

First, the education subsidy. It might come in useful for those who have just ORD-ed in the past few years and those who are going to universities soon. However, the conditions does not seem to have been laid out - are they restricted to local institutions like polytechnics and local universities? Or also the private education sector? Well, 1 thing we can be sure is that this fund would not be allowed to be spent on getting a degree elsewhere.

Secondly, the $9000 as a housing subsidy in purchase of HDB flats. I am tempted to think that this subsidy might be only for those purchasing newly built flats. As prices of HDB have soared over the past few years. This extra cash would definitely come in handy. However, let us not forget that prices of flats are set by HDB. So, if the money cannot be used to buy older flats then it is pretty pointless. Also, $9000 in these days does not mean much, especially when COV (cash-over-valuation) can be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000.

Moving towards 2011!

We have various social networking means, such as forums, facebook and twitter. Some people classify gaming as a social-networking activity too.

Social networking has been picking up in Singapore, and this is because our city-state's network infrastructure is ahead of many countries (other than Korea and Japan of course!), many people have access to the Internet whether they are at home, at work, or at play. Mobile broadband is getting more common too.

Based on my own (unverified) statistics, over 80% of those under the age of 25 would have at least a facebook account. Whether they use it frequently is another thing altogether. I, for one, rarely update my facebook and twitter. It's merely for the purpose of keeping in touch with people that I know. I dont often add new people to my list too.

Will social networking become bigger? Definitely, and I foresee that more social-networking technologies/sites coming up to vie for a slice of the pie with current social networking websites such as twitter, friendster and facebook. The limitations for now are still the lack of broadcasting features, which are limited by current internet technologies.

HWZ has just undergone a major facelift after a decade in the portal/forum business. Most would have expected an upgrade to the server/s used for the website. Well, apparently not - none paying HWZ members have been getting "server busy" whenever they tried to post. This issue has been ongoing for the past few years prompting many to speculate over HWZ's intentions. We are not going to join in
the bashing as we are afraid of any legal repercussions from the SPH team.

However, let us move on to another issue which many HWZers (or rather, EDMWers) have noticed. A javascript pop-under chatbox sponsored by Nokia.

Over the past weeks, many forumers have reported that they have received a noticeable increase in "server busy" messages rendering the usage of the forums nearly impossible. Some believed that it may have been due to the chatbox. Well, it might really have been true as some of these modifications might really be server intensive (if they actually save the backlogs etc.)

Last night, member gameboyz actually found an exploit in the javascript. It appears that the chats are not being parsed through any editing functions to strip the javascript and html tags. Well, he might not have been the first to discover this. When The_Davis posted that html tags were usable, I almost wanted to try it, though I ditched the idea soon afterwards as again, I did not want to mess with the SPH's legal team.

However, as a HWZ member, I am quite appalled that such a simple security
loophole had not been patched even before it was released - since it did not require much of hacking knowledge other than basic javascripting.


Over the past few months, they have sent letters to some websites and now, they also changed their Terms of Service to disallow any linking/hot-linking to the Hardwarezone site. In fact, these letters are not the usual "cease or desist" warning letters, but more of a "letter of demand".

In Singapore, Hardwarezone is perhaps the best known forum/website/portal - whatever you choose to call it. It was started by 4 NUS undergraduates back in the late 1990s and it was sold off to Singapore Press Holdings a couple of years ago. It has become a popular tech site for Singaporeans who are intending to read up on guides and ask for advice on computer problems. Over the years, EDMW (eat-drink-man-woman) had also become a hotspot for IT-savvy people to chit-chat and discuss current issues. HWZ also has more than its fair share of real-world action with defamation suits, bomb hoaxes and other police cases/legal tussles. Well it is hard to keep some problems at bay especially if you are the biggest website run by one of the biggest companies in Singapore.


In fact, the place receives millions of page views in a day and we cannot fathom why the administrators wants to implement a paying system. Granted, it brings more revenue to the already popular site. However, many of us feel that paying for membership itself just for us to post on the forums is uncalled for. The "value" from hwz comes from its users.

In the past, deluxe membership came with perks, but over the years, it seems that these promotions and tie-ins with businesses have not quite caught on.

In short, HWZ really does need to relook at the issues and fix them. Meanwhile, I think that as an online content provider, HWZ does need to issue a formal apology to all its members since the security might have been compromised prior to gameboyz's testing of the javascript exploit. Although under the Terms of Service, there are clauses which protect HWZ's interest and from most liabilities.

Over the past few days, Singapore has been experiencing wet weather. Though some people may not have liked rainy days, I would say the change is welcoming.

"February turned out to be the driest month ever and one of the hottest on record, with no sign of a respite any time soon.


The National Environment Agency's Meteorological Services Division said Singapore received just 6.3mm of rain - the lowest for February since 1869, when rainfall records began here.



February is usually a dry month, but conditions were made worse this year by the El Nino weather phenomenon. The highest maximum temperature of 35.2 deg C was recorded on Feb 26, just below the level on the hottest day ever, March 26, 1998, when the mercury hit 36 deg C."


Although the NEA has predicted that we will be experiencing lower than average rains until May, it seems that the dry spell is already broken. Hopefully it will stay this way.

Hardwarezone recently unveiled changes to its website, although it seems more of a cosmetic change than an overhaul.

The new website is based on white and green theme and the interface looks cleaner and more organized.


However, I still prefer the old interface as it was more user-friendly and less glaring. Most of the users seem to echo my views as reflected in the following links:

Many users have also noted that the forums have been prompting more “Server Busy” messages after the “upgrade”.





A Brief History

HardwareZone was started as an online magazine in August 1998 by five engineering students from the National University of Singapore: Lee Choon Yau, Eugene Low, Poh Swee Hong, Ang Chi Hoe and Jereme Wong. [1] After a year, it had become a popular gathering place for Singapore's computer-savvy to discuss hardware and software news. [2] By 2000, the website was attracting two million page views a month. The founders made plans to turn the website into a full-fledged portal and launch an initial public offering (IPO) to raise capital. Had the IPO gone ahead, they would have been the first undergraduates in Singapore to launch one. [1] However, as of 2007, the company has not been listed on the Singapore Exchange yet. [3]
In 2006, HardwareZone was purchased by SPH for S$7.1 million. SPH acquired all the magazine titles published by HardwareZone, which included HardwareMAG (HWM), GameAxis (a computer games magazine), and PHOTOVIDEOi (a digital photography magazine).

Sources: http://wapedia.mobi/en/HardwareZone
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/sh....php?t=2694152
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/sh....php?t=2693124
http://forums.edmw.sg/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=64698

For all the F1 fanatics out there. Some information on the Singapore night race.

About the race


Length of track: 5.067km
Race direction: Anti-clockwise
Number of laps: 61
Track width: 10m to 15m
Track surface: Laid with polymer modified binder that has 20 percent more grip
Number of turns: 23 in total, 13 lefts and 10 rights
Speed at slowest corners: 80-100kmh (Turns 3, 8, 13, 14, 18)
Overtaking opportunities: Turn 1 (Sheares) Pit Straight, Turn 7 (Memorial) Raffles Boulevard, Turn 14 Esplanade Drive
Race distance: 308.95km
Road closure dates: 7 days (starting September 23 midnight to September 29, 5pm)

Though we already had a "You've got mail" starring Tom hanks and Meg Ryans more than a decade ago (11 years to be exact), they were still based on email technology.

Things have since taken a quantum leap forward with IM (instant messaging) and we have seen many dramas and movies incorporating such social networking tools into the plot.

Some might remember a Japanese movie called train-man (Densha Otoko) featuring an otaku with a slight case of social stigma going to online forums to seek help with wooing a pretty office lady. While this movie did not win any International acclaim, it was notable.

With Facebook and Twitter becoming more popular - chances are we can expect more of such social networking related movies in coming years.

Nope, not documentaries about how Mark Zuckerberg made his name online. We are talking about real movies WITH storylines. Suspense, thrillers, romance and such.

Here are some of the links that I manage to dig up which hints that a Facebook movie would be coming your way soon.

"Facebook: The Movie” Enters Production This Year" - http://mashable.com/2009/06/23/facebook-the-movie/

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Faceb...ger-14884.html

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?si...id=33807262256

----------------------------

How about a (facebook initiated) war movie, perhaps?

Finally, things are coming to an end and this signals a new beginning. Hope we can establish a big enough virtual community on wirebooth.com and provide marketing/advertising opportunities for SMEs.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you meet with any problems :)

Updated 4:04 p.m. PDT with information from the conference call and an interview with Cisco's CFO.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers says the economic recession that's gripped the world for the past year may have reached a tipping point in the last three months, as he sees the company's corporate customers return to spending more on technology.

Even though Cisco's sales and profits were down drastically from a year ago for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, Chambers said Wednesday during the conference call with investors and analysts that orders for new products grew for the first time in several quarters.

"We saw a number of positive signs in the economy and in our business over the fourth quarter," Chambers said. "It's still early, but if we continue to see these positive trends in one or two more quarters, there's a good chance we say the tipping point occurred in the fourth quarter."

Cisco reported fourth quarter profits of $1.1 billion or 19 cents a share. This was down from a profit of $2 billion or 33 cents a share during the same quarter a year ago. Revenue fell 18 percent to $8.5 billion compared to the same quarter a year ago when the company reported revenue of $10.4 billion.

The company's results were in-line or slightly above what analysts had predicted.

Cisco, which makes equipment that powers the Internet and most corporate networks around the world, is seen as a bellwether in the tech industry. Because the company's products are used by almost every large company, government entity, broadband and telephone service provider, and thousands of small and medium businesses around the globe, the company has a strong pulse on the economy and technology spending in general.


John Chambers, Cisco CEO

(Credit: Cisco)Chambers, himself, is viewed as somewhat of a technology oracle. And investors listen carefully to what he says and the tone of his comments for hints at what to expect from other companies in the technology sector. Cisco was one of the first companies, well over a year ago, to see the economic downturn coming. The company had noted a slow down in spending from some of its biggest corporate customers in the U.S. and Canada.

So what are the signs of recovery that Cisco is seeing? During the call Chambers explained that Cisco's quarters are remarkably predictable from year to year in terms of sequential quarterly growth. He said he often expects at least 10 percent growth in orders from quarter to quarter. But in the first half of fiscal 2009, the company actually saw orders drop about 15 percent. Business appeared to stabilize in the third fiscal quarter, which he noted during the company's previous quarterly conference call in May.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, Chambers said he saw an actual change. Orders reverted back to normal trends and the company started seeing sequential growth in its business again.