Constructive Deconstruction

Of the Library@Orchard Closing video & A Talented Composer

Last week, I was involved in helping Jean in the music video that she was making for the closure of the orchard library.

Several hours ago, the video finally went public. Jean did such a wonderful job! Not only was the stitching so well done, she picked a song that was perfect for the occasion.

I just have to give the composer of that song, “Lenniez“, my thumbs up! Do check her out over at youtube! She just got herself one more fan. =)

Hong Kong Li Ka-Shing invests $60m in Facebook?

I’m not too sure whether this is real but if it’s true, it’s definitely an interesting piece of news…I’m starting to think that Facebook is highly overvalued…

Facebook did not get additional $500 million from hedge funds (yet), as announced by our favorite blogger without a clue, Fake Steve Jobs, and later Wall Street Journal; however, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing stepped in and invested $60 million in Facebook.

Li Ka-Shing is the chairman of network operator Hutchison Whampoa Limited as well as Chinese portal Tom Online; paidContent speculates that Tom Online might be interested in a partnership with Facebook should the popular social network enter the Chinese market.

( Source : Mashable )

Judge Jails Entire Courtroom

The Judge completely lost it after no one wanted to own up for a ringing mobile phone.

A US judge has been removed from the bench after jailing 46 people when a mobile phone began ringing during his court session and no one would own up.

The entire courtroom was sent to the cells during a domestic violence hearing when the judge, Robert Restaino, 48, "snapped" and - according to a review of his actions - "engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness".

(Source : Guardian )

Siemens introduces MacBook Pro modified with Ultrasound capability

Siemens has just introduced their new P50 laptop that’s designed for cardiology and vascular applications. They say it "considerably simplifies and accelerates the workflow in echocardiography and vascular diagnosis".

That said, the interesting thing is that they’ve decided to use Windows as their platform. Haha.

( Source : Engadget )

To Reuben.

When we read the news, it’s always full of tragedy. But ever so often, one will strike closer to home, maybe even closer to heart. A few days ago was one such day when I found out that amongst the 5 dragonboaters that perished, 3 were friends of a good friend of mine - 1 being his best. It moves me so much to see him as he is today trying to remember and trying to immortalise the memory of his friend - Reuben Kee.

I never really knew him although I have him as my facebook ‘friend’. We were both playing BattleStations and he added me as a ‘trading partner’. So it was somehow sad that in some way, we were connected. It was sadder still to see his blog being updated only several days before his competition.

It reminded me of the fragility of life. It reminded me that one day, someone close to me would also be lost…

Yet it reminds me that life must be lived. And while many others deserve mention, I’d like to dedicate this entry to someone I, somehow, would have loved to know. He did so much in his lifetime.

While it is sad that he is gone,
While the time to come is meant to mourn
Let us also remember
Let us also celebrate
That while he was here,
He truly, fulfillingly and inspirationally
Lived.
To Reuben.

———————————————-

If you’d like to keep his song alive, please either embed the following code in your blog. Feel free to download the file as well. More information about his wake can be found here.

<embed loop="false" autostart="true" hidden="true" height="1" width="1" src="http://www.ridzuan.info/tianhong/BackHomePianoSolo-ReubenKee.mp3"></embed>

Human Judgment

"Human judgment may fail. You may act very wisely, you think, but it may turn out a great failure. On the other hand, one may do a foolish thing which may turn out well. I hace seen many things happen, but the fact remains that human life is presented to us as simple choice between right and wrong. If you obey that law you will find that that way is far safer in the long run than all calculations which can ever be made. I want to say this to you because that is something my experience has taught me. But I certainly do not want you to understand me to say that I have always done the right thing — I should be ashamed to say that. But I do have the feeling that one must act in accordance with what one feels and believes." — Winston Churchill, Norway, 1948

Extract from "Churchill on Leadership": On Avoiding Risk

Avoiding risks in business is the route to failure. Avoiding risks in politics, however, is the route to a long career in office. A failed risk in politics is far more dangerous than a failed risk in business. In business, shareholders and customers quickly forgive you if you recover from a disaster - think of Coca-Cola after the "New Coke" debacle, or Ford after the Edsel. But in politics, partisans will keep alive and distort and magnify any failure or mistake in your career. Often small mistakes are punished more severely than disasters.

Churchill observed, "In all great business very large errors are excused or even unperceived, but in definite and local matters small mistakes are punished out of all proportion."

This is one reason politicians are risk-averse, and why modern government administration seeks to minimise risk and avoid failure through a mindless bureacratic process that delivers mostly mediocrity.

Random News of the Day: 16th November 2007

Things People Do

1. Nuffnang launches new website! - With their PR fiasco safely ignored, Nuffnang has chucked away their old static design and they’ve launched a new one with great AJAX effects integrated into the experience. It’s a wonderful improvement from their old version. It’s got some bugs lurking though. They’ve also created a digg like aggregator called Innit…where instead of digg-ing, you simply "nang it". Can’t help but notice the design similarities between Innit and Ping.sg though… and I wonder if negative posts about them will reach their Top 10…
   
2. Windows Live Writer 2008 released - Windows just released a desktop application that simplifies the publishing of rich content straight to your blog. It supports most of the major blog engines. Personally, i’m in love with it. This entry, of course, was created on WLW08. Microsoft has redeemed itself for past mistakes…at least for the next 2 weeks.( Reviews & Guides : Here and Here )
3. iLike secretly released an unreleased U2 Song - As part of an experiment, iLike released the song "Wave of Sorrow" on their site as well as on the Facebook application 2 days ago. Due for official release this coming tuesday, no press was notified when the video went live. They just wanted to see how fast things would spread virally. Well…it worked. 1.2million fans have signed up just to get news releases on U2. Amazing. Now everyone’s going to start to do the same thing. ( Source : Techcrunch )
4. DVD Forum Approves the triple-layer HD DVD - With a capacity of 51GB, it matches against the Blu-Ray…now what? ( Source : Engadget )
5. Amazon going to release Kindle eBook reader - Complete with Wifi and a direct connection to Amazon’s eBook  store, it also comes with a headphone jack for audio books! But USD$399 is just way overpriced guys. Oh did I tell you that it comes WITHOUT a backlight? ( Source : Mashable )

Things People are Saying

1. Bikers Aid organises "Ibadah Kurban 2007" - In lieu of the Hari Raya Haji celebrations, the Bikers Aid is looking for donations that will be used for the purchase of live sheep to be distributed to the needy. (Source: Marina’s Bloggeriffic)
2. Japanese Opposition Leader Ichiro Ozawa says Japan should not pay heed to President George W. Bush’s calls to rejoin the "war on terror" as the US leader is deeply unpopular at home. He seems to have a point there. ( Source : Channel News Asia )
3. Based on the headlines on Ping.sg, it seems Blog2u.sg is making some headway into the online blog advertising market. What’s great about it is that people are actually happy despite the lower payouts compared to other advertising services.
4. DK from Decay On Net makes a call to support the Writer’s Guild Strike save Heroes. We are such supportive people!
5. Nuffnang seems to be in the spotlight…again. I’m actually starting to pity those guys. All those biased-bloggers-just-trying-to-capitalise-on-traffic-reaping-keywords entry writers…"Shame on you. Add value to the situation will ya?"

(Word in italics are my opinions and are in no way the opinions of individuals or organisations of their respective sources. )

 

Have a great weekend!

First Post from Windows Live Writer

After a simple(but rather long) installation process, i’m finally making my first post from WLW. Thanks Jean for the Step-by-Step guide!

First impression? Looks awesome! Simple yet comprehensive.

I don’t have much to write in this entry except that you should check it out too!

Check it out Here

Tired of Werewolves, Slayers and Vampires on Facebook? Block Them!

STEP 1.

 STEP 2.

 STEP 3

I got too lazy to do a screenshot…but you’ll just have to click the “BLOCK” button and you’re done! No more irritating and useless application requests from that application!

STEP 4

Repeat for Werewolves and Slayers and every other useless application!