An Olympics medal for S’pore! The Singapore woman table-tennis team displayed an impressive win against the tough South Korean woman table-tennis, bringing Singapore into the final. Singapore would be vying for the Gold medal. However, if the Singapore team lost in this final, the team will still bring home a Silver medal. It is a guaranteed medal - just either a Gold or Silver. The semi-final match against the South Korean was considered as Singapore drewing the shortest stick, as “Singapore would have preferred to meet China’s semi-final opponents Hong Kong, whom they beat 3-1 in the 2006 Asian Games.” “Also, Singapore’s Feng Tianwei does not usually do well against defensive players like the South Korean choppers.” “It was only in May, at the China Open, that Li and Co lost 1-3 to the Korean team of Dang Ye Seo, Park Mi Young and Kim.” “Kim will be a name familiar to them, as she was the one who beat Li in the women’s singles bronze-medal play-off at the 2004 Athens Olympics.” However, the Singapore team overcame the odds, and trounced the South Korean team 3-2! Yip yip hurray! It’s time for celebration! And yes, what best commemoration items, wouldn’t the commemorative “Games of the XXIX Olympiad” Singapore 2008 stamps issue be? They consists of precancelled first day covers (FDC), entire sheets of stamps, and presentation packs. Unfortunately, the first day covers were sold out on the day of issue itself. Like-wise, the rest of the items are really hot. But, if you are really interested to obtain these rare commemorative items, email the item and collector’s princely price you are willing to pay to the email address at “Contact Us”. I do happen to have a very limited number of all items, which will definitely be insufficient. Precancelled first day covers (FDC). We have the five sports athletics, table-tennis, sailing, shooting and badminton shown on the cover. The date of the stamp is the special 08-08-08, which is the very day that the Olympic flame lights the cauldron in Beijing, China. And do notice that there is an individual date stamp on the table-tennis stamp, the sport that won us our first Olympics medal in 48 years! Presentation pack. This is the cover of the presentation pack. Within is a set of the stamps for table tennis, sailing, shooting, badminton. (Pictures to be updated with an inter-fold version.) The image for entire sheet of stamps will be uploaded another day. Happy waiting. A medal for S’pore finally! 15th Aug 2008 By Jeanette Wang IT HAS been a 48 year wait, but Singapore has finally clinched their first Olympic medal since 1960. The Republic’s paddlers, led by two stunning victories by Feng Tianwei, beat South Korea 3-2 in the women’s team semi-finals at the Beijing University Gymnasium on Friday. The team of Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Feng have advanced to Sunday’s final (to be played at 7.30pm) and are now guaranteed at least a silver medal. World No 9 Feng finished off as she started, beating world No 21 Park Mi Young 11-7, 12-10, 3-11, 11-9 in 47 mins. Earlier, she had given Singapore a dream start when she crushed world No 26 Dang Ye Seo 11-5, 11-5, 11-2 in the opening clash of the best-of-five match team event. The tie was then levelled 1-1 when world No 6 Li lost 11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11 to world No 11 Kim Kyung Ah in a thrilling 56 min-long encounter. It was the same player the Singaporean had lost the singles bronze medal to at the 2004 Athens Olympics. But Li bounced back from that defeat and partnered Wang to victory over Park and Kim in the doubles rubber, powering to a 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 win in just 28 mins to put the Republic 2-1 up. The South Koreans levelled it again at 2-2, after Dang beat World No 7 Wang 11-9, 14-12, 11-9 in 33min. But, finally, with the hopes of a nation on her shoulders, 21-year-old Feng produced a performance of maturity and composure beyond her age to send Singapore’s women’s table tennis team into the record books. A weightlifting silver in the 1960 Rome Olympics by Tan Howe Liang has stood as the city-state’s only Olympic medal. Singapore will face the winner of a semi-final to be played later on Friday between China and Hong Kong. If Singapore’s women lose the championship match on Sunday, they would still take home the silver. Article obtained from Straits Times on 15th Aug 2008 ST online website redesign… cough cough Having been so busy for the last 2 months, with numerous events happening one after another, blogging had taken a hind seat. With the National day public holiday, I took a peep at the online newspaper, ST online. I had the shock of my life. The first thought is, what happened to the website? It is … cough cough… impossible to read any news. It is such a let-down, especially since ST chose the special date of 08-08-08 for the launch of the redesigned website, which is the day of opening ceremony for Beijing Olympics. Instead of being greeted with the old un-broken, familar and friendly website, a … cough cough… new, tight-lipped stranger greeted with broken links. The launch of the redesign when it is not ready is a big mistake, and especially when it coincide with high traffic due to special occassions. Though due to the lack of choices, other than online channelnewsasia, which provides equivalent content, this mistake may not be that costly, other than a slight shift of readers to other online news-websites, and irritation to many readers. But, Singaporeans have short memories, isn’t it? In additional, I really wonder if they did have any beta testers? The top stories resizing of frame is really irritating, especially since it keeps loading a number of different stories. Sometimes, I really wonder, how much does the companies in Singapore care about their customers? Why does such mistakes happens? Is it because, it does not matter to their bottomline, since everyone else makes the same mistakes, or there isn’t any other choice for the customers? Does apologizing matter? Lawry’s The Prime Rib Be amazed with the superior service provided by the staff. Lawry’s signature dish, Roasted Prime Ribs of Beef, is craved and served specially from Lawry’s silver carts. These carts are wheeled to diner’s tables, giving them the opportunity to choose their preferred cuts, from rare to as well done as they’d like. Absolute freedom. Waiters’ uniforms are designed such that diners feel like they are in a ritzy club. Lawry’s The Prime Rib Singapore Pte Ltd #02-42/44 Paragon, 290 Orchard Road. Singapore 238859 http://lawrys.com.sg/ Ads by BLOG2u Five (1) This is a test post. Our world-class public bus transport system Let the picture do the speaking. This photograph was taken yesterday (0020 20th-July-2008) at bus stop no. 40189 (Scotts Road, Newton MRT station) while I was waiting for the last bus home. Looking glass: little things when there is colleagues Scene 1: All credits are mine. Ediot: How to do this? I cannot get it right. Suzker: Do this and this, and it will be done. Ediot: Boss! I finished my work. Just did this and that and I got it. Boss: Well done. So fast. Good good. Suzker: (Suck thumb) Scene 2: Your things belong to me. Ediot: I hear you have this bike. Heard you never use. I want to use it to travel around. Suzker: Argh! Ediot: Oh yes. Do you have that good book. I want to read it. Where is it? Suzker: Argh! 5 months 40% ROI investment? VR Global Metal Trading Pte Ltd? Recently, I came to know that a friend of mine, signed a contract (Pg 1/2, Pg 2/2) 10 months ago, that is supposed to give him a 40% ROI in 5 months! Wow, that seems like a really good deal. The contract is signed through someone who seemed to be really credible (business person with real brick and mortar shop whom had been a friend for sometime with my friend), and the cash out time has passed. What do you as a reader expect? Would my friend get back his principle and profit? Want to know more about this “lobang”? Click here for the full account of the investment. Click her for a quick summary of the investment. For the time-constrained readers, the answer is, no, my friend did not get back a single cent to date, which is 5 months after the supposedly cash-out date. Readers, do beware of such investments plans. You must do your due diligent before parting with you money. No matter how well you know your friend, you money can perform disappearing act once it is gone from your pocket. PS: Perhaps you or someone had came across this “lobang” or have heard of VR Global Metal Trading Pte Ltd, do contact me at the address specified at Contact Us. [Uncle Sam] [Alice In Wonderland] needs you. More cases are required before the police will investigate this investment. Additional reading Click here for the investment contract Click here for the things to check while making investment Click here for ‘101′ investment lesson by Vandalin Orange Ribbon Celebrations commemorates racial and religious harmony Yesterday was the launch of the National Orange Ribbon Celebrations, to commorates racial and religious harmony. In Singapore, we have multi-racial groups, and multi-religions. Harmony and peace is kept within the country with the comfortable co-existence, tolerance, appreciation and respect for each of the different groups. There is no one special race or religion in our Unique Singapore. We respect other’s cultures and beliefs. However, very ironically, on the same day itself, it seems that our Singapore cyberspace is less tolerance, with a certain event that has divided many. Orange Ribbon Celebrations mark racial harmony in Singapore By May Wong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 06 July 2008 1921 hrs SINGAPORE: Singapore is commemorating racial and religious harmony on a national level through the month-long National Orange Ribbon Celebrations – the first of its kind. It is organised by OnePeople.sg, the five community development councils, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, People’s Association and the Self-Help Groups. Over 5,000 people – Singaporeans, new citizens and expatriates – turned up at Clarke Quay in orange-coloured outfits on Sunday morning to embrace the idea of multiculturalism. Click here to access the full article. Extract of partial article from Channel New Asia on 07th July 2008 Can ideas make you money? Why not? I once remember reading something along the line that ideas are free, or at most a dime for a dozen. However, right now, it comes to my notice that, sometimes, ideas can be worth much more than a dime. We usually, tend to be more pragmatic, and say that action is what that counts. That means, action instead of ideas is what that will bring us the money. Hmm. But, guess what? If you have good ideas, and by typing your new ideas in less than 100 words, you stand to win $1000 hard cash. Currently, Action community for entrepreneurship (ACE) is running a contest - “Why Not?”, in which by writing your ideas in one of the area for (a) increasing Singapore’s attractiveness as a place for business, (b) nurturing entrepreneurs of tomorrow, and (c) encourage more innovative and competitive business, you stand to win $1000 cash. If you think even further, everything around us actually started with an idea. We have the Heinz tomato started off with selling tomato soup. They made it big by serving more and more people. The Wright brothers believed in their idea of making a flying machine, made many tries, and successfully became the first to invent airplane. So, ideas is always the first step. Now, in our current world, ideas by themselves can also be use to make money. How? That is where patent law comes in. A good novel idea, and with proper understanding/knowledge of how to make a product or a procedure, will allow one to file a patent, and upon successfully granted the patent, the patent holder can make money through licensing royalty. So, “why not?” be an entrepreneur? Click here to enter for the contest. Remember the deadline is 17 July 2008, “why not?” submit your ideas now? This post is an advertorial from BLOG2u “Buy” teenage bride for S$38,000 dowry According to ST, an unidentified 92-year-old Saudi man proposed marriage to a poor 17-year-old Egyption village girl, offering a dowry of around S$38,000 as well as gold jewellery. The girl’s very poor parents, accepted the proposed marriage. Hmm. Reading it, it reminds me of a cross between Madonna’s adoption of a Malawian boy, and the olden days arranged marriage. Money does make the world go round in a certain sense. And after all, which parents do not want their child to have a better life, be it being adopted or married to a rich partner. However, for the case of marriage, it is related to the right to choose your own partner. I guess it is too late at 2am. I am unable to write a proper discussion. AVA to importers: stop importing and initiate recall on tomatos In view of the FDA alert in USA on the outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul, that was associated to the consumption of three varieties of tomatoes - the raw red plum tomatoes, the red Roma tomatoes and round red tomatoes, our Singapore AVA has reacted and issued instructions to importers, to stop importing and recall these affected varieties of tomatoes. So, what is the best thing to do? Don’t take such US tomatoes that are lying in your home. Get rid of them to prevent any of your family member from eating them accidentally. Don’t purchase any of these three varieties of US tomatoes, that might be available, as the news might not have reached some shops owner. Recall of three varieties of tomatoes from USA The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an alert to inform consumers in the USA that an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul, has been linked to the consumption of raw red plum tomatoes, red Roma tomatoes and round red tomatoes. As a precautionary measure, AVA has instructed importers to stop importing these three varieties of tomatoes from USA and initiated a recall of the tomatoes from the retailers with immediate effect. AVA advises consumers who have purchased such US tomatoes not to consume them and to discard them. Click here for more information. Article obtained from AVA website on 13 Jun 2008 Justice for a victim, but many molesters go scot-free In Apr 2008, there was an article on TNP. “SHE woke up with a start after sensing that someone was touching her private parts.” In this case, the molester was convicted of the crime. However, let’s analyst how many think of molest. We got comment like the following. “I wonder why the lady slept without locking her door at night? She was renting a room, so she should have been wise to lock the door. Just curious about such a suspicious circumstance. She was like inviting trouble. No doubt the landlord should not have opened her door, but why she took such a risk to ruin a man and his family?” As illustrated above, in the mind of a number, their view is that that it is the lady’s fault. They will claim that that it is just natural that a guy will want to satisfy his needs and that it is just a touch anyway. It is the lady’s fault for not locking the door, not veil-up like a mummy, and for not stopping the guy. However, this exactly shows how the moral of the society has deteriorated. (It is only natural.) I naturally want a car. Does it means that it is natural that I steal and it is the fault of the car owner for leaving the car in the car-park. So, I should not be convicted of stealing. (It is just a touch only.) What about saying, I just borrowed the car for a few years only. I didn’t harm the owner in any way, so, I should not be convicted too. (I was tempted.) It is the car owner who tempted me with such a nice car, which I have always eyed. Therefore, it is the car owner’s fault for tempting me. It is not my fault. I should not be convicted too. (I was not stopped.) The car owner did not stop me from stealing the car. So, the car owner allowed me to steal the car. It is again not my fault. So, I should not be convicted too. As such, laws are being written to make it an offence to molest (or for the illustration used, stealing is an offence.) It is never right to molest. Those who say that it is right, means that their moral has gone to dogs. It is a sad thing, that according to AWARE (Association of Women for Action & Research), at least 3 cases of outrage of modesty is reported everyday in Singapore, and a silent majority does not report it. And in addition, even though the law in Singapore does make outrage of modesty an offence in Singapore, it is not an offence under Singapore law, if molest occurred outside Singapore. The saddest thing is that there is local who [molested?] another local when they are oversea, and does get scot-free using this legal loop-hole. Budget ticket no more? See the [bias?] reporting According to the Straits Times report, “Budget no more“, there is an attached pdf that does the comparison. I extracted just the comparison on Perth. Is anything missing? Looking at the comparison performed by ST, it seems that Tiger Airways is giving a bad deal. No promotion price is mentioned. So, I did a search on Tiger Airways website. The cheapest return fair that I found is $440.98 (Airfare: $89.98 Tax: $351). Even when we add the luggage charges of $40 for 30kg check-in and S$4 per passenger per sector for Convenience Fee, it adds up to $488.98 / person. Now, perhaps, I know the reason behind the ranking of Straits Times. (Update: The price given by ST in the above image is for two to go, and is the total price for two. The Tiger Airways normal price is based on $159.99 per sector per person. It is not the cheapest fare available from Tiger Airways.) Update: And Tiger Airways is running this promotion to Darwin, $169 one way, inclusive of tax. That means, $386 total ($169 * 2 return fare inclusive of tax + $40 30kg check-in luggage + $8 convenience fee). So, it really depends on (1) when one is traveling, (2) where one is traveling and (3) whether traveling alone or in 2. The reason behind having Patent holder who is not part of Patent marketing company Quoting About.com on Acquiring and Defending Patents: Part2 - Fighting Patent Infringement, I believe it is best to hold patents in your own name rather then assigning them to your company. You should form a corporation whose purpose is to market the inventions. Have a contract that licenses the right to market the patents and any products created on a non-exclusive basis to your marketing corporation. This contract needs to specifically state that it is not transferable to new ownership of the corporation and that it is renewable at six month or one year intervals at the licenser’s sole discretion. The purpose of the contract is to create a situation where a judgment against your marketing corporation is worthless because the right to market the invention is not transferable. This approach reserves the right for you to license the patent to others if your first corporation comes under attack by an infringer or for any other situation such as product liability. Update: Reading the above, I guess everyone can guess why there is a difference for the current patent matter that is blowing all over Singapore Internet. In addition, I think it will bring some clarification that since the IPOS mentioned that they are different, it just point to something else, rather than being S**M which everyone is thinking. More people forced to search for free meals is not unique to Singapore The recent raising food price have pushed more people in Singapore to search for free meals. More people join the queue for free meals April 13, 2008 By Jamie Ee Wen Wei & Aw Cheng Wei Rising food prices have prompted more people to turn up at places serving free meals. The organisers - religious and welfare groups - say they can cope with the demand for now, though some have noted a worrying drop in donations from sponsors. A Sunday Times check with about 20 welfare and religious groups reveals that almost half have the same story to tell. At the Singapore Buddhist Lodge in River Valley, about 1,800 people turn up daily for vegetarian breakfast, lunch and dinner… Article extracted from Strait Times Now, take a look at our rich USA. The richest nation on earth, is also facing the same problem. More people are lining up for free food too. They are also struggling to make ends meet. Looks like the world is heading towards big trouble. Downturn forces more in US to rely on free food June 6, 2008 MONROE (Georgia)/DOUGLAS (Arizona) - IN the richest nation on earth, a rising number of people line up for free food because they are struggling to put meals on the table at home. Demand at food banks in the United States is up 15 per cent to 20 per cent over last year and many food banks are having difficulty coping, according to America’s Second Harvest, the largest United States food bank provider with 200 in its network. Food bank networks procure nonperishable and fresh produce from suppliers, then stock it in warehouses before distributing it via a chain of community food banks across the country. The total number of people who use them is not known but the upward trend is one sign of a US economic downturn in which soaring fuel costs and the rising price of other basic goods have pushed many people on low incomes or without jobs into hardship… Article extracted from Straits Times Tiger Airways. Fragile check-in broken, along with my trust. Today, I learnt something new about Tiger Airways. Perhaps it is not new to everyone. So, what is it? What happened? Two of my family members had just returned this morning by Tiger Airways. They checked-in six 60×80cm framed paintings that are nicely wrapped by a few layers of bubbled plastic and are labelled with “FRAGILE! PLS HANDLE WITH CARE”. A sample of the bubbled plastic that was taken off from a framed painting can be seen here. They specially informed the check-in counter personnel that the six items are fragile, and requested for the items to be handled with care. The only answer they got was, “check-in at you own risk”. So, what does that means? Does it means that there is no fragile luggage check-in service? Or does it means that check-in will go missing? Or… Is it just the standard terms and condition to ensure that they are not liable for any transportation issues? The answer was very clear when the check-in framed paintings were retrieved. Three of the six frames were broken during transport. You can see one of the broken frame here. It must have been violently thrown, that despite the wooden frames being layered wrapping with bubbled plastic, the frame broke off and wooden splinters were visible. With such an experience, I can only conclude that, if there is fragile items, get a ticket from the full-service airline. I will never trust a budget airline to deliver fragile goods safely. They need to cut corners cost to be budget. Update: Quoting Tiger Airway’s Conditions of Carriage 9.2 Valuable And Fragile Goods: Passengers should not check in such items as baggage. If they are checked in as baggage, passengers agree they send for carriage such items at their own risk. Such items include money, jewellery, precious metals, silverware, electronic devices, computers, cameras, video equipment, mobile phones, negotiable papers, securities or other valuables, passports and other identification documents, title deeds, artefacts, manuscripts and the like. This website will be under maintenance from 11am-2pm on 7th Jun 2008 I have just received notification from my host that the server which this site is on will be under maintenance from 11am-2pm (or even longer) on 7th Jun 2008. The site will be down. Sorry for the short notice. Bad news for budget travellers Sigh. Yes, I am sighing. With all the things getting on around me, I tend to sigh a lot more these days. Anyway, back to the topic. According to ST, Tiger Airways, yes, the one that flies out of Singapore budget terminal. Tiger has decided to implement a new baggage ruling since 29th May 2008. The default baggage allowance now stands at just 7kg hand luggage, with no check-in luggage allowance. Those who wants check-in luggage allowances will have to pay between $5 - $40 for (15 - 30kg allowance) if it is 72 hours before take-off, or $20 - $200 for (15 - 30kg allowance) if it is anytime within 72 hours to take-off. Did your eyes just popped out? Yes, it is $200 for 30kg luggage allowance. Click here for Tiger’s website on excess luggage. IPOS “official” reply regarding VueStar Please kindly refer to this post on the website RefuteVueStarPatent.biz for the IPOS “official” reply. Yes. There is finally an “official” reply. Happy reading. Received VueStar invoiced? You may not have infringed patent! Thank you to everyone who had been discussion this issue with me. I came to notice a number of very important things. (1) The wording of the demand letter says, “This means that you should not allow images from your web-site to be downloaded and/or used in Singapore IF they are used or to be used in accordance with any of the claims of the Patent.” Do note that is says IF. IF you are infringing. It did not says that you are infringing. Remember, it is IF IF IF. (2) Again on the demand letter, it says “If you require further information you are at liberty to visit our web-site at www.vuestar.biz or contact your legal representative.” Do note that they are leading you to go and read their website. So what is on their web-site? So quoting their web-site under services on 04th Jun 2008 11:40am (+8GMT), they says “those who use visual images which hyperlink to other web–pages or web-sites and in particular to contact details whether on the first page or subsequent pages of a web– site require a VUESTAR licence of “Use” in order to have the right of lawful enjoyment.” In addition, quoting the FAQ on 04th Jun 2008 11:40am (+8GMT), they says “Why are you invoicing me? You have accessed the VUESTAR , Vue Smart System by clicking, scrolling or streaming over a Visual Image to connect with a website or web page.” For me, reading this 2, I will piece the story as, the patent is for image-linking, so I better pay up. BUT, wait! The patent is not this! Better check what is the patent claims, and see if I am infringing it first. (3) Based on the Patent filed with Singapore IPOS, the patent claims are in fact very restrictive. It is not image-linking. It is a process consisting of 4 steps. And the 4 steps must be fulfill in together as a process. Base on my interpretation, my explanation will be that the 4 steps are a user submit a search request from their terminal the server-side applicate search a database based on the submitted search request (for example execute an sql statement) the identified database entries (can be one entry) are transmitted as a search result list EACH entry in the search results contains a visual content related to the entry’s link-out web-page (visual content refers to image, video, animation, or, a mini-image of a web-page) and AN entry of the search results contains contact information (contact information includes email, telephone, or fascimile) My interpretation will be, for example, the following will be an infringement. Using wordpress, the reader click on ‘About’ on the right categories, thus initiating a search request. The PHP running on the server, does a SQL search to the MySQL database (Select * from posts where post_type=’page’ and post_name=’about’;) The single identified database entry is transmitted as a search result list The return post contains an image of the author AND email address of the author AND a link to the author’s professional site. My interpretation is that, all the following contexts do not constitute an infringement. An image link is on a static page. A user-initiated query, server-side database search, where the result is an image link, but with no contact information. A user-initiated query, server-side database search, where the result is a link with contact information, but with no visual content. Click here for a longer version of might you have infringed the patent? Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and my comments do not constitute to legal advice. PS: Everyone is welcome to post this entire entry in their blog. And I did not received any invoice. Analysis of a possible prior art refuting patent troll VueStar claims As we know, VueStar Technologies being empowered by the patent holder, Ron Langford has sent letters of demand, (along with an invoice and a user license agreement) to an unknown number of Singapore companies. This news has even hit Techcrunch, Slashdot, The Inquirer (UK), Ars Technica, and ZDNet Asia, in addition to The Electric New Paper, Straits Times and Cnet Asia. Many of these editors have been calling VueStar Tech a Patent Troll. In effect, Singapore has just met with it’s first [Patent Troll?] who is preying on practically the Singapore man/firm in the street - the small fry. In fact, a pyschological trick to bring fear seemed to be executed by claiming that it will be going after the big boys such as Internet giants like the Vole and Google. Reading through the 29 pages of patent details, page 24-29 listed 39 claims. The independent claims are claim 1, 19, 25, 26 and 31. The rest are dependent claims. Based on the possible prior art in 1998 from suevuestar.biz, (from the paper “Web page caricatures: multimedia summaries for www“, published in proceedings of IEEE International Conference), we can see that the patented claims are not novel. Quoting the paper (possible prior art), “This paper addresses the problem of rapid browsing of a large set of World Wide Web documents, such as the results of a search engine query or a bookmark list. Traditional presentations of such lists are in the form of text, and require careful attention and often laborious efforts in order to discover relevant documents. We propose a visual representation of documents, called a caricature, which emphasizes the key points of a document in a way which quickly conveys these points to the user, and thus facilitates document selection.” Moreover, based on the figure that is extracted from the paper, Figure 6 shows the overview picture of a search result for an Alta Vista query “snowboarding”. That implies that a user does a search using the word “snowboarding”, and the search engine searches it’s database, and provide an output in he form of visual representation of the documents (caricature) to the user. The result contains visual content, hyperlink to the search result and contact information for the organization in the form of email-link icon. As such, Claim 1 has been described by a prior art. Taking a close look at the caricatures in Figure 5 and 6, the visual content is an image, as such claim 3 is refuted. Looking at Figure 5, we have the Siemens logo, while in Figure 6, we have the product logo avalanche. As such, claim 4 is refuted. Referring to Figure 5 and 6, there is a mailbox image that is an email-link for those entry’s in which the organization’s email is available. As such Claim 10 and 11 are refuted. Thus, based on my layman analysis, that so many claims are refutable, with a proper lawyer, and class action if the affected companies are willing to cooperate, the patent can be over-turned. The main trouble however, will be the legal fees that it will cost. Sigh. Disclaimer: The author is not a lawyer and as such the companies should always seek professional advice. University of Illinois and Singapore agreed to partnership According to Chicago Tribute, The University of Illinois trustees agreed to build the Advanced Digital Sciences Center in partnership with Singapore’s government. The deal is that Singapore government will provide a grant of $50 million. Smells similar in a sense to the deal with Australia’s University of New South Wales. Hope they don’t make the same blunder again. It better not be, once bitten, twice bitten, every shy again. SingTel first in the world to launch Bloomberg’s personalised investment tools and services According to The Washington Post, Bloomberg has launched a Mobile Application suite of investment tools and services with SingTel. SingTel customers can look forward to the ability to “create a personalized portfolio to track the performance of their shares and stock exchange indices”. Nice handy tool for investors. World Bank says that Singapore needs to ease controls to remain competitive According to International Herald Tribune, World Bank Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub says that tightly-controlled Singapore needs to loosen up restrictions to allow innovation so that it can remain competitive in the long-term. He made his point by the illustration, “in United States, you can do a U-turn anywhere except where a sign forbids it, while in Singapore, drivers can only do a U-turn where a sign permits it”. Quoting him, “In this anecdote, there is a grain of truth. Innovation and creativity are, by definition, not orderly and not regulated”. As a local, I do wonder how much control would the ruling party ease? Do their even see a need to ease control in order to be competitive? Just for example, regardless of the amount of debate on pink dollar, regulations will remain and pink dollar remains elusive. S.A.M. minimum $2 purchase of stamps irks Today, I dropped by the S.A.M. machine (the SingaporePOST’s self-service automated post office) to purchase a stamp as one of my relative who visited me accidentally left a card. So, I pop by the, quoting from SingaporePost website, “convenience at the touch of your fingertips!”. Alas, S.A.M. is no longer the old trusty Sam. I conveniently selected the purchase of an oversea stamp, that cost $1.10, and was led to the page stating that a minimum of $2 is required for nets payment for stamps. Wat! There is no other payment option, except nets, and I am forced to purchase additional stamps (in order to get my $1.10 stamp)! That is really highhanded. It is really disappointing that a monopoly player like SingaporePOST, implement such ridiculous scheme. The only other option would be to visit a SingaporePOST branch, and waste both time and human resource. Alas, in Singapore, we have no consumer laws to ensure reasonable services. In addition, the common feeling is that feedbacks are usually heard, but not listen to. Buy food from street hawker? This year, the outlook of the economy for the commoners looks dim. The cost of living has increased with various hike in food price, housing pricing, GST, and ERP. However, salary will have not hike in order for Singapore to stay competition. So, with such an outlook, commoners will tighten their pockets. Go for cheaper substitute. Some of us, on seeing the street hawker selling curry puff at rates much cheaper than Old Chang Kee or food court, will naturally open up our wallets and purchase a few to satisfy our rumbling stomach, while saving a few cents. However, chances are that the hawker is both illegal and is a foreigner. Now, here is two issues. The first issue is, being illegal, their hygiene is of questionable status, as they will not have to follow any regulations. Would the food be prepared in a clean environment and hygiene manner, especially since there is a environmental cleanness difference between well-developed cities and less-developed cities? Has the food handlers taken all the typhoid shots? If they have not, there might well be a next typhoid outbreak. Thus, proper enforcement should still be carried out, and in order to tackle high rental that causes food to be priced higher, licensed cheaper hawker alternative can be provided instead. We should not wait till an occurrence of food poisoning or typhoid outbreak before taking action. The next issue will be the local vs foreigner issue. Why are foreigners here to commit illegal acts? Why are they fighting with our friendly more expensive hawker centers, coffee shop and food court? It is the foreigners are not welcome stand, and do not snatch our job view. However, Singapore is actually a country with a short history. Our ancestors were also foreigners. There will not be too much resentment against the foreigners if the locals felt that they are well taken care by the government policies. However, alas, our ruling party, with its pro-business policy, will not enact policy to safe-guard jobs for local. The view is that the people has to remain competitive with places such as China and India. However, the local are competing on unequal footing, as the living standard in Singapore is much higher. This translate to higher cost to maintain a family in Singapore, while foreigners who comes to Singapore to work, maintain their family in their home country with a much lower living cost. It is no wonder, local talents migrate to greener pasture. The grass is always greener on the other side. That depends on which side you are at. Looking back at prediction for Year of Rat Looking back at the prediction for Year of Rat, it was predicted by Chinese fortune tellers to be a year face with financial and political rumblings, tsunamis and epidemics. Seems like some of the predictions have already come true. My deepest condolence to the victims and family. I hope that the international community will rally around to help the victims in these natural disasters. We have the Myanmar’s cyclone, in which more than 100,000 people are dead or missing, and around 1.5 millions survivors faced with lack of food, clean water and shelter. Moreover, with the military rulers being uncooperative, using the aids as a political tool in accessible areas where voting are held by plastering their general’s name over the internationally donated aids, and with insufficient resources to aid the victims, the number of victims will continue to increase. We have the powerful earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan, China, with death toll already past 13,000. Thousands more are buried in rubble waiting to be rescued. However, remote country, such as Wenchuan, are cut off by landslides, and are inaccessible to the rescue teams. Moreover, bad weather caused the cancellation of plan to parachute troops into isolated mountainous disaster areas to help with the rescue work. Despite such difficulties, China has mobilised massive manpower and resources into the rescue and relief efforts, and has impressed many with her quick actions. In addition to these two major natural disasters, the less developed countries are faced with a pending food and fuel crisis, with the Asian rice prices almost trebled this year, and crude oil soaring to above USD126 recently. It had prompt many to launch protests during May day. easySafe - Your unique key to security FAST easySafe is the only hardware cryptography product available in the market with unique features. It protects all sensitive information in your computer, external hard disk, USB flash drive, SD card and etc. Although the design is compliant to FIPS 140-2 standard with PKI technology, FAST easySafe, as its name implies, is rather easy to deploy and use as compared to other sophiscated security products that require dedicated IT specialists for deployment and maintenance. Fast And Safe Technology Pte Ltd (FAST) FAST easySafe can be purchased at the following locations:- *E2000 shop at Funan #05-02. *Tec-Drome Technology at Sim Lim Square #05-78 and #06-74. *IMM Challenger L2-49. Ads by BLOG2u Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease It is reported that the number of cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) has surged again, to a new high of 1,466 cases last week. That means an average of 200 new cases per day. This surprising increase in the number of cases, reflects either, an increase in the virulent of the strain, or perhaps procedural-faulty enforcement of checks. The procedural-faulty enforcement of checks might also bring about increase transmission, as the care-taker, will check every single child in the preschool or childcare centres. However, in the event that proper hygiene is not employed, it will instead be the source of transmission, by helping to pass the virus onto the next healthy child who is being checked. In order to prevent this from happening, the care-taker who does the checks, needs to be fully informed of how to perform the checks, in such a hygiene matter that ensures that their equipment and hands are sterile whenever they check the next child. They need to maintain the same high standard of sterile as modern-day nurses. The increase in the virulent of the strain, might also comes into play, as the disease, being present all year round in Singapore, has lots of chances to mutate as they are being circulated. This will entirely be up to chances as most mutation will not increase the virulent, and only a tiny chance of mutation might cause the increase in virulent. In any case, with the increase in HFMD in Singapore, another 34 preschools and childcare centres with sustained transmissions are advised to voluntarily close for 10 days. As this brings about an increase application of leaves from working parents who need to stay home to take care of their charge, it will be good if more attention is paid to investigate the reason behind the recent surge in cases. Will your postal letters go missing? Do you see what I saw? Is it rubbish? Is it unattended article? What is it? Hmm…. Now, lets take a closer look. It is large 3 sacks of postal letters left lying around unattended. There can well be many confidential letters, such as credit cards sent by various banks. What is SingPost doing?!