THE upcoming Budget will bring “something good for Singapore” and is likely to benefit more than just low-income groups, Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam said yesterday. Now now, I guess you know what to read between the lines…

The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card. Looks like an interesting concept!

I’m reading the Internet commentary out there, and I see that many posters commented about the “foreign funding” aspect of the Online Citizen issue. (Gazetted political associations are not allowed to receive funding from foreigners). This is a red herring. Or a non-issue. It just isn’t the point. Seriously, it costs peanuts to run a website. (And that is what The Online...

The Straits Times makes me cringe. The subtlety of their propagandising is so lacking that it makes the hairs on my arms stand. I mean, really. Not only has journalistic quality has dropped, even the spin quality has reached new lows!

Google has announced the intention to remove support for H.264 video playback from its Crome browser to “enable open innovation,” yet still apparently plans to promote Adobe Flash. Unethical and 2-faced.

This piece explains the “The Deal with the Devil” rather well and the costs associated with it: Singaporeans have paid the price of the Faustian pact with the soul of society, and a society bereft of its soul is one bereft of its existential purpose. The perverse outcomes of having a population with the material wealth of the first world with none of the attending freedoms can be seen...

The PMO’s move has already caused disquiet in the political circles. Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party Dr Chee Soon Juan noted that it is the PAP government’s usual ploy to turn everything into political associations so that the government can control everything. He also added that this reveals the sclerotic mindset of an authoritarian government. The great offline firewall.

I was inspired to watch this movie again and loved one of V’s speeches: There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and for those who...

The latest intended gazetting of The Online Citizen is worrying but not without “understandable” reasons (TOC to be gazetted as a Political Association). We saw it coming and the team at TOC should have too. Given the “notice” from the Prime Minister’s office, TOC will either have to comply with the gazetting and allow both of its hands to be tied behind its back in future, subject to close...

At this year’s CES two unthinkable things happened: The abandonment of Windows exclusivity by practically all of Microsoft’s OEM customers. The abandonment of Intel exclusivity by Microsoft for the next generation of Windows. Just visualise the consequences!

In a nutshell, Facebook is better than email unless you’re some kind of email expert. And for email’s successor to support all the expert features of email, none of its myriad problems would be solved. Just look at the legacy issues that plague Windows from version 2000 to 7…