I grew up listening to Michael Jackson songs. It is a little sad that he pass away at such a young age, 50 is still considered young! Despite his scandals in the recent years, my perception of him still has not change. Rest in peace Michael Jackson, you will always be remembered!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died on Thursday. He was 50.

Jackson was pronounced dead after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest, Los Angeles coroner Fred Corral said. The cause of death was not known and an autopsy would likely take place on Friday, he said.

Jackson’s sudden death had been reported earlier by U.S. media including the Los Angeles Times and the TMZ entertainment website, which said he was taken ill at his home and rushed to the hospital by paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived.

Source: King of Pop Michael Jackson is dead: official
Wikipedia: Michael Jackson

Singapore has confirmed its first case of Influenza A (H1N1). The patient is currently being treated at the Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and is in stable condition. The patient is a 22-year-old Singaporean woman who was in New York from May 14-24. She arrived back in Singapore from New York on SQ25 on 26 May at 6.30am. She began to develop a cough while onboard. She passed the thermal scanner uneventfully as she did not have fever then. Later in the morning, she consulted a GP who decided to send her to TTSH via a 993 ambulance, given her travel history. She was immediately admitted for testing. Laboratory confirmation of her infection was made by midnight of 26 May. The patient has been vigilant in monitoring her own condition and had sought immediate medical attention once she realized that she was unwell. Her attending GP, through his quick response in activating the 993 ambulance for the patient, had also helped to minimize the spread of infection from this case. The Health Ministry says it has initiated contact tracing of her close contacts. They will be quarantined and provided with antiviral prophylaxis.

Passengers who had travelled in the same flight and were seated in rows 52 to 58 are urged to call the hotline at 1800-333 9999 to enable the MOH to check on their health condition. The MOH adds that all medical practitioners and healthcare institutions should continue to be vigilant to suspect cases. Singapore will continue with temperature screening for passengers entering Singapore at all checkpoints (land, sea and air).

All passengers passing through or entering Singapore are given Health Alert Notices on board their flights, advising them to monitor their own health if they have been to affected areas and to seek medical attention immediately if they are not well.

Source: Channel News Asia

President
Barack Obama: 364
John McCain: 163

Senate
Democrats: 57
Republicans: 40

House
Democrats: 254
Republicans: 173

Now that Obama wins, hopefully US economy will recover and most importantly US dollar will go up!

Fellow Singaporeans, we need to make a change to Singapore in 2011. I had enough of our current government.

WOOT! I have applied.

The School of Computing will be offering a new 4-MC Facebook Programming module on next Semester (AY2007/2008, Semester 2) – CS3216 : Software Development on Evolving Platforms. This is your chance to be a part of this new global Internet phenomenon, currently valued at some US$15 billion.

This new module is not your traditional software engineering course. Enrollment will be open to students of all faculties and students will work in small inter-disciplinary teams to create their killer Facebook applications. Programming experience for non-SoC students is not a pre-requisite (since work will be done in teams).

As it turns out, Trey Phillips , the winner of Facebook F8 Hackathon, is a philosophy major. This suggests than ANYONE can be a Facebook Developer. The nominal pre-requisite is thus CS1101, but students who do not have formal programming background but who have a keen interest in e-entrepreneurship or a background in design. Students will not be assessed individually, but in groups, so individual programming proficiency will not be assessed. Students need only to be able to contribute substantively to their team projects. The success of social networking applications depend a lot on the concept and execution rather than good programming ability. The students can develop their applications in their language of choice, but will likely use PHP or Ruby with mySQL.

Assessment will be project-based and there will be no examination component. The course will begin with several lectures on the fundamentals of web development. Subsequently, students will work in teams to analyze and critique existing Facebook apps in a series of seminars. There will be three team-based assignments and a final team project of the students’ choice. Students are welcome to use this opportunity to develop applications that have commercial potential or can be used as entries to Startup@Singapore.

Places for the course in this initial offering will be limited and some places will be reserved for non-SoC students. To avoid timetable conflicts for students from other faculties and because we be inviting external experts to give occasional guest lectures, the lectures and seminars will be held on Monday evenings from 6.30 to 8.30 pm.

We expect that we will have more students who are keen to take this course than the available places. To ensure a diversity of talent and students have the necessary background for the course, places will not be assigned by CORS bidding. Instead, interested students are to submit a personal statement (with their matriculation number clearly stated) to cs3216staff@googlegroups.com by 15 December 2007. Students will be informed by 26 December 2007 if they are offered a place in the upcoming offering of the new course (and students will automatically be pre-registered for CS3216 on CORS if their bid to take the class is successful).

The personal statement should address the following questions:

(i) Why do you want to take the course?

(ii) Describe your background and how you think it would enable you to contribute to the diversity and vibrancy of the new course and to the team projects.

(iii) Describe a cool Facebook app that you *really* want to build. Explain why you think your app is really cool.

Students are welcome to throw in a resume or portfolio of sorts if they think it would be helpful in demonstrating that they have what it takes to succeed in this new module.

For more infomation: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~bleong/cs3216

SERIOUSLY, WTF IS WRONG WITH SINGAPORE, helping to pay fine for someone that has committed a crime and he is not even a Singaporean nor a PR. I seriously don’t give a flying fuck if he is from RJC or scored 2394863280948034 As for his exams, he committed a crime and he should be responsible for his action.

CHINESE undergraduate Zhao Ke, fined $15,000 for hacking into his former school’s computer network, has received “over ten” offers to help pay his fine.

At least two law firms here, including Allen & Gledhill, have also offered to help him appeal the sentence.

The 21-year-old who is doing a double degree in engineering and economics on a National University of Singapore scholarship, met up with lawyers from Allen & Gledhill on Wednesday.

While he has yet to make a final decision, with the fine settled “there was no big need to appeal and I need to catch up on my studies,” he said.

Zhao hacked into Raffles Junior College computers in March to find out his classmates’ A-level scores. He was caught while copying data from a teacher’s computer.

Zhao, who came to Singapore in 2002 to do his O-levels and stayed on since, had just received his results two weeks prior to the incident. He scored four As, two distinctions and a merit for his “S” papers, extra-hard papers reserved for top students.

His request for probation was denied, and Zhao was fined $15,000, payable in $1,000 monthly instalments.

He had initially indicated, through his lawyer, that he would be able to pay the fine from his tuition earnings.

But he later told The Sunday Times that he was unable to pay the full sum and would have to go to jail for five weeks to offset the fine by $5,000.

Following that, several people contacted The Straits Times to offer to pay Zhao’s fines.

So far, there have been “over ten” offers to either pay the entire fine, or part of the fine, Zhao told The Straits Times.

He is currently in discussion with one donor to tutor his children in return for paying off the fine.

Another, a doctor in his 40s who declined to be named, said he wanted to help because what Zhao did was “not a crime”.

“Yes, he made a mistake, but he should not have to go to jail for it,” he said.

Even as offers to help streamed in, online users are taking a harder line.

Many Netizens on sites like HardwareZone, for instance, said that Zhao’s NUS scholarship should be terminated and the money be given to Singaporeans instead.

The NUS has convened a Board of Discipline to look into Zhao’s case.

When news that an anonymous donor had offered to pay Zhao’s fine broke on Wednesday, Netizens also slammed those offering to help him, saying that they should look closer to home if they wanted to help.

Source: Over 10 offers to pay student hacker’s fine

Discussion: Hardware Zone Forums

Jobs for foreigners, NS for Singaporeans

FOREIGNERS are coming here in unprecedented numbers, contributing to the largest swell in Singapore’s population in more than two decades.

The foreign population, which includes professionals, workers, students and their family members, was an estimated 1,005,500 in June this year – crossing the one million mark for the first time.

This is a 14.9 per cent rise over a year ago and represents the highest jump in at least seven years, according to the Department of Statistics.

The previous year’s increase was 9.7 per cent.

The number of Singaporeans and permanent residents here also grew 1.8 per cent, the same as the previous year.

These increases lifted Singapore’s total population to 4,680,600 as of June this year – a 4.4 per cent rise over the previous year.

This is also the largest increase since 1982’s 4.5 per cent.

The figures, from the Department’s annual report on population trends released on Thursday, also covered statistics for marriages, divorces, births and deaths.

Economist Song Seng Wun said the surge in the number of foreigners reflects the nation’s broad- based economic recovery.

‘Foreigners are lapping up job opportunities for sectors across the board, from financial services to teaching to construction,’ he said.

External factors figure too.

‘Many neighbouring countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, have been on a strong growth path, so their companies have been setting up shop here as a base for regional expansion,’ he added.

Liberal immigration policies also play a part, said consultant demographer G. Shantakumar.

‘We are attracting not just workers, but also students, in the hope of getting more foreigners to settle down here,’ he noted.

Source: The Straits Time

Former hacker to help appeal against court ruling

Anime distributor Odex has roped in a Silicon Valley-based former hacker to appeal against a court’s decision. Last Thursday, Odex failed in its bid to force Pacific Internet (PacNet) to hand over the data of suspected illegal downloaders, whom Odex had tracked down with the help of Internet investigation firm BayTSP.

BayTSP’s chief executive officer Mark Ishikawa, a former hacker, will arrive in Singapore later this week to help Odex prepare its appeal, according to his publicist Jim Graham.

Mr Ishikawa has has appeared as an expert witness in the United States on peer-to-peer technologies. Recently, BayTSP gathered evidence for Viacom in its US$1-billion ($1.5-billion) lawsuit against Google and YouTube.

Mr Graham told Today: “Mark will be working with Odex to demonstrate that we were under contract to Odex and that our data identified the IP addresses of individuals who were downloading and sharing copyrighted material licensed by Odex.”

- LOH CHEE KONG

Source: TODAYonline

From my previous entry below:

The Straits Times understands one reason for District Judge Ernest Laus decision is that he believes Odex was not the right party to make the application

For fuck they bring in BayTSP CEO?

Online lynch mob
Anime distributor Odex incurs wrath of Netizens over anti-piracy crackdown

By Chua Hian Hou

NETIZENS are waging a high-tech war against anime distributor Odex.
Wikipedia entries on Odex, for instance, have been turned into attacks on the firm, which has taken flak from the online world after news spread that it was going after people who downloaded anime illegally.

Some entries talk of how Odex goes around threatening to throw nine-year-olds in jail if they do not pay it $3,000.

Others tell tall tales of how those who could not pay the company were made to borrow from them at an exorbitant interest rate of 10 per cent.

Odex has denied both allegations. Its spokesman said it is monitoring the situation.

The firm recently obtained court orders which force Internet providers SingNet and StarHub to reveal the names of those who downloaded anime illegally.

The judge in the case against Pacific Internet, though, did not grant a similar order as Odex was only a sub-licensee and had no rights to sue.

But the smear campaign has gone on unabated and things have become so bad that one of Wikipedia’s editors was compelled, in an Aug 14 entry, to tick off these ‘contributors’ and remind them to ’stick to facts and try to balance them’. Some of the more offensive posts have been taken down.

Popular websites such as Tomorrow.sg have also received many submissions – almost all of which had bad things to say about Odex, said Mr James Seng, one of the site’s founders.

The outpouring of rage against the anime distributor, say Internet industry observers, is the clearest indication of how tech-savvy communities are wising up to the Internet’s power as a propaganda tool.

Mr Seng noted that the community that Odex had targeted in its piracy crackdown was a very tech-savvy one, and so was able to employ many Internet propaganda techniques not used before.

These tactics include the Wikipedia edits and even uploading satirical videos making fun of Odex on video-sharing site YouTube.

Previously, upset Netizens contented themselves with whining on online forums. The furthest they went was to start an online petition occasionally.

Psychologist Daniel Koh said that online lynch mobs were more likely to hit out at anyone who appeared to be attacking their cause as they felt a ’sense of loyalty’ with others in the community.

The sense of anonymity in an online world also lent them more courage in lashing out, he added.

But even as most simply go online to slam Odex, some users have been using the Internet in positive ways, Mr Seng pointed out.

He said these include digging up details of what the previously little-known company does, putting together repositories of copyright law-related information here and around the world, and collecting donations for those hit by the crackdown.

One was even able to unearth a damning post by an Odex director gloating about his campaign, for which he has had to apologise.

In fact, said a veteran public relations practitioner, the anti-Odex camp has probably ‘won the propaganda battle’.

She declined to give her name because ‘what if they come after me?’

She was referring to how some online users had threatened Odex staff with physical harm and even posted online personal information such as the home addresses of the people they believe are responsible for the crackdown.

All said and done though, communities need to temper their behaviour and pitch their points of view online ethically without going overboard by lying or making personal attacks.

This is easier said than done, said Mr Koh, especially when sentiments are running high, as is the case now.

He said that when this happens, ‘people (will) act irrationally’ to the point that they get carried away and are willing to do anything to advance their cause.

Just take ‘Skurai’, who had no qualms suggesting ’stunts’ that downloaders can pull to milk donations and sympathy from the public and hopefully force Odex to end its crackdown.

He wrote: ‘Ask around. Wait for someone poor to kena sue. Then write to The New Paper or The Straits Times, get a sad story from it.’

But lawyers warn that those who post wild allegations online could land in trouble.

Mr Mark Lim, director of law firm Tan Peng Chin LLC, said: ‘If the allegations are untrue, and if they are able to obtain a court order to get the subscriber’s information from their ISP, Odex can sue for defamation.’

Source: jq75 of Hardware Zone Forums

ANIME distributer Odex has lost a court bid to force Pacific Internet to reveal names of subscribers who allegedly downloaded pirated versions of the Japanese cartoons.

The Subordinate Court handed down its decision in chambers on Thursday and no details were made public.

Pacific Internet (PacNet), which opposed the Odex action, would only say that it ‘respects the rights of intellectual property owners and at the same time, also believes in protecting the privacy of all our subscribers’.

The Straits Times understands one reason for District Judge Ernest Lau’s decision is that he believes Odex was not the right party to make the application, despite having the go-ahead to prosecute on the behalf of the Japanese anime studios.

Odex is demanding the names of up to 1000 PacNet downloaders.

A company spokesman said it will consult the rights owners before making its next move but it was likely to appeal. It has 14 days to do so.

The ruling on Thursday came as a surprise given that Odex had successfully obtained Court orders to get SingNet and StarHub to reveal names of their downloaders.

Different judges ruled on those cases, and both internet service providers declined to say what arguments they presented in court.

In light of the PacNet decision, a StarHub spokesman said on Thursday that it’s ‘assessing our options …given the different decisions rendered by the court’.

But the deadline for lodging an appeal has expired for StarHub and SingTel.

Source: Odex saga: PacNet does not have to reveal names

Court Order: Starhub Must Give Names Of Illegal Anime Downloaders

By Chua Hian Hou

The Singapore distributor of Japanese animated cartoons called anime has won the right to track down fans who download the programmes illegally using Starhub internet accounts.

A subordinate court has ordered the Telco to disclose the identity of about 1,000 of its subscribers accused of illegally downloading anime.

It is believed to be one of the largest crackdowns illegal Internet downloading by home users in Singapore.

The recent hearing was held in closed chamber session, so few details of the case are available publicly. The action was taken by local anime distributor ODEX.

Starhub had initially resisted the companys efforts to get its customer data, said a spokesman for Telco, as it had “an obligation to protect our customer’ information”. But it now has no choice but to comply with the court order, as ODEX had œsatisfied the court of its need for the information.

Once ODEX obtains the identities of these Internet users from Starhub , it is expected to write to them demanding a settlement of up to $5,000 and a promise to stop further illegal downloading.

In May, ODEX went after 17 Singnet subscribers after obtaining a similar court order. It then sent more letters to an undisclosed number of other Singnet subscribers also accused of illegally downloading anime.

Odex Director Peter GO said a few infringers with financial difficulties were allowed to settle for about $1000. He added that a number of those who had received the letter had engaged lawyers, BUT DID NOT CONTEST ODEX’S CASE.

Having suceeded in getting SingNet and Starhub customer lists, ODEX will now go after customers of another internet service provider, Pacific Internet, in the subordinate courts later this week. It is understood ODEX has accused about 1,000 PacNet users of illegal downloading.

PacNet spokeman Bernard Ho, said the firm was “resisting the application” made by ODEX in court.

However, lawyers familiar with such applications say they have STRONG track record of sucess. But infromation obtained this way is not always useful to the plaintiff. For instance, the user may no longer be in the country.

Popular with both children and adults, the anime industry was worth as much as US$5 Billion ($7.5billion) world wide according to 2004 Business Week report. However, illegal downloads, available online since the late 1990s, have cut deeply into the profits of producers and distributers.

Mr Peter GO said the South Korean anime market, once the world’s second largest after Japan, collapsed several years ago due to piracy problems.

This prompted Japanese studios making anime to band together to mount the crackdown here as they were worried Singapore, although not big a market, would end up the same way.

A 23 year old anime fan acknowledged that there some truth to Mr GO’S words. “At my peak a while ago, I used to download 5 to 10 gigabytes of anime a week, ” said the undergraduate, who declined to be named. Now, he is resigned that his past will catch up with him.

Source: mr_voodoo of Hardware Zone Forums