Xiaxue blog - a case of pot calling the kettle black

I happened to click on XiaXue blog and found it hypocritical on her article about school abusing their position of authority, posted September 28 2005. [Link http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2005/09/fucking-unfair.html] It is hypocritical because she says schools abuse their power when they suspend students who blog unkind remarks about their teachers or school. While I may not be entirely agreeable with what the schools do, I can understand why they do it. I am saying XiaXue is a hypocrite because if you were to click to leave her a comment, out comes a nice dialog box with one note being, and I quote, "Trolling, spamming and comments that are defamatory will be deleted and their ip addresses banned". Is it any different from what the schools are doing?

Here is the scenario. A student wrote "Frustrated old spinster. Can't stand to see attractive girls"? on her blog. School found out. Suspend the student and off she goes for councilling.

I write a comment in her blogsite. Nothing good to look at in her photo (Don't want to sound too harsh!). She found out. Fits her "Trolling, spamming and comments that are defamatory will be deleted and their ip addresses banned". My post gets deleted and my ip addresses banned!

Two scenarios but one similar solution. Both started with "not-so-nice" comments. Both got found out. Both gets deleted and banned! Pot calling the kettle black! At least the school sends the student for counseling much like what she said - "If you don't like what they wrote, you bloody go confront them, and clear things up - like what normal people do." - but in a less combative and rebellious way.

In ending I would like to quote XiaXue again for her benefit - "Don't fucking abuse your position and power."

A timely reminder

Categories: Singapore

The article by Sunday Times correspondent Chua Kong Ho (Sunday Times September 25, 2005) about how he went under cover as served as a waiter and a shoe salesman for one day is a timely reminder that when you expect good service, then be a good customer.

With the recent emphasis on the service personnel providing good, cheerful and enthuasiatic service or lack of in the Singapore service industry, this article highlighted the bad behaviour that the service personnel received in the course of their duty. We had been taught from young that customer is king, but that doesn't gives customer the excuse of being discourteous, and unreasonable. Like the second Newton law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - the customer must know that if you are being disrespectful, then expect the same from the people you are dealing with.

Nowadays, people always complaints about poor service. But have they look at themselves how they behave when they are served? If you were to beckon the service personnel with the finger, then expect to be served with a finger pointed at you. If you are being unreasonable, then expect curt replies.

Sure there are people who truly have poor working attitude. I have encountered people who have eyes that do not see, ears that are not tuned to the customer but to collegues. There are promoters who pretended not to see you when they see you choosing their merchandise. I think we cannot expect every service personnel to have bad working attitude. Instead of waiting for good service and complained if they are not forthcoming, maybe it is easier for the customer to make the initiative and smile at them first. You will be surprised how a simple smile will bring good customer service.

My journey with WinXP reformatting

I had just reinstalled my computer after using it for the last 2 yrs. I thought my adventure will be incident free. I should have known better. WinXP is certainly not easy to re-install. You see, I wanted to do a clean format so I did not use the WinXP installation disk. Instead I chose to use formatting as with Win98. Thus begin my journey of discovery.

Day 1. Because WinXp uses NTFS system I was unable to format the hard disk from Windows explorer. I used the Win98 Startup disk to boot the computer to enter DOS mode. Once there, I do a reformat. No go. Format not supported on drive C! Tried all known tricks, still unable to reformat the hard disk!

Day 2. Did an internet search. Answer found. Start with Win98 startup disk without CD-ROM support. Use the fdisk to delete the NTFS partition first, then reformat the hard disk. Restart startup disk with CD-ROM support. Then reinstalled Win98. The next step involved upgrading to WinXP and hence reformatting into the NTFS system. With this done I thought I was home free. Wrong again!

The next immediate thing to do was to set up the internet connection. This was neccessary for Windows upgrade and activation. Tried to install the driver for my ADSL modem. Lo and behold - no ethernet card! My ethernet card had vapourised! Again stuck despite using whatever tried and tested methods I knew.

Day 3. Did another internet search - this time about missing NIC card. Seemed that this is a rather common problem with WinXP. Even video card has gone missing although the monitor was usable! Sadly, there wasn't any good solution to my problem.

Day 4. Bright spark! Opened device manager again. Under ethernet controller, did an uninstall. Then click look for new hardware. Viola! New hardware detected! From then it was a breeze.

Day 5. Found an easier (correct way?) to reinstall WinXP after a clean format (which still require DOS?). After formatting, boot up the computer with WinXP disk. This will directly start WinXP installation and formatting into NTFS system. I suspect there maybe other easier ways.

Disaster struck! Even before I could download my antivirus, I was hit by what I belived to be BHO - from SideFind. Since I had just started fresh, I had decided to do a reformat.

Day 6. Did a reformat. What do you know - you can format the hard disk with WinXP boot disk. Should have known better (red face). This time I reset all the security option to high before I connect to internet. Installed Zone Alarm first. Hopefully I will have some control over what comes in or go out. Needed to change some security and privacy settings before I could download my antivirus software. While downloading and installing my antivirus software, ZoneAlarm had blocked not less than 100 intrusions to my computer!!

Day 7. So far so good. Just don't really understand why I need to use winport when I can surf with LAN.

Day 9. Everything is running smoothly. Lesson to learn: do a search in the internet to learn from other people's experience so as to minimise unnecessary steps and maximise on effort. How I love the internet!

Contrast of water management style

Categories: Malaysia, Singapore

Malaysia had been experiencing a 3-month drought period. This has caused the major dams in the country to fall to near critical water level. Water levels in most dams in the county has fallen to about 40% of their capacity. Malaysians are now bracing themselves for a possible water ration. In the state of Johor, which supply water to Singapore, residents had been complaining of murky water. Some areas had water only on alternate days.

Down to the south of Malaysia, in the island state of Singapore, where there are no natural resource, there emerge another story. They have just opened their first desalination plant on 13th September. From a country that receives millions of gallons of water daily from the state of Johor in Malaysia, it now has plans to turn off one of these pipes when the water treaty is due for renewal in about 5 years time.

Why are there two different outcomes for the two neighbours which essentially started off with a same history some fourty years ago?

Malaysia, a country of slightly more than 300 000 sq km, is blessed with lush tropical forest with its large long rivers. More than half of the country is covered with primary forest. This compares with Singapore which only has a total area of about 600 sq km. Less than quarter of this is covered with mainly secondary forest. Given such well endowed geography in Malaysia, where water seems limitless, there was no need to worry about water. More pressing problems like poverty were given more attention. Over time people becomes complacent with regards to water issues. In Singapore however, water is not only a basic neccessity but a strategic commodity. Singapore is dependent on Malaysia for her water needs since independence. This makes water supply one of the top priority for the Singapore authority. The recent unveiling of the planned Marina Bay Reservoir involves 20 years of planning and engineering involving separating sewage and run-off drainage so that the few rivers that supply the Marina Bay Reservoir are clean enough to be processed for consumption.

However, geography alone cannot explained the whole situation. For many years there were already signs to suggest that demand for water will outstrip supply. Malaysia's population grows at about 2 - 3% annually. Coupled to this, there had been a lower than average annual rainfall. Unfortunately, not many actions were initiated. Although dams were built, these were few and far between. There was no long term campaign water savings. The public is only urged to save water in times of drought; this is quickly forgotten once the drought is over. Contrast this to the island state where water saving campaign is an ongoing long term one. Other than the campaign (carrot), the stick, in the form of water tariff and water tax is also used. Therefore the consumers are always reminded about the need to save water.

Water managment, or the lack of it, is another problem of the Malaysians. There were reports of dams being closed because of silting. Other reports on poor water quality in the rivers feeding the dams. This is a sad state of affairs because this will reduce further the already low water reserves. ln Singapore however, the Marina Bay Reservoir is a testament to a what good water management can do.

The commitment and the forward looking government of the Singapore also plays a role. This may be in part due to the constant need to be less dependant on its neighbour for her water. The Singapore government had invested millions of dollars in its search for an alternative source of water. This had resulted in NEWater and deSal H2O. NEWater is water originated from processed "sewage" and deSal H2O is desalinated sea water. Malaysia is still using cloud seeding in its fight against water shortages.

It is a pity that Malaysia is experiencing water shortages when it is blessed with lush catchment areas. It is hoped that with the frequent water shortages in recent years, these will serve as eye opener to the Malaysian authority so that more urgency and commitment will be placed on the pressing problem of water supply.

Why worm?

Worm. Worm? Why worm? Because worm is my middle name!

Hi!

Just managed to setup this blog. I am using Diarist by Kevin Daly on my Dell x50v to summit this blog.