Category Archives: Reading

Jun29

*dance*

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*dance*

I have been well, busy but well. other than being severely disappointed about how the whole Rudd-Gillard thing panned out (surely they didn’t need to do something so drastic and severely embarassing), life has been strangely a non-event.

So, here’s a few links instead of the normal range of useless, self-entitled sundries:

- China’s taking over the world, one Failed State at a time. Just because they are small, unsuccessful, doesn’t mean they are completely useless. Look out America & Taiwan.

- Obama’s constantly put off visits to Australia, on grounds of a troubled home, fair enough. Albeit, had he came in as he intended to the last time, it might have saved Rudd’s job. Might have. That Julia Gillard sent her deputy, Wayne Swan, in place of herself, is not entirely a bad thing, albeit it might have seen like a slight.

However, despite whatever’s been said or done, it is still highly unclear what kind of relationship America & Australia has. Obama & Rudd didn’t have the type of “friendship” that Bush and Howard had. Similarly, such a quick change of leadership is not going to help this already “platonic” relationship further.

so when Obama said he’s backing “Australia’s Commitment at G20″, I am not quite sure if he knows what he is backing.

(although, maybe the US decided that they would just save themselves from knowing what’s going on in Australian politics until the next election is over LOL, too much effort to keep changing websites, folders, files and other paperwork!)

- on the topic of politics, the shuffle of the cabinet is now complete, with Rudd kept out of the cabinet entirely. This is understandable on many grounds. Firstly, his desire to spend some quality time with his family. Then there’s his desire to contest his seat in Griffith for the next election. considering that the election can be any time between now and April 2011, this is very little time indeed.

Furthermore, he was recently dumped as a Prime Minister – the top role. it wouldn’t make sense to put him in a position of power so soon after that, diminished or otherwise. it would be embarassing for him and awkward for others. This is simply not the right time. While I really disliked what happened, I am glad that they have at least given him this, even if it’s to (ultimately) leave him out of any decision making.

- What to do about Asylum Seekers? considering that the numbers of asylum seekers is almost that of a nation itself, you might think they would just find an unpopulated island somewhere and just make a new country out of it. Or, better yet, just reclaim some land in the Pacific, call it the UN, and they can all be there. That’s probably the easiest solution.

unfortunately, there’s a lot of “asylum seekers”, and not all of them are genuinely needing the asylum they so seek, as indicated by the article. I have discovered that many, and this is from some that I have had the chance to speak to, are inclined to just depend on the goodwill of the nation that they manage to get refuge from. As in, they are not here because they desire work, security, stability. They are here because, wow, Australia treats their refugees really well.

This completely flies in the face of people who worked hard, who study hard and toil constantly to get their residency recognised by the state, including handing out money for it, and there’s still a 50-50 chance of being denied.

7 years ago, I would have sympathized and rally for their rights to be recognised by another nation’s government. 7 years is a long time to realise that not all refugees are genuine, to experience to complete lack of respect for others, the complete lack of respect for work ethics and the sheer wilfulness that people have in manipulating the system to their wants. It is, quite frankly, really disgusting.

and 7 years is a long time to grow up to realise that not all refugees are really refugees – they can, quite possibly, be the very criminals we want to keep out of Australia, despite whatever they say.

p.s Christmas Island used to be Singapore’s!!

- I never knew internship means partying and living it up! I thought it’s meant to let the bosses see you work your ass off real good, without asking much in return, and then hopefully landing a job thereafter. This is mad hah! getting parties and stuff, I knew I should have stuck to my guns and made my dad see the light and let me study in the US!

- meanwhile, there might never be a viagra for women (besides, why would we need them?) since women are too complex for any pills… Men, it seems, are such simple creatures (HAAHAHAHAHAHAHA), while women are quite possibly mostly bisexual, or just really really good at getting aroused yet keeping their heads.

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Jun24

Rudd

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Rudd

I don’t usually talk politics because I think it’s crazy and most of the time, it reminds me of how disillusioned I am with a lot of things that has happened in the world and will continue happening. of course, I come across as idealist even to myself. Who the hell would join politics without any thoughts of self-benefit? :)

When I first started politics as a course in ANU in 2003, it was amazing. I was completely filled with naivety and the sheer amount of knowledge I have to acquire to stay afloat in the course overwhelmed me. I mean, I thought I was smart – but the amount you need to know in politics is so broad that it’s both cool and scary. To be a minister of a single portfolio also requires you to know bits and pieces from across other subjects and etc etc. That impressed me just a little.

At the same time, I also fully learn the power of the “opposition” and what they are meant to do. I mean, I am from Singapore after all, we really only have a what… 1 man opposition? haha.

anyways. In 2003, my textbooks listed the ALP as a party that hasn’t been in power for a while and even when they did, it wasn’t for long and there weren’t many (2 prime ministers in total if I remember right). as a party that has too much infighting to really support themselves through an election, much less through an empowered term. Indeed, it seemed they have had a number of leadership changes.

Then, Kevin Rudd came along, with his bright smile, ability to converse in mandarin (oh that bit melted my asian heart HAHAHAHA) and just charmed a whole nation into his pockets. I will admit, I absolutely love his charms. At the same time, I adored his confidence, his ideas on education, health reform, climate changes and some other smaller proposals. This is, of course, in consideration that I intend to live here permanently, that this would be my country and I would love to live here according to those proposals.

The Liberals, on the other hand, seemed to have turned into the ALP’s old self. There were many infightings straight after the 2007 election and they went through leaders like toilet paper.

I don’t really know when it happened – or maybe I do. I am not disillusioned by Rudd, since I am more than willing to give him and his party a large inch to get things done. I firmly believe that if his predecessor has left him a certain mess (and indeed, some portfolios were severely neglected and therefore some legislations hasn’t changed despite many changes in technology and etc), that Rudd and his inexperienced party would take time to “fix things”. so to speak.

I think, however, that people got tired of waiting for things to happen. And when things did, such as the home insulation case, and then delaying the CPRS legislation till 2013, the emissions trading scheme till 2011… things hurt him. In every interview that questioned him about his motives, about his lack of popularity in the last couple of months, he was quick to draw attention to other “important issues”.

now… it seems the infighting has grown into something else. In fact, it doesn’t seem like infighting in the papers. It’s just as if, the party refused to toe the line with Rudd anymore.

Julia Gillard is now our first female prime minister.

It feels strange to see those words at the moment. like I said, I really liked Rudd back then. I still do to a certain extent, so this is a feeling of loss for me.

At the same time, I like Julia Gillard and what she was proposing for education changes, how she supported Rudd and how she seems so down to earth and all. It just feels so odd after all.

Of course, this is not definite until the Governor General “accepts” Rudd’s resignation. It is, of course, eminent. I have yet to see the Governor General refusing it lol…

and so, here ends Rudd’s rule, it’s kind of bitter sweet. However, if he’s as temperamental as the papers make him out to be, if he’s everything they say he is in the office towards his own party – well then, he surely deserves the door.

Of course, it is ironic that on such a day as this, the socceroos fail and exited the world cup right in round 1.

p.s this marks a date of firsts of course. Despite Rudd having willingly resigned in the face of a failure of the challenge, it is also the first time a prime minister’s been ousted by his own party. We do have our first female PM!!! that’s quite extraordinary in itself. now textbooks and classes will have to slightly change their tunes (“if you’re not white, male and went to private boy’s schools…” lol)

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Jan28

IPad – the Ultrathin with no Wings

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IPad – the Ultrathin with no Wings

ok, so that was lame.

I woke up to a plethora of new about the very much over-hyped Apple-ware – the IPad. Over the past few weeks, I have already read and re-read many rumours, ranging from how big it is and how it works. Despite it’s shortcomings and/or not living up to some of the hype, I really like the over-sized Iphone for many reasons. And, like the IPhone, I can only see that it can only be improved upon.

What the IPad has been touted as:
- netbook killer
- better re-introduction to the tablet world
- ebook-readers killers

What I really don’t see it as:
- netbook killer
- book killer.

I haven’t tried a tablet before, so I can’t tell you if it is a killer or not. if anything, this re-introduction of the tablet pc is quite different from the previous tablets. Firstly, it costs less. or well, since I last noticed tablets anyways. at last glance, tablet pcs were upwards of $2500. IPad pars out at Aud$1000.

Why it’s not a netbook Killer:

- with some new netbook nowadays, the HDD ranges to about 200gigs or something mad. This maxes out at 64gigs. complete portability but nothing of the gigantic space that others tout.
- (my main gripe) it doesn’t have any usb ports at all, from what I have seen and heard. you can buy an adaptor for it, but it shares the same port as the charger/connection to pc.
- (another gripe) it doesn’t run Flash on it. yes it wasn’t necessary…. 5 years ago. many websites runs on Flash now and for a company to say that consumers wants the internet in their hands, it is really a letdown to see no flash because flash is very much a component of the internet now.
- as far as i can see, it doesn’t seem to multi-task (like the iphone). not a big deal, particularly if you’re meant to be doing one thing at a time anyways, but it can be an arse of a problem for some who likes to have multiple programs opened for re-searching purposes. of course, some netbooks chug when you have multiple programs open anyways.

Why it’s not an Ebook-reader killer –

- Backlit light strains the eyes. not a comfortable thing for long periods of time
- Talking about long periods of time, it only lasts for 10 hours. people have notably read for 12 hours at a go.
- the ibooks cost more (although this is more a publisher problem) than ebooks from Amazon (comparison done as I only buy ebooks from Amazon at the moment).

That all said and done, I really like the IPad. it’s like a fun computer, yet not a computer. I can see myself using it for… many things. I know I don’t go uni anymore (but could possibly go back for nursing), or do anything along the lines of needing a computer on the go – but this is just the type of computer for it. It’s fun, it contains most of what you need on the go and doesn’t take up much space.

unfortunately, for a gamer, I don’t know where this would lead. I had never liked iphone’s gaming designs, it seriously feels odd to be “pressing” a non-existent button. it makes me pissed off sometimes that I can’t break my controller from raging (it does feel satisfying to be death-griping your controller you know!). Therefore, I don’t think it would work out to be a good gaming device, for me.

That said, if anyone creates an app linking to WoW or Aion, I am not about to back down from it. this might be the solution to my current problem of being unable to play while at work *_*

I have 90 days to save up for my own one… or maybe about 9 months to save up for a new one with Flash capabilities and possibly ONE usb port at least…. i hope!

*EDIT: I forgot to mention, a while ago I was deliberating what would be good for a textbook e-reader with some people. One thing I thought would be wonderful is if the readers could allow for videos, moving graphics or even just a voice doing things the textbooks are mentioning that is hard to imagine for some people. With the new ipad, steve job hopes to do just that – and it certainly seems it could although I don’t think there’s an ebook out there right now that’s created with such ideas in mind.

Still, if someone chooses to replace their classes’ textbooks with an Ipad, with the basic functionality of it, they could still go through the book, pause halfway to hop on youtube for a possible video (that they might have uploaded), or podcast created for that class (or videocast) and bam – almost the same idea right there :D

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