yjblog

Die lah. Some idiots actually wrote in to argue against Assoc Prof Lee Wei Ling’s forum letter to the Straits Times yesterday, where she wrote about how the operation on the Nepalese twins was a mistake. Sure, it might have had a tinge (a very gentle one, I add as disclaimer) of eugenics, umm, high genetic standards, but who are we to criticise?

Fast forward to today. From the ST Forum RSS feed:

Giving hope and saving lives can’t be a mistake
“I REFER to Associate Professor Lee Wei Ling’s letter, ‘ ‘Successful’ operation was a mistake’ (ST, April 13). I disagree that the operation to save the lives of the Nepalese twins was a ‘mistake’.”

Should the disabled be rejected by society?
“I AM appalled at Associate Professor Lee Wei Ling’s views on the operation conducted on the Nepalese twins.”

Wah lau, what’s wrong with you people? Disagree? Apalled?! You know who her father is or not?! Let the infamous Jamie Han educate you in these two videos: [1] [2] (courtesy of Bean, byebye bandwidth).

So they finally went and announced Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, due for release April 29. I only found out while browsing Yahoo! News and wondering, why would “Apple set to release upgrade to Mac OS X” be front page technology news?, before I read the article and subsequently got reduced to over-excited convulsions.

Looking forward to:

• Smart folders for Address Book. This way, instead of manually sorting address book entries into folders, I could, say, specify a smart folder with “all phone numbers with area code 650” to lump most of my friends in the Bay Area into one folder.
• Smart folders for Mail.app. My current Mail.app rules do the job well enough when categorising e-mails, but smart folders would allow for a certain e-mail to exist within different folders (just like in Gmail labels).
• iSync compatibility with the newest phones (specifically Series 60 using SyncML). Another excuse to upgrade my phone.
• Safari RSS. I like NewsFire very much for reading most newsfeeds, but being able to distil all the information on any crowded but RSS-enabled page (that I wouldn’t want crowding up my NewsFire feeds) would be perfect. No more stupid ads and gratuitous flash graphics while scanning ESPN. Also, Safari 2 has that RSS “detection button” feature that I miss when switching from Firefox.
• Dashboard widgets. The widgets for dictionary, iTunes, weather, translator, address book, calendar and the unit converter all look potentially useful.
• Scientific / graphing calculator. Oooooh.

The best part? With the trip to the Bay Area coming up, I can get a copy for US$69 at school (S$248 here, S$148 educational). Woohoo!

Because I’m too burned out by all this logo re-re-re-redesign for the government project* to really write anything, here is another amusing link:

Handler punished for donning camel costume, via Neil Gaiman.

SYDNEY, Australia — Qantas Airways Ltd. on Friday suspended a baggage handler who was caught on video opening a passenger’s bag which contained a camel costume, donning the head and wandering around the airport tarmac.

The real world is so stupidly amusing sometimes.

* “If they brought this to a design house they’d have gone crazy by now”, said the co-designer before telling me he’d given up.

Hitachi introduces “perpendicular recording” with an all-singing, all-dancing ensemble of… bits. Very, very amusing — if only all technology press releases were like this.

Get Perpendicular! (via Engadget)

The plans are set:

April 23 through May 17, I’ll be in San Francisco and the Bay Area, and will be staying (at least initially) at Sasank and Toru’s apartment in the city. There’s something about going to Vegas one of those weekends, but I obviously didn’t bother to pay attention when someone in the drawgroup emailed about it (hell, I think they’ve already booked a flight for me). After that, stopover in Korea on my way back May 18, with another flight to Jeju island 20th to 22nd. Back on Vesak Day.

I will be so tired and broke at the end of it, so I do wonder why I’m spending all this money (easily my first month’s salary) when I could be sitting at home and relaxing. I should be looking forward to the trip so much more than this — I’m absolutely certain I was desperate to go at some point — but right now, I’m not sure what to feel. The last year and three quarters of NSF life haven’t really been the painful ordeal (nor even the dull grey monotony) I’d imagined the worst of before I came back. Then again, having been trapped in endless office politicking among NSFs (with the corresponding cap in maturity level — I’m trying not to be mean, but it’s the most succinct description of the situation) while handling oft-unreasonable bossly demands, thinking to myself how ominously well this would serve as a prelude to real working life… I think I need this trip much more than I know, before I plunge into my life of grudgingly acceptable indentured civil service labour.

Maybe I’m thinking too much. Who wants me to bring anything back (that won’t get me arrested)?

I laughed so hard my face hurts. So does my dignity.

THIS IS FUN TO MAKE A BLOG ON THE COMPUTER WEBSITE (via A Gonzo Journal)

Rocky training video spoof (via kottke.org)

“Planetary: Leaving the 20th Century - Volume 3” (Warren Ellis)
It’s been so ridiculously long since the last volume of Planetary, but it’s been worth the wait (nearly four years since Planetary: The Fourth Man). This volume is Warren Ellis writing his strongest science-fiction superhero conspiracy fantasy work, with John Cassaday’s breathtaking art infusing every moment with a planet-sized dose of pure awe-inspiring wonder. I had to stop to catch my breath after every chapter. Not hyperbole, it really was that good.

“Madrox: Multiple Choice” (Peter David)
Good, but maybe I shouldn’t have read this after Planetary. I remember thoroughly enjoying Peter David’s writing on X-Factor all those years ago (way back in 1993!). This book essentially lets him play with a similar stable of characters — Madrox, Wolfsbane, and the hilariously-named Strong Guy — but the humour felt a lot more forced this time round. Still an interesting story, but I don’t see what all the critical raving was about.

Grant Morrison (writer of The Filth and New X-Men), tells Comic Book Wire:

Quite recently, a gold crown broke out of Morrison’s mouth while he was eating. He accidentally swallowed the crown, which wouldn’t have been such a big deal were it not for the outrageous cost of replacement: $1600. In a truly remarkable display of thriftiness, the writer spent the next several days digging through his own waste with a spoon trying to find that gold crown, even developing new systems to increase efficiency along the way. “I was shitting in a bag!” Morrison laughed. “But before I’d discovered the technology, I was shitting in the sink!”

Tragically, the crown was never recovered. When asked if he would have put such a thing back into his mouth even if he had found it, Morrison replied, “That’s the real question, isn’t it? It’s like Sophie’s Choice.”

Aaargh.