Telling it like it is

There's something deeply satisfying about removing an old network with a box cutter and a pair of scissors. Slicing the old cables and pulling them through walls and cable clips without any regard for their use is quite fun, especially after the meticulous work involved in installing the new wires beforehand. The book store where my wife works is finally jumping head-first into the 21st century, updating their VT200-based stock keeping and point of sale system to a PC-based system. Out with the telephone-cable-based 'network', in with the new. Shiny new Cat-5e cables, gigabit switches and routers, WiFi - it's been an interesting but fun task so far. And we're barely 25% done. I have to look forward to installing 4 more PCs, data migration off the old system, setting up a rigorous backup facility, antivirus, password management - the lot. Which is curious and odd because way back at school, in my computer science class (realise I'm talking about 1985 or 1986 her...

" No pressure, but if you don't comply, we're going to kill you." That's largely the message some organisation called 1010Global is putting out. I suppose you've already seen it - it went viral a couple of days ago - but if not, their current advertising campaign involves exploding children in a classroom because the kids didn't want to be part of their campaign, followed with the message "no pressure". I don't know what they're trying to promote but their message (whatever it is) has been rendered completely moot by a TV advert where they blow up children. Graphically. Full-screen. In front of a class full of other children. If you're curious, the three ads are below. Watch them and then realise how ill-conceived this idea was. I suppose someone thought this was funny, in the same way people think 'The Office' is funny. People are often wrong.

Well here we go then - the longest blog entry ever. This is our trip diary from our recent 10th anniversary trip to Singapore and Hong Kong. The trip was a surprise for Paula, centred around going to the Singapore Formula 1 race - a street circuit, raced at night. A micro selection of pictures are here: Singapore & Hong Kong 2010 Thursday. Arrived in the afternoon (with all luggage checked all the way through from SLC) and took a taxi to the hotel. The Orchid arrangement I'd asked for was in the room waiting for Paula. She cried :-) Walked up Orchard road. Had a snack at Spanish cafe in Ngee Ann City mall. Took the MRT to Raffles City to collect our F1 tickets. Had dinner at Malaysian vendor in the L4 Food Republic in Wisma Atria mall. Walked Orchard road again, but at night to see the Digital@Orchard displays of light and art.  Friday. Tested our MRT route to the track and got there a tad early; decided on Gate 2. Picked up 3-day MRT tourist passes that allow unlimited travel ...