Ian On The Red Dot

The widget below was created in record quick time. It allows you to check out the ten latest headlines from 3 of the news aggregators for Singapore - Tomorrow.sg, Singapore Daily and Ping.sg.

Created using SproutBuilder which has been reviewed by ReadWriteWeb and Techcrunch.

For all its ease of use though, it cannot compensate for a poor sense of design.

A friend shared on Facebook about this event which is pretty interesting.  Note, you would have to log into Facebook to get the event page.

A description of the event:

Well…it’s very simple! We just wear a really loud bright colored t-shirt and board on the MRT (Singapore train service)! Starting off at Boonlay station, we stop and get off at every MRT station to buy cheap drinks. Be it a pub, coffeeshop, supermarket, or even a 7-11, we grab whatever we can and down as many drinks as possible. Why pay for expensive drinks at clubs when we can get them at cost price outside? The last stop will be at city hall in which we’ll go to a club of choice. Having built up a party momentum, we’ll party the night off with a blast! Its something like a drinking marathon + a tour around Singapore + pre party drinking + Valentine’s day celebration all combined into one!

The event reminds me of events that have been organized by lori kufner and kevin bracken of Newmindspace in Toronto and New York.

What does Newmindspace do?

Newmindspace is interactive public art, creative cultural interventions and urban bliss dissemination based in New York and Toronto.

One of our goals at Newmindspace is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television.

Newmindspace is committed to reclaiming public space, inventing new ways of having fun, and creating community.

New York Times has article on Barack Obama’s 26 year old head speech writer.

I like how he got noticed for the job:

Mr. Obama was rehearsing his 2004 convention speech backstage, when Mr. Favreau, then a member of John Kerry’s staff, interrupted him: the senator needed to rewrite a line from his speech to avoid an overlap.

“He kind of looked at me, kind of confused — like, ‘Who is this kid?’ ” Mr. Favreau recalled.

The article also describes an incident which show Barack Obama’s humor:

When Mr. Obama’s White Sox swept Mr. Favreau’s beloved Red Sox three games to none in their American League 2005 division series, the senator walked over to his speechwriter’s desk with a little broom and started sweeping it off.

I’m beginning to see the beauty of tagging as I find it harder to organize the blog posts into categories with any consistency.

Valentine’s day is less than a month away and some singles might be anticipating the loneliness and ‘loserness’ that society pressures us to feel. So how do you find love?

New York Times has an article about match making agencies using algorithms to help decide the best partners.

People aren’t so good at picking their own mates online.

“They think they know what they want,” Dr. Finkel said. “But meeting somebody who possesses the characteristics they claim are so important is much less inspiring than they would have predicted.”

The new matchmakers may or may not have the right formula. But their computers at least know better than to give you what you want.

Which reminds of a quote by Oscar Wilde.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

Maybe my Indian colleagues are onto something with their arranged marriages.

Anyway, if you insist on looking for love, check out this site - Hitchoo.

from: Truck Bearing Kibble

Saw the video below. Funny yet sad.

The video above reminded me of this movie which is coming up soon - He Was A Quiet Man:

I just managed to get TwitterBerry working on my BlackBerry.  It seems that I needed M1 to push Service Books to me so that the external applications I installed onto the BlackBerry would start working.  I’ve been trying to get the external applications to work for some time to no avail.  Today, I decided to call M1 customer service for the second time to check for me and the lady who was helping me realized what was wrong and pushed the needed Service Books.

Here is the thing.  It was my second time calling.  The first time was a few months ago and I got this guy who was supposed to help me but all he did was insist that things should be working.  I told him my problem.  I think I even asked about Service Books.  He said something along these lines, ‘Should work what, I mean, I tried before and it works, so it should work on your BlackBerry.  You just try k, should work.’  Thanks a lot Sherlock.

I feel the collective pride of all mandom talking a hit here.  I mean, a lady provided better technical support than a guy.  I know it’s a sexist thing to say, but if there was one thing, just one thing left in this world where a guy could be better at something, I had hope it would be knowing more about tech stuff.

Sigh.  Now even that has been taken away from us.

What is there left for us to cling on to for some flimsy vestige of superiority?

Anyway, now that I have TwitterBerry, I’m going to start twittering more especially when I’m commuting.  Got to make sure the unlimited data plan does not go to waste.  Hopefully, there will be tweets by twistedian worth reading.

Is there a God and if there is, what sort of person is he (or she)? Non-fiction writers have written countless stories to reflect and comment on such questions.

Even popular or escape fiction may have a thematic basis; it may make a comment about some aspect of the human condition. Although escapist literature (like the following science fiction story) is written primarily for entertainment, it can also broaden our own awareness of ourselves and our lives. The best stories achieve a balance between enlightenment and entertainment, skillfully blending the theme and the elements.

Here are three such short stories:

“The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke.

“Answer” by Fredric Brown.

“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov

I find it funny how at the end of the day, it seems we end up ‘creating’ God. With religion, we ‘create’ a god to explain the universe - its nature, its existence, its happenings and its patterns. Science is used as a tool to refute the existence and need of a god. Then in these short stories, science is used to create a god.