It’s Christmas season and I decided to give myself some tech presents.
Read on to find out more!
Unlike some other people, I am usually quite happy to pay for creative contents. Being a software person, I appreciate that people takes time to develop content and should be rewarded economically for it.
I am actually quite excited by the onset of digital contents like music and ebooks because they take up negligible space. My room is already packed to the max and cannot take any more books or albums or CDs.
Recently, I have been trying to purchase an ebook for something I thought was quite interesting. The problem is that I felt that I am being punished for trying to do the right thing.
Let me explain. I could have quite easily went to some torrent website and find the book. But I felt that it was worthwhile to pay for the book. However all sites I found was selling the book in some sort of DRM format. That sucks because 1) it usually ties you to some platform or device (see Amazon) and 2) I don’t actually own the bloody thing.
It seems that all that things like DRM do is to punish people who wants to honestly pay for their content. Especially since I do not have a mass-market device like the Kindle, I would rather have the flexibility to have a DRM-free file that is free to do whatever I want with it.
If I end up with more restrictions by actually paying for the damned ebook, there is no way I would do it.
If you want me to do the right thing, stop treating me like a thief.
There seems to be quite a interest in cars in Singapore recently. In particular, how we can balance the aspirations of Singaporeans to own cars with the necessity of controlling the car population in Singapore.
I think that COEs are a great way to control the car population. Given the population density of Singapore, we would be facing massive jams if we did not act quickly to control the car population. The introduction of COEs essentially did this. The massive additional cost of buying a car made many potential car buyers sit back and reflect on whether a car is really a need or a want. It was also a fair way to distribute limited licenses to own vehicles. The highest bidder simply gets the car.
There are just 2 minor ways I felt the system could have been better. One, winning bidders should pay what they actually bid, not the lowest winning bid. This prevents people from bidding ridiculous amounts and artificially driving up the market. Two, motor dealers should be removed from the bidding process. Currently, the motor dealers “help” the buyers to bid for COEs. As they bid for large number of them each month, they essentially are able to affect the market. Requiring the buyers to bid for a COE and then buy a car would be a better system.
Most rational Singaporeans know that we cannot have everyone owning their private cars. The vast majority of the population would be reliant on the Singapore public transport system. We’ve got a big push factor away from cars in COE. Now, we just need to improve our pull factor towards public transport by improving its quality. With continued investment in public transport and a recognition that we need to deal with the whole transport system as one ecosystem, we might be able to get to the day when Singaporeans do not aspire to own cars anymore.
I just spent the last 2 hours plus watching the session organised by the TOC. I feel that it gives me a much greater insight into each candidate’s mindset than any report by mainstream media up to now.
Anyway, I think I know who I will vote for now that I know them better.
On a sidenote, TOC is really carving up a role for themselves in the political space of Singapore.
人虽然已经回到新加坡一个星期了，心情却似乎流在了汉堡的阴天。这几天心中多了一片阴霾， 做什么事都提不起劲。
我希望能为生命添加一点彩色。拍多一点照片，打多一点网球，也许会让自己高兴一点。
liyong