Merry Christmas everyone!

Was out of commission for the last 2 days because of paintballing on Saturday. WOo! That was fun. Legs are still aching from the amount of duck walking we had to do. Bruises aren't turning blue-black yet, so I'm assuming that's a good sign. Cuts are healing nicely =) They're from the paintballs exploding on my hands which weren't covered.

On another note, I was looking through some news articles and found this one

By now, I'm pretty sure the bloggers/journalists have torn out most of the content and posted it here and here and some here.

It even has a Wiki! The actual quotes.

I love how she just goes ahead and foreshadows her own demise here: ".. how the government really needs to save us from inevitable doom but they aren't because they are stick-shoved-up-ass elites who have no idea how the world works, yadayadayadayada."

Obviously, the quote "please, get out of my elite uncaring face" has been plastered all over the net and is being used as the bait for forum trolls everywhere. I think its meant as a sarcastic comment from Wee Shu-Min to laugh at Derek's apparent belief that the government is a just a group of "stick-shoved-up-ass elites who have no idea how the world works." Oh well. I hope she has learnt her lesson when it comes to being misquoted.

The Singapore Government really does try very hard to assist the people, but they are only human and humans make mistakes. Besides, you can't really blame everything on the Government, it's not as if they are the all seeing eye. They've done a really good job, considering the events that have occured during their time in office.

From my point of view, I'd interpret it as a difference in risk/return preference. A good explanation of it is available here.

"Determining what risk level is most appropriate for you isn't an easy question to answer. Risk tolerance differs from person to person. Your decision will depend on your goals, income and personal situation, among other factors. "

I interpreted Derek's reaction to the job market to be that he is now incurring more risk(For example, he may not be able to say, purchase a new car because the job market for his age group is uncertain. He also may have more debts to cover eg. mortgage, car, etc., and loss of employment for him is more financially damaging than losing a job when he was younger) for the amount of return he is now getting, compared to the risk/return ratio he is used to when he was younger. The number of year available to him before he retires is lesser than when he was younger, and if he endures higher risk, he might not be able to re-earn losses that he makes. Shu-Min is not in the position he is in and is generally able to endure higher risk because of her age, background, education, and hence, does not understand the situation he is in.

While poking around some websites, I found a rather interesting one on design. It talks about how designers should think while trying to come up with a good design.

"Good design is simple. You hear this from math to painting. In math it means that a shorter proof tends to be a better one. Where axioms are concerned, especially, less is more."

http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html/ ^_^

Updates

1.) Uni results for this semester were back last week Wednesday:

- Linear Algebra - Credit - 61%
- Finance (International) 306 - Distinction - 74%
- Finance (Derivatives) 312 - Distinction - 70%
- Practical Financial Modelling 202 - Distinction - 74%

Overall, I'm annoyed at the drop in my Weighted Average but I'm quite happy that I didn't end up screwing Finance (Derivatives).

2.) Braces were removed on Thurdsay:

MMmmm..... My teeth feel so smoooooooth!!! *rubs tongue along teeth* MmmmmMMmmmm.. I'll be getting my plate on Monday. Wonder what it'll be like talking with it on.

3.) Bought a couple of books after braces were removed on Thursday:

"How Counting Shaped Modern Life - The Triumph Of Numbers" by I B Cohen. (History Book)
"Robot 1" by Range Murata. (Art book)
"Queen of the Damned" by Anne Rice (Fiction)
"Newtype - The Moving Pictures Magazine" Dec 2006 Vol. 12

Ridiculous.

Report: Singapore teen faces 3 years' jail for tapping into another's wireless Internet

"A Singapore teenager has been charged with tapping into someone else's wireless Internet connection, a crime that carries a penalty of up to three years in jail, a newspaper reported Saturday."

Source

Wireless@SG Programme

Wireless@SG is a wireless broadband programme developed by IDA as part of its Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure initiative. It will be run and developed in the next two years by three local wireless operators who will deploy a wireless broadband network in Singapore. Users can enjoy free, both in-door and outdoor seamless wireless broadband access with speeds of up to 512kbps at most public areas.

Source


Ummmm........ Does anyone, besides myself, see the irony of these articles? It's hilarious! What if you accidentally connected to a private network while attempting to connect to a public network? And said private network was not protected by its ignoramous owner who then proceeded to complain to the authorities? Make it a nuisance or at least mildy annoying to connect to your network and they won't bother. Guuh... what's wrong with these people.