&changes;

Sunday, August 8, 2010

This is a log of changes made; it perhaps will occur that I have to come back and edit this page somewhere in the future.

8/8/10

Total rehaul of the blog skin. I found the old blog skin too messy and it squeezed all of the content to two tiny columns in the middle of the page. After fiddling around with the Merchant Of Venice plot map, I gave up and sought for a newer skin that would give me sufficient space to work with and yet keep a nice, clean layout. This new skin exactly fits my description. I brought back tabbed browsing because it keeps my information neatly stored where I need it, and thus the elimination of a mess on the page with the posts, profile, links, tagboard et cetera. Additionally, it has a cyan/navy colour scheme that looks really nice. Practically all the content and preferences were copied over from the last time, so everything should work out fine. I hope.

4/3/10
Names, times and dates are finally showing as they should, I hope.

27/2/10
After spending a good few days scratching my head while staring at the miniscule line of single-width characters filling up my screen, some minor bugs in the HTML are finally corrected! :)
Firstly, the two white textboxes which happened to strangely float away somehow was put back in their supposed positions and are currently kept under lock and key.
Secondly, the sidebar was revamped with new info and a chatbox to match the colour scheme of the blog.
Thirdly, the archives problem was finally sent into the chasms of a black hole that roams...why, just outside your window.
Finally, the paragraphing was fixed with the help of the trusty tool called the human body.

5/2/10
Even though I have changed the blog skin, I still brought some of my preferences into the new blog. After pondering over this choice, I have, again, scrapped everything. Here is a brief summary of these new new changes.
Firstly, comments were put back on. Previously, I disabled commenting as I felt that it would result in much spamming and/or flaming which would be very inconvenient for me to handle. In order for me to accommodate both comments and purity, I have reenabled comments, and changed the settings such that I will moderate all the comments that come in, and thus be able to filter any inappropriate material.
Secondly, archives were put back on. Previously, my blog was set to having no archive, and thus having every existent post on the blog itself directly. Now, as I have changed the skin, this is no longer practical as the already miniscule scroll bar would be extremely hard to manipulate. Thus archives came back to life and appear within the sidebar on the right.
Thirdly, the chatbox was put back on. Previously, I had removed it due to some corruption in the data which could not be resolved. Honestly, the reason why it stayed off was that I was too lazy to examine the problem. Well, after this major revamping this has been one of my goals, which I have achieved within this short span of what... ~5 days.
Lastly, I removed the tabbing style of the previous blog skin. I decided that an image map of the cat would be too complex and difficult for a viewer to find, so I just placed my info in the textbox at the right-hand side which used to just hold the chatbox.

1/2/10
I decided, after the multiple complaints, that the blog skin was way too illegible. The main cause was that the background was black and white, which conflicted with any colour placed on it. I tried bolding the font, increasing the font size and even changing the text colour to blue, but the problem persisted. Even though the layout was nice and the navigation was cool, I found it to be unreadable too, so I scrapped the entire template and sourced out a new, neater one from blogskins.com. This new skin depicts a black cat on a red background, both ominous signs of impending doom. This shows my newfound enjoyment in doing things that are opposite of the norm, and taking delight in challenging traditions. Of course, they have to be logical and rational, or...whatever. It also removes the problem of navigation, as the previous blog was slightly subtle in revealing its navigational format.

8:46 PM

my.take//dbs.banking

Friday, August 6, 2010

This is my true take on the recent DBS banking problem.

When it was revealed that the cause of the DBS banking shutdown was merely a technical fault due to expired computer parts, I had nothing to say. It was human error, and since technology moves so fast nowadays something that came out a few months ago could be rendered void within the next week. However, this does alert us because the banking system is widespread across Singapore.

The major concern with incidents such as this is that instead of a mechanical fault it was the work of an opposition country, terrorist group or pranksters. Instead of the system of a single banking company going down, it could be the entire economic system of Singapore. Everything would be affected. Credit cards, ez-link cards, ATMs, online banking et cetera would all go dead. Retail outlets would be unable to operate. Stock markets would fail. The impact would be long and hard.

An even more horrific scene would be that the electronic structure of Singapore is invaded. This would cut off all electric supply to the entirety of Singapore, leading to chaos and problems occurring everywhere. It would pose major problems for security. The simplest of all mechanical faults has shown us that such a thing is possible even with today's standards of technology.

In addition, computer hacking is a crime without enemies: it is impossible to find the perpetrator. In 2007, South Korea's internet system was subject to hacking. Although the main internet network was not disrupted severely, the hacker was able to retrieve confidential government emails and information. A report on the hacking identified 86 possible IP addresses coming from 16 countries; however, their prime suspect North Korea was not amongst the list. Without any evidence, they were unable to request any country to do a detailed investigation regarding this; if they were to request that of all 16 countries, their expenditure would be way more than their loss. Anybody with a computer, internet access and sufficient computer knowledge could possibly hack into a network.

All in all, apart from our government taking extreme care when handling its internet security and reducing co-reliance on internet systems, we can also regularly change our password. This is to prevent our computers from being used as a tool to cause massive disruption, and thereby to prevent ourselves from being the framed party of hacking.

6:33 PM

my.take//judicial.punishment

Monday, August 2, 2010

My current affairs role aside, this is my true take on judicial punishment in Singapore.

Judicial punishment refers to the act of punishment as carried out by a court or similar judicial system. Specifically in Singapore, this refers to the act of caning as a form of judicial corporal punishment. In my opinion, the main reason why Singapore would continue to do such a thing as opposed to signing the Humans Rights Act is because Singapore has to show that, although it is a small country, it is still an independent and stable country, and has its own set of ideals instead of jumping onto an international bandwagon. Certainly this is acceptable in some cases, such as perhaps a murder or rape incident committed by a foreigner on Singapore ground.

However, I do feel that such a painful and scarring act should not be inflicted upon a criminal of a minor offense. Certainly in this case Oliver Fricker did not deserve the caning (neither did Michael Fay a few years ago). The main crime he committed was vandalism of the SMRT train. This action is easily reversible and is not a show of violence. It does not directly inflict harm on anybody either. However, he was still given three strokes of the cane and sentenced to five months jail (now possibly nine months). Indeed, a jail term of nine months would seem more appropriate to vandalism and trespassing, but the caning seems disproportionate to the crime that he had committed. This is also similar to the Michael Fay incident, where vandalism was also the main crime.

The effects of caning are not only the immediate physical and mental discomfort, but also the lifelong scar and reminder of his childishness. While this may be an effective method of deterrence both to him in the future and to others, it is only one of many punishment possibilities. Yes, I know that during the CA session I mentioned that other alternatives such as jailing and corrective work order turn up to be largely ineffective, and fines are too mere an effort to be considered as punishment for vandalism. Still, there are various combinations of methods that could work out as plausible alternatives. For example, counselling in combination with jailing could be a humane and mentality-directed method to curb the recurrence of the criminal actions. It is definitely more effective to sort somebody's thinking straight than to repeatedly cane him.

Judicial punishment in Singapore today seems like an effective way to drive off investors and possible foreign talents due to the strict law regulations in Singapore. If a young graduate fresh out of university were to think rationally, he probably would not choose Singapore as a work arena because one little slip would cost him his entire life. (Of course there are other reasons but I'm not going into that.) Is it alright to sacrifice the chances of foreign talents choosing Singapore over other industrialized countries just to show how Singapore doesn't tag along with other countries?

In conclusion, obviously caning should be used for extremely serious offences, but really, can vandalism be counted?

1:03 PM

profile

i'm alvin.
i come from hwa chong institution in singapore.
i'm in class 2i2. yes, i'm a sparkie.
i'm 14+ years old; celebrated my bdae on feb 12.
my hobbies r simple: reading, piano, com games.
i like animals, especially cats mudkipz.
enjoy my blog.
thx.

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