Categories
ranting

A bug in my iPhone

I found a bug in my iPhone. Doesn’t bother me but drives my 20 month old daughter crazy…

I’ve seen this a couple of times, it seems to duplicate the ‘cover’ image for one video onto other videos. I haven’t seen a pattern in it yet. Doesn’t seem to matter if the video with the incorrect cover image has a cover image associated with it or not. Sometimes the cover images from TV shows or Podcasts are in the wrong place too. Most annoying for my daughter when she wants to watch WALL·E but clicks on The Last Lecture. She gets a bit upset after the third or fourth try.

Categories
quotes

What you say…

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.

Noam Chomsky

Or…

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Categories
photography

Zoom Zoom

IMG_6046

Photo of an Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master [wikipedia.org] taken from the Changi Ferry Terminal during the Singapore Airshow 2010. Not much of an airshow really, only a few flight demos, and no aerobatics at all. Unless you call standing an Apache on it’s nose for a few seconds aerobatics. N** took a lot more [nirsinay.com], ’cause he actually paid to go into the exhibit.

There are a few more photos in the 2010 Singapore Airshow, Singapore, February 2010 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].

Categories
photography

Thaipusam 2010

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Photo from this years Thaipusam festival in Singapore. Taken in early Feb but sitting on the camera till a week or so ago due to my hard drive crashing. I’ve been to the Thaipusam festival three times now here in Singapore and it still blows the mind. I don’t have faith, so I can’t understand what drives people to do this.

You can see the whole Thaipusam Festival, Singapore, January 2010 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].

Categories
ranting

Beantown bound

I will be embarking on a new adventure soon. On May 1st I will begin employment with a new company based in Boston, and I will be relocating, with the family, to Boston two months later.

Going back to the US was always part of the plan — mine at least, maybe not the wife’s — but not so soon. However it was time to find a new job and the prospects in Singapore have been as exciting and numerous as authentic American sushi.

It’s a bad time I guess, it’s always a bad time in Singapore due to the ‘normal’ career path of engineers — let me just say that they don’t do much engineering for long — and the fact that most companies come to Singapore for cheap labor. So, unless you have ample experience in the banking sector it’s mostly cheap, entry level jobs. My best Singapore option was to run the technical operations of a certain cloud computing company… but they decided my lack of System Engineer experience was a non-solvable problem. C’est la vie, I want to program anyway, but management is the only real option for well paid techie jobs in S’pore.

So I widened my search to include other places in Asia. China offered a couple of interesting positions, but I could not get a house I was willing to keep my family in for what they want to pay a month. Unfortunately I am not a local and don’t live with my parents or 10 other guys. A real place to live most likely with gated access is required. And then there is private school. Too bad then, I would like to work in China now, I think it can only help long term. But no luck. Maybe next time.

I had a long shot for Taiwan, but that didn’t pan out either. Again, it would have been fun. People I’ve worked with before. Good people. Would have loved to work with them again. And I’ve had fun in Taipei so I’d be willing to go there.

Too many unemployed techies in Aus. Not even worth applying really.

Europe is out. I have a US passport, so no right to work anywhere in Europe. No company wants to take on the headache and paperwork.

So I spent a lot of time looking in the US. Got a couple of decent offers, a few what-the-fuck-happened disappearing HR people and lots of cold shoulder.

In the end Boston won. It’s a start-up with a lot of work in Mobile, so I can utilize the wealth of random industry info in my head, but at the same time they branch out in to some other related spaces I have less experience with that could offer a new challenge and learning opportunity. Location seems good, Boston is a decent tech town and seems to be a good place for a family. And, of course, most of all, the people seem good. Good as in a hard to find quality that I need to feel is there in people I work with—especially in a start-up situation. Hard working, smart, fun-loving. We’ll have to see about piercings, tattoos and blue hair (I’ve only see one guy, spoke to everyone else on the phone/email.)

So, the countdown to the big move has started. Plans are being formulated, evil plans devised and coup d’état’s plotted. It’s exiting and scary. Wish me luck… and wish my wife sanity… living in a foreign society for the first time is a mindfuck, from working professional to house-mom will be a big transition.

Now, last thing. Anyone want to buy a condo in Singapore? No? A car? Washing Machine? A sofa? Call me. Let’s discuss. Over kopi!