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ranting

One of those days…

Ever had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be one of those days?

One of those days...
Categories
ranting

17,524

17,524

17,524. One thousand, five hundred and twenty four. Hours. In meetings.

Man-hours mind you, not my hours, but; holy shit. Can you imagine if I represent the average employee of my company? My company has about 20,000 employees. 20,000 * 17,524 is 350,480,000 man hours per month. (P.S. These numbers are for this month and many of my meetings are scheduled only a few days in advance…) When the fuck does the work get done?

Categories
ranting

The Internet, almost, never forgets

The Voyager spacecraft is the furthest man-made object in the universe. There’s a chance it could be found by another civilization. The Voyager record was designed as an album that conveyed information about planet Earth. It was an analog device. Digital is harder for long-term storage.

There’s a common belief that things that get put online always stay there. But “the Internet never forgets” is simply not true. The Internet forgets all the time. Intuitively we don’t think there is a problem. But if we are trying to tell stories and leave a legacy online it’s a real problem.

Anytime Mickey Mouse is in danger of following into the public domain, copyright law is extended. If your content came after Steamboat Willy, you can have copyright forever.

Luke Wroblewski’s notes [lukew.com] All Our Yesterdays a presentation by Jeremy Keith at An Event Apart in Boston, 2011

All the notes are worth reading… so go read them, I’ll be here when you get back.

Done? Good. So the second quote reminded me of my post The Internet Never Forgets [confusion.cc] (You can see how that would remind me, yea?)

I still stand by what I said in that post — the internet never forgets, and you should never commit anything to writing you would not want read back to you in court. But maybe the law of the Internets’ memory should be, in the spirit of the Internet, mashed up with Murphy’s Law; The Internet never forgets things you wish it would and you can’t be sure it will remember the things you want it to.

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ranting

Randoms thoughts on the Singapore General Election 2011

I wonder if the compulsory voting will work against the PAP [pap.org.sg]? My thought process: the PAP is analogues to the “Conservative Party” in most democracies — e.g. the Tories in the UK or the Republicans in the US. Conservative parties tend to do better with older voters. Singapore seems to be a society with a lot of younger people. In most places without compulsory voting older voters tend to be disproportional represented in voter turn out… Younger people don’t vote as regularly as older people. More seats are being contested by opposition parties in this general election than in any past election in Singapore. Ergo, will compulsory voting work against the PAP in this election.

I haven’t done any research other than Facebook, TV and water cooler conversations but it seems that the SDP [yoursdp.org] and the NSP [nsp.sg] seem to be credible opposition. By credible I mean they offer an alternative view on things more then they sling mud at the PAP. The workers party — from what I have seen — just bitches about the PAP not offering any solutions in any meaningful way.

I must say I didn’t pay much attention to previous elections I’ve been in Singapore for they just kind of happened and nothing changed. This time it feels different; like people give a shit and many people are struggling to make a choice between the PAP and the opposition in their district — I suppose this will work in the PAP’s favor; better the devil you know when it comes down to it on polling day. It’s also interesting to observe a vibrant — and young — election process as an outsider. I can only imagine what it must be like to watch the US presidential election as someone with no direct influence, it must be the best reality show ever.

I will venture a bit into specific politics: I hope that the voters in Bishan-Toa Payoh vote DPM Wong out of office over the Mas Selamat thing [wikipedia.org]. As the politician in charge it was his job to fall on his sword when the most wanted man in Singapore escaped via a bathroom window. He didn’t and his petulance as the suggestion that he ‘take responsibility’ smacks of complacency, of being in power an unquestioned too long, of being right or at least of not being questioned for so long that he has forgotten what responsibility is. Considering how highly paid public servants are in Singapore you’d think they would at least stand up and say “the buck stops here.” In the Mas Selamat case that would mean Wong — the minister ultimately in charge of it — would resign.

Finally; taxi drivers get really uncomfortable when you talk about all this.