Many Saturdays ago (actually, just 2), I was invited to a Nuffnang event for "Open Your Heart" - an AIDS awareness for the Youth . The showcase was primarily to bring awareness to the people all around that the AIDS victims do need care and concern just like any other person, sick or otherwise. It is a sad truth that people who do not belong to the norm get ostracised; and if normal people are already discriminated by their race, language and religions, the stigma that AIDS victims face is unimaginable.

It’s thus not unusual for AIDS victims to keep to themselves of their status in order to preserve whatever sanity they have left. Exposure of their condition will usually not just create a risk of rejection from the society, but from their friends, colleagues and possibly immediate family members. As the discussion of AIDS is such a taboo topic amongst family members and friends, understanding of AIDS becomes limited within the society.

Within understanding of AIDS - the transmission and the prognosis of the disease, it’s difficult for people to accept AIDS victims into the society. For instance - will you avoid a person who fell down and had some scratches? Will you avoid a person who lost his limps in an accident? Or perhaps something closer - will you avoid someone who caught… the common flu? Well, you might, but you understand how it can be spread and live in the comfort that even if you do catch the flu virus, you will just fall sick for a couple of days and then recover. You understand the consequences of getting flu… how it’s transmitted… and how bad it can get.

However, for AIDS, it’s almost an entirely different story. Most people do not understand how it can spread and thus may end up avoiding the AIDS victim like the plague. Some may even have fear sitting just next to them - fear that the virus would just jump and hop onto them and infecting them; but this is not true. AIDS can only be spread through direct blood contact where the HIV can "migrate" from one person to another. Think of blood as their rocket shuttle from the Earth to the Moon - that’s how HIV is being transmitted.

Perhaps there is not enough knowledge… perhaps there’s not enough publicity. However, you can make a difference. Just keep your mind and your hearts open. You’d never know when your friend may be an AIDS victim.

Why do you see me through tinted glasses?
It breaks my heart into a million pieces.
The day I knew I was positive,
all people around me turned negative.

Some of you think that I deserve it,
and so in your society I no longer fit.
But just like you I did not know,
so now my tears abundantly flow.

I had faith in my partner,
that he loved me and none other.
But the truth was revealed;
that one mistake and my fate’s been sealed.

Please don’t look at me through tinted glasses,
support me as I pick up my life’s broken pieces.

Anonymous

Yes, now that I have finished ranting about the stigmatisation of AIDS victims, I can talk about the event itself. Nuffnang and HPB has kindly arranged for this session for us to understand more about how the AIDS victim feel and what the avenues are for them. Although the emphasis is that they can still lead a normal, prolonged life, the truth is that the medication available for it is usually costly and not many can afford it. This session also provided an opportunity for many of us to experience how it is like to be stigmatised and left out of company through an interaction game that HPB has kindly arranged for the bloggers.

Overall, the experience was good (comes with good food too) and I hope all bloggers got the take home message that we should all keep our hearts and minds open to AIDS victims.

In a closed invitation preview, a group of bloggers were given a first-hand view of the HP 2133 Mini Note PC. Weighing no more than 1.3kg, which is probably half the weight of your phone book, and a size smaller than your foolscap pad, this new baby is probably beginning to win hearts over. When I laid hands on it, I was amazed by the sleekness of the notebook. I would have expected some features to be compromised, but I was so wrong.

By now, the HP Mini Note would have been widely reviewed by many bloggers, so I’d just highlight some things that amazed me… that you should also look out for.

The first thing that capture my eyes was how nicely the 8.9" LCD screen was nicely flushed with its awesome speakers. It fitted so nicely that it seems that I will no longer have to worry about dust getting stuck between the LCD screen and the plastic panel. In fact, the LCD is over fitted with a scratch resistant acrylic that will minimize any heartaches with that close brush with my house keys.

L-R: An overview of the HP Mini Note, The Right Profile of the notebook - here’s where you find one of the USB port as well as other network ports, The Left Profile of the notebook - here’s where you find the audio ports as well as the other USB port, The cover of the notebook - this is fitted with a Garskin, The front of the notebook - the blue light is the slider for power while the orange is the slider for Wifi radio

Still, I think I’d still get a screen protector for it.

The next thing that captured my attention was how feature packed the HP Mini Note is. Given it’s smaller than A4 size, it surprising how they managed to squeeze 9 ports and slots - including 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 Express Card slot into the machine. The HP Mini Note comes with 2 types of batteries - the 3 cell and 6 cell batteries, with the larger one purportedly to run for 4 hours. While the 3-cell battery lies flushed into the curves of the notebook, the 6-cell version comes with a protruding section that seems to fit nicely to raise the back of the notebook such that the keyboard is comfortably slanted to relief strain on your wrists from typing too long in a cramped and enclosed space.

If you think that a notebook lacking in this size is going to whine, you are so wrong. The 2 speakers aligned by the sides of its crystal clear LCD screen boasts audio of high-fidelity quality for a notebook of its size. Instead of stereo speakers that you have to strain your ears to listen to, it speaks right in front of you, in your face. In fact, given the noisiness of the surroundings of the bloggers’ preview, it’s surprising that I can still hear music playing from it. Imagine what i can do in a quieter environment.

Aesthetically, the HP Mini Note is pleasantly presented in a nice, plain top that gives the sleek and sophisticated feeling. If plain isn’t your cup of tea, HP has tied up with Garskins for customized skins that fit your HP Mini Note snuggly. They come in various designs and styles to fit your personality. Indeed, the HP Mini Note is not just a mobile work station. It’s about defining you.

L-R: Skin fitted onto the demo HP Mini Note PC, Difference skins from Garskins, Denim Jeans skin!

The power and wifi buttons are conveniently located at the front of the notebook and comes in the form of sliders. A slight push turns on the notebook as well as the Wifi radio. The HP Mini Note also has also moved away from convention by place the left and right mouse buttons on the left and right sides of the mousepad. While it is quite intuitive for me, it might take some getting used to for some people.

For a notebook of such specifications, one would expect to pay close to S$2000 to S$3000 for it. However, it comes at an extremely affordable price of $999 for it’s SuSE linux version and just about S$200 more and above for its Windows Vista cousins. The optional DVD writer comes at about S$400. One would start wondering if it’s competing for the same share of the market as the Asus Eee PC, but given it’s configuration, it really belongs to an entirely different market.

For the features packed into the HP Mini Note, it’s worth that S$999 for the SuSE version. It’s reported to come with 2.5G (GPRS), but this feature wasn’t brought to my attention during the launch. For more information, do drop by at http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/321957-321957-64295-321838-306995-3687084.html (note that prices are in US dollars).

Many would have thought that the first hint of good life in National Service (NS) came when the 2.5 years of compulsory service was reduced to 2 years. The truth is, good life started way before that; perhaps in the days that cookhouse food was outsourced to Singapore Food Industry (SFI), who happens to be responsible for snacks for events like National Day parades.

Rumours were aplenty that the reduction in the number of years to serve is due to the inbound service of sons of many affluent people - whose names shall not be mentioned here. However, Mindef attributed this to the advancement in technology, which enabled men to be more effective and efficient, resulting in the reduction of the number of years.

Now, it seems that NSF-to-be are in for a better time. There may no longer be range duties and specialists and officers may no longer have to worry about things going wrong at ranges. I am not sure if accountability of ammunition is left to the potential outsourced company, or are the soldiers still responsible for it. Imagine - no more hunting for shells, no more taking long senseless walks up and down the grounds… and no more worries of "IA! IA!"?

Oh wait! How about rifle cleaning? Hmm… =)

IN WHAT would be a first for the army, private companies could some day supervise soldiers as they practise gunning down targets at outdoor firing ranges.

Jobs such as issuing live bullets, counting scores and retrieving empty brass cartridges - duties traditionally borne by the army - may be outsourced, according to recently released documents.

While the Singapore Armed Forces has outsourced administrative tasks like cooking and cleaning, this would be the first time it has asked private companies to supervise shooting practices.

Details of the plan were contained in the ‘request for information’ issued last Monday by the agency that manages defence contracts for the Ministry of Defence (Mindef).

The Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) asked companies for quotes on how much it would cost to run a 100m rifle range at Safti, next to Pasir Laba Camp on the western edge of Singapore.

The range covers 16,150 sq m, about 1.5 times the size of a soccer field, and has 54 electronic targets. It is one of 16 outdoor shooting ranges used by the SAF for small arms live-firing practices, said the DSTA.

A DSTA spokesman told The Straits Times that the agency was exploring ways to ‘enhance the operation and maintenance of the outdoor rifle ranges’.

Though a formal tender may be some months away, outsourcing of non-core jobs is something the SAF has embraced since the 1970s.

For example, a manpower crunch in the 1980s led Mindef to outsource cookhouse duties to private contractors.

Mindef has also outsourced some cleaning tasks in SAF camps to private companies, as well as maintenance work for aircraft and vehicles.

The move to outsource firing-range duties would free up SAF personnel to spend more time on combat training.

A range session for a company-sized unit of about 130 soldiers needs 22 personnel to staff positions such as supervising officer, ammunition dispenser, sentry and medical orderly, said the DSTA.

The outsourcing could also open up new business opportunities for former soldiers. In its request for information, the agency said it preferred retired or operationally ready National Servicemen for the jobs.

dboey@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 13th April 2008 dated 10th April 2008