Yes, yesterday was the 15th April 2008 - the deadline for filing of income tax for Singaporean tax payers. It’s also the date stipulated for the closure of (just) another local blog. Well, I guess all good things must come to an end - and it’s probably just a matter of time. Although some of the last few posts yesterday was rather controversial - including… ahem, the one about one of the authors being rather pissed off about some other people, we at Simply Jean still think that it still ended with a bang. =)

To all the readers who supported us till today, we thank you. =)

*takes a bow*

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Ed: Did we hear fireworks?

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I can’t believe it. miccheng actually bought cheapestfoodgowhere.com and redirected it to his blog after my last post entry.

I am so damn bl**dy disgusted.

Would you want to know how much the wanton mee (ed: the dialect spelling for 云吞面 is actually supposed to be wonton instead of the omniscient wanton that we see everyday, unless of course the wonton is provocative; sorry, digress again) in your neighbourhood sells for? Not just the nearby coffee shop, but all the coffee shops in your neighbourhood. Wait, make that all the coffee shops in Singapore (Johor and some say Batam?).

While I’m sure the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) meant well… but if they are only going to compare on price, I wonder how effective it really will be, since stall owners can now cut down on quantity, or worse, quality - to give you that cheapest plate of wanton mee (sic) in your neighbourhood. At the end of the day, my take is that if the food is nice and price is reasonable, people will flock to your stall. Of course, having it cheap is a bonus, if not, then a reasonable price will do just as well.

And if the food is really good, but expensive, then it’ll just be a blue moon thing. Speaking of which, I’m hungry now… shucks…

FROM next month onwards, you can find out online just how much your favourite hawker dish should cost at your neighbourhood hawker centre or coffeeshop.

The Consumer Association of Singapore (Case)  will be publishing a survey of prices of food sold at cooked food stalls on its website next month, to help consumers make price comparisons.

Consumers can get data such as the average price of 10 popular dishes - from chicken rice to mee rebus in each neighbourhood.

The guide will also list the highest and lowest prices for each dish at stalls.

Over 30 mystery shoppers will visit stalls across the island for two weeks next month to carry out the survey.

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, president of Case, said this will not only give transparency to the prices and help consumers make better choices, but also deter hawkers from profiteering.

‘We don’t have an idea of how widespread profiteering is. This survey will give us an understanding of the magnitude of the problem,’ said Mr Yeo.

The consumer watchdog is concerned that some hawkers are raising prices as an excuse to cover higher costs of raw ingredients, such as rice and noodles.

This comes as the Ministry of Trade and Industry noted that more hawkers have raised their prices in the last two months.

Minister of Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan told Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao on Monday that 65 per cent of hawkers have maintained prices.

Two months ago, the ministry said it was 75 per cent.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry conducts price checks on 1,271 randomly chosen stalls in hawker centres and markets. Every two weeks, six to seven officers fan out to track price increases at these stalls.

Case has received 14 complaints on overcharging at hawker centres and coffeeshops since January, compared to 38 such calls for the whole of last year.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 15th April 2008

Has it ever occurred to you in your primary school days that your teacher could have been a pirate? No… no the Captain Hook kind of pirate, but rather pirates of exam papers from other schools. Remember the ad?

You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a mobile phone. You wouldn’t steal an exam paper. Exam paper piracy is stealing. Stealing is against the law. Piracy. It’s a crime.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the short clip, else I could link it here. Oh well.

Sorry, digressed.

Yes, it never once occurred to me in my primary school days that doing all the exam papers from other schools supported piracy. Of course, the ones that your teacher got it through friendly barter trading is probably alright. However, since I don’t exchange papers with other schools, I won’t know. Perhaps Miss Loi would know better? Is it illegal?

Pirated past exam papers now sold on CDs

FOR years, there has been a sizeable black market for old school exam papers, often a scholastic lifeline for students cramming for tests.

Now, the middlemen who illegally copy these papers have gone high-tech, offering their wares on CD for just a fraction of the hard-copy price.

Even though reproducing the papers amounts to copyright violation, these CDs are available in some bookshops and can also be ordered via e-mail, fax or SMS.

Despite warnings from the Education Ministry, some brazen sellers have even taken to passing out fliers touting these CDs that offer to ‘give your child a head start at school’ and help them ’score’.

With competition in schools becoming increasingly fierce, this is a problem that some educators said is not likely to go away.

‘It is very difficult to bring these vendors to task as there are so many…out there,’ said Nanyang Primary vice-principal Loh Yuh Por. ‘Also, the demand for such papers is high, so there will always be vendors who will come in to fill the gap.’

Covering subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science and Chinese, the CDs contain 10 to 12 papers from prominent schools such as Raffles Girls’ Primary, Tao Nan and Ai Tong. Sellers said there was a ready supply of the papers, which usually come from students.

The CDs cost as little as $28 for four subjects, compared to $50 to $70 for the print versions, according to checks by The Straits Times. They are typically hand-delivered to the customer within two to three working days.

Most of the sellers contacted by The Straits Times declined to comment. However, many parents have been buying the CDs for their children.

Mrs Z. Chong, a secretary in her 40s, ordered a CD for her son - who is in Primary 4 - after receiving a flier in her mailbox.

Speaking in Mandarin, she said: ‘With the CD, we can print the papers again for more practice till he gets all the answers right.’

Another parent, Madam Noraidah S., 37, who received copies from a friend, said the CDs took up less space than the bulky print copies.

‘You don’t have to keep the whole stack of papers at home and you can print what you want,’ added the housewife, who has two daughters aged eight and 10.

A seller, who wanted to be known only as Mr Koh, said the CDs have become popular because an increasing number of Singaporeans were tech-savvy.

‘The world has changed, so we have to change,’ said Mr Koh.

Declining to reveal details, he said he sells ‘a few hundred copies’ of the CDs near exam periods.

The Ministry of Education said the sale of illegally copied exam papers was intellectual property theft.

Schools can take the necessary action to assert their copyright over their own exam papers, said the ministry.

However, some schools seem to be taking a hands-off approach.

The principal of Raffles Girls’ Primary, Ms Tan Siok Cheng, said pursuing copycats would cost time that was better spent on other things.

‘Although it is an infringement of copyright and intellectual property, if other children benefit from it, it’s okay,’ said Ms Tan. ‘I’m happy that our papers are recognised to be of good quality. It stretches our teachers to set better papers.’

Ms Tan said, however, that she was concerned about the authenticity and cost of the illegally copied exam papers.

She added that her school had been exchanging papers with many other schools, but people who photocopy them should seek permission before hawking these tests.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 15th April 2008

At first read, I was wondering why the couple mentioned in the article were charged for sedition and undesired publications. If what was said in the news was true, then there’s no reason to charge the couple - unless giving evangelistic materials to someone of another religion is an offence. Then again… who gives evangelistic materials to someone of the same religion?

So I did a google on it. The closest terms that came up from the article was "The Little Bride". Still, I found nothing except this.

Apparently, this "little bride" article is some work by a guy called Jack Chick, whose past series of evangelical comics and cartoons had been controversial. Mr Wang noted that access to the latter’s materials are banned, so I won’t even attempt it.

Religion is becoming a touchy issue lately again. Actually it’s always been. However with this recent charge, I guess it’s about time people get cautious of what they are distributing. Trust me. Anything can become seditious.

A COUPLE were charged on Tuesday with distributing a seditious publication to two others.

Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 44, are alleged to have distributed The Little Bride, an evangelistic material, to Sembawang resident Irwan Ariffin last Oct 19.

They are also said to have distributed the same publication to one Madam Farharti Ahmad at her home in Woodlands on March 6 last year .

It is not clear why they face the Sedition Act and the Undesirable Publication Act when the publication is the same.

Ong, who works in a telecommunications company, and his wife, a bank employee, were represented by Mr Selva K. Naidu.

The police prosecutor sought an adjournment of the case pending a Health Sciences Authority on handwriting specimen.

The couple were freed on $10,000 bail each. Their passports were impounded.

The case will be mentioned on April 29.

Under the Sedition Act, the maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine and/or a jail term of up to three years.

The maximum penalty under the Undesirable Publication Act is a fine of up to $5,000 and/or up to 12 months.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 15th April 2008

Ok. Enough about gays, dykes and what-not-homosexuals. No voting people out, no against not voting people out and what not. Let’s talk about something that apparently a group of people like. BJs. Yes, BJs. I have never had a BJ before and when DK (oh, he’s going to kill me) found out, he was so surprised… so shocked. In fact, he was so shocked that he asked, "Are you sure you never had a BJ before?!?!" (Yes, the "?!?!" could be heard in his tone).

With pretty much a straight face, I affirmed that.

Well, for all those who joins me in this, perhaps shrinking league, I have the answer for all of you; and me included. There will be free BJs given out purportedly by a group of people, guys and girls. You want more info? For your eyes only… =)

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It all started with a couple buying off some cheap stuffs and reselling them on Yahoo (and other auction sites). Pretty simple economics, don’t you think so? Buy lots of goods at a good price and then reselling them at a higher price that people will pay for. Well, this proved to be quite a downfall for this couple. Apparently, the "goods" that the couple were selling online were counterfeit batteries of Nokia brand, the origin of which is unknown to the couple. All the couple knew was just to order the goods and reselling them.

No doubt the goods seemed to cheap to be real, but these could jolly well be refurbished batteries; just like how any other person look for cheaper refurbished stuffs as replacement for the more expensive first hand ones. So… the moral of the story? To just keep cheap stuffs for yourself. The worst that can happen is a… spoilt phone, in this case.

THE ordinary working-class couple knew at the back of their minds that there was something suspect about the Nokia batteries and other mobile phone accessories that they were reselling online.

But with a profit margin just too handsome to be ignored, it was easy to put their doubts aside. The party ended when their four-room HDB flat in Sembawang was raided for violating Nokia’s trademark last December.

The batteries they had been selling, which bear Nokia logos, were actually counterfeits.

The phone company, which seized 58 fake batteries and 11 other accessories, settled out of court with the couple last Wednesday. The details of the settlement were confidential. Nokia declined to say how it had caught the couple.

Mr Loh, 42, a Malaysian-born Singapore permanent resident, said he had been buying and selling items such as toys via sites like Yahoo Auctions and eBay for several months. By chance, he came across a Malaysian supplier of cheap ‘Nokia’ batteries and other accessories on Malaysian auction site Lelong (Malay for sale).

As these products were easy to transport to Singapore and offered a good profit margin, he decided to sell them instead, he said.

The Lohs’ household income is ‘under $5,000′, said Mrs Loh, a 42-year-old Singaporean who works in the medical industry.

The couple began buying the batteries for ‘about $6 each’ from the supplier.

Mr Loh would make payment via online banking to the supplier’s Maybank Internet banking account, and the supplier - whom he claimed he never met - would then courier the batteries to his mother’s Johor Baru home.

The couple would pick up the supplies on their monthly visits to Mr Loh’s mother, and then sell the items online via Yahoo’s auction site for $9 to $14 apiece - a significant discount when compared with real Nokia batteries, which can cost about $50.

At those prices, it worked up to an easy profit margin of between 50 and 133 per cent for the Lohs.

Mr Loh admitted that he suspected something was wrong with the goods, and had even gone as far as asking his supplier via e-mail if they were counterfeits. The supplier, he said, refused to give a straight answer and would say only that the batteries were ‘compatible’. He said he could not recall how many batteries he had sold before Nokia came knocking on his door.

‘I didn’t know it was so serious…It was just for some extra money,’ he said.

CHUA HIAN HOU

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 14th April 2008

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