The movers, streamers and creeper ,,, all turn out to face the same main pitfalls: a misplaced faith in network effects, low barriers to entry and a dependence on someone else’s platform.
https://www.economist.com/business/2022/10/31/what-went-wrong-with-snap-netflix-and-uber
Related post: Renewables thrashed Revenge of the old economy
Japanese consumers are tua kee for it seems
It’s alleged that Foshan Haitian Flavouring & Food ‘s
products sold in Japan have simpler ingredients and no preservatives.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/chinas-soy-sauce-star-suffers-premium-downgrade-2022-10-12/
Chinese netizens are not happy with the company which has 20% of the Chinese soya sauce market.
It mealy mouthy says
the accusations as a smear campaign. It says it complies with relevant food safety rules and stressed that food additives are common and don’t imply inferior quality.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/chinas-soy-sauce-star-suffers-premium-downgrade-2022-10-12/
Investors are selling. It has lost about US$8 billion, or 15%, of its market value in recent days.
FT looked at two dozen Chinese billionaires and found the crackdown has cost the tech guys US$87bn since 1 July,
Look at this and decide.
The digital finance opportunity is huge. A joint survey from Alphabet-owned Google, Temasek and Bain & Company found that over a third of e-commerce consumers in the region’s top six economies only started to use online services because of the pandemic and over 90% plan to stick with their new habit. The same report forecast online payment transactions will rise 15% to $1.2 trillion by 2025, up from $620 billion in 2020.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-banks-breakingviews/breakingviews-grab-ceo-will-step-into-2021s-tech-limelight-idUSKBN28V09K
In particular, think the opportunity to handle the remittances of FTs particularly the Indon and Pinoy maids. then the Indian FT and Bangladeshi FTs. Singtel has as associates telcos in Indon, PinoyLand and India. SingTel is oversold: go buy some. I own some shares.
(Btw, read the above link because it gives a glowing picture of the prospects for Grab. S’pore’s the cash cow for Grab after Uber surrendered.)
FYI, how FT reported the award of the digital banking licenses:
Singapore has finalised the award of digital banking licenses to four operators this month. In picking Sea, Ant Group and a consortium between Grab and Singapore Telecommunications as three of the license winners, Singapore is harnessing some of the region’s biggest tech names.
“We expect the speed of innovation of the new digital banks to strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading financial hub in the region,” said Paul Ng, financial services lead for south-east Asia at Accenture.
The move could help boost digital financial services in south-east Asia (see chart). Online lending is expected to grow fourfold between 2020 and 2025, to $92bn, while online investment assets are set to increase to $84bn from $21bn over the same period.
FT
FYI, SingTel, Hong Leong will get digital bank licences
India has banned 43 more Chinese apps, including Alibaba’s online shopping site AliExpress. The Electronics and Information Technology ministry said the apps were blocked for “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to [the] sovereignty and integrity of India”. More than 200 apps have been banned since relations with China deteriorated in June.
FT
I hope Modi and his Electronics and Information Technology minister know that Alibaba invested in Indian payments company Paytm and food delivery start-up Zomato, while Tencent invested in education app Byju’s and fantasy sports platform Dream11.
The cunning Chinese could have installed spyware and malware in these Indian apps to fix India? Remember how the British conquered India? There were Indians happy to be paid “peanuts” help the British East India Co.
Related post: Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China?
The UN Economic Commission for Africa reports downloading a five-gigabyte film in Ethiopia or the Democratic Republic of Congo can take between 12 and 14 hours, versus just over 11 minutes in S’pore.
“We’re the only network in the world that doesn’t have a single Chinese component,” India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani told Trump recently knowing that while Trump is doing his best to cripple Huawei, US allies like the UK are determined to use Huawei components in non-sensitive areas because they are cheap, reliable and cutting-edge.
Mukesh Ambani was talking about his Jio mobile network. He’s been rewarded what with Facebook and three other major US investors buying stakes in Hio.
Nehru must be spinning in his coffin. He was determined to build a socialist paradise, not an India that US investors want to invest in. He was a dreamy socialist from a rich family, not the son of a tea seller.
Meanwhile, Huawei said yesterday that the latest US export rules to limit its access to key technology are “arbitrary and pernicious”, warning investors the restrictions would “inevitably” hurt its business, and could damage the global technology industry.
To keep speeds up, the UK’s media watchdog Ofcom has compiled a list of tips to get the most from your internet. From a BBC article (link below):
‘Don’t use the microwave’
The advice ranges from the seemingly obvious, like downloading films in advance rather than streaming them when someone else may be trying to make a video call, to the less expected.
“Did you know that microwave ovens can also reduce wi-fi signals?”…
“So don’t use the microwave when you’re making video calls, watching HD videos or doing something important online.”
It suggests positioning your internet router as far as possible from other devices that may interfere with the signal.
Those devices include: cordless phones, baby monitors, halogen lamps, dimmer switches, stereos and computer speakers, TVs and monitors.
Ofcom also advises making calls on a landline where possible, citing an increase in the demand on mobile networks.
“If you do need to use your mobile, try using your settings to turn on wi-fi calling,” …
“Similarly, you can make voice calls over the internet using apps like Facetime, Skype or WhatsApp.”
… disconnecting devices that are not in use.
“The more devices attached to your wi-fi, the lower the speed you get,” …
“Devices like tablets and smartphones often work in the background, so try switching wi-fi reception off on these when you’re not using them.”
Other tips include:
— Place your router on a table or shelf rather than on the floor, and keep it switched on— If you’re carrying out video calls or meetings, turning the video off and using audio will require much less of your internet connection
— Try starting those calls at less common times, rather than on the hour or half hour
— For the best broadband speeds, use an ethernet cable to connect your computer directly to your router rather than using wifi
— Where possible, try not to use a telephone extension lead, as these can cause interference which could lower your speed
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52027348?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology&link_location=live-reporting-story
In Peenemünde,
in October 1942, German engineers sat in a control room watching a television screen. It showed live, close-up images of a prototype weapon on its launch pad some 2.5km (1.5 miles) away. On another screen, with a wide-angle view, they saw the weapon surge skywards.
The test had succeeded. They were looking at something that would shape the future – but perhaps not in the way they imagined.
First time CCTV was used.
The pictures in that control room were the first example of a video feed being used not for broadcasting, but for real-time monitoring, in private – over a so-called “closed circuit”.
Television engineer Walter Bruch devised a way for the senior officers, and scientists to monitor the launches from a safe distance.
And that was wise, because the first V2 they tested did indeed blow up, destroying one of Bruch’s cameras.
Exactly how popular Bruch’s brainchild has now become is tricky to pin down. One estimate, a few years old, puts the number of surveillance cameras around the world at 245 million – that is about one for every 30 people. Another reckons there will soon be over twice that number in China alone.
BS in action and wasted productivity.
“Experts” are asking how the new digital banks can really differentiate themselves. They say market is already well served by big financial institutions who have good digital banking services.
These “experts” don’t know how the local banks work. Yes they have good digital services but only on paper.
I’ll highlight a major failing of the big three local banks and HSBC. (They, StanChart and MayBank dominate retail banking. I don’t know much about the last two’s digital banking services. But i don’t think they willing to go against the grain.)
The fixed deposit (FD) rates that HSBC and the three local banks are offering online are BS. If you use their online systems to put money into FD accounts, you get screwed.
They whisper to customers over the counter that you really must go down to the branch to get the best FD rates. It’s peanuts but the online rates are atom-sized peanuts.
Worse, when want to renew, still got to go down to the branch to get the best rates. WTF.
As I recently asked a bank customer service officer “Why go digital, when the customer has to come down to the branch to get the so-called best rate? Buggeration at work”
She juz giggled.
Whatever, try avoid using FD deposits. Best: Using yr CPF OA as a savings account. But as can withdraw only once a year, so FD deposits still needed.
(Amended to reflect change if CPF rules after I last took out money before my birthday last year. 45 Feb 2020 at 1.30 pm)
Of course one can buy dividend paying shares, or Reits and hope the prices don’t collapse.
Pinduoduo (China’s fastest-growing ecommerce site) posted 123% sales growth in its latest quarter, narrowly missing market expectations. Its losses unexpectedly more than doubled, and shares were down 22% in early trading.
“When numbers are really beautiful, it will usually mean . . . we were being too conservative,” said Pinduoduo founder and chief executive Colin Zheng Huang, FT reports. Btw, he owns 44.6% of the co and 89% of the voting power.
He claims Alibaba is asking retailers to choose between the his co or Alibaba.
The day after Dr Chee’s Coalition of the Spastics win the 2019 GE, will one Shanmugam will go tv and radio to explain why he ordered the closing of the internet?
Internet is very important, it has brought about technological convergence.
It eases communication and facilitates trade when we use it properly.
Internet is not water, internet is not air
However, if we use it as a revolution tool to incite others to kill and burn, it will be shut down not only for a week, but longer than that.
How Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed justified the government’s right to shut down the internet, saying it is done to save lives.
Related posts (Added minutes just after first publication:
Paper generals: Don’t forget social media
More on when there is a freak election result
Freak election result? No worries MM
“Freak election” training manual for SAF’s paper generals? And us 40% S’poreans too?
Recently, I had to reorganise my HSBC bank accounts: closing one, and opening another with access to e-trading.
One of the things that resulted from the reorganisation was that I had to move the giro deductions for property tax to the new account. I decided instead to move it to an existing historical account in OCBC because because it and DBS were the only two banks that allowed me to do set up a giro account with IRAS via the internet. Yes UOB does not have this privilege (Wonder why? After all Wong Kum Seng is the chairman and the previous chairman was Temasek’s president. Its finech and e-banking is rubbish?), and so using HSBC entailed downloading a form (I don’t have a printer), filling it in, and posting it.
But there were a few things I needed first to clarify with the IRAS. I was pretty depressed about calling the IRAS up because of my really bad experiences with SingPass: SingPass sucks, really sucks (Cont’d) and SingPass technical support versus that of OCBC and HSBC
But I was very pleasantly surprised. Getting thru to an officer was a breeze (Getting to talk to a bank officer via the help line is so bothersome).
And the officer was really helpfully, even telling me things I hadn’t tot about.
Fyi, I’m told Li Hongyi is responsible for SingPass. If so
Li Hongyi got a lot to do before he is PM material. And grandpa and GCT didn’t set the bar very high for Hongyi’s pa did they?
Minister Shan recently outed a M’sian Indian based outside KL proper, as the star writer of Terry’s Online Channel. Until then, based on her name, I tot she was an India-based Indian. TOC: A lot of bull. Btw, seems another writer with Indian-sounding name is also M’sian.
Hello? Hello? Other than Terry, any S’poreans writing for TOC?
Whatever
The “T” in FT can stand for “Talent” not “Trash” who beat up S’poreans if TOC is to be believed. Don’t listen to the foreigners who write for TOC: TOC: A lot of bull.
At least FTs work here and pay GST and other taxes. Terry’s team work overseas. And TOC and its cybernut readers criticise the PAP govt for allowing in FTs?
Waz really funny is that Terry once upon a time upset Philemon Ravi by calling TISG “a bunch of Indians”. P Ravi was then the editor of TISG, a publication better known as “The Idiots, S’pore”. P Ravi must be chuckling that Terry’s star writers are Indians.
Whatever, P Ravi now knows that Terry is no racist, and we, that he like PAP: want cheap labour.
Seriously, waz really black comedy at its blackest and funniest is him using foreigners when he KPKBs about govt’s FT policy and how it hurts S’poreans. At least FTs pay taxes and rent, and spends money here benefiting the economy. His foreign writers spend Terry’s money overseas.
A pro-PAP site put it this way
“Let us be clear: there’s nothing wrong with hiring Malaysian or foreign writers to write critically about Singapore. If they wanna write about how S’poreans are arrogant, we’ll wholeheartedly support that…What’s not right is when you dish out xenophobic articles criticising foreigners working in S’pore but in the same breath hire foreigners.”
SMRT Feedback
(Btw, Idiots S’pore also use foreigner I’m told. TRE doesn’t. TeamTRE is headed by a S’porean based in China. They slog for a bunch of ingrate readers not willing to fund them, and who always KPKBing for bad service, but always coming back because free lor.)
I’ll be fair and let Terry or rather a TOC writer (S’porean?) have the penultimate word:
Responding to Mr Shanmugam’s fiery statement, Terry asserts that all articles published on TOC are directed and subsequently approved by him as the Chief Editor.
“Nothing goes unvetted by me, a Singaporean who has served his national service and held responsible by the Ministry of Communication and Information as the registered person in charge,” said Terry.
“If one is to observe the series of Facebook posts and now, the Law Minister comments, one can easily come to a conclusion that there is a collaborated campaign to discredit TOC.”
He then went on to address the debate on hiring foreign persons, saying, “To the best of my recollection, there is no law against hiring person of foreign nationality and TOC has not used nor received any foreign funding. So what is the Law Minister barking about?”
TOC’s Kathleen F (Another M’sian-based M’sian Indian writer?)
Sorry TOC, SMRT Feedback is right, “What’s not right is when you dish out xenophobic articles criticising foreigners working in S’pore but in the same breath hire foreigners.”
Look at the group photo here (See who attended TOC’s do) and wonder who else are hypocrites.
WeChat has 1.1bn users in China (Peanuts round the rest of the world including HK), but Facebook has long outgrown the US market to boast 2.3bn* users worldwide according to Matt Sheehan at MacroPolo. He has been looking at the quality of data collection and analysis in China and the US and compares the capabilities of the US and China.
*2.4bn as of June.
Trax, a US$1.1bn S’pore-based start-up, is bringing together data from in-store cameras and a new mobile app, which guides shoppers to purchases, to try to bolster high street stores. FT Joel Bar-El is CEO and co-founder.
It installs cameras on shop shelves to monitor how goods are placed, while its customer-facing apps let shoppers do market research and help retailers understand how they react to price and promotions.
Trax has just bot Shopkick Californian shopping rewards app for an undisclosed fund.
The “T” in FT can stand for “Talent” not “Trash” who beat up S’poreans if TOC is to be believed. Don’t listen to the foreigners who write for TOC: TOC: A lot of bull.
At least FTs work here and pay GST and other taxes. Terry’s team work overseas. And TOC and its cybernut readers criticise the PAP govt for allowing in FTs?
Artificial intelligence is already so deeply embedded in our lives that we don’t notice it according to Amy Webb, a professor of strategic foresight at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of “The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity”.
We juz don’t notice it “because we mindlessly use it every single day as we like and share stories, send emails and texts, speak to machines and allow ourselves to be nudged,” she says.
Don’t believe her? FB’s automated “M suggestions” claims more than 100m people interact it with each month.
Btw, the 9 are Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Apple from the US of A, and .Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent from China.
Amy Webb
Indonesia is really the place to be in e-commerce.
And Temasek is there: Indonesia: Temasek, Google & McKinsey singing from the same page
As is GIC via Bukalapak: an e-commerce unicorn: https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/18/bukalapak-raises-50m/
Btw, Go-Jek where Temasek has a stake has big plans in Thailand and Vietnam, as does Grab (where Temasek also has a stake).
(Part of an occasional series)
About two months ago, TOC, other cybernut publications, social media cybernuts and even a ex-wannabe IB member* living in Finland on welfare were up in arms over the constructive, nation-building MSM’s reports on S’pores top ranking in the Save the Children’s Global Childhood Report.
I was wondering why they were upset until I read in the FT recently
Reasons to be cheerful Singapore is the top country for taking care of its children, according to Save the Children’s Global Childhood Report. More children all over the world are surviving past their fifth birthday than at any time in the last twenty years; more than ever before eat well enough to avoid stunting; more are in education; and more are safe from violence.
The PAP govt in the alternative but parallel universe these anti-PAP types live in cannot do anything gd for S’poreans. So when reality intrudes, they get upset and fake the news. Why? Read Terry Xu and cybernuts are really PAPpies
*He and ex-ST wannabe Seth Lord turned wannabe Jedi, its alleged wanted more than going rate to be part of IB but were allegedly told off to bugger off because mothership was better than them and wasn’t demanding as much money as them. He had to migrate to Finland, his wife’s country, because that’s the only way his kids can have a good but free education. In S’pore, they could only make it to “Every school a good school” neighbourhood school. And, the parents couldn’t afford to send them to the int’l schools here.
Interesting post: How to make a school good?
Further to Fake news the TOC way/ History is very complicated, TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit? and Why TOC’s Danisha Hakeem is a menace to the credibility of alt media, here’s more on how TOC does fake news.
A Singaporean man, who is a retired teacher and a well-known musician, is suing Malaysia’s Immigration Department for RM2.67 million over his 37-day detention in an over-crowded and badly-maintained cell.
Puis Gilbert Louis, who will turn 68 next month, said that his nightmare started when the immigration officers raided his house in Johor Bahru on 9 October 2018 and arrested him.
Based on his statement of claim filed by his lawyer Arun Kasi, the man who owns a valid visa to be in Malaysia until 2 November 2018, was in the house with four other individuals, and one of them was his female friend from the Philippines who also holds a valid visa.
However, the additional three people in the house were friends of his Filipino friend and he is unaware of their origin or their immigration status.
…
TOC
What TOC doesn’t tell us is that Gilbert Louis has a history of violence against others that he claims were caused by an ISD-inplant. In particular, he was jailed for six yrs for assaulting his then-wife’s lawyer. She wanted a divorce but he claimed that the lawyer instigated the divorce: so he beat up the lawyer (a lady, I think).
He also has a history of mental illness, although he denies that there’s anything wrong with him. He says the ISD fixes him via the implant: This fan should join Ravi in Woodbridge.
Last week, TOC and its fellow anti-PAP cybernuts discredited themselves thrice over with the voters the Oppo needs to win over in any general election (the PAP voters who voted for Tan Cheng Bock in PE 2011 who but for TKL, Goh Meng Seng and Tan Jee Say would have been president: really fixing the PAP).
TOC, using Vietnamese and Cambodian state media reports (Vietnam did not invade Cambodia as claimed by PM, these reports screamed) as their source material, pictured PM as getting his history wrong. The cybernuts went into overdrive dissing PM’s lack of knowledge of the “liberation” of Cambodia by Vietnam.
When the complicated truth emerged on cyberspace, showing that TOC and friends were propagating fake news, TOC and the cybernuts changed tack. They then said PM should not have upset the people of Vietnam and Cambodia with his comments. Example:
Sivakumaran Chellappa … there was absolutely no need to mention what he should know clearly to be a diplomatic minefield. He could of course have had continued to maintain his stand on that matter without ever mentioning it.
When this didn’t wash with the target audience, they changed the conversation accusing those who disagreed with their view of history of calling them “traitors” (There were some PAP nutters, the PAP version of TOC and cybernuts, using the “t” word, but not enough to tar people like me who disagree with TOC’s and the cybernuts’ view that Vietnam liberated Cambodia): when they were juz patriotic S’poreans who believed in the truth.
Truth, what truth? Their truth was to swallow uncritically what the Vietnamese and Cambodian state media said. Why are they so uncritical of the state media of really repressive regimes? Because these media attack the PM and his PAP govt? (Related post “Licking the ass of the enemy of my enemy”)
Calvin Cheng got it about right when he posted on FB
I wonder why so many anti-Government people are willing to take the side of foreigners, during this storm in a teacup regarding PM Lee’s remarks on Vietnam and Cambodia.
The issue is actually very simple.
Did Vietnam invade Cambodia?
Yes.
Whether you invade to liberate (Current Vietnam and Cambodian point of view) or invade to set up a puppet Government (the prevailing view then), it’s still an invasion right ?
Why is Vietnam angry?
Because they don’t want to be called invaders.
Why is Cambodia angry ?
Because PM Hun Sen was one of the 7 central committee members in the pro-Vietnam Government that Vietnam set up. If he admits it’s an invasion, then he is a collaborator with invaders. So he can never say it was an invasion, but rather he was a Cambodian patriot who came to power with Vietnamese help.
Did the Vietnamese invasion stop a murderous regime, that of Pol Pot?
Yes.
But if the international community back then allowed Vietnam to invade Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge on the basis of ‘liberation’, what was to stop communist Vietnam from invading Thailand to liberate them from the bourgeoisie capitalists ? And then Malaysia? And then Singapore?
That’s why ASEAN had to oppose it on principle. Even if the consequences in Cambodia were benign.
Who says choices in international relations are easy ?
Finally, why did PM Lee mention it when writing a condolence note for Thai Gen Prem?
Because that was one of Gen Prem’s biggest achievements – staring down the Vietnamese across the border and opposing them, knowing that his country could be next.
So that’s a simple summary of the issues.
No need to write long op-eds and posts to over-complicate.
Just silly opportunists looking to obfuscate, confuse, and to make people angry with PM Lee.
When I said Calvin Cheng was a dickhead
Riposte to Calvin Cheng’s defence of UA
Calvin, Amos & other cyber-vermin: the global perspective
Why MLC has to talk about Calvin
When I agreed with him
When being a minister turns from a calling into a job for life
Kee Chiu Cybernuts who want to migrate to Bangladesh
HIV data leak: Calvin Cheng is right again
All in all, TOC is proving to be a better friend of the PAP then even TKL, TJS and Meng Seng. TOC is a really useful idiot. or maybe Terry and his TOC team are as mad as M Ravi, when he’s not taking his medicine? More evidence that being anti-PAP is bad for yr mental health
But first, HSBC is boosting the headcount of its wealth management team in Asia. The focus is here, where the banks says it will launch new digital initiatives this year.
The bank should ensure that staff are trained in PR as well in the technical details. I have e-banking accounts with OCBC and HSBC. The OCBC staff are not that good in technical support as the HSBC staff, who really know their stuff. But when it comes to telling client about the features, the OCBC staff are really great.
As for SingPass support, what can I say? I had another bad experience yesterday. Gal hadn’t a clue. Worse gal never called back despite promising to call back later in the day: still waiting. Btw, a tech mole helped me solve the problem I had, a problem caused by the SingPass system. I’ll provide details later this week.
But for now, I can use SingPass: no thanks to the staff or the system.
Related post: SingPass sucks, really sucks (Cont’d)
I have yet to receive my new one-time password, despite KPKBing last Monday and doing the necessaries: SingPass sucks, really sucks (Cont’d)
But to be really fair, Wednesday was a public holiday, and SingPass promises a response within five working days. If by this evening, I don’t get my password via the post, I go KPKBing tomorrow morning. Doubtless Singpost will be blamed.
Juz use Radar (Reporters and Data and Robots). Stories generated by the semi-automated news agency often make the front page of local newspapers in the UK, FT reports.
Given that most of our constructive, nation-building media’s reports are copy and paste of the PAP govt’s and its agencies, or corporate releases, do we really still need that many zombies?
Further to SingPass sucks, really sucks (where I explained that I was given an invalid one-time password by SingPass to reset the password of my dormant, unused SingPass account) when I called the SingPass call centre this morning, what I was told had my blood pressure up to 180/100.
I was told that I could not have been given the password I was given because it was all numeric: it should be alpha numeric. I was then told that it would take another 10 days before I could use my SingPass account. Of course, it was explained, I could go down to the Marine Parade SingPass counter and sort the issue out on the spot: which defeats the purpose of a digital nation, doesn’t it?
The Chinese (local or M’sian, I’m not sure) gal could also not answer my question, “What assurance do I have that the single-use password I will given again, is not rubbish: like the one sent to me?”
I demanded to talk to someone more senior. It took 10 minutes before someone dared pick up the phone. The Malay lady who came to my assistance assured me (after receiving my reset request digitally), that there should not be a mistake this time in the password provided (Let’s wait and see) and that by next Monday, I should be able to use SingPass to do stuff (Let’s wait and see). I also found out that one-time password can be all numeric.
Says a lot about quality of staff training, that I was given wrong info.
Morocco Mole (Secret Squirrel’s sidekick) assures me that his second cousin removed working in SingPass tells him that a true-blue anti-PAP cybernut working in IT forgot to ensure that when the password was sent to me that the system would accept it. Has happened before because the cybernut spends almost all his working time reading TOC, TRE and The Idiots, and posting comments on these sites.
I ‘ve been making the move to the e-age. I’ve activated or setup e-banking systems (Tot of finally voting for the PAP govt because of the free (so far) same day funds transfer) etc.
As a final step, I decided to reactivate my SingPass. As I had forgotten my password, I applied for and got a new one-time password so that I can reset my password.
Guess what? Earlier this morning, I tried to log in with the SingPass given password. Cannot get in.
I wasted half an hour retrying (maybe my typo mistake or I went to wrong login page). Called call centre and it only works during office hrs.
Got to wait until Monday morning to sort out what went wrong at SingPass’s end. I think someone didn’t change the password.
Li Hongyi got a lot to do before he is PM material. And grandpa and GCT didn’t set the bar very high for Hongyi’s pa did they?
S’pore has begun a public consultation on proposed changes to its Personal Data Protection Act.
There are also proposed changes to allow a business to use personal data for business innovation purposes without needing consent.
FT quotes Anne Petterd, a principal at Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow, a law firm
Data protection? What data protection?
Related post: Welcome to S’pore: Mall BSing on data protection law
When TRE republished in part* Why PAP should juz ban Facebook, there was this comment on a comment that had me smiling: the emphasis is mine.
TRE also never report:
TRE also never highlight LHY son’s same sex marriage in S africa, at least evening chinese newspaper reported.all things, humans or animals, as long as not pap, are good things.
since Mr Lee Hsien Yang is not pap, WTF is there a need to report?
things worth reporting are lky clown prints lying cheating and lky clown prints wife lying cheating and lky clown prints sons daughters gays lesbians.
as long as not pap, no need to report since it is ok.
as long as it is pap, must report since it is NEVER ok.
ffff. wake up. this is 21st century 2019 pap corrupted Singapore.
This
as long as not pap, no need to report since it is ok.
reminded me of what I recently wrote
Today the PAP and the constructive, nation-building media believe that if it isn’t reported, a fact doesn’t exist.
Sad that ), and other anti-PAP paper warriors believe the same.
The PAP has won.
*It omitted my links to other related posts (which I included because they gave a lot of background info on the topic), but I’ll let this incident go without KPKBing. I had given permission to reproduce my pieces in full. If TeamTRE members wanted to omit or edit anything, they should check with me, not suka suka do what they like. But as they are really hard working people who provide a service to a bunch of ingrates, I’ll let this pass, this time.
Many Chinese surveillance cameras are fitted with artificial intelligence including facial recognition technology, and some can read simple faces, or can estimate age, ethnicity and gender.
There are more than 170 million surveillance cameras and the country has plans to install a further 400 million by 2020.
(Alternative title: “Why TOC and other anti-PAP sites never reported HK MRT trains’ collisions?”)
After I wrote TOC: A lot of bull
(where I reported that Terry had revealed that he employed foreigners to write for TOC because they were cheaper than true blue S’poreans, a lot cheaper)yesterday, I remembered another example where TOC and Terry behaved like PAPpies, not talking about news that diverts from the “right” view. TOC (and to be fair, otheranti-PAP alt media sites) didn’t tell S’poreans that a few months ago there was a very serious incident on HK’s MRT: shumething that never ever happened here.
Two subway trains have collided during a new signal system test in Hong Kong, halting services and threatening travel disruption for millions of commuters.
The incident occurred between the Central and Admiralty stations before the service was open to the public early on Monday morning.
…
Rail officials warned that repairs were likely to take “quite a long time”.
Network operator Mass Transit Railway (MTR) said sections of the Tsuen Wan Line had been suspended and urged commuters to avoid the route affected and to use other forms of transport if possible.
Looks like Terry’s and other anti-PAP types brains are like that of the PAP: when the public doesn’t know a fact, that fact never exists. Their readers will have no doubts that the our MRT system sucks when compared to that of HK’s.
Actually even with this HK cock-up, the HK system is a lot better. So why didn’t the anti-PAP publications not report the accident?
In 2011, I analysed a senior PAPpy’s and his team’s unhappiness with a TOC report.
[T]hey must believe in an 18th century philosophical theory that is now treated as a forerunner of the concept of “subjective idealism”. One Bishop Berkeley argued that there are no material objects, only minds and ideas in those minds. He summarised his theory with the motto “esse est percipi” (“To be is to be perceived”). In modern PR-speak, this translates into,“Perception is reality”, one of the major tenets of the PR and public communication industry.
This theory of “Perception is reality” is best summarised in the following example he gave. If a tree in a forest falls, but no-one sees or hears it fall, has it fallen? Berkeley argues that it has not fallen. It is still standing.
An example in the S’pore context would be that S’poreans were not aware of how close the voting would be on polling day in 1988 in Eunos GRC and in Cheng San GRC in 1991. The mainstream media did not report the sentiment on the ground in these two GRCs, so S’poreans were not aware that many S’poreans were unhappy with the PAP. The unhappiness did not exist because it was not reported.
https://atans1.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/%E2%80%9Clittle-disappointment%E2%80%9D-tony-tan-to-toc/
In Silence of SMRT, LTA & MoT explained,I wrote the following about Traingate
SMRT, the LTA and MoT kept quiet because they like Bishop Berkeley believe that “Perception is reality”. So long as the public did not know that there were cracks in the 26 China-made trains, and that the trains had been returned for repairs, there were no train cracks. There were no cracked trains because If a tree in a forest falls, but no-one sees or hears it fall, has it fallen? Berkeley argues that it has not fallen. It is still standing.
What they still don’t realise that in this age of social media and the internet where many people walk around with smartphone cameras, If a tree in a forest falls, someone will see it or hear it fall. And tell others about the falling tree, after taking a selfie beside the fallen tree.
This being the case, disclosure of problems or cock-ups, not cover-ups or silence should be the best (and default) policy for the authorities and corporations They should assume that news of the cock-up or problem will become public knowledge and that by disclosing, the news agenda can, hopefully, be controlled..
But in one-party states, silence or cover-up are the default options, not disclosure. And this is the weakness of one-party states where people carry smartphone cameras. The one-party state will, in time, be undermined.
Ban smartphone cameras PAP? After all internet access for public servants will soon be restricted in this wired, connected nation.
Today the PAP and the constructive, nation-building media believe that if it isn’t reported, a fact doesn’t exist.
Sad that ), and other anti-PAP paper warriors believe the same.
The PAP has won.
Hali’s welcome by the Chinese reminded me that the Chinese have an app that will help Heng and other 4G leaders keep S’pore a one-party state, like China:
— Keeping power in a one-party state
— Would this happen in a one-party state?
Seriously, like China, S’pore is concerned about terrorists. An app is being used in Xinjiang to keep China safe from the coreligionists of Hali and TRE’s bapak (Note bapak not Bapak).
—————————————————
bapak not Bapak
Btw, Morocco Mole, Secret Squirrel’s sidekick, told me that his second cousin removed working in the ISD alleges that TRE took down its republication of Watain ban: playing the easily offended game can backfire when it was threatened with suicide denial of service attacks by Jihadist Jills and Joes from bapak’s harem. (note bapak not Bapak.) Seriously, they told TRE that the first paragraph was so offensive and could get TRE into trouble with the law. Well, the original article still stands despite Harder Truths saying he’d report me: lying as usual. Or maybe, I got good ISD connections?
———————————————————
According to Human Rights Watch, predictive policing in Xinjiang comes in the form of a smartphone app, with access to data about citizens’ religion, travel history, family connections and more. Those deemed suspicious by the algorithm may potentially be taken into custody. Sounds a good thing to have in the war against terrorism.
But according to human rights activists (They not scared of being bombed or knifed is it?) this app represents a deeply disturbing scenario in which government repression and mass surveillance intersect because itpulls down data from mobile phones to build up encyclopedic knowledge of those it tracks in China.
S’pore is between Nigeria and Brazil at US$3.24 based on data from https://www.valuechampion.sg/are-singaporeans-overpaying-their-mobile-plans
Vote wisely.
That’s my take after
Nas: 2000, Terry: 200+
The KPKBing about the so-called draconian effects of the pending law on fake news in cyberspace and social media is really, juz “noise”, if only 200 plus S’poreans turned up at TOC’s rally against the bill last Sunday.
NAS’s crowd the previous Saturday at his”S’pore’s a great place” would amount to 24,000 in a city in the UK or 120,000 in the US, while TOC’s crowd last Sunday amounted to 2,400 or 12,000 in the US. (How calculations made: Pink Dot: Why was govt spooked?/ Pastor Khong try matching the numbers)
The masses have spoken by their absence, voting with their absent feet: so progressives and their cybernut allies should sit down and shut up. .
So cut out the BS, anti-PAP progressives and their anti-PAP cybernut allies, especially those ranting on TRE, social media and TOC.
As I wrote last Sunday before Terry’s do:
Whatever, if the progressives and their cybernut allies cannot muster a decent crowd of about 1,000 people, time to sit down and shut up, and stop talking down to the 70% of the voters who vote for the PAP at GEs. They should be trying to persuade those who voted for Tan Cheng Bock at last PE (35% of voters) that they are right, rather than juz diss the PAP.
The law of politics:
You either have the numbers or you shut up.
(Tito Mboweni, ANC freedom fighter who became cental bank governor, finance minister and corporate fat cat)
No wonder TOC jealous of Nas: TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit?. But to be fair to TOC: TOC recovering from its anti-Nas fever.
Btw, Nas not only FT who thinks S’pore is a great place.
Further to TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit?, I was about to KPKB that TOC was becoming xenophobic citing as evidence its nasty comments on Nas, especially harping that he’s a foreigner. Doesn’t sound like the Terry I know.
But I changed my mind when TOC responded to this on FB
Another foreigner telling us how good our Gahmen is. Just what we need…..
VTO
by saying
I need to defend Nas on this. He actually answered it very well in his reply to a question posed by a member of public. The guy from Pakistan who is based in Singapore, asked if Nas will be talking about the good and bad in Singapore, since he is settling down here for the time being.
Nas said that he recognises that he is still a foreigner in Singapore and it is not his position to tell what is good and what is bad but he tries to bring out the best of whatever he gets in touch with. Will put up the video of that if I can.
The problem is that audience of his videos, think that he can cover all aspect of a matter within one min and if he says it is good, means nothing is wrong.
(Sounds like Terry of Terry’s Online Channel, not one of his goons.)
Good to see that TOC is recovering from it’s anti-Nas bout (that almost became xenophobic fever). I suppose Kirsten Han’s article helped the recovery.
Nas Daily might not be playing politics—I seriously doubt he knows that much about Singaporean politics, anyway
—but the PAP is
Nas Daily fan meet a ‘non-cause based’ event, Public Order Act permit not required: Police
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/nas-daily-fan-meet-a-non-cause-based-event-public-order-act-11462242
More evidence that being anti-PAP is bad for yr mental health
Spending too much time in TRELand is bad for one’s mental health
He’s expensive. But I’m sure, he’ll give a hefty discount to comrades still fighting the good fight. For the record, he’s not retired from the good fight: juz resting between general elections?
OMG. Our local academics can continue producing fake news without getting into trouble.
But let me begin at the beginning. On 11 April, 83 academics (only two based here, although there were 30 over S’poreans based overseas) signed a letter of concern about the proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA). They sent it to the education minister*.
In a public reply, the education ministry assured academics that the proposed law will not affect academic work. The group behind the letter, Academics Against Disinformation, said that they are unable to accept that assurance from the Ministry until it is reflected in the language of the bill.
Here’s what I posted earlier about our very own local academics producing fake news:
Local academics propogate fake news?
Our brown-nosing constructive nation-building academics presented at the recent Select Committee hearings on Deliberate Online Falsehoods,
an alarming scenario of disinformation campaigns launched by foreign actors bent on attacking the island state, of cyber armies in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore working as proxies for other countries in undermining national security.
Did they produce any evidence?
But the actual examples of fake news which have come up during this national debate have mostly been prosaic; a hoax photo showing a collapsed roof at a housing complex, which sent officials rushing unnecessarily to the scene; and an erroneous report of a collision between two trains on the light rail transit line.
As the BBC reporter wrote
Irritating and worrying for some, for a while, but hardly likely to bring Singapore society to its knees. In any case both Singapore and Malaysia already have plenty of laws capable of penalising false, inflammatory or defamatory comment.
So, as far as I’m concerned the row on Coldstore between PJ Thum and our brown-nosing constructive nation-building academics is “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable!” (Re Oscar Wilde)
Or “A plague o’ both your houses!” (Shakespeare)
Btw, have to tell u that the reporter also said
It also gave Singapore academics and officials an opportunity to snipe at the US belief in free expression, the “marketplace of ideas”, which had allowed the abuse of personal data on Facebook to take place, in contrast to Singapore’s “better safe than sorry” belief in a more tightly regulated society.
Thinking about it, it’s reasonable to conclude that our academics (save two) didn’t sign the letter because they know they are producing BS aka fake news. Our local academics can continue producing fake news without getting into trouble.
Among academics in Singapore, it is an open secret that work is circumscribed by the government’s desires. At conferences and workshops, academics awkwardly and regularly “joke”, tilting their heads to glance over shoulders, about their remarks being heard by “the government”. Students and younger scholars regularly ask if they should avoid certain topics because of “sensitivities”.
Since you have read this far, you may be interested in
Why the PAP is really afraid of Facebook?
Silencing fake news and inconvenient voices: two sides of the same coin
Fighting fake news while raising revenue
What is “news”?/ “Fake news” is not “fake” says Harvard expert
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*The letter outlined concerns over the law, in particular POFMA “will have unintended detrimental consequences for scholars and research in Singapore and for the global academy”. The letter went on to say that that the Act “discourages scholars from marshalling their expertise in precisely the areas where it is most needed – namely, pressing questions and challenges for which there are no clear answer or easy solutions”.
TOC’s Correspondent has done a very gd piece. He and TOC should do more of this kind of factual stuff, and less of the anti-PAP BS aka fake news. There are a lot of inconvenient facts that a few clicks of the mouse can reveal. Don’t juz BS, juz do the searches.
Massive cost overrun in infrastructure projects in Singapore in recent years
Yes, I’ve been hard on TOC, Terry and “Correspondent”
Terry and his Correspondent taking wrong pills again
Cybernuts can relax: TOC resumes normal anti-PAP service
TOC now part of constructive, nation-building media?
but it’s because I know they are capable of doing better than juz mindlessly attacking the PAP, or mindless praising it (Wah lan! TOC praises PAP govt).
Dagens Nyheter the leading Swedish newspaper was losing money. It’s now profitable again.
Since taking charge in 2013, editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski, encouraged his reporters and editors to view the social media platforms as sources for ideas and stories.
Its journalists then do what most social media users are unable to do
[U]se the grist from social media to badger politicians, question police departments, pose awkward questions to business leaders, and set fresh ideas in a broader context. Scanning social media also allows editors and reporters at Dagens Nyheter to pay close attention to the way their stories echo through their online communities.
FT
FT also reported that Dagens Nyheter is now offering products and services to its readers.
It offers an SKr11,495 electric bicycle emblazoned with the newspaper’s name (150 sold in the first week). It is also running two chartered train journeys through Europe at SKr25,000 per person (the 680 places sold out within a week).
Maybe TOC and other alt media publications can pick up ideas from Dagens Nyheter: especially setting fresh ideas in a broader context (not juz repeating “PAP are always wrong”, and organising trips. They could organise trips to failed one-party states like Venezuela or Cuba, dysfunctional democracies like PeenoyLand or India, or prosperous democracies like Taiwan and NZ.
Only Indonesia is outpacing India digitally, according to McKinsey.
No wonder Temasek sees a bright future for e-commerce in the region.
In a report in November [2018], Google and … Temasek calculated the value of south-east Asia’s internet economy at $72bn in 2018.
Previous reports by the pair have predicted a regional internet economy worth $200bn by 2025, but last year they raised that projection to closer to $240bn.
“… south-east Asia’s internet economy hit an inflection point in 2018. Powered by the most engaged mobile internet users in the world, industries like ecommerce, online media, online travel and ride-hailing grew at an unprecedented rate,” they wrote.
“Investors have taken notice, pouring record amounts of funds into the region — now it’s time for everyone else to pay attention.”
FT
Temask has stakes in Indonesian start-ups Go-Jek and Warung Pintat (retail tech start-up). Grab where Temasek has an investment is a rival to Go-Jek in Indonesia.
Further to Silencing fake news and inconvenient voices: two sides of the same coin, when even the constructive, nation-building SPH is concerned
In a submission to Parliament, Singapore Press Holdings, the country’s largest media organization, warned that a broad interpretation of “fake news” could could lead to “fears among citizens about freely expressing their opinions or engaging in robust and constructive debates, or even to self-censorship by news outlets wary of falling foul of the law.”
, PAP voters who voted for Tan Cheng Bock as president should be concerned about the coming law’s powers to ministers: Fake news law: Ownself judge ownself.
Here’s something I came across sometime back, but can’t remember where:
Removing content is not the only way to shape our minds; the most powerful censorship tactics are those we never see – for good and ill.
The coming laws on fake news is nothing more than an attempt to ensure self censorship, something S’poreans are very good at, even Goh Meng Seng, for all his fake news skills:
— Meng Seng: fake news propogator
— What Meng Seng and TOC don’t tell us about dispute with Tun
Or in posh English, not Singlish, “In the proposed fake news law, ministers are judge and jury.”
This is a seriously good reason to be concerned about the proposed bill introduced on Monday, which gives the government very sweeping powers in the name of regulating fake news propogators like Goh Meng Seng and TOC’s Danisha Hakeem.
My main concern is that it makes ministers the initial (and in most cases the final and only) arbiters of truth about claims regarding the PAP government’s performance: “Ownself judge ownself”.
That is most unfair and unnatural because it makes a minister the judge and the jury in his own cause. Worse although there is some sort of a right of appeal, the burden of establishing the truth lies on the appellant, not the minister. I do not think a minister should have the power to regulate comments made about them or their department in the same way as the government having the power to regulate hate speech or even seriously offensive speech against race or religion.
There is an obvious potential for serious conflicts of interest here, like “Ownself check ownself”.
Related post: Fake news laws give SPH biz advantage
TOC accused (rightly) The Indians Idiots Sg of unprofessional behaviour even though TOC should be careful of throwing stones since it’s living in a glass house: ST etc can make the same accusation (rightly also) against TOC: Tweedledum v Tweedledee or TOC v The Idiots Sg.
This row reminded me how the PAP govt can kill two birds (fake news and dissident views) with one stone.
This is how to screw alt media without appearing to be repressive: make use of the fear of fake news.
Egypt’s Supreme Council for the Administration of the Media was given the power to block websites and social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers if they publish “fake news” or incite people to break the law.
The watchdog will also be able to fine them up to 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,500; £10,900) without obtaining a court order.
BBC report
OK, OK, the Egyptian way is too crude. What do you expect of paper generals not real ones? The Egyptian army loses to desert nomads in the Sinai. Only good for coups.
Here’s the British way: according to a UK government report, technology groups should be forced by a new regulator to ensure their platforms distribute quality news.
Our ang moh tua kees cannot in all honesty oppose such a law because it comes from the UK: they lick ang moh’s liberal ass, thinking what comes out is manna from heaven.
Seriously, if this law is passed here, Terry’s Online Channel, The Indians Idiots, Goh Meng Seng etc can no longer appear on Facebook given the unreliability of their original reporting and plagiarising of the local MSM. They can’t even copy and paste accurately.
Especially Meng Seng. When he recently pontificated “I am only the supporter of truth based on facts”, I couldn’t help laughing. Surely, he must mean “I am only the supporter of lies based on mistaken, spurious, apocryphal, fanciful, mendacious, untruthful, fictitious, deceptive, concocted, fallacious, incorrect, inaccurate, wrong, sophistical, casuistic, Jesuitical, misleading, delusive, imaginary, illusive, erroneous, invalid, deceiving, misrepresentative, fraudulent, trumped-up, facts”? As evidence, I cite Meng Seng: fake news propogator and What Meng Seng and TOC don’t tell us about dispute with Tun.
Related posts:
Why TOC’s Danisha Hakeem is a menace to the credibility of alt media
TISG: “useful loudhailer” for PAP administration
“The Idiots — S’pore” keeps on promoting divisiveness?
Sad.
What I find funny after reading Terry Xu’s Fb post (See below) is that I’m sure ST and other constructive, nation-building publications can say the same thing about TOC notwithstanding Terry’s holier than The Idiots attitude in his last paragraph.
Terry Xu should let sleeping dogs lie seeing that TOC cast the first stone (towards ST many yrs ago) a long time ago. Btw, I think I got grounds to KPKB yesterday to Terry about hypocrisy based on his comments about attribution. But as I know his writer and him, and respect what they are doing (most of the time) and because of the pressures that Terry faces in fighting the Dark Side , I’ll not talk further about the matter: let sleeping dogs lie etc etc.
Having said all this, The Indians Idiots are scumbags:
— TISG: “useful loudhailer” for PAP administration
— “The Idiots — S’pore” keeps on promoting divisiveness?
And this TOC writer (Why TOC’s Danisha Hakeem is a menace to the credibility of alt media) should move to The Idiots. He’s their kind of writer.
Anyway, Terry Xu posted on FB yesterday
After hearing complaints from my writers about how articles have been republished by The Independent SG with no attribution, I decided to take up my complaint with the publisher of the website.
Referring to the writer who has been doing that, I wrote, “It is fine if articles are written with reference to TOC’s site but if you refer to the months of postings, I have seen nothing of such. Can you please see that this behaviour stops?”
He replied, “Dear Terry, We have a ‘do-not-touch-TOC-content’ policy in place. Hence, I’m surprised that you are making such claims. In any case, all authors do declare their source for each piece they are working on and my editors do check for copyright infringement, attribution and accuracy. It may very well be the case of the newsmaker talking to two outlets at the same time. In which case, there is really no need to attribute to TOC.
In any case, if my writers do use your content. You can be rest assured that we’ll credit TOC for it. Chill my friend. We’re in the same space. Need to look out for each other.”My response to that was to throw a series of articles.
http://theindependent.sg/in-what-capacity-did-ivy-ng-sign-…/
http://theindependent.sg/grassroots-leader-who-constructed…/
http://theindependent.sg/mothership-draws-flak-for-story-o…/
http://theindependent.sg/survey-shows-only-59-per-cent-of-…/
http://theindependent.sg/mainstream-media-speculates-that-…/
and noted that these articles are for just the month of March.
He then asked for the corresponding articles from TOC that were published.
Which I gave,
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/…/ivy-ng-signed-documents…/
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/…/grassroots-leader-who-c…/
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/…/mothership-highlights-l…/
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/…/survey-35-think-heng-ca…/
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/…/media-speculates-former…/
Note that all the articles from TISG is after TOC had published its, even the screenshots are using the ones that TOC had posted. I haven’t yet included the articles that are based on the video write ups posted on TOC’s Facebook page.
In response to the claims, the publisher has replied, “Dear Terry, after careful examination and consideration, we find your claims to be baseless and unfounded.”
UPDATE: The publisher even accused me of backdating the articles! Hello… I can’t backdate Google News, even if I want to.
So case closed it seems and business as usual. Nothing I can do about it, I suppose? And how can you be friends with such people?
Clarification: As I tell my staffers, there are a few type of articles.
– Opinion pieces
– Govt release
– News of events
– Public knowledge
– Exclusive investigative articlesWe do not credit MSM for govt releases because it should be public knowledge in the first place and Govt don’t release them on their public site only after MSM has reported on it. News event, we sometimes don’t because we are pissed that only IMDA certified press are invited.
But if you do read our other posts, we mention clearly it is from the MSM that we are taking the quotes from and also we would correct when journalists from MSM write to us.
But first, why China is great again: Chinese insurer Ping An once had HSBC as a large shareholder but is now the largest shareholder in HSBC.
Besides insurance, it’s into banking, securities broking, asset management and has a trust biz.
In recent years Ping An has invested heavily in the development of new technologies including artificial intelligence, facial recognition and cloud computing.
So it’s becoming a tech co, like Goldman Sachs (At least that is what ex-CEO claimed that is what Goldie is).
I kid u not.
Singapore has one of the top education systems in the world. Singapore’s education system supports the development of children’s strengths and social skills. Schools in Singapore produce students with strong academic results who later go on to pursue successful careers.
What next? Terry’s Online Channel will tell S’poreans to vote for the PAP?
Or is this juz an “honest mistake” by TOC? The usual anti-PAP propaganda will resume soon once Terry takes his medicine?
The very people who thoughtlessly and carelessly allowed Trump to “Make America Great Again”.
How a disastrous change in perspective disempowered the left and let the right rise
By dismissing the masses as fools, progressives confirmed all the culture warriors’ claims
are the headlines of an article (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/01/how-a-disastrous-change-in-perspective-disempowered-the-left-and-let-the-right-rise )in the ang hoh tua kees’ favourite British paper (One reason it’s a fav is that it’s free: unlike my favs the FT and Economist)
It went on somewhere towards the end
The consolatory power of the “idiot nation” trope was obvious. If voters were slack-jawed rubes, well, it couldn’t be the fault of progressives that protests were small or that leftwing ideas lacked purchase. Activists committed to smug politics could take comfort knowing that the masses were too dumb to grasp the cogent arguments being presented to them.
But, politically, such rhetoric was disastrous. By dismissing the people as fools, progressives confirmed everything the culture warriors said: they openly embraced the condescending stereotype of the liberal elitist.
Now doesn’t this sound familiar in the S’pore context?
The views appearing in TRE, Terry’s OnLine Channel, The Indians Idiots, social media etc are that the 60-70% of S’porean voters who regularly vote for the PAP are morons. And that the hard core PAP haters are the ones that should rule S’pore.
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Related article
Singaporeans want an opposition but are “very discerning in the type of opposition they seek. In my view, it is not wise to pursue any approach that does not establish firmer foundations for a permanent and institutionalised opposition in Singapore.
Pritam Singh, Wankers’ Party Sec Gen
(For the context of his comments read: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/wp-chief-pritam-singh-responds-activist-select-committees-treatment-historian-thum)
With enemies like the ang moh tua kees like and their cybernut allies the PAP doesn’t need friends to stay in power.
And I’m not the only one who thinks the PAP’s enemies are the reason why the PAP will rule S’pore forever and a day: “Antics Of Civil Society Activists Endanger Opposition Cause”
Video consultation for patients with chronic problems who need to see a doctor only because the prescriptions need to be renewed. At least that’s what Morocco Mole, Secret Squirrel’s side-kick, tells me. It’ll take a while though.
But based on this experience of a S’porean using video consultation, the wait will be worth it and give poor or cheap skate oldies with chronic diseases another reason to vote for the PAP.
Aisha Lin, a 25-year-old Singaporean … told the Nikkei Asian Review that video consultation had proved to be “an optimal experience” for her. “If I just have a minor condition and/or require prescribed medication, I really dislike being in the same enclosed space as other very sick people — those with a high fever, stomach flu, etc,” she said.
Nikkei Asian Review
Whatever telemedicine is already here. Ms Lin was using Singapore’s Doctor Anywhere. More on this app
Singapore’s Doctor Anywhere, launched in 2017, is one of the growing healthcare apps in the city-state, with some 50,000 users serviced by 50 doctors. The app offers video consultation, which is priced at 20 Singapore dollars ($14.50), as well as the delivery of medicines to a patient’s location.
[…]
There are also some benefits for doctors who work with tele-health apps. The apps can be a gateway to reach “more potential patients,” said Lim Wai Mun, founder of Doctor Anywhere. “Doctors can feel more connected with the patients by making themselves available and more accessible,” he added.
The first rule when writing opinion pieces is: don’t be boring.
the Malaysian prime minister to take a leading role in promoting democracy and freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.
Er but taz missing the point about talking cock.
I’ve said in Smell the smoke? From Indonesia or from the PAP & cybernuts? that I’m not sure if the ground is as sour as Han Fook Kwang makes it sound.
Well I was planning to blog along the lines of the following letter to ST’s Forum: what we are hearing are voices that were once confined to small, disconnected groups. But since it has appeared, I’ll juz copy and paste like our millionaire ministers. Make sure you read a response to this letter I reproduce below. It says that my and letter writer’s point of view is irrelevant, missing the point: we also talking cock.
‘More discontent’ may be due to technology amplifying voices
While editor-at-large Han Fook Kwang presents an interesting take on why there is “more grumbling than usual about issues especially to do with the Government”, I have a different perspective on the matter (Is the ground sour? Time to tackle it; Aug 26).
Hailing from the generation that witnessed life without the convenience of gadgets, I can only conclude that we have to accept the hue and cry from the ground as the new normal.
Previously, when mobile phones and the Internet were virtually unheard of, the chatter of discontent could be heard only in coffee shops or during conversations between family or friends.
However, in the present day, technology has enabled muted voices to be heard through platforms such as social media. The anonymity afforded by such mediums has culminated in a cacophony of outbursts from the ground, which many tend to associate with growing discontent among the people.
The sudden rise in the ubiquity of digital devices has somehow led to the misconception that the conformity and orderliness of the old order have been replaced by the messiness of the new generation.
We have to accept that change and messiness is the new constant.
A FB post commenting on this Forum letter:
The heart of the issue is whether such complaints are valid. And politicians still need to assess the situation for themselves. Is high cost of living a perception or real? What is real problem of HDB 99 yr lease ownership.
Yes technology amplifies but someone still need to deal with it or you can lose a GRC.
And call centre workers everywhere.
The biggest threat to jobs might not be physical robots, but intelligent software agents that can understand our questions and speak to us, integrating seamlessly with all the other programs we use at home and at work. And call centres are particularly at risk.
BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45272835
It reports Brian Manusama, an analyst at market research firm Gartner saying:
“The number one use case for applying AI is in this call centre and customer service space”
and
“At the end of 2017 about 70% of all use cases in AI were related to customer service and call centres.”
Scale of problem
Several million people are employed in call centre roles in the US and UK and hundreds of thousands more rely on such work in countries like India and the Philippines. Unless these people quickly learn new skills, they could soon be out of work.
Modified to attribute the story to BBC, not FT. Sorry.
Jason Karp, who runs the long-short equity hedge fund Tourbillon Capital, put it this way earlier this yr at the Milken Institute global conference in Los Angeles: “What do you know that a machine cannot work out?”
Earlier today I asked if our education could produce the Oz boy who hacked Apple because he dreamed of working for Apple: Qn for education minister
More questions:
Does our education system have room for R00tz Asylum, a non-profit organisation that promotes “hacking for good” and these kids?
It
created 13 sites that mimicked the real [US election] websites, gaping vulnerabilities and all, for 13 so-called “battleground” states – parts of the country where the vote is expected to be tight.
Over the course of a day, 39 kids aged between 8 and 17 took the challenge – 35 of them succeeded in bypassing the trivial security. Pranks ensued. At one time the site told us 12 billion votes had been cast. Later, we were told that candidate “Bob Da Builder” was the victor.
Or this kind of kids’ activity?
The contest was part of the kids’ zone at Def Con, the annual hacking conference in Las Vegas.
Or this kind of kids?
This year it was attended by more than 300 eager children, trying everything from lock picking to soldering. At one table I meet two-year-old Catherine Sabonis, happily picking apart a debit card reader. Organisers tell me around half of the attendees are girls.
An anti-PAP cyberwarrior* says that our kids have world class analytical, problem solving skills because of the local system. And I know some really smart, creative kids** but I don’t see or read about our kids doing things like these US kids.
*Avoid dementia, don’t be anti-PAP like Meng Seng
**Good in STEM subjects but who love Sing Lit and music.
We do well in PISA rankings but so what? Got kid like this?
An Ozzie kid who dreams of working for Apple hacked Apple’s systems and
accessed 90 gigabytes worth of files, breaking into the system many times over the course of a year from his suburban home in Melbourne, reports The Age newspaper.
BBC reports
According to The Age, the teen had boasted about his activities in WhatsApp messages. It reports that he had hacked into the firm because he was a huge fan and dreamed of working there.
His defence lawyer said that he had become very well-known in the international hacking community.
From a Mr Happy
I avoid Intel and use AMD in my systems. I have found that the Ryzen processor family offers great performance with out the power consumption or heat output of its predecessors.
Putting my CTO hat on for a moment, in reality there are always holes in the security of both software and hardware or exploits previously not considered. So keep things patched, keep security layers tight, stay on top the available information and do not get complacent because at that point you assume you are secure then you become vulnerable. It comes under two headings, security and managing your IT estate, if you fail to maintain your investment you will fall behind and be vulnerable. If you or your organisation does not have the knowledge get a professional in to conduct an audit and security sweep. Organisations are facing far more security vulnerabilities and threats than at any previous point in the technology revolution and many organisations are not managing it correctly.
Comment on FT article about latest Intel problem
Paper BG can cut and paste and pass off as his own genius at work. Like SMRT Neo juz cutting and pasting ang moh practice
Related post:
Is Computer Security Agency CEO talking thru his ass about stolen info?
Remember CSA’s CEO downplaying the loss of NRIC numbers etc (Is Computer Security Agency CEO talking thru his ass about stolen info?)?
Should you be worried?
In short, not really, said the authorities. CSA chief executive David Koh said the stolen information are “basic demographic data”.
Constructive, nation-building CNA
Well it’s now clear that the central bank for one thinks he’s talking cock
“With immediate effect, all financial institutions should not rely solely on the types of information stolen (name, NRIC number, address, gender, race, and date of birth) for customer verification,” MAS said in a statement.
“Additional information must be used for verification before undertaking transactions for the customer. This may include, for instance, One-Time Password, PIN, biometrics, last transaction date or amount, etc.”
I went WTF when I read this from the constructive, nation-building CNA:
Should you be worried?
In short, not really, said the authorities. CSA chief executive David Koh said the stolen information are “basic demographic data”.
“We are watching to see if anything appears on the Internet both in the open and in some of the less well-known websites,” he added, noting that this has occasionally happened in past data breaches.
“But considering the type of data that’s been exfiltrated, it is – from our professional experience – unlikely that these will appear, because there is no strong commercial value to these types of data.”
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singhealth-cyberattack-what-you-need-to-know-10549096
I repeat WTF. NRIC numbers were stolen as were names and addresses. Before this loss of info, we had been told by the PAP govt and private sector cyber security experts that the NRIC number is very important personal data and that when a criminal has access to our i/c number, address and name, lialat: could be vulnerable to all kinds of online crime. So this not true isit?
I had also read in an earlier CNA report
[C]ybersecurity expert, Mr Leonard Kleinman, pointed out that medical data contains a trove of information – from personally identifiable data to financial details – “that can be used to create a highly sought-after composite of an individual”.
Such pilfered data can fetch a high price on the dark Web, with each entry potentially selling for US$50 to US$100 more than stolen credit card data, said Mr Kleinman, who is the chief Cyber Security Advisor at RSA Asia Pacific and Japan.
“As it could contain any amount and level of information, healthcare institutions are among the most sought-after industries by criminals who can be motivated by a multitude of possible reasons,” he said.
The executive also cautioned that the fallout of such a hack may not be immediately felt either, as it could “take months” for the data to be first sold, then used.
“Given the nature of this attack, it is hard to say exactly what the end game is, especially when the attackers haven’t identified themselves,” Mr Kleinman added.
Darktrace Asia Pacific managing director Sanjay Aurora told Channel NewsAsia in an email that it can only speculate on the hacker’s motives, but medical information, like other kinds of personal data, can be easily monetised.
That said, beyond making a quick buck, Mr Aurora said a more “sinister reason” could be to cause widespread disruption and systemic damage to the healthcare service or to undermine trust in a nation’s competency to keep personal data safe.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singhealth-cyberattack-likely-nation-state-medical-data-price-10549372
So is the PAP govt downplaying the importance of the loss of info?
And if it is, why isn’t the constructive, nation-building media not signing from the same sheet?
(Part of another occasional series on the good things the PAP govt do that TOC, TRE and other cybernut sites don’t report: not that many but still enough to keep 70% happy.)
Plenty of KPKBing by some TRE commenters, and TOC, and other cybernut sites about no free viewing on tv at home. Shows that they behind curve. Many S’poreans (including TeamTRE who tell readers how to get free streaming service) watching watching for free via streaming.
S’pore’s a good place to watch streamed stuff.
Fastest broadband speeds can be found in:
Fortunately for the PAP govt and S’porean footie fans, it’s in Oz.
[F]or Optus, Australia’s second-biggest telecoms company, the 2018 Fifa World Cup is fast becoming a public relations disaster.
On Monday the Singtel-owned operator, which holds the streaming rights to all 64 matches, voluntarily handed its television rival SBS the rights to broadcast the following two nights of world cup action. It made the decision following a consumer backlash prompted by technical difficulties with its own streaming services- and a public intervention by Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister.
FT
SBS is state-owned.
It’s all about “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”.
Contrary to popular belief, we now hear more diverse voices than ever before – studies suggest that most people do not live in Facebook or Twitter echo chambers and ‘filter bubbles’. So why is global politics still so divided?
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180416-the-myth-of-the-online-echo-chamber
People become more divided because we are dismissive of contrary evidence that challenges our beliefs
“motivated reasoning”. Countless studies have shown that we are so attached to our political identities that we will devote extra cognitive resources to dismissing any evidence that disagrees with our initial point of view, so that we end up even more sure of our convictions.
Or because a little knowledge is dangerous
But an alternative possible explanation comes from the psychology of ‘self-licensing’ – the unconscious belief that once we have shown our open-mindedness in one situation, we have somehow earned the credentials to be more prejudiced later on. One study from 2008 found that people who had supported Barack Obama were subsequently more likely to express a potentially racist view, for instance. By reading a few dissenting voices on Facebook or Twitter, we may feel that we have already gained the right to be more dogmatic about our existing opinions. Anecdotally, at least, this seems to have been the case for a few of my own acquaintances following the UK’s referendum on Europe in 2016.
When I try to access TRE’s sit,. Google sends me a strongly worded message that the site contains malware. And tells me to avoid the site, though I can go to the site if I really, really want to.
Previously my anti-virus software cut me off from the site because it was beta testing crypto-mining. TRE told visitors of its plans. I had suggested moons ago that it try to crypto-mining to help pay expenses from its freeloading cheapskates.
The spate between no-class Charles Chong (representing the no-class PAP administration), and some lobbied (instigated? manipulated?) over-sensitive (Err did they watch the video of the exchange, or relied on hearsay? And from whom? PJ?) Oxford University academics (not colleges I note) and the non-entity Project Southeast Asia (more on this strange beast soon) reminds me of
“The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable!”
“A plague o’ both your houses!”
Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
It further reminds me that the PAP are missing another two tricks from darkest, dysfunctional Africa. Making bloggers Pay and Pay and tieing them up in petty details are what the PAP can introduce from Africa.
I had in Fighting fake news while raising revenue where I pointed out that our meritocratic scholars in the PAP administration could learn from Uganda in darkest, dysfunctional Africa: they could tax users of social media.
Another country from that dark continent has two brilliant ideas
Tanzania’s government has come up with a scheme that could prove even more draconian [referring to Uganda’s plan]: it plans to charge hundreds of dollars a year for the privilege of blogging. As part of new online regulations, bloggers will be required to pay hefty registration and annual licence fees that add up to roughly $920 — prohibitive for most in a country with a nominal per capita income of under $900. In proportion to GDP, the Tanzanian registration and licence fee would be the equivalent of asking Americans to pay nearly $60,000 to start a blog.
FT
Somehow I don’t think, the Idiots S’pore, Terry Online’s Channel or TRE (even if TRE’s pilot plan to use visitors’ clicks to mine crpto coins takes off) can afford the kind of sums required. Different for the SDP (CIA? Or Soros?) and mothership (George Yeo?Philip Yeo?).
And I certainly can’t be bothered with the paper work Tanzania is insisting on
What are the rules?
All online publishers including bloggers, vloggers and podcasters have up to 5 May to register and are required to pay $480 for a three-year licence, plus an annual fee of $440.
Radio and TV stations must also apply for licences to share their content online.
To get a permit, applicants must fulfil a list of requirements, like submitting staff CVs and reveal their future plans.
They will also have to keep a record of visitors to their site.
The regulations say the aim is to clamp down on “hate speech” and indecent material with the same standard being applied to online users.
They broadly define a blog as “a website containing a writer’s, or group of writer’s own, experiences, observations, opinions including current news… images, video clips and links to other websites”.
But will it? I doubt it.
Peter Eavis’s take: If Facebook wants to spend more on protecting its community, it can: Its operating earnings are equivalent to 46 percent of its revenue. But its expense numbers haven’t provided clear evidence that the company is going the extra mile yet.
More from NYT’s Dealbook
| Facebook can afford to clean up its act |
| The tech giant has promised to spend a lot of money on improving its operations after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It’s not yet clear quite how much — Mark Zuckerberg told analysts yesterday that the company was still working on making its products “good for people and good for society.” And his chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, told U.K. lawmakers this morning that Facebook would vet British political ads next year. |
| What’s now apparent: These controversies are yet to hurt the bottom line. |
| Facebook’s first-quarter earnings featured a 63 percent jump in profit and a 49 percent rise in revenue. And roughly 70 million new monthly active users. |
| Peter Eavis’s take: If Facebook wants to spend more on protecting its community, it can: Its operating earnings are equivalent to 46 percent of its revenue. But its expense numbers haven’t provided clear evidence that the company is going the extra mile yet. |
| The key assessment, from the Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser: |
| “All the data privacy issues, the congressional hearings, none of that will get as much scrutiny from investors as the bottom line.” |
On behalf of Putin and the KGB? After all Facebook, together with Google, showed that hegemony of US of A’s soft power. But Facebook’s numbers juz grow and grow. More mud in Putin’s eye. He got Trump elected but his billionaire pals are getting hurt by the US of A and his nercenaries get killed with impunity by the US military.
Sorry back to the Russkie that was based here.
Last week, Aleksandr Kogan, the academic who passed FB user data to Cambridge Analytica said he was considering suing Facebook for suggesting that he had acted unethically.
Then Mr Kogan on Tuesday criticised the social network for relying on an “honour system” to protect user information that he said was “mined left and right” by developers on Tuesday at a hearing conducted by British MPs.
He also told the British lawmakers
that the social network had singled him out for the leak but knew that user data gathered by developers could be passed to third parties. He stressed that Facebook had not done enough to check the data gathered by his app had been deleted. “They know the platform has been mined left and right,” he said, “They’re trying to point the finger at one entity and paint the picture that it is a rogue agency.”
After what Zuckerberg said to Congress, Facebook then spun that it could be adopting the new European laws on privacy and everything else as its default protection standard for the rest of the world including the US.
In his answers to Congress over Facebook’s involvement in the scandal, Mark Zuckerberg said that GDPR [new European laws on privacy and everything else] was “going to be a very positive step for the internet”.
When asked whether the regulations should be applied in the US, he replied: “I think everyone in the world deserves good privacy protection.”
Well, we now know that that’s a lot of bull because the BBC report says
Facebook has changed its terms of service, meaning 1.5 billion members will not be protected under tough new privacy protections coming to Europe.
The move comes as the firm faces a series of questions from lawmakers and regulators around the world over its handling of personal data.
The change revolves around which users will be regulated via its European headquarters in Ireland.
Facebook said it planned clearer privacy rules worldwide.
The move, reported by Reuters, will see Facebook users outside the EU governed by Facebook Inc in the US rather than Facebook Ireland.
It is widely seen as a way of the social network avoiding having to apply the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to countries outside the EU.
The change will affect more than 70% of its more than two billion members. As of December, Facebook had 239 million users in the US and Canada and 370 million in Europe.
It also had 1.5 billion members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America, and they are the ones affected by the change.
Users in the US and Canada have never been subject to European rules.
In 2008, Facebook set up its international headquarters in Ireland to take advantage of the country’s low corporate tax rates but it also meant all users outside the US and Canada were protected by European regulations.
…
The change will mean users outside Europe will no longer be able to file complaints with the Irish data protection commissioner or in the Irish courts.
GDPR, due to come into force next month, offers EU consumers far greater control over their data. It also promises to fine firms found to have breached data rules up to 4% of their annual global revenue.
Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Centre has responded to Seth Lord Zuckerberg’s slime balling of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre (Think Shanmugam’s attack on PJ Thum)
The Centre, which is located in the Judge Business School, was drawn into the controversy when Facebook banned Cubeyou, another firm that had developed a personality quiz in collaboration with the university’s academics.
Business development director Vesselin Popov insisted it was opt-in only and was in line with Facebook’s policies at the time, so was not at all like the app developed for Cambridge Analytica by Dr Kogan.
He told me that Dr Kogan’s work had raised issues for the university: “Even if an academic does something – quote unquote in their ‘spare time’, with their own company – they still ought to be held to professional standards as a psychologist.”
Dr Kogan and the Cambridge Psychometrics Centre are in dispute over whether a row over his personality app – and the involvement of the centre’s academics – was about ethics or money. I wrote another article about that issue on Friday.
But the two sides agree that Facebook needs to focus on what commercial businesses do with user data, rather than academics.
“It’s very clear that Cambridge Analytica and these kinds of companies are the product of an environment to which Facebook has contributed greatly,” says Mr Popov. “Although they might be making some changes today in response to public and regulatory pressure, this needs to be seen as an outcome of very permissive attitudes towards those companies.”
With an audit of thousands of Facebook apps under way, we may hear more in the coming weeks about just how cavalier some companies have been with our personal data.
Remember Batman’s enemy Two-Face Harvey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Face)?
Well reading the u/m extract from the by the BBC’s media editor, I couldn’t help think that we need Batman to fight Zuckerberg, the incarnate of Two-Face Harvey :
There’s Mark Zuckerberg, the Ultimate Millennial. He wears t-shirt and jeans, is a Harvard dropout, happiest in New York and San Francisco, who talks a good game about connecting the world. He’s an engineer and geek who built perhaps the most remarkable network in human history, innovating his way to astronomical wealth. This guy is shy, but has a public persona that accommodates it.
Then there’s a chap I call Mark Sorryberg – the Big Tech Villain. He wears an ill-fitting suit, squirms when in Washington, is blamed for damaging all we hold dear – from rigging elections (“He’s killing democracy”!) to promoting extremism (“He’s unweaving society”!) and not paying enough tax (“He’s screwing the poor”!). This guy is so shy he comes across as awkward and uncomfortable when he should be projecting authority.
Let’s be serious Two-Face Zuckerberg seems to have a
Split personality: Multiple personality disorder, a neurosis in which the personality becomes dissociated into two or more distinct parts each of which becomes dominant and controls behavior from time to time to the exclusion of the other parts. A modern name for this condition is dissociative identity disorder.
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11257
From NYT Dealbook
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The following day, he was asked by Congressman Ben Lujan about the data collected on people who had never even signed up to Facebook. Again, Mr Zuckerberg appeared uncomfortable. He had never heard of the widely used term “shadow profiles” to describe this kind of data collection.
Then the congressman took us down an Alice in Wonderland-style rabbit hole, where people who do not use Facebook are told to log in to their Facebook accounts to find out what data Facebook holds on them. “We’ve got to fix that,” he said.
Frederike Kaltheuner from Privacy International tells Tech Tent that this kind of data collection, with users unaware of what is happening, is all too common – and Facebook is far from the only culprit.
Funny our Pay and Pay scholar-filled govt didn’t think of this idea first. Uganda in darkest, dysfunctional Africa first tot of taxing users of social media to curb “gossip” (ie fake news) and raise revenue.
Taxing social media should the additional benefit, from the PAP’s point of view of curbing free speech, and so is something that the PAPpies should have tot up before the men from darkest, dysfunctional Africa.
From the BBC
Uganda plans to impose a daily tax on social media users from July in a bid to raise revenue, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has told Reuters news agency.
The move has been criticised by rights activist Rosebell Kagumire who said: “It’s part of a wider attempt to curtail freedoms of expression.”
Earlier this month, President Yoweri Museveni – who has been in power for more than 30 years – was quoted by Uganda’s privately owned Daily Monitor newspaper as saying in a letter to Mr Kasaija and other officilas that a tax should be introduced on people who use social media for “gossip”.
“I am not going to propose a tax on internet use for educational, research or reference purposes… these must remain free,” he was quoted as saying.
The proposed tax will see each mobile phone subscriber who uses platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter being charged, Reuters reports.
The amount is unclear – Reuters reports that Mr Kasaija said it will be 200 Ugandan shillings ($0.027) a day, while State Minister for Planning David Bahati is quoted by the Daily Monitor as saying it will be 100 shillings.
“We’re looking for money to maintain the security of the country and extend electricity so that you people can enjoy more of social media, more often, more frequently,” Mr Kasaija told Reuters.
True Uganda’s proposed charges are “peanuts” to S’poreans but a dollar a day will make talk cock, sing song, cheap skate anti-PAP cybernuts like Aloysius Foo and Lauschke Amythink twice about using social media.
He said on Tuesday “I agree we are responsible for the content.”
NYT Dealbook explains the importance of these words:
These were the most important words from Mark Zuckerberg’s five-hour testimony: “I agree we are responsible for the content.” They may come back to haunt him, given his previous rejection of calling Facebook a publisher. He later backtracked and called his business a tech company, but his acknowledgment may fundamentally shift the conversation — and how the company operates. (All in all, Mr. Zuckerberg did better than anyone had expected.)
Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, kicked his balls with this
“During the course of this hearing, these last four hours, you have been asked several critical questions for which you do not have answers,” she said. “Those questions have included whether Facebook can track users’ browsing activity even after the user has logged off of Facebook, whether Facebook can track your activity across devices even when you are not logged into Facebook.”
He promised to provide answers when asked these questions.
Kogan was here in S’pore from 2013-16 before moving on to Berkeley, California, a regular reader of, and commenter on this blog, yuenchungkwong, (a retired professor of computer science, NUS) informs.
Funny the constructive, nation-building ST and other local media don’t trumpet the achievements of this Foreign Talent while here. I mean the guy’s a FT where the “T” doesn’t stand for “Trash” but for “Talent”. Usually FTs end up in the news for beating taxi drivers and S’poreans, not for being geniuses.
After all, it was in 2014 that his infamous app appeared on FB.
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Backgrounder for visiting Martians and other extraterrestrials)
In 2014 a quiz on Facebook invited users to find out their personality type.
It was developed by University of Cambridge academic Aleksandr Kogan (the university has no connections with Cambridge Analytica).
As was common with apps and games at that time, it was designed to harvest not only the user data of the person taking part in the quiz, but also the data of their friends.
The allegation is that because 270,000 people took the quiz, the data of some 50 million users, mainly in the US, was harvested without their explicit consent via their friend networks. FB now says the data of 87m users was harvested
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He was even a guest speaker on 2 December 2014 at NUS:(http://blog.nus.edu.sg/psychology/2014/11/24/brown-bag-guest-speaker-dr-alex-kogan-on-2-december/)
I will discuss how big data can be collected, stored, and analyzed, and the types of new insights it can provide to social scientists.
And he was very open on his access to FB data
I focus specifically on Facebook data and two datasets my lab is currently work with: (a) a sample of 50+ million individuals for whom we have the capacity to predict virtually any trait, and (b) a macro-dataset of every friendship made in the world on Facebook from 2006-2012 by all Facebook users at the national-aggregate level.
While here, he married a S’porean, Crystal Ying Chia, and here’s a story about them and their zany sense of humour: https://www.asianmoneyguide.com/crystal-ying-spectre. They adopted a homeless dogs. My mongrels say, “Power to them”.
The latest according to the regular reader is that she has filed for divorce in California. My mongrels want to know what happened to their dog?
My thanks again to yuenchungkwong, a retired professor of computer science, NUS. And prof, if u got any project that utilising yr skills can make money, let me know. Can raise $ for u.
but first, as far as I’m concerned the howls of coming from progressives is as Steve Bannon, Trump’s evil genius, OK OK former chief strategist said
liberals and “the opposition media” were looking for excuses to explain Hillary Clinton’s election loss.
If Hilary had won, and it’s clear that she too was using the same type of profiling (as was Obama) but no so effective: I kept getting FB posts dissing Trump from a lesbian, other human rights activists, and ang moh tua kees based here. They must have been targets of Hilary’s ineffective profiling. The Republicans did not target me with videos of Hilary and her lesbians. Sigh.
Btw, Steve has dismissed the idea that Cambridge Analytica’s work for the Trump campaign swayed the 2016 US election.
Coming back the title, some
analysts were pleased that the Facebook boss did not go further. Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie, said Mr Zuckerberg allayed most of his fears that Facebook would “propose radical changes that would impact the business model”. “Our worry was that Facebook, at Zuckerberg’s direction, could take more radical actions than it has in the past to limit the use of audience segmenting, ad targeting, data sharing, and other privacy-related issues that could lower the monetisation of Facebook data,” he said.
FT report
As an Economist columnist said
When a scandal first breaks, executives at the top of a firm and securities analysts outside it are often myopic, viewing it as a public-relations blip that will not alter a firm’s operations or its competitive position. In the case of Facebook, 44 of the 48 Wall Street analysts who cover it still rate it a “buy”, according to Bloomberg. Many have downplayed the scandal, even though Facebook’s shares have dropped by 18% since the news broke on March 17th.
But advertisters wouldn’t like it. And As Money, talks BS walks, it wouldn’t be adopted.
NYT Dealbook
| How a ‘Why Me?’ button could help fix Facebook |
| In his latest column, Andrew suggests a way the company could make its practices more transparent — one that Google and Amazon could consider, while we’re at it: a button next to every ad and piece of content that would explain why a user is seeing it. |
| More from Andrew: |
| The “Why Me?” button might create all sorts of problems for Facebook, and its advertisers, too. It would allow users — and rivals — to reverse engineer much of the way the system works. And advertisers would probably object to the idea of making their targeting plans public. But that would be the cost of using such large public platforms with such exact targeting. |
Our brown-nosing constructive nation-building academics presented at the recent Select Committee hearings on Deliberate Online Falsehoods,
an alarming scenario of disinformation campaigns launched by foreign actors bent on attacking the island state, of cyber armies in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore working as proxies for other countries in undermining national security.
Did they produce any evidence?
But the actual examples of fake news which have come up during this national debate have mostly been prosaic; a hoax photo showing a collapsed roof at a housing complex, which sent officials rushing unnecessarily to the scene; and an erroneous report of a collision between two trains on the light rail transit line.
As the BBC reporter wrote
Irritating and worrying for some, for a while, but hardly likely to bring Singapore society to its knees. In any case both Singapore and Malaysia already have plenty of laws capable of penalising false, inflammatory or defamatory comment.
So, as far as I’m concerned the row on Coldstore between PJ Thum and our brown-nosing constructive nation-building academics is “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable!” (Re Oscar Wilde)
Or “A plague o’ both your houses!” (Shakespeare)
Btw, have to tell u that the reporter also said
It also gave Singapore academics and officials an opportunity to snipe at the US belief in free expression, the “marketplace of ideas”, which had allowed the abuse of personal data on Facebook to take place, in contrast to Singapore’s “better safe than sorry” belief in a more tightly regulated society.
In 2001, Naspers, a South African publisher (It published the ST for the apartheid regime) bought a stake in a lossmaking Chinese start-up in the wake of the dotcom bust for US$32m.
This week it sold more than US$10bn of its shares in Tencent, the Chinese technology group, a sliver (2%age points) of a stake worth US$167bn which it acquired in 2001 for “peanuts”. It still has 31% of Tencent.
Well I’m sure a PAPPy, think Goh Meng Seng (OK, OK, he’s a covert PAPpy), would say Naspers was lucky. Well at the time the ang moh CEO of Naspers was in China looking at internet investment opportunities, so were Temasek, GIC and SPH senior executives.
They so unlucky meh? Remember Napoleon only wanted as marshalls (his most senior generals) generals who were lucky. He knew the importance of luck. Early in his career, he lost a battle but the unexpected arrival of a fresh division turned the battle around.
Or our GIC, Temasek and SPH executives juz stupid?
Btw, Naspers is trading at a 40% discount to its Tencent stake, despite having profitable operational businesses and other successful internet investments. Shareholders are unhappy.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half,” is often attributed to John Wanamaker (1838-1922). He was a very successful American merchant, religious leader and politician. He has been called a “pioneer in marketing”.
Digital ads are marketed to advertisers (like Procter & Gamble) by the likes of Google and Facebook as solving the problem of which half is wasted.
But now P&G says that most online advertising is a waste.
Facebook was intended to be as wholesome as apple pie?
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I tot it was all about attracting eyeballs and ad revenue by way of trolling, echo chambering and the enabling of fake news. And to Make America Great Again by helping Trump become president. |
Years ago, Temasek (along with big private equity firms KKR and Sequioa) invested in Indonesian unicorn Go-Jek. The company provides ride-hailing, food delivery and e-payment services.
Well now, Google has invested in Go-Jek as it seeks to further tap Indonesia’s growing internet economy. Google said on Monday it had chosen to invest in Go-Jek as “there was still more we can do to support and participate in Indonesia’s growth”, noting the country is home to the world’s fifth-largest population of internet users. It did not disclose the size of the investment.
Cybernuts should remember that Temasek and Ho Ching don’t always get things wrong (HO HO HO: How Shi**y is StanChart?).
In fact, Temasek (and GIC) like other professionally run SWFs (Think the Arabs but not the Chinese. Think the Chinese investment in Noble House that will be almost wipewd out.) often get investments more right than wrong.
Another deal Temasek (and GIC) got right: Xiaomi’s IPO will make anti-PAPpyists frus.
Further to
from NYT Dealbook late last yr
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Big Brother is watching you. thanks to the the internet and other technology. Related post: Coming here, China’s new tool for social control?
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Official productivity figures account for the cash value of output produced, divided by the number of workers. So the cybernuts and anti-PAP thinkers (Yes there are some) say that given the PAP’s love of FTs, shipping them in by the cattle truck load, the FT flood results in low productivity.
Maybe that’s part of the reason.
But maybe free lunches account for a large part of the problem of low productivity?
[N]owadays a lot of the valued output people like is offered free to users, delivered cheaply by a low-cost technology.
People use Google services, buy a great deal on Amazon and download entertainment. These free or low-cost services help depress reported productivity.
FT Columnist
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says efforts to simplify and integrate electronic payment systems are underway, including making such a method available at hawker centres, in a bid to transform the country into a Smart Nation.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/national-day-rally-singapore-to-go-bigger-on-e-payments-with-9140068
Makes survelliance of the sheep people a lot easier. Black-listing of trouble makers will also be easier.
Companies in China, including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, are required to help China’s government hunt criminal suspects and silence political dissent, and their technology is being used to create cities wired for surveillance. (WSJ)
NYT Dealbook
I wrote this Coming here, China’s new tool for social control? sometime ago
Beijing wants to give every citizen a credit rating for everything. Citizens’ ratings are to be linked with their identity-card numbers. The rating will be based on behaviour such as spending habits, turnstile violations, filial piety and “assembling to disrupt social order”. These scores can be used to blacklist citizens from loans, jobs and air travel.
The now retired chief economist of GIC published u/m on his Facebook wall but TOC has circulated it to a wider audience*.
Summary: There’s plenty of money.
And if anyone should know, it should be Yeoh Lam Keong.
The Bigger Fork in Our Long-Term Fiscal Policy Road
To be fair to PM Lee, both the MOF and he have clarified that consistent with DPM Tharmans 2015 remarks, we do not have to raise taxes before the end of the decade.
So there’s really no need to get our fiscal knickers into a twist about GST or income tax increases till after the next GE folks..
IMHO what’s really at stake are larger, more important policy issues and related fiscal choices over the longer term.
What PM was talking about and trying to tell the public was that in the longer term after 2020, tax increases might be needed given inevitable rises in social spending and infrastructure needs in the more distant future.
Actually I really hope that in the end he’s right but from an entirely different angle.
My reason : our current fiscal headroom is so large that were we to truly need higher tax revenues, this would mean that much needed increases in social spending would finally finally have been funded first. Given our current paltry current social policy spending levels, ( much lower than OECD averages as a share of GDP for healthcare, education and social protection) this would be an excellent policy development!
Consider first that we have a 5-7% GDP structural budget surplus ( calculated by global fiscal policemen the IMF no less) – that’s $20-30 bn extra a year. (I don’t want to get into technicalities of how that is a valid number here – please read my previous posts ).
Second, the formula for using net investment returns contribution or NIRC only uses only half of expected long term real returns leaving official reserves to grow by about 2% in real or about 4% in nominal terms for future generations. This could potentially contribute at least another $14bn to the budget or 3.5% of GDP currently.
This 50% spending rule for NIRC itself is a questionable division of investment income from official reserves and a shows a strangely skewed social time preference. Shouldn’t a more reasonable time preference be to use more of the investment income ( not even the real principal mind you ) for the pressing problems of the present generation in this current decade?
Surely the needs of current citizens who have built modern Singapore through very tough times and have serious remaining problems with absolute poverty, inadequate retirement finances, no universal long term or primary chronic health care, underspending in primary and secondary education relative to OECD norms, inadequately planned and funded industrial policy and a badly underperforming public transport system needs this spending now and over this coming decade. Much more so than the uncertain problems of significantly richer coming generations in the much longer term future.
I suspect though, that in the end, we might just be left Singapore daydreaming.
Rather than first spend this hard earned, exceptional fiscal largesse on pressing social and infrastructure needs of the day, then raise taxes only if necessary afterwards, I suspect that our policy makers would instead tend rather towards raising taxes first, partly to keep this implicit huge fiscal savings largely intact ( by the way the IMF thinks that this is an excessively unhealthy level of national savings ) for the rainy day in the even more distant future!
So here is what I think is the really important fork in our long term fiscal and social policy road:
Either we will finally spend enough on social and infrastructural spending – another 8-10% of GDP over the next decade – or we will continue in the kia su practice of spending considerably less, yet still raise taxes in the name of fiscal prudence to maintain one of the most extravagant public savings rates in the world.
All this while continuing to expand social policy at decidedly suboptimal levels that does not really meet our social policy needs sufficiently in all the above key areas.
To do the former means stepping out of current incrementalist, anti – welfare and state intervention mindsets and boldly reshaping, refitting and reinvesting in social policy in healthcare, education, social security, public housing and transport and industrial policy to make these key areas truly future ready for our citizens. This is what we did so successfully and innovatively in our first 30 years of independence.
Please keep in mind that at this much higher level of spending we will merely be at the lower bound of OECD public spending as a share of GDP and roughly on par with developed East Asian economies. We would also be close to true budget balance ie not structurally in fiscal deficit or running up debt. Yes, that’s how extremely conservative our current long term fiscal position is.
The latter, however ( largely status quo), means kicking the can down the road through incremental rather than transformative changes that are likely to end up being constantly behind the relentless curve of economic instability arising from globalization, technological change and worsening demographics. And perversely maintaining the highest and fastest growing fiscal resources in the world.
No prizes for which I think is the more likely scenario on current trends. Which fork we finally take and when, however, depends on both the boldness of political leadership and citizen political awareness to push for a new social and fiscal policy regime that will truly cater to our well being in a more reasonable and balanced but still sustainable way.
*I’m surprised Terry’s Online Channel didn’t republish it for a wider audience, so I’m doing it and hoping that TRE will pick it up for a wider audience: not everyone going to TRE is a cybernut. The rule of thumb on the internet and social media is
1 % of users initiate discussions or content, 9% transmit content or participate occasionally and 90% are consumers or “lurkers”.
I’m hoping to reach the lurkers who visit TRE.
(Btw, didn’t ask permission.)
Secret Squirrel, Morocco Mole and Maxwell Smart certainly will
From NYT Dealbook
Amazon’s cloud storage unit has a new service called the Amazon Web Services Secret Region to handle classified information for United States spy agencies. (WaPo)
Remember in 2013 PM said at a Zaobao Forum: “Satisfied people don’t have time to go onto the Internet. Unhappy people often go there.”*? Judging by the postings by the ratty and cheapskate cybernuts on TRE (People like Oxygen, Rabble-Rouser, Bapak and Dosh who see the 70% as the enemy within S’pore and want to see them suffer for voting PAP) he has a point about unhappy people who keep insisting that S’pore is collapsing contrary to the evidence. Yes there are serious problems, but nothing existential.
Sorry for the digression: so what can we gather from PM’s and Ho Ching’s regular posts on Facebook?
According to this, they must be sad and envious
Writing in the London Review of Books, John Lanchester cites numerous studies that suggest Facebook use goes hand in hand with envy and sadness, and quite plausibly causes them.
FT article
John Henry Lanchester (born 25 February 1962) is a British journalist and novelist … His journalism has appeared in theLondon Review of Books (where he is a Contributing Editor), Granta, The Observer, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph andThe New Yorker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lanchester
This weekend John Lanchester wrote the cover piece for The Sunday Times Magazine, in which he argued that Facebook was the biggest surveillance enterprise in history, and could destroy civilisation.
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They also got a lot of free time and don’t focus because FB “is also a notorious time-sink and source of distraction” the article goes on.
Btw, Ever wondered this about PM’s Facebook posts?
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*https://mothership.sg/2013/11/10-signs-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong-dissatisfied-person/
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 