February 2005 Archives

Registered readers of the Straits Times Interactive, the online version of Singapore's quality daily, would have heard that we will soon be charged for web access.

I am curious to see how this little experiment will work out. As a trainee (in SPH itself, of all ironies) I was told by an American news guru that only newspapers with invaluable information in specialised areas - such as the Wall Street Journal, and perhaps the New York Times - could get away with this and make a profit.

Of course that was years ago, and I suppose our market (for paid print newspapers at least) is too small to sustain anything more than one or two big players. This makes it easier for them to control the market. And elsewhere in the world people like Glenn Reynolds, and most recently Jason Kottke, are making money by blogging. So perhaps it is worth a shot.

But once the doors close on readers of the Straits Times Interactive, we'd likely turn to TodayOnline and Channel News Asia, as well as the Asian sections of international news websites such as CNN and the BBC. I won't miss the sports section - I prefer British papers with first-hand accounts of English Premier League matches, anyway.

In my view, the benefits for subscribers are nothing to shout about. It's nice - but not essential - to access all Life! reports. I don't see the urgency in getting Digital Life and Mind Your Body at 6am. At most, the Money reports may be useful to some (but isn't sister paper, the Business Times, better for that?)

There are other ways to add value to this new subscription service, though I doubt much will be done:

Subscribers could get RSS news feeds. I scan the BBC and Guardian headlines off my feed reader, which is very convenient.

They could develop a more intelligent search engine, which actually lets me find the right articles.

They could cut down on advertisements. I particularly dislike the huge, distracting block of Flash in the middle of each article. Then again, I predict a dearth in pageviews once the subscription period begins. This will lower ad revenues, and gradually the company may be forced to lower their rates because they will be capturing much less eyeballs on their (presumably) most popular newspaper website.

Existing subscribers to the print edition could get free online access (like The Economist and BusinessWeek). Now, that would really rock. However, considering SPH's existing business model with Newslink, I really doubt the latter would happen.

Overall, I'm not terribly impressed and I won't pay for access. At most, I'll just try to get up earlier in the morning to spend more time reading the paper version.

Come March 15, where will you readers turn to, instead?

[Update: SPH has reviewed their policy after receiving numerous reader complaints. Existing print subscribers now get a 50% discount. Now that's more like it. About time they got more market-savvy!]

I updated my third-generation iPod firmware and the iPod couldn't work anymore. It displayed the folder icon with the exclamation mark. A few seconds later, it would turn off. No amount of rebooting worked, this time.

After hunting down some forum threads, I found Apple's documentation on this problem. For my case I think the firmware did get updated, but my iPod was stuck in Disk Mode and couldn't play any music.

Sigh ... another re-format this month!

[Update: It's nearly 2am on 26/2/05 and I've only managed to transfer 300+ songs back into the iPod. iTunes keeps on hanging and I've done many iPod and iMac reboots. This is really pissing me off. I'm using the latest Mac software versions. I've wasted so much time and sleep doing this. I'm going nuts. ]

[Update #2: I discovered that my iPod still works fine my PowerMac. Which means there could be something wrong with our iMac. I ran Disk Utility and fixed a gazillion permission conflicts. Quite unnerving, seeing how we only bought it last month.]

My legal friend K sent this link over from the Police Force website, and I think it's useful for all Singaporean drivers to know.

(I'm not sure if 'handphone' is an exclusively Singaporean term. To the Yanks, we're talking about cellphones. To the Brits, we're referring to mobiles).

There seems to be pretty strict liability here - the fact that you were using a hands-free kit does nothing to lessen the severity of the offence, as long as one hand was on the phone.

But I can understand what the lawmakers are getting at. Once as I was walking on the pavement around the Bugis area, a car swerved from the leftmost lane to the rightmost, causing other motorists to horn. As it cut across the 3 or 4 lanes, I noticed the driver was talking on the phone and steering his car with one hand. That happened years ago but the dramatic scene was etched into my mind.

Fortunately, my phone is usually plugged into the hands-free kit when I'm driving, and after a couple of rings it automatically answers the phone. Now I just have to remember NOT to press any buttons while the car is in motion - even to end the call (which happens by itself anyway, once the other person hangs up).

... to file my taxes.

This year, Singaporeans log on to mytax.iras.gov.sg.

Curiously, I am told that my browser is not Java-enabled. Checking Firefox's preferences, I do have Java enabled.

Viewing the FAQ section on how to fix this problem, there is only help for Mac users of Netscape 7.01 and Safari 1.2.3.

I'm in a similar situation when doing Internet banking. I suppose Safari has to be my de facto browser for secure internet transactions.

I got confirmed today - this time in Church, by our Anglican bishop. Fortunately he didn't ask us any trick questions! I feel confirmation is more a man-made tradition, so I was less excited about it than my baptism. Nonetheless, I learnt more about the church's history and practices in catechism class.

Anyway I won't be posting much because of studio 'work' and also because the server's acting up. It's time to do some housecleaning - both physical and virtual.

Sweetback (the band Sade without the singer Sade) has revamped their splash page - at least, since the last time I visited it. If you tune in now you can hear the voice of Singapore-born singer, Aya, albeit in compressed low-quality audio format.

I have been unable find Sweetback's new album, Stage 2, in my regular haunts That CD Shop and HMV. It's quite silly. You'd think these shops would stock it. And of course, they've never heard of Aya.

However, as mentioned previously, I did manage to purchase Aya's album, Strange Flower, while in Perth. It is not bad at all, if you like electronica and chillout with an ethnic flavour. At this time of writing, it has a FIVE out of five star rating over at Amazon.com with a sales rank of about #5000.

[I repeat: these big retailers don't know who this Singapore-born gal is, and their suppliers don't stock her CDs.]

Her vocals aren't as powerful and varied as the female singer for the first Sweetback album, Amel Larrieux, but is attractive in a vulnerable way. Some say she can't sing, others love her style and say she was Sweetback's saving grace in an otherwise ordinary second album. Two reviews (1) (2) write about the 'personal' feel of her music, each giving 4/5 stars.

Go figure. At least, the rest of the world has noticed her.

[Update: You can listen to samples of her album here.]

Loosely following the practices of Kottke.org, I shall follow up on previous blog posts with updates and amendments.

I take back everything I said about how cool the Belkin Cassette Adapter is. Of course, most of these CNet reviews came in a while after I had purchased them. But they confirmed my suspicions that, perhaps, I was not the only one suffering from 'rattle and spit'. I hear Griffin has a better model, anyone tried it before?

The iMac is doing very well. And so is the PowerMac G5. Its dual processors process music files rapidly.

MT-Blacklist is doing fine, though I was hit by another load of comment and trackback spam, and a few genuine commentors were locked out. Sorry about that, your words have now been posted.

I face the same religious and societal dilemma every Chinese New Year. It's happening again this morning...

We're back. It was an amazing trip. We did the usual shopping rounds, went to a winery, the chocolate factory (just a nibble), the ice cream factory (just a lick), and got attacked by a mob of hungry swans, seagulls and ducks which we were trying to feed at a rather large pond.

Nothing else eventful happened, save for one thing. On the first day of Chinese New Year, we stepped out of our hotel lobby, only to see the main entrance lined out as if a VIP was arriving. We asked who it was. My mother said, maybe it's Sting! I said, maybe it's Kylie (both were due to perform in or near Perth)! The boy cousins perked up considerably at the mention of the name, 'Kylie'.

However, it was neither singer - the doorman told us it was Cherie Blair. Not too bad either (though the boys were disappointed)! She emerged, walking rapidly, with a few aides around her. A couple of us whipped out cameras, at which point she turned away from her car, and walked towards us!

We didn't expect the wife of the British PM to be so friendly and unassuming. She shook our hands, one by one, and did most of the chatting with my mum ("Oh, you're from Singapore! Good duty free shopping there!" - that's all the time she had during the stopover), while the youngsters were too shy to say anything. When I decided to break the silence by saying, "Nice to meet you, Mrs Blair!" as she shook my hand, she looked pleasantly surprised and chirped back, "Nice to meet you too!" and looked like she really meant it.

Of course she didn't hang around for long, so I never got to say the pretentious 'Ooh I studied law too in England' shite I had in mind should there be any more awkward silences. Thank God for that.

Now it's time for a good shower, and hopefully a little bash in the music room because now I'm really inspired to get something completed. Yeah.

I'll be in Perth the whole week, so Gong Xi Fa Cai in advance to my Chinese readers!

I went to HMV's sale and picked up the following:

1. Blue Lines by Massive Attack
2. Protection by Massive Attack
3. Odelay by Beck
4. Acoustic Soul by India Arie
5. Liquid Skin by Gomez
6. Talkie Walkie by Air (Bah. Premieres Symptomes is now going at the same price and I paid Import rates for it)
7. Best Kept Secrets - The best of Lamb
8. The Outernational Sound - Thievery Corporation (not on sale)
9. Closest Thing to Heaven - Tears For Fears (not on sale. Cost a bomb!)

I was planning to get most of these titles for some time. Alas, HMV didn't have Sweetback's Stage 2 album, and lead singer Aya's album Strange Flower is not in their records. What a pity.

The kd lang concert was good, as expected. Actually, she sounded better here in the Esplanade than in her 'Live by Request' album!

K and I had a most hurried dinner, and got to our seats in the nick of time. The band and orchestra behind them were already seated.

When kd lang made her appearance, there was enthusiastic applause. She was wearing a long black skirt! A S-K-I-R-T. And a black jacket. Hmm, I thought, she's gained a little weight since the Invincible Summer series. But she looked cheerful and confident. And she was barefoot throughout the concert.

She started with 'Don't Smoke In Bed', followed by 'Simple', which I understand (from K) she performed on TV a couple weeks ago. Then she sang 'Still Thrives This Love'. These songs were taken from the albums 'Drag', 'Invincible Summer' and the acclaimed 'Ingenue' in that order.

kd seemed a little overwhelmed (or charmed?) by our rapturous appreciation of her performance. She paused to say, "I have one regret..." Some people chuckled. She continued, "I regret I took so long to come here!" We whooped! She praised the Esplanade and our very own Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, who were accompanying her band on strings.

She did a really cute take on Miss Chatelaine. Suddenly this self-titled ingenue acted all coy, striking feminine poses, even sliding her hand up her body in a mock attempt at seducing the audience. She pranced and gallavanted around the stage, shaking her 'bon bon' so to speak. During the first chorus, the drummer took on a more latin beat and she started dancing in that fashion.

Constant Craving, the song that most of you would be familiar with, was not played the way you hear in the album. Indeed, with such a rich ensemble of musicians, a more jazzy chord structure was used, as with several other songs in this concert. (In fact I think I should try to figure out the chords before I totally forget what they sound like). Needless to say, the result was beautiful.

Later into the performance she sang songs from Hymns of the 49th Parallel, her latest album. There were covers by other big names such as Roy Orbison's 'Crying', and songs by young (and relatively less well known) Canadian songwriters.

She would banter with the audience in between songs. One guy (Canadian?) shouted, "WE LOVE YOU!!" and kd, who was saying something else in mid-sentence, responded at once, "Yeah I got you figured out!"

It seemed there were many Canadians in the audience, quite a few of whom were seniors. Her countrymen were the most enthusiastic, but we Singaporeans caught on to the spirit of things pretty fast, too.

Towards the end of the concert, a woman seated on the right side of the stage shouted something else at kd. Almost at once, kd told us that this woman had to be Australian. The woman said, yes she was! kd said, You gotta love these Aussies!

The performance closed with a standing ovation comprising 99% of the audience in my view. A small table and chair was brought out. kd lang re-entered the stage, and proceeded to sit down, as though she was in a cafe. She then tried to close up the long slit in her skirt, with little success at first.

By way of apology at her 'fumbling', she said this was her first time in a skirt, and that sometimes one should try drag. We chuckled.

She then commanded all of us to hold hands with the people sitting around us! She said we would all remember this moment in the years to come.

Mimicking an old lady's voice, she quivered, "We went to a kd lang concert and I held hands with this nice young gentleman..." We laughed.

Then she added, still using an old lady's voice, "... At least, I think it was a gentleman!"

Oh, what a wickedly sharp sense of humour she had. Self-deprecating, unabashedly open with her sexuality (and that of her fans), with a powerful voice that never failed to leave you yearning for more. She had remarkable microphone control - whenever she crescendoed she would draw the mic further away from her, almost like playing a trumpet. I tucked this little observation into my head (for the time I finally do voice recordings in my studio).

We gave another standing ovation, she and her band re-emerged and she sang her last song for the night. A female Esplanade employee gave her flowers. kd looked like she was expecting a peck on the cheek or something. (She didn't get it)

I would have liked to hear more songs from her Invincible Summer album, such as 'The Consequences of Falling', but it seemed her main objective was to promote budding Canadian talents and her new album. Fair enough! She thanked us for supporting MOSAIC, and left the stage for the final time. That was the third standing ovation we gave her.

To those of you who missed her concert, the closest experience in terms of acoustics, vocal and chord variations, would be the 'Live by Request' album.

Now this guy deserves some mention (though he probably doesn't need it, seeing how he's linked on Zeldman AND is nominated for a Bloggie). Oh well. One out of two ain't that bad for me.

The first thing that hit me when I saw his website was, wow! I had a white site before. But not as pixel-pretty as this one. And wow, he writes anti-spam scripts! And produces music! I have a home studio but haven't even gotten off my arse to launch any MP3s yet! I'm worthless compared to this guy!

[Note: His website looks really good on my 20-inch iMac.]

[Note #2: One reason why I haven't launched any music yet is because the studio's under renovation and the grand piano and Korg keyboards and G5 PowerMac are all wrapped and sealed in plastic. Of course, the overriding reason is I'm lazy and haven't bothered to register my songs yet.]

I've finally re-installed MT Blacklist properly. And closed comments and trackbacks for recent posts.

I hope that lets in legitimate posts and pings while keeping most of the bad guys away. Here goes...

[Update: What the heck. Thanks to this tip, I've also modified my referrals log to get rid of the referrer spam!]

I received over 90 trackback spams from you just today. I wonder why you're wasting precious hours of your life every day doing this to bloggers. For one, no matter how many times you try to spam my comments and trackbacks, there's no way any of your messages will get posted on any of my blogs.

You see, none of the comments posted on my blog will be published unless and until I approve them. Interestingly, it seems to work for trackbacks too. You've wasted your time.

Looking at my email notifications, you started spamming my weblog's trackback as of 2.15pm and have kept on going until now (9.25pm). I am amazed at the amount of effort you are wasting on this site. Even as I type, new trackbacks are trickling in.

And now I am about to delete all your efforts in one fell swoop. How does it feel, having worked for nearly a day on this, only to find that nothing's going to happen?

If you think I or my readers are fool enough to click blindly on any of your senseless, random posts, you are grossly mistaken.

Go and focus on marketing your own website properly, instead of free-riding on other people's servers!

[Note: No comments or trackbacks allowed in this post]

See also
Six Apart's guide to fighting spam