Today is the day to paint a wall in our living room as the “feature wall”. After much deliberation, we chose Nippon Paint Easy Wash’s Sunray colour, which is essentially bright orange.

In the process of painting, I replaced the yellowish HDB electrical socket on that wall with a new silver one:

Phew, after more than half a day of toiling, here’s the finished result:

For the record, I used a 1-litre tin for the entire wall in 3 coats.

April Fools’ Day is typically associated with practical jokes, pranks, and hoaxes. Love, perhaps is the last thing that we would associate with April Fools’ Day.

Many years ago when I was in NUS, I had a small group of friends consisting of both guys and girls. We were quite close at that time – hanging out between lessons, going karaoke, watching movies together, etc. In this group was a guy named R. R carried a torch for one of the girls in this group, named S. Now, R was a shy guy who did not openly make his feelings known to S. However, it did not stop R from secretly admiring S.  (and just in case you’re guessing already, no, I am not R and neither is Shuyi S )

Back then in the faculty where I studied, Valentine’s Day was also touted as “Friendship Day”, an occasion not just for the attached but also for the singles. Anyone can give gifts to any of their friends as a mark of friendship.

On one Valentine’s Day, R came to school with a few individually wrapped stalks of flowers (tulips, if I remember correctly). As our group sat down together, R presented each girl in the group with a stalk of those flowers. Naturally, S was one of the recipients too. R did it in a very good-natured way without any awkwardness. Everyone in the group was pleasantly surprised at R’s thoughtfulness.

It dawned on me that R hoped to buy flowers for S on that special occasion. Perhaps sensing that his chances were small, he had not the confidence to do so. Hence he chose to “hide” his expression of love under the cover of the day’s festivity. By buying flowers for all the girls in the group, he had achieved his aim of buying flowers for S. My heart went out to R.

Yesterday evening as I was jogging, something made R’s story come to my mind again. 1st April is another appropriate occasion to “hide” one’s expression of love under the cover of the day’s festivity. Tell that special-secret-yet-impossible someone that you like him/her! Then you both probably can laugh it off as an April Fools’ joke. At least you’ve told him/her the truth about your feelings.

S later dated another guy who would eventually become her husband in a happy marriage. As for R, he is also happily married to another wonderful lady.

Our cluster of blocks is being repainted at the moment. Today I spotted that work has already begun on one of the blocks. Soon the green+red will be replaced by beige+purple.

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

长：its existence through all ages (Eph. 3:21)
阔：its worldwide embrace (John 3:16)
高：its victory over sin opening the way to heaven (Eph. 4:8)
深：its profound wisdom (Rom. 11:33)

Source: Our Daily Bread 4th March 2009

I did. And so did my sister. I saw it from Kovan while my precious sister saw it from Ang Mo Kio.

It was only later when I did an Internet search that I realised a lot of other Singaporeans saw it too. ClupSNAP forum even has a thread dedicted to this rare rainbow sighting: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=481342

Amidst society’s hectic pace, it is heartening to see people stopping to admire such simple yet marvelous wonders. Brilliant.

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxkNy9lfuWY

Such cute innocence.

“14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands.” Yes, this is the video of Matt traveling around the world in year 2008.

Compared to one of his earlier videos, his latest video has a very much larger cast. It’s amazing to see the world related together by this simple dancing man.

(To view and/or download this video in higher quality, go here: http://www.stridegum.com/#/mattsplace/)

Just found this great mapping website a few days ago: http://www.gothere.sg/

Here are some of its features: (click on thumbnails to view larger images)

1. The search – by street names, building names, postal codes:

2. Comprehensive public transport info – buses at bus stops:

3. For the drivers – car park rates and ERP rates:

GoThere.sg is built upon the superb Google Maps API. Google Maps API is an open technology that allows anyone to build applications on top of it. There are already other exciting mapping websites such as ShowNearby that are also built upon Google Maps API. Streetdirectory can basically forget about making any comeback using its own proprietary technology.

( Time now in Singapore is 00:10am Saturday 7 June 2008 )

Yes, it’s finally here – Euro 2008 will kick off in 23 hours’ time! Euro is always fun and exciting to watch due to its likelihood of upsets and unexpected results. During the previous competition in 2004 when unfancied Greece eliminated big names and went ahead to lift the trophy, the Singapore media term it as “希腊神话” (Greek legend). Will there be another legend this time round?

As I do not subscribe to Starhub’s package, I can only catch the few free-to-air matches including the opening match. For the rest of the other matches, most probably I’ll be relying on ESPN website’s Gamecast – a Flash component that periodically displays the updated score of the ongoing match.

Btw, I’m rooting for the Netherlands, who certainly deserves better results given their steady performance. Hopefully they can achieve at least a spot in the final

Molly Lee Hui Li ( 1975-2008 ) – epitome of faith, courage and strength.

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHkJbVEAcsU

Three years ago when Molly was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer , she started her blog WeAreWonderWomen.Com to chronicle her own journey and to empower others who are facing similar battles as well. I was greatly touched (crying was inevitable) as I read through her journey till her very last entry. Though she has left us four days ago, her faith, courage and strength will continue to live in her blog and to inspire many more others.

Do visit her blog and recall the battles that had been fought by the wonderful lady: http://www.wearewonderwomen.com/blog/

With the recent spike of news around the region (and some hoax of Tang dynasty poet 李白 foretelling the Sichuan earthquake in one of his written poems), we might have lost track of an event that’s slowly making its way in tomorrow. On 23 May 2008, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will deliver its verdict on which country – Singapore or Malaysia – has sovereignty over Pedra Branca.

According to CNA’s report, “Channel NewsAsia will show the verdict ‘live’ on Friday [23 May 2008], from 4pm.”

In case you’re interested, here’s the background of the dispute: http://www.mfa.gov.sg/pedrabranca , from Singapore’s perspective.

Previously I wondered: Is M1 broadband injecting Javascript into my web pages? After making two unfruitful calls and then an email to M1, I’ve finally gotten an answer:

Yes, M1 broadband is indeed responsible for the blur images that I have been seeing while surfing the net.

In the M1 Customer Relations email reply to me, they are “currently implementing some optimization to improve the user’s experience while surfing“. The “solution” provided in the same email is: “To view the graphics at its optimal quality, you may like to move the mouse cursor over the picture, the blurred image will auto-refresh to the original image in about two seconds“. There was no mention of the time frame on when the problem will be totally resolved.

Oh, such an inconvenience! Before that, while waiting for the web pages to load via M1 broadband, I could have gone make myself a cup of coffee and come back to see the web page just finished loading. If I’m surfing at night, the page loading time is even enough for me to make a sandwich as well (yes, plus the coffee). But now I can’t even walk away from my computer because I need to mouse-over each and every image?

Personally, I find M1 broadband a disappointment on the following counts:

• This is clearly a case of insufficient testing before rolling out the system to customers. If M1 had thoroughly tested this system, it would have been aware of this image-blurring problem, instead of having to be informed of it by its customers. Are its customers being treated like guinea pigs? On the other hand, if M1 was already aware of such potential problem, then why didn’t it warn its customers beforehand?

• If I may borrow the same two adjectives spoken in parliament few days ago, I would describe the suggested work-around solution as silly and incredible. “Mousing over each image and then wait for two seconds before the image can be shown in its original quality” is hardly something that should come out from a reputable ISP.

• In the course of implementing such a system, M1 broadband took the liberty of injecting Javascript into all the web pages served out to its customers. This is totally intrusive! Furthermore, that chunk of injected Javascript is naively implemented and breaks some of the web pages that I browse.

Dear M1, if you may remember, I blogged about the praises I have for your broadband service when I first signed up for it in October 2007. Sadly, over the past six months the speed of your broadband service has deteriorated significantly. And now you’re serving out low-quality images in order to reduce the load on your network traffic?

Update (30 Apr 2008): The problem of blur images still persisted. Called up M1 again today to demand an answer on when they can resolve this problem once and for all. Just like the previous times, the answer was that they do not know how long it will take.

Recently on all the web pages that I surf on my PC, I have been seeing blurred images instead of the normally clear ones. I almost went to have my eyes checked, but turns out that it was due to a mysterious chunk of Javascript has been injected at the bottom of every web page that I visit. It’s frustrating because not only the images are blurred, some of the web pages are even broken and inaccessible due to the injected Javascript.

Well, how blur is blur? The first image is the original clear image:

and the following image is the one dished out by M1 and what I saw on my browser:

[ Start of technical paragraph. Feel free to skip this paragraph if it makes you giddy ]
When I view the source of the HTMLs, I notice a chunk of Javascript being injected at the bottom of every web page that I visit. This injected Javascript is extremely intrusive because it replaces all the images on web pages with compressed version of the images (for techies who are interested, I’ve listed this Javascript in its entirety at the bottom of this post). I did a further check at the University of Washington Web Integrity Checker and confirmed that the web pages has indeed been modified in transit after leaving the server and while on the way to my computer.

The question is: who is sneakily injecting Javascript into my web pages to replace all the images with the compressed and blurred versions?

My first suspect is naturally my ISP, M1 Broadband. As a simple test, I disconnected my notebook from M1 and connected to Wireless@SG instead. The problem disappeared! The images shown on web pages are the clear ones! I then connected my notebook back to M1 broadband, and the images are blurred again.

So on two occasions within 22 and 23 April 2008, I called up M1 Broadband technical support to inquire if they are purposely compressing all the images at their gateway. On both occasions, the technical support guy’s answer is a firm “No”, regardless of how hard I tried to reason with them. Sensing that these guys might be unaware of this issue themselves, I thanked them and hung up. Just before writing this blog entry, I sent an email to M1 to relate my problem again. Hopefully I can receive a better written reply from there.

If you’re using M1 Broadband and have been facing the same problem too for the past week or so, do leave a comment here. Thanks!

For techies who are interested, here is the injected Javascript in its entirety:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”JavaScript”>
var ir_t;
var ir_g;
var ir_y;
var ir_u;
var mp;
var ir_find=new Array(‘.gif’,’.GIF’,’.jpg’,’.JPG’,’.jpeg’,’.JPEG’);

function ir_r()
{
if(!ir_g.dontfetch)
{
if(ir_g.src.search(“mhtml”) != -1)
{
mp = ir_g.src.search(“!”);
if(mp != -1)
{
ir_g.src=ir_g.src.substring(mp+1);
}
}

ir_g.src=ir_g.src+’nguncompressed’;
}

ir_g.dontfetch=true;
ir_g.updateSrc=true;
ir_g.title = ir_g.oldTitle;
ir_g.alt = ir_g.oldAlt;
window.status=”;

}

function ir_c(event)
{
if(! event)
event = window.event;

lTargetTag = (null != event.srcElement) ? event.srcElement : event.target;

if(lTargetTag)
{
if(lTargetTag.tagName==”IMG”)
{
ir_g=lTargetTag;
if(!ir_g.dontfetch && !ir_g.updateSrc && !ir_y)
{
if(!ir_g.changeAlt)
{
ir_g.oldTitle = ir_g.title;
ir_g.title = ”;
ir_g.oldAlt = ir_g.alt;
ir_g.alt = ”;
ir_g.changeAlt = true;
}
window.status = ”;
ir_t=setTimeout(“ir_r();”, 1000*2);
}
}
}
}

function ir_e()
{
clearTimeout(ir_t);
window.status=”;
}

function ir_d(event)
{
if(! event)
event = window.event;

if(!ir_u && event.keyCode == 38 )
{
ir_u=true;
ir_y=true;
for (i = 0 ; i < document.images.length ; i++)
{
if(!(document.images[i].updateSrc))
{
for (j = 0 ; j < ir_find.length ; j++)
{
if((document.images[i].src).search(ir_find[j]) != -1)
{
if((document.images[i].src).search(“mhtml”) != -1)
{
mp = (document.images[i].src).search(“!”);
if(mp != -1)
{
(document.images[i].src)=(document.images[i].src).substring(mp+1);
}
}
document.images[i].src=document.images[i].src+’nguncompressed’;
break;
}
}
}
}
}

}

for (i = 0 ; i < document.images.length ; i++)
{
ir_y=false;
var lOnMouseOver = document.images[i].onmouseover;
if (lOnMouseOver == null)
{
for (j = 0 ; j < ir_find.length ; j++)
{
if((document.images[i].src).search(ir_find[j]) != -1)
{
document.images[i].onmouseover=ir_c;
break;
}
}
}
};

for (i = 0 ; i < document.images.length ; i++)
{
var lOnMouseOut = document.images[i].onmouseout;
if (lOnMouseOut == null)
{
document.images[i].onmouseout=ir_e;
}
};

</SCRIPT>

Reuters UK couldn’t have chosen a more innovative title for their news article: Singapore says militant escaped without trousers. It’s also amusing to see the piece of news filed under “Oddly Enough” category.

Shucks, if only Singaporeans had known this piece of information upfront! It would have been so much easier to spot someone without trousers than someone with a limp. I mean, in Singaporeans’ vigilant efforts to spot that limping leg, we could have easily missed that person who walked past us without his trousers on right? Aiyah, so wasted.

Even my good friend Wilfrid has decided to flaunt his scriptwriting skills with a hilarious movie script here: Where In The World Is Mas Selamat?

Of course, it’s not just fun and games. Corrective actions must be taken. For starters, they should fix the two non-working CCTVs. How about considering mr brown’s suggestions on installing imitation CCTVs? Yes, I would say let’s go for the ones with wires and blinking LEDs as they look more real.

Also, from Mr. Wong Kan Seng’s ministerial statement (para 64), he has already instructed Directory ISD to take the corrective actions. I quote: “For example, the toilet window has been sealed”. It is my sincere hope that it was either a grammatical error or the Whitley Road Detention Centre has only ONE toilet window in the entire compound.

Blink, and 7 years have passed. ICQ was the first instant messaging (IM) software I used way back in year 2001. It was also the one where I had the most memorable chats with colleagues at Hill Street and Ann Siang Hill.

My ICQ number remains as 66071343. Friends, hope you have been well.

If you love the Firefox web browser, chances are you will love the Flock browser too. Branded as “The Social Web Browser”, Flock is powered by the same Mozilla engine.

I consider Flock as a one-stop web browser having built-in features that offers a great deal of conveniences. Instead of you visiting multiple websites to check for updates, the Flock browser aggregates all these info for you. For instance, Flock alerts you whenever a new email is received at your Gmail account or whenever your friends update their Facebook profiles.

Some of the features that are built right into Flock:

• Gmail – Get notified via a highlighted icon whenever you receive any new emails.
• Facebook – View the latest friends updates and their photos. You can update your Facebook status from Flock as well.
• Flickr / Picasa / Photobucket – Upload and manage your photo collections.
• del.icio.us – When you bookmark a web page, Flock offers you the option of bookmarking it in your del.icio.us account as well.
• Twitter – View the latest friends updates. Update your Twitter status from Flock as well.
• Blog – Draft and publish your blog entries from Flock.
• RSS – Built-in RSS reader. Get notified via a highlighted icon of new updates to your subscribed feeds.

As you may have noticed at the bottom right of this post, I published this blog entry using Flock.

Highly recommended! Try it out at: http://www.flock.com

It could be due to my intermittent M1 broadband, but I’ve been unable to access www.streetdirectory.com since yesterday afternoon. I wonder if this outage is related to the recent court case where the website owner Virtual Map Pte Ltd was being sued for infringing on Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) copyright? Virtual Map went on to lose the case and the subsequent appeal. Could Virtual Map be taking down www.streetdirectory.com?

If you’re one of those who can’t get by a day without streetdirectory.com, there’s a lesser-known guide provided by SLA at: http://www.map.gov.sg/StreetMap . It’s a scaled-down version without driving directions and other frills.

For those who are interested in courtroom drama, here is the entire transcript of the court session where Virtual Map Pte Ltd lost their appeal against the verdict:
http://lwb.lawnet.com.sg/legal/lgl/rss/supremecourt/56399.html

Update (3 Apr 2008): It’s confirmed that Virtual Map has brought the site down and “hopes to bring the site back up shortly, with new maps that the company has been working on” (see Channel NewsAsia report: Popular online map website down for days after losing appeal).

Night. What’s the purpose if it’s same as day?

Night. Better not have it as it merely reminds of the things that are missing here.

A truly wonderful music video recommended to me by dear Daniel Ho. “Sacrifice” by Bob Fitts. Thanks, Daniel!

Ever wondered how Abraham felt as he journeyed up the mountains to sacrifice Isaac? In parallel, the heart of the Father as He sacrificed His one and only Son. A timely reflection for us in this season of Lent.

YouTube link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEBmuQxXlHU

In their greatest contribution to national security to date, Talkingcock.com has come up with a poster of the possible disguises that Mas Selamat Kastari can put on.

After all, it’s been a week since he has escaped. Isn’t it highly possible that he could have done more than just shaved off his moustache and beard? (that is, if he’s still in Singapore)