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Sober IT truths from the island-state

by Michael Tan, Singapore

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The Singapore Grand Prix: Old and New

Jul 25, 2008 10:20

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As we get closer to the Singapore GP 2008, where the first Formula 1 night race is going to be held together with some supporting races, let take a look at Singapore past before The Sanitization affected motorsport.

This is NOT the first race event called Singapore GP. From 1961 to 1973, a race was held in Singapore at the Thomson Road area, first called the Malaysia GP and then later renamed to the Singapore GP after independence. This was a pretty happening event, with a crowd 250,000 strong in 1966 at least, more than the expected crowd in the 2008 Singapore GP anyway. It was as claimed in period television footag, the premier motorsport event in Southeast Asia.

It's therefore utterly sad that the official 2008 Formula 1 Singapore GP website does not mention this grand old race at all.... it should have drawn on this heritage instead of being the sanitized boring website it is as of today. YUUUUK!

The old Singapore GP circuit is pretty cool to drive, though possibly haunted at night and infested by joggers and cyclists in the early hours of the morning, and an illegal racer would have to avoid fallen branches and monkeys, snakes and other small animals. Traction is limited at Devil's bend by fallen leaves, so make sure you get some intermediate tyres and not full slicks on this track if you wanna beat the best time of 1:54.9 by Leo Geoghegan in 1973).

Part of the track, the bendy side, was the site a few guys died earlier this year after celebrating one of them successfully getting his driving license. DOH! Some old racers commented on how dangerous the track was after that accident, especially the Devil's Bend which I think is a killer for overambitious drivers, a decreasing radius corner which, if taken with trail braking, requires a deft braking foot.

There's a Wikipedia entry on the old Singapore GP here. A thread started at the BMW-SG forum here. There's even a new book on the old Singapore GP, here. And here's an utterly excellent encoding of the 1966 TV report on the Singapore GP:

And to all the departed souls who died in a blaze of glory decades past, this blogpost is dedicated to you.

Thanks to the crowd at bmw-sg forums, and Pat, for reminding me of this event and some resources.

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New Singapore land transport e-payment systems: Will it improve on a dangerous situation?

Jul 14, 2008 15:52

Two years ago, I blogged that the Electronic Road Pricing's (ERP) requirement for prepaid cards was a danger to motorists as there are idiots who would just stop in the middle of the highway while searching for their CashCards. It's quite logical--prepaid cards have a tendency to "finish their cash" and when that happens the most composed of drivers would be distracted.
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Intellectual property restrictions at airports may make Johnny Mnemonics outta us

Jul 12, 2008 10:45

In Johnny Mnemonic (1995), the countries of the world have imposed strict restrictions on the transfer of data across borders, data being the most important commodity on earth. The Internet is huge but Governments have imposed immutable restrictions on the transfer of data across borders, too. Our Johnny here is a data trafficker who downloads information into his brain and smuggles the data across borders.

Today, Governments are trying to do the same. Governments all over the world are trying to impose data transfer restrictions, big business prosecuting Torrenters and Torrent servers, and most notable of all, France's President Sarkozy himself actively having a hand to pressure ISPs to filter out content and obligating them to take a part in restricting data flow.

But the craziest of it all was a report on the G8 Governments considering airport scans for data which infringes copyright--instantly reminding me of dear old Johnny. Now, this is a world gone crazy, forcing the infringing public, probably 80 percent of the world, to go deeper and deeper underground. Stopping airport traffic, too! How in the world is a customs official going to determine the IP easily? Simple--they can't.

Only allow heavily DRMed iPods and Zunes probably, and if you're holding a Chinese-branded MP3 player, the default position would be that you're pirating content. Or by nationality--if your country isn't a signatory to some international IP agreement or the other, you'd get more hassle. This ain't only an IP protection scheme, it's Memphisto in sheep's clothing, and this scheme can envelop dirty words like protectionism, racism, discrimination, etc., under the thin veneer of IP protection.

Is there a way out of this? Yeah, as I mentioned before, we need a blanket license. If Singapore has a way for all residents to sign up to a scheme where you pay a certain sum every month to a fund, proceeds from which are to be distributed to IP and content owners all over the world in exchange for a carte blanche to obtain content legally from any source, we'd be saved. We get a stamp, a license to download, in our passports and get waved freely past the customs officials.

Yes, this requires the dreaded government intervention, but tough times may need tough measures.

So read about my blanket licensing scheme here.

If you like it, don't forget to send the link to your favorite politician. Thanks.

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PS3+PSP = Watch your own videos EVERYWHERE!

Jul 9, 2008 12:47

With so many media formats and delivery mechanisms, we should be able to access our own videos, the stuff we have in our computers, anywhere in the house, especially in the toilet, and hopefully, anywhere on earth. As for me, all the pieces fell into place yesterday.
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What's the effect of clamping down on BitTorrent?

Jul 7, 2008 12:21

"Track the Sales Pirates and earn Money!"

Like that seems to be the buzzword today. Major companies are formed and prosper just trading in the fear of piracy. They give promises like "our tech is so great it's impossible to hack" and then somebody finds a way to hack it. Blu-ray and HD-DVD have been compromised. Lots of rips are available today, readily available, but who cares? DVD rips in h.264 are way smaller and the quality is good enough. After all, people download mostly to watch the show, not to do anal stuff to it like tune your home theater system using a reference Blu-ray disc.
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About Michael Tan

Michael Tan is lucky enough not to have to choose between his job and his passion. He is the responsible for all aspects of developing new businesses and sourcing new productlines for a regional IT distribution company. He also oversees the company's legal affairs as General Counsel. In real life, he is a technology enthusiast, from both the fun and business viewpoint. The only choices he has to make are whether to play with his astro telescopes, his PC games, his Wii console, hit the track, tweak his car, or refine his biofilters, post his blogs, research for a new digicam, scour every forum to feed his habit further, play with his son… ALL BLOGPOSTS ONLY REFLECT MICHAEL'S OPINIONS AND NOBODY ELSES'.