nicthegeek

真的是懶到想不到什麽好題材po。 就算有，也懶得po。 快點打起精神啊！！！

It seems that the demolishing of Tang Dyansty City in the western corner of Singapore is taking place. Newspaper reports last year said that demolishing would start in January this year and be completed by March 09, although nothing was really noticeable this past 10 months. Passing by it last week, even unobservant me noticed that the 10m high stone ‘castle walls’ have fallen, and the pagoda has lost quite a few of its storeys.

It’s always been a myth to me what Tang Dynasty City really represented and sought to prove. The ancient Chinese ‘city’, a recreation of ancient Chang’an, is not part of our culture (maybe our great great great grandfathers’). The admission ticket, seeking to emulate the success of Haw Par Villa, was over-priced. Activities were mostly passive and blah, consisting of craft demonstrations, a wax museum and Chinese acrobatic acts (which one can catch on Channel 8 every public holiday). Food and other products for sale were ridiculously expensive.  Only some of the exhibits from the park came to a good end, after being auctioned off by the owners.  Some of the terracotta warriors, fake of course, now see the throbbing nightlife of the city.  One of them might even stand in my boss’ house.

For the past 10 years since it closed, the park has just been an eerie 12-ha plot of land, whose carpark served as a large vehicle park, a temporary stop for busy contractors eating at the food court across the road, and who knows, as an illicit rendezvous point at night.  It certainly was dark enough.

Discussions for the after-life of the $100-million theme park included a Shaolin-style helath retreat (which has apparently been shelved or fallen through), or perhaps even an integrated resort (IR) minus the casino, in the theme of Downtown East (Downtown West, anyone?). Sources from the industry have mixed concerns about the future of the 12-ha site.  Will it succeed as an IR minus the casino?  Or will it emulate another Downtown East family theme park?  Will encroaching into Jurong Lake and neighbouring Chinese and Japanese Gardens, adding onto the massiveness of the site be of any use?

Given the recent economic downturn, we really need to ask whether there is enough critical mass in Singapore and the surrounding countries to support yet another massive leisure/entertainment/shopping/hotel project.

nicthegeek is back to trying out Flock.  I first started trying out Flock in 2006, attracted by yet another browser with Mozilla/Firefox capabilities.  What was better, was that Flock was partnered with Photobucket, at that time my favourite online photo album.  It made uploading photos, well…brainless.  It was all drag and drop.  Blogging with lots of photos was made that much easier, consisting of typing, dragging and dropping.

But then, it all became a drag when Flock became more and more bloated, and took forever to open, both on the PC and on my iBook G4.  I then turned back to Firefox, which was then in its 2.x incarnation.  But then, I’ve kept an eye on Flock and the comings and goings.

Given that Flock 2.0 went official a month ago, I couldn’t pass up the chance of using it again, especially when it’s based on Firefox 3.0.  I don’t give myself much choice in terms of browsers, having stuck with Firefox for the past few years, only grudgingly going back to IE when certain sites don’t work or need testing.


What has always attracted me to Flock has been the support for various social networking and Web 2.0 sites: Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook, WordPress, Digg…open up the Accounts and Services sidebar (pictured) to find more.  It lets you do so many things without having to go to the site, login, and do
whatever you want to 
do.  Update your Facebook status, check your friends’ status, upload photos, check emails, chec your RSS feeds, so on, so forth.  Saw some text or graphics you’d like to blog about?  Just drag and drop it into Flock’s web clipboard, and drag and drop it into your blog post.  Upload your photos to Facebook, Flickr or 
Photobucket?  Open up the photo uploader.  All that and more is just so much easier, without having to flick through several open windows.

Flock is also the first browser to have Media RSS, meaning you can subscribe to media feeds (photos, videos, etc) via your Flock browser.  The media bar can also be opened and closed as you fancy.  Appearing just above your tabs, you can view your own media streams from Flickr
or Facebook, or search for streams or whatever happens to be on your mind at the time.

- easy access to any of your accounts or Flock’s partnered services via the handy little bar on the left-hand side.
- view uploaded photos or videos, or search for other media streams via the Media Bar just above your browsing space.

Of course, I could also say that all this and more can also be done with Firefox 3.0, with just a few additions of well-made extensions.  But isn’t it so much better, if you didn’t have to worry about trawling for the extensions, loading them, testing them and sorting through the good, the bad and the ugly.  AND, most Firefox extensions can also be used by Flock…HA!

Having said all that, Flock is not the browser to use, if you’re looking for a lean and mean browsing machine.  Google Chrome, another nicthegeek favourite, would be more for you.

Flock is also not without any faults.  Most Firefox users would find it easy enough to use, although the gamut of partnered services means having to dig deeper into the various menus and toolbars.  It will take a little bit of time before you’re used to the various buttons and sidebars that appear out of nowhere, and are everywhere.

But, trust me, if you’re into social networking and are signed up to too many sites to keep track of, Flock might be one of your trusty solutions.

this San Miguel Wild Day Out series of concerts is getting very irritating.  Why doesn’t it happen in Singapore?

On another note, 老大’s hairstyle not very flattering.  What happened?

Young and old, local and foreign, the vision includes all

SOME 100,000 plants will be introduced. The neighbourhood park will be transformed into a theme park for both young and old. Boon Lay Shopping Centre will be revamped.

The vision is to transform Boon Lay into a tranquil suburban residential enclave with a distinctive identity, and it’s not just to cater to the district’s aging population.

By rejuvenating the estate with upgraded facilities, this will also hopefully attract younger families to live in Boon Lay, said Madam Ho Geok Choo, Member of Parliament for West Coast GRC, at a briefing on plans for the estate.

The WellnessCentre@BoonLay, which provides healthcare services to the elderly, will partner Alexandra Hospital to provide step-down care at affordable rates for elderly residents discharged after a hospital stay.

Also to be launched is an e-Learning Lab, set up by the Boon Lay Youth Executive Committee to provide computer facilities and Internet access to underprivileged students. Certified instructors will conduct computer courses.

Would the large number of foreign workers in Boon Lay, however, affect the estate’s image and younger families’ decisions to move into the estate?

Said Mdm Ho: “Boon Lay residents have learnt to accept the foreign workers, although the challenge remains how to assure the younger ones who want to set up homes in Boon Lay that the issue is not something to be worried about.”

Indeed, Boon Lay could become an example for a more tolerant nation, she said. “Perhaps Boon Lay can be the first constituency that will demonstrate that, despite the big proportion of foreign workers in the estate, we still have the young flocking to live here because we have got our fundamentals right.”

Citing examples of how foreign workers are included in community events in Boon Lay, Mdm Ho said the grassroots leaders have invited these workers to the community visit by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports on Nov 23.

On the economic crisis, she said more residents have been coming to her for financial help.

“I use to see about 60 people or so, but in recent weeks, the number has grown to around 80 … They mainly come because they are laid off or they can’t afford to pay for their utilities. Some cannot even find enough money to pay for their transportation to school and their workplaces.”

Mdm Ho hopes to raise $1 million for community development in Boon Lay by end-January.

The fund-raising activities include a charity dinner at which a new cookbook with residents’ recipes will be auctioned off.

Source : Today – 12 Nov 2008

Wow, seems like my home area is being held up as an example of racial tolerance…of course our MP speaks for all of us, when she says that we have accepted the omni-presence of FTs in our neighbourhood, although I still wonder where she lives…

This link http://www.usernamecheck.com/ shows you how Web 2.0 you are.  well, actually it just shows you where your username has been used already.

Right now, I am only this much Web 2.0

Blogger
Del.i.cious
Flickr
FriendFeed
Gmail
Lastfm
Multiply
Plurk
Pownce
Technorati
Tumblr
Twitter
Vox
WordPress

Apparently nicthegeek is also present at Brightkite, Ebay, Kwippy, Livejournal and Yahoo, altho I cannot remember, for the life of me, when I ever signed up for them. Maybe some idiot used my nick, just like so many others have started using my old nick, trenix. I am so tempted right now to sign up for each and every single site listed there.

Find out where you are now.

3-day weekends are the best, they should be made constitutional.

interesting! Found this from a link of a friend of a friend of a friend…

YouTube – Mapping Chicago – How It’s Made

let’s see how long I can keep it up…

nicthegeek.wordpress.com – tech, gadgets, handphones, internet

lucidmyth.wordpress.com – personal

iliveinboonlay.wordpress.com – all about boon lay

天啊！天啊！天啊！天啊！天啊！

老大的新專輯！七億光年的迷航記。。。什麽東西？？？？

11/7 發片！