mrbrown.com

TODAY: I am a Gadget Slut

Latest TODAY column: I am a Gadget Slut

Excerpt:

I tell you, it is not my fault. We Singaporeans have all grown up expecting upgrading in all areas of our lives. Better grades, better jobs, better lifts — these are the things that warm the heart of a true Singaporean. So, can anyone blame me for wanting to upgrade my gadgets, too?

Perhaps one day, they will build a gadget that will do everything for me. I can imagine a product — let's call it The Zeus Tech 3000 — that becomes my do-it-all (or bao ka liao in Hokkien), device. That way, I need never buy another gadget again, because the Zeus 3000 will always meet my needs. The Zeus Tech 3000 can play music, videos, and make coffee. And those are just the basic features.

Always check your attachments before hitting Send

"Oh, shoot. Did I just send that internal media briefing document to journalists?"

Cue: heads roll.

via Tomorrow

Excerpt:

A Temasek document, entitled "2006-03 Taurus Q&As" - which was designed to help its executives answer media enquiries on its 12% stake in Standard Chartered - was yesterday sent as an email attachment to some journalists instead of another file. The document contains 59 questions and answers and was prepared by staff to anticipate questions that might arise from the acquisition. Given that Temasek has rarely done Q&As with the media, the exercise represents a somewhat unique insight into what the Singapore state investment agency currently perceives its perceptional issues are and its own stance on these issues. In what follows we have reproduced the entire Q&A section. It is unedited, except to state in square brackets where answers were left blank.

PGR3 on an arcade machine

Project Gotham 3 on Xbox 360 being played on our arcade machine. We also have an Xbox and PS2 hooked up to this puppy. Just the thing for a retro gaming experience.

I was driving a Countach and my opponent was driving a Testarossa.

(Our game was shortlived because the machine hung but then it was a developer unit, so that's understandable.)

Ministry of Home Affairs calls Ministry of Sound

Maybe the phone lines got static leh, you know, like the telephone got some virus, so when the police said "your party may shut down traffic" it was heard as "your party will be shut down"?

I know how annoying that can be, because everytime I drive into the CTE tunnel at Havelock, my M1 handphone signal will almost always cut.

From: Fridae:

According to Mr. Clement Lee, executive director of Ministry of Sound’s parent company LifeBrandz, Mr Kelvin Yeo, Compliance Management Officer from Tanglin Police called on Friday evening after office hours demanding that the club cancel the event, failing which enforcement officers would come to the club on Sunday to shut the party down. The reason given by the police to Mr. Lee over the telephone was that the party would "promote gay activities."

From TODAY:

A police spokesperson, however, denied that they had intervened in any way.

What they did after receiving "information from the public" about the party on March 24 was to contact the Ministry of Sound's management to "obtain more details" to plan for possible "traffic or law and order situations that might arise".

Said the spokesperson: "At no time did we advise the management of the Ministry of Sound to cancel the event."

browncast: wonders of singapore 1, katong

Meet Noodle Chia, tour guide for Fast Horse Bus and Tour Company, takes Mr Miyagi and a tour group to discover the Wonders of Singapore — Katong. A new series from the mrbrown show!

the mrbrown show for the month of March 2006 is kindly brought to you by Okamoto Condoms. There is even a contest with cash prizes! Just head over to www.condomcontest.com.

the mrbrown show for the month of March 2006 is kindly brought to you by Okamoto Condoms. There is even a contest with cash prizes! Just head over to www.condomcontest.com.

Audio file for the mrbrown show 27 March 2006: wonders of singapore 1, katong
(MP3, Filesize: 8.7mb, Time: 00:17:03)

Subscribe to the podcast feed here.
(Or click here to subscribe via iTunes)

Technorati tags: singapore, mrbrown, podcast, podcasting

TODAY: I want, I want, I just want my CCTV

Latest TODAY column: I want, I want, I just want my CCTV

Excerpt:

FIRST they gave you TV Mobile, so that you can watch TV on the bus. So, why is anybody surprised that the next thing they are thinking of installing on buses would be Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTVs)?

Singaporeans simply love security cameras and CCTVs. Of course! It is for our safety and protection! Privacy is overrated anyway. We gladly sacrifice it in the name of security.

Besides, as the newspaper report said, London has already done it. Of course! The favourite "some other country has already done it" reason! Surely, our decision to do it is right too.

These are not the droids you are looking for...

The wife, walking with me at Suntec after dinner, "Hey you said you wanted to go to Mango, right?"

Me: "Er ya! I am such a Mango fan lor!"

Nice try, dear.

(Actually all I said earlier was "If you wanna go to Mango later, go lor.")

the mrbrown show: Podcast Studio v6

The latest incarnation of our podcast studio. The tin can computer speakers were not working out and we needed better studio monitors (we don't just do vocal podcasting with this gear). KRK RP5 (Rokit Powered 5) Powered Reference studio monitors were added. And these active speakers kick ass.

Also the mixer's mic preamps were not giving us the right ooomph on the mics, so we added the M-Audio DMP3 Mic Preamp. The Audio-Technica AT2020 is a highly regarded budget condenser mic which we added because the AT897 had to be used to shoot video for another project.

From left: KRK RP5 studio monitors, Audio Technica AT-897 Shotgun condenser microphone, Yamaha MG12/4 Mixer, Audio-Technica AT2020 condenser microphone with Stedman Proscreen 101 pop filter, M-Audio Nova studio condenser microphone with Stedman Proscreen 101 pop filter and Samson stand, Sennheiser HD 280 Pro studio monitor headphones, M-Audio Mobilepre USB (USB Bus-Powered Preamp and Audio Interface), M-Audio DMP3 (Dual Microphone/Instrument Preamp), Apple iMac G5 iSight 17-inch (with 1.5gb of memory), and Shure SM-58 dynamic microphone.

Not in pic, the iPod 40gb Clickwheel with Griffin iTalk and lapel mic, and Behringer Eurorack UB802 Mixer.

You may want to look at the previous versions of the setup: version 4 and version 5.

V for Viennetta

It is a very surreal thing to watch V for Vendetta, or V for Viennetta, as my wife called it. I had to tell her Viennetta is an ice cream cake from Wall's.

So close to our elections too.

And then there is the line "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

I smiled at the line "Curfew is for your protection".

And for some reason, while watching the movie, this came to my mind, "We have a different model in Singapore. It has been developed in particular circumstances and allows our media to contribute to our nation’s construction."

Then we come home. I flop on the sofa, turn on the TV, and Discovery is showing the documentary The History of Singapore.

Like I said. Surreal.

SMU: More than Fast Trackers... Spell Checkers

Please check the speowling next time before putting big-assed poster up.

via spug, taken by blurfroggie

Hokkien Speeding song

Thanks to the brilliant Linkmeister, Lancerlord, who found this gem of a Hokkien song, a ditty about the importance of safe driving (no, REALLY).

Stuff like this should become National Treasures, I tell you. Dammit if I knew who sang this, I'd BUY the CD.

As Miyagi says, you must blast it while driving down your favourite expressway.

Zhng My Camp!

I am speechless. Really, jaw dropped. Almost word for word parody of Zhng My Car 1!!! Excellent work! Miyagi and I are just amazed that you guys transcribed the audio script and then acted it out on video! (text link to Youtube page) We are flattered, Cai!

Excerpt:

Got the ideas from mrbrown podcast zhng my car. Created a Zhng my Camp for 33rd Boys Brigade Annual Camp 2005

Like Mr Miyagi, he does not get his car back too

A funny Dr Ken and Bobby Lee (Korean comics from Mad TV) skit on Youtube (text link here for full size). It reminded reader Ray of Mr Miyagi (last seen, er, heard, in our latest podcast, Zhng My Car 7).

Also funny, Dr Ken performs the History of Rap.

Another funny one is comedian Dave Chappelle's parody of Apple's Switch ads on Comedy Central (warning: explicit content). And while you are on ellenfeiss.net, check out the super cute Japanese Switch queen, Momoko Kikuchi.

Rough translation of what Momoko says, from japanesestreets.com:

My old computer was like this huge thing you know. And well, I was writing this e-mail to my friend. I was trying like real hard to do it in English. I was just about done… and it all froze up. Everything I wrote… GONE. Haaaaaaahhhh. I thought ‘this thing is really garbage!’ Now I use a Mac. It never happened to me once yet. Isn’t that like WOW?!” – KIKUCHI Momoko, Student.

FREE Free Culture Show

Free Culture artist and activist Colin Mutchler will be conducting a show on Creative Commons, at Lasalle College of the Arts today. Go and catch his show and learn about this important and exciting issue.

Venue: Lasalle College of the Arts (check out the map), Studio Theatre (ground floor of Performing Arts Block)

Date: Wednesday, 22nd of March (TODAY)

Time: 6.00pm

Mutiny at a cafe

Mutiny by disgruntled employees at this cafe chain called Blenz, in Vancouver, becomes a lightning rod for other employees from the chain. The comments are just as interesting as the post itself.

In this age of the high impact high propagation internet technologies, companies who don't treat their employees well may find all their dirty linen broadcast to the world, overnight.

Also discussed in Livejournal.

Of course, this will never happen in Singapore, because we have such a pro-employee union protecting our interests.

I look like Tony Leung, wor

MyHeritage.com has a face recognition engine that lets you upload your photo and they match it with a celebrity. I was matched with Tony Leung. Needless to say, I think the site is great. They also matched me with young Chinese pianist Li Yundi, but I like being Tony better.

But then the same site said Miyagi looks like Brad's pits, so I wouldn't trust it completely. LMD tried it too, and kept trying and trying, till she got the result she wanted.

Zhng my Singlish

Wah lau eh, the mrbrown show podcast also can use to teach English language one ok? Steady pom pi pi, man. I damn the flattered, can?

Excerpt:

But the more interesting part was the guest speaker Dr. Chen - where she discussed about "Singlish" haha or Singapore Collq. English (SCE). I was simply 'jaw-locked' when she flashed the properties of Singlish on the slides; she actually catagorised the structures and words used in Singlish into the technical classification of a language. haha.. And she mimically imitated the Singlish style of speaking as she was a local lecturer that sent the class into some laughter.

In some part of the lecture, she played a clip taken from the "MrBrownShow" blog to explain the structures in Singlish to us. haha...

browncast: zhng my car 7 (The Erection Special)

Everyone's favourite Ah Beng mechanic, Johnny, has to zhng the car of an unnamed politician. His co-host is Mr Miyagi, yes, the one who hasn't got his car back yet.

the mrbrown show for the month of March 2006 is kindly brought to you by Okamoto Condoms. There is even a contest with cash prizes! Just head over to www.condomcontest.com.

Audio file for the mrbrown show 20 March 2006: zhng my car 7 (The Erection Special)
(MP3, Filesize: 9.3mb, Time: 00:17:41)

Subscribe to the podcast feed here.
(Or click here to subscribe via iTunes)

Technorati tags: singapore, mrbrown, podcast, podcasting

Look at me, I can turn

...and land on my belly. But I don't know how to turn back.

Papa, er, help?

Sunday morning dimsum at Victor's Kitchen

We had Hong Kong-style dimsum at Sunshine Plaza, at Victor's Kitchen, run by a husband and wife team. Selection is not extensive but the food is great. We loved the Fresh Prawn dumpling with parsley, the King Prawn har gao and the Steamed Almond Milk dessert.

Faith polished off two char siew pau and half a Milky Custard Bun.

As their menu says, they serve good food, not fast food. So be prepared to wait because most of the stuff, especially the Steamed Milk, is only cooked on order.

They're closed on Monday and I am told it is even busier on weekdays.