mrbrown.com

My interview on The A List

My interview on The A List. Thanks Joel!

Excerpt:

Long before social media, and Facebook, there was mrbrown.

The comedic alter ego of Lee Kin Mun, mrbrown rose to fame in the early 2000s on the back of the mrbrown show, a podcast that Lee and his friend, Benjamin Lee — who played Mr. Miyagi — created with the help of writers like Marc Nair. Hilarious trash-talk and incisive socio-political commentary and satire, combined with his eponymous blog, made mrbrown a certified hit.

Read the rest here: http://a-list.sg/funny-business/

SingPost says most residents welcome junk mail… say what?

Recently, SingPost said in a CNA report that most residents welcomed the junk mail in their mailbox, judging from low response to their Opt-Out scheme. 

To which many residents replied, "Har? Got such thing meh? Can opt out? Where got? Where?"

It seems there is an online form buried deep inside their Contact Page.

Here is how you can opt out:

1. Visit the Singpost site and tear your hair out looking for an Opt-Out of Junk Mail link.

2.  Finally find it at: http://www.singpost.com/contact-us/service-enquiry

3. For "Service Type", choose "Postal"

4. For "Category", choose "Advertising Mail"

5. For Sub-category, choose "OPT-OUT Service"

Then you can fill out the special form to get an orange No Admail sticker to paste on your mailbox! 

You're welcome.

Heartland Hubby Shorts (with me in it)

Snoopy Swee and the ERP in Webisode #3.

Heartland Hubby Shorts: ERP

#heartlandhubby is back! In celebration of SG50, stay tuned to our page for the series of Heartland Hubby Shorts that celebrate what makes us Singaporean. :)#heartlandhubby shorts #3: How to avoid ERP...

Posted by MediaCorp Channel 5 on Thursday, 3 September 2015

In another life, I have a career as a property agent cat, in Webisode 5: Cat Condo.

Heartland Hubby shorts #15: Cat Condo

Heartland Hubby shorts #15: Bobo and Cha Cha shop for housing options! #firstworldcatproblems#boboandchacha #Heartlandhubby

Posted by MediaCorp Channel 5 on Thursday, 15 October 2015

And Snoopy is back in Webisode 13: Taxi Dash.

Heartland Hubby Shorts #13: Taxi Woes

Heartland Hubby Shorts #13: How to get a taxiWe all have these taxi woes' moments... Share yours with us!

Posted by MediaCorp Channel 5 on Thursday, 8 October 2015

How to score own goal during elections

NSP's Cheo Chai Chen later said, "It was a joke. I did not mean it to be taken seriously."

No, sir. YOU are the joke that cannot be taken seriously. Maybe if you were stronger, Mr Cheo, you could be a mother too.

Maybe if you were more capable, you would still be MP for Nee Soon too, instead of losing only after one term.

A mrbrown NDP song playlist spanning SEVEN years

YouTube link: http://mrbrwn.co/1pDC16j

A playlist of every NDP song the mrbrown team has ever done from 2008 to 2014. Did I miss any song?

United Airlines writes the most insincere apology letter

This was recently released by a customer of United on imgur.

I, (USERNAME), think (COMPANY) has quite a (INSERT SPECIFIC ADJECTIVE CONVEYING EPIC FAIL) apology letter.

That reminds of the classic United Breaks Guitars incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Singapore's Gambling Problem Problem

YouTube link: http://youtu.be/HKMNKS-9ugY

We made it to John Oliver's show! Yay!

Kacy Catanzaro on American Ninja Warrior… wow

Post by Ninja Warrior.

Pioneer Generation Package, as explained in Teochew

YouTube link: http://youtu.be/edk70tCq13A

I have to say that I quite enjoyed listening to this crosstalk about the benefits associated with the Pioneer Generation Package, even though I am not Teochew myself (I am Cantonese, the best of dialect of them all, according to ourselves).

I understood about half of the Teochew, and the other half I read the subtitles to understand.

There is something rich and nuanced about listening to dialects that I always enjoy, and I wish more young people spoke it.

Now the next burning question I have is, WHERE IS THE HOKKIEN AND CANTONESE VERSION?!

John Oliver explains Net Neutrality in 13 minutes

YouTube link: http://youtu.be/fpbOEoRrHyU

John Oliver nails it with his piece on Net Neutrality. On his show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, he suggests renaming the issue of Net Neutrality to "Preventing Cable Company F**kery" to better understand what is at stake. I think he also meant to include evil telcos and ISPs.

In 13 minutes, he explains very succinctly why we must never let the likes of Comcast and Verizon control the internet for the rest of us.

(Warning: Strong language)

I like the rapper RM1.50

Eh, Malaysian newspaper, 50 Cent's name no need to convert to Ringgit lah.

[via @AndrewBloch]

Typepad downtime

My site host, Typepad experienced a massive DDoS attack, more than once, actually. This is similar to attacks made on other tech companies lately.

As a result, mrbrown.com was not available sporadically for the last few days.

Things seem to be restored for now (I say this with cautious optimism) and I apologize for the downtime.

Honey, look!

Video link: http://vidd.me/v/vyf

Behold, Singapore Tourism Board's cringe-worthy tourism video for the Philippines market: Couple goes to Singapore for a holiday! And she has a surprise for him. (I think the fella would have preferred a watch.)

The video is so bad it is good, and it was taken down by the Singapore Tourism Board from their YouTube channel once it went viral.

Oh, they now blame Philippines broadcaster ABS-CBN for it.

Pro-Bomoh

My mother, commenting on Malaysia’s use of the bomohs to find #MH370: “Maybe they need more pro bomohs.”

What a spectacle.

[images via and via]

In other news, via TODAY: "The Malaysian police have denied doctoring photos of flight MH370 passengers with stolen passports - saying one man’s legs were spliced over the other’s in a photocopying error."

Please lah, how can they be Photoshop expert if they not even Photostat expert?

Let me quote Malaysia's indignant Acting Transport Minister Datuk Hishammuddin: "There is only confusion if you want it to see it as confusion."

And our Ironic Statement of the Week: "China is calling on Malaysia to be more transparent…"

Meanwhile, here at mrbrown.com, for all the facepalm moments we are witnessing, we continue to #prayforMH370.

KNS train propulsion software

SMRT's train propulsion software is called KNS. Explains everything.

TODAY: "According to SMRT, some “reliability improvement modifications” completed over the past two years include: Upgrade of KNS train propulsion software to reduce power faults."

In other news, Transport Minister Lui says "Train delays longer than five minutes were reduced by 20% across the whole MRT network in 2013 from 2012."

Er, hooray?

[Photo by by Calvin Teo, in November 2005, via Wikipedia]

"Poor People" of Singapore, let's go have a beer!

Well played, The Tuckshop, for your beer special in "honour" of Anton Casey, the British national and private wealth manager in Singapore who referred to public transport commuters as "poor people" who contribute to the "stench of public transport".

Anton, who is a Senior Wealth Manager with Crossinvest Asia, has since apologized through his PR agency.

Gahmen licenses Breakfast Network website to death

Breakfast Network is was a socio-political news and commentary site run and founded by former journalist Bertha Henson. I didn't always agree with everything on the site but the pieces were well-written and reasonable.

The MDA asked them to register under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification and after looking at the onerous forms and criteria that the Gahmen (or The G, as Bertha likes to call Them), asked them to fill, the Breakfast Network decided not to register and close the site instead.

When I first heard that Breakfast Network was shutting down in response to the licensing, I tweeted:

"The Gahmen response will probably be: "We nair shut down Breakfast Network what. We asked them to register only. They chose to ownself close one!"

Sure enough, today we read the official statement from the MDA:

"The Media Development Authority (MDA) said it will require that socio-political commentary website Breakfast Network cease its online service. That is because Breakfast Network has decided not to submit its registration form, said an MDA spokesman on Tuesday."

How convenient.

You can see for yourself the number of forms and the kind of info the MDA wanted from the Breakfast Network at this link. Ask yourself, would YOU register under these circumstances?

I think the MDA should change their name to Media Destruction Authority. I don't see any development here, just shackles and rules designed to ensure only the "right" kind of content (the kind The G approves of) get seen. Cherian George weighs in too, and I agree with him that the Singapore Gahmen's "light touch" era is over.

You can still read Breakfast Network at their Facebook page. In the meantime, you can always enjoy other alternative news sources like TRS and STOMP.

Good, right?

I will leave you with a haiku for the guys at Breakfast Network:
---------------------

No Breakfast Network
Because The G only drinks
Licensed Kopi-o

Bless you, good sir

There is goodness in this world.

Text of the story below the break:

Giraffes everywhere

Go to my Facebook page if you wanna play. Heheh.

iPad Air: We didn't quite see that coming, did we?

As I watched the live stream of the Apple Event on my iPad 2, and Apple when revealed the iPad Air, my iPad 2 felt uglier, heavier and bulkier all of a sudden.

From tomorrow onwards, I shall lose weight and become more powerful, and call myself "mrbrown Air".

If I manage to shave off even more inches, I shall just be known as "brown Air".

I only watched the live video stream because I was waiting for the iPad mini with Retina display announcement. But when they showed the thinner iPad Air, I suddenly wondered whether that was a better choice instead.

What Tim Cook didn't mention during the event was that while the iPad mini with Retina display now has the same A7 internals and Retina screen as the new iPhone 5s and iPad Air, it is actually slightly thicker and heavier than the old iPad mini.

iPad mini Retina: 7.5 mm, vs iPad mini non-Retina: 7.2 mm
iPad mini Retina: 331 grams, vs iPad mini non-Retina: 308 grams

The iPad Air is the one that lost the most weight and thickness. 469 grams and 7.5 mm thick only! My current iPad 2 is a full 601 grams and 8.8mm thick, a behemoth compared to the new iPad Air.

If you think about it, the gap in weight between an iPad Air and an iPad mini Retina is a mere 138 grams now, and with the thinner width, the iPad Air is something serious to consider even if you thought the iPad mini is a better fit for small bags. The iPad Air is even the same thickness (or thinness, if you wish) as the iPad mini Retina.

Free OS X Mavericks, new Haswell-based MacBook Pros with Retina display, the black Mac Pro, the iPad Air, and the iPad mini with Retina display; I think today's Apple Event can be summed up as "Shut Up And Take My Money".

I predict many will feel their wallets becoming Wallet Air this coming holiday.

Perhaps I need to upgrade the iPoot to iPoot Air too.