Groping in the Dark!
The
Great Singapore Blackout, as christened by Siva, hit several parts of Singapore around 10 o'clock last night.
Text messages with Adrian, Clarence and Seng Aik revealed that the electricity supply to Jurong, Sengkang, Bedok, Punggol, Holland Village and Clementi were completely hosed. Anna confirmed that central areas like Shenton Way were unaffected. Thinking about it though, it would have been a sight looking out into the darkness from the floor of her building.
Initially it was thought that some kid had short-circuited my estate with a screwdriver. But a look out the window revealed that everything was lit up in darkness. With the street lamps blazing black, something was definitely wrong.
Though this kind of blackout is rare for a first world economy, I was confident that planners would have had the redundency system kick in the moment the grid went down. But tonight, nothing happened. Very soon, someone would have some serious explaining to do.
But for now, my neighbors weren't the least bothered and their reaction was reminiscent of a third world setting. As they poured out onto the street, vehicle owners turned on their headlights and enterprising men and women started their own bonfires by burning logs of wood in metal drums. Perhaps they had logs stashed away for just this kind of occasion. Then they broke out the beer and others joined in with their merry-making, exchanging the latest neighborly gossip and participating in around-the-fire speculation on where the invasion of Singapore was to begin.
In the cover of darkness, Siva lamented that he had the sole burden of holding off any invaders all by his lonesome self. Though later, he was relieved to see the MRT still running, to facilitate his quick getaway should things get out of hand. I assured him that his proficiency in Arabic would stand him in good stead with the occupiers. Then later Cindy complained about sweating due to the lack of air conditioning, for which my immediate response was to take a shower after putting the finishing touches on my house work. It is amazing what you can accomplish in a blackout.
Sitting in the dark, with the engineers working away frantically to bring the grid back up, power was restored in my area about an hour later. By then, I was more than ready for bed. However I couldn't retire for the night without writing about this. Though a quick check revealed that my internet cable network was in the throes of life, it wasn’t until just now that access was fully restored.
So if there is ever to be another Great Singapore Blackout, would the organizers send us an early announcement?
What Revision B G5?
Posted Fri 18 June 2004
Revised Sat 19 June 2004
Now that you've seen the new speed bumped G5s and scrutinized it's specifications, some of you may be wondering if these are the Revision B models you've been waiting for.
Well, they are not.
The 1.8 and 2Ghz models are carry-overs from the Revision A line. In a stroke, Apple eliminated the hobbled 1.6Ghz and upped the performance ante with price cuts.
Initially there was some speculation as to whether these new machines would sport the IBM PPC970FX chips. In spite of that rumor being officially confirmed by Apple, the scandelously slow firewire transfer speeds still isn't addressed - this is one instance where a lowly powerbook continues to outpace the G5 in this regard. Also the 2.5Ghz model is still a Revision A model with a sophisticated cooling system shoehorned into it.
Starting at $3,888 for the Dual 1.8Ghz, there has never been a better time to buy a G5. Especially with just an extra $80, you can replace the pookie nVidia GF5200 Ultra with a respectiable ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card. And to top that off with a 8x Superdrive, this represents good value and a serious look for anyone wanting a new machine or a processor upgrade card for legacy Macs.
I do not agree that Steve Jobs should stop making predictions altogether, especially after IBM dropped the ball on their 3Ghz yields. However the development and manufacturing of semiconductors is a precise and somewhat unpredictable undertaking. No one in their right mind should hold him or IBM to that. But if predictions were balanced between reasonable speculation and what is practically feasible, that would keep Apple an interesting player to watch without it eventually being dismissed it as a joke.
With that said, where are the quad G5s?
The Hour of the Wolf, Part 3
Today is payday! And with that, I pay off the final installment of my restructed debt. After coming into the black at the start of the year, it sure feels good to float a budget surplus along with it.
It has always been my fiscal policy to have a sizable surplus stashed aside for a sunny day. With that, I mean having the means to snap up bargains during a fire sale, stock index or fund market dip. It goes without saying that the ultimate ail of all this is to buffer one's retirement, as there is no such thing as having too much money these days. For those who know me, they seem surprised when they learn about what I do with my hard earned cash. And this reaction comes even after they've heard recommendations on what they could also do with theirs.
Anyway back a year and a half, I remember their pressing concern about an indiscretion I had found myself involved with. Since then, they have watched the whole saga play itself out. And I had never really thanked them, in so many words, for their advice and support.
For those who were privy to that entire travesty, I want you all to know that you have been bloody marvelous! And though I was supposed to have visited some of you this month, you know the reasons for me putting these plans on hold for now. Sitting here as I type this, I recall Scott's words to me when I had announced that I was a free man: "Here's to taking out the thrash, bro!"
Well mate, I couldn't have said it better myself.
A dead man's Wish?
A prisoner on death row usually gets one wish before the hour of his execution. As with the recent spate of terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia, this has awoken the royal family to a new era of existence. One that may well end in its collapse.
And what of its prodigal son, Osama bin Ladin? To them, he is a dead man walking with many wishes.
For one, he has been waging a campaign to rid Saudi Arabia of the American military presence. Invited by the Saudis into a strategic alliance three decades ago, the thought of having the Great Satan running around Islam’s two most holy cities is anathema to Osama and other like-minded clerics. However with the planned relocation of American military forces to Iraq, partly as an initiative to ease extremist pressure on the Saudi royal family, Osama may well have this wish in the bag.
The other would be to destabilize the current Saudi government as a prelude to overthrowing it. With business and family ties going back five decades or more, the bin Ladin family is closely tied to the Saudi royal family. However this hasn’t stopped Osama from now attacking a regime that is seen as morally corrupt and adulterous in its dealings with the West.
These current attacks, initially aimed at foreigners, are now purposed at exposing the regime’s incompetence in protecting its own citizens. Even with characteristic show of force, Saudi security services are suffering more fatalities than they are killing terrorists. But for a ruling dynasty that has maintained power by autocratic means, there may not be much support forthcoming from its citizens or love lost between them.
Now Saudi Arabia appears to plod along in a state of social and political paralysis. Groping desperately between the fraying lines of inept social and political reform and straight jacketed religous puritanism, it may well tip toe its way to collapse. And with no clear alternative to a moderate political establishment, the kingdom could fall to Islamic clerics sympathetic to Osama.
Finally, emboldened by his victory over the Soviet military in Afghanistan, Osama has been given another chance to take on the world’s remaining superpower on home ground.
Attacking the very same state that had armed, financed and abetted him in the 1980s, the irony is not lost on officials who predicted this about-face two decades ago.
In terms of strategic outlook, Osama shares the same view as the Iranians do: that one hundred and thirty thousand American and Coalition troops, give or take a few attrition deaths each week, are really the ones surrounded in Iraq. Adding in the festering Palestinian-Israeli sore, this is a golden opportunity for Osama and his band of warriors to kill as many infidels as possible.
So a look at how Osama bin Ladin has faired recently, you could agree that he has done well. Being just as illusive and free from imprisonment, Osama may well live to see all his wishes fulfilled.
Hail to the Chief
The life of Ronald Reagan is a story of unlikely successes. Born to a poor family, he came of age during the hard economic times of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Yet he was able to achieve great success in two quite different fields, one as an actor and the other in politics.
Reagan’s political career began soon after his acting career ended. In 1964, he was elected governor of California and twice sought unsuccessfully, the Republican nomination for Presidency. It was not until 1980 that he was elected the 40th President of the United States on November 4th. At the age of 69, he was the oldest man and the first movie star ever sworn into Office.
During his two-term presidency, Reagan helped raise the nation's spirit as he oversaw the creation of large budget and trade deficits and ultimately effected a historic truce in the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
In his inaugural address on January 20, 1981, President Reagan scoffed at those who spoke of a national malaise. To him, it was "time for us to realise that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams." Reagan paid homage to heroes of past wars and stressed a few easily understood economic grievances, such as inflation and a burdensome tax system. Playing to the widely held disillusion with public policy, he declared that "in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."
Over the next eight years, through recession and economic recovery, cold war and detente, Ronald Reagan forged a powerful bond with the public. Even when a majority of citizens opposed specific administration programs, such as efforts to ban abortion, the support of anti-communist guerrillas in Central America to budget cuts in education, most Americans continued to express confidence in his presidency. Reagan's popularity seemed so unrelated to success and so undiminished even by failure or scandal that Colorado Representative Pat Schroeder dubbed Reagan the "Teflon President."
Reagan was dubbed the Great Communicator, a genial performer before audiences of one sort or another since college days. Being master of the one-line quip, here was a man who entered politics in early middle age after winning fame in Hollywood, the most American of institutions. He rose to presidency largely because he was able to articulate a personal ideological view on television more forcefully than anyone else. Once in office, Reagan was as vivid a figure to millions around that world as he had long been to millions of Americans, dominating television screens not only domestically but internationally.
Critics have seen him as more of a ceremonial king than a president, stating that he was the first modern president whose contempt for the facts was treated as a charming idiosyncrasy. Journalists chronicled weekly presidential gaffes, such as blaming redwood trees for air pollution or insisting that nuclear missiles could be recalled after launching. But Bill Moyers hit nearer the mark when he observed that "we didn't elect this guy because he knows how many barrels of oil are in Alaska. We elected him because we want to feel good."
Ronald Reagan's favourite speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, sensing the president's desire to "cheer everyone up", drafted many of his best received lines, such as the famous "It's morning in America again." His rapid recovery after a failed assassination attempt evoked optimism and appreciation among Americans. Eager to suspend judgement and wish him well, the public and Congress increased their support for his initiatives.
By the summer of 1981, the public favoured passage of the administration's 'Reaganomics' program by a margin of two to one. It basically called for a reduction in the growth of government spending, a reduction in labor and capital gains tax, reduction in regulation and reduction in inflation by controlling the growth of money supply. Since the late 1950s, Reagan had criticised high taxes and governemtn spending. As president, this was his chance to initiate major policy changes to increase saving and investment, increase economic growth, balance the budget, restore healthy financial markets and reduce inflation and interest rates.
The rational was that lower taxes were supposed to fuel a major economic expansion which, in turn, would cut unemployment and provide more tax revenues to lower the federal deficit and pay for higher defence spending. Although advertised as an economic program, Reaganomics was in fact, a form of symbolic politics, a means of liberating middle-class Americans from government tyranny and eliminating "immoral" deficits.
Reagan also had a plan to counter inflation. He asserted that by increasing productivity, it made it possible for industry to modernise. In calling forth the pent-up energies of entrepreneurial capitalism, the Reagan plan offered to reduce and eliminate inflation through sharp budget cuts in the public sector, the unleashing of investment and a wide deregulation of business and social sectors.
Consequently, the economy turned around in 1983. The inflation rate declined from 14 percent in 1980 to under 2 percent in 1983. 18 million jobs were also created between 1983 and 1989, while stock prices almost tripled in value. Though insisted upon by the Reagan administration as the result of Reaganomics, the combined efforts of the massive defence buildup and the financing of the growing budget deficit pumped hundreds of billions of dollars annually into the economy.
In all, it could be argued that massive federal expenditures for defence, deficit financing and broad deregulation, rather than market forces, pulled America out of recession. So large was this that it managed to fuel the recovery well into the 1990s. When Reagan left office, a large majority of Americans agreed that the final six years of his term marked a period of broad prosperity.
One of the popular appeals that carried Reagan to his decisive election victories were enhanced by the fact that he had proclaimed a hard and uncompromising anti-Soviet line. For all his tough talk, Reagan initially gave low priority to foreign affairs. He preferred to concentrate on his Reaganomics brainchild. Equally important, he felt that he needed to achieve high economic growth so that he could later out-negotiate and out-build the Soviets from a position of strength.
The unprecedented peacetime build-up of American military might during Reagan's first four years in office, was employed as a major means of signalling renewed American vigour and firmness of purpose in international relations. The impetus for a massive program of defence modernisation and expansion came from analysis by the Reagan administration that American defences had fallen dangerously behind those of the Soviet Union.
Tied inextricably to its expanding defence program was the administration's policy on arms control. Reagan adopted the position by impressing on the Soviet Union, the determination of the US to match Soviet defence spending and development across the board. That signaled a clear message that, regardless of the resources expanded on defence, no advantage over the US could be gained or tolerated. Arms control, only when negotiated from a position of strength, was an integral part of Reagan's defence policy.
During his first term in office, Reagan described the Soviet Union as the "focus of evil in the modern world", led by men who reserved the right to "lie, cheat and steal" their way to world domination. He went so far as to insist that a Soviet conspiracy "underlies all the unrest that is going on. If they weren't engaged in this game of dominoes, there wouldn't be any hot spots in the world."
The Reagan Doctrine, as it became known, formulated the administration's willingness to confront the expansion of Soviet power and a 'roll back' of influence by sponsoring wars by proxy in states that were friendly towards Moscow. Nicaragua and Grenada served to demonstrate America's willingness clean out its South American backyard, while Afghanistan demonstrated a direct confrontation by giving the Soviets their very own Vietnam.
There was an affirmation of American solidarity with countries struggling to prevent their own incorporation into the Soviet empire, or to regain their freedom. This was followed by the reassertion of the moral superiority of liberal democratic institutions and pluralist society.
In particular, Reagan's $1.6 trillion military buildup shocked the Soviets. To Americans, that reaction had seemed sheer hypocrisy. Nothing did more to destroy detente than the Kremlin's insistence on piling up weapons beyond any legitimate need. However the Reagan administration believed that a stepped-up arms race would beggar the Soviet Union. To a degree, this ultimately proved true, though at great cost to America as well. During this period, the United States substituted an arms budget and covert operations for foreign policy. The administration invested heavily in weapons and even formulated plans to fight a winnable nuclear war.
In March of 1983, Reagan unveiled his updated secret weapon, the "Strategic Defence Initiative." By having an anti-missile system, Reagan expounded as to how SDI would render nuclear weapons obsolete. Those very words sent a chilling ring through the Kremlin. The Soviet nuclear arsenal was what qualified the Soviet Union as a superpower. Twenty years spent achieving strategic parity with the US had been the principal Soviet doctrine. Now in a single technological stroke, Reagan was proposing to erase everything that the Soviet Union had bankrupted itself into accomplishing.
Yet in his final year as president, Reagan presided over a dramatic improvement in Soviet-American relations. By the time he left office, Reagan and Gorbachev were toasting each other as "Ronnie and Mikhail" as they signed a series of treaties destroying a whole category of nuclear weapons. Opinion polls reported Americans feeling friendlier toward the Soviet Union than any time since the end of World War II. The public that elected Reagan as a Cold Warrior applauded him as a Peacemaker. When Reagan retired, 72 percent of Americans voiced strong approval for his handling of foreign policy.
As Reagan retired to California, his poll ratings were the highest of any president since World War II. However, Reaganomics was built on deficit spending and as a consequence, pushed the national debt over $2 trillion. But Reagan's popularity survived concern over economic and other policy matters as he possessed a leadership style that stressed inspiration over management.
The government was no smaller at the end of Reagan's tenure than at the start, although its priorities had shifted somewhat. Social services and environmental protection had yielded priority to the arms build-up. Child and health care, higher education and narcotics issues had been unattended to. Against these neglected issues would be Reagan's claim to have pursued policies that made Gorbachev's transformation of Soviet society and foreign policy possible. Though Reagan can claim credit in forcing the Soviets to the negotiating table and ultimately winning the Cold War, perhaps his greatest achievement was restoring a sense of national pride and optimism among his countrymen.
How about a Revision B G5?
After four years of tireless service, my
Graphite G4 has taken a dive. Running through a few episodes of The West Wing earlier yesterday evening, my Mac refused to boot up again after a brief shut down.
Initially it was thought that the Parameter RAM battery had gone flat. But replacing it today did not solve the problem. It was only after I had reset the Power Management Unit, did it reboot.
However my trusty workhorse isn't completely out of the woods.
A hardware diagnostics check revealed that the Level 3 processor cache on the CPU module was not functioning. This is a 1.4GHz
CPU upgrade that I had purchased in July 2004. Subsequent shut downs also failed to restart my Mac.
After re-installed the original 450MHz CPU, my Mac chimed back to life, confirming that the 1.4GHz module was as good as gone. As such, I have written to
Other World Computing on the options for a replacement.
So now, my machine runs cooler and the fan does not blow as loudly as when the 1.4Ghz module was installed. This is a trade-off for a machine running three and a half times slower compared to the night before. Such is the nature of things.
At the same time, I've been looking forward to Apple's
rumored offerings of new G5 desktops and a revamped iMac line. I had held off buying a new Mac due to inherent deficiencies in their current offerings. I know I'm fussy when it comes to hardware but as a rule, I never buy Revision A equipment.
Till then, I'll await for OWC's reply before deciding if my trusty workhorse is due for retirement.
Drinkie? Drinkie?
Thus popped the message from Susan on my cellphone... We had just passed one of the hottest and slowest weeks in a while. So thankfully, this evening was happy hour time!
"How was your day?" I asked with a grin. "Well, I don't really remember," Susan offered sheepishly. I knew that this witty woman had sensed my playful streak and countered with a reply that was classically vague. On that note, we started a relaxing evening with drinks, food and good, chatty company.
Heading down to Holland Village with Kim, we met up with Kate, Rachna and Kavita at Wala Wala before cosying up at Indochine. As none of us had ever set foot in that joint before, it seemed a relaxing break from the standard bar settings we had been patronizing lately. Seeing how the designers had fashioned a proto-Celtic layout while infusing the atmosphere with fusion new age music, the wide and comfortable sofa seats were just the ticket for outdoor lazing.
As Kate and I began stuffing our faces with do-it-yourself chicken and beef spring rolls, Susan gave us the detailed low-down on the subject of Buddhism. It was the decor that broached the subject and having statues of mini Buddhas prompted a lively discussion. Though she hadn't intimated as to how she came to know so much about the subject, hers was the most concise and direct explanation I had heard anyone offer. Apart from reading about it from a thoroughly under-rated book entitled
Religion: Mankind's Search for God, Susan was spot when she defined the differences between the
Theravada and
Mahayana, how the
Dhama was conceived in hand with the
sangha to lead mankind out of
samsara into a state of
nirvana.
But how would you know when you had reached
nirvana? Kate was deciding if
nirvana could be quantified. However Susan offered that since most humans would be casting about blindly, none of them would really know what it would be like. Reaching a state where you'll be at peace with yourself and the world around you, was the best answer that some could offer. However Kate's argument was that if humans couldn't quantigy
nirvana, then there was a very good chance that you'd miss it entirely. With so much strife in the world, one would be best to take happiness anyway they can get it.
The topic of Buddhism subsequently opened up into the field of
systems analysis. Kim and Susan viewed that the investigation of an outcome did not warrant an identification or quantification of an external influentiator. However Kate disagreed on the grounds that the influentiator brought with it characteristics that would influence the outcome to some significant degree and hence, necessary in quantifying it.
As they were debating, I thought of all the conversations I have had with Kate. She comes across as thoughtful, very intelligent and articulate. And though I have only met her 3 times prior, she brings with her insightful observations to any topic in a conversation. Well tonight was another one of those nights.
Another thumbs Up!
Having lived with a malfunctioning flash drive for four days, I finally brought it back to Sim Lim Square for a replacement.
Prior to that, I had performed the usual read and write tests to my satisfaction. Media checks with Norton Disk Doctor and TechTool Pro revealed that sector 555683 was malfunctioning, causing a 'redundency error' when files were copied from the drive. There was no problem copying file to it.
The funny thing was that the problem didn't pop up on the PC version of Norton Disk Doctor or the mFormat utility provided by
Transcend. So calling Storage Studio earlier this afternoon, I was assured that a replacement was possible.
At the store, the technician successfully reproduced the problem by filling the drive with data before copying them out again. This ensured that the problematic sector was called into play. For a moment, I was concerned that my drive would decide to work flawlessly on its own. But after all that, I promptly received my replacement without question.
However during the time when my drive was given the third degree, I got to speak with the Japanese manager of the store. I asked him if flash drive malfunctions were common. "One in a thousand," he said.
"Nothing you can do because it happens," he offered. Samsung, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Hynix and Hyundai are makers of the media that go into these drives and Transcend happens to be one such buyer among many.
Being a re-seller, he was pretty confident about Transcend's quality control process. As with every batch of media produced by Samsung for instance, the good yields would go to reputable companies like Sony, Transcend, Iomega and Scandisk.
The lower or questionable yields would be snapped up by OEM or brandless offerings. From time to time, a bad egg does get through even the most stringent QC process. Mine just happened to be one among a thousand.
"You don't have to worry," he assured me. Transcend's 2-year warranty was a good rider and it demonstrated that they had confidence in their product. "Go scan the drive at home and if it gives you problems, bring it back." I didn't need to be told twice.
Thumbs Up?
With so many brands of USB flash drives (thumb drives) out there, I only had to ask fellow Mac Addict, Clarence, what he would recommend.
"
Transcend!", he offered without hesitation. And with credible reason too "because Transcend slaps a 2-year warranty" on their products and "I've been using three of their flash drives for over a year now. No problems, man!", he enthused with a smile.
In addition, Transcend offers a complete memory, video and storage solution, ranging from RAM modules, video cards to digital camera memory sticks. So the chances of ending up with a 'lemon' stick in disguise seemed rather remote.
After heading down to Sim Lim Square last Sunday with Seng Aik and Clarence, we located the best deal on the block at Storage Studio. For my effort in handing over two hundred and thirty six
Merlion Pesos, I walked out with 512 megabytes worth of storage capacity in a size no longer than the length of my thumb.
The cost of flash media has dropped over the months due to cheaper production and wide spread use. In the early days, they cost a little more than one dollar per megabyte and offered only USB 1.1 transfer speeds. But prices have since fallen to less than 45 cents per megabyte, especially if you are aiming for higher storage capacities of half to a full gigabyte in size.
Features have also been improved upon. From USB 2.0 transfer speeds, physical locking mechanisms to password protection features, this particular thumb drive can be configured to boot a PC. Naturally this option, along with the password protection feature, is available only on the Windows platform. The one thing lacking, said
Siva, is an on-the-fly file encryption. In fact, he would have gotten a kick out of having a three-wrong-passwords-and-all-your-files-are-erased option.
Though the Transcend already came pre-formatted for PCs, the drive was put to work after a quick reformat. This was done to remove any inherent kinks and to start from a clean slate. Transferring a number of files worth a total of 100 megabytes, it clocked an average of 2.5MBs per second while connected to my G4's USB 2.0 PCI card. With a USB 1.1 connection to a Rev. A Titanium PowerBook however, it only averaged about 500KBs per second.
In any case, the Transcend’s transfer rate was higher and consistent compared to the 750 megabyte zip disks I have been using. They scandalously clocked in at 450 to 500KBs per second. While my Zips have a tendency of being fickle when it comes to large file transfers, the Transcend pushed the data through smoothly without hiccups.
Well Siva got to see it first hand yesterday evening when I brought him a selection of albums by Lenny Kravitz. "Dei, you and your high bit-rate AAC files again!", he yelled. But with the smooth transfer, the files were disposed off in quick succession. And all in one neat package.
Postscript wise, my drive is now acting up. After arriving home last night, my drive experienced a hang in the midst of a large file transfer. A quick check with Transcend's website revealed that they were aware of the problem and suggested that users download their proprietary mFormat utility. Once done, the user is to perform a complete reformat of the thumb drive to lock out and isolate bad sectors.
Being a flash storage medium, I wondered about 'bad sectors' as this would normally be associated with hard drives. Though doing as I was told, there were no bad sectors to be found. In all appearances, the Transcend seemed in good working condition. And I proceeded to transfer another batch of files. As I feared, the hang re-occured.
So I'll be heading back to Sim Lim to see if I can obtain a replacement. It would have been acceptable if the problem could be isolated, enabling me to continue using my drive. However in light of not having any choice in the matter, the drive is useless as the integrity of the media is compromised. We'll see what happens later.
