neverforeverdotnet

So it appears that one day, Chee Soon Juan showed up in NTU out of the blue and the Chronicle scrambled to piece together a story - which was unfortunately killed by the Suits:

After much negotiation between the paper’s teacher-advisors and the university, NTU president Su Guaning gave the article the go-ahead. However, he changed his mind at the last minute, and the article was removed just one day before the newspaper’s publication on Monday (15th September).
…
In the end, it featured only a visit of a different sort – that of the former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who is a stranger among Singaporean students.

“there was a feeling of concern over the use of student media to publicise and promote the unsolicited views of an uninvited person to the campus,” goes the official word, but hey - you wait. Just wait till one day the PM shows up unannounced. It’ll be on the front page of not just the Chronicle, but every sheet of paper leaving the corporate comms office.

Disclaimer: Don’t let the fact that I’ve had so many run-ins with the NTU admin fool you into thinking that I”m biased. Not at all! :)

Gary :: Sep.23.2008 :: All the news that's fit to print, Stifle me, stifle you :: 1 Comment »

A spokesman for the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said: ‘The smuggling of contraband goods has tremendous security implications for Singapore’s safety and security as the same concealment methods used by smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in the country.

Emphasis entirely mine, but seriously, what the hell? Logical fallacy FTW.

(At work now. Venn diagram to follow.)

Clearly, people who smuggle cigarettes must be punished severely as they also use the same methods to smuggle weapons into Singapore OMG.

Gary :: Sep.15.2008 :: WTF, Stifle me, stifle you :: No Comments »

I received a reply from CNB. The PR officer assured me that CNB “does not censor any website”, and claimed that he/she even visited the page to be sure. Said officer then advised that I should check with my ISP on why the website is blocked.

Following this puzzling revelation (also affirmed by shawn, cy and arnold), I revisited the site and discovered that if “www” is excluded from the URL, the page is easily accessible; whereas including the “www” causes it to qualify for the shitlist. This is consistently reproducible on my system. If you’re on an ISP other than PacNet please give it a shot (click on the links below) and let me know… It might be time for me to grill PacNet.

• This site should be open
• This site should be banned

Whatever the case, kudos to CNB for the prompt reply.

P.S. This is living proof of the utter stupidity and ineffectiveness of hardcoded filters.

Gary :: Dec.26.2007 :: Bitchin', A thousand words, General, All the news that's fit to print, Stifle me, stifle you :: 3 Comments »

Erowid is no longer accessible in Singapore. What the fuck? This didn’t use to be the case.

Access Denied
The requested URL has been denied

You are not allowed to access the URL:
http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/psychoactives.shtml

Reason:

* Request has been denied by access control configuration specified by the Central Narcotics Bureau.
* Under the Misuse of Drugs Act (Chapter 185), it is an offence to consume, possess, traffic, import, export, manufacture, or cultivate controlled drugs.

For more information, please contact Central Narcotics Bureau.

Just because I access the site doesn’t mean I’m a junkie, nor does it mean I would like to be - the same way accessing NBA’s official site doesn’t make me a professional basketball player. I don’t even smoke, for fuck’s sake. I take this personally. What next? Wikipedia?

Internet censorship is plain ineffective, downright stupid and not to mention irritating. Now I have to go through a proxy to access it. Get high on that, CNB.

Gary :: Dec.22.2007 :: Bitchin', A thousand words, All the news that's fit to print, Fucked up, Stifle me, stifle you :: 4 Comments »

The CIA recently declassified an assload of papers under the Freedom of Information Act. While some of these go pretty far back, it’s still an interesting read nonetheless… if you’re into this kind of thing. Some of these have had their TOP SECRET classifications struck over with a pen like it really doesn’t matter at all.

From a subsite:

The CAESAR, POLO, and ESAU Papers

Cold War Era Hard Target Analysis of Soviet and Chinese Policy and Decision Making, 1953-1973

This collection of declassified analytic monographs and reference aids, designated within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Intelligence (DI) as the CAESAR, ESAU, and POLO series, highlights the CIA’s efforts from the 1950s through the mid-1970s to pursue in-depth research on Soviet and Chinese internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations. The documents reflect the views of seasoned analysts who had followed closely their special areas of research and whose views were shaped in often heated debate.

Linky.

I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting. You do the same.

Gary :: Jun.27.2007 :: A thousand words, Good readin', Crypto, Stifle me, stifle you :: No Comments »

…and hence, I have dutifully registered myself with the NS portal. From now on, you all may reach me at fuckyou<@>ns<.>sg.
Would’ve chosen “knn” for a shorter and sweeter address, but it was already taken.

There’s plentiful to do on the site, ranging from fun-filled activities like booking your RT to more exciting stuff like seeing when you’re due for reservist, and in which hellhole you’re going to be in. You can plan a to-do list, search a FAQ (in broken English) and even check your past IPPT results! Unfortunately however, I was not able to change my default password because the system flat-out refused to recognize <random vulgar phrase> as a valid alphanumeric string. Ah well.

At least I still have eMart credits. Maybe I’ll buy 40 bottles of rifle oil and get it delivered to my doorstep.

P.S. From the site:

From December 2004, you can look forward to a new mode of being notified of your NS training and activities. Instead of the usual hard copy NS notification (also known as the “SAF100″), you will now be notified of upcoming NS activities via SMS, email and phone.

Yes. Thanks a lot.

Gary :: Sep.20.2006 :: Bitchin', Stifle me, stifle you :: 1 Comment »

I LOL’ed at this one:

Read his post here.

---

Let’s not forget for a moment that some minister recently brought up the topic of Mr Brown’s famous Bak Chor Mee podcast (my memory and Google have both failed me), and claimed that he enjoyed it very much. Of course, the fact that the subject of ridicule was a WP member would have absolutely nothing to do with it. Really. And the fact that Mr Brown is now being told to STFU would be entirely because his recent humour does in fact “distort or aggravate on an emotional level”.

Mr Brown’s large readership is probably his greatest strength and weakness: If 10 people read his blog, he could curse the Government all to hell and that MICA spokeswoman probably wouldn’t even fart. However, it is also precisely that he’s so popular and constantly in the public eye that he hasn’t been arrested on the basis of some obscure law.

Ironic? I think so.

Methinks the Government badly needs a new portfolio to protect Singaporeans from harmful media while moving forward in the Internet Age. Minister of YouTube or Secretary of Podcasts and Viral Videos or something.

Gary :: Jul.14.2006 :: Bitchin', Funny, All the news that's fit to print, Stifle me, stifle you :: No Comments »

Seems I am embarrasingly late to this, but a few foreign news outlets, AFP, The Guardian (includes heartwarming interview with Dr Chee Soon Juan) are running a story about a flash mob organized last Sunday in protest of MICA’s heavy-handed treatment of Mr Brown and his harmless column.

From TFA, a group of about 30 people dressed entirely in brown - with one bearing the words “I am fed up with progress” - took to staging a silent protest at City Hall MRT Station at 2pm on Sunday, and were accosted by police immediately after. Their IC details were recorded, and The Straits Times reports that police are “looking into” the incident.

Also covered on another local blog, Singabloodypore.

Gary :: Jul.14.2006 :: All the news that's fit to print, Fucked up, Stifle me, stifle you :: No Comments »

In a recent article, Mr Brown apparently upset the powers-that-be by poking fun at the price hikes which everyone knew was coming after the GE. This provoked a nastygram from MICA, leading ultimately to the prompt suspension of his column by TODAY.

Now it seems international organization Reporters Without Borders has picked up the story, and is seeking to inform the rest of the world about how free Singapore actually is.

Read the article and you’ll be amazed at how little it takes to upset our leadership.

Majulah Singapura!

This post warrants a new category - henceforth heading all entries related to corporate monopolies, terrorism, oppression, heavy-handedness, antitrust suits, asphyxiation, CnD nastygrams and the Singapore Government.

Font is small so they won’t spot me.

Gary :: Jul.12.2006 :: All the news that's fit to print, Stifle me, stifle you :: No Comments »