Greek Complexity

The quota and its limitations [del.icio.us]

2010-03-08T02:20:31-08:00

Great article on Singapore's unnatural, over-regulated public housing. Don't miss the comment at the end of the article.

Ramayana as related on Facebook

2010-02-17T09:36:19+08:00

Hilarious! Sample: Ravana kidnapped Sita for a dinner date. You too can find love. Click here for hot singles in your area. Download Ramayana

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Disneyland with the Death Penalty | William Gibson | Wired 1.04 [del.icio.us]

2010-01-31T23:07:19-08:00

I've been meaning to read this for the longest time and now here we are 16 years later. Hilarious composition, terrifically observant and accurate, and more than a few insights along the way. Gibson even hints (correctly) at things in Singapore's future (our present). And look how much Singapore has changed since! I should read this again every five years. In fact, I wish he'd do an updated version for today.

Edge: How Does Our Language Shape The Way We Think? By Lera Boroditsky [del.icio.us]

2010-01-26T22:42:14-08:00

Fascinating!

2010-01-26T11:51:42+08:00

Great article! Why to Not Not Start a Startup, writes Paul Graham. Great read for anyone that earns a living, not just for entrepreneurs. Couple quotes: If you're too inexperienced to start a startup, what you should do is start...

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mengwong - on the MOM's recent policy change re EntrePass [del.icio.us]

2010-01-25T17:53:51-08:00

Great post. It's not really about visas for entrepreneurs; that's just the example he starts with.

Secrets of the Economist's Trade: First, Purchase a Piggy Bank - WSJ.com [del.icio.us]

2010-01-12T22:28:11-08:00

Economists are often cheapskates. No, wait, they are "concerned with a loss of economic efficiency". Heh.

Golden Eras

2010-01-08T08:48:36+08:00

A friend posted an interesting thought on his Facebook page a few days ago that I thought I'd share: People talk about Golden era of this and that being 50+ years ago and wish they were there. I wonder what...

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Pragmatic vegetarianism

2010-01-04T02:13:35+08:00

Interesting article. JG is Jeff Goldberg, a journalist with The Atlantic. JF is Jonathan Safran Foer, a writer who recently published the book Eating Animals. Would normally have just stuck this on my radar feed but I thought I'd bung...

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Twitter Rant

2010-01-01T16:04:34+08:00

The FT has an interesting article on Tencent, the Chinese Internet company that has grown leaps and bounds over the past few years to now become one of China's largest and most valuable Internet players. Quite well written, I thought,...

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The Things He Carried | The Atlantic Online [del.icio.us]

2009-12-31T09:55:58-08:00

One man's experiments with airport security and what he got away with. Hilariously scary. Scarily hilarious. Happy new year!

The Marketing Tricks Built Into Menus [del.icio.us]

2009-12-28T09:32:10-08:00

Sex and shopping – it's a guy thing | New Scientist [del.icio.us]

2009-12-28T03:42:48-08:00

Hmmm. Interesting.

The Mission: Learning to Drive a Tank | More Intelligent Life [del.icio.us]

2009-12-28T03:16:03-08:00

"Unlike classic cars, tanks are exempt from road tax and the congestion charge. Although this is probably an oversight, as opposed to a government incentive." Heh.

It seems biology (not religion) equals morality | Marc D. Hauser | Edge [del.icio.us]

2009-12-28T02:53:31-08:00

More on this topic, stumbled upon fortuitously: you don't have to be religious to be moral, says this fascinating article; in fact, you can't help knowing what's morally right or wrong because your moral sense is determined by your biology! These are rules that we just "know". Quote: "Based on the responses of thousands of participants to more than 100 dilemmas, we find no difference between men and women, young and old, theistic believers and non-believers, liberals and conservatives. When it comes to judging unfamiliar moral scenarios, your cultural background is virtually irrelevant." Whether one actually follows the moral compass is a different matter.

Linkfest

2009-12-27T20:16:37+08:00

Yes, it's a bit of a linkfest this couple of days. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to subscribe to my RSS feed or type in your email into the box at the top right of...

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Is God an Accident? | The Atlantic Online [del.icio.us]

2009-12-27T04:16:27-08:00

Humans are evolved to be religious, hence the notion of religion being an evolutionary accident. Systematically presented argument and a good read, particularly because it's not Christianity-centric or even monotheism-centric and doesn't make any value judgments.

The Science of Success | The Atlantic Online [del.icio.us]

2009-12-27T03:00:15-08:00

Are you a dandelion or an orchid? Normal or a neurotic or a bully?

The Singapore Solution — National Geographic Magazine [del.icio.us]

2009-12-26T06:31:51-08:00

"We're not North Korea, but we try."

Being foreign: The others | The Economist [del.icio.us]

2009-12-26T00:51:17-08:00

A lot of "foreigners" (I use quotes deliberately) and travellers will recognise themselves in this article. Quite an un-Economist piece but that doesn't make it any the less interesting.

Some "dream"

2009-12-12T11:55:41+08:00

Worth a read. Excerpts: Some are leaving behind their homes and mortgages right away, while others are simply halting payments until the bank kicks them out. That's freeing up cash to use in other ways. Ms. Richey's family of five...

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The CrunchPad disappears in a puff of vapor [del.icio.us]

2009-12-02T18:57:09-08:00

At least we can get a few laughs out of it!

Quote from a budding bureaucrat

2009-05-11T00:58:01+08:00

I promise this is worth a read. "Deep" engineering doesn't exist in Singapore, says Motochan, particularly in the context of new business formation. Ok, accepted, I guess. And the solution? Centralized and concerted effort with direct and appropriate KPIs needs...

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Free wine? Deluxe home? $10K a month?

2009-05-05T18:13:20+08:00

All of the above on offer and in return: we’re looking for someone (maybe you) who really knows how to use Web 2.0 and Facebook and blogs and social media and YouTube and all sorts of good stuff like that...

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For the Ripplevox team

2009-04-20T12:27:28+08:00

[shameless plug] Ripplevox, pick me to trial StarHub’s BlackBerry® Storm™ smartphone because: Who better to review this than the guy who wrote these other reviews? (Let's not reference my book reviews too.) I'm already a pretty heavy mobile data user...

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Sixth Sense

2009-03-25T23:48:50+08:00

This is by far, the most innovative interface I've ever seen and am likely to see for the next few years at least. And yet, it's conceptually so simple (execution is everything) that it's really not particularly expensive, far cheaper...

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And the Facebook debate continues

2009-03-25T20:28:00+08:00

I read the title of one of Mike Arrington's recent posts and thought he was being sarcastic. Glory be, he's serious! Mike relates user complaints about Facebook's interface changes to design by committee. That's wrong. Design by committee is before...

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MobileLeap

2009-03-06T00:34:35+08:00

So since I complained about the lack of mobile-ready websites out there, it was just a matter of time before I discovered MobileLeap. To understand how terrifically amazingly absolutely fantastically good this service is, first open your mobile phone browser...

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The financial crisis and venture capital

2009-02-27T20:45:00+08:00

A couple of days ago, I was chatting with an ex-entrepreneur who now acts as a consultant to technology start-ups. We were talking about the current financial crisis and its implications on venture capital. His opinion was that VCs now...

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Book review: Freakonomics

2009-02-21T20:41:00+08:00

Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt (Rating: ***1/2) Yes, I finally read this. I thought this book was only so-so. Perhaps all the hype surrounding it raised expectations too much but my problem with this was that it was a little...

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