IT’S CONFIRMED. Singaporeans and foreign visitors entering Malaysia will have to fill in the white disembarkation forms from Aug 15.

The High Commission of Malaysia in Singapore confirmed the renewal of this requirement on Tuesday, after some confusion over the move, which was to be enforced on Wednesday.

Since Jan 19, foreigners have been exempted from filling in the forms, popularly known as ‘white cards’ in a move to ease traffic flow at border points. They just need to have their passports stamped by Malaysian immigration officials as proof of entry.

A spokesman for the Malaysian High Commission said the January move was meant as a test to ‘look at its efficiency as well as data sharing data sharing capabilities without the existence of the white card.’

‘The Malaysian Government has decided now that the white card is still needed for the system,’ he said on Tuesday.

In its statement on Monday on postponing the ruling to Aug 15, the Malaysian Immigration Department gave no reason for the change in enforcement date.

Singaporeans, especially regular visitors, have expressed dismay over the revival of the ruling as it will mean longer queues at Immigration checkpoints and traffic build-up.

Statistics show that some 23,500 Singaporeans enter the city every day. They spend RM5.3 million (S$2.2 million) daily on food, shopping and entertainment.

Both the Johor Tourist Guides Association and the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Association (Southern Johor) are worried that enforcing the ruling will deter Singaporeans from visiting Malaysia frequently.

Anyway, I came across Paragon’s extension a few months earlier when I salvaged data from a researcher’s dead iBook. It worked flawlessly and the researcher’s data was subsequently published a month later.

There’s no meaningful way to abandon FAT32, with flash cards and memory sticks holding the fort for this antiquated format.

Microsoft was to adopted WinFS, built-in with then Windows ‘Longhorn’. WinFS is more intelligent and efficient in its file management compared to NTFS. However that format was ‘put on ice’ in the rush to finish Windows Vista. On a side note, Apple will adopt the ZFS file system on OS 10.6 Snow Leopard.