Notes From the Far East

China Nationalistic Fervour: The Certain Rise of China China recently celebrated her 40 th Anniversary of Reforms and Opening Up.   To celebrate the event, large scale events were held in conjunction with the 40 th anniversary, forums with elaborate speeches and commemorative videos were shown on China Central Television Broadcast Station.   Regional Television Station also aired commemorative videos of their achievements gained in the last 40 years. One thing which is clear is that the Chinese people are living more comfortable material lives.   Admittedly wealth is not uniformly distributed, it is nevertheless present in more people and in most cities and extents to towns and villages. Towns and villages are simply enjoying the fruits of reforms helped by Express train access and faster movement of goods and services.   Openness in showcasing hardship cases, marriages and exposing bad products, services and behavior on television simply show their w...

Chew Eng Han Escape to Malaysia Foiled Just nine days before he was due to begin his jail term – Chew was arrested on Wednesday morning for attempting to flee Singapore in a motorised sampan [CNA1]. Chew Eng Han attempt to flee has ended with ridicule and being mocked by the general populace; just because he was caught, the media portrayed an imbecile and the comedy of the escape plan.  His lack of success could be attributed to perhaps the lack of time to plan, conscience, resources and contacts to make success getaway.  The intrigue brings me to examine if his escape plan was viable in the first place or was it too haphazard.  An escape due to an opportunity appearing suddenly.  If so, it likely to fail and perhaps this was what happened.  As a bail bond jumper, the $1 million bail sum to be forfeited is almost a certainty,  along with it, the risk of being arrested and extradited to Singapore and face an extended jail term.   Shou...

Marlin Programme onto Melzi / Sanguino w/ATMega 1284P 16 MHz using Arduino IDE. Objective To programme Marlin 1.0.7 onto a Melzi Sanguino w/ATMega 1284P 16 MHz board so that it will operate a Mendel Tricolour built 2013/2014. New boards has since been released to replace the Melzi Sanguino however this microcontroller is still usable on the Mendel Tricolour Reprap 3D printer and hence used for educational purposes. Tools 1x PC loaded with Arduino IDE and Marlin files for Mendel Tricolour,  2x Sanguino w/ATMega 1284P 16 MHz chip set and board (Tricolour has a Master and Slave board). 1x USB cable Configuration for Arduino IDE Files > Open > Marlin Multicolour files   //All files including library files will be opened e.g. xxx.h// Tools > Board > Sanguino w/ATmega1284p 16MHz Tools > Programmer > AVRISP MkII Configuration for Sanguino Board to Reset and Programme Jumper JP1 to receive only USB power.  Jumper the pin near the ed...

To say that Mediacorp and Singapore does not possess any talent is totally incorrect. It needs to be seen in the likes of a fledgling company with ambition trying to wrestle into the regional media space.   Many of the programmes aired are of good quality and the talen pool undertakes programming and acting well.  However Mediacorp does suffer from negative perception of being boring and the mouth piece of "G" and thus the regular "joe or jane" consumer would be immediately turned-off when a foreign production is screened at the same time slot.  Programmes that take a dig at the G policies or agnostic of G policies do better. Programmes that have a repeat nationalistic theme of civility and social cohesiveness needs a new look as these seemed recycled and overused with no new angle and the predictability that comes with the particular programme.  Consumers sense a underlining G message that is not that sublime and those that watch these programme...

  Anyone with a computer and access to the internet, a messaging system would use it to look for information as it is  convenient and expedience to do so and in the process transmit messages that may result in strong emotive responses.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that the tendency is to believe such content due to the convincing arguments or the factual way an argument was presented.  The veracity of the information cannot easily ascertain and due to human nature retain the first exposure to be factual until a contradiction comes along.   Where the content is repeated often enough it would be deemed to be authoritive in nature.  Those uninitiated  would fall prey to scams and misinformation from time to time.    Past personal experience is often cited along with maturity of age as capabilities in discerning misinformation and whether the content is right and wrong.    Since no one has all-encompassing and absolute ade...