Wireless@SG or Clueless@SG?

Singapore has this new initiative with an objective of bridging the digital divide. In a cose parallel to the free-Wifi initiative in Mountain View, Singapore will launch a nationwide Wifi network that provides wireless online access for free over a two-year period. For more, read this GigaOm post or this..

This post was supposed to be a review of my first usage of this service. It was first launched on December 1st but well, I have wireless at home and free wireless in my NUS campus, so I didn’t caretill now.

So i tried signing up for it today, under the iCell network cos I heard icell and QMax have simpler signup procedures than Singtel based on media reports. So i tried doing what anyone else will do for a newbie.

I search for “icell singapore” with Google. No relevant result. Strange..

So i tried “wireless@sg singapore” instead, half-expecting it to direct me to a main site that will offer me direct access to all three providers and a list of locations where I can find the limited locations offering this service. No relevant result too. I reached an IDA web page, which was broken, and referred me to another site before i had to click on another button to reach the proper-signup page i was looking for.

Its not easy so far, I thought.. I didn’t imagine that the providers and the man Wireless@SG program had no dedicated Google presence in our world today. Just how will someone who is less web-savvy than me use this service? And I am not even a computer science student.. I wonder how my dad, mum, or uncle will use this. They will probably start off with a search engine too..

But its fine, I found the highly embedded Wireless@SG site, i thought, so i can finally sign up for my freebies.. But heck no..

Icell requires you to provide compuksory information such as your NRIC no, a personal identification number and your full name, your cell phone number and that totally put me off signing up. Last thing I want is icell spamming my cell phone with SMSes when Singtel, a proper telco, already does so. And why the hell do they always want NRICs? I hate giving that info out and it seems all Singapore websites love doing that. Dun they realise that is a conscious mental barrier for web users when we dun have to provide our NRICs when we sign up for foreign-based services like email, blog account, etc? It makes me ever more conscious that some governmetn agency will track my personal information and tracking habits. This “walled-garden”aproach of differentiating Singapore-based internet services from foreign ones is a needless hassle.

I went over to Singtel’s wireless@SG site. Since I was a Singtel customer, i could sign up easily by just text-messaging them. But i remembered all the personal privacy concerns and red flags from my icell experience and decided not to support this initiative that seemed to be founded on the wrong service development premises. I was also miffed that you cannot find the locations easily that provide the limited version of Wireless@SG services now.

Granted that its only been two weeks since the limited launch, these teething problems may come to pass, but as an early adopter, I am rather put off by my experience thus far. And i hear from my friends that you have to download a program before you can use the Wireless@SG service, that is dumb. I rather use the plug and play free wireless from McDonalds’ anytime over this.

This is another poor example of customer service in Singapore that threatens to derail this wonderful initiative at first. I would think you need to be rather savvy with the computer to use Wireless@SG services, so isn’t this service widening the digital divide ever more?

Helium-3: Future Energy Hegemony for Humankind?

This Wired Magazine article puts the case forward for Helium-3, an isotope that could have commercial applications in the energy industry. The mining of Helium-3, in abundance on the Moon but scarce on Earth, was on of the many objectives for the proposal of a permanent lunar colony. It was estimated that a space shuttle load of Helium-3 can power the United States for a full year.

Looks like the United States face competition too from other space-faring nations like Russia, China and India who are mulling more moon exploration missions too. Space Race II anyone? This race might prove to have more economic benefits than ideological ones.

The Major Reward: Leadership of the post-hydrocarbon industry 50 years from now..

New York Times’ Gross Misrepresentation of the Internet

I get really irritated when mainstream media misinterpret internet media for lack of knowledge or lack of consideration in fair and unbiased explanation of this new form of media to their readers whom they have a responsibility to educate and inform.

The focus of my ire now is David Pogue, a blogger under the NYT blog portfolio that is prominently featured under the New York Times Technology section. The full link is here. The root of his argument was his moaning of the lack of civility on the internet, especially how other responders on Digg, blogs lack “respect for adults” and “how hostile *ordinary* people are to each other online these days..”. He also mentions the ‘kneejerk “everyone else is an idiot” tenor (that) is poisoning the potential the Internet once had.‘

Wifi Phones: The Death of Telcos and Rise of ISPs?

Pissed off by crappy cell phone connectivity or your monthly cell phone bills?

Help is on the horizon – in the form of Wifi phones. This vision is already real, if you live in Seattle and are a T-Mobile subscriber.

With these phones, you can call for free or much lower cost over Wifi access hotspots.

Men had menstrual cramps too, just ask Achilles

Check out this series of videos depicting the history of menstruation in men starting from the cavemen era based on analysis of hieroglyphics to historical evidence that even include the Greek gods, Shakespeare, Napoleon and even the moon race.. Really makes you wonder..

The Cavemen Evidence

Reliving the Orwellian Vision of 1984 in the 21st Century

The boffins of MIT have brought us a new creation, inspired by social networking success of the MySpace/ Facebook/ yadayada crowd.

Its what I call a back-to-basics approach, making social networking return to its offline roots.

A location-based application for “friendspotting”, iFind wants to help you find your friends anywhere, using data from WiFi access points to determine your location. Carlo Ratti, the director of the MIT lab that developed this, said he hopes this technology can help people “make serendipitous connections”

How will the internet change social networking?

The Internet has already changed the way we relate to other members of society. For those of you who have Friendster/ MySpace/ Facebook, you already have at least 10-100, maybe more, “friends”, that you never met face to face and wouldn’t have been your “friends” if the internet was non-existent. Face-to-face interaction used to be the dominant form of communication and was the medium for what I call “connection” too, which is what I consider the definitive stage of friendship where an acquaintance becomes a friend. Other alternative forms of communication, pre-internet, included snail mail or “penpals” in the past where communication was through text and maybe the occasional photograph for closer penpals.

Obviously, all that has changed with the Internet. When a single click of the mouse brings you into contact with another person’s individual universe of photos in social networking sites like MySpace/ FB, textual expressions of their thoughts on blogs, and other media like videos, you feel like you knew this person for ages.