Mother tongue fortnight

Mother Tongue Fortnight (MTF) is an event hosted by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to appreciate our mother tongue. This event is being carried out in many schools around Singapore and it also is being conducted in my school.
Last Monday was the start of the MTF event and to commemorate the start of this event, my school had an "East Spring got talent" event in conjunction with MTF during assembly. "East Spring got talent" is an event where East Springians get a chance to showcase their talent. The many auditions lasted several months and the judges finally came out with 3 solo person and groups to qualify for the finals. Their task to win this competition went unexpected when they were told that they are suppose to showcase a song in their respective mother tongue!
The finalists practiced hard and perfomed on stage during last Monday's assembly.
Another MTF event that happen in my school is the "Chinese Cultural" event which was held today for the sec 3s.
We learned to pour Chinese tea, make mooncakes, do Chinese painting and do Chinese paper cutting.
I feel that these events organized by the MOE is quite meaningful because none of us actually make mooncakes at home or even does Chinese painting!
Hopefully there will be more interesting events coming up! The next event I am looking forward to us the National Day celebration!

8 reasons why I haven't posted for so long

Here are the 8 :

1. Busy with school
2. Busy with homeworks
3. Busy with projects
4. Busy with CCA - Scouting
5. Busy going tuition
6. Busy sleeping
7. Busy checking Facebook
8. Nothing to post

Haha, these are the 8 reasons why I have not post for so long :)

Apple iPhone/iPad app : Puffin Browser

Many people choose android phones to iPhone due to the fact that iPhone does not support adobe flash player. In fact in my opinion, the only point iPhone lost to android phones is the lack of flash player. But we all know that Steve jobs already commented on why he refused flash player on apple devices. It is because Flash player may bring down the performance on the apple devices ( See my previous post for more info )
But fear not! I found out a browser that actually enable us to watch flash videos! The name of the app is "Puffin Browser" and it cost USD$0.99. Paying USD$0.99 and we get to watch flash videos on our iPhones and iPad? That seems quite worth it. The disclaimer on the app is that the app does not enable flash games. I tried playing a few y8 games on my iPad using puffin and most games can be played! (Only that iPad doesn't have a mouse and the arrow keys) I even tried playing Habbo and it loads and runs even smoother than "Alwaysonpc"!
I know currently there is also another app called "Skyfire browser" that enables us to watch flash videos too. Skyfire cost USD$4.95 and its video takes some time to buffer, but puffin doesn't. So I prefer using puffin instead because it enables me to play some flash games, watch flash videos fast and also cheaper.
So that's all for tonight, shall post again soon!

Recommended iPhone app (Game) : Modern Combat 2 Black Pegasus

I was pretty bored at home today so I'll start on a random topic to blog about. So, today I'll recommend you guys a new iPhone game I just purchased several days ago and found it quite fun. 

App Name :  Modern Combat 2 Black Pegasus
Price : USD$6.99 (approx SGD$8.40)

Review : 
Modern Combat 2 Black Pegasus is a HD super clear FPS (first player shooting) game on the iPhone. It's game play is a little like Call Of Duty. It has campaign mode and also online multiplayer.
SGD$8.40 may not be a small sum for most of us, but it's certainly worth your money due to it's excellent HD graphics and game play. When you're playing the game, you'll feel like you're playing Call Of Duty on the PS3.
It's online multiplayer function made the game even worth your money because you get to challenge people globally and rank up. You won't get sick and tired of playing due to the fact that you get to challenge different online players. Multiplayer comes with 3 selection :
1. Local Bluetooth - Challenge your friends via Bluetooth
2. Local Wifi - Challenge players from your country
3. Online - Challenge players from all over the world
For multiplayer modes, you can play with up to 10 players in different mode (team battle, battle, capture the flag, defuse the bomb)
Now, doesn't that sound very attracting?
Go to the app store and search for the free trial version of this game and give it a try (There's no multiplayer).
Well, that's all for today, cya next time! 
Sorry, can't post my snapshots now due to blogger being incompatible with iPhone.

IPad 2 - Part One

I shall post my thoughts and feelings about the lastest IPad 2 before the release in Singapore and also another after the release. The second generation of IPad claims to be thinner, lighter and faster than the first generation. I've asked afew friends of mine who own an IPad on how do they feel about it. They all mentioned on how fast their IPad 1 is. Infact, an apple device will be able to play flash games and watch flash videos with a help of an app caled "Alwaysonpc". The application cost USD$24.99 (Estimated). I know it isn't cheap, but enabling your idevices to have access to flash player, its certainly worth it to me. A friend of mine uses his first generation IPad to access his habbo and facebook games with "Alwaysonpc" and he claims that its 100% no lag. IPad 2 have a build in dual core A5 processor which is twice the processor of IPad 1. I can't imagine the speed of IPad 2! Apple also claims that IPad 2 have super fast graphics so that gamers can have a super smooth game play experience. All these spects make me feel that the second generation of IPad is alot better than IPad 1 and I feel like buying it. :P I guess I'll have to take my time to save up. I can predict that the moment IPad 2 is being release in Singapore somewhere this/next week, the stock will be out within hours of its launch. And the new stock will only be in after months. Now, lets wait patiently for the second generation of the apple IPad to be released in Singapore and see if the IPad 2 is as good as apple claims to be. So, seeya in the next post :P

Change of Handphone Policy

I am please to hear that our principle reviewed our many years of debate on the handphone policy and decided to make a change for it. Weeks ago during an assembly, she spoke to us about the advantages and disadvantages of using handphone in school. She than allowed us to bring our phones to school, but not allowed to use/display it. Currently, we are only allowed to use our handphones after school in the "Yelow Box" at the foyer. I find that kind of weird because imagine your parents are calling you when you are in the canteen, you have to run all the way to the foyer just to pick up the call. I suggest that the school may review on this policy again and change the rule such that we are allowed to use our handphones anywhere after school, as long as no teaching is going on. Don;t you agree with me that this would mae life easier for students?

Cyber Hacking Is A Very Serious Offence

(Everyone's name in this post have been changed to prevent any defaming)

Today when I was just visiting some rooms in habbo, I was infromed by my friend name Sherry that her storage account has been hacked and that account worth more than SGD$10,000. Well after some questioning and investigating, the prime suspect is a guy name Milky.

In this post, I am not describing how the hacking happened, but to infrom Milky how serious cyber hacking is.

Cyber hacking is an extremly serious offence and hackers will bear almost the same punishments as people who steal, and the reason behind that is hacking is considered cyber stealing. Well, don't believe me? Heres a prove :

In the year 2007 November, a 17 year old Teen was arrested and sentence to jail for hacking people's habbo account. The amount of credits he stole worth nearly USD$5,859 . We were not being told how long was the teen going to remain in jail, but going to jail is not a good thing.

To Milky :

Don't think because you hack a game account and the police won't do anything about it. The above is a prove that people can go to jail for hacking habbo account.
Don't think because the victim is a lower secondary school girl, she don't dare to go to the police station to report you.
For your information, there is such a thing called "E-Service" in the SPF (Singapore Police Force) website. This "E-Service" allows victim to report crimes to the police at home, without going to the police station. Victims just have to fill in their contact information and they can report a crime to the police. So, the girl can report you for hacking her account.

I know that you're not above 18 yet and you can't go to jail. But, you are entitled to the "Boy's Home"(A jail for children below the age of 18)
I can rest assure you a boys home is completely different from jail but, life there is going to be tough.
The food there is very "delicious" and the facilities there is very "clean"
(If you can sense my sacarsm)
Maybe you just have to wake up 6am in the morning daily to do some morning exercise and clean up the whole area (Area cleaning).

Don't worry, hacking SGD$10,000 will only entitle you to at most 1 year of stay in the boys home. Don't forget, once you sign up for a stay in the boys home, no matter 1 night or 1 year, you will have a permanent record of theft. So when you grow up and want to look for a suitable job, your boss will look at your record and will think twice about hiring a theft.

Do you think hacking SGD$10,000 now and get a permanent record that will affect your whole future is worth it? Why not study hard and get a good job that can pay you up to SGD$10,000 a month and you can enjoy a luxurious life?

Well, Sherry and I are planning to give you a chance to turn yourself in to us and give us back the hacked furniture. If you don't want to do that, then I think we will have no choice but to go a step further and settle this with the police.

Regards
TEAMDOJO

Sources:
Singapore Police Force - http://www.spf.gov.sg/
Virtually Blind - http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/11/14/habbo-theft/

iPhone 4 - Adobe Flash Player

There are some rumours that apple Inc might be allowing it's idevices to support adobe flash player.
I can tell you guys that rumours will only remain as a rumour. I am very confident that apple Inc will not allow flash player into it's devices unless Steve Jobs passed away and the shareholders of apple decided to allow flash player.
Steve Jobs have his very own reason on why flash player is not allowed on the idevices.
You can read his reasonshere.

The reason is quite long, so I will quote out a short summary of it here for those lazy peoples :)
I will only quote the few important reasons. For a more detailed reason, please click here.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.
Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 250,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

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Even though the important points are already stated, it is recommended that you guys still read the full review just in case it missed out some points.
I feel that Steve Jobs disapprove flash player in iPhone is to ensure that the iPhones run smooth and not crash like the macs. So he is helping us to have a powerful phone :)
For those who want to watch flash videos, I will recommad you this app called "Skyfire" which can be purchased from the app store at only USD$2.99 (SGD$5). Basically, the app is a browser that will auto detect a flash video and convert it to a format that iPhone uses so the video can be played. (if the app fail to work on your device, I will not be responsible)

iPhone 4 - Jail breaking

For the past few months, my Samsung Galaxy S started to lag very badly and I got very frustrated. I went around asking my friends if their handphone lags and I found out that most of their smartphone does lag. The only phone with no lag issue so far is the apple iPhone 4. So I saved up my CNY money and purchased an iPhone 4 2 weeks ago and I am very pleased with it. There's completely no lags at all.
Apple has very strict security so as to ensure their idevices do not get infected with viruses or crash. So due to this tight security issue, iPhone can only download things from the apple apps store. Most people may find it quite irritating because they cannot download free apps and songs. But I personally feel that it is a brilliant idea that Steve Jobs came up with. By preventing any unauthorize applications onto the iPhone, the iPhone will be immune to many kinds of viruses which will keep the phone very safe. This is the reason why iPhone does not lag/crash.
But most people now are considering jailbreaking their iPhone 4. Here are my opinions about jailbreaking it :

Advantages :
You get to download all kinds of stuffs from the web including free apps and non-approve iPhone apps. You get more control over your phone and can customize your settings more. So we get to save our money as we do not need to purchase any apps.

Disadvantages :
Remember, downloading paid apps for free is illegal! When you jailbreak your iPhone, your iPhone's security is being pulled down. This is the reason why you can download free apps on the web. When the security is down, your phone is prone to viruses. One small mistake (download a game / enters a website with virus), there goes your phone. Your iPhone will start lagging badly or may even crash! Bear in mind that some virus is so strong that it can damage your iPhone and factory reset may not even work.

So I feel that it is best not to jailbreak your iPhone. Is it worth it to download free games and "open" your iPhone up to viruses? Most iPhone top games are only USD$0.99 (SGD$1.30). Is it worth it when the virus attacks your iPhone and it canny function properly anymore? Remember that iPhone is no lag because of it's tight security.
So please think carefully before jailbreaking your iPhone.

Late for school

It was the first time ever this year I was late for school. And I had a very good reason which is that last night there was a power trip in my house and the whole house's digital alarm clock was reseted. So the alarm clock did not ring at 6.30am, resulting in me waking up at 7.10am and reaching school 1 minute late. So, Mr Raj (School's operation manager) asked me the reason why was I late. So I told him the TRUTH, and this was his reply : "Telling me such a common excuse and expecting me to believe it?" (He said something like this). His deficient speech made me feel like skinning him alive >:(
And there was something that made me wonder if the school is biased. The school often check on late comers bag for prohibited items (hand phones, cigarettes, drugs, ect). They do not even bother to check the bags of those students that come to school on time. I can tell that more than 85% of the students in the school brings their hand phones to school daily. By only checking on the late comer's bag, are they trying to tell us that if we come to school on time, we can bring prohibited items to school? So in the future, all drug traffickers can get away scott-free as long as they come to school on time? I feel that the school should be fair by having this term "One for all, all for one". If they want to check our school bags, check EVERYONE's school bags, if they are lazy to check, then don't check at all. The school will say that they only check on late comer's bag as it is a "Punishment" for late comers, but I will say that it is "Laziness" of the school. This act by the school shows us how lazy this school is to check all of our bags right?

Biology

Mr Justin Lee said that because our bio class is the last class in the school, we might be using the computer lab more often. And so, last Monday and today we used the computer lab for our after school bio class. Mr Lee told us that there was a rumour that his bio class is not very good. Several of my friends and I really wonder who would spread that rumour. In my opinion, Mr Lee's bio class is one of the best pure science lesson I have this year, compared to pure physics and pure chem. Hopefully this stinking rumour stops :-)
Something interesting happened today in bio class. Everyone turned up for class except Sean. Mr Lee was all worried about Sean and what would happen to him. ( He turned up for school today ). We were all laughing our hearts out when we imagine the reason why Sean is not here. It turned out that the reason why Sean was late for bio is that he spoke to Mr Benny Low in the canteen. By the time he came up to the lab, 5 mins of lesson was left...
Today's biology lesson was fun and I wish we can use the computer lab every lesson :-)