Singaporean arrested after Facebook attack on govt

In a statement, police said they had arrested a “man in his late 20s” on Tuesday “in connection with investigations into offences related to incitement of violence”.

…Abdul Malik Ghazali, 27, who posted a series of comments on the social networking site critical of how Singapore is hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

The August 14-26 event, held for competitors aged from 14 to 18, has generated limited public interest, with many events blighted by empty seats and the host country’s athletes faring badly.

Vivian Balakrishnan, the minister for community development, youth and sports, has come under particular fire from online critics over the games.

Abdul Malik’s postings on his own Facebook page and on a separate group account called “I hate the Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee” are also critical of Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

He said it was time to “burn” the sports minister and the PAP. “Rally together and vote them out!!!” he wrote.

“I did not intend for it to be taken literally. I did not mean for someone to actually burn,” he said. –AFP (Source: Asiaone)

Here’s what the group has to say and what they describe themselves to be:

We are Singaporeans who are disappointed and angry with the YOG organising Committee (SYOGOC).

The SYOGOC ballooned its initial budget of S$105 million for the YOG to S$387 million. In contrast, this government allocated only $92 million to the ComCare and Social Support Programme for needy Singaporeans in 2010.

The SYOGOC chose to fake its ticket sales results by having MOE to purchase the bulk of the tickets. This has led to the strange phenomenon of the half-filled stadiums and competition halls, despite tickets being fully “sold out”!

Students were coerced by their schools to support the torch relays and to attend YOG events. The volunteers were badly treated with substandard and even unsafe food!

It is an event organised by the politicians for the politicians to look good in front of foreigners, and the government is splurging on taxpayers’ money like nobody’s business.

We hate the YOG Organising Committee!

The group has 2,796 members currently.

Okay time for Merly:

(Merly Youth Olympics Singapore 2010.)

(It’s time to wave goodbye.)

Update on Google Wave

Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. In addition, we will work on tools so that users can easily “liberate” their content from Wave.

Wave has taught us a lot, and we are proud of the team for the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of computer science. We are excited about what they will develop next as we continue to create innovations with the potential to advance technology and the wider web. (Source: Google Blog)

RIP. And thank goodness I didn’t explore the Google Wave API much.

Saudi Arabia to Ban BlackBerry Service on Friday

Saudi Arabia has ordered the suspension of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry service as of Friday, as it does not meet current regulations, according to the country’s telecommunications regulator.

The suspension will cover all services, including e-mail and instant messaging, said an official from the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), who requested not to be named. He did not specify what were the current local regulations that BlackBerry did not comply with.

BlackBerry’s service is to be suspended in neighboring United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Oct. 11 because it does not fall in line with the country’s regulations, the UAE telecommunications regulator said on Sunday.

RIM is also in negotiations with the Indian government over the country’s demands that security agencies should be able to intercept BlackBerry data.

In a customer update earlier this week circulated to the media, RIM said that it does not possess a “master key,” nor does any “back door” exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorized access to the encryption key or corporate data. The symmetric key system used in the BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers ensures that only the customer possesses a copy of the encryption key. (Source: PC World)

I’m standing on the BlackBerry side for this one.

Some statistics:

• 28% indicated they couldn’t live without their handphones – highest group among Asian youths.
• When it comes to having the most number of contacts, Singapore youths are second with 108 contacts – after Indonesia.
• The average number of contacts across youths surveyed in Asia is 77.
• As for laptops and smartphones, Singapore youths have the highest ownership in the region.
• 43% of Singapore youths blog.
• 36% read a blog without making comments.

It’s time to make mobile applications.

JAKARTA: Computer screens at the Indonesian parliament broadcast porn images in an incident that caused a shock among journalists and legislators, reports said on Tuesday.

The images were displayed for 15 minutes before officials switched off the screens.

“It’s not a funny incident,” Roy Suryo, a Democratic Party lawmaker, was quoted by the Globe as saying. “Someone must be held responsible for it.” (Source: Times of India)

Oh yes it’s funny. Just laugh it off. It’s no big deal Mr lawmaker. By the way, Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Oracle shuts down open source test servers

Like most open source platforms, PostgreSQL relies on an army of distributed volunteers. It is volunteers that, for example, operate the PostgreSQL Build farm, a “distributed, automated build and verify system” built by enthusiast Andrew Dunstan.

Oracle has shut down servers Sun Microsystems was contributing to the build farm for open source database software, PostgreSQL, forcing enthusiasts to scramble to find new hosts to test updates to their software on the Solaris operating system.

“It’s a vital piece of the infrastructure for developing PostgreSQL,” Dunstan told iTnews. “Before it existed, if some change we made broke on some platform, it was often weeks or months before we found out about it. Now we know within hours.”

At the start of July, Oracle shut down its three PostgreSQL build farm servers without warning, leaving the PostgreSQL community rushing to find replacements.

Dunstan said he “suspects” Oracle does view PostgreSQL as a competitor. (Source: IT News)

I love to see Oracle post their financial results, they have made quite a bit of cost cutting moves since the acquisition. You can hardly blame them too; they’ve got shareholders to report to. After all, doing too much charity work on open source is partly why Sun Microsystems failed in the first place.

Besti Flokkurinn – The Best Video – Subtitles

“We are the best” – Video from the Best party – Jon Gnarr Mayor of Reykjavik 2010

Icelander’s Campaign Is a Joke, Until He’s Elected

Last month, in the depressed aftermath of the country’s financial collapse, the Best Party emerged as the biggest winner in Reykjavik’s elections, with 34.7 percent of the vote, and Mr. Gnarr — who also promised a classroom of kindergartners he would build a Disneyland at the airport — is now the fourth mayor in four years of a city that is home to more than a third of the island’s 320,000 people.

In his acceptance speech he tried to calm the fears of the other 65.3 percent. “No one has to be afraid of the Best Party,” he said, “because it is the best party. If it wasn’t, it would be called the Worst Party or the Bad Party. We would never work with a party like that.” (Source: New York Times)

Did I mention that his wife is also Björk’s best friend?

Over 18 people from City Harvest Church called up in probe so far

SINGAPORE : More than 18 people from City Harvest Church, including pop singer Ho Yeow Sun, have been called up so far to help police investigations into the alleged misuse of funds at the church.

Founder Kong Hee and 16 others were questioned on May 31.

MediaCorp understands that others have also been called in since then.

The police probe into the church concerns specific incidents that could involve the possible falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust, involving millions of dollars and transactions that date back years. (Source: Channel News Asia)

Other notes from The Straits Times:

TNP said Ms Ho, 40, had flown in from the US on Monday, and was called in to assist police with their investigation into the finances of City Harvest Church. She was at the Police Cantonment Complex from about 10 am to 6.30pm and was questioned by officers from the Commercial Affairs Department. (Source: Straits Times)

When would this end, I wonder.

UPDATE 6/15 1AM: The statue has been destroyed except for the metal skeleton underneath. Here are links to a couple pictures…

Touchdown Jesus Struck by Lightning!

Thor doesn’t approve?

Ordinary members ‘have no right to attend general meetings’

According to City Harvest Church’s (CHC) constitution, which MediaCorp has obtained a copy of, ordinary church members have “no right to attend General Meetings”.

Only executive members – such as pastors, the board of directors and cell group leaders who have served at least three years – are entitled to do so.

Meanwhile, the National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) said that while it encourages members to comply with the Code, it is a voluntary association and each member determines its own policy and action.

CHC is a member of NCCS.

NCCS does not oversee its members’ financial matters, said its general secretary Lim K Tham.

Whether members are able to attend AGMs depends on how their church is incorporated, he added.

Members of churches registered as societies are entitled to attend AGMs. City Harvest is registered as a society and a charity.

Some churches are, however, registered as companies limited by guarantee, and whether members are allowed to attend AGMs would rest on a document called a memorandum of association – which sets out the contract between the organisation and its members, said Mr Lim. (Read more coverage at Today Online)