This comment is posted in the thread ‘Worker’s Party coming into the hijab discussion’ by Anon 9:55am, and I quote:
‘I am a square peg. I demand the world to make all holes square to fit
me. I am very reasonable. I do not demand that you be square like me.
If I can't get into a round hole, it is your problem. You create the problem for me.
I am not the problem.’
Let me elaborate. A small peg was born square and having difficulties
fitting into all the round holes and other shape holes except only
square holes. The square peg starts to get annoyed. Why are people
making life so difficult for me. I can only fit into a few square holes.
That is unfair. I want all the holes to be square to fit me.
I am the victim. Why is everyone so unfair to me? Why don’t they see
that I am born like that, a square peg? I cannot be in other shapes. I
can only be a square peg. Don’t blame me.
You wait. Don’t make life so difficult for me. You are all so unreasonable.
I am suffering. It is all your fault.
11/08/2013
Why are the people not with the Govt
The hacking threat by The Messiah is drawing mixed reactions in
cyberspace. What is disturbing is that many are cheering The Messiah to
follow up with his threat and to challenge the govt. In the past when
such a thing happened, everyone would close rank with the govt and
identify themselves as us against them. I am sure the supporters of The
Messiah knew that it was not the right thing to do but still doing it.
The govt may want to reflect on this.
This is a development that is not to be taken lightly. When the people are siding with an unknown source of threat, likely to be foreigners and feeling good about it is not good news. Some are calling these supporters of The Messiah traitors to the country. It is a sign that these people are not with the govt, could be against the govt, but not necessarily against the country in this particular case.
On the other hand some are accusing the govt for selling out the people and country. This is serious accusation definitely. Words like traitors are now being spoken quite frequently. Some are wearing the patriot badge on their faces.
I could briefly remember Amy Khor being called something like a traitor or betrayer or something like that in Parliament for speaking out against govt policies. Excuse me for not being able to remember exactly what were said. Think I am starting to feel the on set of dementia.
Traitors and betrayers are very strong terms indeed. Anyone committing such offence is going to be remembered in history books. How valid are these accusations?
During the Japanese invasion of China, many Chinese were accused of being traitors by their own people. But to many of those accused, they did not think so. They were simply businessmen doing business with the Japanese invaders, selling them food, cloth, silk, coal, raw materials and whatever that the Japanese army needed while they were invading China and killing the Chinese. It was business as usual. The more patriotic Chinese would not accept these nonsensical explanations. The food and materials were used by the Japanese army, cloth for uniform, silk for parachutes, etc etc.
In a war situation, enemies and friends are clearly defined. But in peace time, trading and doing businesses are the norms. And everyone is friend and good friends in business. In what ways can the govt be accused of being traitors and betraying the people, and be justified? Are these accusations valid or just wild charges without any basis? Bringing in more foreigners, taking away jobs from the people, giving away citizenships freely, are these good enough reasons?
These words should not be used freely as they have very serious implications and connotations. Everyone should be more restrained in their choice of words unless the facts and circumstances dictate the need to use such strong terms. Whoever that is being accused of being a traitor or betraying his country must be very frightened by such a label. They are definitely worse than being accused of corruption, incompetence, insincerity, dishonesty, xenophobic, racist, etc etc.
Whew!
This is a development that is not to be taken lightly. When the people are siding with an unknown source of threat, likely to be foreigners and feeling good about it is not good news. Some are calling these supporters of The Messiah traitors to the country. It is a sign that these people are not with the govt, could be against the govt, but not necessarily against the country in this particular case.
On the other hand some are accusing the govt for selling out the people and country. This is serious accusation definitely. Words like traitors are now being spoken quite frequently. Some are wearing the patriot badge on their faces.
I could briefly remember Amy Khor being called something like a traitor or betrayer or something like that in Parliament for speaking out against govt policies. Excuse me for not being able to remember exactly what were said. Think I am starting to feel the on set of dementia.
Traitors and betrayers are very strong terms indeed. Anyone committing such offence is going to be remembered in history books. How valid are these accusations?
During the Japanese invasion of China, many Chinese were accused of being traitors by their own people. But to many of those accused, they did not think so. They were simply businessmen doing business with the Japanese invaders, selling them food, cloth, silk, coal, raw materials and whatever that the Japanese army needed while they were invading China and killing the Chinese. It was business as usual. The more patriotic Chinese would not accept these nonsensical explanations. The food and materials were used by the Japanese army, cloth for uniform, silk for parachutes, etc etc.
In a war situation, enemies and friends are clearly defined. But in peace time, trading and doing businesses are the norms. And everyone is friend and good friends in business. In what ways can the govt be accused of being traitors and betraying the people, and be justified? Are these accusations valid or just wild charges without any basis? Bringing in more foreigners, taking away jobs from the people, giving away citizenships freely, are these good enough reasons?
These words should not be used freely as they have very serious implications and connotations. Everyone should be more restrained in their choice of words unless the facts and circumstances dictate the need to use such strong terms. Whoever that is being accused of being a traitor or betraying his country must be very frightened by such a label. They are definitely worse than being accused of corruption, incompetence, insincerity, dishonesty, xenophobic, racist, etc etc.
Whew!
Challenging the ghost rider
The Messiah is gaining credence with Hsien Loong taking up his
challenge, to face threat with threat. Hsien Loong has declared war on
The Messiah. We would get you, with no stone unturned, or as good as
that. Internal and external resources would be tapped upon to flush out
this anonymous hacker. If I did not forget, someone was trying to trace a
blogger, was it Screwball or something like that, in Sammyboy but
nothing heard after that. Did they get their man or still trying?
As it is now, The Messiah is still an unknown element in cyberspace, a virtual figure. Going after him is like ghost chasing. So far The Messiah had only made a vitual threat but has done nothing serious, or had he? Hsien Loong’s comment is as good as throwing the gauntlet into the ring and telling The Messiah, let’s fight. If this Messiah is real, then he is going to react unless he senses that the mighty Singapore govt and its IT warriors would be good enough to nail him down and it is better to take Hsien Loong seriously, stay away from Singapore. No more threats and no more hacking. Going after a hacker can be done quietly with no announcement. An open statement is like a shouting match.
On the other hand if he is worth his salt and confident that he could wreck havoc to the Singapore govt, he is now prompted to do something. There is a saying, 多一事不如少一事, would it be better to just keep quiet and see if The Messiah escalates his threat by doing something? Or it would be better to let a second stringer minister to make a less confrontational comment? Is it worth the fight?
Anyway, the fight is on I suppose, and when the ante is up more fireworks will follow. Then again, The Messiah may just chicken out and nothing happens, with Hsien Loong calling his bluff. A serious attack on our computer systems, so many out there, can be quite disturbing and troublesome actually. But we have the best IT brigades to deal with the attack, so it is a matter of who is better and who shall triumph and rise as the victor.
So far so good. No more attacks.
PS. I wrote this yesterday and looks like it has been overtaken by what happened last night. TRS has reported that the PMO website has been defaced with the mask of The Messiah smiling in it. This episode shows that Yaacob is the cleverest of all the ministers. Anyone who stands up will only draw enemy fire to him. Better to lie low for the time being. Now who is next?
As it is now, The Messiah is still an unknown element in cyberspace, a virtual figure. Going after him is like ghost chasing. So far The Messiah had only made a vitual threat but has done nothing serious, or had he? Hsien Loong’s comment is as good as throwing the gauntlet into the ring and telling The Messiah, let’s fight. If this Messiah is real, then he is going to react unless he senses that the mighty Singapore govt and its IT warriors would be good enough to nail him down and it is better to take Hsien Loong seriously, stay away from Singapore. No more threats and no more hacking. Going after a hacker can be done quietly with no announcement. An open statement is like a shouting match.
On the other hand if he is worth his salt and confident that he could wreck havoc to the Singapore govt, he is now prompted to do something. There is a saying, 多一事不如少一事, would it be better to just keep quiet and see if The Messiah escalates his threat by doing something? Or it would be better to let a second stringer minister to make a less confrontational comment? Is it worth the fight?
Anyway, the fight is on I suppose, and when the ante is up more fireworks will follow. Then again, The Messiah may just chicken out and nothing happens, with Hsien Loong calling his bluff. A serious attack on our computer systems, so many out there, can be quite disturbing and troublesome actually. But we have the best IT brigades to deal with the attack, so it is a matter of who is better and who shall triumph and rise as the victor.
So far so good. No more attacks.
PS. I wrote this yesterday and looks like it has been overtaken by what happened last night. TRS has reported that the PMO website has been defaced with the mask of The Messiah smiling in it. This episode shows that Yaacob is the cleverest of all the ministers. Anyone who stands up will only draw enemy fire to him. Better to lie low for the time being. Now who is next?
11/07/2013
You can’t live there
Below is an extract of Thomas Friedman’s article on the airpocalyspe in
Beijing and how bad it has become appearing in the Today paper today.
‘….“What if China meets every criteria of economic success except one: You can’t live there.”
Indeed, what good is it having all those sparkling new buildings if you are trapped inside them? What good is it if China’s rapid growth has enabled four million people in Beijing to own cars, but the traffic never moves?
What good is it if China’s per capita incomes have risen to a level affording tens of millions of once-poor peasants diets rich in milk and meat, ...? What good is all that rising GDP, if there is no clean air to breathe?
China has built amazing hardware in 30 years — modern cities, roads, airports, ports and telecoms….’
Allow me to substitute the word China with the word Singapore and ask a slightly different question. ‘What good is Singapore with all the economic successes if there is no Singaporean living there?’ When I said Singaporeans you know what I mean.
‘….“What if China meets every criteria of economic success except one: You can’t live there.”
Indeed, what good is it having all those sparkling new buildings if you are trapped inside them? What good is it if China’s rapid growth has enabled four million people in Beijing to own cars, but the traffic never moves?
What good is it if China’s per capita incomes have risen to a level affording tens of millions of once-poor peasants diets rich in milk and meat, ...? What good is all that rising GDP, if there is no clean air to breathe?
China has built amazing hardware in 30 years — modern cities, roads, airports, ports and telecoms….’
Allow me to substitute the word China with the word Singapore and ask a slightly different question. ‘What good is Singapore with all the economic successes if there is no Singaporean living there?’ When I said Singaporeans you know what I mean.
What is HFT or High Frequency Trading
Business Times journalist Sivanithy wrote an article(yesterday) on SGX’s initiative
to consult the public on HFT trading in the SGX. The introduction of
the HFT is now a matter of when, so what is this public consultation all
about? Should not the SGX try to educate the public on what this HFT is
all about, the pros and cons of this newcomer?
Sivanithy asked a few very basic and pertinent questions. What is HFT and the need for SGX to educate the public on this new animal that it assumed everyone knows what it is but the truth is that no one knows. It is not as simple as what people think, that HFT is there to provide liquidity in the market to benefit the other traders.
Without knowing how this animal works, what kind of advantage it has over the rest of the players, no one knows how dangerous or what harm it can cause to the market. One thing for sure, HFT is not here to do charity. Its mission is simply to take advantage of any arbitrage situation to take profits. Technically, it can only make profits and not losses. So, how is this going to benefit the other players? How can the exchange allow HFT or any other instruments to enter the market with a clear cut advantage, to make profits while other players lose?
This applies to Algorithm trading. The Algo players have the advantage of their super computers to compute and take positions to make profits. It is like a sure bet. And who are the losers or the sure losers? The exchange should have enough data by now on who are the big net gainers from the market. Both Algo traders and HFT traders are more or less guaranteed to profit from the system with the aid of high tech equipment. This is a violation of the exchange’s guiding principle and responsibility of providing a level playing view.
What is the SGX and MAS’s positions on this? Is it fair to the rest of the traders? Are they breaking their own rules and regulations?
There is a need to tell the whole story on the capabilities of the HFT and Algo trading technology? Don’t just tell the people how good they are. The public and the govt need to know how harmful they are. The public were told how good the Lehman Bonds and toxic notes were but nothing about how bad they could turn out. We need to learn from that mistake and handle this new animal with great care.
What information is made available to them and not to the other traders and how they can take advantage of the information to make assured profit? If the technology can assure them of profits, how can they be allowed to do so when other traders enter the market with the risk of losing instead of making profits? How can SGX/MAS allow HFT and Algo traders to play in the market when they can only be winners and paying a small clearing fee? Is this the case?
The public and other traders have the right to know what they are up against. There is a need for transparency and disclosure on what these two systems can do and are doing. How many Algo computers are already hooked onto the SGX computers and how many HFT computers will be allowed into the system?
It is the responsibility of MAS and SGX to provide a level playing field and fair play. Period. The public cannot be let into a market blindfolded without knowing how dangerous these new players are and what they are up against, and with their hands tied.
Sivanithy asked a few very basic and pertinent questions. What is HFT and the need for SGX to educate the public on this new animal that it assumed everyone knows what it is but the truth is that no one knows. It is not as simple as what people think, that HFT is there to provide liquidity in the market to benefit the other traders.
Without knowing how this animal works, what kind of advantage it has over the rest of the players, no one knows how dangerous or what harm it can cause to the market. One thing for sure, HFT is not here to do charity. Its mission is simply to take advantage of any arbitrage situation to take profits. Technically, it can only make profits and not losses. So, how is this going to benefit the other players? How can the exchange allow HFT or any other instruments to enter the market with a clear cut advantage, to make profits while other players lose?
This applies to Algorithm trading. The Algo players have the advantage of their super computers to compute and take positions to make profits. It is like a sure bet. And who are the losers or the sure losers? The exchange should have enough data by now on who are the big net gainers from the market. Both Algo traders and HFT traders are more or less guaranteed to profit from the system with the aid of high tech equipment. This is a violation of the exchange’s guiding principle and responsibility of providing a level playing view.
What is the SGX and MAS’s positions on this? Is it fair to the rest of the traders? Are they breaking their own rules and regulations?
There is a need to tell the whole story on the capabilities of the HFT and Algo trading technology? Don’t just tell the people how good they are. The public and the govt need to know how harmful they are. The public were told how good the Lehman Bonds and toxic notes were but nothing about how bad they could turn out. We need to learn from that mistake and handle this new animal with great care.
What information is made available to them and not to the other traders and how they can take advantage of the information to make assured profit? If the technology can assure them of profits, how can they be allowed to do so when other traders enter the market with the risk of losing instead of making profits? How can SGX/MAS allow HFT and Algo traders to play in the market when they can only be winners and paying a small clearing fee? Is this the case?
The public and other traders have the right to know what they are up against. There is a need for transparency and disclosure on what these two systems can do and are doing. How many Algo computers are already hooked onto the SGX computers and how many HFT computers will be allowed into the system?
It is the responsibility of MAS and SGX to provide a level playing field and fair play. Period. The public cannot be let into a market blindfolded without knowing how dangerous these new players are and what they are up against, and with their hands tied.
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