dsng.net - the daryl sng blog

I love GPS, and I love Google Maps, and I'm the first to think that there could be more done with location-based services in Singapore. (Aside: Some day I'll do my own Google Maps mashup to find out where I can take my recycling. In the meantime, I managed to get the number of the local karang guni man.) I like the idea of using something as non-geographical as the Internet to promote hyperlocal things, such as figuring out restaurants near you and the like, and I like the idea that my phone can help me do that. But even so, I don't get Foursquare or Google Buzz for Mobile, which I played around with for a while. Via sparklette , I found "Please Rob Me" , which figures out who's not at home using foursquare. (Technically, since it tells you where people aren't, not where they are, it should be "please burglarise me", but I guess that's not as catchy a name.) It may be facetious, but it helps make a good point - why do you want to broadcast yo...

Lillian Ross on her friendship with J. D. Salinger in the New Yorker . A lovely portrait of the man as man, not recluse. Also some photos .

In honour of the tradition of not using scissors on Chinese New Year, I will eschew cutting. I will only copy and paste.

If the iPad comes to this region, will we see an iPad Thai?

I pass by the current Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy building once in a while. It's gone through many incarnations in its life, starting as the University of Singapore. But to me it will always be the IE building, i.e. (ha) the Institute of Education Building, because that's what my Mum called it when she worked there, in a branch of the Ministry of Education, working on the "Helping Underachievers Programme". My Mum worked almost all her life, once she got her A-levels and finished Teachers Training College. She taught in Balestier Mixed School, where she met my Dad. She taught in Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), up until her retirement in 2005. And in between there were various schools and stints at MOE. So, occasionally, after Primary School finished, when I wasn't parked at the National Library waiting for her (the family didn't have babysitting), I would go to her office in the IE Building, and get parked in the library there. I discovered the lovely...

My top 10 movies of the 2000s, inspired by Chris Wisniewski's writeup on Before Sunset on Reverse Shot: Before Sunset Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Y Tu Mama Tambien City of God Brokeback Mountain In the Mood for Love Far From Heaven Almost Famous High Fidelity Memento Honourable mentions: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Children of Men; The Wrestler; The Squid and the Whale; Juno; Up; State of Play; The Bourne Ultimatum, Once.

Went to the Oh! Open House on Friday. Great to tour Niven Road shophouses. But to be honest the works that caught my eye were in the companion exhibition at Wilkie Edge - "Blink" by George Wong and a couple of works by Marissa Keller.