Windows Display set to 125%

Tonight I moved from 100% to 125% display. No choice, we all lose visual acuity with age. Visual aids are never nearly as good as a plastic lens with strong and young ciliary muscles. At least I could still remember my Biology from long ago!

I see 150% is also available. I hope I never get to that point but you never know. The fact that Microsoft provided it suggest there are some who want it.

Update: 9:50pm

I just returned my Windows Display to 100% and vaguely recall that I have done this before! Yeah, I did something silly tonight.

Since a big chunk on time on the PC is spent looking at Google Chrome, the right thing to do was to set Chrome display up to 110 or 120% .

Switching to Microsoft OneNote

Last night I switched from Evernote to OneNote by Microsoft. The experience is quite enjoyable thus far. In fact I like OneNote much better than Evernote. Why didn't I move over sooner?

Abigail Sin: A special prodigy

The choices Abigail Sin made were unusual and has proven to be the right ones for her. All young people and their families should do the same even if the right decisions for most who are able would likely fall into GEP, Cambridge and Juilliard which she said no to.

In the beginning, there are the gifted kids and the gifted gifted kids. Now in the system we also have those who gamed the system to get in.

Never crave the limelight or the praise of others. That clouds you from a clear vision of who you are and what is good for you. I am delighted that Abigail is among the few who was not snared by these things and stayed humble.

Illegal curry puff 'factory' with over 1,000 likes

My sympathy goes out to this family. Her husband was very irresponsible and left them with barely the means to get by. But there are lots of such stories and the reason why I am blogging about this is the response this story has elicited.

She is getting an overwhelming overflow of sympathy from the public! 1150, 580 and 433 likes in just 4 hours.

Singapore society hate to see this happen. I think we want to do better for such on the rocks cases.

We used to make life potentially difficult for them to minimize such situations but looking back it doesn't work and we have been simplistic about family life. Fact of life is people do make errors of judgement leading them to fall on hard times and even through the cracks.

Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea

Until I am finally able to put myself into their shoes, for the last few years I could not understand what China was trying to achieve from aggressively asserting themselves in the South China Sea. I mean it was overall bad for everyone's security and business, including theirs. China I realized was looking far ahead into the future.

As China's economic wealth continues to grow, we blithely forget that they would feel insecure unless their commercial interests are also protected to a similar degree the American also protects theirs. By then it would be trading so much everywhere and everyone's else problem have a way of impacting Chinese interests and finding its way back to Beijing. At that time China must have the wherewithal to protect her interests.

Can you imagine a foreign navy sailing up and down hugging on either coast of the USA even though it is in international waters? Apply the same touchiness America would have to China. For historical reasons America was committed to defend Japan but the relationship trajectory with China is completely different.

All these is well and good but how is everything going to play out? To me the Chinese will keep taking the initiative whilst its Asian neighbors and America only react. The Chinese only need to keep it up as much as others will bear without firing any shot and over a very long time like if I may borrow from thermal physics, isothermally expand to where they want.

In any engagement it seems to me that the non-Chinese side is more nervous than the Chinese. The Chinese are trying to gain and the non-Chinese trying to resist. Therefore ASEAN is far more eager to have a Code of Conduct in place but why would the Chinese want to tie their hands signing up to one? They would still in the end but only when it suits them. As their maritime presence grows and more tactical options become available there would be a point which they would gladly commit to a Code of Conduct.

It is smarter to plan for a strong and powerful China tomorrow and even wiser to help that come about in a manner which we would be happy to live with. Outside of China, I wonder which countries is as farseeing and working towards that. Sure, we must resist Chinese assertiveness but let's do it we finesse and a happy ending in mind. Not reacting as like now but with shrewd calculations where losing is winning in disguise because China will get what she wants in the end.

Meanwhile there will be many anxious and nervous moments at sea to come but that is part of the game. If played well business will eventually understand and discount that. Along the way China must match its assertiveness with other constructive regional initiatives. The AIIB initiative is a good example.

Update: 4:35 pm

The Americans are irritated with what is developing in our neck of woods. Truth is others were reclaiming land around the islands they claimed even before the Chinese.

If you want to the Chinese to stop, the others must do the same. I do not know if the Chinese will do the same but even if they do, it would most likely only be a hiatus.

Every time you are sleeping and not vigilant the Chinese make progress toward what they want.

In this game whoever takes the initiative and patiently apply themselves over many years will come out the winner.

More cute messages from Coke

Finally decided we will turn the bottles to the right faces and take a photo. Coke is a genius at marketing.

I don't have the time but I think there must be others researching and trying to come up with a complete set of labels. Perhaps Coke has plans to produce even more messages? We have many months to bump into them until SG50 is over

American security in insecurity

No major terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11 for more than a decade. They now feel a lot more confident and safe. I imagine they will bring back the Act if they get hit again. America can afford to learn lessons this way and it might actually make them stronger and more resilient in the long run. Small and vulnerable states like us cannot afford this but for having it good for a very long time, do we not become weak and fragile?

Meanwhile quietly their scientific minds must be developing the next generation of tools which allow them to be less intrusive as well as more effective. We have every incentive to do the same. In fact the government had at times hinted our defense research capabilities is our secret weapon. They leave it to us to imagine what these might be, and Tim Huxley if he knows some isn't sharing either.