Eshin Direct

Buyer Be Wary of Terms and Conditions

Certain individuals keen on pointing out the evils of Facebook have pointed me in the direction of their Terms and Conditions of usage. My friend in the UK apparently got banned for advocating out against the service and only after much grovelling, got back into the service (evidently, there was a value to the service). Bloggers and citizens of the netisphere really ought to be aware of the terms and conditions of the services they use, and understand their rights.

And while Facebook’s terms look detrimental to your rights, it is not alone in this regard. Let’s have a look at what all the fuss is about.

Here is a segment of Facebook’s terms and conditions:

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Tech Disrupting Bio-Rhythm Patterns

I firmly believe that we all have cycles in our a bio-rhythm that disrupts all forms of technology that you touch. It is sort of like a reverse Midas touch where all gadgetry decides to play up. For me, it usually happens after I’ve configured everything to work perfectly (i.e. various gadgets play nicely along with various website). Perhaps my peak in technology is followed by a complete collapse.

So what were the incidents that led me to believe (this time) that I’m suffering from a tech blackspot?

1. Nokia N95 does some weird things like insisting on deleting a photo immediately after you have taken it. (This might relate to problem 3, ShoZu being down.
2. Opening a SMS message now takes many cycles of the moon.
3. ShoZu’s server went down which happened to include my account.
4. Facebook doesn’t play nicely with ShoZu or Flickr.
5. GoDaddy is having a pop by letting me know that cheap hosting entitles you to nothing.

I’m off to read a book.

Singapore Taxis - Singapore’s First Defence

In a little known fact, it is believed that the Japanese successfully invaded Singapore during World War 2 by borrowing bikes and stolen taxis in Malaya to cross the causeway over into Singapore. I was joking with a colleague that if someone invaded Singapore today, oh what a different story it would be if they had to factor in Singapore taxis as part of the battle strategy.

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ShoZu Showing Unreliability

One of the problems with me and mobile phone photos is getting them online. ShoZu.com seems to have a solution to that problem where it sits on your phone and enables you to upload them online in a breeze. There is the option to set a 1-click feature that automatically asks you after every photo taken if you want to send it to the service you specific (e.g Facebook, Flickr, etc). Then, to save you time, you can specify CC sites that enable you set services which automatically get sent a copy of the photo everytime you send a photo.

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British Olympics

Yeah, I hate to upset the folks back at home in the UK, but the UK needs a lot of work if it hopes to look remotely like an Olympic event. It shouldn’t be too hard since Britain is already a “developed” nation in the West. But watching the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing, which featured a British “preview” of sorts, one watches it with a little concern for 2012.

I won’t go into the horrendous London 2012 Olympic logo that looks like something my 7-year old niece put it together in a sudden fit of hip hop coolness. But one wonders why the best British icons that the UK can put together are a transforming London bus, a lollipop lady, and a host of hi-tech grey umbrellas. Oh and some dancers doing something.

Leona Lewis performed something noisy with Jimmy Page, whose opening riff offered some hope amongst the dreariness that was the opening, yet failed to deliver anything remotely inspirational. In fact, it was all rather cringe worthy and one wonders if Leona Lewis will even be invited to the 2012 Olympics at all given the fickleness of pop. Leona who?

Yeah, David Beckham was…

(oh gawd, the Singapore Government couldn’t resist sticking in a “we the people of Singapore” TVC in between the Olympic proceedings - just in case you weren’t patriotic enough)

… what was I saying. Beckham was… insipid? tepid? Isn’t he playing for the US now?

Yeah, I think that the UK has to pull something out of the hat that is a little better than what we saw. What happened to the heritage of the UK? It isn’t frigging red buses, or lollipop ladies. The music, the culture, the spirit? Cool Britannia it ain’t. It was embarrassing. Nuff said.