Perish the Fruit Company

Update: photo below.


The Apple campus in Cupertino, California, as shown on Microsoft's "Virtual Earth.".


'Virtual Earth' wipes Apple off the map

Photo of Apple HQ shows single warehouse, empty parking lot

Thursday, July 28, 2005 Posted: 1528 GMT (2328 HKT)

CUPERTINO, California (AP) -- As software rivals, Microsoft wants to wipe Apple Computer Inc. off the map.

With Microsoft's new Web service for satellite photographs, the world's largest software company has sort of achieved its goal.

Internet sleuths discovered that anyone using Microsoft's new "Virtual Earth" Web site for a bird's-eye view of Apple's corporate headquarters saw only a grainy overhead photograph of a single warehouse and a deserted parking lot.

Apple's sprawling campus and eleven modern buildings -- nowhere to be seen.

Microsoft is blaming an outdated photograph for the oversight.

This CNN news article can be found here. Heh heh, someone in Microsoft really hates Apple.
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hmm...tat will be a nice fishtank...


don't look at me. my PC aint got a floppy drive either.

Happy Birthday, eh, Slurpee?

Hey hey, so Singapore is celebrating her 40th birthday..and guess what?
so is Slurpee!


1. In what year were Slurpee® drinks first sold in 7-Eleven stores?
1965

Rite there! Same year tat we gained independence. Not sure which is more significant though ;)


2. Since its beginning, about how many Slurpee® drinks have been sold?
6 billion

Almost 1 Surplee for each man, woman and child on earth. :P


3. What city consumes the greatest amount of Slurpee® drinks on earth?
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Manitoba, Canada is the "Slurpee Capital" of the world! The 7-Eleven stores in Manitoba sell an average of 8,300 Slurpee drinks per store each month, which makes this Province the world leader in Slurpee sales.


3. What was one of the first-ever non-beverage food items sold under the Slurpee® brand?
Slurpee-filled Bubblegum

Sorry dude, I'm Singaporean. What's bubblegum?

4. What is the average number of Slurpee® drinks consumed monthly?
13 million


5. What year was the name Slurpee coined?
1967


6. During what three months are over 40% of all Slurpee® drinks sold?
June, July, & August




Got Milk Slurpee? Bah!


Since we're on 7-11...
Do you know 7-Eleven is called so because it used to open from 7am to 11pm?



7am Rooster


11pm Owl


And since nowadays 7-Eleven operates 24hrs a day, why do they still have locks on their doors?
now now, there is a perfect logical reason for this.
Economic students should know.

Choices

My friends and I noticed that malay babes are really getting chioer.
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Disclaimer: All these are situations of friends, movies, hearsays, or simply history.
Don't bother guessing. Sometimes I get lost too.

Who/What would you choose?

Question 1

Girl A

You love her. And she loves you.
But both of you are stubborn and quarrelsome. You guys disagree on lots of stuff and practically quarrel every few days.

Love but unhappy.

Girl B

Not "passionate true love" like in the movies, but just "like"
Suitable and compatible, her character suits and works well with yours.

Harmonious but unsure.
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Question 2

You're with your girlfriend, and a group of friends preparing for a nature hike up north.
At a scheduled timing, a tour bus will depart from the Malaysia side of the causeway.

While you are crossing the causeway, your gf realises she forgotten her passport and called up her mum to bring over the passport.
Problem is, by the time the passport arrives, the bus would probably have left.

So the group of friends has already crossed over and obviously should continue to the bus, rather than risk it. And your gf, realising it is her fault, don't want you to spoil your holiday.

So she asks you to cross over. Forget abt her. She will try and rush over as soon as she got her passport, and if she can't make it, oh well, enjoy the trip without her!
no point that two of you suffers for a mistake of hers, right?

What would you choose?
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Question 3

An exgf you love. very much.
Tried a 2nd time but failed again.

would you try again?

or would you give up, knowing that you will never love a 2nd girl that much again?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question 4

A job that gives you high pay?
Or a job that has a very slight chance of giving you potentially very high pay?

OR a job that you love doing?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question 5

Mars Chocolate bar or Snicker?
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BTW, did I mention that malay babes are really getting chioer?


Government says we shld try and know more pple from other races.

Google the World

Got his from Friday. Personally I like reason #2.

Top Ten Reasons why TT Durai should run for President

10. Unlike Nathan, he doesn't have diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and iscahemic heart disease.

9. Unlike Nair, he doesn't have a known drinking problem.

8. He already knows the judges and ministers.

7. He is familiar with handling millions of dollars that do not belong to him.

6. He is used to being chauffeured around and flying first class.

5. A gold-plated tap won't look out of place in the Istana bathroom.

4. At least when you give to the President's Star Charity, you know it will go to the president.

3. He may be able to make the National Day Parade a profit-generating event.

2. There are guards outside the Istana to stop the walls from being vandalised.

1. He needs a job.
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For those still living in Mars (or moon for that matter), there is a Google Map project.
Basically Google acquired a company with satellite access, and has satellite images of almost the entire earth (i could be wrong).
For the USA map, u can toggle between the map, and the satellite image to find out directions, and the look of the place where u are going. ITS THAT CLOSE UP.

For non-USA, due to sensitive nature of the images, you can't go too close up in most location.
Kinda pity coz I was trying to look at my block.
oh well.

http://maps.google.com/
Toggle between "Map" and "Satellite" to utilise it.
And yah, go ahead and look at Singapore. I reckon the SAF should stick to this rather than our UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). lol.

And the latest edition. (Beside Google Map, there is a Google Earth Project)

Google Moon Project. YES I KNOW. WHAT THE...
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one of the most powerful search engine
2 gigabytes email storage (and counting...)
blog hosting company
plans to digitalise libraries all around the world (at least the non-French ones)
Foogle, a shopping google guide.
Blah blah blah....all the google services here
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From CNN, How much does Google knows about you?

Read it here

Here's just some of the ways Google can collect data on its users:

One of Gmail's selling points is its ability to retain e-mail messages "forever." Google's program for scanning library books sometimes requires usernames to protect copyrights. The company is testing software for making Web pages load more quickly; the application routes all Web requests through its servers. Google also provides driving directions, photo sharing and instant messaging, and it is developing a payments service that critics say could add billing information to user profiles.

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Who will guard the guards?

Sales of Designer French clothings

NOTE: For those blur queens and sotong balls, the clothes are "Paris 2012", designed for the Olympics Games. Now that they lost the bid....oh well.


Clothes that will never be popular....

I know i shouldn't laugh. but this is too amusing.
We all enjoy a moment of schadenfreudes now and then.

Revival of blogging

MSN Messenger Contact list limit doubles

Now the really popular people can find solace. MSN just upped the limit on the contacts in your contact list from 150 to 300. The change is live for everyone right now, regardless of which version of Messenger you're running. So go ahead and add all those users whom you never could before. As they say, sometimes size does matter.

From Being a new PM at Microsoft

Rejoice!
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ICQ's advantages has just declined, again.

I have just returned from Union camp. And suddenly the demise of ICQ seems so obvious. No one exchanged their ICQ number, a far cry from the 1st Union camp I attended 4 years ago.

Despite all my whinings abt Union Camp, i still love it after all. The shouting, the crazy silly childish stuff we do.
geez, the eating of raw onions (and other gross vegetables), pouring thick red starch all over myself. and using industrial paint to draw war patterns on our faces and bodies......

now i have a freshman who eats an egg raw, with the SHELL, mind you.
girls who don't think twice crawling in the wet grass.
lots of dirt. lots of sore throats. lots of fun.

everyday when i look at the new, corporate life I have to lead for the next 30 years....

....sigh.

i don't wanna grow up.
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i hate to make a political incorrect statement.
like it or not, in my personal opinions, the terrorists are winning.

its not just the loss of 52 innocent lives. they won because they managed to disrupt our lives. an event thousands of miles away.

now we have cities all over the world, from korea, japan, singapore, all major european cities, indian cities, and of course american cities bracing themselves, preparing themselves for more security, more inconvenience, more fear.

let's not kid ourselves here.
no matter how thick you laid the security, there has to be some loopholes and vulnerabilities.
its inevitable. the very notion of public places (and public transport) is that they are public.
they are easily accessible.
to the determined terrorists, its just a matter of time and trials.

sooner or later, security will be reduced. even not, terrorists will just find something new to breach through.
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what we need are funds to alleviate poverty, to increase education, to create more trade, more links.
not more bombs.

Blogs are dying

Ya. I know I was supposed to blog a lot more.
I know.

But no one seems to read my blog anyway. No comments, no tags...no nothing.
Oh well.

Let the blogs die a natural death....


Pose? Are you sure you want us to pose...

And so Commencement draws near

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.


The first story is about connecting the dots.


I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?


It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.


And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.



It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:


Reed Collegeat that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.

It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.


None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac.

It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.


Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.


My second story is about love and loss.


I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.


I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley.

But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.


I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.


During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.


I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.


My third story is about death.


When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.


Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.


About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.


I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.


This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:


No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.


Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.


When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.


Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.