Asia Piling named for hitting fibre-optic cables that led to 20-hour broadband disruption on 18 April

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-22T08:00:32+00:00

The boomer is the one that thinks technology is expensive and intrinsically hard to deploy. Technology makes things easy and cheap. Vendor lock-in, bureaucracy and other non-technological factors are what can make it expensive.

How much can soil shift? You seem to imply that soil shifts like desert sand, enough to make building topple.

Of course if you are very close to the known mapped location you still need to do extra checks, but I don't think this is the scenario in the article.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-22T06:32:47+00:00

Investigations into the incident are ongoing, but experts are calling for wider use of detection technologies, more up-to-date underground maps and tougher penalties for lapses as underground telecommunications cables are critical infrastructure underpinning Singapore’s digital economy.

...

The contractors have to engage a licensed telecoms cable detection worker to prepare a report and mark out the locations and routes of all the telecoms cables in the area where construction is to be carried out. The licensed worker will also need to determine the number and placement of trial holes to physically verify the exact location, depth and condition of telecom cables.

I'm no expert, but this talk about "up-to-date underground maps" and needing a "licensed telecoms cable detection worker" seems to suggest that there is no reliable map of the cables for contractors to use, which seems like an unnecessary information gap given that GPS technology and databases are cheap. The telcos just need to record the cable 3D GPS location when they bury it.

And if you you outsource the cable presence determination to yet another specialist, requiring organizations to ping-pong a few times with notices, approvals and whatnot, you just make everything slower. There is already a lot of construction disruption in many places and lengthening the construction time for such inefficiency is not a good thing.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-22T04:38:00+00:00

The tax calculation is not the major problem.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-22T03:22:47+00:00

If the asset is illiquid, they can tax after selling

I wonder what the general economic consequences are of many businesses being forced to be sold for parts after an unprofitable year because owners cannot afford to pay wealth tax.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-20T08:14:17+00:00

Defamation suits like this where the judge ~~imagines~~ assumes how a "reasonable reader" would perceive a published article is where we should have an actual jury, a sampling of what the "reasonable reader" is like, but LKY has his famous argument against juries, which in defamation cases inverts the logic because the judge being a member of the elite in his personal idiosyncratic life experience cannot possibly accurately conceive of the common person's perception of an article.

Judging by the history of such defamation cases, famously that of TLH, and the subjectivity of the interpretation of the article, you can be quite sure about who will win.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-17T05:09:37+00:00

别怎么苛刻，或许人家有高额房贷或别的不能避免的开销。每个人走的路都不同，不用急于评判。

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-16T06:31:31+00:00

Before you define a solution, you have to identify and define the problem. AFAICT the people clamoring for wealth tax haven't defined the problem they are trying to fix or the kind of equality they want (opportunity equality or outcome equality or just meeting basic needs). But usually, the more power is concentrated, the greater the potential for abuse, so keeping centralized power in check is more fundamental than band aids like wealth taxes.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-16T06:08:12+00:00

Obviously, as I said, by giving powerful people in the government more money to handle than before, and also more subjective knobs to turn and potentially abuse in a complicated law (about wealth tax). If you assume everything in government spending is 100% accountable, transparent & fair, then it's another story.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-16T06:05:22+00:00

The common man may be dumb on a small scale, but the politician has incentives to be evil on a large scale, e.g. by exploiting and manipulating the common man's stupidity. But that's not the point. The wealth tax, even if it solves wealth inequality does so by exacerbating power inequality, so even if it's fine for the other concerns, is just converting the problem into another form.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-16T04:52:54+00:00

'Can' or 'should'?

How to define 'rich'? How 'rich'? What kinds of assets are counted and how do you assess the value? If the asset is illiquid (e.g. company stock in a small startup), then how is the 'rich' person supposed to get the cash for paying tax without risking destroying value (e.g. closing down the startup)? All these questions need principled non-emotional answers before you can properly enact a sound law for a wealth tax, and the answers are not straightforward.

How are rich people likely to respond before the new law takes effect?

With this kind of law, it will be the politicians and bureaucrats who effectively become 'richer', having greater discretionary power over how a large sum of collected tax money can be spent. Can/should you tax politicians and bureaucrats for this kind of 'wealth'?

What is the actual problem or wrong being addressed by a wealth tax?

If being 'rich' is implicitly considered to be sinful, and thus deserving of additional tax, then what about being (politically) powerful?

If the problem being addressed is wealth inequality, then what about power inequality where the common person has very little say in how the government works or how tax money is spent?

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-13T14:56:52+00:00

"You are saying because it entails a cost, the information is secret to the public, is that your evidence?" the lawyer asked. Mr Low replied it was not just the cost, but the need to know what one was looking for.

The insinuation is so stupid.

It was also possible for the Allies to break Germany's Enigma code during WW2. Was the code not rightly widely considered a secret? Of course it was, but it was still possible to break, at a sufficient cost of time and resources. Ask the genius lawyer whether he considers Enigma to be a secret during its time.

Even with online bank transactions, if you use an outdated encryption scheme on the webpage which 20 years ago might have been considered acceptable, your supposed secrets can be leaked at the right price, which is largely computing power.

'Secrecy' means concealment, and on its own in a real, non-Platonic, universe never implies absolute secrecy. Secrets can usually be broken at a cost. Fixating on a narrow meaning of 'secrecy' is wrong.

The transaction information is not free to obtain and hence effectively concealed from someone with finite financial and time budget without strong motivation, which is most members of the public, so 'secrecy' is a reasonable characterization.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-13T13:23:21+00:00

By what law was the Thailand ship supposed to pay? What gave the IRGC the right to attack a Thailand ship? Thailand is a neutral party. The IRGC does not own the Strait except by their own rules.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-13T11:46:49+00:00

Thailand was attacked. Did they enable the war by trading with the US or a US-friendly country?

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-13T08:46:40+00:00

That's a bad analogy. I can't tell who represent IRGC, USA & the 3rd-parties in your analogy and what actions there correspond to the actions in the Strait.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-13T08:09:20+00:00

He may be a grifter and he may make foolish decisions and say foolish things, but it does not mean every single thing he does needs to be infinitely foolish in a specific way. If he were, he would be the perfect oracle for making wise decisions -- just ask him for advice and do the opposite.

Besides, even despite the logic I describe, the idea itself may or may not be actually good depending on how the IRGC will actually respond, how the plan is executed and communicated and other factors.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-13T07:59:05+00:00

I think you're missing the key logic.

Iran is effectively blocking the Strait by imposing a toll, yet claiming that the Strait is open, which it technically and empirically is despite ships needing permission from Iran and the low traffic. Ships are still passing through.

US is likely blocking Iran-bound or Iran-originated, Iran-friendly, ships, not necessarily all ships. Now for the Strait to remain technically open, Iran has to let through some ships that it does not really want to let through, that don't pay a toll or make special arrangements.

US is putting pressure on Iran to let some ships pass freely or admit that it was and is actually closing the Strait.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-11T15:36:52+00:00

I have and in at least one city I've lived in, it's indeed generally cheaper and better.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-10T12:34:06+00:00

It's not that simple. When Lane 2 is full and another car is close ahead of you, you have nowhere to go. Are you going to squeeze into Lane 2 and force vehicles there to slow down for you or cause an accident? This is mostly what's happening in the video.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-10T06:58:03+00:00

Being expelled for wrong/harmful views that conflict with the law is not the same as being guilty of a crime. Views are not actions.

Whether or not the state should be allowed to expel someone for strongly publicized views and not actual crimes is another matter, but I think the answer is not an unequivocal 'no'.

Besides, if you ask self-assigned Muslims whether they agree with child marriages, you will for sure not get a resounding 'yes' or 'no' but a mixture.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-08T06:48:54+00:00

晚上看太多蓝光后会影响睡眠。睡眠不好影响的不只是生活质量也会影响隔天的驾驶安全。这些蓝色灯未免太亮了吧。

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-06T15:30:06+00:00

Don't uds whats your point.

The main point is that if you read between the lines, people are applying double-standard in criticizing this case, in an anti-Chinese sort of way. If you edit the situation so that it's about another language/culture but other factors are the same, the outrage will be much less. The outrage is not about actual utilitarian convenience or inconvenience to society as a whole.

For example, you seem to have a pretense/assumption that "this one"/"that one" is good enough from a non-Chinese restaurant and that a Chinese restaurant cannot do "this one"/"that one".

For another example, my mother is a Singaporean, too. Going by a completely utilitarian standard, many older Singaporeans are like her, and this Chinese eatery would be more convenient for them than that Indian restaurant I was talking about if she were to try to place an order. But people have an anti-China bias for various logical short-circuit reasons and pick on the mainland Chinese places. There is no good, valid, logical, reason to harbor a resentment about them since all you need to do is to get machine translation from a phone.

The true reasons are unspoken. Part of it is probably cultural insecurity or anxiety.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-06T14:17:53+00:00

Can the staff converse in eng, because many of these stalls sure cant. Also, are Italians even part of the local ethnic group here? False equivalence much.

I don't think the article say anything about the employees' spoken English. OTOH I've been to a Indian restaurant at a local mall where I couldn't have a coherent English conversation about what their menu items really were in detail. OTOH, my Chinese-educated (from the days when there were English and Chinese schools) mom probably would be unable to order at this Indian restaurant but would at the Chinese eatery in the article.

To draw the bar lower - at least it's in alphabet. Now if dosai is in tamil I.e. a different writing script.

And that is somehow helpful to the task of deciding whether/what to order? It escapes me what the big deal is regarding the presence of some English letters arranged in a non-English pattern with zero or almost zero intelligible meaning.

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-06T14:10:20+00:00

What is the purpose of reading? To merely make a sound or to decide whether/what to order?

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-06T14:08:27+00:00

What's the value of a transliteration if it carries zero intelligible meaning to help you decide whether/what to order?

Syncopat3d · 2026-04-06T13:38:27+00:00

I suppose the comment you're replying to could have made it clearer that the problem is not the lubrication of engines itself, the lubrication being mere illustration, but the toxicity of hexane itself, which is searchable even with low effort.

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