On Mooching...

This following letter by a writer to the ST Forum says it EXACTLY the way i've always argued it.. so i'll let it speak for me.. haha... :p

IN THE article, 'Moochers, stop trespassing on my property' (ST, Jan 13), Dr Andy Ho could come to his conclusion only by intellectualising from the wrong analogy.

This is not about your neighbour coming into your home because you left your door unlocked or his meddling with the signals between your router and your computer in your house. Instead, we should think about:
- Your lawn sprinkler spraying water into your neighbour's garden.
- Your huge fruit tree dropping leaves, branches and ripe fruit into your neighbour's garden.
- The wind blowing the seeds of your patented GM crop into your neighbour's farm.

In these cases, case law is clear: your neighbour is entitled to do as he likes. The 'moocher' does not come into your house to use your network. It's your network that has extended beyond your house because you failed to secure it with a password. There is no trespass of your property. On the contrary, it's your network that has trespassed your neighbour's property.

My laptop logs onto any unsecured network within reach automatically and it took me a while to realise that.

This intellectualising should not result in a wrongdoer being charged with the wrong crime (of mooching rather than communicating a bomb hoax).

Anyone who fails to secure his network should expect to suffer the inconvenience of being the prime suspect if some criminal activity was carried out on his network. He and his service provider owe society a duty to ensure that password control is effective.

Imagine if the network was indeed used by terrorists. Or imagine that your neighbour's teenage daughter used your unsecured network to access porno sites, or some chatroom, and was seduced as a result.

Well said!

Why I Visit The Underwater World Every Year


amazing creatures from the freezing waters of the North Pole..

Birthday Celebrations (this is one of those rare personal posts..)

the sms greetings rolled in, not fast nor furious, but gradually, trickling in over the course of the day (and of course others still rolling in the following day, i.e. today).. with the first one by none other than my wonderfully faithful friend of 13 years Lynn (yes, you're the first :)) at 00:27 and the last one of the day at 19:08 from BKK (hello mingli!! long time no hear!!) .. I had messages from long time friends from a surprising four or five countries and it leaves me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside knowing all these friends remember this day... and knowing that i have friends who will forever remain close to my heart!

Thank you everyone for making me feel so loved!! :)

and of course a special lovely thanks to my bestest friends (of some 19 years!!) who bought me lunch at Marmalade Pantry (wow, the food is really good.. and not to mention the service.. haha) and that perfectly appropriate (you know me so well) "Food Play" (check out the brocooli poodle below!) book on Sunday; and to ____ (some things are truly private) for that special Belgian mussels dinner yesterday and the very thoughtful gift that i so appreciate.... :) and of course to my dear parents for the token ang pow (with a big "OU" on it!!) and definitely to Kapo for the effort at blowing up the balloons.. haha.. and to anyone else who might have been missed out...



happy birthday too to elvis, stephen hawking, machiavelli (haha), david bowie... and all the others infinitely more famous than me!! :p