Samuel Liew’s Blog

After trying out twidroyd for less than a day, I don’t use it anymore cos the interface sucks. The app got disabled by Twitter today.

Dear Samuel Liew (@samliew),

Regardless of how you access Twitter, we are dedicated to making Twitter better, faster and more reliable for you. As part of this effort, we ask applications that work with Twitter to abide by a simple set of rules that we believe are in the interests of our users, and the health and vitality of the Twitter platform as a whole. We often take actions to enforce these rules.

We are sending this email today because we suspended twidroyd for violating our policies.

Every day, we suspend more than one hundred applications that are in violation of our policies. Generally, these apps are used by a small number of users. We are taking the unusual step of sending out this letter because today’s suspension may affect a larger number of users.

We are committed to helping you continue to use Twitter during the disruption of this application. You can download Twitter for Android and other official Twitter apps here. You can also try our mobile web site or apps from other third-party developers.

We appreciate your continued support of Twitter and regret any inconvenience to you.

Twitter Support Team – @support
support.twitter.com

Update: Download Squad just reported on it:

Users of popular Twitter clients UberTwitter and Twidroyd found that they couldn’t log into Twitter today, and a post in the Twitter help center explains why: UberTwitter and Twidroyd have been suspended for violating Twitter’s policies. TechCrunch followed up with Twitter on the suspensions and discovered that the suspended apps were violating Twitter’s privacy, trademark and monetization rules.

Twitter spokesperson Carolyn Penner told TechCrunch, “Violations include, but aren’t limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money.”

Both UberTwitter and Twidroyd were recently purchased by UberMedia, a company that has been buying up Twitter clients (Echofon and TweetDeck are other recent purchases) and adding them to its Twitter ad network. The trademark issues probably arose because of the “Twitter” in UberTwitter’s name, but whatever UberMedia did to provoke Twitter’s ire is more likely an issue with paid tweets or tweeting ads on behalf of users. Twitter has made in-stream ad networks a strict no-no under its API terms. It will be interesting to see what specific violation it found in UberMedia’s case, but so far it hasn’t been revealed.

After spending another year in Australia to finish up my degree, I have decided to compile a list of food to eat once I get back to Singapore.

Bak Kut Teh
Chai Tow Kway
Char Kway Teow
Chee Kway
Chicken Rice
Durian
Hokkien Mee
Hor Fun
Rojak
Roti Prata
Tau Sar Piah
Wanton Mee

What other Singaporean food would you miss if you were out of the country for a year? I would like to hear from you. Share it in the comments!

Facebook Album: Albany Road Trip – Dec 2010 (Friends of Friends)

Okay, so I was trying out this hundred pushups program (hundredpushups.com) for the last month, and using the pushups logger (pushupslogger.com) to record my progress, which also posts updates to Twitter automatically. So far I’m at week 5 out of 6, and doing about 85 pushups per workout (5 sets of about 17). Here is my page on PLU: http://www.pushupslogger.com/plog/show_user/118564

Currently it seems that the logger website has broken down and I’m not able to add new entries, and I find it a pity not to do so. However I will complete the hundred pushups program, and then try out my own exercise program:

Mon/Wed/Fri pushups, Tue/Thurs/Sat situps
5 sets of 20 each
one minute rest between sets

[Update]
06/09 – 30
09/09 – 30 (5/1)
11/09 – 25|100 (5/2)
13/09 – 30|100 (5/2)
16/09 – 25|100 (5/2)
18/09 – 30|120 (5/3)
21/09 – 30|120 (5/3)
24/09 – 35
25/09 – 30/120 (5/3)
30/09 – 30/120 (5/3)

I just had to make a new blog post on the success of my computer graphics assignment.

In this project, we have to create and render a scene using a program called POV-Ray for the given open-ended theme “My Toy Story”. We are required to design, model and beautify our own scene, which must consist of objects of different shapes, textures and surface finishes with simple animation. This assignment is worth 10% of the overall assessment for this unit.

We had to demonstrate the use of the required objects/components during the presentation, and being able to change the code to show that we know what we were doing. My tutor (Yasmin) said it was very well done and gave me full marks (according to the marking guide), and told me she would recommend to place it on the unit online gallery.

My Toy Story: Buzz Lightyear

Animation

Early stage of development - putting the "pieces" together. The black lines are placed to intersect at the origin to aid me in positioning.

Original model of Buzz that my image was modelled upon.

More information/source files are available on my school page.

Ahh, haven’t been updating my blog for quite a while with a proper post already. It is much easier to post short updates to Twitter and Facebook, which partly contributed to the decline in posts. Another reason would be the lack of time and/or the lazyness to come up with content.

Anyway, this semester has been quite normal for me. Nothing really that interesting or exciting, so let’s keep it to a point-summary.

• I auditioned for FCC’s worship team keyboard position. Hope I can get in as understudy. Nope, the results are not out yet.
• Completed a uni project that was quite fun. Had to build a simple search engine with RPCs and involve parallel processing. More info.
• Added some Facebook functionality onto my website. Notice blog comments are now powered by Facebook, and you can “Like” certain pages on my site.
• Updated the wordscramble game on Facebook to make it look cleaner. Also because the previous service provider clearspring.com is closing down.
• Made a Top 10 Scammers List Facebook app for the Friends For Sale Official Scammer List page.
• Got my driving license and bought a second-hand car
• Singapore Connection sailing (not really) and BBQ event
• Had breakfast at IKEA several times and met up with Justin, Chin Wah, Joshua, Si Rui on separate occasions.
• Joined the “Singapore Facebook” so that I can say that I’ve “been there, done that”

Coming events

• Exams… (second and third week of June)
• FCC youth camp (one hour drive from Perth!)

Have been thinking questions about what if I were to die suddenly, what should I write to be read after passing away, what would I be leaving behind, what instructions should I pass on to my family, what to do with my works (i.e. website), etc.. I was thinking of creating a procedure in the admin section on my website to automatically do stuff when I am no longer around.

It’s almost halfway through the year, and it’s a good time to take some time to reflect and evaluate the resolutions we made at the beginning of the year. How easy to make goals and resolutions but not carry them out! The other way is to be content with everything you have, and live with no regrets, which is currently my mission statement.

Most of the people I know around my age, some younger, are already in some relationship. For me, I am still kinda clueless and lost. My current view on this is that I strongly believe in never rushing any relationship, but to properly learn to truly appreciate and love the other before committing. The three magic words, no matter how magical it sounds to the other person, should not be said without meaning it. Besides love, trust and honesty are the keys to a successful and long-lasting relationship. Just as there are different levels of friendship, there are similar levels of love. Never take love at face value, for beneath it there might be unspoken words and motives.

Sometimes, I wonder if I am too clever for my own good, or stupid without even realising it. Maybe clever in same ways and not so in others. I wish I had friends who will be really frank and honest with me. I’d rather have that type of friends than those that are ‘lukewarm’ and the play-safe type. Plus, there is constructive criticism anyway.

Oh, it’s raining again…