Wireless@SG

Had an unexpected surprise today while sitting at a Starbucks in Singapore waiting for a friend. My laptop found an open public wi-fi network called Wireless@SG.

Out of curiosity, I connected to it and learned that it's a service whereby three of Singapore's wireless operators have agreed to blanket Singapore with wireless hotspots in public areas, and make wireless internet access available for free for a period of three years.

The best part: you don't have to be a Singapore resident to use it. Just register online, provide your cellphone number, and receive an SMS message with the password (they sent the password to my Globe phone which was on roaming). My account was activated literally within minutes of my receiving the SMS.

For more details: SingTel's Wireless@SG home

Twitter on CSI

Video excerpt from CSI Season 8, Episode 7: Goodbye and Good Luck.
YouTube video courtesy of jonathanfh.



Wonder if that scene will lead to an increase in sign-ups. 8-)

Searching for Answers on Terraminds

Have been having fun the past couple of days using the Terraminds Twitter Search to look for people who have not been receiving Twitter messages via SMS.

I first noticed the problem three nights ago. I'd gotten so used to receiving a couple of tweets every few minutes, so it was a bit unnerving to suddenly have my phone fall silent. Marvlove's tweet expresses the feeling best, I think:

Twitter! Why hath thou screweth me??... (not getting tweets feels weird.. like the first day of a nuclear winter.. and im the only survivor..) 01:45 PM November 01, 2007 from txt

I felt much better knowing that some else was experiencing the same problem, but I still had no way of tell if the problem was limited to just the Philippines.

Terraminds quickly became invaluable because it almost instantaneously let me see that that folks in other countries were experiencing the same problem.

• India. Tamil: am not getng sms updates 4 twtr posts over two days. something wrong with twtr or my mobile?
• London. mbites: Are Twitter SMS updates down? They are for me...
• Malaysia. arsyan: it seems that i havent been receiving any updates on my twitter thru sms. sth is going on. not just me a few others as well.
• Syria. cold0zero: i have same problem no SMS
• France. LeFoUvErT: Seems that SMS notifications aren't sent anymore there too.
  
• Australia. trib: @jagath - yes, I meant "no twitter SMS". Sucks.
• Qatar. mbaa: @yraffah I have the same maxer's problem , no sms received.
• Saudi Arabia. TheMaXeR: @mbaa yeah .. i have .. no sms received today
• South Africa. IrcMaidon: I'm not getting sms tweets...
• Israel. rotemboten: Yeah, I didn't recieve any sms as well.. do I need to do the follow thingy again from the phone?
• Beijing. zyicestar: I can't receive sms from twitter and why ?

Misery must really love company, because it's good to know folks the world over are experiencing the same thing. haha!