"Never take the status quo."

- Aydin Senkut, a Xoogler (ex-Googler employee) on lessons learned from his experience at Google.

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I received an email from NOC yesterday morning: I'm selected for NOC SV Jan '09 intake!

I must say i feel nothing short of euphoric. Silicon Valley is one of my 'must-be' locations on the face of the planet. Now i get to see Googleplex in its full glory! (and perhaps some food tasting there too? heard they serve great food in their cafeteria.)

However my successful departure will still depend on my company placement, my visa, and a final review of my results before i depart. Yikes, better study hard this semester.

In any case, i'll definitely look forward to life +6 months later. *wide grin

Now about that $200 SEP Shanghai penalty fee…

(Note: I was previously offered a Student Exchange Program to Shanghai, but if i'm accepting the NOC offer will mean that i will have to pull out from SEP, and with that i will have to pay S$200 as penalty for my withdrawal. Donations anyone?)

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Found this clip on Youtube. Hidden message behind video: Do you think Google is watching you? For some background information with regards to privacy on the Internet, there's a good article here.

Personally i feel that internet privacy is a shared responsibility between the user and the various service providers. Though there are still a lot of gray areas in the ethics of internet privacy, i believe that there are things that we can do in order to protect ourselves on the internet. At least for me, i never disclose my personal mobile phone number nor my home address on internet profiles like Facebook etc, unless it is absolutely necessary. What service providers can do on their end would be communicating their privacy policies to their customers and consumers like us before they entice people to sign up with their servicea, and also to be able to uphold their privacy protection promises when the time calls for it.

This does raises more questions however: What if a certain individual is suspected to be a terrorist, and information about his internet usage is needed? Can we pry open his/her private information to get what we need in the name of social security? Is it right to do so?

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