明天 (II); 昨天 (历史); 人才

An update (or sequel) to this. Incidentally, it also revolves around La Idler, who unfortunately has passed away. I won't be adding to the flame war (not that I want to anyway), but I do think Tomorrow is a scary beast with the potential to make or break your REAL life, even when you are DEAD. Notice how many blogs had gone the way of the dodo (or probably reborned like the proverbial phoenix somewhere else on the blogosphere anonymously) after being featured.

This blog too, saw its readership increased after being tomorrowed, which is something I am not happy about. Hence the layered defense system (comment moderation, no-anonymous comments, word verification) you see if you try to comment on any of my entries. No trolls please.

Anyway, I enjoy reading Kevin's, Tribolum's and geekgeek's commentaries on this latest debacle. This probably gives you an idea of where I stand on this issue.

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The sorry state of Singapore youths' knowledge of her political history (post 1965), if TJC forums is of any guide. Of course, staticians are free to disagree, since this sample size is awfully small. (But remember case of the Nazi flag being featured in some secondary school?)

From kungfuzi:

1) History is written by the victors.
2) History repeats itself.
3) Those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them (Santayana?).
4) Happy is the country without a history (attributed to Montesquieu by Carlyle).
5) "History...is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind" (Gibbon).

Those who would like to know more about the GCE A levels history syllabus (as opposed to the O levels one, which was plain regurgitation) can check it out here and here.

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Top American game school to build a campus here
Thursday • December 8, 2005

Lee U-Wen
u-wen@newstoday.com.sg

AS further proof that gaming is big business in Singapore, an American school is bringing in degree courses to develop computer animation talents.

The DigiPen Institute of Technology, a top school in game development education, will invest $3.4 million to build a new campus here, its first outside of the United States.

To be opened in January 2007, the campus will first operate from a 1,000-sq-m site at Fusionpolis in One-North.

There are plans to move to a permanent home once it finds a suitable location.

The news comes just days after the Economic Development Board, which wooed DigiPen to Singapore, unveiled a $1-billion fund to boost the digital media industry here over the next 10 years.

The industry, which includes special effects, animation and video games, is experiencing double-digit growth rates worldwide.

Digipen's chief operating officer Jason Chu said Singapore was chosen because of its strong education system and intellectual property rights ownership.

For a start, students here can look forward to a four-year Bachelor of Science course in real-time interactive simulation, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts programme in production animation. There are plans to launch a computer engineering course and Master's programmes in the coming years.

Fees will be about $78,000 for a four-year degree course, 25 per cent cheaper than the US$58,520 ($98,625) one would have to pay for the same education at DigiPen's main campus in Redmond, Washington.

Mr Chu, 40, said his target audience is fresh A-level and polytechnic graduates.

"I expect an initial intake of about 70 students before reaching 1,000 in our 10th year of operations. Half of them will be international students, and we're looking to recruit from countries such as China, Vietnam, Thailand and India," he said.

He added that 12 faculty members will fly down from Redmond to teach here.

Nanyang Polytechnic, which churns out graduates of its two digital media-related courses, welcomed DigiPen's arrival on the scene. The polytechnic's deputy principal for development Bruce Poh said the industry is short of creative talent to feed the growing demand.

"People like game designers and computer animation specialists, especially the experienced ones, are hard to come by.

"Having DigiPen here would help increase this talent pool," he told Today.

I guess these two Singaporeans (Hector Yee and Tammy Yap) won't be going back to help, what with the bond breaker tag branding them for life. Tammy gives a good overview (esp the MIT alum opinion column) of the computer gaming industry, so please do go in with both your eyes wide open if you are considering this as a career. Don't be like the Life Scientists, or the IT students of the late 90s.