
Singapore will pay startups to solve its problems - lx
http://www.techworld.com/startups/singapore-will-pay-for-your-startup-solve-its-problems-3640559/
======
Smudge
Reminds me a bit of how New York's MTA handled realtime arrival information
for their bus system[1]. Rather than bringing on an external company with a
(typically) large contract, they hired a small team of tech-savvy MIT grads
full-time to manage the project more like a startup.

The MTA gave them a small budget (at least, relative to other MTA projects)
and limited the scope to what the team could actually accomplish. The team
itself was in charge of designing the system and bringing on
specialists/contractors where necessary.

What's notable is that the project accomplished more in the span of a few
months than what many of MTA's major contracts accomplish in years.

[1]: [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/why-
do...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/why-dont-we-know-
where-all-the-trains-are/415152/)

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devnonymous
Of interest to people who don't already know, the minister in context here is
a technocrat and a maker[1] and the prime minister of Singapore himself has
know to have been a very good mathematician and coder[2].

[1] [http://vivian.balakrishnan.sg](http://vivian.balakrishnan.sg)

[2] [http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2015/05/prime-...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2015/05/prime-minister-of-singapore-shares-his-c-code-for-sudoku-
solver/)
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hsien_Loong#Education](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hsien_Loong#Education)

~~~
Xcelerate
Lee Hsien Loong is a very interesting person; I follow his Facebook account.

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wiradikusuma
Not related with the content, but interesting observation:

I'm using adblockers, and this is what I see instead:

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interestingly, copy-pasting the "grass font" text yields the real content,
e.g.:

The minister highlighted a few key issues the city state is facing: “traffic
congestion is an issue, green energy is an issue, security of transactions are
an issue.” Balakrishnan spoke specifically about becoming a hub for fintech,
autonomous vehicles and medical technology (medtech), with the city state’s
ageing population a priority issue.

~~~
hlfcoding
Very interesting technique:

    
    
      .r3z-hide, .r3z-hide * {
        color: lightgrey !important;
        text-decoration: none !important;
        font-family: redacted_scriptbold !important;
      }

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nickpsecurity
There potential here as some of the problems they're trying to solve have
solutions that were applied elsewhere. They just need to roll their own. Plus,
I have a plan of my own for Singapore as they're in a near-ideal situation to
be a supplier of trusted chips and hardware. Possibly software, too. I doubt
anyone has introduced them to Cleanroom, Correct-by-Construction, etc. They
have smart, cheap labor that could make high-quality software and systems
cheaper. On top of secure hardware with more trustworthy manufacturing.

Lots of potential here. I wish I could get in touch with them to run some
proposals. I'd have to do it face-to-face, though.

~~~
mdda
The government actively pursues areas in which Singapore might have a
comparative advantage - and would discuss it with you in precise detail...
They would wear a "technocrat" badge proudly.

btw : Is this "Correct-by-Construction" seminar [1] relevant?

[1]
[https://mysoc.nus.edu.sg/~cmsem/SemPDF/sem_12396.pdf](https://mysoc.nus.edu.sg/~cmsem/SemPDF/sem_12396.pdf)

~~~
nickpsecurity
It's weak compared to most but still good as there's some adoption. I also
have a someone over there pushing high-assurance security. He have me a list
of problem areas they were funding in tech that are already solved in US and
Europe. Singapore's smart engineers should be able to build knockoffs or
independent versions but havent. Something holding them back, possibly
culture.

Anyway, I'd love to mix some American style innovation with Singaporean
talent. Plus, I bet Google etc might donate some brains if startups were
building stuff that would benefit them esp at Asian prices. Lots of potential.

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mark_l_watson
I worked in Singapore this year, and it is very nice! It is a clean and well
run city, friendly people, and generally the place had a very good vibe.

I am in my 60s, but if I were younger, then Singapore would be high on my list
of places to work and live.

~~~
dopeboy
What's it like for foreigners? Does one have to seek out the ex-pat crowd or
does everyone mix?

~~~
moqster
Probably not what u wanted to hear, but: When i was there: 30°C at day, 28°C
at night, 100% humidy. Not really a place i want to live.

~~~
mark_l_watson
I was in Singapore in April and I liked the weather. The people I worked for
did tell me that in the summer the weather was not so good.

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azinman2
The VR porn comments were strange to me given its Singapore which is super
conservative and has laws against distribution and production of porn.

~~~
hellofunk
Yes, but prostitution is legal in Singapore.

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ozi
to view the article with adblock enabled:
$('.r3z-hide').removeClass('r3z-hide');

~~~
leojg
How about stop being jquery dependant once and for all:
document.querySelector(".r3z-hide").classList.remove("r3z-hide")

No need to use a third party library

~~~
kearneyandy
Since document.querySelector only returns the first instance, you will need to
run this for the number of redacted paragraphs. The above jQuery solution
doesn't have this problem. You really would need a snippet with
querySelectorAll and a loop. Since the page has jQuery, there's nothing wrong
with providing a solution using it, and particularly since people just want to
read the article.

~~~
leojg
Yeah you are right... I didn't take into account if there is more than one
element with that class, I was just trying to show that jQuery should not be
the default solution when the language itself provides one

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sevenless
Singapore sounds like the most forward-thinking nation, until you remember
being gay is illegal there...

~~~
dejv
... and death penalty for caring drugs, and caning for minor offences, and
that chewing gum could be obtained only by doctor prescription, and that you
will be followed by secret police if you look suspicious (you have wrong color
or whatever), and tons of other stuff.

~~~
ptaipale
> caning for minor offences

Which minor offences? I've been under the impression that offences punishable
by caning are quite severe: robbery, rape, assault, piracy (in the actual
piratical sense of violent robbery at sea) and the like.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Code_(Singapore)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Code_\(Singapore\))

~~~
mikeyouse
> _Which minor offences?_

Vandalism, drug abuse, illegal money-lending, 'rioting' as defined by a
government that doesn't tolerate assembly..

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Singapore#Offences_p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Singapore#Offences_punishable_by_caning)

There's also the problematic government support of corporal punishment for
children..

~~~
code_sloth
> There's also the problematic government support of corporal punishment for
> children..

There might have been implicit government support in the past, but today
teachers are not allowed to hand out corporal punishment to children.

~~~
mikeyouse
People that keep track of this kind of thing disagree. I'm no expert but I'd
be curious to hear what you think;

[http://www.corpun.com/usscr2c.htm#singapore](http://www.corpun.com/usscr2c.htm#singapore)

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rdl
I'd be interested in partnering with Singapore Airlines or Changi Airport, so
this might actually be an interesting opportunity.

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linuxkerneldev
"the foreign minister for Singapore spoke about VR porn"

"I told Mark, actually, the real killer app for augmented reality is not
games, it is actually virtual sex."

"If you can successfully master virtual sex in augmented reality you will have
devised the ultimate UX, user experience. The point is that this is another
area that is exploding"

Hmm, in the context of American politics, it would be pretty shocking for a
senior level politician (aside from outliers like Trump) to acknowledge
anything sex related. After all, it wasn't that long ago that we fired our
Surgeon General for stating that masturbation is part of human sexuality. So
is it normal for a Singaporean foreign minister to discuss such matters in
public?

