More Singapore tech blog writing

From a recent e27 article, [Google launches products to encourage entrepreneurship in the emerging markets](http://e27.sg/2012/12/06/google-launches-products-to-encourage-entrepreneurship-in-the-emerging-markets/):

> Relying on citizen cartographers, Google Map Maker started in India as a way to make better maps of the subcontinent. It is a form of crowdsourcing that has emerged that demonstrates an effective way of getting local content online. Today, the product has doubled the worlds digital maps corpus, mapping 1.5 billion people in 187 countries. The UN and aid agencies have used these user generated maps to assist and rescue millions.

I found the last two sentences of this paragraph notable because (a) they were much less clumsily written than the rest of the article, and (b) “corpus”?! Who the hell actually uses that word? So, as a former teacher who’s marked his fair share of suspicious-looking student reports, I googled.

From [Global Innovation Roundtable’s bio of Lalitesh Katragadda](http://globalinnovationroundtable.gov.in/speakers/lalitesh-katragadda.html):

> His most recent creation, Google Map Maker, doubled the worlds digital maps corpus, mapping 1.5 billion people in 187 countries. The UN and aid agencies have used these user generated maps to assist and rescue millions.

Even the missing apostrophe made it over. Lesson: Don’t plagiarise in a world with Google. Especially not in an article about Google.

(The first sentence in the quote is also copied, but a little better—at least there, the author makes an effort to paraphrase parts of para 3 in [Google’s blog entry](http://googleindia.blogspot.tw/2012/12/the-next-billion-internet-users.html).)

See also [the last time I wrote about Singapore tech blogs](http://yjsoon.com/2012/07/the-state-of-tech-blog-writing-in-singapore).

The state of tech blog writing in Singapore

Posting without comment; emphasis mine.

e27, [Electronic Arts merges IronMonkey and Firemint to form Australia’s largest gaming studio Firemonkeys
](http://e27.sg/2012/07/25/electronic-arts-merges-ironmonkey-and-firemint-to-form-australias-largest-gaming-studio-firemonkeys/), 25 July 2012:

Good news aside, there are certainly expectations from the gaming community for the new Firemonkeys to perform, as they now eagerly awaits their first product.

e27, [OS X Mountain Lion upgrade now available in Singapore for S$25.98](http://e27.sg/2012/07/25/os-x-mountain-lion-upgrade-now-available-in-singapore-for-s25-98/), 25 July 2012:

Mac OS X can now grab the Mountain Lion upgrade at a price of S$25.98 in Singapore

[…]

The upgrade will come a the cost of S$25.98 and comes with over 200 innovative new features.

[…]

The Message app, which users had access to the beta version, will bring iMessage to the Mac and allows cross device communication across the iOS devices available in the market.

(The app is called “Messages”.)

Tech in Asia, [Run a Singaporean Coffee Shop with the Kopi Tiam Game](http://www.techinasia.com/kopi-tiam-app/), 26 July 2012:

I downloaded the free Kopi Tiam version to give it a shot, after reading many positive reviews. It’s reminiscent to many time-management games […]

[…]

We’ve also included a the game’s demo video below. Enjoy!

Tech in Asia, [TackThis Powers Donation Drive in Singapore’s National Day 2012](http://www.techinasia.com/tackthis-singapore-national-day-2012/), 20 June 2012:

As a Singaporean, I confess feel compelled to doing so as well.

That’s it, for now. I might do more of these, if I get annoyed enough.

Oh, here’s one more. In this case, the bad grammar and awkward phrasing aren’t necessarily the writer’s fault. e27, [The Demise of QR Codes](http://e27.sg/2012/02/28/the-demise-of-qr-codes/), February 2012:

QR codes will remain a curious oddity for the technically proficient geeks and bleeding adopters.

Here are the [search results](http://google.com/search?q=bleeding%20adopters) for the odd term “bleeding adopters”. Compare [this article](http://www.imediaconnection.com/printpage/printpage.aspx?id=30267) from October 2011, which also contains that phrase, to the above e27 article.

Update, a day later: e27 and Tech in Asia have acknowledged and corrected the above. Both note that they appreciate error reports sent through their comment sections.

LOLMAO

You might have already seen this, since [mrbrown](http://mrbrown.com) linked to it on Twitter. Posting on the blog for posterity anyway:

Lolcat9dce5677436502d890d6d7281964d0c7b8ffcb58

It’s been a lifelong* ambition of mine to get a [LOLcat](http://icanhascheezburger.com) picture published**, but this will have to do for now.

\* _Mild_ exaggeration.

\** This may or may not have influenced how much I supported Joey when she adopted our ridiculous cat. Shh, don’t tell her.