rant of da day: "ah boy, remember to comb your hair before you borrow your library book"

[Category-Sillypore]
SINGAPORE--The National Library Board (NLB), which manages Singapore's 40 public libraries, has beefed up its IT infrastructure with new Web-enabled terminals to provide enhanced security features and easy management.

The deployment encompasses new "borrowing" kiosks which sport built-in cameras that capture the faces of library users while they check out their loans. Installed at six library branches since last December, the kiosk will enable library officials to resolve disputes based on images it captures, explained Kuan Sung, NLB's infocomm operations manager.

"Some patrons might claim that they did not borrow certain books, so the images will help to verify if it's true. So, on top of the transaction records, we also have visual records of who borrowed what," Kuan said.

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New instructions
comb your hair, put your library book on the electronic mat and smile!

okay. first of all. the library uses a normal barcode scanner to read your NRIC. same for online reservation. THAT is the problem. anyone can print a barcode on a card and pop it in. same for online. get the NRIC number, guesstimate the month of birth. hey. instant 1.55 charged.

Instead of fixing the problem. they came up with yet another brainless scheme to "fix".

may i suggest the NLB have a "top 10 mugshot" contest.... i can imagine endless entertainment for the librarians. who says librarians have boring jobs?