The wise Social Psychology professor

Remember our email to our favourite Social Psychology professor? Well, we really didn't want to write another post just for him, but his antics sure deserves one. We are not emailing him this this time, so there's no sarcasm-filter for this post.


It started with this IVLE announcement: (any subsequent indented lines are from his IVLE announcements)
(If you are lazy to read the whole thing just read the lines in red)

3) The essay assignment grades will only be announced (on the IVLE) some time before the module's exam. You could collect the essay if you wish to, after the exam. I have decided to use such a system because of the complications and problems I encountered when I tried to return student's essay during term time (in the previous semesters). Students wrote to me to question about the grading and argued that they should have been given a higher grade after comparing what they wrote with their friend's who got a better grade. They also complained about what they perceived as biasness during student's feedback. It is all rather disheartening and defeats my aim to let students know their grades as soon as possible. Thus due to the unpleasantness that arise from the competitiveness of certain students, I have no choice but to delay the feedback. 

In case you didn't know, (if you haven't read that previous post where we emailed him, we encourage you to read it, other people seem to like it) the essays for this module were released in a staggered format, such that the first essay could be submitted in about week 4-5. (And the rest about week 7, 10, 13 accordingly)

However, he doesn't want to reveal how the students did until after term ends because, to paraphrase, 'he doesn't want to deal with students begging for better grades'.

Firstly, this is a poor reason to not release the grades. I would think a simple announcement stating 'Begging of marks will STRICTLY not be entertained' or 'The decision regarding your essay grade is FINAL' would suffice. Or 'I'm too lazy to talk to anyone just suck it up and accept your grades lamerzzz!'. Ok maybe not the last one.
Next, if students really wanted to question the reliability of marking, why would they not do so even if he released it after Week 13? Emails still exist, his office still exists, and it's not as if students don't return to NUS during Reading Week, if they were as 'competitive' as he says.

We won't harp on this for too long because recently, he made another series of announcements:

"Finally, look for the essay grades to be released on IVLE around the eve of the Social Psych exam"

Gives a definite date... but wait, next announcement 3 days later:

I received an email from a student asking me to delay the release of the essay grades and not to do so 1-2 days before the module's exam, please see the student's mail and my reply, and write to me if you have any objection.

Student's email:
 I am a student in PL3235 module. You made a recent announcement saying that you will release our essay results on the eve of our exam. I am writing to ask if maybe you could delay the release. If our results are released just the day before our finals, it would be very very demotivating for the students who did not do well.It would be better if you released the results after the exam is over in the morning. This way, students who perform poorly in the essay won't be affected.However, if you do need to release the essay results before the exam, then will it be possible to release it a few days earlier? At least this way, the negative emotions will be less intense by the exam. I hope that this is not too much to ask. But I think the other students will also appreciate this. Thank you very much.

 Summary - whine whine I am a sad person boo hoo whine whine can you not release the results just before the exam because when(if) I see my crappy grades I'll be emo and can't do well for my finals boohoo. thank you! you are very handsome!

Prof Cha's reply:
-----------------------------------------------
Thanks for letting me know what you think about the date to release the essay grades. I understand what you mean and I could do that. But following your argument, releasing the grade on the day after my module’s paper could also affect  students in their preparation of other exams that are scheduled after my module. This means that to address this concern, I will only release the essay grades when the entire exam period is over. In short, we will try to release the results 3 days before this module’s exam, but if this is not possible (the tutor and I are dealing with a huge marking load, and we are doing our best to rush -- not taking any time off during this period, the beach thing is just teasing you all ;)), then we  will do so only after the entire exam period.   I will announce this on the IVLE, but if more than 5 students write to me in the next few days (by 20^th April) to express their objection of waiting till after the exam period is over, and want to know the essay grades whenever it is ready (even on the eve of the exam), then I will revert this decision.   Cheers,ys 

Summary: You are right I will release it after the entire exam period instead if we can't release it 3 days  before the exam,  unless more than 5 people come and whine and slobber at my pants and want to know it ASAP, then I will admit I'm dumb and release it ASAP. Also, I'm only 24 years old. (Ignore this last line if you're not a PL3235 student, it's a recurring 'joke' he likes to make)

There is an obvious solution to the student's supposed predicament which he doesn't yet realize, and instead decides to release the grade after the entire exam period -_- Might as well just release it together with the exam results. It's only 3 weeks later. Moreover, won't releasing the grades then dampen the moods of students in their temporary 3 weeks celebration?


The thing is, if you are one to get affected by a bad grade, don't check your damn grade at all -_-

Anyway, we wrote in to inform him of the obvious solution, which he states in the next announcement:

"that is, for those who do not wish to know their grade (for fear that it will affect their morale, concentration, motivation, whatever...), they could simply delay the checking of grades till a later time that they find more suitable. There is no reason to hold back the rest who want/need to know asap."

CORRECT. Grats on the revelation Mr Cha.
Oh look, he admits his stupidity in a veiled insult to the students too:

I should have thought of it in fact -- must have been made stupid by all the stuff that I am marking currently.;)

Tsktsk.

Sorry about this distraction to all of you too!

No problem, you gave us content for a blog post.


P.S. We welcome any content for blog posts. Just email realfass@gmail.com with your content and you will be acknowledged if published. Or DM us anything you want us to blog about. Or just keep reading what we write and tell all your friends about us. Or .. we should probably stop this is getting too long.

Stop misunderstanding groupthink

In a recent news article, former minister (he stepped down) Lim Boon Heng made a comment that 'There is no groupthink within PAP'.

Almost immediately, there was a response by well-known parody Tweeter @Fake_PMLee:

And followed it up with an almost identical tweet, as if he was afraid people would not understand the first tweet (which I think is funnier though - jokes lose their effect the more you have to explain them)

And even more recently, @fakeSTcom made an almost identical joke too, probably because they don't follow anyone besides @stcom

All this was of course, retweeted endlessly because it IS a funny joke - IF you had the same misconception of what 'groupthink' is as these two Tweeters.

They seemed to have the impression that 'groupthink' refers to some sort of 'similar thinking within a group of people, hence everyone conforms to whatever is said without dissent'.

While this is an accurate description of groupthink, it is not an accurate definition of groupthink.
What do I mean by this? To use an analogy, if you were to ask me 'What is democracy?' and I answer 'It is a fair system', I'm describing what it is, not defining it. If I were to define it, I would say something along the lines of 'It is a form of government in which all citizens have an equal say about the decisions that are made with regards to the nation'. (I may be off here in my accuracy of the definition but you get the distinction)


An accurate definition of 'groupthink' is as such:

Groupthink refers to a characteristic way of thinking in a group in which members of the group suspend critical thinking and judgement in order to reach a consensus in decision-making.

(definitions vary in wording, so I paraphrased them. Sources from various textbooks, websites, and the beloved wikipedia)

And some factors that lead to groupthink:
- A highly cohesive group
- Presence of a strong, directive leader
- Pressure to reach a decision quickly
(There are more, but these are just some of them)

Random comic to illustrate groupthink

If you haven't realized by now, with the knowledge of this definition, the attempted jokes do not really make sense anymore. Agreeing to what is said without disagreement so as not to be seen as a dissenter(as the joke implies that everyone agrees with what LBH said without dissent) is more of normative conformity/social influence, which is a different concept altogether.

The criticisms of groupthink within the government is talking about how decision-making within the Parliament may be impaired by the presence of groupthink, and LBH responds with his example of the casino issue, in which there was actually much debate regarding the issue, and it was NOT the case that everyone just held their tongue and did not want to dissent.

Just agreeing with a comment (e.g. LBH saying 'there is no groupthink') without anyone debating it is NOT a case of 'groupthink', as the jokes try to imply, but merely a case of conformity. Groupthink is deeper and more complex than that, and refers to the decision-making process in particular, when people do not critically evaluate the suggested decisions.

To conclude, I'll give some examples of what is groupthink, and what is not.

NOT GROUPTHINK:

"Smart student: 'The answer is 3.14159!'
Peers: 'Yup that's correct!'"
(A possible case of informational social influence)

"Popular girl: 'I think pink shoes look the nicest!'
Friends: 'Yea they do!'"
(A possible case of normative social influence)

"LBH: 'There is no groupthink in PAP!'
PAP: 'Yup yup! There isn't!'"

YES, THIS IS REFERRING TO GROUPTHINK

"Group leader: 'I think we should address the 2nd issue first as it seems more plausible and ignore the 3rd issue'
Group member A: 'Yea that seems right'
Group member B: 'Yup that's right let's do that'
(even if they think it's not right) "

"LKY: 'We should ban cigarettes in SG!'
MP: 'Hm yea we should!'
Another MP: 'Yup ok'
(agreeing without weighing pros/cons!)"

"LBH: 'We should make an announcement saying there's no groupthink in PAP!'
MP: 'No I don't think we should, what if everyone misunderstands what 'groupthink' means and someone starts some viral joke about it?'
MP2: 'Perhaps you should also define what 'groupthink' is in your press release?'
(This is a case demonstrating the group is not affected by groupthink, because they DO think critically about the decision at hand before making the decision) "

P.S. Many people may be thinking now : 'Why is this person so anal about this whole thing? They are just trying to make a joke! Leave them alone!' but my aim is just to prevent a collective misunderstanding of the term.

What school would be like if we were in charge

We always dream of the perfect world. What would it be like? Everything would be going smoothly, everything would be enjoyable, everything would be to our preference.
I was doing some thinking, and this would what school would be like if we were in charge.

1 - No lessons before 10AM and if lessons ended after 6PM, you get a free shuttle service home.

Come on, having 8 AM lessons are ridiculous. It doesn't matter if you've spent 12 years of your education waking up at 6AM and reaching school by 7 to sing mari kita, university is supposed to be a privileged time when you get to sleep late and wake up late all the time.

And lessons past 6PM? That's just inhumane. But perhaps sometimes there is a lack of LTs, etcetc, so we do indeed have to have lessons at that time. Going home is a real chore then! Late at night, all alone. What could make it better? An EXPRESS service to take you home!
This could be a special bus or a car pool service. But we will find a way. After all, NUSSU has lots of funds don't they?
(2 separate links here)


2 - Single race

Alright, enough complains about ATs and other foreign students stealing your grades, performing PDA at The Deck, the Red Room, the toilets, the corridors, and wherever else that is feasible.
Singapore is a multiracial country and we cannot afford to have racial disharmony of any sorts.

Our Engineering counterparts have been working on it for a long time, and after all their previous accolades such as the invisible cloak, we are pleased to announce the latest invention -

THE RACE POLARIZER GLASSES

Yes I know, it looks like 3D glasses. But it's not!

What this does is when you put it on, everyone will look the same race to you. How can there be any discrimination if you can't distinguish between any of the races?

Of course, an obvious limitation is that you will realize the differences when 'the others' begin opening their mouths. To which we have another solution:

.

.

.

Earplugs yo.

3 - Dealing with the National University of Stairs/Slopes

Is this what it feels like in school?

We realized how many people feel the pain of climbing the stairs in NUS as well when our tweet 'NUS - National University of Stairs' was retweeted numerous times.

Don't worry! If we are in charge, we will begin immediate reconstruction of the school. First thing we will add is:

ESCALATORS EVERYWHERE.

Yes, no more climbing up 5 flights of stairs to reach The Deck from KR Terminal. No more climbing up the giant staircase when going to Business from Heng Mui Keng Terrace. Staircases all become escalators, so you don't have to be a perspiring mess when you finally reach your classroom.

To make things more interesting, we will include banisters at the side too, so for those in a rush (as people seem to always be) , they can take the 'express lane' - just slide down!

Artist impression

4. Campus Buses

Tired of waiting forever for your bus that never comes? When we take over, we will employ new schoolbuses so that everyone will never have to wait long!

Magic School Buses!

Basically they appear every 1 minute so there's no need to wait. No more being late for exams/lectures! Also, it deals with the overcrowded-buses problem!


5. The problem of a CAP.
University should be a place of holistic, purposeful education. Most of us have spent 12-13 years of our lives learning things that are useless and boring to us - such as pi is 3.1415192654, how to find dy/dx, 2-4 dinitrophenylhydrazine leaves an orange precipitate, and how to hide a handphone under a classroom desk. (Ok fine, the last one may not be useless or boring)

When we pay $6000< for EACH year of education, surely we want to pursue things that interest us, things that will engage us and things that we will ultimately find useful for ourselves in the future! BUT, with the fear of getting a low CAP, many of us have to plan strategically to get as decent a CAP as possible
.
.

A decent CAP.
And a cute baby because everyone loves cute babies

There are so many exciting activities in school we wish we could pursue too, such as hall activities, school events, and more. However, we take part in all these at the risk of sacrificing our CAPs.

BOO HOO MY CAP IS DROPPING

Most of all, with only 3 S/Us, we cannot take modules that REALLY interest us, such as these two:

Click to enlarge

Therefore, we propose a new system - The total REMOVAL of CAPs. You will still get grades every semester for your modules, but they won't be contributing to this 'CAP' of yours.

How then, do we gauge how well you are doing in school? Who gets the first-class honors? The second upper?

It's simple - You will be assessed based on how many hours you spend in the library each day you're in school.

More library bonding time!
This aren't black faced monsters, we had to censor their faces out because we have no idea who they are. 

Note that it is hours per day in school, so it is fair to those who have 3 day weeks. 

E.g. Two students spend 10 hours in the library each, one has a 3 day week while one has a 5 day week. The one with the 3 day week has a higher LHPDIS (Library Hours Per Day In School) of 3.33 while his friend only has a LHPDIS of 2.

Of course, how you are measured is based on when you tap your matric card at the gantry. When you walk out, the sensor automatically detects your matric card so it scans you out. 

Being the great faculty with tremendous foresight, we understand this will lead to students spending ALOT of time in the library. Therefore, we will be implementing new sleeping corners at various corners of the library for your snoozing pleasure!

one such example

You will also get bonus points for each library book you borrow, and even more if the book is above 2kg!

So that's it for our first installment of suggested changes to school! What do you think?

Dear MP of GRC

(Taken from Facebook. We didn't write this!)


Recently, my white MP,
nok on my door, and very kek ki..
Say 'I've worked so hard, so vote for me',
'Or rubbish won't be cleared, in your vicinty'..

I said 'Dear MP of my GRC',
'Dun remember u, so please pardon me'..
'I only saw you on TV',
'Dozing off and jiak liao bee'..

Last GE I voted for thee,
2% up in GST..
Cut CPF and up utility,
Are still very clear in my memory..

5 years later, then you come to me,
Fresh from your slumber of ivory..
Say that only, you can help me,
Escape from a life of poverty..

Just take a drive on CTE,
Count the number, of all the gantries..
Or squeeze a ride on the MRT,
That has not been cleared for me

My life since the last GE,
Has been downhill though I voted PAP..
If I vote the same for your sleeping spree,
I can expect the same misery..

So! this time round, I vote for somebody,
Who will kachiao you, to productivity..
Forms fill wrong, no big deal to me,
If there's someone to speak up for ah bee..

So dear MP of GRC,
If life no improve, vote u cho simi?

Why you should jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch

(original post taken from here)

So, you have heard all about it. Your friends tell you to do it, but you have doubts. 

I'm here to convince you why you SHOULD jailbreak your device. In this post, I will tell you two general things:

a) Why you shouldn't be AFRAID to jailbreak
b) Why you should jailbreak <-- I'll focus more on this, talking about the functionality benefits that people don't mention enough.
and lastly I'll provide some sources which will teach you HOW to jailbreak and some important notes.


a) Why you shouldn't be AFRAID to jailbreak
The first thing many people think about is that it is illegal. However, it is NOT illegal. The only thing 'bad' is that your warranty becomes void with Apple. This is NOT a problem though, because assuming you are unlucky enough to have your phone actually break down and spoil somehow and you need to send it for repairs within your warranty period, you can simply 'unjailbreak' it via a simple iTunes restore:

"Plug in the iPhone and sync it to make sure you have a current backup. Then choose to restore (the firmware) it to factory settings from in iTunes. Then you can right click it and restore the backup (of thecontents) from the backup. The term restore is used for both actions, but they are two separate actions.
A backup of a jailbreaked phone can be restored onto a non-jailbreak firmware. That's not an issue (I did it when I upgraded to 2.1). All jailbreak apps and features will be gone, but all App Store apps, contacts, settings, etc, will be preserved."

(via http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=574128)

After which, you can just send it in to Apple and they won't know anything.

(Disclaimer - distribution of copyrighted material is still illegal, according to Singapore law. In other words, downloading  a cracked app (i.e. originally available on App Store) is as illegal as downloading a song from the Internet.)

The next thing people are worried about is that it will slow down their devices. This is also not true - I have been using my jailbroken device without any noticeable lag from the jailbreak. HOWEVER, that is because I don't use this thing called Winterboard, which I believe is the cause of lag.

In fact, many users do admit that jailbreaking does lag their device, which I noticed in the form of a 1s delay everytime i close/open apps, but I realized it was Winterboard causing this problem, so I just removed it.

Winterboard lets you customize your themes and icons like this. Notice how the default apps (e.g. Mail, Camera etc...) look different?

Winterboard is just for customizing themes and such, so if you don't mind the classy look of Apple, you can just not install it. (note - Winterboard has a ton of other uses too which I haven't really researched so if you don't mind abit of lag for some added customization, go ahead and use Winterboard :) )

There are TONNES of other useful stuff .

Ok enough of the grim stuff, on to why you SHOULD jailbreak your iPhone.

b) Why you SHOULD jailbreak your iPhone

1) FREE apps!!

This is the most obvious no-brainer reason - There are a ton of fun and cool apps on the App Store, but many of them are paid apps, and not all of us can afford or want to pay for those apps. With jailbreak, all these apps are FREE. 

WhatsApp @ USD 0.99 on the App Store and @ $0.00 when you Jailbreak!
For free SMSing, MMSing, and group conversations!

PES for free!

Final Fantasy 3 at USD 15 on the App store.. yes, they're mad. Totally ripping you off. FOR FREE WHEN YOU JAILBREAK.

Cut The Rope, one of the most fun games you can play, for FREE ONLY when you jailbreak!

And of course the all-time popular Angry Birds (now Rio!) for FREE!

Of course, this is just a very very small slice of all the available apps that you can get when you jailbreak. There are also many EXCLUSIVE apps that you can only have when you jailbreak!

2) Functionality
(blurry parts of screenshots are what I've edited out, not part of the jailbreak)

Non-JB users always overlook this point when they are considering whether to jailbreak their devices. After all, the allure of free apps is already quite big and unbelievable and the only reason why you should jailbreak right? WRONG.

What jailbreak does is bring you a whole new array of FUNCTIONALITY improvements that I don't know why Apple doesn't implement. Perhaps Apple will include a few in their iPhone 5. Who knows. I will start by listing these added functions:

Utilizing the Lock Screen

How would you describe the lock screen? Classy? Sleek? How about, USELESS? The screen shows close to nothing besides the time and date. When you have notifications, it'll only show if it's a missed call or a SMS - it does not show for other apps.
Other phones have RSS feeds, calendars, notifications on their lock screen. Why not the iPhone?

With jailbreak, this is what it can look like:

Accessing Settings

Let's say you are at home and want to use WiFi. How do you turn it on? Home button -> Settings -> Wifi

How about when your battery is running low and you want to turn off your 3G? Home button -> Settings -> Network -> 3G 

Ugh so many steps.

How about if your screen is too dim? Do you even know where the brightness function is? 

With jailbreak, everything is made easy:

Just swipe the top of the screen and...

VOILA!! This awesome function is called SBSettings, a jailbreak-exclusive app. Highly accessible settings, just swipe the top of the screen! You can also configure your bluetooth, data, etc, I removed those because I don't use those often. You can even configure how it looks by downloading additional themes!

Easy SMSing

Let's say you are playing your favourite game, Smurf Village. (Or whatever ridiculous lame game you play) Then you receive an SMS and it pops up on your screen. You want to reply it now. What happens? It tabs out of your game, opens your Messaging, and when you have completed the reply, you have to go back to your Home screen, and open the app again.

LONG WINDED YES?

With Quickreply (or biteSMS)...

.

.

This pops up instead.
And you can just hit 'Reply'...

Type your reply, hit 'Send'..

AND IT RETURNS TO YOUR APP IMMEDIATELY. You don't even leave the app!!
SO much more logical and awesome right!?

And even from your lock screen, if you receive an SMS, it looks like this:

You just have to double tap the text bubble to type a reply, and after you've sent, it just goes back to the lock screen!

Activator

This is in my opinion, one of the best reasons why you should jailbreak your iPhone. Before I explain what this does, I should share a concern I previously had - My Home button on my iPhone was always very slightly buggy, and I couldn't double-press it sometimes and sometimes it doesn't seem to respond on the first click.
Also, being just about the only button you use, it's bound to succumb to wear and tear!
So I was quite worried that over time, my Home button would become unusable and I would have to replace/fix it so I don't really like to press it too often.

With Activator, this concern is totally gone.

Activator is one of the basic jailbreak-only apps that you will most definitely get.

Basically what it does is create shortcuts via touch-screen gestures or button sequences. To make this clearer, I'll just give the example of my own current settings.

- When I'm using an app, I tap the Status Bar (the top of the screen with your battery, time, Singtel/Starhub/M1 sign) and swipe down and it goes back to the Home screen.

- Anywhere on my iPhone, I double tap the Status Bar and it brings up the multitasking function (which you otherwise have to double-press your Home button)

- When I'm at my Home screen, I can lock my phone by swiping down from the Status Bar.

-At the Lock Screen, double tapping my clock brings up my iPod controls

-Pressing Volume Up followed immediately by Volume Down opens my Messaging app from wherever I am.

No more over-pressing of the Home button!

You can basically open any app you want via a wide array of gestures such as Shake Device, Slide from Bottom, Slide from Bottom Left, Swipe Down from status bar, Swipe Left on status bar, combination of Volume button presses, etcetc..
You can also make these gestures perform other things like Lock your phone, simulate a press of the 'Home Button' (don't have to press it anymore!), Take Screenshot, etcetc.

The list is endless. It's up to YOU how you want to customize your phone to make it EVEN MORE convenient and handy to use!
This is such a simple function that Apple can implement and they'll be stupid not to add it to the iPhone5.




And while this is the end of this section, it is not the end of the functionality options available via Jailbreak. There are many other apps that I haven't discovered either, so go read up! You won't regret it!
.
.
.



How To Jailbreak + Important information
There are 2 basic forms of a jailbreak - A tethered or an untethered jailbreak. A tethered jailbreak means that everytime you reboot your device, you will have to connect your iPhone to your computer. An untethered jailbreak means you can just.. use it as a normal iPhone even when rebooting. To put it simply, you should always get an untethered jailbreak if it's available.

I used http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUr3S2Jm5c this link to do my (untethered) jailbreak (iOS 4.2.1), it's not a difficult process so just follow the instructions on the screen carefully.
However, at the time of this post, a tethered version of 4.3 is already out, and I would presume soon an untethered jailbreak for 4.3 will be out. So... you can just search youtube for another instructional video on how to do it for the newer version, though it'll probably be very similar.

And just to end off with some helpful notes:
* Backup your iPhone with iTunes before you jailbreak your device. Just connect it via iTunes and click Backup.
* You're going to need to Add Sources before you can get many of the useful customization apps from Cydia. Search Youtube for recommendations for top sources to add and HOW to add these sources.


Have any questions? Feel free to leave a comment or ask on the tagboard and I'll answer it asap :D

Why you should jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch

(original post taken from here)

So, you have heard all about it. Your friends tell you to do it, but you have doubts. 

I'm here to convince you why you SHOULD jailbreak your device. In this post, I will tell you two general things:

a) Why you shouldn't be AFRAID to jailbreak
b) Why you should jailbreak <-- I'll focus more on this, talking about the functionality benefits that people don't mention enough.
and lastly I'll provide some sources which will teach you HOW to jailbreak and some important notes.


a) Why you shouldn't be AFRAID to jailbreak
The first thing many people think about is that it is illegal. However, it is NOT illegal. The only thing 'bad' is that your warranty becomes void with Apple. This is NOT a problem though, because assuming you are unlucky enough to have your phone actually break down and spoil somehow and you need to send it for repairs within your warranty period, you can simply 'unjailbreak' it via a simple iTunes restore:

"Plug in the iPhone and sync it to make sure you have a current backup. Then choose to restore (the firmware) it to factory settings from in iTunes. Then you can right click it and restore the backup (of thecontents) from the backup. The term restore is used for both actions, but they are two separate actions.
A backup of a jailbreaked phone can be restored onto a non-jailbreak firmware. That's not an issue (I did it when I upgraded to 2.1). All jailbreak apps and features will be gone, but all App Store apps, contacts, settings, etc, will be preserved."

(via http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=574128)

After which, you can just send it in to Apple and they won't know anything.

(Disclaimer - distribution of copyrighted material is still illegal, according to Singapore law. In other words, downloading  a cracked app (i.e. originally available on App Store) is as illegal as downloading a song from the Internet.)

The next thing people are worried about is that it will slow down their devices. This is also not true - I have been using my jailbroken device without any noticeable lag from the jailbreak. HOWEVER, that is because I don't use this thing called Winterboard, which I believe is the cause of lag.

In fact, many users do admit that jailbreaking does lag their device, which I noticed in the form of a 1s delay everytime i close/open apps, but I realized it was Winterboard causing this problem, so I just removed it.

Winterboard lets you customize your themes and icons like this. Notice how the default apps (e.g. Mail, Camera etc...) look different?

Winterboard is just for customizing themes and such, so if you don't mind the classy look of Apple, you can just not install it. (note - Winterboard has a ton of other uses too which I haven't really researched so if you don't mind abit of lag for some added customization, go ahead and use Winterboard :) )

There are TONNES of other useful stuff .

Ok enough of the grim stuff, on to why you SHOULD jailbreak your iPhone.

b) Why you SHOULD jailbreak your iPhone

1) FREE apps!!

This is the most obvious no-brainer reason - There are a ton of fun and cool apps on the App Store, but many of them are paid apps, and not all of us can afford or want to pay for those apps. With jailbreak, all these apps are FREE. 

WhatsApp @ USD 0.99 on the App Store and @ $0.00 when you Jailbreak!
For free SMSing, MMSing, and group conversations!

PES for free!

Final Fantasy 3 at USD 15 on the App store.. yes, they're mad. Totally ripping you off. FOR FREE WHEN YOU JAILBREAK.

Cut The Rope, one of the most fun games you can play, for FREE ONLY when you jailbreak!

And of course the all-time popular Angry Birds (now Rio!) for FREE!

Of course, this is just a very very small slice of all the available apps that you can get when you jailbreak. There are also many EXCLUSIVE apps that you can only have when you jailbreak!

2) Functionality
(blurry parts of screenshots are what I've edited out, not part of the jailbreak)

Non-JB users always overlook this point when they are considering whether to jailbreak their devices. After all, the allure of free apps is already quite big and unbelievable and the only reason why you should jailbreak right? WRONG.

What jailbreak does is bring you a whole new array of FUNCTIONALITY improvements that I don't know why Apple doesn't implement. Perhaps Apple will include a few in their iPhone 5. Who knows. I will start by listing these added functions:

Utilizing the Lock Screen

How would you describe the lock screen? Classy? Sleek? How about, USELESS? The screen shows close to nothing besides the time and date. When you have notifications, it'll only show if it's a missed call or a SMS - it does not show for other apps.
Other phones have RSS feeds, calendars, notifications on their lock screen. Why not the iPhone?

With jailbreak, this is what it can look like:

Accessing Settings

Let's say you are at home and want to use WiFi. How do you turn it on? Home button -> Settings -> Wifi

How about when your battery is running low and you want to turn off your 3G? Home button -> Settings -> Network -> 3G 

Ugh so many steps.

How about if your screen is too dim? Do you even know where the brightness function is? 

With jailbreak, everything is made easy:

Just swipe the top of the screen and...

VOILA!! This awesome function is called SBSettings, a jailbreak-exclusive app. Highly accessible settings, just swipe the top of the screen! You can also configure your bluetooth, data, etc, I removed those because I don't use those often. You can even configure how it looks by downloading additional themes!

Easy SMSing

Let's say you are playing your favourite game, Smurf Village. (Or whatever ridiculous lame game you play) Then you receive an SMS and it pops up on your screen. You want to reply it now. What happens? It tabs out of your game, opens your Messaging, and when you have completed the reply, you have to go back to your Home screen, and open the app again.

LONG WINDED YES?

With Quickreply (or biteSMS)...

.

.

This pops up instead.
And you can just hit 'Reply'...

Type your reply, hit 'Send'..

AND IT RETURNS TO YOUR APP IMMEDIATELY. You don't even leave the app!!
SO much more logical and awesome right!?

And even from your lock screen, if you receive an SMS, it looks like this:

You just have to double tap the text bubble to type a reply, and after you've sent, it just goes back to the lock screen!

Activator

This is in my opinion, one of the best reasons why you should jailbreak your iPhone. Before I explain what this does, I should share a concern I previously had - My Home button on my iPhone was always very slightly buggy, and I couldn't double-press it sometimes and sometimes it doesn't seem to respond on the first click.
Also, being just about the only button you use, it's bound to succumb to wear and tear!
So I was quite worried that over time, my Home button would become unusable and I would have to replace/fix it so I don't really like to press it too often.

With Activator, this concern is totally gone.

Activator is one of the basic jailbreak-only apps that you will most definitely get.

Basically what it does is create shortcuts via touch-screen gestures or button sequences. To make this clearer, I'll just give the example of my own current settings.

- When I'm using an app, I tap the Status Bar (the top of the screen with your battery, time, Singtel/Starhub/M1 sign) and swipe down and it goes back to the Home screen.

- Anywhere on my iPhone, I double tap the Status Bar and it brings up the multitasking function (which you otherwise have to double-press your Home button)

- When I'm at my Home screen, I can lock my phone by swiping down from the Status Bar.

-At the Lock Screen, double tapping my clock brings up my iPod controls

-Pressing Volume Up followed immediately by Volume Down opens my Messaging app from wherever I am.

No more over-pressing of the Home button!

You can basically open any app you want via a wide array of gestures such as Shake Device, Slide from Bottom, Slide from Bottom Left, Swipe Down from status bar, Swipe Left on status bar, combination of Volume button presses, etcetc..
You can also make these gestures perform other things like Lock your phone, simulate a press of the 'Home Button' (don't have to press it anymore!), Take Screenshot, etcetc.

The list is endless. It's up to YOU how you want to customize your phone to make it EVEN MORE convenient and handy to use!
This is such a simple function that Apple can implement and they'll be stupid not to add it to the iPhone5.




And while this is the end of this section, it is not the end of the functionality options available via Jailbreak. There are many other apps that I haven't discovered either, so go read up! You won't regret it!
.
.
.



How To Jailbreak + Important information
There are 2 basic forms of a jailbreak - A tethered or an untethered jailbreak. A tethered jailbreak means that everytime you reboot your device, you will have to connect your iPhone to your computer. An untethered jailbreak means you can just.. use it as a normal iPhone even when rebooting. To put it simply, you should always get an untethered jailbreak if it's available.

I used http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUr3S2Jm5c this link to do my (untethered) jailbreak (iOS 4.2.1), it's not a difficult process so just follow the instructions on the screen carefully.
However, at the time of this post, a tethered version of 4.3 is already out, and I would presume soon an untethered jailbreak for 4.3 will be out. So... you can just search youtube for another instructional video on how to do it for the newer version, though it'll probably be very similar.

And just to end off with some helpful notes:
* Backup your iPhone with iTunes before you jailbreak your device. Just connect it via iTunes and click Backup.
* You're going to need to Add Sources before you can get many of the useful customization apps from Cydia. Search Youtube for recommendations for top sources to add and HOW to add these sources.


Have any questions? Feel free to leave a comment or ask on the tagboard and I'll answer it asap :D