Geek or Music?

I'm not visiting Sim Lim Square ever again

detach — 2008-12-09T02:54:17+08:00

I haven't been to Sim Lim Square (SLS) for a long time. SLS is a popular "computer" paradise for tourists visting Singapore and it is one of the "tourist attaction" that I would highly not recommend visiting.

When I was young... like 10 years ago in 1998, SLS was the place to go for geeks. If you wanted to build a new PC, you'd go to SLS. If you wanted more RAM, you'd go to SLS. If you wanted the best graphics card money can buy, you'd go to SLS. If you wanted to get the craziest overclocking tools, you'd go to SLS. Most importantly, if you wanted a bargain, you'd go to SLS.

Back in '98 SLS, shops in SLS would openly display prices that were very competitive. A bargain hunter would walk past these stores and grab paper flyers with full pricing information of all products they carry and go from stall to stall to find the best bargain for, say, a hard drive.

Although this is still practised today, many stalls are starting to use con tactics. I made about 4 or 5 visits to SLS lately because I've been visiting a luthier's shop nearby. I thought SLS had changed for the better, but in fact it has gotten worse. I shall write my experience here for the unweary shopper.

No Pricetag Scam

If you see a product without a pricetag, just walk away. Most likely they're going to quote you based on how you approach them. If you're a tourist, be sure to get the highest price quote ever. These sellers will then try to talk you into buying the product, such as offering a "lower" price if you pay cash.

Wenxi approached a stall that was selling accessorries and asked for the price of a 4GB Toshiba USB thumbdrive. The seller quoted him $45 and surely we knew it was a ripoff price and wanted to walk away after saying thank you. The seller then started asking Wenxi if he would be paying by cash. The way he asked was very dramatic - he leaned forwarded, asked if he would pay cash, then whisper the price in his ears as if it was the best deal and nobody else should hear it. $38 was the quote. Stores that were openly displaying prices for 4GB thumbdrives were selling them for $29.

That's not the best part yet. I was at the cafeteria in SingTel Comcenter and saw that an 8GB thumbdrive (not 4GB) was selling for $29.90. Pushy con(sales) man not included. I'm sure with my Challenger membership, I could have gotten it for somewhat cheaper than $29.90.

So you decide, bargain or no bargain?

Goods and Services Tax (GST) Scam

Sellers would first quote you a good price, and then just before you make the payment they'd tell you that you'll need to pay 7% GST on top of the quoted price. Most people would take this as something that they "have no choice but to pay". This is not true. In fact, GST registration is not mandatory for all shops in Singapore; GST registration is only mandatory if the turnover of a business entity exceeds S$1million annually. A proper GST registered retailer must also quote prices inclusive of GST during a sale, and at the same time must have their GST registration number displayed prominently on the sales invoices with the exact amount of GST paid reflected.

I was hunting for an Axioo Pico UMPC in SLS. I decided to make my purchase at a particular store that served me well as they were kind enough to open the box, show me the unit let me feel it's weight with a 6-cell battery. After I agreed to buy the unit, they informed me I had to pay GST. The GST added a whopping $52 dollars on to the price tag of $749 making its total slightly past $800.

Being a retail business owner myself, I knew the rules of the game and left the store. I bought the same laptop from another store at $758 inclusive of GST.

Missing Component Scam

Some of you may be aware of the last two scams, but this may be new to you. Being a mobile phone retailer, I have heard numerous horror stories relating to such scams.

In this scam, the seller would quote you a price that seemed either unbelievably cheap or very resonable. After you make the purchase, the seller will then ask you if you'd like to purchase an accessory that would otherwise have been bundled with the product.

For example, if you were buying an iPod, they would quote you $380 when everywhere else retails it at $399 and later inform you that you'd have to buy the data cable at a whopping $40 when it should have been bundled.

Counterfeit Scam

This largely applies for software, but at times also to hardware. Nowadays anything can be replicated to look just like real. Earlier this year, some SLS shops were busted by the police for selling counterfeit copies of Microsoft Windows.

As I walked past Sim Lim Square, I saw counterfeit copies of the popular Apple iPod music players on sale. They had the same packaging, material, shape and even colour choices. But what's inside of these "MP4" players are nothing like a real iPod. A sales girl tried to convince me it was an (Apple) iPod, so I tried playing with one and it was barely useable with a trashy chinese software inside.

For the unweary, Apple controls the retail prices of its products. If somewhere other than an Apple store sells an iPod, it would be very closely priced to what you'd get at an Apple store. If it's unbelivably cheap, chances are that it's a fake.

Top-up Scam

In this scam, the seller would convince you to buy something that you would later find to be unsatisfactory and then offer you a top-up for a pricier product.

Francis walked into a SLS store and saw a cordless phone that was on sale really cheap, so he asked the seller if the phone was good. The seller informed him that it's a good phone but with intermittent "poor signal quality" that was not a cause for worry. So Francis decided to get the phone and paid for it while at the same time requesting to test the unit before he leaves the store. Note that SLS shops usually do not allow you to test a brand new unit unless you commit to buy it.

When Francis made a test call, he found that there was a persistent chirp made by the phone and told the seller he could not accept it. The seller then started getting defensive and said it was exactly what he had informed Francis about - the intermittent "poor signal quality". When Francis asked for a refund, he was denied and the seller started to get aggressive. The seller also said that if Francis didn't believe him, he could test the other units and they would all be the same.

Francis knew right away this was a scam and that they had kept a defective batch of phones to close a sale. The seller later recommended him another model that was far more expensive than the one he bought. In the end Francis left the store without making the top-up.

Buyers, please note that unlike large stores like Harvery Norman, SLS stores do not have a refund policy. In fact, it is almost impossible for any small shops to honour a refund policy due to the way their business operates with cash stock. So before you make the payment, insist that you want to test the product. If it's a product that can't be tested (such as RAM or hard drive), make very sure that it's covered by a manufacturer's warranty (not the store's own warranty!)

Where's safe to shop?

Now that you've read the horror stories, where's a safe(r) place to shop?

Funan center. This place is also touted as the "computer" paradise, but for the "richer". If you are an unweary tourist, this place is certainly much safer.
Harvey Norman, Courts, Best Denki, Challenger, Cyberactive. Any of these big stores found at major shopping centers such as Vivo and Suntec are safe places to make your IT purchases.
Buy direct from manufacturers such as Dell or Apple. You won't go wrong with this one - at least there's warranty coverage.
Now for some publicity of my own, my business WhyMobile was founded on the principles of consumer fair pricing; prices are displayed prominently and quoted nett. We stand by our principles and do not practise any GST or missing component gimmick. If you need a mobile phone, this is the place to go.

Edit: I have updated the SLS page in Wikipedia hoping that this would help the unwary. Please contribute and fix the bad English!

31-bit (255.255.255.254) subnets, RFC 3021

detach — 2008-11-27T01:33:03+08:00

For those who are wondering WTH is a /31 subnet (255.255.255.254), here's some very interesting information.

Traditionally, PtP links were assigned a /30 subnet (255.255.255.252), yeilding a network address, 2 host addresses and a broadcast address. Objectively speaking, this is a 100% waste of network addresses - for every 2 host I need, I created 2 unused addresses... unless you use IP-directed broadcast, that's a different story.

The 31-bit netmask is proposed by RFC 3021. This reduces the number of wasted addresses and makes the 2 addresses in the network completely available for use by hosts and removes the network and broadcast addresses.

So what happens to broadcast? Directed broadcasts are not supported, but 255.255.255.255 broadcasts can still be accepted. Also, the network now becomes the first host addresses, e.g. 192.168.0.0/31 is the network where 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.0.1 are both useable IPs.

For the Cisco gurus, it is currently supported by Cisco devices running 12.2(T) and above. Here's how:

ip subnet-zero
interface Vlan1
ip address 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.254

My copy of CentOS 4 running kernel 2.6.9 supports this as well.

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:CD:7C:00
inet addr:192.168.0.1 Bcast:192.168.0.1 Mask:255.255.255.254

Here's the two boxes communicating...

PING 192.168.0.0 (192.168.0.0) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.0: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=7.02 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.0: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=2.32 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.0: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=3.02 ms

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.254 U 0 0 0 eth0

Vincent has also verified that this is completely routable in his lab router setup (via OSPF). I'm sure it would work for other routing protocols... it doesn't really matter.

However, Windows XP gives me an error indicating that there's only 1 host bit so that means it's not supported. I'm not sure if Vista or Windows 2008 supports this, maybe somebody can verify?

ISPs, why are you still wasting your limited IP address space!?

PayPal Support SUCKS!

detach — 2008-11-23T04:40:58+08:00

If you had to ask me which online giant has the worst support of them all, it has to be PayPal. I'll find time to write a detailed story but here's briefly why:

The won't bother with what ever you wrote to them via e-mail. All you get is an e-mail reply with broken English that looks like some sort of standard template to tell you to fax some documents and upload them via their site, which is by the way, NOT WORKING. Hello? Your HTTP FORM POST is giving me a 500 error. Yes, you are looking it into it. Half a year later, STILL BROKEN?

For the Singapore dudes, I'm sorry man... that number you called is sent straight to China where they can't speak proper English and neither can you understand their Chinese.

My account got withheld again and again and again due to all sorts of weird shit reasons. I've had tens of thousands of transactions flowing through PayPal and 3% is no loose change. It's a totally unacceptable level of service.

Anyhow if any of you intend to stomp up to PayPal Singapore's office, it's at Neil road. Buzz me and I'd love to join in and kock on their door to see if it's theres actually people in the Singapore office!

M1 Mobile Broadband and UMPC Review

detach — 2008-11-18T01:16:04+08:00

My new job is quite a big change from the old - I spend more time at a customer's site which might not provide any Internet. It's amazing what happens when there's no Internet. I get into some sort of a withdrawal symptom; I would take out my iPhone and start surfing and downloading e-mails. I will go crazy and start doing funny things to the machines around me. A few hours later, I'm out of the DC and downstairs having coffee and/or falling asleep.

So I decided I should get myself a mobile broadband AND a Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC) to make myself a completely geeky road warrior.

I picked the M1 broadband which was a pretty straightforward decision because they were the only ones offering a 1mbps no-frills 6 month contract at $22+ per month. Included was free rental of a Huawei E220 HSDPA modem.

Apart from extremely crappy drivers that came originally with the Huawei device (please go to M1's site and download a software update) I must say I am very satisfied with the service so far. In fact, it is sometimes faster than my home broadband (StarHub MaxOnline 8mbps) when it comes to YouTube!

Moving on, I went to hunt for a UMPC at Sim Lim Square. It's been ages since I walked into Sim Lim Square but that place hasn't changed in years. We bumped into a store trying to sell us thumbdrives like we were angmors.

Friend: "Er, how much for this?" *points at Toshiba 8GB thumbdrive without a price tag*

Salesman: "$45"

Friend: "Er.... ok nevermind..." (we saw another store selling it at $32)

Salesman: "OK! You pay cash ah! Cash? You pay cash?"

Friend: "Yah..."

Salesman: "You pay cash! I give you $38..."

Friend: "Er, nevermind..."

Salesman: "Still too expensive?"

And we walked off yah. Nevermind. Let me get back to my review...

I tried the following UMPCs:

Dell Mini 9
Lenovo Ideapad S10
Asus EEE PC 901
Axioo Pico (MSI Wind OEM)
Acer Aspire One Note
HP Mini 2133

My selection criteria for UMPCs were simple. All I wanted was a comfortable keyboard/touchpad and long battery life. Everything else was a bonus.

I developed a simple keyboard test and that was to type the following piece of code:

public static void main(string args[])
{
System.out.print("Hello world\n");
return;
}

And also to hit the standard keyboard shortcuts like WinKey+R (Run), WinKey+E (Explorer), Ctrl+X/C/V, Alt+F4

---

Dell Mini 9

This was the first UMPC that caught my eye. On first sight the keyboard looks decent - the keys were not tiny like the other UMPCs. I almost bought it when I decided to try the keyboard further - as soon as I started typing code, I found the keyboard extremely crippled; the F1-9 keys are laid out as a Fn subkey on the "ASD..." row and the [] {} brackets were also a Fn subkey. Without the brackets, programming on this keyboard is almost impossible.

The keys were also not aligned like a typical keyboard (the Q key is almost directly above the A key but the Z key is still half a key apart from the A key). Google a photo of the keyboard to see for yourself.

Nonetheless if you are not a tech guy this UMPC might work out fine as a day-to-day web surfing rig.

Price: SGD 599

The pros: Low price with Windows XP, very small, decent mouse.

The cons: Absolutely terrible keyboard, especially for tech guys.

Verdict: 2/10 (Due to extremely terrible keyboard.)

---

Lenovo Ideapad S10

This was the second UMPC I tried because its sleek and slim design caught my eye. The code typed fine on the keyboard but there was still some difficulty getting it right. The screen was LED backlit so it has slightly better battery life than competitors. The only drawback was the lack of USB ports (only 2) and its price.

Price: SGD 799

The pros: Sleek design, pink looks very sweet for girls, LED backlight, decent battery life.

The cons: A little more pricey, only 2 USB ports, small trackpad, keyboard needs a little getting used to.

Verdict: 8/10

---

Asus Eee PC 901

I guess many people are familiar with this one and it needs no further introduction. Getting straight to the point here - I absolutely hate the trackpad buttons. They need considerable force to click.

Price: SGD 789

The pros: Cheap linux option, solid-state Disk (SSD), very good battery life, decent keyboard.

The cons: Difficult to click buttons on trackpad, weird power button location, cheap build, a little pricey.

Verdict: 6/10 (Due to poor trackpad buttons and cheap build.)

---

Axioo Pico (White)

At first I walked away from this UMPC because it was a brand that I've never heard of. (Now you know how important branding can be!) After some research I found out that this is actually by a local company and is the OEM of MSI's Wind so I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, the Pico had the most comfortable keyboard amongst all the other UMPCs. The trackpad was also decent although the buttons could do with some improvement. The best part was that they offered a 6-cell version that provides up to 5 hours of battery life.

Note: There is a black verson available. The black version has a totally different keyboard. Please see below.

Price: SGD 699 (3-cell battery), SGD 759 (6-cell battery)

The pros: 6-cell battery option gives crazy battery life, very comfortable keyboard, well built.

The cons: Not the nicest design out there but you could live with it.

Verdict: 9/10 (Due to excellent keyboard and 6-cell battery option.)

---

Axioo Pico (Black)

Although they carry the same name (Pico), the black version has a completely different chassis and keyboard from the white. It certainly does look better, but the keyboard and trackpad are terrible. Also, only a 3-cell version is available on the market for the black version as of this writing.

Price: SGD 699

The pros: Looks a little better than the white version.

The cons: Terrible keyboard and trackpad, only 3-cell option available.

Verdict: 4/10 (Due to terrible keyboard.)

---

Acer Aspire One Note

This is another laptop that needs no introduction. Just like the Asus Eee PC, I absolutely hate how the trackpad buttons are aligned.

Price: SGD 698

The pros: Cheap linux option, SSD option, good battery life.

The cons: Terrible trackpad button location.

Verdict: 6/10 (Due to terrible trackpad buttons.)

---

HP Mini 2133

There's much to debate about this one. I love the build - it's undoubtedly the best of all UMPCs. The aluminium or magnesium or whatever metallic case makes this look like a good business companion. The keyboard's also almost as good as a full-sized keyboard and very comfortable. However, the VIA CPU and reflective screen irks me.

Prrice: SGD 1199

The pros: Excellent build, excellent keyboard, runs Vista (depends on how you see it!)

The cons: Slow processor, very expensive, terrible trackpad button location, only 2 USB ports, runs hot, short battery life (about 2 hours), runs Vista (depends on how you see it!).

Verdict: 7/10 (The pros make up for the cons; you can consider it if you want a really nice keyboard)

---

So what did I get?

The Axioo Pico... and I'm loving every moment of it!

Responsibility Push Syndrome - can Singaporeans really work?

detach — 2008-10-27T03:57:49+08:00

I'm beginnng to wonder if Singaporeans can really work. I deal with few of the largest telco providers here in Singapore and believe me when it comes to work people are as good as dead. It's a world of difference from my previous experience in startups and US-based companies.

For one project, I attended two meetings lasting 3-4 hours each where ten of us from four different companies and departments try to sort out a service provisioning process flow. While I do not disagree that a proper structure should be in place, half the time was spent simply just pushing responsibilities between groups simply because they have "never done it before", it's "too troublesome", or they are "only supposed to do [a defined list of responsibilities]" .

Too troublesome? Talk about calling department X, Y and Z just trying to get a simple thing resolved!

Then comes the product manager (PM) who insists that the vendor (us) provide 99.9% SLA for a service that does not really warrant the need for such a stringent SLA. The PM having worked with a telco enviroment for years was so familar with traditional fixed-line services that she applied the standard guidelines to a totally different product. I call this the brain-dead template driven work.

I was at a datacenter (D)C migration yesterday morning at 2AM to physically move servers to a new DC. We got the servers shifted and racked at the new DC by 4.30AM, but to our surprise the new DC had no network set up for us. We were sent a brand new IP subnet via e-mail about a month ago and nobody did anything about it - the cables weren't patched, the VLANs weren't set and the routes weren't added. The most amusing part was that the engineer onsite simply said he wasn't informed and that it wasn't planned and seemed ever so reluctant to help. My colleague dug up his e-mail that showed the new IP range assigned with the e-mail sender's name and only then he decided to act upon it with "somebody else to blame". Even then, it took them a whole 2 hours (from 5AM to 7AM) to get the link working.

A few weeks ago, my (personal) datecenter had a major power blackout. When they sent me the final report, I was surprised to find that the report set the blame on building electrical technicians who were simply carrying out their routine electrical maintenance jobs. Nobody related to the poor design of the DC's power supply system or NOC engineers was mentioned in the report. I wrote back saying the report was flawed, and that they (the NOC) failed to properly notify customers of a planned electrical maintenance. It's been three weeks and I have yet to get a reply.

There are many such incidents that I'm sure some of you may be so familiar with or even guilty of. This "responsibility push syndrome" is simply a killer of productivity. Many people are well educated and technically capable but unwilling to bear any form of responsibility. Some are worse - they don't want any responsibility AND are technically uncapable. These people just want to sit at a job with no responsibilities and no challenges where they spend half their life at. While I do not understand why, I have no respect for such people.

What troubles me is that we lack people who would stand up and take action during a situation and do what's required to resolve it without worrying having to "answer" for his/her actions. If a person stands up for what he thinks is right, then he/she shouldn't be worried about having to answer for making a positive decision. If he/she is reprimanded for taking such an action then I think it's only right that he/she seeks a new job.

While some people say you're trying to "act hero", think to yourself the next time you get robbed at gunpoint, you'll be hoping there was indeed a hero.

Degress are Glorified Testimonials

detach — 2008-10-22T12:16:36+08:00

Wow check out this piece of news from the Straits Times (link: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_293432.html)

Quote:

THE ceremony in the Old Parliament House had all the pomp and circumstance associated with any graduation.

The professors and graduands were in full academic regalia. Speeches flowed in English and Mandarin. And afterwards, a gala dinner at a hotel.

At the ceremony, the university's honorary president, a Professor Bernard Cadet, delivered an inspiring speech, urging graduands to transform the world.

'Believe nothing is impossible. West Coast University (WCU) will be proud of you in the future,' he told the 76 graduands from Singapore, Indonesia and China, before handing them their doctorates, master's and bachelor's degrees.

But this was a ceremony for an unaccredited university based in Panama, not Los Angeles, as its school in Singapore had claimed.

The Asia-Australia School of Management (AASM), a Case-certified school in Middle Road, offers West Coast University programmes here with a related company, Huanyu Training Expert.

At least two American states have outlawed degrees from WCU, describing it as a 'degree supplier' that offers 'fraudulent or substandard degrees'.

The Texas State Higher Education Coordinating Board warns on its website that WCU 'is used by multiple unaccredited entities. The extent to which they are related is unknown, but more than one operator is suspected.'

In some parts of the United States, it is a criminal offence to use degrees from unaccredited institutions.

'Dr' John Huang, one of the owners of AASM and Huanyu, insisted that the university is based in Los Angeles and faxed The Straits Times documents showing West Coast University International registered as a business in California.

But he confirmed that it was not the California-based West Coast University reputed for nursing and health science-related degrees. He admitted that WCU was unaccredited, but said his students had been given the facts.

His doctorate is from Ashwood University, the same degree mill that granted this reporter's pet dog a doctorate for US$599 (S$886) just two months ago.

The guest of honour at Monday's ceremony was MP for Joo Chiat Chan Soo Sen, who delivered a speech in Mandarin and English.

Contacted afterwards, he said he had been invited by a grassroots leader and accepted as he wanted to encourage the habit of life-long learning.

Told that WCU was unaccredited, he said he had not been given any information about it. 'If my presence there had given the university credibility, that was not my intention,' he said.

Several graduates interviewed after Monday's ceremony believed the university was based in Los Angeles and that it was a proper institution.

They had paid between $13,000 and $19,000 in fees to take up bachelor's, master's and doctorate courses lasting one year to 15 months.

Those who took up the doctorate programme said they attended classes two days a month, from 9am to 5pm.

Several said they did not know a university can be registered and yet have no academic accreditation, where it is subject to quality checks by an independent body. It also means employers may not recognise the degrees.

An electronics factory quality controller who paid $13,000 in fees for her bachelor's degree said: 'I was hoping to get a better job in logistics with this degree, but now it may not be possible.'

Ms Ho Fee Men, director of a Chinese medical hall, said she had heard rumours that the university was unaccredited, but continued with her PhD programme anyway. To get her doctorate, she paid $19,000 in fees, attended classes twice a month over 15 months and wrote a 50,000-word thesis.

Two businessmen said they knew their doctorates were worthless but took up the programme to learn about business management.

Mr Chang Chia Sheng, 55, managing director of X.L. Handle, which makes industrial fasteners, said he gained from discussions with other businessmen.

Earlier this year The Straits Times exposed another school, Boston Business School, which also offered degrees from West Coast University. It has since stopped running the courses.

At least 218 people here have been found with degrees from dubious universities such as Preston, Wisconsin International and Kennedy-Western.

Business owners make up one of three groups here who have degrees from unaccredited institutions and degree mills. For many of them, an honorary PhD has become a must-have symbol of success.

Another group comprises consultants and private school lecturers who may have a first degree and some expertise in a particular area, but seek a master's degree or doctorate to bolster their credentials.

And lastly, there are those who pay for undergraduate degrees and transcripts - usually non-graduates who want qualifications to gain jobs or promotions.

'nuff said. Sorry guys, I had to flame you for being silly. $16k! Fuck dude, I started WhyMobile with way less cash than that!

Living on Imaginary Money

detach — 2008-10-13T15:12:29+08:00

As I think about the recent mayhem, it began to seem apparent that the world has been living on imaginary cash for the longest time. The recent economic downturn is probably long overdue.

The problem began ever since cash was free to value itself against gold. Then, we have stocks and property market that are actually made up by us humans putting an imaginary value to it. It's sort of like a super intelligent and legalized pyramid scheme you know - putting money into a money pool and "cashing out" at the right time.

To put it simply, one moment I could get a valuation of your house and it's worth $1m. The next moment another person comes in and values it at $1.1m. You think you have gained an extra $0.1m, but that's not true until you actually sell your house. And to really sell your house, you'll need somebody to pay you cold hard cash.

That guy valuating your house ain't the person that's going to buy it. He's just looking at general market statistics and putting a price tag on your house. Until somebody out there has $1.1m to spare, your house is probably worth as much as how much a person is willing to pay for it. If you ask somebody from Zimbawe, it goes like: "the bricks and cement".

About cold hard cash. Where do you get it from? Maybe take a loan from the bank... well, where did the bank get their cash from? It's from all the people who put money into it. People who clean your toilets, sell you fishes at the wet market, deliver your goods to your office, milk the cows.

Yes, money originates from something very basic, and that's trade (tada, your supply and demand topic); you have something I want, and I give you something in exchange for it. It used to be exchange of farm produce (barter trade), then it became precious metals (gold, silver), and finally, money. Money used to represent gold, but now, it's just a piece of paper with a floating value! If you look at it objectively, US dollars is probably worth nothing. If you hold a dollar bill, it's likely that piece of paper meant you owe Japan some money... better sell that "IOU" to somebody else who wants it :P

Singaporeans don't really realize that day-to-day, they pay for something that doesn't even physically exist. Don't believe me? Check this out...

PSLE, GCE O Levels, GCE A Levels, Diploma, Degree, Masters', PhD
Housing Valuation
Certificate of Entitlement (COE)
Registry of Marrige (ROM) Certificate
Lottery Tickets
Certificates, certificates, certificates

Some may tell me, oh yes, education is for knowledge. I'd agree that to learn something has to be paid for, but for the sake of a "piece of paper" (as many Singaporeans affectionately call it) is basically a form of bribery. Certifications are glorified testimonials, albeit highly inaccurate. It's like you getting a letter from Bush saying that you are good in Computer Engineering. How many times have you seen your company hire a new degree graduate and you think to yourself, "this guy is dunk"?

Back in the old days, testimonials were made out of goodwill: "John makes great pizza!". Without a dollar value pegged to testimonials, they were honest and accurate.

People are telling me, times are bad; go study. I was like: "Uh? Siao boh? Buy another certificate?" In fact, 9 in 10 government sector tell me to go study and join the government. You'll be safe. Nice try. Methinks please go get some cash and gold... in times of war, your degree is as good as toilet paper.

I'm sure a lot of you would have been offended by my post. Well, times are bad... what to do? It makes me think harder :P

GBP, EUR, NZD, AUD in the slumps vs SGD

detach — 2008-10-13T09:36:09+08:00

A notable time in history worth blogging about. This is the first time NZD, AUD, GBP and EUR went so low against SGD:

1 NZD = 0.8904 SGD
1 AUD = 0.9878 SGD
1 GBP = 2.5265 SGD
1 EUR = 2.0057 SGD

On the contrary, USD, JPY and CNY (RMB) is on a crazy rise...

1 USD = 1.4786 SGD
100 JPY = 1.4751 SGD
1 RMB = 0.2163 SGD (1/x = 4.6233)

And for the record, a lot of money changers decided not to do business last Friday. Let's see what happens today.

Xiaxue the bimbo

detach — 2008-10-13T09:16:21+08:00

I mean, who can get as stupid as this goes:

http://sheylara.com/2008/04/09/xiaxue-gets-flamed-on-high-profile-usa-blog/

http://gizmodo.com/377601/crazy-popular-asian-blogstar-prefers-fake-chinese-iphone-to-the-real-thing

I've seen XiaXue's blog but I really never bother because her entries are of no interest to me (mostly bimbotic complaints and crap). I never knew she had a stupid talk show but wow this video was... OH MY GOD. *Palms forehead* I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I can't believe she actually thought the chinese iPhone was a real iPhone. That goes to show it's empty up there, or she's been living on the moon. I hope chang'er will slap her to Mars. XX, if you see this, please get the fuck out of Singapore.

I'm not an Apple fan but I simply love the iPhone. It's a brilliant piece of engineering. Even if a proper, not-so-bimbotic, 5-minute style review of the iPhone does not justify the amount of work Apple has put into this product. There's so many nitty gritty details that Apple has put into the iPhone that a 5 minute review won't tell, like the automatic keypad lock when you put the phone up against your face, the automatic light detection that varies the screen brightness, the amazing ability to text with your THUMBS (I'm not kidding) on a tiny touch screen, a on-screen keyboard that finally responds to your tapping (as opposed to the crappy Windows Mobile keyboard that sits there even when you tap it), the text input error correction, the ability to detect an intent to scroll than to tap, the astounding quality of the 2MP camera, the crazy lots of apps available out there whether you need it or not, the super intuitive "slide to unlock" and "slient mode" switch, the browser based on Safari that actually WORKS... the list could go on.

Sure the lack of MMS and SMS forwarding turns a few off, but seriously probably 5% of the world uses MMS.

Have you even tried the Samsung Omnia? Slide the screen and it triggers a tap? It's crap! In iPhone's justice, you really need a STYLUS to operate that thing. A phone is a phone, I shouldn't need to bring a toothpick around.

2MP camera? Grab a Nokia 2MP camera. No way you will get anything close to picture quality. The iPhone's white balance and compression quality surpasses any Nokia or Dopod or HTC out there... maybe Sony Ericsson has some exceptions.

Blame the fucking Americans

detach — 2008-10-10T16:24:39+08:00

They are the cause of this. AIG took a second loan after spending $440k for their top performing agents to go on a chill out at a resort. What the heck are the Americans thinking? They should be eating raw coffee seeds by now and not sipping wine. The war is still going on (a losing battle? was that the latest?).

Japan insurer up lorry. Oil at $82/barrel. People here are still wishing they get $40k COV on property? WTF are Singaporeans thinking? Hello?! Stop reading the local junk papers like New Paper and Lianhe Wanbao can? Who you think is going to sponsor soccer teams if the world economy up lorry? Read some real news from Yahoo!, Reuters and Bloomberg...