Have you owned a personal computer more than 10 years ago and thought of what was it then compared to now. Well, if you were like me, with too much free time at hand, it will be fun to do so. So what does it mean to own a PC back in the early 90s in Singapore?

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20 Years Ago...
Personal Computer? Why would anyone want a personal computer?

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About 15 Years Ago...

1.) Harddisk was a luxury, you just work with 2 double density 5.25" disk drive.
2.) Double density diskette means 320Kilobytes of storage, or 1/10th an MP3 song nowadays.
3.) You had to format your diskette before using.
4.) 640K memory is enough for every application you can think of.
5.) You are so proud of your VGA graphics when the rest are using EGA and *Gasp* CGA ones.
6.) Printers do not use cartridges, they use ribbons.
7.) PC Speakers can produce so much music and even speak.
8.) Microsoft DOS 3.1
9.) You boot your computer with a floppy disk and have self-configured config.sys and autoexec.bat files.
10.) You keep different boot disks for different configurations (Actually to play different games).
11.) You had games that works like a console - slot into the computer and boot from it to play.
12.) You played RTK2 with 3 diskettes using only 2 disk drive. (Go figure)
13.) A 286 PC running at 8Mhz is fast.
14.) CD had a different meaning.
15.) The best pictures are ASCII pics.
16.) You keep a table of ASCII characters.
17.) Gamers: Romance of the Three Kingdoms & Prince of Persia.
18.) Programmers: GW-BASIC.

More to come in the future.

Tagged: singapore computer 90s

Cool!!! Here are some of the cuter pictures hee... Have fun people hee...



Class 01S83...



The BBQ... The guys are really nice.. they cook nice food...pack the place and there's no left over!!!! Thank you guys (",)



The Gals...



The Guys...



The crazy drinking session...



Yeah man!



The stool??!!



The guitar man?



("<)



And it's not just the guys who are having fun... the girls too... hee... and what's that? 猜拳?? hee..



Who are they? Ain't it romantic...

It's only when you go to the food fest with your friends then you start to see the other side of them haha...



Serious haha... after meeting the class at white sand four of us went down to the MPH warehouse sale and then to the Food Fest at the Expo Exhibition hall...

While the good thing about the MPH book sale is that the books there are relatively nice, some are evern wrapped up nicely... and there's a wide variety of books.. from kids story books to cook books... but the side effect from looking at mountains of books that are being placed in boxes on the floor is... tired legs from having to bend up and down to look for books and also one can't help but feel kinda giddy after look round and round for books hee..

So the perfect cure for all these side effects are... THE SINGAPORE FOOD FEST!!!
Hee... looking in at the exhibition hall six... all we saw was mountains and mountains of people... and food!!!!



Into the hall we went and grabbing things along the way... free sample mah... kinda cheapo but with the people happily offering the samples to your face... how can we resist the temptation haha.... anyway, there's no harm done except that we left the place with quite a full tummy... wondering if we could still survive the BBQ later in the evening... =p

Next time when you wanna siam people who're giving out pamphlets along orchard or around the MRT station, look before you try doing it... cause you never know... your friend could be one of them.. hee.. which is what happened when Moya and I went to meet the rest of the class for our chalet at White Sand.

We tried "siam-ming" someone giving out phamlets about the Singapore Arts Festival that going on... and it turned out to be my old secondary school "kaki" - Lane!!!



haha.... of course it's kinda embarrassing to realise that you've actually avoided someone who's your friend so.... look before you avoid yah...especially during the holi where your friends would be out looking for part time jobs hee..

I was planning to grumble about the high costs of owning a car until I came across this piece that have already done it. Bernie, the author, praises the Singapore transport system, specifically MRT, for it's efficiency.

Singapore has gotten it right. Its transit system is comfortable, safe and absolutely clean. There is an efficient and inescapable way of paying for it. There is a cost structure that in and of itself makes it prohibitively expensive to own and operate a car.

Another interesting spam mail filtered out by Thunderbird. It's a trojan horse hiding under the name of Microsoft Security updates that will compromise your antivirus and firewall software leaving it free for all to disturb your computer. Again don't open such email even if it came from your dad. Besides, they can't even spell properly. Better go to microsoft update and download it yourself.

Norton AntiVirus removed the attachment: update.zl9.
The attachment was infected with the Backdoor.Xordoor virus.

Trust those Japanese to think of these toys. From segatoys. Appreciate if anyone who understands japanese tell me what this dog do?

Update: Okay, I found an English website. Apparently it is a mono speaker pet that dances with tunes.

Tagged:singapore

GOOD REASONS FOR BEING A HONGKIE
1. We're Hongkies and not Chinese.
2. We can talk and shout and nobody gives a damn.
3. Jackie Chan is our icon.
4. We can live in 5' x 5' cubicle and call it luxury apartment.
5. Our children can speak Cantonese at a young age.
6. We get to blame everything on Feng Shui or Tung Chee Hwa or the mainland communists.
7. No one can threaten Hong Kong, except the few expatriate from Cathay Airlines (Pilots) who are now on strike.
8. Gambling is more interesting than sex, that's why we're Hongkies.
9. We produce a lot of Ms.Hong Kong to the enjoyment of the rich and famous.


GOOD REASONS FOR BEING A SINGAPOREAN
1. We're not Chinese.
2. Everyone (especially the Malaysian) hates us, except ourselves.
3. Famous for Orchard Road.
4. We have our own island.
5. Proud of our world class Airport, world class MRT, world class
airline, world class telco... score "one" against Manchester Utd but kena 8 in return.
6. We know how to spell 'Salvatore Ferragamo'.
7. We know how to enjoy our vacation in M'sia, keep a few RM50 notes before. you enter the highway for police purposes, you can throw anything, anytime, anywhere and always wash our cars at the resort.
8. The men are always concerned, first question to ask a girl "Do you have CPF?"
9. Never fear of getting lost in our country, S$20 taxi ride will get
you into the sea.
10.We'll never have to worry about finding Mr or Ms right coz government will find one for us.
11.1 SGP dollar = 2.2 Ringgit Malaysia.
12.It's OK to be Kiasu. It's part of our culture.


GOOD REASONS FOR BEING AN INDONESIAN
1. We are not Australian.
2. We live in the biggest country in South East Asia.
3. No pirates in Indonesia water if you exclude the Navy and Coast
guards.
4. Everything is cheap, even our salaries.
5. We can blame everything to Suharto or BJ Habibie or Gus Dur or
Megawati.
6. Only in Indonesia you can get involved in real demonstrations daily for different causes and see no results.
7. Our rupiah is like a yo yo, it can go up and down just b'coz IMF say so.
8. We burn everything and nobody gives a damn.
9. We don't need fire-fighters as our neighbours will provide.


GOOD REASONS BEING A MALAYSIAN
1. World tallest Building, Best F1 circuit, biggest pewter mug, highest standard of university admission, coz Malaysia Boleh!
2. We can be driving, picking our nose, cursing another driver, talking on the handphone, adjusting radio and bribing the cop at the same time.
3. Divorce by sending SMS.
4. Traffic summoned can be settled on the spot with the cop.
5. Teh tarik & roti canai is the favourite supper.
6. We can save a lot of electricity b'coz our TV shows are so crappy.
7. We can blame everything on the haze or George Soros or government or opposition parties.
8. Resourceful City Council, one person to drive the van, one to carry the ladder, one to change a street's bulb and three others watching.
9. We make 2 lane trunk roads into 3 lane highway and back to 2 lane when cops are sighted.
10.There's always something for the JKR to do, they dig, resurface the road, dig and resurface the road.
11.All main roads are designated highway coz it gives Samy Velu a reason to collect toll.
12.Our Govt. can never be wrong.

Via Jeffrey Lim's email

Tagged: singapore hong kong malaysia indonesia

Hey hey... another baby's born hee...



Here's mastermind's niece hee... she's not even a month old yet.. Hm... didn't really get the chance to see her in person yet since she's still oversea...sigh...

I love kidos hee...

hm... but do you notice something... how come all babies look so similar when they're few days old... not much diff...it's only till they're one month old plus plus that you can really tell the difference hee...

Anyway... Hope our little sassy princess will grow up pretty and health hee.. (",)

1.) Send in 20 fake ID & pin just for fun. (Mastermind Done It!)
2.) Forward the email to your enemies, act blur if they saw through it. (Would have done it if I kept their emails. Maybe I should start looking at my friendsters.)
3.) Blog about it (Mastermind Did it too! Like here & news were out in Tomorrow.sg also)
4.) Create a spoof for the phishing to educate innocent people. (Maybe someone with good coding skills can do it, for the better of mankind)
5.) Take part in Singapore's National Sport, buy 4D based on the time you receive the spam mail. (Mastermind don't gamble)
6.) Start a "I Kena Phished" logo. (like below)

Identity theives are getting better in their trade of phishing. Just got this email that pretend that they are from DBS and they tried to steal my IB info. It looks just like the actual website except that when you enter the pin you see the inputs instead of ****. Never ever response to such email (Unless you are like me, key in fake info). It will send the info to another website (to http://hostpymes.com/send.php?userid=landy05&pin=110775 in my experiment) before redirecting you to the DBS security page. (Talk about irony and insult to one's intelligence).

Why not all of us submit bogus account info to the phisher to flood him out and save those poor souls who fell for this?

Tagged: singapore phishing

The feeling of seeing your friend becoming a mother is truely amusing...

Well at least the first thing that you notice is that you ain't as young as you thought you were... think about it.. five years downt he road when her son is running around... you begin to wonder how old are you... when you're actually in the mid twenty.

Yet putting the thought of age aside.. you'll be wondering about how good it is to have a child of your own.. really.. my friend's son is so cutie cute that he'll certainly melt your heart... and makes you go gaga over him...

Oh before we go on about how cute he is... here's a photo of him...Baby Lee Zhuo Heng Brandon





Alright, now at least you people know who I'm refering to when I go gaga... haha...

Anyway.. we (lay ping and I) really had fun visiting my friend... talking about topics from talking to the BB while he is still in mummy's tummy... when my friend's giving birth.. the things that happened and the feelings that she had when you first saw her BB..you know etc etc... .. plus we get to take a peep into her wedding photo album!!!!

Oh man she's CHIO!!! super CHIO!!! especially when she's in the jap costume... oh boy...

Hey girl... here's to you, your beloved hubby... and your super cutie son Brandon...hee.. kinda late wishes but hope you don't mind...

May the both of you stay happily ever after and may your son stay healthy and strong... stay happy and young!!!! I'll be waiting for the next one to come... hee.. and must become a 漂亮妈妈 ok hee... take care girl...

Recently, one of my light-hearted post on kopitiam culture today was submitted to tomorrow.sg and got selected by the editors. As a result, I experience a spike in visitors to this humble blog that resembles the Dirac Delta function with 90% from tomorrow.sg. It's sure a nice surprise to find out that our blog was selected and there are people out there who find my ramblings worth reading.


This looks more like a spectroscopy graph than a visitors graph

Tomorrow.sg was created because some popular bloggers in Singapore meet up for a dinner and talked about this idea. The rest is history. It's suppose to be a collection of interesting articles written by bloggers either in Singapore or about it. I was uncomfortable about the idea initially. Who do these people think they are to go around doing this? Tomorrow.sg seems like an avenue for the editors to gain more popularity and authority over the rest of the local bloggers. (See here for more)

At the same time, I get disgusted by some of the the Fame-Seekers. For one reason or another, these fellows want their blogs to be read by the rest of the world so they will submit their entries again and again, religiously updating their blogs with new materials hoping to get selected eventually and regularly to gain readerships and popularity. So they can either a.) Take over the world, b.) Get t-shirt endorsement, c.) get a column on Today.

(Fact: Maybe you will get 200 more readers if you are featured but 95% of them don't even bother to read your other articles that are not featured. Consider yourself very lucky should one of them bookmark your blog at the end of the day.)

The biggest problem with Tomorrow.sg is that what is interesting to you may not be interesting to me. So I didn't even bothered to subscribe to the site feed as it will fill up my Thunderbird with more junk than gems. And how long will Tomorrow.sg survive before a.) the editors got bored and stop working on it, b.) the gahmen took notice of it and use it conveniently to fish out anti-gahmen views defamatory articles or brainwash netizens enforce professional journalism code of ethics on bloggers.

Tagged: tomorrow.sg singapore

I was digging out my old CDs that backup stuff from my ancient Pentium PC to rediscover this gem inside my email attachment dated in 1997. Sucre and I found it amusing so I decided to put it up here to share this unique lesson with everyone. It's a shame I couldn't embed it in Quicktime so you have to right-click the title above and save the wave file into your harddisk before playing it with windows media player.

Oh, this audio file is self rated NC16 for strong language. Do not click if you are underage or are easily offended by the F word.

Transcript: "Perhaps one of the most interesting word in the english language today is the word f**k. Of all the English words that begin with the letter F, f**k is the only word that is to referred as the F word. It's the one magical word, just by it sound can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love.

First time stepping into a cinema since the price hike (S$17 for 2 tix including bookings), first time stepping into Jurong Point since they changed the parking system into EPS one (S$4.20 parking, it used to be S$1.05 per entry). First time buying mineral water from them (S$2.20). First time collecting my tickets from the AXS machine that gives a receipt as the movie ticket (and got a nagging from sucre bcos of that) Which brings the total cost of movie on Weekday for Star Wars III to a staggering S$23.40. And that's for a 4pm show mind you.

Jurong Point used to be one of my favourite hangout because of their cheap parking. (The other one being IMM which is still free). But now it's going to cost S$2.10 for first 2 hours, $1.05 for 3rd hour and $1.05 for every 30 minutes or part thereof in weekends, ouch! Seems more like parking rates in Orchard. So I guess this will also be the last time I watch a movie in Jurong Point. Last time I buy mineral water from them. Last time I park at Jurong Point (for more than 2-3 hours at least). And the Last time I collect a ticket from the AXS machine.


Spoiler Alert: If you intend to watch Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith yourself, do not read further. Although I will try not to reveal too much of the plot.


Star Wars III is a fine movie with plenty of Jedi duels. The movie starts off with a rematch between Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker with Count Dukoo/Lord Tyrannus followed closely by Obi-Wan & Anakin versus Jedi trained droids. There's also Master Windu against Darth Sidious and Obi-Wan versus General Grievous (who is Jedi trained). For the finale, expect to be treated with an extend showdown between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader simultaneously with another clash of the titans between Master Yoda and Darth Sidious.

Revenge of the Sith is the movie that connects the whole Star Wars series together. Like why Darth Vader wears that dark suit, when did Sidious became hideous and how the Republic become the Empire in Star Wars IV, V and VI. There's also new worlds, never seen before, on top of the familiar Coruscant and Tatooine as the Republic wage their war against the Seperatist. However, expect to only catch a glimpse of it as those exotic locations are shown only when the Jedi order is betrayed and Jedi warriors killed everywhere.

If you are already familiar with the Star Wars series, you would have guess how the plot would develop. But nonetheless, there are several heart wrenching scenes like the part where Padme learns the truth about her husband and the conversations during the duel between Master Obi-Wan and his Padawan. If you have money to spare and time to kill, Star Wars III is definitely in the must see got to see and die die also must see category.

Kopitiam is one of the defining culture in Singapore, barely 10 years ago, most of the Kopitiams in Singapore are owned and managed privately. Today, most of them are owned by one of the few major players and the role of the kopitiam assistant takes a brand new meaning. In the past, kopitiam assistants are expected to clear and clean the table while taking drinks order from customers who just sat down. They need to have eyes of an eagle to spot customers sitting down in the eatery and memory of an iPod to recall the orders of regulars. Today, there's a whole new meaning to a kopitiam assistant sales assistant recruited by the kopitiam food courts. I shall try to provide a guide on how to be a successful sales assistant in the modern food courts (self-service or not).

1.) Make lousy coffee - Canned drinks can yield at least 80 cents profit compared to coffee or tea that can garnered about 60 cents profit. Besides, if customer get stomachache can blame on the can drink mah. Canned drinks also easier to serve (no need to brew), and reduces burn related MCs.

2.) Finding substitute - When a customer order a drink that is not available, bring a similar substitute drink and claim that the drinks are the same. This will increase drink sales and even if the customer stops patronising us due to poor service, chances are they will go to another food court owned by us too.

3.) Team work - Work as a team and stick as team. No matter what happen, don't walk around taking orders. By standing together at the counter makes it easier for customer to spot you and walk to the counter to place orders instead. This includes taking meals at the same time during peak hours.

4.) Quality of work - Do not attempt to take multiple orders at the same time. Take an order from a table and return with their drinks before taking another. This reduces mistakes and also enhances your claim for (2) above.

These are some of the qualities that made the Singapore service unique and wish you all the best in your new job as a food court sales assistant.

Tagged:singapore kopitiam

Channel 5 is going to show next Sunday, 22 May, 10pm. Remember to catch it and see the life of the legendary John Forbes Nash. Oh.. and Revenge of the Sith is coming soon... yeah... Star Wars Star Wars.. I'm going nuts..

Once a upon a time, there was a magistrate in a certain province of China who loved his people so he will do whatever he can to protect them. One day, while he was having his lunch, he choked on the fish and was in pain for hours before he could get the bone out. Then he thought to himself, it is so dangerous to eat as you can get choked, I almost died because of that. Being the loving magistrate, he decreed that eating food is bad for you and banned everyone in the province from eating. And to prove his determination, he ordered the townsfolk to bring all their food and burn them so no one will risk choking in the future.

One day passed and some peasants came to the magistrate to appeal against his decision to ban eating. Without food, they cannot plow the field as they have no strength. But the magistrate was firm and rejected their requests, he told them they could do other work such as sewing to feed their family, and sewing does not require strength. So another few days passed, the magistrate was also very hungry and he realised his foolishness. He ordered the ban to be lifted and all the fruits to be harvested to share with the people in his province.

In another unrelated story, there was a company that runs the local mass transport train services in Singapore who loved their passengers. One day, the gahmen found some suspicious men filming the train stations and gathered some evidence that the train stations could be a target for terrorist attack. They learn that terrorist work by dropping bombs and/or poisonous gas in dustbins and postal boxes so the company decided to do away with their dustbins and postal boxes for the safety of their passengers (and hence improve their services and justify for a hike in fare). This had a deterrent effect on the terrorist...

Terrorist Boss: Ah man, go bomb City Place train station...
Terrorist Ah man: Boss how you want to bomb?
Terrorist Boss: Get my suitcase bomb and drop in the dustbin lar!
Terrorist Ah man: But Boss, no dustbin how to drop?
Terrorist Boss: Then postal box lor
Terrorist Ah man: Now they shift it 3 miles away from the train station liao.. how to bomb?
Terrorist Boss: Alamak~~ wait, let me consult my "Terrorist Attacks for Dummies" first...

~~~5 minutes later~~~

Terrorist Boss: Ah man, think we go bomb elsewhere lar.. I know country X got dustbin in their train stations. Easier target.

Here's a photo of my cute cute niece Rui Xuan aka xiao Bu Dian who can melt the heart of a man....



Imagine... while the adults were seating around having a sushi dinner, poor xiao bu dian who has had her dinner before that wanna have a bit... with her watery big eyes...tiny call of "mum mum...." with a finger pointing to her mouth... isn't she a cutie?

so cute that she managed to steal mastermind's heart hee... hee... (no grumbling mastermind =p) hee... haha... our mastermind was so entertained by her that his eyes didn't leave her through out the whole course except to take a sushi from the tray... lalala~~~

Just came back from a nice relaxing getaway to a chalet hee... it's really cool... a very isolated place.. with a nice sea view just in front of the chalet. hm... just imagine that the first thing that you see the moment you woke up is the endless sea view as shown in the photo above hee... and then you can just go down a flight of stair and TADA! you're at the beach le.. hee..

Moreover, you get to see ubin just in front of you... so close up that you'll think you could swim across to it.. hee...

Oh and if you're lucky, you can get funny neighbours to the left of your block who shouts Otah Otah!!! at their BBQ pit with a nice reply from the neighbour two blocks to the right of our that goes... SATAY SATAY!!!! who's also having their BBQ at the same time...

Honest... you wanna be antisocial for a while... try getting a chalet at the far far end of Sinagapore... it works!!!!!!

Here's another picture taken inthe eveing... enjoy~~ (",)

Being branded a scholar comes with a moral responsibility to meet the expectations of the whole of Singapore. Karp Ace tried to debunk the myths about scholarships and was met with Weiyi's rebuttal. Apparently the authors themselves are either scholars themselves or mix around with scholars. But such myths exist because of the expectations and it is meaningless to shatter the myths with proof by counterexamples used by Karp Ace.

Wikipedia definition of scholar: "A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a "mastery" of some academic discipline." But in Singapore, anyone who obtained a scholarship, be it government or private, prestigious or not, can be called a scholar. And the type of scholarship that acquires the most attention and prestige locally will have to be the public service scholarships offered by government or its entities such as EDB & A*Star. Therefore the general public's expectation of a scholar is someone who excels academically and morally since they are chosen by the ever upright government. But is this the case?

Myth 1: Scholars are smarter than everyone else

There was this guy (I presume his a guy) who bid in 2 of my CDs in auction but was outbidded in one of them at the very last minute. Obviously agitated, he send me an email to offer a higher price to get the CD from me.

Okay okay, I admit that I was a bit slow on my news, even later than CNA who broke the news 2 weeks late. And that I got some of the facts wrong initially. (He was a PSC Scholar bond breaker, not affliated to A*Star apparently). But this issue lasted more than 15 minutes on a over the meal discussion today and it got me really curious to find what really happened other than the few lines I read from the rss feed. The more I read about it, the more I got hook to the story. It's like the biggest scandal since the Clinton - Lewinsky thingy...

Chen Jiahao had quite a few things in common with me. He was a PSC teaching scholar, just like I was. (No, I'm not a bond breaker, PSC just transferred all local scholarships to the respective ministries in the middle of my studies). He got sick with the red tape and unhelpfulness of PSC in issues just like I did and we shared some of the same views regarding the research done in Singapore.

So who is this Chen Jiahao guy? He is a smart ass who did his degree in 2 years overseas, was accepted in MIT and applied to do his masters in another 2 years through PSC. But 3 weeks before his course, after all the preparation, PSC said no go and made him serve his NS. After the hell he went through, he decided to pay the damages and break his bond to pursue his PhD in US. Read More of it in New Paper's article, do read the comments posted by himself too.

In US, he started to be a critic on various issues, including A*Star policies. All the information is gone with the closure of his blog, but one of his write-up survived elsewhere. He wrote on the current state of Singapore Science and below is an extract:

" Columns The Singapore government has been lauding Singapore as a technologically advanced nation and a world-class leader in research and development, especially in recent years with the earmarking of billions of dollars of taxpayers' funding for encouraging scientific research, particularly in the life sciences. Yet a closer inspection at scientific statistics tells a different tale from the official party line."

... ...

"The conclusion is crystal-clear: we are very good at producing unstimulating scientific research. In other words, we are good at wasting trees. A conclusion that is bolstered by considering that in the years 1993 - 2003, Singapore was ranked 36th in prolificity (i.e. number of papers published in all disciplines) out of 145 countries, but only 92nd in terms of relative impact (citations per paper)."

... ...

" 1. That the top 20 countries are leaps and bounds ahead of Singapore, if for nothing else for the sheer availability of resources. So by definition it will be very difficult for Singapore to match up against these truly world-class countries.
2. We can write many papers, but obviously not many people care about them.
3. Singapore is not a major contributor to the physical sciences, even in per capita and per paper terms. Even in the life sciences, she is not doing well consistently across the board.
4. Comparisons with similarly-sized countries show that we are simply not holding the fort even in our own middleweight class.


If this is what a quick look at a few numbers can reveal, how many more ugly truths need to be dug up from more in-depth analyses before Singapore will heed this sobering wake-up call? "

Read More of it here

What had happened was that A*STAR demanded Chen Jiahao to take down statements he had made that defamed them. According to CNA. A*Star said the post-graduate student made serious accusations that hit at the core of the organisation’s integrity, such as bribery, misuse of money and misbehaviour. However, the article in CNA may have been changed and the bribery part has disappeared. Reference here.

TODAY Online featured an article on the AcidGate issue that A*Star was not satisfied with the simple apology. Apparently, A*Star Chairman, Philip Yeo, the same guy who labelled EDB bond breakers as Immoral, claimed that one of Chen's post contains defamatory remarks. But according to Chen's latest reply published in the local blogosphere, it seems that after receiving 11 threatening and insulting emails from Philips Yeo, Chen still do not know exactly which remarks were found to be offensive after asking for clarifications in writing 3 times.

If you made it this far, goes to show you are interested in this issue too. Here's Acidflask's reply to CNA's "far from neutral" report.


Tagged: Singapore

At 6pm France time, or 12 midnight tonight, my sister will be making a trip back to the hospital awaiting for the birth of my little niece Yuxing. In about a week after labour day, my sis is going to go through her's. How time flies, it seems like only yesterday when she flew to France to live with her husband who's working there.

Going to be an uncle soon. Joining the Singapore work force in 6 weeks time. Lived through a quarter of a century (Hence joining the Cat Y1 group in SAF). In other words, I'm not getting any younger. Ouch!

Reality aside, now what kind of Uncle should I be? The generous kind who gives a big fat ang pow every year? The noisy kind who talks loudly during CNY? The gambling king type who never leaves the mahjong table? Or a combination of all 3.

Update: as of 8 May, 2.55pm France time (8.55pm Singapore time), a 3.77kg, 58cm tall big baby girl was born and thus completes the upgrade for me.

YOZ LANE!!!!

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY TO YOU (early wishing though) !!!!!!!!

old lady~~~~ lalalalalala.... finally hee.. next time when you're doing any streets survey... you'll have to tick on the 20 - 25 age box le... MUWAHAHA!!!!!

Hee... =p

PHEW!!!! IT'S DONE!!!! NO MORE!!!!

biong biong biong!!!! hee... no more exams.... that's at least till the end of this year hee...though I guess I'm a tinnie winnie bit slow at blogging this news... hee.. but what to you... you really got to pamper yourself for the few days after your papers before you have to start spending days tidying up that mountain of notes that you tossed everywhere while preparing for the exams hee...

Hm... ever wonder about this question? I heard this from Jes who told me immediately after our last paper that people's IQ seems to drop to zero immediately after the paper... hm....is this really true????

I wonder..... hm.... what if I wanna maintain my IQ level??? Does that means that I'll have to keep on having tests and exams to keep the brain functioning???? Oh boy what if I'm an old old old lady?????? Will my IQ then be negative????

AARRHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! What a nightmare!!!!!!! Sheeshh..... =p

Your brain: 40% interpersonal, 40% visual, 100% verbal, and 220% mathematical!

Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious: Don't date someone if your interpersonal percentages differ by more than 80%. Don't be friends with someone if your verbal percentages differ by more than 100%. Don't have sex with someone if their math percentage is over 200%.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 55% on interpersonal You scored higher than 50% on visual You scored higher than 81% on verbal You scored higher than 95% on mathematical

Link: The 4-Variable IQ Test written by chriscoyne on Ok Cupid

Note to myself, do not bite on the hand that feeds me. Or I might be threatened with legal actions and the news may get to whole of asia after 2 weeks. So much for being a scholar when they treat you badly, sigh... In the ideal world, the chairman should just email the scholar to express his points firmly and make his request heard, threats should only be used when other means fail. Meanwhile they should also check if other scholars share the same view and if their concerns are true, review the system and if it's false, take the effort to clear their doubts. Don't you think so? Coincidently, I guess he is among the same Elites who earn millions right, afterall he is the boss of A (Asterix) Star . But this is only one side of the story, wonder if elites keep blogs or not.

This post underwent self-censorship, the author is not affliated to any of the entities or individuals mentioned above but he is not sure if his future boss isn't.

SMRT applied for fare hike, Comfort and SBS also considering it too. The new formula that we keep hearing from the news is based partly on the average wages and also the economic performance. Just see here. Exactly how is it calculated god knows as they don't provide us with the exact formula to get the 2-3 cents.

But the key word is average wages. Yes, including the wages of the local talents Elites who earn hundreds of thousands a year, including the top civil servants who earn a million a year, including the foreign talent who earn millions a year, including the boss of Creative who earn multi millions a year and finally including peasants who only earn thousands a year. However, only the peasants who earn thousands a year will take SMRT and SBS buses on a daily basis. Top civil servants can be found in MRTs during the opening and special occasion covered by Channel News Asia, Channel 8 news, Channel 5 news, Channel U news, News Radio, Straits Times etc.. And guess what, they ride for free lor.. you think they also go top up their ez-link one meh..

SMRT reported S$126.9 million earning last year and SBS S$49 million. Apparently this is not sufficient to provide us with quality transport and good customer services.


The Current Situation

1.) You still need to spend hours to take a train to their customer service center and wait to claim the S$0.50 that the ez-link machine over charged you.

2.) That the ez-link machine still over charged you after years of implementation.

3.) Peak hour trains/buses still looks like tubes of smarties - multi-coloured chocolate sweets packed densely in a decorated tube versus commuters in coloured clothings packed densely in a commercially decorated train/bus tube.

4.) That chances of finding a seat outside of Boon Lay/Pasir Ris for EW line and Jurong East/Marina for NS line is higher than winning Toto but lower than striking 4D. However I guess the odds will be better than Strike! if you play the guess who is the next guy alighting at next stop game.

5.) Bet you can't find a proper bin inside the train station (inside means inside the gate where you tap your ez-link card)

In view of the increase in income from the possible fare hike this time round. I guess we can look forward to some "improvement" in services. Just like the noisy and frequently out of order, advertising revenue generating mobile TV, the erratic but now GPS enabled ez-link system.


The Wishlist Future Situation

1.) We may have pretty girls patrolling the stations instead of security guard uncles to boost the image of SMRT.

2.) Trains will have improved brakes to reduce death toll on the rails to boost the image of SMRT

3.) Brand new trains and buses with even lesser seats and more standing space to increase income and boost the smarties image of SMRT.

4.) Toilets Mobile (with TV Mobile installed) inside buses and MRT stations (once again, inside means after the gate where you tap your ez-link)

5.) We start to have Majors and Colonels driving our buses instead of the Captains. (No wonder some of them drive like they owned the road)


Tagged: singapore mrt
Note to myself, some how the tagging don't work, ponders why...
Note to myself, now I know why..

Okay, So he didn't ask us to fax on green paper (bcos he doesn't understand the concept of fax) nor did he ask us to email 2 copies (he also don't how to use email to work, only to backstab). But he did ask us to print a hardcopy of all the data found in the central server not once, not twice but many times. In fact he will just print out 50 pages just to "surf" for the 2 pages of information scattered inside. God save the trees... That's why we choose to..