I don't believe in financial planners for one simple reason, because there is a clash of interests. If anyone is to plan my finance, it will be planned by me or my wife. Therefore I really hate it when someone I didn't know call me and said "hi" so and so who is your friend gave me your contacts. My immediate response, though a bit mean, was "if you are calling about financial planning than no thanks". I don't want to waste her time telling me the wonders of financial planning because at the end of the day, they will end up either promoting an insurance or investment plan of their company which translate to commission. I mean, why would someone you don't know, get your number from your friend, call you and do something for you for free?

What financial planners want you to know is that you will retire, that you need to save up for marriage, for house, for car, for your kids and for rainy days. That you need to know how to divide your earnings for all the things you want and that by setting aside a few dollars every day you can save up so much plus interest to realise your . Chances are, the interest they offer can barely cover the inflation rates and/or you will be stuck with it if something better came along. They can tell you whatever they want but at the end of the day, they look after the interest of their shareholders more than their customers and that is why I don't trust them to manage my own finance.

Update (30/06/05): And then there's a second call on financial planning today. Sheesh..

tagged: singapore financial planning

Tagged: singapore funny

As of last week Streetdirectory.com, the local online street directory is charging you for their services. In other not so related news, Straits Times Interactive, the online version of the local broadsheet newspaper have already done that 3 months ago. The charges are as follows:-


More than one smart alex think that it is a good idea to charge $ for a service that used to be free.

Oh.. one thing they didn't mention is that the price listed above excludes 5% GST. They must be nuts or something to charge money for calculating how far I jog in my park? And where's the wisdom in the minimum 3 trips for mileage claim? If you think Straits Times was crazy to charge readers for ST Interactive, then Streetdirectory.com must have redefined the word "Siao".



Yes, why should I pay? Especially when you never include GST in your explanation for the infinite% price hike.

People go to streetdirectory.com because it is more convenient than searching for directions on the hardcopy one. Besides I keep my latest copy in the car so it's "lehchey" to go collect the map up. Now you need to either pay via SMS (lehchey and you need to pay for the SMS also) or pay by buying some SD Card that can only be used to pay for Streetdirectory.com services (Min S$10). So if I want to find out how to go from my house to BLSS then I will need to either fork out S$10 to sign up for the card and compulsory membership via Credit Card to pay for the S$0.63 they are going to charge me cause I am too lazy to go get my map. I need to exercise man!

On the plus side, they are giving you 11SD dollars for every S$10 you pay for the SD card during the promotion so you can get more from Streetdirectory.com with less. It's better than last time which is free so hurry and sign up now! But if you cheapo free loader still want their free services, go and check out their latitude and longitude convertor which will be free till July so that you can calibrate your homing missiles accurately.

What's next, Online Coxford Dictionary charges for people to use their dictionary?

Tagged singapore

I have been contemplating with getting myself one during the coming X'mas season, more so since my friend said that we do get a pro-rated year-end bonus in December. The bonus may not be much but it could prove to be sufficient for an investment in an iPod photo. The big question is if the iPod worth it's weight in gold or is it an over-priced toy with strong marketing. So I had a different kind of review for the iPod photo in terms of the features listed at the Apple online store.

iPod Photo 30gb/60gb is priced at S$618/S$788 and it is packed full of features. In this review, I will look into each of the feature and try to come out with a reasonable price for it so at the end of the review I will end up with my own price that I'm willing to pay for the iPod Photo. Your own price will be different however as you may not use the iPod like I will.

Portable Music Device
First and foremost, iPod is a portable music device just like a walkman, discmans, MD players and other flashdrive MP3 player. In addition, it includes the number one game played in the world - solitare and many other side features like calendar, organizer etc. However, I may not be particularly impressed with these side features as you can find them in your handphone too. The accessories provided for this device includes the basic adaptor, USB cable and a set of earphones. The iPod photo can even be connected to your TV for presentation but you need to buy the extra cables yourself. For this basic music player with extra features and basic accessories, I am willing to pay up to S$180 for it, a competitive price compared to discmans and other medias.

Portable Hard Disk
iPod photos come in either 30/60gb harddisk (or 40gb in the first release) and it will come in handy for storing movie clips, presentations and stuff. I know I will need one (portable harddisk) when I work and it makes backing up computers for formating easier. A check of the pricelist in hardwarezone show that a 40gb 2.5" portable harddisk (USB 2.0) listed in Fuwell (18/6/05) goes for S$190 and for the 3.5" version it's S$258 for 120gb listed in Costronic (18/6/05). Judging from the size of the iPod photo it could be the 3.5" harddisk version they are using but nonetheless, I will gladly pay S$150/S$200 for the 30gb/60gb harddisk for the iPod alone.

2" 65,536 Colour LCD with LED backlight
LCD is not cheap, at least for a 65,536 colour LCD. Sucre's handphone LCD went bonkers not long ago and the lady behind the servicing counter said that if you change the LCD without warranty it's going to cost you over S$100, and that's for a 1" 65,536 colour LCD. So for this colour display I can part with maybe S$120, especially since we like photos and this will come in really handy.

Lithium Batteries
iPod utilises lithium batteries and they don't come cheap. A check at the Apple online Store shows that they sell external lithium batteries at over S$100 but I won't be paying anything more than S$50 for an internal one, unless my old one is dead.

Other Perks
1.) 2 Lines free engraving - If you buy from the Apple store, they give you 2 lines laser engraving free. It's cool to be able to personalize my iPod so that no 2 iPods will be exactly the same. I will be willing to pay an extra S$10 for this
2.) Free Delivery - I don't believe in free lunch so my guess is that they factor the delivery costs into the listed price already. S$10 for delivery in Singapore at most.
3.) Integration - One important aspect of buying an iPod over say iRiver or Zen is the availability of accessories and the software integration. The fact that you can buy a car that can be integrated with iPod says a lot. S$10 extra for this.
4.) Easy photo storage - Like I said earlier I like taking photos and when I went for my backpacking trip 2 years back I spend a small fortune on memory sticks for my 2.8MP camera for photo taking. Now with iPod photo they have an additional add-on that can let you download your photos either from your camera (S$98 for USB connector) or from your memory card (S$139 media reader). That means a huge harddisk for storing my photos and I can snap happily. This translates to potentially huge savings on storage media, especially since my other toy in my wishlist is a digital SLR. However, the pricy accessories means I rate only S$30 for this wonderful feature.

Apple
The final consideration is the brand name, it's superior design, aesthetics, marketing and cool factor. It's iPod and it's hot and if I ever got tired of it, I can sell it off 2nd hand at a good price too. This would mean a modifier of +10% to the final price arrived from above.

Final Verdict
S$(180+150+120+50+10+10+10+30)X110%=S$616 For 30gb iPod Photo (Selling S$618)
S$(180+200+120+50+10+10+10+30)X110%=S$671 For 60gb iPod Photo (Selling S$788)

30gb iPod Photo will worth almost every penny if I buy it online but I will feel ripped off to pay S$170 for that extra 30gb storage. Now if only they come out with an iPod that plays video clip too, maybe call it iPod Video, that will make this device even more irresistable.


Tagged: singapore ipod photo

Hee...went for a lunch gathering with my JC classmates at the La Mian store in China Sq. hee...

Pretty cool... first time sitting outside the store... why? becos they don't have enough space to occupy all 9 of us hee...


Lian Yi?!


Challenger No. 1 for the 6 chilli la mian... take note of her sexy lips yah hee...


Challenger No. 2 for the 6 chilli la mian... take note of his sexy lips yah hee...


After~~


After~~


The birdie who bombarded Jin Sheng


*Pss... gossip gossip~~

Hee...

I was waiting nervously for news of my pink IC when I randomly googled my friends and found this. (There's a big hiccup as they did not collect my IC as the whole freaking world except me forgot that I was going to ORD)

Teachers
Copied this from somewhere:

You Might Be a Schoolteacher if...

* you have no time for a life from August to June.
* you want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work from 8 to 3 and have your summers free!"
* when out in public you feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior.
* you refer to adults as "boys and girls."
* you encourage your spouse by telling them they are a "good helper."
* you've ever had your profession slammed by someone who would never dream of doing your job.
* meeting a child's parents instantly answers the question, "Why is this kid like this?"
* you believe "extremely annoying" should have its own box on the report card.
* you know hundred good reasons for being late.
* you don't want children of your own because there isn't a name you can hear that wouldn't elevate your blood pressure.

And added this on my own:

You must be a school teacher in Singapore if...
* you have no time for a life from January to November.
* you have to work from 7 to 6 (sometimes you even have to bring work home) and it is summer throughout the year.
* you are familiar with numerous acronyms such as PW, PSLE, TRAISI, CCA, PEARLS, SPA, PSG, COMPASS, ExCEL, I&E, etc.
* you probably don't know your boss's full name.
* if you're a Science teacher, you'd be in a fix because you're wondering how to Integrate Natural Science And National Education. (INSANE)
* you have had to grapple with the frequent changes in curriculum and policies.
* you're planning either a career path in the teaching/specialist/leadership track or looking for a new job already.
* you make a blog post like this and wonder if you'll get into trouble with the ministry (but since what I've written is not derogatory but just a way of having harmless fun by laughing at myself, so it should be safe)
* you're enjoying the 0.4 month mid-year bonus + $200 extra!

Tagged: singapore education funny teacher

Piglet is a male!! Just found out from the Winnie the Pooh's Heffalump Movie~~~ hee..

After reading 8 modules of maths and obtaining a Maths minor, I taught I have proved my proficiency in Mathematics. However, even maths degree holders are not exempted from this SMMT for maths teacher-to-be so I should have no complains about taking this test. Afterall this test should be a stroll in the park ensuring that we remember the basics of algebra, geometry and calculus right? The sample questions they provided for reference seems to suggest so.

Sample Questions (More here)

Consider the following 9 numbers
0.4, 2/3, sqrt(2), pi, 5, 9, 17, 40, 121.
Write down (a) the prime numbers, (b) the square numbers, (c) the irrational numbers.

Anyone with some basic maths knowledge will be able to pick out the numbers almost immediately from the pack. It says the test will comprise of 20 such questions of varying length and we will be given 2 hours to finish it. We would be expected to score a distinction to pass the test otherwise there will be a remedial "upgrading course" and a retest until you pass or after failing for 4 times, they will inform MOE of your 'incompetency' in maths.

Well, we were in for a surprise during the test, below are some examples of the actual test.

Actual Questions (Well, similar ones at least)

Prove or disprove that the sum of 2 irrational numbers is also irrational. Can the root of an irrational number be rational, prove?

Show that lines of bisection of 2 external angles of a triangle will intercept at the line of bisection of the 3rd interior angle.

Granted that the questions may not be that difficult and given sufficient time I believe we could solve them one by one. But time is a luxury we couldn't afford. So there we are struggling to finish this simple test of 19 questions and as far as I know, even my friends with maths degree, couldn't complete this paper. (Perhaps Wilber Lim would be able to finish this in time)

Coincidentally, one of the NIE maths lecturer in charge of this mastery test was my F. Maths lecturer many years ago. He once said before the 'A' levels exam that he will work on the F Maths paper with us and try to finish it in 2 hours so if he spots any problem with the paper he will clarify it for us. He is also the same lecturer who taught us Numerical Analysis, an optional topic that even the top JCs shunned away from and can be found in NUS 2nd year maths modules.

So perhaps we are expected to do our maths computation faster than a speeding bullet with accuracy better than Arsenal's offensive records. Be afraid, be very afraid teachers-to-be.

Nowadays to be a teacher is not easy, must get degree, must pass English Proficiency Tests and score distinction in your School Maths Mastery Tests. Wonder what's next.

Mastermind prays that he can pass the SMMT and not go for the remedial "upgrading classes".

Tagged: singapore education teaching

Last 2 days of NS and I will be collecting my IC on Friday.. which explains why the lack of post from me and perhaps the odd hour of this particular one.

About 9 Years Ago...

1.) You refer to Pentium as 586 and giggle with the thought of tongue twisting 686 computers
2.) You cursed when you bought the Pentium 200MHz to find that Pentium MMX 200MHz came out a month later.
3.) 4X, 6X, 8X, 12X... CD-ROMs
4.) Video cards start to have 2mb memory of its own
5.) You can format your 1.44mb 3.5" Diskette into 1.96mb Diskettes
6.) Microsoft DOS 6.2 and Windows 95
7.) You keep refering folders as directories
8.) You know how to make the Start button disappear and giggle whenever the teacher/colleague scream in horror at the disappearance.
9.) 14.4Kbps modem is so yesterday, 28.8kbps modem is for now and 56kbps is just around the corner
10.) Piracy moved on to CD-ROMs and you know the uncle in Bukit Timah Shopping Centre with his "regular customer" catalogue.
11.) You also learned that he was caught from CNET Asia news few years later.
12.) Inkjet came to market but it's comes only in black colour printing.
13.) Music piracy started in the internet. RealAudio format is small enough for downloading via internet. MP3 was born
14.) The first and most successful internet business model, AKA Pr0n, is firmly established
15.) One Singaporean guy makes it big with Soundblaster 16, 32, AWE etc...
16.) Some more fortunate friend starts to have broadband at home.
17.) You have your own channel in mIRC
18.) Gamers: Warcraft: ORCs and Humans & Dune II & DOOM II
19.) Overclocking became more common.
20.) Programmers: C, C++

Tagged: singapore computer

Hee..

Went swimming with little xiao bu dian hee...

Need to download last minute material for a career changing presentation? (Says on Singtel 3loGy page) Look for a MacDonald or Library lar~~ at most cost you few bucks for an hour for WiFi lor.. I don't believe 3G phones will be a big hit after weighing the factors below. At best it will be used exclusively by professional who need the mobility it provides. However, do not underestimate the power of the marketing ploys to sell people stuff they don't need, nor underestimate the stupidity of humans to fall for it.


Why 3G Phones will not be successful.


Prohibitive Costs:

• Expensive sets, minimum S$500 with 2 year plan currently
• 3G phones can download 9 Times faster than GPRS but only 30% cheaper means that you rake up costs more than 6 times faster.
• Content costs if you want to watch video on your phone
• Plenty of fine prints including minimum fee per data transaction (whatever it means), S$0.368 per kilobyte but charged at 2 kilobyte blocks (See Singtel 3G Plan).
• More than 10 cents per minute for Video calls and subject to peak hour rates too.
• Infrastructure costs like bluetooth adaptors to be borne by user.
• Monthly subscription fee on top of your voice subscription.
• Lifespan of handsets is usually short (~2 years) and it get phased out quickly (no batteries or spare parts) and depreciate like $f(t)=$(1/t).

Alternatives Available:

• So many WiFi spots in Singapore and it's cheaper on the whole.
• Portable TV at fraction of the price (No subscription fee) for those couch potatoes on the move.
• MP3 players, newspaper, paperback books/comics to entertain people on the move. We even have TV mobile.
• Webcam and netmeeting for video calls. It's free* (*Internet charges and webcam investment cost not included).
• Although 3G phones can provide updates/video/music/(fill in the blanks) but it will never replace the actual thing because the freaking screen cannot be bigger than a couple of inches. How to really watch soccer on it?

Practical Aspect (or the lack of):

• Babe, Jealousy and Pickpocket magnets.
• 99 reasons you don't want your wife/boss to see where you are when you are in Geylang/Skiving.
• 37 reasons why SAF/Cinemas/Schools/Shopping Malls/(Insert the blank) would want to ban your phone in their premises.
• Answering a video call will take your girlfriend 1 hour to dress up.

Why 3G Phones might be successful.

• I underestimate the social status one can buy with this phone. (Show Off)
• I underestimate the number of geeks who yearn the latest technology regardless of phone.
• 100 reasons why your wife/boss wants to see where you are.
• Babe magnets
• Videos produced for phones are better than what is offered by "Mediacoarse Studios".
• China "Sunny Brand" 3G handphones that costs a fraction of Motorola/Nokia/Samsung/LG/(Insert your favourite brand here).
• MMOG on your 3G phone! (Now that's a winning formula)

Tagged: singapore 3g

Have you ever wondered about how the kidos think nowadays?

Wonder wonder...sigh think I'm seriously having a generation gap with the secondary kidos that came for the three day event that was organised by my society from a well known university in Singapore.

Sheesh... here I am only starting to get a feel of adulthood when I suddenly realised that I might be suffering a generation gap... sigh... 老了 老了..

Why the sudden thought of generation gap you ask? Let me tell you what happen on that fateful day...



My society put in mighty lots of effort in orgaining this annual three day event for the secondary school student so that they can come and compete against each other and have fun learning about physics at the same time.

We have to handle about 200+ kidos with only a handful of kind volunteers who came down to help.. money was definitely scares especially since we are a non-profiting society.

The main events were as follow:
Day 1: Projectile competition
Day 2: Quiz Prelim
Day 3: Final Quiz
with other interesting events like lab demo etc added to the whole event...

Everything was nice except on the last day.. the top four teams of the projectile compeition were selected (taking an average of the results of the report submitted and the projectile firing round).

These schools were asked to come up with a presentation about their projectile which will play apart in determining who will win the Projectile competition...

Many schools put in alot of effort in making their projectiles and the reports etc..but at the end of the day... seems that it isn't always the most hardworking who get the best results..

I used to have some fun doing relief teaching in one of the schools that was among the schools chosen for the presentation. You know what.. I kinda regret seeing them there..

No, don't get the wrong idea. It's not that i don't like that school it's just what the students said after they got the trophys that really pissed me off...

I don't usually use very ugly looking words in my blog but do forgive me this once..

It so happens that I taught a few of the students who were in the projectile team, so I went over to chat with them after they received the trophies. Never in my life would I expect to hear these from them.. (the following might not be the exact word that they used but the meaning is there. I'll try to remember as much as I can about what they said two days ago)...

"Hey is this all that we are getting? Just trophies for us? No CASH rewards? No trophy for the school?"

"NO? How come no? The blah blah blah organised by this poly around the west area offers CASH rewards leh.. and its S$1000!"

"Then we don't have thumb drive or mouse ah? What you mean only the top team gets the prizes? so CHEAPO!"

"How come this uni so CHEAPO one. Next time don't come here in the future. I rather go NNN and SSS. Even better, go get oversea scholarship!" - this was said by this very qian bian looking kido who thinks he's very smart... wear black frame glass... small size and wearing brown colour school pants. The thingy is i don't even know him.. i just happen to know his friends... and he gave me the so zhuai look.. so..

Me: "then go ahead lah.. don't come don't come... no one ask you to come what!"

"What no money... you all just collect money from schools that enter the event lah.. the poly got give money le... precisely.. this is uni le.. must have more money mah"

"Chey.. our teacher say got S$1000 reward for this one so we join le... we got cheated"

"Hey you know what (giving me the you know what look).. We did our presentation in a rush... our teacher just put all the things together... and then take from top view so that the thing looks as if we pasted them together..and hor..the planks right... just take take.. then put together.. take picture then can le... haha.."

I was so pissed off... i mean look... people put in alot of effot in organising loh.. show some appreciation lah.. don't your school teach you this? Goodness... what are the school teaching the kids these days? or rather..what kinda parents produces these kinda kids? I can't help but believing that the parents must be so SUPER SUPER money minded one...

What about manners? Hey man! you just took the trophies from the organisers and you're criticising the organiser in the LT itself! are you idiots or are you stupid idiots? so what if you think you're smart? the nice kids that i taught in your school in the normal classes have way higher EQ then some of you people from the express class... what's there to hao lian? you think you have high IQ? then why can't you get into the quiz final? what's with the negative score for the quiz prelim? Mr smarty?

Okay.. i know i'm getting worked up about it.. but you see... when you see people working into 3 am in the morning and working up at 6am just to prepare for this event and the months of preparation.. and here you have people who think they're someone from the upper upper class criticising in your premise about things that you did for them! how would you feel?

If you think I'm biased.. I'm an ex-student of that school....

The thing is.. how come they just can't show some appreciation for things that others have done for them? is that too much to ask from these 16 year old KIDS? or are they really kids that are so super immature in their thinking?

Why are kids becoming so materialistic nowadays... ?

Sheesh.. I can't help but wish they aint in the final... there are other schools out there who are more worthy of the prize...

老了老了...

Singtel just send this over together with a return envelope that stretches the meaning of a Bill.

"Kindly detach this portion of the bill to accompany payment. Cheques are to be made payable to 'Singtel' blah blah blah" says on the payment slip on it.

So do I have to pay the late fee if I missed my payment? Click here for the full version. (If your eyes are sharp you will notice there is no due date for this payment)

I was wondering if I should a) mail a S$0.00 cheque back to pay the bill or b) blog about this and ignore it.


Tagged: singapore singtel

Tagged: singapore funny

Had a small NUS Physics Class of 2003/04 gathering yesterday and we did some catching up. It's amazing to learn the proportion of people who got their Masters or are going to the States to further their studies to obtain a PhD (a.k.a. permanent head damage). But the most fun part was probably when we started the good old physics geek jokes that we realised that no one else except those who learn Physics would be able to laugh at.

So I searched for my favourite Physics geek jokes during my undergraduate days and did some amendments to suit Singapore. And I added some original inputs too.

• if you have no life - and you can PROVE it mathematically.
• if you enjoy pain.
• if you know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
• if you chuckle whenever anyone says 'centrifugal force.'
• if you've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
• if you always do homework on Friday and Saturday nights.
• if you know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.
• if you think in 'math.'
• if you hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function.
• if you have a pet named after a scientist.
• if you laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
• if the SPCA has you arrested because you actually performed the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.
• if you avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.
• if you consider ANY non-science course 'easy.'
• if when your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe.
• if the 'fun' center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.
• if you'll assume that a 'horse' is a 'sphere' in order to make the math easier.
• if you have a deadline, you work at the spot on campus farthest from the equator to use relativity to your advantage.
• if you believe that writing the sentence "The singlish bears no relation to the english," as [singlish, english] = none 0 makes sense.
• if you catch yourself pondering angular momentum while you're high.
• if you think that A Quantum Leap is a field of study, not a television show.
• if you've ever quoted one of Newton's Laws to make a point.
• if you know liquid nitrogen just isn't cold enough.
• if you hate explaining to administrators that liquid nitrogen is not explosive nor poisonous.
  
• if you point it out every time George Lucas violate the fundamental physical laws in Star Wars.
• if you tried to explain that lightsabers can never exist to a bunch of 15 year olds.
• if you have had occasion to write every letter of the Greek alphabet, but you've never taken a Greek class.
• if you drool at the sight of a laser.
• if you think a telephone operator is part of an equation.
• if you've ever insulted someone by saying, "Oh, go spin-orbit-couple with yourself!"
• if your CD collection contains more files and programs than music.
• if you have found yourself talking to your laboratory experiments as if they were some of your best friends.
• if you name your laboratory apparatus after scientist and/or fast food
• if you've ever discovered a "new" physical principle only to find it in the next chapter of your textbook.
• if you go to Europe/China/Japan/America and spend the entire time in a lab/lecture theatre.
• if you recognize the magic nucleus numbers on sight.
• if you've been using calculus for at least a quarter of your entire life.
• if that doesn't bother you.
• if Matrices are your friends.
• if you own and proudly wear a t-shirt with physics quotes on it.
• if you prefer to study in cold places to reduce thermal excitations in your brain so you remember better.
• if you think that Physics jokes is cool because non-Physics people cannot comprehend it.
• if solving an integral is part of your University entrance interview.
• if you understood more than five of these indicators.
• if you make a hard copy of this list, and post it on your door.

Sources from Physlink and Quirkz.com

I hate coming down with a cold... *coughs
Tagged: singapore physics joke funny

Lesson 1: When you lost a credit card from the U'Owe'B group, make sure you press the correct numbers to access the "report lost" to suspend it instead of talking to any customer service personnal. Because after a few months later, you get billed for strange stuff as someone who picked up your card and misuse it. At least the other bank didn't give us the same problem.

Lesson 2: Always keep the police report with you for the lost card because when you get billed for strange stuff for your lost card, you can represent it to claim the fraud. Especially when UOB send you more bills for more strange stuff bought with your lost card with late charges the month after you re-report your lost card. Talk about stupidity, already tell you we lost the card yet you still let people pay for stuff with it. Then after informing you again, you still let the dumbass pay for more stuff with the card. And still have the cheek to impose a late fee?!


Lesson 3: Although UOB waive the S$2 admin charges for campus accounts with less than S$500 in it because you are a student who is not working, and they give you the convenience of a cheque book, they still charge you a freaking S$40 for each bounced cheque you issue. So much for being considerate to students. The best thing is that the cheque was for a puny S$50 only.


Lesson 4: That the reason the cheque was bounced is because the campus account could not be linked to the savings account to do the deduction so there was insufficient funds. Even though you requested for the accounts to be link. Knowing that your account is low in funds such that you cannot even pay for a S$50 cheque, they still charge you S$80 for the 2 bounced cheque and get your account into negative and in addition charge you S$10 because they overdraft your account. Thanks ah.. student nowadays very rich can anyhow take away S$90. Like that do business wonder who will come back to your bank when they come out to work.


Lesson 5: That after going to the bank to settle the bounced cheque and getting the customer service officer to sort out the issue and transfer funds for the cheque to go through, be prepared that the cheque will be bounced back because they will take away money from you before your cheque can go through so your account will end up with insufficient funds again so they charge you another S$40 for the cheque that rebounce again. (Think NBA also don't have so many rebounds per game). Customer service screwed us up.


We got trashed 5-0 and all we could do is act like sore losers by withdrawing all our money, close our account, and run crying to the next door DBS bank to put our money.



Tagged: uob singapore bank

About 12 Years Ago...

1.) 3.5" Disk have so much disk space.
2.) 100mb Harddisk, 4mb memory and a CD-ROM drive is cool.
3.) You are so proud of getting a 486DX 40Mhz when the rest are using 386 or 486SX.
4.) Microsoft DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1
5.) You know the difference between EMS & XMS and curse when the games only support one of them
6.) You configured your config.sys and autoexec.bat so that they give you 16 startup options including booting in japanese DOS.
7.) Never heard of Sim Lim, the Mecca of all things Nerd for computers
8.) Piracy started before the term was coined. Games can be copied @ S$1 per diskette if you provide your own or about S$2 per diskette if you used theirs.
9.) PCShell or other hex editing tools are so cool that you changed the DIR command into DEL and vice versa and watch in glee when the teacher came over to discover it in horror.
10.) Getting a virus means your disk get renamed as BRAIN.
11.) McAfee v123 for virus scan
12.) You know the difference between Alt-20 and Alt-255. The later is to keep pesky people from accessing your information, the earlier is the largest key on your keyboard.
13.) You think in Hexadecimal: 64=100, FF=255, E803=1,000, 1027=10,000 to cheat on your games.
14.) The first pr0n you came across is in the game Cobra Mission or Knights of Xentar (1994) and it's so fun.
15.) ADLIB is for music and Soundblaster is for sound effects
16.) WordPerfect
17.) Gamers: Civilization & Sim City
18.) Programmers: Turbo PASCAL

Tagged: singapore computer 90s

母性大发?

Nah, I don't think it's that. Well, who can resist the charm of a baby? let alone having three cuties around.

No doubt I may not get to see them everyday, but seeing them once in a while still makes one go gaga over them. Have a look at these three cutie babies around me... aint they cute?



Baby 小不点 (my niece)



Baby 卓衡 (my friend's son)



Baby 雨鑫 (mastermind's niece)

Hey hey... hk and sh.. stop 碎碎念-ing about what 母性大发 etc yah... I bet you gals can't help falling in love with them too.. hee..

Oh, just found out something after bringing 小不点 to KFC - Kids have a way of making strangers smile at them. Really, next time try bring any one of your cousins somewhere outside the house... be it the lift or just a fast food restaurant, you'll start finding people smiling at you.. erm.. the baby actually... for no reason haha...

First of all, to get trouble out of my pants, this is as quoted by wikipedia and by no means the opinion of the author of this post whatsoever.

Okay, now that the disclaimer is done, I saw this news via Singabloodypore and asiapundit and the details are as follows:-

Nepotism (extract from wikipedia):-

Nepotism is a common accusation in politics when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications. For example, in America, politically powerful families such as the Kennedy family and Bush family in American politics are sometimes accused of nepotism by critics. Recently, U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski, when elected Governor of Alaska, appointed his daughter Representative Lisa Murkowski to fill the remaining two years of his seat and was accused of nepotism. (Murkowski won reelection on her own in 2004.) Families elsewhere have also dominated politics of their homeland, such as Tun Abdul Razak, second Prime Minister of Malaysia and his son, Najib Tun Razak, current Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, or Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew (first Prime Minister of Singapore) and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, who recently succeeded Goh Chok Tong as Prime Minister of Singapore.

Family Dictatorship (Extract from wikipedia):-

A family dictatorship is a form of dictatorship that operates much like an absolute monarchy, yet occurs in a nominally republican state and is not part of its laws.

When the dictator of a family dictatorship dies, one of his relatives (usually his son) becomes the new ruler of the country. This transition often occurs after years of "grooming" the dictator's successor as heir apparent.

• Nicaragua: Anastasio Somoza García (1937-1947, 1950-1956) succeeded by his son Luis Somoza Debayle (1956-1963). There was also a third Somoza president, Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1967-1972, 1974-1979), though he did not directly succeed the other two.
• Haiti: François Duvalier (1957-1971) succeeded by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-1986)
• Republic of China (from 1949 on Taiwan): Chiang Kai-shek (1928-1975) indirectly succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo (1975-1988)
• North Korea: Kim Il Sung (1948-1994) succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il (1994- )
• Syria: Hafez al-Assad (1971-2000) succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad (2000- )
• Congo-Kinshasa: Laurent Kabila (1997-2001), succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila (2001-)
• Azerbaijan: Heydar Aliyev (1993-2003) succeeded by his son Ilham Aliyev (2003- )
• Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew (Prime Minister 1959-1990, Senior Minister 1990-2004, Minister Mentor 2004-), indirectly succeeded by his son Lee Hsien Loong (2004-)

And as a quote from Singabloodypore:-

The strange thing is that while the entire world is aware of this glaring injustice and abuse of power, Singapore's local government owned media are trying hard to avoid acknowledging and discussing this troublesome and embarassing interpretation.
(This seems to be part of the Wiki entry but was deleted according to some comments left there)

The entry on Singapore in Wikipedia for Family Dictatorship has been removed. And all these within 24 hours of her article. How interesting. The powers-to-be at work?

To top it off with some more juicy information from the wiki again, from the description of our MM Lee Kuan Yew, in order to educate less well informed friends:-

Several members of Lee's family hold prominent positions in Singaporean society. Lee's wife Kwa Geok Choo used to be a partner of the prominent legal firm Lee & Lee. His younger brothers, Dennis, Freddy and Suan Yew were partners of Lee & Lee. He also has a younger sister, Monica.

His sons and daughter hold government and government-linked posts. His son Lee Hsien Loong is currently the Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore, as well as Vice-Chairman of the Government Investment Company (GIC) of Singapore (Lee is the Chairman.) His daughter Lee Wei Ling runs the National Neurological Institute, while his other son Lee Hsien Yang manages the recently privatised telecommunications company SingTel. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching (Lee Hsien Loong's wife) runs Temasek Holdings, a prominent holding company with controlling stakes in a variety of government-linked companies. However, Lee has consistently denied charges of nepotism, arguing that his family members' privileged positions are based on personal merit. In 2004, the Economist magazine apologised to the Lee family for making such accusations of nepotism in its August 14th-20th 2004 edition.

In his biography, Lee stated that he was a fourth-generation Chinese Singaporean, contributing to the fact that his Hakka great-grandfather emigrated from the province of Guangdong to the Straits Settlements in the 19th century.

And finally, the elusive Temasek Holdings in the eyes of the wiki

As of 2004, it owns stakes in many of Singapore's largest companies, such as SingTel, DBS Bank, Singapore Airlines, PSA International, SMRT Corporation, Singapore Power and Neptune Orient Lines. It also holds investments in public icons like the Raffles Hotel and the Singapore Zoological Gardens. It also holds a stake in Singapore Pools, the only legal betting company in Singapore. On October 14, 2004, it announced that it was closing the operational headquarters of Singapore Technologies and transferring the latter's assets to itself.

There's a saying in Singapore that RI graduates rule Singapore while ACS ones own Singapore but all that seems to be rumours.


Tagged: singapore

I was searching through technorati for posts about Singapore when I came across this article on the fare hikes that went through. The author took down some figures from Today articles to calculate the actual fare increase and concluded that the increase is more than the reported 2.4% and request for people to correct his maths if it is wrong, and if so he will pull it out. I just love mathematical challenges (perhaps physics majors/graduates really enjoy pain).

The author, Yuhui, started by quoting the average fare and increase reported as 80 cents and 2 cents respectively. He then proceed to say that 2 cents is actually 2.5% of 80 cents. (It should be 1.92 cents for 2.4% so I'm giving Today the benefit of the doubt). After that, he factor the average fare and increase for cash paying commuters to be 80 cents and 10 cents respectively for a 12.5% increase himself.

Now up to this point we can see that Yuhui contradicted himself. He assumed that the average fare increase of 2 cents reported excludes the 10 cents for cash paying commuters which is a wrong assumption. If we work out the increase for each fare individually for EZ link users, we can find that the average increase for EZ link users would definitely be lower than 2.4% hence the 2 cents have to include the cash paying commuters. Examples for air-con service below.

$0.63-$0.64=>1.59% increase $0.83-$0.85=>2.41% increase
$1.03-$1.05=>1.94% increase $1.13-$1.15=>1.77% increase
$1.23-$1.25=>1.62% increase $1.33-$1.35=>1.50% increase
$1.43-$1.45=>1.40% increase $1.53-$1.55=>1.31% increase

He claimed the following when I post a comment to doubt his methodology.

At 8:43 AM, Yuhui said...

I am assuming from the older Today article that all of the different fares that you mentioned have already been worked out to give the average of 80 cents. If this assumption is wrong, then either Today is vague in their wording or did not do their calculations correctly.

Then why he does not assume the average increase is worked out from all of the different fares but segregate the cash paying fares out? And why is Today at fault for an erroneous assumption he made?

Yuhui proceed to further his argument in the article by calculating the "actual" fare increase by assuming the average fare of 80 cents for all the 3.4 million commuter trips daily to come out with the shocking conclusion of 3.09% increase yada yada yada~~ But we know that all those calculations are wrong as his assumption was proven incorrect above.

I shall briefly describe my suggested method to calculate the fare increase below. (Warning, it can get technical so I suggest that you skip it if you are not mathematically inclined.)

To calculate the actual increase we will need to have the detail breakdown of the number of commuters paying each fare rate and also the number of transfer information too. Given that the public is unlikely to obtain such information, we can only work by assuming a certain distribution (Gaussian, Poisson or uniform etc) for the number of fare stages commuters ride in. From the assumed distribution calculate the total fare and the fare increase for, say, EZ-link payers on the air-con services. Repeat the calculation for non-aircon services, cash paying commuters, commuters who transferred from MRT, child/student/concession card holders with all the different possible permutations. Note that you will have to make a lot of logical estimations on the numbers like number of child/student commuters who pay cash and EZ link etc. After that you can safely estimate the actual increase in fare.

Have your brain suffer from a cramp yet? And no, I won't go through this calculation, I know I'm free but I'm not that bored, unless I want to publish a 10 page paper on it.

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Updated (2/6/05): Yuhui's reply:

Actually the two-cent average increase for EZ-Link cardholers that I mentioned is my own figure based on the stated fare increases (1-2 or 3 cents). Today did not mention (nor do I recall it mentioning) such an average increase.

Therefore, my average two-cent increase does not include the 10-cent increase for cash-paying commuters.

Also, in the real world, you can't pay with less than a cent, i.e. there are no fractions of a cent that you can use physically to pay for goods or services, which is why I rounded the number up to two cents. If the transport companies round the number down, i.e. to one cent, then I will have to do some recalculations.

Funny how different figures can be obtained from the same exact source I got from him. (Note: 3 cents for MRT only, 1-2 cents for buses which is the focus of this discussion) Somehow we didn't manage to connect as I wonder when the problem of fractions of a cent came out. All in all, I lost my respect for a writer I once thought who could produce some decent articles.

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Tagged: singapore fare public transport