Wednesday, March 28, 2007

6.5 millions residents and lunch time Snooze


Not too sure how Singapore would be like with 6.5mio residents. I feel very suffocating as it is now with all the jams and difficulty in finding a quiet place to seek solitude.
Yes, how nice if we can all sleep like that without a care for the world... The people in the pic knew all along that a short sleep is good during work. Can someone pls tell my HR or CEO?

By product of En-bloc Sales

In my current series of costing lectures, we discussed about by products being an output from production of the main product.

Using the analogy of en-bloc sales and subsequent property development and consequent sales of these new units (being the main product of the developer, what can we do with the debris and steel (being the by product)from knocking down of these old buildings?

Answer - For land reclaimation ie. extending Singapore's land area.

Can you ponder on this point for a moment?
So if you were the owner of a granite quarry in the neighbouring country and supplying to Singapore, how would you feel when you see other people "wastefully" tearing down more than decent buildings, dumping the debris into the sea and consequently collecting billions from reclaimed land sales?

These reclaimed land could house more IRs, Suntec Cities etc etc etc...

Moral of the story
Be sensitive to your feelings... ha!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Pay increase for many soon!!!

Govt will announce the pay increase package for the office bearers and the Civil Service in early April.

Received an email petitioning recipients to go sign an online petition to object to the pay increase package and GST increase.

Increase GST to pay salaries? Of course not in my opinion. This is part and parcel of re-defining Singapore for the future.

We need the right people to implement and execute the plans. And we have to pay what is a fair wage. For otherwise, the strategies and plans will remain on paper and collecting dusts while Singapore rots away.

There is a price to pay for everything.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Bob Woolmer - Who is that?

I guess for many of you out there (including myself), we would have no clue as to who this ang moh is.

He WAS the Pakistan's national cricket coach. Pakistan was knocked out of the Super 8 of the World Cup as a result of the upset loss to Ireland, a cricket minnow. But he wasn't fired from the job. Instead he was murdered!!!!!

He was found dead in his hotel room on Sunday morning.

"Strangled" as per Jamaican police late Thursday night.

Football is a life and death matter. So now we know people actually got murdered for losing a match in the cricket world too!!! What are the possible motives? Pure emotional outburst for the loss by strangling the coach? Or did someone lose a pile of money? Or did he find out someone in the team has thrown away the match?

So for those not into football or cricket, please now appreciate that we are actually in a serious tribal warfare every weekend infront of the TVs.

Rest in peace, Mr Bob Woolmer. Amen.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

teppanyaki at hilltop


My dining experience at the hilltop has changed but not for the better.

There are so many teppanyakis nowadays... in food courts, hawker centres etc.

But where are the Japanese chefs? Have they been replaced by mainland chinese and Malaysian chinese? Or were the Japanese chefs all on leave?

The cooking style has become very "cher charish" at teppanyaki price!!

Sigh.......... Don't think I will go to the hilltop again...

Lifetime Warranty

P/S - Can someone read the books and summarise for me?

I was unpleasantly challenged in my simple understanding of the phrase "lifetime warranty".

I bought a router from an IT show about 1 year ago. At the point of sale, the salesperson highlighted to me the special warranty feature.

I attempted to rely on the warranty today when I called the service centre to service my dead router. After reading the model number to the service person over the phone, he told me the product has been phased out and thus the warranty has expired. I was then advised to buy a new one.

Like a true Edgar, I am not going to take this lying down. So I said, please email to me the terms and conditions which define "lifetime warranty".

A few minutes later, he called and informed that they will honour the warranty as understood by me ie. make good a failed product as long as the consumer wants to use that product.

Moral of the story
Ask for the definition of "lifetime warranty" if ever you were offered such a deal. Whose lifetime? The product's life? Your life?

Or the poor ant's life :)

P/S - I am withholding the name of company out of respect that it has honoured the warranty.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Do you know what is your real wage?

P/S - I want to read the book.


In simple terms, real wage is what your salary can buy given current prices of goods and services.

Example
If your monthly salary is $1,000 and the current price of a loaf of bread is $1, then your real wage is 1,000 loaves of bread.

If the price of bread is increased by 25% from $1 to $1.25, then your real wage would have declined to 800 loaves.

Of course, we don't buy bread only with our monthly income but it highlights the point that when consumer price level goes up, your real wage goes down, assuming your paper salary of $1,000 remains unchanged.

What is reality for the period between 1997 and 2006?
If your average monthly income is $1,180, real average annual change is a positive 1.7% only!!!!
Whereas, if your average monthly income is $3,190, it is growing at 4.3% per annum on average.

What is the moral of the story?
You have got to work much smarter or harder if you want to retire early and very rich.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Committed to Singnet today!

Yes I signed up for the 10Mbps Unlimited Plan (30-month contract) @ $83/mth and will get a FREE Lenovo ThinkPad R60 Notebook to exchange for my intended target of ThinkPad X60 Ultraportable for $608.

Complicated? Not yet. Wait till you hear how they intend to do the deal.

After 15 mins, we set the appointment date for installation of wireless modem on 22 March.

They will deliver the R60 model to my home on that appointed date. I will then bring the R60 to Adelphi to exchange for my X60 model. I must call them first to ensure availability of supply.

I asked the sales person, " Tell me frankly, does it sound stupid to you?"

The sales person said they are aware of the hassle and they are still trying to work out the process flow.

I entered the deal for 30 mths x $83 = $2,490 with much trepidation!!

Who else will be drinking toilet water?

If I am not wrong, we are the first and only people in the world where we are drinking water that has been mixed with treated toilet water.

Queensland, the sunshine state of Australia, has decided to use recycle water for drinking water in 2009 or something.

The state government was supposed to hold a Referendum for its citizens to decide whether to drink or not to drink such water.

The Referendum was cancelled as Democracy was thrown out of the window. Why?

It is now an either-life-or-death decision.

Guys, we are straining our life-supporting resources!!!

Friday, March 09, 2007

Opt in or Opt out?

Recently, I called to cancel a service that I was automatically opted in by Singtel a few months ago. The act took about 10mins of my time. It was cordially attended to without fuss.

Well the "auto opt in" was applied on an inconsequential service by a big company on a group of subscriber. No big deal, right? Not unless the same model is applied on your vital organs!!!

Well recently again, there was a person in coma. Its family members have to go to war with a group of doctors and medical personnels over the right to harvest the vital organs of that person who was in coma and has been medically certified brain dead.

The family members were clinging on to hope that the person would come out of coma. The medical team was trying to ensure quality of those organs and thus a better chance of usability to the recipients.

The right has been granted by law where you are deemed to have consented to donating your vital organs UNLESS you have acted to opt OUT.

Two "auto opt in" situations with very differing gravity.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Blame China!!!

I had the opportunity to talk to a journalist from WanBao about the recent stock market situation.

He spoke with anger that the world blamed China for initiating the stock market collapse last week. He added that no one complimented China when every bourse in the world was on an uptrend.

I later read somewhere that total value of Chinese bourses is only about 5% of the American exchanges.

So if the world want to blame China for the worldwide collapse, I would have taken it as a compliment.

So now when China sneezes, the rest of the world will catch a cold :)

M1 to drop 'unlimited' from plans


Instead, it will put in 5 GB a mth free download cap from April 1.

More than 10,000 customers currently on its M1 Broadband service.

Customers who exceed the 5 GB limit will have to pay $4 per GB for an additional 5 GB of downloads.

After which 'they will be advised by M1 to keep within the limit as they may otherwise face suspension of service'.

M1 said that 98 per cent of customers do not need or use more than 5 GB of data.

I signed up for the service last month. The service has exceeded my expectation. I don't need to look for "hotspots" to get connected.

P/S - M1 did not pay me to say all these but I am hoping they do send me a cheque. Haha :)