Bus 154

This actually inspired me to write this post. On the way back from Church I was sitting at the backseat waiting to get home when the bus stopped and a smart looking mid to late twenties guy got down the bus. He then proceeded to run towards my direction, jumped up to reach my window and smashed his arm twice into it. It was like an attempt to punch me through the window. He then walked away quietly from the bus. I don’t know if that was some stunt, or he was trying to let off some steam, or he was on some dare but the bus driver did get really pissed and got down to confront him only to find that he had walked too far off. I don’t think I offended anyone but one can only imagine if he had punched me directly, I could have sued him for a sweet amount.

Bus 199

I got onto the bus feeling grouchy that the aircon was down and it was stuffy. The smell wasn’t good either, it smelt like overdone BBQ. So I sat on the top deck ready to take a nap when the bus driver got up and tapped my shoulder to ask me to get down. He spoke in Mandarin which more or less meant I couldn’t understand and so I just got down and looked at the back of the bus. Holy ****! The bus was on fire.

Bus 240

Getting to work in the morning, I sat close to the front on this feeder like bus and was again half asleep when I woke up to realize that everyone was standing behind me and the seats in front of me (bar an old man) was completely empty. I sat up to see a gross mis act of self pleasure that the old man was indulging in which got him to be sent off the bus by a half bewildered and half angry bus driver.

Bus 197/154

These buses ply the AYE and I’ve witnessed 3-4 accidents happening right as my bus was passing by. It’s pretty usual for me to look out of the window and see vehicles go at each other leading to a bloody metal mess. At least my bus won’t be held back in the resulting jam

Bus 96

I was taking a trip back from school when a student had a bug that was at least as big as my thumb (not a cockroach, more like a huge beetle that was mud coloured and had really weird hairy legs) creep up on her from the backseat of the bus and clung tightly to her hair. It was a mess to remove and there was ample screaming to go around.

Bus 199

The bus was again full not because it was at capacity but because some Caucasian chap did not move it and everyone else did not bother. Another Caucasian was trapped outside the bus and badly needed to board it (or so it seemed to be). So he shouted into the bus, ‘Can you guys ****ing move in? Stop being such ****ing *******s.’ He got on finally when the former Caucasian moved in and then realized that he knew him and casually went ‘Ey mate, I didn’t know you were one of them.’ Hold your tongue before you swear.

Bus 240

I’m sure many have seen this before but I got onto witness a long distance conversation spanning between a guy at the backseat and another near the front. It was so bad that everyone was staring them down but they never bothered to tone down or just use the damned phone to call each other. I’m sure the entire bus knew what they were talking about except me cause the conversation was held in Mandarin.

Who said a bus trip had to be boring?

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So naturally in this World Cup, I picked Brazil. A different Brazil from the past. One that did not rely on ’samba’ football but was more European like and very organized. Brazil did well in every game until Netherlands. This will not be a long post but after watching the game, I’d like to post a few points.

1. Incapable Backups
Brazil’s first team would beat any team in the world. But not when Elano and Ramires were out. The second strings did not live up and Melo was not even close to becoming Gilberto Silva’s partner in the key part of its formation. Melo self destructed under pressure (most Juve fans would not be surprised).

2. No Plan B
I was surprised at the quality of the substitutes or tatics used when Brazil was down 2-1. You would have thought they would replaced one of the DMs (probably Melo) to bring an extra attacking midfielder. But a one for one change of Nilmar (what? no Pato?) for Fabiano meant that Netherlands did not need to really sit tight at the back with 10 men. Brazil had awesome first touch but while that brought them past 1 or 2 defenders, they did not have sufficient firepower upfront. More or less the team remained more or less the same even when 2-1 down. More urgency yes, but ineffective tactics.

3. Too defensive
Arsenal fans know this best. Sitting on a 1-0 lead and losing in the end. Brazil simply did not press or close down the Dutch fast enough after a 1-0 lead. I’m surprised because that was what they did effectively to Ivory Coast, Portugal and Chile. Instead they kept sitting back. Their team is more than capable to play a continual pressing game to shake the confidence of the Dutch attackers who grew in confidence as they were allowed to continually raid the flanks. It changed after Brazil fell 2-1 down but that could have been easily adverted.

So what’s left? What’s next? Spain is probably hot favourites now but Chile has shown how frail they can be. Press them and deny them space and their defense will crack. Argentina has a multitude of talents but are not well drilled defensively. The Germans look well balanced but inexperience can cost them at this knockout level. Netherlands may have beaten Brazil but what they showed in that game was more of continual pressure and hoping the other team cracks. Their forwards, chiefly Van Persie have been playing poorly (Netherlands had a good chance to turn this game 3-1 or 4-1 but they sat on the ball even when 1 on 1) and they rely a lot on Robben and Sneidjer. When denied space on the flanks, they are in serious trouble.

Quite frankly I believe the World Cup is heading to Europe but there are no clear favourites now. This actually it a good cup to watch actually.

Argentina vs Germany would be a cracker to watch. Go Germans!

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However, instead of splashing more cash to Apple, I discovered podcasts. Podcasts are perfect for everyday commutes and after being around for 5 years or so, the quality and content is exceptional. Basically I listen to about 5-6 different podcasts over the week. Some last about 20mins some take 2 hours. Whichever the case, it fits perfectly to my listening needs whether I’m on the train or at work, etc. Better still, you take in a lot of info and keep yourself current without needing to put man hours at it.

So less talk and more lists. Nearly all of my podcasts are IT related so just a heads up.

Tech News Today (30mins)
Similar to above but it done under the TWIT network. Tom Merrit anchors it and delivers a great show daily with some of his companions.

This Week in Tech (2hrs)
A weekly show hosted by the very talented Leo Larporte. A must listen to if you are interested in the tech world. His panel showcases some of the finest minds in the tech and journalism industry. Also part of the TWIT network.

Maximum PC No BS Podcast (1hr)
I started listening to this after first downloading the PC Gamer Podcast. A good focus on PC based news (the above podcasts mainly mention about consumer electronics instead of PC hardware). Gordan’s Rant of the Week is funny but can be crude at times. A definite highlight. Part of the Future Publishing network.

This is Only a Test (1hr)
Will Smith and Norman Chan were people I listened to at PC Gamer / Maximum PC’s podcasts. They moved to Whiskey Media to start a more general technological test based site with really interesting tips that end users and minor geeks would be interested in. Not a very high quality show as I can’t really grasp the style and they are new but definitely worth to listen weekly. Check out their site. It’s very well made and frequently updated. Great content.

Security Now! (1.5hrs)
A weekly show also from the TWIT network brings security guru Steve Gibson who tackles security issues in a very simplistic manner. Great for those who need a non tech speak update of security news and what they can do to bolster their networks, etc. Again, anything from the TWIT network is naturally top notch in terms of production. However, this podcast can be a little dry at times so watch for it.

PC Gamer Podcast US (1.5hrs)
The first every podcast I listened to and am still listening to after 3-4 years. Well produced and hosted and covers everything I need to know about PC Gaming. They also interview developers and designers and if you’re a gamer, this is the podcast to listen to.

Freaknomics Radio (20mins)
An uncanny look at life and routines from an economist’s standpoint. Very interesting but sadly not very frequently updated.

How Stuff Works (30mins)
I would say the podcasters sound kind of lazy and not very professional in this podcast. But the content covered is great. A good general knowledge show to listen to.

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The iPods, iPhones and iPads are not in competition with 95% of what Redmond delivers. The iPods competed against brands like Creative, iRiver, SanDisk and the likes. The iPhones against Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung amongst others and the iPads against virtually no competition unless you count the much maligned JooJoo as one. But you could say that ‘hey there are Microsoft products in these arenas too!’. Definitely, but let’s put this into perspective. Microsoft has always been a small player in the above markets. Microsoft’s music player which is in its infant stages and has only 2 revisions – the Zune and the Zune HD still falls behind the market share of other brands including Apple and they are not making any push for it. For mobile phones, the Windows CE or Windows Mobile OS has always been a laughing stock falling behind Nokia’s aged Symbian OS and RIM’s popular Blackberry devices. This was before the iPod Touch was even conceived. Tablets? There has never been a good one before the iPad. The point I’m making here is that Apple is stomping on new ground but has not directly challenged Microsoft.

I am not defending Microsoft. Personally, they are a company that is struggling under the helm of Steve Balmer who seemingly has no vision or direction for the company. But that’s for another story. I’m just pointing out that the chatter on the street is for from informed or accurate to say the least.

Before I continue, it is important to differentiate the market and not mix up everything that has buttons and a screen under a category called ‘computers’. Mobile phones, music players and tablet computers are NOT pure computing devices. Computing devices as I see it are highly functional and versatile devices that can be use in a multitude of ways in both content creation and high end content consumption. These machines, recently termed ‘dinosaurs’ by Steven Jobs are capable of doing hundreds times more in terms of magnitude than the iPhone OS or Android can ever imagine. In this market you have the PCs vs. the Macs.

Then we move on to consumer devices, simple and easy to use  gadgets for the mainstream crowd. These are very restricted in functionality but are aimed at simplicity. These are devices for the non tech savvy who just want to get day to day tasks done like checking their emails or surfing the net. These devices can never dream of playing high end games or create rich multimedia content, run Photoshop, etc but they are sufficient for a non tech savvy consumer as a side device, not the main tool. This is where Apple is huge and its competitors are as those mentioned in paragraph 2.

Computing

This is the arena I’m most familiar with and sadly Cuppertino stands not much of a chance against Redmond. Apple has stopped focusing on OS X of which its market share dipped after the launch of Windows 7. It has also stopped its ‘I’m a Mac’ commercials as this is a market it cannot perform well at. Fundamentally, the Mac OS is a well developed platform that suffered from inadequate developer exposure at its early stage which saw 90% of the applications in the market favouring the Windows OS. No prizes for guessing who the giant here is.

Consumer Electronics

The fight here is Apple vs Google for time to come. Microsoft may be launching its Windows 7 Phone Series but I have no expectations of it being able to carve a portion of a market for itself which is heavily dominated by Apple and Google. After all, Windows Mobile 6.5 and before have been so poor even Steve Balmer admitted Microsoft screwed that up. Apple is in the clear lead in this area but how the future develops is still very much unknown. While Mac fans may call it a rise of the half bitten fruit, I think differently.

On the Closed Platform

The iPhone OS, a closed platform completely controlled by Apple for the main reason of ensuring top notch consumer experience currently works. Under its closed OS the chance of installing malware is low but loopholes in these devices are not small in number. Mobile Safari has been hacked into very easily and it remains the main backdoor into the iPhone devices. Adding to that data encryption is not currently available and that 4 digit password lock can be easily broken if you do a simple search online. It is just a matter of time when attacks would occur if the iPhone OS reach a significant enough international user base. My take on the above is simple. Apple will remain a giant in the mobile market for the next 3-5 years. However, if it fails to innovate on its iPhone OS which currently is already lagging behind Android in terms of functionality, its time in the limelight would be short lived. Google and Andriod lack the charming touch that allures consumers the way Steve Jobs is able to deliver its products. If and when Google manages to push out a polished user interface on its Android it would technically be a much superior platform than the iPhone OS in all aspects. The features that Apple has showcased for its OS4 are dated technologies that not just Android but Blackberry and the like already have it for years.

Apple is in a unique position where it is a closed system but has the majority of applications in the mobile space under them. This is a lesson they learnt from Microsoft and that is to woo as many developers as possible and dangle carrots in terms of app profits before them. Going forward, the gap between apps on the iPhone and apps on the Android has been and will continue to diminish. Developers find the Android an easier and more powerful platform to develop for which also gives them more freedom. On the other hand, Apple offers a much larger market audience.

So we basically have 2 things in mind here. Market audience of which Google is quickly catching up with and OS technology which Google has been ahead for quite a while and Apple seems to be sitting on.

One would hope that Jobs will not sit on his lead and suffer the same consequences as he did in the computing market. To the uninitiated, Apple produced the first PCs (yes before IBM and Microsoft) back in the day but failed to extend its lead due to its business model which can arguably be said to be similar in its current strategies for its mobile division.

An Economic Standpoint

An economist will always tell you that open and free is better and this argument will obviously side with Android and Google. While Apple has shown that some hand holding and wall gardening is also needed, what most economic arguments end with is – a balanced approach. Apple must find a way to hold the hands of its less tech savvy consumers while leaving itself open enough to continually attract innovation and better iterations of its iPhone OS that would lead to better applications. On the other hand, Google with its huge lead in OS technology needs to find ways to woo the mainstream crowd that prefer form over function. The first company to find that balanced approach will become a mobile giant for years to come. We watch in glee as this unfolds.

One (Three) Last Thing(s)

Those, including Steve, who believe that PCs are in trouble must remember 3 things:

1. The corporate sector. No one is using iPads to do day to day work and the PC market is largely driven by the corporate sector.
2. The future. Kids right up to the young adults are incredibly tech savvy and are very efficient at handling computers. Jobs might want to think twice before concluding that everyone will continue, in the time to come, to prefer hand holding.
3. We would also demand a lot more from our apps in future. Simple apps that run on low powered devices like the iPhone iPod etc will no longer suffice. Steve is looking at a market that will mature very quickly and will demand more intensive applications to satisfy consumer’s never ending desire for higher quality content.

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I’m not going to write long posts as I had before. Actually the thought of writing long posts has put me off blogging for a bit because I simply have no time to do so. Expect the following to be covered in the next few weeks:

• World Cup, World Cup and more World Cup
• IT stuff. I’m probably getting the iPhone 4 and nVidia and ATI should be releasing new GPUs in the coming months.
• How podcasts have taken over my music.
• Twitter, Facebook and the privacy debacle

Well, a short update. I’m working now and will be working till mid July or so after which I seriously need a break and have to prepare for the next semester.

Till the next update, adiós.

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Studies – Semester 2’s Summary

Back to school and 4 economics modules

I’m taking 5 modules as usual, 4 economic centric modules (3 core + 1 elective) and 1 elective module to cover my final faculty exposure requirement. Basically, the modules I’m taking are:

• EC2101 – Microeconomics 1 [1 Bid Point: Preallocated]
• EC2102 – Macroeconomics 2 [1 Bid Point: Preallocated]
• EC2303 – Foundations for Econometrics [1 Bid Point]
• GEK1018 – Economic Issues in the Developing World [300+ Bid Points]
• EL1101E – The Nature of Language [1 Bid Point]

It’s hard to compare the workload of this sem to the last. Last sem I was highly preoccupied with covering content for GE1101E and SN1101E which yielded very positive results for me. This sem, none of my modules are content heavy but rather concept and practice heavy. If no one has told any ‘A’ level / poly kid who want to be an economics major – Economics in NUS is a whole bunch of Mathematics. I have never manipulated more formulas and graphs as I have done right now. It’s frankly not that hard, comes across as a little shocking in the first few weeks but it gets much better in the end. EC2101 is really basic, EC2102 is made to sound ‘cheem’ but its doable, EC2303 is ‘A’ Level stats which I did not do in my ‘A’ Levels but that’s where I’m catching up now. GEK1018 is a god sent module if you are updated on current economic issues and have studied a particular region in the world marked as developing. That’s where I have reaped the benefits of SN1101E. Very good complimentary module. EL1101E has nothing to do with English but linguistics on its own. It studies the structure both in letter and voice of any language, pretty interesting but can be technical at times.

So here I am facing my mid term exams and I will be doing 3 of them (EC2101, EC2102, EL1101E) in these 2 weeks. Hopefully I can do well in all of them. I’ve cleared some projects, etc so I’m looking to clear this to get some breathing space.

My modules are basically afternoon modules so I have avoided the 8am fiasco of last sem’s mathematics slots. I still do have an 8am slot but the rest of the days allow me to have some late mornings. Sleep. Damn bloody deprived.

IT – Screens and More Screens + Thoughts on Fermi

Add the Samsung T260HD to Dell's Ultrasharp 19" and a future Fermi card...

Have a pretty much dived into the display area early this year and trust me it is the greatest factor in increasing productivity when using the comp.

First up, I got a Samsung T260HD for a really low price which offered a 1920 x 1200 resolution, a big upgrade over my Samsung 2232GW (1680 x 1050). 2 documents side by side is great. I don’t game much and frankly although people swear they have a greater gaming experience with a bigger screen, I don’t feel much of a change but yet again I have no time to fully immerse myself in it. Productivity and work wise. Awesome.

Second, I took my 6 year old Dell UltraSharp 19″ monitor and rotated it to portrait orientation (1024 x 1280). Put it to the left of my T260HD and voila, even better productivity. I’m getting news feeds, updates, social networking on that screen together with running Outlook there while doing my main work on the T260HD. Again no gaming gains because I’m not running a dual screen gaming setup, but productivity wise… awesome. (And free!)

Fermi is finally going to be released in end March 2010. About time too. It has been an insane wait for nVidia’s challenge to ATI’s 5xxx series. My graphics card is a good ol’ 8800GT (3-4 years old now) which holds up really well even now running 2 monitors. The G92 infrastructure is nothing short of impressive but nVidia’s GT200 series have not been able to better innovate on it. You get increased clocks, more cuda cores, better memory (and more) but not a quantum leap. I’m hoping Fermi does different. I skipped the entire GT200 lineup due to that. Save up the cash for a better product. ATI’s 5870 is tempting but I’m waiting on Fermi to deliver a good challenge to ATI and I’m looking to see how their product performs with the premise of better drivers, PhyX and Cuda support. Hope my 8800GT hangs on for a wee bit more. Most of my tech friends have warned me that 8800GTs are dying at the moment as it has been around for a bit too long in a tech cycle.

Football – Trauma and Topsy Turvy-ness

Get Well Soon Ramsey

This season must be the most exciting season for neutrals. There is no runaway leader at this point. Arsenal as much as they have been patchy this season – can still challenge for the title at this stage because Chelsea and Man Utd have not been consistent on their end. More upsets, more underdog wins mean only 3 points separate the top 3. The race for 4th place is also interesting with Liverpool, Man City and Tottenham close in that department. Interesting topsy turvy season. Anything can happen.

On a sadder note, Aaron Ramsey suffered what is the worst injury of the EPL this season so far with a broken leg. It looks like a clean break of 2 bones at the calf area and many football fans feel for him. He’s only 19 and its hard to say what the long term effects are. Arsenal fans took to him because of his talent and more importantly his feverish work ethic and how he was perfectly balanced in both offense and defense. The good thing is he seems to be keeping well and the support of both the team and the fans have encouraged him to quickly recover and be back on the pitch. You can follow him on Twitter – @aaronramsey1. I’ve verified with trusted UK sources and yes, that is his account for sure. I won’t label Shawcross as a villain but come on, don’t go down 2 footed with a high sliding tackle and say – ‘I never meant that’. Learn to control your legs a bit maybe? Recklessness. Gah.

CNY – Taking too much time

Tiger Year - Where has the time gone?

This year marks the longest preparation and celebration of Chinese New Year for my family. The spring cleaning of the entire house took nearly a month. We cleaned out like nuts and scrubbed nearly every surface available. Then came the celebrations, we had like extra visits to our place and that means (pre cleaning, preparation, hosting, post cleaning). Trust me its tiring as hell and although it is great to meet relatives and old friends, it was draining on my end and it affected my time for other priorities a lot.

NUS’s pretty deviously placed the term break on the CNY holiday week. Really a lot of time lost which again explains why the early 2 months of this year have come and gone so quickly.

Endnote

Some site building..

I will be updating more frequently but before I go, here’s a shout out to 2 small sites I’ve done for corporate customers. Have a look and send me some feedback. Frances Beauty Clinic & Will Events.

Till then, take care.

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2009 was a largely satisfying year with few hiccups

What Went Right

• Studies: I’m very happy with my performance in Sem 1 in NUS, a 4.4 CAP on first try is an encouraging point to start off with. Hoping to push on further. Getting into good groups for all my team based assignments.
• Geekish: Core i7 Desktop and an incoming Core i7 laptop. Having all my systems run efficiently with no hiccups.
• Soccer: Arsenal is probably doing the best they have done so far in comparison to the last 4 years. Verminator was simply a revelation at the back. More than replaced Toure. Song is maturing into a sold DM that we lacked since Flamini left.
• Health: My sinus operation in 2008 made things better. I seldom had flu or cough this year.
• Family: Improved ties

What Went Wrong

• Studies: Taking Maths as a breadth. Mathematics is not difficult but I was not consistent in the first half of the semester causing me to plunge nearly 80% of my time into Maths during the second half to make up. If you want to take Maths in NUS, you have to bear up with double number of lectures, quadruple the workload and quintimple tests and exams. CAP would have been higher without it.
• Geekish: Loss and theft of my laptops.
• Soccer: Adebayor not being shot in the leg yet. RVP’s injury.
• Health: Lack of Sleep. Slight ringing in my ears when I am sleep deprived. I am eating way too much. Need to cut down.

Aims for 2010

• Studies: Pushing my CAP to 4.6 with better time management now that I learnt from my mistakes in Sem 1.
• Geekish: No more losses and thefts please. Better physical security measures. ATI 5870 or GT300 when Fermi actually lanches.
• Soccer: Either the EPL, CL or FA Cup would be a nice bonus. No more injuries please.
• Health: More sleep! (yea right) Better diet (has to be right)
• Family: Stronger ties

Here’s wishing everyone Happy 2010 and may the year ahead be a generally smooth sailing one (gotta be realistic).

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Outlook Syncing without Exchange

Outlook Synchronization Without Exchange Server

Syncing outlook data files and folders is a pain without exchange or Google Apps but it is doable. My method may not work for everyone but here’s how it goes for me. I manage 5 email accounts (personal/business/school/work/etc) on my outlook account and am using shared calendars.

Emails – I receive all emails via POP usually and what I do to ensure I have the same mails on both my laptop and my desktop is to get my laptop to never delete mails from the server and set a 3 day gap for deletion on my desktop. It’s a workaround that has been really smooth so far. Point is, you have to ensure both computers get the mails within 3 days of each other.

Sent Emails – I use the free version of Easy2Sync for Outlook to ensure both laptop and desktop Sent Mails folder is in sync. Very important if you are tracking emails.

Calendars – I mentioned Google Calendar Sync before and both my computers sync from Google. All changes, new/deleted entries are drawn from Google and updated to both computers. Syncing to Google has its benefits. You can share your Outlook calendar (synced to Google) to other users since they can add it via Tools > Account Options > Internet Calendar. Just give them the private URL of your Google calendar (Ical)

Contacts – I use the free version of OsaSync which is a little troublesome to setup but does the job perfectly. I used to try Soocial but their Outlook plugin is pretty unstable.

Mirror'it easily

Files Synchronization

Documents – I use Allway Sync to ensure both computers have the exact same documents folder
iTunes – Allway Sync again. 2 folders are kept in sync. The Music folder under your user folder and the folder where all music is stored. The good part is both iTunes are perfectly identical and you can sync your iPod on either without have issues.
Backup - Allway Sync dominates. I sync to both an additional hard drive and my NAS.

Dropbox - Simple and easy like stickmen

File Sharing
DropBox. Perfect solution. I covered this in my last post. Downside is uploading speeds in Singapore is crap but there’s no work around to this, unless you launch your own satellite, plug in your own transmitter and…

Deskspace in action

Desktop Enhancement

Multi Desktop Management – There are tons of freeware to manage multiple desktops. I ain’t using any of them and went with Deskspace instead. Beautiful and works great. You can customize just about everything possible (default launch locations for programs, different desktops and different widgets for each desktop, etc etc)

An Alt+Tab Replacement – One thing I envied about OS X is their style of switching windows. Aero Flip and the improved Alt+Tab thingy in Windows 7 couldn’t cut close to that. But thanks to Switcher you can do exactly what the Mac Fanatics are preaching… on Windows Vista/7. Oh the blasphemy.

Folder Customization – Rainbow Folders allows you to colour folders in Windows easily so you can mark folders out.

That’s all for now!

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To some the merlion faces its front, to others the back is all they see

When you are a month plus away from hitting 23 (damn) you start to think about your more immediate concerns like a job and stuff. I am at the last stage of my education. Graduate in 3-4 years and move on to a good job. But this rat race is something so difficult to shake off and I wonder if it’ll ever be gone.

The central problem to this is comparable to communism and capitalism, and the fact that there is no stable mixed solution. The so called ‘mixed’ solution is a point constantly sliding between the two depending on the mood and sentiments of the ground.

I am not so sure if I want to remain in Singapore. This place is getting really highly saturated with over 5 million people in this little island. Geography explains spatial movements and one of the factors is over population. True we might not have hit the limit yet (I wonder how many storeys the tallest HDB building would have then) but people on the ground are starting to feel the squeeze.

That is just a superficial concern for the non-claustro centric. But things just get worse (if you’re the ground) or better (if you’re higher up the leadership ladder) when you look at education and jobs. The free market economy works on greed – what is termed as covetousness, a sin maybe but still the basic building block of every advancing economy.

That’s the issue isn’t it? If you want to be the best you need a country of likeminded people, striving to be better than others. You need competition, call it healthy competition, etc. Healthy for the economy but not really for your personal health. So that is how the rat race starts. Be better, study harder, work harder, work longer hours, outsmart, out-think, out-maneuver and before you know it, damn the best years of your life just flew past and you are staring at retirement (and then death).

Take it on the flipside, it is even more dire. No reward for being better, no competition, everything is back to the bare minimum level of accepted living conditions. Err, cough, communism. (But hey, life is on a much slower pace and there’s more space to relax)

The common solution is to run the country on a free market model and intervene to help the bottom-most group. In Singapore, we modify it a bit and encourage working by helping out those who are working from the bottom most strata. But as with every system, this is far from perfect. What we have bred is a bunch of elites who see the rest as leechers.

The funny thing is you can’t blame them. They have put in thousands of hours (and cash) into education and their careers. They get taxed and income is redistributed with the poor. Won’t they feel like they got leeched? They are not the government, they are the upper class who won’t really care about the rest of the country bar themselves and their families and it is perfectly understandable why they do so.

On the hindsight, the poor did not have the opportunities nor the means to attain such dizzying levels of income. It is not fair to them. So how do you fix this?

You don’t. Life is not fair, equality is an ideal, if not a joke.

In the long run, the problem will either boil over or the country would just adapt to change. Those less interested in the rat race and more interested in the non-dollars-and-cents measurement of the quality of life would move out of Singapore.

The highly competitive will stay and the competition level will reach to grand new heights / insanely retarded heights (depending on who you are). Bottom line, Singapore will continue to rise as a stunning ASEAN country in any category that can be measured with dollars and cents.

The goal of Singapore was set in stone way back. The Singapore story was that ‘our forefathers worked (extremely) hard to build what Singapore is today’. The story implied in my view is ‘you better do the same (and better) to keep Singapore moving up the ladder, of course benefits will trickle down as well’

If that’s your kind of thing, Singapore is the place for you.
If not, you’d be thinking along my lines and wondering if this miracle island is really a haven for you.

Everything balances automatically in the end.

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Mugging is over!

I just finished (4 days ago) my first semester in NUS. It has been 4 months of hard work and ups and downs but mostly things have been great. I have not seen enough of uni to make much comments but there is generally no real difference from ‘A’ level life with the exception of more freedom to make or break your sem. I think what is most important is to take modules that you like and have an interest for. I took 4 of that and enjoyed all of them. The 1 module that I took (for the sake of a sense of completion) without interest in was one that I had to drag myself through the paces in. I’m really looking forward to the next semester where I would be doing level 2000 economics modules tying up with the completion of my faculty, GEM and SS requirements. Much of my second year would then be freed up for me to focus on the deadly important level 3000 modules for economics which I hope to spread between two sems. It has been an interesting semester and I am looking forward for more of that next sem.

Holiday Plans

Design work again for the hols

So I have about exactly a month of holidays to enjoy before the next semester. Due to my aforementioned loss of my laptop, I would be working fulltime for much of December for pocket money amongst other needs. Not much leeway for self Christmas presents which used to be a hallmark of past Christmases. Doesn’t matter much because I’m happily blessed in my current state. Besides working, there would of course be things like going out and hopefully a chalet which is still in the works.

Of course I have begun a short return to the World of Warcraft and am levelling up a new toon on another server. WoW is really ezmode in levelling compared to 3 years ago when I was slogging through with my warrior. I have a druid and paladin now and it has been a breeze so far. Not much hope of me reaching 80 by the end of this month. Depending on how sem 2 goes, I might continue playing casually as I am now doing.

The 24″ Monitor Crave

One day... After I upgrade the GFX

I think the largest IT crave that I have had for months is that of a 24 inch LCD screen. My 22 inch is doing great but the extra resolution offered by a 1920×1200 screen would boost productivity and entertainment by a lot. It is hard to look back after being able to put up 2 full sized A4 documents next to each other on a single screen. I don’t understand why people get the 1920×1080 24inch screens handicapping themselves of 120pixels vertically.
I was really tempted to get a 24″ at the end of this year but would put plans on hold due to various reasons most of which is down to my graphics card.
I am running a 8800GT which is 3 years old but still a real gem of a card nevertheless. I am holding out for a DX11 card be it ATI’s 5800 series or nVidia’s yet to be announced GT300 series. Looking for a really good value card like the 8800GT has been. I have not seen any card from the GT200 series that match peformance for value in the way the 8800GT has done. With both companies facing wafer problems and prices being driven up due to the lack of supply and increasing demand, it would be smarter to hold out for a DX11 card next year when hopefully nVidia enters the fray and ATI begins its price drop strategy. Whichever the case, a 24 inch screen has to come after a graphics card upgrade and at current status that has to wait due to industry conditions.

Cloud Services

The cloud is upon us

During the mugging period, I took special interest in cloud services during my times of procrastination. Here are some of the tools I use mainly for two roles – syncing and online backup.

Google Calendar Sync
Extremely useful if you have two or more computers running outlook and you want your calendar in sync. You can also access your calendar online via google if needed. Works extremely efficiently.

Xmarks
Syncing Firefox bookmarks with Internet Explorer is really easy with this. Better still Xmarks stores with encryption your saved passwords in Firefox. Xmarks more or less serves as my Firefox and IE backup in terms of bookmarks and passwords.

DropBox
A gem of a file syncing program. You get a 2GB account with unlimited bandwidth and a maximum single file size upload of 350MB which is more than enough even for my huge PSD and AI files for my design work. Every computer that you install dropbox on and link to your account has its dropbox contents sync. The best part about this problem is using dropbox in tandem with your friends. Files are quickly shared and anyone who updates the file will cause the updated file to be propagated throughout so everyone has the latest updated version. I use it more for file sharing rather file backup but it has been performing impressively so far. If you wish for more storage to begin your account with, drop me a PM on facebook and I can help you start off with 2.25GB instead of 2.0 =)

That’s all for now and I hope to enjoy my hols and make it productive one.

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