Cats In The Cradle

This song was played on the radio on my way home from late night work. I heard the song before but never bother with the lyrics until that night. It connected with me as I feel I'm in the same situation as the singer. Due to my work commitments, I have spent very little time with Dylan n Aiden. It just scares me that they may be getting further from me as they grow up. I believe this is situation with most parents in Singapore. our work eat up most of the time and whatever is left is shared between our children n tending to life issues, which is also one of the reasons for the lack of update on here. Those so called gurus always say just managed and plan your time. Hell yeah, it is always easier said than done. Well I have said enough, if you don't mind, I like to go and spend some time with my boys now.

Finally Got My Gingerbread

Finally manage to upgrade my Galaxy Ace to Gingerbread 2.3.4. For all of Samsung's boasting of the ability to upgrade their phones with their Kies PC suite, turns out it only works for phones bought from Singtel (Another reason to consider switching to the red umbrella). Made a big complaint to Samsung and their answer is ask me to go down to their service centre to do the upgrade. Huh... Siow, waste of time.

Luckily, some dudes over at HardwareZone forum found a trick to switch the phone from M1 or Starhub to Singtel, allowing the upgrade to happen. Only downside is the process will factory default the phone. So I did that and got my Gingerbread, lost quite a few data (Dammit) and have to reconfigure everything again (Shit...). The phone looks more responsive now, but will monitor the battery usage for any improvements. 

I don't know about Singtel phones, but according to those who did upgrading through the service centre, their M1 or Starhub phones are factory default. Feels like it's a way to turn off users from getting new firmware. I hope this is the first and last time I am upgrading this phone. Restoring and re-configuring it can be a drag. 

Things I Learn Today: Watch Before You Sit

Check the toilet bowl cover before sitting on it. A cracked toilet bowl cover can be a real pain in the ass.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

RIP: Steve Jobs

It came as both shocking and surprised when news of Steve Jobs passing away was announced, especially one day after the announcement of the iPhone 4GS. When I first saw the news, I thought is this some kind of sick joke. Then the news start flowing in... I believe the internet will be flooded by tributes about the man by now, so I shall try not to add anymore to that statistic and keep my thoughts about him simple here.

Hate him or love him, you got to agree that this guy more or less recreate how the way we live. Never an inventor, more like someone who take other's ideas, improving and simplifying it and making it user friendly. Removing all the geeky or technical stuff, so that anyone who is clueless in tech stuff can pick up the gadgets and use it without much problem. "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas," Jobs said in an interview for the 1996 PBS series "Triumph of the Nerds." Most important of all for me, he make it look cool to own an Apple product. 

Recent events have indicate Steve's health has been detoriating. Stepping down as CEO of Apple and handling of the role to Tim Cook, as his choosen successor, is the most obvious hint. But the world never expect it to come this fast. There is a suspicion in me that the release of the iPhone 4GS is sort of a parting gift to Apple charismatic leader. A dedication to the person who transform the company into the today's  leading brand. As my colleague put it, iPhone 4GS stands for iPhone 4(for) Steve. 

How Apple will march on from now is unknown, but the world will miss the "one more thing" phrase from the annual Apple MacWorld Conference. You can find out about Jobs from his Stanford commencement speech from 2005 here.

Where is the iPhone 5?

 

Where is my iPhone 5?

Update: Wake up this morning and found out that Apple visionary founder, Steve Jobs, have just passed away. How irony that he passed away right after iPhone 4GS was announced.

So much for the long wait. After all the speculations and delays, we more or less got back the same thing. If you still don't get what am I hinting at, I am talking about the release of the iPhone 5 iPhone 4GS. Yes, there is no iPhone 5, just 4GS. Looks the same externally without minor upgrades internally, making many to feel that the S in 4GS might stand for Same. Oh... Siri too. Are we that brainless that we need a phone to advice us what to do? 

The new iPhone makes me wonder, has Apple start to slacken? Are they moving down the usual path? The path where once a company becomes too successful, they start to be less innovative and make minor upgrades to keep the business going? Just look at Motorola, they once riding on the waves of their successful Razr phones. But their lack of effort to come out with better products, concentrating on little changes in every new releases, led to their downfall. Motorola is still around, but no longer the No. 2 mobile phones maker in the world. Just making phones using OTHER people's platform. 

I say for all the secrecy Apple like to have on their new products, this time it backfires on them. Nevertheless, the iPhone 4GS will still be a hot seller. As for me, I'm at a crossroad of whether should I upgrade to iPhone 4GS when my contract ends next March or wait for iPhone 5, if it will ever come out, and continue to use my Galaxy Ace. 

Showing Their Musical Side

My One Week Trip of HK

Just came back from a trip to Hong Kong with my side of the family. Yes, it’s a trip rather than a vacation or holiday for me. A tiring trip if you ask me. The weather is hot there, even worse than in Singapore in my opinion. And who say it's cooling in Hong Kong this time of the year?

Carrying two boys, weighing 8kg each, around is no joke. On top of that, we still have to backpack their milk and diapers. Not that we did not bring a stroller. But the stroller unfriendliness of the Hong Kong MTR and environment make the stroller almost redundant. In the end, the stroller acts more like a trolley for our backpacks.

As for the trip itself, it is a roller-coaster ride. We hop to Macau and Zhuhai in between. In Macau, we visited the famous St Ruins to take some been there done that photos, buy some almond biscuits and egg tarts and that's it. After all, it's a gamblers' paradise, nothing much for non-gamblers like us. We have lunch at an authentic Cantonese restaurant that serves steam egg with fish intestine, a dish where Mum used to cook for Dad and me. Nice memory for the father and son ;)

We hop over Zhuhai from Macau for a one day trip. Nothing exciting to talk about from me. I can see Angie obviously enjoy the shopping there at the famous underground shopping center. Much better than Shenzhen I say. Not so sleazy and much cleaner. They also don't smoke in the shopping center, making the air more breathable. Oh, the seafood feast at the end of day trip is really worth it. $150 RMB and the dishes kept coming in till we can't take it anymore. Really worth it.

Back at Hong Kong, we did not go to Disneyland or Ocean Park. Sons too young to appreciate it. We took the cable car to Lantau Island to visit the Big Buddha statue. Shop a bit at the famous Woman's Street night market. Best moment is the breakfast at 妹记 porridge. The porridge is solid and the fish skin dish is really a nice surprise.

Overall, there are not a lot of enjoyable moments for me. It's a good experience and nice opportunity for my side of the family to be close to the boys. One final note, must better estimate the amount of milk powder to bring in a kiasu way.

Who Will I Vote For President?

A simple analysis by my sister-in-law, which I agree.

1. Dr Tony Tan: Too PAP extreme
2. Tan Jee Say: Too Opposition extreme
3. Tan Kin Lian: Too suspicious :P

That will leave with? On second thought, I might throw in a blank vote. 6 more days to decide.

IBM Reveal First Generation of Skynet

IBM today reveal a CPU that mimics the human brain. First we have the BigDog, now this. Life mimics friction? When the CPU gets self-aware, will it be the beginning of the end of mankind? Or the next evolution?

Pain In My Ace

Unless you are planning to buy their top end flagship mobile phones, don't ever consider Samsung brand. Their low and mid-tier product totally sucks big time. Build is crap and support is total non-existent. I recently a Samsun Galaxy Ace as my iPhone 3G is slowing to a halt due to IOS4 (Thanks Steve Jobs, great idea of forcing iPhone 3G owners to buy your new iPhones). Turns out it's a totally different set of nightmare, maybe slightly worse. The battery life of the Galaxy Ace is downright horrible. X-p

Imagine this, I went home at 7pm with my phone fully charged. Once I got home, I left it on my desk until next morning. In the morning, it shows battery level is less than1 20%! WTF! What is it doing at night? Share its idle power over the internet to do folding calculations? A check on the net shows that I'm not the only one experiencing this. And damn Samsung don't even bother to look into it Android Gingerbread has been out for so long and there is no update of the Ace to it. So far, only Samsung Galaxy S phones have this upgrade.

This is not the first time I have experience poorly design phones from Samsung. My father-in-law used to own one that SMS to the wrong people even though the input contact name is correct. -_-" And when I brought the phone back for service, they don't have a software fix for it. Major FUBAR! This is my last time getting a Samsung phone. Once iPhone 5 is out and my bloody M1 contract is up (that's another pain), I am switching to Singtel and back to become Steve Job's bitch.

Moments That They Really Brighten Our Day

The Little Things We Have To Give Up

No more lazy afternoon naps
No more quiet meal times
No more waking up at 11am on a Sunday morning
No more dashing out for late nite supper or movies

These are some of the little things we have to let go from our lives. Gone are the days when we can go ahead and do whatever we like. Now whatever we do, we have to put the two of them into the equation. Not that I'm complaining, somehow every now and then we do yearn for such things. But then again, when you look at them, you know everything is worth it

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Learning to Throw Rubbish

The boys are learning more and more day by day. Came back from work today and they show me that they know how to throw rubbish and understand the meaning when their mother told them so. Ok, it may not be a big deal for some but it's a milestone for us. Arm with this new skill, we will no doubt have more things to watch out and take note of, like checking the rubbish bin when we clear it to make sure there are no "invalid" items in it. ^_^

Too Small Also No Good

Whoever the creators/designers are, why do they want to create the Micro-USB connector? It is so damn difficult to connect to a Micro-USB port. I recently changed to the Samsung Galaxy Ace Android phone after my patience ran out on my iPhone 3G (yes the one without the S) sluggish performance with IOS4. The problem now is Samsung handphone uses the Micro-USB connectors which is damn difficult to plug in. I always end up trying to figure the orientation and alignment. Yeah, I am that stupid. Yes, it's small and slim but at least they should make it in such that there is a clear distinguish between either side mah. I am so afraid that one day I will damage the connector.

Still Can Get $2.50 Meal?

I would like CASE to show me where can I get $2.50 mixed vegetable rice in Singapore, as claim in their report. Currently place I know is at my office canteen at Ang Mo Kio industrial area.

SINGAPORE: Food at hawker stalls was still affordable in April, according to a survey by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE).

The survey, which covered 611 stalls in non air-conditioned coffeeshops and hawker centres, focused on chicken briyani, chicken rice, fishball noodles, roti prata, and mixed vegetables rice based on the cheapest single portion available. It showed 54 per cent of the stalls sold cooked food at S$2.50 or lower.

CASE also encouraged all stall owners to display the prices of food items prominently so consumers can make informed choices.

Two stalls had inconsistent pricing with what was displayed on their signboards. One charged S$4.50 for chicken briyani when the signboard had displayed a price of S$4.

Another charged S$5 for the same dish when the price displayed was S$5.50

When Is The Bus Coming?

One of the first app I download on my iPhone is the SG NextBus. It uses the SBS Iris NextBus system to tell us the arrival time of various buses at a particular bus stop. As it gets more and more popular, similar apps sprang up to follow its success.

Lately, all such apps are unable to work. Turns out SBS has installed a measure to prevent automated scripts from grabbing the bus timing info from their system. For this, I have thanked SBS or Comfort Delgro. Firstly, you gave us a lousy website that only allows us to check for one bus service at one bus stop. When people devise a more efficient way to make use of this, you block them from accessing it, forcing us to use your new but poorly written app. Rather than upgrading your server hardware to handle the increased load, you went with the bully way by blocking and rejecting without reason requests to access the database. Once again, you have shown us what a world class public transport service you are.

Oh, between using your new crap that you called SBS Transit Iris app and going back to waiting for the bus without knowing when it is coming, I am choosing the latter.

Seen or Heard: How Come It's My Fault?

"Mas Selamat ran away. But PM Lee said that Wong Kan Seng was not at fault and should not be punished in any way. The reason being that Wong Kan Seng personally did not do anything which allowed Mas Selamat to escape.

Strangely, if your maid runs away, it IS your fault and you SHOULD be punished. Even if you did not personally do anything to let her run away (apart from giving her a day off)."

Good discussion on maid responsibilities posted on CNA forum regarding the recent news of the body of a maid found in HDB watertank.

Quick Reactions to the SIngapore General Elections 2011

1. Oppositions lost Potong Pasir SMC but gain a GRC. Is this a good results for the oppositions? Worker's Party maybe. Though I'm happy that a GRC has been won. Prove that GRC is not a sure win bet for PAP anymore. I am sad that Potong Pasir is lost.
2. Overall winning margin for PAP is down compared to last elections. Still a strong mandate?
3. Who care about George Yeo? Chaim See Tong is the one we should feel sad for. Goodbye Mr Chaim, it's nice knowing you, thanks for the sacrifice and good fights you gave out. I feel sad that you gave your all for the people of Potong Pasir and they betray right at the end. For those 242 void tickets voters, WHAT THE FUCK are you thinking?
4. From the oppositions' results, it looks like Worker's Party is the de facto leader of the oppositions as their candidates all score better as compared to candidates from other parties.
5. With the WP A-team in parliament, there will be a lot of debates in future parliament sessions.
6. Most number of opposition members in parliament. Lowest overall winning margin since independence. One small step at a time. Their powers are eroding.

The Day That Will Define Our Future

This is it. Today will mark down in our history as the date that will change our country's future. For better or worse, I don't know. For the past 9 days, we especially the residents of Aljunied has been threaten, tempted, given the sympathy card and even apologized. I don't know about the others, but I am sure not convinced by all this. Even Angie, who usually don't bother about such things started to read up on this elections. This is after I told her this election is not about us but about our boys' future and how we can determine it.

We don't want any change of government, we just want an alternative voice in parliament. Someone there to ensure that responsibilities are taken and policies are made with the people, not the country's growth, in their mind. The speech by Sean Pean below in the movie Fair Game holds true to our situation now. The responsibilities of a country is not in the hands of a privilege few. It should be our responsibilities. I do hope my fellow country will the right thing.

Seen or Heard: Equating Singaporeans as Prostitues

Posted in the comment section of a MrBrown post.

They equate Singaporeans as prostitues. With a little difference. Prostitues got paid, after being screw. Singaporeans got paid, before being screw. Prostitues got paid every time they are screw. Singaporeans continuously screw for 5 years.