The Big Fat Green Sewage...

Comex is here again at the Expo and Starhub is coming out with an offer to give out Xbox 360 if you sign up for their MaxOnline. My advice is dun sign up with them. Starhub is a bunch of blood-suckers. I recently terminated my Starhub MaxOnline 4000 and switch to Singnet broadband. And guess what, Starhub call me up the next day and offer to reduce $10 from my monthly bill in order to retain my subscription. I hear about this at the IT forums and thought it may be just a rumor until now. Damn you Starhub! If you can afford to reduce the price, why can't they do it in the first place instead of offering us crappy gifts? IMO, we are being con into paying $10 extra. Anyway, I have termintate my MOL and switch over to the Singnet Broadband 3500 plan, which IMHO is cheaper and the performance is much better and faster compared to MOL. So much for the big fat green pipe ad. PUI!

Stay At Home During IMF Meeting

If you are a Singaporean, by this time, you should know that the IMF and World Bank annual meeting is being organized here at Suntec City from 10th - 20th Sept. I am really getting sick with news of the upcoming event everyday, bragging what have been done specially for the IMF delegates. And since all these delegates are treated as big f*@ks by our government, security is stepped up to the point of kiasu & kiasi. Police will have the rights to check on anyone on the spot. The kiasi spirit is so much so that a delivery man is stopped from entering the Conrad Continental Hotel at Suntec City because the guy has a criminal record and been jailed before. Yellow Ribbon Project my ass! Din you see the fine print, the Yellow Ribbon spirit does not apply when the government needs to bootlick the westerners and ensure their safety. Tsk… tsk… tsk…

Since this is the case, I advise everybody to stay away from Suntec City or even better the areas in the immediate vicinity. Wait sway sway, kanna check by the police. So ma lu… Also stay away from all ang mohs, just in case they turn out to be IMF people, police will ask you question on why you talk to them. In fact, unless necessary, just stay at home during this period of time and dun go anywhere.

Apple Pays Creative to Settle Lawsuit? Or Is It?

So the lawsuit between Apple and Creative is over. Apple will pay Creative $100 million to settle the dispute over patented technology, own by Creative, and used in iPod. Although on the surface it shows that Creative has won, if you read the finer details, Apple is the real winner. $100 million is considered peanuts :p to Apple. The amount they earned from their iPods and iMacs are more than enough to cover this cost. In addition, Apple is allowed to recoup costs if Creative licensed the patent to others. In other words, whoever Creative sue next for patent infringement, part of the compensation they get will have to go to Apple. Lastly, Creative is allowed to make products under Apple's "Made for iPod" program. For your info, the iPod's dock connector is an Apple proprietary and to obtain the rights to use it, you must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and "Made for iPod" agreement with Apple, which Apple is then entitled 10% of wholesome pricing for products with the "Made for iPod" logo. Seems like Creative is getting the shorter end of the deal if you ask me.

If it is such a lu gi (pronounce as Loo Gi - meaning unfair, losing) deal, why do Creative still agreed to it, you may ask? IMO, one reason for the settlement is Microsoft's entry into the portable media player market with Zune. Touted by MS as THE iPod killer, Creative will not like the idea of fighting whatever remaining market with another big player. Rather than fighting among themselves, why not work together to face the new common enemy? Plus the US is a huge market, Creative needs that market to improve on its dwelling business cause by the war on Apple's iPod. Imagine selling one Creative made iPod accessories for every iPod sold. As for Apple, they can just sit back, collect their royalties and licensing fees, while Creative do all the dirty works on suing everyone and anyone who have infringe their patent.

In conclusion, what have we learnt from all this? If you can't win them, sue them. And if you still can't win, join them, or so you thought?

You've been warned

The Ministry of Health today have release a report that the average hospital bills are still affordable to us. Well... you heard it first here. All these means that if it is still affordable, the hospital can go ahead and increase the medical cost. I won't be surprised to see news of hospital raising medical cost for this coming few weeks.

Early Birds Gets the Worm

For this case, it's early shoppers gets the fresh items. :p Picture taken with my K750i outside Giant Hypermart @ .IMM on Sunday morning slightly before 9am.

Sadako's New Job?

Sadako decided to crawl out of advertisement board instead of the TV? Jesseca Liu looks more like a ghost than human in this ad. Her pose looks like the classic female ghost combing long hair. Eerie especially during the Chinese 7th Month Hungry Ghost Festival.

A Whole New Way Of Using Your iPod

Post by MrBrown: I have seen a lot of strange and weird accessories made for the ipod. But this takes it to a whole new level. A vibrator powered by the iPod. Oh dear... -_-"

Check out the product home page - OhMiBod. I like the cheeky quote, "a whole new meaning of plug n play"

Mickey New Shoes

After the episode when our little prince's paws were bitten by ants during his walk, Angie decided to get his highness a pair of doggy shoes. So off we went to the pet shop at Punggol Plaza last Sunday to look for a suitable pair set (Mind you, dogs have 4 legs not 2 :P). While Angie is pondering which design to take (It's just a set of shoes *rolleyes*), I explore the shop and some interesting wardrobe n accessories for our K9 companions. Dog life jackets! Hmm... maybe Mickey need one of this after his previous swimming nightmare. Hehehe. Also notice this poster of a dog pouch/carrier, which I saw during our Taiwan trip. Check out the product's website.

Anyway, we finally got the shoes and went home to let his majesty try them on amid a lot of struggles from the dog. 13 years walking barefooted and suddenly the poor guy have to learn to walk with shoes. Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks. LOL. Turns out the shoes are too big and too loose for the spoilt brat. He just stand still, afraid to move. And when he finally made his first steps, he got the entire family rolling on the floor laughing. Our little furry one is totally humilated.



Plan A fails, what to do? It so happens that we ran into our neighbour tonight, whose Shih-Tzu wears shoes during walks. The kind neighbour recommend us hers and is willing to lend us a brand new set for Mickey to try. Thus, another round of humilation awaits for poor Mickey. At least this time, he looks more comfortable. In the end, we decided to buy the set from our neighbour.

Ooo... I duno my dog can do breakdance. :P

Beware when buying thumbdrives in China

Saw this article on an gaming website. Damn, the chinese in Mainland China are really horrible.

Next Toto Draw 1st Prize - $5.5 Million

Haha, seems like my cursing prayers works very effectively. Realised on Thurs that the Toto first prize that evening is $2.8 million. Afraid that it may be too late for me to buy any tickets, I pray that nobody wins it so it can be snowballed to Monday. And it works! Given the second chance, must whack BIG.

Results out. Sigh... spent so much and all I won is $20, with half of belonging to my friend. Why I am not among the 8 persons? :(

A Visit to the Vet

Brought Mickey to the Vet on Monday evening for his routine jab to control his recurring skin problem. The little boy is so pamper. Keeps whining on the vet table after his jab while we are discussing his condition with the vet. Like a spoilt child, pestering the owners to carry him n leave since the jab is over. Sigh...

WHAT THE HECK?!! Another raise?

This is going too far. First raises in cab fares and electricity bills then comes public transport request to increase fares, now news just reported that Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is increasing too. WTF! Isn't all this comes too coincident, immediately a few months after the General Elections? And the reason given by our dear Land Transport Authority (LTA)? Need to maintain optimal speed on expressways. I wan to ask LTA, who the freaking hell caused this in the first place? LTA lower the COE prices over the past few months to such an extent that it is quite affordable to own a car. So everybody jumps in, which results in the traffic congestion everywhere. And now who is gonna pay for LTA mistake? US!. Even though I don't own a car, such measure really pisses me off. Is this the so called first world government that our government keeps boasting about? Congrats to all those 66% of the population who voted for the ruling party. You got your wish of having a “higher standard of living”

Updated: Saw new definitions on net
E.R.P (Everyday Rob People)
L.T.A (Lee Takes All)

Starcraft Ghost

Always trust Blizzard to come out with a kick ass game and trailer for it, Starcraft Ghost. Too bad the game got shelf/back to development. But I must say, this is one hell of trailer. More like one for the movies than for a game.

A Mid-Life Crisis?

Contemplating to resign from my current job these few days. Really tired of what I am doing here. I hate the job scope. I seem to have entered the stage where I have lost all drive in work. I totally have no idea what should I do with my career. If I leave this place, where should I go, what should I look out for; I have totally no fucking idea. Just talk 2 my U classmate, moongster. He is also facing the same situation as I do. His job scope is quite similar to mine. Surprisingly many of his friends also have the same thinking as we do. We start to wonder should we change job/industry and what should we do from then on. Is this what they call a mid-life crisis? But isn't that a bit too early? This tiger needs a rest....

P.S. Thanks to Moongster, this is known as Quarter-Life Crisis

Here's a good explanation of quarter life crisis and how to overcome it. Link

Dreamt of mum last night. It is my first time that she appears in my dream since she pass away. In it, she looks like she is folding clothes, looking very gentle and at peace. Sadly I can't remember much of the dream after I woke up though it seems to last very long. I am happy to see her but sad that it had to end when the morning breaks. Still missing her...

I am too old for this....

Woow... it's been a crazy and hectic week for me. Got a huge problem on my project's prototype build 3 run at the factory. Causes so much panic around. Finally some peace n I pop over to YouTube for some R n R and I saw this video of the next generation of gameplay by Valve, the makers of Half-Life 2. OMG! And I tot using the gravity gun in Half-Life 2 is tough for me and now this... Look at the unlimited crazy/creative (choose one) ways to use this portal gun. Man... I think I am too old n slow for this shit. But kudos to the genius at Valve for coming out with such a brillant idea for this. The programming to get this to work must be a nightmare.


Also found this cool music video made entirely using the Half-Life 2 gaming environment. These guys are good...

Sunday Breakfast with Dad

Went out on Sunday morning with Dad and my aunt to the newly opened Chinatown Complex Temp Market and Food Complex to have breakfast. as the old complex is closed for upgrading, all the shops and the stalls selling tasty and cheap food are shifted to the nearby Outram area. We supposed to have porriage but the stall have not started business till Monday. So we end up having noodles.

Dad had raw fish noodles, something that I saw for the first time. After the meal, we walk around where Dad met alot of his Chinatown friends. Feel like accompanying an Minister of Parliament around on election day. :p All in all we have an enjoyable time, even my grouchy aunt also flash a smile.

My aunt enjoying herself

Juventus Relegated! :(

Juventus have been found guilty of corruption and been demoted to the Italy football second division and start next season with a 30-point deficit, as well as being stripped of the league titles they won in the past two seasons. Why do they have to go do all these bribing and match-fixing when they have such a wonderful squad that can win the league without any help? Now, all the top players in the team will leave the team and with the 30 points deduction, it signals that the club will stay at least 2 seasons in the lower league.

And with AC Milan also banned from playing European football next season, Chelsea will have a bigger chance of winning the Champions League as they are hardly any challengers to them now with the lost of the Italians powerhouses. Something I wish won't happen. Especially for a club that bought its way to success.

Vitagen: Good for Breast?

Haha, just when I am about to write an entry on the latest Vitagen ad featuring Felicia Chin, Eternity on a Rock, did it ahead of me. The latest ad gave the similar impression as the one did by HL Milk. The Vitagen ad definitely looks like those breast enhancement advertisment you see in the papers. ^_^

PC Upgrading Blues

Holly cow. From the way the PC market is heading, if I am gonna upgrade my PC, it won't be called an upgrade. More like buying a new PC. Things are moving so fast that my PC is becoming obsolete at the blink of an eye. The "IN" thing now is dual cores CPU. Hence instead of the one CPU per chip, there are 2 running concurrently in the same chip, greatly increasing speed and performance. And rumors has it, it is moving towards "Quad" core (4 CPUs per chip) in the next few years. Geezz...

I tell you har, hardware makers are all bitches. Every time there is something new, they change all the various CPU connections and standards such that a simple upgrade will end up changing the entire PC. Take my case, if I want to upgrade my PC to a Dual-Core CPU, I will need to upgrade the motherboard as well because the new CPU is not compatible with my current motherboard. Next, the new dual-core CPU and motherboard uses DDR2 memories while mine uses DDR. Bye-bye DDR RAM. Finally, my current graphic card interface is AGP while the new motherboard interface for graphic card is PCI-E. There goes my graphic card. In the end, I need to spend almost $1.5k just to upgrade to a Dual-Core CPU. Mind you this is only for a low-end upgrade, and let's not go to the high-end ones. And that's not all, if my current power supply is not powerful enough to support all the new hardware; I need to get a new one too. Sometimes I wonder where the f@*k those gurus in the IT forums got their cash to constantly upgrade to the high-end stuff. Sell backside? Anyway my conclusion is.... dun upgrade unless u r flirty rich. Got to start saving...

So much for upgrading my rig to play the latest games. :(