Do you key www before your blogger add?

I have come across quite a number of blog which repeat the same mistake. You don't have to key the www in front of your blogspot address.

For example,
xxx.blogspot.com - correct
www.xxx.blogspot.com - not necessary

Some people assume that for every internet address www is default. This is not true. During the first invention of world wide web, almost all the website carry the www address. Until today, there is not necessary anymore. In technical terms, with or without www is just a configuration only.

Tips to counter inflation 2008

Going into year 2008, inflation is very real for all the people. The forecast inflation number is quite stunning, our wallet would get squeezed. In fact, my wallet already started bleeding, follow by recent food price hike, fare hike, what ever.

So, some tips to counter the inflation next year.

1. Reduce the eating out ocassion/avoid going to restaurant
2. Reduce shopping trip (no see, no buy)
   
3. When going to hawker centre, always order mix vege rice or anything 2.5 & below
4. Bring your own plain water
   
5. Refrain from taking taxi
6. Don't buy useless gadget (good, but not essential to have)
   
7. Holiday at nearby countries - Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand

Keep your money in the bank, and let the inflation drop!

Completely my last wedding dinner of the year

Tonight, I have completed my last wedding dinner of the year. It is nice to share the joy of marriage with my friend and I truly enjoyed the food offered by the swissotel. It was a nice combination of style and food quality.

This year was quite heavy on my wallet, as there were many wedding banquet being held. Going into 2008, I haven't receive a single invitation yet. This is a good sign, haha. At least for the first 3 months, I would expect no invitation card.

Do let me know earlier if you plan to invite me for the dinner. I have to save the ang pao money before hand.

Second trip to Old Airport Road

Today, together with another colleague, we set off to Old Airport Road hawker centre the second time this month. He said he wanted to taste the Nam Sing fried hokkien mee (described as legendary). We thought the opening hour is till 8pm. So we happily took the train and bus there. Only realised when we arrived there, it is closed. I am not sure the opening hour, but definitely have to go there during weekend day time.

Since hokkien mee is out, we have some other dishes instead.


The dessert is sold by a soya bean stall - Selegie Soya. I only realised I forgot to take picture after I have finished. Therefore, only an empty bowl for you to see. The cincau taste nice, coupled with the syrup and atap seed. Makes a cooling and nice dessert.


The assorted kueh is sold by a stall claimed to be famous in Tiong Bahru. After tried it, the taste is fair enough, but not fantastic. The gula melaka inside the oneh oneh is quite stingy, it drag down the overall taste. The other kuehs were made by different ingredients that I have difficulties to differentiate.


The satay is from a stall called Old Man something. The waiting queue was fairly long. So originally I expect it to be good. However, after the long wait, the first taste verdict? Too sweet. I have tried different types of satay, but clearly this is not for me. The meat is marinated with too much sugar or sauce, and somehow it is surprisingly sweet. The satay sauce also very plain, the peanut is not crunchy and not spicy enough.

When we took the bus back to Kallang mrt, we passed pass a stretch of shop near the mrt. Unknowingly, the area has been transformed into China steamboat city. I think there are at least 6 to 7 steamboat shop over there, selling different type of steamboat coming from different area of China. If got time, I would try it next time and give comment.

Useful unix command

As a IT professional, very often, I have to use unix command. Here is list of useful command for easy reference.

#Recursive grep the word
find . -name "*.java" | xargs grep -l <search_word>

#Recursive grep the word ignore case
find . | xargs grep -li <search_word>

#Create tar
tar cvf <file name> <dir>

#List tar
tar tvf <file name>

#Extract tar
tar xvf <file name>

#Zip file - Original file changed
gzip <files>

#Zip file - Original file unchanged
gzip -c <files> > <tar file>

#Unzip the file
gunzip test.tar.gz

#Use awk to tokenise string
cat file.txt | awk -F ":" '{print $2}'

#Grep file name to copy to another directory
grep -l '\[273\]' *.txt | xargs -i cp {} <dir>

#Sort lines in file
sort <file>.txt >> <file>.txt.so

#Remove duplicate
sort <file>.txt | uniq > <file>.sort

#Remove spaces
cat <file>.txt | sed -e 's/ //g'

#Find files bigger than this size 1.5MB
find . -type f -size +1572864c -exec ls -l {} \;

#Show space occupied by directory and content
du -ks <directory>

#Sum and sort the space occupied by each sub directory
du -ks ./* | sort -n

#Remove old log files
find . -type f -mtime +45 -exec rm -f {} \;

#Find big old files
find . -type f -mtime +365 -size +700000c -exec ls -l {} \; >> big_old_files.txt 2>&1 &

选择

平时我们去小贩中心，总是要从众多的摊位中选择要吃的食物。如果你对那里不熟，通常都要想半天。结果点的食物没有达到要求。又好像我有朋友办结婚晚宴，酒店给了一大堆选择，结果花了一大堆时间选来选去。最后好像都差不多。

这就是选择的坏处。因为有的选，我们往往就迷失在当中。选工作，选伴侣，选房子。一些人在后悔的时候，就会把当初的选择拿出来讲。当初应该怎么样。。。怎么样。。。

如果没有的选的话，那人就会勇往直前，不用像太多。最后我觉得反而可能更好。

44th Golden Horse Award - Lee Hom & symphony

Just in case you did not watch the show, this piece of performance is one of the best of that night. One of my favourite too!

History of Hokkien mee

Last night I watched the channel u show on finding the history of Hokkien mee. This is only a part of the series to discover the food history in Singapore. More food history coming up.

Sometime it amazed me how creative the producer has became. After numerous foodie program they have broadcasted, they still manage to innovate the program. You have the viewer voting, expert recommendation, food competition, tertiary food hunt and now the food history.

Maybe basically people have little things to do over the weekend/holiday, so they resort to finding good food to eat. But, hey, sometime after the hawker was aired, the quality dropped. Famous cause stress.

Vietnam road accident dead rate world's highest

The shocking news is Vietnam actually has the highest road accident death rate in the whole world. The reason to this "number one" is because the motorcycle rider does not required to wear a helmet. As a result, most of the road accidents involve motor bikes. From today onwards, they would start to enforce the law and hoping to bring down the death rate.

The news is quite surprising in the sense that what seems to be a basic thing in one place, might be out of scope somewhere else. We should be mindful when traveling to other countries. Take your time to understand the culture and social norms. The world is so interesting.

Google building its own wikipedia

I noticed nowadays, whenever we search something, it is quite usual to see wikipedia link appears in the top search result. I guess that's why Google has decided to go into the business by launching its own wikipedia - knol. However, the mechanism of this new service is a bit different from existing wikipedia.

It would invite author to write article with their name on it. This would put some kind of ownership into the article, as individual reputation is at stake. This is getting a little bit interesting as the final structure is still unknown.

But, Google is a formidable opponent. It is yet to see how wikipedia can counter the new setup. Or after all, they can co-exist happily. What ever it is, I think it is generally good for all web user, as more knowledge can be captured and shared across the globe.

Jetstar disallow disabled person to board

The biggest news of today is Jetstar in Hong Kong disallow a disabled passenger to board the plane. The reason is whoever cannot walk, would not be allowed to board the plane. Given that, the passenger has enquired the company regarding any rule before, the incident left a sour taste.

Obviously, those customer service didn't bother to check the rule and regulation. When the customer reach the boarding gate, the service staff enforces the rule. Other airline in Hong Kong is more flexible, by allow early notification/surcharge.

I guess the airline is not sensitive enough to handle this kind of situation. If there is such rule, they should make the customer acknowledge the rule. Beside that, putting such restriction would do the company image no good.

Jolin 特务J - 特别推荐

当今华语乐坛,蔡依琳可说是一个人人皆知的名字.在过去的周末,最令我惊讶的是我妈妈也知道Jolin是谁.可见她已经是非常成功的了.

这个星期,我反复的听着特务J这张专辑.唯一的结论是非常好听.值得你花钱去购买.

专辑歌曲名称巧合的都是三个字.大多数的歌曲是快歌,在加上几首能打动人的慢歌.无论选曲或演唱都是水准之上. 个人特别喜欢Jolin抒情演绎.

个人推荐: 节拍器, 非卖品, 一个人, 日不落, 爱无赦.

Joy of seeing old friend

On my way to office this morning, met an old friend which going to work also. She is my old company's client and just came to Singapore to work. So conincident! If not I woke up late, if not I missed the bus, if not the traffic light delayed, I might not have meet her this morning.

So, life is so strange and full of surprises. Cherish the moment with old friend, colleagues and relative. Do organise gathering and keep regular contact. Human need friends.

Johor flood is back again this year

Christmas is near, monsoon is here and the flood is back. Just last year, we heard the serious flooding across malaysia. That includes Johor. Many places were under water. Imagine the single storey shops which were sub merge under the water.

One year passed, no preemptive measure has been taken. The flood is back again. As it would rain this whole week, the situation could only get worse. Let's pray for the sun. The authority should have taken last year's lesson and start with river widening/cleaning etc. But, little was done, or not enough was done. Another year of loss.

I wonder, is this truly Asia?

Morning 933 discussion - what many Christmas present you buy?

It is the topic of this morning, what many present you have to buy for christmas? Do you buy for friends/colleagues?

Mixed response from caller. Some who celebrate it, did buy quite a few present. Some who don't celebrate, don't buy or only buy for gift exchange/christmas party. Well, as Singapore is quite westernised, these people just celebrate it as a festival.

But, wait, as we are trying to save the world. We should start with this christmas. That is if you are buying gift, don't buy useless thing. That would only contribute to the rubbish bin. Buy some consumable gift. So, it would be easily disposed into the stomach. Do your part for our friend - earth.

Comfort dictate the taxi fare

After Comfort announced they are increasing the taxi fare, another two companies SMRT and Transcab would also increase. Oil price as a biggest factor in this round of price adjustment. Since comfort is the biggest taxi company in Singapore, they would dictate the fare. They say going up, then the rest just follow.

Yet, after paying for the extra bucks, do you get better service? Do you find cab easier? That's debatable. The taxi system in Singapore got serious problem. Everybody has encountered situation where you can't get taxi at peak hour/raining day. They should look at way to improve this, other than keep increase the surcharge.

Since Singapore always like to consult the public regarding some issues. They can just do the same to invite public for opinion to improve the system. Disable the ERP charge for taxi would make the system better and everyone benefits.

I like Ya Kun's cup

Recently, I frequent the Ya Kun store for take away coffee. Reason being that I like the take away cup they use. Sounds silly, but it is true. The way they design the cup make it simple and beautiful. First, the cup size is just nice, even for a small hand to hold. The cup body is embossed which enhance the grip. Then, the cover is also nice for a coffee slip. Overall, it is a well designed cup. Last but not least, the coffee must be good also!

See...



Don't believe? Try one yourself.

Cute dogs (pic)

Some really cute pics. Just received the link from friend.

Link.

Happy watching.

Put recycle bin at every HDB

I am a supporter for green movement. Whenever possible, I try to do my part for the environment. 3 key words - reduced, reuse and recycle.

However, let's say I got my rubbish separated into different categories. Where can I throw them? No where! I cannot find a place to put them. The authority has to think of a way to counter this. Set up a simple collection point in every HDB. Different bins for different materials - paper, class, plastic etc.

Once the collection point is ready, then we can really start the recycle campaign. And because it is convenient, I think people would buy the idea.

what is my talent?

Today, the thought just re-emerged again. What is my talent? Although I have long identified my strength on job, but seems that the jobs I am doing does not leverage much on it.

I am two months into this new job, but I am still not comfortable yet. In the last job, there are too many stupid things going on, which does not suit my intelligence. However, in the current job, I found myself start from zero again. Reason being that it does not require much of my strength or existing skill. I have to learn all over again, also learn from people junior than me.

I think that could be the common dilemma every working adult is facing. Everyone knows that he/she has certain passion or good at doing certain thing. But, the jobs on hand, just simply not up to the expectation. Let's face it, it is common trait in life. Because it is hard to match one's idealism against the reality. You need talent, opportunity and supporting boss to realise your potential.

I hope everyone can find that. I am hoping to be able to adjust myself faster. Let's pray together.

回想起

回想起那一段青涩的岁月，
第一眼看见你，
并没有特别的感觉，
在日后不断的相处后，
一点点感觉不断的累积，
这才惊觉你已在我心中，
占据了一个角落，
无奈逝去的时光不在，
你已经在我的生活中悄悄的溜走。

Blog to be yourself

Yeah, just be true to yourself. Blog about something you have genuine interest, something you have expertise on or something you have different view on.

Stop attacking, stop posting unhealthy content which only meant to attract the eye ball. After a while, people sick with your behaviour.

I personally won't click on the post if I know what type of post this author is going to put. This is a self censorship, I don't want to help the guy to gain hit which is what he is after. I know people has curiosity, but you can do your part to stop these kind of unhealthy practise.

Cramp down on Lasik ad

I think for the past 1 year, I have seen too many Lasik advertisement. I was a bit tempted to go, but afraid of the consequence. In another word, you can say kia si. Although many of my friends have gone for the operation.

MOH has issue warning for the specialist/clinic,

• Not to use celebrity endorsement
• State no of operation perform
• Highlight success story

The rule is a bit tough. Because, that's usually what you do in an advertisement. Now, if clinic cannot claim on those thing, how are they going to attract patient?

Having said that, as consumer/patient, I would think it is a good thing. As in one would not be blinded to think that it is without risk. EVERY operation involves risk, no matter how small it is. That's should be the major consideration for any people who wants to do that.

I am an IT professional which stare at the computer screen almost at least 10 hours a day. I am not comfortable in going, as my job would definitely cause harm to the eyes. Even you have corrected the problem, it would not guarantee that it would be gone forever. Think carefully before making the final decision.

Video for Fed chairman

Today just come accross a video made for the Fed chairman, Bernake. The MV is called "Every Breath Bernanke Takes". Funny but true. I am quite amazed by people's creativity.

Sleepless city

Today knocked off after 10pm, went to Mac Donald at Tampines central for a quick bite. Surprisingly, the place is crowded! At 10:30pm, the restaurant is almost full. You see people like youngster and working adults occupied almost all the tables.

I guess that's the reason why Mac wants to open 24 hours, because there is a demand there. As the city advance, people wants to stay up late, do nothing, hang out at the cafe. Imagine they are still eating fries and coke at this hour. The slimming centre would have more business.

However, for the last few years, Mac Donald has been trying to keep up with health conscious consumer by introducing more healthy food like corn, apple, green tea etc. At least people have more choices.

FA clinches big TV deal in Asia. Implication for fans?

In the recent news, English Football Association (FA) has signed an improved TV deals with ESPN Star Sports, M-League and IMG in Asia. The deal is worth US$300mil compared to current US$80mil.

Well, the EPL is so popular across Asia, it is no wonder they would be able to ask for more money. Sometime I think the football industry is a bit crazy, those famous footballer is earning 80-100k pounds per week. Where does the club got so much money to pay them?

It is through improved merchandising deal and TV deal. Supporters are indirectly paying the bill for the footballer salary. More people support the club, more they can increase the ticket price, side product price and TV broadcast right royalty. Ultimately, you just have to pay Starhub more money for watching the game!

Blog that sucks

After been to so many blogs, I would list down the characteristic of a blog that sucks

• Have a overwhelming of advertisement. Left right up down centre and they keep blinking and scrolling.

• Too many widgets and links which cause the site to be super slow
• Font is super small. Don't forget many people wear spec.
• Black background with grey words or white background with yellow words
• Use a funny background for no reason
• The theme and colour just do not match
• Link to site full of spyware

Marina South - lush Eden

According to news.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan on Friday unveiled details of a S$900 million plan to turn Marina South into a lush Eden. Apart from 'Cooled Conservatories' where flora from cooler climates will be displayed, visitors can also expect to see some 'SuperTrees' – tall skeletal structures on which climbing plants will grow.

After the park is ready, it is expected to be a major tourist attraction. People can work in the financial district, go to the park to relax during the lunch time, chill out at the Singapore river/IR during night time. Thus, they can make sure majority of the money you earn would be given back to the society.

If the park is really that fantastic, we might see people hang out there during the night, instead of MOS. Foreign worker also changed their regular meet up place to be at Marina South park. You can bbq while viewing the breathtaking scenario. Listen to bird sing, while accessing internet and do your blog. These would make Singapore a truly global city!

How to work without email?

I remembered in year 2000, my company did not have personal email for employees. Only one company email account, using the 56k modem. Working life back then was way easier than nowadays.

Emails received were mainly enquiries email or some small customer document. We usually talk to the customer through phone, go to their place for discussion and take the documents. We received orders in office via meeting, memo. Most of the time, employee concentrate on their work, instead of making communication. Back then, handphone was not common either. You don't expect somebody to call you during the lunch.

Looking at current time! Everybody is having a individual company email. Bosses giving instruction through email. Customer make request through email. Just because everyone send out the mail instantly, they expect instant action. Without thinking that the poor employee has other concurrent things on hand also. Then, I discover most of my time is spent on checking email, coordinate things, try to clarify problems that were able to be solved through face to face meeting.

We have multiple channel of communication now. If customer can't get instant reply on email, they call you, they sms you. You can enjoy your lunch, you cannot sit on sofa to watch tv. Even if you are in meeting and does not take phone call, they send you sms.

Give me a chance. I would like time to roll back to where it was.

Bus on fire in JB (pic)

This bus caught the fire on the main road. Don't know why, maybe lack of maintenance.

TPE Deevapali Holiday

I predict tomorrow morning, TPE would not have traffic jam. Almost every week day, the bus would jam after the punggol exit. But since today is Deevapali, there should be quite a lot of people taking Friday leave. Thus, no jam on TPE.

I really hope so lah. Early this week, the rain has caused the jam to get worse. I do hope Friday would get a break.

Battle of Web 2.0 – omy vs xin

Most of the people have been to local portals like omy.sg or xin.sg already. They are the new generation of news information portal which adopt the Web 2.0 design concept. You see big icons, more audio/video, blogs and some elements which cannot be found in earlier generation of the web site. Mediacorp first launched the xin.sg and followed by SPH's omy.sg.

The term Web 2.0 only emerged in these few years. Actually, the definition is not so clear cut. Example of such portal is like Flickr, Meebo, Blogger etc. A typical Web 2.0 portal is more interactive and accepts user content.

Let's examine what they have put into the portal to attract more readers.

News
omy focus mainly on local and world news. In some of the news, they allow people to listen to voice translation, watch video and participate in news discussion. xin contains all types of news like local, world, business and sports. They also have video and allow people to comment. The video content is generated using the past tv news.

Entertainment
omy entertainment section contains the entertainment news, music and movie review. It also has video and allow user comment. xin's content focus on local artist and some other region entertainment news. They also have music, movie review and video content.

Lifestyle
Everybody has their own unique selling points. omy has shopping guide, collector, car test drive, food, multimedia, games section etc. xin has food, comic, books, technology news etc. However, omy appears to have more sections on this topic.

Forum & Blog
Both provide forum for the user to participate in all kind of discussion. omy hosts some of the blog of local famous people. xin provides links to Mediacorp singer/artist's blog.

Unique section
xin:
Poll – Allow user to vote on one topic
DV Campus – Show case student DIY news
Blend into Singapore – Provide information for new immigrants
Special report – For current hot topic

omy:
Citizen journalism – Allow user to report news and photo
Showtime – Highlight special
Y-zone – Place for the young people
Lobang – A user participation classified section

After going through the two portals, there are certain similarities. The font and pictures are bigger, more user participation, discussion and visual components. Everyone has their own unique contents. People would be spoiled of choices. Or just simply visit all of them!

99c sushi, not worth a penny

I believe most of the people have heard of the 99c sushi selling in one of the restaurant. It is an amazing price, but I don't believe the quality would be good.

I have never been there, until today. I went into the shop around 8pm, not many people. I sit down and listen from the people there how to make order. After that, I went to the kitchen and took the food. I thought this way of serving food sucks, especially you still have to pay for the service charge.

Inside the kitchen, I looked around. My focus was on the sushi, because that is the cheapest item. I also took a look at the other item price. Those food are substantially more expensive than you can find else where. So, that's how they cover the cost. They hope you order other items, then they can earn back the money. Looking at the presentation of the sushi, it doesn't looks good. Well, we make the final call after tasting it. I got a few plates and went back to seat.

First I start off with salmon sushi. The very basic sushi in any jap restaurant is going to be a salmon. Here I goes... How does it taste? The overall quality - pathetic. Serious, it is worse than poor.

The fish itself is still ok, still consider fresh and cut into proper size. However, there is a major flaw with the sushi. The fish on top drop off easily from the sushi rice. Furthermore, the sushi rice is non-sticky and fall apart easily when dip into the soya sauce. Can you imagine this? Can this still called sushi? You take one sushi and dip into the soya sauce. When the fish touch the soya sauce, everything fallen apart. Finally, I have to search the rice inside the soya sauce.

Subsequently with the rest of sushi, they had the same problem. The quality is simply not there. Even the Japanese would throw their chop stick away. It is made simply. Just because it is cheap, you have to accept this kind of standard? More and more good food would disappear.

Verdict: Not worth a single penny. I would prefer to pay more in I****** sushi or S**** sushi to have a proper and enjoying experience.

Subaru challenge

Saw in the TV news that the Subaru challenge has started for this year. Basically, they would park a few cars in front of the ngee ann city and a group of challengers would place their hands on the car for as long as they can. The last one standing would walk away with the car. Since a car is expensive, there are many participants every year.

This year the condition is really bad. As there is no rain, all the people stand there day and night. Going through big sunshine and sleepless night. The sun is especially torturing. I don't know I should laugh at those people or admire their courage.

I know it is in terms of xx k of money. But would that be silly? Unless you are the only one left in the contest. Imagine your hand leave the car when you dozed off or careless. What about the damage to the body? the sun burn? I think there's better way to earn money, don't have to torture yourself. Anyway I wish them good luck.

Gadget craze

Singapore is a gadget craze society. It has never failed to amaze me on the number of people going to IT show/PC show or the number going to Sim Lim/Funnan. Everytime I went there, it is packed of people. Any new gadget would get their audience. A new iPhone, iPod, PSP, Wii etc etc.

People just buy and buy. From generation 1 to generation x. I don't know is this related to the technology advancement or in a big city people is always too lonely. They seek things to keep them occupied. Listening to music, playing games on the go.

But what happened to the youngster? Do they read books now? I think they are busy with their iPod or video game, and failed to enrich themselves. There is a danger. 10 years down the road, do we have people who is more knowledgeable than now?

All jam

Today seems to be an unlucky day. I woke up late and reach the bus stop late. The bus also late. I arrived at the office late by 40min. It seems to be a law now. Whenever, it rains, no matter it is SLE or TPE, all jam! Seriously I don't understand, what cause the jam.

During my journey back home, it jam a bit at SLE. This time is the curiosity other than rain which cause this. I only noticed there are police and ambulance at the road side. The cars slowed down to watch what happened. People.... people... Can you just stop to be so kee pok.

My misery did not stop there. Just as I have finished the jam, the bus broke down half way on the express way. What an unlucky day! The fortunate thing is I have a free ride home.

The first post

How this blog is started? Bored.

That day I was on the bus 168 to Tampines. The bus jam after the punggol exit all the way to Ikea exit. I suddenly thought of this, why the Singapore traffic has become so bad? I always thought TPE should be free from traffic jam. My friend took a cab from Yishun to town. 1 hour! I said you may just take mrt, faster.

So, there are some weird things going on in Singapore. I want to talk about them. That's the idea of starting this blog. Stay tuned...