Botak Jones at Clementi

Last evening, went to Clementi with two friends for some matters. Along the way, we passed by this kopitiam which host the Botak Jones american food stall. I was very surprised at the crowd. Damn lots of people there and they are all eating the Botak Jones food.

I used to live in Clementi and pass by that coffee shop everyday. It was used to be a quiet coffee shop which did not have many patron. So surprised that a stall could do wonder for a whole shop. At the same time, also noticed that the other stores are not doing well. Few empty stalls and some opened with no business.

So, sure, this american food must be something. We decided to order. Mine was a fish burger. I forgot to take a photo, since I am not a professional food photo taker, I usually forget about it. Thus, this is a all text post with description only.

The fish fillet was very good. Seriously. I haven't test something like that. The fillet was thick and crispy outside tender inside. You can even describe it as juicy. Putting some malt vinegar makes the whole dish simply fantastic. However, I don't like the fries, too red and too dry. Nevertheless, still recommended to go.

Do you know what technology means to you?

Why I am asking this question? The recent Edison incident has reminded us again technology is a double edged sword. It simplified your life and it also take away something from you.

Take example, mobile phone. Before the invention of mobile phone, it is impossible to get contact on the run. In certain way, mobile phone has shorten the distance between you and me. On the other hand, we also lost some privacy. Now, the family member can track you down almost instantly. Sometime you just wish to zap off from other people.

Mobile phone can take photo and store some other personal contact and files. What if you lost it? Means that there is possibility that the whole world know what you did.

Digital camera is so convenient now, that we bring it almost everywhere. That also means everyone can snap on you, without you knowing that. For guys, maybe that's not a big deal. But for pretty girls, in certain way, it is quite annoying.

Laptop - the mobile computer allows you to do lots of thing on the run. Business man carry the notebook around, back packer can carry the lap top travelling. What if you lost it at Starbucks? Your business contact and confidential company information could leak out just like that.

Be a good and responsible technology user. Then, it would help you, always.

Singapore would host the Youth Olympic Game

The small city state has won the right to host the first ever Youth Olympic Game. I had a little hunch, it would be awarded, and now it is for real. Winning is just the first step, there is a long journey ahead. The preparation work is more intense and need great planning.

Fear not, here got IR (integrated resort), night F1 etc etc. The city state would get more interesting as the time goes by.

The influx of visitors plus the local growing population would make the place more cramp than it was.

Hot selling Apple iPhone in China

Read this article in zaobao today, Chinese just love the iPhone. Although registered phone was 230 million, but Apple actually sold 370 million unit, which most went to overseas market. The software digital lock was broken and allow the user to use it on existing network.

Those users don't mind paying more for the phone, as long as they can grab one unit. All along, Apple logic is to tie with the mobile provider and try to earn the trailer fee. This activity would seriously dent the revenue. We still don't know whether this model would work in the long run, especially in emerging market.

The negotiation between China Mobile and Apple has broken, so the user unlikely to see the "real" iPhone appear just yet. So, the pirated copy would still flood the China market.

Lydia Shum left

After a prolong period of fighting with sickness, Lydia Shum (沈殿霞) nicked name 肥肥 has left this world.

I believe most of the people should have watched her drama or performance before. She is a good artise and maintain a positive image, who was hardworking and caring. The current society should take her as role model.

Compare to the current entertainment circle, which involved in many negative news. More people should try to imitate her instead of engaging those unhealthy activities.

Malaysia election is coming

Yes, it is real. The Malaysia election is coming in this March as widely predicted. Prime Minister Abdullah back off his earlier decision to announce the dissolve of parliament.

There are few notable points about this election.

The recent high inflation and social tension has put the ruling party into spot light. Having an election at this juncture might not be good, but it might just be the best timing. Since the inflation condition could only get worse. Follow by the general dissatisfaction on the ground, the opposition party is supposed to be more powerful. Some in ruling party admitted the threat of opposition, but some dismissed the impact. Those who dismiss the impact might be too naive or just not willing to face the truth.

In order to calm the dissatisfaction, they have already dished out many candies before and during the Chinese New Year, hoping the temporary feel good factor would help to calm the voters to vote in favour.

On the other hand, the multiple corridor growth strategy that was already one year plus old is supposed to help BN to win votes. Economic growth and development is the general concern for all.

Since Anwar is able to run for election start from April, it is believed that the election would be in March. No surprise. It is indeed fall in March. Nobody could predict the outcome if election is to be held in April, so the best approach is to avoid it.

Does BN able to regain the control of Kelantan? Nobody can be sure. In the last election, it is nearly back. Just nearly. But, the situation is different this time, how to persuade the voter to change mind?

After so many year of effort, the corruption is believed to be still prevalent. Does the voter wake up to the fact that it is not good for the country? The sure thing is BN would not be able to get the landslide victory as last time. Nobody could doubt this.

China poison dumpling in Japan

Until today, it seems like they haven't find out the root cause to the poison dumpling in Japan.

So far, the speculations are

1. Deliberate poisoning
Although it is possible, but I don't think people are so silly to damage the reputation. Except those who has other agenda.

2. Loose control in the factory
Maybe this is the cause, but generally factory for export should have stringent quality control standard.

The funny thing is nobody seems able to give a firm answer to the root cause.

The consequence is the damaged relationship between two countries. The food safety standard in China also raised as questions.

Make good use of your ang pao money

More or less, chinese new year celebration has come to an end (although new year stretch to day 15), people have to get back to work and study. You have collected some ang pao money, you are thinking on where to spend now... wait...

Put it to more meaningful use

1. Donate part of the money to charity
2. Spend part of the money on a book to improve yourself
3. Pay off debt if you have small amount loan
   
4. Save the money in bank account
5. Invest in an unit trust (min $1000)

台湾的政治闹剧

台湾总统大选已剩下不多的时间。在形势不妙的状况下，民进党又出怪招。与其把注意力集中在民生问题上，倒不如转移选民的视线。在找到了绿卡的把柄，把全部的火力集中在这个问题上。

使我不解的是绿卡与爱国并没有多大的关系，但却又被炒的沸沸扬扬。民进党除了爱台湾之外，应该就是贪腐了。政治闹剧不断，外面的人只当笑话看。经济不搞好，只会喊口号。

愿选民能做出正确的选择。

Internet plagiarism is very common

I was searching for the recipe for cooking dessert(腐竹白果薏米糖水) last night. So, I keyed in the search term in goolge and it gives me back tons of result. I went through at least 10 links, mainly from China site. You guess what, the recipes are all the same.

No matter how many results I viewed, how hard I search, at the end, there is only one formula. Everybody seems to copy everybody. Eventually, nobody can be sure who is the original one. I noticed this is especially prevalent with some chinese content site. They tend to copy each others.

We know plagiarism is not good, but digital device makes the information copying, sharing so easy that we forgot to create the content ourselves. Students, please study and make sure you come out with your own answer. Sharing is good, blind copying is not good.

India internet outage due to undersea cable damage

Recently, the undersea cable damage causes the internet service outage in India and Middle east country. This is a big news, because people cannot surf net and cannot work.

In a way, this highlight that, in the inter connected world now. Internet has became a neccesity for work to be done. The root cause is not known yet, as what I have read up to today.

This bring up a couple interesting issues

• In the modern world, internet has became a requirement for business to carry on. How does the government plan their connection to prevent future failure?
• Since undersea repair is difficult, what has been done to prevent the failure in the first place?
  
• India outsourcing industry actually depends on the communication network to deliver output to America and Europe. In recent years, because of the language accent problem, some companies actually move back the call centre and support centre to own country or another country. Would this outage trigger more company moving their operation to spread out the risk?