Why Double Standards?

Although I'm a free thinker, I've been in a methodist school for over 10 years. There was one verse that stuck to me, and to date which I still follow. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is the basic rule which I follow very stubbornly.

It's very logical to me, and yet, I see so many instances of people who practice double standards. They expect it, but they do not practice it.

Few years back, it was reported in the newspapers that church goers parked their cars in front of the houses surrounding the church, blocking the house owners from entering or leaving their houses. This to me is a very big irony. The above verse is from the scriptures, and yet, the very people who read the scriptures can do this. Enough said...

I used to be very annoyed when I come across such instances. I still am, but I learn to control my temper. Some people say that I'm very "on", and that I work/do too much, but all my attitudes, and actions follow this basic guideline. Just recently, I witnessed a shouting match in the MRT. 1 big guy, tried to push in to the MRT when others are coming out. He was shoved unintentionally I believed, and he started shouting vulgarities at the person. What on earth the world is coming to??

Are you guilty of practicing double standards? I won't say I don't, but I try my very best not to. Answer the following questions truthfully and think about it:

1. Expect people to be punctual, and yet you're habitually late
2. Expect others to do your bidding efficiently and quickly, and yet you do not
3. Expect to be rewarded when your actions do not justify it

I did say previously that the project that is causing me a lot of distress is ending soon come July. It has ended better than what I've expected, but it has triggered a lot of thoughts in my mind. The smile you received might have a lot of hidden meaning. However, this is life. I just hope my passion can sustain me.

I still remember my Geography teacher's favorite line: "Life is never fair".
How true it is...

Windows Desktop Search

Vista search features has been one of the selling points. Well, what people might not know is that Win XP Pro also have a desktop search. You can actually download it from Microsoft here. However, it's works only for Win XP Pro SP2, Win 2003 Server, and the respective 64bit versions.

After installing it, you'll see the desktop search below. By default, Windows Desktop Search will not do any indexing if your computer is busy. To stop it from indexing, you can right click on the "Magnifying glass" in your tray and click on Snooze Indexing.

Do take note if you have enabled indexing. If your folders or files are not indexed enabled, the search will not be able to index it. To find out if it's indexed, do the following:

1. Go to the properties of the folder or file you wish to index (Right-click on it and choose Properties)
2. Under the general tab, click on Advanced
3. Ensure that you have checked the checkbox "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder/file"
   

There are many other advanced features. Just play around with it... However, since it's frequently indexing, I'm not sure if it's ideal for laptop use. It might drain your battery.

Updates:

• I recommend at least 512MB of RAM to run this. I've un-installed mine because I only have 256MB and my system slowed down by quite a bit.
  

Reset Password II

I've found another way of resetting the password for your user account. However, you still need to be able to login to an administrator account.

If you can login to an administrator account, you can reset another user's account by doing the following:

1. Goto Start > Run
2. Type control userpasswords2 and click OK
   
3. Choose the user account which you've forgotten the password and click Reset Password
4. Enter your new password, and confirm it.

It has been noted that if you have encrypted anything with EFS with that user account using a public key, you will not be able to access them after you have reseted the password. This is possible however, if you've created the password reset disk, which I have written earlier.

Hope this helps...

Lesser of 2 evils

I've been reading an article regarding foreign talent (FT). Just one sentence caught my eye. The gist is that if they do not include the quota of FT, the companies are going to hire them illegally anyway.

I guess the authorities are in the bind. Allow them in and incur the wrath of the locals. Don't allow them, more illegal immigrants, who might cause some problems (e.g. crime)

I think there could be a 3rd option. Up our value chain such that only locals, or those will specialized skills can do it. Locals then have to train themselves up to fit into those jobs. Upping the value chain usually means better margin. Based on this, theoretically, you could get more locals employed, the locals get paid more, the companies become more effective, and make more money. Virtuous cycle...

But that's what the government has been trying to do for the past few years. Hmmm... Guess the companies find it hard to change. This could mean that there's no demand for such services, and no one is willing to pay for those kind of services. So who is the biggest consumer of services here??

Oh no... It has went 1 full circle again.

Efficient vs First World

People know me as someone who is very critical on the public transport here. However, what they might not know is that I was never critical of it, until someone put the label "First World". That was what triggered my barrage of criticisms.

Singapore has one of the most efficient public transport systems in the world. This I agree, other than the buses. :p

However, efficiency does not equate to "First World". Let me give an example of our MRT system, which is my favorite mode of transport here.

What SMRT thinks we need:

• EzLink, which is our cashless mode of payment.
  
• Whole barrage of advertisements, even to the point of installing LCDs at train stations and the train itself for it.

What SMRT thinks we do not need:

• Clear indications at all times on when the MRT is arriving
• Clear indications within the train on which is the next stop
• Everyone understands English so all the announcements are all made in English, even to the extend of broken English.

Note the things we that they think we need, and do not need. Is it the reverse?

Look at Japan. The train operator will apologize to all the customers on any train breakdowns that disrupts the train schedule, and it's almost always on schedule. Now, that is world class. Service always first.

First world transport system?? Let the management try taking it during peak hours, without their "entourage" and see if it's first world.

Helping yourself, or others?

I read with great interest in an article saying about Indonesia's fight against corruption. One key thing which I took away from the article is that it's difficult to fight corruption because many of them wants to hold public office to help themselves, not to help others.

I'm not against raising of salaries for any post. However, since someone likes to compare Singapore to other countries, based on this comparison with even US, are we overpaying??

Now, someone might say we're not comparing apple and apple, and we're a small country. Then why on earth are we benchmarking things like our GST and property market with the other countries. Double standards????

Speaking of double standards, I remember not too long ago, someone was advocating Annual Variable Component (AVC) in the salary structure. Meaning, when times are well, raise it and the bonus. If times are bad, cut it. So why on earth are we raising salaries if we're suppose to give more bonuses instead?? Double standards again????

Coal to gasoline??!?!?!?!

First, US denies that they are contributing to global warming.

Now, they want to inject fresh funds to research on using COAL to convert to gasoline!! With so many green technologies available, they must choose the most pollutive of the lot to give grants!

Those people with their black suites and ties should go to the countries most affected by global warming and see if they can still wear their suites for the whole day. Sometimes, I do wonder if the weather can send a tornado or whatever to their capital and see if they still dare to talk this kind of nonsense.

The FBI agencies should check on the politicians who recommended this! See if they are related to any coal mining companies/CEOs.

Data centres self sustaining?

I was just browsing an article that were saying our present technologies are huge energy wasters. A normal desktop wastes about half of the energy consumed, and a server about 1/3. Most of the energy I would say should transform to heat.

Based on this fact, shouldn't it be possible to channel all these energy to generate electricity? A data centre has thousands of servers. Why can't special server racks be built that will channel the heat to generate electricity for the data centre? In this way, the data centre can even be self-sufficient in electrical needs.

Hmmmm...

Buses are not much cheaper than MRT

I was always wondering why people say buses are cheaper than MRT. True that some particular routes are cheaper, but most of the time, the fares are almost equivalent (+.-), and the train is usually faster than the bus.

It suddenly struck me why when I was on the MRT today. It's the board indicating the prices above every ticket machine! Do not look at the board if you're using Ezlink! The real price can be 25 to 30cents cheaper than the price indicated there. The prices there are for standard tickets. For those who transfer from buses to MRTs, the transfer discount also applies. This fact is not quite known, but I've double checked it before.

You can refer to http://www.smrt.com.sg/trains/trains_fare.asp for the exact fares. Boon Lay to Cityhall only costs $1.50, and it only takes 30-35mins!! You can even be faster than the car.

For me, I do not want to waste time, and I hate being late, so it's usually MRT for me. Guess I'm a punctuality freak. Oh well...

Sudden appearance of water spouts?

Seems to have noticed an onslaught of water spouts this year. I'm an avid newspaper reader for quite some time and I have never ever read about water spouts appearing around here.

According to the weather guys, its quite common and can be seen once or twice a year around here. However, within a span of few weeks, there are already 4 sightings (I've recalled no sightings), and the water spouts are quite huge, and quite near land.

Is this connected to global warming? I suspect it is... The weather is getting more erratic. It's weird but I think I'm the only one among my friends who thinks that the "summer" here has gotten much shorter. This year to me seems to be a bit more wet than usual. Everyone seems to be saying it's hotter. Yes it is... But I find that the "summer" periods have become much shorter. It's raining more. KL has already flooded.

With this kind of climate changes, the US, China and India are still in denial. Maybe a violent thunderstorm/typhoon/hurricane should hit their capitals, causing severe damage before they are finally awaken to the damage they have caused.

Where is Captain Planet??

GENUS won 4th in the international competition!

Just received news that the guitar group I'm in, Guitar Ensemble of NUS (GENUS), has won 4th in the international guitar competition. Judging that this is the first time they went overseas, it's a remarkable achievement. Kudos to them... They were even told to play some of the pieces at the closing ceremony.

At the same time, I felt a pang of envy... I wanted very much to be there, in Germany. Playing with them... The experience is one that cannot be easily replaced. Grrrrrr...

Today is definitely not a good day for me.

Don't put words in my mouth

One of things I do not like is when people start to second guess me, and start to "put words into my mouth", based on their interpretation of a simple sentence I've said.

Come on... I believe what I say is quite simple. Yet people can look deep into that sentence, trying to derive some hidden meaning, and start saying I meant this meant that.

All along I've told people around me, which I believe should be common sense... If you do not know, ask me. I won't eat you up if you don't understand what I'm saying. The stupidest question you ask is the one you didn't ask. Yet, these things always happen to me.

Sometimes I do wonder if its because my ideas are sometimes radically different from other people. Grrrrrrr...

Hide your computer

Ever have the experience where you want to share folders, but you do not want your computer to be displayed in the "Network Neighbourhood"? Well, there is a way, at least for people using Windows XP Professional. Just do the following steps:

1. Goto Start > Run and type cmd (Command prompt)
   
2. Type net config server /hidden:yes

To re-enable it, type net config server /hidden:no instead. Make sure you're using the Administrator role.

That's it... People can still directly access your computer by using \\{computer name}. This just prevents your computer from being listed. It's like having an unlisted number. :)

Does RAID work for normal people?

I've posted an article long ago about RAID so I thought I would revisit it again. This time on the usefulness of RAID.

RAID makes sense in a corporate environment where data needs to be protected and backup. However, how about in the consumer environment? Like you and me... Normal people. Do we need RAID?

I've noticed a certain trend where the current newer motherboards now put in RAID one way or another. Software RAID for some reason also started appearing (which I think is useless).

What's the reason for RAID? I could only see 2 reasons:

1. Faster speed
2. Data protection

People going for faster speed will go for RAID 0, while those for data protection will go for RAID 1. Some go for both (RAID 0+1). There are other RAIDs of course. Most commonly used one now is RAID 5.

Based on the current technology though, in terms of speed, EIDE harddisks nowadays can hit 100MB/sec without any problems. Some even come with internal cache to speed up the process. Now, why on earth will a normal person like you and me want to transfer files faster than 100MB/secs?? I guess not. :)

Data protection wise... If you've invested in a good harddisk from a well-known manufacturer, like Western Digital or Segate, the failure rate of these harddisks are rather low. My quantum fireball harddisk is now in the 10th year, and my Fujitsu harddisk in my laptop has lasted 7 years. I don't see any signs of failure too. Now with the new Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) built into motherboards, your computer can now alert you if your harddisk is dying. Assumption is of course your harddisk has the SMART technology. It will be a simple case of getting a new harddisk, and cloning your information to the new harddisk.

Last but not least, I happened to playing with a RAID array before. Although it was just using Ultra SCSI 3 harddisks, I was not too impressed with the harddisk speed. It seemed like there's an overhead whenever you need to write big files into the harddisks.

For me at least, I think RAID can remain in the corporate world, although I myself would not recommend it. Performance is the key nowadays, and RAID does slow down your computer.

I guess it's all about trade-offs.

I Believe

This is one of the pieces that I've actually partially re-arranged. If I recall correctly, I got a TAB off the internet and found it a little weird. So I started re-arranging it. You can download it here.

A pity that I did not write down the score for it. It's all in my head. Oh well... Hope I can remember it. :)

This song is originally from Korea, and is the "My Sassy Girl" theme song, sung by Shin Seung Hun. After that, it was sung in Chinese by Fan Yi Cheng. I prefer the Korean version though. :)

Hope you enjoy it.

Japan links economy health to babies!

Just read an article today which I found quite interesting. Japan's birth rate has went up, and its now almost 0.1 higher than Singapore.

Other than that, I read with great interest that Japan links her economy health to the birth rate. They said that due to the good economy health, their birth rate increased.

Why I think this makes sense. When the healthy economy filters down to the general public, you can afford to raise kids. Having a healthy work-life allows you to find time to make babies too. :)

Wonder when the Singapore government will stop their sense of denial and try to fix the problem... Good economy? For them maybe...

CASE complain about NETs

Consumer Association of Singapore(CASE) is lodging a complaint to the Competition Commission of Singapore regarding the upping of the NETs administration fee.. I'm not sure if it will help but its better than nothing. NETs have a near monopoly over here, and its actually my preferred mode of payment.

I had no idea that the upping of the NETs administration fee is confirmed. I only thought it was preliminary. And guess when our 3 banks choose to up the administration fee? July. GST up, NETs administration fee also up.

NETs lasted for 22 years, and now they said that the hike is necessary to stay competitive against international debit cards. Like real! You mean for the past 22 years, NETs is not firmly entrenched enough in Singapore? Not everyone can apply for a debit card. Research has already shown that students are one of the heaviest spenders. Can students apply for debit card? Not all...

This is "great"... And I guess the standard template from the government will be that the economy has changed, and that the banks need to "innovate" their present products. Like real.

Let's see if CASE still has some bite.

UNSW Asia

The most discussed topic recently now is on UNSW Asia, and why did it close down after 1 semester of studies.

After reading both sides of the story (today's ST feature the UNSW side of the story), I think I see a disturbing trend. I know that using tax payers money has always been a hot topic, and care must be taken, and stuff like that. However, I don't like the fact that the trend is to control the project, even though you know nothing about it.

The classic example is UNSW. You forecast the number of students to be so high, even though the fees are 4 times of that of local university, and limited marketing has been done! It's not like Cambridge/Oxford is setting up a university here. I don't know where did that person pass economics but its ridiculous. Where's the feasibility study? How on earth did EDB pass that proposal?

This reminds me of the time long ago, where I saw a proposal on a coffin making business, using the Internet. This business was targeted to be in the black within half a year. It was marked with flying colours. I was wondering... What??? In the black in half a year?? Coffin making?? Using Internet???

Oh well... I hope the trend is not here to stay. Of course we understand the rationale of cutting costs, saving tax payers money, but for goodness sake, if no one knows what's happening, hire someone who do. Reputation is hard to build up, but very easily lost. Its not easy to build up reputation.

And people wonder why a large percentage of projects are not successful. Oh well...

Memories

Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can dream of the old days
Life was beautiful then

Back in 2004, I recorded this piece because I love the song. Maybe because I'm a musical kind of guy. :) It's not the full piece, but I feel that it sounds quite nice on the guitar. You can download it here.

Stupid Vista

I was so prepared to plonk down the money for a new laptop. Guess what? All are preloaded with the dreaded Vista. I asked for the WinXP Pro version, and they said it cannot be installed! (at least for the model I was looking at) This is really great. I guess I have to extend the lifespan of my present laptop. 7 years and still counting.

I was never a firm supporter of Microsoft but this Vista really irks me. And this is why:

1. Vista is slower than WinXP. It runs so many services which I think is un-necessary for a home user.
2. Vista uses up much more memory than WinXP. It has been reviewed that your Vista will use more processor speed when your computer is on idle mode. Reason is that a lot of services are at the backend doing stuff. The icing on the cake is that someone said that it uses about 1GB of the 2GB of RAM that the person had when it starts up.
3. To top it all up, some of my old Windows XP application cannot work on Vista!! My trusty Office XP has to be junked. I'm not sure about the software for my printers, cameras and stuff, which is also quite old.

I don't believe Microsoft will actually do that. Took so long to come out with a new OS and this is the result! I was so ready to go home with a new laptop to play with. Darrrrnnnnnn...