Summary of Oct 2008 Fare Increases

Updated 13 Sep 2008: More information on senior concession hours and some changes to the maximum fare

Summary of 1 Oct 2008 Fare Adjustments:

1. Adult/Senior Citizen concession EZLink fares on buses/trains will see an increase of 4 cents per ride (across the board)
   
   
2. Adult/Senior Citizen concession EZLink transfer rebates will be increased to 40 cents from the current 25 cents
   
   
3. EZLink maximum fare cost (for SMRT will be increased by 5 9 cents
   
   
4. Adult cash fares on buses/trains will see an increase of 10 cents per ride (across the board)
   
   
5. Senior Citizen concession hours on SMRT trains extended to include 4.30pm to 7pm on weekdays (Refer to this link for more details on the concession hours)
   
   

Translated, the more you need to transfer in your day to day journeys, the more you'll save. If your day to day journeys are all direct journeys, it will cost you more.

Effectively, distance-based fares will see an increase of fares in direct journeys, but a small subsidy if you transfer, to compensate you for the time lost in doing the transfer.

If you wish to save money, leave earlier.

No problems with iTunes 8

Have been reading some reports on the Net that some people, mostly Vista users, have problems with installation of iTunes 8. Initial reports point to some compatibility problem with iTunes and some HP and Logitech USB drivers.

I'm not sure what are they running but so far for my side, I've absolutely no problems installing iTunes 8 on a Leopard (Mac), and a Windows XP Pro machine, even though I'm using a Logitech USB mouse. Both are currently running iTunes 8 now, and both do not have any problems syncing with an iPhone v2.02 firmware.

Windows XP Pro is still one of the most stable Windows OSes around. Luckily I bought my Dell when Windows XP is still being sold. I have never regretted buying it at that point of time, even though I can get a more powerful machine now with the same amount of money I spent. XP Pro is worth it. :)

Spends himself in a worthy cause

I quote from Theodore Roosevelt from a speech given in Paris in 1910:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.



Pretty self-explanatory, but difficult to do or follow. Sometimes I really get too discouraged to continue doing what I believe to be right.

Ganbatte

Geniune Leader

I quote from Martin Luther King, Jr:

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.


I came across this quote and I find it quite meaningful. This means that to be an effective leader, you will need to know how to take everybody's thoughts and ideas, and merge it together into 1 single solution. The idea does not solely come from 1 person, but it comes as a result of input from everyone. As some people might say, a leader makes 1 + 1 = 3.

Something to think about...

19hours battery life for a laptop

Wow... Just read a ZDNet blog recently that Dell has managed to build a laptop that lasts from 10hours to 19hours! This is based on the Dell Lattitude series. Funny thing is I don't see it being sold to Singapore. Singapore only has Inspiron, Studio, XPS and Vostro. It might be because they are still testing the prototype.

With this kind of juice, I will be able to use my laptop maybe for 2 days until I need to charge it. Wow... That's alot.

Just imagine if this kind of battery technology is used on an Apple. The battery life will be double 19 hours. :)

Setup your iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G is not really like your typical smart phone where you can straight away use all the features out of the box. Most of the features work but there are certain things you need to do before you start using your iPhone 3G. The reason is because the iPhone 3G is actually setup for the US out of the box. When you first use your iPhone 3G, you'll realise that it's set to the US regional settings, and even your world clock is set to Cupertino, which is Apple's home base.

There are 3 things you need to do/check once you get your brand new shiny iPhone 3G:

1. Sync your iPhone 3G with iTunes
   
   Download the latest iTunes, install it, and connect the iPhone 3G to that computer using the provided sync cable. When you first connect it, it will ask you to register with Apple. Please register with it because its at that point of time, it will configure your iPhone to your country. In my case, its Singapore.
   
   Note that if you miss this step, you might not be able to connect to AppStore from the iPhone.
   
   iTunes will also update any new firmware for the iPhone. This is important as the iPhone 3G is still relatively a new product, and new products will always have some problems here and there. The current version as of the date of this post is v2.02. I'm expecting v2.03 this month, which should improve the stability of the iPhone.
   
   
2. Goto Settings > General > International and check your Region Format.
   
   Your region format should show your country. If it doesn't, tap on Region Format and set it to your own country.
   
   If the iPhone 3G date and time still does not show your local time, goto Settings > General > Date & Time. Set your time zone and date and time accordingly.
   
   
3. Tap on Clock and add your own country's clock to the application.
   
   This is just my personal preference because I'm not interested in Cupertino's time. :) I basically removed the Cupertino's clock and replaced it with Singapore.
   

Once you have setup your iPhone 3G, play around with the AppStore... There are many free applications you will be able to download and use into your iPhone.

It's the business, stupid

Being a self-confessed news addict, I love to read about news that covers a wide range of topics. Recently in the local papers, there are many articles about the state of the economy and why the market reacted the way it did in the local newspapers.

I have to admire the ideas these crystal ball writers have when they write those columns. When the oil price is high, they say that inflation is spinning out of control, and if it doesn't fall, we will be heading to "doomsday". Now when oil price (and other commodities) is finally falling due to the drop in demand, these people said that the oil price is "too low", and because of the absence of "petrol dollars", the economy cannot be sustained. So the conclusion of these writers? No matter what happens, we're heading to "doomsday".

Seriously, I think they need to regulate the people writing those columns, and to ensure that the writers for that specific topics have qualifications on that topic itself. Saying that the Singapore economy is dependent on "petrol dollars" is like saying the economy is dependent on the people that strikes TOTO.

When we talk about the economy, we're talking about the businesses that makes up the economy. Knowing the state of the economy means that you need to identify the country's main businesses and sectors, and what drives it. You'll need to have knowledge on the different sectors, what businesses are currently driving those sectors, and the background of those businesses and what the businesses are dependent on.

What drives Singapore economy? Manufacturing stupid, not petrol dollars. Who are our biggest trading partners? Which countries do we export to? What's the domestic consumption like locally and for our trading partners? Will the fall in commodities worldwide drive up consumption?

I leave it to you to reach your own conclusions.

Force shutdown your iPhone

The only time I had to force shutdown my iPhone 3G was when I was running a newly installed application from AppStore. It just crashes the whole iPhone. That was when I started searching around for a way to force shutdown the iPhone 3G.

To force shutdown the iPhone 3G, just press down the power button first, followed by the home button. Hold the 2 buttons down until your screen changes.

That's it... A simple, but undocumented solution. Oh well. So far my iPhone has crashed in a few ways and this worked all the time.

It's the quality, not the quantity

Today's news again talk about our declining birth rate, and to me an idea that should never be thought of in the first place. Granted that this idea came from someone not in the policy making committee. This idea is to give single parent all the perks that Singapore families (2 parents) currently have.

I've nothing against single parent, and I do admire their courage in taking that route. However, I do not think that the government should encourage such behaviour. In anything that we do, we should always concentrate on the quality, and not the quantity. Many researches have shown that kids born into single families encounter the most problems. This is understandable because the single parent has to work doubly hard to ensure their survival.

The crux of the problem lies where the single parent has to work. The child suffers because the single parent has to work harder, and we have not even taken into account the single parent's parents.

When the child grows up without the support of any of the parents, they tend to encounter problems, be it in their personality or their attitude towards life. How many problems about youths that were reported in the news is due to kids whose parents are too busy at work or due to neglection? The writer should gather all the statistics from his colleagues in the news agency before giving such an idea.

Granted that this is not 100% of all cases and there are true gems, but the statistics are out there for all to see. Should the government risk it all and take this route? I have to say a firm no, for the sake of the future Singapore generation, and the low crime rate that Singapore currently enjoys. The low crime rate has everything to do with educational and family policies. The low crime rate is also one of the reasons why companies prefer to be based in Singapore, providing more jobs for Singaporeans. Everything links.

I do agree with the writer though that there's no turning back on the replacement policy because of the government emphasis on the economy. The only thing that we can do is to find a job that allows us ample family bonding time.

If the result is less pay, so be it. I prefer quality over quantity anytime.

iPhone 3G Keyboard Settings

As you're frequently typing on the iPhone 3G, it's important to ensure that the settings for your keyboard is optimal for your everyday use.

To set the iPhone 3G keyboard settings, just do the following:

1. Tap on the Settings icon
2. Tap on General > Keyboard
3. Ensure Auto-Capitalization is on.
   
   This will ensure that if the keyboard detects that there's a full-stop, it will automatically capitalize the next letter.
   
   
4. Ensure Enable Caps Lock is on.
   
   This will ensure that if you tap on the Shift key twice, you will activate the CAPS LOCK. To de-activate the CAPS LOCK, just tap on the Shift key twice again.
   
   
5. Ensure "." Shortcut is on
   
   This will ensure that if you tap on the Space Bar twice, you will automatically insert a "full stop" and a space.
   
   
6. Choose your other keyboards by clicking on International Keyboards. This is more for users who needs to write in other languages like Chinese or Japanese.

The iPhone 3G keyboard is also quite versatile. These are the 3 most important points which I think differentiates it from the rest of the smart phones:

• The keyboard is able to correct your typing based on the letters that they will perceive you might type wrongly. For e.g., the word "You". If you type in "Yoi", its able to tell you that the word should "You".
  
  If you think the word you have typed in is correct (e.g. acronyms), then you just tap on the suggested word to indicate that you do not want to use that word.
  
  If you think the word suggested is correct, just tap the space bar, or the end of the line and the iPhone will auto-complete the word for you.
  
  The auto-correction feature is also smart enough such that if it detects you've enabled the CAPS LOCK, it will disable the feature as it assumes you're typing in an acronym.
  
  
• The next question would be what happens if you want to insert a word in-between a sentence. Another hidden feature of the iPhone 3G is the magnifying glass.
  
  Identify the line which you wish to edit, and press on that line without letting go (not tapping). After a while, you'll see a magnifying glass appear, with the blinking cursor. The magnifying glass will magnify the words over the line that you have pressed on. Just position the cursor using the magnifying glass by moving your finger, without removing your finger from the screen.
  
  I find it quite useful if I want to edit my email, or my SMS. I do not need to erase all that I've written.
  
  
• To change the keyboard to other languages like Chinese, just tap on the Globe icon next to the space bar. For example for the Chinese keyboard, the iPhone 3G recognizes your Chinese keystrokes.
  
  To change back, just tap on the Globe icon again. Simple case to switch languages, especially for me when I sometimes mix English and Chinese in my SMSes and emails.
  

I have previously used a Dopod D810 and personally to date, the iPhone 3G is the only touch-screen phone that enables me to SMS while walking. That was something I previously thought impossible...

It takes some time to get used to the iPhone 3G keyboard though. However, once you have gotten use to it, and trust in the auto correction spelling feature, you'll find that you can type reasonably fast on the iPhone.

Hope this helps in your typing... :)