You are in control of your own destiny

I quote from Louis L'Amour:

Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, "This I am today; that I will be tomorrow. 


You are in control of your actions and thus, you have control over what you can become. Do not blame others if you choose the easy way.

Indonesia should solve its haze problems before talking about nuclear

No disrespect to Indonesia but I feel that they should look at resolving the haze problems they are causing to everyone before talking about nuclear power.

The reason is very simple. If they cannot solve a "simple" problem like the haze, how can we be certain that they will be able to ensure that the nuclear plant has all the containment and safety features, and that they will not follow the footsteps of TEPCO?

The first location of the proposed nuclear plant by Indonesia is near a fault line in Java. The next proposed location is at Sumatra which has an earthquake just last week. No matter how marvelous your safety features are, it is of little use if you're near the fault lines or near the pacific ring of fire for the matter. If you look at the recent earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, the earthquakes were the result of new fault lines.

The proposed location of the nuclear plants and their track record of "handling" their haze problems do not give much confidence to anyone that they understand the seriousness of nuclear power.

iOS 4.3.1 at a glance

Seems like Apple released a patch for the iOS 4.3 last Friday.

Below are the patches of iOS 4.3.1 at a glance:

• Fixes an occasional graphics glitch on iPod touch (4th generation)
• Resolves bugs related to activating and connecting to some cellular networks
• Fixes image flicker when using Apple Digital AV Adapter with some TVs
• Resolves an issue authenticating with some enterprise web services

No noticeable difference in features on my iPhone 3GS. I do notice one thing though. iOS 4.3 slows down the iPhone 3GS slightly. It's not very bad but I started a habit of deleting my background apps so that the performance is as before.

Sistic M-ticket is a waste of investment

Sometimes I do wonder if there are any IT staff at all in big organisations that can advice on the feasibility of the projects. Sistic's m-ticket is one such example.

The technology is simple. SMS you a 2D barcode as a ticket.

The catch? You need to pay 70 cents.

The problem? You can print out an e-ticket for free.


A classic example of implementing a technology without first looking through your business processes. Sigh...

Inflation is up 5.0%

These are the Singapore inflation rates for 2011:
January: 5.5%
February: 5.0%


Transport and Housing are once again leading the pack, rising by a still astonishing 15.2% and 5.8% respectively year on year. The inflation for Transport reduced slightly, most probably because the COE prices have tamed somewhat due to the Chinese New Year effect. The high price of oil is also still evident as inflation still remains elevated across the board, except for Communications.

I'm still unsure why the Food inflation for Feb is slightly lower compared to Jan because as I recalled, many of the stalls have increased their prices from Chinese New Year, citing high raw material pricing. In fact, the inflation for Feb is tamer in general. Oh well. Maybe my memory is failing me.

This month's inflation should have shot up due to the Japan's crisis. Oil has risen to new heights and our petrol prices kept increasing. I would be surprised if the inflation remains at this level.

Happiness from Within

I quote from Remez Sasson:

Happiness is always here, but covered by thoughts, desires and fears.
Your attitude decides whether you are happy or not. You can change your attitude. 
Happiness is within you. When you stop the chatter of the mind and expel your worries and fears you find out that happiness surfaces from within you.


I took 3 quotes from Remez Sasson and strung it up as one. Something to think about...

Background Radiation in Perspective

With all the big hoo ha about background radiation in Tokyo, I think it is time to put things back into perspective. As of 19 Mar, the background radiation for Tokyo was 0.025 microsieverts per hour. It was 0.047 a few days back.

Putting this back to perspective:

• Singapore's normal background radiation is 0.08 to 0.1 microsieverts / hour
• Standard chest x-ray is at least 100 microsieverts.

Stop scaring yourselves.

There goes my $x bak chor mee

I do not understand why people yearn for air-conditioned hawker centres, or upgraded suburban malls. Whenever I hear of this, only 1 thought goes to mind. There goes my $x bak chor mee. It's almost a certainty that after the renovation, the stall holders will increase their prices because rental rise is almost a certainty.

Recently, I'm sure you have heard that so and so place is being upgraded, and so and so place is going to be built, etc. Personally to me, shouldn't all this be done during the 2009 where inflation was low, to excite the economy? Inflation will most probably average over 5% for the 1H2011. Doing this kind of upgrades in this kind of environment will only push up inflation further because as we all know, property upgrades will only result in upward rental revisions, causing overall price increases. So far, I've never heard of property upgrades being "productive". It doesn't help that the whole world is also experiencing global food inflation. 10 cents more to our coffee anyone?

Personally, I feel that there is no need for major upgrades to hawker centres or suburban malls. You have to put it into context. Is it worth upgrading the hawker centre to air-conditioned if it is surrounded by 3-room, 4-room HDB flats? Do they usually eat-in or take-away? Why not just upgrade the air ventilation and put in some new technologies to keep the area cool? The hawker centre looks dirty? Is it the design of the hawker centre or even the quality of the cleaners? Can the upgrade be done such that there is no upward rental revision?

In this period of high inflation, do we still need the upward rental revisions to add on to our cost of living? One thing for certain. Inflation is going to remain elevated this year.

Formula for Productivity

If you've heard of Six Sigma, you'll know that Six Sigma is all about improving productivity. Productivity, to Six Sigma, is all about trying to make your product or service more efficient. The end focus is always on your product or service.

The reasoning is simple. In business, improving the efficiency of business operations equal to increase of profit. In the process of improving the efficiency, employees may be sent for additional training to handle the new process. The focus of improving productivity should be geared towards the respective sectors. Upon improving the efficiency of the process and letting the employees go for training, the productivity measures can then be measured for its effectiveness. Sending the employees for training without a corresponding change in the business processes may not improve anything.

You may not even need to send employees for retraining. Improve productivity? Look at the process.

Integrity, Intelligence, Energy

I quote from Warren Buffet:

In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.


Without integrity, there is no need to improve your other attributes because the lack of it will be your downfall.