Decay On Net

I always thought that only blogs in ping.sg would use misleading headings to attract readers. I was so wrong. I spotted this heading on the front page of yesterday's The Straits Times, 29 Oct 2007. Yes, our national newspaper also has misleading headings.

NEW WORLD RECORD IN S'PORE



For a moment I thought our Singapore swimmers finally made it big and broke one of the world records. But after reading the first few sentence of the main article, I discovered that it was actually an American swimmer who rewrote her world record IN Singapore.

This is the first time I see a newspaper heading that emphasis on the country where the sporting world record is broken instead of the country that the record breaker is from.

Seriously, who cares where the record was broken anyway?

Posted by DK at 1:28 PM | Comments

After winning the Montblanc New Screenwriters award, Singapore Dreaming wins again. This time, it's the Best Asian/Middle Eastern Film Award at the 20th Tokyo International Film Festival!!!

Congrats to Yen, Colin and all the stars & crews in Singapore Dreaming. You guys made us proud.

If you haven't watched Singapore Dreaming, I suggest you try to get your hands on the VCD/DVD. Its a great show.

Buy original one lah! Don't buy pirated one hor. Must support local talents.

Posted by DK at 3:36 PM | Comments

Hey guys. I’m sorry to inform all of you that my good twin brother is dead. He didn’t die of heroin overdose. Would be really funny if he does since he just blog about anti-drugs lately. It would also look nice on tomorrow.sg too. Imagine heading: Anti-drug blogger dies of heroin overdose. Hahahaha... Best if someone tagged it as humor.

But since this blog entry is coming from DK’s evil twin brother, you should know by now that everything I said is sarcastic and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. You shouldn’t believe me when I said that our ministers deserves another pay increment (I hope). And common sense (which isn’t very common lately) would have told you that if the good DK is dead, the evil twin brother can’t be more alive.

Everyone have their own writing style. Some write in a humor and satire manner while others are dead serious. After awhile, everyone will know what to expect from the author. Just like you can expect me to blog in a sarcastic style while my good twin brother to blog in a.... eerrrrr.... Wait. What is DK’s writing style? He got style one meh?

I know everyone is confused now. Firstly, they see two entries on ping.sg saying that William Hung is dead (one from an entertainment news blog, no less), then another one saying he is not dead. Now they see an entry saying DK is dead. So who is dead and who is not?

Well, if you believe me, please transfer the white gold to my internet banking account. Thanks.

PS by DK: I’m not dead. At least not yet. But I will if I don’t complete my final assignment by tonight. Which I’m stuck and have totally no idea how to do. Damn. Perhaps my evil twin brother is right. I am dead.

Labels: DK's Evil Twin

Posted by DK's evil twin brother at 11:58 AM | Comments

My blood boils when I saw this video.



Calling them bastards would be an insult to all bastard in the world. That uncle should be at least 70 years old. And this 3 asshat decided to squeeze into his trishaw which is meant for 1 person, max 2. They make fun of him and have the bloody cheek to post this video on youtube. Fucking jerks.

I'm not sure how long will the video be on youtube. So I took a screen capture of the 3 asshat.

Asshat 1:


Asshat 2:


Asshat 3 (Can't get any clear picture):


We can't let this 3 asshat get away easily. Can the internet be powerful enough to identify this 3 asshat and do some public shaming on them?
Lets do some investigation here. Anybody knows this 3 person?
Like which country are they from? Where do they stay? Do they have any blogs or facebook account? What company are they working at etc etc.

I'm not sure if the person who post this video is the person who recorded it. Anyone knows who is this B0Davis?

Lets come together and trace this 3 asshat. Shame them online and let their families, friends, employers and countrymen know their disgraceful actions. Let them know that Singaporeans are not pushovers.

Update 1: The video has been removed from youtube (I guess by the poster). Kinda expected since this fellow has been getting quite a lot of hate comments. Is the poster one of the person in the video? Is he removing it because of all the hate comments or because he knows that he is wrong?

One thing about the internet is that whatever you posted online can never be deleted. Someone would have downloaded it and repelicate it elsewhere. I'm reposting the video clip here to shame the 3 idiots. Hopefully someone would be able to identify them.



Update 2: B0Davis is indeed one of the 3 ang moh in the video clip. His real name is Bo Davis. The New Paper run an article on this incident. (I was interviewed by them via email too. :D )Let hope people who google his name will see the video clip. Shame on him.

Update 3: The Daily Mail, Britain's second biggest-selling daily newspaper, reported this news too. Congrats to Bo Davis. You are famous now.

Update 4: After appearing on The Daily Mail, the news is now reported in The Guardian's blog. What's next? BBC?

Update 5: Reported on USA Today.

Update 6: Bo Davis apologised. I guess it's time to move on guys.

Posted by DK at 1:25 PM | Comments

It is interesting how some people interpret things online, especially in forums.

I was reading the news regarding that guy who caused the death of a car saleswoman while test driving a Mazda. The lawyer seems to be trying very hard to plea for a lighter sentence by saying how sorry that guy is and how his life has changed after the accident. Come on lah. How bad can his life be? He was still deciding between a Subaru WRX and a Volkswagen Golf GTI few months back.

Anyway, I almost fell off my chair when I saw this.

Mr Tay (The lawyer) added that Lee's family has received hate mail and threats "ranging from burning down their house to beating up his mother".

Burning down their house and beating up his mum? Hmmm....
Is he referring to this picture?



Those who frequent forums in Singapore would have come across this picture that has been circulating the major forums like HWZ and SPUG for quite some time. Someone will post this picture when someone did something which everyone dislikes. It’s a joke that is repeated over and over again in most forums. The picture is from one of Stephen Chow’s movie. It never fail to make me laugh.

I also ganna this picture couple of times by a few joker forum friends. Should I make a police report regarding those threats?

Don't be a moron. You think forum people so free ah? Go burn your house and beat your mother? You must be crazy.

BTW, someone did a 300 version for this picture. Way cool.



PS: Can’t believe that guy only get 7 months jail and 10 years driving ban. 7 months for causing a person's death???

"This is madness!!!!"
"No. THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA SINGAPOREEEEE!!!!!"

Posted by DK at 5:37 PM | Comments

Just came back from Asia's First Facebook Developer Garage.



It wasn't really what I was expecting. I was expecting it to be a little bit more technical. But it makes me feel like its a facebook version of popout. OK, maybe I was expecting too much.

The presentation by Dr Shaun Martin from Mindwasabi was great. Was expecting more from battle stations since I'm using it. But was kinda disappointed.

At the end of the presentation, everyone break out into 3 groups. One group on technical aspect, one group on Social impact and the last one on monetization. No prize for guessing which group most of the people joined.

For me, I was wondering around all three groups. Was hoping that the technical group would go into details on developing apps on facebook. But they didn't. Social impact has an interesting discussion going on. As for monetization, well, there isn't anything new from the discussion. Still the same methods of having ads or hoping someone will buy your ads.

End of the day, it was a nice event. Some of them stayed back for an overnight Hackathon. I didn't cause I need to work the next day. Plus I don't know how to develope facebook apps yet.

Hope to see another Facebook Developer Garage soon. Hopefully by then, I could contribute a bit.
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One interesting question pop into my mind today during the breakout session.

How long will facebook last? Will it become less popular someday like friendster?
I don't know. On one hand, facebook is not just a social networking site. It create a platform for developers to write apps. And these apps will make the user keep returning to facebook.

Will facebook ever fade off?

Posted by DK at 1:47 AM | Comments

My nightmare come true. There was an error in one of the big request that I did recently. The error was rather large. So large that it is pretty hard to extract the affected data. This is going to be a headache.

Actually, I sort of expected an error to occur. The management for this request was bad. Wasn't comfortable when doing the whole request as the requirement wasn't very clearly stated. The sub teamlead didn't really know what was going on to begin with.

The error occur because he gave me the wrong information.

But while one finger is pointing at him, the other four finger is point back at myself.

I could have spotted the error in the info. But it just slip pass me. I wonder if I'm careless or the scope is too big. I spend quite some time checking back my stuff, but I didn't catch that error. In a way, I couldn't have caught it because I didn't expect the information given was wrong.

So here we go again. This isn't the first time I created an error at work. And it seems that I always got the big ass error around. Is it because I'm more careless? Or the things that I do are more prone to error?

Going to be a busy day. Still couldn't find out the damage yet. And the director already knows about it. Damn. I hate it when that group of people found error in the system. They will quickly shoot email all the way to the top. Can't they wait till we have a clearer picture of what happen before reporting the case? Now everyone is asking for the figures which I have none.

Oh well. Its going to be a tough battle.

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And when the world is falling apart, its comforting to have you by my side supporting me. Really appreciate it. You put my mind at ease.

I don't know how long would you be there for me. Wish you could be by my side forever.

Posted by DK at 1:35 AM | Comments

Was having dinner and beer with 3 friends last Thursday. 2 of them are successful entrepreneur while the other is an upcoming entrepreneur. And I haven’t started my first step yet. Well, they don’t call me a procrastinator for nothing.

It has been almost 5 months since I last made up my mind on what I want to do next. I haven’t taken any physical steps yet. I am still planning. And the plans keep changing. Even up till now, my plans are still changing whenever I sit down and think about it. I hope they are changing for the better. I got a rough outlines of the things that I wanted to do.

But when I told them about my plans, they told me that it was too big and ambitious. It would be hard because it simply covered too many things and there is no focus.

I agree with them. It is indeed big after sitting back to think about it. And I doubt I’ll be able to employ anyone at early stage to help out. Am I really sure that I want to do this? Besides, this is not my field of expertise. I’m entering a new playing ground which I have totally no experienced in.

The conversation got me thinking for the past few days. I just couldn’t let go of my ideas. They do have a point. The chances of failing are pretty high as the scope is very big. Perhaps that is why there aren’t many people doing this. And those who are doing it didn’t manage to make it big.

But still, I feel like giving it a try. Perhaps I could make it work? And even if it doesn’t work, I won’t fall badly. Just lose a couple hundreds of dollars and my time. Why not give it a try?

Just like what Donald Trump said: "If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big"

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They also suggest that I do something which they think I’m good in. I’m not exactly sure if I’m really good at that. Everyone seems to be saying that I’m good at doing that thing, but I personally feel that I’m just average at it. The plan was rather interesting. In fact, I did thought about doing something similar in the past. But I didn’t go about doing it because lack of connections. But one of my friend said he could get me the connections if I want.

Perhaps I can consider doing it while doing my own project.

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Finally come out with a meaningful domain name which is easy to remember. Most importantly, the .com and .sg version are still available.

I guess getting a domain name for both .com and .sg is important. Few days ago, I wanted to go stomp to read some jokes but I forgotten that it is suppose to be stomp.sg. I entered stomp.com and got to another site.

Luckily it wasn't a porn site.

Posted by DK at 10:39 AM | Comments

Lost track of the number of times that I end up listening to this song with a bottle of Hoegaarden in my hand.

Life seems like a rollercoaster. Full of ups and downs in the process. And at the end of the ride, we still end up at where we started.

爱与不爱都需要勇气

Either way, it's going to be tough. So which way would you choose?



Sarah Mclachlan - Angel

Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There’s always one reason
To feel not good enough
And it’s hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release
Memory seeps from my veins
Let me be empty
And weightless and maybe
I’ll find some peace tonight

In the arms of an angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there

So tired of the straight line
And everywhere you turn
There’s vultures and thieves at your back
And the storm keeps on twisting
You keep on building the lie
That you make up for all that you lack
It don’t make no difference
Escaping one last time
It’s easier to believe in this sweet madness oh
This glorious sadness that brings me to my knees

In the arms of an angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here

Posted by DK at 3:19 AM | Comments

If you go clubing, you pay for the entrance fee and beer.
If you go out for dinner, you pay for the food and drinks.
If you take drugs, you pay for the drug. But that is not the only thing you need to pay.

This is the message that National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) wants to spread to the youth thru a series of campaign that will run from October 2007 to February 2008.

Litford invited me to the NCADA press conference last Wednesday morning at SMU but I couldn't attend due to work commitments. Damn. Sometimes I wish I'm a freelancer or student who isn't tied to the desk during office hours. Heard that it was an interesting press conference with graffiti arts by street artist Zack and his four young proteges from SMU.



This is the usual ads we see.



This is the ads after graffiti arts.



Brilliant right? I must say this is the best campaign ads I've ever seen. There are a couple more ads created by Zack. You should be able to see them soon on Magazine, Newspaper and bus stops. And these are real ads from companies that was being 'vandalised'.

By disrupting the glamour of such imagery in this surprising and unexpected way, NCADA aims to deliver the message that drugs can potentially take away everything you have: your life, your freedom, your privacy, and even your future. The threat of losing everything is to convince youth who abuse drugs to stop and to convey to those thinking of experimenting, that it’s really not worth taking up.

I feel that these ads really drive the message home. Well done guys.

Besides Zack, the media also mentioned that 7 bloggers has also been roped in to help spread the message. Which is why you are seeing me blogging about this now.

But the media forgot to mention another group of people who are helping to spread the message on anti-drugs. That group of people is blog readers like you. You can do your part by spreading the message to the people around you.

Drugs. If you play, you pay.

Posted by DK at 2:46 PM | Comments

By supporting the Repeal 377A movement, I’m not saying that I support the gay communities and their activities. I’m accepting the fact that we are different and believe that we should be given the choice to choose what we want.

I do admit that I don’t really like gays. It is just my preference. But that doesn’t stop me from having friends who are gay. I don’t see why my personal preference should affect the people around me. I have my choice and I strongly believe that they have theirs too.

In life, there are lots of things that you like and dislike. Disliking something doesn’t mean that you should stop others from doing it. There are so many things in life that we dislike. Should we ban all of them? Can we ban all of them in the first place? So what do we aim to achieve at the end of the day? Why can’t we accept someone who is different?

Why should we stop others from doing something that they like? Why should we force them to do the same thing as we are doing? They are not doing any harm. It’s between 2 willing party. So why not just let them do whatever they want?

It’s not about gay. It’s about equality.
You may not like it, but let them have a choice.

NMP Mr Siew Kum Hong has done his part.
Thousands of Singaporeans has done their part
The artists has done their part
I’ve done my part too.

Have you done your part to make Singapore an open and inclusive society?

In his inaugural speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has promised to be a leader for all Singaporeans and invited them to join him in writing the next chapter of the Singapore story.

He wants an "open and inclusive" society where Singaporeans are free to be unconventional or simply different, but at the same time with a deep common purpose and identity.

Posted by DK at 1:41 PM | Comments

Good news everyone. Singapore's press freedom index has gone up. The figure in 2006 shows that Singapore's press freedom index is at 51,50. The latest figure by Reporters Without Borders for 2007 shows that Singapore's press freedom index is at 56,00. Congrat! We are having more press freedom. Our worldwide ranking has jumped from position 146 to 141 out of 169 countries. Quite an impressive achievement.

It shows that the Government is doing a good job in allowing press freedom. So who says Singapore don't have press freedom? We have more press freedom than 28 other countries in the world. Go talk to the 28 countries first before saying Singapore has no press freedom.

Singapore's ranking has overtaken Afghanistan this year! Well done everyone. Looks like the Talibans aren't giving their press too much freedom this year. Shame on the Talibans. And Singapore is catching up with Sudan soon. Lets hope we will over take Sudan next year.

But we still lose to our neighbour Malaysia. Malaysia's ranking is at 124. Malaysia very Boleh. Their press must be very free. That why they have so much freedom.

Don't worry. Our minister will make sure that we will not lose to Malaysia next year. But in order for our minister to improve our press freedom index, they need another round of pay increment.

Congrats everyone. Singapore is having more press freedom! Keep up the good work.

Labels: DK's Evil Twin

Posted by DK's evil twin brother at 1:46 PM | Comments

Been trying to think of a domain name lately. It is for some project which I will be embarking when my exams are over. But most of the domain names that I come out with are registered. Can't seem to find any that is good and available. Maybe my creativities juice has run out.

Finding a domain name is like finding name for your own new born baby. Your child is going to live with that name for the rest of his/her life. That is why finding a right name is very important. I still remember I got a friend in secondary school by the name "建仁". Nothing wrong with the meaning, but the 2 words sound like "贱人" (Cheap person). I heard that he went to the lawyer firm to change his name on the day he reaches 21 years old.

A domain name is a branding. A name that you will be using for marketing. A name that people will recognize you as. Which is why you should try to make your domain name relevant to the things you are doing or at least think of a catchy name.

A domain name should be easy to pronounce, easy to spell and hard to misspell. And most importantly, it should be easy to remember.

That is where the challenge is. I couldn’t think of any name that matches the above requirements. I’m not really a creative person and I'm not very good with English words to come out with something catchy. All the names that I come out with so far are already taken. Perhaps I’m too late.

Actually, I thought of an interesting domain name today morning. But that domain name for the .com version has already been taken up. It was registered by some company that buy domain name to sell at a higher price. I don’t think I’ll want to waste my money buying from them.

But that domain name for .sg is still available. Am wondering…. Should I register the .sg domain name? Will there be a branding issue in the future? Especially when the .com version has been taken up.

How? Should I go ahead and register the .sg version? Or crack my head further for a better domain name? Any suggestions?

Posted by DK at 11:26 AM | Comments

Shit... I must have offended someone on my blog. My friend forward this video clip to me yesterday. Apparently there is a serial killer on the loose and his next target is "Decayonnet"!?!?!?

Surely there can't be another "Decayonnet" in this world.

OK, if I don't update my blog that frequently, please make a police report.

Should I go into hiding? Or should I contact the police?
HELP!!!!

Posted by DK at 1:25 PM | Comments

After reading Kevin's blog entry about Roti Prata, I guess I should show him what a real instant Roti Prata looks like. That poor guy must have been in the states for too long until he has forgotten what a Roti Prata looks like. That picture in his blog looks FAR from Roti Prata.

I need to do something to Singaporize him. Maybe I'll blog about the instant Roti Prata that I usually eat at home.



This is the Instant Roti Prata that I eat at home. It is very convenient and easy to cook. Look, if DK can cook this, I doubt anyone will have problem with it. I usually get the 20 piece pack. I usually have 2 prata for breakfast on a lazy weekend.



First, you take the uncooked Roti Prata out. It is covered with 2 plastic sheet, which obviously you need to remove it before throwing into your frying pan. There is no need to defrost it. In fact, you shouldn't defrost it. Just take out from freezer, remove plastic sheet and throw into frying pan.



There is no need to add oil if you are using non-stick pan. After 3 minutes or so (depending on the heat of your frying pan), flip the Roti Prata over and let it cook on the other side. Over the years, I've mastered the skill of tossing the Prata into the air to flip it. Will demo in the future if I get a video recorder. :D

Usually I'll flip it a few more times to make it more evenly cooked. If you like your Prata to be more burnt, you can cook it longer. I don't really like burnt Roti Prata.



This is the cooked instant Roti Prata. Looks almost like the real thing. Taste roughly the same as the Roti Prata you get from kopitiam. Too bad they don't come with curry.

Oh, btw... Kevin is campaigning for a $10k blog scholarship. Do vote for him so that he can use the $10k to buy real Roti Prata.

Posted by DK at 9:45 PM | Comments

Sometimes I wonder how unlucky I can be.

Went to the petrol station to top up fuel after work yesterday. After paying for the petrol, I went back to the car, only to discover that I couldn't start the engine. It seems like something is wrong with the battery.



Well, you might think that it can't be that bad since I'm in a petrol station. You are wrong. The workshop at the petrol station is closed for the day. So I tried some DIY. After several unsuccessful attempts to start the engine, I decide to open the bonnet to check out what's wrong. But well I know nuts about repairing cars. All I can do is open the bonnet and look inside.

All this while, not a single petrol station staff came forward to help. Neither did they even come over to see what is going on. By opening the bonnet, it is obvious that something is wrong with my car. So my car is parked infront of the petrol pump, blocking others to use that pump. They don't seem to bother anyway.

Pretty pissed off with the service at that petrol station. I'm your customer. My car broke down just after pumping petrol. The least you can do is come check what happen and see if your store has anything that can help.

Nobody came forward.

I called our car workshop and they said they need 45 minutes to reach my location. So I waited.... outside the petrol station. The guy lost his way and took 1 hour to reach. The repair was simple. Just change the battery and the car is back in order. But I still need to send the car to workshop again to check if everything is alright. Am busy lately. Will have to wait till the weekends.

It was late already and I haven't had my dinner. I could had gone into the store in the petrol station to buy some bread or something. But I simply refuse to let them have my business. Sorry, but you lost a customer.

I will never go to the Shell Petrol Station along AMK Ave 8 again.

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As I was waiting for the repair car to come, I was wondering... Why can't we use the handphone in the petrol station. Is there really a danger?

-----------------------

I remember a joke that says that whenever a car breaks down, the guy will always open the bonnet and look inside. Even though he doesn't know anything about car repair and don't know what is he looking for.

Don't believe? Next time a guy open the bonnet when the car breaks down, try asking him what is he looking for. Most of the time, he would tell you that he has no idea.

Then why still open the bonnet? hahaha...

Posted by DK at 12:30 AM | Comments

I really really hate it when Dad keeps things to himself and don't tell us.

Dad is in hospital.

Apparently, he been having chest pain for the past 1 week but he didn't tell anyone of us. He had a routine checkup today and he didn't intend to tell the doctor about the chest pain too. He knew that he will need to go for the operation. He been delaying the operation for few years already.

But the doctor found something amiss when he reads the report from the medical checkup. That is when my dad decides to tell the doctor about his chest pain. The doctor want him to stay in hospital and go for operation the next day but dad was bargaining with the doctor, hoping he would delay the operation till Nov. The doctor simply ignore him, continue to write in his medical records and ask the nurse to arrange a hospital bed for him.

And he didn't intend to tell us that he is in hospital until I called him on his handphone. We are one family. If you don't tell us, then who are you going to tell? I understand that he doesn't want us to worry. But then, as family members, shouldn't we be present when needed?

Everyone is now asking me why I didn't know that dad is having chest pain for almost a week. Seriously, I can't tell unless he says. He look normal everyday at home. So how am I suppose to know something is wrong? Although nobody is blaming me, but it really sucks to know that your dad been having chest pain for a week plus and didn't tell you.

I hate it when my dad keeps things to himself.

Posted by DK at 11:51 PM | Comments

Putraworks was blogging about Nuffnang imposing a SGD$1 transaction fee for all cash out recently. Nuffnang claims that the $1 transaction fee is for postage, cheques, materials, and handling cost. The entry created quite a big hoo ha and was the most popular post of that day in ping.sg.

Ming, co founder of Nuffnang, saw that article and replied in the comment box, giving more details on how they derive the $1 transaction fee.

I understand this is an unpopular decision, but in the face of significant costs which I will now break down and reveal to you, this decision has been taken by the management in consideration of long term viability.

The main bulk of costs comes in the form of cheque processing. This is something you can openly verify. UOB as with every other bank now, is charging 50 cents per cheque processed.This is in addition to the cost of the cheque book which they also charge for.

In addition to this there is the postage fee, which by 1st local is 25 cents each (for a stamp). The envelope costs 20 cents each. This brings it up to 95 cents, which means 5 cents for the paper, ink and labour. Labour includes time taken to print out the letter, verify the amount, pack it, and send it off.

Labour is more or less subsidised and free in this instance.

One mistake I will admit to making and can rectify immediatly is that we did not give any lead time for implementation. As a result, this action will be delayed till november. I will update all nuffnangers in the next community update.

I look forward to your continued support.

Am glad that Ming steps out and explains the $1 fee. But as I was reading, I felt that something was wrong.

Lets breakdown the $1 transaction fee first.
$0.50 – Cheque processing fee
$0.25 – Stamp
$0.20 – Envelope
$0.05 – Paper, ink and labour

Ming is correct to say that the operational cost has gone up recently. With effect from 1 Oct 2007, UOB charge $0.50 for every cheque processed. The first 30 cheques will be waived. But lets just assume that Nuffnang have their own bills to pay too and used up the 30 cheque quota every month.

But the rest of the items are existing operational cost. Stamp, envelope, paper, ink and labour charges have been there since day one. They are nothing new. Was there an increase in prices lately? If there isn’t, then these items shouldn’t be added into the new transaction fee. In fact, when deciding the payment structure, these items would have already been put into consideration. Why is Nuffnang passing these charges to bloggers now?

So technically speaking, the increase is only $0.50. How much additional operational cost is that? Currently, there is a total of 2500 Nuffnangers. Assuming 10% of the Nuffnanger cashout every month, the increase in operational cost will be just $125 per month. Surely a company of Nuffnang size is able to absorb this little increase in operational cost.

And if you really think about it, do they really have 250 cashout every month?

The saddest part of this whole incident is not about the $1 transaction fee. It is the mentality of the management. $1 is a small amount and I'm sure everyone can afford it. But when operational cost goes up, instead of finding ways to cut cost, the management decides to pass the additional cost to consumers.

Well, passing the cost to consumers is easy. That's what our public transport companies always do.

Posted by DK at 11:15 AM | Comments

Notice that there is an increasing number of Oktoberfest celebration in Singapore lately. Perhaps it is because of the Paulaner microbrewery at Millenia Walk that brings the German celebration to Singapore.

Oktoberfest is a three-week festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September and early October. It begin in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of their Crown Prince. Well, the people of Munich really love to party and has been partying every year for the past 197 years.

Some people claims that Oktoberfest is a tourist trap and the food and beer sold were more expensive compared to normal days. Not quite sure if that is true. Well, who cares? So long as there is good food and beer.

I was at Vivo City last Saturday afternoon when I remember that Brotzeit (That great place which serve Paulaner Beer at Vivo City's waterfront) is having a Oktoberfest celebration for the weekend. So I went over to check it out. Imagine having beer and meat for lunch. Shoik.

Ordered their pork knuckle. Well, how can you have Oktoberfest celebrations without pork knuckle?



Actually, this is the first time I had pork knuckle. Unbelievable right? Especially when I love pork so much.

The beer for that day is specially brewed for Oktoberfest. It goes well with the pork knuckle.



Had 0.5 litres instead of 1 litres cause I'm driving. Remember, if you drink, don't drive. The Oktoberfest beer is stronger but rather smooth. Too bad they don't sell this beer on normal days.

And as we are eating and drinking, a german band was playing in the background. So this is how Oktoberfest should be. Eating meat and drinking beer. Life is an enjoyment.

---------------
Don't feel sad if you missed the Oktoberfest celebration this year. Erdinger Weissbier will brings the Oktoberfest festive spirit to Singapore between 12 Oct to 15 Oct.

Nevermind if the real Oktoberfest at Munich ends on 7 Oct 2007.
Nevermind if Erdinger isn't one of the Brewery taking part in the real Oktoberfest at Munich.
Most people can't tell the differences. (I can't tell the difference too)

---------------
I'm glad that I 'celebrated' Oktoberfest before 7 Oct and drank the Oktoberfest beer specially brewed by Paulaner.

Posted by DK at 9:57 AM | Comments

**Should had posted this few days ago. Been busy with some stuff lately.**

Got a Birthday Card and $10 Polar voucher from my director a couple of weeks ago. Its the HR policy to give employee a birthday card and some voucher on their birthday month.



Over the years in this company, I've gotten vouchers from McDonalds, Delifrance and Burger King. Would still prefer vouchers from Burger King. But the uncles and aunties in my company doesn't like it. Someone suggested voucher from supermarket like NTUC or coldstorage. I hope they don't listen to this feedback.

Prudential send me a card as I'm a member of their PruPrestige club. Pretty nice card. Seems to be hand signed by their CEO. Don't think the signature is printed on the card. Poor guy. Have to sign so many birthday card each month. (Or maybe he got his PA to sign on his behalf? haha.)

Starrynite gave me a ONTO Headphone and Tiesto's In Search for Sunrise 6 CD.



Love the headphone a lot. Am using it in office now. Good for drowning out noise in the office when I need to concentrate. And also a perfect match with the Tiesto CD which I've been listening non-stop lately.

Starrynite also got me a ultra sinful chocolate fudge cake from *some top secret location*. Its not as famous as Lana Cake and google didn't seem to return any results. But it smells good and taste heavenly. Starrynite was complaining about all the noise I made when eating the cake.

Can't help ok. Who say guys cannot make orgasmic sound when eating chocolate fudge cake? Its my birthday cake and I can make any noise I like when eating. BLEAH!



The cake deco looks nice also. Starrynite and I love it. :)

Wondering if I should reveal the secret location of this wonderful cake shop or not. :P

Posted by DK at 1:39 PM | Comments

I’m beginning to worry about blogging about work issue. Been playing with facebook lately and added a few colleagues to my friend list. Well, they are close colleagues and I don’t mind letting them read about my work rant. But there are also quite a number of other colleagues in their friend list. And since I’ve added the cool ping.sg facebook apps, anyone who checkout my facebook profile would know about my blog. And they will know if I say bad things about them.

But then, what the heck. Why bother?

So.... Warning: Work Rant ahead.

A colleague of mine just gave birth to a baby boy last weekend. Congrats.

She is now on maternity leave. Meaning the team is short of 1 person for 2 months. Her due date was suppose to be 2 weeks later but I was joking with her last Friday that she better start her handover session soon in case she give birth on the coming weekend. And she gave birth the next day. Anyway, this kind of thing is rather hard to predict. Sometimes it would go off the mark by a few weeks.

Although I’m not under the same sub-team as her, I was expecting to get some of her work as I used to be from that subteam. (Plus I’m quite free lately. Look, I’m even blogging during office hours. Pray boss doesn’t see this.) At first I thought she don’t have any outstanding issue since I didn’t hear anything from her sub teamlead on Monday and Tuesday. I was on leave on Wednesday and when I came back on Thursday, I saw 1 big request inside my mailbox. Huge one.

And it is not those last minute request. The whole thing was in discussion since early September and they expect to roll out today. And the sub teamlead didn’t have any backup plans like getting a coverer ready and keeping the person inform about the latest developments. He thinks that the doctor’s prediction is very accurate.

And he didn’t notice that the request wasn't done it until Wednesday. I heard from my colleagues that he made lots of noise and complaint that he has no resource and stuff. True, he don’t have any resource to serve that request. But he could have requested for backup much earlier. Not until the last minute then make noise. He was lucky that he managed to get the requester delay the production date to next Friday. Else how is it possible for me to complete such a big request within a day?

And when I ask him for the details about the request, he couldn’t give me. Then how? Call my colleague and disturb her maternity leave? Crazy. Anyway, I managed to find the details after checking around and asking other colleagues.

Conclusion: Bad management. No backup plans, no tracking of what your staff is doing and no knowledge about the request. Sigh.

But actually, I’m the pot calling the kettle black.

I was assigned to be the owner of one of the request. Am suppose to consolidate the total effort by every team but I missed out one team. Its not that I’m careless or anything. But this team is never at the analysis stage and never need to attend any meeting or get information from users. Our team does their requirement gathering for them and send them the information for them to work on.

They are so isolated that I forgotten that they are in this project. Oops.

Posted by DK at 4:19 PM | Comments

Most of the time, the thing u desire the most is the one thing u can't have.

你是爱我的. 我是爱你的.
Just that we can't be together.

张惠妹 - 你是爱我的



同样的一场日落
同样你还是没说
只是抱紧我
时间一到就松手

你用一万个理由
都比沉默还温柔
为什么爱我又不断退后
你害怕的是什么
你想要的是什么
站在你背后
我连呼吸都痛

我要 相信你是爱我的
我要 相信你是勇敢的
我烦 时间是最残酷的
我怎么等

我要 相信你是爱我的
不要 当我每次唱情歌
眼里总有太多泪
不停拉扯

我用一万个答案
解释我们的距离
到最后发现我全都猜错
你害怕的是什么
你想要的是什么
站在你背后
我连呼吸都痛

我要 相信你是爱我的
我要 相信你是勇敢的
我烦 时间是最残酷的
我怎么等

我要 相信你是爱我的
不要 当我每次唱情歌
眼里总有太多泪
不停拉扯

你怀里有太多问号
告诉我怎么依靠

我要 相信你是爱我的
我要 相信你是勇敢的
我烦 时间是最残酷的
我怎么等

我要 相信你是爱我的
不要 当我每次唱情歌
眼里总有太多泪
不停拉扯

Posted by DK at 2:02 AM | Comments

1) Choose a current event that is having lots of media attention. (Preferably a gross human rights violation)

2) Ask all bloggers to blog about that issue on a fixed day and declare that day as International Blogger day.

3) Create nice banners and request everyone to link to your site when blogging about that issue.

4) Spread the words.

5) Sit back and watch your traffic and technorati raking go up.

6) Do nothing to help solve the issue.

Additional Notes:
* It doesn’t matter if you are of no authority to declare a day as “International Blogger Day”. Nobody will bother to check your authority.

* It doesn’t matter if someone else had declared “International Blogger Day” previously. Everyday can be International Blogger Day if there is a gross human rights violation.

* It doesn’t matter if you do nothing to help solve the issue. Everyone will think that you are promoting awareness of the issue.

* Even when the mainstream media is covering the story 24/7, it is still not enough awareness.

* We need bloggers to promote awareness in case there are people who are living in a well and has no access to any form of media except blogs.

PS: I’m concern about the events that are happening recently. But I just can’t stand it when people are trying to leverage on the current situation for their own selfish gains.

Labels: DK's Evil Twin

Posted by DK's evil twin brother at 12:16 PM | Comments

Saw this quote from Grey's Anatomy recently.

We only see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe, and it works. We lie to ourselves so much that after a while the lies start to seem like the truth. We deny so much that we can’t recognize the truth right in front of our faces.

In a way, I think that is the state that I was in lately. Only want to believe in things that I want to believe. Denying the truth about the problems and obstacles that we are facing. Even when the truth is right infront of my face, I still choose to decide.

It wasn't easy to let go. It never will. But I can't go on denying the truth. I can't pretend that things will work out eventually when everything just doesn't seems to be in our favors. After all, we are from two different worlds. There are just too many issues that cannot be solved. We tried to work things out but it just doesn't work.

Perhaps I should face the truth. It was never meant to be.

It hurts to be making the decision to let go on my birthday. But other than letting go, there just isn't other way to go. Its not considered breakup because we didn't become together to begin with. Its just letting go.

Had too many rejections and breakups in my life. But none of them as painful as this. The feelings for each other is still there. Just that we have to force ourselves to keep a distance because of the issues that could never be resolved.

Perhaps we are letting go because we love each other too much that we do not wish the other party to be hurt even further. Perhaps this is better for the both of us.

Posted by DK at 1:40 AM | Comments

Happy birthday to Joyce and Kimmi.
And of cos, Happy birthday to myself too.

Wow.... Another year has pass. I still remember I was alone at east coast last year at this time. Was walking along the beach, listening to the sea and thinking about some stuff. Its amazing how fast time flies.

I always use my birthday and New Year eve to think back about the things that I've done for the year. Its like a checkpoint. To see where are you now.

I still remember my wish last year was "Let me find what I'm looking for". Sound funny right? But when you are 26 years old and still don't know what you are looking for, then something is seriously wrong with your life.

I'm glad that I've found what I'm looking for on my 27 birthday. I know what I want now. But the thing is, I couldn't seem to get it. They seem too far away for me to reach. I don't know which is sadder, not knowing what you are looking for or know what you are looking for but couldn't get it.

If I have a wish this birthday, I'll wish for the strength and courage to chase the things that I'm looking for.

Posted by DK at 12:19 AM | Comments

輸了你贏了世界又如何?
Have you ever encountered this feeling before?

And I sit down wondering, what the meaning of having everything, if it is without you by my side sharing the joy and happiness. Things just aren't the same anymore without you.

優客李林 - 輸了你贏了世界又如何



朦朧之間　彷彿我又看見妳的臉
依然帶著淡淡憂愁的雙眼　忽隱忽現
就當全是一場夢　不必掩飾我的錯
無奈的哭笑不必找牽強的理由
就讓她日日夜夜刺痛我胸口
讓我眼神沒有焦點　淚水模糊我的視線

輸了妳　贏了世界又如何
妳曾渴望的夢　我想我永遠不會懂
我失去妳　贏了一切卻依然如此冷清
有誰又能讓我傾心　除了妳

妳我之間　難道沒有剩下一點點
一點曾經刻骨銘心的眷戀　讓妳掛念
我只能說如今我已無處可躲
當我默默黯然回首　當我看盡潮起潮落

Posted by DK at 8:12 PM | Comments

Today is China's National Day. Wish all my PRC readers a happy national day. (I'm not even sure if there are any PRC readers here. I know that blogspot is blocked by China's great firewall)

义勇军进行曲



起来！不愿做奴隶的人们！
把我们的血肉，筑成我们新的长城！
中华民族到了最危险的时候，
每个人被迫着发出最后的吼声。
起来！起来！起来！
我们万众一心，
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！
前进！前进！进！

You might be wondering, what does China's National Day got to do with Singapore. Well, look around you and I'm sure you can find at least one item that is made in China. You can't live a day without using a single product that is made in China. It has 1/5 of the world's population. That is 1.3billion of them. Do you know that they can cause a flood in Singapore if all of them spit in our country? (Gross!)

So how does China's National Day affect me? Well, National Day is an important day in China, together with Chinese New Year and Labour Day. Everyone in China is on a week long leave. Which means that there is nobody working at the outsource office.

Am beginning to miss the staffs there. Yes, they always make errors at work. But I have to admit they are good at doing simple but manure work. Got a request today to do some shit job. Usually, I would just send these simple but tedious task to China. But I have to do it myself this time round.

OK, just endure for a week and they will be back.

PS: I know, today is also children day. But we aren't children anymore. (At least not on the outside. But I'm sure we are still children at heart. :D )

Posted by DK at 1:22 PM | Comments