PAP

We had fun meeting the MP last night. MP stands for Member of Parliament. People in Singapore are taken care by different MP assigned based on location/region. The MP is similar to the magistrate of the olden China where people beat the drum to complain about injustice. This is the first time for us to do so. I have outlined the procedure below:

1. Register with your I/C. They will assign a number to you. They will also ask you whether this is your first time here. Find a place to wait.

2. Report your problem to the screener(s). One of the helpers will call your number. Make your way to the screening table. The person(s) sitting there will help to record your problem and provide some feedback. Then wait.

—If the MP arrives—-

You will see him/her shaking hand with the helpers.

—While you are waiting—

The helper will pass your recording document to the “backend” (another room) to start typing out the letter and get it ready to be signed by the MP.

—While you are waiting further—

There will be helper who spot check on you whether you are still around to see the MP. He/she will tell you to standby.

3. Meet the MP finally. Very chop chop! Remember to thanks the MP when you leave.

Tips:

Remember to go there at least an hour early. If the session starts on 8pm, go at 7pm and queue up. YES! Queue starts forming an hour before! We counted 10 people in front of us but we had a bigger queue number!

Remember to shake hand with the MP. It is suppose to bring good luck. They won the recent election. I forgot!

Do not be upset if someone jumped the queue to meet the MP. Meeting the MP is just like meeting the doctor at the A&E. There can be life and death situation at meeting the MP. We heard one couple jumped queue saying someone has only 3 months left to live!

Meeting the MP is not just for local citizen. Foreigners like to meet the MP too. We saw Ang Moh and China woman queue up as well. Not sure their problems.

Please be patient when you are told to standby. We had uncles who have standby for more than 30 mins. We also standby for more than an hour.

The helpers are very friendly people. Do approach them for any assistance.

Side joke:

Me: Uncle, what is your number? (Hokkien)

Uncle: 12.

Me: Er.. we are number 16. (saw another old auntie laughing at us) They told us to standby. Have you seen the MP?

Uncle: Not yet. Someone jumped the queue.

Me: ???

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1. Increase the rams, double it for best result – This is usually the cheapest and most effective for most people.

Take note:

A. 32 bits OS can only use up to 4GB ram. Anything more will be wasted. Furthermore, you get only 3.5GB because the rest are lost to the I/O address range.

B. 64 bits OS can use more rams and there is no wastage like above.

C. Watch out for the CAS Latency. It is the delay time between the moment a memory controller tells the memory module to access a particular memory column on a RAM memory module, and the moment the data from given array location is available on the module’s output pins. In general, the lower the CAS latency, the better. When i was shopping tonight, i saw CL6 selling for $30 and CL5 selling for $31. I picked the $31 of course.

2. Change the cpu, double the speed for best result. Use the fastest cpu that your motherboard can support. Chance are this cpu is likely to be cheap because there will be new technology, new motherboard and new cpu format.

A. Change to higher speed.

B. Change to Core 2 Duo from single core.

C. Change to a large cache size from B.

D. Change to Core 2 Quad from C.

E. Change to even bigger cache size.

F. Change to even more core than supported by your own motherboard.

Depending on your motherboard, i do not recommend upgrading the hard drive or display card unless you have strong reason to do so.

Enjoy!

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iPad 2

After reading so many of such reports, i found that they are starting to repeat. Most people do not have anything new to add to it. People are guessing. It will have better resolution, it will have front and back camera, it will have USB port etc. Does anyone know how difficult it will be to take a picture with a iPad 2 using its back camera? You can imagine yourself with a A4 sheet of paper. Does that feel good? Does it feel fantastic? I think the answer is No and No. Unless Apple iPad 2 designer is trying to get creative.

Here is why you should not wait:

1. iPad 2 is likely to arrive in your country late. Even though the news report said it will launch in Feb 2011, it is unlikely to happen. If you follow Apple’s sales motion, different country got their iPad with a later date. They just launched in South Korea. It was launched in the States on April 2010. If there is an iPad 2, you will probably need to wait till Apr or Jun or Aug or Oct 2011 for it to reach your country through the legal channels.

2. iPad is selling like hot cakes, it is insane to launch a new model to kill the current iPad’s sales. A new model to compliment the current iPad is possible, such as the 7″ version?. A 7″ iPad 2 is of no use to me. I wonder why somebody will come out with a 7″ model in the first place.

3. iPad 2 is likely to be more expensive. Doesn’t all new product sells at a premium?

4. If the current iPad meets your need, then you may be better off to get it. iPad is a very odd ball toy. You either love it or hate it. Identify your needs and how to make the iPad works for you and not the other way around.

5. the iPad accessories should be compatible to the iPad 2. This is my guess.

6. You can also hold your purchase for Apple to drop price on the iPad when the iPad 2 is out.

Buy – buy – buy!

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1. Expensive and Very Good

2. Expensive and No Good

3. Cheap and Good

4. Very Cheap and Never Good

I decided on the ASUS Xonar DX after reading some reviews online. This sound card is not a latest technology product. In fact it was selling since 2008. I did not do much homework on this. You can google/yahoo it to find them.

It belongs to the Cat 3 above. I bought it with some interesting encounter. ..

I went to the shop to check out. The shop was selling it at a much higher price. So i confronted the seller

“Hey, your website priced it at $$$”

Seller: “The best price is >$$$” (112% of website price)

“Then i don’t want it”

Seller: “Please wait for a while” Made a phone call. “It’s a deal if you can pay by cash”

“Deal”

ASUS Xonar DX

It is cheap but the build quality is there. Just look like all the solid state capacitors. No wonder ASUS can provide 3 years warranty!I wonder why Creative is not using them? Food for their thought.

So i hooked it up to my Roland MA-12C monitor speakers i got more than 10 years ago. They are still working and they are Made in Japan.

I tried playing different style of music with it and they are really clean (the front channel is 116db SNR). When i played my dance songs (all the 10 standard dances , the beats are so clean, i wonder whether my ears have improved. I realised i have been using inferior product for the past 3 years! *HORROR*

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Many thanks to the OCBC bank and those staffs who have helped me. I know i could depend on you.

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Nevertheless, i noticed i have been able to copy the Japan Hour image from the DVD recordable at 5 mins! When i was still on the old IDE writer, i need around 30 mins to copy 2 x 1 GB files. When i used my USB external writer, i can copy the same files in around 17 mins. This new SATA writer can do it so fast!

Pioneer DVR-S18L

Good buy!

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Singapore Formula 1 pass

I also managed to secure another pass so that i can bring my gf to experience the Singapore Formula 1. After we passed the security check point and crossed the bridge, the whole thing turned ugly. I felt the organizer could have done better.

1. It was s nice idea for them to cover the Padang field with some foam material. However, when we stepped on them, muddy water quickly filled in from underneath. It has been raining heavily before. So imagine the women who wore slippers and jeans? Don’t even think about heels. The view is not going to be very “graceful”. I saw some women decided to walk around bare feet. Eeek!

2. The place is also heavily barricaded internally. We had to walk a big U turn to reach our assigned grandstand.

Singapore Formula 1

3. To the photographers, the fence sucks big time! Cant we have some bigger holes to allow us to shoot the cars?

4. I was fishy when i saw a long lines of taxis waiting for passengers. There were also 2 ushers to help you to direct the cabs. But the taxi surcharge was terrible! $5 for the F1 and $3 for CBD!

5. Where were the race queens???

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1. WD 250GB hard drive (made in 2004)

2. Lite-on DVD writer (made in Dec 2005)

3. Tissot T-touch watch (failed twice during the 2 years warranty period)

4. Seagate 500GB hard drive data corruption

5. A-Data 512MB DDR2 memory

How did i suffer such misfortune? Well, if you look at the above list, many of the parts were very old. The first 3 parts have moving internal components. I am certain it was due to wear and tear.

The data corruption was due to my fault. I will write a separate blog for it showing you the insight on how to recovery your data from a corrupted hard drive. Are you interested?

As for the last part, though there was no moving component inside, it is subjected to frequent read and write cycles. I will write a separate article on this as well on my insight to isolate the defective ram. Interested?

I have to admit all these failure have caused some disturbance mentally but i am glad i have overcame them and gained new knowledge as well.

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Mountain Tiger

There is a Chinese saying, if you climb the mountain frequently, you bound to meet the tiger!

In the same way, PayPal has been so easy to use to make online payment, i have been using it more often than before until i met the “tiger”! I used to receive very good service from PayPal to safe guard my interest for buying things and service online. It was so easy and they offer consumer protection. I have always given them high rating and try to recommend others to do so. This is what i always believe until i met my problem.

I signed up for Merchant H’s service in August to try out their service for a period of one month. The service was unsatisfactory and i have no intention to renew the subscription. One month after, i was expecting it to be discontinue but i received an email from PayPal saying that a deduction has been made to Merchant H and the amount has been deducted from my credit card! Furthermore, it was a recurring payment! Since when PayPal starts offering GIRO type service? (GIRO is a form of scheduled recurring payment very popular here). So i quickly went to the Merchant H’s website to seek for a refund but found the below message:

“When you cancel, your account will continue to be H premium until the end of the term that you have already paid for. Customers using PayPal should note that subscriptions are maintained and controlled by PayPal and not by H, but you can cancel your subscription with them at any time.”

I also email Merchant H for my refund request. Next i opened a dispute in PayPal. Below was their reply:

“If you need a refund from your subscription, please contact the seller of the Subscription. You can also file a buyer complaint if needed.”

Not very friendly reply isn’t it? Now the best part, the PayPal system blocked me from filing another complaint! You advised me to file a buyer complaint but do not allowed me to do so?! I removed all my credit cards linked to my PayPal without hesitation. Better to remove them before it starts to deduct more money!

Then the next best part, I received a PayPal feedback request. Just the thing i need! It scored Very Dissatisfied naturally but i wonder who will be reading it???

So my next action is to call PayPal Hotline. The number was routed to China’s Shanghai. I spoke to two Chinese women. Their English level were adequate, not fantastic. One of them tried to guide me to create another dispute case but it was blocked with the same message. I can’t file another complaint. Then she suggested to provide a summary of my problem so that i can forward to Merchant H. Sounds like a very good idea? I told them that Merchant H has not reply by refund email for the past 1 week. They could not help me. In a way, i got a feeling that Merchant H is some kind of major account for PayPal and PayPal was afraid to offend them. PayPal dare not to do the reversal even if they are capable to. If you can deduct the amount, you should be able to reverse it, right?

I found another email to Merchant H and wrote to them again.

“Customers using PayPal should note that subscriptions are maintained and controlled by PayPal and not by H, but you can cancel your subscription with them at any time.

To cancel your subscription paid with Paypal click here.”

Wow! Another auto-reply with the same message. I had a feeling i was caught in a loop, Merchant H said “Look for PayPal”, PayPal said look for Merchant H.

Now i have still one more option left. I called the bank. They have helped me once many years before. I spoke to the bank agent and the lady told me she will return my call after some discussion with her supervisor. Shorter after, she returned my call and told me they can help.

Now i am preparing all the information to be sent to the bank. I am not sure what will be outcome. I just want to exercise my Consumer right. My advice for other PayPal users? Let the PayPal user beware!

- To be updated -

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100

I decided to pick up the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 to many people’s surprise. Below are my initial impression of this product:

1. Physical

Very light – It weighs just 540 grams (with battery). The bulk of the construction is plastic which means “not so good” to some people. BUT it depends on how you see this area. Do you want to bring a much heavier camera such as the commonly used magnesium alloy that weighs around 1 kg? I have used a setup that consisted of a DSLR + 70 – 200mm lens that weighs 2.5 kg. It became 15 kg when fatigue came in. The good news is this is Made in Japan. So we can rest assure of the quality.

2. Bundled gift

For my package, it came with a Kingston 8GB SD card and a simple case. This Kingston SD card is also Made in Japan. Isn’t this rare?

Kingston SD card

I bought an expensive B+W UV filter to protect the lens. This is my first experience with Panasonic. Below is my initial usage impression:

What is good about it?

1. 25mm wide angle – please do not buy those with 35mm wide.

2. Flip out 3.0″ LCD – Useful for low or high shooting. Also can be use for self shoot.

3. Leica lens

4. 24x Optical Zoom

5. Full Manual Control

6. Full HD Movie – Simply superb quality.

7. 11 fps Burst Shooting – Others paid $6000 for 10 fps.

9. 1 cm Marco shoot

10. Built in EVF view finder – This is cool but i wonder how many people will use it.

What is not so good?

1. Very noisy after ISO 400 – It support ISO 6400 but i have not tried yet.

2. Irritating focus assist light

I am still trying to figure out the sweet spots of this camera. Hopefully i can bring it out for field shooting tomorrow.

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