iMode vs GPRS

It is sad to know that only Japan enjoys overwhelming success over iMode. I find iMode is a steal compared to other GPRS services which are still over charging customers in a rip-off fashion. Indeed, if you are not careful, you can be charged at a premium for GPRS data download.


iMode penetration in Singapore is slow and diminishing. Even Starhub is considering to terminate the service due to its limited popularity. It is a regret this will happen.

I have been a user of iMode since the launch and a satisfied customer based on my high usage on data on my mobile. Below is a chart to determine what plan you should be getting depending on the MB you use per month.

(Click on the picture to zoom)

We can see that iMode is the most cost effective mode of GPRS in Singapore if your data usage is above 10MB. Else, you can free to choose other plan as shown in the picture.

Some advantages of iMode are:
1) Free imode email address;
2) Free "PUSH mail";
3) Most cost effective mode if usage exceeds 10MB/mth; and
4) Many WAP sites to surf while you are mobile (to be shared with you).

Disadvantages are:
1) Limited phone models;
2) No overseas roaming;
3) Limited applications for download due to support for banking transactions; and
4) Small phone screen size.

If you find any mistakes in my tabulation, please comment or drop me an email so I can make changes.

I hope you find this chart useful, if you are paying too much for your GPRS usage, do consider a change as loyalty points or perks will never justify for the money you pay monthly.

Outsourcing

"If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not,
you're putting yourself out of business. " - Lee Kuan Yew
Brainyquote

I found 2 interesting movies on outsourcing:

1) Call Centre

2) Burger King Outsourcing




We can laugh over the movies but we laugh not on its implications. Due to wage gap in different countries and the primary objective for a company is to generate profits, outsourcing becomes an sensitive issue. It raises concerns on local employment issue and service quality to the masses. On a bigger context, we are concerned on the protection to specific industries, business survival and national security.

As the outsourcing epidemic spreads, A.J Jacobs tried to outsource his whole life to an Indian's Bangalore firm. The firm handles everything for his life including arguing with his wife, raise his son, reply his emails/calls, call his parents and read the papers on behalf of him. The ego overrides the guilt of imperalism and he proves that outsourcing works for individuals too.

Many US parents are also outsourcing child care to overseas (India @US$20.16/week while USA @US$300/week). Outsourcing seems to work fabulously and attractive to some. Perhaps, when they are old, their child will, in return, outsourcing them to Africa for retirement.

Is it a choice of priorities? Yes, it seems. Many parents choose career over duty as parents and employ overseas maids to take care of their children. It is a struggle for survival out there and only the most committed will survive. The long term repercussion will hit them just like a boomberang.

There are incidents of child abuse by maids causing panic and anxiety among parents but the question to ask is: "If you care so much, why do you still entrust this parental duty to a foreign stranger?". Sadly, the answer is a typical fact of single breadwinner cannot earn enough for a family. As such, Singaporeans are already reducing the number of children in a family and fanatically trying to earn more money. The rat race is always on despite we are already considered by many as a 1st class nation.

On another aspect, if we outsource our love life to agencies, where is the joy of making love if test tube method is chosen instead?

Using a FREE Registry Cleaner

I treat Windows Registry as the check-in counter in the hotel. If database of occupants are messed up, there is no way to locate which room the customer is staying and the hotel ceases to function.

As more and more guests check in, this database becomes messy and the registry may grow bigger. Complication appears when guests are checked out but details of the guests are still not fully deleted. Therefore, cleaning the windows registry is necessary as if performing housekeeping at home or defragmenting the harddisk.

BE WARNED: Editing the registry can be dangerous and may lead to complete failure in your computer. Therefore, it is best to backup your registry in a different drive from windows before attempts are made to clean it.

Some cleaners work better than the rest but the task becomes complicated when there are fake registry cleaners luring in the dark waiting for users to install them. The consequence is viruses or spywares can be installed, resulting in a worst situation.

Here, I have highlighted a few CLEAN registry cleaners for your consideration. They are:

1) Argene - Registry Cleaner V1.1.0.0;
2) Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal;
3) EasyCleaner 2.0;
4) Glarysoft Registry Repair 2.7; and
5) Registry Cleaner 4.3 (no longer free for commercial).

Starting from the same point, I use all cleaners to scan the current registry and find out how many errors in the registry. Later, I allow all cleaners to fix the registry based on their capabilities. Next, I allow all to re-scan and surprisingly, every cleaners reported some errors. I allowed all cleaners to fix again and scan the 3rd time. All cleaners reported errors despite 2 fixes.

1. Argene - Registry Cleaner V1.1.0.0


2. Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal



3. EasyCleaner 2.0


4. Glarysoft Registry Repair 2.7


5. Registry Cleaner 4.3

Below is the results of the errors found:

Cleaner: 1st scan -> 2nd scan -> last scan
1) Argene: 122 -> 11 -> 12
2) Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal: 73 -> 6 -> 6
3) EasyCleaner 2.0: 54 -> 7 -> 2
4) Glarysoft Registry Repair 2.7: 36 -> 2 -> 2
5) Registry Cleaner 4.3: 33 -> 14 -> 4

Illustrations: The first scan using Argene found 122 errors. All cleaner fixes are run and 2nd scan found 11 errors. All cleaner fixes are run again and 3nd scan produces 12 errors.

From the above results, we recognised that Argene is a very aggressive scanner with the highest errors found. However, it depends on what errors the scanner are looking for in the registry. Despite running all the 5 cleaners, there are still errors found in the registry and it cannot be fixed completely. Note that all these cleaners are free and perhaps commercial cleaners may clean completely.

I hope these findings are useful to you and if you have other recommendations, please email me at sglongfeng@gmail.com.

Installing iTunes for IPOD TOUCH

I have been spending the last few hours installing iTunes for IPOD Touch but futile.

I have installed iTunes but the IPOD Touch is not detected. When plug in, the message "Software required for communicating with the iPod is not installed correctly. Please reinstall iTunes to install the iPod's software" appears.

After searching the web, I finally found the RIGHT official website for my trouble. Many are having the same problem and some suggested to uninstall old QuickTime to solve the problem. Well, may work for some but not for all. It is not a perfect solution...yet.

It seems that IPOD Touch has some conflicts with the previous Apple Software Update, Quicktime or Mobile Device Support. The old version of Quicktime has old version of Software Update and Mobile Device Support and the uninstalling of this old version will NOT remove these two applications.

ALL these four applications must be uninstalled:

1. iTunes;
2. QuickTime;
   
3. Apple Software Update; and
   
4. Apple Mobile Device Support.

After uninstalling, REBOOT the system and install the lastest iTunes (Version 7.6) which will installed the latest versions of these 4 applications.

Now, just plug in the IPOD Touch and you should see the software installation of the USB device recognising the new hardware.

From here, select the folders with songs/movies and IPOD Touch will auto-synchronise them with the IPOD TOUCH. Now, simply unplug and you have the whole world of music waiting for you.

S$2 food (US$1.50) in the East

In today's newspaper, ekampong has setup a new webpage that brings attention to people living in the East Singapore about food stalls that sell food for S$2 or less.

This is a good initiative to highlight value-for-money food stalls to all. But I wonder will the message reach the poor? Singapore, no doubt, is ranked the 2nd most richest country in Asia based on Finfacts, just ahead of Hong Kong. However, we still have beggars and aging population issues. They may not have access to internet or newspaper so this information may not be helpful to them at all.

Food lovers may like to try these stores but they are after fine dining with wines and these value food stores may not appeal to them. This bring one question to my mind - Are the food filling and taste good? Perhaps the website should collate feedback via polls or comments on their recommendations. Those that fail the mark shall be taken out from the list. The key considerations are:

1) Price;
2) Portion; and
3) Taste

When I go through the list, I noticed most of the stores sell basically the same type of food. There is no distinct features blending into the stall's culture. The types of food are based on fast-food style to provide quick meal for the masses. This explains the successful foodchain business concept of Kopitiam and Koufu in many shopping centres.

My conclusion maybe slightly sad. Singapore is a 1st world nation with a 3rd world mentality. We seek no style and class in food. We are after for money and time. We are efficient and complete projects in time but we neglect our food intakes. Apparently, the consequence is the growing cases of health issues among Singaopreans who are getting fatter and unhealthy due to their rojak lifestyle.

Prediction: Heat will be the killer of Beijing Olympics 2008

I have been to Beijing in mid Aug and frankly, the weather is much hotter than reported. Walking 100m on the street at 10pm night can make you sweat profusely. Singapore is known to be humid and hot but I am still uncomfortable with the heat in Beijing. I believe the temperature is around 35 degree C.

Later, I understand from friends that the Chinese government must declare public holiday if the temperature of the day is found to be above 40 degree C. That explains why the official temperature in Beijing never go beyond 39 degree C.

So how will it affect the Beijing Olympics?

---

On 9 Aug 2006, China Daily's Bright day forecast for Beijing Olympics reported:

"The possibility of rain on August 8, 2008, is between 30 and 40 per cent. If it does rain, it will most likely be only a drizzle," said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice-president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

The prediction is based on weather data from the last 50 August 8s, Jiang told a news conference marking the two-year countdown.

In Beijing's bidding report, the Games' opening date was originally scheduled for the latter half of July, but due to concerns over bad weather, the BOCOG put it off to August 8.

"Weather data shows that the climate in August will be suitable for the Games," said Jiang.

The Olympics will be held from August 8 to 24, while the Paralympic Games will be held from September 6 to 17.

---

On Beijing travelguide, we see that the forecast temperature is 20 to 31 (degree celsius) while the official Beijing guide suggested: The temperature in summer usually ranges from 28 - 39 degrees centigrade. Highest temperature ever recorded was 42 degrees centigrade.

It seems the travel guide is providing better forecast to lure tourists during this off-peak period.

---

Recently, reports poured in suggesting weather may not be conducive for outdoor sports.

1) Suite101.com - Hot Summer Climate in Beijing
"This is especially true in August when the average high temperature is 85 F (30 C) and average morning humidity hovers at 90 percent."

2) The International News - Marathon champ fears Beijing Olympics heat more than pollution
"Summer temperatures in Beijing routinely surge past 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity stands at close to 80 percent."

3) Xinhuanews Chinanews.com - Top weatherman: Weather most challenging at Beijing Olympics
"The weather is the most challenging factor in Beijing's preparations for the Olympic Games, China's top weatherman Zheng Guoguang said on Thursday."

---

To tackle this weather condition, the Chinese authority has experimented with success on cloud seeding method to induce rain, as reported by The Register.

It becomes a human vs nature duel and the outcome is still unknown. One thing for sure, someone is definitely going to faint (or die) due to heat stroke in view of the overwhelming response to attend Beijing 2008. One can never expect cloud-seeding to work 24 hours!

No weather forecast, no matter how accurate, can help them who are rushing into this Olympic FEVER.

Unique SBS BUS

I stumbled upon a SBS bus one night and found I was in a different world altogether.

How come the interior design is like a bar with such comfortable seats?

I checked with the driver and he confirmed that Singapore has only 1 such bus in service. Sights of this unique bus are spotted in service number:

5 (Paris Ris to Bukit Merah)
54 (Bishan to New Bridge Road)
151 (Hougang Central to Kent Ridge)
156 (Sengkang to Clementi)

So the routes are far apart and it maybe hard to catch it in action.

There are other commuters who witnessed this too:

1) Peter's blog with video

2) menonpri's youtube

3) Quartz's blog

Well, you have to "ambush" this bus to experience the "bar" feeling. BTW, food and drink is strictly prohibited in SBStransit because there is no bartender onboard. :)

Any S$2 lunch in Toa Payoh?

I am a food lover and accidentally found this outlet which is very popular in Toa Poyah.

While our basic staple rice still rising to record high, it is nearly impossible to locate a food store that serves the public with good food to fill their stomach at S$2 flat.

You can either order:



1) 2 meat + 2 veg + rice
2) 1 fish + 1 meat + 2 veg + rice

Isn't that a steal?

This explains the long queue which you can see in the picture during a sunday 12.30pm peak period.

The food is good and filling. What else do you buy for S$2 in Orchard Road?

Now the location: Toa Payoh Lor 7, Blk 22.

If you have other recommendations, please keep me posted.

I did a web search for S$2 and locate a list in hardwarezone. It maybe outdated but none the less, an excellent guide for food hunter.

---
List $2 or no price hike food sightings

Come contribute, no more good years

West:
Jurong West Blk 815 $2 chicken/cha siew rice - threadstarter
Bukit Gombak Coffeeshop Nasi Lemak $1.90 with Ikan bilis,peanuts, cucumber, chicken wing & egg - WuSangui
Jurong East Blk 346 coffeeshop near the sports hall - $1.50 chicken rice - dreamer75
Redhill Hawker Centre, Fu Ming Cooked Food (Carrot Cake) $2 - Vyzyl
redhill market: $2 char kueh - dmitri
Boon lay hawker center- Banana leaf nasi lemak with 3 chai $2
- Carrot cake $2 with prawns(channel U recommend) - sciprof
Clementi Ave 2 Blk 352 Coffeeshop - $1 mifen/kwaytiao (dry), no zhup. $2 cai peng with 3 veges - XuanZang
Jurong East blk 221 coffeeshop. wantan mee and carrot cake $2 - ggnubs
Bukit Batok Centre Market, Nasi Lemak Set @ $2 - LiangZzZ
NUS Arts Canteen! - Volexr
Jurong East Blk 349 $2 chicken rice - threadstarter

North:
Yishun 848.. mushroom bak chor mee.. 2 dollars. - Beta_Tester
2.20 Yishun 900+ laksa - BoyWithBigToy
Yishun ring road blk 110 chicken rice $1.50 - b3nzzz
Blk 631 coffeeshop, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4:-
$2 wan ton mee, chicken/char siew rice at the same stall. $2 nasi lemak with 1 chicken wing, 1 egg + ikan billis.
- blushing_guy
Yishun block 416 & 417; chicken rice $2 - Gforce8
Hougang Ave 8 Blk 620 chicken rice $1.50!
Hougang Ave 8 Blk 678(?) Mee Pok! $2.00 - valentinotan

Central:
Tiong Bahru food centre,$2 bee hoons with some vege and one hot dog - danguard
Tanjong Pagar plaza cai png next to money changer - tamago_
Toa Payoh Lorong 7 food centre. Tons of $2 food - tqx
Tanjong Pagar Hawker - $2 Nasir Lemak with lots of ingredients - dreamer75
Hong Lim Hawker - $2 chicken rice, $2 wanton mee and $2 vegetarian food - dreamer75
Jalan Kukoh $2 veg rice - edgarlee
Queen Street Market (opp Bugis village, cheap n good)
prawn mee $2 ($2.50 maybe, cannot recall.)
traditional breakfast of congee, bee hoon or chee chong fung (u can pick): $2 = very very filling
Yan Court (further down from queens st mkt) chicken rice $2 - skaade
Golden Shoe - mixed vege rice 3 vege/meat + rice $2
I think got a stall there sell 4 vege + rice $2 also.. - smallie
Upper boon keng road market, almost every stall still charges S$2 chicken/duck rice, pork/fish porridge, bachor mee, fried rice, economical nasi lemak, prawn beehoon. tabao +20¢ - Natia
$2 Char Kway tiao - Hong Lim Hawker - dreamer75
Golden Mile Food Centre known as army market, along beach road:-
$2 vegetarian mee hoon (upper floor), $2 wan ton mee (lower floor)
Blk 11 food centre, North Bridge Rd:-
$2 nasi lemak with any 4 dishes like chicken wing, egg, vegetables, luncheon meat, fish cake, etc. (Value for $$$)
$2 yang tau fu with any 6 dishes
$2 vegetarian stalls (got 2 stalls beside each other both selling $2).
- blushing_guy
Toa Payoh Lorong 8 got $2 chicken rice & $2 Nasi Lemak... - Desmond_
Golden Shoe also got 1.90 nasi lemak, $2 lor mee - netsuAi
SIM chicken rice $2 - lionelfoo/Porkbone
Toa Payoh Lor 8 (OPP Beatty Sech Sch) - jujubeans

East:
Bedok reservoird market-$2 fishball noodle. pom-pipi!! - chaos_heaven
Pasir Ris (Coffeeshop behind temple) $2 Wanton Mee/Vege Rice(2 veg 1 meat)/Fishball noodles/Chicken Rice - win_man
Bedok food center? $2 hokkien mee? - pokeu
Changi Airport TERMINAL 1, B1 Food court, the malay chicken rice is $2. - joelhuang
Blk 56 Hawkwer center. Ah-zhu chicken rice $2
Got one more chicken rice stall beside the vegetarian stall, Cheapest is $1.50 for chicken rice - mercenary_sg
Tampines Blk 138, coffeshop near the Tampines Round Market $2 chicken rice
Tampines round market also got the $1.90 Nasi Lemak & $2 carrot cake - Kakashi82
Tampines ikea~! 2hotdog bread for only $2 ~! goots hoots~! - dxboy
Bedok blk 510 i tink got $2 chicken rice.. - badboi_kh
Bedok Food centre - Blk 216
$2 Nasi lemak Got 2 stalls selling - one selling any 3 dishes for $2 the other the standard fares for $2
$2 Mixed Vegetables - any 3 dishes - Eat until u full... rice give alot. - currently closed will open on 4 jan.
Blk 535 Bedok North Street 3 - Got one stall selling chicken rice or Char Siew rice at $1.50 LOL at least real chicken rice not those white plain rice - NWT1978
Bedok inspirasi stall
sells all dishes $2 and below. Mee-Rebus & Soto Ayam $2 Mee Soto $1.50
All packed foods(take away) of these 3 dishes are $2 each... - permutare
Tampines 201 center coffeeshop chinese nasi lemak $2 - cheong79

---

If inflation keeps rising, I wonder how many stores will remain selling at S$2. Afterall, profit must cover cost to survive in businesses.

SBS Transit - Check your next bus arrival time

I am so hungry and wake up late. Should I buy my breakfast in the food centre or wait for the bus?

This dilemma is easily resolved if you have an imode mobile with the service. This is one of the BIGGEST SECRET of imode (offered by Starhub, Singapore). You can track the next not 1 BUT 2 SBS buses arrival time. Therefore, you can plan your time more efficiently and thereby cutting the waiting time.

Below is the procedure:

1. Enter website http://sbstransit.com.sg/mobileiris.
   
   
2. You will see
   1)NextBus Arrival (Bus Stop)
   2)NextBus Departure (Interchange)
   3)Journey Planner
   
   
3. Select 1 and you will see below
   
   iris NextBus - To find out when your next bus is arriving, please specify the service no. or bus stop no.
   
   Bus Stop No. (5 digits. eg.52069)
   
   Not sure, click here
   
   Service No.
   
   Home
   
   
4. The Bus stop numbers can be found as shown below.
   
   For instance, you wish to take Bus number 13 in bus stop number 52069, just enter and click submit:
   
   iris NextBus - To find out when your next bus is arriving, please specify the service no. or bus stop no.
   
   Bus Stop No. (5 digits. eg.52069)
   
   Not sure, click here
   
   Service No.
   
   Home
   
   
5. Below is the result:
   
   Service No: 13
   Next bus: 15 mins
   Subsequent bus: 20 mins
   
   Bus Stop No: 52069
   Comfortdelgro, Braddell Rd
   
   Brought to you by SBS Transit
   
   Next Query Disclaimer
   
   
6. Now, you can order a coffee and bread takeaway from nearby coffeeshop and there still manage to catch the next bus. In the worst case, you can still take the 2nd bus which is only 5 minutes apart.
   
   
7. For Singtel users, you can SMS (S$0.05/SMS):
   
   <Bus stop no.> space <Service no.>
   
   to 74744 or use WAP or GPRS mobile phone.
   For example, "52069 13".
   
   
8. For M1 users, I am afraid you must get a GPRS phone and a GRPS plan to access via WAP.
   
   
9. You can visit either sites for queries:
   
   • http://sbstransit.com.sg/mobileiris (for mobile phone users via WAP)
   • http://www.ideas.singtel.com/ (for Singtel users only)
   • http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/iris3/pdanextbus.aspx (for PDA users)
     
   • http://sbstransit.com.sg/iris (for laptop or PC)
   • http://wap20.mygamma.com/ (paid service at S$3 weekly)
     
     
10. I recommend using the 1st website for IMODE user. For those without PDA or GPRS phone, you can check the time in your office/home and plan your departure.
    
    
11. For wheelchair accessible bus, the results will indicate '(WAB)' following the estimated time in minutes.
    
    
12. For more details, visit http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/iris/faq.aspx#6.
    

Now, who say he is in the rush? Tell him to relac lah.

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Avira AntiVir Personal Edition

What is computer virus? It is just a software program that produces undesirable effect (copy, infect or damage) to the computer without the knowledge of the owner.

They are always around with us since the invention of PC. In the beginning, they are purely destructive with the intention to wipe out or steal data. Together with the web popularity and software technology advances, worm, spyware, malware, scumware, trojan, expensive dialer, adware, phishing, spam and rootkit appear, thereby adding more colours to the so-called "undesirable software" to our computers.

Anti-virus programs are born to tackle more than viruses depending on the package. Today, I share with you one of the best (and free!) AV program in the market - Avira AntiVir Personal Edition (see below).



Avira AV Details:
http://www.free-av.com
Author: Avira
Download File size: 20.3MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
64 Bit Capable: yes
















It protects users against worm, trojan, expensive dialer and rootkit. For premium edition, it handles spyware, malware, scumware, email virus and adware. The top notch security suite further protects against phishing and spam with a built-in firewall.

However, if you consider viruses alone, it is one of the best in the market that I have tried out so far. You can also consider below programs:

1) AVG Anti Virus Free Edition 7.5
Website: http://free.grisoft.com/
Author: Grisoft
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
64 Bit Capable: no
Comments: Only protect against viruses.


2) Avast Home Edition 4.1
Website: http://www.avast.com
Author: Alwil Software
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
64 Bit Capable: yes
Comments: Complete with email scanning.

Conclusion: Free Anti Virus programs offer limited protection as there are upgrade options for commercial products. However, combing a browser protection program, surfing the web can offer an equivalent protection with commercial software. This will be introduced in the next session.

For now, the only disadvantage is the slow online update. To fix this, just manually set the priority of the CPU to normal as the default is low. I did this with AnVir Task Manager. Do not be confused. This is not an anti-virus manager but a task manager to view and control the loaded applications.