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I was waiting for the 105 service today, my iPod playing my tunes and putting it in repeat I think the song played for at least 10 times before the bus arrived.

Lo and behold not 1 but 3 buses and that was after 45 min of wait! I mean what the heck? Why would 3 buses turn up at the same time? Boarded the last bus which gave me some seating space, well talk about world class transportation service. Bah!

105 takes a long time to come but tonite was rediculous, I was so tired just waiting for the bus and I’m still puzzeled why all the buses turned up at the same time? Anyone care to shed some light?

Recently a Singapore based Anime distributor Odex, started serving “lawyer letters” to Anime downloaders and did so by obtaining the personal information of subscribers on Singnet and Starhub. These two ISPs were served court orders of which they had to cough up the information for Odex.

23rd August 2007, Pacific Internet, a third ISP in Singapore manage to protect their subscribers and won the case preventing their customers information to reach the hands of Odex. Pacific Internet lawyers walked out victorious and Odex was ruled out based on the following.

Only copyright owners - that is, the studios that made the anime - or an ‘exclusive licensee’ for the anime being downloaded, can take legal action under the Singapore Copyright Act.

Odex is a sub-licensee and had letters from rights owners authorising it to take action on their behalf, but the firm was neither a copyright owner or an ‘exclusive licensee’.

An exclusive licensee has the sole right to distribute a product in a certain market.”

So what did the other two ISPs do to protect their customers? Singnet, one of the largest ISPs in Singapore simply could not be bothered and submitted without contest!

It was also noted that Singnet lawyers were not present at the hearing.

I mean this goes to show how much your ISP serves you, in fact I do not find broadband prices in Singapore exactly cheap, protecting online privacy is the least your ISP can do for you but this was quite incredible to hear they did not even try to argue. Even Starhub made some arguements in an attempt to protect the interest of their customers.

This is really a PR nightmare, now with such bad press I wonder who wants to sign up with Singnet, who probably just lost customer confidence after this whole saga.

*Post based on facts provided by Online news articles.

[Source: Straits Times Article 1 , Straits Times Article 2]

Here goes the GST hike as of 1st July 2007, Singaporeans now play 7% GST for things they purchase rising from the previous 5%. The great part about this is the the government is very nice to give us a “package” to cushion the “blow”. Well there is the best part about this, in order to prevent oneself from paying more then what the offset package provides you can only spend SGD$10,000 so that the SGD$200 covers your hike of 2%. Well that being said, it is good as at least I can save more and spend less. Those who are poorer and do not even get SGD$10,000 a year would definately benefit from this program and it becomes an ideal situation as the poorer would benefit from this. Yay for being poor ya?

NOT…

Why do I say this? reason being the GST only went up by 2% but vendors have already started to take advantage of this hike and make ridiculous and blatant increases in their prices. I’ll cite an example, I went to Maxwell market to have a Po Lo Bao, so prices were usually SGD$1 for the bun which I felt was just okay, I mean it’s just a bun and some char siew inside it. So I paid up and was stopped by the kind auntie who said, sorry mister the price has risen to SGD$1.40. I was taken a back and being the nice guy I paid up and then started to do some maths.

The bloody bun went up 40%! 40 freaking percent, I mean come on using the hike to create an opportunity to exploit the public. If I want to pay SGD$1.40 for a freaking bun from a hawker center I rather give it a miss and just have something else. It’s a bloody rip off if you tell me, please wake up your idea and think about it. I can get something of a even higher quality at breadtalk and still show off that I’m eating expensive bread. They should be fined for making such blatant increases!
Consumer protection is really poor in Singapore and retailers will continue to do as they please. I feel that one day I’ll be one of the poor ones in this country. Prices are just going to continue rising in this cut throat society. It will just suck and suck you dry, one day GST will go up again and it’s all right because they say so and retailers will continue to play games with the consumers. If nothing is done about “controlling” the retailers the consumers will just suffer, this is one of the perhaps many other cases I have yet to encounter.

Worked late last night and hailed a cab home. Well I waited and to my delight I got a Mercedes cab and quickly hopped into the cab thinking that I’ll have a great ride in luxury and comfort but I was sadly mistaken.

Before I could even belt up the taxi uncle just sped off, perhaps the closest scenario that could come to my mind was that of the scene in the French film Taxi. Imagine for the first time in my life I actually felt and heard a cab wheel spin! Okay, it was brief but the wheels actually lost traction with the road and boy was I in for a surprise. The guy drove like Daniel, the main lead in the show taking small lanes, heavy acceleration and braking making the ride less then pleasant.

I was tired and all I wanted was the luxury of comfort or what I thought I would be getting when I hopped into a Mercedes cab at least. What good does it do when a company tells you that you should travel in style and feel comfortable when not a single ounce of my body felt so. This is a good example of a staff having a total mis-match with the prevailing brand personality of the Mercedes Cab fleet.

The worst part about the ride was that the car was never meant to be a race car and it damn well felt uncomfortable cause the spring settings and such were not developed for such intense driving. I arrived home feeling even more worn out, I hope my next experience will be a better one.

Life in Singapore is some times quite crazy, I really do wonder if we are just Kay Poh by nature. It’s like this in built sensor that drives us crazy if we do not address this need, and this sensor is set off by things like accidents, fires etc. But really is all the visual stimulant necessary or just a plain waste of time.

This really sparked me off on this topic as I was traveling along the CTE this morning, and yeah an accident occurred before I made it to the 2nd gantry. Of course it was already about 7:28 when I was caught in this jam that entailed from the first gantry. So well I had to pay the stupid ERP charges because of the jam. What fascinated me really was that Singaporeans slow down to watch. I mean you want those 4D numbers or are you just plain Kay Poh? It’s an accident, someone got hurt but what about the stupid gantry? Come on, move on and save $0.50 for the guy behind you, not that it’s a big thing but it’s still money.

I think it’s a ploy by LTA, arrange a “mock” accident and delay the cars behind so that you can get more ERP money. Well stop being to Kay Poh and drive when you need to or else you may be the next “thing” that people will be kay poh about!

I’m pissed at the crappy service and customer value from Starhub. Being a customer with them has bought me more sorrow then enjoyment. Upload speeds are bad, the customers are not valued. No special promotions for loyal customers, the phones are always engaged, been on hold for more then 10 minutes before. The best part is this stunt that they pulled on us during the last Sitex exhibition.

Those who signed up before Sitex and on the first day of Sitex were not offered the following. 1. $150 off upgrade of HP notebooks and 2. $40 worth of Sakae Sushi vouchers. The question I want to place for Starhub is this, if you have the capability of providing your customers with this plan at Sitex why not extend it to all those who signed up for your services? The Singnet offer is IMO better then what you guys offer so I believe it was a tactical move to allow MaxOnline to enjoy more customers What I’m most unimpressed with is their views on customer loyalty.

I giving them a call and see if there is anything they can do for me.

Today someone jumped onto the MRT track again, over the last few months there has been numerous reports of people jumping onto the MRT tracks. And these has become a very frequent phenomenon and I wonder about the reason behind the suicides. Too much stress, too little money, anger? There are so many reasons to just end you life, and it’s a scary thing. Thinking about how you would feel when you jump and see the MRT headed your direction is a scary thing. But with so many ways to die why get squashed by a train?

Seems like our fares are about to increase when SMRT will have to erect glass windows even at the open air stations, and we just have to pay because some selfish smart alec jumpers have to decide to use the MRT as their suicide tool.

Those who wish to take a look can check out tamago.sg he has some well taken pictures of the aftermath.

Been a crappy week ,exams are over and yep it’s here the Pastors are asking me to join API. It’s finally here, so here we are talking about STUDYING again, oh I just hate that, I hate having to read. I’m just tired, I want a break, but I know if I do so I’m unproductive. Damn it I seem to be self destructing here!

GST is going up, my e-mail server is down, I have lots of work to complete, I’ve decisions to make on my career, I have to clean up my room, I have things that I have to buy, I have commitments that I have to keep. I need to organize my life a little, my table is starting to get messy again and it’s a sign that I’m getting confused again.

I just want a little time alone, alone in my own abode, I do not really know but it’s been a shitty week or at least for me it has been, RT training is getting me no where and I think I will not pass my phase 1 or Remedial Training, this sucks and I hate it, I hate a lot of things, I hate people bugging me.

I hate selfish people some idiots are more concern about work then people, oh if you’re wondering someone was pissed because he/she would be late for work as someone fainted on a bus. Instead of helping that selfish b*****d complained.

I hate it when people tell you they are disheartened and never give you a reason, I hate it when I cannot make a decision, I hate it when there are so many variables when you need to make a decision, I hate it when I have no money to buy things I like, I hate it when I’m not appreciated, I hate it when people keep telling me what to do, I hate it when I cannot do what other people ask me to do, I hate it when I keep secrets, I hate it when people keep secrets, I hate it when I see not future, I hate it when I do not make that future. Sigh….

Sorry everyone I just need to get it out, let me bitch about it and I’ll be okay. I think…

Being a customer with Starhub for many years has only brought me more disappointment then excitement. I’ve been with MaxOnline for the last 5 - 6 years already and they did throw me a carrot, a small carrot at that. Samsung MP3 player with a 2 year re-contract. I laughed at the offer when the “part-time” promoter called me on my mobile and tried to convince me that the offer was good. Non the less I rejected his offer.

A week later there was a leak about they are offering PCs and Laptops for a re-contract which is gonna happen on the 18th of Nov. I’m glad I did not accept their carrot and waited for the year end promos.

Some forum members were not as lucky and took up the offer as such they are bounded by the contact and will have to get a crappy MP3 player instead. I really love our ISP for treating your loyal customers as such. Well done Starhub!

Extract from Hardwarezone Forums

yiron:
pwned like me liao. they contacted me 7 days ago to ask me to recontract…juz received the mail for redemption yesterday. bro i tink u better inform them asap leh, coz after 301106 all redemptions are forfeited… damn them la, i would rather get the desktop…and i heard u top up ard $300 u get a lappy instead of desktop…

Hello everyone the GST is set to go up to 7% from the 5% and the forums are flooded with displeasure from those who know about the news. A 2% increase in tax, not long after the general elections. So will the 2% increase really affect our lives?

I’m not very surprised by the move especially when we entrusted out lives to the government, of course they have done a good job in bringing up the country, we being such an insignificant small dot yet we are know in the world as a country, with our own currency, we’re so small we’re an island.

The rising cost of living in Singapore is starting to hit me, this morning traveling along our beautiful CTE to work, it cost me SGD$7 just to get from Home to Work, that’s freaking expensive IMO where in the past we used to have a SGD$4 coupon which could be used the whole day in and out of the Central Business District. Now we pay when we enter a gantry.

Everything in Singapore is getting, well almost everything, I still thank the nice aunty at Tanjong Pagar that serves her $2 Nasi Lemak diligently to us and the other $2 food stalls. But every other thing is going up and the money is going to the government. Taxes are up from the initial 3% -> 5% -> 7% (7% tentative date is 15 Feb 2006, so dun tax 1st allow us to spend money for loved ones on V-day then whack us Jiat Lat Jiat Lat). ERP on the rise, COE down so that can have more cars to tax and fine on the road.

Everything is rising except the most important thing, our pay. I do not see an increase in the amount that we’re getting, in fact some of us have to bite the bullet and get a pay cut to maintain our jobs, how to set up a family and how to plan for the future?

Policies after policies, transparent government but how transparent are they? Seriously do we even bother to probe? We just get the stats, look at them and then forget about it, we’re born to think that way. Well I hope that the people up there can hear our voices or at least try to come down to out level.

Okay, It was too good to be true anyway, I’ve made a call to Yahoo! Singapore and they left me a voice mail, silly me did not pick up the phone, anyway the lady said that Yahoo! did not do any grants, and after reading up on the many users who also experienced this it’s untimately points to a scam. If I’m not mistaken many Singaporean Singtel subscribers get the message saying they won $9500 and send in particulars to claim the prize. It’s looks so real that it even has a nortorization form from a system developed by Carnegie Mellon University (if I recall correctly). Even signature authorities are said to be involved with the mail correspondents. So it’s more or less a scam.

Yahoo uses another e-mail address or domain for their e-mails and are appended with xxx@yahoo-inc.com so the e-mailer sent was from a normal yahoo account. I have no idea what they are scaming about, the scarry thing is that they even have your mobile phone number.

There are many answers from the Yahoo! Q&A but there are no replies from any of the offical Yahoo! staff as such many are left in the dark and unknowingly perhaps some personal information has already been released to the masqueraders. The funny thing is that Yahoo! has not steped out and informed any users about this breach or scam. Perhaps Yahoo! has experienced a breach where they lost their customer personal information to a hacker or maybe Singtel database was breached to allow someone to start a scam. Currently from my knowledge only Singtel users who subscribe to Yahoo! mail are affected. I have not seen any with reports on other Telcos.

If there has indeed been a scam I think it would be good if Yahoo! can step up and inform the public about this matter. Hopefully no one has been cheated yet.

I’m totally ashamed, this guy rocks.

I’m am so freaking tired, so stuffed up with stuff, I cannot even do a simple comparision without buring up! People have said that working and studing is a hard thing, did not agree at first and thought that I could make it in the working world while studying, I was wrong, and very wrong was I. I’m so tired now that I have to do this freakishly tought subject Enterprise Programming and to add to the anguish, my IPPT is coming and I cannot pass it for sure. After 2 years of leeching your life away, you slavery is not over, another 10 years of your life is theirs. I need a break, a rest from all the rushing of assignments, company projects and stuff, I want to leave this crazy life behind and take a short break somewhere? Anywhere is fine! I just want to be a little free, a little rest and relax. Take, take all of me take! NAH! $%$%@!^#@

Another election, another walk over, what is it now? After turning 21 I’ve never voted. LOLx and like all policial scenes it is now Singapore’s turn to see the various parties vie for our votes. Think this is as much as I can disclose or should even talk about well somethings are better kept in the heart then to be said out loud. Well at least I’m at peace for now.

More work, life long learning! Yippie!

Listening to: the mrbrown show 2 May 2006: the persistently non-political podcast no. 7

Oh yah and remember prison got no broadband.

Too much to absorb with too little time, this is not some literacy subject where you have 10 years of english to fall back on. This is so hard or maybe I’m just getting old, I’m so pissed off with Java Enterprise programming, I just do not seem to be able to absorb it into my mind, I’m going nuts, hyper stressed and getting all so pissed off with this shit! I’m really lost and it did not turn out to be something that was really worth the bet. Still thinking it would be easily acheievable, I’m on my 1st assignment and the stress is creeping up onto me. Everything just does not seem to be working for me and I’m just cramming tons and tons of illogical gibberish and codes into my mind. Breaks are no longer enjoyable and I every minute I have I’m thinking about the J2EE assignment. Is it that hard? Well it is for me and I’m in awe when I see my ex collegues programming this intereface and producing a commerical program. Sometimes I’m just at an end and I dunno what else to do. Well God I just pray for guidance in this time and I’m really in a loss. Argh please please please, lift me up from my mistake. I’m gonna steer clear of difficult stuff until I’m absolutely ready~ but for now. I’ll just try and God be my strength.