Critical Inquiry

I was paying my bills using credit card via DBS' internet banking service and realised that my rewards points were not updated as usual. Initially, I thought that the system was slow and the points will be updated after a few days. Yet, when I checked after a few days, I realised that the points were still not increased. Only then did I noticed the message on the main page of the IB page. -------------------------- Hot off the Press Service on Internet Banking Now you can pay your bills with your DBS/ POSB Credit Card*. Simply click "Payment Services" to pay your bills to any of our bill payment participating organizations. *These transactions do not earn DBS Points. -------------------------- As usual, our dear bank has eagerly announced new perks with advertisements and email blasts and more quietly than a mouse, removed existing perks which customers were enjoying. I hate dealing with the banks. There are always the fine prints that they hope we will not read and t

I have this feeling that the banks are getting less and less efficient these days and getting more and more detached from the needs of the consumers. As it stands today, interbank funds transfers take up to 3 business days to complete when we already remove the burden on the banks and DIY the transactions via internet banking. Shouldn't it be faster to process considering that such electronic transactions have already eliminated much of the backend verifications required?! Then, there was the cheque truncation system (CTS) that was adopted recently. According to one of the CTS FAQs, "... CTS will enhance the operational workflow of banks by eliminating the need to move cheques physically from one bank to another... This would enable the banks to enjoy greater efficiency and provide better service to their customers...". However, we are now informed that there will be a move to 5 days clearing week (5DCW) and cheques deposited near the weekends are potentially cleared only

More details on the free lance project. It was to tweak a Macromedia Flash website so as to add some pages and implement some logic. Initially I quoted S$500 for it to be completed in 7 days but after some negotiations and clarifications on the actual scope of work required, settled at S$320. At this amount, I believe it is definitely below market rate but since it should be a piece of cake to me, being paid a little less for some fun is better than not getting anything at all. Completed the tweaked Flash movie last night and arranged to hand over the source codes and payment today. One little load off my mind and I can catch up on my lost sleep. What should I do with the extra cash? $100 is going to charity, most probably my preferred one... Still need time to think about the rest but in the meantime, into the bank account they go :-D

Not too long ago I was complaining about Taiwanese media having nothing better to offer than dig up wannabes off the streets to put on TV and let people have a good laugh at them. That embodied the degeneration of media's ethics and the creative juices drought. Today, the Singaporean media has jumped onto that bandwagon and come up with shows such as 永不言败 and 搞笑行动派. While some people may justify such shows as providing the "underprivileged" with some sort of media exposure, let us keep in mind that these "underprivileged" had never made it to mainstream television before because they are not privileged to be endowed with reasonable acting skills, beauty, good voices, EQ, etc. The media basically makes use of the desire of such people to become famous (or infamous depending on your perspective) to put up poor quality programmes on mainstream television at low production costs since they do save tremendously on artistes fees then. Such is the sadness of having no

For all the foodies out there who do not believe in paying $1 to Mediacorp to sms this information to you... Today's featured foodstalls from the old Whitley Road Food Centre Whitley Road Prawn Mee 18 Lorong Telok Golden Rooster (sells Chicken wings) Blk 284, Bishan St 22 Whitley Road Soon Li Porridge Jackson's Market, Macpherson Kopitiam Whitley Road Fish Ball Noodles Lavender Food Square Tian Jin Hai Seafood Jackson's Market, Macpherson Kopitiam

Got some unreasonable demands at work again. This time to come up with some stuff related to SAP and on a tight deadline of 2 weeks. 2 weeks! And I have never done it before, no idea how to start and still have my other projects to juggle... I never liked working with SAP. It is such a difficult thing to use. The user interface is so backwards and the logic behind the operations so crytic. Everytime I deal with SAP stuff, it is like a blind man trying to find his way in the dark. I am not paid enough to handle this shit. To me, SAP is purposely made so difficult to use so as to ensure the so called consultants who deal day in day out have a job. SAP just is not my cup of tea. If I really like doing this sort of crap SAP support, I will long have left for a position as SAP Consultant earning $10k a month. Hope the company kills the SAP system soon.

Just secured a free lance project on Macromedia Flash. Finally have a chance to put my Flash skills to good use again after I quitted the Flash design team at work. Love such chances for me to hone my skills while getting paid at the same time. Still have to look at the source which needs the modifications. Hope it will not be too tough yet challenging enough. Wish me good luck :-)

One of the most popular bloggers in Singapore, Cassandra (born 1982), a very sweet looking girl who is a free lance model, has restarted blogging under http://ppgcassandra.blogspot.com. Why the change of address I do not know and did not bother to try to ask her. Her old address http://cassandrappg.blogspot.com was at one time hacked, supposedly by some overzealous fan of hers, but that is a story that I cannot remember much of anymore. I really like browsing her blog once in a while as she posts some wonderful pictures of herself, charming and sweet photos that do brighten up a dull day. Of course, another major plus factor is her postings which come across as sincere and nice and not like some of the attention seeking bloggers who splash profanities/extreme views and heavily photoshopped photos in desperate attempts to up the visitors count to their sites.

Online unit trusts distributors such as Fundsupermart and dollarDEX are lowering their sales charges and the banks are still trying to act cool to it giving reasons that banks offer face-to-face interactions and provide customers with valuable advice. Ya right. Banks offer valuable advice to the tune of double the sales charges of online UT distributors. Even before your investment starts, buying UT through banks will have incurred you additional losses. How can buying UT from banks be a square deal? Not to forget the many senior citizens and lowly educated being advised to invest hard earned money in risky instruments such as ILPs, structured deposits and losing money in the process... how can banks be giving valuable investment advice?!?! Time for people to wake up to the misinformation campaigns and educate themselves and find the best square deals for investments.

Yesterday was the Mosaic Music Festival and by a good stroke of luck, I was at the Esplanade with my friend after visiting the IT Show and not finding a good movie to watch. The theme for the day was Twist and Shout. The group that put up the first performance at 7pm was Oh! Brothers from Korea and they really woah-ed the audience with their performance. Their energy and fun radiated from the stage and affected all where there, drawing thunderous applause for each number that they performed. The more expressive of the audience could not stop themselves from moving their bodies to the catchy beats and all present were really having fun. Bravo Oh! Brothers for a splendid performance. Impressed by Oh! Brothers, we decided to catch the next performance at 8pm by a local band, Tiramisu. Bad decision. We were sorely disappointed with Tiramisu's performance. It was nowhere near Twist and Shout and perhaps more like heavy metal. Furthermore, the lead singer seemed more focused on playing t

The recent spate of news about the girl, purportedly named Tammy, a student from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP)whose self filmed sexual exploits using her handphone was leaked onto the Internet just does not seem to stop. When the news first broke and got picked up by The Straits Times, it created instant unwanted fame for this Tammy girl. So infamous was she that even across the Causeway, profiteers started selling CDs of the NYP Tammy videos for profits. Unfortunately, the real Tammy does not get a cut of the profits of her performance and these profiteers making money out of a victimised girl. Even on the non-profit front, "NYP Tammy video download" has also become one of the hottest search terms on search engines. When people have largely moved on to newer news, The Straits Times still decided to revive the news with an article on NYP Tammy video again today. I believe the girl has already been traumatised enough and the media will do well to let the matter rest instead of con