HDB Upgrading Works - Safe to use?

Common toilet has been setup beneath the block for those who are affected by the upgrading works. Although there are a small one being setup within the renovating unit itself, but neighbours has been complaining that its too small for bathing. So some actually went below to take their shower.

When I was there this evening, a FT was holding his mobile phone very close to the toilet door. That cubical was occupied & as I move nearer, he quickly kept his mobile & walks quickly away from the scene. Should have taken a photo of it before making my move. The lift came & since the FT had already walked far & no where to be seen, I left too.

Could it be the FT was actually filming someone bathing in that cubical? Its not that I'm being racist, but what if he is really filming & its your family members that is in that cubical? Looking around the area, its seems that there's very little security measure to protect those who are currently staying there & those who need to use the temporally facility when the upgrading is ongoing.

Are you Virtually Married or Divorced?

Am I too old for this? Haha.. Young at heart, I still remember years back than when online gaming had just started, many were so keen to get an online partner for an online marriage. All it takes is to find a willing partner & some in-game money. Among the perks of being married in these games are increased powers, skills and better-looking avatars. MapleStory couples get added abilities such as intelligence, dexterity and strength.

Such virtual unions are becoming increasingly popular in the gaming community, especially among those really young gamers. They just get married & divorce as & when they like. Maybe its the IN thing now, but it will be dangerous if they were to bring this mind set into reality when they grow up. The mind set of being able to wed and get divorced easily with little consequences. Furthermore, if they spend their time finding company online, chances are they will miss out on learning social and communication skills in real life.



Usually those who are virtually married or divorced do not take their online affiliations into the real world. But for real life couple getting virtually married might just sound cool! It open up additional channel or portal for them to enrich their relationship.

Do you often buy online?

How many times did you make purchases online via overseas website? Do you usually doubt the shipment until it reaches your doorsteps?

If you are ordering from BP Photo via eBay, rest assure that what you have ordered will be delivered. Saw a few post on forums that they had problem / issue with this US camera equipment store, but 90% of local buyer's feedback are positive. If you are still wondering, just do it! They do have return policy..

Its Xiao Huang On The Morning Post Again

After spending a week plus away from home, he had finally adjusted back to his usual self, posing himself when I point the camera at him. Isn't he Cute & Adorable?

Is your Netbook a Ninja Turtle or a Mountain Tortoise

Putting those online threat that may slowdown your netbook aside, how you upkeep your netbook can also helps in boosting it performance. Here are some useful tips which you may consider now or when you are getting a new netbook.

1) Max your RAM to 2GB
If you typically check e-mail, read Excel spreadsheets and surf five websites at the same time, the netbook lags. The bottleneck is often the RAM or memory. Most netbooks today offer 1GB of RAM and most have only one memory slot so you cannot stuff in more memory. What you can do is to max out the RAM. A 2GB RAM chip costs about $45 and try to trade in the original 1GB piece for a discount.

2) Buy an external DVD drive
With USB 2.0's fast speed, external drives no longer chug along and are as able as internal drives. Some external drives have two ends to its USB cable. The primary one plugs into the netbook's USB port for data access and power while the second one is to draw additional power. You rarely need the latter. So get a DVD burner drive for about $120 or double that amount for one with Blu-ray.

3) Stick to Windows XP
Vista is more resource-hungry and since your netbook has limited horsepower, go with the more popular and "petite" Windows XP. If you already have Windows Vista, try to "downgrade" to Windows XP. Check with your netbook vendor if it can be downgraded. If you buy a new netbook with Windows Vista, the good news is that you may be able to upgrade to the new Windows 7 operating system when it launches in October. So on the next IT Show (Sep/Oct), do check with the sale staff for free upgrade to Windows 7.

4) Get a larger battery
The standard three-cell battery will get you only about two hours of battery life. Pay for the six-cell ones for twice that amount of juice. If you are getting a new netbook, try trading the free gift for a better battery.

5) Clean your start-up programs
If your netbook takes forever to start, it is probably because you have too many programs that are loading automatically when you boot up. Go to Start, then Run and type in msconfig. Now click on the Startup tab and you will see a whole list of programs. Uncheck the programs that you do not really need running at all times. Every program hogs memory and processor resource. Disable them and watch your netbook vroom.

6) Enable write caching on disk
Go to Start, then Control Panel, then System. Click on the Hardware tab, then on Device Manager. You will see a list of components. Click on Disk Drives and right click on your hard disk drive's name.Choose Properties then click on the Policies tab and tick "enable write caching on the disk" to optimise performance. Please do not try this if your hard disk space is running really low. Also try not to save too many files on your desktop.

7) Switch to solid-state drive (SSD)
Flash-based solid state drives (SSDs) run a lot faster than hard disk drives and you will see big boosts in running applications, start-up and shut down speeds. Unfortunately, SSDs cost an arm and a leg - about $600 for an 80GB drive currently. However, prices are expected to halve over the next few months.

8) Boost your graphics performance
Almost all netbooks come with Intel's integrated graphics which are weak in supporting games. Download GMABooster (www.gmabooster.com) and install it to up the graphics performance by up to 2.5 times. It is still not good enough to let you play Far Cry but better some improvement than nothing.

Kampong Lorong Buangkok - 13 Jul 09

Tucked away in some corner of Yio Chu Kang, a quaint little village that's so near, yet so far from urban civilisation, far from the maddening crowd.

Kampong Lorong Buangkok, the last kampong that's still standing in mainland Singapore. Was there a few days back & pretty much as I expected, there are alot of vicious mosquitoes. If you are visiting there, do remember to bring along some insect repellent.

You can literally see the kampong from Yio Chu Kang Rd. Its just off Yio Chu Kang Rd, near the junction with Ang Mo Kio Ave 5. Just take the stairs that go down to Gerald Drive beside the Shell petrol station & you will see a big white signage that says "Surau Kampong Lorong Buangkok".




The resident lamented about the uncertainty of Kampong Lorong Buangkok's future, and that if people wanted to see what real Malay culture was like, they should come here, instead of the fabricated Malay Village. The landlord, a nice lady had encouraged us to write to the press to convince the authorities to preserve the kampong. If you STOMP alot, you should have seen that it has been done many times already. With the younger generation opting for an urban lifestyle, despite the best intentions to preserve the place, its days are numbered.

13 Jul 2009 - Kampong Lorong Buangkok

We're all too familiar with the fact that such places tend to go sooner rather than later, but the most important things is that today, its still sitting there waiting to be discovered. By sharing these photos with you, I hope that it create an awareness that such places still exist in Singapore. Go visit the place for a real sense of a bit of Singpore's history.