Monday, March 23, 2015

A Nation Weeps Today

国父的苦劳与贡献我们不得忘。他是我们的后浪, 而我们是国家的前浪 - 国父虽已过世, 但我们的生活不能停步, 他也希望我们继续前进, 不停留.. 因为我们的国歌是 Majulah Singapura: '前进吧, 新加坡'。

因此, 我们擦干了眼泪之候, 要勇往值前。不得忘, 但脚步要继续往更美好的明天前进。

前进吧, 新加坡。国父, 您安息吧。

In memory of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away today at 3:18am.


I do not associate this blog post with any political parties in any way and this blog post does not reflect my support or lack thereof for any political party. Whether you agree or disagree with his opinions and the policies implemented by the late Mr Lee (I personally do not agree with some of them even though I think that overall, Mr Lee was a remarkable person), the man has moved on. No human can be perfect and no one can please everybody but Mr Lee, along with our forefathers, built the nation to what it is today. This blog post is made in remembrance of Mr Lee as a person, nothing more and nothing less.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Going Fiber


Internet broadband connections are like race cars; they have a need for speed. The faster the better. Just now, a technician from StarHub came over to my house to install a fiber broadband router, upgrading my previous non-fiber one to D-Link's router with 11AC WiFi.

I knew it was a matter of time before I decided to take the plunge to upgrade, since they already came over to install and ready fiber connection infrastructure in my house for free months ago to standby for the time when I decide to go for the upgrade.

A few days ago, StarHub called me up to persuade me to go fiber, since not only would it give me faster surfing speed but also, around 10 bucks will be slashed off my monthly internet broadband bill. Glad I waited for them to offer me the benefit but nah, they no longer give away free TVs for the upgrade promotions but long-term savings on my monthly bill sounded good enough to me - and that's after I interrogated the rep on the phone whether there would be any hidden catches but I didn't uncover any suspicious hanky-panky beneath the surface.

Right after the technician told me he has completed the fiber broadband router installation, I went to the Net to test out the connection speed and it did seem faster than previously but don't expect your mind to get to the point of getting blown, since it's not like my previous non-fiber router was an incompetent digital snail crawling through molasses. I'm hoping that the new network stability will have a more pronounced difference though, since once in a blue moon, my previous broadband connection experienced some hiccups here and there on a handful of occasions.

The fact that the fiber broadband tech now uses 2 devices that need to be powered up at the same time, as opposed to just 1 single router previously makes me wonder if that would mean a slight increase in my electricity bill. I'm not sure to what extent there will be a difference but I don't think the difference will be huge at all.

Anyway, the around 10 bucks of monthly broadband bill reduction ought to offset the monthly electricity bill some if the fiber gadgets turn out to be power-hogs. Even if they should turn out to be (but I don't think so), and everything actually turns out to be close to a zero sum monthly monetary game, I still get to utilize the supposedly better speed. And for you grammar and spelling Nazis out there, yeah, I prefer to use 'utilize' instead of 'utilise' because I prefer the Queen's English. Saves me from having to roll all my 'R's on the keyboard but I just wish my proficiency with the English language was perfect because it's not.

If you don't see me making future blog posts complaining about my new fiber broadband, it means it's working well as intended. I hope so. Now if you will excuse me, I have some huge downloads to do. So peace out and until next time, keep it zippy.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Most かわいい Kawaii Comment of The Day

Apple is allowing the trade-in of Android phones for the iPhone.

Here's an article on it aunapologeticallywing is an edited image combo of 2 screenshots from the article page consisting of the article headline and a reader's comment from the same article's comments section:



Gee, the person that gave the comment must be a true Otaku. And Otaku Banzai \o/ Anyway:

(The above image and the side notes therein created in less than 5 minutes using my Galaxy Note 4)

Let's put it this way: It's already 2015. Why trade the present for a catchup-in-size 2012 unapologetically.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Gone Viral: Apple's New Macbook

Brought to you by Armando Ferreira; whom to me, proudly wears the badge with the words 'Apple's Pain In The iAss' emblazoned on it:



Gotta love the man's videos.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Galaxy Note 4 In The House

After holding on to my 12gb monthly mobile data plan with my telco for around 4 and a half years or so, I finally made a recontract, ditched my now obsolete 12gb plan for a much deflated 4G network 3gb monthly data plan (ugh!) and got a charcoal black Galaxy Note 4.

Maybe I'm missing something here but I consider 3gb of monthly data plan a rip-off because, despite it being only a quarter of what I used to enjoy every month, the monthly bill associated with it has a difference of only about 2 bucks or so from my former 12gb plan. Granted, 4G network is supposed to be faster but still, paying for more or less the same amount for data consumption slashed by 75%? Hmm.

Sure, the old 12gb plan was running on 3G network and the 3gb plan is running on 4G, so one may argue that a higher upkeep and upgraded network operating costs necessitate sacrificing the monthly data as a trade-off to prevent grossly inflated monthly bills for the telco's customers but is that really the case? I'm not entirely sure but even if it is, I still feel ripped-off somehow when I think about the data-to-cost ratio differences between the 12gb and 3gb plans.
#FirstWorldProblems

My Galaxy Note 2 is a HSPA+ export set I bought off-contract but the time has come when I have no choice but to convert over to the 4G network plan, since there wouldn't have been any point to choking and nerfing my new 4G-capable Note 4 on old 3G network. I'll just have to make adjustments to my off-WiFi online surfing habits when I'm out and about and monitor my data consumption with my telco's app while setting up my phone to notify me with a warning if and when my mobile data usage hits 2.7gb on a monthly basis. Sayonara, carefree 12gb peace of mind.

On a brighter note, the salesgirl who attended to me (when it was finally my turn in the queue after around 2 hours or so of waiting) gave me an original charcoal black Samsung S View flip case for free bundled with the phone. When I saw her walking out of the store room with my Note 4 and the brand new S View cover in hand, I was pleasantly amused since my Lioness didn't receive any bundled gifts when she recontracted and got her pink Note 4 during December.

Speaking of the S View case, it feels and looks really well-made and premium to my hands and eyes and if you are curious about its functionalities (yup, it's not just a dumb flip case without any functions), you can check out the following video:


I was supposed to pay more than SGD $600 for my Note 4 with contract subsidy but because I happened to have accumulated two $50 vouchers from my telco, $100 was slashed off the bill. If I'm not mistaken, an additional small rebate could be applied by the bank too since I paid with one of my credit cards. (Update: when my credit card bill arrived, a total of SGD $532.21 was charged for the phone).

Now that I have the Note 4, my Note 2 has become my backup phone which I refuse to sell because of not just sentimental reasons (it was the very first Note device which I've always wanted and I'll never forget how happy I felt the moment I bought it) but also because it's been my old faithful that has served my mobile needs most capably for almost 2 and a half years; it has become an old reliable friend that I've come to know really well and we had a lot of mobile fun together with ROMs, hacks and a whole load of software experimentations. It's also my very first phone I willingly paid a off-contract retail price for.

I named my Note 2 'Niche' back in late 2012. From the look of things now in 2015 though, the Note has already become mainstream. No offense meant to other Note users but personally, I don't enjoy finding myself in situations where everyone else around me in the crowd is also holding a Note device but such a scenario has become rather common, bah bah black sheep. The Note's unique factor is eroding fast if it's not gone already.

Anyhoos, I consider the Note 4 to be a very much worthwhile upgrade from the Note 2 much more so than the Note 3. The differences in hardware specs and things like the Note 4 camera's optical image stabilisation and absolutely gorgeous 2k screen display (retina display who?) and adaptive fast charging tech are chasm-wide leaps forward from the Note 2, so here I am with my brand new powerhouse in hand. And oh, I'm finding the Note 4's butt-kicking camera's photo-taking and video recording qualities to be just plain sick for a smartphone. Great job with the shooter, Uncle Sammy.

And boy, am I glad they got rid of the Note 3's Pen Window that you have to draw manually and replaced it with the much more sensible and efficient Pop Up Window instead. Having to draw rectangles to launch apps is not only childish and a redundant unnecessary step in my book but it also means out-of-whack windowed app aspect ratios more often than not, since it's drawn out manually without an aspect ratio lock.

Pop Up Window, on the other hand, launches and resizes apps in proportional aspect ratios without the need to draw redundant rectangles, so that's definitely a much-needed necessary corrective step and refined improvement that I'm very pleased with.

Of course, I'm gonna go root my Note 4 first thing and install my favourite root apps and Xposed modules on it. Out of the box, my Note 4 is running on KitKat 4.4.4 (which means I can use Xposed on it) with a Lollipop update on the horizon. Hopefully, by the time the Lollipop update arrives for my Note 4, Xposed will be fully ready and functional for it.. Doubt that would be the case though, but hey, I can still hope. Even if that should finally come to fruition after Lollipop hits, better late than never.

What about the Galaxy Note Edge that I happen to like as well? Why didn't I choose the Edge over the standard non-edgy Note 4? I very much wanna write about that but it's gonna have to be another blog post for another day, since I'll be really busy with my new toy for the next few days starting from now.

Man, cradling my new Note 4 in my hands makes me feel all hyped up and nerdgasmic all over. Feels like Christmas and it's only March :)