I just got an iPad recently, and being the fiscal conservative I am, I got a 2nd hand iPad1 with warranty left. Pretty good deal if I must say so myself. So being my first apple product, I didn’t know what to expect, since theres always stories that apple tries to lock people into doing what they want them to do. Unfortunately, it’s true. You can’t share photos and songs, you can’t copy things to it without itunes, you can’t install apps that is not apple approved, you can’t plug a usb drive or a sd card to it (unless you pay more for the accessories), you can’t this, you can’t that. They even try to prevent you from using facetime or skype if you are using 3G, rather than wifi. Gah. So anyway, it seems one of the easiest ways to have access to things is to install DropBox. Essentially DropBox is a cloud computing model, where you would have a 2gig (and more) space online. You would then install a software on your computer and any other devices. So once you copy a file into the designated directory on your computer, the DropBox software will automatically upload it to the cloud space, and then you can download it with any of your other devices. The key thing is having it as seamless as possible, by having the directory recognised as one of the local directories. Will have to test it out further, but from the looks of it, it should be good news! But as usual for apple, I would expect a lot of limitations. Don’t understand these apple fanboys. Also, they have this referral program, where if you have someone open an account with DropBox, you and your friend would get an additional 250meg in your DropBox, up to a maximum of 8gig! Pretty decent indeed. Definitely worth a try for iPad users!...
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One of my favourite inspirational clips. Do watch the show, Facing the Giants, if you can. How true.. We sometimes quit even before we start. We don’t think we are strong enough sometimes or it is just simply impossible. But we have to endure it for in the end it is worth...
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I just managed to get hold of Tim Ferriss‘ latest book, The 4-Hour Body, from a friend. I have read his first book, The Four Hour Work Week, before and I thought it was quite an unconventional way to look at things. And thus, I was pretty excited to take a look at what he has to say about the human body. Basically, it was about reaching the peak performance of the human body, and he segregates it into Fat loss, Building muscle, Improving sex (definitely a core indicator 😛 ), Perfecting sleep, and many other topics. Just 5 years ago, I was 68kg. At the peak of my physical health due to my physical activities, busyness of schedule, and basically just the lifestyle I had. Unfortunately, I am currently 80kg and lifestyle has definitely changed to one of a typical white collar worker. So when he mentioned the concept of Slow Carb diet, it made some sense, since it was not new information to me. Things about taking low glycemic index foods so that your body stores less fat due to insulin reaction are already concepts I knew. The biggest difference I got was that he managed to get his father to lose from 245lbs (111kg) to 203lbs (92kg) in 3 months with no additional change in physical activity. Just because of a switch of eating habits from typical diets to a slow carb diet. Now that got me thinking. How much of my excess fats can be trimmed using just a clean up of diet? Of course, physical activity does make a difference. Eventually his father reached 186lbs (84kg) after 6 months on the program. One of the biggest problems with diets is the sticking factor. The ability to make permanent lifestyle change to a person. Else, the weight will eventually come back on again. The slow carb diet does seem like a diet that makes it easy to stick to. Basically he has 5 main rules. 1) Avoid “White” Carbohydrates 2) Eat the...
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Quite a nice sweet rendition of this song! Totally love...
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One of the nicest performance I have ever seen! Just like a ballerina in a musical box! This one is actually a competition in Singapore! Amazing. Apparently theres another mega event in June, and the famous Suzie Q would be coming to Singapore! Who’s interested to go watch?...
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Read an article on The Guardian recently about ‘Greece’s doomed generation‘. It basically talks about how Greece is hit with all the Austerity measures imposed by IMF after they hit the economic crisis in 2009/2010. Somehow, the more ‘developed’ you become as a nation, the less you are willing to give up. This seems to resonate with me in the recent Singapore GE, and this article. In the 1996-1998 asian economic crisis, the Thai, Indonesian, Vietnam, even Malaysia and Singapore got hit by a sudden crash in the currencies. Thailand and Indonesian were the worst hit. IMF imposed measures and controls on the Government then in order to rein in spending. Essentially, that means they gave the reins of the economy to an external party, who’s job is just to cut your spending. The citizens of these country then went through pain, because budgets were cut, non-essential services were restrained. Now we see the same in Greece because they have fallen hard from grace. The difference is that because of a higher education level, and that they are used to the material comforts in life, there is massive protests. I went to my favourite site, wikipedia, to look up on Greece and Singapore. It’s amazing how similar they are in terms of economy! Greece Singapore GDP $302 billion $235 bilion GDP per capita $29,240.00 $50,300.00 GDP by sector 4% agriculture 17.6% industry 78.5% services 0% agriculture 26.8% industry 73.2% services Labour force 5.05 million 3.03 million Public Debt 142.8% of GDP 117.6% of GDP Foreign Reserves $5.546 billion $187.8 billion Their demise came out simply because of falling state revenue and increasing government expenditures. How fast the ball changes. The Singapore GE that just ended made me wonder. We are like Greece, with no natural resources (typically), relying on a few economic engines and largely the services industry, but otherwise, essentially nothing to fall back on. I hope I would never have to see the day that Singapore falls from grace. Before 2008,...
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