Multiple Car Park Fees Charge in Wilson Parking using NETS FlashPay

There is an unreliable of car park fees collected in using the Wilson Parking. On 19 Mar 2016, I am using the NETS flashpay function to pay the fess to exit the car park. However, there is a long duration for the system to lift up the barrier. By then I already suspect that there might be system glitch in the car park system. I went to the nearly  NETS terminal to print the receipt and to my horror, the NETS is charging me 4 times. If I am not alert and did not goto check, I might not know that the system is not so reliable. Hopefully this blog could alert all the driver that the car park system is not 100% reliable and is a good habit to check the transaction that had been made in your store value card.

POSB Everyday Card Announcement of Change in Card Benefits wef 1 May 2016

Have received email on the revision of the POSB Everyday Card benefit -> http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/cards-news-announcements.page?pid=sg-posb-edm-SGCARD160031-30mar-cards-everyday-btnlearnmore-news-announcements.page

The changes is

• Registration and top-up charges for NETS FlashPay Auto Top-Up (ATU) by Credit/Debit Card and GIRO are currently waived till 31 March 2016. From 1 April 2016, an Auto Top-Up fee of $0.25 (GST inclusive) will be charged for each Auto Top-Up transaction by Credit/Debit Card and $0.15 (GST inclusive) for each Auto Top-Up transaction by GIRO.

Meaning there will be no more free Auto Top-up for NETS FlashPay in using POSB credit card. But I wonder the Ezlink ATU for POSB is it still free? 

According to http://home.ezlink.com.sg/home-ezreload, it seem that the fees is waived.

And the citibank credit card ezlink reload fee is also waived. ->https://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credit_cards/smrt-credit-card.htm?icid=SGCCUJ7ENCCHOCAAN

Useful Principle or Effect Theory

蝴蝶效应 Butterfly Effect

鲶鱼效应 Catfish Effect

羊群效应 Herd Effect

木桶效应 Bucket / Cast Effect

鱷鱼法则 Alligator Principle

刺猬法则 Hedgehog Principle

破窗理论 Broken Window Theory

手錶定律 Segal's / Watch Law

二八定律 Pareto Principle

Refund of EVERGREEN LIFE MANUKA HONEY in Singapore

According to the media release by AVA - Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore, they are working with the importer to recall List of Evergreen Life Manuka honey products from Singapore market immediately. The products have been recalled because non-approved substances may have been used during the processing of the honey. Singapore food regulations do not allow additives to be added to honey. Consumers are advised not to consume the products and to discard them.

The list of recall Manuka Honey are in AVA website

I had bought Evergreen Manuka Honey MGO30+ 500G and Evergreen Manuka 100% Pure New Zealand Honey TA 20+ and had opened and consumed the TA 20+ for few tea spoon.

For MGO30+ 500G, I managed to get a refund from NTUC Fairprice . The cash refund is $27.80.

For Pure New Zealand Honey TA 20+, I bought it in Robinsons. Due to it was opened and consumed, the Robinsons only willing to refund 50% of the price ($45.60)  which is $22.80. Robinsons only issue gift card instead of cash. However I have checked the Metro facebook, the Metro is willing to refund 100% of the price regardless of opened or unopened. This make me wonder why there are differences in the refund prices??

Funny Exam Instruction

I have come across the funny exam instructions and wanted to share.

 Instructions:

1. You are trained to be an Engineer not a Story Writer, answer point to point

2. If you have missed my classes and have not prepared, don't waste your time, instead pray to the God.

3. Do not unnecessarily smile at the person sitting next to you, they may also not know the answer, moreover exam hall is not the right place for networking.

4. Do not get nervous if your friend is taking more sheets, they may be just showing off to make you nervous.

5. It's good to have a lot of beautiful options in life but all questions are compulsory here.

Another scam email from Apple

Apple company is big and has a lot of customer base. This has caused different types of phishing, scam email that imitate from Apple that attempt to fraudulently acquire customer  personal information.

Below is another scam email received.

Relationship Between Technologies and Physical Health

Over the years, the advancement of the technologies are making human life more comfortable and convenience. However misuse it will damage the human health.

For example using of headphone.  Headphone is a pair of small loud speaker that is designed to be inserted or worn around the ears and allow single user to listen to the sound privately without disturbing others.

Scientist had researched there is no relationship in using the headphone that can cause hearing loss in the working environment eg help desk while the operator need to wear headphone while answering the phone queries from the customers. (ref -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3406203/)

There is another research indicated that repeated exposure to loud sound and music can cause hearing loss. (ref - https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000495.htm andhttp://www.osteopathic.org/osteopathic-health/about-your-health/health-conditions-library/general-health/Pages/headphone-safety.aspx).

Therefore the safety usage of technologies depend on how is the devices being used and how long will it be used.

Recently a few technology companies have come out the Virtual Reality glasses and aim to let the education or school teachers and students to experience the different experiences in the learning environment. It may be a good learning experience for the students but it may cause health hazard to the students if being prolong exposure to the glasses. The possible health hazard are radiation and vision problems. There need to be a research study on the using of the VR glasses and the impact on the human body health before the glasses being widely use in the world wide.

ICBC Phishing Website

Today I have received an email from ICBC indicated that my security token is out of synchronise with the icbc bank and need to login to website to synchronise it. It provide a link http://idckn.com/

The moment I see the link I know it is a phishing web link as the official icbc website should be www.icbc.com not any other weblink.

I keyin the web address and try to see what is the look of the website. It look almost the same feel as the icbc bank. For those who are not careful and key in all the id, password and token details, all their money in the bank might be transfer to another user.

Dementia - Back to memory loss state

On Friday, my father dementia back to the memory loss state. The alertness only last for 3 days. During the alert state, beside unable to sleep, he was very active and like to exercise to keep body fit. His blood pressure went up between145 to 150. His behaviour will be stubborn and talk a lot.

Dementia - Mental back to Alert

My father had the dementia for few years. The doctor diagnose and indicated that there were 3 minor stroke in the brain and caused my father the loss of the memory. Even though my father is the pioneer generation, there is no subsidiary for the medicine that he need to consume. As these medicine are not classify as general standard subsidy medicine and need to be pay in full.

However for years of observation, in every 3 to 4 months my father will suddenly become very alert and start to talk in sense. In the most recent, Tuesday, he will read the newspaper and talk on the election. He will want to do exercise which in the dementia state that he will only want to lie in the bed and sleep. However the side effect of this alertness is he couldn't sleep. In the past 2 days, he hardly sleep for 2 hours.

Will continue write this blog to record the observation of the mental alertness.

Sentences to use in audit reply

Some quality quote that can be used for audit reply :

1. "Although there was no evidence of dishonesty, the xxx 'position' concerned has taken personal responsibility for these lapses and resigned from his position."

2. "'organisation/department' acknowledges our shortcomings in this area and has taken immediate steps to enhance compliance,"

3."As a xxxx managing yyyyy funds, zzzz takes our financial governance seriously."

4."We have taken swift and decisive action to put things right immediately. "

5.“We can fault for their non-compliance of financial procedures, but please do not doubt them in their passion and commitment in always doing their best for the community/organisation,”

6. "Good intentions, not dishonesty"

7 "By having multiple layers of checks and transparency, we ensure a high level of vigilance over the integrity of our financial management," 

8. "We must continue to maintain a sensible balance of rules, subject ourselves to regular and thorough audit, and take thorough enforcement actions whenever necessary."

9. “I can say with confidence there is no irregularity at the system level.”

Scam email on Apple iTune

Received another scam email invoice on the payment to Apple iTune. However I did not place any order through Apple iTune and the email send out to me is not from apple.com but from dssmove.co.uk. So I just ignore it and did not bother to click on the link that they provide.

POSB ATM Card Upgrade Lucky Draw Winner

• In early of this year, I have upgrade my existing magnetic-stripe only POSB ATM Card to a POSB Chip ATM Card which comes with an EMV Chip and won $1000. Hopefully I can also be one of the winner  to win the Grand Prize Lucky Draw in Jan 2015.

Scam email to get Apple ID details

Today receive an scam/phishing email from apple without the correct apple email address indicate

Your Apple ID has been suspended [#834732]‏. 

Please do not believe and click on the link that verify the account and keyin your details. However the FAQ link is to the apple website

Details as follow

From:

Apple (secure@apple.ssl.co.uk) Microsoft SmartScreen classified this message as junk.

Sent:

02 December 2014 22: 43PM Dear Customer, We recently failed to validate your account information we hold on record for you, therefore we need to ask you to complete a brief validation process in order to verify your account. Click here to verify your account Failure to complete our validation process will result in a suspension of your Apple ID. We take every step needed to automatically validate our users, unfortunately in this case we were unable to verify your details. The process will only take a couple of minutes and will allow us to maintain our high standard of account security. Wondering why you got this email? This email was sent automatically during routine security checks. We are not completely satisfied with your account information and require you to update your account to continue using our services uninterrupted. For more information, see our FAQ. Thanks, Apple Customer Service

Failed to Received OCBC and DBS SMS OTP on 10 Nov 2014

Yesterday 10 Nov 2014, I was doing internet banking at 945pm. To my amaze that I am not able to receive both bank, OCBC and DBS SMS OTP. The SMS OTP was delayed till 11 Nov 0848hr then send to my handphone.

This had made me wonder
1) are both bank using the same OTP SMS provider ?or
2) are both bank using same telco provider?
3) why only 848hr then I receive the SMS? Is it at 8am (working hour) then they discover the system fault?

I have tried to use my own handphone to send SMS to my phone and able to receive the message.

Another worry is that the technical fault in the system was not discovered early to resolve.
Is the alert system in the system not robust enough that it is not able to inform the system administrator? Or the alert system and the SMS system are using the same gateway and hence the technical support unable to receive the faulty message? The contingency plan in the internet banking will need to be enhanced and the downtime of the system for almost 12 hours is not acceptable.

Creative Math Problem

Have come across a picture illustrate a simple math problem



There are different method to solve it.

Method 1

Method 2

Method 3

Rabbit + Cat = 10
Rabbit + Dog = 20
Dog + Cat = 24

Rabbit + Cat + Rabbit + Dog = 30
2 Rabbit + Cat + Dog = 30
2 Rabbit + 24 = 30
2 Rabbit = 6
Rabbit = 3
Rabbit + Dog + Cat = 3 + 24 =27.

Worm in Raw Fish

Saturday morning, my wife and I went to wet market to buy fresh fish. Before noon, my wife will wash the fish and do the preparation for the lunch. As usual after the washing I will pour wine into the fish to remove the fish smell and went back to my room. My wife will later steam the fish. the moment I stepped into my room, my wife started screaming and I went back kitchen to find out what happening. She pointed at the fish and said worm. This is also the first time I saw worm crawling out of the fish. I capture the scene into my phone and started to search on the net to find out. According to the internet, this shown the fish is fresh. If the fish is frosen, the worm or parasite or Anisakis will not be able to survive.

How a Quarrel Started in the Bus

There are 2 bus card reader, one in left and one in the right, in the front entrance of the Singapore Bus.



The entrance of the bus able to accommodate 2 passengers to board onto the bus at the same time. Naturally passenger near to the left door will used the left card reader to tap on their card and the right one for the right boarding passenger.

Last week I encountered one incident that I nearly quarrel with one lady. I board onto the bus using the right side and one Indian lady board onto the bus using the left side. When I wanted to tap my card on the left side card reader, the Indian lady just cut into my side and also tap on the same card reader. This causes the card reader reading error as it detected 2 cards. The Indian lady started to say that why am i so "Kam Jiong" meaning fear and wanted to do thing fast. I argue back to her saying that she should used the left side card reader and not the right side. You know what she replied. She say " Is I wish, none of your business". After hearing such replied, I was very angry but lucky I am not a person liked to quarrel if not base on the word that she used, a big quarrel will be started.

When back home, I started to do a self reflection and start to remind myself not to use word that will agitated people.

How Much does the Doctor Charge to Fill in Patient Form

There is a form that need the doctor to fill in and certify. The doctor need to do is to delete the Yes/No option and chop a stamp plus signature. It costs me S$25 for the form filling and doctor signature.

Citibank Bill Pay

Have received the credit card statement account and discovered the important Update on Citibank Bill pay.

It written - With effect from 1 July 2014, you will no longer earn/be rewarded any reward points, cashback or Citi Miles when you pay your bills at AXS using your Citibank Credit Cards

So sad , unable to earn point anymore through AXS.