Monthly Archives: June 2010

diamond water – it’s not just the product, but the after sales care as well

My family has been using the Diamond water filtration system since Jovan was 3mths old. It’s been serving us well and definitely doing a great job in keeping our water for consumption clean.
Today, I realize that just like many other products that are important and we use a lot, maintenance is also very important. Just like our PC, cars, handphones, homes, maintenance is key to make sure it’s delivering what it’s meant to deliver. And if it’s something out of your own area of expertise, having the right person do the job is critical.
Think about it, we installed the water filtration system to improve on the quality of the already well provided utility water. No matter how clean it can get, the pipes that carry water to the house can and will age, and filth will slowly creep in. There’s chlorine in the water, which ideally should be minimized, and this system helps to get rid of the chlorine. If we don’t do a good regular maintenance on the filter, eventually the filth will build up, and slowly start to get into what we are drinking. Beyond the recommended maintenance period, we will probably be worst of drinking from the filtration system.
I’m glad to have met a good service lady from Diamond water. Naturally it’s in her own interest to help keep track of the due date for the maintenance of my filtration system. So, someone reminding me that it’s time to spend some money, but for a damn good reason that I do need to spend on, to ensure my family get the good water we want to have. Ann, is the lady who sold me the system, and also doing an excellent job in helping me maintain the system. Her knowledge of the system is top notch, and her experience in performing the maintenance is worth taking note of.
She’s a very patient lady, and very friendly. Every time she’ll spend time to do a quick refresher to my domestic helper on how to do the simple interim cleaning that we need to do. This is a tough business, if you understand the business model, she’s like many roles in one. Sales, post-sales, servicing, help desk, all rolled into one.
I’m personally delivering services all my working life, so I know what’s a good honest service when I see one. So, if you are considering installing a filtration system for your home or office, I strongly recommend going to Ann Yap, 96493662.

My family has been using the Diamond water filtration system since Jovan was 3mths old. It’s been serving us well and definitely doing a great job in keeping our water for consumption clean.
Today, I realize that just like many other products that are important and we use a lot, maintenance is also very important. Just like our PC, cars, handphones, homes, maintenance is key to make sure it’s delivering what it’s meant to deliver. And if it’s something out of your own area of expertise, having the right person do the job is critical.
Think about it, we installed the water filtration system to improve on the quality of the already well provided utility water. No matter how clean it can get, the pipes that carry water to the house can and will age, and filth will slowly creep in. There’s chlorine in the water, which ideally should be minimized, and this system helps to get rid of the chlorine. If we don’t do a good regular maintenance on the filter, eventually the filth will build up, and slowly start to get into what we are drinking. Beyond the recommended maintenance period, we will probably be worst of drinking from the filtration system.
I’m glad to have met a good service lady from Diamond water. Naturally it’s in her own interest to help keep track of the due date for the maintenance of my filtration system. So, someone reminding me that it’s time to spend some money, but for a damn good reason that I do need to spend on, to ensure my family get the good water we want to have. Ann, is the lady who sold me the system, and also doing an excellent job in helping me maintain the system. Her knowledge of the system is top notch, and her experience in performing the maintenance is worth taking note of.
She’s a very patient lady, and very friendly. Every time she’ll spend time to do a quick refresher to my domestic helper on how to do the simple interim cleaning that we need to do. This is a tough business, if you understand the business model, she’s like many roles in one. Sales, post-sales, servicing, help desk, all rolled into one.
I’m personally delivering services all my working life, so I know what’s a good honest service when I see one. So, if you are considering installing a filtration system for your home or office, I strongly recommend going to Ann Yap, 96493662.

mifi good and bad with the huawei e5830

so, I’ve been using the E5380 for 6 weeks now. The experience has been mixed, at times, it works great and flawlessly, and at times, it’s just horrendous.

So, would this be a device the I recommend, yes definitely; but know it’s limitations. To be fair, I’m using Singtel here in Singapore, and the device Singtel sells is the e5832. I could be that the e5830 is not totally well compatible with Singtel.

Before I get all too technical here, this is what I have experienced….

The situations are 2 extremes…

  1. the device works flawlessly and delivers uninterrupted internet access
  2. the device connects to the internet, works for a few mins and then loses connection, but thinks it’s still online

So far, I don’t have a clear clue on why exactly this is happening. From my observation and numerous internet posts, plus comparing some specs, I believe there are 3 possibilities

  1. what I do notice is that connection tends to be very flaky when signal strength is weak. But if I switch the device to force it to connect only using GSM (and never 3G) it will work smoothly, just slow. So here, I question what’s wrong that is preventing the device to switch network automatically… very much like what the E220 USB dongle can do.
  2. Reading from some aussie forums, it appears that there are users with the E5830 that encountered the same symptoms as I have. ie, the device works very well and consistently in some areas, and in others, flaky. What they have observed but unable to confirm is that it could have been a carrier network issue. So for many of them, without doing anything to the devices, all of the sudden at the areas where the device worked bad, it was performing fine already. The conclusion there is that there was some operating issue with their mobile provider and it was fixed at the carrier end.
  3. Singtel does issue the E5832 with the high end post paid plans, and comparing the difference between the E5830 and E5832, is that the E5832 supports WCDMA 2100/900MHz where the E5830 only supports WCMDA 2100MHz. Could it be that to work well with the Singtel network, I need the WCDMA 900MHz also? I don’t know, so far I’m not able to find any details online about what frequencies does Singtel 3G network operate on. In addition, my friend has the exact same model as me, just that he’s using Starhub. Starhub has the E5830, and his experience has been all much better than mine. In areas where I have dodgy signals, his still works smoothly. Will need more testing to see how well it performs in areas of weak signal strength.

There are alternatives out there for 3G pocket router solutions. The Novatel MIFI is definitely discouraged from the stories I’ve heard. But now, manufacturers like Aztech and Dlink produce 3G routers which you can plug your good ol 3G USB dongles to. I’ve read that some of the newer routers are USB powered, but have yet to be able to validate that. If true, it could be a viable alternative, BUT with a heavier baggage. The E583x models are still the slimmests and most portable around.