Category Archives: anything

just for anything and everything else

My Personal Favorite IDD Service in Singapore

Looking for a smart and cheap way to make IDD calls over a phone? This is not VOIP or anything like Skype I’m talking about here. This is good old traditional land line or mobile phone.

This service that I’ve used for over 5 years now, and have been my favorite pick for IDD calling services. This is Zone1511, which has a good presence here in Asia.

The smart thing about Zone1511 is that it’s not a traditional IDD service. Think of it as an automatic aggregate of many IDD services. What you do is configure your favorite 5 service providers, and when you dial IDD via 1511, it will intelligently route through the cheapest provider at that point in time. If that provider is at capacity, it will automatically go through the next best provider.

The result, getting the best price and quality for you anytime and every time you make that international call.

Setup and registration is easy. Sign up online at their website with a credit card and you can start making calls instantly. The best part, there’s no minimal monthly fees or subscriptions. It’s purely pay as you use.

Can’t get any better than this folks, this is definitely the smartest and CHEAPEST way to make IDD calls from Singapore.

Can’t get better than this folks, sign up now!

Please use my referral link too 🙂

 

head in the clouds

hey! been so busy lately that I’ve neglected this blog too much.

Literally I’ve got my head in the cloud a lot. Learning lots of new things around virtualization and cloud, as well as the other bits that are associated with it.

Been doing lots of online training, hands on and playing around with products like Veeam Backup & Replication. Also getting in knee deep with VMware View, and aiming to get myself certified in Desktop Virtualization.

If there’s any comments or remarks I’ve missed, out try sending me another message.

I’ll start to write again, hopefully on a monthly basis at least!

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.

[driving tip] don’t stop in the yellow box

maybe I’ll start a chain of posts devoted to better driving… (or just my cover up of my rants about hopeless drivers on the road)

Let’s start by my strong believe that there are no such thing as “woman driver”. I am not gender biased, and a firm believer that there are bad male and female drivers. There has been too many instances where we think “oh… another woman driver”, and it turns out to be a guy. I know many ladies who drives well, and even better than some guys I know.

So, this morning, I had an encounter with a less-than-experienced driver. Just so happens the driver is female.

I was waiting at the light on New Bridge Road, waiting for the green to allow the approach to make a right into Merchant Road. So, it was currently green for the Merchant Road traffic and there was a line forming a right turn from Merchant Road to New Bridge Road. At the end of the line, a fairly new Honda Jazz/Fit. Since the traffic ahead on New Bridge Road was jammed up, everyone was stuck in the yellow box.

So, the light went red for them, but further down, the cars started to clear ahead. The column of cars right turning into New Bridge Road cleared, except that Honda Jazz. The lady was lost on what to do and just stayed right there in the middle of the junction. Blocking 2 lanes of incoming traffic from Eu Tong Sen street. Traffic started to go around her, but it held things up a little.

Finally, incoming traffic cleared and she reversed back to Merchant Road.

What should have been most appropriate in the first place, before she advanced into the junction was to wait behind. This is according to the basic theory rules. Never advance into a yellow box if you may end up blocking traffic. So, maybe for some reason she missed that.

Alright, so she moved into the junction to join the queue of cars to make the right into New Bridge Road. The next best thing she should have done was to follow closely the column of cars ahead of her when they moved off. Instead she froze on the spot and created chaos.

So, tip of the day… if you are already out and sitting in the yellow box, keep moving when you can safely do so.

“Please revert.” – really??

my first rant of 2010… actually been holding off this post for a while… but alas! I must put it out there…

so what’s irritating me? the use of the word “revert” in many many emails (To/Cc) I receive.

Before reading furthur, I would like you to sit back and think… what do you think the meaning of the word “revert” is?

Do you think that “revert” has a meaning like… “get back to”… as in like “reply”, “respond”?

Have you seen, or even written sentences similar to… “Please revert to me once you have a decision.” ?

Now, please read up on the definitions of the word “revert” as found by Google, here.

Welcome back, did you find any of the definitions there that meant “respond”, or anything similar?

No?

Well, “revert” really means something like “undo”, “roll back”, “to restore back to a previous state”.

It DOES NOT MEAN, “reply” or any way near the vicinity of the word.

Now, if I’ve made you aware what “revert” means… think back on the sentences where the word has been misused… don’t they seem strange?

I work in the IT industry, and frequently we encounter problems and they’ll need to be fixed… so the person who’s tasked to make the necessary fixes sends you a mail to tell you that the problem will be worked on and it ends off… “I’ll revert once the problem has been resolved.”

Now, doesn’t it sound funny? If you read the sentence to the true meaning of “revert”… it probably could be read that this person is trying to be funny… yes, the problem will be worked on… but once it’s fixed, it will be “reverted”. LOL!!

Well, hope you’ve learnt something new today, good for the new year.

Hello World!!

Being an IT geek, the first post of a new blog has got to be customary “Hello World” : )

Do drop by from time to time, we’ll try to kick the authors in this blog to produce updates at least once a week.

Feel free to leave us any fan or hate comments.