Nothing beats God's creation!
Country club
Sunrise over country club
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Sunrise, Glorious Sunrise
Glorious sunrise sceneries, at Lower Seletar Reservoir, Yishun. Picture perfect, only drawback - noisy even at such an early hour on a Sunday!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
20 ways you're getting ripped off without knowing it
Source (for full listing) : Asiaone
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We all know cash is hard to come buy, so it's important that we have enough to pay our bills, yet be able splurge a little to pamper ourselves. In this consumer age, there are so many products and services begging for us to purchase them that we usually do, without thinking about whether we really need them. And when we do purchase them, we may be paying more than we actually need to.
The current sharp inflation makes things worse, with everyday household goods' prices increasing by as much as 5.2 per cent. These 20 unexpected ways will help you save more money, depending on your lifestyle. You'll be surprised at the little things that count.
From finance-related payments such as insurance premiums and credit card interest fees to daily life items such as toiletries and food, here are 20 ways you may be getting ripped off without knowing it.
Some of them are:
Travel-sized toiletries
Know those little tubes of toothpaste or little bottles of shampoo that are sold in convenience stores for travellers?
It may not be worth it to buy these travel-sized toiletries if you can simply squeeze some toothpaste from the family-sized tube from home and put it into a small bottle.
The same goes for soap and shampoo.
Wasteful charities
The news is strife with reports of dishonest or wasteful charities which either waste donors' money on unnecessary office furnishings or allow the donations to end up in workers' pockets.
Be careful who you donate to and check their licences / credentials meticulously to ensure that you're not wasting your money.
Academic textbooks
If you are pursuing further studies, or if your child is in university, note that you don't have to buy every single latest edition of your academic book from the bookshop.
Older editions work as well too. For some books, "latest edition" merely mean that there have been some tweaks to the text or examples.
You can easily find out whether these changes are important. What's more, these older editions can probably be found in bargain bins or book exchanges.
Anti-virus software
If you wish only to prevent malware or spyware on your computer, there are some anti-virus software which can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
While some anti-virus software are genuinely good and safeguard your personal computer against the latest threats and attacks, they may not be able to keep up with the multitude of cyberthreats released by hackers.
So, think before you buy that latest anti-virus software selling for a discounted price. It may already be outdated.
Health supplements
Extra health supplements may not be necessary if you partake in wholesome foods and do lots of exercise.
Fruits and vegetables usually do the trick, together with regular exercises.
Credit card interest fees
Credit card fees or interest can be pretty hefty if you miss making payments on time.
Furthermore, you'll have a bad credit report to your name and you may not be able to take out loans in the future.
So remember to pay off your credit car bills and not put it off until the last minute
Pre-packed snacks
Buying pre-packed small-size packs of snacks may be more costly than you think.
It's easy to buy a family-sized pack at a cheaper price and then use your own containers to pack them according to the portions you want.
It’s more environmentally friendly too.
Car rentals / servicing
If you need to rent a car to get around, think twice before doing it.
Borrow a friend's ride or get someone to give you a lift.
If you usually go to premium car servicing centres, why not try out your neighbourhood car servicing centre? They can usually do the job for a cheaper price.
<>
We all know cash is hard to come buy, so it's important that we have enough to pay our bills, yet be able splurge a little to pamper ourselves. In this consumer age, there are so many products and services begging for us to purchase them that we usually do, without thinking about whether we really need them. And when we do purchase them, we may be paying more than we actually need to.
The current sharp inflation makes things worse, with everyday household goods' prices increasing by as much as 5.2 per cent. These 20 unexpected ways will help you save more money, depending on your lifestyle. You'll be surprised at the little things that count.
From finance-related payments such as insurance premiums and credit card interest fees to daily life items such as toiletries and food, here are 20 ways you may be getting ripped off without knowing it.
Some of them are:
Travel-sized toiletries
Know those little tubes of toothpaste or little bottles of shampoo that are sold in convenience stores for travellers?
It may not be worth it to buy these travel-sized toiletries if you can simply squeeze some toothpaste from the family-sized tube from home and put it into a small bottle.
The same goes for soap and shampoo.
Wasteful charities
The news is strife with reports of dishonest or wasteful charities which either waste donors' money on unnecessary office furnishings or allow the donations to end up in workers' pockets.
Be careful who you donate to and check their licences / credentials meticulously to ensure that you're not wasting your money.
Academic textbooks
If you are pursuing further studies, or if your child is in university, note that you don't have to buy every single latest edition of your academic book from the bookshop.
Older editions work as well too. For some books, "latest edition" merely mean that there have been some tweaks to the text or examples.
You can easily find out whether these changes are important. What's more, these older editions can probably be found in bargain bins or book exchanges.
Anti-virus software
If you wish only to prevent malware or spyware on your computer, there are some anti-virus software which can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
While some anti-virus software are genuinely good and safeguard your personal computer against the latest threats and attacks, they may not be able to keep up with the multitude of cyberthreats released by hackers.
So, think before you buy that latest anti-virus software selling for a discounted price. It may already be outdated.
Health supplements
Extra health supplements may not be necessary if you partake in wholesome foods and do lots of exercise.
Fruits and vegetables usually do the trick, together with regular exercises.
Credit card interest fees
Credit card fees or interest can be pretty hefty if you miss making payments on time.
Furthermore, you'll have a bad credit report to your name and you may not be able to take out loans in the future.
So remember to pay off your credit car bills and not put it off until the last minute
Pre-packed snacks
Buying pre-packed small-size packs of snacks may be more costly than you think.
It's easy to buy a family-sized pack at a cheaper price and then use your own containers to pack them according to the portions you want.
It’s more environmentally friendly too.
Car rentals / servicing
If you need to rent a car to get around, think twice before doing it.
Borrow a friend's ride or get someone to give you a lift.
If you usually go to premium car servicing centres, why not try out your neighbourhood car servicing centre? They can usually do the job for a cheaper price.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Does Your PC Have a Virus? Or Is It Just SLOW?
By Becky Worley | Upgrade Your Life – Thu, Apr 5, 2012
4 Major Virus Symptoms
Geeky Tricks for Diagnosis
Some people will tell you to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to launch the task manager and comb through programs (processes) to look for unfamiliar items. I think this is a bad idea. Virus writers are sneaky and will often name virus files to look like parts of the Windows operating system or other common programs. Conversely, many legitimate parts of Windows have weird names that sound like viruses to a layman. I have heard horror stories of people thinking they were deleting a virus only to realize after a reboot that they had disabled a mandatory component of the operating system. Then they had a dead computer that needed a complete Windows reinstallation.
But one place where you can get useful info in the task manager is the networking tab. If you have all other programs closed and still notice a high level of network/Internet traffic, it's a good indicator you have a virus. This tip alone is not a good enough metric for virus diagnosis, but it's a clue as you compile information about the state of your computer.
Surefire Virus Diagnosis - Free virus scanners.
There are lots of free virus scanners online that can tell you if you have some form of malware on your computer. Personally, I like to run two or three programs, because there are hundreds of thousands of viruses, all with different heuristics (behavior patterns), so you increase your chances of diagnosis if you use multiple programs with multiple and varied virus definitions.
I like AVG, Avast, and Malwarebytes. All are highly rated by CNet and PC Magazine.
One tip: when you scan for viruses, be sure to turn off or disable any other security software. These programs do not play well together and can interfere with each other. Also, after you diagnose and remove the virus, keeping one virus scanner is probably a good idea, but you'll want to trash the other two since they can be real resource hogs running in the background.
Virus or Hacked Email
What if people tell you they are getting spam from you? This could either be a virus or that your email account has been hacked. First try these steps to take back control of your email account. If spam or unauthorized email is still being sent out from your account, it's possible you have a virus. In that case, you need to get rid of the virus on your computer and then go through the process linked above again to change passwords and block access to your email.
Slow Computer or Virus?
Once you've accomplished the steps above you should have a clear idea of the problem.
- Your system crashes or locks up often.
- It randomly restarts.
- You see strange error messages or pop-up boxes especially alerts about firewalls or viruses.
- Your system suddenly runs much slower, and the key here is suddenly. If it progressively slows down, it's probably getting bogged down by too many programs running in the background, you haven't defragmented it recently (or ever), or you are nearing full capacity on the hard drive. But if the computer suddenly takes minutes to load a web page, or suddenly takes 10 minutes to shutdown/start-up it's a good clue that you have a virus.
- New toolbars in your browser.
- New shortcuts on your desktop that you didn't put there.
- New items in the system tray at the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
Geeky Tricks for Diagnosis
- If you hit the start button in the lower left corner of your Windows screen and (depending on the Version of Windows you have) either find the run command or just type CMD in the search box, a black box should pop-up. This is a prompt used by computer technicians to run programs at a deep level within the computer and it's often used by the pros to remove viruses. As a result, some malware (meaning viruses, spyware, and other nasty stuff) will disable the feature to make it harder for the user or a tech to remove the virus.
- In a similar fashion, many viruses will prevent the computer from accessing the Windows Update feature, which can also assist in virus removal. So if you go to control panel, Security, and click Windows Update, and your computer can't launch that feature, it's another clear sign you have a virus.
Some people will tell you to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to launch the task manager and comb through programs (processes) to look for unfamiliar items. I think this is a bad idea. Virus writers are sneaky and will often name virus files to look like parts of the Windows operating system or other common programs. Conversely, many legitimate parts of Windows have weird names that sound like viruses to a layman. I have heard horror stories of people thinking they were deleting a virus only to realize after a reboot that they had disabled a mandatory component of the operating system. Then they had a dead computer that needed a complete Windows reinstallation.
But one place where you can get useful info in the task manager is the networking tab. If you have all other programs closed and still notice a high level of network/Internet traffic, it's a good indicator you have a virus. This tip alone is not a good enough metric for virus diagnosis, but it's a clue as you compile information about the state of your computer.
Surefire Virus Diagnosis - Free virus scanners.
There are lots of free virus scanners online that can tell you if you have some form of malware on your computer. Personally, I like to run two or three programs, because there are hundreds of thousands of viruses, all with different heuristics (behavior patterns), so you increase your chances of diagnosis if you use multiple programs with multiple and varied virus definitions.
I like AVG, Avast, and Malwarebytes. All are highly rated by CNet and PC Magazine.
One tip: when you scan for viruses, be sure to turn off or disable any other security software. These programs do not play well together and can interfere with each other. Also, after you diagnose and remove the virus, keeping one virus scanner is probably a good idea, but you'll want to trash the other two since they can be real resource hogs running in the background.
Virus or Hacked Email
What if people tell you they are getting spam from you? This could either be a virus or that your email account has been hacked. First try these steps to take back control of your email account. If spam or unauthorized email is still being sent out from your account, it's possible you have a virus. In that case, you need to get rid of the virus on your computer and then go through the process linked above again to change passwords and block access to your email.
Slow Computer or Virus?
Once you've accomplished the steps above you should have a clear idea of the problem.
- If YOUR COMPUTER IS JUST SLOW: click here for our PC Tune Up instructions.
- IF YOU HAVE A VIRUS: click here for instructions to Get Rid Of The Virus.
Source: Yahoo.com.sg
Tiny US town fetches S$1.1m at auction
LOS ANGELES - Billed as the smallest town in America, Buford, Wyoming, was sold at auction Thursday for $900,000 to a Vietnamese national who wants to remain anonymous, the seller told AFP.
Twenty-five bidders signed up for the auction, held online and on-site, of the town with its three-bedroom house, school, gas station and several other buildings.
Buford's last inhabitant and the owner of the buildings, Don Sammons, 61, told AFP the package went to a Vietnamese man from Ho Chi Minh City.
"He actually flew here from Vietnam. He was on site," said Sammons.
The winner had to battle it out with bidders from Hong Kong, New York, Florida, Kansas and Wyoming, with the bidding starting at US$100,000(S$126,000). Some called in their offers by phone but about 20 people were on site.
"I'm happy and I'm sad all at once," said Sammons. "But I'm more happy than sad because this is all I wanted."
"I can continue and start the next chapter of my life," he said, adding that he planned to go someplace with sandy beaches and "maybe a palm tree" for a week or two before writing a book about his life in Buford.
The former railroad stop once was home to about 2,000 people. But they started moving away after train service ended, until the sign at the entrance to town read, "Buford. Population: 1."
The buyer will get 10 acres of land. Besides the house, a garage, cabin and barn, the property includes a cellphone tower and a parking lot that a trucking company uses to switch trailers at night.
The Buford Trading Post, as the outpost is called, benefits from regular traffic along the I-80 interstate, with Wyoming's state capital Cheyenne just 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the east, and San Francisco 1,150 miles to the west.
Source: asiaone.com
Twenty-five bidders signed up for the auction, held online and on-site, of the town with its three-bedroom house, school, gas station and several other buildings.
Buford's last inhabitant and the owner of the buildings, Don Sammons, 61, told AFP the package went to a Vietnamese man from Ho Chi Minh City.
"He actually flew here from Vietnam. He was on site," said Sammons.
The winner had to battle it out with bidders from Hong Kong, New York, Florida, Kansas and Wyoming, with the bidding starting at US$100,000(S$126,000). Some called in their offers by phone but about 20 people were on site.
"I'm happy and I'm sad all at once," said Sammons. "But I'm more happy than sad because this is all I wanted."
"I can continue and start the next chapter of my life," he said, adding that he planned to go someplace with sandy beaches and "maybe a palm tree" for a week or two before writing a book about his life in Buford.
The former railroad stop once was home to about 2,000 people. But they started moving away after train service ended, until the sign at the entrance to town read, "Buford. Population: 1."
The buyer will get 10 acres of land. Besides the house, a garage, cabin and barn, the property includes a cellphone tower and a parking lot that a trucking company uses to switch trailers at night.
The Buford Trading Post, as the outpost is called, benefits from regular traffic along the I-80 interstate, with Wyoming's state capital Cheyenne just 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the east, and San Francisco 1,150 miles to the west.
Source: asiaone.com
Boeing 747 Last Flight
SINGAPORE - The last Boeing 747 passenger service operated by Singapore Airlines took off Friday for a commemorative farewell return trip to Hong Kong.Flight SQ747, carrying more than 350 passengers, was due to touch down in Singapore at 7:30 pm.
SIA was one of the world’s largest operators of 747s but is retiring its entire 747 fleet in favour of more modern aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and the “super jumbo” Airbus A380, now the world’s largest jetliner.
“The 747 was truly the jewel in our fleet for nearly four decades, and we would not be the airline that we are today if we had not made the bold decision in 1972 to purchase this iconic jetliner,” said Mak Swee Wah, SIA’s executive vice president commercial.
SIA spokesman Nicholas Ionides told AFP the airline’s cargo arm would still continue to operate its fleet of 13 Boeing 747-400 freighters.
The Singapore flag carrier placed its first order for the 747s in 1972 and took delivery the following year, the statement said.
Source: asiaone.com
SIA was one of the world’s largest operators of 747s but is retiring its entire 747 fleet in favour of more modern aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and the “super jumbo” Airbus A380, now the world’s largest jetliner.
“The 747 was truly the jewel in our fleet for nearly four decades, and we would not be the airline that we are today if we had not made the bold decision in 1972 to purchase this iconic jetliner,” said Mak Swee Wah, SIA’s executive vice president commercial.
SIA spokesman Nicholas Ionides told AFP the airline’s cargo arm would still continue to operate its fleet of 13 Boeing 747-400 freighters.
The Singapore flag carrier placed its first order for the 747s in 1972 and took delivery the following year, the statement said.
Source: asiaone.com
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