Reporting a Johor crime? Call this number +607-2212-999

For those that have read my blog in Jan, you would know that I was a victim on New Year day. Since then heading back to JB would typically take me hours to consider and end up just dropping the idea altogether.

But on top of displaying a friendly face after an event you would rather forget, maybe they could also try solving or preventing the crime in the first place.

Johor police will respond to calls from victims of crime in Johor within 15 minutes - if they call a 24-hour hotline.

The number to call is +607-2212-999.According to The Straits Times, police officers based at at Johor's Contingent Police headquarters in Jalan Tebrau, Johor Baru, are on orders to mobilise a team into action within 15 minutes of taking a genuine hotline call.

Johor State Assemblyman Tan Kok Hong was quoted as saying this after a Malaysian trade and investment roadshow led by International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz here yesterday.According to Mr Tan, this number is more immediate because officers may not always be able to respond to police station calls immediately due to work matters.

He added: "If the officer does not arrive within 15 minutes, report it to us. The Chief of Police will look into why the police officer arrived late."

A Straits Times reporter put this to the test and true enough, she was greeted by a friendly cop who spoke fluent English.

Johor police have also in the past two months increased the number of policemen, patrol cars, police posts, closed-circuit TV cameras as well as the frequency of patrols, thanks to a RM330 million (S$145 million) special allocation from the federal government.

There has been growing concern over the worrying spate of Johor carjackings, rapes and robberies.

The new measures will reinforce efforts by the Malaysian government to woo investors, including those from Singapore, to Johor's new 2,217-sq-km economic zone, the Iskandar Development Region.

Lecturing

I went back to school today and lesson of the day is Business Information System. Something that I had taken before.

The lecturer is kind of technical but you can tell he knows his stuff and he enjoys educating us about the knowledge and experience that he posssess.

Again it ignited my desire to eventually become a part-time trainer or lecturer.

I'm quite sure that I still need a few years more of working experience to be seriously considered for the role at all. But it occur to me that I should start practising.

And work might be the right place for me to begin.

It also made me realised that I had not really been very efficient AND not spending too much time and efforts in coaching and imparting my years of experience in this line to my staffs.

So taking a cue on the structure and framework that my lecturers has been providing, I will attempt to equal that level of professionalism so things like handbook, guidelines, faq will be readily available.

Coupled with comprehensive coaching to cover all operational aspects, I hope it would eventually amount to something not just to the bottom line but also something that could translate into a sense of pride and difference that the company can provide.

Ambitious I know but if one aim high, you might at least hit the half-way line.

The most expensive coffee in the world

cost $50 a cup or USD$600 per pound. It's called Kopi Luwak and is produced predominantly in Sumatra Indonesia.

It is made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet.
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You read it right. Coffee berries were eaten by an animal called Civet(If you understand cantonese, you might pick up another funny here), they shit it out partially digested and we make coffee from it.

So the next time you are asked what shit you drinking when you are holding your coffee, you know these people know their facts well.

CPF Changes

So the government decided to tinkle with our CPF interest rate. So from now on we have a 
whopping 1 percentage point more!

Although most of your principle CPF money already went to paying for the sky price HDB flat that you don't get to own at all, the 1% will still apply to whever residue you have in your account!. 

The extra money will definitely help us to get a better cane or wheelchair. Can only choose one, can't afford both.

And not only will the government help to safeguard your CPF even longer, they will let you buy annuities. So you give all your CPF to the insurance company and they give you a lower monthly sum.
And this is for the REST of your life unlike CPF 20 years!

With this, I'm quite sure we would also alleviate the problems of poor and old people jumping onto MRT tracks too.

But what if you die earlier than 20 years. Then how?

I propose the insurance companies have special package for those with lower longevity risk. 
If you die within 10-20 years, you will get a queen size coffin with 20 tables. F&B, performance all included plus free shuttle to mandai in special only for coffin mercedes benz. A 5 room HDB will be burnt for you.

5 - 10 years you get upgraded to the gold package. All of the above + a getai with a singer of your choice will be included! Performance included oldies singer, pop songs singer or hip hop dancers. House is upgraded to a Condo with gym and pool facilities.

Less than 5 years you will become a VIP. Platimum class. Not only will you get to live in your dream bungalow but you will also have your private jet!

All the luxuries that you can't afford even if you could take out all your CPF!

Talkative colleagues – biggest time wasters

The next time your colleagues starts rabbling on without knowing when to stop, just show this to them.

Talkative colleagues – biggest time wasters
By Shirley Lee (humanresourcesonline.net)

Singapore – Talkative colleagues is the number one distraction in the Singapore and global workplace, according to a recent Robert Walters survey.

In the survey, 40% of Singapore respondents say pesky colleagues are the biggest distraction, followed by internet surfing and personal email. On the other hand, only 7% of respondents say they are distracted by smoke breaks and a further 7% by personal calls. The statistics do not differ much when compared to global employees.

Mark Ellwood, managing director of Robert Walters Singapore suggests, “Many of us spend our day glued to a computer screen and our professional interaction with colleagues tends to rely heavily on email communication. Not only has the need for office-chatter been reduced by technology, we may now see it as a distraction from our work.”

The Joseph Cycle

I was at Times the bookstore a few weeks ago with plenty of time to spare when I came across this book.

Never an economic person but the rather inattractive display of the cover content caught my attention. It's has a time graph with a huge title "The Joseph Cycle" written on it.

The title was inspired by Joseph, the Biblical figure, who was summoned to interpret a troubling dream of the Pharaoh. Joseph said the dream meant that Egypt would face seven good years followed by seven lean years.

Never one to bother with details, I skimmed straight to the graph to foresee when would we be facing the next peak. If this guy is right(he had been right before), we won't be waiting too long for the roller coaster to start going downhill, i.e. 2008.

It would be interesting to see how this prediction might work out in the face of the upcoming F1 Grand Prix night race and the two Casinos. These are major projects that are almost guaranteed(I'm sure about the latter) to make money.

But then again, if their intended customers (people who are rich and should own lots of stocks)  are badly hit by the financial turmoil, where could they find money to watch car racing or, worst, gamble their last penny away?

Better to start planning for your investments.

IT Sourcing is so tough!

Recently I have been googling a lot at work. I think I must have spent 3/4 of the day searching the internet.

I'm looking for a computer system that could act as the focal point for us to gather and share all our information. In our industry, it's called Applicant Tracking System(ATS). Some might call it Human Resource Management System (HRMS). The rest might call it Recruitment Management System or RMS.

And after doing this for days, I realised just how technologically backward Singapore IT company is. There isn't a single company in Singapore that actually provide a system that is decent and complete enough for a Recruitment Agency. Which also mean I can't get grant from the government as it only permits local vendor.

And to rub salt in, this industry is flourishing over at UK, Australia & North America.

So for the past few work days, I have been largely training my ears to apprehend comprehend English with huge dose of British. Years of listening to English Premier League football sure helps.

Being the first time sourcing for such a system that would eventually be so critical to the entire operations, it ain't easy. Or maybe I'm too picky. Too idealistic. Or just too plain naive.

To date I have spoken with 4 and had a good run of their demonstration. Another 4 is lined up and I just send out at least another 5 requests after learning that there are so many other providers out there. Which of them could be the ONE?

One wrong move and tons of $$ would be going down the drain.

Oh man. The weight on my shoulder is getting heavier and heavier...

I won't be free during September.

Dempsey Road

Having heard so much about this place, I feel that it is my duty as a Singaporean to experience it at the very least.

This former British army barracks and Central Manpower Base premises is now a series of warehouses selling South-East Asian furniture, carpets and exotic artifacts.



Not to mention many funky restaurants and cafes.

This place reminds me of Seletar Camp and Turf City. But you can see from the rows of expensive cars and ang mohs that their target market are very up class.

Again, you almost can't see any high-rise from the place. Giving a very countryside kind of illusion. A sense of peace and serenity



The place is starting to become commercialize as you can see from the pristine water fountain that greets visitors. But still, it has a long way to go before the entire place gets "en bloc".

A late lunch was at Dome. The rest looks a bit too expensive but a mid-month expenditure.



Not only does it has the highest ceiling of all Dome Cafe, it even has a compass in case you lost your way in their place.



Since Dome could easily be found in Singapore, I shall skip the review. I was too hungry to give an objective assessment anyway.

One interesting place you might chance upon at the back of Dempsey is House.



The place is perched at the edge of a cliff. It reminds me of Sentosa Resort. I spent quite a while trying to figure out if the place is a chalet, a restaurant, a spa or an artsy fartsy place that is waiting to close down.



It's actually not a chalet but all of the rest and more. It even house a jacuzzi area within the few weeks old complex.

Their concept is really a bit new to me. Mixing Spa + Dining + Bar.



There's even a huge football pitch. Anyone knows how could I book that?

My NDP eve

I spent a relaxing evening with my wife at Great World City yesterday. And I clocked less than 5 mins I think from my office to my destination. The cheap thrill in life.

Anyway we caught Rush Hour 3. Must be real exciting and scary that I caught her with her eyes closed.. twice.

Rush Hour 1 is still the best in this franchise. Shanghai Knights were even better. But I feel that Jackie Chan should just come back for good. The fight scenes in RH 3 is a fraction of a typical HK Jackie Chan movie. The rest goes to seeing Chris Tucker talking like a very annoying women.

For those who love the Char Kway Teow at Zion Road market, do give the lesser queue( or zero queue) stall a try. It's actually quite good.

Before the movie, we drop by this new place called Iwannagohome. Don't bother googling for it. Their website is in flash, you can't locate any link. Now I know why my web designer insist the website has certain html elements. Click here for their website.

This place is owned by the guy who founded Royal Sporting House and who once owned the distribution rights of Zara and Mango. All those were sold and his stakes are all in this furniture place. He is one good (shrewd?) businessman to achieve all these.

To find out more about the place without dropping by Great World City, just imagine a very expensive(and small) IKEA. The premium you paid of course go to the nicer design in many ways.

Like the printed toilet paper with pictures of football and other stuffs that cost $7 a roll. I rather wash my ass than use a single sheet of that.

They sell many expensiv candles shaped in fruits and things you can't possibly imagine. I wonder how much it cost to make a candle?

No bedroom stuffs. They do have one full rack of rubbish bins in black, white and orange. I guess those must be one of their better selling items given the stock levels.

One of the vase did catch my eye. And also a few mini Qin warrior kind of sculpture. But the latter would be like a thorn in my home.

The vase is just like a gigantic glass. I only need to get pass the price tag.. ($299)

Thoughts of the day...

Save the world! Start with your search engine!

A simple step we can take to save the world and go green.

Use www.blackle.com to replace all your Internet searches.

How does this help you might ask?

Well, a screen that is predominantly white actually uses more energy than a screen that is predominantly black. So with so many googlers out there, we could harnass on the large number of people and start saving energy.

Read here for more information.

Why I (still) can't get used to my iMac..

I think I finally get why I still can't get used to my iMac when I have gotten used to some many new things in my life (new address, new bed, etc)

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iMac is too ... perfect! That's right. I can't FINE-TUNE it!

In retrospect, the following is how I spend my computing time (during the PC days):

20% - gaming (would escalate by a lot when I get my hand on a really addictive game.)

10% - studies (would lessen when I get distracted by a really addictive game)

25% - surfing and chatting

5% - evaluating new softwares

40% - finding ways and means to improve the PC!

That would mean things like trying out the latest registry cleaner, tweaking with regedit, trying all possible means to defrag the harddisk, always on the lookout for the latest graphic drivers.

As boring as it sounds, I LOVE doing it. It used to be so extreme that I could almost get a high when I reformat and reinstall my windows.

Now that I'm using a mac, even my studies time is significantly reduced. (I used word processor to compile my notes and I HATE to use open office.)

There are so little good games on the market, let alone games that are meant for OS X.

So few sharewares and freewares that are Mac friendly and I don't even have a Bios to play with when I want to!

That literally make my new iMac a very nice looking internet surfing machine.

Well, I did come across this a while ago. I'm making this my homepage for the time being. Hopefully this will act as a catalyst to ease me into the world of apple.