Grandpa and His Grandchild

So every morning, at a certain bus stop, there is this Grandpa with a girl, presumably his grandchild. The girl seems to be around 12-14 years of age, donning the uniform of a familiar neighbourhood secondary school. They would be there every morning, waiting for the school bus to come pick the girl up.

School bus arrives, Grandpa runs up to the school bus (minibus) to open the door for his little girl. Girl climbs up the bus and Grandpa waves at her saying goodbye, every single day without fail.

Girl chooses an empty seat on the minibus so that her back is facing Grandpa, and sits down without saying a word, every single day without fail. Not even a wave or a smile back at her Grandpa.

School bus pulls out onto the road, Grandpa is left standing there looking at the school bus driving further and further away, rubbing his hands and looking like a child whose meaning of life had been driven away.

And yet he still opens the door for his little girl, every single day without fail.

A New Phase of Life

And so it began.

A new stage in my life from the start of this month.

From now on, there possibly will be less nitpicks, because I will not have much chance to take public transport. Nor will I have the chance to interact with self-centered people anymore. Neither will I be seeing people with weird behavior around me.

However, I will still do my best to bring all of you fans out there as many nitpicks as I can from my interaction with the outside world over my weekends. :)

And so it ends.

The PC Show 2008... or The Truth Uncovered #3

OK, so we see a report in TODAY newspaper dated 16th June reporting on the PC Show that was held at Suntec from 12-15 June 2008.

"...the cash registers had chalked up some $51.7 million in sales, nearly double..."
"...welcomed more than 1.1 million visitors this year..."

Is it all that impressive? Let us do the math:

Sales = $51.7 million
Number of visitors (we aren't even going to use the term "customers"; that is explained below): 1.1 million

Average amount spent by each visitor = $47

*** STOP ***
Question: What IT product can $47 buy? A laptop? A digital camera?

Neither. $47 can only perhaps buy you some small-item computer accessories like a cheap keyboard/mouse, a webcam or some DVD media.
*** END STOP ***

But wait! This report says that "laptops remain the perennial favourite of shoppers..."

*** STOP ***
Question: What does this mean?

This means that it took 43 customers each spending the average of $47 to make a... may I say, meagre sale of $2000 (43 x 47 = $2021).

If we assume (Note: assume) that each laptop sold was at the price of $2000, this means that for every 1 customer who buys the laptop, there are approximately 41~42 people (minus away the real spender) who visit the show, but does not spend any money at all.
*** END STOP ***

This is by far, quite a reasonable and conservative estimate, I would say. However, the numbers show us that most of the visitors to PC Show 2008 did not spend any money (or simply very little) at all.

To have 1 real customer for every 40+ visitors, is simply too absurd.

Promising sales? Or simply pathetic?

M1 Advertisements... or The Truth Uncovered #2

I know this comes a little late, but better late than never, like they always say...

So recently, we have seen a spate of tv commercials by a local mobile phone service provider, with 3 funky men bobbing their heads to music. Here are the commercials, which some may say are "funny" and "hilarious":

Video #1:


Video #2:


Video #3:


Video #4:


Video #5:


Funny? Hilarious? Really?

Here's the Real McCoy, posted in 2005:

So now you know where the idea came from. So much for originality and creativity.

PS: Don't bother trying to post a message on the YouTube videos. The user who uploaded it is scared stiff of negative comments, and all posted comments will go through his approval first before he will ever allow it up for the whole world to see. So, no chance of bashing the videos there.

*Edit*: It seems that the original SNL skit by Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, and Chris Kattan came out in 1975, and the movie "A Night at the Roxbury" that was based on the skit, was released in 1998.

Random Picture of the Day... #1

Twin Balloting Woes

Here's another typical Singaporean-attitude complaint letter. This can be found on TODAYOnline, 17th May 2008.

Let us do the maths:
Example of a typical situation,

Number of seats available: 100
Number of people balloting for a seat: 1000
Probability of each person getting a seat = 100/1000 or 0.1 or 10% chance

So here we are, this moron suggesting that he be given a chance to ballot for TWO SEATS in one go.

Assuming that all (1000) ballots are given an equal chance to win (as per a lottery), the outcome will be different for each ballot, according to this idiots mentality. Simple maths will tell you that his one ballot (10% chance) will be worth TWO SEATS.

Whereas under normal circumstances, if two separate ballots are cast for two separate seats, the odds of both ballots winning the seats should be:

0.1 * 0.1 = 0.01 or 1% chance

So to sum it all up, this idiot is complaining that he be given a x% chance to win TWO seats, whereas the same x% (x is the same in these two cases) for OTHERS should only win ONE seat.

Right...

Moral of the story? Richard Goh, if you want to have twins, don't be lazy. Please don't be an ass and demand for such stupid things. The whole purpose of balloting is for every one to have an equal chance at getting something. Demanding for your own outcome (the seats to ballot for) to be better than others, all while holding onto the same chance, just goes to show how narrow-minded and selfish you are.

You should've aborted right from the start if you think what you are going through can be considered a "woe".

Now imagine the below scenarios:

Scenario 1

The above case gets passed and moron above is allowed to use his one ballot to try for two seats.

A father comes along stating he's got quindecaplets (15 children at one go), and demands for his ballot to be worth 15 seats.

Scenario 2

Both twins get accepted for university education. Father of the twins demands that a single degree gets conferred to both twins, since they should be considered as a singularity.

Scenario 3

"I am having troubles finding a husband for my pair of female twins. Can the government allow my twins to marry the same single guy? This is because I am lazy to find another husband for the other twin... so I'd thought the government should just allow them to have the same man for their husbands."

China Hackers On The Loose

First off, let me just say that I have received emails from 2 friends who were using hotmail accounts.


Their hotmail accounts had been hacked into, and spam sent out to their contacts.


Here's what the email looks like:

If you go to the website as listed, you will not find a single physical address listed there. The phone numbers are listed as +86, which originates from China. Here are the details of the motherf**ker who registered the domain:

Registrant Contact:
wang tao (wangtao@hotmail.com)
+1.12017752711
Fax:
u.s.a
washington, WA 07322
US

A Chinese name! EXCELLENT! (But I wouldn't be surprised if that name were a fake name)

Next, take a look at this site: http://www.firetrust.com/en/blog/chris/the-bigger-list-of-chinese-scams It seems that "www dot okgshop dot com" has been around there ever since July 2007 or so. And til today, they have not been shut down yet.

Don't fall prey to whatever shit they're selling, they will take your money and not ship you the goods.

These Chinamen are the f**king scums of the earth, and a bloody disgrace to all Chinese in this world.