My Grab experiences yesterday

I have said in a previous post that Grab has become the very same problem that they said that they will eradicate. We did not have that issue when Uber co-existed with Grab before. Even though Uber is now gone and we have other ride-hailing apps to choose from, many of us have corporate accounts where we have to use Grab.

take for instance yesterday afternoon. I had to deliver some cables to a site as my logistics guy was not available then. So what I did was to use my ever-trustworthy Prestar trolley and loaded it up with my cables. I had four reels of cable and I called a Grab to bring me to my destination. The fare looked like it was only about $13 from my office to my customer’s place. When the driver arrived, I already perceived that he had an attitude problem because he did not look very happy with my cables and trolley. When we were approaching our destination, I told him to go to the carpark basement to the cargo lift. There is a 10 minute grace period in the carpark where he will not be charged. He flat-out refused and told me that he had a customer and I would have to disembark at the side of the road with my cables. So here I was, at the side of the road, putting stuff in my trolley and holding everyone up. And after that? the bugger just drove off. Bloody liar! Needless to say, I made a complaint against him.

Later on at night, I called for a Grab again as I wanted to get home. I started at 10pm, using the Grab app to call for a ride. Rides were priced at $45 then but I had no takers! Finally at 2240hrs, I got a damn ride. Turns out this Grab driver was a very nice guy. When I got into the car, Marmalade’s Reflections Of My Life was on the radio, putting me in a good mood. I had an uneventful trip with the driver and he was a joy to talk to.

Now coming back to Grab. When I was in Penang in December last year, I had no issues with Grab. I could get a ride instantly. Something is wrong with our drivers here in Singapore. Imagine…waiting up to 40 minutes for a grab with Grab ride prices at $45 and no one is enticed. This is something that Grab needs to look at.

D-Link DE-660 PCMCIA card with combo dongle

I was just thinking back a couple of days back about my life in information technology. Back in 1997 or 1998, I had a Digital laptop computer. The damn thing was hefty as anything but it worked. I cannot remember the size of the hard drive inside it but it must have been puny for those days. In any case, networks then either had the 10Base2 or the RJ-45 Ethernet connectors. The 10Base2 ones were slowly being phased out but they were still around. So what I did was to buy this D-Link DE-660 combo card that had a dongle that could take either 10Base2 or RJ-45 connectors. This card was very, very handy and let us just say that it worked great. The dongle cable was a little flimsy but it worked great. I remember I bought it for a very affordable price and was very happy with it. It plugged into the PCMCIA slot on my laptop and the driver came on a diskette.

Switched my telco from StarHub to Zero1

I first subscribed to StarHub in 2004. That was twenty years ago. I was on M1 before that. I remember when I switched to StarHub, I paid $30 for the SIM card. StarHub has been OK for me as the telco of my main phone. However, I find that StarHub is getting too expensive. I did tell it to them when I “recontracted” my line. I told them that there are other telcos and MVNOs out there that can give better value for less money. It seems that StarHub did not want to listen. So a couple of days back, I switched to an MVNO named Zero1. I pay about $10.09 a month and I get 100Gb of data. There is also free roaming to Malaysia and Indonesia but it only lasts a year. Plus, there is free caller ID as well. Zero1 uses SingTel’s infrastructure and it is pretty good as far as coverage is concerned.

Imagine. I have been a loyal subscriber to Starhub for twenty years. That is a long time…exactly two decades. I still remember when I signed up with them, in a shop in Suntec City. I remember being excited about the new road ahead, like I am feeling now with Zero1. So far, I have tested this new MVNO and the speed is great. So far, so good.

Sky lantern Festival event in Sentosa goes tits-up

I read online yesterday that there was supposed to be a Sky Lantern Festival in Sentosa on Wednesday the 21st of February. Apparently, the festival was supposed to showcase lanterns tied to the ground with 60 metre-long strings, floating in the sky for five to 10 minutes until the candles were extinguished. People paid $50 for this. And I might add, in the end when this event was cancelled, what did the angry participants get? A lantern, a bag, and an LED light to pen their wishes. What a joke!

The event organiser was Asian Couture and Boutique Pte Ltd. Come on fellas. Do your due diligence before you organise events like these in the future!

Parkside rotary hammer drill from LIDL

When I was in the UK last year, I came across this discount retailer chain that had its origins in Germany. My wife and I bought a lot of stuff there but mostly what we bought were chocolates. However, LIDL have a professional tool section with their own brand of power tools named Parkside. And the tools they have are pretty decent. IKEA have their power tools as well but those power tools of theirs are garbage. As for the LIDL Parkside series of power tools, take for instance this rotary hammer drill above. I saw a video on YouTube by this professional power tool restorer who repaired it and he said that for the price, you get a lot of tool for the money. This Parkside rotary hammer drill is pretty good. So if I ever go to LIDL, or if they open a branch here in Singapore, I will definitely buy this for my workers. have a look at the video below:

Extron XPA 1002 power amplifier

I came across this decommissioned Extron XPA 1002 amplifier at work and decided that it coukd be put to better use powering a pair of JBL monitors that I have. I originally had a QSC amp that was also decommissioned by by one of my clients but the thing literally “blew up” and tripped the MCB when it did so. Anyway, this little beast has these features:

• 2 x 60 watts @ 8 ohms
  2 x 100 watts @ 4 ohms
  1 x 200 watts @ 8 ohms (bridged)
• ENERGY STAR® qualified amplifier
• Professional grade signal-to-noise and THD+N performance
• Extron Patented CDRS™ – Class D Ripple Suppression
• Convection cooled, fanless operation
• Ultra low inrush current – no need for power sequencing

My speakers can handle 75 watts and I do not blast them so this little beast powers them perfectly. Ideally, you should always have amplifiers that are more powerful than your speakers. I know that QSC amplifier that blew up had a respectable 200 watts per channel. In any case, I need to make some special female XLRs to phoenix connectors so I can connect this amplifier to the flightcase that has my turntables and mixer so I can start mixing.

Ortofon Concorde Mix MKII

I bought a couple of these all-in-one cartridge and stylus sets named the Concorde Mix MKII. These offerings by Ortofon are what I need for my old technics SL-1200 MKII turntables as I have run out of spare Stanton styli. I have been putting off using Ortofons since the last purchase I made of them some time back were not the best. In any case, these and some spare styli cost me around $300. Not cheap but then again you have to pay for quality goods. I feel bad leaving my Stantons…they are the only styli that I have used since my serious foray into DJ-ing but it looks like I have no other choice. Let us hope that these Ortofons do the trick

Actal antacid tablets

My wife was feeling poorly a couple of days back. She felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. We were on the way to her parent’s place when she felt that way and I told her to try to hold it until we reached there so that she could lie down. When we reached there, she told her parents that she was really feeling bad. My father-in-law immediately went to his medicine cabinet and came out with these Actal tablets and asked her to take it. She took these tablets and after a while, started feeling better. I asked my father-in-law ehere he bought them from. He said that on a recent trip to Malaysia, he bought them. I was kicking myself for not knowing earlier about these tablets or I could have bought them in Penang. Anyway, my father-in-law gave my wife some of the tablets and I said that I will buy some soon for our household.

Happy Chinese New Year – The Year of The Dragon

Happy Chinese New Year, the Year of The Dragon!

Lego #4194 Pirates Of The Caribbean

I remember my first visit to Disneyland as a kid in 1983. I remember I loved the Pirates Of The Caribbean in the theme park and I visited it twice. Then came the Johnny Depp Pirates Of The Caribbean series in the movies but I only watched a couple of them. It was only just recently when I found out that Lego actually made a Pirates Of The Caribbean set, number 4194. I remember that back in the day I only had a Lego basic set. Lego has changed a lot from the early days. I still have my Lego set. I bet if I had this Pirates Of The Caribbean Lego set when I was young, I would still have it to this day.