Singapore First Olympic Medallist Tan Howe Liang Receives S$10,000

Singapore's very own first Olympic medallist Tan Howe Liang receives S$10,000 after 48 years from that fateful memorable day. This sounds like a back-dated cheque to me. If Singapore did not manage to win silver medal in Beijing Olympics 2008, I wonder if Mr Tan will ever receive this $10K cheque.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/372915/1/.html

Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 2 Reviews

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/08/internet-explorer-8-beta-2-ie-looks.html

Majority Recently Listed IPOs Not Performing

Majority of all recently listed IPOs closed closed below their debut prices. Many companies have shelved plans to get their companies listed in view of current market sentiments.

Below is a list of 30 recent IPOs listed on the Singapore Exchange in reverse chronological order. All except 3 are trading above waters at least at this point in time and they are China FirbreTech Ltd, Old Chang Kee Ltd and Wee Hur Holdings Ltd.

Company      Current$ IPO$   %Chg
Qualitas       -      0.250    - (Pending Listing)
Hai Leck     0.225    0.260  -13.46
Qian Feng    0.145    0.200  -27.50
Tritech      0.150    0.200  -25.00
Artivision   0.120    0.200  -40.00
ZhguoPengjie 0.155    0.230  -32.61
KencanaAgri  0.235    0.305  -22.95
Heng Long    0.285    0.340  -16.18
Healthway    0.120    0.360  -66.67
ChinaFibreT  0.270    0.210  28.57
Mencast      0.230    0.280  -17.86
CombineWill  0.135    0.230  -41.30
SinoConst    0.190    0.390  -51.28
Indiabulls   0.580    1.000  -42.00
ChinaTaisan  0.185    0.240  -22.92
HISAKA       0.200    0.230  -13.04
ChinaZaino   0.415    0.600  -30.83
ChinaEratat  0.175    0.300  -41.67
Joyas        0.230    0.290  -20.69
Li Heng      0.535    0.800  -33.12
Roxy-Pacific 0.220    0.300  -26.67
Samko        0.350    0.550  -36.36
Yongmao      0.325    0.350  -7.14
CentraLand   0.495    0.500  -1.00
Wee Hur      0.255    0.250  2.00
Afor         0.205    0.330  -37.88
OldChangK    0.210    0.200  5.00
UtdOAus      0.150    0.380  -60.53
JES          0.225    0.670  -66.42
KTL Global   0.265    0.280  -5.36

Different Types of Software Testing

Static black-box testing involves examination the specification and looking for problems before they get written into the software.

Dynamic black-box testing involves testing the software without knowing how it works.

Static white-box testing involves examining the details of the written code through formal reviews and inspections.

Dynamic white-box testing involves testing the software when you can see how it works and basing your tests on that information.

12 Sly Web Tricks That Put You in Control

The PC World published an article on "12 Sly Web Tricks That Put You in Control". The tricks unveiled are useful but some people may find some overdone.

12 Sly Web Tricks That Put You in Control
http://www.pcworld.com/article/150141/slytricks.html

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 2 Release And Its Features

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 2 for public download.

Download Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 2
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/worldwide-sites.aspx

LifeHacker has an article on the new IE 8.0 Beta 2 upcoming features.

Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 2 New Features
http://lifehacker.com/5042941/internet-explorer-8-beta-2s-familiar-new-features

SQL Server 2008: Table-valued parameters (New Feature)

http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/andras/archive/2008/08/27/69298.aspx

Study Details Before Buying Endowment Policies

When buying endowment policies, it is best to make sure you get decent returns. Is it guaranteed? Make sure the guaranteed portion is higher than the amount paid t us far. A benefit illustration can paint a rousy picture but in practice, some companies can not keep to their projection and end up giving less.

Watch out for new policies coming up especially those ones heavily marketed and promoted to be the one and only best. There is no free lunch.

Standard Chartered's e$aver Accounts Interest Rates Now At 0.5%

Standard Chartered's e$aver Accounts interest rates is now 0.5% down from 0.78% for deposits less than S$50,000. It is their number 6th drop since its launch.

MayBank's iSavvy account interest rate offering still remain constant at 0.88%.

My previous post on e$aver and iSavvy
http://hongjun.blogspot.com/2008/04/maybank-isavvy-savings-account-interest.html

The Paper Airplane Guy In Singapore

Mr John Collins, renowned as The Paper Airplane Guy is now in Singapore from the USA to conduct his popular workshop from 23 to 29 August 08 at Science Centre. DSO National Laboratories and Science Centre Singapore jointly organized a competition - Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition 2009 and invite all students to create flying machines that can fly faster, higher and further.

The above YouTube video shows a demo by John Collins on his paper airplane creations.

Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition 2009
http://www.safmc.com.sg/

Google Suggest Now On Google Homepage

Google Suggest is going to graduate from Google Labs and is now going to migrate to Google Search.

However, this new integration of Google Suggest is only available to the main Google home meaning to say, it is still not available on your localized Google page. To access the main Google page, go to http://www.google.com/ncr. Once you have visited http://www.google.com/ncr, Google will force you to http://www.google.com/ by default instead of your localized Google home.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-suggest-enabled-by-default.html

Singapore's Manufacturing Output Down 21.9% in July

Yet another dismal economic news, Singapore's manufacturing output is down 21.9% in July. This is going to cause a further drop in Singapore dollar.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/371735/1/.html

9th U.S. Bank, The Columbian Bank and Trust Company, Declared Closed

On August 22, 2008, The Columbian Bank and Trust Company, Topeka, KS was closed by the Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver.

The Columbian Bank and Trust Company is the number 9th bank to close after the sub-prime crisis started.

Announcement from FDIC
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/columbian.html

Increase LINQ Query Performance On Large Datasets

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/magazine/cc721610.aspx

Singapore CPI Up 6.5% In Jul 2008 Y-O-Y

Today, the Singapore government announced GDP (Gross Domestic Product) up 2.1% in 2Q2008 while CPI (Consumer Price Index) up 6.5% in Jul 2008. The CPI for Jul 2008 increased by 1.2% over Jun 2008 due mainly to higher costs of housing and food.

Singapore Department of Statistics Press Release
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/news/news/cpijul2008.pdf

Singapore to Keep Currency Policy Unchanged

According to Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang, the Singapore government will continue to keep its current policy of keeping Singapore dollar strong despite of the now apparent weaker GDP growth and poorer manufacturing data. This policy is set to stay at least until the Singapore government next meeting on October for a round of monetary policy review.

Singapore has since from October 2007, being using SNEER (Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate) instead of interest rate to appreciate Singapore dollar gradually.

Today, the Singapore government announced GDP (Gross Domestic Product) up 2.1% in 2Q2008 while CPI (Consumer Price Index) up 6.5% in Jul 2008. The CPI for Jul 2008 increased by 1.2% over Jun 2008 due mainly to higher costs of housing and food.

Singapore Department of Statistics Press Release
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/news/news/cpijul2008.pdf

Ministers Should Taste Public Transport Experience

Few days ago, Malaysia's Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi, took the lead in trying out their public transport during rush hour. After a trip on monorail train, he admitted and agreed with the citizens that travelling using public transport was not a pleasant one. He commented late trains and overcrowded trains being the 2 more serious flaws.

I thought Badawi's initiative in taking up this "challenge" and courage to criticize public transport system is a worthy one. I hope the Singapore government can do likewise to have a feel themselves. A trip down to taking public transport should be kept low profile and please do not bring an entourage of body guards or ministers along. Bringing an entourage can end up they clearing the crowd ahead before the minister step into a train. This will make the original intent meaningless.

Singapore Li Jiawei Mentioned 中国人

In a previous interview by CCTV.com, Singapore table tennis paddler but Beijing born Li Jiawei mentioned 中国人 (Chinese from China) instead of 华人 (Chinese). Is this an identity crisis or just a mere identity mixed-up?

Interview on Baidu.com
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=426895254

Identity Crisis??
http://fireopal82.blogspot.com/2008/08/identity-crisis.html

Mozilla Firefox TraceMonkey: JavaScript Lightspeed

Mozilla CTO, Brendan, is pleased to announce the launch of TraceMonkey, an evolution of Firefox's SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine for Firefox 3.1 that uses a new kind of Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler to boost JS performance by an order of magnitude or more.

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/08/tracemonkey_javascript_lightsp.html

Temasek's Holdings Assets Grew 13%

TEMASEK Holdings's assets grew 13 per cent to $185 billion in its latest financial year, despite a turbulent period for equity markets. You may also be interested in an earlier post made by myself.

Temasek assets grow to $185b
http://www.straitstimes.com/Prime%2BNews/Story/STIStory_270588.html