Happy National Day 2013

Happy National Day, Singapore!

In case anyone has already forgotten, the above clip was taken on 16 Feb 2013 at Hong Lim Park where a protest against Gahmen initiative to populate the island further to 6.9 million by 2030 (worst case scenario, they say).

• Bloomberg (18 Feb 2013) - Singapore Protest Exposes Voter Worries About Immigration

The. next election is 2016. Nairmind. We wait.

- Voxeros

National Day Songs - From Good To Bad To Awful. Simply Awful.

Just when we thought last year's NDP song was awful, we hit a new rock bottom with this year's, which I am not even going to bother to put it up here lest it xia suay my blog.

• NDP Music Archives

You can check out all the NDP songs above dated back from 1984 to present. I notice a trend or a certain subliminal message in some of them.

In the beginning, we have all the feel good, "We've made it! Look at us now! We're No.1!!" kind of tone.

The 1998 song "Home" by Kit Chan seems to say "Uh oh.... people are starting to think about leaving the country to go elsewhere. Mai lah. Don't go lah. Here more better!"

Then again by Kit Chan in 2007, "No Place I Rather Be" is machiam like sequel to "Home" and it's saying "Walau eh! You guys really gone ah. Come back leh!!"

In the same year, there is another NDP song "Will You" and it sounds like it is addressed to all the new people who recently stepped ashore telling them to "Come! Come! The doors are wide open! Come in! Please stay! Don't go! I beg of you!!"

People started to complain the song of grovelling and in the subsequent years, the NDP songs went back to the more normal normal pattern.


But.

It was all downhill from there.

Last year's "Love At First Light" was "Simi LJ song is this?" and this year's "Whoa-oh-oh-OH!-song is "Simi LJ song is this? - Part II"


For the record, there are only THREE "Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh" songs that are acceptable OK!

• Self Control - Laura Branigan
• Tarzan Boy - Baltimora
• Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

Well, at the very least, it's how I felt about all these recent NDP songs.

You may or may not agree.

Limpeh don't care.


Speaking of "Limpeh", even this cheeky song below (very well done if I may add), would make a better NDP song although it is kinda hard to sing along at the national day parade itself.

*shrugs*

- Voxeros

Summer Heat In Da Hu

It is said that this year's summer heat is the worst in 140 years.

We are talking about mercury above 40 degrees Celsius.

This is becoming a common sight in subway stations where people from outside the station all come in to seek air-conditioned refuge from the scalding heat.

With people peppered all over the place, it could easily be mistaken there was an air raid going on above or a typhoon just swept through the city or Godzilla decided to pay Da Hu a visit above ground.

News have reported over 20 fatalities so far and there was even a case of an elderly gentleman who was on the ground for a couple of hours when he fainted from the heat, resulting in second degree burn on 22% of his body and third degree burn on 2%.

The old man got teppanyaki-ed.

• 网易新闻 (06 Aug 2013) - 老汉中暑倒地 部分肌肉"烤熟"

It seems that the summer heat is not letting up with no rain in sight either. We are looking at temperatures above 40 for a long time to come as August is the peak of the summer months.

We are only at the beginning of August.

Oh dear.

We did have a couple of surprise rain in the past 4 weeks but they were quickly evaporated off as soon as the rain clouds dumped their load.

No help there.

Just earlier today, I was standing out on the street waiting for the bus under the sun. You can feel the burn on the skin as if you were standing too close to the campfire or BBQ pit or having your hairdryer on the same spot for too long or <insert your own scenario>.

I am counting down to Mid Autumn Festival (19 Sep 2013) as this is the day, according to the lunar calendar, the temperature will start to fall (no pun intended), marking the end of summer.

- Voxeros

Flight Tracking Software - Part 3 of 3

In this last segment of the 3-parter, I will teach you how to use the combination of software to allow you to have fullest control of your itinerary.

First thing to do. Get rid of FlightTrack (Pro/Free). It is an irrelevant software in Asia-Pacific. I will fall short of saying that it is totally worthless as who knows? It may just be the bestest software for North American passengers.

So without further ado, let's get this tutorial started.


1. When you are about to book a flight, key in the flight details in 航班管家 and it will show you the punctuality record of this particular flight.

I've picked Shenzhen Airlines ZH9815 from Shenzhen BaoAn Airport (SZX) to Shanghai HongQiao Airport (SHA) to illustrate this.

As you can see, this flight is delayed by more than an hour, 72% of the time. It is really a crappy flight which begs one to wonder why they even bother to schedule this?

So. You have a choice here.

You can choose to book this flight and run the risk of getting delayed or perhaps if you feel lucky that it would fall under the 19% category of on-time departure that particular day?

Roll the dice?

Or perhaps you are better off booking another flight?


2. OK. So you decided to go ahead and book this flight anyway. What you can do next, if you are really kiasu or in my case really boh liao, is track this flight for 5 consecutive days prior to your actual day of departure. From there, you can see a trend in the departure time. Bad weather like typhoon may affect the flight schedule over several days. Or perhaps there is a military exercise occupying the airspace that coincides with your flight path during that particular week? Or perhaps this particular flight punctuality is JUST THAT SHITTY?

3. Now we come to the day of the actual flight.

Switch over the 飞常准.

The app has a way of calculating the probability of a punctual flight that day.

To be honest, this doesn't really do much for the passenger except that it mentally prepares you ahead of your pending flight.

To add salt to injury, the numbers changes (in either direction) as the time of departure draws nearer.

You only get a good feel of the flight by regularly checking back and spot the trend if the number is descending or ascending.

The next point is actually a better option but this particular one nevertheless deserves a mention.

4. This feature is available in both apps. It shows you your flight from the previous sector i.e. where your plane is coming from.

In this particular case, the plane where you will be boarding is actually Shenzhen Airline ZH9812 from Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG).

Track this particular flight as well and you would be able to know if your flight will or will not be delayed. Simple logic. Your plane comes in late, you depart late. Your plane comes in early or punctual, you depart on time. Well. Most of the time that is.

With that information, you can choose to reach the airport accordingly without wasting too much time waiting around the airport or you may want to hit the airport early to see if you can catch an earlier shuttle.

For the sake of further illustration, let say we decided to stick to the flight.

As you can see, the flight from the previous sector took off 2-1/2 hours later than scheduled. That however does not mean that your flight will delay by the same amount of time.

The new time of arrival, as a result of the delayed departure, is estimated to be changed to 16:16.

A flight turnaround is approximately 45 to 60 minutes (ground crew need time to clear rubbish and flush the toilets before you board).

That means that the estimate time of departure for your flight would be around 17:00 to 17:30. Given that the original time of departure was scheduled to be 16:50, you should be looking at a slight delay of about 30 minutes, discounting any other disruptions.

For me, anything within an hour is still considered on time. Yes, I have set the bar THAT LOW for QQLand domestic flights.

Two things to note here.

First, the screen cap here is the same flight but different day from the earlier image (depicting 68.59% punctuality probability). I thought I mentioned it here lest people get confused how a 2-1/2 hour delayed flight still has a 69% chance of taking off on time.

Secondly, we are making the assumption that the incoming connecting flight will be the plane that you will be boarding. For flights with severe delays, there is a possibility that the airline will deploy another plane to take over the flight. So do be alert as it will likely be a new boarding gate if they decided to switch planes.

Bon Voyage.

• Click Here To Return To Part 1 of 2
  
• Click Here To Return To Part 2 of 2

- Voxeros

Flight Tracking Software - Part 2 of 3

Now that we are done with the introduction of the three flight tracking software, let's put them head-to-head with each other and see how they do.

For the first test, I've picked a QQLand domestic flight, Shenzhen Airline ZH 9920 from Shanghai HongQiao Airport (SHA) to Shenzhen BaoAn Airport (SZX).

First up, let's goto 航班管家 to take a look.

This particular flight, on that unfortunate day, was delayed and it was something that was hardly surprising for QQLand domestic air travels during the summer months.

It was a 16:40 flight which was re-scheduled to depart at 20:00. At the point of taking this screen cap, the flight schedule was still pending changes, if at all.

Travel tip for QQLand domestic travelers: Do not believe the schedule until it's wheels up. You may be fooled into boarding on time or even push off on time but as long as the wheels are still touching the ground, you aren't flying just yet.

What I like was that they took the initiative to recalculated the estimated time of arrival due to the rescheduling.

Next, we look at 飞常准.

As you can see, there isn't a new flight time as opposed to the first app that we just saw.

Like I said, the flight schedule was still pending changes at the time I captured the screen.

Perhaps this app is more conservative with regards to publishing new departure timing.

This is good and bad at the same time.

The bad thing is that as a passenger, we don't have a new timing to hang on to which can be unsettling, especially if one has a connecting flight to catch.

The good thing however, is that it prevents passengers from having false hope for a flight time that may or may not change again.

Lastly, we look at FlightTrack (Pro/Free).

The information published was utter bullshit. It said that the flight left the gate at 45 minutes later (Note: Left gate may not necessarily mean take off. You could be stuck on the tarmac for all you know).

The flight didn't take off until after 8pm that evening i.e. the 20:00 new estimated departure by 航班管家 changed again subsequently and 飞常准 was right after all not to have jumped the gun with the new departure time.

Now this. FlightTrack (Pro/Free) published rubbish information to put it bluntly.

If you look at the Chinese notes at the top of 飞常准's screen cap, you would have noticed that the incoming connecting flight was only scheduled to land at 19:18 (hence the departure delay).

So how is it possible for the flight to have left the gate at 17:25 when the plane was still in the air approaching?

FlightTrack (Pro/Free) lied.

* DING! DING! End of Round 1 *

And so I thought perhaps an ang moh software like FlightTrack (Pro/Free) has an unfair disadvantage handling QQLand domestic flights.

So I decided to pick an international flight for good measure.

Cathay Pacific CX 751 from Hong Kong Chap Lap Kok Airport (HKG) to Thailand Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK).

Again, we shall start with  航班管家.

For this particular the flight, it was punctual.

Bless CX's little heart.

Granted that it was late by 4 minutes, it was still considered to be on time since it is a very small insignificant percentage of the total flight time.

Besides, the pilots could easily make up that lost time with a heavier foot on the throttle during flight.

Again, the estimated time of arrival as been recalculated to reflect the change in departure time since my earlier mention of heavier-foot-on-throttle was mere speculation on my part.

Take note the actual departure time here before we proceed to take a look at the next candidate.

Here's the screen cap of 飞常准 and you would have noticed that the departure time differs slightly from 航班管家.

I can only speculate, from empirical evidence, that the latter starts the stopwatch when the plane takes off while the other app starts the clock ticking the moment the plane pushes off, in accordance to commercial aviation rules*.

* This is a tactic deployed by airlines to kelong their On-Time record by pushing off the gate as scheduled. They then spent all that delayed time sitting on the tarmac since actual time of arrival does not affect a flight's punctuality record.

In any case, the difference in their respective departure time isn't really that significant since they were just mere minutes apart.

Like the former, this app also recalculates the new time arrival, after factoring in the slight change in departure time.

Finally, we returned again to FlightTrack (Pro/Free) where the information published was again a total disaster.

The plane was already in the air and yet the red note said that the flight has yet to depart.

WTF?

To add yet another layer of bizarre to it all was its recalculation of an earlier than expected landing.

So let me get this straight.

It claimed that the flight was delayed and yet it calculated an earlier arrival?

Hello? Logic? Hello?

* DING! DING! End of Round 2 *

Summary: Both 航班管家 and 飞常准 performed satisfactory on both QQLand domestic and international flights.

It was a tie between the two of them as each covered the other's shortfall. I like 航班管家 easier  user-interface better but it fell slightly short when it comes to searching for international flights a few months ahead. Fortunately, 飞常准 covered this aspect nicely and so my advice is to use both app together.

As for FlightTrack (Pro/Free). Don't waste you time on it. It is rubbish. I believe this is more geared towards those who fly US domestic routes and not so much for the passengers from the rest of the world.

• Click Here To Return To Part 1 of 3
• Click Here To Proceed To Part 3 of 3

- Voxeros

Flight Tracking Software - Part 1 of 3

I fly a lot and it was mostly international routes in the early years. These past few years, I found myself fly a shitload of QQland domestic flights instead.

The problem is the flights are hardly ever on time. It is frustrating to reach the airport on time and then realise that your plane hasn't shown up at the airport until a few hours later. Why am I being punished for being punctual? Why? WHY? *cues drama music*

Worse, is if you are in the plane that has pushed off and it remained stuck on the tarmac for all sorts of stupid reasons ranging from runway traffic pile up to military air exercises in your path of flight. Why? WHY? *cues drama music*

It has gotten so bad that if I arrive at my destination within a hour of the scheduled time, I give myself a pat on the back and consider the flight to be punctual.

Yes. It is THAT bad.

What makes matter worse, is that the reason for the delay will never be made known to you. It's like talking to the wall when you ask about your flight that exists only in theory at that time.

I get mixed feelings whenever I read news of ground crew getting beaten up by frustrated passengers or irate passengers refusing to get off the plane. While I feel sorry for these guys who get abused (worse, if violently abused), I can never be very sure coz you should see the kind of guailan attitude these airline folks put up and you wondered if they deserved it.

• 新浪航空 (08 Jul 2013) - 因航班延误虹桥机场候机楼旅客殴打地勤

So anyway, with smartphones, we have smart apps that solve this problem where I can tell the crew to take their "due to technical reason" info and shove it up their chrysanthemum.

1. 航班管家

This is my favourite. In the past, it caters only to QQland domestic flights but in recent months they have expanded beyond their borders to include international flights as well.

The software provides all kind of information like:

• Current weather at both origin and destination.
• Current airport runway traffic report (both departures and arrivals at both origin and destination), which gives you a clue if you are going to be stuck on the tarmac queuing to take up or land.
• Details for the aircraft's previous sector i.e. if the plane is coming to your airport late, you'd be sure to have a delayed departure as well. Likewise, if your aircraft arrived on time, it is very likely that you are going to have a punctual departure as well.
• Historical stats of the flight's punctuality record. Avoid booking this flight if it is always delayed. (See image below)
• For the flight enthusiasts, they have details on what type of aircraft e.g. B738 or A320 etc and its age i.e. how many years that particular aircraft has been in service.

More importantly, is that the software pushes notification to you to update on its status ranging from what check-in counter, to what boarding gate, to time of boarding, if on schedule or otherwise, to what baggage claim belt as well as any last minute changes to the flight timings.

The downside of this software is that while it professes to push notification of changes, it recently more often than not, doesn't really deliver what it promises to do. The result is that you find yourself constantly checking you phone to see if there is any new updates.

The other downside is there are times where it can't locate the international flight that you wish to track. One especially if it is some obscure budget airline.

2. 飞常准

飞常准 and 航班管家 came out around the same time. While 航班管家 has the better, more user-friendly interface, was a tad too simplistic for my liking.

Hence, I found myself using both software to back up each other.

航班管家 has the fastest update but only if it is in the mood to do its job. On a good day, updates are pushed to your phone within minutes of the actual event e.g. plane touching down or new gate information or commencement of boarding.

飞常准 has one more useful feature and that is the calculation of the flight's punctuality probability that day. (See image below) to give you an idea to better manage your time be it as a passenger or to pick/send somebody.

Let me give you a scenario. You are slated to pick up someone from the airport. So you key in the person's flight ahead to monitor that flight. OK, your phone chimed notifying you of the flight's delay. From there you are able to calculate the new time of arrival (which I will teach how in the final segment of this trilogy) and plan your trip to the airport accordingly. That way, you avoid getting to the airport too early when you can better use that time for something else.

As far as 航班管家 is concerned, they are adding more and more features and looking at how the development of this software is progressing, 飞常准 may ended up being redundant.

Fortunately for 飞常准, the quality of notification of 航班管家 is deteriorating which means 飞常准 lives to see another day.

3. FlightTrack (Free/Pro)

This is the ang moh version of the other two software and I am guessing that this is an US-based software which probably mean that its forte is monitor US domestic flights which is not really relevant for me at this time.

What the other two software lacked, i.e. international flight tracking, FlightTrack fill that gap nicely. However, this advantage is slowly being ebbed away as the other two Chinese software are improving by leaps and bounds with their international flight database.

Amongst the 3 software, FlightTrack is the most fervent notification pusher which I like very much.

Problem, and fatal if I may add, is that the updates are very dated which in this day and age of Now! Now! Now!, means that this could be the deal breaker.

Look at the screen cap below to allow me to illustrate this point.

Look at the time at the top of the image. This image was capture at 18:01. Now look at the latest FlightTrack notification. The one that says "now". At 18:01, FlightTrack send me a notification that ZH9891 will leave gate i.e. depart at 16:55. That is more than 1 hour later! Harlow! The plane is halfway in the air already then you tell me it is about to depart?

FAIL!

In the next entry, we will see how these three software square up against each other.

• Click Here To Proceed To Part 2 of 3
• Click Here To Proceed To Part 3 of 3

Image Credit: https://appadvice.com; https://play.google.com

- Voxeros

Roof Logic

There is this fruit wholesaler outside my office that I pass by everyday.

Then one day, I saw them unloading a new batch of fruits to restock their inventory.

As they were unloading the fruits, packed in plastic crates, empty crates would start to pile up as they begin to accumulate.

What happened next took me by surprise.

The worker simply did a Kareem Abdul Jabbar trademarked Skyhook and off the crates go into the air, over the signboard and onto the roof top.

QED.

No more crates needed to be disposed.

What??

I really don't get this logic. Wouldn't it eventually come to a point where the freaking roof have no more space to take on any more crates.

Don't they need to reuse the crates again?

It really baffled me.

Why can't they just load then empty crates back onto the truck and take it back to the distribution center to reuse?

I took this picture (left) on a separate day as I didn't want to stand out too long in the rain.

This is what the back of the wholesaler looks like.

Definitely a better view of the crates piled up on top of the roof.

I wonder if the big stash up there aid the breeding of mosquitoes?

I have my doubts for after all these crates are porous and unlikely to be able to hold any stagnant water.

Perhaps the real worry is if all the crates would clog up the roof top drainage, if assuming that exists in the first place.

*shrugs*

- Voxeros

Fast Food Restaurant In Da Hu

When someone says "fast food", we think of McDonald's, KFC, Burger and the likes but over here in QQland, it usually mean food court or simply one giant mega economic rice stall.

So anyway, this fast food restaurant opened recently just outside my place and I like the name of this restaurant which I thought was rather witty.

It's 筷食代. The word 筷 means chopstick which obviously is a hint that this a a restaurant. 食 itself means food which further verifies that.

Put them together and you get 筷食. It doesn't mean anything but the pun play is that it sounds like 快食 which translates directly into fast food.

Et voila! It's a fast food restaurant.

Now we put the second word and the third word together and we get 食代, which again doesn't mean anything except that 食代 has the same pronunciation as 时代 (literally translates to times or era).

For those readers of this blog from Singapore, I am sure you are familiar with Food Republic. Proud Singaporeans may be glad to know that Food Republic has since branched out beyond our shores and is presently very successful in Hong Kong, Taiwan and QQland.

So obviously adopting "食代" in its name is a flattering wannabe of the successful 大时代 which is actually the Chinese name of Food Republic.

Hence, the English name of 筷食代, Fast Era.

While all is well and good with the brand messaging plastered all over the place, I spotted this on their front door.

"Fasterd".

I read it as "Bastard".

*facepalm*

FAIL.

- Voxeros

USB Table Fan III (Well... Not Really)

Remember the demise of my first USB table fan?

Remember I got a replacement on the cheap?

Well, here's the thing. The cheapo replacement lasted one week (well, 4 working days to be exact) before it died.

The motor couldn't take the abuse of 8 hours, 4 days straight.

*shrugs*

So anyway, I decided to spend a little more and get a more decent fan.

Voila!

Table Fan III for a princely sum of RMB 34.00 (SGD 6.80), including shipping.

I put a pen in the photo to give you a gauge of the size of this little fan.

Only difference is that it is not USB powered. It's a full fledged 220V AC plugged-in fan.

Originally, I wanted to kiap kiap the fan to my cubicle partition but realised the base (also the clamp) is heavy enough on it's own.

So there.

My new table fan which I hope can last until autumn.

Fingers crossed.
 

- Voxeros

Showflat Model In Da Hu

They were showcasing a new property development at the shopping center outside my estate and there is the model of the property on display.

Ignore the sign about the dangers of electricity as it is not what I want to talk about today.

I was suprised at the height of the model. The "street level" was slightly above my knees.

Big mistake.

To simulate the environment, they have little people walking around the estate and little matchbox cars.

Matchbox cars at knee level.

BIG MISTAKE.

It means that the cars are within reach of children's hands.

So the folks who did the model probably thought about the children accessibility. However, it was obvious that they did not think the whole way through.

They thought they were pretty darn smart by gluing the car down but alas they underestimate the mega prying strength of a determined child.

The result? You get a whole street of black skateboards. Haha.

- Voxeros