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88% of Voters Not Interested in Youth Olympic Games

Felix Ker — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:50:08 +0000

The first ever Youth Olympic Games will be hosted by Singapore from 14 – 26 August 2010. Youths aged 14-18 will come from all over the world to compete in this competition.

In case you do not know,young athletes will be competing in a total of 26 sports – Aquatics, archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoe-kayak, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting and lastly wrestling.

The statistics after the jump!

88% of voters on ChannelNewsAsia’s poll shared that they’re not interested at all. Wow, looks like people are more interested in the World Cup. The figures might be removed soon, due to bad response. Or some moderators might tweak the results to make it look right.

Anyway, I’m sure most of us already know of the cheer, right? If not, it’s below. I really think this isn’t a cheer. Seriously, cheer? How are people going to cheer with this song?

Source

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Why You Shouldn’t Sign Up for SingTel’s BlackBerry VAS plans

Felix Ker — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:03:42 +0000

This post is my personal opinion and research. If you’re a smart consumer, please read what I have to say. If you have comments, I welcome them. I’ll keep this as short as possible.

You might be thinking why I wrote this. It’s definitely not to pull any service provider down. Let me share them.

I am a SingTel customer, I’ve got a BlackBerry and need BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS).
I am also a StarHub customer and I have another BlackBerry service activated.

An hour ago, I called SingTel to enquire about their BlackBerry plans. I was told that their BlackBerry Flexi plans cannot be ‘activated‘ and must be signed as a plan. So that means I have to wait till next year to recontract. Next, I was offered 3 plans – 1GB, 3GB and the Unlimited plan. Briefed about the prices and was told 1GB doesn’t include any web surfing and 3GB can surf web but only via BlackBerry APN.

Read more after the jump!

The keyword – BlackBerry APN. So I went on to ask if I were to use maybe BOLT Browser, will I be charged? “Yes… Blah blah blah”. And next I asked “Does that mean I’m losing out?” and I got “Yes, blah blah” for an answer. Seriously, was that staff trained?

For everyone’s advantage, I’ve made the chart below for your comparison. It’s for your reference before you consider signing up with SingTel / M1 / StarHub.

Download as PDF

Summary

It’s unfair to compare SingTel’s 1GB plan with M1/StarHub’s. But for another $3 with StarHub/M1, you get more value on your BlackBerry device.
WARNING: SingTel’s 3GB bundled data covers only BlackBerry APN.
WARNING: SingTel does NOT cap your data usage.

Review: StarHub’s BlackBerry Premium Value-Added Service

For almost a year, I’ve been using StarHub’s BIS with no problems. Speed is satisfactory and I don’t remember any downtime. There was once or twice when the outage was at RIM’s side – StarHub shouldn’t be blamed for this.

The only thing I don’t like is the unstated data usage on my bill. It’s only reflected as “BlackBerry Premium”. Good thing is I don’t exceed my 1GB usage. So it doesn’t really affect my service usage satisfaction.

Are you a SingTel BlackBerry user? Drop your feedback here and hopefully SingTel hears/sees them!

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Photography: Which is the best UV Filters? Different brands tested!

Felix Ker — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:39:19 +0000

I’m just another professional-wannabe photographer trying to learn more. After finish reading this entry, you will realise how much I hate filters right now.

Here’s what exactly happened. For almost a year, I’ve been using my Nikon AF-D 35mm f/2.0 for uncountable shoots. And after every shoot, I’ll start wondering why this piece of lens, reviewed as one of the great primes out there, produces photos with really lousy contrast. I used a Hoya UV Guard filter. Anyway, I got really sick of the 35mm and nearly sold it (here). On the day of posting, I decided to remove the filter to clean the lens up and realised that shots taken with the filter degraded my photo quality by a lot.

The test was done with:

Nikon D90 (All photos were shot on RAW with NO POST PROCESSING)
Nikon Nikkor AF-D 35mm f/2.0

Read the whole test after the jump!

Above: Whole photo of the test scene used. The photo was saved with PhotoShop at Quality 8/12.

All test shots were shot at f/4.5, 0.8secs at ISO 200.

Above: 100% without any Filter.

Above: 100% Crop with Hoya UV GUARD (JAPAN).

If you look closely, details were kept rather well, The filter caused the photo to lose too much contrast. This was the biggest problem when I used the lens.

Above: 100% Crop with Kenko (Digital Filter) UV.

On a Kenko, the photo actually turns out rather blur. It’s not handshake as the camera was left on a table opposite. Lots of details were lost, retaining some contrast.

Above: 100% Crop with SteinZeiser Germany MC UV.

This is the worst filter for the test. Say good bye to your details and a little contrast. Never get this filter if you want some decent photographs.

BONUS!

Top: Used Hoya UV Guard
Bottom: No filter
Both: Nikon D90 (RAW), Nikon Nikkor AF-D 50mm f/1.4, shot at f/2.0, 1/15, ISO 200. No post processing done.

This may be a brief review but with the 4 shots, tested using 3 different filters, I realised that filters in a way or another degrade the photograph I take.

Conclusion

If you must have a filter and you really need a budget one, get Kenko. Kenko doesn’t kill too much details and gives you fair contrast.

If you can, do without a filter. Your photos should appear best without any filter.

Disclaimer

I am not paid to do this test.

This test was done on filters that cost less as I have no budget for anything like B+W. If you would like to send me donations to get more filters and continue the test, feel free to send me the donation via paypal – paypal@ker.sg.

* All photos above have original EXIF intact.

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FHM Singapore Models 2010 – Super Seven

Felix Ker — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:43:15 +0000

Actually I just read about the FHM Models 2010 online and thought I would like to share it with you. I remember they used to call it Girl Next door. Can someone tell me if this is still GND and they’re renaming it because the girls look more like models instead?

Wow, this year, a diferent approach was used on the girls! The sportiness was due to World Cup I guess! I’m sure you’re not here to read my words, so scroll on!

Kuek Zi Yi
Age: 20
Occupation: Inline Skating Instructor, Graphic designer
1.70m 34"24"33

Wow, nice name and she’s an inline skating instructor? That’s really very sporty! Video for Kuek Zi Yi over here.

Channelle Yeo
Age: 21
Occupation: Part Time student
1.75m 32"25"33

Check out the video for Channelle Yeo here!

Jasmine Li
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
1.72m 33"25"36"

Jasmine Li’s video’s over here!

3 more models after the break!

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Whole Story: City Harvest Church Singapore

Felix Ker — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:18:04 +0000

Wondering what’s happening? Everyone’s discussing this. Just this morning, there was a mini discussion with the public calling in to share their views.

Here’s what I’ve gathered:

City Harvest purchased a S$310 million stake in Suntec City Convention Centre. Singaporeans who questioned if registered charities should be allowed to go into business and if the income collected by CHC through its Suntec rentals would be taxed.
Members of the church are being investigated for the misuse of funds. The Office of the Commissioner of Charities (COC) and the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is looking into some financial transactions involving several individuals and companies related or connected to the church.

31 May 2010 – 17 people (including Kong Hee) was ‘picked up’ to assist with investigations. Financial records and computers were taken away from home and offices of the people involved.
Singapore’s City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and wife Ho Yeow Sun owns two companies. One is International Harvest, which according to company records is a provider of corporate training services and motivational courses. Another is Skin Couture, a fashion company with 3 boutiques in Singapore – Ed Hardy at Heeren, Skin at Great World City and Christian Audigier at Ion.
According to what I read online, members pay (donate) 10% of their salary and senior members pay 20% or more. Someone please verify this.
Earlier this year - Kong Hee is now being accused of plagiarism in his books and website. He copied two author’s’ works without due credit in two books he published – Renewing Your Spiritual Enegery in 90 Days’ Volumes I and II.
12 Jun 2010 – Kong Hee used materials from Leadership Bible, written by three Americans, without crediting any source. StraitsTimes

The Church

Has over 32,000 members.
Has 14,000 sq foot office in Suntec and its own SGD$47 million building in Jurong West.
Has 45 affiliate churches in Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Australia with a total of 48,000 members.
Employs 154 full-time staff and has 15 committees overseeing all its operations.
Spent SGD$40 million in the last financial year.
The church has SGD$103 million in reserves – 2009’s audit

Ho Yeow Sun

Rents a mansion in Hollywood Hills for S$28,000 a month. Source
Last album released – Fancy Free EP (2009-11-16). Sales values of EP unknown.

The above is what I’ve tabulated.

Some say the church is going down, some say that there will still be loyal churchgoers. Now it’s your turn to share with us what you have and know and your thoughts.

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