Rant 1001 / Palindromes

With over 6k dislikes and 3k likes, it's clear I'm not the only one doing mental facepalms watching this.


























Augmented reality (AR) should work with cabs. People waiting along the road would type their destinations into their mobile devices and taxi drivers will see a translucent virtual signboard above their heads stating whatever they typed in.

Maybe the AR display could be inserted into or onto the windscreen so that drivers won't have to put on any glasses or whatever.

The implementation could get problematic. I can already see a few problems with it that will need to be fixed.

For one, the virtual signs may block the important parts of the driver's view of the road, especially at the junctions.

Another thing is the number of signs when there are queues. If ten people are squeezing into a taxi stand on a rainy day, how can the signs be separated?

Third, how can the developers make sure the signs are only displayed when the users are actually waiting for a cab? For example, what if a user forgets to turn it off?

But if these can be solved, life will be much more convenient for both taxi drivers and their passengers.

I'm just saying because taxi drivers here tend to have a specific destination at certain hours when they change shifts. At most taxi stands, only a few at the front of the queue would be able to ask the driver if they are able to drive them to their destinations. No driver ever bothers to ask the entire queue or waits for everyone to ask.

AR would allow drivers to immediately pick their passengers without much hassle. This will require some form of two-way interaction in the programme though. Maybe the mobile device would ring or beep and it would display the taxi's plate number when the person is chosen.

Someone steal this idea please. It's really annoying to wait for cabs at around 4-6pm here in Singapore. During that part of the day, it's actually not abnormal to have 7-8 empty taxis pass by.

Hell, this programme can even allow people to share cabs with strangers. Dammit, this idea is getting more awesome by the minute.

AR can also replace road signs, allow driving despite bad visibility and even provide ad space when the car is not on the road.

Oh yes, and it can also replace rear view mirrors. In fact, with cameras being so cheap these days, you can easily fix enough of those on the car to give the driver a 360-degree view around the vehicle - on both the horizontal and vertical axes!

By the way, I don't think there's any point in looking directly up or downwards but it sounds cool.

The key to implementing this entire concept is the windscreen. Coming up with a cheap and easy way to display AR on a vehicle's windscreen is the biggest obstacle, but that's up to the engineers to solve.

I'm sure it's possible, just not cheap and easy at the moment.


























Do people really still wear perfume to cover their body odour?

Why not use deordorant instead?

Just noticed that my housekeeper wears perfume (and she's been working for us for years now) to work and doesn't shower before she leaves.

Used to assume they all do because the ones before her did, but I noticed she doesn't do so ever since I started waiting for her to finish to pay her before she leaves.

Hence my questions.

Before I was the one paying her, I used to close my door the entire day since she irons our clothes right outside the room. Never really watched them work.

It's the same with one of my staff who uses some pretty strong perfume.

Actually I'm not too sure if that's also her reason. Nevertheless the whole office is always filled with her perfume whenever I go to work in the morning.

I don't know if it's polite to ask either, and it's not important enough for me to risk it.

It's just weird. Nobody I know other than these two women wear that much perfume at all.

Moreoever, isn't deordorant cheaper and lasts longer?

Less feminine I guess but I don't see what purpose their feminity serves when they're at work.






















I don't know if this is really true but apparently some people are saying online that it's imperative that the colour of the belt must match the colour of the suede shoes. Preferably but not necessarily a suede belt, and the colour must be the same. The shade doesn't seem to matter though as long as they're close.

Time to get a new belt. Not exactly an issue because the one I'm wearing is pretty ugly when exposed. I say that because it's usually covered by my tucked-out shirt.

I've never been to anywhere formal enough to require tucking in after secondary school.

A new belt wouldn't hurt. My belt has lost most of its paint over the years and whatever's left are in the form of cracked flakes that continue to drop off gradually.

But it's not urgent and shall be placed on my list of things to get at the end of the year when all the major Christmas sales begin.

Thought about getting a suede belt but I don't think it's a good idea to have yet another suede item that requires extra attention. I'm just not that kind of guy. I'm already concerned about whether I'll care for the shoes enough in the long term.


















Fishcakes!

Bought some fishcakes on Sunday afternoon and the market was pretty empty. The seller was free enough to talk to me and give me tips on how to cook it.

I was planning to make some kind of soup noodles initially but she told me I could fry it a bit before cooking it with vegetables.

Tried it and she was right.

More variety!

Also bought 60 fishballs from her. Those things, like the fishcakes, are so versatile.





















Bought a Neoflam non-stick wok today at 40% off. Pretty awesome, the 40%, but the final price was still over S$80.

Someone recommend it to me and I was in need of a new non-stick wok. My current Tefal one has become very, very sticky and has a few scratches from my brother's and my early cooking mistakes.

Cooked today with the new wok. Felt so damn good.

It's supposed to have a ceramic coating known as "Ecolon" that doesn't have the PFOA stuff that other non-stick layers contain so I don't have to worry when it gets scratches or something other than about its non-stick feature.

The ceramic material also makes the coating more durable.

For $80, it better be.

The 30-cm wok is deeper than the Tefal wok of the same diameter I've been using but has a smaller bottom. Easier to cook in IMO.

Also got a voucher from the purchase for a free synthetic diamond or a free pearl.

Wasn't interested.

Since I have yet to find a use for the last free pearl I redeemed (and I've already forgotten where I kept it), they can keep their pearls and diamonds this time.

What can I do with a diamond anyway?

It's not like I need a glass cutter or something.

Neither was I interested in the S$25 voucher for the Renoma stuff they sell in the store. They don't sell belts and they don't have pants my size.
























Courts obviously is doing well with its Flexi plans but I do not have a positive opinion about it.

It's pretty much BS IMO, this instalment thing. 12-60 months? I can't imagine paying for any of my furnitures for 5 whole years!

If you can't afford to buy something with a single payment, you probably shouldn't buy it at all. Furthermore, defending yourself by citing your low income only makes it worse.

If you can afford paying a small fee regularly, you can start saving a bit of your income regularly.

If you can handle the latter, you could have paid less. In Court's case, 12% per annum less - minimum. And if you're taking the 60-month plan, that's a whopping 60% over the original price at least!

The other possible reason for going for the Flexi plan is that the customer might want to change his furnitures before all the payments are made.

Actually I'm not sure about this and Courts isn't very clear about the terms of such a contract on its website.

But theoretically speaking, if Courts merely takes back the furniture in the event that the customer stops paying before it's paid in full, this could be exploited.

On the other hand, it would make more sense that Courts would impose a heavier penalty for such a thing.

In any case, it still doesn't really make sense for people to go for its Flexi plans. They're almost like the furniture's equivalent of the home loan, except I don't expect the average guy to ever manage to save up enough money to buy a house before he needs one.























Played ME2 on Insanity a little. Reached Mordin's clinic but got a little bored.

I really should change my class. I've already played as the Sentinel before and it's kinda easy.

Maybe I'll take the Infiltrator this time. The skills sound fun.

So the next time I play, which is probably tomorrow night, I'll be restarting it with another class.























The UN proves to be another League of Nations by being completely incapable of handling the situation in Syria.

You can blame China and you can blame Russia, but back when you were considering letting them into the Security Council you should have seen that coming. Predicting the future, aka having foresight, is part of the jobscope of any leaders of any countries.