It’s the end of the year 2007 and the start of 2008 is just a few more hours away. Many things have happened in the past year and I should really reflect on what has happened.

2007 saw me as a newly fresh civilian and I started work at JD Power Asia Pacific for a few months as a data checker. Then after my job ended I decided to slack and took some time to learn php whilst doing some occasional tuition. Then I began my undergraduate studies at NUS in Electrical Engineering. One sem has been completed and I’m awaiting the next semester in 2 weeks time.

1 year has just passed like that and I’m sad to say I did not achieve my new year resolution of implementing exercise. Argh. I’m just so lazy and I got to change that.

2007 saw me having my own domain and having advertisements posted on my blog. 2007 was the year where the Nuffnang saga took a turn for the worst, then suddenly died down and ended. 2007 saw people criticizing me in my blog for something that till now I feel that I was right.

2007 saw me arguing with the boss in tuition and everything became just bad but in the end things were settled (finally).

It’s going to be 08 soon. I’m not prepared. But maybe, I don’t need to be. Life just goes on no matter what. Let’s just hope 08 will be better than 07.

Have you wondered, with all those popularity contests going on, does it measure a person’s actual popularity? Personally, I feel that popularity is about how many people like you. A person with 1000 supporters is more popular than a person with only 500 supporters. Can we agree on this point?

Then, looking at recent popularity contests, for example, Asian Idol, or the latest Star Awards with the Top 10 Most popular artiste (male/female), it is hard to see how it measures actual popularity.

In my opinion, it measures a certain degree of popularity. It’s about how much your fans are willing to pay to support you. Isn’t it? Modern day popularity contests are such a wastage of money. Every call you make has a charge of about 20cents or more, and they go to the telephone service providers like Singtel. In a way, its like money talks. The more your supporters are willing to pay, the better your chances of winning.

The best strategy to win such popularity contests is to have a fan base with rich people. Rich does not mean you have to stay in a private apartment or that your household must have a monthly income of a more than ten thousand dollars. Rich in this instance means willing to pay for such calls. A family may be poor, but if their daughter is a spend thrift and they allow her to make such calls, they are considered rich enough to waste their money, so they are rich in this sense.

It makes perfect sense for companies to find the true popular idol. The one that measures fan base by numbers instead of measuring amount given to the telcos. This is because, when someone wins Singapore Idol, a recording contract is going to be given out. Records are going to be made and pressed, and sales revenues is dependent on the number of people buying the albums. Sure enough, during Singapore Idol, there would be plenty of vote calling fever. However, after the whole thing has died down, how many fans are still fervently supportive? Of which, how many would buy multiple albums? Thus, the one that is popular in the true sense will sell more albums, assuming fans remains fans and fans will buy only 1 album.

However this is not the case. Countless times we have popularity contests that are based on false popularity rather than true popularity. I feel, if we revert to true popularity, we may find that there are other real winners. What’s your take?

I am of the opinion that the internet “encourages” perverts to thrive. I do not mean that the internet plays a huge active role in recruiting perverts, it does not ask one to visit porn sites every 5 seconds. However, due to the free nature of the internet, people are allowed to post what they want, and only the webhosts regulate the content.

Not all webhost regulates the content though. You can see it from the fact that there are porn sites online, and many other non-porn sites that are perverted too. The best example which everyone from Ping.sg will know, is that pervertic blog entries rank high on the top 10 pongs of the past 24 hours.

From my google analytics account, I see that many people come to my site by searching the word “upskirt”. Upskirt photos means photos of a woman taken from ground up. Which means you see the undergarments. Now I do not have such photos on my blogs and I don’t see why people are interested in seeing such photos. What I did in the past was write a post about my horror regarding upskirt websites sprouting up online.

I then realize, from past ping.sg articles, that people are interested in downblouse too. What is downblouse? As I found out by reading more from those posts, downblouse is looking at a woman from top down. Now I do not get it. What is so special about that? If a woman dresses scantily, you do not need to look from top down to see what she is showing isn’t it? Besides, what is there to see? Nobody’s walking around naked or something.

The internet, because of its freedom to post, gives a platform for these people to enjoy their perversity. I think such sites should be shutdown because they exploit woman. Not exploit in the sense that they are taking photos of women, but that they take photos of women without permission? If that is so, then it is highly improper of such sites to exist.

In a way, the internet allows one to actively become a pervert. I hear from a friend that there is now blogs selling used underwear from Singaporean girls. It used to be from ebay, but now, there is a chance for some branding. Perhaps, one would like some Gucci underwear (used)?

I’m disgusted. Are you?

In my opinion, I think we should all go for emailing classes. I mean serious, professional emailing lessons. Most of us do not know how to write a decent email. These few days, I have been trying to get people to be featured on my NextTutor blog, and the replies I get are short.

By short I mean short like “OK”. Some put their names, some do not. It really makes things difficult for me when the email and the name is not the actual name of that person. I have to trough through my database to find that person’s name.

Some things to note about when replying to emails in a non-personal basis. It is not personal if the person is a stranger and not your friend. It is not personal if its an official matter.

1) Do include your name. People want to know who they are talking to.
2) Do use proper english and no short forms. Singaporeans have gotten used to short forms like mi and u or urs and what have you. Those are a no-no.
3) Do start with a decent opening like Hi [insert name] or Dear [insert name].
4) Do end of with a nice thank you. Be appreciative at all times.

Well, I have received some well drafted emails too. They brighten my day and make me feel that I am doing something nice, bearing in mind I am providing a free service and I gain nothing in return.

Your money can buy lesser things now. This should come as a no-surprise to many people since inflation is part and parcel of life. Its just that this time, the inflation seems to be much more than normal. Together with the increase in GST, many vendors have increased prices all at one go, attributing it to past increases of price of flour blabla and that they are increasing everything at one go.

Now, school bus fares have gone up, and taxi fares are going up soon in one company, and other companies may soon follow the new pricing system.

For one, I read in the newspaper (forgot which day was it) that the taxi companies just inform the Public Transport Council about the increase in price, and the PTC can do nothing about it. Somehow I wonder what the PTC is for in this instance. Like a figurehead perhaps?

School bus fares are up. Have anyone of you ever wondered, why they do not decrease their bus fares when petrol prices drop? The school bus council thingy says they are leaving it to the demand and supply mechanism. The free market mechanism. Just that it is a monopolistic situation? I don’t know about you, but I remembered that I had only one option to take and that is that school bus. Never mind options like public buses though, I am focusing on my options for school buses. Can I change school buses when I decide that the fare is too high? Probably not. In a way, it is a monopoly. Unless everyone steps in to change the bus service provider, most likely everyone is going to take the increase in price and pay more.

Besides, what other options do parents have? School buses are normally for children of 12 years and below in primary schools and kindergarten. Parents worry for their safety, thus they hire services of the school bus. Thus public transport is an option not considered by parents. Furthermore, there are strangers on the bus who are suspicious until proven otherwise.

I wonder if the respective councils will be transparent and submit their detailed reports to allow everyone to scrutinize their need to raise prices again. And oh.. it seems that in today’s Straits Times forum, someone wrote in to talk about taxi drivers choosing passengers based on distance travelled. Well, if they want to raise prices, do raise their service standards too.

These days there have been much talk about Ping.sg’s business meeting. This, plus the freedom during holidays, inspired me to pursue my entrepreneurial spirit and work on the tuition site that I haven’t been putting effort in for.

These few days I did some stuff to revamp my site. I changed certain sections and abolished categories. I set myself a clearer guideline on what I want to do. Since I have an issue on manpower, I got to work smart. I can’t possibly launch a million segments only to have 1 succeed.

Following Nuffnang’s and Advertlets’ featured bloggers, I came out with a featured tutor thing that can allow parents to check out a person’s photo and their answers to interview questions before deciding whether to hire that person or not. Well its in an early stage but I’m glad that 2 tutors replied and both replied positively.

The problem I have now is to convince people to use my service. Or rather, in the student database part. I need people to come and put up profiles of students looking for tutors. The most widely used page is the student assignment search, but the irony is that there are no assignments there! How sad!

Well, lots to work out before school starts in the middle of January. Jiayou!

I’ve recently joined Blog2u.sg. For the clueless, Blog2u.sg is the newest member of the blog advertising committee. The way blog2u works is different from Advertlets and Nuffnang.

Advertlets works on an unique impressions basis. The more unique visitors you attract to your blog, the more you earn. Occasionally, Advertlets will link you to an advertiser, so you will display a “full-time” ad on your blog. The one I had for the past month was for Snapfish.

Nuffnang works on a advertiser choose you basis. Once you are linked, you will start serving ads for one week or so. Depending on your blog traffic, you will be awarded a band number, and everyone in the same band gets the same amount of money. I average 30 unique visitors per day and I get about $2.80 for each 1 week ad.

Blog2u works totally differently. They get advertisers and you are informed if you are chosen. However, at certain times, you need not be chosen. For example, the current ad I have on the right, the situation is different such that blog2u asked for bloggers to apply for it. Anyway, you serve their ad for 30 days and they pay you $3.00. The thing is that they pay you immediately and not after the ad is done serving.

Blog2u impressed me even though some may say that the $3 they give is puny. Their service is really great and prompt. Within the same day, I can acknowledge my participation, get a confirmation to paste the ad code in my blog, and also for them to check the ad and transfer the money into my POSB account. That, itself, is service that is one up than Nuffnang.

Blog2u has chances to grow and who knows, their mode of operation may evolve and they may end up having more resources and we bloggers may benefit more in the end. What I hope will remain is their great service standards and level of competency. Thanks Blog2u!

For those who have not signed up, why not try blog2u now?

There has been plenty of discussion going on lately on blog advertising, and not so much focus was spent on methods of blog advertising. From my observations, I feel that there is one good way of blog advertising, and its not by advertising on a per million impressions or a pay by click basis.

The best method is to pay a blogger to do an advertorial on their blog. Not just any advertorial like those pay per post thing, but to genuinely invite the blogger down to try out your product and allow him/her to give their honest opinions on your product.

Have you seen Xiaxue’s blog recently? Before anyone starts to flame me or cause a ruckus as to why I have been reading it (and thus saying that I need to read widely), let me tell you that its about the method of advertising I am referring to, not her blogging style or whatever she writes.

Anyway, without going back to explicitly check, I can remember a few advertisements on her blog. Indulgz, or however its spelt, invited her 3 times to go down to their place for a meal, with a few of her friends. With all the photos taken coupled with the blog posts, it really gave me a whole new impression of that restaurant. I have never been there, but I now have a reason to. Next up is the t-shirt company, Local brand. They gave her a few shirts which she lovingly wore and put up on her blog. I will never forget the Annabel Chong T shirt. The third one that I can remember is infomatics. Infomatics gave her this PDA device which allows her to go for “virtual” lessons whenever she has time, thus for anyone who wants to learn when he is on the bus or something, can now earn some new qualifications.

Such methods of blog advertising leaves a different impression than just being repeatedly shown images of banners.

However, it is difficult to have a widescale campaign, since some money is spent in letting the bloggers try out the service, and you can’t possibly invite 5000 bloggers to try out your 5 course meal and have them write a post.

The bloggers who are qualified to do these must either have plenty of traffic (Xiaxue), or have a huge following because you blog about a specific thing. For example, restaurants can go for blogs whose theme is about food. Prada can go for blogs whose theme is about branded goods. Either way, traffic is a must.

This model won’t go well with the average blogger because they will never get any advertisements. It is not economical to use this method on a blogger with just 20 visits per day. Anything less than 100 unique visits per day is simply not acceptable.

Perhaps a reputable blog company (like Blog2u) can do this? However I have totally no idea how much $$$ can be earned from this. Haha.

From what I see, one of our MPs doesn’t seem to have any knowledge on current affairs. From today’s “poor” people article:

MP Cynthia Phua said she has been advising the elderly in her ward to rent out the rooms in their flats to generate income.

She said: ‘A can of luncheon meat used to cost $1.30. Now it’s $2.50. Not everyone can afford that, especially the elderly who are not working and depending on handouts.’

I just have one comment. Isn’t the price of luncheon meat increasing due to the shortage of supplies rather than inflation? I think the MP is trying to talk about inflation, if not, then I do not know what her point is. If she is not talking about inflation, then I will say that the price i will eventually drop once everything resumes normalcy. If she is talking about inflation, lagi best, this is nothing to do with inflation in the first place. I guess she should change examples to talk about. Perhaps the price of flour?

One should think that Blogger should make it easier for all of us to combat online plagiarism. I sent an email to blogger yesterday claiming an infringement of copyright for posts done in this blog, but they sent me this email instead:

Hi there,

Thank you for your note. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged
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http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more
information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking
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I live in Singapore man. Make things easier for me!