ITCOW [L]

Non smokers fines!
As most if not all smokers know, The Ban has kicked in for quite some time now.
Singapore has implemented a ban on smoking at all public eating outlets with
outdoor seating and a free license can be gotten and 20% of outdoor seats can be
allocated for smokers thus dividing smokers away from non smokers. I’ll not kid
you, I am personally a smoker and sort of a heavy one and this ban has been,
since implementation, dumb and silly. Take Raffles Place/ Shenton Way for
example, where I work. A small coffeehouse with little outdoor tables to spare
joins smoking and non smoking tables side by side. What was the objective of
this ban again please? Oh, to let non smokers enjoy the fresh air whilst eating
but a smoker sits just right beside me on a totally by the book, legal smoking
table. Owners of such eating places just can’t jepordise business and will need
to maximise space to stay profitable.

with this ban, there is law saying smokers must not smoke at non smoking outdoor
tables but what about non smokers seating and taking up seats at smoking areas?
It should be a 2 way traffic kind of law and not a one way one. There’s already
a damn shortage of seats and non smokers taking my seat! So can we have
something for non smoker since it’s illegal to smoke in non smoking area,
slapping a fine for doing so, it should also be illegal for non smokers to be
seated at smoking areas! Verification will be easy for our environment or health
officials, any lighters? Any cigarettes? No? Then you must be a non smoker, fine
them on the sot or issue them a summon you would with a smoker that smokes at
non designated places. In fact, it should cover everything! Non smokers should
not be allowed at places where it’s designated to smoke in the first place! Yes
yes, let’s have that, shopping malls entrance with bins for cigarettes butts,
non smokers not allowed to wait there for their dates! Office that has smoking
corners, nope! Non smokers not allowed to be seen there!

Is it this lack of sleep or am i hysterical? I just believe, the law should be 2
way so why is it so special with this eatery outdoor smoking table law.

ABD
Published in Today, today, friday 16 sept 2006, a company calls ABD, fax you
some stuffs and owners thought it’s a updating form to update their listing or
addresses in Yellow Pages, fax it back when done only to find out it’s a
contract to get listed in their Singapore Business Pages, that’s really a
unsulprous way of doing business! i can’t believe CASE referred these business
owners elsewhere. i do believe though, that ABD is in CASE’s radar now and more
businesses will be complaining.

Dual ISP
i’m happy to say, i’ve terminated my Maxonline account. Of course they asked me
why, i just replied they won’t want me nagging over the phone so please take it
down as ”no particular reasons”. And that was it, just not too long ago, i was
all praise about my maxonline account. Good speedgreat uptime and heck, i don’t
know how the attitude of their technical support staffs cos’ i’ve never needed
to call them as the service was realiable..till the so call free upgrade to
4Mbps. That turned everything’s speed down for me. I give up and won’t bothering
calling. not much so on free gifts (maxonline is giving away free xbox 360 if i
recontract but since dec 2005 i did not) but i need the basics! Good and
realiable broadband Internet access but now Singnet is giving me better and more
realiable speeds with their, therotically, slower 3.5Mbps package! I’ve bee
running both accounts trunked to a 24 port switch via 2 routers for each ISPs
and it’s easy for me to switch ISP on any PCs (oh, i running 8 pcs, down from 10
after migrating to my home 24U rack) at home, and the effects are immediate and
very clear cut, maxonline is plain slower in surfing, downloading linux iso,
ftping (up and downloading). I’m paying substantial amount of money for 2
internet broadband accounts but the redudancies it can provide for my home web
servers and all but as time goes by, it’s becoming clear, i rather have 2
Singnet accounts and a maxonline backup. Of course with the island wide wireless
coverage later, it’ll not be hard work out other form of network redudancies
later again… If needed. For now, i am enjoying definately faster internet
surfing speed on my Singnet account.

Digital Life new blood
It’s been a rather long time since the editor of the old Computertimes and now
Digital Life, a supplement of StraitsTimes every Tuesday from in the past
Wedsbeen at the helm. I think it’s time to have new blood to inject more life or
otherwise more interesting articles. It does help. It’s been only like 2 years
since i started reading australia based pc authority and they’ve change editors,
twice and you can see changes in the magazine, as a whole. magazines need to
evolve too, to get pumped with new ideas, fresh reviews, creative commentaries.
Ms Grace Chng has been there a too time. The, if any, commentary she has is
becoming irrelevant more often service that will never land in Singapore, who
cares! Product that won’t see the Singapore smile, forget it! On the other hand,
Mr Alfred Siew does have some interesting coverage on the telcos issues, the
high Internet braodband package prices we pay, more the basic or tech guys in
Singapore can relate with. The primary objective of the supplement DigitalLife
seems to have lost it’s way. It should be like more close to th singaporean
heart,. Issues on the overall technology landscape of singapore, regular roundup
of important tech based events (the coverage of the HP Procurve network guy was
ineresting), interview with some it or tech industry bigwig’s good, and please,
more commentory! I love those! Of course, balancing all the above is something
else and maybe someone new can add some fusion or new vibes to the supplement.