3 New Voice + Data Plans

• iFlexi Value - SGD$56
  • 1 GB Data *
  • 200 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: SGD$348
  • iPhone 16GB Price: SGD$508
• iFlexi Plus - SGD$95
  • 2 GB Data *
  • 500 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: SGD$49
  • iPhone 16GB Price: SGD$208
• iFlexi Premium - SGD$205
  • 3 GB Data *
  • 1500 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 1500 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: Free
  • iPhone 16GB Price: Free

Note

• * Only for customers who connect/recontract to an iFlexi plan before 5th Sep 2008.
• These plans also come with 5 value added services free (Caller ID, AutoRoam, VoiceMail, SMS Plus and Overseas Missed Call Alert).
• Taken from: Singtel iFlexi Price Plans.
• Prices stated are including 7% GST.

Voice Only Plans

• iOne Plus - SGD$25.68
  • No Data *
  • 100 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: SGD$698
  • iPhone 16GB Price: SGD$848
• iTwo Value - SGD$48.15
  • No Data *
  • 300 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: SGD$348
  • iPhone 16GB Price: SGD$508
• iTwo Plus - SGD$82.93
  • No Data *
  • 700 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: SGD$49
  • iPhone 16GB Price: SGD$208
• iThree Plus - SGD$192.60
  • No Data *
  • 2000 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 2000 SMS
  • iPhone 8GB Price: Free
  • iPhone 16GB Price: Free

Data Only Plans

• Broadband on Mobile Lite - SGD$3.21
  • Download Speed: 3.6Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 2 MB
• Broadband on Mobile Value - SGD$10.70
  • Download Speed: 3.6Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 10 MB
• Broadband on Mobile Plus - SGD$19.90 (New)
  • Download Speed: 3.6Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 500 MB
• Broadband on Mobile 1000 - SGD$22.42
  • Download Speed: 1Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB
• Broadband on Mobile 2000 - SGD$34.85
  • Download Speed: 2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB
• Broadband on Mobile 3600 - SGD$62.37
  • Download Speed: 3.6Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB

Note

• * It is recommended to have Broadband on Mobile data plan to go along with the Voice Only plan.
• These plans also come with 4 value added services free (Caller ID, AutoRoam, VoiceMail and Overseas Missed Call Alert).
• Taken from: Singtel Existing Voice Only Price Plans.
• Prices stated are including 7% GST.

Links

• View Singtel Broadband on Mobile price plans
• View Singtel Postpaid Mobile price plans
• View Singtel iPhone price plans
• Credit to leinad of HWZ
• Discussion at Hardware Zone Forums

*UPDATE* Singtel officially announced the price in http://home.singtel.com/singtel/index.html. I have updated this blog post to reflect it.

*UPDATE 2* Personally, I am going for the iTwo Value (SGD$48.15) + Broadband on Mobile 1000 (SGD$22.42) = SGD$70.57. My current M1 monthly bill is also about SGD$60+.

Been a long time since I blogged about my personal life because there is nothing much to blog about. Also I have not watched any movie for the past 1 month plus! The last movie that I watched was The Dark Knight in KL!

School
Just ended my first week of school. It is a 4 day week for me where Monday is my off day. Just when I thought I have to take 4 exams for this semester, I was wrong, the new module CS3361 do not have an exam! Our lecturer who is the CTO of IBM Singapore, told us this piece of good news today. So now I have 3 papers to study for and my last date of my examination is 27th November 2008.

Taiwan
I will be going to Taiwan with Li Xiang during December. My mom got 2 free tickets for a 6 days 5 nights trip to Taiwan as she bought 2 lorries for her office and each lorry is entitled to 1 ticket. Li Xiang and I was thinking of extending the trip to about 2 weeks instead of just 6 days so that we can explore more. Hopefully we are able to do it. Keeping my fingers cross.

Wanted to wait till I am in Taiwan before I get the Asus EEE PC, but apparently the price difference is not that great. According to some online site I checked, it is just a different of SGD$50 and the keyboard layout maybe in Chinese and Taiwan has different voltage from Singapore. Since there are so many factors to consider, I think I shall get my netbook in Singapore. Now I am considering between Dell, Lenovo and Asus. Dell and Lenovo will launch their netbook soon.

Comex 2008
Comex 200 will take place on the 28th August 2008 till 31st August 2008 at Suntec City Exhibition Center (entire levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6). The opening hours is from 12pm to 9pm.

Thinking of getting the D-Link DNS-323 (2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure) and along with a 1TB Western Digital Harddisk Drive for my home. The DNS-323 is running on Linux and hence I can do a great deal of stuff on it like use it as a Torrenting machine, FTP server and even a Web Server.

Going to get Li Xiang a USB mouse as her mouse gave up on her a few months back.

Apple iPhone 3G
Singtel will be announcing the price plan for Apple iPhone 3G next week before officially releasing it on 22th August 2008. I have gotten all the documents (authorization letter and my mom’s NRIC) ready for me to jump ship from M1 to Singtel. Apparently when doing the true number portability from one operator to another operator, the account name must be the same for both operators. My M1 line is under my mom’s name and hence when I use the true number portability in Singtel, I need to apply under my mom’s name as well and not mine.

The funny thing is that my mom is using my name for her Singtel line as last time when I was in National Service (NS), they offered discounted plans for NSF and hence my mom switch it to under my name.

My M1 plan will end officially on 24th August 2008 and Singtel will launch the iPhone on the 22nd August 2008. This means that I have to sign up an account with Singtel on the 22nd August 2008 as well. I called Singtel to ask whether 2 days does make a difference in the true number portability as technically my plan with M1 have not ended yet and the CSO said it is fine. Woot!

I am using the iPod Touch and I dare to say that no other devices can come close to the iPod Touch/iPhone in terms of web surfing experience.

With the voice and data plan bundled together with the iPhone, I can surf the Internet wherever I go without worrying about the data charges.

Now the only thing we can hope is Singtel don’t disappoint us with the pricing.

Dad Coming Back For 4 Days
My dad is coming back on the 30th August 2008 for 4 days as there is a long weekend in Vietnam during that week and my dad just need to take 1 day of leave. I have already planned on where to bring my dad go eat to make my dad gain back the weight that he lost in Hanoi.

2 weeks ago, I have already book a table at MELT for Lunch on the 31st August 2008.

SINGAPORE Telecommunications will start selling Apple third-generation iPhone in Singapore on Aug 22, the company said on Tuesday.

SingTel’s CEO for Singapore, Mr Allen Lew said that ‘there are ‘tens of thousands’ on its reservation lists’, and those who registered online will get priority for the iPhones.

Online reservation is open until Aug 17. Mr Lew said SingTel will release the price of the iPhone later.

SingTel on Monday said its regional mobile user base was up 45 per cent to almost US$198 million (S$280 million). in the second quarter against a year earlier.

India led the way as SingTel’s mobile associate Bharti added a record 7.4 million new users to bring its total mobile base to 69.38 million at the end of June, the Singapore telecom carrier said in a statement.

Bharti, the largest GSM operator in India, makes up 35 per cent of SingTel’s mobile base in the Asia-Pacific.

SingTel, the largest telecom firm in South-east Asia, holds a 30.44 per cent stake in Bharti as well as stakes in other mobile firms in the region.

For SingTel’s other associates, mobile users at Indonesia’s Telkomsel rose by 1.11 million during the June quarter to 52.44 million and Thailand’s AIS subscribers increased by over 877,000 to 25.96 million.

SingTel’s wholly owned Australian unit Optus added 101,000 users during the quarter to 7.24 million while in Singapore, its mobile subscribers grew 182,000 to 2.75 million.

Source: Straits Times: iPhone on sale from Aug 22

Singtel Email: It’s coming on 22 August 2008!

Singtel Email: iPhone 3G NEWS from SingTel

PHP 4.4.9 had been released and that is the last PHP4 update we will ever see as PHP4 has reached the End-of-life (EOL) as on 8th August 2008.

PHP 5.3 will be due somewhere between mid September and mid October of 2008.

So for goodness sake, bug your lazy server administrator to upgrade to PHP5!

If your host refuses to upgrade to PHP4, ditch them and come over to FRRO. Here at FRRO, we always try our very best to keep our software as up to date as possible.

Intel has announced the successor to Intel Core 2 Quad (codename Yorkfield) to be Intel Core i7 (codename Nehalem). I suddenly feel that my Q9450 feels old.

          
Intel Core i7 Processor (Left) and Intel Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition (Right)

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 11, 2008 – Intel Corporation announced today that desktop processors based on the company’s upcoming new microarchitecture (codenamed “Nehalem”) will be formally branded “Intel Core processor.” The first products in this new family of processors, including an “Extreme Edition” version, will carry an “i7″ identifier and will be formally branded as “Intel Core i7 processor.” This is the first of several new identifiers to come as different products launch over the next year.

Products based on the new microarchitecture will deliver high performance and energy efficiency. This “best of both worlds” approach is expected to extend Intel’s processor leadership in future mobile, desktop and server market segments.

Source: Press Release: Next-Generation Intel PC Chips to Carry Intel Core Name

Read: Wikipedia: Intel Core i7

Spend more than 10 hours to modify lesterchan.net layout to make it iPhone/iPod Touch viewable. At the moment, you can only view blog post and not pages. I have no plans to make the pages iPhone/iPod Touch viewable yet as it is a lot of work and I don’t find it necessary.

Just point your iPhone or iPod Touch to lesterchan.net and it will detect your user agent and serve you the iPhone/iPod Touch layout if you are using either of the devices.

Here are 2 essential resources to get you stared, Apple: Safari Web Content Guide for iPhone and Ajaxian: iPhone Web Development Tips and Official Documentation Released.

lesterchan.net on iPhone (Portrait - Width: 320px)

lesterchan.net on iPhone (Landscape - Width: 480px)

While on the topic of site updates, here is the changelog since 4th July 2008:

• NEW: Close comments after 30 days instead of 14 days
• NEW: Highlight search words when viewing post
• NEW: Add hosted by Frro
• NEW: Add scroll bar To Recent Comments in Welcome Box if content too long
• NEW: Upgraded To WordPress 2.6
• NEW: Upgraded My Plugins
• FIXED: Removed all broken links using Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin
• FIXED: “No Comments” text not displayed if there is at least 1 trackback/pingback with no comments posted
• FIXED: Comment numbering is wrong after doing AJAX comment posting if there is at least 1 trackback/pingback
• FIXED: Search two or more words
• FIXED: Gallery hits increased by 1 on every photo viewed
• FIXED: Added urldecode() for $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] in 404 page
• FIXED: 10 Latest Comments in Welcome Box showing Pingback/Trackback

I would like to start off with ADSL sucks and Cable is the way to go. It is restarted to authenticate and use a telephone line to start a connection as that is so 56K era. ADSL connection disconnect you more than cable. ADSL modem has full of settings that requires you to set in order for it to work normally, with cable, just plug the cable into your modem and you are ready to use the Internet. How easy can that get?

Yesterday, I went to the my mom office to solve a very peculiar Internet problem. My mom is using Singnet Business Internet which is like SGD$100 per month for a 512K downstream and a 256K upstream for more than a year before this problem occurs.

The problem happen like 2 weeks ago where my mom is unable to use the Internet before 2pm (roughly) but after 2pm, she can use it without any problem. This problem occurs every day for the past 2 weeks.

The Singnet people came at least 4 times to solve this but for the first 3 time, they are unable to find out why. The 4th time, the technician came and he suspect it is our router problem.

We are using the 2wire 2700HGV-2 (Singtel’s MioBox) and Linksys WRT54G. So as you can see there are 2 routers as the 2700HGV-2 itself is also a router. Previously I set up wrongly for my mom and this wrong setup works for more than a year and only start giving problems 2 weeks ago.

The thing I did wrong is creating 2 routings. My 2700HGV-2 will initiate a PPoE connection and connect to the Internet and my WRT54G will also initiate a PPoE connection using the 2700HGV-2 and connect to the Internet. And hence I got 2 external IPs for the 2 PPoE connections, 1 each for the router.

According to some Google searches I made, 2 routings will cause a major lag and slowdown to the network. This problem did not happen a year ago as my mom’s workplace is new and my mom is the first few tenants there and recently it seems that the whole building is fully occupied and morning seems to to be the peak period and hence a lot of people is using the Internet. There is no cable point installed, so the tenants can either be using Singtel’s Singnet or Starhub’s ADSL.

After figuring out this, I went to disable all the shit in 2700HGV-2 making it into a pure ADSL modem and bridge it using my WRT54G. I managed to bridge it using only just my WRT54G to initiate a PPoE connection. My WRT54G managed to get the external IP, gateway, DNS and MTU and it seems everything is working perfect, but it is not! I can’t surf the Internet or ping out at all. And I have no idea why this is happening. I asked FRRO’s Michael for help and he told me it is weird and recommend me in worst case scenario, get a ADSL modem plus a router. I know that the 2700HGV-2 has a inbuilt wireless and 4-port wired router function but it lacks A LOT of features that the WRT54G has like the DDNS service which my mom need the most.

I heed Michael’s advice and went down to Funan to get the Linksys WAG200G, for SGD$99, it is basically a WRT54G with ADSL modem inside.

Went back to replace both the 2700HGV-2 and WRT54G with only WAG200G and BINGO, everything is perfectly working alright (just got feedback from my mom this afternoon).

Why can’t just Singnet give us the bloody ADSL modem with no shit inside just like Starhub’s Cable modem and it would make the solution easier.

Last but not least, I would like to add that my WRT54G is version 7 and I can’t flash it to DD-WRT. How unlucky!

SINGAPORE, 4 August 2008 - Singaporeans will now be able to cruise the information superhighway with a new fixed broadband service operated by M1.

Offering a mobile broadband service since 2006, M1 will become a full fledged broadband player when it introduces M1 Fixed Broadband from tomorrow.

M1 Fixed Broadband is available to all homes with cable access points or which are cable ready. The service is capable of achieving download speeds of up to 100 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 2 Mbps.

“M1 is repositioning itself for the future as it develops new businesses anchored on our core competencies. The launch of M1 Fixed Broadband is an important step in our planned transformation from a single-play mobile operator to a dynamic multi-play operator with interests in both the mobile and fixed sectors. The proliferation of the Internet and the increasing demand for Internet bandwidth also make this an opportune entry into the fixed broadband market,” said Neil Montefiore, Chief Executive Officer of M1.

M1 will launch its fixed broadband service with four unlimited data plans based on varying Internet access speeds. Providing customers faster speeds for less, the monthly subscription fee starts from as low as $40.60 for existing M1 customers*. Customers will also be offered a plug-and-play cable modem as part of the launch promotion when they sign up for the service.

Promotional Price

• 10 Mbps $43.50/month
• 15 Mbps $58.50/month
• 30 Mbps $73.50/month
• 100 Mbps $88.50/month

Promotional Price for existing M1 customers

• 10 Mbps $40.60/month
• 15 Mbps $50.70/month
• 30 Mbps $63.70/month
• 100 Mbps $76.70/month

Usual Price

• 10 Mbps $58/month
• 15 Mbps $78/month
• 30 Mbps $98/month
• 100 Mbps $118/month

Those who wish to sign up for the M1 Fixed Broadband service can call at any M1 shop or visit www.m1.com.sg/broadband for more information.

* Existing M1 customers eligible for the additional discounts refers to existing postpaid customers on selected M1 Mobile Plans and Mobile Broadband plans

Source: Hardware Zone Forums

July 2008 Total Traffic

• Total Hits: 9,569,791
• Total Files: 8,590,686
• Total Pages: 765,670
• Total Visits: 166,191
• Total KBytes: 32,030,828
• Total Unique Sites: 111,190
• Total Unique URLs: 16,067
• Total Unique Referrers: 19,085
• Total Unique User Agents: 5,377

July 2008 Daily Traffic

• Hits per Day: Average: 308,702 - Max: 545,879
• Files per Day: Average: 277,118 - Max: 372,059
• Pages per Day: Average: 24,699 - Max: 30,123
• Visits per Day: Average: 5,361 - Max: 6,741
• KBytes per Day: Average: 1,033,253 - Max: 1,329,666

Note: Green denotes increase and Red denotes decrease when compared with June 2008.

Previous month site traffic: June 2008

I will be taking the following modules for my 3rd year, first semester:

CS3251 - Technology Strategy and Management (4 MCs) [1 PT]
CS3361 - Service Science (4 MCs) [1 PT]
CS4254 - IS Project Management (4 MCs) [999 PTs]
CS4251 - Strategic IS Planning (4 MCs) [1,000 PTs]

Module Code - Module Name (Module Credits) [Points Bidded]

Time for me to rant about NUS or in particular School of Computing (SoC) in NUS. I seriously think whoever plan those modules in SoC deserved a knock his head on the wall.

Direct Honors is NOT a new thing and I think as of 2 or 3 years ago, students entering NUS will have to go for compulsory 4 years course (Direct Honors) instead of 3 years (Bachelor). SoC did NOTHING to anticipate the increase of students taking level 4000 modules. They asked us to do a survey on what modules are we taking next year during the last semester and I think this survey is pretty much USELESS.

Imagine there are only 50 places for almost all level 4000 modules in Information System (IS) course and 100 students are fighting for the 50 places. As you can see from above, I spend 1,999 points just to bid 2 level 4000 modules, and every semester I am only given 800 to bid ALL my core modules. I must at least accumulate 3 semesters before I even can reach 2,000 points.

I wanted to take another level 4000 module, CS4266 (IT and Customer Relationship Management) but I do not have another 1,000 points to bid for it. End up I have to forgo it and take CS3361 instead.

I can’t appeal as I still got non-core modules not yet taken and I will only be graduating in December 2009 and hence I still got another semester 1 to go.

I doubt I got enough points to bid for level 4000 modules next semester as I need to take 3 level 4000 modules. But next semester I am able to appeal as it will be my LAST semester 2.

I also want to add that not all level 4000 modules are offered every semester as it takes 1 semester for the lecturer to prepare the exams paper. That I fully understand, but the thing I don’t understand that why must they limit the places to 50 instead of 100! If they cater for 100 people, this problem will be solved.