Monthly Archive for April, 2009

Being a part of Portable Headphone History: Koss PortaPro 25th Anniversary Limited Edition

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on April 28, 2009
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. 1,986 views | 10 Comments

While Koss as a company is little known in Singapore due to their laid back marketing (actually no marketing in Singapore), they are the first company that invented portable stereophones, or headphones as we know it today.

While most headphones, even those nowadays, cramps on the head with the main pressure on the ear, causing fatigue when used for long hours, Koss pioneered the concept and technology of transferring the pressure to the temporal bones, allowing the headphones to be worn for long hours with comfort. In fact, you won’t feel that the headphone is there.

The Koss PortaPro, the third product from Koss, is one of the longest running product. Invented in 1984, it is still been manufactured and sold today with almost no change in design. Headphones produced by competitors throughout the 25 years were unable to even come close to the sound quality and durability of this headphone at the same price point. Any headphone in the market now that could rival that of Koss Portapro costs at least twice the price. Koss had invented a portable headphone that could withstand the test of time. Because of this, Koss Portapro also comes with a international no-questions-asked lifetime warranty. If your set is spoilt for whatever reason, simply mail the headphone back to their headquarters and they will send you a new one.

What other company has the confidence to give lifetime warranty, and which other consumer product (other than food) can survive for so long in the market without being overshadowed by rival products? Only Koss and its PortaPro.

I first bought a Koss Portapro 4 years ago in 2005. At that time I bought it simply based on its unique look and great sound. I did not know about its history until I went home and google. It was the BEST headphone I even owned, with sound better than that of my later purchases which costs 300 dollars upward. I later sold my Koss Portapro in 2008 due to under usage to enable others to enjoy the music. I regretted that decision ever since.

When I know about the release of Koss Portapro 25th Anniversary limited edition yesterday (Only 25000 units worldwide), I practically went crazy and I told myself I must get one ASAP. And today I took off from work and went down to Stereo, one of the most honest and great store specializing in audio equipments located at Causeway point.

Take a look at Koss Portapro 25th Anniversary Limited Edition.

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Health Minster blames poor hawkers for being complacent

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on April 20, 2009
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. 38 views | 1 Comment

From Strait Times

IT IS shape up or ship out for food outlets which do not have excellent hygiene standards - starting with those at public hospitals.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Sunday that hospital stall holders which do not get the top ‘A’ or ‘B’ ratings may be told to close shop.

‘If they want to renew the tender or take part in it, then they must deliver this minimum standard of hygiene,’ he said.

His stern stance comes in the wake of Singapore’s worst food poisoning outbreak. In Geylang Serai this month, contaminated Indian rojak struck down 154 people, killing two.

Mr Khaw believes that people here have become complacent, and said that hygiene levels have slumped to close to a failing grade.

Speaking on Sunday at the launch of a section of cycling track linking Sembawang and Woodlands, he built on his suggestion for public hospitals to lead the charge in raising hygiene standards.

‘Our food handlers are by and large A, minimum B. There were only a handful who are C. So of course a lot of pressure would be on them to improve,’ he added.

His benchmark: Japan, where food stalls are so clean that Mr Khaw said he is ‘prepared to pay a little bit more for that security’.

The private sector has already shown it is possible.

At the Kopitiam chain, which has five of its 57 food courts located at hospitals, it is compulsory to get an A grade.

Mr Khaw saying that people here becoming complacent? There is someone who is paid top dollars in Singapore to ensure that these hygiene standards are maintained and that this person is none other than Mr Khaw!

This is like a QC manager of a factory saying that the factory workers are complacent when clients came back with complains of defective products. :(

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Giving myself something to do…

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on April 11, 2009
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. 15 views | 0 Comments

Wasting time away in the office rekindled my passion in programming. To date I have created a maze solving mouse inside a Microsoft Excel Document and also an elevator game.

At home, I am working on a notepad replacement using Microsoft’s latest .NET framework, version 3.5 SP1. While notepad replacements are very common, my design goals are quite unique:

-Learn from notepad. It works exactly like notepad, while adding some features for conveniences:
-Make full use of the latest GUI improvements, including icon inside drop down menu, textbox (yes, you can enter text into a menu!) inside dropdown menus, etc
-Lag free. This is the core reason why most people use notepad. It is the thinnest fastest text editor out there. However, due to the nature of the .NET framework, one might not enjoy instant launch, but I have made various improvements, including no program freeze when opening/saving large text. (Notepad will freeze when saving or loading large amount of data, my program will just churn along happily.
-Keep things to the minimal. While most notepad replacements add more and more features with the consequences of having a very cluttered GUI, i kept things to the bare minimal. I have also removed all pop-up windows (e.g Find/Replace window) and instead tuck everything neatly under the menu system.
-Connectivity. I intend to make the program capable of peer to peer collaboration (2 person can work on the same file at the same time.) However, this still need works and I am still assessing how practical it is to implement this.

These are the features already implemented:
-100% working emulation of notepad features (with the exception of wordwrap and font selection, which is fixed by default)
-Rename/delete/change the read-only attribute of the opened file directly in the program.
-Ability to make the program window transparent, and also to set it to be on top of other opened windows.
-Support drag and drop and shell command to open multiple files at the same time
-Insert date in varying format
-Wiki, google selected text right from the contextual menu
-Instantly change selected words to lower case, upper case, or raNdomiZe iT
-Insert text from existing file into current opened file.
-Save selected text as another file

More to be announced soon.

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People are just waiting for death

Published
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on April 7, 2009
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. 180 views | 5 Comments

When we were young we had dreams. “When I grow up I want to be a magician!” “I want to be an inventor!” “I want to be a doctor!” “I want to be banker like my father!”

Continue reading ‘People are just waiting for death’

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