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09 Oct 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 403
Is the govt justified to increase the public transport fares?

The government has announced an increase in public transport fares, citing the recent increase in operating costs. Many people complained about this further increase in the cost of living.  The decision makers and their supporters pointed out that the public transport fares in Singapore are lower than the fares in the major cities in other developed countries.  I wish to give my views on this matter. a) I agree that the public transport fare......



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09 Oct 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 264
Rule of the mob

When the protesters first came out into the streets to protest against the Extradition bill, I accept their right to lodge a protest although my personal view is that the bill was reasonable and necessary. When the protesters started to make other demands beyond the bill, I held a strong opinion against their actions. I consider it to be rule by the mob. It will lead to chaos and the breakdown of law and order and the destruction of society. The sympathisers of the ......



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07 Oct 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 91
It is wrong to organize a petition against a court judgment

In passing a judgment, the judge has to consider all the relevant factors of the case and also protect the integrity of the court by upholding past decisions. If the judge has to change the principle made in past decisions, the judge has to have good reasons and has to state the reasons. It is not appropriate for ordinary people, who do not have access to the information available to the judge, to pass any opinion on the judgment. It is disrespectful to the judge and could be cons......



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06 Oct 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 269
Possible to be take leadership in an unfamiliar industry

My friend criticized industry minister Chan for trying to teach businessmen how to expand their business overseas, when he did not have any experience in running a company. He also criticized the appointment of two army generals to run the SMRT and NOL without any industry experience. They did a poor job. I told him that Louis Gertsner took over IBM in 1993 without any prior experience in the computer industry. He did a good job in transforming IBM successfully.br ......



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04 Oct 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 243
Be responsive to the wishes of the people

I asked the question - should a govt be responsive to the wishes of the people? The initial response - 83% certainly, 17% impossible.  Surely 100% should agree with this motherhood statement? Why did 17% said that it is impossible? Well, the 17% probably realize that it is difficult to determine the wishes of the people. In any issue, there will be some people who are in favor of one option, while others prefer another option.  ......



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02 Oct 2019
Out of the box
Feedback View - 282
Will there be a decision on the RTS rail link within the one month extension?

I was delighted to read an online summary a few days ago - both countries agreed to an extension of the RTS rail link, without penalty. Wow! This is a change in attitude. Maybe it will lead to a climate of cooperation and friendship between the Singapore and Malaysia. Although the news report euphemistically said that it was an agreement on both sides, it was clear to me (I am not stupid, you know), that the delay was requested by the Malaysia and the Singapore side......



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24 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 218
A new way to finance large losses

Most people look towards insurance to finance losses, such as health care bills, motor repairs caused by accidents, loss of property due to fire and disasters, etc. I wish to suggest a new way to finance these large losses.  First, I must state what are the disadvantages of using insurance to finance these losses: a) The losses tends to be higher than normal, because the insurance company pays for the loss. Motor repairs usually charge more for r......



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24 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 88
Anonymous e-wallet

Some people did not like to use e-wallet to make payments because they are worried that their spending can be tracked.  I find this fear to be exaggerated.  Here are my reasons: a) Nobody is interested to know about any individual's spending among the millions of people in a country, except perhaps for the spouse or parents. b) If you really have to hide a specific payment, which is rather rare, you can find other ways to make......



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23 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 86
Learn from Johore how to name our roads in a logical way

I like the way that Johor name their roads. Take a look at Jalan Setia. The roads that branch from it are called Jalan Setia 1, Jalan Setia 2, etc. The roads that branch from Jalan Setia 4 are called Jalan Setia 4/31, Jalan Setia 4/32, etc. It is a logical way to name the roads. Contrast it with the way that the planners in Singapore name our roads. We have Sin Ming Ave, Sin Ming Lane, Sin Ming Road, Sin Ming Drive. All of these roads are of the same size, i.e. Lane&n......



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23 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 141
Why does China want to introduce a digital currency?

China already has two successful e-payment platforms, namely AliPay and WeChat Pay. It is widely used throughout China. Why does the govt want to introduce a digital currency? Here are my views.  I think the digital currency, which is denominated in yuan, will be used outside of China. At present, foreigners need to have a China bank account to open an account in AliPay and WeChat Pay. This is probably a regulation imposed by the China bank regulator. It is int......



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13 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 228
Referendum for independence of Hong Kong

I suggest that China should hold a referendum for the people of Hong Kong - do you want to be independent of China? There are two possible outcomes: a) The majority vote for independence.  b) The majority vote to remain part of China. I think that the majority will vote to remain part of China. It is difficult for Hong Kong to be independent of China. They need water and power to be provided by China.  Maybe, they can b......



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12 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 100
Disadvantage of blockchain technology

The proponents of blockchain are excited about its application. It remove the need for a trusted third party and allows all the participants to monitor the transactions and be assured that they are reliable.  This platform uses the concept of duplicating the database in many servers (called nodes) and comparing the results. If any of the database is hacked, the other database will be able to overrule that database using a voting and consensus system. I fin......



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12 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 139
My views about bitcoin and cyptocurrencies

I wish to share my views about bitcoin and cyptocurrencies.  When I learned that bitcoin was built on the blockchain platform, I spent some time to learn about blockchain. I formed the opinion that it is an inefficient platform. I shall talk about it in a separate post. I met an expert in the blockchain platform. I asked him about the cost of processing a transaction using blockchain. He quoted a high figure that is not economically feasible. In defense, he sai......



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11 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 196
High quality of products from China

I am impressed with the high quality of many products from China and the low cost.  I bought many of these products from online website. I found the quality and reliability to be quite good, and the price to be rather low. Some people said that the China products sell cheaply because of low quality. This is not the case, from my experience.  I am not saying that all of the China products have good quality. I have come across some products wi......



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09 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 139
Remove obstacles to better customer service

Customer service in Singapore is terrible. It takes 4 days to get a reply from a customer service inquiry. Sometimes, there is no reply at all. This is not caused by insufficient customer service officers, or a high volume of work. It is caused by a bad SOP (standard operating procedure) that can be rectified immediately. What is this issue? When I interact with a customer service officer and they need additional information, I asked them to make cont......



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04 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Feedback View - 223
In memory of the departed relatives and friends

I meet up with my old school mates quite regularly on Saturday at Aperia Mall. They are around my age, as we were school mates in Raffles Institution. During the past year, three mates have departed. One was due to a sudden heart attack and two were due to cancer. They looked quite okay when we met at our regular gathering and suddenly, we heard news that they had departed. When will be my tur......



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04 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 162
Caning for first time drug abusers

A former drug addict suggested that caning should be imposed on first time drug abusers to discourage them from taking this experiment. Young people are frightened about being caned, so it will be an effective deterrent. I carried out a survey. Only 23% voted in favor of this strategy. 45% voted in favor of increasing public awareness through various communication channels. This survey result showed the difficulty of solving this social problem. Most people prefer t......



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03 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 242
Marketing gimmicks that lead to wasteful practices

I dislike marketing gimmicks that lead to wasteful practices.  Here are some examples: a) Credit cards, airlines and telephone companies offer points based on purchases. These points can be converted into benefits. I find it confusing to use the points. Quite often, they are a waste of time. After a while, I decided to ignore them. These businesses have to spend a lot of money to maintain their schemes. b) New businesses, such as the ride hailing......



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02 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 1543
Hypothetical case of a suit for defamation

I was asked - Mr. Tan, if someone published a statement that you were a thief and you did not sue the author and later, another person published another statement using the fact in the first statement, can you sue the second person for defamation? By not acting on the first statement, did you indirectly accept that the statement was true or that it was nonsensical and not worthy of legal action. If that is the case, do you forgo the right to take defamation action on the second st......



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01 Sep 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 193
Hold handrail when using stairs

Three years ago, I had a fall on a wet road. I fractured 3 ribs. It was a painful experience which lasted a few weeks.  A friend, who was 10 years older than me, fell down the stairs and broke a few bones. He took 6 months to recover. He lost a lot of weight and is now quite thin. I make it a point to hold on the handrail when I use the stairs and escalator.  I was quite surprised to see other people, including the elderly who walked unstead......



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26 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 149
Penalty for drug abuse

A former drug addict suggested that first time drug abuser should be subject to caning. This will scare young people from attempting to take drug. Is this a good approach? Is this too severe? Someone argued that a drug abuser does not cause harm to other party except himself. While this may appear to be the case, there has also been reports that many property and robbery crimes are committed by drug addicts who need to get money to pay for their drugs......



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25 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 176
Be positive and constructive

I encourage people to be positive and constructive. What we have may not be perfect, but it may be better than nothing. Let me give an example.  I posted an article about how to measure the body mass index (BMI). A BMI exceeding 25 indicates that a person is overweight.  Someone posted a video that explains BMI does not indicate health. Sure it does not. Nobody suggest that BMI is "everything". BMI is a helpful guide to indica......



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23 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 98
Erratic bus schedules

Some of my fans would have noticed that I report regularly on erratic bus arrivals, and add the cheeky comment - Tell KBW (KBW is the initial of our transport minister), Here are my reasons. I am familiar with databases. I know that all the bus arrival times at each stop are captured in our databases. This is the data source to feed the expected arrival times to bus apps. With this data source, it should be possible for the Land Transport Authority (a......



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19 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 257
Spend $100 billion to deal with climate change?

I agree that we need to deal with climate change. I am not sure if we need to spend $100 billion to achieve this goal. What I know is that we have another goal that is more urgent and more immediate. We need to bring down our cost of living. We can bring it down by more than 7%, if we abolish our GST immediately. We are facing economic challenges due to the global recession and the trade wars. By giving additional spending power to the people, we can stimulate the l......



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19 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 118
Secret of Xiaomi battery algorithm

I wore the Xiaomi smart band for one night and observed that it consumed only 1% of the battery. How was it possible for the band to be monitoring my heart for one night on only 1% of the small battery (90 mAh)? I found that my smart phone was nearby. Maybe, it was taking power from the smart phone using inductive charging? I wondered. Was it possible for the battery to be charged with all the magnetic fields that are generated by devices around the house? b......



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18 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 131
We Have Ruined Childhood

New York Times: For youngsters these days, an hour of free play is like a drop of water in the desert. Of course they’re miserable. By Kim Brooks  According to the psychologist Peter Gray, children today are more depressed than they were during the Great Depression and more anxious th......



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18 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 87
How to control wasteful expenditure by bureaucracy

There was some consternation in social media about the $170 spent on a toilet tap in Woodlands Police Station. Why does the Police spend so much on a tap?  Click here. I recalled that the Pentagon (defense department of USA) also had a bad reputation for excessive spending. I found a href="https://stomp.straitstimes.com/singapore-seen/man-......



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18 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 97
My experience with a smart watch and smart band

I wish to share my experience with a smart watch and a smart band. I know that my experience may be different from other users, so they are free to share their experience separately. I bought a smart watch (Swiss brand) for $100 three years ago. It was inexpensive, so I wanted to try it out. It had most of the features of a smart watch, However, I found it to be difficult to use. The connection to the smart phone was bad, so I could not really benefit from the connectivity feature......



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06 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Feedback View - 231
My journey to lose 10 kg in weight

A few people have asked me to share my experience of my journey to lose 10 kg in weight. What am I doing to achieve this goal? It started with my purchase of the Xiaomi fat smart scale in June 2019. My friend said that he paid $50 for this scale. I bought it for the same price in the Xiaomi shop in Johore Bahru. (Later, I learned that I could buy the same scale for $30 through Lazada website). The smart scale gave useful readings of my weight and other measures. I w......



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01 Aug 2019
Out of the box
Suggestion View - 102
Trust your common sense

We are seeing rapid technological changes. it is difficult to keep up with the advances. It is easy to be carried away by the amazement. However, I like to suggest that we should hold on to our common sense. Do not let the amazement detract us from using our common sense.  Let me quote some examples.  For two years before the turn of the century, the experts were writing about the disaster to computer systems that will occur on the turn of t......



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