Being Pissed!

This blog is for me to rant and rave in cyberspace about things that piss me - so here I go ...

For some time I've had my web hosting and email hosting with a company named D'fine Solutions Pte Ltd, run by a guy named Sheares Ng Wee Leng. Sheares used to work for a friend and I was told that he's OK to support for business so I merrily moved it over without nary a thought.

I did have some problems with the service sometimes - could not receive emails and sometimes got flooded by spam, but it wasn't anything that was unmanageable or unacceptable. Yeah, I received porn too, but a murmer to Sheares about the awful porn was resolved. Honestly, I am not hot about receiving emails about improving my performance in bed, how to satisfy my woman and be a hunk or invites to chat on porn lines or how to buy prescription drugs online. Not exactly my cup of tea!

Then last year in 2008, Sheares spent a lot of time in Taiwan and the service standards went to the longkang - literally down the drain. HH spoke with Sheares about it and the excuse was always the Microsoft Outlook problem. We were having problems receiving emails - not problems sending them, so what Microsoft Outlook problem? Then it would be a case of nothing in and nothing out. Not garbage in and garbage out (GIGO) that I learnt in computer programing classes years ago!

But we have other email address with other hosts and those were not a problem so ... the problem had to be with the service.

In June 2009, HH and I took a decision that we should take our web and email hosting out to another service provider because the cost was cheaper. In these difficult times, we have to watch our pennies. We would get about the same service for about half (!) the price - YES NEARLY HALF PRICE. Not much to consider right? The price is right, the service is OK so we should switch.

HH gave Sheares notice of our intention to switch verbally. OK, that could have been a mistake but we all sit in the same office space and work together on some projects, so what's so difficult. Then about 3 weeks ago, absolute silence from Sheares. He didn't come to the office, no response to emails, sms or skype messages - ABSOLUTE SILENCE!!!

We asked for the password for the domain transfer and again SILENCE! Absolutely frustrating. We even asked Sheares to renew the domain, but he never responded. It's not as if we aren't going to pay him. He never raised an invoice for anything until suddenly in June 2009, he threw out 2 invoices. One for last year's service and another for this year's or the renewal. I paid the invoice for last year (2008) that was raised in 2009. When he asked about the renewal, I said that HH had spoken to him about it and that we were moving it out.

Wah - such rudeness and a sulky face. Then Sheares went MISSING IN ACTION. No response to any form of decent communication. This morning I tried to call Sheares - he kept switching me off till I was so pissed that I posted a nasty message on his Facebook wall. After I sent him a Skype mesage, he said that he does not do domain renewals. What sort of half baked service does he provide - you can check out his website http://www.dfine-solutions.com/ and it does show that he does do renewals!!

He got slammed again on his bad service and I threatened him with legal action for damages for lost emails. Then finally at around 4 pm today, he sent an email to HH, presumably from his Technical Support that domain renewals can be done from his website.

Some time back, Sheares told HH that if our clients do not take up his web services after we have done the software development and web design for them, he will not be supporting them. So in the first year, we can place the service with Sheares - but when he messes up then the client gets really angry and moves their service out? Sheares will not handle the work and their websites will all crash!! This is bad service!!

Hey, if this is how he treats customers - how could he ask me to bundle my corporate secretarial services with his hosting services?? I would end up fielding questions from my irate clients when they cannot receive their emails or their websites are down.

Sigh, I am tired of this nonsense. I will now take my business to unknown entities where I can shout at them for service lapses. This is how I can yell at Singtel for crappy telephone service standards and tell them that their CEO does not deserve her S$7million salary. :p

Please do not go to a company called D'Fine Solutions for your web or email hosting - you will be stone walled by the person who cannot grow a business because he will remain a one man show.

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More recycling efforts

I still have this recycle bug in me! Last week, on 4th July (Happy Independance Day USA!), we started pumping BIODIESEL into our Goo. I had been reading articles about biodiesel but often wondered where to find the stuff in Singapore. Finally we struck "green" gold, so to speak. There was an article on biodiesel and where to find the stuff.

We were 1/4 tank down on in our fuel and did the slow transfer over - like we do for dog food for our doggies. We topped up with 21 litres of biodiesel and merrily went on our way feeling really smug with ourselves.

That night, V and I went to the supermarket to get our groceries. On the way back, I kept on insisting that I smelt food in the Goo. I was asking - what food did you buy? Do we have food in the back? NO COOKED FOOD IN THE BACK OF THE GOO!!!

Whilst I was reading up on biodiesel, the source of the stuff etc, I did read that biodiesel was made from recycled cooking oil. Ah - that was the source of my cooked food smell at the back of the Goo - fried chicken, french fries, yew char kuay, vadai and whatever else that is fried food!! Maybe we are getting biodiesel from cooking oil from Kentucky Fried Chicken and MacDonalds and all the shops that deep fry stuff so I am getting strange aromas all around me.

So far, we have not experienced any loss of performance or any strange sounds of any sort in our Goo. We cannot tell you any the mileage or consumption so far because we had a problem with the speedometer in the Goo. Sigh! So much for my green efforts so far, but we are going to keep going at it!

Looks like we are set to continue with biodiesel since it seems to be cheaper than the regular stuff and it is a green option.

For more information of biodiesel and how to convert, go to http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/ and you can see that we are trying to go GREEN!

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More recycling

I am so pleased to say that the recycling company came to take away our bag of stuff of recycles - full of cardboard, a chipped porcelain mug, some cleaned out tins, some glass jars, a couple of large plastic bottles and an assortment of paper from the unsolicited mail that we get in our letterbox.

I guess that phonecall worked and they are now more vigilant in their collection. We will wait and see how long they can keep this going.

Recycling IV

Yah - this bee is still in my bonnet about recycling!

Years ago, when I was a student in England - we recycled everything where possible. I guess this is where I caught the bug - plus the Malaysia kedekut genes in my blood.

The rubbish collection in our area was done once a week - on Mondays. For the whole week you would wonder what we did with all the rubbish we generated. Please note - I am English in my vocabulary. I use the work RUBBISH not GARBAGE - HH is American in his vocabulary!!

Our food waste would be "gobbled" by a food gobber in the kitchen. We would put in all the bones and other strange food waste that we could not send to the compost bin.

The compost bin would be the recipient of our vegetable and fruit peeling and the egg shells, ground coffee, tea leaves, grass and what have you that could go into the compost bin. This wonderful bin would then make wonderful humus for us to use in our garden after some time tumbling around in a warm area.

There was a glass bank down the road in the large carpark - we would sort all our glass into clear, green and brown piles. Then take a walk to the glass bank and have great fun chucking in the bottles and hear the glass shattering. Quite good for taking our your anger on someone! :D

Newspapers would go paper bank for recycling as well.

We didn't have to recycle milk cartons because we had milk delivery - we left the glass bottles outside on our doorstep and the milkman exchanges it with another bottle of milk.

All those TetraPak containers could be recycled, so we would rinse these out and put them in a pile for recycling as well. Same for the cardboard boxes. There wasn't too much styrofoam to recycle because it wasn't much in use.

In fact I have made it a policy not to cart rubbish home to throw if I can help it these days in Singapore - I will say NO to boxes for shoes if necessary, throw out the uncessary packaging material before I bring it home.

Every week, we would have something for recycling and I guess the bug stayed!

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Recycle III

I have this bee in my bonnet about recycling lately so I figured I might as well get the whole thing out of my system.

In our HDB estate, the recycle company comes around every two weeks on Mondays. So Monday 1 June was the designated recycle day.

In the two week lag time, I collect all our disposed plastics, glass, metals and cans, all sorts of paper, styrofoam and put these into our recycling bag The recycling bag also says that they will collect old clothes, toys, books and electrical items.

So I have put all these items aside for the recycling company in the so many years that they have been collecting such stuff in our estate. We would collect the newspapers for the recycling company instead of waiting for the karung guni man who comes around to BUY the papers from us.

Anyway, this is the thing that has made me really cross with our recycling company - they didn't come around on the designated day a couple of times and our bags were left along the corridor to wait for them. They did this in May when they came around only once.

So this time I was so cross with them that I called them on Tuesday to demand an explanation for their tardiness in following the schedule. The girl who answered the phone had the cheek to say that I put out the bag too late after the guy had come around. I informed me that the bag would be put out on Sunday night, just in case we forget on Monday morning before 8 am when we leave for the office.

Anyway, if the guy had come around he would have left another bag for the next collection. There was no bag!

Anyway after my feedback on collection, they came and collected the bag yesterday. I will be monitoring their activities and will keep you updated.

Great! Now that I've got this off my chest I will have my tiramisu dessert as a reward.

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Recycling II

I just became the latest victim of electronic waste through no fault of mine. I am well known for my "kedekut" ways or mad recycling efforts, so this is really disappointing for me.

My VOIP service provider announced that it would be terminating services from 31 May 2009. When I subscribed to their service, the company provided me with an ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) box so that I would be able to use a regular old fashioned analog phone over the internet connection.

Now that this service has been terminated, I am stuck with an ATA box that is in perfectly good working condition but cannot be used. So why is this considered electronic waste? THE BOX IS LOCKED by the service provider.

I called a couple of service providers to ask about their service and asked it I could reuse the box. I get the same answer - Sorry, madam. You are not able to reuse your ATA box, it is locked by the original service provider. You will have to buy a new one from us or pay us $xx for the use of software internet phone.

Sigh! What a bloody waste!

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Recycling

There has been talk a lot these days about being GREEN and recycling and not wasting stuff. So these are my experiences recently about being a greenie in Singapore.

Some time back last year, there was this huge campaign to use less plastic bags. When I first came back from England, people thought I was nutters because I would have my own bag to carry my shopping. Actually it was a large bag where I dumped my handbag and my umbrella and my newspapers. Whenever I bought something, I would decline the plastic bag and then dump my shopping into my large carrier and happily went along my way.

Then, to my horror I realised that I didn't have plastic bags for throwing out rubbish! I remember asking a girlfried for her extra plastic bags because I really didn't have any at home. What a laugh she had.

There was a lull in this recycle effort for some time althought there would be some occasional call for the people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Ah, but the Singaporeans have not met the great Malaysian recyclers!

In the office, I am known for my "kedekut" or stingy recycle ways. When we moved to this new office, I am so proud to say that everything has been recycled where possible with the exception of the partitions, airconditioners and lights - no need to say about the electrical wiring because all these items we didn't have in our old office. Boss did say something about it making the office look like really poor, but I told him that I am the great recycler and I don't really care about that rich image.

So, we recycled everything! The partitions that lost their connector posts would be sandwiched between tables. Tables that could not stand properly would have L posts drilled to the tops and legs for stability. Two printers with two non functioning duplex units had been canibalised into one good working duplex with the other parts given to the repair shop for spares. Files that had P&C information that was no longer needed were shredded and the bits sent for paper recycling. No need to say about the reverse side of the paper right? The file dividers were then put aside for reuse. Of course the files were put aside for future use. The totally rusty spring files with split or torn edges were also sent for recycling.

I use re-filled toners for all the printers in the office from a very reliable compatible toner refill company. BTW, I keep all these cartridges with the boxes and the packaging for him too! All pastic, paper, glass and metal will be sent to the recycle bins where possible.
In the office, we will use item until it is totally dead or cannot be used anymore. If the item can be salvaged or repaired, we will have it repaired to prolong its life for use until there is a point of no repair or return.

According to the building management, our office is one of the greatest recyclers!

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Dog-ma

I recently because god-mother (or kai-ma) to a cairn terrier puppy - hence the nickname DOG-MA :p

This cutie pie was bought by Danny and came home to live with him on 25 April 2009 and was named LUCKY after many tries at a name that Danny's mother could say. They speak Teochew at home. The names I suggested were Ahti (little brother) or Nokia (small kid) but these were rejected. I figured an easy name would be great, but Danny had other ideas and finally LUCKY because mother would say it.

Lucky came about in a strange way and I am glad. One day - out of the blue - Danny called and said that he was looking for a puppy. For years, Danny hankered after a doggie. He was very happy to see Junior. But the doggie idea was totally out of the question because his brother BT was dead set again a dog. Actually I think BT is afraid of dogs. So I was totally stumped with Danny called and said it was now OK to get a dog at home.

Danny wanted a golden retriever because he likes large dogs - Junior is his idea of an ideal dog. BUT Danny has no idea how much training effort we have put into Junior. However Danny was practical about his choice of dog - it had to be small to fit into the requirements of HDB rules and regulations, hypo-allergenic, shed free and I guess easy to manage. A long list of requirements.

Anyway, we set off for a friend's pet farm and there was this cutie Cairn Terrier and I fell in love with it - actually I lusted over it and wanted it. My dear friend at the pet farm said: No more dogs for you - too many at home! BTW we only have a goldie (Junior) who lives illegally in an HDB flat and a westie (Torrent) who is totally legal and 3 cats.

OK, so since I didn't get this Cairn Terrier - Danny took him home and I became to DOG-MA!

Doggie benefits and love with no responsibility of pee and poo - NOT A BAD DEAL I WOULD SAY!!

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Manja

What's this about some women who feel that they must dress provocatively and act all hapless and helpless to achieve their wants and desires??

There is this lady I know, no names mentioned, who is mutton dressed as lamb. She is already 40+ but she acts in this coltish, skittish, manja type manner. She is also always dressed in these skin tight, skin baring clothes that make her look cheap and sluttish.

To make things worse, she is short and insists on wearing extremely high heels to totter around precariously.

Her manner of speaking is also weird - she also tries to speak in this so-called provocative giggly manner where she tells you something then breaks out in giggles like it is so funny. She also has this way of dragging her words or draggy manner of articulating her speech, depending on how you look at it. There is only one way to describe it - manja manner.

So this would be a caricature of her in your mind - someone short who wears high heels, skin tight and skin baring clothes, and acts all manja around men. I guess you could say BETTY BOOP!

Someone in our office building mentioned to me that he thought she looked like a prostitute - his words, not mine. By her own admission, she said that there are times when she has been stopped going to her hotel room when she was overseas on business because the management thought her to be an undesireable guest.

Anyway, I guess you could say that she is eye candy for the men but I think she could have a better image of herself.

Enough said!

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Bimbo stuff on television

There are 2 shows making their rounds on Singapore TV at the moment - The S Factor and Singtel Grid Girls. Last year, I posted a blog on Singtel Grid Girls and stated that the show portrayed women in bad light - as bimbos or sarong party girls whose whole idea in life is to snag themselve some ang=moh guy.

This year, I will state the same the same thing - the sponsors who agreed to fund these shows should have better things to do with their money.

In "The S Factor" the girls on show seem totally brainless from the trailers that have been showing. One girl said something like she has had 7 serious boyfriends, then the screen freezes and shows the expressions of these 2 women interviewing her.

Excuse me - I am not very keen to hear about how many serious boyfriends, or what part of your body you like the best, or your opinion that is so "brainless or senseless"!

I don't think I am particularly bitchy or nasty, but these 2 shows really portray women in bad light.

The girls don't do much to portray themselves in good light - they speak badly with the typical Singaporean accent Singlish, they don't pronounce words properly, they don't think of their answers or they speak with some stupid fake accent that does them no credit.

Sigh! - please take such horrible shows off the air. I am sure the money is better spent on other shows that put women in better light.

I rest my case!