A Data Dictionary for GE 2015

Hi,

Again, I shall start off with a disclaimer. My personal profile is here, and i am no professional politician.
I do not support any party, and neither do I want to take sides in Singapore Political landscape(at least not in this blog post).
But what i do want to do, is to consolidate some of the more interesting and commonly used words in politics, and yet sometimes, we don't understand them.

So here goes:

Incumbent
Current Office Holders. Most of the incumbents are from PAP, and some part are WP.
Not all words with 'cum' in it are bad.

The Lighning Party
People Action Party (PAP)

The Hammer Party
Worker Party(WP)

The Ice cream logo Party

SingFirst Party. No shit, people thinks that their logo resemble Walls Ice Cream.

RP
Reform Party, not to be confused with Republic Polytechnic.


AHPETC
Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council. The Town council that combines all of WP controlled Constituency.

GRC
Group Representative Constituency. A team of people you would require to choose, which must consist of at least one minority race. You would be required to vote the whole team in, even though only one of them will be serving your region.

SMC
Single Member Constituency. One person you would require to vote for to represent you in the parliament.

Minority Race/Ethnics 
Anybody who is non-chinese, in the case of Singapore.

Hara-kiri
To commit suicide when you do something wrong or dishonorable. usually only done by samurais.
Used in one parliament speech to ask people to step down after their wrongdoings.

Co-Driver
A person who is sitting beside the driver, to help the driver and "slap him awake" if the driver falls asleep.
Used in 2011, to call for more oppositions to be in the parliament to keep the Incumbent on their toes.

Mandate
Has nothing to do with man nor dates(English is a profound langauge).
To give someone the vote of confidence.
In this case, to ask for mandate is to ask for vote of confidence to the team.

Accountability
This is a pretty big word. It is to be responsible for something. Similar to accountable.

Loony Fringe
Used to describe a group of Activists for doing crazy stuffs. No names shall be named.

Suicide Squad 
In the context of this election, it would mean a team of people with no chance of winning, and yet contesting for the sake of participation points, which could possibly cost them their $15k election deposit.

Anchor Minister/Man/veteran
A term used to describe the most influential person, the vote magnet and the team leader of the GRC. If it is an incumbent team, it is usually a current Cabinet Minister, hence the term Anchor Minister.

Gerrymandering
Manipulation of boundaries of the constituency to one's favour.

Manifesto
A published set of declaration, motives or views of a person or a party.

Dangling Carrots
Sorry guys, but no physical carrots are involved.(ENGLISH)
To provide benefits to attract you to support or vote for them.

Gutter Journalism
To do put it bluntly, it just meant shit journalism; journalism to sensationalized,instead of educate.
Reporting of half truths or rumours are considered gutter journalism because journalism is supposed to be "fair and unbiased and truthful"

 Nomads
A group of people with no place they call home. An analogy to describe opportunists who would call any place their "home", so long there are benefits.

Orh Luak
Oyster Omelette. Seriously, I dont know how can this even be politicized.

FMSS
FM solutions and services. The people who are managing AHPETC.

Paper General
A term to describe Army General that have never gone to war.

MSM
Mainstream Media, pointing to state controlled media, and in Singapore's case, SPH and MediaCorp.

Sedition
This one big word that is kinda hard to explain.
To create a commotion of discontent against someone. Machiam like defame a person.

Grassroots leaders
Nothing to do with grass nor roots(ENGLISH AGAIN)
A person who is on the ground with the people to understand the problems faced and then help to do something about it.

IB
Internet Brigade. A team of keyboard warriors whose job is to discredit opponents.They usually act as if they are a supporter who was disappointed of the party they support, and want to support alternatives. Posts like (I used to support party A, but they disappointed me, and now I will support party B) are usually ASSUMED to be written by IB.

Hansard
Hansard is the traditional name of the transcripts of Parliamentary Debates.
This word sibei chim....


Alright,
That is all for now!

A summary for the risk adverse

Disclaimer:
Personal views are being portrayed in this posts.It might not be the absolute fact, and I have no professional background in this field.

This is my personal analysis and it is only valid at the time of writing. When the market have other newer and better products coming out, others might be better.
Do your own due diligence.
To know more about my background, you can take a look here.

Hi,

With the release of Singapore Saving Bonds coming this Oct 2015(able to start bidding at Sept 2015), banks have been raising its Fixed Deposit interest rates. They come in the form of SG50 promotions, free $$ for every $x amount deposited etc.

So here are my short analysis on where should the risk adverse (AKA non risk takers) put their money. Of course, this isnt a perfect guide as I have not included any financial products or policies in my comparison, so Financial consultants and bankers, dont flame me.

The Banks Fixed Deposit
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/banks-here-offering-higher-fixed-deposit-rates#xtor=CS1-10


Interest rates for banks are indeed going upwards, with some kopitiam uncles and facebook lurkers saying that it might even hit 2% later this year with all the #SG50 ending hype and pressure for more fresh funds for the New Year and CNY. 

One of the notably better ones among all these is the CIMB why wait promotion which will end on 30th Sept. The amount of 1.9% looked sexy, but that is a big UP TO. Which mean, you need to first have a shitload of cash to be locked down for a year, to get such high interest rates.

The Pros:

1. It is offering very good rates now, as compared to previous times. It is fairly low risk even if you put in Foreign Banks like CIMB. These banks still have pretty good ratings, and soon more banks would follow suit in order to gain customers.
2. Definitely better than keeping those money under your bed. 

The Cons:

1. Most requires a minimum of $30k to get such sexy rates. 
2. A lockdown of 1 year(or longer), meaning if you take out within a year, there goes your interest.

The Special Savings Account

With products like OCBC 360 and UOB one giving very good interest rates(up to 3.33%), surely keeping money in the bank is better right?
I have a blogpost regarding this 2 here.




The Pro:

• A seemingly higher interest than all those FD and SSB. Full flexibility with your cash as interests are counted and paid out on a monthly basis.

The Con:

1. Criterias to meet. Miss them and there goes your interest. 
2. No stability in terms and conditions. The recent change in OCBC 360 criteria tells you that they can change the criteria or scrap the program totally any time they like. As such, in the long run, you might lose your interest. 
3. Capped at $50k SGD, which means your interest earnings are very limited. 

Singapore Savings Bond

I will not say that I am very proficient in this bond, as this is a fairly new thing for me as it seemed difficult to understand. But from all useful articles, one of them from MAS themselves, did says that this bond is allows you to get interests depending on how long you put your money there, up to a max of 10 years.

The Pro:

1. Risks free- the only risk is SG govt going down, which might happen if election goes haywire or neighbouring region goes into war and such, which would also affect the above 2.
2. Allows small investors to start saving; starts at $500 per allocation.
3. Able to draw out any time you like(on a monthly basis), and interest will be paid in accordance to how long you have left your money in the bond, pegged to SGS rates.

The Cons:

1. $2 admin charge per bid, and you might not get the allocation you want. Hence to reach a $100k portfolio, which is the cap, would cost you a few $2. 
2. Interest rate will only be good if you left your money there for the full 10 years. If you withdraw it prematurely, the interest rates might still be lower than putting FD.
3. Capped at $100k

I have also read that you can put your extra cash into CPF via SA and the rates are godly. However, to my understanding, any money into CPF would mean it would be locked until you can use it when you retire.

As I am unsure of this CPF scheme, it will not be added into this discussion.


Thank you and hope this helps you understand something about the "plans" available for people who prefer low risk portfolios.

Regards
Benjamin Chai

Spring MVC command function

Hi,

I spent whole day being stucked at a bug that wasnt really a bug, but is actually born out of my weak understanding of Spring MVC.

Follow the link here: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/spring/spring_mvc_form_handling_example.htm
http://crunchify.com/simplest-spring-mvc-hello-world-example-tutorial-spring-model-view-controller-tips/


@RequestMapping
It is usually used to write the extended link address.
for eg, @RequestMapping("/welcome") would take care of all links in the server with localhost:8080/welcome/* to localhost:8080/welcome.html

However, in my situation where i am using a portal server,i actually use a
@RequestMapping("VIEW")
and extract the extended link address from

    protected HttpServletRequest getOriginalServletRequest(

   PortletRequest request) {

HttpServletRequest httpServletRequest = PortalUtil

.getHttpServletRequest(request);

HttpServletRequest originalServletRequest = PortalUtil

.getOriginalServletRequest(httpServletRequest);

return originalServletRequest;

    }

then, getParameter from the HttpServletRequest.

For eg, /non360?actionType=Amend
i will getParameter(actionType), which is Amend!


The next issue is the "command" object.
if you are using form, Spring MVC will only detect the "command" object, and ignore the rest.

My little Chiwawa

Hi,

So my girlfriend and i have been together for almost 5months as of date of post.
And i realised she really loved posts that i wrote about her.

So apart from those adventures we had went through together that I have wrote about,
there are actually even more happenings.

It is not in sequence.

13th May is a special day. It is the first day of work for that stupid girl, after a long hiatus! I was both excited and worried on that day, i remember. I am excited that she is finally having something to do so that she wont suck all of my energies. It would also mean we can meet elsewhere that isnt Pioneer!

But just 2 days after, on 15th May, a reckless driver almost made us game over. Luckily we were protected by gods, who placed a lamp post at the area that matters the most, saving us from an accident.

Temple visits is also something we enjoy. Although im not a very pious person, visiting temples have became a norm. This is also part of the fun dating things we did together. By praying for luck together, we explored various different temples together and hope all gods will protect us when we require it.

We went Chingay 2015 too. That was nothing memorable, but its still a big event that we attended together.

We went Tulipmania together too! That was a 2nd try then we successfully went to the place. The first time we went, the queue was tooooo long. The 2nd time we went was because we were damn early. We first went for Yoga by the Bay. I didnt expect her to wake up. But she did. End up have to go see her stretch like a sea lion -.-
But after that, we went to the 2 domes, which is good. The Tulipmania is actually awesome! Apart from those pretty flowers, they have the theme of Disney princesses and have awesome disney music playing in the background.

I used to dread the weekend, where i stay at home to envy others going out and having fun.
Now i cant wait for the weekends to come, where another exciting story unfolds.

Regards
Benjamin Chai

OCBC 360 Account VS UOB One Account

Disclaimer:
Personal views are being portrayed in this posts.
It might not be the absolute fact, and I have no professional background in this field.
To know more about my background, you can take a look here.


Hi,

I have recently heard about a new Banking Service that is as good, if not, better than the OCBC 360 account. It is known as UOB One. There are already some articles, like those from Investment Moats

The new OCBC 360 account boasts it "just got better". Personally, it just got more confusing and harder to hit the higher interest tiers.
To read its original source, it can be found here.

So what does this mean?

1. Credit your salary of at least $2k SGD through GIRO
Simple enough. Ask your company to pay you through GIRO to your OCBC account. But if your company doesn't use the GIRO system? No more 1.2% per annum!

2. Pay 3 bills online or through GIRO
This is quite easily done with all those bills hanging around. However, it was a downgrade from the previous system(1% previously to 0.5%)
You can pay your credit cards bills with this account and it counts as 1 bill. This will be helpful since 1 credit card is considered as 1 bill. So if you use all 3 OCBC credit cards, you can easily hit this criteria.
For myself, I would try to use 3 different cards just to get this, since i credit my phone bills to one of my cards for points and rebates.

3. Spend at least $500 on OCBC Credit Cards
This is something better than before if I intepretely correctly. Previously, I remembered it as $400 on 1 card. Now, it says $500 on OCBC Credit Cards and its FAQ states:

"You just need to spend a minimum of S$500 across your OCBC Credit Cards (examples of eligible cards are 365, Titanium, Platinum, FRANK, Robinsons, Plus! and Best Denki)."

This gives you flexibility to choose your favorite card to make dealings, instead of trying to clock the amount on one card.

BUT.
Do note that some cards requires a minimum amount to get the rebates, like you requires 600sgd spendings on OCBC 365 cards to be entitled 3% weekday dining rebates and 6% weekend dining rebates.

4. Insure or Invest to get 1% bonus for 12months
NOT all insurance or investment plans gives you this 1%. Hence this 1% is pretty hard to achieve. You can understand more from its FAQ

5. Increment your balance from previous balance
While all other clauses pays until $60k, this clauses pays until 1million SGD.
It counts your monthly average and compares it to your previous month average. The amount differences will then be given 1% per annum.
So to see substantial amount of money from this 1% monthly, the increment in difference must then be quite big.

6. It is capped at 60k.

Unlike OCBC 360 with seemingly achievable clauses, UOB One is a lot more simpler.

1. Spend on UOB One card or UOB Direct Visa Debit Card
2. Credit a minimum of $2k pay via GIRO OR perform 3 GIRO debit transaction
The point to note is that GIRO transaction is not online transaction.

And this would mean that, if you credit your pay to your bank account, but do not meet the $500 spending limit, you do not get any interest(apart from the 0.05%)

This table would tell you how much interest you would get.
Read it carefully.
First 10k is 1.5% (0 to 10k)
Next 20k is 2.00% (10001 to 30k)
Next 20k is 3.33% (30001 to 50k)
Capped at 50k.

First 10k will get you 1.5% which is 150sgd.
Next 20k will get you 2% which is 400sgd.
Final 20k will get u 3.33% which is 666sgd.
It is capped at 50k for this account.


So which one is better?
Considering OCBC 360 to be able to fulfill the salary, credit card and 3 bills components, you would be awarded with only 2.25%(1.2% from salary, 0.5 each from CC and bills, and 0.05 basic)

Calculation 1
Since it is capped at 60k for OCBC, we will calculate to 60k.
2.25% *60k would be 1350SGD.

As for UOB One would be
150+400+666+50 = 1266.

Calculation 2
if we were to calculate to only 50k...
OCBC would be:
2.25% of 50k would be 1125

As for UOB One..
150+400+666 = 1216!

Now, this is a substantial difference!

To compare in specific cases:
If you have less than 30k in your bank, OCBC 360 would seemed to pay you better interest because the 2.25% is consistent, unlike UOB One being tiered.

Also, UOB One accounts only allows the usage of UOB One card, which is a pretty awesome card. But because of that, there is a severe lack of flexibility, unlike OCBC 360.

However, the key thing about UOB One is simplicity. It is easy to understand and achieve, unlike OCBC 360, there are 3 clauses to cater for and achieve.



In conclusion,
If my calculation is to be trusted, UOB one is for people with above 30k but below 50k, or does not have 3 bills to pay.
Otherwise, IMO, OCBC 360 is still the best for general savings account!

Regards
Benjamin Chai

Is that phone worth it?

Disclaimer
These are personal views of the writer. They do not consist of any scientific studies or research.
To know more about the write, please check out his profile here.


Hi,

Nowadays there are several smartphone options, and the option is particularly aplenty if you happen to choose Android over Apple.

So let me walk through a personal thought about if the phone is worth it or not.

Brand Recognition
A smartphone is no longer just a device to make call and send messages. It help us through awkward moments, it allows us to entertain ourselves while commuting and most important of all, it help us stay connected(although disconnected in the real world)

So some people would buy a device because it is a luxury brand and is a fashion statement. So after they spent like over 1k on their phones, they would spend a lot more to wrap them up, and protect them from any injuries.
End up, the phone design doesnt really matter since those casings would have already removed the swag factor of the phone design.


Ease of accessories
Remember the good time when Nokia is king and you can practically borrow a Nokia charger anywhere? Thanks to uniform standards, apart from Apple, all Android devices are using the same charging and data port.

But that can not be said the same for screen protectors and phone cases.
A Samsung and Apple flagship would definitely have no issue in finding accessories.

But looking at Asus Zenfone 5, Samsung lower end models, XiaoMi models, pretty, cheap and nice casings are actually rarer to find.

Hence if you are someone who likes to change accessories, flagship phones are still better for you.

Technology
After all, a phone is only useful when you can make a call, send a message, be connected to the internet and take photos right?

Though almost all smartphone have these functionalities, we tend to look even deeper into the specs.
But what does those specs mean? Or rather, does it mean anything to you??

Let's start with some basic profiling:
- what is your general phone usage be?
- how long are you not near a charging station typically?
- are you really keen in photography?


I think after carrying a smartphone for almost 5years, the functions i use most on my phone is still to call, sms, social media and take some photos.

You wont require high end phones to do these, but these high end phones just does it better, like having epicly powerful cameras, offering of4gb rams when no software could utilise it for now, or even a better battery life.

Spending the extra budget on that phone with epic camera could have easily let you buy a decent compact camera.

Battery life is also a comparison. The bigger the phone, the better the battery life!

Buying a lot of extra storage space for future proofing is also a wrong move!
It is actually good to backup your phone datas frequently.
This will unclog your phone and makes performance better
So when you buy a phone, do ask yourself if you would use these functions that you are going to pay extra for.



Resale Price
The reason why Apple seemed to be better is because there is a higher resale value in an Iphone compared to other flagship models from many different brand.
Hence, in a typical case, the amount of depreciation would definitely be higher in an Android Flagship compared to Iphone.

This might also be because they are also generally cheaper than iphones.

So then, ask yourself if a depreciation of 1dollar is work using a high end phone.


In conclusion, buy what you need, instead of buy what you want and avoid future proofing can save a lot of money.

Regards
Benjamin Chai

My views on Zenfone2

Disclaimer:
I do not own a Zenfone 2 of any models. These opinions and suggestions are formed by having a short 10 minutes hands on session in Challenger(not all variation, more to be explained in post), as well as some experience in using a Zenfone 5.
You may know more about my background from here.

Hi,

Zenfone 2 have promised a lot of hype for being the monster performance phone.

This claim is true for some of its higher models, but definitely not all models of the zenfone 2.

For that matter, i really do hope Asus name each and every model of their phones with different specs with different name. If they are of the same series, they can do it like Apple, with lower end phones being call iphone 5C, bigger screen iphone 6 plus, normal screen iphone 6, and enhanced versions called iphone 5s.

The cheaper zenfone 2(ZE500CL) is as good as their older siblings, with 2 gb of rams and 16gb of memory. Being priced at $249 makes it a good deal. But bear in mind that the camera is pretty trashy in my opinion. The phone would definitely suit normal usage, and the smaller screen size would mean easier to hold onto the phone if you have a smaller hand.

The ZE550ML is a pretty decent phone with good camera. Having played the camera in a well lit indoor shopping center, the camera is performing significantly better than its cheaper sibling. The pricing of $299 is the same as my Zenfone 5 16gb/2gb variant.

The monster performer promises 4gb of ram and costs $429 at 32GB. In my opinion, 4gb is grossly overkill. Will there be gaming apps that fully pushes such limits? If there is, then such apps would be a problem to cheaper phone variant and thereby flop in the apps store, as many phones would not be able to support it. Future proofing also doesnt make sense as the price difference is pretty huge.
But the cost difference is due to the memory as well and that is true.

While all zenfone allows external memories, and it might seemed stupid to pay a good 50sgd more for memory when SD cards are so much cheaper, there is a good reason behind it.
According to this article, SD card failure will cause the performance of the phone to suffer. And there are several apps that does not allow the phone to store data on external storage. Hence, having more internal storage does make sense if performance matters a lot to you, while external storage can be purely for storing your videos and photos.
So the justification of the additional storage would have to be decided by your usage pattern.

My conclusion is, skip the monster phone, get the mid range, and i think you would be happy about the phone. OF course i would not be a fair judge until i have tried both phones and used it for a short period of time, but thats my opinion of the zenfone 2 series.

Regards
Benjamin Chai