Was checking through my regular email when I realised that a friend of mind was advertising for his wife’s handmade jewellery for V day. This is quite fine, except that I once had a crush on him. Actually, this particular one is quite fuzzy, cos’ it came and went, so I am not even sure if it was a crush. Before I knew it, it was gone, and hence the validation process never got to take place.

Earlier in my uni days, I knew someone for almost 2 years, and before I knew it, he popped the question and I freaked out. Haha.. oh well, I guess I wasn’t really prepared for familyhood.

But you know? For a moment in life, I dreamt of getting married and having kids and a place to call my own; with a golden retriever, terrier or some toy dogs. It was a dream after all, and perhaps it will remain as one. Perhaps one day, I will be able to retreat peacefully into a nice town with someone I love, together with a stable job and cosy house. With the puppy running around the house or garden, of course, and no less.

That would be a dream come true.

STI Home > Digital Life > Internet > Story
Feb 6, 2007

ST: Time-share your Wi-Fi [PDF]
Wi-Fi sharing is a novel concept for users, but service providers are concerned about the possible loss of business, writes CHUA HIAN HOU
 
Think of it as a time-share scheme: buy a piece of property, rent it out, and get returns.

In this case, the investment is your home wireless broadband network.

Fon is a Wi-Fi-sharing community, and its members can ‘rent’ out their bandwidth. With a special wireless router that they buy from the Barcelona, Spain-based Fon, members can choose to rent out their wireless broadband network - or just as easily allow other community members to use it for free and, in turn, get free broadband when they themselves go overseas. (See How It Works)

To users, this can be cost heaven: Where they previously had no choice but to pay Internet service providers (ISPs) the monthly broadband bill, they can now recover some of the cost by re-selling their broadband to others.

Being part of the Fon network has allowed 32-year-old James Seng, who travels every other week for his work in ‘technology investment’, to save a bundle on Internet bills overseas, not to mention giving him access to Wi-Fi pretty much everywhere.

‘Like last month, when I visited Korea, I didn’t have to pay for Internet access at all, both in downtown Seoul and outside,’ he said.

While most commercially driven wireless hot spots, like Singapore’s Wireless@SG initiative, are set up in high-traffic hubs like shopping centres - to ensure there is sufficient usage to justify the investment - Fon takes a bottom-up approach. It brings together home Wi-Fi users - increase the customer base - so that there will be publicly accessible Wi-Fi networks even in less populated, and less commercially attractive, areas.

But many companies providing paid wireless access see Fon, which is backed by tech giants like Google and Skype, as an attack on their business. Worse, that it helps their customers become unauthorised resellers without the ISPs getting their rightful cut.

While Fon did not reply to Digital Life’s request for an interview by press time, its website has a list of countries and ISPs where it is approved, as well as those that explicitly ban it.

Singapore and the ISPs here are not on either list, but a StarHub spokesman said the company is in preliminary talks with Fon. SingTel spokesman Tricia Lee said the company was not in contact with Fon.

For now, this means that Fon users here are in violation of their ISP contract. StarHub customers, said the company’s spokesman Cassie Fong, ’should not resell or otherwise provide the service to third parties whether or not for profit’.

Fon users like Mr Seng, a well-known local blogger, have a different take on the issue. The SingTel customer admitted that he knew he ‘was not supposed to do this, but it’s not like I’m making money out of it’ since he does not charge other Fon users for use of his network, he said.

Fon does not have an office here, or even ship its router to Singapore. But there are more than 20 Fon users here already. Thanks to Mr Seng, actually: He got 20 sets of the Fon wireless router - gratis - from a friend working in the company’s Hong Kong office last November.

Fon usually sells the router needed to set up its network for US$30 ($46), but sometimes gives them out for free.

Mr Seng, in turn, gave them out free to users here who asked for them at his blog (http://james.seng.sg), including one set to Digital Life for review last week.

One user who got a set from Mr Seng is 22-year-old Nanyang Technological University undergraduate Angela Jean.

‘I thought it was a good way to allow others to use my network, yet not be liable for any problems caused by a malicious user,’ she said.

How Fon works

FON ALLOWS BROADBAND users to split their wireless network into two - an encrypted private one for their own use, and a public one accessible to registered Fon users.

To get started, users need to get one of the company’s custom-built wireless routers, register, and plug it into their broadband modem.

It also doubles as a wireless router - and at just $46, a very cheap one, too.

Once the equipment is plugged in and the Fon software installed, the owner will be able to choose whether to allow other Fon users to use his network for free, or to charge them three euros (S$6) per day to use it. Fon will track the number of paid logins and administer the collection process, keeping half the proceeds and sending the remainder to the user. For details, visit Fon’s site at http://en.fon.com

If you let others use it for free, you will gain reciprocal access to the networks of other Fon users around the world.

Heard from Meowy that the Iranian girl likes ginger - or at least appears to like them; and so I set off to get some ginger snaps. Since we are from the same lab, there might be a need to PR a little sometimes. :P 

So, I got some tidbits from M&S this morning while getting some Ginger Snaps for the Iranian girl to try and some for my mum. Along with that came some hints from Mum that she wanted some Royal Jelly.

Royal Jelly Cream Bath, that is.

Isn’t royal jelly meant to be eaten? Anyway, I only managed to find…. Royal Jelly with Honey, Cream Bath. And albeit some protests from my mum if she would attract ants when she sleeps, she gladly accepted it. At my expense. Oh well, it’s her birthday, isn’t it? Heh heh… Besides, bathing with this cream bath will give you sweet dreams at night. *crow flies past*

The service level at M&S Centrepoint was exemplary, but I am not sure if that attributed to the fact that I have an Ang Mo Kio name. There have been a lot of hung about how Caucasians always get better treatment. But I have to say that Caucasians are usually friendly, and they take the effect to greet you, be it if you are serving them or vice versa. I would think it’s reciprocal. Besides, when I was overseas, I picked up the habit of greeting the server (the person serving you), and this almost always guarantees you better service. Singaporeans should really try it.

But of course, there would be people who will insist that they are the customers and they shouldn’t have to greet first. But I would say “Mee Siam Mai Ham”, they should at least try to smile. It’s no wonder that we have a Smile2006 campaign.

Was on my way to Mac’s when I forgot which Ezlink card I had used. Ended up using the wrong card and losing out on the 25 cents rebate. Every cent counts when you are not working earning. Not to mention the small sized ice lemon tea that costs $1.95 at Macs - something that will probably cost about 50 cents lesser at school.

Identified a fellow Singapore Girl on the train today - the colours of the standard red on her toenails was a tell-tale sign. A short glimpse of her make up confirmed her identity. And the mention of 24 days left of leave + her conversation of not wanting to waste her one day leave sort of confirms everything.

Ok, I was evesdropping - I am not sure if that constitutes conversation mooching, but it was unintentional. Trust me. Not everyone speaks discretely, especially if they have to compete with the noise from the rails of the MRT.

I could have still been a Singapore Girl, but given the freak accident that happened to me last year, I don’t that that is possible - ever. Oh well, at least that permanently puts me onto another path of destruction. A path where, afters years after years after years of studies, would put me on par with a Bachelor’s degree holder on the salary scale - that’s very comforting to know.

However, I did sometimes wonder how life would have been like should I have continued. Perhaps I would have seen the world by now. Perhaps I would have married a nice guy and settled down in some exotic country. Perhaps I would have been so badly bullied by the crew that I would never want to fly again. Perhaps… there’s just too many ‘if’s.

There was also a recent discussion if they should retire the 35-year-old icon and mount on something else closer to the times. My personal opinion is that the move would be an enterprise suicide. The subservant Singapore Girl is already widely recognised and it would definitely be a shame to retire her. If you look around, there’s almost nothing or no one as distinct as the Singapore Girl in the airlines industry.

Besides, I still sometimes wished that I was there. But now… it’ll just remain as a dream