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My boss is going back to his hometown at London this week. He brought LOTS of used stuffs that he would have otherwise discard to office, and gave it away to whoever who wanted them.

Some other colleagues took Microsoft SideWinder game controllers, some PC games, a very old Compaq (before hp took over) iPAQ, a Logitech wireless mouse, and an O2 XDA Mini. Surprisingly, no one seemed to want the Pentax Optio S4 digital camera after some time, so I asked for it. For a year 2003 digital camera, it is surprisingly very small and light, packing 4MP sensor in the process.

I have been taking pictures using this “new” camera, and the quality is nothing to write home about.

Taken on my way to The Cathay,  this image was taken using ISO 100, and surprisingly very grainy and noisy.

Again taken using ISO 100, the noise in this picture is much less noticeable.

Curious on how different the result of a 5-year-old digital camera compared to a camera from the latest phone model, I took the the following pictures:

This one taken using 4 megapixels Pentax Optio S4.

And this one is taken using 3.2 megapixels Nokia E90.

No doubt, camera phones have come along way in the last many years. The results are clear. Results from camera phones are much clearer, its colors more vibrant, and it captured more details compared to a dedicated digital camera from five years ago.

Although the quality is not as good as I expected (well, frankly I didn’t expect anything), you can’t beat the price of $0 (zero).

 
There are many ways to save on international calls. The easiest way is of course to pick up your mobile phone and call 001-country code-phone number. But that is suicide on your phone expenses to say the least. The most common way for people I know in Singapore to call back home is to buy calling cards, those $10-value that are sold at $8, from whatever provider there are in Singapore. They are much much cheaper, some going as low as 5¢ per minute for a reasonable quality. I think you can get 2-3¢ per minute, but the sound quality will be bad, there will probably be echo and a certain noticeable delay.

One thing I hate about calling cards are I have to type in a lengthy 20-digit code every time I want to call back home, not to mention you’ll have another set of 20-digit code once you’ve gotten a new calling card. I have been using FutureTel for many years, simply because they offer a post-paid scheme for the same price as their calling cards, which stands at 8.33¢ per minute to Jakarta land line phones. The quality has been very good thus far, and I only need to enter a six-digit PIN that doesn’t change every time I call.

Lately, I have been trying out Skype to call back home, simply because it’s cheaper, as well as I can sit in front of my computer, multi-tasking while calling back home. As the screen shot above shows, I tend to call home for about an hour every time, about once every one or two weeks, and that’s a lot of time spent to hold a phone to my ear. Skype’s rate for calling Jakarta land line phones are about 7¢ per minute, depends on how much your credit card bank charges you for EUR (or USD) to SGD conversion rate. The sound quality are as good as what I get with FutureTel, with the added bonus of having a slightly cheaper rate,  being able to multi-task, and to use my PC headset (which means I don’t need to hold a phone to my ear for an hour)

Anyone else here uses Skype to call back home?

Q: How many people it took to change a light bulb?
A: One Electrical Engineer, One Material Engineer, One Computer Engineer, and One Business Developer. *haiz*

Today I went to the bank, and saw that I could exchange for the new $20 bank note, I did. They only allow two notes per customer though. Here they are, the front, and the back.
The face of the new SGD $20 bank note

And its back

When a well-known web site writes good things about the company you work for, it really helps to boost morale. It feels great when other people see so high of the company you’re in, like “It is not Avanade’s undoubted technological expertise which fascinates me, its the organisations ability to deliver outstanding profitability to its shareholders and world-class delivery capability to its customers.“.

Read more on Avanade Success Story.

There are two kinds of persons in this world: The first one, no matter challenged by how many problems, will say “There will be a way out“. The second, even when shown a way out of problems, will say “There will be other problems there too“.

Which one are you?