Saw this very interesting clip that talks about the transit system in Los Angeles, how to increase ridership for public transport, etc. One point it brought up is how to have fixed bus stops but flexible bus routes. I work in the Alexandra area and everyday I take a MRT ride to HarbourFront, then transferring to a short bus ride. If you happen to work in that area, I need …

今天午飯後心血來潮想喝檸檬茶, 茶水攤的一位來自中國的助手來招呼. 我: 我要一杯檸檬茶 助手: 要後面的? 同事: 什麼後面? 我還前面呀! 原來助手是問是不是要"home-made "的.

Sometimes I can't help feeling that some local companies like to "inflate" their employees' rank. Is that one way to make them happy and keep them in the company? Take for example, a newbie with no prior industry experience, after sticking with the company for 1-2 years, he becomes a senior engineer. In some cases, 3 years with the company and he becomes principal engineer. …

An ex-colleague was saying the company rewarded him for not taking a single MC (medical certificate) for half a year. Something is amiss here. There are reasons why employees take MC. It could be genuine ill-health, could be bacteria-filled workplace, could be psychologically harmful working environment, could be insane workload, etc etc. Rather than rewarding those who …

I have a weak spot for cute stuff, and that was part of what led me to try out Sushi Express (争鲜回转寿司) from Taiwan, at CityLink Mall. Let me be upfront. I am no food blogger, but I do know …

The GF was telling me how convenient the Octopus card in Hong Kong is, cos you don't need to tap out when alighting from bus. But I told her that is because you pay the full trip's fare regardless of where you are alighting (or, where you are boarding). It will be pretty unwise if you board a cross-harbour route just to get to a few stops later. That kind of encourages people …

The other night I was at this engineering networking session. I had a chat with this chap who used to work in a steel plant in this particular developing country. He shared that in the manufacturing process, carbon monoxide is a by-product which normally is collected and sold to other industries. But somehow, some carbon monoxide still would leak out into the manufacturing …

Hong Kong recently passed the Minimum Wage Ordinance, guaranteeing workers with the Statutory Minimum Wage rate of HK$28 per hour. It stirred up quite a bit in the society and I happened to be in Hong Kong during the Labour Day period to observe a little. The move towards minimum wage started with the good intention of protecting the working class of the society. But things …

I have this habit of observing people's behaviour at MRT stations. Like how they don't queue up, how they rush into the train before people can alight, how they don't move in, how they blast music, whether they offer their seats, etc. I thought these are uniquely Singapore, but during my recent trip to China and Hong Kong, I realize some of these could be universal. I got …

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. On 26 Apr 1986, what started off as an experiment resulted in one of the worst nuclear incidents in human history. On this occasion, Spot Image, a satellite imagery company, has published a flipbook on the satellite images over Chernobyl. With the recent Fukushima nuclear incident, people are comparing it …