I recently visited the NUS Bukit Timah Campus. I was there for a whole day meeting. As I walked around in between breaks, I saw the beautiful internal courtyard. This one in the photo is what they call the Upper Quadrangle. It was a picture like it was somewhere else other than in Singapore. Big open space, surrounded by oldish buildings, with absolutely nothing else visible on the skyline. There aren’t many tall buildings in that area, so that isn’t anything else to see in the distant from where I stood.

The view from where I stood was very unlike that of what you’d expect to see in Singapore. As it was also NUS vacation time, there was hardly anyone else around on the campus. At 10am in the morning, everything was practically still. It must be quite nice to be working there. It’s near town, MRT is not too far away, so it is quite conveniently located.

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I just attended a course on communication skills last week. I was hoping to pick up some tips on making conversation, in order to better network with other people. People networking is an important part of work, especially when you move up whichever corporate ladder it is that you’re climbing. This is one of those soft skills that one has to polish up in order to work effectively.

The course has an interesting title, Colours of Conversation, and it was run by Rebecca Low, a broadcaster for 25 years since the era of RTS. I can barely remember RTS. The course was kept very easy-going. I think everyone likes courses that are relaxing, because many people attend courses to escape the stress of their typical work day. Personally, I felt the pace was a little too slow. I don’t think it’s just because I’m the get-to-the-facts do-away-with-the-small-talk kind of person.

I find increasingly that many of these self-enrichment courses I attend are basically a large part of hashing up the obvious and the common sense things. It’s the kind of things that, if you think about it hard enough, you should already have known but for whatever reason you have not paid attention to, or failed to realize its significance. Maybe that’s because I’ve attended enough courses, seen and heard enough, that there is only so few earth-shattering revelations left to know about. Nevertheless, I still enjoy learning from these courses, because I need to be reminded about the obvious and the common sense things every so often.

But there was something interesting in this course. Rebecca brought along a video camera to shoot us making a simple presentation and later making conversation in a group. I’ve never really seen myself on “TV” (so to speak), and it was something I found very useful to see a video that focused on how we conversed. We’re seeing how others see us. I think, even without any input from Rebecca, we could at least pick up some things on our own that we needed to improve or fix. With professional input, as well as some input from peers, we learn a few more things.

Among other things, we saw quite a bit of video about how current US President Barack Obama was a good speaker that captivated the hearts and souls of so many people, both in and out of the US. Personally, I feel that typically politicians have to be good communicators, but their kind of communications might not be the same sort that we need or can practise in our lives. Is it the same sort of thing that captures the winning vote of millions of countrymen that will also work in making a sales presentation? Well, alright, there are perhaps some basic qualities that are the same.

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In a report from WFTV, a man in Daytona Beach, Florida, hit the jackpot of about US$166 million, or so the slot machine says, but was told he will not get a single cent because the machine had probably malfunctioned. It’s such an anti-climax. I imagine the man will probably sue the casino for some money, even if not for the entire US$166 million.

It seems so convenient to blame on malfunction when someone hits the jackpot. The casino apparently explained that it had to be a malfunction because the top prize paid by that particular slot machine was US$99000, but they wouldn’t even pay out that amount.

With the Integrated Resorts opening up soon in Singapore, we will hear about many winning stories of our own. I’m wondering how malfunctions would be managed in Singapore.

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Here’s what a merchant did with his EZ-Link payment terminal: Shelved neatly inside a glass display. Nice to look at, but not to be used. I’m guessing this merchant doesn’t want to use it at all.

There are certainly some benefits of electronic payment systems, but clearly they are not for everyone. I imagine that this EZ-Link system was provided free-of-charge to this merchant, so there are no overheads and per-transaction costs involved, but yet he’s reluctant to use it.

I think some parties are a bit too aggressive about deployment of these cash-equivalent payment systems. EZ-Link boasts 5000 merchants, twice that of NETS. I suppose EZ-Link’s numbers include these merchants who are given the terminals but who don’t use them. Perhaps their numbers are also made up by all the SBS Transit and SMRT buses.

There are places suitable for these electronic payment modes, but they aren’t suitable for all kinds of merchants out there.

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I’ve been joking about this beer garden in NUS for some time, even before construction actually started. After many months of waiting, this timber deck overlooking the valley behind Kent Ridge was finally ready. When it was officially completed… surprise, surprise, a variety of beer was served in its opening event.

It really has quite a nice view of the trees on the slope of Kent Ridge. But knowing the weather in Singapore, and the general dislike of the hot humid outdoors of most Singaporeans, it won’t be surprising that there will be little use of this beer garden. At least not in the day anyway.

I was surprised that our students were so shy to come out for this event. They had to be encouraged to join the festivities. Perhaps it’s the heat. Free food and free beer aren’t enough attractions.

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We had a treat today – a guest lecture by Jack Neo and Boris Boo. The guest lecture was for a course in Digital Media Production. The main star was Jack Neo, of course, and although I wasn’t expecting to hear anything relevant to my work, or even directly relevant to the course, it was nevertheless an opportunity to meet and hear from a local celebrity and producer/directory of several successful movie productions.

Jack Neo is really funny in person, not just on TV or in the movies. I think as a comedian, he is naturally able to speak and engage his audience very well. Today, he primarily spoke about, and was asked about, his movie making experience, a little about the various technical and creative aspects of it, the roles of people involved in movie making, economics, investment, censorship, script writing, etc.

I get the sense that movie making works quite differently for Jack Neo than it does in Hollywood. In Hollywood, you start with a script. You find a producer/director. You find a cast to fill the character roles in the script. But with Jack Neo, he already works closely with some actors (e.g. Mark Lee, Henry) and script writers (Boris Boo). Instead of simply different people with different lives coming together with a business relationship, Jack Neo’s gang have some chemistry to work together. Hence, scripts are mutated along the way, some lines are simply spur-of-the-moment things added by the actors. It all makes for a good movie with a local flavour that we’re all familiar with.

We don’t have much of a movie industry in Singapore. Movie production is expensive, but the market here is not big enough.  It’s even more difficult to compete on the international stage. It’s a good thing that Jack Neo’s company has been able to produce a series of local flavour movies.

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If SingTel plays their cards right, I think they’re going to win lots of customers. Their win of the English Premier League broadcast rights in Singapore last week surprised many people. The immediate reaction of most people was one of worry of how much it would cost them to watch soccer in the coming years. It costs quite a lot to watch soccer with StarHub. Will they have to pay just as much with SingTel? Or perhaps more, considering that SingTel must have put in a very high bid to win the rights, and would thus naturally have to recoup their investments? Many people were concerned that the telco competition could spell trouble for consumers.

Well, SingTel has announced their prices, and it seems they’re playing fair. Their prices are reasonable. You just need to pay to watch EPL if that’s all you want, and it will cost just $24.61 (inclusive of GST). No need to sign up any basic tier. You will have to get (and pay) for a phone line though.

A couple of years ago, it would be taken for granted that every household would have a SingTel phone line anyway. But nowadays, that is no longer the case. Some households either have no fixed phone lines at all, or they’ve gone to StarHub’s Digital Voice. So it will cost a nominal one-time cost to prep up your home for MioTV (that’s SingTel’s pay TV service), not unlike the setup, activation and installation charges for StarHub cable TV, as well as a monthly subscription for the phone line, which is much less than the basic tier of channels for StarHub’s cable TV.

It sounds like SingTel fixed phone lines are going to have a comeback, at least for people who have to have MioTV.

I’m sure the fixed phone line business doesn’t turn over a big profit. But look at how StarHub has been cleverly bundling cable TV, fixed/mobile broadband, and fixed/mobile phone services. SingTel has been loosing ground. Most people don’t really care about MioTV. For fixed broadband and mobile phone services, most people just go to wherever the best deal is. StarHub has the upper hand of bundling with cable TV, as their cable TV does offer good programmes. I imagine SingTel will use their EPL win to their advantage to win over not just soccer fans, but also mobile phone and fixed broadband users.

So with SingTel and StarHub offering somewhat equivalent range of services, I’m sure we’ll see competition heating up. This ought to be good for consumers.

M1 will be in trouble.

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It’s an interesting thought. What if one day, you select a university education by comparing prices, facilities, location, bundled freebies, guarantees, loan schemes, and reviews? What if one day, your university education is purchased just like you purchase other expensive consumer product or service? Like a car, or a 1 year body slimming package? Universities go out to advertise their courses and degrees, offering promotions and discounts, frequent flyer miles, free computers?

I recently attended a talk “The Tower and the Cloud”, given by none other than the editor of the book of the same name. The book is basically a compendium of essays on how the emergence of the networked information economy has or will impact higher education, as well as the IT organization in higher education. The talk is about some of the ideas covered in the book.

Several years ago, we talk about living in the Internet generation. Today, technology is moving even further ahead. Social networking is the rave. People are making use of cloud computing more than ever. Technology is bridging distances, breaking down walls. All these changes are putting more power in the hands of consumers, and we’re beginning to find more and more things becoming consumerized. Yes, that may just happen with university education too, if it hasn’t already begun.

Ten years ago, students in our universities are like products. Or perhaps they are the raw materials which the universities turn into products. Today, students are customers. Customers want choice, they demand service, they have complaints, they need relationship management. We are already seeing a lot of these traits happening in universities now.

Government want standards, universities are concerned about their ranking, industry needs shape university courses and curriculum structure. Higher education is no longer a tower in the sky.

Picture this. Some authority somewhere sets the standard for what constitutes CS1101 Introduction to Computer Programming. They define the curriculum, the lesson structure, the method testing and evaluation. Any university can teach CS1101. Any student can take a CS1101 module from any university. They can take the exam, possibly at a different place, and passing it means the same thing, regardless of where they took that exam. The same can happen for, say, CS1102 Introduction to Data Structures. So on and so forth. An employer, in their recruitment effort, could ask for qualifications in CS1101, CS1102, and whichever module they feel is required for the vacancy they are trying to fill.

Now let’s think about this a moment. Isn’t this already happening in the form of “industry certifications”? Think, for example, Cisco’s suite of certifications. CCNA, or Cisco Certified Network Associate, as a syllabus, a curriculum, and exam testing standards. You could take CCNA preparatory lessons from any commercial school. You could even study on your own. You then sign yourself up to take an exam from a testing centre. It doesn’t matter where you study, or where you take the test. When you pass, your CCNA certification is the same as any other CCNA certification. No employer cares where you studied or where you were tested.

There is no worldwide standard for what constitutes CS1101. Universities might not like the idea, but I’d guess students, employers, and governments would love the idea. Could we not “open source” the courses? See what MIT is doing with their open courseware. A renown university, perhaps the one recognized as producing the best students from their CS1101 course, will set the standard to determine what CS1101 is. Every other university in the world could take the standard and offer to teach CS1101. Maybe even an individual working out of his home could tutor a handful of students and test for CS1101 certification.

Isn’t it a brilliant idea?

I think students will embrace the choice. Why force a computer science major to study MA1101 Linear Algebra because some higher-up thought it is a fundamental knowledge required of all computer science graduate? Not all students enjoy maths, and they could do many things in computer science without knowing a lot about linear algebra.

For employers, they could now be precise about what job seekers they are looking for. They could perhaps enumerate the skills required: Java programming, TCP/IP networking basics, Unix operating system basics, etc. Wouldn’t this be more meaningful than figuring out the difference between a degree from Stanford University and another from Massachusetts Institute of Technology?

Famous universities will still command some value, at least for now. But this might just change. Does it matter where you studied or were tested for CCNA, MCSE, CISSP, CISA, etc? Universities everywhere are going to rethink their purpose and how they conduct their business in this age of consumerization.

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I came across this sign on a toilet door recently: Disabled’s Toilet. I thought it sounded crude. Usually such toilet facilities are labeled as “Handicap Toilet”, or at least that is the case I most often see in Singapore. We have handicap parking lots, handicap access, etc. So I was a little surprised to see this sign. When I got back home, I Googled around on the topic of “Handicapped vs Disabled“, and I was surprised to learn many new things.

It seems in the rest of the world, or at least in the US, “disabled” is a preferred word over “handicapped”. In fact, the so-called politically correct term is “People with Disabilities”. The politically correct term would be a mouthful though.

The meaning of the two words are, apparently, remarkably different. “Disabled people” are people with disabilities, but whom still want to live their life. They do not want handouts and they do not want others to feel sorry for them. Handicapped people, on the other hand, are people with disabilities and use them as handicaps. They want special treatment, special discounts, and they want others to notice their plight.

These two words look like they mean the same thing, but are in fact quite different. So it seems like “disabled” is in fact the more politically appropriate term. I wonder why I don’t see more of this word being used here in Singapore.

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You know how it is, the queue to get a queue number is itself quite long and slow moving. Buying a handphone, especially on a weekend, can take up quite a bit of time. I’ve waited like 2 hours to be served at M1 Shop the last time I bought a phone from them. I don’t know about StarHub, but it is sort or about the same with SingTel Shop. So I was pleasantly surprised that my shopping trip to M1 Shop today was over so quickly.

The best thing that has happened is how re-contracting customers are served. There are now self-service kiosks for existing customers to enter some particulars and select a phone. A queue ticket was issued. Not seeing any of my type of queue number being displayed on the queue number display, I asked a staff how long I had to wait. I didn’t mind waiting, I just wanted to know how long, so that I could spend my time productively. I was told 20 to 30 minutes. Yeah, that’s very good, but I was half disbelieving.

I went off, and came back about 25 minutes later. I checked, apparently they had really already called my number. They put me back in the queue only, and it was not even 2 or 3 minutes before they called my number. Cool.

The service at the counter was pretty quick too. The last time I bought something, I was stuck a long time with plenty of paper work, signatures, and photocopying. It is a whole lot different this time. Good that the workflow has improved.

I think from start till the time I left with a handphone, it didn’t even come up to 45 minutes. That’s on a Sunday afternoon. It was a crowded day. But it was a good day.

I estimate the self-service kiosk had easily cut my waiting time to get a queue number by at least 15 minutes to 20 minutes. Many people hog the queue number issuing counter with time-wasting questions. I’ve spent enormous times at many of such counters: SingTel Shop, Nokia Care, and M1 Shop too.

If they can somehow also make the self-service kiosk work for new customers, I think they would have basically made both new and existing customers happy, so long as they have made up their mind what they want. The only people that would be kept waiting would be those who hog queues keeping others waiting.

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