Mission Accomplished!

Shermy has finally completed her Honours Thesis! So many books read, so many new insights, new ground in thought explored by her in Japanese theatre! And on top of that, a great Profs in Prof Scot Hislop (and his wife Dr Lim BC) to help mentor her..

Congratulations Shermy on a job well done! I'm so proud of you and your piece de resistance!

=D

Reminiscing

Found this shot while sifting through my HDD after a reformat.

I guess this is a really meaningful pic to me. =/ Jerry, myself and Chih Hsien, enjoying ourselves at the appropriate time, at the close of the ASEAN Kendo Tournament in KL '04.

Sure, we didn't win. But that wasn't all that mattered then. Hard to say the same now I think.

Tatarah.com.sg

Imagine this:

Apple iMac 24" (2.4 GHz core2 duo)
Retail:$2988.00
Min Bid:$0.01

You can win this brand new item by bidding lower than everyone else..


That's what Tatarah.com.sg does.

How does this work?
I believe it came from wanting to catch all the bids that bidders at an auction make. In the end, only 1 person pays for the auction won right?
In Tatarah, they're so-called Singapore's reverse autioneer. The lowest unique bidder (who happened to be the first bidder) will win. But how can it be? a $140,000 item for just $1.00++? Well, that's why they're advertising - to generate interest in the website. The items for offer will likely be stuff that will everyone want and will definitely pay any amount under $10 for it (for example). So its like 4D - you pay a minimal amount to give you the chance to win big. So EVERYONE pays cos the administrative fee will likely cost less than a toto stub. And because its cheap, bidders may use a "spread" strategy, of covering all the possible low prices so that they have a larger chance to win the item, afterall, the lowest unique bid wins. However, because all the low prices will be heavily bid on, the winning bid will probably be found higher up than you might expect (they will go with the lowest bid price with the least number of bidders on it, and pick the first in line), the unique winning bid having been driven upwards.

And instead of online auctions where ppl wait for the last few minutes before bidding (so as not to drive the prices up early), the 1st bidder in queue for the winning price (or lowest number of bids) will win the prize, so everyone will want to bid early! This will fulfill their requirement of a minimum number of bids needed. Since Tatarah is a business, the excess bids make up their profits. This guarantees their returns = pure profit (except ad costs)! Calculate for yourself if you're interested (min processing fee for a Benz is $38, while min for a PSP is $1).

Will it work? I think it actually might. Cos in the end, bidders only stand to lose a few dollars for a chance to win big items, like iMacs, Mercedes Benzs, Prada bags/phones, PSPs, Wiis etc etc. And we know Singaporeans don't mind losing a little, or paying a little more. That is, IF they feel that they're not being cheated la. Kudos to a good idea!

Yay mini-lottery!

statement:

that which comes not in contact, remains at peace
conflict arises from the emergence of an opponent

Discuss..

Desert Waterless Urinals

This may seem like a strange post but.. I'm gonna comment about a "waterless urinal" system.


I was at class yesterday, the Starhub building behind Centrepoint, and was using the urinal when I noticed a blue sticker that said "Desert". I later realised it was part of the informative/advertising sticker to educate users on how the newly-implemented waterless urinals work. And what an interesting concept it was!

The idea was that the presence of water in urinals exacerbated the problem of odours resulting frm bacteria nesting in wet, dark urinals. So if urine (which is 98% water) is left to dry quickly (by elminating the constant flushing), bacteria (everpresent in toilets) will not have a chance to fester when its necessary festering requirements are not met. Does it work? Well, there are several testimonials on their website, and a quick search on the web will reveal how several organisations have commenced trials of this system. I guess we'll know in time if this is all bullshit or not (and I've still got 3 weeks of class to check out the urinals there too!). But just considering the amount of water saved - that in itself is a huge bonus!

www.desert.com.au

The Apprentice Adept

Just finished the 2nd book in the Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony, one of my favourite science-fiction/fantasy authors. It's called the Blue Adept and it follows the protaganist, Stile, in his quest to find the murderer of his other frame's self, juggling questions of integrity, fidelity and mortality, along with his friends like Neysa the imperfect unicorn, Sheen the machine (I love that name!) and his Lady Blue.

Amazingly, this series was introduced to me by Shermaine (no surprise?), during the period where she felt I wasn't reading much, preferring to stick with graphic novels myself. What began with young-Shermy instructing her Filipino maid to pick up any book with a horsie on the cover for her when she was a kid, is now a pleasure that has since become mine as well! That book was the Split Infinity, and it was a great introduction to the worlds of Proton and Phaze. There's humour, puns, action, adventure, intelligence, magic and much nudity! I'd live there (well, maybe not)!

I will now be moving on to the next book, Juxtaposition! The ending of the previous volume was such a nail-biter that I spent about 10 minutes standing at a bus stop (as opposed to making a 5-min walk to get home first) just so I could conclude it and know how it ended! Dying to start soon!

Yay Piers Anthony!


Links:
- Sypnosis of the series (pardon the typos within).
- Apprentice Adept Wiki - spoiler warning!

The Hire

"You know what I really hate..?" yea.. I have a lot of gripes.. If I could do what Clive Owen could in Shoot 'Em Up..

Anyway, that brought back a few memories of the BMW "The Hire" film series that commissioned several famous directors. Click here for why this came about. Clive Owen stars as the nameless "Driver" who takes on somewhat impossible tasks including saving the world, chauffeuring Madonna, all in a BMW or two.

Ambush
(Tomas Milian, Directed by John Frankenheimer)


Chosen
(Directed by Ang Lee)


The Follow
(Forest Whitaker, Mickey Rourke, Adriana Lima, Directed by Wong Kar-wai)


Star
(Madonna, Directed by Guy Ritchie)


Powder Keg
(Stellan Skarsgard, Lois Smith, Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Innarita)



And the newest series that has come after:

Hostage
(Directed by John Woo)


Ticker
(Don Cheadle, Ray Liotta, Directed by Joe Carnahan)


Beat the Devil
(James Brown, Gary Oldman, Marilyn Manson, Directed by Tony Scott)