Friday, April 28, 2017

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Election to the Council of the Football Association of Singapore

The election will be held on 29 April, in 2 days time. Which team will win the election? Give your vote here: www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg


.NET Developer

I have a vacancy for a developer who is familiar with Microsoft .NET C# or VB. Interested party can send resume to kinlian@gmail.com.

Bus schedule in great disorder

I missed bus 163 by less than a minute when I arrived at Upper Thomson Road.  The app shows the next bus arriving after 14 minutes. This was strange, as the interval during peak hours is about 8 minutes.

The next bus arrived after 30 minutes. During this interval, about four buses under other services passed the stop - service 52, 410, 165, 980. Where is bus 163?

The bus schedule and punctuality must be in disorder. Why is this the case? We have technology to monitor the punctuality of the buses and the occupancy rate. If the buses are full, the Land Transport Authority should ask for more buses to be added. But, they do not seem to know. They probably did not analyze the data.


Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The future for Uber

Uber incurred a loss of $2.2 billion (USD) in 2015 and the loss is expected to increase to $3 billion in 2016. Many observers said that their current business model is not sustainable. Some people speculated that the future for Uber is driverless cars. I do not think this is necessary.

I have confidence in the future of Uber. They have to incur an initial loss to build up their brand and market share in many cities around the world. They pay attractive incentives to get drivers to join the scheme. They keep their prices low to attract the customers.

Read more:
http://www.tankinlian.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=1327

Monday, April 24, 2017

Do not accept verbal explanation from the staff.

Dear Mr Tan,

Recently I enquired about a 12.45% interest, 6-year structured deposit as advertised by OCBC bank. The OCBC staff who attended to me explained that not only is the capital guaranteed after a tenure of 6 years, the interests paid out every 6 months are also guaranteed, provided there is no early termination by the bank and it remains solvent.

See more details here:
http://www.fisca.sg/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=468

Investment tips for uncertain times

A consumer (Mr. J) came to consult me. He had bad experience with the two private bankers. One was a local person and the other was an expatriate. Over the years, they had advised him to invest in certain stocks. The results had been disastrous. He made losses on these investments.

He asked for my advice on how he should invest his money. I gave him the following tips:
http://www.fisca.sg/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=467

Relative performance of the ministers

Do you have any comments on the performance score of any of the minister shown here?
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/perf.aspx

Why do some ministers perform better than the others, based on the voting of the Crowd? Do you know of any special factor about the attitude or approach of the minister?

This is a self selected sample and do not purport to be representative of the population. However, when it comes to the relative scores of the minsiter, the bias in the self selected sample, has been  reduced to a large extent.

Performance score of PM and 2 DPMs

The performance score of the PM and 2 DPMs are available now, based on voting by the Crowd.

As expected, DPM Tharman is quite popular, but where does PM Lee and DPM Teo stand, relative to the other ministers?

You can view the score at
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/perf.aspx




Sunday, April 23, 2017

Why I choose Uber over Grab

I used to call GrabTaxi for my ride to the airport.

I now use UberPool. Here are my reasons:

1. I can get a car faster and it is much cheaper ($15 instead of $25 on a taxi).
2. Uber deducts the fare automatically from my credit card. No cash payment.
3. My Uber account can be used in other cities - not just Singapore.

I know that Grab is trying very hard to provide the same service as Uber. But Grab seems to be introducing many platforms - while Uber uses a common platform for their shared and exclusive service. 

I also like the abiilty to use Uber in other cities.

My view about the sentence meted to the convicted leaders of City Harvest Church

Should the convicted leaders of City Harvest be punished severely for their crimes?

I wish to give my personal views on this matter. I know that many people in Singapore will not agree with my views, but I like to express it nevertheless.

http://www.tankinlian.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=1324

Have empathy for people in distress

One of the convicted leaders in the City Harvest Church case was seen crying in court.

The journalist asked her, "How do you feel".
The husband of the convict replied to the journalist, "What do you think"?

I have empathy with the convicted person, her hushand and family. Their lives and future will be destroyed by a mistake that she had made. It was a mistake because she probably felt honestly that she was promoting a good cause for the church and was not benefitting financially from that decision.

The question posed by the journalist probably reflect the attitude of many people in our society. They seemed to be enjoying the circus, without regard to the lives of the people who were directly affected.
https://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/serina-wee-seen-crying-court-appearance-begin-jail-term

What does the Crowd think about Lim Hng Kiang?

The performance score for trade minister Lim Hng Kiang is now available for viewing. A surprise! He performed quite well, in spite of being rather quiet over the years.

www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/perf.aspx

What will happen in North Korea?

What will happen to North Korea? I posed this question last week at the height of the tension between North Korea and America. The majority of the Crowd said "Nothing. Things will return to normal". They are right, as nothing happened last week.
The next highest vote is for "North Korea will continue to provoke America until Donald Trump loses his patience". Will it happen?

www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/result.aspx

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