cdrum

So, after moving my host to the new host, during the night it seemed to crash. Have a look at the memory graphs:

What the hell happened there?!

Update: Did some tweaking in MySQL and Apache, looking much better:

(If you’re reading this…)

My Website is now on Rackspace!

In the process of migrating off Dreamhost to another host. Stay tuned. Something might break…

Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted here. I have certainly been more active on Twitter over the last several weeks. A few updates…

I have a job! (I have had a job for a month now). Working at a small interactive agency as a project manager. So far, the work is good. It’s great to be working again!

We’re still staying with Melanie’s aunt. We’re looking at housing options, haven’t decided what to do yet.

And I am in the process of relocating all my web stuff to a new host. Thank you Dreamhost, but it’s time to move on.

I can’t explain why, but I actually like the game Evony. It’s annoying because as you progress through the game, it takes longer and longer to build buildings or research technology (we’re talking several hours). I’m tempted to pay money to speed that up (their business model, I guess), but that would be wrong, right?

I currently still have only 1 city (many others have many cities) and prestige points of 21k (far from the several hundred thousand points others have). It’s a slow climb, but I’m getting there.

Check it out, I’m on server 19.

An hour and a half before I need to go to the airport, I figured that since I have some down time, I would upgrade WOrdpress and other stuff on my site!

Risky?

We’ll see!

Update: Wow, that was a piece of cake.

Folks, I’ll be updating my WordPress software today as I’ve fallen a bit behind with the updates, and some of the plugins aren’t being actively developed anymore, so I’ll be looking into those.

So, for the 2 of you who routinely visit this blog, the site might be “broken” for a while. Sorry.

Update: Ok, maybe not today, I got sidetracked into doing something else. Soon!

Finally got proper mobile service today.

SingTel (or maybe Apple) is dragging their feet with the iPhone 3GS release here in Singapore, and since I have the iPhone 3G, I really wanted to get proper service for it ASAP (at least proper data service).  PrePay data was just way too expensive.

I learned today that SingTel actually offers their 3G plans from month to month (no contract) if you don’t buy a subsidized phone (which would lock you in for 24 months!).  See the plans here: https://www.singtelshop.com/superSIM/ This allows me the flexibility (at least on a month by month basis) to decide once the iPhone 3GS FINALLY comes out in Singapore (or any phone for that matter), I’m not locked into any plan and can cancel this any time and get a new contract.  Or, not, if the case may be…

I chose the iOne Plus plan for S$25 a month, and it gives me 200 outgoing minutes of voice (should be plenty for me). I added on the Broadband on Mobile Premium (http://home.singtel.com/singtel/iphone/bom.html) which gives me 10GB of data for S$30 a month (ignore the promotional pricing as I didn’t get a 12 or 24 month contract on the data.)

Now, the annoying thing about the data package is I wasn’t able to get a month to month plan. I had to lock myself into a 6 month contract. Weird, but oh well, I suppose life isn’t fair all the time. At least I got a month free?

So, all in all, my base service at S$25 a month is not locked into any contract, but my 10GB of data at S$30 a month is locked into a 6 month contract. Oh well, better than a S$50-S$100 24-month contract!

MobileMe Syncing

Since now that I have data, I thought I would try out the 60-day free trial of MobileMe. (http://www.apple.com/mobileme/) I can tell you that Contacts and Calendar (and I guess Bookmarks) syncs perfectly. It is really nice to not have to worry about plugging my phone into the computer every time just to make sure my data is synced (of course, the more I think about it, I need to do that any way to ensure my podcasts are synced… oh well)

Mail syncing, however, sucks. I use GMail, and with all my filters and stuff, it just doesn’t play nice.  Yes, the mail is pushed to my iPhone, but as I configured GMail to forward mail to my me.com mail, it’s sending everything! Every piece of email before my GMail filters do anything. That’s not cool.

And, I liked how if I am using the iPhone mail application to read my email (I configured it to connect to my GMail over IMAP), it would update my GMail inbox the read status (new or read) and whether or not I replied to that particular email). Using the MobileMe me.com email syncing, it won’t have this functionality, and that’s kind of a no start for me.

So, for now, I have turned off the email pushing, but left on the Contacts, Calendar, and Bookmark push. I will be testing out the GMail Push application, to be added to the App Store on Monday Aug. 17, to see how that works. http://gmailpush.com/ourapps.php

At first, we were pretty happy that Melanie’s new company in Singapore selected, what we thought, was a reputable relocation company with a “Customer-Focused Approach”.  Crown Relocations is a company both of us have heard of, and while we haven’t used them before (my long distance moves in the past were usually handled by Santa Fe), we thought it would be a relatively painful process.  The Beijing side of the relocation generally went without a hitch.  The Beijing-based staff were very helpful and courteous and seemed to genuinely want to accommodate our realistic needs.

The folks in Singapore, however, don’t seem to be interested in accommodating our, what we believe are, realistic needs.  First, I quote from their Website (2) (3) some of Crown’s customer-focused goals:

1. Maintaining a professionally attractive organizational culture is one of the core philosophies of the Crown Worldwide Group
2. Crown is committed to delivering high quality service seamlessly and remaining focused on continuous quality improvement
3. …guarantees that relocation professionals will always be informed and their employees will quickly settle-in and become productive in their new working environment

Melanie gets a call yesterday (Wed) from the Crown people in Singapore saying our shipment has already arrived in Singapore.  Wow, only 4 weeks! The guys in Beijing estimated 6 weeks.

Since Mel has been busy working since she arrived on the 7th of July and I just arrived 3 days ago on the 27th, we haven’t had a whole lot of time to find an apartment. So, time to kick apartment search into high gear!

Any way, Melanie was in Taiwan on a short business trip until last night, but the Crown folks needed her passport to provide a copy of her China visa to Singapore Customs to prevent being charged 3% import tax. When I told the guy who called yesterday Melanie would arrive late Wednesday night and wouldn’t be able to handle this until Thursday (today), he seemed a bit concerned and proceeded to ask me if I could reach her somehow to expedite the visa. I said no (knowing she was busy in Taiwan and didn’t need this to deal with).

Mel returns to Singapore and calls Crown today.  They say they need the Chinese visa copy and that the container has essentially cleared customs.  He asked for a delivery address.  Well, we don’t really have one yet. (no apartment!) And it’s not possible to have everything delivered to her aunt’s place where we’re staying now. (that’s about 18 cubic meters of junk, by the way).

I started looking for apartment options today while Melanie was juggling work and dealing with Crown. The Crown guy called her several times this morning asking where to deliver the things. Mel asked if Crown could hold onto the things for a while. The Crown guy then proceeded to tell her that past Friday (tomorrow!) they would charge a SGD45 per day charge.  This certainly puts undue pressure on us as we don’t want to be pressured into choosing an apartment just for the sake of it.

It seems to me that it would be “Customer-Focused” for Crown to offer a free week or so of storage.  What if the receiver, Melanie in this case, was on a longer term business trip and couldn’t deal with this? This is similar to the Cable company who says the technician will come by your house between 10AM and 4PM.  How the heck are you supposed to accommodate that? It’s their job to service you, not your job to wait for them and work around their schedule. Back to Crown, I think a week of storage is not too much to ask. This provides a little more flexibility to their customer, us, thus enhancing our satisfaction and likelihood of recommending them to our friends for future relocations.

Come on guys, them telling us today that our stuff is ready and we need to have it delivered by tomorrow before they start charging us storage fees… that’s just ridiculous. It’s not consumer focused and reflects poorly on them as a company. They have a very clear business objective to make as much money as possible while screwing their customers in the process. Companies can get away with that for some time, but it will come back to haunt them. Hopefully.

My favorite line thus far is “sorry for any inconvenience caused”.  No you’re not. Seeing that arguing with them was going nowhere, we decided to look into self-storage options so we can at least receive our goods.  Lucky for us there’s a self-storage company right here in Toa Payoh (where we’re staying). It’s called StorHub and we went there during Melanie’s lunch break and booked a 146 square feet storage space. It’s about less than a third what Crown would charge for a month period of storage, and we have 24-hour access to our stuff.

It seems this StorHub company wants our business as they are quite flexible in accommodating our needs.  They had a room for us essentially immediately. Even though we prepaid for 2 months in order to lock in the discount they provided, we can basically cancel any time and they will prorate our refund after the first month. And we can extend past the initial 2 months easily, no need for prior notice.

This isn’t over. Trying to negotiate having Crown deliver our stuff on Saturday instead of tomorrow as Melanie needs to work. And we’re going to forward our complaints to the highest level possible. It probably won’t do anything, but it’s best not to just bend over and take it…

I am sitting in the United Airlines Red Carpet lounge at Los Angeles’ LAX airport, waiting for my flight to Singapore (via Tokyo/Narita).  No, I am not flying Business or First Class, nor do I have status on this sub-par airline.  Since I had more than 2 hours to kill at the airport (which, by the way, is pretty lousy), I decided to buy a single day pass.  $50 USD or 7,000 miles, I chose to use miles.  The lounge certainly does NOT come close to Northwest’s lounges.  For one thing, alcohol is not free.  But, at least there’s free WIFI.

Reality Calls as my 3-week “quick trip” in the U.S.’s West has sadly come to an end.  I think I could have spent even more time here, and I would have liked to make my way out East to see my Sister, among others.  Next time! The great thing about going to Singapore now is that I get to see Melanie again!  UNfortunately, she’s off to Taiwan for a business trip for 2 days, so I won’t get to see her until Wednesday.  Oh well.  What’s another 2 days?

When I arrive in Singapore, I will have plenty to do.  Life will essentially start anew.  I need to get “legal” by getting my long-term visit pass.  With that, I can open a bank account, get a mobile phone plan (iPhone 3G S here I come), get a driver’s license, find an apartment, etc.  Oh, and get a job!!

Some friends of mine who live in Singapore tell me the job market is o.k., not horrible as with elsewhere (such as the USA).  So, hopefully that is true and it won’t take me too long to get a job.  Am I dreaming?

It seems I have drawn a blank and cannot think of what else to write about.  I suppose I’ll wrap up this post here.  I am going to try to write a bit more often once I arrive in Singapore.  New country, new writing habits! Will see how that goes!