I don’t know when did it actually start, but what I know is that I love Onions! I really really love eating onions! And when I start eating a little, I cannot help myself but want more. In the past, I didn’t care much for onions. In fact, when eating burgers, I used to remove them first before I munched into my burgers. But now, it seems that I can’t get enough of onions. I don’t know exactly how to explain the feeling but it feels great when you much into them. You know, the sharp taste that cuts through everything and remains a very very aromatic aftertaste. I especially like fresh onions which are not cooked. They definitely taste more refreshing! It could be because I am getting old and old people will start to enjoy these kinds of pungent tasting food.

I don’t like onions which are cooked. They are so soft and mushy, it looks unappealing to me. And all the pungent taste is gone. But fresh onions looks great and when you bite into them, the flavours will simply flow from the onions into your mouth. Delicious! It’s like biting into a piece of heaven. But you know, there are different types of onions. Some onions are sweet like red onions. These tend to add good sweetish flavours to your salads and at the same time colour. White onions are usually milder in taste but at the same time provide a certain bite to all your dishes. In fact, a lot of people use onions to spice up whatever bland food they have cooking. It never fails. Spring onions are normally used for garnishing and is very popular in local Singaporean dishes. Garlic is a must in every dish, but onions come a very close second. Even in small amounts, I think they are wonderful companion to any food, be it meat or vegetables.

Anyway, I am sure that you guys know that eating onions will give you bad breathe. I think it is not as bad as garlic, but it still leaves your breathe smelling like dung. Don’t really know why this happens, must be some sort of chemical reaction when onions and your saliva mix and produces such funny smell. But who cares right? All is important is that you enjoy your food and eat like a king. Of course, your social life may be in trouble because no one is willing to talk to you. Hahaha, everyone around you will avoid you like plague. I usually brush my teeth and gurgle my mouth with mouthwash after eating onions, so I should have at least some social life left, I hope.

Well, this is for the webmasters out there. Are you looking for a webhost? And what is the kind of speed and performance do you expect from your webhost? I am sure that a lot of webmasters thinking of getting a new webhost would fear that the performance of their new webhost may not be able to handle the load. Well, what better way to find a solid and stable web host than to check out how the other websites being hosted by the same service provider is doing? For example, perhaps you think of a website which seems very fast and responsive, but do you know how is hosting the site? Well, you can make use of Who Is Hosting This (WSHT) to find out.

It is a simple program which helps you find out who is hosting the site in question. Key in the URL of the website and they will tell you who is hosting the site. Simple as that. Although I have discovered that a lot of the web host normally will lease or co-lease a line or is a reseller from some major Internet Service Provider or Data Center, so WSHT will not give you the actual webhost company but they will only tell you the Date Center. So in this case, you are out of luck. However, all is not lost, you can try to do a “whois” and from the information provider, see who is the actual webhost. You can get the necessary information from the DNS or by the registration information provided by whois.

Try it. You will find it very simple and convenient to use. And you should start doing your own research on your next web host now if you are not satisfied with your current one.

Well, you guys know that I used to not have any liking for YouTube and it’s contents. Previously, I had thought that Youtube is mainly for people who are attention whores and basically do nothing but to showcase themselves. It was also a gathering for weirdos and crazies on the Internet who owns a webcam. But now, I think that the people populating YouTube has became more matured and the content seemed to be much improved. Sure there are still crap on Youtube, in fact most of the videos are still crap and useless. But hey, if you are looking for something on the Internet which requires something more than just text and photos, then YouTube is a very good choice for you to start your hunt.

In my beer brewing, I had visited a lot of websites and forums. I have read a lot on beer brewing but somehow I still felt lost and uncertain about what I am doing. But, when I watched beer brewing videos on Youtube, it really gave me a boost in my confidence and that helped me start my beer brewing “career”. It’s always better to watch someone do something than to read about it and had no real idea how to go about doing it. The best part, we get to see the experts in action as well. Yes, even experts are starting to post their videos in Youtube. It’s a great platform for anyone to promote their ideas, products or services, as Internet users have higher and higher bandwidth for them to stream video easily. Of course, that happens in other countries, never in Singapore. The bandwidth here is always lower than what is advertised. Do note that there are comments made on the videos and you should really take a good look at them. Some advice that is provided in the videos are downright wrong, and you should really take note which parts are wrong.

And I guess once the people in Youtube gain more experience in making their videos, we will definitely see a marked improvement in the videos. Everything is a learning process and that includes video making. And hey, video equipment are also getting cheaper!

Have you guys ever wanted to send a huge file to your friends and found out that big email attachments are usually not allowed? The reason is that email servers are not meant for sending large files because of the huge overheads. Even modern email server software can’t solve this problem. Plus, it takes up a lot of resources and jams up the queue when the server is processing the large file. So, most ISPs and email service providers just block large attachments. Just imagine the load these large ISPs have to handle if everyone start sending huge files through email. And now email servers come with extra work like scanning for viruses and filtering out spam. All these take up precious resources in the server.

The solution to this is to use a File Sharing Website. These are like using FTP, only that it is much easier and they usually don’t need any additional software. Just point your browser to their site, follow the instructions to upload the files and then send the link to your friends. It’s that simple. However, it’s my opinion that the reason why most people would prefer to send attachments through email is because it is so easy and effortless. You create an email, then add th attachment to the email and click on Send. You don’t need to do anything else. Perhaps that’s the biggest flaw of email. It’s just too damn convenient and easy and any Tom, Dick and Harry can use it without much problems. That’s why we get some many spam and chain mails everyday.

Anyways, I am here to introduce to you this great service. It’s called File Dropper. It’s a simple to use website which allows you to upload files and share these files with your friends and colleagues. It’s beyond simple. A few clicks and you can start sharing your file. Plus, it allows up to 5GB file size limit. The files are stored in their servers as long as it is being downloaded. So why not? Keep text to emails and help improve your ISP’s performance.

Are any of you guys using Wordpress for your blog? I mean, Wordpress as in the Wordpress script and not the blog hosting site. Yes, that would mean that you have downloaded a script and upload that to your webhost and somehow configure it to work. If you have done that, you should also take a look at this little plugin - Google Sitemap Generator. For all those who don’t know what is a sitemap is used for, well, I will not go into detail on that. Basically, it is a little map of your website and is usually in a link text, html or xml format which Search Engine spiders can easily follow. It just contains links to your entire site. Think of it as an virtual map and it tells your visitors which link to go to which portion of your website. And it is used often by Search Engine spiders, especially Googlebot in order for them to navigate a site properly.

I know that there are other sitemap generators out there. But unlike most, this is a script and it is especially designed for Wordpress. So if you are using Wordpress, why not try it? I am currently using GSite Crawler as my sitemap generator. I don’t have any major prolems with using GSite. However, the problem with GSite Crawler is that it needs to navigate my site in order to get the information it needs to create the sitemap. This of course increases the load and the bandwidth usage on my server. Using these online script sitemap generators will help cut down on the resources need to continuously update his sitemap.

Google Sitemap Generator for Wordpress is such “online” generator. Everytime you create a post or edit an existing one, the sitemap is automatically updated. And it also helps you inform Google, MSN and Ask.com that you have changed your content, inviting them to re-spider your site. And it’s easy to do the plugin. All you need to do is to upload the files to the Wordpress Plugin folder and then create 2 files (Sitemap XML files) and Chmod them. After that you go and let the plugin populate the sitemap files for you automatically. You don’t longer need to do anything more than write your blog post. Life couldn’t be much simpler.

When if you remember, I have recently shared a batch of beer, which is an Australian Pale Ale. I never noticed it at all, but some of my friends said that they tasted a little sourish twang in the beer. I was pretty surprised that they tasted the sourish flavour while I did not. Perhaps it is because I am not that fussy about beer and could possibly drink any kind of beer. Wuhahaha! Anyways, they said that the beer taste great and it’s just that little twang and they don’t mind at all. In fact, they drank a lot of the home brew and are asking for more.

I got rather curious about this. The Australian Pale Ale shouldn’t taste sour. Well, there are some beers which have this sour profile, but certainly not the Australian Pale Ale. It should have this slightly bitter but aromatic smell and taste but definitely shouldn’t be sour at all.  Sour in the beer could mean improper sanitization hence bacteria infection and since it is just a little sour, it would most likely be introduced during the bottling process. Perhaps the carbonation drops or even the bottles and bottling equipment are not properly cleaned. Can’t do much about the carbonation drops since I can’t clean it but for the bottles, it can be easily solved. From what I can remember, I did a very thorough job in cleaning and sanitizing the bottles. However, it could be that I didn’t do the sanitization procedure correctly. And it could possibly be the spigot that got infected with me realizing it. It is near impossible for me to thoroughly sanitize the spigot if it is attached to the fermenter.

Or it could be that the beer is just green. It will tend to taste like green apples and surely it will be sour. And if that is the case, then aging the beer a little longer will improve the beer and make it less green. Well, I will just need to wait for maybe 2 more weeks and maybe do another taste test with my friends. I guess that’s the hardest part of beer brewing - the wait. I am eager to see whether the sour taste fades away or not. Damn, beer brewing can be pretty exciting but at the same time, it can be very disappointing.

Well, here is an early look at the next version of OpenOffice. This could be very interesting for those of you who are very nerdy and uses OpenOffice instead of most of us humans use - Microsoft Office. Well, sure the latest version of Microsoft Office is giving a lot of users problems with their ribbon thingy but I think once the users start to get used to “Ribbon”, everything should be okay, even for the most fussy of users. And I think that Microsoft Office 2007 is a big step up from the previous versions of Office. Tons of great features and functions, which I think is a good upgrade for most users. And most of my users agree, the newly added features are worth it to pay for the upgrade price. I think for this once, Microsoft has really put in some effort in producing such a polished product. Well, for someone who hates Microsoft, I am pleasantly surprised. Oh, just damn the Ribbon!

For those who are using OpenOffice, you would be glad to know that OpenOffice version 3 is in active development. Yes, I am always a fan of open source software, which means this is also at the top of my list. The reason why I am not using OpenOffice is because most of the staff in my office are incapable of using anything other than Microsoft Office. Too bad, since OpenOffice 3 looks really good. And it is free (as in open source). One plus point is that it’s interface looks a lot like Microsoft Office 2007. The major problem in introducing any new software into an office environment is always resistance by the staff. And when you are forcing the office staff to learn something new or at least try a different software, you will bound to face opposition. And not to mention, everyone is using Microsoft Office without “much” complains.

For me, I am a realist. There is no point introducing a software into your company when you know that a lot of the users will not be using it anyway. They have Microsoft Office installed already. And truth to be told, most of the staff are not very IT savvy and will probably hate the IT department to death if we did really went ahead and forced everyone to use OpenOffice which they are unfamiliar with. Free? Well, sometimes free is always good. My boss thinks that such free software are always unreliable and are made by people who wants to steal information and do evil things.

Well guys, I finally had a chance to share my recently bottled beer with my friends. It was the Australian Pale Ale and it has been in the bottle for 2 weeks already. And the conclusion was that it was great and a lot of them are asking me how I did it! Ha, I never expected such a good response and from those very experienced drinkers, it was very encouraging. Some of them seemed very knowledgeable on beers and drank like 1.5 litre of beers per session. I am quite impressed but anyway, most of the effort goes to the manufacturer of the beer kit - Coopers. I didn’t really brew the beer, I took a beer concentrate (which includes main portion of the brew - the malt, hops and other flavours) and then added water and additional hops and malt (I used Cooper’s Beer Enhancer 2 which consists of Malt, Dextrose and Malto-dextrin). Didn’t have much a recipe to follow.

I will surely be making more of Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale in the future. With such a response from my friends, it’s going to the talk of any party I hope. I think they will start to ditch Tiger beer, and go into real beer, like a home brewed beer which most likely will taste much better. One of the home brewers told me that once you drink home brewed beer, you will never go back to commercial ones anymore. Looks like it is true. I am eagerly waiting for my extract beer to be ready. However, I am sure that it will not be as tasty as the Australian Pale Ale (which was from a kit), but I could use this as a base for me to improve on my home brews, like how much hops to add, how much alcohol to provide a kick and what other flavours/aromas and mouthfeel is needed.

But since there is currently a demand for my home brewed beer, I think I will stick to kits for the time being. As I said before in my previous post, I will be going for the Blue Mountain Lager (with Ale Yeast). They are mainly meant for my friends and require very little experimenting and, well, very little headache. As with the Australian Pale Ale kit, just add the additional ingredients to the beer concentrate. My friends seem happy with the kits anyway. Hey, home brewing is all about sharing your home brew with your friends! Maybe once their taste get better, I will then do specialty grains and extract brewing. The Blue Mountain Lager Kit is from Morgan’s and it is supposed to be one of their more popular ones. Hope it will be just as good as the Australian Pale Ale!

Are you thinking of renting a vehicle instead of owning one? Or is your company is hiring someone from overseas and he/she needs a vehicle to commute? Hey, we don’t expect our foreign talent to take the bus like everyone else do we? Then they won’t be called Foreign Talent in the first place. Even if the person will be in Singapore for maybe over a year, it would be more worthwhile to rent a vehicle instead of buying one. For Singaporeans, perhaps the reason to rent a vehicle is because the capital cost of buying a car can be very high. Not to mention all the hassle of buying a vehicle and having to worry about loans, insurance, repair and servicing and so on. If you rent a vehicle, all you need to do is to hand the company a copy of your driving license and drive off with your dream car. That’s it! Well, if the hirer is a foreigner, the work permit is needed as well. Probably save you hours and hours of hassle and needless worry.

And from what I heard, the market for vehicle rental is very hot. And the price of renting a vehicle has gone down. In the past, I have seen cars being rented out for several hundred dollars per day, now you can get a 1.6 litre vehicle for as low as 50 to 60 bucks per day. Ha, if you are willing to settle for an old car that it. But this downward pressure would be just temporary. As the number of people living and working in Singapore is increasing, and expected to hit 5 to 6 million, the need for transport has increased. And looking at how terrible our public transport situation currently is, I am sure that there will be more demands for cars. And this will definitely affect the vehicle rental business. I expect prices of rental rates to increase very soon. Add this to the increasing number of tourists coming to Singapore, plus the opening of the Integrated Resorts (IR) in Singapore in 2010, we will see the market booming like nobody’s business. Not to mention the limousine services. Singapore hopes to attract rich players to the casinos in the IRs and what better way to attract them by providing the players with smooth and comfortable transport to and from the airports. Unlike most of us Singaporeans having to crowd ourselves into over-packed sardine buses and trains to work everyday.

I have complied a list of Singapore Car/Vehicle Rental Companies. Please take a look if you are interested.

I don’t know why but these days, it seems that I get tired pretty easily. Let’s say during the weekends, after I wake up in the morning maybe about 10am, I sort of feel tired by  noon time! It’s not the kind of tired where you do a lot of work and you are physically and mentally drained. It’s some sort of tiredness which I can’t explain. I feel like some big weight is on my shoulders and I can’t really concentrate on anything. Note that this is during the weekends, where I am not doing any sort of work at all. And I still feel the tiredness. I switch on my PC, and perhaps watch a movie, but I can’t really concentrate on watching the movie. My mind then starts to wonder off and I begin to think of something else. After a while of alternating between watching movies and surfing the web, I feel very exhausted. Really, I feel exhausted after that. Yes, I like watching movies.

Okay, then you would assume that perhaps I didn’t sleep very well the night before. Well, it is possible. But it seems to happen every weekend. I don’t have that problem during the weekdays when I go to work and my mind is concentrating on work. But when it comes to relaxing in the weekends, this lethargic feeling I cannot shake off. And the best thing, I did have a good night’s sleep! I feel fine when I wake up. It is just after a while when the feeling comes in.

When I wake up from an afternoon nap, and I feel slightly more refreshed. But this kind of feeling doesn’t last, and I get exhausted again soon afterwards. My parents think I am a crazy man, yawning all the time even when eating dinner. Perhaps I should not stare at the monitor too often? Is it the cause of my problems? But when I am at work, I also stare at the monitor the entire day and I don’t have that feeling at all.  Yes, I do get exhausted from work, but as I said before, it’s not the same feeling. Feeling physically and mentally exhausted after a hard day’s work is normal.

Have you guys ever faced such problems before? Perhaps I am just not meant to be relaxing at home and I need work to keep my mind off things? Does that mean I am a workaholic? If so, then it will surely be very cool. My boss will be shocked to hear that I am a workaholic. Damn shock!