BBC News has interviewed Bill Gates as he prepares to end his full-time work at Microsoft.

“Most of our competitors were very poorly run,” he tells Fiona Bruce, for The Money Programme.

“They did not understand how to bring in people with business experience and people with engineering experience and put them together. They did not understand how to go around the world.”

Sir Alan Sugar, one of Britain’s computer pioneers with his Amstrad range, testifies to Microsoft’s global mobility even as a comparatively small company in the 1980s.

Amstrad, in Brentwood, Essex, was visited by a Microsoft salesman - or “mid-Atlantic smoothie” as Sir Alan describes him - who came to sell Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system.

Check out the interview on BBC News.

My mom just bought a new refrigerator for the house. It is a Samsung RT58EAMT Refrigerator and it cost about SGD$915. The gross capacity of the fridge is 580 litres which is much bigger than my previous Sanyo SR-37ZB refrigerator. There is no one refrigerator big enough for my mom to put all her baking stuffs and hence my house always have 2 refrigerators ever since my mom picked up baking.

This new refrigerator is kinda cool, it will display the temperature of both the freezer and the refrigerator on the door. Now if only it has WIFI capability and we can monitor it directly from our browser, not just the temperature but also the groceries within the refrigerator.

Better still, since refrigerator are never turned off and it is very cool inside (Freezer: -19°C, Refrigerator: 2°C), it maybe a good thing to have a built in web server within it.

Old Sanyo SR-37ZB Refrigerator

New Samsung RT58EAMT Refrigerator

Temperature Indicator

I would like to thank WOM World for sending me my very own first poster which contains my nickname “gamerz”. They have sent it all the way from UK by DHL.

This shall be my very first poster that I am going to frame and hang it in my room.

My Very Own Poster (Click on the image to enlarge it)

THANK YOU to the whole team behind WOM World.

*UPDATE* I bought a poster frame (Width: 50cm x Height:70cm) from Ikea for SGD$19 frame it up and hanged it in my room just above my television.

Poster Framed And Hanged

I was invited to Nokia Connection 2008 which is an annual event. It is normally held just before Communicasia. This year it was held on the 16th and 17th June 2008. The first day was held at the Singapore Recreation Club while the second day was held at Mandarin Oriental. This year Nokia Connection saw the launch of two new products, the Nokia E66 and the Nokia E71 and the introduction of Share on Ovi.

My Lanyard

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Razer Lycosa
Li Xiang and I was doing our Mystery Shopper job at Lot 1 Shopping Center and I come across 1 PC shop and 1 Game shop. I got myself an old Xbox game, Capcom Fighting Evolution from the game shop thinking that it should be backward compatible with my Xbox 360. When I reached home and to my horror it is not compatible with my Xbox 360. Just wasted $19.90! I think I shall pass the game to my uncle because he is holding on to my brother Xbox.

I saw a few Razer mouses and I was looking around for Razer keyboards. I saw the Razer Lycosa and when I looked at the price, I got a shocked. They are selling for $119 which is the cheapest according to Hardware Zone forums. Even at the PC Show 2008, they are selling it for $120 with no free gifts.

The Box

The Box When Opened

The Razer Lycosa

Razer Lycosa, Razer DeathAdder, Razer Mantis Control

Kung Fu Panda
It was a last minute decision to watch Kung Fu Panda and apparently the decision is a good one. The show is funny and I love the jokes they crack inside. However, Li Xiang fell asleep 1/2 way through the show, I guess she is tired.

Caught the trailer for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa before the show and I am so going to watch Madagascar 2. The penguins are back and this time they are driving the plane. I just love this part of the conversation, the penguin said “I have got good news and bad news. The good news is that we are landing now, the bad news is that we are crash landing.” LOL

Here is the trailer for those who did not catch it:

Dad’s Off To Vietnam4
My dad’s flight is 10am on Singapore Airlines to Vietnam. He will be there for 6 months and coming back on the 17th December 2008 I think. He told me that if everything is good, he may get to come back 3 months later for a short period.

Reached the airport at 8am and saw my dad check in. After a while, his colleagues came along and we parted. My mom, brother, Huimin and I then went to Swensens for breakfast. The breakfast is good and value for money. Should have that more often.

Now whenever I am at home when it comes to 6.30pm (my dad used to come home at this time), it feels a little different, much quieter. The feeling is also weird as for 24 years, my dad is mostly with us. Even though I am a guy, I am proud to say, I miss you dad! I know he will be reading my blog at some LAN cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam.

PC Show 2008
Left the airport at 8.45am and the 3 of us excluding my mom dropped by Li Xiang office to pass her, her handphone as she left it at my house. After that we proceed on to Suntec City to wait for the PC Show 2008 to open as we are too lazy to come home and then leave the house again. We waited for about 2 hours as it opens at 12pm and we are there slightly before 10am.

Meet up with the guys at Frro, David and Michael too.

Before the door opens, you can see tons of people outside gathering. Once the door opened, everyone rushed in like they are going into a gold mine. As usual, you can see parents pushing prams which personally I HATE THE MOST. Seriously they think this is some sort of family outing but they didn’t realize that their selfish act always caused inconvenience for serious buyers and buys who bought big bulky object. Bringing kids is still quite understandable as sometimes no one is there to look after them at home, but for fuck you push prams along?

I seriously think that the organizer should do something about it, like set the minimum age limit to 12 or even charging a $2 entrance fee. A simple $2 entrance fee will not deter serious buyers. Hardware Zone Forums always suggest the organizer something about it.

I always try to boost the economy by helping others to buy when it comes to such exhibitions.

• Helped my uncle wife to get a 250GB Western Digital Portal HDD (Passport Essentials) for $129.90, a 4-ports USB hub for $9.90.
• Helped my mom to get Canon ink for her office Canon printer MX700 for $52.90.
• Helped Li Xiang to get Sepom photo A4 paper, 5 packets for $28

My brother and I wanted to get the Razer Lycosa Keyboard. But as predicted by some fellow HWZers, there is no promotion to it and on top of that there are selling it more expensive. They are selling it for $129 whereas you can get at some places for just $119.

My mom bought for me a Samsung 2043BWX Monitor for $315 and asked me to give my old Sony 17 (SDM-HS73) to her to replace my brother old Philips 17″ CRT. At first I was asking her to buy a LCD monitor but end up she ask me to buy and give her the old one. Thank you mom!

The Box

2043BWX Monitor

The Monitor On My Study Table

David to himself a Samsung Monochrome Laser printer for $98 and an internal 3.5″ 320GB HDD (not sure about the price), whereas Michael did not get anything. lol.

We have just injected more than $733.7 into the Singapore Economy!

We ended our day at about 2.30pm and headed home. The usual impatient me, the moment I went home, fixed up my new monitor, swapped my old monitor with the old CRT monitor and everything works per normal. Luckily there is no dead or stuck pixel on my new monitor. Phew

Nokia @ Molly Malone
Left home at about 5.30pm and reached Molly Malone’s Irish Pub which is located at 56 Circular Road, Singapore 049411 for an informal Nokia meetup with Nokia Staffs (Angela, Annette, Cherie, Desmond, Luanne, Loretta and Wen Dee), Text100 people (Carolyn, Liyi and Supriya) and several bloggers (Mr Brown, Coleman, Sheylara, Preetam, Ben and his wife). Do forgive me if I miss out any names or the name typed is incorrect!

Cherie who is a product manager demonstrated many of the Nokia prototype phones like the N78, N96, 6220 Classic, 6210 Navigator, XpressMusic 5320 and there is one more XpressMusic phone which I can’t remember the model name, but I think that will be the first XpressMusic phone to run S60 OS, currently all XpressMusic phones are running on S40 OS.

Desmond who is also a product manager demonstrated to me the N96 and the N78 prototypes. All Nseries devices after N78 will have the NaviWheel feature, just imagine the click wheel scrolling of the iPod. There will be light emitting from the NaviWheel every now and then to show that the phone is “alive”, they called it the breathing light. It is much better than the old school blinking LED lights at the top of the phones.

I played with the N96 and I think it is quite sluggish as it is still a prototype. With all the NDAs flying around Nokia, they can’t say anything at all with regards to unannounced phones like the XpressMusic 5800 “Tube”, N79 and the N85.

There will be an upcoming event on Monday and Tuesday which I will be attending called the Nokia Connection 2008. I can’t seem to find a link to that. Nokia Connections is held every year and is a hands-on showcase of the latest Nokia devices and services including: Nokia Maps, Nokia Music Store, N-Gage and Share on Ovi.

I got a feeling they will officially announced the Nokia E71 and E66 there as definitely there will be new phones announced.

By the way, the food at Molly Malone is good especially the Fish and Chips which cost $16 and the portion is big. The spicy chicken balls and the button mushrooms are good too.

It looks EXACTLY the same as the old iPhone. But it is MUCH CHEAPER. USD$199 for 8GB and USD299 for 16GB, which translate to SGD$271.81 for the 8GB and SGD$408.19 for the 16GB one. BUT the prices stated comes with a 2 years contract.

The only difference between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone is the additional of 3G support (duh), GPS (Assisted GPS), the back is now in black or white, flushed headphone jack and better audio quality.

I am so disappointed with this year WWDC. I was hoping they announced a better iPhone successor.

Now lets wait and see how much Singtel is going to charge for a 2 year plan for the iPhone 3G.

100% the iPhone 3G will be coming to Singapore. Check out Apple Singapore Store: iPhone 3G. But when is still a question mark.

The irony is that it is CHEAPER than a iPod Touch and with additional Phone, GPS and Bluetooth capability! Looks like Apple just killed the iPod Touch.

*UPDATE* The iPhone 3G link is up in Apple Singapore, http://www.apple.com/sg/iphone/, and Singtel is the only telecom so far to bring it, http://www.apple.com/sg/iphone/buy/.

Zhang Dong Liang (Nicholas Teo) Concert
Li Xiang bought the SGD$98 ticket to the Zhang Dong Liang Concert as there is a 10% discount from SISTIC. Apart from there, I think that SISTIC ticketing is a rip off. They increase their surcharge from $2 to $3 and apart from that, I have to pay handling charges. This is so ridiculous. This is what happen in Singapore when there is a monopoly. Just look at the fares for public transport, they keep increasing and increasing and we cannot do anything about it but to suck our own thumb.

Putting the price aside, the concert was fantastic, I think it is the best concert I have been to so far (I have been to only 3). The location is good, it is at Suntec Convention Center. The lighting is good. There is 2 screen projection on the left and right side with transition when switching to in-between cameras. There is even lyrics on the screen when he sang the song. I like concert when there is some talking and interaction rather than just pure singing. Zhang Dong Liang did just that by sharing us his life story including pictures of him when he is young projected on the screen.

Thumbs up for him!

Sex And The City
I have no idea why some people do not like the movie version. I have watched all the 6 seasons of Sex and the City and personally I find the movie is as great as well. Louis Vuitton, Prada and Versace are some of the labels you can see throughout the show. New York FTW!

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Li Xiang didn’t like this movie, but personally I find it not bad, I think it is even better than the first installment, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The fight scenes were better than the first but come no where close to the ones found in Lord of The Rings. This movie is about 2 hours and 30 minutes, it is good to go to the loo before the show. The 3rd installment, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and the 4th installment, The Silver Chair, will be filmed by another director according to Wikipedia.

I am going to catch Kung Fu Panda next, hear it is quite good.

Mystery Shopper
Li Xiang and I applied for the Mystery Shopper job through her ex-colleague for fun. The pay is really very little, SGD$8 for every feedback we submit. Our weekends for June and July will be burned by this job, but nevertheless it is just for the experience (just to make myself happier).

I have brought forward the launch of lesterchan.net a few days in advanced as I may not be free on the 9th June 2008 which is the original intended date of launch.

After more than 4 years of using the same layout, the old layout (version 2.0) has been finally replaced with this newer (version 3.0) layout. I think some of you may find this layout a little dull as compared to the previous layout because of the colors used. I am trying to come out with a variety of color schemes if possible because of the colors are controlled by CSS, the only limitation is choose the color. Do note that I am not a designer but a programmer. Most programmers are poor designers and most designers are poor programmers.

Changelog

• Upgraded site from WordPress 1.5.1 to WordPress 2.5.1
• Upgraded plugins from WordPress 1.5.1 to WordPress 2.5.1 compatibility
• Renamed /blogs/ to /blog/
• Merge Calendar and Archive Page
• Brand new AJAX driven Archive Page
• Brand new Donation Page
• Brand new AJAX driven Contact Me Page
• Re-coded Search engine
• Re-coded Gallery feature
• Re-coded Alex King’s Since Last Visit plugin
• Added Plugins Used Page
• Split Programming Page into 3 sub-pages, PHP, Java and Visual Basic
• Posting Comments is now in AJAX
• Movable menu boxes by brother cake’s Docking Boxes
• Menu is able to switch from left to right and vice versa and your preference will be remembered
• Javascript are all compressed/packed by Dean Edward’s Packer
• jQuery used extensively
• ThickBox used for Portfolio Images
• Using FamFamFam icons

Todo

• Add Playlist Page
• Add sitemap.xml
• Update favico.ico

Feel free to browse through the whole site if you have not been doing so for a very long time as most of the pages has been updated.

All the old URLs should be redirected properly to the new URLs, I have spent quite a lot of effort to ensure that.

You can report bugs in the comments =)

Samsung has been very kind to send me a Samsung VP-MX10 for review as well as a 4 GiB SDHC SanDisk memory card.

As this is my very first camcorder, this review may not be as in dept as I cannot compare it with any other camcorder besides the video feature of my digital camera.

Summary
Pros

• Reasonably priced
• Long battery life
• 34X optical zoom
• Compact and light weight
• Digital effects can be added

Cons

• Average video quality
• Poor LCD display in view finder
• No still image capture

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