L.E.A.R.N.I.N.G

Baby Cubes - Great Storage for Freezing Home-made food for babies

2012-01-02T23:50:00.000+08:00

I have been using both Philips AVENT Via Breast Milk Storage and smaller disposable plastic containers of around 60 ml (2 Oz) for quite some time. While the Avent VIA is a good storage solution, it is a bit too big and bulky to carry around. Especially, since my wife like to pack fruit and yogurts into small portions for our kid. So we resorted to disposable plastic containers, however, it is wasteful and not environmentally friendly.

After asking around, we found out about Juvenile Solutions Baby Cubes (2 oz/Pack of 8), where we can directly freeze the home-made baby food in 1 oz or 2 oz containers and all we have to do is to just bring out the amount that we required. This should greatly add to our convenience while we can remain environmentally friendly. On top of that, Baby Cubes can be frozen and are microwave safe. They are also BPA-free.

Looking forward to receiving the batch of Baby Cubes that I have ordered from Amazon. =D

Amazon Kindle Family of eBook Reader

2011-12-30T09:59:00.000+08:00

I have had the "Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers" for about 3 months now. It is simply amazing.

Once, I heard a review on radio about a book called "Born To Run", after some time, i decided to get the book. With the Kindle, there is no need for me to drop by any bookshop. Just search and buy off the kindle bookstore. The Whispersync technology automatically deliver the book into my kindle within a minute. Instant gratification!

I have benefited so much from the available free eBook, from potty training to meditation. The amount of books readily available is astonishing, one just can't stop reading!

Feel free to check out the comprehensive options available for the Kindle owner wannabe. =D

submit is not a function, error in javascript

2011-12-29T17:53:00.001+08:00

Was trying to figure out why i am having this error "submit is not a function" while trying to submit my form within the javascript method.

Spent half a day finally to realized that i have a button that is having the name "submit".
Once i rename it to "submit_btn" the form gets submitted successfully!

So i learned that dom elements should not be named as "submit" =D

50% discount off Ukulele from Amazon

2011-12-29T16:47:00.002+08:00

Grab this end of season sales while it is still available. Great by for anyone who want to learn ukulele or just to get their kids a guitar like instrument (like me!)

Parenting: Are your kids testing your patience?

2011-12-28T02:32:00.001+08:00

Getting toddlers to cooperate with us can be a daunting task. Especially when they are starting to recognize themselves as individual.

Regardless if it is meal time, potty time, bath time or bedtime. They can hardly sit through the entire session without getting distracted or suddenly recall that they wanted to do something (or want you to do something), etc...

As parents and care givers, it is unavoidable that we get frustrated, upset or even angry trying to get our toddlers to obey and work within our limits.

Here are some simple practical ideas that I find useful on managing my precious little one.

Right Expectations

Firstly, check ourselves. Are we expecting too much from our toddlers? A 20+ month toddler just do not have the capacity to keep at a singular task for an extended period of time. So exactly how long is considered too long? Think about it, a fully functioning and intelligent teenager usually have an attention span of average about 30 to 45 minutes (why do you think lessons taught in schools are usually in periods of about an hour? )

My rule of thumb is this, when our kids start to get restless, protest and stir, the session has lasted too long. So how do I manage that? I let my boy go. Before letting him off, I preempt him that after that, he will have to return and complete the current activity.

Here is the systematic approach:

1. Once the kid start to get restless, offer suggestions on alternate short, non-disruptive activity. Example: my kid loves his machine toys, during mealtime when he start to get restless, I will sometime offer "Do you want to bring your machine toy here to eat with you?"

2. Preempt them that after the "break" they will have to come back. My preempt usually goes like this. "Daddy let you go take one machine, after that you must come back and continue. Ok?" Only after he verbally agrees, then I will let him go.

3. Getting the kid to agree to come back is of course the easy part. The challenging part is getting them to do that. My kid usually gets distracted with other toys or will just run away to some corner and hide there. This is usually the part that will test our patience to the max.

They will whine, cry, struggle and do anything within their means to escape. For me, it is a chance to hold him to his words and "play" the patience game with him.

I will point out "Just now you told Daddy that you will take your machine and go back right?" It is normal that they will get frustrated and cry. I normally prevent him from playing with any other items and doing any other thing until he is ready to return to his meal.

Personally, I think that it is important that I should be responsible to my kid and myself by holding him to his words. It is a very emotionally taxing task, seeing the pitiful looks and hearing him cry. Sometimes I just feel like giving in and let him have his way, but I know that, in the long run that would probably do him more harm than good.

Feel free to cuddle, carry or hug them to sooth them. Love and discipline are not mutually exclusive! In fact, I believe that providing loving support during a discipline episode is extremely crucial so that it will not leave the kid feeling resentful towards us.

4. Be flexible and compromise within reasonable limits. Normally, by the third step, I would have my kid back at the high chair for his meal. However, depending on the circumstance, I am flexible to offer additional alternatives. Which is to go through step 1,2 and 3 again!

KEEP in mind that every kid is different. Whatever strategy we use in parenting, it is important to be aware of our state of mind. I believe that the best results are obtained when we are in a calm, loving and balance state.

Today I finally realized that "Our kids are not testing our patience, they are merely TRAINING OUR PATIENCE."

quota_exceeded_err 22 on Mobile Safari (iOS) when using localStorage of html5

2011-12-20T18:09:00.003+08:00

Using localStorage of html5 is pretty straight forward.

var bar = 'this is the value to store';

localStorage.setItem('foo',bar);

localStorage.getItem('foo');

localStorage.removeItem('foo');

Testing was smooth on Chrome, Firefox, desktop Safari...

However when testing on Mobile Safari, i got the following error...
"quota_exceeded_err 22"

Goggled around for the issue to no avail.
Finally came across a blog with the solution to this problem.

Which is to turn "private browsing" off in Safari.

To do that... Go to "Settings"

Scroll to "Safari"

Under "Privacy" group, Set "Private Browsing" to OFF.

Hope this can help you the few hours of googling.

The blog that i found : http://frederictorres.blogspot.com/2011/11/quotaexceedederr-with-safari-mobile.html

Logitech Revue Companion Box with Google TV and Keyboard Controller

2011-12-10T18:05:00.001+08:00

This is probably the best value for money google tv setup box that we will be able to find!
Now with the price dropped (by more than THREE times) it is selling for less than 100 bucks!

Surfing the web and playing you-tube video on that big screen in your living room is going to be a breeze... a cheap breeze... =D

Check out Logitech Revue Companion Box with Google TV and Keyboard Controller for yourself.

Born To Run ~ Christopher McDougall

2011-12-05T14:35:00.001+08:00

Just completed my fifth marathon yesterday. This was the most taxing marathon that i have participated so far. Mainly due to the lack of training. The furthest training that i ran was 10 Km... 3 times a week. And i stopped running 3 weeks before my marathon. Mainly because I was down with flu and I seriously though of giving up this year marathon.

At the back of my mind, I know that without much training, our body may not be able to take the strain of the long race. I know that can still complete the marathon, it is just how much pain I have to go through both during and AFTER the marathon. And i seriously prayed to God, Buddha and the Universe to help me complete the marathon safe and sound...

Knowing that i did not clock enough mileage for my training, i constantly remind myself to feel and listen to my body, not to push myself over the limit. Completing this year race will be good enough for me. So in the end, i came in 6 hours and 30 minutes...

Got the chance to talk to my friend after the race. We were chatting about our running gears and i got to know that he was running in Sandals! YES! he ran the marathon in Sandals.. you heard it correctly. When i queried further, apparently, he read about the Rarámuri or Tarahumara (Native American people of northwestern Mexico) which running a marathon is like an usual affair. I heard about the book "Born to Run" by Christoper McDougall being reviewed on radio before but did not really pay any attention to it. Now that i have someone I really know review and highly recommend the book, I am going to get the book and read it... Gonna see how it is going to change my life....

Great Offer for Amazon Cyber Monday

2011-11-28T13:59:00.001+08:00

i.Sound Portable Power Max with 16,000 mAh

This portable backup battery is compatible with iOS, Android and Blackberry mobile devices. You can snag it for $69.99 instead of its typical $129.99.

GLEE Seasons 1 and 2!

2011-09-17T12:50:00.000+08:00

My wife is an avid fan of GLEE. Since i am going to ship in some books bought from amazon from the USA, i got both the GLEE complete season 1 and 2 to ride with the shipment of books.

With a favorable exchange rate for the USD, this is a great time for me to get these =D

Anyway, here are the DVD set for GLEE season 1 and 2. Definitely save me more money than buying off the DVD shops in Singapore.

Now, all i have to do is to wait for my shipment from vPost USA to arrive.

Black "Metal" Like Particles Found in Milk Powder

2011-08-17T00:27:00.014+08:00

For all Daddys and Mummys feeding your kid with Gain IQ Stage 3 (from 1 year onwards) milk powder. Please allow your milk preparation some time to settle down and check if there are any foreign object in your milk too!

This was the second time i encountered it. The first, i thought it was from my water. This time round, the water was clear. At first i thought ants have entered into my milk tin. But after taking them out.. they are hard and metal like.. Not ants...

Here are the photos that i have taken

Here are some close up after i have fished out the particles with a spoon.

You can see 2 bigger black seems like metallic pieces and several other naked eyes visible pieces.

I went online to google about Similac recall and black particles in Similac Milk. Apparently, a mummy in USA faced with the same situation posted a warning in babycenter in August 2009.

Also on Similac, in Sep 2010, there was a Similac Recall in the USA dues to some beetles found near the milk production area. You can read more about the similac recall here.

I have already emailed Abbott and AVA about it. Will see if there are any reply from either of the party. [UPDATE 18th Aug 2011: Abbott has contacted me. Will be getting the milk to their lab for testing. Seems like it is scorched particles that is resulted from the manufacturing process.]

[UPDATE 19th Aug 2011: AVA contacted me to follow up on my feedback.

1. Same reason as Abbott gave me that it may be due to the manufacturing process that will result in some scorched particles
2. They do not need to get a sample from me to run a separate test. They have already spoken to Abbott and Abbott is suppose to provide them with the test results within a month.
3. Abbott have already collected the tin of milk powder and it is currently on its way to Ireland for the manufacturing plant to investigate.

Well seems like I am not able to get AVA to perform an independent review, I will have to trust the integrity of Abbott and its staff to provide us with an accurate and non-bias report.

Will update once i have the results. =D
]

Here is how the milk tin look like

The batch and manufacturing date (02554NT MFG 21 FEB 2011), if you are also giving Similac Gain IQ, check if you are having the same batch number... Have to let your milk settle first before giving it to your precious little one.

UPDATES!
A nice lady for Abbott called to provide some possible explanation of the black particles.

1. Scorched particles:

Apparently, there will be some scorched particles as a result of the manufacturing process the article below has some information about it.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7272542_usda-particle-standard-dry-milk.html

2. Or black particles of lactose emulsion formed after high temperature baking caramel particles.
I found an article about this too. you can read more about it here
http://mybabyformulastore.com/united-states-found-little-black-pigment-powder-particles-miso-milk-food-industry/

Whatever is the case, they will update me once the get the milk powder to the lab for testing.
For now, if you are having some concern, just use coffee filter to filter the milk. For me, i just bought a new tin =D

[Update 19th Aug 2011 : Change title from "Black Metal Like Particles Found in Similac Gain IQ" to just "Milk Powder" because it seems like this may happen to ANY other milk powder. ]

Getting FitFlop in Singapore

2010-11-02T17:20:00.005+08:00

More and more people around me are getting their FitFlop. Both my sisters have a pair each, and both are getting their second pair.

My wife after trying on FitFlop from my sisters decided to get 2 pairs with different color! Well too bad most of the FitFlop designs are catered for ladies.

Apparently, walking about in these FitFlop helps to keep the ladies in shape! Wow! Getting it in the Singapore departmental stalls would cost over a hundred buck. Riding on the low USD, i have decided to order from Amazon. Shipping nowadays is so easy with either vpost or many other credit cards offers shipping services. I am using borderlessbuys.com.sg with the promotion of AMEX cards for free upgrade to express shipping. =D

2010-11-02T17:20:00.001+08:00

Napoleon Hill on the "RICHES" and "PENALTIES" envelope

2010-10-06T14:17:00.001+08:00

NTU's Ranking Plunges in Revamped Times Higher Education List

2010-10-04T12:31:00.003+08:00

Apparently, from Straits Times report on 17th September 2010, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) had tumbled 101 places on the university ranking list!

However, it is typical of reporters and newspapers to blow things up to make it more "news worthy"

Check out the attached email from President of NTU Dr Su Guaning to the Alumni for more details of the "mis-information"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear alumni

In the last week, my colleagues and I have received emails and letters of concern and outrage from students and our alumni about recent media stories saying NTU has dropped 101 places in university rankings.

The NTU community is understandably upset, confused and alarmed and is right in asking what the NTU leadership is doing about this. As NTU’s President, I can understand your feelings and realise how our hard work and efforts in recent years to build NTU’s reputation have been damaged by these media reports.

Let me state categorically that NTU did NOT drop 101 places in university ranking.

This misperception came about because in The Straits Times article (17 Sep 2010), the results of two ranking systems based on entirely different methodologies were erroneously compared and highlighted in the headlines and opening paragraph.

To set the record straight, I wrote a 900-word commentary in Monday’s issue of The Straits Times (attached here) so the public and the NTU community can have the right perspective with which to view the rankings of universities, We initially wanted to address the concerns in The Straits Times’ Forum page but as there is a strict enforcement of space on that page which would have limited our explanation of such a complex issue thoroughly, I chose to write an editorial piece in The Straits Times’ Review page instead.

At the same time, NTU also sent letters signed by me to Lianhe Zaobao and Berita Harian explaining why their media stories which had mentioned that NTU had dropped in university rankings were incorrect, Let me give you some background to the rankings here so you can make your own intelligent conclusions.

Since 2004, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Education (Times), two commercial organisations, had been collaborating on the Times Higher Education-Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings. From this year, they parted ways and now produce their own separate university rankings.

The QS World University Ranking was released on 8 Sep 2010, The results of that ranking, where NTU came in 74^th and NUS, 31^st (both down by one position from 2009) were published in Lianhe Zaobao and TODAY, but not in the Straits Times. QS 2010 continued with the same methodology it had used since 2004 when it had partnered Times.

Times, together with their new partner, Thomson Reuters, designed a completely different methodology. They lean towards classical research parameters that advantages older, more established universities. The five areas measured include Citations (32.5%), Research (30%), Teaching* (30%), International Mix (5%) and Industry Income (2.5%). This ranking was released a week after QS 2010.

All that is fine, except when results from the two rankings based on different methodologies are compared. Doing that is highly erroneous because as I had written in The Straits Times’ commentary, it is like comparing apples with durians.

Let me give you an example. Suppose you are the top student in your school. But you emerged in the 200^th place in the school’s debating contest. Does that mean you have dropped 199 places? There’s really no comparison at all.

The importance of not making comparisons between the two was stressed by Times’ rankings editor Phil Baty and reported in The Straits Times story: “Any movement up or down the ranking table cannot be seen as a change in performance by an individual country or institution, and it’s not relevant to make comparisons.”

Despite that, The Straits Times made that comparison in the headline and opening paragraph and said that NTU had plunged 101 places in ranking.

Many world-renowned universities have responded to the Times rankings, highlighting some bizarre results and advising the public to take the rankings with “a truckload of salt”. I attach below some hyperlinks to these articles so you can have a better idea of what the international university community is debating about on this matter.

Internationally, the QS 2010 Ranking is the more established of the two. University rankings don’t tumble overnight like stock prices. It takes years to build a university; so its standing does not swing wildly in a year or two. In the QS ranking, both NTU and NUS were both down by one position from last year. The performance of both universities has been consistent over the last four years and this shows the stability of the QS ranking.

On the other hand, Times’ 2010 rankings is entirely new and its criteria have yet to be accepted. A detailed analysis shows it is 88 per cent computed from research-related indicators and being retrospective, it favours the more established universities with longer histories in research.

For example, as the citations are for 2004-2008 and given that it typically takes 10 years or more from the time one starts on a research, gets it published to the time citations build up for that research project, this parameter is in effect measuring the performance of NTU and that of the other universities from as far back as 1995.

Although the roots of this university go back to 55 years ago, NTU really started as a practice-oriented, teaching university only in 1991. We ramped up our research intensity more recently, accelerating from 2006. In the past five years, NTU has been awarded $887 million in external competitive research grants. It will, however, take many years for NTU’s research efforts to make an impact in rankings such as Times’ that have retrospective parameters.

Despite that, NTU today is widely seen internationally as one of the fastest rising universities in the world. In fact, considering that we started out only in 1991, NTU is the youngest university in the Top 100 universities ranked in the QS 2010.

We are currently starting on a branding exercise for NTU and our position in the established QS ranking will be one of the pillars of NTU’s branding.

The NTU leadership is confident that we will continue to make great strides and that we will realise our potential to be a great global university. This is not empty talk but stems from the confidence bestowed on us by our world-class faculty and partners, our students, our alumni and their employers.

You would probably have read about our plans to partner Imperial College London, ranked among the top five universities in the world to set up Singapore’s third medical school.

The results of our good work may not be immediately captured in rankings such as Times'. But our students know the immediate benefits of our world-class facilities and being taught by outstanding faculty.

For example, Nanyang Business School’s MBA programme has consistently been ranked in the world’s top 30 by Financial Times and achieved its best score of 69^th place worldwide in the annual ranking by The Economist this year, up two places from last year. The two use different methodologies but NBS’ performance in both rankings has been consistent. The NBS’ programme has been the number one MBA programme in Singapore for several years already and is regularly placed among the top four in Asia-Pacific.

Today, NTU is the choice university for the majority of young international researchers awarded scholarships by the National Research Foundation. In the recent L’Oréal Singapore for Women in Science National Fellowships 2010, NTU’s women scientists were awarded two of the three fellowships.

In last month’s Crowbar Awards, an international award for students to showcase their creative talents, NTU made a clean sweep of the Best of Categories and Best of Show awards despite stiff competition from 39 schools worldwide. In this year’s F1 Race held in Singapore, our engineering students, whose solar car took top spot in the inaugural Singapore Green One eco-car race, won the privilege of being the curtain raiser in this international race.

As I said in The Straits Times article, not many Singaporeans realise that in the more established QS World University Rankings, Singapore has two universities in the Top 100 universities worldwide. Aside from Switzerland, Singapore is the only other small country to have achieved this feat.

Besides cheering our sister university NUS on, all of us at NTU can hold our heads high. There are 14,000 universities worldwide and NTU is clearly within the world’s top 1% of universities.

DR SU GUANING

PRESIDENT

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope this clears the air and that NTU is still among the top 1 % of the world's university. =D

The 80/20 rule, The Pareto Principle

2010-09-29T10:17:00.004+08:00

This rule, which dates back to 1906, says that

20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results,
20 percent of your products will yield 80 percent of your sales and 80 percent of your profits, and
20 percent of your customers will buy 80 percent of your products and services.

Read more about 80/20 rule at Brian Tracy's blog

A Very Nice Read About Anger and Love from Paulo Coelho Blog

2010-09-24T09:48:00.001+08:00

story sent by Anupam Karn

A master asked his disciples:
‘Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?’

the disciples thought for a while, and one of them said
‘Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’
‘But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you? ‘Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’
The disciples gave him some other answers but none satisfied the master.

Finally he explained:
‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.’

Then the master asked:
‘What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small…’
And he finally said:
‘When they love each other even more, what happens?
‘They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love.
‘Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’

Source:
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/23/10-sec-read-why-to-shout/

Buying Cheap Fit Flop in Singapore

2010-09-23T23:59:00.003+08:00

With the US Dollar at such a good rate against Singapore Dollar. It is a good time to buy FitFlop shoes from US sites. Many of the sites have free shipping within USA. So make use of services such as vPost or borderlessbuys.com.sg to ship back to Singapore. I found the following site that sells shoes at a very good price (cheap). You can use the code 'SHOEBUY' to get 10% off for most brands. But too bad for me, the 10% does not apply to FitFlop. It applies to the Doc Martin that i want to buy though. =D

10% Off Any Purchase at Shoebuy.com plus Free Shipping. Enter 'SHOEBUY' to redeem at checkout.

The Golden Hour

2010-09-23T11:36:00.001+08:00

by Brian Tracy on Sep 21, 2010

You become what you think about most of the time. And the most important part of each day is what you think about at the beginning of that day.

Start Your Day Right

Take 30 minutes each morning to sit quietly and to reflect on your goals. You’ll find when you read the biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women that almost every one of them began their upward trajectory to success when they begin getting up early in the morning and spending time with themselves.

Feed Your Mind with Positive Ideas

This is called the Golden Hour. The first hour sets the tone for the day. The things that you do in the first hour prepare your mind and set you up for the entire day. During the first thirty to sixty minutes, take time to think and review your plans for the future.

Use Your Quiet Time Effectively

Here are four things that you can do during that quiet time in the morning.

Number one is personal planning. Take time to review your plans for accomplishing your goals and change your plans if necessary.

Number two is think of better ways to accomplish your goals and objectives. As an exercise, assume that the way you’re going about it is totally wrong and imagine going about it totally differently. What would you do different from what you’re doing right now?

Number three, reflect on the valuable lessons that you have learned and are learning as you move toward your goals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check out the full post here The Golden Hour

Windows7 Mouse USB device not recognize

2010-09-17T14:56:00.004+08:00

Just had an issue with Windows. Out of a sudden, i have the error pop up about some "Unrecognized USB Devices". After that, my USB mouse stop working. I plugged in my external harddisk and it is still working. Somehow, seems like only the mouse is affected.

Tried to uninstall and reinstall the driver. Did not work.

Tried to use System Restore. Did not work.

After Googling for it, this is what works for me:

1. Shutdown the computer.

2. Unplug the power socket.

3. Remove the battery (if you are using notebook)

4. Wait for about a minute.

5. Plug back everything and it should work just fine after that.