Now, there's a neater way for Singaporeans to top up thier ez-link stored value card. Through the Internet. Instead of queueing up at top-up kiosks and counters, it can now be done from the comfort of home via a PC with an Internet connection.

The ez-link card is Singapore’s popular contact-less stored value card, used by commuters to pay for their bus and train rides. It is also used in retail such as at McDonald's.
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This is a story about two doctors in the same city. It's about two family doctors that my family visits. And how little faith some people have in computer programs. One is my wife's gynaecologist who helped us to achieve parenthood when we thought all was lost. The other is the family skin specialist who too, has helped with skin rashes when we were also about to give up.

The thing is, they both use IT. But the difference is stark. The gynae has a networked system. In his consultation room, he keys in his prescription and fees on his PC. When we go outside, the cashier has the information on her PC, so she simply collects the fees and prints out the receipt. No data re-entry. Pretty high-tech for a doctor.
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NO, NOT ME. The title above is the tagline for Zoe Tay's new ad with Imedeen (some skin product company). You can check out the ads here and here.

For those not familar with Zoe Tay, she is like the most popular local celebrity actress here of all time. I'm just wondering whether she has been taken for a ride. Perhaps Tay did not recognize the innuendo behind the words "I Swallow"?

Anyway Zoe Tay, ask your male friends. They will tell you why you need to get that ad off the street. Apologies to the tech readers since this article has nothing to do with technology. But it certainly gives you a taste of what Singapore is about.

Congratulations to Mr Sim Wong Hoo. After multiple suits and counter suits centering around Creative's MP3 patent, which describes a method of arranging music tracks in a hierarchical order in a portable music player, Apple has finally agreed to settle the litigation with a US$100 million paycheck.

Creative's shares surged 37 percent to US$8.25 on NASDAQ according to news reports. And what did Steve Jobs have to say? "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent," said Jobs, Apple's CEO. Gee, does that sound like sour grapes?

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The second last time Michael Dell came to Singapore was in March 2002. I should know, since I
interviewed him then. Dell was in town again last week. And, my, what a contrast it was now and four years back.

In 2002, Dell said it wouldn't go into PDAs. At that time, it refused to use AMD processors. Shortly after that, Dell started its line of PDAs and just recently, and reports now confirm that Dell is finally going touse AMD processors in its desktops and laptops.

Also in 2002, Dell was high in spirits as the company continued to gain market share in PCs at the expense of HP and Compaq which were both in the middle of their merger exercise, and the uncertainty of their future product roadmap meant many users flocked to Dell for certainty.

On the day that Dell spoke to thousands at Suntec City last week, Dell announced its 4.1 million laptop battery recall. As at this blog, Dell's earnings reportedly dropped by half. HP, on the other hand, is now riding high and poised to overtake IBM as the world's largest tech company for the first time ever.

I guess a lot happens in four years, especially in the IT world when a year seems like a decade.