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Monday, October 28, 2024

Saving Account Comparison (UOB One & GXS)

Following up from my last article, many have asked why not other banks such as UOB One and GXS (which is the currently most attractive).

One main reason is, there must be manual task to be done and some criteria to be met.

Here I have done a table out to show you the effective interest with the criteria if you are mindful to complete all those steps.

Comparing the two, UOB One account would be best for the first $150,000 for interest. However, it only pays out monthly. 

GXS is good as it pays daily for the base balance ($25,000) or every 4 months for the 2 boost pods if you are mindful to do it every 3 months. Which I feel is an hassle. The moment you missed, your effective interest will be lower. Also it only allows you to leverage up to $75,000 though the additional from interest does earn you the based 2.38% interest unlike Mari or UOB.

Monday, October 21, 2024

Black Myth Wukong Review, Guide and Tips

Finally completely the hottest game, Black Myth Wukong on my PS5. Not just once but 3 times, in order to prepare for the DLC with maximum stats and inventory of all drinks, soaks, weapons, armor, etc.

This is is really well crafted. From the story line to the logic in every game play. Not just punching the buttons away. Certain bosses have certain logic behind them or certain items you need to be carrying to help you.

I have gone through walkthrough, youtube video to name some to enjoy the maximum of the game. So here are some of the list I would recommend. Below includes also some logic explanation and story line created by others so you will appreciate the game better. Do note no glitches are shared here as mostly everyone is been patched.

Information
  • Story of the characters you met in the game.
  • All characters Journal entries
  • Additional dialogue when you use certain item on some bosses
  • All trophy list you will need to play NG+ to complete some of the armor and weapons

Logic
  • Chapter 2 Yellow Wind Ridge - The Yellow Sage help you by determining how good you are.\
  • Chapter 5 Yin Yang Boss Logic - This boss, can be easy or tough depending if you know the logic. Interesting game play for this.
  • How to unlock the 4th focus point. A reason why I played NG+2

Tips
  • IGN Walkthrough - When I was playing they only have to Chapter 3. Now they have up to Chapter 5. So it is still a great guide to help you though. 
  • Best place to farm for ingredients and level.
  • Secret areas in every chapter. Before going to final bosses
  • Bosses in each chapter and location include map of each chapter
  • Drinks and Soak locations
  • Gourd locations
  • Curios locations. Note not every Curios can be obtain more than once
  • Fire date seed which I was missing to complete the trophy after completing the game and repeat farming to finally got it
  • Tiger Tendon Belt which I repeat a few times to get it to complete the trophy
  • Venomous Armguard - In chapter 4, from Venom Daoist, hit 4 of hands off before defeating him. I missed this and have to do it in NG
  • Summon 2 sets of Duplicate
  • Bosses easy strategy

Hope the above helps you as it helps me.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Best Saving and Deposit Singapore

As a past financial adviser, I am a pretty thrifty person and always looking out for best deal. A so call "lobang" king labelled by friends and colleagues.

At the time of writing, I like to share two best deals that capture my eyes.


DBS/POSB Fixed Deposit (reference)

With a sum of $1,000 to $19,999, over a cause of 12 months, you will fetch 3.2% with their fixed deposit (FD). Do note you must not have any existing FD with them else you will not be eligible. And yes, the number is up to $19.999, the moment you enter $20,000, the interest will drop to 0.5%.

If you do have some money lying around that can be placed aside for 12 months, don't missed it.


Mari Saving Account (by Shopee)

This e-bank by Shopee gives you a 2.7% daily interest up to $100,000 in saving. You cannot top up more once your account have $100,000. You will need to cash out of it to top up. It support Fast transfer and PayNow, whether to transfer out or in. This is really convenient. Just in case you are worried, it's regulated by MAS up to $100,000.


Trying to top up beyond $100,000 and got denied.

Why I find this attractive where you might ask. Since many banks has salary account. Those salary account are pretty much activities driven. You need salary to be bank in and a minimum spend on their credit card. If you lapse paying the card you need to call in to waive off the charges. Not to mention to watch out of annual fee, etc. They pay out interest based on your balance daily at 12am.


Daily interest from $100,000.
$100,000 & 2.7% / 365 days.

As a past financial adviser before, you should always keep some liquidity money when you need it. Not lock away. So I find that Mari bank offers me this great flexibility. While been liquid, there is no salary or minimum sum and yet they pays you daily interest. No frills and even have added benefit when shopping in Shopee. What else can you ask for! Putting in a normal saving account will not make your money work hard for you.

So look no further if you just want a interest paying account and no requirements for it. Also gives you the flexibility. Use my referral code below:

Get $10.00 by signing up with MariBank Personal Banking!Simply download MariBank app and use my referral code: 4NVN97FE. T&Cs apply. Remember to make a price in Shopee within 14 days to get the $10.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Synology with Plex Media Server Unable to Browse Folder

So you have a Synology NAS. Great!

If you are like me who thinks that the Video Station from Synology isn't good enough and uses Plex. Fantastic!

However, if you like to have more function for the Plex Server such as RBAC (Role base access), live streaming of shows from Plex, etc. you might have to get a Plex Pass (their membership program). 

They come in a monthly, yearly and lifetime. You can check it out here. If you are not in an hurry, wait for Black Friday which falls on the 4th Friday after Thanks Giving every November. This year it falls on the 24th Nov 2023. That is when you might likely get a 50% discount off the lifetime Plex Pass which I got previously many years back. Trust me its worth it.

For Synology, you can just download the Plex Server binary here, and use Package Center to manually install it. Do choose the right package depending you are on the old DSM 6.x or new DSM 7.x.


So once you have Plex setup, you will want to map your existing Movies, Photos or even TV Shows folders. However, you might end up not able to let Plex Server browse it. Here is why.

Plex create a system, internal user, "PlexMediaServer". You will need to grant this user to permission to your media folders.


Hope this helps in case you encounter the same issue like me. I do forgot about this critical step all the time. So am recording this down for my future reference. :)

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Ubiquiti Camera with Synology Surveillance Station

With the new software update in Ubiquiti, all support for RTSP is just secured using RTSPS. Synology Surveillance Station has always support on Ubiquiti Cameras via RTSP, with this new update, you might have a challenge to add any Ubiquiti cameras into Synology.

With much research, I finally manage to locate a post that goes into that detail in on discussion in Ubiquiti community.

With the new RTSPS in Ubiquiti Protect, you will get an URL similar to the below:

rtsps://x.x.x.x:7441/aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ?enableSrtp

What you should do is convert the above by removing the "s" from rtsp and change the port number from 7441 to 7447 and lastly removing "?enableSrtp" in your URL which will looks like below:

rtsp://x.x.x.x:7447/aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ

Using the above amended URL, you can then add it as a User Defined camera into Surveillance Station in Synology.



Thursday, October 28, 2021

Sell your own car in Singapore

I own my first car and was loving it. Nothing really major happen. But my family has expanded over the last 4 years and my current car isn't sufficient to meet the demand.

When I was exploring to trade in when I do a purchase a new car. However, the trade in prices was not fantastic and you do not have an overlap time to at least give you sometime to settle down the new car while able to drive your old car.

So I went to explore some of the dealer brokers such as Carro, motorist (not onemotoring), SwiftQuote by Carousell (previously OneShift), Quotz by SGCarmart and lastly Platinum Motoring. I also put up in Carousell to try sell my car on my own at the same time. From there I got one dealer who did consignment for my car and posted as premium post on SGCarmart. Carousell do provide you all the documents and steps to sell your own vehicle if you manage to find a direct buyer. Check out the article.

In Carousell, I received a lot of consignment and I did allow one to post on my behalf. However, there was no response from any buyer from them. At the same time, I also receive offers from some dealers.

Platinum motoring didn't response to my request when I sign up. Possibly they only take in certain model of cars.

Carro response fast however they have the worse quote and doubted me when I did have an offer higher by a dealer in Carousell.

Motorist as usual response with 2 days. I have been getting a quote from them over the year and they often just follow up and I can see the price has either go down or up depending on the COE.

SwiftQuote came back with a "OK" price however, I was waiting for all to response.

Quotz after I send my car for assessment after paying a fee of SGD38 (promotion price offered SGD10 using referral), they will post all the pictures and report into their ebidding system. You will then received the link to view the live bidding. It runs for 2 days and on the last day cut off time at 12pm, they will offer you the price that was highest bid and you get to decide if you want to accept the offer within 2 days. I was given the highest price by them. Also happen to saw a friend who have wrote a review for them, I though why not give it a try.

From my car distributor where I got my new car, the highest they could give me was slightly less after pushing them hard for highest. However, that has not include assessment.

After all the quotes I have received, eventually I accepted the offer from Quotz. Here are the few reasons:

  1. Price is final as assessment is already done no more low ball unlike the rest.
  2. If buyer pull out after the acceptance, Quotz will still honour the deal.
  3. You will be given up to end of month to submit your car, given enough time for me to transit such as detailing of the car or installing dashcam etc. I have to provide at least 1/4 tank of petrol and not drove more than 80km per day.
  4. If a higher price is offered by others, you can redeem from Quotz SGD100 for price competitive.
All in all, the experience was great. Upon accepting the offer, Quotz will provide you initial deposit of SGD1000. And transfer the rest once the car is submitted via Cashier Order if you arrange to transfer the car during weekend or PayNow during weekday. PayNow only apply to a certain limit.

Check out their FAQ in their website.



Checklist
1. If you have pay off your car loan, make sure it is cleared from onemotoring status. Can check by trying to do a transfer to see if any financial status remains.
2. Remember to remove everything from your car. Arm rest compartment, glove box and car boot.

Lastly, once everything is completed, you can leave them a review on their Facebook page and you will be credited with $5 in return.



Update 8th Feb 2024
Of you keen to try them out no harm booking an appointment and decide yourself.
https://www.quotz.com.sg/referral?ref=MFpidWFVdTJscDE0YVpEakFyNHBBQT0


Update 9th Nov 2021
As my loan status hasn't untagged from my car, I was only able to do my transfer 1 week later. I still see my car at Quotz. I am suspecting, my last offer was from Quotz themselves. Since 5 mins before the ebidding time it was about 5k lesser than my offered price. And upon 12pm, it changed. Nevertheless, it was something I was comfortable with.

Remember to check your receipt for assessment if you are having the promotion price. I was charged $38 instead of $10 and only discover when I saw my bank statement.

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones Review

Today I am writing a review on Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones which I have purchase in Dec 2019. Having used it close to six months now, I would say it is a fair headphones. Definitely not the best but an average headphones pricing at SGD349.


Let's list down some of the features when you want a wireless headphones to help in your daily work.

  • Build quality
  • Sound Quality
  • Comfort
  • Noise Cancelling
  • Bluetooth connection stability
  • Microphone
  • Hear through mode (able to hear outside sound together)
  • Multi-device connections
  • Ease of use of the earphones
  • Ease of use of the app

Let go through go through each item and put a score to it.

Build quality 8/10
The build quality of the headphones are good. The case however get easily scratched with its smooth metallic painting. The plastic quality and build does not make the earphones looks cheap in any way. The case looks good but since it get scratch easily, you might end up getting a silicon case to cover it completely. Guess what, there are plenty of design for them.

Sound Quality 10/10
Sony being a music device manufacturer, it didn't fail in this category. If they do, I think they cannot be still in the market till date. Every song you play you can hear and enjoy good quality playback. You can also adjust the EQ in the app. This is where they excel.

Comfort 8/10
For the comfort level, there are multiple size of silicon tips for the ear bud. So you can choose what that fit you most. In fact, the right one would be one that stuff in your ear and hold it there without dropping. I have no problem wearing it for long period of time. However, it can still slide off for me with some heavy head movement. If they were smaller like the Jabra close to your ear, it could be less weightage to drop off.

Noise Cancelling 8/10
It has the usual noise cancelling. Of course since it is a in ear device, it cannot isolate the sound completely like an over ear headphones does. In this case, it serve it's purpose.

Bluetooth connection stability 2/10
This is what ignores me most. And just do a google search, you can find a lot of forum discussion. Pairing a device is fine and works seamlessly. However, the pain comes when you are in a call and it start to end you call abruptly. 

The next ignoring thing is when you are in a call or music, the left ear piece will lose it connection with no sound. Workaround is to place it back to the case to disconnect it and take it out again. This can happen anytime, and many times. Next the connection is not stable, even with the right ear still having sound, it still will disconnect on and off and connect back by itself.

Now this is the part, whether its first time connection or re-connection, there are chances that the connection will end up with lots of white noise. You will have to place the ear piece into the case to disconnect and wear it back again. Every incoming call will be in white noise more than half of the time especially using one side of the ear piece.

So other than pairing is seamless nothing else solve the rest of the issues. Whether is it a firmware upgrade or a service center repair. These things keep coming back.

Even their WH-1000XM3 headphone suffer the same fate if you google it around. Seems like Sony doesn't learn and just create one wireless headphones from their over-ear headphones and inherit all the same issues.

Even my Huawei FreeBuds which cost half the price works better.

Microphone 4/10
If you are in a quiet place, your other party will hear you loud and clear, however when your background start to have some noise, the other party will hear them very clearly. The microphones seems to pick up all the sound in your background include your voice. This is not a very smart microphone intelligence build in.

Whether on a PC or a mobile phone, it happens.

Hear through mode (able to hear outside sound together) 5/10
This feature in Sony is called Ambient sound. So yes it does have that capability. I really like that however it has an auto mode which fails big time. Often than not, I rather activate as and when I need it.

Multi-device connections 5/10
Yes it can be paired to multiple devices but it can only be connected to one at anyone time. This is something I thought could be improve. My Bose headset can at least do it with two at the same time. Jabra can do the same as well.

Ease of use of the earphones 4/10
Sony try hard and include more function but the hardware has only one touch surface. This results in trying to create function by tapping once, twice or thrice. It get so complicated that half the time I can't remember what each does. Including new functions is great but when you didn't device the hardware to be part of it, it makes memory skills requirement a must.

One thing to note, you are able to use one earbud and that is the only right side allowed.

Ease of use of the app 7/10
The app is nicely done. Not the best, but once you use it enough you will get to understand how to use it easily. I didn't put a very high score for this is because, firmware update via the app is really slow. No matter the connection speed of the data you are on.

Finally verdict, would I still pay the same price to get this Headset if given a choice? The answer would be No. The usability is very important as a wireless headset and since this is not even meant for sports and price as much as those on the market with water resistant ability, it is not worth. I am doubting to get another Sony headphones till they resolve the major usable issues.

If you add the wire and remove the mic, the headphone is perfect but not at this price.


Update 4th May 2020
Having turn off DSEE HX mode to test out the connection. Will update in a few days.