Super Cluedo, take 2

Cluedo Super Sleuth, subtitled The Ultimate Challenge, is the UK's next attempt to improve Cluedo, 9 years after Super Cluedo Challenge. Did they succeed?

Cluedo Super Sleuth has 6 suspects, 6 weapons and 9 rooms. It also has 18 clue tokens, 18 item cards and tokens, and 36 event cards. This betrays its Super Cluedo Challenge roots.

It also has something unique: 12 room tiles that are placed only when a player first steps through a doorway and into a missing space. There are three constraints: (i) the first tile is always the Main Entrance, (ii) the doorways must lined up, (iii) the board must be in a 4x3 grid.

When a new room tile is placed, clue and item tokens are placed on the indicated spaces. When a player lands next to a token, it is removed and he gets a clue or item card respectively. The tokens are never replenished. When they are gone, they are gone.

Clue cards are the suspects/weapon/room cards. Each player has to collect his set of clue cards!

Item cards give a player some special abilities if and when he chooses to use them. They are mostly single-use.

A player moves using one die. It has two red dots and numbers 3-6. He can choose to move up to the number. This is useful if he wants to land beside an item or clue token.

If the player rolls a red dot (33.3% chance), he picks up an event card instead and follows the instruction there. After handling the event, the card is placed at the bottom of the events deck.

A player may make a suggestion to one other player when he lands in a room on his turn. A player can only make a suggestion to all players when he has the relevant item card or when an event allows him to do so.

What do I think?

Cluedo Super Sleuth is Super Cluedo Challenge done right.

First, the suggestion mechanism is back!

Second, even though there is still a race for the clue cards, at least the players can pick them up directly. There is no need to uncover a clue counter first and then race somewhere else.

Is Cluedo Super Sleuth better than the original game? It is hard to say. The game will start slow as everyone collects their clue cards. At this stage, it is possible to make suggestions, but it is only possible to deduce from positive answers.

When all the clue cards are collected, it will work just like the original game. However, it will take longer as a player may only make a suggestion to one other player.

My final comments? Ditch the new elements and just play with the original rules!

Master of Clue, not

Clue Master Detective is the 1988 US deluxe makeover of Clue.

Like Super Cluedo Challenge, it can be played with the original rules. It has 10 suspects, 8 weapons, 12 locations and a simplified board.

Unlike Super Cluedo Challenge, the new rules are only "slightly" different.

First, a player may only make one suggestion in a room. He may not stay in the room, nor may he re-enter the same room the next turn. The exception is when a player is pulled to a room as part of a suggestion. This rule is usually overlooked, due to the poor wording in the rule book.

This rule seems drastic, but it is targeted at the "campers" who stay in a room and spoil the game by making it too obvious.

Second, there are now snoop spaces. When a player lands on one on his way (it does not have to be an exact move), he may view one randomly-picked card from another player.

Third, when a player makes a suggestion, it does not stop at the first player with a match, but continues to go round the table. Every player who has a match has to show him one card that matches.

What do I think?

The snoop spaces are best used at the beginning of the game, because you are more likely to view different cards. Anyway, this action does not waste a turn. It can be abused by a player by moving in a tight square every turn — he gets to view one card per turn.

But this is nothing compared to the round-table suggestion. This is quite a game changer.

The worst-case is that three cards are shown. Everyone can cross those cards off. This is probably needed at the beginning to prune the number of unknown cards. In a 4-player game, a player has 6-7 cards and he has to figure out 20-21 cards!

What does it mean if 2 cards are shown? A few possibilities:

• the suggester has one of the cards
• one player has two of the cards (he needs to show only one)
• one card is part of the solution

What if only 1 card is shown:

• the suggester has two of the cards
• the suggester has one card, another player one, one card is part of the solution
• one player has two of the cards, one card is part of the solution
• two of the cards are part of the solution

What if no cards are shown:

• the suggester has all the cards
• the suggester has one of the cards, two cards are part of the solution
• the suggester has two of the cards, one card is part of the solution
• the cards are the solution

It may look complicated, but in exchange, you get a lot of interlinked data points. In the middle of the game, once you validate or invalidate some of the assumptions, you will be able to follow the chain and infer the others by logic. In other words, the game may end sooner than you expected.

But is the new suggestion mechanism worse? I have to reserve my judgement until I try it out.

The Cluedo Challenge that was not

Super Cluedo Challenge is anything but. I am not surprised if you have not heard of it. It was released in 1986 and has largely been forgotten by time.

Super Cluedo Challenge is actually two games in one. Even though it is not mentioned anywhere in the rule book, you can play the original Cluedo if you want. In that aspect, it is better than the original game: it comes with 9 suspects, 9 weapons and 9 rooms; every player can have the same number of cards, and the whole board is reachable with fewer movement.

However, the game play as described in the rule book just plain bad. Or at least, it is not the same deduction game that you are looking for.

Each murder card now has two colours and two numbers in its four corners. There is no fixed ordering and each card has a unique combination.

The three murder cards denoting the suspect, weapon and room are put into their own card holders that allow each flap to be examined independently. The players must not know which card goes into which card holder, or it would be too easy to narrow down the card.

The players will examine the colours and numbers under the flaps over the course of the game. This is the main mechanism to identify the cards.

To do this, the players move to one of the 30 faced-down clue counters, labeled 1-30, scattered on the board. The player then does the action indicated on the corresponding lookup table. The majority are to "race" to one of the twelve weapons / garden ornaments around the board. Once there, the player then takes one clue card, the majority of which is to examine 1 or 2 flaps.

Some actions or clue cards allow the player to collect murder cards, but getting murder cards is not as useful as examining the flaps.

Each clue counter and weapon / garden ornament can only be used once. They are placed back on the board only when someone rolls a double-six or when there are three clue counters left.

What are the problems?

First, there is just not enough overlapping colours / numbers combination. There are 12 flaps altogether. However, it is not necessary to examine all of them. It should be sufficient to examine 8 in most cases. With the right murder cards in your hand, you need to examine even fewer. For example, you might have a shot at the solution if you have opened 6 flaps and have seen 4 murder cards.

This is assuming you know the the colour / number positions for each card. The bundled detective notes tries to make it harder by obscuring the positions.

With some luck, you could examine 6 flaps with just 3 clue counters. That would mean a pretty short game.

Second, the entire suggestion mechanism — the core of Cluedo — is missing!

Third, this game just degenerates into a series of chases. Once a clue is "uncovered", all the players must race towards it. This is not optional. Once one player reaches the weapon / garden ornament, the players then resume trying to land on a clue counter.

The game is not improved even if this is made optional. Every player then just do his own thing. It is like a multi-player solitaire.

The weapons and garden ornaments are just decorations — secondary clue counters. The rooms do not serve any purpose except as obstructions.

To sum up

Super Cluedo Challenge does not live up to its name. Just use the original rules.

The New Clue

Unlike Monopoly, Clue does not need many fixes.

Starting position

Everyone starts in the middle of the board.

Rationale: this addresses the fairness of the starting position.

Cards

Everyone gets the same number of cards. In a 4-players game, each player gets four cards and two are opened. In a 5-players game, each player gets three cards and three are opened.

The opened cards are not part of the game and cannot be referenced.

Rationale: this puts everyone on even ground. However, this simplifies the game slightly.

An alternative is to add two more cards for 4-5 players game. The cards can be a blank suspect card (commits suicide), a blank weapon card (bare hands) or the middle of the board. The unused card is out of the game and must be placed face-up.

Rationale: this is to restore the original difficulty.

Movement

A player may move diagonally in the hallway.

Players may pass through a room. Rooms count as two spaces. The middle of the board is passable and counts as two spaces.

A player must leave a room by the door, but he may enter a room by the wall. He may enter and leave the middle of the board anywhere.

When a player rolls 1 in a room, he is allowed to move to an adjacent rooms directly.

Rationale: it takes way too long to move between rooms. As a result, the room is typically the last to be found and it always boils down to a race to the rooms at the end.

Summoning

If a player is summoned, he may choose to return to his original space immediately at the end of the turn.

Rationale: it is really disruptive to the player if he is a suspect.

The New Monopoly

Even when playing with the correct rules, Monopoly is still very chancy and still takes too long.

Here is my take to shorten the playing time and improve the game play at the same time.

Starting cash

Rationale: this is to avoid too little or too much cash in the system.

Pre-owned properties

Each player will get some properties upfront at the start of the game. He has to pay for them.

Rationale: this is to speed up the property acquisition phase.

First mover advantage

The first round is special. If a player does not land on an unowned property, he does not resolve that space and instead, moves to the first unowned property.

Rationale: the first few starting players have an advantage over the rest, especially in a 5-6 player game. The last two players basically struggle to buy any properties at all.

Passing GO

Rationale: this is to avoid too little or too much cash in the system.

A player pays 10% property tax for all his incomplete properties.

Rationale: this is to encourage players to trade to form full sets.

On the other hand, there is also a house/hotel tax for each property:

The tax is doubled when there is a housing shortage.

Rationale: this is to prevent players from hogging the houses and causing a housing shortage.

If a player has got the "General Repair" card, he can keep it and use it once to avoid paying tax when he passes GO.

Rationale: this is to avoid double taxation.

Last few properties

When there are as many properties left as the number of players, they are auctioned off one at a time, starting with the most valuable property. Each player can only get one property.

Rationale: this eliminates the slow wait for someone to land on those last few properties.

No small bills

Auctions are always in multiples of $10. Taxes are always rounded up to the nearest $10.

Rationale: it takes too long to find change for $1 and $5.

Chance

If a player lands on Chance, Community Chest or Tax and he still remains on that space after resolving it, he has the option to roll the dice again. He has to pay $10 in the first quadrant, $20 in the second, $40 in the third and $80 in the fourth. This option does not stack — if he lands on Chance/Community Chest/Tax again, that is his fate.

Rationale: this is to increase the chance for a player to land on an unowned property, especially in the first few rounds.

Utilities

If a player lands on a utility (Electric Company or Water Works), he pays $10 for every property and house that he has. Hotel counts as 5 houses.

If a player has both utilities, he is allowed to upgrade them once by buying hotels at $150 each. A player who lands on an upgraded utility pays 25% more.

Rationale: utilities are way underpowered, especially towards the end of the game.

The player collects an extra $25 when he passes GO for each utility that he owns.

Rationale: the player is paid for providing a service.

Railroads

If a player has all four railroads, he is allowed to upgrade them once by buying hotels at $150 each. A player who lands on an upgraded railroad pays 25% more.

Rationale: railroads are somewhat underpowered towards the end of the game.

The player collects an extra $20 when he passes GO for each railroad that he owns.

Rationale: the player is paid for providing a service.

Jail

A player must get out of jail in one turn, unless he plays the "Get out of Jail" card to stay in jail for one more turn.

Rationale: staying in jail just prolongs the game.

Income Tax / Super Tax

A player pays the higher of $50 and 50% of the sum of his lowest and highest valued property.

Rationale: this makes the tax more fair.

Bankrupt players

Bankrupt players can take one of four roles: Bank Officer, Building Inspector, Bum or Robber. There can only be one role of each kind at any one time.

A bank officer will force a player to either redeem or sell his mortgaged property to the bank on the space he lands on.

A building inspector will force a player to either upgrade or downgrade his property on the space he lands on.

A bum reduces rent by 30% on the space he lands on. The effect lasts until the bum passes Free Parking.

A robber will rob another player of 10% cash on the same space. The money goes to the bank.

The player can change role every time he passes GO.

Rationale: this gives bankrupt players something to do.

Amazon free shipping is disruptive

Local retailers are in a world of hurt since June 2013, when Amazon offers free shipping to Singapore.

Let's use one board game example: 7 Wonders. The US MSRP is US$49.99, but Amazon sells it for just US$31.99 (36% off). If you combine with other items to qualify for free shipping, you can get the game for S$41.90 — shipped to your doorstep.

World of Board Games (WoBG) sells it for S$69.90 (67% more). Board Game Lifestyle sells it for S$80 (91% more). Both are online-only stores, yet they cannot compete with Amazon's price and free shipping combo.

There are three reasons why they charge so much higher.

First, they have overhead and they need to make a profit, of course.

Second, they may need to "cross-subsidize" their less popular products.

Third, and most important of all, is that their cost price is higher and they need to pay for shipping. Surface shipping is relatively much cheaper than shipping by air, but it still cannot compete with free shipping.

Most likely these "small-time retailers" buy from wholesalers. From what I understand, the board game business model is 3-tier: publisher, wholesaler, retailer. The wholesaler buys the games from the publisher at 65% off, then sells to retailers at 40% off. Shipping is at own-cost.

If your cost is already US$29.99 (40% off MSRP), and that is excluding shipping, it becomes impossible to compete with Amazon.

The next best thing to do is to use Amazon as your supplier, and charge 20-30% more for your value-added service. But it would be a shrinking market as people start to wonder why they should go through you?

Just wait for Amazon to put Lego stuff on the free shipping list. That will outright kill the local Lego boutique stores.

I bought this for how much?

My brother has the game Saint Petersburg. It lists for S$45.90, but you will need to hunt around because it is OOP (Out-Of-Print).

(Discontinued board games are often still available for a few years after they are OOP, because they are usually slow sellers by that time.)

I have borrowed the game from him for so long that it can be considered mine. Plus, he seems to have lost interest in board games. I formally bought it from him on National Day.

I have been undecided for years whether to buy its expansion:

Among other things, the expansion fixes some balance issues in the base game. The Observatory and Mistress of Ceremonies give a player an overwhelming advantage if they come out in turn 1.

On the other hand, I seldom play this game. Saint Petersburg has an extremely elegant mechanic, but it is highly tactical and has only a few paths to victory. As a result, the game play gets predictable after a while. I still like it anyway. :lol:

World of Board Games (WoBG) is trying to clear stock by offering the expansion at 20% off — and 10% off any two additional items. That means S$29.50 instead of S$36.90.

I bit. It could be my last chance to get the expansion, which is also OOP.

And for that, I got 48 hobbit-sized cards and 3 wooden tokens? No wonder it does not sell. :lol:

Second edition

Before I bought the expansion, I checked out Board Game Geek (BGG) and found that the second edition is in the pipeline. I took a look and decided that I prefer the first edition.

My board game years

My BoardGameGeek profile says that I bought my first game, Carcassonne, in September 2006. My last game was Pandemic in Jaunary 2009. With the benefit of hindsight, this period was my board game golden era.

After that, I only bought several expansions for Talisman and Race for the Galaxy, the last in August 2010. The dark ages then begun.

I bought just one game from September 2010 to June 2014: Masters Gallery. Unfortunately, I do not know exactly when — I did not record it down. I suspect it should be in 2012.

The reason why I bought it: it was considered to be Modern Art-lite. I like Modern Art, but it mostly went over the head of my motley gaming crew.

To cut a long story short, Modern Art this is not. The role of the art dealer, gone. That was the essence of Modern Art. Masters Gallery captured 90% of the mechanics, but none of its feel.

The renaissance began in July 2014, due to a confluence of factors. I went on a spending spree to make up for the lost time. :-O Man, that felt good! :lol:

I do not buy the games indiscriminately. As I get more games, I get more critical — the new game must be better or different than the ones before it.

My wallet is not bottomless either. I have almost come to the end of my shopping. It would take me some time to fully digest the new games. :lol:

Real-life Clue

Some people say Clue the board game is not realistic because how could you not know that you are the murderer?

It is a plot hole. I never try to explain it, because the explanations are often implausible anyway.

Well...

In the weekly team meeting, I asked one team member for her update. She said she was not able to work on it because the printer was down (she just needed network access to it). How could it be? The printer was with me and it was turned on.

I brought up our Printer Monitor, a tool that shows the status of the printers — in quasi-real time — that belong to team, and indeed, it was offline.

There was only one explanation: someone changed the printer to connect to another Wi-Fi network. I asked if anyone did it. Silence.

When I went back to my cube, I double-checked that the printer was turned on and it was connected to a Wi-Fi network. So someone did change it.

It then dawned to me I changed it one week ago for a demo and I never set it back! :duh:

And folks, that is how it can happen.

Unlucky July

This July is one of the most unlucky months I have.

First, the front fender of my CB400F bike was stolen. I did not realize until at least two weeks later. It was after the rain and I was wondering why so much water splashed up. Shouldn't the fender stop it? Oops. :angry:

Second, my left eye developed a "brown spot". I could still see through it — with a brownish tint — but I could not resolve fine details. Thinking back, it has been there for a couple of weeks, but it became much more noticable one day and started to interfere with my vision. Previously, I thought it was a spot on my glasses!

Third, while riding to my bike shop to get a new fender for my bike, I dropped my camera on the road! At least that's what I think happened, because I only realized that six hours later. I retraced the route I took, but of course the camera was no longer there. In hindsight, I do remember hearing a "thud" while riding and was wondering what it was. :duh:

The last one is minor, but I still could not believe it happened. I went Marche to have rosti with chicken cheese sausage. I was looking forward to the sausage.

When I went to collect the rosti, the chef specifically asked me what I ordered and I told him "chicken cheese sausage". He then picked a sausage and put it on my rosti.

I took a look and thought it looked strange. I said nothing cos I thought perhaps it has changed since the last time I had it. I took a bite and thought it tasted nothing like a chicken. There was no cheesy feeling too. But I still managed to finish the whole thing.

I passed by the stall again when I was leaving. Ha! It was indeed not a chicken cheese sausage! My lunch was ruined and I was cheated of $1!

Power up!

My new power configuration:

• Wall outlet #1:
  • 3-way plug
    • router
    • unused
    • extension cord A
      • PC
      • monitor
      • printer
      • printer
• Wall outlet #2:
  • extension cord B
    • workstation
    • workstation
    • monitor
    • monitor
    • network switch
    • network switch
• Wall outlet #3:
  • extension cord C
    • notebook
    • USB charger
    • USB charger
    • unused
• Wall outlet #4:
  • extension cord D
    • printer
    • printer
    • printer
    • printer

It is not just a matter of switching the power points. I have to physically move the devices around and re-route the cables! That took the better half of a morning. The cabling is now much neater.

Extension cord B is new. I bought it after discovering that a cheap 6-way extension cord costs just $20. (The cheapest 5-way extension cord I found costs just $13.50, but it does not serve my purpose.)

After this exercise, I am left with one spare extension cord and power plug. An astute reader would realize I could have used them instead of extension cord B — it would have given me 6 power points.

That is true, but I want to cater for future expansion. Originally, I plan to chain extension cord D so that it can support 7 printers. I don't have this need for now, so I just put the extension cord aside.

Power overstretched

My current power configuration:

• Wall outlet #1:
  • 3-way plug
    • router
    • monitor
    • unused
• Wall outlet #2:
  • extension cord A
    • notebook
    • USB charger
    • unused
    • extension cord C
      • printer
      • printer
      • printer
      • 3-way plug
        • printer
        • printer
        • printer
• Wall outlet #3:
  • USB charger
• Wall outlet #4:
  • extension cord B
    • monitor
    • monitor
    • network switch
    • extension cord D
      • workstation
      • workstation
      • PC
      • network switch

Wall outlets #1 and #3 are under-utilized. On the other hand, outlets #2 and #4 are overloaded.

I could easily move extension cord C to wall outlet #3 to eliminate the chaining. I don't know why I didn't do it. Perhaps I did not realize the topology until now? :lol:

Extension cord D was an organic growth and added without much thought. I would prefer not put the high-current devices (workstations and PC) on a secondary extension cord.

Never enough power points

My cube has four power points. I have four power extension cords, each with four power points, and two 3-way power plugs. Altogether, I have 4 + 4x4 + 2x3 - 4 - 2 = 20 power points altogether.

Only two are unused.

I have 3 PCs, 3 monitors, 1 notebook, 2 network switches, 1 router and 2 USB chargers. They used up 12 power points already. I also have 7 printers with me right now. Some of the printers are unpowered due to lack of power points in the vicinity.

Right now, I'm using one extension cord and one 3-way plug to power 6 printers. I need to more power points for the printers.

What I plan to do:

• Is it possible to shuffle the power points around so that I free up an extension cord? This is the zero-cost option.
• Failing which, how many more extension cords / 3-way power plugs do I need, keeping it as low-cost as possible.

Catching up on games

Board games was on my back-burner in the last few years for various reasons. I only got one new board game (Masters Gallery) since 2011. It is time to catch up!

I will do it in three ways:

• expansions for the games I already have
• new games
• anniversary/special edition

Expansions

This is a no-brainer. If I like the game, I want more of it! :lol:

Except sometimes the base game is good enough. For example, I have always resisted getting expansions for Ticket to Ride USA because I think the charm of the game is its simplicity.

But now I will reluct a little and get some of the expansions. They have been out for several years, so it is easier to judge if they are worth it.

New games

I looked through my board game collection and I realized I only have a small variety of games. I desperately need to expand on the variety.

They can be categorized as:

• games I have played before, but not gotten
• similar mechanics
• similar genre
• totally new games

The last one is the least likely because I need to stumble onto the game one way or another, then spend time to research it. However, it is worth the time because it adds variety.

Anniversary/special edition

Many board games are now older than 10 years. Some have released a special 10th year anniversary edition. They are expensive — twice the price or more! Luckily, there has not been that many of them.

There was a 10th year special edition for Carcassonne in 2011, but I gave it a miss then.

Puerto Rico released a limited 10th year anniversary edition in 2012. It is now OOP (Out of Print). I like the game somewhat, but not well enough to buy it. However, this edition is beautiful and would have provided me the nudge to buy it. Well, I'm two years too late — the price has shot through the roof now.

The Ticket to Ride USA 10th anniversary edition has been released this year.

The 10th year anniversay edition of Power Grid, called Power Grid Deluxe, will be released later this year.

On one hand, anniversary edition is entirely unnecessary if you already have the original game — it is still the same game. On the other hand, shiny bits! :-P

Call me shallow, but the art work and quality of the bits can affect my immersion in the game. Special editions are for the special occasions and for seasoned players only. :lol:

Local board game sellers

Amazon does not sell some board games to Singapore. For these, it is usually less hassle to get them locally.

It is very expensive to ship one board game over from USA if there is no free shipping.

Surprisingly, I found a few sellers who self-import and resell board games locally:

• Budget Board Games
• World of Board Games
• Board Game Lifestyle
• BoardGames Rejuvenate

Budget Board Games is the cheapest, but they have the smallest selection. They have an eBay store.

World of Board Games is more pro. They have a bigger selection and they keep to the award winners — they are more popular and easier to sell. Their prices are pretty good too. They have their own website, but it looks very hobbyist. (Not that it's a bad thing here.)

Board Game Lifestyle has a standard shopping website with categories, search, shopping cart, user accounts and so on. They have a pretty wide selection, like what you expect of a real shop. The downside is that their prices are Singapore MSRP, if I'm not mistaken.

BoardGames Rejuvenate is really a retail shop with an online presence. They don't sell online. They don't even put their prices online. Just for fun, I tried to visit their JCube outlet, but it was closed down already — their website lists it as their new branch!

Decommissioning my Asus 1215N

I got the Asus 1215N netbook in November 2010. I have stopped using it for more than a year, since it started having hardware problems.

It is time to formally decommission it.

To do that, I have to copy the entire HD contents — almost 160 GB of junk — to my server in case there is something I need inside.

It'll take almost 5 hours to transfer the files over the network at 10 MB/s.

Not all of the data are unique; a lot should be duplicated on my server and backup HDs. I will prune the duplicated contents over time.

After copying, I'll put the netbook in my ever-growing "museum of obsolete equipment".

A matter of price

Amazon sells Forbidden Island for US$15.13. That is just S$18.92 (US$1 = S$1.25). Unfortunately, it can only be shipped within the US.

I found it selling at S$31.90 on a local website, World of Board Games, set up by some board game enthusiasts. That was the lowest local price I could find after a short and simple search.

From their list, it looks like they do offer the lowest prices, or close to it.

I was ready to buy from them, except they were out of stock.

No choice, I visited a brick & mortar shop that has a small selection of board games and is known to be reasonably priced. They have the game for S$32.50. Close enough. I bought it.

It is still 70% more expensive than Amazon. Ouch!

Thunderbird is the worst email client

I have used the Opera email client, named M2, for years.

Recently, I wanted something simple that runs on Ubuntu. Thunderbird seems to fit the bill, so I tried it.

Configuration is straightforward. There is one part to configure the storage on the server. I set it to delete emails after 30 days.

To my surprise, it deleted all my emails older than 30 days, including those "already downloaded" to my local machine. In reality, they were in the Inbox — which is sync'ed with the server.

In Thunderbird, you need to manually copy your emails to your local folders! What a quaint concept!

I could not believe it.

After I got over my shock, I quickly emailed my webhosting company to see if they could help to recover my emails. Luckily they got backups... :phew:

Now that I think of it, it is due to a mismatch in expectations. Outlook behaves like that and I have no issues with it.

Ten years of Amazon'ing

According to my Amazon USA order history, my first order was in May 2003. That must have been when I got my first credit card. Before that, I ordered through a friend.

My order history:

Some orders are not shown because I ordered through a friend. But it is clear I'm an ultra small-time shopper. :lol:

Amazon USA offers free shipping to Singapore if the order is US$125 or above since June last year. It was a game-changer! That was when I resume my shopping! :-D

The item must satisfy five conditions:

• it must be sold by Amazon
• it must not be shipped separately
• it must be eligible for AmazonGlobal
• it must ship to Singapore
• it has certain weight/size constraints

It must be sold by Amazon. The magic phrase is Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. What trips me is that Amazon will show the seller with the lowest price, so it could read Sold by XYZ and Fulfilled by Amazon. I would dismiss the item then.

What I missed is that the item could be sold by Amazon, but it did not have the lowest price — the difference is usually very little. You have to click on the X new from $Y.ZZ link and see if Amazon appears in the full list of sellers. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not.

It must not be shipped separately. The order must be in one shipment, although Amazon may choose to split it up after the fact. Of course, if the item is already US$125 or more, then it will qualify for free shipping.

It must be eligible for AmazonGlobal. The filter is non-sticky and must be re-applied after every search. If an item can be shipped overseas, it is usually eligible for AmazonGlobal, so I don't see the point of using the filter. What can trip you is that US-only items can show up when the filter is applied!

It must ship to Singapore. This one is a no-brainer. If you see Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S, then it is a no-go.

However, it can be a hit-or-miss because Amazon only shows This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S. You will only know for sure when you checkout.

It has certain weight/size constraints. Over-weight (20 pounds) or over-sized items are excluded.

Taxes

Amazon will collect 7% GST upfront if the order exceeds S$400, including shipping. It is listed as Estimated Tax.

What happens when shipping is free?

Then it is not counted. At least that was my experience last year.

This year, I found that Amazon has a new row, Import Fees Deposit, that charges GST on the CIF if the order plus shipping (before offset) exceeds S$400.

It looks like they have closed the "loophole".

Last year, I was able to create an order close to S$400 without being charged GST. This year, the limit is around S$270 because shipping usually accounts for 1/3 the cost.

It is good enough to shop at Challenger

I avoid buying from Challenger because I had the impression they sold over MSRP. This was probably untrue since a few years ago, but old impressions die hard.

In reality, Challenger now sells at MSRP, and members enjoy a genuine 5-10% discount, if not more.

Shopping at Challenger is convenient because it can be found in the "heartlands". :lol:

A couple of months ago, I went down to SLS. To my surprise, most of the shops also sell at MSRP now! There is probably no advantage to go there except for the variety.

Remember, you need to factor in the time, petrol, parking and ERP!

Since that is the case, then I might as well become a Challenger member. Pay $30 upfront, and they guarantee $50 savings over 2 years. If you don't save that amount, they'll give you a $40 voucher!

And right now, they give $100 Valore (their house-brand) vouchers when you sign up!

It's a no brainer.

Note: it looks like Challenger over-estimated their appeal. The voucher promotion was supposed to last till end of June, but they are still available now.

Note 2: you need to discount vouchers by half because Valore products are over-priced by 50% — even after the usual 25% off.

Android 4.4's brain-dead SD card policy

Missus's Note 2 has been upgraded to KitKat (4.4) recently. I did not realize there was anything different until I put in a shiny new 32 GB SD card.

I was unable to use ES File Explorer to move files from the internal storage to the SD card.

Hmm, that's strange, I thought. A quick search shows that Google has locked down the SD card as of KitKat: third-party apps no longer have general write access to the SD card.

This does not compute.

This really breaks our usage because we use ES File Explorer to copy files directly from our network file server into the SD card.

For now, we can copy the files to the internal storage first, then move them using the system My Files app.

The long term solution is to root the phone and add the permission back so that third-party apps can write to the SD card.

Usability trumps security. :lol:

Black bars

Videos on NTSC DVDs are always stored in 720x480. They are displayed either as 640x480 (1.33 AR) or 853x480 (1.78 AR). AR = Aspect Ratio.

Unfortunately, there is no direct support for 2.35 AR shows. Thus, they always have black bars at the top and bottom.

If encoded non-anamorphic, the effective resolution is only 640x272. It uses only 56% of the available vertical resolution.

If encoded anamorphically, the effective resolution is 853x363. It uses 75% of the available vertical resolution.

Blu-Ray

Blu-Ray's highest resolutions for 4:3 and 16:9 are 1440x1080 and 1920x1080. It does not directly support 2.35 AR shows. For such shows, the effective resolution is 1920x817.

Blu-Ray has no excuse not to get it right. It should have either included a third AR, say 2.35, or it should support it anamorphicically.

If it supports 2.35 AR directly, the resolution is probably 2208x940 to keep the bandwidth the same. There is 15% better resolution per dimension.

If it supports 2.35 AR anamorphically, the stored resolution remains at 1920x1080, but it is stretched to 2538x1080 at playback.

Double loss

I racked up a bill of $147 after some shopping. The cashier asked me, "Got anything else to buy? You'll get a $10 voucher if you exceed $200."

So we did more shopping and the final bill was $202.

After that, we went to the Customer Service Counter (CSC) to claim the voucher. After queuing for around 10 minutes, I finally reached the front, only to be told that I need to go to the mall's CSC!

I was not the only one to make this mistake. One person left immediately after showing his receipt to the customer officer. I thought he wasted so much time just to ask a question. Talk about irony!

The queue at the mall's CSC was incredibly long! And it did not seem to move. I thought about giving it up, but then $10 off $200 is 5% off. And that was significant enough. (I'm a poor man.)

I looked around. I did not see any notice about vouchers. None of the shoppers looked like they had bought $200 worth of goods. Hmm...

I finally reached the front after 40 minutes.

"I'll like to redeem $10 voucher", I said. The officer did not immediately reject my request. There is hope!

"Sir, you need to pay by NETS to qualify.", she said.

I had queued for nothing again? Well, at least they had a lucky draw contest. That accounts for the long queue.

I had to be a member, so I signed up on the spot. No wonder the queue moved so slowly.

While waiting, I saw the redemption rules pasted on the counter: one $5 voucher per $90, NETS only. They should have put that up as a poster! And I was given the wrong information. Argh!

I had spent an extra one hour in the mall. Missus was tired by then, so we took a cab home. Instead of gaining $10, we lost $13.30.

Baiting a big fish

Roy Ngerng wrote a defamatory article that and got sued by LHL. This is like clockwork.

Unlike others before him, he did not back down. He did take down the offending article and apologize, but it is obvious he is just doing the bare minimum.

His offer of $5,000 is described as "derisory" — a new word for me. Anyway, he is not really sincere about it ($50 payout per month after 65).

LHL will proceed ahead with the lawsuit.

Roy then went on to raise funds and he got $81k in just five days! It looks like CPF is a hot-button issue and there are many unhappy people out there.

This is what LHL should be more afraid of.

This whole episode certainly does not paint LHL in a good light. I'm sure quite a few people are disappointed that LHL could not "shred the old way" and be magnanimous.

And it lends legitimacy to Roy. I have not heard of Roy before this. Neither have many other people. If LHL wants to promote Roy, he has done it wonderfully.

On the other hand, I'm not praising Roy. It is a dangerous game he is playing. He has a pair in his hands and thinks he has a chance. However, LHL has three Jokers.

I wish him well.

The bottomless CPF Minimum Sum

When it comes to CPF, there are 3 numbers to watch:

• the Minimum Sum
• the Medisave Minimum Sum
• the Medisave Contribution Ceiling

Everyone should be familiar with the Minimum Sum (MS). You can only withdraw savings exceeding this amount at 55 years old.

Lesser known is the Medisave Minimum Sum (MMS). You need to fulfill both MS and MMS before you can withdraw the excess savings.

The Medisave Contribution Ceiling is the cap for Medisave Account (MA). The excess will go into Special Account (SA). Either way, you cannot use it.

Now, the news.

The CPF Minimum Sum will be raised from S$148,000 to S$155,000.

The Medisave Minimum Sum will be raised from S$40,500 to S$43,500.

The Medisave Contribution Ceiling will be increased from S$45,500 to S$48,500.

If you want to know the real inflation, as opposed to the offical figure, this is a good place to refer to.

Goodbye DynDNS

dyn.com, formerly DynDns.org, has ended their free Dynamic DNS service on May 7th. They have progressively reduced the free features in the past two years, now they are taking it away totally.

I was using it to access my home network, as it has a dynamic IP address assigned by my ISP. It changes every time I reboot the modem.

I had already signed up with No-IP, but I was not able to resolve the hostname from my office.

The next choice is Free DNS. This looks like a hobbyist website and it has an air of simplicity that I like.

On dynamic DNS

I always looked at dynamic DNS with a tinge of regret. When I was taking the "Internet" course in University, I believe there was no such thing, but it was something some of us wanted.

It was within the realm of possibility that some of us could have gone ahead and done it.

But what happened? More knowledgable folks say there is no demand, that it is not possible, that it is not the Internet norm — a bona fide host is supposed to use the DNS after all.

But the blame lies with the students as well. There is no thirst to innovate and to cover new grounds.

Conform, not challenge.

I somewhat blame the educational system. :-P